Massive Agent Podcast
The Massive Agent Podcast, hosted by Dustin Brohm, is the go-to resource for entrepreneurial real estate agents & mortgage loan officers determined to escape the daily real estate grind and instead build a thriving, scalable business. If you’re a burned-out solo agent wanting to make more money, sell more homes, work fewer hours, and gain leverage, this podcast is your roadmap.
Realtors deserve to define their ideal lifestyle and build a business to support it—not the other way around. The Massive Agent Podcast equips you with the mindset, strategies, and systems to make that vision a reality.
Dustin Brohm, one of the most recognized voices in real estate, brings you actionable insights and proven tactics to create freedom in your career. As host of the Massive Agent Podcast, a finalist for the Inman Innovator of the Year award, Dustin is a sought-after speaker who’s shared stages with industry giants at events like Gary Vaynerchuk’s Agent2021, eXpCon, Inman Connect, HousingWire, and more. With a sales organization of over 650 agents across 25 states, Dustin is a proven expert in building successful real estate businesses.
This podcast goes beyond social media and lead generation tips—though you’ll get plenty of those, too. Dustin dives deep into CEO-level thinking, scalable systems, and strategies for creating a business that supports your life. Whether you’re starting a team, streamlining operations, or unlocking new revenue streams, you’ll get the tools and inspiration to achieve more with less.
As founder of the Massive Agent Society, a business-building incubator for agents, Dustin is dedicated to helping real estate professionals stop grinding and start growing. The Massive Agent Podcast delivers fresh, actionable content weekly to empower agents to scale, thrive, and lead in today’s competitive market.
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Massive Agent Podcast
Getting ALL Your Business From Social Media w/ Shannon Gillette
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Do you have a YouTube channel? Even better, would you rather have 300 people see your home listing or 10,000? On this week's episode of the Massive Agent Podcast, Realtor and content marketer Shannon Gillette joins host Dustin Brohm to discuss the crucial aspect of marketing your content and why a few years of trial and error are bound to pay off big time.
Shannon Gillette is in the top 15 Realtors in the Phoenix East Valley, on track to close $80-$100 million in real estate this year. After jumping into property management right from high school, she started to build and scale a sales team to what is now The Gillette Group. Her success, however, did not come easily, nor did it come overnight. What did Shannon do that her competitors did not to garner such high stature in her market?
Listen to the conversation as Shannon walks us step by step through her experience from when she acquired her license in 2005 to where she is now. Having been through multiple speed bumps and life lessons, she is adamant about three things:
- Find a role model
- Start making videos
- Remain consistent
Shannon has never listed a home without a professional video commercial, and it has paid off! The only thing gatekeeping you is fear and nervousness. Once you get over that, there is no reason why you should not be posting powerful videos!
Connect with Shannon Gillette
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On this episode, we're talking to an agent who has really built a big name for herself on social media. She's getting almost all of her deals from social, and she's also started to grow a team. Okay, she started as a solo agent just like everybody else and is starting to build a sales team in the Scottsdale Phoenix area. She's gonna tell you exactly how she's able to get so many deals from social and exactly what she's doing on social right now.
SPEAKER_02The massive agent podcast. We need generation tips and strategies to get you more leads and sell more homes.
SPEAKER_00I love to buy houses, I like to sell houses.
SPEAKER_02Wait a minute. The leads are weak. You're weak. I've had better. Oh have I got your attention now? Here's your host, Dustin Brome.
SPEAKER_01What is up, everybody? Welcome to episode 227 of the Massive Agent Podcast. I am your host, Dustin Brohm, an agent in Salt Lake City, Utah, and founder of the Massive Agent Society coaching group for realtors. Guys, we have a great, great show for you today. We have Shannon Gillette from well, if you follow her on Instagram, she's from the internet, but she's from the Scottsdale area. She's a very well-known agent. She hosts a show actually, um, The American Dream. Super, super excited about today's show. We have Shannon Gillette coming on. She is the host of The American Dream on Fox. She's an agent and now a team leader in the Scottsdale area, the Phoenix area, and she's really made a name for herself on socials. She's everywhere. Okay. You we see her all over the internet, and so do her clients. Okay. She's getting hired because she's just done such a great job for so long on social media. She started with video years ago before many people were doing it, and she just stayed consistent. And now she's selling a bunch of homes. She's build building a sales team. What we're going to talk about today is what agents should be doing right now, today, to start growing on social and start moving in the direction of getting all your deals that way, where you're attracting clients to you. I'm telling you, there's nothing better than having a than getting a text or an email or a phone call where somebody has already made up their mind that they're going to hire you. They're just reaching out to say, hey, come list my house, or hey, I need to buy a place. How do we get started? You don't even know who they are. You didn't know that they were watching you. You have no idea that, but they were watching all your stuff. They were making up their mind that they're going to hire you once their timing became right. You do that for long enough, and pretty soon you're just getting deals all the time. And at one point in this in this uh interview, Shannon says she's getting a call a day. She's getting an organic inbound call every single day from her social media and video efforts. So you guys could do the same thing, but you have to start at the start. Okay, it's kind of kind of the key. So Shannon lays that out, and we also talk about how to start growing a sales team and what that looks like. What's you know, what's the first hire you should make? Um, how did it work for her? What did she start with? Really, really great episode with Shannon Gillette. Before we get started, guys, gotta give a shout out to our partner, Follow Up Boss. I get so many awesome messages from you guys that have that have taken them up on the 30-day free trial. Um, and then you're like, oh my gosh, I I've heard about follow-up boss for years. I'm paraphrasing, but this is like what all the messages say. I had always heard about follow-up boss, never really looked into them or thought they were too expensive, but I didn't really understand what you got. And oh my gosh, now that I have this trial, like I can't believe I've been missing out on this for so many years. I it just makes sense how it's put together. One of our team members the other day was saying, even though she gets KV Core for free from our brokerage, which KV Core is a great CRM, she pays for follow-up boss because it just makes sense. It she she says it's more like a Trello board, and you can move tasks around and assign them to different people in such an intuitive way that it's worth that investment because she gets so much more done, and that's just how her brain works. So you need to at least check it out, and they are giving you a 30-day free trial because you're listening to the show. All you have to do to get that, and by the way, no credit card required, not bad. Just go to MassiveAnPodcast.com slash follow up boss. MassiveAgent Podcast.com slash follow up boss, 30 day free trial. If you just go to their website, you don't use that link, it's only going to be a 14-day free trial. So to get the 30 day, go to the link. No credit card required. Make sure when you do that you actually use it, so then you know what follow up boss is all about and why so many top teams and producers use it. Go check them out. Thank you, follow up boss, for being such a great partner of the show. All right, guys, let's get into the interview with Shannon Gillette right now. All right, guys, I'm here with Shannon Gillette, the team lead realtor and team lead with the Gillette group with Launch Real Estate in the Scottsdale Phoenix area. Shannon, welcome to the Massive Agent Podcast. How's it going?
SPEAKER_00Great, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
SPEAKER_01I'm stoked to have you. I mean, I I listened to your episode of the Overask podcast, which was great. And I'd seen you on social media. I think we've been connected on Instagram for a little while. At least I've um been following what you were up to. You're you're a great content creator, and so you know, after I heard your your story on the Overask show, I was like, oh, I've got to have Shannon on. Like, this is this is awesome. You actually reached out and it was great timing because I had just listened to you on Overask, and I'm like, yep, of course you can be on the show. Let's do it. Because you have a cool story. You're a content marketer, right?
SPEAKER_00It's it's pretty cool. I like to say I went from barely graduating from high school to closing on track about 80 million, anywhere from 80 million to 100 million dollars in real estate this year. I'm still very much in production, taking on buyers, taking on listings. And almost all of my close clients called me directly off of Instagram or YouTube and said things like, Shannon, are you taking on listings right now? Shannon, will you be my realtor? And uh I'd love to kind of share that with the audience because if there are realtors listening and they want people to call them to ask to be their realtor, I have some secrets I can share on how to do that.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Yes, let's spend the majority of the time on that. I think that's very important. And then also you've you've built a team, you know, you're starting to build and scale a sales team. And so I think that would be super helpful to talk about too, is how you went from being a successful solo agent to then, you know, building a team, building the Gillette group, because uh there's a lot of agents who are kind of in that spot right now that want to scale, they know they need to and don't have a clue where to start. So let's back it all the way up, Shannon. You know, when how long have you been in real estate? How long have you been selling homes?
SPEAKER_00So, really, I've been in the industry since right out of high school. I got into property management. I was leasing luxury apartments for four years. It was my dream to sell new homes. So I got my real estate license right around 2005. Uh, spent a year applying for a new home sales position, finally got that position right as the recession was coming. So I was selling new homes for eight years. I was one of the top new home sales consultants in the entire country. Um great, you know, industry to be in, but you don't see a lot of moms with young kids in new home sales because the hours are brutal. You're in that sales office all day long, um, all weekends, holidays, everything. So in 2015, I left New Home Sales to really start from scratch and build this resale career. And it was really just me, my TC, my videographer up until 2020 when I brought on my first agent.
SPEAKER_01So when you were still the new, the new home sales rep, you were you were creating content then?
SPEAKER_00No, so you couldn't really, the builder doesn't back then, um, you know, it was really just sitting in that new home sales office and having people come in. I didn't do any type of business content, just my personal Facebook and things.
SPEAKER_01Oh, gotcha. Okay, you you said videographer um came with you, and I I thought you had been doing a bunch of videos, but um I misunderstood.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. So my videographer, I started getting into video right as I left new home sales. I for many years sat behind that new home sales desk as uh other realtors were coming in. I could only sell the new homes, and I just saw this trend where realtors they weren't marketing their listings, they were just putting a sign in the yard, taking pictures and throwing the home on the MLS. And I watched this, I'm like, man, why aren't you guys marketing these listings? So that's really how I built this resale career out of new home sales is implementing video. I do a professional video commercial for every single home I list, whether it's a $90,000 lot for sale or a $3 million luxury home. And it's been cool. Our our videos, some have hundreds of thousands of views, and they've really helped sell the listings.
SPEAKER_01Let's talk about those videos specifically in the beginning. You know, what what were some of the the speed bumps that you had? What were some of the the growing pains? Or you know, what was what were those lessons you learned in the beginning when you first started doing video that that looking back, you're like, man, I wish I knew this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so this was probably 2016. There were not a lot of realtors that were on their video. Realtors were starting to do videos, they were three-minute-long drone videos of the outside of the home. There was no realtor on film anywhere. Uh, I started to follow this agent, Jessica Edwards, in South Carolina, and she was kind of my role model. She was on every one of her videos in the beginning. And like, man, I think it's so important to have that role model and just kind of watch what they're doing. So I found this uh this photographer that was in college. He hadn't done any video, but I'm like, hey, will you go on this journey with me? I want to start being on every one of my videos and I want to make them short and fast moving. And I created kind of this TV show called Home of the Day, and it has turned into this amazing, incredible thing where uh people will come up to me in public and say, Oh my gosh, I watch all of your home of the day videos, and sellers will say, I can't wait, we get to be featured as a home of the day. So started this thing, it really took off and um really did focus on being consistent in video and then social media and now YouTube, where I'm getting daily calls now of clients that are asking if I'll be their realtor.
SPEAKER_01That's so cool. I I love it. So, in your mind, do you consider yourself a content marketer that sells homes or just a realtor who does content marketing?
SPEAKER_00I never dreamed in a million years. I'm now our team is considered one of the top 15 teams in the entire Phoenix Southeast Valley. I remember there's this.
