Tired of prospects ghosting your calls? Wondering how to follow up without being “that pushy salesperson”? In this episode of Stay Paid, Luke, Josh, Stephen, and Cody tackle your real-world questions like turning social media likes into actual...
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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 calls from listeners of Stay Paid. And if you want to have your question answered live here on the show, make sure to follow us on Instagram. We are at staypaid podcast. Send us a message there. Or you can submit your question over@remindermedia.com ask. My name is Josh Dyke, chief marketing officer here at Reminder Media, joined as always by Luke Acreage, president of Reminder Media, and from the Acre Brothers realty team, Stephen Acrey and Cody Smith. And our first caller that we have joining us today is Barbara. Barbara from California. Welcome to Stay Paid.
Barbara
Hey. Thank you. How are you guys?
Luke Acrey
We are doing fantastic. What does Dave Ramsey say all the time? Because we're trying to, you know, beat Dave Ramsey in a call and show. He says, better than I did, Better than I deserve. Better than I deserve. That's what he says. Barbara, it's great to have you on the show. What is kind of the biggest blocker for you right now in your business? What can we help you with?
Barbara
Just trying to stay on top of social media, finding good content, you know, that will attract people. There's so much of it out there. It's just hard to be way ahead.
Luke Acrey
Of the game, you know, 100 overwhelming. What do you post? How often do you post? Is it worth the time to actually get the responses in? Can you tell me a little bit of your business? Like how. How many transactions have you done this year, volume wise? What's the GCI looking like? Has it been a good tough year for you? What's it looking like?
Barbara
Well, it's so interesting because for the beginning of the year, I was extremely busy and then everything just kind of leveled out. So it's just like trying to get the ball rolling again. And there's so many different ways to do that and people to do it with. So I'm just. I look for different legs that I can work in so that it kind of keeps it going. So at the moment, I'm doing a lot of out of state referral work. Okay, so.
Luke Acrey
And you're getting a referral fee for that when you're sending. Okay, what is, how many transactions are. What's the volume this year so far for you?
Barbara
I did around $3 million in business so far.
Luke Acrey
Okay.
Barbara
Yeah. No, that's not right. I'm sorry. $8 million in business so far this year.
Luke Acrey
Okay. Even better.
Frank
So you.
Luke Acrey
You mistakenly misplaced 5 million buc. It.
Barbara
I know. Whoa.
Luke Acrey
Okay.
Barbara
So California.
Luke Acrey
Yeah. So 8 million in volume, so. So not bad at all. Where is that coming from for you? Because I'm hearing a couple different things, but I want to understand, like, where are. Is the 8 million coming from? Is it mostly the referral out or is it your soi? Like, where are the leads coming in from?
Barbara
Mostly my soi. So a lot of my business was all referral business from my clients. Okay. So the other referrals that I'm talking about, they are clients that moved out of state. Okay. That I'm working with. So primarily it was my si.
Luke Acrey
Any other lead sources that fed the 8 million?
Barbara
No, I've been trying to get more in. I'm trying to get some leads. I've been working with a couple of companies to bring some leads in.
Luke Acrey
Okay, so what's driving you to think you. Your main struggle is social media, like content, stuff like that? What. What's made you think that? And then we can dive into kind of giving you our breakdown.
Barbara
Well, it just seems like it's something you're supposed to do. And I have a couple of people that I do have work with me on it, but I don't know that I really get anything from it. So I guess it's just a matter of being out there and being recognized and seen and all of that. But I don't get lead driven from that.
Luke Acrey
Yep. Okay, that makes sense. And how big is like your social media on Instagram, Facebook? Like, do you have 300 followers? 100.
Barbara
Hardly any followers.
Luke Acrey
Okay, hardly any followers. Have you friended your sphere?
Barbara
Yes.
Luke Acrey
Okay, so you have at least friend at your sphere.
Barbara
Okay, yeah, no, I probably need to go back and revisit that, you know, so that's the thing. So I have my personal Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn, and then I have my business, and mostly everything goes through my business, not my personal. So, okay, that's an opportunity.
Luke Acrey
There's an opportunity there because business is lower engagement because it's a business, you know, profile, business page. It gives you some advantages from analytics and running ads and different things like that. Um, but it's not on Instagram. It's okay. But on Facebook, you definitely want a personal profile because you're going to get way better engagement, and that's where you should be posting as well. So I'll take a step back because, you know, I'm just thinking through the lens. We answer questions here on the show based upon what we tell ourselves, what we've experienced, what, you know, if I'm talking to my team, members right now. And it seems like you're a good producer, mainly soi referral based, but it's a slower market right now, and you've got to figure out a way to add other lead pillars. And technically, the recommendation out there for a lot of people is that you should have three to four lead pillars in your business that are bringing in, you know, different sources of leads that you can work. I know for us at Reminder Media, you know, the number one lead source for us for the longest time after a new sale was referrals. Like we referrals was number one, just like everybody would say. And then what we call, you know, a reactivation, which is a repeat client. Someone who used us for a little bit, then stopped and, you know, we got them to get back. And then we said, okay, we've got to go out and build out these other lead categories. And so for us at Reminder Media, we have a couple different avenues to do that. We go out and we actually go and do paid ads on Facebook and Instagram to bring in leads from that we present to our audience. You could call it seminars in your business. We do seminars at real estate offices. Right. So I'm just giving you a picture of what we've done to try to grow our client base so we can get more referrals and we can get more reactivations coming in the door. But we've expanded out and getting those lead pillars. So we need to look at your business in that way. We need to go your sphere is how big and know that number. How big is your database right now?
Barbara
About a thousand.
Luke Acrey
About a thousand. Fantastic. So on average, they're saying it depends if you trust the stats or not, but on average, it's about 7%. 6% that will do a transaction in your database. So that's 70 deals that will happen within your thousand people this year. So how many of those are you capturing? And it's obvious you're probably not capturing enough because you're only doing 8 million. So already I can tell. Ooh. You don't really need another lead pillar if you have a thousand in your database. You just need to find out why you're not getting all 70 of those transactions. From an average standpoint, how many transactions equal the 8 million?
Barbara
6.
