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Rachel Kilmer is a renowned real estate agent with Reese Nichols Real Estate in Kansas City, Missouri, who has successfully leveraged her background in sports and video production to excel in her career. Rachel's perspective on success in real estate and the use of social media is rooted in authenticity and personal strengths. She believes that one should not force themselves to adopt marketing strategies that do not align with their interests or cause anxiety. Instead, she encourages individuals to focus on what they are good at and build their business in a way that reflects their personality. This approach, she believes, not only yields a better return on investment of time but also produces more authentic content. Join Bill Risser and Rachel Kilmer on this episode of The Real Estate Sessions podcast to learn more about her unique approach to real estate and social media.
Rachel Kilmer is a successful real estate agent with Reese Nichols Real Estate in Kansas City, Missouri. With a background in sports and a previous desire to become a social worker, Rachel found her calling in the real estate industry. She gained recognition by winning a contest held by the Kansas City Chiefs, which allowed her to be a sideline reporter for a day. Rachel's experience in video production and her involvement in marketing and social media have contributed to her success in the real estate business. She emphasizes the importance of doing what you're good at and enjoying it, rather than following trends that may cause anxiety. Rachel values teamwork and provides support to her team members, including an operations manager who handles paperwork and marketing. She is active on social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, where she can be contacted.
But if you feel like you have to do
Speaker:video because it's like the trendy thing that everyone's
Speaker:talking about, but the thought of doing video makes
Speaker:you feel like you're gonna have a nightmare, don't
Speaker:do it like it's not going to work for
Speaker:you if it's not fun for you. So if
Speaker:giving shooting video gives you anxiety, do what you're
Speaker:good at, because I'm sure I'm not good at
Speaker:what you're good at.
Speaker:You're listening to the Real Estate Sessions podcast. And
Speaker:I'm your host, Bill Riser, executive Vice President, Strategic
Speaker:Partnerships with RateMyAgent, a digital marketing platform designed to
Speaker:help great agents harness the power of verified reviews.
Speaker:For more information, head on over to Ratemyagent.com. Listen
Speaker:in as I interview industry leaders and get their
Speaker:stories and journeys to the world of real estate.
Speaker:Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 367 of the Real
Speaker:Estate Sessions podcast. As always, thank you so much
Speaker:for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling
Speaker:a friend. Today we're going to venture over to
Speaker:Kansas City, Missouri, in the Midwest. We're going to
Speaker:be talking to Rachel Kilmer. She's with Reese Nichols
Speaker:real Estate. She is doing some amazing marketing, and
Speaker:she has one heck of a background. I'm not
Speaker:going to tell you what it is here. I
Speaker:want to surprise you as we get into the
Speaker:episode. So, Rachel, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me. I'm so
Speaker:excited to be here.
Speaker:I can't tell you how excited I am. This
Speaker:is going to be great. Your background is right
Speaker:up my alley. And I think that so many
Speaker:times when I go into the research for a
Speaker:podcast guest and I'm looking at how did they
Speaker:get started? What was their life like? It's kind
Speaker:of like, oh, this is different. Very different. Yours
Speaker:is awesome. So let's get started right there. So
Speaker:you live in Kansas City. I'm going to assume
Speaker:that you're a native Kansas Cityan. Is that how
Speaker:you say it?
Speaker:You nailed it. Yes. I'm from a town about
Speaker:25 miles east of downtown, and we all claim
Speaker:Kansas City. Though if you're, like, within a 30,
Speaker:40 minutes drive of downtown, you just say you're
Speaker:from Kansas City.
Speaker:It keeps it simple, just real easy. Okay. And
Speaker:then what should we know that we don't know?
Speaker:Now, it's not the barbecue thing. Everybody knows about
Speaker:that, right. The sports we'll talk about shortly. But
Speaker:what should we know about your hometown?
Speaker:Well, that's a fun thing that people don't realize
Speaker:when people say they're from Kansas City. We only
Speaker:have about 500,000 people that actually live in KCMO.
Speaker:And our metro as a whole has a population
Speaker:of over 2 million. So the vast majority of
Speaker:people that call Kansas City home are living in
Speaker:a suburb or a small community around the city.
Speaker:But the city still is the heartbeat of our
Speaker:community, for sure.
Speaker:Yeah. How about the biggest misconception?
Speaker:I think it is the big boo boo mistake
Speaker:that celebrities make or performers when they come and
Speaker:apparently they aren't coached up right. And they get
Speaker:on stage and they go, what's up Kansas? And
Speaker:then they get booed before they even start their
Speaker:show because they don't know which side of the
Speaker:state line.
Speaker:They'Re yeah, let's talk about that for a second.
Speaker:For the geographically challenged that are listening in, you
Speaker:can help us with this because here's what I
Speaker:know. Tell me if I'm right. Kansas City is
Speaker:not in Kansas. It's in Missouri. But it's right
Speaker:across a river. I don't know the name of
Speaker:the river. Missouri river. I'll just guess. Okay, good.
Speaker:It's right across the Missouri River from this this
Speaker:blew me away. I was doing a little bit
Speaker:of digging. But you're closer to the Jayhawks than
Speaker:you are to the Tigers. You're closer to Ku
Speaker:than Mu where you live. Is that right?
Speaker:It depends on which part of the metro you
Speaker:live in. But yes, all of this dates back
Speaker:to the Civil War. The term jayhawk was the
Speaker:jayhawkers. So Missouri and Kansas absolutely hated each other
Speaker:during the Civil War. Kansas was a free state.
Speaker:Missouri couldn't make up their minds and so they
Speaker:were playing both sides. So the sports rivalry there
Speaker:is so real, but actually dates back to real
Speaker:legitimate political rivalry and actually war back in the
Speaker:day. And now the state line, some of it
Speaker:is along the river, but most of it's actually
Speaker:not. It's a road literally called state line Road
Speaker:that separates Missouri and Kansas. And when it snows,
Speaker:one side will be plowed and the other won't
Speaker:be plowed yet because that side's owned by one
Speaker:state and the other side's owned by the other
Speaker:state. So it's really crazy. You can't really tell
Speaker:when you're in Missouri or Kansas. But yes, Kansas
Speaker:City, when you think of Kansas City, the actual
Speaker:city is in Missouri. So like things like the
Speaker:Chiefs and the Royals, they're on the Missouri side.
Speaker:But we have tons of stuff on the Kansas
Speaker:side, too, like Sporting KC, the NASCAR track, that's
Speaker:all on the Kansas side. So to further confuse
Speaker:things, there also is a city called Kansas City,
Speaker:Kansas that has a smaller population. I want to
Speaker:say they're about 50,000 and they have their own
Speaker:mayor, their own separate municipality. And then there's a
Speaker:third city called North Kansas City that's in the
Speaker:Missouri side. Again, separate municipality, separate mayor and everything.
Speaker:So yeah, it's all wacky. But that's a big
Speaker:mistake people make when they come to visit. You
Speaker:have to know where you are and you have
Speaker:to know where your allegiance is.
Speaker:Yeah, I was going to say. And there's still
Speaker:a sense of rivalry with I would imagine. Well,
Speaker:maybe not because Royals cardinals doesn't really work because
Speaker:it's Al NL and the Cardinals are more the
Speaker:Cubs, right. And all that stuff. I'm just curious.
Speaker:We'll just jump in there real quick. The Royals.
Speaker:Do the Royals have a rival?
Speaker:Well, we think it's the Cardinals. We have such
Speaker:bad little brother syndrome with St. Louis. It is
Speaker:such a thing. Kansas Cityans. Love to hate on
Speaker:St. Louis. They think they're so great, and they're
Speaker:thin crust pizza and their fried ravioli, and the
Speaker:St. Louis Kansas City thing has been real forever.
Speaker:But think back to the World Series 85 with
Speaker:the play at first, and so that's when Kaufman
Speaker:Stadium fills up the most is Cardinals games, for
Speaker:sure. And some of it is people in red,
Speaker:obviously, but Royals fans turn out. We love to
Speaker:hate the Cardinals. We love to hate St. Louis,
Speaker:but we're well aware that they really don't care
Speaker:about us because they got the Cubs over there.
Speaker:Okay, that's great. So I like to ask this
Speaker:question a lot of my guests, because 15 year
Speaker:old Rachel, you're in high school. You're probably thinking
Speaker:a little bit about what you want to do.
Speaker:What were you thinking was going to be your
Speaker:career at that point in your life?
