Building Online & Offline Communities for Real Estate Agents | Brittany Rose

FULL AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION:

Justin Stoddart 0:01
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the thing bigger real estate show today, we are going to be talking about how to build online and offline communities in this market, it’s way more difficult to go at it alone, than it is to have a community of people around you who are all synergistically helping you to grow your practice, and maintain your business strengthen this market. So stay with us today, I have a very special guest, who’s built communities 10s of 1000s of people large, that are all aligned to the same purpose, she’s going to be opening up the playbook share with us exactly how she’s done that stay with us, it’s gonna be a great episode. The big question is this. How do we those of us in the real estate industry with crazy amounts of ambition? How do we think bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we simultaneously see success and significance, income and impact? My name is Justin Stoddart. And this is the Think bigger real estate show. Folks, oftentimes, when we think about community, we think about our neighborhood, we think about the town in which we live, these geographic kind of boundaries, that in today’s online world, no longer have to be our only parameters, we can actually build far beyond that global communities that support us as if they are next door neighbor, that we support as if they’re our next door neighbor. It’s it’s a beautiful thing, if we know how to do it. And that today’s guest is gonna teach us how to do that her name is Brittany rose. She is out of Houston, Texas, she’s built again a community of women, over 70,000 people strong supporting women in real estate, and is doing her own development project. She’s She’s a rock star, Brittany rose. Thanks for coming onto the show today.

Brittany Rose 1:40
Thank you so much for having me, Justin, super excited to be here and to talk with you.

Justin Stoddart 1:45
Yeah, likewise, give us a little bit more of your background. So people have some context as to where you’re coming from. Yeah, so

Brittany Rose 1:51
I’m a lifelong entrepreneur, grew up raised in the DMV, DC, Maryland, Virginia area, I’m always kind of knew that I wanted to do my own thing. And college, started my first business and ran that for 15 years before transitioning completely into real estate. And I just, I love entrepreneurship. I love marketing. And I love community building, because it’s really been the way that I’ve supercharged my life, my career, everything.

Justin Stoddart 2:21
I love it. I love it sounds like from a very early age, you’ve been building businesses. And I quickly realized the best way to do that was to build communities. And I would agree with you, if I look back at some of the best businesses that I’ve built, and whether they’re my own or whether I’ve been brought in as a coach consultant to do so. People either had a community or we built a community, there’s strength in numbers, no doubt.

Brittany Rose 2:44
Yeah. Resources, right. Like a, you know, building things from scratch. Like, it’s incredibly difficult. It takes years and a lot of money and mistakes. When you lean on your community, you can really shorten your learning curve dramatically. I mean, I’ll tell you, for my first development project, I had been wanting to do this for years, and, you know, created women in real estate and leaned on my network. And that’s where I found, you know, my SEC attorney to start my fund, my business partner who had all the experience that I needed my investors to, to buy the property and to help me move the project forward. I mean, everything came from my community, I can’t I cannot stress enough how important it is to find a tribe that really supports you.

Justin Stoddart 3:35
You know, there’s a concept Brittany called The Speed of Trust, that oftentimes people don’t move quickly, because they don’t know exactly if they can fully trust the person that they’re doing business with, or meeting for the first time. But when you already have a community, I would say that there’s a couple of building things that I see. Number one, there’s just access to more resources, both in knowledge as well as in money as well as in experience, etc. Right. But also, there’s added accountability, when you know, you’re part of the same community people show up differently, right, they just realize that this is a long term relationship, not a not a one time transaction. And so you get the best of people, right, you get the best of what they know who they know what they have. And you also get the best of, of of them long term because they realize that to be a good city member, that community, they’ve got to give their very best, which is super cool. Pretty let’s talk a little bit about your this community that you build. I’d like to talk about both offline communities and online communities. Are you differentiating the two like you’ve built both and and you want to talk about kind of the differences or do your online communities bleed over into being also offline communities, and that’s the best way to do it.

Brittany Rose 4:44
Yeah, they bleed over and that is the best way to do it. The online community as a way to start engagement, start the conversation, get to know people at a surface level, but if you really want to go deep with people, there’s nothing like looking someone in the I in person being able to shake their hand being able to give them a hug. And for them to really like have that human to human interaction. So when we originally started wire, it was all online, it was during the pandemic, and, and it quickly became apparent that there was just such a need for space for women and in the industry, that it was almost like how could it not exist in the real world? Like, how could we have so many supporters online, and there not be a real need in the real world? And so when we started doing pop up tours all across the country, it was very apparent very quickly, that there was a need for a physical interaction between members and between supporters. And just for everyone.

Justin Stoddart 5:49
You know, I have this actually, I shared this earlier today that in a world where we’ve been remote for so long, if you really want to stand out, which is the goal of marketing, right, how do you actually stand out? The question becomes, how do I do that? Getting face to face voice to voice with people in a world that’s filled with whether it be virtual or just text messages? Like there’s just a very simple way to stand out and it’s actually have more humanity, interfacing with your connection with these people. And I love how you talked about that this pop up events. Talk to me about that you’ve got a community for 70,000 people, but you guys do kind of pop up events around the country help us understand that?

Brittany Rose 6:27
Yeah, well, we have chapters and pop up events. Now, I want to go back to what you were saying for just one second. Also, the automation of everything has taken a lot of the personal interaction away. And when people realize, like, for example, I answer my DMs, like, I have a lot of people who follow me. And when you ask me something, I answer you. And oftentimes, I like to answer by voice note, because I want you to know, I’m not an automated message, like I’m a real person, and I’m committed to service. And that makes a huge difference. I even even though I have a pretty large following, I still reach out to people, I reach out to people who follow me, I reach out to people who are doing interesting things online. And I’ve created the best connections because some of the most like, some of the people who don’t have the biggest following have the biggest hearts like they are here to serve. They’re here to do the work. They are doing the work in real life. So I’ll get off my soapbox about that. But yeah, we have chapters in Cu Chicago, in Charlotte, and the DC, Maryland, Virginia area in Houston and Dallas, and then soon to be Atlanta, the Bay Area, and Miami. So we have like some kind of stations, which we have chapter leaders that kind of lead a lot of these in person events. But then we also collaborate with different conferences with different events with different influencers. So that when there’s an opportunity to attach to like an already existing program, we can bring a space that is specifically curated for women in the industry. Or I keep saying women in the industry, but really like, half of our supporters are men. And a lot of people who are involved in women in real estate are not real estate professionals. We’re of the mindset that every woman should be a woman in real estate. That is how you build wealth. That is how you protect your communities. That is how you build healthier, happier futures for everybody who comes after you. So it is women in real estate, but it’s really for everyone. And we are online, we have a very strong online platform. But being in person is by far the most important thing for for the continued success of the organization.

Justin Stoddart 8:45
So you guys, so talk to us in a little bit more specifically. So you have chapters, what are those look like? They’re just meetups, that people get together, both virtually and in person on some sort with some sort of regularity. And what’s the purpose of those of those events?

Brittany Rose 9:00
Yeah, the so the chapters are to educate, empower and uplift that’s the same thing as the national chapter. So the national chapter is all online. So we meet twice a month for accountability and for like networking, sharing resources, etc. We also have different speakers who come in an SEC attorney, a CPA, we do tax and legacy planning, we work on your purpose, your mission, your core values, commercial real estate, residential wholesaling, like the whole span a bit like we try to give as much education as possible. So that’s kind of the virtual platform. But then each of the chapters also do those those things but in person because the connectivity is just a whole different level. And we’ve found that those hyper local networks that you can create, they serve of an a very important purpose that we can’t always serve in a virtual world being like in a national or international network.

Justin Stoddart 9:59
And so in Those events, what’s the content? What’s the flow? What is what what happens at those events,

Brittany Rose 10:04
every event is different. So the one we just did this week was geared towards realtors. And we talked about being a real estate entrepreneur and that it’s not just enough to be a realtor, it’s not just enough to transact. But you really need to know about everything from short term rental to multifamily syndication, and kind of picking your path for wealth not just being a self employed person, right. We also like we also in Houston, we hosted a dinner just for folks to get to know each other. And to exchange resources, information, learn from each other, because everybody has a different niche. And oftentimes, what we find is, one person might be a really successful realtor, but has no knowledge about short term rentals, and how that can help their clients. But that can also help them too. And so by putting everybody in the same room and fostering conversation, people start to understand concepts and and avenues to success that they never considered before. So it really spans the gamut from like high level education, very specific niche education, to just networking and socializing.

Justin Stoddart 11:14
Sounds like a powerful place to be at a time when many agents I know feel a bit lonely, I would say, the entrepreneurship game in itself, in and of itself, is not typically one in which you feel like you have a bunch of support around you. It can be very lonely, right, you are charting, oftentimes new territory, new, new, a new path forward. And it’s it can be a lonely journey. And so I can’t recommend high enough to everyone listening here today. That is, if you ever feel alone, you don’t have to feel that way, you can actually go join it or build a community, right, you can actually build a community. Brittany, I want to get to hear just a little bit about kind of what you do to support people in doing that. But a couple of communities that come to mind is I think of agents that have built great communities. Oftentimes, I see agents do a great job of just really delving in deep to their geographic farm, right? They can, they can send out postcards, and they can, they can kind of market to it, or they can actually get in and build community like actually host events, like be a part of what like the events that already going on and go actually participate in that. And I think some people say that I’m going to do that for business, I think branding, and then just for your own support, right just to be to feel a part of something, and to get buy into where their language becomes your language to where kind of the way that they feel is the way that you feel, you start to adopt common thinking, you start to adopt common practices, and all of a sudden you find yourself better able to serve the clients, when you’re going on a listing appointment, you’re going to work with buyers, you’ve got such more depth to be able to offer people, when you are truly part of a of a farm of a community of a zip code of of whatever, you are actually somebody so much more rich with experience that can offer much more depth than somebody who’s just selling transactionally instead of a certain year, I also see people who will build communities out of their out of their past clients, right. And ongoing clients, I should say, where they’ll have a Facebook group community, and they’ll delve in and actually let everybody who has been in their database or has has worked with him in the past to be part of that. And it becomes a very productive helpful place to be because you’re kind of the mayor of that town. And you are able to pour value into a group of people who have served you once. It’s just another way to stay in front of people and build community to where it’s again, it’s not a transaction. It’s ongoing help and support for those people who have who have used or referred you services.

Brittany Rose 13:34
And the common theme that I hear like or that I think of when we’re having that type of conversation is like showing up, right? It’s not just about hosting events for your own benefit. It’s about showing up for the people who are in your community. It’s about showing up to their things and supporting their children’s plays and sponsorships. And it’s about really building friendships, building relationships that aren’t one sided that are all about you that aren’t talking about your last transaction or your last deal or what you bought. It’s really about putting the putting everyone else is objective in the forefront. You my communities aren’t aren’t to benefit me they do as a byproduct. But it’s really an opportunity to for me to use my platform for other people that are doing incredible things in the world that needs to be supported. Yeah,

Justin Stoddart 14:26
so I just had one of our commenters today more than a commenter he’s he’s a big part of our community here at think bigger. He’s somebody tip to highlight Brad eat. And for those that haven’t studied him, several episodes ago, we did an entire podcast episode on a on a dance community that he is building in the Portland area, where every week he has over 200 people show up and learn how to dance. It’s like it’s an impressive thing. So again, there’s some agents out there doing some amazing things when it comes to building community. So we’re thrilled about this topic really feel like it’s not only a benefit to growing your business, but growing yourself and your contribution and impact inside of inside of a, of a, of a community.

Brittany Rose 15:08
And I would say also, there’s so many ways to do it, there’s so many ways to tie it into something that is authentic to you. I, in Houston, there’s a meetup called rare cars and real estate, right? Somebody who really loved rare cars wanted to find and connect with other people who had similar interests. In Houston, I’m going to be starting a property zone, and planes meet up because I’m really interested in aviation. And so I’m creating a community of people who are interested in the same thing. So it’s it, you know, when you have a passion for real estate, but you have a passion for a ton of other things, you can use that to really connect with folks on so many different levels and build genuine, authentic relationships that are not based on transactions.

Justin Stoddart 15:55
Yeah, no, I agree. I’d love to hear other ideas you have of people that are building communities and or some of the principles by which people ought to look to when they’re building communities, what should they stay away from? What should they be careful about? And or what should they absolutely adopt? And, and and embrace when it comes to building a strong community? Any thoughts are obviously great,

Brittany Rose 16:15
I would say there’s, there’s a kind of a long list. But some of the top things that come to mind are, stay away from being transactional. Like, it can’t be this for that, right? Always look to connect people within the community. So I’m always looking for people can be mutually beneficial to another, hey, you should know this person, let me introduce you, hey, you should know that person, let me make an introduction. Biggest thing, look for opportunities to serve, there are so many opportunities for you to give back to your community, to your customers to future customers, like everybody’s a future client, everybody’s a future partner, everybody’s a future customer. And you need to be proactive, and not just wait for people to ask you for things because most times they won’t. You know, we come from a very rugged, individualistic society like that real John Wayne mentality. And so a lot of people don’t like to ask for help. So you need to be proactive about looking for ways to help. And then you need to understand that this is a long term game, you need to like the same way we preach to realtors about like mining your sphere, like that is the same type of thought process, you’d have to take to community, you need to set dedicated time out to like, reach out to people connect with them, provide a resource provide some type of value, not just like, touch people 33 times, but like really provide some some value to their lives.

Justin Stoddart 17:48
I love that. Yeah, that phrase is has been an interesting one for people to digest. I think the principle is right, though, it was brought in the right spirit, which is touch people 33 times. However, I would argue that the way many of interpret that and done that is that I’m going to put you on an automated drip campaign that touches you 33 times and I’m sorry, there’s, there’s a difference, folks, there is a difference between getting on somebody’s like, drip campaign versus actually having a human reach out and say, Hey, there’s somebody I’d like you to meet, hey, tell me what you’re working on right now. I’d love to know how I can help you. And I get that we don’t have capacity as our community grows to do it with everybody. But we should be doing it with as many as we possibly can. Because there is a difference. And when

Brittany Rose 18:30
you I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off. No, no, please go, please go. When you when you do it, well, you create other people in your community who do the same thing. And so it becomes less reliant on you and more about the community feeding itself. So like, Yeah, we don’t have the capacity to like call our whole sphere 33 times a year. But what we can do is you can leverage your time in two different ways. Number one by doing events I love like, first of all, we all eat, right? So if I’m eating lunch, dinner breakfast, typically I’m trying to do that with somebody and continue to connect with them. And then the second thing is events and even if you’re not hosting event, inviting people to go to someone’s event with you is a great way to to kind of like share the love right you’re supporting the person who invited you, but you’re also building a connection with someone that you want to continue to stay in relationship with. I think those are really easily easy things to do but are often overlooked

Justin Stoddart 19:31
point I think there’s there’s so much wisdom in what you just said right there like note like never go out of the loan, right always say, here’s what I want to do. Who can I bring with me, right? There’s just something about, like the most beautiful part of humanity is that hey, I found something good. You should come try this too. Hey, let’s do it together. People just

Brittany Rose 19:49
take a walk together. I have this new kickboxing class I’m taking Do you want to come like it’s just about your life. It’s about incorporating people into your life. And I think goes beyond business. It’s really about connectivity that our society tends to be missing. People feel lonely people feel depressed, like and it’s because we’re not used to reaching out to each other anymore. And it’s something so simple, but it’s really gotten lost in the, in the automation and in the grind, hustle like culture that we’ve created.

Justin Stoddart 20:21
Well, I mean, I think very indicative of this, if you look at people’s overall happiness rates during the COVID, shutdowns, especially to younger people, right, who didn’t maybe have kind of deep relationships, or just seasoned relationships, like there’s a lot of mental illness that is coming out about that I’ve got friends in that industry, they’re like, it’s, it’s, it’s rampant. So if if we know that being apart from other people makes us miserable, then wouldn’t couldn’t we also conclude that being together with people, right around things that make us happy? Wouldn’t that be a good sign that that’s a that’s a better way to go about life? I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that of saying, this is we got into some, maybe some bad patterns over the past couple of years of being remote from each other being far from each other. And wouldn’t it be great to now reach back out and reconnect people teach people how to be human again, right? And then it’s, it’s, it’s not necessarily just in building our own community, but like you said, come join us doing this or join or support someone else’s community, right. There’s a whole other side of it, of like, how do I support somebody else’s community? And actually go be a good participant, not just a good leader?

Brittany Rose 21:33
Yeah, exactly. 100%, we’re on the same wavelength. I love it.

Justin Stoddart 21:37
Really talk to us about if there’s any opportunity for people to continue to learn from you or learn how to how to take part in your communities. It sounds like you’ve got places kind of around the country, what’s the best way for people to continue to learn from you about community?

Brittany Rose 21:49
Yeah, um, my Instagram, my Instagram is very like lifestyle, I try to educate and share what I’m learning from residential real estate, because there’s always a new creative finance opportunity, there’s always a new product coming out, there’s always something new to share, all the way up to development and where I am with my development, where I am in creating my first fund and how I put that together and what that looks like. So I’m always trying to share my journey and my life because I love to travel, I’m on my 43rd flight. So like, traveling is something I connect with people. Wherever I go, I’m looking to like make connections, meet other real estate professionals, etc. But my Instagram is at B dot the boss like Brittany dot the boss. And I try to answer every single message. And I have about 1000 unread text messages. And I don’t know how many unread DMS, but I really try to get to every single person, if I don’t get to them. lay my head and not my heart. It is not on purpose. But you know, I’m a strong believer that connectivity always comes back around.

Justin Stoddart 22:56
Yeah, I love it. What a beautiful thing. Thank you, Bernie for all that you’ve contributed here today. I’ve got one more question for you that I get to ask everybody that comes across the stages that you are a big thinker, right? You’re you’re making a great impact in the world. What is it that Brittany rose does to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your possibilities to continue to grow? What does that look like for you,

Brittany Rose 23:17
I connect with people doing things that I didn’t think were possible. Like the same, the same thought process connectivity, people community, it translates there too. Before I built women in real estate, I didn’t ever have a clear pathway into development or into like, what that would look like or even the thought process of owning, you know, a 500 unit community or anything like that. And I started to put myself around people who were doing those things, and could really lay out a path for how I could do it too. And were willing to help me. And so always just finding people who are doing things that you never even thought they never even registered for you. That’s how I continue to think bigger.

Justin Stoddart 24:04
Brittany, that was a absolute beautiful answer. Absolutely. Income envelops. What we’re about here is helping people to reach their own potential, see it, and then live in pursuit of it by being around other people to help him to do the same. So it’s such a pleasure to spend some time with you. Thank you for pouring into our community here. And being a contributor to what we’re deeply passionate about. Very mission focused and waking people up to that potential so they can go on to live given several bundles appreciate you look forward to seeing contacts and how we can be of benefit to each other’s communities. And to everybody listening here today. My final request is this. There are three simple words you know what they are, go think bigger. Thank you so much pretty for helping us do that today. Thank you. Honest, hearing good ideas is not enough. You have to apply them in order to get the results desired. If you found value in today’s episode, and you’re really going to love the community of big thinkers and high achievers that we are building in order to help you to apply the principles taught today. If you’re not yet a member of Think bigger real estate on Facebook go sign up now