EXPCON 2022 attendees in Las Vegas kicked off XCamp with its signature energy and chaos. eXp Realty agents Renee Funk, Beth Silverman and Jill Leberknight opened the doors to an excited crowd of hundreds who stormed in and began eagerly submitting the topics they wanted to learn about and those they wanted to teach.
Breakout sessions were then created in real-time from the submitted topics and included:
- YouTube
- Health is the New Wealth
- TikTok and Lead Generation
- Social Media
- Agent Attraction
- Listings
- Open Houses
Health Is the New Wealth
EXPCON’s XCamp is always a surprise, but on Tuesday, the biggest XCamp surprise of all took place when Glenn Sanford led a panel titled “Health Is the New Wealth.”
The impromptu panel included Robbins, Viome Chief Sales Officer Morri Chowaiki, Clearwater Healthcare Executive Margo Wickersham and eXp Realty agent and Certified SUCCESS Coach Jeff Rubenstein.
The notice of Glenn appearing came by way of a push notification and quickly, the massive conference ballroom filled with attendees eager to hear the wisdom from the man who started eXp Realty back in 2009 and grew it to an innovative, ground-breaking brokerage of 85,000 agents.
Glenn began the session by describing his own personal health journey (indigestion, arrhythmia) and realized he needed to get a handle on his health and started reading everything he could. Besides the usual suspects (diet, exercise), he soon realized the health industry is booming with new advancements such as biohacking, wearables and fasting – all of which can actually slow down the aging process.
“The really cool thing is that we are not far away from figuring out how to slow down, if not stop the aging process as we know it. It’s pretty crazy,” said Glenn, who recently ran a half marathon at a pace of 8:26 minutes per mile.
Morri explained that Viome’s mission is to try to prevent or make an early diagnosis of chronic diseases and especially cancer, which was the motivation of Viome’s founder Naveen Jain, whose father died from pancreatic cancer. Viome does this by taking bodily samples and testing it, then providing information on how to reshape your biomes for what you should eat, what you should avoid and more, all of it FDA-approved.
Morri said, “It’s simple. You can spend money on wellness or on sickness. We have a crazy vision (at Viome). What if we can live in a world where illness is an option?”
Jeff Rubenstein, who was an athlete his entire life, spoke about the importance of nutrition instead of sticking to a diet.
“Diets are temporary. That’s why we go on and off them. Nutrition is longevity and the presence of oxygen is the absence of disease. Your breath can oxygenate your cells.”
Glenn responded to the idea of Viome and nutrition as “gamifying your health.”
“I love this. It’s science. It makes it actually fun to go after these things and measure improvement. I want the healthiest agents on the planet.”
Margo said of Clearwater that “It’s really easy to ignore your health. But, we are here to help you pick the best plan for the best price. Early detection is key to all of the worst diseases,” said Margo, who detected cancer in herself at an early stage, which saved her life.
TikTok and Lead Generation
A panel titled TikTok with eXp Realty agents Greg Chin, Tammy Manning and Daniel Zia opened with each revealing their age, which was a way to emphasize that TikTok is not just for kids.
Daniel Zia, who leads the Zia team in Santa Barbara where his average listing price is $2 million, admitted that he felt TikTok was not aligned with his brand. But, he changed his tune.
“I thought TikTok was gimmicky and didn’t fit in with our brand, but I gave in. Each platform has different algorithms. Instagram is business-y and TikTok is an imperfect action. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It’s just going on the fly and everything has a chance to go viral. The best TikTok’s are spur of moment, nothing planned.” (See Daniel’s TikTok.)
Tammy Manning said she landed a $150 million listing because of social media and she attracted eight other listings that way.
“I find TikTok to be a rabbit hole. I find that eight hours later, I’m still looking at TikTok!”
She advised anyone who wanted to start doing TikTok to set up a personal account because the business version has foreign music and personal has trending music, which is a big attractor.
