Matt M.           Welcome to the Marketing and Other Markets podcast with me and my staff. This is a podcast for real estate industry professionals. We're doers. Each episode will feature an interview with a top producer, someone who's doing things differently, and an exciting way for those who already know me or have read my books and blogs. My brand of marketing is tangible and repeatable because we don't all need to reinvent the wheel every episode.

Matt M.           My promise to you that you will live with at least one tangible idea that you can execute.

Matt M.           Everybody is super, super excited to have Stephanie Lugo on as a guest on marketing in other markets today. I was lucky enough to be a guest on her show a couple weeks ago and I have been getting reached out to from her amazing coaching clients for the last two weeks who thought that our our styles together were a really good vibe and complementary.

Matt M.           So I absolutely had to have you on the show. Steph, welcome to the show today.

Stefanie L.       Thanks so much for having me. I'm pumped to be here.

Matt M.           So we start every episode the same way. So just give us give our listeners an idea. Where are you located? What kind of production are you doing and how long have you been in the business?

Stefanie L.       Yeah, think so. My name is Stephanie. I am an.

Matt M.           Act, by the way. Stephanie with an F if you're searching for.

Stefanie L.       Yeah, don't come at me with that. So I am part of a husband and wife team in Phenix, Scottsdale, Arizona. We started.

Matt M.           With us. Your husband, by the way?

Stefanie L.       Yup. Yup.

Matt M.           My weird if it was like someone else's husband, but funny, that could be like a brand idea for someone else out there.

Stefanie L.       I always. I always joke that we're Bryce and Stephanie, a husband and wife duo. But I'm the wife. So we we are that typical story of where we met each other in an office romance, 9 to 5 back when we're in finance. And over time, you know, as our relationship develop, we just kind of wanted to leave the workforce back in 2014 and do it on our own.

Stefanie L.       And real estate seemed like a great place to do that. So that was eight years ago, just about we have been selling full time ever since then. We're a small but mighty team, so we have a little bit of support here, there, but really, we we kind of like to think of ourselves as not so much of a lifestyle business.

Stefanie L.       But while we do want to tap into all the potential that we have and service as many clients as we can. What was most important to us was building a business that was also going to help help sustain a lifestyle that we dreamed of. So that that doesn't mean that we don't work hard. We love working with our clients.

Stefanie L.       We do just depending, depending on the year. I think last year we did somewhere around 80 million in production and then we usually are around like 40, 45 units. And to us that's that's really comfortable. It feels really good and we get to work with our dream clients. And that was kind of the, the main motivating factor. We never wanted to be clawing after clients who didn't respect and and honor our time investment in them as well.

Matt M.           Well, I mean, like we've interviewed agents who are doing 10 million and agents we're doing 100 million. And what's fascinating is at a commission between three and 6%, 18 million is a crap ton of business. And you can you can build a great lifestyle off that. So to be able to do that in such a way where you guys are able to enjoy looks the way you want to and build a business the way you need to.

Matt M.           I mean, I think that's that's unbelievable. So my first question to you is, you were you guys were in finance together. What kind of finance were you in? And like, what what skills did you bring from that into a career in real estate for you guys to have kind of like left one career at the same time going full time into a commission based sales like that sounds risky to me and I know a lot of people out there who were maybe new realtors were still have a foot in another job like they might be battling some of these feelings.

Stefanie L.       So at first the thought was while Bryce was going to start first and then I was going to follow, but I was crying on my way to work every day and he was like, Fine, just join me. We'll both start full time. We were in consumer finance, so we actually started out a we met when we were working at a very well known stock brokerage, and I was an international tax and so and he was in car spaces.

Stefanie L.       So both of us were very interconnected in working with the stock market at that time and and just understanding just how those things work on the back end, the investment side. And then we moved to another consumer finance that was like a, like consumer credit, which was also super fascinating, lots of client work. But, but really the skills that we developed there was how to speak professional ese, right?

Stefanie L.       So how to write an email, how to work a workflow, how to thrive in structure. Because any Fortune 100 company is going to be extraordinarily structured from the way that they onboard new, new employees to the way that you treat different clients like there is an expectation every time. And I think that really helped us transfer those skills in to real estate.

