Between “How often should I post?” and “Why isn’t anyone engaging with my content?” lie about a thousand other questions that keep agents stuck.

In this episode, Chelsea and Kayla are tackling your most-asked marketing questions in rapid-fire style. You’ll walk away with clarity on what actually matters in your marketing, permission to stop overthinking the small stuff, and a game plan for showing up confidently (even when you’re not sure what to post next).

Question #1

I’ve Been So Consistent, But I Get No Engagement. What Am I Doing Wrong?

First things first: What are you being consistent with?

If you’re consistently posting to your grid but completely ignoring your stories, that’s a disconnect. If you’re showing up every day but never inviting people to take the next step, that’s a missing piece.

Posting is great, but it’s just one piece. Your stories are where your warmest people are; they already know you and follow you, so that’s the better place to connect. Use engagement stickers, pop up question boxes, get behind the scenes of your life (both real estate and real life), and ask questions that drive people to your DMs.

Instagram is so noisy that you need to cut through it by showing up with the same message over and over. Have the same carousel end slide on every post with a clear call to action. Once a week, repeat something like “Hey, if you’re thinking about buying, here’s your next step” and drop a question sticker.

We can’t expect to post once and have someone message us saying “Can you sell my house tomorrow?” It’s through showing up over time consistently (both in stories and in your feed) that you’ll start to see results.

Kayla thinks of consistency as how often you’re showing up, but also how repeatable your content is. Are you consistently sharing the same message? Similar graphics, colors, fonts? That stuff makes your content sticky.

She used the example of making homemade granola. All those ingredients are like a little bit of real estate, a little bit of local, a little bit of your personality, but the thing that holds it all together is the honey. And that honey is your personal brand, the sticky sweet stuff that makes people want to hang out on your account.

So dial in what you want to be consistent about. Yes, real estate’s a part of that, but that sticky personal brand piece is what’s going to differentiate you from every other agent in your town.

Question #2

How Many Times a Week Should I Post?

It’s less about the logistics and more about the actual impact. How are you connecting with your followers? How memorable is your content? How consistent is your personal brand?

We both follow creators who post every day that we love. We also follow creators who post once a week but are in their stories every day, and we love them too. What you’re actually sharing doesn’t matter nearly as much as the depth of what you’re sharing.

Choose what works for you. If you love having three topics and want to dive into them, post three times a week. If that feels like too much and you’d rather focus on your stories, post once a week. There’s no wrong answer.

Theme your days to give yourself a framework. If on Tuesday you always post something local and your followers come to recognize that, you don’t want to let them down. It’s built-in accountability.

Think of your favorite person to follow on Instagram — you could probably come up with their pattern. If you give yourself the framework, it helps you plug in what you want instead of always looking at a blank page.

Take it one step further: Call it out to your followers in your stories. “Hey, tomorrow I’m sharing this.” Now you’ve made yourself accountable to your followers, and it’s going to keep you on track. That’s Chelsea’s biggest hack. People expect Marketing Therapy Thursdays, so she finds the time.

Question #3

How Do I Show My Personality If I’m Just a Private Person or If I Think I’m Just Not That Interesting?

For a deep dive on this, check out episode four, “Listen To This If You Think Your Life is Too Boring to be Instagram Content” But let’s keep it simple here.

Share your mundane, relatable moments. What would your ideal client — when they’re not thinking about moving — relate to in your life? What you’re making for dinner, what you’re reading, what you’re watching on TV. People want to know these things.

Let’s take something really simple, like what you made for dinner every day. That could be your thing. You’ll start having conversations like “What’s that recipe?” or “Where’s your favorite place to go for takeout?”

You’re building this runway for someone to interact with you before they need to buy or sell. It might seem insignificant, but to the person on the other side, it’s going to feel like they know everything about you.

It’s not sharing your dirty laundry. It’s intentionally picking a couple of little splashes that you weave into your real estate content so you have a brand, not just a real estate billboard.

All the freedom comes when you realize you’re in control of what you share. The point is just to share a little bit of something. Kayla feels like she could talk to Jenna Kutcher about so many things, but she doesn’t actually know her at all. Jenna doesn’t share that much private information, just enough to keep you hooked.

The point is that your life is more interesting than you think. Kayla likes to share what book she’s reading with her kids. Every time she shares that, she gets five or six messages from people. She shares that maybe once a month — it’s just a little piece of her life, but it gives people a glimpse.

