How to Build a Robust Real Estate Brand: Lessons from John Schuchman

What happens when you lose your job and are forced into entrepreneurship? Today, we're joined by John Schuchman, a man who turned adversity into an opportunity and carved an exceptional path in real estate and social media coaching. John lays bare his journey from losing his W-2 job, finding his niche in real estate, to leveraging social media for success. He's got valuable insights for those considering a transition from their regular 9-5 jobs to pursuing their passion, making this episode a must-listen.

We also delve deeper into the strategies that help stand out in the bustling real estate industry. John emphasizes the need to underscore the client's needs and the importance of effective communication. He also talks about storytelling and how using social media can help showcase client success stories, proving invaluable for both budding and seasoned professionals in real estate. We then traverse the bumpy road of consistency and persistence while building a strong online presence, understanding that success isn't always about monetary gains but also about sharing one's unique experiences.

Finally, we explore the power of social media in growing a successful real estate business. We discuss the benefits we've seen from sharing our journey on social media, from increased connections to a wider client base. Not just that, we shed light on how being genuine in your posts, rather than just promotional, can help build a trustworthy rapport with potential clients. Wrapping up with John's effective self-marketing techniques for realtors and insights on leveraging chat GBT, this episode is a treasure trove of knowledge for anyone in the real estate business looking to up their social media game. Tune in for an engaging conversation filled with countless practical tips!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

I'm DeMent from Chasing Financial Freedom Podcast. I hope you guys are having a great day. Today on the podcast we have John Schuchman and I tried four times to get it right and I think I got it. So we're close. He's a real thank you. He's a real estate coach. He's a social media coach, but what's so great about his story was he was forced into this role when he lost his W-2 job and he had to figure it out. Guys, this story is gonna resonate with you. If you're sitting on the fence about being in that nine to five and you wanna go after your passion, John is gonna give us that roadmap to get us to where we need to go. John, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 1:00

Thanks so much, ryan. Awesome to be here and I'll just say, anytime I'm on a podcast, thank you for what you're doing through your podcast and helping people. I have a podcast as well and I know that it can often be a thankless job. So I just wanna say thank you for you doing for the podcast community and how you're helping and serving people through your podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:17

It can be and they have. We have that famous saying in the podcast world is podcast fade. I'm going on fifth year on this podcast and I go back and look at those podcasts that started when I was getting into the business. There's only four left Wild. Yeah, it's crazy, but let's not go down that rabbit hole. So, before we get into your great story and journey, a little bit about who you are, and then we'll get into some rabbit holes, because I think we could have some crazy conversations about what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 1:48

Absolutely so, before having me on the basis of it is this I now, like you said, am a realtor, coach realtrues, have a membership for realtrues, podcasts for realtrues do a lot of those things. Social media is a big part of what I coach and teach, but before that, really I went geez. 30, 31, 32 years. I could not figure out what I wanted to do. My first job at 16 years old was at Sears. I was really good at sales, really good at building relationships, but I've probably had more W2 jobs than anyone who is listening to this. And I often say I was not robbing from the cash register or sleeping with the boss or anything wild. I just am such a dreamer and an entrepreneur that, for instance, one of my previous jobs was in banking and imagine the assistant branch manager emails me and says can you email this person and say this? And I said did you just email me to ask me to email someone? So I do not have the personality that was very good at saying yes, I'd love to do that when you could have just sent that email. I don't know that I sent that, but I certainly came across a certain way and I'm such a dreamer, what I love so much about real estate and sometimes I hate and you see this as a lender and all the things you're doing. No day is the same, right? No, I wake up every single day, mondays, I have a call at 10 am and that's about the only consistent thing in my schedule. So it's a lot of balance. But it's really just about finding my niche, finding what I'm good at, and I would encourage all of you because we talked a little bit before your audience is a lot of entrepreneurs, small business owners, realtors, lenders, and they're trying to do it as a side hustle. I would say, like I add such a benefit.

Speaker 2: 3:29

So February 26, 2019, I'll remember the day I got fired Again. I had not been written up, I had not done anything, I just was learning. I was basically in this management training program in a bank. Every month or two you would shift roles and in the role I was in credit, I was just not good. That's why I'm not a lender, ryan. I could not figure it out. I wasn't good at math at high school, at college, and I just they, let me go Now again, never written up. So I got six months of unemployment because they did this, but at that point my wife was pregnant with our first child, who's now four and a half. I had to figure it out. I called February 26, that day, my mentor his name's Vincent Pugliesi, still a mentor to me to this day and I'm crying saying what do I do? I can't figure this out. And he goes John, this is the best day of your life Because for years you've had this spirit of an entrepreneur and I actually thought it'd be photography at the time.

