How to Get Clients from Social Media

Summary

Mortgage Marketing Radio – Episode Summary

Episode Title: How to Get Clients from Social Media
Date: July 2, 2024
Host: Geoff Zimpfer
Guest: Josh Pitts, Shred Media Founder & Social Media Expert

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Overview

In this engaging episode, Mortgage Marketing Radio host Geoff Zimpfer welcomes Josh Pitts, a veteran mortgage professional turned social media entrepreneur, to discuss practical strategies for generating real business from social media. The conversation dives deep into content creation challenges, the mindset behind successful social media efforts, actionable posting tactics, and new tools—like Josh’s Shreddit app—that make it easier than ever for loan officers to stand out and earn clients online.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Reality & Power of Content "Envy"

(00:26 – 01:58)

• Mutual Respect: Geoff starts by expressing “content envy” toward Josh’s video work, noting how some creators seem to make it look easy.
• Josh’s Perspective:
  • Everyone experiences envy when seeing others’ great content.
  • Josh refers to Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist, encouraging listeners to “take inspiration and make it your own.”
  • Notable Quote:
    • “If I see somebody...I’m like, dang, that looks amazing...What can I do now? How can I go and take that and make it my own?” – Josh Pitts (00:55)
• Big Idea: Use envy as fuel for your own creativity, not a barrier.

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Josh Pitts' Background: From Mortgages to Media

(01:58 – 03:42)

• Career Path: Josh worked up from a junior LO to brokerage owner, always using organic social media as a growth engine.
• Transition: As demand grew from peers for training, Josh launched Shred Media, specializing in helping others grow their business with content.
• Current Focus: Launch of Shreddit, an all-in-one content editing app using both AI and real human editors.
• Notable Quote:
  • “We help companies grow their business on social media...Editing is half the equation. That’s why we launched Shreddit.” – Josh Pitts (02:06)

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The Challenge of Content Editing

(03:42 – 06:07)

• Pain Point: Geoff and Josh agree: Editing is usually the biggest roadblock after filming.
• AI Tools vs. Human Touch:
  • Geoff details frustrations with AI editing platforms that “never grab the clip I want” (04:07).
  • Josh built Shreddit to “have a real person...looking, like, ‘This is what really was trying to be shared.’” (06:07)
• Building from Scratch:
  • “If you ever decide to build an app, it is so—the biggest headache. Becoming a technology company...Wow.” – Josh Pitts (07:41)

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Why Social Media Matters for Originators

(08:59 – 12:27)

• The Business Case:
  • Content isn’t just for fun; it keeps you “top of mind and relevant”—that’s what generates deals.
• Staggering Potential:
  • Geoff cites a stat: “50 million people in the U.S. are earning money from social media, and 15% are earning $100,000 or more.” (10:20)
• Josh’s Reality Check:
  • Don’t chase influencer fame. For mortgage pros, “your goal should be building your business...not becoming the next influencer.” (11:12)

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Tangible ROI from Social Media—even Modestly

(11:42 – 16:27)

• Shift Over Time:
  • Whereas referral partners and past clients once dominated as sources, more originators now say social media brings in 10–20% of their business.
• Consistency > Virality:
  • “You don’t start posting content today and get loans tomorrow...It’s about consistency.” – Josh Pitts (12:27)
• Josh’s Rule:
  • “You should be getting at least 10 deals a year from social media. That’s less than one a month.” (16:11)
• Low Bar for Entry:
  • Average LO posts less than twice a month. Simply showing up once a week gives you a major edge. (17:19)

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What to Post: Moving Beyond Mortgage Jargon

(17:19 – 24:09)

• Mistake:
  • Most pros only talk mortgages, but clients care about you.
• Analogy:
  • “You’d never walk into a barbecue and shout about rates...so don’t do it on social, either.” (19:46)
• Community vs. Audience:
  • “A community is people you talk with. An audience is people you talk at.” – Josh Pitts (18:56)
• Practical Posting Ideas:
  • Answer recent client FAQs.
  • Share about your real life—kids’ events, hobbies, even “goat yoga” (25:38).

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Overcoming Content Paralysis: Easy Entry Points

(23:21 – 26:07)

• Top Tips:
  • Use Google’s most searched mortgage questions.
  • Begin with “get to know me” posts if you’re restarting or introducing yourself.
  • Search relevant hashtags or content for inspiration, but make it your own.
• Notable Quote:
  • “Your first few posts? They can be super corny, but give your community a backstage pass to what’s going on in your life.” – Josh Pitts (24:11)

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Social Media = Networking, Just Amplified

(26:07 – 28:53)

• Mindset Shift:
  • See your followers as a community, not a faceless audience.
  • Social media is like a permanent networking event, just online and at scale.
• Eye-Opening Stat:
  • “The average adult spends 2.8 hours a day on social—imagine that as daily face time with prospects.” (27:18)
• 500 Followers = A Full Room:
  • “If you stood in front of 500 people, you’d be nervous—yet you worry you ‘only’ have 500 followers?” (28:53)

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Quality vs. Quantity and Platform Selection

(30:43 – 35:14)

• Quantity First:
  • Josh references Mr. Beast: the first 100 videos suck—they’re about learning, not perfection.
  • “Perfection kills progress. Don’t overthink it; just get started.” (32:12)
• Platform Advice:
  • You don’t need to be everywhere.
    • “Start where you’re most comfortable...Facebook and Instagram are powerful and cross-post easily.” – Josh Pitts (33:24)
  • “Facebook is NOT dead; the older demographic is where most buyers are.” (33:49)

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Streamlining Production: How Shreddit Solves the Editing Headache

(35:14 – 38:35)

• Geoff’s Endorsement:
  • “Yours is the ONLY app I know with a live editor to fine-tune the output to your preferences.” (35:41)
• Team Advantage:
  • Shreddit’s editors learn your style and personality, focusing on authenticity and consistent branding.
  • “You can’t replace video editing with just AI—people need to see that emotion.” – Josh Pitts (37:01)
• Affordability:
  • All plans are under $400/month—cheaper and more consistent than hiring freelancers.

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Making It Simple: No Excuses

(39:02 – 40:38)

• Efficiency Over Overwhelm:
  • Shreddit was designed so users can do everything from a phone—with edited content back in 48 hours.
  • “No need for fancy cameras. Just hit record!” (40:04)
• Evaluate Your Tools:
  • Geoff shares his habit of reviewing all monthly expenses—including software—to ensure it’s worth his time and money.

