You probably know him as The Broke Agent. To me, Eric Simon is a content and marketing genius, as well as my partner in Broke Agent Media.
For this week’s episode of the Byron Lazine Podcast, we go all the way back to the beginning to talk about where we’ve come from, what’s happened since we launched BAM, what Eric hates about me, and what we have coming up for the end of this month.
We’ve stuffed some tremendous opportunities into this podcast, so you won’t want to miss it.
How Broke Agent Media began
We’re doing an internal pod for this episode, starting with the history of Broke Agent Media and the day we launched this partnership.
April 18th is engraved in my head forever, more than my birthday, more than the founding of Israel, more than my engagement. April 18th—when BAM launched.
How BAM has grown since then
Eric built the brand, The Broke Agent, over seven years ago. Obviously, Broke Agent Media was born off that brand recognition. BAM echoes The Broke Agent’s humorous voice and focuses on social first. And we both bring our strengths to BAM to provide value along with humor.
A big fear of mine, would I be able to move a lot of the audience from The Broke Agent to consume more serious content? And I think (Byron) providing the real estate news and updates and then me providing the social media tips has been such a good one-two punch. We’re providing so much value that it’s everything I’ve wanted to create content-wise for the last seven years. And it’s so much more fulfilling to me right now to do actual marketing content and teach Instagram strategy…than posting the same meme every single day. So, I love what we’ve done with the content so far.
I didn’t know how our styles and content would mesh together, but the integration of the shows has, to me, gone off a lot better than I anticipated. The level of detailed attention we give to each piece of BAM content is incredible. It’s all hands on deck. And neither of us has to change who we are to make Broke Agent Media the force that it is.
BAM Engagement
Because of the attention we give to each piece of content—and because Eric is so adept at marketing content on social media—BAM’s YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are all crushing, engagement-wise.
Our email open rate is good, too, and we’re constantly overanalyzing how to make it 5% better. We’re continually evolving with our content and our strategy.
I love doing this stuff so much; my favorite aspect of this is just getting more clicks, getting more engagement, getting more YouTube subscribers, getting more email subscribers. That’s all I think about all day. Not really. I think about sports.
Sponsorships and Upcoming Events
Speaking of BAM’s immediate future, we’ve got so much coming up with sponsors, the Tom Ferry Success Summit in Dallas, and the BAM Bash.
Whenever we head to a conference, we make the most of our time capturing content. All the best real estate talent, coaches, agents, brokers, and sponsors are gathered in one place. They’ll all be at the Tom Ferry Summit. So we bring our A game to get the best possible content and connect with new people.
Our partnership at the beginning made a lot of noise because they understood [our brands]… it makes complete sense to meld those together… You have humor on one side, you have news and analytical content on the other side. Combine those, and the amount of value we can provide, plus the audience combination, is the most powerful thing in real estate branding and marketing right now, I think… We are the best place to advertise right now in residential real estate because of how many creators we have, because of our following, and because we know how to integrate that content so well and so naturally with all these assets.
The BAM Team: Video, Clips, and Content
Having an incredible media team from the beginning—for video, clips, and content—has been key to BAM’s early success and continuing growth.
We understand the importance of a clip to drive traffic to the shows. Sometimes, we understand that the clip is more important than the show. We could get a clip that gets 30K, 40K views. The podcast isn’t gonna get that yet… We’re still getting that attention & providing value and putting out content. And that clip is so valuable.
The great thing about this long-form content is the ability to get all these different clips. One hour-long podcast—especially when you go into it ready to ask engaging questions, be present, and have a great conversation—can yield four or five clips up front, when the pod goes live, and then four or five more clips down the road when you’re repurposing or struggling for content.
The number one thing Eric doesn’t like about Byron
My final question for Eric was, “What’s the number one thing you don’t like about me?”
This is what I don’t like about you. You’ll go to bed at seven o’clock Eastern Time… If there’s a pressing issue, and I’m texting you at 5 o’clock (pm) my time (PST), you’re done! You’re sleeping. And then I’ll get a text from you at like 2 am my time…
Watch the full episode for more.
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