Real Estate Lead Generation Strategies That Build Trust, Listings, and Long-Term Success

Nichole Fecteau (00:00)
I think the beautiful thing about what we do as real estate agents is there’s not one way to do it. There’s a million ways to do it. And anybody that’s telling you, have to call people, cold call, and you have to use these scripts, and you have to do it this way. And it’s not the only way to do it. There’s a million ways to do it. ⁓ And I just found another great way to do it.

Q Edmonds (01:51)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And if you’ve been following me, you know what I’m about to say. And I promise you it’s authentic and it’s real. We have another fantastic guest. We have another fantastic guest. I’m so excited for you all to get to learn about her. 16 years of what she does. Residential, she worked with developers.

Nichole Fecteau (02:07)
you

Q Edmonds (02:20)
new construction. She has been on some boards, a charming number boards. I’m going to her explain all of that to you. But I say this because she’s proficient at what she does. And you know, that’s what I like to do, to have conversations with people, show you who they are. And so I’m so excited that we get a chance to learn from Ms. Nichole Fecteau. How did I do, Ms. Nichole?

Nichole Fecteau (02:22)
you

Yeah.

You got it.

You did good.

Q Edmonds (02:49)
Look, y’all,

the 26th time is the charm. The 27th time is the charm. no, Ms. Nichole, I’m so glad to have you here. How you feeling today,

Nichole Fecteau (03:00)
I’m feeling great. It’s a beautiful chilly day, a spring day up here in Maine, but I’m feeling great. Thank you.

Q Edmonds (03:01)
Yeah.

Absolutely.

Well, listen, we’re so glad to have you on. I’m the type I like to dive in. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. And Ms. Nichole, also, if you can give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into the space where you’re in. We love the heroine’s journey. So if you could give us that. So what you’re up to and your origin story. Ms. Nichole, ma’am, you have the floor.

Nichole Fecteau (03:12)
Mm-hmm.

All right, well, so my origin story, was in back in 2010, I was a freshly divorced. Oh, sometimes this makes me cry. I should have brought my tissues in here. I’ll try. I’ll try not to. You got one for me.

Q Edmonds (03:43)
Listen, we’ll cry together.

I keep my eye on your hand. I’m an emotional person. Exactly. I’ll cry right along with you. But yeah, and I’m divorced as well, too. So I’m really nervous. So please continue. I got your back. got your back. Yes, ma’am.

Nichole Fecteau (03:49)
Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you.

So 2010, I was divorced. I had two little boys. I had just started in real estate. My kids were young. They were like five and seven, I think, or four and six. And at my divorce hearing, the judge looked at me and said, you’re living below poverty standards. Because it was my first year in real estate. I had sold, think, nothing. I made like $15,000 that year.

which was below poverty standards in Maine in 2010. And she gave me information on food stamps and state aid and all that. And I was like, no, I’m gonna make this work. And I was in a shitty little apartment just trying to make it with my kids. And I tell this story in the class that I teach and it’s that my brokerage had a contest that fall and I had done nothing. I didn’t know the first thing about real estate.

and it was to win an iPad. And it was right before Christmas and I had said to my broker, I’m gonna win that iPad because I had $40 cash in my pocket. I wouldn’t even keep money in my bank account because the bills were just coming out and then I would like lose my money. I was like, I was in a real panicking state. So I had like $40 cash at any given moment. I was borrowing money to put gas in my car to go on showings.

And I said to my broker,

Okay, I’m going to win this iPad. How do I get listings? And he’s like, well, you have to get on the phone and start calling expireds. And I was like, my God, you want me to call people? And God bless the people that do make phone calls. But I tried it and it was not happening for me. just I it’s just not my forte. I don’t like it. I never did like it. But I but I knew that expireds at that time were the way to get business. And so I was like, I have to figure out how to make this work. I have to I have to succeed at this.

So I developed this plan. I just started throwing stuff at the wall to see what stuck. And I developed this plan that really worked. And people started calling me and they’re like, we see your name everywhere. They were not seeing my name on signs. I had zero listings. We see your name everywhere, we’re hearing all about you. ⁓ Come list our house. And I wound up being very successful ⁓ with this plan that I came up with.

Q Edmonds (06:45)
Yeah, yeah.

Nichole Fecteau (07:07)
I call it, I’ve since branded it, it’s called the Triple Visibility Blueprint now, and I still teach it to this day, but ⁓ moral of the story is, I won the iPad for my sons, because I certainly wasn’t gonna tell my kids that there was gonna be no Christmas that year. Granted, it’s the only thing my kids got that year. I actually wound up winning one, and I bought one, because I did have a couple of sales. But it taught me that.

Q Edmonds (07:19)
Hmm.

Mmm!

Nichole Fecteau (07:32)
I think the beautiful thing about what we do as real estate agents is there’s not one way to do it. There’s a million ways to do it. And anybody that’s telling you, have to call people, cold call, and you have to use these scripts, and you have to do it this way. And it’s not the only way to do it. There’s a million ways to do it. ⁓ And I just found another great way to do it.

So that’s kind of my origin story. became, within one year, a top agent in that brokerage. I’ve since always been a top agent in the brokerages that I’ve been with.

And now I’m a national speaker and I still teach exactly what I did because it’s like scalable. It just changes, the message changes, essentially everything else is the same. And I help other agents that are just like me, which I absolutely love and gives me a lot of joy and gives me a lot of energy.

Q Edmonds (08:22)
Oh, so I’m going ask you this. I just used that as preliminary. I’m a flair for the dramatics. I’m about to work my way towards something, But the triple visibility blueprint that you still teach today, correct? Would you say it was born in 2010? Or when would you? OK, good. right.

Nichole Fecteau (08:33)
Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Yes. It was born

in 2010 and I spent all of last year making it into an actual course. So I’ve been teaching it to people in bits and pieces and I’m like, you know what? I gotta put this together because this is really helping people. And then I was asked to speak at a convention and I was like, okay, this is a great time to launch my product, right? So, but yeah, same thing I was doing in 2010. I teach everybody.

Q Edmonds (09:04)
Perfect, because I’m going love asking you this question. I make a statement normally around this portion of the pod. I make a statement and I ask a question. And so when you was talking, I was actively listening, writing things down. So I’m going regurgitate some of the things you said back to you, all because I’m building up to a dramatic moment. I’m being honest, but you’re right. OK. And so 2010, off of a divorce, off of a divorce.

Nichole Fecteau (09:07)
Yeah.

love it, Q, I love it.

Q Edmonds (09:31)
two boys, they was either five or seven or four or six. At the hearing, the judge said that you were living below the poverty level. And so you was in a shitty apartment, to use your words, right? Shitty apartment. Which is fine. I cursed with you to let you know it was okay. Like, you know, we good. This is a safe space here, right? So, a shitty apartment. This contest came up in your brokerage to win an iPad.

Nichole Fecteau (09:41)
Mm-hmm.

I curse sometimes, it just is what it is.

Q Edmonds (10:35)
You said you had $40 in your bank account. You wouldn’t even put money in the bank account because bills coming out. I listen when you said it, I’m like, she ain’t close to home. Like, I know what you’re talking about. Keep the cash showing you because if you keep it in the bank, you’re going to go into the next week. You’re not going to have no cash. Listen. Listen.

Nichole Fecteau (10:48)
keep the cash, yeah, yeah. I have goosebumps thinking about it, because that’s,

still know what that feels like. You know what that feels like. Once you’ve felt that, you always remember what that feels like.

Q Edmonds (10:59)
But

it’s a book that says the body keep the score, right? It’s there. It’s forever in your memory bank. Absolutely. So you had to borrow money. And then you asked, how can I win this iPad? You was determined. They said, well, you got to call people. I said, I want to call people. And I did, right? I don’t like it. And so you developed a plan. And that plan allowed you

Nichole Fecteau (11:02)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Not that hungry. Not that poor.

Q Edmonds (11:26)
Visibility. And here’s the thing you said, it like you had billboards, but people was just, they said, I see your name everywhere. So the triple visibility blueprint was born. Now you’re a national speaker. You launched the product that was built, that came alive in 2010, conceptually was alive. It was alive in 2010. had been field tested. By now it’s field tested, it’s proven, and you’re building it out. Here we are in 2026.

Nichole Fecteau (11:33)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Q Edmonds (11:57)
So this is my statement. This is my flair for the dramatics. So this is my statement that I make probably every podcast, Ms. Destiny has no wasted moments. Destiny has no wasted moments. We are building momentum to the people that we are now. And the way we’re wired, the way we evolve, there are footprints.

Nichole Fecteau (11:57)
Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Q Edmonds (12:26)
There are little sprinkle breadcrumbs all along the journey. And you are building momentum to the person that you are now. You are borrowing from different parts of your life, from the hurt, the pain, the voice, failure. All of these moments are building. So I would love to know, and I’m love asking you this question. What has the moments, the journey taught you about yourself? I mean, you already shared a little bit about how you said,

Nichole Fecteau (12:38)
Yeah.

Q Edmonds (12:53)
You know, it’s all, it’s more than one way to do things. But now that I framed it that way, along the journey, what has this journey taught you about yourself, Ms.

Nichole Fecteau (12:57)
huh.

I thought about this the other day actually when I was doing laundry ⁓ and that’s that I know that I can rely on myself. I can trust myself, I can rely on myself and that and I just literally thought about this the other day like you know you can trust yourself.

Boy, but that was a hard-won lesson though. There was a lot of tears that came with that, but yeah.

Q Edmonds (13:28)
Yeah, yeah.

Ooh, that’s for me, that’s such a witty answer because I feel like I’m in that leg of my life where I feel like I can finally trust the word that I’m keeping to myself, right? This has got Coach Lynch, he’s a fitness instructor. He has a saying, he says, when you lie to yourself, you truly have no one else left that you can trust.

Nichole Fecteau (13:46)
Yes, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Q Edmonds (14:00)
You lie to yourself, you truly have no one else that you can trust. And some of us, we don’t intentionally lie to ourself, but we try to brace ourself for the impact. We try to brace ourself for the hardship. So sometimes in order to protect ourself, we will live a lie. We will live the untruth about ourself. And I’m not sure if that was grammatically correct.

Nichole Fecteau (14:15)
Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah, I know.

Q Edmonds (14:29)
But the fact

of the matter is that we are beautifully and wonderfully made. The fact of the matter that we are powerful upon, you know, beyond measure. The fact of the matter is that we don’t have to live in a fixed mindset. We can live from the grove mindset. So I love the fact that you can rely on yourself and I would love for you to talk more about it. But I know for me, it started with reminding myself who I am. It started to tear down the lie that sometimes come after divorce.

Nichole Fecteau (14:37)
Mm.

Yeah.

Q Edmonds (14:58)
You know, tear down

Nichole Fecteau (14:58)
Yeah.

Q Edmonds (14:59)
the lie that comes with this personification or just us trying to be in survival mode. But no, so I’ll say this and I’m gonna let you talk. Brene Brown, do you know who Brene Brown is? I love Brene Brown. If he talks about shame, shame is not who we are. You know, we’re not a personification. So we’re not failures, we fake. We’re not losers, we’ve lost. You know, it’s not personifying who I am.

Nichole Fecteau (15:06)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yep, yeah.

Right, right.

Yeah.

Q Edmonds (16:07)
I would love for you to speak to that. I’m pretty sure one of the ways you kind of got out of it is talking to yourself in a positive way. Is that correct?

Nichole Fecteau (16:16)
I I’m really particular. think that, especially with real estate agents, gosh, we’re so ego-driven, which is not a bad thing, right? But we are, right? Go online and look and see, you know, I can tell you how much every real estate agent around me has sold because they can’t stop talking about it. ⁓ And God bless them, there’s nothing wrong with that. It might not be for me, but that’s how we are as, you know, it’s just what keeps us motivated, I guess.

⁓ And a lot of it is self-talk and it’s not comparing. I’ll tell you what, last year because I was busy building out ⁓ this class and I was getting ready to teach at a national convention, I I taught like two 45 minute sessions at a national convention. I had never done that before. I had like sold out rooms and ⁓ so there’s a lot of pressure on me and I had taken a step back from real estate. My sales last year were like eight million which is probably one of my worst years in real estate and

People judge me on that. They see my sales from 2025 and they’re like, she ain’t right? What is she out there teaching? So it is, it’s a lot of positive self-talk because I know like, I know what’s in here and I know what’s in here and I know what I’m doing and ⁓ that I’m a good capable person. But yeah, a lot of it is not paying attention to what else is going on. I have a saying that’s, I don’t have any competition. Nobody is my competition.

Q Edmonds (17:32)
Yeah.

Nichole Fecteau (17:42)
I am the only competition I have I’m looking at right now, right? It’s me. I was at an open house three weeks ago and I was hosting this open house and this agent came in and she’s from a different brokerage and she was waiting on some buyers who turned out to be like fake buyers, right? She got them off Zillow, she’s paying for Zillow leads and I just felt bad for her. She stayed there for like an hour talking to me and she lives in the town next to where I live. ⁓

So I’m probably a competition, right? I kind of dominate my little area here. Although I always say there’s plenty of real estate for everybody. you know, plenty of real estate for everybody to sell. I’m not gonna sell all of it, I promise you that. So, but I was talking to her and she was, you know, a little dismayed and didn’t have all the skills. And I was like, hey, listen, I’m teaching this class. I have it as an online class. So a self-paced online class.

Q Edmonds (18:26)
Bye.

Nichole Fecteau (18:37)
but I also will teach it to brokerages. They have a certain number of agents. I’ll do it via Zoom. So I’m teaching via Zoom in West Virginia right now. I’m actually going down to West Virginia on Sunday to teach them one of the sessions live, because I just love them. Gosh, West Virginia is just one of the greatest places. I love it. But this girl who lives in this town right next to me, I was like, you know what? I’m gonna invite you. It’s at a deep discount.

Q Edmonds (18:56)
Let’s go.

Nichole Fecteau (19:04)
It’s live, I want you to come take my class and let me teach you all of the things that I know and let me give you all of my materials that work and you’re in the next town next to me. I think that’s how I know, that is the epitome of I can trust myself, right? I can trust myself to do my work and do the things that I need to do to provide for my family while still giving of my heart, giving of myself and… ⁓

and not comparing myself to everybody else. Although we all get caught in that trap. Listen, I’ve given bad self-talk ever since my numbers from 2025 came out publicly. So everybody knows, right? But yeah, so it’s a constant struggle. mean, listen, I know what it feels like to have $40 in my pocket. I still know what that feeling is. So it’s a constant thing. I don’t think you’re ever cured of it. I don’t care how much money I make or how many houses I sell.

Q Edmonds (19:44)
No, yeah.

Nichole Fecteau (20:02)
I think I’ll always have that comparison going on, but it’s just, I don’t know. It’s just having this a little bit stronger.

Q Edmonds (20:12)
Yeah, yeah. Ms. Nichole, I appreciate you so much. I mean, you are synthesizing a lot of the things that I like to talk about in this part, but you are synthesizing it with real life experience. And not just real life, but authentic, honest, real life experiences. And I often say this, I never got the chance to kind of frame it and give context to what I’m about to say. But when I was at the end, I was at the fork in the road with my

divorce when I was deciding if it was time for me to divorce. Like what is it time for me to do? I had been married for, I guess at that time, probably close to 13 years, maybe 14 years, but that’s a long time.

Nichole Fecteau (20:53)
Wow.

That is, yeah.

Q Edmonds (20:57)
One of my mentors said to me, and it hit me like a freight train, and I still hold on to it today. He said, when you know who you are, you know what to do. That thing slammed into me like a freight train. And so when I hear you say you’ve learned how to trust yourself, I want people to understand this is not coming from, well, let me correct, because I was about to say it’s not coming from ego. But like you said, ego can be good. Ego can fuel us.

Nichole Fecteau (21:09)
Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, it’s

yeah, right, right

Q Edmonds (21:26)
But this is not arrogance. This is not hubris. This

is no, I have put into the work to identify who I am. Do blood, sweat, tears, separation, anxiety, loneliness. I’m, listen, when you know who you are, when you’ve put in the work of learning you, when you know who you are, you know what to do. And that powers you in every aspect of your life.

Nichole Fecteau (21:43)
Yeah.

Q Edmonds (21:56)
And so I’m glad we had this conversation because I often say that quote, but it literally came out of that context of, am I about to get separated or not? Like, do I not want to face my fears? Do I feel like I’m not worthy of love? And for men, some of us, I mean, I’m saying it because I am a man and I’ll talk to other men. Some of us, don’t even tap into that. Are you worthy of love? Are you worthy of loving yourself? Is your identity attached

Nichole Fecteau (22:02)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Q Edmonds (22:25)
to, you know, women. Like, what is your identity? And so all of us got to go through several journeys. So please, I’m sorry, please, yes, ma’am.

Nichole Fecteau (22:29)
Right, right. Yeah. No, you’re absolutely right. And for me, it’s like, I think this last year, it’s like my identity was attached to my sales volume, which is ridiculous because I’m so giving of myself. Like, I know who I am.

the number of houses I sell have nothing to do with who I am or how valuable I am as a human being. But you know, like you have to kind of step back and like take a look at it and like separate yourself from the social media and the nonsense and the awards and whatever. Just be like, yeah, you know, sometimes you need a trusted advisor to help you take that step back and do that. And luckily I have that in my life.

Q Edmonds (23:15)
So that’s

good, because this is building up to my final two questions. So one, I do want to know, what’s your next real goal with the business? What are you looking to solve for scale next?

Nichole Fecteau (23:23)
Mm-hmm.

So my next, my right now in my training business, which is what I’m really building, the real estate thing just keeps going, which is awesome. In training, the next thing I’m doing is I’m just writing a class. I’m wrapping up writing it right now, which is Advanced Lead Generation for Listing Agents, which is a lot of fun for me because I think I have a lot of unconventional ideas. I know I do because people tell me I do.

Q Edmonds (23:36)
Absolutely.

Nichole Fecteau (23:53)
Again, it was time to write them all down, get them out there, so I’m working on that. So that’s the next big thing that I’m working on.

Q Edmonds (24:01)
Love you. Love it. So here’s my last question. I’m probably going to ask because you talked about having a support team around you. So when you hear the word relationship, and I’m actually going ask you this word too, relationship and community. What do those, what alarm bells go off in your head when you hear those words?

Nichole Fecteau (24:11)
Yeah.

Mmm.

geez. So my community, I always say I have a heart of service. I have a servant’s heart. My community, like, my community is everything to me. I live in a very small town. My whole and a lot of what I teach is about how to build those authentic relationships. You can tell, like, I’m authentic. I’m not like whatever. You’re never going to find me on an Instagram perfect backdrop, right? Like, I am a…

What you see is what you, I am 100 % this girl. And that fosters this trust in my community and that fosters these relationships because I am not picture perfect. like, I don’t wanna say messy because that has a negative connotation, but you know, like I’m a regular person and I give a lot. I give of myself, I give of my, I give monetarily from my business to support my community. I…

Q Edmonds (24:53)
Yeah.

Nichole Fecteau (25:16)
I’m the chairman of my planning board. I’ve served on my board for many years. Anytime somebody needs a chairman or a co-chairman on any board, they come to me because I will give up my time and my energy very readily. It means a lot to me to give back to the community that fosters my business. these are the people, I mean, I live amongst them and these are the people that trust me with their largest assets.

to make the best decisions for them. So I very readily and ⁓ with, I don’t know, robustly give back to my community and form those relationships.

Q Edmonds (25:55)
Absolutely. ⁓ Two things I always say, well, a lot say a lot on this part. One, at the foundation of any sustainable business, I believe is servitude. I believe if you build on servitude, your business will sustain. And I get that from an old proverb, and it says, when you refresh others, you in return will be refreshed. If you have that servant’s heart to refresh others, to help others,

Nichole Fecteau (26:06)
Yeah.

Yep.

Q Edmonds (26:23)
it’s always going to come like a boomerang back to you. You’re going to be refreshed. so…

Nichole Fecteau (26:28)
And

it has to come from here, it has to be authentic. Where I live, I live in New England in a small town and if you’re just doing things that are community oriented, ⁓ in your mind to get business, people will see right through you. It really has to be something that comes from the heart that if you never saw a piece of business because of it, you would still feel fulfilled and I think that’s what makes it so, it’s so beautiful.

I tell people like going to my planning board meetings is one of my favorite things to do. It’s just, and they’re like, yeah.

Q Edmonds (27:03)
that’s a mic drop moment. I’m sorry. That’s a mic drop moment. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you?

Nichole Fecteau (27:05)
Hahaha!

Well, I am very old school. So I am, I’m on, I have a Facebook business page. This is my name. You can look me up. ⁓ That’s probably the easiest way to get in contact with me. If you are, you can find out about my courses there. Pretty much that’s the easiest way. just direct people to Facebook business. Good old fashioned.

Q Edmonds (27:38)
old-fashioned. Okay, so let me say three things to you. Spirit of transparency, I say this at the close of every part, but I mean it sincerely. I promise you I do. So first, thank you for your time. know, time is our most precious commodity.

Nichole Fecteau (27:48)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

It is.

It is.

Q Edmonds (27:59)
And so you could

have been doing anything in the world, right? Yes, we know how podcasts work, where you have somebody on and you’re talking with them. It would not be a part without that, but still you did not have to give us your time. And so I appreciate that. Thank you so much for giving us your time. I value it so much. Secondly, thank you for your story. put a high premium on stories. Before Kobe Bryant passed away, he was on one of the last

Nichole Fecteau (28:09)
Yep.

Q Edmonds (28:29)
interviews that he was on, Lewis Howes from the School of Greatness podcast, Ray podcast, he asked him, hey, what have you done that you still, what do you want to do that you still have yet to do? And Kobe said, tell the perfect story. He said, nothing in this world moves without story. And so there’s a force in your story and your narrative. And it plants seeds in people and people can pull from that seed as long as they’re alive.

Nichole Fecteau (28:33)
huh.

Mm.

Q Edmonds (28:56)
And so I thank you so much for coming on and sharing your narrative in an authentic, transparent, vulnerable way. Greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. Lastly, thank you for your mindset, the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. You’ve paid for that mindset, some in money, some in experience, in loss, in life. And you brought that mindset to this platform. And if somebody mindset can be shifted today,

Nichole Fecteau (29:05)
Very welcome.

Q Edmonds (29:24)
That changes their whole game forever. So thank you for your mindset and bring your mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you coming on Ms. Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Listen, y’all heard Ms. Nichole, old fashioned way, looking at show notes, getting in contact with her. What you see is what you get. And I promise you, she has been totally consistent the whole time, y’all seen it on recording or off of recording, she’s been authentic. So get.

Nichole Fecteau (29:33)
Thank you. I appreciate it. It’s a lot of fun.

You

Yep.

Q Edmonds (29:54)
in her context, get her coaching, get her training. I’m telling you, she is going to steward you well. And you know how I feel about that word stewardship. Everybody can’t steward everything well. I truly believe she’s going to steward you well. So get in contact with her and definitely make sure you are subscribed here because I keep promising you, you’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Ms. Nichole. So ma’am, I say thank you again and everyone else listen, y’all have a fantastic day.