Real Estate with Heart: Impact and Branding | Betsy Pepine

Welcome to Wickedly Branded: Marketing, Magic, and The Messy Middle, the podcast where real conversations meet real strategies. I'm your host, Beverly Cornell, founder and fairy godmother of brand clarity at Wickedly Branded. With over 25 years of experience, I’ve helped hundreds of entrepreneurs awaken their brand magic, attract the right people, and build businesses that light them up.

In this powerful episode with Betsy Pepine, founder of Pepine Realty, discussed her incredible journey from a corporate layoff to building a multi-service real estate empire. Betsy opens up about the pivotal moments that led her to real estate, how she navigated personal challenges, and the strategies that helped her scale a business that’s not only financially successful but also community-driven. Tune in for inspiring insights on brand evolution, confidence-building, and strategic growth that any entrepreneur can apply to their own journey.

Three Key Marketing Topics Discussed:

1. Embracing Imperfection in Branding: Betsy emphasizes that authenticity, even through the ups and downs, is the key to building lasting trust. 
2. The Power of Systems in Scaling: Betsy discusses the importance of implementing strong systems to support business growth. 
3. Pivoting with Purpose in Business: From a corporate layoff to creating a thriving multi-service real estate empire.

Follow Betsy:
Betsy | LinkedIn
Pepine Realty | Instagram
Pepine Realty | Facebook
Pepine Realty | LinkedIn
Pepine Realty | Website

Dare to be Wickedly Branded

Transcript

Beverly: 0:11

Did you know that over 70% of Americans have felt overwhelmed by the complexity of the real estate process with many struggling to find a trusted agent to guide them? And for real estate leaders like today's guest, that statistic isn't a challenge. It's an opportunity to redefine what client service really means. I'm your host, Beverly Cornell. I'm the founder and fairy godmother of brand Clarity. At Wickedly branded we've helped hundreds of overachieving consultants, creatives, and coaches awaken their brand magic and boldly bring their marketing to life so they can feel more confident and attract the absolute favorite and most profitable clients. Today's guest is a true trailblazer in the real estate world. Betsy Pepine is the founder of Pepine Realty. She's got a few things going on, a multi-service real estate power. Legitimately in Florida, that's earned recognition as one of the fastest growing companies in the US. Not only has she built an empire, but she's also leading with heart. With her nonprofit Pepine Gives supporting families facing housing insecurity. Betsy, I'm so excited to have you today. Welcome to the show.

Betsy: 1:14

Oh, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here, Beverly.

Beverly: 1:17

So talk about this, we call it the Spark, which is the beginning of the business. Started from loss, like you went through some stuff to get to Pepine Realty, right?

Betsy: 1:27

Yes, it was definitely a pivot, an unexpected pivot in my life. And actually I learned later that real estate is typically a second or third career. Okay. Most people don't go into real estate right out of college. But anyway, for me, my first career was in. Marketing pharmaceuticals. So I have a marketing MBAI love all things marketing, and I went into the pharmaceutical industry. I was in it for almost 10 years. And when I was 31, 32 in a very short period of time, I found myself in a layoff. The company that I was working for, the pharmaceutical company laid off the entire commercial division because our one product company did not get the FDA approval. And hence there was no need to market anything that, because we didn't get approval. And then around the same time, I found myself suddenly single with a one and 2-year-old daughters.

Beverly: 2:13

Wow.

Betsy: 2:14

So I was in the northeast, I had grown up in Florida. So I moved home and I say that literally I moved back into my childhood bedroom and my girls lived in my sister's bedrooms or what were my sister's bedrooms when we were growing up. And really reevaluated everything. As life tends to throw you curve balls, you tend to do that. So out of that, I decided it was time to start what I felt was something that I could be truly passionate about. And I always loved marketing, but I didn't love marketing pharmaceutical products, but I felt like I would love real estate because you're really not marketing homes. Homes sell themselves. You're marketing your services. So that when people find themselves in the need to buy or sell or invest in real estate, they will think of you. I did enter real estate, gave myself a two year kind of plan and an exit strategy. If we couldn't make it, we, being my girls and I. But I just loved it. And there's several ways to expand the business. And when I realized I was gonna make a go of it, I started building the brokerage. And then instead of growing more and more geographically I grew vertically. I'm like, okay, I'm already serving customers that need a house. What are the steps before and after and during that they, that I might be able to provide. And so that's how the title company came to be. That's how the mortgage company came to be. That's how the property management company came to be.'cause we had investors that wanted to invest, or if the house didn't sell, they wanted to be able to rent it. So that's how those spinoff businesses came to be as part of an expansion strategy. And then the nonprofit came about six or seven years ago, we formalized that and became a 5 0 1 C3. And That's a passion of mine. I love that we're able to give back in a very direct way. With the services that we already do. Serving a clientele that needs our services but could not afford them through the front door. It's just a beautiful synergy to me and it completes the circle for me in terms of what I wanted to do with my career. So that's how I landed here in a nutshell.