Greg Chin said he got started on TikTok in 2020 when his lead pipeline dried up. He did a TikTok on “living in Las Vegas” and then started doing them on restaurants and other attractions to attract buyers and sellers. And it works. (See Greg’s TikTok.)
Greg said, “In order to get clients, you need customers. Customers do not spend any money with you. In order to convert customers into clients, reply to their comments (on social media).”
Tammy said that right before she posts about a property, she will find hashtags for properties in that area and like them, comment on them and that pulls the algorithms and builds an audience. She also added that TikTok is easier to use, record, edit and download. And it has better music.
“If you’re doing it on Instagram, why not do it on TikTok? So much easier.”
Another Hot Topic Covered: Listings
Nick Good, David Hill and Elicia Michaud led a talk about listings — how to get them and how to deal with hostile customers and other topics.
One person in the audience asked when cold-calling or approaching someone to represent their home, “How do you handle objections such as, “I have another agent?”
Nick Good said, “I would respond with, ‘that’s great. But, what is that agent going to do to sell your property for success?’ When someone gives me an objection, I ask them what they want to do and then I give them reasons for why they should hire me today.”
He also said, “But sometimes, why would you want to work with a client or someone who is hostile? Move on to the next person.”
David Hill said he uses a line to help break the ice and loosen things up.
“I say to potential clients: ‘When we’re born, we’re born with three things: A mother, a father and a friend in the real estate business.”
“It always gets a laugh. No hard selling. But I asked them, “‘Don’t you want to get a second opinion? If you were going for surgery, you would want to get a second opinion, right?”
Elicia Michaud said ethically you can’t knock another agent and it’s always good to “take the high road and come from a place of value.”
A topic came up about taking a listing with a price that is too high and sellers don’t have a clue of a shifting market.
David said, “I give them a price range. And on day 15 or 21, the price needs to be adjusted.
“Then I look at motivation. If they are really motivated, I will dance with them. If they are really motivated, I will put in the work because they want to sell. Motivation trumps price. If they are motivated enough, you will sell the house for them.”
Elicia said, “I don’t want my name on a sign for a property that will just sit there. I see people in the supermarket and they ask me, ‘Hey, what’s up with that property?’ It’s not good for my name and brand to have it sit.”
Tips on Handling Open Houses
eXp Realty agents Kristen Edwards and Lissette Cedeno Vazquez led a breakout about how they handle open houses.
Lissette said: “There are so many ways to generate leads. For me, it’s face to face conversations because I love people. That’s why I love open houses.”
She listed what works for her:
- Open houses every weekend.
- Do them for four hours. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. is best time
- Set up 50 signs at a minimum.
- Signs do not have a photo for safety reasons.
- Picks properties for certain price range (nothing lower than $450K and not more than $1M). This attracts a type of person who for some reason, does not have an agent.
- Go before the open house and do your own marketing (TikTok, IG, etc)
- House must be near a main road to attract traffic.
- Put signs out 2-4 miles from listing.
- Arrows and messages (“Seller motivated”).
Kristen said, “You do whatever makes you feel comfortable in real estate. For me, it’s open houses. Every Saturday and Sunday is a party for me and I love it.”
She listed what works for her:
- Do open houses from 2-4 p.m.
- It’s got to be on market less than 14 days
- As long people are coming, I’m staying
- Target areas that I want to work in and feel safe in
- Go back to same areas over and ver
- Put 15-25 signs out the day before
The Benefits of YouTube
Levi Lascsak, Dallas-based eXp agent and Jill Leberknight, Austin-based eXp agent, led a breakout session on YouTube and the benefits of leveraging a social search engine over social media. Lascsak shared his own personal success with organic YouTube strategies yielding 3-5 leads daily that resulted in 217 transactions and over $121 million in revenue in 15 months. Leberknight, as an early Realtor adopter of YouTube in 2009, saw a 238% increase in referrals in her first few years.
“When agents are trying to break into the real estate market and compete with other well-established agents, it’s crucial for them to find a gap in the market and lean in. Many immediately think of traditional social media channels like Facebook and Instagram, but YouTube is not a social media channel, it’s a social search engine and it’s a much faster way to get your message in front of your target audience.”