Speaker 2: 4:28

I used to be wedding photography on the side. But he's like you have this spirit of an entrepreneur. You have never put in the time, the energy and the effort to make it successful. I was like you're wrong. You're so mean. I thought he was the biggest jerk in the world. It was the best day. It was the best thing to ever happen to me, because that summer I talked to friends that I knew that were in real estate.

Speaker 2: 4:47

They said what good. They said you would absolutely crush it if you could get into it now. They talked about the financial hardship at the beginning. They're like if you can survive the first year, you'll be solid and I'm sure you have with lenders and people you coach and help as well. And I got into it and had no money to spend on. So I got licensed and we had a lot of change at the same time, ryan. So my son was born. I was licensed August 28th or 29th of 2019 and our son was born September 2nd. So we had all the change at once Our first child.

Speaker 2: 5:21

I had every excuse in the world to not make it, to go bankrupt, to whatever, and it took some time. This is just so you guys know, when I talk about social media, it is not an overnight journey, it is just not, and we'll get into that. But I continued posting, continued putting things out there, continued putting myself out there. I need my membership community. I talk so much. I say people want to do business with people that they know and trust. Now, I don't know where I got that. That's not original to me, but I'm sure you've heard it. So if you're not telling anyone about your business, how can they build know and trust with you? So I know I'll let you get to the social media stuff at some point. But basically sold nothing for nine months, thought I was going to lose my house.

Speaker 2: 6:02

June of 20, I think April of 2020 was my first official deal. June of 2020 was deal number two. That summer asked my in-laws if we could move in with them cause thought we could not keep our house they were renting. So they didn't feel right about doing that and said no and from there, like it's just wed man, god bless it. It's been crazy To the point where, june of 2020, we were asking our in-laws can we move in with you? June of 2022, and I'm going quick, but I want to honor everyone's time June of 2022, all of our debt was paid off, including our house. It was basically a $210,000 swing in paying off debt in two years. So it can happen. It can happen for anyone. I am nobody special, I'm not. I'm just not.

Speaker 1: 6:51

So let's just jump right into it. That's a huge swing and congratulations. That is, that's awesome. I love to hear that. Thank you so much. If the world ended today and this is the last conversation you had, and I know I'm going off the deep end already what would be the one thing that you would say, or that one skill set that you would say that got you to this point?

Speaker 2: 7:14

Yeah, I would say it's consistency, it's being all in, it's having the mindset that I can have success and can win. Maybe not the best attitude in the world, but I love proving the doubters wrong. Like I have family that said you'll never make it. Family. When I got into real estate, that said why don't you go get a real job? And I thought I've had every real job. I couldn't keep any of them. But it's just about being myself. Half of my real estate clients fire other realtors, so it's focusing. Hey, okay, John, you're clearly doing something different. How do you dive into that? Keep diving into being different.

Speaker 2: 7:52

I had a client recently that said oh, no one's ever told me that before. What do you mean? No one's ever told you like about the paper work you need to know. Someone recently said they had worked with a handful of realtors and I was the only one that actually showed them and explained the process by the home and walked through the paperwork that I'm like. Like, what is realtors listening to this? It is the biggest purchase of their life.

Speaker 2: 8:15

Stop sending documents. Let's see I get mad right. Stop sending documents and saying here, go sign this. Now you go through one offer on zoom and it's an hour and you say here's the purchase price, is this, here's this, and you miss that offer. And then you go back and say hey, would you like me to walk through it or are you good, Make sure you note on this pick the purchase price, deposit inspections. You cannot just be sending documents to your client and say click, because guess what, what? If you actually put 350, not 250, and you put the deposit in, there's no other contingencies and they just lost 50,000 bucks. Whose fault is that? Yours, Yours.

Speaker 1: 8:52

But that's well. We can go into a lot of places. That's just attention and detail in making sure that you're in it for the long haul with your client, is it not?

Speaker 2: 9:03

You would think I tell people, realtors, that I interact with and get to coach. I basically said common sense is not so common and the things that you think are like, oh, everybody does that. Let me tell you, nobody does it. We have to walk. I show my clients, I'll. And again, it's silly but I'm like here is the MLS search, here's how it works. So when you say to me, john, why didn't that house come up, I can then show you. Hey, actually remember when I showed you the MLS search, you put three beds, two full baths. This has only. Or you put two full, one half. This house had three full, so it kicked out the search. So we need to modify the search so it really gets what you want.

