Differentiate Yourself Through Video Marketing-with Brad McCallum-EP91

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Brad McCallum from Calgary, Canada about how video marketing has changed his life and career. With only 3 years of real estate experience under his belt, Brad has already found incredible success and wants to share his methods with you! Episode Highlights:  Getting into real estate in his late 30s, Brad has only been a real estate agent for 3 years. Before becoming a real estate agent, Brad managed a contracting business through an economic depression. At the same time that his business was in trouble, Brad discovered a deadly tumor on his face. Brad was forced to take action quickly to get rid of his tumor or else he risked it becoming cancerous. While everyone else was cold calling, bench plastering, and all the other old strategies, Brad decided to leverage modern technology. After getting his real estate license, Brad realized that the general public’s opinion of real estate agents was not correct. Good looks and a sexy/cinematic style play into the intimidation factor that Brad’s videos create. Initially, Brad decided to go into video because he believed it would help sell the home while also marketing himself and the home at the same time. You don’t need to buy professional camera equipment to create effective videos, but that’s exactly what Brad did. When he started, Brad’s onscreen presence was nothing close to what it was today, but he knew he had to take the first step. No one starts out as a pro, but consistent incremental steps can take you a long way in 6 months. If you can maximize what makes you unique as a human being, your videos will set you apart. Being genuine and transparent rather than preaching success will get to the client’s heart, the place that they buy from. When on camera, energy tends to be cut in half, so it’s important to remember that you cannot go too big, but you can go too small. Brad’s goal is to intimidate every other agent in his market, while hoping for success for agents outside of his market. Those that become conscious of people watching them film alter their actions and body language without knowing it. You should be willing to go big enough to embarrass yourself in front of others if it allows you to take care of those that depend on you. There have been multiple videos of Brad’s that have moved Jeff emotionally, and Brad attributes that effect to his ability to innovate rather than create. Brad explains the motivations behind some of his videos and the messages that he was hoping to send. The goal is to make clients see you as more than a realtor and more as someone that they can relate to. You have to be able to differentiate yourself from your competition beyond telling your clients that you care about them. There is only more competition coming with Zillow becoming a brokerage and Facebook constantly altering its advertising. Google is starting to offer to put YouTube video searches in its search results. Recently, knocking on the wrong door for a lead that he got over Instagram led to Brad getting a client that recognized him and his brand. Because of the high quality of his videos, Brad has become a media partner to high-end contracting businesses. You should learn how to do the basics of video creation yourself or else you risk outsourcing your personal brand. Figure out how to find the right videographer that will know how to portray you as the realtor in the right light. In the beginning, your quality doesn’t matter, what matters is that you start getting in front of the camera. 3 Key Points: With his contracting business on the downslope of economic depression and a tumor growing on his face, Brad decided to alter his path and get his real estate license. Brad believes that video gives agents the opportunity to build their brands in an organic way that will set them apart from their competition. After 3 years as a real estate agent, Brad has gone from 20 deals in his first year to 50 deals this year and a place in the top 0.05% of RE/MAX agents worldwide. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Brad McCallum (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Podcast) BrandBuilders Facebook Group Drunk on Social Facebook Group Followup Boss (sponsor) StreetText (sponsor)