SPEAKER_01You have like 40,000 agents, don't you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's over 55,000 realtors in Maricopa County. There's this magazine called Real Producers, it's in all the big markets, and they send out a magazine of the top 300 realtors. I remember one day I was like in the 300, I'm like, oh my gosh, I made it on this list. And now I get this magazine every month, and I'm number 10, number 12 in the entire East Valley. Never in a million years would I have imagined my business would be where it is now. Um, and I have video and consistency and um social media to thank for that. It it's so powerful. And I know you asked any, you know, if I had issues at first with video, and of course, my first videos were horrible. I can't even watch them. I I, you know, but now I'm on every one of my videos. You have to get your face out there. You have to imagine you're just talking to a client. You know, we're all in sales, we all talk to people. I don't know why realtors are so afraid of video when it's just so powerful.
SPEAKER_01I I agree. It's it's so powerful. I mean, you can just by putting yourself on video, you can build multi-million dollar business quickly. And not not everyone will. There's there's variables to it, of course, but it there's no gatekeeper with video, right? Like you the gatekeeper is your fear, your nervousness. Like that's that's the gatekeeper. Once you get past that, it's just hey, let's create these videos and let's put them out there.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01When you first started putting them out there in 2016, I mean I'm trying to think back then. That was before Snapchat really, you know, invented this stories concept, so that wasn't around. Uh, where were you putting these videos? Was it YouTube? Was it Facebook?
SPEAKER_00So a lot of it was Facebook. And I asked myself because I like I I mentioned it was so hard for me to watch realtors not marketing their listings. Every product out there is marketed to us. Even a, you know, we see these Instagram ads, even a $10 t-shirt is marketed to us. Realtors are not marketing their listings, and now they have the excuse, oh, it's a seller's market, I don't need to market my listing. Well, not every single buyer is actively checking their MLS feed or their Zillow feed every single day. So I went on this journey and I really just Googled. I went to Google and I said, how can I target market my video to get into in front of potential home buyers? I even target market my videos, you know, on Facebook to other realtors. You know, you can target market by job title, location, internet search history. So I really went on this journey and taught myself by watching YouTube videos and Google on how to get my video. Our average video right now is getting five to 10,000 views within the first seven days, and those are all targeted. So I have so many stories of how somebody was scrolling through Facebook, saw the home of the day video commercial, wasn't even in the market for a new home, clicked on the website because every home I list also has its own website with domain name. I use Rela HQ.com for that. And they scheduled a showing and bought the home, and they were the best offer. So you could tell any seller, ask them, would you rather have 300 people see your home or 10,000 people see your home online? You're going to get more offers, better terms, and sell for more. So there are not many agents marketing their listings these days, and one day this market's going to shift. And we've stayed consistent. I've never listed a home without a professional video commercial in years, and it's paid off and it's amazing.
SPEAKER_01And you're, you know, you're you kind of hit that momentum uh where you know the the ball is rolling down the hill. You pushed it up the hill, and and now it's just it's rolling down the other side because you put in the work, and it's it's so interesting how many agents will just be lazy. They're like, well, the house will sell, I don't need to do this. True. But do you realize you're auditioning for future listings with every video you do? You obviously get that because you're getting a lot of business, people want it want to be on your show, want to be featured by you, want want you promoting their property. And and so every video you do, of course, it's gonna sell like it helps to sell that house, that particular listing, but you're auditioning, right? I mean, let's talk about that a little bit.
SPEAKER_00We every realtor also needs to have a YouTube channel. So I used to do everything myself, it was just me, my TC, and my videographer. I would be up at 4 a.m. building every property website, I would be uploading my YouTube video, tagging it. I use TubeBuddy to tag my videos on YouTube because YouTube's one of the biggest search engines in the world. So I was doing this all myself. And because I and somebody maybe watching right now that can relate with me, I just felt like um nobody can do it as good as me. I don't want to have to rely on anybody. I just need to get it done. I don't want to pay anyone to do this. But over the past six months, I actually hired a virtual assistant and I started her off as part-time, and I'm like, oh, I don't have that much work for her. Like she can just help upload my YouTube videos and all that. Within two days, I moved her to full-time because now she is doing all of this stuff, like making my YouTube thumbnails, all the things I used to be doing, and all realtors need to do the math and figure out what is your hourly rate. And my hourly rate is high, and I am spending time making a YouTube thumbnail, that doesn't make any sense. So having that team around you, you know, a great videographer, a virtual assistant, and now I'm starting to bring agents on. We have five now on the team, and it's incredible. I used to have to take on every client myself. I was working seven days a week and from sunup to sundown, and I have three little kids, I'm married. I mean, I was just running myself like crazy.
SPEAKER_01Shannon, I know that there's a lot of agents that see the results you have now. You know, that they see all the content you're doing, the quality of it, the quantity of it, and they're like, okay, how do I do that now? And you didn't just jump into doing what you're currently doing all of a sudden. So, you know, talk a little more about that transition from doing everything yourself to making the first tires and scaling. You know, how long did it take? What should agents expect? Because I think that that perspective is so important, you know, that they can't just do what you're doing now from day one. They got to start somewhere.
SPEAKER_00I I love that question because I have thousands of realtors that follow me on Instagram, which again, I never thought in a million years I would have this platform. It's such a blessing to be able to give back to the real estate community. And so many agents, they've just got their license and they reach out to me and um they're like, man, okay, how can I break into the luxury market? I'm like, we'll go back 20 years back when I was leasing apartments, eight years in new home sales, three years of being consistent in video before I started to get those come list me calls. And I also like to ask agents to think of who their role model is, whether it's a podcast host or a realtor in another state or an author, like who is your role model? I can guarantee, no matter who your role model is, they all have one thing in common, and that is they were consistent every day. And you can't just post one video and expect an overnight success. You can't just post one reel. You can't just go do one open house and say, oh, open houses don't work for me. I didn't get any leads. Like you have to be consistent every single day. And I know I'm guilty of wanting to do everything, but I've really had to kind of take a step back and say, no, I'm gonna be consistent with video. I'm gonna be posting on my Instagram story every single day, no matter how busy I am. All of my followers get an insight on my daily life, and I'm gonna be consistent just with social media and all of this, and and it's incredible, you know, what consistency can do for your business, and just stop the excuses. Your first video is not gonna be amazing, but think of your first listing appointment. You were probably nervous going to that, but now you've done dozens of listing appointments and you go in more confident and you know what what you're doing, and it's with everything. It just it just really takes consistency.
SPEAKER_01That's it. I you're speaking my language here, Shannon. That's uh and that's where you get good, that's where you build the confidence, is in the consistency. There's people see you, people see you know others that are doing video and content at a very high level, and they're like, Oh, I I would do that, but I don't have Shannon's confidence. I'm not as good as her on camera. Well, you weren't either when you first started, right?
SPEAKER_00I mean I can't even like thankfully I've deleted a lot of my first videos. But if you go to my YouTube channel and it goes way, way back, I am talking too loud, I'm talking too fast, I look ridiculous. Like, trust me, this is a skill that has been acquired over years of being in front of the camera and talking, and it's not gonna be easy at first, but you just have to start and be consistent. I mean, set some goals for yourself as a realtor. You know, if you want to do a video for every listing, just start doing that. I just came from a listing video shoot before hopping on this podcast. It's hot here in Arizona. I was just standing in front of a house an hour ago in the heat, recording a home of the day video. Do you think I wanted to do that? No, but I do it, and it's gotten me here, so it's worked out.
SPEAKER_01Right. And you underst what's really cool, Shannon, is you understand what the highest and best use of your time is, what the the real money-making activities are for you. And you know, now that you you busted your ass for years doing literally everything yourself, and then you eventually were able to outsource the the stuff that doesn't move the the needle, the stu like putting signs up, you know, uh the TC work, other admin type stuff, so you can just do more content, because that's what that's what moves the needle, and you've you've built a system that allows you to just do more of that. It's really cool. So what are if you have anyone listening that they're doing all right, but they're like, I I just don't have that much time for for video, what do you tell them? I know you were at that spot one at one point, you're like, how am I supposed to do all this and be a great agent? What are some of the first steps that they should take for outsourcing and taking some of the workload off their plate?
SPEAKER_00Well, before even outsourcing, my first question to that agent would be what time do you get up? Are you sleeping in? And how much TV do you watch? Are you have you watched every episode of Yellowstone? Okay, if you have time, yes, I have. Okay, well, I haven't. But how much TV do you watch? If you don't have time to work on your business, you have to get up earlier, get up an hour earlier, and maybe take a month off of Netflix. Just don't watch any TV and instead use that time to build your content or build your video. And I do use a lot of professional video. I think, especially if you are doing a listing video, it has to be professional, just like professional photos. But my best video I ever put on my YouTube channel was. Actually, me with my iPhone going to a brand new home subdivision, and I took my iPhone out and I said, Hey guys, here's a behind-the-scenes tour of Barney Farms. I've sold four houses just directly from that YouTube video, and I mean it's just incredible. It doesn't have to be a professional video, and you just have to stop the excuses and get in front of the camera. And I'm all about, you know, that top of feed, top of mind, where people say, I see you everywhere. I'm on my Instagram story throughout the day. Instagram, we can also talk about too, is so so powerful by treating Instagram more like a TV show and not a nonstop commercial. Um, but getting your face in front of the camera, posting pictures of just yourself. I know it feels weird, but um people have these virtual friends on social media and they want to see your face.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Um let's talk about that because I I still think it's weird doing stories and and especially posting selfie pictures. Like I still I have a thing with that. I can do stories all day long, that's fine, but it's still it's it's still not natural. Um but I also just don't care at this point. I've done it so many times that I I don't care. Like you know, gotta do it. It is a looking at it like a TV show, that's such a great way to look at it, Shannon, because most agents are just trying to sell shit on social. Look at my new listing, look at this, click here for this, download my this, and then they say social media doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, or they hire somebody to run their Instagram and it's just nonstop Canva, just listed. Please stop putting just sold on a picture of a house. Like um, Instagram is so, so powerful. I ran a list, you know, we sold over a hundred homes last year, and I pulled up a list of all my personal clients, and I asked myself, if I wasn't active on Instagram and video, would these people have ever even reached out to me? And literally 98% of my close personal clients came from Instagram or came from YouTube, and it's so powerful. And the TV show versus commercial is just if you think about it like sitting down and watching TV, nobody sits down on the couch on the couch to just watch uh commercials, you know, unless it's the Super Bowl. So why are you treating your Instagram like that? Nobody wants to follow that. If you were following, say, somebody that sells makeup or hair care products or cars and they were just nonstop selling, selling, selling, you would unfollow them. You wouldn't be excited to see their content. But imagine I like to use the analogy of a mom that sells makeup. Um, if she brought you in on her daily life and you got to know her kids and her husband and where they travel and their favorite things to do, and then she sprinkles in, oh, by the way, I sell this awesome makeup or whatever it is. Like you would know, like, and trust her. You'd want to buy her product, and she would be top of mind. So if anyone ever asks, hey, do you know of anyone that sells this makeup? you'd be like, Yeah, call my friend so-and-so, because you literally feel like you're friends with these people and you've never even met in person, you know, their dog's name and where they just went on vacation.
SPEAKER_01That's right. So when when I'm unwinding, and my wife, my wife is the one who buys the makeup from that person that she's connected with, uh, and supplements like I buy supplements from people that I that I connect with and follow. It's the personal connection. You have to allow people to make a personal connection with you. And you can't do that if you're constantly pushing and selling and doing these commercials, like you said. Uh, you know, when I sit down and unwind, even though yes, I have seen every Yellowstone episode, because that show is badass. But usually I'm not watching TV, usually I'm watching stories.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, usually I do spend a lot of time watching stories, TikTok, because it's entertaining to me.
SPEAKER_01That's it. Yes, you want to entertain. And entertaining doesn't mean like telling jokes and doing tricks. Like that's not what entertainment necessarily means. Letting people see what your life is like behind the scenes, like a reality show, is entertaining. And that's where people connect with you. And I, you know, you every day on Instagram you do a masterclass on how to do stories the right way just by sharing what you're up to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and yeah, I it's it's just incredible to see the results because I now have the thousands of followers that are almost like my fan club. They know, like, and trust me. They may not be looking to buy a home today, but their coworker may say, Hey, we're thinking of selling our home. People I've never even met are like, you have to call Shannon. I have had just recently a listing just closed where his mom is a realtor and he called me, he follows me on Instagram. He called me to ask if I will list his home. And yes, he said, This is gonna be awkward telling my mom I'm not hiring her, but you were just top of mind. And if you can be on your Instagram stories all day long, people are like, oh, I don't have time for that. Okay, well, at the end of the day, your Instagram story total is maybe two to three minutes of your life. So uh when I wake up, you know, say I'm strategic on what I post, and it's a mix, it's a lot of personal, and I sprinkle in real estate, but maybe that day I'm just gonna be like, okay, I just worked out, I'm making a smoothie, now I'm gonna go show homes, maybe adding all these different things, my kids' basketball games, and now people are seeing you all throughout the day, and you're almost brainwashing the people that follow you to think Shannon Gillette real estate. I I live in Queen Creek, Arizona. When I think of Queen Creek realtor, I think of Shannon Gillette. That is my goal every single day, and the consistency has paid off to where I don't have to cold call, I don't have to door knock, I don't have to buy leads. I have people call me and say things like Shannon, we're listing, we're thinking of listing our home. Are you taking on new listings right now? I got a buyer that's looking for a $4 million home, found me online, emailed me, and said, Shannon, do you have time to take on clients right now? I want to buy a $4 million home. Those are the emails and those are the calls I get uh from a direct result of social media and video.
SPEAKER_01What do you say to the agents that when they hear when they hear you describe what you put in your stories, that you're making a shake, you you know, you're going to or from or during a workout or whatever, and they're like, that's boring. That's boring. I don't want to post that stuff. What do you say to them?
SPEAKER_00So that is a good question because a lot of people think, oh, nobody wants to see this, right? So I would first suggest following people maybe outside of real estate or in real estate that inspire you. Um, there is this girl named Jen. It's the Sister Studio. It she lives in Texas. She makes millions of dollars off of just selling things from Amazon links, and she's an influencer, and I I've bought so much stuff because I know I can trust her. Like she could say, hey, I love this perfume. I've never even had to smell the perfume. I just know, well, Jen loves that. I'm just gonna order it. It's probably it's gonna be awesome. So follow people that these influencers, where they're not just constantly selling things, they're letting you in on their daily life. Like this Jen girl who has absolutely no idea who I am. I know her dog's name is Bruce, I know her husband's a fireman, I know like where they went to Florida on vacation. Like it sounds so creepy, but this is the kind of stuff that builds that know, like, and trust. Plus, people like to know that you're a human and you're normal, right? Like just the little things people enjoy following that, and just don't worry about it if you think nobody cares about this, just be consistent with it. And if you are, you're gonna see results, but you have to have the patience and be prepared. It may take a few years of doing that, but don't stop. You have to start somewhere, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think they're they're so worried about some people thinking it's boring, and so they never do it. You're never gonna get a hundred percent of people that watch your stories to think you're awesome. Some of them are gonna be like, oh, that's cool. And then they they just it's not that they don't like you, but they're just like eh, you know, okay.
SPEAKER_00I do have a few more things to add because I can look back of when I started just the Instagram thing. I used to have two pages. I had a business page, Shannon Gillette Realtor, and then I had my personal page that was private and had all my friends, and I had to make the decision to close down my business page, make my um personal page public, let people in on my daily life, which isn't easy, right? I do get, I literally had somebody leave me a message to say they're hiding in my closet. I had to have the police search my house. Like I do have crazies following me, but you have to just let people in on your daily life, and it is so powerful, and um, just being consistent and following those people that inspire you and know that those little things people enjoy. And my last point to that is you're not for everyone. I build my personal brand on Instagram. My personal brand is I am a mom with young kids. I'm very involved in my church. I'm not afraid to post that I go to a Christian church. Yes, will I offend some people that don't think I should be posting that? Sure, but guess what? I built this personal brand where people know like and trust me. And most of my clients are just like me. They're moms with young kids. And I actually I talked about this on another podcast, but I recently closed a $950,000 home. Some clients that found me from California found me on Instagram. They've been following me for over a year, and I asked them recently, because there's just some of my favorite clients ever. I asked the wife, I'm like, man, you know, what made you use me as your realtor? There's 55,000 realtors in my county, and she goes, Shannon, it's the post like um you post once that your lipstick melted in your car, and we got to see that and get a feel for the heat in Arizona. And you would post, you know, things at the trampoline park with your kids, and we have a small son, and we got we got to just kind of see the behind the scenes of the town, and we know, liked, and trusted you, and we knew you were gonna be our realtor. So those posts that you think nobody cares about, they are powerful, but you can't just be so broad and try to please everyone. I think you have to really figure out what is important to you and your personal brand and just go all out with that.
SPEAKER_01Yes, there's magic in the mundane, you know, what we think is boring, somebody else finds entertaining or interesting. You know, something that's totally routine to you, like taking your kids to a trampoline park, somebody else is like, oh, that place looks amazing. We don't have those here. Where is that? Oh, and oh, maybe I need to move there, or maybe we should find something like that. And they remember they saw it from you. The connection was made by you just sharing what you're doing and not overthinking who's gonna like it, who's gonna be stoked to see it. It's just it's a limiting belief that so many people have that prevents them from doing content. They see some people not liking it or not being interested as a bad thing. Yeah, you are attracting you are not for everybody, you're attracting the right people and repelling the wrong people, which is a great thing because then you're not working with people that you're not aligned with or who would be a pain in the ass or your personalities don't match.
SPEAKER_00I love my clients. We do we're all about client appreciation. I mean, we just had a $12,000 Easter egg hunt for our clients where the grand prize was a thousand dollar staycation and we had 3,000 eggs, and we had over 300 clients out, and we just rented out a water park for our summer client appreciation event. And um, when I when our clients, when we invite them, like they are so much like me. Like I would hang out with all of them, they have kids similar ages, and we just connect, and and it makes my job so much fun because I enjoy, like I love them, I want to help them, and um they're a joy to work with. And if I was bringing on every single person in the world that we don't have things in common, it's not gonna be as much fun going to work every day. So um that's really my advice is just let people in on your daily life, figure out what your personal brand is and run with it. I mean, the realtors that are having a lot of success on Instagram, they do not hide the fact that they are who they are, whether that be a very professional personal brand, or maybe they're just known for saying crazy things, like they're gonna attract their tribe. They're they're going to have this fan club where people just will refer you business all day long and get those calls of people that you don't even have to do the listing presentation anymore because they know everything about you. I mean, sellers um will open the door and say, wow, you're so much taller in person. I'm 5'9, so I'm very tall. Some people think I'm maybe shorter. Um, so I get those kind of like people saying those comments to me because they know so much about my life because I'm open to sharing it.
SPEAKER_01Shannon, let's transition to team building. You know, when did you decide to go from a successful solo agent to, hey, I'm gonna start the Gillette group. I'm gonna start building a sales team. What did that decision-making process look like?
SPEAKER_00So it was it was not anything I wanted to do. I honestly still have a problem, like I have all my own personal issues with just I'm very controlling with my business, my branding. So I first I used to be my own TC. I couldn't trust anyone to do my paperwork for me. They would just mess up, and um, so finally getting that TC life-changing. We now have a full TC team that works seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. They literally worked yesterday, it was Easter, and they were working, and it is incredible. You have to get a TC. That can be your first hire, and then really having that videographer if you want to build this content, I think is huge. But bringing on my first agent in 2020 was very difficult. I mean, she's amazing, and she has literally changed my life, and I can trust her with any one of my clients. But that was very hard for me to think about handing over one of my buyers or my my sellers to somebody else. And then at the end of last year, I brought on two more agents, and again, couldn't imagine life without them. Like, how did I survive by myself for so long? And then my virtual assistant, if you don't have a virtual assistant, definitely get one at least part-time. They're very affordable and they can take on those things that you're doing that you should not be spending your time on. I guarantee you'll probably bring them to a full-time virtual assistant quickly, and the interview process of that it may take a few interviews to find that right fit. Definitely don't settle, but once you get the right VA, it's gonna be life-changing. But um, I do have a real estate coach also, which I was very skeptical of real estate coaching for many years. I'm like, oh, I'm gonna have this coach telling me to go knock on doors, but that's been life-changing, like she is amazing, and now she coaches my whole team. So even having like that real estate coach, you have to invest in these things to grow your business and just to learn and have that accountability is so huge. Um, but she's really pushing me on growing the team more, and honestly, um, she pushed me to kind of make this video that I just put out there not too long ago. Hey, for that first time ever, the Gillette group's hiring. Because I get a lot of agents reaching out to me asking if we're hiring, and I say no. And I got dozens and dozens of applications. Some agents that are selling as a solo agent over $20 million a year that want to join the Gillette group because we've built this incredible brand. And I honestly like have just kind of been putting it on hold because it's so scary. So I don't think I'm the best person for um growing at like giving advice on growing a team because I still struggle struggle with it myself.
SPEAKER_01Well, there's so much value in that right there, just you admitting that it's not this easy thing that you're like, oh yeah, just build a team and add agents. Yeah, it's it's been a struggle and and you know, internally. So I think that's hugely helpful for a lot of people that are in the same boat, you know, letting go of the control or just you know, not wrapping their head around the dynamics of if there are two people, you know, like who services clients, you know, who like how does that all work? And you just figure that stuff out, right? I mean, what's so I'm gonna ask you a two-part question. What's been the most surprising thing in a positive way since you've started building a team? And what's been the hardest?
SPEAKER_00I think the positive is quality of life. I now can go to my kids' you know, football game and eat more dinners with my family because I'm not constantly having to take on every single client and figure out every single showing. I now have a team and I eventually do want to transition more out of production and not taking on every single buyer. Um, but it's tough when you have the personality that I have where I just want everything to be perfect, having you know, bringing on an agent and just having that fear that they're gonna be the wrong choice that's representing your brand and they're not gonna do it as good as you. I mean, that is still I'm working through my own issues and maybe being too particular of what agent you know comes onto the team, but um it's definitely something we need to do. We have so much business, so many people calling us that at the end of the day, my coach told me something that stuck with me. She's like, Shannon, you're the service you provide your clients is not gonna be as good if you're taking on too much. So if you are an agent that just really cares about providing your your um clients with the best service possible, you can't do everything yourself. So putting your client first, and I guess selfishly, me wanting to just be so particular about what agent, like at the end of the day, our clients need to be served well, and um I we do need to grow.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Um I just hired a social media slash marketing manager, and you know, he's been he's been with us for less than a month, but I've already noticed like at first I'm like, I don't really know what I want him to do except for like these couple things. But then once you start to to get once you just start, and it's like, oh, well you can do this too, and let's create this, and how about this? And pretty soon I was like, Well, you're about to be full-time pretty pretty soon here. He's just part-time, but um you just have to start with that, right? So I am curious though, when you started with that very first agent that you brought on board your team, were you seeking them out, or did it was it a situation where they just kind of fell in your lap, or you know, what did that look like? The very first agent.
SPEAKER_00So I had been following her on Instagram for a while, and she's in my same city, and she was so good with Instagram. You know, she she takes the phone and puts it in front of her face and talks to the camera, and when you're doing that, you're talking to your followers, whether you have 20 followers or 10,000, like it doesn't matter. You're having a conversation with them, and I felt like I I had that no, like, and trust factor with her, and I had never even met her, and um it I I knew I couldn't keep going by myself for any longer, so I just met her for coffee, and um you know, we just connected really well and brought her on, and and she's incredible. And I I wish I had done it sooner, you know. I'm sure in a few years I'll look back and just be mad at myself here this year, just being so hesitant to grow anymore. Um, because it really, if you find the right people, it's life-changing, and and you not only serve your clients better, but you get a better quality of life.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes. Um with this guy that I just hired, um, I I have another assistant that's really good with HR type stuff, and so she she set up uh an ad through WiseHire and they do a personality test and all this stuff, and she just kind of handled everything, and she's like, Hey, I'll let you know when there's a Zoom interview. I'm like, okay. And and so she kind of pre-vetted these these people, um, and so did the WiseHire platform. I realize now that in the past, when I've brought people on that didn't last very long, which then threw everything back on my plate that I thought was gone, but back on my plate, causing even more stress, I just wasn't, I just I was too rushed. And you know, you you f you weren't going out there like, oh my gosh, I need a buyer's agent, who can I find? Who can I find? You found someone like, oh my gosh, you're great. I think you'd be a great buyer's agent for the team. Let's see if it works. So, do you think that there's a lot of agents out there that are a little bit too quick, they're scaling a little bit too quick, or they're not as intentional in um scrutinizing who?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely, and you have to have you have to realize you run a business, you have to have core values, and you know, I I want our team to all kind of align with those core values and understand, you know, why we do what we do, and not every agent's gonna be a great fit. And I think there is value in in being particular on what agents you bring on, and there are some that are just like, oh, anybody with a pulse, they can come join my team. And I personally don't ever want to be like that. And um, and also I think I was caught up in the fact that, oh, am I gonna be able to provide enough leads for them? And and I'm like, man, there's so much value in being on our team, leads aside. You know, you can go into a listing presentation and say you're on one of the top 20 real estate teams in the entire Phoenix Southeast Valley and the branding of the team and all of that. That you know, you can't be caught up in oh, I'm am I gonna be able to provide leads to them. But um, yeah, it's it's scary building building a team for sure.
SPEAKER_01I'm glad you mentioned that there's so much value beyond just providing leads. Like that's one thing. You know, access to you and your experience and your expertise, um, seeing how you do things, just like being in the same room to see how you do things is a huge value add. And and you're right, it it's not just about the leads, and I think that's where Agents get fixated. There was a time where I wanted to start a sales team and I got fixated on that. That was somewhere I got stuck is the leads. And I can I can create them, but that whole thing was just like overwhelming to me.
SPEAKER_00And the splits, right? I did a whole reel on this. I've started reels of frequently asked questions. So a reel on man, there could be a solo agent out there that's like, I don't want to join a team and play a pay a team leader a split. Well, at the end of the day, you have to look at your annual income. And if you join the right team that provides value, it doesn't matter about leads, but you're going to sell more homes. You're going to have a better quality of life. And at the end of the year, you're probably going to make more money. So you people get so caught up in these splits, and now they're just a solo agent without a TC and they don't want to join a team. But I mean, it's crazy. The our small team, the amount of homes they've sold just because of the team brand, I mean, they it doesn't matter about the team splits because they're they're selling more homes.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Shannon, we we covered a lot today, social media, content creation, scaling and growing a team. What did we miss? Is there anything that uh any last words, any any any last points that you want to make sure we get out there?
SPEAKER_00I do. So um, as far as YouTube and video, over the past you know, six months to a year, I've been really building my YouTube content of frequently asked questions from clients. So, for example, if you are constantly explaining the same thing over and over to your buyers or sellers, which right now it's like appraisal waivers and appraisal shortfalls. I every day was explaining what is an appraisal shortfall. So I'm like, I found a studio here in my town where I can write a script and read from a teleprompter. And now on my YouTube channel, I have, you know, congratulations to your home's under contract. Here's the next steps: a video on what's an appraisal waiver, what's an appraisal shortfall, what are selling closing costs, because I'm all about setting expectations and being able to send those videos to my clients has been life-changing. So that's one thing we didn't really touch on, but anything can be turned into a video. Even when we, you know, now are starting to grow the team. I did a whole video on what it's like to be a part of the Gillette group and how we're hiring. So anytime you want to go post something, ask yourself if it could be a video because nobody likes reading anything. Even the MLS descriptions, nobody's reading those. They'd rather just watch a video on it. So, you know, find a studio where you can read from a teleprompter and just knock out a ton of videos. I think you'll really love the results and your clients will love it too.
SPEAKER_01That's a great idea. Yeah, if you're getting the same questions over and over and over, it's kind of a hint on what you should be doing content about, you know. No, I they ask, you answer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I literally lost probably $30,000 in commission because it was 10 o'clock at night. We got a counter offer waiving the appraisal, and I was trying to explain it to my clients, and I just don't think they understood what they were doing by waving their appraisal. It was late at night, everyone was frustrated, and the appraisal ended up coming in low. They were a little confused, they didn't really know what they signed up for, and they ended up, I don't get fired very often, but they did end up using another agent. I don't know, and I'm like, oh my gosh, if I had had a video on what an appraisal waiver is, this could have been avoided.
SPEAKER_01Lesson learned, but you you you win or you or you learn, you know? So yeah, you you may have lost out on a commission there, but you probably gained a lot more in the long run because now you're prepared.
SPEAKER_00No, it's prepared for that. Just be better and improve. And also just using your time wisely as agents. We drive a lot. So what are you doing? What are you listening to while you're driving? Are you listening to an audiobook or podcast, or are you just listening to music? I mean, I just try to use every second of my day and just be very intentional with my time and schedule in time with my family too, because real estate can take over your life if you let it.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Are you competitive?
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it helps, right?
SPEAKER_00I want to be the best at everything. So I um, yeah, but it's great to have agents that you follow that you really respect and admire that are doing things better than you. Maybe their Instagram reels are better. So then I'm like, oh my gosh, I've got to get this down. Um, but yes.
SPEAKER_01Fair enough. Well, Shannon, every guest we have on the show, we do these rapid fire questions, either or questions. You could elaborate if you want to. Otherwise, we'll just pick one. And then at the end, we'll let everyone know where they can find you and watch your watch your content, connect with you, and all that.
SPEAKER_00All right.
SPEAKER_01So let's jump into it. Facebook or Instagram?
SPEAKER_00Instagram.
SPEAKER_01Instagram or TikTok?
SPEAKER_00Instagram.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Are you on TikTok? Do you do much there?
SPEAKER_00I I enjoy watching TikTok. Um, I need to start posting more content.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I every day I become more not interested, but sold on TikTok. And at first I was like, not gonna do it, but it's it's powerful. Um books or podcasts?
SPEAKER_00Podcasts.
SPEAKER_01Podcasts or audiobooks?
SPEAKER_00Podcasts.
SPEAKER_01Uh rental property or flipping?
SPEAKER_00Rental property.
SPEAKER_01Burgers or pizza?
SPEAKER_00Pizza.
SPEAKER_01New York or LA.
SPEAKER_00LA.
SPEAKER_01NFL or NBA.
SPEAKER_00Neither. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Whatever. Yeah. Um Mountains or beach? Beach. YouTube or Facebook Live?
SPEAKER_00YouTube.
SPEAKER_01Podcasts or vlogs?
SPEAKER_00Podcasts.
SPEAKER_01Rich Dad, poor dad, or millionaire real estate agent.
SPEAKER_00Uh Rich Dad, poor dad.
SPEAKER_01Umber or Lyft?
SPEAKER_00Uber.
SPEAKER_01Gary V or Grant Cardone.
SPEAKER_00Gary V.
SPEAKER_01And what is the what's the most impactful book or podcast that you've read or listened to?
SPEAKER_00Atomic Habits.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Go to Audible and click play, whoever is listening. Because it's all about consistency and habits if you want to make it in this business.
SPEAKER_01Nice. Well, this is probably fairly telling and not in a good way, but I have atomic habits in my Audible and have not listened. So there we go. That's pretty telling.
SPEAKER_00Because I want I literally at stoplights writing notes. It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01Ooh, I'll have maybe I'll have to start listening to that while I'm walking the dog because that's where I do all my thinking. That's where I focus is when I'm walking the dog at night.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Cool. Shannon, where's the best place people can connect with you?
SPEAKER_00Well, if anybody has any questions for me on anything we talked about, I respond to every single DM over on my Instagram at Shannon underscore Gillette.
SPEAKER_01Perfect. And we will link to your Instagram account and um your YouTube as well. What's uh what's the name of your YouTube channel?
SPEAKER_00You can just Google my name, Shannon Gillette.
SPEAKER_01Fair enough. Awesome.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for having me. I'm such a huge fan of this podcast. It's an honor to be a guest.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. No, I appreciate you taking the time and great stuff you shared. I really appreciate you being open and you know sharing your journey because um you know there's a lot, there's a lot of gold there, you know, through the through the journey that you've gone on. So, Shannon, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_01I don't know about you, but I was taking notes when Shannon was talking about how she had done things and when she started and how consistent she's been. I was taking notes. But here's the thing, guys, it's it's not stuff, it's this is not uh disrespectful towards her, but she's not talking about anything super revolutionary. Like she didn't invent any new concepts, she just did what works long enough, and she got so good at it that now she's just getting so many deals from social because people are following her because they like her and she's building credibility and trust in their eyes. That's the power of social. It boggles my freaking mind how many of you guys still are posting your listings on social and that's it, or your Canva quotes and that's it. Or it it's just hey, I'm gonna go live to tell you about my stupid open house this weekend. But there's nothing about you, there's nothing on your social media that would let someone connect with you at a personal level. If you don't have anything personal, even put it in your stories. If you don't want to post it on your feed, cool, put it in your stories, but people need to know who you are, what you do, why you do it, what you're into, you know, who are you as a person, what's your personality like? They need to see that. And the stories on basically every platform now has them. The stories are such a great way to do that, such an easy way. So it please stop posting so goddamn much about real estate. Dial back the Canva quotes and the listing photos, and put more you or the behind the scenes of what you are doing for your clients. Educate a little bit, let people see behind the curtain. That's what's gonna let people connect with you. Shannon has done that at a very high level for years, and that's why she's winning at the level she's winning at. Great interview, loved it. Appreciate you guys listening. Make sure you take Follow Up Boss up on that 30-day free trial offer, massiveagentpodcast.com at slash follow up boss. It's worth a try. They don't ask for your credit card. What the hell is it gonna cost other than 10 seconds to fill out the form and get started with the platform? Try it. It may be it may be the thing that you've been waiting for, it may be the thing that's been holding you back. You didn't know it. There's only one way to find out. Thank you guys so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please share it with somebody that you think would get value from it. If you learned something today, share it with other agents and let them have the same experience. Let them learn something as well. And it also helps us to grow the show, which we appreciate very much. We'll see you guys next week with another episode. Take care.