NONFICTION BRAND podcast | E221 “Going viral is terrifying.”
Guest: Heather Ewing | full transcript
In this episode of the NONFICTION BRAND podcast, I had the opportunity to discuss with good friend and fellow Madison, WI local Heather Ewing about her journey of using social media platforms like TikTok to promote her business and forge meaningful connections. As a commercial real estate broker, Heather shared her experience of embracing social media as a tool to set herself apart from the competition and reach a larger audience.
One of the key takeaways from our conversation was the significance of consistency and authenticity in content creation. Heather emphasized the importance of staying true to oneself and delivering valuable content that resonates with the target audience. She also shared examples of how her videos have not only generated business but also garnered recognition within her industry. Another aspect we delved into was Heather’s experience as a woman in a predominantly male-dominated industry. She spoke about the challenges she faced and how she overcame them by building her own personal brand and establishing her own firm. Heather’s story serves as an inspiration to other women looking to make their mark in similar industries.
Overall, our discussion shed light on the power of social media platforms like TikTok in promoting businesses and building relationships. Heather’s journey exemplifies how leveraging these platforms can lead to success and growth, regardless of the industry or gender barriers one may face.-dp
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
DP Knudten (00:00:04) – What people who are listening to the podcast don’t know is that you and I met because of social media. Can you relate that story?
Heather Ewing (00:00:14) – Definitely. So I don’t remember what I was doing exactly. I was scrolling through social media and I came across one of your videos and of course you were very entertaining and I don’t even remember the exact details of it, but the gist of it was about networking. And it was actually it was 1 million cups. And I was like, Oh, he seems neat and I’m like a million cups. It sounds like a great group. I’m going to check it out.
DP Knudten (00:00:39) – Right? So what Heather is talking about is there’s a national thing. It may be even international Now, I don’t know, a group called 1 Million Cups that is kind of a networking business group for people. And the concept comes from the fact that if you’ve got a startup or a small business or even a growing scaling business, it takes you a million cups of coffee to really get going and off the ground.
DP Knudten (00:01:04) – So I did one of those walk talk brand videos saying, Hey, I’m going to this thing and who shows up? But Heather And we hit it off gangbusters. And then I look, you know, this was what, maybe three, four years ago. And then of course, yeah, Covid intervenes and we lose touch and all that stuff. And all of a sudden I’m keeping up on all things social media because I’m a creative director who has to know these things. I’m on TikTok, of all things, and I see Heather, a commercial real estate broker, who’s doing these regular videos on TikTok, sharing not only, Hey, there’s a new listing, but dudes, I’m getting ready to go to Berlin to run a marathon. And I’m like, Wait, wait a minute. Is this the little Heather Ewing I knew from years ago who’s just really kicking butt on TikTok? And the answer apparently is yes. Why? Heather, have you embraced TikTok as one of your channels on social media to get the word out about what you do, who you are and how you do it?
Heather Ewing (00:02:09) – It’s a great question. And actually, when I started my own firm, I wanted to do something unique and different. And it is such a great emporium for connecting with people for free. Where else do you get an opportunity like that? You can spend thousands, millions if it’s in the budget on advertising in different venues. So I saw an opportunity and I seized it. And I also it’s about differentiating, right? Your love and expertise of branding. I use that for my advantage of no one else in the market was utilizing videos on social media and I thought, what a great opportunity. And that’s how it all started.
DP Knudten (00:02:50) – Amen. I tell you, you hit it on the head, which is no one else is doing it. Plus, it’s like this whole suite of power tools everyone else is toiling with little dull knives to cut down a sequoia redwood tree when there are all these power saws just waiting there. But they aren’t doing it because, well, I’ve never seen it done or, you know, I’m a little too old.
DP Knudten (00:03:14) – And this is for 20 year olds and crop tops on beaches, doing mimetic dances and stuff like that. And the answer is no. And I remember watching Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary Vee one time, and he put it very succinctly. If you think social media is just for fast fingered 20 year olds, you are wrong and you’re leaving money on the table. Absolutely right. Let’s talk about your experience embracing social media. What has it done for you? Have you actually created relationships and converted into real transactions because people recognize you from those videos that you’re doing on TikTok? And I think you’re on Instagram heavily, too, and LinkedIn as well, because one of the things you’re doing is you’re not just posting one place, you’re posting everywhere, right?
Heather Ewing (00:04:02) – Well, to your point, it’s it has garnered a lot of business, especially as anyone in 100% commission sales such as commercial real estate. You realize that your greatest resource is your time and your energy is right behind that. The fun thing is, since I have been doing it for, I think approximately three years, the videos and things, it took me a little bit to get going is that here’s a perfect example.
Heather Ewing (00:04:28) – I was on a flight coming back from a big retail conference in Vegas, and I didn’t time it very well with Beverage Cart. Or maybe I did talking to a few strangers in the airplane. Also, someone hears my voice and they’re like, Heather. And I’m like looking around. And I was like, Yes. And he’s like, We’re connected on LinkedIn. And I was like, Oh, I’m like, Well, it’s great to meet you in the flesh. Different state. What’s the chance of that? And now I’m representing them. So that’s a perfect example also when I’m out in. The streets of Madison. I’ve had people yell across the street, Hi, Heather, you know, And so it’s kind of fun. Madison is a very small market, but I work with nationals through social media, regionals, local, so it is very effective and I think it comes down to having solid content.
DP Knudten (00:05:15) – How blown was your mind when someone recognized you? Not by your face, not even your hair, but your voice.
Heather Ewing (00:05:22) – It really blew me out of the water. It’s something I would never have imagined. And I think the really nice thing about it again, is that it’s a free resource. And when you tie that in with market knowledge and I think a good personality life favors those types of activities. And I think being consistent, which is something that I know you thoroughly understand, what happens is people, one, want to create their first video and be perfect and two, they think that they can do it a few times out of a week. But consistency is really important and what I love about it is the realness of it.
DP Knudten (00:05:56) – Yeah, Well, and the thing about that consistency is you will naturally get better the more repetitions you do. You know, I’ve always used the metaphor. It’s like going to the gym for the first time. You walk over to that free weight rack and maybe you can only pick up the £5 dumbbell, right? Well, you do a few reps on that and you go, okay, well that wasn’t great.
DP Knudten (00:06:17) – It was an Olympic quality, but it’s what I could do today. Then you come back the next day, you do a few more reps on the same with the same weight. Then after that you go, I can add more weight and all of a sudden you’ve mastered the technique to the point where you almost look forward to doing these things, especially when you start to see the reaction of people around you on the street or whenever you’re trying to actually engage with people the old school way, which might be at a networking event or even via cold calling.
Heather Ewing (00:06:49) – And I think the other thing about it too is authenticity, especially post-COVID, but just in general, authenticity is such an important factor of life that I think sometimes people lose sight of it. And that’s where my video is. There only 1 or 2 takes. They’re not scripted. I like to think of maybe a couple bullet points in my mind of something I want to talk to, and then I just shoot it with my iPhone. There’s no camera crew.
Heather Ewing (00:07:16) – It’s really that simple. And then I post it so it only takes a few minutes. I’ve gotten to the point of where I walk in between appointments and something will pop into my head of what I want to talk about and I’ll talk about it. Or maybe something that I’m encountering in a deal that might be beneficial to others. Or just sometimes I want to parlay a little information that I think people should be aware of. And I’ve had Pepper in my Teeth later that I found out a little bit in the cave. Not excited about that one, but they’re real and I think people really connect well because of that.
DP Knudten (00:07:50) – You hit on something which is that so many people are stuck on perfection that they end up not doing anything. And yet all of us realize that perfection is not perfect in terms of engaging authentically. Like I’m thinking about a song that I have seen on TikTok that three Nashville songwriters wrote. They recorded it while sitting in an old silo with kind of a fire burning and the lights are reflecting off and a single microphone source probably someone’s iPhone and it doesn’t matter because the song is so compelling.