Beverly: 4:11

So how did you come up with the name and the brand, and how did the brand actually evolve as you were evolving into these new spaces?

Betsy: 4:19

Yeah. The name was very difficult for me, and I struggled with that because I really did not want the name, I chose my name. It's my last name, Realty. And that's very common. It's very boring. And I'm like you. I love the colors. I like, standing out, being different, but weighing the pros and cons. When I went out on my own, I was going out by myself. I wasn't taking any agents with me. I had been in this town since I was five years old. My father had built a very great brand for our name in our town, in his profession. The downside of using it is when you try to sell it. It's a problem. And I knew that, but I just felt like. At the time, it was worth the trade off because it would give me instant credibility. That I wouldn't have had if I just picked a name that connotated quality or service or something like that. So that's why I chose the name I did.

Beverly: 5:04

I love that. It's so interesting to me when people have a legacy to live off of, to be able to use that in a way that's powerful. To give you that credibility immediately was amazing. That's a great choice, Betsy. I think that's a great choice. You can always change your name later once you're established. You're not forever beholden to the name. I worked for a dentist who was like, his last name in DDS for 50 years or something, and then he changed his name two years before he sold. So you can change it. Don't feel like you're beholden to that. I changed my name this year from BC and Associates Marketing for that exact reason. I didn't want my name associated to it in case, whether it was my children ended up taking it over or I sold it or whatever. I wanted them to have it away from me, although I still am very much in front of the business for now.

Betsy: 5:49

It's a great question to ask'cause when I started the property management company, I used the same name and then the referral company, the same thing. But then when I started the real estate school, the real estate school, it's the whole state of Florida. We can service any customer, anybody that wants to get their license in the state of Florida. It's our region. So that one is called the Real Estate School of North Central Florida.

Beverly: 6:09

So tell me who your clients are, what's the transformation you offer, and give us an example of what it looks like to work with Pepine realty with you.

Betsy: 6:17

I'm a broker. So my customers are my agents. And my staff. As any business owner.

Beverly: 6:23

Okay.

Betsy: 6:23

Their customers are the buyers and the sellers. Okay. So most people assume that my customers are the buyers and the sellers. And they're not at all. They really aren't. If I don't have agents and staff, no one gets paid, the business isn't running. My role has changed and evolved over the years.'cause I used to be in production and now I'm not. But for my buyers and sellers, and when I interview agents to come with us. Most people think of real estate literally when they've done surveys. We are one step up in reputation of a used car salesman. Realtors are. And that's very sad. We've done it to ourselves. But it's very sad. And it's considered a very transactional business. And I don't even view it that way. I don't look at myself as a business that sells houses. We are in a relationship business. How many times have you moved?

Beverly: 7:06

28 times in my life.

Betsy: 7:07

And you know that number, right? It's a life event. Yes. And that's why I call agents. It is a life event. Yes. But. It is always precipitated by another life event.

Beverly: 7:17

Oh. My husband's military, so his job has required us to move. Or with my mother, when I was a kid, she got a divorce and had to move to a place. So yeah, there's always been some element of life happening Correct.

Betsy: 7:28

I had define a life event as something that you remember in five years so I tell agents, okay, so you've got. Your seller, right? They have the life event of selling their home and the life event that's precipitating the need to sell the home. On the buy side, you have the same thing. Their need to buy a home and their life event. So you have four life events that you are the mediator of. That's what you're selling. You are managing their stress during one of the most stressful times in their life, and they will always remember that. So that's what we sell. We sell the experience and we're selling a long-term relationship. I tell agents and I tell end users, I don't care. If you ever buy or sell from us, I really don't. My only goal is to establish trust with you, because I know if I establish trust with you, then when you are ready to buy or sell a house, or when you know somebody that's ready to buy or sell a house, you will feel compelled to share my name with your sphere. That is my goal. I remember maybe three years into my career, I got a call from an elementary school down the street, and they said that Savannah needed picked up from school. And I said, sorry, you must have called the wrong person. And they're like no. Their mother, puts you down as the emergency contact. That was my buyer who I had helped buy a home three months before. And she thought enough of our relationship to put me down as her constant contact. I felt so honored by that. Like that is success. So that's the kind of experience, that's the goal that I have for when somebody interacts with one of our agents, that's the kind of experience that they have.

