God Is In Control, But God Doesn't Expect You To Lean On A Shovel And Pray For A Hole

Claire Johnson:  Because again, if you're not making the money you wanna be making, you're not doing the things you should be doing. It took a while for that to hit home, but it did. And watching my bank account, my savings just go down, like in 2024, it was quite slow for me. I think I only did $6 million or $7 million that year. And I was like, oh my gosh, we can't have this. And then I started doing the things that I should have been doing since year one of joining you guys, is calling people. There are some nice people out there. 

Claire Johnson: A lot of times people don't answer. Whatever. I leave a message. I always leave a message so they can hear my voice. So they know that I am a human being. And then I follow up with a text. And then I go onto the next call. I just keep going on and calling and calling because you guys are doing all the hard work for us. What you guys are doing has freed up time for me to do other things. Because imagine if you had to stitch your own videos together and do the ads, it's impossible. It's too much. It's too much work. And so what you guys take over allows me, frees up my time to do other things.

Tim Chermak: This is The Platform Marketing Show where we interview the most creative and ambitious real estate agents in the country, dissect their local marketing strategy, and get the behind-the-scenes scoop on how they're generating listing leads and warm referrals. We'll dive into the specifics of what marketing campaigns are working for them, how much they're spending on those campaigns, and figure out how they have perfected what we call the Platform Marketing strategy. This is your host, Tim Chermak. I'm the founder and CEO of Platform. I love marketing and I talk too much, so let's dive in.

Tim Chermak: Hey guys, it's Tim Chermak and welcome back to another episode of The Platform Marketing Show. I'm joined today by a guest who's actually not geographically too far away from me, in the Florida Keys, Claire Johnson. Claire, welcome to the show.

Claire Johnson:  Thanks, Tim.

Tim Chermak: We were just talking here this morning and Claire has been working with the Platform Marketing program for, I think this will be coming up on eight, or actually nine years. It's not often we have someone who's been in the Platform program for nine years and it's taken you this long to get on the podcast. And so I was actually putting together a list earlier of who are all the clients we have that are just quietly crushing it, like you're just putting up really, really great numbers, but maybe they're not super active in the Facebook groups. A lot of people don't even know that there's these clients that are doing as well as they are 'cause they're not necessarily just posting in our Facebook group all the time. And you are definitely one of those people where it sounds like this last year you did $35 million--

Claire Johnson:  I did, yes.

Tim Chermak: In sales volume, which that puts you for sure in not just in the top 1% of realtors, but probably the top 0.1% of realtors nationwide. And I think when you joined, you'd always been hovering around $10 million in sales volume. So that's a pretty significant increase from where your business normally is. Tell me about the journey of what your business looked like before the Platform Marketing strategy and kind of how things are different now.

Claire Johnson:  Sure. So I've been in real estate for about 22 years now. I guess just under half of it has been with you guys. And what I noticed, of course, 22 years ago, it was a lot different 'cause we didn't have social media back then, but what I had a hard time doing was getting people to know what I actually do. Like branding yourself, marketing yourself, which, it's hard to do and sometimes uncomfortable 'cause you have to talk about yourself. And so since joining Platform, people know who I am. 

Claire Johnson:  I was making calls today. I was going down my tasks and I was making calls today, and this one person, and probably out of about 20 calls I make, I might get in touch with one or two people who pick up. And as soon as I said my name, he knew exactly who I was. I didn't have to go any further than that. And then it was just a normal conversation. So it really breaks the ice. And I forget what question you asked me, Tim.

Tim Chermak: Just how have you noticed a change over the years because, obviously, you've been working with Platform now for eight, actually nine years, so a lot has changed even in that nine years. But clearly, if you're at the point now where you're selling $20 million and even $35 million, like your business has really evolved since then, what do you think is the main thing that's changed in that nine years?

Claire Johnson: Honestly, going with Platform, because you guys have given me the ideas to start doing things with my business to expand it, such as not only giving us leads that come in, but also giving ideas of customer events. So I've been doing that for several years now. I do a pie giveaway. I do a customer dinner. And then I try and do a ladies night. And that might vary on what I do for that. So that keeps me staying in front of my customers, my past customers in a nonchalant way. In a subtle way, if you will. 'Cause even just by sending out the invites for my events, I send out a save-the-date, so that's one piece of mail going out. Then for each event, I send out invites. And at the beginning when I first started doing these events, I was literally calling every single one to see if they could come, which is then a phone call. It's an easy phone call to make, and just staying in touch with them. So these ideas all came from Platform. So not only do I do the events, I make my calls. 

Claire Johnson: I've just started making my calls, so I will say I was really bad. It is hard to get in the habit of calling. It really is. And 2024 was a tough year for me. It was probably my toughest year in real estate and I had been in it for many years. And so I kept subliminally seeing, as I'm scrolling through my social media feeds, "If you're not making the money you wanna make, then you're not doing what you need to be doing." And I knew I needed to be making my phone calls, those dreaded phone calls. So I've been on various podcasts, or where you get an agent to come on and talk to all the other agents. I forget what that's called. 

Tim Chermak: The Zoom Masterminds we do.

Claire Johnson: Yes. There you go. Like a little webinar, and got a couple of scripts, simple scripts, and I think Platform even sent out a script. When I call them, I just act like I'm talking to a buddy. "Hey, Jim. It's Claire Johnson in the Florida Keys." And Florida Keys, of course, is a place people love to come to, so it's an easy sell. They don't hang up on me right away. And then I go into, it depends on how the conversation goes. I'll say, "Did you receive the homes list that I sent?" And then once I ask that question, I will go in to immediately ask an, "Are you here now?" So it gets off of real estate and I'm getting to know them, and then the conversation just evolves. But once I started making those phone calls, now I feel uncomfortable when I don't make my phone calls. I was like, okay, I know I should be doing this. I need to be making my phone calls. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah. It has to get to the point where it feels like a habit. Like when you wake up in the morning, the analogy I like using is you brush your teeth not because you have to summon the willpower or the courage to do it every morning. It's just a habit. “Hey, I brushed my teeth in the morning.” And if you don't brush your teeth in the morning, you're like, “Oh my gosh, I forgot.” It's actually like, “Oh my God, I have to go brush my teeth.” Doing follow up with leads needs to be the same thing where it's just muscle memory, where it just becomes part of your identity. And it's like, hey, for 30 minutes every morning, I follow up with leads. This is part of who I am and it's part of what I do.

Claire Johnson: That's right. That's exactly right. And it gets easier. It does get easier. I remember way back when, 15 years ago, whatever, 20 years ago when I was trying to muscle the nerve to make calls, I called this one expired listing and he asked me if I was a robot. That's how bad it was. But now, as it has evolved, you just try and act like you're talking to a buddy. And then just not so salesman-y, just act like you're talking to a buddy.

Tim Chermak: Now, you mentioned, Claire, that you're in the Florida Keys. And so I always find it interesting when you're in a non-traditional market 'cause a lot of agents will think like, “Hey, the Platform strategy seems great if maybe you're in some small town or maybe you're in a military base town where there's tons of turnover and, oh my gosh, it must be so easy to be a realtor in these types of circumstances,” but you're in the opposite where it's truly a second home or vacation market. The Keys is a very unique real estate market, and clearly the Platform strategy is also working for you. So how would you answer that objection? If you're me and you're trying to convince someone that the Platform strategy works even in a non-traditional market like the Florida Keys, how have you made it work for you?

Claire Johnson: It's all about, one, getting the leads. What you guys do to get the leads for us is great. Putting the advertising together, that helps. That's just something else we don't have to think of. And by doing Platform and being on social media, people recognize me. So even if you're in a larger city, there's a hub or an area that you hang out in, the ads are getting out there. People recognize me. And I do get people saying quite a bit, "Oh, you're that lady who sells real estate," or, "I've seen you." Or a lot of people will be like, "I know I know you from somewhere, but I don't know where." They'll figure it out soon enough.

Tim Chermak: "Oh, that's right. You're that realtor. Okay."

Claire Johnson: Exactly. So this past year, I have been working on the hooks. When you first do your listing presentation, you do something a little silly at the beginning, and that's really gotten people talking about the silly videos that I do, from those hooks. It is recognition. 

Tim Chermak: What would be an example of an intro on a listing video that you've had some fun with that maybe people talked about? Can you give us one specific example?

Claire Johnson: Jumping over the house. That one. 

Tim Chermak: For people who are not familiar with it, because I know exactly what you're talking about, but there's probably a bunch of people listening to this podcast. They're like, “Wait, what?” So it's like a special video editing technique that the Platform ads team will use where you have to film it in a very specific way, and we give the instructions to all of our clients on how to do it, but you film it in this very specific way, you jump up, and then the way that our ads team edits it, we basically use some visual manipulation and editing magic to make it look like you literally jumped over the house. I know that sounds really cheesy, but when you see the video, it actually looks real. It looks like you somehow jumped over the house. 

Tim Chermak: And again, the whole point is for those first two or three seconds of a listing video, if you can grab someone's attention, then you've earned the right where they might watch another 10 seconds because you hooked them in the first two or three seconds. And then your videos end up getting way, way more views because over time, if you do this consistently and you put a little bit of creativity into every listing video that you do, over time, when someone, again, it kind of becomes a habit where if someone sees a video from Claire Johnson pop up in their newsfeed, you've kind of like trained them over time like Pavlov's dog. "Hey, whenever there's a video from Claire, it's going to be interesting. It's gonna be funny," so they will watch it.

Claire Johnson: Yes. Exactly that. And I'll go online and if I'm scrolling and I see a video intro that I like, I will save it and somehow your ads team always figures out how to do it, to put it together for me. So there's a few of 'em, and I started to do that with all my videos. Now, my higher-end videos, I might do something, I guess, a little bit classier, if you will, as an intro. Like I did one with sitting in front of the TV and eating popcorn, and then you put the video up on the TV screen where I'm watching. It just depends on the dollar amount what kind of intro that I do, but yes.

