Video Accountability For Real Estate Entrepreneurs With Sheila Cohoon Part 2

Welcome to the remarketing podcast. My name is Jerome Lewis. I'm your host for today? The remarketing podcast is a podcast where we talk marketing tech, business and leadership. We talk these things for real estate agents, real estate investors and real estate entrepreneurs. The remarketing podcast has two purposes.

Purpose number one, Sheila, to S you, your business, your service, or your product in a way that provides value to you, including market exposure and content creation, purpose, number two, to educate and inform our audience and listeners. All right. We have a special guest for the second time today. We're doing this the second time.

step up for any challenge. In: 2018

She is a successful realtor and business owner with an amazing vision for the future. The many years she has spent being challenged by new technology has served her well and her new career. Most real estate agents are behind in the area of technology. So she has become a beacon of light for them. For the past three years, she has held weekly software training for new and experienced real estate agents with the objective to assist them in becoming successful.

is always helping people. In: 2009

She has unbridled passion for kindness, and she is more versatile than you can ever imagine. Sheila, welcome back to the remarketing podcast. Excited to have you. Thank you. Thank you. You're very welcome. And it just goes to show you that even the best technology people. Can screw technology. Yep. Right. We all have for our moments and yes, it goes to show you, I appreciate Sheila, cuz I was like, I'm done.

I'm not doing it again. She was like, we going to get this done accountability. Yes. You need that accountability in your business. So yes. Uh, I would like to kick it off with some questions. It's gonna be a little bit different. Some of it's gonna be the same. Some of it's gonna be different, but I'm gonna kick it off with some questions for Sheila.

And the first question that I had for her Sheila, what's a common myth about this field or expertise. Uh, real estate, you mean? Yes. Real estate, so real estate. Um, I think the, the most common myth is that, um, real realtors are sleazy salespeople and it can be further from the truth. And I think it's more now evident more now than ever is real estate agents should be educators and guiders and helpers along your journey in real estate.

Um, we're not sleazy salespeople, we're here to help you. And, um, if you CA if you find somebody that is, is you're feeling uneasy about, know that there are many other people here that have really good intentions of helping you and guiding you along this journey. And so you have like a lot of experience with transactions.

And one of the things I see you online, and just in general, in real estate is the people that don't use a real estate professional realtor or somebody that's within the industry. They lose on like housing prices and stuff like that. Yes. So they think they accomplished something. And most of the times they didn't.

Could you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, I believe that. Um, and you know, be previously getting into real estate, I would've said the same thing as most people that aren't in real estate, um, that, oh yeah, I can sell my house on my own, but there's certain things that you, that you're not aware of. Um, you're not aware of the market.

You're not aware of the, the terminology that gets used. Um, and there's new, new terminology with every, uh, wave of real estate, you know, the up and down of the real estate market. Um, not only that is, if you have a full-time job, how are you gonna, uh, field all the phone calls you're gonna get from realtors?

Because realtors are the only ones that are calling you because. They wanna list your home. You know, there's so many things that you're unaware of as a, as a, for sale by owner that you, um, that you didn't know because you didn't investigate it or, or, or you're not on this side being a realtor and understanding what, what for sale by owners go through.

Not only that is really, um, you're not gonna really save yourself much because your biggest pool of buyers is on the MLS. And the only way to get on the MLS is by contacting a real estate agent. Okay. Awesome. And really quickly, could you like in simplest terms possible, could you tell us what the MLS is?

So the MLS is a multiple listing service and what that is is, is a cooperating service, uh, for brokerages to list their, uh, properties for sale. So it's, it's basically, uh, um, web service. Provided by different boards where all the real estate agents can share their homes for sale and, and they, and they, um, they input the, the homes for sale on those sites.

And then they're shared everywhere. They're syndicated to Zillow and realtor. So that's where they start is the MLS. And then they syndicate to all those. And, and really quickly before I became a licensed real estate agent, it's really tough to get, uh, the MLS information and it's nothing exclusive or secretive about the MLS.

However, uh, one of my mentors used to tell me the reason why you wanna access to the MLS when you're trying to buy or sell the house is because it has the most data there available, right? None of the other platforms have that much data available. So that's why you, well, you know, I think you could find the data, but I think it would be harder to find it.

You'd have to do re you know, a lot of research. The one thing that I share with my clients is previous home sales. Cause I think it's important, you know, when did it sell, how much did it sell for, you know, um, were there issues in that listing? You know, there's, there's a lot of, a lot of good detail is in history, right?

So I think if you can, um, make sure that you share that data with your clients, it helps them to determine if they're making a good purchase or not. And it helps them to feel more confident too. Thank you from your perspective, Sheila, what's the most important personality trait or strength. Someone needs to work in this industry and to be success.

So, um, I think customer service is probably the number one thing that you should have in this business. Um, it's going to be the one thing that's gonna help you succeed the most because without good customer service, nobody's gonna wanna work with you. They're gonna work with you this one time and they'll not refer you out.

