Welcome to this week in marketing, where coach, jason pantan and i help you modernize your marketing, build your brand and ultimately win more business. So what if you could do a hundred million dollars in volume in the next 18 months by doing 130, video home tours and the first one wasn't even your listing brad mccomb, welcome to the show man, hey thanks a lot for having me. Yes, super excited so uh for the for the people that haven't maybe uh caught wind of you or checked out. One of your videos - or you know, heard you sort of out there talking about all this stuff who is brad, give people a quick like fast, fast version.

Oh you've been in the business forever, yeah yeah, no, i'm not not been in the business for that long. Uh, around 40 midlife crisis decided time to change careers and some health issues, so i thought okay, i got ta, i got ta, go, get that easy real estate money and once i of course got into real estate, i was like where's the easy money right. There's no reason to work with me and there's amazing agents in my marketplace that, were you know, dominating those areas, and i thought i needed to come up with something that was uniquely mine. That was a true value offer to the seller and i decided to go all in on video.

I'd been watching a lot of youtubers that were not real estate creators, guys like peter mckinnon and casey neistat, and these guys they were experts at telling stories and they were experts at like making something very normal. Look, cinematic and cool and engaging and exciting right. Just going to the beach with friends or whatever it might be so uh i decided to do it. I'd do video from there and it just started to hit.

I started to realize it was a much longer tail than i originally thought. I thought hey. This will. Maybe help me sell the house, but in the end what it was is that neighbors were watching who were putting in the work as well on the listings.

They were getting excited about that people were starting to view these videos, as almost like mementos, to take on and from there from their past and then all the while, because we always you know, put ourselves in the videos. We became the authorities for those homes and i realized really quickly that people were looking at us as the authority simply because we were walking around so if i walked through a 500 000 home. It's like okay, great. I know that community right, i was an authority on that area.

It would give me an opportunity to talk a bit about the community in the video talk a little bit the home about the home, the lifestyle and by putting all that stuff together. There's like 27 things done all right. Sorry, ready! Sorry, sorry, yeah! No! I i! I don't want to be rude. Yep 40 health issue, you, okay, uh, yeah, yeah, i'm good.

I had a parotid gland tumor, so it rained my face: yeah, okay and and then and then why real? What did you do before real estate? I was a designer and a renovator, so that makes a little more sense, yeah and but what about like? Cinematography, like you, actually asked yourself: what could i do differently to stand out and become? You know something that is value-added? You actually asked the right question: where did that come from yeah? You know what i guess. The only thing that i thought about when i got my real estate license was when i had that epiphany that no one should work with me, because i didn't have any experience it was was really simple. I thought i could spend the rest of my life asking uh for more business from buyers and sellers or i could ask a better question which was what's in it for them. If they choose to work for me and if i wake up every day - and i focus on that question of what's in it for them i'll come up with a better answer for you next time, i'm at a listing presentation or working with a buyer right right.

So, where did that thought process come from, though, like because that's that's not a normal. Like that's a very strategic question, that's a that's! The kind of startup founder i want to invest in you with me like someone who actually thought through it differently, saw the problem, realized and then created yeah. I think we came from a place of uh, probably just where we were at in our life. We came from a place of need like we, we financially, i felt like my goodness.

You know 60 will be here in like a snap, and i won't have my family set up properly and if i don't make massive action right now, i'm going to find myself falling behind or not being able to provide for them the way they they needed it. So i think for me the reason i asked that question was because i just did not believe i was entitled or deserved any listing. I didn't believe i deserved it from my sphere of influence right. I didn't believe that i deserved um it because i was someone's family member, cousin or or pal or golfing buddy, or anything like that, and in fact i really didn't want that kind of business.

I didn't want a business that was focused on my sphere of influence. Thinking, hey brad uh, if we tell bra or if we're at a dinner party, we tell brad that we're moving in six months. This conversation goes to brad pitching himself right and so for me, it was more about the only way to grow. My sphere of influence is if, if people outside of my sphere actually starts to feel like i'm their friend right, like they have some sort of association with me and that's the cool part yeah right and then your sphere follows accordingly, of course yeah.

Oh, i bet you, what do you well i'd say the biggest difference. Was you know you tell your friend uh hey, like you know, would you like to know what your home value is yeah right, you're, a salesperson right, but if they say hey man, i saw that video uh that home sell my sister lives in that community. She was thinking about selling in the spring now i'm the authority, and that was the difference yeah and that, like we could end right there, video creates the authority absolutely yeah now having done video as long as i've done it now going back to, like my first Youtube channel in 2007 there's been an evolution and i clearly see the yourself and timmy smith and others. You know jeremy right who are pushing the envelope i'll take jeremy in a different direction, but you and timmy in this artistic.

I don't call it video. It's like cinematography right, you do it differently right and you mention like casey and right, like people that are definitely pushing the envelope outside of real estate. So i actually got like five questions. For you.

Sure first thing i want to know is like: what's your thing when it comes to video yeah, so i'd say our thing is listing videos and the whole goal is to make them look cinematic highly produced like hgtv quality, if not higher, for the goal of building Our own personal brand and obviously selling the house and the high quality listing videos, if you check out our youtube channel um people are really shocked, not just at the quality and where they're at right, but at the production budget and who's. Doing it right right, which often times for the first two and a half years, was me fully yes right, so shooting editing everything, even a video - and i know you're, going to give me a hard time for this, but even last weekend you know, i fully edited A video that we shot last last week and threw it up on the youtube channel and you know already - we've got what is that almost 7 000 views on it. Yes, 25. 000 minutes of watch time, like that's massive, it's huge and okay.

We didn't cover that you're in calgary right, calgary, alberta, canada, so so how big is the addressable market in calgary, so they have context for, like 7 000 views, a lot of views anywhere yeah on a listing, video yeah, that's right! So i'm in a city of about 1.2 million people and uh, there is in our city because i've been doing uh youtube for so long. I think we have one of the highest concentrations of agents that have youtube channels that do listing video tours. Yes, simply as the market needing to to offer it after seeing what we've been doing for so long right, so we're going to unpack that too. But how did you discover this form versus all the other forms? Honestly yeah, i i think, like i love short form video, i think, there's definitely a place for it.

I like market updates all that stuff that seemed really clear, a clear path to get a buyer. Yes - and i wanted sellers yes and for me it felt like if i could do if i could do something that actually wasn't selling bs to the client where i'm like. Oh, you know: i've got this database of buyers just waiting to buy and i work with a lot of people in your community or i'm a local area expert or all these different things. It just felt like all of that was this.

Like real estate sales person talk right, and i just didn't want that. I wanted to have this thing that i could say: look you might have a niece that does real estate. You might have a buddy that does real estate. You might have all these other people that could do it for you, i'm not going to come in and just give you a price on your property.

So you can then know that you're, you know your buddy isn't lying to you or feeding you a line. It's like i'm, going to come in and show you something you're going to realize that you're not not going to be able to get that anywhere else right and if you can get that with me and if we can grow the audience right, then what we can Actually build um is something far more than just a great video. We can actually build exposure that no other agent can offer bingo yeah. I said this to you yesterday in the mastermind.

How often do people say to you? Okay, oh we're so excited to have you over what kind of video would you do online? Yes, yeah so listing presentations for us are not like a like. I don't have a listing presentation um, i'm not saying that. That's a good strategy because every now and then you probably have one that's like hey we're interviewing multiple agents yeah every once in a while. We get that and i it's more just like once again.

I don't think we deserve them. But when we get to the listing, people have usually already binged and when they binge they'll they'll like have the game on and spend like three hours on their phone watching all of our videos and what's wild about that. Is that it's just not? Who you think it is um like whether it's tick, tock or instagram, or youtube a lot of agents? Bring this like preconceived notion of who that audience is on those platforms right, it's just not true. This last week we picked up a hundred million dollar contract uh with about 70 units yeah a boot i boot 70 units and that contract came from someone who was watching a hockey game watching our youtube videos called out reached out to us and said: look here: Here's our agreement that we have with our existing agent we're not really quite happy with the exposure we'd like to bring you guys in um, but this is what we we pay and i say, okay, cool.

So that's not what we accept. What we actually accept is this: this is this: is it yeah and they say well? Well, no, this is i'm like listen there's that you called me. That's cool that yeah, that's what your arrangement was, but here's the reality is that, like what we're doing is different, it has value and when you guys figure that out, let's do business together. Yes and uh, they tried for about a week and a half to negotiate, and we just we had a number.

I said i'm a bad negotiator, so i start with my best offer yeah and that's it and when you guys get there, let's do it and that's what's wild about that is that that is playing out on a weekly basis for us in our marketplace, because the Brand is spiraling well beyond uh what we can control so just for context, he's like 30 months in the business, and it's really been the last 18 months that this thing has really caught fire yeah. What was it like in the beginning? Just so, you know we're going to go through process storytelling, we're going to look at the best videos, the worst videos there's going to be a lot of a lot of ground cover today, um, but but in the very beginning, like i remember, shooting my first couple Of videos and like looking uh 30 views, yeah interviews and thinking like well i'm putting a lot of energy in this and i was playing the long game. But you know you're two years in and people really aren't on youtube in 2007, eight nine yeah doing all this. You had an unfair advantage, but did you see success early yeah? I saw success early mainly on on justice on a smaller level, where people would see the video and they were impressed and, what's you know, outside of the real estate world people believe that agents get paid too much do too little they're all the same, and we Forget that once we get inside the world and the longer we're in the world the more we you know, pat ourselves, on the back and tell us we're great or give each other awards.

