On today's episode, Jeff is talking to Blair Ballin. They are going to talk about some of the things Blair is doing with Social Media using a Facebook group and how he has overcome the crashes in 2007 and 2008 and the COVID year of 2020. He shares how his mindset is what allowed him to have some of the best years of his career. Tune in, you’ll be glad that you did.    Episode Highlights: Blair Ballin is a realtor in Phoenix, AZ. At the beginning it was a slow start for Blair then 2007 came and the market began to crash. He talks about his personal joruney. Blair started doing BPO's that transformed into a very good time of selling homes. Then came short sales he didn't know how to do at all at first and he went through a very difficult time. It was probably the roughest patch of his life, both personal and business.  Blair was fortunate to come across a couple different mentors and coaches which at that time transformed things for him. Now his book is doing fairly well, he has a Facebook group, and uploads Tik Tok videos and Instagram posts.  Blair shares that in the real estate space, the reality is realtors are the only ones that control what they do; the market is irrelevant because people always buy and sell.  Blair has tried to grow a team with different structures and it has never worked out. He explains the reasons he believes that is. As Blair continued to grow as a business owner, he realized the needed change. He really wanted to help other agents grow their business and help more people. He just needed to know the right things to do to have those right people on the team and not just hire someone because he felt bad for them. Blair talks about his ordeal with covid, how realtors were afraid to visit houses, how customers refused to go to anybody's houses and how amidst all this he had to figure out the salary part.  During the pandemic, Blair realized that there were probably going to be very few realtors who were actually transacting. There was still a ton of business to be had and just like when foreclosures happen not taking advantage of the marketplace but knowing what is in the marketplace to take advantage of.  Due to his early strategies, business boomed during the pandemic and he was able to purchase his dream home.  Blair talks about the benefits of Facebook Groups and what motivated him to create one. After 2 years of creating the group it has now close to 15,000 members. Blair is very selective of who he lets in.  Blair decided instead of being very specific to a city which will probably segregate who is going to join and not join based upon that, he kind of kept it broad based and kind of neutral so that he could control the narrative of what areas to cover.  Many other Facebook group owners will create their own duties and descriptions;  Blair didn't want to put that on anyone else and he wanted it to all be in his control. Blair discusses how his Facebook Group is expanding and how he is getting business for the group.  Facebook groups are the best CRM that exist. Most people sign up for a CRM because it comes with their  brokerage but Blair share the importance of having your own that you always keep no matter what changes may happen in your future. From his Facebook Group Blair has closed a dozen or so deals from it with another half dozen like pending.  3 Key Points: Every time Blair had a setback in the business, he used to blame himself. He taught himself to try his best, speak more positively to himself and fix his mindset.  Blair talks about the Covid 19 and how it disrupted the market. He shares what he did to overcome it. Usually what you spend time on, if you continue to do it, will pay off, whether it's open houses, running ads or whatever that continued effort is, that will deliver results, says Blair.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Ch