So I think for cust, if you have customer service, especially in this day and age where customer service seems to lack so much, I think if you can have it, you're gonna stand out. More real estate agents, um, out there. So defined for us in the simplest terms possible. What is good customer service? Um, good customer service is making sure that at the end of the transaction or at the end of the phone conversation or at the end of the meeting, that the person.

On the other side is completely satisfied. They're happy with the sale. They're, they're comfortable, they're confident. Um, they can walk away and be able to know that they can come back to you at any time that you're gonna be there to assist them, um, and, and give them trusted advice and guidance in anything.

Thank you. And so next question we asked you before is what, who has been your most important professional mentor? Um, so the first and foremost, um, the, the biggest mentor I had was Jennifer Merlin. But as we talked about previously, um, I'm gonna have to say my husband was my biggest mentor. Um, he was the one that supported me and pushed me in and really made me.

What I was capable of doing Jennifer brought out me a mindset shift that I didn't know I had. And between the both of them, I think I was able to really look at myself from a different angle and a different light. And so, um, those were the two, two biggest ones. Awesome. What is one piece of advice you would give to someone starting out in this.

Um, the biggest piece of advice, gosh, that would be to get a mentor, a coach accountability person, make sure that you are, um, accountable to somebody because the biggest thing that happens when you get into the real estate industry, if you're not on a team, um, if you're going at, as, as a solo agent, like I did, um, is that you can.

Completely lost because there's nothing to hold you accountable. Um, my husband works so, um, you know, I'm not pushed too hard there, but I wanna be successful in this real estate industry. And so I have to push myself harder. I have to show up and be accountable. Well, the, you can easily not be accountable.

Right. You can easily not get it done. So having a person, um, or a group of people to work with on a weekly basis to hold yourself accountable is probably the single most important thing that you can do. So whether that's a team or whether that's somebody that you get with a, another real estate agent or a coach or a mentor, that's gonna help you grow your business and help you move the needle every week.

That's so important. All right. So speaking of accountability, we're gonna rearrange the questions, how we did it last time. Mm-hmm and I wanna go right into the video accountability group that we have. Could you talk about that? The importance of accountability in that video accountability group? Yeah. So the video accountability group that we created about 12 weeks ago, um, was so that we can hold ourselves accountable to put out, to put out a video every week.

Consistency is the key in real estate. And, and so whether you're doing postcards or doing social media or calling cold calling consistency is the key. Well, video accountability is the same is, is the exact same thing being consistent and showing that video every week, people are gonna say, they're gonna say, oh, you know, Sheila's gonna post a video this week.

I can't wait to watch it. Or they're gonna know that every week you're gonna give them value. So, um, that video accountability and having other people to be accountable to, and that group is so important. Um, Also, I mean, we didn't, we didn't do a money accountability, right? There's no, there's nothing like, oh, you know, you're gonna pay a hundred dollars or whatever.

It was a free 12 week session. But the biggest thing that held us accountable is the fact that we could be called out on social media for failing to say that we didn't post the video or we didn't get the video done. There's none of. We have to make sure we get it done, cuz if we don't, we're gonna get called out for failing the challenge.

All right. And next, so you have done hundreds of videos as we talked about before. Yeah. Why would you start or participate in some kind of accountability if you already have that experience? Because, you know, no matter how experienced you are, no, how, no matter what you gotta show up and do it every week.

I, you know, the moment I stop doing it, then you know, I get LA Daisy and, and why would I wanna do it? So I just think that continuing to be accountable every week is gonna help me. As well as help others because I'm gonna be there with them to help them show up. Okay. And let me see, how, how did I wanna ask this question?

Would you say that? So I wanna talk about video and their partners of video. Would you first and foremost, would you say that, uh, people that use video have an advantage disadvantage? Is it like, what is your perspective on the importance of video as a real estate professional? Yeah. I, I mean, I, I honestly think as we discussed in the, in the other video that we did, you know, the pandemic changed everything, you know, um, before, uh, there were door knockers, right?

Real estate agents went out and met people and door knocked and had, you know, coffees and dinners and lunches and things like that. Well, when the pandemic hit, that was. Like you couldn't get in front of people. And so a lot of real estate agents, you know, didn't know how to do it. So the, the next best way to get in front of people was to, to zoom.

Right. And have a conversation that way. But you can't always, you know, people don't always wanna zoom or, or they don't always wanna, you know, have a meeting like this. So. What you can do is you can market yourself on social media, in email, um, all different ways by doing video. And what that does is it puts a face to a name.

It puts a personality to a voice. It puts a face to a voice. Um, but it shows somebody, uh, what you're saying and how you're saying it. And in, in the, in the, the personality and, and the character and the way you move on how you are. So, um, short of being right in front of them, the video's gonna show them you and what you're like, and then they can begin to trust your face, your sound, you know, your voice and what you're saying.

It's really very power. Absolutely. And so you mentioned like people being able to see you and your body language and stuff like that, and they can sense your tonality. Right? So. Somebody as serious as me, I always struggle people like, well, how did you say it that way? And when they see me on camera, they can understand my tonality and it gets me in less trouble.

So that's one of the reasons why I highly encourage that people get into video. Yes. That being said, Sheila, from your perspective and your experience, what's like. Uh, cuz a lot of people struggle is scary. Like what's a good first video or what's some insight you can give people on getting over that hump to do these videos, video accountability, first and foremost, you know, the only way you're gonna get over the hump is to just do it because, um, you're only gonna get better when you do it.

Like I said before, if you're a basketball player or, or you know, any sports player or anything, everything takes practice. And if you don't start, you're never gonna know how good you can get. So if you just start doing it and, and you know, the best way to start is maybe just text videos to your family and friends, right?

They're the, they're the most people that aren't gonna be, you know, judging you. And really nobody really judges anybody, anybody who, who goes out there and says, oh, you don't know what you're talking about. You just have to ignore them. But if you just start practicing and getting it. You're you're gonna get better by no doubt.

You're going to get better. Every week. I watched it in this first accountability session. I watched people get better every single week. They got more comfortable in front of the camera. They didn't worry about B roll. They didn't worry about this, that and the other. They just did it. And I even felt that way too.

Um, the other thing that I found is that. Um, as, as we did it, more people started to interact with people within our group. So it was really powerful. Absolutely. And that's, that's a perfect transition because I wanted to, actually, we talked about the accountability of that group, which is like, that's great.

We get success and we grow, we get growth from that. But I also want to talk about the support and the encouragement. Could you talk about. Please. Absolutely. So like I said before, um, being accountable is so super important because you have that, that other person, but it's that support that caring, that encouragement, that pushing that helps the VI video accountability.

We've had many people in our group be like, you know, Well, I need this lighting and I need this mic and I need this and I, no, you don't need all of that. You just need to do it right now. And you just need to do it in front of the camera, in front of your phone, in front of your computer, whatever. And just do it.

When I first started out, I di I. I just did it by sitting in front of my computer and I screen shared a couple things. So, you know, it's just about getting in front of the camera and doing it without having to worry about all the fluff, the people watching it don't care about the fluff. They care about what you're telling them.

Yep. They care about your message. So, yep. We, we, we talked last time, we talked about tools, right? Indispensable tools. So number one, one of the most indispensable tools in your business is video. Yes. So I wanna get two more from UCLA. So tell us about two more tools that are indispensable for real estate agents in their business.

Yeah. So the other two tools that I use are Canva and we video. Um, I'm also gonna, um, encourage you, you know, in we video and in Canva to do screen sharing in those things. But the biggest thing with Canva is, and I've taught Canva for three. Four years now. Um, I was teaching real estate agents before I was a real estate agent, but, um, the biggest thing in can is you can literally do anything in can, you can screen record.

You can, um, do video. You can. You know, create social media graphics. You can create email graphics, you can create gifts for emails. Um, like there's nothing in Canva that you can't do. I, everything on my website, on my Google, my business on everything is from Canva. I don't use any other software and I haven't, since I started in real estate that, um, where I've created graphics, I don't use anything else.

Um, you can animate logos in Canva. Um, It's just incredible piece of software and, and really for the, the price, it is so well worth it. $120 a year for this piece of software can help you grow your business. It's a single most, it's a single, um, software I've used to help grow my business. The other one is we video and that's a video editor and it's so powerful because you can screen record in there.

You can share your screen in there. You can add your B-roll. You can video edit. There's so many things you can do in there. And between those two pieces of software, it's got me where I am today. Awesome. I appreciate that. And, uh, so let me just complicate things a little bit for you, right? Why would I use Canva versus something more complex and what every, the stuff that everybody else is talking about and the same question I posed for we video, why would I pick those over some of the other stuff that everybody's on the bandwagon about?

Well, from a technology standpoint, you know, I've done technology for 30 years. And when, when I get in and I dig into technology, I'm like, okay, let me try this. Let me try this and let me try this. And I really try to figure out what the best piece of software is. And honestly, if it's clunky or cumbersome, or if it's not as user friendly or, or, or intuitive, That I'm not gonna use it, right.

Because it's gotta be simple. It's gotta be gotta be fast. Can't be complicated. And it can't be complicated to learn. The biggest thing I find with, you know, people that are just getting into technology is if it there's an obstacle, they're gonna, they're just gonna stop. They're gonna just check out and, and stop doing it.

So I found that, um, Canva is the most user friendly piece of software that you can use. And it does so many different things and it's, and, and they've made it easy to learn. They have training inside of Canva and you can find nearly anything on YouTube related to Canva. And it's the same thing with we video, you know, I used iMovie, I used Adobe, I used all these other things and quite honestly, you know, Adobe's a great piece of.

But for video editing that their software is so overwhelming to the eye that it just is so, so difficult. So I just find that Cam's very, just very fluid and very easy to use. And same thing with we video. Okay. Awesome. And so while we're on while we are on that, right. We're talking about software, uh, thi this touches on technology a little bit.

And in our last interview, you talked about the importance of understanding technology in this business. Virtual brokers is versus brick and mortar. Could you expand upon that please? Yeah, so, you know, Uh, the one thing about brick and mortar's, um, brokerages is that generally you're going to have like an it person in the brokerage.

That's gonna help you get set up with your website with all the different things. So, uh, those are great. And, and, and you'll have an admin and, you know, you'll just hand your file to them and they'll upload everything. They'll handle all that aspect of it. The problem. When you come to a virtual brokerage is you don't have that person right there.

Right. You're not in a brick and mortar. You're not walking up to that person and, and getting train. So you have to go out and get training. You have to go out and learn the different software that it's going to take to, um, escalate your business. You're gonna have to learn the software to upload your documents, to have them reviewed.

You're gonna have to learn the software to be able to market yourself, to create your website, to do a CRM, like all these different things. Um, Virtual brokerages have. And, um, and again, you don't have that one to one person that you do at a brick and mortar to be able to help you with that. So from a technology standpoint, I think brick and mortars, um, I'm sorry, virtual brokerages are a little bit more difficult for those who.

Aren't as tech savvy or who, or who are just starting their technology journey. Um, if you are doing that, just know that going to a bro virtual brokerage, um, you may have a more difficult time and it may slow you down a bit in real estate. All right. So I'm gonna challenge you based off our last interview.

And, uh, so it's like this, can you, can you succeed without technology in this business? And if the answer is yes, ha. You know, I think you can. I think you can. I think you can be successful. I've watched agents mm-hmm, be successful without technology. but you gotta be a go getter. You gotta be in front of people.

You gotta be talking to people every day. Mm-hmm um, you know, um, the one thing about this business, it's a relationship based business. So if you can be in front of people every single day, talking to them about real estate, then go for it. If you can door knock, you know, a whole neighborhood. Go for it.

That's a fantastic thing that should, you know, that will get you success. I've watched it happen. Um, but in this day and age, uh, with the whole new COVID stuff, you know, um, people are a lot more scared of those things. And so, um, you, you end up getting apprehensive about doing those things. Um, so you can be successful by just getting out and door knocking and having conversations and doing meetups and things like that.

If you had to choose that, that way or versus like, you know, like, I guess more modern, like using technology mm-hmm which would you choose? You know, I'm always for a softer approach. I don't, I don't like when people just come to my door out of the blue, I just don't, you just don't know who's gonna be on the other end of that door.

Um, but I just don't and, and a lot of people don't. Um, so I, I feel, you know, If you can, um, soft touch them or really, you know, really what it boils down to is attracting people, right? If you can attract people, those are the people that want to sell or do something right. Most times when you are walking around in the neighborhood, you're just trying to find somebody who may wanna do something, but when you can market yourself out there, then you are gonna be the first person that somebody realize.

Um, or somebody that they'll remember when they're thinking about selling. So if you've marketed yourself well, and you're everywhere online, there's no way that they're gonna forget you. Okay. So speaking of marketing, same question. What is your top recommendation for real estate agents to market themselves?

Like what tools is it? Facebook, Google, YouTube. Um, Google and YouTube coin, honestly, Google my business has been the biggest thing for me. I started it when I first got in the business and Google, my business has been phenomenal for me in my business. It's um, in the three years that I have been a real estate agent, um, my sales, uh, have been 1.6 million.

I've done great with Google my business and in the last, probably two months since I've been geotagging my images, um, it's gotten me more visible. And, um, I, I get probably about two calls a week on average, uh, from either buyer or sellers. So it it's fantastic. And then YouTube in general. Everybody, any search platform, right?

Any anywhere where people are asking questions like where's a local real estate agent, or how do I fix my home up to sell or whatever people are searching online, they ask those questions online. So you wanna be that person that shows up in front of them when they do that. So if you can, um, just use Google, my business and YouTube.

I think those are gonna be the, in the future. The two biggest things. Um, how, how real estate agents or how business people in general are gonna be found? That's all right. That's really it. I don't think, I mean, Facebook's nice and you're gonna connect with people on Facebook and, and Instagram and TikTok and all those things.

But I think in general, like the hardcore, like understanding of agents and, and seeing, you know, their reviews and understanding who they are, um, you're gonna, you're gonna be found on Google and. I agree with you. I do most of my stuff over there and I do my more personable stuff on like social media.

Yeah. Cause YouTube and Google is not really social media. They have some social media aspects, but those are search engines that people come and they have a, a special intent I'm ready to buy or sell or I'm ready to do some kind of business. Right. So that's why I like those platforms. I'm a business person.

Yeah. Uh, speaking of, uh, we, we talk about like, What I wanna do is I want you to get your screen share ready, because I want to, like the purpose of our interview is like that video accountability. But something that, um, we mentioned is you mentioned is like Google my business and we're transitioning the go where the video accountability.

Over to not only video accountability, but a training as well. And I know I'm quite confident that you're gonna do training on how to set up and utilize Google my business. So, uh, there's your screen share. Just tell us a little bit about the video accountability, as well as some of the training that you're going to employ in that video accountability.

Yeah, absolutely. So we're gonna be starting our next session, which is going to be eight weeks. And, um, they will be every Friday at one o'clock starting this Friday, June 10th. And, um, this session we will be charging. Um, as I said in the last video that we did, um, I've been doing training free for. Three years and my husband and Jerome ha and other people have pushed me to say, you know, you're valuable and what you provide people is valuable.

So, um, I'm gonna charge just a little fee, um, but I'm gonna be bringing big value. So I think you'll get a big bang for your buck here. Um, it's, uh, you have two options. You can pay $75 each month. Um, so it's eight weeks. So it's gonna be two months or you can save a little bit and pay a one time payment of 125.

And, um, what that gives you is a once a month. I'm sorry, once a week zoom session at one o'clock on Friday with me for 30 minutes and the other group of people in the zoom accountab in the video accountability. So we'll be. zoom for 30 minutes. We'll talk about, you know, struggles that people had. Again, it's that support that you'll get in that 30 minute session, um, from other people and hearing what their struggles are too.

Uh, you won't feel alone. And then after that from one 30 to two or two 30, depending on what we're training on, um, we'll be doing software training. So that means we'll be doing, uh, some canvas training and some we video training and some Google my business training. What is geotagging, you know, all those different things that I talk about, um, in, in here, um, and on my software skills for agents group.

We'll be discussing that training in, um, from the one 30 to two 30 session. And then lastly, it's a bonus. Um, you will, each person that's in the video. Accountability will get two hours. Um, Over the two month period. They'll only get two hours of one on one time with me. Now that's a lot of time, honestly.

Um, if you're struggling with something and to get a one on one with somebody who has, um, really good technology background, 30 years, uh, 30, what did I say? 30 minutes. 30 years. Oh, I, yeah. Well, I mean skills and experience. Yeah. If I, I have 30 years of technology background, if you can sit with me. You know, two hours over a two month period and work one on one to, you know, get you moving forward with your business.

Um, I'm telling you it's super valuable and you can ask anybody, um, you know, ask Jerome, ask, uh, Tony, ask Mike Ker. Like everybody, I have sat down with, to do a one-on-one technology training with they have they've really come out. Um, Successful on the other end be because of it, it's moved their business forward a lot.

So I'm offering that two hours, two hour, um, for the entire. Two month session. I hope it's clear. Um, I'm, I'm adding that as a bonus in there. So, um, I'm doing everything. I can really my goal for the whole thing, really. And, and it has been since I've gotten in the real estate, um, business is just to help other agents succeed.

We should always be helping each other succeed. That's what we're here for on this earth is to help each other. Absolutely. Thank you, Sheila. So we're gonna get back to the questions, the question I have for you. Mm-hmm I'm looking forward to this one. What favorite productivity hack do you have for real estate entrepreneurs?

Uh, productivity hack. Yes. Um, I mean, between Canva and Google, like those two are my productivity hacks. Okay. Is that what you're talking about? No, but they could serve, they could serve. If, if you could, what would you consider? What would you consider like a productivity hack? So a productivity hack for me, as an example, would be like, how could I get more stuff done and less time?

So one of my favorite hacks is to like watch videos at two times and three times the speed so that, oh, yeah. Or something like, um, I, I block out everything for the next hour and I do all of this work and I get it done. Or I visit like, like, so this morning I did like a really long, I had to write like, Sequencing campaign and the, it was like, you can't get off until you're done.

But I got my work done. I've been trying to get this sequencing done for like two weeks and I got it done because it was like, you can't get off until you're done. So anything like that, that you, that you have, you know, I would say the biggest productivity hack is just to stay focused and the way to stay focused is.

You know, write your list on what you want completed and do it cuz that's, I mean, that's really been the thing that I've been hyper focusing on. You can get so carried away with the shiny objects of, of everything, especially in real estate, everybody's throwing everything at you. Just stop. Just focus on your thing.

Doing marketing is, is, is, is I would say the productivity hack like do marketing, but stay hyperfocused on what it is you are doing. Awesome. So now we're gonna get to the personal questions. Then we're gonna go to the closing table with personal questions. Okay. If you could be remembered for one thing, Sheila, what would that be?

Um, I would say for helping people like, you know, I, I want people, I wanna be just like Jesus, that's, that's my goal. I wanna be as close to, to how Jesus was as possible. And I wanna be known for helping people. I wanna be known for helping people succeed, helping people be better. Helping people be more empathetic.

Everything like that. So be like more like Jesus. Awesome. I appreciate that. And, um, I'm, I'm a fan of Jesus and I think sometimes I'm just gonna say it because sometimes I think people forget, but Jesus was very stern. Like he was loving, but he would say things that need to be said he would hold people accountable too.

People seem to forget that part about Jesus. They like the loving part, but they forget about the other stuff that. How he, you know, tore down the temple and stuff like that. So, yeah. Yeah. I just, you know, I just realized that the last couple years just getting more into the word mm-hmm I realized that like, Jesus was very stern.

He wasn't always just so like, oh, it's okay. It's like, he was very stern. Like, no, you, this is the way you have to do it. This, there is no, no, you know, gray area. It is this way. Absolutely no other way. So yeah, you know, it, it, I, I agree with you, I'm so hundred, 100%. He was very stern and I really loved that.

Uh, my mom really table that into us. Yep. Like this is not right. Like always talk about the love and the friendly stuff, but he was stern very stern. So yes. Next question I have for you. What's what, what has been your favorite job job that you've. My favorite job was when, and it really got the ball rolling for me in technology.

It was my very first job and it was, um, anybody who knows zip forms, um, uh, zip forms is a, uh, real estate forms software. And I actually started out. When zip form started out, I was their first, like first two employees. I think I was one of the first two employees, if not the first one. Um, when ZipForm came here.

Yep. I used to work for, um, a forms company and then ZipForm came here and we started, um, creating the forms and the software and things like that. So I, I started out there creating the real estate forms, not knowing I'd be a real estate agent. Um, but it, it got me, um, It got me understanding, um, how forms work and the real estate market and things like that.

So I was very integral in how I navigated the future. Wow. Sheila that's that's I just learned something new. I never knew that. That's pretty cool. Especially now that you're in real estate and we all know what that with zip firms is. So, yeah. That's awesome. Tell me about three most influential people in your life and how they impacted.

um, well, Jesus is one. He's the first one Jesus impacts me, uh, immensely, uh, especially now more than I get into the word, um, on who he is and, and what his expectations and you know, all that are, um, the second person that is influential and, and, and really, uh, who I am as a person, um, is my husband right now.

He what's his name? I love talk about your husband, my husband darl. Yep. Um, he's pretty incredible, you know, um, we've, we've been married for 17 years and, um, he is my biggest cheerleader. The biggest person that, um, supports me and, um, says, says that I can do it. And I've never felt that way in my entire life.

but my husband makes me feel that way. He shows me that I can do it, um, and tells me I can. Um, and then probably the other person that's been influential in my life, um, was, um, like I said, Jennifer, Martland, she, um, made, she pushed me like nobody else has ever pushed me before. Made me cry so many times I cried so many times, but you know what.

It's when you break that you succeed, it's when you fail. And when you are pushed that hard, a and you know, really our biggest fear is failure, right? I, I, I have to say our biggest fear is failure and she just pushed me. She pushed me that edge, but the funny part was, is my husband was right there at the edge telling me I can do it.

So, you know, you're, you're, you're going to get through it. And it's okay to fail Sheila. I'm going to succeed on the other side, Sheila. I always, I like mess with you a little bit, but I always appreciate how emotional you are. I appreciate like your passion. Um, the question I have for you is how do you, cuz you mentioned like you've had some moments where you've cried.

How do you determine when somebody is doing something outta love and caring and for your best interest versus. Like, how do you handle that? Like, how do you, how do you just not receive it personally that she's attacking you or anything like that? How do you process that? You know, um, it takes a lot, it takes a long journey to get to the point where I am and it, and I always say if people can talk and understand with intention, if you can speak from intention and accept from intention, Then who's gonna get offended.

Right. Um, I know that Jennifer had my best interest. She wanted to see me succeed. My husband has my best interest. He wants to see me succeed. How can I, I mean, can I get mad at them? Sure. You know, because it's tough, but I know in the end that they care about me and I think that's how most people. When I'm pushing people or you're pushing me, I think that, uh, we have to understand that we're doing it out of love and caring and that we want to see people succeed.

So I think if everybody could get to a point where they understand that somebody's not doing this because they want to hurt you or that they have bad intentions for you, they're doing this because they really have your best interest at. Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. And I'm, I'm trying to figure out that balance, cuz sometimes people, they just take things personally and I never, I have much better.

Things to do, then try to attack somebody or make them feel bad. So, yeah, you can't worry about offending people. Mm-hmm um, offense, offense is a funny thing because it's, it's personal, right? You could say something to somebody and they could take offense to it, but you had no intention of offending them.

So offense is really a person's own viewpoint of how they receive what you say. So you have to not worry about offending people. Um, I, I don't say that in a way, like, oh, just be, you know, very, you know, um, like who cares, what people say? I mean, sometimes you have to reflect and maybe did I say something that, that could ha that, that they could have been offended by?

Um, or, or that I said it offensively. Yeah, you can reflect on it, but in most cases, if you talk, if you talk. And present yourself with love and caring and, and help. Then I don't think that you can offend people. Yeah. And, and kind of, like you said, did sternness Jesus people took offense all at a time and he, he never really said anything malicious to hurt anybody or anything like that, but he just insisted on taking offense and.

You gotta just come from a place of love. Mm-hmm if you, you know, don't be mean to people or belligerent or disrespectful, like those aren't good things. Be assertive, be caring, be loving, be empathetic, be humble. You know, all of those things will show people that you have their best interests at heart. I appreciate UCLA.

Next question. What's one question you wish I had asked you and how would you have answered it? Um,

how, why did I get into real estate or how did I get into real estate? Okay. Either, are you either one of those? All right. So let me ask you, yeah. Why did you get into real estate? How did you get into real estate? So, um, why did I get into real estate and how I get into real estate is probably one and the same.

So after I, after I, um, lost my. Um, of my 15 year job, um, I came home and was like, what do I do now? We needed to redo our house. So that's what I did. I took on that challenge of, uh, redoing our house and, um, it took a year and, and I did it. Okay. Um, never did it before, but I did it and I'm always good at taking on challenges cuz it helps me learn.

But then I said, okay, now I gotta get back into the working world. And so. Don't have a degree. I have a lot of experience, but I have no degree. Unfortunately, the world was like, oh, you need a degree in order to make a ton of money. Well, I took on jobs that were like $11 an hour and then 13 do you know, like very little.

Um, and I went into a real estate company making 14, 50 an hour. It. What I was worth, you know, we talked about worth before. I didn't feel at that time, that was what I was worth. I was worth a lot more, but I was willing to stick it out and help them. Um, but I thought, you know, let me get my, uh, real estate license and see if I can do also real estate and be successful there.

So I did that. Um, unfortunately it didn't work out at the real estate company and I put in my two weeks and I thought, you know what, let me try my hand at just being a realtor, a realtor, and, and seeing if I can do this and being successful at it. And, um, and so that's how I got into the real estate business.

And I just. Navigating this journey ever since. All right, awesome. I'm gonna switch things up and earlier we talked about like Google my business. Could you do a screen share and show us the power and some of, you know, just some of the power in Google, my business. Yeah. So I'm just gonna, um, screen share, and then I'm gonna do a, um, I'm going to do a, um, Me get over here and do a screen share since I wasn't, wasn't thinking of doing this, but I will do it anyways.

Yeah. Cause it's, this is what we do. It's fun. This is stuff. This is what we do, right? Yes. So, um, let me get a, um, hold on. I gotta get my . Where am I at here? I wanna get my Google up here.

All right, there we go.

And let's do this and we're gonna do an incognito. I'm gonna show you the power of Google my business. So when I type in, um, into Google, so I need to be Google here and I type in realtor in Clinton township. Okay. I'm the first one that comes up here. This is the power of Google, and this is the power of working your business.

Okay. On Google. And so coming in here and seeing your name at the top is amazing. This is above real estate brokerage, Google my business, a single solo agent has gotten above. Brokerages I'm Google. And so when I come here to Google my business, I'm gonna show you a few things that really are gonna stand out and what you need to start doing from a Google my business standpoint.

So these are called products and you can put products and Google my business. It helps you. um, when people come to your Google, my business, start to see the different products that you have. So millage rates, if you wanna understand about mill rates, there's, you can click on that and get to a link, same thing with home search.

Um, I'm gonna be putting a, a couple more home searches here. So all these different products are super unique to my business. Um, same thing with, um, finding homes or seeing homes that were just. The other thing is question and answers. Okay. You wanna make sure that you're doing question and answers on your own, Google my business so that people can see, um, the different things that you offer.

Now, I'm gonna tell you two things to do, um, to, to, uh, get yourself higher in hire in, um, Google. And one is the reviews. Make sure that you are asking. You are friends and family. If you're just starting out in real estate, ask for, uh, reviews about your character, about the type of person you are. Um, that's one thing.

And then for every deal that you close, ask your title person to give you a review, ask your hire, to give you a review, ask your mortgage person to give you a review, everybody to give you a review. Um, and then the last thing that you should be doing is doing geotagging of your photos. I'm not gonna do anything with that right now, but if you sign up for our training, we'll be going over geotagging in that session.

Uh, geotagging has been the biggest thing for me. Um, actually let me, let me go in and, um, and could you define, could you define geotagging for us really quickly? Geotagging is actually putting a LA uh, latitude and longitude on your photo, along with keywords. Um, Google is, um, really. Uh, big on keywords, right?

That's how things are found on Google. So, um, if you can geo tag your photos in different locations, um, then when people are looking in those locations, you're gonna pop. Um, so let me show you, um, here, just my stats. So that way you can see, um, I also do a, a restaurant by me. Um, I'm just gonna stay, stay here.

And what I wanna do is I wanna show you these, um, these, these views. So, uh, um, these have increased. In the last year, because, um, I've been spending more time on it, but just in the last, probably two months, because I've been geotagging that has, um, increased immensely. Um, let me go down. Um, no, it's over insights.

Um, on insights right here, this discovery is where you wanna be people that are. Um, searching for a certain product, uh, or category or service. Um, that's where I'm getting found the most right here. So, um, if people type in Sheila Cahoon, which they normally don't. I'm gonna show up, but I wanna show up when people are type realtor or real estate agent or, um, you know, homes for sale.

That's when I really wanna show up. So, uh, you can see here, my stats on how much I'm being found on searches on the map and just enlisting searches. So this is really good information. You should always be coming here to. To look at your performance to look at how you have increased in visibility on Google.

Um, and then right here, it just shows you when you type in realtor, like I'm, I'm I'm up there. So, um, I showed you. Realtor and Clinton township. I was the first one that came up. And honestly, uh, when, when I did this in a different location about, uh, 40 minutes away, I came up second. So, you know, if, if I'm coming up, if I'm coming up over anybody, uh, any brokerage, that's huge.

Right. So, yes. And, uh, I had a question, oh, how much does that cost doing all of that? That you did zero six. It's free. Okay. So the return on investment on Google, my business is a hundred percent. Yeah. And tell, tell us one more time, how cuz you're gonna be doing the training. Tell us one more time, how we can get access to the training on that.

Yeah. Um, to get access to the training, I think you shared some links in the chat. Mm-hmm I don't know if you wanna reshare those links. Yeah. But, um, feel free to reach out to me. I'm gonna put my, um, email in the chat SMC, MI local realty.com. Um, just reach out to me via email and we'll get you connected.

Into the video accountability group. And then I will send you a link for payment on that, but, um, we're gonna be starting June 10th at 1:00 PM. If you are not part of the group already, um, then, um, you don't have to do a video, but if you're part of the group, we're already continuing to keep doing video.

So, but the part of the accountability is being called out on social media for failing to do your video. And so a lot of people, again, we don't wanna be a failure, so. We that's really the, the part that we, we are pushing you to do is to just do it, just do it, just do it. And, and that accountability works.

You talk about Michael earlier. I remember when we first started and he was like, what are you kidding me? And now he's like, he's a, he's a Allstar now. So yeah, he really is. He's out there doing it. And he's so natural. You know, I always, I, I love this phrase. If, if you could see yourself like, like ICU. You look at yourself differently.

Like every, we all are so hard on ourselves. We always think so bad about ourselves and the, the part about video accountability and just accountability in general is just having that person there to tell you, you are stop saying those words stop being so, so derogatory towards yourself. You know, um, we have to change the way that we talk to ourselves.

So. Mike was doing it. And, and now he's a superstar. He see, I think he sees himself in a much different light now. And I think a lot of the people in the group are the same way. I'm so happy. Like Mike, I'm just so happy to see him thriving. Like I really, really I'm grateful cuz when we first started, man, he was like, what?

And ah, now he's like, he's awesome. So he's completely out of his shell man. He is in his. Thanks to that accountability, Sheila, this has been fun. We went over this time and I have one more question for you, and then we're gonna get one more statement statement. The question is where can listeners find out more about you online?

Yeah, so, uh, you can find me on Facebook, always on Facebook. Um, you can go to software skills for agents and subscribe to my YouTube channel. I do have a software skills for agents Facebook group. You can go in there and, um, but the easiest way to reach me is just to email me if you're looking to do like a one-on-one, I will, um, I'm going to start charging for those one-on-ones, but it's very reasonable.

Um, It's just because of my time. Um, but I am happy to do one on one, um, tech calls with people. And, um, if you just email me, I'll send you a ly link and we'll work it out. Uh, SMC MI local realty.com. Awesome. Sheila, so closing statement and the closing statement I would like from you is, uh, give us a closing, closing statement on video, doing video, implementing video into our business.

Um, like I said on the last one, just do it. Don't don't look for the fluff. Don't look for anything else than just doing it because it's going to be the first step and you being successful. Just do it. Awesome, Sheila, thank you so much. I appreciate you. You will be back. We will be back. I'll see you around.

Yeah, thanks. And hang on a second. Jerome. Yes, as I did in the last video, I just wanna acknowledge your incredible, um, um, um, support and love and guidance and everything that you do for people. I feel like you and I are very much the same person. Um, and, and we really try to help people. I just don't think you get enough, um, um, credit for what you do for people and how much time and caring and, and love that you show to people.

So, um, kudos to you for everything. You're an incredible person. Thank you, Sheila. I really appreciate that. Yep. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. All right. Take care.