← The Millionaire Real Estate Agent | The MREA Podcast
The Millionaire Real Estate Agent | The MREA Podcast
131. Timeless Principles Behind a Billion-Dollar Career With Melanie Bishop & Noah Cohen
00:36:55
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- [00:00]
Melanie Bishop
I picked up a client in the restroom. At a wedding, we talk to anybody anywhere.
- [00:06]
Noah Bishop
It's all about engaging people. Everybody has to have a roof over their head.
- [00:11]
Melanie Bishop
When people talk to us, they'll bring up a house. Oh, I saw this house. I know it, I've seen it, I've walked it. Anyone who wants to be successful in this business, they can be.
- [00:23]
Noah Bishop
What do you have to lose?
- [00:27]
Jason Abrams
We've had brothers, we've had husbands and wives, we've had all make and matter of business partners. Today we are going to talk to a mother son duo. We are going to get the old way of doing things and the new way of doing things. And let me tell you, they both do. The old way and the new way to incredible success. This team comes to us from metro Detroit. Friends, they are Midwest giants of the industry. Over $1 billion in in closed sales. We are going to learn the secrets that only a 40 year career in real estate can teach. How do you build relationships? How do you help better market listings? And what's the key to thriving no matter what the market conditions are? Sit back and buckle up. This is Noah and Melanie Bishop and I am joined today by dear friends Melanie and Noah Bishop. Melanie, how are you?
- [01:24]
Melanie Bishop
I'm great. How are you, Jason?
- [01:25]
Jason Abrams
I am fantastic. So I start every show the same way. I ask everybody the same question. How did you find your way into the greatest industry in the world?
- [01:35]
Melanie Bishop
By accident.
- [01:36]
Jason Abrams
That's what everyone says. How did it happen for you?
- [01:39]
Melanie Bishop
I had absolutely no interest first off in working or let alone in real estate. Noah, who's my youngest child, was a year old and I had two girls in elementary school. And one of my friends came to me and said, let's be realtors. I said, why? My husband's doing well. I have three kids. She goes, it'll be fun. We'll do it part time. She signs me up. We go to real estate school. It was 1986, this time of year, 1980, 86. My youngest child, Noah, was a year old. And we started out where we were just coming out of a recession and the market was just taking off. I had been a salesperson before I got married. My father was in the women's shoe business. I was on the floor selling shoes since I was 12 years old. Until I started a family, went to college, got a husband, came back home. So it was natural for me to be a salesperson. And so we got out there, we had no technology, we had no cell phones, we had no pagers, we didn't even have A fax machine.
- [03:02]
Jason Abrams
Okay.
- [03:03]
Melanie Bishop
And if we were going to be late for an appointment, we had to stop at a pay phone. And I had my friend. We were doing it together.
- [03:13]
Jason Abrams
I want to take you all the way back to that, because at that time, there were brokerage houses, but it was pretty much a 50, 50 split at best, in perpetuity. The newspaper was in vogue. Floor time was a thing. And most agents kind of made their bones by coming in during floor time. And what that meant was when calls came into the office, you got to take the call. Was that your bread and butter?
- [03:35]
Melanie Bishop
Not for me. I was not good at floor time. I was good face to face. So open houses were a really good forum for me because I could talk to people, and I would talk to anybody anywhere, and especially about real estate, because it's something that I love, and everyone is interested in real estate. So it was easy for me to start with open houses.
- [04:03]
Jason Abrams
And when you talk to agents today, because I know you mentor and you help people, do you still think if you're a new agent today, open houses are an effective way to start your career?
- [04:13]
Melanie Bishop
I do.
- [04:14]
Jason Abrams
Me too.
- [04:15]
Melanie Bishop
Because it gives you the opportunity to be face to face with people, form a relationship, a connection. I know. Just recently, I had somebody call me, and they wanted to see one of my listings and one of Noah's listings back to back. So Noah met them at one house. I met him at another. When they got through with the house with Noah, they came to me, and the first thing they said to me was, we love your son. You did a great job raising him. And guess what? Now they're his clients. I came from a long line of what I call peddlers, natural salespeople. And I. I have four children, and only one of them has this. And it's Noah. I don't have to teach him how to be a salesperson. I don't have to make him understand he gets it.
