
Empire Building · 30 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
36 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
The 36-touch plan represents a structured approach to database marketing that transforms sporadic business development into a predictable, repeatable system. Sarah Reynolds, who implemented the strategy at her family's real estate team in 2009 and grew it to over $1 million in revenue, explains how the framework originated from Gary Keller's Millionaire Real Estate Agent. The core premise: every 17 days your contacts forget what you do, so it's your responsibility - not theirs - to stay top-of-mind through consistent touches across multiple channels. Hosts emphasize organizing contacts into a single CRM or spreadsheet (starting with just 100 quality relationships), tiering them by value (with a VIP tier for top referrers receiving quarterly gifts), and executing touches through four quarterly phone calls, monthly emails, monthly direct mail, and other channels. This applies beyond real estate to any B2B business with a customer or referral network, and requires systems to ensure consistency - like Wendy's two-dish method of tracking daily outreach targets to maintain accountability.
The 36-touch plan requires contacting your database 36 times per year (3 times per month for 12 months) instead of the original 33-touch model, making it easier to track monthly progress aligned with the calendar year. Both frameworks aim to keep you top-of-mind with people who know, like, and trust you.
Export contacts from your phone as a CSV file, scan your social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), and review your calendar for places you frequent (church, gym, kids' activities). Create a spreadsheet with name, email, phone, and home address for anyone who knows, likes, and trusts you - starting with 100 people is a solid database.
The quarterly phone calls cost nothing. Other touches like monthly emails are free or low-cost, though direct mail (mentioned as part of the plan) will have printing and postage expenses covered in the next episode.
When new relationships form (like through your kids' activities), collect contact information and have an assistant or database manager add them quarterly. Ask directly for their address since mailing is a key part of the 36-touch plan.
Create a tangible tracking system like Wendy's two-dish method: set a daily target (start with 3-5 calls) and move physical markers from one dish to another as you complete each real estate conversation, ensuring you hit your goal before the day ends.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
A handful of usable tactics exist (the 17-day forgetting cycle, the 10-diamond tracking system, VIP tiering for top referrers) but they are buried under heavy social filler and throat-clearing in the first third of the episode. The core 36-touch framework itself is compressed into perhaps 10 minutes of a 30-minute show.
I learned that every 17 days, buyers and sellers and. Or your consumer. Right. This applies to every business, not just real estate. Forgets what you do.
I have two little dishes and in one dish I have 10 little plastic diamonds and the other one is blank. And every time I have a real estate conversation, I move it from one dish to the other dish
The hosts openly attribute the framework to a book written over 20 years ago and their sole 'innovation' is adding three touches to rename it the 36-touch plan. There is no contrarian framing, no first-principles thinking, and no challenge to the underlying assumptions of the model.
this is something that came out of the millionaire real estate agent, uh, Jay, my husband, and Gary Keller wrote about this, gosh, over 20 years ago now
we call it a 36 touch. So we're going to confuse all of you now. No, m just kidding. So we have a 36 touch plan that is the same as the 33 touch, except there's three extra touches because there's 12 months in a year
Both co-hosts are genuine real estate practitioners who have built teams at meaningful scale - Sarah Reynolds cites growing from 75-80 transactions per year to over $1M in revenue, and references $35M GCI - but the format is a peer co-host conversation rather than a practitioner being pressed on the details of their expertise, which limits demonstrated depth.
after implementing it, this is what actually took us into a million dollar in revenue business is this alone having the consistent team meeting and this alone
we did about six 75 to 80 transactions a year, which is a lot
There are genuine specifics scattered through the episode - transaction counts, a named referral source (Peter Dennison), a multi-decade event, and a concrete referral-to-transaction story - but many process claims remain at a surface level with no data on conversion rates, cost-per-touch, or ROI, and Part 2 is where tactical detail is promised.
I'm sure I was sending him probably 10 to 15 referrals every year
a friend of mine in New York City... that ended up turning into six transactions
The co-host format produces one genuinely useful follow-up question about Sarah's system for capturing new contacts, but the overwhelming tone is mutual affirmation ('I love that,' 'that's gold,' 'our cups are full') with zero pushback on any claim and no probing of failures or edge cases.
Can I ask you a question? Yeah. What's your system for taking. Because I know you're in touch with a lot of people every week. What's your system for all the people you meet?
