0128: Selling Millions in Business without PAID ADVERTISING with Speaker, Trainer, Instagram Influencer, Top 3% National Realtor & CEO of Gogo's Real Estate Gogo Bethke

Ea interviews, episode 128, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week. Join Mario Ficcini for today's expert authority effect interview. You are probably familiar with social media and you're probably also familiar with real estate, but so many people ask me, how do I use social media, how do I grow my business? Whether you're in real estate or not, I am super excited to have Gogo Bethke here today because she has over 40,000 people on Instagram and in the last eight, nine years, she has grown her real estate company to over $40 million in sales. And she's done it all with social media. Organic. Not talking paid, I'm talking organic. So for anyone that's on the fence going, I don't want to do paid traffic. You know, this, that, the other thing. I've tried it before. I put in a whole hundred dollars to do it. You know, you tried. First off, that's the wrong way to do it. But I digress. She has done it strictly with organic. She's created her own course and she also has 100 agents she's brought onto her team. She's a fireball and she's going to be sharing with you. I can't wait to bring her up. Go, go Bethke. Right after we thank our sponsor. There's money in the metrics. Do you know yours? Pipedrive is the simplest and easiest CRM to close more deals, deepen your relationships and increase your business profits. Get your free trial today at eainter.

Here she is, ladies and gentlemen, the lovely Gogo Bethke. Gogo, how are you doing today?

I am wonderful. How are you?

I'm feeling great. I'm excited to have you share because it's impressive not just what you've done, but how you've done it and the people you've brought behind you. So tell me, how did you get into real estate?

That's funny. Well, that wasn't even my idea. It was my neighbor's idea. So just a little bit to back it up. It's. I'm not originally from Michigan. We both in Michigan now, but I'm not from here.

And that's not a northern accent.

No, it's not. It is. Do I start sounding Michigan? But I think my husband will shift me back if I. If I lose my accent. No. So I started real estate. I was a stay at home mom at the time and my neighbor actually is the marketing director for Capital Title, a local title company here. And it was her idea. She thought I would Make a great realtor. So she referred me to a local brokerage, Real Estate one and I went and interviewed with them and they said they would pay for my school if I passed the licensing and I did. So they paid for that. So my investment of becoming a realtor by far is $0. And yeah, so now I'm a realtor nine years in.

How are you liking it and how's it going?

It's going very well. But you know, it has its ups and downs and it's definitely a very cutthroat industry. And at first I was surprised by that and now I'm just like, you know, you take it for what it is and you make the best of it and you run with it every single day. But it is not for the light hearted people.

What's something you could give to expert Authority world? If someone's already a real estate agent or they're looking to get into it, what's one thing you could say, you know what, this has made a big difference, look out for this or make sure you're always doing that.

I think for me it was truly just being the cutthroatness. Like so many people can tell you don't take it personally but until a deal falls apart and that's your commission and you worked on it for three months and now suddenly you're not going to get paid because somebody decided to go buy an rv like it's just, you know, things like that, it's so hard not to take it personally for a day. But then somebody told me if it does not matter in five years, don't give it more than five minutes. And that is a huge advice that I can give to anybody in this industry because whatever you think that your world just falling apart, if we're not making a dent in your life five years from now, it really doesn't matter. So just get over it, fix it. I'm proud to say actually Christy, my office manager, she's been with me now almost three years and she was saying she goes gogo. Now that I think back, I don't think a single deal has fallen apart ever since I worked with you. And so I believe that there's a resolution you can save almost every deal. There's a, there's a solution I should say for, for every deal. It's just you do have to understand the industry. So I think knowledge is very important. Knowing the right people in the industry is very important. Understanding all the different aspects, what it takes to get to the closing table, anything from title to lending to the real estate end of it, Inspection, appraisals, all that, to have an overall understanding of it. Because when you understand it, then you know where and why it fallen apart. And then you know who you need to talk to to fix it, to put it back together, to save the deal, to get to the closing table.

So it sounds like you got a little bit of experience with this when you're looking for people.

Yeah.

Who are you really looking for to help? Because everyone needs a house. But who are you really looking for? Because not everyone's your ideal client. And I think too many people in any business, they're just trying to get whoever. Who are you really looking for? Because I know you have a specific demographic.

Well, I do. But in the same time, I kind of can see today, then I'm in a position where I get to pick and choose. So back in the day where I had to work with anyone, no matter how they treated me, because of that commission, I can tell you that I walked away from a $1.2 million buy side and a 450. I think it was listing side. So almost 1.7. So that is a lot of money in Commission times 3% just because they did not treat me well. So my ideal client is. I'm not expecting anything out of the ordinary. This is the biggest investment of their lifetime, and it is very stressful. A lot of ego and the bottom line is involved in any transaction. So I'm okay with that. I know sometimes the ugliest side of the human being will come out because it is their biggest transaction of a lifetime, and I'm okay with that. But if they take it one step further and they're being rude to me when it is not my fault, when I'm here to truly help them through a transaction and, and get their biggest bottom line, they can possibly get the biggest house with the least amount of money on the buy side and of course on the listing side, the other. The other way around. And I. I don't. I don't expect much. I know this is a stressful time of anyone's life, but I do expect respect. So if that is not given, then I will walk away from the deal.

Good. You should. Because whether you're female, male, or anyone, I think too many people tolerate too much crap from people just because they're a potential client or customer.

Yeah. And it's not worth it, to be honest. Not for me. I'm a very proud of a human being. I'm Hungarian bination. I know that doesn't seem much too many people out here. But if you ever want to meet a proud nation, you want to meet a Hungarian. So that is in my blood. I have standards and I will never go below that, no matter how big that commission is.

