Katie Lance here, founder and CEO of Katie Lance Consulting, the Get Social Smart Academy and author of the book, Get Social Smart. And I’m so excited we have a very special show for you today. I am thrilled to be interviewing my dear friend, Eddie Campos. For those of you who don’t know Eddie, Eddie has been a licensed Realtor since 2005 with ReMax Preferred Associates. And since becoming licensed, he has helped over 450 families buy and sell homes in Northwest Ohio totalling over $70 million in real estate value. He’s also one of our Get Social Smart Ambassadors. He’s a dear friend, and we are going to talk to him today a little bit about his journey, business, social media, and more so welcome Eddie to the show.
Katie, how are you? Thanks for having me.
Absolutely. We’re so excited to have you here today. So let’s go ahead and dive in for people who may not know you let’s give people a sense of who you are, what your business looks like. How long have you been in business, all that, all that good stuff.
Well, I guess I’ll go back a little bit further than I normally do. I actually started in the building supply business when I was 18 years old and I progressively grew through the company. It was a family run company, and I actually got to the point where I was executive vice president and I was in the great position of credit and collections. Doesn’t that sound like fun. Oh boy. It was, it was treacherous now. I was good at it. I definitely did not like it. So I made some drastic changes. I took that leap of faith, and got into real estate and I absolutely loved it. I wish I would’ve started that when I was 18, rather than going in the direction that I did. So I really feel like this was an opportunity for me to fulfill something that was just better for me, better for my soul, my spirit.
And, uh, it’s been great. So in 2005 is when I became licensed and, um, I had made some nice progress and then all of a sudden the recession starts, uh, had some setbacks. There had a lot of things going on and then all of a sudden start to gain some more progress. And you know, just not too long ago, probably four or five years ago is when I first started watching you and following you. And, and I hired you as a consultant, so I can try to make some major improvements in my social media game so I can try to better connect with people. And, uh, it, it went really well. And I think social media has done a great job for me to be able to help not only increase my business, but to also make that better connection with people. Um, and then most recently my, my business has done very, very well.
So obviously the market is, is, uh, has a little bit to do with that right now, right? And my social media game is very consistent now, which was one of the main things that I was missing when I first started to jump into social media even more. So today I have a transaction coordinator and I also have a marketing director. John oversees all of my social media. He oversees what’s happening with brochures and videos and, and photographs for my listings. And I started to notice most recently though, that I started to become a little bit more disconnected on my social media from a personal standpoint. And I know that’s something that we talk about a lot. You talk about a lot is that, you know, getting the real you out in front of people, especially for those people that don’t know you and the consistency of my social media game was great.
The content was great. I still have my Coffee with Eddie series where I interview local leaders in the community. Uh, that’s done very well. I continually do that. I started something else most recently called in and around Maumee. So I live in little Maumee, Ohio, which is right next to Toledo. And I interview people that are in the community that are small businesses. And this started because as we were determined to be essential workers, I started to also feel a little bit guilty. I go to, you know, the chamber of commerce. I talk with other friends and there are other businesses that just had been significantly impacted, uh, you know, case in point a good friend of mine who runs one of the local, uh, halls that’s used for not only the chamber of commerce, but for weddings and parties. You know, he went from doing somewhere around 400 events a year to almost nothing.
And for us to be, you know, essential workers, what, what a huge blessing, first of all, for myself and my family and everybody else, but at the same time, it’s like, gosh, I kind of feel a little bit guilty about what we’re able to accomplish. And so many other people weren’t. So I started to doing these little highlights with small area, locally owned businesses, to see what they’re doing. What’s their origin story, what are they offering? How do people reach out to them? So if it’s a restaurant, you know, are they using Uber eats? Are they having pickup and delivery? You know, what’s going on in their world and trying to get a little bit of, you know, their personality out into the public and try to get some, uh, social media loves so to speak to them and it’s done well, but I’m not talking to the camera anymore, myself and discussing real estate.
So I did a little bit of self-awareness over the past couple of weeks and felt, you know what, maybe I’m missing the boat a little bit. Things are going well, but maybe there’s some things I need to change. And, you know, listening to your podcast and also paying attention closely to a couple of things that have on your Coffee with Katie’s, uh, really struck a chord with me. And I thought, you know what? There’s some things that I’m starting to, I guess, for lack of a better word, slack on the need to make some improvements with.