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Personal Moment: Josh’s Sailing Adventure & Life Lessons

(40:54 – 42:43)

• Living What He Preaches:
  • Josh and his family sold everything and are now living on a sailboat, planning to circumnavigate the globe.
  • “It was rough...But you get better, and you get used to it—just like posting video.” – Geoff Zimpfer (42:06)
• Analogy:
  • Starting social media is like your first night sailing—bumpy at first, but soon you’re “rocking it.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Content envy is a real thing.” – Josh Pitts (00:55)
• “If you create value, just make it yours. Steal like an artist.” – Josh Pitts (00:59)
• “Your brand is only an extension of your reputation.” – Josh Pitts (14:30)
• “People care about what you do on the weekend, not the latest FHA program.” – Josh Pitts (19:46)
• “A community is people you talk with. An audience is people you talk at.” – Josh Pitts (18:56)
• “Perfection kills progress...You're never going to get to your 100th video if you fuss over your first.” – Josh Pitts (32:12)
• “If you stood in front of 500 people, you'd freak out. But that's what you're doing on social media.” – Josh Pitts (28:53)
• “You don’t need to be everywhere; start where you’re already spending time.” – Josh Pitts (33:24)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:26 – Content envy & creative inspiration
• 02:06 – Josh’s journey from LO to content coach
• 04:07 – Pain points with current editing solutions
• 06:07 – Why human editors are still vital
• 10:20 – Social media as a major source of new business
• 15:47 – ROI of a handful of extra deals per year
• 17:16 – The shockingly low industry average for social posts
• 19:46 – What clients really want to see (hint: not just rates)
• 23:51 – What to post if you’re feeling stuck
• 27:18 – Social media as “perpetual networking”
• 32:12 – Don’t chase perfection. Just start.
• 33:24 – Platform strategy: where to post first
• 35:41 – Human-edited video as a differentiator
• 40:54 – Josh’s real-life adventure sailing the world

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Actionable Takeaways

• Don’t let editing and posting be your bottleneck. Consider solutions—or hire help—so your expertise reaches your community consistently.
• Authenticity and relationship-building should be your brand’s core, not only mortgage stats and product info.
• Start with the platform you spend most time on; don't “spray and pray.”
• “Just get started.” The first posts are about learning, not perfection.
• No excuses—there are affordable tools and prompts to simplify every step now.
• Remember: Your immediate social media audience is a roomful of potential clients. Treat them as a community, not a broadcast list.

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Links & Resources

• Shreddit App with 15% Listener Discount — Use code “RADIO” at checkout
• Josh Pitts on Instagram: @joshpittsshred

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For listeners:
If you’re an originator looking to add extra loans, generate leads, and build a lasting client base through content and social media, this episode provides not only inspiring stories but concrete strategies and tools to take action—no matter where you’re starting from.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[A]

Josh Pitts, welcome back to the show.

[B]

It is back. It's crazy, dude. I'm so honored and humbled to be hanging out with you. You're truly one of those people. You've been a mentor, literally been a mentor to me. You've had. You are literally one of the godfathers of the industry. You've had one of the longest running podcasts of everybody. So I learned from you. So many have learned from you. So kudos to you. And like I said, I'm truly humbled and honored to be hanging out with you and shredding it up with you today.

[A]

I appreciate you saying that. You know, it's funny. We all learn from each other. Do you get this? Do you have. I want to put this in the right context. Like when I watch you with your content and stuff and what you produce and what I see you do video wise, I have content envy. Does that make sense?

[B]

It does, yeah.

[A]

Because I look at you and you make it look so easy. And I'm like, damn it, I want to be like Josh. You know?

[B]

Well, first and foremost, I'm humbled. I'm honored. I appreciate that. But I think everybody experiences that to some degree or another. They see somebody else put out content and I'm like, dang, that looks amazing. Or, oh, wow, they did that really well. And one of my favorite parts of that is I always tell people, if I see somebody like, I've seen your content. I'm like, dang, he shared that message really well. Or he created a ton of value in that. What can I do now? How can I go and take that and make it my own? And I talk about it a lot. It's called Steal like an Artist. My favorite book by Austin Kleon. I literally will tell people if I ever have envy, I'm like, awesome. They just gave me a great idea to go create something of my own and I'll literally steal it. Or the difference between stealing and plagiarizing, you know, somebody shared this with me recently is plagiarizing is if you copy one person. It's called research. If you steal from many people, and that's what like, so if I see something that Jeff does and then Brian does and Stacy and all these other different people, and I kind of make it my own. That's stealing like an artist, because all the ideas are out there. Just go make it your own. But, dude, content envy is a real thing, a hundred percent.

[A]

It is, it is. And before we get too deep on this, for anybody listening who may not Be familiar with Josh Pitts. What do you want to tell the listeners about who you are? What do you do, dude?

[B]

So I've been in the industry a long dang time. Like you, I started as a mortgage professional. Still licensed lo I do not originate anymore, but still have an active license in the state of Utah. Got started as a junior lo kind of worked my way up to his ranks. Became an Los Angeles, um. I loved helping people achieve the dream of homeownership. I owned one of the biggest mortgage brokerages in the state of Utah for years and years, and then started getting into the. We had grown our business through social media. That's how we did it. Like, organic social media. Not paid social media, organic social media. And so many companies started reaching out to me, saying, hey, Josh, how did you do it? Like, how did you. How do. How did you actually use social media to grow your company? And people started asking us to do trainings, people ask us to speak on it, and next thing you know, Shred Media was born almost six years ago, which is crazy. And now we help companies grow their business on social media, and we've recently changed our focus and efforts to helping people edit video. Because I showing up on video, creating amazing content like you and I are talking about, that's one part of it. But then you have to make it look decently good. You have to make it look good, especially to stand out, to get attention with your community. So we actually launched an app called Shreddit, where we literally are an all in one done for you platform. You don't have to worry. There's, you know, there's AI platforms and sub magic and this and that, but we're an all in one done for you platform. Plus, we give you a video editor, we call it a shredder. That literally gets to know Jeff and your needs. But yeah, that, that's me. And, and, and I just, I love having these conversations. I love being on podcasts and shows, just having great conversations with guys like yourself, Jeff, because there's so many people out there who can learn and grow from mistakes that you and I have made from things that, you know, conversations that we have had. So that's kind of me in a nutshell.

