Episode 3

A Discussion About Digital Marketing Strategies For Real Estate Agents and Real Estate Investors w/ CMO of Digital Real Estate Strategy

From the one and only, Philly Lilly:

Digital marketing in real estate has such a huge upside when it comes to generating more business as a real estate agent or a real estate investor. However, most agents and investors do not understand what exactly digital marketing is, how it can benefit them, and how to get started. So in this interview, I spoke with Jerome Lewis from @Digital Real Estate Strategy who runs his own digital marketing agency which helps realtors and investors generate leads with online advertising.

Main Points we covered:

- What is digital marketing in real estate

- Why you need to implement digital marketing

- How to get started with digital marketing

- Why every agent needs to have a youtube channel

- Content (organic) marketing vs paid marketing

- Real estate agents vs real estate investors


The real estate industry is constantly changing and evolving, making it difficult to keep up with the latest trends in marketing and technology.

It can be tough to stay ahead of the curve in today's digital age, especially when it comes to marketing and technology.

To watch the video version of this interview, visit click here.

REmarketing is a podcast that will help you stay ahead of the curve. Each episode is packed with insights from top experts in the real estate industry who will share their knowledge on everything from lead generation to website design.

Get your copy of the REmarketing book at https://REmarketingBook.com

Transcript

We're ready. Welcome today, guys. My name is Lilly Chucky. If you're new to my channel, please go ahead and subscribe and hit the video. If you hit the like button, if you do like it. Um, I'm here today with Jerome Lewis and pretty much, we're just gonna talk about real estate digital marketing and what his journey has been.

And, you know, hopefully some of these gems will be able to help you guys out in the real estate world. Um, cuz I know there's a lot of real estate agents and investors on my channel. So hopefully this, if this information will help you guys. And, um, yeah, it's gonna be a raw live conversation and, uh, well, not live, but a raw conversation and yeah, let's get into it.

I can keep it raw. All right, here we go. so

Jerome. Yes. Ma'am. Who are you? And, um, yeah. When you, when you say, who are, who am I? What do you mean personally? Professionally. So who are you? Um, like as in, what do you do? Mm-hmm, how, what's your background? Just tell the people what your background is. Real estate life, real estate, whatever you wanna talk about.

Ah, man. So to keep it professional, my name is Jerome Lewis. I specialize in digital marketing within the real estate industry. Um, I specialize in tech and digital marketing is the most appropriate way to put it. So I have two skills and I put those together and I run a digital marketing agency. So that's me professionally.

Okay. Is that good? You wanna know personal you good enough should be whatever you wanna to you, whatever you wanna talk about. It's not so I'll, I'll leave it with, yeah. If they want the personal raw meat, they can come get it. so, okay. We'll keep a profession. You here first. You can come get the raw version.

Um, so where are you from? All right, so I am from Philadelphia. I'm from Philadelphia, uh, real quickly just to give like some background mm-hmm I, so it it's gonna go a little personal. I don't. Being personal. So I grew up here born and raised in Philadelphia. If I lay out like a timeline from like a baby to like elementary, I was in south Philly.

Okay. Uh, I got taken away from my mother because I was like a little brat. Right. I was a little brat and we wanted, I wanted some Christmas stuff and I'm like, um, I want this stuff. So I went to school and I started acting up. I think I was in like first grade. Okay. And back then, like my mom, she was abusive, but she didn't know any better.

So back then, We used to get a lot of, we used to get whooping for doing stuff that we weren't supposed to do. But my brother in particular, he got beat like really bad. And I would go to the school act weird, hot under their table. And, uh, they started like, what's wrong with this kid? And they would call us down to the counselor's office.

Like, what is wrong with you? So they start checking our bodies and stuff like that. And he called DHS or my parents. They took us. They took us away to like, we went through like a couple foster homes and that was from like age. I don't know what age, but that was from like first grade to like eighth grade.

Okay. So during. I, I grew up in, like, I was in like the nice town area of Philadelphia. It was a really rough area, but that area like helped me get like my edge and not be a punk or whatever. Like I make posts all the time about how it used to be a punk. But growing up in that neighborhood helped me not be a punk.

And then after like that little phase, we went back to our mother. And so that was from like eighth grade until 12th grade. And I back in south Philly and then I got in some little bit of trouble. There, but, and that's where I was telling you, like you, you just asked where I played basketball. When I got in that little bit of trouble, they sent me to Carson valley school, which is a, it's like a it's in flower town.

It's a school like right outside of here. So I'm from Philadelphia. That's kind of where I grew up at in those areas, in those neighborhoods. Okay. Is that good enough? That was good enough. That was too much. I hope that was good enough for you guys. All right. Um, so you're a Philadelphia native Philadelphia.

Philadelphian. Yes. And I'm still fairly new to Philadelphia. I've been living here for about two years. So you definitely know a lot more than me about, you know, the area mm-hmm . Um, so with that being said, um, You know, based on your background and everything, what made you actually want to get into real estate?

What made me want to get into real estate was the same thing as everybody else, basically, for the most part, like financial freedom, they tell you, they're like, oh, you can get involved in real estate for nothing. And it's so easy. It's so easy. All you gotta do is wholesale. A couple of properties in you and it's like, okay, I wanna do that.

So I was. I've read rich dad, poor dad. And I was like, all right, I need to get into this real estate thing, cuz it's gonna be easy. It's going be there's a lot controversy around rich dad. Poor dad. It is. It is. Yeah, but I'm like, so I read that book. I'm like this gonna be easy. And one of the things I picked up, I don't know if it was this book or another book, but they were like, go get a mentor.

So I'm like all, let me go find a mentor and. Um, I found, I went to meetup.com cuz I know how to use Google. You'd be shocked. Some people don't know how to use Google. So I went to Google and I was looking for like real estate meetups and meetings or whatever I was searching for. And I found a meetup group and it was this guy.