Speaker 2: 9:43

And know that it's not a perfect system. Explaining things have to be so important, right? Stories, ryan, stories sell, if anyone. And you can go to my social media, look up John Shookerman. You don't have to be my friend because it's all public, because I don't care, but you're welcome to be. Look at the stories. I tell it's not. Oh, hey, here's this whole midsole, congratulations. What's the journey, what's the free?

Speaker 2: 10:08

I tell the realtors that I teach. I say often you are not a realtor, you're a storyteller, so I can tell you that your success is determined by the kinds of stories that you're telling and usually when I'm coaching them, they're not telling under contract Congratulations. No, I flipped my business right in one year 20, 40 K. So I have to get however many deal, it doesn't matter 2021, 120, 2022, 120 by Jude. I'm not saying that to be cocky. I'm saying you can leverage social media in the success.

Speaker 2: 10:41

No one cares about John. No one cares about me and I'm not being more. Nobody cares but the client stories that I share, the client reviews. In my five years in real estate, 100% of my clients have left me positive, with 100% because I love my clients. I leverage it because I talk about it because I say, hey, this is really important and helps my business. I think probably 5% of them have left the settlement table without leaving a review. It's done beforehand. They love me the most. The settlement table, that's what I'm going to get a review and a video testimonial. I get it all and that helps leverage the social media and build my business.

Speaker 1: 11:22

So let's get into social media and let's go right from ground zero. So this is probably a good time to have this conversation with we didn't pre-talk about this, but all the class action lawsuits that are going on right now, with all the major brokerages and the buyers saying that they were dupe, blah, blah, blah. Anyhow, I don't buy into the hype. There's always change in life, so it's no big deal. Let's say I'm a brand new agent in the industry today. I have no client success stories. Where do I start? What do I do? How do I get into a place of creating that difference with who I am and start bringing those clients to me?

Speaker 2: 12:03

Absolutely. Let me. I'll just make some assumptions here. Ryan, you're a new realtor, so you've had other jobs, so you can do what I did and you can go to people at these other jobs and say, hey, I'm not asking you to buy anything for me or whatever. I just need a couple of reviews. So one of my first reviews on my Google and Facebook and business pages said I worked at a job with John where he basically passion, dedication. This was just a coworker, not even a manager, whatever he said.

Speaker 2: 12:34

Because of these skills, I have no doubt in the amazing work John will do as your realtor. That helps grow my business. That helps grow my business. You have people. Even if you just ask a friend hey, can you give me a reference on my business page, you can just say I am a friend of Ryan, john, whatever, and I know how hard he works. I know how dedicated he is to his clients. I have no doubt in that. I don't know what he'll do in real estate. So, ryan, I want as people heard you say that like they were probably like oh yeah, I have an.

Speaker 2: 13:05

No, you don't, because there was always some way to think outside the box. I had a client recently, and this was the one that said wait, I never thought about that. They were working with another realtor for a year. I did not find a house. They were down payment was a struggle, the best of that.

Speaker 2: 13:21

I did the math and they were going to sell their other home and I said hey, what's your house worth to? To 6270. Okay, and I said, and what? What do you owe on it? 130?. I said have you ever thought about a? He lock on your home? They have a long short business. They didn't want to touch business funds. There's hundreds of thousands of dollars there. They didn't want to have you ever thought about a? He lock on your house? They're like what's that? Why did the realtor not think outside the box, get the whole picture of what they were doing and easily say oh my gosh, you guys have a house for 275, you're buying a house for 400. Is what you want to spend. Pull a key lock out of it until you're 20% down. You go here, you go and you write the chat off equity on the whole.

Speaker 1: 14:04

So there's two things there. One, that realtor is not working with a great lender because a good lender would have given them that scenario. But I'll update Annie. There's also a product out there's plenty of products out there that buy before you sell. Now to where they'll charge you 2.4% interest on that money, similar to a he lock, but you're not paying 10 or 12% interest, you're paying 2.4, as long as both sides of the transactions covered. But yeah, that is that.

Speaker 1: 14:31

I see that a lot today now as a lender outside of what I do with our development, and one of the biggest things is the realtors have this blind faith with their current lenders and they just let them lead them down the path. And I was joking with somebody and I digress and we'll come back. I was joking with a realtor that called me and said hey, help me out with a hard money loan. And my first question is why do you want hard money? And she's that's what you're supposed to do when you buy an investment property. No, that's not what type of deal you're trying to do. It's an active rental, it has 12, it has 24 months of history.

Speaker 1: 15:08

I said why would you do that? Get a DSCR. And she's what's a DSCR loan? So I explain all that. But if she went to her current lender and her lender said you just, your only choice is hard money at 13% interest, with three, three and a half points up front, that would have screwed over her clients. This is where I struggle. Maybe we can. We're going to go down that rabbit hole but we'll come back to it, is okay. So we've got that first review from a friend or from a prior clock excuse me, no-transcript. Where do we go next? What would be some next steps to really hit the ground running and get some clients in the door?

Speaker 2: 15:45

What I love about this is the questions that everybody asks. So I will explain what and I will say if you don't know about social media, do not give yourself a heart. I spent years and.

Speaker 2: 15:55

I was a wedding photographer in addition to my W2 job and every time I shared a gallery on social media, someone would say, hey, can we book you for our wedding? So I took that into real estate, right. But here's the deal If you have no clients right now, one of the real things I have the honor to coach her name is Jeanette. Her first year she did five showings a week and if she did not have clients, she went and did go and shows and showed herself houses. Oh, ryan, here's how I built my success, and you know this, but I'll ask a silly question. So my success was built. I was on social media all the time, every single showy, my first client. And we won't get into it. I love them, the great friends. I showed them 63 homes. Instead of sitting here moaning about it and having to fit about it, I realized, hey, in a few years I'll be able to not show people 63 homes. While I have the time, I will leverage it. I will go and record a story or post at every freaking house I go into, right. I remember one show in a home about 30 minutes away with my son, because I was at the state of all dad for the first few months. When my December, my wife, went back to work after he was born, so I'm figuring out showing homes, dad life I just said, okay, then's my help. Or took a picture. Suddenly I'm not saying, hey, I'm a realtor, buy house for me. Oh, john's showing houses in New York. Oh, yeah, john's in real estate, right, I? That is such an excuse that realtors use because they're like I have nothing going on, then make something. Go on, go show five houses a week. And then I was Jeanette, who I coach. She said to a valestose houses. She then sold she would have never seen them. But her, she met a client. They were looking at a certain style of home. They didn't see this one on the MLS or whatever. But they said to her hey, do you have anything? That's a rancher three bedroom. That goes. Yeah, I actually just showed it the other day to myself, but she showed. So go in there. That's the agent. Can I share your posts on social media? So my success. And then you're going to see this in a second. So, ryan, I did 63 showings for my first client and I was at open houses every weekend. How much money did I make? Zero, zero, zero.

Speaker 2: 18:11

Guess what people kept saying to me on June. Really, like June, I started to see the success, but I'm like broker than broke. But every single person I would go and start with they would say, wow, dude, you are crushing it in real estate. Every time, every time.

Speaker 2: 18:27

Social media guys, I don't care about the hearts, the likes, the comments, it is a vanity metric. Do you want to be good at social media? Go be the mayor of your town. Go show houses, because no one's going to know, don't people. Don't lie or don't say I've got so many clients I can't even handle it. Just go into homes. People are going to see that. And we almost think the opposite. People want to work with someone who was a lot of time. People wanted to work with me. When they started to see me having what they perceive as success, that's when they said, hey, can you help us?

Speaker 2: 18:59

My first client I spoke to on Thanksgiving 2019, he bought in April. Next one I met in March. They bought in June, but it was two deals, man. And then August I did five months, so, like coming up on my. So I'm like okay, now we're like. We made, I think, 15 grand that month. I thought I was like a freaking yeah rocks, like it's all about being out there.

Speaker 2: 19:22

I will say really quick and I know you probably want to ask the question People all the time will say to me John, I've tried posing on social media. I've tried. You did not try nine months, like me, you did not. And let me tell you something I was a huge sportsman, right, and I love the Philadelphia Phillies and you're probably diving back to fame. I don't want to talk about it, but we've like.

Speaker 2: 19:41

But what I will say is this spring, for the first time in my life, went to spring training in Florida. We spent five weeks there and we're going back to four weeks this coming February, loved it. On the first day we were there at a practice and I know this is a long answer, but I want to. On the first day of practice I saw players Reese Hopkins, kyle Schwab or Trey Turner these guys running the bases and like trying it, and the first base coach say no, go this way. And you see some of the players laughing and my wife said are they even taking this seriously? I'm like no, they're having fun.

Speaker 2: 20:16

How do you get to the world series like the Phillies did last year, or lose to the Diamond bags in the NLCS. But if the playoffs this year and have a pretty good year, you don't do it in September and October, ryan. You start in February how you run the bases. So if a baseball player can basically for 200 or 300 straight days practice baseball and work on their craft, I do not want to hear from realtors unless you have put six, seven, eight, nine months into this and not one client has come from it. And if you do get on a call with me, I'll do it for free because you are not getting business for me.

Speaker 1: 20:53

So Okay, there's a lot one pack there. No, that's good. There's just a lot of things going in my head that I'm looking at as a podcaster, as a lender, as a builder. I'm like these are all universal and they all plug in and it's all about the consistency piece, and the best way I know how to describe it is if you don't continually put content out there, consistently, effectively and being persistent in what you're doing, how is somebody supposed to find you or even connect with you or even want to talk to you?

Speaker 1: 21:32

That's where it first starts, and I'm going to go back and along winded, but I'm going to ask my question when, in that journey for nine months, when you were going through that and just not getting the results that you were wanting, as in clients, what were some of the things that were going through your mind and what were you doing to help yourself fight off the I call it negativity or the crappy mindset? How could we get through those periods? Because there's a lot. We're in a tough market right now. We all know that there's a lot of realtors leaving the business or they're thinking they have to leave, but there's a thing called social media that can really up your game if you want to jump in now.

Speaker 2: 22:12

For free, by the way for free.

Speaker 2: 22:14

For free 99. For free. So what kept me going honestly and again, maybe not a good attitude was the negativity and the doubters who said I could never make it. It really did, because I said, no, I'm going to be freaking good because I know I am Right. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it.

Speaker 2: 22:30

To be honest, I didn't get the great bargain. I love this market. I feel bad for you realtors that are leaving, but I love it because it has seven deals under contract for $50,000, $60,000, $1000 closing in December and it's going to be great. It is. And guess what? Realtors, when you get $60,000 a month, you don't go spend it in January. I actually mean my joke that we're going to have a no spend challenge in January where we don't spend a dime on anything not required. It's just it's going to go the opposite mindset of like. I need all this money, I'm going to spend it, but I think what I knew from other jobs was social media work. So I had to figure out a system. Guess what? Every time I shared a story, 150 people saw it and it's not like a one time time, like a Facebook or Instagram story that's set for 24 hours. I knew I'm like huh interesting, and I would start even early to get messages. Hey, how did what's the market like in Reading, where I grew up? What's the more, I saw the comments and questions going. In a week I asked my wife, probably in the last month or two, when did you know that I was going to have success in real estate? And she said when clients started coming to you and you didn't yeah, it didn't look like you were begging people to work with you anymore. That happened by just putting stuff on social media.

Speaker 2: 23:48

Many of you are listening to this thing. I can't put myself out there. I'm going to be embarrassed. Be bold, be confident. Do you believe in yourself as a realtor? Right, then you have to put yourself out there.

Speaker 2: 23:59

Most of it is like mindset, where you're like no, I'm not doing that good, it is the dollars, and dollars does not make you a good realtor. I don't care if you sold 40 grand in my first year or 120 or 60,000 in your pocket in December. I don't care. I don't put your story out there. Here's a few. Right, let's give. Here's some practical stuff.

Speaker 2: 24:20

Why do you become a realtor? That's a video or a poem. What do you love about real estate. Be honest, too. What's the hardest thing about real estate? Don't name that client by name. It might be your friend, there's all sorts of things. Go to chat GPT and ask you what question should they answer as a realtor, like a star PA, it'll give you 25 video ideas. But that's where I knew the success was coming from was like. But I saw, even if it was just a message about real estate, I saw people and realtors that I did my classes with to become a realtor were saying to me oh my gosh, how are you doing this? Holy cow, you're crushing, and I knew you're on to something. I knew I was on to something.

Speaker 1: 25:03

Man, your story is genuine. But it's also real because anybody can do it. You just have to go about and just do it. That's the only way I can describe it. And, man, I've got three or four realtors I'm thinking of right now that keep on, I'll reach out to them on a weekly basis, just touch base with them.

Speaker 1: 25:24

They always tell me the market's horrible, that's this and that, and I'm like okay, so what's going on? What are you doing? And they're like I can't get listings, I can't this, I can't do that. And I'm like what can you do? And the list is short and typically sometimes it's like dead air. And I let that silence go and that perennial pause and I'll say when's the last time you went door knocking or sent somebody a letter or made a phone call? And I know you talk about no cold calling. But right now we're in that season to where the market's going to rebound, it's going to change, because we can't, we're not going to stay on this level and that's a whole. Nother conversation we could have. But at some point.

Speaker 2: 26:06

This is a silly question. Our home is being sold in your neighborhood. Yes, yeah, every single day, houses are selling and the people. Here is what I will say If you are not putting yourself on social media, this is going to hurt some people's feelings. You're being self-claimed, that's okay, we're all right. You're being selfish. You're being selfish and that was told to me a couple of years ago and I'm like I said, my mental, I'm like you don't understand. I'm being selfish.

Speaker 2: 26:30

When I talk about my business on social media, he goes and he doubled down. He goes. No, you don't understand. Basically, shut up. He's John.

Speaker 2: 26:37

Do you know realtors in your area that are with people, yes, that are going to lie? Yes, be honest, yes, are you? No, like I have integrity character, right, okay, then you are being selfish by not telling people you're a realtor and I was like, oh my, it was mind blowing, because if you right now listen to this, know someone in your area that does not care, right, weak, not to make it political, but, like criminals, break the law, right, but all that to say you have to put your journey out there because I can't let someone at my church or in a friend's group or whatever, work with that realtor down the street that is going to take advantage of them. So by not telling people about my business, I'm being selfish and I'm not giving them the opportunity. Go look on my Facebook Again. You don't do my friend. I don't beg for business ever. I share stories. I share my journey. Think about it this way I love the Phillies Okay, love sports, love the Phillies. People connect with me. We went to their death free screen last November. At Dave Ramsey this November, people were like, hey, can you tell me more about Dave Ramsey? Clients of mine. I have not talked about Dave Ramsey on social media in a year, but they are going to remember John as the social media guy. Do what you love, guys. If you love the Arizona Diamondbacks or the Phoenix Suns or you love hiking in Arizona, share that on your page. Oh, my God, I love hiking.

Speaker 2: 27:56

Go to a coffee shop, not Starbucks, because you'll be able to buy one drink. Go to a coffee shop $10 and buy five people. Hey, can't buy a coffee, why? I'm just a local realtor. I'm trying to meet people. It's no pressure at all, but I'd like to buy you a coffee, john. It's nice to meet you and here's my card. If I can ever help you, let me know Like you, send it that coffee shop, you will meet people. I have the real estate swag. I have the laptop thing. I need to get out more and just send it to the coffee shop and meet people. I promise you someone will walk in and be like you know what? I just fired my realtor because they suck. Can you help me?

Speaker 1: 28:32

Yeah, what's the funny thing is you're talking about the journey and I was. I put myself on a little bit of a campaign so I have no problem going out shooting video, media, whatever. I've gotten some complaints from realtors saying they can't get a hold of their lender on the weekend. So I'm like you know what? This is gonna be a great time to go shoot a reels. So I've been shooting some reels and some shorts on YouTube. Every Saturday and Sunday I Shooter, I shoot a 30 second video. Says hey guys, ryan, here Is your lender out sipping mimosas on the weekend. Guess what? I'm here. Here's my digits. Call me, text me, smoke screen, whatever you want to do.

Speaker 1: 29:11

For the first several weeks got nothing. This is I'm about six weeks, seven weeks into it. For the last three weeks I've had anywhere between four to six calls on a daily basis, one checking to see if I'll pick up my phone and Two saying I need help. And I'm like oh okay, great, thanks for reaching out, so let's go. It's just funny when you just consistently put it out there that it will happen. And the number one thing, and I'll tell everybody they thought I was still a builder and I said I am a builder, but I'm also a lender too, so why not call? We only thought you built houses, so you're just trying to sell your houses. No, I'm trying to actually sell loans and my houses. Is anything wrong with that? Nope, got it.

Speaker 2: 29:53

It's just and imagine, imagine if so, someone in your shoes, ryan, could be like I'm on social media and and being silly. But imagine if you never told people you're a lender, but then you're mad that people aren't doing loans with you.

Speaker 1: 30:06

That's your fault.

Speaker 2: 30:07

It's your fault, right?