[A]

I appreciate that, man. We're going to talk about the app as well. That's. That's actually what brought us kind of back together, because obviously we've talked a number of times over the years. We see each other at events and online, but I was recently attending and having the good fortune of being able to speak. Main stage, Mastermind event. Feather in the cap. That's been one of those things that's been on the.

[B]

You crushed it, by the way. I saw. I actually ended up seeing the majority of your sessions. You freaking crushed it. Yeah, I did.

[A]

Oh, thanks, man. Appreciate that. Nervous as hell the night before, gotta tell you. So I'm sitting there at the back with mutual friend of ours, Deborah Bird, and she herself owns a social media company. And she and I struck up this conversation and she's like, hey, have you been using Josh's Shredded app? I'm like, no. And she starts showing it to me. And so she blew my mind. Like she. She showed me how easy it was to create, upload and have someone else edit a human being, by the way, not just AI, and then have the revisions and then get that usable piece of content back. And when I saw that, I was like, I just felt behind the times, I was like, I'm. I'm struggling it out just so everybody knows the. To me. And you'll get, you know, your take on this. People talk about the hardest parts of creating content or doing the whole content game. One of them is, yes, creating it. Right. There's some resistance and all kinds of stuff. We'll talk about that. But the other half is editing, like having the good output, like you said. And I've been. As many people have been trying these different AI apps, Opus and Riverside. Well, not. Well, Riverside does the same thing. Yeah, Riverside Cast magic. I'm looking at a bunch of them. And the problem is, is that it never grabs the clip that I want. I would say if I had to, if I had to. Like I just did this yesterday. Let's say I had 10 videos of a podcast or something I uploaded of the ones that were good to go without needing any other fixing. It was probably three out of ten, to be honest with you. And so what does that mean? That means I've got it now. If I don't have somebody to do it, I've got to now go in there, like do all the friggin tweaking and you know, editing and dragging. The editor and I suck at editing anyways and hate it. And it's not a high ROI activity. You as well, right? So what prompted you? I mean, is that a problem that you found that a lot of people have?

[B]

Oh, huge problem. And that was actually the biggest. So about a year and a half ago. Well, two years ago, we started a group called Shredu where we were actually coaching specifically on social media. There's some amazing coaches. I mean you being one of the, there's a lot of people out there who coach on growing your business and this and that. I just wanted to focus on social. I wanted to niche in social. So we started, we rolled out this Shredu Academy teaching mortgage professionals, real estate professional, basically any professional who want to grow their business on social media. And something we were teaching were, hey, how do you use things like inshot, how do you use things like Cap Cut, how do you use like, how do you use some of these programs to video or do video editing? And bro, to your point, I hate, like, I hate video editing. It's one of those things. I'm not good at it. I'm not creative in that way. I don't like being able to adjust things this and that. So as I was teaching these courses and as I was teaching so many people to do video editing, they, they, they, they would get it but then they would come back to me and be like, Josh, can you just, you're, you guys do an amazing job. We love your content. It looks amazing. Can you for us? And we started looking at it and I started looking at some of the opus clips, the sub magics, all this. And there were some good things to it. But we didn't find a program that we loved. Just like you mentioned, some of them we would submit, you know, 10, 12 videos and one or two of them would come back decent. And I'm like, what the, like. And then we'd have to go back in and put some fine tune on it. And by the time we did that, Jeff, honestly, it was just easier for us to edit it them ourselves. And so we're like, you know what, what if we could provide a solution that literally where you have a real person. I won't, I will absolutely not disregard that. We have an AI piece built into it to kind of simplify that process. But you have a real person that's like looking like, hey, this is what Jeff said. This was the better part of that clip. This is what really was. This is what it was trying to be encapsulated or what was trying to be shared in this message or in this story during this conversation. And that's what sparked this entire thing is so many people were like, I want to create content. It's too cumbersome. Even with the great apps that are out there. Like, we had one guy come to us, he's like, hey, we have our team of, you know, 20 people that now that we're creating video, the editing is actually becoming so time consuming that it's taking away from what they. They're actually supposed to be doing. So even though we have these great tools, like they'll record clips, but then they have to go, oh, it didn't do this, or the captions were right, or the B roll wasn't right or this wasn't right. So they would literally have to go back and redo it all. And which is even more time consuming. So, yeah, to your point, that's what we're like, hey, could we build something? And we did. We built an amazing team. We brought some of the best develop. Which by the way, bro, I will tell everybody, if you ever decide to build an app, it is so the biggest headache, becoming a technology company and having an app. And because we built it from the ground up, we didn't steal any. Like, we didn't take bits and pieces. We're like, hey, we're going to build this from scratch. And it took well over a year and we're incredibly happy with it. Is it perfect? No, but it's, it is one of those things that we have hundreds of users on the platform now and they're cranking out content and we're simplifying in a way that they can just show up and share that impactful message with their community.

[A]

Yeah, love that. We'll talk more about that and there'll be links in the show notes and all that. But I've been definitely using it and finding it easier to streamline my content creation. And why are we even talking about this? Well, it comes back full circle to this is about generating business. Right. This is about staying relevant and top of mind. And this is why it's important. So if anybody's listening and don't let the point blow past you that if content creation, production and posting gets in your way, it's. It's on you as equally as it is on me and Josh. We're all running businesses. It's on us to figure out the solution to that. Whether that's you hire somebody, whether you use an app like Josh's or whatever or whatever the solution is, you've got to figure it out so you produce content consistently. And that's me preaching to myself because I've been struggling with that Right. For some time now. Interesting stat. I heard this morning, listening to a YouTube channel, according to this survey that was shared 50 million people in, I think it was the country, 50 million people in the United States are earning money from social media and 15% of them are earning over $100,000 a year, at least 100 grand or more.

[B]

Really?

[A]

That's like 5, 6 million people.

