14. My content strategy: be a friend, be an expert and be available

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💡 Ever wondered what makes a standout content strategy? This morning, I'm diving into a lesson that keeps transforming my approach—the simple yet profound idea that to create compelling content, you need to be a friend, be available, and be an expert.

✨ Over the years, I've learned that documenting our journey rather than dictating instructions makes a significant difference. Sharing who we are as whole people allows our audience to connect with us on a deeper level, which often translates into better engagement and more leads. It's about striking that balance and seeing our business mirror our personal energy. Trust me, that's where the magic happens!

🎧 In today’s episode, I break down the nuances of being a whole person online, the importance of thought leadership, and the critical role of being available. These elements are crucial for building relationships and establishing trust with your audience. Curious to know how I went from seeing a drop in leads to boosting engagement by sharing more of my personal journey? Tune in to uncover the details.

🔗 Join our ongoing conversation in the Business Systems for Realtors Facebook group to swap stories, tips, and strategies. Don't miss out on our free Content Funnels challenge to take your content game to the next level!

By closely examining each piece of the "Be a friend, be an expert, and be available" framework, this episode promises to shed light on the impactful, yet often overlooked, strategies that can redefine your content approach. Grab a cup of coffee and let's get into it!

Business Systems for Realtors Facebook group: https://facebook.com/groups/bizsystems.
7-Day Funnel Challenge: https://orbit.realestate/cnfin7days
Explore how you can team up with us at eXp: https://alexarosario.com/exp.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
One of my biggest lessons in working with content
has been this exact quote thatI'm going to tell you and then
I'm going to break it down foryou In order to create a great
content strategy, you have to bea friend, you have to be
available and you have to be anexpert.
And so it sounds so similar tothis no like and trust thing

(00:21):
that we've all heard about, butwhen you really get into like
each piece of that, it is verydifferent and has become really
a framework for a lot of theapproach that I've taken with
content.
I talked about in a previousepisode about how important
ghost selling is and why wereally need to focus on
documenting our journey ratherthan dictating what the person

(00:44):
on the receiving side should do,and so, as I've gone through
and just kind of continued tostudy the psychology of
marketing and study thepsychology of content, this
concept keeps coming back andkeeps sort of reaffirming how
powerful it actually is.
So let's break it down like,piece by piece, and how I've

(01:04):
understood and how I've receivedthis, and hopefully it
resonates with you too.
So the first one is to be afriend.
Now, to me, this goes into thequestion that most agents ask,
which is should I have twoseparate accounts, like one for
my personal, one for my business?
This mindset right here for me,was the clarifying answer that

(01:24):
basically said I should not havetwo separate accounts.
I should be a whole person,right?
Not just the real estate agent,not just the person who always
talks about funnels for realestate, but to be a whole person
.
And so we think about thisconcept of people connect with
people, right?
And so if you've done anyamount of networking in the past

(01:45):
, you know that you walk into aroom.
And if you only talk about yourbusiness the example I always
use is when you go to anetworking event if you're
slinging business cards likeprostitute flyers in Vegas,
people get kind of offended andthey sort of repel from you
right Now.
This idea of being a wholeperson or being a friend is
people do business with peoplethey like, right?

(02:06):
And so we forget about that alot when it comes to creating
our content strategy.
And anytime that I've everstopped sharing myself online, I
typically see the amount ofleads that I'm generating start
to decline.
I see my open rates and myemails start to decline, and it
never happens intentionally,it's just like I get busy, I'm
focused on the business andfocus on all the things, and

(02:28):
then I stop being a whole person, I stop having balance in my
own life and, all of a sudden,like my content reflects that as
well, and so this is a wholeseparate conversation for
another day.
But this idea of like ourbusiness and our content and
everything in our life mirroringour exact energy has shown up
for me in so many ways, and Iprobably at some point we'll do

(02:50):
an episode just around that,because that's been probably one
of my biggest epiphanies overthe last year or so.
But really my biggest takeawayhere is never stop sharing who
you are as a whole person, andin our content funnels challenge
, we really dig into this ideaof having an avatar that you're
creating content for, and so,for example, my avatar.

(03:12):
Her name is Fallon, she's 40.
She has aging parents, she isvery likely going to end up
having to go through the probateprocess and or has friends that
are going through that processas well, and so that is kind of
my very specific person.
I live in South Florida, so thethings that are very popular in
common here are we love to eatout.

(03:33):
We're a very health consciousplace.
For me to connect with Fallon,I have to be a whole person
where she's like yeah, Idefinitely want to hang out with
you.
So that means when I go out toeat, I'm sharing my food,
because why not?
I share my workouts and all ofthat because it actually
resonates with Fallon as a wholeperson, where it's not just

(03:55):
about real estate.
If I only share the real estateside of me, she feels like she
can't really talk to me unlessit's about real estate, and then
at that point it feels likeit's more of a transactional,
salesy approach.
And so incorporating this wholeperson aspect, and specifically
when it connects with youravatar, is really where the
magic happens, and especiallyfor my high D and high C

(04:17):
personalities that are more taskfocused and like focused on the
result and the goal.
While this might feel like it'sa waste of time, when people
feel connected to you is whenyou have the power to influence
them, and so by being a wholeperson like that is the secret,
that's the secret sauce thatnobody talks enough about, but
it truly makes a difference.

(04:38):
Jumping into number two, whichis be an expert, so this idea of
being a thought leader iscontinuing to grow across, like
LinkedIn and all these differentplatforms, but essentially a
thought leader is someone who isliterally leading a space with
their thought, like there's amuch fancier definition, but
that is basically what it endsup coming down to Someone who

(05:01):
other people look to as anexpert within a specific area.
And so, instead of just beingan expert around South Florida
real estate in my case, becausethere's a lot of real estate
agents here we actually have twoof the largest real estate
associations in the entirecountry, and so for us, being a
South Florida real estate expertis not something that makes you

(05:23):
stand out Like the typicalperson knows about 20 real
estate agents here.
But when we can focus on beingan expert within a specific type
of real estate and we talkabout our thought leadership and
we tell the stories and we'rebeing a whole person and we're
feeling the emotion thatconnects with your audience, all
of a sudden everything becomesa little bit more attainable, a

(05:46):
little bit more connected.
A little bit more attainable, alittle bit more connected Now,
as we're sharing our sort ofthought leadership, sharing our
lessons.
At this point, it's not justabout, like giving the
Google-able facts right, like ifthey can just Google it, like
we have chaggbt now.
So it's like what are the stepsto X, y and Z?
But when we can share thestories that our clients have

(06:07):
gone through in order to learnthose lessons, we no longer feel
like we're being sold.
We feel like we're beinginvited on a journey and we're
almost listening to this fictionstory that you're like, wow, I
can't believe that happened.
And then you actually are opento learning the lesson.
That's why we're so obsessedwith like true crime and drama

(06:27):
shows and all these other thingsis because we're invited along
a journey rather than being soldto and rather than knowing that
we're being influenced.
It happens in such a subtle waythat by sharing the stories,
that's how we end up having thatsort of impact.
And so sharing stories likefive things that my client
thought they had to do toaccomplish the goal, rather than

(06:50):
here's five mistakes that youare probably making right,
instead of telling them whatthey should or shouldn't do,
we're talking about our clientsand, plus, doing it that way is
just sort of casually braggingabout your case studies in the
most genuinely humble waypossible.
And the last piece of this is tobe available.

(07:10):
When I initially talked aboutthis in our masterminds, one of
the things that we really duginto was this concept of
reaching out to the people whoare engaging in your content,
and so one of the attendees waslike well, I just don't want to
do that, like that's just notreally part of my strategy and
the way that we sort of talkedabout this.
What we came up with is thefact that if we are not reaching

(07:32):
out, we're not being available,we're not engaging in
conversation with our audience,it almost starts to feel like we
are unattainable for them.
It feels like they're watchinga news anchor talking about
their expertise, but they don'tnecessarily feel like they can
approach you, and so, by makingsure that we're available, we're
giving invitations for peopleto connect with us.

(07:54):
We're reaching out to connectwith them.
That is where that be availablepiece comes into play, and so I
hope that you're seeing thatevery single thing that we've
talked about with be a friend,be an expert and be available
applies in real life, but italso applies online, and so when
we forget to incorporate any ofthese three things, we

(08:15):
typically find that businessslows down, lead generation
slows down, our lead nurturingstops converting as well, our
clients are less excited aboutworking with us, and so we
really have to lean into allthree of these.
So that's the episode for today.
As always, please join us inthe Business Systems for
Realtors Facebook group to joinour daily discussion, and don't

(08:37):
forget that we have our ContentFunnels Challenge going on right
now.
You can join it, it's free, andwe'll drop that link in the
description.