Embrace The Cringe
In most cases, people don’t become originators to become social media influencers. The thought of talking excitedly to an audience of potentially thousands of people can feel uncomfortable.
But, no one is a natural-born star, and as Nguyen says, it’s okay to be bad at it when first getting started. Just keep posting consistently!
“I didn’t have a good editor, so our clips weren’t amazing. Transitions were horrible. The lighting was bad, everything was horrible,” Nguyen said. “But I posted twice a day and I went live twice a week. It was crappy going live because I only had five people watching me, my mom, my dad, my brother, my business partner, and my business partner’s parents.”
Watch it on The Interest: Mortgage Media Stardom
It took Nguyen a while to build up an audience, going from five viewers in June 2017 to 100 or 200 per video in February 2018. All it took was one video going viral – his V-O-E video, where he sings, “Gimme a V, I got your V, I got your V! Gimme an O, I got your O, I got your O!” with a cheerleader-type dance to teach viewers about verification of employment.
It initially got 2,000 views, and after liquidating his house in March to pay off his debts, Nguyen used some of the remaining money to run the video as a YouTube ad in May. He was able to fund nine loans off the proceeds. The rest is history, he said, and he kept building his business from there.
Phillips also often made herself cringe before she developed her showmanship. Although she doesn’t recommend posting a bad video for the sake of creating content, she does advise beginners to go easy on themselves in the beginning.
“Your first 10 or 15 videos are going to be awkward and a little bit painful to go back and rewatch,” Phillips said. “But, the more you do, the easier it gets. And you just got to start doing it, and you just got to be consistent. The biggest thing is consistency.”
As his last piece of advice, Nguyen says all newbie content creators should remain patient. Generally, leads don’t flood in overnight. “But when you do get a deal,” he said, “I’m sure it’s gonna be a whale of a deal.”