You’re scrolling through Instagram at 10 PM, saving every real estate reel you see, thinking “I should post more content like this.” Meanwhile, your camera roll is full of screenshots, your brain is full of everyone else’s ideas, and your business feels like you’re running on a hamster wheel that never stops.
What if we told you the problem isn’t that you need more content ideas, more leads, or cheaper marketing tools? What if the real issue is that you’re asking the wrong questions entirely?
In this episode, Chelsea and Kayla are discussing the three questions that keep agents stuck versus the game-changing questions that actually build momentum and position you as the go-to agent you want to become.
The Three Questions That Separate Successful Agents from Everyone Else
How does someone invest in something and actually get life-changing results? Because we’ve all bought things that promised the world and delivered… well, not much.
After years of watching agents transform their businesses, we’ve noticed a pattern. The agents who get results ask completely different questions than everyone else. They’re not asking “What should I post?” or “How can I get more leads?” They’re asking the questions that actually move the needle.
The Three Game-Changing Question Shifts:
- Stop asking: “What are content ideas?” Start asking: “How can I position myself as the go-to agent?”
- Stop asking: “How can I get more clients?” Start asking: “How can I become the only agent someone recommends?”
- Stop asking: “What does it cost?” Start asking: “What’s the return on investment?”
Ready to start thinking like a modern agent? Let’s dive into each question shift.
Question #1
Stop Asking “What Are Content Ideas?” and Start Building Your White Tank Top Strategy
Here’s the question we get asked more than any other: “What are content ideas? I need more content ideas.”
But asking for more content ideas is like asking for more clothes when your closet is already bursting. You don’t need more stuff. You need the right stuff.
Kayla shared the perfect example of this when she came across a fashion influencer on Instagram talking to people who wanted to dress nice but didn’t know where to start.
Her first piece of advice → Get a good white basic tank top.
At first, Kayla was like, “What? That’s so boring. I can get a tank top anywhere.” But then the influencer explained: A good white solid tank top can carry you through every season. You can wear it multiple ways, style it with countless outfits, and get serious bang for your buck.
That tank top is your brand foundation.
Your white tank top content isn’t the trending audio or the funny reel everyone’s recreating. It’s your core pillars — the content you can turn to again and again that drives business and meets your people where they’re at.
Chelsea put it perfectly when she talked about her own closet crisis. She loves to shop (maybe too much, according to her husband), but she had nothing to wear. Why? Because she was buying stuff in the “costume / Vegas” category instead of investing in versatile staples.
Sound familiar? How many times have you saved a reel idea, screenshotted someone else’s content, or downloaded another “101 Real Estate Post Ideas” guide, only to still feel stuck about what to post?
Instead of asking “What should I post?” start asking “How can I position myself as the go-to agent?”
Meet Brooke: Your White Tank Top in Action
Let’s create an example. Meet Brooke (yes, we made her up, but bear with us):
What Brooke loves: Country music, rodeos, quiet evenings on her back patio, and a good glass of red wine
What her followers love: Outfit inspiration (especially her cowgirl boots), local events
How she helps people: She’s a real estate agent helping people buy and sell homes
Now here’s where the magic happens. Brooke’s white tank top content strategy isn’t about creating separate posts for each interest. It’s about weaving them together naturally.
She might post a mirror selfie in her cowgirl boots with text overlay about showing houses in a specific neighborhood while listening to Morgan Wallen’s new album. She’s not creating a whole post about loving country music — it’s just woven in.
For her weekly FAQ reel, she might answer “How soon should I talk to a realtor if I want to buy by Christmas?” while wearing those same cowgirl boots with country music overlaid on her B-roll clips.
She’s not claiming to be “the cowgirl realtor.” She’s just being Brooke.
When you nail your white tank top strategy, you become omnipresent without paying for billboards or doing weird stuff. When someone goes to a rodeo, they think “Brooke.” When they see cowgirl boots, they think “Brooke.” When they hear that new Morgan Wallen song, they think “Brooke.”
It seems silly, but it works. It immerses people in an experience with you and makes them feel something. Instead of being in the sea of gray where everyone posts the same listing announcements and market updates, you become unforgettable.
This is how you position yourself as the go-to agent — not through more content ideas, but through consistent, authentic positioning that makes you the only agent someone thinks of.
Question #2
From “How Can I Get More Clients?” to “How Can I Become the Only Agent Someone Recommends?”
Most agents are stuck on what we call the hamster wheel. They’re constantly chasing new leads, constantly looking for new business, constantly paying for leads. They’re running and running and working so hard, but nothing they’re doing is building a system where they can finally step off and still sell real estate.
Our biggest goal for you is to create business that keeps coming despite what you’re doing today. Yes, you still have to do things, but we don’t want you living in a world where if you don’t make those calls today, you won’t get a client. If you don’t send those postcards, your business is on pause.
Enter the flywheel.
Think of a potter’s wheel. In the beginning, it takes effort to get it moving. But once it gets going, you can actually take your foot off the pedal for a bit and it will continue spinning because there’s so much momentum built up.
That’s exactly what we want for your business. When you have a clear brand, when you know your white tank top content pillars, when you know what always works for you, your business starts to grow. People start talking about you in rooms you aren’t in. They’re doing your marketing for you because they’re so excited to work with you.
Kayla was watching a video in which a potter explained that if you push too hard and force the clay with too much muscle on the wheel, it’ll actually slow the wheel down. But if you learn to throw the clay with grace and skill, it’s going to be effortless, continue the momentum, and get you the result you want.
That’s modern agent marketing in a nutshell.
When you can learn these methods and put them into practice (yes, you’ll be messy at first), the more you flex that muscle, the more grace and skill you’ll develop. All of a sudden, you’ll be able to step back and say, “Wow, this is working,” instead of constantly running, running, running.
