Unlock the secrets to revolutionizing your professional presence as we host the ever-creative Johnnie Mercado, a trailblazing loan officer from Ventura. His genius in harnessing social media to connect with communities and enhance mortgage content is nothing short of inspiring. Prepare to be enlightened on why loan officers should don their marketing hats first, and how this focus on providing value can lead to a more substantial, rewarding career. Johnny’s story of persistence through early doubt to becoming a beacon of advice and education offers an invaluable blueprint for leveraging the power of a strong online presence. We break down his home tour videos and how he leverages them to not only grow his brand, but to generate leads for his business.
Follow Johnnie Mercado on IG at https://www.instagram.com/johnniemercado/
Follow Phil Dodds on IG at https://www.instagram.com/phildodds/
All the gear I use to create content can be found at www.phildodds.com
Unlock the secrets to revolutionizing your professional presence as we host the ever-creative Johnnie Mercado, a trailblazing loan officer from Ventura. His genius in harnessing social media to connect with communities and enhance mortgage content is nothing short of inspiring. Prepare to be enlightened on why loan officers should don their marketing hats first, and how this focus on providing value can lead to a more substantial, rewarding career. Johnny’s story of persistence through early doubt to becoming a beacon of advice and education offers an invaluable blueprint for leveraging the power of a strong online presence. We break down his home tour videos and how he leverages them to not only grow his brand, but to generate leads for his business.
Follow Johnnie Mercado on IG at https://www.instagram.com/johnniemercado/
Follow Phil Dodds on IG at https://www.instagram.com/phildodds/
All the gear I use to create content can be found at www.phildodds.com
Hey everybody, welcome to the level up your content podcast. We're here to help loan officers make better mortgage content Every day and super excited for another episode here with somebody that I've been following on Instagram for a long time and he's he's really incredible. He puts out amazing videos, his content is top-notch and I really think you guys should all go follow. Go follow him and learn from him. I've got Johnny Mercado here from Ventura, california, with capital mortgage Services. Johnny man, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Super happy to have you, phil. Thank you so much for the invite, man. I truly appreciate it. I've seen your content as well, been following you for for some time now and love seeing other creatives in the Mortgage industry. I like to tell people at the time that I'm a creative before anything else. I'm a creator before anything else. I just so happen to do mortgages for a living, and it's really cool when I get to see other people like yourself too, man, that are that are out here posting some amazing content, easy on the eyes kind of stuff and Excited to be here and share some of what I'm doing and and yeah, man, just to just to chat a little bit get to know you too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I do. You said something there that's, you know, resonates with me, because my background is is in, you know, creative media. So While I have been in the mortgage industry since 2007, on and off I also have a photography background, a creative marketing background. So, like, I love doing that stuff first, it just so happens like that.
Speaker 1:The mode that I that I operate in is like the mortgage space, you know, and I kind of liken mortgage loan officers to a little bit to real estate agents, whereas, you know, our first job isn't really loan officering, right, our first job is to be marketers, right, we go out there and we drive leads, we drive business, we get applications and then, like the loan officer and stuff kind of comes later and and like, actually we're really starting to see that shift, probably over the next year or two even more, to where it's more about the loan officer who can go out, build relationships, get attention right and drive business, you know, into to whatever platform that they're working in, you know. And so Guys, just like you, are the ones that are gonna win in the future because you're out there putting out the content, you know, building the relationships and getting the attention that these other folks you know aren't doing right now.
Speaker 2:Definitely. I have to agree with you a hundred percent on that, phil. I think it's important. One thing that I learned very early on in my career was that I Needed to change the way that business is done in my area. Right, I needed to focus on building what's called a community before Taking from my community, and what I mean by that is I needed to focus on giving more value, getting more information and helping people achieve something Before I'm able to take from that community and earn from that community.
Speaker 2:You know I'm big on the belief of jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, and then you keep jabbing and jab and jab, jab, jab and then one hook Step back and you continue to jab, jab, right, I'm a huge believer in that, and I've realized that through social media, I'm able to reach more people, help more people get into homes. I've had people from different states reach out to me when they're going through their purchase process, states that I'm not even licensed in To ask me questions about their current situation. Hey, is this a good deal? Hey, is this something that I should be doing, or what should I look for? What should I be asking for? And I'm more than happy to to help people through that process because I'm I'm working on building a community, working on building a community of people that can come here and get their questions answered, or Even get questions answered. They didn't know they had yet right. So I think I've focused on that. And you know, it's funny, phil, when I first started doing this you can go back on my on my Instagram page and scroll all the way down I didn't know what I was doing, right, I was just posting videos doing what, as a millennial, I thought was cool, and what I was doing was subconsciously kind of creating that community.
Speaker 2:I remember people used to make fun of me. Man, people used to say are you still make those stupid little videos? Are you still gonna make that you know stupid little content? And I would say, well, yeah, it's what's working, you know. And I got three likes, of which one of them is from my other page, the other one is my mom and my girlfriend. Yeah, you know, all three likes I'm excited about.
Speaker 2:And and it's funny because now those same people that used to make fun and used to poke fun at what I was doing are now reaching out to me like, hey, what do you think about coming and teaching a class at my, at my office, and, yeah, open to it, but then I also remind them remember those stupid little videos. Well, here they are. So, yeah, man, it's. It's creating that community, community and, like you said, bringing in that clientele, but also having a great and a strong back shop that can help you so that me, as a loan officer and an educator in my community, I can also focus on my highest and best use, which is educating my community, bringing in the business, helping them put a plan together and then helping them shop right, but, highest and best use, creating the content being out there in front of the clients.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nice and that's. I love what you said there, because it's not about just making pretty videos, right, which guys listen to. This Johnny does right. He the talking head thing. He crushes right, looks good, sounds good, he's got good hooks. His captions are on fire like everything's good with the video he does real estate walkthroughs for for real estate agents, on, on, on on homes, which is like one of the big reasons I want to have him on the podcast because I want to talk to him about that a little bit.
Speaker 1:He's in stories like he's sharing stuff about his day, he's doing behind the scene stuff, so he's really good at all the creative, creative stuff.
Speaker 1:But what I want you guys to listen it and what he said is that the reason he does this is because he wants to provide value to his community and that's why his content connects with people, is because he's he's finding questions that they're they're asking all the time and he's just answering them or he's talking about problems that maybe someone in his community is facing and then he's providing a solution to that problem. You know he's empathizing, maybe, with what they're going through and and that makes him relatable and trustworthy and he could put out videos that Maybe didn't have the level of quality that Johnny would want to have. Right, they could be not well lit and maybe not sound very good, but they would still connect because there's the value there. Right, you talking about the jab jab, right hook, obviously a Gary Vaynerchuk book book, that that we all love, and it works right. Most loan officers, all they do is get on social media and try to sell you something.
Speaker 2:They're trying to haymaker their way through life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Every, every single time, and it doesn't, doesn't work.
Speaker 1:And that's what the jab is. It's like it's just value, value, value, problem solve, problem solve, problem solve, problem solve. Then it's like hey guys, I'd love to help you. Here's where you can apply for a loan or reach out to me, let's set up a meeting, or whatever it is. That doesn't need to be on every single video, because they know you're just trying to sell something, whereas what Johnny does really well Is he just delivers value for his community and I really love that. That's just a great way to break it down. We're, where did you, where did you find that passion like, was it something? You just saw it? There was a need in your community and you know, you know, you're like I got a. You know, educate more people on this. I had a. It just kind of reminds me because I had a guest on Podcasts maybe your to go his name's so see a villa, and it was the exact kind of do you know, so see, he's in California.
Speaker 2:I don't know him personally, but I followed him for for quite some time and I love what he's building along with Min. Yeah, they're, yeah, they're incredible brother. I root for any creators that are trying to educate and, oh man, they are going above and beyond to create.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's just so. He's like, dude, there's this in my community where he was at. He's like the people were just getting taken advantage of or they're just not getting educated, and he's like I just saw a huge hole there and so like I'm just gonna lean all the way into this and it's worked out great for him. It seems like this is the exact same thing you've done. You found a need and you're like I'm just gonna fill the gap here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's exactly what happened. Now, in regards to where I found that passion to help others, I used to work at Wells Fargo. Okay, I started my career as a teller at Wells Fargo. Prior to that, I worked at McDonald's in high school. Right after high school, I got the opportunity to start working as a teller at Wells Fargo and I remember there was a moment in my career path because I went from teller to a banker and I was sitting at my desk as a banker.
Speaker 2:I remember it was a Saturday and I was asking myself why am I doing this monotonous job? Yes, it pays. Well, I'm 21 or 20 and I'm making a boatload of money, at least with my in my perspective. I was still living at home, In my perspective. What a boatload of money was at that time. And I said, okay, but this is monotonous. I don't feel like I'm filling a gap in my community. I don't feel like I'm doing making a difference, Like I'm not excited. What gets me excited to come to work? And in that moment, I had clients that would only wanna visit with me, Like only would wanna sit down with me and talk about their finances with me.
Speaker 2:After those conversations, I continued thinking throughout the day like what is it about this job that I really enjoy? And it all came back Every time I would, no matter what approach I would take, to try to figure out what it was. It was always helping my community, helping people solve problems, right? I get a satisfaction that you can't put a price tag on when I'm able to help other people achieve a goal or navigate through a tough making a tough decision. I find value in that and I'm gaining more from that than anything else. So, to answer your question, what was it? It's that it's helping other people right, Helping other people understand, and I also know that this is we've said it and everyone screams it from the top of the mountain Nobody teaches this in school.
Speaker 2:Nobody teaches this in school. We don't get taught how to buy a house, how to do our taxes, how to save for future expenses. None of this life stuff is taught in school. So my goal is to educate my people on how to purchase a home, how to navigate through that, and then also not just educating them on how to get to that point, but also when you become a homeowner, what else do you need to do? Right, as a mortgage professional, it's our job to educate our buyers. Right? I go as far as having one-on-one conversations with my people and I explained to them the benefit of having a trust, of having their property in a trust, what benefit they get from that. I also explained to them why life insurance is so important once you buy a house. I think it's important before right, but I'm a strong believer in life insurance, right, I explained to people this is why you need that right. Don't see it as you're gonna pay something off. No, no, no, your family, it's taking care of your investment for future, you know, for the future generation.
Speaker 1:So, anyway.
Speaker 2:That's why I find so much passion in it. And, phil, you can't tell me that it doesn't feel amazing when you show up to Keyday and your hand keys to that hardworking family. It was barely able to purchase that home and they were able to do it because you helped them right, because you made that difference, because you took the time, the extra 10, 15 minutes, to explain what it looks like to own a home, right? You cannot tell me that that is not the best feeling ever. So, to answer that question and I hope I do answer it the reason why I do it is because I love helping others. There's no better feeling than helping others achieve a goal. And you wanna know what's crazy about that, phil? You wanna know. We get paid very well to help others, right? Yes, we do, to take care of others. So that's the reason why I love what I do and that's the reason why I found a passion in giving more than I receive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you basically developed a mission, right, You're on a mission and you wanna help people and obviously you're on a mission that will help you provide for your family, but you're also helping other people and what you realize I think what you realize, probably through maybe trial and error or at some point in time early on in your career was the way for me to reach the most people is putting content on social media. Right, and I'll use another. You brought up a Gary V idea earlier, so here's another one and we're in the attention economy, right. So if you're gonna help the most people and you're a mission, you wanna reach the most people you have to get the most attention and social media making content, especially videos on social media, is the way to do that.
Speaker 1:Now, I mean, is that kind of where it got started, or how did you fall into figuring out that making videos, like you said? You talked about the stupid videos you made earlier and all of us that are content creators, we all made stupid videos in the beginning. The difference is we just kept making videos and we just kept getting better and that's how we got to this point. But what kind of? How did you fall into that, or how did you decide that's what you wanted to do?
Speaker 2:So I have a passion besides mortgage lending. I promise I don't just eat, sleep and breathe mortgages. I promise I do have a life. You have things that I like doing right. So one of my favorite things to do is I love tech, I love cameras, I love photography, I love cinematography. Is so amazing to me, man. I'm not really that good at it, but I try my best.
Speaker 2:I do have a cousin who's a professional. He's a cinematographer in Mexico City, and he's the one who opened kind of that creative eye for me and he started teaching. I remember he would get my cousin, which is a year younger than me, his name's Ivan the cinematographer, his name's Omar. He would get us to act for his. So he was going to school, right, and he would get me and my cousins to act for his movies because he had to do projects or whatever it was. So we started getting involved and every time I would go visit which was most summers I was the star of a movie, right, it was another scene or another movie or whatever it was, and it was that through that experience that we were able to kind of learn and also, I guess, not learn, but it was through that experience that that creative eye was opened. He would also have us watch a lot of documentaries or like really good cinematic films and whatever it was. So he shared that with me. He taught me how to use a camera and that's really what kind of sparked that interest in cameras.
Speaker 2:Right Now, to answer your question in regards to why I decided to take this platform of creating content, was I started watching vloggers right, like Casey Neistat. Casey Neistat's one of my favorite content creators cinematographers, movie makers, whatever you wanna call him and I. Early on it wasn't anything specific that clicked, but early on I realized I was like this guy has millions of people watching him. If he wants to share a message, all he has to do is make a video. Okay, he doesn't have to show up in front of a stage of a million people. No, youtube is his stage, right.
Speaker 2:And then I started clicking in my head. I was like wait, what if I took two things that I'm passionate about Helping people, okay, and creating content. What if I merged them and I made it one? What if I became a content creating mortgage professional? Hold on, it's working. Wait a minute, I'm starting.
Speaker 2:I go to caravan and people are recognizing me. Oh, you're Johnny Mercado, you're the guy that makes videos. Oh, yeah, hey, what's up? Yeah, it's me. I go to events. Hey, you're Johnny Mercado. You make videos, right, like mortgage videos. Yeah, that's me. Yeah, hey, clients or people that would see me on the street, like in my inventory in county, like hey, you're Johnny Mercado.
Speaker 2:And it all just started clicking and I said, wait a minute, I'm reaching more people that I don't have to like physically shake hands with and they know who I am right, or at least they get to see who I am on social media.
Speaker 2:So when that started happening, I said I need to focus more on creating content to reach more families. The way that I see it, what I tell myself is there's a family out there today that needs my help, so I need to figure out a way to get my message to them right, and the best way to do it is through social media. Let's post as much as we can everywhere, on every platform, and just share the message of home ownership. So that's really where it clicked, man, and it was that, like I said, that Casey Neistat watching him, seeing him build a community. He was a daily vlogger for a very long time, seeing how big that community got and how big his follower fan base or his fan base became. I was like, wait a minute, I can recreate that in the mortgage industry and I'm gonna do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what's crazy about what Casey does is he doesn't have a YouTube channel where he sells stuff to people. It's literally a daily vlog of his day, right, just letting people get to see who he is and what he does, what he cares about, what he's passionate about. You know, and that's what you're doing when you're making mortgage videos. You're not necessarily again, that comes back to the jab jab, jab right. Hook is you're just putting out content that's valuable to people or people might find entertaining, you know. That's why I would say, if you can entertain right or provide value, but if you can do both at the same time, then you've got a home run, a home run piece of content, and that's why Casey's just is so incredible. Plus, I mean, in his cinematography his stuff was nice to watch, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this guy made vlogs cool before vlogs were cool. Oh yeah, no, he's told this yeah he's told this show or movie, or I guess it was a show that he made with his brother to HBO, I think, and it was like very vlog style video. So he was like one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer, for vlogging and like that goes to show us that as as humans, like human, it's human nature to be curious about what others do in their day. It's funny, but it's very true.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's funny you talked about like tech in your photography background. Like that's my background. I have, I own a photography company still do 2008. So it's like 16 years now and then I had do you know? I'm sure you know who Trevor York is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Trev, he's the same way I had him. He was actually he's a second to last guest on the podcast. He was the same way.
Speaker 1:He was like into videography and photography too before he got into the mortgage business and it's just like it just clicked right. It's just like how do you apply that content creation mindset into mortgages? And that's again, it's the future. Like he and I had a really interesting conversation about $100 million producers. Like will they still be $100 million producers in three to five years if they don't have social media accounts and aren't making content? And my position is is that the answer is no, because first time home buyers coming up, they're never going to find out about them. And also, if they do find out about them and get referred to them by from a real estate agent or somebody, they're going to hop on social media and they're not going to see any content and they are not going to trust those people. There's a poll done that it was like 80% of Gen Z will not trust financial advice from someone who does not have a tick tock account. Like they literally go to tick tock for all their financial advice, whether it's investing or saving, buying a home, whatever it is. It's called Fin tock and it's like financial tick tock. So those hundred million dollars producers are just they're going to, they're just going to slowly fade away because the mass of home buyers in the country are always going to be first time home buyers.
Speaker 1:Disease generations move in and buy new homes, and so I think that's why you, as a loan officer, have to change the way that you do business and understand that your job moving forward is to get attention to market, to new people, and again you have in this. I love and I didn't know this before bringing you on the podcast, but I love hearing your heart behind. Why you do this is that your mission focused and you believe that God puts you on this earth to do something important and it's to help. There's families out there that need your help. You know what, and I believe he did put you there to do that, and so every day you wake up and figure out. How can I make sure I get in front of those families so they find me, that I can educate them and help them become homeowners, so that those kids aren't living in a one bedroom apartment for the rest of their life? Right, those kids can grow up in a home, in a stable, nice neighborhood or whatever it is that's going to impact their life. And the best way to do that right now, where you can get the most attention and have the most impact, is on social media, and that's what every loan officer across the country needs to realize is like you're put here with a purpose. And even if your purpose is like I just need to make a bunch of money to take care of my family valuable purchase purpose right, everybody's got a family to take care of. But the best way for you to take care of your family is to get the most attention, which is on social media, because that's where everybody is at right and that's what's going to help you put more apps in the pipeline and, ultimately, you know, more loans. So I again, I love hearing your, your, your mission background, because I think it's really important.
Speaker 1:A lot of people forget their wire for get their mission and that's what really really drives a lot of this content as like it's a part of you. It comes out in your content too, right, because when your mission focused, when you're delivering your content, people can see that, they can feel that, right, the behind the scenes stuff they can feel that and that's why your stuff is is connecting at least I, you know, I believe, and so you know, one of the things that I really wanted to talk about today is is your real estate videos. So you're talking about, you think the overproduced stuff's kind of going away, which and I would agree, especially on TikTok, like some, even some of the stuff I'm putting out right now, it's overproduced. Same here, man, and so, like I'm trying, I'm trying to transition to like how can I have a little bit more of an authentic feel but still stand out, be different? Right, because we have there's like lots of talking head stuff going out right now. So it's like how can we be a little bit different? And so I think that you have nailed a pillar of content that is different, especially for loan officers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what guys? What Johnny's doing is he's going into homes and I don't know, are these your real estate agent partners that you're doing these with. Yeah, so he's an air shooting them on your phone Shot on my phone. And with a gimbal yeah, so he's got a gimbal and a phone and he's going into his real estate agent partners listings and he's basically shooting a vertical video walkthrough. It's like 60 seconds. He's thrown some captions, information about the home, up on the screen.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you're probably editing all of this inside your phone, even inside the app, and it's just it's a walkthrough. Now. It has like some creative cuts to it, right, and I think maybe sometimes putting some a little bit of trendy music to it or something like that. Yeah, but these types of videos are getting tons of views, like I don't know why, but I'm always seeing these, these types of videos on homes in Texas, and it's like a home in Texas that looks like it should be $5 million and they're like, oh, for $600,000 in Texas you can get this 7,000 square foot mansion with three pools. And you're like, damn, I need to, I need to move to Texas and move to Texas.
Speaker 2:And then you realize we're not in Texas, and you're like wait, pause, wait, how much were property taxes?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:No kidding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's, it's, but these things are getting millions of views because they're short and they're they're something people want to look at, like people like consuming homes, they just like looking at them. You know, that's why realtors always have an advantage over us, is like they got the pretty thing to look at. So I think, like you've hit on that and so you're able to get eyeballs on you, right, you're able to show value to your real estate agent partner because you're making content for them and they're like, hey, thank you, man, I appreciate that. And but it's also bring your. You're getting to the top of the funnel, right? Oh for sure, and it's different than what everybody else is doing with all the talking headstuffs Like walk me through your process on, on how you maybe connect with your real estate agents, how you approach them, and then like the gear you use and like kind of how you produce those kinds of things. Cause I think it's, it's it's really a next level idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I appreciate that man. That's actually something that I had been doing. I used to do them in a landscape mode and obviously that didn't really hit. But it was until I met one of my one of my good buddies now. His name's Danny Corona. I met him at a before you mortgage. I was working with a different company and I met him at this company and he's he was the social media guy and I saw how he was shooting the videos and I said wait a minute. So you're telling me that if I move my video from this to this, it's going to look nicer. I said what the heck? Why didn't I think of that? So I started, you know, kind of emulating what he was doing, obviously with my style and the way that I shoot, and it was like wait, these videos are going off now, like people like this stuff, like it's working. I got 25 likes in an hour and I was like hold on, wait, we're going viral, baby, like it's working. So I changed the way that I was shooting and it's simple. I used to shoot with an iPhone 14. Now I'm obviously on the 15 pro, so I'm using that. I shoot in 0.5. I shoot in 1080p. Nothing crazy there. I shoot with a DJI Osmo mobile five, I think it is. Yeah, that's basically the equipment that I'm using.
Speaker 2:Now how do I go about the conversation with the agent? First and foremost, most important thing, I'm a guy that plays by the rules. So I tell them because I don't want to any respite, issues or violations or any of that. I tell them straight up look, I'm, I would like to make a video for you, not expecting any business out of it. This is not whatsoever. Like four leads. This is actually a selfish act because I wanna be able to post the video and I get clients from doing this, right. So the benefit to you is that you get a copy of the video and you get to do what you want with it, right, do as you please with it. So they're usually open to it.
Speaker 2:At first that the first few that I reached out to were kind of like ah, I don't know, I already have a video. But then the few that did allow me to, I started posting and my views would start going up, my likes would start going up, my followers started going up. Then the ones that didn't wanna allow me started saying, hey, wait a minute, that's working. And I said, yeah, and then they started getting people locally right, cause I'm trying to capture a local market. They started getting people in a local market that were going to the open houses because they saw the video online. They mentioned hey, I saw your video online. Johnny Mercado posted it. I wanted to come see the house because they saw it and I thought it was beautiful, right, and we might wanna write an offer. So they start doing that.
Speaker 2:And then, obviously now it became something where I have agents reaching out to me wanting to work with me and saying, like, hey, what can we do to be part of that list for you? And I say, well, you, you, I'm gonna interview you to see if you're even someone that I want to work with, to see if our values align. And if they do, then definitely we can work together, we can put stuff together, and this is something that through the relationship that we build. Obviously I want content. I need content for social media. So if you have a listing that's nice or a listing that will show well, send me the info for it. I'll go shoot a video. You get a copy, I get a copy, post it and there we go. So that's essentially how the relationship is built through that, and it's just reaching out to the listing agent saying, hey, I wanna shoot a video at your house, it's at no cost to you. No, I'm not trying to sell you anything. I'm not trying to gain anything from it. It's a selfish act. I just want a video for my social media.
Speaker 2:I'm very straightforward when it comes to that. It's and it works for me, right? In regards to what I do for editing purpose, I shoot it all on my video and then I like to edit on my iPad. Technically, you can do it on your phone, but I'm editing on an app called LumaFusion. It's 30 bucks, it's a one-time fee. I edit on LumaFusion. I just basically cut the parts that I wanna speed up and, if you notice, there's a specific way I shoot, though, right, I'm not just like walking through the house and like hurrying up and no, no, no, there's a specific way that I shoot. You gotta pay attention to how you're shooting the video so that when you edit the video, it looks well. It doesn't look like you're running through the house, like no, you gotta be slow with it. You gotta pan in a specific way. It's gonna take time and take some practice, but yeah, that stuff works wonders for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, watch a couple YouTube videos on how to shoot real estate, or just watch some real estate videos. And what Johnny's talking about is like you're not just shooting one video walking through the house, like you're gonna shoot a video of like a slow walk up to the house, maybe into the front door, and then like a pan to the left of the living room and then maybe you're going in.
Speaker 2:I feel sorry to interrupt you here. I shoot it all at once.
Speaker 1:Do you really?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's dude, it takes me two minutes to shoot videos. Wow, it takes me two minutes to shoot the video, eight minutes to edit it. I'm gonna now in 10 minutes.
Speaker 1:Dang yeah.
Speaker 2:You just do the entire house one go and then you're just kind of you can always ask me where do I stand? You stand where. I can't see you Get away Outside. Yeah outside in your car. Yeah, go to your car, I'll let you know when I'm done. And then when I come out, they're like you're done already and I'm like, yeah, I'm not gonna waste my time here. Like you're not going to party, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're, we're shooting videos. You basically hit record and then you just kind of walk through and then you're like getting your shot right, whether it's the living room, walking through the doorway into the bathroom, walking into the doorway of the master bedroom, maybe a slow pan of the back. Yeah, yeah, and then you just kind of go through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what works here the most is that there is an authentic feeling to it. It's not over edited, right? Because when you do like you said the slow walk up to the house and then a pan and then this, and then that people know that you're selling them something Right, and my focus is to show people something. This is what $650,000 gets you an Oxnard. This is what it looks like. I'm not trying to sell them something. That's one thing that I think that, as loan originators, we need to focus on providing information. Stop trying to sell everything, right. What happens when you see a commercial on YouTube that allows you to skip? What do you do?
Speaker 1:You skip it, oh yeah 100% why?
Speaker 2:Because you know they're trying to sell you something Like I don't want Red Bull, Stop trying to sell me Red Bull, right? Like stop. Or stop trying to sell me a gym subscription. Like, stop doing these things. So you hit, skip the moment that people feel like they're being sold. They don't want to Feel what happens when you go to a car lot just to look. What do you tell them? I'm just browsing, I'm just looking around Because you want them to get away. Leave me alone, Let me breathe, right? So I'm not focused on selling a product to someone, I'm just sharing look, have a look. What do you think? Hit me with a like Hit me with a comment.
Speaker 2:Send it to your mom, send it to your grandma, right? That's what my main focus is and I feel like that's. It shows in the video and there is a kind of how do I say it's not overproduced, it's just enough. It's shot on an iPhone, man, it's just enough Because I could shoot the cinematic stuff. You know, I shared with you what equipment I have. I do have a DJI gimbal, like for the camera, but nah, man, that's not what's working.
Speaker 1:Well and honestly, the iPhone is just as good a cam, especially video, than like, top of the line cameras were four or five years ago. It's crazy. I mean, you shoot 4K, you can shoot ProRes RAW files in cinematic mode on iPhone and they look incredible. But one thing you did say that I think is really important, that I don't want anybody to miss, is you said kind of what your hook is and what you use as a caption, what you can get for $650,000 in such and such city and state, and I think that is a big piece of it Because again, you're not saying for sale this much, hey, this is what you can get for this much money here, and that's a really hooky title. It's also a real SEO searchy title, Especially if you're posting that stuff on TikTok, where TikTok's becoming more of a search engine. I mean, it's getting right up there with YouTube. A lot of people using TikTok as a search engine. Those Facebook Reels pull into the Google algorithm. If you're putting it on YouTube shorts, that's something that's going to pull it to an SEO optimized title.
Speaker 1:So like that's a really I think that's a really good way to go about. These is like you're not doing a listing video for the real estate agent. You're basically saying, here's what you can get in our city or here's what you can get in this neighborhood for this much money. And then all of a sudden, the idea of the video like you said, what you're trying to accomplish is that you're just showing people something, Almost like you're answering a question or providing value here's what you can get for your money and it's not a sale thing and like it changes the whole thought presses of the video. So like that's a really big nugget. I wanted to make sure people and you know what that creates.
Speaker 1:Don't gloss over it, that also creates.
Speaker 2:I'm a strong believer in he who controls the leads, controls the business right and any industry, any industry. What it's done for me. It's allowed me to provide my preferred agents right, cause I also have a list of preferred agents. The same way that agents have a list of preferred lenders, I have my list of preferred agents that I love working with and that I know their values aligned with mine and I know that they're going to do right by the client right. It allows me to give them pre-approved buyers, cause people come to me first and then I ask them hey, do you have a preferred buyers agent that you're working with? No, I don't.
Speaker 2:I tell them okay, here's a list of you know three or four different agents. Call them, interview them, see who matches your needs right, and then we can move forward. Pick one out, let me know who you want to work with, I'll get in contact with them. And then the person that we get in contact with they're going to receive pre-approval letter, a US approval proof of funds. Everything's ready to go. Help them find a home right. If we focus on that becoming the lead source for our agents as well, we start bringing value that that hundred million producer isn't bringing Right, we start bringing value that other lenders are not bringing, so that's another thing to definitely focus on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're like you said, you're moving to the top of the funnel, which just makes you All the more valuable, right, yeah, cuz you're getting, you're helping them get more attention. You want something that that they're, that they're trying to sell. So, like it works two ways. Right, you're growing your brand, but then you're also you're generating leads and, like you said, I mean just you just said like it takes you 10 minutes to make. You know, make a video which is pretty, which is pretty incredible. And you mentioned the Luma fusion. I think I've talked about this on the podcast before, but Luma fusion is a great video editor app. That was like the first mobile one I ever started with I'm. It's similar to to cap cut. For you guys that that don't that maybe use cap cut. It's just a little bit. It's a little bit more editor heavy.
Speaker 1:You can do you can do more in Luma fusion. Yeah, so you like, you just shoot. You're shooting in for key, or you said? You said 1080p and 80.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't like shooting in in 4k or at least exporting. Exporting in 4k because I believe Instagram still only your max upload rendering, I think, is actually 720. So I shoot in 1080, export in 1080 and then it doesn't Compress the file too much. Because then I've noticed if I shoot in 4k and I try to upload in 4k It'll compress down to 720 and it looks horrible compared to what it would look like if I'm doing 1080.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so I think you have to 4k, so like if you did shoot 4k and then you export in 1080. So you're getting a down sampled 1080, which still looks better than than 1080 1080, but you have a smaller file size though if you're shooting it in. Yeah, so it's like it's gonna be quicker to work with. How many frames? What are you using for frames per second? Are you at 24, 30 or?
Speaker 2:60? No, for the home tours. I'm doing 60 frames per second because I like that it just looks buttery smooth. You know what I mean. Why did I just do?
Speaker 1:it. Are you doing a slow motion like? Are you slowing anything down? No, no, no.
Speaker 2:I just like how it looks, the refresh rate being at 60 or the frames per second being at 60. Yeah, the motion newer phones, it just looks nicer. I like the look. I'm a fan of the look if I'm shooting, talking good videos. 30 or 20 for 30 depends on what I'm feeling for the day, but I'm mainly going with 24.
Speaker 1:I've seen a lot of people try to do like a home tour kind of thing, and they'll do it at 24 frames per second and it's all the motion all good. Yeah, it's very choppy. Yeah, so I was. I was wondering what you, what you were doing there. Yeah, 60 frames for the home tours, gotcha okay. And then like, how do you, do you pick specific music? Do you try to find trending audio? Like, what's your process there with that?
Speaker 2:It's a mix. I look at what's trending, but I also try to post, like music that I like. Because here's another thing feel when people go to my profile, I want people to know what I like, right? The goal is having social media is for people to kind of get to know you Strong believer in this as well. I'm not meant for everyone, phil, but everyone is not meant for me, right? And it's okay for me to not want to work with a client and it's okay for me to not want to work with an agent. That's fine, right? I don't want to work with everyone because everyone doesn't go well with me and I don't go well with everyone, right? Our work styles are. Our thought process might be different.
