Welcome to the High Performance Agent Podcast. I'm your host, Tina Beliveau, and I'm an expert in real estate marketing, social media, technology, and systems. I'm here to teach you how to build a sustainable and consistent business that supports your dream life.
Through my repeat, referral, and relationship-driven systems, I've built a team that sold nearly 2,000 homes over my 20 years in the industry. In this podcast, I keep it real and share exactly what I do, and more importantly, how you can do it too. If you're ready to scale faster, work smarter, and generate more leads from your sphere, please check out High Performance Agent Academy, my 12-month course packed with plug-and-play systems, done-for-you marketing, and step-by-step strategies.
You get my entire business in a box, plus coaching and personalized support from me every step of the way. Get all the details at tinabeliveau.com slash Academy. Welcome back to the podcast.
I am here today to debrief the first business-to-business owner networking event that I have ever hosted. It was such a success, and it just felt so happy and good and easy breezy. Whenever something comes together really organically on its own, I always pay attention because, A, I'm always looking for ways to just decrease my mental, emotional, and actual labor to grow and maintain my business, and because I'm just someone who needs constant change in a way, even though so much of my business is systems-based.
I'm always excited when I have something new and different that feels like a thread that I can keep chasing down. Basically, I'm going to tell you all about the event, and the whole point of this is to tell you how you can do it, too, or maybe slightly modify it for an audience that would make sense for you. Anyone listening to this, you probably know my spiel.
I have a locally-focused Facebook group that has almost 10,000 people in it, and I have done a lot to nurture that group through strictly online means, which has been great, and that's honestly why I've never done an event like this. For about five years now, I've been milking this group for a lot of business, and it's been sort of my single-minded mission of how can I create business and not ever do anything in person, and I think I'm at a point where my kids are getting a little bit older, and it's just I'm willing to take on more than staying in my house. Anyway, I've never really had an in-person event for the people who are in this group, and I don't even know why it hit me, but it just hit me at some point this summer that I should throw out.
I think I was, ooh, I think I see a way that I could do this really easily. Basically made a decision to go for it, put it out there, and either if there was some immediate lift to go with it and if it was just crickets, I would either quietly cancel or just have something really small and just kind of write it off as a lesson. But what happened was I basically threw together an Eventbrite.
Nothing about it was creative. I was actually, I'm a big fan of titling things so clearly that you know what they are without having to be, what's that? Because we only get people's attention for two seconds. I literally decided just to name it Lutherville Business Owner Networking Event, and I made a little Eventbrite landing page where you could just register for free.
I mean, I guess in theory you could charge, but I didn't want any barriers to people coming. Very much just a community building vibe. I happen to have a local title company that is in the geographic area where I'm hosting, and they're my main business partner for title work, and they have a really nice event space.
It's a kitchen and then just this big area where you can have trainings or parties. I've started to make use of it more and more. Reached out to them first, and of course they were happy to provide their space for free because you know, I'm basically bringing a bunch of business owners into their business.
I basically put the Eventbrite together and went to chat GPT and had it help me draft a post just to save myself a little brain work, something that would be kind of cute and just get people's eye. And I put it up there, and I had 30 signups within the first 24 hours. That's when I was, okay great, this has legs.
And what I did actually is one of the many, many reasons I love Facebook groups is you can schedule posts up to 60 days out. I love working in batches when I'm able to, especially when it's really simple stuff that isn't a huge project. When I scheduled that initial post about the event, I went ahead and scheduled several reminders.
There was, I basically started marketing it four weeks out. Then I did a three week, a two week, and then the week of I was, we have two more days, there's still room sign up. And I will say we did get a trickle of additional signups from those follow-up posts, but the majority was kind of that initial burst.
I did use that at everyone tag so that people in the group were more likely to see that. I used that very sparingly. First I just want to share why it was a win and why it would be worth your time putting it together.
And I also want to tell you some of the things that I would do differently or better next time, and then just kind of break down how you can go ahead and do this too. And as always, if you're thinking about doing this and you want to run something by me or just kind of bounce an idea off of me, feel free to DM me on my Instagram account, which is at highperformanceagent. I'm happy to chitty chat about anything, anytime, but especially events.
I just love planning them and helping other people plan them. Okay. Big picture, there were a bunch of reasons why I felt the event was such a big win.
Number one of the 40 people who signed up, I'd only met about five of them in person. And then there was a handful of people who I knew from the group, or at least recognize their name. And then there were a bunch of people where I was, I've never even noticed their name before.
So I was, okay, this is such a great opportunity to develop my brand and get in front of a bunch of new people. And then level up the couple of relationships that I do already have with some of the people in this group. The second reason why I felt this was such a win is I love business to business conversations.
In fact, that's why I'm talking with you on my podcast right now. It's why I have an Instagram for agents. It's why I have a course for agents.
It's why I have a real estate team, but I'm totally behind the scenes and spend a fair amount of my time building my agent facing business. I just love to talk business to other business owners. I guess it's what interests me more than houses per se.
But also I feel, we're just on that wavelength. It's just, we can cut right to the chase. People, when they ask you what you do, you can just be a little bit more straightforward of me being, this is what I do.
This is a problem that I'm having right now. This is the kind of client that would be a great referral for me. And by the way, what's the scoop on that for you? I feel, and maybe in a way it's almost more transactional, but it's just more real in a lot of ways.
And I feel, again, you can just jump ahead to getting to know someone really, really quickly. And there were a couple of conversations that I had at the event, especially where I was, I just got right into it with some people after we did introductions, we went around in a circle and everybody had a minute to just sort of give an elevator pitch, if you will, in a very laid back way. And as they went around, I was mentally making notes of, there were several people where I was, she's really cool.
Oh, I definitely want to get to know her. It was all women who I was interested in chatting with. And yeah, I kind of built this list in my mind through the introductions.
So yeah. And I think that's the third win that connects to the fact that I love the business to business space is I had a really nice time. Throwing things like this together, for me, this is actually child's play.
I mean, that sounds egotistical, but I guess it's child's play. I throw lots of events. I'm not afraid to put myself out there.
I'm not afraid to put things together. But for a lot of people, they would never in a million years do that. At the event, a lot of people were, wow, thank you so much for doing this.
Thank you for your time. People were just grateful. And it felt nice.
It felt good to hear that. And I feel I definitely deposited some goodwill with this whole group of people where when you're the host, people get a taste of your style, your personality, your values. And it's just a great way to be out in front leading without necessarily teaching or making it about you.
And when you create spaces for people to get value, that means something to them. And then that can eventually lead to other opportunities. But really, the biggest win was that I genuinely had a really nice time.
Sometimes I go to events or host my own events where I'm just, OK, I'm here to serve a function. But in this case, I felt very inspired and just that gratification of connecting. It just felt really good to connect and to connect with people that were hyper-local.
There was just something unique about that. A lot of people commented that they've been to many events, but none of them this. Somebody mentioned it was so nice we didn't have to pay.
Somebody else was, it's so cool that everyone here is so friendly. It was definitely a little magic thing where I feel a lot came together at once. The fourth reason it was a win, and I wasn't actually seeking this, is I have a pretty stellar Rolodex.
I have contractors for almost everything. But you know how it is as agents. Sometimes we need a backup or someone we've been using isn't doing a good job anymore.
I actually ended up meeting several people who I absolutely did need to add to my digital Rolodex. And it was actually really helpful because just meeting people in person, it's funny because I love building relationships online and through social media. But in a way, it is a very slow burn.
And I'm thinking about the interactions I had with these people in person. And it was sort of, I felt I had a sense of who they were very quickly and really liked what several of them had to say. There was a roofer, a female roofer, which I was, I love this.
A woman running a roofing company, a house cleaner, and then an insurance agent. And I have one insurance agent, but I really want to have a secondary one. And there was just something, I just noticed that, that I do so much in the online space, that it was really interesting to just meet someone in real life.
And I almost think it's we're living in this world now where there's so much AI, and there's so much fakeness online, and so much posturing, and things that are staged and photographed from a certain angle. And all of that, it's almost there's this big part of me that is ready to go analog again. And I think this event was very much a reminder of that, and that I need a hearty dose of both in my life overall and in my business.
The other thing that was really cool about the event is we went around in a circle, and I basically gave the template of the event was we started at 10. I think I put on the invite that it would last from 10 to 11:30. People got there at 10. I waited till about 10:15, 10:20 for enough people to be there where most of the people who were going to be there were there.
And then I quickly grabbed everyone's attention, which was actually a little awkward for me. I'm not 100% comfortable with all of these things, but I didn't know what to do. I just clapped my hands, and then everyone started looking at me.
And I was, OK, we're going to do this. I introduced myself, and then said, and we kind of were already naturally in a circle. I just said, we're going to go around. I just want everyone in the room to have a chance to say your name, tell us what your business is, tell us what your business does.
And if there's anything you need today, if you're having a problem, if you're hiring, and you're looking for talent, if you are looking to meet a certain kind of person, if you just want to articulate what your ideal customer is, just take a second to put your need out there. We're going to go all the way around. Everybody gets a turn. And then at the end, we're just going to mingle afterwards. And if you see or hear from people in the circle you want to connect with, follow up with them after.
And that's it. And then I just jokingly was, and for anyone who hates public speaking, I'm sorry, but you can just at least tell us your name and your company. I feel everyone just took a breath and was, OK.
One of the spots where I didn't do as well is I was actually way overly humble when I introduced myself. One of my main intentions with the event was to really sell myself. And there were things I could have said. It's funny. There's sort of this local element of the fact that I live in the area, I grew up in the area, even referencing the high school and college that I went to, I basically didn't mention any of my local street cred.
I did talk about the Facebook group and how large it had grown. That was cool because I think everyone there is part of that group. Telling the story of the group, I just kind of explained how it started with 200 people and how it had blown up and how grateful I was. And I think that was cool.
But I didn't talk about my local credibility. I do think it's really important to use numbers and to help people understand who they're talking to. The fact that my team and I have sold 2,000 homes, the fact that I have been doing this for 20 years, the fact that X, Y, and Z, those things just need to be said. If I don't say it, no one is going to know.
And it's not the end of the world. But the point is I definitely, I don't want to say bungled my intro, but I was way too humble. And even as we went to the first person, I thought to myself, oh. But here's what happened. My friend who owns the title company that hosted us and my lender were both there. And when they got to their turn in the circle, after they introduced themselves, both of them were, by the way, they basically upsold me.
They were, Tina's the best agent in Timonium. She is so great. She's this, she's that. So it was actually better. Other people said it for me. So everything took care of itself. But one of my notes to self was that I could definitely work on my elevator pitch in person.
Having your people there to speak highly of you, having your key business partners, your vendor partners, I definitely recommend that. And it doesn't hurt if they're poised people who can speak highly of you and also just be articulate for themselves.
Those were, there were a lot of wins for the event. The last one is I just want to say it was extremely low lift. It is the most successful thing I have done this year with the least amount of work, very little time, very little energy, no cost, didn't pay for the venue.
I asked lender and title to just figure out coffee and breakfast. I didn't even want to have to figure it out, let alone pay for it. I mean, it's not even the money. It's just one last thing. I didn't want to have to spend 30 extra minutes that morning running to the grocery store and picking stuff up.
It was just great. They took care of everything, scheduling the posts, etc. I definitely feel I can do this on a quarterly basis and I'll do it until either it doesn't make sense to keep doing, or I will say I actually did start another networking group a couple of years ago, different constituency. It was female business owners in Baltimore.
And something happened where I just, after a couple of years, I wasn't, I didn't feel compelled to be part of it anymore. Sounds terrible, but it just didn't align exactly with what I needed. I ended up finding someone to take it over and they're still running it and doing all of that. I feel sometimes starting groups, you just don't know where it's going to go. I just try to follow the energy for as long as it's there.
What I'm going to do next to capitalize on the success of the event is number one, because I managed registration and had people register, I now have their name and email address. I'm putting them in my database. They will get two email newsletters from me moving forward. I have an everyone newsletter I send out on the first of the month that is generally Baltimore centric that goes to my whole sphere, and really anyone that's in my database for any reason.
And then in the middle of the month, I have a hyper local email that goes out just to my local group members that I have their email address. They're now going to get those two emails. I did not collect home addresses, so I can't put them in Homebot, which is fine.
That's the first thing. I also already sent an email to the group and just blind copied everybody. I also wanted to prevent replying all. I was just part of a terrible reply-all email thread. That was so crazy.
I basically followed up and thanked everyone and made sure they had my contact info in a very low key way. Let them know how much I enjoyed it, that I was going to do it again. Also said, if anyone is interested in helping me organize another of these in the future, just step up and let me know. I got a couple of responses.
The third thing that I did is I went ahead and Facebook friended and/or Instagram followed everybody that I really liked. A couple of them, I DMed to start a conversation instead of just emailing. That is done. I'm now connected with about seven people where I was, Ooh, I really want to follow up with these particular people.
And then my final step is to plan my next one for three or so months from now. I might even just make it in January. I'm not a fan of hosting anything in December unless I have a really good reason. I just decided that right now. Thanks for listening to me verbal process.
What I want to do specifically is turn this into a system, just document it a little bit. My VA can just do everything next time. All I'm going to do is set the date and location, and then she can literally just duplicate everything. And then I don't even have to personally create anything and then just let it rip.
That's my plan. I'm going to put it on my calendar to have these quarterly or just make sure I plan the next one at the end of each one. That's my plan to make the most of these new connections and new relationships. I feel even just a couple good relationships that end up generating some business for me could be more than enough to have this be worth it.
I feel part of it too, is just brand building and being the go-to person. I think I have a great opportunity to make use of this Facebook group and bring it more real life.
A couple of things I would do better next time, because I actually made a decision to not really plan or think about anything, which was good for my mental load. I am also doing a lot of other stuff this fall. If you've listened to my recent podcast episode, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
A couple of misses. Number one, I recommend that you bring name tags and a Sharpie. Luckily my venue had that, but it's really hard when you don't know who you're talking to, or if you're supposed to recognize them and you don't.
Number two, the food was barely touched. If you try and do an event like this and you really want to keep it simple, you could skip food and do coffee only or nothing at all, or just a really small spread. We had about 25 or 30 people of the 40 who actually showed up. And again, it was barely touched.
The second thing, as I said, I wish I'd been a little more precise with my elevator pitch. I'm a big fan of writing down two or three bullet points of what I want to say. I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with having your phone open and glancing at it and making sure you say what you want to say. That's definitely something I want to do next time.
The third thing is I didn't bring business cards, which is definitely a me thing. I'm very bad about this. I have a couple of different purses and I never seem to have my business cards in them. That said, I like to use that as an opportunity to get someone else's contact information anyway, and then email them and social media follow up with them and connect with them.
When I feel if someone emails me, it's so much more usable than a business card. Every business card I'm handed is a project. It's a small thing that I need to then do something with. I don't have an app for it or whatever. Maybe I should. Message me if there's something obvious I'm missing. But it would have been nice to at least hand my cards out, but also make sure I get everyone's info.
That's it. That's really all I'd change. At the event, after everyone introduced themselves, I was, would we want to do this again? And everybody was, yes, this is so great. That's the debrief.
I just wanted to leave you with a couple tips of if you want to do something this. First of all, you may not already have a big Facebook group this with this immediate audience to tap into. I think there are so many ways you could do this.
I actually think it would be such a good idea if I did this from my actual database of past clients who already have supported me. I could be doing a lot more to support them, quite frankly. It can be a little bit out of sight, out of mind. I think this could be something you put together and invite your sphere through an email, through a postcard, if you do mailings to your sphere, a Facebook post just to your general friends list and kind of let whoever comes come, or handpick and invite people.
Or maybe if you're a part of a local Facebook group where it would be fine to organize an event, even if it's not your own group, just ask the admin for permission. Or if you know it's a group where people don't even care, you could just plan it yourself. Those are just some ideas of how you could do something this.
Beyond that, I just suggest finding a free local space to host the event. Maybe your lender or title company has a space, or maybe there's a restaurant or a coffee shop where they're just happy to let everyone be in the space in return for knowing that people are going to buy food.
I definitely prefer to have events this not in a public space where there's background noise and struggle hearing each other. I think that's really important. If you're going to do something where you circle up and have introductions or have everyone talking, if you're just mingling only and decide to have that be your approach, then I think it doesn't really matter at all.
As far as timing, I suggest picking a day and time that's about a month out. That's my personal sweet spot. I need a little bit of urgency to get my projects rolling. I think a month's notice is plenty of time, plenty of advanced notice to get it on people's calendars.
If you're, yeah, you know what, I'm listening to this and I want to do this in the middle of early November, let me just find a venue. Figure out your venue, then figure out a date and time. All you have to do is make a simple landing page.
I like Eventbrite because it's free. People can sign up really easily. It's a good mobile optimized website and it does automatically remind people about the event. You can customize the reminders, but if you completely forget all about it, it'll do it all for you.
If you want to see my event landing page and want to copy it, just message me on my Instagram, which is @highperformanceagent. I'm happy to send you the link so you can see what my landing page looked like and just duplicate it.
Definitely recommend sharing the link somewhere that is easy for people to click on, AKA, not an Instagram post caption, but a Facebook post, an Instagram story, a Facebook story, an email to your database or a segment of your database. Any niche Facebook group, you could even do it on Reddit. You could do it on LinkedIn, anywhere where people gather, where you have a sense that it's the right target audience. Groups are amazing again, because you can schedule out your reminders.
If there's a group where you are an admin, that is obviously a bonus and a good reason to reconsider building a local Facebook group, especially if you love doing in-person stuff and want to use the Facebook group as an in-between to build that. That's what I did with the other network, the women's networking group that I started. It's a nice cozy group and it's very much connected to the events.
That's it. I recommend you just try this. If it resonates, of course, try it. See who comes. Take notes for next time. Whether you have three people come or 30 people come or way more, I think investing time in relationships is always worthwhile. I learned something important every time.
For me, I learned that I need more in-person interaction than I've been getting. I definitely need to work on my elevator pitch. I definitely need to put my business cards in my purse. Somebody follow up with me and make sure that I did.
I think the biggest thing is, my group has a lot of untapped potential and it felt really good to tap into that and meet people and be pleasantly surprised by how nice of a time I had, if that sounds crazy. I'm going to really think about potentially doing something this with my own database as well.
That's it from me on this topic. As always, I'm happy to answer your questions, point you in the right direction. If there's anything you ever want to hear me speak on in an episode, feel free to shoot me a message and I'm happy to record on anything that is in my wheelhouse. Until next time. Have a good one.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the High Performance Agent Podcast. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss the next one. Check the show notes for links to all of my resources, including my course, High Performance Agent Academy, and please come say hi on Instagram. You can find me at @highperformanceagent. Talk to you soon.
