Scared
to
start
over
in
a
new
market?
You’re
not
alone.
Most
agents
I
know
would
rather
go
back
to
college,
become
a
carnival
barker
or
do
pretty
much

anything
else.
It’s
a
perfectly
rational
fear.
That
sphere
you
worked
so
hard
to
build?
Gone.
Your
reputation
and
brand?
Meaningless.
Sure,
moving
might
double
your
income,
but
why
risk
it?

One
day,
you
might
not
have
a
choice.
With
over
$860
million
in
career
sales
in
California,
Gail
DeMarco
was
the
poster
child
for
hunkering
down
and
reaping
the
rewards
of
a
decade
of
hard
work.
Then,
life
happened.
A
family
emergency
forced
her
to
uproot
her
thriving
business
and
move
2,700
miles
away
to
Saint
Johns
County,
Florida.
She
was
66
years
old.

Of
course,
since
you’re
reading
about
her
in

Vetted
Visionaries,
you
already
know
this
story
has
a
happy
ending.
Today,
DeMarco
is
absolutely
dominating
her
local
market
in
the
Sunshine
State.
She
closed
over
$34
million
so
far
in
2025
—
mainly
from
a
YouTube
channel
she
started
just
three
years
ago.
We
recently
sat
down
with
her
to
find
out
how
she
pulled
it
off.

Step
1:
Run
a
S.W.O.T.
Analysis
to
find
your
niche

When
she
landed
in
Florida,
DeMarco
faced
the
same
question
every
agent
in
a
new
market
asks:
Who
am
I
here?
Luxury
seemed
like
an
obvious
fit,
after
all,
she’d
spent
years
closing
million-dollar
deals
in
California.
But
without
a
local
sphere,
breaking
into
high-end
listings
felt
like
swimming
upstream.
Too
many
agents,
not
enough
listings.
So
she
took
her
own
advice
—
the
same
advice
she
gives
her
coaching
clients
—
and
ran
a
S.W.O.T.
analysis
(Strengths,
Weaknesses,
Opportunities,
Threats).
The
results
surprised
her:

• 
  Next
  steps:
  Conduct
  a
  S.W.O.T.
  analysis
  of
  your
  skills
  and
  the
  local
  market
  on
  day
  one
  to
  find
  your
  niche.
  Assess
  your
  skills
  honestly
  and
  avoid
  the
  siren
  song
  of
  jumping
  into
  luxury
  if
  the
  market
  is
  saturated
  or
  small.
  The
  key
  is
  to
  find
  niches
  where
  you
  can
  win,
  not
  where
  you
  wish
  you
  could
  win.
  Here’s
  DeMarco: 
  “What
  really
  matters,
  the
  word
  luxury
  or
  having
  a
  bank
  account
  balance
  over
  $100,000?”

Step
2:
Investing
in
branding
and
marketing
>
Zillow
leads

After
settling
on
two
potentially
lucrative
niches,
DeMarco
faced
a
new
challenge:
generating
leads
in
a
new
city
without
a
sphere,
brand
or
reputation.
Buying
leads
from
Zillow
was
an
obvious
(and
easy)
solution,
but
she
was
uncomfortable
giving
one
company
so
much
control
over
her
business.
She
also
didn’t
want
to
spend
her
days
chasing
unqualified
buyers.

Instead,
she
decided
to
build
a
brand
she
owned.
With
coaching
from
eXp’s
Mike
Sherrard,
DeMarco
landed
on
an
unlikely
strategy:
YouTube.
When
Sherrard
first
suggested
creating
a
channel,
she
demurred.
DeMarco
built
her
real
estate
career
prospecting,
or
as
she
put
it,
“Calling
a
lot
of
angry
people
who
were
upset
that
their
home
didn’t
sell
and
trying
to
make
friends
with
them.”

YouTube
was
a
long
game,
one
with
unpredictable
results.
Worse,
she
realized
her
audience
knew
more
about
her
market
than
she
did
in
those
early
days.
A
quick
mindset
shift
convinced
her
it
didn’t
matter:

• 
  Next
  steps:
  Start
  investing
  in
  your
  brand
  and
  marketing
  on
  day
  one.
  A
  YouTube
  channel,
  leveraging
  DeMarco’s
  hard-won
  advice
  below,
  or
  an
  Instagram
  account
  are
  excellent
  places
  to
  start.
  Zillow
  leads
  come
  and
  go.
  A
  personal
  brand
  that
  resonates
  with
  people
  in
  your
  niche
  is
  an
  asset
  you
  own.

Step
3:
Study
the
competition,
then
forget
them

When
DeMarco
committed
to
YouTube,
she
went
all
in.
Her
first
move:
studying
every
successful
real
estate
channel
in
her
market.
After
watching
a
few
of
slick,
professionally-produced
videos,
she
tried
making
her
own.
Her
first
few
attempts
ended
in
disaster.
She
was
sweaty,
her
eyes
burned
and
her
hair
became
a
frizzy
mess
in
the
oppressive
Florida
heat.
Frustrated,
DeMarco
decided
to
stop
trying
to
be
perfect
and
just
be
herself
in
her
videos.

• 
  Next
  steps:
  Watch
  your
  competitors,
  learn
  what
  works
  then
  throw
  the
  rest
  away.
  Authenticity
  beats
  production
  value
  every
  time.

Step
4:
Chase
leads,
not
views

After
she
stopped
trying
to
be
perfect
in
her
videos,
it
took
just
four
months
to
generate
her
first
buyer
lead
from
YouTube.
No
small
feat
from
a
channel
with
only
400
subscribers.
The
slick,
polished
accounts
she
looked
to
for
inspiration?
One
of
them
had
nearly
60,000
followers.
With
over
a
hundred
times
more
subscribers,
she
assumed
they
must
be
generating
hundreds,
if
not
thousands,
of
leads
from
their
videos.
After
a
quick
search
on
Zillow,
she
discovered
they
only
closed
$2
million.

For
DeMarco,
the
takeaway
was
clear.
Subscriber
counts
and
views
on
YouTube
are
just
vanity
metrics
—
worthless
if
they
don’t
produce
leads.
She
was
ecstatic.
Her
strategy
was
working.
She
didn’t
have
to
worry
about
views
as
much
anymore.
She
just
had
to
make
more
of
the
videos
that
were
already
generating
leads.

• 
  Next
  steps:
  Stop
  worrying
  about
  how
  many
  views
  your
  videos
  get.
  Instead,
  identify
  the
  videos
  that
  actually
  generate
  leads
  and
  make
  more
  of
  them.
  If
  your
  videos
  don’t
  make
  dollars,
  they
  don’t
  make
  sense.
  Not
  convinced?
  One
  of
  DeMarco’s
  videos
  generated
  two
  buyer
  leads
  from
  just
  114
  views.

Step
5:
Triple
down
on
the
videos
that
actually
convert

As
her
channel
grew,
DeMarco
identified
the
videos
that
generated
the
most
leads
and
started
making
more
of
them.
Her
strategy
worked.
She
grew
her
channel
from
400
to
over
77,000
subscribers
in
less
than
3
years
and
has
an
astonishing
68%
market
share
in
her
over-55
community.

Even
better,
the
vast
majority
of
her
leads
still
come
from
her
YouTube
channel,
often
from
videos
with
only
a
few
dozen
views.
Even
better,
according
to
DeMarco,
YouTube
leads
are
usually
more
motivated
than
cold
leads.
Why?
They
already
know,
like
and
trust
her
from
her
videos.

When
we
asked
her
which
videos
convert
the
best,
she
was
quick
to
answer.
Videos
that
show
buyers
in
her
feeder
markets
what
it’s
actually
like
to
live
in
the
over-55
super
communities
she
sells.
Here’s
an
example:

Oh,
and
yes.
DeMarco’s
camera
is
sitting
on
a
shoebox
in
this
video.

• 
  Next
  steps:
  Once
  you
  start
  generating
  leads
  on
  YouTube,
  identify
  the
  videos
  they
  came
  from
  and
  figure
  out
  how
  to
  make
  more
  of
  them.

Gail
DeMarco’s
best
objection
handlers

As
promised,
here
are
Gail
DeMarco’s
best
objection
handlers: 

When
buyers
want
to
“wait
and
see”

“Timing
the
market
is
how
buyers
become
renters.”

copy
to
clipboard

When
sellers
want
to
list
high

“Two
things
happen
when
you
come
on
the
market.
Your
home
is
either
going
to
help
someone
else’s
house
sell
because
you’re
ridiculously
priced
and
you
don’t
have
the
upgrades,
or
their
house
is
going
to
help
your
house
sell.
My
goal
is
to
get
you
the
most
money
for
your
home,
not
to
have
your
home
sit
on
the
market
the
longest.”

copy
to
clipboard

Your
Turn

Know
an
agent
who
is
thriving
despite
the
odds
and
has
actionable
insights
to
share?
We’d
love
to
hear
from
you.
Reach
out
to
us
here:

[email protected].