Can you actually build a real estate business while keeping your 9-to-5? Alisha and Matthew Wilson decided to find out. She's a full-time in-house attorney working remotely for a big insurance company. He owns a dispute resolution business for residential property claims, 18 years running. Neither one of them planned to become agents, but after relocating to Texas in 2022 and buying new construction, they started a YouTube channel focused on the Austin suburbs. A year and a half later, they've filmed 100 videos, generated 81,000 views, and are on track for 12 closings and $120,000 in gross commission income, all while still working their full-time jobs.

This isn't a story about quitting everything to chase real estate. It's about building a system that works in the background: a YouTube channel that attracts buyers who've already watched you for hours before the first call, a website that captures leads while you're in court or on Zoom meetings, and a passive prospecting strategy that lets you grow without cold calling or door knocking. Alisha and Matthew didn't get instant results. Their first lead came four months in. Their first closing took over a year. But they kept filming, kept showing up, and kept refining their niche until the momentum shifted. Now they're working toward a $500,000 GCI goal so they can retire themselves from their full-time careers and build the Austin Suburbs team into something bigger.

If you're thinking about YouTube but you're not sure you have the time, the confidence, or the patience to make it work, this is the conversation you need to hear.

Table of Contents

• Why Alisha and Matthew Started a YouTube Channel While Working Full-Time
• The Evolution of Their First Year: From Rental Leads to Signed Agreements
• How YouTube Leads Are Different: Clients Who Already Know You
• What They Ask Before Taking on a Client
• The Advice They'd Give to Agents Starting Out
• Conclusion

Why Alisha and Matthew Started a YouTube Channel While Working Full-Time

Alisha joined eXp and took Levi Lascsak's YouTube Mastery class before Matthew even became an agent. She asked the question a lot of people ask: do you think somebody who's working full time should dive into YouTube? Levi's answer was clear. He said he would argue that YouTube is the best way for somebody who works a full-time job to get into the business and prospect while you're still trying to transition. That's passive prospecting. You film the video once, and it works for you while you're doing everything else.

Matthew didn't plan to be an agent at all. He owns his own business. He's been negotiating residential property claims for almost two decades. But they owned real estate in Texas, they created a YouTube channel, and then the leads started coming in. The first call came in four months after they started filming in February 2024. It was a rental lead. The caller wouldn't sign the buyer representation agreement. Then they got calls from people who said they'd sign the agreement and then ghosted them. Then they got calls from people who signed the agreement but went nowhere. It was this evolution, Alisha said, to finally getting people who not only signed the rep agreement but were super excited to work with us and ready to buy.

Now they have a website through Liftoff Agent that's generated 12 calls, 33 form submissions, and 18 click-to-emails in the past year and a half. Their YouTube channel has 100 videos, 673 subscribers, and 81,000 views. They're getting anywhere from 300 to over 1,000 views per video, passively. They had 20 people reach out, 10 signed agreements, and they're on track for 12 closings and $120,000 GCI in 2026. Their goal is $500,000 a year so they can retire themselves from their full-time jobs. Matthew's already thinking bigger: why not $1 million, why not $1.5 million, why not build the Austin Suburbs team and bring agents under them?

But here's the thing. Every week in the first year, Alisha said, let's quit. It costs too much money. Then it went to every two weeks. Then every three weeks. Then once a month. Then she stopped saying it. That told Matthew they were all in. For him, the shift was emotional. Getting yelled at by judges, arguing in court, having clients say "yeah, that's your job" when he got a good result, that's completely different than helping real estate clients and having their back and hearing them say thank you so much, I really feel like you were thorough and you really helped me. That gave him butterflies. It's euphoric, he said. We have skill sets that other agents don't have, and I think that's where we're going to have complete success. But we couldn't do it without you guys. We couldn't do it without YouTube, being consistent.

The Evolution of Their First Year: From Rental Leads to Signed Agreements

The first year was expensive practice. They didn't know how to set up equipment or lighting. They tried reading scripts off a phone before they bought a teleprompter. Alisha didn't like the way she looked on camera. Matthew kept telling her she's a beautiful woman, but it didn't help. One of their clients finally got her over it. The client said, well, you look like you look when you meet somebody, so I don't understand, like, aren't you gonna look the same way in the camera? That landed. Alisha realized the evolution from the start to where they are now is incredible. If you look at the very first video we ever made and look at our very last video, you're gonna be like, whoa, is that even the same people?

No one really watched their first 30 videos anyway, so it was almost like practice. But they kept recording. They realized they needed a niche, like eXp talks about, like Liftoff Agent talks about. They needed to be hyperlocal. That's why they're the Austin Suburbs team now. They're very specific. They couldn't do it without the Wolfpack, without the analytics, without the monthly calls that completely focused them. They couldn't do it without the team they have.

Their first lead came in June 2024, four months after they started the channel. Their first closing didn't happen until March 2025. So it was slow. Then you just have that liftoff, Matthew said. But you have to be consistent. And not quit. Because how many times in the first year did Alisha say, let's just quit, I can't do this anymore? Every week, Matthew said. Then every couple of months it went to every two weeks, then every three weeks, then once a month. Then she stopped saying it.

They now have an ecosystem that works in the background. The website has almost 13,000 visitors and almost 12,000 unique visitors. Artificial intelligence bots, ChatGPT, Claude, Meta, have crawled the site almost 56,000 times. They're being found not just on YouTube but across the web. They're casting a wider net without cold calling, without door knocking, without chasing the next bright thing.

