Want to Master Real Estate Marketing? Listen Up!

Aviva (00:01.122)
This week's listener of the week is Tales of a Landlord. Tales of a Landlord, thank you so much for your five-star review. And for those of you listening, if you leave us a five-star review below, you might be next week's.

@justin.konokow (00:13.374)
If you leave us a five star review below, you might be next week's listener of the week.

Aviva (00:18.11)
Listener of the week. Week, week, turning off my echo cancellation. This week on Commercial Real Estate Secrets, we have Justin Konikow out of Canada. Justin, thank you so much for being on the show today.

@justin.konokow (00:37.486)
It's an absolute honor, Aviva. Thank you for having me.

Aviva (00:40.778)
Yeah, a bit of context for the listeners. I jumped onto social media selfishly to get business by talking about commercial real estate. What I didn't realize would happen is that I would be introduced to a massive network of really, really cool real estate professionals.

not nationwide, but worldwide, Justin being one of them. So in my anti-social, social way of networking, I have met so many cool people who look, or not look, but think and speak my language. And I'm excited to have Justin on the show today because Justin is one of them. Justin, how are you doing today?

@justin.konokow (01:37.246)
I'm good. I'm in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is gloomy and gray outside, but all is well. How is Colorado?

Aviva (01:45.138)
It's lovely. It's snowed yesterday. It's blaring sun today. So just another week in Denver. Justin, will you give the listeners a brief rundown of who you are, what you do, and why we are talking?

@justin.konokow (02:02.762)
Yeah, for sure. So my name's Justin Konikow, one of the co-owners of Prime Real Estate with my incredibly intelligent wife. She's the CEO of the organization. I'm kind of the face and the feet of it. And I guess I got here by being thrown off a cliff. I actually didn't wanna do real estate. I didn't think agents worked hard. I was in marketing and hospitality. My wife tricked me into getting my license. She told me I'd saved the commission on the real estate investments I was buying at the time. So I said, yes. And she's tricked me a couple of times

good things. So now we own a brokerage, we have a team of 30 now, but we're not really a brokerage. I actually treat what we do as, you know, being more of a media company that happens to be in the business of marketing and sales. And what's very unique about our firm is we do all asset classes of real estate. So I consider myself like the blade of real estate, where I'm a bit of a daywalker, where I can spend time with commercial real estate agents like Aviva. I can speak the language because that's my background and we crush commercial real

residential, new development, investment, real estate, and I call it focus diversification where basically like the guy that builds a 60,000 square foot office is probably going to build a two million dollar house and then I'm going to probably sell them some investment properties and I use a Navy SEAL team of agents to do it. We are not in the agent recruitment or office account agent count business. We are in the business of selling real estate.

Aviva (03:26.606)
So what does media and marketing mean to you in your business? Because obviously, real estate, I like to say, is 15 years behind when it comes to marketing. And clearly you have built a team and a business that lives probably more so in the future.

@justin.konokow (03:52.714)
Yeah, so when I think of marketing and sales, I mean everything's marketing and sales from the artist that wants to live a life of freedom where they just get to paint their most beautiful pictures and sell them or have them hung in a gallery to somebody selling real estate. And when I think of how marketing has been done historically in real estate, it's been a very gate-kept industry like the intro of your show says all the time. And I think I've always wanted to break that mold and bring more transparency to a very untransparent business. And we did that primarily using video.

started using video in 2013 to do full-blown listing videos when they were not really a thing. I got a lot of pushback from the industry. You don't need to do that. Even on commercial stuff. Like I would be doing full-blown cinema movies on commercial warehouses and office buildings with 50% vacancies. And really what I tried to do was use the methodology that I saw working on TV, which was entertainment and education to tell people things they could not find on MLS. And then over the years, what it means to me

now is when people work with our company, one of our biggest advantages is they're hiring us as a platform, not a broker. Because when they hire a broker to just put it on MLS, they can hire 10 agents to do the same thing. What they can't do is buy my data. So if they hire that other agent, they don't get my 50,000 person mailing list. They don't get the 1.7 million views we have on YouTube. They don't get my marketing team that can target based on the data and the emails in my CRM

bought similar property. So when I think of marketing Aviva, I think the marketing of the future is being able to be an absolute specialist and sniper for your clients where historically real estate has just been a shotgun approach, right?

Aviva (05:38.235)
Yes. So what would you say to somebody who's maybe has a more old school approach towards the business or? Well, let me phrase that a different way. Every single day I get questions. How many leads do you get from online from your posts? People just want to know like

How much do you make a year from online posting? How would you respond to that? Because that is not a linear question and I'm asking selfishly because I wanna know how you would respond.

@justin.konokow (06:09.76)
Hahaha

@justin.konokow (06:13.19)
Yeah, so I would use the Gary V quote of what's the ROI of your mother, right? Like if you think about your mom that raised you and imparted, you know, many lessons into you and raised you over the years, not all of those lessons are tangible. And, you know, when I first answer, I'll answer the question about the old school guy. I would say partner with somebody that's new school. I still think you can use, you need to use technology to be more human, right? I think too many agents are hiding behind technology thinking it's the solution, not realizing you still have to pick up the phone and interact with another

Aviva (06:17.946)
Huh?

@justin.konokow (06:43.164)
human being in order to build a relationship. When it comes to the ROI of what we've been building, you need to have a higher level view that works beyond the transaction where the ROI of partnering with us is you're getting my relationships, you're getting my platform, you're getting my vision, you're getting my strategy, you're getting a lot more than just how much percentage I'm charging on a commission and I have to realize that too that I'm getting more than that in the transaction with you. I'm getting more than a paycheck, I'm also getting access to collaboration and doing life with you

@justin.konokow (07:13.264)
So when I said somebody would ask you a question of like how much money do you make off your posting Aviva? I would say that's an impossible thing to quantify because the relationships in the proximity and me texting somebody saying Hey, sorry, and you need to meet Aviva. She's awesome or whatever that looks like is Unquantifiable yet. The opportunity is limitless when it comes to relationships, right?

Aviva (07:35.478)
It's funny because I find that question to be inherently a super transactional question. Like, but your response is that none of this is transactional from the question itself to literally working with people. It's not just cash the check.

Thanks, see you later. It's telling a story, understanding who you're working with, why you're working with them, and then how you can benefit them in the long term and quite literally ride off into the sunset together.

@justin.konokow (08:11.434)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, how many relationships have you met or have you that have turned around and given you opportunities that you would have never had access to had you not paid it forward to that person, right? I think that's where the beauty is in business in the long run.

Aviva (08:24.778)
And that's the cool part about the internet is that we never expected that. We, nobody really taught us, you know, none of our teachers could have ever taught us it because we're in this like discovery mode of connectivity that we're really the first generation who just gets the sole benefit of. And it's, it is shocking. I am still shocked every day by how powerful it is.

@justin.konokow (08:54.958)
It's bonkers and actually I'm looking over my shoulder. There's a book there that says what to post and it was written by Chelsea Pites What's interesting is back in 2013 or 14 me her Bucky Beeman I think Michelle Bellisari Shannon Milligan There was a bunch of us and we call ourselves the snap pack and we all connected on snapchat because Gary Vee was talking about Snapchat was taken off. Maybe it was like 2014 2015 Now she's gone off and she does amazing things huge keynote speaker with Gary V and many other people and I can go through

litany of Dustin Brome who runs the Massive Agent podcast. But why I'm bringing it up is I think of the integrity around those people and how I watched them show up as who they were from then till now. I see you show up in your content as who you are. I see how you treat other people. And I think you really exemplify integrity over influence. And I think by proxy, you gained influence. So for people watching you that are like, what's the secret? I think it's understanding the long game versus the transactional relationship.

Aviva (09:54.054)
And you know what? I'm going to be honest, I went astray and I went to monetize it. And I felt my soul leave my body. And I couldn't find my soul for like this whole six months that I was trying to monetize it. And then once I came to terms with the fact that it's not that

you know, it's not A plus B equals paycheck. It's this long-term authenticity play of providing value. I was able to find my soul and inject it back into my body. So what I'm saying is it's a journey, right? You have been posting on the internet far longer than I have in this.

Aviva (10:43.306)
under the umbrella of real estate. And I think people think that the person you are when you post day one will be the person you are when you post year five day one. And what's exciting is not only the growth that can happen between those five years, but also the fact that you don't have to be the same person. And as long as you continue to provide value, be authentic,

And I think ultimately you're right, just try to inherently do good for people. They can sniff that out and they want to stick with you for your journey through the highs and the lows.

@justin.konokow (11:18.798)
Sure.

@justin.konokow (11:26.358)
without a doubt, and I mean, you're giving them the ability to do that, right, by being vulnerable and saying the things that you said, the injecting your soul back in your body comment, the visual made me laugh. You know, I think it speaks to who you are as a person and you working through the ideas, not being scared to show people that it is a refining process, right, and your past doesn't define you. It refines you moving forward. I would probably challenge you a little bit and say, I think, you know, it's something I struggled with for a long time where I don't charge for anything, I don't coach, I don't sell products, but at the same time, I've had people be like,

like I kind of want you to down the road. Can you do like a course for me really quickly and how to set up my CRM properly? Like I do think that there's gonna be some things in your future where instead of maybe doing a coaching program you can sell the digital product because I would definitely pay for it. Like your thoughts around warehousing and just packaging it in a different way but I think at the core you are an educator by nature and I think your one-to-many approach and you bringing people along for the journey is one of the most powerful things about what you do.

So I would definitely encourage you to keep on that path for sure.

Aviva (12:29.454)
Well, thank you. Hey, what I have found is the more you give, the more you get. And that's a powerful thing and completely applies to the internet. So give, give. Now, another question I get all the time is what...

social media platforms work the best for you? And that is not the question I have for you here today. My question is, in February of 2024, what social media platforms are you having the most fun with? And what's like wetting your whistle and making you tick?

@justin.konokow (13:08.274)
Ah man, that's a loaded question. So like just straight up fun is actually TikTok Live. So TikTok Live started ripping about what, two or three months ago, and I do a morning kickoff and a morning wrap up. So at the end of my workout, I typically go live for like 20, 30 minutes, and I just talk about my calendar, what's going on, and what I typically do, what's wild is the business I've generated from it. The algorithm really knows people in my area because it shows me a lot of Canadians, people in Toronto, and like hook people up with mortgage brokers, have sent out referrals, and I don't even have a very big following.

400 people through on a live and maybe only five to 14 people at one time but there's human beings on the other side of that phone and it's fun to talk about just real life right and share struggles and things that I've had with them too and have conversations in terms of where I'm passionate about is YouTube so I looked at all my social media platforms with my team yesterday and I talked about marketing and I'm like it's overwhelming you have YouTube you have

You have Google My Business, you have Pinterest, like really, it's overwhelming newsletters. And like...

I told all of them, I'm like, pick one. I'm like, I have a whole team so I can manage doing it to the level that I'm doing it in Facebook. But I said, pick one. I said, at the very top of my list for me is YouTube because even though I don't have a massive sub count and view-wise, I don't have all the views in the world, my phone rings all the time off YouTube. I got a call from a buyer yesterday, a two, three million dollar buyer off a video I did eight months ago that I forgot I did. And it's not because I'm amazing, it's because I provided value.

It was a crappy video. I shot it all myself and my phone and I just showed a neighborhood And I'm like, this is what it's like. These are the developments. These are the schools I just did that lease for that restaurant. It's awesome. And she called me and she's like I'm really concerned about moving to London What is this like and we talked for 20 minutes, right? So YouTube is a platform for evergreen content that continues to find me the right people I think is number one and I'll give one tip to your listeners. Oh man, I like them all but

@justin.konokow (15:10.278)
Instagram, use it as a text messaging platform.

Instagram has been phenomenal for me to be clicking through. Instead of me texting somebody on my phone, I'll text message them on Instagram DMs and I'll start conversations with them there. Why? Because then it shows me their content and gives me the opportunity to stay engaged with them beyond the conversation. More than that, Instagram also recognizes that they like me and they're talking to me and responding, so my content ends up in their feed a lot more. So as a tool, I think Instagram as a text messaging app is fantastic.

and YouTube as an evergreen lead generation tool is great. And if you're all in to see the real me with no suit, messy hair at the end of a workout, then come find me on TikTok.

@justin.konokow (16:10.09)
I do, yeah. I run the Prime People podcasts. I've actually launched a second show under that umbrella. So Estates Entrepreneurs and Expresso's is a Prime Media production where it's a straight rip-off of comedians in cars drinking coffee, where I would come to you, put GoPros in your car, we'd grab a coffee, go look at some real estate, and go behind the scenes. And that's all hosted on my YouTube channel.

Aviva (16:26.295)
Ah.

Aviva (16:35.342)
So how do you have time for all of this?

@justin.konokow (16:38.142)
I time block everything and I stack everything I do. Here's an example. And you can clip this after. So on Saturday, I have a residential property that we wanted to get a lot of people to see. We wanted to get some high-end brokers to see it, but it's in the middle of nowhere. It's a beautiful hobby farm, but it's like three hours from Toronto.

So I'm hosting a private invite only mastermind for builders, developers, people in the industry, and agents. When the agents come, I have three of them that are gonna be keynote speakers. We are shooting two episodes of my podcast at that event. So I'm already gonna be there for the event anyways. My media guy's just gonna come a little bit earlier, set up some mics, lights, and cameras. We're gonna talk about real estate, chop it up, shoot two episodes, do the event, and we're just killing a bunch of birds with stones, right?

stacking what I'm doing so that I can accomplish it all at the level that I want to accomplish.

Aviva (17:33.058)
Savage, pure savagery, it's brilliant. I love it. Now, another selfish question. I just started, my husband, we're a little bit of reverse roles. I convinced my husband to get out of the hospitality industry and be a broker and now we work together. Yeah, it's, evidently I didn't create this brilliant idea. No, I'm just kidding.

@justin.konokow (17:34.771)
Savage, you're so...

@justin.konokow (17:50.155)
Amazing.

@justin.konokow (17:57.563)
Give it myself, tell him to call me. I can definitely help him out a little bit because we come from similar backgrounds.

Aviva (18:03.091)
Well, the question is, is how is working with your significant other and how do you separate that from your, you know, sometimes Josh will want to talk to me about a deal at 9 p.m. and I don't want to hear, I'm done, I'm out of office. How do you separate that or do you separate that?

@justin.konokow (18:15.118)
you

@justin.konokow (18:22.17)
So I think you have to set ground rules understanding things get messy, right? So the best piece of advice, two really good pieces of advice I got, one was from Ryan Serhant himself, and he had said to me, you know, I said to him, how do you do all this and still stay married? Like, it seems like you're busier than I am, which is crazy. And he said, you know, Amelia can cancel any appointments after 6 p.m., she has the golden hammer, I'm always home with Xena on Saturdays. And he said, more than anything, it's communication. So I think having a good process for looking at the couple weeks ahead and communicating,

what I'm doing, this is why it's important, but then also being willing to set time aside to talk it out is super key. So I'd say set a, I call it a sync meeting with your spouse.

probably 15 to 30 minutes a day, one hour a week go over the next month, that's massive. Second piece of advice I got is make sure that your roles are very delineated. Like what are you responsible for? I envision strategy, closing deals, shooting content. That's it. When it comes to actually executing on a newsletter, I could care less. I have two MailChimp tabs open on my screen and I should not. That's a Shannon thing. She likes doing that with the marketing team. She's very detailed. I will misspell every word in the thing.

time. So I think making sure you know what you're good at and what they're good at and separating those tasks and trusting that you're on the same team to accomplish the tasks is ultra key.

Aviva (19:42.646)
Wow, I'm gonna have to go back, listen to that and write that down because that was good. You're a very process driven individual. Are there any softwares that you cannot live without in your processes? Okay.

@justin.konokow (20:00.302)
Do we have another hour? Yes, I'll break down my tech stack. I use Google Workspace as my backend for my team. And I used to use Slack, but Google Chat and Spaces is fire. Just for team communication, we can create a space for each property, bring in the right team members. It's great for organizing. And that's all like your office suite. So like our documents, our sheets, we're not using different apps. We use one system for all of our softwares. Then on our back office, that doesn't really matter.

that's our current transaction management system. Our CRM absolutely couldn't live without, so Follow Up Boss is our CRM. I would say people overcomplicate CRMs. All CRM needs to be is name, phone number, email, tags, so you categorize people so you're not blasting everybody, and then understanding your workflow in the CRM. I have a specific workflow for Follow Up Boss I could do a whole episode on, but it's just saying when I log into Prospect, I have a system that I follow every time, right?

you know what that pattern is like brushing your teeth. Then I would say in terms of outside of Follow-Up Boss, later is what I use for scheduling all my content. So LATER is a great tool for posting content across many platforms and my team kind of runs that calendar for me. In between those tools I think those are the primary ones that I use the most.

Aviva (21:25.306)
Whoo. That's super impressive. I'm still trying to figure out my tech stack every single day, but it's amazing what we can do staring at our screens. I have one more question for you, a question that I ask everybody on the show. What is currently making you happy in real estate?

@justin.konokow (21:52.434)
The market is absolutely ripping right now. You know, the work we've put in the last eight months, 12 months was hard, right? It was a tough market. We worked five times as hard, did a lot of learning, a lot of changes to our systems, and we're seeing it come to fruition right now. But I think more than that, it's we made some major changes to our culture at our team and we do more in-person events. We're doing the Prime Academy now and we do that every Tuesday in person. So we train together. We do life together. It's bumpy. It's messy.

it doesn't always work out, but I think that piece, the culture piece, is what's making me really happy because it doesn't feel like work when you're doing it with other people that have the same ambition that you do, right?

Aviva (22:34.198)
Love it. So for everybody who says real estate is crashing, they're gonna hear that clip and find somebody in the trenches who feels otherwise. Justin, where can our listeners find you and follow you? On the webs.

@justin.konokow (22:54.454)
Yeah, so number one place you can go is at JustinKonokow.com / resources. That's where typically you'd get on my mailing list, I get free PDFs, and then we send you to all of my other places. YouTube if you want more of this type of content, put in my name. And then last but not least, the audio podcast platforms. I'm just typing my name and we are syndicated across all podcast platforms. And leave this show a five star review so you can be the listener of the week.

Aviva (23:19.706)
Justin, thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate your time and for everybody listening, we'll see you next week on commercial real estate secrets.