On this special edition of Modern Agent Marketing Girls, Kayla sits down with Melissa Sanregret, the agent everyone loves to follow, to talk about building a business that attracts leads directly from Instagram. From viral pickle costume content to local guides that grew her following from 2,500 to over 5,000, Melissa’s sharing exactly how she went from hiding her real estate career on social media to becoming the go-to local expert in Calgary.

You’ll hear about the mindset shifts, the content strategies, and the one permission slip every agent needs to hear: done is better than perfect!

Why Melissa Almost Gave Up on Social Media

If Melissa could give you one piece of advice to be successful as a real estate agent, it would be to keep showing up.

There are going to be so many times when you’re consistently putting in the effort and you’re not seeing results. That’s when your brain starts worrying: “Is this even working? Should I just give up?”

But Melissa’s here to tell you: keep going. Because it does pay off. You will reap the rewards later on. She’s seen it with her own social media, and now she’s closing five leads from Instagram this month alone!

You wouldn’t know it now, but Melissa almost gave up on social media entirely.

She started her real estate career as an assistant to an incredibly busy agent. (And yes, she’ll be the first to admit that at the time, the only thing she knew about real estate was from binge-watching Selling Sunset.)

As his assistant, she was in charge of pretty much everything — including his social media.

But when she branched off and went solo, she hit a wall. The content strategies that worked for him weren’t working for her. She wasn’t seeing the same results, and she started getting in her own head about it.

So she barely posted that she was even in real estate for a year and a half.

She was afraid of what people would think of her now that she was on her own. She was unsure about what direction to take. And she let that fear keep her stuck.

When She Stopped Making Content for Herself and Started Making It for Her Audience

About a year ago, Melissa started putting real effort into her content. She surrounded herself with people who were crushing it on social media in real estate, not necessarily for coaching, but just to be around their energy and see what was possible.

One day, she decided: it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. I just need to start doing it. Because if I’m going to get good at this, I have to just start putting it out there.

She read a book (she can’t remember which one) that said it’s not about the quality of one post — it’s about the quantity you put in that makes you better over time.

Done is better than perfect.

Every time she posts something, she can see how it could be better afterward, but she just has to get it out there first and then see how it goes.

Usually the things she thinks are going to do excellent don’t perform well. And the things she doesn’t put any effort into do incredibly well! (Can you relate???)

But the real breakthrough came when she stopped making content for herself and started making it for her audience.

She realized she’d been stuck asking: “What do I think is funny? What jokes will I get?” But then she had to remind herself — the joke has to be very blatantly out there for people to get it. It has to happen right at the start. It can’t be something you kind of build up to.

So she simplified things, stopped taking herself so seriously, and started consistently showing up every day.

The Local Guide Strategy That Brought in 100+ Email Sign-Ups in One Week

Okay, let’s talk about Melissa’s gamechanging content strategy.

When Melissa joined Modern Agent Social Club in May, she was already experimenting with content. But working with us helped her pull her blinders on and narrow in on her strategy.

She picked a few guides to focus on — the city guides, the future homeowners guide, and the home selling bootcamp. All really good knowledge for whether you’re a buyer or seller, packaged up in a way that’s easy to understand.

But, and this is key, she only promoted things she actually wanted to do. Not just random spots or activities but things she genuinely loves about Calgary.

No matter where you live, even if it’s a bigger city or a smaller town, you can do this. If you like going for walks and your town has a tiny little lake you walk around, it’s okay to promote that tiny little lake. Get people outside. You never know how your content is going to resonate.

So Melissa put out her first guide during marathon season. She took a video panning across people running, and at the end, there was a girl dressed up in a dill pickle costume holding a sign that said, “You’re kind of a big dill.”

The caption: “POV: You’re obsessed with summer in Calgary.”

And that reel went viral. It got almost 200,000 views. She had almost 100 sign-ups within the first week for her summer guide.

That’s the magic of documenting over creating!

Why Your Listing Videos Don’t Need Million-Dollar Homes

Let’s talk about listing content for a second, because this is a question Melissa gets all the time: “Do you only list the most beautiful homes ever?”

Short answer? No.

Melissa thinks it’s really important to treat a mobile home with the same value as you would treat a million-dollar home. Because at the end of the day, content is content. People are going to see that you’re putting this out there regardless of where it goes.

In fact, her very first listing was a mobile home, and she still actively sells them.

