The days of treating a CRM like a lemon you can squeeze for a referral once a year are over. Most agents think they have a database, but they are actually sitting on a list of people who have not heard a human voice in months. Tristan Ahumada recently discussed this on Your Daily Real Estate, stating, The old-school approach of “just touching base” is a quick path to a blocked number. People have a built-in radar for scripted mass texts, and they are tired of being treated like a transaction with a heartbeat.
The Move Toward Attraction
Since the mid-2000s, the human brain has been methodically trained to tune out spam, yet we continue to send out newsletters to our database that we ourselves have not read. We have moved into a time where people no longer want to be sold to, they want to be part of something. They want to be associated with the person they feel is helping them be a genius with their money, connecting them with the expert when they are not buying or selling. If you are not showing up when there is no commission check on the line, there is no reason for them to call you when there is.
The LabCoat Agents Road Map
Creating LabCoat Agents into a community of 500,000 people was not done by asking for favors but by giving everything away for free. From its humble beginnings as a Facebook group focused on sharing what actually worked in lead generation in 2014, there was no sales pitch or agenda. By showing up consistently and bringing people together with experts without asking for a referral in return, Tristan was able to create a space where people actually wanted to be.
How to Actually Build a Community
To actually build a community, you must focus on small, high-value interactions with zero strings attached. It looks like sending a quick text to a past client saying, "I saw your neighbor’s house go up for sale with the same backyard as yours, thought you’d want to see the price." And not following up with a question about their own moving situation.
To succeed at building a community, you must:
The Bottom Line
More leads are great, but a better community is what actually keeps a career alive. You should start with the people who already know your name and treat them like they matter because communities only grow when you show up and make people feel like they belong to something bigger than a sales quota.
