July 15, 2025 • 32 mins
Local Loyalty: How Lolo Transforms Agent-Client Relationships
Matthew Simpson, co-founder of Lolo, shares the pivotal role of maintaining connections within the real estate industry through thoughtful engagement strategies. He articulates how Lolo provides real estate agents with a sophisticated tool designed to facilitate ongoing communication with their sphere of influence by sending curated local gifts on a monthly basis. This initiative not only fosters loyalty among clients but also champions local businesses, thereby enriching community ties. Throughout our discussion, we delve into the evolution of Lolo and the significance of leveraging technology to enhance personal relationships in a competitive market. Additionally, Matthew shares invaluable insights on the importance of building a robust network and the lessons learned from navigating the complexities of entrepreneurship within the real estate sector.
The dialogue between Bill Risser and Matthew Simpson unfolds a narrative rich in insights about the evolution of Lolo, a platform designed to maintain connections between real estate professionals and their clientele. Matthew, drawing from his extensive experience in the real estate sector, elucidates how Lolo curates local gifts, thereby fostering a sense of community and enhancing client relationships. The discussion delves into the challenges faced by local businesses amid the dominance of larger corporations, and how Lolo aims to provide these businesses with a competitive edge through innovative marketing strategies. Matthew articulates the importance of sustaining local culture and economy, illustrating how Lolo not only benefits agents in their outreach efforts but also supports small enterprises in becoming visible and engaging within their communities. This episode captures the essence of modern entrepreneurship in real estate, emphasizing relationship-building as a pivotal approach in an increasingly digital world.
Takeaways:
- Matthew Simpson discusses the inception of Lolo, a platform designed to enhance connections between real estate agents and their local communities.
- The Lolo service curates monthly gifts from local businesses, enabling agents to maintain engagement with their sphere of influence effectively.
- Simpson emphasizes the importance of relationships in real estate, advocating for agents to focus on networking from the outset of their careers.
- The podcast highlights the evolution of Lolo from a technology initiative to a business centered on curating meaningful local experiences for clients.
- Simpson shares insights on overcoming fears of rejection in sales, urging new agents to embrace failures as opportunities for growth and learning.
- The conversation reveals Lolo's commitment to supporting local businesses and fostering sustainable community engagement through thoughtful gifting.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
And so that began the initialdiscussion for what is now Lolo,
which is how can we help themstay top of mind with an item of
value, with somethingmeaningful and local, with a write
up with pictures, justsomething that monthly goes out in
an automated way.
(00:20):
You're listening to the RealEstate Sessions and I'm your host,
Bill risser. With nearly 25years in the real estate business,
I love to interview industryleaders, up and comers and really
anyone with a story to tell.It's the stories that led my guests
to a career in the real estateworld that drives me into my ninth
year and nearly 400 episodesof the podcast. And now I hope you
enjoy the next journey. Hieverybody. Welcome to episode 382
(00:46):
of the Real Estate Sessionspodcast. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. Thank youso much for telling a friend. Today
we're going to talk to anotherreal estate entrepreneur. His name
is Matthew Simpson. He is theco founder of Lolo. Lolo is a relationship
retainer. They curate a localgift of the month to help agents
stay in touch with theirsphere at a really affordable price.
(01:06):
It's such a cool tool. Itreally lets these local businesses
kind of shine instead of thebig box brands that are always kind
of used a lot by agents. Solet's get this thing going. And oh,
by the way, we'll talk alittle bit of ACC basketball too.
So stick around if you're intothat. Let's get it going. Matthew,
welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having me, Bill.
This is going to be a lot offun. You and I met on, we'll call
(01:30):
it on the circuit, on thebooth circuit, you know, at the real
estate events, hanging out andmany times we ended up pretty close
together. And I love whatyou're doing with Lolo. We're going
to get deep into that as well.But yeah, it's just going to be,
should be a lot of fun today.
Brings me back to throwingsome postcards at you a little bit
while you were on a, on acall. I don't have any of those to
(01:52):
throw at you.
Yeah, good. We're about athousand miles away, right? 800 maybe.
That helps a lot. So I knowyou're based in the Nashville area,
right? Are you a native ofTennessee? Are you a Nashville native?
I am. I would say I was bornin North Carolina, but I moved. It
was only because my dad was inNorth Carolina for school and so
(02:13):
we moved back when I was twoand a half, so grew up all the way
through high school in Nashville.
So I've been to Nashvilletwice. Once was way back in the day
when I was working for thePadres. There was a business meeting
I got to attend. I think thePredators were in their first couple
years. I don't think they'vebeen around a long time. Went to
a Predators game, saw the,where the Titans play. They were
building it. So that shouldput in your mind about the time frame.
(02:35):
I'm talking about this in the90s, right.
Late 90s.
And my second trip was. Wasrecently for, for a conference and
man, Broadway and that wholearea downtown and the, the riverfront.
And I'm sure for someone who'sgrown up there, it's just kind of
like, yeah, I'll take you downthere if someone comes to town. Do
(02:58):
you hang out down thereyourself? I'm just curious, is that.
Is downtown a part of your life?
Not really. I would say I godown there to go to Predators games,
Titans games, and when afriend who's in town really wants
to go down and see it. Butother than that, you know, it's become
a little bit like a Mardi Grasevery night. You know, there's. The
(03:20):
streets are full, the bars arepacked. It's a great experience for
someone who's in town for aconference or an event or just to
have fun, but not youreveryday night on the town. For someone
who lives here, it feels.
Like living there is much likeliving in Vegas. Right. There's a
whole community of people thatlive there and work there and do
their thing, but they're justnot going near the Strip for the
(03:42):
most part. Right.
As much as I spend time inVegas, I would say that's a great
analogy because there's a lotof people that would say they live
in Vegas and haven't been tothe Strip in months or even longer.
Yeah. Let me ask you this.Your favorite part of living in the
Nashville area, growing upthere and living there. And maybe
to add to that, what's thebiggest misconception about we'll
(04:06):
call it Music City usa?
Well, when I think about whatwas so special about growing up in
Nashville and then comparingit to today, I mean, it was always
the people. The people werejust so kind, thoughtful, welcoming,
just a really communitycentric vibe. And as it's grown,
(04:26):
we've had a lot of people froma lot of different places move in,
and some of that has. Haschanged a little bit. But I still
think you, you would hear alot of people that really enjoy the
community aspect of Nashvilleand the kind of feeling that the
People provide to each other.And I think it's also because there
was a very unique groups ofpeople. There's the musician community,
(04:48):
there's the businesscommunity, the healthcare community,
and all of these kind ofrespect each other. I don't think
you find what you would findin some markets, like in LA or something,
where there's a very celebrityaspect to things. At least when I
was growing up, you know, Iknew or met different people in the
music industry, and it wasn'tmuch like you'd bother them or do
(05:08):
anything. It's just likeanother person. And I think that
was probably nice for peoplein the music industry and one of
the reasons they've continuedto grow and be respected in this
community.