[B]

So, so this is a very interesting, I've heard something similar. So the question of that is like they're getting paid directly from social media because our influencers. Okay, so that makes more sense because I tell people and this actually brings up a great conversation. Something I get asked quite frequently, Jeff, is like, well, should my goal be to start making money from social media? And I said no. Like that is absolutely not. Like, if that comes to fruition down the road in years, it is not going to happen overnight. Because when TikTok came out, in particular the rise of these influencers and overnight, I don't want to call anybody overnight success. But with, with how the platform was designed, there were some people who grow, grew incredibly fast on, on that platform and so many people began to expect that. Like, oh, I heard, you know, Charli d' Amelia became overnight famous by doing some simple dances and you know, anyway, that is not the norm for social media. And now more than ever, it continues to change and evolve and it's a long term game. And your goal should never be to become an influencer and be getting paid from social media. You should be building your business. Just like you said, Jeff, that should ultimately, especially as mortgage and real estate professionals, you should be showing up consistently in a way that when people go to buy their next house, when they go to refinance, when whatever they do, they, you're top of mind, you're not becoming the next influencer. Like that is absolutely should not be your goal.

[A]

And the reason why I brought that up is because I wanted to segue into the conversation around you as a mortgage originator, listening to this, making money from your content on social media. I've had a number of people on and it's funny, doing the podcast eight years now. If I go back when I, I would always ask the question, what's your number one source of business? Right? And so more often than not it's referral partners, past clients and things. But what I've seen is over the years I've seen more people come back with the answer of social media right now. Is that all of their business? No. But if it was 20% of your business, right? 20% of your income, even 10%. Like if you want to add an extra two loans a month on average to your business, it's possible to do that with your social media content. Josh, I'm sure you've seen that happen.

[B]

Oh, 100%. And this is. I'm glad. That's a perfect, great segue into that conversation is I have 100% seen people. And there was a statistic that was floating around for a while. One of our good friends in the industry, she put together some data and some analytics behind, like, hey, only, you know, 6% of business comes from social media. And I said, how, how did you track that? Like, Cause I disagree with that because I've had so many clients of mine that have like, oh my gosh, Josh, you know, I've. Since I've been posting content consistently over the last six months, I've picked up an additional, like, six loans. And the only place that I can possibly imagine they're coming from is posting on social. That's it. Like now, that's six loans a month. So, yes, I 100% agree with you. But that's just it. It doesn't happen overnight. You don't start posting content today and start getting loans tomorrow. Although I've seen things like that. And it happens just because people are ready for it. And that's why we need to stay in front of our communities. But yeah, if you are posting consistently, if you're creating valuable content at, on a regularly consistent scale, and we can talk about what regularly means, because some people are like, they'll come to me and they're like, josh, I want to start posting once a day. And I'll ask them, well, how often are you posting now? And they'll be like, I'm not. And I'm like, well, pump the brakes. Then you're not going to start posting once a day because it will burn you out. And I'm very honest with them. Just because you hear Gary Vaynerchuk say you should be posting 10 pieces of content a day. And if you're not posting 10 pieces of content a day, you're worthless. And it's like, no way. If, if you're just starting out, two to three pieces regularly a week is fantastic. And like, that's where you should start. And yes, you can ramp up to once a day or twice a day or whatever it is, but there needs to be that ramp up because you can't just jump on social and start creating content. And honestly, if you did, your community that your followers, they would be like, what is Jeff doing? Like, holy, like, we haven't seen anything from you. And then all of a sudden, I'm just getting bombarded with your content all the time. It's kind of like, whoa, whoa, whoa. You have to have that like introduction phase of like, oh, I see Jeff, I hear Jeff. Like I'm building that trust, that confidence because you have to remember that's what this is all about. That's what you're trying to do with this. You're building trust, you're building confidence, you're building your brand, which, your brand is an extension, an extension of your reputation. That's all your brand is. People get confused with. A brand is a logo or a slogan or this or that. No, your brand is your reputation. Your brand is what people are saying about you when you're not in the room, after the transaction is closed, after the deal is done. What, what are your, your clients saying about you? They saying Jeff was amazing. Jeff, like he helped me here, he helped us do this. He, I would always trust Jeff. Because you have to remember the mortgage process, the real estate pro. It's a very intimate experience. Very like you're getting to know Social Security numbers, incomes, children thing, so many things. And if you're not building that trust and that confidence and that respect during it, you're, you're missing the entire point. And social media is completely designed just for that. So really, in essence, like you have to be having that as a goal in mind. It's not just that influencer idea, it's not just the to, to make money off of social media. It's not going to happen. Two deals, like you mentioned, honestly Jeff, two deals a month and increase over, you know, the next three, four or five months is fantastic.

[A]

What if it's just six deals in a year? Like if the average commission is three grand alone, that's 18, $180,000, dude.

[B]

Imagine that. Like, and, and here's the thing people love to ask me, well, what's the ROI of social media?

[A]

18. I'm like, there's some bad math there.

[B]

I think it's 18,000. But hey, we're mortgage bros. We're not good at that.

[A]

I'm software for the DTIs.

[B]

But even, but even 18 grand, you're making an extra 18, 20 grand a year off a few additional. And again, you're not paying anything, by the way.

[A]

That's just the beginning. That's just the beginning.

[B]

Exactly like that. That's like I tell people, if you're not getting, and here's, here's really my rule of thumb, you should be getting at least 10 deals a year from social media. So that's less than one a month. Like you should be getting 10 deals. And again, going off of your, your average, you should be Anywhere between. Yeah.

[A]

What does it take to get there? What does it take to ramp up to that.

[B]

Posting? Consider like the biggest thing to ramp up to that. Let's, let's just take the average Yellow. The average right now. Yeah, maybe you know this. We actually one of our, one of our biggest clients is one of the biggest data aggregators in the entire industry. And we went to them and asked for some, some data to try to collect and we did our best to try to get an idea of this. Do you have any idea what the average mortgage professional, average loan officer? And I know these numbers aren't perfect, so nobody come, you know, oh, where the hell did you get this? And I'm not going to share the source because they ask us not to, but just know it's one of the, literally the biggest data aggregators in the entire country. Who's a big client of ours. Jeff, do you know what the. Or how often the average mortgage professional posts a month?

[A]

3 to 5 times.

[B]

Less than twice.

[A]

Less than twice.

