276 Mail-Right Show Special Guest Alisia Krastel

Lead Generation Ideas & REALTOR & Hacks For NEW AGENTS

Alisia Krastel

Bringing top technology and service to the Baltimore metro real estate world. Helping clients buy, sell and invest in properties that are in line with their overall goals. Frequently work with out of state clients, which we get to help through Zoom and video so, even our farthest away clients can put a face to a name. We believe in CARE, INTEGRITY, AND RESULTS

Your guide to building a killer business while having the NET LIFE you deserve. You’ll find systems, tips, and tools for REALTORS and entrepreneurs that have helped me have a 6 figure income while not missing family events, sports, or picking my 3 small kids up from school. Use my 13 years of experience to shorten your learning curve and avoid the pitfalls. Let’s rock this!

Robert Newman: Welcome back to The Mail-Right Show ladies and gentlemen, we are super excited to be with you today, and we have an amazing guest with us, Alisia Krastel. Hopefully, I got that right; I only got it wrong about five times before we went on air. Today I also have my amazing co-host who as of yet, has not kicked the bucket, super excited about that. His name is Jonathan Denwood; he’s the founder of Mail-Right, Jonathan, why don’t you start? And then Alisia, each of you will say a little bit about yourselves and then I will end by doing the same.

Jonathan Denwood: That’s great, Robert. I’m really looking forward to this discussion, basically, I’m the founder of Mail-right; we’re an online digital agency but also a product. We’ve got an online app that uses the power of Facebook to get quality leads for you, but it’s much, much, much more than that. So, go to Mail-Right which is Mail-Right.com, learn some more, and maybe book a free demo with me. Over to you, Robert.

Robert Newman: Actually, we’re going to go over to, Alisia. Alisia, why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself to our audience.

Alisia Krastel: My name is Alisia Krastel, you got it, and it’s a hard one. I’m a realtor and a coach, and I basically help moms be better at real estate and do the most amount in the least amount of time so they can spend time with their family, and I have three littles, eleven, nine, and five.

Robert Newman: Wow, I love how focused you are on a specific type of real estate agent. I have to tell you that I’m incredibly excited about getting into this conversation because John and I don’t meet a lot of people willing to commit and double down to serving a very specific type of audience. And I believe that’s where most of the success can be found in terms of digital. Like if you’re trying to help somebody, the more specific you can start off I think the better it’s going to be.

So anyway, you’re really specific, you’re mothers who are selling real estate, and how do they do that in a time-efficient manner? Am I?

Alisia Krastel: And not let it run your life? And dads get help out of it, but my goal is to help the moms.

Robert Newman: I get you. Just give me a second here, I’m writing the introduction. So, ladies and gentlemen, for those that don’t know me and maybe for you as well. My name is Robert Newman, I’m the founder of InboundREM, I’ve made my reputation by doing SEO and in my marketing inside the real estate space for 14 years. It’s been my good fortune to work with some big names inside the industry, but really I get off on helping people that don’t get enough information about real estate systems, about real estate lead generation, or about real estate SEO.

You can find out all that info on my website, inboundrem.com and it’s all free. So, go knock yourselves out. So, Alicia,

Alisia Krastel: Alisia, like wish.

Robert Newman: Alisia. Okay, Alisia, Alisia. So, you do all these amazing things for and I did check out your YouTube channel, I spent a little bit of time there. So, I’ve already looked at some of your videos and I have an understanding, but if you had to say what the number one problem facing mothers who are selling real estate is, what would you say that problem is?

Alisia Krastel: They are doing a lot of crap that they don’t need to be doing that’s on their schedule and it just should not be done. And people are telling them a lot of ways to do things and they haven’t given themselves permission to do it their own way, which is different than if you don’t have to care for kids, it’s just different.

Alisia Krastel: Taking advice from people who shouldn’t be giving it to you.

Robert Newman: Okay.

Alisia Krastel: That you wouldn’t trade places with.

Robert Newman: So, when you started this journey, this is a very specific thing that you’re doing? Do you mind if I ask you how you got to be doing this specific thing?

