From 0 to 13 Million Views: The Accidental Viral Formula That's Changing Real Estate Marketing

Think posting boring real estate content is the key to social media success? Renee Gillette is about to flip everything you know about marketing upside down.

Renee has built a massive following and thriving real estate brokerage using nothing but an iPhone and her pet zebras. But here's what shocked us most: her random video of cleaning pool bugs got 13 million views while her carefully planned content barely reaches thousands.

In this eye-opening conversation, Renee reveals why authenticity beats strategy every time, how exotic animals became her secret marketing weapon, and why the "professional content" approach keeps most agents invisible online.

The Authentic Content Revolution:

• Why randomness outperforms perfectly planned posts every single time
• How a pool cleaning video generated more leads than expensive ad campaigns
• The mindset shift from "polished professional" to "genuine human"

The Multi-Platform Mastery:

• Instagram strategy: Video reels over static photos
• Facebook approach: Single images win over carousels
• LinkedIn tactics: Where all the "boring" professional content belongs

💡 Key Insights Revealed:

1. The 80/20 Formula: 80% personal content, 20% business (not the reverse)
2. The Engagement Hack: Respond to ALL comments to boost algorithm performance
3. The Consistency Rule: 3-5 posts per week minimum or face algorithm death
4. The Platform Specifics: Same content, different formats for different platforms
5. The Authenticity Test: People can instantly tell when you're reading a script

🎯 Perfect For:

• Real estate agents tired of posting the same boring content as everyone else
• Entrepreneurs wanting to grow organically without paid ads
• Social media strugglers who think they need expensive equipment
• Content creators looking for the authentic engagement secret
• Anyone who wants to turn their unique life into marketing gold

📈 The Numbers That Matter:

• 13 million views on a single "random" video
• Hundreds of new followers from one viral post
• Multiple platforms managed with just an iPhone
• Zero professional equipment or film crews
• Broker with her own brokerage and development projects

🌟 Why This Episode Hits Different: Renee doesn't just talk about social media theory - she's actively going viral while running multiple businesses and raising two kids. While other agents are struggling to get noticed, she's turning pool maintenance into marketing gold. Her nursing background gives her a unique perspective on helping people that most "influencers" lack.

🎧 What You'll Walk Away With: 

✅ The counterintuitive content strategy that generated 13 million views
✅ Platform-specific posting strategies that actually work
✅ How to batch create content and automate your posting
✅ Why being authentic beats being perfect every single time
✅ The exotic animal advantage (and how to find your own unique angle)

📱 Connect with Renee Gillette:

• Instagram: @reneecentralluxrealty (follow for zebras and real estate wisdom)
• Facebook: Gillette Properties
• Website: Links to all platforms and her Netflix-worthy life

Transcript

Rob Pene (00:01.129)
Okay, we have Renee Gillette on with this. She is a realtor in Texas and she has a ton of experience. So I'm very interested, not huge following, obviously, I'm like, what's she doing to get all this following? So that's one of the reasons why I wanted to talk, is very interested in how you're growing organically, because it seems like it's moving.

Renee Gillette (00:03.054)
Yes, yes.

Rob Pene (00:30.509)
to start us off before we get into you, my question that I'm curious about that I usually ask at the beginning is, if you're to look at the last six to 12 months of your life and then turn that into a Netflix special.

Renee Gillette (00:41.368)
Thank you.

Renee Gillette (00:46.659)
You

Rob Pene (00:48.973)
What would that show be about? And then why would it be called what you would call it?

Renee Gillette (00:55.939)
man, it would definitely be chaotic, hectic. So I am a mother. I have two children, so they're very active in school. One's in middle school, one's in elementary. So we're very busy with, you know, volleyball, softball, cheerleading, black football, you know, the whole gammon. And then also on top of that, we love to travel. So I recently went to New Zealand.

We go to the Caribbean a lot. We kind of need a vacation from my vacation. So we're, I've been seeing this thing here lately. It's like, we're a traveler. We're not a vacationer. So like, it's extra exhausting when we get back, but we love to go camping. We spend that pretty much all our time outside. So we're in the water all the time. So here in the summertime, I mean, we're very busy.