Speaker:Well, at that point, I really wanted to be
Speaker:a social worker. I really wanted to work with
Speaker:children, and that's what I went to college for
Speaker:to start out with, actually. But my major was
Speaker:cut for my university, so I kind of had
Speaker:to go back to the drawing board after my
Speaker:freshman year. And my roommates were like, you know
Speaker:what we're really sick of is listening to you
Speaker:talk about sports. This is not normal behavior, so
Speaker:please go do something with that. So they encouraged
Speaker:me to pursue that, and I was like, well,
Speaker:that's like being an actress or something. That's not
Speaker:a real job. But the more I researched, I
Speaker:realized it was. And the Chiefs just so happened
Speaker:to have this contest that year where they were
Speaker:doing an online campaign for someone to be the
Speaker:sideline reporter for a day. So I took my
Speaker:iPhone two or whatever iPhone was out at the
Speaker:time and went up to training camp and shot
Speaker:a video of talking about all the players submitted
Speaker:it, and I was chosen to be one of
Speaker:five finalists. The other four finalists were actual journalism
Speaker:students with actual demo reels. But because I'm from
Speaker:a small community, it was down to a fan
Speaker:vote. And when you're from a small town, your
Speaker:people rally around you. So I ended up winning
Speaker:that and got to be the first time I
Speaker:was ever in front of a camera. A real
Speaker:camera was standing on Lambeau Field with Trent Green
Speaker:in the booth, and I'm 19 years old. Wow.
Speaker:How cool is that?
Speaker:It was wild. So if you would have told
Speaker:little 15 year old me that that would happen,
Speaker:I would have died of joy. I just didn't
Speaker:think it was a real possibility. But life has
Speaker:a funny way of working.
Speaker:The love of sports came from where was it?
Speaker:Family?
Speaker:My dad. My dad. When I was growing up,
Speaker:we had a small business sports shop, so we
Speaker:sold hats, jerseys, all of that. So I'm like
Speaker:nine years old, working the cast register, like, you
Speaker:want the Jared Allen jersey? Do you want the
Speaker:three stitches or the two stitches? He also is
Speaker:a college football official, still is. So I grew
Speaker:up watching film with him after his game. So
Speaker:we'd sit in the living room and watch his
Speaker:film together, and he'd show me like, oh, that's
Speaker:what OPI versus EPI and all of so he's
Speaker:doing his homework.
Speaker:He's critiquing his team, basically. Himself and his team.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, they watch film, they get bit. It's
Speaker:a whole thing. So I really had no choice
Speaker:to be a sports.
Speaker:That makes so you go to Missoul, which the
Speaker:good news is it's a great school for journalism,
Speaker:right? I mean, it's one maybe the best, could
Speaker:be the best in the world, I hear people
Speaker:say. Is that possible?
Speaker:I would say this I would say this as
Speaker:a completely unbiased person with my degree from the
Speaker:University of Missouri. Yeah, actually, my freshman year, I
Speaker:went to D Two school called Northwest Missouri State,
Speaker:which is one of the best football schools in
Speaker:D Two. But after I won that thing with
Speaker:the Chiefs, that's when I went to Missoul to
Speaker:go to the journalism school. I was not there
Speaker:very long, though. So I'm not, like, the most
Speaker:diehard Missouri fan in the world because I was
Speaker:only on campus for three months because I applied
Speaker:for a job in the second smallest TV market
Speaker:in the country in North Platte, Nebraska. Really? Just
Speaker:applied to practice putting together a demo reel, doing
Speaker:an interview and all that. And for some reason,
Speaker:they hired me. I started there in May. I
Speaker:turned 22 months prior in March, so barely 20
Speaker:years old, and they hired me. So I packed
Speaker:up my little apartment and moved out to Western
Speaker:Nebraska to start my TV career and then finished
Speaker:my degree online through the University of Missouri.
Speaker:Wow, that's great. I love that. So we got
Speaker:to talk a little sports here, right? So you
Speaker:got the Chiefs, the Royals, I guess. Tigers, jayhawks.
Speaker:Those are the big key things that really probably
Speaker:keep Kansas City people know blood pumping. Am I
Speaker:missing anything on that list?
Speaker:There's a huge K State we can't forget. The
Speaker:Wildcats, like, tons of KSU fans in Kansas City.
Speaker:Aren't they too far away?
Speaker:It's really not that far, so don't make that
Speaker:mistake in Kansas City.
Speaker:All right?
Speaker:And then we also are like a soccer headquarters
Speaker:right now, too. We have sporting casey has been
Speaker:around for a long time. They were the Wizards
Speaker:before that. But the campus current is building the
Speaker:first stadium dedicated to a women's professional soccer team
Speaker:in the world, and they are a hot ticket
Speaker:right now. They're currently playing at Sporting Stadium, and
Speaker:they're selling more tickets at Sporting Stadium than there
Speaker:are seats in their new stadium. So this stadium
Speaker:is going to be sold out every single game.
Speaker:And soccer is just having a moment in Kansas
Speaker:City. So definitely don't forget about our two soccer
Speaker:teams.
