It Took 2 Years to Get Her First YouTube Lead • The YouTube Lab • Sarah Maslowski

Keeping It Real Podcast • Secrets Of Top 1% REALTORS ® • Interviews With Real Estate Brokers & Agents

Shawn Shackelton shares her journey of building a successful real estate business through consistent YouTube content, despite taking two yea

Key takeaways

• Consistency on YouTube pays off long-term—Shawn's first lead came after two years of posting videos.
• Reusing and repurposing top-performing content can generate sustained traffic and leads.

Main topics

• Long-term YouTube strategy for real estate agents
• Overcoming early content anxiety and self-doubt

Notable quotes

"It took two years for my first YouTube lead—but now I've closed 65 million with 50 clients all from YouTube."

Conclusion

Shawn Shackelton's story proves that patience, consistency, and authen

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) This agent made YouTube videos for two years before she closed her first deal from the channel. Two years. This year she closed 65 million with 50 clients all from YouTube and put five deals under contract while she was on vacation in Europe. Sarah Maslowski is going to walk you through what happened in between. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping It Real is brought to you by Real Geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads into interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren't converting? Well, RealGeeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose Real Geeks as their technology partner. Real Geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real Geeks also includes an easy-to-use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest, and have great follow-up conversations. Real Geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness. Visit realgeeks.com forward slash keepingitrealpod and find out why realtors come to Real Geeks to generate more business. Again, visit realgeeks.com forward slash keepingitrealpod. And now, on to our show. Today's episode is brought to you by Corded.io. Are you looking for agents to join your brokerage or team? Now, as a real estate recruiter, I can tell you the answer is always yes. but most agents aren't looking to move right now. So how do you know who to contact? 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Now, if you are looking to grow your brokerage, Corded.io is the best tool out there. Visit Corded.io to schedule a demo. Again, that's Corded.io. And now, on to the show. Speaker 3 (3:05) Hey everyone, welcome back to Keeping It Real. I am Sarah Masowski with the YouTube Lab. And as promised, I have a really great guest on today. Welcome, Shawn Shackleton, all the way from Scottsdale, Arizona, joining us. Welcome. Speaker 2 (3:19) Thank you. Good to be here. Speaker 3 (3:21) Yes. So I wanted y'all to hear from Shawn because she is a fantastic agent out in Scottsdale who started making YouTube videos in 2021. So we kind of got started at the same time. and I wanted to kind of share a different perspective of another person's journey that has figured this out along the way and we can always learn from one another. So what first got you into deciding like, hey, yeah, I'm going to try this YouTube thing and let me give it a go. Speaker 2 (3:51) Well, it was after the birth of my twins. Okay. Well, because I realized, so I've been in real estate for, since 1998. Okay. And what I realized after having my kids was I was not going to be able to be out as much as I was before. And so I needed to make sure that I was maintaining good exposure and be able to be seen without having to be out all the time. Like I was before. And what was your lead generation like? I was a lot, a lot of referral. I was a lot of. I would do open houses. I would do, you know, all the regular things that real estate agents would do, which would take me away from being home. Yeah. And I didn't want to do that. Speaker 3 (4:40) I Speaker 2 (4:40) just didn't want to do it anymore. Speaker 3 (4:41) First got started in 2021. Speaker 2 (4:44) Did Speaker 3 (4:45) you feel like you knew what you were doing at the time? Not a clue. Speaker 2 (4:49) Not a clue. Nobody does. Everyone, you know, you hear all these people are like, oh, just make videos. And they're like, oh, make all the pros and cons and do all the things. And then all the people will come and watch your videos. Yeah. Speaker 3 (5:00) So think back to that first couple of months of making videos or even the first couple of videos. Speaker 2 (5:07) What did that feel like? Well, I think you and I actually met in a program making videos kind of in a different way. Yes. And so that was my first real exposure to making videos. So it's super uncomfortable, right? Like, I don't know anybody that's like, I love being on camera, you know, and I love the way my voice sounds. And I love, you know, I mean, unless you're like an actor or something, you know, you get used to it. Speaker 2 (5:36) And you just have to kind of realize when people are like, oh my gosh, I don't like the way my face looks or my hair looks terrible today. You're like, well, if you were going to go out with a client, that's the way you would look. Like, that's the way they see you every day. So like get over that and realize that you have a lot of information to share with people. And it's the stuff that they ask you every time you're out with them. So share it. Speaker 3 (5:56) Yeah. So going back to how we met, so we were in another program that. taught a different video lead gen strategy. And my experience with that, and I think yours as well, was at the time, still, we constantly hear agents need to be making video. You need to show up on video. And