Tim Chermak: And you've had some pretty big listings in the last couple years. Share with us what some of those dollar amounts for the homes that you've been selling.

Claire Johnson: So one of my customers I know I got through Facebook because of the marketing that was done. And the hook for him was my name, 'cause he has a sister and a mother who has my same name, so that's how he found me. 

Tim Chermak: That's funny. 

Claire Johnson: He's bought and sold a number of things through me. Now, we are in a higher price point being here in the Florida Keys. Our average home sale is like $800,000, but some of the listings are $5 million. I've gotten $5 million, almost $6 million. My biggest sale was $8 million down here. 

Tim Chermak: And you actually feel, just to be clear, that running the Facebook ads with Platform Marketing is helping you get those $5 million deals, $6 million deals?

Claire Johnson: Yes. Absolutely. 

Tim Chermak: It's really interesting to hear you say that because I hear all the time from people like, "Oh, Platform looks like it would work if I'm in a normal market in the Midwest or something. I need something more sophisticated 'cause I work with educated, affluent buyers that have multimillion dollars and they would never go for this Facebook marketing stuff that you do." And then I hear you say, oh yeah, it's helping me get $5 million listings.

Claire Johnson: It's fun. These little intros, these little hooks that we do at the beginning, it's fun. And people, most people have a funny sense of humor. I actually got a call last year, and I'm hoping he's gonna buy this year, his price point is in between $6 million and $10 million. And the reason he called is 'cause he has been following me and he recognizes the effort, one, that I put into my marketing. And he really appreciates it because he has businesses, so he reached out to me. Now that the pandemic time is over and anybody that was breathing, that was selling a lot of real estate, I'm starting to get phone calls. I'm starting to get phone calls. So all that effort that I've put in for the last eight or nine years, the last couple years, I've really started to get more phone calls from it.

Tim Chermak: You know what's crazy is you sell a $5 million or $6 million property and that pays for your entire Platform Marketing budget for the last eight years, basically, in one sale. 

Claire Johnson: Yes. Truly blessed. 

Tim Chermak: That's amazing because, again, I just wanna double click on that that many agents have this limiting belief, this totally false belief that, oh, if someone's a multimillion dollar buyer or seller that they'll think that it's unprofessional if I have fun in my social media marketing. I would argue the opposite because the type of person and the demographic that can afford a million dollar or a multimillion dollar house probably has been very successful in their career to get to that point to where they can afford a house like that. And so usually, you have to be fairly serious in your day-to-day business dealings if you're at that level of income. And so to them, it's almost more of a pleasant surprise to see someone who's having fun and they get to work with someone who's having fun because you don't really get to do fun things like that if you're in the type of business where, again, you could afford $1 million or $2 million house. And so I think it's almost, in some ways, more effective at the higher price points because you stand out even more.

Claire Johnson: That's it. Yep. And I know other agents are starting to try and do what I do, but I've been doing it for so long that they're just not quite there yet, but you're right. The multimillionaires are humans too and they have a personality and they can appreciate hard work, what we're actually doing and getting out there. And as you said from the beginning, a good point of these videos is they're getting to know my personality. I would much rather hang out with a fun person than someone who's not so much fun.

Tim Chermak: Yeah. It's like, all things being equal, if I'm gonna work with a realtor to sell a house or buy a house, I might as well work with someone who looks like they would be fun to work with.

Claire Johnson: That's right. That's exactly right.

Tim Chermak: So have some fun in your videos. Have some fun in your marketing.

Claire Johnson: Yeah, be silly. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah. As you said, this guy, it sounds like this most recent client has been following you for a year or two. Sometimes it's not like, hey, I start doing the marketing and within six weeks, I'm drowning in business or something. No. This guy, it sounds like, was following you for a year or two, but when he does eventually buy or sell, it's gonna be a $5 million to $10 million transaction. And it's because you're consistently putting out content. Not just, hey, I did one creative video once. It's like you're regularly, every month, putting out interesting content.

Claire Johnson: And when you go on listing presentations, I always do snippets of the Facebook ads and how many views it's getting. That is one thing we can track. And it's huge when sellers can see, hey, look, this is the amount of eyes that are gonna get on this listing. And it makes you stand out because, again, I know agents can boost ads, but it's not only the views. I mean, I have about 6,000 followers, I think, on Facebook and I don't know if that's a good number or a bad number, but it's better than 500. So people have been following me and following me, and so it just snowballs, being able to do the proof, saying, hey, look, this is the amount of views you're gonna get because of the ad dollars. And I always tell 'em, I'm not just selling a home, it's also a lifestyle, and especially down here. I post videos of businesses, as you guys suggest. I do all the videos that you guys-- I try and do a lot of them, of the videos that you guys suggest about the area because it is a lifestyle down here and being out on the water. It's all about the water down here, so I try and do such videos.

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