Top 5 Tips to Build a Locally Famous Brand

And in 95, that was great. I love to start stuff. I love to do stuff that people tell us we can't. But we did it. School's still going strong. But it damn near killed me because I was also trying to have a bunch of babies at the same time. And I was also thinking like, you know, I'm not real good at punching someone else's clock. I'm not an awesome employee. Let's just put it out there. Many of us are not. Most of us aren't. So I said to a friend, I don't know, real estate. And then I was like, I don't know, those people, like they eat their young. That's just a, I don't want to be one of them. She was like, excuse me, because she was a Realtor. And I was like, oh, that's right. I never think of you as a Realtor because like you have such class and you're so good to people and you're such a great community member and a great mom and all this stuff. And I just was humbled in that moment.

And I said, oh, maybe I should check it out. So I did. And, um, you know, fast forward this. Oh, what's our, what's our censorship level here on this show? Whatever you want to say. Okay. Like this shit is hard. It is freaking hard. Okay. Like people don't just hand you deals. That's what I thought. Like you get a deal and then you, you make it happen. Oh God. So I had no idea how hard it was. And so I was, I took a, a big, one of those like sweat hog classes and it was like, pound the phones, pound the phones. This is really a soft sell. We don't do a hard sell. It was the hardest sell you've ever seen. And it felt so gross, but I was like, I don't know what else to do. So I am like teetering on burnout.

I was, uh, about a year or so in, I had four kids. I thought I was only having three in the middle of getting this real estate thing off the ground. I happen to have another baby. I'm real good at that. I'm good at a lot of things, not good at directions. Great at having babies. So I'm having this fourth baby for girls, by the way, for girls. Yes. A lot of estrogen in one house for you. You got that right. Yeah. It's like 10 bucks for a tampon around here. One week of the month. Yeah. I learned literally yesterday because my daughter is 15, how expensive bra shopping is. Oh, heck yes. Holy crap. I got to get a second job to afford things now. Yeah. Little pro tip targets. Not so bad in the broad department. Okay. So yeah. Yeah. So anyway, so I'm, I'm kind of imploding as the earth is imploding with the mortgage crisis. This is, I'm trying to build a business while the real estate industry is falling apart. And I won't give you all the gory details, but they were gory and we're all chuckling right now, but they were dark. They were scary. I went into a lot of, I'm not going to go into all the detail right now, but suffice it to say, if you're feeling pain right now, I get you and I know what darkness feels like. So in those moments, I had a choice to go in one of two directions. And I honestly, it was, that was when I started going to church and I was like, all right, well, if it works for Jesus, maybe it'll work for me. I had such a boulder on my shoulder, but I thought, all right, instead of being defined by what the world keeps doing to me, cause I was getting the shit kicked out of me. I was like, maybe I'll try to be defined by what I do in the world. And I will go out and try to be a blessing to everyone. Like I was just so skeptical of my own plan, but I just went for it. And so this being a blessing to everybody turned out to be a great, it's great for your marriage. It's great for your family. It's great for your business. And it is great for your heart. And by the way, your bank account, like if you're actually being a good and putting out good in the world, it will come back to you in, in spades. And it's just the most amazing phenomenon. So fast forward, I realized all these things that I was doing, putting out the good and it was bringing the good back to me. I could actually teach other people how to do this because I am the happiest person in real estate. And my goal is to make real estate, the happiest industry in the world. It should be what, right? Like, why not? Our number one core value at my broker, just have fun. Yeah. At the top of the list. And it's very specifically at the top of the list for a reason. Yeah. And also we're dealing with people at like a pivotal moment in their life.

They're getting married, getting divorced, having a baby, dying, moving, getting a new job. Like it's a big deal. And whether it's a happy deal or a sad deal, whether what's going on in their life, the way you handle it for them, the way you hold them through that process and the way you deal with them before, during, and after it will define you. And it's an honor to be in that space, right? It's a huge responsibility. Huge responsibility. Like if we do this right, we should be up there with like the people who married you, the person who delivered your babies, like we are there for those moments. And so I was like, well, this is a big deal. And I started treating it like that. And so I was able to put it into, strangely enough, five things. I had never heard your podcast before you told me that. And I thought, well, it's so cool that you invited me to be here. So you call it civic marketing. I do. But really it's when people think real estate in Cape Cod, they think your brand. Yes, they do. And that's really what it is.

Yeah. And so it's building a culture around it. It's building all of these things, but there's really some specific steps to it. And yeah, one of the things that I love about this is they really outside of one thing, but it doesn't have to even be geographically centered. Like you've done it in Cape Cod, but it doesn't have to be geographically centered. It could be within a niche. It could be within a specialty. It can be, they're just good, solid principles on brand building for specific groups. And I'm glad you talked about the brand building thing. Cause that's really the first, that is the essence. And everybody has a brand. I don't care if you have a logo, you have a brand that brand is you. It is not something you are going to, to, to create like, I am the biggest luxury agent in coastal Texas. Like you're not, let's just, you know, if you're not yet, then we, your brand can evolve. You got to go with what you are right now, where you're you.

So when we talk about brand building, there's the four steps that I give people for brand building. So this is the very first thing is I'm going to give you some quick tips on how to really develop your personal brand. But once you figured that out, it's what you do with it. You want to go big with it, lean hard into it. So, so number one, you want to know the four, the people, the places, the price points, and the kinds of properties that you like to work with and on right now, what is your wheelhouse? No way. Like think of the most comfortable transaction you've ever had, whether it's a buyer seller and be like, if I could have a bunch of those, my gosh, my days would just fly by. So that's, that's first part. So these, so that's starting to find your audience in that brand. Number three. So I go four, three, two, one. Number three would be three words that people use to describe you positive ones, preferably. So go into your, go into your reviews. What are the words that show up? And, and I, you may not use things like kind, hardworking, um, integrity. If you are not kind, you don't work hard and you don't have integrity, get out of this business. What's special about you beyond those things? So it might be your attention to detail, your person that, you know, you're like, I get a lot about, you know, she's so personable. Um, like sometimes I also get like, she's a viper, like, like when it comes to negotiating. So what is it that makes you, you, what are the words that you hear a lot? And if you're not sure, pick up your phone right now, text the people who know and love you and say, what would you say? Three words are to describe me. And you can do it with your clients. It's actually a great way to reach out to clients, by the way, past clients. Um, and then we talk about that when we talk about this particular exercise. So with all of our business planning, we talk about just doing a SWOT analysis. Yes. We have people do a SWOT analysis on them, but then we have people go out to their client base and actually get them to do a SWOT analysis on them because we're really good at pointing out our flaws. We're not great at pointing out our strengths. We are, we'll just say jaded and cynical a little bit about opportunities and threats part because of what we do for a living. Um, but hearing from the outside is great, but also the beauty of going to your client and having them participate in this is they feel like they're part of your business. And by virtue of that, they want to support it. Well, they have, they really are. I mean, like who's, who, who better to, to sing your praises, who better to talk about you than someone you've already served who has evidence of your awesomeness. Yep. So we did, uh, the, the four Ps, we did the three things that people say nicely about you. The number two is I want you to go to your, whatever your favorite social media platform is, Instagram, Facebook, whatever, and look at what you've put on. Look, look for themes, look for two themes that you see show up in your feed. The things that you feel inspired to post about if it's a business account, it's obviously going to be some houses and stuff like that, but like beyond those things. So I did this exercise with one woman and she was like, Oh, this will be easy. And she's like, Oh, cats. I was like, okay. And politics. Those were what she like talked about a lot. It's like, okay, well that's who you are. You love your cats. They matter to you. We, you know, we tease people about being cat ladies, but that's a thing. And someone else who appreciates that will understand you, or they'll just think it's adorable and cute and be like, Oh my God, I hate cats, but she is like so funny with those cats and the politics things.

