Mastering the Art of Real Estate with Guest, Ida Fields VP of Agent Marketing and Business (AKA Mindset and Marketing Coach)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Welcome to Mastering the Art of Real Estate. I'm your host,
Debbie Demagio, and we are here today with Ida Fields.
She is coming to us from New York City.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Welcome Ida, Thanks so much for having me, Debbie. I'm
so glad to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
I know, I'm so excited to have you. It's a
little twist on a real estate agent. You are the
person who supports all of us people and kates and
inspires us. So I'm so excited to have a little
twist on the podcast. So I connected with Ida. I
guess it's been two years. We were in Nashville. So

(01:13):
in Nashville two years ago Corkoran. I went to my
first Corkoran conference and it was in Nashville, Tennessee, and
it was so fun and you invited to meet me
to be on the marketing one of the marketing panelists,
and it was so fun. And it's also fun for
me as I'm in California and you guys are in
New York. It was so fun to connect with all
the New York agents and just all the higher ups

(01:35):
in Corcoran group. It was really, really fun and I
just learned a lot and connected with a lot of
amazing people. So it's so happy to have you here.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Oh, it's a pleasure to be here. Nashville was a
lot of fun. I have to say. So that cow
my cowgirl boots ready to go.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
I know, I got my pink my I have my
pink cowboy boots ready to go. Yeah, we did too
in Arizona. We're going to Scottsdale so I can.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Wear them there. I can't wait. I can't wait.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I know it's gonna be fun. So I'm going to
properly introduce you. As Corcoran Group's VP of Agent Marketing
and Business Development, Ida helps agents market themselves and grow
their business. Nothing excites me more than helping an agent
take their business to the next level. Having built Corkoran's
advertising and marketing department from scratch, she brings over a

(02:27):
decade of expertise in crafting tailored marketing strategies. While Corcoran
offers a offers vast resources, Ida delivers them one on one,
whether through in person consultations or her well known top
eleven marketing lists. She helps agents unlock their potential, create
compelling campaigns, and develop customized marketing plans. Ida's love for

(02:49):
real estate began in childhood sketching imaginary floor plans while
growing up in a Brooklyn rental. She launched her career
at Sotheby's and later transformed Douglas Elements in house marketing
after fifteen years in the industry. She remains as passionate
as ever, both professionally and in her own Westchester home,
where she watches her two young sons, hoping no one

(03:10):
day start sketching forlor plans too. I love that.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
So it always starts as a child, right, you always
sort of get that bit, you, Yeah, it does.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I come from a real estate family too, and I
always said the only thing I know I don't want
to do is real estate. I'll do anything but real
estate because my dad was always attached to the phone.
We have cell phones. Now things have progressed, but I
just I love it. I can't imagine doing anything else
because we get to meet people all the time and
help people, and we get to I love marketing and

(03:45):
just building relationships.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, you're you're an incredible example of how to do
it right and how to be authentic to who you
are and really just lead with a high level of
professionalism and creativity. So it's an honor to learn from
you as well, you know, and I always say, I've
learned everything that I know is from our agents. You know,

(04:09):
they just are the best teachers, right.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
I know, I as I even after thirty years of
being in the business, when I'm interviewing these agents from
all over the country, I'm just I'm astounded that I
still learn new things and I want to implement new
things learning from them. So it you know, a new
agent thinks they you know, they get their license, and
they don't. They don't realize that it's an ongoing You
do not stop learning, you do not stop growing. Before

(04:36):
we get in. I am so excited. I want to
book some time with you to go through all of
this one on one, all these great wage you're helping agents.
But let's talk about first what led you into real estate?
Did you sell and how you got from where you
are today?

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Sure, well, you know, believe it or not. My bachelor's
degree was in psychology, so I was going to be
a marriage and family therapist when I, you know, graduated college.
And then I looked and I saw, well, how much
do marriage and family therapists really make and what do
they do during the day? And how much of it
is dealing with insurance. And so I quickly pivoted and

(05:15):
I said, well, what can I get with a sort
of straight liberal arts degree And the answer was not much.
At the time, it was, you know, back in nineteen
ninety nine, so I'm dating myself, and you know, it
was really all about, well, how many words do you type?
Permit it? And what do you know to do this
and that? And you know, and I really was like,
you know, just they realized sending me on the interviews.

(05:38):
I sort of had a good ability to connect with people,
and so it was the lowest paying job. It was
like I started as like a temp but I walked
into that Sotheby's International Realty office and I saw their
brochure wall and it was almost like the angels started
singing because I was always obsessed with real estate, and

(05:58):
so I really didn't care. I was like, I will
plane your toilets, Like whatever you tell me to do,
I will do. And so it really started out. I
was a data entry the listings assistant. So when you know,
you'd kind of get back in the old days, you'd
get the fact listing data that would come to the
firms and then you know, you'd have someone you know,

(06:20):
manually enter all of the bedrooms and the bath count
and you know all of that. And I have to say, Debbie,
I was horrible at that job. I mean I was
so slow and so but what happened was I started
to learn the industry. I you know, this high end
world that I, you know, was totally foreign to me.
I just really was able to just soak it all in.

(06:42):
I started to cover for the advertising person because it
was a very small team. Uh. And so in covering,
you know, and kind of rolling up my sleeves and
sort of data entering the ads, you know, instead of
the listings, I started to learn advertising and marketing. And
an Aldi led me to my role at Douglas Eleman,

(07:03):
which is another big firm in New York City, and
that led me to Corkoran. And it really was just
a lot of trial and error, a lot of just
kind of being willing to kind of roll my sleeves
up and learn from others. And we ultimately brought all
of the advertising in house at Element and that's what

(07:24):
they had me do at Corkoran. So we pretty much
were using an outside agency and we figured out how
to bring all of that in house, and so that
was sort of the trajectory of my career. And once
I found Corkoran, I knew I was never going anywhere
else because it is home for me. And it has
just been a brilliant career, you know, over the decades.

