Michelle Mikel: Stop Chasing Algorithms and Start Creating Massive Opportunity

[0:03] Welcome back to the REI Agent. I am here with Michelle Mikel. Michelle, thanks so much for joining us. Oh my gosh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Now, Michelle, this is going to be a little bit of a different conversation than one we usually have, but it’s going to be one that I think everybody’s going to really find useful and interesting. So you did have your license at one point, but can you explain why and what you actually do in the real estate space?

[1:04] Michelle got her license in 2020 while living in Fort Polk, Louisiana. Her husband is retired special forces. She started in real estate because she saw an opportunity to help military families navigate relocations. But quickly she realized her real passion was on the marketing and prospecting side — teaching agents how to actually create business instead of waiting for it to come to them.

[2:11] I had no idea what I was doing as far as real estate goes, to be quite transparent. But what I did know was how to prospect. I knew how to reach out to people. I knew how to start conversations. And I started teaching agents how to do direct outreach on social media, because most of them were doing it completely wrong.

[4:01] The military lifestyle taught Michelle discipline and adaptability. Every two to three years, she had to rebuild her social circle, her network, and her business from scratch. That experience became her superpower in teaching agents how to build relationships quickly and authentically in any market.

[6:06] Here’s the thing that kills me. Agents will spend three, four, five thousand dollars a month on a social media company to post for them. And you know what those companies are doing? They’re using the same templates for every single agent. So you’ve got an agent in Phoenix and an agent in Detroit posting the exact same graphic with the exact same caption. And consumers can see through that immediately. It’s not authentic. It’s not you.

[8:22] The biggest mistake agents make with social media is treating it as a megaphone instead of a telephone. They broadcast content and hope someone responds, instead of using the platform as a tool to start one-on-one conversations with people who actually need help buying or selling a home.

[10:10] Michelle explained the difference between reactive and proactive marketing. Reactive is posting content and waiting for likes, comments, and DMs to come to you. Proactive is identifying people in your sphere who have life events happening — new jobs, new babies, relocations, divorces, retirements — and reaching out to them with a genuine message. The proactive approach generates business immediately because you’re meeting people where they already are in their decision-making process.

[12:19] Direct messaging is one of the most underused tools in real estate. Not cold pitching strangers about listing their house, but genuine outreach to people you already know or have a connection with. Commenting on someone’s post, then following up with a DM that references what they shared. That’s how you build trust and stay top of mind without ever feeling salesy.

[14:32] Understanding business drivers is critical. Every human goes through life events that trigger real estate decisions. Michelle teaches agents to pay attention to what’s happening in people’s lives on social media — engagements, pregnancies, job changes, empty nesters — and use those moments as opportunities to serve, not sell.

[17:22] Michelle shared a story about a real estate agent who used a Popeyes chicken marketing analogy. The agent started posting funny, personality-driven content about food and her life, and it outperformed every single listing post she had ever made. The lesson: people connect with people, not with property listings.

[19:25] Good content still matters, but the definition of “good” has changed. It’s not about production quality or hiring a videographer. It’s about being real, being interesting, and letting people see who you actually are. The agents who are growing fastest on social media are the ones posting iPhone videos from their car, not the ones with professional studio setups.

[21:27] Michelle opened up about burnout. She was trying to do everything — speaking circuits, coaching, social media, all of it. She had a moment where her husband pointed out she was exhausted on a Wednesday and they had just gotten back from vacation two weeks earlier. That was her wake-up call to stop chasing what everyone else was doing and focus on what actually mattered.

[25:14] Creating authentic content means finding what makes you unique and leaning into it. Michelle gave the example of using personal passions and analogies to make real estate content memorable. If you love cooking, tie real estate lessons to cooking metaphors. If you love sports, use sports analogies. The goal is to be the person people remember when they think about real estate in your market.

[27:18] The “Value Series” content strategy is one of Michelle’s frameworks. Instead of posting random content, create a recurring series around a specific theme that educates and entertains your audience. It builds anticipation, creates consistency, and positions you as the go-to expert on that topic in your market.

[29:41] Using personal passions to build powerful analogies in content is one of the most effective branding strategies. Michelle talked about an agent who loves fishing and ties every real estate lesson to a fishing metaphor. His audience loves it because it feels authentic and unique to him. Nobody else is doing that.

[31:48] If all you’re posting is real estate, listing, listing, open house, open house, here’s the market average — you’re losing. Consumers don’t care about that. They care about who you are as a person, whether they like you, and whether they trust you. The real estate content should support your personal brand, not replace it.

[33:38] Authenticity versus AI-generated content was a hot topic. Michelle believes AI is a powerful assistant but should never replace your voice. If every agent uses ChatGPT to write their captions and blog posts, everyone sounds the same. The agents who win are the ones who use AI to speed up their workflow but inject their own personality and stories into everything.

[36:08] AI should be used as an assistant, not a replacement. Michelle uses AI for research, outlining, and brainstorming, but the final product always has her voice, her stories, and her perspective. She wrote a book using this approach — AI helped with structure and research, but the content is authentically hers.

[38:25] Michelle shared her process for writing her book with AI assistance. She used it to organize her thoughts and create chapter outlines, then wrote the actual content herself. The book became a powerful lead generation tool because it was genuinely useful and reflected her real expertise.

[40:40] Lifestyle reels and humanizing your brand are essential. Short-form video content that shows your daily life, your personality, and your interests generates more engagement and trust than any listing video ever will. People want to work with someone they feel like they know.

[43:00] Identifying your ideal audience through your lifestyle is a powerful strategy. When you share content about your life, the people who resonate with it are naturally the people who would enjoy working with you. It’s self-selecting. You attract your tribe by being yourself.

[45:10] Getting comfortable on camera takes practice. Michelle recommends starting with stories that disappear in 24 hours to reduce the pressure. Then gradually moving to reels and longer-form content as your confidence grows. The key is to start imperfect and improve over time, not wait until you feel ready.

[46:50] The storytelling power of authentic moments — what Michelle calls “God moment” videos — can’t be manufactured. These are the raw, unscripted moments that capture genuine emotion or insight. They consistently outperform polished, produced content because they feel real.

[48:10] Michelle’s golden nuggets: Burnout is real, faith matters, and failure is the best teacher. She emphasized that the most successful people she knows have all failed spectacularly at some point. The difference is they got back up, learned the lesson, and kept going.

[49:10] Michelle recommends reading widely, especially books outside of real estate. Perspectives from different industries and disciplines make you a more interesting person and a more creative marketer. Her favorites span business, faith, psychology, and personal development.

[49:40] You can find Michelle at bermanmediapd.com, on Facebook at michelle.berman.75, Instagram at bermanmediasocial, LinkedIn at michelle-berman-mikel, and YouTube at @bermanmediasocial.