📞 LIVE CALL-INS: How Agents Should Use AI, Convert Leads & Break Into Commercial

Summary

Stay Paid Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: 📞 LIVE CALL-INS: How Agents Should Use AI, Convert Leads & Break Into Commercial
Release Date: January 26, 2026
Hosts: Luke Acree & Josh Stike
Format: Live call-in Q&A

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Episode Overview

This live call-in edition of the Stay Paid Podcast features real estate agents and professionals calling in to ask the hosts, Luke Acree and Josh Stike, their toughest business questions. The hosts provide actionable advice on breaking into commercial real estate, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) in real estate, and optimal strategies for converting and nurturing leads—especially through digital marketing. The episode is packed with tactical tips, memorable quotes, and authentic, relatable conversations for agents aiming to elevate their business in 2026.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. Breaking into Commercial Real Estate (Olivia, California)

[00:43 – 10:43]

Olivia’s Question:

What’s the quickest path to get into commercial real estate and become a top producer, beyond certifications and classes?

Insights & Advice:

• Mentorship is Key

  • "Find someone who's been where you want to go and attach yourself to them either from a mentorship perspective or even better, kind of like a team business perspective." – Luke ([02:23])
  • Offer to take on tasks senior agents may not want to do (e.g., underwriting, cold outreach) to learn the business inside out. — Josh ([05:16])

• Leveraging Existing Networks

  • Olivia already has a strong position as Director of Community Events for her Chamber of Commerce.
  • Build and engage a list of local business owners from chamber contacts.
  • "You are super well positioned... step three is really: what's your outreach strategy to these business owners?" – Luke ([04:52])
  • Use personal calls to share your new specialized offering and ask for help/referrals.

• Direct, High-Volume Outreach

  • Call every connection using scripts that directly announce your commercial real estate services.
  • "Everybody wants to help you achieve goals. You just gotta make people aware of that." – Luke ([06:00])

• Utilize Social Platforms

  • Maximize LinkedIn for connecting with chamber business owners.
  • Share relevant updates across LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

• Host Your Own Networking Group

  • Organize local business owner meetups or BNI-style events where you become the go-to commercial agent.

Standout Quote:

"People severely underestimate the volume of work that is required to be successful... it's just volume. It's a volume game and consistency game."
— Luke, quoting Alex Hormozi ([10:17])

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2. Integrating Artificial Intelligence in Real Estate (Mitch Johnson, Virginia)

[11:09 – 25:18]

Mitch’s Question:

How should agents use AI today, and how will ReminderMedia adapt to AI in the future?

Insights & Advice:

• AI as a Tool for Trust & Convenience

  • Focus on what won’t change: trust-based relationships, convenience, quality service.
  • "This will still be a trust-based business... and you should be thinking about with AI: how do I use AI to help me build better relationships?" — Luke ([13:35])
  • Use AI to enhance rather than replace personal connection.

• Practical AI Applications for Agents

  • Use ChatGPT or Gemini (Google's AI) to:
    • Write listing descriptions,
    • Craft market analyses and buyer personas,
    • Develop targeted marketing plans.
    • Respond to leads instantly (AI chatbots and automated follow-up).
  • "No excuse for any of us to not be every day at least testing out and using AI. It's free." — Luke ([17:42])

• AI for Digital Presence Audit

  • Ask AI to evaluate your presence compared to local competition on platforms like Zillow, Fast Expert, Google, etc.
  • Direct example: Hosts prompt ChatGPT for top agents in Mitch’s market and analyze why Mitch is or isn’t listed.

Notable Moments:

• [22:07] AI’s reasoning on Mitch:

  "Mitch Johnson is exceptionally strong in Virginia Beach, but his brand and production are more geographically concentrated...not as region wide mega team presence. Not weaker, just more specialized."

• [24:11] Getting Reviews Tactic:
  • Use client events (ice cream socials, pie days) to ask for reviews on the spot, incentivized by raffles.

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3. Converting & Nurturing Lead Lists with Digital Advertising (Nancy, California)

[26:10 – 45:14]

Nancy’s Question:

Best way to convert long-term nurture leads? Is it better to use Google, Facebook, or YouTube ads? Should I call, email, or mail these leads, and how do I create a powerful nurture campaign?

Insights & Advice:

• Multi-Channel Nurture Approach

  • Email is a baseline (monthly market updates, CMA offers), but shouldn’t be the only touchpoint.
  • Consider using postcards for high-potential leads (not the entire list).

• Direct Outreach Strategy

  • Don't hesitate to call; use proactive scripts even for leads acquired through intent data.
  • Position calls as local market inquiries or offering to provide an offer value range:
    • "I would treat it as a circle prospecting script..." — Luke ([30:34])
    • Sample call: "If you were to get an offer on your home, would you be interested to look it over?"

• Advertising Tactics

  • Facebook custom audiences: upload lead lists and create targeted impression campaigns.
  • Consider geographic targeting or “geofencing” as additional digital strategy (e.g., via El Toro).
  • YouTube and Google Ads: great for branding, but costs and conversion rates may vary. YouTube is often less costly if people don't watch the full ad.
  • "Start off doing it for impressions. Get your brand in front of people, especially if you're calling through them..." — Josh ([42:06])

• Lead Conversion Realities

  • Expect long nurture cycles (10.8–18 months) for digital/cold leads before conversion.
  • Concurrently, sphere and referral business convert much faster, but building a pipeline from cold nurture leads is an investment.

Actionable Steps:

• Call all leads who open your emails (“Not sure if you saw my email...").
• Use drip email plus targeted Facebook ads and periodic mailers for layered touchpoints.
• Regularly analyze campaign ROI, and stay consistent with both outreach and advertising.

