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Episode 026: Anthony Dazet, EXP Realty
Joel Epstein:
Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to another edition of The bigJOEL Show coming to you from Washington DC. Today I've got a special guest who flew in, Mr. Anthony Dazet. Those of you foodies out there that follow me on Instagram will see me tagging this guy all the time. He's Eating NOLA, that NOLA, for those of you that don't know it. NOLA is New Orleans, Louisiana, and Anthony is a very interesting guy.
Joel Epstein:
I met Anthony over four years ago probably with a mutual client, friend, in New Orleans, and we of course liked each other immediately. Not because we're both geniuses because we both like eating food. We both like eating a lot of food. And Anthony he is a practicing real estate agent, just so you know. We're not going to talk a ton about that today.
Joel Epstein:
This is going to be a great podcast for anyone listening not just for loan officers or real estate agents, it'll be great podcast for anyone because I want Anthony to come on and really talk about social media. Again, it's a hot button. Sales people are sold all kinds of social media packages, all kinds of things all the time. It's you got to buy this, got to buy that, got to buy this and I personally don't think you have to buy anything. I think you can do everything yourself.
Joel Epstein:
I also personally think and Anthony might agree or disagree that 90, I don't know what percentage, it's high, percentage of real estate agents and loan officers, and I think a lot of sales people are absolutely using social media wrong. Maybe not wrong, but not using it the best way they possibly could for the results that they're trying to get or whatever package they were sold. It always cracks me up when I see the prepackaged postings, and I know someone paid for them, and it always cracks me up, and I'll talk to agents, I'll talk to loan officers or whatever about it, and be like, "You could have literally posted that in 10 seconds, and it could have been topical, and it could have been you know what's happening right there." And I'm going to have Anthony talk about Instagram stories, Facebook, Facebook stories.
Joel Epstein:
I'm not a big Twitter guy, but we can talk about it, but I'm really a Facebook, Instagram guy but I just wanted to give you all a little context. So Anthony, started with zero, with nobody. Started with the fact that the only person he knows that likes to eat more than him is me. Okay, that's what he started with, and I don't even think in his mind, and I think this is the coolest part about building brands, I think you have to be sincere about it. I think in his mind, he just liked eating stuff. And he likes eating stuff in New Orleans and tell people about it. Am I right?
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, that's absolutely correct.
Joel Epstein:
And I think that's where it started, and that's why you got 149,000 followers or whatever it is on Instagram.
Anthony Dazet:
Correct.
Joel Epstein:
And that's why I thought this would be so cool for you to hear us have a discussion about this because build your brand, build your brand, build your brand is a very sexy topic right now. Brand, brand, brand, brand, brand, okay, build your brand. And everybody wants to be a member of a club, period. Everybody wants to feel like they belong to something, period. I mean, just look at the whole, we're not even going to go there. We don't even need to go there right now. But the whole influencer, the last guest I had on today was one of the editors for POLITICO and we were talking about brands and building brands and stuff like that, and it's the thing. It's that it's the thing to talk about right now. But I don't really think, I think agents and loan officers just get sold stuff.
Joel Epstein:
I don't think anybody really says no, no, this is really what you're supposed to be doing to build your brand, and I think what's missing, when people are building their brand is they're building it insincerely and I just want to just start with this, and then I want you to start talking. But just to take it to me for a second, right? I don't know how many years ago or whatever, I was working with brand people in Los Angeles, awesome woman named Emily. Emily, if you're watching this, you're awesome, and I'm into a lot of different things. I do sales and leadership and I do mortgage stuff and real estate stuff, and I got this book, Little Book on Big Ego.
Joel Epstein:
I do all kinds of stuff, and I was having a problem like a branding issue. Like well, who am I? Who am I? And one day she says, "You're Big Joel." And I went, "No way. Am I going to be Big Joel ever? I am not Big Joel." And then I ran up on my wife and she's like, "You have got to be kidding me. There's no way I'm calling you Big Joe. Give me a break. You are not going to Big Joel." And then the initials BJ. Oh, that works out well.
Anthony Dazet:
Yeah, that's nice.
Joel Epstein:
BJ, there's BJ, Big Joel, and I looked at her and she said, "I want you to just think about it. I want you to just let it marinate a little bit." And I said, "Well, why am I Big Joel?" And she said, "Because you're big and you talk fast. Everything you do is big. Who goes into a restaurant and orders every appetizer? Who goes in with two people ask for a six top and covers the table? That's a big thing to do. Anybody that knows you do everything big." I was like, "Interesting."
Joel Epstein:
So I myself had to think it through, get over it, and then begin actual branding, and now you know what happens? Everyone's like, "Oh, it's Big Joel. Oh, Big Joel. Oh, it's Eating NOLA. Oh, It's Eating NOLA. Oh, Eating NOLA is in the house."
Anthony Dazet:
It's amazing once you...
Joel Epstein:
"Make sure you cook the fries correctly. Eating NOLA is in here." So I wanted to tell you, where Big Joel came from is a sincere place, and what you did is a very sincere thing, sincerely addicted to food I'll tell you that right now, but sincere and if you weren't sincere, you won't have that many people paying attention to you. So start off first Anthony just tell people a little bit about you. You were in the service. You went through Hurricane Katrina.
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, yes.
Joel Epstein:
Got into real estate. Go through that quickly, and then let's get to the beginning of building your brand and then I want to talk with you about things people can do. I know you're a subject matter expert in this. Things agents can do, loan officers can do, anybody selling anything can do to simply get started. Tell us about yourself just to start. Anthony Dazet, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Anthony Dazet:
A little bit about me, man. I'm born and raised in New Orleans. I was born in what you guys may know as the Ninth Ward, they got a lot of popularity after Hurricane Katrina, because that's where the major levee broke. So born and raised there, grew up there, and there's an interesting conversation I had just recently is when people ask me about eating out all the time, I couldn't tell you the first place I eat in New Orleans. I was actually thinking about that recently, but just lived there for a long time. Moved right outside of Orleans Parish into the St. Bernard Parish, got into the army, ran through the army for 16 years.
Anthony Dazet:
I was actually a network engineer over there. So meaning networks, infrastructure, email, things like that. That's what I did for a long time.
Joel Epstein:
Translation, he's geekier than he looks.
Anthony Dazet:
Yes, a lot.
Joel Epstein:
Go ahead, yeah.
Anthony Dazet:
So actually went to Tulane University for network engineering. So have that all said and done and realize man just sitting on a cubicle working on computers all day, it was probably, it was a very challenging job, because when things are broken, I mean, I love to be able to fix something. Especially research and fix and analyze and strategically make it work again, but it was really boring. I mean, I sat behind a cubicle and it was, oddly enough as much as I learned in that business. I felt like I was getting dumber every day and it was times we would sit behind a cubicle and we would play Doom and we said it was network speed test.
Anthony Dazet:
We were playing Doom against each other. So I decided to get into real estate. I had investment properties, man, and one of my good friends been a friend for a long time. I just called him one day and said, "Hey, man, what's this real estate thing? How do you get into selling it?" Got into that. Been doing it for a long time. Probably 13, 14 years now selling real estate. I've learned a lot during that time. I could tell people all the time. I'm one of them people, man, I get obsessed with something.
Anthony Dazet:
So the way that I learned marketing and branding and building a brand and how to do this was extreme study. I mean, it was nights I didn't sleep at all and I went from building my own websites to learning social media marketing, to learning marketing, then into sales and into prospecting. So it's whole slew of information just learned.
Joel Epstein:
So what do you think is the number one thing that you see that you just watch, we'll start with agents, that agents absolutely do wrong with their social media?
Anthony Dazet:
It's waste time. It comes down to, I mean, I sit there, I look at it, like you said, I analyze a lot. And I could tell you that if I go through a feed via Instagram especially, I just see the things that people put out there that are a complete waste of time, and when I say waste of time, as you mentioned a moment ago, they create this picture, and they put these words and they put these graphics and make it all look pretty and it might take them, I interviewed an agent recently, where they told me, it took him 30 minutes to take this picture and make it right. And then I went and showed him.
Anthony Dazet:
You see, this 30 minute picture it took you and you see this picture of the house it was really kind of really just quick and easy, and how long did this one take you? And how long did this one take? And they said, "Oh, 30 minutes versus one minute." Well, the one that took one minute got 50% more likes and 20% more engagement, and that's what as a sales professional, a real estate agent, a mortgage lender, whatever, whether we do things that keep us busy to make us feel like we're productive. And that is probably the number one issue is staying busy.
Joel Epstein:
So we're going to unpack that in a second but he just got out Dr. Phil on me. We do things that make us feel busy, and even though they may be things that don't get us busy at all, or don't make us any money, but we think, when you were telling the story I can imagine an agent or loan officer because loan officers do it too. It's hilarious.
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, it's so true.
Joel Epstein:
You know what's good also, "Did you see, I mean, look at this flyer up. This thing is unbelievable, man, I was in Photoshop for like 10 hours. Look at this thing." I'm like "What'd you do with it?" "Well, I took it over here, and I left it here." And I'm like, "I'm letting you know right now, someone used that for Kinley." Okay. Literally, somebody rolled that up, lit that on fire.
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, absolutely.
Joel Epstein:
Somebody put that in a fireplace. Nobody looked at that. One of the interesting things I see all the time. I didn't bring it up with LinkedIn but I want to talk about LinkedIn because LinkedIn is a big boy. They're big player. Man, people put these things on LinkedIn, they look like the most elaborate things I have ever seen, and there's like two likes on there. And look you could probably tell me because you are geeky, but you could tell me if we use 100 people, I want to talk about this because this is very interesting for people.
Joel Epstein:
So if you have a hundred friends, relationships or followers, let's use Instagram for a second, a hundred people, there's no bots in there. They're all real. They're all real people, and you post something, and 10 people like it out of 100, you've hit the biggest home run in the history of the world, correct?
Anthony Dazet:
Very.
