Helping Aspiring Realtors Become Business Leaders

Shelli Varela: Tracy Henning, welcome to the It’s a TRIBE Thing Podcast. Buddy, how are you?   Tracy Henning: I’m good. How are you?   Shelli Varela: Good. As always, stoked to share our amazing community story and this is no exception. Your membership site is called PorchLyte Social Academy, and you help realtors get leads. I’m wondering if you could share with our audience how this all came to be and who you were at the beginning of this long before you were the membership site owner?   Tracy Henning: Yeah, no problem. So, I have been in the real estate industry for over 25 years. I mean, I’m obviously going to date myself here, but I was 21 years old when I got into real estate and, honestly, in an industry that was dominated by men where the average age was 55. So, when I got into the industry, I really struggled. I came across like so many different things that I didn’t expect from people. I was mentioning before that I went to my dental hygienist one time and she just looked at me and she’s like, “Well, what do you know about being a realtor when you haven’t even owned a home yourself?” And I’m like, “Whoa, like this is what I have to be up against.” And so, another example is I sent out letters to neighborhoods like introducing myself and saying, “Hey, I’m this new young agent. Work with me. I’ve got the energy and the time and yada, yada.”   Fortunately, I have a family background in construction development industry. So, real estate was like super natural for me to be in. So, of course, I talked about that in my letters. Well, somebody mailed back one of those letters and circled in red ink. I am not joking when I say red ink. They circled the part about my family, and said, “So, you mean to tell me if my father was a surgeon, that I would be qualified to perform surgery?” And I was like, “Oh my goodness, like, this is what I am up against? What am I going to do? How am I going to do this?” And so, I was fortunate enough to be able to have a mentor in the industry that would pick me up or keep me going when I would be faced with situations like this. Because back 25 years ago, it was tough like it was tough to get going because, like I say, I was in an industry that was dominated by men who were older than me. So, I had two things against me. I was constantly feeling like I was like trying to climb my way up the totem pole and it was tough.   But the good thing about it is even though like these few opportunities where maybe I failed, it just brought me that much closer to being successful. And what it did is it forced me to think outside of the box like try and think of stuff, how I can market myself in ways that other people aren’t doing that. And the thing with social media nowadays is you can do that so easily like you can make yourself stand out from everybody else. Because being in the real estate industry, we are in a very unique industry, where even though you’re in competition with each other, we still have to work together. We’re working to sell each other’s homes. We are on an MLS system that promotes cooperation with each other but, yet we’re each other’s competition. So, now more than ever, you really need to be able to stand out in this industry. And those are exactly some of the challenges that I faced 25 years ago when I first got into the industry.   And having those challenges, like I said, it forced me to do things a little bit differently and it totally paid off because once I started to stand out a little bit more, I was reaping the benefits. I’m the top producing realtor probably for pretty close to the entire 25 years I’ve been in the real estate business. I’m in the top 5% of my marketplace and that’s because I was doing things a little differently.   Shelli Varela: That’s amazing. I just want to point out to you or point out to everybody listening too like what you just said was super key. When you started, you had the deck stacked against you. You were young, very young in that industry, and you are a young woman who potentially had never owned a home before. So, it would be easy for people, like you said, with a letter somebody responded to you and said, “Who are you? What if your father was a surgeon, would that mean you would be a surgeon?” The thing that I love about you and about your spirit and for those of you listening, same, is you turned what you learned, your hardship, your adversity, you turned what you learned into your superpower by saying, “Okay, doing it perhaps the conventional way isn’t working or isn’t working for me. How can I flip the switch, flip the script, and make it work in my favor?” And what that ended up being was something that segued into what you’re doing now.   Tracy Henning: Yes, exactly. So, what I’m doing right now is I have a membership called PorchLyte Social Academy, which teaches real estate agents to do exactly that, to stand apart from everybody else, and to be able to generate leads and referrals online through social media, without having to do those yucky like sales tactics that we used to have to do back in the day like door knocking and cold calling and maybe running expensive newspaper ads or billboard ads and stuff like that. So, I’m in a really unique position because I’m a real estate agent in the trenches, just like everybody else. But I understand social media and I understand like it’s worked for me in the past. So, to be able to merge the two together to have that experience in the real estate industry. And I tell people all the time, I have worked in all kinds of crazy markets. I’ve seen people put vehicles in their driveway to help sell their homes.   They sell, “You buy my house, you get this car.” “You buy my house, you get this cruise.” “You buy my house, I’ll buy down your mortgage rate.” Like I have seen people do crazy things to sell their house. But these are some of the tactics that you have to do as a realtor to get yourself and get listings and get your clients to be seen and to be out there and to stand apart. Now, of course, we have different tactics that we use with social media but those were some of the things that we used to do back in the day to be able to just keep moving forward. So, I take a lot of those tactics and I kind of twist and weave them into social media marketing to be able to help real estate agents like stand out and become that influencer in their marketplace, the trusted advisor that people go to. So, I’m in a very unique position to be able to offer that to people and I’m super excited to be doing it.   Shelli Varela: Well, I love the way that you have combined it because for everybody listening, I was a realtor as well for about four years and not that long ago actually. And so, I echo what you say, you have your typical uber-successful realtor, the sort of archetype is that is your middle-aged white guy but I love that you have taken old school and new school, combine them, flip them up and turn them into something a little more innovative that works now for now’s people. Because the truth is you were in a unique position. You were seeing things from both sides of the fence so that you can relate to more people in a broader diverse way and how each person wants to be spoken to and wants to be contacted. And it is true that not a lot of realtors use social media to their full advantage. So, it was really, really smart what you did and how you did it helping the people who are too because the truth is busy realtors are good realtors are busy realtors, and certainly if they don’t have a background in social media, you identify that and then swoop in and solve a problem that makes it easy for them and beneficial for you. Can you share with the audience why you chose membership site? Why that became important for you to stay home more?   Tracy Henning: Well, my journey to actually the membership site probably started about 10 years ago. And I know that sounds funny because I know Stu hadn’t even formed TRIBE yet but over 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, which basically meant I couldn’t have kids. So, my husband and I, we tried everything. We did fertility. We went to different countries like we tried everything to have a family and it just didn’t work for us. So, we turned to adoption. So, over three-and-a-half years ago, we were matched with our daughter, we were able to adopt her as a newborn. And so, I feel like I was given this gift of our daughter, and I thought, “I don’t want to take advantage of this. I don’t want to necessarily like drop her off at daycare for eight hours of the day because we struggled so hard to have a family that I want to stay home with her.”   So, just like everybody else, of scrolling online, scrolling online, I came across Stu and TRIBE and I knew that’s exactly what I wanted to do because I had this idea because, over the years, people will come to me like often and ask for help. People were even asking to like partner up with me so I thought, “How can I like do this and kind of a broader sense to be able to get this information out to people conveniently?” So, enter TRIBE. I think it was, I guess, a year ago now that I joined TRIBE, which was the perfect fit and I just thought, “Aha, this is how I’m going to do it. This is exactly what I’m going to do.” I’m going to create the membership or it’s going to be a safe place for people to come to or realtors to come to where they can learn about social media marketing and how they can integrate into the real estate business. Because like you said, realtors are busy like we hold many different hats. We have to be like house inspectors. We’ve got to be therapists. We have to be daycare providers like we wear many different hats.   So, to try and figure out social media marketing can be super overwhelming for a lot of different real estate agents. So, I thought if I could provide this membership site for people to come to, not only am I now able to give back to people, but it allows me to be able to stay at home with my daughter, who hopefully she won’t interrupt us here because she is here with me and to be able to have the best of both worlds. So, it was really just a good natural fit for me to create a membership site for real estate agents.   Shelli Varela: That’s awesome. What’s the best piece of feedback that you’ve received from one of the people that you helped? I want to ask this question for two reasons. First of all, I love watching membership site owners light up when they realize they actually are making a difference but also, for those people listening, we do things for several reasons, and especially, business and online business, it’s easy to get caught up, especially when you’re starting and either procrastinate or delay. But it’s important to remember that when we procrastinate and when we delay and when we buy into doubts and limiting beliefs about whether this work or whether it’ll work for us, not only are we delaying the changes that can be made in our own lives, but also the lives of the people that we potentially are going to help or serve. So, what is the best piece of feedback that you’ve received as a result of saying, yes, and going forward with PorchLyte?   Tracy Henning: You know what, that’s super easy, and it’s definitely the community, the community that was formed because of PorchLyte Social Academy. I have members all the time like being a real estate agent is very much like being in business for yourself and it can be a very lonely proposition. So, the members, they’re so thankful that they have a community that they can come into and get supported. Which then, in turn, kind of lights my fire because I’m like, “Yes, yay, they’re getting it. They love it.” They collaborate together and I always say collaborate over versus competition. Let’s collaborate together. Let’s support each other. And they love it. They love the community because being an entrepreneur, being in business for yourself can be a very lonely experience. So, to be able to have this platform to create this community for people is just been amazing and like I say then, it lights my fire as to, “Okay, what can I do next?” Like how can I help them? Like I want to do more. I want to give more. It’s a beautiful circle. Like Stu has mentioned, it’s like a circle of awesomeness like it just keeps you going and keeps you moving forward.   Shelli Varela: That’s brilliant. I often hear people who are in industries that typically are not online. So, you always hear people talk about the online entrepreneur or the coaches, the authors, but it’s important for those people also who are in a space that is typically not online. It would be easy to write that off as, “Well, not for my industry. This doesn’t work for my industry.” My argument, though, is you are actually in a target-rich environment because of that.   Tracy Henning: Yes, definitely. Because like I said, being in the real estate industry can be a very lonely place and because we’re in competition with each other, so to speak, like a lot of people have a hard time reaching out to other agents in their office to ask for help. So, to be able to create a platform where people feel safe, where they can come to and say, “Hey, like, what do I do about this situation?” Or how do I get my open house out to the masses?” To be able to ask those questions in a safe environment because, yeah, you’re right, it can be a very lonely space out there. So, that’s the powerful thing about the internet and all of a sudden, the world is becoming a very small space because we can reach out to each other and we can get the help that we’re seeking a whole lot easier. And 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 25 years ago when I first became a realtor, it was tough. There was nobody and then you’re faced with a public backlash of people like saying, “How can you be a realtor when you’ve never owned a home yourself,” and you have that to deal with too. So, thankfully, the online world has made it so much easier for realtors to succeed.   Shelli Varela: I love that you cracked this code. And the code is if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten. And so, instead of recreating what everybody had been doing time and time and time again you thought, “Hmm, I wonder if there’s a different innovative and/or better way to do this.” What is the way that this new membership site that you have bravely started has changed? How has it changed your life in your business?   Tracy Henning: You know what, like, it is so rewarding to be able to like, truly, when I can give back to realtors and I can see them light up and get motivated, it just lights me up and makes me feel so good inside because I’m like, “I love this.” And that’s what lights my fire to be able to give back to people because you know what, I had that mentor. I was fortunate enough to have her that I could go to and cry in her office and she’d helped pick me up and keep me going. I want to be that person for other people. So, to be able to have a platform where people can come to and get that same kind of service, I am happy to do it because it’s such a good feeling when you can see other people succeed. So, it truly comes from a place deep in my heart to be able to help people and I love seeing people succeed. It just makes me feel so good because it motivates me too.   Shelli Varela: How is your life different now going back to work with a membership site now that you have a young daughter at home versus if you had gone back to real estate as your career? What difference has the membership site specifically made to your personal life?   Tracy Henning: Oh, total peace of mind. Total peace of mind knowing that I have that recurring revenue coming in. Because as a real estate agent, I mean, everybody knows the industry is very up and down, like you got to make hay when the sun shines. So, to be able to have that stability in my life is huge plus the even bigger thing is the gift of time to be able to have that time with my daughter because both my husband and I struggled to have a family. I didn’t want to take advantage of that. I want to take advantage of the fact that we were blessed to have this beautiful baby girl and I don’t want to leave her just to try and make ends meet. So, to have a membership site, to be able to get that recurring revenue, plus the gift of time, like I mean, those are two such powerful things to be able to have. So, I am super grateful to be able to have a membership site, to be able to get those two things back to myself and my family. Not just me, but my husband, my daughter. It’s kind of a bit of a ripple effect.   Shelli Varela: Absolutely. You know, people always talk about the benefits of a membership site but really, what it allows you and you articulated this so beautifully, time is the only non-renewable resource and we only have so much of it. And we only have so much of it to spend with the people we love. So, I love that you drove that home. If people are looking for you online, what is the best place they can find you?   Tracy Henning: They can find me at PorchLyte.com so that’s porch lyte with a Y, and they can reach out to me or they can find me on social media @PorchLyte. And I am happy to help. I am available. I am here to help you.   Shelli Varela: Amazing. Thank you so much for being so gracious with your time and you’re amazing.   Tracy Henning: You’re welcome. Thank you!   [END]