On this episode of the Start with a Win podcast, Adam talks with The Millennial Realtor, Ed Stulak. Ed is a RE/MAX agent based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, who is an Instagram and branding expert, and he shares some of his main insights with listeners during this show.

While working in the marketing industry, Ed had the opportunity to work with and learn from some of the best and brightest on Instagram. Along with his own personal experience using the platform and seeing the potential for building community and providing value to followers, Ed was able to translate what he had learned into the real estate space about 3 years ago. Ed believes strongly that authenticity is the key to success on Instagram from a personal and professional branding perspective, so he doesn’t abide by any set of guidelines or rules about what he should be posting, but he rather posts what is most true to himself in the most engaging way.

Ed has been using Instagram since 2012 and he has worked hard to amass over 44,000 followers who are interested in his content and engage with his posts. Perhaps one of the big ways that he has built such a community is by taking a step back and considering the most engaging way to present each post. Instead of just posting a picture of a house he is showing, he aims to elicit an emotion by including something like him holding a puppy in front of the house that will make people stop scrolling. 

He has found that just by providing authentic and valuable content to his community, he is cultivating and converting leads without ever directly asking people for their business. Ed is constantly responding to comments on his posts, reaching out to new followers, and informing people of new deliverables he can send them if they are interested. These deliverables are items of value to the consumer and they are a way that Ed collects email addresses for his CRM. He is a big advocate of not putting all of your eggs in one basket, but having a presence on all social media platforms as well as old school media and methods. 

Ed approaches each new day with the mantra “Today is a great day to be great”, and it is clear that he wants to help others do the same.

Connect with Ed: