Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:20 Hey, everybody. You're kicking it with the homeboys and the Homeboys podcast, where we talk everything In the world of real estate investing, whether you're just getting started or a seasoned vet, we're gonna give you over 40 years of combined real estate experience to help you on your investing journey. Today, we've got a very exciting guest. We are talking with Eric Simon, aka the Broke Agent of BAM Media. It's a brand that's rapidly growing with an emphasis on real estate, entertainment, podcasting, and marketing. Something that Scotty and I are always looking to learn more about. Eric, we're super excited to have you on our show. How are you, my friend?
Speaker 2 00:01:01 I'm great. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.
Speaker 3 00:01:04 Well, um, you're out in LA living that, uh, that, that media lifestyle out there. H how long have you been out in la?
Speaker 2 00:01:12 I wanna get the hell out of here, but Yeah, I am. I'm from Arizona. I've been out in LA since 2009. I went to USC out here. Ah,
Speaker 1 00:01:21 Trojan.
Speaker 2 00:01:22 Yes, that's right. All right.
Speaker 1 00:01:24 You big, big sports fan.
Speaker 2 00:01:26 Huge sports fan. Yeah, I was just at the, uh, not just, but I went to the Pac 12 title game for the USC, Utah in our collapse from a 17 to three lead. I remember it was in the Cotton Bowl on the last second, um, two point conversion by Tulsa, or Yeah. Tulane or whatever. Two lane lost money on that. Lost money on both games, so, yeah. But, you know, I'm pumped for next season. We got Caleb Williams. We're gonna be a top five team. We're gonna win it all the year.
Speaker 1 00:01:53 Well, Scotty and I are both, um, Indiana University, um, grads, and we haven't won a bowl game since I think it's 1994.
Speaker 3 00:02:05 Yeah, when I was at
Speaker 1 00:02:06 School. Yeah. 1994 was the last time we won a bowl game. So you have a little bit more to root for <laugh> at USC than, uh, football wise. Yeah. Yeah, basketball, we're doing pretty good this year. I mean, we could always be better, but, uh, yeah, we're trending in pretty, pretty good, pretty good direction. So, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:02:23 You just had, you had a big top five one recently, didn't you?
Speaker 1 00:02:25 Yeah, we beat, uh, we beat our in-state rival Purdue.
Speaker 2 00:02:28 Uh, that's right, a couple weeks ago. Yeah. You beat the number one team of the country. I, I, I watched the entire Indiana u of A game. Cause I'm a, I'm from Tucson, Arizona, Uhhuh <affirmative>. So that game in Vegas and a neutral site, we crushed you guys, actually. You sure did. And I, and I thought Indiana. Yeah. I thought you guys were not good. Um, but seems to have turned it around a little bit anyway.
Speaker 1 00:02:49 Well, I mean, I think we had a bad game, but man, Arizona also I think played an exceptional game. They looked like it's
Speaker 2 00:02:57 A perfect game.
Speaker 1 00:02:57 They looked like world beaters against us. It was like a, it was like a middle school team versus a college team, but, uh, exactly. But I don't know. Hopefully we're trending in the right direction for, for, for March, but, uh, yeah. But we, we've been checking out a lot of your stuff and we've, we've actually talked with some of the, some of the people that you work with, that you do work with. And we're just excited, uh, to have you on. So, um, can you tell us a little bit about the, the Broke agent and of BAM Media?
Speaker 2 00:03:26 Yeah. So I started in real estate after usc. I worked at the Laugh Factory Comedy Club, and I worked in their marketing department, and I was basically doing social media for them, doing Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, scheduling out social posts for comedic shows. And then it was my goal to come up with clever marketing ideas to help with six shows when there weren't that many people gonna attend, like a Tuesday show or something like that. So that's kind of where I got my, my marketing chops and, you know, knew how to post and get clicks and everything. Then I quit the Laugh Factory, cause I was getting paid literally minimum wage to do social media posting. I was like, this is going nowhere. I'm not gonna be a standup comedian or anything. I need to get outta here, <laugh>. So I joined a real estate brokerage just as a temporary receptionist.
Speaker 2 00:04:11 So a girl I knew was the receptionist, and she's like, I see that you're not doing anything. Because all I was doing for three months after I quit The Laugh Factory was posting on Vine. I don't know if you remember Vine? Of course, yeah. Six second video app. And I was basically just trying to go viral. There was no niche, you know, it wasn't real estate or anything like that. I was just making funny videos, basically about being unemployed, like looking for a job and looking in different drawers and stuff. Um, and then I became the temporary receptionist for, I was supposed to just be there for two weeks just to make some money, and then kind of got hired, was the full-time receptionist for three or four months. And this is at Hilton and Highland, which is at the time the number one brokerage in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2 00:04:51 Yeah. And, you know, the Altman brothers were there. Uh, it was Jeff Highland, Rick Hilton. So, you know, my, my introductory to the world of real estate was like, holy crap. Like, I'm surrounded by the best agents on Earth. All the properties, they were showing 50 million, 80 million, a hundred million. So that was kinda the world I was in, but I was just answering the phones and kind of like handling the mail. But it was really more taxing than that because I was like, everyone's a little mini assistant. Then I got hired as an actual marketing assistant for a top agent there, and then eventually got my license, became a buyer's agent, worked for a team, and that's where I was door knocking, cold calling, uh, sitting dead open houses three times a week every Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday, to no success whatsoever. And that kind of birthed the broke agent was just the pain that I was experiencing as an agent that was doing a lot for nothing. Well,
Speaker 1 00:05:44 I've, I've gotta ask, and, and I don't think Scotty shares this same, um, you know, um, viewership that I, that I do, I watch Million Dollar Listing, um, on Bravo. So, like, when he's referring to the Altman Brothers Yeah, they're, they're, they're one of the stars of, of Million Dollar Listing.
Speaker 3 00:06:02 I, I knew the name when he said it. Yeah, I, I knew I knew it, but I couldn't even picture
Speaker 1 00:06:07 Him. But, you know, I'm just, I'm so fascinated, you know, for a little background, you know, on us, Eric, you know, we're, we're a couple of Midwestern guys, born and raised in Indiana. I'm from a small farm town, um, in southern Indiana. So, you know, and I bet I've been a real estate professional my entire adult life. So to watch, you know, million dollar listing on Bravo, I'm, my mind is just blown because it is so, you know, exceptionally different than what a couple of, it's like another planet. It is, it's, it a completely different, a completely different planet. So, I mean, is is, is what you see like on that show, is that, is is it, is it close to the way it actually is, is, uh,
Speaker 2 00:06:50 Well, not from real estate perspective for an agent starting out in the business? Certainly not. Yeah. It was in the sense that those properties really exist. Right? Like my, the agent who I worked for, one of my first tasks was to write a listing description on a 19.9 million listing in Bel Air <laugh>. I don't know how to write listing descriptions. I don't know what the wood is in my own apartment, you know, so it's like this massive thing I had to do, um, you know, follow the photographer around, try to get these details. Hopefully there was an old listing description in the past that I could kind of, you know, copy off of and just like tweak the wordage a little bit. But it's real in the sense as sense of those agents are super successful, those listings are real and LA's incredible in terms of real estate, but not real in terms of, I was in that office, I was making no money, right?
Speaker 2 00:07:40 Right. I wasn't selling real estate. I was literally sitting dead open houses of these agents that were sitting for six months, seven months. And this is 2000 15, 16, 17. So this is not like the sellers market that we've kind of been used to the last three and a half years. Like, these, these are straight listings that I would set and not a soul would show up. So it'd be five hours of me, you know, setting up signs all over the place, doing all the prep, opening up a house, a 3 million house, which takes, you know, a decent amount of time. And then nobody coming in, getting all the signs, dropping them back off at, uh, the agent's house, having to call the seller or tell the seller, you know, a couple groups came by, maybe there were some interest, but really no one came by.
Speaker 1 00:08:19 So I was always just blown away by like, some of the over the top, you know, open houses and over the top brokers opens that they have on this show where they bring in like entertainment and like this, you know, fancy fivestar have they do. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:08:34 But, but you're a broke agent out there on the buyer's side doing anything you can to try to find buyers or even listings by doing other people's open houses, it sounds like, right? Yes, correct. Working all these hours and, and doing the hustle. And, and that's what was your early hunger was, you know, you went from jobless to a receptionist to a job that is almost impossible to break into and make money.
Speaker 2 00:08:59 Yeah. I wouldn't even call it a hunger, I would call it. I was just literally going through the motions of what I thought I should be doing. I felt like a imposter. I felt like an actor. I knew that I wasn't going to be a real estate agent. I, you know, there was a couple moments there. I was like, okay, I could actually do this. But I think my fear of the phones, my fear of door knocking, um, just e every interaction I had felt forced and uncomfortable. I didn't want to tell my friends. I was a real estate agent. I didn't wanna try to secure business from them. Everything felt uncomfortable for me. So I think that's kind of what birthed the broke agent, and like that initial voice was the, the frustration that I was feeling that I wasn't seeing from other agents.
Speaker 2 00:09:38 Because all I saw was success. Like, everything around me were those brokers opens with coffee bars and champagne, and everyone suited and booted and all these motivational quotes and everything. And I was and grind culture. And I was like, this is insane. I just, you know, there's gotta be that stat, right? There's that stat. 87% of agents fail in the first five years mm-hmm. <affirmative> like, where are these agents? Where are the agents in Indianapolis? Where're the agents in Iowa, they're not experiencing this stuff. Right. So I'm gonna tweet it out, basically. And that kind of is what formulated it.
Speaker 3 00:10:06 Yeah. Uh, there's a reason that was so popular and, and why that became popular so fast for you. Um, I, I think a lot of that's the, your old stuff's funny. I've, you know, before we, we, you know, interview and, and have a chat with somebody, we, we kind of dig into some of their past stuff too. And, and some of your older stuff that I saw was actually hilarious. Some of that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:10:26 You know, I think I was funnier back then. I think it, it was just coming from so much more experience, right? Like, now that I'm kind of out of the business and just focusing on content. Yeah. It's getting harder and harder to come up with stuff. I, I have such a massive bank of, you know, 4,000 plus posts and comments, and now I get so many submissions and other people are creating funny content that I could still work my way around from a content perspective. But when I'm really in it and I'm sitting there at a dead open house and these feelings are coming to me, that's when the perfect tweet is constructed. Because that's what resonates with people, because a lot of people were feeling that also.
Speaker 3 00:11:00 It, it was, uh, pain. It was painfully honest, is how I would call it too <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:11:04 Yeah. The content was way more depressing back then. Yeah. <laugh> way more like, it literally, the first logo of the broke agent was a dilapidated house as the logo and everything was just about like, oh, like this lease I'm doing, I'm gonna make $200, but I've already spent a grand on gas and sushi and all this stuff. So it was just like, my dad would text me saying, stop doing this <laugh>, you know, like you're trying to become a real estate agent, and everything you're posting about is just about how horrible of a real estate agent or how horrible your experience is, basically. Which is a total fair point at the time. But yeah, look at me now, you know? Right, right. Talking to you guys, everything's changed.
Speaker 1 00:11:42 Well, I, you said something interesting to me. You said you thought that you were funnier back then. Is that because you think that, um, I don't know, kind of that, that sweet spot for content is not geared toward, you know, humor as much as it is, um, something that's a little bit more serious and relatable. And the reason why I asked that, Eric, is because, you know, Scotty and I, for a long time, were doing, you know, what we, stuff that we thought was absolutely the most funniest thing that you could possibly imagine. Love it. But you know, it would not do as well on social media as us talking about a nightmare, um, landlord tenant scenario that we've put up with here, you know, in our office. So
Speaker 3 00:12:26 Yeah, last week we got 3 million views on a, on a TikTok, that's about, uh, negativity. But the fun stuff and the humorous stuff, you know, you'll get 50,000 views if that, you
Speaker 2 00:12:36 Knows. Still a lot of views though. 3 million. Yeah. That's crushing. Yeah. So I'm still doing a ton of funny content, like the Broke Agent content is all focused on humor. Bam. Uh, which is, our media company now still has, you know, humor invoked in it. There's a lot of shows that are funny. There's a lot of takes that are funny. It's completely unfiltered. So it still has the stigma of the brokerage, and it still has, you know, that, that heart to it, basically. But in terms of creating content for Bam, it's more marketing, right? From my perspective, at least, Byron's handling a lot of the new stuff. We have writers, we have different podcasters and creators. But when I'm trying to, to, you know, uh, describe value to agents or give them ideas for content, not all that's gonna be funny. So I don't know if I've gotten less funny.
Speaker 2 00:13:21 I don't, that's not what I wanna say. I just mean that the content focus has shifted a little bit. I still wanna be as funny as possible on the Broke Agent. The whole goal of the broker agent is to provide entertainment and value in the form of humor. It's, it's a place of solace for agents. It's a place of, you know, relatability where it's like, you know, this person also is experiencing it, and I wanna see other people in the comments experiencing it, and it makes their day better. Right? That is always gonna continue. But bam, our goal is to provide humor, entertainment, and value more entertainment.
Speaker 3 00:13:50 We, we had an interesting conversation with Byron. He's, he's so driven, you know? Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:13:56 And, uh, he talked to that guy. He's been texting me nonstop right now about some email that's supposed
Speaker 3 00:13:59 To, we were lucky enough to, we, we interviewed him and gave
Speaker 2 00:14:02 You five minutes of his time.
Speaker 1 00:14:04 <laugh>, I think we, I think we got 30. He might've, but he was, you know, his, his, uh, work ethic was pretty amazing. You know, he was, I think he was talking about how he gets up at, you know, four 15 and yeah,
Speaker 3 00:14:16 Those early morning calls
Speaker 1 00:14:17 That it's on hits, hits the ground running, you know, it's, uh,
Speaker 2 00:14:20 He is, yeah, he's a machine. He, he does the 5:00 AM call every morning, and now he's doing the hot, he's doing the Hot Sheet every morning, which is a live 30 minute show on the now Bam YouTube channel or YouTube channel where he is just covering the market, what's going on in finance and economics every morning. Like that's a huge lift. Plus he's doing the Real Word podcast, plus he was co-hosting the walkthrough podcast with me, and now he has a podcast called The Knowledge Brokers with Tom Tool. This is on top of running the number one team in Connecticut and, you know, co-running our media company with me. So, right. The guy, guy is a machine. And, you know, I couldn't be happier to have partnered with him because I really needed someone who understood the real estate market and real estate news and how to articulate that to people when I was the humor side and had the brand. So it's been like the perfect fusion.
