Skip to main content

Why Realtors Should Stop Using Paper Business Cards & Switch to MiCard

By September 25, 2025Texas Real Estate Pros

Subscribe via:

Show Summary

In this conversation, John Harcar interviews Sean Riley, who shares his diverse journey from a music career to various business ventures, including real estate and digital marketing. Sean discusses the creation of MiCard, a digital business card designed specifically for realtors, highlighting its unique features, marketing strategies, and customer loyalty programs. He emphasizes the importance of perseverance and surrounding oneself with smarter individuals as keys to success.

Resources and Links from this show:

  • Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Sean Riley (00:00)
    just don’t give up. My dad my dad my whole life growing up he said you got to be like a bulldog and he said and and so I my ex my ex-wife had a big stuffed bulldog made with the name Tenacity on the side of it.

    John Harcar (00:14)
    That’s cool.

    Sean Riley (00:15)
    And so

    they go, and that’s what I say, you you’re out there in the trenches in real estate and it’s horrible right now. It’s bad for you. Just don’t quit. Don’t quit. You can’t lose if you don’t quit. I mean, if I’m running that marathon, I might not win. I might be last. I might be crawling across the finish line, but I’m going to finish.

    the bulldog,

    once he bites into something, he ain’t letting go.

    John Harcar (02:15)
    All right, hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar, and I’m here today with Sean Riley. And with Sean, we’re gonna talk about, besides his journey in real estate and what he’s currently doing, we’re gonna talk about his passion, his product, and it’s mi card, it’s a digital business card. We’ll talk more about that as we go on. Sean, welcome to our show.

    Sean Riley (02:37)
    Hey, thanks so

    much for having me, John.

    John Harcar (02:39)
    Yeah, I’m glad to have you on here. Look forward to talking to you. Because our audience might not know much about you, why don’t you give an idea of your background? What got you into business, to real estate, what you’re currently doing?

    Sean Riley (02:52)
    Well, I I was raised in music and my dad was ⁓ entrepreneur. So I kind of grew up in that kind of world ⁓ and, you know, sang gospel music during high school, went to school on a tour bus and then ended up saying, you know, that’s right. That’s back in the hairband days when Poison and Motley Crue and Guns N’ Roses were big. And I was like, I want to do that. I don’t want to sing gospel music with a bunch of old people anymore. I want to go to Hollywood. And so I went to Hollywood with a hundred bucks.

    John Harcar (03:12)
    There we go. Right.

    Sean Riley (03:22)
    and was signed within two weeks and was in a pretty big hair band out there. so then when Grunge took over and killed hair bands, it kind of destroyed my career because I didn’t want to do what they were doing. So I left and came back to Texas and just started on my business journey. And I’ve done it all. I’ve been in the oil business.

    John Harcar (03:38)
    Okay.

    Sean Riley (03:50)
    I own a, actually now I own a tequila company. and, ⁓ you know, that keeps me pretty busy, but, I had a friend, ⁓ after I got out of oil business, I got into digital marketing and reputation marketing. I was one of the first to be able to offer a business a way to build their Google reviews, their five star reviews, all of that, which is, which is critical today. ⁓ but then it got saturated. Everybody started doing it and I was like, now.

    John Harcar (04:13)
    Okay.

    Sean Riley (04:20)
    I went out, but while I was doing that, I met a guy named Pat Hayes who was a realtor and he said, do my marketing for me, help me get my real estate career going. And I said, okay. So we started and he started taking off and became one of the top realtor’s in San Antonio. And then one day he came to me and he said, Hey man, I’m sorry to tell you this, but I’m switching brokerages. going to EXP, this little no name little

    Brokerage that no one had heard of and he said they actually do what you do for me, but they do it for free I said so you’re firing me because yeah, goes, you know, I’m not firing you You’re one of my friends, but I just you know,

    it’s not good business to pay you Yeah, when I can get it for free and we’ll talk about that with mi card, but ⁓ He said why don’t you join me? I said, I’m not gonna do it. I’m just I have no desire to be an actual realtor

    John Harcar (05:51)
    Not gonna use your service. Right.

    Sean Riley (06:05)
    And I was just too stubborn to look at their system and how they did things. so now, 10 years later, he’s got over 5,000 agents in his network and they’re selling 1,400 houses a month. And he loves to that story every time we’re together, every time we’re on a Zoom together because he’s also one of my partners in MiCard. And he’s like,

    He’s like, yeah, Sean said no. That was his first phone call he likes it when he joined the XB. And I said no. And I’m like, ⁓ one of the biggest business regrets I have. But it kind of got me in that, in the real estate world. And, you know, and just through the course of that and the course of working and doing some stuff with Pat, we found mi card and got connected with Ralph Perrone in Florida, who is the CEO and the founder. 26 years in the trenches of real estate, top 1%.

    John Harcar (06:40)
    Yeah.

    Sean Riley (07:03)
    in the nation, 10 years running and $2.5 billion worth of real estate sold. does a lot of commercial stuff now, but he’s kind of put it all on the shelf just to build a micard that he created for those realtors out in the trenches. And I don’t know ⁓ about all your listeners, but since that NAR lawsuit, man, things are going crazy for realtors. It’s tough out there. And so we just decided that we want a platform to give them

    John Harcar (07:12)
    Okay.

    Yeah, yeah.

    Sean Riley (07:32)
    that you might be using a paper card. Well, stop. Don’t. I tell people all the time when they hand me a paper card, go, where’d you get this? Bedrock? Is your name Fred Flintstone? Where’d you get this? But you might be using something like Blink or Link or Popple, and you’re out there using it, but there’s something better that’s actually made for realtors. And we’ll get into some of those features here in just a minute.

    John Harcar (07:41)
    Right.

    Yeah, definitely. So you got into digital marketing and at that point, I mean, was it a hard thing to do as far as creating a digital card versus what you were doing before the digital world?

    Sean Riley (08:11)
    No,

    the card was just, I mean, it took time. It took time and it took a lot of money to get it right. And we studied every digital platform out there. We studied Link, Blink, Popple, Dot. We studied them all. And what we did was we kind of built a Frankenstein that ended up becoming, you know, the master of the universe. We took all the good features from all of these great, great platforms and brought them together. And then we added more stuff to it, you know, that

    John Harcar (08:36)
    Mm-hmm.

    Sean Riley (08:41)
    that they can’t touch us, you know, because Blink and Link and Popple, they’re never gonna let you use it for free. And then on top of that, once you get to sharing it, they’re never gonna send you a check. We have a built-in revenue generator that actually we pay you to share mi card.

    John Harcar (08:43)
    Yeah.

    Yeah.

    Hmm, that’s interesting. So you had all these, I mean, there’s all these other different companies. Why did you feel a need to make yours more robust, more involved, more offerings?

    Sean Riley (09:01)
    Yeah. Yeah, it’s getting-

    It’s

    our personality and it’s Ralph’s personality. He’s like, if we’re going to do it, let’s dominate. Let’s make something that nobody else can touch and let’s be number one in the space. And that’s why that’s his, and that’s his philosophy in real estate. You know, that’s why he’s been a top 1 % in the nation 10 years in a row. Because everything he does, you know, my dad said anything worth doing is worth overdoing. ⁓

    And so, you know, that’s what we’re doing. And we’ve got more stuff coming that’s going to blow people’s minds with this. And yeah, I mean, we just, we just fixed something that was broken and gave, we’re giving realtors, you know, and that was how it started. You know, we got the, we got the card, we got, I mean, the app, cause it’s an app driven and

    John Harcar (09:42)
    100%.

    Sean Riley (10:39)
    got it all, you know, done and ready to beta test. So we took it to, to the app store and to Google play.

    And they go, yeah, we’ll let you, we’ll put your app on our store and use it here and can launch it here and keep it here and all that. But we want 30 % of all your money forever. And Ralph was like, time to call the lawyers. Nope, we’re not doing that. And so the lawyers, about $120,000 later came back with the brilliant idea of we’ll just use the Netflix model. Everybody knows Netflix.

    John Harcar (11:03)
    No, thank you. Yeah.

    Sean Riley (11:15)
    You go to the app store, you download Netflix, but when you hit that subscription button, it takes you off the app store to the servers and all financial transactions are done off the app. So Netflix doesn’t owe the app store any money because no money was changed hands on the app. And so we went with that. And, ⁓ and that’s kind of how, how that story. And so, you know, we could, we could pocket the 30%, but we added to it. And so now we give away 40 % back to the people.

    John Harcar (11:30)
    Mm-hmm.

    Sean Riley (11:43)
    that share their MiCard and bring in new subscribers. And then we allow them, we allow them, like I told you earlier, we have that break even point, where you bring in three people and you’re paying $30 a month for the ProCard with all the videos and bells and whistles. Well, you say, don’t want to pay $30 anymore. Great, as you’re sharing your card with three people, get a ProCard and join at the $30 level, you’re free now. You don’t have to pay anymore.

    John Harcar (11:47)
    That’s awesome.

    Mm-hmm.

    Mm-hmm. Yeah.

    Sean Riley (12:13)
    Blink and

    Link and Popple are great platforms, but they’re never gonna let you use it for free. And then you’ll get it. The fourth person, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, the tenth, the hundredth, we pay you money.

    John Harcar (12:18)
    Right.

    And how are you out there marketing this? mean, is there like there is there word of mouth?

    Sean Riley (12:32)
    word of mouth, know,

    and social media, you know, but it’s by realtors or, you know, a lawyer or a plumber or a band. I’ve got some of the biggest musicians, rock musicians on the planet using mi card now. And so they give their information to people. People, oh, how do I get in touch with you? Do you have an Instagram? Do you have Facebook? What’s your number? They just pull out their phone, show their QR code, or you can just text your link.

    John Harcar (12:48)
    Awesome.

    Mm-hmm.

    Sean Riley (13:01)
    You don’t have to

    use the QR code. can just text a link and it opens up on their phone. They click save contact and then they’re asked to reciprocate their information back. They don’t have to, but you know, we want their information and a realtor wants that information that goes into the CRM. They can put them in a drip campaign and forget about it. And that’s basically what it is. When you see it, I’ll send you my link, you know, but when you see it, you go, wow, everything you can do with this thing.

    John Harcar (13:17)
    Yep. Yep.

    Sean Riley (13:30)
    And I mean, we haven’t even talked about the customer loyalty program with, you know, all the retailers that comes in the card. We have a, we have a circle of trust or you can name it, whatever you want. But John, how many realtors out there sell a house and what do new homeowners ask? If you sell a house with a pool, do you got a guy? Do you know a good pool guy? Do you know a plumber? Do you know a landscaper? And then the realtors are out there giving these companies leads and not getting paid for it.

    John Harcar (13:38)
    Yeah.

    You know a good pool cleaner. ⁓ I love that.

    Sean Riley (14:01)
    Well, we’ve got a system inside the MiCard for that, that’s your circle, your inner circle of, your plumber, your landscaper, your pool guy, your roofer, your electrician, these kind of people. You through MiCard, you can structure a deal, a referral fee with them and then put their links on your MiCard and then MiCard will track it when your customer, when your new homeowner clicks on that pool guy, it’ll track that deal.

    John Harcar (14:11)
    Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

    Sean Riley (14:29)
    and make sure that you get paid from your pool guy.

    John Harcar (14:32)
    I love that. I love that. And I love that.

    But I love that benefit. So let’s talk about some of the other benefits that mi card provides as opposed to, you know, maybe some of the other companies are, you know.

    Sean Riley (14:41)
    Well,

    mean, we have that we have our we call it a customer loyalty program where your customers or you know, your your clients, your real estate clients, where they can get discounts, cash back coupons from over 17000 now retailers that we have like Lowe’s, Home Depot, Best Buy, Bed Bath &

    Ulta, Sephora for the ladies. They like to make up and and Forever 21. My daughter’s 11. She loves Hot Topics.

    I put a Hot Topic button on my Mi Card and she has her own Mi Card and she has a Hot Topic button on her Mi Card so she wants something from Hot Topic. She goes to her own card, clicks Hot Topic, buys what she wants with my money, but at least commission is coming back. so we offer that so as a realtor, can have…

    John Harcar (16:07)
    comes back. Yeah.

    Sean Riley (16:15)
    places in your MiCard, we just call it My Retailers, you can name it in the back office, you can name it whatever you want. ⁓ But yeah, new homeowner comes in and they need towels and they want fresh sheets, they want new stuff and new dishes. Well, great, go to MiCard and click Bed Bath & Beyond. Or go to Lowe’s, go to Home Depot, go to Walmart. And then every time someone shops through their MiCard, they automatically get a commission outside of our income generator just for sharing the card.

    John Harcar (16:21)
    Mm-hmm.

    Yeah.

    Ahem.

    So did you go to all these companies and bring all this stuff in? you, I mean, is there, I mean, how did you, how did you get all these retailers?

    Sean Riley (16:50)
    Yeah, yeah, we’ve had to

    manually upload all this stuff and build the whole back, design the back end of it. But we actually partnered with another company that partners with Fortune 500 companies like Hewlett Packard and all these big companies, but they pay $1,500,000 a month for this platform and to have access and all the back end. And we give it to the realtor for 10 or 30 bucks a month.

    John Harcar (16:58)
    Right.

    Mm-hmm.

    Sean Riley (17:19)
    and then free if they get three people. And that’s the design, it’s three and free is what we call it.

    John Harcar (17:22)
    That’s awesome.

    Three and free, I love that. What do you think you’ve been, I like to ask this question before we wrap up, know, and for the contact info. What are some of the keys to your success, right? You’ve done a lot, it seems like, right? You’ve pushed through. What are some of the things that you feel that really got you to where you’re at?

    Sean Riley (17:43)
    quit. I don’t give up until I and I mean it doesn’t matter if I’m if I’m running a marathon which I don’t you can tell you can tell I don’t run. I would take a card to the mailbox if I could but ⁓

    John Harcar (17:56)
    Right?

    Sean Riley (17:57)
    just don’t give up. My dad my dad my whole life growing up he said you got to be like a bulldog and he said and and so I my ex my ex-wife had a big stuffed bulldog made with the name Tenacity on the side of it.

    John Harcar (18:12)
    That’s cool.

    Sean Riley (18:12)
    And so

    they go, and that’s what I say, you you’re out there in the trenches in real estate and it’s horrible right now. It’s bad for you. Just don’t quit. Don’t quit. You can’t lose if you don’t quit. I mean, if I’m running that marathon, I might not win. I might be last. I might be crawling across the finish line, but I’m going to finish. And, you know, that’s what it’s all about. You know, I just, the bulldog, if you want him to open his jaws, you’re to have to kill him and pry his jaws open because once he bites into something, he ain’t letting go.

    John Harcar (18:42)
    Yep, now I got it. Yep, I love it.

    Sean Riley (18:43)
    And that’s all you have to do. And, and,

    and, and surround yourself with smarter people than you. Always be the dumbest and poorest person in the room and have a mentor that will call you out on your BS and kick you in in in the butt and make you, you know, productive.

    John Harcar (18:52)
    Yep.

    100%.

    100%. I love it. If there’s someone on here that’s, you know, they’re still passing out business cards and they want to get a new mi card or they want to reach out and talk to you, how do they get in touch with you? ⁓

    Sean Riley (19:12)
    Well, you

    can always ⁓ shoot me a text. I love getting text, 210-833-3326. Or I’ll send you the link. If you’ll have links on this, I’m sure you can have links. I’ll send you the link to my MiCard. And that way they can look at it. They can go to the bottom and click Get Your MiCard. And it has everything I do. I mean, I’m…

    John Harcar (19:29)
    Yeah.

    Sean Riley (19:38)
    executive producing a movie, a Hollywood movie right now. So you’ll be able to see the trailer for that on my mi card. know, everything I do, everything I do is on my mi card. Everything in one place with one link.

    John Harcar (19:44)
    Nice, what’s the movie called?

    That’s awesome. What’s the name of the movie? All In.

    Sean Riley (19:53)
    All in,

    starring Kellen Lutz from the Twilight Saga and he was Hercules, he was in Expendables 3. It’s super inspirational. It’s a true story about a New York giant, Chase Blackburn, who the giants cut him twice at the beginning of the game. He tried out, they cut him. First game, they tried him out again, they cut him. And then he went back to teaching school and then they called him again.

    John Harcar (20:01)
    Mmm, okay.

    Okay, yeah.

    Sean Riley (20:21)
    and he got the gig, you know, but during the Super Bowl against the Patriots, Tom Brady escapes and this is what, I’m gonna come back to tenacity and don’t give up. He didn’t give up. Third try with the Giants, he got it and in the Super Bowl, Tom Brady escapes a sack and launches one and who intercepts it and changes the dynamic of the game? Chase Blackburn. Intercepts Tom Brady in the Super Bowl and the Giants go on to win the Super Bowl.

    John Harcar (20:49)
    that’s so awesome and that’s so cool

    Sean Riley (20:50)
    And so that’s what the movie’s about, know? Faith, family, and football.

    John Harcar (20:54)
    i love it well sean i appreciate you coming on here and sharing all that guys if you want to get MiCard will put his contact information in the show notes you guys can reach out to him but appreciate all you shared sean thank you for coming on here guys we’ll see you on the next one

Tags:

Share via
Facebook
X (Twitter)
LinkedIn
Mix
Pinterest
Tumblr
Skype
Buffer
Pocket
VKontakte
Parler
Xing
Reddit
Line
Flipboard
MySpace
Delicious
Amazon
Digg
Evernote
Blogger
LiveJournal
Baidu
MeWe
NewsVine
Yummly
Yahoo
WhatsApp
Viber
SMS
Telegram
Facebook Messenger
Like
Email
Print
Copy Link
Copy link
CopyCopied