Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
/RealEstate is a bi-weekly podcast where we chat with agents and experts in the real estate space to find out what strategies are working for them, what tools are powering their business, and how they are maneuvering shifts in the industry. Join host and marketing aficionado Chris Whitling as he uncovers the tips, tricks, and tech ambitious agents can use to take their businesses to the next level.
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:21:00
Unknown
Hello and welcome to Forward Slash Real Estate, the podcast for the tech enabled agent. And I know I say this every time, but I'm particularly excited about this guest because it kind of completes a trifecta for us. We interview the, the team over at NORCHAR, Real Estate. And I feel like frequently Craig is a regular.
00:00:21:00 - 00:00:38:18
Unknown
And now, Nora, if you follow us on Instagram, then you'll know. Nora. If you don't follow us on Instagram, then you need to fix that. So please go do that. But now we got the third member of the team, and. And you want to introduce yourself. I am actually, I'm, park owner of NORCHAR with Craig. He is my husband.
00:00:38:18 - 00:01:03:09
Unknown
We started this brand probably about 12 years ago, and it was a point in our lives where we were trying to decide what we were going to do next, and decided we want to do, on our business. Craig has been in new construction sales for a very, very long time, and I feel like the next evolution for us was real estate sales to get into, home sales and, to, you know, what we could do in that market.
00:01:03:11 - 00:01:22:19
Unknown
And we started the brand North Shore. Our thinking was going to be just the two of us. I actually have a real estate license, believe it or not. I've had it for 12 years and I was actually going to be a real turn. I was going to sell with him. But, we started this brand, North Shore, and Craig has such not great, reputation.
00:01:22:19 - 00:01:39:02
Unknown
Our market people and other realtors like, well, can I hang my license with you? Can I be part of North Shore? And being new at this, we had no idea what this meant. So I was like, okay, hang on, we're going to do something about this. Yeah, we definitely want to have people, you know, with us as our company.
00:01:39:04 - 00:02:02:11
Unknown
But that involved starting a brand and building something that we necessarily did not think of just for the two of us going forward into this. But I'll send in like, okay, we have people with us that expects, you know, a logo, expect colors, expect a certain look and, you know, merchandizing and marketing, which is huge in real estate.
00:02:02:16 - 00:02:22:06
Unknown
So I had to take that brain step like, okay, realtor, maybe not. I'm going to be the person in the background doing more of the branding and merchandizing and led to people who are really good at, you know, selling homes do that part. I was a known unknown and that total novice in that arena. So I was like, okay, you guys go for it.
00:02:22:06 - 00:02:48:13
Unknown
That, flip in the back end and forgot merchandizing. And also, my familiarity of the real gigs was that I was going to be the CRM person as well. Tying that in, I was going to manage all the online leads. I was gonna help the agents, entering their business into the CRM and how to utilize the CRM to the best of, you know, their ability, our ability to gain business, to gain momentum and get a big audience.
00:02:48:13 - 00:03:06:14
Unknown
So that was me. My. That's where my part evolved into. So that's why I'm back here. The the whole behind the scenes. We're going to we're going to learn a lot today. In particular, we wanted to talk to you about that brand building and like kind of creating that whole world because you guys have done a particularly good job.
00:03:06:14 - 00:03:23:12
Unknown
Like you always have consistent colors. The logos are always great. You know, it seems like there was a lot of intention that went into the actual branding before we even get to, you know, like kind of the merch you were talking about, you know, all the all the giveaways and freebies and stuff that like, help you kind of spread your brand.
00:03:23:14 - 00:03:46:02
Unknown
And so maybe as we get started, can you talk about, you know, right at the beginning, you know, you said, okay, we're starting, we're starting this like we need a brand. Like, where did you start just knowing that this brand was going to be such a tangible and huge part of, you know, our lives as well, because, you know, we are, this is our family brain, this our family business.
00:03:46:08 - 00:04:09:07
Unknown
So we weren't going to take any shortcuts. So we spent a long time, you know, trying to figure out, what it was going to look like and what the colors bring out look like in our market. We want to make sure that we were unique. We did not see a twin to anything that we were doing or even in competing markets, because at that point when you're, you know, starting brand like, well, I'm going to go national, we're going to do all this stuff.
00:04:09:09 - 00:04:27:12
Unknown
So it was very detailed, even down to our our name, Noor Shah. North Shore real Estate is, you know, it's kind of unknown, but we actually needed a brokerage after our two daughters, Nora and Charlotte. And it was just the norm because it's like, you know, who do you love? You know the most. Would you? You know, your heart is your children.
00:04:27:12 - 00:04:47:01
Unknown
So we pulled those two names together into the brand right there, and we just wanted that, you know, family ask feeling when you came and work for us or when you bought and sold to us because, you know, at our heart, that's who we are. And we wanted to have, we have a heart in our in our brand.
00:04:47:03 - 00:05:11:06
Unknown
And that is the heart of the home kind of saying that's where I live, rooted in here. But it's it's like how we felt about, you know, real estate to us isn't transactional. It's so emotional. And I wanted my brand, our brand to show that in the green. Just kind of came organically. I've always loved green, and I think the color we have, this particular screen is not something I see regularly out.
00:05:11:07 - 00:05:34:13
Unknown
And, marketing. How intentional was the like? I really like this idea of thinking through, you know, what are the other businesses that are around me, you know, what are their names like? Were you was this like, this is the dining room conversation? Or were you like, did you have like a vision board where you like put all your competitors on there and you're like, okay, well, they're all named, you know, whatever, you know, some name real estate.
00:05:34:13 - 00:05:55:20
Unknown
And so we need to stand out, like how how intentional and how like long was that process of thinking it out or did it all kind of come together really fast? I think it came together, relatively quick in that we wanted to be unique in a marketplace where, you know, people are building all of these, brands and they're building, like, all these businesses.
00:05:55:20 - 00:06:21:05
Unknown
And real estate can be a little hard where you have so many teams with team names sitting underneath a brokerage brand and what have you. So we wanted to keep it, very intentional. We knew we wanted to stand out. We are very aware of well, are today even having snow, we are always intentional thinking, okay, I'm going to put this sign in front of a house, a consumer or some of the going to drive by.
00:06:21:05 - 00:06:41:04
Unknown
Are they going to be able to see my sign in miles of snow? Are they going to be able to see my sign in the fall? I think I see my sign in the winter. So all of those things, you know, being where I am in this part of the country is always was always going through our head of just making sure I had a color that pops in the white snow.
00:06:41:04 - 00:07:03:13
Unknown
I color that popped in the summer. And just did its, you know, did its thing. So it was very intentional thinking of environments, competition and just what people liked. I knew people and people, always like me. I feel like even like, I think Starbucks, their color is great. Okay. So I like this idea that you were being intentional about even, like, the color theory.
00:07:03:15 - 00:07:19:21
Unknown
Right. Was that, like, did you have a background in that, or was that just like, you know, you'd done some reading or was it sort of like gut instinct, like, how did you arrive at that? You know, that kind of piece of knowledge that I guess it's turned out to be true, right? I think it's just, you know, it's just who you feel it is what you you know, what you like.
00:07:19:21 - 00:07:39:07
Unknown
I know building a brand. I was going to have to, you know, live with that. You know, people can come and go when you're like, you know, what have you. But I was putting my name on it. I was putting all my chips on for sure. So that was something that, I, you know, stood behind and I knew I had to stand behind what I packed at that point.
00:07:39:08 - 00:07:57:01
Unknown
It's so interesting hearing the story, because I think I hear I hear a lot of agents, a lot of team leaders talk about, you know, trying to build authenticity into their brand. But it's almost like they're trying to do that after the fact, where the way that you guys went about it, it was more like, how do we make this brand represent us from day one?
00:07:57:02 - 00:08:19:21
Unknown
So maybe you've never thought about, like, that struggle that some, some brands have. I knew building, you know, this business is obviously it's it's very daunting to make a name for yourself in a very crowded field. Real estate is. And you have to, you know, it's built, you know, connections with other real realtors and brokerages and connections also to get clients and customers.
00:08:19:23 - 00:08:45:02
Unknown
So we knew we had to get that rolling quick because not only, you know, are you, dependent? You know, you have to, you know, pay your bills and you have to eat. So this decision to, you know, build that brand, we had to do it and we had to do intentional. We had to do it quick and stand behind it so we can move on to the other phases of what we had to do.
00:08:45:04 - 00:09:05:01
Unknown
Which is work. Yes, it is. Right. Because you can write all the documents you want or have all the intentions about what you want. Your brand to represent. But, you know, one of the things I like to remind people of is the brand does not live in your head. It lives in the heads of the people that experience it.
00:09:05:03 - 00:09:25:01
Unknown
So let's talk about the work. Great segue. Like all right. You've you've built the brand. You've kind of decided, I guess I'm a on a logo, you know, it's all very, centralized around who you guys are. What was that next step? You know, you're starting out. What what do you start to build? We started figuring out how to get our name out there in the community.
00:09:25:03 - 00:09:55:18
Unknown
Relative living, relatively new brand. Obviously. You know, you're posting on social media constantly, talking to people constantly. If someone invited me somewhere, you bet I was going because I was going there to tell them about my brand and who I was and what I was doing from, you know, my life. But as I was also showing up in my community, being a member of a community and helping people, and I think that's where, you know, genuine connections happen and that's where you start talking to people.
00:09:55:20 - 00:10:20:14
Unknown
And in part of that is showing up pretty intentionally mirroring my brand as well, because it's one of those things, people ask questions about. I think, when I first started this company, I wore my brand public lucidly for almost two years, like we saw me. I was wearing something. I said, North Shore, because I was like you, you know, you get that hustle and you just start working it.
00:10:20:14 - 00:10:43:16
Unknown
And I think it just became so, intentional, instinctual to get yourself out there and get yourself known for that, and also to bring the smile and to bring the, you know, the friendliness and everything you want, your label and your brand to evolve into an a feel. I mean, there's so much in, you know, real estate that is, you know, transactional.
00:10:43:16 - 00:11:05:02
Unknown
And sometimes you put on that hat where you're, you know, the real person you feel like, and then you're like, but this always grounded me. What I was building rounded me, and I understood going forward, wearing that, I represented what I was building, if that makes sense. How I acted with people, how I, you know, did things out in public.
00:11:05:02 - 00:11:26:14
Unknown
If I'm wearing a North Sha hoodie, you bet. Deep on down there, when I'm at the grocery store, I'm put my cart back in the corral and everything else that you're doing. Theory systemized. You know, too, that it is who I am as well. But I also knew that I didn't want to, bring any, negativity to my brand, per se.
00:11:26:16 - 00:11:43:10
Unknown
I want to drill into this because this is actually something that, you know, I like to talk to marketers about, where it's like the way that you kind of show up in the world shapes the way that people will perceive you. And we were all using these signaling mechanisms to, you know, say, hey, this is what I'm about, whether it's intentional or unintentional.
00:11:43:10 - 00:12:01:12
Unknown
And you can obviously make it very intentional. So, you know, when you're thinking through, like, okay, I'm going to wear my brand, but it's still going to fit me, you know, like what? What was like on the on the shopping list of, like, I'm shaping this brand. I need to wrap it. Right. You know, what goes in the shopping cart?
00:12:01:14 - 00:12:20:00
Unknown
Okay. What went in the shopping cart initially? Because when you're starting something, you don't have a lot of money. $0, $0. So it was a lot of YouTubing of how to do a lot of like I felt like I'm not an artistic person, but I call myself a crafty person. Has that. There we go. I like good friends.
00:12:20:01 - 00:12:42:12
Unknown
I'm crafty. Yeah, I could be dangerous in that arena. Arena. So I was watching videos on actually, what I had around me, I had, you know, obviously, big box stores. I can go in and get a bunch of white t shirts, and I could actually do something called screen printing. So I actually set up in my house a homemade screen printing system.
00:12:42:14 - 00:13:00:05
Unknown
So I had that, I bought frames, I had custom, I had, I wasn't there crafty. I could make my own custom frame. I did order that from a site online, but I bought the pain, I bought the Squeegees and I bought a heat gun and I was like old school. My kids were helping me as well. So I did have one of these.
00:13:00:05 - 00:13:19:19
Unknown
This is like old school Noor Shah, one of the t shirts that I hand painted and made with this thing. You can see, you know everything about a black Beckham that is awesome. And it has, you know, the paint, what have you. So were you watching YouTube videos to figure out how to do this, or did you have previous experience doing it?
00:13:19:19 - 00:13:40:11
Unknown
None. None. Chris I had no previous experience. I was watching YouTube videos and I was doing all this, you know, late at night, you know, trying to figure this all out because I didn't want to embarrass myself or embarrass any of these amazing people who, you know, are taking a chance on us and or. Yeah, I wanted to be, you know, put out something that we were all proud of.
00:13:40:11 - 00:13:54:19
Unknown
So it was a lot of like, you know, trial and error. I probably kept some of my errors. I didn't bring them to show you today and my show and tell, but it was it was a lot of tears. And, you know, you wanted people to be proud of things that you bring to the table and put them on.
00:13:54:21 - 00:14:15:02
Unknown
I did not want embarrassing, but, you know, have a lot of money. In the beginning, I was very scrappy and crafty. I think sometimes it's like in retrospect, the the errors and the missteps, like you kind of feel proud of because it's like, oh yeah, that was the springboard that got me here. Absolutely. I mean, we were such a like a young company, like we literally started in our garage like all of this.
00:14:15:02 - 00:14:34:20
Unknown
Our real estate company started in our garage and all of this, like, craziness. And I think there's a lot of beauty and a lot of crazy ideas that come out of stuff like that, because it's like, you know, you are kind of throwing things at the wall, but you had to be more intentional. Often when you do it because you don't know if you're going to get another chance kind of feeling.
00:14:34:22 - 00:14:51:05
Unknown
So it was like, you know, I had this much money to spend on t shirts. I allocated this much money to spend on my screen printing stuff. So this had to work. I had no choice, you know? I had to run with it, and I did. I think we did pretty well with it. We started, you know, with the t shirts.
00:14:51:11 - 00:15:09:12
Unknown
I got the t shirts on myself. I put them on my kids. If my kids friends wanted them, you bet they were wearing the t shirts as well. And we'll start. And realtors, the realtors were like, yeah, you guys have t shirts. I only want one of your t shirts. I'll wear that t shirt everywhere. And they actually were wearing these t shirts that we wore, which I love.
00:15:09:14 - 00:15:33:02
Unknown
And then also gonna sell in the community wearing these t shirts. If there was, anything that, you know, North Shore could, volunteer at or show up for or do we shown up, as you know, this young, scrappy team of realtors wear my homemade t shirts, you know, doing something to help the community. And that was I can't even tell you how amazing, you know, those days, right?
00:15:33:02 - 00:15:51:13
Unknown
There were were hard work, but well worth it. That really pushed the envelope of, you know, what we can do today? Well, and it's almost like straight out of, you know, there was I think it's like duct tape marketing or guerilla marketing. There was a couple of books, you know, I don't know, ten years ago that were kind of talking about this is almost like play by play, you know, how you how you do this.
00:15:51:18 - 00:16:10:11
Unknown
Yeah. You know, so it's like you screenprint your own t shirts and then you go to as many volunteer events as you can to, you know, show up wearing them being your own billboard, you know, representing your own, your own brand. That's, that's absolutely awesome. And I loved it. I mean, real estate is not a profession where anyone has a uniform, right?
00:16:10:11 - 00:16:29:14
Unknown
We're all like, you know, like all independent contractors, you know, you show up for, you know, your clients and you hope that, you know, you show up well and what have you. But in oddly, in those days, I was able to create a uniform for my real estate brokerage that we all wore and showed up all over town.
00:16:29:16 - 00:16:51:20
Unknown
And in doing so, people noticed us because we were at all these volunteer events and we all matched wearing all this, you know, stuff. And I was very free. But yeah, I made that. How did you know that people were noticing? Like, were you seeing like Google like searches come in or are you getting phone calls or like, you know, other comments like, that's one of those things where people always wonder, well, how do I know it's working?
00:16:51:20 - 00:17:09:15
Unknown
You know? And I'm like, well, in the beginning it kind of feels like a vibe. But like, what was it like for you? I think it was wake when people said, you guys are everywhere. The first time someone said to me, you guys are everywhere. And I was like, oh my God, I feel like I'm not. I feel like I'm like in sometimes you're in your head and you wonder, are you doing enough?
00:17:09:15 - 00:17:29:04
Unknown
Am I showing up enough? And then the first time some was just like, guys, you you're working hard, you're everywhere. And I felt like, was it everywhere? Because the way Craig and I built our brand with which very consistent did they see, like a real estate sign on one side of town, and then you see it on the other side of town, but they're both the same, you know, brands.
00:17:29:07 - 00:17:50:14
Unknown
So look like I'm here and I'm here and I'm everywhere. And then I have someone wearing, you know, a t shirt in like, the my kid's high school and then have another someone else wearing the kid's t shirt in the primary school and like, you know, in different towns because, you know, I would provide free swag and free T-shirts, everybody, because it was just at that, you were hustling, you're out there and you still should, and get your name out there.
00:17:50:20 - 00:18:08:22
Unknown
So that was the first time someone goes, you are everywhere. I was like, that's amazing. So it was that comment of like, hey, wow, you guys are everywhere. Like, is that were you guys still in that? Like 0 to 1 phase or were you starting to hear that? Like as deals are starting to roll and you're starting to feel like, you know, okay, okay.
00:18:08:23 - 00:18:29:11
Unknown
We're like the the sales are filling up here. I felt like both because I had the, I have the privilege of being as a co-owner, knowing where the sales are coming as well. I was just the pure marketing person, and it when you start a brokerage, I was wearing every hat, marketing, CRM. The only thing I did not do was sell the houses.
00:18:29:12 - 00:18:58:19
Unknown
I didn't put myself in that arena. I know that wasn't. I know your abilities and your strong suits. That wasn't for me. Luckily, we start bringing on people, so I didn't have to, but, Yes. When we. You start hearing all that stuff and I see the sales and I see the, you know, the people telling me you're everywhere and noticing our brand and having conversations about it and saying, hey, I was talking to so-and-so about, you know, that you guys were, you know, selling a house over here.
00:18:58:21 - 00:19:17:00
Unknown
And, you know, I knew someone who was going to list their house and was just like, all that stuff, you know, those conversations started popping up more and more often, and it was amazing. And it and I don't know, you know, necessarily if it was, you know, swag or merch, I think it was just being strong in our branding as well.
00:19:17:01 - 00:19:36:19
Unknown
I never wanted someone to put something in front of their house or put something on their body that was like silly or embarrassing because I we always take that into consideration. What I want a sign that look like this in front of my house, what I want to put. I give this something on my body that looked like, you know, silly or I don't want to wear a very intense, intentional.
00:19:36:19 - 00:19:56:02
Unknown
Everything goes out, you know, is approved by myself, that this is something that I can definitely stand behind. Well, maybe drilling into that, like, were you letting people do their own thing, like with your brand, like, oh, I've got the shirt, I want to get it embroidered. Or was it like everything coming through you of like, you know, kind of classic marketing manager?
00:19:56:02 - 00:20:14:01
Unknown
Like, no, no, I own the brand and you must get my approval before you, you know, do x, y, z. Yeah. I'm very, I think I'm loose looser with it now than it was because I was very conscious, conscious in the beginning. I do not want to see my brand per se on a red background. I want someone to embroider.
00:20:14:01 - 00:20:40:17
Unknown
I did have rules. I 100% say, hey, I can't be everything for everyone. So if you have a shirt you'd like to get embroidery on, or if you want to screen print something, but also with our colors that make sense per se. I don't think it's, helps anyone's brand to take something that is so uniquely in our case, green and white, and take that and put it on a red background, you know?
00:20:40:17 - 00:21:00:17
Unknown
And in the beginning I, I was very like, don't no one does it. But at that point I was just like, hey, I was going to ask, like, did that ever come up or new pieces? I think, you know, you, you, you were trying to push so fast, so hard that there were a times where, I, I wasn't like, oh, maybe you maybe.
00:21:00:17 - 00:21:19:12
Unknown
But it all worked out for the all worked out in the end. Because you always have so many personalities in so many ways. You, you know, there's only so much you can control has that right. And there are some things that, you know, you just have to let go and let people do what they're going to do.
00:21:19:18 - 00:21:39:04
Unknown
But in the end, it all worked out. What were some of the things that you were like, oh, maybe I wouldn't have done that. But, you know, I can see why this is going to work out or what the battle like, right? Do any of those come to mind? I think for us maybe was a little bit of, marketing.
00:21:39:06 - 00:22:00:16
Unknown
Not everyone knew in the beginning our name isn't intentionally, it's Noor Shah, and it's all capitalized. Every letters capitalized. And I don't know if I did a great job explaining that to everyone initially. So I would see a lot of things with big and little, oh, little R oh, everything. And I was like, well, it's not us, that's not us.
00:22:00:17 - 00:22:20:16
Unknown
And then, oh, just, Noor Shah Realty instead of North Shore real estate. So those things in the beginning, I was like, hey, it's this or it's this and trying to control all that. It's so funny because that stuff that's like, you know, that that story could come straight out of like a $50 million, you know, business, right?
