Between the boob sweat, brain fog, and “wait, what day is it?” summer chaos, marketing right now might feel like you’re clawing your way to the finish line, but it doesn’t have to feel that way.
In this episode, Chelsea and Kayla are breaking down what “easy” really means when it comes to social media marketing during the summer. They’re sharing the decide-once strategy that saves your brain for bigger decisions, why your camera roll is a content goldmine you’re probably ignoring, and how to create a signature series that makes you the agent people can’t stop talking about.
All without spending hours on CapCut or stressing about the perfect carousel, of course!
What Does “Easy” Really Mean?
Let’s be clear about something… When we say “easy,” we’re not talking about effortless. Easy still requires action on your part but it’s focused and intentional.
Think about it like this: watching football players throw, tackle, and catch looks effortless, right? But they can do it because they’ve put in the practice and they have a strategy.
The same thing applies to marketing. Some of our friends say, “I don’t know how you can talk on a podcast or put your face on camera.” But it’s easy for us because it aligns with our personalities, we’re used to it, and we’ve done it a billion times!
So when we ask “if this was easy, what would it look like?” that answer is going to be different for everybody.
You have to think about what comes naturally to you, what feels good, but also how you can put in the reps to make it feel that way.
When Chelsea first started doing live videos, she was terrified. But she’s always loved teaching — every year when her mom asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she wrote “teacher.” That passion overpowered her fear. By the fifth live video, that fear was completely gone, but it never would have disappeared if she hadn’t kept doing it.
Kayla brought up something she read in the book “Wealthy and Well-Known” by Rory and AJ Vaden: People look to be creative by looking at what other people are doing but really, the thing that makes you unique is in you. So instead of looking from the outside in, look from the inside out. That’s your secret sauce.
Your version of easy is waiting for you — you just have to stop looking everywhere else for it.
What Your Ideal Saturday Says About You (And Your Clients)
One of the best questions you can ask as a real estate agent is “What is your ideal Saturday?”
You can use this for:
Your content strategy: Your ideal Saturday gives you a peek into what type of content feels authentic to your brand.
Your client connections: When you ask buyers and sellers this question, it tells you how they spend their time and how you can relate to them. Someone who wants to be home all day gardening might want a nice yard. Someone who loves farmer’s markets and lunch dates probably wants to live closer to all the action.
Instead of just asking price range and timeline, you’re digging into their lifestyle; it helps you customize your experience to what they’re actually looking for.
Stop Trying to Do Everything Yourself
A couple years ago, Kayla hired a cleaning lady to come every other week. At first, she felt guilty because she works from home. But the very first time the cleaner came, Kayla had a closing that morning and made $10,000. She thought, “That was a much better use of my time than staying home scrubbing toilets.”
One of her friends recently hired the same cleaning lady and said, “I was so much nicer to my family that whole weekend because my house was clean.”
Time is money, and everything you add to your calendar is taking away from something else.
Whether that’s hiring someone to fix your yard, outsourcing your home cleaning, or joining Modern Agent Social Club for your marketing — it’s about working smarter, not harder.
The Tools You Already Have Are Better Than Any New App
How many times have we overlooked the tools we already have? Kayla bought a robot vacuum years ago, quit using it when it kept getting stuck under the new couch, then realized: “All I have to do is set up a little barrier and it can at least do my kitchen. It’s either going to collect dust in my pantry or help me collect dust in my house.”
People think they need buyer guides, postcards, and flyers to start their business. But really they could just grab their phone and start making themselves known today.
That’s literally how Kayla grew her business. She sat on her couch every morning with four kids crawling all over her and posted her way to closings. Not only did she get closings, but those people immediately turned around and told someone else about her.
But Kayla just “got” social media, right? Wrong. At one point, she had to learn it and do the work. You’re not too old, too late, too slow, or too anti-social media. You can do it too!
Want something really easy? Go to your camera roll right now. Find 10 photos from your summer — a mix of business, personal, and local. Post it and share “my summer camera roll as a [city name] realtor.” It lets people get to know you, and you literally did nothing except take that picture at some point.
You don’t need fancy equipment or professional photos. You don’t need a new app or scheduling system. When you’re ready to post something, just post it.
The Decide-Once Strategy That Saves Your Brain Calories
As humans, we make so many decisions every single day we get decision fatigue. That’s why we love the Lazy Genius method: decide once. Make a decision one time, and that’s your thing.
For Kayla, this looked like school lunches. Almost every single day, her kids got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, maybe an apple, crackers, and a juice box. Her goal wasn’t to create the most nutritious meal of their day. Her goal was to not have to think about it at all.
Another example: Sunday nights are popcorn and strawberries. That’s literally dinner. Her kids love it.
So how can you decide once in your marketing?
Maybe you decide that from now until school starts, you’re only posting twice a week — and maybe one of those carousels is a signature series (more on this up next).
You’re going to decide once and stick with it for a period of time. This saves you from decision fatigue and helps you get clear on your goals.
But won’t people think I’m lazy?
The only reason people think simple meals are not OK is because they’re scrolling social media. They see parents making fancy lunches with fruit cut into shapes and sandwiches that look like bears. Those people are probably lifestyle bloggers whose entire business is documenting their life on every level.
Chelsea and Mark started doing “theme nights” — Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday. She loves tacos, so why not have them every Tuesday? They repeat the same meals over and over.
The point is you find ways to decide once, and you stop apologizing for it.
Why You Should Create a Signature Series
One of our favorite and most effective strategies is to pick one thing that you repeat. We call it a signature series, something you can repeat over and over that you come to be known for.
One example that works well for carousels is weekly homeowner tips that are fun and personal. For example…
- “Get a tomato basil candle from Anthropologie to make your house smell like a Nancy Meyers movie”
- A playlist recommendation
- Fresh flower styling ideas
- Your personal favorite home item
Chelsea does this with Modern Agent Confidential. She has categories that stay essentially the same, like “what to post this week.” It’s simplified her content creation a hundred times over because she’s not reinventing the wheel every week.
For local content, you could do “[City Name] Go-To of the Week.” One week it’s the post office, the next it’s ice cream, then the hardware store.
When you give yourself a routine for your content, it becomes easy and gets fun. You’re giving yourself that thing to repeat while pulling your personality in. Having fun with your content is what makes it exciting for people to consume without being hard for you to create.
Why Your Email List Should Do the Heavy Lifting
We love posting on Instagram, but all of us know that the majority of our followers are not going to see the majority of our posts. Sometimes it does feel like throwing spaghetti at the wall.
But if you want to get really good ROI on your marketing efforts, send an email. Every time you send an email, whoever signed up is going to see your name in their inbox. They might not open every single one, but they’re still being reminded: “Oh, that’s Chelsea, she’s an agent.”
When you send emails, you’re not just sharing interest rates or homeowner tips. You’re sending stories, relatability, personality.
Here’s how simple this can be: Go to Canva today and make a one-page PDF: “Five Things to Do Before School Starts in [Your City].” Then go to Flodesk and create a landing page in literally less than 30 seconds. Talk about it all the time for the next two weeks.
Guarantee you could get at least 25 people on your email list. Those 25 people are signing up because they already like you, trust you, and want what you have.
If they start getting an email from you every other week, and you have even a remotely interesting subject line, those 25 people are probably going to forward your email to at least one friend or talk about it at dinner.
Remember that only 15% of the people you know will move in the next 12 months, but 100% of the people you know will know someone moving in the next 12 months. So those 25 people will all know someone who’s moving. Are they going to remember to say your name when the topic comes up?
That’s how you grow a business on a flywheel, not a hamster wheel.
Why Trends Don’t Convert to Clients
Stop chasing trends and start building trust.
Chelsea heard this on a podcast recently: “AI will replace imitators.” If you’re building your business by rephrasing what others say, jumping on all the trends, modeling others without understanding the strategy, AI is probably doing that better.
Here’s what to do instead…
Think of your Instagram feed like a storefront and your stories like walking inside the store. Someone finds you through a reel or local post, looks at your feed, and decides whether to follow. Your stories are where they get a feel for what your account is all about.
Once a week in your stories, talk about how someone can get on your email list for even better content (because that’s where conversion happens). That doesn’t require chasing trends or posting every single day.
Focus your time and energy on the things that move the needle, not on keeping up with everyone else on Instagram.
You’re the Only One Who Can Make Your Business Grow
There’s a quote from James Clear that Kayla has on her desk:
“Reduce the scope, stick to the schedule.”
Maybe you just have too much on your plate. Maybe you’re overwhelmed, or maybe you’re just hot and can’t take the summer boob sweat anymore.
Whatever the case may be, reduce the scope. Only put the things on your marketing plate that are actually going to grow your business — one post, some stories, your email. Then just stick to the schedule.
No one else woke up this morning thinking, “I wonder how I can make [your name]’s business grow.” You’re the only one who woke up with your business on your mind. And while that might feel like pressure, it’s actually the most empowering thing ever — because it means you get to decide exactly how this goes.
Instagram Stories: Your Simple Starting Point
Instagram stories are a huge piece of making marketing both easy and effective. If Instagram stories weren’t a thing, Chelsea wouldn’t love Instagram nearly as much. Stories are actually her favorite way to show up!
If you have something you want people to know — someone asked you a question today and you wish more people knew the answer — get on your stories and just share it. It doesn’t need to be perfectly mapped out content. The people seeing it are your warm people who already know and trust you.
Chelsea is big on creating a repeatable story routine. Maybe every Wednesday you share a behind-the-scenes day, and somewhere throughout that day you pop in with: “Hey, if you’re ready to start the conversation about selling, here’s what it looks like.”
Give them a one-slide overview: “We meet at a coffee shop, it’s 30 minutes, I answer these questions.” Then invite them to take action by dropping their email in a question sticker — something super easy, low barrier entry.
Do this every week. It might feel redundant to you, but we’re consuming social media in the midst of a million other things. We can’t expect people to see something once and remember it.
Through repetition, you’re training your followers on what to say about you. When real estate comes up at dinner, you want to be the agent they’re talking about.
This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz.
