Kim Rittberg as an Tv news producer ,marketing medial specialist and coach for real estate agents talks about her experience in this field. Next, Kim emphasized the importance of social media and how making simple cheaper videos takes agents closer to clients. She also presents her method to prepare videos – called PATCH.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Kim Rittberg can be reached here.
This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
What our top branding and marketing consultants telling Top realtors to do this year to grow their business. Or we’re going to be speaking with one of those consultants today. Stay tuned this episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solutions so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment we’re going to be speaking with branding and marketing consultant to realtors. Kim Rydberg before we get to Kim, just a couple of quick reminders. Please tell a friend about this episode. So many agents need help with their branding and marketing. And they can get some unbelievable tips from Kim In this episode, so send him over to our website keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever recorded, it can be streamed right from the browser, any browser and of course please support our sponsors there they were there who keep the bills paid and keep our staff paid so we can keep producing episodes. So check out their services and products and consider investing in them. All of the vendors that we have as sponsors develop products specifically to help you do more business. Okay guys, enough of that let’s get to the main event my conversation with Kim Rydberg.
Today on the show we referred to is a marketing and media specialist I wanted to tell you more about now Kim Rydberg is an award winning digital content strategist and an on camera coach. She spent 15 years as a media executive at Netflix, also People Magazine and in TV news and she launched the first Apple ever digital video unit for Us Weekly magazine. Now Kim coaches real estate agents to be better on camera and make unforgettable social media video and podcast content that brings in leads clients and revenue. Kim has been featured in Business Insider and Fast Company and has been a speaker and instructor at Penn and Syracuse University and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Annenberg School. She also by the way, my brother in law is also a patent grad. And he didn’t graduate from Annenberg. So that’s a new word for me. But graduating from University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School, she also hosts her own podcast called mom’s exit interview, which spurred by her decision to quit corporate and launch her own business after working in a hospital while giving birth to her second child. This podcast helps women craft careers that work for their lives instead of the other way around. That podcast again is called mom’s exit interview. We will have a link to both Kim’s website which you can find all things Gam at her website, Kim rydberg.com I will spell that que imrittberg.com link to that in the show notes as well as the mom’s exit interview podcast. Kim, welcome to the show.
Kim Rittberg 4:23
Thank you so much for having me.
D.J. Paris 4:25
Super excited to have you i i only ever talked to realtors. So this is very exciting for me to talk to somebody that works with realtors and also somebody with an extensive media background and really all things media and all things video production TV would love to sort of get your take on what realtors can do to better further their online brands. Specifically social media, you know, video, anything and everything that you see working and also maybe some don’ts, right some do’s and don’ts, but Before we get to that, tell us about your history. How did you get involved in media?
Kim Rittberg 5:04
So my the beginning of my media career, I was a TV news producer for inside edition. So it’s a bit of everything red carpet, real estate lifestyle, it was great. Learn how to tell stories. And then I worked at on the record with Greta Van Susteren. So that was sure, yeah, a lot of crime politics. And then to be honest, I was never really a news junkie. And so I really wanted to get closer to the creative content. So I worked in long form TV for a bit like wives with knives, True Crime type of stuff. And then I launched the video unit for Us Weekly. So basically, I turned a conference room, into a live TV studio, we had an 18 person team that I was overseeing all the operations and all the creative. And what I love about that is that is what business owners and real estate agents right now are doing, everyone now is tasked with turning their office into a studio. And I think that’s probably one of the best skills that I took away from that storytelling, but also being resourceful with whatever you have. And since then, I also worked at Netflix and marketing and branded content, Pop Sugar, and now I run my own business, where I help real estate agents take those, take what they’re good at what they’re best at, but really harnessing that and helping them create great video and podcast to grow their business.
D.J. Paris 6:21
It’s really interesting, and you certainly have the pedigree for this conversation, which is why we were so excited to have you on because so often, I only really talk to realtors who do their own social media, their own video production, and some are so impressive. And but again, they’re primarily realtors, this is, you know, an extension of their marketing efforts. And, you know, I like they don’t necessarily have this background and experience in traditional, you know, long form and short form media and US Weekly is a really good example because of course, as the magazine becomes less and less popular, as less people are reading, you know, the the physical copy, obviously, their video has to really shine, which I love what I like about US Weekly, and I’m not a reader myself. But what I understand about US Weekly is they are masters at capturing somebody’s attention, holding their attention for a shorter period of time giving them something that that is of interest or exciting to the reader or their their viewer. And then moving on to the next thing. And they are just I mean, I don’t know that there’s anyone quite as good at the celebrity news game. TMZ, of course, is also really good at that. But But Us Weekly is kind of, you know, I’ve always thought of them as like top of the mountain. So I’m super, and then Netflix, of course, everyone listening as a subscriber or, well, you’re not stealing passwords anymore, because that over the weekend has been? Well, they haven’t officially I think rolled it out just yet. But it’s been announced, it’s the free ride is over 100 million people are going to have to figure out, you know, it gives them the 15 bucks, guys, it’s not that expensive. Let’s keep these big companies in business, we want good content. But anyway, enough about my little Netflix rant. But let’s um, let’s talk a little bit about what Realtors could do. And I think this is the year to talk about it because obviously videos not becoming less popular. But but also, this is a time I think that often our our audience our listeners or viewers are having and this is kind of an unfortunate thing. But this is a tougher time to be a realtor the we have lending rates are are significantly higher than they were two to three years ago. So less buyers are in the market. And we have inventory shortages all over the place. So this is a time when realtors are often very frustrated. This isn’t necessarily the easiest time but it does provide an opportunity to put some time in that you maybe don’t normally have into sort of furthering your video brand or your your social media banner your podcast. So anyway, we’d love to sort of start at the start like what what do agents not understand? Or where could they get started? How do you recommend that people start to learn?
Kim Rittberg 9:07
Great question and great point. I think you’re right that even when you’re feeling stressed about the clients are the sellers and the rates are. That’s actually the time when you need to say what makes me different. What makes me unique, and how do I stand out? The biggest thing I like to remind people, I think this gets forgotten. It’s not that you’re gonna make one video, and that one video is going to sell a house or that one video is going to bring in a client. It’s that a consistent strategy of doing video will two things, build new relationships, and rekindle old relationships. I have my agent saying they I got a text message from someone I haven’t seen in five years. He goes, I love your Instagram videos. Let’s grab lunch. And it’s that his new videos where he was showing up more and bringing his perspective. It’s reminding someone who already knew you So unless you’re really like just born, what you got, you know, you have five years, 10 years, 20 years of relationships, in your life and in your professional life, it rekindled those. And so that’s another way to think of it. And then online, you can build all these new relationships. So you can be doing collaborative videos with other people, you can use your videos to then engage with people in your area who can hire you. And I think people forget, you don’t just post a video and then like your business grows. But it really works. If you do it strategically. And you have you have what your goals in mind, like, I want to get x leads I’m looking to build in this area, this is my target client. But really being specific about your strategy, it can unlock that. And so one of the biggest things I think that I see from when I have my clients, what they struggle with is there’s three things that are in their head about not being on video and not doing video. One, I hate my voice, or I hate how I look. I’ve never met one person who comes to me and says, I love how I look and sound Kim, I just love it. Everyone hates us out of your own voice is a scientific thing, that how you hear your own voice in your ear is actually different than how other people hear it. Unless people run out of the supermarket screaming from your voice, you probably sound great. Yeah, and, and if you’re a real estate agent, you deal with people all the time, people like talking to you, people engage with you. So you just have to remember that video is just a version of you, you’re not used to it, you don’t like it at first. And you might be a little stiff at the beginning. But over time, you will get better and so you will get better and you will be hate yourself less on camera.