And then in my spare time, I'm also a real estate broker. So I have my own brokerage and I have a few agents underneath me as well as we do development. So I have new home constructions that we build and sell remodels that we do. I do a lot of investors trying to do their own developments too. And then on top of all of that, I'm also a registered nurse. So I have a license that I still keep active here and there and just to, cause I've been doing it, see.

probably at least 15 years now. So have a bachelor's in nursing, so I try to keep that license active. So it's very busy. And we definitely are very, our friends are family and all their kids are my kids. And it's very busy. So people always ask, like, how do you have time? I'm like, I don't know. I just get up and do it. If it's not in my calendar, forget about it. It's not happening.

Rob Pene (02:41.633)
Yeah.

Renee Gillette (02:47.692)
So as far as the name, have no idea. Just run around Renee, I guess. Drive a lot, yes.

Rob Pene (02:54.551)
Yeah, that's exciting. So I can see where the chaos, the controlled chaos is happening. There's a lot of different things. And is that how your social has grown? Because it's different things that you do and then people just find you and then follow you and share? Because it's pretty significant. Yeah.

Renee Gillette (03:14.92)
Yes, and yeah, we also have here at my house, we have a high fence, so we have exotic animals, so zebras and kangaroos and different various types of deer and stuff. So we breed them and sell them. So kind of like ranching, but with deer and fun things. So a lot of my stuff, like I get engagement from Rick, because people are like, there's no way you have a zebra. I'm like, actually I have two of them and here they are.

Rob Pene (03:32.673)
What the... No way!

Rob Pene (03:43.341)
It's a good thing.

Renee Gillette (03:43.945)
Here's my kangaroo. And so, and it's interesting to see the stuff that people are most interactive with. Like I shared a video the other day, we were gone from New Zealand, come back and we have a pool and I was cleaning out the skimmers and it was full of what we call June bugs here. These little beetles, they're pretty much useless. I don't know what the use is. I don't think anybody really knows what their use is, but I mean, just hundreds of them. So I'm picking up the skimmer and I'm like, ugh.

Gross, you know, it's gotten over like 13 million views and people are just losing their minds. I've been throwing these bugs in the grass and I'm like, this is so silly. Like the internet is just crazy to me. So it's a good balance between just silly videos like that and actual like productive stuff. you know, if I was gonna go in and buy this house, like here's what I would change about it, you know, and just different things like that. I try not to.

Rob Pene (04:18.924)
Wow

Renee Gillette (04:43.115)
stick to like the boring, you know, kind of typical lingo for realtor stuff. I do do a lot of personal videos versus my real estate stuff, but I do try to tie it all in together.

Rob Pene (04:56.749)
Yeah, yeah. So for other invest agents, you'd recommend to diversify and not do the standard, right? Basically go against mainstream and what everybody's doing. Yeah.

Renee Gillette (05:09.395)
Yes, yes. I mean, occasionally, yeah, I do the little trendy stuff just to get into the wonderful algorithm. But what I found that has worked the best is just randomness. I mean, there's really no rhyme or reason to it. like I'll have like if I'm doing something like, this would be a good little just B roll in and I'll do that and then put some facts about the town that I'm in. And like sometimes people just go crazy on it. And sometimes, you know, it only gets a few views. So it's just kind of

I guess it's very random, but I have noticed that when you interact with all the comments, good or bad, it does help put you back into that algorithm and get you more followers. I mean, that one video, I have to go back and look, but it's like 13 million views. I mean, it's several hundred followers based off that one video.

And I do get clients that way too, like, I noticed you work in this area, do you have anything? So it's a very, I like leads like that because they're more organic. They're interested in what I'm doing versus me having to reel them in.

Rob Pene (06:21.589)
Right, right, right. That's interesting. Now is that randomness approach something that you teach your agents in your brokerage? Is it like just kind of being loose and...

Renee Gillette (06:28.766)
Yes, yes, yes. And so like, you can definitely tell when people are being genuine and they're putting themselves out there or if they're reading a script and you could tell, I mean, you can scroll through Instagram all day long and say, this person's really funny and they're just really good at it. And it's just because they're coming across as a natural human being. They're not forcing it. And that's what I tell my agents. Cause even for me, like I'm 40 years old, so the,

I'm kind of just past that age of Snapchat and all that fun stuff. So my 13 year old daughter takes 9,000 pictures of herself a day. But for me, it was not a very natural thing to do is to videotape myself. So it's a learning curve, but I think once you get past that and I just be yourself, like even when you're talking to clients, like.

Rob Pene (07:14.839)
Yeah.

Renee Gillette (07:23.434)
they're gonna know if you're faking it, they're gonna know if you're making up stuff, they're gonna know if you really don't know what you're talking about. So I've always had that motto in life, it's like, just be true. And I guess that's part of my nursing background. And he's like, for me, if I don't know the answer to something, I'm like, let me find out, I'll find out for you, I don't know it. No person can ever know everything. And I'm a real big learner by doer. So I think...

just putting yourself out there and just getting more comfortable with it. So you've been with me with podcasts, so this is new to me, it's not a comfortable thing, but it's getting easier. I like talking to people and it's essentially the same thing, we're just having a conversation, it's just recording. So talking to my agents about that and getting them on board with being comfortable with it is a struggle, but once they start doing it, they'll figure it out they're like, when they start getting that feedback and people actually start responding to it.

is when they're like, okay, this really does work. I'm like, yeah, like that's why millions of people do it. And it's free. It's free. I mean, that's the best type of advertisement. mean, Instagram and Facebook, it's, unless you boost your posts, it's all free. I mean, what better way to get yourself out there in front of millions of people for no money. I mean, just your time.

Rob Pene (08:27.405)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, makes sense.

Rob Pene (08:38.38)
Yeah.

Rob Pene (08:44.225)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it sounds like post anything but boring. Because if you post boring, then it's Yeah.

Renee Gillette (08:54.183)
And occasionally, I mean, you gotta, sometimes I'll post boring stuff just to have something to post and that's not always the best game plan. I mean, you need to be more thoughtful about it, but sometimes, I mean, life happens and you're like, okay, I really, like I try to do five days a week at least. It really does help your algorithm and keep you on top of like the scrolling-ness of the followers. Cause if you do slack off, you do drop down and you have to build it back up again.

Rob Pene (09:10.455)
Mm-hmm.

Renee Gillette (09:23.303)
So obviously, like the boring stuff and Facebook and Instagram are different too. So a lot of people will post this stuff in both of them identical and they just don't work the same. So you have to be mindful of what format you're putting it in.

Rob Pene (09:23.509)
okay.

Rob Pene (09:39.319)
Do you upload natively? Like you record a video and then go to Instagram and upload, or do you have a third party tool like a metricool or something, or you just.

Renee Gillette (09:49.436)
Sometimes they use, yeah, CapCut sometimes on Instagram I'll just do the caption. Or if I'm talking, it'll say the words. But most it's just organically done. if I have a long video, of cut off pieces of it to make it little bit shorter so it'll fit in the reel. But other than that, it's not like super over editing. It's not like Photoshop 2.0 and all these crazy things that, which.

Rob Pene (10:13.484)
Yeah.

Renee Gillette (10:18.951)
I mean, I'm really impressed that people can do this stuff. I just don't have the time for it or I just, I don't know how to do all most of that stuff, but CapCut is super easy just to go through and, you know, make an edit to video to make it shorter and then cut out the spaces in between so it just flows better. Or if I'm doing like a green screen, I'll use Instagram for the green screen to go over like a tour through a house or something like that. So I don't use anything super high tech or.

I don't have a film crew or any money like that.

Rob Pene (10:53.069)
Wow, because I know sometimes when people see a huge following, they're like, you put a lot of money into it or you're high production. And you're like, and I just boast.

Renee Gillette (11:01.191)
No.

Renee Gillette (11:04.486)
Yeah, just iPhone, a cheap Amazon speaker and a tripod most of the time. And sometimes I'll just prop it up on something and do my thing. it's for me, like even like when we go on vacation and stuff, to me, I'm a live in the moment person. Like I don't typically want to take a whole bunch of pictures of everything and all this stuff. So I'll normally spend 10 minutes and just do a whole bunch of B roll of stuff and then save it for later.

Rob Pene (11:11.691)
Wow. Wow.

Renee Gillette (11:34.7)
so even if, like if you go into a closing, you're like, I like you today, like snap a 10 second video of you and you can use it as a B-roll and something else. so it doesn't have to be like in that moment type of stuff. but I just have an album on my iPhone that, you know, if it's just here and there snippets of whatever, I'll put it in there and I'm like, this will go good with this little short, you know, to-do list of how to.

PrepaHouse or something like that. then that way, because Instagram videos tend to do better versus carousel single photos. just having a B-roll of anything really, just to get that real type video footage on it is the most useful. Whereas Facebook, if you have just a bunch of pictures, Facebook is better with single pictures.

You can use both of them in each instance and then like LinkedIn, that's where I put all my quote unquote boring stuff. So all your, you know, market reports and all that stuff will go over there. Cause that's more of a professional world where Instagram is more laid back and chill and you know, just trying to grab the person's attention at first and then kind of dabble in the good information after that.

Rob Pene (12:31.681)
Yeah.

Rob Pene (12:56.237)
Are you on TikTok?

Renee Gillette (12:59.14)
No, I'm not on TikTok. It's kind of, it's, need to be. There's a lot of people that have a lot of success with TikTok. It's just a realm that I just haven't ventured into. Like I said, if I can get my 13 year old to hook me up, it'd probably be really great.

Rob Pene (13:20.397)
So what was the first thing you did? Was it real estate, nursing or farming? Yeah, where did

Renee Gillette (13:27.815)
The first thing, nursing was my first career and I really loved it. It's just when I started having a family, it made it very difficult hour wise and I did do a lot of traveling for it in the positions that I was in, kind of more of a management position toward the later part of my career in that. And so for me, I've always done some sort of real estate.

you know, build houses or remodels and stuff like that. So essentially when I got my real estate license, it was just for me to use for my own projects. And it just kind of blossomed into now I have my broker's license, I have a full brokerage. People always say, you know, go work for yourself. You won't work as hard. But really now I work three times as much, but it's something that I'm able to work around. if my kids have a school program, you know,

can go to that. I don't have to ask permission from somebody to go do that. To me, that is the greatest thing in life is to have the freedom with your time. So I enjoy that part of it. I still get to help people. I still get to talk to people and always feel like not only are you in real estate, you're also a therapist. Because buying and selling is very stressful. mean, these aren't the greatest

purchases that most people will make in their entire life. I still get to have those conversations with people and help people through stressful situations and things, as well as celebrating, you know, big wins at the end of it. to me, nursing and real estate kind of do go hand in hand. It's just in nursing, it's, I mean, you work at a facility and you're there, you know, 12 hours a day or whatever. I mean, you can't just leave was my biggest drawback from that.

Rob Pene (15:27.329)
Yeah, I'm so fascinated by the zebras and the... What's the story behind that? OMG, man, wow! We're running a zoo,

Renee Gillette (15:36.645)
I told you we're chaotic. So we do, yes, I have a zoo. I always tell I used to tease. like, man, if all else fails, I just have a drive through safari in my backyard. Or, you know, bring a kangaroo to school and take pictures with it. I don't know. yeah, I we've gotten into always been.

Rob Pene (15:53.195)
Yeah! Yeah!

Rob Pene (16:00.343)
Now.

Renee Gillette (16:02.882)
an outdoors person, like say fishing, hunting, like the whole gammon. So for us getting into that, so we live in a rural area, a lot of people do cattle. We've met a lot of people traveling throughout the years, mean, Africa, New Zealand, South Texas, all over the place. So a lot of these, I call it hunting ranches, so they would buy deer and livestock to put on.

for their hunting wrenches. So people like us breed them and then sell them off. it's just like cattle. So we kind of just both feed in and ended up with, I don't even know how many we have now. It's just kind of, it's still people's like, man, I got out of control really fast. So we're like, well, we just keep adding to our collection of animals. So we have...

Rob Pene (16:52.055)
Yeah.

Renee Gillette (16:59.525)
Noah's Ark around here. have at least two of everything. So zebras, got the two kangaroos, we have a couple different types of deer and stuff. So it's fun. I enjoy it. People drive by all the time and they'll like stop and they'll back up and they're like, did I just see that? Like, yeah, yeah, that's us.

Rob Pene (17:17.938)
Yeah.

Do you name the animals?

Renee Gillette (17:25.444)
Most of them, so the deer I don't really name, but the zebras and the kangaroos and all of them we do. My seven-year-old, he names them. So they're mostly named after cookies and waffles and candy and different types of food. So it's pretty funny. We have a little, and we have little mini cows and are called Honey Bun is one of the little. And then we got Stripes and Dottie and oh, we have a pig, Snorty the pig. So I mean, it's...

Rob Pene (17:48.172)
Rob Pene (17:53.471)
Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Renee Gillette (17:54.852)
It's interesting that the names, definitely don't have the classic like racehorse, know, bad names to them type. like, yeah, that's, that's, you know, lollipop or they just have very unique names to them.

Rob Pene (18:00.321)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's funny.

Rob Pene (18:11.766)
Any giraffes?

Renee Gillette (18:14.084)
That's been a discussion, but I'm like, no, we're not there. Like, not there. I was like, we've talked to people about it, but I'm like, we just don't have the time. I mean, that's a whole nother. I was like, telling my husband, was like, this is what we would have to do for a living is these animals if we got into that. But yeah, I couldn't imagine driving down the road and seeing a giraffe walk through the pasture.

Rob Pene (18:34.925)
Yeah. Yeah.

Renee Gillette (18:44.26)
It would be interesting for sure.

Rob Pene (18:45.641)
wow. Yeah. Now, would you say that this, I mean, it's clear that's a unique story, but do you think that is what also appeals to your clients that makes them choose you a little more than another real estate agent?

Renee Gillette (19:05.122)
Yeah, yeah, and I think most of my people, because we do the construction and I've done my own houses and I've done remodels and I have developed and I do all this stuff, a lot of agents think they can just get a license, open a door and like, here's a house. Whereas me, I will go through the house with them and like, hey, you know, this cabinet is custom and it costs XYZ or, know, hey, that light fixtures, a cheap one from

you know, big box store or so I know all of this stuff. So a lot of times my clients will come to me because of that, because they want me to be able to back them on this investment that they're about to make. Whereas a lot of agents don't understand. They just like, that's a pretty house, but they don't really see, you know, the workmanship of the house. have met several of my clients through, you know, the animal world part of it.

Rob Pene (20:03.341)
Yeah.

Renee Gillette (20:04.099)
So I do like a lot of farm and ranch and land sales as well. So a lot of my clients will come from that But even in that realm because I'm knowledgeable like hey, this this is all rock here It's gonna cost you know XYZ to put fencing up or you know, hey, there's a spring fed tank over here a pond and You know, it'll never go empty because it's a natural spring and you know things like that that if you're not familiar or no

Rob Pene (20:16.619)
Yeah.

Renee Gillette (20:31.298)
those types of situations, like you're just not gonna know. And so a lot of people, I tend to like vet the properties before we even go look at them because I know exactly what it is that they're looking for. And it does help because a lot of these people, I mean, they're busy. So especially my investors are busy people. And so I'll tend to go out on my own and look at them like, hey, I think this is really gonna work. What you're looking for or not and vice versa, you know.

I like to do what I call like white glove service my clients. I can tell them like I'm not just here filling out paperwork and opening the door like I'm really doing the research and everything behind it to make sure that what you're investing is is what you're wanting to invest in.

Rob Pene (21:06.349)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Pene (21:19.679)
Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like your success formula has a lot to do with expertise. And what adds to a further affirmation of people choosing you is you have really dynamic interests that also display your expertise. Cause the development side, you're an expert in that. So they have the comfort of you, real estate agent, plus the development. But then

you have an expertise in the animal stuff. So they know like, she's actually really smart. She knows the details there. Or she has to be, you know, just the same, you know, the brain power in the, as a real estate, as selling residential. So it sounds like your success formula has a lot to do with expertise. That's pretty cool. Yeah.

Renee Gillette (22:06.69)
Yes, yes. And like I said, I learn by doing. And so if it's an interesting transaction, always tell my client, I mean, most of the time I'm I'm so sorry, this is happening. And I'm like, no, no, I love it. It's given me a chance to learn something new that I didn't even know existed. And so I was like, If there's not something wrong with a transaction,

then we're doing something wrong. Like if we're not digging enough to find these errors, like then there's something not right to begin with. So I always tell people like, enjoy that. enjoy, I'm a very dive on in type person. not, I don't sit there and dwell on making decisions. Like I just can quickly scan something like, okay, this is the direction I wanna go. And I just go for it. If it fails, then all right, then we'll edit and we'll go this direction.

Rob Pene (22:47.265)
and

Renee Gillette (23:01.363)
And my favorite saying the clients is, was like, well, we'll try. All they can do is tell us no. mean, it's not like they can eat us. I mean, we're just going to, they're just going to tell us no and then we'll try again. Like, so I'm very, I guess the realist when it comes to that type of stuff and trying to get other agents, I'm gonna say like confidence, but not to be scared.

Rob Pene (23:15.371)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Renee Gillette (23:30.593)
to just go ahead and put themselves out there. I mean, that's half the battle. I always tell my agents too, especially when they're starting out, don't say no to anything. Don't be scared of something. Just go ahead and say yes and just learn why you're doing. And if I'm here, like I'm here to help you. If you have questions, you're not alone. And we'll just make sure, know, we're dotting all our I's and crossing all our T's and.

Rob Pene (23:35.149)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Pene (23:40.93)
Mm-hmm.

Renee Gillette (23:56.926)
and you're learning along the way. That's the only way anybody grows is how you get better at stuff. And to me, I meet so many people with so many resources during those transactions that later on in life, I'm like, hey, I know a great person for this. And here's the number. Let's call them up and see what they would say. Whereas, I mean, you can only do so many open houses, but you're never gonna meet and talk to all these engineers and surveyors.

Rob Pene (24:20.651)
Yeah.

Renee Gillette (24:25.927)
know, title company, right? mean, you all that stuff that are very useful when it comes to working through these transactions. So the more people you meet, the more people in your bank to help you that are experts in their own fields, it's probably the greatest tool that an agent can have.

Rob Pene (24:44.841)
Mm-hmm. That's cool. That's cool. Do you feel like you have a handle on the content that you put out to where, if I do this, these are the types of people that are going to hit me up? Or like, if I do this, there's going to be results? Or is it truly like, I don't really worry about the outcome in terms of inflow? I'm just going to post. I'm just going to post.

Renee Gillette (25:10.955)
Sometimes, sometimes so. I know on my random videos, of course I get the random comments. The internet's interesting. But I always try to interact with differences of opinions in a professional way or trying to be funny about it. To me, responding to those...

will get more response back. And so of course it bumps you up in the algorithm. So I always say no PR is bad PR. I just try to be mindful of it. Cause we all know like the internet's internet and people are people. But if I do like, it's a, if I have a property that's a great investment property or a great rental or something like that, I do try to post towards those type of people.

Rob Pene (25:48.258)
Yeah.

Rob Pene (25:56.364)
Yes.

Renee Gillette (26:08.928)
or point out things that would be of interest for a client like that. Or if it's a great first time home buyer house or something like that, I do aim in a little bit more towards that. Or if it's property on the lake, so fishing, I'll tag more fishing stuff to make it kind of pop up over there. So I do try to say like ballpark audiences based on whatever content it is, but just the randomness.

Rob Pene (26:14.721)
Hmm

Rob Pene (26:21.069)
No.

Renee Gillette (26:38.496)
Like I say, that does most of the time better than actual planned out videos. I just kind of brace myself for comments and kind of go from there.

Rob Pene (26:49.473)
Yeah, that's awesome.

Renee Gillette (26:49.758)
I and, and on, I like, had to pull one, like had so many people ask me, what is that? Like, what are you using? And I, and so in the back of my mind, was like, man, I up one of those Amazon links, you know, and, but it's interesting. It's interesting because there's content creators that that's what they do. I mean, they just try on clothes and like, here's the links to these t-shirts and it ain't worked for them. So.

Rob Pene (27:05.292)
Yeah

Renee Gillette (27:19.26)
It's interesting to see, like I had several pool companies share that video to promote their pool cleaning services and things like that. in that video I took just on a spur of a moment, like, you know, while we've been on, this is gross, my gosh. And who would have thought that it would have got so much traction over something that I like actually put time and effort into. That's kind of the annoying part, but.

Rob Pene (27:25.761)
Mmm!

Renee Gillette (27:49.906)
It does help. Like said, those followers and I've had people that I even meet out in public that never comment or like or anything like that but then like I'll post a video of our dog. I have an English massive and they'll make, they'll see me out in public. Oh, that video was so funny. Like how big is it? You know, and it's interesting because even though they're not interacting, they are watching.

Rob Pene (28:04.877)
We're asking.

Rob Pene (28:12.332)
Yeah.

Renee Gillette (28:16.541)
And to me, that's your potential client. So be mindful of what you put out there. Be yourself, definitely. I don't ever post political stuff or anything like that just because I enjoy working with everybody and I don't want to lose a client because of different views on political senators or whatever it may be. So I'm always...

Rob Pene (28:17.281)
Yes.

Renee Gillette (28:45.407)
Professional on that part. I don't post religion political Really anything like that? I do post you know my kids I try not to post other people's kids if they're in the video ask them Hey, do you mind if I share this online? know cuz some people don't want their kids faces online Mine don't get a choice. I get to post them anyway It's at my 13 year old she's like mom don't okay, it's

Rob Pene (28:59.041)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Pene (29:05.633)
Right,

Rob Pene (29:14.102)
Yeah

Renee Gillette (29:15.239)
have to be mindful of that stuff. I do see other agents, which they're entertaining, but sometimes I'm like, man, I can't believe they put that on there. So that's just my personal thing. I'd rather have interaction off a random video versus a whole debate over our constitution or whatever it may be.

Rob Pene (29:41.57)
Great.

Renee Gillette (29:44.978)
So that's just my platform. I know other people that do, I mean, they're very successful in creating that type of content, which is fine for them. But just for me, I just tend to stay in this part of the highway versus adding all that other.

Rob Pene (30:03.595)
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, all good. It's encouraging to see and to actually talk to somebody that just posts and is living your authentic best life without all the strategy and it's working because as it sounds, it's not that difficult. You just need to be willing and consistent just to put out there and stay consistent because it sounds like

Renee Gillette (30:28.433)
Yes.

Rob Pene (30:32.809)
If you stop posting, you're going to have to regain. It's almost like a reset, right? So you've got to keep.

Renee Gillette (30:37.166)
Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, and I see lots of agents do that like they start really strong and they have all these cool little videos they don't and I do it for like two weeks and then they just stop and I'm like what you just wasted all your time like you just did all of this now it's not gonna go anywhere like you have to it takes a long time to build that up like I said like I'm not

Rob Pene (30:52.461)
Yeah.

Renee Gillette (31:01.805)
Huge fan of like just posted a bunch of randomness, but if I don't have anything else, then I'll just throw some b-roll out there with, you know, tips on, you know, lawn care or whatever. And just to keep yourself relevant. It's the same thing with like email. I can tell them, it's kind of like an email campaign. Like you're always top of mind is where you want to be, but you don't want to be so annoying that they're going to unsubscribe for you. Like if you're posting 50 times a day, then like

that would be annoying. Like I would unsubscribe for you. Like I don't want to watch that. But if you, you know, once a day or every other day, at least three to four times a week is kind of like the golden thing. And then I know they say like post stories, you know, but not the same content that you do, but you can use the same video, just use it in different ways and you can use it for all platforms. You just got to be mindful of like where you're posting it.

Rob Pene (31:56.193)
Hmm. Hmm.

Renee Gillette (32:00.688)
And so I even like rework the same videos from six months ago and then put something else on them. So it doesn't have to be that that's taking up all your time. Like I literally will just have my phone 10 minutes a week worth of just whatever I'm doing and then save it in a file. And then I tend to schedule mine ahead of time. So it's not every day that I'm on there doing it.

Rob Pene (32:00.909)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Pene (32:07.565)
Hmm.

Renee Gillette (32:25.933)
know, Instagram, Facebook, they'll have calendars where you can go in and schedule, pre-schedule your content, you know, spend an hour or two doing that, get it over with, and then you're good for the next two weeks. So I just put mine, it's kind of, call it like autopilot, where I don't have to think about it.

Rob Pene (32:42.699)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think this has been a great masterclass on how marketing can work when you're authentic and consistent. And guess what? It's free.

Renee Gillette (32:54.491)
Yes, that's the best thing, it's free. You can always boost posts. So if I have a great listing and I wanna boost it out there, and even then I target it for the specific area or annual income, age, things like that, you can do all that on Facebook. And I do get a lot of feedback on that, but I don't boost just random posts. The only time I boost a post is for a specific property in a specific area.

Rob Pene (33:15.501)
Thank you.

Renee Gillette (33:24.661)
so where it's the same thing as agents send out mailers, a boost on Facebook is essentially the same thing. and the odds of them just throwing it in a trash can, like a mailer would be or less because it's a video, it's going to catch your eye. Most people at least stop and look at it for a few seconds versus just glancing and throwing it away. So to me, social media is the way to go. mean,

Rob Pene (33:46.113)
Yeah.

Renee Gillette (33:50.65)
Just look at our world today. Every company out there uses social media to advertise. Everybody, they all do it. So the mailers, the flyers, the knocking door to doors, cold calling, all of that, what do call it, old school marketing has its place, but we live in a instant gratification world now. So to me, social media is where it is.

Rob Pene (34:17.621)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The agents that are working under you are so lucky. They get to follow the model and yeah, work it out themselves. Man, that's a recipe for success. Yeah, from what I hear. This is good. Any last words for people that like, this is really interesting. I think I would encourage agents who wanna do well on social media and then encourage like just buyers in general.

Renee Gillette (34:22.822)
Thank

Renee Gillette (34:30.192)
Yes. Yes.

Rob Pene (34:45.734)
What are your last words for those two people? mean, pockets of people.

Renee Gillette (34:50.171)
For agents, I say, just put yourself out there. Don't be scared. I I used to be like, man, my hair is a wreck. Like don't have, I'm not all dressed up, you know? And people do not care. They don't care. They wanna know that you're interesting. They wanna know that you know what you're talking about. They wanna see things that they're not seeing from other people. All the trendy little things and stuff like that. You know, they're interesting.

Rob Pene (35:04.749)
Thank

Renee Gillette (35:18.395)
but the people that do it a little bit differently are the ones that you actually watch. I would say just be consistent and always say have a good work-life balance on social media. So I'm like 80 % family, hobbies, fun stuff, 20 % houses, land, whatever it may be. As far as buyers, if you're looking at agents, especially sellers too, if you're looking at agents, go to their social media.

Rob Pene (35:38.849)
Good.

Renee Gillette (35:48.323)
Because if you're gonna use a listing agent that's not utilizing social media, you're shooting yourself in the foot. And there's only so many newspaper ads or Zillow or Ruliter.com that people are gonna look at, because most people are on Facebook and Instagram. And they may not even know that they like that house on your street until it pops up on there. And they're like, my sister, brother, cousin is looking for something here. Let me send it to them.

Rob Pene (35:49.078)
Hmm.

Rob Pene (36:17.261)
Okay.

Renee Gillette (36:17.93)
So always tell people, know, vet your agents. Like said, everybody's different, everybody works differently. There's no like set tone to be in an agent. So find the person that you think that you can work with personality wise, that you can trust, that has experience, that knows, like said, knows what they're talking about, because it will help you in the end for sure.

Rob Pene (36:45.813)
Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you. Where can people find you if they want to stay in touch with you?

Renee Gillette (36:51.703)
My website is the best one. What was that?

Rob Pene (36:52.875)
I'll see you.

Yeah, or if they want to follow the zebras.

Renee Gillette (36:59.15)
Yeah, Cepra, so Renee, centralxreality is my Instagram handle, or Gillette Properties is my Facebook handle. And then my website has links to both on there.

Rob Pene (37:13.227)
Nice. All right. I'll put that in the show notes so people can go and follow and watch your Netflix. Yeah, Potential series. Good. Thank you for being here and I appreciate your time.

Renee Gillette (37:17.602)
Awesome. Right.

Renee Gillette (37:27.032)
I appreciate it.

Rob Pene (37:28.843)
Yeah.