From Scroll to Sold: Mastering Real Estate Video Content

Jamie: 00:00:01

Welcome to Thoughts from the Crawl Space, a podcast where our goal as home inspection experts is to support and serve our community.

Whether you're a homeowner, home buyer, real estate agent, or investor, we believe everyone deserves solutions to their homeownership challenges and inspiration along the way. Your path to success starts here. Welcome back to another episode of Thoughts from the Crawl Space.

Today we have a very special guest from Hope I'm saying it right. Milu Media.

Dani: 00:00:29

Milieu.

Jamie: 00:00:30

See, I didn't say it right. Milieu Media. This is Danny Deford, and today we're going to talk a little bit about social media, how to use video.

If you're a real estate agent out there, how to use video to promote your company, to promote your listings, how to get more traction, more vision, and things like that. So, Danny, thanks for coming along today and being a part of this.

Dani: 00:00:53

Of course. Thanks for having me.

Jamie: 00:00:55

Yeah. Why don't you just start, Explain how you got into this. Like, what led you down this field? Like, what's your background and what made you decide?

I want to go shoot videos of houses.

Dani: 00:01:03

Of all things.

Jamie: 00:01:04

Of houses? Yeah.

Dani: 00:01:06

Not weddings. None of that. No, we. I started honestly going through videography and all of that. I loved it since I was like, 10.

My mom got me my first camera for Christmas. It was a hello Kitty camera. So I can truly say, like, since day one, I've always loved this and it's always been a hobby of mine.

So really it just made sense to build a business out of it and have that passion drive us through.

Jamie: 00:01:32

Okay, and so you primarily, what field do you focus in? Mostly like businesses or real estate itself or kind of. Where do you start?

Dani: 00:01:41

Well, our bread and butter is really anything that's surrounding a house. So obviously we've worked with you guys. That's an inspection. That's another big role in the real estate industry.

Real estate agents, we work with cabinet companies, flooring companies, roofing companies. Really anything that involves hospitality or home or homes.

Jamie: 00:02:02

Yeah, well, that fits right in a lot with what we do. You know, we love. Really. The possibilities with homes are endless. There's always something you can show or.

Dani: 00:02:11

Something to fix too, right?

Jamie: 00:02:12

Or something to fix. Yeah, absolutely. So I guess jump a little bit into marketing. And how has. How has it changed over the last 20 years?

From my perspective for real estate marketing, it used to be you walk into the office, you hand out this, you talk to this person, and now if you go to that same real estate office, you won't talk to anybody because there's nobody there. Or almost nobody there, not near the numbers that it used to be.

So talk about how marketing has changed over the years and why video and how you've been able to kind of boost people with this.

Dani: 00:02:47

Yeah, I mean, I would say especially since after Covid, a lot of things went digital, a lot of things went online. That was the only way that people could communicate with each other or build a community. So I'd say since then a lot has changed.

Attention spans got shorter, expectations got higher. So now you have to keep someone entertained. The entirety of a video. We can't do two minute walkthroughs anymore.

There's still a place for those things. But as far as social media, it's got to be quick to the point the goal is to get attention immediately.

It's not a place to share your childhood stories. Like this is where you grab attention so that people are interested in not only what you do, but then they're interested in who you are.

Jamie: 00:03:31

That's interesting. I know I've talked to my father before and he used to own a business and then he used to advertise in the newspaper. Right.

And he said even back then you had, I don't know, something like 30 seconds to grab somebody's attention when they're thumbing through the newspaper. So you told me some stats earlier today about how long you have to grab somebody's attention on like a reel.

So talk about the numbers of this a little bit. How long do you have to get people's attention? What's your ideal length of viewage, that kind of thing?

Dani: 00:04:01

Well, the pressure's on. So you have three seconds.

Jamie: 00:04:05

Three, literally like 1, 2, 3, 3 seconds, boom.

Dani: 00:04:09

I mean, if you think about it, when you're scrolling on your phone, I mean, if you acknowledge, okay, I'm going to be scrolling through my phone, did I even watch that whole video? No, probably not. Because unless it catches your attention in three seconds, people aren't even gonna watch the rest of the video along with that.

Really, as far as stats wise, you really wanna get your average view time to 17 seconds. That's really how you know your video is getting pushed out to more audiences.

You really also wanna keep the ratio of 50% you're following and 50% non following. The more non followers that are viewing your stuff, the better.

Jamie: 00:04:47

And so these stats you can get from like Facebook, you say you're putting this on Facebook, Instagram, that kind of thing.

Dani: 00:04:53

Yeah.

So I mean, if you post a reel, you can click View Insights and then you can really see just how your video's doing and who's viewing it from what areas are viewing it. There's a lot of interesting information there.

Jamie: 00:05:06

Well, I'm learning as much as we go as maybe you are about how, so to speak, because I finally figured out yesterday how to find the insights on it. Okay. 54 years old, things, you know, we're getting there. I'd rather read a newspaper. But anyways, I think it's really interesting to see.

You can really see the snapshot of that. Like the videos that we, We've. We.

We've shot a few and they're between, what, 30 seconds and a minute, and the average view length on them is under 10 seconds. And it kind of. And it kind of tells the story too. So it's like you kind of have to see the whole video to get the whole picture.

But people don't care about that. They're looking for that. That. What is that your endorphins or something?

Dani: 00:05:52

Endorphins, adrenaline, like that kind of thing. It's, that's why it's so important, like how you're presenting stuff and that you're just being genuine. And it feels like a conversation.

Like it's not just a. You need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this.

You're trying to relate to your viewers, like, because a lot of people went from doing like the polished, the super clean, like, videos, and that's great and all, but now people are really just drawn to authenticity and like, they just want to relate to you because we're all people, right? So, wow.

Jamie: 00:06:28

It's a lot to wrap your brain around, especially when it's like the rate of technology just continues to exponentially explode. So talk a little bit to that real estate agent out there who maybe they've been in the business 10 years now. They're.

Maybe they're getting stuck a little bit.

The marketing they were taught when they got in the business just doesn't have the same play because some newbie came on the block and started shooting videos and now they're getting all the, the attention and all the phone calls. So talk to that agent out there that's maybe struggling a little bit. What can you provide to them that will help get them seen?

Dani: 00:07:03

Well, you know, it's. It's really not that complicated. Like, people think it's so much to do video. Like, I'd rather just pay for a billboard.

I'd rather just pay for something that I don't have to be on camera for and talk to the camera and be vulnerable. But truly like flyers are not cutting it anymore. Like they, they just don't reach the audience that you can reach online.

So rather than spending say $1,000 on flyers, billboards and all those things, you gotta go digital because that money will just go a lot further that way. I mean you can post one video and get tens of thousands of views. We've had videos do 50,000 views and that's hard to wrap your brain around.

Cause it's like what does 50,000 people even look like? That's a lot of people. That's a stadium almost.

Jamie: 00:07:53

That's a good way to put it.

Dani: 00:07:54

So I mean you can reach. The opportunity is endless really. With.

Jamie: 00:07:59

Yeah. And especially real estate agents. You don't know where your next referral is going to come from.

Literally it could be somebody from California that's getting ready to move here and they happen to see you on a three second clip or whatever.

And so no doubt there's some folks out there, I mean we have them on our own team that are apprehensive about getting in front of a camera or doing a video. They even admit to us that. I know it's simple. I just, I don't want to hear myself so speak to the apprehension of someone that has some.

Some worry about getting in front of the camera and speaking and how they'll sound and like that. What's the psychology behind all that?

Dani: 00:08:41

Yeah, I mean I would definitely say it's kind of a you versus you thing. We're used to seeing a certain perception of who we are.

And when we get in front of the camera it kind of alters that perception of who we think, what we think we look like even or because we look a little bit different on camera. And it's not what we're maybe used to seeing. We're not used to hearing our own voice all the time. That's all normal.

And really the best advice I could give is reps for one. Just practice and get comfortable with seeing yourself because it's not a you thing.

Everyone that's ever been famous on TV felt the same way in the beginning of their career. And it really just takes time to get more comfortable with yourself than it is to fulfill other people's expectations.

It's really not about everybody else. A lot of people don't care as much as you do. If that makes sense.

Jamie: 00:09:33

I think it makes a ton of sense. When you think about it. Literally every individual in the history of the world is different and it should be that way. Yeah.

And we're all uniquely created, and for us to compare us to, oh, I wish I looked like they do on camera or whatever is ridiculous. And we're always more critical of ourselves than other people are.

Dani: 00:09:56

Absolutely. And, like, details do matter. Like, we are super detail oriented and our number one goal is to make you look good.

