Selling the Dream: A Podcast for Resort & 2nd Home Real Estate Agents
Ep. 76: Jonathan Hawkins on Using Storytelling to Make Selling Look Easy
What story do you share with your clients? Or do you even share a story?
Social media is a powerful tool for real estate agents, letting us connect like never before.
When you consistently use those social media tools to tell stories, you’re going to see results in your sales.
Storytelling is effective in sales: when you share simple facts, two parts of your brain are stimulated. When you share a story, you engage FIVE parts of the brain - including the part where the hearer imagines themselves as part of the story!
You tell the story of a house, and the lifestyle of the family who lives in that home, and you’ve hooked a potential client as they see themselves living in the story that you’re telling.
Doesn’t this sound familiar? Remember: we don’t sell homes, we sell dreams.
Today we’ve honored to interview Jonathan Hawkins for the Selling the Dream podcast. Jonathan jumped into real estate all-in, and quickly skyrocketed to the top. He used social media and storytelling, and made selling look so easy that other agents came to him, looking for help with their social media strategies.
Jonathan is passionate about helping others, so from those requests, The Hashtag Agent was born, and Jonathan now trains real estate agents in how they can use storytelling in their social media, and break negative perceptions that people have of the industry.
Highlights of this episode:
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Tom introduces Jonathan Hawkins and his business, The Hashtag Agent.
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After 5 years in real estate, Jonathan Hawkins founded a company called The Hashtag Agent to help train real estate agents in how to use social media to promote themselves.
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Jonathan hadn’t had a plan: he just jumped all-in and aggressively took action.
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“I didn’t have an option, and had to work,” Jonathan says. “If you want to make it happen, it’s going to work.”
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That produced powerful results, and other real estate agents took note!
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In the beginning, Jonathan’s social media looked nothing like it does today: he learned the art of storytelling and sharing his personal story through trial and error.
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Jonathan never saw himself as the expert, but he was always willing to help others who came to him with questions.
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A lot of agents don’t like social media because they don’t always know what to say, and don’t want to show the hard things.
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When it comes to social media, pick a position and stick with it. Not everyone will love it, but the people who do love what you have to say will be the best clients for you!
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Social media is for storytelling.
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Only two parts of your brain are used to process facts, but 5 parts of your brain are activated when you tell a story! The audience envisions themselves as part of the story!
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Check out the book, “Building a Story Brand” by Donald Miller - it’s a great resource for learning how to tell your story.
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The Hashtag Agent began when people were coming to Jonathan looking for training in how to use Instagram or Facebook effectively; wanting to find training in ads.
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Now they are creating tons of content teaching storytelling, and how to make selling part of the big story.
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How can you use storytelling to sell second market homes?
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Don’t assume that clients know how it works! Don’t be afraid to show the story of the sale, so that people learn how to do it by watching someone else’s story.
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Make sure to be telling stories through your testimonials for those new clients. Most feedback tends to be generic. Use an anonymous survey through Survey Monkey or a similar program to anonymously gather the results and get good feedback.
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People who see your social media are going to be at different stages in life: make your ultimate goal be serving your clients.
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Want more resources? Go to www.thehashtagagent.com (make sure you spell out “hashtag”) and find resources from Jonathan.
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Go out there, and tell phenomenal stories that your clients want to be a part of.
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Use this resource to help you in working with your clients.
Hey everybody, thank you so much for spending time with us today: would you do me a giant favor and share this podcast with fellow realtors, and leave a review. Your reviews help this podcast get shared with more people.
Special thanks to Jonathan Hawkins for coming on the show! You can connect with him here:
Connect with me (Tom):
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As always, thanks for listening. Don’t forget, you’re not selling a home: you’re selling the dream.
See you next time!
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