You mentioned, you alreadymentioned the Titans and the Preds,
I think. I know you're a bigsports guy, right? I mean, so it's
gotta be great to have thoseteams there. I actually, I think
you remember Terry from. Froma couple of the conferences, and
(05:30):
we actually went to aNashville Sounds game at that conference
we were at. So you got, yougot, you know, minor league, triple
A baseball there as well. So.And I was looking it up, and I don't
follow MLS enough to haveknown this, but you've got an MLS
team there, Nashville sc. Soit's pretty cool. You got just about
everything. And in the collegeworld, you know, you got Vanderbilt,
(05:51):
which is, you know, an SECschool, but it seems like their sports
levels never really kind of upto snuff with the rest of the conference.
Well, growing up, there werenone of these pro teams here, so
Vanderbilt was the ticket.When I was a kid, my grandfather
went to Vanderbilt, playedbasketball at Vanderbilt. I was ingrained
(06:14):
in Vanderbilt as a kid, butthere really weren't many other options.
And David Lipscomb, which isanother university. My, My dad went
there and my mom. And soultimately, you know, that was what
we grew up going to, and theyhad a good basketball team, and that
was kind of what we cheeredfor. They've always had a little
bit of trouble in the, in thefootball world, and I think it will
continue to be that way. It's.It's a. It's a tough ticket in the,
(06:37):
in the sec. It's hard to be aVanderbilt fan. I think you always
hear people say that, but it'sa great school. And so there's a
lot of awesome people who wentthere and live here and try and support
them as much as they can. Butit is easier now to be a Predators
fan or a Titans fan or aNashville SC fan or a sounds fan,
you know.
(06:58):
So, you know, we've had a fewchats, you know, in, in different
cities around the country. AndI know that you played basketball
growing up. You're a hoopsguy, you played some major college
basketball, yet you didn't goto Vanderbilt. I want to know what
your grandpa had to say. Andthen, and then. And then what? Where
did you end up going? Let'sshare that with everybody.
(07:18):
So I, I, you know, as I said,I was born in North Carolina, and
so growing up I was actuallywatched the ACC a lot. My dad had
done some residency at NorthCarolina unc, so I was a Tar Heel
fan, but just, you know, paidattention to North Carolina schools
and always felt like I wouldlike to go back over to North Carolina.
(07:40):
And so I ended up going toWake Forest University for, for college
and just had the good fortune,honestly, of joining a team that
Tim Duncan came in with me inthat freshman class and really the
rest is history because hewasn't highly recruited, but turned
into one of the best playersever. And we had a great team for
(08:02):
a few years. And as I wastelling you earlier, I didn't get
to play much, but I got agreat seat to a lot of great games.
Unfortunately, got injured mysophomore year and then kind of never
really. I was scraping to getto the level to be able to play to
begin with, but after myinjury, it was a little hard to really
recover, but great experienceall the way around. Great teams.
(08:23):
We won the ACC championship twice.
Tim Duncan's got thereputation of just being one of the
nicest, you know, just one ofthe coolest dudes, you know, that's
played in the NBA. You got tohang out with him in college. I'm
just going to assume that'swho Tim Duncan was.
Yes, that's who he was. Imean, he was very shy. Honestly,
when he first got to WakeForest, he was younger than everybody
(08:46):
else, started school a littleearly and came from the islands.
So just not a lot ofconnection to us university system
or experience. So he and Iwere really close freshman year as
he got to know everybody andjust such a nice guy and always thoughtful
and, you know, pretty much thePersona you see. He's not looking
(09:06):
for attention ever.
Yeah, that's cool. That's.That's. Seems rare in today's sports
world to come across that. Sothat's. That. Yeah, that's very cool.
If it was in today's world, Iwould say he would not have a Instagram
account. He wouldn't HaveSnapchat account. He wouldn't be
someone who's blowing upTwitter. He would be silent, working
(09:28):
hard, let his. Let his game dothe talk.
That's great. So I have to askyou this question, because growing
up in San Diego, I adopted ateam on the East Coast. You have
to pick somebody. And for me,it was the early 80s. Mike Jaminsky,
Ernie Banks. It was Duke,which I take a ton of grief for nowadays,
because, you know, it's. It's.They're. They're not well liked.
(09:48):
Yeah. So who. Who was on thoseDuke teams that you. Well, obviously
that you beat out for the ACCchampionship back then.
Yeah, I mean, I think when,you know, my freshman year, they
had a great team. We beat themat Duke, but that was the final years
of Grant Hill and those guys.And then it was basically Wojahowski,
(10:11):
and they kind of had adownturn for a few years. Coach K
took a year off during thattime, and so we did really well against
Duke the whole time. I think.I want to. I'm not sure I want to
say this out loud, but I thinkwe did not lose at Duke during that
time. So we've probably lostat Duke almost every time since then.
(10:33):
So they just had a little bitof a downturn during that window.
All right, good. Wake Forest,a private school, really well known
on the education side. Whatwere you going there? What were you
studying as you were there as well?
Well, I started actually witha mathematical economics major, and
back then it was really. Ijust looked at what was the classwork
(10:56):
that I enjoyed, which I reallyliked math, and what paid well as
a graduate. And I got intothat program and decided that while
I liked math, I didn't likemath as much as some other people
who were actually much betterat math than I was. And so I shifted
(11:16):
to just a business degree andgot a degree in business.
What were you thinking ofdoing then with that degree as you
were leaving? Because I knowwhere you end up. Right. You're heavy
in the development ofsoftware, and we're going to talk
about all that. But what wasthe first thing out of school?
Well, I was always interestedin what was happening with technology.
There was plenty of friends ofmine, and one of the guys that I
(11:38):
ended up going business withwho just played on computers and
liked to code and like tolearn things on computers while we
were at school. I wasn'tnecessarily that I just was fascinated
by it, but honestly, I wasjust looking for a job that was.
That felt comfortable and feltlike a fit. And I Actually did. I
got an internship with Pfizerafter my junior year and worked for
(11:59):
Pfizer this summer between myjunior and senior year and had a
company car and a full paidjob. And it was. It was a real position
that was designed to thentransition into a regular role afterwards.
But I realized during thattime that there was a lot of excessive
paperwork back then.Spreadsheets and documenting everything
(12:20):
that you do for each layer ofmanagement that you had to report
to. And it felt like it wasnot the kind of fit for me while
it was. I really liked thepeople I worked with. I thought they
were great. I just didn'treally feel like that was going to
be a fit for me. As mostpeople that know me know that I tend
to not be as enamored byauthority over what I'm doing. I
(12:44):
like to kind of find my ownpath. And so when I went back to
school, I only had a semesterleft anyway. And I did the semester
and then moved to Aspen,Colorado. Worked for Aspen Ski Company.
Kind of tried to figure outwhat I was going to do. It was awesome.
