The Elite Real Estate Podcast

Isaiah Lazarus & Landon Ryska | Acryn Digital on Content, Branding & Turning Views Into Customers

• Jimmy Nelson

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🎙️ The Elite Real Estate Podcast | Hosted by Jimmy Nelson

Two Metro Detroit founders are helping brands stop the scroll and turn content into customers. Isaiah Lazarus and Landon Ryska built Acryn Digital from the ground up and their client list speaks for itself — eXp Realty, BAS Group, Fieldstone Title, Audi Rochester Hills and more.

We get into: 🎬 Why short-form video is no longer optional for agents and business owners 📱 What actually makes content stop the scroll in 2025 💡 How to build a content system that drives real world results not just likes 🏡 Why agents are leaving money on the table by ignoring their personal brand 🚀 How to go from zero content strategy to a brand people actually follow

If you are a real estate agent or entrepreneur who knows you need to show up on video but have no idea where to start — this episode is going to change how you think about content forever.

🔔 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE so you never miss an episode! ▶️ Watch more: youtube.com/@theeliteedgenetwork 🎧 Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeart and more. Search "The Elite Real Estate Podcast"

📲 Follow Jimmy Nelson: EliteEdgeNetwork.com | @JimmyNelsonRealEstate 📲 Follow Acryn Digital: @AcrynDigital | acryndigital.com

#RealEstate #RealEstatePodcast #AcrynDigital #ContentMarketing #ShortFormVideo #MetroDetroit #JimmyNelson #EliteEdgeNetwork #VideoMarketing #PersonalBranding #RealEstateMarketing #StopTheScroll #MichiganBusiness #DigitalMarketing #RealEstatePodcast2025

 Elite Edge Network is where human intelligence meets AI. We help entrepreneurs communicate better, scale smarter, and build businesses that support their lives—not consume them. Coaching, systems, and AI working together. 

 Elite Edge Network is where human intelligence meets AI. We help entrepreneurs communicate better, scale smarter, and build businesses that support their lives—not consume them. Coaching, systems, and AI working together. 

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SPEAKER_02

Today's episode is brought to you in part by our friends at Connection, the CRM built for closers. If you're a real estate agent, entrepreneur, or small business owner looking to automate, follow up, and close more deals and stay top of mind, then Connection is your secret weapon. Go to yourconnection.com and take control of your pipeline today. Now, whether you're tuning in live on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, or X, catching the replay on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, wherever you stream, we're glad you're here. Do me a favor, hit that like button, drop a comment, and share this with a friend, and make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode. All right, guys, let's get locked in. We've got a powerhouse show lined up today. And if you're in business of real estate or just building something big, this one is for you. Good morning, good morning, good morning, everybody. Welcome into the Elite Real Estate Podcast on another fine Friday morning. And uh got some in-house guests today that I'm excited to get on today. And uh we've been trying to figure this out for a little bit, but it's nice when I can get it actually people in studio, right? Like when it when it's in studio, it's a lot better. So super happy to have these guys in. So Isaiah and Landon from Akron Digital. Welcome in, fellas. How are you guys doing? Yeah, man. What's so as you guys are in here on this early morning, but you guys are already up anyway, right? Always. Yeah. Yeah, this isn't a big deal for you guys. Well, yeah, man, I I appreciate you guys coming in. So talk to me about Akron Digital. Where did that where did the idea come from?

SPEAKER_05

And so I mean, I started it like probably eight months ago, and he was doing like his own separate thing kind of. So me and him didn't even like start it together. You know, we were kind of just I was doing on the side, I started working with Bernie because you know he's just a good family friend of mine. So I got really into real estate through him. And then he was working with MI Nutrition at the time, you know, his mentor was there. Over time, we kind of saw each other's work. We're like, you know, we'd probably kill it just and we combined and you know we came together. And we recently just came together like what, a month ago?

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, not even a month ago. Okay.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Probably 10X from what we were what we were already doing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's phenomenal. Yeah. Well, it's sometimes it's like there's an old saying, if you want to go far, go alone. If you or if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

SPEAKER_06

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Right? So that's like a big thing. And and so how did how why did you get started? Like, where did you get started at with this?

SPEAKER_06

So I started it on my own page as well, like Isaiah was just saying, mainly because I had about two years' experience in the industry. So I used to work for a company called MI Nutrition, which is more of a consultation-based nutrition company where they do everything, supplements, they do meal prep, they do embody scans. So rather than walking in somewhere and you kind of don't know what you're looking for, there's actually guys there who will help guide you. However, while I was doing that and I was operating there, I got myself into the whole social media side of things and creating content. And over those two years, I've rapidly excelled. I understood the algorithm, I understand how it works. I went into the ads, the ad campaigns, boosting posts, and it has practically helped MY Nutrition double their revenue. They went from about 7,000 followers to just over 20,000 now.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_06

And I eventually switched into business financing while running my own side gig. And that's when Isaiah and I met. Actually, we've known each other for quite some time now, but that's when we brought that conversation to the table. Yo, what happens if we combine? Like, and I was like, okay, I'd undertain the idea, and we sat down, we talked about it. And like he said, we've basically 10x what we were both doing personally, and we just combined it under one corporation.

SPEAKER_02

Better together.

SPEAKER_06

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. And where how did you like where did you where did you get started?

SPEAKER_05

So at Romeo, they had this uh video production pathway. So if you're a freshman, you get to pay. There was a business academy, they had like hospitality, and then they had like them, which was like instruction, video production, like all that stuff. I was more of like a nerdier kid, kind of going into high school, and like I always just love working with cameras, like just getting stuff filmed, doing like YouTube videos as a kid, you know, whatever. Yeah, and this like class kind of taught me everything with editing software, like Final Cut Pro. I learned all of that from freshman year to senior year, and then you know, after sophomore year, everyone kept growing. I didn't, so I stopped playing basketball, and uh all my friends still did, though, so they would you know say, Hey, can you come film my game? So I started filming basketball games, and I would literally stand like sideline, their parents would pay me just to get a couple like mixtapes for them, and I did really well. So I was like, Oh, well, this is you know a skill I've always had. Then I went away to college for a semester, was like, okay, whatever. Came back home, worked, never really thought about it. It was in the back burner. And then Bernie, uh his wife, called my mom, who was just saying how like he started he was starting Bass Group and looking for someone to do content. And at the time, that's when I started doing like a little bit here and there for my cousin's barber shop, and she liked the video she saw. So then I came in there, and then you know, now we're here.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Now you're welcome to real estate. Because now you're having meetings with the biggest names in the business, right?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, no, it's uh it's awesome. I mean, just the amount of connections and like networking that's within just the real estate industry itself is it's insane.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. A lot of people don't see it until they get into it. And then when you go into an event like Spring Showdown, you're like, What?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, and Spring Showdown, I mean, really was what kicked us off because you know, Keith, you know, I met him when I early on too, because you know, Fieldstone Snaphomes were in the house there, and I was showing him showing him my R work, and he was like, Listen, I want you guys to handle the the media for Spring Showdown. And you know, we were like, Okay, let's do it. We did all the contestant videos, and then at the event we got done, and we were like getting text messages from all these guys, like, hey, you know, this and that. It was it was cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's a good product, right? You guys put out, right? So it's so that that it's one of those things you can't you you have to prove it, yeah, right? But you can prove it quickly, exactly.

SPEAKER_06

You know what I mean? If you put a good product out, and I would say it's not necessarily even a product either. I'd say it's more of a service because you do have to think that when you're running your own business, your time is already all jumbled up, you're a busy guy. And that goes for anybody who's a business owner. Where we come in is we come in with doing the actual content creation, but we also do all the filming, we do all the editing, and our main goal is to take that off your shoulders. We can help you with posting, we can help you with the ad campaigns, whatever your target is for the social media. We essentially create the content and we die design the you know the posting style and the marketing strategy around that. That way you actually see results. But our biggest thing since day one is being able to take that off of a business owner's shoulders to make their life one easier, but two to also help build their digital presence and help build their brand.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, because it is a lot. Like we like real estate's a funny space, right? Like you guys are finding this out now. Yeah, realtors, we like to be out there for the most part. Like, we like like have you guys struggled with that having a realtor like jump on camera?

SPEAKER_05

Uh not honestly, no, not really. They all love being real, they love themselves. They're like, hey, they all just love talking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So it's hard to find a realtor that really doesn't want to do a video, right? Or doesn't want to do some sort of content. Yeah. And some of them get corny, right? Like it's and that make it a little bit more fun and a little more interesting.

SPEAKER_05

It's not just, you know, oh yeah, I'm yeah, and that's the thing that's awesome about it too, is like each real estate client we have all has their own different style. So like it's easy for us now because like when we uh you know know who it is, we're like, okay, that's more their style. Yeah, and it's it's easy to kind of move, you know, different music behind this guy. Like, I wouldn't put video on like a music I'm putting in a Bassie video for Bernard, you know, because it's just two different styles. So it always helps out a lot too.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. And and so your introduction into real estate, you guys got thrown into the fire right in the spring showdown. Essentially, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, we did. But you guys had a whole crew there. Yeah. So how many, how many people are you employing? Or are you, do you like contract everybody?

SPEAKER_05

You know, it's easy on us because a lot of the people still are in school. We're young, a lot of guys are still either in college or they're working full-time. So we kind of look at it as okay, well, on the side, if you want to make extra money, here is an opportunity to go and film, you know, and kind of learn the system. And if this is something they want to get into long term, we'll easily hire them down the line. But right now it's just all contract.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. And it's it's funny because it's another connection, right? So I coached you in high school too, right? Like they're like, we're finding all these connections, the guys that I coached in high school. And and so with with this idea, like how did you you got a lot of guys because what year did you graduate from high school?

SPEAKER_05

Uh 24.

SPEAKER_02

And you graduated in 2024. Yeah. So two you guys graduated from high school two years ago.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Right. And so, but I think that's what's important about what you're doing, is because this social media is evolving every day. It's something different, right? Algorithms and music and this and that, and what you need. So, how do you guys stay in touch with it? Like, how do you stay honed in with it?

SPEAKER_06

I think one of the biggest things is always researching the market, especially for specific clients. Real estate's gonna be very different from you know the art of regenerative medicine. It's a doctor's office that we take care of, and they are opening a new clinic that is gonna solely focus on stem cells, peptides, the regenerative medicine aspect of healing rather than your traditional solutions. So the markets are gonna be very different, right? A real estate agent might be Evan Bassey, for example. His content's a lot more out there. He's a lot more personal guy, he loves being out there, he loves being funny. His content is gonna be very different from the art of regenerative medicine, which is a doctor's clinic, and we clearly want to be a bit more professional, more authoritative, and more informational. So when it comes to staying in honed with each of these industries, it's really just staying on top of what's going on in the market social media-wise, what other brands are posting and not copying them, but how can we do better than these guys? And then also just kind of reviewing like different audios that they're using, different kinds of scripts that they're going off of. What are they showing? What are they revealing to build as much brand presence as possible?

SPEAKER_02

I love that. And it's it's the same thing. Like, is that yeah?

SPEAKER_05

I mean, we kind of do the same thing, and the good thing with me and him too is our editing styles are very different. Like, I'm very good with like the humorous comedy style videos, like videos to make just make you laugh. And he's very good at like the cool b-roll videos that you've seen on our page, where if it's a restaurant, cool effects flashing, you know, and showcasing the place and a lot like the captions with b-roll rolling. Like, it's good having us be kind of good at two very separate things because you know, yeah, we'll look at night and I'll see a video that has nine million likes on TikTok, and it's literally just the funniest thing I've ever seen. And then I'll see another one that's performed the same way, but it was just a really cool video. So it's kind of like every day there's a different trend going on, there's a different video that blew up. So it's kind of like he said, we look at it, we observe it, don't copy it, but we like to add our originality to it. You know, we see why it performed that way, let's do something similar, you know?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. So he's a serious one.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, basically, literally like you want to add, you wanna you want to run ads, you want something up that's professional, let me know. You want like the team humor and everything, I say no, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_05

And it's literally like our personalities, too. Yeah, even even when we like would cold call when we did do that for a little bit, like I'd start the conversation ever as soon as pricing comes, I'm like, all right, yeah, Landon's got it. He's got it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's funny because it but that's what makes it so strong. Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_06

It's an opener, closer combo. Yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but it's the yin and yang, right? Like it's literally what it is. Yeah, it's the balance, right? Like, and I think that's important in business, right? And and so your business, so now you're structured. You got a bunch of now you got a bunch of guys you could just call, they kind of just come in and do things, you contract them out for the day. Yeah, and then now you said you have ISAs.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah, that's uh that's been fun. I mean, just having being able to have guys who we know, like we've got you know our buddies in college who want to make extra money, we send them over scripts, they can DM, they can text, we'll call, like we'll practice pitch with them on the phone, and you know, they land a job, they get some money, and on top of that, they can come with us when we go do filming. Just if they do want to get into filming down the line, at least they can see the process how it goes. So it's it's cool.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Ideally, ideally, it's a system that we want to grow where not only can you just you know sit there and edit videos for us, or you can do kind of like a cold outreach, but we also want to offer like an opportunity or a path, especially to kids our age who might not exactly know what they want to do. We want to absolutely offer some sort of path where they can have more of a managing position or more of an important role where they can actually make you know a solid salary each year.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Right? Like we're not just you know, bring you in, cut you off where you're at. Like, we'd rather have those doors open because again, that was one of the number one things my mentor taught me is when you're building a team, allow your team to grow along with the company. And ever since he's taught me that, and ever since I've seen it with my own two eyes, and I mean I I grew that way the same way. Ever since I've seen that, that's been something I've always thought about. And Isaiah and I have both talked about this. It's absolutely something we both agreed on. Yeah, is allowing the people that we work with and that we bring in to also grow on this their own page as well.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah, because it's only gonna help your business long term, right? Yeah, Gary Vee. Oh, yeah, Gary V. Yeah, it's the Gary V play, right? Like it's it's you know, a lot of places, you know. I worked in corporate America for a long time. I was at the big red machine downtown. But so you see what happens, like if you as you gr I grew really fast there. Well, not a lot of people like that, right? Right? Like not a lot of people enjoyed that path for me. So you but the opposite should be happening. The opposite thing should be happening of going, man, you're killing it right now. Let's go.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02

It should be, you know, we should be pepping each other up. And and we it happens in real estate too, where you know, a new agent will come in and they just like are crushing it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Now it's it's or did they get lucky, maybe, but actually it's really we know what it is. It's just they're putting in the work, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_02

And there's a lot of agents that get upset by like, oh, they're I'm like, yeah, but they're doing it. So like why not why aren't we promoting that, right? Like, why aren't we promoting that more? And that's one of the things that you guys seem to be doing with your business is like, how do we bring in some people, right? Because again, college isn't for everybody, yeah, yeah. And what you guys are doing, you can learn out, you don't have to go to college.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, no, exactly. And too, like with us being younger, like you know, being us being 19, we have you know such a a big network of kids our own age who are confused still, you know, and we can bring them on. And there's been some guys who brought on and they're like, I like this, you know. Yeah, the next thing you know, they want to learn. And I like that when, like you said, when people are eager to work, yeah. We love seeing that because it again helps everyone grow.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I love that. And I love that. And it's again, you got lucky and found a mentor that saw something in you, yeah, that was like, all right, but but hold you accountable.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, yeah, 100%. He held me accountable over everything. But I mean, I was uh like I started there and he told me from the get-go, he was like, Listen, there's a lot of room for you to grow, and which I did, and unfortunately, you know, after two years, I wanted to kind of go out on my own venture, and he wasn't even mad at it.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_06

He was like, I'll I'll support you 24-7. Like, and we talk on a daily basis. I I do a lot of his branding, I do a lot of his content, and I do it for free because of just what he's taught me over the two years. I give a lot of credit to him, and you know, basically being what it's like to be a leader and what it's like to have your own team and run your own company. And I I worked in I worked in a separate, like a couple separate sales jobs, and he was like, listen, dude, you're gonna be way better off doing your own thing with your own business because people aren't, they're not only gonna buy from you and buy take on your services because it's you know you do great work, it's because you're a genuine person. People love talking to you, you love building these connections and these relationships, and that's what people like more than just you can create them badass content, badass branding. That's what people like is doing business with people who are human. People buy from people.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, that you guys are spitting knowledge at 19. That you know, I try to teach a lot of people because it is, it's it's it stops selling and start helping people, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Right?

SPEAKER_02

And you said it a little bit ago, too. It's like you're it's a service, yeah. And real estate, it's the service business, yeah, right? Like, are we selling? Yes, right, but at the same point, like we're helping people move and get out, and again, moving is not always a fun thing. I mean, death and divorce happen every day in America, so and usually that creates somebody to move, right, or sell something. So it's providing that service, right?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, that's the one thing that we always say is like anyone can pick up a camera and they can learn editing software. Like the product is predominantly the same, yeah. But like he said, people like us they because we you know we genuinely care and we'll go out of our way at things. You know, I'll get a call sometimes from Massie, hey, can you come meet me up? Boom, we're there, you know.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, we're at a rest restaurant at two in the morning. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Like, why not?

SPEAKER_06

Definitely go we definitely do everything we can to kind of bend over backwards for those that we work with because again, it is a relationship and that's what we care about at the end of the day. And you know, kind of going back to the it's not a product, it's a service. We're not here to sell on content, we're here to offer a solution for a digital presence, right? And how can we uh a big thing for a lot of restaurants? Like there's there's a couple brunch houses that we have interest in. Um I think one of the big pain points in brunch houses is that midweek traffic, right? So brunch houses are great for let's say Thursday through Sunday. What happens Monday through Wednesday?

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_06

How can we increase that midweek traffic? Well, you can't do that if you're just posting your menu online, right?

SPEAKER_02

True.

SPEAKER_06

If you actually get content on there, humanizing on there, humanizing the brand and building the brand presence and showing off the environment, just how good the food is and where people are traveling from, you're changing the game for yourself. Now you're gonna have people coming by for lunch, you're gonna have people coming by for like a Monday meeting. The list goes on. But it's like our biggest thing is not selling content, it's offering a solution after we find out what the pain points are for the business. Sometimes it's simply just to keep the social media live and active. Okay, but we can still do that, but like let's have a goal here. Let's have a goal to either bring in more customers, let's have a goal to bring in more leads, let's have a goal to become more well known. I mean, there's so many, there's so many ways to pinpoint it, but I I feel like there should be a goal behind every kind of content strategy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

And that's that's one of the biggest things we offer. It's not just the content, it's the actual strategy and the goal behind everything.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. And not me being with Fields Dunc too. You you just like the other day, like laid a whole thing out for me. Like, this is what we need to do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Like that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_05

We're like we're directing.

SPEAKER_02

We still got to do it.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, exactly. And like, and that's that's the one thing too. Like, you know, companies that might not think they have a lot of content, like just because it's a title company or something, that's where I come in. I'm like, oh no, we can do this, this, and this. Like literally yesterday, walked in there, didn't say a word, just handed two scripts out. I said, Here's a script, here's a script, read it, we're gonna shoot this in a little bit. You know, and even when we're shooting, there's not everyone's like great on camera, you know. They have to be taught and like we'll stand there, we'll be like, hey, more energy, you know. And the beauty of editing is it doesn't have to be one fluid take. You know, we can clip it, we can do different things, and it just getting people on camera, you know, it's just it's it's awesome.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I was only one take though. Yeah, there we go.

SPEAKER_06

Sometimes I'll get on camera for companies.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, literally. It's funny how a you know, people get so ups like uptight about getting on camera. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't I don't get it.

SPEAKER_02

Like you said, in real estate, it never happens.

SPEAKER_05

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. I've noticed one big thing is a lot of the guys, Marcus at Apex Lending, yourself, or Bernie's really good, Bassi's really good. A lot of those guys who work in a people-to-people industry, it's sales solutions to like real estate mortgages. The list goes on.

SPEAKER_02

Insurance, probably insurance.

SPEAKER_06

You kind of get my point. Those guys are who are working in more of like a sales style job, they have no issue getting on camera and just talking bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Now you go to like a restaurant and you get one of like the waitresses who's not really used to it, it's a little different story. You might give me like 30 minutes for you might get done.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. Well, it's like the it's like the title side, right? The the the title, the title does they like to be in the background, they don't want to be in the front. They they do they they that's why they handle their business the way they do. That's why we do stuff so good at Fieldstone, but that's but they like to because so you know where my desk is, they're like, I'm too loud for them. Like, come on, the phone with my headphones, and I'm dialing and I have my headphones on, and they're like, like, really, how loud? I'm like, I'm sorry, man. I got headphones on, my microphone, I'm like too loud. So I don't know if that'll be my spot forever. But apparently I'm too loud on the phone. But no, man, I I again I think there's so many business principles and tactics that you're bringing to this form, right? There's a ton of media people, right? Like now we're seeing, I mean, shoot, I see like high school basketball. There's like five guys on the baseline with cameras on. I'm like, then I kids in warm-up lines with mics on. I'm like, what are we doing guys? Like I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

I mean, after I mean, pretty much after COVID, I think like you know, all throughout COVID, everyone was stuck inside, right? So the dopamine's hitting their all TikTok got really popular, and I think ever since then, it's just like at night, I do it myself sometimes still, where I'll be I'll be on Instagram real scrolling, and I'm like, oh wow, it's been an hour. Like, I need to turn my phone off because you get so caught in the moment. Yeah, you know, we utilize that. It's like, okay, now we call it scroll stopping content, right? What are we gonna create that's gonna make whoever's scrolling stop and watch the full video? Right. And that there's a million people out there constantly between Instagram, TikTok, and Everyone's on there. So it's like again, how do we utilize that?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And then I now I I just I'll I had to add your number too, but like I just sent him stuff. Like if I find something I'm like, I'm like, Isaiah, let's do this one.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah, we love that. I mean, it helps us.