(07:46):
I've been there for twenty years now.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Wow, that's amazing. When I was when my daughter was six,
she's now thirty one and living in New York. When
she was six, we went to visit Corkoran and I
always admired it, and it's it's like a manifesting thing,
you know. Right out the pandemic, we merged with Corcoran,
and it's just kind of like full circle. It's just

(08:11):
it's weird, and it's a really great company to work with.
There's i mean, we're partners in our Northern California branches,
but I just love the brand. It's just really great
and so yeah, I can see.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you a quick story, you know,
the first when I first walked into Corkoran. So, you know,
having that background in marketing and in you know, real estate,
Corkoran is always the pinnacle of where I wanted to
end up. And so you know, I just sort of,
you know, it was kind of like, Okay, hope, I
hope the story that I hope I get there. You know,

(08:44):
I get there one day. And so when the job
opportunity presented itself and I walked into the Corkoran offices
back in I think it was two thousand and four,
I just remember thinking how friendly everyone was and how
just that you just felt the difference in the air
of the way that you were treated, and so that

(09:06):
was something that it was sort of confirmed that, Wow,
this is my tribe, this is where I belong, and
you know, I have felt that, you know, every day since,
you know, I mean, no company is perfect, but there
is definitely something special in the air about the way
that Corkran operates.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
That's so interesting because that's how I felt as a
young mom walking in there in New York. I'm from
California and I'm in this big city with my daughter
and it's the first time I've traveled alone. And our
office set it up in California to meet with meet
at that office, and people were so kind and welcoming.
And this one guy, I wish I knew his name
to this day, but he took us around and showed

(09:43):
us all these amazing buildings, huge properties and somewhere owned
by famous people. They were on the market overlooking Central Park.
It was just my dog. I had the best experience.
But yes, back then they were so nice, and that
is true. Sometimes you walk in and people don't make
you feel as welcome, but I love that. It's so true.

(10:04):
So tell me about you. So when you created the marketing,
So tell me about what you created at Douglas Ellman.
You said you started it and then you've shot it over. Yeah,
tell us about it.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Well, it's a it's a funny story at Elementting. You know, look,
all things that happen are always from you know, from
you know, from desperation like it. Eventually you're kind of
pushed and you know, you kind of are forced, and
so you know what happened. We had an agency that
we worked with, as most companies did, and we would
and back in those days, you know, all of the

(10:35):
real estate ads were advertised in the Sunday New York Times,
right that was where everyone found properties, and so we
would have a deadline, you know, every week that we
had to get our hundreds of ads in and it
was a whole orchestration every week, and each time this
agency would say, you know, they would sort of slap
our wrists because you're late, like, you know, because of

(10:57):
course agents would push to the last second, and we
would pushed to the last second. So there was one
week where basically the agency said, sorry, we're not going
to be entering your ads this week. And so I
was like, okay, I have to figure out how to
enter these ads into the system. And so me and
a colleague just you know, stayed until midnight, did what

(11:18):
we had to do to get everything in by the
Thursday midnight, you know whatever, it was the deadline. And
so sure enough, Monday came and I said to the agency,
thanks for your service, but I think we can handle
this on our own. You're fired, you know. And so
it pretty much, you know, happened like that, and it
was and then it was sort of like, well, how
do we figure out how to design the ads? And

(11:40):
so we just sort of, you know, we're able to
As technology was getting more advanced, you know, it was
easier to sort of learn, and ultimately we were able
to pull in a lot of the mainstay ad trafficking
kind of duties in house and so that sort of

(12:00):
you know, it helped to make it more attractive for
me to do that at Corkoran, which it was pretty much,
you know, a similar type of thing where we were
using an agency for certain things and we really were
able to really set ourselves up to be able to
do it in house and obviously save that fifteen percent
or whatever it was, you know, as part of the

(12:21):
media as a result.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
So do you handle all do you handle? I mean,
how many there's so many Corkoran offices in New York?
Do you are you need Manhattan and also Florida and
some of the others are what do you handle? What's
your too?

Speaker 2 (12:38):
So the role that we're really talking about is the
role that I had for ten years at Corkoran, and
so that is more of the traditional marketing director advertising
director role. The role that I have now is to
really morphed into much more of a marketing coach, so
that I do a lot more of the education and

(12:59):
so all of that sort of you know, advertising director
type responsibilities where you have like a big team. You know,
that's something that I do consult for the department, but
it's not something that I am responsible for anymore. And
I'm very happy to not be responsible for any of
it for the company because it's a big job.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
That is a big job. We're going to go to
commercial break and we'll be right back with Ida Fields.