There’s also Kayla’s football life angle… She doesn’t talk about it every day. But because she posts about it on Fridays, it feels so big in her brand. If you did something once a week, people would think you’re always sharing it.

Pick one little thing from your life and start bringing it into your stories. Your people aren’t watching you under a microscope; they’re just glad to hear from you!

Question #4

I Don’t Want to Annoy My Email Subscribers by Emailing Too Much

Friend, that is all mindset.

What you project usually reveals more about what you think about yourself. If you’re projecting that your subscribers are going to be annoyed, maybe deep down you think your emails are a little annoying.

If people have opted into your emails and you don’t email them consistently, you’re doing them a disservice. You’re basically telling them they’re not really worth your time and energy.

Think of it like when you’re scrolling Instagram and you see a funny reel that you know your sister will crack up at. Why wouldn’t you send it to them? That’s how we want you to feel about your emails.

Our members get messages all the time from their subscribers saying “Oh my gosh, this is the best newsletter ever. I open up yours all the time.” It’s not because they’re anything necessarily amazing, but because they are story-led, behind the scenes, not super salesy. They just drip in a little bit of real estate with a splash of humor.

When you lead with that, you want to send those emails and you don’t feel like you’re being annoying.

Read your email before you send it and ask yourself what’s in it for them. Maybe add a picture of yourself and share “Here’s what we’re up to this weekend” or “Here’s my favorite thing we did this month.” Even sharing one local favorite — someone’s going to think “Okay, I’m opening this because I want to see her local thing this week.”

Do something that someone can come to expect. Reliability builds trust so fast.

Chelsea recently asked our members: If someone were to follow you around for a week, would it look like you’re serious about your goals? Are you skipping your email for two months because you feel dumb? You’re not taking your goals seriously then.

Those little shifts make the biggest difference in how you show up for your business and how clients are going to view you.

Question #5

If I Get Lots of Engagement in Stories, Should I Even Bother Posting on My Grid?

Think about your feed as your storefront.

When someone sees a post in your feed, that’s when they can decide: Do I want to follow them? Do I want to see more? Your feed gives them that little preview.

Once someone’s already following you, your stories are, for the most part, going to be seen by your followers. Stories are great, but the reason they are more engaging is because most of the people seeing them already know you. They already decided to click follow and tap your story bubble.

Your feed is going to help you grow. It’s going to help you get in front of more local people, more local eyeballs. That’s what we want to do with our feed content, but you’re probably going to have more of the conversion and nurturing happening in your actual story.

If someone sent your profile to their friend who’s thinking about listing their home, what do you want them to see? You’d probably want to learn something about you, get a feel for what it’s like to work with you, see your face, hear your voice.

Your first impression with someone is online at this point. So how are you making that first impression what you want it to be?

In conclusion, both stories and feed posts are important. Kayla thinks of it all like dating: Think of your feed as your dates — nice dinners, movies, plays. But at some point, if you really like the person, you’re going to want to just go to their house and hang out. That’s more like stories. You need those dates, but they also need to lead to a place where it’s a little bit more behind the scenes.

For more on this, check out episode eight: Are your Instagram Stories Connecting You With Future Clients?

Question #6

How Would You Post About an Open House or Price Reduction?

Social media is a place to be social with your community.

If you have a price reduction and want your seller to know you’re still marketing the property, create another little reel with clips from picture day or reshare the photos in a different way. Highlight one specific room and talk about how it’s a great time to buy.

But the truth is the people who really need to know about price reductions and open houses — they’re on the MLS. Their agents are contacting them. They’re getting updates through home buyer searches.

You can say in your stories “Hey, I’m getting ready for my open house today,” but you don’t need a post dedicated to that.

Your listing videos are actually mostly there to showcase your brand and market yourself as the agent.

Most people aren’t buying a home because they saw it on social media. Most are buying because it was sent by their agent or they were scrolling Realtor.com. Yes, you still want to market properties because it’s great to show your sellers the views and shares. But it’s mostly there to showcase what it’s like to work with you.

When we post about a listing in a specific neighborhood that’s only applicable to a very tiny amount of people, you’re not using that to sell the house. You’re using it as content. Chelsea follows so many agents all over the country and thinks “Oh that’s a cool house,” but she’s never going to buy it.

It doesn’t make sense to expect someone to come to your Instagram to know if there’s a price reduction. It’s something you would just keep for the MLS or your email list. Know what makes sense for the platform.

What Chelsea would do: If you have your listings on your website, in your stories once a week say “Hey, check out my listings” with a call to action. Or do what a friend does — if you’re on his email list, you get early access to see pictures of a listing. It feels like an exclusive experience. He’s not just blasting it on social media.

Pretty soon we’re rolling out a whole new section of the website to help you launch your listing and market it well. You’ll have all your posts, reel ideas, story ideas, email blurbs, plus the overall rundown of “My listing’s going live in a week, what do I do?” or “It’s been sitting for three weeks with zero showings, what do I do?”

We’re going to have all of that mapped out, including what to do with price reductions and open houses. And not only to market the listing, but also to build your brand through it and get the right content so there’s life beyond that listing.

Question #7

How Do I Share Behind the Scenes Content If I Have No Clients?

First, check out episode 32: What to Post When You Have No Clients.

When you don’t have clients, you can do things you’d never have time for if you were busy:

• Neighborhood tours
• Going to Brokers Opens
• Sharing what’s on your schedule for the day
• Pull up MLS and share behind the scenes in a story
• Set up home searches
• Look at what’s new on the market today

If you had no clients, you should be learning everything there is to know about your local market and community. That is content.

Create content around what it looks like when someone says “I want to sell my house with you.” You don’t need a client to do that. Document your process — the champagne celebration, the email you send, the folder you pack up, your showing prep checklist.

Think of the day-in-the-life content, but yours is more of a “what it’s like to work with me” angle. Every time you’re filling up a coffee (different mug), walking out the door doing a mirror selfie (different outfit), getting your buyer and seller folders (same clip) — you can build out this library of content without new clients.

The more you can repeat and get repetitive with your messaging, your stories, your angle — painting the picture of what it’s going to be like when someone does sign a listing contract with you — that’s how you’re going to bring those clients in faster.

Create a reel about what to do if you’re thinking about making a move:

• Drive to the neighborhoods you’re considering
• See what they look like at different times of night
• Go to local coffee shops nearby
• Check out the school district
• See if you like that community

You could create all this content without a single client.

More ideas…

Schedule showings in vacant houses and tour them. Plus that gives you time to learn things.

Meet with lenders and stagers. Ask questions, make connections.

Share a roundup. Share “Features you’d find in my dream house” — pictures from Pinterest or Instagram of homes you like. A dinner bell, a shutout back, a brass faucet. You can pull photos and give credit. It reminds people you’re in the business of home.

You can share roundups of things you’ve saved lately or your latest home pins. What’s really cool is it gives people a glimpse at your personal brand. Kayla’s would have a lot of color, Chelsea’s are more Nancy Meyers-ish.

If you wish you could sell more houses where you live, start creating content in that area. Even something simple like every Monday: “Let’s see what’s new on MLS in this city.” Share behind the scenes on your laptop and pop up a question sticker: “Do you want to see homes for sale in this area? Drop your email here.”

If you do that every Monday, you’re probably going to get some leads.

The Shift Will Come

It might take a little while for people to understand they can respond to you, but the time will come and the shift will start to happen.

If you really start doing some of these things, if you commit to not leaning on your excuses but actually getting creative, and you start today, come January 1st you might have a completely different business.

Even if your market is slow, you can have more people reaching out to you than ever before, just because you’ve stayed top of mind. That’s the whole point of all of this — to stay top of mind and be the first agent someone thinks of when they think of moving.

If you can accomplish that with even 50 people in your community, those 50 people are going to tell their 50 people. It’s just a ripple effect.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What if I knew exactly what to post?
• What if I knew exactly what I was sending to my email list?
• What if people were excited to get on my email list?
• What if people were excited to open my emails?
• What if my feed felt really good and I was proud when a seller came to look at it?

Asking yourself those questions is going to get you closer to stopping your excuses and stopping that limited scarcity mindset.

Your mindset can go from complaining and overwhelm to “I’m capable, I’m going to figure this out.” Those two different mindsets will have drastically different results. The negative mindset on January 1st will still be in the exact same place. But the “I am capable” mindset? Your business will be so much better.

You are in that perfect window of time right now. We can’t wait to see what happens for you.

This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz.