The 5 Questions Podcast
Join us as we unlock real estate and business insights, one question at a time.
The 5 Questions Podcast
Marketing Automation: Deborah Smith's Secret Weapon for Business Success
Marketing strategist and Airbnb superhost Deborah Smith shares powerful insights on automation, authenticity, and strategic habits that transform real estate and business success. She reveals proven strategies for building systems that simplify operations while generating consistent leads and building meaningful client relationships.
• Set up automated systems that handle repetitive tasks to reclaim time and mental energy
• Build trust by communicating proactively and managing expectations upfront with clients
• For Airbnb success, document all FAQs and weave potential issues into your listing narrative
• Present yourself with integrity and clear communication to build a reputation that generates referrals
• Thoroughly research your market before starting a real estate or Airbnb business
• Share your authentic story and values to attract clients who resonate with your approach
• Establish daily habits focused on self-care, positive mindset, and relationship building
• Cultivate connections with 3-5 key people every day to strengthen your professional network
• Remember that consistent small actions create the foundation for achieving larger business goals
For more insights, tools, and inspiration, visit Deborah at www.deborahcsmith.com.
Obviously, there's a lot of great platforms out there that help investors these days.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast, where we unlock real estate and business insights one question at a time. Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast. I am your host, mario Lamar. I'm so excited today. Our guest on today's show has built multiple successful businesses. She is a marketing strategist, super host with Airbnb and podcast host herself, debra C Smith. Debra, welcome to the live show today.
Speaker 1:Hi, mario, thank you so much for having me. I'm grateful to be here.
Speaker 2:The concept of the podcast is five questions, either about real estate or business, and we get straight to the point you ready.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm ready.
Speaker 2:Okay, First question I have for you what's your background in marketing and automation? Have for you what's your background in marketing and automation. How can real estate investors and maybe Airbnb hosts use smart systems to simplify their businesses?
Speaker 1:This is my favorite question. Is your first question how?
Speaker 1:to simplify is where I spend a lot of my time with my clients and just thinking about for my own life, because when you run a business of any kind, doesn't matter the niche, but I imagine as just as well for real estate investors and for people hosting Airbnb you spend so much time cerebrally thinking about your business planning, executing, communicating, cleaning up, reviewing. There's a lot of time energetically invested in your business, so if you can set up automated systems that take anything off your plate, you get back a little bit of your lived experience, like more time for you to do the things that you love take care of your body, time with family, whatever you want to do with your life, instead of just being constantly working for your business. So when I think about systems that simplify automated systems, it's really any system that can take a repetitive task inside your business off your plate. So obviously there's a lot of great platforms out there that help investors these days. I mean, that's true for any business as well. Like our, technology has really evolved, so there's a lot of ways to save time using AI to create an assistant, using, you know, smart email marketing platforms to build a list, all that stuff, but I would imagine for real estate investors that one of the top concerns is lead generation and that primarily you know thinking about, in order to keep your income at the threshold that you want it at, you need a consistent flow of both buyers and sellers. So and this actually is true for any business too so what I love to teach my clients how to do is create a very compelling invitation into your little corner of the internet through automated systems, so that you can have your lead generation kind of ongoing at all times.
Speaker 1:And what that could look like is you know, there's a lot of different ways to do sort of what I call top of funnel, which is what we all call top of funnel, which is the way, the moment that someone first becomes aware that you exist in this part of your business. So if somebody is out there thinking about selling a house, or buying a house, or buying property or selling property, they, they become interested in searching for a real estate agent or you know somebody that can help them with that. Yeah, only at the point when they realize I'm ready to take action. So, interestingly, with real estate, I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of people that troll the internet and just sort of think about it for a long time. But you want to start connecting with people at the point where they've taken a step into the realm of like I might buy a house in the next two years, or we might want to buy, sell our house in the next couple of years.
Speaker 1:What could you put out there into the world that lives for free on the internet, that stands alone on like a static web page, that might attract that early thinker and let them know oh, there's a person out there who's educating people, who's building relationships long before they're actually ready to buy. So a great example of this is I have a friend in New Orleans who's getting ready to sell a house and she said to me she's a single mom, so I'm like let me help you out a little bit. She said I'm going to probably have to sell this house in like a year from now and it's really overwhelming to me. I said I got you, let me do some research. I Googled, you know, local real estate. Whatever I put in some search terms into Google which is 90% of how people use the internet is they go to a search engine and type in a keyword or two I put in her neighborhood and immediately a couple of real estate agents popped up that had created a very thorough checklist All the things you need to think about if you're thinking about selling your house. I didn't even think twice about putting my email address in there. Now, I don't live in New Orleans so I'm not necessarily their ideal client, but I now have this checklist. I send it to my friend. I say to her hey, this company is local in your neighborhood in New Orleans and they created this amazing resource. It might be a good resource for you.
Speaker 1:She goes to the thing she gets on their mailing list. She has their checklist. Now she's looking at their logo and their brand marketing elements. That's sort of subconsciously in the background, is running in her mind. Now her supercomputer is thinking about them when she's thinking about who do I rely on for the help I need when I do go to sell? She's got their colors in her mind, their name, their logo, it's just like that. And she's using their checklist to check things off as she prepares. She's on their email list. Well, guess what? When it came time to start looking for a real estate agent, they were the number one call she made.
Speaker 1:So I think, that was a lead gen. That was a long play for them, right, she might not use them for a year, but that thing is out there for free. Update it a couple. You know, maybe you update a couple times a year.
Speaker 2:But that's one person, so imagine the thousands of people. Maybe your friend was a year from now, but maybe the neighbor was six months and then somebody else was three months away, and so it just goes exponentially. And you're right Automated systems, using even AI, like you said, is more and more common and more and more successful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, true, and I think if you just think about not everybody, I mean you have to play the numbers game with business. So if you want 10 people at your party, invite 100. If you want 1,000 people at your party, invite 100,000. It's kind of the law of 10s sort of consistently still works, even though we're in new territory with technology and communication. So I think if you are an investor or if you're a real estate agent or whatever role you play in that business system, having a list, generating a list and tending to that list, continuing to feed them little, small bits of nurturing content that helps them, keeps you top of mind when they're ready to buy, they're going to think of you because you've been subtly peppering them with a little bit of nourishment here and there and again. That's consistent for really any business nourishment here and there and again, that's consistent for any, really any business.
Speaker 1:And I did think about for Airbnb hosts, something that saved me a tremendous amount of time. I'd say my first two to three years doing hosting Airbnb. I was just learning what gets good quality guests in the house and you have a guest come in that it's almost like they're your best friend, coming to visit you for the weekend or whatever. Because the way that I did Airbnb in New York City was I have a two-bedroom apartment and I would open up one half of my. Luckily, with the layout of my apartment, I had two different entrances and shared common spaces were central and it was a big floor through so I could have a guest come in, let themselves into the apartment, go to their own entrance, enter their own guest room, feel like they were in their own apartment in New York City, but then I would still be there. I lived there while they were guests. So creating a sense of space for them and privacy was a big deal. And the way that I did that was upfront. I took some time upfront to really think through what would all of their questions be. Airbnb is really good at giving you like prompts to create your guidebook, but there's more to it. So after about two or three years I collected all the questions that I got asked over and over and over again and I took the time to really write out frequently asked questions that aren't in your guidebook. And it was about my neighborhood, it was about my apartment, little things like everything from like where to put the key when you're leaving at the end of the day, which is obvious thing you want to include. But you know, in my old Brooklyn apartment there was a little you know fidgety thing about the hot water so little things that always came up over and over again.
Speaker 1:Instead of having to constantly communicate with these people so that I could give them autonomy, space, privacy and also have my time back and not have to deal with them constantly, I started cataloging all the FAQs and then I wove those into the top. When people go to your Airbnb post listing they read usually the first two to three paragraphs to make sure that it's a good match for what they want out of a stay. I wove those things into the story of my life in New York and my apartment. So I would say things like you're going to love this old sort of classic New York brownstone. It's still got the finicky faucet that you know gives it its personality, like I would weave it into the story. And then it's not something they complain about. They're not going to write the faucet dripped, because I'm literally advertising I have a drippy faucet and you would think that that would be a negative right, but instead it's charm because I positioned it as charm.
Speaker 2:And they expect it.
Speaker 1:And they're expecting it. And I think with Airbnb if anybody's doing Airbnb hosting, the name of the game with Airbnb to get you five-star reviews every time is put it all in your listing. If you have a cat upstairs that screeches every third day like, tell them what to expect. And then so we had noise on the weekends outside my apartment windows and it was nothing I could control, but it was something people consistently said was a little bit hard for them. I put a white noise machine, I gave earplugs and I wrote it crystal clearly in my ad.
Speaker 1:People have said the street noise gets loud on the weekends, but it didn't deter them because and I list all the ways that I'm offsetting the noise and so they feel confident that I'm aware I care, I'm giving you the best solution I can. And then they you should read my reviews. 95% of them say there is a lot of street noise on the weekends but, just like Debra said, the tools she provides really. So it's even double points for me because not only is it now not a negative, they're like she got out in front of it and that really helped. So it makes me look even more, I guess, like that's why I think you get the super host.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Listed. It's good.
Speaker 2:And talking about successful, being successful and for your example, brings us to our second question. You've built multiple successful businesses, from mobile juice bars to online coaching. What key lessons from entrepreneurship apply to, maybe, real estate investing?
Speaker 1:I think broad stroke when you are presenting yourself as the agent of your business, when you are the face of your business, especially with real estate agents, the way that you present yourself. It's so important that I mean energy is everything Really. Every exchange that we make business is about making money right, and I use air quotes only because money is just another form of energy. So the exchange that we make when we do business again is really just creating mini partnerships. Every single sale, every single conversation, it's you and your energy infused into whatever the thing that you do or sell. So I think having integrity around your values, knowing your values, I think presenting yourself as a trustworthy like building trust really right. So every single sale is about trust. I decided to buy my car from the car dealership where I trust. The guy gave me all the right information and he's not going to screw me on the backend with extra fees.
Speaker 1:Building trust and building relationships is the cornerstone of doing business. So I think real estate agents, your best quality is having some integrity, clear communication, really speaking clearly and succinctly, knowing your product, knowing what you're putting out there and then just really building solid relationships with people, considering your sellers and your buyers. Every single one of those is a mini business partner for you and really treating them the way you would want to be treated, just having integrity. Building strong relationships, strong partnerships because your net worth is in your network, right? So all of those relationships you don't know where down the road in life someone's going to refer you If they can say she was excellent to work with, that will still always be the greatest form of marketing, right? Nothing competes with word of mouth. Nothing is stronger than my friend told me she was great. No advertisement, no amount of money spent on an ad buy will compete with my friend told me, to call this person.
Speaker 2:You're absolutely right, Because especially in real estate, it's a big circle but at the same time it's a small circle. So if you have a good name, people will know. If you have a bad name, people will know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people will find out.
Speaker 2:So you're absolutely right, whether, whether it's a, a business, a coaching or, like you had, you know, uh juice, uh juice bars. Be yourself, be true, be honest. Same thing applies to real estate. Yeah yeah, You'll get clients, you'll get referrals and you'll succeed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really think trust, like I was saying, trust is something that we have to earn with our clients. It doesn't just come for free and there's ways that you can build that subtly into all the ways that you show up. Into all the ways that you show up and that's one of the things I love about the internet is there are just a vast number of opportunities to sort of precede why you are a trustworthy person. It is partly the image, your personal brand, the wording and the pictures and everything that you use to sort of present yourself. But there's a lot of other little subtle ways in which you can build trust. One of them is, you know, educating around your topic or your niche, like I was saying, those digital assets that you can put out, that don't take a lot of time to create, especially with AI, but package up some of your knowledge and allow you to connect with people before you even ever meet them. That goes a long way with people before you even ever meet them.
