Late Night Social Media Training

All right, welcome to a late night jam session. We are going to talk about all things social media, everything I've learned over the past two years. Part of my task tonight is to put on outlet covers at the property I'm at. I'm here in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, getting the property ready for the launch of our corporate retreat and investor workshop. So that is what our property is catered to. And so took the long three day weekend to spend the 4th of July here, get some stuff done, you know, do a little bit of fun stuff with the family, all that good stuff, stuff. So while I'm putting on outlet covers, we're going to talk about social media training. So I'm going to share everything I've learned over the past two years. And so I've had the pleasure of learning from Pace Morby, which is the greatest guy on planet Earth in terms of social media branding. And no one does it better than Pace. And I've had a front row seat to learning directly from him. And I'm going to share a lot of what I've learned. So this is going to be a lot of value. And what I'm doing right now is creating a brand, right? And I want part of that brand to be every single time I speak, I'm providing value. So that way when I am speaking, people actually listen, right? Because I don't want to be giving or producing content out there that's not adding value. And we're going to get into that in a second, but first we're going to talk about my journey. So getting started in social media, actually. Yeah, we'll come back to that in a second. So first, how I got started. So I was really excited in the beginning when Pace had this huge push to do social media and he was talking about how important a brand was. By the way, I'm literally installing outlets, outlet covers as I'm doing this. So you're gonna hear intermittent interruptions, but I'm also gonna get an incredible amount of value. So back when I first got started, Pace is talking about, you need to be producing content, you need to be producing content. Content, content, content, content, content. Branding, Branding, branding, branding, branding. That is the missing link to everything you're looking for as far as your goals, financial goals, raising capital, getting more deals, all that stuff, right? So. And I think at a fundamental level, everyone knows that, but hardly anyone wants to actually take action. And so I decided just take action. And he came out with this thing called Project Forward and I decided to dive all in. And whenever someone creates Some sort of like gamification or competition. I usually kill it because I'm really, really competitive. So he created homework, I did the homework, I got into this exclusive group and that's what kind of kick started my journey into creating content. And I started creating content and I was putting a lot of time, effort and energy into creating content with very, very little. So I spent hours upon hours producing what I thought was high quality videos at the time at least, which they were probably pretty terrible, I'm sure. I'm going to look back on the videos that I'm producing now, think how terrible the quality is. So it's just an ever evolving process. But when I started producing content, I was putting so much effort into it and getting so little results. Became really, really frustrated. And a lot of people were focusing on the vanity metric of what those results were. And you know, it's hard not to, right? Like, if you're trying to measure success, what do you have to measure success? Well, it's usually views, right? Like views on social media, views on YouTube, views on whatever, whatever social media platform you're on. And if you're putting hours upon hours of hard work, blood, sweat and tears and you're not getting any results, that. That's a tough pill to swallow, right? So that's exactly what I did. You know, I put in a lot of effort, got very little results, and I was extremely discouraged and I just stopped. I stopped for several months. You know, I started YouTube channel. I started really putting out a lot of content. I did that for probably three or four months and I just, I just gave up. I was like, screw this. You know, this is just taking up so much time. I'm not getting any result. No benefits, right? No benefit. So let me go downstairs. This property I'm at right now is a pretty big mess. And I want to show you a really, really important example to really drive home what I'm talking about. So let's take a look at this property. I have literally chairs on the freaking dining room table, right? My kids, they didn't clean up today, you know, shocker. They got magnets all over the place. The property looks a lot better than when it started. Hard to believe because it's still a mess. You know, I got this, all this furniture, you know, we had just painted the property or had it painted. And you can see all this stuff is in disarray. And if you go around and look at everything, why is it an investor can look at a property that's filled with mess? Kind of like how this property is right now and see past it. You know, kitchen's a mess, everything's a mess. Why can investors see past that, all the mess? Because it's just like surface level stuff. And look at the long term vision of the property, right? What happens when things get cleaned up? The value is gonna be significantly higher than it is if, you know, you're showing properties that are like really, really messy. You know, I know a lot of investors that will actually buy a property. All they'll do is put a little bit of money into cleaning it, literally cleaning it. And then they'll flip it, put it back on the market and make like 20 or 30 thousand dollars. Why? It's because someone couldn't take the time to clean up the mess. Someone came in, saw the vision, they cleaned up the mess and they relisted it, right? They made it all pretty again. Well, what I had failed to see and what a lot of people fail to see is, you know, you think about taking action, doing social media, thinking you have to be perfect and everything has to be perfectly scripted. You can never mess up. And even if it is perfect, no one watches your content, right? And it's, it's very, very challenging, you know, so why is it investors can do that, but we can't do that with social media? You know, we can't look past the mess, the imperfections and just do it, just clean it up. And how we clean it up in terms of, you know, branding and social media is just taking action, just doing the thing, failing over and over and over and over again. And no one's watching, right? It doesn't matter if no one's watching. It's actually great that no one's watching because you can fail over and over and over again and know that no one's watching, no one cares, right? And you can continue to mess up and eventually the more and more reps you take, the better and better you're going to become. And that's what really clicked for me on social media. You know, tonight's live, right? There's hardly anyone watching, but I don't care. And that's part of it. I didn't tell anybody that I was going live. I'm just doing it because I'm very, I'm a very strong advocate of killing five birds with one stone. And my five birds is I have to do a task that I really don't want to do, which is putting outlet covers on the wall. Why not talk about something and give value and create a clone of what I'm doing while I'm doing something I don't enjoy, which is exactly what I'm doing. And so I was at Pace's office a few months ago. This is probably like six, seven months ago. And when I was at his office, six, seven months ago, and when I was at his office, I went to a capital raising seminar. I went there, like, four probably. He did it, like, literally every week for six weeks. And I went there four of the six weeks. Like, every week. I was flying to Phoenix, going to his office, sitting in the seminar, listening to the trainings, and he started talking about social media. He had one day where he was talking about social media, and he said something that really resonated with me that day, and it was around putting out content very similar to what I just said. He said, why are you so concerned about other people's opinions? You are not famous. Just post content. No one is watching. Your content is absolute garbage. I don't care who you are. It sucks, right? And so when he said that, that was kind of like a slap in the face because I was putting so much effort into creating content. And I thought it was really good at the time. And he was just like, your content sucks. No one. He wasn't talking to me specifically, but he was just talking in general. No one's watching your content. Your content sucks. You're not famous. Like, why are you getting in your head about creating content? It doesn't have to be perfect. Famous. Like, why are you getting in your head about creating content? It doesn't have to be perfect. Even if it is perfect, you're not going to get the reach that you want, right? Until you've established your brand. Even if it is perfect, you're and have a large following, right? And so when he said that, I was like, dude, you're totally right. I'm sitting here trying to make everything perfect, and then I'm getting frustrated that I have, like, three followers on YouTube. Well, now I have over 15,000 followers or subscribers on YouTube. So, I mean, a lot's changed on that because I put a lot of time, effort, and energy into it. But I really didn't start being very consistent at YouTube until about six to seven months ago when, you know, when I went to that capital seminar. And that's when I became really active and really committed to doing content. And so I say that because you just need to take action. Like, it's not. It's not rocket science, right? Just fail. Create content out there. It's not about becoming famous. It's about creating. You know, when I went to that capital seminar, content in a way that you can establish yourself and establish some sort of brand to where if someone is doing a check on you, like, I don't care what your avenue is, if you're in business, if you're in real estate, whatever it is that you do, someone that you're talking with beforehand is going to look you up on social media. Every single time I talk to an agent, they're looking me up on social media. I guarantee you, every single time. I've had times where agents have brought stuff up to me in conversations about my content on social media that I've never shared with them in any conversation. So, like, immediately it was like, okay, I know you were clearly looking me up online. I've had times where I'm in the middle of a negotiation with an agent and they, you know, friend request me on Facebook, they'll follow me on social media. So they're clearly looking. They're trying to figure out if I am a credible buyer, right? And if, you know, if this is business, they're trying to figure out who you are as a person. So even if your content sucks, you just want to create enough of content to establish the fact that, hey, this person is serious. You know, chances are when someone goes onto your page or like when I go onto someone's page, I'm not going to sit there and consume hours upon hours of content, right? So I'm 15 minutes into this video or this live, and I'm gonna say some stuff that is going to be extremely valuable for people watching. But the reality is not a lot of people are gonna make it to 15 minutes. So you need to keep that in mind. And it's not because what I'm saying is not good. It's because people are only gonna pay attention to things for 10, 15 seconds. Because that's what this culture has trained people to do. Swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe. Unless you have some, like, crazy, funny thing that's going viral, no one's gonna watch it, right? Swipe, swipe, swipe. Unless you have some, like, crazy, funny thing that's going viral, no one's gonna watch it, right? So you just need to think about that when you're creating content. When I go onto your page, what do you want? So you just need to think about that when you're creating content. Want your desired audience. When I go onto your page, what do you want to see within the first 45 seconds? Because that's, in reality, that's all you're gonna have. You're gonna have your desired audio. About 45 seconds to a minute. It's to see within the first 45, someone is going to be scrolling through your page, you know, your Instagram, your Facebook, your YouTube, whatever, five seconds. Because that's, in reality, that's all you're going to have. You're going to. And they are going to have about 45 seconds to a minute. Make a decision on who you are as someone is going to be scrolling through the person within those 45 seconds. They're probably never either your page, you know, your Instagram, your Facebook, your YouTube, whatever, and they are going to make them gonna click on any of your videos. And if they do, they're gonna click on it for three seconds and that's it. And they're gonna move on to something else. They just want to know what kind of a person this is how they present themselves. So again, if you're thinking about YouTube, thumbnails are extremely important. Titles are extremely important. Does this person look like they're taking their profession serious? Are they producing content? Are they producing valuable content? What are the subjects that they're posting? All that kind of stuff, Right? That's it. It doesn't matter how many views you have, doesn't matter how many subscribers you have? Well, I will say having a lot of subscribers and a large following, it does help significantly. Like, it does help that I have a pretty decent amount on, on YouTube. It doesn't help that I. I don't have a ton on Instagram, but I'm working on, you know, becoming more active on Instagram. Like, I hate to say it, but the vanity metrics, like, they do sometimes matter by people because a lot of times people just look at that and they get fixated on those vanity metrics. I don't really think it's that important. I think it's more important about, like what you're saying. But I got really in my head about creating content until I just started doing it. And I was just like, you know what? I don't care if anyone's watching, I'm just gonna create content. Create content. And Pace said something the other day in owners club training. Actually, this was at the owner's club retreat in Monterey, California that I just got back from. And he had said this before and sometimes I gotta hear things two or three times before it like really sticks in my head. And he has such a fantastic way of creating these, like really simple catchphrases that stick with you in the Catchphrase that he came up with was, if you're creating content, it should either be an aha or ahaha. And I was just like, man, that's freaking brilliant. So every single. Every single time I make a post, I'm thinking in my head before I make the post, is this an aha or ahaha? And what he means by that is, you need to be leading with value. And so Pace broke down this, like, content flywheel, and he had this map that he drew that structured everything in terms of, like, Instagram reels and how you attract people, you know, to become, like, new. Means by that is you need to be leading with value audience members and how, like, everything all funnels down into, at the end of the day, an invitation. Like, if you're trying to sell, like, a workshop or whatever, like, whatever you're trying to sell, whatever you're trying to monetize, that's like, the end of the funnel. And you don't deserve the right to sell someone that invitation, whatever that end, you know, monetization, whatever that hook, that end result of that call to action, whatever you want to call it, you don't deserve to do that until you've given value 10 times. And so Pace broke down this, like, two one of whatever you're asking someone to buy from you. You don't just blast out an email to a bunch of people and say, buy my seminar content flywheel. And he had this map that he drew that structured everything in terms of, like, Instagram reels and how you attract people. Okay, first of all, who the heck are you, right? Like, why are you asking me to buy your seminar? Second, I'm just gonna hit delete. I'm not even gonna read the email. There are so many people. So in my. My day job, I'm a cfo. I have. I'm trying to get better at this. I've, like, been notoriously bad at checking my emails at work, and I got, like, 3,000 unread emails. It's a lot of emails. Obviously, that didn't happen in one day. And I keep trying to power through them, but it's so hard, you know, to become, like, new because I get hundreds and hundreds of emails a day. People are literally audience members and how. Literally just selling me things. Like, it's to the point. Like, I don't. I'm not even. Like, I'll look at the subject, everything all funnels down, and it'd be like, delete. Like, I'm not even reading any content of your email. If I get just 1% hint of you trying to sell me something into. At the end of the day, delete. Like just gone. Not even gonna look at it. So doesn't matter if you phrase your pitch in the first sentence, the second sentence, the fifth sentence, gone right out the window. And if you think about it, it's because that person did not lead with value. No value was generated, right? An invitation. Like if you're trying to sell like a workshop or if that person had sent me some whatever, like whatever you're trying to sell, whatever content or a direct message. If I think about my work scenario, right? If I think about if I'm a sales guy, how can I try to monetize that, get to someone like me if I want to get their attention? And I'll talk about how you can do that in real estate too, because, well, I at least know how people can get my attention. That works pretty well, whether it's a good thing or not. But in the work scenario, it's like the end of the funnel. Someone could find. And you don't find some sort of channel. I think deserve the right think. If I was going to reach out to an executive, for example, like myself, I would probably send them a DM on LinkedIn and it would be like a link to a post or something that I've created a video. If someone sent me a custom video, I'm watching that because I know I understand the value. And I think a lot of people like you would get people's attention. If you sent a custom video to someone, it's like, oh, wow. They took the time to like respond to me and send a custom video. Like, I'm gonna watch this. I want to hear what they have to say. So I would send them a custom video lead with value. Give me something as the audience member. That is actually something I'm learning, right? Then say, hey, I have this newsletter. If you like this video, subscribe to this newsletter. I promise that I'll give you value in this newsletter and just. And just do something like that or maybe send another direct. Maybe follow up with another dm, you know, a couple weeks later with another tip that I would find valuable and like, just build a relationship through that of just like giving value. So when Pace talks about your post should be an aha or aha. He's talking about the aha part is something that has added value to sell someone that invitation, whatever that end, you know, monetization, whatever, whatever that hook that end result of that call to action, whatever you want to call it. You don't deserve to do that until you've given value 10 times. You know, people like, at least, if you're at least in my audience, names to one of whatever you're asking someone to buy. For the people that I want to be connected with, it's people that want to grow and people that want to further themselves in life. They're motivated, they have goals they want to achieve. And anytime I personally can be connected with someone that is like constantly posting content and it's like little tidbits from you, you don't value whether that be how to make better content, like, I can. There's some people I follow that I'm just. I'm only following them not because of what they say, but it's how they say it. It's like the videos they produce, the angles, the thought. Like, I look at it as a creator as far as. Okay, that's interesting. They did this scene and this hook. They said this in the beginning. They dropped to this value. Just blast out an email to a bunch of people and say, buy my seminar. Okay, first of all, who the heck are you? Not necessarily focused on the subject matter of what they're saying, but, like, how they delivered it, how they packaged it up constantly.