From a Million Views to Million-Dollar Listings: Fontine’s Early Retirement Plan | Ep 231 with Fontine Da Luz

0:00Fantine, I'm super excited because something that you're doing that I think every business leader, owner, they need to understand is how to market correctly on social media, but not specifically. specifically the company and you've garnered over 11 million views i've seen tons of your videos i've laughed harder than i have with many other people that i've watched when it comes to the comedy side and normally they're in comedy but you're in real estate so you're using social media and comedy to sell million dollar homes how did this come about well this was an accident actually so we were looking at how we could scale my business because before I was using a marketing team and it wasn't producing any results.

0:48However, I'm still spending money. We're not spending, it's more of an investment, but I wasn't seeing a return on my investment. So we pivoted from doing these basic videos into just something that I really love to put out because I think it's funny. It's just me being myself and I want to mix education with humor because nobody wants to watch a realtor talk about real estate you need to make it entertaining for people you need to put in metaphors where people can actually break down the information and kind of associate it with something else like when I do my buy presentations and my listing presentations I always use analogies and metaphors so that people can connect it with something.

1:31So if you do, like, for example, I used to when I do my buyer presentations, and it's a guy, or a girl, and they're single, I'm like, okay, well, a contingency in real estate is kind of like dating, you want to see if there's red flags, you don't want to go in non-contingent, have them meet your mom, and then you find out they have five kids and that they're broke and that they have no morals. So a contingency period is where you're kind of vetting out your date, your spouse. Yeah. So, you know, it makes it easy for people to understand and they'll actually learn something from it. So it's not just educational, but it's a way for people to actually be able to process and remember the information that you're giving them.

2:18I noticed that your content had changed drastically over the last few months, which has obviously turned into this huge reach that you're getting and you're connecting with a lot of people. Can you break down what went into the thought process of this is what I'm doing, maybe what's working, what's not? And then how did I get from A to Z? Well, I just took a huge risk. Actually, a lot of people told me not to post those videos, except my marketing team. So I love them, Focus Media. And it just was by complete accident. So So we did a take on like a, what is it? It's like, it's kind of a trend where everybody was saying, oh, my name isn't this.

3:04I don't even know how to do this. My name is X and I do this. So it was kind of that format, but I just did Ling Ling because I've been called Ling Ling before. So I thought that was funny and that blew up. And I thought, okay, well, how do I make leads out of this? How do I generate leads from this? And then I just kept doing more Ling Ling, but with real estate lessons embedded into the videos. And it's crazy because people actually text me and tell me that Ling Ling has taught them about real estate because they'll actually sit and watch a video of Ling Ling explaining it. They won't sit and watch a video of, I don't know, let's say like a boring average realtor talking about real estate, which I did before.

3:53It's very interesting. You created a character and that character is now educating people, making them laugh. And I feel like social media now, if you want to stand out, comedy seems to be something that is massive. It really resonates. It seems like virality speaking, if you're not like dancing to some dance trend music, you got to be doing comedy. And that really resonates with people. So what went through your mind in terms of you put this out there? Obviously, it sounds like people said, hey, maybe don't do it. Maybe you are nervous. How did you get over the fact of, you know, maybe the comments or things that might have come in that could have been negative?

4:32I just, I didn't care. Honestly, I really didn't care because people are going to hate on you until it works. So in my mind, I thought, okay, well, they're going to tell me this, but then when it blows up, now they're going to support me. And that's exactly what happened. because people want to hit on something that they've never done or will ever try to do. And then when you do it and then it actually produces results, now they're going to tell you that they supported you and they actually doubted you. And that's just because they doubted they doubt themselves. So, I mean, in my mind, it was either this is going to work and I'm going to become viral and I'm going to generate tons of leads from this or it's just another video online, which is okay with me because, I mean, people's attention spans are extremely low.

5:21Even if it was a complete disaster, who cares? Everybody's going to forget about it the next day. That is true. We have no attention span. We do forget in five minutes. And there's so many, the media moves so fast in all forms of media that happened yesterday or this morning. so how did you take all this viewership the traction and then translate that into sales leads something related to the business well i started getting tons of dms about real estate so i trained my assistant divine to start filtering everybody out so now when you text me you'll get automated uh text message with um how to buy how to sell um actually i do um private equity funding for people as well.

