KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Real Estate Agent Lead Gen with YouTube

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Welcome back to the Agent Gold Mine. Today's show is for you if you want the nitty gritty on YouTube. Today's guest is Trey Serrano out of San Antonio, Texas, and he proudly claims that he is the worst agent in the area, and yet he still has 22 pending right now, 50% of which came from his YouTube channel. He also has 14,000 subs and thousands of views on every single video. So here's what to expect to learn in today's show, how there are two types of of channels, agents should consider starting. One is for you if you have a personality,

and the other is if you are boring. You'll also learn exactly what to say in the first 10 seconds to hook viewers. What Trey would do today if you were starting over, and it's not what he's doing actively on his channel. And stick around to the end if you want to learn the number one worst thing you can say in your video that pretty much all of us are doing. Okay, news alert, today is a very sad day because Ali Garcad is not here with me. It is a solo episode. It's just me and Trey and we cry throughout the entire thing because Ali is getting her license. So good for her being all studious over there.

And I, yeah, again, just the tears streaming the whole time. But that's okay. Today is still a baller episode. So gold miners, please welcome Trey Serrano. Trey. Okay. So I just moved to Lexington, Kentucky, you know, late last year and I just got licensed here. And I'm considering YouTube as, you know, a brand building and a lead generation strategy.

And do the, what do I do? Where do I start? So being in a new environment actually gives you the best position. And the reason being is because when you go to a market and you're brand new to it, you have no preconceived notions. So you're discovering things. And then on YouTube, you can document the discoveries to give people your thoughts on different areas and also give fresh impressions because the perspective of you moving to a new area is going to be very similar to if you're trying to drive real estate business into those areas. Now they're going to relate to you much more versus I grew up here. My whole family is from here.

And this is our 20th generation here in this town. So I feel like that's a lot more relatable. and then people will reach out to you more. Perfect. They're going to love me so much. No, it's good. But with that, though, so like I can just, it's already creeping in the back of my brain.

It's a dude, but I don't know this area. What, you know, I'm sure you hear this objection a lot where it's like, oh, I'm going to do YouTube and pretend like I'm showing. I don't know. What are your thoughts on that? Google. Am I researching? What am I doing?

Right. So, yeah, I mean, when you start on YouTube, it's people that are looking, it's a search engine. So I feel like people go on YouTube and they do like a listing video or they do pros and cons and they just sit in their office and, you know, talk about what they know about it. But I feel like YouTube is essentially a place to review things. So having a very like giving the good things about it and the bad things. If anything, the bad things are better to talk about versus the good things because it keeps people more. engaged and it also creates trust through video.

And these people, like, even if you have 100 views, these people are watching you for potentially hours, right? If they just dive into video after video after video. And once they're ready to reach out, I mean, the relationship is, it's almost like I get emails that are like, hey, Trey, I'm pre-approved for 500,000 and I'll be there next Friday. Do you have time for me? Do you have time for me? I'm like, of course I want for you.

Yeah, dude, very, very different than any sort of like cold. Lead generation strategies when you're calling someone who doesn't know you, doesn't want to talk to you. And it's, you know, that, that like initial, do you have time for me? I love you so much already. You don't know me, but I know you. It's wild. People are like, oh, my God, it's really you.

Can we take a picture? I'm like, what? And also, I go to Costco with my family and people are like, oh, my God, I moved here. And I watch your YouTube videos. And my son is at the point now is, oh, great, here we go. And, you know, we live in a major city, right? Like San Antonio. Yeah.

But the thing is, it creates rapport without you having to convince them to work with you. I think that's the biggest thing is people focus on the video and, oh, I need to make this video so good. But that's the wrong thing to focus on. You focus on documenting things that people need to know about your area. And the byproduct of that is going to be more real estate business and trust. anytime the conversation happens. Okay, I'm bought into this idea. I want to do it.

But when I'm like, okay, so it's like today's day one, I wake up and I'm going to start doing YouTube. You know, I'm like, oh, shit, what do I even do? Should I go to your channel and just copy everything you do or do I need to like, what do what would you recommend? All right. So one thing, whoever's listening to this, I would say don't subscribe to my channel if you're not going to actually watch it.

because YouTube is, it's a search engine. So if somebody watches videos and subscribes and then you don't watch it or if I release a video and you don't like actually are interested in it, then YouTube's going to be like, oh, this guy has some like go subscribers and it's, you know, I'm not going to push his video to certain people. So I never post my channel on my Instagram, Facebook, none of that. I only put on the video and I hit upload and that's it. Because I want people, because in analytics, it shows you that I would say 85% of people that find my video, YouTube themselves put my video on their home screen as soon as they log into YouTube.com. So that's how YouTube is doing the work for me, which is why I don't want to mess with that. But I would say people that are starting YouTube now are actually having advantage versus somebody like me who has. built an audience that I have to nurture.

And reason being is because you have a fresh perspective and you don't have old videos that suck. I have old videos that suck. You know, so like, so what I would say, Shelby is if you get your phone or like a GoPro or something, I recommend the GoPro or like a nice camera, I would, there's two types of channel. Now I'm getting like information overloaded. I want to share with you guys. Stop me at any time if I jabber too much. Oh, no.

I'm loving it. I'm taking notes. There's two types of channels that you can do as an agent. The first channel is home tours. And home tours are for the type that's listened. I don't have a personality. I don't want to. Like, I'm, I'm super lame, whatever it is.

But people have this preconceived notion. I'm ugly. I'm fat. I'm old. I'm young or whatever. But home tours are a good way to be like, hey, like, I know where the cool homes are. I know the incentives. I know about houses. So let me just film the entire house and with the entire house tell you what's an upgrade, what's not an upgrade. And then there's also

an art to that. The second form of YouTube channel that I recommend for agents is to have what I call the concerned citizen. So that's the YouTube channel that I made because I was a cop for nine years here in San Antonio. I never had social media. I never had any of that stuff. Like towards the of my career, I was in a covert unit. So like, I really couldn't have any social media stuff. And then once I got out of that unit, then I like had to start from scratch. So I wanted the concerned citizen approach of going to neighborhoods and talking about like developments that are coming and how it's going to affect areas, how it's going to affect

value. And I didn't really know how much business, business it was going to bring me. But last year, close to 104 transactions with just three agents. It doesn't say. And because we don't spend time nurturing, which is to come, come help me calls, right? Okay. Do you know the percentage of which those 104 closings came from YouTube? Do you guys have that?

54% came from YouTube. The other percentages are a mesh between past clients, Google, Google calls, like just right from Google. And that was a majority of them. agency agent referrals. Okay, gotcha. Okay, so I love this breakdown of the home tour's lack of personality and then the Concern Citizen Channel. And so obviously, since I have a personality, do the Concern Citizen Channel. So with this, I really want to understand like your process and maybe I'm probably overthinking this. But it's okay, I'm here. I have chosen a neighborhood. I'm looking on the map. I am picking a neighborhood in Lexington, Kentucky, and then I'm Googling like what developments

are coming, neighborhood highlights, or maybe I'm like on my on Pinterest. Am I like watching other YouTube channels to learn things to regurgitate? You absolutely could watch other YouTube channels to get kind of some ideas on structure. So like the way I structure my videos, there is a couple of things that you can take away from it is number one, the first 10th second. is super important. It's like people call it the hook, but I don't think having a hook is a good thing on YouTube. It's the first 10 seconds you have to build curiosity. So like when somebody sees your thumbnail and then they click on it in your description, in the first 10 seconds, you should over deliver the value in that video and create curiosity to have them want to stay.

So if you watch a Mr. Beast video, it's like the first four seconds is like, we're going to go to this $1 hotel and then this million dollar hotel and I'm going to show you this, this, this, this and this in the first 10 seconds. Right. Because so then you're like, oh, man, I want to see that stuff. I want to see this. I have to know. Yeah. Right. So that's the same thing in these videos is if you're doing a home tour video, it's like, hey, we're going to go inside the Lexington plan of Perry Holmes.

and in this peri home, we're actually toward a different home at a lower price point. So if this is too much, then, you know, I have this option that can also whatever. So something like that is, okay, I'm going to see this, which is what the thumbnail promised me. But then there's also more stuff. And I'm like, oh, okay, well, I want to see what's a little less expensive that they're showing me. So having that helps. Okay, gotcha. Okay.

So I am the concerned citizen. I've picked a neighborhood. I've done research onto pros, cons, developments, whatever. And then where are you shooting? Are you on the road? Are you like walking around this neighborhood as you're doing it? Or are you in front of a computer? What's your preferred?

Or thoughts on that? Okay. So the example that I gave you is for a home tour. But the concerned citizen is, it's just like totally like just my thing. I don't know. I just, this is just what worked for me. I mean, obviously there's a hundred different ways you can probably do a YouTube channel. Totally.

