loader from loading.io

Reaching Agents with Your Content - 5 Creators Share What’s Working in 2025

Real Estate Thought Leaders

Release Date: 08/14/2025

Selling AI to Agents Part 2 with Scott Richard show art Selling AI to Agents Part 2 with Scott Richard

Real Estate Thought Leaders

Scott Richard isn’t selling AI like the rest of the industry.  The broker-turned-tech-founder is allergic to hype.  And after scratching his own itch, he’s built tools that are so useful, agents and brokers sell themselves. Scott’s playbook is all about authenticity, live demos, and getting insanely specific about who he’s talking to. Here’s how he’s actually getting agents’ attention in a market where everyone’s been pitched to death. Stop Trying to Convince Agents of Anything. Let your tool do the talking…and literally, the showing. Scott’s AI product came from...

info_outline
Selling AI to Agents Part 1 with Ray Wood show art Selling AI to Agents Part 1 with Ray Wood

Real Estate Thought Leaders

Ray Wood has been around long enough to know what doesn't work with agents. The Aussie-Canadian direct response veteran behind has tried every outreach tactic in the book. Cold calls, one-on-one calls, high-end sales presentations. But he's finding that sometimes, agents want less personal attention. Here's what Ray's learned about reaching agents in 2025, plus the testing strategy that's letting him run 100+ ad variations simultaneously. Here are the Non-Obvious Insights from our Conversation…   Group-First, Low-Pressure Offers are Beating 1:1 Calls Right Now. "I reach out [to agents]...

info_outline
How To Sell Something NEW to Agents w/Mike Simonsen of Altos Research show art How To Sell Something NEW to Agents w/Mike Simonsen of Altos Research

Real Estate Thought Leaders

Facing critical decisions on your marketing and content strategy? Click below to learn about working with me in a 90-Day Strategy Sprint. Mike’s a self-admitted data guy. Not a sales or marketing guy. But he did 3 really smart things. And he ended up building a category king business and getting acquired by HousingWire. Here are the… Non-Obvious Insights from our Conversation: Behavior Signals Mindset. “Those are our customers, you know, they’re investing in their business. They’re paying for a CRM, they’re buying digital ads, they’re farming. If they’re investing in their...

info_outline
Is Jess Lenouvel the Next Model of Real Estate Coaching? show art Is Jess Lenouvel the Next Model of Real Estate Coaching?

Real Estate Thought Leaders

This platform is about the non-obvious, the subversive, the counterintuitive stuff. That’s where Jess really stands out. We’re talking… * screenshotting troll comments and sharing them openly * posting on IG for years without selling anything * breaking the model of “accountability” coaching She also runs from a small Caribbean island. Is she the Bond villain of real estate coaching? Too generous and fun to be a villain… But she just might be the next model of real estate coaching. She sells systems and permission. Not butt-kicking accountability. She’s raw, irreverent, and...

info_outline
Video SMS & Other Tactics to Reach Agents w/DJ Paris show art Video SMS & Other Tactics to Reach Agents w/DJ Paris

Real Estate Thought Leaders

This week shares some tactics you can test in the next 30 days with zero change of strategy. The inspiration is a chat with DJ Paris about how he’s using to reach and attract agents to the Chicago-based brokerage he serves. Now let’s get into the tactics… Video SMS for Cold Outreach “I now do video SMS... I think it’s actually less invasive than a text message... they can visually see that I have this set up. They may know that I have a podcast…And here I am reaching out to them individually.“ DJ Paris Sending video texts with his podcast branding behind him is a nice twist,...

info_outline
Mike Sherrard Says This Video Attracted the Most Agents from YouTube show art Mike Sherrard Says This Video Attracted the Most Agents from YouTube

Real Estate Thought Leaders

Mike’s most effective video wasn’t what I expected. But when YouTube comes up in my conversations with leaders, I hear a much bigger, unspoken question. “What does it cost to WIN on YouTube…In time, energy, money…and my SOUL?” That’s what I want to dig into in this edition. So here are the non-obvious insights from the chat with Mike and my analysis. Plan on $100k & 2 years minimum to “prime the system.” “Well for 3 years, I was putting out 2, 3 videos a week. And after 3 years, I had like 1500 subscribers. Nobody knew who I was, not much engagement on my content until...