The clients matter no matter which price range they’re at. And at the end of the day, it comes down to how you’re willing to show up for them. That’s how you build the stepping stone to get to the larger listings.

Your sellers look at your marketing on social media and think, “Okay, if she can do that for her business or if she can do that for that house, I wonder what she can do for mine.”

And that’s exactly what’s been happening for Melissa. She’s had clients straight-up tell her: “I’m hiring you because I love your social media.”

In fact, she listed a home through social media this month. Another one went live the morning of this podcast recording.

So no, you don’t need to wait until you have a luxury listing to start creating great content. You just need to show up for the clients you have right now with excellence. The rest will follow.

The Taylor Swift Post That Got 20K Views and 100 New Followers

We would be doing everyone a giant disservice if we didn’t talk about Melissa’s Life of a Real Estate Girl post.

First of all, yes, Melissa is a Swiftie. She’s seen Taylor in concert a few times and cried every time.

Because, in her own words, Taylor is such an empowering person, and she’s given so much confidence to young women ever since she was 15. The launch of her next new era was exciting for a lot of people — including Melissa.

So when we dropped the Life of a Real Estate Girl content idea (a day-in-the-life post inspired by Taylor’s aesthetic), Melissa was driving home from showings and thought, “Wait… the album covers.”

She literally cut across three lanes of traffic, pulled into a Michael’s art store, and bought everything she needed to recreate Taylor Swift’s iconic eras looks.

She found feather plumes. She wore a flapper dress from a 1950s-themed Halloween party. She mimicked Taylor’s wet hair look — but made it real estate by looking in an oven during an inspection. She literally got in the tub to film it.

The dedication! The commitment!

And you know what? That post got 20,000 views and brought in about 100 new followers.

Of course, she doesn’t do that with every single piece of content, but once in a while, if she’s got a little bit of extra time and a couple bucks to spend at Michael’s, she goes all in.

Other agents could try to recreate that exact post. But if it’s not them, it’s not going to land the same way it did for Melissa and her audience.

It’s all about recognizing your capacity and knowing when you’ve got the bandwidth to do something big and fun, and when you need to keep it simple.

Behind the Scenes: Melissa’s Actual Content Creation Process

Melissa does a lot of content on her own. She has a little tripod, and she uses CapCut to edit everything. So even though it looks like someone’s recording her, it’s just her. She’ll set up her tripod in the middle of the street and make it work.

She did hire someone to help her film content last year, but she found it kind of time-consuming.

Now, she just asks another agent if they want to go film together. They’ll film each other doing different things, look at what works, and be like, “Okay, we got to redo that.” It’s way more authentic, way cheaper, and it’s a nice way to make friends.

Because every agent needs that real estate bestie — someone who’s like, “Okay, if I’m going to go out there and make a fool of myself doing this, then you are too.” And then you don’t feel so foolish. You actually feel like, “Okay, we’re looking good. This is turning out okay.”

Now let’s talk about how she gets those gorgeous action shots for her posts and reels.

She sets up her tripod and records everything. She’ll push record, walk slowly toward the camera, back up, move around — and then afterward, she scrolls through the video and just pauses it to screenshot the perfect moment.

It’s genius, and it’s exactly the kind of action shot that performs well on Instagram right now. Not the stiff, posed stills — but those moments with a little bit of movement and life. It makes people stop and think, “Ooh, what is she doing?”

Done is Better Than Perfect: Just Keep Showing Up

Overnight success takes about five years.

Melissa thinks about that quote every single day. Because there are mornings when she wakes up and thinks, “What am I doing?”

So if you’re struggling right now, she encourages you to reach out to somebody you admire or somebody who might be able to help. Because at the end of the day, we’re all doing this together.

There’s more than enough business to go around. And even if you have the same content as somebody else, you don’t have the same followers, personality, or perspective.

Stop waiting for the perfect moment or the perfect idea or the perfect caption.

Just show up.

Because the work you’re doing today can impact the closings you have in the next three months — but only if you’re working on the right things. And showing up consistently on social media, in a way that feels authentic to you, is one of those right things.

Melissa’s proof of that. She’s closing five leads from Instagram this month. Her following has doubled in the last year. And she’s built a business that attracts the exact kinds of clients she wants to work with.

So if you take one thing away from Melissa’s story, let it be this: done is better than perfect. And the only way to get good at something is to start doing it.

Your turn!

This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz.