This $3.2M Deal Started With a LinkedIn Post—Here’s the Playbook

Aviva (00:00)
This week's listener of the week is Steve ATX. Steve, thank you so much for leaving us a five star review. And for those of you listening, if you leave us a five star review below, you might be next week's listener of the week, week, week. This week on Commercial Real Estate Secrets, we have my friend Carson Baird. Carson is an industrial and land specialist in Southern Florida, correct?

Carson Baird (00:28)
Southwest Florida. So a bit different than South Florida. That's a almost an entirely different country on the East coast, but Southwest Florida.

Aviva (00:29)
Southwest.

Southwest Florida. Carson, thank you for being on the show today.

Carson Baird (00:42)
Thank you for having me. This has been a long time coming. We've been riffing offline forever. So glad to finally be on.

Aviva (00:50)
We're excited to have you. So for the listeners, Carson, who are you? What do you do? How did we get here?

Carson Baird (00:59)
well it started back in 92, lovely banker lady met my dad. He was a body man. No. ⁓ so Carson Baird been down in, Southwest Florida, Fort Myers for about 10 years now, and been in the commercial space for a little over five years, started in the industry doing entitlement and development work, actually a part of the family business, site selection entitlement across the Southeast for auto body shops and,

After a few years decided to go full out on a brokerage path, got a great mentor and, am fully on my feet as a predominantly industrial broker, geographically based in Southwest Florida. Lee Collier, Charlotte Glades and Hendry County would be our core territory, but we cover the entire state as well, for the right, for the right groups. So, that's a little bit about the work background. And then, you and I have connected a few times on new parents.

So I think it was at an event we ran into each other and found out that both of us were respectively expecting. And then I figured out I got a two for one deal. So proud parent of 11 months. Actually, they turn they turn one next next week. It's happening really fast. One year old boy, girl twins talk about a life change, but it's been the greatest thing to ever happen to me. So proud twin dad first.

Aviva (02:03)
Yeah

Carson Baird (02:21)
commercial agent second.

Aviva (02:24)
It's kind of a crazy job to have a newborn, let alone two newborns.

Carson Baird (02:29)
Yeah, I mean something you're you're quite familiar with, but it is trial by fire. You're amazed every day at just how much you you can tolerate from a lack of sleep perspective. And, you know, the lengths you'll go to care for the ones that that you love and that need you. So it's been an insane year. It's had some of the longest days of my life, but I also feel like I blinked and they're already.

threatening to walk every day. And that makes me feel all sorts of complicated feelings. yeah.

Aviva (03:00)
Ah,

I get it. I get it. So Carson, the reason we're here today is that you have an innate ability to get action online. And I'm not talking about action that you would have more twins from. I'm talking commercial real estate action.

Carson Baird (03:04)
Mm-hmm.

Alright, I wasn't sure if you were going to ask for feet pictures or what. I assume you're talking about LinkedIn. I'm going to steer it over there.

Aviva (03:27)
Yeah.

That's...

Talk to me about LinkedIn. When did this occur to you that you could garner business on LinkedIn and what does it look like for you?

Carson Baird (03:45)
So my exposure to LinkedIn started with my first job out of school, which was doing B2B sales towards tech companies. And it was not in a geography that I covered. It was inside sales. So I'm in Florida. I'm calling people in Seattle, Washington. And you've obviously got no local network there. So you have to generate that business via whatever medium you can. That could be phone calls. That could be emails. That could be other channels, such as LinkedIn. And I found, for me,

LinkedIn was a great way to find and connect with those decision makers that I needed to reach. So when I started on LinkedIn, I made a lot of mistakes and kind of selfish outreach where I had something that I knew I wanted from them, but my messaging was never really about, or very specifically about them as a company where I knew them already and knew that I could deliver value. It was more so that

Hey, I know you're a tech company in my territory. We need to talk. So, you know, I found a few ways that I would say are ineffective to leverage that as a platform. I wasn't doing a lot of content or thought leadership at the time. went away from that for a little while. And then when I entered the commercial real estate space, you know, found that same value and being able to source the names that I otherwise may not have access to.

via LinkedIn, but I also found a lot of pleasure in posting and sharing thoughts on whatever the current event of the day is or our market and getting deeper dive into the statistics and really aligning myself as somebody that knows my market very well. And a part of the reason I focused on that as a younger broker that was trying to break into a fairly established commercial market with a lot of, I'll call it gray hair,

existing relationships of 10, 20 years or more with the major players. I'm not just going to immediately step in and try and dissolve some of those to my own benefit. But where I did have a kind of moving advantage was on LinkedIn and having a reach that goes outside of our market and finding people that want to be here. So that was kind of my thesis for really spending some time on LinkedIn. And you and I, I think, initially connected at

Aviva (05:58)
Hmph.

Carson Baird (06:06)
the the CREI summit which is an event dedicated towards leveraging social media to garner whatever kind of results you're looking for as a commercial real estate operator. So that was kind of my unique play I got questioned all the time in my office, you know, what are you doing wasting time there? I see you post and all the time. You must be blasting out hours of hours of

messing around on LinkedIn. Are you making your calls? Well, yeah, I am, but it doesn't take me all that long to share content. Then earlier this year had the best testimonial I could have ever asked for, which was a closed deal with a buyer that sourced me through LinkedIn, just based on, I your content. I see you do XYZ down in Southwest Florida. Let's talk. So we closed a $3.2 million deal with that client earlier this year and

more to come, hopefully. So you won't find a bigger believer than me in social selling as a CRE professional on LinkedIn and other platforms as well. But for me, LinkedIn's been my meat and potatoes.

Aviva (07:07)
It's really interesting when you talk about LinkedIn and strategy, how often are you posting and what are you posting about?

Carson Baird (07:16)
So I make a point to try and get three to five posts a day or sorry, sorry, week, a week. Let's slow down. I'm not sitting out here blasting tweets, but three to five times a week with some intentional thought. Some of these are long form, more thought leadership pieces related to my specific market. Others are talking about current events. Others are just being myself and speaking in my own voice, which

Aviva (07:27)
you

Carson Baird (07:44)
I'm a fairly sarcastic and lighthearted individual. I like to have fun on my LinkedIn connections posts. And if I'm making somebody laugh online, then I'm doing okay for the day. So it's a mix of content that I post, but I think there is some value in consistent activity. It seems that the algorithm or whatever deity that we look up to on LinkedIn rewards you for being active there.

Aviva (08:06)
you

Mark Zuckerberg, personally. No, I'm just

Carson Baird (08:13)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Aviva (08:18)
We are under contract set to close for a group who, very similar situation, saw us on Twitter, saw me on Twitter schmoozing about warehouses in Denver incessantly, and then finally reached out. when I think about it, it's like,

Carson Baird (08:32)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Aviva (08:39)
I didn't like, you almost don't make these posts with the intention of.

Carson Baird (08:44)
you

Aviva (08:45)
the kill, right? Like you make the post with the intention to provide value. And then I don't want to say it's like spray and pray, but there's a, I have just honestly been surprised. I never would have imagined the inbound that I would have received as a result. As we marched towards a closing, right? It's becoming very, very real. And

Carson Baird (08:46)
No.

Hmm.

yeah, I was holding my breath just like, ⁓ I have so many thoughts I want to put down, but I don't want to jinx it. got to the closing table. was like, ⁓ I'm putting an article together. Let's go. but I think you're right that there's no, there's no end goal of, I'm going to close X amount of business directly through my social activity. That isn't what I would say you should expect if you're going to try and ramp up your activity. I think the expectation and I'd say most of the value that I've gotten through the tool is expanding my network.

gaining access to a lot better information just through the platform feeding me once it gets to know me. And people seeing you quietly in the background, it might be dormant, but as long as you're showing up consistently and you're tying yourself to a given mission, so to speak, industrial in Southwest Florida, they will eventually come out of those woodworks and say, hey, I've been watching you.

I know that this is what you do and you start that relationship with a level of trust that otherwise, you know, is so much harder to recreate organically.

Aviva (10:14)
Yeah, it's like networking. Like you're networking, but you're actually by your, you know, when I make a post, I'm by myself wherever I might be. And what, I'm seeing on the other side of thousands and thousands and thousands of posts is it's like you're networking and people get to know you and learn to trust you in a way that never would have happened had they not seen you.

Carson Baird (10:35)
Yeah.

Aviva (10:42)
incessantly, consistently, persistently posting online. And it's really, really powerful. And I think frankly, in our industry, A, we're just starting to see this, just figuring this out. And then B, I would say more looked down upon than embraced, which will, in my opinion, be a

Carson Baird (10:57)
Mm-hmm.

Aviva (11:08)
massive lost opportunity for the naysayers, you know, those who believe are gain. So

Carson Baird (11:17)
I think that there is an element of compound interest here where if you start, and this goes out to all the junior brokers that are sitting here going, where do I even begin?

You're not always going to know exactly what to put on on paper, but showing up is half the battle for social media and being consistent and seeing what is being received and adjusting your strategy and then building on top of that over years. It's not like one post is going to go viral, you know, when you get on the platform for the first week. No, it takes years and years of building up that kind of pool of content. You get better at it. You make mistakes. You learn from it. So as a junior, you you put in

10 years of repetitions on social media and you build a really strong following, by the time you're in your early to mid thirties, you could be having an entire pipeline just generated through your activity online. And that advantage is enormous over somebody that's not showing up on these platforms. And I do think it's looked down upon a lot from, you know, people that are more established in their positions. So if they've got their, you know,

If they're eating well and, ⁓ you know, they've got enough on their plate. That's fine. I don't hold any kind of ill will towards how they've constructed their book of business. But if you're younger and you understand the value of being there every day and, and that compound interest building up, can't tell you exactly what the value will look like for you specifically, but it will show up every time.

Aviva (12:53)
You know, obviously we're not here because I don't agree with you. You know, another thing that I found was, I thought that I would get online, start posting and that owners in and around the area would call and that was what I expected. And while that has been a result, I've noticed a big push just from my community, right? People I grew up with, people I went to summer camp with.

when you're constantly posting about what you do, they notice, they tell their friends. But where I've really seen value from what you're saying, and I never could have expected this was it's really like turned to be this larger community of brokers nationally, who all, we all hang out in this networking event online, right?

Carson Baird (13:39)
Mm-hmm.

Aviva (13:44)
Sure, we meet up.

Carson Baird (13:45)
Yeah, that's

a great way to put it is it's, it's just like an in-person event, but we're there all the time. And we, you know, the feed puts us back in front of one another all the time. And yeah, you start seeing a lot of the same names when the algorithm figures out who you are and what you want to be. And yeah, those are people that I enjoy engaging with all the time. And there's, there's benefits to there's rising tides type of formula where if you're commenting on people that have a great following that you would like to be in touch with.

you're going to start reaching some of those same people as well. And, you know, you'll bring up others that are commenting on your posts. So, I like the online in-person network.

Aviva (14:23)
Yeah. And, and I mean, referrals, what I'm finding, just the national referrals because of the reach. A, you know, it doesn't just benefit me as a broker. If I can reach more people because I know how to utilize these tools online, I can sell your property for more, right? I can get you better exposure, more money, and a bigger buyer pool.

Carson Baird (14:31)
Mm-hmm.

Aviva (14:52)
Right? Like, that's, you know.

Carson Baird (14:53)
100%.

And that's part of that's

part of the pitch that will differentiate you from XYZ other broker that's in your market. And I use that exact pitch where it is sometimes hard to differentiate yourself on a property that is more of a commodity and you look at brokers as a commodity, but I do offer a material advantage in that my reach through my social platforms extend beyond what any other broker in our market can offer you. So,

That's a huge differentiator and referral network, like you said, I've got, and I've learned about these people through social media where you're trying to do some multifamily in Kansas City. I know a guy you're trying to do apartments in Boston. You know a guy, office to res conversions in New York City. Do you know anyone? Yeah, you might. So some guy named Bob. Yeah.

Aviva (15:34)
Yeah?

Yeah, yeah!

Yeah, I guess. If anything, you know a guy who knows a guy.

Carson Baird (15:49)
So exactly. that's, and that's the appeal and you can start delivering value for free to all of these people that are in your network. And it, and it just kind of feeds back and forth and is a lot more fun way to do business than in my opinion, you know, blasting the phones and trying to start from zero every time.

Aviva (16:09)
Hey, you know, I gotta love hate with the phones because look, I love talking on the phone, right? If we're doing a deal, if I know you, I would far prefer to be on the phone. But I hate sales calls.

Carson Baird (16:17)
Mm-hmm.

starting from zero where somebody's guard is always up. I know it is a necessary part of the business and I've generated tons of value in my career from getting on that phone and doing that thing. It's like, you gotta go to the gym. You gotta do it. It's going to suck, but you'll feel better after you do it. It's kind of my attitude towards it, but there are other ways to do it too. That should compliment that effort.

Aviva (16:45)
See, I meant like I hate getting sales calls.

Carson Baird (16:49)
⁓ yes. That's a, that's another good point. And it's taught me something about LinkedIn. Like I get these messages, you know, from various groups and I kind of see my younger self messaging me where, well, there's very clearly a benefit for you in this message. What the hell are you, why are you reaching out to me? have no idea based on this. And it was just a time sync and you know, one message. Okay.

You get 10 of those a day through the phone email, whatever. And you're like, this is actually frustrating. And, you're eating up my time, which is, that's the resource that I have a very finite amount of.

Got to be, got to be specific with it. And, and I will, I will engage with those that did do the work or did do it right. Like I, I'm not one to just automatically shut down any kind of pitch. If you have something that I feel like I can benefit from. Then great. But the first message can make or break that very quickly.

Aviva (17:49)
Yeah. No kidding. I, you know, but it's, this is like all very basic human nature, right? Like we all receive inbound. We all put out outbound. How does this, how does X make you feel? Right. So as a broker, when I'm pursuing property owner A, B or C, I like to try to like reverse engineer it, figure out.

how to make them feel comfortable and want to pick up the phone as opposed to just wanna get off the phone as fast as possible. So.

Carson Baird (18:28)
Yep.

Absolutely. I'd say you have it pretty well figured out. ⁓ I feel like you're doing some decent work over there.

Aviva (18:34)
Hey.

I just think, I think it's so ridiculous that we get to like be young in this business while social media is blossoming because the opportunity is ridiculous and I'm here for it.

Carson Baird (18:54)
Yeah, it's not always easy being, you know, young in a fairly mature industry, but if you make it your own, you might find some stuff that otherwise is, you know, falling through the cracks. So happy to try some new stuff and,  see where it goes.

Aviva (19:09)
No kidding. Carson, you're a busy guy. You got all these deals you're working on. You got two babies. They're about to be one year old. What is your commercial real estate secret that you are willing to share with the listeners today?

Carson Baird (19:29)
Energy drinks when your kids are less than two months old. ⁓ no,  that was a survival tool. I don't drink those, but I had to, for a bit. It was, you know, life necessitated that. No, my, my CRE secret I think revolves around junior brokers because I feel like you and I are in a position where we have gotten in, but it is a very difficult industry to break into.

Aviva (19:31)
Yeah

Carson Baird (19:55)
as somebody that doesn't necessarily have,  you know, something to fall back on or a nest egg built up where they can go six months without selling their first deal. Some of the old guard will tell you that you need to go get a night job or something like that in order to make it. And I think that is the solution for some, but in my opinion, I really want to see younger brokers.

break into the industry more and a way that they can do that is by chasing the long tail. And I learned about this concept. I think it was while working at tech sales job, but Amazon covers the long tail very well. There's box office movies. There's very big public things. There's stuff that captures the attention of 80, 90 % of the market. But then there are thousands of

lower tier movies or something that might not attract the attention of some of those heavy hitters that are not as that well is not nearly as tapped into. So think about some of these properties that might be under a million dollars. You've got thousands of them in your Denver market, but they're not getting blown up by some of the major brokers in the area. Those are more transactional in nature. But as a younger broker, you need something to eat.

Aviva (20:55)
Hmm.

Carson Baird (21:11)
You have to have some level of repetition. So chasing the long tail is something that I think will allow more younger brokers to get on their feet, get repetitions. When you fail, it's not like you're losing a whale and your broker wants to kill you. it is where I would say you need to start swimming before you go out and try and hunt for major deals. Still be in the room on those conversations with a senior mentor, but

Aviva (21:36)
Hmm.

Carson Baird (21:37)
for yourself and where you're going to learn how to do this job on your own. I think chasing those long tail, smaller deals is, where I would thrive.

Aviva (21:45)
I like that. That's a fun perspective.

Carson Baird (21:48)
We're to get more young

people in here. It gets lonely at these events. I want to see some more people that are doing it on TikTok like you.

Aviva (21:57)
my gosh, I had a blast at MassimoCon, another event, broker event. But boy, when I looked around the room at the demographic, I was shook. But in a good way, you know, our, what I'm saying, but not saying for the listeners is that our, the broker demographic is significantly older. If Carson, you said you were born in 92.

Carson Baird (22:02)
That was a great one. Yeah.

Yeah.

Aviva (22:26)
So was I. Couldn't agree more. You know, a lot of our competition, it's like our parents age. And that leaves a lot of runway for us. You're right, we do need younger people in this business. But I do have fun being the young buck with new, innovative thoughts and ideas and challenges.

Carson Baird (22:27)
Great year, good vintage.

Yeah.

We

can say that today and pretty soon we're going to blink. We're going to be like, our kids are in high school and we're the old people that are like, oh, look at those old guys in commercial real estate. It's right around the corner.

Aviva (23:03)
My smoke on 20, 20, yeah. That's funny. So, well, Carson, I really appreciate your time today.

Carson Baird (23:05)
2040.

Yeah, you know, I've been looking forward to this. This has been awesome.

Aviva (23:17)
Yeah, for the listeners. and specifically. ⁓ yes, no, no. You're an industrial guy in Southeast Florida. Southwest Florida, I'm sorry. ⁓ my gosh. I, Carumba. Lo siento. my gosh. Okay. Southwest Miami, or excuse me, Southwest Florida. I'm tired. We were both.

Carson Baird (23:18)
Yes, yeah, we just we do it for them. It's not for us.

Southwest. ⁓ you're putting me in Miami and I don't speak Spanish. That's just not going to go well.

Yeah.

Aviva (23:45)
reminiscing over our lack of sleep last night.

Carson Baird (23:46)
I'm yeah, we could have been texting

at 4 a.m. as our kids woke up. So, yeah, but that's that's pretty much every day right now. So we're used to it.

Aviva (23:51)
But I didn't.

I didn't want to admit that at beginning of the podcast, but now that we're at the end of the podcast, I will admit that we're both sleep deprived. Where can the listeners find you follow you, etc.

Carson Baird (24:09)
Yep. So on LinkedIn, now you gotta make me remember my handle if I were to pull that up, let me see. What is my tagline there? Yeah. So Carson CRE on LinkedIn, Carson Baird, easy way to find me in the search bar. that's predominantly where I play and not as active on X or Instagram or anything like that. So start there. you'll find my direct contact info, email phone number if you want to.

talk further about anything Southwest Florida real estate, LinkedIn, twins, whatever, open book, always happy to connect with anyone. So, yeah, I really appreciate you having me. This has been awesome.

Aviva (24:44)
Yeah, Carson, thank you so much for being on the show today. and for everybody listening. We'll see you next week.