hey miles here miles Becker calm and in this video I’m so excited to share an interview with you I have a friend on video chat that we’re gonna get down and dirty into what it takes to grow a YouTube channel and how to grow a real estate business through digital marketing and YouTube so first and foremost Christina welcome to the channel thanks for being here today thank you so much for having me so excited awesome and Christina small horn is a real estate agent in Louisiana she started youtubing probably about two years ago and ultimately the goal here is again to fold the YouTube side and the real estate side so Christina would you mind rewinding about two years before you made your first youtube video where were you what’s your life like your family situation how long have you been an agent for give us that like catch up before you even started in this path and let us know where you were then okay so before I even started the whole video thing I just decided I had actually had a really bad transaction with some clients and it put me in a place where I wasn’t even sure this was the career path I wanted to do for myself anymore and I’m like what am I gonna do with my life what am I doing with myself and I was actually I was probably in a pretty bad place I was you know I was like I was questioning everything I had been doing and I felt like I was really lost and as Utah was so really funny is I found a Gary Vee video and he was like basically saying shut up grow up and do it you know you know you know I was like okay I need to stop being a baby and I need to do something what what can I do to get myself found I mean it’s like there’s so many there’s so much noise of like all these things you can do but like this guy did it and I was like no one else is doing videos I mean everybody has a like acute meemers our blog and I was trying blogging but it wasn’t I’m not much of a writer but I don’t mind making a fool out of myself so that first year I started making videos I was kind of just using YouTube as a dump really like I I would put them on YouTube I spent a little bit of time but I didn’t really understand the whole the YouTube aspect of it and the and I was putting them on Facebook and I was getting a ton of traction on Facebook I was like wow this is fantastic the algorithm changed you could not do like videos over for minutes they were not pushing them out like the 60 thousand views I was getting and a lot of attention and you know clients were finding my videos on Facebook wasn’t the same because my videos were too long and I just couldn’t do my videos shorter you know like I just not what would the message I wanted to get across so I was like well what’s with this YouTube thing and then I ran across this guy named Miles Bechtler and he was talking about SEO and stuff like that so I just started following your videos and actually you’re the first person that actually taught me how to do a facebook ad that was the first time I ever saw one of your videos is you’ve actually physically walked us through how to create a Facebook ad and I was like okay this guy knows what he’s talking about because I started you know getting a lot better with my Facebook ads because I’m watching the videos and I’m like there’s something to this because if this guy who I don’t know can show me how to do this and do it right no one else in my area can do it then I’m I’m gonna do something on YouTube that no one else is gonna do it and I’m gonna show them how to do it right that’s awesome so so at first Facebook was actually like working really really well with the mountain and then their algorithm change and you’re like but I like the medium there for YouTube is probably a better place to focus with my energy because their algorithm is a little bit better long-term rewarding exactly because um the one thing I did notice even though I wasn’t really trying that first year is that because the way I titled the videos that my videos were ranking on Google and I started getting a few leads from that and that actually turned into really good sales I got a guy from Utah that was like if you’re gonna do a video every week about your area you obviously know it exactly right leaving your expertise through the actions that you’re taking day in and day out so yeah and now after that first year after I got those few sales on pretty good size substantial homes I it clicked with me right you get the reward right we get that that actual little reward comes in is like okay the check shows up me like this came from a random dude who hit me up from I mean how many states away is Utah that’s like at least twelve states away I and then the lady from Germany she was actually she’s she was in Germany as she was moving here because her husband’s in the military and she found me through YouTube so I was like if those people from around the world can find me because of a YouTube video and I started thinking about I started laying out how many people actually called me from Facebook and how many leads I got from Facebook and actually the money that I spend to Facebook and I’m like I’ve been doing YouTube for free and I got better quality leads than I did with Facebook and I was paying for it so I was like no one else is doing it so if you actually type in Ascension Parish realtor and you in Google search under the videos tab I’m the only person that’s there there’s a few other people that are on there but I pretty much own 16 pages of it no one else is doing it that’s awesome so Ascension Parish Louisiana it’s between Baton Rouge and New Orleans so tell it how BIG’s the community how big of a town is it it’s like a hundred and twenty thousand people or something like that it’s you know it’s it’s good enough you know like we have a lot of new construction that comes in here our public schools Louisiana is notorious for terrible public schools but our particular little pocket has really good public schools my both my daughter’s have gone through the public schools my one daughter is in high school and she is actually in the pre-college plan so she actually will be graduating high school with a two-year degree so I mean they it’s a real the public schools here are really are good so are you is your location commutable to those other communities are there people who those bedroom communities have situations yeah this is a family you know like a lot of families come out of here because of the schools and it’s definitely driving distance it’s only like 15 minutes to new Baton Rouge just to get to the line my parents actually live on the Ascension Parish Baton Rouge line and it’s about 45 minutes to get to New Orleans so if you want to go for Mardi Gras and enjoy the New Orleans lifestyle go out there you know yeah so yeah so it’s great to get an idea so you’re in you’re pretty much in a suburb near some major metros but you’re an actual town that you’re really like you said clogging up the search engines with your content is actually a really small my good thousand hundred twenty-five thousand that’s a pretty small town I’m long were you a realist how long you’ve been doing real estate and have you been do you focus on both sides of the transaction buyer’s agent and a listing agent or have you always focused on one side what’s the the little background on what was a prior yeah I was a buyer’s agent where I represented mostly buyers for the first I’d say eight years and that hit like that has shifted now because all those buyers have now turned into sellers got it no now I actually have a buyer’s agent that works under me I’m Scottish Smith she’s really nice she just started I I began training her and then my friend Sandow Rashard and now I kind of like trade her off as a buyer’s agent so um yeah and I and I think that’s the best way I’m actually gonna do a video about this but about dual agency and how it really is an unfair thing for the consumer yes it’s unfair just represent both sides right I know I felt like I’d done it fairly but I can see how that it could be a very blurred lines both you know and for those listening who maybe don’t know I actually went to a real estate school and I’ve had a broker’s license as well so she’s saying if you represent the seller and the buyer on one deal there’s a little bit of a conflict of interest because you know one side wants it cheaper and one side wants to maximize their price and you’re finding that middle ground there is a way to do it ethically and it happens all the time but but I think it’s great to silo it out so now in the real estate world also for people who don’t know generally speaking in your state may be a little bit different there’s like an agent level and then there’s a broker level and the agents usually have to work under a broker and the broker gets a little bit off of each transaction the agents do but the broker is responsible for all the transactions of the agents so are you fully an agent right now are you starting your own brokerage house that relationship in situation working I actually like looked into the idea of just being on my own and being my own broker because I can do everything myself I’d do it anyway but I like the I work for a large company it’s called exp Realty you know it was a small company when I started and it has exploded exponentially because of the fact that it is a very technology-based it was thinking the way I could think and I was being able to collaborate with other people that were on the same thought process as I am and then it’s like grown so much that like when because of my youtube channel I have got a lot of referrals so I’m able to refer those out to other agents within my company that I’ve connected with one on one and then on top of it all they have a downline system or like if somebody signs under me I get a portion a small portion of their Commission’s as well so we all it all works out for me in a better way than me trying to run my own company trying to get this this technology to run for myself and pay for all those things the technology fee for my company is very small so and for those listening and the reason of my my questioning in this is you know you’re now playing a game the you track that has the potential for scale like massive amounts of scale and your business model that you’re working within has the ability for you to generate more leads than you can handle and without having to go through all the BS of being a broker you still have the ability to farm them out to bring in sub agents to kind of work with that to maximize the return on your energy investments in the YouTube side right brilliant so one other question I want to go to um your your lifestyle your family how much time did you have two years ago again when you were just getting started like so you’re you’ve been an agent for at least six years before that from what I heard I know you’re married you got kids you mentioned like like what was your lifestyle like because carving out the time you know within a busy life to start going off and doing YouTube stuff like how did that fit into your life and how did you deal with that um I just felt like because my kids already like to YouTube and I’m like well I’ll just throw them into the mix you know like I’ll make them part of my videos and you know people I think it’s important for people to see that I am a family person and that like you know we world we love this whole hustle and grind lifestyle like this is a thing now but I think it’s good to kind of bring it back down and bring your family involved so that way it isn’t so like I have to work I have to work you know bleed bleed from your eyes you know work work work I just didn’t want that tip for my kids to see that I want them to see that yes you do work but you can have fun at the same time too it doesn’t have to be it doesn’t have to be you know like you have four o’clock in the morning you know crying and that’s smart you know you’re like being aware of what your family thinks what your kids are seeing right you’re you’re a role model but then also when the people in Germany and Utah and even your local folks see you with their kids on your videos because you’ve had your kids on several videos like it just it builds the relatability right like you said it’s a family area so that’s that’s really powerful and then your husband he’s in some of your videos as well correct yes I have them he doesn’t he can’t deliver a line so you only see the back of my husband’s head he has this one character a matter of fact it’s I have a sticker and like he only see the back of his head his name is Chuck so like I give these stickers out on his head he’s he’s a part of the livestreams I do some live streams on my channel as well because it helps because I built a little community within like my outside community is is YouTube and then my inside community of course is the community of Ascension Parish so I have a community within a community so I have my used to followers that just haven’t been aren’t even interested in real estate they just happened to enjoy my videos like you write the personality so so you mentioned skits and and that’s one thing that you just jumped right in and went full speed with creating literally like skit like videos coming up with your own characters where did you get the idea for this and how would you give the 30-second kind of like explanation of like why you even chose to do that to other youtubers who are watching because it’s not for everyone and that’s it I think it’s great by the way thank you thank you I just felt like you know I hate a salesperson like me personally I’d rather like I hate being sold something and but nothing will make me stop and watch a commercial more than to laugh you know like the feeling of laughter and I’m like how can I get people’s attention to hear what I have to say and then make them laugh at the same time so they’ll come back and see what I’m gonna say next so I was like well I’m gonna do this so I did this one video this one just it was kind of just a spoof of what happens as to us as real estate agents it actually isn’t even that great of a video but it was funny for the time because nobody was really doing videos and a website called the lighter side of real estate which is also on on Facebook they have a big Facebook presence their page actually picked up the video and posted it on Father’s Day and I was like I knew I was on to something then like if I can continue to make these videos but make them entertaining as well then people are gonna continue to watch so that’s why I was like I make infotainment like I make informational that’s entertainment so people just watch it because not even if they’re interested in I’m absolutely in that category I’ve watched several of your characters and some of them and I laugh I cringe I cry and it’s it’s impressive what you’ve done I mean there’s there’s a lot of post production right like you’re playing it or see if you record both sides of it and you got to edit it all together and again you have a business that you’re running and all of this what has your brokerage what does the company thought about your YouTube videos did you let them know right away upfront did they find it and like has there been any interesting interactions there from the kind of corporate level of yeah obviously actually yeah they they’re very supportive of anything different in that’s cutting edge and they they they understood it right away because all of a sudden videos were starting to get more viral real estate videos or on YouTube Facebook and getting more viral and they actually hit that first year I’d started they they came up with a video award and I want it and then they came up the next year they had more video words and I want another one so it was like they were degree worthy and then I’m always we have this what they call it’s a cloud brokerage so I I’m always asked very often to come in and speak to other real estate agents about YouTube how to set up your channel correctly how to use the right kinds of channel tags what kinds of titles will work for your specific area because you know there’s there’s two kinds of content you make you there’s ones that they’re specific for your area and then there’s ones that you you know your cast the net really wide so I just talk about those things to help people out when they’re first starting out if they’re deciding to create videos cuz a lot of them have done them on Facebook but they’ve never thought about YouTube they thought YouTube is for cat videos and you know cooking or having to change your tire you know how to fix your washing machine or something like that but ultimately like YouTube videos do rank in goo people are searching and it is there’s people who just use YouTube as their main search engine have you very curious are you doing any coaching with with like with other real estate agents like it sounds like that’s almost an evolution of what you’re doing that’s coming out like yeah I have I have tinkered with the idea of creating a course I have because I really do think I can help and there is a specific there are some guidelines as real estate agents have to follow and some people are putting out these videos and they’re not following those rules and there are clients right and they haven’t got caught yet but at some point you don’t want to be the example that they make out of you so there there is some things that need to be done and there and you know there are some ways that you can video structure to get your point across and you can get it done and the length of time and I’ve just because of my own analytics and studying YouTube I’ve learned a lot of things that I could save them a lot of time on totally I mean so what you’re doing now let’s compare right so so today the videos that you’re making do you have like a series of shows where each week you kind of do XYZ or every month you do these things and then in the beginning did you try anything in the beginning that you’re not doing anymore any videos because there’s a lot of testing that goes on the beginning and they eventually find those few things at work and you just repeat those so how do you break that down for any other kind of real estate agents and and real estate folks well I was dude like he said I was just kind of doing some videos and kind of stuck let’s see what stuck to the wall I was doing a lot of like local interviews which was a great way of interacting with other people in the community but nobody watches that like nobody watches them just the people that you did the interview for and then the people that you know like it’s just those people like they never watches them and even if you do the greatest SEO in the world I might get like one or two views I’ll leave those still up there because people do will occasionally come across them and I thought it was like a weekly vlog that I did every Friday I quit doing that and then and then every Tuesday I do a take a tip Tuesday where it’s some kind of tip about real estate and it’s more of the more infotainment ones I’ve kind of like taking a little break right now bending this listing videos because I kind of needed a breather because I did every I’ve not missed a Tuesday in two years since I started that so I was like I just need a little regrouping so I’ve been just putting up listing videos on Tuesday but I’ve never missed there’s always been a video on Tuesday and then Thursday night I do something for my actual YouTube community which is into a real estate trivia night and it’s a lot of fun people come out you know for all these different channels come out and they try to win stickers you know these little stickers it’s like I ask real estate-related questions this you know this week is all about famous divorce homes so it’s people that were famous you know couples together and their their homes after they sold them how much they sell for how many square feet you know things little things about homes I mean I’ve done architecture of homes I’ve done it’s just anything I can relate any kind of topic I don’t care what they like the subscribers pick it any topic and I will change that into a real estate related questions 20 questions now that’s your show right like so YouTube is a channel just like ABC is a channel and on the channel there’s a few shows and you’ve kind of got your little show list and as those shows on major networks have seasons they take breathing time in the off season then they have a new season you’re giving yourself the freedom to do that but ultimately can you’ve been extremely consistent it sounds like like that’s well never never not once like that’s my appointment like I make an appointment for that time and that’s why it’s at night but the one last thing I do is on Sunday I used to do open houses all the time and I would sit there and I’d advertise them and I’d sit there and I wait and like you know in Ascension Parish open house is not a thing it’s just not I know in other cities it is but I mean honestly it’s the biggest waste of my two hours of my life so instead of doing that I create a title like new construction in Denham Springs which is a local town here live tour so I take people on a live tour of the houses so they can ask specific questions I can point out details there’s a lot of construction here in Louisiana that’s totally different than other areas so people we lots of discussions on that so there the people get to interact and ask a lot of questions and and even after those have published that’s actually did better than my blog because people say I know that area I live right across the street from there and so they start to recognize me and then they that that stream right there is perfect for local local agent yeah local agents if you can do just a it’s like open house Sunday like I don’t care what you name it but just go through a house and point out everything you know about that house you can point at the crown molding you point out the HVAC system I mean I even go in the attic and we have this radiant barrier in the attic and I will have a rant for ten minutes about the radiant barrier and how energy-saving it is and people love to hear that and then it shows how knowledgeable you are about your profession right so you do these live do you have a target time are you shooting for like a thirty minute hour like how long does those usually end up being one hour whatever yep because if I did it 30 minutes it’s too short right if I do a 1 hour it gives enough people to time to pop in ask your questions pop off and got it never adjust and then so and that’s why you take the time to riff on the different things you’re now like I’m gonna go ahead and just kind of stay on this topic for a little bit give people time to ask questions they’re also that delay in the comments so are you doing this all on your cell phone I you know it’s really funny as I use my cell phones now I use my cell phone a lot the the tip Tuesday is with my camera camera you know with the lighting and everything else because it’s a stage type of thing but for my listing videos I have a like a gimbal you know I have a gimbal that’s on my cell phone and it records beautifully I have a I do a little voiceover on that it really is nice and then I do my live streams on my cell phone it’s brilliant but on Thursday night there’s if you’re gonna do it do it right right so funny then it just here recently how many people have tried other channels not in my niche but that have tried to copy the trivia and they’ll say hey Christina do you care that if I copy your trivia I’m like go or because I know how much work it is and they’ll do it for two weeks and they’ll stop and they do 100% and that’s what I’ve seen I’ve had people come P my entire channel literally word for word my titles my descriptions 100% copying my thumbnails and they make it maybe two months four months and they quit and they give up because it’s not in their heart it’s not their actual authentic thing and I think that’s one thing that you found quickly somehow you you never it doesn’t seem like you try to be fake like like fake sales people weird you out as they do most of humanity yeah when a lot of people turn a camera on themselves and hit record they try to be something different instead of being like ah okay I’m a little goofy I’m just normal like oh I just made that awkward like and just just letting it be what it is is that something that’s just natural for you did you consciously think about this give any tips for other people feel rigid on videos and want to bring more of their personality through if anybody looks back at my channel all the way but like for the first excuse me so sorry if anybody’s the buyer who was if anybody looks back at my channel when I first started the very first video I ever did was i I’ve never had recorded anything I had my cell phone the Lighting’s terrible I was very stiff I was scared I was terrified like cuz people it’s a scary thing people are gonna judge you the minute you turn on that camera and that’s your mind your thought process I had to get that out of my head because then when I started putting more videos on YouTube and I tell people this all the time like when you first start putting videos on YouTube nobody’s gonna watch them so don’t don’t even don’t even think about it you know you’re not gonna be a viral sensation to your first video your that can’t that dream out of your head just put them out there just keep doing it and you’ll get better and better and I’d like the more I did it the more I liked it and I was I’m a big fan of Saturday Night Live and so that kind of was my influence I’m like okay there’s really bad horrible funny people out there that just make you laugh because they exist and so those are always like the people I use as characters and then of course I’m the voice of reason of the real estate agent so that’s really smart because it plays into a bit of like pop culture I mean SNL has had a huge comeback like this year actually like SNL has had a huge comeback making people laugh is actually one of the most guard letting down things we can do like from a rapport building factor that that know like and trust factor it really increases likability on a massive level there’s it’s interesting to me there’s so many psychological things about what you did that are brilliant and I think it was almost more of a byproduct of a I just I’m gonna start and then be following your fun it just seems like what was fun for you you just kept doing more of what’s fun and you kept experimenting and some people don’t get it they saw and they’ll say that I’m unprofessional and like I’m making fun of people and that’s not the case I just wanted to make something that made people go oh she knows what she’s talking about that was really funny you know like I I just feel like I always kept going back to commercials you know like you know Budweiser commercials all those commercials the ones that stay in your head are the ones that are funny yep so I want to stay in your head you know like she knows what she’s talking about I’ve seen all the you know I’ve seen her Sunday streams I’ve seen her you know Tuesday tip videos are like she knows what she’s talking about but she’s also really a lot of fun and I’m goofy like I can’t pretend not to be good it wouldn’t work it would be and I have plenty of videos out there like I tried to do this like hold green screen thing where I was like almost like a newscaster it’s so they’re so bad they’re just not they’re just not me that’s awesome trying to get experiment you got to be you will find your your way of making content I think everybody has to find their own thing you know video may not be for you then try blogging if you as blogging is not for you you know you’re gonna find your way yep and and give yourself the permission to do things that don’t work to fall flat on your face with the commitment to get back up and try something else and just to like trust in the process really email out loud to my subscribers today because yes I did they were like wow because you had talked about failure and how it’s okay you got to give yourself permission to fail because the next thing coming could be the thing that really sets you apart and you’re gonna fail but you’re gonna the the quitters quit you make a choice to quit right the people that succeed and get up in all getting punched in our faces as on all the time as digital marketers the trolls will show up for sure it’s what are you gonna do about it that’s the question how are you gonna are you gonna get back up are you just gonna stay down because if you stay down that’s a choice and that is the choice that quitters make cuz that is quitting right the choice to like get up and like you said like sometimes you can have a little hard talk with yourself and be like you know you’re better than this you can do better than like step it up and and tada tada for years right yeah but that was a honest to god that was probably the best email like that was like so good thank you that was really good people need to hear that they do because we all have especially YouTube creators and people don’t even in in my same space but we all kind of go through this feel of like you know you know is my content good enough you know you know what am i doing you know am I making the a jerk out of myself is this is this what am i following my goal is this am I wasting my time we have those moments of self-doubt and you know because you have that failure moment and you’re like maybe this is the quit and you know like you’ll make a sign out of something you know like well I I had a sign that told me you know like this made me quit you chose to look at that as a sign instead of moving forward I’m glad to do that it’s cool to hear and so another kind of a tweak on that or aspect of that is I’m and I’m sure you’ve seen this – like YouTube’s notorious for trolls and and you’re putting yourself out there at such a level with some of these goofy creative skit videos you you you have to get some feedback that that hurts like literally it hurts and as humans like I can get 50 a hundred positive comments and that one troll leaves that one comment like that’s all I focus on in in with all of this other stuff that’s going on that one negative voice seems to be louder than all of the positive voices and I think it’s a human trait and it’s it adds to that thing that you’re saying of like that self-doubt that that kind of like mental chatter and conversation which is I think that’s the game personally like honestly and I don’t care what industry you’re in what marketing thing you’re using I think it’s that that mindset I think that’s the make a break I don’t know what book I read it in or maybe it was even I heard it on a podcast but somebody said if you don’t have trolls then you’re not doing it right and they and one of the things like I love to do more than anything is that if somebody says something is that I always like to click on their name and see what kind of kind like they’re so brilliant what do they got going on here oh it’s always zero content no no subscribers and then if they’re like a real person I try to like like a little you know and um I don’t know I just I don’t put a lot into it do it and the one thing that I I the top of the email that maybe clicked like really like read read every word today with something about fake viewers and I want to just kind of touch on that just a smidge yeah we have so much noise in our industry of real estate that has so many fake gurus and a lot of them are real estate agents that are selling you a slice of pie to make it sound easy nothing nothing not at one thing is easy and don’t let them sell you a bill of goods that this is gonna be the thing that gets you there unless you work hard period there’s no magic bot that’s going to save your life there is no virtual assistant that is going to make your career blow up there’s not one thing it’s a lot of things and you have to try it all of them so don’t buy into this sales funnel is gonna be the only thing I need to make my life better you know it drives me insane it drives me insane and everybody thinks they have the answers and the real estate agents are huge targets to write like because we are money giving people you will get 25 to $50 to death it’s only $25 that’s only $50 and then you start getting your bill and you’re like what in the world otherwise what am i spending seven thousand three hundred dollars on tech stuff and I none of us working together none of this doing anything and right that’s the potential creep and you know with your like three percent commission possibly a six percent commission type thing like the math is relatively easy to think like one commission away there’s also this other side of real estate where it’s like oh I’m semi-retired I’m just gonna sell real estate now I got my license and like they’re just a lot of other agents who are thinking it’s this passive side hobby thing first and and real estate like keeping a deal on tracks and dealing with humans on both sides of transactions and all the legit a brutal there’s a lot to do it is a there’s a ton to do not to mention keep your lead flow strong and keeping everything else going on yeah residential sales is probably one of the toughest things it really is they’re just really tough because you are also dealing with human emotions on top of it all on the most expensive thing that most people will ever spend with that one cheque that they’re gonna write that’s generally for most people that’s the largest cheque they’re ever gonna write is that down payment check right and that that has the reason why I became like that’s why I used that name that branding name when I first started and I was gonna I was going to reinvent myself after I got at a depression I wanted a name that specified that I actually you know like I really do care and you become my friend like these my clients are not clients they really are people to me you know their fan I know their kids names and other dogs I mean like I care about these people and I and I’m not it is and just lip service cuz you you read all that garbage online and I could write it all down but you’re like here’s another person you know but I really do so I in order to get my my brand name I I actually asked my clients I’m like give me three words that you would say are about me just three descriptive words that you would say about and like I got all these email back emails back they like you care you walked me through the process you made me feel comforted me like all these things and I’m like what what conveys that whisper you know like like they had the dog whisperer he’s totally and then the brand the Briton there is plenty of the real estate whispers real estate there’s tons of them but I wanted people to feel like I belong to them so that’s why I used yours because I belong to you your real estate whisperer I’m not I’m not the real estate whisperer I’m not unattainable I belong to you you know so that’s how I got my branding name because I do care yeah I mean I to me it is and I mean it you know like I can stand behind I love the branding it came to me cuz I mean oh honestly it was like four hours of writing down all these different ideas of names that I because I wanted something I mean of course you everybody’s like we use your real name and I’m like I want to be like Pepsi Pepsi isn’t called soda it’s called to be more than just my name well it’s a brand and it is also that idea of that something that’s bigger and if you really think about it you in that process you created kind of a brand name but you also created like a brand philosophy at the same time and your actions are in alignment with that so when someone finds you and they watch all your videos and there’s funny ones there’s honest ones I remember I saw one livestream you were doing on this investment property like your husband’s like crawling under the house and I’m like you know what what is actually going on here and like that shows that you care that willingness to and in your husband’s so get under there what’s that hold the camera right like that really reinforces that promise that you’ve made at the brand level all very smart and I wonder how much of that was conscious or it just it’s just been a flow of evolution that’s just me I don’t I like you know I read all these books sometimes and I’m like I do that already but I don’t think about it I don’t I don’t really think about it and um there’s something called being a good person some of us learned right and not to be asked a me fake want to be fake guru and to like realize that that my livelihood is 100% a reflection of how many people I helped and how good I am at helping them and then I just go forth like how can I help these people whether that’s a real estate problem or solution or need or desire or super Facebook internet marketing geekery right like it doesn’t really matter how that is but it really comes from that standpoint of like give value first is really one of the big ideas right and a lot of times people will say to me why do you tell everybody how how you’re doing this I said because they won’t do it first of all and secondly of all I lose nothing I lose nothing by showing somebody what I did it’s just it’s a good way of collaboration I feel like if you won’t look at everything as competition you’re gonna be very miserable but if you look at everything as collaboration you’re gonna feel good about what you’re doing and so I tell everybody everything I’m doing all the time I have no issues people called me from Canada you know like everywhere around the country I’ve had California Florida I mean like these people call me and they’re like you’re so willing to help and I think in my industry that it does that doesn’t always I think I think it’s getting better honestly I really do but I find that there’s a lot of people that are trying to sell people bill of goods and especially when it comes to like when you were doing a lot of those streams where you’re showing people how to walk people through Facebook Ads people in I think they basically took your video and made it their own content and made it into real estate courses courses we don’t like their spending you know a hundred and fifty dollars for something you could get for free online like why like that that blows my mind glozell vine I know nine and I know that like we’re so busy as real estate agents that we just we don’t know how to search for those kinds of things so sometimes we do get stuck with buying these things and then we’re overwhelmed because we can’t ask the questions and I’m always here to ask and answer questions you know I’m a real person and I’m really wanting you to succeed and be helpful that’s powerful so let’s let’s run some some basic data right now like would you say like how is YouTube treated your business as your business today where as compared to I mean two years ago sound like you were like considering giving up oh I got with this and then last year I had actually turned off because I was actually paying for Internet leads and last year I decided I’m not paying for internet leads anymore I’m just gonna do just my own advertising I’m gonna do this on my own so last year was a little bit tougher but I also kind of liked it was tougher in the fact that I was not doing a lot of my own personal real estate but I was getting a lot of checks because I was sending out a lot of referrals so I mean I wasn’t like I didn’t get paid and then and then I was doing a lot of speaking engagements because people were seeing what I was doing on on YouTube and then I was doing a little bit of consultation work so I was getting paid to consult with other real estate agents to show them how to set up their YouTube channels and how to get the leads and and doing that kind of stuff and they’re warm one on one kind of thing interesting so that’s it that’s a much more because I mean one of the things in the real estate world is feast or famine right three deals went through this month hey let’s go look at a new car and then like three months of no she’s like oh Jesus what happens is everything okay did the world break like I mean that is the real estate thing so to hear that you’ve got this kind of more diverse foundation of cash flow like from a businessman from a pure CEO standpoint that is awesome um how many how many subscribers do you have at this point I think I’m like just a smidgen away from what you said really doesn’t seem like a big number but in the real estate like I’m telling you go look on real estate channels they don’t have they barely have a hundred I’m not and I think there’s a huge lesson here for most people so many people think that it requires like they look at the vanity metrics they see that gary vaynerchuk’s now at 1.7 million subscribers and yada yada yada and miles is over here this many subscribers and they start comparing and it becomes a per site or a swordfight whatever to call it it’s the wrong metric because it’s about the depth at which you create the relationships when my list was only 3,500 subscribers I won an affiliate contest over people who have over a hundred thousand people on their list and that’s the part that so many people don’t get is that it’s it’s about how much impact you’re having on your people and a thousand real true fans who really really are true fans and I not a thousand like I’m just gonna buy a thousand okay I got my thousand subscribers no I bought them from a click farm in Bangladesh like no no no like real people who care about you who want to pop in to see our kids are doing who laugh at your husband’s awkward jokes or sports comments that you’re like I don’t do sports right like people who care about those you only need a thousand up and literally it can revolutionize a business in a major way right and I want to talk a little bit about vanity metrics because in my real-estate business people are so obsessed and they’re so pigeon-holed into thinking that Facebook is the only way and they’ll say to me but my video on Facebook got 10,000 views and I’m like okay let’s really break this down your 10,000 views how many of them were three seconds long and how many people actually stayed to the end and how many leads did you get from that 10,000 when you think it’s 10,000 views I said now let me show you by analytics for my youtube video that only has a hundred and thirty-eight views and let me tell you how many times how many times my phone is ringing from that one video yeah did your phone ring from that 10,000 views no I said you’re you’re looking at it so wrong you’re so like the likes in the you know the shares and all that stuff make you feel good but it’s not gonna put money in your pocket this is something you know like like you know there’s all these companies are like we can that we can help your you know your facebook business page we’re gonna put all this content on there for your facebook business page so you have more interactions I’m like I don’t need likes and shares and like I need people to freakin call me ya know and that’s I don’t know I guess quality qualified people who know where you’re at what you’re talking about to call you right like those are people who like any tire kickers anybody’s just in research phase watch the videos like it actually is a sorting kind of mechanism for you in that sense and there are so many people who get caught I called it kind of call it the shadow work they get they do busy work they feel like I put my video on Facebook I was on Instagram all day I did this that the other but those actions don’t actually create the phone calls that actually create the leads that actually create the contracts that actually pay for your rent because we all have to do that at some point and that’s really the CEO you’ll justify it they justify it by saying well I’m doing it brand recognition and I’m like you enjoy that I’m paying bills I’m filling up like my kids college accounts right like I don’t really got any call me from it but you know like people really saw it and then another thing that they do which this is what really blows my mind that a lot of them will say well I got 60,000 views on this video and then it will show like 137 shares and then you guys like kind of see where they shared it well they shared it to other real estate groups they weren’t even clients they just shared it to other so you’re trying to advertise to other real estate agents that you make these other videos again another vanity metric they just wanted that that oh I had a viral video yep you didn’t make any money from it who cares it’s all about the deal flow and there’s those people so we went through the process on a house and the guy we found he’s uh mid-sixties he showed up wearing a button-up he when I called him to see a house he had listed he was like I just got out from under the crawlspace on a past clients house I was helping her with something some little dirty I was like my man show up let’s see and this dude he like no flash no shiny showed up in an f-150 pickup this dude was an absolute pro he knew it was so refreshing to work with a guy he kept that deal on track he saved me money left and right and man to find those kinds of pros who don’t focus on the hoopla and the BS but focus on what actually matters that’s a big thing in real estate and I think a lot of people who look for those houses can tell when they find somebody who’s doing a detailed walkthrough one after another they can look back at the other ones they they just their confidence in this person’s gonna represent me protect Li this person is gonna make sure my deal this Traverse is gonna help me find a home not another house not a you know not something that’s gonna fall apart like they’re going to help me at every phase I think a trick to that is that never look at the Commission you never look at the Commission amount ever until the day you have to review the head and then you make sure the numbers are correct because that way you represent that person as fairly as you would that’s buying a $60,000 you know mobile home that’s buying a million-dollar house over here never look at the Commission about see the prize right that’s not what it’s about that’s not what it’s about it’s about helping that individual solve the problem achieve the goal whatever that you know because there’s kind of two sides right but it’s really about being of service to that individual and when that’s the the leading factor and that you know just goes like that’s where word of mouth comes from that’s where so the average person lives in the same house for what five years six years they remember you they like you they do not consider the people who are direct mailing them because they know Christine is my gal if and when something happens hubby got transferred to a new station I gotta sell this place boom like no questions like I’ve never I already connected with you and you made it easy and they can just go pop on when they start thinking about I think it’ll pop on YouTube be like she’s still doing her thing oh yeah still doing her thing haha at that moment so I’m what tip if you were able to go back to you know year and a half ago two years ago when you had started doing your videos what tip would you give yourself a couple years ago that you now know that that you think would have accelerated the path I would have learned how to title a video a lot better okay go deeper this is my I love hearing that so I would have learned to title a video a lot deeper any and a lot better and I’m actually even even I’m still learning this myself because I you know the videos at work you know and I tell this in my classes are the five tips to buying a house and like Orlando you know five great ways the buyers can save money in Orlando home buyers come you know like those those are still good but I found that if you make a title that makes people like why does this mean like do this now or you’ll lose money on your muna sale oh you know that that nicety right the curiosity and then tying that in with a thumbnail that makes like me pointing to something or it gives it some kind of expression at some kind of emoji of like oh my god or whatever that that will make them click a lot better then then just like throwing up a picture of your you know like that you use on your business cards going like this you know with your phone number on it and at some random house and your company’s logo on it people get confused they’ll use their business card as their thumbnail and you can’t even read the font on that there’s a lot of mistakes that people make but and I made them to my thumbnails are terrible and I didn’t realize how incredibly important that little tiny freaking picture yeah and so like even a year ago I had like a different different use of my branding colors and then I slipped it around and I know it’s they’re super bright they’re super like in-your-face but it makes people want to click and that’s what made that girl click that was in Germany is that she saw this bright pink thumbnail in her Google feed and she’s like what’s that and she clicked it should even know what the video was about she just knew that it was bright and it was pink and she wanted to see what it was and if you think about Google it’s a plain white page with black text and blue links and you know they’ve got their colors I think on their brand name and down at the bottom on the numbers and that’s like all the color on the page so so number one you’re attracting the eyeball with color and your colors speak clearly to your demographic do you do you have I’m totally curious you do more deals with with men women families or leave that first call that usually calls you is it the hubby or the wife ah it’s a 50/50 mix I don’t know one more than the other I wouldn’t say I’ve worked it’s always funny to me though every deal that I do it’s always one person that’s run the show it’s so funny because you can have one deal and it’s you talk solely to the wife the husband’s like I’m just here to pay for things then you get the next deal husband like you know she’ll show up you know like she pick up the house but I run the show so it’s always it’s always every single deal is different so we gotta make dinner and do dishes and the other person gets to put the real estate deal together so yeah it’s and it is stressful so I think one person takes on that like stress you know and then but they don’t realize they’re working with that’s it you’re the whisperer but I really I think that so capturing the attention with color bright color to stand out make sure that your thumbnails are standing out compared to who what else is showing up and then the title that curiosity you know opening loops have you ever gotten hooked into a show like lost or 24 or there’s some new like Game of Thrones I haven’t been through that one at all but like when they open loops right and you’re actually in a title you’re able to open a loop like oh if I don’t click on that I might