So the concerned citizen is if you Google, was it Louisville, Kentucky? So close. Lexington. Lexington. Okay. So Lexington, Kentucky. So if you Google Lexington, Kentucky and on Google, it'll actually, I don't know if you can do this right now, but if you Google your city, just the city and the state, and I see you actually doing that right now, check this out. So on Google, the, as you go down,

it gives you the four most commonly things search. Tell me what they are. Whoa. What is Lexington, Kentucky famous for? Boom. That's your first video. Second is. Oh,

these are my videos. Okay. Is Lexington, Kentucky a good place to live? Is Lexington Kentucky worth visiting? And how much does it cost to live in Lexington, Kentucky? That's your four videos. That is the most searched things on Google that you can make these videos on. So then I would go.

over to the news tab on Google. Okay. Okay. News. Yes, I see it. I clicked it. So now you grab articles that are relevant to your topic. And then on obviously Google Chrome or Safari or whatever, you start opening these articles in different tabs.

Okay. So then as you structure the video, what I do is I, let's say I grab 10 articles. maybe that's it actually yeah pretty close to 10 so seven to 10 articles and then I structure the most important and like best topic of this article then I say I open the video that way like San Antonio prices are rock bottom right now and if you don't think this is a good time to buy like you need to hear this article of when is a good time to buy and then it's you put the article headline and you say, but what people are not buying is could be potentially this area because this is development's happening. It's going to affect the resale values. Now let me share my screen of my MLS to show you

how many homes are in inventory and blah, blah, blah, blah. And then this home, which actually has a major development and there was a shooting nearby or whatever. But what you're doing is you're just being the source of the source. I get the, well, trade, this is a fair housing violation. I'm like, fuck that. It is the source. source of the source. Like, I didn't put these articles out, right? Like, I'm just reading what the news said. And then I'm also, my opinion is going to the real estate side of it. So home city market, how much price drops? What's the inventory levels? You know, all that. Dude, that is so helpful. Like, literally just those steps of going to Google, Googling your city and

state, the four most frequently searched questions. And then the news, I'm like, now it makes sense. Now, I feel like if I am going to go do a video, I can do that. So follow on question with this. It sounds like this is mostly Talking Head because you're sharing screen and you're sharing the MLS. Is that correct? Yeah. So if you're new, I do not recommend doing Talking Head. Talking Head is dead.

That rhymed on purpose. Perfect. So Talking Head is dead. What I would do is go to just go to a popular spot in your town or city and read. read the headline. So if I'm in, if I'm in your city, I'll say, you know, a massive 4,000 homes are going to be developed right here. And then you're going to do the article while you're on site. And then what you do is you pull out your phone, you read like the one or two sentences. And then the B-roll that covers it on the video will just highlight that. And then you just give you just give it.

your thoughts. Like, people just want to hear your expertise of the area. So then it's a lot more engaging because, one, you're in the actual location, even if you're not in the development location, but let's say you're downtown. Let's say you're like in a really fancy shopping center or something. And you're just talking about this. So you could say, you know, five miles from here, there's going to be 4,000 homes being developed, you can have a drone shot over it.

And you're talking about the article. People don't want you to fucking read the article. right? They just want to hear the bullet points. They're like looking to you to summarize what all this jargon means. Okay. Question. So you're, you're reading, which is genius, you're reading it and you're covering it with B-roll. So people aren't literally watching you, just read your phone. When you have your thoughts afterwards, so you're in this area, are you walking around and you're like, the camera's following you and you're like talking to the camera and is that kind of what's happening? So we do is we kind of have a cadence.

So on camera, they'll show me, say, the headline. So 4,000 homes coming to the south side of San Antonio. And then the B roll gets covered with the article being highlighted. So and then also then I'll give my thoughts. So it's I say the article where it's looking at me on the camera. Then it cuts to the bullet points of the article. then it comes back to me or B-roll of the area, like a drone shot of what my thoughts are.

Knowing that Google is a search engine, the less of you, the better. So if you look at my earlier videos, my stupid ass is in there 90% of the videos. So I was like, oh, brand recognition. Oh, I got to be the face, right? No, that's dumb. Because people don't want to see me.

They want to hear the value before they can trust me. So that's why now every video I put out, it's less and less and less of me. And you're showing, when you're showing less of you, are you, you mentioned that you're bringing up like the article and there's bullets with the words. So I'm guessing that ties to SEO. And you're also like doing B roll the rest of it or because when you're like my dumb ass, dude, I am your dumb ass. We're just, I need to know the things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, every video is going to be a little bit of different. So totally. Sometimes I'll have those news article

videos. Sometimes I'll do neighborhood tours. If I have a pretty extravagant listing, then I'll do a whole YouTube video around that area to tie in different things. So everybody is going to be a little bit different. Yeah. I think the goal, I guess the, the, the pillar is the thumbnail has to match what your video is about and the thumbnail has to create. Actually, that's something else we can kind of dive into is the thumbnail. But then once in the first 10 seconds, you have to, have to deliver and then over deliver the curiosity. Okay. Real quick, before we go to, I do want to do thumbnail for sure.

