Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Nelson.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have always been interested in business. From an early age, I was selling candy out of my backpack at school, starting little businesses with my brother, and doing odd jobs around my neighborhood. I graduated early and actually moved to NYC and lived in a model’s apartment. During my time in NYC, I got to do a fair amount of travel, met people from all over the world, and spent time working side by side with celebrities and major entrepreneurs. My time in NYC really shaped my perspective. Being exposed to all of the different cultures, history, and ideas were really kind of an awakening for me. The old saying about New York, “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere” is so true. I know It helped make me into the entrepreneur I am today. When I moved back home to the DFW area I started my first business called Onyx and from that point on everything blossomed. I was able to be a part of some major Dallas/Fort Worth nightlife locations, events, bars, and restaurants. Real estate has always been interesting to me so I decided to get licensed about four years ago and it opened up so many doors for me in the business world. I eventually got into publishing and it really opened my eyes to where the world was going while I was interacting with different business owners and corporations. A lot of my ideas stem from those experiences because I was able to identify trends in many different areas of business. They are a lot of the inspiration I used to develop the projects I am working on and the businesses I own today. Other than that I am pretty much a normal guy. I love spending time with my family and dogs, watching and talking sports, travel, cooking, and definitely eating. My wife and I have gone on trips just for the food! I also am excited to say I have my first child on the way, my daughter Dakota. She is going to be my future little CEO.
Has it been a smooth road?
I would say my main obstacles have always been self-inflicted. I am definitely an “idea man,” and for many years I was letting them pass me by without taking action. Now sometimes I will wake up in the middle of the night and start jotting down the ideas that are running through this crazy brain of mine. I also tend to be a little all over the place and work on too many projects at once. So now a main focus of mine is identifying the avenues best suited for my time every week. I literally get new business ideas almost daily and want to act on all of them! I’ve had to learn to reign it in. I think the future for me is to have a venture studio where a lot of these ideas can take flight.
Another one most people don’t know about me is I suffer from a fair amount of stage fright and social anxiety. I hide it well I am told, but it can be overwhelming at times. The way I get through it is usually just concentrating on my goals, meditation, prayer and using positive affirmations.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I always have a lot of things cooking…
Well, with The Experts of Real Estate our forte is content creation and branding real estate professionals as the expert in their local community. We look for agents who go above and beyond with the service to their clients and communities and feature them on our site. We select the agents from nominations that come in from our website and social media, and then they are paneled by our team and eventually an expert is selected for each and every city in North Texas.
The agents get a lot out of it from the magazine quality photography, interviews, video/audio, events, the website with IDX integration (that can generate leads), and the actual accolade of being selected. At the end of 2019, we will be hosting our first awards ceremony where all of the selected experts will be honored on stage. They also have 24/7 access to our social media guru to help them with their online marketing efforts. It is such a cool company, and I am super proud of our team and what we are doing.
My other company Lasso Marketing, I started and operate with my wife Madison. We create custom digital loyalty and rewards programs for local businesses. We saw the trend with some of the giant corporations of the world. They are literally spending millions on programs like ours because they know data collection is the future. One pizza mega-chain is even giving their customers rewards points for ANY pizza they eat…not just their pizzas. Their goal is to track the customer, keep them engaged, and to be able to market to them in creative ways using the data they collect.
Its all about keeping customers happy and coming back more often. Then collecting their data (email, phone number, etc.) which can be used for the businesses future marketing needs. Once the data is collected the business can put them on text or email campaigns directly through our system. It can save them thousands on their yearly marketing budget. It’s pretty cool to get a reminder text from favorite your local taco shop that today is half priced tacos right? The apps and tablet programs we develop are all white-label so it looks like these small businesses have gone to great lengths to put them together. We are really changing the game with this one.
Until now this kind of tech either didn’t exist or was completely unattainable to small businesses because of the cost. We have changed that with packages starting at just $99.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
This is one of the best places to do business, it’s why people are flocking here from all four corners of the country. DFW has so many great people and business owners, and so much opportunity. I’m not sure I would change anything about DFW (besides the traffic).
Contact Info:
- Address: 2901 W 6th St Suite E, Fort Worth, TX 76107
- Website: www.TheExpertsOfRealEstate.com www.LassoMoreCustomers.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheExpertsOfRealEstatehttps://www.facebook.com/LassoMoreCustomers
Image Credit:
Jessica Rambo photography
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
