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.
Welcome back to the High Performance Agent Podcast. I am pumped to be back with you.
It has been a good bit since I recorded a new episode. I have been a busy little bee, and what I've been busy with is what the whole topic of today's episode is about.
If you haven't seen it already, I feel I'm marketing it so much, but I know I have to because this is just such a marketing lesson for all of us.
We need to talk about things many more times than we think is necessary. You can feel you're annoying, you can feel you're repetitive, you can feel people have already heard me talk about this, but marketing just takes much repetition for people to notice, pay attention, and then ultimately take action.
That's me right now.
I decided to do something I've never done before, which is host a live three-day bootcamp to help agents launch their own locally focused Facebook group that they can generate leads in their ideal market, their ideal area, neighborhood, zip code, increase your average sale price, and most importantly, just do business where you really want to be doing it.
I've never done a bootcamp before, and as of this recording, I have 125 agents signed up. I'm excited.
This is one of the biggest things I've done in a while.
Part of why I've been intrigued by doing an action-oriented training is I'm much more passionate about implementation than I am about ideas.
I love a good idea, but implementation is where progress happens. It's where change happens. It's where growth happens. It's where the business comes. It's where we learn much and stay stimulated if you've been doing this for a while.
That is where I'm aiming with all of this.
What I want to talk about is this thing occurred to me, and I say this to people with marketing all the time.
Sometimes there are things to do to grow your business or sustain your business, systems you need, things that we need for our business in various dimensions where you know it's the right thing, it's just not the right time.
That's because whether I'm in a busy season or I just don't have the bandwidth or I just don't have the interest and passion, I trust that when the right time comes, I will know.
What helps is to know in the back of my mind things that I know really make sense for me, but it's being patient for the timing and not rushing, not overdoing, not trying to do everything all at once because I know that doesn't work for me.
I'm at a point where overwork and overdoing it, I'm not having it. I'm not allowing it in my life.
It's been in the back of my mind for a long time to start a new Facebook group for moms in my area.
It hit me that I was ready.
I was thinking how fun this would be to create my own brand new group leading into my bootcamp, show people how it can be done, how far you can get in a couple weeks with focused effort, and also keep me fresh and humble on what it is to build something from scratch, where there are thoughts and feelings and concerns that do come up.
In this episode, I'm going to explain to you what I'm doing, what's happening with it, how it's working, some of the lessons and takeaways.
This is just a great prelude if you are coming to the bootcamp or thinking about creating a Facebook group and maybe enrolling in the bootcamp to get a sense of whether this could fit for you.
Tiny bit of backstory.
I have a main group. It's called Living In and then the area name.
I have a whole other podcast about launching a geographic farm, a digital geographic farm.
There's an episode on the starter concept of that. I'm going to link that in the show notes.
To give you the high level, I've had $20 million in closings since 2021 that all track back to leads I got in the group or referrals from people in the group or referrals from people in the group who hired me and then referred me.
It's been a huge lead generator for my business.
It's also been very easy, much easier than a lot of the other things that I do. Less work than events, less work than daily social media, less work than even writing an email because Facebook content creation is simple and straightforward.
When my group started to create engagement and traffic in 2021, I decided to really go for it and figure out how to get more engagement, how to brand myself better, how to capture business from the group without being cheesy or annoying or violating my own rules of not constantly marketing.
I tested many things to create engagement and capture leads.
I've learned what works and what doesn't. I've figured out how to grow the group.
I've also been the beneficiary of when you get a group up and running, it becomes its own machine with steam.
People ask me how I grow my group now, and I say the algorithm does.
The algorithm knows what that group is for. It's for people in a certain area and shows it to them. People join. They search and find the group when they're moving to the area, which is a great lead source for me.
People invite their friends and neighbors.
I have 10,500 people in that group right now. If you look at the census for that zip code, there's only 15 or 20,000 people.
I've captured an insane proportion of people in this immediate area.
That’s part of why I felt ready to start a secondary group.
This group has more potential, but it felt time to do something new.
This is what I'm going to be teaching you how to do in the bootcamp.
Helping you decide what area you're going to do a niche for, whether it's moms or some other special interest, or just generally people who live in that area.
What are you going to name your group?
How are you going to position yourself against any competing groups that you perceive to be similar or some sense of competition?
I'm going to teach you how to grow and attract members. There are things you can do besides waiting on the algorithm.
I'm at this point where I can be lazy with my group, which I love.
And then what content to create and what not to bother creating.
I mentioned this on Tuesday at a training I was doing, and everyone immediately put in the chat box, but what do you put in your group?
I was thinking, it's not a one-second answer, but it's doable. It's easy. And I'm going to talk a little about that today.
At the bootcamp, I'm also going to give some tips on running your group effectively.
There are common pitfalls. A common question I get is should I allow other realtors? You'll have to come to the bootcamp to hear my answer.
Most importantly, how to brand yourself and capture leads from your group in a way that's sustainable and consistent and not annoying. Not a turnoff to your members.
Check the podcast show notes if you want to hear more about the big picture.
I want to tell you about what I'm doing with my new group and give you this ground-level insight.
I decided to go with the title Moms Of and then the name of the area.
I ran this by a friend who has a great marketing brain. I asked, is it area name Moms or Moms Of?
I felt Moms Of has an identity connotation that feels more personal. I’m a mom of that area.
She agreed.
I went with that name.
I have 467 members as of this recording. I started the group 10 or 11 days ago.
Here's what I did on day one.
I created the group. I named it. I added the location.
I wrote a very short about section that says:
This group is for any mom who resides in blank area. The goal of this group is to help each other share resources and ideas, build community, and facilitate meetups and new friendships. Welcome.
I put three rules on my group. They're rules I have in my other groups that I copied and pasted.
The first rule is be kind and courteous. That’s a huge aspect of my group philosophy. What makes a group valuable is not having it be toxic and not tolerating rude behavior. That’s a remove and block.
Second, no items for sale. It's not the vibe of the groups I want to be in.
Third, all posts are moderated.
I haven't turned moderation on yet. It's been fine without it.
I realized I need to add no business advertising to the rules because people are getting around it by introducing themselves and only talking about what they do for a living.
Everyone’s an entrepreneur. I respect it.
I also have a rule that this is not a crime and safety watchdog group.
Topics about crime and safety tend to start toxic conversations for various reasons. I learned the hard way what happens when you allow them, and it’s not good.
I made the group. I made the about section. I made the rules. I added the location.
This is critical.
You can add a specific location for your group, and that tells Facebook where the group is. It makes it much more likely to suggest it to people in the right area.
I made a cover image for the group, which I’m giving as a template in the bootcamp.
I posted one thing before I added anyone and pinned it to the top.
It said something along the lines of welcome, glad you're here, please introduce yourself in the comments.
Pinning keeps it at the top so it’s one of the first things people see when they scroll.
Then I added a few friends who are moms in that area.
I have something helpful on my side, which is I have another group for the same area.
I got an immediate influx of members by posting it in the other group I own and admin.
There’s no reason you can’t promote your group in other local groups.
Some allow promotion. Some don’t. But many do.
The best way to get your group off the ground is three things.
Invite people directly who you know would be a fit.
Post it on your main profile and say you started a group for this demographic and invite people to join.
Promote it in other groups in the same area.
I posted it in my larger group and got over 300 member requests in the first 24 hours.
Since then, it’s been happening organically.
Members are adding friends. People are finding it. The algorithm is showing it.
It’s about getting it to a point where the algorithm understands who’s in the group and who’s likely to join it.
Facebook has much data on people.
I also started stirring up conversation right away.
Two cool things happened.
Two amazing women who help moderate my main group, which has 10,000 members and hundreds of posts per week, immediately offered to help moderate the new group.
I’ve learned to accept help.
They don’t have ownership. They can’t delete the group or remove me. They have moderator status.
People will help.
You can recruit someone to help run your group if you need it.
It’s a certain personality type. People who join the PTA. People who step up. If this concept appeals to you, you’re probably one of those people.
Accept help from people you want to be affiliated with.
Another thing that happened: someone who joined the group, who I didn’t know, sent me a message asking if she could post asking if people had kids her child’s age.
I said absolutely.
She asked if I should post it for her.
I told her it helps the algorithm when other people post in a brand new group besides the moderator, so if she could post it, that would be great.
She did.
Someone else I know, a home baker I met through my main group, also reached out and asked if she could have a leadership role and help organize meetups.
Certain people are hungry to meet others and get out of isolation.
I told her I would love for her to take the lead and run with it.
As a leader and someone type A, I can do things myself. But it’s powerful to empower people and be clear that they can run with it and don’t need to run everything by you.
That can create beautiful things.
She sent me a draft of a post she wanted to do. She wanted my opinion.
It said:
Hi everyone. Tina and I are excited to start a monthly moms meetup starting in March. We want to pick a day that works best. Do you prefer Saturday or Sunday? Please vote below and comment if you have a preferred time.
It’s simple.
When other people step up, it gives others permission to step up and co-create.
That’s what’s powerful about groups.
I think I’m just really passionate about this.
On a personal note, part of why this group feels like the right thing at the right time for me is I had a couple networking events for business owners from my main group, and I enjoyed them, but I’m in my mom of young kids era.
One of my ongoing problems to solve is what are we going to do this weekend to burn off the energy?
The idea of meetups and exploring different local playgrounds and inviting people to meet us is much more my speed.
I’m already doing it, but I might as well socialize and make new friends who are cool and like-minded.
I know building new relationships eventually leads to new business.
That has been one of my challenges.
I build a lot of relationships compared to most, but before kids and before COVID, one of the biggest drivers of my business growth, especially at its peak, was growing my database by 10 to 20 people a week.
That’s not always necessary. There’s a quality versus quantity argument.
But my point is for my life post COVID and kids, I’m out much less. I’m on the internet much more, which is great but also mentally fatiguing.
I’m doing more content creation, and I notice it changes how I feel and my energy.
I’m at a point where I’m hungry to get out there.
