You're listening to the REI marketing nerds podcast, the leading resource for real estate investors who want to dominate their market online. Dan Barrett is the founder of AdWords nerds, a high tech digital agency focusing exclusively on helping real estate investors like you get more leads and deals online, outsmart your competition and live a freer, more awesome life. And now, your host, Dan Barrett
0:41 All right. Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the REI marketing nerds podcast. As always, this is Daniel Barrett here from AdWords nerds.com where the best real estate investors go to get more leads and deals online from their real estate investing businesses this week. Oh, I've got a good one. I am talking to Mr. Josh color. Now Josh color is from color media.com. And that's spelled C u l l e r media.com. And Josh is a really interesting person because he has been doing content marketing for some of the most influential real estate investors and real estate investing educators in the industry. He is an expert on what it takes to make video content work what it takes to make web content work. He's tapped into what's going on on social media in a way that frankly, I'm just not right. I've been so into the paid media space for so long, I kind of forget that, hey, man, these social media channels, they are growing, they are moving very rapidly. And I was so excited to get to talk to Josh because, quite frankly, he is an expert in a thing that I want to know more about. So I'm excited for you to hear this interview with Josh color from color. media.com. Josh, welcome to show man. Happy to have you here.
2:01 Dan, thank you so much. I'm excited to be here ready to bring some value and talk a lot of we were talking about what we're going to discuss it's gonna be a lot of controversy. So I'm excited about it. Right and face it forward. So exactly. I am looking to alienate the largest number of people possible. Not necessarily because never was like, Well, let's start with color media again. So that's c u l l e r media.com. Now you guys do video, you do content marketing. But let's let's back up, give people if they're not familiar with you, and they're not familiar with the company, give them kind of like the 30,000 foot overview of you and what you do.
2:37 Yeah, for sure. So I'll keep it short and sweet. It lasts. The story lasts for 1213 years in some sort of way back in 2000, late 2012. I actually got hired by a local I was working in a forklift warehouse and I was looking for something different. A friend of mine that I played basketball with and went to high school with his dad actually owned many doors in our area. I think it was like just over 500 doors in our Northwest Indiana Chicagoland area. And they happened to be looking for somebody that needed to go put out bandit signs and flip properties and you know, place bids on HUD and MLS and auction and all that kind of stuff just like odds and ends type things. And so I was like, I'm looking for another opportunity. Let me give it a shot, went to work with them for about six months parted ways because a good buddy of mine a lot of people listening might know the name Gary Harper.
He was currently at the time partners with a couple other guys in a massive wholesaling organization out here in the Midwest, I went to work for him and at the age of 2019 going on 20 I turned into their full time marketing director at the time, and this is a way back and you know, now now talk and tell them 13 ish, and I was in that position for five, six years and was with them and like I said just had so much experience and and back then datamine was a completely different world. We're talking acquisitions was not cold calling was not text blasting was not doing any thing of the sources barely dropping direct mail. At the time, a lot of acquisitions was based around placing bids on HUD on the last auction, that sort of thing in marketing was a lot more based around generating buyers and building buyers lists. That's what we focused on a lot at the time. And then eventually right around like 2000 between 2016 2017 that shifted into what acquisitions is today.
And so then we made that pivot and then long story short after that, right around the end of 2017. I went we had all started a mastermind for real estate investors and the company all split up and parted ways and that sort of thing. And I went with the guy who owned the mastermind and I ran that mastermind for about two years and then went full time into color media but all the while not mentioning, I was always doing media work in some way shape or form. So even way back when we were doing specifically just wholesaling. I always put putting out and cranking out video content. I wasn't on the video, but the owners and the sales people and our staff were on the videos, that sort of thing. And we're putting that out too. Our buyers list and just generating content that was going out to our buyers list to pamper them and tell them what deal we just got under contract and that sort of thing. And so I really had developed a lot of that skill of content marketing over that time period.
Then at some point, we started a podcast, we're putting out the podcast today on all the platforms and everything, videoing it as well putting it on YouTube, and then just kind of that lasted for a good amount of time. And I started to generate some clients off to the side at a time, I was also doing branding, which I didn't really love, but I was really good at it. And then 2018, I made the decision to go full time into what I'm doing in March 2019, is when I did go full time, and now going on five years and a couple of months that we've been doing this and we solely work with real estate investors, so people that are either active, but a lot of our clients, how are educators influencers, coaches, mentors, that sort of thing. So that's the 12 year story in about three or four minutes.