Speaker:I've got some friends who are huge soccer fans.
Speaker:They'll love to hear that. That's great. I want
Speaker:to talk a little bit about your role in
Speaker:the sports world, working as a journalist. First off,
Speaker:your favorite team, is it the Chiefs or is
Speaker:it something else easily?
Speaker:The Chiefs. Yes.
Speaker:Yeah. I'm just thinking that was a to. You
Speaker:had to do some interviews of players over the
Speaker:years.
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:How about your easiest interview? Someone who was just
Speaker:a delight to talk to and you knew it
Speaker:was going to be fun, hands down.
Speaker:Bill Self charming, easy to talk to. He'll roll
Speaker:with almost any question. Even if he's in a
Speaker:bad mood, he still has funny answers. I always
Speaker:enjoyed interviewing self.
Speaker:And then now that you're out of the business,
Speaker:the toughest, the one that you're like, this is
Speaker:always a battle.
Speaker:There are lots of players that like to be
Speaker:difficult, but the one that I was shaking in
Speaker:my booth, literally before I asked a question of
Speaker:him was Greg Marshall. He could be so mean,
Speaker:and he one of my coworkers. He just hated
Speaker:him. I don't know why, but every time he
Speaker:asked a question, he would just get this sarcastic
Speaker:look on his face and you're so yeah. Oh,
Speaker:Greg. I was not sad to leave Wichita to
Speaker:have to stop interviewing Greg Marshall sitting in those
Speaker:press conferences.
Speaker:That's good. I like that. And then one other
Speaker:question. I know this is really probably super inappropriate,
Speaker:but how the hell do the Chiefs not score
Speaker:a touchdown in Denver.
Speaker:Last know that's really inappropriate for you to bring
Speaker:up. I'm trying to put that behind soon.
Speaker:Is that we're saying too soon?
Speaker:Too soon, too soon? I don't know. I don't
Speaker:know. I mean, I know Patrick was sick with
Speaker:the flu. I saw his wife post on Instagram.
Speaker:This is still Kansas City, but like, Monday she
Speaker:posted that the kids were sick, and I was,
Speaker:oh, no. Like, I hope Patrick doesn't get sick,
Speaker:and lo and behold, he gets sick. But I
Speaker:don't know. We talked about the offensive line earlier.
Speaker:They were terrible in that game. And it's not
Speaker:like the Broncos D line is something to write
Speaker:home about. So the Chiefs are known for having
Speaker:this one lay an egg game in the middle
Speaker:of the season, so I'm hoping that was it.
Speaker:And then they can kind of put things together
Speaker:moving forward from here, get.
Speaker:Back on track, finish like 14 and three or
Speaker:whatever they always do seem to do lately.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:All right, good. We're really happy for you, Rachel.
Speaker:I'm sure you are. I'm sure no one's bitter
Speaker:and jealous out there at all.
Speaker:All right, we got to get this to real
Speaker:estate, but we could do a whole nother hour
Speaker:right there. But let's start with so you're moving
Speaker:along in the sports journalism arena. Things are going
Speaker:good, but there's something, some driving force, something pulled
Speaker:you into real estate. What's that story?
Speaker:So in the journalism world, you move around a
Speaker:lot. It's almost like military life. Every two or
Speaker:three years, your contract's up, you have to move
Speaker:again. I had finally gotten to Kansas City, which
Speaker:is where I'm from, and wanted to. My goal
Speaker:all along was to get back to Kansas City,
Speaker:and then the TV station that I was at
Speaker:was a sports specific channel, basically shut down. So
Speaker:I knew that I was going to be laid
Speaker:off. I just was a matter of not if,
Speaker:but when. And that whole time I had decided,
Speaker:if I can't find another TV job in Kansas
Speaker:City, then I'm going to switch industries because I
Speaker:don't want to leave home again. So at that
Speaker:point, I ended up working an inside sales job
Speaker:at a local senior living community and realized that
Speaker:I love sales. What I didn't love was going
Speaker:and sitting in an office every day. So in
Speaker:2020, in March of 2020, when the world fell
Speaker:apart, I had my first child, and I was
Speaker:like, I don't want to be driving and sitting
Speaker:in an office all day when I'm doing sales,
Speaker:which is primarily phone calls, emails, stuff that I
Speaker:can do from anywhere. So I decided to quit
Speaker:this job that I truly loved, that job. Like,
Speaker:if there was more flexibility, I probably wouldn't have
Speaker:left, but quit a really steady, stable, good, solid
Speaker:job that I could have worked forever to jump
Speaker:into real estate, knowing that there's an 80% chance
Speaker:of failure in my first five years with a
Speaker:newborn baby at home in the middle of a
Speaker:pandemic. So maybe not my smartest choice ever, but
Speaker:it's worked out so far.