Standout Quote:

"The expectation you got to have is you're going to have to nurture. This is a branding campaign and you’re going to spend for probably 18 months in order to get the trickle effect in."
— Luke ([36:32])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Nobody truly knows what the future is going to look like ... This will still be a trust-based business." — Luke ([13:35])
• "The consulting industry is probably going to go away ultimately because AI is going to become the consultant." — Luke ([24:11])
• "Most people know the things they need to be doing, but they don’t do it at the volume they need to do it at ... Up your volume." — Luke ([46:12])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:43] Olivia calls in about breaking into commercial real estate.
• [04:18] Discussing Olivia’s Chamber of Commerce role and leveraging her network.
• [05:16] The importance of mentorship in commercial real estate.
• [10:17] Alex Hormozi quote about underestimating the volume of effort.
• [11:09] Mitch’s question about AI’s impact.
• [13:35] Trust and relationships in the AI era.
• [17:42] Practical ways agents should start using AI today.
• [22:07] AI analyzes why Mitch isn’t ranked as a top agent.
• [24:11] Getting client reviews via events and raffles.
• [26:10] Nancy’s question on nurturing and converting purchased leads.
• [30:34] Circle prospecting and cash offer scripts.
• [36:32] Setting expectations: nurture leads need months of consistent effort.
• [42:06] Facebook custom audience setup for real estate agents.
• [46:12] Final action item — "Up your volume."

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Final Action Item

“The difference between top producers and mediocre producers in every industry is top producers take action.”
– Luke ([46:12])

Summary:
Agents should relentlessly increase the volume and consistency of their outreach—whether it’s networking for commercial real estate, using AI to streamline marketing and relationships, or layering calls, emails, and ads to nurture leads. The right activity at high volume, matched with evolving technology, is the key to future growth.

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Resources Mentioned:

• ChatGPT & Gemini (Google AI)
• Real Intent and Real Scout (lead nurturing & scoring tools)
• Facebook Ads Custom Audiences
• ReminderMedia marketing platforms

Connect with the hosts & get more resources:

• Instagram: @StayPaidPodcast
• Show notes: staypaidpodcast.com
• YouTube: youtube.com/remindermedia

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For actionable business-building advice straight from the real estate trenches, this episode is a practical must-listen and a motivation boost for agents seeking lasting, scalable growth.

Transcript

[Luke Acrey]

Foreign.

[Josh Dyke]

To Stay Paid. Today we are answering your burning questions in real estate, business marketing and more. On these episodes, we take live live calls from listeners of Stay Paid. If you want to have your question answered here live on the show, follow us on Instagram at Stay Paid podcast. Shoot us a direct message there. We will get you booked on the show or you can go to remindermedia.com ask and submit your question there. My name is Josh Dyke, chief marketing officer here at Reminder Media, joined as always by Luke Acrey, president of Reminder Media. And our first guest today, Olivia. Olivia calling in from California. Olivia, can you hear us?

[Olivia]

Hi, I can. Can you hear me?

[Josh Dyke]

Okay, we can hear you. We can't see you, but that's okay.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah. Welcome to Stay Paid. You're up early in California. I love it.

[Josh Dyke]

Yeah, you are.

[Olivia]

Oh, yes. I don't know how to turn on this video, so. Sorry, it's not.

[Luke Acrey]

Oh, no worries at all. What's your question? What, what can we help you with in growing the business? I think you have called in before, if I'm not mistaken, right?

[Olivia]

Yes, I called in about social media before and now today's a little different. What is the quickest path to get into commercial real estate and become a top producer beyond just state association certifications education classes? So that's pretty much my question. I do attend the bi monthly commercial real estate meetings in my area and a lot of those people have been doing that for a very long time and so like 40, 50 years.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay.

[Olivia]

So I'm trying not to wait that long to get to their point.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah, I totally understand that. What is driving the decision to try to get into commercial? Because you're in residential, I'm assuming right now. Are you trying to transition fully to commercial? Are you doing half and half already? Like, what's causing this change?

[Olivia]

I really love my residential. I do want to have like maybe like a half and half on commercial, or at least my husband is my partner on this. Maybe get him more into the commercial. But still I need to have knowledge of it and know what we're doing to, you know, proceed. But I think that would be something that is better suited maybe for him and something that's. It's a different type of schedule with that and. Yeah.

[Luke Acrey]

Yep. Okay. So that makes sense. So, I mean, I'll give you my thoughts based upon how, you know, I make decisions around here. At Reminder Media, we've tried a bunch of different things and transitioning into new industries. Right. And transitioning to new products. And the best thing you can. Absolutely do is find someone who's been where you want to go and attach yourself to them either from a mentorship perspective or even better, kind of like a team business perspective. So if I were you, like, the number one thing I would do is who's the top commercial agent in the area or do you have any connections to top commercial people in the area? And I would just like you, as a residential real estate agent, might go to a top agent in the office and ask if they can run their open houses, stuff like that. I would work and see if I could network with these other commercial brokers and. And learn what they're doing and see if you could be almost like a mentee to them. So that's step one that I would do. Step two would be if you're going to do commercial real estate, majority of commercial real estate is by business owners. And so you got to figure out how you can start networking with the business owners that are in the area. Like take myself, for instance, with Reminder Media, we're actually in the process of deciding do we move and do a different lease somewhere else. And, you know, we get pretty prospected all the time by commercial brokers from a cold calling perspective. So they're cold calling, they cold email outreach to me. But the real key to getting our business is through networking. And so, like, I don't know if you're familiar with like the BNI type groups or the networking groups that happen in your area where it's other business owners coming together. I would encourage you to get involved in some of those so you can start meeting other business owners. And does your husband, does he come from another career where he has, like, business owner relationships and stuff like that, or. This would be totally fresh for you guys.

[Olivia]

I think with him, he does deal with like, a lot of. He does like construction and landscape and all that kind of stuff. And so he does deal with a lot more on that aspect, business people. And for me, as far as networking, I am our director of community events for the Chamber of Commerce here in town.

[Luke Acrey]

Oh, beautiful. Yeah, Perfect access to. So have you built a list of all the business owners that are part of the Chamber of Commerce?

[Olivia]

Oh, yeah, I have that. We. I help to monitor it and get more members and, you know, do a lot of things for them and reach out.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah. So you are super well positioned then for it. Okay, so then if you have the list, right. So that, I mean, step one is obviously you need the knowledge, and so you got to attach yourself to someone who has the knowledge the fastest. Way to do that is to sacrifice some of your commission or some of your upside to learn from somebody who's already in it and doing it and particularly does it well and maybe is at a latter stage of their career. And they're not, as, I don't want to say ambitious. They're still ambitious, but they're more in.

[Josh Dyke]

The giving and offer. Offer to do the things that they don't want to do. Yeah. You know, so whether that's underwriting or comps or tours, cold outreach, like anything like that, like, offer to do that. And you'll. You'll learn and you'll be positioned in a place of opportunity.

[Luke Acrey]

Yep. So step one, get a mentor. Step two is find a way to network and build your ideal target audience list, which is the business owners. You've already got step two taken care of. So then step three is really. Okay, what's your outreach strategy to these business owners? And so you've got to get them to the awareness phase. Which is. The awareness phase is Olivia and her husband can now help you with commercial real estate. And you are, you know, specialist in the commercial industry, and you start getting that message out there to them through personal phone calls. That's the best way to do it, is calling all of them and checking in, seeing how they're doing, and then letting them know about that big change in your life and you know, what your plans are and your goals are, because everybody wants to help you achieve goals. And so you just got to make people aware of that. So, like when a new agent. That sounds like a fire truck. Yeah, there you go. When a new agent joins Acre Brothers, for instance, now this is on the residential side, but it can apply to commercial. Right. When a new agent joins Acre Brothers, we make them call all of their sphere. We make them first build the list, and then we make them call all of their sphere and let their sphere know that they. What they're doing, that they got into real estate, and literally ask everybody in their sphere. I just wanted to reach out and ask if I could help you or if there's anyone that you know that I could help right now in real estate. And you'd be so surprised that every time we have a new agent do this, they pick up one to two referrals just by straight asking. So I would tell you if you can. I don't know if there's a conflict of interest there, but if you can, reaching out to all the Chamber of Commerce members, letting them know you're getting into commercial real estate, and ask Is there anybody you know that I could help right now? Because I really want to build this and help a lot of people or you yourself, do you know, I don't know if you lease or if you own. Can I help you? And you'd be so surprised. I guarantee you'll probably get one or two things off of that.

[Olivia]

Yeah, I know I need to be a little hurt back, more proactive with that. I do have somebody I've been trying to the past couple years. He's his own private broker. He's a few homes away from leaving California. And I'm like, oh, hey, I'm here if you need help. Please teach me, you know, and I will take great care of your clients. So when you move to Florida, here I am. You know, I've been, I've been working on that. And a lot of his clients he says that are closer to his retirement age, so. But still I'm, there's still more. I mean, and there's so much to learn from him. He's, he's just a wealth of knowledge. He's been doing this for like 50 years.

[Luke Acrey]

So. Yeah. And if you network, I mean, it's like you've been successful in residential real estate for a reason. Don't over complicate it. Apply those same principles to commercial real estate. One of my friends is really high up within CBRE at the executive level and. Right. And they are massive commercial real estate company and other things. And I mean the brass tax of it comes down to like networking. It comes down to your ability to be out there networking and sharing your message of how you can provide value to all these business owners. And again, it's timing, right? So you, you have to find the business owners at the right time where they're at the, the point of renewing their lease. And I believe there is data out there that lets people know when leases are coming up. The only reason I say that, and I don't have experience with this, I just know I get prospected when our leases tend to be coming up in the next year. So the data's gotta be out there. So I would ask that mentor, you know, have you ever gotten access to data like this? Because it will tell you, you know, you could start prospecting that way as well. But I would apply the basics, Olivia, like your LinkedIn, start connecting to all the business owners in your area for the chamber of commerce people on your LinkedIn, start posting on your LinkedIn because it's more of a business oriented platform, but still connect with them on Facebook and Instagram if you can. And you just got to get the message out there that you're helping people with commercial and call everybody in the Chamber of Commerce and then think about hosting your own little BNI network, right? Your own little group of business owners that come together for thought leadership, and then you just happen to be the commercial agent in that group and can get their leases and, you know, buying. So that's what I would do if I were you.

[Olivia]

Nice. Well, I will be starting another project with.

[Luke Acrey]

Well, I will tell you, you know, call in again, ask another question so you can call back in and we can check in on how the commercial one is going. Did your social media one go well? Have you?

[Olivia]

Oh, go for it. Yeah, I was gonna say.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah. Have you applied some of it?

[Olivia]

Yeah, I have. And through the chamber also, we also do a lot of things. So I record for that, and I also include that on my social media because I'm recording as a chamber. And then yesterday, I did both video for chamber and for Timeless to get that out there. So I'm getting better at putting more of that out there.

[Luke Acrey]

Beautiful. Well, take the Alex Hermosi advice, which is people severely underestimate the volume of work that is required to be successful. And you can apply that to the volume of post on social, the volume of outreach on, you know, trying to get leads for commercial. But just remember that, like, hey, it's just volume. It's a volume game and consistency game. If you put enough volume and value consistently enough, you will get the business. But appreciate you coming on the show again and asking the question. Yeah, it's awesome.

[Olivia]

Thank you guys so much. You guys have a great Christmas and, you know, great holiday, and I will see you guys soon.

[Luke Acrey]

Thanks, Olivia. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays.

[Josh Dyke]

See you.

[Olivia]

Merry Christmas.

[Josh Dyke]

All right, you can get your questions answered live here on stay paid, go to remindermedia.com ask or you can follow us on Instagram. We are at staypay podcast from Virginia, where we've got Mitch. Mitch, how you doing? You're muted. Let's unmute.

[Mitch Johnson]

You say again?

[Luke Acrey]

I think you're muted, Mitch.

[Josh Dyke]

There we go.

[Luke Acrey]

There we go. We got you. Welcome to the podcast.

[Mitch Johnson]

I'm happy to be here.

[Josh Dyke]

You're good. What question do you have? What can we help you with?

[Mitch Johnson]

The question that I see all the time is really AI and being down the road a year or two, all that.

[Luke Acrey]

You and I both, brother. I said you and I both. I hear AI every day.

[Mitch Johnson]

Yeah, I'm a little bit behind you. So, so kind of how does AI, how do you guys are going to address AI in the future, especially with agents like myself? I mean, are you going to have programs?

[Luke Acrey]

Oh man, that's a big question.

[Mitch Johnson]

I don't want you to have a small.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah, yeah, let me give you my, yeah, transparent thought is like nobody truly knows what the future is going to look like. I remember watching a clip from Ray Dalio, right, One of the greatest investors of all time, and he was saying that we're going to go through a time warp here over the next five years and nobody really knows what the other side of that time warp looks like. And so I would be lying if I said I know exactly what's going to happen philosophically or big picture wise. Here's what I tend to or how I tend to approach AI and what we're going to do for agents and what I would encourage you to do. I take the Jeff Bezos mentality, which is when you are trying to build an organization, a company or anything, you try to think about the things that not are changing, but things that won't change. So no matter what happens in technology and what happens in the world, what are things that we know won't change? Because we know tons of things are going to change. And he goes, well, for Amazon, he thinks about it this way. People will still want great customer service 20 years from now. People will still want convenience 20 years from now. People will still want to pay the lowest prices possible 20 years from now. They will still want to have the highest quality for the lowest price 20 years from now. So he tends to guide Amazon from a standpoint of going, how do we invest in things that accomplish those things that we know won't change? So if we apply this to real estate, what do we know will be true? Some of those things are going to be true within real estate. Here's one thing that I know will be true in real estate 20 years from now. This will still be a trust based business.

[Mitch Johnson]

I agree.

[Luke Acrey]

And it will be driven ultimately by trust in relationships. And it's not that everybody in your database wants a deep relationship with you, Mitch, they probably don't. But that relationship is a great indicator of trust. And that's why we say it's a relationship based business. And so what you should be thinking about with AI is how do I use AI to help me build better relationships, to help me build higher trust with my clients, to help me create better convenience for my clients. So easy ways to do this would be, you know, right now, people for their content if you post a listing on the mls, right. You can have AI help you not only write the listing description, but we interviewed Jason Flurry on the podcast Top Producer out in California. He uses AI to help him develop the buyer Persona for that property and when he's going to get a listing. So if I go to your listing appointment, Mitch, I've already used AI to feed the AI what this listing is and ask AI who's the ideal buyer for this property. And then he puts together a marketing plan based upon attracting that ideal buyer. So those are just some ways, like even today, agents are using it. They're using AI to write their listing description. They're using AI to help them develop the marketing plan for that listing. If you take it to Reminder Media, you know, we're using AI to respond to Facebook leads that we generate for agents. So an agent pays us to run their Facebook ads for them and manage that. We have an AI response bot that is, you know, texting right away when the lead comes in. And then if they respond, the AI kind of engages and tries to book an appointment. And then where we're moving is to try to use AI to give you, Mitch. What convenience. So we believe that you're probably not going to want to write letters in your magazine anymore. You're going to want AI to help you write the letters. You're probably not going to want to write emails. You're going to want AI to help you write the emails. You're probably going to want to not only have AI help you write the emails, you're going to want to make sure that your database gets enriched. Right. So if you upload your database of Josh Steich or your client Josh Styke to our platform, you probably want us to enrich Josh St's data and go, here's Josh Dyke's equity, here's his mortgage. Here's things about Josh Dyke. And then craft personalized campaigns with AI based upon what we know about Josh. And so that's where we're moving with Reminder Media is going. I don't believe a consumer is going to want to do a bunch of WYSIWYG things in the future. And they're not going to want to write, you know, a bunch of stuff in the future. They just want the AI to do it for. For them. And so we're evolving our platform to where you'll be able to log in and basically talk to the AI and get the AI to set up your magazine. Yeah. Set up your email and, and build drips based upon your client list that you uploaded. That's where we're moving to. And you know, that's rapidly approaching, I think in your day to day. Mitch, are you using AI at all right now for like your listing personally, stuff like that or.

[Mitch Johnson]

No, personally, no, I have not. But. Okay, honestly, why I haven't, I don't know how to say this except I haven't reached out to anybody. I haven't found, I haven't found a you guys to do that. Maybe now I have and I just don't know that's being used in the back because you know, you said some great, some great things here. That one, I never thought about that. The personal touch I think is always going to be there, especially from the company side. So I use, I use Kyra Glazier as kind of the point when I'm talking to Reminder media. That's, that's the trust level, how she gets her information, how she does it, you know, exactly. Exceptional that way. But I think that's what you want. You don't, I don't think at this point you want me to worry about the, hey Luke, I hate to keep calling you at home, but how's the AI thing going? You know, I don't know, man. You brought up some points, but personal touch is the one that's, that's going to stay in there.

[Luke Acrey]

It will. And I would encourage you, like this business is a trust based business and you can depend that consumers are going to want to work with someone that they look up to, that they trust because they're making a big decision. But the consumers also are going to determine that trust based upon how you service them. And so your servicing of a client, your ability to handle their situation, you need to bring to them what convenience and quality. And that convenience is where AI can play in. Right. And so I would encourage you, Mitch, and this is for everybody listening, there's no excuse for any of us to not be every day at least testing out and using AI. It's free. So I would encourage you go to OpenAI, go to chat GPT, create a free account or go to Gemini, create a free account. That's Google's AI and utilize it. First step for you, Mitch, is utilize it for your listing descriptions. That's the easiest, probably one where you feed it. Here's the listing that I have. Write me a listing description and watch it. Another thing that you should do, Mitch, is and everybody should do this. We got this from Jason Pantana. You're based out of Virginia. What part of Virginia. Mitch, are you in kind of the.

[Mitch Johnson]

Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach, Norfolk.

[Luke Acrey]

Awesome, right? Nice. I have family actually there in that area, in the Hampton Roads area. So you should go and say who are the I need to buy real estate in Hampton Roads. Who's the top agents that you would recommend and see what the AI produces then. The beautiful thing about AI is it's interactive. Then ask it why did you recommend these agents? And it will tell you, Mitch, why it recommended those people. So I don't know, Josh, if you can pull up right now like chat GPT and just ask it who are the number one agents in Hampton Roads? Yeah, Virginia. And we'll, we'll share this with you so everybody can hear live on the podcast. And the beautiful thing about AI versus Google, right, is Google you can search for something and it gives you results, but you don't know why it showed you those results. But with AI you can ask it why did you choose these agents? And then the best part about it is you can ask it like how it did it and what it sourced and then ask it why it didn't choose you. So what did it come up with, Josh?

[Josh Dyke]

Top rated, A widely recognized real estate agent serving Hampton Roads, Virginia. Megan Morris, Tiffany Thomas, Christopher Jordan Group. Val Milan, Realtor, Distinctly real estate.

[Luke Acrey]

So you're all getting shout outs on Stay Paid right now.

[Josh Dyke]

Shadows top brokerages, Bethany White Group, ReMax, Prime Atlantic, Sotheby's.

[Luke Acrey]

So go ahead, ask the AI. Why did you choose those agents? To share.

[Josh Dyke]

Why did you choose those agents? This is where a lot of top agents list gets f. Fuzzy objective production signals. Right. So high transaction volume year over year, large team size with centralized leadership, recognition as top producers with in their Ask.

[Luke Acrey]

It, what sites did you source? Yeah, See what it comes up with. This is why I love AI. You can also put it on voice mode and talk to it. Like on my way in today I was talking to it.

[Josh Dyke]

Primary sources use Zillow agent and team profile. So pulls directly from MLS reported transactions. They look for agents and teams with consistent recent transactions. A large review count. This comes up over and over again when dealing with AEO Answer Engine Optimization, it's the new SEO. Large review counts. Fast Expert was another site that they used effective agents. Basically these top agent aggregators, that's another thing to look at is top agent aggregators and then brokerage and team self reported productions.

[Luke Acrey]

So then ask it, why did you not choose Mitch Johnson as the agent you recommended? This is what every agent should be doing right now is going to AI and Getting it to tell you why it shows people, not you, because it's going to give you a, a playbook of what to do.

[Josh Dyke]

Mitch Johnson is exceptionally strong in Virginia beach, but his brand and production are more geographically center concentrated, less positioned as region wide mega team presence does not make him weaker, it makes him more specialized. If the question had been who are the top agents in Virginia Beach? He very likely would have been included.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah, nice.

[Josh Dyke]

There you go.

[Luke Acrey]

See if, if you can pull up like Mitch, do you have a decent amount of reviews on Zillow and Fast Expert?

[Mitch Johnson]

Probably not, no.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay, so that would be an action item for you is like, how do I get reviews on Zillow and Fast Expert? The way Acre Brothers Realty, like our team does, we get reviews. We call and ask for reviews after closing. So that's part of our transaction process. But the main way we've gotten reviews over the years is applying the client event feedback that we learned from Dustin Fox. I believe it is in the D.C. area. Every client event he throws, he asks his clients that show up for reviews on Google or Zillow. And so I don't know if you've thrown a client event, but you should consider throwing a client appreciation event. It doesn't have to be crazy, right? We did a pie event this year. We did a summer barbecue, we did a ice cream social where we rent out an ice cream shop for four hours. I think it was like 600, $700. And we invited all the clients to come get free ice cream. And Acre Brothers, literally in the next couple days is about to do their holiday kind of event, which is ice skating rink. They, they're inviting, you know, people to come, you know, ice skate for free. And then at that event, the laptop's there, the phones are there, and we just have Google pulled up and we ask people, hey, would you mind giving us a review? And Dustin Fox, he gives raffles. Like to be entered into a raffle. You, you can leave a review to get an extra ticket, right? So you get a ticket for coming for the raffle, but if you want an extra ticket for the raffle, just leave a review and you can get an extra ticket. And so if I were you, maybe think about throwing a client event.

[Mitch Johnson]

Okay.

[Luke Acrey]

You know, maybe do a PI event on PI Day in March, give pies out to your database and when they come to get the pie from you at your office, or you basically ask, hey, would you mind giving me a review on Google or would you mind giving me a review here on Fast Expert? And have them fill it out right there on your phone or computer. And our first pie one we did, we got like 69, five star reviews just from that first one. And so that's just a tip for you, but everybody who's listening to this man, start using AI and ask it to teach you and ask it to analyze your business, your real estate business, your web presence. Ask it to analyze you and what it would say you should do to get better and a better web presence, a better authority out there in the marketplace because it will give you a strategic plan and then come to Reminder Media to help you fulfill that plan. You know, we'll send out the postcards for you, the magazines we'll post on social for you, those type of things. But AI is just a great consultant right now. The consulting industry is probably going to go away ultimately because AI is going to become the consultant. But Mitch, man, really appreciate you. Thank you. Look up Acre Brothers, if you haven't already. We're Virginia as well. Lynchburg, Virginia.

[Josh Dyke]

I will.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah. Hey, Merry Christmas. Happy holidays, man.

[Josh Dyke]

Thanks, Mitch. Take care. Goodbye. All right, there you go. You can go to Reminder Media. No excuses, people, to get your questions answered live here on the show. I did, I, I finished it off. I did a full audit. He's killing it. Like, he actually has good production and good reviews on Redfin, but only four on Zillow, if that's accurate is what it's pulling. So, like, it just points out those blind spots.

[Luke Acrey]

Everybody should be using AI not because it's.

[Josh Dyke]

Yeah.

[Luke Acrey]

Online, not because that you're. You'll be replaced in the sense of. By AI. Nobody knows what's going to happen there. But ultimately, if you don't use AI, you're going to lack convenience, which will kill trust.

[Josh Dyke]

Absolutely. All right, next we have Nancy. Nancy calling from California as well, I believe. Nancy, welcome to Stay Paid.

[Nancy]

Thank you so much. Yes. California, Good morning.

[Luke Acrey]

Good morning. Excited to have you on the show. What can we help you with? What question do you have?

[Nancy]

Okay, so I currently buy leads from. Well, I list of potential leads. Right. So I'm getting, I have one website where they'll kind of troll all the. The whole Internet and find people who are shopping for a mortgage, shopping for a realtor shop. Like, like looking online for all of these different.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah. Like intent data. So they have intent on people that are hitting certain sites. Okay. Right.

[Nancy]

So that's one list that I purchased. So these are nurture leads. Right. These are not people where I can call them up and say, hey, I saw that you were, you know, shopping online for. It's kind of creepy. So I have that kind of a list. I have other lists of maybe people who have inherited properties, like things that are going to be nurtured over time, not necessarily where I can call them or do something direct. So I want to place ads online. So I want to do like retargeting ads.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay.

[Nancy]

But I don't know, am I. Is it best to do like Google Ads, YouTube ads, Facebook ads, like Instagram? Where am I doing this? Is it everywhere? I haven't done any ads.

[Luke Acrey]

How much money do you have, Nancy? How much money? It is better to do it everywhere if you have the money for it. But no, all joking aside, what is your production so far this year?

[Nancy]

So so far I've closed what, 10.

[Luke Acrey]

Awesome. What's the volume of that 10?

[Nancy]

We're looking at probably around 14 to 15 million.

[Luke Acrey]

Awesome. Great job. That just gives me an idea from a marketing budget, like strategy wise, what you should be doing. How many of those 14 or sorry, those 10 came from the nurturing of these leads, if any. Like when did you start the nurturing of these leads? How many of the 10 that you've done have come from this avenue?

[Nancy]

I haven't.

[Josh Dyke]

Yeah.

[Nancy]

So I've just really recently started nurturing them through like drip email kind of campaigns, sending them, you know, home value alerts and what's in your neighborhood alerts, those kinds of things. So that's been kind of recent and I've had, I've had a few listing appointments from that, but not a ton yet because it's so new. Most of the stuff I'm closing is from either referrals or me picking up the phone and just calling people cold calls.

[Luke Acrey]

Awesome. So I'm not surprised by that. Obviously the majority of the business is sphere based business, but if you think about it from a philosophy standpoint, it's like what you're doing right now is building your sphere. Right. You're taking these, you know, cold leads, anonymous people that have intent that show some signs of they need a real estate agent and you're trying to nurture them into your bucket of, I call it sphere but relationship. So they ultimately use you as the real estate agent. Are you doing anything other than just emails to these leads right now?

[Nancy]

No, it's just emails.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay.

[Nancy]

I'm going to start doing a postcard campaign. But. But very specific.

[Josh Dyke]

So.

[Nancy]

Right. I'm not going to do like a blast postcard to all of them. I'm going to take some specific Ones like, I. I kind of go through the. The list and then pull out the ones that I think are more viable and start doing a monthly postcard.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay. All right. So, I mean, Josh, why do you.

[Josh Dyke]

Not feel you can call them? I know you mentioned, you know, obviously you want to say, hey, I saw you were looking for stuff online, but why do you feel like you could not call them? Introduce yourself?

[Nancy]

I guess the question is, how did I get their information and why am I calling them? That's, you know, some. Some leads expires or inherited or things like that you can call with. With a purpose. Right. So an expired lead, you can say, hey, I saw your house was listed, but somebody who is just shopping online anonymously, they think, and I now have their information. How did I get it and what am I calling for?

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah, well, I mean, agree Brothers, depending. These are spread out over a bunch of zones or are they centralized to your area?

[Nancy]

No, I did one zip code.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay, one zip code. Okay, perfect. So you could treat it as a circle prospecting script if you wanted to, or you could treat it as like a cash offer offers script. I don't know if you're familiar with these, but like Acre Brothers, we have a whole podcast on circle prospecting, and so you can go find that on Stay Paid. If you listen to that podcast, we'll call zip codes, neighborhoods, and we'll call to talk to the homeowner. And this script is simple. It's like after you find out the person's the homeowner, we'll say, hey, we're working with a lot of people in the area. There's, you know, a lot of interest in buying and selling real estate in this neighborhood or area. If you were to get an offer on your home, would you be interested to look it over and so that then you know, the answer to that is either, well, yeah, what's the offer? And it's like, well, what would you be interested in, you know, selling for? And there's that. You can go listen that podcast to hear that whole script out. But that's just the, you know, I'm calling because there's a lot of interest in this area. And we know. I don't know your market specifically, but we know our market. In our market, there's a ton of interest in, you know, these certain neighborhoods. And so that is one way to call to hit them at the right time. Now, I'm assuming most of these leads are probably buyer leads that they are giving you intent data shopping because necessarily.

[Nancy]

Because if they're shopping for a realtor. These are mostly homeowners.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay. Okay. Even better than. So like, I would then call using that offer script and saying, hey, if you were to receive an offer on your home, would you be interested to looking it over? Most people when they're offered an offer in their home, well, yeah, what's the offer? And then the follow up to that is like, well, what would you want, you know, for your home? And then it's like, well, you know, what's the offer? Well, Zillow and Redfin have the range to be, you know, 700,000 to 800,000. Is that in the range of what you would be thinking? And it's like, then you're figuring out the interest level, plus you're figuring out, you know, the opportunity. So if they're way over that, then you know, okay, this is probably not someone I'm going to be able to get. But if they're in that range, you've determined interest because they actually are interested in looking for an offer. So you've determined that, okay, this person is, you know, at least curious what their home's worth and at least curious to look over an interest, you know, or an offer from an interest perspective. And then ultimately based upon their response to the Zillow Redfin type range, then you give them a range, then you know, quality or, you know, qualification of that lead and then you go for booking an appointment, well, let me come out and take a walk through your property. And, and what we do at Acre Brothers, we usually give them like three types of offers. We give them an offer that if we took it to market, here's what it'd be worth. If we bought it with cash, here's what your cash offer would be worth. And if we did an rva, meaning a remodel, like you remodeled your kitchen, here's what the valuation would be. And that's how you develop the relationship with the homeowner, is you're going out there, you walk through their property. It's basically like a mini listing presentation. And then you share with them either because you've already prepped it, because you've already looked at the mls, you share with them what these three offers would be and that gets you in with that homeowner. And at the very least, now they're in your bucket relationship wise and you're nurturing them. This year We've closed over 26 deals, I believe from that script, doing that, literally calling neighborhoods. Now we have hired an isa, Nathan, who is calling, doing that. And then he books the appointment for Steven or Mark to go out there. That's kind of our structure. And it's a lot of phone calls, right, for those 26 deals, probably more now. But I think on the title of our YouTube, what did we say? 12,000 calls? Yeah, right. So it's a lot of phone calls that you're making. The ISA is making usually 200 phone calls a day. Double dial though, to 100 unique contacts. Now, not every day are they doing that, but that's our goal. And they usually see about one appointment from that. So that strategy is one. Getting back to your original question of where should I advertise? Right, because you want to do both is like now you have the proactive outreach with the cold calling, but then let's also move to the advertising. How big is the list? If the list is a thousand plus, let's consider creating a custom audience on Facebook and running Facebook ads. The other avenue I could point you to would be if you have their home address from this data, do you have their home address you could go to like El Toro or there's probably other companies that maybe are a little bit more cost effective and they do geofencing around addresses. And so you could potentially geofence that address. And what that does is it basically tries to advertise to IP addresses or phone addresses that it knows lives at that address. And so there's a way you could probably give them the list and they could geofence it. And then your ad would show up on ad networks, right? Like the cnn. You go to cnn, you see, you know, a real estate ad or something like that, it would show up on the ad networks. I think your most effective is probably Facebook. And then. Well, I take that back. Most effective is the proactive, actually outreach to a phone call from an actual one to one. But it's time consuming. It's a lot of sweat equity. Second to me would be probably a Facebook campaign mixed with a mailer campaign that would give you hopefully a reason to get a scan so you can call. But the problem with these types of campaigns, not even problem, but the expectation you got to have is you're going to have to nurture. This is a branding campaign and say you're going to spend for probably 18 months in order to get the trickle effect in for like eight brothers. With our Facebook leads, it's about 10.8 months to continue version just to give you an idea. So, you know, just keep that in mind. If you start spending on Facebook, you're going to need to commit to probably 18 months before you pull out to actually get the leads. But that's my thoughts. I don't know if you have more Josh, on the.