DP Knudten (00:08:26) – Their performances are so real and raw that it comes off so powerful that unbeknownst to them, it is now a huge hit on TikTok because people are dying, literally dying for the authentic human connection in this land of artificial everything.
Heather Ewing (00:08:46) – Oh, definitely. And I think, too, with that authenticity is people are at such a hurried pace in general in life that I think if you were to ask of what they genuinely feel about maybe their career, their health relationships, different things of that sort, they probably don’t even know themselves because I think we’re so disconnected with ourselves unless you make an intentional point to do so. But then also it’s just such a fast pace and I think people just aren’t comfortable with themselves and thus a lot of perfection. And I know in my earlier years I was trying to be perfect. It was painful. It was a lot of work and it’s a bar that you can never meet. So I think just loosening up, getting to know who I am, what I am, what’s important to me, what’s not, what I stand for, that it just makes it a lot easier. And I think it’s finding comfort in your own skin that does give you wings. And as you allow and approve of that in your life, I think you help others to also accept and approve their feelings of themselves as well.
DP Knudten (00:09:53) – Well, you alluded to earlier that you’re in a business that is I’m going to put it in my words, not your words. It’s a good old. Sector of the economy. You know, it’s typically who you know, how long you’ve known them, how much golfing you’ve done with them. And the transactions can be enormous. So consequently, there’s a relationships are not the value of the relationship, but the value of how many transactions that relationship can bring to you over time. This is not a one and done thing at all, right? It’s something you you want to cultivate that relationship because they might be at Construction Company A for now or, you know, working for whatever commercial real estate agency or corporation they are now, but they aren’t going to stay there forever. And if they have the relationship with you, they take you wherever they happen to go.
DP Knudten (00:10:48) – So how how do you approach doing what you’re doing, the way you’re doing it in a sector that doesn’t naturally do it and a sector that kind of prefers or perhaps leans heavily on the male side of things.
Heather Ewing (00:11:03) – So something that’s interesting is I’ve always worked in arenas professionally that the majority of people I was surrounded by were men. So one of the funny things that people may not know about me as I was a little tomboy when I was growing up and actually my dad raised me from age 12 forward. My mom had passed when I was young, so in that sense, I grew up, you know, both in that arena and then all of the careers that I had worked in 20 plus years, it was all guys. So when I did get into the commercial real estate sector, for me it’s really seen it as a performance sport. And this is how I see life, is that you line up at the start line and it’s one of those you want to bring your best strength, your best game.
You want to make sure you’re hydrated for the race. You want to make sure that you’ve eaten adequately, that you’ve done all of the training that you’ve pushed to become your very best. The race gun goes off and everyone goes, and whoever crosses the finish line first is the one that wins. And I see that it doesn’t matter what your personal parts are. If you want to say it’s how good you can perform at the job of how well you can understand people, how well you listen and can you solve intricate problems. And also it’s not something that’s done in a couple of months. A lot of times it can be 12 months, sometimes it’s years and a deal can just rail. So being a marathoner to me is just a beautiful and symbiotic relationship to commercial real estate. And I think it’s one of those two of you have to know yourself, you have to know your know, and you have to be firm in what you believe and you have to say yes to deals that are right for you and in your lane and no to others that aren’t and refer them out is not an easy arena, but it’s also extremely gratifying.
And it’s a place that I call home. And I think in any arena you’re always going to have a few people that are just bad seeds in any arena, including social work, right? Which people would probably see as the complete opposite of commercial real estate. But then within our industry, there are a lot of really great people. And through all my professional careers, typically I was always mentored by men. So in that sense I’ve had a lot of really good, solid relationships that I’m grateful for. But I do see some people that I feel like I’ve really gotten to a very fortunate place where I have my own firm. I call the shots and it’s really simple in that stance. So I do think I’m kind of an anomaly there as well. But there’s only probably about six of us women in the commercial sector, so there’s just a few.