How to Build Your Five-Person Referral Army
Instead of constantly thinking “I need more clients,” how do you strategically get five people who always refer you hands down?
Obviously, hopefully you’ve got family members who recommend you. But how do you give the clients you’ve already had such a great experience that they’ll be like “Oh my gosh, you have to work with her”?
It’s not about buying the biggest closing gift basket but being thoughtful, being on top of every part of the transaction, and finding those moments where your worlds collide.
Kayla shared a perfect example: She had clients with a really cute dog. Every time she went to their house, the dog would jump up and they’d apologize. But Kayla would get right down on her hands and knees and love on the dog, saying “I have a dog too!”
Guess what? Those people gave her three or four referrals because they found common ground and she created a great experience. And that client originally found her through Instagram.
The Sustainable Alternative to Cold Calling
Chelsea shared a perfect contrast: She saw a post about an agent who got 300+ leads from open houses in a year and closed 13 deals. That means he probably did two open houses every weekend for the entire year. Talk about lifestyle math — that’s 104 open houses for 13 deals, and none of those people really knew him.
Another example: A two-person team made 300 cold calls a week and closed five million in business. Chelsea hit almost five million that same year without making a single cold call, working solo.
The difference is that she built her business sustainably through referrals from people who knew and loved working with her.
None of this is as sexy as “spend $2,000 a month and get 25 leads,” but it’s way less gimmicky and infinitely more sustainable. When you treat your business like a flywheel instead of a hamster wheel, every little thing you do builds momentum that pays off tenfold over time.
You have to stay patient, but over time, you’re going to build something way bigger than you ever imagined.
Question #3
Stop Asking “What Does It Cost?” and Start Thinking About ROI
How much random stuff do we buy all the time because “it’s fine” and then it shows up disappointing or doesn’t match the picture?
Kayla shared the perfect example: She wanted to get her oldest son one of those big crocodile games where you press down the teeth and eventually it snaps shut. She found them for around $45 but thought, “I don’t want to spend that much on a silly little game.” So she found one for $7 and bought it instead.
When it arrived, it was literally two inches big and didn’t even work. The teeth broke as you pressed them.
This is what happens when you try to get a deal instead of thinking about value.
Everywhere you turn, someone is selling a guide or a course or a system. And let’s be honest — we’ve all bought those $27 or $47 PDFs thinking that on the other side is the secret answer we just haven’t unlocked yet.
(By the way, that secret answer is usually the white tank top strategy you haven’t invested in because you want to buy something that feels more exciting!)
When we get shiny object syndrome and turn to all these different places for more resources, more gimmicks, more trends, we end up with no ROI. Either it’s way too much information and we can’t absorb it, or it wasn’t actually what we were looking for and contained things we already knew but didn’t want to put into practice.
This whole cost versus ROI thing applies whether you’re buying cheap things or expensive things.
The Compressor Effect
Here’s a perfect metaphor: When all your kids’ bike tires need air, you have two options. You can use a handheld pump (takes forever, spit gets everywhere, it’s exhausting) or you can invest in an actual air compressor that gets the job done super quickly.
A compressor increases the pressure of gas by reducing volume. You can compress time by investing in things with the best ROI.
Agents who aren’t compressing time spend hours searching “what should I post as a real estate agent?” They’re downloading every freebie, every guide, posting trending content with no strategy. At the end of the day, they feel stuck because even if they got 100 likes on something, it didn’t bring them any clients.
But when you’re compressing everything — working smarter, not harder — you’re saving time, energy, and getting your breath back. You’re getting off that hamster wheel.
If you’re learning from people who have been doing this for 10+ years, there’s no way to piece together their knowledge fast enough to get the results they could help you achieve tomorrow.
When you only think about what something costs, you’re operating from scarcity mindset. When you think about ROI, you’re thinking about what’s possible, what could happen.
This applies to your clients too. They might say “I don’t want to spend $350,000 on a house, that feels like too much.” But you can show them that people who said the same thing five years ago now have houses worth $500,000.
You’re helping them get out of scarcity mindset and showing them that sometimes you have to take a leap.
Bonus Questions to Ask Before Any Investment
Beyond asking “What’s the ROI?” here are a few more questions that will change how you make decisions in your business:
What’s the lifestyle investment? How will this affect your day-to-day? Will it surround you with different people you can collaborate with? Sometimes the lifestyle shift is worth more than the monetary return.
What’s the identity payoff? Are you gaining confidence? Becoming more accessible? What version of yourself are you investing in becoming? (If you want to dive deeper into this concept, check out our Modern Agent Standards episode.)
Who am I paying to be in the room with? You’re not just buying a product or service — you’re buying access to people. Chelsea mentioned hearing people say they’d never join a mastermind because “the amount they charge is disgusting.” But when you think about the caliber of people you’ll be in the room with, suddenly the investment makes sense. You’re paying for access, collaboration, and learning from people who’ve gone before you.
Let’s recap the three game-changing question shifts:
- Instead of asking “What are content ideas?” Ask yourself “How can I position myself as the go-to agent?” Find your white tank tops — the content pillars you can turn to that always work.
- Instead of asking “How can I get more clients?” Ask yourself “How can I become the only agent someone recommends?” Get off the hamster wheel and build a flywheel that creates momentum.
- Instead of asking “What does it cost?” Ask yourself “What’s the ROI?” Consider how it affects your life, business, and bank account before making any decision.
These aren’t just questions for marketing or investing — they’re foundational to how you operate your entire business. You can even use these concepts with your own clients to help them think differently about their real estate decisions.
At the end of the day, our goal is to help you shift your mindset. When you start asking the right questions, you become a better business owner and a better agent, whether or not you ever post on social media or send an email.
Start asking better questions, and watch how everything changes.
This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz.
