In this episode, Phil interviews Trevor York, a successful mortgage loan officer and content creator. They discuss the importance of making mortgage content interesting and engaging, and how to find a niche and grow a following. Trevor shares his roadmap for converting content into mortgage applications, including the optimization of website links. They also discuss the value of investing in camera equipment and setting up a consistent content creation space. Trevor emphasizes the impact of quality in content creation and the benefits of joining Forward Academy for guidance and support. They conclude by discussing the options for editing videos and hiring help. In this conversation, Phil and Trevor York discuss the importance of editing in content creation and the benefits of outsourcing the editing process. They also explore the idea of whether businesses can survive without social media and the role of building relationships in sales. Trevor shares his perspective on adapting and enjoying the content creation process, and they provide recommendations for cameras, microphones, and lighting equipment. Overall, the conversation emphasizes the value of creating relationships through content and finding strategies that work for individual preferences and goals.
Takeaways
In this episode, Phil interviews Trevor York, a successful mortgage loan officer and content creator. They discuss the importance of making mortgage content interesting and engaging, and how to find a niche and grow a following. Trevor shares his roadmap for converting content into mortgage applications, including the optimization of website links. They also discuss the value of investing in camera equipment and setting up a consistent content creation space. Trevor emphasizes the impact of quality in content creation and the benefits of joining Forward Academy for guidance and support. They conclude by discussing the options for editing videos and hiring help. In this conversation, Phil and Trevor York discuss the importance of editing in content creation and the benefits of outsourcing the editing process. They also explore the idea of whether businesses can survive without social media and the role of building relationships in sales. Trevor shares his perspective on adapting and enjoying the content creation process, and they provide recommendations for cameras, microphones, and lighting equipment. Overall, the conversation emphasizes the value of creating relationships through content and finding strategies that work for individual preferences and goals.
Takeaways
What's up friends? Welcome to the level up your content podcast, where we help mortgage loan officers make better mortgage content every single day. Super excited to bring another episode here to you guys today with someone that I've looked up to for a long time. He's absolutely killing it in the mortgage content game and I'm super excited to have him on the podcast. He's a loan officer at all Western mortgage. He's the founder at Link spot. He's super involved with forward Academy. He's basically I think you're out of Reno, right, reno Nevada, yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sir All right, yeah, so guys welcome Trevor York to the podcast. Trev man, I'm so happy to have you here.
Speaker 2:Dude Phil, thanks for having me, man, I'm stuck to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you know, I kind of ran into you. Probably I feel it was a couple years ago. I don't know how long you guys have had had forward open. But I mean, I think this is like pre-forward Academy. You're just crushing on Instagram. The quality of your videos was amazing and your growth on Instagram has really exploded. You know, maybe just give the listeners a little bit of a backstory, kind of maybe how you got into the mortgage industry and then like what kind of started you on this content journey that you're on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, I think my story is the same as everybody else's, right Like I accidentally got into it.
Speaker 2:Nobody really plans on getting into mortgages, so kind of just the same long, convoluted story, but without boring the details.
Speaker 2:I mean basically, yeah, I actually ended up doing loans for a living and in the process, I mean my background prior to doing loans was video. So, going through college, I would, you know, shoot weddings to make a side income and then make YouTube videos of my friends and those are really cool stuff, you know, like longboarding and cliff jumping and snowboarding and dirt bikes and like that's what I would shoot. And then I got into the arguably like one of the most boring industries on the planet and I'm like I need to make video for this. And so that was kind of the background was like I knew how to do video, I knew how to talk on camera and make content and then pivoting that from like things that I thought was really cool into something that, like this, is kind of kind of boring but it's interesting, it's valuable information that people should know, but like a really hard topic to make content on. So you know, how do we do this in a better way? That's kind of what started that content journey.
Speaker 1:Dude. So I really resonate with that because, well, I've been in the mortgage industry. I started back in 2007, took a break from from 12 to 17. I had a photography business, like I was a professional photographer. I shot for some big companies urban outfitters, lululecom, harper and Sky athleticwear, like things like that. I kind of had that background, like when I kind of re-entered back into mortgage. Social media is a different game, marketing completely different game. I'm like how do I leverage these skills right Into making something that's super kind of boring? I mean, it's not. You know, mortgages aren't sexy. Like the real estate agent has the sexy thing. You know they got the pretty house and the thing to sell. Like how do we figure this out? And that's kind of kind of what started me and maybe that's why I saw Trev and I was like dude, this dude's got something going on, this stuff looks legit. You know, that's probably what connected me, you know, to you.
Speaker 2:So that's so funny, because looking at your stuff, yeah, I'm always thinking the same thing. Like man, your stuff is just dialed, it looks good, that makes sense. I believe you when it's like that.
Speaker 1:That was an accident, you know? Yeah, we're kindred spirits, right? Yeah, that's awesome, it is so funny how we tie realtor's.
Speaker 2:Like you never see a TV show like million dollar mortgage. You know we don't have like lending sunset, Like it's not sexy and no one's watching us what we do for a living. It's very hard.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think that's you know, and that's a big part of think you know of your content, is that not only does it look good right Because if it looks good right and it doesn't take, it's not that much work, it's not that hard to make it look good but you've also found a way to catch people's attention with the actors, the actual content you're talking about, and it's not like you're just talking about loan programs. You're talking about ideas and you're talking about generating wealth and different things inside of you know what we do as loan officers. Like, maybe talk about that a little bit. How did you kind of figure out you know a niche or a content strategy to really, you know, basically grow your following? I mean, you got over a hundred thousand followers on Instagram. Now yeah.
