Ever wondered how a strategic social media blitz could skyrocket your mortgage business? That's exactly what Kurt Moore from Movement Mortgage did, and in our latest episode, he pulls back the curtain on his journey to success. With a candid recount of how he navigated through the minefield of compliance restrictions to share relatable, immediate content, Kurt serves up a blueprint for creating genuine connections with real estate agents and growing your network.
Strap in as we tackle the world of professional branding in the digital age—where your online presence can make or break your business. Putting a face to the name, I open up about conquering camera shyness and the game-changing decision to collaborate with a professional for content creation. The fusion of authenticity and high-quality media not only draws in clients but also paves the way for an enduring professional image. And if you're worried about the investment, we'll show you how a modest foray into professional content can reap rewards far greater than its cost.
As the conversation wraps, we champion the art of crafting local, meaningful content over the siren call of viral fame. It's about nurturing the roots where you're planted, engaging with your community, and building a solid foundation for your business—one post at a time. Thanks to Kurt's insights and our shared experiences, this episode is a trove of strategies for anyone in the real estate and mortgage industries aiming to stand out and thrive in this fast-paced digital world. So, join us, follow the journey on Instagram, and gear up for a content creation revolution that's sure to inspire.
Ever wondered how a strategic social media blitz could skyrocket your mortgage business? That's exactly what Kurt Moore from Movement Mortgage did, and in our latest episode, he pulls back the curtain on his journey to success. With a candid recount of how he navigated through the minefield of compliance restrictions to share relatable, immediate content, Kurt serves up a blueprint for creating genuine connections with real estate agents and growing your network.
Strap in as we tackle the world of professional branding in the digital age—where your online presence can make or break your business. Putting a face to the name, I open up about conquering camera shyness and the game-changing decision to collaborate with a professional for content creation. The fusion of authenticity and high-quality media not only draws in clients but also paves the way for an enduring professional image. And if you're worried about the investment, we'll show you how a modest foray into professional content can reap rewards far greater than its cost.
As the conversation wraps, we champion the art of crafting local, meaningful content over the siren call of viral fame. It's about nurturing the roots where you're planted, engaging with your community, and building a solid foundation for your business—one post at a time. Thanks to Kurt's insights and our shared experiences, this episode is a trove of strategies for anyone in the real estate and mortgage industries aiming to stand out and thrive in this fast-paced digital world. So, join us, follow the journey on Instagram, and gear up for a content creation revolution that's sure to inspire.
Hey everyone, welcome to the Level Up your Content podcast, where we help mortgage loan officers and real estate agents make better content every day. Super excited to be back here another episode with a good friend of mine. His name's Kurt Moore. He's with Movement Mortgage out of Des Moines, iowa, and he has been. He's just been crushing it on Instagram and Facebook lately. I've just been really impressed with the content he's been putting out. He's just been real creative with the things he's doing. So I was like, man, you got to come on the podcast and share all your tips and tricks with our listeners. So, kurt, hey, man, super happy to finally have you here on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for having me, man.
Speaker 1:I appreciate the opportunity, yeah, so, like you know, and obviously we've been, we've been friends for a while and just connected back and forth and I think, like man, over the last 12 months I've really seen like a huge change in your social media and just you know the content you're putting out and so like, walk me through like kind of what I know, like the. You transitioned from kind of a bank that had you know some you know big compliance department and I've been there so I kind of understand where you're coming from. So like maybe that was a piece of it where you kind of felt like you're free now to do whatever you want. But talk about like that transition. You know what really motivated you to start making more, more content specifically, you know, specifically reels, you know, and kind of what that's done you know for your business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know I mean you hit. You hit it right on the head, you know, previously being attached to a bank, anytime you made any type of content, you had to submit it through a third party app. They had to go through a risk and compliance department and then the marketing department had to look at it right, and so you would try to make some content, run it through the funnel and it would get spit out the other end maybe a week or two later if it was lucky to come out the other end and it didn't get declined.
Speaker 2:So that was really hard. I think that I struggled with that a lot. But since my move, you know, to movement mortgage, I've kind of got my wings back right and creativity is a big thing for me. I see it a lot with you as well. What I really struggle with is I get this idea and I want to record it and I want to do it right now and I want to post it right, Whereas when you're having to wait for something to be edited or whatever it is, you've got to wait, and so sometimes the good stuff you need patience on.
