Guru Danielle Stiles with Stiles Real Estate

Announcer: 0:01

Advisors Mortgage Group is proud to present in these real estate gurus hosted by Rick Ripma and Ian Arnold, the hard working mortgage guys, please contact Rick and Ian for all of your mortgage needs at HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com . Now, here's the hard working mortgage guys, Rick Ripma and Ian Arnold.

Rick Ripma: 0:25

Everyone, before we get started, I just wanted to remind you that if you have need any information on the real estate market or mortgages here in Indiana, got a HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com . And I'm Rick Ripma, your hard work and mortgage guy and I've been in the business for well, he answers a very old, but I've done over a billion dollars in mortgage loans, over 5200 clients. And I'm also a certified mortgage planner. So I know my team and I can help you through any any of the mortgage process that you have, from, you know, credit repair all the way up to, you know, everything's great. And we can just run it through on any of the programs. Our goal is to find the right program for you and make sure that you get exactly the right mortgage. And that takes experience and takes knowledge.

Ian Arnold: 1:15

And I'm Ian Arnold. Rick's hard to work in mortgage team. And yes, Rick is old. So I've actually been in the financial industry for over 15 years, helping people build their credit, that's what they need, or even just build their overall wealth. So I know we have a great guest with us today. Rick, we do

Rick Ripma: 1:37

we do? We do great. You caught me. I expected a longer introduction. Yeah, today's show, we are very excited to have Danielle Stiles on Danielle. You know, I looked it up online. I always look for things to do to introduce somebody but just talking with you. I'm going to ad lib this one a little bit. It's just really interesting what you've done, how well you've done. But your expertise and social media I think is a huge deal. And I know from for me, and even even who's more in the age group of the people who kind of know social media. But neither one of us is really understands it. And I know there's a lot of agents we work with that don't understand it, you understand it inside and out. You have tremendous experience and knowledge in that. Additionally, you're a phenomenal real estate agent doing huge volumes. So thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

Danielle Stiles: 2:36

Thank you so much. Yeah, it's like learning a new language, right? Real Estate. For many people, they need a translator, it feels very overwhelming and intimidating. Especially in a day and age where we are our handles right? We can find you at what is your domain, or what is your website. There's been a huge evolution in how to find people online and more frankly, how to connect with them.

Rick Ripma: 2:58

Yeah, I just found out that this thing called link tree. Yeah, what you're talking about the links? I mean, I think it's the greatest thing that's ever happened. It's surprising to me how how great that that is. But I'm sure that's just like you look at it like you're shaking your head. Yeah, that's a great, yeah, that's there. But there's a lot more to it than that. It's the

Danielle Stiles: 3:22

tip of the iceberg, really what you love about link tree or any of their competitors, which for those of you who don't know what it is, it's essentially a one link that will provide you a landing page resource to access many other links. So it's a very simplified form of getting information in front of people and for social media channels that don't allow you to use multiple links. But maybe you run multiple businesses where you have multiple offerings for your clients. It's difficult. How do you just pick one? And so link tree has come out and said, well, we'll answer that we can be your one. We can offer you with paid services, a unique domain so that it's not branded as Link tree, it's branded as you, but it's providing you data on the back end. Probably the reason you love link tree is because it gives you analytics, it tells you how many times did somebody click this link? And once they got here, what did they do next? And then how many times they come back? What many people don't realize that in today's day and age, the most valuable resource is data. It's not oil. It's not cryptocurrencies versus US dollars. It's data. It's all about how much information do you have about your target audience? And what information about you are they looking for?

Rick Ripma: 4:36

It's way over my head. I'll just tell you, but before we get too much deeper into the social media, how did you get into real estate?

Danielle Stiles: 4:44

I actually got into real estate was my very first real job. So back in 2007, I got a job as a leasing consultant over at a apartment complex on the west side of Indianapolis. At the time, it was called Westlake. It's got a big family All right by the airport. So they had 13 181 apartment homes and I helped sell them. And I thought, Man Real Estate's really fun. I think I'll get my license. And then the crash of oh eight happened. And I thought maybe that's not the best place for an 18 year old to be. So I did a little pivot, and I got into mobile technology. And I did corporate sales in the technology industry for a decade before circling back.

Rick Ripma: 5:25

Awesome. Yeah. And and then you came back into real estate. And I think you said that you kind of did it. Not intentionally, it just kind of happened.

Danielle Stiles: 5:36

Yeah. So I run a marketing agency and with understanding technology and understanding, frankly, how the internet works, it's an interesting time for the real estate industry as a whole, because you've got a very large generational divide between people who are willing to go all in and really build a brand and a business on technology and the internet being the forefront of the real estate company. And then you have brokerages where they're still used to books of Polaroid photos, and you know, everything is done in person and handheld and a very different approach to really how real estate can be sold. So as I took my knowledge and my experience in my background, and came into real estate, I was full force all in on the belief that people buy homes online, and I will be the first and most available real estate agent online. Maybe you don't know me locally, because I'm new to the industry. And I haven't been doing it for 30 years, and I don't have billboards, and I'm not on the grocery carts at your local grocery store. However, you're not going to log into your social media feed and not see my face.

Ian Arnold: 6:39

Well, I think there's that's huge because especially the younger generation, what they say the average first time homebuyers 33 years old. Well, I'll tell you this right now in all my 15 to 20 years of sales. The younger generation is all about looking things online. They don't care about billboards,

Danielle Stiles: 6:57

what they're most concerned about is convenient. Yes, they quick,

Ian Arnold: 7:01

easy. And as soon as you start looking for something on Google, guess what that's gonna pop up in every ad, whatever website you go to. And that's what you were somewhat talking about earlier, is how it all intertwines. And you don't realize that they're selling your information to these other companies and making that but it's incredible

Danielle Stiles: 7:23

data, right. So I use the analogy all the time, you have to treat your business from a branding perspective in the digital space, and I say digital space, including Tiktok, and Instagram, and Facebook and your website and anything you're doing on the internet, you have to use it like paint. So you dump out a little bit of paint, and you hope people come and walk through it. And after they walk through it wherever they go, there's a little bit of paint on the bottom of their shoes, and it's following them wherever they go after that. And then hopefully they'll step in another pile your paint and they'll continue those footprints off into the metaverse or into the internet. And ultimately, what your goal as a business owner should be is pouring these various strategic piles of paint for people to step in, and allowing them to frankly, tell their friends on your behalf. Because the best thing you can do for your business is get referrals. But as a new agent, how do you get referrals if you've never had clients? And so the internet affords you the opportunity to really become an expert before the years behind your title tell you that you're an expert.

