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There is one major critical skill that every real estate agent needs to master before 2026. It's time. You should have already built up the skill. But if you don't have it going into next year, you're going to be severely left behind. Let's get into it right now. The Massive Agent podcast with lead generation tips and strategies to get you more leads and sell more homes. I love to buy houses. I like to sell houses. It takes brass balls to sell real estate. Wait a minute. Leads are weak. You're weak. I've had better. Oh, have I got your attention now? Here's your host, Dustin Brome. What is up, guys? Welcome to episode 412 of the Massive Agent podcast. I am your host, Dustin Brome. Back in Salt Lake City, Utah. I recorded in Orlando, Florida last week, partly because of lack of planning on my part, but it worked out. Worked out well. If you saw the YouTube video. I was in a studio and looks a lot better. Uh, but I'm back. I'm back from Rise 2026, and it's time to get back to work because 2026 is right around the corner. I think Christmas is, what, like, 45 days away? 43 days away? Something like that? I. I don't say that to depress you. Uh, and I. You probably don't appreciate that, but 2026 is coming today. I'm going to break down the one skill that agents must have going into 2026. Now, I believe if you have not already made a commitment to build this skill, you're already being left behind. But it's just getting worse for those that are not building this skill. And I mean, spoiler alert, this really has nothing to do with AI. Like, this is not, hey, you need to get into, you know, using AI and, you know, learn how to be a great prompt engineer and use. Lose. Use Claude and Gemini and like, yes, yes, do all that for sure. That's not what I'm talking about. Okay. The skill that you need to develop as a real estate agent going into 2026 is communication on camera. Being comfortable in front of a camera and being able to clearly effectively communicate through a camera lens. You should already have been building the skill, but if you haven't, for whatever reason, I get it. So today I'm gonna. I'm gonna share with you how to get good at communicating on camera, especially if you're at a place where you're nervous, you're uncomfortable, you're terrified of judgment. I mean, insert objection here. Like, insert reason here for why you're not yet doing videos every single day. And I don't even necessarily mean posting on social like, yes, yes, I believe that is the most powerful tool you could possibly have is, you know, getting seen at mass, you know, one to many communication through social media content. But even just sending videos to your clients, like responding to your leads with personalized little videos. Video is everything. It doesn't mean that it's the only thing. It doesn't mean that that text and the written word doesn't work anymore, because it absolutely does. It absolutely does. Big, long text Facebook posts still work. Blog posts still work. Email marketing still absolutely works in a very big way. LinkedIn, lots of text in a post still works. But video is the medium where people can connect with you the fastest. You can reach the most people with the least amount of work, and people can connect with you personally fastest. They can get to know you quickest through video. So if you're in that place, if you're one of the agents that's like, okay, I'm going to speak to a few different levels of agents. So. And you guys that are, that are, you feel like you do a pretty good job and you're creating content regularly, but you still haven't had that breakthrough yet. I'm going to get to you in a second because I've got something for you too. But let's start with those who just aren't doing video at all. Or you've done it once or twice and you feel like a fish out of water. It's super uncomfortable. It's. It's awkward. You, you think you look stupid on camera. You feel like someone's going to judge you or talk. Look, look, by the way, those worries are all valid, okay? I'm not saying that you, I'm not here to say you shouldn't feel that way. I do want to get you to a place where you don't give a shit where you feel those things, but you just push them aside because they're so minimal. And your desire to grow, your desire to build, your desire to attract business, your. Your desire and ambition to grow a brand far outweighs any little, you know, negative thing that might be holding you back. Because, spoiler alert. Just so you know, I've done thousands and thousands and thousands of videos. I still, every once in a while will see myself on video and I'm like, o, I look like a, I look like an idiot. I mean, that's just how it works. And I've done this podcast and every week for eight years, almost what episode? 412 plus. I did a daily mini podcast. It was. It was an Alexa flash briefing that I did a while back when I thought Alexa flash briefings were going to be a big deal. They aren't, but I did. I've done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. I've done over a thousand podcast episodes, and I still, every once in a while, hear my voice and I'm like, oh, it. But I. It's also. It's so minimal that I don't give a shit anymore because I've just kept doing it over and over and over, swinging the bat, practicing getting in the reps to where those. Those things become so small. But you are stuck at a place right now where they're big. Those are big hindrances, big roadblocks. It's. It's giant wall in front of you. So we need to grow you bigger than the wall. If we grow you into a giant, that wall becomes a little curb. You know what I mean? So I'm going to speak to the agent who does videos. Not very consistently. You still worry that, you know, you're going to be judged by somebody that you went to high school with or, you know, you cringe when you see yourself on camera. I'm going to say something that is pretty groundbreaking, actually. And I don't say this to be a dick. I say this to highlight the. The absurdity of that. You know, I don't like the way I look on camera thing, because, look, I get it. I've been there. But then I realized, well, that's actually how everyone else sees me. Like, when. When I'm out in the world, if I'm at the gym, the grocery store, at, you know, an event or here, like, that's how I look. That's how I look, and that's how I sound. So it's not like the camera changes the way that I sound. It's not like the. The camera changes the way that I look or any. But again, you're in that place where you still feel those things. So we have to grow you bigger. You're going to hate the. The last. The last thing that I have to say here, but I. I will give you some specific tips on how to minimize that. That intimidation, that fear, the insecurity, the lack of confidence that you have around being on camera right now. I'm gonna give you some tips on how to. How to minimize it quickly and get past it faster using a few specific hacks. So stay tuned. Stay tuned. In just a sec. You know, a Mentor of mine once said, dogs don't bark at parked cars. It's become one of my favorite phrases. And look, you might get some people with, you know, with some mean comments. It might happen, you might get somebody telling you that your hair is ugly or your nose is big or they don't like your stupid face or what I get, turn your hat frontwards like a, like a man, like, you know, what 42 year old man wears his hat backwards and has gray hair on his chin. Like I get comments like that, like one or two a year. I mean, okay, maybe one or two a quarter. Who gives a shit? These people don't know me. I'm gonna, I'm gonna walk you through my thought process and where I've gotten to just by doing a bunch of content, recording a bunch of videos, putting it out there and realizing, okay, it's actually not nearly as bad as I thought. I'm not getting nearly the negative feedback that I thought, if any. I mean, most of you will get no negative feedback. Most of you will get no negative comments, at least for a while. But we're afraid of like one random person from high school judging us, or an old neighbor, maybe an ex judging us if they happen to see our stuff. And if you think about it, how, how much, isn't that wild? How much power we're giving them, we're giving that person or those people who theoretically might feel a certain way, you're just assuming that they'll feel a certain way all these years later, that they're just going to be this judgmental asshole and you're giving them so much power to control your business. Like you're giving them the power to put, to pump the brakes on your growth. You are giving them the power and them the control to prevent you from growing a brand, sorry, from growing an audience and building a brand and, and selling five, six, seven homes a month every single month from social media. You've given them all the power and they, and all you got to do is take it back and just say, screw those people. If they don't like what you have to see, if they don't like what you have to say, they don't have to watch it. And chances are they won't see it anyways. Or if they do once, if they don't like you, they won't keep watching it and then the algorithm will stop showing it to them. Dogs don't bark at parked cars when you're moving forward, when you're visible, when you're being seen, when you're putting yourself out there when you're moving, that's when you may get some chirps, that's when you may get a comment or two. So I've gotten to the place through practice, right? I certainly didn't feel this way day one. But I've gotten to the place now where whenever I do get trolls talking shit about my appearance, my voice, what I had to say, telling me that I'm an idiot, whatever, or telling me I'm a racist, or people say the wildest shit online, it's so, it's wild. It's like, hey, here's my, Here's a couple thoughts on the 50 year mortgage. Oh, you racist. Yeah, I