Speaker 2:But yeah, you know I moved from a previous role where I was Fed leads, right, you know, kind of the bigger bank style, and coming into my last role was really the first time I've had to be 100% commission and I knew that I had to get in front of as many people as quickly as I could. And you know I've listened to your past podcast. My structure was very similar to yours. I went to our local list of realtors and I just went through and I added everybody I could find who's on social media, who's on here and I just surrounded myself. So you know if I've got, if I follow 5,000 people, for example, probably 4,000 of them are local realtors and that really helped me.
Speaker 2:That got my name out there quickly, because while you and I both agree that a coffee in-person meeting, that type of interaction, still beats social media, there's just no better or faster way to get your name out there than social media, and it's free, right. So that was kind of my big approach. I called it carpet bombing, right. I wanted to carpet bomb my community with just content, content, content as much as I could, and you know it's really started to pay off, as far as you know, my business.
Speaker 1:So you found in there's a huge divide in the mortgage marketing industry on what's more important. You know You'll have someone. Officers are like I just want to cut real estate agents out, I don't want to deal with them, I want to go direct to consumer, you know. And then there's this other section, like no, we need to go after the real estate agents through the quarterback of the transactions. They're the ones that are controlling everything. You know we need to go to the real estate agents.
Speaker 1:It sounds like you've used social media to really start to build those relationships with real estate agents, and I love what you said. You're like there's value in the coffee meeting, right, but how do you get to that coffee meeting? How do you create that interaction that would normally be like a cold call, where you're just picking up the phone and calling a realtor or just randomly dropping into their office and they don't know who you are, whereas you can remove that cold. You know, interaction. It's now a warm lead that you're working with and is that kind of the kind of the strategy you've been using.
Speaker 2:Exactly that. And I mean you know we've all been there. If you're a loan officer, if you've been in this industry for a while, we've all had that supervisor that you know wanted you to print off a list of realtors, start from the top. Cold call realtors, try and set up meetings. You know we've all had that suggestion and it just it doesn't, in my opinion, work anymore, right? You cold call a realtor and you're asking for their business.
Speaker 2:Especially in this last year when business was slow for some, how could a realtor possibly validate sending their business to somebody they've never met? And it's just been this really great thing where, even if I haven't met a realtor yet, they've likely seen some of my content and heard my name, and so if they see my name on the opposite side of the transaction, when they get an offer, it clicks right and they go. Oh yeah, I'm familiar with Kurt and I've seen that. And the beautiful thing about social media is it lets you target direct to consumer and realtors, right, we're hoping that our content's being seen by both parties and you're kind of benefiting from both of those avenues, in my opinion, because your realtors and your buyers they're on social media, right, they're all on here. So let's share content, let's get out there and hopefully do some business that way.
Speaker 1:So you made a post on Facebook that I thought was interesting, where you were talking about the importance of hiring a photographer, not using the AI headshot, and I 100% agree with you and that's something I've done. I've hired a photographer, gone out and just done brand photos, like, hey, I'm trying to get 50 photos today, different outfits, so that I can use it to post whatever and I've seen you doing this with a videographer where they're getting you five to 10 second just videos of you either working on your phone, like at the coffee shop, walking downtown with your sneakers on, or whatever.
Speaker 1:It is just these different little things that you can use. I just really love that strategy that you've used. So like talking me through, kind of how you do that, like, do you hire a videographer, how much do they charge you? How much content are you producing at one time? And then like, what's your thought process with turning those into reels and turning that into content?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I've. So shout out to Vivid Vision. Marquis is who I use and I kind of got the idea. You know, when you have a ton of realtors online, you do see a lot of that. You know that B roll content, and there's a realtor in this area where he just he posts content I mean 10 times a day. I don't know how he does it, but it was all really great. And finally I just I've realized who it was doing it and I reached out and I said I want to do the same thing and it's usually I'll get together with him for an hour.
Speaker 2:You nailed it on the head earlier a couple of outfit changes, grab some photos, switch over to video while we're downtown or wherever it is, and it's just become so easy, right that B roll content where you are walking, you're crossing the street or you're looking at your phone or checking your watch, that stuff can be reused and repurposed so many times that you know, an hour for 250 bucks, now I might use that content that I got from that for that quarter, right?
Speaker 2:I've kind of put it in my head that each quarter I want to get together with Marquis, shoot some updated stuff so that I can repurpose it for that. You know entire quarter and that's been, that's been instrumental and people see that they're, you know, they're always reaching out hey, who's doing this? Or how are you doing this? Or how's this, what camera do you use? And that's where I really lean and try and say, hey, let's get you with Marquis or whoever it is, use someone at some point and just get some really great stuff, because you'd be surprised how many times you can use that stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, you keep, you keep talking about Marquis too much. He's going to have too many clients and is going to have to raise his prices on you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, I hope, I hope I get that grandfather price.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go, there you go, he's building the team and you know you it's it's it's all about relationships and he's just been so instrumental to. You know some of my stuff, even very early on. You know, when I first started seeing your content, it was super nice and super clean. I showed your content to Marquis and I said, hey, how do we do this? What's this look like? And you know, we went to a studio, sat down, he had his camera, had a mic and we recorded, you know, seven, seven to 10 videos and that really kind of helped jumpstart my content. It started getting shared. Realtors were noticing and they were reaching out to me saying, hey, how do you do this? Right, and that was really great.
Speaker 1:So that's a big point you just brought up and this is one thing I think a lot of people they don't, they don't think about. You see, what you did was you just got started, right, you just hired somebody. You're like I really don't know how to do this. You invested a few hundred bucks Okay, $250 a quarter. That is chump change, let me tell you guys, because some of you that are listening to this podcast have not been in the mortgage business very long and let me let me tell you, back in the day, I we had to buy a new suit every year. That cost, you know, 800 bucks a year and we had to pay to have an office and all this furniture and all this. There's so many costs that you that we don't have as mortgage lenders that we can now turn around and invest into content.
Speaker 1:But what you did is you went, you sat down, you just had somebody that was a professional, that knew what they were doing. Make some videos for you, and one. They turned out cool, right. They sounded great, okay, and you posted them Awesome, and they got shared and you got feedback on it and that made you feel good and what did that do to you inside, like it motivated you to go do it more. You're like, oh man, this is awesome Now. Now I'm on fire, now I'm like 100% bought in. And that's the big thing is people, they never take that first step and just get started. Because once you get started, you make some content, you get some traction with it. It just inspires you to keep going and and hiring a professional upfront, even if, like down the road, like you know, you want to buy all the fancy cameras and the lighting, all the stuff. I have right, that first time having that professional give you something quality.
Speaker 2:it just the fire is different right, yeah, no, and it gives you a bit of confidence too, right, like when you do hire a professional.
Speaker 2:They guide you right, they stage you, they tell you what to do. I think a lot of people they fail to ever get started because they just don't like how they look on camera, they don't like how they sound, you know, they don't feel confident that maybe the quality is not there, and so that makes them not want to share it. When you're using a professional, especially in a branding, a branding scenario, they're going to tell you how to pose, they're going to make you laugh and they're going to get those raw photos of you laughing and, and maybe it's not so awkward. And that's where it really helped me is once Marky and I made that content and shared it and then it got traction. You know it kind of clicks and you go. You know maybe I do have something important to say and and maybe there are people in my market that want to hear this stuff, they want to see this stuff, and then you just keep doing it right and it gets easier every single time, every single time.
Speaker 1:So when you just you just hit on another point that that was great is you're like Well, maybe I do have something that people want to hear, right, and I'm always talking about with loan officers like your people need you, whatever it is, you have to say like they need you, you know if, if you're your niche is, you know, lending to veterans those veterans, let me tell you there's a lot of misinformation out there about the VA loan. The veterans in your market need what you have to say. So, like you, you found that. Like, okay, I got something to say. People want to hear it.
Speaker 1:How do you, how do you figure out what videos to make? Right, I know you're like you've, you've, you've nailed the B roll with like a caption over it. Like what, what drives you to to post those videos? Like, do you just sit down and you're like, okay, I have this thought. I keep a note's app in my phone and every time I have a thought, I'm going to write it down so that I can make this. Or is there? Is it more strategic than that?
Speaker 2:So I, you know, I've got an iPhone and it allows you, and maybe androids too, but it allows you to text yourself. And so I have this rolling conversation with myself where you know it never stops. Right, I'll lay down in bed at night and all of a sudden this idea hits you and if I don't text it to myself, I'll never fall asleep. Right Like it. Just I grind on it, and so when these ideas come across, I'll just text it to myself. And I have this rolling list of ideas.
Speaker 2:But I mean, we're surrounded by creative ideas, right, in my general approach, it's trying to take Things that I see that aren't related to our industry, and I try to repurpose it. If I see something that makes me laugh or Smile or it gets, you know, my gears going, I Know that that's making somebody else laugh or the you know the same result, and I just simply man, what can I throw over this? That is mortgage related. That is still fun. Maybe it's a trendy song, it's lighthearted, it makes you laugh and Share that, and it will still be entertaining and educational at the same time. And so, you know, if I see something I like, I follow that person because they quite often will inspire me to make different content of my own and just kind of repurpose those ideas.
Speaker 1:So you're like taking trending content and that may not have anything to do with mortgage or anything to do with the real estate Industry, but you're making that same video, but just tying it to mortgage exactly yeah, I mean, you and I both know it's kind of an experimenting game, right they're.
Speaker 2:There's so many things. You have to have a hook, you have to have a good song, you have to have quality, you have to have good lighting, good audio. You're going to be just drowned in all of these things that are most important. And so the hook and the song and that stuff, that's often the hardest, in my opinion. And so if I see something edgy or cool and you know there's just this hook that drops, or I hear a song, I'm instantly like man, I got to repurpose this thing because that's the hardest part.
Speaker 2:We can get on here and talk about Piti and this and that it's an endless list, but how do we Display it or share it in a fun manner? That that's, the mortgages are not sexy, right, like I, I know a few loan officers. The first thing you want to do is get on here and say Piti stands for print, you know, and, and you go through kind of that entry level content Explaining what things are. But eventually you move past that, right, and and you start to share things that are really a realtor is going to see it, and they go, oh shoot, I think I have a client that that might actually apply to and then they message you and and that, to me, is is is the primary reason to be on here. You know, I've been in this.
Speaker 2:At 11 years, when I first started you know the banks or whoever you worked for they took that standard headshot of you with the background that you had in high school. Everyone had the exact same picture. They created a website for you and that was it. Other than that, I mean, nobody knew who you were. Right, you were just a loan officer, whereas this social media game it allows us to show you hey, I've got kids, I've got dogs, we have similar hobbies, we might get along. You know this guy's funny, whatever it is. You say all the time, people work with people they know, like and trust, and so if you're on here and they enjoy your content and you know what you're talking about, why wouldn't they want to work with you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so you talked about how you. So we've talked about how you kind of hire somebody and it's like once a quarter Right to come in and do some of this stuff. But, yeah, I see a lot, a lot more of your stuff where I know that it's just you know you in your office, in your in your truck, in your in your house or whatever, what are what's like the tools that you find yourself using the most? I know you. You talked about using your iPhone, like what's your, what's your setup? That you know. Obviously you're you're winning at this and you're you're doing well, you know. Do you have $10,000 in video equipment that you're running around with?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, so no, I mean in the beginning you will. If you dig through my profile in the beginning, you will see that At the very beginning I would set my phone up, my iPhone, up in front of a window to use natural lighting as best as I could, because I didn't have anything else. I didn't have the ring light, I didn't have the box lights, I didn't have any of that stuff. So I just started out by propping my phone up against the window and I would talk that way. I wasn't using captions or any of that stuff. You know my setting. Now I've got a microphone from Amazon. I Think I got this one on sale. It must have been 80 bucks.
Speaker 2:The our market has just been so flooded with tools that are affordable because of TikTok and Instagram and all these things, so I've gotten everything on Amazon. My setup I've probably spent less than a hundred bucks. I've got a. My phone is being held by a ring light with a mount on it that lets me kind of angle it, so I'm not staring directly into a circle. I've got my microphone and then I've got a $5 adapter that allows me to plug this microphone directly into my iPhone. Right, I don't have any of the boosters or you know I don't have an entire thousand dollar setup. I've spent a, like I said, a hundred bucks or less on on the stuff that I'm using and that's been awesome.
Speaker 2:I Did get a very cool tripod that kind of breaks down into it's about the size of an umbrella. Oh, thank you that in my backpack at all times. I'll set that thing up and get b-roll footage at a coffee shop or whatever it is. Sometimes it's awkward, but once you do it a couple of times, you start to realize that nobody cares, right? Yeah, you feel awkward setting up a tripod or whatever it is. Nobody there cares. And when you drink your coffee and you get out of there, by the day over nobody's gonna remember the guy that was recording b-footage in the coffee shop, right? So it's a matter of having that confidence to just set the thing up, get some b-roll footage and that's it. It's. It's the easiest thing in the world to me.
Speaker 1:So for just real quick for our listeners that maybe don't you know, know exactly what you're talking about, but explain what b-roll footage is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like behind the scene footage, right? A very common one that you probably see is people pretending to type while they're looking at their laptop. Right, that is a very easy one. To start with, you set your phone up in the distance. You are pretending like you're typing something. Me personally, I always actually type an email to myself because it looks more real, where, if you're just hovering your fingers, but it's just some sort of content where you're not interacting with the camera directly, right, and those are really great because you can throw captions over them, you can throw music over them, and it just looks really cool. You can repurpose it over and over and over again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I've seen where you've done that, where you're at a coffee meeting with a real estate agent, you're setting up your tripod, your coordinates, you have B roll footage, and the reason that I think that's really cool is that not only you get content for yourself, but you're kind of making your real estate agent feel pretty cool that they're on video and then you're posting that content and now they're getting some pub from that and it's like you're pouring into your real estate agent as well, which I just thought that was a really, really cool idea.
Speaker 2:That's something I really try to focus on is celebrating the people that I meet with.
Speaker 2:I think in our line of work as loan officers, it's very tempting to have these meetings in secret, right, yeah, you don't want to share with everybody else that you're meeting with this realtor or this person, because then they see it online and next thing you know a box of cookies are getting delivered to the office or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:But you just have to break through that and I really try my best to celebrate these realtors because, at the end of the day, the more successful that realtor is, the more business, the more people that see that realtor. In turn, that increases your chances as a loan officer of getting some of that business. And so I'm not a secret meeting type of guy. If we're meeting, I'm going to say, hey, you want to take a picture, you want to do some video, whatever it is, and those loan officers are still going to reach out, right? But if you and I are making that realtor feel good, if we're celebrating them, if we're doing our job, they throw you a bone and we do a good job. It doesn't matter how many lenders are reaching out to them. You are making them feel good and you're providing a good service, and I think that's really important to my business model.
Speaker 1:Well, it's different too, right? Not many loan officers are doing that because they have branch managers and bosses that say print off a list, go cold call these people, go show up at their office hard, sell them on the first meeting because, honestly, our industry is filled with old people that are non-creative. That's just what it is. We have a lot of people who closed $100 million 20 years ago and they think that that's still the way to do it. They haven't originated in 20 years and they think that's still the way to do it and, quite frankly, it doesn't work that way. You have to build a brand and you have to build relationships with referral partners. There's a completely different model if you want to go to direct to consumer, and there's different ways to do that. But if you're going to build your business strictly off of getting referrals from real estate agents, you have to be putting content on social media. You have to be building your brand on social media and the only way to do that is to post videos and post content on social media. So I think when you do that, if you can bring that real estate agent partner into your creation and that's something I've had success with where I actually make content for my real estate agents. It makes you so sticky to them. It's not like they.
Speaker 1:You know, if you set up a lead agreement right, you know, we all know those loan officers out there hey, I'll pay for $500 for your Zillow leads that the real estate agent feels just they'll refer out of guilt. They don't really want to. They just like I feel guilty. Now I got to send this deal over, even though maybe they don't think it's the best thing. They feel guilty about it Whereas you're making if you're making content, you're bringing them into your content that you're making. They want, they want to refer you business and I will tell you that there's a lot. I've had a lot of meetings in the last two weeks with real estate agents who were under these lead agreements with these loan officers and they're like I don't, I don't want to do this anymore. They're actually saying no, I don't want your money because I don't want to feel guilty about it.
Speaker 2:So Exactly, and I had a discussion similar to that not long ago and in fact, I made a video about it. If you're a realtor that is sitting down with a lender for that first time and they're immediately saying, hey, let me buy 50% of your leads, right, let me help you. And you've never had a transaction together, man, I mean, imagine tying yourself to somebody for three, six, 12 months via this contract for Zillow or whatever it is, and you have no idea how they operate. And in fact, that very discussion was it started out with. I made a mistake and I was like, oh, what happened? I signed up with somebody, right, and I've been sending them my leads because of that and it was. You know, I've got three more months with them and then it's done, I'm not going to renew it type of thing.
Speaker 2:And they had remorse because they were stuck to this person that wasn't performing, maybe wasn't providing that customer friendly experience. But times were tough. I think a lot of people saw that last year, and realtors and lenders included were just trying to find the next deal, and so some of us might have made some decisions during hard times that now maybe we regret, right, and you're trying to work your way out of that. So I'm right there with you. You mentioned the older loan officers that have been doing it for 40 years. They almost feel entitled to the business just because you know their animal S number starts with a one right or whatever it is.
Speaker 1:I might start to the one. Yeah, right, and people listening to this might not really know what that means. You're calling me old, Kurt. You're calling me old.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a lot of people might not necessarily know what that means. Right, but the shorter that any time I run into a competition or a competitor, I look at the animal S and if it's you know, if it's only five digits long or something or it starts with a one, I'm going oh yeah, you know, these guys have been in the game, they know what they're talking about, right, and mine starts with the one too. But you know, I always kind of gauge that if I see a higher number, I'm going oh well, you know, they just worked for a big bank that's looking for their next marketing service agreement and they're looking to buy the business, right, and so I operate in that space really well, because I'm, you know, I'm not necessarily here to buy your business. I'm trying to earn your business and have a friendly relationship that we are both, you know, getting something from in the end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think loan officers need to to understand that social media and content creation and marketing. It's a skill, it's a new skill, right, and it's part of what we do, right? Obviously, you know some people really love loan officering, right, they really love talking about guidelines and digging through credit reports and stuff like that, you know, and if that's you, more power to you. But the ultimate and the big thing, what's important about your job is driving business. Right, it's getting applications and the real estate agent is the exact same thing. There are real estate agents they love talking about paint color on the wall and you know how many square feet and it's market value, what type of counter, yep, every all these different things. But really what their job is is getting people in the door and that's it. It's driving business. And so when loan officer recognizes that and they can come, they can generate a new skill in creating content and finding a new way to market themselves to real estate agents. But they can now take that skill and partner with a real estate agent who's in the same boat as them 100% commission to drive business and you can come alongside them and help them in that content creation. It's just the relationship just goes to another level, and you and I have seen that because we've had those results and we have those partnerships. And so that's where I keep trying to get loan officers across the country to understand is that you can be different.
Speaker 1:Probably 60% of our competition right now is looking for a different job. They're stuck in an old way of doing business and they can't figure out why they can't get deals anymore and they're on LinkedIn looking for a new job. 60% I think probably 60% of LOs will not be LOs in 2025. That are starting the year. So you have a great opportunity if you just invest some time and you're and you talked about it it's not like you went out and spent tens of thousands of dollars on equipment. You have an iPhone, a microphone and a little light and you might spend $250 a quarter and you adjust. When you have a creative idea or something pops into your head, you just write it down and then you use your phone and you make some content and you probably edit your own videos.
Speaker 1:You use video editing software, right? Yep, yep. You, before you edited your first video, were you a professional video editor? No, no, sir, you just learned. Yep, no different than you. Probably the first time you did a VA loan, had you done a VA loan before? Were you an expert on the guidelines? Were you a chapter four in the VA handbook expert? No, you just learned. So, as a loan officer, you learn new things all the time. You learn about new loan programs. You learn about new ways and new strategies to get business. Becoming a content creator and posting videos and stuff on social media is no different. It's just a new skill, right, and anybody can do it.
Speaker 2:I agree, I completely agree with you. And even the apps themselves, right, some of the editing software can get expensive, which you've talked about. You know I'm using Canva, I'm using captions and really using the tools that are built within Instagram or TikTok or Facebook or whatever it is, because a lot of times they're giving you a lot of the tools you need to do that and sometimes that content that's made in those apps they tend to do better, right, but it is, I'm right there with you. I'm in a unique you know, des Moines, the Inkeny area. It's a fairly bigger area, but I'm still in a unique situation where a lot of loan officers in my area are just not on social media. I could probably list 10 that I know that are on social media and the realtors say it all the time. You know it makes you stand out. You know, if you're a realtor that's looking to do a homebuyer's class or whatever it is, do you think you're going to be better off with that old school loan officer that says, hey, I'll print you a co-branded flyer, but it's going to take a week or two and here you go. Or are you better off with a loan officer that's going to get online and try and get butts in seats, right, they're marketing you, they're marketing the class, they're marketing you. Know why you should live in the area, all those things.
Speaker 2:It's not just about getting on here. I always hear, well, I don't want to get on there and dance on TikTok. That's not what this is, right. We're on here, we're still having fun, we're providing value, we're helping our realtors provide value. I think a lot of us get caught up in all right, I'll create an Instagram, but I'm only going to share company provided static images right of a flyer or whatever. And maybe that's how it starts. Fine, but you need to progress to video. Turn the camera around, turn it on, tell people who you are and just get started right, that's the easiest thing. Start out with a video. Hey, I'm so-and-so, I've got this many kids, I'm married, I've got dogs. You know, I'm in the area, I've lived here 30 years and that type of content becomes very easy.
Speaker 2:A lot of the realtors I work with they might message me because they've got the same type of dog. Or, you know, they see that I'm not drinking alcohol right now. Or they see I ate at a certain restaurant or drank coffee at a certain place. It's not because I shared a flyer that told them what products I offer. And we all fall victim to that right Again. We've all had a manager that tells you to print out flyers. It's National Cookie Day. Go deliver cookies to all the offices. But what happens? You get really excited about that. You deliver cookies to 15 offices and then you realize you didn't really have any conversations with any realtors. You left cookies with the receptionist and flyers and I guarantee you the cookies got moved to the kitchenette and the flyers went into a drawer somewhere. They were not distributed to realtors.
Speaker 1:Oh, and there was no realtors at that office, because it's 2024 and nobody goes to the freaking office anymore, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and maybe you know if you get smart. I know some realtors offices. They have in-person meetings every Tuesday. If you're going to deliver cookies or flyers or whatever it is, you need to figure out what their meeting is on. You need to know how many people is going to be there and don't stop at the receptionist. You just need to walk in there like you own the place, drop cookies at the meeting and drop a flyer. That's relevant if you're going to do flyers at all. That's that. So I've fallen victim to that. But what would be? We've all been there.
Speaker 1:So here's what would be better. Right, because you're talking about the flyers thing. Right, and there's a lot of marketing people at mortgage companies that might be listening to this right now that are like you know, no, don't talk negative about our flyers that we spend so much time on. But what I would do and I know you talked about this at the beginning of the podcast and you know this is something that I think anybody who is thinking about doing social media or upping their content game is first go follow all the real estate agents in your market on Instagram and Facebook. All you do is you go to all the website rosters, you look up the people on social media and you follow them or you add them as a friend. It might take you three hours one day, sorry, sorry, it's just. You know you got to put work in. It's not just an easy button. So that's the first thing. The second thing is is that flyer that you fell in love with, right? That your company made for you? Take the idea of that flyer, make a 60 second reel about it Okay, whatever it says, and then, once you've posted that video, just DM it to all the real estate agents. Yep, Because they're going to actually, you know, retain that information whatever it is. You know, I think it's there.
Speaker 1:I have a stat in one of my classes I teach where it's like 85 people retain 85% of the information that they watch in a video and only 10% of what they read. So they're going to retain more of the information too. They're going to see your face. They're going to actually listen to what you're saying. If they watch the video and three, you just send them a DM and so now they're going to see the algorithms going to boost all your content and their feed for the next few days.
Speaker 1:Oh and hey, guess what? You might actually have a conversation that starts from that with these real estate agents, right, going back and forth. And if you're a real estate agent listening to this podcast which I know I do have several real estate agents you can apply this exact same thing to customers or clients that you're following. Right, if you have leads or you had somebody that's you know you haven't talked to in a while, make that video, like, instead of sending them a mailer. Make a video about whatever you're going to send in the mailer and just start DMing it to people, right, and that's the power of social media is that it's like you get to have these conversations, you get to have it on their own time and you get to stay in front of people, and it just has a bigger impact than printing out a flyer and dropping off some cookies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or it's a call to action right. A lot of realtors get really excited. They make a homebuyer's guide in Canva or whatever it is, and then you print off. You know 50 of them and then they collect dust right until you go have a coffee. But you know what, if it's a video where you're sharing some educational pieces from it, how excited you are and your call to action is DM me for a copy of my homebuyer's guide, right. It's the same thing for you and I. You know, if we get this new product or program, we're really excited about it. We want to share it Rather than blurting it or sharing the aesthetic image you say you know, hey, ask me about my heroes housing program, right, or something whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Ask me, and then they message you and then you get to have this conversation with them which helps you build a relationship. And, like you said, once you're in the DMs, it starts to feed your content into their feed. Right, and that's the big thing. So don't add a bunch of realtors and then immediately send them some message you typed up on Word doc. You know this automated looking thing. You can't do that.
Speaker 2:Add the realtors interact with their content, share, comment, help their content do better. That's what we're all looking for and then eventually say you know what? Like, I think we should grab coffee, like let's meet, let's have lunch, whatever it is, and, man, is that better than a cold call?
Speaker 1:So much better. 100%, 100%. Well, hey, man, we're coming up on the end of our time here. I appreciate you hopping on the podcast and I know you got a busy day. You got some more content to get back to making. I know you just had a closing today, so congratulations on that. If people want to, you know, connect with you or learn more about your content, or just hop on Instagram and steal all of your ideas. You know where can they find you on Instagram? What's your handle?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Instagram handle is the mortgage guy 515. Again, I'm with movement mortgage and cell phones 515 326 0079.
Speaker 1:That'd be so weird if somebody just randomly called you from the podcast. Like I got your phone number from the pod, I just decided to call you up. That'd be so, so random. So don't be a creep as and do that. Don't just randomly call him. Find Kurt on on Instagram and send him a DM if you have a question. Do you spend most of your time on IG or are you on Facebook?
Speaker 2:and you know Instagram is the big one. I haven't quite gotten my my, my fingers around TikTok yet. You know I'm still figuring out TikTok. I'm on there, but Instagram is where you'll typically find me, find me the most.
Speaker 1:Well, I feel like Instagram is just so much easier to like have conversations back and forth. Yes, you can go viral on there, but it's, I don't know, like the. The ability to have conversations back and forth for me just just isn't there yet.
Speaker 2:So you and you and you said you mentioned viral. I know we're coming to the end, but don't you know when you're starting to create content, we all get hung up on how many likes did it get? Are we going viral, whatever it is? Remember that if you have content that goes viral, that means it's hitting people across the entire country maybe not even in the United States, and for most loan officers and realtors, that's not the goal. Right? We're trying to be hyper. We're trying to be hyper local, right, we're trying to go viral locally, and so don't get caught up on that. It's all about the views. It's about getting out there and just getting started, so don't worry about going viral.
Speaker 1:Build the brand, focus on the journey, not not necessarily the results. That's right, gotcha. All right. Well, kurt, thanks so much again. Like you guys, look them up on on Instagram, send them a DM, give them some love, appreciate you guys listening, all of you loyal subscribers. You guys are awesome and so super excited for 2024 to bring you guys some more guests this year and and just continue putting out good content. Level up your guys's content. I love following all you guys and seeing you guys's journeys, that that do listen to the podcast. It's just so exciting to see you guys. So just super excited for 2024 and we'll see you on the next episode.