But the reality is, at the end of the day, our industry is under threat from big tech and ai, and all these different things that are looking to take those juicy commissions away from us with this idea that hey, listen, there's just been a poor exchange of Value right, but we know you know like the old cliche price is not an issue and the absence of or values, not whatever, that one is yes yeah. You know the one, but basically uh at the end of the day very early on people just simply saw that when they said hey, listen, this guy actually cares about his clients. He actually does something they could see like a physical manifestation of this, and that was actually creating uh, really great engagement and early wins. People were coming into the open house and i was getting the feedback that i needed to keep building my audience uh, because people were coming in like oh, my god, it's actually you like you're you're here at the open house too, right where's, your wife, like what Are you talking about yeah and, and then there were people that were actually starting to write, offers sight unseen, and so this last year, because of those youtube videos, we sold three properties that were right around the three million dollar mark, where we brought in the buyers From out of province uh, and they they bought our clients property without even walking through it, some of them not even taking possession until later.

Your videos make it that easy. It does. Yes, because you you, you make the home look spectacular, but the house actually has to be spectacular yeah, but that was actually remember one of the debates yesterday, like brad. This totally makes sense, for you remember guys they're like like what about me, i'm in delaware or i'm, i'm selling something with like blue linoleum like right.

So so, let's actually look at some videos. First sure sure tell us like give us your worst video and then show us your the one that you're, probably the most excited about proud of, et cetera and by the way, if you're, watching this uh you're gon na see this. If you're listening, you're only gon na hear it so make sure you jump over to my youtube channel and check that out yeah, so i'm gon na say this uh, i'm i'm actually quite proud of most most of our videos. Just purely because i'd say, here's probably the the worst video that would be worse is just a way.

You know, yeah contrast right, absolutely so. Um yeah i'll i'll, show you this one right here. Uh this one felt a little more imovie yeah, you know felt it yeah yeah, oh yeah, quick yeah, a little quick! Are you looking for a two-bedroom two-bath, condo unit, low energy under 250? 000? Just steps to west hills shopping like you, weren't excited to be there a little bit of paranoia in the eyes. This has the blue laminate, as you were talking about on the countertops.

Some of the the hinges were a little bit weak. So, let's stop right there for a second. So do you have to be inspired about the house? Not necessarily what's interesting about this home is that we actually sold this one for some clients who had they sold it for a dollar, less could not have paid out their mortgage, their their other financing obligations, and they were in a really really tough spot um. This was not, i, i do a video for every property, so i was still proud of this video.

We still put it together. This was just probably 18. It was probably about two years ago now. It was just at a point where i was still kind of refining my own on-screen presence.

That's what i wanted to ask you because yeah having not seen any of the early stuff, only seeing the perfect animation like you're, so fluid in your movement, your energy. It looks very precise, but natural it doesn't look unnatural. It just looks like i wait for you to walk in and go hey. I'm brad, you know like like there's just a lot to it.

Were you nervous here? Were you thinking about the client and their situation here? What what yeah? What caused that i'll say? Here's the here's, the thing being, a practitioner being a person, that's actually be goes on this side of the camera and then this side of the camera and then also edits it back right. I could tell that when i was speaking at some points in time that i was my eyes were revealing that i was looking for the words right, yeah so sometimes or where i try to amp up my energy and then all of a sudden. My eyes would show that i was excited like kind of like paranoid and i'm like. Oh, i don't like that.

Look right. So there was this benefit of being the person that was actually putting in the time on the other side, because i was able to refine. I'm like, oh, i don't like that when my voice goes to that octave i'll drop it a little bit lower i'll i'll move a little bit more i'll kind of bob and weave towards the camera and back with the whole goal of trying to engage the audience Right and the audience that there's this awesome tick tock, where there's this man there's this black man he's got this very stern looking face and they do at him with a baby and he like stares at the baby, and then he has this big beautiful grain. It's like just the biggest smile on earth and what happens to that baby that baby smiles, the baby's first off is like what's going on and then just smiles right.

It's like an automatic human reaction and as soon as you realize that you can transfer that energy to others, it would be ridiculous to not do so because it just brings in so much more engagement, so much more excitement and then people feel what i think is Actually, one of the biggest keys to our success, which is there's like a passion in what we do yes and that part of it is the part that translates to others right and then it's really hard to just be the agent that comes in with your stats. Right because stats and facts don't sell, but stories do and that's a big part of what we do. So we should have mentioned your your time at film school at usc, or was it juilliard like yeah yeah? No, you are you before you do this. You are so technically sound like earlier.

We had glenda baker on my show and we talked about how she is analyzing, like literally on tick, tock she's, like okay. What was my hair doing that day? What color was i wearing? What was the story? How many likes like she's, looking to connect the dots on everything, there's still a lot of people that are in the evolution of just shooting a video, then there's what you're doing right really thoughtfully thinking through? How am i expressing myself to the audience? Are they resonant like yeah? Where did that come from? Well, i would say everyone that i talk to or that reaches out to me and says: like what gear do you use, what software do you use 99 of them? I give them the answer and what they come back with is like, but adobe premiere is hard and i'm like, and so is life if you're not selling homes. If you don't build a brand, if you have to prospect two hours a day, because no one's calling you to work with you, life is a lot harder than too so right just choose what you want to do now for me exactly. I don't think that everyone needs to go and create videos like this or that they should learn to edit or that they, you know, shouldn't just go, hire a videographer for me.

What it was. I just decided. I was all in from day one i didn't want to get good enough with an iphone, because other people in my market could get good enough with an iphone. My goal was to do something that was so defensible and so hard to do and hard to repeat that others would likely not do it and so, even now, being as consistent as we've been like, we gained seven or eight percent of our audience virtually every month And in the beginning that was hard to tell myself that when i went from 50 subscribers to 57 subscribers - and i had 12 or 13 percent gain in one month - that that was a good return on 40 or 50 hours of my time right right.

But the reality is when you compound that interest in your brand - yes, at 10 000 subscribers this february, when i hit it, i went to 12 000 subscribers by the end of that month, so that 2000 subscribers still came with that same 50 hours before it was Seven because that's the way, compound interest works right right, but that's that's the difference and the only way you get to that is if you start at the other side, and very few people are willing to start at the other side, it's the slight edge. You ever read about the slight edge or the compound effect. Yes, it's exactly what you're talking about. So, let's go to your best, video okay or in your like your current fave, i should say: yeah i've got.

I've got a few that i really like. I'm going to include something that i have uh with my with my wife, because your wife is such a strong. She is just fantastic. Your kids, they're they're, fantastic too yeah, i'm a i'm, a fortunate fortunate man.

Let's just be honest, yes, anyone who's met. Me is definitely like - oh my god, you're really fortunate. That should not have humility, but life should not have worked out so well for you, okay, let's see i'll start here! Oh yeah! I love this video all right. Let's make sure we link up on youtube his youtube channel.

Okay, sorry: i was totally talking over the intro. Okay pause, yeah million dollar million dollar tours yep. Is this actually your listing or you just touring properties? Oh no, that's my listing. We uh double ended that deal.

We had multiple offers from toronto on the same night for that property, why million dollar tours uh and do do they all say: million dollar tours uh, just the ones that are million dollar tours? Yes, just the ones that are million dollar tours, but what's wild about it, is that so every agent thinks or many agents will say like how did you become a luxury agent right? Because in my market, i've sold about 25 percent more luxury real estate than any other agent yeah with no rolodex, no connection, no wealthy friends, right, yeah, just video and once again, purely because they know what's in it for them. If they work with us. And so what they'll call us and say listen! This would be a great episode of million dollar tours when they're telling us to come list their two million dollar home right, and that is a nuts, absolutely nuts. That's right creating your brand in 18 months or less yeah and here's 30 months, but you know really the last 18.

so when people say well yeah, but how did you get the first one right? Everyone wants to reverse engineer. I said: well, here's really simple guys. You're going to tell the story: if you get a 400 000 listing yeah make it look like it's worth: 500 000 yeah, and that will cue you up for a lot of 500 000 listing presentations, make that look like it's worth, 600 and so on, and so On until all of a sudden, you find yourself in one two: three million dollar homes and no one ever questions whether or not you can do it again. So for me strategically, i was trying to build a youtube channel, not build a luxury brand.

So i i called up, i looked at the top five most expensive properties. On my mls, i called an agent uh. I called an agent who didn't have a video on his listing, but it was the kind of listing that i knew my wife and i could walk through and just be like wow cool amazing right, like owen wilson, our way through that place, yeah and so uh. We he's, like sure, absolutely come on down.

They opened the door for us. They gave us four hours in this house. I had a slight panic attack because i thought wow. I do not know if i'll be able to actually deliver on on this, because at the time we'd only did video for about eight or nine months um, and so we filmed someone else's tour.

So i've got 125 videos on our channel one tour for someone else. It was a six and a half million dollar home that video to this day, two and a half years later gets watched for over three hours watch time every day, um. So the long tail of that video has been amazing. Brad say that again say it direct to camera, someone else's listing that didn't have a video, that's right, someone else's vid, video or sorry wait.

Someone else is listening to this video. It's literally okay, tom doesn't tell you. This is an early morning. Podcast, it's 4! 00! Am yeah? That's right: uh yeah, someone else's listing that did not have a video uh.

We went and created one for it. It created our luxury brand. It gets watched three and a half hours every day, every day, every day and what's wild about that, is that today, like what other marketing could you have done two and a half years ago that you're still getting paid for today? That's still building your brand, your authority right. All of that and what's cool about going and finding a listing like that in your market, is that no one will ever ask you again.

If you do it right, can you market a multi-million dollar property and that's the only question that uh you know a wealthy client has right. Is you know, do you actually have the chops? Could you do this, and so now, at this point in time a big part of this whole real estate industry is confidence to do something like that. Even for me, i didn't i would not take a listing. I didn't think i could actually sell or market or that there was another agent that could do.

You know a better job of so being able to have the confidence to know that we've built an audience we've built a following that we've sold a lot of homes. Now, at this point now with confidence, i can tell my client that what i'm not selling them is just some some pitch or a bunch of bs. I can tell them like legit our audience. Our audience is massive right and even the right audience, that's right and because other agents are starting now their video right.

Where i was on my journey two and a half three years ago. That's getting 250 views, it's great. It's awesome that they're doing it and they're still getting work from it uh, but at least i have now the early adopter advantage of being able to say. Well, we built the audience and because we built the audience, we can get 20 000 views for that.

For that video versus say, 300, and that has a muscle like a massive, multiple effect on on value of the content or the marketing that we're creating for your clients right so for sure. Okay, i have like five things, but first play this. Just first play it for a sec. I want.

I want to just acknowledge something today, teal and i are going to tour you through this custom-built westridge, fine homes. We will challenge all conventions. What you believe country estate living could look like on this week's episode. A million dollar tours yeah alter ego yeah, you read the book.

Do you know that? Do you know the canadian that wrote it? No, i don't. Okay, so todd herman is a dear friend of mine. Okay, this incredible book called the alter ego and the whole concept is when we are afraid right when we lack the confidence that we can put on that alternative, and it could be something that you wear. It could be a trinket in your pocket.

In this case it was like uh famous football players yeah he would put in his pads as this little five foot. You know nine guy and go out and just crush people on the football field, and you said you know owen wilson, yeah and my note was: is that a part of your alter like when you come into set right when you're on camera right? Is there an alter ego and was it intentional yeah? It was very intentional uh. It was just a simple like: u times, two mentality right. I know that when we go on camera or video um, it sucks half the energy out of the room.

What we feel like is our uh, our biggest or brightest, or most enthusiastic moments. Oftentimes don't play back like that right. So for me, what i always tell agents is: look if you can deliver your lines and someone can walk by you on the street and you are not mortified or embarrassed you're, not going nearly exactly so. My latest video i'm like walking through this very popular high-end, uh community in our city and i'm, you know, there's 25 cars going by and i'm like.

What's up guys, we are down in marta loop right now. This is a community that everyone comes down to because of the great shops and restaurants, and i go through it all, and i give my voice and i you know i'd like really give there - everybody hears it. Everybody goes yeah. Oh, that's the guy right and i go through that whole that whole part of it right, but while everyone's walking around and you're walking into the donut shopkins right right and what you realize really quickly is that uh there are far more fans and there are haters.

Unfortunately, haters are just maybe a little bit louder yeah. I love the haters yeah thanks for watching my video over and over again until and leaving comments, absolutely yeah. We get some haters on there, but the reality is is that the vast majority of people are like man. I wish i could do that.

I wish there's this. Everyone has this thing that they wish that if they just took that leap or or believed in themselves or could get over themselves that they could do this thing right and whatever it might be, whether it's like play a song in public right or write a book Or whatever it might be right, and so when they see someone doing that and putting themselves out there for without fear of judgment, um, it's actually an inspiring thing, and i agree. I got that inspiration from so many other great agents. Yes, that were doing it that it i just thought: okay, listen.

I would rake lawns if that's what it meant right to feed my family. So i'm more than happy to go, be a fool on the internet right right and it's funny like with the hater things like you only get haters if you're doing something big, that's right! If you have no haters, you haven't done anything yeah. That's right! You haven't put yourself out, you don't have haters you ain't doing it right, that's right or or just it yeah, not even right! You just ain't doing it right. So go back to this video and tell us more about what you like.

Okay. So the reason this video works is very quickly. Is we tell the viewer? What's in it for them, when you hear the words, alberta and acreage, what do you think? Because we guarantee you there's absolutely no way, you're picturing anything like this, so our thoughts here is really simple: uh, quick hook in the beginning, yeah and then a couple of highlights of the property, so people think like okay, i want to stick around for the wine Cellar, i like the lower. You know the fireplace in the basement, those windows in the living room - that's really cool, so we go through that and then what we do is very, very simple.

We actually talk a little bit about the community um, that's a because we get a lot of people moving to our city now, and so people want to understand where we should. I live in and also if this is not the home for them. I want them to understand that we understand the communities and what their needs are, what the benefits are. So when they call us and say well, you know we don't know that bears paw, for example, is the right area.

What about spring bank? I can speak to those things yes or they don't even ask, because they already trust our opinion, because we're sharing it here right and if you think about uh uh when it comes to real estate or making a purchase like this from the buyer's perspective. They're. Just and the seller's perspective there's so many unknowns that really the only things that any of us fear in life is really the unknown right like if that that, like stick cracking behind us, while we were on a walk, if we knew it was a squirrel, not A bear we wouldn't be worried about it right, but the fact that we don't know were freaked out, and so people don't know about the home that they're moving to the community what the neighbors are like. They don't know these things.

So if there's five homes for sale in an area, the one that they understand and know the best is likely the one that they're going to take action on because they have that sense of security right, and so it's like it's it's storytelling. It's completely tribal! It's been around for as long as we've existed absolutely yesterday you unpacked uh. I want to say it was like five things around storytelling. Would you unpack that? Yeah? Okay? So here's the here's, the challenge with every property right um? Let's you queue up any property.

A little apartment, condo yeah, a rundown, uh investor home, a flip, renovated property, multi-million dollar property, every home has a story, and when people uh ask me like well it's you know it's just because you guys have beautiful homes to show. Well, that's not always the case. The reality is is that you can tell a story about the home itself if it's spectacular or if it's unique. If the home is really eclectic and like you know, the owners put in high gloss neon pink kitchen cabinetry.

Well then, the story might be about the owners themselves right like then it's like. Why did they do that? What was their thinking behind it help people sort of appreciate the thought that went into it? Maybe the story is about uh, the buyers that will be moving into that home. It's a first-time homebuyer, maybe it's a move-up home. What's that avatar? What it's? What is it going to be like without breaking any rules yeah without breaking any rules? Sorry, you guys got fair housing right, fair housing in the us, so i think it's just they have unfair housing.

So i think what we try to do is make it so the person that it's going to be most attractive to can start to imagine what their likes would look like exactly in it and then void of all those things. If it's absolutely vanilla, it's absolutely uninteresting. Then teal and i will write a script and we'll make the story rarely, but every once in a while about us right right. So we want to add some entertainment right like youtube is like it's bottom line.

It's like entertainment is like is great and then there's education, but if you can edutain that's right, then it's like you get all the all the interest right. So you get all the views, so one is sort of that that story element, but you broke down sort of five. There was like five pieces of it of a story like through one video, okay, um. Let's see i'm trying to go back here.

What what i'd say, what we do is like with when we tell a story we we start with always our hook, and then we tease a little bit. Then we talk about the community. Then we talk about the actual uh properties. Uh.

Now we have look, tease hook hook, tees hook, tees hook, community hook, tease community and then the tour and the tour always starts with the. If you ever watch the analytics on a youtube, video you'll see that there is, you know, 30 more viewers in the beginning. Right and uh because there's you know 30 more percent viewers at uh, two minutes in versus four minutes and show them the hot stuff. First right right and once people are interested and hooked.

They'll stick around for 10 minutes; 20 minutes 30 minute tours right. Just to watch um, the big thing for us about that sort of story structure is that i want to be able to go back and look at the analytics and optimize where people dipped off and what you'll often find is uh that the second there are seven To eight seconds, with no human, no narration and it's just house you've now got a moving slideshow right right like it's real boring, it gets real, boring people like check out uh, and so they just dip off and as soon as they dip off, you've lost them And so, if you can optimize that first 30 seconds of your video, so even six or seven percent more of the audience is still there right. Then what you'll find out is that on video that gets 20 or 30 000 views, what you've actually bought is three or four thousand more views right and you've got. You know probably 50 to 60 000 more minutes of watch time, just by increasing six percent of your viewership in the first 30 seconds in the hook and the t's in the hook and the t's.

So the hook is like, did you know or have you ever or could you imagine right trying to bring that that's right, yeah, but the tease it sounds like is like the hottest features of the house, hottest features of the house. So people people just need to know what's in it, for them right right like if i'm like, hey, listen, i want to buy myself this new camera and i go to some guy's. You know review channel and it's a 15 second intro about him and there's flashes of him reviewing his stuff, i'm like dude. I just want the answer i want.

I want to get to it. Yeah um, now with our stuff people are just like. I just want to get to the spice i want to get. I want to see the spicy footage, i'm here for the fun like the cool stuff, and so you have to entertain them right off the bat and then once you get them into the video it's it's far.

It's far cooler right. Yeah people are fine. What's your typical cta yeah, so i find that you need to do multiple ctas, like the best scripts as you go through. The video is like as you're walking by the lower level.

You can be like. Oh look we're going to take. You downstairs there in just a few minutes, you're going to want to see the incredible incredible, wet bar they've put in there. It's going to blow your mind, but first first, let's say you know, take you over to the ensuite or something right right, and so that just hooks people around they're, like okay i'll, stick around just to see the really cool thing right.

But i always tell people at the end of the video and this is i ripped this off from ryan sirhan. I just you know, rather than doing your end cards or having like a really professional end card video, i like to go like this. I'm like hey. What's up, if you want to watch more videos about calgary homes, you can watch this playlist right here and guess what, if you never want to miss another video just subscribe and as soon as i say that we have, we actually see that the subscriber count like Goes up, people actually get to that point, they watch it and they they they need to know.

What to do. Is it on every video it is yeah. Do it one more time just for fun? I said i know you said this at least 130 times exactly. I say hey so: what's up if you love touring some of our most amazing homes here in calgary, all you got to do is watch that playlist right there.

