How to Create Cool Videos (ft. Steve Stockman)

If you decided to start creating content, you probably realized how hard it is. Today’s guest can tell you exactly how to do it and how to make it look good.

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Transcript:

00:05:40:08 – 00:06:11:10

Unknown

So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Webster, Real Estate Marketing Dave. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand. People have come to know like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them, Let’s get started.

00:06:11:12 – 00:06:33:10

Unknown

What’s up? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the other episode of the Real Estate Marketing Dude Podcast. And most of you been listening to the show for years know us as video, and we haven’t done it with video, video marketing and all that other stuff. And we haven’t done many podcasts recently on video, but the title of this one is How to Shoot Videos That Don’t Suck.

00:06:33:10 – 00:06:54:15

Unknown

And folks, I can tell you that in the last few years, all the videos we’ve created, the thousands of videos we created, there is a formula here and it doesn’t matter if you’re ugly, you’re fat, you stutter, it doesn’t matter. The biggest, I would say, reservation I get from people and they’re trying to get on camera and they would hire us was be like, I’m too boring, I’m ugly.

00:06:54:15 – 00:07:14:19

Unknown

I’ve a face made for radio. None of that shit matters when it comes to video. You have to know two things how to main, how to maintain and retain attention, and how to take people through a story essentially and add value to them while you’re doing it. So we brought on Mr. Steve Stockman, who wrote a book on how to shoot videos that don’t suck.

00:07:14:19 – 00:07:37:20

Unknown

This dude’s in L.A. He creates shit for people and he’s very creative and he’s going to break down. I don’t know, let’s call it the infrastructure of a successful video, if that’s okay. But without further ado, let’s go ahead and introduce our gas and we’re going to break it down for you guys. How to create videos that people are actually going to watch and that you’ll feel happy to put out there on social media, YouTube and all the above.

00:07:37:20 – 00:08:03:19

Unknown

So, Steve, how are you doing? Why don’t you tell everyone a little bit about who the hell you are, where you’re from, and let’s get in Skype, all kinds of questions for you. I’m doing great. Thank you for thank you for having me. So I do TV shows, then a feature film, music videos, basically. I’ve been in Los Angeles making a living as a director and a writer and producer for quite a long time, and I like to teach about video.

00:08:03:21 – 00:08:37:19

Unknown

You know, when the big video revolutions started, it started to be like a doctor at cocktail parties. You know, you’d walk in, but instead of saying, Hey, could you look at this boil on my neck, they’d go, You know, I’ve got a video. Could you look at it for me and tell me how it is? And what was funny about it was that it was almost always a series of related problems that were perfectly understandable because in the olden days, I don’t know if you remember the olden days, but nobody asked you to make videos in the olden days and the olden days videos were things that people who are professionals like me made and

00:08:37:19 – 00:09:03:06

Unknown

normal people never made them, and in fact were so excited to see themselves on a TV screen when they walked through the the video store at the mall that they would point and smile at it, you know, which we don’t do anymore either now that everything is on video all the time. So so I wrote this book and how to Shoot video that Doesn’t Suck is in nine languages and 250,000 plus copies.

00:09:03:06 – 00:09:30:18

Unknown

You can get it wherever books are. But the reason I wanted to talk to you is I just did a video course also that’s designed to help people really understand how to make video that other people will want to watch. So let’s break it down. Where is everyone going wrong? Well, I think the first the first most important thing to think about when you think about video is what you watch, right?

00:09:30:20 – 00:10:01:18

Unknown

Because even though none of us or many of us are not professional videographers, we understand video. We’ve been watching it since we were born, basically. And so we speak the language, which at least we understand it, you know. And so if you trust your instincts, that’s probably one of the first rules of video, which is if you’re doing a video for a house or a real estate project and you’re looking at it and going, Oh, this is crap.

00:10:01:20 – 00:10:26:19

Unknown

It’s crap, you know, so the director’s job, oddly enough, is to stand up and go, This is the way it should be. This is the color. It should be. This is where the actor should stand. This is how I want to point the camera. And directors get paid a lot of money to do that. If you’re running your own business or your own your own real estate business, you have to be willing to do that for your videos and be real honest about what you like and what you don’t like.

