How to Identify Your Ideal Clients and Partners
Sam May breaks down the avatar-first marketing system he uses to attract real estate agent partners without cold-calling. He covers his 'Foundations Workshop' for agents, a three-phase content-to-advertising process, and how video is used as an in-funnel conversion tool. Best for LOs who want a repeatable, class-based system to build agent relationships at scale.
Identify your ideal client with surgical specificity first — then every piece of content, every class, and every referral ask becomes magnetically precise instead of generic.
Takeaways you can run this week
- Run your own avatar workshop for 10-12 agents (not 100): use a Google Slides deck + a shared Google Sheet so you keep a copy of their completed avatar worksheet. DM Sam at @LoanGuySD the word 'Zoom' to get his exact deck and worksheet for free.
- Open every cold agent conversation with one question: 'Who is your target market — what's your unique value proposition?' If they give a vague answer, say: 'We actually have a short workshop on that — you might find it useful.' That question alone gets brokers to bring their whole team to your class.
- Build your avatar to a named, specific individual — not a demographic range. Example from the episode: 'Single mom, 42, nurse at Sharp Medical Center, renter in Rancho Penasquitos, needs down payment assistance.' Then use that specificity when asking for referrals: 'If you know any single moms who are renters needing down payment assistance in North County, that's my specialty.'
- Replace 'if you know anyone in the market, send them my way' with a hyper-specific referral ask tied to your avatar. The more specific the description, the more a contact's mind auto-fills a real person from their network.
- Record a 10-minute Loom or BombBomb screen-capture video walking clients through their 2-3 loan scenario comparisons instead of doing it live on the phone. Follow-up calls drop to 5 minutes and client satisfaction — and agent feedback — increases immediately.
- Follow the three-phase agent partnership sequence before spending on ads: Phase 1 = Foundations (avatar + clean online presence); Phase 2 = Content production (video, talking-head, one-to-one videos); Phase 3 = Paid advertising to that niche audience only after 3-4 months of content depth exists.
Useful? Get the full Vault free — plus Marketing Worth Stealing, weekly.
GET FREE ACCESSThe playbook
- Phase 1 – Foundations: Run the avatar workshop (1.5–2 hrs, groups of 10-12). Agent leaves with a completed Google Sheet naming their avatar, 25+ problems that person faces, solutions to those problems, and a drafted unique value proposition. Clean up their online presence to match.
- Phase 2 – Content Production: Use the avatar worksheet as a content calendar. Each of the 25 problems = one video. Mix social-media-facing videos with one-to-one in-funnel conversion videos (loan comparisons, walkthroughs). Bring in a local videographer if needed — charge agents ~$250 for 3 edited videos at the class.
- Phase 3 – Advertising: Only after 3-4 months of content depth, run paid ads targeting the avatar audience. Cost-share with agent partners who have already seen results from Phases 1-2 and are willing to co-invest.
Worth quoting
“I open the workshop with: 'My name is Sam May and I'm a mortgage lender.' And I just let the room sit on that for a second.”
“As soon as you ask, you're spending all that goodwill. The more delayed you can make that ask, the bigger the opportunity gets.”
Best for
LOs who already teach agent classes but lack a structured pre-class system to help agents identify their niche — and want a proven workshop format they can run tomorrow.