Look, we’re not saying you absolutely NEED a personal brand to sell real estate. You could still door knock, cold call, and send postcards like it’s 1970. But if you want clients who feel like friends, a business that works around your life, and people reaching out because they trust you before you ever hop on a call… well, that might be a different story.

In today’s episode, we’re breaking down what a personal brand even is and why it matters more than ever in the AI era.

What Disney’s Pixie Dusting Can Teach Us About Branding

Kayla just got back from Disney World with her family, and something happened that perfectly captures what personal branding is really all about.

While they were at Hollywood Studios, a complete stranger walked up to her husband and said, “Hey, we’re here for work, and our company gave us these gift cards. We’re not going to use them, so you can have them.”

Kayla’s husband thought maybe it was $20 on each card, but it turned out they had a combined total of $220!

Disney is famous for this “pixie dusting,” where cast members randomly cover bills, hide little toys, or surprise guests throughout the park.

But what’s even cooler is that Disney guests do it too. They’ve bought into this vision of making Disney the most magical place on earth, and they want to be part of it. Disney isn’t a personal brand, but it’s still a brand that feels personal — they’ve created a culture where everyone wants to participate.

That’s exactly what happens when you build a strong personal brand. You create something people want to be part of. They don’t just hire you because you’re a real estate agent. They hire you because you’re their agent.

So Do You Really Need a Personal Brand as a Real Estate Agent?

The honest answer: No. You don’t technically need one.

There are great real estate agents out there who don’t have a personal brand, and instead, are crushing it with traditional methods, networking in person, hosting open houses every weekend, sending postcards, and door-knocking.

But, there’s a cost to that.

You might end up working with clients who don’t really know you, dealing with price shoppers who are just looking for the lowest commission, or constantly chasing leads instead of having people come to you. It might mean living your life around your business instead of building your business around your life. It might mean answering calls at all hours because people found you on a sign and have no context for who you are or how you work.

When you attract people through your personal brand, it looks totally different. They already know you and trust you before they ever reach out. They’re not shopping around for the best deal. They want to work with you specifically.

So yeah, you can still do things the 1970s way, but if you want a business that feels less like constant resistance and more like people naturally coming to you because you’re their go-to, a personal brand is the way to go.

What Even Is a Personal Brand?

When people hear “personal brand,” they immediately think it’s going to be expensive and complicated. Like you need to hire a designer to create a fancy logo, get matching merch, order colored folders and custom stickers, and basically rebrand your entire life.

That stuff is cool if you get there, but that’s not where you start.

A personal brand is really just what someone says about you when you’re not in the room. That’s it!

Picture this: There’s a group of women in your community out to dinner. They’re talking about Real Housewives, their favorite coffee shop, whatever. Then someone says, “Yeah, I think we’re going to put our house on the market this spring. We really want to start the building process.”

Is your name going to come up? And if it does, what are they going to say?

With a personal brand, they’re going to say things like, “Call Chelsea, she has kids too and totally gets it,” or “Call Chelsea, she lives in that area and knows all the best spots,” or “Call Chelsea, you’re going to love her.”

Your personal brand is just deciding what pieces of your life you want to bring forward online. And it can be a tiny splash of your life. You don’t have to share everything, put your kids online, or even talk about personal things if you don’t want to.

Your personal brand can be whatever you want it to be, just like Ross Geller’s tombstone can say whatever he wants!

Why Personal Branding Matters More in 2026 Than Ever Before

With the rise of AI, personal branding is more crucial than ever.

People are not following you for information anymore because they can get any answer they need in seconds. Course creators are seeing their sales go down because people don’t need to pay to learn how to do something anymore.

This means people don’t need you to tell them about the market. They don’t need you to explain what things mean or when it’s a good time to buy. They can ask AI for that.

If we want to give them a reason to follow us, it cannot be to simply educate them. It has to be to impact them and paint a picture of what their life could be like. To build real connections so that when they do need an agent, they think of you.