00:10:26:22 – 00:10:48:15

Unknown

And don’t put anything out there that you wouldn’t choose to watch. Good point. Where do you start? I feel like a lot of, at least in businesses, when they start making videos, one of the biggest problems I see is they treat it like a sales pitch from the get go. And it’s and I get it. Guys like we’re taught to sell our services.

00:10:48:15 – 00:11:06:21

Unknown

And if you believe you’re the best person in the job for it, you should. However, if you’re constantly just selling your shit, well, people are going to tune you out eventually because you’re not adding anything of value no differently. And I say this every show almost. If you talk to your wife about work on every frickin day, she’s going to divorce you because you have nothing else interesting to say.

00:11:06:23 – 00:11:22:22

Unknown

Well, if all you’re doing is just trying to get me to give you money, well, it’s the same thing you have to have. There’s a format here that has to take place for people to actually consume your content, because if they’re dropping off, 80% of people drop off in the first 8 seconds. So it’s even higher than that.

00:11:22:24 – 00:11:47:00

Unknown

So every bit of it adds a lot of value to it. Yeah. So a way to think about it is think of it as a transaction. You know, you are providing your video needs to provide people with an experience they actually value because we can get from our phones to a billion other videos besides your crappy video in 3 seconds.

00:11:47:02 – 00:12:16:04

Unknown

Right? So there’s no reason for us to stick around unless we’re getting value from the transaction of watching. So we need to be entertained. We need to be intrigued. We need to be taken for something of a journey, a trip. We need to go on a ride and we need to we need to be able to feel like we got something out of it.

00:12:16:04 – 00:12:38:23

Unknown

And the benefit of that is if we do, we’re going to come back for more later. We’re going to be willing to trust you. And if we don’t trust you, we are never going to watch another one of your videos. And that’s a really important thing that people don’t don’t immediately understand until they start to think about the way they watch videos, because it’s pretty much the same thing.

00:12:39:00 – 00:12:57:12

Unknown

Why is it that never before in the history of mankind could a little six inch device like this make a £300 grown man break at the knees? And why do we get so damn? Oh, my God, It’s a camera, guys. I always thought people. You don’t have to watch it. Like, if you don’t like your video, don’t post it there for a while.

00:12:57:13 – 00:13:21:21

Unknown

You nervous shooting it? Yeah. In fact, you have to not post it if you don’t like it because you know the answer to the rule. Yeah, it’s disrespectful. I mean, think about think about your behavior. I mean, you go to Netflix not because you want them to punch you in the face or ask you for money, but because you want to sit down and watch things that make you feel something or take you on a trip or entertain you.

00:13:22:02 – 00:13:51:02

Unknown

And because they do such a good job of that, you go back to everyday and you see what’s on Netflix. And I think that businesses can do the same. I think if you’re if you’re killing it with your and there have been examples of this throughout, you know, online history but if you’re if you’re killing it with videos that people enjoy, they will return and that’s that’s the game right.

00:13:51:04 – 00:14:11:16

Unknown

Is to make people want to come back and look at what you’re doing. So I think you’re right when you talk about the idea that that it doesn’t really matter who you are, you need to find out what is. The way I like to put it is you have to find out what’s magical about you and about your relationship with your customers and figure out a way to get that across.

00:14:11:16 – 00:14:33:10

Unknown

In a video, if that makes sense. Yep. And it doesn’t mean you’re selling it, guys. You know you don’t have to sell it to demonstrate it. Yeah, real estate agents always go out and I’ve been in the business for I’m off. Hey, I’ve been, I’ve been sold. I was later piece them out. It’s more of like. Like nobody’s watching your content and your job isn’t to tell.

00:14:33:10 – 00:14:49:15

Unknown

It’s to remind. At least if you’re trying to build a brand on on video, if you’re just constantly telling people you’re going to last for three or four months in Russia to say, But when you’re just constantly understand how to remind people consistently what you do for a living, especially those of you who are in referral based businesses, well, you become unforgettable.