We've got some incredible places if you want to get inside those, that's cool. If you want to never miss another video, all you got to do is hit that subscribe button, we'll see you in the next video right, and so we always try to do that. But we try to not use too much ending language beforehand, because we want people to stick around right. What about thumbnails? What have you learned about the magic of thumbnails, so i'm gon na i'll back out for this just to show you guys, um! Listen! It's easy to want to tell everyone everything about a property and a thumbnail.

The community. A lot of people are like well what about the price? If you have the price on there and the price changes like you can change that in canva in like 10 seconds guys but you'll see, the reality is with uh with a thumbnail. Is that a picture of a house and the price is about the most uh? It's such it's such a statement that at in the beginning, i didn't really quite realize why it works so well, but when someone from toronto sees a picture of a gorgeous home - and it says two million dollars they're like that - is insane in our market - that's an 800 square foot downtown apartment, condo right. This is garbage.

I want to come out to calgary. I can't believe you guys can buy that for a million dollars for two million dollars right and then you go. You know 200 miles north of us to some small town and like this is some bull crap. What are you talking about for two million dollars right 500, head of cattle? You immediately have them talking exactly people feel something about it right.

It's a statement. It's right away, if you're, like hey you're like yeah, how much do you think this mike's worth right yeah? I do know how much this mic's worth like yeah i'd like a nice mic, you're like cool, i spent 500. You know on this sure mic and people are like. Oh, i wouldn't spend 500 dollars right, it's like they haven't.

I saw a gold labeled one. What about okay? So we had shelly from uh tubebuddy yesterday and she talked about a b testing on thumbnails. What was your impression of that? So that is something that i wish. I would do a lot more of what's funny.

Is i actually have tubebuddy like i, i used to buddy on it and what's cool about tubebuddy for me, is i want to at a glance be able to compare myself with other agents exactly i want to be able to see like what's hitting for them yeah And the the weird thing about uh leading the important thing about, i think humility, is that when you lead in any market you get really lazy, you can easily get lazy and so for us. I just still like feel like we're so so fortunate and privileged to be able to list any property for anyone and then especially the ones that we are listing and some of the success that we've had that. I just i look at some of these other agents and i'm like man that guy's stuff is really good like if a lot of people see his stuff they're going to want to work with him right. So i got to - or i got to make myself better right and iron sharpens iron in this industry.

So i like to watch and see what they're doing right and then i watch guys like anis yilmazar um he's a he's, a dude that was doing uh. These property tours, of course like in la and new york, and he went from like 300 000 subscribers to nearly 2 million. He blew past ryan sirhan. He gets one to three million views on.

Almost everything stops. Selling real estate just sends out references right. It's a brilliant business model, it's a youtube version of a million dollar listing absolutely, instead of being stuck in one location, you're gon na be all over all over the place right all over the place, and you know it's it. It breaks every rule that agents think right so like three years ago, everyone's like keep, it short, keep it short, nobody likes you, nobody cares about you, they just want the value just get right to it, and now what you realize is that wait.

A second like youtube wants time on platforms, so they can sell more ads right, so if they can sell more ads and that experience has started with you or continues with you, because people to continue to watch your videos, then at that point in time, they're going To start serving up your stuff over others bingo, and that is the only thing that matters. So if you can answer that, question like for me like, what's in it, for the clients that work with me, what's in it for youtube, if they share my videos, what's in it, for the agents that come join, my team, like that's the question, you should be Asking and the more you work on those answers, the better things are going to go for you, especially with a site like youtube. I agree: do you monetize your channel? I know you do as a real estate professional. Do you monetize it as a youtuber uh? Yes, yes, i do monetize my channel um.

I do like it's funny, it's a it's a weird. I know it is it's a weird uh, it's a weird thought, because a lot of people say well like what's the 800 or thousand bucks a month that right that i make on it. What's what is that really worth? I mean it is kind of cool. Like now, you know i can go, get a beautiful vehicle lease, a vehicle and right youtube, ads, pay it and some people think well.

You know what, if they click on your video and they have to watch three seconds of an ad. Well, you know what that means. That means i'm pretty legit, that's right, someone is placing their ad before mine and my competition places their ad before mine and the way i look at it is like great give me three seconds here: you're gon na see why you should call me right right and If their ad is so amazing, then i think i better make some better content. Yes right exactly so um, i'm glad you're like i wanted to get into the weeds on that.

Because yeah i can go back and say um. I would tell audiences all the time do you remember getting on like espn, or you know, pick your whatever news outlet whatever and you would go on there and every art you're. Like oh look at that provocative headline yeah. That is interesting to me.

I click on it and it used to all be text yeah. What does it all know? It's all video and every video you watch. What is there in front of the video and the information you actually want? Yeah there is an ad and if it's a really good video, what is there somewhere around the middle? There is another ad like that's just the game, now yeah, so you know the monetization. Now i have not done it right and, like literally my team's, like you're, losing thousand dollars a month and i'm like, and i have apprehension around it you should.

So. How do i know you shouldn't? I might need ad therapy. I know you know what it is. It's that uh billy, joel piano man, song yeah right.

What's that one line, you know, it's me that they've been coming to see to forget about life for a while. That's what yeah? That's what your content is? That's what our content is. That's what uh content creators make that's right. They go there to forget about life for a while, so it's like, if they have to wait three seconds to get it.

It just means - and you know what's wild - is that people will watch the commercials and then they will write in the comments did not skip ads, because i wanted brad to get paid right. It's wild, because when you have a fan there they they know that you're. Putting in a lot of work, they're, not paying anything other than their internet subscription to log in right, see your videos right to get access to this, so they get it yeah, they get it yeah gary, and i talked about this a while ago. It's just we.

We give in given given given given given given given given given given every now, and then we might ask, like he'll, say, buy my sneakers yeah yeah right, i might say, come to an event: jab jab jab jab yeah, i'm like 1 000 jabs and then no. I don't even think i'm at a jab, because the jab is still kind of a gentle ask, in my opinion, yeah yeah sure i think i just give give give give, but i'm working on it. I need therapy yeah all right, let's uh so we covered. I think three of the things i want to talk about sure talked a little bit about the worst video.

We talked a little bit about the best video you please show the video of your kids. It is okay, yeah adorable, i i do love it. If you haven't subscribed to this channel, you will subscribe just for this video and, if you don't have children, rent them mom and i have been talking - we think it's time you guys start thinking about your future, our future yeah like what do you want to be When you grow up, what are you going to do to make a living? I want to be a doctor and i want to be a teacher guys that all sounds great, but your mom and i agree, there's no higher calling than being a real estate agent sure dad. But do you really think we have what it takes? Well, i guess we're gon na find out because we're in front of dad's newest listing that's right, mom, and i want you guys to sell us unit 507 in the sobo.

What's there to sell dad this elbow, it sells itself such a good one. It's so good, located in englewood, calgary's hippest community they're close to it all, join us as we walk inside this two bedroom, the no teeth in the front. It's so good, adorable times 10. how's this.

For first impression we play it up a little bit. Oh, my god, okay all right! So so they get like hey. You need to watch the video and everyone out there that doesn't have kids like what do i do. I don't know like i've seen tim smith, not put his kids inside there, and he has literally has friends, kids that want to be actors and or just totally want to be out in front of the camera.

He was doing early videos with kids running around the house, exploring it like, like a child, would versus an adult would like. So what kind of response did you get to that video amazing, an amazing response from and both from the seller, the seller actually once they? They sold the place they sent my kids uh, like 150 amazon cards each and thanked them for actually selling the house, giving us no credit right whatsoever. My kids loved it, though right it meant so much to them sure um. But the big thing about a video like that is in that building.

For example, we've got two of the highest sales because of those videos. Now we own that that building for everything that comes up right, because everyone wants to work weapons was like with us in that building, because we actually can show that we get 10 12 more right than everyone else right right and it's just purely because we're putting In the work and like yesterday at the mastermind, i'm sitting down there and a lady just because we you know, did a 379 thousand dollar video, which most agents would say. Well, why waste your time on the cheap ones? Right, 379 thousand, our house yeah exactly video did not cost three yeah, sorry, 379 000 listing tour and uh yeah, and then it's like yeah, okay, i own a town home in that same building. It's about 650.

um love the video. Can you call me mid-january? I want to list my place with you right and it's that kind of stuff is just it's compounding every day and what we realize is when you have like. We just surpassed two million views and the equivalent of about six and a half million minutes of watch time. Yes, and every minute that passes now we're at 15 minutes of watch time right so 15 minutes of watch time and that's 24 hours a day.

So i can have, i can be sick, i can be with my family right. I can be out with clients. I can be right working on an offer. I can just have an off day, yeah right, i can go golfing and i'm still prospecting and i'm still cold, calling right, except it's in reverse they're, opting in so they're cold.

Calling and prospecting me right right. I'm a big fan yeah, as you know, so let's talk about uh, getting the word out distribution. What have you learned? What works? What doesn't do you email stuff? Do you boost it on other? Every other channel, like just give us sort of the the hacks you've learned along the way, okay yeah, so i can tell you one of the best hacks is to not shortcut this stuff. So that means like, if you create a great video and you're, really proud of it.

You want everyone to see it, don't take that youtube link and then put it up on facebook, because when people are on facebook, they're looking to get like, you know, share their opinions on political things, see their families and their nieces birthday party, whatever that might be Um but they're not in youtube mode. So if they're friends with you, they might be like i'm gon na go check out. Tom's new video click on that link. They go to youtube.

They watch 20 seconds but because they're distracted by something else, the facebook, facebook mode they leave, they go back to facebook and youtube. What they see is someone came to youtube and bounced and bounced after 20 seconds of seeing tom's content. So that's not a good experience.