Speaker 2:that goes a long way. That brings us to our third question, and in talking about helping and other people, your mission is to help women solopreneurs thrive. Now what advice would you give to someone wanting to start, maybe, a real estate or an Airbnb business with little experience? You already touched on some points in the first question, but let's elaborate a little bit more.
Speaker 1:So something that I made a mistake at in my first business, and something that I've seen a large number of my clients make a mistake around, is the sort of seedling point in creating your business. People tend to fudge the research, and what I mean by that is you are passionate about something. You're like I know, I want to do this, I want to help people with this thing. It lights me up, I am called to action. It's a calling of mine. That's 90% of the time we start a business. We just feel passionate about something. Then you have to stop and sort of put your passion in the back seat for a second and throw on an analytical cap and do some really serious research about your industry, about that niche, about your area, specifically how you think you're going to do business. Who else is already doing business in that way, in the style that you might do it in the area that you live in? What's already out there? Who's already brought this idea to market? How are they doing it? Get detailed. Do the analytic research to find out is this viable? Do I have the right personality characteristics to continually show up in the way you have to show up for that type of business to be successful. Because I actually have two friends who became real estate agents and then after almost a year and a half or two years, they gave up because they decided what it takes to do that business is not in my core being. I don't have what it takes. They literally decided it's just not who I am. It requires a personality and a skillset that I don't want to continue cultivating, and then they stopped doing it and it was kind of a detour for their life instead of it being. I mean, it's every thing we do with our lives is a stepping stone to the next thing. But I think people I've seen people try to start a business where they didn't do enough research and then it really either it keeps you from becoming profitable for a longer it takes a lot longer to become profitable, or you burn out and quit because it's not a good match for you, or that area of the marketplace is so saturated that it's just a constant grind. It just that's what happens is if you don't really know what you're getting yourself into.
Speaker 1:So for real estate agents and for Airbnb hosts, how's it going in your area? You know Airbnb ebbs and flows with local legislation, right? So in New York. We had a huge hit September of 23. They lost the hospitality industry in New York city. City lost their legal battle with Airbnb, I'm sorry, won the legal battle and Airbnb was relegated to shut down any listing where the host was not present while hosting. So it became you had to. Everybody lost their ability to host unless you got a special permit.
Speaker 1:To get that permit you had to fill out this very extensive application with a new office the governor created and it changed the marketplace drastically. So my listing went from consistent inquiries to bonkers numbers of messages Like I was one of the few people that got the permit because, because I was already a business owner in New York city and I understood the red tape, I first of all we got denied. I got denied when I applied the first round for a whole bunch of reasons that were kind of not really right. So I called, found out that the office of the governor's you know short-term housing was brand new. The people working there didn't even know their jobs yet.
Speaker 1:Having worked with the DCA and all the different legislative offices in New York City to get my food vending permits, I was like, oh, this is just some guy's first day on the job. Let me just call them and get on the phone, and that 20 phone calls later I got the permit. So persistence, but it just I got to. I mean I I didn't price gouge because I didn't want to be a jerk, but I could have tripled my cost and not even had and would have like it was really. So you have to do the research and find out what's happening in your area and know your competition and then ask yourself do I have the desire to meet this marketplace where it's at? Does it look like something I can actually?
Speaker 2:do Leave the emotion out of it and analyze the business before you start it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:We're going to move on to the fourth question and that we have something in common. As a podcast host yourself Mindset to Market. What role do you think storytelling and personal branding play in business and maybe real estate success?
Speaker 1:Great question. First of all, I love podcasting so much and I love that we're having this conversation right now because we met at a podcast festival and I think it's an amazing way to connect with people. I think that it sort of began at the end of 2023. There was a shift to online marketing in the pandemic. People planted seeds. People were out of work right, they couldn't make money. They started getting innovative Platforms responded and made things simpler. Technology caught up. Now, in 2023, I think we started seeing the solopreneur industry just really start to boom and generate lots and lots and lots of new online business owners, solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and I think what we're seeing now is the age of the personal brand right, everything is about your personal story and when we shop now, we're really listening to your story and deciding if we resonate with your background, your why, your unique, special characteristics, if we have aligned values or not, and so storytelling is everything.
Speaker 2:I would say it's the number one thing because People want to do business with people they like.
Speaker 1:Not just people. They like people, they feel that they can trust. I think trust is the cornerstone of a business transaction and you can build trust when you tell us your authentic story. Let us into your real, vulnerable personality and life and you will build lifelong clients. So it's not just we used to be very glossy in marketing and everything had to be like you look perfect, you sound perfect, you've got the flashy ads, everybody's like you know, perfect headshots. Those days are gone. I think TikTok changed that.
Speaker 1:People want real, authentic storytelling and so I think, get comfortable telling you know nuggets of your personal story so that we can get to, so that we can relate. We can relate with you and I'll tell you where it really matters is in your personal values, because, for example, I mean it's not just political, but I would say whether or not people feel safe. Like if you're a member of the LGBTQ community, you're not probably going to want to work with somebody who might not like you. If you are, you know there's a lot of ways in which sharing your values, sharing your belief systems, really helps people predetermine whether or not they feel safe, even starting a conversation with you. So you might be eliminating some people from your buyer pool, but you're going to be opening the doors to a lot more people by being authentic and forthcoming about characteristics and parts of your personality. So tell us your story. Let us get to know you and see if we find relatable points.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, this brings us to our fifth and final question for today. You're a firm believer in small daily habits that creates big results. What mindset shifts have helped you grow as an entrepreneur and maybe could help real estate investors too?
Speaker 1:I love this question. I think we often plan big goals in business and in real estate. There's an opportunity to make a lot of money, and so we think we're motivated often by that dream result that we could get. And so we think we're motivated often by that dream result that we could get the big money, the luxury of having time, sale of a house or you know so. But what gets to those bigger results in our life and in our businesses is consistent daily actions.
Speaker 1:So a habit that I have created that I think is very valuable is I start my morning, a morning routine essentially, and it includes not just confidence building and self worth building techniques, I guess, Like I do the I do the mindset work of positive affirmations and the kind of thing that really help you show up and present yourself as confident, because you know, at the end of the day, entrepreneurship I sort of I would say a stalwart component of entrepreneurship is having confidence. You have to go into the online space and show your face and talk about your thing and sound like you know what you're talking about and look good and all that stuff. That requires motivation. You've got to be motivated and I think belief in your self-worth is a big part of that confidence building. So I like to do self-care practices in the morning that really invest in my tank being full. For me, that looks like eating healthy, nutritious meals, taking time to exercise and move my body in a way that feels good to me, you know, making sure that I'm basically healthy, hydrated, had a good night's sleep, all the basic stuff so that I'm not running on empty.
Speaker 1:So taking care of your health, but then also the mental stuff.
Speaker 1:I mean it sounds cheesy, but affirmations and the sort of subconscious work of believing in yourself and that what you bring to people's lives is valuable, and and starting your day off with positive affirmations genuinely helps set you up for success every single day.
Speaker 1:And then the other thing that I do as a top of my first part of my day is I review who are the key people in my day that I want to make sure that I speak to, because I truly believe that relationships are what move business, and so I make sure that I'm connecting with three to five people every single day who are touch points for me, that it doesn't have to be a business transaction, it can just be a hey, how are you doing? But I'm cultivating relationships every single day because, at the end of the day, having that network also builds confidence. And so those little tiny things taking care of your health, taking care of your mind, making sure you're dialed into positive thinking and then connecting with other like-minded people and building your relationships- yeah, debra, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today.
Speaker 2:It was such a pleasure to discuss with you your knowledge, your tricks, your tips, and hopefully our listeners take some of them on their journey with them. But thank you again for accepting to come on the show today.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me as a guest. I love this conversation. It was great, thank you.
Speaker 2:We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Thanks for tuning into the 5 Questions Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, like and hit the notification bell on our YouTube channel so you never miss an episode. Stay tuned for more insights and tips to transform your real estate and business game. See you next time.