This one’s an interesting one as Scott tells us how Tiktok can be beneficial to round off your social media game and the power it has to get your message out there.

Scott Betley – That Mortgage Guy – Content Creator and Mortgage Banker with over 7 years of experience assisting First Time Buyer’s and Move-Up buyers with their home purchases. Experienced in Home Loan  Grants. Over 350 past clients who have purchased homes with me over the duration of my career. Highly Experienced with FHA, VA, USDA & Conventional Financing. Also well versed with renovation loan options! Check me out on socials under @ThatMortgageGuy

Episode Transcribe

– Woo, we’re almost done friends. We have almost made it to the end but I’m almost the most excited about this one, because if we’re talking social media and we’re doing a collab and we’re not talking about TikTok, we’ve totally missed the boat. And I gotta tell you this guy who’s gonna come on. Scott Betley is first of all, he’s a brand new father like new new. So we’ll joke about that ’cause he’s a bold man for coming on here with a baby somewhere in the house but I’ve been poking around TikTok because humans are on TikTok and I’m like, what’s going on there? And Holy crap, somebody figured it out in the mortgage space. And I started to realize there’s something here. And this is going right down to the line guys of, there’s an audience for everybody. Get ready. Let’s talk to Scott Betley about TikTok. Alright, friends and professionals, our next topic, TikTok, you can not have a social media collab event without talk about the hottest new platform out there and this guy Scott Betley cracked at the mortgage guy. Somehow the algorithm likes you, it likes your community, It likes your fun, it likes your creativity. And man, he hit it and this is my point. There are so many more ways to customerabilty. Let’s go explore what Scott’s doing on TikTok to change his career.- Woo, what’s up Scott?- How are you doing?- Dude, so good to see you. I feel like I know you and your house ’cause I see you on TikTok all the time now.- So I’m filming all my contents in my house now, its kinda crazy.- It’s awesome, dude. Let’s break this down for everybody. That’s hanging on to the end ’cause they knew TikTok was coming. It’s a scary platform. It’s a bunch of underage girls dancing to silly songs. and then you’ve got Scott Bentley dominating the mortgage space. So let’s start with some stats, dude. How many followers you got on TikTok?- I think I’m around 135 K right now.- 135, 000, how many views have you got?- I think I’m averaging like, seven to eight million views a week.- See you guys. Thanks for being part of “The Collab”. No, are you ser… This is what blew my mind. So Scott you know, I started to search for hashtag, search for stuff, seeing who’s on there on mortgage and then all of a sudden I was like, holy crap and then I looked at your page and I was like, oh, holy crap, and then I went one step further. And I tell everybody this, I started looking at your comments. That to me is what I’m curious about. Music stuff are good but comments are interesting and then I was like, holy crap. There’s people that want mortgage information.- Yeah, it’s crazy.- So let’s talk about this. Not only did you, you’re rocking my world and my mind on this but it just further validates for me that there were more paths to the consumer than ever before. Why did you get on TikTok?- It was primarily because of Gary V. I listen to his podcast daily and I was in my home gym, I think in November or October of last year and he was raving about TikTok and the organic reach and how you know, it’s in its infancy and I was like I’ll try it. And then I was like 30 videos in, just kinda dabbling. And then my, I think it was like my 31st or 32nd video or something like that. And it got like three or 400,000 views overnight. I was like, wow this is legit. And I was having so many people reach out through it, how do I do this? Who do I call, how can I get in contact with you? I was like, wow I could really use this as a platform and that was the start of it really but all from Gary V.- So people forget on this platform of how to leverage it and how to use it. Describe TikTok as a platform. If someone asks like, “What is it, what’s happening there?” Let’s, I have my own opinion but someone who’s actually killing it there, what’s your opinion of this platform? What are people using it for?- It’s very similar to Vine. It was Musically but it’s essentially like Instagram with all video content. It’s short, sweet, up to a minute video and the premise with the platform is there’s a lot of trending songs and music and skits and trends that are happening. And if you can tap into that stuff, that’s really where you can benefit the most.- Yeah, so Scott what people don’t understand is that there’s people on that platform making jokes, making memes, doing dances, doing skits and then people are ripping off those skits and putting their own twist on it, taking the same music, doing it differently themselves a little bit and then you’re doing it but you’re doing it with mortgage content. I know you cringed a little bit there but this is the power of this. You’re doing it like, how much down payment can I afford or can I buy a house with zero down? And you’re doing these silly skits these other people are doing but it’s mortgage related.- Yeah, honestly man I never thought that it would catch on like it has. I was like, ’cause mortgages, they’re not fancy, they’re not too fun but yeah it’s been very, very cool to see for sure.- And this is one of the themes I wanna talk about. When you decide to start making content on there, you’re not making what I would consider traditional mortgage content. There are people on that platform who are doing what I would call a traditional mortgage content. They are planning debt to income, they’re not speaking in the voice of the platform.- Right, and the context of it.- And the context of it. So, you started doing it and all of a sudden you’re getting three to 400,000 views. This is a stupid question but how has it changed your business?- It’s blown it up, honestly. I just got licensed in Virginia, DC, Pennsylvania and Florida and I am getting probably 70 to 100 people a week in my licensed areas that I can help that are just reaching out via email. I have a little learning page on my profile where if someone comments, I kinda scan my comments but recently TikTok’s been blocking me from responding to everyone where once you’ve commented back to a certain number of people it stops, it says you’re commenting’s too much and stops you. So it’s kinda weird but, yeah I kinda scan through the comments, see who I can help send them to my landing page, have them reach out to me. And it has tripled my business easily just in the last five months. It’s kinda crazy.- Well and Scott, I want you to share about this because, what made you not put out the normal mortgage content? What inspired you to play the game differently?- It was Gary V, honestly. He always talks about the context of the platform in LinkedIn, in Facebook, in Instagram and how they’re all different and I realized around the same time that he’s right. For the longest time, I’ve been posting the same type of content across everything. And there were certain things that perform better on different platforms because of what type of content it was and I’ve really started to tap into the trends and what’s actually happening on that platform and performing well, not only with just viral content but you know there’s doctors, there’s physical therapists. There’s different people on there that I saw. They were a few people ahead of me. I think there was a doctor I saw and the dentist who I ran into early on and I was like, he’s tapping into these trends and just spinning it about his craft and what he does and that was kinda how I was like, this is the direction I need to go with it. And what’s cool too is that, it’s trickled over to my Instagram too where your IG gets embedded into your profile and now I kinda regurgitate that content on to Instagram and it performs well on there too. It’s pretty cool to see.- Well, let’s break this down. A lot of people, when they feel like they have to put out mortgage content are afraid to be funny because they think that they have to be serious ’cause this is a serious thing and we are talking about serious money for people. It is a serious thing. It’s boring but it’s serious and, mess it up and people can lose their earnest money deposit, there’s real ramifications and yet you infuse a ton of humor into your content. Even if some of the videos I’ve seen now that I started to social stock you on, redoing some of the most popular music videos with your own mortgage take on it. What inspired you to do that as an angle?- It was Gary Vaynerchuk, man. Literally he talks about authenticity and letting your hair down and being you and I pushed the envelope, sometimes on the edginess of it. But yeah for the first seven years of my career, I was so prim and proper and I felt like I had to be so professional ’cause like you said, we’re handling the largest investment of people’s lives and I kinda came to the realization that being authentic and being yourself and kinda just letting your hair down and not having those walls up, it’s so much better ’cause the consumer connects with that. They’re not necessarily all prim and proper and need that professional take and actually more people connect. Obviously there’s people that probably get turned off by it and the happiness of the content that I put out but there’s a heck of a lot more that connect with it. So yeah, that’s kinda what that comes down to.- You know, I just, I wanna echo that because I don’t think enough people are hearing it as authentically as I want them to, that the opportunity really, for everybody out there in sales and mortgage, et cetera is to really be yourself, to be yourself. If you think, like I know there’s probably some professionals out there who are like, “Oh, TikTok, I don’t connect to it. “I don’t like it, I’ve looked at it but it turns me off.” And for every one of those people, there’s millions and millions people on the platform who are super excited to be on the platform and tons of enjoyment from it. And again, this further validates to everyone that’s hung out for multiple segments today. There are so many paths to the consumer ’cause the consumers are radically different and you can have the super serious mortgage podcast, audio only or you could be Scott on TikTok dancing with some song and dropping mortgage facts and getting huge response.- I literally, I walked into my kid’s daycare this morning and all the teachers turn and they’re like, “Look who it is, that mortgage guy,” and I didn’t know that they see me on there and they were like, “We didn’t know you were TikTok famous.” I’m like, this is just crazy.- It’s crazy and I’m encouraging everybody, especially to this collab to get themselves out authentically onto the platforms that they feel connected to because this will never happen again.- Never.- This is never gonna happen again. There’s never gonna be another, that mortgage guy. You’re the guy and the more you lean into it and take ownership of the space, the more that it just distances from everybody else. And so, what’s your goal with it? Do you have a goal with it? What’s your thoughts?- Yeah, my goal at the end of the day is to really monetize my following and my audience. I’d like to grow it to, a million to two million in the next two to four years. And I, of course this last week or so I’ve had to kinda pump the brakes a little bit ’cause I’ve been— Congratulations by the way.- Thank you, man. The sleep is just what’s getting to me— Its the worst.- I’m running on 40 ounces of coffee today.- Bro, I’m feeling you.- Leave that there. But now that’s the goal is really grow to two to maybe three million of followers. And right now I’m at 135 K and I’m averaging probably 200 to 300 emails a day sometimes. If I could quadruple that, maybe even more, I kinda wanna grow to a point where I can grow my team as well and just kinda hand off these deals and not be so bombarded with all of this stuff ’cause it’s a lot to handle and then eventually maybe look at it like advertising and influencer marketing within the financial sector, with insurance and investment firms and real estate agencies and things of that nature.- Dude so fun, man. So what was your aha moment like, “Oh crap, this is gonna be a thing?” Was it that first time you hit, there was literally like no views and then you woke up and it was 300,000 views? Was it like that, did it grow slowly?- It happened pretty quickly. Yeah, I posted it and I think I got like four or 5,000 views in an hour and I was like wow, this is like, this is really this one’s performing well.- You remember which one it was?- What’s that?- Do you remember what it was?- Yeah it was literally, I just had my phone and I was walking through my kitchen and I was pointing to text bubbles on beat on how you can buy a house with no money down and it wasn’t fancy, it wasn’t anything special and yeah I was like, why is this performing so well? And it did. That’s the cool part about the platform too is, it doesn’t have to be so pro post produced, it doesn’t have to be so fancy, 95% of the content you see on the platform is shot from people’s phones and not even from this side of the camera. You’re talking about this side of the camera and it’s not perfect clarity, the resolution isn’t perfect and it doesn’t matter. So that’s what’s kinda cool.- By the way one of my favorites was, you posted about your old company wanting you back now that you were TikTok famous. I fell out of my chair. I’m dying, dude. I was like that is so fricking funny. It’s just so good, dude.- Yeah there’s been content I post I’m like, maybe I should take that down.- Okay, so let’s do this. If somebody is like, one of my big encouragements here is not to try to have everybody replicated everybody else. There’s been lots of people doing podcasting and Instagram and Facebook groups and I don’t wanna be like, “Oh shit, I gotta copy this person “and maybe I can get some of their stuff.” But if there is somebody who wants to start going into TikTok because they think that they’re like, “Ha, that’s interesting,” or their kids are on it so they’re like, “I’ll be there,” but there aren’t the whole time. Give everybody the kinda like the quick and dirty advice of how to understand the platform, what to do and not do, how to stay authentic, share your thoughts.- Yeah, so I would say, in the first, like when you start off on the platform, obviously download the app and spend four to five hours consuming content going through the foryou page, they call it where like on Instagram they have the search bar where you can see content all over the world, viral content that is performing well on the platform. TikTok is similar where they have a foryou page and a following page. Your following page are people that you follow, the foryou page is for people all across the world that have posted content that’s performing well on the platform. And within that content on the foryou page, there’s different themes, there’s different skits, there’s a ton of trending songs and if you can take advantage of those songs, whether it’s a play on the words within the song with your craft and what you’re talking about or whether you’re just taking advantage of that song ’cause it’s trending and has a million views made to that song and pointing to text bubbles on beat, I think that that’s the core of what it is. It’s just tapping into those trends and those trending songs.- Yeah, thanks for that. It’s the one on one on how to speak the same language of the platform you’re on. Understanding it, understanding what people are doing on it and then being able to put your own spin and creativity behind it. And you’re a pretty creative dude. I mean, it’s hard to come up with content people freeze up and then this, I can imagine them being a little scared of TikTok.- Yeah, it’s no joke. Once you hit like 20, 30,000 followers, you start to feel the special, like man, I gotta figure something out today. What am I gonna to do? And that’s literally like every night between probably 10:00 and 1:00 am. I’ll sit on my phone, my wife will falla asleep and I’ll just consume content and I’ll text videos to myself. You know you can text your cell, I don’t know if you have an iPhone. I don’t know how to enjoy this but you can text yourself, text the video to yourself and then put in a blurb of how you wanna spin it or what you wanna say or how you wanna do it. And I just store that content and just every night add to it and then pick what I think’s gonna perform best. And it’s always good later on at night you have a couple of beers, you can relax and just have fun with it and that’s probably where my most creativity comes from.- Exactly when all the inhibitions are down, you’d be like, “I got a feeling about that.”- Exactly.- Let’s see how that goes. So let me ask you this Scott, how has this, what’s the lead velocity from the platform, monthly, weekly? What kind of lead velocity are you getting from it?- Right now I have three closings directly from TikTok. I have 1.4 million dollars in buyers in a contract right now. I probably have like 30 to 40 buyers on the street shopping but I literally just got approved yesterday for those other four states, Virginia, Florida, DC and Pennsylvania and I’m getting probably 30 to 50 people a week in those areas, for Maryland, it was like five to seven leads a week but the leads were legitimate. I was converting probably half of them. That’s what’s crazy about it, is the conversion, it’s great.- It’s always awesome about it because it just shows that humans are out there looking for help and they’re connecting with who they’re connecting with on those platforms and if you’re there and, Scott has been working hard to put out content ’cause, how many videos have you done on TikTok? How many TikToks have you done?- I don’t even know, I have to go and look.- Tons, I was scrolling one day and I’m like, wow this guy is, but this is going back to everything you’ve heard this whole day which is hard work is still hard work. It’s not like you just go on TikTok and you just all of a sudden become famous and now you get leads everyday, no. Scott, you’re investing in it. You’re putting out, you’re thinking about it at night. You’re coming up with content ideas. You’re being creative and then you’re executing it at a much bigger pace than other people I think are even imagining.- Yeah and now it’s prime time. You have to be posting three to four times a day and I have been feeling guilty because the last week I’ve kinda laid off.- You have a baby, bro, well.- You know but it, I don’t know. It’s tough, I’m doing the best I can but yeah, you’re right. If you’re not tapping into it now, now is the heat of everything. Gary talks about how far in its infancy it is and how it is like three or four times better than what Instagram was in its heyday when it first kicked off and the organic reach was outrageous. So, if you’re not taking advantage of it now, it’s a mistake.- It’s a mistake. Here’s my encouragement for everybody that’s hearing Scott and maybe are a little intimidated or thinking that the platform’s not for them. I would disagree, everyone thought Facebook wasn’t a platform for adults or whatever we are. I don’t think that, people thought Instagram was just for photos. These platforms are places for human connection. That’s what they are and I gotta tell you, Scott I know I said this earlier but the second I started reading your comments and seeing people going, well can I buy a house? Well, what about me, what about where I live? Can you refer to it in California? And I was like, holy crap, this is real, this is happening.- It’s crazy yeah. I never thought it would but it’s been a good surprise for this year for sure.- So as we wind down here, what has been your biggest learnings, because this is relatively, give everybody some context. When did this really hit for you?- I think my first video went viral in December and then it took me some time to really figure out and harness the platform and the context of it. And I think in January, February timeframe, I really started to gain some steam and started to figure out, what content is performing better and how I have to spin it. I would say the top three things I try to focus on at one is authenticity and focusing on things that you like and things you like to do. Number two is providing value, whether it’s something about a down payment assistance program or a snippet of the home buying process or something that people need to know or a home buying hack or something along those lines. And then number three is being entertaining to some extent, whether it’s humorous or something that’s just off the wall or different. You have to grab the viewers’ attention and also have that hook within the first three to four seconds of the video, the platform is so fast paced. People are just scrolling, consuming content rapidly and you have to capture the viewer’s attention quickly. So you have to have that hook and I would say, those three pillars are what I focus on in trying to figure out how I can capture the viewer’s attention quickly.- Now by the way, for everyone that heard that, I think that that’s universally true across any platform, that hook concept. If you’re gonna do a 45-minutes to an hour long podcast, hook in the beginning.- Yeah.- If you’re gonna do an Instagram video or IGTV video, hook in the beginning, before it says, “Hey do you wannna keep watching this?” If you haven’t hooked somebody, they’re not gonna keep watching it on Instagram. Scott’s advice guys is universal to any type of content you’re gonna create, hook right away.- Absolutely, yep.- Well dude first of all, everyone probably just didn’t hear it that this is happening in real time. So Scott kinda got something contraction in December, now we’re like six months later and this thing is blowing up. So it’s like, it’s actually happening right now. It’s not like he spent seven years building his TikTok platform. It’s really happening right now and my biggest encouragement to all of you guys from anything today is just dive the hell in, dive in and get messy and make mistakes and do silly dances and see what lands ’cause people, they want authenticity. Scott, you’re nothing but authentic and they’re on all your content, everything you do I can see you’re like, what you care about is coming through in the messaging and so I’m just watching it all happen in real time. And I’m like this is the truth across, all these platforms guys. Any final words of advice, brother that you would give everybody and we can get you back to your baby?- No, I would say have patience, test the waters and try different things. It’s not gonna happen overnight and it’s a process just like anything else. I was listening a little bit to the gentleman you had on before me and I started doing video content a year and a half, two years ago. And just like he said, you can go back to my Instagram and watch those videos they were horrible. And it’s literally a process just like everything else. Professional baseball players don’t become professionals overnight. And so, you’ve gotta have patience and you’ve gotta put the work in, really.- Dude, go follow this guy on TikTok. You’ll learn the game. I’m so excited to see you and sharing freely Scott on what you’re doing. Thank you for everything you’ve done so far for the mortgage industry on TikTok. You’re representing us well, getting the word out. I love it and thank you.- Thank you, sir. Yeah, thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.- Talk to you later.- Take care.- Man, dive into the water, team. How much more proof do you need? Dive into the water. I don’t care where but go all in and have some fun with your career, with yourself. Don’t take yourself so seriously. At the end of all that stuff is unbelievable opportunity if you’re willing to play in the space. I hope I impacted value today. Please go find these wonderful human beings online, connect with them, follow ’em, see what they’re doing. Man, I appreciate you all. Have a wonderful day and a wonderful week. I’ll see you on the internet.