Speaker 1: 30:09

It is my fault exactly, and when I first got into this in August, I was hesitant. But it's you know what, I don't care, because it's gonna be the benefit of our business. We're gonna be able to provide a quality service. I'm at the number one brokerage in the nation, next to mortgage, and we have accessed over 220 lenders. If I can't do it, no one else can. So bring on the banks, bring on your credit unions and we'll figure it out. I have no problem. But that's where I struggled initially and I said you know what? I'm not afraid to get on the camera, record a video and put it out there. So we're just gonna do it. So that was my challenge. So I'm doing that challenge to the end of the year and then I'm gonna see what happens and then I might do something Different. But that's my challenge is every single Saturday and Sunday you see my ugly mug on reels Saying if your lender's out there sipping mimosas, I'm not, I'm drinking coffee.

Speaker 2: 30:59

Yeah and hustling for you. I think I my current lender that I use here in PA. I won't get into all the details, but previous lender I worked with there were a lot of personal character issues. I was like I thought, do business with you if this continues? I found out it continued Basically, cut him like like that it was done. Okay, so you can make some assumption. This female lender names she's great like she literally friended me and was just commenting on my stuff Congratulations, this and that the yep, there's a point. But guess what? Who do you think I thought of when I had this issue with this other lender? Cut him off, she probably her stuff that day. Now she's in my membership, part of my community and my primary lender. It is just so wild and so simple.

Speaker 2: 31:47

And in terms of social media, I always love sports. Football is a very interesting sport, ryan. I was once told someone said to me how does Tom Brady score and love him or hate him? He's probably the greatest, the player of all time. And they said Does he just throw up Hail Mary's 80 or 75 yards each time? No, that's why it's called a Hail Mary, that's four wise. For the end of the game, tom Brady hands off the ball five yard run. Ten yard run, five yard pass, seventh yard run, all the way to the end zone.

Speaker 2: 32:17

So realtors are like I'm gonna come on social media once you know, throw up this Hail Mary. And then I'm wondering why I'm not scoring, because you're not and I don't want to go off track. But what I would say is, if you're listening this, you're like okay, john, what is one thing I can do right now to grow my business on social media? I'll tell you and almost no realtor does it Can you please have your freaking phone number on your profile? I'm not talking your pro-file, your personal profile. There is an intro section and on that, intro.

Speaker 2: 32:50

Now mine says, like helping realtors with social media. But if it didn't, they would say John, here in Lancaster, pa, to help you buy or sell six, one, zero, five, six, eight, four, six, five one. I talk to realtors and lenders all the time and their buyer has intro, has no phone number or their bio. Both should have your phone number. It should be right there. You want to make it as easy as humanly possible to be reached. So guess what, guys, when I do a post, if you're interested in buying or selling, call me John blah blah blah phone number, and it's in my intro and it's in my bio. I don't know that people have actually Picked phone from my Facebook, but I want them to be able to. I want to make it as easily, as easy as possible To reach me and that's why I'm so passionate about this, because, like literally realtors, you're missing. You can there pause the episode. Go on your Facebook here. Your intro takes 30 seconds. Put your freaking phone number there.

Speaker 1: 33:44

I don't get excited about this stuff, ryan. No, you don't. I can't tell my god we can go into so much stuff. We need three hours to talk. We're getting close to the end of this, but I wanted to really dig into, as we wrap this up, action steps that a realtor could take. I know we talked about getting out on social, being consistent, getting those reviews from individuals that you've worked with before. If you don't have any clients, what would be that last I don't want to say critical, but I it's critical step that would help them Start attracting clients, bring them in the door, but also allow them to be consistent in their messaging.

Speaker 2: 34:24

Yeah, I was actually about to say something about consistency and then you mentioned it there at the end. I was already thinking Get on social media and you need to commit, write it down, commit to posting about my business at least once a week. By the way, commit to posting about something in life once a week. I want to know. If you go to my page, you will see John as a member of Shooker Realtors. John loves the Phillies, john has a podcast, john went with all these things. John just enjoyed like a weekend to remember with his wife. Like you will see all of these things.

Speaker 2: 34:59

I promise you Realtors, let it be whoever. Your clients are Googling you and they are Facebook stalking you. So you need people will say to me I'm giving you 20. Sorry. They'll say do you friend your clients? And I'll say I laugh and I'm like friend to everyone that I sneeze around. What? Because if you reject it, ryan, I'll probably find it on social media. If you reject it, that's fine. I don't know. Again, I'm being selfish. You might have a realtor. Ryan should friend me, maybe my realtor. If this girl one day drops the ball, he could probably connect me with someone in Pennsylvania. So, like you, don't beg for business. You just go out there no.