Got a lot of Skiing in Love,Colorado, and then formed a business
(13:06):
while I was there. Andbasically a design business slash
ad agency. And really the restis history. I never went to another
interview.
I was going to say, theentrepreneur runs deep in you. You
want to create your ownthings, and that's great. Let's talk
about then some of the thingsas you kind of progress through the
2000s. Right, let's go there.And I look at it this way. For someone
(13:28):
like you who's got thebusiness savvy, you want to create
your own opportunities. Itseems to me that it's all about like,
identifying where a problem isfor consumers or a problem for some,
some industry, and then comingup with a solution. Is that, is that
pretty safe? Is that kind ofwhat you and your partner do?
(13:48):
For sure. And I would take itall the way back to that ad agency
I mentioned, the designagency. What happened in the late
90s was we were doing a lot ofprint, radio, you know, that type
of ad, and people startedsaying, hey, I need a web presence.
So even though Everybody wason 56k modems and it wasn't really
(14:09):
conducive to a greatexperience, everybody felt like they
needed to have something. Andso we started doing a lot of websites
and I taught myself how tojust do basic HTML, some design,
and we started getting intothat space. And as it progressed,
we found more and moreclients. And that's what ultimately
(14:29):
transitioned me into getting alot more into the tech side of things.
As I spun off from that designagency into a company with two of
my Wake Forest grad friendsthat was really focused on simply
building software solutionsthat were web based for anyone that
(14:49):
needed them. I had met a guyas the ad agency when we were working
with a client in Nashville. Wewere trying to get them as a client.
I played golf with himrandomly, just had a public course,
got paired with him, told himabout what we were talking about
doing with taking traditionalgoods and putting them online. And
he, he said, man, that soundsawesome for us. We have all these
(15:12):
things in our warehouse we'dlove to sell. I'll get back with
you. Let's, let's dosomething. And so nothing ever happened
there. And fast forwardprobably a year in advance of that.
I got hurt, had to havesurgery. I'm laying in the hospital
pre op with, I'm getting theIV for anesthesia to go into surgery
(15:34):
and I hear this voice throughthe curtain next to me and it was
completely recognizable as theguy who I had played golf with like
a year before. And we startedchatting through the curtain and
he was like, man, I've beenmeaning to call you. Just hasn't
gotten around to it. Pleasecall me after surgery. So we both
had our surgeries after thesurgery. I call him, we reconnect.
(15:58):
It's a big, big distributor inNashville. We do a deal to solve
their problem, which wastaking all of the products they had
that they could sell online,building them into a web based business
to sell and ship direct out oftheir warehouse. And, and so that
was, that was the initialimpetus to roll off the business
(16:18):
from the ad agency, start anew one with two guys, friends of
mine from Wake Forest. It wasself funding because we did a deal
with them to pay for it, tobuild the site, to build the application.
And then we built a lot ofapplications in order to service
that, that we could then sellsoftware as a service to other companies
and that that company wascalled Six Train Technologies. We
(16:40):
began working for anothercompany with another company, shared
an office with them in Atlantacalled Member Clicks. We merged with
Member Clicks because we wereproviding all the form builder tools
for Member clicks. And thenMember Clicks grew and grew and then
we were solving really theassociation management space software
as a service to run amembership, any membership that was
(17:03):
out there and all the formsthat are needed for that. And then
that ultimately was acquiredand I moved on to, to start pursuing
what we're working on todaythrough various failures to get to
the point where we are now.And I think if I was to look back
at a lot of the things thatshaped when businesses have been
(17:25):
most successful, it's if youcan find someone who has a specific
need and go address that need.And that need, you know, allows for
enough money to be paid tosolve it, that's where you really
want to focus your efforts.Because that those businesses have
worked best for me versus theones where I thought I had an idea
(17:47):
that someone else needed and Icould make something that sounded
really cool because we did areally cool product that we launched
it called Path Crosser that meand Clark, my partner, launched south
by Southwest in 2011. It wasawesome, but it was basically to
show you where you cross pathswith people using location data that
(18:08):
was check in data from appslike Foursquare and Facebook and
some other apps. It was reallyfun. We had a party with Questlove
playing at the south bySouthwest. We had lots of, hey, this
is awesome. Everybody's gonnause it. A lot of people download
the app. No monetizationstrategy. It was fun, but didn't
(18:28):
really have a business behindit. So you learn from those failures.
You learn from makingmistakes, from trying to follow ideas
versus following demand. Andover time, I think that one of the
things I was afraid of as ayounger person was failing all the
time. I'd try and prevent thator trying to hide that. And an encouragement
(18:52):
I would give to anybody who'sgetting started right now is welcome
the first failures. Becausethe second you get those failures,
the things that you learn fromthem can be applied to every single
thing you do as you go forwardand will definitely give you an advantage
and lead to success.
(19:12):
Have you done any mentoringfor younger guys or girls coming
out of college? Have you everthought about doing that?
I've thought about it, butI've done a little bit lightly, you
know, just here and there, butnot. Not to the level that I think
someday I might considerdoing. It's just. It's always been
that chasing whatever is goingon, you know, that day with these
(19:36):
different businesses, and Ihaven't had the time and the resources
to do it the way that I feellike would be the most useful. I've
been on the board of a coupleof different companies, tried to
help in their initial startup,but nothing more than that.
Let's get to the world of realestate. So how does that enter the
(19:56):
picture for you?
Yeah, so that was, you know,that's also a great example of what
I just said, which is Clarkand I Had an idea for Lolo. It was
designed to be a rewards appwith emission of local people supporting
local independent businesses.It was designed to be, you know,
(20:19):
after, after a period of timewhere there'd been a lot of companies
that have had really come outwith discount coupons, half off coupons,
a lot of the things that weredesigned to drive traffic to businesses
but not necessarily benefitthem wholly. It was, it was kind
of a, hey, here's, here's somepeople. But we're going to take a
lot of this, this revenue andwe thought, can we create something
(20:41):
that's more sustainable forlocal independent businesses, that
gives them a competitive, noteven advantage, but just level the
playing field With a lot ofthe big box stores, the big chains,
and a lot of the companieshave rolled up companies and have
large marketing budgets. Howcan we help preserve and keep the
local vibe alive in eachcommunity? Because that's what's
(21:02):
so unique. It's like I talkedabout with Nashville. We, we launched
it in Asheville, NorthCarolina. And there's such a unique
local vibe there. And when yougo to different communities around
the world and you experiencetheir local businesses, that's what
makes them unique. That's whatmakes them special. That's what we
want to preserve. And itcreates that community feel for both
(21:22):
the visitors, but also thepeople who live there. They have
something that's special tothem. So the local, the initial Lolo
app, we went and got localindependent businesses to join our
program and say that theywould kick back some. Some discount
into the program. We went toMasterCard, Visa and Amex and got
(21:42):
them to. We facilitated wherean independent consumer like yourself
could put your credit card inLolo, register it, and then when
you spent at these localvendors, you would earn local dollars
back. So you would be a loyallocal. You would get lo local dollars
in your app. You could thenspend that lodo on any of the rewards
(22:04):
that those local businessesmade available, like a latte and
a pastry at a coffee shop, acandle at a boutique, Something that
was tangible, meaningful, thatyou could use your dollars, local
dollars that you've earned toreward yourself and support the local
business. Because everythingwas keeping it within the network.
(22:26):
It was a great experiment, itwas a great experience. We learned
a lot, we grew the business,we got a lot of users, but we really,
at the end of the day, didn'thave a great monetization strategy
because we were counting onthe local vendors to pay for it.
And so we said, is thissustainable long term? But we got,
(22:46):
again, we had Certain pointsyou take a turn. And we had a local
brokerage in Asheville, NorthCarolina, Beverly Hanks. And we had
a meeting with them. They weredoing, each month they're sending
out a little something totheir sphere. All of the agents were
sending an email with a littlesuggestion of something to do, a
(23:08):
discount to their sphere ofinfluence, their network of people.
But they didn't really like,it wasn't great. It was, it was kind
of, you know, sometimes thediscounts weren't so good. It was
something that needed to beimproved on. And so they asked us,
hey, could we just buy some ofthe things that are in your local
network, these rewards, canyou buy the stuff that people can
(23:30):
buy? With Loto, can we buy andthen send them out? And so that began
the initial discussion forwhat is now Lolo, which is how can
we help them stay top of mindwith an item of value, with something
meaningful and local, with awrite up with pictures, just something
that monthly goes out in anautomated way and keeps them connected
(23:51):
with their clients, contacts,referral partners, anybody that they
want to build their salesnetwork around. And so we did an
alpha group with BeverlyHanks, honed it, figured out how
to send emails, then send textmessages, then give them the data
that they wanted to see. Andthey were our first client. We ran
that for a year and then beganto expand outside of there. We're
(24:11):
now in 250 different marketsaround North America.
You know, the actual curatingof the local businesses. You know,
we've had long conversations,you and I, about that. That's, that's,
there's some work to be donethere, correct?
Yes, I would say this has beena business that started as more of
a technology business that isreally morphed into a curation business
(24:35):
with people gettinginformation, connections with the
local community and then beingable to provide that at scale to
people. But that is our maincore competency. I mean, we now have
a team of people that curategifts. And it's an important part
of it because the gifts needto be meaningful, they need to be
relevant, they need to be atgreat spots, they need to be local
(24:58):
and feel local. And that's thedifferentiator that we have and that
we provide to agents. And it'ssomething that can consistently go
out at a very low cost andkeep you top of mind and get opened.
Especially in a time whenthere's so much noise, so many people
sending so many different spamemails. This gives you something
(25:21):
that you can support and youhave content that you can Talk about
with all of your sphere ofinfluence, Right.
You've talked about thisbefore. I've heard you say this many
times to agents who come up toyou to talk about Lolo. It doesn't
really matter if they redeemit. Right? It just doesn't matter
because it's the idea thatyou're sending this to them every
(25:42):
month.
Correct? Well, and I would sayfor the local businesses, we want
a certain level of redemption,and luckily, we get redemption. But
the main goal for the sender,you know, the typical agent speaking
in the real estate world,they're looking to have something
that keeps them visible, topof mind, every month with anyone
(26:03):
that could refer them,business or use them again. And there's
a lot of options out therethat can be costly, time consuming,
difficult to execute. We tryto create something that is very,
very seamless. They just puttheir contacts in, and then they
trust that a thoughtful,meaningful message with a gift is
going out from their emailwith their branding each month. And
(26:25):
so we're trying to take downall those barriers and give them
that value. And when peopleget these gifts in the email and
text, they open them. Youknow, they want to see what it is.
It's local to them, so it'smeaningful. It may be a business
they haven't seen before orlearned about. They can learn something
new about a local, independentbusiness. And so the agent is providing
(26:46):
inherent value, they'reproviding information, and they're
providing a gift each month inan email. And so that creates high
engagement. Now they can alsotake it and redeem it. And we do.
And that's a large part ofwhat happens. But the first layer
of what's the value to theagent is simply that being top of
mind, and it's the thoughtthat counts. Someone opens something,
(27:07):
they go, oh, wow, that wasnice. That was thoughtful. The psychology
of receiving something thatwas given to you creates a very positive
response and makes people feelgood, and that's really what we deliver.
A little dopamine hit alwaysgood, right?
Yeah.
What's next for Lolo? Is theresomething you're looking at that
(27:29):
you can talk about? SometimesI ask this question and people go,
oh, we're doing some things.
Well, I think that a lot ofthe things that people that are in
the industry know that we'regoing to be doing. So it's not really
so much a surprise, but it'sjust making every bit of this more
accessible via a lot of otherproducts. So that whether you use
(27:50):
a CRM of some type, whetheryou're you know, building your own
application, whether you'reusing social channels and you want
to integrate something, somecomponent of what we do to automate
adding people to your list andsending gifts. I think our next vision
is mainly just making thismore and more accessible and making
the feedback loops better sothat you learn, hey, when I put someone
(28:13):
in, this is what happened.This is how many times they opened
it, this is when they redeemedit. Then I can be more educated in
how I trigger new gifts or newmessaging or new calls. Just understanding
your network of people, ifyou're in sales, understanding when
they're more likely to buymakes it more fertile ground for
(28:34):
you to make your outreach. Soeverything that we're doing is going
to be designed to help. Allthe software that's out there and
the AI buzzwords that aregoing on, all the, the tools that
are designed to try and createmore and more relevant content, we're
going to try and plug ineverywhere that we can to make that
better. And then I think, youknow, parts of the, of that will
(28:59):
also be allowing differentcadence descending of gifts, maybe,
maybe different types ofgifts, maybe, you know, different
things around that. But it'llalways revolve around staying with
our mission of supportinglocally owned independent businesses
and providing tools to makesure they have a level playing field
(29:20):
with all the big box storesand big brands.
I'm watching the clock here.I'm going to go ahead and give you
the final question here. Now,you're not a realtor. I don't think
you've really had anyexperience in that side of the place,
but you've been around themfor a long time now. And so in your
opinion, what one piece ofadvice would you give a new agent
(29:41):
just getting started?
Well, I'm going to be biasedin this because my knowledge is really
around sales. And when you'rethinking about long term sales cycles
that have large ticket itemsthat are infrequent purchases, I
would say focus onrelationships, focus on your network.
(30:04):
And from day one as a newagent, do not be afraid to reach
out and begin building yoursphere of influence. I think the
thing I see mostly with anysales job is that people will allow
fear to take over and preventthem from doing something. Fear of
(30:25):
rejection when they make aphone call, fear of failure when
they go to an appointment. Andat the end of the day, each one of
those failures, like I saidearlier, is so valuable. I mean,
if I look back and think abouthad I prevented myself from failing
at something, would it havebeen an improvement in my career
(30:49):
and I would say absolutelynot. In fact, I wish I had failed
faster and the faster Ifailed, where I learn about what
I need to do to succeed. Andthe only way I can think to tell
a new agent to get started isfocus on relationships. Because over
time, if they really want tobe in it for a long haul, they've
(31:12):
got to start with making thoserelationships, proving they can do
something, and then workingreferrals from there. Because I believe
that's the best way to build along term foundation for the business.
That's awesome. Matthew, ifsomebody wants to reach out to you,
what's the best way for themto get in touch with you or with
Lolo?
I would say go to joinlolo.comanybody can always email me@matthewoinlo.com
(31:39):
this has been great.
I knew I would get some thingsout of there that I hadn't heard
before, which is very cool. Ireally love what you're doing. I've
talked to a lot of differentpeople about what you're doing and
said you got to call thesepeople. You got to understand how
affordable and powerful thistool could be. I think you've done
(32:00):
fantastic work, socongratulations on that. Thanks so
much for your time today.
Thanks for having me. Ienjoyed it.
Thank you for listening to theReal Estate Sessions. Please head
over to ratethispodcast.comresessions to leave a review or a
rating and subscribe to theReal Estate Sessions podcast at your
favorite podcast listening app.
And so that began the initialdiscussion for what is now Lolo,
which is how can we help themstay top of mind with an item of
value, with somethingmeaningful and local, with a write
up with pictures, justsomething that monthly goes out in
an automated way.
(00:20):
You're listening to the RealEstate Sessions and I'm your host,
Bill risser. With nearly 25years in the real estate business,
I love to interview industryleaders, up and comers and really
anyone with a story to tell.It's the stories that led my guests
to a career in the real estateworld that drives me into my ninth
year and nearly 400 episodesof the podcast. And now I hope you
enjoy the next journey. Hieverybody. Welcome to episode 382
(00:46):
of the Real Estate Sessionspodcast. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. Thank youso much for telling a friend. Today
we're going to talk to anotherreal estate entrepreneur. His name
is Matthew Simpson. He is theco founder of Lolo. Lolo is a relationship
retainer. They curate a localgift of the month to help agents
stay in touch with theirsphere at a really affordable price.
(01:06):
It's such a cool tool. Itreally lets these local businesses
kind of shine instead of thebig box brands that are always kind
of used a lot by agents. Solet's get this thing going. And oh,
by the way, we'll talk alittle bit of ACC basketball too.
So stick around if you're intothat. Let's get it going. Matthew,
welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having me, Bill.
This is going to be a lot offun. You and I met on, we'll call
(01:30):
it on the circuit, on thebooth circuit, you know, at the real
estate events, hanging out andmany times we ended up pretty close
together. And I love whatyou're doing with Lolo. We're going
to get deep into that as well.But yeah, it's just going to be,
should be a lot of fun today.
Brings me back to throwingsome postcards at you a little bit
while you were on a, on acall. I don't have any of those to
(01:52):
throw at you.
Yeah, good. We're about athousand miles away, right? 800 maybe.
That helps a lot. So I knowyou're based in the Nashville area,
right? Are you a native ofTennessee? Are you a Nashville native?
I am. I would say I was bornin North Carolina, but I moved. It
was only because my dad was inNorth Carolina for school and so
(02:13):
we moved back when I was twoand a half, so grew up all the way
through high school in Nashville.
So I've been to Nashvilletwice. Once was way back in the day
when I was working for thePadres. There was a business meeting
I got to attend. I think thePredators were in their first couple
years. I don't think they'vebeen around a long time. Went to
a Predators game, saw the,where the Titans play. They were
building it. So that shouldput in your mind about the time frame.
(02:35):
I'm talking about this in the90s, right.
Late 90s.
And my second trip was. Wasrecently for, for a conference and
man, Broadway and that wholearea downtown and the, the riverfront.
And I'm sure for someone who'sgrown up there, it's just kind of
like, yeah, I'll take you downthere if someone comes to town. Do
(02:58):
you hang out down thereyourself? I'm just curious, is that.
Is downtown a part of your life?
Not really. I would say I godown there to go to Predators games,
Titans games, and when afriend who's in town really wants
to go down and see it. Butother than that, you know, it's become
a little bit like a Mardi Grasevery night. You know, there's. The
(03:20):
streets are full, the bars arepacked. It's a great experience for
someone who's in town for aconference or an event or just to
have fun, but not youreveryday night on the town. For someone
who lives here, it feels.
Like living there is much likeliving in Vegas. Right. There's a
whole community of people thatlive there and work there and do
their thing, but they're justnot going near the Strip for the
(03:42):
most part. Right.
As much as I spend time inVegas, I would say that's a great
analogy because there's a lotof people that would say they live
in Vegas and haven't been tothe Strip in months or even longer.
Yeah. Let me ask you this.Your favorite part of living in the
Nashville area, growing upthere and living there. And maybe
to add to that, what's thebiggest misconception about we'll
(04:06):
call it Music City usa?
Well, when I think about whatwas so special about growing up in
Nashville and then comparingit to today, I mean, it was always
the people. The people werejust so kind, thoughtful, welcoming,
just a really communitycentric vibe. And as it's grown,
(04:26):
we've had a lot of people froma lot of different places move in,
and some of that has. Haschanged a little bit. But I still
think you, you would hear alot of people that really enjoy the
community aspect of Nashvilleand the kind of feeling that the
People provide to each other.And I think it's also because there
was a very unique groups ofpeople. There's the musician community,
(04:48):
there's the businesscommunity, the healthcare community,
and all of these kind ofrespect each other. I don't think
you find what you would findin some markets, like in LA or something,
where there's a very celebrityaspect to things. At least when I
was growing up, you know, Iknew or met different people in the
music industry, and it wasn'tmuch like you'd bother them or do
(05:08):
anything. It's just likeanother person. And I think that
was probably nice for peoplein the music industry and one of
the reasons they've continuedto grow and be respected in this
community.
You mentioned, you alreadymentioned the Titans and the Preds,
I think. I know you're a bigsports guy, right? I mean, so it's
gotta be great to have thoseteams there. I actually, I think
you remember Terry from. Froma couple of the conferences, and
(05:30):
we actually went to aNashville Sounds game at that conference
we were at. So you got, yougot, you know, minor league, triple
A baseball there as well. So.And I was looking it up, and I don't
follow MLS enough to haveknown this, but you've got an MLS
team there, Nashville sc. Soit's pretty cool. You got just about
everything. And in the collegeworld, you know, you got Vanderbilt,
(05:51):
which is, you know, an SECschool, but it seems like their sports
levels never really kind of upto snuff with the rest of the conference.
Well, growing up, there werenone of these pro teams here, so
Vanderbilt was the ticket.When I was a kid, my grandfather
went to Vanderbilt, playedbasketball at Vanderbilt. I was ingrained
(06:14):
in Vanderbilt as a kid, butthere really weren't many other options.
And David Lipscomb, which isanother university. My, My dad went
there and my mom. And soultimately, you know, that was what
we grew up going to, and theyhad a good basketball team, and that
was kind of what we cheeredfor. They've always had a little
bit of trouble in the, in thefootball world, and I think it will
continue to be that way. It's.It's a. It's a tough ticket in the,
(06:37):
in the sec. It's hard to be aVanderbilt fan. I think you always
hear people say that, but it'sa great school. And so there's a
lot of awesome people who wentthere and live here and try and support
them as much as they can. Butit is easier now to be a Predators
fan or a Titans fan or aNashville SC fan or a sounds fan,
you know.
(06:58):
So, you know, we've had a fewchats, you know, in, in different
cities around the country. AndI know that you played basketball
growing up. You're a hoopsguy, you played some major college
basketball, yet you didn't goto Vanderbilt. I want to know what
your grandpa had to say. Andthen, and then. And then what? Where
did you end up going? Let'sshare that with everybody.
(07:18):
So I, I, you know, as I said,I was born in North Carolina, and
so growing up I was actuallywatched the ACC a lot. My dad had
done some residency at NorthCarolina unc, so I was a Tar Heel
fan, but just, you know, paidattention to North Carolina schools
and always felt like I wouldlike to go back over to North Carolina.
(07:40):
And so I ended up going toWake Forest University for, for college
and just had the good fortune,honestly, of joining a team that
Tim Duncan came in with me inthat freshman class and really the
rest is history because hewasn't highly recruited, but turned
into one of the best playersever. And we had a great team for
(08:02):
a few years. And as I wastelling you earlier, I didn't get
to play much, but I got agreat seat to a lot of great games.
Unfortunately, got injured mysophomore year and then kind of never
really. I was scraping to getto the level to be able to play to
begin with, but after myinjury, it was a little hard to really
recover, but great experienceall the way around. Great teams.
(08:23):
We won the ACC championship twice.
Tim Duncan's got thereputation of just being one of the
nicest, you know, just one ofthe coolest dudes, you know, that's
played in the NBA. You got tohang out with him in college. I'm
just going to assume that'swho Tim Duncan was.
Yes, that's who he was. Imean, he was very shy. Honestly,
when he first got to WakeForest, he was younger than everybody
(08:46):
else, started school a littleearly and came from the islands.
So just not a lot ofconnection to us university system
or experience. So he and Iwere really close freshman year as
he got to know everybody andjust such a nice guy and always thoughtful
and, you know, pretty much thePersona you see. He's not looking
(09:06):
for attention ever.
Yeah, that's cool. That's.That's. Seems rare in today's sports
world to come across that. Sothat's. That. Yeah, that's very cool.
If it was in today's world, Iwould say he would not have a Instagram
account. He wouldn't HaveSnapchat account. He wouldn't be
someone who's blowing upTwitter. He would be silent, working
(09:28):
hard, let his. Let his game dothe talk.
That's great. So I have to askyou this question, because growing
up in San Diego, I adopted ateam on the East Coast. You have
to pick somebody. And for me,it was the early 80s. Mike Jaminsky,
Ernie Banks. It was Duke,which I take a ton of grief for nowadays,
because, you know, it's. It's.They're. They're not well liked.
(09:48):
Yeah. So who. Who was on thoseDuke teams that you. Well, obviously
that you beat out for the ACCchampionship back then.
Yeah, I mean, I think when,you know, my freshman year, they
had a great team. We beat themat Duke, but that was the final years
of Grant Hill and those guys.And then it was basically Wojahowski,
(10:11):
and they kind of had adownturn for a few years. Coach K
took a year off during thattime, and so we did really well against
Duke the whole time. I think.I want to. I'm not sure I want to
say this out loud, but I thinkwe did not lose at Duke during that
time. So we've probably lostat Duke almost every time since then.
(10:33):
So they just had a little bitof a downturn during that window.
All right, good. Wake Forest,a private school, really well known
on the education side. Whatwere you going there? What were you
studying as you were there as well?
Well, I started actually witha mathematical economics major, and
back then it was really. Ijust looked at what was the classwork
(10:56):
that I enjoyed, which I reallyliked math, and what paid well as
a graduate. And I got intothat program and decided that while
I liked math, I didn't likemath as much as some other people
who were actually much betterat math than I was. And so I shifted
(11:16):
to just a business degree andgot a degree in business.
What were you thinking ofdoing then with that degree as you
were leaving? Because I knowwhere you end up. Right. You're heavy
in the development ofsoftware, and we're going to talk
about all that. But what wasthe first thing out of school?
Well, I was always interestedin what was happening with technology.
There was plenty of friends ofmine, and one of the guys that I
(11:38):
ended up going business withwho just played on computers and
liked to code and like tolearn things on computers while we
were at school. I wasn'tnecessarily that I just was fascinated
by it, but honestly, I wasjust looking for a job that was.
That felt comfortable and feltlike a fit. And I Actually did. I
got an internship with Pfizerafter my junior year and worked for
(11:59):
Pfizer this summer between myjunior and senior year and had a
company car and a full paidjob. And it was. It was a real position
that was designed to thentransition into a regular role afterwards.
But I realized during thattime that there was a lot of excessive
paperwork back then.Spreadsheets and documenting everything
(12:20):
that you do for each layer ofmanagement that you had to report
to. And it felt like it wasnot the kind of fit for me while
it was. I really liked thepeople I worked with. I thought they
were great. I just didn'treally feel like that was going to
be a fit for me. As mostpeople that know me know that I tend
to not be as enamored byauthority over what I'm doing. I
(12:44):
like to kind of find my ownpath. And so when I went back to
school, I only had a semesterleft anyway. And I did the semester
and then moved to Aspen,Colorado. Worked for Aspen Ski Company.
Kind of tried to figure outwhat I was going to do. It was awesome.
Got a lot of Skiing in Love,Colorado, and then formed a business
(13:06):
while I was there. Andbasically a design business slash
ad agency. And really the restis history. I never went to another
interview.
I was going to say, theentrepreneur runs deep in you. You
want to create your ownthings, and that's great. Let's talk
about then some of the thingsas you kind of progress through the
2000s. Right, let's go there.And I look at it this way. For someone
(13:28):
like you who's got thebusiness savvy, you want to create
your own opportunities. Itseems to me that it's all about like,
identifying where a problem isfor consumers or a problem for some,
some industry, and then comingup with a solution. Is that, is that
pretty safe? Is that kind ofwhat you and your partner do?
(13:48):
For sure. And I would take itall the way back to that ad agency
I mentioned, the designagency. What happened in the late
90s was we were doing a lot ofprint, radio, you know, that type
of ad, and people startedsaying, hey, I need a web presence.
So even though Everybody wason 56k modems and it wasn't really
(14:09):
conducive to a greatexperience, everybody felt like they
needed to have something. Andso we started doing a lot of websites
and I taught myself how tojust do basic HTML, some design,
and we started getting intothat space. And as it progressed,
we found more and moreclients. And that's what ultimately
(14:29):
transitioned me into getting alot more into the tech side of things.