6:07So for startup companies, so I not only help you with the funding, but also help you find a place where you can have your startup company help the main, you know, office address. And I mean, I could just show you it's, it's really simple. But it's really easy for you to book an appointment. And then when people start booking appointments with me, I noticed that because they already see my videos, they're more authentic, they're, they feel more comfortable because they don't feel like they have to walk on eggshells. They want to work with me because they like me. But then when we get on the call, I'm very professional and I actually handle all their problems.

6:42I have a listing presentation. I have a buyer presentation. Even a couple of family offices reach out to me. So then I was like, hey, this is what I have. I've done larger scale transactions. I'm very well versed in this. And the X, Y, and Z, I showed them my Excel. And I'm always open to collaborating. so I mean you number one you have to like the person you're working with number two you have to trust them so this is already me getting my foot in the door okay you like me all right okay great here are ways you can get in contact with me there's also a link tree where actually I need to change that but there's a link tree where you can read an article about me that someone published And there's also my references, my reviews, pretty much all of my edifications are there.

7:30So, you know, you like me, you see the results, book a call. Now we're here. Yeah. Yeah. It reminds me of. So we had Ryan Sorhan on and he, you know, he he's like the most followed real estate agent in the world on social media. And I foresee this as being and I thought it was interesting. I'm like, wow, social. And he's doing like Netflix. He's doing a lot of different media that then translates into the business. And I like the fact that your approach is very unique and different. And the fact that you've leveraged that almost from the beginning. So, I mean, sky's the limit. How do you see this in a few years time into all the things that you're working on?

8:10Okay, my goal is to be pretty much retired by 25. So, I won't have to work if I want to. I already have two buyer agents that are working with me and I have a listing coordinator. And it's just because I'm getting so many leads off social media and they're from all over the world, which is crazy to me because I've had somebody in Canada, as somebody in the Netherlands, as somebody in Puerto Rico, ask me for real estate advice instead of asking their local expert. And I was like, OK, well, I need to go find a real estate agent out there. But the good thing is with Intero, it's so easy for me to find a referral partner.

8:48So I just put it in. I'm able to help them. Like Illinois, I had somebody want to buy and sell their house in Illinois and relocate over here. I had somebody in Texas. A lot of people in Texas want to sell their house and move over here. And they found me on social media. And I think within a couple of years, I'm going to just keep building a team and automate everything so that there's systems in place, which I'm already building. And ideally, I would like to start focusing on the higher scale things, which is what I'm transitioning to and maybe pivot towards commercial or like the higher end homes like in Menlo Park, in Palo Alto, in the peninsula area.

9:32But my passion has just been making people money. So that's why I really like the larger scale transactions like hotels, shopping plazas, and like 300 plus multi units, because when you're helping people make money, they're really happy. They'll always do business with you. It's always good when you can help people make money. So you might become the next most followed on social media real estate agent, you might be Ryan soon. So when it comes to looking at the platforms that you're putting your attention to or focusing on, it used to be like, Like Gary Vee told us when he was on that, you know, you got to go everywhere and you got to do this.

10:10I don't know if that's the same anymore because that was a few years ago. But what we're finding a lot of the people that we've talked to, they're hyper focusing now on like one platform. How do you see that when it comes to where are you putting the content? Mostly on Instagram, but I also I also put the same content on Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube as well. but I feel like there's different strategies like Facebook and Instagram they're owned by the same company but they're different the algorithm is completely different because on Instagram you have trial reels LinkedIn you want to be a little bit more professional so my videos don't hit as well on LinkedIn YouTube my video YouTube shorts my videos perform fairly well but for the long long form style content that's a completely different ball game and ballpark than Instagram reels because yeah it's just a different algorithm for each of them so I think being hyper focused on one social media platform and then spreading your content words is the best way to do it yeah that makes sense do you find you get the most leads and conversations that might lead into business from Instagram?