Alisia Krastel: YouTube or helping moms?

Robert Newman: No, no, no, no, I understand that’s where you’re doing it, but how did you, when did you decide to do this? What was your journey to saying, oh, I’m going to go help mothers who are selling real estate?

Alisia Krastel: Well, I was a mom who had three kids at home and I was the main child caregiver, I was the stay-at-home mom. And I was working in a six by six closet, and I decided I have to switch things around because my husband’s job was in question. So, I turned it around to be the breadwinner for the family and still made all my kids’ games, all my kids’ stuff, had an amazing life, and net over six-figures. And now I have two businesses and built two brands, so if I can do it, I know other moms can do it in the same situation or anybody could do it. You don’t have to be a mom.

Robert Newman: But essentially where this came from is you were facing the same dilemma you were a breadwinner, you had children at home, you were raising those children, and giving them the proper care was obviously important to you. So, you had to figure out how to do all this simultaneously, is that right?

Alisia Krastel: I did, I had to figure out how to do it all, and then my husband actually left his job, so I’m the sole income earner for the family. And I’d beaten my head up against the wall enough that I have figured out what works.

Robert Newman: John, over to you.

Jonathan Denwood: Yeah sure, Alisia. As I was saying I’ve been looking at your videos, and that I wrote down about three or four that kind of gelled with me. And I think one of them was, what is the imposter syndrome and how can you combat it, use it to your advantage? I thought that was really because I think a lot of people in the industry, especially the first couple of years really feel that. So, do you have any insights about how you overcome that?

Alisia Krastel: Yeah, I’ve had to make it my friend. It is the worst thing when you’re looking over your shoulder going, man, I hope I don’t get found out, or do I really suck at this and I just have been lucky so far? That when you push stuff down, it bubbles up and busts in your face, so I just am now, like I see you. I learned what the brain does with that, I understand that it’s trying to protect you, and now I’m like, dude, I see your imposter syndrome.

You just come along for the ride and let me give you the actual support information to show you why I am able to do this, why I’ve done this in the past. I’d give it physical written information and stats of what I’ve done before, and I just tell it to come along for the ride, that we have this.

Jonathan Denwood: I understand that but do you have any kind of tips about how you really deal with it. Is it just the mental side or does it die down a little bit after you’ve done your first couple deals, do you feel? Or does it kind of go away and then erupt again and then it goes away and then it comes back again?

Alisia Krastel: It goes away and erupts again and that’s how it works. Every time you do something successfully and you meet a goal, it’s telling you, if you don’t do that again, don’t get too upset, it’s trying to protect you. So, the more success you have, the more it’s going to bubble back up, and that’s the case for me. Even me, I’m like, who am I to tell moms what to do? Well, because I’ve done it and I can show them. Who am I to list this house and to tell them what they should sell it for? Well, because I’m good at it, that’s why. The more success you have, the more it comes.

Jonathan Denwood: All right, that’s great over to you, Robert.

Robert Newman: So, in terms of the methods that you’ve chosen to share your wisdom, that’s always a deep fascination with us in this show. It’s a topic that we constantly circle back around to, and honestly, I think it’s probably the way that John found you in the first place. So, you’re doing all these things and you decide to leverage YouTube over other channels. Is that a correct assumption or what was that? Why did you choose to do it the way you’re doing it?

Alisia Krastel: I chose to do it because I didn’t want to spend a lot of money and I didn’t have a lot of time, so it was out of necessity. And what I wanted to do I know it’s based on people, branding, and time, those things if I get those maxed out, then that’s what’s helped me do this with a little bit of money. YouTube was because it’s free, and I knew that I could see someone else who mastered it and I could learn it, and I didn’t have time to fart around and figure it out on my own face.

Robert Newman: You’re saying that but to me it seems like you must have a deep pool of inherent talent because you’re saying, hey, I didn’t have time to fart around and learn it. But I’m looking at your videos and I’m watching them, and they have proper thumbnails, they are tagged the right way, they’re all these things that you’re doing on them that an amateur would not do. So, you’re sitting here going, oh, I didn’t have to learn it but you learned something at some point I can tell by looking at your videos.

Alisia Krastel: I didn’t learn it the hard way.

Robert Newman: The hard way.

Alisia Krastel: I’ve always invested in myself, I was willing to get a coach in real estate, and also with YouTube, like Sunny Lenarduzzi, I paid for her $5,000 course upfront because I didn’t have time to mess around and just figure it out. I needed someone to say, this is the way it works, go do it like a pro.

Robert Newman: Awesome. And so, do you feel, I don’t know who that is, just so that you know, so I’m not trying to plug them. I’m just curious to know because we had a show last week, which was a professional athlete who turned into a very successful real estate broker. But interestingly enough, he carried this professional athletic mind into the show where he believes so deeply in coaching. So, that’s what’s leading me to ask you this next question, which is, do you think now that, that was a good investment.

Alisia Krastel: A hundred percent and I had a lot of people telling me, what are you doing? Why would you do this? Including my own family, totally worth the investment, I’ve made my money back.

Robert Newman: So, you called it investing in yourself, I’m going to say coaching, but you’re a believer in that, like finding a, I’m going to call it a mentor. Whether you pay them or not, you believe in finding a mentor and learning from them, and skipping all the arduous trial by fire, yeah?

Alisia Krastel: Yes, as long as it’s the right one, and you’re not going to take advice from someone who you wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.

Robert Newman: Got you. So, forgive me for not knowing this, I never did actually kind of figure this out when I was on your channel. Because I was mostly just watching your videos, which weren’t really declaring it, are you selling something with your channel or are you just giving out the advice for free?

Alisia Krastel: I’m just giving out the advice for free. I have a program called Mother Hustler Business Make-Over that I’ve sold before but it’s not being sold on there. My mission is for kids to have better lives, and I know that that’s through the parent and my way to fix that is through this channel.

 

Robert Newman: I’m a huge fan of you. I feel roughly the same way about my channel; I do get some business from it. My objective though is to save realtors, tens of thousands of dollars on bad decisions on real estate tech, and that’s legitimately my first goal. There isn’t some other mission hidden in there, I just want to help and if I’m hearing you, that’s what you’re saying about this channel.

Alisia Krastel: Will I make money off of this, I don’t even have ads on it right now, but will I have programs on it at some time? Yes, the mission is, there are too many agents paying too much money and the industry making too much money off of them buying shiny objects to not have stuff like this.

Robert Newman: John, usually you start making noise when you have something to add. So, do you want to throw it in?

Jonathan Denwood: Just because obviously Alisia, I thought one of the great things is that recently we’ve been a bit top-heavy on the Mail expert agent, and it’s always great to get a successful female agent on the show. So, like last year, what was your production? And then maybe you could also give us an outline on a couple of things that you think the female agent that has children has to understand so they can achieve success in the industry. I know that will probably bleed over into the second half because it’s a big question, but I just wanted to put that to you.

Because that was one of the main reasons why I invited you on the show to get your specialized insight, which I think would appeal to a lot of our listeners and viewers.

Alisia Krastel: Say the second part again about the pushback on what, sorry.

Jonathan Denwood: Give some insights based on your experience on a couple of things that might help the female agent that has children so that they can be more effective.

Alisia Krastel: Gotcha. So, I made about 160 net last year, and that was a little bit of coaching and pulled back on real estate a little bit, but I’m an active agent and coaching. And for the pushback for the mom is they’re literally trying to put a square peg in a round hole. And there’re other ways to do it, they need the permission to do business the way that they like, moms are very caring people.

They have huge foresight about problems before they happen, and they fix them ahead of time instead of waiting the last minute and no offense to my dudes out there, but sometimes they just wait and let it happen. That’s a huge talent for a mom; they need to have permission to do it their own way, whatever that is. And number two is to figure out what the results are, they have to manage a lot of time and if they don’t know what their 20% is, the 80/20 rule if they don’t know what specific activities gets them results, they’re spending too much time doing crap they’re not supposed to.

So, they need to know what that is, so if they did nothing else, but find out what their 20% is, their business would change.

Jonathan Denwood: I think I do understand where you’re coming from because I think what you’re saying is, there does seem to be a certain style, a certain way that you’re expected to be if you’re going to be a successful agent. I’m not being disparaging here, but it’s kind of very in your face very task-focused but with a more female motherly approach, it’s more about building a really close relationship with the client and getting some really close referrals. And very much focused on the service level that the client is, would you agree with what I’m outlining, or do you think waffling there a little bit?

Alisia Krastel: Are you allowed to curse a little bit on this show, a small curse word?

Jonathan Denwood: You can go ahead I’ll let you.

Alisia Krastel: I don’t want to make them seem fluffy because we are not pushy over fluffy people, so it’s not all about that, but we get shit done, that’s what it’s about. And you have to know what that is, that you need to make results, and a lot of other agents do a lot of stuff that doesn’t really get results, it just looks good on their resume. It looks good in their listing presentation, moms know how to get stuff done, that’s what it boils down to.

Jonathan Denwood: Oh, I think we have a good lead to go into our break because when we come back, I’m going to let Robert question you about the things that get stuff done. So, we’re going to go for our break and I’ll let Robert come back.

Robert Newman: All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining the show. We’re going to go to our break; we’ll be back in a couple of minutes.

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Robert Newman: Welcome back to the Mail-right Show it’s episode 176, right John? Or 276.

Jonathan Denwood: It’s 276.

Robert Newman: 276, I just dropped a hundred shows who cares. By the way, Alisia, God going to shoot me in the head. Alisia, the funny thing is John was joking with you, he has me on the show, which means it’s automatically R rated, always. I can’t stop myself from cursing, I don’t try to, I curse on the phone with my clients, I’ve cursed at people that should not be a curse at. It’s just I don’t know why I feel like it’s more honest in form of human language.

Jonathan Denwood: Well, it’s the mother but not the cuddly, weak mother but you’ve repeated that about two to three times, Alisia, that it’s about concentrating on the things that get the job done. I just think in the second half we should investigate what you think that list of things is.

Alisia Krastel: Sure, here’re three: people, branding, and turning up your volume in time. For the people part, you have to know who you need to spend your energy on, who are those people; you should have about 30 A’s, probably 30 to 35 A’s most important people that are influential in your life. And your energy should be spent on them, and that’s where I get most of my referrals. Your branding, you have a brand whether you like it or not, I have two brands and it can help you leverage your business.

So, while you’re out doing stuff with your family, your brands can be doing some work for you, if people know you as the crab lady as they do me sometimes. When they see crabs they’re thinking of me, I’m not even there and they’re thinking of me. So, that’s a huge way and with branding is turning the volume up whoever you are; if you’re a dancer, if you’re a mean person, if you love dogs, whatever it is, make sure people know that about you and turn the volume so far up it’s not funny.

Doing things that you actually enjoy is turning your volume up too, some moms, especially don’t do that because they put themselves last, if you start putting yourself first, you’re going to get more leads. And then the other part of that is the time, which is knowing your 20% to focus on the people, what branding to do and how to manage it all. If you do those three things your businesses is unstoppable, did that make sense?

Robert Newman: Huzzah, lady. Yes, it makes a lot of sense; there’s obviously a lot of work in there, which is why I’m sure there is a coaching business to be had, but from a broad level, I deeply appreciate everything that you just said. So, but I’m going to take it and use my language because, hey, it’s our show, but you have to find a vertical, the audience you want to serve.

You have to find the important people inside the vertical, which is the people that you are going to spend most of your time and energy with which by the way, I completely agree with you in terms of you find the people that are going to be, I’m going to, I’m going to rephrase it though. The people that you can be the most help to who oftentimes end up being the most help to your business in return. That’s how I perceive it because usually, we relate deeply to like, if I can be of service and really change somebody’s business, I succeed.

But now that their business has changed, of course, there’s a huge amount of gratitude because they’ve seen all these results. So, in turn, that larges, that change, it comes back my way on the backside of the relationship. Does that make sense to you?

