Facebook Groups as a Lead Pillar with Marisa Lindsay and Dubs | Ep 069

In her first year as a real estate agent, Marissa Lindsay produced nearly 50 transactions and every single one of them was generated through a Facebook group. Why? Because she's an introvert. It allowed her to sell without selling, to be of service, be of value and be herself. Since then, she spun up about five dozen Facebook groups that support her five agent Colorado Springs based team, but also have produced a national network for referrals. She's flown into local markets to find the right agents to operate these groups according to her proven strategy. What the strategy is, how they developed it, why it works for introverts, and how they set it up in other markets. Join Marissa and Dubs right now on real estate team os.

No matter where your business is today or where you want to take it, you'll get there faster and more profitably with an operating system. Welcome to team os, your guide to starting, growing and optimizing a real estate team. Here's your host, Ethan Butte.

Marissa and Marissa, welcome to real estate team os.

Hi. Thanks for having us.

Okay, so I will honor Dubs, you as dubs. Really quickly, before we jump into the standard opener on the show, give us a little bit about Dubs. I know why, but I want everyone else to understand is how simple and powerful a nickname can be.

Yes, well, you know it does convey the fact that all I do is win just getting those dubs. But actually since I worked with Marissa, there's way too much confusion between Marissa and Marissa. So it's very simple. She spells her name with 1s and minus spelled with a double s. So since I think week one I've been dubs and now my whole TC life, everything in real estate world, I am Dubs.

So awesome. Again, appreciate you both being here. And standard openers, what is a must have characteristic of a high performing team? And we'll go to you, Marissa to kick it off.

I would say you have to have a visionary, so that's me. And you have to have an integrator that's Dubs. If you don't have both of those, it's really going to be hard to go anywhere. I think that especially in this business, it's so competitive. You really have to have somebody who thinks outside the box and can find creative ways to connect with others. And so that's where I come in. However, my big brained ideas need somebody to tie them in and make them happen. And so I think that we have an incredible team with Dubs and I. I mean since day one she's really come alongside myself in making sure that you know, the ideas that I have for the team not only within our city and state but also nationally, that they come to fruition and they're done in an effective and efficient way.

Well, we're definitely going to get into the story of how you two connected and when each of you knew that this was going to be a good partnership. But because you've coached dozens of teams, Dubs, I would love for you to share a must have characteristic of a high performing team, real estate or otherwise.

Sure.

I think it ties into what a combo of what Marissa said there and that's creativity with execution.

Great catch.

All term is just grit on a personal level. And so that's something you see from Marissa, from everybody on our team. It's like not only will they put their head down and work but they will work creatively. They will find a way to solve a problem no matter what problem comes. I think you see it on sports teams of course, like you can find the scrappy player but eventually you're going to reach a level where you peak and you'll find the people who continue sustaining success for years are the people who just will put their head down and they'll figure out a way to solve the problem.

Yeah, I love the, the combination there of creative problem solving with the persistence not to leave it until you've tested and proven a solution. I have a note from our, from a call that we had earlier that one of your goals was to become the highest performing team in Colorado Springs. Is that sound about right?

Yes, it's an ongoing goal.

Okay, so what is your definition in that? Like when do you know that you're like on track to that? Is it an efficiency play? Is it a, like. I assume it's not just a pure, you know, top line number that a lot of people like to point to. Like what does it mean to you to be the highest performing team in a market?

Well, for me as the team leader I think that really tapping into all of our team members abilities and ensuring that they're reaching their goals and they're, we're bringing out their potential. And so to me that is, that would to me mean that we are, we are the highest performing team in the Springs. I mean making sure that everybody's hitting their potential. And that's really where Debs comes in to make sure that we're highlighting, highlighting everybody's strengths.

Close that gap a little bit. Dubs, like what, when you have some amount of formal or informal responsibility for that, like what is that and how do you Step into it. And how do you tap into it?

Oh, yeah. Well, it's fun because it's just that creative problem solving with each agent. One of the things I love as a coach or being part of any team is seeing what makes people think thrive, like what makes somebody great. And we have a small team with lots of different personalities. And what's fun for me is like when this person is seeing and achieving their goals. And so while we might not ever be the highest grossing team, like the most successful is like when our agents are just absolutely killing it with their specific niche and with their personality. Because we have some people, we do have a few callers on the team who insist on calling. And we have some people like Marissa. It's hard for even me to get her on the phone. So it's fun to watch those people thrive.

That's cool. So we're going to get into kind of the shape of the team and how it's structured. But first I'm going to get into Marissa. When did you get into real estate? When did team occur to you? And then how did the two of you pair up? And when did you know that this was going to be a successful partnership?

A wild ride. Okay, you ready?

Yeah.

So I left the military. So I, we, my family and I, it's my husband and we have four kids. We came down to Colorado Springs from Alaska in 2019 and somehow I, as a public affairs soldier in the army thought that that tied in with real estate. I'm like, yes, easy, easy transition. I know what I'm doing here. I'm going to go get my license and I'm going to sell real estate in a state and city that where I know absolutely nobody. This is going to be fantastic. Easy peasy, easy peasy. So I went ahead and got my license and started a social media group in order to find clients because I am a very introverted personality. Very, very much so. I will get out and talk to people, but I'm really awkward and so I, I don't. It's, it's doesn't. It's not salesy. It's. I'm not going to get a sale.

This is another checkbox of definitely on the right path with real estate.

So, so I, I went the social media route because I am safe behind a keyboard and I can, I love sharing value, sharing knowledge and I use that as a space to welcome people to Colorado Springs if they were thinking of moving here and giving them best information, best practices, if they were new. So started that did really well, my first year sold almost 50 houses, and I started my team out of an absolute need. I remember halfway through my first year thinking to myself, if this is what real estate is, I don't want to do it anymore because I was working 15 hour days. I was barely home to see my children. You know, we had to hire a cleaner that year, a cook that year, and I just had no time for anything. Personal life. And so going into my second year, I was told that the best thing for me to do would be leverage my time and bring on a team to start doling out the clients that I had that I could no longer take care of, that I just didn't have the space for. So that's how my team was born. So Dubs was a client of mine at this time, and she was teaching and didn't sound like she loved her job, but she was so organized and she has this coaching background. And I'm like, well, you know what? I have a business proposition for you. And I promised that I would take care of her financially if she would just please, please, please trust my vision. And she did trust my vision. And we have been together ever since. And it's grown into so much more than a team, right, Dubs? It's gone into so many different directions, I'll say.

You know, when we worked with Marissa as our agent, we had to really lean on her as a negotiator because it was hot, you know, she was.

And.

And I remember calling her up and we put in the offer for the house, and they're like, do we need to raise it? Do we need to come back? After we had already submitted the offer, we were hassling, learn about it. And she was like, no, it's fine, it's fine. And as all real estate deals do, it took its twists and turns, but at the end of the day, I actually don't like. Like, I'm a coach who doesn't like coaches. And I'm part of a real estate team that doesn't really like real estate agents. So it's just like this inherent, like, oh, you're fake. But working with Marissa as her client, I got to see that she actually cares about clients. And that was enough to convince me to align my goals with her. So when she came with the job offer, I was like, okay, you actually care about clients. You're going to serve people. I can get behind that. So I actually took over for her husband Mike, who had been her TC before he moved into the world of lending. We won't hold it against him. But so I took over there and so there was like a lot of trust needed right from the jump for her to let me talk to clients for me to like quit my job and pursue this full time. So I think we started with a lot of trust and just kind of have really made sure we've kept our goals aligned this whole time and then, you know, worked our butts off. Honestly.

Yeah, I love it. Okay, one really quick question, Marissa. How many agents had you brought alongside you before you said I need an admin or a TC or support or was Dubs your first kind of teammate?

Dubs was my first because my husband was serving in that admin capacity already. He left his contracting job. I think I was two months in the business. And we realized that this was taking off and that this real estate was going to be a big career and that I could not do it alone. So I convinced him to leave his six figure job and join me. And then, and then Doug's came in to take over for him. Once we realized that we were doing so much that we needed an in house lender where I can nudge him at 11pm at night and say, get up, we need a lender letter. Like, let's go.

Yeah, Another way to avoid the phone. Am I right?

Yes.

So we, we brought him in and then Dubs came on board and that was, that was the foundation for what we were choosing to build.

We already heard coaching and organized and obviously you clicked, you know, from a personality perspective or else you wouldn't have even entertained the idea. But was there anything else about Dubs that made you know that she was the right person such that you would come with an offer and then I'll turn it to you, Dubs with a what was the offer and did you have any questions about it?

So for me, Dubs has integrity. Huge. That's very, very important to me. The way that she would ask questions when we were doing our transaction with her personal home. She reminded me a lot of my husband and he's just very, very direct. I love people who are direct. I don't like it when people skirt around. And so she handled. Buying a house is stressful. So she handled stress, that stressful situation with just very direct questions and with integrity. And. And then she was also on top of that, very organized. And I'm like, you know what, that's the trifecta. Like let's bring her on and see what we can do here if she'll leave her job and join me.

Cool. So what Was the offer dubs, do you have any questions about it and what has changed between the initial vision for the role and today? Yeah.

Oh, that's a, that's a good question. But first, thank you, Marissa. You know, my integrity, all that matters a lot and words of affirmation, that matters to me. So just thank you for saying that. It goes a long way to have a boss who actually listens and gives you the rewards that you, you asked for. So initial offer was I'll replace your income and I'll keep you busy. And so it's like, okay, I, I, you seem pretty busy, so I think I can do that. And I, and I saw the success and I love competency and working with people who are competent. So I'm like, okay, let's, let's see where this adventure takes us. It seems like a very scalable thing now very quickly, what it went from a TC role and because of all the trust that she gave me and because of my own personality of like, oh, this can be better. Oh, this can be better. The role just kind of grew and grew and grew to where, you know, we're, we each have our roles, like she was saying, with a visionary and integrator, but she never once treated me like help. She has been empowering and says, off you go.

Yep.

You think this is going to make the business better?

Let's do it.

So all of that, that, that encapsulates from everything to hiring agents, talking about different brokerages that are good fits for the team, just being a sounding board that she can trust even to, you know, the technical things like switching to follow up boss and using a CRM and those types of things. Just kind of putting those and saying no sometimes to Marissa's escapades and fun.

Things that are greater does.

Yeah, yeah.

Or at least not yet.

Exactly. Not yet. Yeah, that's better. Not yet. Let's, you know, let's give her a board just to put all those ideas on.

Yeah, that's great. Okay. So we're definitely going to get into CRM because I think it's so interesting how far you took your business, Marissa, before you realized what it could bring. You also generate leads in a very unique way. And I think there are some, maybe some operational pieces to that that will be interesting for people because a lot of conversations we have around not the way that you all are generating leads. So, like, I kind of want to get into, like from a process standpoint, how does that go? But before we jump into that, I would love for you, Marissa, to characterize the collective as it is today. Market size, structure, culture, you know, however you want to describe it, you know, what roles are in the organization, whatever you want to share about it, I'd love to kind of like level set for where we are right now as we record cord.

We, we're a very small team here in the Springs and we prioritize. I think the culture is prioritizing clients over profits. That is our motto. We live by that. Decisions are made along that line always and it's, it's making sure that, that we earn our paycheck. I feel like a lot of real estate agents don't really go like when we are making money, we're earning lots of it. So we have to make sure that we're actually earning that paycheck. And it's really morphed from this small team in Colorado Springs to this team in Colorado Springs and then this entire network of agents across the United States on top of that. And so Dubs and I are managing this team, our network of referral partners, and then our business of teaching others how to use social media to really maximize their social footprints in order to find their clients.

What is the structure and what are like the main roles in here in town?

So I have, well, it's myself and then Dubs is the tc, but so much more than that. I'm not even, is there a word.

For director of ops or something?

I don't know, Director of operations. But yeah, I mean, sort of cto.

Yeah, more cto. That's kind of where we leave. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then I have a financial officer. She was actually one of my clients who turned into my financial officer. She's now living in Germany, but she does everything from there. And then she also runs my social media team. And so I have a whole crew of social media gals who, who work for us. And they're also all my former clients. I, I, I'm trending here, you see. I get to know people and I'm like, I have a spot for you. We have that and then we have an in house stager and cleaner and then we have the team. And then of course, my husband Mike is our lender and he's just kind of off on the side because on top of helping our team with leads and with lending, he has his whole entire other business also built on social media. Right now he has over 30 under contracts across the United States. So he's, he's doing his own thing.

Love it. So when you say social media, I think It. It either gives people a specific sense of the social media platforms that they use in the way that they use them and. Or it's some big, vague thing I would love to jump into. You mentioned your referral network. That's a part of the way that you use Facebook groups. You mentioned starting a social media group, which I assume was a Facebook group. I would love for you, Marissa, to kick off and then dubs like, jump in wherever you. You would like. Talk about generating opportunities, essentially building your business and your referral network on Facebook groups.

Okay. Yeah, absolutely. So back in 2020, I built a social media group here in the Springs that was focused on moving to color Springs. I didn't really talk about real estate at all. I was afraid to become a realtor because I didn't want to ever come across as salesy. I didn't want to give anybody, you know, that icky feeling of, wow, she's just trying to sell me something. And honestly, consumers, this generation of consumers, they can spot a sale coming a mile away, and. And they'll run in the opposite direction as fast as they can when they see it. So I created this social media group with the intent of, if I provide value, if I can help someone with their needs of like, where are the schools? Tell me about traffic, tell me about temperatures, tell me about, you know, where to live, something along those lines. So I would get on this social media group every single day and talk to myself, because there's nobody in this group with me. Eventually it grew, and by the time I got my license, there were 200 people in this group. And all of my 48 clients from my first year came from that social media group. And then we just built upon it and built upon it. Now we have several groups here in Springs, and that is what the majority of my agents use in order to build their businesses. Well, back in 20. Was it 2021 or 2022?

22, I think 22, 2022.

The interest rates started to change, and I got nervous about relying upon our one marketplace for my income. And so I came up with this crazy idea. Everybody thought it was crazy. I presented it to my team, and they were just like, okay, sure, whatever you want to do. I was like, guys, let's. Let's create a group in Texas. We can create one there. We can do one in Alabama. Let's do one in North Carolina. I was basically naming places that I had lived before that I could talk about, you know, to myself if I created these groups. And I thought to myself, I didn't it didn't occur to me that I would put an agent in there. I thought that I would just grow the group and then find clients to give to my referral partners from there. Well, that grew fast. And it grew so fast that I ended up that following year going out and interviewing agents in person and then putting those agents into the group. So. To find their own business.

Wow.

Because no longer had time to get in those groups and do anything with it. There was no management time that I had on my hands. And so that all took off pretty quickly. And now this is it. This month, Debs, we're doing 17 closings for our referral partners.

Yes.

Something.

Yes.

Something like that. Well, yeah.

This month was.