[Josh Dyke]

I agree. I mean, it really comes down to your intention. If you're looking for people that are raising their hand and requesting information, it's just going to be difficult to get any better than, you know, a few percent conversion on any type of Internet lead like Facebook or, or goo. Google is going to be a little bit better because there's intent there. You know, people are searching. So whenever they're searching and they see you advertised and you have a good, whether it's a lead magnet or it's a good, you know, conversion landing page that gets them to raise their hand and request information. YouTube. We've heard a few people that we've interviewed on the podcast from a branding perspective.

[Luke Acrey]

I mentioned Dustin Fox on Client Events for the Last Caller, but he does really good YouTube.

[Josh Dyke]

And the great.

[Luke Acrey]

That's a podcast that we can send.

[Josh Dyke]

You because so many people watch YouTube TV now. He's like, I'm on my client. You know, I'm in my neighborhood's big screen in their living rooms. And it's a really neat way to get your branding out there. And also you can do like affinity groups within Google. You can use Google affinity groups to get in front of the right audience there. Same with the custom list. If you have enough of those. Those leads. But definitely the calls. Like that's why I asked about the calls because it really is. You're gonna have to really call those folks.

[Luke Acrey]

How much is the data costing you?

[Mitch Johnson]

Yeah.

[Nancy]

Well, I'm paying on a semi annual basis, but I want to say I'm paying around 3,000 a year.

[Luke Acrey]

3,000 a year.

[Josh Dyke]

Okay.

[Luke Acrey]

How much data do you get for that? You get every house in the zip code that you can pull at any point or just any.

[Nancy]

No, I'm getting 30. It's. It's 30 unique a week.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay, 30 unique a week of people that had intention. And do you get names, emails, addresses?

[Nancy]

Yes.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay, names, emails, addresses. 30 a week, 3,000 a year. What's the company you're using?

[Nancy]

Real intent.

[Luke Acrey]

Real intent. Awesome. Okay, so then you're putting them on an email drip. Your email drip right now, is it sophisticated at all? Like with.

[Nancy]

Yeah, it's through Real Scout.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay, awesome.

[Mitch Johnson]

Yeah.

[Luke Acrey]

Love riskout. So you're sending them, are you sending them a list of homes or a CMA offer?

[Nancy]

It's a CMA offer.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay.

[Nancy]

And then it's a monthly Update on what's selling in their, their neighborhood.

[Luke Acrey]

Beautiful. And, and the open rates of those or the click through rates. Are you calling the people that open the email?

[Nancy]

Yes and. Well, no, I'm not calling the ones that have opened the email. No, I'm not.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay, that, that's what I, so I.

[Nancy]

Yeah, that was the, that was the hard part was I guess once they opened the email then I can say, I see you open the email.

[Luke Acrey]

You don't even have to, you don't even have to say I see you open the email. I would just literally. Sure.

[Josh Dyke]

If you saw my email.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah, exactly. Not sure if you saw my email or not. I'm actually, I'm getting, there's just a lot of demand in this area and I'm trying to be proactive. I'm helping a lot of clients and I, you know, wanted to reach out to you and see and you can be very direct in these calls but you know, any interest in actually selling your home or any interest in, you know, buying and you know, that's what Ricky Carut does essentially. It's like that direct type of calling. So I would do that. It's very comparable to like reminder media. Like the ultimate is when Nancy requests a sample of our magazine or a sample of like the digital products we have because we can call you say, hey Nancy, we got your sample request. And it's like, yeah, okay, it's expected. But there's also the people who we just send emails to that open the email that don't. We know they saw the page but they didn't do anything. And we're calling them just like Josh said. Hey, want to reach out? Not sure if you saw my email or not. I sent you an email the other day and then we know they saw it because they opened it. And then we reference what's in that email and then ask them the question. Okay, so that's what I would do if I were you. 3000 is pretty awesome for 30 intent based leads, but they are nurture leads, so they're probably 18 months at least. Okay, it sounds like you, I mean action. I'm wise. If I was putting a cap on it, I would go, you're doing great stuff. Take those leads. You have them on a real scout email drip. Call the ones that open the email. I would 100% start there. Then I would take that list of, you know, however many you have. Do you have probably a thousand by now or no?

[Nancy]

Yes.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay, so take that list and have you ever done a custom audience on Facebook.

[Nancy]

No, that was the question is so. Because I can upload that list into the ad, right? I mean.

[Luke Acrey]

Or yes, yes, you can. We can. So if you want to do it. I don't know if our training. Does our training walk through custom ads?

[Josh Dyke]

I don't know.

[Luke Acrey]

I don't think it walked through custom ads. But we help agents run their Facebook advertising at Reminder Media. So we always get on a demo with you and show you how to do that. But you can also do it yourself where when you get in to create the ad, it'll be in your ad.

[Josh Dyke]

Set and then you'll have, where you define your audience. You'll be able to upload, you know, it'll say custom audience. You'll be able to upload your file there. It will make sure that includes name, email address, address, zip, like zip code, like as much information as you can give it. Because that is what it's going to try and use.

[Luke Acrey]

Because it's not going to find everybody. Yeah, but, but the hope would be, because this is, it's more expensive.

[Josh Dyke]

It is more expensive to advertise to a custom list. But, you know, it is a higher quality list potentially.

[Nancy]

Right. And I would like to do a combination of, you know, radius plus custom list.

[Josh Dyke]

Yeah, yeah. And do it for, I would start off doing it for impressions. Like just do it for impressions. Get your brand in front of people, especially if you're calling through them, because that'll just put you in their mind. You know, they'll see a seven, ten times.

[Olivia]

Right.

[Nancy]

Because if I'm, if I'm emailing them and doing the retargeted ads and potentially calling them, I mean, that's, that's a lot of touches.

[Luke Acrey]

I think the, our exclusive list of homes ads would work really well because they're, they're ultimately searching for a home. So we run these ads. I don't know if you've seen them, Nancy, but we run them for agents all the time. That it's like a list of homes ad. So it's like, you know, I don't know where you're at in California, but like if in Virginia it's like Forest, Virginia resident, are you or do you know someone interested in a list of exclusive homes of $250,000 in Forest, Virginia? Click below to get that list. And people, you'd be surprised. We get leads $6 to $20 all the time for those that seems to fit into your vein of what you're doing. So we can show you that list of homes ads and we have A whole training on that that you could even set it up yourself. That's. It's probably out there on YouTube, but we can get you that training as well.

[Nancy]

Okay, so.

[Olivia]

And then.

[Luke Acrey]

Oh, go ahead.

[Nancy]

Sorry. I was gonna say. Yeah, the other part was YouTube.

[Luke Acrey]

Well, YouTube. I don't have a ton of experience with YouTube advertising. We do some of it for reminder media, but I haven't done it a lot for agents. I do know in our conversations with like Dustin Fox, he does it extremely well and he walks agents through how to do it. That podcast. Just search his name with Stay Paid and you'll find that podcast and be able to listen to what he talks about. I think it's a branding play again. It's a branding play long term. And it's going to be like a Facebook or a Google. I don't know how expensive it is. That's the thing I can't give you really guidance on. It's like I don't know what the cost of lead is. I know with Google that we've seen, right. You're going to have cost of leads on Facebook anywhere from $6 to $20 to get a buyer. You know, let's say middle of funnel, the top of funnel lead. On Google, you're double that usually because it's a way higher intent. So you might be $50 at cost to lead. There is what we've seen in our experience of running these ad campaigns. I'm not sure with YouTube what the average cost is. Be an interesting question to even ask AI.

[Nancy]

Yeah, I was told that YouTube ads are actually pretty inexpensive because unless somebody watches the whole, whole ad or a certain portion of it, you don't get charged.

[Luke Acrey]

Well, yeah, there is different types that you can run and actually Dustin does talk about that on the podcast is like the ones he runs are those type of ads where it's like if you don't watch it, then he doesn't get charged for it.

[Nancy]

Right.

[Luke Acrey]

So awesome. You are really doing great, though. 14 million. Congrats. I mean, that's great volume, but let's take it to 30 million. That's what we need. We need.

[Nancy]

Yeah, exactly.

[Luke Acrey]

Awesome. Nancy, thank you for calling in. I would love to connect with you on Instagram so we can get you all that information. So it's at Luke Acrey on Instagram. If we connect, I'll just shoot me a DM and I'll get you that information. But really appreciate you calling in.

[Nancy]

Great. Thank you so much.

[Luke Acrey]

Yep, have a great one. Bye.

[Nancy]

Bye.

[Josh Dyke]

All right, there you Go. Make sure to get your questions answered here live on Stay Paid. You can go to remindermedia.com ask or follow us on Instagram. We are Stay Paid podcast. Shoot us a message. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. To get all of the notes, we'll include a link to that video as well for the YouTube or sorry for the Facebook advertising and everything in the show. Notes of this episode, you can get [e-mail] if you enjoy this episode. I want to show your support. Go to YouTube.com remindermedia make sure you are subscribed to the channel and give this episode a thumbs up. And the best way to show your support is simply share this with somebody that you know. For this episode of Stay Paid, I'm Josh Dyke.

[Luke Acrey]

Guys, I'm Luke Acree. Thank you for listening.

[Josh Dyke]

Did we explain the Christmas sweaters?

[Luke Acrey]

No, we didn't explain it. It is Christmas time, though. You know, it's, it's about to be Christmas, so. Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas. Happy New Year to everybody.

[Josh Dyke]

I told Chris it'll be funny. This is going to come out like in April.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah.

[Josh Dyke]

Because next week is Christmas. But we record these in advance.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah, yeah, we do record this in advance. We can't make it April, though. That's really far off. So we have to, we have to get it out sooner. But here's my action item for everybody listening to is like from Olivia and then Nancy there at the end. And really this would apply to Mitch too. But it really comes down to, you know, most people know the things that they need to be doing, but they don't do it at the volume that they need to do it at. Because you're, you think when you're doing all this volume, you think you must be doing something wrong because it's like, well, it's not working. It's not converting. Like, you know, I'm not getting enough. And you go, oh, no. It's like you actually are doing great. Like, you are calling. You just need to do more calling. You need to call the people who open the emails. Nancy, right? Olivia, hey, you actually are doing great in residential. You need to apply that same methodology. Build the list, hit the list as many times to get you into commercial. So I would just encourage you. Like, the action item from this is really, it's the take action, but it's the volume of activity that you're doing. Go into 2026. And we're already in that right now. But we record these in advance probably when you're listening you're in it, up your volume. And remember, the difference between top producers and mediocre producers in every industry is top producers. Take action. Take action on that today.