DP Knudten (00:13:51) – Wow. One of the things I like about your analogy of marathon running to what you have to do as a commercial real estate broker is the fact that it’s about performance, but it’s not about running 26.2 miles the first day you get out running. I remember watching one of your tiktoks where you’re talking about, Hey, this weekend, it’s my long day. And I’m like, What’s a long day? 12 miles. Oh, yeah. Well, I could never run 12 miles, so I’m impressed right there.
Heather Ewing (00:14:20) – If you wanted to, I’d get you on a program. You let me know when we’re done. I’ll get you set up.
DP Knudten (00:14:25) – Oh, yeah? Well, I’m built for comfort, not built for speed, if you know what I mean. But. But it’s a great analogy because you can’t expect to to run that great distance your first time out. Instead, you train and you get better and your performance improves by Say it with me performing, you can’t perform without getting off your butt and doing it. So you’ve done that in terms of video to the point where people are recognizing your voice on a plane, which blows my mind. Mind. What you’ve done is you’ve now created a, dare I say, brand within the commercial real estate sector that isn’t just local here, Madison, Wisconsin, but is extending outward. How far out has your brand got from your humble domain here in Madison, Wisconsin?
Heather Ewing (00:15:21) – I mean, New York, California, people have seen different videos, different even some of my different listings, things of that nature. I’m actually in an affiliate network group now out of California because a broker that I know in New York recommended me to them. So it’s it’s a deep connection through relationships, which you hit on earlier in commercial real estate. And if you think about it, due to the dollar volume, those relationships are really important because you’re entrusting people with a significant amount of money. For some, it’s their entire life savings. For others, it’s a certain portfolio and it’s it’s really expanded more than I could have ever have imagined. And I’m excited to see where it continues to go. So it’s consistency in video and marathoning and in delivering in the commercial sector. So you’ll notice that they’re all connected. And something that’s kind of fascinating is that again, going back to performance, I linked the marathon training with the commercial real estate as well too, because if you’re sleeping better, if you’re making sure that you’re hydrated, you’re eating clean, you have more energy, you have greater stability within mood, it helps you to be stable through some of the wild things that can and do happen.
I frequently joke of who needs to go to Vegas when you’re really playing the high stakes games any single day. So all of that leads to me becoming an even better person, which then I can perform at a better level in relationships for myself and also in career for clients and I think life is really about becoming your best, and that’s something I have a zest for.
DP Knudten (00:17:06) – Oh man, I love that. I mean, there is no sometimes I’ll write copy for my website or something like that that’ll have a line in there about professional and personal lives. And every time I write something like that, I go, No, there’s only one life and they’re all related. The way you are personally is the way you perform professionally. The way you perform professionally is exactly or should be exactly the way you perform personally. And that to me is the essence of authenticity. I’m sure you see it as much as I do, especially on LinkedIn. You got all these people talking about authenticity and it comes off like some smarmy syrup or something.
DP Knudten (00:17:47) – And no, it’s just the way you are, the way you act, the way you treat people and the way you perform. I love that performance thing. We are going to talk more about performance and about life before social media and life after social media and things like that. But I want to remind people that you are practicing what I preach in this book right there, written for the ROI of social media, top of mind. You can get that at the house of Jeff Bezos. Amazon.com. Just look up o t comma, which stands for Return on Top of Mind awareness, which happens to be the very best thing about social media. It keeps you pinging on people’s radars. And let me tell you, Heather is pinging on my radar. So much so that three years after not seeing her because of Covid, I said, you know what, I got to have Heather on the nonfiction brand podcast. So that’s why she’s here. Once again, I want to thank you for coming on the nonfiction brand podcast, and we will be back next week.
DP Knudten (00:18:53) – But for now, remember, this podcast is brought to you by not only the ROI of social media, Top of Mind, but my second book as well. Nonfiction brand Discover, crafting, communicate the completely true completely you brand you already are. That’s available at Amazon.com too, so I hope you’ll pick up a copy. That’s it for this week on the Nonfiction Brand podcast. I am your host, as always, Deepika Newton, and she is.
Heather Ewing (00:19:20) – Heather Ewing, Abstract Commercial Real estate.
DP Knudten (00:19:23) – And we’ll be talking at you again next week. Bye bye.
