Stories Sell in Real Estate: David Majzner on Using Story-Based Marketing to Win More Clients

Dave Majzner (00:00)
There’s a saying that I heard years ago by, her name was Dani Johnson, and she said, facts tell, but stories sell. So if you can, everybody has a story, and if you can get your story in a way that people will be engaged with it, they’re gonna trust you. And when they trust you, they buy from you.

Cody Crabb (00:09)
Hello and welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Cody Crabb. And today I’ve got David Majzner, founder of Your Hero Book, a marketing tool helping real estate agents and brokers turn their story into something clients actually remember and probably have never seen before. So this is pretty interesting. I’m excited to get talking with you, David. Thanks for joining us today.

Dave Majzner (02:12)
Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited also.

Cody Crabb (02:15)
So give me a quick overview of your background. Like how did you start out ⁓ and kind of give me the short version of how that became this business today?

Dave Majzner (02:25)
Sure, actually ran a massage therapist for 16 years and ⁓ I ended up having some health challenges and wasn’t able to do my work anymore for a while. during that time, I jumped back into something I’ve been doing since I was 14 and I was writing. And so I started creating stories and getting some things that were in mothballs and bringing them out and recreating those stories. And then when I discovered AI, I found out that it was a powerful tool if used properly.

that could take what I do and turn it into even a greater and more engaging product.

Cody Crabb (03:00)
So tell us a little bit about Your Hero Book. I’m excited to kind of share this with people, because I’ve truly never heard of anything like this.

Dave Majzner (03:08)
Sure, so I’ll start with the one product that we have which is a word search. And these word searches are actually designed for the industry. So let’s just say we’re talking about real estate agents. Many people buy promotional products with their name on them, branding. And oftentimes they get either put in a drawer or put away or thrown away. And people paid three to $10 to get their market out, but it just gets put in a drawer. So I came up with this.

Cody Crabb (03:36)
Yeah, I’m thinking about

what I do when I see those like I get any number of like bottle openers, fridge magnets that they just disappear like they just I don’t I toss them unless it’s maybe a pen and even then I’m I don’t like know who’s on it. I’m not looking at all the time. So.

Dave Majzner (03:50)
Right,

exactly. So what I thought was, you know, let’s make something more engaging. And so ⁓ we create a word search that is themed for the industry. So it would be, you know, John Smith’s real estate word search, know, to have his ⁓ photograph and or his logo on the front cover, and then a 25 puzzle word search, all themed around real estate. And then on the back, it has their story and a QR code going directly to their contact.

portal their website whatever they would like it to go to and the the beauty about this is that instead of getting put in a drawer this is something that clients actually engage with because it’s a fun puzzle and people don’t throw books away I mean if you think about that how many times book that you really didn’t want because you don’t want to throw a book away right so this will actually sit on their their prospects for potential prospects desk for months maybe a year

Cody Crabb (04:33)
That’s true.

That’s fascinating because I feel like that is totally calling me out. 100 % would not like, but it’s a book. even like a catalog that’s too thick. Amazon’s sending me a catalog and I’m like, but it’s a book. Like I know what you mean by that. Something inside you feels like that’s wrong. I find this really fascinating because in the marketing world, it’s so…

Dave Majzner (04:58)
He’s like a.

Cody Crabb (05:05)
saturated. Everybody’s trying to get your attention in every corner of your life every single day. It’s really, really hard to grab some of that attention.

So I think it’s really interesting what you’ve kind of come across here, which is not only the book thing, but just the fact that people are, ⁓ if you actually give somebody something that they can use that is actually useful and engaging. Yeah, like you said, ⁓

Dave Majzner (06:15)
engage.

Cody Crabb (06:20)
It’s not only like you’re giving them a puzzle book, you’re giving them a puzzle book that has words that will stick in their head because they’re doing this. So I do find that pretty interesting. I’d be curious to know like, how does this compare in price to like some of these other items? Because in my mind, I’m like, this seems like it could be quite a bit more expensive, but maybe would have a better return. I’m curious what that would look like.