That is gold. If you hear nothing else today.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Picture this: you’ve got an incredible database of people who know, like, and trust you - but you’re not tapping into it the way you should. That’s where the 36 Touch Plan comes in. In today’s episode, we’re diving into the foundation of building a business that thrives year after year: consistently nurturing your database. We’ll share how implementing this simple (but not always easy!) system completely transformed our businesses - from 75 transactions a year to crossing into million-dollar revenue territory. You’ll learn why organizing your database is the first non-negotiable step, how to identify your “Mets,” and what it looks like to tier your contacts so you can focus on your top referrers. Your homework? Get your database in one place and ready to go. Because next week, we’re unpacking part two: the messaging that actually converts. Resources: The Millionaire Real Estate Agent Book - where the original 36 Touch concept was introduced Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji Wendy Papasan: @wendypapasan Kymber Lovett-Menkiti: @kymbermenkiti Tiffany Fykes: @tiffanyfykes
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: Foreign.
Speaker B: Welcome to Empire Building. I'm Wendy Papasan, and together with my four co hosts, we bring you weekly unfiltered conversations about leadership, growing a big empire, and living on your own terms.
Speaker A: I'm Kimber Lovett Minkitti. We are investors and wealth builders with over 75 million in combined net worth. I'm Sarah Reynolds. We are visionaries who've built more than 50 businesses with over 122 million in annual revenue. I'm Tiffany Fike. We've led thousands of people and do it all while being pretty good moms.
Speaker B: And I'm Seychelle Van Poole. We are your podcast to learn how to build big businesses and even bigger lives. Hey, listeners. Uh, so excited to have you all here today. Um, I'm Wendy Papizan, and I'm here with my beautiful co host, the Lovely and talented Ms. Sarah Reynolds. Aji, how are you, my dear?
Speaker A: I'm awesome. I've had such a great week, and I'm excited for a new week today on Empire Building podcast. But it's been an awesome week for us. We got to have our circle time together this week, and so me and Wendy are. Lives are feeling full.
Speaker B: Yeah, our cups are full.
Speaker A: Yes, our cups are full. We got to have a couple days together, and it was just awesome.
Speaker B: Yeah, A lot of laughing, some time in the boat, some actual masterminding. You know, I was really thinking this morning, you know, when I got up, how different our conversations are, you know, because we've been doing this for 10 years now and how elevated they are. And I mean, man, some of the things we talked about yesterday were. Were pretty incredible.
Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's so much growth happens, and all of a sudden surprises us, like we think we're not making progress, and then one day you look up and then when you're looking at what you knew, like, five years ago, or maybe some of our listeners, you guys have been listening to us ever since we launched this pod, which has actually been five years now. Crazy.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Like, what growth have you guys had? Like, acknowledge it. Right? Because I think that's what happens when you've been in relationship with people for a long time as you see the growth that each other is experiencing. And I want to encourage you guys to think about where you were five years ago, where was your business, where was your life, and acknowledge the growth that you've had. Because I know if you've been a consistent, uh, listener of Empire Building, you've probably had massive growth just as we have.
Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Well, speaking of growth, we're here to talk about something kind of fundamental to my growth, and I know fundamental to your growth as well on your real estate team, which is something that we call the 33 touch. So if you're with Keller Williams, you may have heard this before. Sounds a little weird. Always when you say it, you're like, wait, what? 33 touch. But this is something that came out of the millionaire real estate agent, uh, Jay, my husband, and Gary Keller wrote about this, gosh, over 20 years ago now. And it's really been the bible for us in terms of how to make leads consistently come into your business. And what's great about it is it's extremely simple. It's not easy to do, but it's actually really simple. So we're going to just break down the 33 touch today and, um, help you guys really understand how to go from where you are to having consistent, repeatable business.