Good for you. Talk to me about your biggest transformation you've been able to give to a client.

Oh, gosh.

Oh, let, let me pause that right there. Because you have a two parter. I know you have your awesome Go Go's bootcamp. And for anyone looking to learn real estate, she's awesome and you should check out. But let's do one transformation from someone you've worked with, with the home buying and you know their biggest transformation and someone that's went through your training.

Okay, so home buying and transformation, I mean, I have won many, many multiple bidding situations. I don't know if I can think of a specific one. I can tell you though that I'm like that little pit bull negotiator. So I have clients that can back this up. But if you read my reviews, we went into multiple bidding multiple times, and I usually get the winning bid. I'm not saying I never lost. I've lost deals, but I would probably win 90% of the time over any other agent that's, that's putting in an offer. I mean, I get to know my clients. I always call the other agent and try to get to know the seller and understand what's important to them before I present an offer. Because I want, I don't want that back and forth. I want to be the winning bid, like out of the get go. And in order to do that, you need to know what's the pressure point of the receiving end. So I usually call the listing agent. I usually ask him, I said, hey, I have a very, very qualified buyer. Here's where we stand. Can you tell me a little about the seller is standing? You know, is receiving time from the buyers after we presented the offer that important to them? Is it money that's important to them? Maybe it's not the closing time. Maybe it is money. Like there are just so many different things. And then I know how to structure the deal, and then we structure the deal and we win.

And what about someone from Gogo's Bootcamp?

I am actually.

I know you've helped so many people with that.

I love real estate and I. And I love helping others in real estate. So Gogo's Bootcamp is my baby. It's a social media training class. And not just social media. It's pretty much Anything, how I built Gogo's real estate, how I got to be a top 3% producer in the last three consecutive years. So I can tell you, one girl who just joined EXP because of me signed with a brokerage called exp and within EXP, you have to have a sponsor to join, just so you understand the big picture here. So I just had an agent from Virginia and I'm in Michigan. I've never met her, but she purchased Goodwood's bootcamp and she's working in a small local boutique style brokerage with her sister in law and her sister. So the three of them are a team together. And even though she was the newest one to have a real estate license in that team, she's the one that everybody goes to. And so her sister in law was finally asking her, she's like, we get the same training, like they work at the same brokerage. How do you know all this? And she goes, I know it all from Gogo's bootcamp. She goes, she. So she became the expert by using Gogo's bootcamp and now they. I am so proud to say that they have joined exp. They have named me as their sponsor. So now we are in business together. And if this wasn't for social media and wasn't for my bootcamp reaching people in a totally different state, people that I've never met, and if it wasn't for social media, we would have never met. And if it wasn't for the boot camp, I would have not been able to help her. And now they are in business with me together.

That's pretty exciting. That's very exciting.

Yeah.

What could you tell someone that's afraid to do more social media? They don't want to do too much and annoy people.

I mean, you know, you understand how social media works. It's the people on the other end. It's their choice if they want to follow you or not. You're not trapping them into a community. I mean, if they want to unfollow you, they will unfollow you. So if you're annoying, they're just going to leave. So that is really not your concern because it's not your choice to make. So if they.

What's been one of your secrets? Because there's, there's not. Well, what's one of your secrets? Like with Instagram and Facebook?

I think it's the good, bad and the ugly, you know, I mean, it's the fact that some days I'm like dialed up with my makeup on in my outfit and my Starbucks and I'm in California and then the other time I'm in Pinckney. Look, hit living the mom life. Just dropping off my kids and walking the dog and, you know, I mean doing real estate transactions in between. So I think it's just showing the real side versus I don't do the. This is my newest listing and these are the open houses for the weekend. Like, I don't do just that. And I think that's where agents go wrong, is because you don't give them a reason to follow you. You're just another agent. It's just another house on the market that they don't care about because they're not on the market. So if you don't give them a reason to follow you as a human being, then they just aren't going to.

What would you say is better? Text, image or video?

Oh, video on any day, then image, then text.

Why is that?

Because video, they actually get to see you and your personality and they get to hear you and see what you sound like and see that you get and form a normal sentence. And you actually said that it came out of your brain where typing it up, I mean you can type anything. It doesn't necessarily mean that you would feel comfortable saying the same thing. You know how you send text messages before that if you were standing in front of that person, you would have not said the same thing. You know what I mean? So that's true. In order to be able to say things and show your personality through that through video, it's showing that you really, truly mean it and that's who you are with just typing it up. I mean, it's easy to type up something and easy to type whatever you want to type up because you're not right in front of them and it's not truly showing your true color and personality. And then image, I mean.

You can test this very easily. So do me a favor and let's do this. Say whatever you want to say in a post and just post just the letters and then do the same thing, the same exact words, but attach an image to it and then do the same exact thing by you saying it on a video and see which one's going to get the most likes. And if I am wrong, you know where to find me.

What about the frequency, how often I post? 1 to 2 times a day into my feed. So the difference between feed and story, and hopefully most people know what that is. Your feed is out there. It's out there forever. That's your storefront. That's how people, when they're going to look you up, going to find and decide if they want to buy something from you or not, follow you or not. So that's your, that's your feed. In my feed I post once or twice a day. It's. For me, it's always five photos or videos and then one quote. So I have like that six thing going down. That's just my style. It's like you can structure it however you want to, but usually once or twice a day and I have it feed, so that's feeding over to Facebook. And then I also post it if it. Sorry, if it fits. As we talked about it earlier, if it fits. Because not everything goes over to LinkedIn, but if it fits, I would automatically also send it over to LinkedIn to post it. And we talked about that. The F word doesn't really go over on LinkedIn, so it didn't make it on there today, but I made it onto Instagram. And then stories. Stories are up there for 24 hours and then they go poof. So in stories you kind of can show more of the real side. And that's. I usually post probably 10 to 14 times a day into stories.

