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S4 Ep10 From Radio Waves to Real Estate Expertise with Andy Prasky
13 Plays3 hours ago
In this episode, the hosts discuss attending the musical 'Wicked' and introduce their guest, Andy Prasky, a veteran real estate leader known for his client appreciation events. Andy shares his extensive experience, including his time co-hosting the Real Estate Radio Hour on CBS, strategies for client retention, and the importance of authenticity in business. He delves into innovative marketing strategies, the use of technology like TikTok for real estate, and details about his team-building practices. The conversation also touches on the dynamics of the MLS, the value of personalized client experiences, and methods to encourage customer engagement. The discussion highlights Andy's passion for adding value and building lasting client relationships.
Connect with Andy:
prasky.com
https://linktr.ee/andyprasky…
Dial It In Podcast is where we gather our favorite people together to share their advice on how to drive revenue, through storytelling and without the boring sales jargon. Our primary focus is marketing and sales for manufacturing and B2B service businesses, but we’ll cover topics across the entire spectrum of business. This isn’t a deep, naval-gazing show… we like to have lively chats that are fun, and full of useful insights. Brought to you by BizzyWeb.
Links:
Website: dialitinpodcast.com
BizzyWeb site: bizzyweb.com
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Dial It In' Podcast
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Dial It In, a podcast where we talk to fascinating people about marketing, sales, process improvements, and tricks that they use to grow their businesses. Join me, Dave Meyer, and Trigby Olson of BusyWeb as we bring you interviews on how the best in their fields are dialing it in for their organizations.
00:00:26
Speaker
Let's ring up another episode.
00:00:30
Speaker
So did you finally see Wicked? did I did. did. It was super fun. And actually I saw Wicked with our host today or with our guest. I'm the host. I did not go to Wicked. You're the host. I didn't see it with you. I saw it with our guest today. I had to go to an opening weekend,
Sponsorship by Fractional Tactical
00:00:45
Speaker
which I wasn't super excited about because I wanted to actually see the singers sing and the movie. And I did not want to hear Joanne from Mendota Heights.
00:00:58
Speaker
Singing along? One row back. So or coming in a couple of weeks later, that was better for you? It was a little easier, i think. yeah I don't know if anyone was actually singing along, but like it was all pretty early in the morning when we watched ours. So there was a lot of... What do you what do you mean?
00:01:15
Speaker
Oh, we'll get all about it. But our guest today actually hosted us, a client appreciation event. Oh, fantastic. It's one of the things that I wanted to talk to him about. Oh, so we're gonna, we're gonna have a lot of fun talking to a very energetic fellow about, about client retention strategies and developing relationships through yes special events and all sorts of fun stuff. When we do that, do we have a sponsor for today? Sure do. Today's show is brought to you by Fractional Tactical.
00:01:44
Speaker
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00:01:56
Speaker
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00:02:08
Speaker
You have the concrete plan, your clients get measurable results, and you look like a rock star. Everyone wins. Visit fractionaltactical.com to find your tactical marketing partner today.
00:02:19
Speaker
You do strategy, we get busy. Awesome. Thank you, Dave. Yes, thank you.
Introducing Guest Andy Prasky
00:02:25
Speaker
Our guest today is Andy Prasky. He's a veteran real estate leader and and former co-host of the long running real estate radio hour, which ran on CBS radio here in the Twin Cities on I think probably one of the largest CBS radio stations in the country and averaged 56,000 daily listeners.
00:02:46
Speaker
He blended industry knowledge with practical people-centered advice for buyers, sellers, and agents alike. With decades of experience at Remax Advantage Plus, he has built high-performing teams, guided countless families through major life decisions, and earned a reputation for honesty, humor. Oh, boy, we're you're in for a long hour, Dave, and an exceptional customer experience.
00:03:09
Speaker
Known for simplifying complex market dynamics and focusing on what truly matters, relationships, trust, and value, Andy brings a refreshing grounded perspective to selling in any market.
00:03:21
Speaker
Whether discussing staging, negotiation, customer appreciation, or building community, Andy's approach is rooted in connection and service. He's passionate about helping people stand out, show up authentically, and create experiences that keep clients coming back. Thanks for joining us, Andy.
Client Appreciation Events
00:03:37
Speaker
Wow. I can't believe that. I actually sound important. i I'm just a hardworking guy that likes what he's doing and he made me feel good there. Thank you for the nice and true.
00:03:47
Speaker
Absolutely. So as we're getting into this, tell us the story about how you took, na because why did you take Dave to see Wicked? It's not weird. Friends do things for friends. And one of the big things that, so that kind of ties into one of the retention kind of things that I do with some of my clients. And I met, boy, Dave, how long ago did we meet?
00:04:08
Speaker
Well, this is, we're going in. 20 some years ago? I mean, five, 20. No, was earlier than that. It was, yeah, 25 years ago Yeah. And so we actually, has told me this story several times, but he said, Andy, he goes, I was driving around the neighborhood and he goes, it was really weird. And he goes, there's a guy sitting in a model home. So a newly built house for sale, neon open house.
00:04:32
Speaker
He goes, who does that? He goes, I got to go meet this guy. So he comes in and here I'm standing. And i think we hit it off ever since then. And my gosh, we've done so many referrals back and forth over the years. And and one of the things that because Dave was a customer Waymat then and still is, we have events throughout the year that we invite, strategically invite clients to.
00:04:52
Speaker
And then what happens is we have a lot of fun together. We continue to build the bonds. And so we actually, one of our events is a move. Local movie theater, as it gets colder in the Twin Cities in the fall, we get into the holiday season.
00:05:03
Speaker
It's nice to bring people inside. You feed them. You give them something to drink. We've got coffee, the donuts, and then we have all the concessions. Give away a lot of prizes. And then we also have the ability to go with your family to a movie.
