The Blueprint for Engaging Real Estate Partnerships

Hey there, Jeff Zimper, host of Mortgage Marketing Radio Podcast, do you like that intro music? I hope so. In case you haven't heard, Sun Jackson created that intro song, and if you guys are looking for help with any intro music like that, you'd love to love the vibe, or maybe you got your own vibe. I don't know what your vibe is, but that's our vibe on the Mortgage Marketing Radio Podcast, and if you'd like your own audio, intro, bumper, swipe music. Let me know. DM me. Got some talent. Gotta put it to use here. Open your, open your ticket. Okay, so before we get into this week's episode, of course, another success story from the streets. Let me pop into our Facebook group of originators from around the country. What are we doing in my ageing classes? We are helping our generators move from the perception of the solicitor and vendor to the partner and here in the context of you seeking to get ageing conversations, engagement, and referrals at scale. We lead with education. We help age and solve problems. We don't chase. We don't beg. We don't co-pay for leads. We attract, and we build a platform much like if you were running for office looking to get elected, you would have a platform you want to run on, right? You would need to be stand for something. You would need to be known for something. You would need to be in touch and engage with your constituents. People would need to be able to connect with you and get a sense of who you are, what your values are, so that they can make a decision on choosing to vote for you. By the way, I would say most often people don't vote for solicitors and vendors. They do vote for partners and peers. So a quick story from our private member group here, my ageing classes, Liz Reese. What's up? Her, Liz Reese posted on our Facebook group that she got an agent who reached out to her unsolicited to book a call. And when Liz asked, how did you and I connect? She said she received an invitation to one of Liz's many classes that she does in our platform of my ageing classes. Liz Reese goes on to say that she has no idea who this woman is and that she definitely came from the database of agents that we provide to our members when they become a member in their local market, in their local area of productive agents that are doing a minimum amount of production, both listing and by side. And we provide that list to you as it means to help you jumpstart your outbound marketing promotion outreach and engagement with real estate agents. And the good news about this agent who contacted Liz unsolicited is that the agent has been in business for 21 years and is a successful agent. So therefore, as Liz says, she does not have to coach and reassure her on how to be a successful real estate agent. She already is successful. So congratulations to you, Liz, because you are one of the best executors and persistent consistent people in our community. And I appreciate your loyalty and longevity with us now for what four plus years. And if that sounds interesting to you, you want to learn more about how do you get agents to actually reach out to you and say, can we grab a meeting, a Zoom, a whenever I'd like what you're doing. And I'd like to learn more about you and potentially partnering with you. That's changing the narrative. That's flipping the script. That's called attract versus chase leading with education, becoming a partner and up here instead of a solicitor and vendor. You want to learn more, grab a time on my calendar, mortgagemarketing.pro. Yes, it is a call with me. Mortgagemarketing.pro will have a conversation, share everything with you, take a look behind the scenes, open up the kimono, learn more about your business, we'll see if we're fit. Mortgagemarketing.pro. Okay, this week bringing you a really cool conversation from somebody who we became fast friends a few years ago, attending the mastermind summit in Vegas. And since then, I've just been impressed with what this gentleman, Daniel Seminoffsky is doing, speaking of building a brand and not having to call, not having to chase, but literally building a brand by which, once again, sounds familiar, you're actually creating an audience that generates deals for you simply by putting good information, good content out there and not being in the standard, right, vendor and partner. I know I just talked about that, but this is exactly what Daniel has done as an insurance broker. Where do you hear how he has built this amazing platform to be one of the top producing mortgage insurance brokers in the country, working with mortgage professionals? When it comes to homeowners insurance, right, you have choices, your clients have choices, they want to be directed to a reputable professional source for them. In many cases, when it comes to insurance and Daniel's the go-to guy in the Kansas City, Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois area, built one hell of a practice, and even better than that perhaps is that he's funny as hell. He's got quite the personality, you've got to follow him on Instagram, we'll put a link in the show notes here to his Instagram, which is Daniel Seminoffsky.noennah.com, that's Instagram. But that's where you can find him. So I think you're really going to enjoy this episode and I want you to listen with an open mind and just ask yourself, like, hey, if the insurance guy can do it, and the insurance guy's number one audience is you, the mortgage professional, think of this. How many insurance professionals in your backyard have you not yet talked with about teaming up to do events and classes to attract real estate agents? Because they're out there, they want to get in front of you, other mortgage professionals, they want to build their personal network with real estate agents as well. It's a win-win across the board. So listen to this with that open mind, consider how you could apply this to your own business and see if this makes sense without further ado, let's get into this week's show. Daniel, welcome to the show. Thanks, Jeff. This is a long time coming, man. I mean, I think what, we met at the mortgage mastermind summit in Vegas probably two years ago. Yeah, we're in the real world penthouse suite, I believe, and then like everyone was there for whatever reason. That room was so packed and tiny, we're just like, you know, up in a wall, just like talking. I might have caught a disease just standing there, to be honest. Everybody who came out of that caught COVID, I think. Pretty sure. And other things. Right. Yeah. Look, man, I'm glad we were finally able to do this. Likewise. Dory is really interesting, but why don't you just take it first? Like, who are you? What do you do? Yeah, yeah. So I'm actually co-founder of agency insurance, where a personal PNC shop, we really specialize right now, just in the personal lines of things. I started that a year ago, prior to that, I've only been in the business for about five to six years now. But I was the number one producer for the company that I worked out originally, which was the 18th largest independent insurance agency in the country. And then around Kansas City, I am pretty much the number one referred insurance broker by real estate agents. So that's kind of been my caveat. But then on top of that, I would like to say that I'm kind of a, a, a, a, a hype man and also a confidence coach for a lot of real estate agents, which, like I told you earlier, what's funny is I'm someone who just found my own confidence a few years ago. So, but, you know, it's been a whirlwind of a, of a time, but it's, it's been a huge man. So I'm loving the, the, the path so far. Yeah. And then that's what kind of drew me to you was your energy and like who you are, and you're just being yourself. And that's what's great about that is you can be yourself, right? And a trust. Yes. Like, I'm, we'll probably get into this. Yeah. I'm going to assume that by being yourself, you may also turn some people away. Oh. Undoubtedly. I know him a lot. Like what's funny is I literally, so the broke agent, which I'm sure you know, Eric, they, they all came out just this week to, to, to, to basically have a big talk for the real brokerage. And he and I hit it off and he's like, dude, you are literally insane, but I like you. I like you. So I get it. I'm not, I'm not for everybody. Right. And that took me, you know, a little bit of time to figure out because I'm naturally a lot of people pleaser. I've always wanted to be liked stems from my childhood, whatever it is, but what you come to realize is you get older, it's like, you don't want everybody to like you. You just want to find your people. And that's what I've been able to do is by being authentically myself, I attract the people that, you know, there's, this guy's a little crazy, but I like him because that's kind of how I am. And you don't want to do business with people you don't like. Right. So 100%. You got to be yourself 100%. Mm-hmm. That's the key. Okay. Let's unpack then. You refer to yourself as the most preferred insurance broker in the state of Kansas. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. So I'm involved in it. So one of the platforms I'm involved in here is called Kansas City Real Producers Magazine. I'm sure you've heard of that. So my buddy Reese runs it. And so not that long ago, they had a big thing. And one of the questions in there was like, he's always looking to find out who people are working with. And when it came to the insurance section, I was pretty much 70% of the page. And this is the top 500 producers in Kansas City. So and like I said, my focus is always now drifted towards real estate agents. I think, you know, the funny thing is I should have been a real estate agent. I've got the personality for it, but I fell into insurance. And it's probably the best thing that ever happened because most insurance agents are, you know, a little bit older. They work at state farm. They don't have a lot of personality. So when I showed up, everyone's like, what's happening here? And so it's just been an, it's honestly, I kind of feel like it's been a gift. Like I would have been a great real estate agent, 100%, but there's a lot of great real estate agents in this community. And so I would just been another great agent, you know, you're bringing the, you're bringing the sexy back to home. I'm bringing the sexy back. I'm trying to make insurance a little bit fun. Yeah. 100%. Somebody's got to take that dry topic, right? And make it. Yeah. Well, you know, and I've done content about insurance and even when we'll get into this probably a little bit more, but when I started making videos about insurance originally, you know, I knew I wanted to bring my own flair, my own personality. And, you know, I was born in Russia, St. Petersburg, Russia, I left when I was like five months old, which thank God, because I'd probably be fighting right now. And as I'm sure you can tell, I'm not a fighter. I'm more of a lover. But my parents very much first generation, thick accents, my, I mean, practically my dad's Borat, you know, but my mom, I'd always get her in my videos. And there was one where I was talking about personal liability, which is, you know, a coverage that protects you in the event if someone gets hurt. And so I was kind of explaining this to her. Obviously, she has no idea what the hell I'm talking about, but she stops you. And she goes, hmm, this is like when you're on high school, I would tell you protection, protection, protection, like she's naturally a character too. And all these people saw this, this is probably one of my first or second videos I made. And it just exploded. People like, holy shit, I don't know about this insurance stuff. But that was hilarious. We want more of your mom. And then it just kind of got the ball rolling where I realized like, you know what? I don't have to be this dry insurance person talking about coverage. There's like, I found a way to incorporate my personality and my sense of humor, humor with what I do. And it translated, you know, on camera. You know, it's interesting because I know you've heard, you've attended the mortgage conferences and all that. And you're, we follow a lot of the same people. And, you know, the whole thing we talk about, which is you can't talk about your products and services all the time and that tune people out. And I think about that comparatively of like, you know, people who talk about the mortgage products all the time versus like you talk about even less difficult to talk about all the time is insurance, yes, the boring people and tuning that out. Sure. Because on the level of interest, it's by the home financing, oh, yeah, I forgot, I need insurance, right? Exactly. And, you know, for a long time, when I got into the business, I used to only chase mortgage cylinders. That's essentially what I was trained on. And I would say, well, what about real estate agents and the guy who, you know, at the time, was like, nah, nah, don't waste your time with that. But so ultimately, I got tired of the chase with mortgage owners because all of your listeners knows who are L.O. You call a new agent. You don't know. And they go, yeah, like, there's that visceral feeling of just like, you're just calling to get business for me. And so that's the feeling that these lenders would get when I would call them. So essentially, I was like, well, what do these people want, which is ultimately most of the time is new agents, connections, anything and like that. A lot of times, you know, I do try to listen to their pain points and think about what do they really need? Because sometimes I have big lender partners who, you know, yes, they want to meet new agents. But maybe there's something in their process that I can help with to make their life easier. So, but that being said, I started a series around Kansas City, you know, I got inspired with the people like Gary Vee and Neil during our good buddy, you know, creating content. Even myself at first, I was like, you know, I'm, I'm an out there person. I'm willing to put myself out there. But even in that first original moment, I remember thinking like, oh, like, what are people going to think? Like it just, I don't know, like, and, and so I totally get it. This idea of putting yourself out on camera into the world where you don't know how you're going to be, you know, taken, it can be a nervous thing. But what you find is more often not, once you get over that hurdle, the, the reception is great. Obviously, you got to find your voice and who you are. But the whole point of that was just to basically attract more real estate agents so I could then introduce them to my mortgage partners or go to a mortgage, you know, introduction to like, hey, I don't have cookies for you. What I do have is a real estate introduction. And that's essentially what happened. But what really happened was when I started creating content, doing videos, a lot of real estate agents, yes, started coming to me, but they essentially said, God, I would love to do that. Like, I would love to get on video, but like, I'm just scared. And I'm like, wait, what? I'm like, you sell $50 million worth of homes, you're just like, no, I know it, but can you teach my team? I'm like, no, no, no, if you want your team to do it, you need to do it too. And so that's kind of the funny thing is I really do consider myself now a confidence coach in the sense of like, I literally will take people by the hand. I know how to make videos, I know how to edit videos. But more importantly, it's just, hey, let me show you that you can do this. Like it's not as scary as you think it is because there's a lot of analysis by paralysis going on in our industry. So if you can be that person for that, you know, be the person for them that gets them out of their comfort zone or helps them do something that they didn't think was possible, they immediately put you on a pedestal. And this is huge for your listeners, because I know most are L.O.'s and you're always, I know we all talk about, well, we want to provide value and we want to add value, but how do you really add value, right? And so I personally believe right now is the biggest opportunity we've ever had, because I go to these classes, I go to these conferences, and 90% of real estate agents don't know what they're doing. They're terrified. They don't know where to start. So if you can be that voice of reason or be someone that can help guide them, even in the smallest direction, right? They immediately position you with someone of serious value, whether they follow through with it is up to them. There's plenty of relationships that I've built simply by moving them in that direction. They go, huh, that was great, not as bad as I thought. Let's keep this relationship going. They never really followed up with stuff. They send me all their business. So because they kind of like knowing, well, I've got to be in on the back pocket if I need it. I'm not accountability coach. I have too much going on to do that, but if you do call me and my wife heats this, I will pick up at 10 o'clock and talk to you about something, or I will show up at your office with my camera, stop what I'm doing, and I will help you film something. So right now, as a mortgage owner, especially in this market, if you can figure out what your strength is. Now, what we talked about earlier, not everyone can do what I do. That's fine. There's a lot of people that have different strengths. I've learned to lean into my strengths. I have a lot of weaknesses, but I have a lot of strengths. One of that is just getting people to feel really comfortable around me. I'm okay being vulnerable in front of people. I don't know. It just breaks through the bullshit. But right now, you're now low and you have some sort of strength. Maybe you're good with running ads or what is it? What is it that in that market right now that a lot of real estate agents are struggling? I implore you to ask your partners, hey, what are you struggling with right now? And figure out what is your strength, right? Like, I'm not a super techy guy, but here's the thing. Even if it's not your strength, you can bring that thing to them. True. Either condo it. Yeah, 100%. You're 100% right. Like, you can take the time to learn something new, right? You're not taking the time to share the video, share the God, share the PDF. You know, we'll get into classes here in a few moments per cent. But, but, but, you know, if, if you help them solve problems, and by the way, how do you help somebody solve problems just to help them find the solution and give them the direction like you do. And maybe if it's in your, in your gift set to instill some confidence, then all the better. Yes. I don't think that that's predicated upon, like you said earlier, whether or not some, I've said this so many times, I don't, I can't remember. So, I sound repetitive. I remember back day. All right. So, back in the day, I'm doing what you just described here. I'm teaching classes, the agents and all this stuff that I bring in. A guy named Walter Sanford, out of Long Beach, California, was one of the top teachers in the country. His, his claim to fame was he sold a house every day for 16 years. Yeah. That's a lot of homes, right? And I brought him as a guest speaker multiple times to put me in the center of that. Now, I'm the conduit for the information. Yes. There's a few other ways people can do that. And my listeners know what they are, but what he said to me one day was he said the same thing you just said, he goes, hey, you know what, Jeff, I'm going to tell you a little secret. Whether the agents ever execute on those ideas or not, doesn't matter as you brought them the idea. That's what they're going to remember. You are a use case, right, an example of that in real life. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Absolutely. He nailed it. So I wrote down before we started hitting recording, you know, three kind of buckets for you, coaching, content and classes. Where do you want to start on that? What's coming up for you right now? You know, I've actively been doing a lot of classes. I will say that has been one of the biggest things to my success is classes in the sense of learning something like we just talked about to teach agents and originally started with just, you know, a single agent. And then that person's like, wow, this is pretty good. Do you think you'd want to come in and teach teach us? And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. And then all of a sudden, I strike up a relationship with the broker and the broker's like, yeah, this is great. Would you come in once a month? I'm like, I'd be happy to come in once a month. I'm going to need you to copy me on every single deal that comes through here when it comes to a new biceye transaction. They go done. So that's the beauty of leveraging all of this right now is if you can figure out that value ad. I mean, I've got offices all over town, you know, kind of doing that with me. When I first started the agency, I got a free office in a real estate, in a remax office simply because I agreed that I'd come in and coach. So coaching is amazing. Now I know it's, everyone has their different flair like we talked about earlier. I like to incorporate my personality. You know, my dream is always to be a performer, whether it was, and I would tell him how I actually hated this when we were dating, like, hey, don't get too serious. Like I'm probably going to move to Hollywood and get some performance. And then after like the fourth time I said that she's like, this guy's fully shit. He's not moving anywhere. So, you know, I have that performance in me. And so when I go up there for me, it's kind of like I'm on open mic. Like I work the crowd, you know, I do it on purpose too, because what we're talking about again is getting people to open up to put themselves out there. So I personally, it's, it's true to my nature to have fun to, to kind of be out there. And so, you know, there's things where I've, you know, before I even started the presentation, I opened up the screen and it says, how to start an only fans for realtors. And I've got like a picture of feet and like half the room laughs. The other room's like, wait, a little bit of older agents like, wait, what's the only fans? And then now I have to explain that, which I would tell you, the joke's not as funny when you have to explain that. Now you just look like a pervert. And they're like, so this guy's going to coach for an hour about this. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, this, and then so anyways, I like to, I test the boundaries. But coach, yeah, classes is huge. And I will tell you right now, especially the older demographic, so the remax office that I coach in a lot, I'd say typically most of the agents that come are probably 40, 50, 60 age group. They are so lost, they are so scared because they've never had to do this. They've never had to brand themselves. They never had to market themselves. Get on video. They're like, I just want to sell houses. I'm not trying to be an influencer. And to them, this is, I think, is the gold mine. If you're an L.O., your gold mine is established real estate agents that have no idea where to start. And if you can be that solution for them, you will get all of their business 100%. And it doesn't even have to be that like the classes I teach are like, how to post a story. Sometimes it's so basic of how to actually, you know, get behind a green screen, what to talk about, how to do that. I do a step by step, but I mean, it's pretty straightforward. I'm not doing groundbreaking things and it's mind blowing to them. And what do you know? Oh, I bring up insurance and blah, blah, blah, blah. And all of a sudden, now I get all their business as well. So there is right now a huge opportunity to take advantage of this. If you can, like I said, I know we can talk about this, but this is, this is the key. Is, is figure out a sweet spot like that, whether it's teaching classes, social media, what is that aspect? But that is what people are desperately, desperately looking for right now. Where do you get your content from to create classes and curious? So, you know, at this point, I don't know that there's anything really original. I don't know if you'd agree. Yeah, but, you know, a lot of, there's it up. Yeah, you switch it up. But I mean, I think the underlining message is all kind of the same. You know, be yourself, consistency, build your brand. Who are you? Be social. And I kind of just add on that. I do love Chelsea Pites. She's awesome. I feel like I really resonate with that content because she really talks about showing that human side to yourself. And that's one of the things that I coach a lot in my classes is yes, you're a real estate agent, but people don't give a shit about that. They care about who you are, right? And I think in our industry, it's very easy to fall in line with just listed, just sold. You're not sure what you're doing. Everyone's doing that. So I'm just going to do that. But if you go to my Instagram page, like we talked about, I do insurance. Like it's kind of hard to make that sexy. But what I found is just being myself, just really just showcasing who I am as an individual. I showcase a lot of my family. I got two beautiful girls, a brand new baby. I talk about the struggle hood of being a father, running a business, you know, running around town. And honestly, I feel like that creates, and I'm sure everyone's heard this before, the likeability factor. And then occasionally when you sprinkle in, whether it's a mortgage related video, a real estate related video or insurance, you create that trustability. So really when it comes to this human side of you, it is so important to basically be yourself. And what I've always told these agents is, you can be 100% yourself because you want to work with people like yourself. We've all had shitty clients. We don't want more shitty clients, right? In the beginning, yes, because we need the business. But in the long run, we're trying to attract our kind of people. Yeah. So I asked this person this question a couple of episodes ago. And you know, what I find sometimes, or maybe this is just in my own head, but I've got to imagine a number of people feel this way when they go to somebody's profile, perhaps such as yours or others who are obviously, um, putting themselves out there animated, have a person as have a sense of humor and they're together in a video. Some people just, they look at, like, remember, TikTok first, or Instagram, real stuff is dancing. Yep. And they're like, well, I don't want to do that. Right. So when people look at a profile like yours or others similar to that, what do you say to the people who look at that and go, yeah, well, I mean, look, he's funny. Like he has a personality. I'm not. Right. Right. Well, I think I think a perfect example is Neil Dringa, right? Like a bud. Like, and he always said he's like, I'm a nerd. He's like, I'm never going to be the guy. You're right. He's not that funny. Yeah. He's like, I'm not that funny. I'm, you know, he says it all the time. But he hit gold with just being himself. He's extremely intelligent. He's a hustler. He figured it out and it resonates with people. And that's why you don't have to be a Daniel. And there's, you know, not everyone wants to be a Daniel or enjoys a Daniel. So that's why you can do the things that are authentic to yourself. Now you can spice it up. I find that most people, you know, it takes them a little bit to get out of their comfort zone, right? Like there's nothing wrong with maybe doing a funny voiceover of like, you know, when you find out, you know, your friend used a different mortgage broker, right? And you can do kind of a funny thing. You can overlay, overlay with cap cut and stuff like that. So that would be the biggest thing is, I think, yes, you might not have the ability to just come up with stuff on spot and be this, this funny persona. But that's okay. You know, stick to what you know because you will attract those people. Like I have a lot of engine to your clients and they are very, they, like when I'm on the phone with clients, I'm very different from when I am on person on social media because my whole social media approach is attracting real letters, which will get into, but those people on social media, they came, they saw me first, they would not want to work with me. They're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, on the phone, they want the details, they want the specifics, all those different things. And so you can still attract those kind of people, even if you're not so called a big personality when it comes to that stuff. And it still works. But I think this is a good segue into, you know, kind of my social media strategy and how if you're not that type of person, how you can still benefit from that. Yeah. Let's go there because I was going to ask you that question next because what I heard was your Instagram strategy is intentionally your, your ideal avatar is the real estate agent. Correct. Yeah. So go explain that. Yeah. Yeah. So essentially if we've all heard when you're doing social media, you have to really figure out who your target audience is, right? Because you were selling to everybody. You're not selling to anybody. And so quickly what I realized was I didn't, I started doing videos on social and I really wasn't getting much traction from a insurance perspective. Yes, people that knew me would reach out. And ultimately, when I started doing this years ago, all I really cared about was figuring out how to connect real estate agents with my mortgage partners. That's it. So my idea was like, let me bring them in to what I'm doing. And so that has really worked well for just interrupt. So that was your value proposition was connecting the mortgage broker with the, with the real estate agent because you know, mortgage brokers always want to meet real estate. So that was kind of like, hey, I'm the, I'm the connector. I got sick of knocking on Lenders doors and they're like, yeah, buddy, we'll get to you when we get to you. Right. But so I kind of figured out a way to reverse engineering of the process was just essentially they want the carrot over here. Well, let me bring the carrot to them. But I add so much value to the real estate agent that they're almost like, well, how else can I help you outside of sending insurance? I'd love for you to meet my partner over here. Like, look, I'm not saying he has to be your number one partner, but you know, I think you might be able to help you and take a coffee meeting and see what it looks like because, you know, no one's doing that as an insurance individual. No one is really doing that for their mortgage partners, you know, most insurance brokers and agents, they're really just, you know, they're calling they're showing up, but there's no real substance of value. So I mean, all my mortgage partners and I've gotten to the point where I really don't go after mortgage partners locally anymore. I really just focus on the people that have helped me grow because I just want to add as much value as I can to them. But, you know, at this point, I could give, I could give you all their names and every insurance agent in the country, call them and I promise you, not single one of them would break my our relationship because of the value that I bring. And so, but the focus what social media has always been, how do I track more real estate agents into my sphere and then start communicating with them and then ultimately get to a point where, you know, I add some sort of value to them and then, hey, by the way, can I introduce you just, you know, this individual, this lender did it up and ultimately I've kind of created a whole funnel effect. Yeah. So what popped in my mind is, you know, you know, the phrase from Gary V, the digital mayor, you know, in a sense, you kind of became the mayor and your community between a mortgage professional and real estate agent and you're, you know, pressing the flesh and kissing babies and connecting. You're the connector, right? Which is cool. That made a lot of sense. And therefore you double, you got both sides of the coin there. Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, social media is great by all means, it's not my biggest play. I will say my, my biggest lack is consistency. You know, I've always struggled with consistency. I'm doing a million different things, you know, oftentimes helping other agents and, you know, helping with their social media. So my stuff kind of gets put on the sidelines, but, you know, what I have found, if you have good quality, the quantity isn't as important. You can still have a huge impact like, you know, the stuff that you're putting out is, if it's good and people actually enjoy it, you don't have to put out a video every single day. Like, you know, I put out, again, it's for myself. It's my personality. Like I recently made a, an elf, my, my daughter, we did elf on the shelf. I like it. We did elf on the shelf. And I started to think down, I'm like, hey, because my wife at super target, you can get these little like, you know, accessories. So the one that she bought was real estate related. And it was like the frosty real estate team. I was like, okay, I obviously have to do something with this. My best friend had lent me his elf costume like a year ago, which, of course, I failed to return and I put it on. And then I had the elf on the shelf, who I named Chip on this little dollhouse. And I went and bought a little liquor bottle and I put it next to that. I know it's a lot. And then I basically said, hi, I'm Donnie. I'm the elf. This is my brother, Chip, you know, we just joined the frosty real estate team. And to be honest, chips got a little bit of a gambling problem. So we'd loved it. Like, I don't, you know, I just kind of started spitballing this whole idea. There were a real estate team and, you know, we really would love your help. And, but the sole focus was that content was directed towards real estate agents. I knew that they would think it's funny. They would share it. They would message me on it. And then all of a sudden, I started getting a bunch of random real estate agents commenting and liking follow me, which I then can add to my pool. Cause I showed one of my partners and he, he's a very big time. Hello, like one of the top in the Midwest. He kind of like looked at him and was like, like, he trust me. He knows, you know, but he kind of was like, okay. Like I would, in his mind, you could tell he's like, I would never in a million years do this. But then I go, look at this team that started following me. They did 45 million last year. He goes, whoa, he's like, do you think they'd be open to like, you reaching out? I'm like, yeah, absolutely. So like that's kind of the method, but you know, the method behind the man has is, you know, again, that's who I am. I take pleasure in kind of expressing myself. I use it as a creative outlet because, yeah, insurance isn't the sexiest thing. But, you know, I have found a way to make my own. But I strictly make content when I do that. I can see you still looking at your like, God, I can't. Dude, that's just watching the video on loop. It's just so funny. Yeah. I was literally was doing it. And she goes, you do know you're married to the two children right now, right? Yeah, that's all they're going to look at when they see it later. Yeah. Yeah. So that's good. I've done some other things. I've got some more coming up. But I really do try to be strategic about it. Like there's one video that I did where, you know, what would happen if rates come down, right? And basically I said, Hey, you know, you've heard real letters and I kind of didn't away because I knew that they would share this video all over their feeds that I could be the voice for them. Because, you know, real estate agents can only say, by the house so many times before the consumer is like, yeah, fuck off. We know you want us to buy the house. You want to get paid, right? Well, I took it upon myself to be the voice for them. And I did it in my own creative way where I talked about, hey, the market crashes, what will actually happen is reverse market crash, meaning home prices are going to skyrocket. So while you've heard real letters say, marry the house, date the rate. And yeah, they're not great with slogans. They actually know what they're talking about. And I got this whole thing. And I think I had like 50 real estate agents share that on their platforms. Because ultimately they want me speaking for them. Right. You know, like, Hey, don't, don't just take it for me. Take it from this guy as well, you know, and I, I did it in a creative way where they really resonated with it. But I mean, I can't tell you the amount of traction I got with that. So I always, I always approach it in, you know, is this going to value an agent? Is this going to make them laugh? Is this going to help benefit them somehow? That's my whole strategy when it comes to social. I do not care about the consumers. I'm sure there's tons. I listen to Greg's, you know, podcasts and the influence division. I've got a buddy over there that actually has like a hundred thousand followers on Facebook. It's thousands and thousands of leads. Hey, that works for them. Great. But that's not my focus. Oh, yeah, I'm here. Yeah, you have a different target client. Yeah. Yeah. Which is the whole point of that wonderful explanation. You just unpacked there, by the way, which is, you know, be true to yourself. Find your voice. It's going to take a little bit of time to find your voice and get comfortable and confident, follow others. We're going to put obviously links to Daniel's Instagram and everything else in the show. And I'll see you in the look at his content. We're not saying B Daniel, right? We're saying take the ideas, swipe and deploy, but make it your own, right? If I was to give any advice right now in the sense of you're an L.O. You don't have a big personality. Maybe you're quiet. Maybe you're just a numbers guy. That's okay. That's great. And I would say, figure out a way in the sense of what we've talked about. Go present something, whether it's, you know, Jeff's course, you know, presentations, take something like that. Even if that's not you, yes, I know it's scary. I know it's overwhelming. Start small, start with a small group of agents, get comfortable doing it. But then figure out a way to get into a brokerage and do that. Because as long as you can teach something or add some sort of value, I'm telling you, the bar, there's, there's no bar in our industry. That's what really blows my mind is these realtors, a lot of them get licensed, but no one teaches them anything outside of how to sell houses, contracts, all that. Most agents don't know how to mark with themselves or brand themselves. Pick up a marketing book, figure out what's working. I don't even care if you're not on social media. You can still market to agents in your community that way. Because if you provide value, you're, you're golden. Well, the other thing too that I found is that even the good agents, you know, like the producers, the $30, $40 million that you referred to, even though they go to various trainings, the Tom Ferry world, what I find about them is they always and any successful, right, agent or person is always hungry, right? Unless they're in that phase of their career where they're exiting out. Like if they're in growth mode, on which most are in an hour and then like pivot and adjust mode because of the market. So to your point earlier, the demographics, they're all learning, like, just going to loan off a soliciting right now. Here's what I tell them all the time, the same things you're struggling with, which, you know, Daniel's unpacked here, how to be on social video, et cetera, how to go consumer to all those things are the same issues, the agents struggles with the difference is you can learn that thing and then pass it on. For sure. And I would say when it comes the way that I add value to big producers, because I have a lot of top, top producers here, I take things off their plate. Yeah, sure they know how to get on video. Yeah, they know how to create content. Well, hey, here, I'm going to send you over four scripts that I came up with, chat, GPT, I know that you want to talk about Kansas City, or here's what's going on. Here it is. There's a free teleprompter app on your phone, record it, send it back to me. I'll get it at it. Do you know how valuable that is for them? They're so busy. But for me to be able to take that off their plate, they're like, holy shit. So there's that they also love when I give value to their agents, right? That's the biggest thing. That's how you're getting with the big teams or the big brokers. It's going to be hard in the beginning, but what they need to do is spread love to their team and to their people who, you know, might not have the money to go every single year to Tom Ferry conferences or have coaches and all those different things. So if you can make their teams lives easier, they're going to look at you as a resource for them. Yeah, I can tell you that for real. Earlier this year, I kind of left my arrangement I had with a title company. But what we did every single month was they brought me in to teach their team. Very large team. And they would put that, they would have 20, 30 agents in the room every single time. And to your point, the reason why these two dudes wanted to bring somebody other than themselves in the truth of the matter is they didn't really know that much on how to level people up. They just were running a team and running a business. But then the other thing, like you said, is it takes it off their plate. It's not something I've got to add to my to do list. Oh, and by the way, this third party person coming in, right? Certain credibility to that because you've been blessed by the team lead to come in here. Yep. So many things happening at the same time. So many, so many. And I would just say, yeah, anytime you can figure out, you know, what's a pain point for them? What can you take off their plate, but really just show initiative, right? I, when I first got into the, into the game and I knew that I wanted to connect rulers with lenders, I went to a big partner of mine. And he wanted to get in with a big, big agent. And so he had a program at the time I don't even remember what it was. But what I did was I got a flyer with that program. I put both of their faces on it. And then I went and littered these shit out of an apartment complex. And yeah, we got a phone call saying, Hey, guys, next time just call us, we can just put them out front. But what it showed these guys was, Hey, I was hungry. I was willing to do what it takes to show value to them. If I can get them a deal, we didn't get one single deal from that, by the way, but it didn't matter. Like it just set the tone that I was someone that was willing to roll up my sleeves and get dirty. And that's what really when people say, I want to add value, like, you got to figure out, what are you really going to do to move the needle in someone's business right now, especially in a difficult market like this for real estate agents, because I have partners in different states. And they said, Hey, you know, real letters are taking notice right now. They're paying attention to who's willing to put in the work right now. Because yes, ReFi season will come and you'll stop calling them. When that shit dries up, then what? Hmm. I love that. This has been a real clinic. And I'm just coming back full circle to the confidence coach thing. Because if you do nothing else, but implant just a little bit of a seed of that confidence of that thing that you feel more comfortable doing, only because like one of the members on our group, Travis Newton, shout out, Travis, what's up? He said, all you have to do is be three or four steps ahead. You don't have the expert just a couple of three steps ahead. And just show them the way. Let them draft you. Well, I think it'd be, you know, a lot of people would be surprised by this statement, but I told you earlier, it's taken me 33 years to find my own confidence. I've always been a very unconfident low self esteem. I came over when I, you know, moved over to Kansas City in third grade, you know, didn't really get along with a lot of people. I kind of was bullied. And so, you know, what I found was I just never was really sure about myself. And when I got in this business and I would go to these real producers events, or meet a big agent, I was like, oh my God, like those people. And I put them on pedestals. And I was just like, oh, and then, you know, I had a big person out of them too, was it, but it was a, it was different. It was like an act that I was putting on to fit in versus now. I'm more settled into it. But when I started coaching and getting one on one with these people and these big producers and getting inside their head and realizing they are utterly shitless scared to put themselves out there. And ultimately what I found was like, I don't only care that much. Like, you can like me or you not like me. But when I became that, you know, kind of crotch or backbone, this thing grew inside of me of confidence and just really instilled the ability to, you know, feel good about helping these people. But ultimately we're all human beings. We all grew through the same struggles. I don't care if they're a hundred million dollar producer, five million dollar producer, whatever it is, we all have shit going on. We've got families, we've got struggles. But ultimately I will tell you, yeah, if you can, you can still a little bit of confidence in these people, I mean, you're a hero, you're a hero. Amen to that. You know, the other thing I guess I'll add to that. Well, kind of wrap it up is when you come from a place of service and you show up that your whole focus is just, I want to figure out how I can serve you. That anxiety, the fear really tends to get pushed down because you're not showing up to get, right, up to give. And you're just that curious as hell is like, let me find the thing. Yes. I'm freaking help you with. I think if you were to ask everyone that I work with a pretty confident, they would say he gives more than he takes, like I truly always give, give, give, give. And even with sometimes without the expectation of return, right. And it's naturally, I am a giver just due because of how I am. But what I find if you give, give, give people naturally just they'll do anything. They can't help you. Yeah, love it. This is, this has been awesome. I appreciate it. Yeah, man, I'm excited and I appreciate you having me on. And I think your listeners right now have a major, major opportunity to do something special in this market. And I know things have been rough, but you know, feel free to reach out to me. I am starting to kind of, now I only do insurance in Kansas City, but I am going to be growing the agency on a national platform at some point. I don't want to work in every state. Florida's a little crazy. California's a little crazy, but, you know, I'm looking to partner with specific people that maybe they don't, they can't be a day. No, but I can't do what they do. But maybe we could be a great team together, right? You know, I work with LOs around the country just because I've become friends of them where they'll have me on a Zoom and I'll do a coaching session for them. Or, you know, I'll find ways to connect them with real estate agents in their community. Yep. So, you know, definitely looking to connect with the right kind of people, you know, but happy to help anywhere that I can. I'm always willing to hop on a quick, you know, Zoom or 15 or even just help you find your voice. Yeah. On these things. So the best place for people to connect with you is your Instagram? Yeah, you can find me on Instagram. You can go to the web agency insurance.us is our website, but Instagram, yeah, follow me. I'll follow you back, shoot me a DM. If there's something you're struggling with, I'll definitely get back to you. But, um, yeah. Well, I'll link that up in the show notes, but it's Instagram.com for slash Daniel Seminovsky. Should I put the Russian spin on that? Like, can you say it like that? Daniel, Daniel Seminovsky. It's actually Danya. So that's how you say it in Russian. Okay. All right. Cool. Well, everybody has to comply. And go follow right now. Really, really appreciate it, Daniel. It's just so good to know you and hopefully we'll see you again at an event. Let me get a little snap of us. Let's do that. Let's do that. Hold on. Let's do this. I'm going to share this. I'm going to share this to my story. Yeah. There we go. All right, man. Hey, listeners, you know what to do? If you like this episode, please leave us a review. Share it with somebody that you think might find it valuable. And I will appreciate you tuning in. We'll see you on the next one. Bye for now. All right. Well, thanks for tuning into today's episode. Hey, you got a question for you. Are you struggling? To get engagement and referrals from real estate agents and feeling like you're constantly fighting for business and a crowded market? What if I told you there's a way to attract agents to a provide unique value that helps them grow their business and generate referrals on the man, helping you become the dominant loan officer in your local market? Look, I was an originator for over 10 years. I understand the frustration of feeling like you're just another player in a sea of competitors and you're struggling to stand out and get noticed by the agents that you want to attract and engage with. What if I told you there's a way to flip the script and position yourself as the go to London your market attracting agents, not chasing, not paying for leads, not cold calling, but actually generating referrals on the man. And the best part, you don't have to ever make a cold call or chase leads again. You don't have to work with we need had agents if you don't want to. This is what we help the originators do at the my agent classes membership. What do you get? You get exclusive access to our private community of like minded loan officers where you can network, share best practices, get ongoing support to grow your business and you get a turnkey platform that helps you build your personal brand that moves you from solicitor and vendor to partner and peer. You attract agents, you increase conversations and you increase your referrals all without chasing without begging, playing the game, paying for leads. You just by doing what you love to do, which is help other people solve problems. So how do you learn more? Go to mortgage marketing.pro. What could call with me and I'll take you through the library. I've done for you agent classes that you can use to just plug and play and follow our proven system of train the trainer. You don't have to be the subject matter expert. Think of yourself like that. Nightly news reporters just sharing the news. You also get access to our marketing automation platform that will attract, engage and convert agents to referral partners for you. Scripts, checked list, downloads, automated email, SMS, text messages, done for you landing pages and more. You also get our market maker content, which is the social media images that help you promote your class online. And again, every Friday at our mortgage marketing mastermind call, you get access to top L.O. speakers, coaches, connect and collaborate with what's working right now in today's market to help you grow your business. So you don't have to struggle and try and figure it out all on your own. Don't miss the opportunity to learn more about what's helping so many originers succeed and becoming the go to lender in your local market. Book a call with me now mortgage marketing.pro. We'll see on the other stuff.