Joel Epstein:
Because what people don't understand is, and I learned this, right, because I travel all over. I'll be in like Boise, Idaho, and someone will be like, "Yo, that corned beef sandwich that you ate 45 days ago in New York at this deli." I'll be like, "Who are you? Literally, who are you? How do I know you?" And they're like, "Well, I saw it." Well, they saw it but they don't say anything. Tell people just so they get a feel based on the amount of followers or likes you have, what's the right return you should have? Use a hundred because it's simple.
Joel Epstein:
If you have 100 people following you, and you put something up as a gauge, are you looking for 10%?
Anthony Dazet:
No.
Joel Epstein:
Not even comments. I'm talking someone that actually will hit the like button. I'll get to comments in a second. That's a whole another stratosphere.
Anthony Dazet:
Absolutely.
Joel Epstein:
Barely anybody does that. Okay. What are you looking for out of a hundred?
Anthony Dazet:
Three.
Joel Epstein:
Okay, so three everybody. Listen to this, three. Because people start and they stop. They give up.
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, very. I mean, all the time.
Joel Epstein:
Okay, do y'all hear that? Three, three. So you put something up, you put up a picture of your cat named Tinkerbell, okay, and three people like it. The Grandmaster over here he has 150,000 followers because he likes burgers, all right, in New Orleans said three is a home run.
Anthony Dazet:
Well you just mentioned Tinkerbell the cat. That's what I tell people all the time. Nobody cares about Tinkerbell, the cat. Now if you put up... I was walking down the street you guys here have some amazing houses. I'm taking pictures like crazy all over. If I do Tinkerbell the cat versus those great I don't know if they call them brownstones here, what they call them but the fact is I took a picture of it, edited it a little bit, Tinkerbell versus that picture of that house, we're going to go from three to 25.
Joel Epstein:
Okay, but three just so everybody gets it, three. Three percent engagement with a just hit the like button. Now how many people saw it? 50 or more?
Anthony Dazet:
Probably more me, I mean.
Joel Epstein:
Okay, so 75 people saw it. You got their like.
Anthony Dazet:
Correct.
Joel Epstein:
But they didn't react and out of 100 are you looking for one person to give you the clap, clap or actually say cool?
Anthony Dazet:
Yes.
Joel Epstein:
Or you don't even care out of a hundred?
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, no. One percent engagement is ideal.
Joel Epstein:
Okay, so out of 100 true followers, friends, whatever. If one person said cool cat, win. Two people, grand slam, is that correct?
Anthony Dazet:
Yes.
Joel Epstein:
So a lot of people don't talk about this-
Anthony Dazet:
They don't at all.
Joel Epstein:
... And people get discouraged with social media and it's just another form of marketing. When you market, it takes nine times to get people to even be Toyota, Toyota-
Anthony Dazet:
Wow, absolutely.
Joel Epstein:
... Whatever for them to get interested people give up. They do it one time and they give up, and that is not the game in social media, correct?
Anthony Dazet:
At all.
Joel Epstein:
So you just said basically spending too much time doing it. What are things that agents could do right now today could get off this podcast, could hang up with no help at all to improve their game?
Anthony Dazet:
I mean, first things first, Instagram is visual. So take great pictures that's it and post consistently. So sort of the main thing is post consistently because due to the algorithm changes recently with Instagram too, if you lay off three, five, 10 days which I see all the time. I see brands start using Instagram and just the first 10 days they post 20 pictures.
Joel Epstein:
They go hard, right?
Anthony Dazet:
Yeah, and 30 days later, they post one. I mean that Instagram algorithm is so based on engagement and consistency right now that it's the utter most important thing you should do.
Joel Epstein:
All right, so let's unpack that because people don't understand that. Okay. So where he's going with this, I'm going to let him explain it. Algorithm and he doesn't look like it, but he's very nerdy, okay. The algorithm piece is how people are seeing things in their feed.
Anthony Dazet:
Correct.
Joel Epstein:
Even if you're friends with them.
Anthony Dazet:
Correct.
Joel Epstein:
How they're viewing things in their feed, and Instagram has recently changed that, is what you're saying?
Anthony Dazet:
Well, they changed it a couple years ago because it used to be, I think when you and I first met man, I would post a picture and I'd be at a particular restaurant, and people would kind of come to the restaurant because I was there eating.
Joel Epstein:
It was that fast?
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, it was that fast. It was instant. I mean, you scroll through your feed, and I could see where you are at in the moment of it. That changed. And to this date, those social media network has kept a true timeline like that, Instagram was the last one. So that's kind of the big chase now. You might see somebody if you went-
Joel Epstein:
Snapchat. Snapchat is live right?
Anthony Dazet:
No, only if you send instant messages to them. None of them are anymore. So it's a really interesting thing man, why all the social media networks keep going to that and the reason why is because they make money this way and get the balance of it. But the fact is, it's the more people you engage with, the more you have conversation with them. The more pictures you like the potential for them to show up in your feed increases.