Speaker 2: 35:42

And I think another thing, because we talked about it before. All the time I hear people saying can I dance on TikTok? And I do this and I just start really simple, ryan, I say what platform are you already on? For me, my main one is Facebook. Why? Because I got it in 2006, when I went to college. Then, a couple of years later, they let adults and parents on and not need you email address. Facebook is going to die. It's crap. Google is basically the biggest social media search into the world. Facebook is the second right. So Google YouTube are owned by same company. Facebook is the second. Your clients are searching for you. You need to be on there, but I don't. You're really great at LinkedIn. We should probably chat. I'm not great, but my 80, 20, my focus is Facebook because I'm so good at it. I've done it.

Speaker 2: 36:31

This weekend at a conference, I saw someone and she introduced me to her husband, and this is John. I went to college with him in 2006. He's a real Terran Lancaster and this is what he's doing and I'm like so interesting. I have not spoken to her since 2007 or 2008. And so this is the stuff I will. I'll honor everyone's time. You could talk to me and I would talk story after story. People that messaged me out of nowhere, who I did not even know no offense whether they were alive or dead anymore, because it's been over 10 years I forgot they existed. They see my stuff. They do not like comment. Facebook is a ton of people, are just lurkers, but they will. When it's time they will message me. Hey John, I'm looking to buy or sell a Lancaster. Can we chat? Yes, we can, so I think I do. You said one thing and I do 500, but there's just some basic things that you could start doing today, all of you.

Speaker 1: 37:23

Man, there's so much, you know what. We'll have to find a way to get you back on. We could have a special to where we go out with realtors and just have a conversation. I'd love to be able to do that. That'd be great. That'd be huge. As we wrap up, one final question any realtors that are listening to this podcast, how do they get ahold of you? Because you've got some great information that they could use and join your group. Yeah, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 37:49

Everything was built to pay Everything that I wish would have been there. So at my old brokerage I said I'm going to start a podcast. This was end of 2020. So I had been in real estate license a year, but basically since that January, and I was told you don't know anything, you can't start a podcast. I've since left that brokerage and there were multiple reasons.

Speaker 2: 38:10

My podcast now has probably four to 600 listeners a month, 60, 70,000 downloads. For some podcasts that's big. For some that's oh, that's it. I don't care. What I care about is it's helping realtors, it's doing realtors. I do three episodes a week. That's about to shift. That's what I do right now. So all you want for me is free content, real estate survival and find the podcast. Three times a week. I can 300, 400 episodes A lot of me for talking. But all that to say like you can also go to the real estate survival guidecom. I had the podcast.

Speaker 2: 38:41

People in the listening podcast said you should start a group and I'm like no, I resisted forever and then what I created was basically like, what is a low budget that realtors can afford? So when you get on a call with me and you're like, oh, should I buy leads? I'm like no, like I will teach you and my group is 15 bucks a month, literally what you spend at Starbucks every month. I will teach you through our call. They bring 10 AM Easter and people are always like how long do I lock in? Because realtors are so used to being pitched the high price and then being stuck for a year. So I'm like you're not stuck at all. You pay 15 bucks a month, you bill on November 20th and on December 14th you cancel. Yeah, you're in till December, but I'll cancel it. That's it. You get access to all the past calls and each week had more value.

Speaker 2: 39:26

Today we did a call all about chat GBT. Now you can leverage it better in your business for realtors and leathers. So anyway, real Estate Survival Guide the realestatesrevivalguidecom. You can get me on social, john Schuchman and I. Seriously this is not a pitch. Anyone that wants to have a one on one call about social media, I will talk anytime. I'll do it once. I'll be generous. It's on my terms, so I'll fit it into my schedule, but I will get on a call with anyone wants to give you some tips, ideas on social media, because I love it and I want realtors and lenders to feel like they can have success with it. And you can. And if you're feeling like you can't have hope, it is possible.

Speaker 1: 40:03

Man, thank you so much for everything. This has been a great conversation. We'll definitely off air figure out how we can circle back around, but thank you, john, for coming on. Great information, love what you're doing, love your energy.

Speaker 2: 40:17

Hey, god bless Ryan. Thank you for what you're doing as well and thanks for your time. Thanks, sir.