Episode 660: 12 Rules to Grow a Group (Without Losing Your Mind) Part 3

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Your Daily Real Estate Podcast with Tristan Ahumada

Episode 660: 12 Rules to Grow a Group (Without Losing Your Mind) Part 3
Date: September 20, 2025
Host: Tristan Ahumada

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Main Theme

This episode is the final installment (Part 3) of Tristan Ahumada's series on how to build, nurture, and sustainably grow a community—whether that's a Facebook group, local club, or professional meetup. Tristan focuses on rules 9–12, covering practical steps and mindset shifts necessary to expand a group, sustain engagement, maintain healthy boundaries, and avoid burnout. The advice is geared especially towards real estate agents, team leaders, and brokers, but the principles are broadly applicable to anyone building a business-oriented community.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Find Partners That Lift the Club/Group/Community

[00:54]

• Don’t do it alone—invite 3–5 helpers such as title lenders, insurance agents, contractors, and other local professionals.
• Leverage other people’s strengths, networks, and knowledge.
• Tristan’s example:
  • When building Lab Coat Agents, he brought in people from diverse verticals beyond his online leads specialty.
  • Notably, an educator he brought in added 5,000 members by herself through her influence and content.
• Notable quote:
  • "Don’t think that you’re going to be able to lift this up [on your own]... these people will help you. Not only bringing other people in, but they will provide great content for you, with you, because they’re your partners on this." (Tristan, 01:43)

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2. Simple Metrics to Tell You It's Working

[02:16]

• Track four essential metrics:
  1. Members, Active Members, and Comments per Week:
     • Check Facebook’s 28-day active user stat or, for events/newsletters, see who shows up weekly or monthly.
  2. Live Attendance & Replay Views:
     • Track event attendance and viewership of event replays.
     • Measure how many invited people actually attend.
  3. Email Signups:
     • Use your community to build an owned email list.
     • Helps retain contact if platform/policies change.
  4. Warm Consults Booked per Month:
     • For those aiming for client conversion, this is a key indicator.
• Notable quote:
  • "Your goal is to eventually build a newsletter from this so you can own some of that data... because if something happens to the community online... how are you going to let them know? It’s by email." (Tristan, 03:15)

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3. Guardrails (Enforcing Boundaries)

[04:02]

• Strictly avoid posting personal stories/details without written permission—even if names aren’t mentioned, others may recognize themselves.
• Steer clear of legal or tax advice—leave that to professionals.
• Abide by fair housing rules in both language and images (especially for real estate groups).
• Moderate Quickly:
  • Delete or address unkind threads immediately.
  • Be vigilant in person for those whose attitudes clash with your community’s culture.
• Notable quote:
  • "Moderate fast. If a thread turns unkind—which will happen 1,000%—and if it’s in person, keep an eye on who is bringing in opinions that are not aligned with your culture." (Tristan, 05:26)

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4. Scaling Without Burning Out

[05:38]

• Burnout is common when running things you don’t love or when your club/group becomes a job you dislike.
• Strategies to avoid burnout:
  1. Recruit Help Early:
     • Appoint at least two volunteer moderators from month two; start building your support system as early as possible.
     • Tristan’s example: He didn’t realize at first, but his community grew thanks to help from his own team, right from the beginning.
  2. Repeatable Content Cycle:
     • Develop a 12-week content cycle (use AI to outline this) and reuse/tweak it each quarter.
     • Modern tools provide a leg up, so start systematizing content as soon as possible.
  3. Spin Off Sub-Clubs Only When Ready:
     • Only launch sub-groups after the main group runs itself.
     • Example: "Ageless," a Lab Coat Agents sub-group helping agents serve older populations.
  • Pay attention to opportunities for spinoffs based on needs/interests in your group.
• Notable quote:
  • "Burning out has never happened to me for building communities, but it’s happened to me in real estate... if you focus on things that you don’t love... you will burn out." (Tristan, 05:39)
  • "Create a repeatable 12 week content cycle and reuse it each quarter... now you can start at a way better point by having AI outline a 12 week content cycle..." (Tristan, 06:35)

