The Power of Authentic Video Content in Mortgage Marketing

Hey, what's up? How are you doing, Jeff Zimper? Welcome back to another episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio Podcast, or welcome for the first time. Either way, I'm so glad you tuned in, and I am confident that you are going to feel the same after listening to today's episode, because if you've ever struggled with content video, how do you consistently show up and be your authentic self? What to post? What to say? How to get over the hurdles and limitations and misconceptions about being a content creator in today's world, well, then this episode is for you. Before we get to my special guest, I, of course, am bringing you to another success story from the streets. Once again, shout out to Carmella, McGonagall, what is up Carmella, one of our most consistent top contributors in our major classes community. And I'm just going to read for you the reason to post she put in our private Facebook group, where every single Friday we host a mastermind and weekly coaching call, which has been a cornerstone of our platform for four plus years now at least, to probably closer to five or six. And we've got quite a few members who've been with us since the beginning and stay. And part of the reason before that is because of the incredible mind share that goes on with these weekly mastermind calls, originators from across the country, open mic, videos on, not one of those zooms everybody has their video off and it's completely non-engaging, ours is engaging, ours, it's fire, there I say. Case in point, let me share with you a success story from Carmella. She is a member of our my agent classes platform. What is that? Well, that's where we help you, the originator, move up the ladder from Celicitor and vendor to partner and peer when you are prospecting real estate agents and referral partners to get conversations that lead to contracts. Carmella's recent story says that she has a great win of the week that she wanted to share. She got a call from somebody that teaches credit and this person reached out to Carmella because he heard from local agents, I'll awesome, her classes are and he wanted to chat. So they did a class together this past Wednesday. One agent canceled an appointment to come to her class because she hears how great Carmella's classes are and had to come see first hand for herself what it was all about. Her favorite part, Carmella, her favorite part of doing these classes is the role reversal. The fact that agents and referral partners are calling Carmella instead of Carmella chasing or suing. And on a side note, Carmella goes on to say that at the time she wrote this, which was, I believe February 9th of 2024, this year so far, she's had faced the face meetings. She's been faced to face with over 50 agents and two divorce attorneys. So far this year, she has a call with a financial advisor team of six on the 15th of this month and another divorce attorney launch appointment on the 19th. All because Carmella has made a commitment to lead with education, to build her personal brand platform on education, putting herself out there. Yes, getting out of her comfort zone, but trusting in the process and believing in process over outcome that the outcome and results would follow if she just committed to the process. So congratulations to you, Carmella. Once again, shout out. You are one of the most consistent executors and implementers we've got in the margin classes community. You deserve all the accolades. You're the one doing the work. Thank you for being a part of community. So before I get into this week's special guest, you may be intrigued to want to learn more about what it is that we do. If so, you can go to mortgagemarketing.pro and book call with me, you and me. One on one. Where we dig into your business, what is it you'd like to achieve this year, what's potentially holding you back and how we can help you overcome and break through some of those obstacles. However, this is not right for everybody. It is not an easy button and it is not for someone who feels that real estate agents are a necessary evil. It is for those people who do want to lead with education, perhaps have the heart of a teacher, at least have the capability and willingness to learn how to become a facilitator, not needing to be a subject matter expert, but be like the nightly news reporter who simply reports the news, sharing information, knowing that leading with problem solving ideas and resources will help you attract versus chase. Trust goes up, resistance goes down, conversations that lead to contracts. Mortgagemarketing.pro to learn more. All right, so let's get into my special guest this week. I told you at the top of the episode if you had struggled with what to post, how to show up as your authentic self, how to get over some of the self talk about being on video and creating a personal brand that's based on you in front of the camera. Well, then this episode is for you. Mike Ferassi is the CEO and founder of Red Button Media and Mike helps you listening whether you're in mortgage or real estate or some other aspect of this industry. If you want to learn how to create content without any expensive overwhelming equipment, no scripts, no managing of files back and forth and uploading and sending, no editing, no struggling with coming up with what to post in topics, short form versus long form, educational versus entertaining. If you struggle with that like me, then listen closely to this conversation with Mike because Mike has a superpower. Not only does he like superheroes, as you'll hear about, but he actually is a superhero in sort of a way himself because he is helping great brands build content, build engagement at scale that converts and leads to business. How does he do that? I can't tell you how he does that. You're going to have to listen and hear how he helps brands do that on this episode. But if you like what you hear and you want to reach out to Mike for more information, you will be provided the links in the show notes. His company once again is Red Button Media, the URL is hit the redbutton.com. Probably even better is to follow him on LinkedIn, that's his primary social media platform. His Instagram profile link is Mike Ferrasi, F-A-R-A-C-I on LinkedIn, Mike Ferrasi, your secret weapon for video that works. Let's get into this week's show. Welcome to the show. Thank you, Jeff, for having me. All right, so Mike, we usually kick this off with, tell us a little bit about who you are, what do you do? Turn, go ahead. Who I am, my name is Mike Ferrasi. I'm a comic book and Star Wars fan and a Diet Coke addict who supports all of that other stuff through helping people make better video content to drive their business forward, connect them with customers and just generate more leads for whatever industry you're in. I was a mortgage and real estate professional, mainly mortgage for 20 years. Still, mortgage companies all the time. That is my lane, but it's my lane. That's the stuff that I can talk fluently about. 15 plus years of product management, capital marketing experience, marketing, all of that fun stuff basically means that when I'm talking to mortgage and real estate people, I know what you should be talking about in your outward facing content to grab the attention of the people that you want to grab attention of, right? Perspective customers or perspective referral sources, people that you're trying to recruit. Internal education platforms, like this doesn't just have to be outward facing content. Video is a world that I love because contrary to what a lot of people believe right now, video is not social media. Those two things are not the same. Fun little fact I found out in some research a few months ago, the oldest, what's believed to be the oldest surviving piece of video, moving picture, was recorded in France in 1888. Video has been around since any of us were born well before then and it's going to be around long after us. Social media just happens to be the most popular distribution channel for that type of media right now. And lucky for us, we are professionals in a golden age, maybe a platinum age. This is the first time ever that distributing your content for everybody in the world to see is not pay for play. Social media is one of the first ever free distribution channels for your content to get your message out. And that's what I love helping people do. Leverage those distribution channels to create better content for it and connect them with the exact people that they're trying to get connected to. That is fantastic summary, man. Thank you. A little long-winded. You're going to have to get orchestra to play me off towards the end here. No, I love that. I wrote down a comment about this stuff all day. I know. That's what's great. And we're going to have a wonderful conversation. So if you're listening, you better stay tuned and you got to listen to this whole thing because this is just the beginning. However, I want to mix it up because you are such an awesome personality and like to have fun. And that's by the way, what brought you partly to my radar is not only do somebody introduce you and me together, but more importantly is your content as I look at it here on the screen is just as you from your heart right from off the cuff kind of expressed your feelings and passion about video like your trunist, your I hate to use the overused word authenticity, but it's the only one I have right now. It's a really good word. There's a reason a lot of people use it. I know. Should we stop saying, oh, this word's overused. I mean, maybe there's a reason why it's overused, right? All right. So here's why here's why people don't like it. Yeah. It's because they're afraid to be authentic. See, this is where it gets good. You know, especially, especially when you, you know, when you hit the red button, when when you get on video, people are so wrapped up in trying to be who they've always wanted to be, instead of being who they really are, that they get in their own way. Is that something different, though? 100% absolutely. So explain yourself. How's that different? How's who I want to be different than who I really am? If anybody is working on improving themselves in any way, then they are not currently who they want to be. Okay. So you're saying that's your period ends? That's one of the outside of that. That's that's a star. Exactly. So yeah, that's the person that you represent yourself as when you're on stage speaking at a conference, sort of a room full of a thousand, two thousand people. That's not the person you want to be on camera when you're producing video content. Because make no mistake, your audience is through here. Yeah. It's not a it's not a captive audience in a room. These are not people that are going to feel bad if they walk out halfway through your stick or if they take that phone call in the middle of your sentence. These are people that are quick to swipe and quick to stroll, scroll. If you're not absolutely fascinating. And what's absolutely fascinating to most human beings is other human beings. All right, allowing yourself to just be who you are is going to make you instantly more relatable and authentic. But that can be very uncomfortable when you're starting out, which is why people hate hearing the word authenticity. I'm going to stop you right there and speak for those that are saying bullshit. I'm not fascinating. I'm just an average guy. Yeah. Doing thing and me grabbing a phone while I'm sitting on the park bench feeding the birds. Like that's not that fascinating. Prove me wrong. There is an audience for everything. And the only way that you can prove that to yourself is to make a video that you don't think matters and post it. You know what I mean? It's one of those things like selling the pen on eBay, right? Like no one's going to buy the pen. No, they might not buy the pen, but they did. That's the point. They bought the pen, man. Somebody said, who the hell is going to buy a used pen on eBay? Did they buy the pen or did they buy the result that the pen is going to give them? All right. Go, baby. Go. You know, so I like the that's one of the big light bulb moments I've ever had in my life. I was lucky enough in 2021. I went to work for a startup and all their content video written everything. And in the beginning, we went through, it was like a refresh one week shortened version of a startup accelerator that the founder had gone through the long version of a year before. And I was lucky enough for him to invite me to to to join him on that journey. And in day one, the the the founder coach, um, director of the program. Literally, we have posted notes and markers. Everybody's writing on stuff. Like this was this is part of the whole thing. I used to write stuff down, toss it out, stick it places and all that. And the first question that was asked was, what do you sell? Well, this was a this was a FinTech mortgage company. So, okay, well, this is easy. I know the answer to that. We sell, uh, we sell loans. We sell, uh, ways for a borrowed by a house. We sell the interest rates. We sell money, right? This is a commodity. Uh, the mortgages are largely commoditized. Everybody's selling money. All the money comes from the same place. That's what we sell. And he said, that's great. What are your customers buying from you? Ping that was the light bulb moment because the customer was absolutely not buying what I thought I was selling. The customer was buying an experience. The customer was buying guidance. The customer was purchasing advice. The customer was buying a trusted resource for that commodity. The customer was buying a closing by a certain date and comfort that that would actually happen. The the customer was buying a result that the product would provide. They weren't buying an actual product. So when I work with most people in their video content, the first thing we need to get them to stop doing is selling their product because none of the people they want to talk to care. Nobody cares about the product. They care about the result that their product is going to provide, which is why again, circle back to people watching video on their phones. If you present a product to a captive audience of people on stage, that's one thing. But when you're making a video for organic reach on social media, YouTube, and any of the hosting platforms that you can upload to for free and get eyeballs with no ad spend, you have to be captivating in a relatable way, which means yes authenticity being yourself, but also you gotta just be having a conversation with one human being because on the other end of that video is just one human being and they're looking to be entertained or educated. And let's be honest, in the industry that we know and love, we're not very entertaining. So we need to really lean into that education. If you can bring some humor now and again and get a laugh, great. Most of us aren't going to be able to because loans are boring and we need to find a way to get the point across quickly, simply, clearly, and educate as if you're talking to a person across the coffee table from them as opposed to standing on a stage, talking to a bunch of people. That's what feels like a commercial and that's what's going to get your content scrolled past. Interesting. You know, as you're sitting there saying, what are they buying? You took me through that exercise. I know I think the frame you were at that is a fintech startup. Yes. About that through the frame for the listener. Yeah. What is the buyer buying, right? And they're buying a family, they're buying security, they're buying a place to live, they're buying comfort, they're buying, you know, their future, they're about like so many emotional non-interest rate products related, but more emotionally. Absolutely. And a lot of those things are going to be addressed with their real estate agent, not necessarily with their mortgage professional, but maybe they're mortgage professional from that person. They're buying a way to attain all those other things without having to save up the 20% down that Uncle Ned just told them they needed around the things, giving table and have confidence. Absolutely. Absolutely. Just the process and the guidance and the assurance. There's one thing that most home, especially first time home buyers have in common, is that they're nervous. They're scared and they question everything because they've never done it before. And it's most likely going to be one of, if not the largest investments they ever make in their entire life. So the more that you can do to reassure them that they're doing the right thing and give them actual facts and data to back that up. The more confident they're going to feel in their own decisions and the more comfortable you're going to make them and the stronger that relationship is going to grow. Yeah, I love that. The thing that I often have said is that in that situation or in times of chaos or uncertainty, people need context. So it makes sense of that what's going on, right? So that's probably the opportunity for the listener, in most cases, the originator who's like, how do I provide context to all the noise that's such as the housing market going to crash? Interest rates are up. Interest rates are down. It's now a good time to buy all the stuff we see in here. We've got to put context around that, right? That's right. That's right. And even if it's just the simple context that just remember that headlines are negative because negativity sells and those headlines are published for clicks for ad revenue, not necessarily to inform. There's a lot of news outlets that know how to get clicks because clicks drive revenue. There are less news outlets that hold informing and a non-biased way as a North Star above revenue generations. You know, a quick note on that. So I saw something show up in my feed about the silver tsunami. I don't know if this is showed up for you on social media, which is, I forget her name right now, but she is the Oracle of Wall Street, not Warren Buffett, but an email, Oracle of Wall Street, who predicted allegedly the 2008 meltdown, right? Now she's got some cred for sure, but she is now coming out and talking about the silver tsunami, about how the aging population of the boomers are going to start selling homes in mass. And that's going to significantly impact home prices to the negative side. All right. Let me dig deeper on that double click, etc. And I ping my buddy Logan Mount Hashami. If you're listening, Logan, what's up? He's the senior housing analyst at Housing Wire. And he gave me the context, which that narrative actually has been around for 15 years. And so he gave me some context and some information as to why that actually is the term he used to your point is if it bleeds, it leads. And if he hears that, they're going to pick up on it, because that's what's going to get the views and the clicks. And it's actually not based in any factual true, meaningful evidence. Yeah. Logan is by far possibly my single favorite twit, not Twitter X follow. I don't know him. I have not met him. But I love when he shows up in my feed, it's always fantastic stuff. He is his authentic self back to that example. Gotcha. 100%. I mean, if you follow him, if you've ever seen him speak or whatever, you know, he gets these names and narratives for, you know, the, what does he call them? The something boys. I know, the housing bubble boys. And you know, it might not be bubble boys, because you know, I'll hold me about that. But yeah. But he's totally just his, his authentic unapologetically himself. And, and then we're going to get into some tactics in a moment. So, but the other thing I have stuck in my mind right now, maybe I'd love your commentary on this, because just today I was, I was watching some David Goggins stuff, right? Okay. Watched him. Yeah. Okay. So I was thinking of him when you said, be your authentic self. Now he might be an extreme example. And I know so he can be polarizing. And I know that's also advantage. She did like, you can be you have to be for someone, not for anybody. And my wife, she's like, oh my god, I can't stand all the f bombs or whatever. Right. And I'm like, I'm like, that's just part of who, but if you understand, again, context of where he has come from. And then I saw him on stage, speaking to this individual who stood up and said, I'm 26 years old, I'm completely lost. I don't know what I want to do with my life. And I'm like, hoping you can help me. Yeah. And he said, how the f am I supposed to help you? You don't even know what you want. Yeah. And so I'm just throwing that out there at you to see what, how you would take that and respond in the context of everything we're talking about with authenticity, right? Knowing your audience and things like that. I would respond to the question, how can you help me? No, no, no, two, two. That's an example of embracing your authenticity. Gotcha. The risk of offending. This is, this is one of the biggest tactics and strategies that I've the hardest time getting salespeople to buy into. Especially mortgage salespeople. When you're talking to Sass, Fintech, salespeople, that's kind of a different thing. They have a specific problem that solves a specific or a specific solution that solves a specific problem for a specific set of people and or companies that kind of know what they're doing. They know that if Apple reaches out to them for some reason, they know if they have the solution they're looking for or not, right? So they're not too worried about turning off people who may or may not be for them, so to speak. But in our industry, so many mortgage professionals see themselves as having a target client of anyone in the market for a mortgage or not in the market for a mortgage or maybe just in the market for a mortgage in the near future. Oh, I want to work at first time home buyers, I want to work at investors, I want to work with people looking to rehab their homes. I want to do reverse mortgages. I want to look for people who are looking for second loans to access their equity. If you're talking to everyone, you are resonating with no one. That's the that's the the biggest issue. So for all the people who are themselves, despite the risk that that's going to turn off a number of people, I applaud that every single time because that's a person that realizes how many people there actually are. Yeah, like we just crossed what like eight billion people in the world or something like that. Like it's it's wild. There's so many people, so many of them. Like how many, like when you get into the like the super weird stuff, like how many people are fans of a specific style of writing, but then also like this movie and then also this is their favorite color and then this is their favorite kind of food. You can put the weirdest combination of things together and there's still going to be a pile of people that fall into that demographic. Two sales people, I say pick your favorite demographic to work with and then be yourself. If you love helping first time home buyers because it's satisfying for you and because it reminds you of a niece or an nephew every single time that you work with somebody in that age range or age bracket or you live in a college town and there's good opportunity there because a lot of people stick around and they get hired out of college and make decent money enough to afford a house. Talk to first time home buyers and don't worry if that turns off investors from you because there is plenty of market opportunity with first time home buyers. Conversely, if you own investment properties and you can speak that language because that's what you live and you really do specialize in helping investment property owners refinance their portfolios so they can leverage their equity and build that portfolio and buy further investment properties with it in certain strategic ways. Lean into that. There's plenty of market opportunity in that and also your foundational knowledge in the industry is going to allow you to deliver little pieces, little nuggets, little messages to all the other people also. But one of the first things that I do when I'm working with anybody on video content strategy is to help them dial in if they've not done it already a target client persona for themselves. If not multiple, you should have multiple target client personas. If you are a married man with a happy family and you married your high school sweetheart and you specialize in new builder business in a certain area, then maybe you shouldn't be speaking to everybody and trying to engage with and get business from divorces who need to figure out what to do with the mortgage on the property that just came to them or didn't come to them or whatever. That's not your lane, man. There's no who you are and cater to who you are. So when you're publishing content, like being yourself and being authentic are two ways to just naturally, without even thinking about it, appeal to other people who have stuff in common with you. One of the things I led with, I love comics and superhero movies. I don't have to I don't have to convey that. Yeah, it's on your ear and I'm not and I'm not afraid for it to be there. Do you have any idea how many discovery calls or initial conversations I've had with people that have started with five to ten minutes of talking about Star Wars and Marvel? Right. Well, yeah, that's also sizeable audience of shared interest. Yeah. Sure. But these that makes that go from a an exploratory discovery getting to know each other call to have a friend who already knows you. And it's a report builder. Well, so if you like Star Wars, if you like, you know, whatever, fill in the thing, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. That person is already predisposed to being more comfortable with you by the time they actually reach out. So being authentic in your content on stage, whatever you're doing, all it does is help you attract people that are easier to work with and easier to do business with. Yeah. And what I what are the the point that I like to make to a lot of people is if you do this for long enough and if you implement a content strategy, especially a video content strategy, where people can actually see you and hear you and get to know you along the way for a long enough time, a year, two years, three years down the road, the people that reach out to you aren't reaching out to you to see if you're the best option. They're reaching out to you because they've already made the decision to work with you. And then you don't have to worry about selling because at the end of the day, in our industry, a cell is just a commitment to serve. Somebody commits to you and then find I can then okay, now I can serve you through the mortgage process. Like the actual cell is a pretty small minority of what we actually do. The majority of what we do with our clients is serve them. So imagine fast forwarding a few years down the road after you've committed to this content strategy. And then people just start reaching out to you to do business with you. And you can just automatically start to serve them without having to worry about selling them. Yeah. The trust is already there. The decision is already made. Is that going to turn off people? Are you going to lose business, lose attention from from certain people that don't resonate with your message? Yes. Absolutely. But if you're resonated with everybody, you're not prepared to handle that volume any way. Well, and that's impossible. Anyway, 100%. It's like I always tell small businesses everybody. Anybody who says I want to go viral, help me. I want to go viral. So why do you want to go viral? It's going to hurt your business. Yeah. Right. Oh, what do you mean? It's going to hurt my business. All right. Listen, mom and pop shop broker shop. Let's say somebody gifted you a Super Bowl commercial tomorrow. And that's Super Bowl commercial runs. You put you put some effort into the creative. It worked. Right. And then the thousands of phone calls you get that Sunday afternoon. Are you prepared to handle those? Or are you just going to end up with a whole bunch of people with lost credibility in you? Yeah. Why? You know, a lot of a lot of the times of the reach that you think you want. Yes. Isn't necessarily the reach that's going to be the best for your business. Instead of going viral, focus on getting higher quality views, meaning producing content that's going to resonate with your actual target market. And that way your views might be a little bit smaller because it's going to appeal to less people. Those views will be of higher quality and they will result in better and more leads from it. Okay. That's good strategy stuff. You've got to get some time and think about all those things that might just walk us through. Let's now pivot to some tactical stuff. Yeah. Talk to a while back. And of course, I'm looking at your LinkedIn feed, which by the way is a great place to follow. Mike will put the links in the show notes. But let's talk about hooks. Yes. Let's start there because there seems to be a formula or a recipe for hooks. And you have a feeling or an opinion about how do you feel about hooks? So I feel that I feel that most hooks are just to grab somebody's attention to make them watch your content. But isn't that the purpose? No. Okay. This is where you say not yet the definition of a hook is, right? Yeah. Yeah. Not if the piece of content doesn't deliver. Ah, okay. Right. So there are a lot of people out there publishing what's commonly referred to as hook-based content. You come up with a hook. I'm going to help you save $50,000 in two years. Okay. And then well, what's the explanation on that? And then maybe they go into explaining a two one by down or maybe they go into, if you pay this much extra to your mortgage and then over the course of however long this amortizes, that's fluff. Man, nobody cares about that. Nobody cares about that. If you tell somebody that you're going to help him to save $50,000 in two years and then your content explains some technicality and backdoor math to kind of get there to where it's on paper, but it's not actually realized in real life. Yeah. Actually going to lose your credibility with your audience and people are going to start to tune out. People are going to get tired of that stuff. Hooks that don't deliver are broken promises, period and hook is not just to grab attention. A hook is also a promise of what the rest of that piece of content is going to be and the value that's going to provide. So I can't stand hook-based content. I much prefer content-based hooks. When you're planning a piece of content, put together something that's invaluable for a target client or a target viewer provides them actual value with no expectation and return. Let's be honest, you're posting this on social media. If they want to reach out to you, they know who you are. Stop introducing yourself in the beginning of your videos. They know who you are. It's posted from your account. They see your picture. They see your name. They know who you are. Don't waste people's time. They're smart. People are smart. They know who you are. They know how to get a hold of you. Just give them the value. After you know all the value that you're going to give them, then use that to develop a hook that promises them what you're about to say. I think that strategy of developing content-based hooks as opposed to just hook-based content will give your content much more pointed direction. It will resonate much better. It will deliver much better. Let's do this. You know, it's just a higher quality thing. You're ready to be on the hot seat? I love it. Let's go. Okay. If you had enough die-coke, probably not. That's okay. All right. Let's unpack that a little bit. Two in by now because that's part one, right? How would you structure that if you were going to do a content-based hook, which is how are you described it, I believe? Yeah. So two one by down. I would start with the piece of content itself and plan out what I'm going to say. So I've done these for multiple brands in the past. And especially with a two one by down, it's one of those things where you'd be very tempted to calculate the two percent savings in the first year, calculate the one percent savings in the second year lump all that together and then make your hook. I'm going to save you this much money. But at the end of the day, that much money doesn't come from nowhere. We have to be transparent and we have to be upfront with the fact that there is a cost for a two one by now. And many does come somewhere. The seller's not always going to be willing to pay for it for you. Of course not. All of those things. So instead of trying to sell people on a two one by down, I would try to educate people about a two one by down. So my piece wouldn't be explaining what it is. My piece would be addressing what all the other mortgage professionals are out there saying. So my piece would be more centered around something like, hey, you hear a lot of mortgage people out there saying how they can get you and illustrate two percent below market. Here's how they're actually doing it. And then you explain this is called a two one by down. This is how it works. That money does come from somewhere. You may have to pay for it. Sometimes, sure, the seller will cover it for you. And sometimes if the seller covers it for you and it's not raising the price of the property to compensate. And all of these things fall in line. Yes, you can save this much money under these pretenses. But enough of the confusing math, money doesn't fall from trees. This stuff doesn't come from nowhere. But this is a valuable tool that you should consider if you're looking to buy a new home. Reach out to learn more. That type of piece of cost, that honesty, that hey, all my friends in the industry might be doing you a little bit of a disservice right now. One of the best piece of contents that I ever published for more on behalf of mortgage companies and still does well every time we remake it is a piece about how your mortgage lender might be setting you up for failure. And that is a hook because it's true. And then that immediately follows with, but it's not their fault. When you're actually qualified for a mortgage, the underwriting guidelines that come from the government backed institutions that we pull all of those qualification parameters from, they require that mortgage companies qualify you based on your gross income, not what you actually take home. And when they count debts against you to figure out what you can afford as a housing payment, they're just looking at your credit report. They don't look at your gas and your food, your streaming services, your cell phone bill, your utility payments. They don't count all that stuff. So just because you qualify for a certain amount doesn't mean that that's what you can afford. What you can afford is up to you. You're the only