Stefanie L.       Whereas many real estate agents might get in from not having that experience. Or maybe they maybe they do have college education, but they hadn't really been able to, to, to practice that in the real world. Real world. So we did have kind of that leg up, whereas we didn't have any knowledge at all for the real estate industry.

Stefanie L.       But we understood how to speak to our ideal clients because our ideal clients were also white collar workers who were college educated and who had an expectation on how to be in a professional environment is.

Matt M.           Super interesting to me because at the end of the day, if you break it down, you guys were trained on knowing how to speak to sell expensive investments. Yeah. And a house, I mean, arguably is the most expensive thing you could sell someone, but is also an expensive investment. And it's an investment in a client's future. So I think to to know and it puts an importance in developing those skills, not only how to sell something in a price point of time, but also like how to communicate in a professional way.

Matt M.           Word imbues trust in you. I mean, I think that's absolutely huge. And so, you know, for anyone out there listening, you're trying to work a little bit more of that professionalism into your normal lingo, jargon dress and how you present yourself is going to be huge, you know, to many people, like get into real estate because they're good at sales.

Matt M.           But when most products they've sold before were $12 to, I don't know, maybe a car for $70,000 selling a house with an average price point these days in some markets of $400,000. I mean, we're talking about like, you know, three a quarter of $1,000,000 or more in most markets with some markets being $1,000,000 or more. So you really need to know how to talk to that audience.

Matt M.           Even if they're not rich, you still have to talk at a level of professionalism based on the fact that houses are expensive.

Stefanie L.       Almost, almost even more to the point, if they're not rich, it is their most impactful decision that they will be making for the next 15 years in terms of how they're going to grow their wealth. This is how the middle class has built and maintained their wealth for the last 40 years. Right. So like even for the people who this is, this is the thing.

Stefanie L.       They've been dreaming about this for the last five or ten years. Preparing it matters. So much to them. And you have to treat that with the white glove, even if it's only like a little below your average price point. You know what?

Matt M.           And I love that you mention the word wealth because like we talk about in your office, all the time, like rich and wealth are two different things that rich is having a lot of money in your paycheck at the end of the month. Having wealth is is saving more than you spend out of that amount. And for most people being able for most realtors, we don't sell the fact that that we're financial advisors in a sense when for the average consumer out there under 40, your house is your biggest asset and especially people like my age in their thirties who just went through the last ten years of owning a home, it's like it's outperformed

Matt M.           the market leaps and bounds. So I think like to take some tips from your financial selling friends and to learn how they sell the the idea of an investment is a huge thing that realtors can do to really up their sales game.

Stefanie L.       Yeah, I totally agree.

Matt M.           So tell me, so what kinds of things do you guys do to go above and beyond for your clients and to ensure that they're coming back? I mean, 18 million of people that, you know and love is huge. Like, how can someone else start building towards that if they're not already at the $18 level that.

Stefanie L.       So when we started in real estate, we didn't have a database, we didn't have a sphere of influence, we really didn't have any special connections and we definitely didn't have money to pay for marketing and ads, right? And so what we kind of did was we just grassroots started networking with people and we used social media to help scale that.

Stefanie L.       So for example, we got our first listing just by networking in our brokerage. We met an investor who needed somebody to help him sell his home. And because he just didn't feel comfortable with with representing himself.

Matt M.           Right. And networking in your brokerage, how did that lead to getting someone else's investor? What does that look like?

Stefanie L.       We went to every brokerage event possible, you know, and I think that was the benefit of going full time. We recognized that if we were going to do it, we had to go full time. We had bet on ourselves and we had to take that risk. And it was scary. We had a mortgage, we had car payments, like we had responsibilities, but we still went ahead and did it.

Matt M.           I just have to like stop you right there because like, I've been saying this for ten years, so many realtors want to work from home. So many salespeople want to work for like a cloud based, a cloud based place where they never have to show up. And I think those two things can be possible. Yeah, you still have to be presence.

Matt M.           Even if it's not based brokerage, you still be present with other agents in your office because especially if you're paying dues to be in an office or, you know, a split with your broker, the number one piece of value is when your new specialty is picking up the scraps from all the busy agents and not even scraps like that investor, like just didn't want to work with dual agency with the single agent that he already knows they can trust.

Matt M.           And so you were able to pick like pick up up a sell off of someone who respected the fact that you guys are full time on, you guys look presentable, etc., etc.. It's an easy way to get business. And I always tell new agents, like, if you don't have a sphere and you're moving to the area and you know, anyone set coffees, lunches or like in office meetings with the free office coffee with every single good agent there who you can develop a relationship with.

Matt M.           They might pay for showings, they might send you buyers. I mean, there's a million a million ways that might go well. But the fact that you did it and now you're at 18,000,006 years later means it works. So please, people listen.

Stefanie L.       Yeah, I mean, for sure. And it's so interesting because so I am an Enneagram five, which means like, leave me alone, give me my personal space. Don't talk to me. Let me just kind of like Tinker, right? And I'm majorly introverted. None of that felt good to me. But I was asking price actually just a couple of weeks ago, and I was like, you know, when when we were new agents, what were we doing with our time?

Stefanie L.       Because now we haven't we don't have time to just kind of, like, screw around and like, you know, float around throughout the day. I was like, what did we do when we were new agents? When we had so much time on our hands? We weren't busy with clients. I was just like having this conversation with him and he goes, Well, Seth, we were networking every single day.

Stefanie L.       We suited up, which, you know, we got into our like business cars. It wasn't anything crazy. It wasn't like we were like ties and all that stuff, but we got presentable. We, we set ourselves up every single day. We went out the door before 9 a.m. and we had a schedule each day we were going to broker tours.

Stefanie L.       We were previewing properties and sharing that on social media. We were going to networking events there. I mean, forget about forget about anything else. You could have a free lunch every single day in this business if you just go to a working class. I think that's all right.

Matt M.           What mortgage lenders exist today. I know.

Stefanie L.       Because I know you guys were out, but. That's right. So like we we literally met as many people as we could. And I think that that was huge in a couple of different things. Number one, it helped us understand the market and understand how to have conversations with people because we we learned really quickly how to speak real estate, right?

Stefanie L.       When you get into the business, it's like learning a new language. And so we put ourselves in the position to have as many of these conversations each day as we could. The second the second thing that it did was it helped us establish rapport with other agents in the industry. So as the market started heating up, I like I feel like getting a knock on wood before I say this as the markets are heating up, like we've been able to get multiple offers situations for our clients except accepted.

Stefanie L.       So we haven't had a ton of challenge competing against like 15, 20 offers because we understand how to speak to the cross agents and.

Matt M.           Because they're like.

Stefanie L.       Your relationships.

Matt M.           I like if I've met you in person, we've had a drink together or we we know a lot of the same people because we're both on committees. Like I can't screw up when we're on the other side of the transaction because like I'm accountable to you.

Stefanie L.       It does so.

Matt M.           Much like making more relationships and doing more deals with them.

Stefanie L.       Well, and the other part of that, too, that's that's such a great point. We also really focused on creating our social media presence, and we were never worried about real estate agents friending us or following us on Instagram. Like, in fact, we utilized that right.

Matt M.           So well, my gosh, Stephanie, what if they find your amazing ideas and steal your business and clients? That's what that's what people say all the time when I tell them to accept friend requests. But it works right. Like it. It's a connection thing.

Stefanie L.       It's so ridiculous, right? And so like our reputation precedes us and we we've been able to create absolutely incredible results from our clients, from working in diplomatic ways with cross agents and having these conversations and not being afraid of competition. Right. So those are just a couple of things that really just help give us the tools that we needed to seek tips to create our own work because we didn't have any luck.

Stefanie L.       We didn't have any any opportunities handed to us, but we were able to create our own luck each time.

Matt M.           I absolutely want. So on that story of like the first investor you work with so what do you still mainly work with? Like a lot of investor types, right? What's the general mix of your business? Who what are the customers look like now?

Stefanie L.       We're primarily working with people who have become like friends for life, right? So so we grew our database from scratch. We had a really clear sense of the niche, like the market niche we wanted to work with. And at the time working with first time homebuyers was really simple and easy.

Matt M.           It was probably in that same general age demographic.

Stefanie L.       Yeah, for sure. And then now, over time, since we have cultivated that database and that network, like every time we have a closing, that is our first transaction with that client. We don't look at that as like, Oh, that's a closing, that's the start of our work with that client. And so now we have mostly referrals and repeat clients, which is absolutely incredible.