Alisia Krastel: Well said and it’s a huge mindset shift because people who maybe not have arrived yet, they’re looking like, how can this benefit me? And you have to stop doing that, you have to say, how can I help this person? Even if it has nothing to do with real estate, even if I get nothing out of it, you have to trust that it comes back eventually from some source.

Robert Newman: Have you found that for you it does that?

Alisia Krastel: A hundred percent and any time there’s any hiccup in my business, I’m like, I bet I’m not focusing on my people. And I go back and focus on the people, and everything’s resolved.

Robert Newman: Same here, John, how about you?

 

Jonathan Denwood: Yeah, I totally agree with that. On your list of three things, you said branding, so maybe you can give some because the whole purpose of this show is to give advice and insights, to our listeners. Can you give some key things that you’ve done to build your brand? Maybe also you could talk about something that didn’t work that you thought would. Maybe, and then a couple of things that you think have really helped you build up that brand that you think is so important.

Alisia Krastel: Yeah, all of those. One thing that doesn’t work is when you force it, when you’re like, I have to have a brand, I don’t know what it is, but it has to be something. You just have to let it find you or the people will find you. One thing that you can do, that’s totally free, and you could do like, right this second while you’re sitting on the show, is that if you comment or post put in an emoji that represents your brand like I have a crab. So, you will find me putting an emoji of a crab in almost all my comments, so people get to know me.

If you’re a dancer, put on dance shoes; if you like watermelon, put watermelon, it’s just one way, one part of branding to get people. And when they think of watermelon they’re thinking of you, that’s genius to be able to do that. It doesn’t cost anything, and then the other thing that worked, I think really well for me is that I did let the brand find me my brands, I tried to force it a little bit. I thought these necklaces would be part of my brand naw.

And finally, Mother Hustler found me and what I think works so well about it is that other people identify as the Mother Hustler, it’s not me, it’s the mother hustler. It’s all the moms doing it, whatever their definition of it is, I’m not defining it for them, and I think that’s why it worked so well. The crab for my real estate, I think that works so well because it’s local, and a lot of people said that stupid don’t do a crab. Why would you do that? Now, it’s like, everybody knows me as Crab Lady, Crab Lady, Mother Hustler, that’s it, so just do whatever’s you, try it out.

Jonathan Denwood: I love it. So, I was thinking about, who of the people came up with the Mother Hustler thing? Was it a friend or was it a client? Where did that emerge from?

Alisia Krastel: A client hashtagged me, Mother Hustler, and then I’d seen it around a little bit, and then I thought, man, this is going to stick. And then I started talking about it more and hashtagging, and then I got a logo which you don’t need a logo for a brand, if you don’t have the money, you can do it other ways. But I did it and then I had it trademarked and it’s rolling, people love it, and they don’t love it for me; they love it because they feel it.

Jonathan Denwood: Yeah, I think that was fabulous insight, do not force it, but keep your eyes open, and the people you’re serving will soon, identify your strongest elements. So, have you been using digital marketing, social media, or other forms of digital media to build up the brand locally? And if yes, what do you feel has worked, which might be helpful to our listeners and viewers that are trying to do the same as what you’ve done?

Alisia Krastel: Consistency, whether it’s the emoji over and over again, if you use it once or twice, it’s not going to work. I’m on TikTok. And I offered these Mother Hustlers stickers that I have 10 times in different ways, and the 10th time I did it, I had thought that maybe I’d have 5 or 10 people asking for them. I had like 700 people ask me for these stickers, then I had to go order more and do the whole thing, so your message over and over again and the consistency is probably the biggest thing.

Jonathan Denwood: All right. Over to you, Robert.

Robert Newman: So, we probably don’t have all the time in the world to answer this question, but here’s what I’m noticing in this call with you. So, I’m a 35-year veteran of the sales and marketing industries, I am what would be considered self-taught. I did not go to school, I am a high school dropout actually, but what I’ve done is over and over and over again, I’ve read and reinvented myself.