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On tracking growth:

  • "We track that number two on Lab Coats." (Tristan, 02:48)

• On legal and ethical boundaries:

  • "Avoid advice that belongs to lawyers or CPAs—you can get into problems with that for sure. Follow fair housing rules in language and images." (Tristan, 04:32)

• On community and moderation:

  • "Keep an eye on who is bringing in opinions that are not aligned with your culture." (Tristan, 05:26)

• On spinoffs and listening to members:

  • "... look for opportunities within your community, your group, your club, based on what people are saying and who's there... pay attention to what you think moves the needle." (Tristan, 07:29)

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Timeline of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|--------------------| | 00:54 | Partners that lift the group; importance of diverse helpers | | 02:16 | Metrics to track community growth and engagement | | 04:02 | Guardrails: boundaries, permissions, legalities, fast moderation | | 05:38 | How to scale without burning out, early moderation, content cycles | | 06:35 | Using AI for content planning and spinoff strategy |

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Episode Tone & Style

Tristan speaks with an encouraging, genuine, and practical tone—peppering motivational reminders with real-life anecdotes. He’s candid about mistakes, emphasizes the value of learning from experience, and repeatedly encourages listeners to focus on authenticity and sustainability in community building.

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Summary Conclusion

This concise, advice-packed episode wraps up Tristan's three-part series with vital lessons on finding allies, measuring impact, enforcing boundaries, and scaling with sanity. Drawing on personal experience, especially with Lab Coat Agents, Tristan offers listeners a tactical, step-by-step structure for launching and maintaining a thriving real estate (or business) community—without losing their passion in the process.

To access the complete outline or contact Tristan, refer to the podcast’s links or message him on Instagram.

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Transcript

[A]

This is part three of three. This has been a really good one. I've gotten a few messages from a few of you, obviously, and it's about groups. Yeah, Listen, I am 100% encouraging people to build out their communities. If you go on Facebook, it is still, like I said earlier, the third most visited website in the world. Keep going. Build it out. This is very powerful. This is part three of three. Building your own club, group or meetup. We're on number nine. I do have this. It's three pages. I condensed it a little bit. It was four, three pages. I'm on number nine and we're going to end on number 12. Here we go. Number nine. Episode 660. Just in case you're keeping track, I'm Tristan. This is your daily real estate, where I go in daily 5 to 10 minutes on things you should be doing for your real estate business. Number nine, partners that lift the club, partners that lift the group, partners that lift the community you're building. Whatever it is, invite three to five helpers. Title lender, insurance organizers, contractors, local owners, anyone who you think helps you in the development of your community. Don't think that you're going to be able to lift this up. When I built my very first community, which was lab coat agents, 12 years ago, I accidentally brought in other people, other agents, other lenders, other people that were amazing at their verticals because I was only good at online leads. That was my specialty. And so little did I know that that was going to help propel us. We brought in one person that brought in 5,000 people alone. She did an amazing job. She, at the time was an educator in the real estate world. So think about who you bring in. These people will help you. Not only bringing other people in, but they will provide great content for you, with you, with you, because they're your partners on this. Number 10, simple metrics that tell you it's working. Here are the four.

[B]

All right.

[A]

There are more than this, but these are four. I keep track of members, active members, comments per week. That's all one.

[B]

All right.

[A]

Active members is important. We take a look every 28 days because that's how Facebook works. If you're looking at that and say, well, how many are active? It's easy. It tells you. Now, members in general, if you have a newsletter or you have an actual membership where people show up, how many people are showing up weekly, monthly to the events, whatever it is, keep track of that. That's one. Members, live, attendance and replay view. So when you have an event how many people showed up? When you're having a webinar, how many people showed up? Track those things, right? And also when you're inviting people, know how many of the people you invited are showing up. We track that number two on lab codes. Next, email signups from this group. Your goal is to wherever you grow this in person, Facebook, wherever. Your goal is to eventually build a newsletter from this so that you can own some of that data. Because if you something happens to the community online, if you decide to pivot the in person group from going to one place to another, how are you going to let them know it's by email, right? And then you can put them into a CRM, drip them with a newsletter, get their cell phones, text them. It's amazing. All right, email signups for this community and number four, warm consults booked per month. If that's the way you want to go.

[B]

Right.

[A]

I know my friend who I brought up earlier, he runs Living North Phoenix in Arizona and he has so many great things that he's added over the time. But one of those is meeting up with him like if, you know, if you want to do real estate, he's got that line open.

[B]

Right?

[A]

How do people get a hold of you? Make sure people know that is number 10, number 11 guardrails. Very, very important, especially in the world that we live in right now where everyone has an opinion and nobody thinks that they are wrong.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Here it is. 11 guardrails. Do not post personal details without written. Okay, so listen, if you're not allowed to share a story, don't do it. Just don't bring other people into it. This is, this is you and a big community or a small community. But you need to have permission. And even when you're posting, it's like even the story. If you're not bringing somebody up by name, somebody will know that you're talking about them. So ask them first. Is it okay if I bring you up good or hopefully good, right? Or lesson I learned in this Easy. Avoid advice that belongs to lawyers or CPAs. You can get into problems with that for sure. We've seen it. Follow fair housing rules in language and images. This is for real estate. Please follow those rules. And then moderate fast. If a thread turns unkind, which will happen 1000%. And if it's in person, keep an eye on who is bringing in opinions that are not aligned with your culture.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Whatever that culture is, just make sure that you associate with the people that you think is what your community, what your group, what your club stands for. All right, number 12, scale without burning out. Burning out has never happened to me for building communities, but it's happened to me in real estate and some people. If you focus on things that you don't love and it's a group, a community membership, a club, you will burn out because it's something that, first of all, you don't love doing. And when you start turning it into a business, sometimes you're turned off by that. Pay attention to those things. Here are the things I wrote out for this. Recruit two volunteer moderators from month two. Start early. Know that you're going to be growing. When I started again, when I started the very first community, right, I started this group, this Facebook group. I started off with two people unknowingly, two people to help me, right? And both of them were on my team at the time. And so for me, it's important that you do something similar from the very beginning. It's going to grow. Who's going to help, right? Lay down the groundwork. How are they going to help? And under number 12, number 2, create a repeatable 12 week content cycle and reuse it each quarter. Now, back in the day, before AI back in the day, it's funny, back in the day, listen, a few years ago, listen, three years ago, before AI, you used to have to do all this manually. Now you can start at a way better point by having AI Outline 12, a 12 week content cycle based on whatever your community is about, your group, your club, whatever that is, and then you can tweak it. But you've got a leg up on, on the way things used to be done. Just start using that, right? Spin off a sub club only when the main club is running itself. Now, we've done this in Lab Coat Agents many times. We've done this in a brilliant tribe. We've done this in a lot of places. When I was running Success magazine, we were doing it there. But spinoffs, when you notice that there's. We just did one for Lab Coats, actually, we called it Ageless and Valerie Vander Silver is running it. It's on helping agents connect with an older generation so that we know how to serve them better. And you're going to look for opportunities within your community, your group, your club, based on what people are saying and who's there. So pay attention to those things because you've got a lot of things that are going to come your way. But pay attention to what you think is trending, what you think is important, what you think moves the needle what you think is important to those people that are building this with you. All right, Remember, this is called building your own club, group or meetup. There's a lot of pieces here that are missing. Giving you an outline so you have something to base it off of. This was episode 658 through 6 60. If you need this, message me on Instagram. Do me a favor, subscribe to the newsletter. It's called Real Estate Prospecting. It goes out every Friday and it's in the description, in the YouTube, in the Facebook, I think in the LinkedIn, and definitely in the podcast. Have an awesome day. Thank you so much for listening.