How YouTube Leads Are Different: Clients Who Already Know You

Basically all of our clients said we've watched you seven, eight, nine hours, Matthew said. So they know us intimately by now. They started putting goofs in their videos over the last couple of months, Matthew can't speak English very well all the time, Alisha gives him a hard time, and clients love it. One couple called and the guy said, Matt, I'm gonna have a beer with you. I mean, I want to hang out. First call, before Matthew even had a signed agreement. You're my best friend. That's the energy they got back. Matthew looked at Alisha and said, does this happen normally? He called his sponsor and said, you know, our clients are buying us dinner the first time we meet them. His sponsor said, not one time in my entire career have I ever had a client buy us dinner. It's happened to Alisha and Matthew multiple times.

They think they're in this little club, this 0.001% of getting people that it just doesn't happen to most agents. Alisha thinks it's because clients have watched them. They feel like they know their personalities. Like attracts like. They get a lot of people that are very similar to them, people they would hang out with. They always say in their videos, because we like you and the people we attract, we genuinely like them. They hang out with them and go to dinner after transactions. They want to make a long-term relationship.

The clients are excited. They feel like Alisha and Matthew are old friends. The energy on the first call is completely different than a cold call or a random Zillow lead. The trust is already there. The know-like-trust factor is built before the first conversation. That's what passive prospecting does. You're not chasing people. They're coming to you because they've already decided they want to work with you.

What They Ask Before Taking on a Client

Alisha and Matthew have a form clients have to fill out online before they book a call. They know exactly what the client is looking for and if they fit. They're interviewing the client as much as the client is interviewing them. They always ask if the client has another home to sell or if they're leasing and when that lease is going to end. They want to know the time frame. They ask what the client is looking for specifically: bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, one-story or two-story. They ask about credit score, not exactly, but the range, because they want to know if they need to get credit repair help or if the client would probably easily be qualified. They ask if the client already has a lender.

Because of their previous jobs, attorney, dispute resolution, they can read people like that. They can tell if someone's on the fence or not because they bring that expertise. They have to. So they can get a really quick idea. First, people just wanted to call. Now they get serious leads. Almost all of their leads for the last year have been serious. Matthew defers to his attorney. People love the fact that Alisha's a licensed attorney. She is not a real estate attorney. She cannot practice law. She cannot give you advice, people. But she's got that attorney mindset. A lot of people respect that.

The Advice They'd Give to Agents Starting Out

Don't quit. That's the first thing Alisha said. It takes time. There are people who do this for 13 months before they get their first client. They have buddies with YouTube channels as well. If you keep going, if you keep doing that weekly video, it takes time. People want instant gratification these days. And this is suffering. This can be suffering. But it shows the kind of person you are, whether you're willing to stick to it. Alisha stuck to law school for three and a half years. That was miserable. She said, if I can do that, I can do anything. So as much as she says she wants to quit, it's just her getting it out of her head. She has to say it.

You have to just make the decision. You have to say long term. Think about a year, think six months, a year, five years. If you can't look at that, you may not want to start. It's like brushing your teeth, Matthew said. It's something, time you set aside every week to do recording. Or if you want to do four videos at a time for the whole month, you just have to keep doing it. Set aside time.

Alisha didn't like the way she looked on camera at first. Matthew kept telling her she's beautiful. One of their clients said, well, you look the same now as you look on camera, so I don't understand why it's a big deal. That got her over it. They want to do a video from literally the start to where they are now because the evolution is incredible. They have five hours of stories. Going from not knowing how to set up equipment, lighting, trying to read scripts off a phone versus now having a teleprompter, the evolution for one year is absolutely insane. Their advice is just keep recording anyway because no one really watched their first 30 videos anyway. It's practice. Expensive practice. But if you look at the evolution, if you look at the very first video they ever made and look at their very last video, you're gonna be like, whoa, is that even the same people?

They realized they needed a niche. They needed to be hyperlocal. That's why they're the Austin Suburbs team now. They're very specific. They couldn't do it without the Wolfpack, without the analytics, without the monthly calls, without the incredible team they have. But the foundation is consistency. One video per week. Or four videos in one day for the whole month. Whatever works. Just don't quit.

Conclusion

Alisha and Matthew Wilson didn't quit their jobs to build a real estate business. They built a real estate business so they could eventually quit their jobs. They filmed 100 videos while working full time. They got their first lead four months in and their first closing over a year later. They kept going when no one was watching, when leads ghosted them, when Alisha wanted to quit every week. Now they're on track for 12 closings and $120,000 GCI, and they're aiming for $500,000 so they can retire themselves and build a team.

If you're thinking about YouTube, if you're wondering whether you have the time or the confidence or the patience, look at what Alisha and Matthew did. They didn't have a background in real estate marketing. They didn't have a huge following. They just kept showing up, kept filming, kept refining their niche. And now they have clients who've watched them for hours before the first call, clients who feel like old friends, clients who buy them dinner.

You don't need to be full-time to get started. You just need to be consistent. Want to explore what a passive prospecting system could look like for your market? Schedule a no-obligation strategy call with us. Let's talk about your goals, what you're currently working on, and how we can build a system that works in the background while you focus on everything else.