info_outline
Jay Papasan Just Broke All the Rules in his New Book Launch  show art Jay Papasan Just Broke All the Rules in his New Book Launch

Real Estate Thought Leaders

Here’s a short list of things Jay is NOT doing to promote his * speaking all over the country * shouting about how he hit #1 on Amazon * staying up til 2am giving his 10th podcast interview of the day But he’s also not coasting on the success of Millionaire Real Estate Agent and The ONE Thing. Jay is playing a different game. Here are the Non-Obvious Insights from our Conversation… Category Killers Own Bookshelves for Decades "I want a long bestselling book in the sense that it's best in category...I call them category killers and I don't think you should write anything else." If an...

info_outline
Here’s Why Lars Hedenborg Shut Down his Profitable High Ticket Funnel show art Here’s Why Lars Hedenborg Shut Down his Profitable High Ticket Funnel

Real Estate Thought Leaders

Lars had a massive ad budget, a “closer” team, all the tech tools to max out ROAS.Still couldn’t get the conversion numbers he wanted. So he started taking sales calls with agents again.Over 150 this year. And what is he hearing from agents? Exhaustion.Not because agents are doing the fundamentals and it’s not working. They don’t even want to hear that fundamentals are the answer. So I asked Lars if there’s a sweet spot between what agents want to hear…and what they need to hear from industry leaders? Lars’ hilarious response was, “Oh my Lord…Oh my Lord…” There’s a...

info_outline
Verl Workman's High-Risk Bet on AI  show art Verl Workman's High-Risk Bet on AI

Real Estate Thought Leaders

Reminder: The content is not for agents, this is a mastermind-style newsletter for real estate leaders, insiders and content creators. A place where we can openly discuss the challenges of reaching and engaging agents, building brands and dominating niches. You won’t find this content all over social media, so if it’s valuable, forward it to a friend. This week is a little detour into the world of real estate coaching and AI. But the insights apply to anyone scaling a business around expertise (which is many of my friends and clients). In coaching, there’s a huge bottleneck to scaling....

info_outline
Tristan Ahumada on Organic Content that Builds Agent Communities & Brands show art Tristan Ahumada on Organic Content that Builds Agent Communities & Brands

Real Estate Thought Leaders

For Tristan, community isn’t a tactic you bolt onto your marketing strategy. Everything starts with community. When you spend more than a decade immersed in building communities, can you blame him? He’s definitely had a lot of time to break down what works. Going from Lab Coat Agents to… * Masterminding community strategy for Follow Up Boss (pre-acquisition) * Consulting with bigger brands on community strategy * Running his own community, Communities can be inspirational…aspirational…plus you have the lure of getting a free boost from social platforms. Years ago, friends in 2...

info_outline
 
More Episodes

Welcome to Real Estate Thought Leaders!

This started with my obsession with one question (more on that below).

That obsession led to this platform of newsletter + podcast.

Most of the newsletters will be short. 3 non-obvious insights, some analysis from me, and an action step.

But every month I’ll write a longer “deep dive” into a specific topic.

Today’s newsletter is a deep dive.

The question I’ve been obsessed with is “How do we reach and engage agents…What’s making them lean forward and pay attention?”

So I talked to a mix of veteran and newer creators. Some were podcasters, YouTubers and often both.

Here’s what they had to say, along with my analysis…

Authenticity Creates Speed→Speed Creates Relevance.

“So I just started getting on a mic, speaking into Zoom or StreamYard or whatever and realized that nobody cared. There was no difference in analytics...In this space, nobody cares if it’s a fancy in-office, three camera set up podcast interview or if it’s via Zoom. They just cared about great content.”

So then from there to that discovery, what it allowed me for is speed, right? So now I can create content at such a faster pace, get so much more out there, be much more consistent…”Joshua Smith, host of GSD Mode

Leaders and brands are going to struggle with the shift toward raw, authentic, even “messy” marketing. The hidden advantage of authenticity is that you can be really FAST. That makes tactics like newsjacking and trendjacking a lot more realistic.

If we can get over the internal challenges to being messy, raw and authentic in our content, we have a first mover advantage when new trends and topics catch fire.

Short-Form Hooks and Visuals Are Now Essential. Even for Podcasts.

The expectation for immediacy and visual engagement has bled into long form content like podcasting. Here’s what Dustin Brohm had to say about his mentality while recording his podcast, Massive Agent.

“I'm actually incorporating more of those short form attention grabbing tactics into my pod. Better hooks up front, getting right into it and start delivering the stuff.

I've been podcasting for seven and a half years now. When I started, I wasn't even recording video. It was just the audio. Now it's slowly progressed to where now I'm almost recording the pod, thinking about what the clips will look like.

Try Re-Creation vs Repurposing.

“You can take a long-form conversation, pull out the top themes, and then re-create that as a new, tighter piece of content. This lets you restate the hook and deliver value quickly, rather than relying on editing to force a good short [clip] out of a long conversation.”—Matt Bonelli & Garrett Frey, co-founders of LifeAtTenTenths

Algorithms will always favor content created 100% custom for their platform. That doesn’t mean you have to create everything from scratch. Take some AI shortcuts with instant, searchable transcripts and script-writing. Then create custom short-form content for social platforms that point people back to your long-form content.

When We’re Isolated, Our Content Feels Out of Touch

It’s easy to assume we know what agents are thinking and feeling.

But there are always new tweaks and nuances. New bits of language they’re using. New skills they’re scrambling to learn. Maybe even skills we assume they had.

The more we’re talking to agents, the more we can tailor our hooks in the exact language and emotion needed to get their attention and engagement.

“Agents coming into the business who started recently or in the COVID era, they don’t know anything about how to navigate this new market. So that’s what I see coming up…Even things like a home inspection…keeping sellers’ confidence in you for more than a week…They’ve never had to navigate that before…That’s how I built my original real estate muscle. So this feels natural to me.”” —Meredith Fogle, Host of So You Want to be a Real Estate Agent

“I live in that world, man. So I'm having conversations with them every single day, always asking, What's your biggest current obstacle?... I don't guess…I go out there because I spend that time with my ideal client.”—Joshua Smith

Content Builds Your Brand…Even With Agents Who Don’t Watch or Listen.

“Everybody's listening even if they're not listening. What I mean by that is I go into a room [of agents]... and half of them will say ‘I've never heard your show but I've seen all the signs and I've seen the posts.’ And the other half will say ‘I've never been on it live but I listen to it every week.’”—Lance Billingsley, host of The 13% Podcast

Lance is the VP of Agent Development for Arizona’s fastest growing title company. So he’s talking to agents every day. He’s seeing what big brands have known for years: Likes and comments on social media don’t correlate to sales.

This is partly due to “lurkers” … the folks who see posts but don’t engage, then pop up out of nowhere and buy.

And there are way more lurkers than those who engage, comment and share.

So while you’re working to make better and better content, take heart.

There are agents who see you, know you, and respect what you’re doing, without showing up in your analytics. And there’s probably more of them than you think.

Links to Full Articles Featuring These Creators

Turn Overlooked Skills into Killer Content for Agents w/Meredith Moody Fogle

Inside the Podcast Blowing Up in AZ with Lance Billingsley

Your Content Isn’t Fast Enough for Today’s Agents w/Matt Bonelli and Garrett Frey

Talking Head Videos are Dead for Reaching Agents w/Dustin Brohm

Joshua Smith Says Cut the Production Value of Your Content. Agents Don’t Care.

Big THANK YOU to all these creators for pulling back the curtain on the strategy and tactics behind their content creation.

If you don’t know one of these names, fix that! Reach out to connect with them.

These are the leaders constantly evolving to better reach and engage agents.

See you in the next edition,

-Matt Johnson

CEO - MicroFamous | Author - MicroFamous

PS Want a platform like this for your business?Click here to learn about our done-for-you services.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rethoughtleaders.substack.com