(15:01):
Welcome back to Mastering the Art of Real Estate. I'm
your host, Debbie Demagio. We are here with Ida Fields.
She is out of our corporate office in Corcoran Group,
and welcome back. So let's talk about what you do now.
You did a lot in marketing and you are pushed
into doing things and you did it well and made
it happen. And now you're in a different role. You

(15:23):
work with groups and education workshops. You mentioned you do
thought leadership and you even do guided meditation for group sessions.
So let's talk about your thought leadership and education and
kind of break that down for us.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Sure, so you know my role now, they kind of
call me the mindset and marketing coach, you know at Corkoran,
And so it really runs the gamut from everything from
teaching the brand, Like when we have a new affiliate
join Corkoran, there will be a brand making the Corkoran
brand your own session where we really kind of go

(16:00):
through the core values, the personal brand, formula how to
leverage the different Corkoran tools and assets. So that's a
big part of just kind of having the agents adopt
and really integrate the brand. And the brand is so
unique in that the corkorand brand is really designed to
make the agent the center of their brand story and

(16:21):
that live who you are. You know, tagline is so
much more than a tagline, and you know you do
it very well. There's really no one size fits all.
So it's really helping agents to understand how to lean
into the best parts of who they are in order
to grow their business. And so that's one of my
favorite things to do in my current role. And then

(16:42):
the others are really different monthly education series that help
agents have that top producer mindset. So it might be
interviewing our author of the month, which is a lot
of fun I also do. Like next week on Tuesday,
I'm doing a panel on targeting the high net worth client.

(17:04):
So we have agents we have one agent from Hawaii,
one from Boston, one from New York, and one from Florida.
I'm coming in that really specialize in the top end
working with high net worth individuals. So that's a panel
and so a lot of thought leadership. We I do
it all virtually since we have affiliated, we sort of

(17:24):
have offices everywhere, and so it gives me the opportunity
to be able to really work from home and be
able to support the company, uh with that thought leadership
through our online learning platform, which we call Agent Studio.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Right, So Agent Studio for people who don't obviously don't know,
is we have our I guess called back end. Is
that what we call our Mike Corcoran.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Sure, yeah. Now the so the Agent Studio is actually
also a physical space. So there's an Agent Studio that
is at five ninety Madison Avenue where there's a classroom
setting and there's you know, a different setup for a
sort of learning. So but it really operates as an

(18:13):
online hub where you have all sorts of everything from
on demands learning to live sessions to networking opportunities. There
is a lot of different opportunity. I think it's it's
one of the things that sets Corporate apart is the
commitment to learning. You know, you opened with it saying hey,
it's so important that you're always learning something new. This

(18:33):
business is always changing. There's so much to learn, and
that in combination with our collaborative mindset that we lead
with sharing is so important. I think that's just such
a unique combination because we do have agents that you know,
they don't hold their secret sauce close to the vest.
They are going to be very open and share what

(18:58):
those best practices are. So that's really what inspired and
what enabled us to be able to create the robust
learning platform that we have. And there's something like I
think I'm doing it by memory, but I think there
was something like over three hundred classes or sessions in
a year, So there's almost something offered every day new

(19:19):
for agents to be able to take advantage of.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
That's incredible. So what's a typical week like for you?
I know you you set it all up and you
spearhead it all. So give us a little you know,
tomorrow we're interviewing this, we're doing a meditation here this,
you know, give me a setup of or or if
you're talking to let's say you are talking to me,
what could what could I do? I was kind of overwhelmed,

(19:44):
there was so much in it.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
So yeahs as something new.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Not to real estate but new to agent studio. Knowing
that and I learned this when I spoke to the
the other day and then I went on Instagram and
I saw Agent Studio has its own Instagram that's out
there for everyone to see. So give us, you know,
some a walk through your week or what you'd recommend
for me to do to you know, start, I have

(20:09):
to work my job. But then you know, yeah, clients,
but what what should I implement first? It doesn't have
to be so you know, education from a news standpoint,
but you know, give me something I could.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Do and yeah, I mean that's the first thing that
I would do is I would spend thirty minutes just
toggling around the platform because I think once you realize
that you can actually search for anything that you want
to learn. So let's say, you know, you want to
learn more about how to use TikTok, you know, and

(20:43):
you actually search and there'll be a how to video
that will come up, or a class given by our
social media specialists on TikTok, or maybe business planning. You're
at the point where you're like, hey, I need a
template to really you know, just put the numbers in
and be able to to really have something that's going
to help guide me for the year. Uh, And you

(21:05):
know what to focus on. Perhaps it's more, hey, you know,
I want to get some clarity on how to leverage
the Corkoran campaigns. And so it really is, you know,
I think that I think you know, you're you're You're
not alone in that it is overwhelming because you almost
look at everything and you're like, where do I start?
What do I look for? And then you just kind
of close it and you say okay, and you know, look,

(21:28):
it's not as savvy as like let's say a Google
where you're gonna and it's gonna, but it's pretty good
in that you can really find what it is you're
looking for. What I would say, you know, there's a
few key initiatives that, like you said, as a new agent,
you know, one would be I do this series called
How I Built My Business and those are recorded and
basically those are kind of like what you do. You

(21:50):
sit and you talk to top agents and you get
inside their heads and you you know, get sort of
what might be what might be you know, your morning
routine or or how do you organize your contacts or
what's your marketing plan or all of that. So there's
a whole series of interviews that exist and so for
a new agent looking to just learn from seasoned agents,

(22:11):
that's a great way. And I also think that it's
great to just have it on in the background of
the audio while you're doing something else. I think, you know,
most of my things are not like you have to
sit there with notes, you know, and focus all your attention,
so that you can really multitask and still get a
lot of value out of a lot of the thought

(22:32):
leadership initiatives that we provide to the agents.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
I love that because right now I listen to a
lot of blinkst I don't know if you that.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Oh, yeah, blink this is great.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah yeah, I kind of listened to it over and
over again, even one you know, blink, just because so
I'll start to incorporate this. See this is so helpful
because you know, you don't know if you have to
sit there and just focus the whole time, and so that.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Really well, a lot of the ones that you have
to focus, they do micro learning, so those are a
lot shorter, and those are like a lot more specific
as to say, like how do I use the video
editing platform tool? And that would have like a three
minute clip that would just take you through and show
you how to do it, whereas some of the stuff
I do, which is more like an hour session where