Yeah. I love that. You talked about that and I know you and I had emailed, you know, before this, this interview and I, I wrote down what you, what you said, you said to me recently, if you want to succeed, you need to be self-aware and a little critical of yourself and ask, am I doing enough? Am I doing what needs to be done? Um, and I, and I love that, you know, you are someone on one of the reasons I wanted to chat with you and for all of our listeners, you know, I, I definitely would encourage that. You check out some of the content that Eddie is, is putting out there. And it really resonated with me. Eddie was like you said, during the pandemic, and even before that, you were really shining the light on so many great people in your local community from, you know, business leaders to all different types of, uh, folks in your industry. And so having a little bit of that self-reflection, um, I, I think is, I think it’s great. I think it’s really important.
Yeah. And I, I’m sure you and Paul go through those moments as well, where it’s like, you know, what, is there something that we can change? Is there something we can improve upon? You know, whether it’s technology or content, you know, I just want to be as good as I possibly can. My overall goal is to someday be the number one agent in North Ohio. And if I’m going to accomplish something that grand, I need to constantly constantly be looking at, you know, what is getting me to the next rung on the ladder and, and what else can I be doing to make improvements of that? Uh, so I can reach these goals.
Absolutely. So I would love to kind of dive into a little bit of what you do with your marketing, from video to social media. Um, can you kind of maybe give us a little bit of a sneak peek behind the scenes? Do you have a, obviously a marketing manager, which is awesome. Do you have a, uh, like a calendar that you’re working on or do you find a lot of stuff that just kind of happens in the moment? Or is it a little bit of both?
Yeah. Well, it’s a little bit of both. I’d say mostly it’s 80% calendar. So that’s something that, you know, you introduced to me when I first started following you and we have a calendar that we go by. So the mainstay of the calendar is the things that are going on in, um, my business, as far as new listings coming soon under contract it’s, it’s going to appraisal. Uh, it’s putting the walkthrough videos on, uh, on social media. Um, in addition to that, we created something within my social media calendar that goes out every week. That’s just called what’s up mommy. And we want to put some information out there that just helps connect to me again with the people in the community by, Hey, did you remember at summer fairs this coming weekend? Oh, by the way, we didn’t have fireworks last year. We’ve got fireworks this year, um, and trying to help put some good information out to people. Um, and where I think I’ve lacked in that area is trying to put more real estate content out there, whether it’s my opinion about what’s going on on the news, uh, what the latest numbers are, uh, uh, situations that I’ve I’ve had with inspections, things that can continue to connect me with the public that still say, Oh, the trade Eddie, he’s a realtor. He’s not just interviewing the Lucas County auditor. He is actually in the business.
Right. I think sometimes we can go down so much of the rabbit hole of community content that we gotta, we gotta tie it back, right. Even if it’s a simple call to action of who you are and, and, and, uh, but layering in additional, you know, like you said, content and information about what’s happening in the market and your opinion. I love that you said that.
Yeah. I, I think that has a lot of value and that kind of struck a chord with me not too long ago. And maybe it was actually this past weekend, I was re listening to one of your podcasts where you spoke about how our opinion matters. And even in situations like with black lives matter or in politics, how, I mean, it’s a little scary to step out onto the ice on those arenas, because you have the possibility of offending 50% of your audience. Right. And I don’t know that anybody really wants to do that. So it takes a lot of courage and a lot of conviction and just know who you are, but at the same time, as you stated, it’s like, maybe you’re going to gain some people that didn’t realize where you stood on some of these things. So I’m going to slowly continue to make, you know, make some baby steps in that arena.
But at the same time, make sure that I’m putting myself out there a little bit more, as far as real estate is concerned, because it could be easy to be scared of possible criticism that may come back, somebody comments, um, another realtor’s comments, all that’s not the right way to do that. You know? So I, you know, there, there could be a little bit of fear about that kind of thing, right. So I, I’m going to make sure that I can just be more out there in front of people. And one of the things that, uh, I remember hearing you say many times is just take the challenge of making at least one video a day where it’s just you talking to social media, it’s you talking to the camera and getting that information out to people no matter what it is so that people can help connect with you. So that’s, that’s my goal now is to reintroduce that into my social media calendar.
I think that’s great, you know, cause I see you do a lot of videos that are, you know, well-produced, well-organized, you know, whether it’s your coffee with Eddie, uh, which I absolutely love, I don’t have a little bias because I do coffee with Katie instead of our Academy. So I’m a little biased with that, but I love that. I love all the interviews that you’ve done, but there is just something to be said about taking out your phone and doing like a quick Instagram or just a quick kind of impromptu it. I think it really connects with your audience. Um, and uh, in a big, big way.