Speaker:Yeah. Look, I think it's first of all, the
Speaker:fact that you knew all that, I think, going
Speaker:in, right. You did some research, it sounds like,
Speaker:and you knew that it's really tough to get
Speaker:it rolling. But once you do, and once you've
Speaker:found the flow, I guess we'll use that phrase
Speaker:that's popular, you're doing some great stuff. So I
Speaker:want to ask about three short years you started
Speaker:in 2020. It's 2023, so maybe three and a
Speaker:half years. You've really had some great success. What
Speaker:helped you get started? Was there a mentor? Was
Speaker:it who you started with as far as a
Speaker:company? Was it just your energy? What do you
Speaker:think?
Speaker:All of the above. Definitely my mentors. I joined
Speaker:a team of two ladies that had been selling
Speaker:real estate for a combined probably 60 years, and
Speaker:they really had never taken a new person on
Speaker:their team other than their own children when their
Speaker:own children decided to try real estate. And so
Speaker:they welcomed me in with open arms and just
Speaker:opened up their brains and let me just dig
Speaker:in and take all of their knowledge from them.
Speaker:So that cut down my learning curve so much.
Speaker:And my brokerage is really great. They offer a
Speaker:ton of training, so I just took every training
Speaker:class I could. And then I also had a
Speaker:little boost from social media, so that was huge
Speaker:for me getting started as well.
Speaker:Yeah. So you had followers already from the sports
Speaker:side of things, and so it was really easy
Speaker:to kind of just tailor the content. Is that
Speaker:kind of what you did? A little bit.
Speaker:A little bit. I did have some followers on
Speaker:Instagram and my Facebook business page. Like, I have
Speaker:the old blue check mark from my sports reporter
Speaker:days. It's gone now because I changed my name,
Speaker:but where I really found my home was TikTok.
Speaker:And I had been avoiding TikTok because I felt
Speaker:like I was too old for it. I'm 30
Speaker:now, so I'm like late 20s, but it sounds
Speaker:crazy, but I thought that's just for teenagers. But
Speaker:man, Kansas Cityans love to consume Kansas City content.
Speaker:So as soon as I started creating videos about
Speaker:Kansas City, I found my community right away. And
Speaker:those are the people that I work with day
Speaker:in and day out to this day.
Speaker:Are you also finding people that have to relocate
Speaker:to Kansas City, finding your stuff? Is that part
Speaker:of yes?
Speaker:As yes, absolutely.
Speaker:I've watched a lot of your stuff. It's really
Speaker:mean. And once know it's, it's that having that
Speaker:ability to just be carefree in front of a
Speaker:camera, right. Which most people just freeze up and
Speaker:turn into zombies. Like you can see they're reading
Speaker:something. I'd like to get your take on this
Speaker:for every one of those great TikToks videos I
Speaker:see. How many takes did you take? I always
Speaker:like to ask that. Are you kind of a
Speaker:one shot, Willie? You just get it or is
Speaker:it I'll just add over a couple more times
Speaker:before I'm happy?
Speaker:Well, if I'm like talking to the camera, it's
Speaker:usually just one take for the most part, just
Speaker:because that's natural to me. That's what I did
Speaker:for a living for six years, so that's easy
Speaker:for me. The ones that require a lot of
Speaker:takes are the ones that are like the TikTok
Speaker:trends that require dance moves or transitions or like,
Speaker:mouthing words. Those are like skills that I just
Speaker:don't naturally have. So those ones require more takes
Speaker:and are really embarrassing if someone catches me trying
Speaker:to make them.
Speaker:Which happens right. Because your stuff's out in the
Speaker:street everywhere, right. Or in a business and all
Speaker:that great stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So because you moved to a different level in
Speaker:the world of real estate when it comes to
Speaker:video, it's fantastic stuff. Do you have advice for
Speaker:agents must come to you? Or somebody says, I'm
Speaker:sure your brokerage, Reese Nichols, probably says, hey, could
Speaker:you talk to the team about making videos?
Speaker:Yeah, I've talked to my brokerage. I've spoken at
Speaker:a couple of other brokerages. I've spoken had done
Speaker:some social media panels. I get asked a lot.
Speaker:So what I actually just did breaking news, this
Speaker:just came out. I made an e course. Just
Speaker:giving all of my tips. It's like literally there's
Speaker:a downloadable with like step by step what I
Speaker:do every single day on every single platform, how
Speaker:to create videos, all that good stuff. That's up
Speaker:on my website, Rachelcasey.com. But my biggest piece of
Speaker:advice is if you want to do video, do
Speaker:it. Go learn, take the e course, go to
Speaker:free classes, whatever you want to do. But if
Speaker:you feel like you have to do video because
Speaker:it's like the trendy thing that everyone's talking about,
Speaker:but the thought of doing video makes you feel
Speaker:like you're going to have a nightmare, don't do
Speaker:it. It's not going to work for you if
Speaker:it's not fun for you. So if shooting video
Speaker:gives you anxiety, do what you're good at, because
Speaker:I'm sure I'm not good at what you're good
Speaker:at. It's just like people that force video because
Speaker:they feel like they have to. I feel like
Speaker:they're doing themselves a disservice by trying to make
Speaker:it happen when it just is making them miserable.
Speaker:Yeah. And it's noticeable on the content that's created.
Speaker:Right. I think that's the biggest thing you see
Speaker:someone who just doesn't it's a skill, I imagine
Speaker:to an extent, you can learn it. You could
Speaker:get there if you really decided, I want this
Speaker:to work, I'll get better, I'll get better. That
Speaker:could happen. But boy, if you're never going to
Speaker:embrace it, stay away.
Speaker:I just think the return on investment of your
Speaker:time, if it's not coming naturally to you, is
Speaker:going to be difficult. And there's things that you
Speaker:are already good at. Like for me, I hate
Speaker:networking events. Like, I hate going mingling through a
Speaker:room. I can do it, but it leaves me
Speaker:exhausted after. But there are some people that just
Speaker:thrive in those settings. So it's like you do
Speaker:that to build your business. I'm not going to
Speaker:do it because it won't look natural or feel
Speaker:natural, but for you it does and or whatever
Speaker:it is that you're good at that I'm not.
Speaker:So I think it's just really important that your
Speaker:business is a reflection of you as a person
Speaker:and focusing on marketing things that feel really natural
Speaker:to you.
Speaker:Yeah, that's great. We'll make sure you put the
Speaker:link to your website in the show notes, right.
Speaker:So people can get access to that e course.
Speaker:That's great. I love the fact you're sharing those
Speaker:tips because I think it's been the year of
Speaker:video in real estate since like 2010. Here we
Speaker:are in 2023, and people are still it's definitely
Speaker:shifted long form to short form to all this
Speaker:great stuff. So a lot of fun. Look, I
Speaker:can't not ask this question after looking at some
Speaker:of the stuff you're doing online. And you know
Speaker:what? I'm coming to it's. Tavis, which I had
Speaker:not heard that one yet. I'd heard a bunch
Speaker:of other combos, but I guess Kansas City, it's
Speaker:your so, but Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey, you've
Speaker:spun up some great content around this. Can I
Speaker:assume you're a Swiftie? Is there something in your
Speaker:background that.
Speaker:Says you just my age and all of my
Speaker:demographics? I'm like a classic swifty.
Speaker:You fit right in. Exactly. Yeah. So, first of,
Speaker:this is this thing huge in Kansas City. I'm
Speaker:sure there's some sports talk people going, this is
Speaker:stupid. I don't want to deal with there's a
Speaker:guys my age that hate this. My guess is
Speaker:it's popular.
Speaker:It's so popular. And I am a weirdo that
Speaker:does listen to sports talk radio, like every single
Speaker:day. And I will give credit to know middle
Speaker:aged white men that are hosting all of the
Speaker:sports talk radio shows in Kansas City. I haven't
Speaker:heard one of them be a curmudgeon about it.
Speaker:So I applaud to them because they're like, this
Speaker:is fun. It's putting our city on a worldwide
Speaker:stage. It's love. Everyone loves love. So in Kansas
Speaker:City, I've seen some people on Facebook be grumpy
Speaker:about it for the most part. I think people
Speaker:are really excited about it. We love Travis. And
Speaker:if you don't love Taylor Swift, then that's a
Speaker:you problem, not a Taylor problem, because she is
Speaker:just.
Speaker:To be a it tends to be a certain
Speaker:age and and gender struggles with all of that.
Speaker:So I think that's great for you, creating that
Speaker:content. Then it's just drop dead simple. That's a
Speaker:no brainer.
Speaker:Yeah, it's just organic for me. That's what I'm
Speaker:thinking about all day. Every like, my brain is
Speaker:like my child real estate and then Taylor and
Speaker:Travis is the rest of it. We actually had
Speaker:a pop up party when Taylor's eras tour came
Speaker:to Kansas City this summer. So this is before
Speaker:they were dating, before they had even met. And
Speaker:we I say we, my team, we went to
Speaker:a local distillery that has a really great brand
Speaker:recognition in Kansas City and said, hey, can we
Speaker:have a pop up party here? And they were
Speaker:sure, like, we'll give you that little corner in
Speaker:the back of the venue. And I was like,
Speaker:you guys, I don't think you understand how popular
Speaker:Taylor Swift is. Like, this is going to be
Speaker:a huge event. And they were, okay, okay. And
Speaker:then the night of, they were absolutely overwhelmed. We
Speaker:had literally thousands of people. There was a line
Speaker:around the door waiting to come in to celebrate
Speaker:Taylor swift's eras tour coming to Kansas City. And
Speaker:this is before the Travis Kelsey mania began. So
Speaker:that was great for my business because I got
Speaker:to meet all of these Swifties who are like
Speaker:minded with me and I love working with people
Speaker:that we get along great. We have a shared
Speaker:sense of humor, a shared kind of language almost.
Speaker:So we actually just closed. My team closed last
Speaker:week a house from someone that we met at
Speaker:the Taylor Swift event this summer. So it is
Speaker:huge and very natural for me to make content
Speaker:about. And then once Travis and Taylor the rumors
Speaker:started swirling about them, I was like, of course
Speaker:making content because I'm like, there's no way this
Speaker:is true. I was at the chiefs game the
Speaker:day that she showed up and I swear I
Speaker:blacked out. I was like, I can't believe Taylor
Speaker:Swift is wearing a chiefs jacket and banging on
Speaker:the glass right now. Like she is one of.
Speaker:Wonder. I'm sure her knowledge of the game is
Speaker:not quite up to par with you, though. She
Speaker:might need some.
Speaker:Yeah, I feel like she'll get there quickly, though.
Speaker:She's a smart lady. So she's been a little
Speaker:busy changing the music industry to know everything about
Speaker:football, but we'll get her there.
Speaker:That's awesome. That's really been a lot of fun
Speaker:to watch. So it's great to get that Kansas
Speaker:City take on. Know, you talked about your team.
Speaker:First of to I want to go back for
Speaker:a second to that pop up. I'm sure you
Speaker:collected a whole bunch of contact information. It all
Speaker:went in the CRM. And these are all people
Speaker:that you've identified as Swifty partners and you can
Speaker:target market them and all that great stuff, right?
Speaker:Absolutely. Yes. We have a tag in our database
Speaker:that is our Swifty email list. We've emailed them
Speaker:know, Taylor buys real estate. She's famous for that.
Speaker:Hot girls buy real estate was the headline of
Speaker:one of our emails. So we're having so much
Speaker:fun with it. I want to say we collected
Speaker:almost 400 contacts, emails, phone numbers and mailing addresses.
Speaker:So it was awesome and love getting to market
Speaker:in a way that, again, feels really natural and
Speaker:organic to me because this is what me and
Speaker:my friends are talking about on the daily anyways.
Speaker:That's so cool. That's great. What's next on the
Speaker:marketing horizon for you? What are you thinking? Know,
Speaker:you can't just stay static. You got to keep
Speaker:moving.
Speaker:Well, this past weekend was probably the biggest one
Speaker:of my career. I was so honored to be
Speaker:named the best real estate agent in Kansas City
Speaker:by the pitch magazine. It was a reader. Yes.
Speaker:Yes. Awesome.
Speaker:Congratulations. That's cool.
Speaker:Thank you so much. So in celebration of that,
Speaker:we put up a billboard in the crossroads, which
Speaker:is kind of this trendy neighborhood in Kansas City
Speaker:and we're encouraging people to go out in front
Speaker:of. The billboard, take a selfie in front of
Speaker:it and tag me in it. Then we've partnered
Speaker:with a local helicopter tour company. We're going to
Speaker:pick a winner of people that have tagged us
Speaker:in selfies and they get to go up in
Speaker:the helicopter and fly over the Christmas lights over
Speaker:the plaza because of all of this. So we're
Speaker:just blowing it out. We're having a lot of
Speaker:fun with it. We just launched those e courses
Speaker:as well. So we have a social media one,
Speaker:we have a marketing in Real life one, and
Speaker:then two shorter ones that are working with sellers
Speaker:and working with Buyers 101 for newbie agents to
Speaker:kind of jump start their careers. So we're going
Speaker:pedal to the metal. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker:Yeah. There's so much going on there. And this
Speaker:is in three years. You know, that's not normal.
Speaker:You know, that's unique.
Speaker:I do. In fact, it's kind of hard to
Speaker:recruit agents to my team because I always want
Speaker:to set realistic expectations for them. Like, I'm not
Speaker:expecting you to be me in three years. I
Speaker:was a product of luck, timing, privilege, opportunity. I
Speaker:know that you can't duplicate me, you have to
Speaker:be the best version of yourself. But I'm very
Speaker:grateful to be where I am and very self
Speaker:aware that it's not like I've cracked some code
Speaker:that other people can't crack. I just have had
Speaker:great timing and circumstances work out for me.
Speaker:And you missed the fifth one. You work hard.
Speaker:Yeah. That's a big piece of it, right? Don't
Speaker:discount that. That's cool.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, this has been great. I'm going to ask
Speaker:you the same final question I've asked 300 and
Speaker:nearly 70 guests, right. Just to get your response,
Speaker:especially for someone who's just come through this. What
Speaker:one piece of advice do you have for a
Speaker:new agent that's just getting started?
Speaker:I think it's join a team. I cannot imagine
Speaker:starting as an individual agent with nothing and building
Speaker:a business like I have without my mentors and
Speaker:my team. I think joining a team is the
Speaker:quickest way to, like I said, shorten that learning
Speaker:curve and a shortcut to having full information, knowledge
Speaker:on hand. And I think joining in my opinion,
Speaker:I'm biased because I'm on a small team and
Speaker:one of the leaders of a small team. Now,
Speaker:I think a smaller team is the best because
Speaker:you want to be in a circumstance where you
Speaker:have one on one mentorship, you have someone you
Speaker:can pick up and call anytime about any question
Speaker:and that is invested in your success. So I
Speaker:think joining a team is the best thing I
Speaker:ever did for my career and I would encourage
Speaker:every new agent to at least consider it. And
Speaker:even if you only do it for a year
Speaker:or two just to get started, it's really critical
Speaker:in getting off to success at a faster rate.
Speaker:Let me ask you one quick question about that.
Speaker:You're okay then. If somebody joins your team and
Speaker:two years down the road, they've had good success
Speaker:and they've really done well with you, and they
Speaker:come to you and they go, rachel, I think
Speaker:it's time for me to move on. I want
Speaker:to do my own thing with the team. You're
Speaker:good with that, right?
Speaker:I'm okay with that. I don't think they're going
Speaker:to because I think they're going to see that
Speaker:working with a team is amazing in so many
Speaker:ways. Just like the camaraderie and the marketing that
Speaker:we provide. We have an operations manager that does
Speaker:paperwork for them, does the marketing for them. So
Speaker:if they want to go, I'm like, have at
Speaker:it. If you think you can go duplicate all
Speaker:of this, then I will literally be cheering you
Speaker:on because it has been blood, sweat and tears
Speaker:for me for three years to pull this off
Speaker:and then decades for my team leads before I
Speaker:came along. So I'm okay with it. If they
Speaker:can do it, great. But I think the ODS
Speaker:of them being able to duplicate that are pretty
Speaker:low because like I said, I've just had a
Speaker:lot of things break my way that have nothing
Speaker:to do with skills or anything that have worked
Speaker:out. And so hopefully our team members benefit from
Speaker:that and their businesses thrive with us and they
Speaker:want to stay with us forever. But if not,
Speaker:I will cheer them on.
Speaker:Awesome. What's the best way to get in touch
Speaker:with you?
Speaker:Social media, probably. I'm all over the Internet, Rachel.
Speaker:Realtor KC TikTok Instagram, Facebook. My website is WW
Speaker:rachtheraltorcasey.com. Hit me up. Love to chat with anyone.
Speaker:Send referrals to Kansas City and I'll send them
Speaker:back your way.
Speaker:This has been amazing. I love your energy. I
Speaker:love what you're doing. It's going to be really
Speaker:fun to watch what you're doing and growing. I
Speaker:can't imagine what your team is going to look
Speaker:like in ten years. It's going to be fantastic.
Speaker:So continued success. Thank you so much for your
Speaker:time today. Really appreciate it.
Speaker:Thank you. Been a blast. Really appreciate you having
Speaker:me and thanks for the time.
Speaker:Thank you for listening to the real estate sessions.
Speaker:Please head over to ratethispodcast.com resessions to leave a
Speaker:review or a rating and subscribe to the Real
Speaker:Estate Sessions podcast at your favorite podcast listening app.
