Professional speaker, podcaster and REALTOR® Monica Neubauer (aka the Maverick Motivator) admits that when she decided to get into real estate, she was more interested in leading educational programs for her peers rather than helping clients buy or sell homes.
Jumping into the industry back in 2003, Neubauer notes that while she occasionally lists properties on referral—and maintains her broker status with a Benchmark Realty office in Franklin, Tennessee—she has hosted nearly 90 podcasts through the Center for REALTOR® Development (CRD), the National Association of REALTORS®’ (NAR) home for exceptional education.
“While I began teaching CRD material in 2009, I was a known entity with NAR as I was already an established and busy instructor for them,” says Neubauer. “But becoming the host of this podcast was the definition of luck combined with hard work and being in the right place at the right time.”
A unique and portable continuing education tool
Widely accessible to anyone at any time, podcasts serve as an optimal tool for continuous education and professional learning, according to eTeachNY, a website promoting remote teaching and learning.
Along with providing the ability to take one’s professional development on the go, podcasts serve as a gateway to other learning communities, organizations and partnerships with similar interests, pursuits and causes.
To that end, Neubauer works closely alongside Suman Patil—CRD’s manager of Learning and Development Programs—to coordinate guests and target optimal content for the series.
Jennifer Rzeszewski, NAR’s vice president of Member Development and executive director of CRD, immediately recognized the opportunity in using industry knowledge, learner data and member feedback to deliver this unique and truly portable continuing education.
“Real estate professionals have busy schedules that can change quickly, and CRD meets them at their level with education and inspiration they can interact with while on the move,” says Rzeszewski. “The CRD Podcast provides knowledge and business takeaways on topics that are relevant and timely to the real estate industry, offering robust discussions on those subjects,” she adds.
Better yet, the monthly hour-long podcasts (and occasional bonus episodes) typically align with NAR’s educational products.
For example, “Tools and Tech for Working With Mature Clients With Ali Whitley” (episode No. 87), relates to NAR’s Seniors Real Estate Specialist® (SRES®) designation, while episode No. 84, “Networking to Expand Your Global Business With Ginni Field,” correlates to NAR’s Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS) designation.
While podcast episodes aren’t meant to replace these courses, they do relate to the material, and topics are chosen as often as possible based on these offerings.
Early on in Neubauer’s tenure as host, the podcast was named a 2021 AVA Digital Awards Gold Winner in the podcast category for Episode No. 38: “Virtual Showings With Craig Wilburn,” which was released in April 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent subjects include “Emerging Technology in Real Estate With Dan Weisman and Dave Conroy of NAR” and “Rethinking What You Know About Gen Z and Millennial Homebuyers,” which Neubauer hosted alongside Mandy Neat.
“For busy brokers who want to succeed, this podcast is a great tool for them and their agents to get some of that niche training from professionals across the industry.”
-Monica Neubauer, Professional Speaker, Podcaster, REALTOR®
Delivering industry training in an engaging and entertaining way
Neubauer’s journey to podcasting on behalf of NAR began in 2017 when she was working on a side project for CRD. While the webinars she was conducting ultimately inspired the idea to launch a podcast, it took another 18 months of refining and developing the idea before it officially got off the ground.
“In taking all that time, we learned how to do a podcast,” explains Neubauer. “Not only are there nuances as well as right and wrong ways to create them, but you must understand your audience, which we learned from going to conferences and other trainings. We were also developing a budget, learning about equipment and everything we would need because we wanted it to be really good coming out of the starting gate.”
Once things got rolling, Neubauer dug deep into understanding both their audience and niche.
“Our audience is the REALTOR® community, and the mission of CRD is education,” says Neubauer, a self-proclaimed education junkie who loves learning the materials, applying them, teaching them, then going back and factoring them in for the podcast stories.
“When you look at the topics, you won’t find other podcasts addressing the nitty-gritty subjects the way that we are,” adds Neubauer. “And for busy brokers who want to succeed, this podcast is a great tool for them and their agents to get some of that niche training from professionals across the industry.”
Neubauer also believes that the unique nature of podcasts offers a means of delivering industry training in a way that is entertaining and engaging so that listeners are grasping the information faster and remembering it longer.
“One of the reasons I think we’ve been so successful is because I’m very animated in the way I deliver information, and I get to know the guests before we turn on the microphone. Because a lot of them are major authorities or experts in their fields, the podcasts tend to be pretty lively. And they are all well-planned. The guests come to the studio already knowing what I want to talk about, so they’re well-prepared, and we get good results.”
While Neubauer has delivered podcasts on more sensational or topical subject matter, episodes involving instruction and advice on business planning are especially popular.
“Every once in a while, we’ll get something quirky and surprising, but we’re also watching things that are happening so we can turn around some of these subjects quickly,” says Neubauer, who works with Patil to identify relevant and timely topics that strengthen the core education program.
“At the end of each podcast, I always try to tie in and promote the CRD courses that are available for listeners to take,” she concludes.
For more information, visit https://realtor.libsyn.com/.