11:22Instagram and LinkedIn. So people will see my sales on LinkedIn and then DM me. Are you doing the same content? Like, are you doing the comedy style content on LinkedIn? I am. But it's crazy to me. But I'm also having my assistant target people. So I have her add a lot of probate attorneys. I have her add a lot of family offices. I have her add trust attorneys as well. So she'll just, that's one of her tasks every day. I should just add more people. And then, you know, it's a hit or miss either like me or don't like me, which is, you know, I can't please everybody. But the people that think my content is funny, they always reach out.

11:58And these are people that I'm targeting. And they want to work with me. It's amazing, because a lot of people talk about, you know, algorithm changed, or it's harder to reach more people like it was before. A lot of people always complain about or talk about. I mean, I feel it myself that, you know, reach isn't always as easy as it was back then. But it sounds like if you if you really create this character or you create this persona, you create this style that resonates with a lot of people, no matter what the algorithm does, they will still remain. Are you finding that as you're going that people that you were talking to before, are they continuing to reach out?

12:39Are you building more long-term relationships? Yes, definitely. The people that have known me when I've done real estate when I was 18, see my videos. A lot of them support it. They think it's funny. And it's also a way for me to pretty much follow up, if you will, without me texting them because they'll just see me on their Instagram every week posting this content. And then they'll text me like, oh Fonte I thought that video was so funny and then it leads into a conversation like oh how are you it's like oh uh I'm great uh you know then you know they knew I do real estate I helped them before so then it's like oh yeah actually some blah blah blah is looking to buy a house it makes me think that I have to create maybe I should start interviewing people in a character I think I might do that I'm come over a persona because it's hard to separate yourself among the pack of so many people talking about the same thing but i really like this idea of creating a persona character and mixing in comedy with education i think i would imagine if you looked at stats like the people that watch your videos watch probably much longer than if somebody is just doing education right um that doesn't do absolutely correct because i started off the first three months of me using that marketing team and working with them I had only a thousand views and they were very professional and it was just me talking about real estate and yeah I mean even I mean right now they're a little bit more I mean but here I'll just show you these are my more professional videos they only have 5 ,000 views that was just from December big change so lastly what if you know i'm thinking about doing something another business owner is thinking about doing something we're all like yeah we our instagram kind of stinks you know i wanted i want to ramp it up i want to change what advice do you have for me that i should be thinking about right now in order for me to up level i would just say be yourself be authentic and just stop caring so much about what other people think because I promise you they don't care and even if it doesn't perform the way you want it to perform just keep trying because I mean I didn't get results from for like three months and then my video just blew up and that video was actually just me being myself that was the video that wasn't scripted it was just me being myself and making a stupid joke but people connected that connected more with that than you having a formal script and actually educating them in a formal way because when people do business they're going to do business with you so you should just be yourself i really like that so the being authentic being yourself not overthinking i think we overthink the internet we want the script we want to look like ai now so we need to be human perfect we need to be ourselves and and don't seek perfection uh this has been great people want to get in touch with you let's say they want to buy real estate they want to follow your social how can they do so uh well my instagram is fontaine f-o-n-t-i-n-e uh the realtor and you can also get in touch with me through my email and that's going to be fontaine deluz so f-o-n-t-i-n-e d-a-l-u-z at intero.com.

16:08Fantine Deleuze, this has been great. Every day I see your videos, I have to laugh. And the fact that you're doing it, plus working in a business and combining the two, I think is extremely unique. It's one of the few. That's why when I saw it, I'm like, I really want to talk to you about this because I feel like this is a massive miss for a lot of business owners out there, a lot of entrepreneurs. They can really learn from this and it can really up level. I mean, basically it's like a, a, a very low cost, a way to market. Cause you're not running like millions of dollars of ads. You're making these videos, which is like, you know, anyone can do it with, I imagine like, you know, you got some costume stuff, whatever they want to do, but it's a low cost way that almost anyone can do.

16:52And once they hit and go viral, it could change their life. But, uh, fine team, this has been amazing and thank you for joining us on founder story of course thank you for having me