He was from Texas. Uh, and he was teaching and offering coaching and his coaching program was $3,000. I was like, uh, $3,000 to make 5,000. Sounds good to me. sounds good. Tell 10,000. Right. Good enough. I could do that. So I joined his program. um, And I was successful. Like, I think that's one of the reasons why I was successful.

The first program you joined. Yes. That was the first program. I joined think big investments. Yes. I think that's one of the reasons why I was successful is because I actually did what the coach told me to do. And I was also willing to invest. So a lot of people are scared to invest in themselves. It's like, oh my God, that's expensive.

And I never saw it as an expense. It was like, all right, I'm investing in myself. If this fail is nobody, I can't blame anybody. But. Right. So that's what I did. I believed in myself, even though it was some stuff wrong with like, I didn't agree with like some of the coaching strategies or whatever. Um, you'll probably like, I'll let you know who my, who he is offline, but he's like a little bit older.

I'm like this stuff is just old. It's like cold calling and door knocking. But I learned the fundamentals of like taking the deal from start to finish and having the conversations with sellers. So that's, that's. That was what, what got me involved. Okay. The, um, financial freedom, like I want to do this.

Right. So I went out, um, and actually a part that I didn't mention. I was, uh, I was re and then I had to save up. So I, before I met that mentor, I had to save up for like two years. Oh, wow. To, to get that $3,000. Wow. So that, like, I didn't, it didn't just come outta nowhere. I had saved up, but that's what got me interested.

Yeah. It was financial freedom. And that mentor, I think it was two years. I was like, alright, I'm gonna save this money. Cause I wasn't making, I got kids. So, and at the time I only had two and they was taking mad child support. So it was. Tough for me to save that money, but I did it. And. Yeah. Wow. So before we get into my next question, you mentioned, you know, obviously a mentor mm-hmm

How do you feel about mentors in the real estate space or mentors? Mentors in general? Because a lot of people will see these mentors. Mm-hmm , they're like they call 'em gurus and they feel like they're just taking their money because it's so much money that they usually have to invest. But you, you just said you saved up for two years before you decided to, before you, you decided you wanted to invest in a mentor, but you saved up for two years.

So you committed yourself to saving for two years to invest in yourself. So how do you feel about like, you know, mentors and especially nowadays, how do I feel or how guys everyone has this thing about how you feel, which doesn't really matter, but what is, it does matter? Okay. It matters does yes, but it may not necessarily be reality, so, mm.

Yes. How do you feel about how do I feel? Oh my God. What do you think? What is my per what is your perspective? My perspective about mentors is you have to, you have to vet them just like anybody else. And these days it is so. Easy to it's. It's a lot, it's a lot of men or gurus. It's a lot of information.

It's a lot of stuff out there. So it makes it even more tough. Mm-hmm the, like, I value, I appreciate mentorship and coaching because it's not necessarily about the information that they give you. It's like, okay, this is what works. It's about correction and guidance. Yeah. What, what, what mentors give you?

So you get the right coach at the mentor, even if they're not successful in your business or your field or anything like that, coaches and mentors, they want to help you. And I have conversations with people all the time. I'm like, who do you have in your corner? That's honest with you. Like, those are the type of people that I appreciate mentors, people that are gonna say, look like, all right, it was this woman.

And she was like, she'd been trying to do real estate for like four years or something like that. And she attended one of these meetups and this guy, she, she looked at him as a mentor and she was attending all these meetups. Like I forget what they call 'em like, uh, webinar junkies or something like that.

Mm-hmm , mm-hmm and the mentor, he said, you're never gonna do this business. You should just get. And wow. It was honest and nobody, and she was like, thank you so much because nobody else ever was gonna tell me. And you're absolutely right. I'm never gonna do this. I shouldn't be here. Wow. And it, like, he like literally changed her life by telling her the truth.

So I appreciate like coaching and mentorship. I think it's vital. I think everybody should have coaches and mentors and we pay attention to success, to successful people. That's what they do have coaches and mentors even like in, in like yeah. In business, in business, you see it. In sports and coaching, like, uh, one of the coaches as mentors that I really admire is bill Belichick.

Mm-hmm , I don't know where his football, you know, his sports background is, but I know he's an excellent coach just because he can't get out there and tear it down, which you don't mean he's not a good coach. So I think he's a good coach. Um, mentors are definitely valid. You just have to vet them, uh, and vetting doesn't mean, oh, you gotta be doing this business.

Like it, it doesn't mean. It's a certain way that you vet, um, I appreciate mentors and coaches, cuz they can be very objective and it's essential to success. Right. Right. And I totally agree with you. So how would you advise for people to vet their mentors? Like if you could give a couple steps or just words, the, the quickest way, like so, you know, I'm all about results.

Getting to the bottom line as soon as possible is X other people like X professionals that you respect get references. Ask other people. So people go out there, they do the YouTube thing and you know, they go find in online and all stuff. Oh, YouTube. , you know, I'm the YouTube university. And then they don't wanna pay any money or they don't want to like, like, so I run a meet up and one of the things I'm like, look, turn your camera on.

So people can know who you are. Talk, interact network with people. Mm-hmm, like, that's how you do it. You gotta network. You can't be out there just, you know, YouTube university and think you're gonna do business without talking, interacting with people. So. Ask people in your network, so trusted people. Okay.

And to go off of that point. So what do you think is the difference between, or what is the difference between, you know, watching all these videos on YouTube? Because obviously we both give out a lot of educational and informational content on YouTube. What's the difference between that content on our platform and everybody else's platform.

Versus actually investing with somebody, um, and receiving, you know, like what's the difference for you? So for me, the difference is I think it's more of a psychological thing. So a lot of time when we make an investment or we pay for something it's, it's like skin in the game is serious. You take it serious and it's not always success or whatever, but it's just a different mindset.

And, you know, like when we, like, when I talk about marketing, I like people that. Because they're willing to pay for something like that's, it's just a difference, like a buyer. So we, we do wholesale, right? Yeah. Like buyers, buyers buy, like it doesn't matter. So I like people that are buyers, buyers are just more serious.

They're more committed. They actually have money. Uh, we always talk about the social media thing and we talk about, uh, like TikTok and it's like, oh my God, get all these views. And you do all this stuff on TikTok, but can those people. Some of them can, majority of them can't, or aren't even capable. So I like to work with people that are kind of capable.

And if you can't like, you know, pay for certain stuff, then you ain't mine. So they say you don't pay attention until you pay. I like that. I, I, I, I agree with that. I agree with that. Cause we take so much free stuff for granted. Yes. So, um, I agree with you as. So that kind of leads me into, so what exactly do you do in real estate?

Now? I do wholesale and I just, I do digital marketing, so I help other real estate people with their digital marketing. So I still do some wholeselling mostly I do that through Facebook and I have a partner out in Texas. Okay. Um, and we just do like nationwide, like virtual wholesaling. So, wow. What made you wanna get into virtual?

What made me want to get into virtual? My skills? So remember I talked about that mentor, like he taught me those very. Old school skills, door knocking, cold calling. You gotta beat the payment and you gotta do the work so I'm like, I understand that. So I took those principles and I'm like, well, I have a certain skillset cuz I was, when I was working as a professional, my, I have a background in it.

So I'm like, can I do this? Online, somehow right now I was like, yeah, it's possible. So I naturally went over to Facebook ads and that's what I do. I just do virtual. So, so did you implement any of those strategies that your original mentor told you about? As far as the door knocking Nicole calling all that stuff.

So I think it was a three month program. Okay. Three months, I think it was 90 days and yeah, he taught that stuff. We were actually pounding the pavement, go out there and have the conversations, your voice though. So, so we, we did that, like, that was part of the training. Like we would go out and I got, uh, meet his.

Me Charles and my mentor, like, we run this other meet up group now, but they came to Philly and we were doing like, uh, door knocking and working with, and it was like, he had like 12 groups. It was a lot going on. Wow. But we actually did the work. So I learned everything in that process of actually doing mm-hmm and it was tough, cuz it was like, alright, go through this.

And some of it was like, Fighting against like the old you kind of. So I was like, of course, doc on doors and talk to people. I, I I'm an introvert. I don't wanna talk to nobody, but it's like, all right, you paid, right. You paid this money. You gonna do something you, you better. Right. So I just did it. I was like, all right, I'm I'm gonna do what he say.

I disagree with it, but let me just do it. And whatever I disagree with, I'll change it. And that's what I did. I'm okay. I don't agree with door knocking and cold calling, but I agree with these principles and fundamentals. So let me take out the door knocking and cold calling like their parent payment and.

Over to Facebook. Okay. And that's what I did. So, so Facebook is pretty huge when it comes to, um, you know, particularly in wholesaling, because a lot of people are finding, trying to find other ways of bringing in these motivated sellers. Mm-hmm um, to get these discounted properties. And I know for me, one of the ways that you know, me and my partner started off wholesaling was cold calling.

That's how we got our first couple deals. Um, and it was effective. Right. But nobody really, I don't know anybody personally, who actually likes to cold. Um, so we knew that as time went on, we were gonna switch strategies at some point. Um, so when it comes to, you know, Facebook marketing, right? There's a lot of people that want to get into that, I guess, what is the best way for them, for them?

What is the best way for them to get into Facebook marketing, to find motivated sellers? You want the real answer? what? Yes. I want the real answer by my course. no ladies gentleman by my course. So, so people buy, buy your course. Yeah. Buy the course. Okay. All right. Well, why do. do you advise against them to do it themselves or why?

You know, so I don't advise against it. It's gonna be very situational and very, uh, it's it's just very situational. So it depends on your skills. It depends on your willingness. It depends on the individual. So like me as an example, I, I see a lot of people they' like, you can get involved and do this marketing stuff with no.

That is one of the biggest lies yet. I SU you need tech. Like, even if you wanna do like direct mail, you gotta go on a website and click around. You gotta do certain stuff. Mm-hmm . So one of the biggest lies that I hear about, like in terms of marketing and this Facebook ads stuff is like, you don't need to know tech.

Somebody needs to know it. So maybe you don't need to know it, but you need somebody that's gonna know it and that's gonna cost you. So it really depends. Do you have tech skills? Are you familiar with social media? Can you re analytics, can you analyze marketing like that? All depends. So it's very situational.

People are like, well, wish sure. This wish sure that if, if it's gonna very everybody's situation, because even if we. Markets, right. Mm-hmm , you're like, what's your cost per lead. I'm in Philadelphia. I wanna have a different cost per lead than somebody in New York. Right. Somebody, Alabama, all of that stuff is going to vary.

So it really depends on the situation. Um, I don't Avi, if you have tech skills and you're a little bit younger, um, hit. Savvy like Lillian, you could probably learn it, but if you're like older and you resistant to technology, I don't wanna put my information out on Facebook. They're like, oh my gosh. If you're one of those people yeah.

Hire out don't yeah, don't touch it. Don't touch it. Jesus Christ. I think one of the most important things, and we talk about this is that like a lot of people get involved. So we're specifically speaking about wholesaling right now. Mm-hmm when we get to like the Asian side of things in a little bit, but a lot of people get involved.

Um, in all these different marketing strategies mm-hmm and they don't realize that they have to also track it. Mm-hmm so you don't, Facebook is the last form of marketing that you want to get into where you just dump a whole bunch of money. Mm-hmm and you're not looking at the analytics. You're not tracking exactly what's working and what's not because that budget will run drive very quickly.

So I think it's important to not just know about, okay, I'm gonna get involved in this type of marketing, but also understand, okay, how am I gonna track it? How am I gonna be. Scale, if it does start working or when it does start working. So, um, I think that's, that's a really good point that you brought up.

Absolutely. And one more thing. It is not a, it's a profession like yeah. Using Facebook ads and doing it's a profession and it's worth paying for or worth learning. So you can go and you can try to figure it out. But it it's tough. Like it's not, it's not easy. And then they like rolled out, changes on the, um, the pixel and the remarketing.

You gotta, it's always changing, always changing. You gotta be constantly adjusting with Facebook and anything digital. So that's why I like, when people say, oh, you're no tech, you don't have to learn. I just think it's a big misconception. So I agree. I think, um, the fact that it is always changing is something.

Cause I actually went through a. Intensive course for Facebook ads and Facebook marketing, just social media marketing in general, and it dove heavy into Facebook ads. And one thing, and I noticed is that it was constantly changing. Like, let's say you bought a course a year ago. It is completely non-applicable to, you know, Facebook now.

Mm-hmm , you know what I mean? So there's so many things that you have to keep track of. And so I personally believed, like Jerome said, if you don't know about it, or you're not really willing to dive into it heavy, then you definitely want to hire it out because you don't wanna Dibb and dabble, especially in Facebook marketing, just because again, your, your budget can run dry really fast.

Absolutely. And they say Facebook ADSS don't work. Those are my favorite people because they let me get all of the leads. Like you, you keep throwing your money and trying to figure it. Willy nilly, like, yeah, it works. So yeah, I believe, yeah. Facebook definitely works. You just gotta know how to work. Mm-hmm um, so my next question is, so you started out wholesaling mm-hmm same thing with me.

What made you get your real estate license? So I used to run real estate events for a particular real estate investment. Group. Okay. And during these events, people would ask me for like deals and I'm like, my deals go fast. Right. Like our wholesale. So they're like, well, can you gimme something on MLS or your agent or something like that?

I'm like, no and this would come, it would come up so often it's like, uh, and then like at the time I was working with a guy and he was like, why don't you just get your license, get your license, get your license. So I had him in my ear, like, get your license and getting your licenses, establishing you. It makes you more credible, which it does.

Right. And so I had him in my ear and I also had people like Jerome, just something like, can you show me the MLS? Like what can you do? And I'm like, can't do anything. I'm not licensed. I just hotel. Like I just, so I was like, , it might make sense for me to get my license so I can help some of these people.

So I went, and in addition to that, when you get your license, you just get a whole bunch of access to all these different things. Yeah. So that was my mind frame at the time is like, all right, I'm gonna help these people with the MLS stuff and, or, or whatever they were looking for. And I got, and I was like, wait, no, I don't want to do that, but I wanna keep my license for the benefits that, that come with it.

So, right. So what made you not want to kind of dive into the real estate agent side of things? Cause I it's very emotional, very emotional. Um, it's a very emotional business. Like stuff will fall apart over colors and uh, oh, it's a thing on the wall. It is like, I, I, I can. I can't do that. I can't do it, so, right.

Right. Jerome was a very, uh, cutthroat straight to. Technic guy I'm logical, logical like logic numbers, data, like, well, the blue influenced me in a look. Do you want it or not? See, and I, and I agree with you because you know, coming from the wholesale side of things, things are very logical dealing with cat fires.

Like do the numbers work. If they do, boom, let's do it's if they don't. You know, so for me, in my side of the agents, you know, thing is I'm still working with investors, but they are now just trying to buy. These are investors who are trying to buy houses with, you know, conventional loans or FHA loans or whatever the case is.

Now. Obviously it's a different type of house. It's not like a totally distressed house. You know what I mean? But these are people that are looking to buy like cash flowing properties. or something that needs a little bit of work. So it's a little bit different, but I still work with cash buyers because you know, I'm not gonna just give up the wholesale side of things.

So, um, I guess if you had to choose mm-hmm I probably know the answer, but you know, for the people, if you had to choose, um, what would you say you would only focus on and then what do you think, do you think, um, other wholesalers out there should get licensed. So is that two questions? Two, two part questions.

Okay. So what would you personally choose? And then what would I choose? Being licensed or not licensed? Yes. Like business or just being licensed or not licensed. What would you choose to focus on a, a business model if you had to, would you choose wholesale or would you choose the traditional real estate agent route?

Oh, I that's a tough one and I never been posed that question. Okay. Agent or wholesale? I would probably suggest most people. Do agent, what would you choose though? And then what do you suggest? Okay, so I would choose

because it, it depends on where I'm at, but because I'm more logical, I would do wholesale. Like it's just more numbers, more data, it's more businessy over there than it is. Like, let me butter you up and, you know, right, right, right. So I would choose whole. I would suggest other people do like licensing.

Okay. Because, and one of the reasons why I do wholesale is because like, I kind of already, like, you already know you mess with me all the time about how uptight I am. Like I'm an uptight person. I'm very structured. Mm-hmm so I don't necessarily need that structure that comes with being an agent and getting your license and stuff like that.

Right now, a lot of times, like a lot of times, I'm not saying that I'm special or unique at. But a lot of times people come in and they like floating and they're unrealistic. Yep. And by going through that training, it will help ground you and make you a little bit more realistic that this is a business it's not get rich quick.

Yes. You might see some people out there. Look at my check, flashing their check, where they, you know, had some success, but a lot. That's just, that's not the majority. Yeah. That's not the majority. That's not how it works. So get some structure, understand the business, how it works. And you know, then if you want to maybe release your license or not keep your license or something like that, then do that.

But I think the agent like going through as an agent gives a lot of structure, a lot of structure and business mindset and agents are typically sharper than wholesalers. I think. So. Yes, business, like business wise, like. Ye. Yes, I think so. Like, okay. Yeah. I, I, I can see as far as like, you know, having things in place, contact and everything like that.