5:53 So so first of all, I've met dairy dairy, the dairy opera is super smart. Dude, that strikes me is like a really cool place to kind of cut your teeth and yeah, can get get moving there. So before you started doing that, did you have like a video background? Like were you like the kid running around with like, the handheld like making movies and stuff? Or was that just something you started doing? Because they were like, Well, were they like, you're young? You know, you really just
6:23 just a little bit of that, you know, technology right? And it's It's funny though, because like, I remember the the first day on the job, I got my first one I was working for the the local buy and hold guy who I first went into the industry with, I got my first smartphone, which is the iphone four at the time to go take pictures, because at the time I just had a flip phone. Yeah, it doesn't seem like it's that long ago. But that was it was that long ago. And so I you know, learn how to take good pictures of the iPhone, and that's how we would submit them and that sort of thing. But yeah, I mean, like, I have always been a creative in some sorts. And what's funny is like if you if you look at my any of my personality tests, and I like I really like personality tests and a sense of like, knowing my awareness of myself and that sort of thing.
I'm very, like, I'm very kind of like conscious of knowing myself not for the sake of understanding my weaknesses, but building up on my on my weaknesses and leaning towards my strengths, that thing. But if you look at my, let's say, for instance, my predictive index testing, I am an operator, but I have a maverick personality, but because of that, I'm really good at kind of envisioning things and being creative with them, and then kind of like getting it off the ground and going and then I'm able to delegate really well after that. So the reason why I mentioned that is because like I remember in high school, when we did video projects for classes and stuff like that, I was always the one that was kind of directing and pointing things out and saying how to film it and that sort of thing with no experience.
So I always have like one of my buddies behind the camera, say, all right, like film this way and do that do this. I could totally do it myself. But and honestly, like, I've never been asked that question before, as funny as it sounds, but that's kind of the truth of the matter. So I've always had like an art background, I was always doing sketching and a lot of artistic type stuff and did that for quite a while. And I think that's kind of where it developed and just my vision and ability to see kind of like past, you know, what's currently going on, like what it could be. And that's kind of where it comes from.
8:19 Yeah, it sounds like you kind of have an intuitive, you know, an intuitive side that kind of gets like how it's going to appear to other people. Kind of right, right? Yeah, I did my predictive index. And all I what I remember from it, is it saying like, I don't like to be told what to do. And I'm not particularly good at anything. So I was like, Okay, great. I can only do this, I can only do so good, huh?
8:42 Just completely unemployable is what it's all right. Exactly. All right. Well, let's I would love to talk a little bit about what color media does today. One of the reasons that we really wanted to have you on the show was AdWords nerds, we've been talking a lot about video, it comes up a lot, right. And I feel like you mentioned the flip phone, which is like, the same way, right? It's like I remember, we live through this transition. And particularly, we're now in the really like this fever pitch kind of transition to video as the media, of social media of content of, of the way that people consume things, right? Like I am a long form reader by nature. And it's very obvious to me that like most people, that's not how they're consuming their content. Right. So we wanted to have you on the show, particularly to talk about that because I think it's it's difficult for a lot of investors to wrap their heads around. It's difficult for me to wrap our heads around. So let's kind of start there. When you look at the ecosystem, like your new client comes into you right? And you're like, hey, I need you to help me with my content marketing, right? Where does a video sit in that? Are you like, it's got to be all video videos where it matters. Does it vary like tell me where you kind of see video? Yo, the role that video plays in our current kind of Internet ecosystem
10:03 now, so not just like the question of is video like needed in marketing, but the way you frame that as like, is it? Is it subjective? That's the that's the answer is it's extremely objective. Obviously, video is the forefront of all media at this given time, right. And it has been for a few years. However, there are times and places for just audio, there are times and places for written content as well, you being in the field that you're in understand the value of SEO and text based content as well. You know, for instance, one of the things that we'll talk about is my book that, like I wrote, but didn't write because it was just a came from my podcasts that I used to have, and starting back up soon. But like, I used that as a marketing tool to generate leads for my business at the time. And that's it was a lead hook, right? It was a free, free plus shipping offer type thing. So it's like even that, to me is content. But a lot of it is how you can use content in so many different ways. For instance, a great example is like just contextually for your audience.