Joel Epstein:
So number one, if you're going to commit to social media, which honestly, you have to. I don't think there's an option to go. I don't think there's an option is consistent. What does that mean? Is that daily? Is that twice a day? Is it once every two days? Define that.
Anthony Dazet:
Well, I'll tell you the way I define it. I pay attention to what a lot of other people are doing. Gary Vee actually has a phenomenal concept called the $1.80 rule. And essentially it's, he puts his two cents in on people's conversations. He does it, morning and evening and he does two cents to equal a $1.80. So it's 90 conversations that he actually goes into. So yes, twice daily, once daily. If you go a week without engaging, you will see your numbers drop significantly.
Joel Epstein:
Now, when you say there's a difference between posting and engaging, correct?
Anthony Dazet:
Absolutely, yes.
Joel Epstein:
Okay, so I want to make sure everyone understands this. Anthony is not saying that you have to post twice a day. What he's saying is you have to engage and engaging is defined as?
Anthony Dazet:
Conversations.
Joel Epstein:
Okay. So engaging means you see something that is interesting to you, and you engage conversationally, which means you're typing something in there. Correct?
Anthony Dazet:
Yes.
Joel Epstein:
I just want to make sure everyone fully understands what you're saying.
Anthony Dazet:
It even does come to the post too, believe it or not, man. If you go five, 10 days without posting, it's going to drop numbers, even to the point now that they're using stories in the same aspect. I've read studies recently where they say if you don't post to stories consistently, it gravely infects your algorithm and how much you show up in your feed. Because the concept with social media right now, I think the move and the one that is timeline in the moment is stories, is live. They can't delay that. If you put a story up that's going to show up in a specific way in a wall. But for the most part, Facebook Live, Instagram Live, that's the only true way to reach out to the mass market instantly so they could see it. So for example, if you-
Joel Epstein:
That's how your person's going to know you're at the restaurant?
Anthony Dazet:
... That's how they're going to know you're at the restaurant.
Joel Epstein:
That's the only way for you to get around that, is that correct way?
Anthony Dazet:
That is the only way. Or just like I walked into Podcast Village today, and the fact is, I took a picture and I tagged them. They go, if they're paying attention to feed now back to who's paying attention to whose feed. Are you monitoring Big Joel every day in the moment right now so you see if I tag you? A lot of these real estate agents, man, they're hiring companies to do it and you lose all concept of what social media is at that point. I mean social media is called, the word social is-
Joel Epstein:
For a reason.
Anthony Dazet:
... Right.
Joel Epstein:
Yeah.
Anthony Dazet:
You don't go to a social environment and get a company to come in and have conversation and network for you, do you? Absolutely not.
Joel Epstein:
So listen to that. Literally, I want you to take that in. I want you to soak that in. It's a massive concept that lots of people miss.
Anthony Dazet:
They don't at all.
Joel Epstein:
You're hiring people to do something social for you. You're literally, you got invited to a cocktail party at your next door neighbors and you hired somebody to go the party for you.
Anthony Dazet:
Correct.
Joel Epstein:
Close?
Anthony Dazet:
Yep.
Joel Epstein:
I'm right on, correct?
Anthony Dazet:
Yeah, and you're there, they're wearing your t-shirt.
Joel Epstein:
How insane is that? That doesn't work.
Anthony Dazet:
It doesn't.
Joel Epstein:
And the bottom line is it's just not that hard to be social.
Anthony Dazet:
No.
Joel Epstein:
It's really not.
Anthony Dazet:
Well, it's easier than going to the network event. I mean, I've gotten to the point where-
Joel Epstein:
Way easier.
Anthony Dazet:
... I almost quit going to network events because it was so much on me. But you can still do it on your phone. It's interesting. It really is.
Joel Epstein:
I want the audience, I really want you to take that away. I think it's a huge concept. There are people out there selling packages to you that you are buying. That is the equivalent of being invited to a party and sending someone else as you to the party. It's actually working against what you're trying to do. So if you're going to do it, and you should be doing it, be sincere about it and do it.
Anthony Dazet:
And do it.
Joel Epstein:
And if you're sincere about something you love, it's a heck of a lot easier.
Anthony Dazet:
Absolutely.
Joel Epstein:
And then if you want to sell other things, or influence in other ways, once you have a brand, it is significantly easier. Would you agree with that?
Anthony Dazet:
Once you gain the influence, absolutely.
Joel Epstein:
At a hundred percent. But I truly think that people can tell, I think people know what's real and what's fake. I mean, people come up to me all the time. And they're like, "Man, nobody loves, oh my god. What did you just eat? What was on that?" and then they'll meet me, they know that a sincere stuff. I'm not taking a picture of someone else. They'll know, I tried to edit it a little bit. They'll know I'm not standing over it with a $10,000 camera. They know I'm eating it. I'm not just taking a picture of it.
Anthony Dazet:
Absolutely.
Joel Epstein:
So it changes the whole dynamic, you know what I mean?
Anthony Dazet:
That's why I kind of quit doing some. I'd get invited to a ton of events all the time and I quit going, sometime for the reason that I'm in a room with a bunch of people, one, that are influencers, and that the unfortunate thing about the whole entire model right now is everybody's jumping on the train. It's not a bad thing. Because man, when I got in, there was people that had better and bigger followings than me.
Joel Epstein:
Of course.
Anthony Dazet:
But I just seen almost like, I wouldn't say unauthentic, they're really are trying to doing things, but they're standing on top the table taking pictures, and somebody back to asked me a question the other day, man, "What do you use to take these great pictures?" I'm like, "My phone." And they're like, "No way." I'm like, "No, it's my phone, seriously." And they say, "How?" "Well, I got a little goofy app."
Anthony Dazet:
I took a little time with the story but that is the angles. It's like real estate. I learned in real estate when you take a picture of a room or a house, if you have a better angle on it, it looks great. That's kind of the difference with how things have changed, I guess in a sense.
Joel Epstein:
Yeah, yeah. No, no, it's such a great message for your brand, though. I mean, your brand for it to work has to be sincere.
Anthony Dazet:
Correct.
Joel Epstein:
It has to be sincere. So you said, engage twice a day and what that means is converse, talk. Someone you're following. You can say, oh, that looks great or what do you think about this? Engage, right?
Anthony Dazet:
Yes.
Joel Epstein:
And then would you say you would advise someone posts daily or you don't necessarily need to post daily?
Anthony Dazet:
I would post daily. I mean, back to if-
Joel Epstein:
Let's start with a agent and then let's go to a loan officer.
Anthony Dazet:
... Okay.
Joel Epstein:
Okay. So an agent, I tell agents this all the time. You might disagree with me. Okay. I tell agents this all the time. I'm like, "Get all these listings out of your feed. People are on following you. They're literally on Facebook. You don't know this is going on because you can't figure it out. They're hitting the unfollow button because they want to see what you have for dinner or a picture your daughter, graduation, they do not want to see your newest listing. They know you're an agent already." Do you agree with that? Or I'm I crazy?
Anthony Dazet:
I still post model my Facebook just because I have 5000 followers on Facebook and it works.
Joel Epstein:
But do you see where I'm going with that?
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, no. I get it. So your Instagram is the polar opposite in a sense and even it just made me realize when you said that, that I should stop doing it because of the route and the direction I'm going with this. But absolutely, like Instagram for example, That's why with Instagram they give you five accounts to put on your phone. And I could tell you that I tell people all the time like you need to have five different accounts and one of them is going to be. I mean one of my bigger Instagram followings for all of my real estate stuff is homes for sale NOLA and guess what's on their, homes for sale New Orleans. I mean that's all that's posted to it. I don't really ever post a house on my personal Instagram anymore.
Joel Epstein:
Seriously. So I didn't even know that. So you get five accounts for your main account. So there's really no reason to flood your feed with crap that people unfollow?
Anthony Dazet:
None whatsoever, man. I actually teach a course I call it the 5X theory with IG 5X. It's something I've been kind of coaching on and having classes about and then showing people. That's how you truly go into a market and gain influence. You're here in DC, man, and you can take on a hobby, food, DC to city pictures, your personal business like Big Joel and even just you as Joel and you could really create massive influence in a market that you're sitting in. I mean I'm talking massive influence.
Joel Epstein:
And it doesn't take away from the one brand because it's all-
Anthony Dazet:
It's all separate.
Joel Epstein:
... Still, Big Joel. Meaning it's not like you got 20 followers here and 100 over there. It's all really connected.
Anthony Dazet:
Correct. I'd tied them all back to one another some kind of way. It's a thing that I do for example, like Anthony Dazet, if you go to my main Instagram I have on there, Eating NOLA, real estate agent, mega agent, I have it on there. I call that my Billboard and that's what I refer to. I've been using this concept for years called the mothership, what is the mothership and in the legs or the extensions of, I used to do it in the web world, I'd have a website. That's how I started back in the day. I mean, I was it generating thousands of internet leads by having sub sites.
Anthony Dazet:
So I would take a sub site. So for example, I had New Orleans real estate, but now I'd have battery real estate. Different cities sub cities based on that, anything would funnel back to one and it's got a concept of it in a sense.
Joel Epstein:
Okay. So engage twice a day, post once a day. If you're using Instagram-
Anthony Dazet:
That's minimum.
Joel Epstein:
... No, no, I'll go with minimum. We're talking about people that are doing this wrong.
Anthony Dazet:
So when you say to the two times a day, I don't mean hey, like two pictures.
Joel Epstein:
No, no, no.
Anthony Dazet:
I'm talking 30 minutes sessions of liking or having conversations, engaging.
Joel Epstein:
Okay, okay, okay. All right. So, thank you. So you're saying earmark time?
Anthony Dazet:
Yes.
Joel Epstein:
If you're building a brand on social media, earmark time to work on that business, and you're saying, it is not a waste of time. You are not playing around on your phone if you took 30 minutes and went through and engaged at all. People have that backwards.