Speaker A: Yeah, 33 Touch really transformed, uh, my business. And it all started with reading the Millionaire Real estate agent. And the 33 touch is all around the people that you know. So what they call. Say in the book is they call. Refer to them as Mets. But you want to think about who knows you, who trusts you, who likes you, who do you know. If they know your name, you know their name. Right. And this is the strategic plan on how to grow your business through the people that already know like, and trust you. And so they're called your mets. So in 2009, when my mom, Debbie. So I, at the time, I was her buyer's agent, had been a realtor for a few years, had helped over 100 families at that point, but mainly focusing on the buying side of the business. And she sat me down and my mom said, you know, I want you to be in charge of the team. I want you to be in charge of the business. At the time, we did about six 75 to 80 transactions a year, which is a lot. Yes, it's a lot. Yeah, it was a good business. Y. We were the two producers and then we had an admin assistant and ah, my mom really saw a vision for something bigger and said, you know, I think that we can accomplish it, but you would have to lead and grow it. So the first thing I did as the leader of, at the time, the Reynolds team, was to actually implement a weekly team meeting. That was my first thing. Okay. The second thing, like, we should probably talk to each other.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A: Like in a strategic way. Yeah, I know.
Speaker B: That's a gold nugget by the way if you're not doing that in your team. Yeah, that's a gold nugget.
Speaker A: True.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: And then the second thing was to implement the 33 touch because my mom had this massive database. She had been in the business since 1988 and then. So 21 years.
Speaker B: Oh, wow. Okay.
Speaker A: Wow.
Speaker B: I didn't realize she'd been in real estate that long before you started.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: So your team's been around like 40 years.
Speaker A: Yes. Yeah.
Speaker B: Yeah. I guess I knew that you took over the team, but I didn't realize she'd been in business quite that long. So. Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah.
Speaker A: Yep.
Speaker B: Yeah. She's OG Keller Williams.
Speaker A: Oh. Oh, gee. Yeah, she joined Keller Williams in 1999.
Speaker B: Wow.
Speaker A: And there was less than, I think, 5,000 agents.
Speaker B: Yeah, that's right before Jay started.
Speaker A: Yeah. At the company. And.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Uh, yeah, she was one of the founding agents in Virginia for sure. So. Yeah. But the first thing I said was, okay, we need to be touching our database, this amazing database that you built, uh, for all these years, at least 33 times because the book tells us to. So that's what we're going to do.
Speaker B: I love that because I think so many agents operate entrepreneurially, which is, you know, the business kind of just comes to them and they're okay with that. They're okay with the ebb and the flow. And some years you have a great year when the market's doing well, and some years you have a down. Maybe you needed a down year after your crazy year the year before. And just that kind of entrepreneurial approach actually can create a really good business for a lot of people, is what I hear you saying. And when you put this framework on top of it, which is what Sarah is talking about, you can really, really change your business.
Speaker A: I learned that every 17 days, buyers and sellers and. Or your consumer. Right. This applies to every business, not just real estate. Forgets what you do. M. And I said to myself, well, is that their fault or is it my fault? Well, it's my fault if they forget what I do because it's my job to remind them. It's not their job to remember me and what we do in our business. It's my job to remind them. And so 33Touch is the first thing that we implemented in terms of our lead generation. And after implementing it, this is what actually took us into a million dollar in revenue business is this alone having the consistent team meeting and this alone.
Speaker B: I love that. Well, and the first thing you need to do is you have to organize your database. So whether you're starting out or whether you've been in business for 15, 20 years, like Sarah's mom had been, you really need to see what your database looks like. And if you're just starting out, well, then you have to think about who are my klts, which are. Who are the people who know like, and trust me. Right. So if you're just starting out, the best thing that you can do, the best way to spend your time is to just start a spreadsheet and write down, you know, every single person that know, likes, and trusts you, Right?
Speaker A: Yep.
Speaker B: Not necessarily that you know, like and trust. There's a difference there. They need to know, like, and trust you. And then you want to put as much contact information as you've got for them, which is email address, obviously, home address, phone number, any pertinent details you know about them, anything know about their family, maybe they go to church with you, something like that. So that can really. And honestly, you can build a really massive business with a very small database. So if you have a hundred people that know like, and trust you, you can build a massive, massive business by just layering the 33 touch on top of that.
Speaker A: Yeah. And you. What Wendy's saying is you've got to have them organized in one place to know who you are targeting to send something to at least 33 times a year and so organizing it. Some tactical things that you can do is looking through your phone, right, and just scrolling through who's texted you. Look through your contacts. Are they in one place, like in a CRM, in a spreadsheet, to where? And if they're not, you want to get them in one place. Right.
Speaker B: And now it's so easy to. You can actually export all of the. If you've got an iPhone, it's very easy to export that into a CSV file and dump that into an Excel spreadsheet or something like that. I mean, I did it. I have an insane amount of contacts. I have over 8,000 people on my phone, which is insane.
Speaker A: Wow.
Speaker B: I know, I know. It's crazy.
Speaker A: I feel so special.
Speaker B: I know. You're one of, uh. You're one of 8,000. Well, I'm a people person. Yes, but you can export it very easily. You can do that in, you know, 30 minutes or less.
Speaker A: So exporting from your phone.
Speaker B: Yeah, it's a great way to start.
Speaker A: Another tactical thing you can do is look through all of your social media accounts. So you look through your social media accounts, who knows likes and Trusts you get them added to that CSV file, get them added to the same spreadsheet. Because maybe their contact information isn't in your phone, but you're friends with them on Facebook or they follow you on Instagram.
Speaker B: And they don't have to be in your city.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: They can live anywhere in the country. You know, I had an, uh, amazing situation where, uh, I moved to Austin from New York City, and a friend of mine in New York City, we only stayed in touch through social media. She actually sent me a referral 10 years after I moved. So I'd never even seen her talk to her on the phone or anything. We just stayed in touch on social media. And that ended up turning into six transactions. So staying in touch with people that you know, not just in your city, but all over the country. All over the world, really now, yeah.
Speaker A: So who belongs in your Mets? The first is obviously past clients. All the people on your phone, all the people in your social media. Vendors, neighbors, gym friends, board members. Like, the list goes on.
Speaker B: Like, think through, look at your calendar, and what are the things that you're doing? Okay, you go to pickleball, you go to church. Who are the people at church that know like and trust you? Who are the people, uh, in your pickleball league that know, like and trust you? Who are your neighborhood mom friends? Right. That you know like and trust? So think about it in terms of groups.
Speaker A: That's so smart.
Speaker B: And you will be so surprised at how many people you know.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: You'll be shocked. Yeah, you'll be shocked.
Speaker A: And the cool thing is, is as you go about your day to day, Right. You meet new people. Right. So my daughter has become so into volleyball. And through that, I now have a volleyball moms text string with 14 other moms, all with daughters that play volleyball. Well, they weren't in my database.
Speaker B: Can I ask you a question?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: What's your system for taking. Because I know you're in touch with a lot of people every week. What's your system for all the people you meet? How do they get into your database? Do you just remember all of them or what do you do?
Speaker A: That's a great question. So what I typically do is when something new has changed, in this case, because I'm a pretty stable person in terms of I'm either at the office, at, uh, home with my family. Or your dolls with my friends. Yeah, exactly. Those are the three places I go to church as well. So those four places is where you can typically find me. And so the thing that Changes in my life is my kids and their activities. And so when my kids get into a new activity, then I'm collecting contact information from the parents. A obviously, selfishly, we all help each other. Right. With getting them places and snacks and all the things you do as a parent. And then I take the screenshots of their contact information and I send it to my assistant and our database manager and they just add them to it. And I do directly ask people for their address because I'm a big believer in mailing, doing direct mail. And that's a big part of our 33 touch, which we're going to talk about in detail on our next episode. And it's really important to have as much contact information as you can now. It shouldn't stop you from still reaching out to them, even if you don't have everything. But don't be afraid to ask people for their address because you send goodies out. You send different things and hey, can I get all of your contact information?
Speaker B: Yeah. I love being on your list. Yeah, you send out good stuff.
Speaker A: I do, I do, yeah.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: So just getting in a rhythm of when things change. And then quarterly we look at our database number and I do think that that is what helps me remember because our goal is to grow, constantly be growing and feeding the database and we're tracking, okay, how many is in our database right now. And then when I see that and I'm like, oh, my goodness, like I can grow it right now just by redownloading the people on my phone and making sure everyone's in there.
Speaker B: This is so important. And if you have a team, you need to be reminding the people on your team to do this as well. So. So we've done different things, um, over the years. Sometimes we have competitions where we do database ads. You know, we don't do like ongoing, but maybe we'll do a 12 week competition where, you know, people try to get as many database ads as they can because you need. People need to be reminded of it. So you as the leader need to have some kind of trigger like Sarah or you need to have, you know, on. Maybe in your weekly leadership meeting, you talk about it just to remind everyone that they constantly need to do that because your database is. If you don't constantly feed it, it will go hungry.
Speaker A: Yep.
