How I Built My Business Through Personal Branding and Hosting Real Estate Classes

Jerad Larkin
7 days ago
6 min read

Opening question:

How do you build a real estate brand that actually gets attention, brings in new conversations, and keeps you top of mind in a crowded market?

Snippet answer:

I built my business by going all in on personal branding, hosting consistent classes, and showing up louder than everyone else. This blog walks you through exactly how that journey unfolded and the lessons you can apply to your own real estate career.

The Early Days: Trying Everything To Get Traction

When I first got into title almost eight years ago, I didn’t know a single person in the industry. No connections. No referrals. No built in pipeline.

And if you’ve ever been in that position, you know exactly how that feels. The title business is high volume. You need 100 transactions or more per month to be successful, which means you have to get in front of a massive number of real estate agents.

I tried everything in those early days. Cold calling. Pop bys. Networking. Any tactic I could think of. And just like most of you have experienced, almost none of it worked the way I wanted. But the moment everything changed was when I took a sales training course and heard the idea of showcase events. That one concept opened my eyes to an entirely different way of building a business. Instead of chasing people, I could become someone worth chasing. Instead of asking for attention, I could earn it by teaching. That’s when I made the decision. Classes would become my brand.

Why Hosting Real Estate Classes Became My Entire Strategy

The truth is simple. Agents have endless choices when it comes to title companies. If they’re already happy with their current rep, why would they ever take a meeting with me?

They wouldn’t, unless I showed up with real value.

Teaching classes became my solution. It allowed me to:

• Get in front of agents consistently

• Build trust in a room instead of one person at a time

• Demonstrate expertise instead of talking about it

• Make myself known in a market where most title reps weren’t teaching at all

In the beginning, nobody took me seriously. I was the bagel guy. The drop off the flyers guy. The swing by the office guy.

But I knew I had to carve out my own lane if I wanted to build a real brand. So even when only three people showed up… I kept teaching. Even when I couldn’t convert a single meeting afterward… I kept teaching.

It was either keep going or quit.

I chose to keep going.

Personal Branding Starts With Showing Up — A Lot

Four years ago, I made a decision. If people are going to think of title insurance, I want my name to enter the conversation. Not out of ego, but out of opportunity. And the only way to do that is to be loud. Loud in your marketing. Loud in your consistency. Loud in your value.

Today, I host around ten classes and events every single month, well over a hundred per year. They range from AI, video marketing, Canva, and Google My Business to divorce education, sober living investment strategies, and huge quarterly panel events.

Those panel events alone pull in up to 175 people. Because here’s the truth about real estate personal branding. It’s not about the niche you pick. It’s about the frequency of how often you show up inside that niche. Classes became my platform. Events became my stage. And consistency became my advantage.

What Actually Gets People To Show Up

Everybody wants full classes. Everybody wants great attendance. But most people aren’t willing to do the work behind the scenes.

Here’s what moves the needle.

1. Eventbrite

If you’re not using Eventbrite, you’re leaving attendance on the table.

Eighty percent of the people in my rooms come from Eventbrite emails. The platform is insanely good at getting cold event invitations into agents’ inboxes.

It’s free. You can send up to 250 emails per day. And it does the heavy lifting for you.

2. Facebook Events

Once your Eventbrite page is created, one click turns it into a Facebook event.

The secret? Categorizing your Facebook friends. Every time I add someone, I tag them as a Realtor or a lender. Then when I post an event, I can invite 500 people at a time instantly. When you’re trying to grow your brand, that matters.

3. Meta Ads

This is the biggest unlock.

I run targeted Instagram and Facebook ads to custom audiences built from agent phone numbers and emails. And I do it for one to three dollars per day.

A single dollar reaches 100 to 200 real estate agents. Not random people. Agents. The exact group that drives your business.

Whether it’s an event ad, a branding ad, or a follow me on Instagram ad, these campaigns keep me in front of the people who matter.

And over time, that brand awareness compounds.

How I Convert Classes Into One on Ones

Teaching the class is only step one. Getting the meeting is step two. The system that improved my conversion more than anything wasn’t fancy at all.

A simple paper handout. Every class I teach includes a physical sheet with three to five downloadable resources. If you're in the room and you’re serious about the topic, it would be crazy not to check all the boxes.

At the bottom is a single question:

Would you like to schedule a one on one with me? Yes or no.

Most people circle yes. And now I know exactly who to follow up with.

I take them home, look up production, prioritize the highest quality agents, then send templated follow ups through GMass to deliver their lead magnets and book our meeting. It works because the value came first. The ask comes second.

Building a Massive Database Through Events

Every Eventbrite signup gets downloaded. Every attendee gets added to the list. Every collaboration with a lender, inspector, mover, insurance partner, or organizer grows my reach. Classes don’t just fill a room. Classes fill your pipeline. I can also pull lists of real estate agents from almost any market in the country. And when I use those lists for Meta ads, newsletters, invites, and branding campaigns, everything scales faster.

Personal branding is not luck. It’s distribution.

Why I Host So Many Types of Events

One of my favorite stories is when I sat down with a $100 million producer who wasn’t interested in masterminds, coaching groups, or anything education focused.

But when I mentioned I was hosting a dodgeball event, she said “I’ll be there.”

That moment taught me something important. Every agent is interested in something different. Some love AI and marketing. Some want investing classes. Some want social events. Some want big panels. Some want intimate workshops.

If you host ten different types of experiences, you attract ten different types of people. Your personal brand grows faster when you diversify the ways people can interact with you.

Real Estate Personal Branding Is Built On Effort

People ask how I manage teaching ten classes a month, running events, supporting agents, being present for my family, and growing my business.

The answer is simple.

I work hard. I put in the reps. I stay consistent even when the rooms are small. And I don’t get discouraged because I know the long game always wins.

When I was eighteen to twenty four months into title, I almost quit. I wasn’t making the money I wanted, the effort didn’t seem to match the outcome, and the momentum felt slow. But consistency compounds.

Small rooms become bigger rooms. Small brands become known brands. Small events become sold out events. And eventually, people start saying your name in conversations you’re not even in. That’s personal branding.

Your Biggest Advantage Will Always Be Your Willingness To Show Up

If there’s one takeaway from my journey, it’s this:

Do the work.Teach the classes.Keep showing up.

Be loud.

Be creative.

Be everywhere agents spend their time.

You don’t need perfect graphics, CE credits, or expensive venues. You need repetition, community, collaboration, and a desire to provide real value.

If you’re willing to do that, the awareness will take care of itself. And once people know who you are, everything else becomes much easier.

Final Takeaway

Personal branding isn’t a logo, a color palette, or a tagline. It’s the sum of every touchpoint an agent has with you.

Classes.

Events.

Social media.

Email.

DMs.

You build your brand in the moments people see you showing up with value.

If you want to grow your business in a market where competition is high and attention is limited, start teaching. Start hosting. Start putting yourself in the rooms where your ideal clients are already spending time.

The momentum will come faster than you expect.