I can see that. Yeah. I'm not saying they're better in overall, but as far as the business, like running their business or being open, they are a little more equipped. In addition to that, like, you've got all this other stuff coming for you, MLS realtor boards. Like you've got all that structure yeah. To support you.

Whereas when you just do wholesale, it's like, all right, you just popped up overnight. Right. Right. Right. So, yeah. So. Um, I have a different answer to that. I, I don't know which one, obviously I don't know which one's better, but I would say for me and my personal experience, it's been more beneficial for me to have gone through the wholesaling route and understanding investing as a whole mm-hmm um, because that has opened my mind to so many different things like learning about wholesale and learning about creative, um, creative financing strategies, like seller financing and sub two.

Um, that has just opened up my mind to so many different things that are, you know, that you're able to do. Whereas though, I feel if I would've got license first mm-hmm , I would've came from this mindset of all this structure and it ha it has to be this way. Yes or no other way is, is possible. So for me, just.

Coming from this open-minded, um, perspective versus, um, the structure, cuz now that I understand the structure, now I'm able to implement it. Okay. Well this, it does have to be like this in this situation, but it can also be like this, if you want to go this way. So for me, it's just been beneficial to see both worlds, but definitely coming in from the investing side of things.

And then. Bringing in the agent side. And that structure kind of just, it's just been a better experience for me personally. So I would recommend that route mm-hmm, be. And also, because it doesn't take much to, you don't have to sign up for any classes to, to learn wholesaling. Um, I'm not saying that you go one, go learn one thing and wholesaling and, and just start going crazy because that's how these laws are starting to come into place.

Right? Because people are just acting all crazy. But you know, with a real estate agent course who have to sign up, you have to do all this stuff. Um, that takes more time, whereas though you can learn wholesaling right away, and then you can implement the real estate agent side of things. So that's my 2 cents.

Um, but yeah, you choose to do what you want to do. Um, so I guess what does your business from, what does your business as a real estate professional look like today? So lately I have been focusing a lot on, I run a digital marketing agency. I've been focusing on that a lot. I'm helping. Like agents that to the people I'm helping agents, I'm not preaching.

I'm helping agents and real estate investors fix their tech and marketing. Okay. One of the biggest issues. People have in general, in real estate, I like to address my real estate piece, but they it's the tech and marketing thing. People like, oh, you don't need the narrow tech to do market. Yes, you do.

Charlie. You don't have everybody dizzy the way you keep moving. I'm sorry. There is some, they, they look . Yeah, like we go. So there is some, you need some aspect of tech and marketing in your business. You're gonna run a business. Uh, I used to run like events for speakers and I, I, I realized I'm like, okay, , they don't have tech and marketing systems in place.

It's like just a lot of stuff missing. So I want to fix that and that's. Our agency does, like we do anything around tech and marketing. We can help you fix. So, okay. So, uh, I agree, um, marketing without marketing, right? There's no business. Mm-hmm because you can't just, you have to know where your next deal is coming from.

Right. At least you gotta try to know where your next. Deals coming from and marketing is what gives you the highest probability to figure out when your next deal is coming? How much it'll be, etcetera. All right. We still gonna get this done. Don't yaw, whatever you want, whatever. All we're still gonna, we're gonna keep it rolling.

All gonna keep it rolling. All right. So last thing we talked about was.

Yeah, this is so serious. I'm so sad. Wow. You don't understand anymore. I don't understand. I'm here with you. What do you mean? I don't understand. I know. It's just, I'm more, I think I'm more disappointed. I'm gonna cry. I think I'm more disappointed. okay. Jesus with us like 30 minutes missing. No. Yeah, it was 30 minutes missing.

Geez. All right, we gonna bang this out or we gonna bang it out. Ah, wow. Bloopers, bang it out. Technology and the video market. Do you ever talk, do you ever put bloopers in your stuff? I would put, I put in this in, I think bloopers put it in, cuz what's the least you can do put it in the end. So this is what you wanna make sure that you get.

you wanna make sure all your video stuff. That's why I say go raw. Cuz you get issues like this, but the quality, this nice quality. Wow. The quality is so great. Mm-hmm now is just, we're missing a whole 30 minutes. We're missing a whole 30 minutes of video. It's about, it's about the future. It's not about right now.

It's. It's not about the, about it's not about the past. OK. Hey God, look up. Look, we just made all this excellent content. Guess what? She lost it. I didn't. She lost it. It just, my camera stopped. She lost it. So it's in the digital space. It was good. We had a good conversation with just us. It was no that wasn't a just us conversation.

We were talking to them and, and, oh my God. I know. I'm very sad right now. I'm actually very sad. How we gonna tape, how we gonna tape this up? Like cuz what we do have to tape it up. Okay. So we're gonna tape it up. Um, we're gonna finish talking about tech, right? What got, because now I gotta repeat myself and listen, this what happens.

So you don't wanna do it. Are you telling me that you're giving up? Oh, I I'm not giving up. All right then. All right then, but that's how you, do you remember your energy? When you getting the presentation? My energy still remember your energy yesterday. You about to have that energy. No, but that's how I feel.

Okay. All right. That's so let's let's. So now he's telling me that he doesn't have no energy. All right. So we're gonna still we're we're still gonna keep this going. Okay. So we're talking about tech mm-hmm you still got face to people. See that you don't even wanna face. 'em no more. I do. I'm I'm gonna face the people.

Okay. We were talking about tech, please. Just lay out the importance of tech in, um, a real estate agent business, and why tech is important, you know, for real estate or real estate agents, tech is important or why people, why people look past the technology side of market. So they look past the technology side of marketing, because a lot of times people will tell you that you don't need to understand tech to implement marketing, which is a complete that's completely false.

There is tech involved. If you live in 20 to 21st century, there is tech involved in marketing. You might not have to do it, but there is some aspect of tech and bottom line is don't try to be a master of all trades. So there's a tech aspect. You might not have to do it, but there is definitely tech involved, unless you're gonna go out there and knock on doors and write stuff down on a notepad.

So there's some, you go aspect of tech. Yeah. We don't do any door knocking or any of that. Um, I actually made a video on my channel. Mm-hmm about why I don't door knock as an African American woman. Now that kind of led into a whole different thing. Did it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I wanna know about that. I would like to hear about that.

Yeah. So, I mean really quick. I don't, I just don't door knock because I personally don't think it's safe. Mm-hmm um, because the, the point of door knocking is to have conversations. Mm-hmm you go inside the house and you have a conversation with somebody. Oh yes. Yes. You go inside the house. You're vulnerable to, yes.

Whatever they have in the house. You have no idea. What's in the house. Who's in the house. Okay. I do underst. how door knocking door knocking can be powerful because you're right there. Right. Face Toto face. And the point is to when you're marketing, the point is to get in contact with people mm-hmm and door knocking.

They can't like, I mean, they can run away with you, but people aren't just gonna, you know, all these people aren't gonna slam the door on your face. So, yes, it's powerful because you get to, you know, your belly to belly with the person, but, you know, as a woman, African American woman, you go inside the house.

you know, I just wanna make it, I wanna make it. I never thought about that aspect like that. It can be dangerous. I never thought about that because I'm a man and I just don't that's like we were trying to do like this podcast series with exp like authentic real estate agents. And it's just so some stuff that we never consider or understand as different being part of different backgrounds.

Right? So you, as a woman, you have to think about that. Like me as a, I'm not thinking. Somebody it could happen. Yeah. But I'm like, all I can hold my own, you know, there nobody want me, you know. Right, right. But you, a woman you're like, you know, they might get me. I'm pretty. So that's just a D. I've had experiences like that.

Whereas like, I'm not gonna go too crazy, but you know, wholesale deals you go into like the distressed properties. And sometimes like, I would have my partner with me and sometimes I wouldn't because he, he has a full time job and, you know, I've had just weird guys make weird references and just, you know, you know, they're kind of shooting their shot or whatever.

And they're like a lot of times they're typically older mm-hmm and I'm like, okay, this is weird. Like there was one time I was going in the house and the guy was making all. You know, sexual references and I'm like heading upstairs to his bedroom to, you know, take pictures of the upstairs. And I'm like, this is probably not a safe situation, but thankfully he's like 85 years old.

Yeah. If something happens, I can probably do something because he is, you know, walking around with barely getting around. But, um, you know, that's just not a safe situation, even which open houses. I mean, we've seen stories right. Not to get too deep into that. Right. But I just personally don't think it's safe, especially as a woman.

Um, and then, well, we're, we're gonna just move on from there. Okay. So we just laid out why tech is important. Right. We don't wanna, we don't wanna leave that part out of your business. Um, so I don't think we talked about yet the, the E P part about things. So really. Um, just lay out why you chose ex P Realty and what the benefits were to you.

Um, yeah, so, all right. So I chose ex P like, like I was saying like a little bit earlier before we messed it all up I chose ex P because I have tech eyes and it, it just made a lot of sense for a person that understands tech. Like, if you can see, like, it's a certain, like intuition that, that you have, like, I can see.

Things before they happen or start happening. So there's a lot of technology and stuff that I see. I'm like this just makes sense, like join or kind of get left in a dust. SOP was one of those companies that it is innovating and the tech I'm like, all right, that makes absolute sense. And. Like a lot of stuff that people are doing door knocking and open houses, like certain ways they were doing stuff.

I'm like, this just don't make a lot of sense. I want to own a business. And I want, like, we talked about a little bit earlier. Like I want multiple streams and multiple opportunities for my business. I don't want to just be an agent. Hey, buy, sell, buy, sell, buy, sell. I want those other opportunities too. So a lot of people they get in this, like they get in and it's like, okay, I'm gonna be a real estate agent.

I. Am a real estate agent, but I'm more than that. I am a business owner, a business person. So I wanna run businesses and ex P made sense to run businesses. So, yeah, ex P has a lot of different income opportunities within, you know, the brokerage other than just being a real estate or just, you know, doing transactions, you know, as, you know, helping buyers, buyers, seller sell.

And one of the things for me as to why I joined ex P Realty was because the opportunity, um, to receive revenue share, which is basically when you're able to build a team and have other agents, you know, come on your team and basically help them do transactions as well. You especially get paid to do what you're already doing, which is transactions.

And then naturally people wanna be a part of your team as they see your success. And you can just teach them to be successful as well. So for Jeromes the technology. And I also believe that technology is very, very helpful because it helps in so many different ways. Um, but for me it was mainly the opportunity to receive revenue share, and that directly goes into the opportunity to have a retirement for yourself.

Um, and they have other things such as they give you stocks and stuff like that. So a whole bunch of things when it comes to a P Realty, but that's why I joined. Um, you know, and we were both, we both started on the wholesale side, so it just made sense for us. Um, so. digital marketing, you run a digital marketing agency.

Mm-hmm and you do that to help real estate investors, right. And agents and real estate agents. Okay. So, um, I know we briefly, I know we went over it in the, in the last section, but I just wanna talk about it again. So digital marketing, um, for real estate agents and real estate investors is very important, but how do they, how would they particularly go.

You know, getting started in digital marketing, how would they get started in digital marketing? Um, by my course bias course by my course bias course. And then, um, but why, I guess, let me ask you this. Why did you cuz I don't think we. Talked about this in the first section. Um, why did you get started in digital marketing?

And then did you use the other traditional forms of marketing? Why did I get started? Um, so my mentor, like he taught me the door knocking the cold calling. Right. He taught me that stuff and when I had him and I was pounded a pavement, I'm like, okay, this works. So I took what works I'm like, but when I was doing it, I'm like some of this stuff, just, it doesn't sit right with me as a Lin, they call us entitled spoiled millennials as a millennial.

