What do you do when life pushes you into a reinvention you didn’t plan?

Aura McKay is a keynote speaker, fractional marketing consultant, and self-described capacity catalyst. She recently rebranded under her own name after a decade leading Business of Creativity. In this episode, she and Christine talk about why polished branding now reads as fake, the five questions every brand needs to answer, and why you can’t read the label from inside the jar.

Aura also explains her TEAM framework for capacity, the 168-hour time audit, how to stop being the bottleneck in your own business, and how to say no without actually saying no.

Connect with Aura McKay

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/auramckay

Website https://www.auramckay.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/auramckay_official

Book A Free Call https://www.auramckay.com/contact

Get Shifted Podcast https://www.getshiftedpodcast.com

What would it mean if people recognized your listings before they saw your name?

Carrie Klein Perkins has earned that. She's a second-generation REALTOR with more than 30 years of experience. She leads Spaces CT in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and Inman has recognized her for luxury listing marketing. She approaches every listing like an art director.

In this episode, Carrie and Christine talk about:

• Why her marketing starts before she even has the listing
• How to give your photographer clear visual direction
• Chasing the best light, even when that means coming back three or four times
• Storyboarding a listing video, and the equestrian film that ended with a full moon rising over the barn
• Writing copy and naming homes (one was named Xanadu)
• Luxury vs. non-luxury marketing
• Her one tip you can use tomorrow

Her advice for anyone who hasn't started yet: be brave enough to look a little silly, and keep going until it gets better.

Connect with Carrie: spacescthomes.com

All accountants look the same. Navy blue, gold accents, a handshake photo, a headline about trusted expertise. Then you land on Charrise Bateman’s website, and it says "accounting with heart, strategy with soul."

Charrise owns Blue Heart Accounting in Idaho, and she works in the only business that’s more interchangeable than real estate. Same credentials, same software, same tax code, same output. And she has made herself impossible to confuse with anyone else in it.

In this episode, she walks through how she did it. Where the name Blue Heart came from and why a name with a story in it gets retold. Why she positioned around a problem instead of a service, using an analogy about the healthcare system that will feel uncomfortably familiar. Why every accountant on her team carries fewer than twenty clients when the whole industry is built on volume. How she threw out her ideal client avatar and replaced it with something far more useful. And why her why comes first, her how second, and the actual accounting last.

Connect with Charrise:

Website: blueheartaccounting.com

Email: charrise@blueheartaccounting.com

Book a discovery call at blueheartaccounting.com

Connect with Christine:

Sign up for The SunBeam newsletter at postandbeamcreative.com.

If you liked this episode, share it with a friend, follow the show on your favorite podcast app, and subscribe on YouTube so you never miss another episode.

This episode is supported by BKeeperAI. Learn more at bkeeperai.com.

What if your leads did the hard work for you?

That's the idea behind Mike Heddle's five verticals. In this episode, the team leader and broker of Heddle Real Estate (Royal LePage, Hamilton, Ontario) breaks down the income streams that generate 120 to 140 organic leads a month, and the system that makes sure not a single one falls through the cracks.

Christine and Mike discuss:

• Why he calls them "verticals" (pillars of income) instead of sources of income
• The 5 verticals: institutional relationships, new development, investors, referral networks, and center of influence
• How a nap and a prank call from his sister sparked his first big vertical
• The "Deal of the Week" campaign he's run every Friday for 10 years straight
• His CRM lead stages, from hot prospect to nurture to the "jerk rule" trash bucket
• The 3 leading indicators he tracks (hint: not dials)
• How he nurtures past clients with his Home Advisory Club and Mastery 90s
• The filter he runs every "shiny object" through before adding it to the business
• Why AI can make you efficient, but can't build the relationship for you

Mike's model gives you a blueprint for building a business that doesn't depend on any one thing.

Connect with Mike:

Website: heddlerealestate.ca

Instagram & Facebook: @mike.heddle

Connect with Christine: Sign up for The SunBeam newsletter at postandbeamcreative.com

Some agents market their community involvement. Corrie Harding-Keizs lives it.

Corrie Harding-Keizs is our guest this week. She's the broker and team leader of CHK Real Estate, a top 1% Royal LePage team serving South Mississauga, South Oakville, South Etobicoke, and downtown Toronto. Her whole business grew out of one simple thing: curiosity about the place she calls home.

Corrie shares how showing up in her community, at school events, food drives, an annual neighborhood yard sale, and her new video series Rooted built a reputation and a referral engine she never set out to create. As Corrie puts it, the business was never the goal. It was the gift.

If you have ever felt pressure to market yourself in a way that does not feel like you, this one is for you. Corrie shows what it looks like to lead with heart, stay consistent, and let your real estate business grow from who you actually are.

Visit Corrie's team

Follow Corrie on Instagram

corrie@corriehardingteam.com

What do you do when the safe path stops being safe?

Jess Lane spent 20 years building iconic brands like Jim Beam, Visa, Miller, and Porsche. She helped a fintech company reach billion-dollar unicorn status. That same year, she was laid off with 150 other people, and then applied to 496 jobs.

That low point became her turning point.

In this episode, Jess joins Christine to share how she combined two decades of go-to-market experience with a master's in psychology to build The Full Cup Co, a career design company that helps people choose themselves and design what comes next.

Jess shares her philosophy on why your unique blueprint is the best way to stand out in a world that sounds more and more like AI, how self-determination theory explains what actually keeps you motivated for the long haul, and why real estate agents are uniquely positioned to solve one of the biggest human problems out there: loneliness.

If you have ever felt stuck, boxed in by who you were "supposed" to be, or unsure how to build something durable enough to weather a slow year, this one is for you.

Connect with Jess:

• Website: fullcupco.com
• LinkedIn: Jess Lane
• Instagram: @thefullcupco

Connect with Christine:

Sign up for The SunBeam newsletter at postandbeamcreative.com.

If you liked this episode, share it with a friend, follow the show on your favorite podcast app, and subscribe on YouTube so you never miss another episode.

This episode is supported by BKeeperAI. Learn more at bkeeperai.com.

Can you really build a real estate business on Instagram without chasing viral fame or a massive follower count? Chris Wannamaker says yes, and he has the numbers to prove it.

In this episode, Christine George sits down with Chris Wannamaker, co-team leader at The W Group at RE/MAX Connect in Toronto. After a successful career in PR and advertising at Edelman, the world's largest PR firm, Chris moved into real estate eight years ago and now earns 30% of his personal book of business through Instagram.

Chris shares exactly how he does it: a modest ad spend of $100 to $150 behind each listing video, a same-day personal message to every new follower, and a simple iPhone shortcut that lets him do it all in about five minutes a day. No bots, no autoresponders, no 200,000 purchased followers. Just a targeted, engaged audience of around 9,000 people who actually know him.

We also get into the personal-versus-professional content mix, the content systems that keep his team consistent without burnout, and why he invests real money in client events and his CRM to take those online relationships offline.

Chris Wannamaker, Co-Team Leader, The W Group at RE/MAX Connect

Website: wgrouprealestate.ca

Instagram: @cwans

Sign up for The SunBeam newsletter at postbeamcreative.com.

This is the season's Best Of, where Christine went back through some of her favorite conversations and pulled together seven tips that really resonated. They're sorted into the three things your whole business runs on: getting people to know you, like you, and trust you.

In the KNOW section, Angie Javier from realtor.com shares the slightly nerve-wracking thing she does when an agent says business has slowed down, Google expert Tasia Custode demystifies the Google Workspace ecosystem, and SEO expert Emily Gertenbach explains why your first-person expertise is the one thing AI can't copy.

In the LIKE section, brand strategist Scott Coligan makes the case for looking outside real estate to stand out, and Marc Davison challenges what you think personal branding really is.

In the TRUST section, happiness expert Valerie Alexander gives you a simple framework for the culture behind your brand, and we close a little closer to home with BKeeperAI co-founders on why human verification is our non-negotiable.

Show Notes

Featured in this episode:

• Angie Javier, (from Ep. 136)
• Tasia Custode, Google expert (from Ep. 137)
• Emily Gertenbach, SEO, EG Creative Content (from Ep. 139)
• Scott Coligan, fractional CMO, Human Experience Method (from Ep. 135)
• Marc Davison, 1000 Watt (from Ep. 134)
• Valerie Alexander, Speak Happiness (from Ep. 138)
• Laura O'Connor and Eric Hunsberger, BKeeperAI co-founders (from Ep. 140)

Chapters:

• 00:00 A look back at the season
• 00:36 Welcome: three sections, seven tips
• 01:30 Angie Javier: can buyers actually find you online?
• 04:42 Tasia Custode: the Google Workspace ecosystem, explained
• 06:46 Emily Gertenbach: why your first-person expertise is the real SEO
• 11:50 A quick word: BKeeperAI early access
• 12:48 Scott Coligan: stand out by looking outside real estate
• 14:37 Marc Davison: the brand assets you're already sitting on
• 19:07 Valerie Alexander: the three things that build trust behind the scenes
• 23:00 Closer to home: BKeeperAI and human verification
• 23:50 Close

Links:

• Subscribe to The SunBeam newsletter
• BKeeperAI