(23:16):
you're just listening. Right. There was just a wealth series
that we kicked off this week where Stephanie Anton, our
president of Affiliates, sat down with an expert in that
field and there was just so much insight about you know,
the about about wealth and sort of the luxury goods

(23:38):
industry and how it influences real estate and so there's
a there's a lot of content that you guys have
access to, but you just have to spend the time
to kind of navigate and know, oh, I like this,
I like that, I know where the micro videos are,
and once you do that, you kind of know, oh,
here's my favorites. Okay, now I'm going to know that

(24:00):
a second Wednesday of every month is when we have
the Networking Club, and I'd like to network with other
agents in different markets, So I'm going to mark my
calendar there or sign up for this. So yeah, it's
definitely just kind of toggling around.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
I'm like, I have notes everywhere. I'm like, I want
to be part of the networking club, I want to
do that wealth class. You're gonna have to reach out
and you have to tell me exactly where to go.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Absolutely, we will do a one on one deb Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
My page is filled up. That is incredible. There's just
so much great stuff. So it's it's what's fun about it.
It's it's very different than a typical I don't want
to name other companies, but you know, it's a different
kind of learning, and it's it's fun and it's interactive,
and it's it's not your typical It's just not typical.

(24:48):
It's just very very unique, and you've you've got your
bringing in people who are seasoned or who've been through
it who can offer real life advice. It's it's not
someone teaching something that's never done it.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yeah. Yeah, and you ask sort of what is a
typical week for me? And so for so this week,
you know, there's I'm focusing a lot on B Corkoran
because B Corkoran is in Scottsdale. It's coming up April
seventh through the ninth, and there are still spots if
anyone is interested and in booking it. It's really an

(25:21):
incredible opportunity and I know you and I will be there,
so it's pretty amazing. So that could be anything from
you know, working with the keynote speakers to make sure
that they have, you know, what they need. I'm going
to be introducing a new session called Mastering the Language
of Sales Success. So I'm working on the content for that,

(25:42):
which actually was inspired by Phil Jones and the exactly
what to Say material. Have been certified as a coach
through that material, so I'm really excited to kind of
put all of that together in the Corkoran voice and
through the Corkoran brand lens. So that might be kind
of working on content for that. There was a affiliate

(26:08):
that I did a making the Corcoran Brand your Own
class for, so that was sort of specific to the affiliate.
We went through a little brand exercise and kind of
an overview of the different Corkoran campaigns and tools. So
that was something that happened this week. And also just
usually prepping for different interviews that are happening, whether it's

(26:29):
the following week and yeah, so there's a it's a
lot of fun. The meditation is something that I did
for eight years. It's interesting because I right now I'm
on hiatus from the meditation and I miss it tremendously
because it's really my favorite session to do is to
just come and meditate with very high performing agents that

(26:52):
are sort of you know, can't let go and relax
and you're just like, just put the to do list
to the side just for the next twenty minutes and
just sit. And so I'm excited to be leading Madam
at the Corcoran. I'll be leading some meditation. So I
hope you come.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
I definitely, And are you going to go back to
doing that through Agent Studio?

Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yes, I think that I'm going to use b Corkoran
as sort of a launch point to reintroduce I was
trying to find the right time because we're accommodating agents
from all time zones, and so I always do it
in the morning, but obviously that doesn't work for West
Coast or Hawaii, and so I think that, you know,

(27:31):
we'll just have to kind of look and see what's
going to make the most sense. But I'm excited to
kind of get the thoughts from the meditators that are
going to be joining me at B corkorant as to
what they want to see and be able to deliver
that to them.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Awesome. Well, I'm excited. I love that tell us about
the top eleven, your top eleven marketing.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Sure, sure, So these top eleven lists came from so
when I you know, it goes back to when I
was in the market director you know days, and one
of the things that I would do would be they
called them Fridays with Ida, and they were basically these
idea sessions that I had, and it was my favorite
thing to do because I would sit one on one

(28:12):
and we would just kind of come up with ideas
and it would just be this very organic, collaborative brainstorm
with agents where they got a lot of value out
of it. But it was the least sort of deadline oriented,
the least priority part of my job. And so when
I sort of said, hey, I'd love to do that

(28:32):
more and sort of the role that I'm in now
was sort of born from that. What I ended up
doing is saying, you know what, it'd be great to
kind of come up with these lists of you know,
things I've learned from top agents over the years, and
so it's everything from you know, direct mail, to how
to keep in meaningful touch, to how to do a

(28:54):
successful listing presentation to there was a recruitment top eleven
that I recently provided to leadership. So it's just stickier
than top ten. And they really are just these sort
of listicles that exist. And the idea is if you
get if you take one of them and it inspires
you to, you know, do something a little bit differently,

(29:16):
or you would you know, like I remember there was one.
I'm thinking why back where it was like one was, uh,
top eleven things you can do for sixty minutes that
will grow your business. So let's say you're like, I
don't know what to do next. You would just kind
of pull that list and say, okay, number three And
I know you're going to say, what were they? This
is a long time ago, so I don't know if
I'm going to remember all of them, but I'll have