Yeah. And as a Realtor, they want to know what we’re thinking, especially now with the inventory levels where they’re at, you know, where did this come from? How did this start and how do we get out of it? Do we get out of it? And, and in the meantime, I still want to sell my home. So now what, what, what’s the next step.
Yeah, exactly. What exactly. So are, is there a certain platform you’re spending more time on these days? Are you on Facebook or Instagram or I know you have to, you know, you’re active on YouTube, any particular place that you’re, uh, spending a lot more time these days,
Uh, Facebook is still probably the primary place for me to, uh, to get my content out. I want to do a much better job on Instagram for a long time. I was putting out three or four pieces, at least in Instagram stories. I’m not sure why, I guess just busy-ness, you know, business has increased and I just didn’t think about it anymore. And I actually got a lot of connections through that. And I think you, I don’t know if it was yesterday or the day before. I just heard you talking about that very thing. And, and you know, in the content you put out, you know, where do you make a connection? Where do you get the most bang for your buck? And then you brought up Instagram stories and it’s like, you know, I missed the boat there. I really used to do a lot of stuff. And I used to get a lot of attention there and now I’m really not putting a whole lot there. So that’s on the stepping stone to improve on, but LinkedIn has actually been a really good source as well.
Hm. So you’re, you’re making a lot of, um, are you connecting with other agents or, um, prospects or clients or a little bit of both?
Uh, I’m noticing that I’m getting a lot of connection from other people in the community, especially with my Coffee, with Eddie series. Um, and I can keep the LinkedIn content a little bit on half full when it comes to just sold or just listed. And I keep it more of the community, more of, Hey, by the way, Amazon has come to town, Hey, by the way, Amazon just brought their airline into Toledo express airport and trying to help bring some of the positivity what’s going on in our community. And, um, just making sure that, um, I’m speaking correctly to that, to that audience. Cause I don’t know that they necessarily want to just see just listed, just sold it. And that’s a conversation I’ve heard you have. So I’m taking from what you’ve said and I’m trying to keep that content, I guess, for lack of a better word, more professional. So that that’s the connection I’m making.
So one thing I wanted to ask you just to circle back to your community content, um, I find that a lot of people love this idea of doing community videos, but we’re a lot of people stumble is they think, well, how am I supposed to ask somebody? Or why, why would they say to me or so, you know, it’s sort of that self doubt, right? That’s that fear. And I’ve seen you interview, I’ve seen you interview your mayor. I think I saw you. I think it was like the fire chief or police. You can read some big people in your community. So do you have any advice for people who are just like a little nervous feeling who’s going to talk to me or what would I say, or how would I do that?
One of the best things is to have an introduction to them, uh, having somebody who has a connection, uh, and maybe that’s somebody that I connect with on LinkedIn that, that has definitely happened a couple of times where I noticed that somebody was following me. I took the time to be, to see who that person was, what do they do? Maybe this is somebody I want to try to make it further connection with. And there’s been a couple of opportunities that have presented themselves just because of that connection through LinkedIn. So it provided the introduction to allow me to make the call to somebody and all of a sudden it’s like, Oh, he’s friends with, or he knows. And that was a big help. Um,
So great for that. I feel like that’s such an underutilized area that’s interrupting.
No, absolutely. Well, and that’s exactly what we’re talking about, right? I mean, that’s why, that’s why that platform is so good. So I thought I’d try to borrow from, you know, the things that are going on there to be able to help me improve upon that. Uh, definitely an introduction. And sometimes it’s just being bold enough to just ask. Um, and sometimes you get dead air, you know, you don’t get a response. Um, but what definitely has helped is taking these baby steps in the people that I’ve interviewed. So for example, um, my wife sits on school board for Moni schools. So it was a good connection to be able to go to Todd Kramer. Who’s the school superintendent say, Dr. Kramer, is there any way I can enter interview you on social media? I want to talk about the new school levy and all of a sudden, you know, it was just a, a warm lead, I guess, plus I try to make sure that all the content is about them.
I’m not trying to grill them. I’m not trying to do a gotcha. I’m not trained to do an interview, a news interview. I’m not a news person. I’m a inquisitive citizen. I’m somebody who’s in the community. I want to know more. I need to know more so when it came to the, the school levy that, uh, I discussed with Dr. Kramer, um, it was so enlightening to find out that in the state of Ohio, for example, uh, the state of Ohio has deemed that it takes $6,800 per student to give them an education for a year. But the state of rolling Ohio only gives us $2,700 to do that. Everything is else is expected to come from the community through taxes. So when people in the community say, Oh, well the school system is wasting our money and you know, they’re doing this. It’s like, you don’t understand, you know, they’re saying, Hey, your, your budget is X, but we’re going to give you, Y you make up the difference yourself.