I'm like, some of this stuff doesn't make sense. Like, why am I door knocking if I could do, uh, other stuff. So I have an it and a tech background. I'm like, okay, how can I apply? Like my skills to my business. Right. And I gravitated towards Facebook ads and that's what drove me to Facebook ads. And it wasn't like Facebook is technology.

It it's not, I, I don't know how to describe it, but I'm like, okay, what's the closest thing to technology, like my actual background and it was Facebook. So it was like, all right. I really learned Facebook ads to implement that into my business. that makes total sense. Um, and what we were saying before was that, you know, you don't wanna just dive head into Facebook ads without really having an understanding, um, about it, which is why, you know, Jerome had plugged himself to, you know, hire him, you know, for your, for your Facebook marketing or digital marketing in general.

Um, because you can blow a lot of money on Facebook and if you're not willing to understand how it works and also be willing to track. Um, you know what you're doing, then you can really just, you know, hurt yourself more than you would or spend more money than you would if you were to just, you know, hire professionals to do it.

And, um, we're big on hiring professionals. I am. I know I am. I'd rather hire. Absolutely. Yeah. I'd rather hire somebody that knows what they're doing that already. Has the experience and everything like that versus me personally go through it. Mm-hmm, try to learn everything, burn money in the process of trying to learn everything and then, you know, still try to like tweak things and figure it out and go through that whole headache.

Then just hire somebody who I know already has a proven strategy and success doing it. So right. At the very least hire a consultant or buy some kind of course yeah. Where, where you get support. So, yeah. We, you said it earlier pay when you pay, when you don't, you don't pay attention until you pay. So you, when you, when you're not paying for things, it doesn't mean as much to you, but when you are, that's when you really start to hone in on things.

Um, so I know one thing we did talk about was why you think there's, I really wanna talk about this point. Why do you think there's be beef between real estate agents and wholesalers beef between so I think they're jealous of each other. I think both sides are jealous in some way. Uh, earlier we said, I think agents, I think agents are more jealous of wholesellers being jealous of agents.

And the reason why I think they're jealous is because as a wholeseller and even as investors, like, we're mostly talking about wholesellers, but you make more money on the transaction. Yes. And these agents are jealous. It's like, it's illegal. You can't do that. There's stripped or equity from the house.

There's all this stuff around. It's like, instead of being jealous, of that strategy or that person, why don't you go learn about it? Why don't you go learn about it? So I think agents are jealous of wholesalers in that aspect. And then I think, um, Wholesalers are jealous of agents of the aspect that they have access to more tools, merit technology.

Uh, they're a little to me they're more business savvy than typical wholesalers. Cuz a wholesaler you can just pop up overnight. Oh, I was on YouTube. I was watching max, max brown, a wholesaler I'm a wholesaler now like watching me. Like right. I'm the wholesaler now? Well, what the hell? Like, how do you get a business already?

How you doing transactions already? How, how is that possible? You didn't go through here in Pennsylvania. What is it? 75 hours. You didn't go through the 75 hours. All you did was YouTube university. How you got a business. So, yeah. Yeah, that's my perspective. So I, I agree with that. I think, um, real estate agents are more jealous of wholesale because of the amount of the more money that, you know, wholesales can make in a transaction.

Um, but I also think wholesalers, um, and we were talking about this need to be more understanding of real estate agents, not understanding the numbers because, um, you know, when you go through real estate agent school or the licensing program, you pretty much are learning all about the contracts, the regulations, the laws, and everything like that.

Of course, you dive into numbers too, but with wholesalers. Specifically focus on the numbers heavily because that's all the end buyer thinks about. Are these numbers? Um, if the numbers make sense, it's a deal, right? So, um, I think I push on this channel a lot that wholesalers, real estate agents and real estate investors really, really need to work together because they can, um, collaborate with each other and get more deals together and they can help more people because if a real, for me, I know when I'm going to a seller appoint.

and then I, and I know I could provide, provide the seller, um, you know, a listing or I could provide them a cash offer or even a creative financing deal. I'm giving them as many options as they can, um, you know, to have to sell their house, whether they wanna sell for retail, with an agent or sell for cash and get it done, you know, in two weeks I can help them either way.

So agents and investors can work together. Um, you know, to get more deals done and just help more people, you know, in the market in general. Um, so with that being said, you need to go, if you're a wholesaler, you need to go find some agents to work with. And if you're an agent, you need to go find some wholesale or investors to work with.

And I gave this example earlier, I have a mentor, um, his name. I started out, you know, using him a while ago. Um, his name is Jamel Dre, but he, his career started out with. All real estate agents in his, um, in the Phoenix market. And that's how became how he became a really, really big wholesaler. And he actually has a natural wholesaling company.

So he's done very well for himself utilizing the help of real estate agents. So HS need to be more mindful when they're, you know, of working with real estate investors or wholesalers. Because you can really make a lot of money doing so, so that's my advice with that. Um, one more question for you. What is your end game in real estate?

Digital marketing. How are you gonna bring it all together? So again, world domination. Um, what my ultimate goal is. Like. I have a company, uh, digital, real estate strategies is my company. And within that company, I have like a, a sector. Digital R digital real estate investment association is what it's called.

And my objective is to bring like all these beefs, these beefs that we have agents, investors, all of that. My objective, like my feel good objective is to get all of that together. It's like, okay, we can all work together and solve problems and all help each other. So I came from that space of the real estate investment group, the clubs.

And when I was coming from there, I was like, okay. These groups don't talk the same language. Yep. They don't talk the same language. So my objective is to use Dria to. bring each of those groups and companies and professions all together. So again, like coming from that space, like R R groups, if you don't know what a R group is, is a real estate investment association.