SPEAKER_02

There's because there's a reason I watched it.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, there's with uh the RF an ankle. We got a we got this big Google Drive set up, and he would have ideas at like three in the morning. I'm like, dude, just send it over. Three in the morning. I don't care. I'll look at it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

He was like, here's what I'll do. I'll put together a Google Drive. I have some old clips I want you to chop up. I'm like, perfect. He goes, I'm also gonna put an idea sheet in there. Everything I see, I'm just gonna link it there or just type it in there. I was like, perfect.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Right. And I I love when I love when people come to us with ideas. And it's not that we can't create the ideas. We we have a great time coming up with ideas. It's snap of the fingers for us because we're able to go look through the market. But when the client brings us the idea, we know they're gonna be passionate about it. And we know that the video is gonna do great because they're gonna be on camera and they're gonna be, you know, the hand motions and everything, like smiling. That's like that's what I love to see.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. No, it's it that's it's like this is the fun stuff for me, right? So this has been a pretty crazy week for me because Tuesday we had the EXP event. Um Wednesday we had Real Producers Breakfast. So I MC'd Tuesday night, Wednesday I moderated, and then yesterday we had Con Ed. Yeah, yeah, and then Friday is the podcast. Yeah, it's like I've had a mic in my face all week. But it's fun, right? And then that but that's the fun side for me. And then you know, last night was like out showing after right after the Con Ed yesterday. I had to boost out because I had to go show houses. Oh, yeah. So I'm like, I still have to do that, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

I feel like real estate is never stopping. Like, even like Bass, yeah, I can't get a hold of a guy sometimes. He's in Troy, then he's outfield, he's just everywhere.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you know, that's obvious. Yesterday, my day, so just the FY, so I went from Auburn Hills to Farmington Hills to Clinton Township.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, but those gas prices nowadays, too.

SPEAKER_02

Oh man, I didn't and it took me it took me an hour to get from Farmington Hills to Clinton Township.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Because 696 is.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_02

I had to go 94 through downtown. That's the way it brought me.

SPEAKER_06

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

At five o'clock. Yeah. I don't even want to hear gas prices. I'm paying like 175 bucks to fill up the truck. That's like a week.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you know, here's the thing. I learned this a long time ago, and I'll drop this bit for you guys. You have to learn to control the controllables, right? And the one thing you can't control is gas prices.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, so I just swipe my card and I'm like, it is what it is. Go on about my day.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you can't get stressed out over the weather, and you can't get stressed out over gas prices because you can't control either one of them. Yeah. I used to say taxes, but then I met a few people, and now I know how to take care of that. There you go. Yeah. I'll introduce you to her. But but but what now you find the right people again, right? Then you don't have to stress out about it as much.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, no, and that's uh Isaiah and I were when we were getting into this, we wanted to file the proper way. And luckily, my mentor, he's been in business for almost 13 years now.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_06

So we know that he knows taxes in and out. He was able to get that firsthand, and he was like, dude, you're 19 learning this. Yes. He was like, it took me 10 years to learn all of this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Our first phone call was funny because he was trying to explain to me everything, and then I was asking him questions, and he was like, It was like dumb and dumber on the phone the first time learning, but now you know we're pretty dumb.

SPEAKER_06

Once it clicked in my head, I was able to relay it to him, and he was like, Oh, yeah, I'm gonna dumb it down.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that I mean, but again, what you guys are learning at 19 years old is something that like this is what I try to, you know, my son's 22 and then and 15. So like I'm trying to teach them this stuff too, right? Early because it it's it's you have to learn it early. Like I didn't learn any of this stuff early.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, and I think that's why too, like even at this age where getting a mentor is the best thing ever. Like his mentors taught him everything, and I think you know, it's one of those things that it just it's gotta click, you know. Yeah, and the right person will teach you, and sometimes it's in family, sometimes it's from work, but having that older person, you know, teach you everything about business or what even just life in general that you might not learn from a book or from school, it's just like insider information and always is awesome. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

And I think another one of the big things as well, I I I say I think Isaiah and I can both say this is I was always raised around a lot of older people, and a lot of my a lot of my current friends and my some of my best friends are pushing 30. Like I've always I was just grew up around You say pushing 30, like it's old. My bad. Sorry, my bad. But no, seriously, you know, being being raised around a lot of older people has actually in a way like sped up my maturing process. But not only that, my ability to learn and catch on to things is like a snap of a finger.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Just because I've been so surrounded by it. So I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I have a conversation with kids who are my age, and it's just like I'm talking to a wall. I'm like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

But then let alone I go talk to my I go talk to one of my buddies who's 29, and I'm like, all right, this is great. Yeah, we can talk about something here.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, and it's crazy too how quick, you know, some people can mature. You know, like even I was still in Landon like a year ago from today, like I was uh rushing a frat at Grand Valley thinking this would be like, oh, I'm gonna do the next four years here. And you know, you get humbled, they're like, All right, I need to go back home. I need to, you know, you need to learn. Yeah, you gotta just really take yourself out of situations that you know aren't gonna benefit you. And again, like my benchmark's my older brother, you know, he went to college, he's in private equity. He's a you know, very just sophisticated guy. So, like to me, he's always harping on me and he's always just teaching me. But again, it's you gotta just listen, you know. Once once I finally listen, I'll be like, okay, yeah, I'm doing this wrong. I'm you know, learn and just grow. Yeah, that's how you grow.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and I that's how you build a business, right? Yeah, you know, I my my I always say like it's like when a baby's learning how to walk, they fall down, they get up, they fall down, they get up. They don't just quit walking. You know what I mean? They're not just like ah it's too hard to do that today. I'm just gonna sit here. Yeah, no, they get up and they and they keep going back. Yeah, you're gonna have those moments where you fall down.

SPEAKER_00

Eventually it clicks.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. And then and it'll and you'll walk for a little while and then you're gonna fall again. Yeah, right. So there's always those moments, and and that's a big thing that you guys are learning really early on, is that there's going to be days that you fall. Oh, yeah. Right? And it's it's then it's how do you pick that up?

SPEAKER_06

Right. And rather than looking at it as, oh my God, why is this why is this happening to me? Why is this happening to my business? What about like if you change your thinking and you think of it as, okay, what is this teaching? Right? Take it, take it as more of a positive aspect. Hey, what am I learning from this? What is this teaching me? And you'll learn 10 times more and you'll get through it a lot quicker than you would if you sit there and you play the victim.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

You know, and I and it goes right along with you are who you surround yourself with. You're surrounding yourself with a lot of people who aren't exactly living the life that you want or are on a completely different path as you. Not saying you can't be friends with them, but definitely keep your circle tighter with those who are on the same path, that's same mission with you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I just uh I forgot the author of the book, but there's this book I read, it was called Influences Your Superpower. And like it just taught me so much about, you know, when you it's like kind of like in sports, right? If you're good at basketball, but then you go and play at the local gym with a bunch of guys who aren't as good, you're gonna kind of play like them, you know, because you're around them the whole time. And another thing too is like, you know, having a good partner and having someone who can, you know, you guys can play back and forth off of each other is like with him. You know, I we say it all the time. Even if what we're doing now, let's say somehow failed and we had to start from scratch, we'd be totally fine just because me and him can figure something out, you know. And I think that's like you said, it's better to do it with someone else than trying to do it alone.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I love that. And and you guys are dropping knowledge bombs again, like on speaking, and I appreciate that. I hope everybody's listening to what you guys are saying, especially since you're both 19 years old. And and I, you know, a lot of realtors on here, whether they're listening now or listening later, we have those days, right? Like where it's it's hard, right? It's we we we have that day where the deal falls apart, nobody's answering the phone. They told me to f off. Like all the things that can happen on the phone or in person, or you know, you go to a listing appointment, you know. I don't know if you saw on social media, it was a couple weeks ago, that Justin Ford and Bernard had this a same appointment at the same house, but the homeowner wasn't home. So she's still so both of them. I'm like, you got two of the top agents in the state meeting you at your house to sell your home, and you don't show up for either but it's funny because so again, are they competitors? Yeah, right? Like they're in competition because we're in competition to sell that house. But at the same point, they took a picture together and we're like, hey, stood up by the same customer, you know what I mean? Right, right. Because you can get over that, right? And it's again, it's about pushing each other, right? It there's because there's other media companies. Oh, yeah, you guys run to them everywhere.

SPEAKER_06

We're yeah, we're in connection with a couple of them already, and it's not even it's it's not even hey, we're with we're in competition. Hey, like what do you guys do versus what do we do? How can we learn from each other here? Hey, maybe we can even collab on some things in the future. If you're you know, if we're ever looking for extra work, or if you yourself are ever looking for extra work, hey, we're more than willing to collab on some things and we can grow together. Yeah, it it I don't think it's a it's another competition.

SPEAKER_05

I feel like this everyone's got their niche, you know, and that's the best part about it. Like you yes, there can be a million digital media companies out there, but every there's also a million other businesses out there that need the help. Yeah, also like we've talked to guys who specialize more with like dealerships and guys who do a lot of other things that we aren't doing as much, but then they also will talk to us about getting advice about with real estate. This and that, it's like a help me help you thing. You know, if they're we can collaborate, if not, you know, you scratch our back, we scratch your back. You know, if someone comes our way, we'll send them to you, vice versa. So it's very like we don't ever look at it as a competition aspect, you know, it's always just a collaboration thing.

SPEAKER_02

I love that, right? I love that because it it is like uh real estate agents have the same problem, you know. We're all so we're all showing up at the same houses and we're all trying to find the same people, but at the same point, not every client is for me, right? And I think that's one thing you have to realize too, and you guys will probably grow into this a little bit too because you're newer, uh, right, doing this, but you're gonna find that client, you're like, I don't want to work with that one.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, yeah, and it's it's simply if it's if it's not our niche and it's something we don't feel confident that we can deliver in, we're absolutely gonna either help you with finding someone to get the job done. Like maybe it's maybe it's a dealership, or maybe it's a you know, a detailing garage some guy might own. If there's a guy that I know who can film these cars 10 times better than we ever could, I'm gonna refer him over to you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Right. I'd rather I'd much rather do that. That way I know there's a good job getting done out there, and then we can go to continue specializing in restaurants or real estate agents or working with these mortgage lenders, right? Sticking to our niche that way we're not too widespread on what we're doing.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah, because I mean, again, it's just like we want to keep that reputation, right? I the dollar amount doesn't matter. We want to maintain our reputation we have and the respect for people that we have, you know, and like you said, we would totally do that a hundred times because they're happy with what they did and they're gonna remember us for connecting the two.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

You know, and that's again just maintaining a good ri reputation to just keep you know doing what we do and being ourselves always play well.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and and and it you you'll see, like as your as your business, like you're because right now the goal is to just give me as many clients as I can get.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Right? Like, let's just get as many as I can possibly get in here. But as you grow, then you can start to be more selective too. 100%. You can start to be more selective with like I don't know if we're gonna work out. Like I've had clients where I'm like, Yeah, you know, it's like I it just you're you're you're we're just we're not we're like oil and water. Like it's just we don't we don't mix well here, like yeah, we are just not mixing, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, you know, it's especially as we continue growing, it's also gonna become more of an opportunity for us to actually build a team where we can have more, we can have more opportunity available when it actually comes to you know running certain accounts or managing a group of filmers or editors to get make sure, you know, maybe we give it to a manager who manages three different accounts and he has three filmers and editors to get those jobs done. And you know, that's that's more of a long-term path. But as we grow, there's definitely more opportunity for us to bring people in and you know pay them more. That way we can continue focusing on growing and expanding the business.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. So what's the what's what's long term for Akron Digital?

SPEAKER_06

Long term, it's it's really just building something that's one self-sustaining, but also building the brand, especially across Metro Detroit and maybe even over into the Grand Rapids area. So again, that's long term. I ideally right now we're focused on building the relationships and building the network and the connections and getting our name out there as much as possible.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

And then again, small steps forward would be continuing to expand, expand. Wow, bring out more clients and eventually building yourself a team that's more in-house rather than just subcontracted. And we can kind of have them run those current accounts while we work on expanding and growing the brand. That way, everywhere you go, or every business owner knows that name of Akron Digital.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's um, you know, it's it's a big thing, right? So it's getting just getting that brand out there, right? And being being seen in as many places as possible. And yeah, you you know, it's what what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_05

Well, listen, Lana handles all the professional stuff. Like I said, all I know that I'm gonna keep doing is just getting out there, right? Going to events, just you know, showing the shit with people, talking to them, you know. Hey, this is what we do, because that's again, that's what I do the best.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Opening up, you know, getting the name out there, you know, and that's uh as many events as we can go to, getting out to even golfing. Golfing's a great outlet that I've learned. You know, sometimes my he doesn't golf, you know, and some of my friends, they don't they don't you don't golf?

SPEAKER_06

Listen, I tried to I tried to tell him to take me before he's like, nah, I don't want to teach you. I was like, what do you think?

SPEAKER_05

But like, yeah, I mean, like, even sometimes I'll go and just go by myself and then get paired and just paired with you know another three guys and it's fun, you know. You just like that at the gym. Every opportunity I have, I'm gonna correlate it back to Akron. You know, when I'm meeting someone for the first time, I'm gonna talk to them. They ask them what they do for work, they ask me what I do, I'm gonna give them quick details and then you know pique their interest. And say, Hey, by the way, if you ever need the help, let me know. You know, so that's kind of just just again, keep growing, you know. It's there's never room to not grow, you're always gonna grow.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so yeah, that's it. I mean, it's it's it's uh this the other thing too. It's like structuring the business. Yeah, right. It's how has that process been going for you guys? Like structuring everything.

SPEAKER_05

Honestly, with the like utilization of AI, like we'll throw our thoughts out and it won't just throw ideas at us, but like structuring, I think I would say it's pretty well.

SPEAKER_06

Structuring is actually very well. I mean, one of the biggest things that we were focused on, especially when we first getting started, is staying organized as best as possible, whether that was maintaining our monthly retainers or people we've done event shoots for, scheduling, script whether scripts, payment, the content ideas, certain days to go shoot on. That's how that was the one biggest thing that we're focused on. And slowly but surely, we are super organized as is, but as we grow, we're gonna actually set up more of a portal style where we can manage everything on one singular platform.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

I mean, they honestly, you know, he was the one who told me quad. He was the one who he introduced because he came up to me one day and was like, dude, look at this. And I was like, Whoa, that's sick. So now that's all we use too. But like, yeah, it helps out a lot with organizing and like uh even just like again with scripts and content ideas, it it helps us just kind of organize. Yeah, like I mean, yeah, we're we're smart guys, but you know, you I can't do it. We can't do all the manual organizing.

SPEAKER_02

Well, and here here's the lesson you shouldn't be doing it, right? Like you shouldn't be doing it. You guys have very particular things that you're good at, and this is what this is what happens with real estate agents a lot. With real estate agents a lot, they get caught up in editing video, going to shoot this, going to do that, and not selling a house. Right. They get caught up in all the other stuff, right? And and and AI and all the things that are rattling through us every day. And look, I'm just as guilty as every other realtor in the world of getting caught up in something I shouldn't be doing because it is fun, right? Like that is the fun stuff. Like, yeah, this is great. Like I'm in here out of clawed, like I'm building this, right? And then it's like, crap, I gotta sell a house, right? You know what I mean? So it's like you so, but that's the thing, like that's the that's where the discipline comes in. Yeah, and probably the mentor can help out, right? Finding that person that can be like, hey, remember, stay in your lane, yeah, right? Because the you stay in your lane, you stay in your lane, the business is gonna go way farther than it is if you guys crisscross and like try to decide to do something different.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, that's and it's nice having him too, because like I was at a meeting with a client and we were talking, and I literally told him, like, my partner's basically like the dog owner, I'm the one on the leash, and he's gotta keep pulling back. And it's funny because like, you know, I'll call the I'll call him randomly. I have an idea.

SPEAKER_06

It's always just dude, and I know the times he's gonna call me. It's bright and early in the morning, maybe four to five times throughout the day, on his way to the gym, walking into the gym, and then leaving the gym.

SPEAKER_05

Because I mean, again, I just I have a very unique mind, is what I would say, you know, and it's like unique, but you know, it's like I think he has issues. But I always come up with a bunch of random ideas, and then I gotta give them ran through my heaven. Yeah, you know, it's just it's good to have that person, like, okay, yeah, I like that one. Okay, no, retrack. You know, and it's just it's nice.

SPEAKER_06

Go back to the drawing board, dude.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but like that you have to have that person that is throwing them out there. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_06

Like, you have to have that no, we bounce ideas.

SPEAKER_02

And then you have to have the one that goes, dude, that's never gonna work.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. You have to have both of that, right? That you can see that. And that's that's one of the biggest things about business, is you know, that's where people get when you when you're structuring your business, people get off on the wrong things, right? They call you know, we there's a lot of analogies around it or whatever, but it's like having the the people on the right seat in the bus. Right. You know, like our bus is going forward. Are the people in the right seats to keep our bus going straight, or are we swerving? Like what where are we at? Can we do we have to move some seats? Right, right. And and that's always one of the things that is always tricky as you grow, right? It's tricky as you grow because that's like you get it keeping in all business, but then personal gets involved, right? Like it it's it's it makes it tough.

SPEAKER_06

Business finances, business structure.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. But if you guys get structured like you are right now from the start, like you're you're so far ahead because you are structured, like you said, you've got this, you got things straightened out of okay, these are our shoot days, this is our content days, this is our that day, instead of just kind of flying everywhere.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah, you can't. I mean, we learned that quick as we started growing, and we got like a lot more people than we had before. I was like, no, we like we have to get something structured, and it helps again, yeah, just with time too. Yeah, it frees up time because I know everything's literally written down. Like even today, I messed up. I told him the podcast it started at 7:30. I texted him this morning, you're gonna be there. And he was like, I thought it was 7 30. I was like, No, get there at like 7.15.

SPEAKER_06

And he was like, Oh, that's that's I was like, bro, thanks for relaying the information. I was like 7.15, 73.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, because you weren't on the email. No, were you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just that was that was yeah, but no, I what would the and the takeaway for for real estate agents that are listening are and entrepreneurs just in general, right? Because this is the elite real estate podcast, but then we end up in the entrepreneur world, which is that's what real estate is. But I think that like again, you said something right there to dig into was you end up having more time in the day because you are structured, right? And that's one thing that entrepreneurs, real estate agents, insurance, well, whoever's listening now or later, if you structure your time, right? If you guys listen to my voicemail, have you heard my voicemail?

unknown

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02

So my voicemail says if you're calling me between the hours of nine and noon, I'm prospecting for business for my sellers and prospecting for my buyers. Like I'll return every call after 12. Not and that's my voicemail. So people understand that I'm if you call me between the hours of 9 a.m. and noon, I'm probably not answering. You know what I mean? And so once I because that's my protected time, that's my prospecting time. That I can't, that's my money making time. I can't mess with that time. Can't touch that. Yeah, yeah. It's very and and again, but I've fallen off of that for for sometimes, right? Where it's like I've fallen off of that, you know, it's well, I'll go get breakfast today. You know what I mean? And then I'll I'll do some dials later. Well, now it's four o'clock and I want to go home. You know what I mean? So it's like you you you have to have that again, that person that yeah, the discipline and that, but that person that goes, Hey, what'd you do yesterday? You're like, ooh.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, yeah, I'm not telling you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, and it and one of the things that I always teach people too is like if a camera followed you around all day and just videoed everything you did for the entire day.

SPEAKER_06

Dude, if we had one of those, we'd blow up on something.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, that's really what we talk about every time. We're like, dude, we might pay someone just to follow us around, you know.

SPEAKER_02

But if you did that and then showed it to your family, would your family be proud of what you did today?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05

If we kept it like uh, you know, PR trained, you know, for sure.

SPEAKER_02

But I mean, that's the thing. Like, so did you just go to a networking event and hang out and go home, or did you actually do something to move your business? Did you make connections? Did you go back to the office?

SPEAKER_06

Did you get work done? Yeah. Right. And I I I've heard that quote before. That idea in general, like, would your life look any different in the professional world if you had a camera on you 24-7?

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_06

What would your life look like when it either when that camera's on you versus when it's off you? Because at the end of the day, you are the same person that you are, even behind closed doors.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Right? That person you are behind closed doors is the person that you are outside of there.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_06

Whether you want to try and hide it or not, that's who you truly are.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Mark Z, so how you do one thing is how you do everything.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You know, and it's it's there's a lot of truth in that.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. That's the one thing I think we will take a lot of pride in, is we never change who we are. You know, like no. We'll be involved, we'll be talking to someone. I might say something, we'll be like, Isaiah, shut up. Like, okay, yeah, you got it. Like, you know, like we're losing ourselves, you know, and that's that's what people like. It's just being your true authentic self, and again, even correlating with content. We love producing that raw, organic content where it's like, wow, that's you know, and that's the best thing to see because that's the stuff that's gonna go and get people to attract you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, and I think that's a that's a huge piece, the the authenticity that comes through. Because anybody get up there and do a song and dance, right? But if you're like if if you catch them in that moment of this is how this is a real thing, that's that's where it's gonna resonate. Because to me, and you guys can correct me on the social media thing, but like what you're putting out on socials is what you're attracting. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like you're you know, if you if you I you're gonna if you're gonna if I if somebody sees my stuff, it's the basketball, it's my kids, it's you know what I mean, it's real estate, it's it's that stuff. That's the people I want to work with, though.

SPEAKER_06

Right, right. That's that's your that's your niche.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Whereas like we work with a couple restaurants and like Better Burgers, for example, their big niche is gonna be all the car guys who are out there at two in the morning on a Friday or Saturday night.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. The Fast and the Furious that hangs out over there on Woodwork.

SPEAKER_05

Basically, yeah, but I mean, yeah, and that's like another thing that's nice too, is you have fans and you have clients too, right? So like even like with social media, there's I follow pages that I probably wouldn't ever use.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you're not gonna use it now.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, but like, no, I literally like though, like there's pages that I'll follow just because I really like their content, you know, and there's other ones that I support because I I go there, so it's a good you know to have that balance with okay, I'm making content for these guys because they just I want to entertain them. Yeah, I'm also gonna make authoritative content that's gonna draw these guys back into whatever I'm doing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So that's yeah, it's like you know, I look at Facebook, I have 3,000 friends. I'm like, I don't have that many friends, like and then they get another 2,000 followers or something, right? Which I that blows my mind sometimes. I'm like, how did I do that? Just since that. Yeah. But no, I think that's it's a really cool thing, and I think it's a really cool thing that you guys are doing and providing a service. Yeah, right. And I also am very impressed with how you guys that are 19 years old and you're building this business, right? Because it's it's a business that can be sustainable for a long time.

SPEAKER_06

100%, especially in the especially in the day and age that we live in now. And you know, everybody, even a couple years ago, everybody thought social media is just gonna be for like all the teenagers, people in their 20s. That's BS. Nowadays you see guys who are 50, 60 scrolling on Instagram and TikTok.

SPEAKER_05

My Nona's on there still, she's on Facebook texting.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, dude. I'll catch my dad Doom scrolling on TikTok.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But my dad are on Facebook, right? They're and they're aging.

SPEAKER_06

That goes that goes to show that over time, especially within the past five years, that even the older generation has caught up to the social media idea, right? Social media is now the new way to market. Google SEO was huge pre-COVID.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Google SEO nowadays isn't exactly worth what it used to be because sure, Google SEO will put you on Google and it'll, you know, start some intention, right? But when you get over to social media and you check those pages out, you check this online brand presence, you see what these guys are posting, that's where the intention is truly built. That's where people are like, oh my God, I want to go check this guy out. Oh my god, I should hit this guy up for whatever he does for his services. Great example, one of my buddies, he he's the owner of uh pristine motion detailing. He does detailing for boats and automotive vehicles. Boats are probably one of the biggest things to hit, especially before they go into the water because there's a lot of oxidation on the side, the gel coat needs to be fixed, they just need deep, deep cleans. I created a custom ad for him that we ran on Facebook, and his business this past month did about I'd say triple what he thought it was gonna do just because of an ad he ran on Facebook. People were like, Wow, okay, I've I like this guy's work, let me shoot him a message, and then it's all about just opening it up for leads. Yeah, but that's like the true example, and these guys are the these guys who hit him up, boats aren't cheap, man. No, they're paying thousands of dollars for a singular service. Yeah, these guys who are all hitting them up are between their 35 and 55 off of Facebook.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06

So that's a true example of how even older generations have caught on to social media, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, right. And it's yeah, you don't know how many friends of mine are ordering stuff off TikTok shops.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02

They're like, where'd you get that? TikTok? I'm like, what are we doing? Are you guys ordering stuff off TikTok?

SPEAKER_05

That's like the same thing with like Bernard, too. He started Bass what like three months ago? Yeah, maybe he launched it what two months ago? Like it's grown so much just because we're so consistent. Yeah, okay. Hey Bern, let's get you on video. Hey, let's get your team on video, let's go do this, and it's just getting that content out there. The page is constantly growing because again, that's just people love to see it.

SPEAKER_02

And for the most part, everybody in the office is willing to just jump on camera.

SPEAKER_05

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02

You know what I mean? Like, that's another tricky part of it, is is but again, it's real estate agency.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, some of our clients we gotta fight them on. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. No, I'll be the face of Fieldstone. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. Yeah, we'll do we're gonna do some Fieldstone stuff next week. But but no, I I think that is again, you guys are building something that's really cool. You're seeing stuff out there too, like because you're on the front end of it, right? And you're seeing those trends. And I think that's the important part is because if if you're if you're shooting, if if you're doing the wrong content, right, that's a problem too, because nobody's watching it.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

You know, you and I have talked like that hook in the front. It's yeah, if it's not there three seconds, if not, I'm past it. Yeah, yeah. So what's the biggest tricks that you guys are finding right now? Or do you not want to tell anybody?

SPEAKER_06

But I will say, from our perspective, having a hook is always the best piece of uh best piece of a video, right? That is the number one way to catch views and actually catch a tension, and that hook can be literally everything. It could be everything, it could be anything. The hook is super important. Get into your video, and you always want some sort of call to action. So there's like three stages to it: hook, your video, so informational piece, and then your call to action. And that's what relatively keeps these videos on the market, that's what keeps these videos in the algorithm, and that's what gets them so many damn beats.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I'd I'd just say all publicity is good publicity. Sometimes you gotta create pieces that are gonna cause drama, yeah. Because again, your whole goal is to get that video shared and get that video out there.

SPEAKER_06

Marcus Apex Lending, look out.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, literally, yeah. No, it's it's that's that's the only thing I'll say, and I don't want to give up too much.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah, but no, it's it's it's important. And I think that real estate agents in in in general, you know, because I I actually was talking to an agent at the Breakfast of Champions at the real producers event the other day. And she said, I you know, I'm just not comfortable on video and this, that, and the other. And I said, Well, why don't you just do a walkthrough video of the house and just use your voice?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Your voice over there. There's so many ways to go I never thought about that. I'm like, that's like just simple. If you don't like being on video, just do the walkthrough, voice over it, and send put it out there.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, and then slowly but surely it'll build confidence in her being on camera.

SPEAKER_02

And then I look at my YouTube channel and I can post some old videos. I'm like, man, that looks terrible. Yeah, who is this guy? Sound is bad, yeah. All kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_05

She doesn't have to talk if she doesn't want to have an AI voiceover. I mean, there's a million ways around stuff.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, and that's the other thing too. So, how has AI affected your business?

SPEAKER_05

See, not really at all.

SPEAKER_02

It's probably helped it, right?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it helps me and like again, like we like to do that raw organic content. We don't really use a lot of AI even in our edits because we want it to just be like feel, you know, we want it to feel real. You know, here and there we might use like a like a our ending watermark or something like that. It could be AI, but we try to keep it as raw as possible. But like AI does help us with just finding other ideas and you know, I can't think of all of it.

SPEAKER_06

More of the back end stuff, really. Like and I'll be honest, there's a ton of AI videos out there, and depending what kind of and like there's a lot of meme AI videos out there that might do really well, but when it comes to being professional and authoritative, they fail.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Unless you throw hundreds of dollars behind them, but your video shouldn't have to you shouldn't have to put hundreds of dollars behind your video just to get 10,000 views.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_06

Right. So I piggybacking off of what Isaiah said, having that raw organic content with real people, especially in the industry that you're in as a real estate agent, people buy from people. Are you gonna trust some AI generated video? Are you gonna trust multiple videos of Jimmy Nelson getting on camera?

SPEAKER_02

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_06

So it's the the biggest way to look at it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I love Sora, man. Like Sora was great. Sora was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_05

A lot of the funny videos I've seen were produced by Sora. Like those are yeah, awesome.

SPEAKER_02

Sora was a lot of fun. I was Iron Man flying around Detroit as a real estate agent, and then I was like finding houses and and and Tony Hawk in it, Tony Stark in it. Tony Stark's my favorite. But no, I think that that AI, the a so AI is an amplifier, yes, right? And if you're and if you're working in chaos already, it just amplifies the chaos. So it doesn't really help you unless you're actually using it correctly. So it's interesting where AI is gonna take us as far as like videos go, right? There's like heygen, right? Have you guys seen the heygen stuff, right? There's so many little Yeah, and it's they're getting pretty good.

SPEAKER_06

100%. But at the end of the day, the algorithm's gonna pick up that it's AI. And again, when you're building your own brand presence, you want something that's real and authentic on there.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, that's the one thing Instagram like in meta does a lot, is they'll flag AI videos, you know. And I mean, if I see a video and it's something I want to learn more about, but it's AI, I'll just I'm gonna go to the next one. Yeah, yeah, I'm not too worried about that because again, we utilize it the way we need to, and it works for us, right?

SPEAKER_02

Right, yeah, because it it gives you can it can really help leverage your business.

SPEAKER_03

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

100% right from structuring the internal part of your business, right? Like that's huge, I think. And and as far as like web design and stuff, I think that's oh yeah, that industry is gonna get hurt by AI. Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_05

Anything we've had guys contact us like, oh, would you want to add a website? Does it like you and I have cloud code? Like, that's not true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And I'll have to show you guys connection because so my CRM that I use is connection, and I can build websites right inside of my right inside of my CRM. Yeah, so then everything that happens with that, then it all goes right back into my CRM. So any lead that hands hits that landing page goes directly back because it's built in the same system.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Web design is definitely gonna take a beating from the whole AI, the AI coding world, but when it comes to content creation and the actual digital marketing, it won't be affected. It might be affected in different ways, but it actually won't affect the the business itself. Because again, people I can't stress this enough. People buy from people. Again, we offer a service where we come in, we film, we edit, we come up with the ideas, we get the job done for you. We're also two personal guys, like yeah, like it's not it's not like we're just go cold turkeying you, right? Like, I mean, dude, he's on the phone with Bassie all the time. I'm on the phone with my guys, and it's not even like it has to be a professional conversation, it's just guys who get along.

SPEAKER_02

We're building relationships. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, I love that. We got about four minutes left. What's next for Akron Digital?

SPEAKER_05

Couple a couple good videos coming out. I know, like you said, Apex Lending, they got some good ones coming up that are gonna be like definitely stay tuned for that. And then other than that, I mean, just keep saying on our page, we're gonna have a lot more videos. We're trying to be as consistent as we can with collaborating. So that's all I got.

SPEAKER_06

I'd say if we're focusing on actual growth of the business, and you know, next steps are continuing to grow the way we are and continuing to push out the quality content that we do offer, and you know, also prospecting other people who may be interested, especially business owners or real estate agents. But eventually it will get to a point where we will we will start building more of an in-house team that can come under and work for us, and we want to offer more long-term opportunities from them where they can get paid. Like we're not just gonna cold turkey someone, we're not just gonna push them to the side, treat them like garbage. We want someone to be able to grow within our company. And again, I'm super thankful to my mentor, Dalton, who has taught me a ton of what I know now, and he's helped both of us grow this to the point where it is today. And you know, we couldn't be couldn't be more grateful. That's the word I'm looking at. Yeah, couldn't be more grateful for it. So I think long term, you know, just continue doing what we're doing. We love the growth, but we obviously want to stay steady and we don't want to overwhelm ourselves.

SPEAKER_05

Step by step.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, continue prospecting the way we are, continue you know, connecting with all the business owners that we know and continue networking with people who work in our industry. So down the road, that way we can build a team and make this more self-sustaining.

SPEAKER_02

I love that.

SPEAKER_05

And Octoberbest coming up, we're gonna have that thing covered.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, Octoberbest is gonna be great. I'm back to mentoring now, uh-huh. Yeah, moderating. I'm gonna bring I'm gonna be back to moderating it, Octoberbest. So, not that my time as a contestant wasn't well, I had to, you know, send some people home without naming names. He was dressed like Rocky. But I don't want to bring that up. Yeah, right. I gave him a little shove. So where can they find you guys?

SPEAKER_06

Instagram is one of the best ways to reach us. That also gives you the ability to kind of view our, you know, all the work that we've done before. We also do have a website, Akron Digital, at pretty special acron digital.com. Yeah. That's where you can see all of our pricing. We also have some examples up there.

SPEAKER_05

We also have there too, so it shows you step by step how it works when you first talk to you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Website's probably the best way to reach us. It's acron digital.com.

SPEAKER_02

How do you spell Akron?

SPEAKER_06

A C-R-Y-N.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. A C R Y-N Digital.com. Yes, sir. Find them there. Isaiah and Landon, I appreciate you guys coming in, man. I told you the hour goes by fast, right? Does go by quickly. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you guys coming in. Guys, find Akron Digital out there. They're all over social media. They're doing a really good job. You're gonna see my face on Akron Digital stuff too. So I appreciate it. Guys, we'll be back next week for uh another episode of the Elite Real Estate Podcast next week. Find us everywhere you find podcasts, and don't forget to find us the Elite Edge Network on YouTube and like and subscribe to the channel. We'll see you guys next week.

SPEAKER_00

We never look back. Every day to cable living off the hot stack, turning visions in the mansions of prime estate. Success in a practice, we choose the whole fate. The leap, the climate deep, the work before the dreams we keep sharing and collaborating, making the mark. My lights and a lie, it's far, it's the best of everyone.