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Show Summary
In this conversation, automation specialist Danny Monzon discusses the booming field of automation, particularly in the context of real estate. He shares his journey into the automation space, the scope of automation technologies, and the advancements in chat and voice automation. Danny highlights the various use cases for real estate investors, emphasizing the importance of compliance and the potential for AI to enhance operational efficiency. He concludes with practical advice for leveraging AI to identify areas for improvement in business processes.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Danny Monzon (00:00)
Yes. ⁓ So these chat bots have now become systems, right? Agents that perform things, you know, with precision, right? So I think that the evolution, right? Of that widget that once was unsmart and inaccurate and clunky ⁓ is going to transcend that and become part of systems that ⁓that are built specifically for an industry or specifically for an individual or team, right? So I think it’s the customization of proprietary AI that will probably outlive us.
Dylan Silver (02:15)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Danny Monzon, is an automation specialist working with clients in the US and internationally developing and implementing automation systems tailored to reduce operational costs. Danny, welcome to the show.Danny Monzon (02:34)
As we go on everybody at Investor Fuel, thanks for having me.Dylan Silver (02:37)
Absolutely, and it’s great to have you on here. And what I always like to ask guests at the top of the show is how they got into real estate. But I want to ask you specifically, how’d you get into the automation space, which right now it seems to be booming.Danny Monzon (02:55)
Sure thing. So my background is, um, I grew up in New York cityuh, I worked at a marketing research firm in Manhattan, right? So I became aware and exposed to, um, stats, uh, statistics, right? Statistics, should say statistics is my, my, my Spanish brain talking, um, that and, um, and creative copy. So it was a combination of,
of creative plus, you know, mathematics, right? Um, moving forward after, after I left New York, I hooked up with, uh, with a mastermind where every Wednesday we learned different, different things that were working, right? And it was there in 2017 that I saw many chat and, I saw something that I thought I could, um, I could help, uh, businesses. I had clients, but they were not automation clients at that moment.
So I saw something that I could execute and I got to know the brand, I got to know the product. I became an educator six years later. We’re here building stuff with AI.
Dylan Silver (04:05)
Now, when we talk about automations, for folks who are not familiar with this space entirely, this is all new to them. What’s the scope of the automation space? Help give our audience an idea of what constitutes automation.Danny Monzon (04:21)
Yes, that’s a great question because there are many processes that people can automate, but what I specialize in is chat automation, right? So ⁓ that is basically the way a brand communicates with its audience, right? Back and forth in a timely manner. And that is the beginning of what we used to call back in the many chat days as conversational marketing, right?⁓ because of the evolution lately with the technology that’s available AI, right? We’re all, we’ve all heard about it, about it. that helps us build customized solutions that transcends chat, right? Where teams can use it to, ⁓ to communicate,
results internally and to optimize their processes.
Dylan Silver (06:00)
Now, when we’re talking about automating chat, for instance, right? This space is something that has rapidly developed even over the last handful of months. I’ve seen, for instance, the ability for ⁓ communications where people are doing, I would call it intake. So maybe asking a handful of questions, but then I’ve also seen the abilityto even provide guidance beyond that to where it’s almost adopting the mentality, the mindset of the operator who the chat was effectively built for. Can you walk us through some of the advancements that you’ve seen over the last couple of months or years so?
Danny Monzon (06:48)
sure thing. Sobefore we automate anything, right? We take a look at what’s existing as far as the processes and tools, right? That way we can formulate something that is ⁓ fitting for that brand or team, right? ⁓ The advancements in chat automation, right? ⁓ Or ⁓ the execution part, right? That begins by ⁓ understanding
in what part of that funnel we are ⁓ automating, right? Is it lead generation type of funnel attention and what to do with people who, you know, take an action, right? Then the middle of the funnel is nurturing, you know, that audience that opted in, right? There can be many types of automation, not only with chat, but also with email, different channels demand of different types of communication, different
⁓ compliance guidance, right? And things of that nature. Or is it, or we’re trying to automate conversions, right? We know that we can’t or we should not automate or pretend to automate, you know, certain conversions, right? But having an understanding of where, part of the funnel am I automating? And also what segment
Dylan Silver (07:54)
Right.Danny Monzon (08:14)
of an audience, whether they are in the, you know, they may be in different parts of the journey, right? So parallel to the funnel, there’s people that are in different parts. ⁓ So there is where we begin to ⁓ trace and to map what’s going to be our KPIs, et cetera.Dylan Silver (08:35)
Now, when we’re talking about the use cases of automation, you talked about top of funnel, depending on where you are, could change exactly how you would employ automation. For real estate investors specifically, and I was mentioning this before hopping on here, I’ve seen kind of two different sides of it. I’ve seen folks who are super old school, I would say, and want to really send every message themselves. They don’t want,any type of automation in their business. And then I’ve seen actually quite a bit recently, which I’m excited for, of real estate operators, real estate investors making full use of AI and automation even more so than probably most people would think when you think of real estate. How are you seeing the best use cases for real estate investors when it comes to automation?
Danny Monzon (09:33)
That’s a great question. So back in 2019, with the previous platform, we integrated the MLS with ManyChat, which was the first of a kind integration. That led us or led me to understand that real estate investors, they play different rules, right? They need to follow different laws, right? Soso many…
strategies within investing real estate. What we first saw was, was, ⁓ the, and I say this to a lot of people who have, ⁓ opposite views, right? I should not automate yet. it’s too early. My, ⁓ my gig is a personal brand. There’s no way I can automate myself, right? Things like that. ⁓ to the opposite, right? I want to automate the most so that I can,
you know, accelerate, you know, my processes. I think that both are right. I don’t think that any specific answer is correct, right? So I think that the advancements that we’re seeing within the industry has been within voice, right? So chat has now voice, right? And that voice can also operate with outbound calls and inbound calls, right? Answering and receiving calls.
That’s one of the things that realtors or people of all types of service-based individuals, ⁓ solopreneurs who have a small team perhaps of people answering phones, answering the same repetitive questions can leverage and can do so nowadays in less than a week tops.
Dylan Silver (11:52)
You know, the voice technology is something that is remarkable because it’s we’re doing this. It’s ⁓ 19th is when we’re filming this 2025. I remember in May of this year thinking there’s no way it’s going to be.useful this year because there were so many people who were coming out with something like a product that had a voice component and it was clunky. But now I’ve received and I’m I like I’m on the inside. I’ve received calls from you know, AI agents of some kind and I’m feeling like it’s indistinguishable from a person and it’s that good right now.
Danny Monzon (12:39)
Yes. And so a well-trained AI, I must highlight that, ⁓ will operate in that ⁓ manner. I think that the more we see this type of technology evolving, the more we test it. We want to break it. We want to see what that breaking point is. That way we fix and we optimize. It’s becoming harder and harder to ⁓ flunk it.because of the structure within the knowledge base, et cetera, other key components on the technical side, there lies the customization of a true custom AI, right?
Dylan Silver (13:20)
You know, I had an interesting ⁓ point with this personally. So I’m living in Santo Domingo Este, right? And so part of my life was learning Spanish out here. But then I also was able to have conversations with AI in the local Dominican dialect of Spanish so that I was even learning through AI, like…Dominican Spanish. And this is how specific, how dialed in it’s getting. And I’m having like deep conversations that really only someone who’s living here would even be curious about because it’s specific to this region. So I’m imagining as I’m going through this, like, well, if it’s able to do this, imagine how granular it could get. I believe you’re based out of Jacksonville, Florida, about Jacksonville, Florida real estate.
you know, across multiple languages, it doesn’t matter who’s on the other end, whether they’re English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, it’s going to have enough data in there in order to have a conversation. That’s, that’s a game changer.
Danny Monzon (14:26)
It is, and in fact, that was one of the reasons why I was seeing a lot of other platforms evolving while my previous, the previous platform where I used to build with ⁓ didn’t. building, because I served ⁓ brands in two languages, I would have to build two different chat flows, ⁓ not with AI, it was conditional logic, right? So we had to pre-engineer everypotential conversation that, ⁓ that would come up, you know, in the, in the chat.
And, so the bots were clunky and they were inaccurate or they will, you know, ⁓ trigger a default reply that’s irrelevant. So we, we saw that very early, prototype, right. Of what, of what we have today. So it’s, it never seems to amaze me.
Dylan Silver (16:00)
When we talk about the future, and I know no one’s got a crystal ball, but if there’s anyone who could see what’s on the horizon, it would be someone like yourself in the automation space. What are you excited for the next couple of months and years to look like? I know if I was looking back six months ago, I was excited for where voice would be today, and it’s clear that we’ve arrived there as far as voice. What do you see on the horizon? What are you excited about for automations and for AI in general?Danny Monzon (16:28)
Yes. ⁓ So these chat bots have now become systems, right? Agents that perform things, you know, with precision, right? So I think that the evolution, right? Of that widget that once was unsmart and inaccurate and clunky ⁓ is going to transcend that and become part of systems that ⁓that are built specifically for an industry or specifically for an individual or team, right? So I think it’s the customization of proprietary AI that will probably outlive us.
Dylan Silver (17:11)
That’s the jump that we’re at here is, hey, we’re trying to have some conversations, then we’re trying to get voice. Now we’re going to have proprietary AI that’s going to outlive us. The progression was pretty quick there. ⁓ We are coming up on time here though, Danny. I want to ask you a couple of questions specific to ⁓ some segments in real estate, if I may. Get a little bit granular here. ⁓Danny Monzon (17:26)
YeahDylan Silver (17:38)
And don’t give away all the gold maybe save some of it but give our audience a gold nugget here. So for single family investors, I’m licensed in Texas, I can speak specifically to how much you know, outbound ⁓ calls that are needed. You know, you can’t really replace door knocking just yet. It’s not like you’re having robots that can come and knock on people’s door at the moment. But a lot a lot of interacting online a lot of outbound calling.And so I feel like that can in many ways be totally offset to to AI. Do you see ⁓ operators then being able to to literally like offload that as if it was an employee or would they still very much have to be involved in like the day to day outbound component of it right now for where we’re at in December of 2020?
Danny Monzon (18:29)
Yes, that’s a great question. I’m on, besides being an automation guy, I also pay attention to compliance, right? I mean, we are ⁓ using different mediums, different channels, right? To deploy these bots. The telephone channel, right? Is governed by different entities, you know, here in the States, right? The FTC and their rules that we need to…to highlight whenever we touch that subject, right? So ⁓ there’s an opportunity, huge opportunity. A lot of brands are missing the mark still because they’re, you know, they constantly are ⁓ playing carefully and not taking risks. But I think that that is a calculated risk that can be, ⁓ could be adopted, right? And it doesn’t have to completely annihilate a call center, right? But start, you know, from,
from a simple rollout of where you’re going to promote certain home or property, right? ⁓ To a more scalable controlled rollout, right? Where you are paying attention, yes, to data, to results. And even you say hi to ask it, how can we get better? Right? I think that I leave with this question for your viewers and for your listeners. ⁓
ask yourself, you know, what parts of your processes are you not efficient at, right? I mean, we all have our weaknesses. If you want to go a little bit ⁓ more ⁓ honest, ask your team, what parts of these processes do we suck at, right? And then ask AI, right? ⁓ Paying attention to which AI you’re talking to and what’s been the…
the pre-programming of that tool, I think that you may discover some ideas that weren’t so obvious.
Dylan Silver (20:31)
You know, it’s amazing the ability to talk about not just ⁓ automate, but also identify even areas of potential need. Hey, where can we where are we missing the boat AI can help assist with that as well and be like a triage if you will for your business. But Danny, where can our audience go? Where can folks go to reach out to you or your team?Danny Monzon (20:52)
Sure thing.Dylan Silver (20:58)
Maybe they’re interested in automation. Maybe they have something that they feel like, hey, is this something that would be a good fit? How can we improve this process? can folks reach out to you?Danny Monzon (21:07)
Yes, yes. So dannymonzon.comis my website. I’m also a social being. So I am in practically every social media channel. ⁓ And I want to leave you guys with this also, with this ⁓ practical use case, right? I like to leave people with practical things that they can act upon right away, right? We’re approaching the end of the year.
And you may, as an investor may want to see or compare some results, whatever results you want to compare to last year, whatever comparison you find relevant and that you feel you could optimize next year, feed that data to AI and ask it exactly in a well-composed question, ⁓ how can I improve? And again, you’ll probably find some things that were obvious and maybe some
execution direction. I’ll leave you guys with that.
Dylan Silver (22:05)
Danny, thank you so much for coming on the show today.Danny Monzon (22:08)
Thank you.