Dave Majzner (06:46)
So I do charge a set up fee to get everybody to get all their information into the book. And then once they have that, they own that product. Now they can, I can order through Amazon where we get them for between three and $5 depending on how big the book is. And you know, sometimes people want more.

Cody Crabb (07:02)
That’s really not bad. I was

expecting that to be a lot more. Yeah.

Dave Majzner (07:06)
It’s really not. Some people even have printers that they have engagement with that they can get it for cheaper. It’s really theirs. Now the other Hero Book is a little bit different because that’s mostly digital. I could talk about that.

Cody Crabb (07:20)
absolutely. And this is the one that I was just having a great time with before. So I’m really excited about this one.

Dave Majzner (07:26)
It is exciting.

Cody Crabb (07:28)
Yeah, so tell us a little bit about kind of what the difference is and how and how that one works.

Dave Majzner (07:33)
Sure, so the Hero Book is all digital. I mean you can get them printed out and that’s great, I do print them for some people, but it’s really the idea is to have it to be digital that they can use on their social media, on their newsletters, even on their webpage. And what this is, is I take a business person, like I was telling you, I could take you and create a hero around you. And that hero then is based upon your values and then some of your likes. So if you tell me,

Hey, my favorite hero is Spider-Man. Well, I’m going to try to make your hero have similar characteristics, not, you know, ripping off Spider-Man. would be. I can totally see where the writing version of you is coming in here. Like the creativity of like, yeah, let’s make the mic move where it lives. maybe the. Exactly. There you go. Yes, exactly. And so then what I do is I create a.

Cody Crabb (08:11)
Well, and not only that, can totally see where the writing version of you is coming in here. Like the creativity of like, yeah, like maybe the mic cables are the webs and maybe the, like I can totally see that.

Dave Majzner (08:28)
hero card for you with all your superpowers and then if you have a sidekick I create one for you also and then I write a 10 chapter story all based on your superhero saving your city from some enemy. I did one for a plumber and the villain was kind of looked like Catwoman but her name was Hairball and her evil plan was to clog up all of the pipes in the city.

And so our plumber here had to get his team together and go defeat Hairball and save the city. And what they do with that is they take those chapters and each chapter has an AI Illustrated image. It’s like a comic book image. And you put that up on your Facebook page or on your Instagram or even LinkedIn. And people will engage with that because it’ll have their story. It’ll have the first chapter of that story in there. And then you can release one a week, one a month.

however you want. And then there’s some holiday things we can do a theme around, you know, your your superhero celebrating the Fourth of July in the community. And it’s just a fun way of engaging. I even have one lawyer who ⁓ if you type in Lady Law, it pops up and she is ⁓ an attorney who is a superhero, kind of like a Wonder Woman. And she has themed her entire web page around Lady Law.

Cody Crabb (09:36)
I love that.

Dave Majzner (09:55)
And the reason she did that is because when she tested that, it brought up her name immediately on Google instead of, know, if you type in attorney in North Carolina, you’re going to get millions of results, right? Well, if you type in lady log, you get one.

Cody Crabb (10:12)
Yeah, well, and I think just as a user of social media, I am like, maybe it’s just because of my age and stuff. am like hyper. get ads make me angry. Like if I see an ad, I’m like, I’m not not only am I not going to buy that product, I’m going to like do everything I can to avoid this product forever, because I’m something about ads. really gets to me.

This does not feel like that. Like what you’re creating something that is like maybe funny or like entertaining that also is like.

getting in someone’s mind. So I’m picturing like, you know, a realtor man and his enemies are stuff like, I don’t know, poorly, poor layout boy. I don’t know, but stuff like that. You know what I mean? Like stuff that people go and then they think about like, oh yeah, that guy, one of the, you’re battling the problems of the industry. And that’s just a way to remember that that’s the guy that does it. So I think that’s fascinating.

