We have a returning guest today and you might have seen him recently. He just launched a viral video called "All the Listings," a blink 182 remix.

Colin Schindler, better known by his alias the Robed Realtor, ranks in the top 1.5% for transactions in the US. He stars in a Blink-182 parody video which quickly went viral.

Three Things You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How authenticity boosts your marketing.
• How to look at yourself as a brand.
• Why do people need to relate to you?

Resources

Learn more about Colin Schindler

Learn more about David Casey

Real Estate Marketing Dude

The Listing Advocate (Earn more listings!)

REMD on YouTube

REMD on Instagram

Transcript:

So how do you attract new business? You constantly don't have to chase it. Hi, I'm Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It's your job to remind them.

Let's get started What's up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude

podcast. We got to return guests today and you might have seen him most recently. He just launched a viral video. I believe the title of it is called all the listings and as a blink 182 remix I mean I've tried a couple of music videos myself and I don't have a good voice by any means. And I just completely bombed on him but this fucking guy comes out does it was a legit music the the music sounded well it was good like it was it look, I would listen to that song. I would play it on the radio. So the sound was good. But the production was hands down like awesome. Like it was well worth the amount of time and energy I'm sure you put into that. So without further ado, we're gonna go ahead and welcome back the robed realtor Mr. Colin Schindler.

Thank you, Mike. Appreciate you having me out again. And you know, kind of staying in touch the last couple of years been a crazy wild ride in between now and then and so it's great to be back in town. I'm gonna this music video.

I'm going to tee up because you're on the show we were just talking about before we hopped on here you're on the show in May of 2020. And we'll get to the video in a second but what what were we talking about on this show guys is how to embrace your personal brand and screaming from the fucking rooftops quit overthinking. What are they going to think about me? Oh my God, should I really do that? Oh my god, some people might think that I'm unprofessional. Listen, guys, the entire world marketing is about grabbing your inner beast, the inner authenticity from within yourself and just let it rip. You know, have you ever noticed that? It's not the professional content that gets all the views? It's the funny shit. It's the entertainment stuff. It's the stuff that all has one thing in common and that is authenticity. So when you get in the business of content creation, it works when you're authentic regardless of it's funny if it's serious and resist or it's not because authenticity is the one thing you cannot outsource you cannot fake or anything so Colin, when you came on the show originally you weren't talking about this robed realtor. But now if you guys go to his Facebook page, which I highly suggest you should follow him on all your social channels. You have this concept of this robe realtor now who the hell is a robed realtor? What does that even mean? It doesn't matter. Go look at his branding. Colin, let's start with the robe realtor first because this ties into the viral video that you just released. So like, robed realtor, most people don't have the balls to do that. Walk me through it.

Yeah, so you know, maybe you can put a link to the last show. You know, that we did originally when I was first out I was brand new agent seven months into the business. And you know, obviously wanted to stand out how do you compete with the veterans of the industry? How do you how do you gain attraction especially with everybody having something to sell? And using Facebook and Instagram as a personal promotion page? First and foremost, what what do I get to do to stand out so just kind of by happenstance, I pulled my bathrobe out and shot a my first transaction was a listing thankfully, I got very lucky there. Shot a listing video in my bathrobe sipping on coffee. Oh, that

was your Topsis that was your first listing

first listing first transaction first video and he

and he rolls out in a robe like who does that? Nobody. But that's exactly why you're one of the top agents in not only state of Wisconsin but in the country with transaction counts right now. See this entire business is based upon popularity attention if you don't have attention, you don't have a business. All right, keep going. This is great.

Yeah, so it is crazy to think about and see where it's transplant transpired. So brand new years and seven months and two years ago, so not even three full years in the business yet. One of the top 1.5 As far as transaction volume and it is solely because I broke that bathrobe out gathered a large large amount of tension. So I kind of fed off that and I kind of kept using that and developed it into my brand my persona of the road Realtor you know it people have stuck with it and it's been something that I've been able to leverage and you know, it's become my brand. I've been able to do other things. I haven't pigeon holed myself entirely into that. So I think I think that is very important. If you're brand too, if you are going to pick this image, this persona, niche is very important. But you don't want to be so specific that you're not still attracting people. So you don't want to be so specific that you're not doing something different anymore. So that is always kind of been where I've been at, you know, the road realtor doesn't necessarily just show up in the bathroom all the time. The road realtor is kind of this mysterious person where I always tell people, other agents, especially my goal with my videos, the content that I put out, when you see that thumbnail on my Instagram, or my Facebook, I literally want you to think, what the fuck is he doing next? Because that's what attracts the viewership, people aren't going to watch if you know, he's going to be in a bathrobe sitting in the bathtub, doing what happened. You know, we've seen this one 100 times before. It's something a little bit different every time and the road realtor is that it's kind of just a mysterious guy who's having fun in a bathrobe, or maybe something else.

So what I like about it is that you're talking about your brand in third person, which is hard for many people. That's the number one reason like when we get somebody come in and we start working with somebody, nobody knows what the hell their brand is. And the reason for that, guys is because most of you don't look at yourself as a brand and understandably so like I look at myself as a dad, Father, follower, Christ. I likes the bears. But I don't realize that that's my brand. But when people like what he just said, right there, you guys are super important is that people first have to relate to you before they can ever do business with you first, but before they can relate to you or do business with you, they have to remember you. And if there's two people that I'm going to just come across, and I'm just going to think that just think of conversations I had 10 years ago, and I met two realtors, and one of them calls himself the role real robed realtor, the other one calls himself John Jones. Well, I'm sorry, the robed realtor has my attention. And attention is marketing. And in a popularity contest, like real estate, where 10 to 15% of the people who see your content are moving this year, and 100% of them have a referral for you. The game is very simple. And it's not theory. It's based upon mathematics. Colin just had a video that got what are you at 125,000 views right now.

So there's two different versions, there's the Facebook version, and there's the Instagram version, I think both are around that 130,000 mark, so over a quarter million views between

both video and that's within like a two to three week timeframe. So I mean, if you guys really I know this is a local business, but statistically from those views, like I chase views, I don't care like views and engagement, you get more views with engagement, so they go hand in hand, but just do the numbers on that 10 to 15% of the people who see that video will be moving 100% of them have a referral. Now, not all 250,000 of them are going to be in Cowen's market, but it doesn't matter. Have you gotten calls from out of state

mostly from other realtors. So that that, that 250,000 numbers is a you know, a community of you know, real estate professionals mostly. But as far as people who you know, I'm employed Wisconsin, South Central Wisconsin have my Illinois license as well. So I can service about an hour bubble. There's some really big metro areas, Madison Milwaukee that I'm able to take care of Rockford, Illinois, where people from around the United States do have folks that are looking in these areas. So while I was you know, I, it didn't necessarily, I mean, obviously hit my sphere of influence, like crazy. And it is one of those just, you know, extra things, you know, a piece of content that I was able to put out for my sphere to resonate with and laugh at. And, you know, it's good for this area. But now with having the referral network, yeah, it's gonna be well, and realtors literally around the country and, and even even, it's crazy, even the world I received a voice message from someone from Romania the other day, so it's, it's cool. And it's I haven't necessarily seen because this is pretty fresh. So I haven't been able to capture an ROI off office yet. But it certainly does not hurt to have other realtors knowing who you are, what you do, where you're

in that with any videos can be very difficult to determine that ROI. Because these people might, you might get on everybody's radar, but it might be six to 12 months until you see it. But the point is that you got on their radar first and that's what always pencils, and what always works. That is really, really cool. Now here I have a couple other questions for you. Because this is what people struggle with on a daily basis. They're always like, I want to go back to where you said this is the first video you put out. How do you overcome the fact that what are they going to say about me? How do you overcome the your own demons in your head? Because this is what this is what stops everyone from doing what you're doing? Everyone wants to be where you're at, but no one has the balls to get there or willing to put in the work to do it. Now if we rewind to his hear what he just got right here, folks. He was on the show two years ago, he was seven months in the road realtor didn't come out to probably about 18 months ago. Give or take, right? If you're on the show two years ago, realtor just came out just after that. So maybe maybe just under two years, almost. But yeah, two years to build a local brand is just like, I mean, that's great. But you only did because you're doing it differently. So how did you overcome that? Especially as a new realtor? That's the most impressive part. Most people think they have to be someone they're not when they start off in this profession, and you're like, No, I'm somebody I am. And you're gonna like me or not? How do you overcome that?

So I guess for me, and I want to be honest and upfront for me it is it is a lot easier for me. I did plays and stuff as a little kid. I'm like a golden retriever. I love being around people I love you know, the pets and the you know, Pat's, and all that kind of stuff. So getting on camera and being in front of people or in front of the screen and having people see my face hear My voice isn't necessarily something that I've ever had the hurdle that I've had to jump over. So I've been lucky in that regard. What I would have to say, though, to folks, because I do think about this all the time, I consider myself a marketer. First and foremost marketer realtor psychologists like that is that is my order, that is my job description. So marketer first and foremost, and when I think about it with my marketing brain, and I do I truly want to help other people, overcome their fears, and help them get on video and whatnot. When I think about it from a marketing aspect, and all the things that you see on Facebook and Instagram, because like I said, it's a it's a platform for self promotion. And, you know, dog pictures and cat pictures, and all that memes and all that other kind of stuff. If you're afraid to hop on there, because of what people might think people are going to think that for a very, very short amount of time. They don't have the attention capacity to remember what you did, they're not going to laugh at you, because you stumbled over a couple of words. They're not going to remember it. Even releasing some viral videos that I've done. Like, they, they get lost in the background. But it is that cumulative effect. People remember that they saw my face. Yeah, people remember that I sell real estate. So just getting over that hurdle. Just realizing that people aren't gonna remember what you're saying, or how you're saying it or what you look like, if you had a little bit of toothpaste in the corner of your mouth. Like, there's still videos that I do, I do a live video, I'm like shit, like, I go back and watch it. And I'm like, I had like some tooth, I don't delete it or take it down. Because it's whatever. One because people don't catch it. Because they're too busy to people. If they do catch it, they're not going to remember. But the cumulative effect of the videos that I'm putting out, they know who I am, they know that I do real estate, they're gonna call me. So there's really no reason. If you are one of those people that are apprehensive about getting on camera, it doesn't matter. It just it matters that you are doing it and that you were there.

Love it. Let's dial into this video. Blink 182 remix. First off, what does that tell you? About three, four minutes.

Three, just under three minutes, just under three minutes able to get on tick tock and everything to so

did. How long did it take to create script and cost in any order you want.

So first of all, I want to shout out amazing guys that helped me put it together like would not have been able to happen without my buddy Andy, Phil Matt, their production company AP, AP and M media. Because this has truly been an idea that I have had since I got in real estate. It's been this was truly a passion project. So it was it was really cool that I've met these guys within the last year. And some other people that made some of the other connections like being able to borrow a private jet, being able to utilize an airplane hangar for an afternoon. So very lucky to have been able to met these people that can make this thing happen in the last year. As far as writing the song, so it's been an idea for four years. Finally, like when I sat down and wrote the song. I was sipping on some bourbon and it may be

the best idea maybe.

Yeah, you know, lucid, I've got the creative juices flowing a little bit, maybe took two hours to write a song, you know, and it's like the Pareto principle for the song and anything like 80% of it happened like that. It was that last 20% that you know, takes the hour and a half so sat down write it these guys are in a band as well. So they tracked it they recorded the song I think I spent a couple hours in their recording studio. That's your voice right? It is my voice it's definitely you know, Ben blink rate too, is layered and auto tuned and so I'm I am not a horrible singer. You know, I have my my range and

my stone I would listen to it on the radio, but yeah, I

mean, it's it definitely. I'm not a bad singer either. And it helped to have them kind of cleaning up and stuff so and having all that professionally done made it the production It was, I don't even want to know how long they went in and edited and taken all that stuff. Because then the next aspect of it took about 12 and a half hours of shooting. So it was a full

one a one day, or do you guys do multiple is

one day. And the video actually almost did not happen. So, you know, that's the other thing too. Like, I'm not some viral internet star. I mean, this video went viral. Yes, but I'm selling houses like, like we talked about, you know, I did 6770 transactions last year, another 35 or so this year, the video almost didn't happen. I almost cancelled it because I was flipping a condo selling a bunch of houses. And I was just I was just too overwhelmed. So they talked me back off the ledge. And I was like, okay, we can do this thing, but it has to happen in one day. So yeah, the 12 and a half hour day of shooting and,

and it was a total cost.

So I promised the guys I wouldn't really talk too much about costs. One of the things that I am going to say though, is if you are looking to do something like this, you know, definitely find and leverage people that are your friends that can make it happen. They were when I met these guys and told them about my dream, they like all pulled up like a sleeve, like on their shirt or like their leg and like they'll blink ray to tattoos. Like they are absolutely obsessed. So it was a passion project for them as well. So, literally, you know, I would say that I got a really good deal. I pay pennies on the dollar for this because I mean, it's it's a 10s of 1000s of dollar production. Yeah, it's probably

you could like you could that's probably a five to 10 Yeah, 10,000 approach on a budget. And a lot of times people were like, oh, and I get this all the time, like, oh, what's my ROI gonna be I'm not going to spend money on video of people who are scared to spend $300 on a video. But the What happens though, it's not more content that people that that do it. It's more impact the content you create makes. And a lot of people will come in our candidate Cory ball, who real estate marketing do we want you guys to do we want to do eight videos a month, I'm like, one, you'll never do that consistently to your burnout. And three, it's going to be boring to shit. It's not more content, I would much rather have one viral video than 40 videos. It's the impact that your content makes guys that really generates the attention. So it makes sense to go all in on a video like that because it pencils it makes sense. But people always think that hey, I'm just gonna go get on video because my real estate coach told me to go get video and check a box doesn't work that way falls on deaf ears unless you really dial in your message, your brand, your persona, and more importantly your authenticity. I love that dude, that's really really cool. What are you planning on doing next? And how much content are you creating a month with like rode realtor? Because you can't do one of these once a month? It's way too much. So what are you doing? What do you How is your normal monthly robed realtor marketing plan work?

Yeah, so I guess as far as what's next for me, I'm still waiting for you know, Mark compass, or Travis Barker or Tom DeLonge to reach out and collab on something. So if anybody knows them, that's listening. Let's let's get them in touch. Now, so I would like to do something like this and let you know because it was fun. Like I said, Truly a passion project the the virality of it was a cool extra bonus for sure. So I would like to do something like this probably, you know, once a quarter or once a year I'm doing something this fun, this level of production quality. Other than that, as far as other videos, because because it really is about the consistency it is like you said the impact of the video is the most important thing. So doing my listings and again, like it doesn't have to be some crazy, super expensive production. You want it to be quality, you want it to be different you want your brand and you to stand out when you're doing these things, but you know, just getting in front of the camera. So I do a video walkthrough for all my listings and I do try and incorporate a flash of who I am, you know, whether it's shot, I've shot them beers on the porches, I've, you know, played played the drums and you know, just kind of doing goofy different stuff. So, continuing to do that for my listings. I've been very lucky to have a nice steady stream of listings. That's all the leverage that

that provides the platform for consistency right there like I was doing Brad McCallum I think that's Brad's name brand apologist by all right, alright, McCallum so I had Brett, he Brad's on the show. And his whole video strategy is just the listings, and he's just really good on video. He doesn't he's not going out. It's just when he gets listings. He does a video but he's so him. His wife are so good at capturing attention. And I see that with a lot of yours. You guys don't have to overthink this whole thing. You know, it's a lot simpler than you think if you everything you guys do is content. Right? I mean, it's all content that I seen one where you were like in a listing if I recall and you're in a bath have, like sort of, like just relaxing in the robe. And then you're just that was like the intro, I believe. But I just remember the robe Realtor in the bathtub, like being a realtor. And then that's what I remember of that listing video, which is I just made that connection. that's top of mind guys.

Yep. Top of Mind. And then, you know, it's like, well, what if I'm not getting listings? I don't I don't have any listings. That's, that's great. But I work mostly with buyers, right? Do this, okay, then, you know, I also try and do a market Monday update, you know, I need to be better about it. But getting on every Monday doing a live video talking about what's going out of the market, or things that I have coming up that I'm excited about, you know, and you do like, you have to talk about yourself, you have to brag about yourself a little bit, you know, you've got to be in front of people. So, getting a couple of pieces of content out a week, especially video is kind of Pinnacle, in what I'm trying to continue to do. And then you had that boy buzz recommendation the the last time that I forgot about that. That's cool. Yes, you know, sitting down, you know, just different stuff because everything is the same. So sitting down with local business owners talking about what they do talking about the community. I'll be bringing that back here soon to

you're going to do it in a robe.

Probably not let us unless it's an establishment that warrants robe I actually did one last year at a medical grade esthetics is when they do facial facial treatments and stuff. And I was I was in my room for that one and I got a cucumber mask treatment, charcoal something or another. So yeah, if the business warrants the robe, that'll be there. But I was

I could I just picture this like kind of Billboard i 94, from Illinois to Wisconsin and Yoona robes because a lot more lacks relaxing north of the border.

I like it. I like it. But I, I've looked into billboards, and I don't know whether I want a billboard for you know, an actual marketing and ROI return or whether there might be like a little bit of ego kind of involved there. You know, like, look at me on a billboard, I, I truly you need you need to spend money in your business agents, it's important. Like, you have to spend money to make money if you want to get to the top. But I'm also try, I try and be pretty lean with with some of that spending as well. And especially if you can create this sphere of people, which is the most important aspect of your business, you talk about it on your show all the time, you know, remind these people, you can do that organically, for free, and people will become your biggest advocates and share and tell people about you. Say I, maybe maybe you'll see me on a billboard the next time here.

Do you buy any leads? On all your sources of business? What do you attribute it to? 60 To 70 transactions. So you don't have a team? It's just you and I believe your girlfriend, right?

Fiance now Yonsei, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. We brought I brought her on this year to help kind of run the administrative stuff in the background. But yeah, it's just been me up until this point. That's

a lot of transactions, guys. 60 To 7030 to 40 is a lot for an individual agent. Like a lot. I mean, that's a lot of it. That's a lot of work. You're busy, you're busy.

It's a hassle. It's a 24/7 thing, but you're very lucky to be I'm very lucky to get to do what I do. I'm very passionate about it. It is a career and a hobby for me. So yeah, but yeah, most of that business is coming from my sphere of influence from people who know me and see me, I do pay for some leads here and there. Because I do believe in versus diversifying. I don't want to get wrapped around but I got I got the Zillow but a very minimal budget in a you know, for me it is more to stay, you know, to appear in search results and things like that. And yeah, but the couple calls that I get here and there maybe they turn into something, maybe they don't, but it is just one extra platform that I kind of, I feel like you're gonna be involved in

one of the things I hear all the time is all my database already knows what I'm doing. I'm already doing as much as I can on my job is trust me, I'm getting the most amount of business out of my database. People tell me that all the time. And I go, Okay, how many transactions you do last year to be like 20? Like how many Facebook friends you have, like 1500 ago, dude, you got cheated on like 40 times last year? Absolutely not. You're not generating enough. None of us are guys. Like you got to embrace that because every single person knows someone that could refer you to each year on your Facebook friend list. And if you have 1000 friends and you didn't get 1000 referrals will tell you that not everyone knows what the hell you do for a living.

Absolutely. And it goes back and it's attributed to kind of what we were talking about before. What I said before is people don't remember the space is so crowded and you talk about all the time they don't mean to cheat on you. It's just that other people flooded their their view space with their information, their content and now their their care,

their attention. Everyone's fighting for the same thing without attention. You will never attract but also without content you'll never build a brand and if you never build a brand you're just a salesperson chasing another check. You can't run a business without it. That's how important content creation is becoming in real estate it's everything because you really care what doesn't matter are you getting hired because of your brokerage or you get hired because you

hire because of me? Yeah, you know, I'm I'm not not taking anything away from my brokerage I wouldn't be able to do the things that I've been able to do without the amazing people I have around me. But yeah, it's it's it's me they they want to work with me which is you know, kind of one of the reasons why I love doing the solo agent thing. People are I built my brand my business on me being me and working with directly with with my clients. So it'd be hard to kind of pass that off to somebody else

so awesome dude. Super pumped to see all your success. It's been awesome to watch you grow. I see you on social all the time. If I don't comment a lot, I see you a lot of people see you just know that and keep doing what you're doing, man. What else anything else you want to add on here? I think I got everything I wanted to get out of you today. But what else you want to share with the audience here?

Yeah, man, I, I just want people to know, like, again, I'm super appreciative of like what I get to do and if you're not doing it from a place of appreciation, you're not going to be successful. Anyway, if you do have the I'm firm believer that if you have ill intentions like you might do it and make it happen for a little while but you got to be humbled by what you do, you got to enjoy you got to appreciate it, we got to understand that it's not just you doing either it is i i do take a lot of pride in what I do and what I've been able to create. But I also understand that I wouldn't be where I am without the people that I've had around me to help me out that can make it happen. So I don't know anything about editing videos I don't really know anything about editing scripts I'm very fortunate where they kind of just come to me it my brain is more wired in that way. But if you're not doing video and you're not doing it because like you don't know what to say and you're you're just not wired that way then here's my point of view and like last point that I want to say is get you a real estate marketing Dude get you the people around you that you need to have to accomplish your goals because you can't do it alone.

And there's another bit of wisdom and you might be too young in your career even know this yet but I will tell you every single agent I've ever come across as I've had four brokerages, three teams I've coached trained hundreds of agents we have millions of people on this podcast what a what never changes whenever changes on any of this shit is where business always always comes from but every single agent who starts making money it's usually around the three to five year mark telling you it happened to me my head blew up so damn big when I was making 50 100 grand a month 120 grand a month back in the day your head grows so big don't let that shit get to your head because what happens when you start creating content you start doing well like oh I don't need that video anymore. I don't need that thing anymore. And that's what happened to Colin he's busy I'm doing 70 Fucking deals on beer I don't have time to go out and do this video. What if you didn't do that video you know what I mean? Be humble you guys you guys will get you will make money in this business but when you do be grateful for it and don't start getting that ego because those are the agents and then they always fall on their face. I was one of them. I could tell you guys from firsthand experience I used to make millions of dollars and I fucking lost it all and went bankrupt and I built myself back up. So I will tell you guys that everyone goes through the ego what he just said was probably the best advice on this whole podcast and those of you that are in that three to five year timeframe right now when you're starting to get that ego Oh my shit don't stink anymore. Watch out. We're gonna shift your thinking your shit is gonna stink really quick. All right, so that was great advice. Love that thank you so much for sharing that caller wants to give everyone a plug. If you guys have any southern Wisconsin business you want someone to take good care of them and make you look at your buck and Rockstar give the Colin your referral business com Go ahead and tell everyone how they can follow you reach you and whatnot.

Absolutely thank you for that. Also Northern Illinois so anywhere in Northern Illinois, I can help them as well they are licensed in both states. So if you guys are looking to connect if you want to send some business my way I'd love to take care of them and have fun with your clients. I would also love to talk to you about what I do if you have any questions you know you got a resource like Mike and I want to be a resource and help other people like they've helped me so check me out on Instagram at robed realtor and that's our OB e d r e a l t o r find me on Facebook and Instagram there find me on Tik Tok as well not as active there. Or you know look me up on Facebook Colin Schindler let's calm with one owl shoot me a friend request send me a message and let's connect.

Love it dude. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Thank you guys for listening to another episode of estate marketing dude podcast folks, let us help you script and distribute your videos and if you want short form content, we just released that too. Whether you're doing long form videos and trying to rank on YouTube or you're creating short form videos for Tik Tok reels, and all the other things that you want to do. If it's on video, we can do it and we can do it really fucking Well, so call a dude now at www dot real estate market to do.com real estate market to do.com Thanks for listening and we'll see you guys next week peace. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We'll see you next time.