[B]

That's a, that's a month. That's less than twice a month. Which is crazy to me. So that just shows the bar is so incredibly low. So when these people are saying like, oh, I need to be posting, you know, once a day, I'm like, no, you don't like the average, the average mortgage pro is posting less than twice a month. Like, you just need to be showing up once a week. Like, then you just doubled what the average mortgage professional is doing on a monthly basis. You put out or two posts a week. Like you're crushing it. That's how you get there, Jeff. Like, that's how you do it. And you have to remember this too. So many mortgage professionals and real estate professionals, they follow other mortgage and real estate professionals. So they'll be like, well, Jeff Hardy post. I saw Jeff put a post about that. I can't post about that. Of course you can. Even if you and Jeff have it, maybe you and Jeff live in the same small town in Florida. I mean, or I'm in Georgia. I mean I'm in St. Simon's Georgia, which St. Simon's has like 10,000 people, I think is what it is. So even if I live in this small little rural town in Georgia and Jeff and I both live here and we, we both make a post. We both. Sure, there may be some over overlap, but that's even better for Jeff and I because even if we're relaying the same message, we're doing it in a very different way. Even if Jeff And I have the exact same script. And we read it. People are going to connect with Jeff and people are going to connect with me. So you should never have this idea of like, oh, just because I saw somebody else do it doesn't mean. Or I can't do it now. You should absolutely do it. Because again, the majority of your. Of your communities, people will say audience. I want people to be very clear when I say community. Some people call it an audience, but I just see it differently. A community is people you talk with. An audience is people you talk at. And you want to talk with people you want to have a conversation. That's what. That's what social media is at. You're building a community of people. Think about your community, your neighborhood that you live in. It's a people of or it's a community of people that you trust, trust you respect, you have admiration for. That's what you're building on social media as well. So to your point, Jeff, is how do you get there? You just start posting on a regular basis and you start posting content that is going to connect with your community. The biggest mistake I see mortgage pros make, you and I know this mortgage pros. We are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to mortgage mortgage in particular, and we love to share mortgage knowledge. We love to spew mortgage content all the time. Your community doesn't want to hear mortgage content all the time. As a matter of fact, they don't care about mortgage content all the time. Like, they care about what Jeff does on the weekend. You would never. We're coming up on the 4th of July. We're coming up on, you know, one of the most patriotic, patriotic times in our country. And you would never walk into a barbecue or a neighborhood block party and be like, ladies and gentlemen, y' all know what rates are doing right now. Did you know that? Right? You would just never do that. Like, so the fact that people do it on social media is such a miss. It's just like to ramp up to get to that 10 loans that we're talking about, Jeff, you just have to be relatively like, how. How would you approach going to hang out with your friends? How would you approach going to a block party? Like, what kind? Like, what are you going to be discussing? You're probably going to be discussing hobbies. You're going to be discussing. You went out on the weekend, you went bass fishing, you and your buddies caught some fish. Or, hey, did you know, did you see little Sally scored her first goal in soccer? Or, hey, did you See, you know, Bobby Joe just got, you know, he just graduated high school and now he's off. Those are the conversations that you're going to be sharing. Those are the things that you're going to be relating to your community that people care about. That's what connects you with your community. They don't care about the greatest FHA program that just came out or the latest down payment assistance program. I'm not saying you can't share it, but it's just not all the time. Like I said, people don't care about that all the time. They're going to tell you when they care and that's when the opportunity comes to share that content.

[A]

That's, that's the easy lane for us to step into because it's product related and we're some so comfortable and that's our identity is our product. And I do loans.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. And it is comfortable like it absolutely is. But that's why I was kind of on this journey for a while to get people outside of that comfort zone. Because honestly, even you and I go to these, these mortgage events and these mortgage conferences and sure, we talk mortgage talk, or we talk marketing talk here and there, but most of our conversations are about, hey, how's the family? Hey, you know, son's doing this, family's doing this, or this is great, or oh my gosh, this just happened, or whatever. Those are the conversations that we're having. So the fact that we think as mortgage professionals, just because we're comfortable talking about those things, we need to get into the mindset that it's okay. And I don't know who or where, and I will actually, and I'm not going to call any company out in particular, but there are plenty of companies out there like, oh, you should be, you should have your business page, should be posting business content and that personal life should not be related to business content. That's bullshit. Like that is absolute craziness. And I understand and I'm not going to go down the whole compliance route. My good friend Ken Perry, if you ever have compliance questions, reach out to Knowledge Coup and the Ken Perry team and they can help guide you in that. But I, when it comes to being compliant, just don't be stupid. Like, don't be posting rates or certain terms or certain things like that and you'll never get yourself in trouble. But this idea, Jeff, that we have to share mortgage content all the time and because that's what's comfortable or that's what's going to be compliant, Just crazy. The most successful. And you've seen them and I've seen them. And I could give many examples of mortgage professionals who are doing it right. They share a mix of great business, valuable business content along with personal content. And it just, it shows their personality. But this, this, this goes back to a very interesting thing that you said though. Real quick is you said, watching my content, you're like, oh, sometimes I want to be more like Josh. I do the exact, if I see like, oh, I want to be more like Jeff or I want to be more like this person, don't try to be them, just be you. Because when you start sharing your content, that doesn't mean you can't share something similar to them. But if you try to be somebody you're not, the Internet has, or especially social media in particular, your community has a good BS meter. They know you and if you're trying to be something you're not, they're gonna stop trusting you. They're like, that's not who he is. Or she is. Like, that's just completely off character for them.

[A]

Okay, so let's say somebody's listening to this and they're, they're one of those people that are doing the two to five posts per month. Or they know that they want post more often, but they deal with the two biggest struggles, which is, I don't know what the post and then post production, editing, et cetera, which we'll cover that in a second. But what are some easy entry points for people when it comes to identifying those opportunities that are content Air quotes. Yeah. You know what I mean?

[B]

Absolutely. This is one of the questions we get asked. I don't know what to post. And I always tell people, especially mortgage and real estate pros, you should have a plethora of ideas to post. Like you should have content upon content. What's the last question you got? What's the last question you got from a.

[A]

Top five top ten question.

[B]

Exactly. And you can do those over and over and over. So, Jeff, something we actually built into the platform and not to go back to our to shredded, but something we did is we actually put in the platform prompts for the top 100 searched mortgage questions on, on Google. Like, and we are constantly updating those. Like, hey, what are the top 100 terms on on mortgage or mortgage related right now? And we put those directly in the app for you. You can do a simple search on that. Like, hey, what are people asking on Google? What are some of the things that people are wanting to know about Those. And again, that's just mortgage related. You can, if you're ever wondering, I tell people this the first couple of posts, especially if you're getting started. You should literally. This sounds super corny. This sounds super like kindergarten ish. But you should really do some questions like, so people can get to know you. Like, get to know Josh. Like, like you start this podcast if you don't know Josh. If your community hasn't heard from you in a while, you should literally like, hey, I haven't been on here in a while. Here's some of the things that we're up to. Sally graduated high school. Little Johnny is off playing college football. What Give people kind of that backstage pass of, hey, what's going on in your life? That's a great, that is great content to start with. Like, if you ever ask yourself, what should I post about? What's something you, you did exciting with the family this last week? Is there something you went through? Did you go do something with your, your, your girls? Did you go, you know, do a workout class or a yoga? Did you did some hot yoga with a goat jumping on your back? The only reason I share that is I saw that on social and I was like, what in the heck is.

[A]

I want to try that actually goat yoga, man. It looks fun, dude.

[B]

I guess goat yoga is a thing, so whatever. Again, Jeff, to your point, there are so many ideas or go. Here's another. If you're really wondering, like, and maybe you want to post mortgage content, go on your favorite social media platform and do a quick search for mortgage. You're going to come up, I guarantee you. Now don't get, don't get lost in the scroll, as I call it, because you'll just scroll and scroll, scroll, find, find a couple things that pique your interest and if it piqued your interest, create your own content about it, I think.

[A]

And so that's good advice, I think so. A few things I've written down since we've been talking. I love the fact that earlier you chose to not look at as an audience, but a community. And I think what I love about that is, you know, it puts this frame around it, which changes how you feel about it, the emotional attachment. Because like you said, an audience is you're speaking to community, you're speaking with. And then, then I thought of the word connection. Because when you think about a community, what's the community about? It's about connection, right? It's about engagement and conversations. And to your point just a second ago about like the personal stuff, sharing what's going on in your life. I know some people are reluctant and hesitant to do that. But when you think about networking, right, and you're going to the traditional networking events and meeting and greeting, and everybody's like, what are you doing? You're talking about your life, right? And so what that has done now is what social media has done is move that networking on a platform so it's the same outcome, meaning you're talking about your life. It's just the, the how the delivery mechanism is much wider potentially.

[B]

Exactly like that. That's all it is. Like, you literally, what you just said, everybody should literally go back and rewind the last minute, 30 seconds of what you talked about. That is exactly what social media is like. It is just real life amplified to the nth degree. And the fact that the average adult human being spends 2.8 hours a social media. 2.8 hours a day. Jeff, imagine spending 2.8 hours a day in front of your friends like there.

[A]

Is no other networking meeting. Imagine 2.8 hours in a BNI meeting.

[B]

Oh, my hell. Could you imagine that? My goodness. But, but that's just the point being.

[A]

Is why are you in that BNI meeting? To meet people, to build a relationship, right?

[B]

To build a connect, to build trust. That's why when you go to bni, that's what you're like. You're building that trust. You're building that confidence every single week. So when people sends you that referral, you can be like, hey, thank you. Like, I'm that trusted mortgage pro. I'm not trusted plumber. I'm not trusted. Whatever it is. Like, that's exactly why you do it. And now you. And you could do it.

[A]

I'm like, I'm jamming on that idea because I never actually mentioned that before. Between. You're the first one that brought that idea to the surface here of the. But remember what you do at bni, you stand up, everyone goes around the table, you give your 60 seconds or whatever it is, here's who I am, here's what I do. And remember how you sucked at that too. Standing up and saying like, hey, here's who I am. What do you didn't want to do? It was painful. Same thing with social media, man. Only this time you're grabbing the phone.

[B]

And you're doing it. You're just posting it.

[A]

And then you don't even have to be in front of anybody and stand up. You can just record a video and post it.

[B]

100, dude, it was way easier. People say, oh, I feel uncomfortable. I don't like the way I look on camera. And I'm like, dude, you look exactly the same on camera as you do. If you're going to be I meetings, there's no reason you shouldn't be creating content on social media because you're standing up in front of people, you're talking to them, and you sound exactly the same and you look exactly the same as you do. So if you're doing those things, it's way more uncomfortable. And I tell people, Jeff, something that I get all the time. Those are like, josh. Well, I don't. I don't have that many followers. I only have 500 followers. I'm like, 500 followers. That's it. Like, have you ever been in front of a room of 500 people? You and I have. Like, we've spoken in front of 500 people. It's a lot of people. Like, if you. 99.9% of people, if you stood up in front of 500 people, you would free. You would be nervous. You could. Like, I've talked to, like, they're like, oh, I could never do that. I'm like, but that's what you're doing. Like, on social media, you're in front of 500 people on a regular basis. Like, and again, people are like, oh, well, algorithms, sure, okay, fine, take a fraction even that. 50 of them. Like, in front of 50 people. Most BNI meetings aren't over 50. Like, if you get a really good BNI chapter, maybe you're over 50, 60s. I've seen some that go, you know, up into the. The upper ranges, but that's a lot of people, and that's a great. And we show up week after week to BNI meetings and pitch the same exact thing. Holy cow. Like, how much opportunity is out there?

[A]

Well, and it doesn't take 500 people to actually succeed and start to have transactions. You and I both know stories of people who have that many followers, sometimes less. And all of a sudden, you know, like I think you said on a previous conversation we had, which is, you don't know who's watching. Like, you know, we get hung up in the likes and the comments and, you know, all that's relevant and has its place. But. But the point, the real reality is people watch you without ever saying a word. And then when they're ready. Right. They DM you.

[B]

Exactly. Yep. And that's just it.

[A]

Well, let's real quickly talk about this. I wrote down also quality versus quantity, and I Think speaking back to that same person we. We mentioned a second ago, who's, like, in the range of two to five posts a month, wants to step it up a little bit more. I do think that in the early stages, it's. It's a combination. It's. It's the wide net quantity, and then over time, you bring that down to quality. Does that make sense?

[B]

For sure? 100%.

[A]

What would you say about that?

[B]

Yeah, it's a numbers game. So if, If. If you're not familiar with Mr. Beast, Mr. Beast is like, my kids. Like, I think Mr. Beast is brilliant, by the way, as well. But Mr. Beast is. He is the top YouTube influencer. Oh. He has the largest following on social media, and he talks about this quite often. He said, hey, I did my first hundred videos to get them out of the way. They all suck.