00:14:49:17 – 00:15:09:17

Unknown

But you have to have that storyline that they remember by and think about every single video that you watch on television. There’s that one thing that you follow. Most of you don’t even know what it is like. Take Joe Rogan, for example. He’s got a great podcast, right? He’s got a huge podcast following and people watch that show, I believe, for his authenticity, but people know what they’re going to get.

00:15:09:17 – 00:15:30:08

Unknown

And Joe, he never has to sell his show. He just sort of tells you, just tell the story each and every time, right? And people come back for that. So what’s your advice for people? Like how do they overcome that, that piece? Because how do you create stories is what I think is the key storytelling. How do you create stories on your business without selling your services all the time?

00:15:30:08 – 00:15:56:11

Unknown

Because when you could crack that, you’ll never run out of things to say on video. This is exactly correct. I totally agree with you. So here’s how you do it. First, if you have a business, you have your real estate business and you’ve successfully sold properties, then you have some idea, even if you haven’t sat down to think about it, who your great customers are and who your last great customers are.

00:15:56:13 – 00:16:17:08

Unknown

So what you want to start with is a profile of your great customers. And great customers are the ones who get you, who come back to you because they see things in you. They say things like, I like the way you show this property, or I like the fact that you thought of me for this one and you didn’t bother me with this other one.

00:16:17:10 – 00:16:49:09

Unknown

Or I like the style of house that you tend to represent or I like the owners that you work with. When I’m buying property from you, something about you is bringing people back to you. And so the first thing you need to understand is what those things are. And the way to get to it is identify your best customers, literally make a list of all your favorite customers, the ones you would walk through fire for, the ones who would walk through the fire for you, where you work with them and you feel like this is great.

00:16:49:09 – 00:17:16:15

Unknown

I could work with this person all day. Who are those people? What do you love about them and what do they love about working with you? And you will find some commonalities running through those lists. And that’s step one. It’s not like you don’t need fancy market research. You just need to think a little bit about what makes you great, honestly, for your very best and most lucrative customers.

00:17:16:17 – 00:17:41:13

Unknown

And that will give you some clues about what your audience wants from you, because the best thing you could possibly do is attract more of those kinds of people, right? The ones who are going to love you may have fun with you, make you feel great and buy from you. So let’s give you some examples. Here’s a good one that if you’re a we had a client a while ago and he’s a dog rescuer, that’s what he was.

00:17:41:13 – 00:17:56:01

Unknown

And he happened to sell real estate. Seconds So you got to figure out what you are first and then what you do second is that you sell real estate or you do loans or whatever that is. So how would this guy go out and shoot videos on a further for and not talking about real estate because you don’t always want to talk about real estate either.

00:17:56:01 – 00:18:18:01

Unknown

You want to you want to remind people what you do. So what he would do instead of him going out and doing well, if he was going to do a housing tour, he would open up though, where the dog would sleep. Right. And he’s he sees he’s creating videos that have the best dog backyards. He’s creating videos on local community dog parks, restaurants that are dog friendly and all of it is real estate and community.

00:18:18:06 – 00:18:52:17

Unknown

But his personal brand, you get a lot. You get to know whom he is, right? We had another person that would do their military. So I got a great create a show called San Diego Salute, and he would just literally go around town and remind people that he was in real estate, but he would focus on the different monumental and call it antique type tourist attractions in San Diego, which is a ton of military installations, He would focus on military owned small businesses, and he even created a buyer boot camp and a seller boot camp to determine sort of how he portrays you.

00:18:52:17 – 00:19:17:19

Unknown

In other words, he’s got your back right? So there’s a communication strategy here. And I think that’s where a lot of people struggle with, like, well, who am I? And is it hard without identifying what the hell your own brand is to create any type of videos that people will watch? Yeah, And I think that’s that goes to I think it’s hard for people to admit what’s great about them.

00:19:17:19 – 00:19:44:16

Unknown

Like, we’re kind of a little bit conditioned to not go, Oh, well, I’m great at this and I’m great at this. And that’s why I say, look at your customers and kind of let them tell you in a way or kind of pull from that list. What’s great about you? I love the dogs story, but you know, you can go, wait, there’s millions of things like maybe you’re the person who really loves Spanish style houses and renovating them.

00:19:44:18 – 00:20:09:10

Unknown

You know, maybe you’re the person who has a perfect eye for minimal renovations. That’ll help a house flipper really kill it without screwing over their customers. Love. Maybe, you know, maybe your, you know, a water properties person and you love boats. And so you’re going to make your your videos and your essence about that. And that’s all great.

00:20:09:12 – 00:20:29:17

Unknown

And the dog thing is wonderful because it’s it’s about you like it’s about that guy and the fact that he loves dogs. So what do you love that you can share with your customers that they in turn, you know, already for making this list that they love about you that you can put into your video in some way?

00:20:29:19 – 00:20:46:02

Unknown

Yep. Yeah, Yeah. Because, I mean, you guys have to be excited about it too. Like the creator needs to be excited about the content they’re creating. Otherwise when they’re creating it, it just doesn’t come out well, right? Like you have to like. Like your own stuff. Otherwise people will look at it and know that you look constipated for a reason.

00:20:46:02 – 00:21:10:01

Unknown

You’re not very excited about it. And that’s equally as important. You guys, when we’re breaking down a video and people get so held up on scripts, right? What’s the script? What’s the script say? I need to see the script. I’ve never seen anyone script a video, reading a script and it turn out well as much as using a script as like a guideline, right?

00:21:10:01 – 00:21:29:11

Unknown

Because they always revert to reading. It is very hard to be authentic when you’re reading something, right? So what do you what’s your view on scripts? How does someone approach like, great, you have good video idea. Walk me through like how do you script something like that? Because that’s where a lot of people get stuck. They worry so much about what they’re going to say versus how they’re going to say it.

00:21:29:13 – 00:21:47:02

Unknown

Well, some people are very good at it, and so those people should go ahead and do it right. But I think part of what you’re saying and and a point I want to kind of tack on here is that you don’t need to do something in a video and you shouldn’t do something in a video that you’re bad at.

00:21:47:04 – 00:22:15:13

Unknown

So if you are not a script reader, then you might want to instead bring a shot list with you to the house that you’re going to shoot and just work off that shot list and sort of, you know, point the camera, get a really great shot of the kitchen, talk for a couple of minutes and do a couple of takes just off the top of your head about what’s great about that kitchen or the thing that you want to bring to people’s attention.

00:22:15:15 – 00:22:43:05

Unknown

And then in add it, just pick the best piece that works and use the part of your voiceover that works without having to script it and make yourself feel awkward. Or you also don’t want to be on camera if you’re awkward on camera. But what could happen? Like if you’re awkward talking to the camera, then there’s no reason that you can’t have your assistant shoot you talking to the clients and use pieces of that, right?

00:22:43:05 – 00:23:04:21

Unknown

Then you don’t have to talk to the camera. We can just take pieces of what you said to the clients and and paste that and edit it into your house video, for example. So I think it’s important. Your big point is really important, which is don’t do something on video that makes you feel awkward and miserable because that will show every time.

00:23:04:23 – 00:23:30:04

Unknown

Yep. Absolutely. What do you. Let’s just put ourselves in a I’m a realtor. I know I need to create videos. What do I do next? So if you’ve got this this kind of audience profile about what makes them magical, what makes you magical to your audience, rather, what you want to think about is how you want to express it.

00:23:30:06 – 00:23:47:14

Unknown

And the guy with the dogs is a great example. He just pulls that out and puts it in there. And even if you don’t have a dog, if he does it in an amusing way or an emotional way or a way that shows you cute dogs that you can appreciate, even though you don’t have one of your own, that’s a hook he’s going to write.

00:23:47:16 – 00:24:09:08

Unknown

You’re going to remember him. It’s authentic to him. He looks good doing it. He’s clearly interested in it. And everybody can like that. Right. So what is it that’s magical about you that you can put out there? If you have a great sense of humor, you should be narrating your videos and putting that great sense of humor in the videos.