person who can give context to that. So make sure that you're putting together an accurate budget for yourself throughout this process to make sure you're not fighting off more than you can chew. And we can set you up for success. You know, like that type of thing, instead of, oh, gross income qualification makes it so easy to qualify for a home. Like that's that's instinct. That's that's sales. This other thing, that's marketing and trust building with a long term strategy. All right. Let's dive a little bit then into captions or titles, right? Yes. So I'm scrolling one particular Instagram feed right now. Do you feel I'm just going to give you a couple of titles? Yes. Home buying hack for 2023 market. Hate it. There are no hacks. Everybody knows everything. So immediately you question it. 100% there are no home buying hacks. If it was a hack that worked, then tons of people would do it and it turns into a strategy, not a hack. Hack is flashy. Hack is something that hack is is is meant to appeal in my in my subjective opinions. I believe that home buying hacks are meant to appeal to people who are looking to cut corners, cut corners, attain something that is too good to be true. A lot of times things like that. I really like as opposed to home buying hacks, I would go with something like home buying strategies that actually work or prove and prove in home buying strategies that actually work. How about secret to beat rising rates? I don't tell you a problem with that one. I don't know if it's a secret, but if that gets somebody's attention, then that's okay. I actually just heard about the concept of a rehook. Which I really like. I'm working that into my content now too. A rehook is something that immediately follows the hook that either cements it for a specific subset or target viewer or contradicts it to increase the, make the spidey senses tingle a little bit more. So to speak, right? So if if there's a secret to beat high interest rates, maybe you immediately follow that with a rehook of okay, it's not really a secret, but hardly anybody's doing it. You know, like it's like, okay, your hook got my attention. Oh, okay, now I'm listening. Little no. Now I get it or or your big hook is forget what Uncle Ned said at Thanksgiving. You don't need 20% down to buy a home, right? And then you immediately rehook them with and sometimes you can buy a home with nothing. Oh, okay. Now now I'm listening. This is this is great. This is good. You know, all right. I'm just going to keep peppering you if you don't want to keep going. And I appreciate you being on the hot seat about big mistake homeowners make. I like those like those because yeah, lots of people are always looking for mistakes to avoid those, those pieces do well. Okay. I already know you don't like hacks. So I assume you don't like the word tricks either. Like real estate buying tricks hacks and tricks and test them. You know, that's one of those things. They could work for certain audiences just because I don't like it. Doesn't mean your audience isn't going to like it. I like strategies better than tips and hacks. But there's nothing wrong with making one piece of content and then changing up the intro, turning it into three pieces of content. One says tips. One says hacks. One says strategies. Run them on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday and see what performs best. Test it. That's right. Keep in mind all marketing is a test, right? That's right. And let's not make the mistake of it being about views. Views and every creator worth their salt that has attained any level of success will tell you that views are very largely vanity metric. Right. Because you can get thousands of views and get no business. Now, if you're in this to create content so you can monetize that content through on-platform ads and brand partnerships and stuff like that. That's a different thing. You want views. If you want to be a YouTube superstar, if you want to be Instagram influencer, you want views. But that's not typically what we're creating video for. We're creating video for awareness, trust and familiarity with with featured clients and referral sources. Our videos are monetized through the business. It brings us not through actual ad on video ad revenue. So our strategies shouldn't really be revolving around pure views. I'd rather have a video that gets a thousand views and brings me three leads that a video that gets a million views and brings me one lead. Fair enough. What about the secret to buying a home in 2023? Or see, I mean, secrets. Again, test and observe. I prefer the best home buying strategies for 2023, 2024. Do you like these ones that are like how much you need to buy a X price home? Yeah. I like that. And I like it even better if you can cater those to your specific area that you market to. If you're trying to win local, those are big. Especially if you can do multiple pieces that are specific to zip code. Like those are they're naturally going to get much smaller views in the view count. But if you're catering actual data to certain zip codes, the people that do view it are going to be ultra high intent. Here's one I've seen pop up. This is how your car is costing you a hundred thousand dollars. Interesting. That's interesting. It's about getting rid of a $600 car payment over time. If you can get rid of that payment equal to an additional $100,000 of purchasing power when you buy a home. Yeah. I'm not a big fan. That wouldn't hook me in. But again, a lot of the stuff. It sounds unrealistic. Yes. A lot of this stuff is subjective. You don't know who you're talking to. Like who's cars costing them a hundred thousand dollars. Like you could be looking at a property investor who's driving around in the brand new G-Wagon saying this calls way more than that. Or you could be talking to the poor college kid who's eaten ramen for lunch saying, oh, yeah, right. I could never afford it. Like there's no way my $10,000 used Corolla could ever cost me a hundred thousand dollars. You know, like that's interesting. By the way, this is not a fair setup to you or probably fine. It's all good. I think that your car is costing you too much money. Or this is how your car is costing you too much money. I think leaving you. How about is your car payment keeping you from buying a home? That'd be great. That'd be fantastic. And that's a good little back of what is kind of a little like a pseudo little workshop here kind of sussing out. I do believe that copywriting is important. I mean, I used to study copywriting back in the day. Yeah. Apples, Ogle V, Claude Hopkins, Halbert, right. All those guys, like words matter, right. And words definitely attract people. That's right. So was that is your car? How your car is costing you a hundred thousand dollars? Was that some, was that a mortgage profession? Yes. And it was talking about if you're, if you have a $600 payment and you got rid of that payment, you now have an additional 100k worth of affordability. Gotcha. So it's a bit of a long winding road to get there, but who's going to be like, okay, dude, dump your car, go buy a beater. And now you can buy a house. Yeah. I like, I like your copy better on that. Then, then, then, then my copy for sure. But the, but the $100,000 thing is, like you say, if it, if it's not a direct road, if it's long winding and it requires you to do math for them, it's, it's probably not going to, it's probably not going to hit home for too many people. Do math. No one likes to do math. Except no one likes to do math. How do you, here, I'll put you on the spot. Explain to me how DTI is calculated. Geez. Now you call me off guard DTI. So you take your gross, if I'm correct, it's been, it's been a minute. You take your gross income and divided by, but then, what's it? There you go. Most more, most more, your professional is going to explain to you exactly how DTI is calculated. Yeah, I know. They're going to, they're going to go out, they're going to go out in their video. They're going to say you can qualify with up to a 43% DTI for this loan program, which means that if you take your gross income and then you subtract all of your, all of your expenses and then what you're left with is, you know, 57% of that gross swipe people are gone. People are gone. And this is kind of where the copywriting mentality comes in because if you just say, hey, listen, anytime you see something that says 43% maximum DTI, all that means is that as long as you're spending $43 or less of every 100 pre-tax dollars you make on your housing payment and other expenses, you qualify for a loan. Much easier. You know what I mean? Stop doing math for people. If you can add all the void doing math, but that's the one thing that will make people tune out faster than anything in the world is math. Just, just don't do it for them. You can give them outcomes, you can explain it to them in creative ways, different things like, but actually doing the math, that's for the conversation you have with them. Don't forget that these videos are not intended to sell. You don't want to post videos. You don't want to post content to get people coming to you saying, I'm sold, let's go. That's not the point. That's unrealistic. These are conversation starters. Okay, let's pivot to this. The diversification of, and this is going to be dependent upon the platform we're talking about. I happen to be sharing Instagram right now, but the question I was going to ask was video versus images, like Instagram, carousels, versus images, etc. Any quick commentary there? Right now, especially now, with the rise in AI and all these AI generated tools. Oh, it's very easy to produce a whole lot of different content without you really being a part of the creative process. It's a blessing and a curse. It gives you a boatload of images or carousels or written content that you can post at your whim. That's fantastic. But think about the viewer. Think about the person on the other end. They don't know who's coming up with this stuff. They don't know who's writing this stuff. And odds are, if you've been posting content for a little while, and then you lean in heavy to AI content without taking the time to edit and make sure it sounds like you viewers and readers are smart. They're going to know it's not you. But we're not yet to a point where AI can deep fake all of our faces based on two selfies and our camera roll yet. But for now, video is the most, the most authentic way that you can engage with someone because you on camera speaking the message to them is instant credibility. They know exactly who is delivering that message to them. So I believe the video content is king. I'm obviously biased. That's what I know and love. But logically, from a consumer's perspective, I would much rather see, I would much rather see Jeff explaining a topic to me than scrolling across his LinkedIn carousel to kind of pick up the same message. That's me. That's how I watch things. That's how I view things. But if that's not how you view things and if that doesn't meet your content consumption habits, then I always like to advise people to create content in a very similar way that they consume it. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're a big reader and that's just what you prefer, then start writing. That's okay. If you're a podcast listener because you're in the car all the time, then do audio. Do an audio podcast. If you don't want your face on camera, that's fine. Like, there's nothing wrong with that. And then that's also just going to play into your hands of being able to attract viewers and audience that have that in common with you. Yeah. I think there's, it comes back to intention and what's appropriate for this situation. I know there are people on Instagram specifically who use carousels of well for educating with elements and bullet points, things like that and taking people through this kind of guided process. Like I'm looking at one right now. Step one, step two, step three. Could that be a video? Sure. This person would do a fair amount of video. But I think what I agree with you is like, how do you consume consume content? Well, I don't want to say just that because those things should be both. I always think it should be because there's a certain percentage of the population. You can almost kind of split it in half depending on what platform you're on. Right. Most platforms, it's going to lean much more heavily towards video these days. But if you're on a platform like I know and love like LinkedIn, you can almost split it in half the people that prefer reading versus watching video or listening to something, which is why I always tell companies like, listen, if you publish a blog, every single blog post needs to have a matching video about that same topic, delivering the same messaging, every single one of them. Because all you're going to do is double your potential audience for it. Yeah. We got a few minutes left. You had what I'll call having authentic post recently four days ago on LinkedIn. All right. You said you haven't been taking your own advice. 