How Mortgage Advisors Show Up With Top Agents with Pinky Shah and RJ Baxter

And say, hey, I'll do a little video for you on social with it. You would just put, hey, you know, for what does it cost to own a 450 home in the main town, and then you just do like it'll cost you X amount. You tag and say, hey, I'll do this video for you. And then if you can add them as a collaborator and they go and they then now you're seen as a person who's working with Ryan Grant or RJ Geister, right? Like, so now the other people don't know that you don't actually work together. But now they're getting this. And this guy, of course, the agent's going to want to do that because you're promoting their listing to your social media platform and you're adding value in a different way than they knew how to do. The team, we got RJ and Pinky here. This is specifically regarding how to work with top producing agents, builders, just the business partners that can really make a meaningful impact in your business and vice versa. And RJ, you had a question around showing up and being present in regards to how to help doing that. Maybe start by framing it with the question you have, and we'll dive into the conversation from there. So my question is, what are the most high value activities to do? We're so busy with so many things going on in the business. You know, what are the most important things to focus on, to be present in the marketplace and to be connecting with agents? Yeah, I think it's a great question, because one of the things that will help us create partnerships with our most impactful business partners is going to be our, effectively, our industry notoriety. If, you know, if you go to one of the top agents in the market or top builder in the market, one of the first things they're going to do is just research you, right? And they're going to figure, OK, are you a leader in the industry? Are you a thought leader? Are you visible? What do you, you know, what do you do? Do people know you? Do you have a good brand? And that's really where, you know, when I say, you know, step one in this industry is just show up. Showing up can be a lot of things, right? You can, I used to host classes for the Orange County Association of Realtors and I'd do a class once a month and we would do all this stuff. And look, no top producers were coming to that class, I promise you. But we filmed it, we marketed it. And so I was seen as a teacher to the real estate community, which then gave me credibility. When I went after the people I want to go after and I could use that content, I can use that footage. You know, going to industry events, right? The Association of Realtors has a ton of events, right? They have holiday parties, they have mixers, they have networking events. You know, I would sponsor those all the time, right? I'd be the lead sponsor. I'd give away the big check at the holiday party, you know, of the raffle. I would do all the things. And so I just became, you know, it was very clear that I wasn't the number one lender at the time, but it wasn't that hard to become it. Because nobody else was willing to step up with that level of visibility and that level of kind of being the mortgage lender in the space. And, you know, part of why I was able to get some of these partnerships is because the biggest agents, the most productive agents, they see that and they think, OK, well, you know, this guy's worth talking to. All right. Whereas if they can't find me anywhere, if they don't see me anywhere, if I'm not around, if I'm not in pictures with other top agents, if I'm not going to open houses of some of the highest producing agents, then I'm just another lender to them that fill in the blank. I could be anybody. So I think the balance is, you know, creating that omnipresent visibility through social media, through the one thing I would encourage everybody to do is if you're going to do anything, make sure everyone sees it. I don't do anything where only you and the person, you're the event. Like if you go to an event with 30 people, 3000 people should see it. You should be filming it. You should be taking pictures. You should be taking pictures with the top people. They're talking about it. And then that's that's how you create leverage of visibility or notoriety. And so the key is to not do too many like one to many events where you're trying to be everything to everyone, because that just doesn't work in today's world. 71% of real estate agents didn't help one family in 2025. I think there's something like 94% of them helped 20 families or less in a year. Right. And so if we're looking to partner with people that can make a meaningful impact on our business and we can do the same to theirs, you know, it's a pretty small group, but the key is that they're going to look at your visibility profile, whether it's online or local, and they're going to ask themselves, is this somebody that I can see myself partnering with? If that makes sense. A hundred percent. Yeah. And I think where, where I was wanting clarification is you talked about feel good work versus do good work. Yep. So it sounds like it's kind of, you know, some of that, some of that feel good type stuff is good just for creating that presence. Like as far as feel good being, if you do a class to 30 agents and they all do one transaction a year type thing. Yeah. I would say as long as you're inviting the top agents to that event. Oh sure. Yeah. Right. Or the agents that are on that top agents team, right. Or your builder partners or, you know, I would, I stopped hosting these classes at the Orange County Association of Realtors because I got you know, I didn't get the right people showing up. When I started hosting them at the conference room in my office, which was kind of like a massive teaching room. I would get a lot of my current partners to come right. And I'd get a lot of, and they would invite some other people that became my partners. And so I think that is a different experience, like hosting a, you know, top producer mastermind, right. That is a feel good and do good event. Why? Because it's your target audience, right. And it is your, you know, being a zone of teaching and adding value. Um, yeah. So I don't, I wouldn't recommend teaching a class for a lot of, you know, one deal year agents. Um, but I would much rather you teach a class, even if one person shows up, just be creative with your camera angle, right. And, uh, you know, you're up there, you're speaking, you're talking, you're doing your thing. And maybe the next time three people show up next time, 30 people show up. Um, but you know, everybody's got to start somewhere, but you know, make sure that your target audience is the one that you're going after and then leverage that into a bigger feeling online. Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah. Thank you. How, what would you add to that? I think what I'm, what's coming up for me as you're saying that is the, um, for the classes specifically, cause that's something that I've, you know, over the years, spent some time on and doing is that it does create the visibility in a big way, even if those top producers don't show up. And even if you have one top producer in the room and the rest are all not, it tells that top producer, they don't know that the rest of the people are not top producers. So it gives them the feeling of, Oh, like there's a lot of people that believe in her because they all showed up here. So I think they, that the not top producers do help build the credibility with the top producer is what I've learned from, from my experience. And, um, and then I'm also a affiliate, um, with our local board of realtors. And I'm like, Ryan said, whatever the top level is, they have different levels of it. And I'm not top level. So at every event that they have, they announce the names of the people that are the affiliates. And I don't understand it, but like only like two or three mortgage lenders actually do it. So they don't have a lot of people that are at that top level. So I get mentioned at every event as the affiliate, right. As a premier affiliate. So it gives, again, people visibility and it gives them this, you know, whether I'm interactive with them one-on-one or not, people know who I am through that process, which helps because then when I either make a phone call or get introduced them through some other way, they're like, Oh, we know who you are already. And they, because they knew I am, it already gives this impression of she must be something big. Right. So I think that's the, the, yeah, those little pieces like help make the bigger help those top producers think that you're, you know, worth talking to. That would be my, what I would add. Yeah. And what I was going to say is thinking back to before COVID, I did this stuff naturally and my business was a lot stronger. And I think after COVID I fell off of this, you know, wagon and, you know, I don't know if, you know, other people can relate to this, but you know, it's my business isn't as strong now. And I think part of it's that I'm not out there. So this is really valuable. And one kind of easy step that I started realizing is, you know, in Orange County, there's some like clear top producers, right. And everybody knows who they are and everybody's clamoring to get their business, all title, escrow, you know, insurance, lenders, every affiliate would love to work with the top agent, right. Cause they're kind of the feeder. So I would just go to every one of those listings when they had open houses, I wasn't their lender at all, right. I would take some co-branded financing flyers. I would take some waters and I'd walk in and introduce myself and I said, Hey, I wanted to drop these off. These financing flyers could be helpful for anybody coming through. I want to make sure you guys had water or whatever the case may be. And if you don't mind, I'd love to just do a quick video of the open house and just help market it. Right. Cause I think it'd be great. And I'd love to send it to all of my prospective buyers. No one on the planet will ever say no to that. All right. They'll be happy to be in the video. Hey, I'm here with, you know, top agent, buyer's agent, whoever it is on the top agent team. They have an incredible open house today at one, two, three main street. Here's some financing information if you guys need it, if you stop by, but let me do a quick tour of the property. You know, for any of my clients who we have in the pre-approval space who are actively looking at buying a home, this would be a really great one, blah, blah, blah. And now you tag that agent, you know, it goes out, it's out there. Like there's very few things that are more valuable for that. Right. And after you do that a couple of times, that agent will meet with you because their current lender is not showing up. Right. Why are we not doing that? I never see that anymore and I did it in 2012 right before social media was really a thing right now. It's the thing and people just don't, they're not doing it. And I don't care if you have one pre-approved buyer in your pre-approved buyer pipeline, nobody else knows that. Right. Right. And that even it's like, wow, all of his pre-approved buyers might see this and all the people who, who might want to get pre-approved or all his database is going to see this. And you know, like it's just a such a high level perceived value and it takes 10 minutes. Right. You could do five of those in a weekend and it would take you a couple of hours and you're back with your family, you're doing your thing. Right. It's not a, it's not a huge, you know, burden, a time killer, right? You still have your weekend, but it moves the needle. Right. And it shows you are a leader in the industry and that is who people want to work with. They want to work with leaders. They want to work with thought leaders. They want to work with highly visible people. They want to work with people that have confidence. They want to work with people who are optimistic, who are creating, you know, paths through a challenging market. Nobody wants to work with a person who's just sit back waiting for the market to improve. Like everybody else. Totally. Yeah. Right. So that's just a small way you could create a ton of visibility and just, you know, quote unquote, show up differently than, you know, somebody who, again, there's just kind of waiting for things to happen. Two ideas came up to me, Ryan, as you said that. Yeah. So one is as you're doing that video would be to also be able to take a little video tour and say, Hey, I'll, I'll do a little video for you on social with it. You would just put, Hey, you know, for what does it cost to own a four 50 home in main town? And then you just do like, it'll cost you X amount. You tag. Yeah. And say, Hey, I'll do this video for you. And then if you can add them as a collaborator and they go and they, then now you're seen as this person who's working with Ryan Grant or RJ Geister, right? Like, so now the other people don't know that you don't actually work together, right? But now they're getting this. And this guy, of course the agent's going to want to do that because you're promoting their listing to your social media platform and you're adding value in a different way than they didn't knew how to do. So that's one idea if you're showing up and recording a video also. The other thought is brokers opens. So if you have those in your market, I know we don't have a ton in my area anymore. We used to, but we don't. So, but if you have them in your area, then if you can show up at those two, you can hit a whole bunch of agents in one time. And then as you start walking in and you know, people, the same thing happens, right? It's, Oh, well, RJ walked in. Like he said hello to five people. He's like really popular around here. He must be really good. So that can also happen from this thing brokers opens. I did that every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for eight years. I had three different restaurants at eight in the morning. Everyone comes in, has breakfast, coffee, pitches, their open houses, pitches, their listings, then broker preview, everyone caravans to go see all the open houses. I get back to my office around 11 o'clock and the rest of my day would go. But the first three hours of every three days a week, I was in front of agent after agent, after agent, open house, open house. I would, I'd have my flyers in every open house. Why? Cause I knew that every agent and every lender was going to go around and see them. And it was kind of like me marking my territory, even though it wasn't even my territory. Right. Um, and then all of a sudden, it's just like, you know, like Nikki said, I walk into a room and everyone was like, Brian's here. And I felt that way. I had to like first, first couple of times I walked into that room, I was like, head down, I don't know anybody nervous. Like people can see that. Right. A year later I walk in like I own the joint. People can feel that too. Totally. Right. And that's really just what, you know, that's, that is what the market is asking for right now. Someone to walk in and own the room and say, doesn't matter. We got this. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is awesome. Thank you, Ryan and Pinky. I appreciate it. Yeah. I appreciate you asking the question. It's a good conversation to have and a team. We're going to obviously send this out to everybody. If you are watching this, and if you have questions, let us know, but I'm excited for you guys to go own your real estate worlds. And RJ will start by leading with by example here. Heck yeah. All right. Yeah. Thanks y'all. Thank you. Bye.