#011 Real Estate Celebrity Branding With Tatiana Londono

So today we have Tatiana Landono with us. Really pleased to have her with us because she is amazing at personal branding and putting herself out there, and she does a great job on video, and you'll see why in a moment. She is the founder and CEO of Landono Realty Group Incorporated, one of the most successful, largest brokerage firms in Montreal, and frankly one of the most successful across North America. So Tatiana, thank you so much for being here today to kind of dive into this topic of video marketing and visibility and social media and how that relates to the real estate industry. Thank you so much for being here.

It's my pleasure. Anytime. I'm happy to help, Cheryl.

Awesome. I was reading actually, and we're going to talk about your book, Real Estate Unfiltered, and in this book you talk a little bit about the history of how you came to be really so well known. And it almost kind of happened— sounds like it kind of happened by accident somewhat. You know, you were in a mall and TV producer saw you. Can you tell us a little bit of the background of that story?

Oh, that's a lot of fun. So I was at Yorkdale Shopping Mall in Toronto. I was— I lived in Toronto from 1 to about 11, and so I have a lot of friends there, and my best friend, who is also a REALTOR®, actually lives there, so I go visit her 3 times a year, as many times as I can. And I happened to be at Yorkdale walking with her, and I got a call. And one of my lessons in the book is always answer your phone. Pick up the phone! If you can't pick up the phone, there's a problem. So I picked up the phone, and lo and behold, a lovely lady with a British accent by the name of John called me up, and I remember her name. And she said, "Oh, hello Tatiana. I'm John from Wally Abbey Media, and we were wondering if you could be on our show." And I go, "Oh yeah, what's your show? This is crazy. I'm walking in a mall in Toronto." And so she says, "Oh, we are the producers of the show Buy Me." And Buy Me, if you were a realtor at the time, biggest real estate show on HGTV. In fact, I think they have— they made history on HGTV because HGTV ordered like something crazy, like 150 episodes from Wally Abbey Media of this show. And they were funded and they were given money to, you know, produce this show all over the United States and Canada. So it was great. So I was flipping out. I'm like, I can't believe You called me, and I thought that I was the only realtor they called. Little did I know, they would pitch every realtor they could find. But opportunity came knocking, you never know, it's TV, just like this interview with you. We never know who's going to see this, listen to this, so I always say yes to everything. For me, it's like an honor to be asked to be interviewed, so at the time I was like, oh great, they want me on TV, wonderful. So I remember people telling me, other agents, oh yeah, they called me, they don't pay the realtor, don't do it. And I was like, what? Free publicity, I'm doing it. I remember the time I was working in a showroom, and the jerk I worked for actually was mad at me for like missing a day to do this. Anyway, long story short, I did it. And people watched it. And they loved it because I don't have a filter. Hence the name of the book, Real Estate Unfiltered. I tell it like it is. And on the show, I didn't care that the cameras were rolling. I just told it like it was. You know, I told them, that is the ugliest couch I've ever seen. You gotta get rid of it. Oh my God, that lamp is hideous. It looks like the Star Trek Enterprise is hanging over your dining room, et cetera. So lo and behold, another production company saw Oh, I was the only agent that was asked to do 3 episodes of, um, of Buy Me. So then the people from Property Virgins came knocking and they offered me the job that Sandra Rinomato ended up getting. I didn't take it because it was in Toronto and I'd have to be in Toronto minimum, like in the contract it said 4 days a week. And I had, yeah, and I had a young family, Cheryl, and I was like, do I do this? And I remember discussing with my husband at the time. I said, what do we do? And he says, this could be your 15 minutes of fame and you're rejecting it. He was always very supportive and he still is. And I said, you know, I can't do it.

But then something even better kind of came along. That was much more aligned with what was already kind of in your head in terms of naming and such, which was the next, which was the property shop, right?