00:05:14
Speaker
We always encourage everybody to bring a friend because we we found that the number one reason why people did not come to our event, because they feel they won't know anything. And so one of the best things to do at these events is offer people the ability to bring a friend.
00:05:26
Speaker
And then what's really cool about it is there's that natural authenticness of Andy. Hey, this is my friend. He, she's thinking about buying a house in a few years. And so I brought him. And it's funny, they feel obligated to sell.
00:05:38
Speaker
And I don't say anything other than It's great to see how the family. And anyways, that's Dave and I go way back. And so that's how the two us saw Wicked last weekend. All right, it's pretty clear and there were hundreds of people there, right? It wasn't just you and Dave.
Community Engagement and Visibility
00:05:51
Speaker
Yeah, how many people were there? he had a little over 300, but I'll tell you what, the key was if Star Wars is of any kind. So the last couple of years, we would have well over 400 coming into this event.
00:06:03
Speaker
To the point of where we had to limit the amount of theaters that we were filling. So you have so many people in this theater. It's one of those really nice reclining seat, beautiful theaters. So we had four theaters full this year. And last year, the last Disney one, I think it was six.
00:06:19
Speaker
And what a fun opportunity. You walk in and you're like, hey everybody, thanks for coming. You feel like you're a local celebrity. Yeah. And they really do it up. They have a hot air balloon basket that's shooting off flames.
00:06:31
Speaker
When you walk into the theater, they've got coffee and donuts and popcorn and giveaways and a raffle. And it's that ah one of the years when we had, what what was it? It was one of the Star Wars years. We had somebody dressed up as Darth Vader and they were doing pictures. yeah It was hilarious. So you that's the idea, right? Get people in there and get them to slow down because it's, it is early in the morning. It's hard to get a movie theater at prime time, of course.
00:06:57
Speaker
So we get people in there early and then what's interesting is is we want them to hang out at least as much as we can, right? So there's different areas that they can hang out, sign up for stuff. It's also a great way, you guys, which is the hardest thing ever is to call somebody and say, hey,
00:07:10
Speaker
Did you change your email? Did you change your, what how can I market to you? So what we do instead is we have drawings. And so we have people coming in that are volunteering that information. So there are certain years where we'll say things like, hey, by the way, you referred somebody, so you guys qualified this year for three tickets instead of two.
00:07:25
Speaker
And they're oh, thank you. We're rewarding good behavior a fun way. And then they don't even... my My point of all this is I wouldn't do this business or any business if I felt not.
00:07:37
Speaker
And I think that's if there's anything to be said about business in today's world is that but even with all this crazy cool stuff that's out there, authenticness is probably likability is probably the number one asset you have as a business owner.
00:07:49
Speaker
And putting that together and adding value. And so what value can you... Can you give a family a fun experience? And some people have tight times right now, or the times where money's a little tighter for some function. So it is fun to have an event where they feel appreciated. They get to do something at no cost, and they put a smile on their face. a lot of people tell us that it kicks off their holiday season.
00:08:09
Speaker
love it. Lauren, you're no stranger to...
00:08:15
Speaker
helpful and or innovative ideas to market your business. So I want to talk about a
Innovative Marketing Ideas
00:08:22
Speaker
bunch of those. I want to talk about the radio r because I thought that was fun. yeah But also, I mean, this things as simple as you have a moving trailer that has your logo and you all over it, which I think is hilarious. And any customer can borrow it for free, right?
00:08:38
Speaker
That is one of, again, adding value, right? Something as simple as, and the other, the best, you guys, the best thing to do is to say to your clients, like with that trailer concept, simple as it is, hey, do you have a church? of Do have Boy Scouts? you have whatever? feel Are you putting the kids back to college? Are you taking them out to Wisconsin? Are you heading out to South Dakota?
00:08:57
Speaker
And feel free to use it for that too. People absolutely adore that. And then, especially with church events or Boy Scouts, or I would say the or the youth camps or whatever, and they bring all the stuff in and then people are like, all they let us use a trailer for free. Just a good community, good Samaritan kind of a concept is what it really is.
00:09:15
Speaker
yeah And it doesn't hurt to have a billboard driving all over the entire Midwest. I've had people call me saying, I saw your billboard rolling through North Dakota. Yeah. I mean, out in Wisconsin, I've seen it in Iowa.
00:09:28
Speaker
I think the farthest it went was out to Nebraska and back. You've never been shy about self-promotion. I think it's hilarious now that your trucks, because there there's always the Praski.com logo on on your truck, but now it's black on black, I think, right? Yeah. I'm pretty cool. if I don't know if you know that, but in my own head, I'm pretty cool.
00:09:46
Speaker
And so, no, I did for legitimate, like, logo reasons. But funny enough, I try to listen to my clients. There was a time where I love having a new truck. i That's one of my weaknesses is having an ice truck.
00:10:00
Speaker
So i as I pull up to people's houses and I had the beautiful logo rolling billboard, I'd have people say, hey, do you mind parking down the street? I don't know if I want all my neighbors to know I'm thinking about something.
00:10:12
Speaker
And so I had to go in incognito mode where, you know, where people would say, hey can you put your tailgate down when you're parked in the driveway? And I go, you know what? Time out. Let's listen. Let's do something a little more stealthy.
00:10:24
Speaker
That's brilliant. i had no idea. Yeah, that was the reasoning behind all that. Why would you want your neighbors to know that you're thinking about moving? yeah That's a great question. And i think that I think everybody moves for different reasons. You've got the obvious stuff, the growing family, the adept the divorce, the whatever. And I think that some people choose to keep their confidentiality a little closer to their chest. But I'm in the service business. So if they say to promote it, I promote it. If they say keep it quiet, there was give a quick example.