I’m looking to make new friends and build my mom community.
That’s why this felt like the right thing at the right time to take on.
Here’s the honest thing.
Facebook groups aren’t that heavy.
If six months from now I’m not feeling it, I can take a step back.
If a group gets quiet, nobody cares.
I’m not saying build a new lead pillar and then give up on it.
You’re committing time to launch it.
But you don’t need to worry about perfection or whether engagement is at its best or what people think because no one is paying that much attention.
Experiment. Learn.
I find when I get into action, my answers become clear from being in the process versus sitting on the sidelines waiting for clarity.
Once in a while, I need to rest and not take action.
It’s a paradox.
Sometimes I need to try things, and a path becomes clear later.
The wild thing about relationships is you and I could meet someone today, and there could be an opportunity that makes sense for us to collaborate five years from now.
We could never predict what it’s going to be.
That’s how relationships are.
It can be frustrating building a relationship and referral-based business because it’s not predictable.
It’s not I buy pay-per-click leads on Google, get 20 leads a month, and convert five into transactions.
It would be nice if relationships were mathematically predictable.
They aren’t.
It’s a softer art.
I think the more of a giver you are, the more exponential the results can be in your life and in the lives of others.
The more of a good realtor you are, that impacts the kind of referrals and results you get.
There are many factors that go into it.
But at the core, if you are a great realtor and you want to give more, this is a great forum to do it in.
I want to close out with what I’m doing for content in my group to give you ideas.
I’ve been doing this long enough that ideas come to me intuitively.
I don’t need to be super systematic, although you should probably be more systematic than me.
I started my group and wasn’t even sure what my content plan was going to be.
I knew I would figure it out.
Week one, I was getting people in and replying to comments on the intro post and engaging with anything anyone posted.
There were posts right away.
It was clear the group filled a void.
There’s another moms group in the area, but it’s not very active. I noticed some advertising in it.
There is always space for a good group.
Two days ago, it hit me what I wanted to do for content.
There had been a strong post where someone asked for a good pediatrician. They were new to the area and needed to switch.
It reminded me of something that works consistently.
Posts where people ask for referrals get amazing engagement because that’s what groups are for. People helping each other.
I decided to curate conversations just focused on moms.
I’m doing a small series and then bundling it into something called a guide.
I started a school series.
I created a thread called preschools and asked anyone shopping for preschools to comment with where they’ve gone and any insights that would help others.
Twelve people commented with different local preschools.
People started replying to each other. Someone asked if they could private message someone about a specific place.
It was all happening.
Next week I’m posting for daycares.
Then I’ll do local private schools.
Public schools are what they are, so I’m still deciding whether to do something there.
When you have multiple posts on a similar topic, you can create a guide inside the group.
You link all related posts to that guide.
I’ll have a schools guide with all those posts linked.
Once that’s done, I’ll move to the next topic.
I’m thinking pediatric doctors of all specialties.
We recently realized we want to get our daughter’s vision tested.
I want a pediatric ophthalmologist thread.
A pediatrician thread.
Other specialties that come up often.
Tongue ties. You know the list if you’re a mom.
I’ll likely create a medical directory guide.
Then one for playgrounds.
That’s my content plan for now.
It positions me at the center of the group.
People get to know me, my personality, my style.
It builds the know, like, and trust factor.
I know that eventually leads to business.
I’m taking a light touch right now.
It’s smaller and newer.
I’m not pushing real estate at all.
There was a time in my main group where it felt appropriate to step into branding more heavily.
Now I’m very branded in my main group.
I trust I’ll find my way in this new group too.
A lot of people worry about how to introduce business into a group.
It’s something you can work toward naturally.
I’ll stop there because I could talk forever.
I’m excited about the group.
I’m even more excited about the bootcamp.
I have a lot planned.
I’m creating a pop-up Facebook group just for bootcamp members so we can communicate that week and support each other outside the live trainings.
I’m also increasing my Instagram focus this year.
I’ve grown my profile by 20 percent in the last week.
I’ve been testing reels.
One has done very well and is attracting the exact audience I want.
I feel a lot of momentum with social media right now.
I also started a Facebook Diaries series documenting the process of starting my moms group.
I’ll link the first reel in the show notes if you want to follow along.
That’s everything.
I hope you join the bootcamp if this sounds aligned.
Links are in the show notes.
If you’re curious about working with me at a deeper level and getting my systems or coaching one-on-one, book a call.
There are two ways to work with me right now.
You can buy the Academy, which is my full course and business in a box.
Or you can join my small group mastermind, where I provide one-on-one and small group coaching for higher-level producers.
That’s everything I’m working on right now.
I’m having a ball and love helping agents.
Thank you for listening.
If you have questions or comments, shoot me a DM on Instagram at highperformanceagent.
Have a great day.
Talk to you next time.
Thank you for listening to the High Performance Agent Podcast.
Make sure to subscribe or follow so you don’t miss the next one and check the show notes for links to all of my resources, including High Performance Agent Academy.
Come say hi on Instagram at highperformanceagent.
Talk to you soon.