Speaker 2:So what my goal is is to, when people go to my page, like, and you listen to the music, have you noticed most of my talking head videos? They're gonna be with like hip-hop, like 90s style hip-hop. I'm a big fan of 90s style hip-hop. One of my favorite groups is a tribe called quest. Love a tribe called quest and grew up with that stuff, so I try to use as much you know, as much of that as I can for the home tours. Honestly, whatever, whatever the vibe is, man, whatever the vibe is like, if I'm feeling like, oh, this one goes good with this house, I cool, I'll do it.
Speaker 2:But I definitely look for trending audio because you want to try to make it to the top and obviously home tours are. I know that they're already gonna do well, or I think they're gonna do well. So if they start doing well on a trending audio, this pushes your video higher in the trending audio. So if ever anyone's like skipping through a trending audio thing, then they start seeing your video. Right, they skip down low enough They'll run into your video. Guess what? That's a new set of eyes that didn't even know you existed. Yeah, exactly, click on your page and guess what their algorithm is now gonna hit their friends and yada, yada.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it helps do you do anything else, like within the caption or within your advanced metrics, to help you Be more hyper, local or localized with, like where your content is going? Like are you tagging anything specifically? Or yeah, like if I do the video in thousand oaks.
Speaker 2:I'm tagging thousand oaks, and then I will I use. I'm still using hashtags and they still work for me. I know people say no, I don't use them. People say yes, use them. I try to keep it at five or under and I'll use something local.
Speaker 2:Like you know, I'll use Ventura County homes and then I'll put ox turn houses for sale or ox turn homes for sale Oxard hashtags, or you know whatever. Whatever I can use. That's like Represents the area. Yeah, that's what. That's what I'm doing. I just tag the location. That's about it, the only thing that I truly pay attention to.
Speaker 2:I've been kind of trying it out, trying to post at different times of the day, but I've noticed that most of my people are active either at it's Right before 9 am they're most active. They're most active during like 11 to one ish well, people are at lunch and with their phone in their hand or sometime from like five to like eight or nine ish. So what I try to do is I try to post an hour before. Okay gained some traction, so that when they are on their phone they open up Instagram Boom, johnny medicados on there, right, the second or third. First, second or third Post from where they're. When they're scrolling they're like oh shoot, johnny posted another video, and I do get that from all my friends like Like, bro, you're all over my Instagram. Like no matter where I go, You're like all over my Instagram. And that's good for me because that's also showing me that I'm relatable and that I'm staying On top of people's timelines.
Speaker 1:So yeah, the yeah you want to put out as much content that people can't escape you, right? Yeah, whether it's on Instagram or Facebook or tic-tac or LinkedIn or whatever, whichever platform they exist on, the most they're going to go to see you. So like are you take? Are you just primarily posting those real estate videos on Instagram, or are you putting them on tic-tac to YouTube shorts, or are you just sticking around platform, the one that I haven't- posted on much recently was YouTube.
Speaker 2:Youtube, I've been saying this and I need to get to it, but I Want to post long form video on on YouTube. But YouTube, I want to allow people in a little more in the sense of like a day in the life Type of thing. I know that's working really well. So I do want to do like a day in the life of a lender, but I also want to do longer videos where I talk to people about like, look, this is what an FHA loan is. This is the process, what is underwriting? Look like this is why underwriters ask for this and this. And where I explain those things, where I explain down payment Assistance to people. Like more in-depth Kind of conversations, trying to keep them at 10 minutes or more or above. So that's kind of what I'm looking to do on YouTube.
Speaker 2:But yes, if you look for me on on LinkedIn, I'm on there, all the videos are on there. You look for me on Facebook I'm on Facebook, all the videos are there. You look for me on tic-tac I'm on tic-tac, all the videos are there. So I'm posting on all platforms that. I know my avatar is that right? What I mean by that is my perfect client.
Speaker 2:So yeah you're right, that's where I find my perfect client.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll tell you the YouTube. I'll encourage you to do that. I it's. It's crazy like what. What happens on YouTube? I have a video talking about the. So I have like I started the loan process playlist so like where I walk, I just I shot 10 videos walking Someone through the loan process and I did that so that every time I got a referral from a real estate agent that was a first-time home buyer, I send this playlist so they could walk through the process and they can just watch the videos whenever they feel like it.
Speaker 1:What's crazy is like one of them is like on conditional approval. It's got like over 5,000 views now From just people like certain they're not people I sent the video to, it's just searching on YouTube but somehow they're like wondering what conditional approval is. Yeah, and for anybody who doesn't know, 5,000 views on YouTube is actually a lot of freaking views for, especially for a video about conditional approval, like the most boring topic you could ever ever figure out. But I started, I transitioned my YouTube account to all veteran focused stuff and it's been. It's been really good and one thing I've noticed is that I've started posting stuff on tic-tac. I'll post like an idea for a video, and if it does well on tic-tac, I'll then take it and then go make a long-form YouTube video about it.
Speaker 1:Hmm, it's like tic-tac is, the is like the breeding grounds to find out what might trend or what might track with your target audience and then go deep dive on YouTube with it. So like I did have how to build a home with a VA loan, on tic-tac video I was like 60 seconds no real time.
Speaker 1:Close baby? Yeah, it was, I talked about that and then like the other way to do it, whereas the builder builds the house and and then we just do a VA loan at the end. So it was like 60 seconds, real brief, right. Well, it ended up going. It's got like 30,000 views and like it still gets me followers and and and likes and comments every single day. So I took it.
Speaker 1:What made that one on YouTube and I only have 450 views on it. But, dude, I've gotten three applications from that YouTube video just in the last 45 days, and so I was like, oh, it was like that video where I, where I like, connected the dot for me. I'm like, okay, well, this is now the kind of new strategy I'm starting to work with is like, instead of going and spending all the time and just making all these YouTube videos that don't may not necessarily connect, because it's like when you sit down and make a 10 minute video and then you either edit it or you hire somebody to edit it for you, that's a lot of time invested in it let's figure out what we know is gonna really connect with people first, then go invest it on YouTube. So that's what. That's what I've been been doing and testing out, so See how it works over the next six months but it's been good.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm making money from it, right, make a money for you to share.
Speaker 2:You shared something that's really important and for the loan officer that's watching this and doesn't get a thousand views on there on their videos, I want you to listen to this part. You shared something really important. You got three applications right from a video that only has 450 views on it, right? Yeah, it's not about how many views you get, it's about how many Lives you impact from that video. Personally, I would rather have a hundred followers that are buying one product from me than a thousand followers that are buying zero products from me, right? So I think that's really important. Man, you.
Speaker 2:It's a very niche Program that you were talking about, but it's a program that not many people are talking about. Mm-hmm. You made enough impact for three families to say, hey, we like this guy, phil, right, we like Phil, we want to get more information from Phil. You know what? Let's work with Phil. So I think you hit you hit a really important kind of, a Kind of something that we need to remind ourselves all the time that views don't always equate Business, right? Nope, it's, that's not. That's not. It's just putting yourself out there, right, creating a community, posting more and more and more content, and eventually it's going to start working for you.
Speaker 2:Yes but and it's a compounding effect, phil, yeah, I even see it a year from now, or a year. A year ago I wasn't getting the leads that I'm now getting from my social media, and A year from now, I know that I'm probably gonna double trip or a quadruple that. Right, because it's just, it's a compounding effect. You get more and more people that are watching your stuff and a, a video from I don't know how many years ago. To say, phil, or when did you make that video about? A? What is a conditional approval? The?
Speaker 1:one on yeah, the one on tiktok was a year ago. Right, yeah, I got in the tiktok video. I got an app in Louisiana just last month. Like it still produces, whereas like Instagram, it's a super short life cycle, but tiktok, if you make the right video, it continues to trend. But then again, I took that and then made it on a YouTube video and I got three apps now from the exact same idea. The same video, just a different. It's just longer, a little bit more investment in the, in the production, but it's already paid off. Right, it's, it's, it's paying off.
Speaker 1:And just to build upon what you said, you know and I've probably shared this example, so everybody who's listened ever. So, the podcast Friday All right, phil, I know you've shared the story before, but I have. I had a video that I put on Instagram that now has over 70,000 views. I've never gotten one application or deal from it. Yeah, likewise, I had a video that I shot in my truck in the pickup line, picked my kids up from school on my phone Lighting was harsh, audio was so so talking about how I helped to self-employed borrower Get a bank statement loan and they were able to buy a house. Yep, they did their taxes really well and didn't show any income and they had been denied for a home. They've been renting, their families been renting, and we did a bank statement loan and they got a $400,000 home. The family got into a home.
Speaker 1:I made that big crappy video. It got like 400 or something views but I got 22 DMs and text messages from real estate agents Just from that video was saying hey, I have a customer that's in the same situation, can you help them? I had ten applications and then we did six Bank statement loans from that one video because I decided to take 60 seconds, pick up my phone in the pickup line and just share a story about a problem I solved. So one video, seventy thousand views, didn't get me nothing Right. The other one, several hundred views, actually put money in my bank account.
Speaker 2:So you, you, you shared something very, very important that we should kind of develop on. You talked about how you solve the problem. You didn't sell a product. You gave someone a solution.
Speaker 2:You gave them a means to an end right like this is if this, then this, and this is how I did it Right, yep, or this is how I did it because this was this right. You're giving people the value like oh wait, phil did that. Wait, hold on, that sounds familiar. I, it sounds like I'm going through that. Or as a real estate agent wait a minute, phil did that whole.
Speaker 2:My other lender didn't do that. They can't do that A little. Do they know that? Maybe the other lender either tried or they talked, or whatever it was, but Still giving you an opportunity, putting you in a position where you can speak to more people? So again, if anyone needs proof or if anyone needs that nudge to Start creating content, get your ass up and start doing it. You don't need the best, like equipment. There's been times where I use my phone because I don't have anything else, because I'm lazy to set up my lighting or lazy to Start up the roadcaster, like I. I'm like, ah, you know what old faithful, here we go, let's do that, yeah, that's perfect.
Speaker 1:The best tool is the tool that you have in your hand, right? So sometimes there's people that make a million dollars a year from this. Yep, plain simple. So, alright, man, well, we've been, we've been at this for almost an hour and I know that you're you're busy, dude, so we'll get you back to your day, but, man, hey, I appreciate you coming on the podcast, dude. I learned a lot. I know our listeners learned a lot from you too. It is just great to get to chat with you. Where can you know people want to check you out and follow you. You know where can they go follow you at?
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. First of all, man, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. Excited to have joined you and share some more you know information with the public. Share some stories with you, bro. Great to get to know you a little better. Yeah, anyone wants to check me out? Check me out on social media, on all platforms. I'm at at Johnny Medicado, it's J O H N, I E. Medicado, it's market in Spanish. Yeah, so Johnny Medicado on all social platforms if you guys want to check out what I'm doing. And loan officers, don't, don't be shot.