And not only that, one of the other things is there’s a budget that goes towards, uh, helping students. And there’s a budget that’s there for buildings and grounds, and they cannot cross paths in the state of Ohio. If you have a hundred million dollars sitting in the budget to make improvements to the buildings, you can’t use that to offset a deficit that exists when it comes to your students. You know, that’s information. I did not, you know, I had no clue and I’m sure most of the community doesn’t know. So I think the biggest thing was once they realized that it just really wanted to get their message out, especially if it’s something that’s a hot topic, that really was a good way for them to think, you know, all right. I think this feels safe. I don’t know him. You know, I give them some links to other interviews I’ve done.
Um, and with Dr. Kramer, he was really my first big catch, so to speak. So I really did try to just give them everything, you know, my, my connection with my wife, um, Hey, by the name, I know, I know brain Lopez. Shefsky, who’s the fire chief. Who’s married to Michelle, who’s the principal of Fairfield elementary who is in your school, you know, scalp, exactly whatever it takes to get there, you know, how can I get your attention? So I think a, you gotta be a little bold B if you can have an introduction from somebody that helps and see rely upon, you know, some of the things that you’ve already done to be able to give them some comfort that, okay, this is, this is a good person. This is some of somebody it’s not trying to cause me any harm or somebody who’s trying to. Gotcha.
Absolutely. I love that. So as we kind of get to the, uh, you know, the, the end here, I know that you have been in our Academy for quite some time. And I would imagine that there’s some folks who are listening to this going, okay, I really need to do some of these things. Eddie is talking about, uh, you know, maybe there’s some folks who are really trying to figure out, you know, what they’re doing with video with social media, um, is there, is there one or two things that you think you’ve really learned from being a part of the Academy that have made a big difference in your business that you would want to share?
Absolutely. The calendar, it is essential. It helps keep you on task. It’s kind of like a diet. If you’re using the, my fitness pal, do you know that? All right, I got a log in this, I’ve got 2000 calories or 3000 calories to work with and you just have to pay attention what you’re putting into your body. Right. So when it comes to social media, I’m trying to pay attention to what I’m putting out to the community. So that was probably a key factor. And then the other one was to just forget about any inhibitions that I had, any fear that I had, I don’t care how I look. I look the way I am. I can go out into uptown mommy and a thousand people may see me in 15 minutes. I don’t care what they think of me, but all of a sudden I’m in front of a camera.
It’s like, Oh my gosh, you know, my eyebrows need to be trimmed. And, you know, very self-conscious I think, because you’re looking at yourself and it’s just like, I just try to totally forget that other people are just going to be looking at me. I just want to make sure that I’m focusing on getting good content and getting the message out clearly. Uh, just kind of just let it go. And then at the very beginning and a little bit still today, I record it. I put it out and I don’t watch it. I just, I want to get the, just get it out there and forget about it. And then I kind of just get, start paying attention to what the comments are that are coming. It’s like, okay, so the message is getting out there. So every once in a while I will go back and I’ll rewatch some things just to see how they did. And then going back to that, self-awareness, I mean, that’s, that’s something I think you just gotta do. If you want to progress, whether it’s in your marriage or whether your business.
Absolutely. I love that. So if people want to get in contact with you, what is one of the best ways that people can reach you?
Yeah. So on Facebook, it’s Eddie J. Campos or Eddie J. Campos on Instagram. It’s Eddie J. Campos on LinkedIn, or if they just wanted to reach out through my email, it’s Eddie@EddiesHomeTeam.com.
Awesome. Well, we will link all of your links and your contact information below and for all of you listening, you know, if you are, um, again, you know, ready to take your social media to the next level, if you’re listening to this going, okay, I got to get a handle on, on a lot of this. We would love for you to be a part of our Academy family. You can go to KatieLance.com/academy to check it out. And if you’re watching this on YouTube or Facebook, we’re going to keep Eddie on the line here. I’ve got some bonus questions. I’m going to ask him that are exclusive to our podcast. So if you are not a podcast listener, yet you can go to KatieLance.com, subscribe to the podcast, and you can check out some of these bonus questions. So if you thank you so much for, for being here today, I so appreciate your time.
Oh, absolutely. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you Katie and thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me in my business. I truly appreciate everything that you and your team and Paul and everybody does. It’s awesome.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