Speaker 1:You know what really kind of drove you towards going towards that niche?
Speaker 2:So it's kind of funny because, like the beginning of making this content, there was zero part of me that wanted to go viral. I didn't care about followers and like legitimate. I'm not just saying I did not care about any of those metrics because those don't do anything for me. I'm like what I care about is getting more mortgages, you know. So, like, how do I do that? So my sole focus was all right, let's take a concept that is boring and figure out how to make the person interested in that content. So every single video I made I was just reading, I was just really focused on like, okay, the first 200 people that followed me friends and family, for the most part, right.
Speaker 2:And maybe some other people in the industry started to connect. I know they don't care about mortgages. I know more than likely they're probably not buying a house right now and that the information I'm giving them isn't going to be the most pertinent for what they're doing. So when I made the content, it was like how do I make it where you're going to care? You know so, instead of talking about FHA loans, why would you care about FHA loans? And let's just move that right to the beginning of the video. So I'm not going to start with this like oh, you know there's a lot of programs to consider and FHA is a great one for certain people and you know you got to make sure that you fit in this spot. Like no one's, no one cares, versus getting to the point of like this is a government backed program that lets you buy a house even if your credit's garbage Like kind of perks you up a little bit. Like what's he talking about?
Speaker 2:So really focusing on like I just want to make sure that you get value by the end of this, whether you're buying a home today or never. I just want to create something where, like, you're better off by the end of that 30 seconds that I'm talking to you and I think people enjoy being educated if it's done properly, like we all like when we hear a fact that we could then go tell our friends. You know, like if someone gives you something really cool about. I'm looking at your microphone right now and like oh, did you know that sure started as a company that made X and then went to this. You're like well, that's a cool piece of information, you know, like I'm glad I know it now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it stops. It stops the scroll for you, right? Yeah, Like you're kind of, you're like oh, I'm going to listen to this a little bit more and engage and consume this content a little more, because you kind of stop the scroll a little bit 100% and it was kind of.
Speaker 2:It's a really cool practice because there's two parts to it. One, like I'm just going to make sure what I'm saying. I give them a reason to listen because there is a benefit to the end of this right. No matter what the concept is or how boring we think it is, there's a reason that somebody should know about it. And then the second part, which was a really cool like accidental practice that started happening was when I first started making videos and I'm in an office with Neil, who also is really heavy on the content game, so I had the benefit of being able to like be in an office where this is collaborative and we get to do this together. But we would make videos and we're putting them on Facebook and there was no time limit. You know. It was like YouTube videos.
Speaker 1:So we're making a like to stick to that theme of.
Speaker 2:FHA loans. Like we make a three minute video on FHA loans and then Instagram let you do video, but it was capped in a minute. It's like, dude, how am I supposed to get that into a minute? You know, like there's so much to cover. And then, sure enough, you figured out and a lot of that for me was done in editing Like I would shoot the video, put it on Facebook and then edit a minute long version for Instagram and then it just like man, instagram on keeps doing better, and even I enjoy watching that back more because I cut out so much like unnecessary stuff and then all of a sudden Instagram comes out with reels and it's capped at 15 seconds.
Speaker 2:So now we have the three minute video that we cut to a minute. Like how do you get it from a minute to 15? So there's no possible way to get that concept in 15 seconds. And then, sure enough, you can. So it was like this muscle that we were unintentionally exercising, to like condensing information into the shortest possible amount of time, while focusing on that first part, which was like creating something that's pertinent to the other person, and then, when you combine those two things, that is that kind of recipe for virality. That ended up coming as a byproduct.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you talked about Neil. You talked about forward a little bit and I think that's probably one of the biggest things. And I joined Forward Academy as soon as it came out, just from following you and then following Neil back from like his YouTube days. Like he started like just it was just had a YouTube channel. It wasn't even huge on Instagram yet, and so I think that's one thing that you guys really do well is that it's a scripting.
Speaker 1:And then how do you take a complex topic and just break it down and you can figure out a way to get it done in 30 seconds. I remember the first time I was going through you guys' course and you were talking about maybe one of the training videos is like, look, you can condense this down into 30 seconds and I'm like can I, can I really do this? And it's the truth, like you can if you sit down and you work out. It's like a skill and you said it's like a muscle, like it's muscle memory. You just got to train yourself and I think you guys do a really good job at that and you talk about that all the time and you train on that and for some of you guys that don't know who Neil Dinger is, which is kind of crazy, and if you don't know who Trev is, that's kind of crazy too.
Speaker 1:But they have a huge academy. It's called Forward Academy. You should go check it out online. Neil speaks online. Neil speaks all over the country. Trev I know you're on the academy all the time. I'm sure you're speaking at places all the time too. You guys have a huge forward event every single year. It's a really great program, but it does a really good job of taking mortgages, figuring out how to make them sexy, or taking mortgage information, figuring out how to get people to stop and listen to what you have to say and really build a following. And you talked about you have 100,000 followers. But you could you could be successful in this with a thousand followers. Right, I was in person.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm glad you said that because that's Go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so talk, talk about like You're you're making the content and we're gonna get more into how, how you make it looks so good and a little bit about that. But you know you're making these videos and you have any these conversations, but really like, what's the, what's the process or what's the roadmap that gets you from? Hey, I just made this cool video that people want to know about and Now all of a sudden, I have a mortgage application. What's the in-between there for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's a few different steps. One of the things that I always talk about because, obviously, we teach people that are all over the the spectrum of where they're at in their content journey, how many followers they have, what they can expect from this, and the story I like to share is like when I started doing this heavy in the mortgage, content was like 2020, right when you know it.
Speaker 2:So I'm making these videos and I'm seeing this return to my business because of I mean, at that time you did have this refi market, so then the pool of people that can transact with you was a lot bigger, because now, out of all your followers, anybody owns a house becomes like a potential customer. So the output of like what I was doing, I was already starting to see results and I'm like man.
Speaker 2:This is crazy. I make a video. Now I'm refinancing a Buddy of mine from high school who I haven't talked to in eight years. So it's like, yeah, there was a personal sphere deal, but it only came because I was making content and that's what I see the big result of is, like your personal sphere. It activates so much more when people know what you do for a living. And it got to a place where, like I remember that the Before I started doing this consistently, I'd made a handful of videos and I'd see someone I hadn't seen a while and they'd be like, oh man, yeah, you're doing like insurance or taxes or something right.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, alright, I mean, yeah, I'm doing something you know. Like you know, I do something boring related to money. So we're getting. But now it's at a point where, like it almost feels weird. If someone's like, sure, what are you doing these days? I'm like you don't know what I do. You know Like a. That's the goal is that everybody knows what you do.
Speaker 2:So for me it was cool because I saw it coming a couple ways. So the beginning was I was seeing direct Leads coming from Instagram. But what was really neat is I was in that process of building this during COVID. So, from the realtor Perspective, as a lender, obviously we get a lot of our deals from the real estate side and I went to the. It was the grand opening for this Remax office and Reno and it was like the first in person event post COVID. So it all been locked up. I hadn't seen anybody and those events like I'd been to so many of them in the, you know, four years prior, going to Real estate events prior to making content.
Speaker 2:It's the same thing of like hey, phil, how's it going? Trevor? Like oh, nice, you real estate title. I'm like, oh, I'm a lender. You know we do the song and dance and and this one I go to. And it was insane that every person I was talking to they're like oh man, your, your videos are amazing, I'd love to meet and chat. And now I'm sitting like asking them like what do you do? Like oh, I'm a realtor. And I'm like man, this is great.
Speaker 2:Now it's inbound and it was one after the next at this event that just every person kept coming up to me and then now they're the ones you know asking me to coffee. I'm like wait, this is I'm supposed to be asking you to coffee. This is weird Backwards, yeah. And what was so neat was at the time I think I had like 600 followers. So this was way before all the viral hits and the growing and the like. You can have a massive, massive impact on your business, way before all the views and followers. It's it's not really necessary to grow your mortgage business was again was my sole intent.
Speaker 2:For making this so it was working. And Then, yeah, to touch on kind of that step in the middle. So it was kind of two things like does the, the following matter? Like no, you can grow your business Exponentially before you have a following. And then the other part is making sure that you kind of have that net in between.
Speaker 2:So, like you said, from awareness to actually transacting, are you putting the proper things in place? And this is where I talk about. This is your marketing. What is your marketing look like? It's different than sales, and Marketing is like from awareness to conversion, whatever that conversion is. So the way I view conversion isn't converting into a deal, it's converting into a loan application. So that's kind of my my like from taking like now you know Trevor York exists to have applied for a loan. What am I doing in that gap? And first step that I think a lot of people miss, especially if you're making social medias have you optimized that link in your bio, like the one kind of app that we have? What does that look like? So that's it. That's a huge part of creating that funnel to try and capture people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you and you actually you have a company that kind of specializes in that. Talk about that a little bit yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of a Like a lot of good business. I think it's when when there's pain and people ask you for, and then you figure out a way to resolve that pain right and when all the growth started happening on my social media.
Speaker 2:There's a ton of people in the industry that, sorry, are following me and I'd have a ton of conversations, which I loved, but the two DMs I'd get the most. First one is which camera you shoot on. Second one is who bill your website? And For me I'm like I had built my own website and I had you know like my website and then I had I was using type form to embed quizzes on the website and then I was using zapier to connect those leads into my mailing software that I was using at the time and then I'd export the mailing software in my CR and I had all this and it worked For me because I knew how to do it all. But like when something like you would just Randomly ask, like what do you do for your website, I'm like man, if I were to tell you like it would cause you more harm than good, you know. Oh, so then I had a buddy who's a developer and built out this kind of this software for, like, hairdressers and Life coaches. That was the niche that he was serving.
Speaker 2:It was a really great product and I was like dude, can you create something similar for Mortgage with and here's what I would love it to do? And I kind of dumped like everything that I had in my tech stack Can we put all this in one? And he's like sure, and created that, and that was link spot, which we now have, and the idea is to, yeah, give that kind of step in the middle between awareness and conversion. So it's been really cool to get some loan officers on there and see how much it's helping their business and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I think a lot of people they just that one. They may not even have a link, you know, on Instagram in that in that website area right, we're on Facebook, or they'll just put their, their company's website in there. It's like well, is that really you? You spend all this time and this Effort putting out this video to capture these people's attention, you know, and the goal is is like they see the video and maybe they'll go check out your profile, right, and then they want to know more information about you and they can't they can't find anything, and so that the link spot is like drives in there, right, and then it's like a way to capture them, right, either get that app set a meeting, something like that right yeah so the in and it kind of like the, the corporate built websites that we get from our companies.
Speaker 2:They're I always say this, they're designed by a marketing company to appeal to loan officers. So then we buy these sites right when the reality is like they need to be designed for the customer right so what happens.
Speaker 2:Like if these big marketing companies are like, how do we get filled to think this is amazing? Well, let's show them we can do loan calculators, and here's a list of all 75 loan products that they do. And, yeah, this, this, and it's like that stuff's not. If we're looking at conversion, like if we, if we put our marketing hats on, is that the best way to build a website? No, I do not want my customers running their own mortgage payments. They're gonna disqualify themselves before they get a chance or they're gonna have an unrealistic Expectation of what a payment should be. So like okay, let's remove the loan calculators. Mortgage programs like I don't want them to see 58 mortgage programs when we know that the best one for them is gonna be one.
Speaker 2:And I want to be the resource to give them that, not them. So being really intentional with like, let's strip away all the stuff that overwhelms and keeps people from starting the process and make it really simple and drive people to the prompts that we want. So a lot of the way that I format sites when I build them is like we want them to have that instant gratification. So if they want to apply for a loan, give them the ability to just hit the apply button if they have more questions, because Consumers always think that if I apply for a mortgage, my credit score is gonna be 420, so I don't want to do it. Right, like all right, if you're scared to get your credit pulled, book a call. That's option to yeah.
Speaker 2:And then a lot of people kind of fall in this other third category, which is like I don't want to apply for a loan yet and I'm too scared to ask some questions and I want to talk to somebody. So then we have a quiz which is the bare minimum that we need to kind of give an idea of like are you in a position to buy, so down payment, your credit score, your income situation like some basic information and just take a quiz. You don't have to talk to anybody, you don't have to apply for a loan, and that's the thing that Converts all these people that you're driving like. Let's give them some options, and options that they actually want.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say, and that's kind of similar to because we're talking about marketing and content and things like that that's pretty similar to exactly the marketing content you get from your company too, right? Yeah, the marketing platform and all the content they give you to To post is what's attracted to loan officers and not to consumers, and that's why what we we're talking about, guys here on this podcast, is like that's why we think you need to make your own content, you need to take it into your own hands to to get out there and make video, because the stuff your company's giving you is is is, for the most part, garbage most of the time. And I know there's and I and there's there's marketing people at mortgage companies covering their ears saying, hey, no, don't say that, but that's, that's the truth.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about the memes on on Instagram. We see it all the time during, like daylight savings, where it's like thanks for the realtor's who emailed me today, tell me to set my clock back. You know, like that, the cookie cutter like yeah making an impact? You're not. You're not helping the situation.
Speaker 1:No the same thing with the CRM stuff, like it'd be better if you, you know, recorded a loom video or bomb, bomb video and sent that to all your agents instead of saying, hey, you know the graphic, turn your, turn your clocks back. Or, yes, you know, happy new year or whatever it is, yeah, so let's let you. You're talking about the number one. A question you get is what kind of camera to use. I would say that's probably my number one question that I get hey, what kind of what kind of camera you use? It it's always about tech stuff, you know. So what kind of camera do you?
Speaker 2:use, so I shoot on a couple different ones, and it's funny because me and you, being video background like I, could geek out on gear all day.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's what this podcast is for. Okay, all right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'll give the stuff that shoot on. So we have a couple different cameras in the office the Canon R6 there's one I shoot a lot on, and then we have a Sony FX3. That's both. That's legit. Yeah, incredibly overkill, right and Completely unnecessary. To be honest, because there's also videos on my feed where I shot it on an iPhone. Yeah, you, you'll probably be able to pick it out, but 99% of people wouldn't be able to tell the FX3 from the iPhone as long as you're lighting it, right right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so that's the part that I always try to. And again, it's I love gear more than anyone so and I'm always taking this weird stance because I love gear. But I'm also telling people, like all you need is an iPhone and the most important thing you can do is get a mic and a light and I'll run you probably 300 bucks to get a decent like Mike and light setup. You're, you're all in $300 and your content would look 100 times better than it does right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the FX3 is is awesome. I just ordered an FX 30, I see, and so I'm trying to. I'm gonna start a video podcast with my real estate agents here, and so that's what I got the FX 30. I think I'm gonna order another one, which I know is super pricey, but just the fact that they won't overheat and just have like, yeah, just the, the picture on those are incredible.
Speaker 1:But you're 100% right and I think and I'm the same way like I'll tell people to you know, go get a nice camera. I think that what we spend as mortgage loan officers today on Different parts of our business is way less than you know 10, 15 years ago. So, like, going and investing in a nice camera is something that you can do, especially a nice microphone and a light. You know, I think I have this mv7. I think it's maybe 200 bucks and I have a gvm light kit kit with the lantern, which is like 300 bucks, and I shoot with this and that and my iPhone all the time. The reason being is because most time it's easy, right and that's, and if you're struggling to get started, like iPhone all the way, the quality you know you get in a cinematic mode hits it really does. It looks really good.
Speaker 2:It's honestly hard to decipher, like when I say, like being a camera guy, you'll notice, even for us there's times where I'm like I can't tell, yeah, you know, especially if you're shooting with the back lens on the on the iPhone.
Speaker 1:It's tough. Yes, it is really tough. It's in the shadows, you know if you look at the range.
Speaker 2:If we really start pixel peeping, we'll spot it yeah.
Speaker 1:But the one thing I'll say is like man, when you have like and I shoot like right now I'm on a zv-10, I shoot a lot of stuff on the zv-10. I have an a7, for when you shoot that stuff and you edit it and it looks really nice and it sounds really good, man, it just gets you fired up. You're like man, that's a. That video looks dope. I want to shoot another video. It's like this momentum thing, right, and you start to get real proud about the content you're putting out there.
Speaker 1:And I think that there's you know, there's some people who will shoot on the iPhone. They'll shoot on the front camera. It's poorly lit, they don't have a microphone and it doesn't look or sound very good and they're just, it doesn't make them feel good. They're like oh, I just don't know if the content's really good. And that's what you know. That's where forward Academy comes in and Trevor York and level up your content. That's what we're trying to talk to you guys about is like, if you just invest a little bit audio, lighting, camera you have this momentum and this, this, this positive feeling about your content, and it really changes the way you feel about getting out there and doing it. I don't know if you feel the same way and I mean I know we're, we're content people, so like this stuff like fires us up, but I think even the average person. There's something to be said about that, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think it's. I mean the. I Think no matter who you, if you're a human being, there's a little bit of vanity in all of us. Right, yeah, you pull the camera out and you like the way you look.
Speaker 2:You're way more inclined to shoot something exactly and if you're more inclined to shoot something, then you shoot it and then we see the results in your business grows and everything grows, and so, like it starts with, yeah, do you link your equipment, by the way, because that Mike and light setup that you just said, like if you're listening to this and you don't have a Mike and light, start there, that's perfect. Okay, I mean the mic that Phil shooting on right now, the light You're all in. Yeah, well, I mean less than five hundred five.
Speaker 1:I think it's five hundred, yeah, five hundred dollars. I think the lantern kid is three hundred and you get the stand, you get the light and the lantern, which is like a softbox, yeah, and then the mb7 man is it's, and I love this because it's XLR and USB, so yeah, and then I can use it a little adapter you could plug it into your phone, so then you don't even need the camera.
Speaker 2:And it's crazy, cuz start there. And it is wild when you pull your phone out with that light. You're like whoa, this looks really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, it's crazy.
Speaker 2:And then you don't need the camera and then the other, that single biggest upgrade you can make to your your phone camera. It takes you from like an iPhone 10 to an iPhone 15. Just wipe your lens before you shoot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a huge thing.
Speaker 2:Crazy what that does to the quality and no one does it. And you'll see it's funny every single time I pull my phone out. Just this habit now, like wipe the lens and your stuff would look really freaking good.
Speaker 1:My wife's always making fun of me. Every time I'll get it out to like just shoot the kids or the dog. Or if she's like, what are you doing? I'm like I'm cleaning off the lens, yeah, she's like what? And I'm like yeah, because otherwise it'll look foggy. It just has like this misty look to and it just it makes it look like garbage. I'm sorry, you know so she'll make. She'll make fun of me, but you know Gotta do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that you're 1000% right. Though you do that like invest the amount of money we have to invest in our business to get a return like 500 bucks is is Be smallest part of your marketing budget you'll spend in a year and that's what's gonna last a lot longer than a year.
Speaker 2:I've had some of this equipment, especially the light and the mic. It's not like your camera, those those don't really upgrade very often, like I've been rocking the same mic for four years, same light for four years. So now we're looking at like, all right, mate, you're marketing budget by the time you amortize it, like we're talking 20 bucks a year of To get this gear. Like do it get the gear, pull the phone out, look how you look and you're gonna want to freaking, shoot more videos.
Speaker 1:Well, and like back in the day, and I got this from Alec Hansen, I don't know if you guys, if you know who Alec?
Speaker 2:Hansen is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he talked about like well, every year you used to have to buy a new suit. You know six to 800 bucks, like we don't wear suits anymore. Yeah, invest that in a camera. You used to have to like pay to put yourself in a magazine or on a billboard or on a bus stop sign. You don't have to do that stuff anymore. Buy a camera, like there's used to. We all used to have these huge offices and we'd have to buy furniture and you know candles and fragrances and whatever stuff like people don't really have. You know giant offices anymore like Buy a camera, buy, buy equipment, and so Do you find okay. So this is this is one idea I wanted to talk to you about, because I see that you have a consistent setup. Do you have like an office setup where you have your camera, light, microphone, it's always mounted in the same spot. You can just sit down and make content like that. Do you have a setup like that?
Speaker 2:Close to it. So what I do is because now I mean and I think everybody on industry were Part like full-time zoomers for a living.
Speaker 2:I guess, like every client I talked to, is on zoom. I meet with a lot of referral partners on zoom, obviously from the forward and coaching stuff. It's all zoom. So making sure your zoom set like when I'm looking at you right now, this is the the the status that you have in the eyes of the person talking to you when your stuff is dialed in goes up Exponentially. So if it's clients, if it's partners, no matter what it is. So for me, part of it's like making sure my zoom set up south so I have my light off to the left on the other side of the desk and then I have my webcam, my camera. It's a full-blown camera mounted to the top of my screen. Then when I go to shoot content this was the, I think if there's so overpriced, because little wheels should not cost this much, but they're little wheels that I put on the bottom of my light stand like 80 bucks and Best 80 bucks I've ever spent because my light around yeah.
Speaker 2:So now when I go to shoot, I just throw the, the camera on a tripod, pivot the light Three feet to the left or right and then I'm ready to shoot. So mine serves dual purposes and that Shoot a ton of zoom stuff and I should have done content, getting like your, your Removing as much friction as possible. So little things like all my cameras are on the same quickly plate. So if I'm shooting a podcast in the other room or if I'm shooting content here, if I'm throwing it on as my webcam takes me three seconds to move a camera and then putting your light on wheels makes as stupid as it sounds, even when you're moving thing five feet they're like a pain to move. So if it's on wheels, all of a sudden we remove Frick. That little difference makes it where it's so much easier to just Set up and hit record and and that was the idea is I was trying to get to.
Speaker 1:Exactly what you just said is Removing friction, and I think there's so much value in having a just a desk with a setup Like you said. You can hop on, zoom, but at the same time you can sit down and just hit record. You flip on a couple lights, you hit record and and you're creating content. But when you have to Break out a light, set it up, run your cables from your microphone to your camera, put your camera on a tripod, you create friction and then people just don't ever do it. They procrastinate and they're like out of this. This is too difficult, and what I found with successful content creators Talking to lenders across the country that are really good at this, they do exactly what, trevon, I do.
Speaker 1:We have a consistent setup. I use quick release, quick release plates as well. I use the Alonzi ones that Omar recommends and I have them on everything. I have like a small rig tripod attached to my desk and then I have a quick release plate on my camera and I have it on my tripod and I have it on. I have like another Like small little handheld tripod that I'll use if I vlog and so you can. Just it takes one second to pop it off and pop it on and just having that setup it would. It reduces the friction to get started and sit down and and create. I need to get wheels on my on my light stand, though that's.
Speaker 2:That's my name and it's the. It's so painful because I feel like wheels should cost 10 bucks and spend 80s ridiculous, but it's so worth it.
Speaker 1:But if you and if you get one of the light stands like a C stand with wheels on it, they're like $400.
Speaker 2:It's insane.
Speaker 1:It's like $300 extra for some stupid wheels. It's like I could just buy another light and just leave it set. Then we've been wheeling it around. So, um, dude, I love the idea about the zoom because I will tell you that Every so if I have an intro meeting with a customer or real estate agent, it's on on zoom. When I go over their loan estimate with them, it's on zoom. If I go over their CD, it's on zoom.
Speaker 1:And that first time I pop on a call with them, the first thing out of their mouth that they're always like dang, you got like Joe, the Joe Rogan microphone there. They're like, oh my god, your setup looks good. And what people don't understand is that like it just it takes you to the next level with that customer. It's a part, it's a part of your brand. To you are no different than back in the day when they used to walk into your retail office and like you had a nice couch and like nice furniture and carpet and your office looked really put together Like a community, communicated something about your brand. So I really think in today's world, investing in that zoom setup is is really important and you can repurpose that setup to make real or make youtube videos or whatever it is that you want to make. You can use it for all the same stuff. I mean, would you agree with that?
Speaker 2:One thousand percent I was use. I like the analogy that you give into the like the office being dialed in when you start customers come in there, or the old one that's been around forever with the realtors of like if they hop out of a beater car when they show appointment you can like are they really that you know are?
Speaker 2:they the person I want to trust. And so, as as surface levels, it seems, as much as we hate it, like people are judging you and getting that little extra step. Because if they hop on a zoom call with another lender after me and it looks like they're in a you know Prison camp trying to shoot a video out of it which is what a lot of these people's looks like I'm gonna be elevated. They could be twice as knowledgeable as I am as a loan officer and these people are automatically gonna give me more credit because of that zoom setup. And then, not to mention, like you touched on it earlier, when you're talking about, if corporate gives you some piece of marketing material, I'm not gonna send that out, I'm gonna just hit record and make a video and say the same thing. And so when your zoom setup style, then I'm using something like loom or video recorder, bomb bomber, any of these apps that are all computer based. Your stuff can look dialed on all of it. So now I mean there's times are all, sit down and I'll bust out in an hour like 20 videos to individual people Because I have this so seamlessly set up and I use video record, same as loom Hit the record button and just send out like hey, fillets trip.
Speaker 2:I know it's been a while. Hope all as well. Hope you're having a great new year. I'm do the strength next week. Let me know if tuesday or wednesday works. I'd love to see you, hope you're doing great. And then I send and I go to the next one. I just keep. I bust out 20 those in an hour. The impact that that has Over a cold email or cold text or anything else. And then when the quality looks the way this does, they get that. They're like dang, did this dude just hire a videographer to shoot a video? Just like you know it's just like it has such a huge impact. Like what did you? Yeah, man, let's meet up.
Speaker 1:It's a nice, hilarious, that you brought a videographer in here just to send me this email. That's next level. Yeah, man, about that way. That's awesome, that's hilarious. Yeah, and it's again. It comes back to your brand. Right, it just communicates about your brand and it's so much more than just creating Real on social media. But you can really port and every aspect of your business. What when you sit down to make you know what we obviously talked about your content strategy. Right, you have like a niche.
Speaker 1:I think anybody listening here that's not a member of forward academy. I think you just strongly consider hopping in the group and take a look at it, because you learn how to you to break down an idea. You learn how to script out a bunch of videos. You talked about something that was really important right there to is batch, batch, making content, sit down for an hour. I just did yesterday. I just move my camera over here. I spent about 20 minutes and I made five videos at once. I didn't just make one video, I sat down Time blocked and batched or batch made a bunch of videos. Both forward academy. It's very much about how to make the video, what videos to make, how to break it down into a script. There's all these different things. What do you do? You edit your own videos. Like what would you recommend for somebody? Do you think they should hire somebody? Do you have any recommendations on who they should hire? Like, what's your thought process on the editing, because that's a big hurdle.
Speaker 1:That I hear from a lot of people yeah, and, and so some contacts on this.
Speaker 2:I've always broken down content creation into five steps and so if, if, if anybody is on the process of, like, I'm creating content, I want to start, or whatever you're at this, if you break it down into these five sections You'll be able to find any kinks in your process will be in one of these five areas. So when I did this, it made it really easy for me to dissect, like, where's the hang up for me? Why am I not creating as much as I want to? So the five steps are you have the ideation, so figure out what it is that you want to talk about. Second step is refining that into an actual script. So doing the process. We talked about condensing and shorting it, moving the you know the main part to the beginning After you find it gonna shoot it. So stuff mean you love right, so get your quality right, make sure you're shooting it properly. Then you have the editing, fourth step, and then the last step is distribution. So just in post and, believe it or not, there's a lot of people that get hung up they have a fully shot edited, ready to go, and they still can't hit the post button. Getting those five steps figured out is the key to content creation. We help a ton with ideation, refining it. We help give scripts and show frameworks how to get to that point.
Speaker 2:Shooting there's a ton of videos. We have to show you how to get your setup at least to a point where you can shoot on your own Right. And then you can, obviously, if you want to hire video guy to come once a week. It's kind of like a personal trainer keeps you accountable, someone shows up, no matter what, like you have to shoot that week. Is that person? So really great approach.
Speaker 2:On shooting, the editing one is one of those five pillars. So when you're looking at like the importance of it, you're right. It's a massive roadblock for a lot of people to get hung up on this piece Editing. I recommend to outsource the editing. That's not sound like as lenders, as real estate agents, our time is not best spent tinkering with edits. There is a level of quick editing knowledge that I think is really valuable to have, so knowing how to trim some clips or piece things together. Even so, neil, zero background and video, zero background and editing. And it's cool because every time I was to do something like, how do I do this, how do I do this, how do I do this? And that did I mean as far as time value goes, much more valuable to do anything else but that yeah he's done that kind of process and understands the basics of it.
Speaker 2:One it opens up your your eyes to what is possible from an editing standpoint, so you know what can and can't be done. But it also just gives you that skill set to be able to like you're on the go, you shoot a video. You didn't like the middle section, being able to cut it out and post it and get it up. Cool skillset that. So I would say, find an editor and what's cool, like our command. I'm sure you have recommendations for editors, everybody. A good way to find was just ask someone who's making videos, who edits your videos. Our forward community, which is really cool, our Facebook group has, you know, 1200 people in it. There's always people recommending editors and stuff in there. Find an editor. They're very affordable. Don't spend your time just getting stuck in the weeds. Editing is my, is my opinion on it.
Speaker 1:Unless you have the time. Yeah, because I mean you could. The time you could be spent editing, you could make more videos, and I used to be. I speak on the opposite. I'm like, look, if you can learn via guidelines, you can learn how to video edit because, like you just said, trimming clips and deleting out the bad stuff, you know, adding some captions, editing the audit, it's not, it's not rocket science, it's not that hard. We're not asking you to. You know, use after effects pro and bring in the, the captions behind the person and all these crazy transitions. I mean it's very simple stuff.
Speaker 1:But I just started with a, with a new company that offers in house editing these. Be creative. I'm pretty sure you have a right and I've been able to offload all my editing and it's like it's like the greatest freedom I've ever found is not having, is not having to edit. I feel like I feel like I can. Just I want to create so much more content now because I don't have that, that weight of editing sitting there and I brought on some guests here that they put out like eight YouTube videos a month and they get like 20 reels from that and it costs them like three to four hundred dollars a month Freaking incredibly well, money spent right there. I don't know if you'd agree with that.
Speaker 2:Oh, hundred percent. And that being that, my background was in video, like I did edit all my videos at the start was me, and I had a really tough time outsourcing that, because it's hard to get someone to do it the way that I wanted to do it exactly how they send it to me and I ended up reediting and doing myself and I'm like man, I'm wasting money because now I'm, you know, like doing it twice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's kind of one of those. It's very similar to once you get you know loan partner or an LOA, to where you're like I gotta let them do some things, and at the start they're not gonna do it, perfect, but you gotta keep giving them the reps and then a lot of its communication. So once you find an editor, it's kind of that back and forth and it takes some time. But then you're like oh yeah, that's it, you nailed it and it is the biggest like Time freedom, and it goes back to all these like barriers and friction and things of like well, now I'm hesitant to shoot, because I know what's a shoot off to edit.
Speaker 2:When I edit, I mean I'm a, I'm as perfectionist as a person gets. I just I'm way too deep in these. And then Now I got three partially edited ones because I want to figure out how to do this Masking part in the middle, and then it's dead. So, yeah, I hundred percent that that editing. And we actually have like Cause we found like five or six editors that we've had good experience with. So forward editing dot com does have some resources for people to get editing done and we have consolidated those. But yeah, figuring out one just where the flow is easy is really important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and sometimes you can just send them examples like, hey, I like the way this video looks, can you just edit this way? And a lot of these editors are like, oh yeah, that's a, that's a simple technique, you know I, and they know exactly what to do. It's just giving them Some feedback just to get it to look the way that you want. So, do you? So this is a question that I've been wanting to ask you, do you? We have, like you know, hundred million dollar producer. That's like the pinnacle of the mortgage industry. Right, you want to get to a hundred million bucks? Do you think there are hundred million dollar producers out there? Or, let's say, $50 million producers out there that they're not on social media? They're not producing any content, maybe they or company just posts you know the crap that that they send them for them. I mean, do you think they survive the next three years? Do you think they survive the next five years? Like, what's your thought process on that?
Speaker 2:That's a really good question that opens up like a really interesting dialogue, because I that level of producer if you get to that point, it's Doing things that work and system processes that work. So I actually would take the stance that like, yeah, I think they survive.
Speaker 1:I didn't make you doing it because you think and you think, if they never evolve and they never start making videos, they don't change what they're doing at all. They're just the same stuff that they've keep doing. You think they still Nothing changes with their business.
Speaker 2:I would love to say that, like the adapter die, and I believe that in a lot of other areas of Of marketing where it's like you do have to adapt at some point, but when you look at sales, like historically it's it's relationships, that's all it is. That's what has been since the the 1900s. Before any of this was like go knock on the door and then we got the phone. It's like, oh cool, now I can cold call. And then we got the internet. It's like, oh, I can send videos and I can. So there's ways that we've adapted it, but at the root of it is just, are you out there creating relationships? So I think social media is a massive shortcut that makes it very easy for a lot of people to get to that. You know hundred million, fifty million dollar production, but if there's people like I don't, I think that at times we forget how hard it is to get to $100 million production in a normal market, no less right now.
Speaker 2:Just the a refi boom. But to get to that level, you're running plays that work and the plays that work are probably gonna keep working. I think that if you're a hundred million dollar producer, you should 1,000 percent adapt for the part of like your, your way to speak to it and talk about it and when you're dealing with referral partners. But, dude, at the end of it, all we're doing is creating relationships. That's, that's how we get business. That's not going to stop working if, like your way of getting businesses, I do in person, like Scott Evans, he's, he's, he's in for again. So the dude is heavily investing in his. You know he's been to our content days and our mastermind, he's been to our events. But the guy is also one of the top three producers in the entire country. Uh, because he does these seminars, in-person seminars, and he does them over and over and I don't think those just stop working because of social media.
Speaker 2:Yeah those are going to continue to work forever because he's got this system in this process and it's repeatable for him.
Speaker 2:So it's it's an interesting take because, yeah, I think everybody needs to adapt. You need to start having and for me, I think a lot on the marketing side is like you need to have those landing pages and funnels and ways of capturing leads. It makes your life so much easier and you're going to be able to do a hundred million with a lot less work. So, even if you're running like oh, I do seminars and that's working, like, do you have what's your lead capture afterwards? Is it just handpaper apps? Like what if we made those digital? Or what if we started them on the top of the funnel? Because you're only capturing 50%. So I think there's other ways to adapt it. But, uh, I don't, it's kind of a conflicting or or uh, controversial take on it because, yeah, I think a lot of people take the stance of like adapt or die, and I think there is this part of find what works. For me, building relationships works through the internet. I'm really freaking good at it.
Speaker 1:And that's and that's like the, the, the big piece of of what we talked about, talked about today, and I know what you guys talk about at forward academy. I know what you believe is what you just said build relationships and People just build relationships different ways and what you and I have found that is the easiest or the most efficient way is to do it by making videos and connecting with people on social media. Like that's like that's the easiest way and it's not. It's not like you just post videos and just the leads flow in, right, I wish I mean I had. I had a video that I think my best video got like 70 000 views. Um, and it was using a forward academy script, by the way, just gonna throw that in there. Um, I got zero deals from it and zero leads from it. Right, it's not like people just came to flock to my video and then flock to my application site. That's not how it works. But there's some videos that I've gotten like 90 views, that I've gotten out applications on. Like, I made a video sitting in my truck waiting to pick up my kids from school. I talked about a bank statement loan, just helped somebody you know that was self-employed that wasn't qualified and we were able to qualify him and got two applications from it. Because realtor saw, and they're like, oh man, I got somebody that's in that exact same situation I'm gonna send.
Speaker 1:The biggest piece about it is building relationships, and the videos are a way for people to build a relationship with you. Right, when you're spending, you just had you just had a son, right? Um, first kid. Yeah, how old is he? He's, uh, 14 months, 14 months. Just, you're still in that, still in that, still in that stage, minor, minor, eight and seven. So I'm just a few few years ahead of you.
Speaker 1:Um, you're playing with him, right, you're hanging out with the family. You guys could be out at dinner, at the park, you know, you know playing golf, whatever it is. Hey, that video that you posted, still building relationship with somebody, because people are sitting there consuming your content and they're they're developing a relationship, they're getting to know your competency, to get know your personality, all while you're off doing other things like, and that's the big, the big power. I think behind this and you talked about this at the very beginning and I'll kind of bring this round robin Is that you walked into that, that realtor event, and they knew you. Right, they already knew you, and I've had that same situation where I've walked into meetings at coffee shops.