Linda Welsh just had her best year ever in Austin, even though prices dropped nearly twenty percent and the market corrected hard. She finally did what she avoided for years - she rebuilt her entire database, sent a simple reconnect email, and started sending short educational videos twice a month. “Once I got consistent, everything changed,” Linda says. Her open rates jumped, past clients resurfaced, and she landed more high-end listings than ever before, including people she met on the other side of old transactions. In this interview, Linda walks through how she organized her list, the calls-to-action that drive real responses, and how her database became the most profitable part of her business.

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AI Summary:

Linda Welsh has been in real estate for 28 years. She started in Dallas, moved to Austin in 1999, and ran her own company from 2004 to 2024 before joining Compass.

This past year was her biggest year ever. Not many people can say that in this market, especially in Central Texas where prices have dropped about 20% post-pandemic.

Linda credits one key shift: incorporating video newsletters and staying in touch with her database consistently.

The Problem She Solved

A few years ago, Linda kept hearing about long-form video from people in the industry. But knowing herself and her clients, she realized she didn't have the time to watch long-form video, and neither did most people.

She also knew that most realtors are ADD and don't have the systems in place or the discipline to time block and meet with a coach regularly without accountability.

What She Did

Linda started working with Vyral Marketing to publish consistent video newsletters to her database. She has a set appointment with her account rep who does all the behind-the-scenes work: editing the videos, putting together the newsletters, and giving her script ideas.

"One of the things that really helped was honing in on our call to action," Linda explains. "Having several different calls to action and then monitoring the opens and click rates has been really eye opening."

She sends out two videos per month to her buyers and sellers, plus occasional direct response offers. Each video typically runs 3 to 10 minutes. She sets aside about a half hour every other week to record with a tripod in her living room with natural light.

The Process

First, Linda rounded up her entire database. She exported contacts from her phone (over 22,000 people), her email contacts, and her CRM. She scrubbed and deduped them all, then loaded them into an email marketing program.

She sent out an initial reconnect message letting everyone know she'd be staying in touch with helpful video updates. "It's permission-based," Linda says. "They know why they're getting it because they've had some interaction with me over the years."

Then she started her 36-touch nurture program: two educational videos per month plus one monthly lead generation message (like a free home selling guide or home valuation offer).

The Results

"We've had very, very few unsubscribes and we have terrific open rates," Linda shares. "We have found that people we never did business with before have now called on us to help them sell their properties."

The results speak for themselves: Linda sold more high-end luxury properties this past year than ever before. Many of those clients were people on the other side of transactions in years past who she'd added to her database.

"A lot of times they're not always reaching out right away. They just continue to watch. But when they are ready, I feel that more often than not, we're the ones that they get in touch with."

Her Advice

"People need to establish a relationship," Linda explains. "If you have people clicking through and asking for information, the call to action makes a huge difference because you're actually giving them options and an opportunity to reach out with something that's relevant to them."

She emphasizes that this approach is very database-focused, not about chasing algorithms to get found by strangers. "People get a ton of email right now, so unless they recognize the name, there's a good chance they may not click through. But it's not a one and done. You need to nurture it regularly."

Linda records once every other week, typically on Monday afternoons when she doesn't have client appointments. She uses a tripod in her living room and keeps it simple and authentic. "You can't wait to be perfect. If you waited to be perfect, it wouldn't get done. Jump in the pool and you'll learn how to swim."

The biggest shift? Looking inward to her warm database instead of outward to cold prospects. And in a market where prices dropped 20%, that made all the difference.

Tina Caul runs a high-performance real estate team in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her group will sell more than 700 homes this year. Her biggest shift came when she moved away from cold leads and rebuilt her business around her database.

After years of relying on cold calling, Tina saw her agents burning out. Her past clients were not hearing from her enough, and she knew she needed a system that created predictable listings from people who already trusted her.

“Your database is a financial document,” Tina said. “It is your retirement plan.”

Rebuilding the Database With Warm Relationships

Tina organized her entire CRM into four groups: VIP, Hot, Warm, and Nurture. VIPs are the top priority. A VIP is anyone who has sent her a referral. These clients receive quarterly calls, handwritten notes, and invitations to appreciation events.

A recent movie theater event brought in 450 people and led to eight listing conversations worth more than eighty thousand dollars.

More One-to-One and Less Cold Calling

Tina shifted her team from chasing strangers to serving their relationships.
Her calls focus on helpful vendors, equity updates, invitations to events, and asking for referrals.

“If a cold lead costs four hundred dollars, why not invest a few dollars staying in touch with someone who already knows you,” she said.

Using Video to Stay Top of Mind

Tina records two educational videos a month to stay visible with her entire database. Her content is emailed, posted on social, and retargeted so clients see her everywhere.

“People tell me they see me all the time,” she said. “That is exactly what you want.”

Following Up With Engaged Viewers

The people who open, watch, and click on Tina’s videos become her warmest leads. Her ISAs call these viewers and schedule strategy sessions for homeowners planning to sell.

The Result

Tina shifted her business from eighty percent cold calling to more than sixty percent referrals and repeat clients. Her database is engaged, her agents have a clear system, and her listing pipeline is far more predictable.

“It works if you work the system,” Tina said.

Watch the full interview to learn how Tina rebuilt her database and created a steady source of listings.

Traci Frasier sells real estate in Alpine, Texas - a remote town of just 6,000 people, two and a half hours from the nearest airport. “I’m great at talking to people, but I’m lousy at producing and distributing videos,” she said. She hired us to help her stay in touch with her database using consistent, hyper-local videos that get people calling her. “I saw your video and it reminded me to call you,” is what she hears now. Watch the interview to learn how Traci is growing her business in one of the smallest markets in Texas.

Doug Cary is having his best year ever in Salt Lake City, even though home sales are down over 30%. He’s on track to close 100 homes in 2025, already beating last year’s numbers. His success comes from prospecting three hours every morning, staying consistent with his videos, and keeping his database engaged. “People tell me they watch my videos all the time,” Doug says. After trying to handle his own marketing, he came back to Vyral for the accountability and professional support that keeps him consistent and in production. Watch the interview to see how Doug built a focused, profitable business in one of the toughest markets we’ve seen.

Danae Aballi has worked in the real estate industry for 20+ years as a W2 employee, and just in the past 7 months, she resigned and went out on her own as a 100% commission real estate agent in hyper-competitive Orange County, CA. She only wanted to talk to people who already knew her. "I have no interest in calling strangers anymore", she said. She hired us to create and promote very niche, bespoke videos answering questions her buyers and sellers ask. We send them out to her 3.200 person contact list, and via video postcard to a more valuable, hand-selected list of 329 people. "I'm already making more money than before, and it's all attraction-based; I'm not chasing. It's just a better way of doing business, it's who I am, and it's more profitable than buying cold leads here." Watch the interview to learn how Danae got her "new agent" business up to speed quickly by attracting new clients from her existing database.

Louis Gordon represents very educated clients who live in greater Boston (Cambridge, Harvard grads, MIT, etc). When his internet lead volume dropped off in 2023, he decided to hire us to generate new business from his database. It's worked very well. "I will almost certainly double my income this year at a much lower cost than before", says Louis. He started with general Q&A content and is now publishing entertaining, hyper-local topics that come up when he's talking to buyers and sellers on the phone. "I want to focus on $1000 an hour work of putting deals together. You take the lower-cost work off my plate with the accountability I need." Watch the full interview to learn how Louis made the switch from chasing internet leads to working his existing relationships with education-based video marketing to set more meaningful appointments with buyers and sellers.

Gail DeMarco is a top-producing agent who relocated from California to Florida just over a year ago and has already earned $498,000 GCI year-to-date as of June 2025. “I had to start from scratch in a brand-new market,” Gail says. You'll learn how she chose a target market, built vendor referral relationships, and took video marketing very seriously. Gail is a client and does a phenomenal job of turning attention into business profitably. Watch this interview to learn what she's doing to earn consistent commission income by building and working a database of buyers and sellers.

John Bolos runs a 45-agent real estate team in Charlotte, North Carolina. After one of his top agents left the team due to a lack of personal brand support, John realized he needed to offer more value to retain high performers. That insight led him to expand his work with us, not just for his own database marketing (he's a client), but to proactively provide done-for-you database video marketing for his top six agents with our Vyral Marketing for Teams program. Here's an interview with John on how his team model is set up for success – you'll learn how he brings in newer agents working Zillow leads (under their strict accountability) and builds them up into successful listing agents generating their own appointments. “I want my agents to build their own brand, not mine”, he says. "You guys help my experienced agents do that."

Nick Berard, a solo agent in Bellingham, Washington, sold nine homes in the first half of 2024. "It was a down year for me like most in the industry. I only sold 18 homes last year." Nick decided to go all in on his database to build his 2025 pipeline. He asked us to handle his video database marketing so he could get back on the phone. At the time of this interview (June 2025), he's sold 21 homes with three pending this year. We helped him reactivate over 3,500 contacts, close deals from past clients he hadn’t spoken to in years, and speak to the niche needs of Canadian sellers at scale. Watch the interview to learn how Nick did it.

Adrienne Lally and Attilio Leonardi, Hawaii's #1 real estate agent team, partnered with a property manager about 10 years ago to initially send their rental referrals. To grow, they put four irresistible guarantees in place, focused on external agent referrals, and purchased a second Vyral Marketing account just for their property management business to get the word out. Their business now manages 1,300+ doors and is "very profitable" with the help of virtual assistants and digital marketing. Watch the interview to learn how we helped them achieve success.

Desi works in a small market in Idaho and grew her business quickly from 24 to 120 deals. You'll learn her story of how she did it. It's a blend of home builder relationships, cold homeowner reachouts, and building a strong sphere of influence. She's also a client and uses education-based video, email, and social media to stay in touch with her database and build her brand. Desi manages all this with five children (the key being leverage). Watch the full client interview to hear her story and see how you can model her approach to achieve similar results.