Jeff Pfitzer is a influential Mortgage Leader w/ an expertise in creating content, branding with video, and innovating w/ marketing ideas. Also is part of Lab Coat Agents.
More information on Jeff Pfitzer:
https://www.labcoatagents.com/
Transcript
Santiago Leon 0:09
This is the sling on productions podcast where we interview business owners, innovators, marketers, authors that bring influence in today’s culture, today’s via social norms, things are changing, evolving. The pandemic has changed a lot of things we’ve seen clubhouse involved in something big right now and, and people are meeting other people in different ways. So things are changing. It’s exciting. Some people call it scary. But I think it’s just interesting, you know, get ready for the unexpected, like they say, in radio at times. Today’s guest is with Jeff fitzer. He is the regional marketing manager at USA mortgage. He’s been involved with real estate for years, but also he’s getting more into marketing lately. And I first heard him at kurz pocket, David Adam Curtis podcast. And he has a lot of lot of interesting guests. I listened to his podcast. And Jeff really stood out to me a lot. I had invited him. He’s on LinkedIn. And it’s very nice to join us today. Welcome to the slam productions podcast. Jeff,
Jeff Pfitzer 1:21
thanks for having me, man. And let me quickly clarify, regional manager, there’s no marketing in there. I just do a lot of marketing. So it’s, it’s easy to get that confused.
Santiago Leon 1:29
Yeah, exactly. So Jeff, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Jeff Pfitzer 1:34
Yeah, so as you mentioned, I’m actually in the mortgage business, although most wouldn’t realize it if you followed me on social media, because I really positioned myself as an authority in the real estate space, which is kind of by design. And I’ve since I’ve been in the business for 20 years, 20. This is my 21st year actually. And I’m really more focused on business development. Now marketing, social media video, since started a few startup companies as a result of the influence that I’ve been able to create. And it all kind of feeds back to our businesses. And it’s been it’s been a lot of fun. So, yeah, that’s kind of my that’s kind of my jam.
Santiago Leon 2:11
So tell us, how, what got you because you started with real estate, then you got into marketing? What was the whole transition about? Were you just naturally good with marketing?
Jeff Pfitzer 2:23
I mean, I
guess I you know, I mean, I guess that’s subjective, right? You know, I’m still very much in the real estate business in the mortgage business. And it just everything that I do from a marketing perspective, just kind of feeds back to it. So I, you know, I do have a degree, and it wasn’t marketing, it was Media Communications. But that that was, you know, gosh, I graduated college in 99. So I’m dating myself, but everything today was not relevant. When I was going through my degree. I was learning. We were doing radio commercials, and we were doing print ads and things like that. And I just, I do think I have a creative mind for seeing things that maybe others don’t see. I’m not unique. There’s plenty of other people just like me. But yeah, I guess I guess, maybe innovators the right word. I’m not afraid to take chances. Let’s put it that way.
Santiago Leon 3:16
Yeah, that’s something that I got from you from that podcast. So tell us what tools are you been using lately? I know a lot of things have happened. clubhouse came out. Last year in April, in December became a bit more popular and on. I know that you are in tik tok a lot. So tell us what tools have you been using lately? Yeah,
Jeff Pfitzer 3:36
man, all of them? Well, I’m on five of I’m regularly on five of the social media platforms. So Facebook, Instagram, Tik, Tok, LinkedIn, and YouTube are the five that I really spend the most time on. I’ll throw out a tweet every once in a while. But I’m not I don’t do much there. And I would say it all started with Facebook, really, to be honest with you. And, you know, to take the story back a little ways. I think most of my success has really occurred from I don’t go on social media to advertise. I don’t go on there to talk about business. And I think that’s the mistake that most professionals make as they go on there. And they think, well, if I’m going to have a presence that this is going to be a part of my business. I’m going to go on there and talk about market data. I’m going to talk about the latest, you know, Fannie and, you know, Fannie and Freddie News. I’m going to talk about, you know, my latest awards, I’m going to talk about my stats, you know, whatever and, and the reality is, is nobody wants to hear that it’s it’s social media, it’s not business media. And so what I what I quickly realized when I started doing video that that was my that was my thing. By the way. When I started doing video about five or six years ago, which was before anybody else was doing video, started doing Facebook Lives when it was a brand new thing, and quickly realize that when I incorporated my kids, when I when I did things that were authentic and personal, I got a ton of engagement. And it was just a simple, like, well, this is Seems to draw more eyeballs and more engagement, I’m gonna give them more of this. And then that way, when I do that, my the odds increase of my business stuff being seen at least on their feeds. Now, the algorithms and the platforms have evolved immensely since then. But the same principles still apply. And if you execute the same way, that’s what you’re going to get out of it. And by Oh, by the way, and also clubhouse now, I’m also obviously on clubhouse as well.
Santiago Leon 5:26
You work with real estate agents, and also in the real estate industry. I’m in South Florida, there’s every other person is a realtor. And they always ask me for advice. I’m not a marketer, marketer, but I give him some pointers here and there. What, what latest trends or what have you been telling real estate agents this past year of how to market their business? Sure, yeah.
Jeff Pfitzer 5:48
Well, first of all, I did find the podcast is called OneDrive for Business wars. So business wars is you look it up in your it’s an amazing, it’s actually just an amazing podcast in general, you’ll, I’ve been sucked in. I’ve listened to a bunch of them. But check that out. But yeah, so good question. The answer is, well, if you’re talking to me, obviously, there’s a lot of different ways to skin, the cat in business. But if you’re talking to me, and you like the things that I have to say, and I tell you that my business has become one that it’s all about attraction, I literally have zero follow up systems in place anymore. I do not prospect anymore for business, because I have so much business coming at me. And when I say I don’t follow up with the prospects who come to me, it’s because I have so many of them. I know when they’re serious when they follow up with me. And I know that might sound a little arrogant. It’s not it’s simply what I’ve created. And I’ve created it through a social brand, and through video and doing those sort of things. So they answer your question, if you really want to create differentiation and create a long term sustainable business plan, not one of chasing leads, it’s to build your online presence. And I would say the easiest way to do that is to become like the digital mayor of your community. So what we usually recommend to people is, first of all, you got to get comfortable in front of the camera, right, you’re gonna have to, you’re probably going to need to acquire some video skills if you don’t have them. And by video skills, I mean, you’re using, you don’t need to go buy an expensive camera, you might need to understand how lighting works. It’s easy, go YouTube it, you probably need to have a tripod, and maybe a lavalier microphone, maybe you may not even need that. But you can use your cell phone, assuming you have one of the advanced versions of an iPhone or an Android, right? And have some basic editing skills. So understand how to edit a video and start creating content around your community. This isn’t a novel idea, this isn’t new, but so few people a do it. And then those that actually do it, don’t do it consistently, or they drop, they fall off the wagon. And this business plan is a two to three year plan. But as I’ll digress for a second, I share so we have a Facebook group called drunk on social and it’s all things social media, right? And, and I share every once in a while I’ll share my stats from Instagram, just analytics just to kind of you know, spurn conversation and things and show people that this is what you can do if you’re consistent. And somebody commented, how many listings Did you get from it? And I know exactly what she meant when she asked the question because, you know, the thought process is just very simply, okay, great. You got 130,000, you know, views or you got 130,000 engagement. But what do you get from it? The answer is always you’re never I don’t create social media, I don’t create content to make a sale. I’m not buying a zillo lead, I’m not buying a realtor.com lead. I am building a brand one that they remember one that when I walk into the grocery store, they recognize me one that I get phone calls from realtors in random markets like Santiago here Who says you don’t know me. But I feel like I know you because I listen to you on a podcast, I follow you on social media. When that starts to happen for your business, the game changes. Now all of a sudden, your phone starts to ring and you don’t have to prospect anymore. You just have to worry about coming from contribution and giving back to your community. And so right now, coming out of COVID there’s a massive opportunity to go out and create content around local businesses, propping up the community. Nothing about real estate, prop up the community and watch the attraction begin. And I’ve got a buddy. His name is Dan Edson. He’s a realtor in Kansas City, Missouri. He follows me and he’s just become we’ve become friends and we’re going to do some things together. And he started doing his own little thing. He’s got this own community in Kansas City and he’s only been doing it this is this is a success story, by the way. Because if he had asked me out, I said it’s gonna take at least six to 12 months to gain traction. And like two months, he’s got the Chamber’s reaching out. He’s got local local authorities within the community. saying, I want more, I want you to do this for us, can you do this, I’ve got other businesses and I’m like, Dan, you’re on the precipice of like, just blowing up here like this is massive for you stay on course, stay on course. And now I’m advising him on how he should subtly market himself, but don’t get into their face, because you’ll lose traction as soon as you do that. But it’s that easy, man. And, and I could, I could actually even give you an example, I can send it to you can put it in show notes, you guys could go check him out. Because it’s a great example. He didn’t hire a service, he does have a videographer that he works with. It’s a guy from his church. So they’re working together, and for the video. And so this again, Dan’s smart, he’s the videographer is doing it to hopefully earn future business. So he’s doing it for free. So again, Dan figured this out. But ideally, you’re gonna probably hire a videographer to help you do this and put this together. But it’s just a matter of being consistent. And the mindset of coming from contribution, this goes back to my lab code agents of just giving and giving and giving and giving, without asking, that’s where most humans fail. And fail is a strong word, but that’s where they don’t gain any traction. You go, you know, you go online. Here I am in all my glory, you want to use me and here’s why interest rates are low. I’m the best agent in my community. And here’s why. And crickets, because nobody gives a crap about that stuff. But when you get online and you say, check out this business or let me share a story that came up in this this can be a value to you, right? And you just do this you do it consistently. You become a magnet and and things it comes back tenfold and a lot of people just have a hard time, that salesman mentality of well, if I’m going to market to if I’m going to advertise if I’m going to promote, I have to ask for the sale. No, you don’t. That’s old. That’s an old school mindset. That’s an old school way of thinking. You don’t have to just just come from contribution that comes back to you.
Santiago Leon 12:03
Nowadays, Jeff, there’s different forms of video. There’s a live there’s the recorded video now there’s a tick tock where you dance and sing or create some type of crazy short also Instagram reels. Um, what have you been doing lately? Have you been doing more tik tok? Or you’ve been sticking with the traditional stuff like live?
Jeff Pfitzer 12:25
Question. And so first of all, let me let me correct you tick tock started as a dancing and a goofy app and it still is. By and large, it’s amazingly entertaining. I I literally will make a guarantee. If you download tik tok just for the sake of entertainment, you will be entertained. It’s freaking entertaining. Now it has evolved and there’s a lot of businesses on tik tok now. And so to answer your question in a short way, I absolutely love tik tok, not for the social app. I love it for the content creation piece, because it is the most powerful piece of technology I’ve ever seen. And by that, I mean, it’s my camera. It’s my video editor, I can I can do I can add gifts, I can add licensed music legally, I can add text, I can do all these various features that typically require advanced editing skills, all within Tick tock, that’s number one. Number two, because of the way the app is designed, short form content, it’s really was designed for 15 seconds, but think you can go to 60. In my opinion, this is the future of marketing, you have to figure out how to get your message in sub 60 seconds or you will be ignored. That’s just the reality of it. Because our attention spans, you know, as they say, are shorter than a goldfish, right. So you got to figure out how to grab their attention in a very short amount of time. And when you go live, so you brought up live, I hardly ever go live anymore, I just don’t think the algorithm favors it like it used to, I will every once in a while just to play the game, right? But the here’s the problem with live. Go go search, the last 10 lives you can find on social media. And I’ll bet you this. Any of them that we’re talking head type live videos are two to 10 minutes, probably every single one of them that’s too long. And so you have to you have to start to get good. So I’m still doing the exact same thing I was doing when I was going live, except now I’m pre thinking my message. I’m probably even scripting it into one liners because jump cutting is becoming very popular as well. And then I’m putting that form the same video I would have done live for I’m doing it in Tick Tock getting it out of my mouth in less than 60 seconds. And now I just created a more palatable version of the same video I would have. Because when when they’re scrolling social media because by the way, I share my tic tocs across all of those platforms. So it becomes my content. Great When they’re scrolling and they see, okay, Jeff’s got a video. It’s 45 seconds, I’ll watch that’s not gonna eat up my life. But then when they scroll and say, just got a video, it’s five, no way, I am not gonna sit and watch him just ramble on for five minutes, right? It’s a mental thing. And so again, you got to give the audience what they want, and we don’t want to waste our lives unless we’re going to YouTube. That’s a whole different conversation. YouTube is long form content. That’s what they’re going there for. But on every other platform, they don’t want you to they’re not on YouTube and on Facebook, they’re on Instagram. They’re on tik tok. Right. give them what they want.
Santiago Leon 15:35
Yeah, different mentality for sure. When it comes between YouTube and tik tok. Now, if there was a business owner, or or just a solopreneur, that wants to get to tick tock, but they’re shy. They’re like, Look, I am not a camera person. But I know that I have to do it. What advice would you give them?
Jeff Pfitzer 15:52
Yeah, you got to get over it. That’s the that’s the reality. There is no way around. The whole video conversation like it’s not going away, it’s only going to get more and more important. There’s stats out there, I don’t have them in front of me. But I speak on this stuff that say by the year 2025. It’s like all of marketing, 90, something high 90, something percent of the marketing consumed will only be video form. The reality is, is the generations are starting to fall off that we’re readers. And the generations of today are growing up staring at small devices, iPads and cell phones, I’ve got a two year old, that kid knows how to operate an iPad. And don’t tell me there’s finally a two year old that doesn’t. They all do, right? It’s just human nature. Like literally, when my daughter was less than one, they know how to swipe. It’s absolutely insane. And so rather than being pissed about it, rather than rather than, you know, being all disgruntled about it, embrace it, and embrace it, go with the trend go with the times, because guess what, the generation below the millennials, I can’t think of what they’re called xennials, or whatever, you know, and then generation below that, guess what, like, if you’re planning on being in business in 10 years, you better start figuring out, you better start going where they are, because they’re not coming to you, I promise you that and they don’t want that a lot of them don’t want to meet in person, a lot of them don’t want to have phone conversations. And a lot of them are spending their time on apps like Snapchat, and Tiktok. And whatever is coming next, and so embrace it. And the whole, here’s the deal with video. None of us maybe there’s like, you know, point 0000 1% none of us are born to be in front of the camera. It’s a daunting, scary thing. I still get nervous sometimes when I get in front of a camera, and I put out at least a video a day. And so you just have to practice you just have to do it. And and that’s why that’s why I preach authenticity. Because if you put out a lot of personal authentic content, like you living your life, it’s easier, it’s a comfort zone, it’s a safe place, it’s just you living your life. But if you share more of that, and you do more of it by video, it’ll start to get you more comfortable in front of the camera. And so just practice and, and listen, you know, there’s there’s platforms, I own one of them called the business video school, go check that out. Like we create a safe place for you to learn how to do video, you can pay somebody to do it for you. But we built the school to help people be able to learn how to do it themselves. And so there are there are options out there that where you can go and learn how to be better. And guess what, there’s this little thing called Google, which will lead you to YouTube, you can learn anything. And so just utilize just utilize the resources that are out there.
Santiago Leon 18:49
Jeff, tell us a little bit about a video school and also your involvement with labcoat. Agents.
Jeff Pfitzer 18:59
Yeah, so well, I’ll start with labcoat agents. It’s the largest. If you don’t know about it, it is the largest real estate Social Media Group on the planet. There’s currently about 135,000 members in the group. It’s a collaborative place. A lot of people just go there to ask questions, obviously, we’re doing a lot of sharing. Because the group is so big, we have a lot of leverage. So there’s a lot of companies when they’re brand new, they want to introduce their product to the world. where’s the best place to do that and touch the most people? Well, they come to a place like labcoat agents. And so we have access to the technology and the latest things that are happening. So it’s just become it’s a resource for a lot of real estate professionals to learn, and that’s what it is. And so I just I actually, I won’t give it a long story, but just a short story was I got found by a mastermind group because of the videos I was doing five, six years ago, which were more often while I was different. And I got invited into a group trust and happened to be in the group. We hit it off became friends. And before you know it, he was asking me to host his podcast helping me run events and before you know it, I was a big labcoat agents and so that helped me grow my brand and get my face in front of hundreds of 1000s of people in my industry, which was awesome. And then it led to that what kind of led to business video school, I’ve kind of just become known. I have no degree in this I’ve just become known as a video guy. And, and luckily, I was awarded a one of the top 30 Video Influencers by bom, bom and 2019. And last time they did the awards. So that was an honor. And there’s a local, there’s a couple of local people that were putting this together. So I just got lucky they happen to be in my market, they knew of me, they knew me. And they reached out and said, Hey, will you be a part of this platform really, as an influencer, and I said, I love it. I think it’s the world needs this. People need video, they need to learn how to do video. And so that’s what it is, it’s become a platform where it’s a learn as you go kind of thing you can learn at your own speed it’s for it’s for the very, very, very beginner, or we have stuff plenty of stuff for advanced, I mean, we’ll teach anything from the most basic editing, to the most advanced. And we have live coaching we have, we put out weekly recipes, where we literally what that is, is we give our students an actual video script and an idea and we tell them how to shoot it, we give them the whole thing. And so it’s a lot of done for you stuff, we do a lot of accountability challenges, there’s groups, there’s private groups on Facebook, so that way, you’re gonna be in a group with like minded people and similar level people as you. So that way, when people are creating videos, and you feel nervous about it, you can just share it privately in those groups. And that way, you know, like, hey, you’re on it together, right? It’s a safe place. And so it’s been the curriculums evolve. We started this a year ago, we started this a year ago, right when the pandemic happened, and, and we’ve evolved it since then. But the goal is, is just to help lift people up and teach them about everything there is to know about video. So not just current camera presence and shooting, not just editing, but lighting and what equipment you need. And we go deep. And then we have we have we were actually starting a coaching level of it here soon, where it’ll be more intimate coaching. And so it’s a great place to be if you’re wanting to do more video, and go check it out biz video, school calm, is the website, you can find us on Facebook, business, video, school is the group, check that out. And if you’re not in labcoat, agents, go check that out. If you’re in real estate, it’s a great place. It’s a great resource. And if you’re a social media junkie, like me, go to drunk on social that is another that’s another private group, we’ve got about 9000 members and that one, and it’s all things social media. And our goal on that trip and I are starting a podcast actually. So this is the second podcast I’m starting. That kicks off April 1, and it’s literally all we talk about on this podcast is what is the latest news on social media? What’s coming, what
should you be paying attention to?