(29:37):
to like dig them up and maybe they'll they'll they'll
they'll need to be sort of have a have a
two point oh, right, a top eleven two point oh?
Get those lists out again.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
Yeah, absolutely, So give us give share five things that
five things that new or seasoned agents should do in
their businsiness.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
I mean, I think that the first is you want
to make sure or that you're clear on who you are.
I know that that's sort of a very generic kind
of piece of advice. But I think, I know, I
think Dolly Parton you know, said it, well, it's sort
of like find out who you are and then do
it on purpose, And so I think that there's a
lot of different ways to sort of define, Like, you know,

(30:19):
it's not all real estate all the time. So I
think when you're coming in, you want to start out
by really identifying what are my interests, what's my superpower?
And we're lucky because all roads lead back to real estate,
Like it's the most fascinating industry you can be a
part of. I truly believe that. I always say in classes,

(30:40):
I say, it's not like we're selling toothpaste, you know.
So there's a transformation that happens with every transaction. So
I think as a newer agent, you want to start
with that robust authenticity of looking at a multifaceted you.
I think a lot of agents make the mistake of
going in and being all real estate all the time,

(31:02):
and then they kind of ends up figuring it out
and evolving. But you're going to get more business and
more leads from your interests if you're strategic about it,
and it becomes really the way that you spend your time,
you know. So, yeah, that's an important one.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
That's yeah really, So I just want to just bring
that more to I'm very visual, so I like to
bring things a real example of that. So I have
a few. Yeah, exactly, be your authentic self as what
you're talking about, know who you are. When I first started,
I had just had a baby. I have long hair,
and my friend said you or no. My broker said

(31:41):
he wanted me to I had long brown hair and
he wanted me to cut my hair. And if you
see my first photo of how I looked in real estate,
I look like a cookie cutter. Like I was wearing
my suit and I had hair like this, and I
would look so conservative and I probably look so uncomfortable
and I was trying to fit in this box. And

(32:01):
I remember when I don't know how it happened, but
finally I just started being me. And my friend, a realtor,
said she's like, oh my god, I was so happy.
You just like dressed the way he wanted to dress.
And I was just so not me. And you know,
and when you're constrained like that, you can't be you
and you can't interact. You know. The way, you're comfortable interacting,

(32:24):
like I like to move around. I'm Italian, I like
to you know. Anyway. That was one just being yourself
and not fitting into a mold. Then when we started,
we launched our company, it was Highland Partners before we
merged with Corkram, and I was sitting with every single agent,
and by this time I knew what it meant to
be your authentic self and to embrace that. So I

(32:46):
was sitting with this agent and he was very handsome,
Greek guy, and he'd been around forever. I knew zero
about him, and I read his bio, his bio, and
it still didn't give me anything. And I said, Cristo,
who are you? What do you like to do? Tell me?
I mean, I'm Italian, your Greek. I know you must
have some energy in there and have some passions. And

(33:07):
he's like, well, I'm a tennis pro and I like
to play tennis. I'm like, oh my god, okay, right,
they are getting somewhere. So he was kind of like
he was very always in a suit and tie. He
was trying to fit into a mold. He was trying
to do real estate all day long. I'm only a realtor.
And then when we got him to like, just loosen up,

(33:29):
don't wear a tie. If you don't want to wear
a tie, be yourself. He started. You know, I said, well,
what does tennis have to do with real estate? I go,
because when you're on that tennis court, you are engaging
with people in your authentic self. They're connecting with you.
The real estate will follow. He just it was so
cool to watch him blossom. It was amazing. And then
there's I have.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
To say, it's one of the biggest shifts that I
help agents make is really leaning into who they are.
Like I can remember many stories like yours where a
agent comes from the Midwest and they're trying to be
the New York go get her, and I'm like, but
that's not you. Like you say hello to people, you're friendly,
like so so really and they're like, you know yeah.

(34:11):
And so it's one of the biggest pieces of feedback
that I get from agents is you know what you
helped me do is just connect to who I was
and get that clarity around it, and then translate what
does that look like in terms of like how I
show up every day as a real estate agent, as
a mom as a mother, you know all of that.

(34:31):
So yeah, it's so important. And I would say some
of the other ones, because you said, you know, what
are a few is to surround yourself with people that
have what you want. So you really want to listen
to the conversations of top agents as they're negotiating. You
want to be in the room. You want to be
of service to those top agents and not just hey,

(34:53):
reaching out and saying hey, do you need any help,
but being very specific, like researching their exclusives and saying, oh,
I noticed you have this beautiful art deco and you know,
I am really savvy at social media. I'd love to
do a little a little cameo of uh, you know,
the whatever this beautiful, this beautiful gracious layout and the view,

(35:14):
and you know, the idea of really ask making the
asks very specific because top agents are constantly making decisions
all day and trying to kind of get so if
you're able to kind of come up and say, hey,
I've done the research, like I see who you are.
I really respect I love this exclusive you have, and
I'd love to be of service to you in any way.

(35:36):
Here's what I can do that's going to go a
lot better than just kind of saying, hey, who needs
help or do you want to you know, coverage for
an open house though, that's great too, so being of
service to top agents, being around top agents, you're going
to learn more than you will anywhere else. If you can,
you know, be part of a team when you first start,
that's going to help you as well. And you also

(35:59):
want to get Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
I said, I was coaching an agent in a different
area and she was trying to leave her part time
job to go into real estate full time. And I said,
and it was just kind of at the end of COVID,
I said, you need to put yourself in that office.
You need to meet the agents who are there. You've
got to connect, you've got to offer your service. I
said all that to her, and it was so crazy.

(36:22):
She ended up she ended up just taking off these
people of this team. They took her under her their wing.
She started doing it. She quit her part time job.
But it wasn't but it was because she was front
and center and people started to see her and she
was so help I mean, she's such a kind person,
but no one knew if you're not there in front
of people, so you have to be you have to

(36:43):
be seen and you have to make yourself available. Exactly
what you said. So we're going to take a commercial,
and we have three more we're gonna we're going to
knock out, so we'll be right back. Okay, welcome back

(38:25):
to mastering the Art of real Estate. We're here with
the Ida Fields and we are having such a great conversation.
I just love this. So we're breaking down five things.
What do we tell, what we should, what we recommend
for new agents as well as seasoned agents, because you
have to keep you have to keep going at it,
and you have to keep meeting new people, and you
have to keep building building your business. So the first

(38:47):
one we spoke about was being your authentic self. The
second one was surround yourself by other top agents. And
what was it being the room with the people you
wanted to surround yourself with.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
Yeah, and I would say that's reason number three, which
we kind of said is part number two for new
new agents. But I have to say, I think this
is where seasoned agents often miss the mark is. So
we talk about being in the room, and we talked
about being of service. So being of service to uh
to you know, people that have what you want agents

(39:21):
that have what you want. I think when an agent
is seasons, a lot of times that stops and they
feel that there's an ego you know, around that they
can do everything on their own. But if you're if
you're a seasoned agents and you want to up your
price point or you want to you know, expand your
business into a new area, you would take that same
approach to be of service, or to collaborate, or to

(39:44):
co list or to you know, do some sort of
partnership and be very strategic about it. So I think
that a lot of times seasoned agents don't take that
same approach that new you know, beginner's mind of saying, hey,
let me be of but you want to do it
in a very strategic way that's going to give you
the business you want in five years by making the

(40:06):
decision of you know, who you're going to service, who
you're going to partner with. So I do think collaboration
and partnership is really key, and to get strategic about it.
I would say number four is to get comfortable with
social media, get comfortable with video. You know, you really
want to do it in a way that is going

(40:27):
to be as easy as possible for you, like you know,
capturing the moments, curating others content, and really you know,
spend the time to sort of plan in it advance.
There's a lot of different programs that can you know,
help do that. But you want to get comfortable with
video content creation because unfortunately, in addition to being a

(40:50):
real estate agent and negotiating the deal, you're also a
video editor and you know, and a therapist and all
of these things. And so you know, you don't want
to be a secret agent. You want to make sure
that people can find you, and you know, the rules
of the game these days are absolutely to lean into
social media. Yeah, yeah, and I just say.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Can we go back there? I just want to learn
a little lesson myself. So when you say, because I'm
working with someone to do video, but I'm I don't
like doing I don't like talking to the camera, she says,
I can do it differently. Yeah, I'm working on that,
but I just don't like being on talking to Instagram
or whatever. But when you say you said something about

(41:33):
curating other people's content, what did you mean by that?

Speaker 2 (41:37):
So you know, we have a brand exercise that we
do as part of the our brand class which is
going to help agents identify their pillars, their you know,
their brand, and so of course one is going to
be real estate, but you know, one might be wellness
and under wellness, they might be a pilates person and

(41:58):
so what I mean and want might be maybe they're
really into lifestyle and food is you know, a category
under there. So let's say they go and they you know,
find some great food influencers, some that are out there
that really represent their brands. They you know, they have
this Greek cuisine that they love, or they're you know

(42:20):
whatever that might be healthy food. You can absolutely share
and feature others content, right especially, you want to be
strategic about it because if they have a following by
you tech them right and you know, maybe it's like
I remember there was an agent that used to feature
lemon Apron. They do really great recipes, beautiful photography and

(42:42):
so pretty much she would feature a different dish every
Sunday and it would be like, what's for supper? And
sometimes she would cook it, sometimes she wouldn't, but she
would always and she wasn't having to sit there and
style the food, and you know she was she was
just sharing, you know, one of the pieces of content
from this site that she followed, and it's really important

(43:05):
to also pick the ones and stick with them. So
let's say fashion is one of your pillars. You know,
you decide who are the designers that you know really
represent your brand, and then you start to curate content
from their Instagram. You tag them, you comment on it,
you give your two cents. Maybe you do this as
your you know, your outfit of the day or you know,

(43:27):
whatever it is you But the idea that you are
really starting to co brand through content is really what
I'm by curating, and it's a very simple way to
again keep that aesthetic what you want it to be
without having to have a whole photography and video you know,
team come in and also be brand loyal, to be

(43:50):
able to kind of get a following that's going to
come from their audience.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
I love it. That's awesome. That's great. I love that supper,
the Sunday suppers. That's so cay. Yeah, very clever. Do
you have any others like that that you can you
think of? Oh?

Speaker 2 (44:05):
Sure, there's I mean there's you know, you can give
me basically any topic and I can come up with something.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Wellness, let's talk about wellness.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Okay, So wellness, well, let's connect welless to real estate
to be specific, like what wellness like? Is there yoga?
Is it running?