Stefanie L.       And those individuals are selling their homes that they bought for 250. They're selling them for 500 or more, which is awesome. And then they are buying at close to a million, right? So like, like that's how your business grew exponentially, where you suddenly don't have to do as many transactions because like, I love working in real estate, but I don't want to have to do twice the amount of work for the same paycheck.

Matt M.           Right.

Stefanie L.       Is that fair to say?

Matt M.           You have like a new normal, is it? I think every industry in theory, it should be the same. But I think you're too often you mentioned like that your relationship starts at close. Really? Yeah. Grows exponentially close. Anything in every other industry and even in college, like when you take marketing classes, you're taught that there is this like marketing funnel and like everything starts here and ends here, but realistically like the marketing funnel then starts again.

Stefanie L.       Yeah, it invert.

Matt M.           Goes upside down, it inverts because at closing it's the new start of the relationship and it's actually, in my opinion, like we talk about customer lifetime value CLV in every other industry. That's where all the effort goes to. But in real estate, all the effort goes into like getting the initial lead and those initial leads kind of suck, right?

Matt M.           Like you look at 100 and you might close two or three, but those three closed if you invest that same amount of time as you put in the calling and scrubbing and crappy emails to all the all 100 leads after close. And it's a really cool strategies and steps. It's huge. I mean, you almost need to like have a couple of hours a week in your calendar of like, what am I doing for my past clients?

Matt M.           Like who's on what's step in their process, what anniversary home buyer anniversaries do I have? What like special events in their lives are happening that I need to celebrate like and having a couple of things time blocks that you can do to celebrate your after close clients rather than just like, let's take some time and work some more crappy leads.

Stefanie L.       You know, it's really interesting because that is where the money is. Like, that's where you create exponential growth in your business. But for a lot of agents, it's just not sexy. Like they're thinking about leads or thinking about the next deal. They're thinking about the next new person. And I am one of the mind where I don't want to generate more leads.

Stefanie L.       I don't want to talk to new people. I want to talk to the people that I already like and have them send me their friends who I know I'm going to get along really well with.

Matt M.           And it it's one of those things where because everyone's focused on leads, all the time, more people are naturally focused there. It sounds like the problem. Like, you know, like any time you want to make more money or I want to change your business, it always seems like the problem is leads. But realistically, whenever someone comes into my office for a marketing meeting, I want to find out exactly what they're doing now, figure out what they're not doing, and if they're not already doing the easy marketing, which is marketing to people that you are that already know and like you that you already have trust with, like there's a 0% chance I'm going to help

Matt M.           you with postcards to a farm or like circle prospecting random area, by the way, both of which have their place and are amazing tactics right in their own respect. But they're amazing things if you're already doing all the low hanging fruit with people that already know they can trust you. So tell us, what are some of the things that you do to market to your sphere, to those people that you love, that you want to get more business from?

Stefanie L.       Yeah. So one thing that I think a lot about is that we're tell me if I'm wrong. Real estate agents are not taught how to treat their clients with empathy.

Matt M.           I would agree. My close realtor friend of mine actually markets herself as the empathetic realtor I was. It's like the opposite for most.

Stefanie L.       That's beautiful. It's so true. And so what we do is one of our guiding values in our in our organization is we operate by extreme empathy. And what that means is taking a moment to walk in our client's shoes right. And a lot of times real estate agents are like, well, I don't know how to treat my database.

Stefanie L.       I don't know what to say after the close because like it's clothes, like, what do I do after that? But what we do is we've, we've, we go all in on our database and I'll, I'll share the distinction between a database and a sphere influence. A sphere of influence. It's like everybody that you've ever met that, you know, on a first name basis, that you have some loose or deep connection with your database.

Stefanie L.       Is those top relationships that you actually build into like a quote unquote Rolodex and those are the individuals that you are directly marketing to developing your relationships with intention. And so we have our database and we have a focus to nurture and grow that database. And that is the core marketing strategy that we have to generate leads. And we look through the lens of our clientele.

Stefanie L.       We try to understand where they are in the cycle of homeownership and how the market is impacting them. And that guides everything that we do, right? So we do whatever, you know, what a lot of agents do? We send newsletters, we have homeowner consultations, we're checking in.

Matt M.           We talk to tell me more about the homeowner consultations. These are for people that are in your database that likely own homes. Obviously.

Stefanie L.       Yeah. So these are well, I mean, you can do them for for so so for example, there's there's a couple of different kinds of homeowner consultations you might do, new agents who don't have any past clients, who have individuals that they know are going to support their their business, for example, can give a homeowner consultation every year to people in their database who own homes.

Stefanie L.       And it's like, hey, this is not a sales pitch. I know you're not looking to move anytime soon, but this is your most important asset and I want to be on that path as your guide in real estate as long as you have this investment. And so what I'd like to do is just spend 10 to 15 minutes and share with you a quick CMA, a breakdown of what your investment is doing and how the impact, how the market is impacting that this year.

Stefanie L.       Right. And then you can ask for referrals after giving all of that value, you can work for them other trades that you need, right? So that's kind of like the basic homeowner consultation that you can do with anybody in your database who owns a home, whether or not they bought with you. Right? So you can get into the habit of doing that every year.

Stefanie L.       And that's an incredible face to face that you can do.

Matt M.           I love that. I just talked to an agent who is doing homeowner consultations where that's part one, but she has a part two. And part two is they have like a homeowner checklist of like 20 things in your house to check like four times a year. It's like things as basic as like they they will either send you the list if you're like a, like a lower end client, like someone who is just kind of in their database.

Matt M.           And it's like, change your furnace filters, check to make sure this is tight. Look at your oil the.

Stefanie L.       This we do we do that in our quarterly mailers corner.

Matt M.           You do it quarterly too we.

Stefanie L.       Do quarterly mailers that we send out so seasonally. Right.

Matt M.           I love that. I'm like, everyone should be doing this for higher end clients. They actually send a contractor out four times a year and they physically go through a 21 point checklist and tighten things, screw things in, change the light bulbs. I mean, like check those smoke detectors for safety. I mean, they're doing all this stuff and it's value that like you wouldn't get anywhere else, but also like it's one more touchpoint because then the realtor can call afterwards and say, Hey, how did it go?

Matt M.           Like, blah, blah, blah. Oh, my gosh, we found out that our water heater was about to explode and the contractor saved it before before it happened.

Stefanie L.       And you know what's incredible on there? What's incredible about that? So some agents go there out of paying 2500 bucks a month for new leads on Zillow. Other agents spend maybe $99 for a consultation per per homeowner on that a month. Right. And if you're developing the right relationships with those types of contractors, they'll do it for you for free.

Stefanie L.       So like our people do free sewer scopes, they do free roof consultations. We have people who do AC, AC checks, very cool diagnostics because like here in Phenix, the AC really matters. H-Back system is like crucial to our ability to survive. Right. And so so we've been able to develop these relationships with different trades who like do this either free or very discounted rates for our clients.

Stefanie L.       And they, you know what I mean? Like, like it's just it's just that extra step of thinking about how can I loop in other people in my community? What relationships can I leverage here to provide a really awesome experience that gets people feeling amazing?

Matt M.           I love the idea. It's a great way to like, you know, help everyone in your database to support each other. Like every single client that you have. They do something for a living or they have some hobby or they're active somewhere and they could be a benefit to someone else in your database. So you just have to put the critical thinking in there, because if you're the one that puts all that together, you're now a big deal for two different people in your in your database and you can really, really have some fun.

Matt M.           I absolutely love that. So tell me, like I know social media is one of your guys is huge focuses. So what are some of the cooler things you've been doing on social? What are maybe like what's one of the top posts or reels you've done this year that's had a lot of attention that someone else out there could do so?

Stefanie L.       So my approach on social media is, is a little bit different. I'm much less focused on creating original content than I am making sure that I'm engaging with people because social media, for me is a way to stay in touch with my database but also reach new people that I could be incorporating into my database. So I'm engaging way more than I'm creating social media content.

Stefanie L.       So I might create like one or two posts per week on Instagram, which is my primary platform. That is where I get a ton of business. But it's not because I'm creating a bunch of content that's like flashy or wow. In fact, I find that the less content I create, the more time I have to engage. And that's really what drives results for me.

Stefanie L.       So I'm leaving comments and starting conversations and the direct messages. I'm sending posts to other people. I am reaching out to new people. It's a lot more about engagement than creating content these days.

Matt M.           Which is the opposite of what every sales person and every other industry does. Right? Like we're taught that social media is there to shout rather than to listen, but there's so much more value you can get when you listen for 5 seconds, right? Like it's super funny because like, half of my guests recently have been introverts, like, right?

Matt M.           They brand themselves as introverts and interests are good at listening. So they have a lot of these strategies versus like all of the people talking about what to post, what to post, what to post, posting is important. You do have to post a little bit, right? Like people need to know that you're a realtor. They need to know that you offer some value.

Matt M.           But none of your posts need to be about like boring real estate things. They can be about your family life, wine, whatever you're into, but they have to be followed up with messages. And, you know, I think all you have to do is schedule your time to listen because if you just, like go on social media and say like, oh, yeah, like I read all my newsfeed, well, that's a giant waste of time.

Matt M.           But if you go on and say, I read my newsfeed and I, I looked at what people were up to and I did a follow up with 25 of them. That could be a Facebook message, a text message, a call. Maybe you sent them a handwritten note because their kids won the spelling bee or whatever the heck it was.

Matt M.           Action, action, action. But that action doesn't need to just be posting on for me. If I see something really cool that someone else post, I think how could I post something similar? And then oftentimes it's a win.

Stefanie L.       Yeah. And when I, when I am posting again, I'm revisiting that value of empathy and I'm trying to interpret things that are happening in the world that might be impacting my people, right? So for example, a lot of my clients who have been thinking about buying this year are seeing the market change and shift and they're seeing a lot of scary clickbait type news headlines.

Stefanie L.       They're hearing a lot of conflicting advice online and they don't really have that voice of reason to help guide them to understanding how to make a decision in such a complex market environment that we're in right now. And so I might create a post that speaks directly to them and helps them find some sort of clarity or comfort in that, hey, the world isn't totally ending when it comes to real estate in other areas.

Stefanie L.       When it comes to real estate, these are actually the benefits of where we are today and this is how we're helping people. So we really focus on like the actual transformation that we're helping our clients achieve wherever they are in the cycle of homeownership. And we're offering a lot of encouragement there. And that might be like 20% of what I post.

Stefanie L.       And the rest is all personal.

Matt M.           And personal is the best because it gives people a glimpse into who you are as a person. It makes them think like, Oh, if she's like me, she'd be a good fit for me. Like, Oh, hey, like Stephanie also has like two little kids. I have two little kids. If I'm buying a house, I want a professional realtor.

Matt M.           Absolutely. I want a realtor who's doing decent business. They have some connections. Like I kind of like want you to get if my kids are being total turns of the show, I'm like, I kind of want you to get it when like, there's Cheerios in the back of, like, everywhere that my kids have been. That's that's yours.

Stefanie L.       Yeah.

Matt M.           And like, if we have to leave a showing because, like, one of them is having a meltdown, I want you to get it. And I was like people, like, working with people that are similar to them, you know, because it's a safety thing.

Stefanie L.       Yeah. And it's also again, this is you have to be empathetic, right? So if you're shouting about you, you, you and your production and sharing open houses and new listings, who is that serving like? That's serving your interests, that's serving your benefits. And it's not really doing anything for the people who are on the other side of it.

Stefanie L.       And so that's why it's so important to be able to think about where they are in that time and really speak to them, share stories that are impactful to them, not just highlighting you as the hero. Because if we know anything from really solid storytelling, great storytelling does not make you the hero. It makes your client the hero.

Stefanie L.       And so always thinking about things from that lens is really important.

Matt M.           I also think it's like it creates like a persona, right? So most people out there in the world don't understand like exactly what you do, what you do for a living, right? Like, oh, they hear you work in real estate or Jesus, that could mean commercial, that could mean residential. Maybe you only do investors, maybe you only do you know, you work for an assisted living home.

Matt M.           Maybe you only do rental properties if people just it doesn't click until they hear the story about the person that you helped that is similar to them. People will realize that you can help them because you shared a story of someone who is in their shoes that you helped in there. Oh my God, that's exactly my situation. You have to create relatable stories and experiences and go to market that way.

Matt M.           Like I could tell, I tell the story of us on podcast 100 times, but a realtor probably eight years ago sold me my first rental property and she basically called me and said, Hey, I know, I know you and your wife, about ten, your first kid. I know you're, you know, savvy. You work in real estate, so you believe in the market.

Matt M.           I have a rental property. You can put that. It's for sale. It's cheap. You can put this on a 15 year loan. It'll be paid off right when you're starting to think about college and then you're going to either rent it out or living it, or you could sell it either way, it's a good investment. And I was like, so I think I looked at the property for 5 minutes past inspections.

Matt M.           I bought it, and literally ten years later, like that property is close to nothing on it and it will be paid off well before my kid goes to college. And it should pay for college anywhere in the world he wants to go to. But she she sold it to me based on the persona of like it's an investment, not it's a house.

Matt M.           Like, I know I could buy a house. I was very well aware that I could buy a house, but I hadn't thought of it like that. And she sold the story and the the idea rather than the house.

Stefanie L.       So yeah, she's got to look at it. Look at the transformation that you thought your on the on the path to creating your you're creating something that is going to be a tangible asset that can help give options. And that's the transformation that people want when they're talking about wealth. People don't want wealth to be able to look at the numbers in their account.

Stefanie L.       It has to translate to something tangible. And that's what she did for you, which is incredible.

Matt M.           And that's what a good realtor, a great realtor can do, so they can present opportunities that you wouldn't have thought about. So, Stephanie, I love talk. I could talk to you all day long, but I know you probably want to get back to your kids and I need to get some emails out and probably spend some time with my kids.

Matt M.           But, you know, if someone is in the Arizona area, like how could they work with you and your husband?

Stefanie L.       I think that's the best way to connect. This all is via Instagram. That is kind of the hub where we all hang out. So Instagram at Bryce and Stephanie and I'm sure you can link to that in pertinent places, but we're always happy to help you referrals or just, you know, pick, pick our brain about the market.

Matt M.           You've already given me a ton of advice and I know you also have a coaching business that is killing it because you're on your coaching. Students actually recommended that we talk again. How would if there's an agent out there or sales professional that wanted some coaching from you too to get more ideas, how would they how would they find out more?

Stefanie L.       I help real estate agents create a scalable and sustainable real estate business, right? So creating a business that you love and that's going to benefit your life, not the other way around. So again, Instagram is a great place to connect and learn more about that. And I also share a lot of tips on YouTube about Stephanie Lugo. Just search my name and I'll pop up one way or another and I share a lot of tips.

Stefanie L.       You can kind of learn a little bit about how I operate, how I coach, what my style is, and then from there you can decide if you want to reach out.

Matt M.           By the way, I give like one little pitch for your coaching business here. There's a lot of coaches out there, like millions. Like there's almost probably more coaches than there are realtors these days. And I think there's a huge piece of value in finding a coach that's doing Stephanie's volume business that's 18 to 30 million. A lot of coaches out there are amazing.

Matt M.           And they are doing 100 million or 50 million. And the problem is, if you're a brand new agents, you're not necessarily going to be speaking the same language. Is that person who is doing 30 times more than you've ever, ever fathomed. Right. Like you're scraping to get dinner for your family and they made 1,000,005 last year. I think they definitely have value.

Matt M.           They definitely can help you. But I think there is something to be said for finding someone that's like two or three steps ahead of you, like Stephanie and her husband and not like 80 steps ahead of you. Because the other piece is that you want someone when you when you're looking for a coach, you want someone that can respond to the current, that can teach you to the current market that we're in, someone that's actively working in it and there's a lot of coaches out there who aren't actively or actively selling and who haven't done so in a while.

Matt M.           So to find someone that can that is still growing their business, even in the current market is absolutely huge because it's going to give you like real world actionable tips.

Stefanie L.       Thanks, Matt. I couldn't agree more.

Matt M.           No prob. Well, Stephanie was lovely to talk to you. I can't wait to be on TMZ.

Stefanie L.       Awesome. Thank you so much for having me.

Matt M.           Thanks for listening. The Marketing and Other Markets podcast is probably supported by neighborhood loans and Treadstone funding. Visit them online to see a new type of culture and energy in home lending. For more actionable real estate marketing tips and tricks, check out my book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing. Available on Amazon. Interested in being on the show?

Matt M.           Reach out to us via Instagram at Matt Muscat, 88. See you next time.