And so you know, again, if if, if you feel like social has an important piece in your life in your business, like it does a lot of us check it out. It’ll be it’s a free podcast, it’ll be on all of the all the big platforms.
Santiago Leon 22:59
And I’ve noticed that a couple of real estate agents that I know down here that are big in social media, they follow you so for sure, I know that you are very influential with these, with these guys. So it’s quite interesting, before we go on is boosting a post and important thing now or I mean, do you boost posts much?
Jeff Pfitzer 23:23
Well, boosting is one thing targeting is another boosting? No, it’s a waste of money, Unless Unless you’re after vanity statistics that and there’s really no reason Don’t waste your money. Unless you’ve got money to burn. A targeting is a whole nother beast. And so honestly, if you’re going to get into running Facebook ads, I would encourage you to hire a professional, there’s a lot of there’s unless you’re gonna learn it on your own and you could, but if you’re not gonna invest the time and you’re just trying to run an ad, you’re kind of wasting your time, I would hire a platform like a good buddy of mine, Grant wise and Whitley or Travis Tom, he’s got a platform, there’s a ton of them out there. But and here’s why. Because if you’re going to run a Facebook ad, just want running one ad is not going to be very effective. Ultimately, you have to have a plan in place. And so the plan needs to be first of all, what type of messaging are you putting out? are you grabbing them with a hook? Do you have a call to action? Do you have a landing page that they can go to so you can grab their data? Are you pixeling them so you can retarget them. Because ultimately, anytime you’re on a Facebook ad, you need to have a funnel. There’s the top of funnel where you’re just introducing yourself, you’re introducing your product, whatever it is, then if you get clicks, guess what happens now you just pick pixeled them you’re you’re they’re now in your web, so then they’re gonna start to see future content. So then you have to have middle of the funnel content to where maybe you go a little bit deeper and you educate them about whatever you’re talking about. And then if they as as they keep watching, they’re gonna keep seeing your stuff. This is the retargeting so like ladies or guys, if you go look up a product let’s I’ll go I’ll pick on ladies here. If you go look up, buy shoes online. And you’re shopping for shoes, what happens? That shoe starts following you around, right? Because they’re retargeting you. And so my point is, if you’re going to get into it, do it the right way, and get with an expert who knows what they’re doing? Is it going to cost you more money? Yes. But are you going to have a better opportunity or a better odds of increasing the success rate? Yes, by doing that, because it’s top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel, and you’re following them around. But then also, you have to have the back end follow up setup. And this is where most people fail. Anybody can drive leads, and most people will tell you this getting leads nowadays is pretty easy. where most people just drop the ball is they have a shitty follow up system, or they only follow up 10 days of pain. But the reality is, most of you are running ads that are top of funnel, which means that the end client isn’t ready to buy whatever it is you’re selling. So if you follow up for 10 days, you’re not going to get anywhere you need to follow up for a year, maybe two. And so do you have those systems in place? Is it automated, you know, those sort of things? And so there’s a lot to it. it’s it’s a it’s not my specialty? Do we do it? Yes. Do we do it through one of those platforms? I mentioned? Yes. We use Whitley. So I’ve become good friends with grant wise and so I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t using one of those platforms. And so just just my opinion on that.
Santiago Leon 26:30
Jeff fitzer What is the best way to reach you online?
Jeff Pfitzer 26:35
Gosh, well, Facebook, Instagram, tik tok. LinkedIn is where you found me. And and YouTube, of course, probably the best of the DM platforms, and the DM platforms or Facebook, Instagram or, or LinkedIn. Those are probably the best you can you can find me anywhere I’m easy to find. You could probably easily find my email or my cell phone. I’ll give it to you. I don’t even mind. My cell phone is 314-220-4945 you’ve want to reach out to me if there’s anything I can do to bring value to you text me you know I’m busy. So that might be a day before I reply but I will reply reply to everybody. So feel free to reach out and I’m happy to help and emails a good way to communicate as well or or dm I’m happy to happy to be a resource.
Santiago Leon 27:22
Well, Jeff fitzer I appreciate you coming on to the Selenium productions platform.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai