Today as I sat down to write this email, I realized that much of my recent writing has been, technically, stealing.

Last month in your Inbox, I stole a fabulous example of marketing storytelling from HEY and applied it to real estate. (You all loved that one.)

Of course there’s more. I’ve been known to poach the Panera Bread mission statement for Realtors everywhere, and gleefully transform an old ad for HSBC Small Business Loans into a slam-dunk FSBO marketing script.

“Steal like an artist,” as they say?

There is great and timeless benefit in seeing what other folks have gotten right — like really, uncommonly right — in their marketing, then finding ways to apply these concepts ourselves.

When I steal, that’s what I’m doing for us. Alchemizing marketing genius so we can reshape our own real estate marketing worlds in the process.

Anyways, we’re stealing again today. Read on for more shameless, juicy messaging thievery, Caroline-style.

Last year the luxury fitness club, Equinox, came under criticism online after they launched a day-long campaign labeled, “WE DON’T SPEAK JANUARY.”

The national campaign told everyone that Equinox would not allow membership purchases on the first of the year.

They wanted the few, the brave, the committed — so they snubbed short-term New Year’s resolutions and encouraged long-term dedication instead.

It was a brazen shift.

“WE DON’T SPEAK JANUARY” nuked monochromatic, romantic January campaigns everywhere and replaced them with sharp messaging that challenged the most basic norms of the wellness industry.

If you went to the Equinox website last year to sign up for a membership, you were greeted by an unusual message:

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Doubling down on their stance, the company disseminated the messaging in a NYT full-page ad, in clubs, and across social media:

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The result was explosive.

For as many people who called the campaign “super bold, super smart, strategically aligned with the brand,” hundreds more were outraged. The Equinox messaging was labeled “bizarre,” and “vehemently against people trying to improve their health and well-being.”

I, for one, am enchanted by the entire concept:

FORBID people from buying new gym memberships on Jan 1, traditionally the most important membership sign-up day of the year? Insist on only welcoming the committed?

I dug deeper into all this, and the internet backlash that Equinox sparked is not the true story of the campaign. The true story is how Equinox’s belief in “commitment” helped the campaign break all kinds of records:

• 504% increase in brand conversation.
• 2.4 Billion earned media impressions.
• Record traffic to website: 52% above its benchmark.
• Best ever January in terms of sales and leads. Up ~25% in the month-to-date when compared to the previous best January.

And everyone took notice — the campaign is now taught as a case study at a leading MBA program. Equinox also returned in 2024 to run the January 1 idea a second time.

’Nough said.

Now, let’s be good Realtors and steal this for the sake of thinking smarter about our own campaigns.

Instead of a luxury gym, Equinox is now the boutique brokerage, INHABIT.

INHABIT is rolling out a new campaign that snubs short-term transactions and encourages long-term client relationships instead.

The brokerage wants to take a bold stance about how it values connection, how it is built for people who know a different, more rooted kind of service model when they see it.

INAHBIT can’t in good conscience support the “look at us” sales volume-touting / performance metrics-based marketing movement among the nation’s top brokerages.

So they’re rolling this out instead:

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Plenty of Realtors love transactions.

Because transactions are all about the end result, the exchange that boosts the bottom line — with few or no relational strings attached.

We don’t speak transaction.

Transaction is a language we just don’t understand.

It’s a sales-speak farce, delivered to your door in a sterile gray box.

It talks about deals done.

It wants you to be another number on the brokerage roster, when you should be the focal point of a brave new story.

It thinks results are on its side. Talking numbers, short-cutting, giving up human connection.

But you aren’t a closed-sales stat on our office bulletin board. Your path home doesn’t start and end with technicalities. 

That’s not what being part of INHABIT is about.

We go beyond what’s possible. We defy expectations. We are not a matter of contract, a hasty handshake’s give-and-take. We want it all, for you, every day, no matter what side of the real estate table you’re on.

And you deserve it all.

At INHABIT, we don’t speak transaction — and neither do you.

INHABIT

It’s not real estate. It’s life.

We look forward to welcoming you to our real estate family.

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There you have it.

What’s the big takeaway?

An idea only becomes great once it challenges the status quo.

It’s that simple, and that wildly difficult, to achieve.

Maybe I’m not close to actually doing marketing bravery this brave myself, half the time. But as a studio, we sure are trying, and we’re getting a little clearer and bolder in our POV every day. Which feels like half the battle.

As a founder, I don’t focus on my competitors. Neither should you.

Instead I focus on what status quo is in the real estate branding world, and on finding 101 new ways to rise above it. WHILE getting gorgeous results for our clients, WHILE caring deeply about them as humans in the process.

My hunch is you do business similarly.

But as a Realtor, you may need to be braver in how you talk about it all.

Who you’re for, who you’re not for.

What you’re actually challenging without apology — and WHY your buyers and sellers need to make a change.

I have a really helpful old post on this exact topic here.

(No stealing in that one, btw. Contrary to my last few posts, I DO attempt to think for myself as a life practice. Still hope you enjoyed today’s bit of messaging thievery.)

P.S – What’s BLUEPRINT, again? 

We’re a gaggle of designers, writers, and creatives on a mission to change the branding narrative in real estate.

We offer a signature branding service and the industry’s most elegant and high-converting digital products to help modern, stylish Realtors do three things:

➝ Communicate their worth;

➝ Become the obvious choice;

➝ Tell the right stories to stand out + SELL more.

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