Beverly: 8:57

So many of the clients that I work with are in a service-based business where it is much more about relationships. Like for us, when we work with a client, it's not about marketing necessarily. It's about their confidence and their clarity and their visibility and how they show up in the world. And you can say it's about a new website or some of those things, but it's about much more than that. So people who I love to work with are exactly people like you, Betsy, because you understand the actual transformation that's happening. And I had never thought about the life thing that had to happen before the move, like why it's so emotional, why it's so hard? There's a lot of loss and grief when you leave. For us, we leave entire states, so we're saying goodbye to people. We're brand new and I can't tell you how many times I've asked like my neighbor or somebody who's a stranger to be my personal emergency contact. It's been interesting because I have no one. So I'm like, would you mind I have to put this name down on this paper for school? But it is scary and you don't know a lot of people and you have to build trust really quickly. And our real estate agents. We've never really probably met them in person before. We've actually used them in the state that we're in and they've done video tours and we've bought houses unseen only through video because of the nature of us being across the country to make this move. So the trust you have in someone to give you the right advice. For this probably the most expensive thing you will ever buy. For those listeners who are hearing this and you serve people and you have a product or a service, but what you actually do is something far deeper. If that insight feels real to you, I would love for you to let us know in a review. Hey, that's me. I'm that person. I do more than just sell a service. It's about a relationship. It's about. Confidence. It's about believing in themselves, all kinds of things that you have happen when you actually work with, I feel like the actual end consumer or even a business owner in that sense. This Season we're all about the brand activation, so how a brand comes to life and I'm imagining it has evolved quite a bit for you over the years. What do you think a brand is and how do you think you embody that? Talk about that a little bit. Was it instant? Was it something you had to get used to? What was it for you? How did that come to life for you and how did you develop that over the years?

Betsy: 11:09

I did have a degree in marketing, and I love that. I love those classes. So I knew a little bit about what I needed to do. I picked the colors. I picked red because I just felt like it was a very strong and empowering, confident color. Red stands out from a mile away, so that's why we did red. Our signs are reflective at night. And so people always say, I see your signs everywhere. We're the only ones that glow in the dark at night. So we're getting that much more exposure at night as well, and it costs so little to do that. I didn't have core values. I didn't have a mission statement. I read so many business books and I knew that was important, but I don't know what I was thinking. I probably was thinking that's for big, ge that's not for somebody like me literally working outta my garage. But it wasn't until my first hire, my first hire was not an assistant, it was a marketing manager.'cause I knew how important marketing was. But she left me to my competitor the two days before I was going on a cruise. And I was like, oh my gosh. She said the reason why she was leaving, she, loved me, blah, blah, blah, but she didn't see a path for growth, which there was none. We were six people working outta my garage. There was no path for growth for her. She was the only admin. She said, we didn't feel like a family. And there was no opportunities to volunteer in the community. And those last two were really impactful to me because I had come from pharma in the nineties where that was not modeled for me. You left your family to go to work, and you went home to your family to then volunteer in the community. There was a pretty hard line in the sand as to what your employer provided and what you expected and what your home life provided. At least that's what I thought. And this woman was telling me she wanted those merged, so it was very eyeopening. So I actually got myself a coach after that discussion and he's Betsy, you gotta go big or go home. I'm like I'm already home. I'm literally physically working outta my garage. Let's go big. So he helped me and the first thing he said is, okay, tell me your mission statement. And I didn't have one and I didn't have core values. Hindsight, I should have done that, in step one. And I wish I'd done that earlier. I was only maybe a year or two in, but still. And then that gave me the foundation, I didn't understand how much that drives everything. Because then I came up with client avatars, staff avatars I hire and fire by our core values. It's just a filter and it decisions become so much more clear. So that really helped my brand. And then I think the other thing that was maybe not traditional, at least where I am, that helped me with my brand image. And again, because I was a one woman show, I got endorsements. And I think that might be something that's a strategy that's overlooked in real estate, I got Barbara Corcoran to endorse me and I'm in commercials with her and having that run on our local TV just. Maybe it's smoke and mirrors, truly, but people associate you with her success. So that I felt like really helped me grow more quickly than it would have if I didn't have celebrity endorsements behind me. I had three different celebrity endorsements and I still have them, and I don't really feel like I need them as much anymore. But if you wanna boost, that might be a way to boost your credibility and the confidence that other people have in you because you do get associated with their success.