Luke Acrey
6. Okay, so they're huge opportunity, Right? So then you've got to ask yourself, well, why am I not finding the other 60, you know, two, let's say 63, four transactions that are happening. That then gets down to what is your cadence of communication to Your sphere, like what are you doing in a cadence to those thousand people? And this is what we talk often on the show is where most people get referral marketing wrong is they stay in the passive and they expect the referrals to walk in the door. What you need is not just the passive. So what does Luke Acrey mean by passive? Well, you got an email going. Maybe you do a magazine like Reminder Media provides to your clients. Maybe you're posting on social so they see you. All that is passive. You're still waiting on Stephen Acre, Cody to raise their hand and say, Barbara, I love you. Here's a referral. I want to use you, but you need proactive. And that's where things like a pop buy. If you're a fan of Brian Buffini, he teaches me. I do that. Oh, beautiful. So phone calls. And the key is asking the database for a referral. Must ask. So what I would challenge is go. If you looked at your thousand, when was the last time you called them and asked them if they needed any help this year buying, selling or investing? And when was the last time you asked them for a referral? And that should be a key data point that you go every person first. Are these thousand all real and every person in? When was the last time I asked them for business? If you don't ask, you'll never receive. But the key to asking is you're planting the seed of what? Of how they can help Barbara. And they maybe won't have a referral for you right then. They maybe won't do a transaction with you right then. But what they will do is they will now know that in order to help Barbara, she really would love a referral. She would love for me to do business with her. And now all your other marketing, guess what it reminds them of? It reminds them of that ask. And so I want to challenge you to go.
Barbara
I got it.
Luke Acrey
We could talk about other systems and other lead pillars to do, which you should do. But I actually think you're hurting yourself a little bit trying to find all these other systems where you have a gold mine right now in those thousand. If you just get a little bit more strategic and sophisticated, I want to throw it to you, Cody and Steven, because you guys do this literally in spades. I think you've closed 147 deals this year, 50% or so from referrals. Right. So can you talk a little bit about touches and what I just shared upon?
Stephen Acrey
I mean what you said is just perfect. I mean, that's absolutely correct. And then the only thing I would add to it is, like, social media would be probably the last thing that I would go to. It's just the truth. Like, we see so many. Everyone's telling you to do social media. There are some killers out there. If you want to invest the time into that, it's not a bad, you know, lead pillar. But if you talk to all of the big teams, like, where they're winning right now, it's going to be circle prospecting, it's going to be open, open houses.
Luke Acrey
Right.
Stephen Acrey
So I just choose, obviously choose the direction that you want to go. Like, if you love social media, it doesn't sound like you're like all in.
Luke Acrey
Right.
Stephen Acrey
You want to do it. I would choose the one that's going to bring the most money. And just look at teams across the board, agents, like in your market center that are killing it, and just ask them what's their biggest lead pillar. And most people won't say social media. They might say it up front and you dig into it and they'll be like, yeah, I got two organic, you know, leads this year. Like, we have a guy on our team doing YouTube and we're always coming to him. He's doing a great job on YouTube, and it's a long play. But I guess leads he's gotten from YouTube in three years and. Three years. One.
Barbara
Really?
Luke Acrey
Yeah.
Stephen Acrey
And that's just what most people go to, but just, yeah, pick. Pick the lead source that's actually going to produce results. And I would say for me, if I want to send less money, it's going to be open houses and it's going to be circle.
Luke Acrey
But that's also to be the kind of devil's advocate there. It's also YouTube and social, Barbara, are not direct response. So it's meaning like, like Adam is who you're talking about, right? Doing the YouTube. But she does a great job. But that's played into his sphere. Does that make sense? So I don't. I want people to play the devil's advocate is. It's not that Adam's only gotten one. He's gotten one direct response. The YouTube and social have influenced probably his sphere to do business with him. So really, when you talk about doing social media, you're really doing it to influence your sphere, Barbara. And that's why I asked you, have you friended them all? And are you posted on your personal profile where they actually will see your content? Because if you post on your business page, which you should do, that's just a business Card, because no one's going to see it. Facebook's algorithm only shows it to 2% of people unless you put some money behind it. So really, it's in your personal profile on Facebook that you can leverage to network with your sphere. But is this resonating with you, Barbara? Does this make sense?
Barbara
Yes. And I do open houses. I try to fill in during the week for people and just to kind of keep it. Keep the flow going. I work in a great place. I work in Carlsbad, California. My office is right on the corner of the main fairway of travelers and visitors. And I get a lot of opportunity to meet with people. So I'm out there, and I do a lot of fundraising. I work with a lot of nonprofits.
Luke Acrey
Do you call your clients, like, on a cadence? Is there any cadence to your outreach to clients?
Barbara
No.
Luke Acrey
Okay, there you go. It's right there. And that's not to beat you up. That's literally. That's it. That's the golden nugget. That's the takeaway. Because you're good. You're doing 8 million. I mean, most agents are not touching that. And so you're doing well. But you know, and I know you could do triple. Yeah, you really could.
Cody Smith
And what I know you as, like a system for you is you have a thousand people, is drill those down to three different areas. So your sphere, I label them as this. Your first ones are vip. So those are the ones I've sent you referrals already that have worked with you. That's really close. Those are people you want to keep up with at least once a month.
Luke Acrey
Right?
Cody Smith
So let's say a thousand. Fifty of those are VIPs. It's usually a smaller number because it's people that you're gonna talk to you regularly. Your biggest one is what I call tier ones. Your tier ones are ones you wanna call quarterly. So then you've got a list of these quarterly people you call. We do events to help. Call them quarterly. It's a reason for the call. It's the valuation. And then your tier twos, what you do annually. Typically, you would do that. The home anniversary, you'd call them once a year, do that. That's also gonna be a smaller pool of people. But label these three groups. You have a thousand. Label these three. So you can get really specific on who do I need to be top of mind about. That's the 50. Who's the second? That's going to give me business that we keep in front of quarterly. We do the Magazine as well to help with that. But you got a call quarterly and then your tier twos, which are going to be once a month annual valuation, just to say, hey, this is what your portfolio is looking like now on any house of the own.
Barbara
Yeah, that's a great idea though. Yeah, break it down, make it a little smaller.
Cody Smith
Make it smaller and intentional that way because each the people are going to be different depending on, you know, who you've worked with. But you definitely want to keep in front of the 50 because the 50 is what's going to really run your business and then the ones are ones that just going to be on automatic every couple years.
Luke Acrey
Barbara, congrats on all your success so far. You're the type of agent I love to work with because you actually have the talent and you're doing the work. You're producing 8 million now you just got to build processes and leverage into your business. And leverage comes from process and people. And so it seems like you're missing out on the processes. I would start there first and sphere and all the other money you're spending on the other avenues, maybe rethink and think about, you know, let me first get this cup of sphere to overflow and then take the excess of that and put it into the, the other things. So, you know, please take action on calling your clients. That's the thing that will change the game for you. But I appreciate you coming on the show. It's awesome.
Barbara
Thank you so much. Yes, thank you, Barbara. Appreciate it. Have a great day.
Josh Dyke
All right, there you go. If you want to have your questions answered live here on Stay paid, make sure to go to remindermedia.com ask and we will get you on the show. This is a write in question here. So we have from Courtney. Right? So Courtney in Virginia, so not too far away from you fellas, I believe Courtney says hi. I'm a new agent in Richmond transitioning from teaching in literally one week. I've been binging your podcast and have learned so much. Thank you. Well, thank you, Courtney. My question is, what's the most overlooked move for turning a casual connection like a social media like, or I guess she's saying like taking a social media like someone that's engaging with your posts or a quick DM into a loyal client or referral partner.
Luke Acrey
Oh man, great question. And this is kind of similar to, you know, Barbara and you going, hey, I want to be on social. But at the end of the day I think, Steve, you hit it on the, on the head, the nail on the head. Where it's like, all these agents want to be on social because it seems like it's the latest, greatest thing to do, but it's like, how does that actually translate to a client? And that's Courtney's question, is like, how do you translate those things to a client? The truth is you're probably not going to translate most of them to being a client, and that's just me being real with you. Our experience has not been that most of those do a direct translation. It's more of top of mind awareness. But some tactics that I have seen that do really well. I'll give you a couple that we've learned over the podcast. One is that when people like your post, immediately use that as your reason to connect with them and just check in and literally. Hey, Stephen, thanks for engaging on my post, man. How's. How's life going? We haven't caught up in a while and then, boom, that gets him in the conversation. Talk about the Ford Pillars, family, occupation, recreation, dreams. That's how you engage people in conversation. How's your family going? How's your work, how's your hobbies, you know, what's happening with your dreams? Then you can transition. I always give people transition lines, whether it's on the phone or through messaging, where it's like, hey, how's your work been going? Because they're going to ask you how your work's been going, and that's your transition to talk about the market, to talk about what's happening with equities in homes. Let's talk about buying, selling, or investing. That's how you can do it through a DM right there on Instagram. But you're like, your tactic is they liked your post, you used it to connect, and that's their way to get naturally into a conversation. Second way I would think about doing it with people is going every single day. And what I call is like a five for five. And you take five minutes every single day, you pick five people and you can use social to do this. Courtney, take five minutes and engage with them on their post, engage with them in their DMs, on their stories. Social media was created to be social. And the way to get people from being online to being a connection is you got to engage with them through comments and through likes and through stories. And the more you actually engage with them, the more more they will see your content. And then chances are they might actually interact with you. And then if you want to meet more people on social, this was Michelle Berman, I think is who gave this tip. You can go to Instagram right now and I could go to, I think, like Steven's page and let me see if I pull up, like my Instagram. Make sure I give you the right directions on this. But if I go to someone's actual page right beside message and file, so you have follow message and then there's this little person with a plus sign. When you hit that little person with a plus sign, it will give you suggested people to follow. And it's suggesting people that you should connect with based upon who Noah, this person I'm connect with is connected with. It's saying these people probably, Luke, you would be the most interested to connect with Ryan because of your connection with Noah. And Ryan's also connected probably with some other people that you're connected with. So it's kind of linked. You know how LinkedIn has a this person also knows this person type feature. It's that feature on Instagram that you can use. And what Michelle Berman teaches. You can check out her podcast episode with us on Stay Paid. She teaches doing that every single day. So as I said, five for five comment, you know, for five minutes on five people's pages, she goes, go follow five new people from those suggestions because those are people in your area. So those are some tips for me. What about you boys?
Stephen Acrey
Yep. Yeah. So I mean, like, if you're a new agent, like, the focal point should be on the people that you already know on social. And I like what you said about actually engaging with their content rather than them engaging, like, so someone engages with your content and then you reach out to them. I would say go first to their content, right. The things that they're posting and start commenting on their pages, because you're going to connect so much better that way. People want to hear about themselves. They don't want to hear about you. Right. And so that would be the first thing that I would do.
Luke Acrey
Dude, I just had a. From you saying that. Just had a great thought from Jimmy Mackin. I learned this from that I think would be really critical about engaging. Jimmy Macken will post or teaches people to post a story about how you help the client. Help Stephen Acree buy this home. Just was checking on where it is today. It's actually gained $40,000 value. So well done, Stephen. Shout out to you. And then underneath that post, you say, hey, if any of you guys want to know what your home's worth, just let me know. Just comment below or send me a dm. And so that's another Way to get direct. But that just popped into my head as you were talking about engagement and stuff like that.
Stephen Acrey
Yeah, absolutely.
Luke Acrey
Yeah.
Stephen Acrey
If you're a new agent, man, focus on the people that you already know and start building those relationships deeper. Yeah, right. Because you have so much opportunity. There's already people that you know and you need to engage with them rather than trying to create so many clients through someone disliking you and following like I love the strategy but that needs to be done first.
Luke Acrey
Go ahead, Cody.
Cody Smith
I was going to add to like real estate we always say is career focused, not year focused. So these people do don't get the commission breath as a new agent and you're immediately hey, I'm in real estate now. Do you want to buy or sell?
Luke Acrey
Right.
Cody Smith
The relationship is huge and you just building that deeper like Steven said is the key to you DMing them.
Stephen Acrey
Yep.
Cody Smith
It's starting the conversation. Then you'll like Luke said, you'll ask about work, you'll talk about work, but you're really building it so you can have that long term relationship. Because we're career focused, we're not worried if they're not ready to buy or sell right now. That's fine.
Luke Acrey
Yeah.
Cody Smith
But yeah, in a year, two years, five years here, I don't care man, but I want to be your person when that time comes.
Luke Acrey
Two other they're just popping in my head as we're thinking out loud on this question. One other way to get direct response because obviously you got to be career focused. Not just right there in that moment transactionally, but in your stories. Do a poll. Are you in your dream home in your stories? Share that whole question about like what's your homework? Take a guess. Right. Or another great tip on social to get people engaged in real estate is how much income do you need to afford a $400,000 home in Lynchburg, Virginia? How much income do you need? And have people guess in the comments and it immediately gets them interacting with you. Another one that we learned from Lindsay Jo shout out to her check out her episode with staypay podcast lead guides in your stories or in your post. So like the best restaurants to eat in Lynchburg, Virginia and they can DM or comment a certain word like restaurants on the post and then use mini chat which we have a whole episode on this so go check it out. But you can use many chat to have it send the lead guy, collect their email and all that good stuff. So those are some tips for you Courtney. Hope that helps.
Frank
Love it.
Josh Dyke
Thank you Courtney, for submitting your questions, you can go to remindermedia.com ask to post your questions as well and we will reach out to see if you want to come here on the show live. Speaking of coming on the show live, we have Keith, Keith is joining us, I believe, from Rhode Island. Keith, welcome to Stay Paid.
Keith
Well, thank you very much.
Josh Dyke
Awesome.
Luke Acrey
Keith, man, excited to have you on Stay Paid. What is the big maybe blocker in your business right now or question that you have that we can help you.
Keith
With getting in front of more people? And so I've been using Reminder Media as one source for, for getting leads, but I've had a real challenge getting a hold of those leads that have responded to the ads. So I've, I've tried a number of things, but I'm looking for some suggestions for how to get a hold of people that just don't respond to my phone calls or my emails.
Luke Acrey
Yeah, great, great point. I wish I could figure that out too, man. We, we have that same problem at Reminder Media and the leads we call and we call upon real estate agents. So yeah, that is a, a real world pain point that we can give you some suggestions on. Can you tell me a little bit about your business though? So we have an understanding of where you're at. Like how much volume have you done this year so far? What's your GCI looking like?
Keith
So I have quite a bit of experience in the healthcare industry, including working for 10 years as a registered nurse. But since 2018, I have focused specifically and exclusively in health insurance only with Medicare.
Luke Acrey
Okay.
Keith
I work remotely from my home. This is all I do. I do it full time. But I am new as an independent agent. So up till now, even though I have experience in the Medicare space, up till now I haven't had to generate my own leads.
Luke Acrey
Gotcha.
Keith
And so this is my first year as a fully independent.
Luke Acrey
How big is your book of business right now in Medicare? How many, how many clients do you see?
Keith
15.
Luke Acrey
15. Okay, so you're just really getting started.
Keith
Yes.
Luke Acrey
You really need to get in front of people. Okay. So I'm going to take a little different than kind of road here because of, I want to help you with obviously the Facebook and how do you get people to answer and what are some tactics there? But I think that's not going to solve your overall issue because where you're at with only 15 clients just getting started, needing to be more in front of more people, you're going to have to take a couple different approaches. So the first and most Important approach is your sphere of influence and what I call is your community marketing. Like you've got to get out in front of the people that you are interacting with, whether at church or at the grocery store, at the gym, at the local pharmacy, whatever it is, you've got to get those people into a database. So my question for you to think about is how big is your database? I know you have 15 clients, but how many contacts do you have stored in a CRM or even if it's in your phone or in an Excel doc? How big is that for you right now, Keith?
Keith
So even though I live in Rhode Island, I am doing business now only in the state of Washington.
Luke Acrey
Okay.
Keith
Which.
Luke Acrey
Why did you choose that? Yeah, why would you do that?
Keith
So that I could be up all hours of the day.
Luke Acrey
Is that a joke or do you really want that?
Stephen Acrey
Yeah, yeah.
Keith
Taking calls at, you know, 10:00pm my time.
Luke Acrey
And that seems like a terrible reason to do it. That seems like a terrible reason. Why was. Is that a real reason you did it, to do that?
Keith
No, no, no. That's one of the.
Luke Acrey
Yeah. Psychopath. No.
Keith
So Washington is a particularly favorable state when it comes to Medicare supplement plans.
Luke Acrey
Okay. And product based essentially is like you liked the products offering that you could give to the people.
Keith
Yes. All with guaranteed issue rights in the state of Washington. I started out doing it in my home state of Rhode island, but the population base is so small that it just was not really practical. And Washington is hopefully large enough. If it's not and I need to expand to California, which is where I'm from originally, I'll do that.
Luke Acrey
That makes.
Keith
My sister lives in Washington. My business partner is in Washington.
Luke Acrey
And so you do have boots on the ground with a business partner there.
Keith
I do.
Luke Acrey
Fantastic. So how big is the list of. I call them contacts. Right. But how big are the names and addresses that you have or names and emails? Like how big is that list?
Keith
Well, I would say that it is probably about 100 people.
Luke Acrey
Okay. So that's an obvious. Like that. That is where we have to build. We have to build that list. Because out of that list, you know, referral wise, you're going to be lucky to get 5% to 10% of those people to do a transaction with you. And so you need to build that list so you can have more and more people in there so you can have a bigger chance to get actual referrals and get actually deals. So that's one avenue that we need to focus your business on. It's like one KPI Keith, that you need to measure is how big is the database that I'm hitting every month? Like, in that you can hit them through multiple ways, which is your marketing plan and your sales outreach plan. And so we need to develop. How do we add to this database to grow it. And Facebook ads is one of those ways. You're getting leads every day or every week, so those are added to your database. So that's a good thing, but it's not going to be enough. You need to ask your business partner, your sister for their Rolodex. Like every friend and family member. That makes sense, right? For the people who are turning 65 or the people that are in their 50s and you want to get ahead of. Or maybe they're in their 30s and they have parents that are headed towards turning 65. Like myself. I'm 37 and my parents are going to be turning 65 here. Not too long. They're not. Dad's not 65 yet, is he? Steve? I think he'd be embarrassing if he. I don't think he is. I don't think he's six' five. I think Steve more than. He's wrong with that. But the point being is, like, you need to get. Do you have the names and addresses of those people from your sister? Can you get those? You need to put those into your database. So that's just one takeaway for. For you is going, all right, what did Luke tell me to do? He told me the hundred is not enough. I need to be adding that and then build a cadence of how I keep in touch with those people. So at least one email a month. Ideally, you could send them one mailer a month. So you have two touches and then at least one phone call a quarter to check in on them. That's a very kind of basic plan that I would implement to your database. Now, how do I grow that database? Facebook ads is a great way. Another really good way is what I call local partnerships. Now, you're at a disadvantage because you're across the country, but you have boots on the ground there, which is awesome. So where do the seniors go? Assistant living communities, 55 plus communities. Pharmacies, doctor's offices, dentists, chiropractors. You. You got to think, where. Where does my audience hang out? And this is a lesson for anybody listening to this. The key in all marketing is your audience. Who is your ideal target audience? And once you know who that is, you build a Persona on them and you go, well, if my ideal target audience is. Is someone who's turning 65. And they have these, you know, things that they tend to do. Where do those people hang out? Do they hang out at the country clubs, at the pharmacies, at the doctor's offices? Like where are these people and how do I then use those mediums to get in front? So I just share you an example. In our business we have a lot of Medicare agents that will use the magazine and they'll feature the local pharmacy on the magazine, they'll feature the local doctor on the magazine, they'll feature the 55 plus community on the magazine and then they'll leverage those magazines to go into those businesses and try to build relationship with them so they can get referrals going back and forth. So it's like I would think, how do I get referral partnerships locally? So I teach all these other business owners, the financial advisors, the estate planning attorneys, the elder care attorneys would be another great one. How do I teach them about Keith Livingstone? How do I teach them that Keith is the best Medicare agent on the face of the planet and will help their clients and how do I bring that value to them to get referrals from them? I would be working that in your kind of outreach plan as well. And then last but definitely not least, I would consider buying a T65 list and doing what I call is like geographic, like list based marketing to them. So you could purchase a T65 list, people that are turning 65 and you could get a mailer out to them once a month and start building your brand. Or you could take that T65 list, you're already doing Facebook with us. We could take that T65 list if it's big enough and try to build a custom audience on Facebook to where we try to find those people and send your ads to them. So questions on that.
Josh Dyke
We can help you get that list also, Keith, just so you are aware, we can get, we can help you get a list of turning 65.
Keith
Fantastic. Any specific suggestions on other tips for reaching people that have provided their contact information?
Luke Acrey
Stephen, given what you guys do, I know it's you're calling real estate, but it's, you know, same type of concept. But talk about your phone cadence and stuff like that.
Stephen Acrey
Yeah, absolutely. So like we're looking at, we're tracking our numbers, Keith, just so you know. And I'm not sure how many calls you're making, but like we're looking at like 18 calls. Double dialing these people to get to these conversations. Right. And get to people to move them towards a Transaction. I think the last one, look, the stats we did were like 34 to an actual closing.
Luke Acrey
Yeah, 36, I believe.
Josh Dyke
Yep.
Stephen Acrey
But, like, the tactics really for us in real estate is we're double dialing, if not triple dialing these people. And so I'd say that'd be the first thing. Then, you know, Grant Cardone says, always leave a voicemail because you're just putting it out into the universe. The more chances you have, the more results that you're going to get. And so we'll leave them a voicemail and then we'll also just text them. If someone doesn't answer, we're just like, hey, John, question mark. Because all we want is a response from people. We, we know that we're not going to be able to close them via text. And so we're not trying to explain ourselves too much. Like, you're never going to close someone via text. So just, you know, it's like, hey, is this Keith? And when they answer, you just say, calling you now. You got to get them on the phone. And then I would just. Yeah. Double dial people until you get.
Luke Acrey
Do you know what a double dial is, Keith?
Keith
Yes. Okay, thank you. Yes.
Luke Acrey
Perfect. Lovely. Yep.
Cody Smith
And I'm calling it every day for two weeks straight. Every day. Two weeks straight, at least. And then from there, it's like every other day after that, then after a month, once a week.
Stephen Acrey
Yeah. And you get a hold of them. I mean, you got a 2. We got a 2% close rate, Keith, on our Facebook leads, but, you know, we closed 24 a year in real estate. And so you just got to remember that, like, the numbers, the percentage wise is not going to look that great. So you've got to make drastic action towards these leads to get the results that, that you're looking for.
Luke Acrey
And every lead also should go on to an email drip, Keith. So if your emails, I. I'm not sure if they are. I haven't been able to look at your account or not, but we should look at your account and go, do you have the email drip set up to where they're at least getting your local events or your digital magazine going out to them monthly? Because then you're nurturing these people for the rest of time. And that's a little bit of what you're getting with your Facebook ads, is that you're not only getting impressions, like the billboard effect, but you're also getting a list that you're building to drip on. So, like, if they, if you're thinking Cadence, Cody, the Lead comes in, you want to call, do a double dial first. When you call, they don't answer. You don't leave a voicemail. You pause, wait minute. So call right back. So that's the double dial that time. If they don't answer, you leave a voicemail and then you shoot a text message. And the text message, right. You can send a text message, usually with a question is good. It can be something like Josh, hey, is this Josh question mark? And then that when that person responds, then you're calling. And, and the idea there is that you're just looking to see if you can get engagement. Also on the emails, check the opens in the system because that will help you know if it's a real person or fake information. So when the email goes out, you can go to your email analytics and you can look and go, who's opening the emails? Because that tells me there's a real thing here, you know, that are real person. I shouldn't say thing. A real person here that's engaging with your lead. Does that make sense?
Keith
Sure does. Great tips, guys. Thank you so much.
Luke Acrey
Yeah, thank you. And Keith, I mean, thank you, Juan, for being a client. I would love to, to help you out more. So let's connect on Instagram and then I'll talk to Jacob. Jacob's a freaking beast. He runs our whole paid advertising division over there and he could get on a call with you and give you some even deeper dive tips, not only on our product services, but on what you can do script wise and what other agents are doing around the country. So I'll make sure I give Jacob your info and let's connect on Instagram as well.
Keith
Keith, excellent. Thank you again.
Luke Acrey
Yeah, Keith, thank you, man. Have a great day. Take care.
Keith
Likewise.
Josh Dyke
All right, there you go. Call those leads.
Luke Acrey
Call those leads real quick.
Josh Dyke
Does the, does the, does that question still work? I'm curious where you go, hey, is this Josh?
Stephen Acrey
Yeah. I mean, it still works all the time.
Cody Smith
It just worked yesterday.
Stephen Acrey
Yeah, but I mean you're gonna think you're, you're making so many calls, right? So people want it to work for every single person.
Luke Acrey
It works 1% at a time or 2% at a time or whatever you want to call it.
Cody Smith
Yeah, you may set up. It was Thursday. I was doing training with the, the new group on Follow Boss and called her twice, didn't answer. We've had her for months. Texted who? Hey, Shannon, I think her name was. She's like, who's, who's this? And then I actually didn't see the text. Then she called me and I talked to her on the phone and then singing about downsizing in a year and I was like, well, can I run numbers for you? That stuff? She's like, yeah, run me numbers.
Luke Acrey
Everybody else make your calls. Cody, they will call you. That's what it is.
Stephen Acrey
Magnetic calls first in the text. Yeah.
Cody Smith
And then she was like, well, who's texting me? Who's this?
Luke Acrey
You know, that is literally it in practice.
Cody Smith
Yeah.
Luke Acrey
That's awesome. Very cool.
Josh Dyke
All right, you can make sure to get your questions submitted so that we can bring you on the show and answer them live over@remindermedia.com ask and now we are introducing or welcoming in Massachusetts, I believe in real estate, Frank.
Luke Acrey
Cape Cod man. Frank, welcome to State Bay, man. Hey, it's great to have you on the show. Tell us, you know, what's your kind of big blocker in your business right now that is maybe keeping you from the next level or something we can help you with.
Frank
So I think the main thing is, I mean I've been a contractor for 30 years, so I know a lot about housing repairs and what I got my real estate license three years ago. And the one thing I noticed is there's so many lead generation companies, they contact me like in the hundreds. You know, we can do this, we can do that for, you know, this amount of money.
Josh Dyke
We might have been one of those.
Frank
It's just, it's crazy. I wish, you know, I could hit a button and go, forget about it, forget about it, forget about it. But you can't. So, I mean the, the hardest thing for me being a newer agent is getting seller leads that are actually leads and how to do it. And I know the whole AI thing going on now. I'm not a big, big, you know, AI person, but it's the wave of the future and I need to, you know, figure something out. But it's just, it's just crazy. The companies out there that just bombard. I'm sure it's every companies but agents especially, you know.
Luke Acrey
Oh yeah, 100. I mean, I mean we're guilty as charged. We're probably one of them. Frank. Tell me a little bit about where your business is at though. Like how much volume have you done this year? What's the year been like for you?
Frank
So right now I got, I got, I just got a listing on my own. I sold two this year and I'm part time because I do have a contract business going on. I'm trying to ease into it full time. But I just, you know, I just don't have the hours in the day to, like, say, hey, I'm gonna sit down and do real estate, you know, full time. I do have an AI helper, you know, to help me with certain stuff just to take away all the little bull that I. I don't really need to do. And then if I get something, I, you know, get on personally and take care of it. So that's where I'm at. I mean, I do. You know your Facebook ad.
Luke Acrey
Have you been able to translate any of the sphere from your contracting business into your real estate leads? Like, how big that database was to your real estate leads? Has that happened for you at all?
Frank
I mean, the database is huge. I just don't know, like, how to go about. I don't want to be that person that's bombarding people that I have contract, you know, clients.
Cody Smith
I got bad news.
Luke Acrey
Let them have it. Let them have it. Cody, tell them how it is.
Cody Smith
You need a column. Yeah.
Frank
10,000 you know, people on Facebook, and most of them are clients. Answer. Say it again.
Luke Acrey
Frank. Yeah, Frank. Sorry, man, you're breaking up a little bit. But, yeah, we were joking around. Like, you've answered your own question. You already know the answer, but you have a mental blocker. That's what's happening to you is you. Anybody who says, I don't want to be that guy, they already know the guy they need to be, but they don't know how to do it in a way that makes them feel like they're not taking, like they're giving. And, you know, Cody said it. I think it broke up. You didn't hear it. Is you got to be that guy because. But you've got to change your impression of what that guy is because you're seeing that guy as a guy that doesn't deliver value. You're seeing that guy as the used car salesman, where it's the complete opposite. You're the guy that's actually helping the person with the biggest asset for most people in their whole life. You're the one bringing them the knowledge and the education that they need to help them for, you know, not only their current situation, but even more importantly, their future. Because a lot of people, their real estate is going to be the asset that appreciates, that gets them to retirement. You've got to switch your mindset. Now, how do you switch mindset that is so difficult because you don't wake up one day and just go, I believe.
Frank
Right?
Luke Acrey
I believe I'm that guy. Now it doesn't work that way. The way it works is you have to constantly feed yourself information that you will. That will change your thought process. So you gotta. This is why you gotta read the books, listen to motivation, listen to stay paid, you know, shameless plug. But you gotta feed your mind the right things. And then more importantly, you gotta get yourself in rooms of people that are that guy, that are that girl, right? That. That will hold you and raise you up in your temperature. Right? The temperature. You got to get around people that have a. A more proactive and outreaching type temperature to move you to that level. So that's just a big rant to tell you you already know the answer. You just got to take action on it. So let's get real tactical now in what to do. How big's the database? You said you have a massive database. How big's the database?
Frank
I mean, I probably got 5, 600, you know, real good names that, you know, if I pick up the phone and call them, they'll. They'll take my call. I just got to sell them on, you know.
Luke Acrey
Dude, you got money oozing out of you right now. You got. What's the average transaction? Let's just do the pain for Frank real quick. You know? What's the average transaction? Like. Like price point.
Frank
I need surgery. It hurts so much.
Luke Acrey
What's the average price point? Yeah, what's the average price point, Frank? What's the average price point? 500. So it's 42 deals times 500. That's 21 million in volume. What's your average commission, Frank? What's the. Is it 3%? No.
Frank
Yeah.
Luke Acrey
What would that be, Steven? Is that like 2.2percent or like, what is. I'm sorry, it's breaking up on our end.
Stephen Acrey
Psychic. And off of a 500, 000.
Luke Acrey
I mean, well, he was saying he.
Josh Dyke
Would be 2% if it was 70.
Luke Acrey
Yeah. So he's saying 2. Okay. Yeah. So that's $420,000 on the table for you, Frank. What would $420,000 do for you? Are you willing to be the guy a lot that's going to help these people? $420,000 exactly. All right, so I'm maybe being hyperbolic here, but I want you and everybody else to know, it's like, you know what to do. Look, the. Josh and I didn't build reminder media without basically making thousands and thousands and thousands of calls and asking our clients for the referrals and asking people to give us a favor. One of the best pieces of business advice I ever was given. And I learned it, it wasn't directed to me. And this is why you got to feed your mind with the right information. It was just listening to a podcast, but it's. Don't rob the people around you from the joy of giving. So most of us, we don't want to ask our friends and our family to help us with something, but it's better to give than receive. So that you're robbing them of the chance to have that giving. They want to help you. And so what I would encourage you is, man, all these people in your sphere, the 600, they would love to help, Frank. Help more people. Don't rob them of that opportunity. So now let's set a cadence. Technically, if the database is 600, dude, you're crushing it, man. You have so much money just oozing for you to take right now. Let's set. Let's set the cadence where you're calling once a quarter to those people. You're sending one email a month at least, if not two, let's then get where you're reaching out. And I would do a CMA a day. Let's pull the Jimmy Burgess model, right? Is a CMA a day, where you offer to somebody in the 600 a free home equity report. You offer them a free review of their property. In fact, I would encourage you to do five of those a day, man. You want to change your whole trajectory? Do five of those a day. Offer a free cma, a comparative market analysis of a home equity report for one person in your sphere. And you will get in front of plenty of people looking to sell. So we'll throw it to you, Stephen and Cody, to add on what you would guys add on. But I love it, Frank. I get excited because I'm like, dude, this Guy's sitting on 400 drive to Rhode Island. It's crazy.
Stephen Acrey
I don't think you know how many agents would die for what you just said right there. You know, you got 600 people in the database. You said that you have a great relationship with them. You've already provided them with so much value. And what Luke just said there, you know, it's like, people want to give, right? Don't rob them of the. The joy of giving. And then the value piece, man, is like, just. Do you own a home, Frank?
Frank
Oh, yeah, I own two.
Stephen Acrey
Frank, do you hear that? You own, too. So when I look at. I tell my team all the time, like, as a real estate agent, even me as a real estate agent, I would love for the top agent, let's just say it's Josh Redmond, one of the top agents in the area, for him to reach out to me and give me a valuation of what he thinks my home is worth.
Luke Acrey
Right.
Stephen Acrey
It's like that is providing extreme value. And so it's like you just change your mentality, right, and look at it and go, hey, what is the value proposition that I'm offering? I'm not taking money out of people's pocket. They are investing their hard earned money to make the most money that they can make. And obviously it's situational. So you need to reach out to these people and find out where they're at in the process. Like, a lot of people do want to move and they need a knowledgeable real estate agent to be able to game plan and make that happen. And so, like, you just got a gold mine. You need to start reaching out to these people. And the CMA is the best approach because you don't, you said you don't have much time. You run a contracting business that's successful. Like that is the easiest thing to do. You just wake up in the morning, wake up early, and you just send out five CMAs. I mean, it's going to take you an hour. And you said that each one of these people is going to answer your phone call because they love you. I mean, it's not going to take you much time at all. It's going to change your world.
Cody Smith
Yeah. And one thing that I did in order to add value to more of my customers is I got my real estate license. I just saw a need that people didn't know what their home was worth, so I got my real estate license and I'm calling through everyone to make sure they know how much equity they have in their house. So you were my first person that popped my head. I called you and I want to know, do you know the numbers on your house? No.
Luke Acrey
Okay, great.
Cody Smith
I'll run that for you and then, you know, let's meet and go over it because if it makes sense to you, you know, I just want to add value.
Stephen Acrey
That's the call.
Luke Acrey
What do you think, Frank? Are you gonna call your database now and be the guy?
Frank
Yeah, I mean, and I'll actually, before I even got on this, I, I had a, I hired a guy and we put together a CMA that I can send out for emails and put on, you know, my Facebook page so they can click right on it, you know what I mean? Has a picture of me and Whatnot. I'm starting it, realized it. I gotta just. You gotta be that guy if you want to make.
Luke Acrey
I knew you had the answer, man.
Frank
And then I'm also gonna start, you know, I'm also going to start because I am a contractor. You know, every other real estate agent can say they're the best, I'm the top 1%. But they can't walk in a house and go, hey, you smoke the test need to be replaced, they're outdated. Or windows, you know, it's going to be part of a problem, you know what I mean? Or your burner needs replaced. I know you don't want to do it, but somebody that comes in here with a contract mind is going to go, hey, this burn is 40 years old. I'm not giving you 550 for this house. If I got to replace a burner for 20, let's talk.
Cody Smith
You know, and I got so much value to ask.
Luke Acrey
You know, what's, you know what's funny.
Frank
Frank, is once a week, you know.
Luke Acrey
You are the type of guy that has been successful because you're just really good at relationships and you are really good at your craft. If you add some business acumen, and this is not knocking you for your level of skill right now, but if you add some business acumen to what you're doing. Get out of here, dude. Because you are the type of like the homegrown has just from pure relationships gotten to where you've gotten to add the business acumen of, of what's your process to keep in touch with your sphere. How are you actually measuring the, the leads that come in if you start adding that to your business? Get out of here. Like, it's just going to be ridiculous, right?
Frank
Well, hey, you know, that's, that's what I figured out. I just, you know, I had a kick myself in the butt and actually do it, you know, and that's what I did. I spent a little bit of money.
Luke Acrey
Well, that's why you called in to stay paid, man. That's why you called in the stay paid. Well, hey, Frank, really appreciate you, man. I would love to hook you up with our free digital bundle because it has landing pages in there that can, you know, help you offer free CMA to people. Essentially they can get a value of their home, what the Internet thinks, and then it gives you a reason to be able to reach out and give. The CMA might help you out a little bit there. We'll also provide you some social media content. Would love to give you that so you can have that and run that and see how that helps add some leverage to your business. So we'll get in touch with you after the show. I'll hook you up with Chris to get that set up for you. But, Frank, really appreciate you calling in, man.
Frank
I mean, obviously, you know, anything you can do for me and I can do for you, you know. Right back at you. I mean, I'm looking for honest people that you can talk to and not feel like you're getting that hammer across your head. You know what I mean? I've heard this already a hundred times.
Luke Acrey
Exactly.
Keith
Yeah.
Frank
You know what I mean? No, but we are. But we're the best. We're the best, you know, people. I'm the best electrician or I'm the best carpenter. All I can tell you is I'm fair. I'm fair and I'm honest. And I'll give you a good price. And if that's not good enough, then go to one of those guys that tell you they're the best in the business, because if they have to say they're the best in the business, they're probably not.
Luke Acrey
Yeah, well, that's why. I mean, you think about it, it's like, that's why I opened up after hearing you speak, just going, I don't even have to, like, what am I going to tell you? You already know the answer. You're just not doing it. So let's not. Let's not waste time. Let's get you doing it. So you can make $420,000 or more a year. It's out there for you. And that's just the beginning because.
Frank
Right? Yeah. I mean, if you guys have any other information other than the free stuff, I appreciate.
Luke Acrey
Dude, I'll charge you all day long. I just wanted to help you out and give you some free stuff.
Frank
I'll take the free stuff, but I'll also pick your brain for the paid stuff, too, because. You know what I mean? It's. It's. You guys seem like you're honest Joes, you know, you're not here trying to tell me what you can do for me. You know what I mean?
Josh Dyke
I'll shoot you, Frank. Let's make sure that you check out Jason Bantana's webinar today because you had. I'm going to send you a link to Jason Pantana's webinar that we're doing later today on AI. So you can. I know your question kind of started with AI, So I want to get you some of Those resources as well.
Luke Acrey
Yeah.
Cody Smith
Awesome.
Frank
All right. Awesome. I appreciate it, man. Thanks, guys.
Luke Acrey
Yeah, thanks, Frank. Have a great one. Thank you.
Frank
All right, we'll see you, man. We'll see you.
Luke Acrey
See ya. All right.
Josh Dyke
There you go, dude.
Luke Acrey
He was an awesome guy. I know we had some delays there, but it's like for the audience listening, because I know it was a little choppy, but you want to point out to you, it's like nine times out of 10 when you get people talking, they already know what they need to do. Your number one issue is that you're not doing it. And the reason why, if you break that down, is because you haven't thought intentionally about the cadence or system, whatever you want to call it, activities. And that usually stems from ultimately paralysis by analysis. I'm not sure exactly what to do. So therefore I do nothing. And the key to entrepreneurship and the key to any business is what I call act, track and pivot. You take action, right? There's a great book out there called ready, fire, aim. And the guy's built multiple 50 million dollar plus businesses just as serial entrepreneur beast in the industry. And think about that. Ready, fire, aim. It's like most people aim before they fire. And you would think that's naturally what you're supposed to do, but no, no, no. In business you actually need to fire and then that will refine your aim. And most people, that that's just counterintuitive. Because it is counterintuitive. But when you've lived in business, you realize, and Steven and I are going through this, you know, building out this property management company, it's like if you just wait till it's perfect, if you just wait till it's scalable, you'll be losing money, you have to move and you'll refine it as you go. But think about it. Act, track, pivot. You can't improve what you don't measure. So you take action, you track everything you do and then you pivot. And that is the natural iteration of business.
Josh Dyke
Love it. There you go. Thank you all so much for listening and thank you to all people that called in and had their questions for us. You can dive deeper into this.
Luke Acrey
And we have a lot of write ins too. Like there's hundreds of questions that have been written in. So shout out to everybody listening, please write your questions as well as well. If you're too shy to be on camera, come on, just do it. Get on camera. Come on, get on the episode with us. But there's like hundreds of questions that we need to?
Josh Dyke
Absolutely. You can go to remindermedia.com ask to submit those and then to get the show notes and the video and all of the links that were mentioned here in this podcast, go to staypaidpodcast.com if you enjoyed this episode and want to show your support, head on over to YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are Reminder Media on YouTube. Give this video a thumbs up. You can also reach us@podcastremindermedia.com and follow us on Instagram at Stay Paid Podcast for this episode of Stay Paid, I'm Josh Styked.
Luke Acrey
And I'm Luke Acrey. And here's what I would tell you guys. Act track pivot. That's it. But you heard it today. I mean, and all the questions. There's a similar philosophy to how we run the business and we'll give you nuance as we go answering these questions, but it really comes down to that is act track pivot. Remember the difference between top producers and mediocre producers in every business. Stop Producers. Take action. Take action on that today. Sam.
Date: September 1, 2025
Hosts: Luke Acrey & Josh Stike (ReminderMedia)
Guests: Stephen Acrey & Cody Smith (Acree Brothers Realty Team), Callers: Barbara, Courtney, Keith, Frank
This episode is a live "call-in" format where the ReminderMedia team discusses real business challenges with real estate agents and entrepreneurs. The focus is on actionable strategies for leveraging your database, evaluating the real value and role of social media, and overcoming the most common mistake agents make: neglecting proactive outreach. Listeners get both motivation and practical, tactical advice for immediate implementation.
Caller: Barbara from California (Starts at 00:40)
"If you don't ask, you'll never receive. The key to asking is you're planting the seed of how they can help Barbara... Now all your other marketing reminds them of that ask." – Luke Acrey (08:50)
"Social media would be probably the last thing that I would go to... I would choose the one that's going to bring the most money." – Stephen Acrey (09:59)
Write-in: Courtney, New Agent in Richmond, VA (Starts at 15:33)
Caller: Keith, Independent Medicare Agent (Starts at 23:36)
"You got to make drastic action towards these leads to get the results that you're looking for." – Stephen Acrey (35:05)
Caller: Frank, Cape Cod Contractor Turned Part-Time Agent (Starts at 39:00)
"Anybody who says 'I don't want to be that guy,' they already know the guy they need to be, but they don't know how to do it in a way that makes them feel like they're not taking." – Luke Acrey (41:42)
"You just got a gold mine. You need to start reaching out to these people, and the CMA is the best approach." – Stephen Acrey (48:35)
Final Thoughts:
"Your number one issue is that you’re not doing it. Usually that stems from paralysis by analysis. The key to entrepreneurship and the key to any business is 'act, track, and pivot.'" – Luke Acrey (54:21)
"You don't really need another lead pillar if you have a thousand in your database. You just need to find out why you're not getting all 70 of those transactions." – Luke Acrey (06:37)
"Social media would be probably the last thing that I would go to." – Stephen Acrey (09:59)
"You're not doing social to get brand new leads; you're doing it to influence your sphere." – Luke Acrey (11:17)
"You need to be that guy. But you gotta change your impression of what that guy is." – Luke Acrey (41:42)
"Ready, fire, aim... In business, you actually need to fire, and then that will refine your aim." – Luke Acrey (54:21)
For more resources and detailed scripts mentioned in the episode, visit staypaidpodcast.com. To submit your questions for a future show, go to remindermedia.com/ask or follow @staypaidpodcast on Instagram.