Your Morning Routine Is Your Marketing Plan

Let’s walk through what Kayla does in the morning. She makes an iced coffee in her kitchen. She wakes the kids up for school and gets them out the door. She has a high-protein breakfast. She showers, does her makeup and hair. If it’s nice out, she takes her dog on a walk. Then she either gets laundry going or puts on music, heads to her office, lights the candles, turns on all the lamps, and gets cozy so she can start working.

That’s a personal brand right there.

Through what she just described, there are clear themes: She’s a mom. She owns a home. She has a dog. She romanticizes her life and makes her space cozy and comfortable.

It might feel boring to her because that’s what she does every day, but it’s interesting for other people to be a part of.

You don’t have to record all of this every single day, but let’s walk through what it could look like…

When you’re making your iced coffee, you could flip the camera around and talk about what you’re doing that day. Or you could show the iced coffee with text on screen that says, “Always making my iced coffee in this glass before taking the kids to school.”

One of the biggest content hacks is that you’re documenting what you’re already doing versus trying to create content. Chelsea doesn’t wake up and think, “What should I put on my stories today?” She just captures little slices of her day that bring people behind the scenes or let her have a quick conversation.

There’s no magic switch that turns you into a content creator. You just have to practice. Set a daily alarm on your phone. When it goes off, take one photo and one quick video of whatever you’re doing.

Documenting makes your content uncopyable. No one else has your exact life, your family, your favorite spots, or your client stories.

The Lifestyle Over Transactions Approach to Real Estate Marketing

Gone are the days where you could say, “You should move now, the rates are amazing.”

Most people who own a home aren’t moving because it’s a really good deal for them right now but because they’re looking for a lifestyle change.

Right now, people are sitting at home weighing the risk. They really want a bigger kitchen. They really want more space to entertain. They really want a basement or an extra bedroom for their kid. But they’re also going to be paying $500 more a month, so they’re doing that calculation in their head, trying to decide if it’s worth it.

This is the time, if ever, to really lean into the lifestyle of your home. And you don’t have to have a beautiful, perfect home to do that. Just show the little things you do to make your home more cozy. Show your go-to dish that you always make when you invite people over. Show what life actually looks like in your house.

People consume your content and think to themselves, “I want that.” And then subconsciously they start to think, “If I just bought a house with her help, my house would be like that.”

Chelsea saw a post from a guy she went to high school with. He posted: “I had a big dream at a time when I felt so small in the world. I remember telling my grandma one day that I’d own my own home, and today I get to keep that promise.” He was standing in front of his house with balloons spelling the word HOME.

That’s how people are feeling. Maybe it’s not a first home, but they’re excited to finally give their kids their own rooms. They’re excited to finally live only five minutes from grandma and grandpa.

If we can start using words that people actually think, your business will explode because people will be like, “Yes, you get me.”

The Magic Venn Diagram for Finding Your Brand’s Sweet Spot

Draw a Venn diagram. In one circle, put things you love. Your take on real estate. The way you work behind the scenes of your business. Where you go in town. Your hobbies. Your routines.

In the other circle, put the person you would love to sell their house, the person you would love to get more referrals from, the person you would love to help buy their next house.

The intersection in the middle is the magic middle. That’s where you can get your messaging so clear that people think, “Okay, this is for me.”

People want to work with people they like. People want to work with people they relate to and trust. You can’t just be the fun mom who knows nothing about real estate but people hire you because you’re nice. No. You still need to be an expert. You’re still professional. You take your business seriously. You obsess over your client experience. All those things are a prerequisite.

But people want to work with someone they feel comfortable with. And in order for them to feel comfortable, they have to like you.

Think about when you go to a party. You’re not going to sit there and talk about all the houses you sold this year. You’re just going to talk about regular life, just like you should do in social media.

The goal is: “I’m here to connect.“

How to Define Your Personal Brand

Chelsea does this exercise before recording podcast episodes:

Open a Google doc or grab your Notes app, and start writing down what you did this morning and last night. Write down some thoughts in your head, how you’re feeling.