Dave Majzner (11:42)
Well, and when you go on social media also, if there’s an illustration, people are much more likely to click it and read it. If it’s just words, they won’t do it. I mean, to your point, had some came up with some new names this morning, like the Deal Defender was a real state. You know, Captain. ⁓

Cody Crabb (11:48)
Yeah.

⁓ yeah, that’s great. Yeah. Yeah. See, I love

that. And I love the idea that like it kind of personifies, like it simplifies the issues. like if there’s investors, like if someone is having a problem or a realtor is like their clients face a problem, like you said, the hairball thing, that is a perfect way to be like, this is a problem that people have and I can solve the problem that those people have.

in a way that’s not just like, hello, I solve your problems, goodbye. It’s like that will stick in your head. That would 100 % stick in my head. I’d be like, who’s the superhero plumber guy? We should call that guy. we, you know what I mean? So I really do think that’s fascinating. And like you said, there’s probably some psychology going on here that I don’t even know about. But like you said, the fact that it’s, there’s some effort there, like that people appreciate that.

Dave Majzner (12:49)
There’s a thing also that if you look at an ad and you have, say, an attorney or a real estate agent or somebody like that who is claiming to be something, the believability is low because people don’t trust the person. But if you have a spokesperson, whether it’s your avatar, your superhero, there is a much more likely outcome for them to accept what you have to say.

Cody Crabb (13:11)
I

Dave Majzner (13:17)
⁓ They’ve taken it in, they believe it, because they have faith in it for some reason. And so even though it’s an avatar, it has authority.

Cody Crabb (13:26)
I read somewhere that if doctors are having a hard time believing you, they’ve done studies on this. If you say, my dad’s a doctor, that’s all you say. Just automatically, they’ll be like, and take you way more seriously and it’s much more believable. I think it’s that kind of feeling where it’s like, oh, well, they wouldn’t just have this if they were just some guy.

They have a spoke, know, even they have a spoke, they have the ability to have a spokesperson. First of all, that’s, that’s impressive. But then like you said, there’s something inherent inside going on where it’s like, I trust this person because someone else, even if it’s a fake person, they’re speaking for them. So.

Dave Majzner (14:04)
Well, you

can even also have more fun with it because I have one. I got so excited this last week because I have a client who wanted to do his as a cowboy. Well, I’m a huge Western fan, and so I had so much fun because he just wanted to be the shotgun carrying salesperson. And it was just a lot of fun to create this story around it. And so if you have a character, you can even be a little bolder.

Cody Crabb (14:16)
You

Dave Majzner (14:32)
in your statements. Like you may not want to go on Facebook and put your face out and say, hey, you know, this is something you need to know about my industry. But if you have your avatar, you can even be a little bolder in what you say.

Cody Crabb (14:43)
I also like the idea too that you can kind of do a little bit of crossover like maybe the cowboy guy does show up on camera but wears a cowboy hat like it’s it’s kind of there’s a little bit of ability to kind of tie things in and like you said I think something about it being faceless as well ⁓ also allows you to really do a lot more I mean one of the biggest problems with kind of social media and and marketing and things is that you have to be front and center if you’re if you’re a realtor you I mean you’ve got to be the one on camera

This has to be that it’s just like how it is But I mean if you kind of create a substitute for this I could even see there being like a way to like 10x your marketing Without you even being in it, you know

Dave Majzner (15:22)
Well, just imagine this.

Imagine this. You’re a real estate agent in Miami, Florida, and you have thousands of people marketing as a real estate agent, but your marketing is you coming in on a dragon and dominating the market.

Cody Crabb (16:19)
Yeah, awesome.

Yeah. And this is something I’ve kind of found in my in my podcast production business. One thing that I have done is I’ve been a little silly in my marketing intentionally. Like my headshots are all kind of goofy. One of them, I’m kind of like draped in cords and I’m kind of like doing like a Vogue kind of thing like this. But and I had people tell me like that’s dangerous because you’re going to you might lose business from that. But what I found is it’s

It actually attracts the kind of people that I want to work with. So like if I can be a little goofy and someone is fine with that, then I’m probably going to get along with them just fine. So that kind of self selects a little bit. I always use this example. I’ve talked to someone one time who has a Jeep with ducks all over it and her she’s a she’s a real estate agent too. And her Instagram handle is best ducking realtor. And she drives this Jeep all around and everybody knows that that’s like the real estate Jeep lady.