Ian Arnold: 8:27

So do you actually train people? Do you help other real estates? Or do you just keep the knowledge for yourself?

Danielle Stiles: 8:33

So my goal is really to advocate this information for our industry as a whole. If I can really tell you my dream, big story, I would love to help us create some constitutional amendments to have a digital Bill of Rights. I think that the problem that we have just socially speaking, is we have adopted technology at a rate that has surpassed our understanding of that technology. And that's a cultural problem, right? That goes all the way down to the fact that babies are born and given an iPad, all the way up into the fact that there is no industry that has not been impacted by technology evolution. So in a previous life, I used to sell machine to machine technology, internet of things, IoT. For those of you who know what that is, it's essentially eliminating human interaction and creating digital communications and technology that is able to create conversation and pass data amongst itself. And the reality is, is that you know, whether you have a trucking company or you have a real estate business, or you do hair, you can find your clients online, and you can improve your internal processes and procedures, not just because of marketing, but because of technology. So it's my goal to help people understand how that works. How do you speak this language? How do you understand what you're saying yes to when you accept the terms and conditions of these platforms that you're giving all of your information to? You know, if you think that Facebook doesn't know how long you paused on a post Even if you didn't like it or comment on it, you're crazy. Of course it knows it's watching every single thing you do. And these AI the robots, right? So we're talking about the evolution of technology. Where does it go? It's going into the metaverse, and it's going into multiple meta verses. You know, that is one branded name that Facebook has come out with. But I promise you, Facebook and Google are competitors. And so you will see a Google version of the metaverse and you'll hear a new company you've never heard of before that will have their own metaverse. And let's be honest, they're already selling real estate in the metaverse. So the ROI Oh, absolutely millions of dollars. They're selling Metaverse space for

Ian Arnold: 10:39

well, you have to realize, I mean, just if you just talk about real estate, think about your website. Your website is real estate it is so to really think about it and guess what, they sell those. Rick's Rick's mind is blowing right now just so you guys know. He all he sees is Terminator thinks cybernet is gonna come after us.

Rick Ripma: 11:00

See, the thing is, is I love technology. I don't understand technology.

Danielle Stiles: 11:07

That's the problem. Nobody really understands technology. I mean, I have sat in boardrooms with some of the nerdiest CIOs and CFOs and CTOs and a very large fortune 500 companies and I'm blowing their minds on machine to machine and IoT solutions, that they're like, Wow, this changes totally how we do business. And you know, that was 10 years ago. It is continuously progressing at lightyear speed year over year. You know, for those of you who are big nerds, you've probably been studying, you know, the invention of fusion and we can create power unanimously forever. And how is that going to change? Literally the world as we know it, our existence as we know it, as these technology evolutions continue to expand and, frankly, impact every other industry that's been hesitant to adopt it, you know, a lot of people, they're a little bit less likely to jump all in and say, let's do this if they don't understand how to speak the language. And frankly, technology is like learning to speak entirely new way of life.

Ian Arnold: 12:10

That that is true. And I think it always starts with the younger generation. And when I say younger, I mean, for instance, my kindergartener right now has a tablet she brings home and takes to school to do her schoolwork. Yes, a kindergartener. And then my son at ages seven already has a laptop. Yeah. I mean, I would never have given them that stuff, if I didn't need to. But I mean, it's interesting, because now they're using computers. I barely using computer I graduated high school in oh three, I took a typing class, sophomore year. So it's one of those things that we barely use computers growing up, but now the kids are there will become used to it all, as you were saying,

Danielle Stiles: 12:54

It's like being bilingual, right? If you grew up in a home where they speak another language, it's native to you, it doesn't make sense that other people don't know how to speak multiple languages. And that's the same thing that we're seeing with these generational divides where these people have been given access to this technology. And I'll tell you, frankly, what's wrong with older generations with technology is two things. They're afraid to break it and they're afraid to look stupid. And those are two things that nobody who has very early integration of technology has the fear of, they're not afraid to look stupid, and they absolutely are not afraid to break it. They're just pushing buttons until they figure out what they do.

Ian Arnold: 13:35

Yeah, I know we're coming up on the break. So what's the best way they somebody get a hold of you? Absolutely. You

Danielle Stiles: 13:40

can meet me at any social media platform. And this is Danielle Stiles, that's Mrs da N ie l l e s t i l e s

Ian Arnold: 13:49

and if you did miss that, it will be in the description at the bottom and you get hold of Rick or I go to hard working mortgage guys.com That is hard working mortgage guys. See you after the break.

Unknown: 14:00

Advisors, mortgage groups licensed by Indiana Department of Financial Institution equal housing opportunity. NMLS 33041 Rick Ripma NMLS 66489

Rick Ripma: 14:09

Hi, I'm Rick Ripma. With the hard work and mortgage guys and advisors Mortgage Group where we believe delivering the best mortgage for you is why we exist and it's how we all succeed.

Unknown: 14:17

We believe honesty, kindness and hard work are how we honor each client

Ian Arnold: 14:22

at hardworking mortgage guys, we believe in custom tailored loans, not the one size fits all approach.

Unknown: 14:27

We believe in always presenting you with all your options. So you get the loan you want the way you want it. We believe in continually monitoring the rules, rates and market trends. So you don't have to we believe in working hard to meet your closing date so that your entire plan isn't upended. We believe in offering the same quick online process that the bookstore mortgage companies brag about whether you're refinancing or buying your first home, we believe

Rick Ripma: 14:52

there is the best mortgage for you and we believe we are the team to deliver it find us online at hardworking mortgage guys dot Calm

Announcer: 15:04

brought to you by advisors Mortgage Group, where we believe the more you know about financing a home, the less stressful buying and refinancing will be.

Ian Arnold: 15:17

A welcome back. And Danielle and thank you for joining us again. So let's I know we were talking about technology and all that stuff. But let's pivot a little bit. So what does your family look like?

Danielle Stiles: 15:31

Yeah, great question. I actually have two boys. I am still homeschooling my youngest, the world of COVID sent us into a homeschool spiral that we weren't quite quite prepared for, but have absolutely fell in love with. So most of the time, you can find me at home. I've got a house full of animals, we are in the process of purchasing a farm. So we will close on that later this year. And with enough, good hard work and the grace of God will have a very functioning farm by the summer. All right,

Rick Ripma: 16:00

so you said your farm 22 acres we just bought Wow. It's big. Yeah, yeah, house and everything on it barns and all that. Well, it

Danielle Stiles: 16:06

has a house. Unfortunately, the house that we just purchased is about a third of the size of what we're in. So we are temporarily downsizing to build. Our goal would be to put a house in the back of the property eventually. But as the world knows it construction is a little difficult these days.

Ian Arnold: 16:24

It is so what animals do you have you said lots? Yeah,

Danielle Stiles: 16:27

so right now we just got the standard. You know, we got a basset hound and house full of cats. But we will very soon have some goats and chickens. I grew up on a very large family farm and it is killing my soul to not have animals running around is a whole nother way of life than living in an HOA.

Ian Arnold: 16:45

Right? Hey, the nice thing is, is you don't have always free

Danielle Stiles: 16:48

eggs. Always. Always.

Rick Ripma: 16:51

Did you forget about the question of the week.

Ian Arnold: 16:52

No, we're just getting to it. I wanted to find out about her family. Oh, family's important.

Rick Ripma: 16:56

Yes, I know. But you never do that, that you throw me off when you get out of the class. Okay. I need a sequence here. Mr.

Ian Arnold: 17:04

Again, the old ages. All right. So fun. If Rick wants to do it, let's do question of the week. The question of the week is sponsored by advisors Mortgage Group where we fit your mortgage to fit your needs. Contact us today. So we fit put together your free mortgage plan at hardworking mortgage guys.com. All right. So here's a hard question. What was your first car?

Danielle Stiles: 17:28

Oh, my very first car was a Ford Thunderbird. I had a V eight. It was a color was it like a hunter green Ford Thunderbird. And I love that car. Yeah, it's fabulous. Like a 98. Okay. Yeah. Great. Like, it was a great first car. It was a great first car, although it was real world rear wheel drive. So it found a tree eventually.

Rick Ripma: 17:54

Yeah, well, those trees, they don't like rear wheel drive cars. I wish

Ian Arnold: 17:58

they just get up and move out of the way. Me too. They

Rick Ripma: 18:00

aren't. They aren't very friendly that way. But you know, it's, I don't want people to forget that you're a real estate agent, along with the social media. But the social media piece is extremely interesting. And I'd like to talk more about it if you're okay with that. Yeah. But first, how would they get a hold of you if somebody had any any real estate needs? Or if maybe a real estate agent out there is looking for somebody to help them with their social media?

Danielle Stiles: 18:26

Yeah, again, you can find me at any social media platform at Mrs. Danielle Stiles, but you can also reach me by phone at 317-270-0634.

Rick Ripma: 18:34

Okay, perfect. So that's 317270634 You got it. See, I do have a good memory plus I wrote it down.

Ian Arnold: 18:42

I was gonna call you out on it. So

Rick Ripma: 18:45

so the reason I find this so interesting is I am actually trying to to figure this out. And you said one of the things you said is is the older generation tends to be afraid they're gonna break it, which is extremely true. That is not one of my issues. But my wife. It's very It has been she's getting over that. But it's amazing how many people I know that they just can't use it because they're afraid they're going to they're going to do something wrong. Yeah. But I never realized that also, I never realized it's the you don't want to because you look you can look bad to everybody. You can look dumb to everybody. I never realized that that's probably an issue I have I never considered it.

Danielle Stiles: 19:19

Yeah, it's a huge limiting belief. Right? So you are met with your biggest insecurities front face and center when it comes to digital marketing. You know, whether that's I don't like the way I look or I don't like the way I sound or look at my hair, it looks stupid. We have all of these beliefs that are very self centered about who we are as people. And when we are met with those and you know, a very all encompassing nine by 16 iPhone screen. It's tough to just frankly get out of your own way. And so what I work with a lot with my clients in the coaching business is really just helping them understand. What is it that the people they serve care most about and The reality is, is if you are self centered, and I am self centered and they are self centered, well, they're too worried about themselves to care that your hair looks silly. And you've got to just do it. It is a practice. It's a failing forward industry. And so you've got to use strategies and technologies that affords you the opportunity to get that grace. So there are features like stories where on Instagram and Facebook or even YouTube has launched YouTube shorts now, where I guess Tik Tok launched their stories version, you see these patterns, right, these features that people love to use, because they're here today and gone tomorrow. And so we talked about the evolution of social media, a lot of those ideas started with a platform called Snapchat, which of course, was highly debated, and is still a highly debated social media platform. However, it's still one of the most highly used platforms for those younger generations. And the reason is, those younger generations were raised by the older generations telling you don't put that on Facebook, because, you know, jobs will see it, or colleges will see it or it lives forever. However, these other platforms and these new features that Facebook and Instagram and some of the older generation platforms are coming out with, give that forgiveness. It's here today, and it's gone in 24 hours. So you've got to find the piece of technology that meshes with where you're at in your current journey, and just do it, just get out of your own way and keep pushing forward.

Rick Ripma: 21:29

Because if there's a real estate agent or real estate agents listening, what would you say the top three things they need to do on social media, or their marketing?

Danielle Stiles: 21:39

It's a great question, the first thing that you need to do on your social media for your marketing is have some way to convert people off of your social media and into your digital marketing ecosystem. That's number one. Because at any moment, Facebook or Instagram can shut your account down. And then you've put hundreds of hours and dollars into a platform that's useless. So find some way to get them off your social and onto your email list or onto your website, and create a conversation with them outside of that hyperbolic Chamber of a social media platform. The next thing that you need to do is you need to be in front of them constantly. And so this doesn't mean your face that does does not always mean you're polished and put together and very professional media, it just means you need to be having conversation with them. And so what a lot of real estate agents or just business owners in general forget is social medias entire purpose, if you're going to boil it all the way down to one sentence. It's to establish relationships. It is prospecting, it is conversation, communication, the evolution of these things started with blogs, and then chat rooms. And then now you've got your newsfeed. And that's a two way street. So show up in a comment on someone else's post. Don't just feel like you constantly have to be a production company putting media out, go to the media your clients are putting out and show them just as much love as you hope they show you when you post. The third piece of advice that I would give you is make sure you secure your username across all platforms. But don't feel obligated to show up on all platforms, you need to be where your people are. If your target client is over the age of 45, there's probably not a lot of use of you creating tic TOCs every day. However, you certainly don't want someone with your name, creating a tic tock account and poorly representing your business or your brand. So go secure your user names but don't feel obligated to show up in places where your people aren't there. Yeah,

Ian Arnold: 23:54

I think that's a huge point. That third one. So then the main other thing is the way I've always looked at it is you can always say let's just say en 123. If that's my tagline, it can be on all three, all three, all five on whatever it is. So it's easy for people to find no matter which one they're on

Danielle Stiles: 24:14

Exactly. Like you can find me anywhere literally Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, any platform, i misses Danielle Stiles, and it's so important that you can have convenience because frankly, people are lazy and they're not going to work very hard. So if you've got to use your name that's got underscores and Asterix and all these odd characters are misspelled words, people are going to get frustrated trying to find you and quit. So you have to keep it simple, stupid. Every approach that you take to social media or digital marketing in general needs to be with the expectation that your end user is lazy, and they're not going to work very hard to work with you. So you got to make it as easy as possible for them to find you.

Ian Arnold: 24:56

So would you recommend being on X Do you have I know that you want to buy multiple the accounts, but two or three active ones, like let's say, Facebook or Instagram? Or whatever? Would you say be more active on several of them? Or just one?

Danielle Stiles: 25:15

I think that that really is a better question for who is your audience. Because if you have two audiences, and Demographically speaking, you've got very different age groups, then you're likely going to have to be in two different places. Because we have a generational divide happening. I mean, this statistics of average age of a Facebook users over 40. So if you're not working with people over the age of 40, I'm not saying you're wasting your time on Facebook, because Facebook has become the validation of your real person, right? I'm gonna look them up on Facebook, it's, it's no longer just a place to go. It's like the yellow pages, right? However, if you're trying to reach people in their 20s, and 30s, you're gonna have a lot of wasted effort in the Facebook ecosystem, trying to find those people, they're there. They're just not very active chronic users. So do the research, find out who your people are, and just spend your time being there, I would say anybody who's a business that doesn't have Facebook, they're probably missing some clients. And because people are going to try to validate your business on Facebook at some point. So that's at least worth a profile picture and a small bio. But I wouldn't say you have to pour a lot of energy into consistency and presence. If your people aren't there.

Rick Ripma: 26:30

It is weird to me, because sometimes it's hard to find people and they aren't. If they aren't on Facebook, it's just like, wow, you cannot a real person. Yeah. And there's some people that can't I know, there's, if you're, you know, in certain roles, and in the government things, you can't have Facebook, so that that does happen. We have a couple minutes before we get off the radio and go full time into the podcast. But I would like to know, so how does all this this social media, how does it improve your real estate business?

Danielle Stiles: 26:59

So my real estate business uses my marketing company for our advertising. So anytime I have a listing go to market, we are using my immediate team and my media resources to leverage, frankly, how the internet works to promote those properties. So every foundational piece of my business is built on the back of the belief that buyers and sellers are looking and engaging in real estate online. So my real estate business has kind of exploded by accident, it has really just been a labor of love, and really pouring into the marketing piece and understanding that, you know, tenure and time and you can put your name on the bottom back of soccer teams T shirts, and you can put your face on billboards driving through a town and I am not saying those marketing efforts are dead. What I am saying is that you can spend a lot of time money and resources doing the old school marketing. But if you're not creating some sort of conversion method to get people online to get them engaging, and walking through your pain in the digital market space, you're not doing yourself any favors. So that is the approach that I take for my listings is that there is no house that I represent. That is not very easily found online. And when you find it online, it's like you're there in person. So we provide full digital marketing services for absolutely every client, no exceptions, whether you've got, you know, a $30,000 home that needs tore to the ground, and it's just valuable because of the land, or you've got a multimillion dollar piece of real estate, we're flying our drones, we're using videography. We're using professional photography. And we are showcasing that property in its entirety. And really, the belief behind that is that, frankly, people who are showing up, aren't showing up wondering what it looks like showing up ready to buy it. They're saying, If this place is good in person as it was online, I'm excited. And that's a game changer for real estate because people don't want to waste their time. And especially in a market like this. Frankly, people want to know that it's the place, you know, especially if you're buying something that's what we call the needle in the haystack, right? Three bedroom, four bedroom on a couple acres with a pond. That's the kind of house where buyers who are looking will be interested but buyers who have a home going, Man when that house on a couple of acres with a pond comes up. I can't wait we're gonna go buy it. And so you got to be in front of people with enough notice that they can find a mortgage lender and go get approved for this property because, frankly, if you're selling good real estate, if you're marketing good real estate, you're not just going to tap into the existing buyer market. You're going to find buyers and motivate them to come by

Rick Ripma: 29:40

someone needs to get a hold of you for any real estate needs. What's the best way

Danielle Stiles: 29:44

you can find me on social media at Mrs. Danielle Stiles or you can text or call it 317-270-0634

Rick Ripma: 29:51

Awesome and to get a hold of Ian or I, it's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com And we are running out of time to on the radio side. So please join us on the podcast,

Announcer: 30:03

you're listening to India's real estate gurus with Rick Ripma and Ian Arnold to hear the conclusion of this interview, go to hardworking mortgage guys.com and hit the podcast tab. Branch NMLS. Number 33041. Rick Ripma is NMLS number 664589. Ian Arnold's NMLS number is 1995469, equal housing opportunity, some restrictions apply.

Unknown: 30:24

Well, first off, thank you for joining us, Danielle. I appreciate it. And I just was curious, how did you come to find out about Rick Ripma and advisors mortgage? Well, I was looking for a mortgage for myself for a brand new home that I was building. And I wasn't sure the direction to go, I didn't have anybody in mind. So I kind of just spoke to whoever I could speak to, I got their number. And everything seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. So I went with them. The thing I liked the most about Rick and his advisors mortgage, is that I could go and upload things online. And I didn't have to always be on the phone with them or sending them documents or trying to look for certain things that I needed to get the process going. Which was really great for me, I had a processor named Mark Coleman, who really helped me out in making sure I had everything I needed. Because I I didn't know the first thing about having a mortgage. So it was awesome to have so much help. I think probably what I've benefited from the most is really just the understanding that sometimes I would get busy. And maybe I forgot to upload a document or I forgot to do a certain part of the process in a timely manner. And they would get right back with me. And it wasn't like a, hey, we really need this right now. It was always, Hey, just wanted to make sure you still remember that we need this. Well, you don't get that too much. In this day and age, it seems like most people are either very demanding of something they need from you. And they need it right now. And, and I agree. I've seen that in Rick's attitude with us over over the last 10 years that he's very patient, but also helpful to get the right things he needs. So exactly. In conclusion is Rick Ripma and advisors mortgage, somebody that you would use in the future and or tell your friends and family about? Absolutely. And I just want to thank them for all the effort they put in to help me find my dream home.

Announcer: 32:15

Ranch NMLS number 33041 Recruitment NMLS number 664589 equal housing opportunity, some restrictions apply.

Rick Ripma: 32:22

I'm Rick Ripma, you can go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com .

Ian Arnold: 32:25

And welcome to the podcast side. So I like to ask this question. And it usually throws people for a little loop, a little nostalgia. So what do you think was your most memorable real estate deal?

Danielle Stiles: 32:39

What a great question. I'll be honest with you, my most memorable real estate deals are probably some of my worst transactions that I learned the most. Right? I really take every lesson as an opportunity to improve my process and to get in front of a problem before I have it again. So one of my most memorable transactions is unquestionably I had sellers refuse to move out of a property. And it was in a state settlement. This happened very recently. And it was a very long process, the home had a condemned septic system, we found that out during our first buyer was under contract, very unique piece of property very limited space to be able to put a new septic system in so I learned more than I ever thought I needed to know about installation of septic systems and really the process in which the local health department will work with existing homeowners and kind of bend rules that they don't allow for new construction. But you know, your property is condemned if you don't have a functioning septic system. So kind of fast forward. You ever hear the song that never and that was that deal. And ended so we came back to market after a year and a half. Going through the inspection process with that septic system had great plans. Finally got a buyer they had to cash buy the house wouldn't appraise truly the song that never ends, and then move out day came and went and then came and went. And by the time we finally got them out of the house, there was a noose hanging from the front porch. Wow.

Rick Ripma: 34:20

So they closed on the house. Correct. And then would move out. Correct. That is I have I have been in this business for 30 something years I have never heard of that.

Danielle Stiles: 34:30

We drink wine at the 10am closing because a sibling came in and protested the closing and it was truly something for television.

Rick Ripma: 34:40

Wow. Wow, that's crazy.

Danielle Stiles: 34:43

You never say never in this business. Right? I mean, the reality is, is that real estate is one of the most emotional points in many people's lives whether you know they've got something else happening behind the scenes of the moving maybe it's you know somebody died or it's a divorce or you got a job OB or whatever the case might be, there's a lot of emotions happening. And then you're dealing with the biggest financial decision of your life.

Ian Arnold: 35:08

Okay, now most put this out there, so I get credit for it later in life. But I think this should be an HGTV short film.

Danielle Stiles: 35:19

It's a good one.

Rick Ripma: 35:21

I just never ever. I'm mind boggled by it. It's like, if I never even considered that they wouldn't, somebody wouldn't move out. But it is a thing that I think a lot of people don't realize is that everybody's selling a home. It's not our buying home, it's not always a happy time, not always tend to think it isn't for most people it is but there's times that it's not.

Danielle Stiles: 35:44

Well, there's also times that it's a financial devastation for people, right. Unfortunately, in this particular instance, this was an Estate Settlement. And this family had no idea that their father's home had a septic system that was failing. And you know, who would ever think that that's the case, right? And so we went through what was going to be a very smooth process got a buyer very quickly, and then surprise, now you have an $80,000 problem. And so how are you going to afford this problem, by the way, unfortunately, many people are dying now, where the only funds they're leaving their family are left in the equitable assets of their real estate. And so when you start to squeeze that asset, and you've got lots of siblings, and lots of dynamics and opinions, things can get ugly pretty quickly.

Rick Ripma: 36:32

It can be very tough. And it's like, it's just not always a happy time, and you just have to work through it. I think that's one of the huge advantages of working with somebody who has a lot of experience. Dealing with people doesn't actually have to be experienced dealing, you know, as a real estate agent, although you better have a good team around you mentors around you that can help you through that. But it does matter. To be able to deal with people.

Danielle Stiles: 36:59

Absolutely. I tell new realtors who join my team or call me and ask for advice on how to get started, that you need to be prepared to be a part time therapist, you've got to really understand where your role is in real estate, you know, it's my opinion, it's my job to be calm. I am always the calm in the room. Sometimes they're very excited. And I love it. And it's amazing. And I'm pointing out water stains on the ceiling to say, Listen, I know the six exciting, but this is also a financial investment, we have to take a very level headed approach to it. And that is not always everybody's approach to real estate Realtors included.

Ian Arnold: 37:35

Alright, so you say you're the only always calm one. I say we call her husband get him on the phone. By now she's always like,

Rick Ripma: 37:43

well, you know, it's true, though. And I think it's an important piece of a real estate agent is you have to be the calm one in the room. If you get excited along with the client, when something happens negatively, yeah, you need that that real estate agent needs to be somebody who is calm, looks at the situation and helps everybody through the situation because ultimately, you make bad decisions when you're in a as a as a buyer, or seller in an emotional state where you'll read, you might regret that decision. And that agent's job is to make sure you think it through so you can make the proper decision for yourself.

Danielle Stiles: 38:21

Absolutely. One of my favorite things to study is neurotic how your brain works, you know the the reality of how your frontal lobe will literally go offline when you come into a fight or flight and truly an emotional standpoint. And that is your reasoning skills, right? Your ability to think logically through this and to strategize a path forward. And so I really feel like it's our job as real estate, or really just anybody in the real estate, whether it's your lender, your title company, or your real estate agent, we have to always be that we have a path, we have a similar goal, we're all going to reach this goal, whether we meet our timeline now might change, however, you've got to stay on the same page. And it's often the case that whether it's the buyer or the seller, they'll turn the page too quickly. And you got to remind them, we're not there yet, you know, we've got to get there through this very specific process. And unfortunately, especially in the last couple of years market, we've ran into a lot of hiccups that are unavoidable, low appraisals, you know, inspection issues we weren't prepared for, you know, lender financing that falls through, there's so many variables that can impact a real estate transaction. And so, being calm is the most important part. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 39:36

it helps to be calm, and it helps them to work as a team. That's the other other thing that I find is really helpful when you're working. It's not just the listing agent. It's you know, the listing agent, the buyer's agent, the buyer, the seller, the lender, everybody's there, the title company, we're all their insurance, they're all They're trying to close the loan, right trying to close this house and help everybody through. And so we're like you said, we're all after the The exact same goal. And at least US, I can't speak now Realtors

Ian Arnold: 40:06

aren't doing that they don't want the house to close, everybody wants them to.

Rick Ripma: 40:09

Everybody wants it to close on time, right? I mean, that's the goal. And and sometimes it doesn't feel that way. But I, that's always the goal is to get it, get it done and get it done on time and working as a team helps.

Danielle Stiles: 40:21

Yeah, it's communication. You know, if you have an improperly completed purchase agreement, it sets the whole show up for failure, right? Even just the timeframes in order for lender financing to be approved. You know, I counter those on my listings all the time. And the buyer's agents will say things like, Oh, well, that's not a big deal, we can fix that later. And it is a big deal, because it's setting expectations from the beginning, that are clear, achievable, and frankly, putting everybody in a place that they're set up for success. And so nobody's mad when you can close early, but people get, you know, very, very flustered when the fact that they've got to recall their utility companies and set extensions because we're not closing and move moving trucks and already scheduled time off work or someone to watch my kids. I mean, these are monumental. Anybody who's moved recently knows how excruciating it is in that final week to closing trying to logistically just manage everything. And then you get bad news, like we're not going to meet the close date. It is literally the final straw for people sanity. And so you've got to set up for success with properly completed purchase agreements from day one.

Rick Ripma: 41:32

That's the worst thing that can happen. In our, in our, in our minds, the worst thing that can happen is you don't make your closing date. So if for us we work, I mean, I don't remember last time I missed the closing date, because we didn't do something. You know, it's just doesn't happen because we eat that or turning, you know, not getting his loan approved that you were pre approved. Those two things are the worst thing.

Danielle Stiles: 41:53

Yeah, I had a personal experience recently where I was selling my very first home I ever bought. My husband and I bought a house and would have been June of 2008, which anybody who lived in southern Indiana in June of 2008. might remember that 100 year flood that

Rick Ripma: 42:09

went through Yeah, yeah. So in there, but I remember we

Danielle Stiles: 42:12

had closed on our house, actually, I think we we moved in in May. And we had nothing more than lawn chairs in our living room and a mattress on the floor. And we were 19 years old and broke. But we bought a house and I will never forget going through the evolution of that home. You know, it was a bank owned repo, they took everything including the toilet paper holder in that house, it was totally repoed. And we built it from scratch. It was a small little place. We were so proud of it, we owned it lived in it until we outgrew it then turned it into a rental. And when it was finally time to sell it, I was so nostalgic about this house. And we had a very late in the year closing closing was set for like December 26. And we missed closing. And that closing moving in from one calendar year to the next calendar year cost my family over $30,000 of equity,

Rick Ripma: 43:03

that's terrible. It's just terrible. People just

Danielle Stiles: 43:06

don't understand the impact that those miss deadlines can have not just on that real estate deal, not just on that buyer, who also had a house to sell, who then had other buyers who dominoed impacted them. But you know, when you especially when you're talking about these large assets, you're talking about your taxes, you're talking about your annual income and annual expenses and moving from year to year is I did not know how impactful that mistake was going to be for my family.

Rick Ripma: 43:38

So I'm gonna change subjects a little bit. But I really interested to hear this answer. What would you consider your superpowers?

Danielle Stiles: 43:47

My superpower is no doubt communication, providing words to thoughts, feelings and experiences people have that they can't quite explain. That is my superpower, I have the gift of words.

Rick Ripma: 43:59

I was curious because you have so many things you do like social media, and you have a lot of your experiences that you can, you know, in skills that you have that are very important to everything.

Danielle Stiles: 44:10

That's the add on, but it's also I just am hungry to learn. I am a total nerd. I love to research. I love technology. I love reading about neuroscience and quantum physics and really just understanding psychology of how and why people consume. You can see lots of business opportunities. If you understand why and how people consume. It's a no brainer on how to make money. And so I've dabbled in a little bit of everything over the years and I think really from a perspective of getting really focused moving into this next year. 2023 was a big pivot for me. I really wanted to focus on being an educator. I want to take this knowledge all of these resources and things that I've gained over several decades of education Asian and be able to pour back into people who are incredible individuals, but just frankly don't understand how the internet works. And they need to be able to learn to leverage the internet to get their business to the next level.

Ian Arnold: 45:13

I think whenever we get Ilan on here, she will have to come in and she'll have be in here too. So they can talk about quantum physics and everything

Danielle Stiles: 45:21

I'm here for. You get Elon on and I will be

Ian Arnold: 45:29

for that one. All right. But you said you,

Rick Ripma: 45:32

not Ian. Yes.

Ian Arnold: 45:36

So you pivoted this year? So what are your goals? Or what are you trying to do for this new year since you've, you're pivoting,

Danielle Stiles: 45:43

I would love to be able to launch my online course, I've been working on it and recording it for three years. The social Collective is the name of the online course that I've been working on. And it's basically a tutorial based process, that it's a 12 week program that takes you through what is the point all the way to how do I execute my desire in showing up as a brand. So every business owner, and this is not exclusive to the real estate industry, whether you know, again, you have a trucking company, or you do hair for a living, every business is being told, I have to be a brand. But what does that really mean? What does it mean to be an online brand. And in years past, it's been things like a logo or colors or fonts or, you know, these kind of old school marketing approaches. And I'm not saying a brand isn't those things still, but it is now also things like your social media handle, and the music you choose to use. And whether you do video, or you don't do video, or how you edit your videos is even a part of your brand. There's just so many factors that come together to create what really is an experience. A brand is an experience of the end user. So I think it was I don't even want to tell you who it was that said this quote. But it's so infamous in the marketing space. Your brand isn't what you say it is. It's what people say you are when you're no longer in the room. And so it's how do you show up in a way that is impactful to your audience, and for so many business owners who they think is their client, and then who actually shows up to their party that are not always the same people. And so my goal this year really is to be able to bring this 12 week program to life, get a couple of people through it. I've got hours and hours and hours of online video. That's tutorial based, you know, everybody wants to know, how do I use social media. And that includes things like what buttons do I push. But it's not as simple as pushing buttons, you've got to have strategy and impact behind your brand, which is frankly, a lot of homework. Nobody does. Because nobody knew that it was homework, right? You kind of just stumbled into it. Oh, I didn't know I needed a tagline. Or I didn't know I needed a social media handle that was streamlined across all platforms. So they went out and they printed all these marketing materials. And they blasted it all over the internet for them to find out that Oh, somebody already took that handle on every other platform except Facebook. And so many business owners, frankly, don't even know how to find their handle on Facebook. So if that's you, whatever comes after the slash on facebook.com/. That's your handle. And so that's just kind of putting those consistency factors in place for business owners, I would love to be able to take my knowledge and experience what I've learned what I've done wrong, and help other business owners start to implement that for themselves.

Rick Ripma: 48:38

So if somebody had, let's say they have that issue they have they've been on Facebook for a while, and they have their handle there. And they they've been on. I don't even know Instagram, Twitter, yeah, all of them, all of them. And they're all different. What should they do?

Danielle Stiles: 48:54

You've got to find one that's consistently available across all platforms. And then you change it and still keep the same. Absolutely, you can change your username on all your platforms. I think there's like a max number of times on some of the platforms that you can do it ever, or within a certain period of time. Like I think Instagram only lets you change it two or three times within a window of 30 days. But you've got to be holistically approaching your marketing efforts. Every time a new platform comes out. You know, clubhouse was a big thing we were talking about last year and in COVID There are always new platforms coming out. And you know, there's always people getting banned from platforms, right, Donald Trump got kicked off Twitter and so he's gonna start his own social media channel. You have to be first and early to adopt those handles. But don't go pour your heart and soul into doing any more than creating a profile for yourself and secure that because that is your brand once once you become an established individual online, people are going to expect that they know where to find you.

Rick Ripma: 49:55

Okay, you know, I can't remember what you called it but clubhouse Yeah, okay. I thought that was an actual place. Because I get emails from them all the time. And I just thought it was one of these places that you, you can chat room? No, I didn't even think that I thought it was a physical location, okay, that people would, you know, they didn't want to have a full time office, they wanted a part time office. And that was a that was one of those it's not, it's actually a chat room.

Danielle Stiles: 50:24

It is a chat room. It's lots and lots and lots of chat rooms. And it's we're not saying

Ian Arnold: 50:28

anything about mouse shot, you didn't explain it.

Danielle Stiles: 50:31

It's open format chat rooms. So you can go and create a chat room and create a topic of conversation just like this one, and we could open it up and real estate agents or whoever else is interested in our conversation can join us, we can give them the ability to speak or we can only give them the ability to listen to us speak. And so Elon is a huge fan of it. He gets on it all the time, lots of really high end, very successful, incredible human beings, get on this platform and just provide copious amounts of knowledge very unscripted, very raw, and in the moment it is. It's not a highly produced environment. And I think that's why it caught on so quickly is because it is literally like inviting the Internet to a lunch date or a coffee date.

Rick Ripma: 51:17

Wow, we should be on there. You should be on there. Yeah,

Danielle Stiles: 51:20

you can go live on clubhouse during the recording of your podcasts?

Rick Ripma: 51:25

Yes, we could. We have no idea how but we I just found out it was a chat when

Ian Arnold: 51:32

he was ready to go there and have coffee.

Rick Ripma: 51:35

I kept looking at the cup and bite me it's like, I don't even know

Danielle Stiles: 51:38

where it is. So it started. The reason you were getting invitations is it started as an exclusivity network. You could only join clubhouse if you were invited. Oh, couldn't just go get an account. Someone in the ecosystem of clubhouse had to invite you to join. It's probably Yeah, I mean, Elon, you're gonna need to say his name correctly. On your podcast, I'm

Rick Ripma: 52:01

really gonna call now and pronounce my name, right.

Danielle Stiles: 52:05

But it was really an exclusivity. And so that's that's the thing about trendy things in the internet is how do we create these exclusive places that nobody else is allowed to know about or understand or they're confused by it right. And so then you get a really big buzz behind it. And then what clubhouse did really well in their early launch was that they didn't even allow every user who became a user, to invite people, you had to earn the right to invite people. And then once you earned the right you only got like three or four or five invitations that you could send out. And that was it. So I'd really like you to give away one of my invitations to join this exclusive network. And so then you had these very high level people that were in this very small echo chamber of dialogue. It's voice only no video. So it was like turning on the radio, and just seeing who was there, and what were they talking about. And if you didn't like that conversation, you can change your chat room, if you will, and turn on another radio station. And so the algorithm, frankly, is what makes social media platforms, powerhouses. And so every social media platform has a different algorithm. The Facebook algorithm is not the same as the Instagram or any other platform. And so ultimately, what what we mean when we say algorithm is we need we mean a I learning they are learning your habits, his habits, their habits, who are your digital doppelgangers. So people who behave like you on the internet, they may not look like you or live where you live, but they have similar usage habits. And so it's this echo chamber of inviting you to explore or be recommended things you've never heard of before. And that's what people love. They love Oh, I never thought of that. What a great idea have never heard of this. This is so all consuming because it's new, and what can often happen. And older platforms like Facebook is we find ourselves in echo chambers where you either love Donald Trump and you see only positive things for Donald Trump or you hate him and you only see negative things and they're these hyperbolic chambers of only serving you things that it knows, you know, like and trust, right? And so, these newer platforms are coming out with these more wild approaches to algorithms. And so that is one reason people love Tik Tok is because tic TOCs AI its algorithm behind the scenes is just wicked smart and just so intuitive. The first time you log into Tik Tok, you're gonna be like, This is stupid. And then the second, third, fourth, fifth, you're you're now losing an hour of your life and you didn't even know it. Because you are immersively learning all of these things that the algorithm figured out pretty quickly. Hey, they watched force seconds of that, what they watch a minute of it. And then they're sending you more and more and more content along those same sorts of lines. And it's it's the rabbit hole, right? They talk about you fall down the rabbit hole, that is the AI learning your habits, and what is it that is actually captivating your attention? Because ultimately, if we boiled down every single piece of every single social media platform, we said, the point is conversation. Why is the point conversational? And the answer to that is time on platform, you will come back to a platform time and time again, if it can give you a little notification that someone has having a conversation with you. And so ultimately, what time on platform translates to is advertising dollars. The only way these companies become billion dollar organizations is because they can serve ads. And they can only serve so many ads to you based on the number of minutes or seconds you're spending on that platform. So the whole reality of these social media, whether it's clubhouse, or tick tock or Facebook, is all based on how do we get their eyeballs glued to the screen. And then as life has it, because we pull up our Facebook, and we're standing in the grocery line, and we only had a couple of minutes, we log out how do we get them to come back over and over and over again.

Rick Ripma: 56:21

It's fascinating, but we're running out of time. I'm just it's, it's way out of my, I'm trying to learn it. But I'm way, way down here and you're way, way up here. But you make it so easy to understand. So I think you can really help. And what we're trying to do is help the real estate industry, you know, mortgage lenders, real estate agents, everybody get better at what we do. Yeah. And I think that's exactly what you're after. So I really encourage people they need to contact you and what would be the best way to contact you.

Danielle Stiles: 56:54

You can get me at any social media platform at Mrs. Daniel Stiles or you can send me a text at 317-270-0634.

Rick Ripma: 57:02

And that's if you bind selling real estate, if you're a real estate agent, you want coaching, you want to look at your social media. What else would is that?

Danielle Stiles: 57:12

Absolutely. So I have two separate companies, I have styles real estate and I have style studios. So if you are looking for education, teaching social media, we do a lot of outsourcing in partnership with third party vendors. Let me maybe further explain what that means. When you try to show up online. It's kind of an overwhelming approach. I need video, I need pictures I need, you know graphic design, I need a website, I need all of these, frankly professionals to come together to help you build this brand on the internet. So what style studios does for you is it really helps you understand two things. First, what do you need to prioritize? And second, what do you need to budget in order to make your goals a reality? We in house do not do a lot of social media management. So I'm not going to take your logins and run your social media for you. I have an education business, the social collective, which we'll be launching later this year to be that self help tutorial based educational tool that you can leverage to learn it slowly. Because it is like learning a new language. And the reality is, is that so many business owners need it. But they're not even qualified to hire someone for it. Because you don't understand it thoroughly enough to even really give them framework on what to build for you or any way to measure success. So the coaching side of our business is really just empowering you with that information so that you can go out into the marketplace and hire not one website company for it to be an epic failure, but to hire one website company for them to really build what you needed.

Rick Ripma: 58:45

Awesome. I mean, for me, I know that's I unknown. I don't know anything about it. So it would help to have somebody who you can learn from the absence a huge piece, you need to get hold of Ian or I, it's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com.

Ian Arnold: 59:00

And reminder if you know any friends, family or coworkers are looking to buy, sell, refinance, or just want to talk about all this technology stuff, feel free to tell them yes, call right. contact any of us and we'll be more than happy to help.

Rick Ripma: 59:14

Thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it. Have a great day.