And I also want to talk to you about ghosts. You said something about ghost subscribers later. We're going to do both of those in just a second. But for this, because I kind of have the flow now of, you know, the prework and then also like the initial recording of this. But when you're talking about, then you give your thoughts and your perspective, have you, is that a part of your prework? Have you already gone through?

here are the bullets that I want to say in my thoughts or are you riffing no I always rip I'm not I'm not one to do this is it I just said riff yeah because I didn't know shit or rip I have no idea okay yeah you're right we're both right okay yeah sorry go on no and yeah I mean I I rip I rip I don't know I say the thing so I don't I don't script it the thing that I will script is just so like it goes news are article headline, the one or two lines that are really important in the article, and then my thoughts. And then next article. And then obviously there might be some breaks in the video. There might be like a longer thought process that I have. But the thought process is just, okay,

4,000 homes come to this area. There is homes that are built in the 90s that are just neighboring by. So if you get a home here at a lower price, then it could have a better equity potential because these homes are $200,000 more, you know, or, or, you know, whatever. Okay, gotcha. And just to make sure I understand. So you're doing that cycle on repeat throughout the extent of your video. How long is this hypothetical video in length? I'd say it's about eight to 10 minutes.

I've had videos that are 14 minutes. I've had videos that were six minutes. So anything in between. I know that YouTube is in a general sense. It's going to much more longer form. So like, we're completely going to change the way we normally do videos. I'm literally going to have 20 to 30 minute videos every single post. And they're going to be like me driving.

My next video is going to be me driving in my truck all around the San Antonio area and just talking. So, hey, these homes were built in the 50s. You have Permanee Foundation like this, this, this is what's near there. And then my videographer is going to go back and just. shoots and B-roll with drone and stuff to go basically looks like a voiceover on the things. And it's just going to be like this long elaborate thing. And then YouTube allows you to do chapters. So like in the chapters, somebody can fast forward to wherever they want to look.

But it's going to be very, very raw. It's not like the high-end stuff that I was doing. So I think it's easier for people. Is this, are you, do you watch, what's his name, Sam Solick or whatever? Do you know what I'm talking about the fucking the bodybuilder dude? Do you know what I've heard of him? I haven't watched this stuff. Okay.

Because his shit, it actually inspired me to reconsider YouTube because one of the things with YouTube that was kind of off-putting for me for a while was like it's just such a production. And I feel like you're, it's, are we selling real estate or are we fucking movie stars? I don't know. Yeah. And but then watching him and he has blown up this guy. But like I watch his videos and they're almost exactly what you're saying. They're just like, except probably even more stripped down.

It's literally just, it's 30 minutes of him in a car like bad lighting, like no cuts, no B roll. And he's just talking completely raw. And it's completely exploded. So I was just curious if that's where this inspiration came from. No, honestly, it's, I think I follow Mr. Beast more than when anybody. Yeah. I just, as his videos get longer and longer.

And also I put myself always in the consumer shoes. So like my wife and I were looking up cruises. Oh, you know, we haven't taken a cruise in a while. So I'm looking at these videos and the more highly produced videos, I'm like, eh, whatever. But then the ones that are just like, you know, that, hey, honey, I'm filming a video. Can you get me a piece of shrimp or, you know, those videos are like, oh, man, that's awesome. And then they get to see what kind of people are there and, you know, what everything looks like when it's a little bit busy.

and just the thoughts and hearing like side conversation. So all of that, when somebody's searching for your town in real estate, all of that that's in the background is so important versus being in an office. If they're going to spend 10, 20 minutes on your video, you might as well be in the environment in which they're moving to. Okay. I guess is there anything else on that, on what you plan on doing that might be helpful for listeners who are just getting into YouTube?

Do you recommend them starting like this? or do you think that they should start with the more traditional, I mean, stuff we've kind of already discussed? No, you should start. Okay, so if I were going to start and this is, we have a webinar with Bam with Dan Parker, just all about how to get 100 leads on Fast Track from YouTube. And we're going to say something very similar.

If you grab a GoPro, nice camera, or just the latest iPhone, and if you have an Android, you have to go to the Apple store, you have to buy an iPhone. and then you have to return your Android or sell it for a dollar. Love it. Yeah. So once you do that, you just walk around your town, like downtown in your car, in a neighborhood, but talk about your thoughts.

See, the thing is you can't have fluff words. Look how beautiful this area is. The trees are blossoming. The light is shining on the street. Nobody gives a shit. Nobody gives a shit. Totally. But if you're like, hey, there's a trailer park like 30 seconds away from this house.

I don't know if this is a place that you would want to live. But, you know, this is something to point out or not there's anything wrong with trailer park, you know. But if you're having a million dollar home next to a trailer park, like that's something that they would know. They would find value in. That's the concern citizen piece. That's so important. So give you an example, I started a second channel. And I just wanted to do home tours.

I was like, you know what? They're going to go to my main channel and they're going to see the things. But now I want to push home tours just to have something else. And then I had a client that had a horrible experience with the new construction. And I recommend everybody do this. You may or may not get in trouble. I haven't gotten trouble yet. But it's good, good shit.

You ready for this? I watched it before and I was shocked. My jaw dropped. But anyway, tell them. The blue tape one? Yeah, dude. I was like, are you, is Perry Homes going to sue you? I literally, yeah.

Dude, the Perry Homes rep, they text me like, man, the corporate is talking about your video. You should take it down. I'm like, I'm not fucking taking it down. Like, why? I mean, all I'm doing is saying, hey, we're under contract. This is all the things. We're supposed to close next week. Like, hopefully they fix it.

Maybe they won't. And then I say in the video, listen, I'm not a license inspector. But this is what the client. we're saying, again, source of the source about the video. So I told my videographer, Hey, man, let's go. He just hit record and like 99% of it is just like recording. He's like punching in the camera. I'm just pointing all the things out. But man, that video at least, at least 10 ready to go buyers. Hey, do you, can you help me drive in Dallas? Like I'm buying a new home here and I had to refer out the business, obviously if it's too far, but it drove so much more business versus

look how beautiful these floors are. Yeah. So that's, I'm so curious to watch how it unfolds. Because I'm with, I loved the video, but I really, even in the first 10 seconds, I was like, I actually gasped. And I was like, he's doing this. Whoa. What's going to happen? I was thinking of Perry, you know? Yeah. But if it happens again, I'm just going to keep doing it because like at some point, maybe if I get a ceasing to sisus letter or whatever, then so be it. But it's so good because there's no information like that. There's a ton of videos that are, look how beautiful this model home is. But there's not a lot of videos that are like, you should watch out for this.

And that's why if you're starting in YouTube or even if you're, you know, you have 20 videos and, you know, don't have a lot of subscribers or not a lot of leads come from it. Again, views and subscribers do not matter ever. they do not matter you could have 100 views and you can have 10 subscribers and sell many many properties it all matters is how much conversion and how much leads you're getting from YouTube that matters okay two questions one where can people go to listen to that the webinar that you're doing with bam so they just reach out to you uh no bam's going to post it here shortly let me look at my count i should know what when this is shame you're fired May 29th, BAM webinar 2 p.m. Central Time.

Okay. With my buddy, Dan Parker. And we're going to go over a full approach of basically what we're talking about here. That's just how to get 100 leads from YouTube. Like, it's called fast track to 100 leads from YouTube. Okay, perfect. And if they post it, I assume it's on the nowbam.com. Yeah, it'll be on nowbam.com.

Yeah. Okay, perfect. So listeners, that's where you can go for that. So my next question was like, can you give us a little bit more? Because you said if we're starting over to again today, it would be those driving around and just commenting. Is there anything else? And that would still, would you still have an editor? Or are you like holding up, is this like blog style back in 2010 or whatever?

Dude, it's it's a hundred percent blog style. So where I got a little more of these ideas besides like the very famous YouTubers is like my family and I, went to Colorado and we're like, okay, if I wanted to buy like an Airbnb in Colorado, I started searching Colorado, you know, Pueblo, Colorado or, you know, Denver, Colorado. And it was like a bunch of realtors that were like in their office. Hi, I am Trace Serrano in Denver, Colorado. I am the platinum realtor for the, I don't give a shit. I want to see your areas.

So the first 10 seconds, if that agent was in a neighborhood, it doesn't matter what price point the neighborhood is. If they're literally like, hey, hey guys, I'm here in the Pueblo area downtown. There's 19 shops down the road. This neighborhood is about 600,000 worth in price points, which is really good for the area. And then later in the video, I'm going to show you what a $2 million homeless and then also what a $500,000 home looks like. Words, okay, this is worth staying because he's going to show me multiple or something. she's going to show me multiple things. So I think giving inside the video instead of what I also show these agents do is they're like,

call me, call me if you need anything. I'm here and they like flash their phone number and, you know, this massive Coldwell banker sign. No offense to Cold War banker. But, you know, just just like big realty things. And I'm like, nobody cares. Nobody cares what brokerage you're with or your phone number. So what I say in my videos is I.

I say that I'm the worst San Antonio realtor. And there's some truth behind that. And that the San Antonio Express News here locally, like the massive newspaper or whatever news station, they pulled one of my videos and they said it was a police line. And they said that I talked about the most dangerous neighborhoods, which I just quoted the news article that came out, right? I didn't say they were most dangerous.

I'm just saying this article said that these areas are the most dangerous. So from then on, I called myself the worst realtor in San Antonio. But right now I have 22 homes under contract. Dude, that's funny. Yeah, I saw that on your profile. And I was like, I hope we get into this. Worst realtor rated by Express News. Great.

And guys, if you're wondering, head over to Instagram. You can see Trey Serrano Realtor. So look him up, follow him, show him all the love, all things. You can do that on Instagram, just not on YouTube. because then it'll kill his algorithm, right? Dre. You're welcome to watch it, guys. You're welcome to watch it.

But if you're going to study all my videos, then sure, you can subscribe and watch them. Okay. I want to talk about, because we talked about the first 10 seconds, but we didn't really touch about the thumbnail and title. Can you hit on your thoughts for what your lessons learned in regard to thumbnail and title?

Awesome. Okay. So just before we go into Thumbna and Todd, I did want to mention one thing that was, in my thought train when we were talking about like when I was researching places to go like what information I wanted to know is when you're in these videos like of course the agent wants them that of course the agent doing the YouTube video they want people to reach out to them. I get it. You're like, hey, call me. I'm making this video for you. So the way to do it,

Shelby is when you're in these videos, you're like, you know, hey, I'm down here in this Stone Oak neighborhood. Stone neighborhood. Like this is. is the kind of homes you get for about, you know, 300,000. This is a 8 plus rated school district, quarantineis dot com. Like, I've actually helped three military families just in the last year relocate here. They absolutely love it. So essentially what I just said is I'm a realtor that already helped three families and they love it here. Like I'm giving their feedback. But to somebody watching, they're like, oh, he's an agent. He's actively working with people. relocating there versus, hi, I'm Trey. I would love to help you in your home dreams,

you know? Yeah, dude, that's subtle. It actually took me because you said it and I was like, wait a second. So do you ever do direct calls to action from or would you recommend direct calls to action? If yes, when, where, how? Yes. So the beginning of the video, I say the worst to say, like I'll say, you know, 4,000 new home developments come in here. I say, I'm Trey around it with the Cavalry group, the worst San Antonio realtor. And then I just keep talking about whatever. And at first people like, the worst realtor? But the again, I'm building the curiosity. So then the last five seconds of the video, I always say the same thing. I say that I'm the worst realtor because I cut the sales fluff and give you the truth. You're looking to move around

the San Antonio area. I'd love to be the realtor of choice. That's it. Just like a quick, that's my thing. Yeah. Okay. And then do people reach out? Because on your page, I believe in Yeah, you have your Instagram. You have an email address. So do people generally reach out via email? How do they reach out to you? So they either register on my website or they'll just send an email. Yeah.

I see it now. And then they just usually it's an email. Yeah. So usually it's an email. Okay, sorry. We wanted to go to the thumbnail thing. No, dude. I have 16 more questions in this direction now.

But okay, we can, I think it is important to talk about thumbnail and title. So yeah, let's pivot. So for thumbnail. I always think less is more. Less is more. So like people just want clean simplicity.

And they, they know that they're, I mean, they're choosing from six or seven thumbnails at a time. So they don't want to be inundated with so many words. Because people have no problem clicking into a video, watch the first three seconds, they'd be like,

okay, this is a little of shit. And then watch the next one. And then I watch the next one. So I, I think simple, clean, the whole three elements of a YouTube thumbnail is going to be the best. So only three elements, which means it could be the background, it could be one word, and it could be the person, or it could be like the drone shot of the neighborhood and just the person. And then in the words, I'm sorry, in the description, keep it very, very, very simple.

Don't put exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point. Don't do any of that. Because people know that you want the views, right? Because obviously you made this video, you're, you know, they're looking at home. So they probably think you're a realtor ready. So the simpler and cleaner, the thumbnail and description, just the description should build a curiosity. Like I did a description of do not buy a home in San Antonio. That was it.

That was my description. And, you know, it did really well. But it's, and then in the video, I start explaining why. I say, I'm saying don't buy the San Antonio because, you know, rates are starting to start to get higher and inventory levels are higher in these certain areas. And I'm going to talk about what areas that are having higher inventory versus the areas that are not really being affected by this. Okay, that's interesting.

So that kind of means that you have your title in mind sometimes at least before you start filming. If it's a like news article type video. I always look for a really good article and build the video around the article because I want to make sure that the information is relevant. And, you know, if the news made it newsworthy, then I'm sure most people would want to know. And then after that, I build the associated articles to kind of build up to it. And then my thoughts on it, obviously, during the video. And then I'll think of a thumbnail to build curiosity.

So it's not click bait. It's click worthy. That's good. not click bait click worthy okay so with this though what what leverage or system or processes do you have behind the scenes because i i assume you already mentioned a videographer and do you does he also edit does he post for you what does that all look like yeah so he he's full time with me 40 hours a week he videos and edits he's in the office or my office so yeah i'm i'm spoiled with a full-time guy that we worked together for two years.

Dude, that's amazing. Yeah. But we also have, we have five support staff on our team that help with posting, nurturing, CRM. Because I, and we only have now two agents. I'm the third agent. And the reason being is because I feel like conversion happens very quickly. And so I want to spend more money on the nurturing versus having the prospecting.

So, but if you don't have an editor or if, if you're like, oh, man, I have to hire. this guy to do it, I don't think you should hire a guy. I don't think you should hire a guy to film it. I think you should hire a guy or girl to edit it. And the editing can be very, very, very simple. Like now more than ever is it easier to just record it yourself, talk about things you want to talk about and authenticity of what you say in your in your video. Just keep it very honest. Don't worry about, of course, you want to abide by the law. Of course, you want to, like, not say anything that's going to get you in trouble. But you just being informational and especially if it's, okay, this area is dangerous.

Don't say this area is dangerous. Say, according to this article, this area, the article saying this area is dangerous. And we're actually sitting here. Like, this is an abandoned house. This is an abandoned house. This is an abandoned house. This is a gun store. This is a liquor store.

or whatever it is, and then ask, would you want to live in this neighborhood? Or do you think this is a good investment property? And that brings me to something else I do, is this or that. So when people say in their video, let me know what you think in the comments. That's the worst thing you can say. Absolute worst thing you can say. Because nobody's going to take the time out to express their three paragraph thought. Like, it's just not going to happen, right?

So instead, I would do this or that. So based on what you saw, do you think? this is a good area for equity potential or do you think this area is going to be affected by this upcoming development? So it's this or that. So it makes it a little more brainless, it a little more obvious, especially if it's an obvious, oh, definitely going to be affected by this development or the traffic one is always a good one. Say, do you think traffic's going to be better with this 4,000 acre development? Or do you think traffic is going to be worse? That's where the comments blow up and they're like, oh, man, fuck this place. I'm moving. You know, people,

California sucks, no offense. You're in California. But I get that a lot of my comments. Okay. I think I have time for one more question before we kind of have it to wrap up. But I know that YouTube, I feel like it normally targets buyers, you know. So have you found a way or what are your thoughts on trying to target sellers? How would you do that? Is it possible? Yeah. So there is a whole other avenue with targeted ads on YouTube where

you could do a listing video and target people in the neighborhood. I personally don't do that because I've integrated my YouTube videos in mailers. So when somebody, like if I listing in the area and I talked about this neighborhood in a YouTube video, then I'll put the link in the YouTube video and then put it in the mailer. So that's how I've been prospecting sellers. but I think it is more of a buyer facing legion. Okay. Yeah.

Or yeah, no, okay. I've just been thinking about that a lot. So what did we, what did we not hit on that you feel is really important in this realm? Oh my God. So much.

I know. So much. So I think the biggest things, like if you were to take away four things from everything I just said, if you totally spaced out and you're like answering emails, answering text messages and you're like, fuck, Trey,

trade is the worst and say, Antonio, I would say this. Number one, make what you say in the video not fluff. Take out the fluff words. Beautiful, elegant, open, gorgeous, greats, like all those are fluff words. Just say what they are. So this is, you know, granite countertop. This area has this, as this, as this, versus it's so beautiful here. Because people can make that connection of what they see and, not have you interpret what they're seeing if that makes sense. So those fluff words, I would say, is definitely a solid thing that every that needs to be in your video. The second thing is the thumbnail has to be clean, simple, along with the description. So you want to make it just to where it builds

curiosity. Don't buy home in San Antonio. You know, best are worst areas with the highest crime. And then you talk about areas. I'm sorry, you referenced a news article that you found to match it. The third thing is don't overthink the production because even just a cell phone and gimbal, that's all you need. If you were, if you just had a cell phone, the one thing I would highly recommend you definitely do is get a microphone, the go pros or something because audio is super important. A lot of people will listen or watch YouTube videos while they're driving, but not actually watch it. They'll just listen to the YouTube video like wherever they're going. So, audio is super important, but don't overthink the production quality.

Like, it doesn't have to be astravagin. It doesn't even have to have B-roll, but don't wait to make the video because you don't have a videographer to record it. I think that's silly, especially with all the tools out there. And the fourth thing is, is the growth of the channel. You'll never have growth in the channel if you don't have something to reevaluate, which means you put out the video, even if it's just you driving your truck with the damn cell phone facing you and just talking about your area, even put that out there.

And then listen to the comments, oh, I wish you would have talked about this. What did you mean by this? And then those are ideas for your next video. But if you never make the video because you have this analysis paralysis, then you'll never hear that feedback. So just make the fucking video. Please, Shelby, please tell them. Tell them, dude.

I'm telling myself here. You make a video, Shelby. Yeah, dude, I need to. I will, maybe. I don't got to, doesn't matter. I'll kind of talk to my husband because we're going to do this team here, round two together. Anyway, it's not about me.

Trey, what's next for you? What does the future hold? We're rock and rolling in production-wise. And the future is just, honestly, just pouring back to communities, like pouring back on agents. And I just love seeing people win, especially our veteran and fresh responder families.

Love it. Perfect. Okay, we got fire round, wrap up questions, and then we're done. What is your favorite app or tool? My trigger app. Oh, cool. Cool.

Perfect. Grill app. Love it. Yeah. I'm a part-time brisket maker. Dude. If I'm coming in San Antonio, I'm going to get me some brisket at your house.

You don't know what you. Hell yeah. Always welcome. Okay. What events are you going to in the next 12 months? So I'm going to a mastermind in New York City in July. One real conference in Vegas. and we do a bunch of meetups with like content creators just like here and there.

Very cool. How can listeners help you in your business? Not that I don't want to help. Nothing. Yeah. I just want everybody to execute really. I mean, just take the ideas and something that I like to share is like the whole rip off and duplicate. I don't think that's a good thing to do because if you watch my videos, if you rip

off and duplicate exactly, it's not going to come out the same. It's not going to be natural for you. So like, just to use you as an example, Shubby, like you have a personality. Like you're like, we're new to this town. So embrace that. You know, talk about us. Okay, I just moved to this town. I'm exploring here. This is what Google said. This is what this news article says. I'm actually here right now. And I agree with them. Unbubble and just go into it. So. Okay, perfect. Well, I'm still going to help. Listeners, you can also send all of your referrals, right? To San Antonio to Trey. Send me your business, please.

And he is with Real. So if you're interested in Real, then you can hit him up about that as well. And where is the best place for listeners to find you? Just Instagram. Trace Rano. I'm pretty easy to find. Okay, perfect.

It's true. He is easy to find. But also, if you are driving and you don't want to look it up right now, stay safe, my friends. It will be linked in the show note. Don't fear. And with that, that is all we have for today. We are Allie the agent who's not here.

Oh, sorry, more. I just want to thank you for doing this podcast. This is a pretty incredible podcast. I've been on different events, speaking gigs, and how deep you make your guests go into their tactics is really valuable for agents. So I want to say thank you, Shelby. Dude, love you so much.

You're so welcome. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Yeah, cool. So listeners, with that, this was an awesome show. So make sure be a bro and share this show. Bye. If you are looking to change brokerages this year so you can increase your business and you want to join us at EXP Realty and would like either myself, Aligar said, or Shelby Johnson to personally sponsor you in.

So that way you have access to two icon agents. Text the word join to either my number 914-318-49-18 or Shelby's number 703-39-4-332. If I sponsor you and you have access to the both of us and everything that's. Five Pillars Nation. We have the checklist, the systems, the process is to help you scale your business, and don't take our word for it. We've had agents switch brokerages to join us that were stuck making $300,000 GCI, and they join us so they can scale. So text the word joined to those numbers, and we'll take the next steps.