that is true. But if showing up on video, how do you get that to actually turn into a client? Speaker 2 (6:24) And Speaker 3 (6:25) I think that was the frustration that I had with the other program. I was like, hey, we're making these videos, but... I don't see a path of how it actually brings in clients. Right. And, and it was expensive. So expensive. When they were Speaker 2 (6:39) doing it. So that was my other thing, like to your point, like it was make videos, put them out, but put them out this way and it's really expensive and all of that. And it didn't work. Yeah. And so we found these other agents Speaker 3 (6:52) that were having success with YouTube. And so having kind of been exposed to. getting comfortable with the idea of making videos or as comfortable as you can get because you're always uncomfortable um but then seeing these other agents have success with it you know gave a lot of inspiration to oh okay i can see how this actually does translate into clients very Speaker 2 (7:16) much so yeah i mean it was just like okay so Speaker 2 (7:20) Glad I did that. Yeah. That kind of game got my feet wet on just getting on video. Right. And understanding what that was like and getting that feel and kind of working out some of the kinks, I guess. And then being able to start putting out YouTube videos, but really understanding what that looks like, because it's it was very different than what the other program was was preaching and telling, you know, so you have to. you have to learn because it's a different it's a different animal So what do you feel like thinking Speaker 3 (7:55) back to those first videos that you put out? Just walk me back to the beginning, like the first couple of months of making videos. What were you thinking at the time? Well, Speaker 2 (8:06) I think that everybody's like, I'm going to make these videos. You think you know what you're doing. Kind of. You have an idea like I'm going to make videos for these people and this is going to resonate. And you have no idea. And you put out your first video. And you're nervous and scared. And you're like, oh God, I hope this, you know, you put it out and you're like, I got 10 views. Speaker 3 (8:27) Yeah. Speaker 2 (8:28) Like, oh man, is this going to work? You know, because it's just, it's crickets and you're so excited and you put so much blood and sweat into it. Because again, when you and I started, there was no AI. Yes. I was handwriting my scripts until the wee hours of the morning because I had to get it done. Speaker 3 (8:49) Do Speaker 2 (8:50) you know what you kids have it these days? I know, right, right, right. But I just remember too, and I mean, everybody that's been on YouTube now for a while, you go, oh God, I go back and I see some of those first videos and wow, they're bad. So I think that's like Speaker 3 (9:07) a really great reminder of we all start somewhere, right? And I think if you were to go back and tell us during this first couple of months. Like what if, what if you would have given up on that and said, this isn't working, you know, I need to throw in the towel and quit. Like, sometimes I think about that because. I can sometimes give up way too easily on things when I get frustrated, discouraged, or feel like I'm not getting that instant payoff. And so I often kind of think back to, gosh, what if you didn't, what if you wouldn't have stuck with it? Speaker 2 (9:46) Right. So I'm the opposite. So I'm the one that probably should give up sooner. And I will, I'm like, I'm in it. I'm, I'm, I'm going all in. I'm giving it my all because. most of the people, like you were saying, the group that we kind of found, they were all having a lot of success on YouTube. And I think you had success pretty quickly on YouTube also. Yes, it was about six weeks in Speaker 3 (10:10) to getting my first lead. But those first six weeks felt like crickets. It felt like nobody was watching. All the videos at that time period had single digit, low double digit views. And the only reason I kept going was because I had made a commitment to myself that I was going to at least try this for three months before I gave up. And I was... sticking it out for three months, no matter what. So thank goodness that first week came in during that time period. Yes. Speaker 2 (10:43) My experience was very different because I think I might've gotten my first phone call within six months. Okay. It did not. I mean, they were great and they were going to buy and they decided not to. I did not close on my first YouTube lead for two years. Okay. That is. So I made videos. for two years before I had a profit. Speaker 3 (11:07) So that's really interesting because from my experience of working with other agents and helping them implement, you know, on average, most agents will end up getting some sort of reach out around three month mark. Sometimes it'll take longer. I had a couple of Speaker 2 (11:25) people reaching out, not a ton. I had a few, but I did not close. And I had something under contract. Speaker 2 (11:33) gosh, probably within nine months. And then it was a new build. And then he decided that he, I mean, and it was over $2 million, but he decided he was going to back out and he lost $50,000. Speaker 3 (11:44) Yeah. Speaker 2 (11:45) So I literally did not close on my very first YouTube lead for two years. Wow. I did not know that. So how, Speaker 3 (11:55) because most, most agents would Speaker 2 (11:56) give up during that time period. Speaker 3 (11:58) They would see, Speaker 2 (11:58) they would Speaker 3 (11:58) say, okay, this works for other people and it just not, does not work for me. Speaker 2 (12:03) Yeah. What made you keep going? I just, I don't know. I just, I think I just