Speaker 1 (44:23):
Like what's the I would say eating healthy? And yeah,
eating health.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
Okay, so let's say eating you know, eating healthy is
a big one for you, right, and you're a real
estate agent, and so one of the things that you
want to do is, uh, you want to maybe what
you do is every closing instead of giving like a
bottle of champagne or you know, whatever gift, you say,
you know what, there's nothing I love. I'm going to

(44:49):
bring in a chef that's going to cook a really
healthy meal and we're going to invite uh, you know,
six of your neighbors because it'll be a great opportunity
for you to get to meet them. And so this
is my closing gift to you is depart and you know,
maybe we'll get some pictures and not everyone will be
up for that. Some people might be. You just sort
of say, hey, I'll get the private chef. But maybe

(45:11):
what it is is as part of your marketing campaigns
or a social media you basically say, well, one of
the things I do with every client I work with
is I love to just treat them to their first
meal in their new home. And so basically what it
is is, you know there's no furniture yet, you're coming
in and you bring in this sort of beautiful, healthy

(45:32):
meal and it's set up, and then you get a
picture and you post that and that becomes the way
that you, you know, welcome the Smiths to the neighborhood.
I was so pleased to have secured them a below
asking price for their beautiful tutor home. And so it's
a much more creative way than hey, just soul, just soul.
What you're actually doing is you're showing their first meal

(45:54):
in their home, and it also becomes a way for
that to you to be known for that and or
bring people together around the table. So there's there's a
there's a lot that you can do with that.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Yeah, okay. And one of my others so well, two others,
and this is such a fun little game. One is,
I love to coach and it could be anyone, and
I love to inspire others for whatever it is they
want to do. That's not what I want to do.
It's inspiring quotes and how I can. Every morning I

(46:25):
do something called the daily Spark and I share that
that positive messaging. So anything else I could do to
you know, make that work like you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Yeah, I mean, look, I always try to play the
game of all things lead back to real estate. And
it doesn't mean that every campaign needs to because obviously,
having beautiful quotes and having you share the spark alone
is its own campaign, right, and a series or a
campaign is just different information in the same format. So
but let's say you know, you decide like one of

(46:59):
your goals is a real estate agent is to get
to know people, right, You want to get to know
the movers and shakers. And so instead of just reaching
out and asking for an introduction or asking, what you
say is, hey, I do this Sunday Spark series where
I am looking for someone's favorite quote and what it
means to them, and so you it becomes something that

(47:22):
you know, you just put on your to do list
to make those calls. Get that, and then your Sunday
Spark is not just sharing quotes you like, but it's
an opportunity for you to meet the CEO of whatever because.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
You have sort of love this.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
You know, you're featuring them, You're kind of coming back.
So all roads lead to real estate because it's all
you know, relationships, you know. I'll just share yesterday last
night I went to, uh there are some top agents
in the city. There are the Blumsteins. They're amazing. They're
definitely worth following. And I've known them for twenty years
and they I was, I don't know, maybe fifteen years ago,

(48:01):
we were doing one of our like marketing you know, sessions,
idea sessions, and they're big into events and getting people
together and having fun, and so I was just like, well,
you got to do a client appreciation party, Like you
have to do an annual event that's going to bring
your people together in your community. You know, let it
be in your home, Like, let it be at a
time of year where you know, everyone is not inundated

(48:24):
with parties. So they came up with this thing called
the Love Party, and so they actually hosted it last night.
I went for the first time because they were like,
you inspired this. They do it every year. They really
look to like this has been become a key strategic
you know, you know, a key strategy that's grown their business,

(48:44):
you know, over the years. And would you believe that
I got my first tattoo last night. Yes I did.
I don't know. I see the little heart there, do
you see it?

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Real?

Speaker 2 (48:56):
It's real. Great.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
So they had a tattoo artist there.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
They had a tattoo artist there doing little hearts. They
do this every year, and so I was like, you know,
if I'm ever going to get a tattoo, I'm gonna
do it at this and and it reminds, you know,
it reminds me of just leading with love and trusting
who you are and and sort of all that that represents.
But again, it's an example of when you stick with

(49:21):
the strategy that's it should feel easy, it should feel
right for you, you as an agent, your community builder,
and so really understanding how your interests and your passions
are going to bring people together. Because not just your
interest passion, it's how your interests and your passion and
causes are going to bring people together. You become the
common denominator, right, and so you become that spoke in

(49:46):
this wheel of community and it's it's it's really the
key to success in real estate.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Yes, that's awesome. I love it. And the other one
is design, of course that goes hand in hand, but you.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
An easy one for design, give an easy one for design.
So for time, design is in the details, right, And
something that often agents make the mistake of when they're
marketing a property is you just see the whole room
and they give it all away and here it is,
and here's the link to the listing and you know,
call me if you're interested. Right. Whereas if let's say

(50:21):
you were to take a picture each time you have,
you know, a listing, You're going to take a picture
of the grain of the mark of the wood, or
the veins of the marble, or the you know, the
crown molding or the you know, the some some very
close up detail, and you're going to really give the
story behind that, what was the material used, and what
was the and so the idea And think of that

(50:43):
as a campaign a series, right, So how that would
look on your Instagram grid to have a beautiful close
up of like the grain of the wallpaper, and then
you're able to say what designer it was from. And
then you're like, and it's attached to a you know,
ten thousand square foot home and you know that you're
just dripping it out through the detail. So really and

(51:05):
those close up sort of pattern shots look really good
in the grid to kind of give some some visual interest.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
Absolutely, I could totally see it as a wallpaper and
just objects and fireplace.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Yeah. And then again you pull it together with the
deal is in the details, the designs, in the details.
You pull it together with that sort of concept that's
going to make it feel like a series.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
I love it. Oh my god. All right, I've got
so okay, now we have one or two we're almost done,
but we have one or two more. Lot to give
us two more if you can two more, two more
things that agents should do. I know we have to.
We went on a tangent there, but yeah, now that yeah,
to do that.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
So all right. So I would say, look, I'm going
to give I do a lot of books, you know,
and I interview a lot of authors. And the book
that I tell every new agent to read is Ninja
Selling by Larry Kendall. It is a really fabulous book
that's going to basically give you the blueprint for success