lose money we have a loss aversion mechanism inside of our human brains that makes it impossible once that loop is opened and you did that that loop was opened by your title it’s impossible for them not to watch that video to figure out what they might miss out on because the fear of missing out is ten times stronger than the fear of gaining whatever that is you know one of my videos that um that actually got me a listing was the secrets that the home sellers need to keep and the thumbnail has it’s a pretty big thumbnail and it has a zipper across my lips and I’m like like zip it you know and that got me a listing a really good one to psychology that is absolutely brilliant right it’s like people who are about to sell their house and you know real estate transactions are huge so it’s it’s something most people are thinking about in researching several months before they reach out with someone mm-hmm and they’re wondering like what do I do I need to do I need to tell about this like do I have to put that on the seller disclosure or not and like do I have to have that fixed and they’re thinking these types of questions so when they find your video that has that kind of an imagery in title they’re like oh my girl she gonna know whether I’m good or not and then it increases the comfort level and then they’re like I can trust her I’ll just give her a call and ask her because she didn’t maybe covered exactly in mind but I’m gonna give her a call because she all she knows what she’s talking about right and I’ve helped several people that are not from my area they’ve happened upon my video and they’re in a situation that was like I had one where I was like how to break up with your real-estate agent and then they were in a deal and they like they really wanted to break up with a real estate agent and so I gave them really good advice and then they contacted me back and they were like everything worked out and we were able to you know move to another real estate agent and I want to thank you for your help I mean that’s the kind of thing that like that made me know absolutely no money whatsoever and it took time out of my day but I made somebody’s life a little bit better and that’s good that feels so much better than a freaking like on Facebook or a share on Facebook or that 60 thousand views that no one cares about you know like that to me it was like I helped somebody I didn’t want anything in return and and it will come back to me at some point in life that’s how I look at karma is so real for sure that’s it I had no boss I used to sell cars through the internet we would sell cars all over the world I was in Albuquerque and he would say he said it was an Einstein quote and I don’t know if it was but I went over here and it laughs over there and he’s like you just gives some energy to something do something good over here and just all of a sudden something lines up for you over there and just it was like a philosophy that he really instilled and I’ve seen it work so many times over and I use the the phrase that karma is only a bitch if I am right so if I’m cool Karma’s gonna be cool like awesome let’s just go be cool and give lots of value and I think my whole platform is a testimonial of that of that willingness to just give what other people charge four hundred to two thousand dollars for I’m just gonna give it all away and like people are like oh I want to send you a donation like no no like oh you should put ads on so I can watch your ass big no no I’m good look we’re good there’s there’s a greater connection between all things that I personally believe in and I’ll just trust in that and like just give me a share if you want you know just hit that thumbs up type thing actually do have my monetization on on my channel awesome and I do have it’s because I had to these live streams and people were sending me gift cards all those cameras on right I was like this is so bizarre so like they were saying sure not like my subscribers told me they’re not the super chat so and they’re like your monetized turn them on I’m like okay they want to do it oh the super chat that allows them to pay to get their I haven’t read that as super chat is just like when you’re doing a live stream there’s a little like little number sign and so we can like it’s almost like a tip or something but they’re they’re really doing it because they like you they show you they know that this is not exactly the cheapest thing to do in the world and they appreciate your time so they’re just giving you a little something they’re not gonna buy a house for me they’re there to play a game and they just were like yeah you know like that’s brilliant and it was fun and they get to like make their little comments so there I had this guy who was on there last week and he his comment kept getting removed so in order for me to get his comment through he actually did chat I said no I have to read it if he went through all that and and so my wife has on her channel which is about similar size as mine but she has even more views she has monetization turned on so we do turn it on the reason I have it off on mine is the number of fake guru products out there like my audience is so ripe for the picking for the the secret funnel software that you don’t do anything an AI sales letter product that’s like $2,000 like like my I have to shield them from it so it’s like I’m willing to take a little bit of you know it’s not that much money it’s a nice it is it is little people don’t realize it would maybe be 250 to 300 hours months and it just does not move the needle of my business for exchanging of giving the attention of my audience who I care about dearly and I want to steer in the right direction give the attention to them to those fake gurus it’s there’s just it’s just it doesn’t match their but on a lot of other platforms I think it makes great sense because a real estate buyer right like there’s the odds of them seeing a highly relevant ad from your competition are zero because nobody knows ads it’s like there’s an apartments ad perfect yeah and that’s the end I let it be because that doesn’t actually there’s no real conflict on that so I want to do one more thing before we go I really appreciate you so first of all before we get in that last where can people find you I’m on many social media platforms I’m still ignore real estate whisperer so if you’re on YouTube it’s your real estate whisperer on Instagram I’m that on Facebook on that and then on Twitter you could just type in your the why your and then whisper and that’s that’s me on Twitter perfect I’ll make sure all those links are in the description and everyone you know like if you made it this far like how have you not subscribed yet she’s almost a two thousand like let’s send her over the 2000 mark subscribe you will get so many creative ideas but the last thing I wanted to do was like if you could break down what you think starting new as a because this is only for people who made it to the end right we got real estate people on here who maybe left earlier like if you were to break down like a game plan for a new real estate person or an old school head who wants to just embark on the digital marketing what would you what would the three step 5 step would that process be for someone new what would you tell them – first of all I feel like they right now you’re if you’re a new real estate agent or an older real estate agent and you’ve kind of fallen off the wayside as far as technology this is a perfect opportunity because nobody else is doing what I’m doing right now there isn’t enough people you have the perfect opportunity to rank on Google and be in several pages that no one else is doing this is they this is you’re right on the cusp when everybody else was getting websites you’re like wait on that and then you lost traction this is the time to do it right now pick up your cell phone and just talk into the camera and be as sincere as possible and just say something that has will bring value to the person that you’re trying to speak to get yourself there’s very many free sites that talk about SEO that will help you with finding the keywords and make sure you write a good description of your video with using those keywords just like blogging and then make a title that somebody’s gonna wanna click on you’ll figure out the the whole thumbnail thing over time you know go to canva they’ve got some templates canvas free use the free templates use your branding colors over time you that will grow but just pick up your camera make a nice little description at the bottom make sure that you put your name your company’s name your company’s address and all of your contact information in there including your license number so that way you’re in compliance and always always always use that fair housing symbol at some point in your video ah so that’s some some very specific things because this is advertising theoretically and that’s where the compliance is there’s there’s some compliance so really like it’s the just start approach in many senses it’s you everyone watching this you’ve got a laptop you got a cell phone in your pocket that’s got a great camera it’s a freaking super computer all the time that’s it and it’s it’s more about the willingness to show up and to give value and if you if you’re not an old head in real estate you haven’t done 75 transactions or a hundred transactions so you don’t know the the bits and pieces of that super well maybe you can be the person who’s willing to go talk about the different parts of your community the different schools the different like the other aspects of real estate that people care about the the live walkthroughs the walkthroughs of the houses that information is there and those old heads that are happy collecting leads from all of the relationships they built over the last 20 years they don’t have the ambition to show up and detail every single open house on video where buyers are probably looking around on YouTube and Google trying to find videos and trying to learn more about the open houses in their area I think house anymore house so they can go through a virtual tour to ask their questions right there and uh leave their screen I would even go as far as saying nobody wants to leave their screen like like just literally like I just want it to show up on this little thing and like why can’t I just go look at every house in my neighborhood on this and the reason is because no local agent has gone and created that content yet right and and I would also say too if you’re gonna start a channel specify your like you can really neat you down even realize real estate channel so if you wanted to be a real estate channel just about foreclosures Goldin if you wanted to be a real estate channel just about short sales golden that is good stuff you can make lots and lots of content just revolving around that kind of thing but I want to warn the people because they have this illusion because they think that social this is a social media site so they start putting pictures and videos of their kids baseball game alongside the video that they just made about a short sale you’re looking at it incorrectly it’s just like ESPN if you were tournament ESPN and all of a sudden the jewelry they’re trying to sell you jewelry or they say pack is going on an ESPN it is just like a channel on a television stay specific stay on purpose and you stay focused on that niche you will you will win yep and you’ll figure it out you’re gonna hit bumps you’re gonna fall down you’re gonna get punch in the face you’re like and you’re gonna fail and you’re just gonna keep showing up and you’ll get better at it yeah and I think one of the other things that you didn’t mention explicitly but but came through repeatedly here is follow your fun let you shine through whatever that is and if you’re super analytical and that’s you great learn how to use that super analytical side of you to detail the numbers and the deals and how well those work if you’re artistic and Kratt like what justjust do you because when it becomes fun and like Christie I mean you brought your family into it at this point right like like when you’re creating content which is marketing work you’re hanging out with your girls hey you know what your hobby you’re you’re like just wander around it like it’s such a beautiful expression of like a life well-lived that is all giving value to people who man it freaks people out like real estate deals are emotional they’re heavy they’re big I think it’s just a really cool I think it’s really cool you built I really I’m impressed my youngest daughter likes to wear the wigs and then she gets to be like she could be that snotty girl that she has in that school that she doesn’t like she could act that person so she loves that she’s like oh I know who I’m gonna be this time you know so she gets to be that obnoxious kid that nobody likes but she gets to play like she’s acting out something that she actually knows so she actually is really good my youngest child that kids got she’s gonna be great whatever she does well and and this is where it gets really really interesting to me is for them to see their mom embrace this technology like he didn’t grow up with Internet you didn’t grow up with cell phones right like like for you to embrace this whereas they’re from the connected age like they’re Highway like they probably grew up in the age of iPads not just internet which is the age of screen so like you’re setting them up with some really cool a kind of mindset stuff but be like the willingness to go like create videos is now nothing to them we had a family friend come out and visit and he was 12 and was like what you want to do when you grow up he’s like only be a youtuber what like really house like have you ever made a video he was like no and it’s like we’re making a video we did a vlog of a hike here in town and and he was just blown away by it it was like wow the world has changed and you’re really empowering your daughters in a major way which i think is I think the ripple effect of that I think the 20-30 years down the line of that you’re gonna look back and think like wow I didn’t really see all of that happening from this but it is all kind of connected in a cool way well I think even just sitting here talking to you it was something I couldn’t have imagined two years ago because you were the guy on the other screen that knew way more than I did about Facebook advertising and then here we are just having a conversation so it’s like you know it all comes back it does and and it is because and this is a perfect final note is because you followed through and you kept getting back up and you didn’t quit and it was hard and it’s a pain in the ass and doesn’t works way you want it to and dogs are barking and dinners burning and the editors not working and yep welcome to our world yeah that Final Cut Pro for some reason will not render video all of a sudden you know you’re like God and I’m committed to uploading today and it’s going to happen I’ve been up at 4 o’clock in the morning going I don’t know what else to do and I’m on the phone with an apple and like the guy on Apple was so nice and he got it to work I was like crying forgot my closed captions done on time thank God all right out time right out all the time I was like this is a side that people don’t get right they look at the numbers they look at the banding metrics they look at what you’ve accomplished and they forget that it was you know two years is what 670 days 770 days of like every day it’s a challenge and you just keep showing up and you get better at it and and we have fun and we share thank you so much I really definitely have fun you definitely have fun because if you don’t have fun you’re not gonna end up doing it anymore what is the point yeah yeah and I really enjoy it I didn’t even know I was gonna be something I enjoyed as much as I do but I love it I really do love it it’s fun it gets addicting and once you’re there you’re in the flow and the next 3-5 years of your business of your life it’s it’s gonna be amazing and I’m grateful I was able to help you on that path and I look forward to seeing where this goes thank you mr.
Myles Bechtler Cheers well thank you for joining me Christina and thank you for watching if you enjoyed this video obviously give it a thumbs up give it a share do you know any real estate people or real estate groups grab the URL send it out into the Facebook groups or LinkedIn groups whatever you do I appreciate any engagement and be sure to go to her youtube channel link below your real estate whisperer and subscribe give her a thumbs up check out some of her skit videos I’ll link to at least one or two skit videos in the description of this one I thank you I look forward to connecting with you on the next video and until we meet again be well.
As found on Youtube
The post Real Estate Marketing On YouTube – An Interview About Digital Marketing & R.E. Lead Generation appeared first on INFOSHRI.