- [05:15]
Jason Abrams
I love that. And that's a great way to bring Noah into the conversation. So, Noah, when I talk to the children of real estate agents, they either say, I knew I was never gonna be a real estate agent, or they say, I couldn't wait to become a real estate agent. Which was it for you?
- [05:29]
Noah Bishop
I didn't want to do this, to be honest. My ambition was to be a builder. I wanted to build houses. My degree from Eastern Michigan is construction management. My stepfather's now retired land developer builder. And that's what I wanted to do. That's what my goal was. But I graduated high school in OH3. By the time I graduated college in OA, we know where the markets were and Nobody was building in 08. So my mom looked at me and said, what's the next best thing? Get your real estate license. I'm like from one crap industry to the next right now. You know, it's like just throw me in the wolves. But you know what, I quickly picked it up and obviously being around it for 40 years now, at this point in my life, it's something that is just very natural for me. And it's always table talk between my dad, between my mom, my brother in law was in the mortgage industry as a vice president of a company. So you couldn't escape it. It just naturally came to me. And once I started doing it and learning and really putting my efforts into just catapulted from there.
- [06:42]
Jason Abrams
I love that. But I got to ask. And then again we're going to get into a model, so sit tight. But here's my question. It's one thing if your mom or your dad is in real estate and they're doing their thing and then you join. It's. It's another thing when your mom's like the LeBron James of real estate in your town and your mom was like the top agent across almost all brands for like a long time. So when you came in, was it difficult? Did you feel in a shadow or was it hard?
- [07:09]
Noah Bishop
So even though my mom and I were not partners when I started, I was at a different company in a different office. People obviously knew who I was and there was definitely a little, you know, shadow over me of my mother and whatnot. And I think I worked really hard over these. I'd say the past 10 years, this will be my 18th year as a realtor. I'd say over the after the past 10 years I've really tried to develop my own self identity but also taking the advantage of having my mom and her name and legacy because why wouldn't I? I'd be silly not to. You know, having that name and branding behind me is just a big leg off 100%.
- [07:50]
Jason Abrams
I tell people I know her. So I wouldn't blame you for doing the same thing.
- [07:54]
Noah Bishop
Any way I can, if I can use it. And it's a benef it to me. And it carries that much weight because it does. I throw it out wherever I can.
- [08:03]
Jason Abrams
Okay. I love it. I want to get into this gang. You don't have to take the notes. I'm taking the notes. We send them out every Thursday. So if you don't get them, head over to MrEanotes.com and put in your email address and then you're going to get all the notes from this episode. I get it. You're busy. That's why I take the notes. Melanie, you've been in the business over 40 years. You've sold over a billion dollars worth of real estate in southeastern Michigan. And you've seen good markets, you've seen bad markets, you've seen booms, you've seen busts. But the interesting thing, 80%, give or take, of your business over the 40 years has been repeat and referral. So for someone who doesn't have a traditional database, you have built an incredible database business. I want you to walk me through exactly how you think about the industry and, and how I can be successful in it doing what you did.
- [08:54]
Melanie Bishop
Well, first off, you have to be willing to give up part of your personal life because if you really want to be successful at it, you got to be dedicated and committed. You can't make every hockey game right, Noah.
- [09:09]
Noah Bishop
True.
- [09:10]
Melanie Bishop
And you sometimes miss some events. But to build that foundation, to make people understand how important they are to you, how important your business is to you, I think is really the core. And for me, it's the relationship. With every buyer, every seller that I work with, I build a relationship even more so than maybe my follow up. Sending out things isn't as good as it should be. At least in the beginning it wasn't because I didn't really realize what I was doing. It just came natural to me. As soon as I sold my first house. That was it for me. Before I, when I was young, I was selling shoes. Getting a commission from a house versus selling a $32 pair of shoes in the 80s. Game changer. So I loved it from day one.
- [10:13]
Jason Abrams
Well, so walk me through the word relationship. Because, you know, there's some words where you think it means one thing and someone else might think it means another. Love is a good example. Someone says, I love you. That might mean I want to spend the rest of my life committed to you. For others, it might mean we should hang out tonight. So when you say the word relationship, what does that mean to you and how do you find that with your clients?
- [10:34]
Melanie Bishop
I draw them into feeling like my family circle. And let's say we're going to look at houses, I'm holding the baby, they're looking at Mickey Mouse on my cell phone. I'm making it easier for them. They see that I care, that I genuinely care. And I Do you know, Jason, last week I had three past clients call me from 15 years ago.