Speaker B: You know, you have to constantly, constantly feed it because people move, they unsubscribe, they, you know, they don't want to be. Your daughter is not in volleyball anymore. So these people are five years later, they're like, who. Who's this person again, you know, unsubscribe. So you have to constantly be feeding it.
Speaker A: Yep. Everything that matters in your life should have a number attached to it. And I know that sound can sound somewhat strange, so hear me out. For example, like, my husband matters deeply to me. If I don't spend time with him, like a certain number of time with him a week, which for us is our date night, then our relationship suffers. Right. If we don't have that time together with how busy we are, our relationship suffers. So on my 411, on my goal sheet is the number of dates I'm going to go on with my husband. A year. That's a number. A number is attached to my relationship with my husband. Now, he's not a number to me, but the number means that he's important. The number actually means he's important.
Speaker B: He is a number to you. He's a 10.
Speaker A: He is. Oh, good. So good. I know. That's why you're his favorite. I know that's why you're his favorite. I know. The point is, is if it matters, there's a number attached to it. So if your database matters, what's the. The number that you want to have in your database? What's the goal? And do you even know how many is in your database right now? Are you looking at it? Right. But in the beginning, like, some of you are thinking, well, this is overwhelming me, Sarah. Like, I don't know. I don't even have one. That's okay. We all started that way.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Literally 16, 17 years ago. That's when this started.
Speaker B: For Empower Home, I have an agent database. Because at a certain point, I decided, you know what? I'm going to have a database of people who know like and trust me, that are in my sphere, then I'm also going to have a separate database, people who know, like and trust me, who are agents. And I will tell you that it started out with one person. Literally one person. So that's where it all starts. Starts with one.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: And then I love the idea of having a goal every year, you know, every quarter or whatever that looks like.
Speaker A: Yeah. So I know, Wendy, you. You many times will set that goal, as you mentioned earlier, in terms of the number of quality mets and connections that you want to create as well, like each quarter. So organizing it, getting it all set up in the database in a spreadsheet where you have all of your database in there. And as Wendy said earlier, we're not talking thousands. When you start out A hundred people. That's a good database. That's a really good database. Okay. And then you want to set a goal in terms of, okay, how many a quarter are you going to nurture? And really focus on those relationships. I know you have some tips on how to, like, tier it as well, right, Wendy?
Speaker B: Yeah. So we've done. And this is something we did kind of later on. I can't remember, maybe we got this. I think we got this idea from you, your VIP program. And I know several, I think, or, uh, Seychelle. I know Seychelle does it as well,
Speaker A: but, yeah, we both do it. Yeah.
Speaker B: Yeah. So everyone that gives us a referral that year and the following year goes on our VIP program, which is essentially we add a quarterly gift to everything else that we're sending out to them. So it's good to know who your top could be. 10 people, could be 25, could be 50 are. Like. There's a lot of value in looking at your database and determining who your top referrers are, even if you haven't tracked it in the past, you know?
Speaker A: Yep.
Speaker B: You know who they are. Like, I know for me, our Realtor was Peter Dennison before I got my real estate license. And he and I bought several homes together because I was an investor before I got my real estate license. And Jay and I constantly sent him referrals. Constantly. We were on his VIP list every year. He would give us a poinsettia. Uh, you know, once a quarter, he wanted to go grab coffee with us. And. And so probably the worst day of his life was the day I got my real estate license, because I'm sure I was sending him probably 10 to 15 referrals every year. So who are the Wendy's in your database? Who you know that are. Because doesn't it make more sense to love on them? Right. They should be special. So treat them like the gold mine they are.
Speaker A: So you identify and organize your mets. That's step number one. Step two is then you tier them in terms of your priorities, in terms of focus. Now, your database, they're all going to get the 33 touch, which we're about to dive into the elements of the 33 touch. And. But step two is like, okay, you want to know who you want to focus on first and that who deserves more of your time, who deserves something extra special? When you start with them, you end up actually could grow your business even exponentially more, as Wendy shared. And so doing that is critical. Okay, so on Empire building, we call it a 36 touch. So we're going to confuse all of you now. No, m just kidding. So we have a 36 touch plan that is the same as the 33 touch, except there's three extra touches because there's 12 months in a year. And it was much easier for my brain to tell our assistant, okay, I need you to help me to make sure that this group of people, my database, gets something from our team three times a month. Okay, that was just easier. It goes with the year. Okay, so 36 touch. Now, what are some things that could be included in the 36 touch plan?