Dave Majzner (16:53)
that.

Okay,

cool.

Cody Crabb (17:18)
But

and she said the same thing. People said it’s offensive. It’s almost a swear word. People are going to not like that. And she said those people are dumb. I don’t want to work with those people anyway. So I like the idea that this self selects a little bit so you can kind of tailor what this looks like to the kind of people you want to work for. I’m picturing like you’re a, you know, like I said, you’re a real estate investor and you want to be like a noir detective from the 30s. And like you kind of.

you’re searching for the perfect house and there’s so much you could do with it. I would have now I’m a little bit like I’m totally going to steal this idea. ⁓ But yeah, he’s like, that’s a really good.

Dave Majzner (17:51)
You’re hired as a writer. That’s all there is to it. You’re hired. Hey, you want to even have a

little bit more fun with it? So let’s say you’re a real estate investor and you want to partner with a real estate agent and you both have your superhero. Now what we can do is we can join forces to defeat an enemy. And then what happens with that is when you promote it on your social media, you’re helping the real estate agent. When the real estate agent promotes it,

Cody Crabb (18:07)
Yeah.

Dave Majzner (18:21)
They’re helping you as well. And so it’s a crossover promotion that actually like 10X is your engagement.

Cody Crabb (18:29)
I love that. I think ⁓ I’d love to hear a little bit about just kind of as we’re kind of closing out, you know, we’ve kind of talked about how this is very like this could be very effective and people really like the creativity and things of that nature. But tell me a little bit about where you kind of get these ideas from and how like just about the writing side, because I know that’s that’s your background. So I’m curious, like, where do you kind of

I’m sensing a little bit of a lot of comic book influences here. So I’m guessing maybe there’s a little bit of that You said you love Westerns. So I’m just I just would love to hear you a little more about that

Dave Majzner (19:02)
Yeah, I’m kind of an odd duck. have a wide, wide variety of things I like. Everything from superheroes to classical stuff. know, Conta Monte Cristo is my favorite book, you know, and things like that. I have a ⁓ wide ⁓ palette when it comes to that. Here’s what happens. So let’s say I have a real estate agent who wants a superhero. What I do is I schedule a 30 minute zoom call like this and basically just find out what they’re all about, what their interests are.

Cody Crabb (19:15)
huh.

Dave Majzner (19:32)
what’s some things they want to avoid, and then I do a mockup for them based upon their information. If they approve it, then I go ahead and start writing the story. And honestly, for me, the story kind of writes itself just as I start to work. The way my mind works, it comes up with new ideas. And sometimes I just sit in my chair and you kind of squirm around as you’re typing because it’s just fun to create the story.

Cody Crabb (19:55)
Yes, I did it. I figured it out. Yeah, it’s sometimes I think ⁓ this is a perfect example of and just to kind of bring in the AI element. ⁓ I think this is a perfect example of AI gone right. I hear a lot of people use generative AI and I’m kind of rolling my eyes a little bit like I hear marketing people say, you could generate 50 LinkedIn posts a week. And I’m like, OK, but who cares? that no one wants to read all that. No, that’s not that’s not doing anything for you really, because now everybody’s doing that.

Like that, it’s just so, so the idea that you can use your creativity and then inject that into what you’re producing. That’s what I think AI is for in a generative sense, because otherwise it’s just pictures. Like it could be anything. It could be anyone. But the idea that you, that you start from a place that’s really, really like well thought out. And I think that’s brilliant.

Dave Majzner (20:42)
And there are

I appreciate that. There are sites that you can go and plug in some information. They’ll pump out a book for you, but it’s the same book as your neighbor has and it’s not about you. Where this, you you get to, like you said, AI can be a tool and if it’s used effectively, it’s a powerful, wonderful tool. You just can’t just plug in and say, write me a book. It doesn’t work like that. You actually have to add your…

Cody Crabb (21:11)
Yeah. Well, and if you

do, like I do know plenty of people, I mean, you can, you can spot it a mile away nowadays. People that are like, I’m going to use AI now. And I’m like, then they have an idea like this, but they don’t have the foundation underneath it. So it’s just kind of this hollow, not well executed idea. Whereas I think you’re able to use it on the. Like the production side, not on the idea creative side, which I think is unique because I think a lot of people use it the other way around.

Dave Majzner (21:40)
I agree.

Cody Crabb (21:40)
is they’re

able to like, you know what I mean? Like a lot of people come up with the ideas with AI.

Dave Majzner (21:42)
I do, appreciate you pointing that

out because that’s a very insightful thing there. I appreciate it.

Cody Crabb (21:50)
Well, yeah, of course. Well, I love this. This is the coolest. This is the coolest idea ever. I’d be I’d be remiss. Do you do any other writing or anything like that? Is this kind of all you’ve done or do you have kind of some other stuff you published or just out of curiosity?

Dave Majzner (22:06)
Well,

I’ve got about 50 books out there on ⁓ Amazon right now.

Cody Crabb (22:12)
so just a little, just on the side a little bit, yeah. Holy cow.

Dave Majzner (22:14)
Yeah, some

of them are I’m going to admit some of are a little cheeky that I did a state series where like the South Carolina one is parasites, peaches and something sticky. So it’s a little South Carolina book. It’s funny. I also did a four book series called Elf Elemental where they have fire elves, air elves, earth elves and water elves and they have to rejoin and become one race. And that’s a fun story. And then

My favorite probably that I’m working on right now and it’s not published is a crossover that imagine the movie Tombstone meets Lord of the Rings. So Doc Holliday is an elf, Wyatt Earp is a dwarf, and the cowboys, the evil guys, are ⁓ orcs and goblins.

Cody Crabb (22:59)
You

The minute you said that, was like, literally can, it just like sunk right into place as soon as you said that. was like, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Well, I love this because you’re coming at this from a marketing, you’re obviously like in marketing, but you’re coming at this from a story perspective, which I love that. think anyone that’s listening to this, that’s been kind of really wanting to shake things up. I mean, this is probably a great way to do that. How can someone learn more about how to do this and get in contact with you?

Dave Majzner (23:12)
It’s a lot of fun.

If you go to yourherobook.com, there’s a get started. You can see some of work that we’ve done. We’ll have some patience. We’ve just launched this site. ⁓ It’s a new site, but we wanted to get all our information up there. And it’s constantly updating. But there’s a calendar invite. You can set up an interview with me, and we’ll just see if it works for you. The thing is, if you want a superhero, like a mock-up,

I’m happy to do that just to see how it works.

Cody Crabb (24:05)
And I love that too. The other thing just to kind of to tack this on, I mean, this is probably something that goes without saying, but like the idea that you can put a little bit of yourself in here. I am very like funny and serious, not serious in my marketing and stuff. I love the idea that that could be something that is kind of kind of shines through in this. So the idea that you can kind of put what people want to portray into this is like so great.

Dave Majzner (24:32)
a saying that I heard years ago by, her name was Dani Johnson, and she said, facts tell, but stories sell. So if you can, everybody has a story, and if you can get your story in a way that people will be engaged with it, they’re gonna trust you. And when they trust you, they buy from you

Cody Crabb (24:41)
Hmm.

love it. Well, thank you once again. This has been fascinating ⁓ and really interesting. Lots of ideas flowing in my head now. So thanks for that. ⁓ But and thank you listeners for giving us some of your time as well. If you like what you heard today, go ahead and give us a like, subscribe, comment, all the things and make sure you don’t miss a single episode so we can get more great conversations like this. David, thank you so much. This has been a genuine pleasure.

Dave Majzner (25:00)
you

Thank you so much for having