don't even know what to say, but when I get troll comments, I see it as hell. Yes, this post has reached past my normal audience into new, new people. That's a good sign. If you start to get trolls who, who don't know you and you don't know them, that is a sign that your post has busted out of that, that initial group that it's shown to the followers and it's now reaching new people. That's what you want. So whenever I get troll comments, first off, I know that it's just some very unhappy jackass in their flannel pants. They just walked back from 711 where they got their, their smokes and their, their Mountain Dew code Red and their stupid fat Doritos and they got back to their parents basement and they're about to play Call of Duty again in their flannel pants, mind you, of course. And of course they walked to 711 because you know, they don't have a car. You've seen these people. These are the people that you're afraid of. These are the people that you are letting control the growth of your business. You are giving them the keys and the ability to stop and prevent you from growing, building an audience and attracting a shitload of business. Isn't that wild? So I just, I just like, okay, if this person is talking shit to a stranger, they're obviously in a very unhappy place. Like, who does that? Like what normal adult? What, what person who has a good head on their shoulders? I mean, if you're a happy person, if you're a decent person, you don't randomly talk shit to strangers on the Internet. So those who do, they're just not in a good place. Think of who, like consider the source and then let it go. So I actually thrive now. I've gotten to a place where I thrive on the negative comments. I thrive on the trolls because it, it, first off, I find it funny and I, I'll talk shit back to them. Like I'll, I'll poke them because I want to keep the engagement going. If you get people, if you get trolls commenting on your stuff, that's actually good for your, your post. It, it's good engagement. It's showing the algorithm that people are, are engaging with your content. And then if you poke back, if you can grow that thin, that thick skin and poke back and then they keep chirping like that's just helping your post reach more people. The trolls are helping to deliver your post to more people. That's how I see it. I don't care what they say about me. They don't know me and I don't know them. But I have a pretty good idea of, in my head of who they are and where they're at and you know, their parents basement. So it just takes time to, and practice to get to that place. Agents right now are growing massive businesses, selling tons of homes. We have agents in my massive agent society that are selling 4, 5, 6, 10 homes a year or, sorry, 4 or 5 or 6 or 10 homes a month from social media every single month. Because they just decided, I'm going to do this anyways. I'm nervous, I'm uncomfortable. I clam up a little bit. I don't quite know what to say, but I'm going to do it anyways. And guess what? When you do it anyways, pretty soon you do get comfortable. Because like anything else in life, if you do something enough, you get good at it. And everything that you are good at now, everything you've learned how to do throughout your life, like walking, talking, all of that, you learned through repetition. You learn through repetition. This is no different. So the good news here, even if it's scary, even if it's intimidating, even if you're like, damn it, Dustin you, because I know you're right and I know I need to do this and it scares the out of me. That's fair. By the way, feel free to yell at me or send me a troll comment. I don't mind that. I would appreciate that, actually. Please, actually, send me, send me some negative comments. Yeah, the only way to become comfortable communicating on camera is to communicate on camera. So here, I promised you a couple hacks and tips before we wrap this thing up for the day. Something that I did to get comfortable. Because by the way, my first video was a disaster. My second video was a disaster. If you're in my massive agent society community, um, you've seen the video. If you've been to one of my, my keynotes when, when I speak at an event, I've shown the video. I think I've even shown it on my Instagram a while ago. I need to do that again. But my very first real estate video was, was so awful. First off, the way I was dressed, my button up shirt, my khakis, my name tag, my, my hair, I look like Ben Stiller 30 years ago. And I was reading a script that was taped to the upper left of the laptop and you could see my eyes reading it. It was just, but I just kept going and I found an unlock that I think would help you a lot if you're in that place where you are uncomfortable still and you want to get comfortable. Snapchat came along. And once I learned the Snapchat story framework and format, because it was new back then, Snapchat was the first to do it. Instagram had not done it. Stories were not existent anywhere except for on Snapchat. And I started to, at the time, it was 10 seconds at a time. Each snap was 10 seconds. I would just tell a story. Hey, here's what I'm doing today. I'm running this Facebook ad. Here's what, here's why, you know, and I would just tell stories. And 10 seconds at a time I realized, wait, I just did six videos today. The next day I did four videos. The day after that, 12 videos. And pretty soon I'm like, wait, I've done dozens and dozens of videos this week. Then I did it again next week, one day at a time. And because of those little stories that are meant to be informal, they're not supposed to be polished, I got all of a sudden woke up comfortable in front of the camera by doing stories. So if that helps, you just do a bunch of stories and you know, share with, share with the people that follow you, what you're up to, what you're interested in, what's on your mind. And they don't have to be these big, you know, I'm going to sit down and create content and do a 30 minute YouTube video. Like that's fine, but you could make it easier on yourself, you know, especially in the beginning. So stories are a huge hack to quickly, in little bite sized chunks, get comfortable doing content, get comfortable communicating on camera. And the second one, and this is for those of you who are even more terrified than that. If you're, if you're terrified to even do stories, record a video and then don't post it. Who said. Who made the rule that you have to post every video you record? You don't. So if you need to. Now, look, push yourself a little bit. But if you need to, if you're in that place where it's do nothing because you're terrified out of your mind, or record a bunch of videos and delete them, then record a bunch of videos and delete them. When you do that, if you record 10 videos this week, if you do two today, two tomorrow, if you do two every day for. For five days, you've done 10 videos this week. And just record to get used to the format. Because, like, right now I'm. I'm looking at and speaking directly into a camera lens in the beginning. It's kind of weird. So you've got to get used to it. You have to know where to look, and you have to just familiarize yourself with that feeling in that format. So record a video. I don't care how long it is, five seconds, five minutes, whatever, and then delete it. You don't have to post it. Pretty soon, though, you're gonna start recording and you're gonna feel more comfortable, and then you'll end up posting. Because when you post, that's when you confront even more of the fears. Like, oh, my gosh, I'm gonna get so much hate. People are gonna tell me I'm ugly or I sound stupid or I don't know what I'm talking about, I'm an idiot, or I'm fat or whatever. And then you post stuff and you realize, wait a minute, how come none of that stuff's happening? Okay, maybe it's not that bad. Let me do one more video. Let me. Let me just do one more, because I know that this one, this next one, you know, all hell is going to break loose and the Internet will cancel me. And then you post the second one, and again, like, okay, I didn't get any of that negative feedback at all. Okay, it's not that bad. Let's do one more. So at some point, you have to start posting, because that's where you really start to learn the big lessons. But to get to that point, record a video and delete it. Just get comfortable recording and talking to a camera. I hope this was helpful. 2026 is right around the corner. I believe it's already started. Whatever you're doing today will absolutely put you on the path to success or failure or stagnation next year. So if you. If you are like the thousands of agents out there that are like, this is the year that I'm going to commit to video. This is the year I'm going to commit to social media. This is the year. Then start now and record a video and feel awkward and feel stupid and do it anyways. And then do it again. And do it again. Don't post them. Unless. Post them if you can, but if you. If you can't, don't. And I think you'll find out by just doing the action one at a time, one at a time, one at a time, day after day, you'll find yourself in a place. You'll look back six months later, or even two months later, even 30 days later, and you'll be like, I feel I'm so much more comfortable. Like, this is amazing. I feel so much better. It starts with the first one, so I hope this was helpful. Make sure if you don't yet you follow me on Instagram. Massive Agent. I'm putting a ton of content out there. I'm giving a ton of resources away on Instagram. So make sure that you follow my content over there. And if I could be helpful, shoot me a DM at Massive Agent on Instagram. I appreciate you all so much. I'll be back next week. Share the episode with anyone that needs to hear this. Broker, team leader, a fellow agent. Post it online if you felt inspired. And I'll see you guys next week for another episode of the Massive Agent podcast. Take care, Sam.