Beverly: 15:26

It's an interesting take on this because I've never done endorsements. I've, obviously testimonials, case studies, portfolio, all kinds of stuff. How did those endorsements work?

Betsy: 15:35

So for example, Dave Ramsey's one. I happen to love Dave Ramsey. I love and teach his concepts of financial peace. And and I teach it to my agents. I teach it to recently released prisoners, women prisoners who have come out because those are skills that everyone needs that are not being taught in schools. So for his endorsement, it was quite a lengthy interview. You had to show knowledge of his products and his values and that you understood them and because he wants people to espouse those values when people call him and his network asking for an endorsement of an agent. So I had to do that interview and once I got in, they only take, I think, three agents per market. Okay. And then you pay, it changes. The program's changed over the years. Currently you pay a small monthly fee to be in the program. And you have to commit to a one month coaching call with his staff. And then there's a ton of metrics that you have to report because he wants to make sure his customers are serviced. So they track how quickly did you respond to the customer? How many times did you respond to the customer? Nice. Did they end up using you? All that stuff. And they get a very nice referral fee. So that's how that works. But like the Barbara Corcoran one, that's a relationship that the agent that I was using to buy my radio and television, he had that relationship. And so she works differently. There's a, I think they call it like a publicity fee or an endorser fee. It's a monthly fee that you pay and it can range. I think a low fee would probably be$500 a month.

Beverly: 17:03

Okay.

Betsy: 17:03

Up to thousands a month. And then you pay for like the radio ad or you pay for the commercial to be shot and the advertise like the space on the network.

Beverly: 17:12

What a great way to piggyback. I talk about collaborations and partnerships all the time. But to be very intentional in using your marketing dollars, in the collaboration and partnership. To help build your authority and build awareness. Because I'm sure that Dave Ramsey also has some kind of site where it says real estate approved. So you're getting in front of people who are already associated, that are very money minded now. How did you learn about that idea? Where'd that come from?

Betsy: 17:35

I am incessantly curious, so I'm always looking at new things and so, I stumbled across him. I used to follow him, I listened to his podcasts. I've read all his books. I have visited his campus. So I think it was just through assimilation of knowing Yeah. Him and his brand. And I knew that he made his money in real estate before he launched the podcast and the radio and all that. His money was made in real estate. So I think that's why I probably knew him just'cause we were in the same space.

Beverly: 18:02

Yeah, for sure. You have this very large conglomerate of all these different aspects of realty. But I feel like realty is a bit of a crowded marketplace. There's a lot of people putting up signs in people's yards. I love the idea that you have a glow in the dark. That's amazing. Yeah. What unique value do you think you really lean on to differentiate yourself? Like how is that in your messaging and in how you show up as a brand?

Betsy: 18:24

I think it could be better in our messaging. The distinguishing feature of my brand from the buyers and the sellers would be buyers, it's hard because they're not even from our area, so they're just looking online. And buyers, sadly choose a realtor primarily. If you have access to the home. So it's a commodity. But you can still differentiate yourself. So for example, one of the things we have is access to inventory that's coming onto the market. Buyers love that because if a good home comes onto the market priced well, it's gonna go very quickly. So they want access to homes that are coming soon. So we have a mechanism to collect those and they can get on a mailing list and get those from us. So that's one way we can differentiate ourselves from the masses. When I first started real estate, Zillow didn't exist. So now the more the public has access to our data, the more we have to keep creating value in other ways. And that's why it's so important that you form this relationship. So the value proposition is, Hey, I can show you homes that you'll never see on mls. Yeah. If you're an investor, I personally invest, I've got a whole Airbnb arm that can help you with your Airbnb. We offer the one-stop shop, so you don't have to go find your lender. You don't have to go find a title company. And a lot of our agents come from being clients. You're interested in real estate, come join our real estate school. So being able to offer the whole spectrum of services is a way that we differentiate ourselves. But if you ask the public, it would be in the branding we have a high end feeling brand. We are very consistent. You have brokerages out there who let their agents do anything they want. Even though they're under their umbrella, which is fine, it's a different model. In my model, we're gonna have the same business card, we're gonna have the same yard sign, everything looks identical because it comes out of the same shop. I mean it's'cause I have a marketing background and why not leverage that brand? but some agents don't like that. And when you asked me at the beginning who my customer is, for me it's the agent and we differentiate ourselves from other brokerages, hands down by our level of training with our agents. So many of the models now are internet based. Your brokers, 600 miles away, you never meet them, you don't know them face to face. So we are all about rigorous training. You are gonna be a top solid knowledge based realtor when you go through our program and that, and agents come to us for that.

Beverly: 20:35

I love that. So this so one of the things that we talk about a lot from a specifically female founders, consultants, coaches, creatives in those spaces is the idea of confidence. So what does confidence look like for you as a business owner? And can you share a moment when you realized you were truly showing up with it?

Betsy: 20:53

For me, they say fake it till you make it, but true confidence, you cannot fake. And it's different than self-confidence is different than self-worth. You can have a lot of self-worth, but very low self-confidence and vice versa. Because I'm so obsessed with my agents being trained thoroughly, they tend to be very confident. Every Tuesday we have a team meeting a company meeting, and one of my favorite parts about the meeting is the section where we call them learnings and everybody shares what their big learnings were from the week before. Those learnings, by most standards in other companies would be called utter and complete failures that you never want to share with anybody. And we come and I participate and I share with the group what mistakes I made to everybody so that they don't have to make them and that they can learn from them. And it's almost like a friendly contest who can bring the worst mistake instead of being something that's shameful and you you're so embarrassed and you wanna hide from. So we learn.'cause that's the only way you learn. And if you're sitting in that room, you are not gonna make the mistake I just made because you just heard me say it. Most other companies, every new agent's gonna buy their customer a washer and a dryer or a refrigerator in their first year because they forgot to add it to the contract. But my agents don't because they've heard us say that so many times. So by sharing and being vulnerable with our mistakes makes them and myself so much more confident.'cause I don't care. It doesn't bother me that they see that I'm human and make mistakes just like them. So I think that's the biggest thing that's probably given them confidence because they have access to so much more than most agents who work in silos and don't share the mistakes that they made.

Beverly: 22:39

It would've been so helpful to have a circle of people when I first started my business to bounce the mistakes off of, because the struggle is real when you're starting out or even when you're doing it for 10 years. There's still things that you can learn from other people. I teach my son all the time, and I've said this before in the podcast, so for my listeners, forgive me if you've heard the story before, when you go to the movies, you see a really well produced movie. You see somebody who has a script, you see a director, you see a choreographer, you see somebody who does makeups of lighting. Everything is so good. They practice their lines. They get there and then they do the scene and they cut the scene and they say, oh, you know what? Lighting wasn't perfect. We need to change that. Or, oh, that person flubbed the line. They do a miss take. And the idea is that they have to keep taking those takes until they get the right take. And how could we, as humans, and as entrepreneurs, and as women, think that we're gonna get it right the first time when we don't have a director, a writer, a makeup person, a lighting person? How do we think that why do we put that kind of pressure on ourselves? So the mistake is okay, we gotta fix this thing.

Betsy: 23:42

I truly think the most successful people are the ones who have failed the most. Sarah Blakely? Oh, yes. Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx, her dad, every night at dinner would ask her and her siblings, how did you fail today? We could celebrate that. What a wonderful world we would be living in.

Beverly: 23:56

Yeah. For those of you that are recovering perfectionists and have imposter syndrome and all those things, this would be a lovely way to reframe that mistake. You talked about how Zillow has changed some things and things have popped up over the years that have really redefined how real estate is, how do you navigate the pressure to show up online now? Like it's a very real thing where you have to be present. You're doing this podcast I'm assuming because you're,'cause you're showing up online. So talk about that kind of marketing process for you in this time, this age right now. Why that's important.