100%. Go ahead and just debrief that for us. What did you mean? And what are you changing? So I always encourage the people that I work with whether whether we're coaching them live to help them make their content right there on the spot or whether we're producing content for them or we're just putting together some coaching and strategy on how to implement things a little bit better. I always advise people on including CTAs once in a while calls to action are important. And I distinguish a call to action between, I call them I classify them as soft and hard calls to action. I think a hard call to action would be DM me with the word zero. If you want to know more about this down payment assistance program or go to this website and click this button and you'll get this tool that I've created for you, this lead magnet, you know, whatever it is. That's a hard call to action. I want you to do this right now. Subscribe to my channel. Comment down below. Let me know your thoughts on this question. That hard CTA. I'm in a place for those. They work fantastic, especially when it kind of works in with the piece of content rather naturally because of the subject matter you're talking about. A soft CTA is just letting people know that you're available. Oh, by the way, if you have anything to help, I'm here for you. Like feel free to reach out to me. Like email, call, DM, whatever, how you're comfortable doesn't matter. Just want to let you know I'm here. I'm available. I genuinely do want to help. You got to understand that once you once you get to a certain place in your content creation journey, the people that pay attention to you, the people who you show up in their feed all the time, your audience, your fans, your a minor celebrity to them. And that can be intimidating to many people. Intimidating enough for them to take your advice and then reach out to someone they're more comfortable reaching out to. You never want that to happen because if they're taking your advice and they're taking all your value already, you want their business. So let them know that it's okay for them to reach out to you. So every once in a while, just a simple, by the way, if you have any other questions on this, I have some free time on my calendar than a couple of days. Feel free to reach out to me. We'll hop on a call and talk about how this applies to your situation. Like that's a nice little soft, personable hands off like non ordering them type of type of CTA. I am not as a knockdown drag out incredible salesperson. In this whole journey of starting the video agency and doing all this stuff, I have come to the crystal clear revelation that I am a strategist and educator. I am really good with strategy education and coaching. I'm not a great salesperson. It's not a strong point for me. So when it comes to getting new clients hopping on discovery calls and stuff like that, I talk a lot about what I have to offer and how it can help. I was talking less about their actual goals they're looking to achieve and what the actual value that this help would provide to their organization. I'm getting better. I'm doing better at that. Being more and thoughtful with that. And then also in my content, I love providing value and tips and tricks and strategies. You see, I post fresh video on all the socials every single day. It's fantastic. I love it. It's great. I like helping people that way. I really do. Which makes it hard for me to include CTAs in my own content, even though I'm telling people to do it for their content. And it shouldn't be as it do as I say not as I do thing. So I produced what I was comfortable with a one minute long CTA. It was very conversational. Just say, hey, just so you know, like, I watch back the edit on this thing and I'm realizing that I'm not including CTAs. Like I tell people to include in their own stuff and I'm trying to get better on that. So bear with me. But this is me with a call to action to let you know that I'm here for you and I'm available. You know, and I'm just trying to get better with practice and repetition, getting more comfortable. I don't want to say pitching myself because I don't like to pitch myself, but just making myself more available to people through my content. And just like, I know that I'm available to people, but they might not. So soft CTAs every once in a while, I will toss in a hard CTA. But I also think that maybe depending on what you're doing, depending on your personality, no more than 20 to 40% of the stuff that you publish should really have a CTA in it because you don't want to feel too salzy. You should have half or more of your content providing value with no expectation and return because that's going to go the longest way towards building trust with you and your audience. So I never want to lose that. But yeah, I need to take my own advice and start including some CTAs. Again, I post every single day and last year, I missed a lot of opportunities because of it. Well, that's very honest. And I can relate to that. And I'm sure some people listening can relate to that as well. And it's okay if you're putting out value that's helping people, you owe it to them to have that CTA if you can actually make a difference in people's lives. So here's your other opportunity. Yes, it's CTA. Yes. Or should people listening go to follow you, follow your content to engage with you? So I don't speak direct to consumers with my tips, tricks and strategies. I speak to business professionals, companies, organizations, startups and SMBs specifically. And of course, my lovely, my lovely mortgage and real estate brethren. Therefore, because I'm mainly speaking B2B, I live on LinkedIn. So find me on LinkedIn, Mike Ferrasi, F-A-R-A-C-I. And you'll find me. You'll see what I'm up to. Give me a follow. I will show up in your feed every single day. If you DM me with something that's not a sales pitch and a calendar link, I will respond. I do not hire anybody for that. It's all me. I want to talk with you. I want to engage with you. I want to help find me on LinkedIn, hit me up. And if you want to figure out what I'm doing with my company and a couple of the offerings with the video agency, head over to hittheredbutton.com. Awesome. Very well done. And I know some people listening are going to follow you up on that wonderfully structured call to action. Thank you. I felt like it was written on my hand. No, excellent. And we'll link that to show notes as well. So everybody can just do that easy tap. You'll just sting right now, thumb tap, whatever it is that you do. Hey, Mike, really, really enjoyed this man. I appreciate it. I did too. Thanks a lot for having me, Jeff. I appreciate it. You bet listeners, you know what to do. First of all, follow the links in the show notes. Secondly, if you like this episode, hey, leave us a review and get the opportunity. We'll see on the next one. Bye for now. All right. Well, thanks for tuning into today's episode. Hey, you got a question for you. Are you struggling to get engagement and referrals from real estate agents and feeling like you're constantly fighting for business in a crowded market? What if I told you there's a way to attract agents to a provide unique value that helps them grow their business and generate referrals on demand, helping you become the dominant loan officer in your local market. Look, I was an originator for over 10 years. 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And again, every Friday at our mortgage marketing mastermind call, you get access to top L.O. speakers, coaches, connect and collaborate with what's working right now in today's market to help you grow your business. So you don't have to struggle and try and figure it out all on your own. Don't miss the opportunity to learn more about what's helping so many originers succeed and become the go-to lender in your local market. What could call with me now mortgage marketing off, bro? We'll see you on the other side.