If you're an active real estate investor, let's just say like you started a podcast because you went to a mastermind and somebody told you that you need to start a podcast, but you don't have a coaching program. You're not educated or in any way, shape or form. You don't necessarily have any sort of social or media influence out there. So you're just like I'm started podcasts just talk about what I'm doing. Well, one way you go like that is that that could create a lot of opportunities for you make connections, you get guests on the show you're going to network with, you're going to chit chat before and after, like you and I did for the show, and probably will after and build some relationships, but then it's like, ultimately, will you spending that time and if you're having a podcast editor manage that for you, what are you spending your money on, and most people don't even know, they're like, I'm just doing it to put value out in the world. But at some point, like it needs to come back in some way, shape or form, even if that is in a form of good relationship. Right. So to me, all content and media needs to be used as marketing itself. I think a lot of people I would say this, but with social media, especially a lot of people like to detach social media from their overall marketing plans and marketing, like the what what they're actually trying to do with their marketing.
And I call it the North Star, which is basically everything you do from a marketing perspective, very simply put, needs to be pointing out one thing now, of course, that could be like multiple different things, depending on what your business strategy looks like if you have multiple products or whatever. But what you do needs to be pointed out something something that you're trying to accomplish. And it's not necessarily like, Okay, well, my my goal is subscribers on YouTube, or my goal is views on a video. And then what does that lead to? And normally, it's to me, it's going to be a conversion process, right? It's going to be like, converted to a client or converted to a motivated seller selling me their home, or me to purchase. And then I was able to, you know, flip it or wholesale or whatever. So let's just take, for example, an active real estate investor, they may look and start a podcast, and they have no idea why they don't have a coaching program. They're not educated on anything to me, I would say shut the podcast down all the content you need to be generating. Because the reason why would say shut it down as a motivated seller leads aren't lining up at the door to come back and listen to your weekly podcast, whether we want referrals or not.
It's always good to have referrals, the realistic thought process is that it's not going to happen. Often. If it does happen at all, you're you know, when somebody's selling through the house transactional, they're going to walk away, you're probably never going to hear from them ever again. And in fact, they never want to hear from you ever again. Exactly, exactly. And so why would they come back to listen to your weekly podcast? Now? Let's just say for instance, you're like, Okay, well, I don't know. And you still put video content out what I build everything around is content. And as a whole, but especially video content. My definition of it is answering questions that your target demographic has about what it is you do your industry, your services and products like if a motivated seller gets on a phone call with one of your lead managers or your acquisitions, agents starts asking questions, write every single question down, you put video content out about that specifically. So great example is now you probably have a lot more data than I might have on this type of stuff.
But if there's a term that a motivated seller lead is looking for, let's just say for example, it's they're up at two o'clock in the morning, they just, you know, got a call that Aunt Ruth died and they inherited their house. So they're going to Google and searching how to like what to do with my house that I just inherited, or, you know, I live in California and the house is in Georgia, what do I do with it? And then your video because you're in Georgia pops up and says it's geared towards probate. So it's like, did you just inherit a house? You know, your topic is did you inherited a house, here's what you do with it. And then your content is acting as a resource for that lead to consume. And then they're getting value out of it, who's going to be the first person that call when your hours open and who you're taking calls, it's probably going to be you because you just delivered value to them at two o'clock in the morning when they were motivated. Right? So all content needs to be built around answering questions and that's why like coaches and mentors and people that have you know, their educators put out daily like 567 times a day con 10 It is because their audience can be repeat customers, they can keep coming back at any given moment, or they are a customer and they're trying to, you know, curate them and keep them on board. But a motivated seller lead is different. So everybody's audience is slightly different. And that's not how you need a format up. So yeah,
15:16 I think that's an excellent point about the nature of the lead, right. It's like the whole point of a motivated seller is they need to sell right away. So they're not doing a bunch of research ahead of time. Like you might if you're like, I'm only going to invest in a single coaching program. Let me let me find the one for me is like the most motivated leads or like, you know, the house is literally on fire, and I need to sell it before you know the fire gets to the bottom floor, whatever. Right? So let's find motivated seller leads online but don't know where to start. Download our FREE motivated seller keyword report today, AdWords nerds have spent over $5 million this year researching the most profitable keywords for finding motivated seller leads. And you can grab these exact keywords when you download our report at www dot AdWords nerds.com/keywords?
16:14 Well, let me ask you, because we talked about there's there's kind of space for a lot of different things, a lot of different approaches, like you mentioned, you could do text for SEO, you could do a podcast, you know, you gave really great reasons why that doesn't really make sense for motivated sellers. But you could do podcasts or video or whatever, right? So if someone comes to you, and they say, okay, hey, I've got a business, I need to figure out what types of content to invest in, or to invest my time in, or whatever it is, how do they figure that out? Is it purely a matter of saying, Okay, I want to look at my market and figure out what my market really likes, and I'm going to do that isn't a matter of like, I think about what I like to do, because I gotta keep doing it, you know, day in and day out, like, how do you help people make that
16:55 decision? Ya know, so I'll start with the last point you made, because I get people that are like, I know, I need to do video, but I just, I'm afraid on camera, like I just I just I'm gonna mess up. I've never I'm not used to being on camera. I know, I'm gonna screw up all the time. And my answer to that is simply like, this is going to be sounding super arrogant, and just like kind of Swift. But we as business owners do things that suck and we hate all the time. So that's just got to be one of them. So if that's your concern, suck it up and do it. That's all I have. That's the only advice I have for you. So sorry, sorry, there's not more tenderness to it. But it is the reality if you're if you're not willing to put yourself out there and do that kind of thing, then you're just gonna fall behind. And it's it's no different than any other uncomfortable thing you've had to do in your business. But yeah, so great question. Well, the way that I look at it is very simple.
Now, I'll preface it with this when it comes to the world of like social media, like YouTube podcast content in general. And you know this too, because we are both marketers, we like to complicate things like we love but like internally, right? Because there's a lot of detail that goes into what we do. However, when we're talking about it to the outside world, people that don't necessarily they're not in the day to day of the types of things that we do, they look at, like what we do and say and think Oh, that's too complicated, I don't want to do that. So for me, the way I boil it down in my with my clientele are people that I'm advising is keep everything as simple as possible. And the simplest form of deciding what type of content you're gonna be putting out whether you are going to start a podcast, or you're gonna start doing daily social media or YouTube or you're only putting out content to generate more motivated seller leads. And it's all working for your SEO, your website, your Google My Business page, that sort of thing. It's very simply put is marketing one on one know your target demographic, that's really all boils down to and inside of that, of course, you're going to understand, okay, where's my audience finding me or competitors? What are they actually looking for? What type of media do they consume?
A great example and I categorize this as content is in the world of motivated seller lead generation TV advertising is crushing right now. Like if you're advertising on, like TV ads, even like Hulu ads and stuff like that, those are doing so freakin wall right now. And that's the type of media that's the type of content well, that's your form there because that's how people are consuming right now is through TV through media, especially during live sporting events, you know, that sort of thing. And proper, you know, placement and timing is important. That's why you know, they're having somebody that can manage that type of stuff is important, but it's very simply put it in my opinion, as a business owner, I don't care if you're the marketing director or not. If you're the CEO, you should know your target demographic, almost better than they know themselves, like what are their tendencies? What are they? Where are they hanging out? Where are they consuming? What are they consuming, what type of media and if you just kind of like boil it down, simply put that way, then it's going to direct you to what you should be doing because again, like to me daily social media might not be needed for somebody that's got a house buying brand and they're just putting content out towards motivated seller leads, however, maybe put three or five pieces of content out five a week.
That's kind of talking about your organization or how you help Ruth with her house that she, you know, had mold, crazy amount of mold and like, what did you you helped her solve her problem, that sort of thing. And that's the type of stuff I'd be putting out. But I'll give, I'll give one really good example that kind of like is a little bit of a twist to this. So a buddy of mine, Brian Schneider, and his Brett Snodgrass is the CEO of their organization down in Indianapolis, and they, you know, they buy and sell real estate, but Brian hosts a podcast that's specifically geared towards wholesalers in Indianapolis. And that's the purpose of it is to basically teach other wholesalers how to bring them good deals or realtors, how to bring them good deals. And that's how they're leveraging a podcast, they don't have a coaching program, they don't have a mentor ship or masterminding or anything that it's it's simply to market to other wholesalers. And basically people that can find them deals bird dogs is what we would call them that will bring you deals, but he's teaching them how to do that. So they can effectively bring deals back home. So again, sounds super simple from the surface, and it is just discover, like, Okay, if I want to do more business with wholesalers and realtors, maybe I should start a podcast that's geared towards telling people about my business, getting those wholesalers or realtors that brought me a deal on the show as the guests like stuff like that as important. And just think about it simply is the way I would put it. So that's
21:20 all I've been super helpful. Alright, so let's, let's take it even a step maybe a step further. So let's say okay, I took your advice, I was terrified of getting on camera got on camera, you know, it's not that fat, right? I mean, it's like people think they think in their head, they think big on cameras, like speaking in public, but it's not because there's no one there. So you're just, you know, you talk to the thing, and it'd be fine. So they do it. Cool. They made some content, right? I got some content, here's where to get put, I got put on YouTube, I put it on Tiktok that I put it on, you know, it's like, there's a lot of different things even within YouTube, right? You got shorts and blahdy, blahdy blah, right? So I understand the two people get very, you know, worked up because they're like, it seems really difficult. So if you're working with a client, how do you figure out where to host or post their content? Is there like a science to that where you're like, Okay, I'm thinking about impression volume or whatever? Are you doing a budget research beforehand? Or are you just like, look, just put it up somewhere? And just make a consistent?
22:22 How do you figure that out? Now, yeah, so I will go back to what I previously said is like knowing your audience, so part of that is where they hang out where they would consume media and whatever form that's why I gave the example of TV ads is because most of the time, depending on the market, especially like our Midwest markets that we're in, and probably the northeast, as well, live television has consumed very heavily still, even though it's dying, it's still consumed heavily. So placing that media in the whereabouts of and the environment of that lead potential lead. That's the craft. That's important. That's why people, I don't have any data on this. I know a lot of people still do Billboard Marketing, but that's why you put up billboards is because traffic is driving by and it's that you just need one person out of you know, the 20,000 impressions a day that you get, it's putting it in the environment in which your potential lead is going to be located and consuming content.
So that's kind of the thought process behind it is if you're let's just take for instance, if you're specifically only marketing to let's say, like, for instance, I have a client that is a they're, they lend London capital. So they they're private money lender, and their primary purpose is to generate relationships with high level investors that would borrow for them at large amounts, and that's their been going with them and deals. Yeah. And so in the early stages of like, strategizing with them, or planning, I'm like, honestly, you know, you're probably going to hear the buzz of Tik Tok a lot, I'm going to just advise us not going there. And the other thing is that sometimes like, there are some things in the media world that I'm not an expert in. And to me what they're trying to accomplish, I told him, I was like LinkedIn is going to be very vital and crucial for us to go hard out. I'm not an expert at LinkedIn, because there's a lot more methodology behind connections and stuff like that. So we've found it an expert, that's really good in it, and they're crushing their we're providing the media there, they're kind of like extracting what's needed and putting it out.
So it's just a matter of knowing once again, your audience really well knowing them better than they know themselves and go discover where they hang out where they're consuming content. And of course, there's there's multiple tools that you can do research on with this sort of thing. But once again, like I'll go back to that other example of I gave Brian's podcast that's directed towards other wholesalers and realtors, he knows that other wholesalers and realtors are out there listening to try to learn how to lock up deals and run their businesses better. So he put it on platforms in which they are consuming content. So that's ultimately what you want to digest and put out there and just keep it simple like that. And the other side of it is of course, just start putting stuff out test and See what happens. That's good consistency.
And that, you know, a lot of people like, throw spaghetti at the wall and then turn around and then like six months later and turn back around like, oh, what's stuck, you just can't eat that now, don't evaluate every single waking step that you're taking. Because this type of stuff takes time and consistency over a long period of time. And you got to be doing the fundamentals correctly, but keep an eye on it and study the analytics, study that data a great thing that I'm sure you do a lot with clients and yourself as well as one of the best strategies you could ever do with marketing is study what your successful competition is doing, and maybe not do the exact same thing. Make it a little bit different but similar strategies.
25:39 So at least an indication that there's some something going on, right on there. Yep.
Hey guys, hope you enjoyed part one of this episode is just too good to limit one show. Join us next week to hear the rest
This is thepodcastfactory.com