That's right. So what happened was, and if you believe in the law of attraction, like talk about the law of attraction working, and I mentioned it in my book, right? And so I had this in my head that I was gonna be this on TV. In fact, I remember I was working at a telemarketing company and I said to one of the managers there, I belong on TV. And he laughed at me and said, you're such a show-off. How dare you say you belong on TV? And I still get stuff like that today from people. They say, you're so cocky. It's not cocky. I'm assertive. People aren't used to assertive women out there. Anyway, so I took this, the fact that the sad news that I wasn't going to take the job, and I went to see the big boss, the big cheese, Debbie Travis's husband, Hans Rosenstien. Went to see him and I said, Hans, I'm leaving to Toronto, which wasn't true. I had already rejected the job, refused it, and, uh, but I told him anyway, just maybe something would happen. So I'm taking this job. So Hans said, well, you can't take the job, you live in Montreal. And I said, I could move and I'm taking the job. And he said, I put you on TV, we produce TV shows, I promise you, you have my word that you will get our next TV show. Because the big thing now is real estate. So I said, will you sign a contract, sign on the dotted line? He says, my word is my bond, and I keep my word, and I'll shake your hand, but I'm not signing anything. So I said, you know what, I trust ya. I had nothing to lose, shook his hand. Within 30 days, they came up with the pitch for Property Shop. Wow. And the rest is history. The rest is history. Yeah. And then that propelled the creation of my agency. And the rest is history. We've been open for over a decade. So that means Property Shop aired 10 years ago. Oh my god, I'm getting old, Cheryl.

I know sometimes we stand back and we go, is that how many years?

Wow. My daughter's driving. My daughter's driving. Exactly.

Wow. It's such an— it's such a great story. But there's— I think there are a lot of lessons in your story along the path for other people, and particularly real estate agents, right? So it's this idea that opportunity knocks. And you said something poignant, which was, I say yes to everything.

Yes.

What do you think are some of— I want to kind of dig in a little bit deeper onto the the idea that a lot of agents, a lot of brokers and agents are so afraid to be seen publicly and not publicly, but on video. They're afraid to kind of put themselves out there on video. They're okay with making videos about the property. Yeah, something you say, something really interesting in this part of your book where you're talking about the celebrity video marketing, that advertising, advertising, that advertising is not about advertising the property so much as you're advertising yourself. So it's kind of going down a path of personal branding. What is your take on, on personal branding for real estate agents in this day and age? How important is it?

So I truly believe that if you're going to focus on celebrity marketing and celebrity branding, that you've got to become a celebrity. And nowadays that, you know, you have access to all these tools, because back in the day, you needed a production company to be be a real estate superstar, you needed to be on TV. You do not, and I can't stress that enough, you do not have to be on TV to become a real estate superstar anymore, to become a celebrity. Why? Because of YouTube, because of Facebook, because of Instagram, because of Snapchat, and so on and so on, and who knows what else they're gonna create out there. So you can take control. And let me tell you, we know what's going on with TV, right Cheryl?

Oh yes.

It's going down, right? Because we have Netflix, and Netflix is producing their own shows. They don't even have to put, you know, so big people like HGTV are even going down, big, big, big channels. So they have their status in the satellite network, but cable is like almost over. Netflix is producing their own— their stock's going up and they're producing their own TV shows. So there's a small little opportunity there, but why wait for that? Become your own superstar. And because there's so many realtors that aren't afraid of the camera, realtors like me and other big successful realtors out there, all the ones that were on TV continued to be huge realtors online. Plus the agencies that were focused. So I say, guys, it's time to get rid of that fear, become your own superstar. You gotta learn social media and you gotta get with the program because there are so many choices out there, so many people who know technology, and if not, they're hiring the talent. Oh yeah, and because TV's going down, you could hire all these video guys cheap They are working for nothing and they do fantastic work. So go for it. It's an expense in your business anyway. And take control and become that celebrity REALTOR® so that people could see you because you're selling yourself. When you're using celebrity branding, you're selling yourself. So if you're gonna sell yourself, do it right. So once you learn to do it, then you got to compete with the other guys who already know what they're doing. Technology is always ahead of you. And you got to make sure you're always on. So that's why I think it's so important. The market, it's all about marketing, Cheryl, it's all about marketing.

I can't— I totally agree. You know, the marketing aspect. And listen, real estate, gosh, I mean, you've written a whole book and with a ton of great stuff in it. I haven't— I've just started going through it. Amazing stuff. But there's so much to real estate, so many things, right? Really good at, what have you, but the marketing bucket, if you will, is so important. And you talk about, you know, again, celebrity, you know, brand building and that kind of thing. What do you think, like, is it a, is it a one-size-fits-all in terms of social media for the average agent, or is it like you need to have a specific strategy that is conducive to your personality per se?

I believe you have to have a specific strategy. Each person is different. So I'm wild and crazy and I was on TV, so I have to continue that. And let me tell you that it didn't happen, you know, like I didn't get off TV and know what I was doing immediately. For a couple of years, I really didn't know what I was doing when it came to Facebook, 'cause it started with Facebook, and Instagram, forget about it.. And so it was my brother Alexander, who said, Tatiana, you've been on TV, you on a huge channel, HGTV, you opened your own agency. You are amazing. You have a very unique look. He says, we could really take this to the next level with your social media, because it's not only about the real estate, it's about becoming the go-to superstar that people ask to go to, to represent women, to represent business women, to represent business guys. I have to tell you, 51% of my Instagram followers are men. And they asked me for advice, other realtors, people assume it's women. It's not 51% of my followers are men. Obviously, I have the look. But, you know, they want to learn from someone who's peppy, sassy, and I just happen to be female too. So I guess that helps. So what I—

well, you know, it's interesting because on your Facebook page you have a really great testimonial of a gentleman that you're working with in your coaching program who was talking, and basically his testimonial video for what you do and have done for him. I think he's doubled his business. And, you know, so it's a testament to what you're teaching them is working.

That's right.

Well, and what you just actually just pointed out something interesting, and it's something that I was going to ask you about, and that is the uniqueness of your look. You know, you do have a very distinct, and I love it, I love your look. Is it important for an agent or a broker to have something distinctive about them? You know, I don't know, you know, something that's going to make you stand out. Always wearing a bow tie as an example, you know, for a guy, or having, you know, beautiful hair, whatever the thing is. Is that really, really important to have that standout feature, or is it really more about what you say and the expertise that you share?

I really believe it's about what you say and the expertise that you share. I just happen to have the big curly hair. And I told you previously, they called every single REALTOR®. It wasn't because I had curly hair. It was because— it was because— sorry, someone opened the door and freaked me out. It wasn't because of curly hair. They were calling everybody. I just happened to stand out because because I had no filter and people laughed and said, who is that girl? Who is that girl? Now obviously the curly hair helped, but it wasn't because of that. If you can't sell a house in real estate, then doesn't matter if you have curly pretty blonde hair, it doesn't matter if you have a bow tie, they're never going to hire you again. And if they don't hire you again, then guess what? There's not gonna be any longevity to the business. So you don't want to have to be the curly haired pretty girl who can't sell homes. Listen, one of the biggest realtors here in Quebec, he's a friend of mine, and he's bald. He does very well. It's all about— in the end, the client needs his house sold. That's what it's about. It's about statistics and numbers. And that's what I've learned. So not only do you have to brand yourself as a celebrity, but you also have to have statistics to back you up. And that— those two things will help. But quickly, just so you, so we go over this because it's important. My brother Alex said, Tat, we really need to work your Facebook audience. I only had 1,400 fans and I had a huge HGTV show. So it's not, it's not by accident. People do not know how Facebook works. They think that just by having a profile that they're going to get followers. No, there's a technique to it. There's a lot of work to it. And so we started building my Facebook audience, and in less than a year, we went from 1,400 to about 50,000 fans. And then we saw that the younger crowd was looking at Instagram, so we started working Instagram. And now I'm with— I have 52,000 fans on Instagram. But this is where it gets interesting. A lot of the younger clients who had, you know, no clue about the TV show, because the TV show is 10 years old already, they've been hiring me younger businessmen and women just because of the look and about the fans and they know I'm a baller, quote unquote, and they get you to sell their stuff. They get you to promote their, just the other day I was promoting somebody's baked goods. I actually love them, you know, so I had no problem. A flower company asked me, they sent me free flowers, asked me to tell everybody about their flowers, So lo and behold, Instagram and Facebook have provided another vehicle of income for me.

Amazing. Crazy. You're, you're becoming a brand ambassador.

I never thought a realtor could become a brand ambassador for vegan desserts. It's crazy.

No, it's, it's interesting because exactly what you're saying, you know, once you have an audience, it opens the doors to Everything.

You could sell anything to your audience. They're called raving fans. Raving fans will do anything you say if they're the real ones that are following you. And, and that's what you get a bit of. And that's why it's important to keep posting. I have to, I have to be a little more disciplined about posting. I always say hire a professional to help out. There's many companies out there I hired a professional to take care of my marketing. I, if I were doing it by myself, I would explode. I have too much going on. I have a family, I have a husband, I have the business, I have the charities. So I hired somebody. You delegate and you pay for sure.

You outsource, you know, that's not your zone of genius, or you don't want to be spending the time on that when you could be really spending it on the things that are actually going to be moving your business forward. I think that's a really important lesson. Is the outsourcing part of it. I love your book. I'm going through— thank you so much for sharing your insights. And you also do the Montreal Real Estate News where you're really sharing more the market updates and that sort of thing. So you've kind of got your hand in a lot of different content.

What do you want to—

and you have a coaching business as well. Do you want to tell people about that?

Absolutely. So if you want to read the book, I'm giving them away for free. So just go to realestateunfiltered.com. So we'll, we'll, you'll pay for shipping, but we'll give it to you for free. And you'll learn all about my coaching business. So what we do is we help realtors to the next level. Many realtors are struggling out there, they make 1 or 2, 3 sales a year when they could actually become real estate millionaires. And we basically teach people how to do that by just basically copying everything I do. And it works.. So if you talk to the other realtors we've coached, they all have, you know, Denver Real Estate News, Saskatoon Real Estate News, they do the same thing, and it gets them to the next level. I like to call Jordan Boyes, Jordan Boyes from Saskatoon. He owns Boyes Realty Group, B-O-Y-E-S. He was my first coaching student. And I'll never forget, because a realtor, a good salesman is also the best buyer. Okay, you don't have to convince a salesman to buy anything because we are the best. And so Jordan was my— I'll never forget, I was in London at the Claridge's, and he called and says, I want your coaching one-on-one. And I said, okay, I didn't even know what to do. And so we sold him the coaching. And today, yeah, he owns one of the top, I think the top real estate agency in Saskatoon. And he might— the name of my agency is Londono Realty Group. He called his boys Realty Group. He didn't even bother. He's like, okay, we'll do everything she did. And the rest is history. And that, that is a proud moment. I have many, but he was my first. And you always remember the first. So right, if you're interested in any coaching, just go to real estate unfiltered.com or real estate high rollers.com. That's the name of the coaching business. Fantastic.

Thank you so much, Tatiana, for taking the time. Get the book Real Estate Unfiltered. It's really fantastic. Got a lot of insight in here as well. Appreciate you taking the time and sharing your story and your advice for real estate agents and brokers who want to take their brand to the next level. It's all about getting out there and becoming the celebrity and creating content, really putting yourself out there. So thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, Cheryl. It's a pleasure, and till we meet again.

Until we meet again.

Thank you. Bye.