Everyone’s path to a real estate license is unique—and there are lessons to be learned from each. In Tyler Hassman’s case, one of those lessons is a story worth sharing with every new agent.
Hassman joins host Brad McCallum this week on the Branded podcast. And as we’ve come to expect, the pod is saturated with takeaways on real estate branding. We’ve picked a few of our favorites for this post.
Take what you need and put it to use.
How to learn what makes you unique
What makes you unique is more important—to your audience and just generally speaking—than how skilled you are with video production. Obviously, you want to keep learning as you go to improve the quality of your video content. But it’s never going to be perfect.
Hassman and McCallum both emphasized these points more than once throughout the episode.
Hassman’s advice to new content creators is to keep your look and your presentation style true to who you are authentically. You don’t have to look like your favorite real estate influencer; even if you do tend to dress in a similar way, you’re not the same person, and you want your true self to shine through.
Dress and talk like the truest and best version of you—the version you would 100% hire to help you buy or sell a property. You want to stand out by leveraging what makes you unique.
So, how do you identify what that is? McCallum hit the nail on the head with one of his questions for Hassman: “Do you just create until you find your style?”
That is the most important thing because, at the end of the day, to get good at something and to find your thing when you’re creating content is to create as much content as possible. Because if you watch my day one videos, they’re absolutely trash…you can see the evolution to me finding what I like and what I don’t like. And when I’m making my videos, my home tour videos, I am not, like ‘What are people really going to like?’ I’m like ‘What do I want to see?’
That’s always going to evolve…but at the end of the day, you’re going to find your thing by just doing it…
Another thing to remember, whether you’re just getting started building your brand or you’re decades in and continually refining the brand you’ve got, is that getting value-driven content out there is more important than getting a near-flawless take.
Yes, skill is important. But it’s not the main attraction.
Ultimately, I don’t hold other people to the same standards I hold myself to. And when I see people trying new stuff, different things, I get excited for them. But the only thing that I care about with every content creator I watch—the one thing that’s consistent—is they’re super-passionate about the one thing that they do that’s unique to them.
Put another way, it’s okay to start rough. In the beginning, nobody’s really watching anyway. So, as you’re filming or editing your content, keep these two quotes in mind:
- “Screw it. Let’s do it.” (Richard Branson quote)
- “Get out of that mindset of ‘It needs to be perfect,’ because it never will be.” (Tyler Hassman)
TikTok or Instagram?
Hassman started out on TikTok because, as he puts it, “it’s a really good platform to go big quick, if you can hit it.” And he did. But when McCallum asked him, “If you had to choose between” TikTok or Instagram, which one he would choose, Hassman did not hesitate.
“Instagram 100%. Instagram is the number one platform.”
He gave three reasons for that:
- Everyone is on Instagram.
- Verifications mean people know it’s really you.
- Your followers actually see your content (much more so than on TikTok)
TikTok has some pros, too. The main one is it’s relatively easy to go viral if you’ve got something a lot of people want to see. With videos that hit, Hasman has gotten millions of views and grown his followers by leaps and bounds.
Then there are the downsides:
- It doesn’t push all your videos to your audience.
- No verification (Hassman has 30-some fake accounts that TikTok will not remove, despite his efforts)
- Unlike Instagram, it’s not designed for building connections.
As McCallum pointed out, “So many of the conversations, even if they originated on TikTok or YouTube, the connection actually starts on Instagram.”
Hassman agreed.
It’s all on Instagram DM… On TikTok, I tell people, ‘Hit me up on Instagram’ because I want to convert them over to my Instagram…So, I would say Instagram is the best space for that…. All of my lead generation is from Instagram; they’re messaging me on there.
We’re not arguing the effectiveness of TikTok for real estate content creators. McCallum made his first six-figure commission from a single TikTok video. Clearly, it’s still worth considering if you’ve got the right content for it.
And the best way to find out if your video qualifies is to post it and see what happens.
The future of content strategy
That brings us to the topic of content strategy—and one of McCallum’s final questions, “What’s next for Tyler Hassman’s content strategy as it relates to agents?”
My whole thing right now is I feel like the days of just posting a generic video and then it going viral is gone. I feel like TikTok was doing that because they wanted a bunch of people on their platform. And then Instagram, about a year ago or six months ago with Reels, they wanted more people watching Reels…so it was easy to get views. And now, I’m sitting here being like ‘That doesn’t work anymore.’ Now, we’ve got to actually work for views. So, I’m like, ‘Okay…how can I get more views?’
And the way of that is just being so creative by trying different things.… So, I’m just out here in 2024 trying a bunch of new things that I think will work. I’m willing to fail. I’m willing for videos to absolutely flop and [for] people to be like, ‘What did he just do?’
Mistakes will be made when you’re out there doing things and taking risks. The goal is not to avoid mistakes but to “fail faster” and learn as you go.
After all, the word “creative” implies you’re not just imagining things. You’re not stuck in the planning phase or “strategizing” on paper. You’re creating.
Then you’re going a step further and throwing that content in front of a real audience.
But if you just copy what I’m doing, copy what Brad’s doing, copy what other people are doing for market updates, you’re just going to be another agent making content. You’re not going to have that big breakthrough or have massive success. So, I think, go and try anything and everything, and get creative.
Tune in below to enjoy the full conversation:
This Simple Instagram Post Generated 97 Comments (and a Month of Content Ideas)