Anthony Dazet:
Very, I mean think about it right now. If I'm at the party again, the networking event. I walk up to you Joel and go and leave, that's what people do. Okay, This is where the model he goes back. If he's just walking around like, hey peace. I mean, so think about that, you have to-
Joel Epstein:
[crosstalk 00:26:27].
Anthony Dazet:
... Right.
Joel Epstein:
That's awesome.
Anthony Dazet:
And you walk out the room and leave the conversation early. If you're having a conversation do you speak more than five words? I mean, back to people do business with people they know and like.
Joel Epstein:
Agree.
Anthony Dazet:
A thumbs up, a heart, a little fire emoji is not going to make someone know you or like you, and that's where this direction with social media is going so wrong.
Joel Epstein:
So, this is good. People are really going to like this. So invest. Listen, I'm going light. Everything you say I'm cutting in half-
Anthony Dazet:
That's cool.
Joel Epstein:
... Because I know how people are.
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, yeah.
Joel Epstein:
Invest 30 minutes a day, people go, oh, I'm too busy. I don't have time but I want to build my brand. They don't understand. That's 30 minutes a day to engage. Interesting. Okay.
Anthony Dazet:
You have time. Okay, and it depends on when you wake up-
Joel Epstein:
Well they're doing it anyway, they're just not engaging.
Anthony Dazet:
... Right, right. More than new night I mean you got time. Wake up earlier then. Go to bed later. I mean that's kind of what it takes.
Joel Epstein:
And doesn't matter what time of the day you engage?
Anthony Dazet:
At all. No, I mean, no, it doesn't. I mean yes. If you're posting and there's a basis of. I'm that believer of man if you put great content out there you continue conversations that people know who you are, they're going to follow you regardless. Other studies where it says, this is the best time to post on Instagram and yes, it is because I seen it. When I do it at specific time, with Eating NOLA. You mentioned about influence. I had a buddy of mine approach me and said, "Hey, we're going to do these New Orleans restaurant t-shirts and all this fun stuff."
Anthony Dazet:
Man, when we posted a t-shirt at 12:00, the sales ratio jumped up a hundred percent. There's no doubt about that part. The fact is its repeat business people coming into and if I don't-
Joel Epstein:
I already had my Turkey and the Wolf she...
Anthony Dazet:
... You got [crosstalk 00:28:07].
Joel Epstein:
I already have that one free post that I would have bought, I got the Grateful Dead one immediately, double X. Got that right away.
Anthony Dazet:
Well those guys don't actually sell any. I mean, I got Pizza Delicious and those different ones but I haven't done Turkey and the Wolf yet, so you might just bought it from them directly.
Joel Epstein:
Yeah, and I thought I saw you. You didn't have it or you did?
Anthony Dazet:
No, no.
Joel Epstein:
You didn't, yeah. That's like me, any place I am ever in life ever anyone can check me on this, and there's a fried bologna sandwich on the menu, I order It's so fast. I don't even ask what's on it, I'm like done. Bring one of those.
Anthony Dazet:
So is that the best one ever then?
Joel Epstein:
No.
Anthony Dazet:
Okay.
Joel Epstein:
Do you know what the best number was?
Anthony Dazet:
So you know the won bone appetite number one restaurant in the country because of that sandwich?
Joel Epstein:
I'm not going to disagree and you know that I went in there with our mutual friend and ran it. You know we ordered every single thing on the menu and filled the eight top with it. But I think the best fried bologna sandwich ever, now you're going to have to step up. He doesn't have anything to write on here people.
Anthony Dazet:
Nope.
Joel Epstein:
Cheval, Chicago.
Anthony Dazet:
Really?
Joel Epstein:
It's a place where people wait in line six hours to get a burger. They just opened one in New York City as well. Went there when it was negative three outside.
Anthony Dazet:
Wow.
Joel Epstein:
So we only had to wait an hour and a half, and we snuck in the warmth, sat down it's like this little diner, and you got to get the... Everyone gets the burger and the bacon, thick slab bacon with the egg on it, it's all bacon right. And I was looking at the menu and I was like, "What's up with that?" And they were like, "Yeah, fried Bologna." I'm like, "What's the deal with that?" They're like, "Oh, it's house made." I'm like, "Bring us one of those as an app and cut it in thirds." They're like, "What?" I said, "Yeah, yeah. Put that thing on the table." That was hands down, and I think we got it at Piece of Meat Butcher as well in New Orleans. I think they have one up there.
Anthony Dazet:
I haven't had it there. Really the only place I think I've ever eaten a fried bologna sandwich is Turkey and the Wolf unfortunately.
Joel Epstein:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So okay, everything you're saying for Instagram, does it go hand in hand with Facebook? Or is it a very different strategy? So for Instagram, again, I just want to bring it back home. Got to be consistent, got to be visual, engage twice a day, I'm telling you engage once a day, 30 minutes engage, post at least once a day, take advantage of the fact that you have five different accounts. That's going to probably be for another time because we're going to be out of time.
Anthony Dazet:
Yes, oh, very true.
Joel Epstein:
Now that's a big subject matter, and Anthony takes emails and phone calls all the time. You could ask him more about that if you like this podcast, but is Facebook, is it the same? Or is it little tweaky different on Facebook?
Anthony Dazet:
I think it's very different.
Joel Epstein:
Then talk about that then.
Anthony Dazet:
I've shifted back and forth. So now I'm on a Facebook tear right now and I'll tell you, I do a lot of Instagram, but I don't do it as much as I used to. Could I tell you for about a two to three-year span, I don't think I even looked at Facebook. So the way my theory in this is Facebook is essentially your sphere of influence, okay? Friends, family way to keep up and keep in touch, colleagues that you know. So I base my sphere of influence all the time on if I made a phone call to you would you pick up or call me back within a couple of hours or if I called you and said, "Hey Joel?"
Joel Epstein:
Big Joel, big five.
Anthony Dazet:
Correct.
Joel Epstein:
You've heard that right?
Anthony Dazet:
Yeah. Well if I called you and ask for help. So the way I've been basing my whole entire market is that my sphere of influence. Facebook, you're limited to 5000. Instagram, you limited to nothing. I mean, it's unlimited. So that's my big difference in that. I took a different approach. I mean, I don't go into my Instagram and post pictures of my dog, I just don't. It's not a thing because I am consistently building a brand and doing things like that. But on Facebook, I'm dog crazy. I'm whatever. I want to post on there. I had a whole Airbnb debacle today which I put on there.
Joel Epstein:
So then, are people making a mistake, including me, starting it with Instagram and hitting the share to Facebook button. Is that a yes?
Anthony Dazet:
Yes.
Joel Epstein:
Okay, interesting. So unpack that because literally, that's what everybody does.
Anthony Dazet:
I'd say it's not a problem, you can do it. But back to think about this man you go to if you have a database of people, would you send everybody in that database, you have a database of a million, would you send a picture of your cat?
Joel Epstein:
So what you're saying is if it's building your brand, go ahead, you can start with Instagram, and you could share it to Facebook all day. But if it's building, I'll call it almost brand awareness. I know that's a little different with your sphere start it in Facebook?
Anthony Dazet:
Yes, I'll tell you the difference in those two is that-
Joel Epstein:
Did I ask that the right way?
Anthony Dazet:
... I get what you said the direction you're going and that probably does take a deeper conversation to kind of break down when and where and how. But the fact is-
Joel Epstein:
We won't have time for that.
Anthony Dazet:
... Right.
Joel Epstein:
But I just wanted to differentiate because I think pretty much the whole world first of all Facebook of course, they bought Instagram that was a smart buy right there.
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, we're talking an unreal buy.
Joel Epstein:
But I think everyone with the exception of pros like someone like you, we go to Instagram, we take that picture, we do our thing, we turn around, we hit the share button, then if you're smart well if you're on it like me then what I will do everyone in my family hazes me for doing it. They're like, "Are you done yet?" Then what I do is I let it come up my Facebook feed then I go tag in Facebook to people that want to see it.
Anthony Dazet:
I mean it's okay to mix the brands don't get me wrong, but the fact is, we're in the business of building brands. If we're truly, you got to get really clear and define what your brand is. I struggle with that man because I have multiple brands. And believe me like you mentioned earlier, like people like oh, Big Joel. Dude, I walked down the street of New Orleans and I get called Eating NOLA all the time and as great as that is and cool and different, I think back to myself like, damn, I'm the real estate guy. I'd rather you call me Anthony the real estate guy versus Anthony the food guy because I can't sell a ham sandwich but I can sell a badass house down the street.
Anthony Dazet:
So there's got to be clarity in that, can you mix them? Absolutely. Is it wrong? I wouldn't say no. But what is your goal? Are you building this big, massive brand.
Joel Epstein:
So I'm an agent or a loan officer, I'm on Facebook. What can I do right now when I've finished this podcast to just enhance or improve my reach?
Anthony Dazet:
Go to every one of your friends and comment on their last two, three pictures.
Joel Epstein:
Okay. All right. So, again we're back to engaging.
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, absolutely.
Joel Epstein:
Okay, so everybody, this is really not that hard. Okay, so he very quickly, he didn't even take a breath before he said this. Go to everyone of your friends and comment on their pictures or some of their pictures, okay? Now, sincerely comment on their pictures.
Anthony Dazet:
Correct.
Joel Epstein:
If you don't have anything to say, don't say it.
Anthony Dazet:
Don't do the thumbs up.
Joel Epstein:
No, no, no, no. But sincerely comment, "Hey, that looks like a really cool vacation. Where'd you stay?" Or whatever.
Anthony Dazet:
Ask questions. That's back to the whole I mean like I've built myself as a prospecting based, marketing enhanced company, and that's where we lose it. Because when you post a picture or you do something on Facebook or you go just comment vaguely on someone's, you're not creating engagement. Would I walk up to you and say, "Nice shirt." No, I'd walk and say, "Hey, Joel, nice shirt. Where'd you buy that?"
Joel Epstein:
This is so awesome. So that is what you're doing when you just like something, nice shirt.
Anthony Dazet:
That's it, nice shirt.
Joel Epstein:
And then you blow right back.
Anthony Dazet:
Oh, we really the like button, you kind of poking, I mean running. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, you're poking them. I mean, look at Facebook. They have to poke tool, has that ever worked? It's actually creepy if anything, you know?
Joel Epstein:
Yeah, but what is that?
Anthony Dazet:
I don't know, man.
Joel Epstein:
People poke me all the time. I'm like, "Did you do that by accident?"
Anthony Dazet:
I think they changed it to a wave now, maybe.
Joel Epstein:
What does that even mean? What does it even mean? I don't even get it.
Anthony Dazet:
It goes back to, I was having a conversation earlier today with someone-
Joel Epstein:
Is it the original like?
Anthony Dazet:
... Yeah, it kind of is, I believe. I remember. It's like the wave of the poking, it was a way to kind of wake up people. I don't know.
Joel Epstein:
So I asked Anthony, we're going to run out of time, literally right now I'm about to get the hook, and we'll have Anthony back on because we didn't even get to talk about my favorite stuff. I mean, come on we didn't even talk about where we're eating right after this, I'll post. Anthony will have that live in his feed by the way after that, beef ribs.
Joel Epstein:
So Anthony, I said what can agents and loan officers and anybody watching this do immediately when they walk or when they finish this podcast, and of course they're going to go like the podcast somewhere and comment on my podcast, of course, but what would you do? What could you do immediately and he without a breath, I mean, at a hundred miles an hour said, "Go like your friends pictures."
Anthony Dazet:
Comment.
Joel Epstein:
I mean, he didn't even and that was it. And by the way, he talks as much as I do. He didn't even say anything after that. He just shut up, which is rare for him. He literally just shut up. Sort of like me, I never shut up. Okay, he just shut up which means that's how powerful that is, and that's how easy that is. Which means everybody watching this, social media this, social media that, social media this. I'll tell you right now, if you're paying anybody anything to do anything with your social media, I'd stopped doing that immediately. Feel free you could just head to my GoFundMe burger page, should we set up a page?
Anthony Dazet:
Yeah, sure.
Joel Epstein:
We could just eat burgers, with me in my annual. I mean you could call me burger with me in my annual burger crawl, fifth annual this year already. But, I mean, stop it. You don't need to. We've had this guy, Anthony Dazet on here today. Okay, who sells real estate. So he's in this world. Okay, we didn't talk about that because that's another conversation. I wanted him to talk about branding, who built a massive brand just by liking and eat and food. But that brand, he applies all those principles to his business, to his real estate business, as well. We know that, and I asked him some very specific questions today, some easy, easy things and just to recap it real quick.
Joel Epstein:
For those of you that checked out halfway through or start checking your email, okay, Instagram, be consistent. Engage twice a day. That means sit and engage. Take the time to engage. You're not wasting time doing it if you're trying to build your brand, or build your influence. You get assigned five Instagram accounts, use them all. You don't just have to have Joel Epstein in Instagram, you could have DC Joel, Big Joel, you could have whatever it is in your market. Then we talked a little bit about, we talked about whether Facebook was different. Anthony does think Facebook is different. He looks at that as his sphere of influence, not necessarily people all over the world following him that he don't even know.
Joel Epstein:
Okay, he looks at that as people that actually know who he is, or would say hi to him or have a beer with him or whatever, if they saw him, even though you could have 5000 people like that. And I asked him, what can you do right away to change your social media, who you are? And he immediately said, Go on your friends pages and ask questions. Comment on their pictures. Like mic drop. How hard is that? Literally mic drop, how hard is that?
Joel Epstein:
Now, I want to make something very clear. You have to be sincere about everything you do, very sincere. Don't be going and comment on people's pictures and saying dumb stuff that you don't care about that they know is not sincere, okay? It has to be sincere. And if you don't have something sincere to say, then don't say anything at all. So Anthony, I want to thank you for coming up. You're about to get rewarded with some beef ribs right now.
Anthony Dazet:
Thanks for having me.
Joel Epstein:
Beef ribs, and I'm going to have Anthony back on because I feel like we missed about 400 different things we could have talked about, and I have a feeling that this podcast is going to be well watched because I think everybody is really, it's funny as into social media as I think people are. I think people are professionally confused with how to do it.
Anthony Dazet:
Very confused.
Joel Epstein:
I think there's so many brand experts and so many people selling so many things. I don't even know how much that stuff you need to buy. You just need to be sincere.
Anthony Dazet:
Yeah, people spend a lot of money, yeah.
Joel Epstein:
That's right. So thank you very much everybody for watching or listening to my latest episode of The bigJOEL Show here. I got Anthony Dazet from New Orleans, Louisiana. Everybody knows I'm a two lane grad, one my favorite cities in the United States. In the studio with me, it's been awesome, and if you enjoy this, as always, please go to any platform where you consume podcasts and give me a like or engage while you're engaging for 30 minutes, engage with me. All right everybody, Have a good one. Bye, bye.