D.J. Paris 11:38
So and and this is what you said is a really good point about not liking your voice and or your appearance, video and audio. Again, if if we know that for some reason, there’s some sort of mechanism in our brain that that changes the way that we actually hear ourselves versus someone else a third party listening. Don’t listen to yourself. I mean listen to yourself for for things like continuity listened for, for pauses and arms and ahhs and sort of the technical stuff. But but if you’re worried about the the tonality of your voice, or the cadence, or rather just just you know the pitch, maybe ask other people ask them say, Does this is this pleasing? Do you enjoy listening to this is That’s good feedback. But if you know that, if we know that science says you’re not going to like your own image or voice, be very nice to yourself, because that’s not the bra that’s not the judge. It’s going to be what other people think.
Kim Rittberg 12:34
Absolutely true. And I have like specific tips on how to be better on camera that I’ll go over right after this. But I think you’re right that you you have to be kinder to yourself, all of us do. Like that’s just a part of life. I feel like as I’ve aged, I’m so much nicer to myself, my 25 year old me was much harder, harsher judge of my stress of my life. And I’m sure you know, you we all feel the same way. But in terms of there are ways to get better. But you do you have to say no, actually, that’s who I am. And there are little ways I can be better look better sound better have a better presentation on video. But overall, like we are we are and that’s okay, like, we have clients, we have family who loves us, we have friends. So you have to just get through that and know that every single person hates how they look and sound on video.
D.J. Paris 13:19
And can we just really quickly dispel the myth that video and audio production has to be perfect perfection. And I’m gonna say one, one thing about that is is that I that I believe, which is I believe people do not necessarily feel connected to perfection. They’re entertained by it. It’s interesting. It’s cool, it’s polished. But people seem in my experience, people seem to connect better with imperfection than perfection. And so if if you’re worried about making a video perfect, and maybe you stumbled over a word, or your hair just didn’t quite look the way you wanted it to. Odds are, I don’t I actually think that will endear people more to you versus push them away going, Oh, well, they didn’t fix their hair up properly. And obviously, you should have an awareness of your appearance and how you sound but this idea of stumbling over a word or two. I’m curious to get your take on that.
Kim Rittberg 14:11
You are so right because the other two things that stop people is thinking that video is going to cost too much and take too much time. The video that does well today is the authentic content. Like I remember being at Netflix and obviously the budgets for marketing at Netflix are very large compared to things in general but also compared to small business owners. So but there was this moment where we had a video that was from a script reading just the actors sitting around reading a script. And some one of those actors posted a short video on their iPhone of them just being like ooh scrip reading, like five second video 10 second video on their iPhone, and they uploaded it. And I got millions of views. And people were like, wow, this authentic video got millions of views. I’m like, Yeah, that’s what that is what people want. We know that. So I think there are times for those polished videos on the home tours to join footage after selling a luxury home. That is a time for a polished video. Absolutely, yeah, true. But truly, when you are connecting with people, there are only a few things that I think you should optimize for, like, I think you should be well with, try to sit in front of an open window with an open window, or window. To get natural light on your face is really good or get a ring light, I think lighting is good to have. But I think in terms of you do not need to be in a studio, you do not need this super fancy setup. Like you can grow your business grow clients get clients with you and an iPhone, and not only can you today that’s better than the other stuff. And until you’re at the point where you’re like, I really want to really want to level up to that next level. If you’re not doing video, you place your iPhone, with a really solid strategy and messaging can supercharge your business, like I really feel that way. When you’re at that next level. And you’re like I’ve done a lot of footage for Instagram or Tiktok or YouTube, whatever with my phone, I’m, I’m seeing it working, I have money I’m ready to invest for the next level, there is that next level, I think that’s where you bring in a camera crew and you start shooting and you do one day when you sit down and you’re filming a lot of content, and you’re scripting out in advance. Or maybe you’re going around your neighborhood with a camera crew, and you’re really showing off the things in your neighborhood. Keep in mind, all of those things can be done with an iPhone first. So I really think not only do you not need the more expensive stuff, you can grow your business with an iPhone. So yes, this felling GJ dispelling that
D.J. Paris 16:42
no, it’s an important one because again, that’s the equipment people like, oh gosh, if we think about if we’re following other realtors in our local market on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, et cetera, what what, what we notice is that agents who post a lot of content are showing these non perfect moments, maybe they’re on their way out of the gym, or they’re at a cafe meeting a client or they’re just, you know, getting ready for work. And there’s lounging at home or whatever. There’s a lot of like, This is who I am outside of the polished realtor sort of look, but and I suspect that there’s a message there they’re trying to send about I went to the gym, which I guess demonstrates some sort of level of like accountability for my health and, and maybe that’s considered a good thing. If it one’s choosing a realtor, you maybe want somebody who takes care of themselves. But this idea of getting a behind the scenes peek, like your Netflix example of the table read, where somebody just goes, Hey, this is kind of cool. Like, this is what I get to do before the cameras turn on. That is really people love behind the scenes stuff.
Kim Rittberg 17:46
Little moments, I think that people forget, first of all people don’t like to be sold to. So while you’re
D.J. Paris 17:53
some people, some people do, but tiny.
Kim Rittberg 17:57
So most of your social feed should be educational content or entertaining content. And some of it should be selling. When you can bring people into your life more that will end up selling the end goal is they’re relating to you better, and eventually they will refer you to someone or they will hire you. But those little moments in your life as a realtor and in your life. As a person as a dog owner, as a dad as a brother. It brings people in because if your whole feed is is like only selling that you need that educational portion, you need that entertainment portion. And some of that lifestyle stuff. People do want to see how other people live it people are very curious. They like to live vicariously through other people. So even things that are in your life, you’re like, who cares? Like I’m at Wegmans? Who cares? But you know, people care people think it’s fun. And if you can relate it back to your business, obviously, that’s even better. But people really do like to be brought into other people’s lives.
D.J. Paris 18:53
Yeah, I think that’s a good point. I think so many agents have one strategy when it comes to social media, which is I just closed the home. I want to post and brag about it. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Kim is shaking your head because I’m with Kim. I don’t think people should do that. But if you’re doing that, make sure you’re doing a lot of other fun exciting cool content, not just look at how great I am. So Kim, you had you were wanting to jump out of your chair though, so I’m gonna shut up what do you think about the I just listed just sold? Here’s how cool I am
Kim Rittberg 19:22
just listed just sold. Just Listed and just sold is like the basics of someone gives you a photo and you hit Upload. It is not a social media strategy. No, it’s not a social media strategy only because it doesn’t get you to that next level. It is the basics fine. Congratulations. I am proud of everybody for being on social and putting that just listen and just close. I really think though, that real estate agents are working so hard. They’re so smart. Every agent I’ve worked with has their own unique perspective, loves their job for different reason. loves helping people truly like honestly every person that’s why I like working with agents is because every person comes with their own Background comes with their own interests, their own desires, their own perspective of the market. And that’s what’s fun about it. But when you’re just doing just listed and just closed, you’re not showing people anything about why they should work with you. It is just selling. And the point is, this area is called Content Marketing. I did a course on content marketing, no one calls it that you just call it social media. But content marketing means you’re putting out content that people want to engage with. And it becomes marketing, because you brought people into your into your social feed, you brought people into your business. So the main idea is that most of your content should be educating should be entertaining, and should just be people enjoying watching you very little of it should be just listed and just closed. I think that once you’re coming up with new ways to show that I think that is fun. And some people’s feeds do really well. If you’ve lots of beautiful luxury homes. You can grow a business by just doing multimillion dollar home tours. But I still think you’re not really showing somebody who you are. So even if you’d like that, I would argue take not just your hand through the tour, put your face in it. What do you love about the home? Like why do you think it went for X dollars instead of x dollars? What went behind the deal? Was it a bidding war. So I think that tells the story, you have to tell that story. And you have to really bring people into you, you have to bring the you have it because it’s competitive. And to get that competitive edge, you need to insert more of yourself into it. And and if you want I’m ready to give my tips about how to be better on camera for everyone who’s too afraid.
D.J. Paris 21:27
I am, I am one half second away from that I just wanted to throw an idea to our audience that I love. If you’re worrying about worrying about content, what type of content what should I be, you know, and obviously Kim has courses of exactly what you should and shouldn’t do. I’ll tell you my favorite one. And this is so perfectly tied, I think to Kim, what you were saying that and this wasn’t mine. I just overheard someone doing this and I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me. It’s so simple. So Facebook Live. Now the reason why you may want to consider doing live videos is because people get notified, I think pretty much always if they’re a subscriber to your page that so you know you’re live right now, which obviously is a great indication to maybe they’ll click on it. So I had I talked to a woman this is all she does on her Facebook Live and I think this is just so brilliant. She gets on and she starts talking about Zillow because everybody goes to Zillow, we know this this and let’s not let’s let’s let’s, let’s put aside our feelings about Zillow for a second just realize people do use Zillow, obviously 100 and 100 and some million people a month ago. They’re just in America. So anyway, everybody you know is going to Zillow, and they’re looking at the Zestimate which is the, you know, approximated house value that says that Zillow thinks the home is worth. So she gets on and she goes, I want to show you something. I love Zillow, it’s great, but there’s estimate isn’t always accurate. I just want to show you an example of a Zestimate that I thought looked okay, and then I ran my own numbers. And I found it was wildly off. And I actually so then she goes through and it takes her five minutes. And she does it on the MLS and she kind of shows like, this is what Zillow came up with. But I actually think it’s worth $50,000 more and here’s anyway, and then she goes, Hey, by the way, anyone out there listening, would you like to know what your home’s worth right now. And she goes, I won’t do it here on the call. Because obviously I don’t want everybody to see what your home value is worth. But just shoot me a DM, and I’ll get in touch with you. And to me, that is the perfect strategy for a live video. Because number one, you’re creating incredible value. every homeowner always wants to know what their home is worth. And two, you’re going to the place where they are going to go. And you’re saying hey, that’s okay. That’s a good starting point. But I actually can give you a better number. So anyway, sorry to take up all that time. Kim, I just heard this a few weeks ago, and I thought what a brilliant strategy.
Kim Rittberg 23:42
I think that’s a great, no, it’s a great idea. And I think that’s a perfect example of this is a person harnessing the idea of educating. So she’s taking educating, she’s saying everybody wants to know what their home is worth. She’s taking that educating. She’s merging it with the platform. So she’s making a platform specific Facebook Live, and I agree about live content, people get notified. So they’re more likely to watch. But then she’s pushing you off social and into a direct relationship, which is with an action step. Yeah, with an action step. So I love that. Because I think you’ll see a lot of places you get a free download. If you click here, bringing people into your into a direct relationship from content is amazing. And I agree with that. I think that’s a fantastic tool. And I think there’s a lot of things that agents can do like that when when you’re creating content, if you’re creating content about a specific thing, having a call to action. Do you want to know like, message me for my blog message me for my market update, message me for the new neighborhoods, I think are going to explode in next year. You know, there are really a lot of unique ways to get people to connect with you willingly on their own. So you know, I think a lot of times we’re chasing, I think the idea is instead of chasing so much, sometimes people will chase you if you have really good content.
D.J. Paris 24:54
Well, let’s talk about your tips and strategies for people to produce better content. And then just you You know, I know you have you have two different systems you want to talk about. So let’s let’s get to it.
Kim Rittberg 25:04
Okay, I love going through this first one because a lot of times people don’t put themselves on camera because they don’t feel confident on camera. So I do think that before, you know, saying, What am I going to make, and I agree with your DJ people, I have a video bootcamp. And sometimes people in week one will say, What tool should I buy? Or what do you think about this, I’m like, absolutely ordered the tools. But the truth is, you need to be comfortable on camera, and you need to have a good understanding of what makes a good video. The tools come later. Order it. So Amazon doesn’t have a big shipping delay, but that’s not what’s going to make your video great. The right microphone, the right ring light, that’s not what’s going to make your video great, you are going to make your video great. And your message is going to make your video great. So forget about the tools, forget about the tech that comes later, fine. So I have a system called patch pa tch. And the first P is for prepare, basically to be on camera. You need to prepare not just your message, but your mindset. So a lot of people hate the sound of their own voice. In addition to that feel impostor syndrome, like Am I an expert who’s going to listen to me feel self conscious, whatever the noise in the back of your head is quieting that noise. Sometimes if people being like, what if people make fun of me? What if people troll me? Number one, if we’re being trolled amusing if people are watching, and number two, anyone who’s been negative, it comes from a negative place in their own mind. And I am self employed. I worked in corporate for a long time, I was very hesitant to show up on camera. I teach people to be better on camera, I helped them make video I realized what a hypocrite I am. I had to start showing up on video. And my my sticking point was all the other people who are corporate executives with me, they’re gonna make fun of me, they’re gonna think I’m desperate. I’m on video. And I’m like, You know what? Those people don’t run their own business. I don’t care what they think the truth is, I’m sure they’re not judging me. I’m sure they’re like, oh, there’s can making.
D.J. Paris 26:52
They have their own problems. They’re in their own.
Kim Rittberg 26:56
Or they don’t care. They’re worried about their, their child, they’re worried about their dinner, they’re worried about they have enough PTO for vacation, whatever, you know, anyway, they’re really not thinking about us. So P is prepare prepare your mindset and get out of model mode. How do I look? Is this the right angle? How do I sound into teacher mode, think about who you’re helping and who you’re serving. I think that’s the number one thing of preparation is preparing your mindset. And then a authentic basically, your job is to express on video, the authentic version of you. And when I say authentic, I know that that’s a word that’s like very, it’s sort of like it’s everywhere. Who cares. But the truth is, we all have like our inner us. And some of us are goofy and some of us are serious. Some of us are kind and some of us are inquisitive, and some of us are empathetic, that like special sauce of you needs to come through. That takes a little bit of practice. But it’s important to remember, I think a lot of us when I did some on camera reporting, I was generally behind the scenes most of my career, but I did some on camera reporting for one summer. My first time I was like imitating an anchor, like I was like, hello, this is Kim Rupert for photos. Everything. Like I don’t like that. So I was impersonating the person I thought I was supposed to be. And the idea is, you’re trying to just be the most confident version of you. So authentic. So P we have prepared your mindset and your message, but prepare your mindset, a be authentic, and t turn off distractions. When you’re filming, you got to be all in. So turn off your email, turn off your phone, give yourself like five minutes to just drink water, have tea but get in the zone. Because you can’t be like thinking about something else, you really want to be in the message thinking about what you’re saying and delivering it making sure you’re confident. This C is for confidence. Basically, if you don’t believe your message, nobody’s going to, and you have to feel like I love what I do. I love helping you. I love helping you find the right home. For someone else to be feeling that. So confidence is key. Again, don’t think about how you look, don’t think about how you feel. Think about your energy. You want your energy to be raised. That is what competence feels like. And then the H is harness harness harness your energy. That might seem a little like what does that mean? So harnessing your energy is having a self awareness of how you are it’s like what you said earlier DJ about saying, asking your friends about how you can improve asking your partner, your spouse or your business partner. Basically, we all have a natural energy. And of course that’s fine in life. On video. Our goal is to if you’re really high energy and you talk fast, like I am a New Yorker, I tend to talk fast and have high energy. I want to harness my energy to be a little more balanced. I can be when I’m not practiced to high energy. So harnessing my energy means coming down to the center for someone who’s very calm and perhaps introverted. harnessing their energy means bringing it off. There’s always like a mid level and you basically want to be a little closer to that but Will you. So that’s something that it might sound like a little weird harness my energy, you just have to know how you are. And I learned over time, I have a tendency to talk fast, so I have to slow down a little bit. Other people have a tendency to be flat, you have to inject energy, you have to remember the cameras steal some of your soul, the red light goes on, it’s stealing your energy. So you have to practice injecting your energy back into it. So that’s like, it’s, it sounds very complicated. But the more you get used to it, the more you’ll realize, like, Oh, I’m going on camera, I want to make sure not to be flat, I want to smile, and I want to raise my energy, maybe I’m listening to music. Maybe I’m doing a couple jumping jacks, like whatever it is, but you need to raise your energy. And so I think that’s the PA tch. So P is prepare a is be authentic, T is turn off distractions. C is competence, and he has harness your energy. So those are the tips to be on camera and to be better on camera to get yourself there.
D.J. Paris 31:00
I love those. The patch idea is great. I love all of those those topics. I was actually just reading a book, a YouTube book, and I can’t remember the gentleman who wrote it, I’ll have to, if I remember, I’ll put it in the show notes. But he’s the guy who counsels Mr. beast who is the you know, biggest YouTuber, I think, in on the platform at the moment, if you don’t know who Mr. Beast is Google him, because he is an example of somebody who has really figured out the YouTube in particular algorithm. But more importantly, I was reading about about starting in Utah. And he because his, his mentor wrote this book, he got access to Mr. Beast, and Mr. B said something very interesting. And I don’t really watch his videos per se, but I know who he is, of course, because he’s such a big deal. But what I what he said is, if you’re going to make video, he said, Just realize your first 100 despite your best efforts, despite all of the tools and resources you may or may not have are going to be absolute garbage. And he goes, Don’t worry about it, it’s going to be garbage. So don’t judge it. Look for ways to improve slightly every single time he goes don’t try to hit a homerun at first you won’t he goes like it’s just not going to happen. And your first 100 videos are going to be you’re gonna you’re gonna cringe when you watch them. But he said, you’re gonna get better over time. So I this is an important mindset thing. But if the number one guy on YouTube is telling you don’t worry about the first 100 videos, just try to get comfortable in front of the camera, try to improve and don’t shoot for perfection. Just shoot for a little tiny bit 1% better over time. I just thought I just read that a few a few weeks ago. And I was like, oh, yeah, that’s a great reminder.
Kim Rittberg 32:42
I agree because if Mr. Beast an award winning video strategist kinrick Berg says it. I mean, it must be true. But I do think and for regular people, I would say you don’t even have to get to 100 if you’re doing consistently one video a week, two videos a week. By month three, you’re gonna be like, Wow, I mean, I host my own podcast and it took me a few first of all God I took did so many takes to get my own voiceover voice well, for the first DJ for the first few months. You’re like, thanks for joining us here. Thank you for being here at Wait, wait. Thanks for joining us, you know, it just takes a while to the point is for everyone listening is it takes a while to practice being yourself on camera. That’s the truth. Being on video. And being on audio is a different version of yourself. It’s an altered version of yourself. It’s so it takes learning lessons and then practicing those lessons but it’s worth it like the truth is I’m giving you these tips because it’s worth it. Like even if you do these tips a little bit each week you will get there and it will grow your business like I’m not I’m not like I’m here to make you an influencer. I’m like, I’m here to make you money. I’m here to get you clients and it’s worth it. It’s worth the investment and it’s worth getting out of your comfort zone.
D.J. Paris 33:53
Yeah, and it’s so interesting with video now I just realized this as you were talking that the trying to see if the think of this is true, but it’s close enough to true if it’s not actually true. The vast majority of people I watch now content wise with respect to online and not through Netflix, not traditional, you know big media we’ll call it but but just on YouTube of Facebook, I’m now watching probably more media from non professionals or non traditionally Video Professionals than I watch traditional stuff. So I’m watching less Dan rather’s and Charlie Rose’s and more just somebody with a podcast with with a microphone or maybe a YouTube video. So that’s kind of an interesting shift. It’s probably terrifying for the for the big media companies, but that is how a lot of people we are spending more time watching regular people like us do video and short form and long form.
Kim Rittberg 34:53
I think that’s a really good point. And that is interesting about your own personal statistic and I think people should remember that, basically the structure of an interesting video or a good story, the first two seconds, one second, three seconds. That is where you catch people. So I think when you’re talking about, you know, the people who engage you and you want to watch like, you’re basically you’re stealing time, they’re stealing your money and time from Netflix. But if you’re making a video, one of the core things is catching that attention. So that hook is everything.
D.J. Paris 35:27
Can I tell you this is really embarrassing. So I’ve done this podcast for I think, five or six years now. And it was about a year ago that I we had a consultant, kind of listen to the show and give some he goes, actually, he’s pretty good. He goes, You guys produce it? Well, it sounds good. It looks good wherever he goes. But one thing that you don’t do, and this is right to your point, is you don’t have a hook. Maybe the title has a hook. But he goes how about the first five seconds of the video or the episode of in this case podcast? Say what they’re going to learn, as opposed to today. My guest is Kim Kim. Rip Berg. Well, you know, you know, some people know Kim, not everyone knows Kim. But if I say Hey, today in this video, we’re gonna have you know, somebody from Netflix, talk about video, you know, then I got it. So I had to learn this five years in. So when you’re starting your videos, you could just spend the first five seconds like today we’re gonna talk about this? Or if it’s an education video, for example, or if it’s an entertainment video, Hey, today we’re doing this, whatever it is, do you recommend doing that at the beginning?
Kim Rittberg 36:23
Absolutely. So the hook of a video is so important, I cannot express it enough. When I was a vice president of branded content of Popsugar. Like seriously, like media, my boss would say, Okay, your idea for this video for Target or se or Swift or whatever? What’s the hook? And it’s like, he’s like, I don’t even care that other stuff like, what am I seeing? What is the first second event? And the hook is so important? It’s the visual, or the text for someone to look at this in their tiny phone and say, should I watch this? Or should I not watch it. So it has to be eye catching? Meaning even if the visuals are not amazing, I think visuals. The expectation for visuals are a little lowered on social media. But ideally, good visuals. And even if you don’t have good visuals, if you have an amazing text headline, like three, like three reasons not to buy this home, or like, you know, five reasons why you should buy with high interest rates. I’d be like, what was this person talking about? Why I’m gonna watch it. So you have to think about a really amazing headline or a hook. When you think about like 10 years ago, Buzzfeed was like the biggest thing ever in media, they had all of those great clickbait headlines, because you were
D.J. Paris 37:35
the clickbait kings, the clickbait king, they still are they still, like that’s
Kim Rittberg 37:39
true, but I feel like it was very novel at that time to have. And I know you mentioned this earlier about like, the catchiness of whoever you’re talking to inside edition or US Weekly. But like a headline, I joke is that I worked at inside edition. And I love the voiceover artists. But if you ever watch a TV show, it has a tease for the show. And it’s like, you’ve never seen a cat do this. And I’m gonna go oh my god, what’s the cat gonna do? So a channel that announcer when you’re thinking of your idea, so I think a lot of my agents are like, oh, I want to, like, I love design or like I, you know, I’m my clients, I think would appreciate like a content about which floors to pick, you know, like, that’s something that like, when they go through the render process, I’m like, Alright, so it’s like, top five floors, like you should look at before it before installing. I’m like, Oh, I would watch that. If I’m in the middle of a renovation, or, you know, when the color of the year comes out that Pantone color of the year. It’s like, like three amazing ways to use the Pantone color of the year in your home. I’m like, Yeah, click watch it. And you know the thing about interest rates, so anything that’s timely, you’re still applying that hook. So interest rates go up or interest rate go down, or whatever you say, a contrarian opinion, so seasonally contradictory, with interest rates high, why you should buy and not just like, because I’m a real estate agent I want you to buy, right, I really like your house. And the reason I have some data to back it up and keep it short. So I have, I have another framework for how to make great video. And one of the tips in that is keep your message very simple. People cannot have a lot in their brain at the same time. This is short form video we’re talking about most of what we’re watching today is short form. YouTube, you can do longer, that’s fine podcasts, obviously longer. When you’re thinking about our short form video. Your message should be very simple. One takeaway, or three things but it’s still to the same point. It’s too much for people. So you want to have it like really, really simple. So a listicle always does. Well a number chart, like a number. You know, five things seven secret, seven, seven best kept secrets of Chicago’s north side. You know, five beaches, you’ve never visited la that you should be your neighborhood expert. You know.
D.J. Paris 39:57
There’s so much content that Realtors so Let’s go if your head is spinning right now going, Okay, this is all sounds great, what type of content Kim just gave about four or five examples, and I interrupted her in the middle, which I shouldn’t have. But the reason I did is because it doesn’t have to be real estate related, as Kim said, you know, real estate is hyperlocal, right? So you can say, hey, like I live in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. Wouldn’t it be cool if once a week, I saw a video that said, here’s a restaurant in Wicker Park that you probably don’t know about? That’s amazing. Like, I would love that, right? Because it’s in my neighborhood, I want to support it. I want to go out and try new restaurants. Maybe it’s here’s some cool events downtown Chicago, or in Kim’s case, she’s in Brooklyn. Here’s some here’s what’s going on in Brooklyn this weekend, again, is that real estate specific? No. But is it interesting to your audience, some of them for sure. So it doesn’t have to be look at this home, look at this thing. It should be you should have educational content about you know, things like why you should buy today, or why you shouldn’t buy today or why you should rent or not rent or whatever, here’s, you know, real estate content. And then you should also have some content because people only buy homes every, what, seven years on average. So you want to create content that they’re going to want to use in between those sales. So even if it’s just like, here’s all the cool events going on this weekend in this neighborhood. That’s a really easy video to put together. And it’s something that everybody wants to know about.
Kim Rittberg 41:19
Absolutely one of my one on one real estate clients, he does a lot of neighborhood tours that do well. And they do well. Because when you think about when you’re as a user on someone’s feed you it’s nice to see the homes. But it’s also nice to see the neighborhood because when you’re an agent, you’re the local expert. And to your point, DJ, we’re trying to bring people from that time when they worked with you kill that next seven years, keep keep in touch with them get referrals from them stay in their world. So any content that’s like local events, local venues, renovation, you know, renovation happens between that buy and sell period. So you’re trying to build and continue those relationships. So one of my agents does a lot of neighborhood tours, specifically the neighborhoods he covers, you know that he wants to get clients and obviously, but it brings people in and this is another thing, remember, again, you are building new relationships and reigniting old relationships with video. So when you’re making that neighborhood tour, you’re connecting with the venue with that social handle. So that’s again, another connection. You know, real estate agents are all about connecting with more people each week and each month, because that’s how you have clients. So you’re connecting with more people when you’re in those other spaces. So I totally agree that it does not all need to be real estate. Everything should be educational, entertaining lifestyle, a little bit of selling, but what you’re talking about can be real estate, it can be design, it can be renovation, it can be your life, it can be your life, in those videos, what you’re doing this weekend, and especially like definitely the neighborhood things, I think you really want to lean into being the local expert. So even timely things that are happening in your neighborhood. So I live in Brooklyn, we have this Brooklyn Queens expressway, a highway that runs in our area, and there’s a lot of hoopla over the last few years, are they going to do construction on it? Everyone’s worried about it? That doesn’t seem like something a real estate agent would cover but maybe maybe that’s the perfect thing to do an Instagram live with a local with a local official or or recorder. So it’s it’s like expanding out and thinking basically, the basics of like, when you’re creating content, try to think would someone watch this? What I read this in a magazine, would I watch this on someone’s computer or their phone? Think of it from that journalistic standpoint. And so like the framework I have for teaching people how to make better video is like me, SS why? So M message, get your message straight. Like I said before, one simple point on a secret gem in your neighborhood you never knew about why you should buy even with interest rates being high one simple messaging is video so and is your message. Ie it’s easy to understand. Nothing too. inside baseball, we’re not talking to the mortgage and mortgage lenders and the lawyers. We’re talking to regular people in layman’s terms. So very simple. You make sure your grandma and your seven year old neighbor neighbor can understand it, then you’re good at strategy. So strategy is like, Who’s your ideal client? Like Who are you trying to speak to? How much are you going to make each each month two videos a month? That’s fine. Four videos a month no problem like one live video a month no problem, whatever it is, be consistent with that and understand what you’re targeting like I don’t like when someone’s like, should I be on tick tock? I say I don’t know your clients on tick tock, then you should you know, I think having a really solid strategy we’ll be sure that you just don’t run out of time or money. So am message easy to understand s strategy? S smile because you’re always on camera. You got to put yourself on camera, and then why you’re a journalist. So basically, you’re a journalist. So what to my point earlier. Think about what is the top bid related to real estate that people might be interested in DJ and I went through a few of these things earlier DJ is going to do a video about something in Wicker Park a new bar in Wicker Park, I am going to do, how to put that Pantone color of the year in your home three ideas. That’s what I love. I love design. And my other agent, he’s doing that live video about the highway, everyone’s worried is going under construction, he’s going to do that. My other agent we are we’re doing design for him. We’re doing he’s doing a tour of three design stores he loves in California, it’s really natural to him talk about authentic. Yeah, he’s picking journalistic angles on things that he feels passionate about. Right and my other my other one, he’s doing the wood floor. So he says, my audience, they don’t want the Pantone color. That’s not what they care about. They want the flooring, I’m like, Great, let’s do the flooring. But the idea is you’re meaning making useful content for people, that’s also entertaining. You’re bringing them into your sphere, you’re connecting with them, you’re rekindling those old relationships and you’re building new ones.
D.J. Paris 46:03
At the risk of of alienating our animal activist listeners, please forgive me for this. But I had an idea that just today I realized I needed to put a rug underneath my dining room table, I were like in between rugs. And somebody said, you know, what would be a really cool thing to put as opposed to a traditional rug is get, like a cow hide or a calf skin or whatever it’s called. Those are very popular. I don’t know if they’re still popular, but they were popular last couple years. So I said, Oh, I’ve heard of that. But aren’t those like really expensive there, I thought they were like $1,000, which is like a lot for this little tiny pellets basically. And no, they’ve come down in price. They’re like, couple 100 bucks. Now they’re really reasonable. And they’re super cool. But I don’t know anything about it. So I’ve had to go online and learn about this, I spent no more than five minutes kind of, okay, I know what the prices are, I see how it works, I get it. And that could be a video that could be video like, hey, everyone out there, here’s here’s a design idea that you could share with your clients. If you’re looking to, you know, on hardwood floors, you want to put something underneath it. Like, again, it doesn’t have to be anything other than what you’re learning about at that moment.
Kim Rittberg 47:13
And here’s your hook. The hook again, for that video is one quick upgrade under $100. And that’s the hook to that video. So again, you have your content. I love that a content idea DJ and my hook is your sad looking room, whatever your sad looking room is with text on it and you say upgrade this room in less than $100 and write a quick video where you say this cowhide was only $99. From this and that store. Yeah, you know, follow me for more tips on how to live better on a smaller budget.
D.J. Paris 47:46
And you could also say stop buying raw ito the hook could also be stopped buying. Stop buying rugs for underneath dining room tables, right? Yeah, like what why should I
Kim Rittberg 47:56
write for never pay $1,000? For again? See, that’s great. So I think once people start getting into the goodness of it, yeah, it becomes fun. I think once you start thinking like, Well, what did I do this month that like can relate to real estate renovation, construction or my neighborhood? Then it brings you in? What do you do this weekend? Did you find a new bar you’re excited about? Did you get that rug for your house? And once you start living in that mode, and jotting those ideas down, as they come to you, you will find you have ideas? I think it’s when you’re sitting down with a blank journal, you’re like journal who has journal blank iPhone? Oh, no, what do I make. So I think to get to rotate to sort of vary your content feeds. So it’s not just Hunter Hunter just listed just close. You think about those other areas that you enjoy, that feels really fun to you, and then start making content around that.
D.J. Paris 48:50
And to like one way, endless source of content can be from your clients, when they ask questions, write them down. And because if they’re if a client is asking a general question, maybe they’re buying a home for the first time, or they’re just have a question about the process, or any questions that you get asked as a realtor, write them down. And that is content that can you know, you can say, hey, I want to do a series once a week, I want to tell you the most commonly asked questions that my clients asked me so that you don’t have to ask your realtor about it or whatever. And you could do that you could do a question and answer session. There’s so much content. So don’t get hung up in the aesthetics as much as the content needs to lead the charge, the content, the value of the content, people will excuse all of the aesthetic of sort of imperfections, right that things can maybe don’t look, as Kim said, Yes, get a ring light for God’s sakes get something that at least lights you correctly, but that’s what I mean. My ring light was like $100 but you can get them for $20 They’re not that expensive, but it’s so make yourself look okay, but don’t worry too much beyond that. Worry about the content people will excuse everything else for good content.
Kim Rittberg 50:04
I totally agree. And I love your idea. I think the q&a is something is a go to for all of my agents, especially when you’re starting out being on camera. And it feels weird to talk to the camera at first, have someone sit behind your phone? Yes, ask you the questions. It’s easier to talk to somebody than to just talk to a camera alone when you’re just starting out. So if you’re nervous thing on camera, write down your questions. Have your friend, your business partner, whomever behind the camera, and answer answer to them. I think that’s a good way A q&a is a great way because it’s full of educational value for your viewers, your consumers, your followers, your clients. But be it’s an easier conversationally, it’s easier to answer questions than it is to like, talk to camera when you’re not in that headspace yet. So I love that idea. I think q&a at the very base, if you’re really just starting out, and you’re maybe not ready for that lifestyle video, you’re not ready to do the neighborhood tour. Question and Answers are great about me, who are you? Like why should someone work with you? What do you love about being an agent, remind people about your empathy, your humor, your kindness, your your financial well being your financial whiz, whatever, that special sauce that makes you you. And then the q&a, the about you. And educational videos, I really think I am somebody I come from news, I think there’s a lot of value in bringing people information, just making sure it’s clear and catchy. So like, three, three, you know, three ways to get a mortgage, blah, blah, that you weren’t thinking whatever, you know, five, five tips for blah, three ways for this, but related to home buying, lending, renovating, new construction, condo, Co Op, all of these different things, but figure out like, what do you want to talk about, and then just put them in little bite sized nuggets. I’m a huge fan of educational content. I think, truly, you’re trying to establish yourself as an expert. I think that I love the lifestyle stuff. I think it’s good to mix that in. But at the end of the day, really people should see you as the expert, they should see you as their go to person. And so if you can create content that says I’m the expert, I’m the authority. This is how I think about the housing boom, the mortgage rates, the the new new construction in that area.
D.J. Paris 52:24
Yeah, demonstrating competence is really what I think educational content does is it demonstrates competence. And yes, posting a static image of this beautiful home we just sold or listed does in some way mildly demonstrate competence, because it says okay, well, I was, you know, they chose me to sell or buy this particular home. I closed it. Yes, that’s a start. But what what what I think Kim is really driving at is getting beyond that and going into process. So say, you know, this would be a good video content, like, Hey, you probably see a lot of realtors, you know, with with their posts about just listed just sold, you can even almost play off that trope, because it is a trope that everybody knows about. And people kind of roll their eyes like yeah, that that it’s a bad thing. I don’t want to I don’t want to give it a negative connotation. But it’s a very common approach. And you can say, you know, what, my clients and I can do that too. I can certainly post you know, things about, you know, what I’ve accomplished. But what I really what my clients really appreciate is x. And this is what I try and try to focus on. And it’s you’re not selling as, let me show you my process. Let me talk about how I, how I, you know, or how I treat my clients are, like, like you’re missing certain maybe qualities of your personality, or here are some processes that your seat might, here’s my secret sauce, give it away, give it away in video, and it will come back to you and clients or people love that sort of behind the scenes. Here’s the number crunching, they want to see that you have some sort of skill versus just look at how cool I am. Right?
Kim Rittberg 54:05
Yeah, and I think I’m not knocking just listen and just close. I think it’s good to show the sort of properties you sell. It sort of establishes what neighborhood you’re in what price point you’re at who you serve, I think that’s fine. But really at the end of the day, video is the biggest growth tactic for marketing. So a invest in video, but not just because stats say Mark sets a video marketing is more more advantageous because you get more leads from it. But also use what it’s good for video is good for letting people get to know you. And that it’s a relationship business you’re in, in real estate. So showing those parts of your personality showing your expertise, showing your authority. Photos are good. I mean, it’s it’s if you’re on social, that’s great because the truth is, it’s a lot of time. It takes time to post photos, texts, anything so I’m definitely not knocking being on photo, but there’s only so there’s only so much growth you can have by using filtered headshots, and house home photos, I think you will see your growth supercharged if you start experimenting with video like I will give a challenge to everyone listening that basically, if you start getting on video today when this podcast comes out, first of all, tag me tag, tag us both on on social media on Instagram love on Instagram, I’m also on LinkedIn, tag us on Instagram, you tag us in your Instagram story, we will share it, I’ll share it and then you’ll get more eyeballs on your Instagram story or tag us in your reel or whatever video only video, no no photos. But I think what you will start seeing that I think I know what you will start seeing is that as you start showing up more on video, you will start seeing more more contacts, more lead generation more engagement. And that is what we’re looking for. You’re building that authority, you’re building that expertise and you’re bringing people in and to your point about just listen to just close, I’m actually speaking at a Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices convention. And that’s the topic of my, the topic of my speech is more than just listening, just using video to rekindle old relationships and build new ones. So again, I think that we all have so much work and social media, it feels like this additional thing, so much time video is gonna be so much money, I don’t like my voice. But there are ways to do it faster and cheaper. Again, your iPhone is fine. And the way to do it faster is like we said you’re brainstorming ideas, have a list of ideas you’re going to do, when you sit down to film, film a few at a time, you will find that’s a much more efficient way to use your time. And then put those out once a week, or once or once or twice a week, or however much content you have. But really film a bunch at a time. Again, you don’t need fancy technology, but make three of them be educational videos, make one of them be a lifestyle video, you know, vary the content a little bit. But there are ways to do this efficiently. And, and getting out of your own head, of course, that you’re comfortable being on camera but and ways to get better as you go on. But I think if you really truly you start getting on camera today, your next quarter, your next half of the year is going to look different.
D.J. Paris 57:21
I agree. And I want to just throw one other idea because I know that a lot of times when agents are starting to think about developing a social media strategy or a video strategy, one of the first questions they’ll ask is what platforms should I be posting to. And I went through this. It’s an interesting sort of exercise, I went through this branding exercise for an organization unrelated to real estate, we were looking to create content for an organization I support that, but we didn’t know where our members hung out. Online. We weren’t sure if it was Facebook, Instagram, tik, Tok, LinkedIn, you know, excetera, Pinterest, and other places. And this is a men’s organization. And we’re like, gosh, we don’t really know. And so what did we do? We asked, we asked our members, we have several 1000 members, and we said, hey, where do you spend time and what we found was not what we were expecting, is that so for for this particular organization? Again, not real estate related, although it certainly could have been real estate related. LinkedIn for this particular organization was the place where most of our members are checking for the kind of content that we would be producing. And that never occurred to me in a million years. So if you’re wondering, should I do tick tock, Facebook, Instagram? What should I do? Well, I mean, you can make an assumption, and certainly, you know, pretty much everyone’s on Facebook and Instagram. So you could always make make a reasonable assumption that that would probably be a good place to start. But are your clients checking tick tock? I don’t know you? Can I ask them. So what I would do is go to your sphere of influence and say, Hey, I’m working on my, my sort of marketing plan for this year, just out of curiosity, I’m looking to create more content, and I want to sort of show up where you guys hang out. I would, and you could do an anonymous survey. So they don’t have to, you know, explain who they are. But I would ask your friends and family and people in your sphere of influence. Where are you spending time online? Is it YouTube? Is it Facebook’s, you know, etc? Because that will help you figure out where to really push your content. Kim, I’m curious to get your thoughts on that.
Kim Rittberg 59:28
I agree. 100% I think it is up to you to figure out where your clients and where your ideal clients are, and where they’re spending time. You can do a survey. You can also there’s a lot of research about the demographics and like psychographics of who’s using what, you know, Facebook is still the biggest social platform. It’s not growing so fast. So tick tock is the fastest growing but Facebook is still the biggest and for a certain demographic, Facebook is still the winner. So it depends. I recommend, you know, depending on your budget and your time constraints, I say like don’t Be on more than two or three unless you have, unless you have an infrastructure where someone else is posting for you, then I think you could be on more. Like, for example, I post to LinkedIn and Instagram natively, like, I’ll schedule them out, I’ll put them on LinkedIn. And I will schedule it for like the next morning to post to 7am Sure, Instagram, I’ll schedule it or I’ll post it live. Later, I’ll at a different point in time, I will download the videos or have them saved, I’ll put them in YouTube, but I will put in the schedule or in YouTube to post them three times a week, I don’t even think about it, like I do it once every two weeks, and I just have it timeout a lot of other content. So basically, if you don’t have a huge infrastructure, make it easier for yourself, figure out the number one or two places your your clients are, you don’t have to be everywhere. Don’t be everywhere, actually, I would say don’t be everywhere. Because you know, the places that are everywhere have huge, huge budgets. Your agency might be everywhere, they have a marketing budget, they have a marketer, so do not like figure out where you’re best off spending your time. And again, the lessons I was saying earlier about video, they still hold true for anywhere, it doesn’t matter if you’re on Facebook, tick tock, Instagram, LinkedIn, you need a hook, you always need a catchy headline or a good visual. And on LinkedIn, a lot of it’s text based, you still need a good headline, if you don’t have the first line, that’s catchy, people aren’t gonna engage with it. So it’s still the basics of good video is good video anywhere. And the things that are different about each platform are specific things to learn for that platform. But the basics of good video is like you teach, you’re educating, you’re entertaining, and you’re having like a little bit of lifestyle, bringing them into your life, you’re selling a tiny percentage of the time. So I think the crux of making good video is applicable to all of them. And there’s lots of tools to figure out where your clients are a survey research. And then yeah, you can start asking people like, I think if you start start this process, now over the next few months, every single person says, they’re on LinkedIn and tick tock, maybe those are channels, everybody says they’re on Facebook and LinkedIn media, those are your channels. So I think try to really get in the flow of who your ideal client is not who your family is, but not your family, not your college buddies, but really your ideal clients. And I think that that’s it’s a bit of a different mindset. Like in my 20s, I had a jewelry company. I never spent money on myself, I never bought myself nice things. I didn’t have any money. So when I was selling jewelry, I didn’t have a sense of like, What would someone pay for this necklace. I went into the store I started selling, I was like, oh, people will pay like two or $300. So that necklace, wow. You know, that surprised me. I didn’t know that at the time. And the important thing is, don’t let it be colored by your own your college friends, your wife, your husband, your kid, their experience, you’re always talking to your ideal client or your existing client. So figure out where they are. And that’s where it to be. There is
D.J. Paris 1:02:55
so much to dive into in with respect to video with respect to social media, strategizing Kim, you don’t you’re not just here to do this episode, you teach this, this is your livelihood, you take all of your previous marketing and media experience, which is beyond impressive. You’ve worked for some of the giants, and basically distilled it down to what agents what realtors can use in grow to grow their their brand, virtually, and grow their video and media brand. Let’s talk about the services you provide. Because every I need this for our show. This is an embarrassing acknowledgement but true. We guys, I am I am just like you. I do not have we do not have an Instagram account for this. For this channel. We had one and it somehow got shut down. They thought it was Instagram shut it down. Oddly enough, they thought we were violating fair housing. And we were just promoting our podcasts. Because with housing it things can get tricky. So guys, I don’t even have an Instagram account. I am just like you I need to follow this advice. Because we’ve grown our entire audience just strictly through word of mouth. And it is time for us. Your five don’t wait five years like I did to grow your social channel. This is the year Thank God our content was good that we got a lot of listeners because now I really want to take it to the next level with social media. So I am going to be going on this journey with you. But Kim, tell us what you do for agents so that we can hopefully get some people just to realize this is the push I am going to be signing up but tell us what you offer.
Kim Rittberg 1:04:36
So basically, I have two offerings. I do one on one packages where I basically am your executive producer in a box. So I help guide you I sit with you. We we start now and then in six months basically you have a whole video component to your business. And so I help you do all of that come up with ideas execute the ideas across the video and podcast. So basically it Take my experience from Netflix and inside edition and People Magazine, and I turn you into a content creation machine. So those are one on one packages I do. I also have a video bootcamp specifically for real estate agents. So that means no matter where you are, you’re not making video, you’re making some video, but you want it more. It’s video Bootcamp for real estate agents to grow your client base. So it’s very, very focused, it comes up with, it helps you come up with ideas, it has tips on how to make videos efficiently and inexpensively. And it has ideas on how to engage clients in new ways. So it’s really an amazing class. So that’s gonna be a boot camp, it’s going to be a group of real estate agents. So you’re also going to have a community. So you’re gonna have new new people that you’re meeting a new referral businesses coming out of that. So it’s going to be a really awesome boot camp that is going to be starting off. And I just, I love it, because I think one of the things that is so great is my agents I work with are like, I never would have thought of that. But now it’s a component of their business. I think sometimes you just need that friend who like I’ve worked in video my whole life, of course, it’s second nature to me, but it’s my job to teach it to you in a way that is not overwhelming. It will help you grow your business, and in a way that you can still go about and live your life and grow your business. I don’t think that it’s your job to be a TV station, that’s not your job. It’s your job to your real estate agent and I help you come up with a video component of your business. It’s a component, it’s not your whole business.
D.J. Paris 1:06:30
So I agree. And this is it really from an ROI perspective, return on investment, video production, for you know, for your real estate business doesn’t have to be an expensive proposition. Your ROI, as Kim said can be you turn your phone around, you’re on a showing you say I just wanted to really quickly show you this really cool thing about this home, right? That costs virtually nothing, maybe nothing, just a little bit of time. And you can continue to create content on whatever budget you may have, which may be a small to no budget. And this is how people consume content these days. You know, the days of I was even Kim, I’m I’m curious if you’ve had this experience because you’ve been in in you’ve worked in TV. I have a hard time sitting through TV shows now and and movies in particular, my attention span has been reduced. I really I’m like legitimately worried about the future generations who I don’t even go on tick tock personally, because I’m afraid it’s just withering away my ability to concentrate for more than 15 seconds, which is not tic TOCs fault. I’m not blaming tick tock I’m just saying our attention spans are very, very short these days. So you do have to have these these enticements or these immediate hooks, as Kim said. But there is so much that you can do so quickly and for so inexpensively. But you do need to learn the tricks of the trade. Kim is going to teach you all of that. So I encourage everybody listening visit Kim’s website, Kim rydberg.com. Again, KIMRIWTBERGRI TTB erg.com link to that in our show notes she has, first of all her her background is beyond impressive. This is somebody who’s worked in in major media. She’s now taking that learning bringing it down to the individual business owner level and she wants to work with you as well. So check out Kim ripper.com. She has free events. She has paid events. She will she has white papers you can download. She has given a ton of content for you on this and you should be following her as well. On social media Kim, what? Let’s let’s get your social media handles.
Kim Rittberg 1:08:50
Yeah, great. Um, I am Kim Rydberg KIMRITTB RG, everywhere, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and I have a free download on my website. If you go to kinrick berg.com, or on Instagram or LinkedIn, I have a free download specifically for realtors, so that you can grow your business. You can grow your client base, and it’s specifically for real estate agents. So make sure to check check on my website. It’s free, you can grab it, share it with your friends. And I’m really excited. Honestly, I work for myself. And I love teaching people how to grow their business because I think that self employment gives you so much freedom. And it’s awesome. And it can be hard but it’s really it’s so gratifying for me to help other people build their business.
D.J. Paris 1:09:36
Awesome. Well, on behalf of all of our listeners want to thank Kim for her time on the episode today. She gave us so much great content and I would love to have Kim you’d love to have you come back as a regular guest. But for now, guys, I want to thank Kim so the best way you can thank Kim is by visiting her website Kim rydberg.com KMRITTB ERG dot com link to that in the show notes, check out her offering. This is the year to get into video, you can do it. Look, I have no media history. I am not a broadcaster. I don’t have I’m sitting in my office in Lincoln Park. This is not a professional studio. And we are now one of the most listened to shows in the country. And I don’t say that to brag, because who cares? It’s just more funny to anything. You don’t need all the accoutrements that you might think, to put on a show and get people to show up and watch or listen, I am proof of that. I do not look polished. I do not sound polished. I have moderately nice equipment. But I think altogether after five years, it cost me under $1,000. So guys, and when I started, it cost me like $100 for all the equipment. So you can do a lot with a little and but you need a guide. And Kim is your guide. So please support her. She wants to help you grow. She knows how to do this. So go to Kim rydberg.com r ittbrg.com. Again, link to that in our show notes on behalf of our audience. Kim, thank you so much for showing up giving us such great incredible content. Great advice. Amazing. And on behalf of Kim and myself, we want to thank our audience for making it all the way to the end of the episode. Please help us grow by telling just one other realtor about the show. Think of one other agent that really needs that push to get their branding in place. Send them a link maybe this will encourage them to start video or maybe it will encourage an office so send this out guys that’s how we grow. We grow through word of mouth. Please tell a friend we thank you for that. Kim, thank you so much. And we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks. Thank you so much.
Kim Rittberg 1:11:45
This is so fun.
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Email