Betsy: 24:28

Especially for my industry. People find their houses online. They just do. It's even less than word of mouth. I think there are some industries that are still Oh, yeah. A doctor, right? You're gonna get word of mouth. But for real estate, they're looking online every day. It's absolutely imperative to be online. I personally hate social media. I don't like social media. I don't like what's it's doing to our country or to our children and all of that. But I understand from my business, I have to be on. So for me, what I always say, okay if I know it's a non-negotiable, how can I make it work for me so I stay in my lane and I outsource it? It would kill me if I had to go online every day and post and comment and, do all of the things that you have to do to stay relevant. So I hire companies and staff to that. They love doing that, right? So that's what I do. You have to do everything. But as you grow I highly recommend you figure out what your unique ability is, what you love to do, and what comes naturally to you. Stay in your lane. Hire the experts to do what they love to do. Even if it cost you a little more than what you think you're willing to spend, the amount of free time that frees up for you to do what you excel at will pay off. So I stay in my lane and I hire those things out, but it's not like I ignore it. I absolutely know how important it is, but I know I cannot do it myself.

Beverly: 25:50

But it seems like to me that you found a way that feels natural for you to show up. Do these podcasts, get the snippets, share those snippets. This feels okay to you? This feels genuine to you. This resonates with you.

Betsy: 26:03

Yes. One-on-one I love and, it took me a long time to even admit it to myself for years. I forced myself to do all of the posting and commenting and the emojis and all of that. And people love it. And I think it's great that there's people out there that love to do that. It's like brain surgeons. I'm glad someone likes to do that. I don't. So it took me a long time. To be okay with myself and say, Betsy, there's nothing wrong with you. You just know that's not in your wheelhouse. That's not what you enjoy doing. And yes, I have found this I love, and this to me does not feel like work. It doesn't feel like I'm selling my soul. And so I can do it. And the other parts that I just don't enjoy doing, I hire out.

Beverly: 26:40

That's great advice. So based on that too, like the hiring out and the systems, you have a multifaceted business. So what systems, what processes, helps you stay connected? Is there like a magical system that's changed everything for you that you guys use?

Betsy: 26:55

So the overarching system that I run my company on is a platform called EOS. That's been a life changer. I implemented that four years ago. I've been in real estate 20 years, again I'm a late bloomer, so I wish I had implemented some system earlier on, but that really gives you the infrastructure to expand and grow. And systematize things. So that's been life changing

Beverly: 27:17

to my listeners. Really quick. EOS is entrepreneur. Operational system. Operating system. Yeah. Something around those lines. It makes you really accountable. Make sure you have your vision and your goals. You have touch points with your team. Often you have like these goals you have to do. There's some shared language with people who do EOS. We know all the things that kind of related to it, but it does create a container For you to grow. So if you're looking to go to that next level beyond, you definitely do some reading.

Betsy: 27:44

Yeah.

Beverly: 27:45

I can't remember the book.

Betsy: 27:45

It's traction.

Beverly: 27:46

Thank you. Traction by Gino, which would be great just to dip your toe in and see if it makes sense to even go further with that. The other thing that I thought was really powerful, you said earlier was it helps you make yes or no decisions. It becomes very clear whether this is going to work or not. When you have systems and processes like EOS are they fitting the core values or are they're not? When you start to remove all those extra decisions, it makes being an entrepreneur far easier. When you can simplify in that way. And it doesn't mean that you don't care. But there are systems in place on purpose and what works for your business is very important to honor. For listeners who maybe are at that time of like maybe growing that these systems can make things easier for you. My project management system changed everything for us. So you have to find the system that works for you that makes sense. We use a lot of those social media tools as well that can automate and do all the kinds of things to like post at the right time and all the things, but yes. Systems, ugh, they're great.

Betsy: 28:40

I struggled the same thing when I. Was in production, I thought, oh I can never give up my own clients'cause they're hiring me to list their home. And no I haven't personally listed a home in years and it's fine. As long as you manage it and you have systems and you've trained them to do it your way it's fine.

Beverly: 28:56

Yeah. I started off as a social media person. I was like the edge of when social media first started, I was right there and I did social media. I really developed my social media marketing skills and all that. I don't post any social media anymore except for my own. Maybe occasionally I'll post one of my posts, so it's interesting how you can move away from something that was so important and you were really good at that somebody else can. Maybe be better than you.'cause these young kids, they know social media a lot better. Oh yeah. They're native to it. Whereas I learned it as it was developing. So we're gonna shake things up a little bit from this point forward. It gets a little bit, more fun and just we have a rapid fire section called the Magic Hat Round. So I have a purple, shiny magic hat here. lots of different questions. And I let The hat decide what we're gonna talk about. What's been your biggest aha moment as an entrepreneur?

Betsy: 29:41

That's a tough one. Probably the whole concept of, and it's a book who not how, and not having to wear all the hats even early on, there are people and free resources, so many free res resources out there that can help you. So you really don't have to wear all the hats. And it's in our best interest to focus on what we do best.

Beverly: 30:02

The zone of genius stay there. That's where you're meant to be, for sure. What is the moment, what was the moment you realized your business was successful?

Betsy: 30:11

You have to be under a broker for so many years and then you can go out on your own. So I went out on my own only because I don't like to work for people and I didn't care about numbers. I didn't look at numbers. And my first year out, it was around 12 months, 13 months out, my old broker texted me congratulations. You're doing great on your numbers. I hadn't run my numbers and I ran my numbers for the first time and I was number one in my market. And I couldn't believe it because I didn't even look at numbers. Like I wasn't doing it for the numbers. I just did it because I don't like to report to somebody and I like to make decisions on my own. And that's when I knew'cause I did worry will somebody use me?'cause I'm not associated'cause I was with a franchise. Will somebody use this local company, which is a one woman show working out of her home versus a franchise? So I realized, okay, yeah. I'm gonna make it.

Beverly: 30:56

What fear have you had to overcome to grow your business?

Betsy: 30:59

Oh my gosh. Everything, fear of failure. I don't even see failure anymore. But at the beginning I was very afraid of failure, but now I just look at everything as an opportunity to learn and grow and yeah, I might have to pivot. It might not turn out the way I had hoped, but I will have learned something really valuable that I get to take with me. So I don't even feel like I have that as a fear anymore, which is very liberating.

Beverly: 31:21

That's great. I think once you work through fear enough, you realize you trust yourself to handle almost any situation that can be thrown at you. So share a fun fact about your business that even your most dedicated clients might not know about the behind the scenes of what it's like to be part of your organization.

Betsy: 31:39

I am in mastermind groups with colleagues across the country. How many times do we get threatened to be sued? And knock on wood, I've never been sued, but you get blamed in the transaction. It doesn't matter what happened, they blame the agent, and I was shocked. Stuff we have nothing to do with. The agent gets blamed

Beverly: 31:56

What I've realized is you're just the face of the transaction.

Betsy: 31:59

You're the face of the transaction and every dollar that is transacted is coming directly out of. Somebody's pocket. So it's not like some big corporate budget and Yeah. Oh, whatever. It's directly impacting somebody's take home pay, whether it's the agents or the customers.

Beverly: 32:16

Yes. What's a decision that completely changed the trajectory of your business?

Betsy: 32:22

Oh, when I decided to grow a team and get out of production that just totally changed my life and my business.

Beverly: 32:28

Same for me. That was a huge decision and I actually went to it kicking and screaming. I didn't wanna hire anybody'cause I didn't wanna deal with the drama of having somebody on my team. But it really was the thing that changed everything.'cause then I had to have a system and then all the things changed. So yes, I would agree with that entirely. That is the end of the magic hat round. I also have a magic wand because, I'm a very godmother of brand clarity, but what this wand does is help us, us travel back and forth through time. It helps us travel back to time. When I wave it to when you were 18, what is one piece of advice you would give 18-year-old Betsy, that you wish she knew now?

Betsy: 33:01

Oh gosh. It'll all be okay.

Beverly: 33:03

It'll all be okay. That trust and not the fear.

Betsy: 33:06

Yeah.

Beverly: 33:07

What would a young 18-year-old Betsy say about Betsy now?

Betsy: 33:10

Ooh. I think she would just be very shocked and surprised that she's living the life she's living in, the hometown that she was living in, doing what she loves to do, because 18-year-old Betsy thought the only way to make a good living and to be. Accepted is to be a physician. That was my family's very strong messaging to me as a kid, and I fought that for a long time. The inferiority felt inferior because everyone in my family as a physician, and I chose not to be.

Beverly: 33:39

That's a pretty big burden to carry. To go against this family tradition. That and go against the grain. Good for you. That you made the choices that were better for you. I tell my clients all the time, we're in a time where you can build the exact bus business that's meant for you

Betsy: 33:54

Yeah.

Beverly: 33:54

Now go, I wanna wave a one and go forward. Lots and lots of years forward. Decades and decades, obviously, everybody to the end of your life and people are gonna give your eulogy. And what is the thing that they're gonna say that Betsy did and what impact is Betsy gonna, have made on the world or in work? What is the most important thing that you wanna leave behind? What's the legacy you wanna leave behind?