So, like, when we're shooting, if you have hair in your face, we're gonna fix your hair, we're gonna read you the scripts, we're gonna work with you and coach you to make sure that you feel comfortable. And also for the video purpose, that it's just a better outcome. Essentially, the more comfortable you are, the better the video. Video will be.

Jamie: 00:10:23

Yeah. So I probably should have touched on this at the beginning. Describe who's in your company. Like, yeah, 15 people, two people.

Dani: 00:10:32

Well, we definitely.

Jamie: 00:10:33

Who do you work with? And so forth.

Dani: 00:10:35

No, we do have a lot of people behind the scenes in the forefront. It's me and my brother Tristan. He's behind the scenes right now, doing.

Jamie: 00:10:44

A great job, by the way.

Dani: 00:10:45

Yes. So we're the main shooters. I founded the company almost three years ago, so I kind of started that.

And then he came in last year and has been awesome ever since. We have some editors behind the scenes because that's really the most time consuming part of our job. And they're great.

We have an admin, things like that, Just the busy work and things like that. But if you're gonna talk to us, it would be me or Tristan. Yeah, probably.

Jamie: 00:11:12

Well, and I can attest to that because you guys are very responsive, communication wise, through email, through text. I will say that the psychology of, like, the first time I went out to shoot some of these, you know, you get a little.

I've been in front of a camera a long time. I do a podcast, I teach. But when you're one on one with somebody in a base in a basement, it's a little different.

Dani: 00:11:38

Yep.

Jamie: 00:11:38

And so I think you guys do an excellent job of putting people at ease.

Dani: 00:11:43

Thank you.

Jamie: 00:11:43

It's clear you have some training in this on how to coach people up, get the best out of them, and be a leader in the situation. So it's not like if you call her or them and want to do some videos, you have a great support system.

Dani: 00:12:00

Thank you.

Jamie: 00:12:01

And yeah, I was impressed with that.

Dani: 00:12:03

Thank you. I mean, that's our number one goal. We hear all the time that people don't want to do video because of their shooting experience.

And that breaks my heart because I'm like, you're Limiting your growth because a videographer doesn't know how to coach you and make you feel comfortable. Yeah, that's sad because video is such a big opportunity.

So we really make a point to prep beforehand first and foremost, so everyone knows what's going on. There's no, like random things on the shoot, at least for the most part. We just try to plan as much as we can so you're mentally prepared.

And then along with that, on site, we're just your cheerleaders. Like, we've been on camera. I'm on camera right now. I'm not 1,000% comfortable. But we're doing it because we're getting the reps in.

And that's totally what matters, is the authenticity, the process. That's really what matters the most.

Jamie: 00:12:59

Well, I'm looking right at that sign. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

Dani: 00:13:03

There it is.

Jamie: 00:13:04

You're out of your comfort zone to a degree if you're not 100% comfortable with something. So you touched on that. But I want to follow up a little more in depth.

So someone calls you kind of explain the process from initial call to your company to when the video is produced. How long can that take? What can they expect?

Dani: 00:13:26

Yeah. So if you were to call us, first off, we're going to do a consultation. We're going to talk about what your goal is, because that's really important.

It's really important to know, like, who your ideal client is. You guys, real estate agents. So we wanted to really make videos that resonate with that clientele.

So we will create kind of a vision board or just jot down some ideas and then behind the scenes I'll go into pre production. So that's where we do all the script writing and the prep. Sometimes we do a couple revisions and that's totally fine.

We'll do some drafts before the shoot and then we'll schedule the shoot, go on the shoot, have a good time, and then we can go into the post production, which is where we do all the magic with the editing. All the things we're super always excited about, like the songs that we choose.

We like to make it upbeat and fun and interesting and also resonate with. With that ideal client. So essentially, like from consult to final product, typically we can do like a real estate walkthrough in a week.

That's our normal turnover. Anything more complicated, it can take like, I would say max a month. But I mean, we shot 20 videos in a month. Pretty much, yeah.

Jamie: 00:14:45

Essentially we had 17 of them were in two days.

Dani: 00:14:47

Yeah. Plus the post production and everything. Like that's pretty fast for 20 videos.

Jamie: 00:14:54

Yeah, I think so. And I just wanted to make sure that's out there. We're not waiting.

It's not like the COVID era where you know, you order something and now it takes six months to get. You know, obviously in real estate, especially in this market, time is. Money is crucial and money and things happen fast.

You know, they want to list a house and do a video on it. I think my sell before you get the thing.

Dani: 00:15:17

No, exactly, that's exactly right. And I mean that goes along with staying relevant.

I mean, if we come up with an idea that's trending right now, with a song that's trending and all this and that, but we schedule it out three weeks or a month, that trend is probably dead by then. Or that song isn't popular anymore. So really like the speed and if we can maintain speed and quality, like that's the best case scenario.

Jamie: 00:15:45

Yeah, well, any business that is not willing to adapt dies. And you think of some businesses in the, I don't know about your lifetime, I've been around a lot longer.

But Blockbuster Video, they didn't adapt, they died. Companies like that that don't adjust with the times are going to get left behind.

And so home inspections, as a rule, they're not going to change a whole lot. I mean, you got to do what you got to do to find out what's going on in the house. But how you get the word out there changes a lot.

And so honestly, after 20 years of doing this, that's a little hard to overcome. That what worked to get me here won't work to get you where you want to go. And so I think this is awesome.

Now once the video, let's say they have the video completed, you've sent it back out. What are some tips to get people to actually see it? What can they do? What can the real estate agent do or the company do to really get that.

As many views as possible.

Dani: 00:16:42

Yeah, well, there's a couple things. It's super important one actually a lot of people don't know this. If you're uploading on Instagram, be connected to Wi Fi.

Because if you upload to Instagram without Wi Fi, it actually cuts the quality in half.

Jamie: 00:16:58

So that quality of the video.

Dani: 00:16:59

Yes, so that's just another thing that could be views that are not getting to your video because the quality is cut in half. So there's little things like that.

Obviously if you're working with us like the video is going to be impactful and interesting, but when you go to post that, it's just important to pick a correct or a nice cover photo. Like, don't let it be something of you mid blink. Yes, exactly.

Like, because when people go to your page, make it so that they want to click on that video and see it along with obviously the, the viewers that you get from just scrolling. So everything matters, details matter. There's actually a setting in Instagram where you can upload at the highest quality. You have to toggle that on.

Like there's so many different little details within the social media space that can really just elevate the media more than it already is. Obviously there's boosting. You can boost posts. This can be done through like an automated audience.

So it just attracts people that are similar to your following. You can also target audience. That's a whole nother thing. If you really want to narrow down different markets, different clientele.

If you want more of this kind of client, you can target that. So there's really endless opportunities to advertise and push your stuff out. But really consistency is key. Always.

If you post one video, it might not go viral, but if you post 10 videos, maybe one of them will. So consistency is always key and we really encourage people to really get educated on how to keep that momentum going between our videos.

Because it's not realistic to. Not everyone can shoot 20 videos, but if you're shooting like three videos with us, people are like, well, what do I do in between?

Post to the stories. The stories are so huge.

That keeps you relevant, that keeps you in front of people's eyes and they're just tapping through like the day to day, real life, genuine stuff. And it's super interesting. Tristan. Actually, it's a perfect example. So Tristan, how many followers do you have?

Jamie: 00:19:20

800.

Dani: 00:19:21

He has 800 followers. He posted a story. Not even a real. Nothing like that.

Posted a story of him hitting a golf ball into a cup while he was waiting for his video to be done. It got over a thousand views and he doesn't even have that many followers. So like that's just further pushing his stuff out to other people.

So yeah, I mean, really just anything can happen on social media.

Jamie: 00:19:49

Well, the thing I have found is over the years I've had lots of ideas and I've had a hard time getting the ideas from my brain integrated. And I think that's where your company does a great job.

Dani: 00:20:02

Thank you.

Jamie: 00:20:03

Like, we got some stuff coming out soon that I'm not Going to reveal on air here yet top secret, because competitors always want to copy you.

Dani: 00:20:09

But isn't that the truth?

Jamie: 00:20:14

But it's ideas. And I give them to you and you at least get the framework going on scripts and how that should look based on your experience.

Because what I would put down would take 10 minutes. What you put down takes 90 seconds with the same effect.

Dani: 00:20:34

Yes.

Jamie: 00:20:34

And a lot more reach.

Dani: 00:20:36

Yes.

Jamie: 00:20:37

I love. It's almost like when you read. When you read books, you get ideas.

At least if you read business books and you're into entrepreneurship and things like that, you get ideas. And the more of these videos I do, the more ideas I'm getting. And, you know, I'm always texting you.

Dani: 00:20:52

Oh, yeah, all the time. It's like, let's do this, let's do this. I have this idea and they're great ideas. You just need someone to execute.

Jamie: 00:20:58

Yeah. And that's what you guys do.

Dani: 00:21:00

Businesses don't die from creativity. They die from execution.

Jamie: 00:21:05

Yeah. That's awesome.

Dani: 00:21:06

So where are your guys?

Jamie: 00:21:08

So where do you go? What's your reach? Where you're located? Where would you be willing to go to do this?

Dani: 00:21:17

So we are located in downtown Warsaw. We have an office there. That's where we have our blue room and our little studio, and we also work from there.

We service all of northern Indiana as well as central Indiana. So our main markets right now is Warsaw, Kosciuszko County, Fort Wayne, Carmel and Indy.

We've done some work in southern Michigan, so really, like, actually next week we're going to Chicago.

Jamie: 00:21:43

That's a pretty big.

Dani: 00:21:44

Yeah, well, that's wherever it takes us.

Jamie: 00:21:46

You're willing to go. Where do you need to go to grow?

Dani: 00:21:50

And we're very thankful. Like, even over the winter, in our slow season, we got to do a lot of training for us to get better as videographers.

We were down in Palm Beach, Florida, training with some of the best videographers in the world.

Jamie: 00:22:04

Wow.

Dani: 00:22:04

And we had some friends come to Indiana from Canada.

So genuinely, when I say, like, we are trying to drive the industry standard, we are bringing all kinds of things from around the world to Warsaw and to our community. So.

Jamie: 00:22:21

Well, you're thinking big. And I think that's what works well with businesses that are thinking big is the possibilities are out there. Go for it. Get something started.

Just be aggressive, but be excellent. Be excellent at what you do.

Dani: 00:22:37

Absolutely.

Jamie: 00:22:38

And we've never done this, but from my perspective, you guys are excellent at what you do. You have all the bases covered, especially for Such a young company, but I think that's an advantage.

You're not an older video company that's used to doing things a different way and can't change. You guys are on the cutting edge of everything is kind of the way I see it.

Dani: 00:23:00

We really try to keep up with everything. It's a lot sometimes, but, you know, I mean, as long as we can stay relevant, we can help our clients stay there too.

Jamie: 00:23:08

So tell people how to get a hold of you.

Dani: 00:23:10

Yes. So really the best way to get ahold of us is you can message us on Instagram or Facebook or you can text my personal number or give us a call.

Our business number is actually my personal number. So you get in direct contact with me. You don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get to the boss like you just talk to me.

It's a one on one conversation. I'm heavily involved in everything and I just really care about our clients, the outcome that they have and the final product.

Jamie: 00:23:41

So go ahead, go ahead and give your number and your website. Do you have a website?

Dani: 00:23:45

-: 8180

Jamie: 00:24:00

That'S not the easiest spelling.

Dani: 00:24:02

Yeah, no, it's actually, I'll go on a little tangent real quick. So milieu, actually it's French for capturing someone's environment or space or surroundings.

So that's just what we do with videography, Capture people's houses, their space, their environment. I like that. That's the meaning behind that. But yeah, M I, L I, E, U.

Jamie: 00:24:25

Seems easy enough when you say it. But because it's French, you know, we're not French.

Dani: 00:24:32

As long as people are saying it, I don't care how they say it.

Jamie: 00:24:36

Well, Danny and Tristan, thanks for being here today, you guys. You guys were awesome and thank you. You helped change businesses and provide an opportunity for them to do things they haven't done before.

So we appreciate you for that. Thank you. All you listening and watching out there, make sure you share this. And most importantly, call her. All right?

Yeah, call her and get set up, Do a consultation. Very easy to work with and very creative and they know what they're doing. And look for our videos coming out that they have done.

We've released two of them now.

I think we're going to be doing at least one per week we're going to release and hopefully this will be a regular occurrence to get the name out there. So thanks again for watching and we will talk to you next time. Thank you for listening.

This week you can catch up on the latest episode of the Thoughts from the Crawl Space podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. For more information about Gold Key Inspection services, go to goldkeyinspect.com.