(52:13):
in real estate. And so I often tell new agents
just read that book. You know, it gives you kind
of really coming from that go give mindset and that
community building and really understanding how to build a referral
business through relationships. So that's that's one that again I

(52:33):
often recommend, and I would I would say, you said
a fifth one. Let me just think of fifth one.
So we talked about social media, We talked about partnering,
We talked about surrounding yourself with you know, agents leaning
into your you know, your interests. I think the other
one is to really get a pH d in your

(52:55):
micro market. Right, So what I mean by that is,
you know, you like, you have to know your market
better than anyone else. And a lot of times agents
they start too broad and they're like, what, how's the market?
And then you know, the Manhattan is made up of
you know, two hundred and sixty micro markets, right, and

(53:17):
so you know, you want to really like know like
who lives here, what does the inside of the house
look like? You know, when was it built? What's the zoning? Like?
You know, study it blocked by block. And what happens
is once you're an expert on your block, it becomes
much less overwhelming to say, Okay, I just meet all
the owners and then I want to get to know

(53:37):
what their stories are. And all of a sudden, there's
a lead that comes from that so I think the
mistake that agents make is they don't go micro enough
and the way that the market, the way that they message,
the way that they approach their business. It's much more
about casting a wide net rather than being very focused
and just tech like you are to you know, give

(53:59):
it more a like wake up. It's sort of like
what do you do on your to do list? It's like,
what are the ten conversations that I need to have
today that are going to be most impactful to my business?
And so if you really can keep asking yourself like
who do I need to be asking more questions of
a lot of this comes from the Phil Jones work
as well, which I recommend to agents really getting clear

(54:23):
on how to have more conversations that count and have
that be front and center for your to do list,
then that's going to make a big difference in your business.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
So who when you ten conversations, people are going to say,
what am I supposed to say? What are those conversations
that we're talking to? A brand new agent?

Speaker 2 (54:41):
Sure? So I mean, look, if they are starting with
there might be maybe there's two conversations of seasoned agents
that are in their office that they really you know,
want to pick their brains and sort of say, I
want to understand how you structure your day what you do.
So maybe it's like making the ask to it comes
to coffee or you know, do something along the lines.

(55:03):
You know. Maybe another conversation is looking in your network
and seeing who are your super connectors I call them,
and so that it might pick a different super connector
each day to reach out and kind of see you know,
everyone has six degrees of separation, right, there might be
one that is about I call them people that are

(55:26):
in positions of influence from So it might be like
a state lawyers or you know, maybe it's almost like
you think of it as a bn I list. So
maybe there's a conversation to kind of create a relationship
with someone that might be a referral stream like divorce
lawyer or a state or you know, something that's sort
of and as a new agent for I think some

(55:47):
of the best conversations that you're going to be having
is so many new agents just send their announcement card
and they post something on you know, social media, and
they're like, here, I am no, those should be conversations.
I'm so excited to tell you that I'm in real estate.
I'm with Corkoran, I'm leveraging my finance background and here's
how I can serve you. And wow, I noticed that

(56:07):
you're in the San Bordino area and that's really interesting
because we're starting to see some development. So you want
to use it as an opportunity to have a dialogue
and the fact that you have some news to tell
that you're excited about this. You know, this this new chapter.
So those should all be conversations that you're having, not
postcards and emails, and they can be, but they should

(56:30):
also have be conversations, right.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
I love it. That's so great. I just joined ben
I a year and a half ago, and it really
helps you. You're supposed to have those one on ones
and it you know, I've been in this over thirty
years and I never did anything formal like this, and
now being be and I, it pushes you to like,
oh my gosh, I have to have conversations. You know,
I have to schedule these conversations. It's part of it.

(56:53):
And then you're like, oh, I got to do more,
and it's it's It's really great because it really is
a blueprint for you to to make those appointments and
have those conversations and it's so important. Is there any what? Okay?
So when I started this, I didn't realize but in
everything I do, in my writing and things, I'm always talking.
Someone asked me, you know, we all have someone, you know,

(57:17):
we all have a reason, maybe something from childhood or
this or that. And I said, I'm always talking to
my twenty five year old self right before I got
into role day because I did not know what I
wanted to do. And so what would you tell your
twenty five year old self?

Speaker 2 (57:33):
You know, I think I would just say, you know,
trust the process and hold the vision. Love you know,
and that actually is not the mind that comes from
the blum stains. And when I look at my little
hard tattoo, it makes me think of that. But really
to trust the process, but know where you're going, but
knowing that there are ten different ways that you might

(57:54):
be able to get there, but that you sort of
and you might change that destination along the way. But
trust yourself, you know, trust yourself, you know, be scared
and do it anyway, and you know and that you
have everything you need in order to create the life
that that you envision for yourself.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
I love it. Well, that's my daily smark my daily
spark for tomorrow. Trust your trust the process, and follow
the vision. I love it. Hold the vision whole division.
Thank you so much, Ida, This was so wonderful and
we will be doing a one on one. There are
so many great things that you have created. See I

(58:38):
will see you in a month.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me appreciate everything
you do.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Of course, thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
Tune in each week for another episode of Mastering the
Art of Real Estate with host Debbie Domatio and Friday's
New Naston on a bold, Brave TV network. Tune in
to where real estate matters matter

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Mastering the Art of Real Estate with Guest, Ida Fields VP of Agent Marketing and Business (AKA Mindset and Marketing Coach)

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

All Episodes

Mastering the Art of Real Estate with Guest, Ida Fields VP of Agent Marketing and Business (AKA Mindset and Marketing Coach)

Stuff You Should Know