Only where we get started with that, but it is who you are. And then, um, the number. So the one thing, so we did the four, we did the three, we did the two. Now the one is, and this is kind of fun, funny, uncomfortable, but what is the one thing? What is your quirk? What is the thing that your family teases you about that maybe drives them crazy sometimes, but also is kind of charming in a way. And it might be a thing from when you were a kid even. So for me, I have a few. One is like, I cannot find my way out of a paper bag. I have no sense of direction. I am brilliant at a million other things, but I, and I forget things like it's my job. I'm like, Oh, did we meet them? My husband's like, yeah, it's like, we, I can't really, you know, like I just details escape me and it drives people crazy, but it's also kind of charming because you know what? I also don't get hung up on stuff. Bad things happen. Uh, I forget them pretty easily. So I just kind of living in the moment. Um, so those four things, the places, people, properties and price points you like to work with the nice things that people say about you, the two themes that naturally flow from you.

And that quirk about you is your brand. See how I didn't invent anything. I didn't make anything up. It's not aspirational. It is who I am right now. So you're not pretending to be someone else. No, you're not trying to fit a mold or a persona or whatever else. It's just authentic because there's someone who there's no reason to be anything else. Cause it's so much work. And there is someone, the more specific actually you are about who you are, the, the more laser targeted, your people are going to be like, Oh my God, she's my person. She is my person. She's not like the other agents. Right. That's my person. She said shit on a podcast. Yeah. That's one of my quirks. Poor impulse control. Yes. So once you have that brand, you want to go big with it. So how does your brand show up in what you do for me? I did come up with a logo. I came up with a color theme, all that stuff. And so I have leveraged that and turned into swag and all that, but it's also, it doesn't necessarily show up in every social media posts that I make like in a, in a graphic way, but it shows up, it's showing up right now. Yeah.

My, I am me right now. I am a hundred percent me. That's high energy. I'm this, I'm that. And by the way, you can't be worried about your brand scaring off some people. Words to live by. You will not always be everyone's cup of tea, but she will always be someone's shot of tequila. That's right. So just go for your tequila people. Don't worry about losing some people. You don't have time for everybody anyway. Right. So really lean into who you are and, and your people will find you. And I tell you what, when you find it, what's that just be so much happier. So like, cause you're with the people who want to be with you and who get you. And so then you can be even more you and you're like, Oh, like you left at my jokes or you appreciate how retentive I am about my details or whatever your thing is. The people that they refer to you will most likely be like them too. Yeah. The assholes that you work with, they're going to refer you to more assholes. Yeah. Yeah. So it's fine. Like, I don't even keep in touch with some people and they were like, it's like a cardinal sin of business building, but I don't want more of them. I just don't. So, and if you're at the beginning of your business, it's harder to be that choosy, but you also have to listen to your heart. And there's going to be some people who are going to suck the life out of you and prevent you from engaging with other people who will fill you with life. So. Take a few years off your liver, you know, all those things. You know, I, I, I tell our new agents a lot of the time, our new licensees, I'm like the day that you get to the point in your real estate career where you can say no to somebody you don't want to work with because you can, you don't need that money to pay your bills or whatever. That's just a great day. Like the milestone days in your career boxes off of first firing. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, yeah. So we're developing our brand. We're going all in. Yeah. Got to be built around it. Yeah. So that's, so it's going to show up in everything you say, do think, write, produce, um, because people need to get to know you and who you are and how you roll. So going big means you need to be relentless with it. You need to be out in the community, whether you're at events or you're posting consistently on social, you've got to get yourself out there, whatever way you want to do it. That's up to you. Some people even go as far as getting it tattooed on their arm. Look at you. Yeah. See, that's awesome. Exactly. Talk about commitment. I'm impressed. Yeah. Um, yeah. Anything else you want to know about brand? So no, but next one up on the list is taking a leadership role in local organizations and leader. So there's two ways that you can show up as a local leader. So these, this is a way to elevate your profile and this is good for extroverts and introverts. So if you're listening to this podcast and being like, I'm not your tequila person, Katie, you're having trouble relating to me because of my mojo. This is for you to listen to.