- [11:05]
Jason Abrams
Wow.
- [11:06]
Melanie Bishop
And all they could say to me was, you're still working, right? You're still working. And yes, yeah, I am. But it amazes me because from like that far back, I didn't have contact lists and email newsletters and things like that. That really helped today to keep in touch. But they remember how dedicated I was to making them get their dream home, making their quality of life better. And it is important to me so I don't have to act like I'm doing it. It's real.
- [11:42]
Jason Abrams
Do you think when you look back over the last 40 years that the industry and the way that you've operated has changed a great deal? Or by and large is it still the exact same industry that you got into and you do a few things differently?
- [11:55]
Melanie Bishop
I think it's changed a lot.
- [11:56]
Jason Abrams
Walk me through that.
- [11:58]
Melanie Bishop
The Internet has completely changed our industry. The technology, you know, way back when we had multi list books with no photos and I would have to hand select what houses we went to see. Now they're emailing me and texting me every day. Can we see this one? Can we see that one? They never had access to, to what the inventory was, only I did. And I spent time with them, zeroing in what was important. And sometimes I would come up with something that was not anything like what they told me they wanted and that's what they bought.
- [12:38]
Jason Abrams
As someone then who's operated prior to the way we would think about MLS today, at a moment in time when certain real estate companies are cloistering their inventory and talking about being done, even having an mls, how do you think about that?
- [12:53]
Melanie Bishop
I don't think that's a benefit to the industry at all. And I think that it is not helpful to the consumer if they don't have the opportunity to see at least most of what's out there. I mean, even in our small group, we do share listings before they hit the market and sell them before they ever get out there. But on the whole, the exposure to the entire industry, to every realtor and all the buyers or sellers out there, is really important to keeping this business special.
- [13:33]
Jason Abrams
As you think back to the good markets that you thrived in and the difficult markets that you were still able to do very well in, how do you weather the tough ones? Cause as I look across the country today, we have some markets that are, that are really, they're difficult, they're flooded with inventory, they're in their third or fourth year of Declining values. And real estate agents are suffering because we went from 6 million transactions to just under 4 million. How do you get through the lean times?
- [14:00]
Melanie Bishop
So in 2007, we got the double whammy in Detroit because the auto industry hit before the banking industry. And my clients were calling me. Losing their homes and they couldn't sell them. They were underwater. And we had no training in that at all. So I started calling banks. It wasn't even called short sales then. I was making deals with banks, getting my clients out from under. We were paving the road as we went along. Nobody knew what we were doing. And that's when Noah came into the business. And at that point, helping those people get out from under and being able to move on was just another phase of how important my business is to every family. And it was hard. You know, my husband, as Noah said, was a builder. Put him out of business. My business went in half. But I was lucky. I was still doing business because other people couldn't. You have to think out of the box. You have to figure out how can I help them and help myself at the same time. It's hand in hand.
- [15:17]
Jason Abrams
I love that. Noah, I want to come to you because a lot of the things that that that worked in the past still work today. One of the differences though today is we have so many more real estate agents than we've almost ever had. You're still at above 1.4 and change million. You only have so many home sales. And technology in some ways has leveled the playing field and in other ways it has given certain folks advantages. What are the models and systems that you're running right now to grow your business?
- [15:46]
Noah Bishop
I kind of having my mom as my mentor and before her, Tony Camilleri. It really came down to relationship building and being out in the public and meeting people. There's so many new and I'm the biggest sucker of this is I love every marketing platform of any person who calls me. They're like, hey, it's a great thing. It's going to cost X dollars. I'm like, great, sign me up.
- [16:10]
Jason Abrams
You do one extra deal a year. It pays for itself. Correct.
- [16:14]
Noah Bishop
This is the mentality that I would carry is, you know, it's like, great. It's going to cost me four grand for the year. That's my average sale price covers that and then some. The reality is and my mom really hit it and the old ways of doing things, of networking, being out there, being face to face is really my. My core of my business is I'm a Social person. I have a. I love being out. I love talking to people. My mother said it earlier, everybody has to have a roof over their head. So real estate is always a topic of conversation. So it's something that's easy to, to have with people. And when you're personable and you carry experience that we have, it kind of just comes organically.
- [17:00]
Melanie Bishop
And Noah, tell Jason every night what are we doing on the computer.