Speaker B: Well, the easiest one and most important one is probably calling your database. So this, uh, is all, uh. I did a lot of this when I first got into real estate because I didn't have a lot of time. My kids were three and five when I started and you know, I did open houses and things like that. But I thought, gosh, you know, I have to sort of wait around for four hours and hope like two or three people wander in. Whereas like four hours I could talk to a lot of people on the phone. And I just got really good with making those check in phone calls. Hey, how's it going? You know, do you have a quick minute to talk about business? Okay, great. Who do you know? Blah, blah, blah, that kind of stuff. So that's the easiest way. And, and honestly you can do that by text message or social media message. As long as there's a two way interaction and you're having a conversation about real estate.
Speaker A: You were so good wende about like that's how you spent your time. Like you, you had very limited time when you first got your license.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker A: But you spent your time making sure your calls were in every single day, right? Every single working day. Yeah. What was the thing you used to do? You used to move things over from one jar to the other.
Speaker B: I have two little dishes and in one dish I have 10 little plastic diamonds and the other one is blank. And every time I have a real estate conversation, I move it from one dish to the other dish and I look and see at the end of the day, did I move them all or not? And if I moved them all, then I did my job.
Speaker A: That's right.
Speaker B: And for me it was 10. It was, it's 10 still 10.
Speaker A: That is gold. If you hear nothing else today. Okay. And implement that in your business like I'm telling you, it will grow that one gold nugget of having a daily goal of how many you're going to talk to and Some fun little system.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: That to make sure you do it right is critical.
Speaker B: Start with five, you know, start with three.
Speaker A: Yeah. Whatever your number is. And so you want to be calling your database at least once a quarter. Okay. And so the first part of the 36 touch, so that's four touches a year. That's going to be a two way conversation with your database to where they're going to hear from you, they're going to hear care, they're going to hear your checking in, you're going to ask them how they're doing, you're going to know what's going on with their life, they're going to know what's going on with your life. Right. Because again, these are people that know like and trust you and you want to deepen that relationship. So four quarterly calls, like one call a quarter is the perfect way to start. And the best news of all, it doesn't cost extra money.
Speaker B: Nothing. It's free.
Speaker A: Yep.
Speaker B: Absolutely free.
Speaker A: The next thing is you want to do a monthly email. And so that can be a newsletter that can be behind the scenes of something that you're working on. Maybe a client bought a fixer upper and you're helping them fix it and you're going to do a behind the scenes of the projects that they're doing or a success story of a family that you have recently helped. You're gonna be emailing them. So you're calling them quarterly. They're getting an email from you a month. We're now at already 16 touches. That's 16 touches so far, um, in the year just by doing those two things.
Speaker B: And I would just add a caveat with the newsletters is you wanna be providing value. So everything that you're sending out, it's, it, uh, could be a story which provides value. It could be information about what's going on in the market which provides value. What you don't want to send out is a newsletter about how great you are.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: Yeah. Nobody except for maybe your mom, but probably not even your mom wants to read that.
Speaker A: Yep. So powerful. And we're going to go into more on, um, messaging and next week's episode because we're going to get super tactical next week on this. But so you've got your calls, you got your emails and then the next thing I know that's your jam. Is the next part of the 36 touch.
Speaker B: Wendy. Yeah. Yeah. So we've always done a lot of events and so we have three to four events every year. And what's great about Events is actually you can touch someone multiple times during an event. So you might send out a save the date email. Okay. That's an email that's providing value.
Speaker A: Yep.
Speaker B: So let me give you an example. We do a pumpkin patch photo shoot. Uh, it's a free pumpkin patch in a neighborhood farm. And uh, it's actually been going on for 22 years. And we have a photographer there. We have this big setup with scarecrows and there's candy and they get a free pumpkin and they get their picture taken. So there's a reminder email that goes out probably like a month in advance and then a couple weeks in front of that there's another reminder. The day of everybody who signs up gets another touch. And then you know, obviously the event is a touch. Right. Hopefully if they're there. And then you can um, always call your database before and after and say, I hope you're coming or gosh, I'm so sorry you didn't come. So you can actually get a lot of touches out of just one event every year.
Speaker A: Yeah, I mean it's so powerful when we do the events and there's ways to do them lower costs and we're gonna share some ideas on that. Yeah, for free. Exactly, exactly. So you're doing calls, you've got your emails, you've got events. The next thing is you wanna do four to eight mailings or maybe surprise gifts.
Speaker B: Mhm.
Speaker A: A year. Mailings can be the higher dollar amount thing. Right. Because of postage costs and printing and things like that. Now depending on how many times you're touching them with other things. Cause technically you could call them every month and that would be 12 touches. The point is we're giving you a variety of ideas and you build your 36 touch plan with these things included. I like a mixture of things in my 36 touch. So for me, mail is one way I know that they're going to at least see it. Uh, because emails, even if you're providing amazing value, even if you've got a great subject line, the majority of people are not going to open and read the email. They're going to miss that touch because they're not opening or reading it. Right. But if you send a postcard or send a letter, even if they don't read it, seeing your face, seeing your name, maybe not your face, but your name. Right. Will remind them right off the bat, like, oh, I know like and trust them. Um, and if I hear someone that's looking to buy or sell real estate or based around what you do they think of you. And so I like to include some mailings.
Speaker B: Well, and I think it's super important because especially if you've got high net worth individuals in your database, a lot of times they'll have a gatekeeper for their email. Right. They'll have a gatekeeper for their phone. But even if you're a high net worth individual, most likely you open your own mail at home, so.
Speaker A: True.
Speaker B: You really do. Yeah. So you get that eyeball to eyeball thing. And, and if you don't have the money to do mailings, you can do very inexpensive, you know, they're called pop buys. You could, if you had 100 people in your database, you could do 25 a quarter, which is roughly, you know, let's say one every three days. Run over to somebody's house, you could just leave it in their mailbox. You can knock on the door, see if they're there. That's a really powerful way, especially when your database is small, to really, really go deep with them and help build that connection.
Speaker A: So we've got calls, we've got email and value drips that you're sending out, we've got events, you've got the mailings. And then the bonus one of all is social media. Right. Because as you're following them, as they're following you, you're reminding them what you do regularly. And again, we're going to dive into that more next week. Okay, so this is the overview of the 36 Touch. We want you, your homework from today's episode is if you don't have your database organized in one place by next week, have it all organized in one place. Even if you do have it organized in one place. And I'm going to do this homework myself. Even if you do have it organized in one place, get it updated, all the new relationships that you have. Wendy's tip on looking at the calendar, that massive gold nugget there. Okay, go through and update your database because next week we're going to dive in and we're going to talk about the messaging that converts. We're going to talk about how to lead, generate more through social media. What are some events that and how to make them more magnetic to get more business. Right. And then what to say during that quarterly call. And then we might even end with a little bit of a challenge for all of our listeners next week.
Speaker B: Ooh.
Speaker A: So I love it that's coming up
Speaker B: and just understand, you know, I know I always knew I had to do the 33 touch. And you know, unlike Sarah, when I got in and started my business, it was really, actually difficult for me to figure it out and do it. So I would challenge you guys, you know, to really wrap your head around getting this, this one thing done, because this one thing is going to help you go from where Sarah's business was doing 75 deals a year. I'm not going to say it's going to take you to 35 million or whatever you did last year in GCI, but it's definitely going to grow it. I mean, you said it took you to over a million, which is totally remarkable. So I just want to challenge you guys who've been struggling. And also, you know, a lot of you have had a bad year this year. So this might be the time you might have the mental space and energy to think about. Gosh, I've got a few, few months, uh, here at the end of the year. It's going to be a challenge accepted. I'm going to do it. So today's been awesome. I can't wait for next week when we unpack it all and give you guys all the details. So, uh, hopefully you guys will do your homework and we will catch you all at the next episode of Empire Building Podcast. We'll see you then.
Speaker A: Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.
Speaker B: Bye, guys.
Speaker C: Warning. You must comply with the TCPA and any other federal, state or local laws, including for B2B calls and texts. Never call or text a number on any do not call list and do not use an autodialer or artificial voice or pre recorded messages without proper consent. Contact your attorney to ensure your compliance. This podcast is for general informational purposes only. The views, thoughts and opinions of the guest represent those of the guest and not Keller Williams Realty, LLC and its affiliates and should not be construed as financial, economic, legal, tax or other advice. This podcast is provided without any warranty or guarantee of its accuracy, completeness, timeliness or results from using the information.
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