I’ve most of the time taken the shit jobs that nobody wants so that I can learn a thing better, such as digging through other people’s CRMs for hours at a time, which nobody wants to do, which is why I’m the only guy that does it. So, that’s me, you’re showing a lot of skill and aptitude for a person who’s self-identifying as I’m a mother who stays home, but now you have two brands. They are both very identifiable, you’re seen in a lot of high notes about branding and about marketing, but here’s my curiosity. How did you get there in the first place?

At some point you were just a mother with kids at the house, what inspired you to say, I’m going to hit the bricks on and get on this road? Was it a necessity? You just had to do it or die. What was it?

Alisia Krastel: My mom gave it to me first. My mom had me two days after her 17th birthday and she got pregnant on purpose to get out of an abusive situation. So, she was always, if you want it, and you’re not happy, you go do it, that’s it. So, I got the drive honest, it’s in the genes, and then it’s kind of out of necessity, I’m a driven person. And I knew it could be different and I knew a lot of people were wasting a lot of freaking time, and I didn’t need the amount of time that I saw people farting around at the office and I knew that I could do it and still have kids.

And a lot of agents, even mom agents told me, well, good luck doing that, you have to put your kids in full-time daycare because it’ll never happen. And I was basically like, screw that, I’m going to show you how it can be done, and this is how you do it. That’s what really lit me up because she told me that I couldn’t do it without putting them in daycare and I did it.

Robert Newman: I love it. I don’t know how John feels about this, but I find that a lot of motivation for driven and determined people happens when people start telling them no. With me, it’s a lot of people told me not to open up a marketing company competing against guys like Zillow and Trulia, and I was going to do things in a different way. I talk about long-term and everybody in my space, every single company, and no exceptions talk about short-term.

So, everybody’s telling me realtors won’t make investments based on years, they have to make their investments based on months, you’re going to fail. I’m like, you know what? Fuck you, I’m not going to fail, watch. Sorry, John, you can delete that out later.

Jonathan Denwood: I just have to make sure that it’s registered as explicit otherwise Apple gets very upset with the show.

Robert Newman: Really, what do they with Joe Rogan’s show?

Jonathan Denwood: Well, the final launching market is explicit, if you don’t; you disappear from Apple’s rankings for a couple of weeks.

Robert Newman: Really?

Jonathan Denwood: Yes, if you don’t mark it explicit, it has to be child friendly.

Jonathan Denwood: Alisia are you okay with staying on for another 10 minutes, we call it bonus content, and they’d be able to see the whole interview on our YouTube channel. But yes, let’s wrap it up, Robert, back to you.

Robert Newman: All right. So, we’re going to close down the episode. Did you say yes by the way?

Alisia Krastel: Yeah, sure.

Robert Newman: Okay. So, we’re going to close down the podcast part for those of you who are listening from all of us from the bottom of our hearts, we really deeply appreciate you listening to the show. If you could do us a favor though, and go to the iTunes store that you downloaded the show from and give us a review, do we suck? Are we awesome? That would be great, we deeply appreciate it. Stay tuned for those of you who are going to tune in on video for a little bit of bonus content, I’m not even going to try your name again, I’ve gotten it wrong too many times today.

But we are going to talk to the Mother Hustler, who’s had amazing insights on life and branding, and we’re going to come up with a very clever and creative question to make it worth your time for those extra 10 minutes. Thanks for tuning in guys, oh, by the way, how can people find you if they would like to Mother Hustler, MH.

Alisia Krastel: Go to YouTube with my name Alisia Krastel or Facebook message me is best.

Robert Newman: Okay. And John, if somebody was interested, how could they find you.

Jonathan Denwood: Just go to the Mail-Right website and that’s Mail-Right.com and all the podcasts are on there. Plus if you want to know more about the Mail-Right platform, you can just book a free demo and I do the demos myself.

Robert Newman: Awesome. And if for some reason you want to learn more about me, you can go to inboundrem.com, which is abbreviated for Inbound Real Estate Marketing, because I like Ms. Krastel believe strongly in having a brand that basically self-identifies. All right. So, thanks for tuning in, we’ll catch you in the next time for those of you who are just going to listen to us, and for those of you who are going to watch us, we’ll catch you in 10 seconds.

 

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