So, so being a local leader, two things, one participate in your local nonprofits, get on a board. I know blah, blah, blah. You're like, Ooh, this is like a time suck, a local nonprofit board, or even better a town board, like get on planning and zoning. We need Realtors there. By the way, this is where all our bottlenecks are happening. You can actually make real change in housing in our country. If lots of federal support, lots of state support and everything gets bottlenecked at the local level. So you can be part of that solution by being on a board. Um, so the local, uh, you know, municipal boards, um, have, you know, one to three year, uh, terms commit, do it. You're going to get probably if it's televised, people are going to see your face. Oh, she, or he participates here.

She knows what she's talking about when it comes to ordinances. She's invested in the town. She's going to be able to guide me when I go to buy or sell a house here, particularly sell, by the way, this is where you're going to connect with people who already have homes in the community. Um, so being on a local board, there's a, that's the other thing. So here's some pro tips of being on a local board to actually two rules for deciding which nonprofit board you want to be on. First of all, you want to be where your people are. So I want, I like to work with downsizers. Downsizers are typically retired and they, I want them in my local area. Well, good news. Lots of many, most boards have a number of retired people on them because that's people will leave their profession and then go give back to the community. What I'm telling you to do is not to wait till you retire. Cause by the way, you're never going to retire. We're real estate agents. So do it now, get on that board now. But so you'll be around the people that you want to be around. I wanted to be around, around people in my town. And so I chose the Dennis Conservation Land Trust for a couple of reasons. One, because the, you know, there's my people, it's my town, it's my demographic, but it's also a, this is the second one. You have to believe in the cause. You have to care about it. You have to be prepared to give up your time, your talent and your treasure, because if you're just there for business, you will be outed immediately. You have, you've got to participate. Yeah. We always talk about it. You know, people will come and ask, should I go join the Rotary Club? Should I go join the Chamber of Commerce? Should I go join this or that or whatever it is? And my answer to them is it depends on what you're going to do with it. If you're going to show up at a monthly lunch and you're going to be one of the other hundred people walking around, passing out business cards, then don't waste your time. Don't. Yeah. But if you're going to get involved and get in some sort of leadership role, get on a committee where you're actually building relationships, do that. Otherwise just go find something that you like to do and do that with other people. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And actually I am a Rotarian and I go to our weekly meetings. I don't go every week. I just can't, but I try to get out at least once a month to, to do some service with my Rotary Club and help serve a meal or whatever. So Rotary is actually a really good place to start for people. It's very well organized. It's dependable. The meetings start and end on time. If you really want to kind of get into philanthropy, you know, get into a, you know, nonprofit or, you know, charity organization, that's a good one to start with. So there's community service type. The other part of being a local leader is actually get involved in local government, not just being on a board, show up to council meetings, show up to town meeting. Even if you're just watching it on, you know, your local access TV, be involved. I just finished this actual leadership class in my community here. And one actually here's a picture. We, our last session, we went to our state house, the Massachusetts state house. And here's our picture. It's a nerd festival.

We went to the state house. And one of my big takeaways was, wow, there is not this big moat between me and the people who make the laws I have to follow. We are, they are very accessible. And if you understand advocacy, you can reach out to these people and create relationships and be in their ear. Cause they were like, please connect with us. We are not experts at everything. So if we're making a law about something you care about, call me, write me a letter. And don't just write to complain, create a relationship with that person, say, thank you for something that you generally appreciate, and then engage with them. So what were you going to say, Chance? I was going to say on behalf of every governmental affairs staffer for every local or state association in the United States, reach out to your local or state staff, and they'll help you make those connections. Should you need them? If you're looking for a place to be involved, your local Realtor association or your state Realtor association knows how to plug people in.

Yes. Yeah. And they, and they were so nice. Like I met, sat in the same room with senators and representatives, and they were so happy to hear from us. So I pulled one aside at the end. I was like, do you need help understanding what's going on in the big real estate picture and the local real? They were like, yeah, we do. Like we're having trouble accessing this person at your state load, you know, organization. Can you help? Absolutely. I can totally help. And I was like, me? And so what that happens now, now listen, politicians are high profile people. And if you're going to help them, sometimes they're like, oh, you know, I do know a real estate agent down in your area, Katie Clancy. So referrals will happen, but you can't, the whole thing with this, the civic marketing or this giving thing, it's not a give to get transaction. You've got to just keep putting it out and have faith that once it stacks up enough out there, it just starts popping back to you. And that is exactly, sometimes I get a lead. I'm like, I have no idea how they found me. No idea. But you put enough of this out there and people are like, oh, I feel like I already know you, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, wow, this stuff works. Yeah. If we call it, in our brokerage, we call it do four, not two.

Yes. Do four, not two. I like that. You call it service before opportunity. If you're a Gary Vee acolyte, it's the jab, right hook. It's just serving without any expectation of return on. But doesn't that feel so much better, Chance? Like when I would, I have done things in the past where I'm like, oh, I'm going to get out of that. I spent, you know, 200 bucks on that little league scholarship. A lot of good it did me. Like, you don't know. You don't know. No, it could be. Is a parent just going to jump up and be like, oh, were you the one who sponsored? Let me write you a check for commission ahead of time before I list my house in five years. No, it doesn't happen like that. You've got to be patient. Like Gary Vee says. Patience.

Patient and consistent. Patient and consistent, yeah. So we've gone all in our brand. We're getting involved in the community. But one of the big pieces of that is, since we're talking about this service, is being philanthropic. Participating in philanthropy, in charities and whatnot. So I made a reference to when I started in my business, I was in a bad way. I started broke and got worse. I was taking money, not taking. I was receiving charity from my own church to buy groceries. I borrowed money from my parents. My husband and I were, it was tough. And so how could I- I started right at the same time. There was a point where we were rolling coins for diapers. Yeah. So anybody who's listening, this is, these times are not, it's not the same dynamic, but there are people who are hurting. Real estate agents who are hurting right now. And don't feel shame about that. We've just, it will make you stronger. You just got to live through it. So while you're living through it, I have a whole other thing, actually five ways to look rich when you're poor. Like to look like you're not poor and where you're building a business. Cause I did them all. And one of them is how to be a philanthropist when you're dead ass broke. So to go. So one of the things that I always wanted to do was like sponsor a whole table at a big fancy event, invite people and have a lovely champagne dinner and all this stuff. I couldn't even get in the door. So what I did instead was I just volunteered. I was like, Hey, you guys need help at the event that night. If I couldn't make it to the event, cause I had a bunch of kids. Remember I would, Hey, could I help solicit donations for your silent auction? Oh gosh, we'd love to. And then they recognize you and maybe you get a free ticket to an event or you're in the program, or you just get to meet all these people and you're starting to be associated with this organization. Like, wow, that Katie Clancy, she's a good egg, you know?

And then as you move up, maybe you can buy a ticket. Now you just go and you're, and you're a participant. And here's a pro tip. Go to those silent auctions right away. Bid on everything because they'll all get, they'll all get overbid, but run those bids up. It's good for the organization and, but be careful. You might be caught with the paints down buying something you didn't want. Almost bought a leaf blower that way. So participate in philanthropy. And then when you finally can afford to buy the table, which I finally did, I bought myself a whole table. We had it catered and we brought, we brought clients. I brought my husband and we were able to like really spoil these people who had done well by us. We ended up in the paper who knew I didn't know that was going to happen, but just the, you know, it's being in the right place. I got to hobnob with all the people who like, I still, it's so funny. Imposter syndrome is a thing. But so I was like, I keep blabbing up around all these like rich people. I'm like, girl, you just spent $2,000 on a table. Like, that's pretty cool. Like you're one of them today. It's okay. And so it being able to actually eventually get there, participating in philanthropy is fun. It's great connections, but also if you do it right, you're going to do it with an organization that you care about, and you're going to see your dollars do something. And which just, it's a high that you want to keep following. And of course you keep doing that. You feel good. You help the organization and so on and so on. So yeah. So there's philanthropy.

Yep. Love it. So next up, starter kit. Okay. So this was something that- In the South, we don't know what the hell a townie is. You don't know what a townie is? No. Redneck? That's a, that's a North of the Mason-Dixon term, I think. So townie starter kit. So you can call it what you want. One of the things, so I work in a, a luxury, luxury second home market. I work in a second home, you know, resort area. And we will sometimes get buyers who are spending multiple millions of dollars on a second home. So what on God's green earth do you give these people for a closing gift? They can buy- You already have. Yeah. They can buy my house for a carriage house. Like, what am I, what am I going to give them?

So I came up with, so, and this is where we start to think about how we solve problems. What problem can you solve? What is a pain point for this wealthy family that's coming in to buy this house? Well, when they're coming in, into a resort area, the last thing they want to look like is a tourist. They want to look like they belong there. Like they are part of the community already. So I give them this starter kit. You can call it whatever you want. It's like a scavenger hunt. It's like a, like gift certificates on crack or with a college education. So we, um, more dogs. Oh, well, so we all have dogs. So we pick, I pick three to five local businesses that I know well, and that I know like the key person there. Like I know the head bartender there. I know the owner here. I know, you know, the, the best hairstylist at this salon, whatever. And I made these little one sheets for each place. I said, here is everything you need to know about this sandwich shop, this hair salon, this candy store, whatever. And with each of those is an envelope that is sealed and they don't know what's in it. I say, go to this place, patronize them, ask for the person that I put on that sheet. So I told you to go find Megan at the sandwich shop. She knows you're coming when you're coming, hand her the envelope. What I've put in that envelope is after they've had their lunch, tell them, Oh, Katie bought it. Katie bought your lunch. She sends me a little Venmo request or better yet, the organization, the, the business says, I'm happy for the business. I'll buy their lunch. I'm happy to have them. So now the next time they go into that sandwich shop, they go, Hey, Megan. Right. Like they know her because they do. Thanks to me. And now they're taking pictures with Megan, putting it on social thinking me and what did it cost me? 40 bucks, like big deal. And then they keep doing this. It's like the gift that keeps giving and they go when they want to. Whereas like if you were doing like some people do, like I paid this per this size, I spend this much money according to how expensive the house was. If I did that on this house, I would be sending them on like a river cruise. I am not doing that. That's not my budget, you know, and it would be silly.

So the one part of when you were talking through this at celebration that I loved, tell them about your coffee blend. Oh, Oh yes. Actually that goes with the brand. I skipped that. This is part of the branding. I think it ties into the starter kit, the philanthropy and brand altogether. Yes, it definitely does. And I need to go find one of the, Oh, hang on. So what I did, so the first thing I did, so one of the things I do is send people to a, um, I send people, I'll go, I'll find this in a second. I send people to a bar that I like, and we had been going to this bar a lot, me and my business partner. And after a few cocktails, once we were like, let's make up a drink. And so we made up this drink and it was pretty good at vodka, cranberry, and like muddled mint, like fancy. And we're like, Oh, what if we stirred it with a vanilla bean? That would be super fancy. So we did. And we called it, my brand is called the Cape house. So we called it the Cape house martini. And they're like, it tastes pretty good. Why don't we make it a special? I was like, do it. But then it was also like, you know what? I don't want to be, I have a thing. It'll be just like purely self-serving. Oh, promote me, promote me. I was like, how about this for everyone that they order? I'm going to give a dollar to the, to the board that I'm on the dentist conservation land trust, because by the way, at that time they were trying to bring their age demographic down. So martini is kind of fun.

And so we, I was able to get the, the organization in front of a new audience, promote the restaurant and it promotes me. Yeah. And it was, it cost me per quarter, like a hundred bucks, you know, however many, but consistently it's on there. And I write that little check and it's so much fun and people are posting about it and it's so great. And then my husband had this idea to partner with a local coffee or coffee rooster. And I know I have some in this office. Here it is. So these are coffee beans and you can see three fins is a local coffee rooster. We made a blend called the Cape house blend. And we, we, we really make, created this blend. We did taste test. We created, you know, we really worked on it. This is something that is approved by me and it is sold there. And each time someone buys a bag, I give a dollar and they give a dollar to our local housing charity, which by the way, I was a client of at one time. So it is, it means a lot to me to give back to them. So yeah. So how fun is this? And you can order this online. I'll get you the link. If anybody wants really good coffee, you can order it online and get, find out what I like in coffee. So yeah. So that's, so that's a philanthropy thing that we do. It's going big with my brand because boys and girls, I'm not, you know, that's me. That's my chair. That's on everything I do.

I don't have a tattoo of it yet. Um, well, and you can see over my shoulder here, that's actually our shirt that we have. And we also on the, on the going big with the brand, we've got koozies too, because those are fun, but don't get, I listen guys, don't get wrapped up in like going up and buying all this swag because if you don't know how to wag it, don't swag it. Like you got to figure out who you are first out there before you start investing in sweatshirts and all that jazz. Um, so the townie starter kit. Yeah. It's, I have a, I'll give you, I have a template for that in Canva. I'll give you the link to that as well. If someone wants to try to develop their own, uh, so what would you call it in the South? Uh, just like probably like, just like a welcome kit or something like that. Oh, it has to be more fun than that. Yeah. I'm about being a local.

Yeah. Some listeners going to come up with a good name. I just know it. I, uh, a question on the starter kit. Yes. The idea here, like you said, is this person who is a tourist feels more local. They're tied to some of the businesses. Obviously this bit, this benefits the business. How often does that business benefit your business because of it? Well, they give me referrals I've made, I've done $2 million off the hair salon. Um, I don't know how much money I've done with the sandwich shop, but I'm not worried about it. Right. I'm not worried about it at all, but it creates this reciprocal business, but it's not the intent. No, it's a side benefit, but I get referrals like crazy. Like, like I've closed about $2 million, but I get other referrals or people just calling up in new relationships that I get the opportunity, nice, soft, warm relationships that I get to start and see where they go. But it, it absolutely, absolutely helps.

How do the Realtors send in that person business? Um, nobody. In fact, I got a couple of people who were like, kind of spicy, sour about it. They're like, I wish I thought of that. I'm like, well, if you were a nicer person, maybe you wouldn't have. All right. Last but not least. And I feel this one in my soul because this is where this show came from was me during the pandemic preaching to my agents. They needed to get their asses on video. Yeah. Because we're all stuck in our home, like get in front of people in some way, shape, or form. And then I realized that I wasn't practicing what I was preaching. Started this show, which we had already, I had already conceived the idea of long before, but just never did it.

And so we have it, but you started a show that is local based. I did. It's, it's, it's called what's good Cape Cod and feel free to rip me off calling, you know, what's good Texas or what's good your neighborhood. And we wanted to feature a person, a place in a thing that we thought as locals, everybody should know about. Now, this isn't your typical, like promote a business type thing. It is the, the people, the kinds of people we've had in the people category, everybody from a veteran of our local school committee, who's just spent 20 years, like thankless job on the school committee. He's just been this, you know, bastion of strength for our kids and through so much. And we just wanted to give him a little sunshine. Now that's never going to make the paper. It's not anything that the chamber of commerce cares about, but if you care about this community, you should know Brian Carey, you know, that's just someone you should have in your vocabulary. If you want to feel like you're a local, that's one of the things you should know.

We've even talked about historical figures who, who lived here, Mercy Otis Warren, like people were not here anymore. And places definitely sometimes are, are restaurants and things like that, but they are also could be, uh, places that we'd like to hike locally. Um, or what else do we do for a place that was kind of cool? Um, like, Oh, one, one place that we're, we're going to be doing soon is a, it's, it's called Tommy's place and it's a residential place for families with kids with cancer to, to stay and have a great vacation here on Cape Cod. Um, and the things that we talk about are everything from like the locally on Cape Cod, the hydrangea is like the flower. So we talked about hydrangeas once.