00:22:20:18 - 00:22:39:23
Unknown
You know, like marketing department talks about that kind of that kind of stuff. But yeah. Yeah. Like I like what you're saying here. Like that's not us. You know, back to the brand fully representing, you know, who you are. Yeah. Like it seems like that when you say that's not us. There's a lot more like emotional resonance. Resonance then just like, well, that's just not our topography.
00:22:40:02 - 00:23:01:23
Unknown
Absolutely, absolutely. And we're always very conscious as well, is when something is posted online affects the entire brokerage per se and infects, like all of us. So the same thing where you guys were everywhere, you know, that reflected very well on a brand new agent who had never sold anything at that point. They're like, you guys have so many listings everywhere.
00:23:01:23 - 00:23:23:06
Unknown
You guys have so many houses for sale. They had never had anything. But because our brand was so consistent, it looked like this person was doing work in every single town and showed up everywhere, which was something that was intentional. As owners of the brokerage we're very proud of. Yeah. And I think in that way, in my head, I was trying to protect that for people as well.
00:23:23:12 - 00:23:44:06
Unknown
Everything that you know, you do reflects on the other people around you. Well, just to also paint the picture for people, were you guys doing online lead generation right in the beginning or like because we're really focusing this conversation on kind of like the real world, physical, you know, side of the business or of the brand. But were you, were you doing the online stuff at the same time?
00:23:44:06 - 00:24:04:20
Unknown
Like, where did real geeks enter this, this start up equation? Real geeks came right from the beginning. We were we've been aligned with real geeks right from the get go. Yeah, we were definitely you know, generating out there, generating our own business and bringing our leads and buying leads and getting leads through the CRM and what have you.
00:24:04:20 - 00:24:28:12
Unknown
So that was, a huge, you know, obviously an amazing tool that still is, you know, a workhorse in our, in our brokerage, the CRM, in real geeks. One of the things that I hear a lot from real estate agents is they or, you know, team leaders, they're like, well, my style of marketing is referrals or it's, you know, like sphere or it's walk and knocking.
00:24:28:14 - 00:24:46:11
Unknown
Yeah. It sounds like you guys had a much more like holistic marketing plan where you're like, I'm going to attack all these channels all at once, right? And you were able to pull that off. I love a referral business, and I don't in those days when we were young, the scrappy, we weren't getting a lot of referrals because we were unknown.
00:24:46:15 - 00:25:13:11
Unknown
And I think that obviously being in this business for as long as I have, I realize I can see this, you know, the levels of agents and realtors. I know who has referral business and it's a given. This person's all referral business with, you know, something would have you and, you know, the newer people are going to be heavily relying on, a business for pay per clicks or what have you, or any kind of outsourced, lead generation.
00:25:13:13 - 00:25:32:18
Unknown
Then that in the beginning, we had some referral business. We didn't have a lot though, because we were so new, you know, like, hey, you know, we got a lot of listings because people are like, you guys are out there, you're killing it. But, you know, a lot of our business was coming from Lee Jen it through the CRM and paper clicks and what have you.
00:25:32:19 - 00:25:50:15
Unknown
So you're working all the angles all at once. You're you're doing the online thing, you're doing the Legion thing, you're out in the community doing the volunteer event, trying to get your brand out there. And presumably, like these things are starting to start to work together. So. Okay. Let's I'm curious to, like, go back to like, okay.
00:25:50:15 - 00:26:06:16
Unknown
So, you know, you've got the brand, you're starting to get some momentum under you, like you've talked about like sort of like the merch and the merchandizing and like, kind of some of the fun stuff. I think in one of our episodes there was like a wall of boxes behind me. Right, Craig? You know, so start to talk us through like this.
00:26:06:16 - 00:26:31:13
Unknown
Things are starting to become more established now, like, what's the system look like? All right. So I also want, I want to give a shout out to as our building where we are with, where we, where our office is located and we are actually a pretty iconic street in Rochester on Park Avenue. Our house, that we are, our office out of is like a really pretty building in our city, and we take full advantage of that.
00:26:31:13 - 00:26:57:08
Unknown
And we use that because it's, very recognizable to people in our area. We were very lucky to have the opportunity to buy, this building and to turn it into our office. And we definitely use that, in our marketing. And it's very local and it's also an avenue on that used to have previous the Covid, a giant art festival every year.
00:26:57:10 - 00:27:35:04
Unknown
And this art festival, would have over two days, about 250,000 people walk by in that walkability of where we are in the exposure of what we are actually helped grow our business as well. And that tied into my marketing, because at this, art festival, I was able to set up a stand in for my building, and Craig and I committed into designing a t shirt, of our logo with our logo and our building, and we gave away in two days a thousand t shirts to for free just for people walking by.
00:27:35:04 - 00:28:00:21
Unknown
And I actually have one right here. And that right there was like part of that hassle of just like getting your name, getting your brand out there and trying to be, you know, in the community. So the summer arts, and that's actually our building that I'm in right now, that is so good. Because so for people listening to this on audio, like, it looks like a t shirt that the art festival would produce, and it's got your logo very prominently on the building.
00:28:00:23 - 00:28:23:07
Unknown
Yeah. That's great. And then on the back. So people forget that I'm a real estate person. I put that right down there to the best real estate ever. Ask me about North. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was part of, you know, our guerilla marketing in the beginning. The front is subtle. The back is not taking advantage of, you know, that it's a good marketing.
00:28:23:11 - 00:28:45:20
Unknown
It's a good business plan right there. Take advantage of where you are and use it to the best of your ability. And we knew at that point we had to, you know, get the word out even further and reach more people and giving away a free t shirt and an art festival. So were you guys still, you know, like making your own, t shirts at that point?
00:28:45:20 - 00:29:03:14
Unknown
Or was this like, okay, we're going to go out to a production house and we're going to order a thousand of these things. Yeah. You know, I think what the graduation from our garage, we sold a few houses. We're able to actually buy the building that I'm in now. I think our marketing and our merchandizing got graduated as well.
00:29:03:16 - 00:29:29:13
Unknown
Part of it was actually talking to vendors in our area and getting exposed to, people who are making these items and making these products. I would go to, coffee shops and working coffee shops at before the office, and you would notice in a coffee shop where they had their own merchandise. And so I'd pick it up and I'd look at it, and I'm not afraid because we're in sales, asking a question like, hey, where do you guys get this stuff on made?
00:29:29:13 - 00:29:47:12
Unknown
Is this local? Is someone doing this and getting names to do all this? And I bring these ideas home and I discuss them with Craig, my partner, and I go, hey, you know, these guys are getting these t shirts made here. I'm going to give these vendors a call. You know, there's he, you know, lives in the next town over, and they're turning out these shirts that are amazing.
00:29:47:12 - 00:30:05:13
Unknown
You know, we don't have to do that any longer. I don't know if I love it. Yeah. Why don't I want a little more professional looking t. And that's where this actually came from. Was a vendor in our neighborhood, not in our neighborhood. In our town was able to mass produce this t shirt for me. And, and a very reasonable cost where I could give away a thousand of them.
00:30:05:13 - 00:30:21:20
Unknown
This is different from, I think, the way that a lot of people would approach this because they would, you know, go to Google and they would type in, you know, custom t shirt and they would get, you know, the ad for whatever the company is, you know, that's like probably the same three companies, and, you know, kind of bid those guys against each other.
00:30:21:20 - 00:30:42:04
Unknown
So, I mean, did you look at the comparative cost versus like doing a national vendor that's maybe going to produce the shirt overseas versus looking at it locally? Or was that just like off the table from the beginning and you were going to do it locally. Yeah. No, I was going to use local at that. I was definitely using local and I thought locally because that's, you know, where my business was coming from.
00:30:42:06 - 00:31:01:05
Unknown
And I wanted to and there is a beauty in using your local vendors as well because that's, you know, marketing. I end up talking about him and her and that's Mark and Darren talking about. Yeah, I just did this huge, you know, t shirt order for this real estate company. And you guys need to go check them out because you they're so crazy.
00:31:01:05 - 00:31:19:00
Unknown
They're actually giving these t shirts away for free. And it was almost, you know, that marketing that local you can't pay for, you know, that kind of word of mouth and you get someone, you know, talking about you that I'm not, you know, I don't pay you or I'm not doing something for it. You know, they they're just, you know, people were really excited for you.
00:31:19:02 - 00:31:35:17
Unknown
For you genuinely. Yeah. The local economy kind of feeds on itself. That's there's that's a really, really, really cool story. Okay. So you did the art fair, you gave away a thousand of those things. Were you then seeing them out in the community? What what was that like? What was the impact of that? I did two years in a row.
00:31:35:18 - 00:31:56:08
Unknown
It was so successful. I did another one. And, I did see someone. I do see people wearing my t shirts. The first time was in Costco and my kids, I texted him and I'm like, I said to my gosh, there's someone over there buying, Alaskan king crab legs wearing the Norse r t shirt. So I'm going to take a photo.
00:31:56:08 - 00:32:11:19
Unknown
Mike. It's like, don't don't even go near this person. That being creepy. And it was like, I couldn't help it. It was like I was like, first time like the Beatles hear their song on the radio was like, there are people out here wearing something I made. I'm like, I need to take a photo. So did you go talk to them?
00:32:11:21 - 00:32:31:16
Unknown
No, I didn't go talk to him. No, I was told not to. That would have been. That would been super cringe. So not there, me back there snapping photos. But yeah, I was told that to I would have a a counter opinion that's like, go talk to the person. People. Yeah I, I don't know by when I've had that happen.
00:32:31:16 - 00:32:42:17
Unknown
The, the the reactions have been positive. Yeah, I imagine so I, my audience today was a 15 year old who is like, you don't know.
00:32:42:19 - 00:33:03:21
Unknown
So you're going to do a thousand, t shirts for an art festival. One of the questions that plagues everyone when they're hovering over that buy button is what is the size distribution? So how do you. It's a very nuts and bolts question, but how do you deal with that? We just we buy every single size and we lean heavier into the larger sizes.
00:33:03:22 - 00:33:27:21
Unknown
Just because I know that, you know, even the smallest girl on the planet will probably still like an oversize t shirt. The things, in the beginning, I was ordering equal numbers of everything because it was just what you thought. I'm going to get, you know, this size 100, 100, 200, 100. And then I had to look on the second day of the festival and I go, wow, I'm stuck with a lot of extra smalls and smalls.
00:33:27:23 - 00:33:47:19
Unknown
And I go, I can't in the mediums, I can't give these away because people are walking up to the booth and they're like, maybe. And then the next year I was like, okay. I saw what my clients were grabbing and they were grabbing the extra largest and the largest and, and you would just see, you know, like a little, okay, grab like a large t shirt.
00:33:47:19 - 00:34:09:18
Unknown
And I'm like, how do I could this kid the grab the small t shirt that I actually probably purchased for them, but they didn't want to. They wanted the oversize. So I was very cognizant. Year two of oversize t shirts. And that was you know, where I was going with it. I still provided a lot of medium smalls, extra smalls, but for that purpose I did, the bigger sizes.
00:34:09:20 - 00:34:33:19
Unknown
I will say, when I do a, company event and I order t shirts for the agents, I ask everybody previous to order. What size can I get you? I'll do. I'll send out a, an email, a Facebook post. I'll call a text and I'll get everybody sizes. And if you are bringing another person to one of our events, what size do you think they will have?
00:34:33:19 - 00:34:59:03
Unknown
I more I catered more to the little events that I'm doing, and I will definitely get people's particular sizes. But when I'm doing the mass stuff I to send out to what have you, and also when I'm buying merchandise for, our office, just like to have on hand those sweatshirts that I have and I was showing you, I buy a lot of t shirts and actually have graduated until I've graduated from the screen printing.
00:34:59:03 - 00:35:23:05
Unknown
I actually own my own heat press now. So I do have a heat press and we do my transfer, so we're able to produce all the stuff in-house, and I will buy blanks of t shirts, and I will have a lot of t shirts on hand, and I have a lot of transfers on hand that I can make to spec to that person, which, we're pretty very lucky to have that he press.
00:35:23:08 - 00:35:40:22
Unknown
We get very serious around here about our t shirts and our merchandise and as as I learned from the YouTube videos, I wasn't going to be screen printing a long time. I said, hey, we got to step up our production here. This is crazy. This is crazy. We need a high price. So that's what we are now.
00:35:41:00 - 00:36:02:06
Unknown
And, changing up our colors a little bit. Now, what's the break point, do you think between doing it yourself and going to, you know, a local vendor or an actual vendor for like mass, mass production? Right. So if I, if I'm saying to you like, I need 100 of these, like in your mind, is that like, I'll do it myself or.
00:36:02:06 - 00:36:21:00
Unknown
Oh, no, actually it's better to send it out. If I need 100. I'm going to do that myself. I'm going to buy the blanks. I'm going to get the, transfers, and we're going to do that in-house. If I'm going to make like we did for the park F as a thousand t shirts, I'm going to go to, my local vendor and have them do that.
00:36:21:02 - 00:36:41:06
Unknown
It's just easier and, it I won't, you know, I'm. Give yourself carpal tunnel. I can. Yeah. You can't press a thousand t shirts. I'm going to. That's for for the professionals I can do. We can do 100 in-house and even then, you know, we're switching out people like, okay, it's your a, you're done. You're turned on the heat press.
00:36:41:10 - 00:37:12:05
Unknown
Everyone gets a quota. Everybody gets quota. And and when you build company culture and people don't mind it per se, then you know, because we are stepping up and doing something fun for purpose, I will say because in that place, we just printed out 100 of these t shirts yesterday, and it kept one alive because tying into volunteering, tying into our community, one of the things here at North Shore is that we participate in the Polar Plunge every single year, and we can imagine how cold that is in Western New York.
00:37:12:07 - 00:37:31:11
Unknown
We freeze our tails off, but it's something that we're very proud to do every year. And we do raise as a team thousands of dollars for an amazing, charity Special Olympics. And we, through our funds, kids can participate in Special Olympics. And to do this, we also are very cognizant of merchandizing. So they're back into that realm.
00:37:31:16 - 00:38:05:19
Unknown
And we like to have a teen t shirt. So this year, oddly enough, we have a t shirt that we, weirdly enough, use chat. We've used I, for the first time ever to help us create a design. So we told AI what we wanted. We said we wanted something called Polar Bear America in a font. And so this is what, after some tinkering with, chat came out for us, I that's crazy American polar bear with the American flag earning.
00:38:05:21 - 00:38:21:04
Unknown
We always put the year on these t shirts because like we said, I think this is like our 11th year of doing it. And every year we have a t shirt. We always put the year on it. So we're proud to say. But for us, this is the first time ever using AI to help us with the design.
00:38:21:06 - 00:38:40:01
Unknown
Was this like a fun side project because so like it's a fun design, but like the thing was popping off off my, you know, my mind to begin with is like, that's very different from a lot of the other designs that, that you share, like the rest of your designs are very much like, yeah, fit into a, like a real small, like, brand standard.
00:38:40:03 - 00:39:01:04
Unknown
Yeah. And so then you decided to do this, like side project or fun thing or was it like, it just fun. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We're always going to be fun. Polar plunge in itself is pretty crazy. We're doing something wild with jumping into Lake Ontario when it's frozen, and, we just enjoy it, and it's just the time for us to have, like, a wild t shirt with our branding on it.
00:39:01:04 - 00:39:19:00
Unknown
That's not every day. We're very aware of it. We buy all this is not our color blue. But we went for like, you know, because we thought the Buffalo Bills, let's get the t shirt. This was our year. So it's kind of purposefully a little bit away from the core just so it can be crazy 100% to be crazy.
00:39:19:02 - 00:39:34:13
Unknown
And we're we're crazy were fun like that. You know, you want to be you want to bring something to the table sometimes people then look at it and be like, love it. Or they might be a slightly bit uncomfortable putting it. But we're all going to have fun doing it. It'll stick in their mind either way. Either way, absolutely.
00:39:34:14 - 00:39:55:09
Unknown
So you did two years of the the Art show with your t shirts. What else were you guys producing and pushing out into the world? We were pushing out at that point. This I'm going to show you my favorite, sweatshirt. So I was getting ideas from coffee shops, and I was very lucky that I do, a lot of I do a lot of traveling as well.
00:39:55:15 - 00:40:30:17
Unknown
So my inspiration for my, merchandise is not, traditionally real estate. I'm going to look at something outside of real estate because I don't know necessarily I want to wear a real estate anything. So I'm like wearing something that looks a little artistic, a little less mass produced, but a little more niche. So I was noticing when I went out and I was looking at, you know, per se, if I'm in, coffee shops or, breweries or distilleries or any kind of business, they were doing a lot of tone on tone, printing.
00:40:30:20 - 00:40:52:08
Unknown
So they would have, like per se, like a gray sweatshirt with gray writing on it. And I thought that was like, so cool. It was very subtle, thin screen real estate, but it was just a really cool look. So I came back and I did one of these sweatshirts so you can see it in this life and far away.
00:40:52:10 - 00:41:16:11
Unknown
You're not really seeing it scream my logo in for some like probably the same reason I liked it. Everybody liked it. I couldn't keep these going. I couldn't get my guy to make them quick enough. Everybody wanted to at that point, and I was very, happy with that because I had so many people who are like, oh my gosh, you're the ones who make that, you know, tonal, subtle, sweatshirt, I want one.
00:41:16:11 - 00:41:42:12
Unknown
I was like, yeah, I want to give you one. So it's just like that inspiration that I saw out there, not necessarily real estate, but I could bring it to my real estate brokerage and make it something fun. Really love that. So I mean, maybe let's dig into this a little bit because I like the idea that the design inspiration was not coming from, you know, like a competitive analysis versus, you know, what the other people are producing.
00:41:42:12 - 00:42:00:02
Unknown
But looking at, you know, who's just making really cool things and putting it out in the world. Yeah. So breweries, coffee shops. Yeah. You know, basically anyone that's making a, I guess, a lifestyle brand at that point. Oh, absolutely. It was a I didn't want to I did not want at any point to look like a copy to anyone.
00:42:00:02 - 00:42:25:17
Unknown
Real estate is very conscientious of that. I want to be very unique in what we were doing. I wanted people to know that, you know, everything we're doing is very, organic and, you know, true to who we were. So I was taking that inspiration and trying to find it in other avenues in other businesses and how to bring it into my world, because there was a coolness coming from all these cool things.
00:42:25:17 - 00:42:42:16
Unknown
You know, there's coolness when you go to a, like a distillery, a brewery, they're merchandizing, you know, people want to wear it, they buy it to wear it. Y you know, sometimes you're thinking why? You know, you're just wearing that brand and you're paying to wear it. How do I get that kind of, you know, call as well.
00:42:42:22 - 00:43:05:18
Unknown
And that's where I am. I bring the click. I got to do with the cool people or the cool guys are doing and make that kind of merchandise, and people are going to want it and they're going to pay me for these kind of things. And I was like, that's crazy. And that's where my brain started twisting. And then you also have to think, a little deeper, because I was into t shirts and I was into sweatshirt, I go, but what about the whole family?
00:43:05:20 - 00:43:23:02
Unknown
You know, what if I can get, you know, I sell a house to someone and I can give them they're having a baby, and I can give them something for the baby to wear. And this is something that I know that my clients are going to take photos of and put all over their social media. And so you start changing your brainwave into thinking, right?
00:43:23:04 - 00:43:41:07
Unknown
And not just clothing the adults. I need to start clothing those kids. So that was one of the things I came out of a coffee shop, was that these onesies that they were making and that that people were buying, I'm like, right here. So I'm like, oh, go home, get yourself an idea for a onesie. And this is one of those things.
00:43:41:07 - 00:44:05:03
Unknown
And I go, I have no idea. And it's so good for the people, listening to this, that, that, that this is a like an infant onesie and it says Northstar Real estate. So be my crib is great. Yeah, yeah. And the same thing and it just being conscious of like, you know, the branding and you know, where they sourced these little tees because obviously you want them soft and cute that moms, you know are going to feel comfortable putting them on their babies.
00:44:05:09 - 00:44:25:02
Unknown
And so that was something right there that I'm like, oh, this is something that we can do and send to our people. When you notice on social they're having they're expanding their family because real estate people are always seeing those things on Facebook and Instagram and now TikTok, you're getting those signals of like, oh, someone's expanding their family.
00:44:25:04 - 00:44:41:17
Unknown
Maybe they need a bigger house or something like that. You're always looking. All that I was looking at as well, like, okay, how do we bring ourselves back in north? Our back into the conversation just had a baby. We want to celebrate it as a brokerage with you. So that's where this idea came from. Sending them one of these.
00:44:41:19 - 00:45:02:07
Unknown
And I would send them one of these. And if I'm going to show you in for your audio in a packaging that we had created for that purpose. So this packaging, which is Norstar branded, I slapped their address on it because of course I know their address. We sold them the house this arrives kind of like a shock and awe moment for them because they're not expecting you.
00:45:02:07 - 00:45:35:20
Unknown
Throw a nice note in here and congratulations. Highly recommend. You know something like this. Always when you're, selling homes. Where did you get the package? Oh, this package is from Sticker Mule. I think a lot of people are very familiar with Sticker Mule. We'll probably talk more about that, but I'm a huge advocate of, like, sticker mule and other vendors putting, doing the work of putting your logos in there because you always get an email that they have a deal and they're always doing some sort of special one week.
00:45:35:20 - 00:45:58:21
Unknown
It's a sticker in, next week it's packaging. Maybe it's a t shirt. So I always have something like in the queue in the line. So when they send me an email that they're having like, you know, buy 50, packages for like 12 bucks, boom. I already have a logo set to go in for that purpose. Yeah. And that kind of ties in a little bit with a question I was going to ask, which is like how, you know, how intentional were these thoughts?
00:45:58:21 - 00:46:17:14
Unknown
Were these like, hey, we should do like, you know, infant, infant like onesies, you know, was that a, like, I wake up in the middle of the night and it's like moment of inspiration? Or was it kind of like, okay, I know that people buy houses because they're growing families. How do we get our brand connected with that outcome?
00:46:17:14 - 00:46:38:10
Unknown
Like, was it intentional or was it like a moment of inspiration or like, and how much time do you spend thinking about that versus like all the other competing things that like that exist in a, in a, you know, growing business? Yeah. I have a notebook. So you need to write it down because this business is fast and your ideas come fast and you always are inspired.
00:46:38:10 - 00:46:58:11
Unknown
I'm always inspired by something I see, like, I like I said, I love to travel, so when I see something, I'm very conscious of looking at it, looking at the label, looking at how I could fit it into my business, how I write it down. I take suggestions for things as well. I'm very open to, you know, the people who do hang their, license with our brokerage.
00:46:58:13 - 00:47:22:06
Unknown
What do you guys want to see? Where do you want to wear? What do you think is exciting? You know, what do you you know, what is our next idea for something fun? That's actually something you would be really proud to wear and proud to hand out to people. So I'm taking, inspiration and ideas from the people around me and the things I see out in the community and, obviously heavy influences, just like your family as well.
00:47:22:07 - 00:47:42:02
Unknown
You know, like, sometimes I had an idea and my kids were like, don't go. Nope, no one's going to like it. And there are things that I think that are wonderful. And, I get them produced and like, no one likes it. I'm like, what? What's an example of that? Oh, not that didn't go anywhere. But, weirdly enough, weirdly enough, not really.
00:47:42:06 - 00:48:18:11
Unknown
New York State banned plastic bags. So we are completely, dependent on bringing tote bags everywhere we go for any kind of shopping. So I thought if I had a bag, I'm holding up like a burlap kind of bag with, one of our logos on it. If I provided this tote bag to our customers or clients and made it available to our, our people or realtors, this thing I can't keep in stock because that's like something it's so that we throw in a trunk that we just use every day would be so valuable.
00:48:18:16 - 00:48:43:01
Unknown
And for some reason, it really didn't go anywhere. Okay. And like, we need to hang out on this because, that bag described a little bit more for people listening to it. It's it's not like a generic cloth bag, like the seams are, color coded to match your logo, which is black on this, on a burlap colored things with, like, the color scheme all kind of goes together really nicely.
00:48:43:01 - 00:49:05:07
Unknown
It looks like pretty high quality, but I really like the connection between, you know, hey, something changed locally and like my local laws and, you know, I can make it easy for people to both like, you know, rep my brand and, you know, comply with the thing. Right. So, and I like that you're using a real geek's mug.
00:49:05:09 - 00:49:32:22
Unknown
That's also awesome. Thank you. I was intentional with that as well. And speaking of, awesome swag. Right. Well, that's a high point in itself. Obviously. You know, you're giving something to someone, and I didn't throw it out because I could see myself using it. You know, that's another intentional like, piece of item that is not going to end up in, you know, the junk drawer or end up, you know, thrown out or going to, you know, the garbage or, you know, goodwill or what have you.
00:49:32:23 - 00:49:50:09
Unknown
When you have something of quality, people are more apt to use it and you see it out in circulation. So I want to come back to the packaging a little bit, because you mentioned another thing that I, you kind of like glossed over as a small detail, but I think actually might be a big thing is, you know, you know their address so you can send them stuff.
00:49:50:15 - 00:50:09:02
Unknown
Right? So you have like a ship station in the back room where you're printing logos and stuffing bags like it sounds like a little bit of a, like a small business like, e-commerce fulfillment type, type situation you got going. Right? Well, we we definitely like to give on our clients. We don't have a, we do print our own labels, but you could just print them out.
00:50:09:02 - 00:50:27:21
Unknown
We just print them on a regular printer. I do print my postage labels. I do have, like you mentioned, you can see, and one of my daughter Nora's real geek videos. We do have some green boxes that we hand out to people. I don't know if I have one handy, but we definitely, you know, like to, love on our clients and send stuff out.
00:50:28:01 - 00:50:53:05
Unknown
And I wanted to make that, a point to have materials for our agents to do that. We are able to we do have, label paper to print out labels for shipping. We do have the bags. We do have the boxes. I do have assorted bags as well for that purpose and different sizes. So I'm holding up more of these plastic bags and it's just intentional.
00:50:53:07 - 00:51:11:07
Unknown
Do I need it today? No, but when I see like one of those, emails come through from a company that can mass produce stuff like this, I will buy this and have it on hand. So it's just not a situation like, hey, and you guys have a bag for me to send this out. I like being the person like, yes, I got you covered.
00:51:11:07 - 00:51:33:04
Unknown
I got you can do all of this and send it all out. So you've had a thought on like the possible things that you could want. And then when it goes on sale, you snap it up now. Yep. And packaging tape. Oh. Packaging date. Like I'm not even getting packaging tape. My agents asked for folders like can we have some folders for stuff?
00:51:33:04 - 00:51:50:18
Unknown
I'm like, yeah, if I have it, I know will get used and it's not going to be a thing. And that's the nice thing about being you're the owner of your company. You can just I don't have to ask anybody if anyone have any. I just do it. I'll just create it, send it out and have it in for them.
00:51:50:18 - 00:52:16:01
Unknown
And, you know, that way we could just start using things. I'd rather, in my company, people ask me to get something for them and then to, like, they don't provide anything or they're not servicing me. Know that I will, and I do. I love all this. I love how you guys like, really, you know, to repeat something I said in the beginning, you know, there's a lot of real estate brands that are searching for office authenticity.
00:52:16:03 - 00:52:39:09
Unknown
And it seems like you guys have built it into the brand and the corporate culture, you know, corporate culture, the business culture, you know, like, all right, from the beginning. So it's not trying to like, you're not trying to reverse engineer into like a feel. It just naturally is. Yeah. I think that's it. I mean, I just goes along with, you know, who you are as a person.
00:52:39:13 - 00:52:58:15
Unknown
I mean, that's who you want to, you know, surround yourself with. It wasn't a situation where I had to bring on, like, biggest producers, the biggest real estate agents in town. And how do I offer? You know, obviously, you know, you want to you are competitive. You need to be competitive. I'm not, you know, ignorant of that part of the business.
00:52:58:15 - 00:53:21:11
Unknown
You do want great people and you do want to be competitive and do all the things to retain great people. And you can give someone probably like all the money in the world. But if you don't have a great company culture and a place where people like want to come and feel good about themselves and enjoy hanging out and being a part of, it's almost like, you know, they're always going to be looking for that exit.
00:53:21:13 - 00:53:43:16
Unknown
And I'm more about, you know, let's let's be intentional. Let's retain the great people that we have and give things you give back to them because we want to keep this going. And we all enjoy showing up every day in finding more ways to give, these people. So you were saying that you produce awards for your annual conference?
00:53:43:20 - 00:54:04:20
Unknown
What was the, this year? So every year we host our own North Star Awards, and we like to recognize people in our brokerage who are just doing phenomenal, like, like, you know, loving on them, saying you guys had you had an amazing year and we love to celebrate it. So we thought of like, how can we get a really cool award that feels like us?
00:54:04:22 - 00:54:41:17
Unknown
And we know it's something that the agents are always going to keep. And then we started looking around and we saw it, oddly enough, like for us, for our culture, we were going to do like some sort of pottery, like beer styling. And it felt fun. So we actually use a vendor called, I think it's Gray Fox Pottery, and they produce for us a bunch of these mugs that we hand out, they produce again, we found this idea from, coffee Shop because I walked into a coffee shop, saw this brand and started researching online, went to them and I said, hey, I'm holding up a black mug right here.
00:54:41:22 - 00:55:04:07
Unknown
Can you produce for us a bunch of these mugs? We actually use these as awards because we know they're fun and everyone's going to use it per se. I'm showing right now. This award goes to our rock star rookie. This is the person in the first year who's just bringing it hit the ground running. We want to make sure we're celebrating their achievements from their first year in real estate, and we call them the rock star rookie.
00:55:04:09 - 00:55:31:19
Unknown
We hand out a bunch of these. We hand out award for most transactions, sales volume, team impact helping hands. We call one for the person who's like just always in the brokerage, who always answers a question, helps new agents, all kinds of good stuff. And then we do own work now, the big kahuna. And this is just the overall agent in our brokerage who just really, you know, brought it that year in sales and team participation.
00:55:31:19 - 00:55:56:18
Unknown
And just like the epitome of what it is to be a great real estate agent that year. So we thought this would be something fun. No one throws them out and it's very competitive to get these marks. So how much input did you give on to the like ceramic manufacturer on the design of this thing? Was that something that they already had pre-built because like I was I was thinking about your your logo with the heart in it and the handle looks like half the heart.
00:55:56:20 - 00:56:24:11
Unknown
Yeah. Like, was that all intentional they have on their website? When you go to the when you go to the website, you can pick the handle. You could pick the size of the stain. You can pick the sheen, the color, everything. It's these are completely handmade in a kiln. So everything about this mug is unique. The one thing that is unique to us is that we did design the, logos on here for them, and I don't know, I'm not the artist.
00:56:24:11 - 00:56:44:18
Unknown
I had no idea how they did it, but it's that's their business, not my business. That's why I have amazing artists to help me do something like this completely handmade, completely unique. And this is something you're only going to get from us at in your shower, per se. It's not a generic anything. This is pretty unique and we're very proud of them.
00:56:44:20 - 00:57:00:00
Unknown
We have their that's one for rock rookie. They're all different. But when you see them in a line, they're all like brother and sister mugs. They all have a purpose and they they mesh. Okay. So if you're just starting out and you're you're brand new into this, you know, you don't want to go down the t shirt route.
00:57:00:02 - 00:57:22:11
Unknown
Where would you go? Stickers. Stickers, obviously stickers are just like they're cheap and they're just this item that you can just hand out in the people who like them get it, and the people who aren't going to like them, toss them. But it's not something you spend a lot of money on. And it's just, I don't know what it is you walk into, like a place where everyone has their computers open.
00:57:22:13 - 00:57:43:21
Unknown
People have like five, six stickers under on their laptops. These days. And if you can make a really cool sticker for your brands that people aren't going to throw away 100%, do it and hand it out. And it's a cheap way of spreading awareness of who you are. You can be more playful in a sticker than normally you would on a t shirt or a sweatshirt.
00:57:43:23 - 00:58:13:15
Unknown
I wish I had one for you, I actually created a sticker. I can have a sweatshirt of a two that has a Grateful Dead steal your face. Now I'm just combining some pop culture with my logo. Yeah, people really like it. That's why I'm sold. I don't have any left because I've handed out so many of them. They were one of those items that people are like, oh, and it's okay to take your logo sometimes and marry it with something that is pop culture that people enjoy and like.
00:58:13:19 - 00:58:32:13
Unknown
And it's also something I love, Grateful Dead. So I'm always going to do veer and to do something like that. So the stickers, you know, like, is that kind of the kind of thing you just kind of keep with you and hand out, you know, when you're having interactions that are, you know, like, what's the number of times you'd hand out a business card versus hand out a hand up a sticker?
00:58:32:13 - 00:58:49:12
Unknown
Because I don't have any business cards, I don't I you know, stickers because I love that answer. Yeah. I don't have a business card. Yeah. And I and the sticker is just something it has my name on it. Most people are have a phone that they can Google, you know Northshore Real Estate find my website. I'm on there.
00:58:49:14 - 00:59:08:03
Unknown
But you're always going to hold on to that sticker. And hopefully these stickers always end up in cool places as well, which will be a bonus when I find my sticker on public, I'm like, oh, like, how often do you create hybrids like that? And then when do those get handed out? I that right there. I, there was only one I've ever done.
00:59:08:05 - 00:59:27:20
Unknown
I'm, I hope no one reports me to any kind of license plates, because I do not own that. They do my own little riff on it. I keep it very local, and I think the people I hand out Grateful Dead stickers, too, aren't the kind of people like. You shouldn't be using this because you don't own the license and you don't have the copyright.
00:59:27:20 - 00:59:45:21
Unknown
Or you know what? It's an homage anyways to your favorites. You know, it's yeah, as are you. You know, no one's you know, no one's feelings are getting hurt. Hopefully you think it in the spirit of the creation of the sticker was fun. Hopefully the person I'm handing it to understands that I'm not trying and it's all free.
00:59:45:21 - 01:00:05:13
Unknown
These are free freebies. I certainly I'm not charging anyone for my stickers. All right. And where can people find you? They can find me at, North Shore. Com. How am I on your state website? Or you can go to North Shores Instagram, which we amazing because on our Instagram you'll, you will see a lot of our merchandizing on there.
01:00:05:13 - 01:00:23:00
Unknown
You will see us wearing your sweet sweatshirts or t shirts. You'll see us doing Polar Plunge and all the fun stuff. Yes, definitely go to their Instagram and send one of their posts to a friend. Is that really will help you out? On the Instagram algorithm. All right, everyone, this has been forward slash real estate. Thank you for watching.
01:00:23:00 - 01:00:38:13
Unknown
If you have any questions from all the stuff that we discussed, go down in the comment section and leave your questions. We read all of those and we definitely try and bring those into next episodes. Also you know a like and subscribe never hurts. So thanks for watching and we'll catch you next time.