Speaker 3 00:15:06 Well, you, you obviously are a very driven guy. I mean, it, it's just clear from talking with you and, and you definitely come at it with a, a more of that humor, you know, and approachable. And I, I think that one of the things that I've noticed with most of the things that I've seen that you do, um, I I would use one, one word to describe them. They're authentic. There's a lot of authenticity in, in the things you say, and, and we try to keep that with the things we do. But I think that's part of your success. It's, you know, you were authentic when you were down and you were sharing that, like your dad said, stops stop sharing. Uh, you know, so honestly, how hard this is. Yeah. And you're authentic in your success stuff too, that you share. And I, I think that really speaks to people. I think that's a big part of your success.
Speaker 2 00:15:52 Yeah, thank you. Yeah. There, there was one moment where I posted a screenshot of a open house sign-in sheet that had zero people on it, and my dad literally called me after that. I was just like, this is, this has gotta stop.
Speaker 3 00:16:04 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:16:04 But I think that's,
Speaker 2 00:16:05 That's is depressing,
Speaker 1 00:16:06 But that's important for people to know because, you know, people watch Million Dollar Listing and, you know, in our world, you know, people watch Flip This House and, you know, you know, some of those things and it makes everyone thinks that it, that it's easy that everyone can go out and just be the Altman brothers or, you know, whatever. I think that, you know, painting a picture of reality is very important. And I've watched some of your other clips where, um, you know, you guys were talking about, you know, well the gurus, you know, will say this, but it's actually like this. And we talk about the gurus on here all the time. It freaking drives me bananas. You know, some of these, some of these gurus. And, you know, quite frankly, the reason why it drives me bananas is because I feel like their advice is dangerous. I think there's so many more people that's gonna be hurt by taking on the advice from some of these people. So having the authenticity, like Scotty said, and, and, and, you know, giving a, a real picture of what it's like, I think it's important because you got all these other idiots out there making it sound like it's, it's super easy and pulling up in a Bentley.
Speaker 3 00:17:05 And I also think that it's good to show that you didn't, you weren't just handed anything in life. I mean, you've literally scraped your way to, to find your success and, and you know, the basics of our background. But he's from a town of 2,500, wasn't handed anything in life. And I started with Less Than Nothing. You know, I came outta school with student loans and, and, you know, not, not two nickels to scrape together and was barely employable because I focused on beer in college instead of learning. So, same, you know, it's, I I think it's good.
Speaker 2 00:17:34 How do you not,
Speaker 3 00:17:34 Yeah. So I think it's good to show, you know, that that normal people like us can go out and hustle and work hard and suffer through those years. You know, they see the success now, but I mean, the, the, the stories of us staying up till 3:00 AM working and hustling and not making it and still failing, you know, that, that, I think that's neat that people have gotten to see that on your journey. So, um, kudos to, for sharing that stuff, cuz now your success will speak much more powerfully. I think it, it lends credibility to, to what you say and, and the things that you're doing.
Speaker 2 00:18:06 Thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 00:18:08 So tell us a little bit about your podcast. You know, you've got, uh, you know, a couple, couple listeners of the podcast, you know, sitting here, but, you know, for everyone else out there that's listening, tell us a little bit about your, about your podcast.
Speaker 2 00:18:20 Yeah, we got multiple, I, I assume you're talking about Over Ask, which is, you know, was a, a Broke Agent podcast before a band podcast. So, right. That really started the idea of, it was, it was my friend Ben Fisher and I did something called Broke News Network during the Pandemic. So in June or July of 2020, he hit me up and was just like, dude, we should do some sort of like video together. He was in Long Beach, I was in LA and I drove down there with no plan, you know, met the guy outta nowhere. He could've, you know, killed me for all I know. And it was him and his friend Joey in his garage. It was like a hundred degrees in there. And we were just filming like eight to 10 minute funny kind of SML news anchor style videos where it was like, I would give marketing tips, Ben would give market updates, and it was supposed to be value wrapped in humor.
Speaker 2 00:19:07 The first value taman edutainment aspect of the Broke agent. Like, how could I show my face? Am I good on the mic? Uh, you know, am I charismatic on video? Can I even do this? And Ben and I had great chemistry, but we were posting it on Instagram tv, IGT V at the time. So for the listeners at home, we don't know what I G T V is, it's when you could upload videos, I think even up to like 30 minutes at one point. But they were horizontal and Instagram was not the platform for longform. Like, we didn't post it on YouTube, it wasn't a podcast. So the success was really dependent on the amount of comments and likes we were getting on Instagram, but it wasn't mon we, we couldn't monetize it. Um, and it was so time consuming because we would write the entire show script.
Speaker 2 00:19:49 I would drive to Long Beach for an hour, we'd film the thing for three hours, I'd drive back for two hours and then edit it, and then we'd post it over four or five days. And it just became this, like, it was so fun and I think it's some of our best content, but it was impossible at that time. Matt Lee and Eddie was coming on the scene doing hilarious Instagram reels and, and skits and tos and stuff, and hit me up. And we always talked about doing something together. And he, he occasionally would actually join B N n, the Broke News Network and be like our Canadian reporter. We'd cut to him <laugh>, he'd do a hilarious video. Love it. So during B N N I was like, well, I gotta have a podcast too. Like the, a podcast is way easier. I could just sit here and still say the same stuff without going down to Long Beach and without like, creating this entire script.
Speaker 2 00:20:36 And so it started as Matt, the over ass podcast presented by the Brocade. So I wasn't even on for the first five or six episodes, but we had Ryan Sirhan on Mauricio and Mansky, uh, Jordan Cohen, the number one Remax agent. And then I came on and it kind of shifted to not just interviews, but marketing tactics for agents. So we were always talking about what was going on with the Instagram algorithm, what's happening on YouTube, um, how to get on Clubhouse, that type of thing. So anything that was kind of trending from a content direction and we've had killer guests on, we've been doing it now for a year and a half, and we haven't missed, maybe we've missed one week in the year and a half that we've been doing it, and it's been one of our most successful pieces of content. So it's Matt Lionetti and myself, the over ass podcast. Check it out on Bam. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:21:22 It's, it's great. You don't even have to really, it's pretty entertaining, even if you're not a real, in the real estate world, I think, you know, I I find it pretty entertaining for, for most of our audience is real estate investors, so they'll get a lot of kicks out of it and Yeah. And, um, you come at everything through a different, um, lens than, than us because you're so focused on the media and the marketing that, um, you can pick up a lot from, from those kind of episodes too.
Speaker 2 00:21:49 Yeah. We try to have, you know, a a large diverse group of, of guests in terms of their ideas. Like it's not just Instagram, we focused heavy on Instagram for like the first 10 or 15 episodes. Then we talked about everything. So now it's, it's more YouTube as agents really want to do more long form or finding better convergence on YouTube. So we're trying to interview way more agents who have local YouTube channels that are crushing and actually converting leads. And then we had agent tactic people on like Tom Tool who was just objection handling. And the whole goal is just provide value for agents, right? Like, that was when the broke agent was founded and it was just humor. I was like, I know humor is value, but if I could actually provide them education too, not coming from me, of course about like agent to agent stuff because I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. I know what I'm talking about from a marketing perspective, but if I could bring in these other voices and influencers and creators and present them to a larger audience, that could help everybody.
Speaker 3 00:22:43 Yeah, for sure. For sure. I mean, the marketing aspect is so important. I, I mean, I think that you can take it outside of real estate too. I know that's kind of where you got your start and your niche. But you know, there's the, this, a lot of the things that you cover, they can be applied to a lot of different areas too. You know, definitely there's, I mean, people like us that are fascinated, but I mean the, we don't watch your show for really the real estate tips or listen, um, you know, it's more of the marketing side, you know. Yeah. The marketing's kind of universal, but,
Speaker 1 00:23:12 Well, when it comes to content creation, you know, it's something, you know, Scotty and I are, are still, you know, uh, learning, you know, every day. We don't claim to to be experts, you know, thankfully we've, we've seen some growth through our podcast and some of our short form content. But what are, what are you seeing out there that is, is the, the, the big trend now? I know you said you were heavy on Instagram for a while. You've got some agents that are doing long form content stuff on YouTube. That's something we don't have a ton of experience on some of the long form of you two, but can you kinda go into that for say, yeah, someone that knows a little like us or even the people that know nothing.
Speaker 2 00:23:54 I think in 2020 through 2022, basically for a two-year period, the trend was vertical video, high quality reels and TikTok, short form, how do I capture someone's attention immediately? How can I be as goofy as possible, as funny as possible? And it was like a new way to consume content cuz it was an algorithm feeding us suggested content. It wasn't just people you follow, like TikTok really revolutionized the way people consume, you know, similar to the YouTube algorithm, but in terms of short form is completely different. And I think that kind of sparked this entire wave of agent content creators where their only goal was to appeal to other agents where it was like, I'm gonna make other agents, uh, laugh. I see it working on the broke agent channel. I see Matt Leonetti doing it, I see Dan O'Neal doing it. I see Byron doing great news stories and stuff, so I'm gonna become this little funny content creator and I'm gonna be pointing at captions and doing TikTok dances and stuff.
Speaker 2 00:24:46 And for two years that was great because you could get agent to agent referrals and the market was hot where anybody with a pulse could basically be selling a lot of real estate. As the economy has shifted and the market has shifted, that kind of content, in my opinion, from an agent perspective, is probably going outta style a little bit. I think we've all seen enough of it. Um, you know, the, the disappearing captions and the lip syncs and the trending audios. Like, people aren't growing as much on these platforms because now they're so oversaturated and the algorithm isn't feeding us that as much because it's not original anymore. We've seen so much of it. So now I think the shift is more to entertainment is the green screen videos. These are what's killing it the most on Instagram and TikTok, from what I see.
Speaker 2 00:25:30 It gets the most engagement on our band accounts. And anytime one of our creators does it, it's our best piece of content. Green screen videos is when you throw up a news story or article or something on Instagram or TikTok, you actually point at it, you talk about it, you dissect it, you break it down, you disseminate that information to your local market. The Green Screen Acts is the perfect hook. It's a very easy video to film because your head is small. It's not, you don't need professional lighting or editing. You don't need to bulk record any of these videos. It's like, it's timely. It's got a great hook and it lasts meaning, um, the piece of content doesn't last. But the duration in which people watch lasts, right? Like that's the most important metric right now. It's not likes, comments, saves or shares. It's the retention of the actual video. Can I get them to watch from the beginning to the end? So I think green screens and then carousel,
Speaker 3 00:26:21 It's so easy too. That's, we just so easy. I shot like four of them. Or I'm looking at my producer. I shot like four of 'em before we came on here and we just knocked knock him out real quick. Cause Clint was busy and they're fun. Yeah, you don't need a studio, you don't need No, you know, they're, they're real easy. And if you do it with good information, it's a great way to share it because there's info out there that you wanna share and to do it in an, in an entertaining manner, in a way that people will consume it, um, it's helpful that way. So I,
Speaker 2 00:26:48 We love them. They're, they're the best videos. If you could do 'em hyper localized. There's a new story, there's a new development, there's a new, you know, measure, there's a new bill from Congress, something like that that's gonna affect your local housing market from a real estate perspective. It's the best thing to break down and, you know, give that information. And then the carousel post from an Instagram perspective, those are crushing right now, uh, when you have a, a good opening slide value, value value as you're swiping. And then the final slide is an actual call to action. It's almost like an Instagram reel in itself. So I'm seeing the most engagement on those two type of posts. And then just general trend of content. I think long form is coming back a little bit in the sense that a lot of agents are gonna be spending way more time on YouTube, because that's what converts. TikTok doesn't convert the, the TikTok follower means nothing compared to an Instagram follower compared to a YouTube follower. Your TikTok followers don't even see your stuff, right? It's an algorithm suggesting them stuff. Your Instagram following following's a little bit more intimate. You actually know them and you could like DM and engage with them and send 'em links and stuff. But it's your YouTube following that watches you for 5, 10, 20, 30 minutes. They're gonna buy from you because they actually hear you and get to know you.
Speaker 3 00:27:58 Interesting. You know, we, we see that with our own channels. You know, we're, we're lucky that, um, we've got some people who will follow us around, obviously from, from, uh, platform to platform. And we're getting more and more leads out of TikTok. You know, we, we probably sold out of TikTok probably 15 to 20 houses this last weekend alone out of
Speaker 2 00:28:18 TikTok. There you go. Crushing.
Speaker 3 00:28:20 Yeah. So, so it's, it's, but we agree with the quality of leads that you get out of YouTube and, and Instagram. They're obviously much higher and more engaged and, and mm-hmm. <affirmative> more understanding. But, um, I, I, I can't, I, I'm fascinated with how up to speed you are on these cutting on these trends and knowing what's coming. I guess that's just because you're immersed every day in the marketing's aspect of this versus makes me feel stupid. I know we're, well, we're out there having to, you know, build, you know, condominiums and new developments and running property management companies. And so someone like you who's really in this every day, all day, it's, it's fascinating to me how, how cutting edge you are on these trends, you know, to, and you're obv they're obviously well thought out. All of your points make total sense. But we're we're, I feel like I'm in the dark ages listening to you just
Speaker 2 00:29:08 Kinda control, honestly, I'm, I'm full of shit. I literally just made all that up,
Speaker 3 00:29:12 <laugh>. Yeah, no, you know what you're talking about. You actually do.
Speaker 2 00:29:14 I mean, we run a media company, right? Right. So we have to know these things. Like I'm in it every day. So it's not just me consuming the knowledge to see what other people are saying. It's me actually doing it. Right? So I'm constantly checking engagement and insights on the bam account, the brokerage agent account on Byron's account, on Matt's account, on any real estate account to see what is working. Like why is Ryan Shanta in green screen videos? Oh, cuz they're working. Why is Gary v doing them? Because they're working. So it's not just consumption, it's also the output and the volume that we're doing. And it's, it's like you have to constantly evolve with these. Like if I was just posting trending audio reels, still people would tune out completely just because something worked back then it's not gonna work. Now everyone knows that concept, but I think it's important to reiterate just from an a media and content perspective that you really like it, it, the people that last and the people that continue to stay relevant are the people that are constantly evolving with the trends and different posting styles.
Speaker 1 00:30:11 I just saw Ryan Sirhan, I don't know if it was, uh, if it was on YouTube or if it was TikTok or what it was just, just a few minutes ago actually. And he's like this, you know, power broker from New York. He's on Million Dollar Listing New York.
Speaker 3 00:30:24 You've pointed him out to
Speaker 1 00:30:25 Me Yeah. For it. Uh, he had some house like I think in the Hamptons where he was like running, he was literally running through it. It was so big just to kind of get perspective on it was so, it was so cool. Yeah. You know, but I mean, guys like that, I mean, you know, I, you know, he's selling tons of real estate. Is he just an animal also? I mean, are they just just working nonstop? It's what it seems like.
Speaker 2 00:30:48 I mean, Ryan has the sell like Sirhan course platform, right? That has over 10,000 plus agents. He is a book, he has the entire sell, like Sirhan brand, he just started his own brokerage back in 2020. Sirhan, he's producing non-stop content. He's selling 50 million, a hundred million places too. So, I mean, that guy is the machine and kind of like the model broker slash media company, uh, you know, for any agent, any agent who just wants to see like what you should be doing on social, you should be consuming from Riot or him. He posts the perfect amount of versatile content from his family to actual real estate listings, to education, to trending topics, screens, slideshows, everything. That guy's got it dialed. Pisses me off.
Speaker 1 00:31:30 <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:31:31 This is, that means a lot when, when, you know, somebody pisses off somebody who's really good at what they do because that means they're doing it right. You know? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:31:39 It's just like, dude, shut up. Right. You know, like, just take a, take a couple months off and just let other people
Speaker 3 00:31:45 Right. Have their chance.
Speaker 2 00:31:46 Other people have their chance a little bit. No,
Speaker 1 00:31:48 I deal with the, with the devil and Yeah. Put 40 hours in their workday or something crazy, you know? Yeah, exactly. It's, it's, it's, it's nuts. Well,
Speaker 3 00:31:56 I know you've got, uh, uh, another, you're, you're out there everywhere. I know you've got a a a podcast after this or an interview after this that you gotta get to. So we wanted to wrap up though, with, with three quick questions if, if we could,
Speaker 2 00:32:08 The classic Rapid fire podcast questions.
Speaker 3 00:32:10 Yeah. But these are, these are actual fun. A little bit fun. It's the same question every single time. It's the same two questions. So what's the best real estate related de decision you've ever made
Speaker 2 00:32:21 Getting out of real estate? That's awesome. And creating content.
Speaker 3 00:32:25 Has that always been your passion? Even
Speaker 2 00:32:28 Creating con I mean, sports is my passion. Okay. I care more about sports. I could tell you every World Series winner from 1980 on, I could tell you the, you know, batting average of the 1999, you know, starting lineup for the Colorado Rockies. I know everything about football, basketball, baseball, like, that's what I truly, truly care about. But I found this niche in real estate and content creation. I know I'm good at that. So I, I of course care about that. But in terms of what moves the needle for me, really, it's sports.
Speaker 3 00:32:55 Yeah. Well, I like it. Um, what's, what's, uh, real estate decision? Do you regret if you have any, that you regret
Speaker 2 00:33:02 Not buying a house sooner? Yeah, I've been living this in this apartment with my fiance for the last three and a half years. We've kept kind of waiting and waiting and waiting to see what happens and, you know, we, we need to buy a house. So I, I think just sitting and pissing away rent for the last three and a half years has been a terrible decision. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:33:22 Yeah. I hear you there. Um, what real estate advice or other advice do you have for this next generation?
Speaker 2 00:33:29 I think, I mean, it's gonna sound so cliche, but consistency in terms of whatever you're doing. Uh, especially from like a content perspective, the only reason the broke agent brand is anything, or bam, is anything is because I've done this every single day for eight years. Like, there isn't a day that I take off. There isn't, you know, a long amount of period that I'm on vacation for and posts aren't going up or content's not going up. And I think that's what separates, you know, the agent from that. It's still in the business from the agent that is gone, right? Like, if you're not making your calls, if you're not doing your door knocking, sitting in your open houses every day, like you truly do build something when you consistently do that. And if you stop, it's fine to take breaks every now and then, but if you actually stop for a couple months, like, you're really gonna shoot yourself on the foot. So I think this entire brand was built on consistency. Every time someone logs on Instagram, there's gonna be a broke agent post. There's gonna be a story if we're gonna make you laugh, there's gonna be content on the blog. There's gonna be a podcast every single day. And it's that consistency that's gonna separate us from any other media company moving forward.
Speaker 1 00:34:34 I think it's great
Speaker 3 00:34:35 Advice. Yeah, it's great. I was just telling my daughter something very similar. She's just getting out of college and into the workforce. She was telling me about this person that stayed until 10:00 PM at work yesterday, and I was like, yeah, that's what you're up against out there. There's always going to be somebody that will do it and do it every day, do it consistently and do it harder and better than you, you know? Yes. And that's what you're up against. So go hit that gas pedal, go get yours.
Speaker 1 00:34:59 Well, Eric, we really appreciate you having on the show. I know I learned something. I know Scotty had to have learned something because there's only one way to go up for him. You know, he <laugh>, you know, he wasn't starting with much to begin with <laugh>, but, uh, but no, we've, we really are, uh, intrigued by, by social media and we consider ourselves students of social media. We've, we've started taking it a lot more. Um, seriously. But, you know, I, I meant it whenever I said, you know, I really truly feel, you know, stupid, you know, sitting here listening to you <laugh>. So I, I appreciate you coming on and sharing your, your knowledge with us and our listeners and, um, I hope, hope that, uh, we can collaborate or, you know, do something together, you know, in the future sometime.
Speaker 2 00:35:43 Yeah. I'll see you in the sweet 16 out here in Anaheim, U of A versus Indiana Part two <laugh>. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:35:49 That would be, uh, that would be amazing. I'm a giant, giant college basketball fan. Of course. You know, um, Indiana, I went to, uh, I went to 13 straight final fours. Uh, me and a group of my, uh, high school buddies would go to, you know, every year. Now, um, we've kind of been to all the final four cities, so we just get together and we watch the first two rounds of the tournament. We pick a city and we go to, but like, I can't, I can't wake. But if that were to line up, it's on man. We're,
Speaker 2 00:36:18 We're, we're together. Did you go to, did you go to 97 Final Four?
Speaker 1 00:36:22 Uh, no. You were, no, I wouldn't have done the 19
Speaker 2 00:36:25 2001. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:36:27 2001 I think was here in Indianapolis, I believe. Believe
Speaker 2 00:36:30 That
Speaker 1 00:36:31 Was U of a Duke, Michigan State. And that one Michigan State, one Michigan State u I was at
Speaker 3 00:36:35 2000. I was at U of A
Speaker 1 00:36:37 Too. Okay. But no, I wasn't there about 2002. Um, we started kind of, I graduated college in oh one. Okay. And we, we kind of started that pilgrimage, um, you know, after, after that. But you know, if you, if you go to, uh, you know, they're, they only hold 'em in like five, six different cities.
Speaker 2 00:36:55 I know it's Houston this year. I want, I mean, obviously I want U of A to make it every year. They haven't since 2001, but, uh, it's in Phoenix next year. So that would be Phoenix is, I think it's in Phoenix. Yeah. That would be sick if you have ever,
Speaker 3 00:37:08 Are your parents still there in
Speaker 2 00:37:09 Phoenix? Parents are in Tucson. Oh,
Speaker 3 00:37:11 Tucson. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Tucson.
Speaker 2 00:37:12 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:37:13 Okay. Yeah, I was hoping I was with, I want to go to the waste management open out there. Yeah. I'm a, I'm a big golf fan, so I was watching, watching that. I've always wanted to go out there, but
Speaker 2 00:37:22 Scotty Shuffler does not move the needle for me. You know, he's a nice guy.
Speaker 1 00:37:28 He's a nice guy.
Speaker 2 00:37:29 Zero to no charisma. I don't know. I'm, I'm trying to find, I'm a big golf fan also, and I mean, he's, he's so fun to watch golf, but I, there's no fire in there. There's no emotion. Not like, it's so different than like, even Justin Thomas Elise gives us something. All these guys are kind of squares. I'm, I'm trying to find who, who like brings the, the fire out there right
Speaker 1 00:37:49 Now. Well, I mean, it's, it's kind of difficult, you know, everyone got used to Tyr for so many years, you know, and, and now it's, it's, they're really looking for that guy. I think it'd be good, you know, if McElroy would take off and do something. Yeah. Um, you know, you know, win a few more majors. I'm a SPE guy. I'm a Jordan SPE guy. Yeah. I always root for Jordan Spe. I ran into him at a restaurant down at the Masters right before he won his first masters. And he just seemed like a really genuine dude. So I've just kind of attached my wagon to that hitch
Speaker 3 00:38:19 For a while. We've got a friend who, who goes to tournaments too, and he keeps running into McElroy at like 3:00 AM the nights before he tells us all true stories. He comes home and he is like, yeah, every time I go to a bar, these, these tournaments, McElroy is there at 3:00 AM
Speaker 2 00:38:34 Like no way. Still out there. You, you mean like in between rounds, party drinking, like, like on a Thursday night? Yes.
Speaker 1 00:38:40 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 2 00:38:41 Yeah. That makes me like him way more. I mean, I love McElroy. He's got the, the best swing in the game. Yeah, right. But I mean, I, I kind of took him also for a square. No, because he's now like the face of the PGA and seems super straight edge. But
Speaker 1 00:38:54 Yeah. But he also, that's awesome. He also broke up with that, that really beautiful tennis player. Yeah. He gives his fiance by text,
Speaker 2 00:39:00 Right. <laugh> by text and then legend. And then at that next tournament, he got in trouble. That Irish bar for it was drinking too much or something. So like, oh, that's awesome. There, there's some good with McElroy. Oh,
Speaker 1 00:39:12 He's Irish. You know, they liked to drink. Well, thanks again, Eric. We really appreciate it. And you know, if, uh, if we could meet up at the Sweet 16, that'd be awesome. If not, hey, let's get, uh, let's, let's collaborate some more. And I've been really, we've really enjoyed our conversation. Definitely
Speaker 2 00:39:27 Great to talk to you guys. Thanks for having me on. Yep. Talk soon.
Speaker 1 00:39:29 So that's our show. If you've made it this far, we'd really appreciate it. If you'd leave us review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, it really helps us to grow our podcasts and reach as many people as we can to help them understand the world of real estate investing. You can also find some short form content on TikTok. Our TikTok is at the Homeboys podcast where you can learn even more about the power of real estate investing. Until next time, happy investing.