We also have talked about the thing was winter beach walks. And so we're like, it's actually very cool to walk on the beach in the winter. It's so quiet. The wildlife is so cool and it's not always freezing. So it's kind of cool place, cool thing to do. So, so we show you the Cape through the eyes of a couple of locals. So think about that. If you go to what's good, cc.com, that's, you can see our show. You can see the model of how we do it. We do it. Half of them are just like this on zoom. And then half of them, we go on location now and do it. And we put out a show just about every week and you can see us on YouTube and whatnot, but we've gotten such great engagement from our local business community. And do I know how much business I've gotten out of it? I have no idea, but it has elevated our visibility. And one of the principles of it for us anyway is, so I do this with a, another real estate agent who's not on my team and not in my brokerage. We have, we are competitors. In fact, yeah. Chance is like, why would you do that? Well, because like tomorrow we could be on the same team. People change brokerages all the time. What's different because they work in that building versus this building. Why can't we help each other out? Why can't we be decent to one another and collaborate over competition? There's a whole hashtag collaboration over competition that we try to promote and cooperating agents. Co-op. It's cooperating. Exactly. And we're all around here operating. Like we're the only real estate agent on earth. Yes. We're independent contractors, but you don't, if ever there was a time in our industry, it's now to be working together, like opening, like sharing ideas, helping each other out. We times are about to get real tough for most real estate agents. And if you don't start giving and asking for help, you're going to be in a bad way. And this is a, this is one of the principles that we preach about in the show, but my back to the show, produce a local show. It can be a podcast. It can be a video show. It can be a blog. You know, you just have a weekly blog that you write about your town today. When I went down, so I had one person, I saw one person was doing, they just, they just did the live sunset for three minutes every day for a month. And so people who didn't live there or who visited there could see the sunset. And then there'd be all this engagement on the Instagram live and they would just get to know each other and you get to see the sunset every day. It's pretty cool.

Well, the beauty of the show like that, when you're talking about local businesses and you're talking about local things to do in places and stuff like that, it's that it's kind of evergreen. Like next year, when somebody comes to visit the Cape and they've never been there and they Google it, what's going to pop up is this whole show that has tons of stuff to go do and see and places to go. And it's just there forever. So, you know, what's funny too, is Sarah and I have such different perspectives and we have different circles of, of friends and sphere of influence and whatnot. We've introduced each other to things that we each didn't know about. So it's, it's been, and people have said that like, I'm coming down. All right, well watch a few episodes, pick something fun and go do it. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. All right. So going back to our Top 5, we've got go all in on brand.

Yep. Take a role in some sort of local leadership, whether that's on the town board, whether it's philanthropy. Speaking of which number three is philanthropy, get involved. Participate, be actively philanthropic. Yep. In the good of your community. Number four is create a townie. And number five is build out a show. Yep. Yep. And like I said, when we started this, it didn't hit me sitting there in the room in Arizona when we were going through this, I just was like, this is phenomenal. But really later, as I got to kind of pulling the strings on some of these things, this is something that it doesn't have to be for your town. It could be for an organization that you're a part of, an alumni group, specialty veterans, or, you know, something that you can apply these principles to just about any kind of niche or specialty. It's just, they're so they're just laid out perfectly. That's why I wanted to have you on. So I'm glad. Oh, I'm so glad. I hope people will do something with this. I'll make sure I'll get you the links to the starter kit, to the show. And if you ever have, want to have me on again and do the five ways to do things while poor. Yeah, we may need to before too long. I could do that everything from dressing to philanthropy to, you know, everything. But yeah, I'm thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it.

And thank you for watching. This has been another episode of Top 5. We'll be back next Wednesday at 10am with another show anywhere you find your favorite podcasts.