For success on YouTube, there is a major emphasis on the use of keywords and optimizing the description of a video to capture all opportunities for searched words.
“If you can understand people’s intentions, you can grab their attention,” says Lascsak. It’s all about optimizing your video description and capturing their attention. “We are visual creatures, so thumbnails absolutely matter too.”
YouTube is one of the most creator-friendly channels for search engine optimization. The company’s whole goal is earning a user’s time on their platform, so long-form content is key to optimization. YouTube’s user feed is target-based, suggesting similar videos of what you have watched in the past. This gives you an opportunity to repeatedly get in front of your audience.
Social Media (redefined as Community Media)
This breakout session was led by co-founders of W.I.R.E – Women In Real Estate – Brittany Rose and Kelani Blackwell and discussed how to leverage social media as an opportunity to create a sense of community and increase your sphere of influence.
The women spoke about the 4 C’s of doing business on social media; class, collaboration, cause and chance. “It’s all about redefining social media as community media and facilitating opportunities for people to learn and collaborate,” says Blackwell.
Blackwell and Rose also elaborated on the importance of finding a cause and supporting it. Not only will this continue to foster a collaborative community, it will establish trust.
“Tie your why to an opportunity to take action and give back,” says Rose. “People will buy into you, if you buy into them.”
The co-founders concluded their session with a motivational push for all agents, no matter the stage in their career, to follow the fourth “C” – take a chance and lean in.
To learn more about W.I.R.E, you can search for them on social media or visit their website, https://joinwomeninrealestate.com.
Other Highlights From Breakouts:
VA Buyers – The VA Buyers breakout session was led by Nelson Cruz, Silas Baca and Charleen Byrd, who discussed how to effectively work with U.S. veterans. “Give of yourself, give of your time to this group of people that are struggling,” said Cruz.
Agent Attraction – Agents Chuck and Angela Fazio led a popular session on Agent Attraction. “They need to believe that YOU believe what you are selling,” said Chuck. Angela stressed the importance of finding your unique value proposition: “Find the things you are passionate about and invite people into that with thought and effort,” she said.
Short-term Rentals & Vacation Rentals – This panel was led by Stedman Esene and Michael Pendegrasa, who discussed the varying definitions of short-term rentals by state, and the tools available to provide vacation rental data and insights to clients. “I will often take the numbers from two different sources and average them to get a good picture for a client,” said Stedman.
Agent Attraction – In another agent attraction session, Elizabeth Riley and Gene Federick shared their top tips and insights. “Everyone wants to buy but no one wants to be sold,” Elizabeth said. “It’s great to bring people in but you need to retain them.” She suggested showing agents the company by bringing them to events and letting them experience eXp. “Show them how we collaborate and build our businesses.”
Team Building – Jeff Richmond, Jake Rockwell and Renee Funk led an energetic breakout session on Team Building. They opened the session with the question: “what does team mean to you?” and went on to define what makes a highly successful team.
They discussed having a mindset of spreading the wealth and watching it return in spades. “You need to be in a state of abundance where you can push your business forward to other people before you can build a team,” said Jeff.
They also talked about addressing the split discussion with new agents and how to define leads and what they are and aren’t. “I’m a big believer in the relationship potential with all leads,” said Jake. “Leads are just opportunities for conversations.”
“My responsibility as a team leader is to teach agents how to fish,” said Renee. “And we aim to identify what each person’s passions and goals are.”
Agent Attraction – In yet another agent attraction segment, Jacqui Bowman and Mitch Ribak led a breakout session on agent attraction and the importance of creating relationships. “Be a professional inviter,” said Mitch. “Don’t try to sell them.”
“Stories move people,” said Jacqui. “It’s the emotions of it. Also, people need to be open to hearing about eXp, their gate needs to be open. Then you can talk to them and present eXp to them in a way that will change their life.”
