Building a Fan Base - Risinger & Co

The magic of Mirror Neurons is remarkable because it allows you to create virtual content. Video photographs that show you in such a way that your audience feels as if they're in your personal or social space. That allows you to create the kind of content that people bond with, that they become fans of. It's one of the reasons why we think we know actors and we become such big fans of actors, or tell television stars or television presenters on the news programs. That's exactly what Austin, Texas home builder Matt Risinger did. Matt is a builder in Austin, Texas. He started his business about 12 years ago. He didn't know anyone in Austin. He moved from a different part of the country and he was competing against home builders who had been in the market for a really long time. He builds expensive homes between a million and a half dollars and $10 million or even higher, and begin to market himself in such a way that he can grow his business. So he has a website, he has good content on his website, but what he really focuses on is his YouTube channel.

I'm coming to you from my West 10th street project and we had a pretty tricky problem here that found a creative solution with both the builder and the engineer on site talking about it. Let me show you what we did. We've got a two foot thick masonry wall in the back of the house. This is the old part of the house behind me. And I'm standing in the new addition. This is going to be a new master bedroom.

He does about two videos a week and has done so for a number of years. And the last time I checked, he had 409,000 subscribers of his YouTube channel. Each of his videos is Matt sharing a tip about how to build houses. And the way he does it is he frames his videos such that it seems as if he is in our personal space, sharing with him, sharing with us those tips about how to build a house. Matt has done a fabulous job with these videos and he told me that YouTube has put my reputation on steroids. With just a couple of hours a week investment, I'm able to make Gian returns. So here's the results of Matt Risinger and how he was able to create a fabulously successful YouTube channel. So it cost him zero to do YouTube videos, right? Just put them up there. He has 4 million views per month of his YouTube channel. He has built his business from zero to $20 million in annual revenue over 10 years by creating a YouTube channel with videos that show him in such a way that his viewers believe that they're through mirror neurons that they're in the personal space directly with Matt. He gets paid to create videos that grows fans of his business. I had an opportunity to sit down with Matt and talk to him about how he creates his YouTube videos. Hey, David Meerman Scott here. I'm with Matt Risinger, and I've been following Matt for a while. Matt's been amazing, amazing success.

I've taken my business from just me. And I'd never built a house in Texas where I'm building before. I had no reputation and no visibility in the marketplace. And now I've been in business 12 years. I'm gonna do $20 million of construction. I've got a whole. Actually have two whole separate businesses. One of them is a video production company that we do videos of the job. And this whole build show that I started has turned into its own entity that actually makes money for me and feeds my family. So we've got crazy success. But it's your principles that I implemented that have gotten me there.

I appreciate that. But you did the work.

I did the work, but I learned it from you.

I love the fact that you're a builder. I love the fact that people say, oh, but I'm a, you know, insert. Insert excuse here.

Totally.

I'm a lawyer. I'm a doctor. I'm a builder.

I'm a plumber, electrician. I'm a plumber.

I'm an electrician. I'm an orthodontist. Right. I can't do what you're doing here. You are. You're in the construction building. You do custom homes.

It's one of the oldest businesses in the world, right? People building houses for a millennium. But I want to tell you, David, though, that even though I've got this giant success, it's great for my ego. It's always nice to get an ego boost. But when it comes to the valuable part, which was what's important for my business and how do I feed the 27 families that rely on me? It's putting one step forward before the other. And in month, you know, three or four of using your principles, I was seeing huge traction then. But the numbers look like, you know, 200 people watching a video. You know, now I've got a video that has 2 million watches. But that honestly doesn't make as big a difference to my business as it did when I had very, very small numbers.

Because if you're putting up a $2 million house for someone, all you need is one person to come in, and you've had a fantastic six months Or a fantastic year. Finally, lots of people watching who are thinking, oh, my gosh, this sounds daunting. It doesn't have to be YouTube. Any kind of content, creating a blog, creating Instagram, whatever it might be. Quick advice for someone who is kind of on the sidelines thinking, should I do this? Should I not do this?

Yeah. You know, you've said this before, David. It's putting 10 minutes into your calendar a week. Start small, or maybe 10 minutes a day. If you can do 10 minutes a day, that's better. But even 10 minutes a week, get onto some form of either social media. For me, it's Instagram and YouTube are my two big ones, but maybe it's Facebook or maybe it's Twitter and join the conversation. You know, it's like I kind of think of social media a little bit as being the new bar. You know, when you watch. When I watched Cheers when I was a kid, after work, they always went to the bar to hang out with Cheers, and everybody knew Norm when they walked in. It's kind of the same with social media. You're walking in the bar, you know, you're going to consume, you're going to listen to some conversations, you're also going to say some things. That's all it takes, 10 minutes a day, get in the conversation, and you'll be shocked at the result. And then, you know, you'll work up from that to maybe an hour a week. Let's block off from 4 to 5 on Thursdays. And I'm going to write a blog post. And that's really what I did that took me over the top was blogging and YouTube, which is really just a verbal blog, and talking about a subject and writing my thoughts on that subject. And before long, I became a trusted source for reporters, for people in my industry that knew that I was writing and that knew that I was smart. And then they would push my content out or they would quote me. And it's that little seed that just grows into that giant oak tree, and that's how you create.

So don't stress about the beginning. Just do it.

Just do it.

Now that you understand the power of proximity and how mirror neurons work to engage your audience, it's time to start thinking about how you can put this information into action. How do you close the gap between your brand and its fans? Can you develop or participate in live events online or offline, where you can interact more directly with your customers and they can interact directly with one another? Are there ways that you can take your audience on a journey with you? Can you give them exclusive access to your process, to your team, or to each other? Can you think of ways to change how you are interacting with your audience more directly online? Are you talking with your fans? How can you become more human and connected with the people who want to buy from you? We are all craving human connection. It's time to start finding more ways that you can interact with your audience to satisfy that craving and. And at the same time also make the world a better and more human place.