Let’s discuss the reality of our social media and marketing efforts in a very real and candid way. And let me give you a hint, the truth here is not unique to those two topics above. It really is the long game that matters.

In this edition of LiveTime with Alec he covers:

• The most important thing when you’re just getting started with live streaming: VULNERABILITY
• Speaking of which…take a trip with me into the archives of my first ever, YouTube videos.
• Challenging the idea that you don’t know what to talk about on video(You totally do)
• What flirty pager codes have to do with building relationships with you clients. Yes. Seriously
• Stop thinking about “Perfect Content”.  Create human connection.

Episode Transcribe

What’s up everybody.

Happy Tuesday in COVID land.

Can the year be done? Can it just be done? 

My rally beard’s going strong. My wife refuses to look at me. My daughter won’t kiss me but I’m not shaving. I’m not shaving until we are back to work because that’s what Jesus would do. I don’t know if that’s what he would do.Hi guys. This is a fun conversation today. I got really motivated because I’m seeing more and more people doing incredible things on their social media, incredible things, authentic things, real things, stepping into the heat. I got to give a big shout out to a really close friend of mine, Nema Namdar, who decided to go live for the first time, the other day. I think it was yesterday, actually. The days are all blurring together so I don’t know anymore.First of all, if you’re checking us out live on YouTube, Facebook or LinkedIn, love to hear where you’re from. Love to hear where you’re from. So please drop it in the comments so I can check out where everybody’s tuning in from. And if you’re watching this on a replay, still want to hear, still want to hear, put it in there. All right. So back to Nema, man this guy, first of all, you probably know people like Nema. The guy’s incredibly talented, extremely charismatic, like a lover of humanity. When you hang out with this guy, you just want to hang out with him more. Right? And so he’s in business development, which is the fancy way of saying sales, sorry, everything is sales. Not in construction, but like building out an office, right. Building an office. Obviously that’s an insane [inaudible 00:02:01] too but like someone’s going to make your office look good.He finally went live and his first live, he dove into a topic of vulnerability, fear, and what’s been holding him back, one of his insecurities that have held him back from going live. And I was like, dude, you did it. If any of you are like trying to get into the video game and you’re scared and fearful, like the first video is on why you’re scared and fearful. Perfect, perfect video. Hey Jess. [inaudible 00:02:25], LinkedIn. And so I’m just immensely proud because he did it, dude. He did it. I was asking him in his industry, how many people in sales in his world are doing that? Getting out into the new normal, which is this medium right here and dialoguing and creating content and sharing what they do, but also sharing themselves, right?There are so many scripted post produced pieces of crap on the internet right now where everyone is just a talking head and we don’t like talking heads. Does anyone seriously watch the news anymore? Did any of you watch the news? No. No you don’t because it’s garbage and you know you’re being fed something. Like I don’t care what your angle is, what your political slant is. Pick a channel. They’re like open up burb and they’re just spoonfeeding you whatever their agenda and the angle is. Everyone’s got an agenda, everyone’s got an angle and they’re all scripted on teleprompter.Salespeople going live and sharing video content. That’s authentic. That’s from themselves. That’s just raw and making an impact. And he did it. And I was like, Hey, hunt in Healdsburg. Oh my gosh. I want to be up in Healdsburg. That’s on LinkedIn. I love that place. It’s like a special little place in like Northern California, Napa Sonoma area. Anyway, this one I was talking about, he got in the game. And if you saw the topic of this live stream today, man, it’s about the long game.It’s absolutely about the long game. I just want to share this with you guys. So check this out.Hey, Brian spoonfed from bend Oregon. What’s up, dude.I’m going to share my screen. I got to show you guys this stuff because this is the real stuff. So hold on one second. While I click the buttons, let’s do a Chrome tab. Let’s do YouTube. Share.Let’s come in here and drop this banner off because it’s messing me up. Bang. All right, check this out, dude. Here’s YouTube. Let’s go to my channel because I want to show you guys what’s up. Not the studio. Alec, not the studio. No one cares about the studio.By the way I am considering if you’re interested, let me know, I am considering doing a live training on how to set up your YouTube channel. If that’s interesting for anybody, please let me know and make a comment. I’m super into doing it. I think it would be helpful, but a lot of people I don’t think are really figuring it out yet. So if you’re in to having me help set up your internet, your YouTube channel, let me know.So look, here it is. Here’s what I got going on. Make it full screen. You’ve got kind of my intro video. It’s a long game that matters. We’re alive now. How fascinating is that? I got my two homeys watching right there. I got my playlist. And if you go to like my a hundred videos in a hundred days, for example, you’ve got all these videos. And if you go back to this very first one, check this out.Hey everybody. Alec Hanson here with a quick message. Look, I’m a huge believer that leaders need to lead from the front. I have tremendous respect for the country leaders that are actually in the business leading and coaching people and showing them what they should be doing to the best of their ability. I like to call it leaders-Yeah. Yeah, there it is. It’s not good. Like I’m not proud of it. And I took this idea directly from Shawna Harra who is another, pushing the industry forward and social media and I’m sharing it because…Oh, hi. Hi Colleen. You’re interested in YouTube. Okay. Yeah. I will definitely consider doing live training on it. It is not as complex as people think.But you know, Shawna showed his first video ever and he was kind of embarrassing himself about like, Oh my first video ever. This was my first video on my channel. A hundred videos a hundred days, but now let’s get real vulnerable. Check this out. We’re doing it. Drive time with Alec. This is it. Ladies and gentlemen, this channel is the game right here. Hold on, hold on. Let’s get rid of this over here. So first video ever nine years ago, episode 22. And the reason it’s episode 22 is because- all right, we’re just going to play it for a second. Hold on, hold on. You deserve it.(music playing)Yeah. Good morning. Video edition. Oh this is not safe. Not good. And that’s not safe.So guys, guys, nine years ago, I decided as a experiment of self-expression, now this is how weird I am. So I’m sorry. You get to be on the weird journey. Welcome. But I decided to record, that’s why this is episode 22, I decided to record myself.Louis. What’s up dude. Blast from the past.Yes. I decided to record myself on audio only driving into work. And I just was just talking. I was thinking of it like an audio journal, right? So you don’t judge me because it’s a journal now. So now you can’t judge me. And then I was like, you know what? Let’s go ahead and film it. So after 22 audio journals, I turned on the camera in my car and I started nine years ago. People nine years ago. Okay. Long time ago. And I started to film myself, driving to work and talking about whatever topic I want to talk about. And so here, I’m just going to show you this real quick. Yep. Here we go. Here you go. Paying attention? You seeing this right now? I’m sorry. Is this not helpful? Let’s go back to this one, 262. Personal favorite, choke out the day. Here’s choke out Friday. Drive Time episode number 183.Guys, this is called practice. It’s called practice. Walk time is really good. That’s a really good one. I started putting graphics on a DriveTime intro. Yeah. We’re going to play the intro right now. You deserve this.(music playing)All right. I’m sorry. No one deserves that. No one deserves to be subjugated to that. I apologize for showing you that.Paul said the rest of the beard is gone next video. Alec, bring the mustache back. Yeah, we’ll talk about that.But look guys, I’m trying to show you the truth here. Okay. Do you see all of this practice? Do you see the ability for someone to get vulnerable and what it can do for your longterm? I’m telling you right now that I would absolutely not have the confidence or the competency in talking to a little lens, if I didn’t put myself into a position of vulnerability to do it often and a lot every day, for example, for all these days.So I share all this because one video is not enough. It’s not going to do it. I can guarantee you right now. I did a hundred videos in a hundred days, which is nothing because I did 260 videos in 260 days. That’s actually not true. A hundred was terrible, terrible. I was in a different place and my DriveTime didn’t have to make sense. The hundred, I really wanted to actually land and add value into the world. I can tell you right now, people don’t watch all of them, or many of them. I always joke about this. And now I’m going to be at a housing wire engaged marketing event, doing a 30 minute session on the power of video. That’s what I’m talking about. Video matters, but it’s a skill. It’s a skill that you have to lean into.Let’s talk about the long game, right? I guarantee you, the first time you walked into a referral partners office, open house and said, I’m ready for a loan. And they said, thank God you’re here. I’ve been waiting for a loan officer to walk in and say, I’m ready for my loan because I have the Johnson’s here who just want to give someone their loan. So thank God you’re here. No, no. Of course not.Jeff on LinkedIn is nailing. He’s like, the truth is most don’t have the longevity to see the fruits. That is a hundred percent truth. And that is what I’m pushing all of you to understand. You’re not going to be good in the beginning, but you will become good over time. You’re not going to be a brand leader and an influencer in your first 72 videos. But you will be in a long time., if you lean in, you’re not good at prospecting realtors and going to open houses until you are after you keep going. I don’t know how else to say it. And I think the proof is undeniable. I think the proof is undeniable.I appreciate the LinkedIn stuff. This is really fun. Thank you Maria for the comment.Yeah. You know, look, I’m going to take the banner off. I’m going to take the brand off. This is like my new move now to like, bang. Look, look, if you’re thinking in your head, I don’t know what to say, you’re lying. Okay. So let’s just strip that falsity out of reality. If you’re like, I don’t know what to say. You’re lying. I’ll give you an example.If you’re in mortgage sales right now, there is so much confusion happening around what you can and can’t do in mortgage land that you can show up and explain what’s going on. What are the changes Fannie and Freddie are doing? I heard jumbos are going away. What’s happening to Healogics. There’s a million conversations you could be having. Barry Habib, God bless his amazing soul, will literally send you topics every morning. Sign up for Rob Crispin’s guide. It’s a free email. He’ll give you content and topics every morning.This is a page Kung Fu Alec. Yeah. Let’s punching quick, quick jabs. I don’t know. We’re not going back to drive time ever again. I’m off my game.If one of your excuses is you don’t know what to say. I don’t have the content. That’s a lie. There’s a million things to talk about. If you don’t believe me, I’m going to challenge you right now. Call me after this session or DM me, since we’re on social. DM me, leave me your cell phone. I will call you and we will create 50 pieces of content in 25 minutes. I’m not joking. We’ll do it live. DM me your phone number. I don’t care what industry you’re in. I don’t care what you do, but if you’re in mortgage, you better buckle up. I got a lot of them. In 25 minutes, we will come up with 50 pieces of content and then I’m going to make you post them and tag me in everyone. Okay?So now we’re realizing the content is not the issue because it’s actually the fear of posting it and the fear of being vulnerable. Did everyone get bullied? I’m having this like weird, shocking, like realization. Did every human in the world get bullied? Where did this fear of rejection and insecurity originate because we couldn’t all have been bullied. Like my buddy Nema was bullied. I was bullied. Where is it coming from for you because for me, it was coming from that experience growing up. I have amazing parents and amazing family who were just pouring love over me. And I still walked into junior high and high school, a hot mess from a core down in insecurities. So we recognize contents, not the issue, fear is the issue. I just have to ask you, how did you overcome it the first time? Like clearly in mortgages, you’re doing loans. You wouldn’t be in this business anymore if you weren’t doing loans. So how did you do it? How did you do it? Because you did it once before.How do you do it again? This new world is proving more and more concretely that going online, creating a digital brand, putting your face out for people to see. I don’t think you have a choice if you’re in sales, you got to play the game you got to be in the water. It’s the new reality. Here it is. Are you going to be good at it or not?We’re talking about content strategies. Just talk about what your clients ask you throughout the week. By the way, you’re stealing my answer because that’s all I was going to do with anyone that DM me. What question did you clients ask this week? So thanks Sean, just ruin it. Now someone who’s going to DM me doesn’t need to anymore because that’s the reality.My encouragement for all of you guys, as you look at this as it’s a long game, it’s a long game. If you’re married, okay, how long did it take to get married? Did you just propose on the first date? You might’ve been in love, you might have had all those warm feelings, but what did you do? No. No, you did not. You formed a relationship over time through connectivity. You formed a relationship over time building trust. You formed a relationship over time through conversations, through face to face interactions, through text messages late into the night. Or if you’re like me and you had a pager, it was 143 or 823. Yeah. If you know what 823 is comment right now. Let’s see who really is the true, like borderline millennial, whatever that means. If you had a pager and you knew at 143 and 823 meant, you knew how to speak the language of love back in whatever that was, nineties? I don’t even remember.Yep. I know there’s a lag, so you haven’t heard my pager comment yet, but it’s good. I’m proud of it. I don’t have a note that says, talk about pagers. Oh, I’m getting comments. Oh Shane, I’m coming for ya. All right, we’re going to do some stuff. You made some comments so you’re going to get into the game.You didn’t get married on your first text. You didn’t get married on your first page. You built a relationship. So what are you going to do with social media to build that relationship going forward? What are you going to do to make an impact? And I’ll tell you right now, you got to start by being in the game. It’s a long game. It’s a long game. Go back nine years of doing videos with DriveTime with Alec. Nine years of that stuff followed up by building out my channel for years with content and live streams. Look at all this effort. This is work. I’m going to be totally honest, for those of you that are likes I got it together or whatever, or I’m killing it and blah, blah, blah.Look my Be There video, 11 views. I don’t care. I got a lot better. I developed content that now sits in my brain about things I care about and think about. And now I’m even better than before. So everyone’s like, Oh, look, My Potato Be Human, 17 views. I thought that was a great video, 17 views. Now I know, I’m getting a lot of views on LinkedIn and I get a lot of views live and I get a lot of views on Facebook. So it’s not all about YouTube channel. That’s correct. That’s totally true. But I’m playing the long game and I’m in the pool. Get in the pool. You’ll get better.Here’s the last thing I’ll give you as a tip and trick. One of the things that I found the most helpful for me in playing the long game is having perspective and it’s also following people that are already doing it. You know, the guy that works with me named Ivan put out a really great Instagram post about the 33% rule. And I’ll just share one part, it was 33% of your time should be spent with people who are ahead of you, who you think are driving into ways you want to play. And the reason you spend time with them is because they’ll pull you forward. They’ll make you feel uncomfortable. They’ll drive your thought process. Could not agree more. Most of the stuff I’ve learned and all of this technology and multi streaming and putting on bumpers and creating a YouTube channel and making it look pretty, all this stuff has been by following people and aggressively learning because I’m passionate about it and I know it’s the truth. A lot of you out there right now, know it’s the truth too. You feel it right here. You’re like, I know I need to be on video. I know I need to be creating some content. I know I need to be connecting humans.Let me break it down again. I’m a little bit sick and I heard myself say it. So I have to kind of pause and go back. I’m a little bit sick about just create content. That starts to feel buzzy to me and I don’t like things that feel buzzy. I like things that feel authentic. I’m not creating content by making these videos. I’m trying to create human connection to you guys, to the people in my ecosystem, to the people I want to influence, to the people I want to lead. I’m trying my best through this medium to create, I was going to say content again, no to create human connection. And that’s what I want you to do. I don’t want you to create content. I want you to create human connection.If you can play in that head space you’ll win. You’ll win long. You’ll have that. You’ll have the influence you want.Noble says good stuff. Thank you so much on LinkedIn.Yeah. You’ll create human connection, which is not done by reading a script. It is not done by having a hyper overproduced piece of content or video. Those are fun. And I geek out on them look, I love this stuff. I love making this little stupid thing and I can teach people how. I learned and I watch the videos and I like it. I enjoy this. It makes me happy.Go find how to be happy in a way to create human connection and you will have the absolute career of your life in any business, especially sales. So play the long game. Here’s the one more piece of advice, when you go live or when you put out a video, please remember the power is not in the moment. All right. Those of you that are joining me right now on YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook, we’re having a moment. This is cool. I’m loving this. I get live comments. And I get to look at it and be like, yes, I’m going to post that. I’m the Cajun lender. It feeds me. But I also know that this moment is going to be gone in five minutes. When I end the broadcast, this will be over. But this video and this and this experience will go on in perpetuity and have much more amazing impact.Right now on LinkedIn, there are 14 people watching me 14 on LinkedIn. You 14, we’re having a moment. But as soon as this is done, as soon as this ends, we all turn around and go about our day, I routinely get thousands of views on my videos because the content lives on, it keeps going. People keep talking about it. People keep commenting on it. Days after that’s the power of this stuff, is it moves forward. It doesn’t stay stagnant. It’s not a once and done experience. The more you lean into this stuff-Yes, Jeremiah, we’re going to do this live. Should this self-employed handyman jump in this pool. So Jeremiah first, a small story on this amazing human being. This guy was the first crazy maniac to walk into my garage like 13 years ago when I started a CrossFit gym at night. I almost killed him 16 times. I swear. And here’s the reality. He says, self-employed handyman. Should I be in the space. A thousand percent? First of all, let me tell you one thing I know about handymen. I’m terrified of hiring them. I never know if they’re going to show up. I’m always skeptical. I’m always like, who are you? I don’t know you. I found you on Angie’s list or Yelp and are you going to do a good job. Contractors, handyman pick a title in that home improvement or house improvement area.I’ll give you a great freaking example. My fence is deteriorating. Like I need a new fence. And I’m like, crap, how do I get a new fence? I started Googling new fences. I’m like, maybe I can build it myself. You know, go to home Depot. I’m quarantined. Maybe I figured this out. If you’re in that space right there, Jeremiah, we’re going to hang out, man. And here’s the other thing. If you lived around me, which I miss you and it’d be fun if you did, but it’s been a long time. But if you lived around me and I’m Googling this stuff, I would have been like, Holy crap, Jeremiah could do this. I totally forgot.Okay. This is like a pro tip. But I’m just going to say it. You’re not the center of the world. Neither am I. Everybody around you is not thinking about you all the time. I know shocker, super big shocker. You’re thinking about you all the time. I get it. I’ve been in the lending industry for, Oh my gosh, how long has it been? 17 years, 18 years, ish. And I’m damn good. I was the top 1% originator for every single year. I was the rookie of the year, my first year funding, 85 million. I ran mega teams across the country. I’m going to fund $6 billion this year in my division. I know how to do a loan and I’m damn good at it. And I know a ton of resources. People still don’t call me for advice. My friends don’t call me for advice. It’s not unique.How many of you had friends that have went out and got alone with somebody else? And you’re like, we’re homies and you didn’t call me. We’re not on everyone’s mind all the time. And in order to get on people’s mind all the time, you got to play the long game with social media, the long game with video, the long game on influence because you get better and better and better at it. And all of a sudden they go, Hey, you know what shit, Jeremiah, I forgot he lived down the street. The guy’s amazing. Look at all the projects he’s doing because all you have to do Jeremiah is document your projects and all the cool stuff you’re doing.How about giving tips and tricks so people don’t have to hire you. Ooh, isn’t that a good one? That one makes people really uncomfortable. This is what I love about do you follow [inaudible 00:25:47] on what’s a mortgage. Love this guy because he is just putting out what to do. And he’s never hiding his knowledge. He’s sharing it openly and for everybody about how to get a mortgage, how to navigate the space. And it’s like, well, you’re giving away all your secrets so they can go use whoever they want. Yeah, they could, they could go use whoever they want, but they don’t. They use him because he showed them how to do it with no strings attached. And this for you, for Jeremiah and handyman services, same thing.I had a sprinkler clicking in my backyard. Look, I’m good at many things. I’m very proud of how many things I’m good at. Handyman things, not good. Not good. Call me to fix your computer. Got it. I’m in the game. Sprinkler clicking, got nothing. Zero things. I got the Google and the YouTubes and I’m looking at it like, can I fix this myself? I’m like, I’m going to kill myself. I can’t, I can’t do it. I guarantee if Jeremiah had a video on how to fix your stupid sprinkler from clicking, it was shorting, I could have fixed it in five seconds and then he would have been my man.So guys, we all need to be in the pool. You need to be in the pool. All of you. Yes. In the pool. Miss you, buddy. It’s good to see you dude. All right. If you’ve got one more question, I’ll take it but as a series, for just my last question here, if I was going to do some live trainings, what do you want it on?I can do YouTube. I can do social media graphics. I can do, man, a lot of different things on just simple, how tos. If something that is interesting to you, let me know. Starting in the comments later when I end the broadcast is fine. I’ll still get it. I’m still going to hang out and talk to you guys, but I’m really happy to continue to dive in.Everyone’s going, if you want to hit up Paul’s comment in LinkedIn. I guess the real vote now is should I shave the beard to keep the mustache for the rest of quarantine? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.And remember everybody, it’s the long game. Get in the pool and start swimming because every time you put out a piece of video and create human connection, you build a foundation, you build more influence. You build and it stacks on each other like bricks in a pyramid. And before you know it, you’ll have one of the wonders of the world underneath you and you’ll be ready to kill it in your career. That’s all I got for everybody. I hope you guys have a wonderful day. Take care, buddy. And I’ll see you next week on LiveTime with Alec. Peace out.