- [17:05]
Noah Bishop
My mom and I email each other at two in the morning about deals or what's coming on or what we just heard someone has as a pocket listing. So, you know, our ears are always to the ground for our clients.
- [17:17]
Jason Abrams
Yeah, it sounds like you're looking for properties 247 to be able to matchmake.
- [17:22]
Melanie Bishop
That's right. We need to know the updates like every minute of the day. So when people talk to us and they'll bring up a house, oh, I saw this house. I know it, I've seen it, I've walked it. Right. They're amazed by that. I believe that that's so important that you have so much knowledge of what you're doing. I mean, we used to be considered like right below the used car salesman. And I think that we've come a long way since that.
- [17:53]
Jason Abrams
I think we have as well. And I'm grateful for everyone that had to live through those times for us to get to the point where we are today. And I'm reminded, you know, during COVID our we were deemed essential. And I still believe real estate agents are incredibly essential.
- [18:07]
Melanie Bishop
I was selling houses on FaceTime.
- [18:09]
Jason Abrams
Yeah, weren't we all?
- [18:11]
Noah Bishop
During COVID I was selling houses sight unseen, just through pictures. And then until the inspection was the time we could go in to physically see it for the first time.
- [18:19]
Jason Abrams
I know it. Getting face to face is so important. Do you use client events in any way to bring people together on your terms?
- [18:27]
Noah Bishop
We do. We do a lot of that.
- [18:28]
Jason Abrams
Walk me through that.
- [18:30]
Noah Bishop
So like there's a lot of like main events we'll call them, that we run throughout the year, which is like community based. So like we'll do what's called like pumpkin fest during, you know, October where we'll have a thousand pumpkins. And we send out mass emails to all of our database. Hey, bring your kids. It's on us. Come pick a pumpkin. Then we have food trucks and face painters. So, you know, we do all kinds of movie night. We have a movie night in, in the park in Birmingham.
- [19:02]
Jason Abrams
Wait a second. I want to unpack these one at a time. I get Pumpkin Fest. One of you walk me through what movie night looks like.
- [19:08]
Noah Bishop
Movie night in the park is something that we do where in Birmingham in Booth Park. We have a big screen set up and we send out a letter and we pick a movie, we tell them what the movie is. And it's usually more family oriented because that's a lot of where we live is in the suburbs. This is a family based situation. And we invite all of our past clients, current clients, friends, whomever, family, and we play a movie for two and a half hours and we have like a little booth with information. It's got our stuff, our cards, our stuff on it. Or maybe we'll have something up there like an upcoming, another coming event to sign up for. Something I also like to do is on social media. Once a month, I do a free $25 Starbucks gift card raffle to engage people. So it's all about engaging people. And again, seeing in the public face to face, whether it's something like this, even though it may be zoom, because we all have busy lives now and the way the world is, is nobody can always be at the same place because of what's going on. So when I say face to face, I mean whether it is like this through a zoom or virtual facetime or in that person setting. So I just think that in business, creating that relationship, the face to face is just so different since so much of the world has become impersonable where people would rather text or not make a call. I think things get lost. And I think that if you want to be successful, you have to pick up the phone, you have to be out, you have to be doing things that are proactive in your community, specifically your sphere.
- [20:47]
Melanie Bishop
Number one, building your sphere. We talk to anybody anywhere. I picked up a client in the restroom at a wedding. It doesn't matter where you are. And my next thing. How about the grocery cart?
- [21:03]
Jason Abrams
Do you guys do the grocery carts?
- [21:05]
Noah Bishop
We still do.
- [21:06]
Melanie Bishop
I've been on the grocery cart.
- [21:07]
Jason Abrams
Okay, wait, hang on, Melanie. You got it. Because that doesn't happen in every market. I left Michigan and thought that would be everywhere. It's not. So tell everybody what it is.
- [21:15]
Melanie Bishop
So in your local grocery store, they have an advertising plaque on the seat in the shopping cart. And 2005, they came to me with this to put me on the shopping cart while women and men are shopping for groceries. I laughed. I was too good for a shopping cart. 2007, the bottom fell out. I'm in. I'm on the shopping cart. It's now been what, 15, 20 years? It's my number one tool. It's made me infamous in my local area. They call me from the store, from the parking lot, or if I run into someone, they say, oh, you look so familiar. Oh, I saw you on the shopping cart. It turned out to be my best marketing tool because it's front and center of my sphere where I live. So if you can have real face and name recognition in your. What do we used to call them? Farm areas?
- [22:23]
Jason Abrams
That's it.
- [22:24]
Melanie Bishop
Huge.
- [22:25]
Jason Abrams
By the way, the shopping cart thing, they're gonna have to wrestle that space away from you. You're probably never giving it up.
- [22:30]
Melanie Bishop
I'm not.
- [22:31]
Noah Bishop
Listen, I have all of my friends and clients who are there. They'll take a picture and then text me and say, hey, shopping with you at Kroger, Right? I mean, it happens all the time.
- [22:43]
Jason Abrams
Let's talk about social media for a minute, Noah, because as much as, like, you might not have a formal model around it, it feels like everyone needs to be on it in some way, shape or perform. How are you using social media in your business?
- [22:53]
Noah Bishop
I post at least one kind of reel of engagement with people once a week. For example, last week I did my $25 gift card. I had three pictures of a kitchen, three different styles. Traditional, transitional, contemporary. I said, comment below. Tell me what style you like the best. And it just creates that engagement, and people do it.
- [23:14]
Jason Abrams
I got to ask you, you have an affluent client base. Does $25 get people to do something?
- [23:21]
Noah Bishop
Absolutely.
- [23:22]
Melanie Bishop
It's like two gallons of gas now.
- [23:25]
Noah Bishop
And by the way, a Starbucks coffee is not $4. So, you know, it's like you go. It's like the typical salesman speech if you're trying to crunch money. It's like, well, then just don't get a Starbucks for one week. And that saves you $15. You know, like, you hear it all the time. Where can you cut back? So why not have a $25 Starbucks card? You know, to take five seconds of your time to look through three pictures and then comment A, B, or C, what do you have?
- [23:51]
Jason Abrams
I think that's spot on. There's another piece I want to touch on, which is philanthropy. Because you are so generous within your community and you raise money for a host of different topics and different groups, and you're kind of known for that. Number one, why was philanthropy so important to you? And number two, how do you tie it back to the business?
- [24:12]
Melanie Bishop
So I have a granddaughter who is now 21 years old, and at 8 years old, on Thanksgiving Day, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. So diabetes is our number one fund.
- [24:29]
Jason Abrams
Well, I gotta ask you, because she was young and she gets diagnosed 8 years old. Did you know about that affliction then, or did that sound like the scariest thing in the world when you heard that?
- [24:39]
Melanie Bishop
Zero. And I said to the doctor, I thought diabetes was hereditary. Nobody in our family has it. And his answer to me was random bad luck.
- [24:49]
Jason Abrams
Get out of here. So were you scared?
- [24:51]
Melanie Bishop
Yeah. And we had to learn, like everything else, the progress and advancements are amazing. But we started out with injections so many times a day and finger pricking and everything like that. Now she's on a system that basically self manages. Right. And in fact, she's in Italy right now studying abroad from U of M. It's fantastic.
- [25:16]
Jason Abrams
So how does that tie back to philanthropy?
- [25:19]
Melanie Bishop
We do the walk to raise money for diabetes. We do fundraisers in the company to raise money for diabetes, and they have a big fundraising ball in May that we work on to raise awareness and money for research. And it's incredible. That's our number one.
- [25:43]
Jason Abrams
Did you ever have any conflict? Because I think that philanthropy should be part of everybody's life and everybody's business. Now, I'm not telling everyone what they should do with their money, but for real estate agents, when you're connected to something, I think the community loves that sort of thing. But people feel uneasy. They feel embarrassed. They feel worried to reach out and ask for money. How did you think about it?
- [26:04]
Melanie Bishop
I wrote an email explaining my granddaughter's situation and how important the research was. And I sent it out to, like, my Sphere was like, 3,000 emails. The response, I got, Jason, was overwhelming. People that I barely knew who were willing to help support my granddaughter, and we raised so much money. I think the best I did one year, just on my own, I raised $35,000.
- [26:39]
Jason Abrams
That's incredible.
- [26:40]
Melanie Bishop
But we've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars now. And of course, you know, her parents sit on the board now. It's my daughter's daughter, and we're really proud of her. And she's independent, she's strong, and it just shows you that like anything else, you can be a warrior and you can get it done if you put your mind to it. And I feel like that about everything I do. I don't feel daunted by anything, even at my age, which I'm not gonna tell you what that is, but. And Noah knows this, all of my children come from a foundation of confidence. I'm confident that they can do Anything they want. And anyone who wants to be successful in this business, they can be. And they have all the tools to do it now. But you have to be willing to put in the time and work. Give up some of your personal life and not the realtor who I call and I get a voicemail on Friday. If you get this message after 7 o', clock, I'll return your call on the next business day. I'd be out of business if that was me.
- [27:58]
Jason Abrams
Oh, I know it.
- [27:59]
Melanie Bishop
We have very little boundaries, Noah and I. We're accessible and we communicate.
- [28:06]
Jason Abrams
Let me ask you this, because at this point, you got plenty of money. You kind of live wherever you want within reason. You can drive whatever you want within reason. You can have any lifestyle you want within reason. You've been wildly successful and you've had a long career. You've been in the industry 40 years, which means you're 42 years old. So I already know how old you are.
- [28:25]
Melanie Bishop
And that was 41.
- [28:27]
Jason Abrams
That's it.
- [28:28]
Noah Bishop
But.
- [28:28]
Jason Abrams
But Melanie, why. I mean, what gets you out of bed to keep listing and selling real estate?
- [28:34]
Melanie Bishop
Because it's part of me. It now defines who I am, and I'd rather be doing this than going out to lunch or shopping. It brings me so much appreciation for what I do, and I thought I'd get burned out eventually, but I just don't. I love it and it's part of me, and I think my clients see that. And I thought that I would get to a point where maybe younger people wouldn't want to work with me anymore because I could be their grandmother. And that's not the case either.
- [29:12]
Jason Abrams
No, I think it's the opposite.
- [29:13]
Melanie Bishop
They appreciate the expertise and the experience and.
- [29:18]
Noah Bishop
And there's a level of respect.
- [29:20]
Jason Abrams
Well, no, I want to come to you now. My last question for you. So feel free to take the platform any way you want to take it. But I hear your mom saying I had to give up pieces of my personal life in order to do this. And that's a choice that she made in order to build this business. But you watched that. And so it was some of your hockey games that mom didn't make it to. It was probably sometimes that she was on the phone when you wanted her attention. Growing up as the kid, was it difficult?
- [29:45]
Noah Bishop
Looking back now and now being a father of two boys, it definitely was difficult at times, but also understanding in life what was happening and where we were. These were things that needed to be done, and I understand that. So I don't have regrets on Things. Because I know as a parent now there are things that you have to do that you don't really always have the choice to do. And I see that for my kids. Because ultimately we want our kids to have the best life possible. And I understand that. And me having to give up certain things of my own personal life to be successful and do the business that I want to do. I understand. And I'm very fortunate that I have a wife who also understands that.
- [30:36]
Jason Abrams
Yes, you are, sir. All right, Melanie, coming to you. Quick lightning round. You ready? Fast questions. Okay. Of all the years, what was your favorite real estate car that you owned? The best car you owned for the industry?
- [30:48]
Melanie Bishop
My Jaguar.
- [30:49]
Jason Abrams
Okay, Jaguar it is.
- [30:51]
Noah Bishop
Love that.
- [30:51]
Jason Abrams
By the way, number two, Open house signs. Metal ones or plastic ones?
- [30:57]
Melanie Bishop
Plastic, because you don't cut your hands on them and they're much lighter to put out.
- [31:02]
Jason Abrams
Yes. Number three. And I think you may have already mentioned it, best marketing investment you ever made.
- [31:07]
Melanie Bishop
The shopping cart.
- [31:08]
Noah Bishop
Me?
- [31:11]
Jason Abrams
Digital lockboxes or manual ones with push buttons?
- [31:14]
Melanie Bishop
I hate digital lockboxes.
- [31:17]
Jason Abrams
So does everybody who ever worked in a time without them. Me, too.
- [31:22]
Melanie Bishop
And when I'm standing out in the freezing cold or the rain and it's not connecting to my phone, I hate them even more.
- [31:28]
Jason Abrams
It's so good. We agree. Do you miss wet signatures or do you like digital signing?
- [31:34]
Melanie Bishop
I love digital signing.
- [31:36]
Jason Abrams
What's the key and how far back do you go when you're running a cma?
- [31:40]
Melanie Bishop
I go back a year.
- [31:41]
Jason Abrams
Okay, last question. Video walkthroughs with 3D tours or just great photos?
- [31:48]
Melanie Bishop
Great photos. Number one. But I think the video walkthroughs. I don't care about the matterport or the 3D that stuff. Floor plans. Really important.
- [31:59]
Jason Abrams
People love floor plans.
- [32:01]
Melanie Bishop
All my listings have floor plans now. And really good photography. And not too many photos.
- [32:07]
Noah Bishop
That's the key.
- [32:08]
Melanie Bishop
If you have more than like 35 photos, they're never getting to those other 60. It's a waste of time and money.
- [32:17]
Jason Abrams
That's so good. Do you still have business cards?
- [32:20]
Melanie Bishop
I do, but I rarely use them.
- [32:22]
Jason Abrams
Right.
- [32:24]
Melanie Bishop
And nobody really wants them.
- [32:26]
Jason Abrams
That's where we're at. All right, guys. This has been so much fun for me and I don't get to say this often, but, Melanie, I'm such a better real estate agent and human because you mentored me and I'm so grateful. And we weren't at the same company and there was no reason for you to do it and you did it anyway. And that, to me, speaks about your heart. And I'm so grateful. So on behalf of Jason Abrams, I usually say on a grateful industry, but on behalf of Jason Abrams, thank you for everything you've done for real estate agents. I'm really grateful.
- [32:56]
Melanie Bishop
Well, I feel the same way. And there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you.
- [33:02]
Jason Abrams
Love it, Noah. Thank you as well. You are just getting started, even though you were almost 20 years in. Unfortunately for you, that doesn't count for much when Mom's 40 years in.
- [33:11]
Noah Bishop
Listen, it's the shadow. But you know what? I'm okay with it.
- [33:14]
Jason Abrams
Yeah, me too. By the way. All right, gang, thanks so much for being here. We're grateful.
- [33:18]
Melanie Bishop
Thank you.
- [33:20]
Jason Abrams
First of all, I was born in 1979, so I can't tell you that I know exactly what was going on in, in 1986, but I'm just gonna guess. Big sleeves and big hair. That's what was happening in 1986. And I can just hear a young Melanie Bishop ripping her way through the real estate industry. You know what caught me? Number one, she said, look, getting on the phone and talking to people who were mean to me was not my thing. I needed to get face to face friends. I think that's a lesson that brings you to today. The more time you spend face to face with people, the more business you are going to do. Don't doubt me. I personally promise you that's a fact. Number two, What'd you hear Noah say? I'm trying to build relationship. That's the key between Noah and Melanie in the way that they operate. But let's not forget social media is a way to build relationship parasocial closeness, which is the idea that as you watch people through a screen, you feel closer to them is a real thing. That's why you hear him making posts at least once a week. That's why he's engaging his audience by asking them to pick which house they like. And all of that is to get them to be in deeper relationship. That's what drives things like their events. Can't you just close your eyes and imagine 500 of their clients sitting in a park all watching a movie with their families? Can't you just imagine over 3,000 people taking part in Melanie's charity work? Can't you just imagine giving away a thousand pumpkins? Yeah, you can imagine it. Do you know why? Because they're not overcomplicating it. You see, Melanie and Noah wake up with a simple mission to be more human with more people. More often. That's it. That's what drives their business. And sure, she might say it shows up when she's letting someone's child or grandchild watch TV on her phone, or when she literally, quote unquote, becomes part of their family. But what she's saying is a lesson that we can all take in a day and age when people are getting further apart emotionally because of the distance that technology builds. Melanie and Noah are on a mission to bring people closer together, more human, more often with more people. Go forth and do likewise. If you're enjoying this podcast, I want you to click the subscribe button anywhere that you get your podcasts. We want to be the voice in your head every single week and every week we're dropping new content. We also send out a newsletter at the conclusion of every show to make sure that you get the highest points in the models and systems that were discussed. So if you want to sign up, I need your name and your email address. Head over to themillionaire agent podcast.com millionaireagentpodcast.com Enter your name and your email address and every week that newsletter will be in your box. Friends, you just went on a journey. I hope that what happens when between now and the next time we meet is absolutely wonderful for you. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next week.
- [36:13]
Podcast Disclaimer Voice
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- [36:35]
Jason Abrams
must
- [36:35]
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