Chelsea, for instance, wrote down that she felt guilty because her son started a winter play group, and she thought she was going to take him, but the timing didn’t work ou,t so her mom took him. She felt guilty even though she was doing something she loves (recording the podcast).

Look at what you wrote down. A lot of that stuff, you can simply document.

As you journal these things, think: Which one of the things I wrote down feels really doable, feels like me, feels easy to share?

You don’t want to pick something like, “Come with me to Africa,” because you’re going one time. That’s not your brand. You probably don’t travel every single week if you’re a real estate agent. Could you share when you travel? Sure. But is that your brand? Probably not.

Chelsea thought about a creator she follows who kind of talked about being anti-personal brand. But this creator would show her morning routine, working out, reading her Bible, journaling. Chelsea was like, “But you do have a personal brand. You’re literally showing us your personal brand!”

That’s why Chelsea connects with her. It’s not just because she’s an expert at something but because they’re both moms living this mom-business life. They both go to church. There are so many commonalities.

Those teeny little things resonate, and then people remember them, and they’re like, “Okay, I agree with those things. I want to follow someone who does this.”

Every agent in your town has the same stats and market data. So why would they listen to you talk about those things? They need a reason beyond the data.

Pass the Wine Test

Here’s a simple test for your content: the wine test. Or the coffee test. Or the beer test.

If someone looked at your current social media, from what you put on stories and what’s in your feed, would they ever want to reach out and ask you to grab a glass of wine?

Or does it feel more robotic? Like this is just your place to post things, your billboard?

If you’re like, “No, there’s no way they’d reach out about that,” then that’s where you need to start implementing some of this real-life stuff.

When you’re creating content, think: Would this make someone reach out and say, “Let’s go get coffee?” Not literally asking if they’d want coffee with you, but does it feel human?

Think about that Venn diagram and the magic middle. Is there an intersection between the things you love and share about real estate and the person you want to sell more houses to?

What lifestyle are they craving? What home features are they looking for? Where do they hang out in your town? How can you start talking about that stuff?

That’s how you’re going to pass the wine test. Someone’s going to be like, “I could see myself grabbing a glass of wine with her.” And that’s instant trust.

When you have that, you’re so much closer to converting people into future clients. No one’s just going to message you anymore because you have a list of houses for sale. Everyone has a list of houses for sale.

But when they trust you, and you’re talking about houses in a particular neighborhood, and then you drop a question sticker saying, “Hey, do you want a list of homes for sale in this neighborhood?” they’re probably going to want you to give it to them.

We can’t skip the personal brand and go straight to the strategy. The personal brand comes first, and that’s what makes the strategy work.

In a World of AI, Authenticity Is Your Superpower

Adam Mosseri recently posted something really important about AI and the future of Instagram. He said:

“Authenticity is becoming a scarce resource, driving more demand for creator content, not less. The bar is shifting from can you create to can you make something that only you could create?”

In a world where everything can be perfected, imperfection becomes a signal.

We talked about this recently: when you see an imperfection in a piece of content, a misspelled word, someone clearly not reading from a script, it feels so refreshing. There’s so much that’s overly produced that it feels boring.

Adam also said: “Flattering imagery is cheap to produce and boring to consume. People want content that feels real. Savvy creators are leaning into unproduced, unflattering images.”

This doesn’t mean being unprofessional. But it means rawness isn’t just an aesthetic preference anymore. It’s proof. It’s saying, “This is real because it’s imperfect.”

If you feel like you’re not good at designing graphics, editing videos, or all the fancy stuff? You are in the best place possible.

AI will not build a personal brand. It can’t. Even if it can make a video of you or make you look pretty, it cannot build relationships.

Relationships and conversations are what actually build your personal brand. In order to have conversations, you have to show up as imperfect, real, human you.

Ask yourself: Could anyone else create this? If the answer is no, you’re good.

This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz.