The Power of the Podcast: Unlock Your Brand's Marketing Potential

Mastering Video Marketing: Mukul Lalchandani on Building Brand

• Pedal Stomper Productions - Josh Troche

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In this episode, we dive deep with Mukul Lalchandani, founder of Undivided, a trailblazing real estate agency in New York City. Mukul shares how video marketing transformed his business, helped him stand out in a saturated market, and built lasting trust with his audience.

Discover his strategies for creating authentic, intelligent content that resonates with high-value clients, his journey to producing 52 videos in a year, and the importance of understanding your target audience's psyche. Learn actionable tips on:

  • Why educating your audience is a game-changer
  • The role of pre-production and planning in creating engaging content
  • Transitioning from awareness to conversion in the content funnel
  • Using analytics to refine your content strategy

Plus, hear Mukul’s inspiring origin story, why he believes in going digital-first, and his exciting vision for the future of video marketing in real estate. If you’ve ever wondered how to leverage video to grow your business, this episode is a must-listen!

🎧 Listen now to discover how Mukul is reshaping the way real estate professionals use video!

If you're looking to talk podcasting and get more information on how to make your podcast shine, our 30-minute "no pitch" podcast consultation is right for you!  Click the link to sign up for a time. 
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Educated customers are the absolute best. They show up, they ask the right questions. They know what they want, they know where they're headed, and they know you're going to be the one to help them get there. Michael Lalonde has built his YouTube channel, creating his own ideal customers through education. He does a great job of finding new customers in the same way. How has he done that? Stay tuned. Michael, thank you for coming on today. I really appreciate it. I mean, having watched a lot of your videos, the the content that you create is awesome. And I know that you put a lot of time and effort into it. What really I mean, you've got a thriving real estate business. What motivated you to start creating that video content for it? I had been an agent for many, many years, and, I just always knew video was the way to go to reach a new audience. And it's all about trust in our industry. There's so many, agents. There's a low barrier to entry. So how do you distinguish yourself from all the other agents? And, I always pride myself with my knowledge and expertise and our transparency in serving our clients. So how do I project that to a wider audience? And so video was the way to go. That's interesting. You say that you've made a beautiful segue into my next question here because, I mean, your content's it's informative. It's engaging, but you put your harsh, sometimes honest take on things in there. I, I saw I watched the video about the congestion pricing and you're like, look, New York does a lot of things, right. Here's a couple that they don't do right. I'm okay with that. I mean, I'm assuming that to me it builds on that authenticity. I mean, it's huge for that authenticity with that, is there the intent with that or is it just like, look, I'm going to say what I'm going to say. I think people gravitate to people that are not just another yes man. They gravitate to people that are going to give them a different perspective. And so even with our content this year, 2025, we're going to focus on creating more intelligent content. We're going to go more advanced level. So it's not like, basic content. It's more like if you are someone that is intelligent, that's creating something more unique online, we are going to have a channel that's going to give you suddenly a different perspective from everywhere else. And that's we're going to focus on with that. I mean, creating intelligent content because there's I don't want to say there's so much dumb content out there, but okay, with creating that intelligent content, there's gotta be a big pre-production process with that, I'm assuming. I mean, pre-production is one of the things that we lay out quite a bit of with people were like, look, it's it's the final is going to end up being 80% dictated by how much time you spend before you ever turn a camera on, before you ever open your mouth. What is some of that pre-production look like for you guys? It's a it's a really big endeavor. And you are a production company. We we do everything in-house. So we had to build everything from scratch. And I have a wonderful marketing, person in-house and we have a, project management board and every content piece that we come out with every week, by the way, we drop a piece every week. We have, from ideation to, content creation to review to, how it's going to show up on video. What are the props we're going to use? What how are you going to balance it out with when we go live? How are we going to use it to promote ourselves and how we're going to get it to reach more a broader audience? So there's a full, system that we put in place for every single piece that we've, that we create now. Wow. That's so I mean, it's very there's a big structure and there's operations from step A to step B to step C, that absolutely is. So on the flip side of this, what's your measure of success for this is this. People that are knocking on the door is this views is this where does success get measured in some of these very good questions. So the truth is we started a year ago, we started our company a year ago and, and, and in fact, in 2024, we created 52 videos out of 52 weeks, you know, so, so, so we, we create a lot of content and we've been following our metrics. We've been learning. Now, I remember our first video, we had no idea what we're doing. We didn't know about lighting, did not know by camera but sound and mix. And we've we've learned everything from from scratch. And, now we've learned about funnels and we've learned about call to actions and landing pages and, social advertising. And so now we've built a whole new level of, of, of gameplay, that we're going to be launching actually in the few weeks, that we're going to be taking all of our, but then have a more strategic way of deploying content to have a better return on investment. That's interesting. That's it. Is that return on investment really just I mean, how many people are knocking on the door to say, yes, yes, you're my real estate guys. So so depending where in the funnel they are. So if they are in the awareness stage or and they're in the engagement stage, we're creating different content pieces so that they see us in different places. So when they're ready to make a decision on who they want to work with, they've seen a few times over their journey of exploring about wanting to buy a home. And I find that they're ready to make a decision. They already know about us. They like us, and now they want to work with us. So that is, that is what we've been working towards in the last couple of months. So in a lot of cases, the video is building that know, like and trust they know you before they ever show up. So a lot of the content we did last year was really in the awareness stage where it's like, oh, what is congestion pricing, what the effects of it, but we don't have a good strong call to action. Like, okay, now why should you work with us? So that's what we've been working on is the evaluation stage. And so now we want to take those video pieces. And now we wanted to convert to actual, business opportunities and leads that make sense. So it's building that base. You've got a base of videos here to to launch from as you start to move towards a little bit more of that calling to action. So you've done a lot of the education piece. Let's start moving. Oh that makes so so, so now this year in fact I think next week you'll see now videos like for example, next week's video that's going to be coming out as, why should you work with us on how are we better than other agencies? Now? That's when people are trying to figure out who they want to work with. But that's a different part of the funnel that we are now creating content for, which we never did before. So it's just a little bit different of that. The, the, the intentionality of our content pieces. Sure. So it's it's less New York and more about the more about the business itself. Yes. Like how are we different? Why are we better? What are you going to get when you work with us? What's the experience that you can expect to get when you work with us? I love that so it's just another step in that evolution of of putting those pieces into that funnel. Exactly. When, when people are interested and now they've seen us, they they see my faith. They see us regularly. They trust us that they want to know. Okay, I'm interested in working with you. What's it going to be like? And now we have pieces of that as well. That makes sense. I love that, you do a good job with educating on both the real estate side and the New York City side, the things that are happening there, that education piece that you guys have done spent the last year doing, which we're going to get into, you're like the content schedule of a video every week, which is crazy for most people. Crazy is, the benefits of educating your audience. What do you see in those? So it's interesting that you say, I guess that when we look at our past clients, we saw that our best performing clients who gave us the best business, what people that tend to be educated, they are C, C, C suite executives. They are, they've done they've graduated or done, postgraduate school. They're educated, high income earners, busy people. And we we did market research to see what are their, cycle psychographics, the demographics, where do they shop, what do they do? And we found that they actually like to do as much research on whatever they want to purchase, or they want to go in a new direction. They do all the research before they even go out and contact the company that they want to work with. They prefer to work with brand that they feel connected to than just buying the brand just for the brand name. And so because of this, we have created content that really appeals to this target audience. Wow. That's the the intent behind that and the research behind that. Correct. What triggered that research to start just that, hey, we've really got to dial this in. Is that just we're like, look, we've got to get this right the first time. Absolutely. So our our content pieces, it's not for everybody. And as we're going to go to more intelligent content, it's going to it's going to it's going to connect with certain people that want that information. Not everybody's going to want that information. And so when we make content that exactly connects to our target audience, they will they will feel like, hey, this company gets me. They get how who I am and what I'm going through, and I rather work with this company. And that's what we that's what we're doing. I love that there's so many people that spend so much time marketing to everyone. They just because they want the vanity metrics, they want the the subscribes, they want the end. Not realizing that look, especially when it comes to the business market, to the exact person that you want to see walk through that door. Otherwise it's that that waste of time, so to say, totally, I rather I rather get, five really good leads, but hot warm leads, then a hundred cold leads or just people. The window shopping that I have that have to go and qualify. Right. So I rather work with I rather work with less higher quality life and with a lot of low quality leads. Yeah. And if it's if it reduces your audience size in doing that, well then great. That's yeah, that totally makes sense. It's it's funny. It's one of those things that we try and hammer into people all the time talking about the podcasting, and they're like, no, no, no, no, I want to talk to everyone. And I'm like, no, you really do not. In that I notice the other thing is too, like there's usually between the video, there's the blog, there's the newsletter. Are those all written at the same time? Does one write the other one? What's the. In many cases, we take the podcast and help people turn that into a blog and then turn that into a newsletter. But that stems from the conversation in the podcast. Do you guys build those all at once or how does that work? So so we we first we have our, we have our monthly calendar. And then every week we have a piece coming out video and a blog piece. And then when we know what that content piece is going to be, what the topic is going to be, then we create a content ideation. Template that I then go in and I give my, honest feedback on whatever the topic happens to be. Then it goes to our copywriter, who will then create the blog and the script for the video. Then we review it before we actually schedule a time to shoot it. Now in 2025, we're going to pick the first Thursday of every month to shoot the entire month's content pieces. So in one setting, we can just create it all. And that way we have all the content for the entire month that we're going to for two months ahead of schedule. So at the time of shooting this video, we're in January. We're now shooting. We should be shooting March content so that we're not always running last minute to try to catch up to, getting to our deadline. Date it once again, you're doing a beautiful job of segueing from question to question for me. Because my next question, how do you stay motivated to be consistent to like, look, we've got to put out 52 videos. It's it's it it really is tough. So I'll give you a good example, which you mentioned congestion pricing. So we knew when it was going to launch, which was going to be January for our fourth I believe, last week. So we knew that back in early December. And we're like, you know what, we need to catch this date. We need to have our video drop the week of, before New Year's. We dropped the video, we dropped the blog. The video did really well on YouTube. It actually kept ramping up because it was getting more relevant online. And then LinkedIn picked up our, our newsletter. And then because it related to what was trending on LinkedIn. So we got like 5400 impressions from Arlington newsletter cut out congestion pricing. So if we can create content that relates to what's going on in the larger conversation, we're able to, be able to get better traction. So, for example, we're going into, new administration. The government has, in effect, interest rate. What's going to happen with housing? We can we start talking about it now so that when by the time it happens in the spring, summer, we're already relevant in that in the in when it's going on online, that's that's amazing that planning takes time. But it's from what you're saying, it's definitely well worth the effort. It sounds like so so those pieces, tend to do very well. Interesting. So when you it is, it is very much that looking ahead to to what's going the things that we know are coming that are I don't want to say not in the news yet but will be if. Yeah. As I'm going to be can predict it. So another thing that's happening in New York is, late last year, New York passed the new rental, requirement that now, whoever your client is, if I am the agent and my client's the landlord, the land can only pay my commission, and they can collect it from the tenant. And so this law just happened last year. It's going to go into effect this summer. So we're going to have a timely piece come out just before that that talks about the same topic again, because everyone's going to be talking about it. And we're going to come out with blog post, newsletters, video content. We're going to put it on social media so that when it does reach that point, everyone's chatting about it. We already are. We already have our content pieces out. It's already out there. It's already got a couple of views and it is ready just to explode as that happens. Yeah, because everyone's gonna be talking about it. And where the relevant piece that that that talks about, you're already there. I absolutely love that. Now do you guys I know you mentioned you're doing looking at doing this moving forward. Have you batch recorded before where you're recording 3 or 4 videos in one setting? Yes. Yeah. I mean we we so right now we're usually about 2 to 3 weeks ahead of schedule. So we want to be two months ahead of schedule because yeah, as a small business owner, I also have to go and close deals. I have to go and show properties. I have to actually talk to clients. And so balancing the time of doing creative work versus actually running the business is, I have to balance it out. So we try to put everything in to a shooting day. And now that I have a dedicated marketing person, they can set the studio, they can make sure that scripts are all ready on the teleprompter. Everything is done so that we're not scrambling and spending half a day just picking out all of our equipment. And by the way, I gave you a lot of props because all that stuff is just a whole different world. There there is reasons why there's people like me that like, love this gear type of stuff. And and yeah, when you look at the lighting and the other stuff that gets set up, there's there's a skill to it. It's not just a ring light above a phone and that's, it's entertaining. With that, I mean, you've mentioned the scripts and I find it very interesting when you mention those are those bullet pointed and are you riffing off of those? Are those actually like word for word scripts for you? So when we first started, we were doing word for word and we were. So every week we actually review all of our metrics. We look at how, how is every piece doing online on different channels and YouTube. And we trying to see where the traffic is coming from. Is it mobile on the desktop? Which which country is resonating? Well? And what we found is that the unscripted bullet point, scripts do better than a fully scripted script. It's just people watch it for a longer. The videos are tend to be longer, but people, people like those pauses. People are like you and you're like in that thinking moment, it just seems more authentic. So those have done better for us. It's it's funny you say that because I wondered about that, because when we talked about that authenticity piece, I know a lot of people that will try and read a teleprompter and reading a teleprompter to sound authentic is extremely difficult. Whereas if you can do bullet points and just be like, I'm going to stammer or stutter on this one, or I need to think about this, or I need to read ahead while I'm. It makes a huge, huge, huge difference. You guys have at looking right now, it's approximately 42,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel, which congratulations. That's well, well well done. What has helped you get to that audience? Is it that showing up every week? Is it, is there a niche that you focused on? Has there been paid ads involved with that? What's been what's really helped you get to that level? It's it's been a combination. I think that the, initially we started with, testing paid ads and it did very well, but we found that the quality of the, of the people that was subscribing was not our target market. So we actually stopped doing it altogether. In fact, the best generating, videos tend to be the property tours. So, when we, when we're touring, new development homes, new new need around projects in New York City, the flashy, sexy format for the ceiling windows, panoramic views of the city, those tend to do really well. So we're actually going to be dedicating once a month, a new development feature because that again aligns with that target market, what they were looking for. And it resonates with our luxury branding. So, so that's what we're in fact, I'm going to be shooting next week a new development project. Nice. So it's it's really it's letting the algorithm figure out who the exact person that you want to talk to is because they like this. And then the the other buying people like this, those are the ones that really engage with that. Yeah. When we when we look at our stats today, we are seeing our target market is actually the ones that are watching our videos, that are downloading our lead magnet on our website regularly. And so we know that they are converting and we're not doing any advertising at this point right now. We haven't done it for like, I don't know, five months and we're getting almost every day someone downloading, a lead matic from Lead Magnet from our website. That's amazing. That's awesome. And congratulations on figuring that out because that is a that is a puzzle that a lot of people don't get to. That's that's amazing. Is there anyone that's come in that's been like, hey, I watch your videos. Yes. So it's really funny you say that I was, entertaining clients in, in. And have you been to New York, by the way? I have not, I need to okay, so we need to come let me know when you are in town. In the flat Iron District, which is a really popular Midtown location. I was entertaining clients, and we went to this very, exclusive restaurant, and we're we're having a great time. We're exiting, and this guy just, like, pulled me aside. He you you're that real estate guy on on YouTube, and I'm like, excuse me? Like, yeah. Yes. Your videos all the time. And he's like. And like, my clients are waiting for me, like, what's going on? And then he's like, oh, I need, I need to get your, your, your contact info. I'm going to reach out to you, blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, so it does happen. And another thing is a lot of agents see my video content too in the city. And so they also reach out to me or they'll, they, they when I'm showing a property like, oh my God, I've seen you online. So I know it is, it is resonating with people here. That's awesome to hear. So from other agents. Is that like help you guys in working together? And then once again, if they see a few of those there's that know like and trust that you're you and that they've got a pretty good idea who they're dealing with. Absolutely. If you want to stand out from just being another in New York City, we have 35,000 milk agents. It is a saturated market. Yes. Your your mother, your sister, your brother in law, your cousins, second cousin. They're all your agents. So there's a lot of that. And to stand out, you have to do something different. And so, the video platform has really given me an opportunity for social media to give me an opportunity to stand up on the market so that I don't have to sell myself from the very beginning to everybody that I meet that they already know of me, and that there is a certain level of, camaraderie that comes with it. That's interesting because especially and I have to think it's a little different in New York, here in Ohio are much more largely rural, and most real estate agents stick a sign out in the front yard when something's sold. I find probably there's not as many front yards to stick a post in, you know, there there is no, and in fact, they act they actually shun against that. And in fact, in buildings, condominiums, you can't put any real estate signage anywhere on the building in front of the building on the street. You're not allowed to do any of that. So it's a very different game that we play here. We don't have yard signs. We don't have, just so in contract signs, we have to do everything that's really digital is the way to go in this local market. We don't even really print out like, listing show sheets anymore. When you walk into a property and, you know, I don't know how much you know, but you can used to be able to pick up, like, a little show sheet that shows, like information about the property. They don't even do that anymore in the local market. Everything is digital in our in our local market. And in fact, that's where we do really well. From the very beginning. We've been digital first and that's really where we shine. That's amazing. That's it. It really is. It is a it's interesting because it it seems like it's a very different world than like I said, there's I mean, people in this area, they're a member of the local chamber of commerce to try and try and get the, the people there or they're passing out fliers or they're in a parade. I didn't see you having a float in the Macy's Day Parade or anything like that. Know you weren't throwing candy out of the back of a pickup truck. As you guys move forward, you've already alluded to some of this, but, I mean, what do you see in the future of video marketing? You're obviously always looking. I mean, I know you're looking ahead to the this year. Something tells me you're not looking ahead to just this year, you're looking to 26, 27 and 28. What do you think you see in the future for video marketing? How's it going to shape, like your industry in the coming years? I think that there's going to well, in my industry itself, we're going through a lot of changes. Last summer there was this big thing about buyers broker commission and there was people were and then in an uproar. I think we're going to see a lot of people leave the industry. It's just getting too much tougher. And for those that do stay, the landscape is changing. So there's just a lot of competition, there's a lot of noise. And, we, we will continue to not just become a New York City centric brokerage, but, focus on major major cities across the US, brokerage, and also targeting virus from overseas. So possibly creating content, video content that are in different languages. So I can create the same video and then have I double it in different languages and putting it on social media channel of those specific countries that are not available here in the US, and that way we capture a different audience that are thinking about buying in the US in their home country and haven't even thought about how to, find an agent here. We're already there in their country, and they're seeing us as being the experts. That's amazing. I it's interesting you said the eye piece to that because it's something that we're looking at and working with some people on to, in terms of how can we get this out? Because once again, it's the world is becoming more global every day. And, the fact that you can reach people that are even considering coming to the US, that they don't have to come here for four visits to try and figure out where they're going to live. They can get an agent here that you can show them a couple of places virtually. Then they they may come over and want to visit it. Sure. They may not they may see a tour that you could just email them and be in wonderful shape. I love that, and I the fact that you're adapting that is to me is really awesome. And looking to that ahead, that's such a cool piece. If someone's considering looking at video content to like start promoting their business, what's one piece of advice you would give and what's one thing where you're like, stay away from that. That's a mistake. I don't think it's about the quality of the video. I don't think you have to have the best production and the best lighting you have here. You have an amazing thing right in your hand immediately, which does very good quality today. I think it's coming up with Intel origin smart perspectives on whatever you want to talk about. And it has to show as being authentic to really resonate with the person that's viewing it. And if you can, if you can, if you can project that. I think that that's really where the successes. That leads me to another quick question. So, a lot of creators start out with a little bit of imposter syndrome. Why am I going to talk about this? I always tell people, look, you talk about this 40. I mean, as small business owners, we talk about this 20, 30 hours a week or 70. We're experts in what we do. Was there some imposter syndrome? Like. Yeah. If I start talking about this, is someone going to listen? Honestly, not I. I think I've always lived like this. Even just running my own business. I never agreed with what other agents were doing. And in fact, I don't know if you saw my story of why I became an agent, but because my family went through a terrible experience buying real estate in the US and they had a terrible experience, they lost a lot of money, and the agent just came to pick up their check and walked right out. And I was like, this is how it's done here. I was shocked, so I said to myself that I would go into the business to help families like my family never go through what they went through. And so that's why that's where the company, my company's name is undivided, undivided attention, loyalty and service. That is the premise of my shop. So. So when I talk about the things that I talk about, it's because I honestly believe in those things. And I believe that people should know about those things to protect their own needs. I absolutely love that. To me, that that is an awesome place to end. I mean, what you've built is amazing. It's definitely what I see it too. It's it's inspirational. Your channel is going to be one that I'm going to point some people to, to see, like, look, that you can do this. I know you can. I really appreciate you coming on. And, also, we have to give a shout out to 10,000 small businesses for connecting us through this. We're both alums of the program. You obviously in New York, me in the Cleveland one. This has been amazing. And I'm assuming some of the pieces from your business came from that program. Absolutely. Like we're just a year old now, and I just finished 10,000 small businesses two weeks ago, and now we have our growth plan, and now we're executing. In fact, all the thing that talk to you about next year and the next two years is all from 10,000 small businesses. Awesome. Thank you very much for coming on. And, we will probably have to do this again soon, sometime later in the year, to see how 2025 is going. I'm I'm ready, I'm ready. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks so much. Appreciate the time. So I want to wrap this up and put a bow on this. So to say educate your customers educate your client. So and it's going to do two things. Not only is it going to make it so you've got more educated clients that are going to show up to you with ask those better questions, do those better things, find those better. They're just going to be better clients for you. They'll be easier to work with, but you're also going to find more of them by putting that education piece out there, putting that education out there. That to me is the biggest theme from the day. The second theme is that pre-production put the time and effort into making sure that you're talking about the right things. Look at it. I mean, map those things out, but you got to make sure that you do it in a way that allows you to stay authentic. Become the expert that your customers rely on for both their information and for their business. With that being said, hit the subscribe buttons. The follow buttons. I would really appreciate if on your podcast platform you would leave us a review that would help us out immensely. I'd appreciate it greatly. Also, if you have a question, leave a comment. We've got some really exciting things coming up. I would love to interact with you about this. We can put his information in the show notes here for you to go, trace, knuckle down. And if you want to reach out to them, maybe you're looking for real estate in New York. He is obviously the one to talk to about that. As always, do me a favor. Take care of yourself. And if you can, take care of someone else too, I will see you very soon. You owe me. Oh, hey, everybody go! Oh! Oh, I. Like. You. You. You cut this shit. Give me. Oh! Oh oh! Everybody go! Oh oh! Hey, everyone! You.

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Josh Troche

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