Episode 1: Tips and Strategies for Creating Consistent Video Content with Conor Murnane
In this episode, we discuss the importance of personal branding and content creation. Our guest Conor Murnane shares insights on how building a strong personal brand helped them secure multiple six-figure opportunities, and how they use their content pillars to create a variety of engaging videos. We also dive into the art of interviewing and how to invite guests to your show. Takeaway 1: Finding Your Content Pillars Content pillars are the foundation of creating a variety of engaging videos.It's important to find a pillar that allows you to create a bunch of videos over and over again.Examples of content pillars include education, looking at the camera, interviews and collaborations, or storytelling. Takeaway 2: Aligning Content with Personal Brand When deciding what content to share, it's important to start with aligning it to your personal brand.Pick pillars that make you who you are and reflect your values and strengths.Use the ROI of likes, comments, and dollars as a measurement, but also consider the energy you put into the project.Creating content that aligns with your personal brand can help you attract the right audience and opportunities. Takeaway 3: Inviting Guests and Testing Your Niche Inviting guests through email or 1-1 video messages via DMs can help you expand your network and attract new audiences.The art of interviewing involves active listening, asking open-ended questions, and creating a comfortable atmosphere for guests to share their stories.Testing your niche through IG stories can help you gauge audience interest and tailor your content to their preferences.
TRANSCRIPT
∎ Podcast Intro:
[Stephen Husted] (0:00 - 1:04)
Welcome to The Breakthrough with Stephen Husted, the show that takes you behind the scenes with successful entrepreneurs, real estate investors, and other movers and shakers in the business world. In each episode, we'll sit down with our guests to explore their personal and professional journey, including the challenges they faced, the breakthrough moments that propelled them to success, and the strategies and the tactics they used to get there. Get inspired by new ideas and strategies and get to know our guests on a deeper level.
Join us for candid conversations, powerful insights, and plenty of breakthrough moments. Please help us grow by subscribing and sharing the podcast, and welcome to the show.
∎ Podcast Proper | Guest Introduction:
I appreciate you getting on here, Conor, and doing my podcast.
It's interesting, I've been following you for probably about a year now, and I'm pretty choosy on who I follow and why I follow people.
[Conor Murnane] (1:04 - 1:06)
You're stingy with the follows?
[Stephen Husted] (1:07 - 1:43)
Yeah. I mean, you know what I'm saying. There's a lot of noise.
Selective. Selective. Selective.
Yeah, let's go with selective. You see a lot of people out there, and you have to kind of weed through really what do you want to spend your time on a daily basis when it comes to content. You were one that I think I've been following for about a year.
You were kind of the first one to get me to go shoot outdoors, just shoot anywhere. Those videos definitely resonated with me and got me to start doing it that way. I appreciate what you've done.
Give me a little bit about you.
[Conor Murnane] (1:44 - 2:56)
Yeah. Well, first of all, I'm glad to be here, Steven. I mean, it looks like we got a lot of mutual friends, and always I look forward to geeking out about the industry and strategy and content and life and all those things.
My background is being from San Diego. I went up to Silicon Valley, which might be a convo we can hit on here, but got into real estate tech, eventually was pre-IPO, pre-merger, and then under the Zillow umbrella for over a decade. I had learned a lot and met a lot of people through the real estate and marketing avenue.
It was just a few years ago that although I was working with, say, the number one team in California, the number one team in San Diego, I was really not documenting any of that. Hearing from all of them the opportunities that can come from personal brands and that can come from content, I started to click record and just kind of learning by doing, and that started opening up a ton of relationships and opportunities. And fast forwarding a few years later to today, I'm on the board for one real estate tech company and I'm running my own video company.
[Stephen Husted] (2:57 - 3:10)
Yeah, that's great. How was it when you first sought those few videos? What was going through your mind?
What were you nervous about? Because we all have our things.
[Conor Murnane] (3:11 - 4:30)
Yeah, so there's a lot I can go into this, so I'll probably ramble for a little bit and then tell me where you want to go deeper. But I remember at first, I had spent maybe months, if not arguably years, I recently posted from the moment I knew I wanted to do videos to the moment I actually did videos, it took me years. So, I have empathy for people that are not yet ready.
And then it took me months of planning this perfect viral vlog style approach that cost me a lot of money, cost me a lot of time and planning and so on. And it was one sort of amazing video. And I made some small videos from it, but I real quickly realized that this isn't just about one home run and then you're in the game.
It's kind of this, one of my favorite books behind me, Infinite Game. So, I still look at this now a few years later as like, I'm just a white belt. I'm learning.
I'm still trying to figure out things as I go here. And what's cool is I think that's the biggest change for me is initially, I went into this thinking like something big is going to happen in video one or month one. And I'll say it's absolutely been life changing, but in the most gradual, almost non-climactic sort of way.
[Stephen Husted] (4:31 - 5:02)
Yeah. And it's like a roller coaster too. Some days could be, you know what I mean?
You shoot some content and I don't know, you're either happy with it and people are vibing with it and you're just like, okay, cool. And then all of a sudden you're jumping onto this. I guess I'll talk for myself.
You almost feel like you're second guessing yourself at one point. You're definitely putting yourself out there in a lot different ways. And it's a 24 seven type of vibe to me is what I feel like.
[Conor Murnane] (5:02 - 6:02)
Yeah. You're second guessing, I think all the time. And I think the up and down you mentioned, everyone experiences.
Even before I made content for myself, I actually moonlighted and then side hustled, made content for nine figure e-com brands, for influencers on LinkedIn that have a million followers. I kind of tried to figure out all these behind the scenes things. And one thing that was very eye opening is everyone goes through what you were just describing, emotionally or psychologically with insecurities or questioning their strategy or comparing themselves to other people.
And I don't know that that ever entirely goes away. I think like a muscle, we absolutely get stronger and we get way more comfortable and it becomes night and day difference. But I think we're all humans and I think if we're growing and challenging ourselves, then it's probably a good thing that we'll feel those moments of questioning ourselves.
[Stephen Husted] (6:03 - 6:29)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think if you're not questioning that, I don't think you're growing, honestly.
I think that you have to be really uncomfortable doing content to actually get the growth going on it. I think that it's a lot of work. And I think that it definitely puts, especially if you're running into other businesses.
So, for instance, when you first started content, it wasn't even really geared towards working with agents, was it?
[Conor Murnane] (6:31 - 6:34)
It wasn't actually working with anyone or selling anything.
[Stephen Husted] (6:34 - 6:36)
You were just putting content out.
[Conor Murnane] (6:36 - 8:15)
Yeah. In my job or outside of my job, I didn't have a product or a service that I could monetize or directly benefit and offer. Sure, people approach you and things kind of start opening up and that's part of what organically led to today.
But like, yeah, at first it was like, I don't even know where this is going to go or how I can even make money. And that's sometimes trying to go back into those days. I remember when I first started making videos and a lot of people kind of go through this J curve of like, initially, you kind of come out of nowhere, right?
You're starting to make videos and people aren't used to it. And so they're seeing it and your friends and family are like, what's going on? Are you okay?
What's the plan here? People start asking you, how are you going to monetize this? Like, what's the actual strategy?
And you don't have a lot of these answers. And then you even go through that rollercoaster dip, like you said, where all of a sudden you're running out of energy. Or I remember countless nights editing at midnight.
I've got four young kids, had full-time job, all these priorities. And I'm editing late at midnight, learning how to make these cringy videos myself. And that's kind of the low time, but you start to pick up some momentum, you start to get a hang of things and you start to get more fuel, whether that's meeting like-minded friends or getting financial opportunities.
And all of a sudden, it becomes snowball with momentum. But I have a lot of empathy because those first couple of years, I could see why 99% of people would want to stop because I still question myself sometimes if I want to stop.
[Stephen Husted] (8:15 - 10:42)
This is already a good podcast in my eyes because this is just really... I really wasn't a big fan of social media a year and a half ago at all, especially being in real estate. I hated sales in the sales way that I would put.
Just sold with my clients with the sold sign in front of the house and stick it on Facebook and have 50 comments of, congratulations, you rock. I still am very uncomfortable with that process. And I remember in 2012, when I first got onto Instagram, I took one of my listings and I put a photo and to this day, it's there.
And I put the photo on online and I did it in black and white and I thought it was the coolest thing. And I put the address and I was like, yeah, this is the stuff that agents aren't going to do. And I went with it and all of a sudden, agents were throwing their flyers on there and it started to go cringe and I completely dropped off.
And it's weird because you can look back at the history of my Instagram page and you'll see that it's real estate, these little videos, like click videos that you can make with an app back then, which we didn't have video. And I was still really telling my story about my hobbies and all these things in my life, and they didn't have stories then. But as soon as it became a sales pitch, I just dropped off the map.
And it wasn't until I got around people like you, Ryan Pineda, a couple agents that I know that I started buying properties through. And I go, okay, value is where it's at. And this makes sense to me because now what I can do is give my knowledge, my experience, and put it out there.
And it's nothing about selling. And when that clicked, and then the creative side, because I'm more of a creative person at heart, that just put me on a whole nother level. If I could just sit around all day editing videos, shooting videos all day, I would do it all day long because I absolutely love it.
And I don't treat it like it's, oh, I have to do this in order to get business. And I think that's a huge difference between, oh, I'm going to go shoot content because I need to get business from that content. I'm looking at such a bigger picture of this.
Yeah.
[Conor Murnane] (10:44 - 12:51)
I think that if you can make that distinction or that separation around doing these as commercials to create inbound leads and sales, which we all want. I'm going to be the first to say, I want to make happen in my world and business and so on. But somehow make the distinction on the strategy, like you just said, then I think it really starts to uncork a lot of creativity or momentum or opportunities.
And one example of this is that I knew early on, I needed what I call a pillar of an idea. And so the way I look at this is like a well, a water well of content you come back to over and over and you can get constantly get more and more videos. And it's not the same video, it's like a little different angle.
We lightly touched on this right before we hopped on the show here, but the podcast show is a perfect pillar where you can interview a hundred people like myself or Ryan Pineda, and you'll have barely scratched the surface. You could interview another thousand. And within those videos, you can pull even more videos, like these little sub clips and moments.
And so it's like, that was one pillar that I felt like could help me build these relationships one-to-one. It would be like a hack for me, getting to ask questions to some of the most influential leaders in the industry. And so I think it was 2021, but I made this and I made it like a public declared mission that like watch me interview a hundred real estate pros in 2021.
And so like, I think I landed around like low eighties, but yeah, the cool part was like, it unlocked this lane for me to make thousands or hundreds of videos and has been a foundation today of many of the relationships that I have. So I think if people can find a pillar that allows them to create a bunch of videos over and over and over, whether that's education, looking at the camera, whether that's interviews and collaborations or storytelling, I think there are tons of these pillars that are all like legs of a table.
[Stephen Husted] (12:51 - 13:09)
So with this new business that you created, when these agents are coming to you, are they pretty fresh and they're just trying to look for direction and they're leaning towards you to help them kind of just get going? And are you running this new business? Is it people?
Cause you're down in San Diego, right?
[Conor Murnane] (13:10 - 13:11)
Correct. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (13:11 - 13:17)
Okay. So are you doing some stuff like on location and some are you working with that are like in different States? Is that how it's going?
[Conor Murnane] (13:18 - 15:02)
Yeah. So it's a mix. This business is a little bit of a hybrid in that we have like an agency production arm, let's call it, which is really more focused on like, I'd say kind of the premium sort of higher end, like team leaders, a broker owner, someone that might have a higher production need where we are going onsite.
So we've gone over from San Francisco to Seattle to Southern California. And my plan there is not to scale that to the moon. I don't want to have a thousand shoots in a thousand cities across the country.
So I like the idea of being hands-on with videos because I can stay at the bleeding edge of learning by doing and collaborate with what I think are some of the most innovative and influential people in the space. But the other part of my business, which kind of helps the people that you just brought up are, hey, how do I go from zero to hero? They're just like I described.
I have never made a video. I have a medium to small business, but I want to build my personal brand in order to build my business. And that's an education group that is part virtual, part in person, but that's more of an education, not production agency work.
But what I'm trying to do to kind of sum all that up is my own story organically was that building my personal brand first helped bring on multiple six-figure opportunities, helping me meet people from across the country and has, I think, challenged me to grow and personally develop in a lot of ways. And so I feel like obsessed with this idea of helping other people build their personal brand in order to build their opportunities.
[Stephen Husted] (15:02 - 16:07)
When I first started shooting content, I didn't know where it was going. I just knew that I jumped into it. And then now it's almost a year into it.
There's just so many different directions because I'm an agent, but I'm also a real estate investor and I have short-term rentals. So I have all these different things and it's been interesting trying to paint that picture without sticking to one niche and getting right down into it and saying, no, I'm an agent and I'm only going to talk about that. But I had this internal fight with myself that I'm like, I don't want to bore my audience with just real estate related stuff.
I really want to tell my story in any possible way I can. The things I've gone through in my life, the struggles, where I've come from, what I do for, I'm a semi-pro mountain biker. I really layer that in there a lot.
And it's interesting, that is one of the biggest things that draws a lot of people that I get for clients is the mountain biking and the riding and where I'm located is by far the biggest one.
[Conor Murnane] (16:08 - 16:54)
Everyone has a real estate, let's say, if you're a realtor listening right now, however many people, a million plus people have a license, have a real estate brand, but it's the mountain biking, the kids and the favorite pizza or taco shop that makes that unique blend, I think is what makes you completely unmatchable and relatable to the other people. And I think a lot of people often, I think, focus almost too heavy. And I've done this forever and I'm trying to shift more and more towards leaning into the personal stories, the life lessons, the past experiences that apply to you and only you that are still relatable or relevant to your business or your mission.
It's hard, but it's fun.
[Stephen Husted] (16:55 - 17:43)
It is, right? Because when I went to Neil's Academy, I was talking to a couple of guys and they came up to me and they said, hmm, I heard you got some pretty interesting stories. You got clean 18 years ago, you were a drug addict and now you're working real estate and you're a semi-pro mountain biker and all this stuff.
It's like, you got some really interesting stories, but you've got to be careful on how you layer it all out there. And I always kept on the back of my head and it's been one of those things where it's like, I just want to make a reel and talk about this. I don't want to feel like I always have to throw a hook with some type of, this is how the rich get richer, to grab views.
And that has been a pushback that I have. And how do you coach people that are coming to you on that? What are you trying to give them to kind of get going?
[Conor Murnane] (17:43 - 21:02)
I like this. So a couple of layers of thinking. I do believe, one, that yes, let's start with the agreement or alignment that I'm building.
And some people might not look at this. Maybe they're looking at their Instagram page with a different mission, but I'm building a personal brand with like a 50-year agenda and trying to think in value to the personal brand. So how much that benefits me or doesn't benefit me short-term might not make sense for someone else's plan.
So that's kind of the first step. Second thing is, I do think we pick these pillars that make us who we are and we just constantly test and experiment. And I think part of what the ROI is that we're testing for is sure, views, likes, comments, dollars, but like you had just brought up a little bit ago, but like the energy or like the personal development.
And these are things that aren't always put necessarily on a screen and number format, but like when you meet new friends and they've changed the way you look at health and wellness, and all of a sudden you're working on eating, but like what is the actual value of some of these things? And so without getting too off track here, I think pick these pillars who make you who you are, lean into that and look at this as a growing opportunity, not just dollars and lead gen, which again, I know lead gen, I think that's part of it. But to get more into the business and the lead gen part, I think we can look at the parts that are uniquely you and figure out how to wrap this around your business agenda in a fun way.
So I'm just going to do this live on the spot out loud, but like thinking about your mountain biking and you're in mortgage, right? And then you've also done real estate investing. So like here's, you could be like, here's how mountain biking up a hill is exactly like owning 10 real estate doors or something.
And like none of this stuff has to make exact sense, or you could even do your normal real estate investing script that you have planned, but do it like literally while you're riding down the hill with a GoPro, like don't even acknowledge that you're writing, don't even pretend it's weird or different, but like do it while you're, while you're doing the other part of your lifestyle, which is riding down the hill. And so I think these to me are all fun ways of showing who you are, wrapping it, blending it, but not, you know, diverting from what your, maybe your goal or your mission is.
So I think we can start with clarity and what are you trying to do? We can figure out what's the, what are some of the pillars that we want to wrap or involve in that? And then just kind of start using some of the same principles and hooks are so overplayed these days.
Like it doesn't have to be like hooks, but how do we, how do we grab attention and keep attention? And that can be done through storytelling that can be done through education that can be done through comedy. It can be done through action and editing.
It can be done through a combination of all those things, you know, in one video. So, but I think it's just constantly testing and experimenting. And then again, what I said at the beginning, looking at not just the ROI as the lead generation and the dollars, but like the long-term life that you want to live, which might be people you want to be around as well as financial opportunities that you want to have.
[Stephen Husted] (21:02 - 21:07)
Yeah. I can say it again. There was a reason why I was about to have you on here.
[Conor Murnane] (21:08 - 21:13)
There's a lot there to digest. I bounced around on a lot there, but like.
[Stephen Husted] (21:13 - 22:30)
No, I love it. And I literally was getting goosebumps when you were saying something about the mountain biking and climbing, because I do a lot of my testing ground in stories. That is the testing spot where I'll put, I'll get even more creative in stories to get reactions and I'll layer in going on a ride, you know, and it's, it's raining and it's pouring rain, but I get out there and I do it and I'll tie it to just everyday life.
Like, look, you know, it's not always going to be perfect. The sun's not going to always be out and this could be a great, you know, ride. Sometimes it's going to suck, but I have to get out there to do that.
And the same goes with, with work in business and growth there. It's not all just easy, you know, like this morning at eight o'clock, come to find out that one of my rental properties that's on the market, we think somebody broke in and was trying to steal all the appliances. They were moved.
So from eight till the time I was going to get on with you, I'm going through this stress moment, you know, we're trying to get this house sold and I've got to regroup, you know, okay, how am I going to deal with Connor? Am I going to be focused? And, you know, I had to step back and go, it's going to be okay.
We get on it, you know, we're going to do this. And that just, that's how it ties into, let's say mountain biking for me. I always correlate it with that a lot of the times.
[Conor Murnane] (22:30 - 24:43)
So it's, I think the storytelling is that one's really been on my mind lately because I haven't really done that almost at all in my content. And it doesn't have to necessarily just be stories about ourselves, right? It doesn't have to be when I was young and I did this, or when I was bike riding or helping a client or anything like that, it could be like, and this is something I'm even going to like essentially be testing going forward.
So I'm even speaking on this from like, not much experience at all, but something that's on my mind and I'll give some context as to why, but it could be about a famous, like even just telling the story about who invented the first mountain bike or who has the world record of biking the highest mountain. These are things that are interesting stories that people might want to tell. And again, align with your passion and just who you are, not entirely in the business agenda that you might have.
But again, there's other ROI there and I've seen it, it leads to conversation or it leads to other indirect opportunities. And the reason again, on this storytelling, I keep throwing that phrase in here the last few minutes is like, I think as more and more people are throwing videos on the line, we all have to continue to raise the bar in terms of what, if we want to get our message across and we want to actually resonate with anyone out there, I think we do have to raise the bar with the strategy and the message to the market match. And so storytelling has been one of the most tried and true ways of getting people's attention. And so there's this trend I've even seen on TikTok where it's like, this guy biked up a mountain that was X, Y, and Z, or this guy biked off of the roof of a house and here's what happened next.
Like you're almost immediately pulled into the story and wondering what happened. And that's just because psychologically, we all love stories and we learn through stories. And so that one's been on my mind too.
I think that's another pillar for people. Sometimes we all get stuck in this like, here's three ways to this, or this is why rich get richer that, like you said. And I think this is another way to kind of more organically educate and break through the noise in videos is to try and be a storyteller, whether it's about yourself or other people.
[Stephen Husted] (24:43 - 25:08)
And there's definitely an art to that. I've been kind of going deep with the whole storytelling part of putting it out there and how to frame it. And I do a lot of it in stories because stories is really short.
And if you can get good at telling a short story without going off the rails for a minute and 20, that's a skill in itself.
[Conor Murnane] (25:09 - 25:37)
It is. It's not easy. And a lot of this stuff too, I think what's cool, we're talking a lot about video, but I believe this is again, the ROI of doing this stuff.
It translates to public speaking. It translates to a listing consultation or a buyer consult at a coffee meeting. Or if you're trying to pitch an idea to your team of 12 people, I think a lot of this stuff, yeah, it's like a communication practice as much as it is video marketing stuff.
[Stephen Husted] (25:39 - 26:50)
Yeah. Because you brought up a very good point because I think this year I definitely saw more agents jumping in, making content and typical captions, a lot of the same kind of scripts or whatever. And once again, I went, okay, I got to go further away from this as I possibly can.
And I don't know the view count. I just still haven't figured that one out. I don't know.
It's sometimes a little troubling because I feel like, okay, I'm not getting the same kind of view count as everybody else. But also, I even asked this to Connor or Newell. I asked him, so when you see what I put out, am I being too broad on things?
He's like, no. I mean, I know you're an agent. I know that you have investment properties.
I know you Airbnb. And I know you have a mountain bike and you have a family. He's like, you're very clear.
You spread it out. But I know that if I was putting out videos just on Airbnb every week, every day, I'd probably have a much bigger following because those people, typically, people go to them for one reason, one reason. Kind of like going to YouTube.
YouTube, solving the money problem. I go to see Tesla.
[Conor Murnane] (26:50 - 28:34)
It's a really good point. I mean, my own journey on this has definitely swung a little bit back and forth. Like when I was first making videos, it was all the pillars equally spread all the time.
So I do think there was this shift toward now people want to see and follow a specialist for a certain reason almost, if that describes it well. And like you said, is Stephen the Airbnb guy? Or is he the investing in general guy?
And so I do think it's tough because I've tried to, in one way, be clear enough that I'm a video guy. But yeah, how do we also wrap around these other things? Like we said, my kids or my investing or some of the other things that are passionate.
So I don't know if it's more of like an 80-20 or even just getting more creative with how you weave those in. But I do think maybe even some of the guests you particularly are interviewing, you could think about a reverse engineer who you're trying to get with. But I also like the idea of just not overthinking the views and not optimizing for numbers and things like that and thinking back on that infinite game approach because it's just like this.
I noticed too in this last year, the algorithm went way up, way down. And so the same video type was getting different view counts than it was months ago. But I think if you look at some of the meaningful results, are you getting conversations?
Are you getting relationships that are leading to meaningful opportunities? Then that's probably a good direction. And have you been doing it for like multiple years head down?
It's kind of like getting in shape in the gym. You just also have to give it time.
[Stephen Husted] (28:35 - 29:00)
That's a perfect analogy on it too. Yeah. You got to just keep putting the work into it and you're going to have some good results and it's going to go up and down.
That's a perfect way to look at it. It's interesting too from what Instagram is like right now compared to like Facebook Reels or YouTube Shorts. The view counts are way bigger on those right now than there are.
And I have less followers. It's crazy.
[Conor Murnane] (29:01 - 31:15)
Yeah. I mean, I think what they're doing is almost like they're pushing everyone to create these videos, right? And so on some of these platforms, they're more or less rewarding them in a way.
But I wonder at times too, because I've always looked at the audience in terms of like how many of them are non-followers, existing followers? How many times does this lead to messages versus just sort of like random comments? And I don't know.
It's a little bit all over the map these days. But I think if people can think about almost like their process, the system that they can put themselves in, like how do you build a factory line that allows you to create videos and test and iterate and just keep on going? Because I love telling this story.
I mean, I look young AF, but I remember in 2009, I was communicating with real estate brokers with a fax machine. And it wasn't like a meme or a joke. We were all just using a fax machine five, seven days a week.
And that was just part of business. And so I think almost the same way today with video. It's all over the place.
It's a little weird. There's a lot of people make jokes, this and that. But I think just look at how can you integrate video into your business a little bit more today?
And one angle we haven't even talked about that someone who's listening that is maybe not comfortable at all with trying to create these cool videos on social is like, what about one-to-one video? Like instead of making your calls, quote, or sending these sort of maybe older school methods of communication, maybe try sending like a one-to-one text video or a DM video where it's like, yo, Steven was singing about you when we were back on that podcast like six months ago. Like, hope you're doing well.
I see you with your Airbnb, X, Y, and Z. It takes 15 seconds, but you send like 20 of those a day and you extrapolate that over a year. I mean, like massive ROI.
So I think there are plenty of ways to integrate video into your business, whether that's new customers, past client, past or existing customers or, you know, marketing, all the above. Like it's, the sky's the limit on video right now.
[Stephen Husted] (31:15 - 32:38)
Yeah. It's a powerful thing. I'm a little, you know, as I got into it, I saw such, and I keep saying this, I see a way bigger picture now.
Like, I don't know what's going on from a year from now, but you know, like the podcast is just starting and, you know, like I watch Rich Roll and I'm like, ah, this guy is so great. I'm like, he should be great. He's been doing it for, you know, eight years now, you know, so I have something to strive for, but our, our speaking arrangements, all these things are kind of coming to a full circle right now in a lot of different ways.
And it's all because of video. Like video is great for real estate. And it's honestly, I got lucky on my second video that I ever did, got me a client and the client reached out and she said, Hey, we want to get together with you.
We want to sell our house. When can we meet? And we got coffee.
And she said, you know, I saw a video of you selling a house in Oakland. And she goes, I know you don't sell in Oakland. And I know you helped this, you know, first time buyers out.
And you made these videos that you were helping these first time buyers and, and given them questions and they were answering it. She's like, I thought it was really cute, but it really made me think how much you really cared for your client. And we want to hire you for our, you know, to list our home.
And their agent prior blew them off because they needed a referral for a contractor. And he said, I don't have one. That cell was 3.2. Yeah.
[Conor Murnane] (32:38 - 34:46)
She's, you know, that story is the kind of stuff that gives me goose too. And it's why it's once you see, I describe it to the seven times people who are questioning, you know, video and ROI, should I do it or not? It's like, once you see the light on an opportunity like that, you know, there's just no unseeing it and turning back and, and, and just like nerding out on that story even more for a quick second.
Like, it's not even like, oh, they were an Oakland buyer. They've never met you. And, but they saw the video and wanted to buy an Oakland home, which is sort of the surface level assumption.
But this was like one casual view from a past client who went through that whole emotional journey of like, wow, he cares about his clients. This is how I think he would then care about me. I still want to work with him and my needs.
And you have no idea that this whole like, you know, exchange is more or less happening. And then she raises her hand and it's, you know, a three, you know, six figure, you know, opportunity. So it's just like, and that's just one and you're right.
And that was your second video. Like, and so the crazy part, like real estate, you know, so many of our mutual friends are in real estate listeners and real estate, like, like real estate investing, this stuff is compounding. So I don't know how long ago was that second video, but like, you know, fast forward.
And now every video from here on out, I think has much, much bigger opportunity and back to the view count thing. That's why I, when you see, I think one of those also, it's the reassurance for me that even if you don't go viral or pop in big numbers of views, like I often will ask sometimes clients or people I'm working with, if you had to choose, which would you, and obviously it's not so black and white, but which would you rather choose? 20,000 views that Instagram decides based on their algorithm and recommendation, or would you rather choose 90 views from like 90 billionaires or 90 millionaires?
I mean, and so it's an extreme sort of exaggeration, but the point is like, yeah, we all want valuable, you know, depth, not just, you know, useless width as well on the stuff.
[Stephen Husted] (34:47 - 36:00)
Yeah. I think I had another video that was put on Facebook with a, a girl that I grew up with and she lived in there. She lives in Arizona and she saw a video I did on, you know, how to deal with your property manager and her mom, her mom had her grandmother passed away.
The grandmother passed the house to the mom, the mother, and then the mother passed away. And now the house was a rental and she was going through issues with the property manager. And then she saw my video on Facebook and immediately DM to me.
And, you know, now I'm taking her on this journey of not only selling the mother's house, but helping her, you know, buy her first primary residence in Arizona, getting her investment properties, how to leverage that money. And I'm literally taking her under my wing. And it was all over a one minute property manager video, you know, and that's all you have to say, you know, and it's, she just, you, you're out there helping people.
And that's, that not only is that make me feel good, but it also knows it makes me feel like I'm not really selling anything. I'm just giving knowledge. And that is such a massive like, I don't, I don't feel guilty when I'm putting out content because I know I'm doing it to help people out.
[Conor Murnane] (36:01 - 37:13)
You know, where my mind went, as you were saying that last part, because right before, you know, we hopped on the show where we were describing that. Yeah. Sometimes the vibe people will get is they'll see my introverted side.
They'll see that I, which is the truth that they'll see that I have easily 80, 20 introverted tendencies. And, and to me, like, and I also ironically, like, and maybe this can be a separate convo, but like, I have a deep background in sales in my early, in the early part of my career. And like, to me, this is like an introvert's dream sales solution.
It's like, you mean I can have one conversation more or less by myself. And it's the equivalent to having a mini conversation with hundreds or even thousands of other potential customers. And then when one of those customers is ready, they reach out to me.
Like this, this is like an introvert's dream. So like from a sales, from like a sales, you know, for the sake of sales and winning sales. Cause again, I'm about, I'm about business results, but it's an introvert's, it's an introvert's dream.
[Stephen Husted] (37:14 - 38:05)
Okay. So let's speak about the whole business part of this too, because I think I brought up to you that I guess you probably could understand that, you know, I'm trying to be like, Oh, you know, I just want to give value, but I don't want to ask for anything. You know, how, what is, because I've had people reach out to me.
Well, here's a good example. I have a few of my past clients that I've helped buy and sell properties are now my first time investors. So I basically started a consulting business with that.
And that's just based on videos and them knowing me and, you know, going that route, but I'm really hesitant to kind of, you know, connect my link tree and plug it into a video, like, Hey, you know, tell a, give a piece of value and then go, you know, and if you're looking to, you know, invest in real estate, you know, DM me and you know what I'm saying? Like, I haven't got to that point where I'm ready to like ask for it.
[Conor Murnane] (38:06 - 40:53)
Yeah. I don't know. For whatever it's worth then I feel like I'm almost hand like side by side arm in arm with you in that I like on this episode was the first time I've publicly been bringing up the education group that I have.
So like that, just like you said, the only part I've been publicly showing is doing out video sessions, client shoots, cause that's been fun. And there's a few select people I work with there. So like, I don't know, maybe I'm just going to then think out loud in my own process of where I'm at, but full disclaimer, this is not advice, you know, based on, you know, a ton of experience there, but on one hand, part of me is asking, do I need to rush it?
Do I need more people? Like, do you need more people in your investing group right now? Cause I almost get the vibe that you've situated yourself in your business to be at least breakeven or sustainable without the consulting investing group or however you're doing that.
So like part of me likes the idea of continuing for that to be like a almost like back end, like exclusive, you know, once people, once people come into your circle and you're having that offline conversation or that, you know, that one-on-one, you know, kind of like, how can like truly trying to figure out how can I help you? Maybe it's just answering a few questions. Maybe it's like, I'd really love to learn from you and figure out how to do this investing thing full time.
Then it makes sense to be like, well, I have this, you know, this thing, but like, so part of me likes the idea of like slow and stealthy, but to play, you know, that was advocate on the other side of the coin. I do think a lot of the strategy that's on my mind as I go is going to be a lot of like show, not tell. So what I mean is like, you're, we're doing this podcast, we're making clips, we're making content from it.
I assume if you're, but if you're not already, you could with that consulting group. If you're not doing Zoom calls, I have a Slack channel. If you're not doing little mini meetups once a quarter, once a year and bring a videographer to that, but basically keep, keep delivering value, I think, to that group, but start documenting and showing it more.
It eventually becomes a pillar of content where you're sort of showing it, but again, in a valuable way, not plugging it after you do a different piece of content. You know what I mean? Like how do you make it, how do you make it its own series of interesting, valuable, entertaining content versus an offer that's like a cherry on top of different content?
That's the way I'm thinking about it, at least, you know, going into the future here.
[Stephen Husted] (40:54 - 41:09)
I like that. Yeah. It's almost like you're a building block kind of scenario because when you start getting into shooting content, essentially, especially for those who really jump into it, you know, you're essentially building a media company and then there's all kinds of different things that come out of that as well.
[Conor Murnane] (41:10 - 41:54)
You know, like this off the top of my head, I'm even curious, like in the group there, you know, like what are some of those investing hacks? What are some of the things you all are talking about in 2023? But, and those might be just be like ideas for you to make, but maybe even like case study, like a lot of storytelling.
This guy bought 10 doors in Arizona and he's now grown. He started with 10. He's now grown to 50 in five months.
Here's how he did it. And it's like a whole PDF. It could be like a whole ebook breakdown.
And that's a true life story that comes from your group, you know? So like, I like the idea of pulling all the like real life learnings from it, because even just thinking about that, I'm already curious on, you know, what's going on inside of that wall as you've mentioned it now.
[Stephen Husted] (41:54 - 44:00)
Yeah. I think you brought the whole thing right out front, as far as what's going on right now. It's, you know, very select clients casually coming to me because they trust me and they know I'm doing what I'm doing.
And so it almost at that point forced me into creating the business because there was a need there. And with the help of ChatGPT, yeah, just, I started an investor ebook, basically wrote it all out. And we add to it as time goes on, you know, be in the shower and go, oh, I know something that I want them to know.
So let's put that in it. And it's been super powerful. I wrote everything out.
I mean, we even got to the contracts and, you know, how I'm dealing with these particular clients now. And that part just fell on my lap because I started investing out of state. And, you know, my clients here in Silicon Valley, they buy and sell properties, but they also want to invest in real estate too, whether it's long-term, mid-term, short-term.
And that opened up these doors very casually. So it almost forced me into making the business into something. So these few clients, well, I'm in four partnerships as well.
So I'm starting to document them and our journeys there. I'm going to start bringing them on the podcast, even though everybody's saying you need to stick in one lane on your podcast. I'm like, I don't think I'm going to, I think I'm going to put who I want.
I mean, look, I have you on today. I had Connor on and you both help people grow their business with video content. Agents, you know, so this is going to be valuable for, I have a lot of agents that follow me.
This is, and a lot of them have even started shooting video, but so this is a good value point, but all these little, the content has brought so many different little businesses in the mix. Now they're just kind of starting to slowly grow. But at some point I would love to, you know, public speak, you know, there's a lot of things that are coming out of it.
It's more of just trying to get the time to the right things you need to be doing on a daily, weekly basis.
[Conor Murnane] (44:00 - 44:21)
Yeah. It's cool though, how the, the, the personal brand is growing. That is what organically led to, like you said, the, that, that business sort of being formed and just making sense.
And I'm, I'm a big believer that it'll continue to be the thing that stacks more opportunities or opens up more doors, you know, for you as, as you keep growing.
[Stephen Husted] (44:22 - 44:28)
That's awesome. I got a question that I, so the name of my podcast is, is the breakthrough podcast.
[Conor Murnane] (44:29 - 44:29)
Okay.
[Stephen Husted] (44:29 - 44:37)
So I'm going to ask questions to every guest at the end. What is one of your breakthrough moments that you can recall?
[Conor Murnane] (44:38 - 46:29)
So love, love this theme, by the way, I want to start with, cause like now I'm already like in a few through my mind, but one, one story that I haven't told a lot, that is absolutely a breakthrough moment for me when it comes to my journey and video is, you know, I mentioned the Z word. So I was in an employee at, at Zillow for a long time. And I knew that I had, I always knew I'd side hustled a few different businesses.
I knew long-term, I wanted to kind of own my own thing and grow into something I could, could, could, you know, fully control. And I started making videos, but actually in my first year, like I said, I got a mixed reactions, executive leadership at Zillow, the initial reaction told me to stop. And so much as like that, I needed to stop like, or else.
And I remember telling myself, like, you know, and I'm the sole provider for a family of four, like it's, you know, this is sort of a big deal for me in terms of financially, like, this is a crossroads that I have to make a decision on. Like I'm either going to be doubled down on doing what the boss says when the boss says it and rely on that forever. And, or I have to be willing to like lose it all today in order to build my tomorrow based on my beliefs of this whole video, personal brand direction.
And, you know, very fortunate that things kind of worked out. Ironically, a couple of years later, Zillow asked me to be a company ambassador on some of their content and stuff on social, on LinkedIn. And like, and it's something that I'll forever be grateful that I made that decision at that fork in the road.
And I'll always look at as a breakthrough moment, you know, in my journey.
[Stephen Husted] (46:29 - 46:56)
That's awesome. That was really cool. And it actually really tied into how I started in a lot of ways too.
If you were talking and I'm hearing your story and I'm thinking the same thing because that past client I told you about that I closed that property. I took that commission check and I told myself, I'm going to put this whole commission check to my team, growing a team and doing content built out of media room.
[Conor Murnane] (46:56 - 47:02)
That's a big check too. A lot of people, you could buy a car or two, you know, with that check.
[Stephen Husted] (47:03 - 47:30)
Yeah. Or a couple of rental properties. There was a lot of things that could have been done.
And I just told myself, I'm going to go all in and whatever happens, happens. And it has been a really interesting road because of where the market is, where the investment market's going, you know, a lot of different ups and downs. I mean, my assistant that's on here right now, Jackie has just watched this whole growth, the ups and downs.
She's like my therapist at this point.
[Conor Murnane] (47:30 - 47:35)
What year was that, that you had gotten that check and went all in?
[Stephen Husted] (47:35 - 47:39)
I got it. I got it in July, last July.
[Conor Murnane] (47:40 - 47:41)
Oh, last year?
[Stephen Husted] (47:42 - 47:43)
Last year. Yeah.
[Conor Murnane] (47:44 - 47:44)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (47:44 - 49:15)
Yeah. I started in end of November, 2021 is when I shot my first video and I took a couple of the checks in the beginning there and, you know, kind of went in that journey. Everything I was doing was with an iPhone and, you know, a bad audio mic from Amazon, you know, but I just, I even went to, this is my little hack that I started doing.
I would go to listings that were on the market that were staged and vacant. I used those houses too. Absolutely.
And, you know, I just, I'd look for ones that had the best lighting and, you know, the best furniture and I just go shoot content everywhere, you know, and like I said, I followed you. You were saying, Hey, get outdoors. You can go back and look in the beginning of my content.
You'll see where I started going outdoors and it's really, you know, I just started doing that. And, and it's, it's still, I I'm still 100% in, I mean, the money's drying up, you know, because market's doing what it's doing. You know, my, my bank almost is gonna go under, hopefully it won't, but I bank at first Republic and that could be gone tomorrow.
So, you know what I mean? And I really want to tell all these kinds of stories too. You know, like I want people to understand, you know, there's a lot of effort that goes into it, but if you don't, if you want to shoot content and you don't want to put all that effort, you can make one video a week and just talk about the market, throw it on Facebook.
It just depends on what level you want to do this. You know, everybody's going to be different. Everybody's gonna have a different journey.
[Conor Murnane] (49:16 - 50:06)
There, there is this wide range of all of them being right answers and right approaches that can work. And I even think nowadays, you know, with so much quantity of videos out there, there's, there's actually a big opportunity in slowing down and being intentional with one video week. I think Mr. Beast does like two videos a month, you know, number one video creator in the world. So like, I think it's okay to, for someone to go at their pace and, you know, do, do their thing, you know, with their vibe. And, and I just got even more fired up realizing that you're not even one year. I feel like, you know, into the, from the moment of that breakthrough story, you just said to today.
So like, man, that's crazy. Like, I feel like you and I will definitely be having more of these followup combos then as we grow together on this.
[Stephen Husted] (50:06 - 52:29)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, even when I first started on this pocket, like, I'm like, you know, oh, I forgot to introduce Connor Murnane. It's Murnane, right?
Did I say your name right? Okay. I know that I want to have some type of intro, but I know in the back of my head, as far as the, the, the name and the break, the breakthrough, that wasn't the name a month ago.
It was the name of my newsletter. And I just had this moment where I kept having these little mini breakthroughs on something that I was like, you know, trying, I was trying to shoot a green screen and it kept coming out bad. And I kept shooting and shooting and shooting it and it was wrong.
And lighting was bad. And finally I did. I'm like, ah, I finally had that breakthrough.
I got it. And I went, I called my team and I said, I'm naming the podcast, the breakthrough. And they're like, dude, that's on.
And I go, so we, and here's what's crazy. We passed it over to this lady in India to do the graphics, right? So we finally get them back last week.
And I, I pull them up. My assistant sends them over to me and I look at them and I look at one of them, like, I don't like it. And it was just because one of them had two different colors and it kind of threw me off.
But then I went back and I started looking at it. I'm like, oh, this one's super cool. And then two days before we got the marketing, like the graphics of it, I sent a Slack, I was going to Slack my other social media manager, an idea.
And I said, Hey, I'm thinking of a vision of an arrow going, going vertical with two kind of parentheses on the sides of it. I never sent it. We get it back.
This lady puts, sends it. And in the breakthrough, she's got the arrow going horizontal with the two circles on the side like this. And I, and I looked and I'm like, oh my gosh.
And then she wrote on the top, it's crazy. She wrote on the top, the arrows actually signify a breakthrough. And she even talked about what the breakthrough met, like the meaning of it.
And I was just floored. Like it just, I, you know, I just went right then. I went, you know, everything comes full circle, you know?
And sometimes with all the, the struggle and the ups and downs and all the, you know, everything that goes on, you finally have that moment where you're like, okay, everything's on the right path. And I just have to go with it.
[Conor Murnane] (52:30 - 52:30)
Yes.
[Stephen Husted] (52:30 - 52:30)
Yeah.
[Conor Murnane] (52:31 - 53:14)
Love that story, dude. I mean, seriously, the way that the full circle moment and the point of it, of it all, like kind of the way you named the breakthrough podcast and all just kind of connecting to what we said, I think you and I have a lot of similar friends where it's, whether it's the brand or the businesses that they started or the things that we've done, like we really start to see how like this content thing and this video stuff, I mean, absolutely very hard to do absolutely, you know, cringy at first and, you know, worth, you know, to a lot of people quitting early on, but, but I think so many cool things, you know, can develop and grow from it.
And I feel like, you know, you and I still just, just getting started on this.
[Stephen Husted] (53:15 - 54:06)
Yeah. It was great. Why don't we end it at that?
Because I think that we covered a lot and part one is part one. Yeah. This is part one.
Let's wait for me to get this thing all up and running. And then I'm going to have everybody back on. That's what I keep telling.
That's what I told Connor. You know, I got Neil on the, on the list as well. He doesn't know it yet, but he's, it's coming.
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