Have you ever tested doing more? Have you tested doing less? Do you do any testing or do you just. Do you.

I mean, that's the part where what I have time for, then I don't feel like I'm doing anything. So truly, to be honest with you, I don't feel like I work. I get to do what I love. So for me, that's about the standard that on a daily basis that's what I can fit into my schedule. I also don't post much after 3 o'. Clock. So I'm a mom, I have two young children. I drop them off in the morning and I pick them up in the afternoon. So I truly work between 10 and 2. So that's most of the time where I work, where I post. And then the evenings are just kind of family time. And that's what I can fit into that time without feeling like I'm working, if that makes sense. And then the rest, I mean, if I travel, if I'm, you know, if I'm not with my family all day, every day, then I. Then I'll post a lot more because I'm at an event and I have more time, you know, I don't have to make dinner, things like that. But yeah, usually about 10 to 14.

That's awesome. And you also threw A little something out there. You said between 10 and 2 you really only work for four hours a day.

Kind of. True story. And I don't work weekends and evenings.

That is awesome. I want to unpack that a little bit because there's a lot of people. One of my favorite quotes that I share is stop the glorification of busy. And I even talk about it with all my clients and in my books and different things about, you know, you can sit there and go, well, I'm going to use a shovel and work hard to, to dig a hole for a house. But you could also maybe take an hour or two, find the right person and come back with a bulldozer and be able to dig that whole thing up in record time.

Yeah. So I use the terminology work smarter, not harder. So if I can work less time but make more money, how am I going to do that? And in real estate, it's very simple. It's math. I mean everything is a numbers game. And that's one thing I love about my brain is I love numbers. And I get them very easily. So I'm very, very good at numbers. And also because I speak languages, I don't have to translate numbers, you know, I mean they make sense to me as soon as I look at it. Percentages, I can do my ICE codes. So I love numbers. So for me I was like, okay, hold on a minute. So I could sell four houses for 100,000 or I can sell one for 400. Did I just save myself four times the work.

I did? So if I only want to work between 10 to 2, then I don't have time to work with $100,000 transactions. And I'm going to have to figure out how to make $12,000 but only sell one for $100,000. House.

Do you find it's any harder or easier to work with the higher priced market and less people? Or did you ever do more people with lower price market?

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'll do it all. I have friends, whatever. If they want a piece of vacant land, that's $32,000. I love my friends. I'll do anything for my friends and family, you know, I mean, so if that's what I can help you with, that's what I'm going to help you with. So I don't discriminate that way. So sad. But if we are being like talking about structure and talking about planning for the future, in order to be smart about it, something has to give. So if you're not willing to put in the time, then you're going to have to up your income and, you know, some. I was talking to somebody and they were saying it's not about saving money because you can't pay your bills or reducing expenses because you can't pay that. It's about figuring out how you can make more money to pay that and not have to give up your lifestyle. So I'm pretty strategic in how I structure my days. I mean, everything is a sacrifice. You're going to have to figure out, okay, if I want to make the same amount of money or maybe even more, but work less than what do I need to do? So that's what I'm trying to tell you. It's not that you can't work for transaction at 100,000, but if you can work one at 400, then you just need to up your price range.

And that's a great expert authority tip, because I've told my clients the same thing when we're talking about their coaching or their programs or their books or whatever, because they're going, I don't have time to do this. And it's a matter of. Of course you do. You have the same 24 hours in a day. And what should I price my packages for consulting at? What should I, you know, my speaking fees and different things of that nature. And you only have so much time. And I. I think you're doing a great job at it because I know you have a family, you have a husband, you have kids, and you're knocking it out of the park in business. So congrats on all the fronts.

Thank you.

It's one of the reasons I wanted to invite you on the show, because there's some people that are great in business, but they don't really have the family life or they just don't like their family, or there's, you know, and I wasn't. And there's other people that have the family life, but they're just kind of kicking it with a stick in business. And you're very effective at both.

Yeah, and that's the thing. Like, I'm not willing to give up either. You know, I mean, I want to be successful at whatever I do, but not on the price of taking time away from the family. So then you're going to have to figure out, okay, then how are we going to get it done?

See, and that speaks to your. Your personality, behavior, integrity, and character, which I'm finding a lot more people. You know, it's something I honestly look for because there's no shortage of people that are successful in business. But are you successful in life and business? And have you ever felt like it was tipping one way more than the other? Have you ever found there was a point where you didn't have the balance you have? Now I know it's. Some people say the balance doesn't exist and you're always going one way or another. And I agree with that. If you're trying to achieve balance, it's a fallacy, but you can make it work. Obviously you're proof of that. What did it take from when you started to where you're at now?

Well, I'm not gonna lie to you though. I mean, such a thing as balance is really hard to achieve because especially somebody like my, with my personality. We were talking about this earlier. When I have a goal before I even achieve this one, you know, I mean, I always have that next step set out. And sometimes you have that in between period of like you still have to do both things at the same time so one can float the other while the other makes money. Because whatever you start, you're not going to make like, ooh, crazy amounts of money tomorrow. Like overnight success is usually a few years of work that you put in night. And so with that, I mean my career has shifted. I truly enjoy coaching and traveling and public speaking and all that. But in order to do that, even though I get paid to some events, some I don't. Some I just do from, you know, helping our team and our groups and stuff with social media training. What happens is, while if I want to remove myself and keep going out of state and traveling and teaching and coaching, well then what's going to happen with my real estate business? Well, my real estate business is still to the day the largest sum of my income. So that means I'm going to have to figure out or taking less clients or being more efficient of how I do it, or higher end people that are able to take on some of the legwork while I'm out of state. So it's no walk in the park. Something always has to give. And right now I'm in the phase where I'm kind of doing both. Like I'm still doing real estate transactions and I picked up a lot of speaking. I mean I spoke in Vegas this year four times, four or five times, I think this year alone. So it's like I have traveled probably every, almost every three weeks this year I was out of state. And imagine what that does to a business that is localized. Like I Sell mostly in Livingston county in Michigan. So in order to do that I have to physically be here. So then in order to be able to exit myself out from transactions, a lot of things had to change. So now I have a full time office manager. I had her for almost three years. She has not been licensed for the last two. She just got licensed this year. So she can open doors, set inspections, you know, help me writing addendums or things like that that she was not able to do in the past. Also, my husband worked corporate America for 20 years. Now he's also a full time realtor. So now he had to do the transactions and I'm not, I'm not able to do anymore because now I'm transitioning into coaching and all that. So. And I'm not complaining. I mean, go.

Is my second largest income after commission. So we are doing very well. But there's always that transition period, you know, I mean, where you kind of have to do both and. Or if you're not able to do both, then you have to train the people and hire the people that can pick up the slack. But guess who's going to train them? You. So there's always going to be a period of time while you kind of have to do both.

That's a great expert. Nice. That's a great expert authority insight. Because I remember that, you know, people ask me, when did you start your business? My favorite answer is which time? Because there's these pivots and transitions and there is an overlap. But what I'm hearing is don't be afraid to jump into it, but realize it's going to take probably a little bit more time than you thought.

I always feel like, I always follow gut feeling and I feel like if God puts an idea in your head, in your dream, in your mind during the day while you're running, wherever you get that idea from, it's meant to be yours. God wouldn't put it in there if he doesn't believe that you can get it done. Now your job is to figure out the how. Your job is to say yes to that idea and then figure out the how you're going to get it done. What needs to take place in order for you to be able to be that person that God believes that you are.

I agree 100%. It's why I started the show. I got a vision to do it and something clicked one day after church, actually in church, then afterwards I go, holy smokes. Everything I've done from this point forward, from the years to where I Was everything I've done has led up to being able to piece this whole thing together.

Yeah. And, you know, maybe a year or two from ten years from now, they're going to look at it like, oh, it's an overnight success. Because that's when people finally get to know you. And you are the only one who knows what it truly took and how long it took and what you had to go through and what you had to learn and the people you had to meet that got you to where you are today.

Yeah. I didn't want to interrupt you, but when you were going, yeah, it looks like an overnight success, but it took a couple of years. I'm like, yeah. Or decades.

Exactly. I mean, you know, I don't know if you saw it, but a few years ago, I saw a commercial, I think it was a Super bowl commercial, Target, and they were showing like, these overnight football players of, like, the big successes, how they were four years old when they started playing football. You know what I mean? So it's like, it's not. We see on them because that's where their prime is. That's why they're in the news, because that's their prime. But they don't show you what it took for them to get there. So the road to success is not that simple. But as long as you follow your gut feeling and those dreams that God puts in your brain and you listen to it and you go through it, you'll figure out the how it's going to take you exactly where you need to be, what you're capable of.

What do you do if you have a little bit of fear?

You get over it.

One of the quotes that so my. My son is type one diabetic. He was diagnosed when he was four and a half. And right as he was diagnosed, I saw this quote that said, if God takes you to it, he will take you through it. And it's up on my wall and I wrote it there. And I have a chalkboard wall upstairs, and I wrote it there. When he was diagnosed at age four and a half. He's 12 now. So we have not changed that wall because I believe that it's such a strong saying that no matter what God puts in, they say the saying is like, God doesn't give you what you can't handle. But I think, putting it this way, that if he brought you through to it, he will bring you through it. Then there's no such a thing as fear anymore because, you know, you have. He has your back.

I'm sorry. To hear that. But also glad because I have a feeling it's so you can help more people that are in situations.

Yeah. I mean, as long as everybody. I mean, I know there are people out there that don't believe in a higher power. They don't believe in the universe or a God or somebody that's out there to at look of us. But I do. And I, I always knew that from the age I was like yay big. And I always listened to gut feelings. I call them gut feelings. Those little butterflies that says you should probably go over to the other side of the road. Oh, trust me, I'll go over to the other side of the road. So I always listen to that. And I feel like when you know that there is a higher power, then you know that you're protected.

That not everything is on your shoulders. You don't know it all, you don't need to know it all. It will bring you through it.

I don't disagree. I will challenge what you said though.

Okay, go.

I think a lot of people do believe, but they were hurt in the past or had a bad experience and now they're cautious.

Yeah, I mean, I also have a comeback for that. Everybody goes through good times and bad times and you always have a choice. I mean, God gives you a brain and you should use it. And you can come out in either way. You can come out of a situation as a victim or a victor and that decision is yours. So you can use it as fuel to take you to wherever you need to be in life or a life lesson and you know, take yourself to it. Just makes you stronger. Or you can be a victim. But I, I don't think that helps a human being in any way. When you're playing the victim card.

That is a very powerful statement. A killer expert, authority, insight. Go back and listen to that again and I'm going to make sure there's a timestamp right there so no one misses it because that is a differentiator, hands down.

Yeah. The power is yours, the decision making. That's why we have a brain. That's why we know wrong from right. That's why we can make a decision and take us, take ourselves down whichever path we want to go down on. And that's why sometimes we get into those bad situations. Because you didn't go down the path that was meant for you.

And that's how we can make common sense great again.

Common sense is not that common anymore. That's one of my newest sayings.

Well, you are sharing a Lot of great insight. I got one more question for you before we go to the imperfect action round, and that is, who is a celebrity entrepreneur? You would love to.

I'm going to change it.

Spend a week with Tony Robbins any day.

Well, you didn't hesitate. Why is that?

I just love him. I mean, if. I mean, I have few people that I would love to spend time with, and I can give you that list if you wanted, but.

Yeah, share them.

Let's go through it. So the top of that list is Tony Robbins. And I don't know why. He's just my peep. He speaks my language. I went to many of his events.

He's Hungarian.

I wish.

I know. I don't think so. No. He's way too big of a human. Hungarians are cute little people, not giant. But I don't know. He's just my person. If I would have the opportunity to spend some time with him and soak up his brain, oh, my gosh, that would be a godsend. I would love to be a mini Tony Robbins when I grow up.

So that. I would love to meet Eddie Murphy. He is the reason why I'm in the US And I would love just the opportunity to hug him and thank him for my American dream. I mean, it's a long story. I can tell you one time, but he's the reason I'm in this country. And I would just love to hug the person that.

It's a good time. Now.

That'S definitely a hook if I ever heard one.

Yeah. So if you know anybody, I mean, there's only six degrees of separation, so I just need to find that one person who knows. Sorry. Know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows Eddie Murphy. So do you know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody?

I probably do. I'm curious how you got to bridge this at least a little bit. How is Eddie Murphy the reason you're in America?

I'll tell you the story. So I was born in Romania, and Romania was a communist country until 1989. I was born in 81, so I was 8 years old when communism ended. They shot Ceausescu. They put him to the wall. I was sitting in the living room watching a human being shot in the head. Like, I don't know why my parents thought that was a good idea, but they were very excited that finally communism is over. So then my dad went. So Communism, just so you understand how that works, you. You shut away from the Western world. You have no idea. You live in a box with a Cap on it. So you have no idea what's going outside, what's going on outside of that little area that you live in. No tv, no radio. Your mail is even censored. Nobody could send you a mail from outside of Romania. So that's how. Like, I didn't know what an orange was. Like, we didn't have import. Like, I grew up with seasonal vegetables. Whatever grew in Romania. So when communism finally ended, my dad went and bought color television and a VCR player and he came home with two VCRs and guess what movies they were. And I'll give you a hint. It's not coming to America. Oh, I know that's what you're gonna say.

I don't know Ghostbusters. You're talking about the 80s.

It was 48 hours. 2 times 48 hours by Eddie Murphy. And I don't know, I just remember that movie. I just remember being glued to the television looking. And that was the first time I knew black people existed. Like, we don't have anything but white. Like, I had no idea they existed. And I was staring at the television. I remember as a little eight year old, that's my first recollection of. I'm going. Whatever that man is at.

I didn't know it was America at the time, but I was like, he's freaking funny. And I need to go wherever that man is at. Because that to me seemed like the most ideal life. Wow.

And now did you see Coming to America also?

I did. I did. But that's not the movie that was 48 hours. It was the 48 hours. I just thought he was so funny. I just love that movie.

You should really use that as your headline for your next interview of learn how I came to America from Eddie Murphy and watching 48 Hours. I'm. I'm not even joking.

And then somehow tag. I wish I could tag anymore.

That is a huge hook and thank you for sharing it. But I was just like, oh, no, we're not going to the next part till we get this part done. Because.

Yeah. So that. And then I would love to meet. Oh, gosh, I get Morgan Freeman.

Okay.

I just love his voice. I just think he's so talented when it comes to acting. I know he has a good heart. I watched the series of God that he has, and I don't know, I just think he's a great human being. I would love to meet him. And then Oprah. Oprah is who I want to be when I grow up. And Tony Robbins somewhere in the middle, like a Tony Robbins that, like, inspires people. But Oprah, where she interviews other people and finds out how they got to where they are in life.

You definitely should have your own show. You already do. You might not call it that, but it's the same journey I was on. I had done over 3,000, 3,500 videos, live streams, this, that, the other thing. And one day I just started calling it my show. And then I was joking around. It was October 23rd, I think, 2017. There's a couple of clips where I'm just like, welcome to the Mario Fortini show. Like, joking. And about a week later, I go, I just got 3,000 episodes done this week. Because that's how people perceive you. Yeah, they don't care what it's called.

It's.

You know, you're just doing it as a thing. But there's. You're the perfect person for it. You definitely should. But thank you for sharing those.

Yeah.

And is there anyone else you wanted to mention?

What about anyone from Shark Tank?

No, I don't have cable.

You can still watch clips on YouTube. You've seen shark Tank, right?

I've seen Shark Tank. I follow. I think three of them, but I don't know their names, but I. Okay, sorry.

You're the second person I've asked that. I thought Shark Tank was like a hook, line and sinker.

That was horrible. That was not planned either. But, yeah, I'm shocked because, like, everyone I talked to the first hundred episodes, like, yeah, Shark Tank's great now. I started actually asking people on camera. So far, I'm 0 for 2. So just change that one out.

I don't have cable, so a lot of things that like happening on cable television, I don't know because I turned cable off about three years ago. I just had enough of the negativity. I had enough of going to bed with negative thoughts. I can't solve the world's problems. I mean, that's just way too much on anyone's shoulder. If you think about it. If it wasn't for access to it. Like, if you think about back in our grandparents and great grandparents age, it's not that bad things didn't happen around the globe. It's just they didn't know about it, so you can't. I think that's one of the reasons why the stress levels in today's society is so high, is because we all trying to be a human, care about other people. And when you know about all of the negativity out there, you want to fix it and we just can't. I mean, you can't put all that stuff on one person's shoulder. And I think it's going to bed with all of that unresolved situation. It just wasn't good for me. I wasn't a happy, go lucky person and I like to be happy go lucky. So I fixed the problem. Now I don't know what's going on. Now I'm ostrich is my head in.

The sand and you're doing great and that's phenomenal. We're going to thank our sponsor and come back for the Imperfect action round. Don't stay stuck in startup mode. That's what I tell my audiences and clients and why I advise using pipedrive for all of your customer relationship marketing needs in your business. You want more leads, you want more deals and ultimately more clients. Who doesn't? But when I deliver you 100 more deals a quarter, can you handle it? A month, a week, a day? Which one of those made you the most nervous? Saying you want it over and over like a record on repeat is one thing. The reality, however, is that your subconscious is stopping you at some point and it's because you want A, but your business is set up for B. Whether you have a system or you are that system, pipedrive will upgrade your deal closing experience, increase your profitability and make your day to day more enjoyable. Get your free trial today@eainterviews.com Pipedrive don't waste another day being this system or using a subpar system to grow your empire. There's no need to make it harder than it already is. Once again, that's eainterviews.com pipedrive all right, ladies and gentlemen, we're back with the Imperfect Action round and I'm going to start telling everyone why I did this. When I was designing the show, I wanted to get actionable content people can use immediately because there's so many great ideas out there and you know, if you don't have a funnel, set one up. But it's not the easiest thing to do overnight. And I wanted some actionable tips right then and now that you can implement the second you hear them. So the Imperfect action round is dedicated to one of what I think is a secret of being an entrepreneur successful is taking imperfect action. Don't wait. It's never the perfect time. Start now. So the first question I have for you is, Gogo, are you ready to take imperfect action?

Sure thing.

Number one, what is the fastest path to the cash?

Well, for me it's Going to have to be social media.

And the highest return on your investment. Because I invest zero. I invest my own time and what I enjoy doing and I get money out of it.

It's not a bad deal.

I don't have to call them, they call me.

That is a great thing. And for anyone that. I wanted to unpack that slightly. For anyone that doesn't understand the power of positioning and branding, I woke up and there was email sitting for me. For people that want to be new, clients that are applying, there's people that want to come on the show, there's all kinds of stuff. And it's the same thing when you position yourself and get to a point where they're coming to you, It's a game changer.

And also when you share knowledge, you know, I mean, when you share knowledge, you automatically become an expert. And when you become an expert and they look up to you and they want to be you and they reach out to you and ask you how they can be a part of what's going on. And. And that's an awesome way of doing it because then you don't have to. Like when I got into real estate and realized how much of this is cold calling in order to be successful, dude, I have an accent. I'm not cold calling anyone. Are they going to hung up on me three seconds in? Not only that, but I mentioned earlier, I'm a very proud Hungarian. Like, I'm not begging anyone for their business.

You probably call them right back and be like, no, you're not hanging up till I tell you what I need to.

Did you just hang up on me? Just kidding.

So then I actually did that to someone I was cold calling earlier on when I first. First started the business and someone hung up on me and I was like, about a minute later, I'm like, oh, heck no. I called them right back. I go, I don't know what happened earlier in your day, but I don't appreciate that. I'm trying to help your business. And he apologized to me and gave me a lead that turned into two clients that I had for over a decade.

Oh, that is awesome. I love it. I love it. Yeah. No, so. So with. With social media, I think it's very important to be you and get comfortable with creating video and content and sharing your knowledge. Because when you share your knowledge, they're not taking a slice away of your pie. They're probably riot or in freaking Kentucky, you know, I mean, so it doesn't matter. But when you do that, you become an Expert. And that's what you need to be in order to start having those followers and start having leads that come to you.

So what you're saying essentially is create the expert authority effect.

Yes.

I am not going to disagree on that one. If there's anything. All right, number two.

Yeah.

Number two is a really good question.

As soon as you remember it.

Yeah, pretty much. Oh, what is the biggest problem? You see your audience making prospects making in the fastest way they can fix it. There we go.

Okay, so that would let. Let's go through their Instagram profile real quick. I can hop and fix it up like this. That's going to generate the leads. Ready?

So if their online branding isn't where it should be, it's the I. That's a great thing. Because what about their LinkedIn profile to their storefront?

Any profile, really. First and most important is your photo. So many people don't have a professional photo. Seriously, in today's era, when you can have a fancy phone that takes more, more beautiful photos than a professional camera can, there's no more excuse why you don't have one. Also, there's 17 freaking apps that you can put it through to make it look like a million bucks, like the best photo you have ever taken. And then problem number two, not only they don't have a photo, if they do have a photo, it's not the same photo on every single platform. And that is huge, big problem. Because if you want to face recognition and brand recognition, you have to be the same person at every single platform. So if you ever look me up, go go back to your Google's real estate. You're gonna find a sing lady in the red dress on every single platform. It's on my your signs, it's my email signature, it's my business cards. I mean, you name it, it's on everything. And it's, it's a, it's a mandatory. If you do decide to change that photo, then you're going to go and change it on all the platforms. So you cannot have a different photo. Just like you have your same image of yourself in everything. I mean, I saw your marketing with any touches that we ever had via email or via messages or any of your social media platforms. You are the same guy, that same Mario and the same outfit with the tie on in every single photo. So that is your image and that's what you need to be in order for people to recognize you. I mean, I can't go now to the grocery store or to the movie theater without people Saying, oh, you are that. Go, go check. And that's the whole point. I want everybody and their mother to be aware of who I am and most importantly, what I do for a living, because I'm a realtor. So I want them to know when they have real estate needs, they can find me. But in order to do that, you can't have to keep pop up in their feed over and over again and you have to look to see in order for their brain to put the two together to be like, oh, the chicken, the red dress, let's go, go. And she's a realtor. Make sense? So that's the reason.

It absolutely does. And I'd also say you're also not shy about it. You either, because there's real estate agents that, you know, they're realtors out there. And you know, I do this, I do that, and they're just kind of like, there, you own it.

Well, you kind of have to. I mean, you know, we don't sell. Realtors don't sell real estate. We sell ourselves. We sell our services. And that's where some agents go wrong is because they keep selling the next house, the last house. People are an average on the market, what, every 10 years for six months.

So in the in between period of time, why should they follow you if all you do is post another house? So in order for them to follow you and to, and to stay on top of mind when they do come on the market, when they have real estate needs, then you have to sell yourself. They have to remember who you are.

What I'm hearing is sell an experience, not just the transaction.

Yes, you're selling yourself. You're selling your hustle. You're selling your beliefs. You're selling your negotiation skills. You're selling your marketing skills. You're not selling real estate, you're selling services. You're selling why someone should choose you over the 40,000 other agents in the state of Michigan. Wow.

Didn't know there was that many, but that was a great insight.

What's that?

Over 2 million in the country.

Did you know the average realtor sells one to two transactions a year? That much out of the 2.4 million. I think they are in the country. Don't quote me on the numbers, but around 2 million ISHWR in the country. Over 600,000 of them has not sold a single transaction last month. I mean last year.

And I, I was watching one of your videos and you said something again about over 35 houses a year. You're in the top 3% and you said you were in the 40s already.

Yeah, yeah. So I usually do about between 30 and 50 transactions a year. Personally, I count the ones that I personally work on. This year I saw 28. So my transactions are down a little bit because I picked up so many other things than I do now. I have A team over 112 agents in my exp. Family that we call it. So I train a lot, I travel a lot, I coach. And then on top of it now I have Gogo's boot camp, which is a lot of my time. It's over 20 hours of video training for realtors how to run business. So that's a lot of my time. And of course I still have family and all that. I have to fit in between 10 to 2. So my transactions went down, but my volume went up. Meaning that the transactions of the price of the homes that I worked on now are in the 400 in average versus in the low two hundreds when I started originally. My.

And that's about that time compounding you were talking about. So you can still have the revenue but you don't need to be doing as much. That's smart.

So I can make more money and work less.

That's real smart. Sounds like the transition is going well for you.

Yeah. The last question, because of building the brand. You know, when you build a brand, when they come to you and then you get to pick and choose of what you're working with. And we don't, don't get me wrong, we do not turn down anyone. If I know someone personally, I will work with them no matter what the price ranges or how that works. But now with my time being limited, now I can drive. When I originally started out in my career, I could drive an hour to show a house. Now I don't have that hour to go. Drive an hour to show a house, then it's 15, 20 minutes to show it, then drive an hour back when that's half of my day, more than half of my day if I only work on 10 to 2, you know, I mean, so something.

And especially if they want to do the showing at 4 or 5 in.

The afternoon, then I can do it at all because now I have to pick up children. So that's the thing. It's like you have to. Something always has to give. But now we have a team and a lot of agents, 42 I think here locally in Michigan that are ready to go whenever some. Whatever needs someone has. So we will always help everyone. I just might not be the one Personally working on a transaction.

Good for you. Good for you. Last question I have is what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value? Ooh, you talked about that 10 years that it might be.

Yeah, I think you mean like how, how to, how to continuously keep the customer year over year. So I don't know if you knew this. I was very shocked to find out that about four years after closing, most sellers or buyers don't remember the realtor's name.

That's sad. So that means when the 7 to 10 year mark comes around and they're ready to sell the home they bought with you or vice versa, they're not going to remember you. So in order to stay on top of them and in order to stay top of mind, I guess you'd say social media is perfect for that because they all follow me so I'm always in their feed. So I don't allow them to have a chance to forget of who I am and what I do for a living. And also customer appreciation events, those are huge. We always reach out to them at least once a year. I mean I have reminders setting my calendar where we follow up with them. Be like, hey, did you know today is your fifth year anniversary in your home? Does the home still serve you well? Is there anything that we can help you with? Also we do customer appreciation events like next Monday and Tuesday is a Thanksgiving pie giveaway where we give a pie, a Thanksgiving pie to our customers that chose to work with us. So last year we were driving it around and that was a big mistake because I was driving Pisran for over, God knows over a week over the half the state of Michigan. And so we can't do that anymore because now we have too many addresses to drive to. So instead now we have a centralized location where they come to. So our past clients, we just sent out the Evite today, everybody's rsvp. So we have a headcount, then they come out, we'll spend some time together, we catch up, see how everything's doing. If there's any needs they have, and it might not be real estate, this might be that they need a plumber or they want to finish the basement or they want to add on a deck in the, the spring or whatever it may be, we have, you know, years of connections here locally, then we can, we can make recommendations for that and then we get to spend some time together that doesn't allow them to forget about me. So when they are on the market again, then they would use me again.

