Ep# 40: How this Agent Created Instant Authority and Credibility With His Own Book

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Go check it out right now, visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today. Hey listeners, Jeff Zimper, welcome to this week's episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio. I am so glad you're here. By the way, if you haven't subscribed yet, make sure you take a moment to do that, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher. You can reach out to me anytime over at info at MortgageMarketingInstitute.com. And if you haven't joined our free Facebook group, if you're looking what you hear on these podcasts and you want to go deeper, you want access to more content and resources, we've got a free private Facebook group available for you. Simply log onto mmiprivategroup.com, that's MMI, Stanza, Mortgage Marketing Institute, MMIprivategroup.com, that'll take you to our private Facebook page and we'll be prompted to join. Join the other fellows who are sharing what's working across the country. Okay, let's get into this week's special guest and it's unique and different again. I did something similar to this a couple of weeks back, episode number 35 where I featured top agent who's selling 120 homes per year talking about branding. If you want to go back and listen to that, it's MortgageMarketingInstitute.com forward slash 35 for episode 35, Mike Bjorkman, Home Smart Realty, great interview where he talks about celebrity branding and positioning. So that went over so well. I came across another agent who is running two businesses between Minnesota and Beverly Hills, California, talk about two different markets. But what really grabbed my attention about my special guest this week is that he is author of a book. The book is titled One in a Million. Everything you need to know to find the best realtor. Eric self published this book, it's on Amazon, it's on different places and so forth and so what I do is unpack with Eric the impact of having a book in your business and you'll hear Eric talk about how he integrates the book into his process when he gets leads and there's the first phone call and one of the first steps of this process is sending the book and the amazing things that it does in terms of positioning him. Eric talks about a concept he learned in marketing called ACE, ACE, right? ACE marketing. What it stands for is authority, celebrity and expertise. And when you've got a book, you instantly get all three. You're perceived as an authority. You've got celebrity status and you're positioned as an expert. And let's just face it, right? Perception is reality. What the market perceives of you to be is what's true for them. Whether, by the way, it's true or not, perception is reality, perception is everything. Quite honestly. So how would you like to be able to attract and convert agents at your will without having a call call, without having to establish why you, why should I work with you versus other, how would you like to go away from the conversation about price? How would you like to make sure that agents never miss a coffee meeting? If you're doing agent classes, how would you like to guarantee that your classes fill up and overflow every single time? Would you like to provide value to real estate agents and bring them ideas and solutions that really make below their hair back and make them think, how about maybe teaming up with your agents and referral partners to help them write a book? If you are interested in doing that kind of stuff, let me know in felt at mortgagemarkinginstitute.com. More importantly, take time to listen to this very short podcast today where Eric is going to unpack the process of writing a book, the impact that it's had to his business, and how it's helping him really ignite his business. So without further ado, let's get into the show. Eric, welcome to the show. Glad to be here. Hey, appreciate you're making time, obviously you're very busy. So you came across my radar by listening to a different podcast and I heard about you as a real estate agent having a book, which is a rare animal, I think, in the real estate space. But one I want to see a lot more of, including from loan officers. But I want to maybe start there because, you know, before we hit record, we're talking about a lot of agents are more tactical than they are strategic and writing a book is something that I think is strategic and thinking of, but then it becomes tactical and how you use that. So maybe we can start with what the heck prompted you to consider writing a book? Well, the short answer is as I switched markets. So I went from being in the Midwest Minneapolis, Minnesota to be exact and jumping into a much larger market in Beverly Hills. And in any market, real estate agents, loan officers, et cetera, were somewhat commoditized. What makes one different than another? And I came across this concept through my readings, my research, my look into other successful businesses of this idea of ACE level marketing, which stands for authority, celebrity and expertise. And so if you really want to differentiate and not be a commodity, you need to find a way to elevate yourself above all of that competition. And for me, I chose the book as my platform. Okay, that's great. So ACE level marketing, say that again, authority, celebrity and expertise. So if you look at any phase of marketing and any business from selling cars to selling vacations, a lot of times like George Foreman Grill, are we really buying it because it George Foreman's there? Well, now he's the celebrity that endorses that product. So you writing a book or being on television or having a radio show or a podcast for that matter gives you celebrity, gives you authority in this certain space. And so writing a book, there's a cliche that says, well, he wrote the book on, well, there's a reason that that's there. Right. So you're the perception now. What did, how did that change your, your perception and your business in your markets? I basically use it as a business card. This is a new concept. The book was just completed last November. So it's new. But I know it goes to every prospect that I connect with. I handed out to potential referral partners, anyone, instead of just handing a business card or a brochure or a follow-up letter, which will all get thrown away, a hard copy paperback book will sit on a shelf at least. If not, get passed around and get read, it'll get taken on a plane, it'll get taken to a lunch meeting, it'll come to the beach. All the different places that someone can now, I get to lend credence as an expert on this particular topic. And so the book is called one in a million. Everything you need to know to find your best realtor. And I'm going through the table of contents and stuff. But what are you trying to accomplish with the content in the book? Basic differentiation. I don't want to be a commodity in a market where it's very difficult. It's very challenging to cut through the weeds of agents in a market that's as big as Los Angeles Beverly Hills. And so this, I'm hoping to push me into a platform that's a little bit higher. Did you write the content? I mean, yourself? Because normally that's kind of a, you know, for most people, daunting. I did. It was an absolute labor of love and there were moments that it was not fun to go through because I'm not a natural author. It's the first and only book that I've written. But it took around seven months and I would block off two sessions per week, typically once during the week, once on the weekend. And there were moments that I didn't have anything to be able to write. But working through that, you'd get some nuggets and then you just plow through and that created the book. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that because I was going to ask you what you're writing, you know, how did you get yourself the right being, you know, you got ourselves real estate and all that other stuff. So it came down to you blocking time and just you stare at a blank paper sometimes. But, you know, you've been in the business how long? In one facet or another for about 17 years, representing clients prior to me just doing investment-based work for about the past 10 or 11. Right. So was your intent then to try and pull out some of your experiences and stories and, you know, best practices that helps prospective buyers and sellers? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. People have different ways that they process and, you know, some people are really creative. For me, I'm fairly linear in my thinking. And so I thought of an outline into the different chapters, but even within each chapter, I have somewhat of a sequence. I usually start with a story. Then I tie it into whatever that chapter's concept is and then I add my nuggets of value at the end of the chapter. And I just do that sequentially through the course of the book. And it's a decent sized book, 133 pages. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. That's great. I do have various calls to action in there. I do. I also use it as a soft sell. So there's at the end of the book, there's other places that people can go to, they can tie in to my website. They can tie in and ask for other value added items. So it works that way also. And is it self-published? It is. I went through a company called Dog Year Press, but I was involved in the creative process. Okay. Yeah. No, that's interesting because I've done a similar thing, but using create space, but I hadn't heard of Dog Year. So I want to order this book. If I go to order, where does it take me? Is that the self-publishing company or? You can go anywhere. So you can go Amazon. I'm available. I booked. Nice. Okay. So just searching on Amazon. Awesome. Do you have a Kindle version, by the way? I sure do. Yeah. Perfect. Okay. So take me through the process then of understanding how you're marketing your business right now because I want to, I want to understand where this book is inserted. I know you said it goes to everyone, right? But I mean, so how are people contacting you right now, meaning what's your main source of business? Is it S O I? Yes. So there's this concept of funnels. Yeah. I'm in a new market. So my, my old market, which I was in for 10 years is different than what I was in now. And so I have three main buckets. I have Sphere of Influence, which is growing. I'm starting year three soon. So that's still very much in its growth phase. I have referral partners, same concept. I refer business to insurance agents, mortgage brokers, moving companies, interior designers, et cetera, and try and add value back to them. That's a second bucket. My third bucket is online, both in SEO and PaperClick and then also in social media. And if you think of these different funnels of how a lead will come in, it either comes as a referral or it comes through the internet or a sign call or whatever it is, at that point once the lead comes in, we have my assistants will have a basic script to qualify the lead. And at the point of qualification, we hit them with our first value ad, which is the book. We will physically mail it to them. And then at that point, we hope to do a follow-up to make sure that they've received it. And it also targets the type of audience that we want. We want the person that's going to want to read this and have value. The person that doesn't want to read it, they might still be our client, but generally if they're taking the time to read page by page, I'm already pre-selling them. So you're sending out the book before you're scheduling the listing presentation? Correct. That's interesting. Most agents would shy away from that because they just want to get their man and do it. Right. So this is an additional cost of conversion. So I'll give a great, for example, and tweak these numbers anyway that you want to. But if you pay $10 as a cost to actually get a lead that is registered on your website or visited you on your social media, not a click, but an actual here's contact information and they've raised their hand. So it costs me based on the fact of how I make my purchasing for the book. It costs me about $10 to mail a physical copy out. So I doubled my cost of lead. You can do the math. If you've got 100 leads, if you've got 1,000 leads, you're just doubled your cost. But how much stronger is my conversion? Right. I should easily shift into double if not triple or more. What do you generally hear when you follow up with people after you've sent the book out? Obviously you ask them, right? Did you get the book? Correct. And then most people probably don't read the whole thing or do they? I don't know. I've seen a variety. I've seen some people say they haven't received it. Some people that say they just started to read it or they haven't read it. Other people that have started to quote me back chapters or reference certain comments in it. Really? And those are the people that I ideal. Some people, I've had people take a picture of the book and send it to me via social media. So it's doing its job. And again, it's early. It's at this point we're nearing six months of use. Right. Exactly. So how would you rank or quantify or place of value on the impact to your business of this book? So the long term benefit, you can use a book for a decade. There's not many pieces of marketing that you can, if not even longer, there will be certain aspects of the book that are not applicable based on them being a decade old. But then I just do a different rendition of the book or I do an upgrade if I want to. So at this point, again, let's just stick with the $10 per book and mailing cost. If I mail that out to a thousand people, that's $10,000. My average price point in the Beverly Hills market has a commission base that's $20 to $40,000. So if I send out a thousand books and even at direct mail rates of a 1% conversion, that's $10 clients, that $20 to $40,000 in commission. Yeah. And so this is, like you said, I think you called it about a $15 business card or something, but it is trying to, like in terms of impact and a listing presentation, right? Everybody's always looking for that home run with a listing. So you are essentially pre-sold before you get there. Yeah. That's the goal. And this book is just one tool of many that I use to differentiate. I don't just otherwise go in with a smile and a nice suit, and we have other tools that we're using as well. Like what, for example? Bomb, bomb video. It's a vended service. Are you familiar? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So video is, if you're not using it already, I highly, highly recommend it. It's just a number, particularly for me in my market. I get a number of prospects that are from out of state or out of country. So we have to make a personal relationship. People aren't buying a widget. They're buying us as an agent or a mortgage broker. And so to get them to want to like us, trust us and know that we'll do a good job, I need to attempt to make that relationship either over the phone or through video. And that video helps quite a bit because they can see things like facial expression and smile and, you know, intonation, et cetera. And so how do you use bomb, bomb throughout the process? How early do you use it? We drip immediately. So I have both buyer and seller-based drips that are already in video. So the text can be personalized based on, like, mail-merge features. But the video itself is just fairly standardized. One is a welcome and register. And then the variety of other videos, we use a series of about eight to 10 over 16 to 20 weeks. That will go out to an initial lead and they're all value ad-based. Would you like a copy of the book? Would you like a relocation packet? Would you like our VIP home buyers guide, et cetera? And those are set up in some type of an automated fashion once they opt in. Correct. And that's opting in on your website, typically? Correct, yes. Or do you also have, like, landing pages that are specific? I do. So I'm starting, and this is big. I haven't done this before, but in this market, another differentiator, I'm starting television commercials at the end of this month. Oh, really? So what kind? And my market down here in Orange County, there's somebody, Leon Canade. She's definitely a high-end, you know, luxury real estate specialist. She's been on the cable channel here for years. And that'll be the case. It's national programming and a local audience. So things like history, channel, Fox Sports, news, CSNBC, but just in my market. Wow. That's very cool, very cool. And of course, you'll be using the book in the bio-description, all that on the TV show. I'm sure. That's the whole pitch. It's not even really selling my services. It's, I'd love to give you a free copy of the book, and then they visit a landing page, they being the prospect. And on the landing page, they submit contact information to get a copy of the book. And then there's a special secondary offer after they've gotten the book of, would you also like a free password protected website for your home search? And then at that point, we start guiding them down the funnel. Is there a CRM that you are a fan of right now? I mean, I've gone through so many, unfortunately. I'll be honest, anything that you know and you like is fine. There's not one that's better than another. They all have issues and they all have things about them that are great. So I transitioned from using top producer to using one called Commission Zinc, which is also a lead generation platform. Yeah, it's a great platform. I always tell people it's the one you use is the one that's the best. Totally true. Awesome. So I know you're also doing other stuff like I see on your website. It's, I don't know if you've got two websites because the mid-coastgroup.com is that to cover both of your markets? Yeah, so that funnel's over to our, basically, our branded page, which we're still, you know, as any business that you're self-employed, you're constantly tweaking. Yeah. And so that's more of a billboard. It's not enough of a lead generator, which we're going through some changing. I see. The Commission Zinc based website that I use is called View Homes in Los Angeles area.com. And so that guides people into the funnel for sales. Los Angeles area.com, I'm going to pull out up right now because I always like these websites. They look really sharp. Yep. Okay. That's what I, it's, yeah, it's got the info there. You can put in your parameters, featured listings, all that kind of stuff. Very cool. Also, what stood out for me when I looked at your page was your involvement in charity. Or also, I guess I should say the fact that you are publicly making available your activities outside of you're not just a real estate agent, right? You're in the rotary club, you're part of charity, you're running the high heel dash for the smile network, you're part of November, looks like, how impactful do you think that is to your business? Yeah. I think it's, again, we're very tight in the fact that our work is often our lives as well. And we're, if you look at the way we're going through generational shifts from boomers to X and Y to millennials, everything is on social media. Like your life is scripted and pictorial now all over the internet. And so the more that you can share about what makes you a human, again, we're the product. Why do you want to work with me as an agent versus someone else? I would like to share the things that allow me to be the differentiator. And if charitable causes are part of who I am, that's genuinely I would like to have a greater give back, I'm more than willing to share that as part of my business. It opens up that platform, which enrichens me as a person, not just as a business. Yeah. So that sounds like we're talking about branding there. How do you feel about brand or your, obviously you're working on your brand? I just wonder if you have any articulation or comments about what a realtor's brand should be. Yeah. It should be authentic. I struggled for years with the idea of branding didn't generate leads. So I didn't want to put any spend or time into it. I just wanted to find lead funnels to be able to pump in more business. When in reality with this concept of our business is so personal, sure, you could say that you're helping someone sell a product, but in reality, it's a lifestyle choice. Their home is usually happening based on some big lifecycle event. And so because of that, it's okay. I have found it's okay to add a personal touch to that component. And so that creating my personal brand, which I'm putting a big push into many aspects of social media from a public Facebook page, to Instagram, to Twitter, we're just making more connectivity. Do you have your own brokerage? I don't. No. Who you affiliated with? It's a boutique here in the Los Angeles Beverly Hills area called Tell Us Properties, in ELES. I think I've heard of them. Well, the reason why I mentioned that is because unlike most other agents where the franchise is the predominant brand, yours is not. The brand is you. Correct. I mean, I still have to have plugs like licensure and the broker name to be the same size as mine. But if, and I'm very happy with my brokerage, I would not want to leave. But if you ever do, you're the brand that travels to different places. So mine is, well, publicize yourself. Yeah. Okay. Great. I don't want to leave the opportunity to talk to you about mortgage loan officers because obviously you get approached by some and I don't know what your set up is in terms of you've got one or two you're loyal with. But I think this is a relevant conversation for loan officers as well. What would you, if any, if you could, advice for loan officers in how to better approach realtors? How relevant do you think is, for instance, a loan officer having their own book? Do you think that's a good idea? I do. It's extremely helpful. And a lot of it depends on how you look to generate business like there's probably the most natural marriage in our industry is mortgage and real estate more so than any other. And so if you want to work with multiple real estate agents, you would want to provide them with value. And it's the same thing with a real estate agent back to a mortgage broker. It's one thing to just give referrals back and forth. But if you can really embed yourself into a couple of agents businesses and you don't have to pick the agent that's doing a daily year, find the one that's going to really help you grow and then embed yourself. It might be seminars, it might be accountability meetings, it might be joint marketing on whatever level that is. But finding that you will get quote unquote free business from that agent every year for the rest of your career if you really make a right machine of it. Any unique approaches you've seen from a loan officer that stands out when they were marketing to you? Yeah, I saw someone actually, but I think we're closer to your market than mine that had done, they hired inside sales agents and did circle calls and neighborhoods. And so they would develop seller-based leads and then hand those out to real estate agents. Really? Find people who are open to selling? Yes. Huh. Well, that's interesting. Very cool. Anything coming up for you, special projects wise or anything you want to talk about, projects, charities you're involved in? You know, most of it is a big business push. This is the beginning of year three in my market, which is usually where in my last market it's where things kind of started to double and take off. And so I'm doing, I'm putting a lot of chips into the center of the table and I'm doing them. A big PR campaign, a big social media campaign and then as mentioned, the television commercials, which seems to be taking the bulk of my time with doing that and running business. Oh, yeah. And now you're going to be kind of repurposing those anywhere like YouTube or something? I will. Yeah. Of course you will. Here's your smart. That's awesome. Well, hey, congratulations to you. I mean, obviously you are successful by what I can tell you and I don't know each other at all. But obviously, you know, I'm looking at your website. You're getting the, I forget what the name of that award is from Remax, the particular one you got with Dave Lindergur there. That was the Hall of Fame. It's a lifetime achievement sort of award. And that's a pretty good one where as far as those awards rank, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for saying that. It was a big one. Yeah. No doubt, man. You're making time. I just wanted to grab you real quick and just, you know, the book topic was me, top of mind. And it's like, I talked to realtors and law officers all the time and I show examples of agents who have written books. So with your permission, I'd like to include us, you know, yours in my presentation as another example. Yeah. Of course. And if you want to leave my contact information, if people have questions by all means they can touch base anytime. Yeah. Well, how do you suggest people reach out to you if they want to? You can visit my website and there's a contact page there. So it's easiest. It's just www.ericrbrown.com that is E-R-I-K-R as in Robert and then brown like the color dot com. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. Congrats on all your success and look forward to seeing your show coming soon. Hey, pleasure as mine. Thanks, Jeff. All right. For all you listeners, thanks for tuning in once again. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you haven't subscribed, at least do so. You don't want to miss content like this. We miss our rating. If you don't mind, iTunes, Stitcher, thanks for listening. We'll see you on the next one. Thanks for listening to Mortgage Marketing Radio. 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