What they do is, is strategic. Like I, Napoleon hill think of real rich. She talks about the mastermind principle. They get together like every month or every so often. And they talk about how can I make my business together or better, or how can I learn? And I don't see that as much in the real. Agent space, like they'll go to trainings or whatever, but it's not the same aspect.

So I wanna take Dria and I want to put that all together and I want it to be national. One more thing. Uh, so that's why I have, we have the marketing arm inside of digital real estate strategy is people really struggle with tech and marketing. Yeah. They really struggle with tech and marketing. And so my, an answer is expanding from the other answer, but a good example is us as professionals, right?

As individual. Like would it solo business owners, like in contractors, entrepreneurs, independent contractors, we got a lot going against us sometimes and, uh, it's worth it. But one of the things that people need to be aware of right now is like, we, we don't like we don't get all those benefits and stuff.

Like, we didn't even talk about like XP offering. I think we, we missed that, but that was one of the reasons why we, you know, the healthcare we, yeah, the healthcare we don't as small business owners. We gotta build a lot for ourselves. And one of the things like when I was running this group, that local group in Philadelphia, one of the things that I had a problem with was they, they couldn't get the message out.

Like there were certain messages that need to be delivered. So there was an attack. On wholeselling yes, there was an attack on wholeselling and we got this company and we can't do anything about it because we struggle with the tech and the marketing. So I wanna resolve that issue. And right now, currently there's an attack on individual retirement accounts.

Oh, wow. There's an attack on, so the government. and the people, they don't want us to use our retirement accounts to invest in any invest anymore. Yeah. So maybe the work in the work field, they don't care like as a w two employee, they don't care cuz they got the 401ks and they're used to, you know, kind of like I was talking about the agent they're used to the employer, feeding them or whatever.

Well, us as entrepreneurs and business owners, we kind of make our own stuff and that individual retirement account, that's one of the ways that we built wealth. Yeah. There's an attack on that, but how did we get the message out there? We're scrambling. We're we're trying to do all of this stuff and. We can't get the message out effectively because we're, we don't have that tech of marketing.

So my objective is to like combine all of those things that I'm talking about. Clarify the message and be effective in delivering the tech, the marketing and that message that we need to deliver. So, um, again, world domination, world domination. So, yeah, it's just, it sounds like it's mainly about just bringing everybody together.

Um, I think I'm kind of on page with you for that in regards to that, because I mean, given my YouTube. I started out wholesaling and now I'm an agent and the point is for me to bring everybody together. Mm-hmm, , I'm all about collaboration over competition. And, um, again, as I keep saying, I really believe that agents and wholesalers can really work together to, um, cuz at the end of the day, the point is to help the consumer mm-hmm or, or the seller.

Um, right. Sell their property or a buyer buy a property, you know, like our businesses as a real estate agent and a wholesaler, um, are dependent upon somebody selling and somebody buying. So if we can help both individuals, whether you're an agent or a wholesaler, or you're working with, you know, the two.

That's the whole objective of everything. So you gotta be able to work together. And I think you are doing a great job of, you know, bringing those types of professionals together, as well as my YouTube channel. So, um, yeah, guys, collaboration over competition. Um, and with that being said, what do you want to leave the people with when it comes to real estate, you know, real estate, digital marketing, everything like that.

So we had, we talked about three points earlier. Number one, your most immediate thing that you should be doing is implementing video. Video communication and video marketing into your business. Um, get some tech of marketing, join us, you know, sign up. I don't know. Maybe we got a course, uh, join the YouTube channel, whatever, whatever it is, come get some of your skills and learn some stuff from us.

And then, um, I'm changing the answer, but you just gotta, you, you gotta not give a, you gotta not give a damn what people think about you. You gotta get out there and gotta do what you gotta do. So. Yeah, so, yep. Um, yeah, I agree. At the end of the day, it comes down to the action that you decide to take. And if you don't take any action, you won't really get anywhere.

So, um, guys there, we have it for today. Um, thank you, Jerome for hopping on you're welcome me and doing this second round of the second part of our interview. because the first part it messed up. Um, so thank you for being patient and. Um, if you are looking to get more information, when it comes to digital marketing and real estate in particular, um, you could follow his channel.

I will tag him down below. He talks all about digital marketing for investors and agents. So make sure you follow that. Um, and I'll tag the rest of his socials as well. He's on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and all that. So guys, if you need more information, go ahead and do that. And if you haven't done so yet, please like the video, subscribe to the channel and hit the notification bell.

So you don't miss when I drop the next video. And until later guys, I will see you on the next one. Peace. If it cut off again, you ain't even, you I'm jumping off of the bridge. If it cuts off. No, you ain't.

About the Podcast

Show artwork for The Real Estate Marketing Implementation Podcast (The REmarketing Podcast)
The Real Estate Marketing Implementation Podcast (The REmarketing Podcast)
Marketing Implementation For Real Estate Agents, Coaches, and Investors by Jerome Lewis

About your host

Profile picture for Jerome Lewis

Jerome Lewis

Jerome Lewis is the author of the book REmarketing - Insider’s Secrets of Successful Advertising, Lead Generation, & Marketing Implementation For Real Estate Entrepreneurs.
He is also the founder and CMO of Digital Real Estate Strategy, a tech, and marketing agency that helps busy but serious real estate entrepreneurs implement, structure, and systematize their tech, lead generation, marketing, and business systems. Jerome has helped over 5000 real estate entrepreneurs from more than 40 states and 4 countries. Jerome has shared stages with some of the real estate industry’s best national experts including names ranging from Vena Jones-Cox, Krista Mashore, Marc Halpern, and many more.
Jerome is a bold introvert, father, and former IT professional. In 2021, Jerome won eXp University’s Instructor of The Year Award. He is also the host of the Real Estate Marketing & Social Media Mastermind, where he teaches real estate investors and agents tech and marketing implementation.