Well, it Sounds like you're doing a great job maximizing that. And it again, I heard more of the time compounding in there because yeah, there is a breaking point. Everyone, I asked the audience, they go, who would like 10,000 new leads? And everyone raises their hand. I go, could you handle it? And the reality is there's breaking points if you don't have systems in place. I remember my first five clients, 5200. And it's just like you got to have different, a different level of business set up to be able to handle it even if you really really want it.

And, and they.

I'm happy you're having these good first world issues because they're, they're legit problems but they're also, it's kind of cool when you figure it out and go, wow, not only can I handle 100 a day, I can handle a thousand a day because you made this one tweak. And really that ousand can support 8500.

Yeah, yeah. And then now we can do really any transactions anywhere. We are in 20 over 20 different states. So I have team members, nine over 20 different states. So I'm not limited to location anymore. So anybody out there that's listening to this, if they're not in real estate, if you can help them anyway with the real estate needs being not just in the state of Michigan, really anywhere between Michigan to product to California, up to Washington state and anywhere in between. I mean there's 112 of us now on team go with that. We would love to help them in any way we can. So don't take it the wrong way. Is just, I'm saying that when you are start doing a lot of different things, you physically not going to be able to do it all and oversee it all.

And it gives you a reason to go to somewhere warm in the winter.

Yes, that's right. I think that's why I started speaking.

So I can get.

I definitely don't hate it either when someone's like hey, would you mind flying out to DIT.

In February to Punta Cana? Sign me up.

So I just got a couple, two more things. One, what are some books you could recommend to expert authority world that have made a big difference?

Oh gosh. So one of my all time favorite. It was a huge surprise. It's a cute little pocketbook. I was just actually talking about that. The Greatest Salesman in the world. Have you read it?

That is a great book. But you're not going to mention Tony Robbins in there. You were raving about him about 20 minutes ago.

I do love Tony.

Rob OG Mandino is great also.

I love his videos, though. So I usually start a day, I open YouTube. As I'm putting makeup on, I usually have an inspirational video on my phone. And because I watch so much of Tony Robbins, it just automatically pops up. Now you know how those cookies work. So here's my love language with Tony is mostly videos and inspirational. Like, I'm gonna kick your ass back into shape. And sorry if I said. And if it's not allowed, beep it out. But I love his personality for that because no matter even if I'm having like. Like the, you know, we all have bad days and good days and all that. And if I just listen to one of his videos, I'm like, okay, Betty part is over. Time to. Time to go and, you know, fix the world, fix my problems. So I love that. But the Greatest Salesman in the World is. Is a great, cute little book that you can get through it very easy. You can have it in your purse. And it was just not what I expected, I guess especially how it starts out first. It starts out in like Jesus's era back in the day. And I was like, how is it starts out slow, I'll give you that. And I was like, how is this going to apply to business? Like, and it was one of those. I had a real estate coach and it was my homework. I had to read that book. And I was like, oh, my gosh, shoot me now. Not get to the scrolls. You're like, oh, my gosh, it's so good.

It is a great book. I remember reading it myself.

It's a little. It teaches you about you.

Any others?

Oh, I have so many. I would have to open up my Amazon.

You are a badass. And you are a badass about making money. Have you read that one? I just love her personality. She's a sassy little thing.

What's her name?

Oh.

I have to open up my. I'm not good with names. And now you put me on the spot. I'll tell you. I'll open up my.

Your lists. I think it's right here.

New lists. Where's my books? List.

Books. There we go.

And it's two. It's two. One. It's two. Two. It's two ones. It's two books by the same author.

Yes. So you are a badass is one of them. And you are a badass at making money is the other one. And it is by Jensen Sero.

Okay, thank you, Jensen. Zero. Yeah, She's Awesome. So she has a sassy little personality and it just tells you about how you are perfect the way you are and you just have to go for your dreams and just full force and be you. And it's just awesome.

It's a good book, great recommendations. Where would you like people to learn more about you?

Well, Gogo's real estate is probably the best way to find me, but you can find me pretty much anywhere if you Google Gogo's real estate, Instagram, Facebook, or gogobetkey on LinkedIn where you have to have your real name.

Well, I hope people could find you on there because I know you're on the social media.

So yes, that's the quickest way to me getting back to you. I mean, you can always try to call me and send me a an email, but I get back too much.

Faster than DM Christie will take care of the emails.

Exactly. Might not get to me.

Well, it's been an absolute pleasure and congrats on all your continued success. Thank you for sharing with Expert Authority.

Thank you so much for having me. You're awesome.

My pleasure.

All right, Expert Authority World, we have another great episode here. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Have a great day and God bless. How do you know where you're going if you don't know where you're at? Pipedrive CRM makes your business easier, more enjoyable and more profitable by allowing you to easily organize your deals and move them through your pipeline. Whether you're in the office or on the go. Get your free trial today@eainterviews.com pipedrive stop wasting your time continually looking for your your information when you can be investing it, adding more value to your prospects and clients. Once again, that's eainterviews.com pipedrive hey, thanks for listening to today's episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven't done so already, I invite you to subscribe to the show and also be sure to check out eainterviews.com for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you tomorrow.