Betsy: 34:14

I wake up every day with the goal of positively impacting one person's life that day. Cause if my presence doesn't positively impact those that I'm around, why am I there? So I would hope that people would give examples of that. And how I did that in their life.

Beverly: 34:33

That's a great goal. You can't change the world without the one person at a time, yeah. You can't do that. Okay. My last question is, what does wickedly branded mean to you? So what does that phrase mean to you? And then how do you show up specifically as that? And what advice would you give our listeners to be more wickedly branded?

Betsy: 34:53

I was not familiar with your brand until I saw it on PodMatch, but I loved the energy that it gave. And it reminded me of the play Wicked.

Beverly: 35:03

It was inspired by that, so that's great.

Betsy: 35:05

To me, it's very empowering. I like, it's pink. I associate with females and I'm very pro female and love to empower women. So I was drawn to that. So, to me, it's intentional marketing. It's strategic marketing. It's not just doing it because you checked off a box and you had to do it for your brand, but it's doing it very intentionally and very effectively. So that's what that means to me.

Beverly: 35:28

How do you show up as wickedly branded?

Betsy: 35:30

Oh, I definitely think, EOS. I mean we're very intentional about our messaging, our avatar. Our three differentiators for each of our target audiences and then how that message is communicated out. So we're very intentional about that.

Beverly: 35:43

And what's some advice you would give to our listeners to be more wickedly branded? How can they show up more intentionally?

Betsy: 35:49

I think they have to have the knowledge. And you have a background in marketing, clearly you would be a great resource for them. I had a background in educationally in market. And self guidance in terms of just listening to every podcast I can and reading all these books. But if you can't hire somebody like yourself, I would definitely join masterminds that those have been instrumental to me, not only in your industry, but in your in marketing, because everyone needs to have marketing in their company. So join those. You'll learn so much from your peers. And you're not competing with them, so everybody shares.

Beverly: 36:22

That's great advice. So Betsy, where can listeners connect with you and know about your work? We talked about earlier was that you have a book too. Talk about the book a little bit, because I know it's not like exactly related to the business, but it is related to the business in some way because it comes from you. So talk a little bit about it.

Betsy: 36:37

Nowadays, a lot of people write books as a lead gen for their business. Which I think is a great move. I didn't do that. It was a passion project of mine. The book is called Breaking Boxes, dismantling the Metaphorical Boxes that Bind Us. And it's my journey of breaking out of these boxes that I felt confined in and still sometimes feel myself confined in boxes of the attitudes, opinions and beliefs of family, of origin, of gender, of industry, of our peer group, of our religion. We're coming at so many different things or telling us what to believe, how to act, who we should be, how to live. And so it's my journey uncovering what those boxes were. Were they still serving me? And if they weren't, why was I still staying in them? And how do I get myself out of them? It doesn't tie directly into real estate, but we're all people, so it does tie into anybody. That's human. But that's the book. People can find me. I've made it very simple. My last name or my name Betsy Pepine. So my website, BetsyPepine.com. My books on there, my course is on there. And more information about me. Then I am on all the social channels. I have somebody feeding those social channels, so don't expect me to be personally, I'm getting back to you, but my team does. And I'm on all those channels with my name at Betsy Pepine.

Beverly: 37:48

Awesome. This has been a really great conversation, Betsy. I'm so glad you joined me today. It's always great to get everybody's opinion. This is one of my favorite parts of my work is to spend time with people like you who are doing the things and making things happen and growing and just building with intention is amazing. For my listeners, I really hope today's episode sparked something for you. Maybe gave you a new idea, but most of all inspired you to take some action today. Do one little thing, one step. Because here is what matters the most is your message matters. Your work matters. And the world isn't waiting to hear what you have to say. Marketing isn't just about visibility, it's about the impact you can make. And Betsy's making a lot of impact in both Central Florida for her community. She's making impact with the buyers and sellers her agents, and even in her community with her nonprofit that visibility is so important. So it's about connecting with the right people that feels really true to you, helping the people that matter, work with people that matter. So just keep showing up, keep sharing your brilliance and keep making magic in the world. And hey, if you ever feel stuck, know that you don't have to go it alone. We're here to help you find clarity, help you with your mission, help you with your core values, and help you with the clarity and confidence and momentum you need to make a bigger impact in the world. So until next time, I would love for you to dare to be wickedly branded.