[A]

Sucked.

[B]

They were terrible. He said, but I did them, and I learned something. On every single one of them. I got better and better and better and better to the point where, you know, I was a couple hundred videos in and I was focusing more on, like, what was the message? What was. What was I sharing? The value of every single message. Your first hundred videos, every single one of you, they're gonna suck. They're gonna be a little bit better with Shreddit, but for the most part, they're gonna suck. Like, you're. You just. It's. It's all about just getting better at them. It's all about going through the practice and. And getting that confidence, getting that into that flow. So, yeah, to your point, Jeff, like. Like, you just have to start creating content. Don't overthink it. I. I say this so frequently. Perfection kills progress. If you're worried about what your first videos looks like, you're never going to get to your 100th video. You just got to start recording it. You got to start putting them out.

[A]

You just got to get started. And by the way, as soon as you mentioned Mr. Beast, I just tried to look this up real quick. I don't know how current or accurate this is, but according to this stat, 287 million subscribers on YouTube. By the way, how many did he start with? Zero.

[B]

Zero.

[A]

All right, so that might be an extreme example. You're never going to have 280 million subscribers. That's not the goal. The goal is, let's circle this back full circle to personal brand. And everybody talks about consumer direct, right? You want to go consumer direct? I want to go consumer direct. Well, what the hell are you doing to even Have a place for somebody to engage with you, a consumer. Like, I think on a previous call you and I talked about the placement of a Google business profile is one of those foundational pieces that you. But today's consumer, they're like the hummingbird. They're. When they get, when you get the referral, when you get the whatever, the, you know, whatever, you come into their awareness stage, they're going to look you up on whatever different platform. Question is, what do they find? And you better have some type of a presence somewhere. Let's, let's, let's, let's dovetail to this as well. What about when you're first starting out being spread too thin, trying to be on all platforms? What do you suggest?

[B]

Yeah, you don't need to be on all. I tell people this all the time is whatever platform you spend the most time on is where you should start. I always like, people are always like, well, Josh, Facebook is dead. Facebook is not dead. Facebook has more active users than any other social platform, period. Like, look at the numbers. The number in data speaks for themselves. Plus it's a, it's an older demographic and that older demographic is typically who you're people are always like, well, I want to be on TikTok because that's where the new generation of homebuyers are gonna. No, they're not. The new generation of home buyers has a wealth gap that is never. We've never seen, period. Like, that's a whole other conversation for another. But TikTok has such a young demographic and a user base that. And they don't want to be the ones who have a steady income or a steady job. They're the entrepreneurs who are again, I'm all about it, but Facebook has that demographic. Never spread yourself too thin. Don't think you have to be on Instagram and Facebook and YouTube and TikTok and LinkedIn and Da Da, da da. No. Whatever platform you're most comfortable with or whatever platform you use, look up on your phone. If you're not on an iPhone, you can see what apps you spend the most time on. Want if you spend the most time on Instagram, start there. Why I love Facebook and Instagram is because meta owns both of them and you can cross plat like you can cross post. You're basically touching two platforms at once. Which is why I love starting on one of those two platforms. People are like, oh, I want to start on LinkedIn. I'm like, great. LinkedIn is a great place to start. It's very business oriented. Like, I think you tailor, you have to tailor your content a little bit more to that. And I, and I'm going to use the word audience because that platform in particular, it's very business oriented. YouTube is a beast in and of itself. You're going start on YouTube. Like, people are like, oh, Josh, I want to start on YouTube because I see guys like Mr. Beast. YouTube is a beast in and of itself. There's a huge learning curve to it. Even though YouTube Shorts is, is helping simplify it. But start wherever you're best. If you're, if you're spending the most time on Facebook and Instagram, start there. Get really good at that, and then you can branch out from there. But don't overwhelm yourself in the beginning.

[A]

Okay, so those are some good nuggets and takeaways there about content. What do I say? Let's transition into now the production side of things, how to post editing. Because I think just to bring this full circle back to your app, which I've been testing and using wildly, successfully. And then once again, I will highlight the thing that I think, really, if it's a horse race of apps for social media editing and posting, yours is the only one that I'm aware of that has a live human that reviews your videos with the edits and fine tunes the output of that to your preferences. Not opus, not all these other places, they don't do that. There's no human involved. So I think that's a huge competitive advantage, helping people overcome the hurdle of editing, posting even. What do I say? Because you have the prompts in there. So I just want to say, once again, man, I'm a fan.

[B]

Thank you, I appreciate that. And a lot of people are always like, well, Josh, can I go find my own editor on Fiverr? Good luck. Been there, done that. And I guarantee you the time that you spend on that and the, the what they will charge you per video will end up costing you way more in the long run compared to like finding some. Like, we, we tried that too. We tried, we tried outsourcing. We tried so many different things to, to find these great people. But it was just until we brought them in house and we trained them the way they needed to be trained and have the, the skills and being able to learn. We also, and again, Jeff, we talk about relationships. That's why having a shredder on the back end is so important, because they get to know Jeff, they get to know his personality, they get to know how you say things, your mannerisms. That is key. To being very successful on social media platforms because again, you're trying to relate emotion, you're trying to share those things. And if it's not being encountered, if it's not being captured in that way, you're missing the entire point. So having somebody, real human beings, mortgage professionals, we keep talking about out. We don't want to be replaced. You can't replace video editing with just an AI. Not yet. There may be come a day where, sure, it may, it may be able to do that, but not yet. People need to see that emotion. They need to have those little tidbits in there. So, yeah, I, that's why we built it the way that we did.

[A]

Yeah. And you mentioned, you know, cost. I know that's a cost issue for a lot of people as well, because when you look at, you know, four to eight or 10 videos a month, like that begins to add up. And when you're talking about just exclusively hiring a live editor, I mean, I've looked at and I've used different services over the past that costs, you know, a thousand, $2,000 a month for that. And that's another strong advantage to your, your platform is you've got some, all of your, all of your plans are under 400 bucks. Whether that's unlimited videos or just getting started with four videos. There's, there's three different tiers. So while we're talking about it, let's. I'm just going to point it out for you listeners if you want to check out the app. We've worked out something very special just for my listeners. There's a link in the show notes. It's shreddedclips.com radio, but you can link it up in the show notes. What are we given for the listeners? They get a special bonus, right?

[B]

Yeah, exclusive 15% discount. Like that is just for you for your. And you'll use code radio once you're there. Dude, that's a huge offering to you and your community. You and I have become such good friends and such collaborators over the years. We want to do something special for you and your community because we know they're going to take action. They're not just sitting here sitting back and not making things happen. They're going to go out and take action, make it happen and go create amazing content. So we are honored to offer that to you and your community. So. So, yeah, go get after and have fun with it.

[A]

And once again, the reason why this conversation is happening is exclusively because somebody pushed your app in front of my nose.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Even Though I had the app downloaded, but I never used it. And so this is the classic story with technology. We have a lot of stuff we don't use. Right. And I would argue that some of the apps that you don't use, tools and stuff, could potentially make you more efficient and productive and impact your business. Some you need to get rid of that you haven't been using.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And been paying and haven't been using. So, by the way, called cleaning house. Do that. It's halfway point of the year. Time to revisit your accounting. I'm doing the same thing. I got Josh. Check this out. You can relate this. As a business owner, I'm holding up to the screen. Most people can't see, yes, it's my handwriting, but these are things that I pay monthly for.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

There's like 15 things on that list. And I'm going through and I'm evaluating. Is this actually helping me be more efficient, productive, or helping me make more money? I'm making the argument that if. If one of the areas for you with. With content production has been what do I say? And how the hell do it? And do it in an efficient way. And that's been in your. That's been your. Your, your resistance, your headwinds. Go check out the Shreddit app. Because if anybody knows me, like, I don't bring a lot of people on here and talk about tools and resources and like, you know, people reach out all the time. Hey, dude, you want to do a paid ad? Like, no. Like, unless I'm using it or believe in it, I'm not going to bring it. So there you go.

[B]

And you, you've been a great user on the platform. Go check out Jeff's content right now. He's doing amazing. And that, that's just it. We want to simplify it. Honestly, Jeff. We want people to show up. Up. Everything we've talked about today is you're going to make an impact. You're going to change people's lives, but you have to be showing up for them. And that's what we want you to do. We want it to be so simple where you literally can do everything on your phone. You hit the record button on your phone, upload it through your phone, and then within 48 hours, back on your phone ready to go. That's. That's how simple it is. You don't need a fancy camera, don't need a fancy microphone like you and I are using now. You don't need it. I'm actually using my iPhone. Funny. Enough as an I, as a. As a webcam. Yeah. So you don't need anything crazy like you. All you need is your phone. And just go start, hit that record button, have fun and get better. Better every single day.

[A]

Love it. Love it. Okay, so listen, the other interesting thing is that what's great about this business is talk about not letting anything get in your way is you're actually circumventing. You're like Lewis and Clark. Right. Why don't you tell the listeners what you're doing, this new adventure in your life.

[B]

Yeah. So, I mean, you might be able to see. I'm actually literally sitting on my sailboat. I'm in St. Simon's, Georgia. I can show you outside. I'm literally sitting on the water right now. My wife and family, we decided that, hey, we want to throw caution to the wind, literally, and go try a new adventure. We sold everything in Utah, sold the house, sold all. Most of our belongings and everything we own, aside from a couple of boxes, is on here on the boat with us. And so, yeah, we decided that we want to go explore the world. So the next couple of months, we're on the east coast because of hurricane season, because we can't cross down through the Caribbean right now because of the risk. So we're hanging out on the east coast, getting comfortable with the boat. Boat. And then we're gonna go down through the Caribbean, and then we'll go through the canal, and we're gonna. Yes. Circumnavigate the globe.

[A]

Once again, I have Josh envy.

[B]

We'll have to have you out, Jeff. You can come hang out on the boat and really tell me. I'll be 100% honest. We did our first big overnight passage two days ago. It was rough. I'm just gonna say. I'd be very honest. I did a post about it. The family, all of us, were a little bit sick. It was pretty rough. It was a little bit bumpy. But. But we all were like, well, okay, that was a very, very good first overnight experience. And now we know what to expect.

[A]

It's just like posting video, man. The first one was rough. Didn't really like the outcome. Right. But guess what? You'll get better. You'll get more used to it. And then you'd be like, you know, fricking the old man in the sea, just rocking that thing.

[B]

Yeah, I'm going to be rocking. You're going to see videos of us splashing through waves, cranking through hurricanes. Like, this is amazing. Let's go, buddy. And but yeah, it. The first one definitely was a little bit rough and bumpy. But how. Yeah. Couldn't have planned a better analogy. Like you just said, everything's. When you first start, it's always a little bit tricky. You're learning it. So start posting on social media. Have fun with it.

[A]

Yeah. So we're also going to link up your Instagram in the show notes as well. You got to go follow Josh. Which one is it? Is it Josh Pitts Shred for Instagram?

[B]

Yeah. Josh Pitts Shred is our. Is our latest one.

[A]

Okay, cool. So we can. We can follow your. I'm looking at this one post right here. I see a bolt of lightning on this video. I'm gonna have to go back and see what that's all about.

[B]

Yeah, that was our passage, Jeff. Like, that was. It was rough. We had lightning all around us. We had storms all around us. We had even planned it. Here's the craziest thing that you'll. And I won't go into it too much, but weather is never accurate on any app. I have, like, nine different apps of weather. I don't know how weathermen make a living because they're always wrong, yet they still have a job. Job. But what. The sea is the most unforgiving thing I've ever met in my life. Like, and it's. And which is so amazing to me. But that lightning storm, I will say this. The. It was one of the most amazing and spectacular things I've ever seen. Although it was somewhat terrifying, when you're on a boat, I've never seen anything so. So beautiful. So it was pretty cool.

[A]

You are exposed.

[B]

Oh, my gosh. In a way that you never. Especially when you have your family with you and you're like, this is crazy. But at the same time, it's amazing.

[A]

That's cool. Well, hey, everybody. Follow Josh's journey on his Instagram. We'll link up in the show notes. And if you find something of curiosity or interest about the, you know, the tool of the app, the amazing thing that Josh has created, check it out and then link in the show notes shreditclip.com if you want 15% off, use the code radio. Josh, man, thanks for making time. Time.

[B]

Thanks, man. Always an honor. Always a pleasure. You're the man. Keep it up, brother.

[A]

All right, everybody, you know what to do. If you like this episode as well, leave us a review. We'll see you on the next one. Bye for now. All right.