00:10:50
Speaker
I work with a lot of estate planning attorneys. And so what ends up happening is where mom or dad or somebody will pass away or a spouse and they will say, hey, we want to help this person get rid of their house. And they're not necessarily the help.
00:11:03
Speaker
So there's times where I'll have a property that will come on the market before it hits the market. Then I ask, do you want this to go to the open public? You want this action on the and MLS, the listing service where it syndicates everywhere? do you want us to actually to bring in you want a certain number you want to hit and I'll bring in some investors locally and see if we can hit that number keep it all off the books.
00:11:23
Speaker
Investors, by the way, love that you guys, because then there's not a ah permanent record of what they paid or what they're until months down the road. there's not So it helps us sometimes with taxation as well. There's a lot of and advantages and reasons why i think some people keep confidential versus the public.
00:11:39
Speaker
and So you talked about the MLS. I think that's one of the interesting things that I wanted to spend a little time talking about is Because people i don't think people understand that the MLS allows realtors to basically plug the same grouping of data into just about anywhere. right And so the old 30, 40 years ago, knowing who knowing who has is available, knowing who wants to move, that kind of thing, that's still important. But to a large extent, everybody's inventory is the same and every everybody's inventory is flat.
00:12:15
Speaker
And I think that even going back just a couple steps further upstream, just to really explain our industry as real estate agents go, we've always been a self-regulated industry where we're take this, we've got this ethics that we all commit to.
00:12:28
Speaker
And so there's the code of ethics that we follow. So there's little to no regulating that you have to have license, have have whatever, but most states allow brokerages to function underneath that self-regulation, self-code of ethics.
00:12:41
Speaker
Because they did it back way back. It was like in the early nineteen hundreds is when they started establishing the Real Estate Association and the realtors. But here's what's going to happen. It's been the Wild West, you guys. And for years where it was, you'd have a local brokerage, they'd have their own listings. They wouldn't share the information.
00:12:58
Speaker
They would not syndicate. They would not share. They would try to say, let they charge a percentage to sell the house. And they would try to bring the old buyers in. It got to the point when I started in this business, you guys, this was no kidding.
00:13:08
Speaker
So the young viewers, there's a thing called a Rolodex. Okay. And this Rolodex has all the information in the world in it. And it's, it's a database. Okay. That database we used to put listings up and then they went to the point where like, we can't really read that. Cause we're also all so old. Let's get the book.
00:13:23
Speaker
So then we had a book of listings that we'd have in the front office. It wasn't until recent. I'm talking like this has been within the last 30 years here where we started sharing information. Nope. So people are like, it's public information. We should know everything.
00:13:37
Speaker
People would hire real estate agents. There's no law saying that I have to share that information. There's no way, unless the customer needs that, right? So now I will do a series of questions with people, especially like you get into all these, the world's largest lead generation tool for real estate agents is Zillow.
00:13:51
Speaker
And most people are so scared to say that because when you click the button, you're selling your soul. Yeah. And it's who is the highest bidders who you're going to end up with showing you that house. No offense, but it's what it is. Hold on. Let's back cut up because i i'm that This is great. no I don't know that people really appreciate that. So explain what you're saying about Zillow.
Zillow as a Lead Generation Tool
00:14:12
Speaker
Zillow is, if you translate the word Zillow into my world, it's lead generation. Zillow is 100% giving, how they their niche was, they provided sold information that nobody else would provide before.
00:14:23
Speaker
And so people love that. So they go there for the sold, they go there. People browse Zillow by the million, by the minute. It's unbelievable how many viewers and eyeballs they But the whole goal of Zillow is to sell that information so when you click on what is showing, you become the big.
00:14:40
Speaker
And now real estate agents bid, and there's a couple of different ways they do it. Some of the biggest real estate teams that we have that are out there buy territories. I'm not kidding you guys. Some of these areas, like in the Twin Cities metro market, they pay up to $800 for that click.
00:14:54
Speaker
for that click One click. And so you wonder why these salespeople show up in these houses and they're so pushy. So those are being a free resource to, oh my gosh, these people are being so pushy with me because they paid so much money to get in front of me. And or Zillow takes off the 40% of the commission that the real estate agent makes.
00:15:14
Speaker
Which is already not. So let's back this up from a customer standpoint. So let's say I put Dave's house on Zillow and say, i'm well I'm interested in selling it. Let's go back to ah an actual triglyism. Let's say you're selling, you wanna sell your former high school.
00:15:30
Speaker
I did that, that was a long time ago. And the rules are different, but yeah, so I'm interested in putting my house on the market and I'm looking for a realtor. So and my information basically gets sold then to anybody, any realtor in an X mile radius who has lead generation source. Yes. And there's also things like, are you looking for a mortgage? there's lots of them accessory businesses that they have that also make money, title, mortgage. And then I'm not telling anything that you probably can't dig into page 95 of the back page and find, but it's honestly, it's more of a concept of
00:16:06
Speaker
Like right now, there's a lot of, you can look it up yourself to see that they're having some troubles where they're swaying people to go certain directions to help support their accessory businesses. And you know what? Companies have ads and flows. One thing about that Zillow concept is the consumer, I think, has always thought that's like the real estate association or the raw information, and it's for the good of the consumer. It is until that there's no money being.
00:16:29
Speaker
And then they make revenue off of selling data. It's another data capture point. Nothing wrong with it. And I'll say that they serve their value because a lot of people don't know a real estate. But the one thing that I would say about this is this.
00:16:41
Speaker
When you're shopping real estate agents, the first thing I would ask anybody is, did they ref refer you from anybody? Does anybody but you know actually have a real experience? It's not a fake review or not a five-star 10,000 people say I'm great because...
00:16:56
Speaker
No, we all know how that works. Okay, so there's a lot of bot likes and there's a lot of bot. But comes back to you're trying to find an authentic, real person. The referral is the number one place that I start with.
00:17:07
Speaker
Number two, when I'm interviewing real estate, one thing I've always recommended to everybody is say, okay, whatever you want to pay for a real estate commission, let's just say 6% because that seems to be everything. So you say for 6% realtor, what will you do for it?
00:17:23
Speaker
And then zip your lip. Okay. Because now the realtors are put into a position where they're like, hey, I've got to perform here. My job as a real estate agent is not only to represent you, your best interest and get you the most money possible, but how do I get that?
00:17:36
Speaker
Display easily what and how we get you there. So as a promotional specialist, what do you do differently? Some people will say, I like and i do this too. I use Zillow, where pay you as a premier property, like an ad running on Zillow so that you pop up when somebody looks in your neighborhood, your house pops up.
00:17:52
Speaker
Because I know the eyeballs are, my job as a promotional specialist is get those eyeballs. But I also know what I'm doing. So by being a premier agent on there, I also get the people that click my ads, I get those leads.
00:18:05
Speaker
So there's whole different complexity to that. And you probably have a whole different show on internet click funnels and all this other stuff that are out there that are just... I gotta be honest with you, everybody thinks they're free, but is it free? when it's And why is there not a source where you can say, hey this Andy Prasky guy, is he legit?
00:18:22
Speaker
Does he actually have real reviews? What is his real amount of volume? What is his real average sale? How many people did he really help in his career? And there's no real source. And that should have been Realtor.com. But the Real Estate Association back in the housing crisis was looking for cash and they honestly sold that off.
00:18:38
Speaker
And it's owned by a big news corp or whatever it is now. So it's another elite source for other people. So... Boy, I got off track. I love it. I don't know. It wasn't as coffee, but it's fantastic. I don't even remember the track, but that's it's... 25% ethanol. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. So I think one of the things that Dave and I have been realizing in the last year or so, Andy, is that The real genuine specificity of marketing and the intimacy of marketing is really where a lot of people are going to be successful, is communicating directly to the right person at the right time with the right message. What I've always found so fascinating about the real estate market is when you're staging a house, you have to do the complete opposite and completely depersonalize a house.
00:19:29
Speaker
that This time of the year, too, you're 100% where i have customers asking, like, do I have to take on my holiday? I'm one of those people that says, you know what, you be you. there There are so many people that say, take down your family photos, take down the whatever.
00:19:43
Speaker
We don't want people buying your old house. We want them to visualize themselves on this new home. Can you do a combination of the above and be successful? I really think you can. I think there's a place for that. I think that there's being the authentic who you are. Like I tell every real estate agent I work with, it's in this business. on Being who you are is very important because people can read through the fluff.
00:20:03
Speaker
And even as a seller, if you're really into the Santa berries, know guys remember a little my mom. I do, yeah. Oh, my, yeah. Yeah, remember Santa? They were dating little Target or whatever you call them now. Had all these Santa beers. And my mom loves that. And my mom literally, I think about this.
00:20:18
Speaker
She goes, what if I ever sold my house during the holiday season? What would I do? And I said, I'd leave up every Santa beer. I would. That's okay. Everybody's on a different thing. I think setting yourself up for success is what we're really talking about is like, what is staging?
00:20:32
Speaker
Staging helps people visualize what they're buying. If you have a house that's very challenging, like for example, with, or even another product that people don't understand, what is this widget? If you're in the OEM business and you're selling some kind of a widget, putting it in the bigger picture of how it fits in helps people go, oh that's a whatever pump or a whatever. that Sure.
00:20:52
Speaker
Same thing as in real estate. So helping people visualize what is this room used for? What could it be used for? So like when we do video, You people make fun of me all the time. They go, Andy, what the f*** room?
00:21:03
Speaker
And I'll say, is it a dining room? Is it an office? e Is it a kid's play center? Is it a workout space for you? I go, helping people understand how they live can be adapted to this house helps them say, you know what? This is perfect. Let's do it.
00:21:16
Speaker
But if I have it staged as a dining room, people go, i don't want four-wheel dining room. But the next couple of nights, so it's it you that that's where you run into that. You want to be as broad. And that's what like staging helps with.
00:21:29
Speaker
I just, when he started talking about a very challenging house, I really thought about going to get a beer so I could have you hold it.
00:21:38
Speaker
Yup. Cause I think had the, probably one of the most challenging houses of all time. her it was It was good. And the, yeah, the photos, but we'll have to do a side episode on Trigby-isms I think, cause there's some good, there's some good seasons.
00:21:54
Speaker
We're beyond that. So you take that house that's uniquely unique to stage or visualize what you do with the spaces. And so now with all this AI that we have, even a dummy like me can take a picture and go click. And I want get an alien furniture in this room. And what's on you guys, NBLs, is that I can take a house for a gap and visualize this online where a lot of my properties, believe or not,
00:22:16
Speaker
People right now that are moving don't seem to have that they're not as interest
New Construction vs Existing Homes
00:22:20
Speaker
rate sensitive. So they're like buying the other house first and then they're selling the house or they're moving first. And so we're selling sometimes vacant homes. Probably half the houses I sell are already vacant.
00:22:29
Speaker
So we're using visual like virtual staging. What's neat is that some of these houses that are built like in the nineties, everybody use that honey oak. Remember back in in the Midwest, i don't know what everywhere else, but in the Midwest was honey oak.
00:22:40
Speaker
And so putting in in like a Scandinavian style furniture richr also makes honey oak look really cool. And so now we're really selling the sizzle as these. And so some of the new tools are just, I'm excited about them.
00:22:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's fun. And I think as we look at the ways that you can promote a house and the connections. I think there's differences between new construction versus existing. You were, i think we originally met at the end of the housing crisis and like, yeah are we have been through a lot.
00:23:12
Speaker
So it's just different tactics for different times. So like right now, give me the difference between a new construction build in Otsego or Blaine versus a existing in Plymouth.
00:23:28
Speaker
sure And I re relate a lot of times, houses to like cars and everybody, course, everybody wants a new fancy car. And so that's the where the pricing sits right now is it's very similar to new versus new versus an existing.
00:23:40
Speaker
There's always more value, at least currently in existing homes. especially where somebody maybe has over-invested in an area where we see pockets of opportunity where, man, today's money, that would be a $1.4 million dollars house and they're selling it for 800 because that's the neighborhood they overbuilt Those kind of pockets are so fun to find for customers in in that situation.
00:24:02
Speaker
But then there's when you compare new construction to existing, So let's say a new construction, we spend $100,000 more. What we have to demonstrate to the consumer to get them to make that leap is the fact that you buy a house, you pay more. So let's say your payment's a little higher, right? Let's say it's another $500 a month for that brand new house.
00:24:20
Speaker
But the existing home, the furnace goes, you need a new roof. And I'll tell you, I dealt with insurance companies recently. They're asking what the ratings are on the shingles, what the classification of the shingles are. They don't just let you move into a house now.
00:24:33
Speaker
You have to put it through the sniff tab. And so just for the insurance company, we'll loan. So new construction hits all those checks. Everything's safer. Your insurance is more in ah in line with what it should be for the value of that house because everything's brand new and under warranty.
00:24:46
Speaker
So the cost of ownership is less, even though the payment's higher, because an existing home requires those, unless you have a cool job or you get big chunks of cash, where you get bonuses or whatever. Well, if first school is out and it's $15,000, for a lot of people, that is a problem versus the new ones under warranty. So you get people spending a little, that's why new construction's still alive, I think.
00:25:07
Speaker
know, did I answer your question properly? That makes perfect sense, yeah.
Social Media Engagement Strategies
00:25:10
Speaker
and I know that from following you and just being connected on socials, you're doing a lot in TikTok right now. So tell me about what that strategy was and how's it panning out? If it's still legal, I don't know if it's still legal in the U.S. to do TikTok. all right winninging Yeah. so i'm got So the smartest thing I ever did was hire some people to help me that are half my age.
00:25:32
Speaker
and they understand where the audiences are and the target audiences I'm looking for. And so there are first time home buyer videos and like, I don't know how to describe the platforms without being insulting to one or the other, but let's just that Facebook is a family reunion of the... If you actually put a paragraph below your house, people read it on Facebook versus Instagram. If it's not pretty, they don't even slow down.
00:25:56
Speaker
and And then I get TikTok, you be little funny or a little animated to get people to slow down to watch what you're doing there. We take the same content and package it differently for different platforms based on the target audience we're aiming for.
00:26:08
Speaker
i don't know. find where I get a um lot of views on TikTok. And what's funny is I think people really go to TikTok for the fun. the just They're looking for something funny. they're looking for something. But then they'll click on you because, hey, attention, first-time homebuyers, you got to know these three things or you're absolutely screwed when you're buying a new house.
00:26:24
Speaker
And then all they click it. We all know that it's clickbait or kind of, but if you have fun with we're actually adding value. i always say, kicking the heart of an educator right now, keep an authenticness to your click. So people click it and then you give an authentic, good information. of like we used to do at CCL years ago. It was just a different format.
00:26:42
Speaker
People would listen to you talk. They'd call into the show. They'd ask a question. Everybody else would listen to the question. The wallflower situation where everybody's listening and not really wanting to talk. But that's where we were back then, and it's still happening.
00:26:54
Speaker
We're getting messages directly from people that are just like, hey, I know you offered a free first-time home buyer packet. What do we have to do to get clicks? And I never put strings on.
00:27:05
Speaker
I've always been a lumberer. We've all been there. You click, and I was going launch a phone number. want yourself. I want this to give this seminar. But it gets to a point of where you start pulling that credibility away from yourself and losing their trust.
00:27:17
Speaker
And so I've always said, give them something fast and quick, free, and then they'll follow you. And then that's where you get the rewards down the road where you can ask for more information once trust I'm joking about an iPod. This is great. know. That works perfect. i think I think one of the interesting things that you've done over the years, Andy, is that Real Estate Radio Hour where you were freely giving out tips on how to sell your home, how to buy a new home.
00:27:40
Speaker
How did that affect your business? Could you measure that in any way? You know, that's a great question because it was a... We were... So coming out of the housing crisis, okay? The after we started, we were in the housing crisis.
00:27:52
Speaker
And they... You can, just so I read it out there, you can go down to a lot of the local radio stations and you can say, hey, I want to buy an And we're going to talk about my widget or my service or my business.
00:28:05
Speaker
And the idea is there is you leverage with other business partners to help pay for that cost. Just like a podcast, you have a sponsor, you have whatever. And so there was ways to get that thing started. What was interesting was at that time, there were so many people that were calling in and asking questions of the whole improvement show about real estate.
00:28:21
Speaker
that they did a whole improvement show and then they had us come in and we were just like professional guests when we first started. And that show got to the point of where it got so huge, so fast because it was authentic.
00:28:32
Speaker
Right? Think about it. That we were the number one revenue driving, non-paid to play shows on that stage. for right Other than like when the Gophers would play and they would do the Gophers of the Twins, they obviously would pull people in that weren't normal listeners. You had me on as a guest a few times on the show. More than a few times.
00:28:53
Speaker
Marketing tips and things all the time. And I thought it was just... Hilarious. My parents, my grandparents, my aunts, uncles, neighbors that I hadn't heard from in forever. yeah They were all like, Ooh, I heard you on the CCO to this morning. ok congratulationulate and i think Dave, you bring up an interesting point. So hold on, before we get into that, I think it's important that we clarify for the listeners around the country that in the twin cities, especially where we live,
00:29:18
Speaker
That particular radio station was and still is incredibly powerful. I think right now everybody is, oh, AM radio, what are you you get off my lawn, grandpa. But the power to influence and the power to reach an audience, especially despite being AM on radio, it was a really powerful thing. Andy, for you to say that you were one of the only non-pay-to-play shows, that's not an insignificant thing by any means. mass Thank you. Thank you. i And I don't, those of us that understand that radio side of the business with the ferocious beast of trying to make money and survive at the radio station level.
00:29:52
Speaker
And then you get to the point of where it's, When you get to an authentic place like we were with that chip. So those that don't know the Twin Cities, a lot of the farmers would listen in for crop reports. they Back in the day, they'd listen for weather. They'd listen for what's happening with the twins or whatever back in the day.
00:30:10
Speaker
Now, you do have some of that older listener where it's up on the radio. You got the radio running on top of the the refrigerator at mom and dad's house and just keeps playing in the background all day long. That doesn't. You really shocked you guys at how many people that heard mom and dad listen to it. And then when they think, Hey, I got a question or what's going on with the weather, do they tune in now too.
00:30:29
Speaker
And we have people calling in their thirties. And I'm like, I literally would want to say right on air. You guys, it wasn't a CCO. It was a bunch of old farts. It's not. It's people that want authentic talk.
00:30:42
Speaker
And anyway, Thank you for, again, blowing up my brain. And just to level set a little bit more, if you ever listened to a Prairie Home Companion, a lot of the people that were characters on that show had day jobs working at WCCR.
00:30:56
Speaker
Yeah. I tell you what, that was one of the coolest things of about that experience, and as I outside tried, was who we got to meet back in the day, the Boone and Erickson's of the world, and all that. We would sit around, and it was just, it was crazy. Some of the people we'd get to meet, they would just wander through the station, from athletes to...
00:31:14
Speaker
And you were hyper-collaborative in that show, which I thought was super interesting in that your co-host, Chris... was a competitor technically technically right yeah so you guys are on opposite ends of the metro just having both of you talk you had very different perspectives different approaches and it's just okay do it what do we want to say about that fence that's in the middle of your property should you tear it down or should you whatever it's like any you would have like real conversations it was the opportunities it would come from so anybody's ever thought about doing something
00:31:47
Speaker
I say it. You know I mean? I was sitting there and on a Saturday and had the opportunity to sit down with Steve Forbes. And he's, because it was one of the on-air personalities, he's like, you got three questions to ask him that we can play on your show. Go.
00:32:00
Speaker
And sitting there, we had Walt from, he was the GE Capital, Comcast, and NBC all at one time. and More employees than the federal government. And he sat down with us and had the three questions. And some of those opportunities that are generated from that, the PR opportunities, the pictures, the perception, I think is a key thing.
00:32:17
Speaker
you would take anything away from having a public format like this, is it brings you authenticness, right? It brings you where I had doors that opened for me that I never would ever even be.
00:32:30
Speaker
And then I still have people to today. And I retired a couple of years ago from it because it's a lot. It was a commitment. I work a full-time job here as a business owner running a real estate business. I have a real estate team. We do land development. We do all kinds of stuff. And then on the side, Saturdays, we would do the show. And it got after that many years of doing it, I got to the point of where i was like, okay,
00:32:50
Speaker
Let's slow down a little bit, but I still have people coming up to me today saying, oh, we love the show. And I haven't been up in a couple years. So I think one of the things that is also really impressive about you, Andy, is the concept of how you've built selling
Building Effective Selling Teams
00:33:03
Speaker
teams. Can you talk a little bit about how do you build the team of sellers?
00:33:08
Speaker
So great thing for today's conversation with a lot of people that nobody will ever care about your business or yourself more than you, period. And you get to that point where you think you have to do everything yourself, where you have to control. This is where I had, this was my life lesson that had to be learned the hard way, where actually had a situation where i'm a big jet ski guy. So I was doing my jet ski to stand up, the old school, set that on 50 Kawasaki, try to do backflip, whatever, throw it back.
00:33:36
Speaker
And then I realized really fast, that week, I had 23 appointments that week. And I couldn't go. to I was laying on my bed. I What am I doing? How long have I gone on this far in my career and not figured out that I am not a sellable product. I'm a one, I'm a service. And if if I can't service, I'm out. I'm done.
00:33:56
Speaker
So I sat there on my back, literally saying, how do i duplicate myself? How do I? So I only wanted a few people when I started. I wanted like-minded people that I could say, this is what I do. Rip off and duplicate what I do. Do the best you can. And let's get out there and become team.
00:34:12
Speaker
And then i started generating more opportunities than I can handle myself. And so those opportunities to roll over to these people. But the key thing was, as I said, My brand was my service or my brand was hotline over service somebody or try to help them find that deal.
00:34:28
Speaker
but That pocket, right? We just talked about where there's that exceptional value. And I said, if you don't do that, don't do real estate because real estate is a service driven circuit. They'll remember the last deal you did with them.
00:34:41
Speaker
And so's so that's how we got it started. And then we got to the point of where, could we make this a profit center? Could we actually turn having a team? And everybody's, oh, yeah, it's a big team. They make money.
00:34:51
Speaker
Not true. I've had agents that have come up to me and said, this was about the time I started my show and about the time we were starting the team. I have a guy come up me and say, Andy, gross revenue. I made $2 million dollars in real estate this year.
00:35:06
Speaker
I'm like, holy cats, I dream about having a year like that, right? That's that's the peak of the summit, right? That's the highest you can get. But he said that i spent 2.3 million to get there.
00:35:20
Speaker
Yeah. Think about that. He would buy leads, he's buying the zoo, not them, but buying the leads, you're buying the business, you're buying everything, you had to pay people this. There was no revenue there. So I always say, to me, gross revenue is different than commissions earned. And so every business is different.
00:35:35
Speaker
So I literally go up a gross earn, but I look at profitability too. And so everything that I do, I look at it as, can I provide the service level the customer needs and feel good about it? And can we actually generate a profit off of it?
00:35:49
Speaker
Or I'll be honest you, the first one to pull the plug on and save it to
00:35:53
Speaker
I don't remember. Yeah, that was the right question. Yeah. Sales teams. Right. Teams. Yeah. and i also want to penal statements on every agent that I have on my team. I know to the day of the year, how much money we've generated together, how much they've done themselves. And then as a profit center, which it sounds really weird, but i think of myself as being like, so let's say I'm a big company.
00:36:14
Speaker
And I have all these franchisee locations. That's the way i look at my employee or my real estate agents that work for because they're not employees. They're actually like, a look like franchisees. I have to treat them well so they want to stay.
00:36:25
Speaker
But on the other hand, if they don't make me money, what's the point? Right. And so I get to the point of where i work with each one of them. Sometimes this was the first year in a lot of years where as real estate has slowed down a little bit, our revenue channels have changed a little bit. And we had that big blowout with NAR couple years ago where people are saying, that how do the real estate agents get paid? And so there's a lot more questions where agents were struggling with the answers.
00:36:47
Speaker
And I said, if you're not authentic dick and quick and be able to answer a question with confidence, You're gonna take it higher. People will do it on their own. There's there's a lot of people that try to do it on their own now. There's many minutes to be had for the success of what they do don't do. Some people are very good at it and some people struggle with it.
00:37:04
Speaker
I've had agents where I've had to say, you know what? It's time. Let's help you find something that you're good at. And so this was the first time in a lot of years where I've actually had to take agents off the team. And that was going back to you where we were talking about.
00:37:16
Speaker
You read the book with Walsh back in the day. you read He'd always take his bottom few percent and let them go and a GE. And the idea there was is that it was the same kind of a business practice here, but it was to the point of where you say, okay,
00:37:30
Speaker
So if you're rewarding the whole team, are you really rewarding anybody or does it just become business practice? If everybody goes out to lunch, it's not just the top producers, then it's just lunch.
00:37:42
Speaker
So it's like it's a reward, you have to earn it. If it's a reward, so I do a lot, I'm very big into prizes. very big into contest-based driven sales so that you do so many points and you go on a trip. We have a team trip every year, you're in points for, but you don't get to go if you don't earn the points.
00:37:57
Speaker
And it's it creates a little bit of a competitiveness, but that's what you want.
Client Loyalty and Referral Strategies
00:38:01
Speaker
You want people to compete. You want people to feel great about themselves they do great things. Otherwise, why have them there?
00:38:10
Speaker
You know, people want to be awesome. People want to do Think about it. Everybody wants to be wanted, you know even in business. So if you're not doing something that makes your boss or your mentor or whatever whatever you want to call yourself, say, wow, high five, you killed it.
00:38:25
Speaker
Wait a minute. You couldn't have did it any better. Or, wow, here's how you almost got there. Tweet this and you're there next some month. Let's go. Then I feel good, too. I have that heart of an educator. where i just I love my people.
00:38:38
Speaker
And I need a high, literally, probably not as much as if you can pay check, but don't know what this is, is when they actually are successful themselves. And you can see that light bulb go off and then head going, this is how I go. This is how I make it work. And a lot of you guys is taking a mirror and having people sit there in front of the mirror. This is how do my business plan. And you start with a mirror.
00:39:02
Speaker
Okay, look at yourself. And I want you guys to tell me, all the business you did this year, let's be let's pick the easy stuff first. What were the easy stuff? Where did the business come from?
00:39:13
Speaker
How did you get it? How do we duplicate that next year? So now we got 30% of your business rolling over already into next year. Now, how do we grow that business? How do we do? And that's where...
00:39:24
Speaker
And it's a people business. And so people have to be comfortable in forging connections, getting out, networking, taking advantage of the relationships that they have through the preferred home team and your networking and all the things that you do. yeah Every one of your team was at the holiday movie.
00:39:42
Speaker
Right? Yeah. Parents, they were out shaking hands. They all had their name badges on and they were introducing or they invited their families, right? And their clients. yeah So it was all part of the team. That's something that we do too as a fun way to tie it in together where being part of a team. Okay. So why would somebody do, why would you give up a percentage of your earned commission to somebody else?
00:40:02
Speaker
Value comes from an event plan where we put it all together and then someone can take it. Like we we had a video videographer there recording. And then what we'll do is we'll package together a video.
00:40:13
Speaker
We put the front and the back with each agent saying, welcome to my client here. So it looks like it's all them. So they get all the thunder. They get all the hoopla. And man, does it go a long ways. And then we help them post that everywhere that they need to post that.
00:40:27
Speaker
So the idea there is that as being part of a team in today's world means a lot of things. And sometimes it's simply recognition. Sometimes it's actually showing them physical examples like we did with that event.
00:40:39
Speaker
Sometimes it's one of the things I did a couple years ago, which I should do it again. We have mugs, right? So Dave knows, I do a lot of these like Yeti style mugs that we give away. And yeah I put it everyone on my team, I bought them all 12 of these mugs and I put their name and their phone numbers on there. And I said, your job is by the end of the week is to have appointments where you meet with people and give them one of your mugs.
00:41:03
Speaker
And I'm telling you what, that the smartest thing they ever did. lot of those people have forced them to make the calls to book the appointments, which they're scared to do or they're nervous to do or they feel uncomfortable. And I go, when you feel uncomfortable, right, you can feel uncomfortable being broke and not having enough money to buy your kid's Christmas presents. Or you can feel uncomfortable making calls and having the money that you can give to charity at the end because you made so much money doing good things and helping people.
00:41:28
Speaker
Pick your uncomfortable. I go, really? Think about this for a second you got. You pick your own uncomfortable. And it's like, I go, be uncomfortable doing the right things. Get these mugs out there. Get them in people's hands. And said, do a contest.
00:41:41
Speaker
Have people take them on vacations. Have people, my goodness, sweet that was probably four years ago. had people sending me mugs of mine when they're on a trip in Italy or they were down in Mexico. it We gave away $500 for the best photo. Of course, the one that won was, a veteran that was active duty.
00:41:58
Speaker
He was in Iraq at the time. His whole platoon stood there with their machine guns and he held up the mug. I should take that picture off for you. And I'm like, bro, you won hands down. Where do we send the jet? It was like, like right anyway, there's lots of creative ways to get people to help you out without feeling that you're doing anything.
00:42:18
Speaker
Love it. Love it. It's clear that real estate is a hyper-competitive market and fields. And all the things that you do, I think the ability and willingness to try things, throw the spaghetti up against the wall, figure out what works to build teams and to really focus on value and education yeah there is probably one of the reasons that you're one of the most successful realtors and teams in the state.
00:42:44
Speaker
and The only last thing say to Dave about that is like that. And I don't mean to jump over you. No, for sure. Nobody else does in my world. yeah so Everybody loves accolades, right? yeah I think the most important thing that anybody watching this can do for themselves is learn how to make, I call it the drama and you have an outer circle and I do four different tiers of clients.
00:43:06
Speaker
My inner circle, think of the inner circle of your clients are the ones that any event that you have, they show up in their bows and ties. They're happy to be there. They love you. They refer everybody to you. That's your inner circle. Okay.
00:43:17
Speaker
The next tier might be the people that show up when it's convenient. and So the tiers are basically the value that they provide back to you. Now, you have client events where treat everybody the same. i don't know if that's right.
00:43:28
Speaker
I have certain client events where I'll say, were we did this last year where we actually have a steakhouse. We took our top 10 customers out. We had the room up the at the local steakhouse and we literally had dinner and they're like, why are we all here? And I go, you guys are just my VIPs.
00:43:42
Speaker
Do you know how many people i got referrals out of those people? It was unbelievable because they were like, You're adding value to them. I'm giving them the attention. I'm giving them value that's a couple hundred dollars on a steak dinner for an example.
00:43:54
Speaker
But the idea there is that they earned it, right? And people wanna stay on that top 10%. It's competitive. Now, my outer circle might be in the people that just see a video of mine on the internet or get invited to generic client event.
00:44:07
Speaker
Next one in, I pay for their tickets. The next one in, you buy them the box suite, for an example. Think about how you can continually tier things for your events, and that helps people prioritize how they treat you as well. So treat the people to treat you well even better, and the business keep coming back to rewarding you for years and years to come is what I've experienced.
00:44:25
Speaker
Love it. Agreed.
Promotion and Education Approach
00:44:27
Speaker
Well, normally we like to end the show with naked self-promotion, but I think David did it for you there. i You know what, guys? Truly, I believe that in my heart of an educator, if I helped anybody with anything, hey that's all that matters to me. Because i when I was looking for inspiration, I dug deep in a lot of different spaces. and There wasn't as much of this cool stuff that you guys are doing now. Thank you, by the way, for doing this. Because providing this to information and great resources, do you guys have a company that, if you haven't looked into these guys, fantastic, by the way. Awesome. It is a situation where it wasn't available.
00:44:59
Speaker
And open source information sharing, what always find crazy is how much I share and then people hear it, but did they implement it Take something from today, implement it, and you'll think it's before later.
00:45:13
Speaker
Absolutely. Thanks, Andy. This has been super fun. I do want to give you an opportunity. if you have I think if you go to praski.com, that's probably the easiest way to find everything. due Yeah. You know what I would do is anybody who responds to the show, we can send out some of our link tree, which has copies of our some of our fun videos we're doing. We do a lot of different video old content.
00:45:34
Speaker
We try to have some fun with real estate. We try to share different ideas. If you ever... Feel free. I don't know how they respond to the show, but if they want to respond to the show, and then I'll send out a Linktree link or something for you. We have show notes. I see all of our stuff. Linktree even exists.
00:45:49
Speaker
You tech guys press you tell me if that stuff is cool or not. It's good. It's good. You're counseling me on how to be cooler, guys, because I don't know. Look at my shirt. yeah this It's a beautiful shirt. It's a beautiful holiday shirt. It's my holiday shirt. I know how to work for it. I how to dress, but...
00:46:07
Speaker
Dave, tell them about our flip. So, Dave also thinks it's funny that I'm pretty authentic in the sense that I wear a lot times shorts and flip flops in the summer. yeah And anyway, that's how we... Shorts, flip flops in the summer, and don't forget, backpack, leaf blower, and shorts in the winter.
00:46:23
Speaker
that so That's not unreasonable. and I have a leaf blower that can do 180 miles an hour. That's not weird. Yeah. Because, you know, and probably dressing you can get a little dusting. You don't want to get up a snowblower. You just got to deal something a little smaller.
00:46:40
Speaker
Thank you, Andy. Thank you, Dave. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Nicole. This has been another episode of Dial It In. He's Dave on Trigme. We are produced by Nicole Fairclough and Andy Wachowski. And with apologies to Tony Kornheiser, we are also going to try to do better the next time.