As I spun off from that designagency into a company with two of
my Wake Forest grad friendsthat was really focused on simply
building software solutionsthat were web based for anyone that
(14:49):
needed them. I had met a guyas the ad agency when we were working
with a client in Nashville. Wewere trying to get them as a client.
I played golf with himrandomly, just had a public course,
got paired with him, told himabout what we were talking about
doing with taking traditionalgoods and putting them online. And
he, he said, man, that soundsawesome for us. We have all these
(15:12):
things in our warehouse we'dlove to sell. I'll get back with
you. Let's, let's dosomething. And so nothing ever happened
there. And fast forwardprobably a year in advance of that.
I got hurt, had to havesurgery. I'm laying in the hospital
pre op with, I'm getting theIV for anesthesia to go into surgery
(15:34):
and I hear this voice throughthe curtain next to me and it was
completely recognizable as theguy who I had played golf with like
a year before. And we startedchatting through the curtain and
he was like, man, I've beenmeaning to call you. Just hasn't
gotten around to it. Pleasecall me after surgery. So we both
had our surgeries after thesurgery. I call him, we reconnect.
(15:58):
It's a big, big distributor inNashville. We do a deal to solve
their problem, which wastaking all of the products they had
that they could sell online,building them into a web based business
to sell and ship direct out oftheir warehouse. And, and so that
was, that was the initialimpetus to roll off the business
(16:18):
from the ad agency, start anew one with two guys, friends of
mine from Wake Forest. It wasself funding because we did a deal
with them to pay for it, tobuild the site, to build the application.
And then we built a lot ofapplications in order to service
that, that we could then sellsoftware as a service to other companies
and that that company wascalled Six Train Technologies. We
(16:40):
began working for anothercompany with another company, shared
an office with them in Atlantacalled Member Clicks. We merged with
Member Clicks because we wereproviding all the form builder tools
for Member clicks. And thenMember Clicks grew and grew and then
we were solving really theassociation management space software
as a service to run amembership, any membership that was
(17:03):
out there and all the formsthat are needed for that. And then
that ultimately was acquiredand I moved on to, to start pursuing
what we're working on todaythrough various failures to get to
the point where we are now.And I think if I was to look back
at a lot of the things thatshaped when businesses have been
(17:25):
most successful, it's if youcan find someone who has a specific
need and go address that need.And that need, you know, allows for
enough money to be paid tosolve it, that's where you really
want to focus your efforts.Because that those businesses have
worked best for me versus theones where I thought I had an idea
(17:47):
that someone else needed and Icould make something that sounded
really cool because we did areally cool product that we launched
it called Path Crosser that meand Clark, my partner, launched south
by Southwest in 2011. It wasawesome, but it was basically to
show you where you cross pathswith people using location data that
(18:08):
was check in data from appslike Foursquare and Facebook and
some other apps. It was reallyfun. We had a party with Questlove
playing at the south bySouthwest. We had lots of, hey, this
is awesome. Everybody's gonnause it. A lot of people download
the app. No monetizationstrategy. It was fun, but didn't
(18:28):
really have a business behindit. So you learn from those failures.
You learn from makingmistakes, from trying to follow ideas
versus following demand. Andover time, I think that one of the
things I was afraid of as ayounger person was failing all the
time. I'd try and prevent thator trying to hide that. And an encouragement
(18:52):
I would give to anybody who'sgetting started right now is welcome
the first failures. Becausethe second you get those failures,
the things that you learn fromthem can be applied to every single
thing you do as you go forwardand will definitely give you an advantage
and lead to success.
(19:12):
Have you done any mentoringfor younger guys or girls coming
out of college? Have you everthought about doing that?
I've thought about it, butI've done a little bit lightly, you
know, just here and there, butnot. Not to the level that I think
someday I might considerdoing. It's just. It's always been
that chasing whatever is goingon, you know, that day with these
(19:36):
different businesses, and Ihaven't had the time and the resources
to do it the way that I feellike would be the most useful. I've
been on the board of a coupleof different companies, tried to
help in their initial startup,but nothing more than that.
Let's get to the world of realestate. So how does that enter the
(19:56):
picture for you?
Yeah, so that was, you know,that's also a great example of what
I just said, which is Clarkand I Had an idea for Lolo. It was
designed to be a rewards appwith emission of local people supporting
local independent businesses.It was designed to be, you know,
(20:19):
after, after a period of timewhere there'd been a lot of companies
that have had really come outwith discount coupons, half off coupons,
a lot of the things that weredesigned to drive traffic to businesses
but not necessarily benefitthem wholly. It was, it was kind
of a, hey, here's, here's somepeople. But we're going to take a
lot of this, this revenue andwe thought, can we create something
(20:41):
that's more sustainable forlocal independent businesses, that
gives them a competitive, noteven advantage, but just level the
playing field With a lot ofthe big box stores, the big chains,
and a lot of the companieshave rolled up companies and have
large marketing budgets. Howcan we help preserve and keep the
local vibe alive in eachcommunity? Because that's what's
(21:02):
so unique. It's like I talkedabout with Nashville. We, we launched
it in Asheville, NorthCarolina. And there's such a unique
local vibe there. And when yougo to different communities around
the world and you experiencetheir local businesses, that's what
makes them unique. That's whatmakes them special. That's what we
want to preserve. And itcreates that community feel for both
(21:22):
the visitors, but also thepeople who live there. They have
something that's special tothem. So the local, the initial Lolo
app, we went and got localindependent businesses to join our
program and say that theywould kick back some. Some discount
into the program. We went toMasterCard, Visa and Amex and got
(21:42):
them to. We facilitated wherean independent consumer like yourself
could put your credit card inLolo, register it, and then when
you spent at these localvendors, you would earn local dollars
back. So you would be a loyallocal. You would get lo local dollars
in your app. You could thenspend that lodo on any of the rewards
(22:04):
that those local businessesmade available, like a latte and
a pastry at a coffee shop, acandle at a boutique, Something that
was tangible, meaningful, thatyou could use your dollars, local
dollars that you've earned toreward yourself and support the local
business. Because everythingwas keeping it within the network.
(22:26):
It was a great experiment, itwas a great experience. We learned
a lot, we grew the business,we got a lot of users, but we really,
at the end of the day, didn'thave a great monetization strategy
because we were counting onthe local vendors to pay for it.
And so we said, is thissustainable long term? But we got,
(22:46):
again, we had Certain pointsyou take a turn. And we had a local
brokerage in Asheville, NorthCarolina, Beverly Hanks. And we had
a meeting with them. They weredoing, each month they're sending
out a little something totheir sphere. All of the agents were
sending an email with a littlesuggestion of something to do, a
(23:08):
discount to their sphere ofinfluence, their network of people.
But they didn't really like,it wasn't great. It was, it was kind
of, you know, sometimes thediscounts weren't so good. It was
something that needed to beimproved on. And so they asked us,
hey, could we just buy some ofthe things that are in your local
network, these rewards, canyou buy the stuff that people can
(23:30):
buy? With Loto, can we buy andthen send them out? And so that began
the initial discussion forwhat is now Lolo, which is how can
we help them stay top of mindwith an item of value, with something
meaningful and local, with awrite up with pictures, just something
that monthly goes out in anautomated way and keeps them connected
(23:51):
with their clients, contacts,referral partners, anybody that they
want to build their salesnetwork around. And so we did an
alpha group with BeverlyHanks, honed it, figured out how
to send emails, then send textmessages, then give them the data
that they wanted to see. Andthey were our first client. We ran
that for a year and then beganto expand outside of there. We're
(24:11):
now in 250 different marketsaround North America.
You know, the actual curatingof the local businesses. You know,
we've had long conversations,you and I, about that. That's, that's,
there's some work to be donethere, correct?
Yes, I would say this has beena business that started as more of
a technology business that isreally morphed into a curation business
(24:35):
with people gettinginformation, connections with the
local community and then beingable to provide that at scale to
people. But that is our maincore competency. I mean, we now have
a team of people that curategifts. And it's an important part
of it because the gifts needto be meaningful, they need to be
relevant, they need to be atgreat spots, they need to be local
(24:58):
and feel local. And that's thedifferentiator that we have and that
we provide to agents. And it'ssomething that can consistently go
out at a very low cost andkeep you top of mind and get opened.
Especially in a time whenthere's so much noise, so many people
sending so many different spamemails. This gives you something
(25:21):
that you can support and youhave content that you can Talk about
with all of your sphere ofinfluence, Right.
You've talked about thisbefore. I've heard you say this many
times to agents who come up toyou to talk about Lolo. It doesn't
really matter if they redeemit. Right? It just doesn't matter
because it's the idea thatyou're sending this to them every
(25:42):
month.
Correct? Well, and I would sayfor the local businesses, we want
a certain level of redemption,and luckily, we get redemption. But
the main goal for the sender,you know, the typical agent speaking
in the real estate world,they're looking to have something
that keeps them visible, topof mind, every month with anyone
(26:03):
that could refer them,business or use them again. And there's
a lot of options out therethat can be costly, time consuming,
difficult to execute. We tryto create something that is very,
very seamless. They just puttheir contacts in, and then they
trust that a thoughtful,meaningful message with a gift is
going out from their emailwith their branding each month. And
(26:25):
so we're trying to take downall those barriers and give them
that value. And when peopleget these gifts in the email and
text, they open them. Youknow, they want to see what it is.
It's local to them, so it'smeaningful. It may be a business
they haven't seen before orlearned about. They can learn something
new about a local, independentbusiness. And so the agent is providing
(26:46):
inherent value, they'reproviding information, and they're
providing a gift each month inan email. And so that creates high
engagement. Now they can alsotake it and redeem it. And we do.
And that's a large part ofwhat happens. But the first layer
of what's the value to theagent is simply that being top of
mind, and it's the thoughtthat counts. Someone opens something,
(27:07):
they go, oh, wow, that wasnice. That was thoughtful. The psychology
of receiving something thatwas given to you creates a very positive
response and makes people feelgood, and that's really what we deliver.
A little dopamine hit alwaysgood, right?
Yeah.
What's next for Lolo? Is theresomething you're looking at that
(27:29):
you can talk about? SometimesI ask this question and people go,
oh, we're doing some things.
Well, I think that a lot ofthe things that people that are in
the industry know that we'regoing to be doing. So it's not really
so much a surprise, but it'sjust making every bit of this more
accessible via a lot of otherproducts. So that whether you use
(27:50):
a CRM of some type, whetheryou're you know, building your own
application, whether you'reusing social channels and you want
to integrate something, somecomponent of what we do to automate
adding people to your list andsending gifts. I think our next vision
is mainly just making thismore and more accessible and making
the feedback loops better sothat you learn, hey, when I put someone
(28:13):
in, this is what happened.This is how many times they opened
it, this is when they redeemedit. Then I can be more educated in
how I trigger new gifts or newmessaging or new calls. Just understanding
your network of people, ifyou're in sales, understanding when
they're more likely to buymakes it more fertile ground for
(28:34):
you to make your outreach. Soeverything that we're doing is going
to be designed to help. Allthe software that's out there and
the AI buzzwords that aregoing on, all the, the tools that
are designed to try and createmore and more relevant content, we're
going to try and plug ineverywhere that we can to make that
better. And then I think, youknow, parts of the, of that will
(28:59):
also be allowing differentcadence descending of gifts, maybe,
maybe different types ofgifts, maybe, you know, different
things around that. But it'llalways revolve around staying with
our mission of supportinglocally owned independent businesses
and providing tools to makesure they have a level playing field
(29:20):
with all the big box storesand big brands.
I'm watching the clock here.I'm going to go ahead and give you
the final question here. Now,you're not a realtor. I don't think
you've really had anyexperience in that side of the place,
but you've been around themfor a long time now. And so in your
opinion, what one piece ofadvice would you give a new agent
(29:41):
just getting started?
Well, I'm going to be biasedin this because my knowledge is really
around sales. And when you'rethinking about long term sales cycles
that have large ticket itemsthat are infrequent purchases, I
would say focus onrelationships, focus on your network.
(30:04):
And from day one as a newagent, do not be afraid to reach
out and begin building yoursphere of influence. I think the
thing I see mostly with anysales job is that people will allow
fear to take over and preventthem from doing something. Fear of
(30:25):
rejection when they make aphone call, fear of failure when
they go to an appointment. Andat the end of the day, each one of
those failures, like I saidearlier, is so valuable. I mean,
if I look back and think abouthad I prevented myself from failing
at something, would it havebeen an improvement in my career
(30:49):
and I would say absolutelynot. In fact, I wish I had failed
faster and the faster Ifailed, where I learn about what
I need to do to succeed. Andthe only way I can think to tell
a new agent to get started isfocus on relationships. Because over
time, if they really want tobe in it for a long haul, they've
(31:12):
got to start with making thoserelationships, proving they can do
something, and then workingreferrals from there. Because I believe
that's the best way to build along term foundation for the business.
That's awesome. Matthew, ifsomebody wants to reach out to you,
what's the best way for themto get in touch with you or with
Lolo?
I would say go to joinlolo.comanybody can always email me@matthewoinlo.com
(31:39):
this has been great.
I knew I would get some thingsout of there that I hadn't heard
before, which is very cool. Ireally love what you're doing. I've
talked to a lot of differentpeople about what you're doing and
said you got to call thesepeople. You got to understand how
affordable and powerful thistool could be. I think you've done
(32:00):
fantastic work, socongratulations on that. Thanks so
much for your time today.
Thanks for having me. Ienjoyed it.
Thank you for listening to theReal Estate Sessions. Please head
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