00:24:09:10 – 00:24:43:00

Unknown

If you do have a really great eye for detail and you want to talk about, you know, the detail in a house from the 1860s on the East Coast somewhere, you should be getting that knowledge out there and you should put that kind of narration or discussion in your videos, not 30 minutes of it. But if it’s a really important thing for you and your personality and it’s something that your clients love about you, real estate videos do not need to be boring floats through the house with a drone shot.

00:24:43:02 – 00:25:04:18

Unknown

They can be narrated, they can have the personality of the realtor attached to them, whether it’s narration or on camera. And they should be fun and entertaining for the audience in some way. One of the best listing videos I saw, I think it was last year, it was a year around Christmas time and it just a and there is no words in it, but they put an elf on the shelf in every room.

00:25:04:20 – 00:25:19:05

Unknown

But fight. And it was just one little thing, but it was a human sized dolphin shelter. I’m pretty sure that off on the shelf was the realtor, but he was like positioning himself, like in in every room shot they had, you know, the elf is always like doing some fun. So he would be frozen in and he was stuck in that position in that room.

00:25:19:05 – 00:25:45:12

Unknown

But that was what made it extremely eye catching. I remember when I saw the house in Chicago, a friend of mine, a good friend of mine, he’s a huge Metallica collector. Like a memorabilia collector, dude has over $300,000 of Metallica album signatures, all the band mates, you name it, he’s got the most rare Metallica artifact. So I remember when I started that video, it was like, This is the world’s best man cave you’re ever going to see.

00:25:45:12 – 00:26:00:07

Unknown

And I was at his drum set because he didn’t do too much, and that was done on purpose. I did that very well just because I drew them in. I picked the most interesting part of the house. So the the hook, though, is where are you guys going to focus on the most? What do you think the most important part of the video is?

00:26:00:07 – 00:26:46:04

Unknown

Would you agree that that first 8 seconds, 10 seconds, 5 seconds starts the. I do it. I do and I don’t. So I think that we we we want to be careful about focusing too much on the CEO and hooky ness of it all and more focused on the quality of the overall thing. So what I think in there in the real estate industry, one of the things that’s true is if you were actively shopping for, say, a house and your realtor says you should watch this video for this house that I think will be right for you, you’re going to give it more than 8 seconds unless it’s a complete waste of your time.

00:26:46:10 – 00:27:06:18

Unknown

Right. Because you’ve been told by your realtor that you should watch it. Now, the so the question is, what’s the whole video look like? And so I think that I think that you don’t want to do something in the first 8 seconds that stupid and you certainly want to do something in the first 8 seconds that intrigues people.

00:27:06:20 – 00:27:35:05

Unknown

But I think that to focus too much on that kind of you know, jam at the beginning is less genuine and more gimmicky than we need to be, right? What we really need to do is get the value proposition for them, the entertainment transaction proposition upfront. What am I going to give you should be clear in that first 8 seconds.

00:27:35:07 – 00:28:01:00

Unknown

So even if the realtor says you’ll see a beautiful picture of the house and you hear the realtor going, Hey, this is 1157 Colvin Avenue, it’s perfect if you love 1850s renovations that are authentic as hell, right? So that’s not flashy, but it gives you that benefit in the first 8 seconds and you’re now going, Oh, I do like those kinds of houses.

00:28:01:00 – 00:28:24:06

Unknown

I should watch the rest of this. Right? And then then the consistency of your production throughout will make that person, hopefully when they’re done with that video, look at your website to see what else there is on your website that’s for sale. And then call their realtor and go, Hey, I saw this other one on this guy’s website, you know, so I think it’s all about overall quality.

00:28:24:08 – 00:28:43:05

Unknown

Even call the realtor and like, Hey, why aren’t you? This is when it really works. Well, say, Hey, this other realtor is doing all these videos on all of his listings. Why aren’t you doing that for mine? Now you’re like, Oh shit, that happens all the time in terms of maintaining attention throughout the video. Like what other tips?

00:28:43:05 – 00:29:00:19

Unknown

How do you get people to watch? Towards the end of the video? You get you get them interested upfront. You got someone to tell the promises, What are you going to what do you watch this for? Like what’s in it for me? But then how do you maintain attention? I think that it depends on what the purpose of the video is.

00:29:00:19 – 00:29:23:20

Unknown

So are we talking like like walk through type videos or videos more about your firm overall? Because I think what most realtors and most lenders, they’re going to create like more of an ongoing series. They’re not necessarily like their sales videos that they’re running ads to, but they’re ongoing video marketing strategy that sort of keeps them at the forefront.

00:29:23:22 – 00:29:43:08

Unknown

So they’re creating a show called a YouTube channel, and they’re creating consistently each and every month, some short form, some long form. And that’s top question I get is like, Hey, dude, how do I get people to watch more of these? And like on sites like YouTube, people are so worried about that because you guys want your videos to get seen and shown, well, you got to increase the watch time on those if you want that to happen on YouTube.

00:29:43:10 – 00:30:05:09

Unknown

So you have to maintain that attention. So more so like that perspective, how do you get people to watch towards the end of it? So I think step one is to make sure that your intent for your video is clear. So let’s suppose that you’re a real estate lender. I’m making this up, of course, because I’m not a real estate lender, but I’ve borrowed money for real estate, so I’m somebody who works.

00:30:05:11 – 00:30:27:19

Unknown

So you’re a real estate lender and you have made your list of customers who are your favorite customers. And you know what they love about you And you’re thinking about presenting yourself as the guy who’s going to come up with or a woman who’s going to come up with incredibly innovative financing solutions for you, even if you’ve only got 10% to put down.

00:30:27:21 – 00:30:56:11

Unknown

Right? And so your intent is to make people who feel like they only have 10% down, who feel like they can do some very good deals. Right. And with your guidance, perhaps, perhaps that’s your intent by having that clear intent and setting it out like that. Now, when you think about your video, you can judge everything against how well are we doing on that score?

00:30:56:13 – 00:31:23:20

Unknown

And you know that your video is done when you’ve done it. So when you’ve done a video that that says to people, Hey, you only got 10% down, I can make a deal with you, that’s going to make you look to the seller like you had 90% cash. Right? And so that means that as you design the video, you’re thinking about, okay, here’s my point to them.

00:31:23:22 – 00:31:48:12

Unknown

My point is that I can make your 10% down transaction work phenomenally well. Right. My point is that I’m an innovative thinker. So now you can say, I know what my intent is and I know who my audience is. If these 10% down, people who love me and I know that my point to them is I’m going to make this really innovative and magical for you so you can close your deal.

00:31:48:14 – 00:32:09:02

Unknown

Now you get to the good part, which is creating a way to do that, and there’s an infinite number of ways to do that, but there’s also an infinite number of ways to screw that up. And by having this intent, lay it out and know what your video is going to be about. You can avoid all the ones that are going to screw it up, right?

00:32:09:08 – 00:32:36:12

Unknown

So you can like video out as as interviews or with past clients or you’re going to stage a meeting with a buyer where you’re sitting next to the buyer and talking to the seller and you’ll stage that and make a skit out of it, or you’re going to report on some great news that you just read about this and make it really easy for clients to understand.

00:32:36:14 – 00:32:57:03

Unknown

And any approach that you take, you know what your goal is. You know who you’re talking to, and that way you’ll know when you’re done. And so people will always watch till the end. If you stop at the point that you’re finished and where you’ve delivered something of great value to them. And does that make sense? Yeah, Yeah.

00:32:57:05 – 00:33:26:01

Unknown

You got to call out just to rewind, guys. We’re saying who, what? What is this about in the beginning? Who is it for? What do you get out of watching it? Small intro and then deliver on your points. But if you notice, he did something important there. He had a little teaser and he said it very nonchalantly and he said, I don’t know if you could rewind what you just said there, because he said in the video, like, but then there’s other things that you shouldn’t do as well.

00:33:26:01 – 00:33:39:07

Unknown

We’ll get to that in a little bit. But first, you know, like that little that little things like what do you mean what? I shouldn’t do that that sort of is like a pattern interrupt in a sense where you got to be like, Oh, okay, so maybe I do need to stick up to the end of this as well.

00:33:39:09 – 00:33:59:05

Unknown

So like, let’s, let’s see if it’s all right, so let’s go. Here’s a good way to do it. Let’s just take that man cave example. Tell me if this is what you’re saying here. So I’m about to show you the how I’m going to show you a $300,000. I actually probably won’t say it on a video cause I don’t want to rob his house, but I’m going to show you the world’s best Metallica man cave.

00:33:59:07 – 00:34:17:10

Unknown

But just in a minute, the first place I’m going to stop here is going to be in the kitchen and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I said a little bit of a teaser to keep them going. Is that your scene? I think that’s a big part of it. I think. I think that everything you’re doing wants to lead to the next thing, if that makes sense.

00:34:17:10 – 00:34:54:01

Unknown

So I think you mentioned upfront story, right? So story structure is beginning, middle and end, and it’s just that simple. So if you’re laying out your video about the man cave at the beginning, you might start with, you know, say, a real estate beginning. If you’re showing the house, you might start by saying, Hey, normally I would do a real estate video for you by showing you this house and walking in the front door, just like you’re going to do in real life.

00:34:54:03 – 00:35:18:06

Unknown

But I got to show you something first. That’s good. And then you might get down to the man cave first and interrupt that flow. That’s good. And then the middle is, you know, here’s how we got to that man cave. You know, here’s the rest of it, which turns out to be a very civilized, great, entertainer’s house that isn’t weirdly man cave for you at all.

00:35:18:06 – 00:35:40:13

Unknown

It just has this special room, you know, behind a wall shelf wall, you know, and you know that your whole family will enjoy living in. And then at the end, you talk about it, you know, this is a whole package. And if you’re the right person for this, you’re going to need to see it. And and here’s when you can do that.

00:35:40:15 – 00:36:02:21

Unknown

So you can have a little story structure for them and that keeps them intrigued and sitting through the whole thing. So if you guys are outlining these, like just literally go back to the way your teacher told you to write an essay, there’s an attention got here, there’s an introduction, there’s body point one, two and three. Then there’s an actual conclusion and there’s your video script, you know, but you should take some.

00:36:02:21 – 00:36:20:13

Unknown

Don’t wing it, like take some time to list it out. Like I’m going to go here first and then I’m go here first. And you got to make it make sense so that people would watch it. But it shouldn’t be any more difficult than that. Now, the older the other videos I see people make, like ones you use for ads, and those are like very highly scripted.

00:36:20:13 – 00:36:39:05

Unknown

They have certain mechanisms in there to get people to take action and all of that. But we’re talking about just making general content videos and every single one I’ve recorded, I always follow that story. Hook attention getter body outro, hook, attention getter, body outro. And it just never fails. And as long as you can write an essay, well, I mean, it’s all you’re doing on camera.

00:36:39:05 – 00:37:01:19

Unknown

The difference is writing versus filming, right? You’re still telling a story either way. Yeah, I think it’s remarkable. You know, I talk about video as a language and people say, well, editing, I don’t understand editing. It’s like, well, it’s cut, copy and paste, like Microsoft Word, you know, and and you’re exactly right that telling a story is who’s the hero?

00:37:01:21 – 00:37:21:20

Unknown

What do they do at the beginning? What happens in the middle and how does it all work out at the end and telling those kinds of stories, It very much is exactly the same as Mrs. Cooper. Talk to you in fourth grade when you had to diagram sentences. You know, it’s here’s even a shot, you know, noun verb, an individual shot.

00:37:21:20 – 00:37:42:23

Unknown

And a movie that you watch is going to be John Wick slams a guy in the face. That’s the shot. The the noun is John Wick. The verb is slams. The object is the guy who gets his face smashed. Right? That’s the end of the shot. So all filmmaking and all video making is exactly like English class way back when.

00:37:43:00 – 00:38:05:19

Unknown

And the closer you can stick to that, the better off you’re going to be. Yep. Telling stories, not making statements. Yeah, stories. Not selling your services. I think the magic is in trying to get your personality into what you’re doing, especially if you’re doing repeat business with a lot of the same people as a way of building your business.

00:38:05:21 – 00:38:27:05

Unknown

Is is to think about what makes you great and think about how you’re comfortable presenting it. Because, you know, you see a lot of I’ve been shopping actually, and and I also sold a house recently and in the in the. Did you like your realtor did. Yes, actually that’s a that’s that’s a rare thing. You might have had a good one.

00:38:27:06 – 00:38:45:18

Unknown

I was like a needle in a haystack. But I looked at all the videos that people were doing for realtors. And around here, they’re pretty high end. Yeah. Yeah. They all look kind of the same, you know, it’s all walk in the front door. Here is what you see in the front door. Here is what you see in the living room.

00:38:45:18 – 00:39:07:16

Unknown

Here’s the oh, look, there’s the kitchen and then there’s a drone shot at the end. And and I appreciate the simplicity of that, but it looks just like the MLS listing pictures where it’s exactly the same chronology or the virtual walk through, which is exactly the same chronology. So if you’re going to bother to do a video, there needs to be more to it.

00:39:07:17 – 00:39:31:08

Unknown

There needs to be your realtor’s analysis of why this property is great. We’re finding something special about it or something that you wouldn’t notice about it that no one else will notice about it and that you can add to in a narration or an on screen appearance. You know, I don’t understand why realtors don’t all narrate their videos of these walkthroughs.

00:39:31:08 – 00:39:52:05

Unknown

It’s like it’s just it’s so important to be able to share your point of view about why this house or property is going to be great for the right buyer. And the more you do that, the more credibility you have with buyers and the more it’s going to work for you. I mean, look at every listing and just pretend you’re writing an essay on it.

00:39:52:05 – 00:40:26:22

Unknown

I mean, that’s what it comes down to you guys. If you’re going to write a personify the house, literally, if it was a person, now go out and tell the story about their person. Very cool. Very cool. Any final thoughts you want to add? Any tips, anything else you want to add in here? And then I think just the the the no, no B.S. rule, which is if you look at a video that you’ve just done and something about it isn’t working, there’s something technically wrong with it or some shots are too long or you’re just in the middle of it, you just have to fix it.

00:40:26:24 – 00:40:55:20

Unknown

Don’t put out stuff that isn’t good because it hurts you to do that. You know, it’s it’s a first to no harm thing. Or as editors say, when in doubt, cut it out. Right. You’re not going to hurt yourself by not showing someone something, but you are going to hurt yourself by showing them something lame. So pay close attention to what you’re making and have fun with it and put something of yourself in it.

00:40:55:22 – 00:41:11:23

Unknown

And if you do that consistently over time, you’ll get better on it and it will all start to really work for you. I agree. I agree. Why don’t you tell people where they can get your book or visit your site? Learn more. The book you can get pretty much anywhere. It’s called How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck.

00:41:12:00 – 00:41:38:01

Unknown

There’s an audio version. There’s an electronic version. You can get all those. And the new course I just did is 22 lessons. It’s also called How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck. You can get it on my website. Steve Stockman dot com on so it’s 22 lessons and examples and me talking to you in a way that hopefully will demonstrate how not to make a terribly boring teaching video.

00:41:38:03 – 00:41:57:04

Unknown

Love it. Thank you folks for listening to their episode of Thursday marketing to podcast. We’ll see you guys next week. Same place, same time and enjoy your day board member. Right now, with the way the market is, you got to focus on create a whole lot of buzz and attention because a lot of people aren’t and rally is the more attention you have, the more client you’re going to have, because real estate is just a giant popularity contest.

00:41:57:06 – 00:42:20:11

Unknown

There’s no better way to build your personal brand than with video, period. And of course, see us next week by Thank you for watching another episode of the Real Estate Marketing Do podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is. Visit our website at WW W dot Real Estate marketing do dot com. We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you.

00:42:20:11 – 00:42:31:12

Unknown

So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with the dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching. Another episode of the podcast will see you next at.