Guests: Christopher Choo, Daniel Ramsey
Recorded: October 21, 2019
Excerpt
Christophe Choo is an award-winning, top-producing luxury real estate agent with over 30 years of experience serving Los Angeles’ most elite Westside neighborhoods. He’s also a video and social media rockstar who gets over 51,000 monthly hits to his website and 7.3 million views a month on YouTube with over 23,000 subscribers! Video has served him well: it’s a key strategy in growing his business, Christophe Choo Beverly Hills, to over $60,000 a month in commissions – with commission income doubling every year and on track to double yet again!
He employs innovative sales & marketing techniques, combined with a deep knowledge of his marketplace that helps him truly dominate the competition – and earned him the title of #1 Real Estate Video Influencer in North America in 2018 by Real Trends & the Wall Street Journal. In this special webinar, we’ll drill down to uncover the insider tips and strategies to help you leverage the power of video and truly hardness your social presence to its full potential!
Christophe’s endless passion and enthusiasm for real estate have earned him a coveted position among the nation’s best real estate agents, and for years he’s enjoyed top-producer status in the elite Coldwell Banker Previews® International Presidents Premiere, which honors the top 1% of Coldwell Banker agents worldwide. “I have been successful over the last two decades because I love what I do,” he says. “Finding a person’s dream home is not a job to me. It’s my passion.”
Christophe started his business by calling and writing letters to expired listings and knocking on doors. He invested in training and having a coach early in his career, which he believes helped him exponentially. However, driving through prospecting was his focus to grow his business for the first few years of his career.
Christophe recalls hiring an assistant as early as 2 or 3 years into his career as a Real Estate professional, and he has had one for at least 28-29 years of his 32-year career in Real Estate. He says that even back then, he knew it was crucial to have such support because he was worth thousands of dollars an hour and should not be doing $20 an hour.
Having an assistant marketing director and a team to support you in the business has allowed Chris to focus on the most critical aspects of his business. He relies on carefully planning, coordination & delegation to ensure it all gets done, saying, “Setting goals and plans for what you’re going to do is important, but then you have to have the infrastructure and the people in place to make your, thoughts and plans a reality.”
Christophe is very involved in strategizing and conceptualizing video and photoshoots. He currently stays out of the actual capture and production because he has developed a team that can grasp what he wants and executes it flawlessly. However, he is quite involved in the creative aspects because he is particular about details and often does the introductions and other elements of the videos he puts out. While he is not involved in the technical aspects such as capturing and editing, he takes on the producer/director role for each of his videos because he has a particular way he wants things done.
“I’m a firm believer in the power of video,” says Christophe. “In today’s increasingly global world, buyers and sellers are looking for high-quality videos that show properties in the best light. Buyer’s I work with also really appreciate my neighborhood video tours as it gives them a terrific initial introduction into the various areas and communities they are considering.”
When Christophe has a property, he will create a video for, he creates a detailed plan to ensure he showcases all the unique features of the property. He is particular about what he wants for each element, from the number of clips to how many seconds each clip will be and what areas each clip highlights.
Ensure you watch the entire video to hear more about Christophe’s secret sauce to becoming a rock star in the video and on social media.
Transcript
00:00:04:11 – 00:00:23:07
Daniel Ramsey
Hey, everybody. Daniel Ramsey here with MyOutDesk and oh, my goodness, I’ve got a story for you real quick before we get started with our special guests. So I’m I’m doing my morning routine and this morning and I’m texting with my broker. And I have I’m trying to buy a commercial property right now. And it’s at an intersection with a lot of traffic.
00:00:23:12 – 00:00:42:21
Daniel Ramsey
And it’s just this ideal little piece of property that is like an L-shaped on one of the best neighborhoods in town. And so I texted my broker, I’m like, Man, why haven’t you gotten back to me? We submitted an offer like seven days ago, and you know what he says? He goes, Oh, I don’t know. I haven’t heard from the the seller’s like the seller’s agent.
00:00:42:21 – 00:01:07:24
Daniel Ramsey
And here’s the thing, guys. I have 1200 real estate virtual assistants, right here and right now. And I’m I’m telling the guy, I’m like, you need an assistant. We are getting into the busy time. We are getting into where 70% of all real estate transactions are happening in the next 3 to 4 months. Like 70% of the 5 million transactions are going to happen in the next 3 to 4 months.
00:01:08:03 – 00:01:40:11
Daniel Ramsey
And if you don’t have an assistant, then you aren’t assistant. And if you’re listening, Tony, my broker, my commercial broker, you need better assistants, man, to help you keep organized and to take things off of your plate so you can drive revenue. So anyways, that’s my rant. But if you’re listening right now, we’ve got two special guests. First of all, what we like to do is bring people who are crushing it in a particular area so you can model that you know that in your own business regardless of where you are in the country.
00:01:40:11 – 00:02:07:21
Daniel Ramsey
So today we have a special guest, Kristof Cho. He’s he’s the owner of Kristof Cho Real Estate Group. He’s in L.A. in in in basically one of the the highest in property areas of California. And here’s what he’s known for. What and why we brought him on. Bomb, bomb. Who is a real estate e-mail video platform, listing him as the number one influencer in video marketing for the 2018 year.
00:02:08:01 – 00:02:25:20
Daniel Ramsey
And what’s cool about this is Kristof today is going to share with us the down and dirty, the details, exactly what he does in social media and video to drive huge listing volume and really make a difference for his clients. So, Kristof, thanks for being here, man.
00:02:26:04 – 00:02:37:08
Christopher Choo
Thank you. I appreciate it. I’m excited to be here with you and your company and doing this podcast video cast and helping share my knowledge to help other agents and brokers all around the world in the country. So it’s a great thing you’re doing.
00:02:37:21 – 00:02:57:18
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, that’s what we do, man. And what’s cool is we serve the top 1000 agents across the country. We’ve been blessed to be in business 12 years in the real estate virtual assistant game, and all we want to do is make the industry better. So we have people like you, Christophe, come in and knock it out of the park.
00:02:57:18 – 00:03:11:20
Daniel Ramsey
So Christophe, talk to us about your story. Like I always like to start these things off with a couple of questions, like how did you get into real estate, you know, and why did you decide to do the social media video influencer kind of marketing?
00:03:12:15 – 00:03:28:10
Christopher Choo
Good question. Stories are always good because people can relate to stories. So and it goes way back because I have been selling real estate now for 32 years, it’s hard to believe that more than half of my life I’ve been selling real estate. So, you know, I was a regular student in a highly gifted classes from when I was very young.
00:03:28:11 – 00:03:44:20
Christopher Choo
I didn’t like to study. I didn’t like going to school. School was too boring and a little bit too slow for me. I just wasn’t a good student for many. I didn’t get top grades because, you know, especially in high school, I ditched a lot of high school. I barely graduated. I lost my scholarship because I did so much.
00:03:44:20 – 00:04:04:23
Christopher Choo
And like it was, you know, I remember two weeks before high school was over, my parents came back from a five week trip to Europe, and the counselor called that afternoon when they got home and said, Your son’s not graduating. He’s feeling all of his classes. So that was the end of that. But I did graduate like I crammed for the finals and I passed and I and but I was also a fashion model at the time, so I didn’t really care.
00:04:04:23 – 00:04:22:23
Christopher Choo
I thought I would be a model photographer, you know, who cares about school? School wasn’t going out there. And so I started dating my wife now of 26 years. And she said to me, I was traveling quite a bit to Europe and Asia and modeling and I’d be gone three weeks, three months at a time. And she said, How about getting a more stable job?
00:04:23:01 – 00:04:42:06
Christopher Choo
And I was 18 years old and didn’t know anything. She said, How about real estate? And as a young 18 year old, I honestly thought I could drive a fancy car in my own boss, show pretty houses and make a lot of money. That’s what I really thought. I had no idea that there was such a thing as escrows and title and inspections and loans and appraisals and all that stuff.
00:04:42:06 – 00:05:03:15
Christopher Choo
I just thought you just show houses and you make money, but no clue, right? So I was modeling that summer. Took my came back, took my house, my real estate exam. I went to interview I was living in Los Feliz area at the time, which is part of Los Angeles with my family. Still, I was 18 and I interviewed at the local John Douglas office because that was the number one company in L.A. was luxury, and that’s what I wanted to do.
00:05:03:24 – 00:05:25:22
Christopher Choo
They wouldn’t hire me. The manager asked me what my goals and dreams were, and I said, Well, I’m going to make $1,000,000 a year. And this is in 1988 or 87, I think. And he says, I’m going to make $1,000,000 a year and drive a Rolls-Royce. So she thought I was crazy. So she didn’t. So I went to the next closest John Douglas office, which was in Hancock Park, about a five, six mile drive in there.
00:05:25:22 – 00:05:45:17
Christopher Choo
And she hired me first year I was going to open house as a week up desk, floor desk, as you call it, getting those incoming calls. Nothing was happening. I think the first year I got a listing for 43,000, I sold it, but it was a 1730 $2 commission. I remember that very well as my first commission and said to me, You know, Christophe, you’ve been here for over a year.
00:05:45:17 – 00:06:00:24
Christopher Choo
I’ve only done one sale. You got to get some business going in the next 90 days or you’re going to be kicked out of the office. Well, I don’t want to go to the office. So I went to a Roger Butcher seminar and if you know that name and he taught me how to call expired listings and for sale by owners.
00:06:01:09 – 00:06:20:19
Christopher Choo
So I started doing that, started sending letters to every expire, calling them door, knocking them, and I started building my business. So that’s how it all started. And I started doing really well, went from 1700 to 30000 to 60000 to 1, 22 to 50, like doubling every year. And there was a certain point, maybe eight years into it.
00:06:20:19 – 00:06:24:21
Christopher Choo
I was one of, I think the second or first agent, top agent in that office.
00:06:24:21 – 00:06:30:22
Daniel Ramsey
Hold on, Christophe. There’s so much good goodies in all what you just said. So I want to unpack for us.
00:06:30:23 – 00:06:31:08
Christopher Choo
So.
00:06:31:12 – 00:07:00:23
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, yeah. So when, when clients come to us, we always we do something called a double my business strategy call. And you just confirmed the possibilities like I’ve I’ve seen really big teams who are doing two or 300 transactions, double to 600. I’ve seen 500, you know, transaction teams go to a thousand and I’ve seen brand new agents who did five deals, literally do ten the next year, then 20, then 40.
00:07:01:20 – 00:07:19:05
Daniel Ramsey
Let’s break down your early, Christophe, like your let’s call it baby Christophe Right. You know, baby real estate. Christophe What is it possible when you’re, you know, building a team and building a business to double on a consistent basis what’s required if it is?
00:07:19:22 – 00:07:40:22
Christopher Choo
Well, back in those days that made it, there was first of all, when I started out, there was no I wasn’t there was barely even the Internet computers were just starting out were fax machines were just coming out was a very different era. So so in those days, I mean, I literally went from nothing for the first 8 to 10 years, and I built my business solely on prospecting, meaning just look, I was 18, 19 years old.
00:07:40:22 – 00:08:01:10
Christopher Choo
I didn’t know anybody my age was buying or selling. Right. Okay. These people couldn’t sell their house and they want to sell their house, so why not go to that audience? It’s looking. And I just you know, I was in coaching. I learned about scripts and dialogs and all that training. And so it was very and I remember when I started coaching was $1,000 a month way back in like 1992.
00:08:01:22 – 00:08:15:21
Christopher Choo
And I didn’t know if I could afford it, but in my mind I thought, okay, so 120 me 12,000 for the 12 months of coaching, but in my mind I knew I would get a ten time return on that investment. And I’ve been ever since continuously for I don’t know how 28 years.
00:08:16:08 – 00:08:30:14
Daniel Ramsey
Okay. Okay. So what you what you’re saying and I want to clear this year you were fanatically focused on prospecting and then you invested in yourself by having a coach.
00:08:30:19 – 00:08:31:10
Christopher Choo
Absolutely.
00:08:31:22 – 00:08:34:16
Daniel Ramsey
How many doubles did you get from just those two things.
00:08:35:11 – 00:08:40:15
Christopher Choo
I mean, doubling my business. Yeah, it went on for like seven or eight years pretty much.
00:08:40:15 – 00:08:45:24
Daniel Ramsey
I think you just doubled every year for seven or eight years with those two strategies.
00:08:46:02 – 00:09:04:22
Christopher Choo
That’s pretty much it. Yeah. Yeah. Because it some there was nothing else other than prospecting in those days. Yeah. So I got a little build past clients and sphere and all that that’s down the road. That’s how I got into luxury, but that’s how it started in the beginning. It was all in when I left the Hancock Park to move to Beverly Hills, which is where I am now.
00:09:04:22 – 00:09:27:02
Christopher Choo
For the last 20 years, maybe 20 years, my average price in Hancock Park was, I think, 282,000 at that time. Right. And I was doing maybe 50 to 65 transactions a year. Now in Beverly Hills, it can average 5 million, 9 million, sometimes 12 million, depending on the deals I do that year. So so that was kind of a transition.
00:09:27:07 – 00:09:51:03
Christopher Choo
But interesting, you talked about assistants. I had an assistant. I think my second or third year in real estate. I’ve had my entire, you know, probably 28, 29 years of my 32 year career. I knew early on having an assistant was critical and, you know, we didn’t have virtual assistants and things like that in those days. Yeah, but so I had a physical assistant in my office, you know, five days a week.
00:09:51:03 – 00:10:10:14
Christopher Choo
So that’s very, very important because, you know, I, you know, we study things like how much your time is worth per hour. And my time is in the thousands of dollars, so it’s more than an attorney gets. So I thought, why would I be doing $20 an hour work when I’m making thousands of dollars an hour? So even back in the day, wasn’t thousands an hour.
00:10:10:14 – 00:10:13:11
Christopher Choo
It was hundreds an hour. But still, it was more than I was paying system.
00:10:14:06 – 00:10:40:01
Daniel Ramsey
Right. And that math is what we do for our clients. You’re I love interviewing you, man. You’re like we’re like our poster child for helping real estate people grow because. So you’re, you know, coaching, prospecting fanatically, you know, focused on that. Once you’ve got those two things down, you’re ready to start building a team. And when you start building a team, the doubles become faster, meaning there’s leverage in it.
00:10:40:01 – 00:10:55:05
Daniel Ramsey
So it’s like a snowball. And the and the snowball has gotten really, really big how having an assistant and building a team what has that done to your volume and your increases and the speed at which you’ve been able to double?
00:10:55:22 – 00:11:15:03
Christopher Choo
Well, it certainly helps a lot. I mean, having, you know, an assistant marketing director and people to support you, I mean, I basically have four jobs. One is to talk to people I don’t know and people I know negotiate contracts and, you know, find more clients and get the deals done. So it’s it’s pretty simple. So I should not be involved in other things.
00:11:15:03 – 00:11:28:04
Christopher Choo
Now, of course, planning, brainstorming, setting goals and plans for what you’re going to do. That’s also important because but then you have to have the infrastructure and the people in place to forward your ideas, thoughts and class.
00:11:28:16 – 00:11:44:12
Daniel Ramsey
Right. Okay. So I love what you’re saying as the leader. Your job is strategy, talking to clients, getting clients and negotiating deals that in your world everything else should be given away to an assistant. Is that is that kind of how you’re you’re.
00:11:44:14 – 00:12:09:24
Christopher Choo
Much I will say those certain things I do my I don’t do myself but I do oversee myself, such as a photo shoots and video shoots. I think those are very, very critical aspects. And I try to let go of those things, meaning just, you know, with my sister marketing director have tell them, you know, go with them to the house, take pictures and show them the angles I want in certain rooms, make sure they know to make sure everything’s symmetrical and pillows are properly placed, all that stuff.
00:12:09:24 – 00:12:28:23
Christopher Choo
But yes, no one seems to be as detailed or thorough as I am. So I’ve learned that I kind of have to be there, which is a little bit time consuming. And then with videos, I have to be there because I’m often in the videos doing introductions and walking tours and that kind of thing. So so I do try to outsource or have people do a lot of the work with us.
00:12:28:23 – 00:12:44:11
Christopher Choo
Certain things I still have to do, even though I’m not supposed to. But I just know if I if I leave certain things like photos and videos to their own, I’m usually not happy with the results and eye for detail. And when I’m there, I’m like, they’ll take a picture and I’m like, Oh, wait a minute, that lamp is off kilter.
00:12:44:11 – 00:12:49:02
Christopher Choo
The corner showing, you know, those kinds of things, which I know doesn’t mean that much, but I guess it does to me.
00:12:49:14 – 00:13:00:07
Daniel Ramsey
Well, you know, what I love about what you’re saying is you don’t have to be the videographer. You don’t have to be the the video producer. But you do have to be the director.
00:13:00:17 – 00:13:01:07
Christopher Choo
Absolutely.
00:13:01:07 – 00:13:08:23
Daniel Ramsey
Your videos and in your online presence, kind of, you know, brand, is that is that how you would put it.
00:13:09:03 – 00:13:27:12
Christopher Choo
A little bit? I’ve never edited the edited a video in my life. I don’t do that. It’s beyond my coverage. But I do very much produce it. I’m definitely a producer because it takes a while to think of the plan for the video, especially for a house. I mean, you know, depending on the position of the house, you’re morning light in the front, you have afternoon light in the back.
00:13:27:12 – 00:13:46:20
Christopher Choo
So sometimes to shoot it two or three times, you have cloudy mornings. You have, you know, in L.A. we sometimes have cloudy mornings. So you got to shoot the inside one day and shoot the outside another day when it’s sunny. So there’s a lot of involvement. And then I have to, in my mind, put together the storyline of the video and say how flow and then what I used.
00:13:46:20 – 00:14:03:01
Christopher Choo
Sometimes I don’t do it as much. Now I would have the videographer send me all the raw footage. I want to look through it, particularly when I had a property. It’s 40 or 50 or $60 million. I take a lot of extra time and care and that because it’s a very special property and has a lot of special, unique features.
00:14:03:01 – 00:14:22:00
Christopher Choo
So I have to really plan it out, look at all the footage and they may have 30 minutes of living room footage and I’ll look through all because even though we’re only going to have a one minute video and a four minute video, I need to know out of those ten clips, clip number four, 15 seconds to 28 seconds, that’s the shot I want in this particular part.
00:14:22:00 – 00:14:40:13
Christopher Choo
So I will storyline it. I will send the videographer kind of an outline of the videos I want and we maximize it’s all Google Drive. I can make the notes on the video itself on Google Drive, so they just have access to it. And then that way they can create the first, second or third edit based on my my thoughts.
00:14:40:13 – 00:14:49:17
Christopher Choo
But we are producing things is very important. But it’s important to have the right people behind you to implement those things and they need to be experts in their field.
00:14:50:12 – 00:15:20:01
Daniel Ramsey
This is awesome. I love what you’re saying. I think I’m it’s so the case as leaders and owners, we have to rely on others to execute for us because they have specific skills that, like you and I, just don’t have. I hated school and I can’t sit at a computer and I am not detail oriented and I think that’s the norm for us real estate people is we just we aren’t we need to rely on others to execute for us, but keep the vision.
00:15:20:08 – 00:15:42:04
Daniel Ramsey
You know, they’re we’ve got a ton of panelists and a lot of people who are here attending. I saw Matt Wagner in What’s Up, buddy. And I’m I just want to let everybody know it’s really hot here in California. Kristoff and I are like, well, it’s it was 82 degrees at 7 a.m. in Sacramento, California. It’s like is going to be a hot one.
00:15:42:09 – 00:16:07:17
Daniel Ramsey
But if you’re listening right now, I’d love you to just kind of say, yo, what’s up and where you’re from and how hot it is where you’re at. Plus, I want you to know that Kristoff and I are going to answer questions because we’re here, too. We’re here. I mean, we’re here to give love and value to the folks that are on this call and listening in our audience.
00:16:07:17 – 00:16:34:23
Daniel Ramsey
And this is going to go out to everybody. Christophe, let’s let’s break down. Let’s talk a little bit about your story because you you, you know, we reached out to you for a really specific reason. You’ve been doing social media and video on property before. It was cool, like it’s cool now, but ten years ago when you were heavy in it, nobody else was doing that.
00:16:35:07 – 00:16:54:06
Daniel Ramsey
And so I just want to break down that story. And then if you’re in the audience, stay with us because Christophe is going to give us his exact approach to how he does social media and how we use it. Direct the video for his listings and we’re talking about multimillion dollar listings.
00:16:54:06 – 00:17:12:14
Christopher Choo
So that’s a really good question. And so let’s go back and it’s all related back to coaching and having the right people behind. So Tom Terry was my coach at the time and I still coach with him in his company as he’s number one coach in the world, as far as I know, for real estate. And I was at his top producer retreat in Palm Desert.
00:17:12:24 – 00:17:30:03
Christopher Choo
It was it was 118 degrees. Not quite like today, but it is hot near. So forgive me for sweating, but I’m in the sunlight, the window and it’s the air conditioning is so hot. So I’m at the conference and Gary Vee, Gary Vaynerchuk was there. Yeah, I’ve never heard of it. Never heard of him before, didn’t know he was.
00:17:30:15 – 00:17:49:01
Christopher Choo
So we had met in person and then after lunch he at the conference and I’m sitting in the front row and Google had just purchased YouTube. And in those days this is going back ten, 11 years ago and it was named the the websites and the blog were king meaning the websites were king. You had to have a blog.
00:17:49:01 – 00:18:06:19
Christopher Choo
And in a transition from the lower end market, first of all, the Beverly Hills ten years before physically. Yeah. And then I started my social world too, to build that personal referral network of high end sellers and buyers. Because I have to live it, breathe it, be it, and live there in order to attract those kinds of clients.
00:18:06:19 – 00:18:12:18
Christopher Choo
So yeah, but you know, like were the world was changing and it’s changing even more quickly today. So Gary said.
00:18:13:00 – 00:18:50:22
Daniel Ramsey
Hold on, hold on, hold on. You are so fast and I’m going to slow you down because first I want to say, what’s up, Hector? He’s in San Gabriel Valley. It’s only 78 degrees there. Now, you said something that is so valuable. If you’re listening and you want to make a transition from, you know, regular real estate where you’re 300, 400, the national average, and if you want to start selling more to million dollar homes, Christophe says, you have to live it, breathe it, be it and talk a little bit about that transition, because I think it’s an important point.
00:18:51:02 – 00:19:03:14
Daniel Ramsey
You’ve transitioned from a regular real estate person in L.A., right, to the point where you’ve sold a $50 million property, and that’s a big deal. Most people don’t do that transition. So talk to us about that.
00:19:03:21 – 00:19:11:07
Christopher Choo
That’s another one. So basically most people contact me, want to learn about how to get into luxury selling real estate, but they want to be able to, quote unquote, luxury.
00:19:11:07 – 00:19:12:07
Daniel Ramsey
Luxury, right.
00:19:12:12 – 00:19:32:04
Christopher Choo
It really has to be internally who you are in order for you to sell it. That’s number one. It was always internally who I was, even though my parents did not come from a wealthy family by any means. My mom was a hairdresser, I a beauty shop. My stepfather worked for a rare art book company. I was exposed to traveling to Europe and exposed to art and culture at a young age.
00:19:32:04 – 00:19:58:08
Christopher Choo
So exposure and I had teachers at a young age starting in junior high school that saw some spark in me or saw something different and saw that I wanted something different and all eyes to the world of wealth and luxury. It was a particular teacher in junior high school. That was my yearbook teacher. My art teacher. And she started showing me all these luxury magazines, which I had never been exposed to about the luxury world of luxury people properties.
00:19:58:09 – 00:20:18:05
Christopher Choo
And then I was like, so enamored by this, and I just started following that. So the question was how to get into lecture. Oh yeah. So, so back a little bit further. So first year, 1700 and income kept going up the fifth year in the business. I think I earned 250,000 1993 because that’s the year I got married.
00:20:18:05 – 00:20:39:24
Christopher Choo
So we were getting married and we decided to go on a trip to Europe and a trip to Asia for our honeymoon. And I remember the trip at that time cost about $60,000 for this whole vacation, which was about a quarter of my gross income for the year. But it’s all range mindset. Again, so important in my mind.
00:20:41:02 – 00:21:00:14
Christopher Choo
I worked so hard every day of the year. I was okay to spend a quarter of my income to travel for six weeks and live really the life that I thought was the real life, the life of luxury. And I’ve always said I thought if I don’t go the best, I’m not going to go. So we went first class went on the best cruise ship, penthouse suites, the best hotels, everything.
00:21:00:14 – 00:21:28:03
Christopher Choo
I mean, six star, five star all the way. And the magic thing that and I believe in miracles. I believe in magic. And every day in my affirmations, I say that I expect miracles each and every day. And they do happen. And we were on this cruise with 1000 people in the Mediterranean for two weeks. And that little roster of all the names of the people on the ship and there was a couple from Beverly Hills and I had not yet moved to Beverly Hills, but this couple we happened to by chance be late for one day sitting next to happen to be.
00:21:28:03 – 00:21:55:03
Christopher Choo
Then we started chatting. They became friends. Somehow the universe put us together on the on the deck that the one couple that I really wanted to meet from L.A. or Beverly Hills we met, started chatting, became friends. So maybe six months, a year later, we kept in touch. We became friends with them. They sent me a referral and from that referral it was a 24 unit condo building in Beverly Hills that actually the owners decided to lease just to do leases.
00:21:55:14 – 00:22:20:02
Christopher Choo
But back in 1994, we were leasing those units from 5000 to 12000 a month and I was on the leases for the whole building. Yeah. And so from that, from that cruise met so many clients from that building that I think to date from that one cruise, I believe if I’d calculated my time, I think I’ve earned over $2.2 million in 20 some years from that cruise.
00:22:20:08 – 00:22:47:04
Christopher Choo
So that $60,000 expense as monetize itself many, many times over. But I’ve always said do what you love, be authentic about what you love and and be do the right thing, be kind to people, give them appreciation, affection, attention, and the universe will provide you with blessings from that. So that’s kind of how that started. But then physically, I moved to Beverly Hills and started working physically in this area.
00:22:47:04 – 00:23:12:04
Christopher Choo
My dad moved my office to Beverly Hills, that is. Then I moved my home a few years later here because I was commuting an hour, an hour and a half each way to come to work to Beverly. Right? Right. I mean, I wanted to be here. And so we started building the so once we had some connections in Beverly Hills, we started building that social network for one of the parties, going to the events that physically moved my office and I’m more involved, physically moved our home, more involved.
00:23:12:14 – 00:23:33:15
Christopher Choo
So now I don’t really get outside of a two mile bubble of Beverly Hills too often, but it was kind of a a gentle transition on different levels. But it starts from having the dream, the intention, the desire. And back in 1992, my previous coach said, You have to have an intention for your perfect client. It’s as if you don’t know who your perfect client is.
00:23:33:15 – 00:23:50:14
Christopher Choo
You’re not going to attract them. And back then, and it’s so ingrained in my brain, I want clients to love me, trust me, respect me or follow my advice. Are rich and fun and I can be friends with. That’s my client. So here I’m out somewhere. That’s what I’m looking for and that’s what I attract. So it’s the law of attraction.
00:23:50:14 – 00:24:14:06
Christopher Choo
So that’s kind of how it went from, you know, believing yourself, spending the money. You got to spend money to make money and then putting yourself physically in that environment and then really training yourself. Training has been my whole career. I still train all the time and just have to constantly be getting better. So going back with the social media marketing that Gary Vaynerchuk said, Google bought YouTube.
00:24:14:06 – 00:24:34:11
Christopher Choo
He says you’re Mr. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, your Beverly Hills. He said you need to be a deejay for content in your community. Those are his exact words. And he said License said Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. And I remember that was one of my favorite shows in the eighties. I love that show. And so that afternoon at 530, when the day was over, I went to Best Buy.
00:24:34:11 – 00:24:55:02
Christopher Choo
I bought my first flip cam video camera. My assistant was there with me at the conference. I’ve got a tripod. I went on the balcony of my hotel at a beautiful view of the mountains and the lake at the hotel. And I did a quick two minute video, my first video ever. It’s still on YouTube. And I said, What the heck am I doing in Palm Desert in the middle of August when it’s 118 degrees?
00:24:55:12 – 00:25:15:06
Christopher Choo
And I talked about him at a conference, I’m learning, growing, trying to help build my business, help serve my clients better make it more streamlined and all that stuff. And that was my first video. And also actually during that during that during the conference, I was on my phone, I went, I go, daddy, I carry my computer. And he was at the break and I went to go down in there.
00:25:15:06 – 00:25:34:17
Christopher Choo
But all the lifestyles of the rich and famous domains which were actually available. So I passed those. So that’s how it started. And then Gary said another thing he said from 8:00 in the morning till 8:00 at night, you’re working in your business. When you’re out there, you’re showing you’re doing day to day stuff, he says from 8:00 at night till midnight, you need to work on your business.
00:25:34:17 – 00:26:06:12
Christopher Choo
That was another key, key point that helped catapult my business. So at that point in time, I was not on any social media platform. Nothing. No, nothing. So he basically said every day, just start a new platform, log in and set up an account. That’s what I did. So I started I think LinkedIn was my first and Facebook and I spent, I think probably six or nine months really immersing myself in that whole world of every social media platform, learning about them, what they doing, testing and trying testing and trying to I’m very always is always about always be tested.
00:26:06:23 – 00:26:24:21
Christopher Choo
So even today, I’m always testing and trying. So with all the new technology and now that I’m a video influencer, many companies send me their cameras and send me their their things to use and test out because they want me to be an influencer to get people to buy their products. So but I’m also testing and trying things.
00:26:25:12 – 00:26:43:24
Christopher Choo
If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. But I try it and that’s why I would like videos. We do the high production, expensive videos, but also I will tell you my just walking tour videos with my phone in a house are more popular to the consumer than the fancy high production videos. I’ll do a very expensive production video and I’ll do a walking tour.
00:26:43:24 – 00:26:59:24
Christopher Choo
I’ll typically get 4 to 5 times more views on my just handheld phone walking tour of that house. So I just do everything I test and try and have fun with it, make it interesting and fun and try to just do things. Just try it out and you never know what’s going to work.
00:26:59:24 – 00:27:31:08
Daniel Ramsey
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Okay. Hey, we have Mary from Indianapolis, but you didn’t tell us how hot it was, Mary. And guys, we’re we’re ready for the question portion of of the call. We are going to definitely ask Christoph to outline how he produces his videos. That’s the one that’s the secret sauce. And then once you have the videos, where do you put them to generate real estate commissions?
00:27:31:08 – 00:28:01:14
Daniel Ramsey
Because I hate all of the influencers out there that post videos, but they don’t equate it to how they made commission. Right. So we’re going to be very, very specific. It’s 75 degrees in Indianapolis. That’s not bad. It’s nice. Yeah, that’s good. But Christoph, let’s let’s let’s do this. Walk us through your process for being a producer or a director on your listing properties with video.
00:28:02:02 – 00:28:04:10
Christopher Choo
On a production video or just like a video.
00:28:04:22 – 00:28:11:21
Daniel Ramsey
Let’s, let’s I mean, it sounds like you do the production video, but that’s for the seller because they want a fancy video, right?
00:28:12:03 – 00:28:14:18
Christopher Choo
Well, it’s for the seller and it’s also for me because it’s a branding tool.
00:28:15:18 – 00:28:17:00
Daniel Ramsey
Okay, I got you.
00:28:17:03 – 00:28:32:01
Christopher Choo
High production video and I learned how to do high production videos because I’ve been on a lot of TV shows, both as a cast member on HGTV and a lot of other you know, I’ve been on, I know, maybe 20 different TV shows. Why showcase mansions in Beverly Hills and all that? So I kind of follow the format.
00:28:32:01 – 00:28:45:12
Christopher Choo
So whenever I’m in a production for a TV show, I really pay attention to produce direct attention to the cinematographer I talk to them, I see what they do. I really, really study them. I said that I take the best of all the people I meet and incorporate that into my own videos.
00:28:45:24 – 00:28:58:01
Daniel Ramsey
All right. Let’s go let’s go through the high production video value of a property like, you know, walk us through that, how it looks, what you do. Like, give us the step by step and so.
00:28:58:10 – 00:29:21:00
Christopher Choo
I had a listing year ago that was 58 million and critical property, one of the largest properties in a certain part of Beverly Hills 27,000 square foot house with two guest houses. It’s a it’s a very big property physically to shoot. Right. And it’s very, very unique. And it’s the only house in existence in Los Angeles or Beverly Hills that has too many trains on the property.
00:29:21:00 – 00:29:38:09
Christopher Choo
I mean, it’s such a big property like the Disneyland tracks because the owner knew Walt Disney. Yeah, Walt had a train at his house in Holmby Hills, which is right nearby. And so he saw the trains and he loves the owner love train. So you had Walt’s people at the Disney studios make two trains room at the house.
00:29:38:09 – 00:30:01:05
Christopher Choo
So it was very special and unique. And also tennis courts, you know, had every amenity. And it was a really beautiful, very opulent European style manor of color. So first of all, I get the listing sign. It’s very exciting. It can sometimes take me a little time to come up with kind of the concepts. So and usually that happens during the quiet time.
00:30:01:05 – 00:30:18:08
Christopher Choo
Meaning I do get I do meditations every day. I get massage once a week, chiropractic. So when I’m particularly when I’m getting my massage and my mind is quiet, that’s kind of when the magic thoughts come to me like, Oh, do this and do that. So yeah, okay, how am I going to shoot it? What am I going to do?
00:30:19:05 – 00:30:44:22
Christopher Choo
So that’s number one. Number two, it’s it’s very thought intensive and time intensive. For example, that house we had to shoot over five different days, each shoot day was between 5 to 7 hours per day to shoot because you know, this particular house was situated, the front faced west, the back faced east. So obviously the garden, you know, you need the sunlight in the middle of the day.
00:30:44:22 – 00:30:46:23
Christopher Choo
So there’s no shadows from the trees and things like that.
00:30:46:23 – 00:30:47:16
Daniel Ramsey
Right. Right.
00:30:48:10 – 00:31:03:09
Christopher Choo
To be shot in the earlier morning because the sunlight was on the back from the sunrise in the east, the front shot of the house had to be shot in the late afternoon because the sun was in the front. So that’s first of all, it’s timing and coordination. And owners do have to be willing to allow you to do that.
00:31:03:18 – 00:31:17:16
Christopher Choo
Then we have weather issues. Some rain did cancel and you still have to book the photographers and videographers and stuff to pay them. So that’s a little bit of an issue. But so you have to really, really plan out that whole part of it. And in this House.
00:31:17:16 – 00:31:38:12
Daniel Ramsey
I’m hearing you, I want to again, I’m going to slow you down. What I’m hearing is you have to pay attention to the sun, to the shadows of the and and also how the house is facing to optimize the video. Right. Why? Why is that so important? And and I ask, okay, so I’m a real estate broker. I love it.
00:31:38:13 – 00:31:56:08
Daniel Ramsey
I have a guy called me one day and he says, Hey, I need help on my house. I said, No problem, what’s the house? And he he heard me on radio. So I was on radio with Rate and Matt Wagner. So he calls because he’s listening to the morning drive. He says, Daniel, I need help. I hear you’re the best in town.
00:31:56:14 – 00:32:28:14
Daniel Ramsey
At that time, I was number 14 out of 9000 realtors. He calls me, I look at his property and the MLS and the second photo was a photo of a bathroom with a pink toilet and the hairbrush that had hair on it. And so, like, I was like, dude, you don’t need me. You need a better agent. You just need somebody to take real pictures and highlight your property and you and, and anyways, we ended up getting the listing, selling it, helping him out.
00:32:28:14 – 00:32:45:12
Daniel Ramsey
But I think the average agent doesn’t understand what you so simply understand. Right? So talk to us a little bit more about like the positioning and like, you know, how like break that down for us. It’s a science.
00:32:45:17 – 00:33:01:18
Christopher Choo
I will. And it goes even back. It just came to me, my mind, it goes even back to before you even get to the point of how I’m going to do it, I have to think of who is the buyer. Yes. Who is I mean, what’s the age demographic? Are they a local buyer, potentially? Are they an international buyer?
00:33:01:18 – 00:33:24:08
Christopher Choo
Who is the buyer? So that’s very import because get to create the video and target the video to that kind of audience. So this particular house, I figured, is not going to be exempt. Real mansion style property, very opulent, very old world. When you walked to the entry, it was like walking into a beautiful house in Paris. I mean, it was very, very French, European, filled with incredible antiques and art.
00:33:24:08 – 00:33:47:07
Christopher Choo
Very, very, very, extremely high end. I mean, like walking. It’s so your typical young millennial or young 20 year old isn’t going to be interested in that kind of house. So so obviously it wouldn’t be a funky, cool video or wouldn’t be a hip music. It’s a whole different thing. So that’s like to look at that demographic. So I think of that process and how to make it feel old school and opulent.
00:33:47:11 – 00:34:00:15
Christopher Choo
But yet since it’s a it’s a very heavy house, it’s very formal, how to make it a little bit more light. So it’s a little bit more appealing and not so because some people might think it’s, oh, it’s too heavy and too, too fancy for me, maybe. Right. So I got.
00:34:00:15 – 00:34:09:11
Daniel Ramsey
You. So your job is to kind of take the video and whatever the property is, try to make it appeal to the broadest market possible.
00:34:09:21 – 00:34:10:11
Christopher Choo
Exactly.
00:34:10:17 – 00:34:20:15
Daniel Ramsey
We’ve got a question from Angela. Angela, I love your question. I’m going to let Christophe finish this kind of list and then we’ll get right to it, Christophe.
00:34:20:24 – 00:34:23:04
Christopher Choo
But I just go don’t answer the question first or.
00:34:23:18 – 00:34:47:01
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, man, let’s do it. Angela is curious about your opinion on followers like she asks, Is it smart to hire a company to buy followers, which is a thing you can do nowadays? Or do you build your followers organically from people who know you, trust you, and may want to do business with you?
00:34:47:16 – 00:35:06:01
Christopher Choo
So good question. I think it’s excellent question. I would never, ever, ever buy any followers. I never have and never will. Every social media expert I talk to says it’s it’s not a good idea. You’re better off having few followers that are really good followers. It’s more important who follows you then? How many people follow you? So definitely buy followers.
00:35:06:01 – 00:35:25:07
Christopher Choo
It’s all going to be organic. All my social followers and I have Twitter in the hundreds of thousands on all the platforms. They’re all organic. And for example, like my personal Instagram, it’s a private page. So even though it’s private, I still have a lot of organic followers. I don’t know how they find me if I’m private, but yet never, ever, ever buy followers.
00:35:25:18 – 00:35:49:14
Daniel Ramsey
So again. Yeah. And Angela, I want there’s no cheap or easy ways to to be a real, like, influencer in the world. I mean, I just people always want to buy their way to success. And we find it all the time when somebody is like, Can can I hire an assistant who knows how to do my Facebook, knows how to do my media, knows everything?
00:35:49:14 – 00:36:03:24
Daniel Ramsey
And I’m like, Christophe, you have to be the director of your own movie and you can have assistants who help you with all the details of it. And that’s what we provide. But I just think you can’t hitchhike in somebody else’s car, you know?
00:36:04:06 – 00:36:20:21
Christopher Choo
Yeah, and that’s a good question is all of my social media posts are my own meaning. And I know to me a social media post has to be kind of time specific morning. I do. I try to 4 to 5 a day first thing in the morning when I wake up and something inspirational, a flower or a plant, something that’s meaningful to me.
00:36:21:07 – 00:36:38:01
Christopher Choo
And again, I post what’s meaningful to me. And when you do that, you will attract those that like your kind of things that you like and will want to do business with. So, so I posted all of my own. Now it’s okay to create the single posts and the content in the words and then give it to your social media person or your assistant.
00:36:38:01 – 00:36:51:21
Christopher Choo
Have them posted and all the other platforms. That’s fine. Yes, we have to tweak it, but you’ve got to come up with the content yourself. It’s got to be from your heart. Because when I have a marketing director and I’ve had I’ve tried to have them, you know, I said, here’s a photo, come up with some content and create a post.
00:36:52:02 – 00:37:12:23
Christopher Choo
I never like what they say and I take more time trying to fix it and change it than if I just take 30 seconds and just voice in my phone in the notes and say what I want to say and then implement it. So, so don’t don’t buy followers and create your own and try to do it something that’s relative to what’s going on in your local world or the world itself.
00:37:13:11 – 00:37:14:24
Christopher Choo
A very important factor.
00:37:15:08 – 00:37:39:08
Daniel Ramsey
I think that’s great that you’re you’re helping people understand how to use an assistant. I’ll give an example. One of our PR and media people reached out to Christophe. You talked to Elle, who kind of set this all up. And then we have Alvin, who’s on the call right now, and he set up the video and he set up the the post about what we’re going to talk about.
00:37:39:09 – 00:38:07:12
Daniel Ramsey
He sent out the email he posted across our team posts across all the social media. But I’m doing interview because Christophe and I are going to be buds, man. And, and if you’re listening right now, like it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s because we’re the experts and people don’t want to hear from our assistants. So I think that’s a but there’s a lot 70, 80% of the work can be done by your assistant, but the content has to come from you now.
00:38:07:20 – 00:38:25:18
Christopher Choo
And I think so. I don’t know the exact numbers when I look at my platform, show you how many posts you had or how many tweets you’ve done. And I think I’m running in the range of 40 to 60000 posts since I started this ten, 11 years ago. So I do put a lot of content out there. There’s no question there’s a lot of it.
00:38:26:04 – 00:38:45:17
Christopher Choo
But, you know, social media is an opportunity today that’s basically free where you have an opportunity to brand yourself. And all I care about on social media is for things. And you know my name, you know, Beverly Hills luxury real estate, that’s all that’s got to come across. And it could be the luxury lifestyle of a great restaurant, could be luxury of a beautiful home.
00:38:45:23 – 00:39:06:17
Christopher Choo
It’s the luxury of enjoying a beautiful garden and relaxing and meditating. Those are all luxuries in different ways. So but that’s that’s what social media is all about. Give a quarter of a second, split second to capture someone’s attention. It’s got to be meaningful, useful, fun and interesting for them to pay attention. So if you create great content, people will follow you automatically.
00:39:07:08 – 00:39:09:22
Daniel Ramsey
So name the area.
00:39:10:16 – 00:39:49:23
Christopher Choo
Every luxury. For me in real estate. Okay, that’s all that they really need to think about. So as an example, LinkedIn have a lot. I have maybe 14,000 followers on LinkedIn and it’s particularly interactive platform and we should be friends on LinkedIn, which I will follow you later on. So but I know lately on LinkedIn you get all these friend requests or follower or whatever that connection with this and I accept everyone and but then immediately, especially the last few months, you start getting those spam email, it’s like a cut and paste private message or by my mostly it’s telling me lead systems like four or five a day.
00:39:50:04 – 00:40:06:24
Christopher Choo
Oh buy leads by leads. But I just don’t even look at those. Then the other ones are mortgage brokers saying, Oh, we’ll help you get refinanced. Well, it isn’t that. Well, most of my deals are cash. I don’t need a mortgage broker. And if I do, I’ve got to use for 20, 30 years. I don’t need you that I don’t even know how to do business.
00:40:07:17 – 00:40:26:03
Christopher Choo
So I write. It was just it frustrated me. On Monday I just opened up my LinkedIn and they were like, you know, 30 requests. I accepted them and right away like ten, you know, spam. Oh, by this, by that, do this, do that. And I’m like I just said, forget it. I did a quick two minute video, put my camera up and I talked about the Facebook etiquette.
00:40:26:04 – 00:40:45:03
Christopher Choo
I said, this is not how you do your business. You people need to know you like you trust you before they’ll do business with you. So don’t be friendly. And then the media try to sell me something. It’s not going to work. And LinkedIn doesn’t usually get a lot of interaction, but that particular post video is had quite a few thousand views, I think 130 comments.
00:40:45:09 – 00:41:07:02
Christopher Choo
And this morning I really didn’t know 27 shares, which is very unusual for a LinkedIn platform. But obviously that particular content was very precise to that platform and everyone else that was commenting said they all thought the same thing. But I took the time and took me 2 minutes, but at the camera recorded the video, no editing and just post the video.
00:41:07:13 – 00:41:28:19
Christopher Choo
And, and since then I think I got another 200 LinkedIn connections since Monday because people saw that video, people share that video and people are like, Well, who’s this guy I want to get to know? So, so sharing valuable things to people. You know, LinkedIn is one thing. Facebooks and other Twitter and Instagram are everything. So share what you think is valuable and hopefully it’ll work.
00:41:29:04 – 00:41:54:08
Christopher Choo
And to get back to you, get a lot of questions, monetizing videos, money from it. Right. That is such an important factor because I started with videos that summer with Time Theory of 2007 or eight, whatever the year was yeah. And I started doing deals very consistently and coaching and I think it was either three or four years into doing videos consistently, maybe not as consistently as today is now.
00:41:54:08 – 00:42:03:14
Christopher Choo
I see more of the value, but it was I was 400 and some videos into it being on my YouTube channel. Now I have 2800 videos on my YouTube channel.
00:42:04:05 – 00:42:06:01
Daniel Ramsey
But it’s just a couple. Just a couple.
00:42:06:06 – 00:42:24:06
Christopher Choo
At 400, some videos, maybe four or 500 subscribers at that time. And I remember I was on the phone with Thomas at Tom because I didn’t want to take on an endeavor unless I can monetize it. All right. If I spend X amount of dollars on this marketing platform or this tool, I want a five or ten time return on investment.
00:42:24:06 – 00:42:43:14
Christopher Choo
So video after video and nothing was happening. And I track these things whenever someone calls. How’d you find out about me? You know, was your neck, was it or whatever? So nothing. And Tom said, Keep doing what you’re doing. It’s going to work. Just keep doing it. Just keep being consistent with it. So yeah, I think within 30 days thereafter I got a random phone call.
00:42:45:05 – 00:42:59:02
Christopher Choo
But being prepared is so important. I get a random phone call, I’m at the office. My assistant says, This lady wants to talk to you about buying house. I pick up the phone, I’m talking to her. She just dropped her daughter off at school. She had a 30 minute commute back home. They’ve been looking for a house for a year and a half.
00:42:59:16 – 00:43:15:09
Christopher Choo
They weren’t happy with their broker, their buyer’s agent. They wanted to find someone new. And I said, What are you looking for? We want to buy a house for 10 to 12 million. We’re going to then sell our house after that. That’s worth around five three. And I said, How did you find out about me? Says, Oh, I saw a couple of your videos.
00:43:15:09 – 00:43:32:06
Christopher Choo
I said, Really? I said, Which videos I saw you’re driving tours of Stone Canyon Road. I said, Really? And she’s and I said, and she said, I saw your helicopter tour video. I said, Well, what made you decide to call me from those two videos? She says, One, You were really honest. I said, Really? How so? Was I honest?
00:43:32:06 – 00:43:50:12
Christopher Choo
She says, On your driving tour of Stone Canyon in some canyons, a part of Bel Air, which is a very, very expensive neighborhood. Yeah, but it’s five, six minute drive from Beverly Hills and I said, it’s five or 6 minutes in Beverly Hills, start to sunset. It’s called Stone Canyon because it’s a canyon is a main street and there’s a offshoot street, but you’re in a canyon.
00:43:50:18 – 00:44:10:11
Christopher Choo
And I said, If you’re a sun lover, this may not be for you because the sun will rise a couple of hours later in the morning and we’ll set a couple hours earlier in the afternoon because I’ve sold houses in that location and you could be there at 10:00 in the morning on in the summertime, and you still have shade in your backyard is a mountain is still blocking the sun.
00:44:11:00 – 00:44:27:15
Christopher Choo
So we were about to buy a house on that street for $12 million and it came in the afternoon and there was no sun pool. So she like honesty. And I was very honest in my driving to her talking about the pros and cons of the neighborhood. And then so the helicopter video said, what made you talk to me about that?
00:44:27:15 – 00:44:47:13
Christopher Choo
Well She said, If you spend that much money on a helicopter tour of the most expensive homes in L.A., you spend money to market my house so great, so interesting, she said. My husband is a lawyer. He’s a partner in a very big real estate law firm, real estate law firm, of all things. And he wants to interview you to be our buyer’s agent.
00:44:47:22 – 00:45:06:18
Christopher Choo
Okay, so what do you want to meet? Monday at 830, Monday at 830 at night. So I went there money 30 at night. He’s an attorney out of pinstripe suit with a tie and a mess, the whole thing, yellow notepad. And so our first conversation was with the wife, 30 minutes or so on the phone. They get to the house, they throw the husband’s there.
00:45:06:18 – 00:45:23:07
Christopher Choo
I open up my yellow notepad because he’s an attorney, you know, I said, Mr. Nexus, do you mind if I ask you some questions? He said, Absolutely. And I start asking question after question after question, because my concern was they’ve been looking for a year and a half for a house. They’re not happy with the broker. What’s happening with that?
00:45:23:07 – 00:45:23:14
Christopher Choo
Right.
00:45:23:17 – 00:45:24:03
Daniel Ramsey
Right.
00:45:24:18 – 00:45:43:22
Christopher Choo
But a half an hour into my questions, I could feel there was a comfort level. So I kind of put my notebook down on the table and said, I said, I like you and I think you guys like me. Why don’t we just get started, do some business? And he says in a kind of affirmative pissed off. My wife decided to hire you the first time she spoke to you on the phone.
00:45:44:19 – 00:46:03:22
Christopher Choo
And I said, Great, then what am I doing here for an interview? He said, I just wanted to meet you in person. That’s it. So we I took the wife out. We looked at some houses. Three weeks later, we opened escrow for over 10 million. It’s all on TV because I was on a TV show at the time and we did the whole show was showing them find the house, buying the house, the whole thing, and our house for 10 million.
00:46:03:22 – 00:46:24:21
Christopher Choo
I sold their house for almost 5 million. The friend bought a house me for 4.7 million. Then secretary I sold her condo for 500 and she bought a condo for 1.3. That all happened within 90 days of our first of all right. So took four years to monetize, but we did 24 million of deals in 90 days from that first monetization of videos.
00:46:25:04 – 00:46:54:24
Daniel Ramsey
And what I love is earlier earlier we talked about your initial doubles and the fact that you hired Tom Ferry. And I think it’s it’s so valuable that he said, look, stick with it. And that’s exactly what a coach, you know, is supposed to do to help you create the vision for your company and make sure you stay true to who you are and what you want your future to be.
00:46:54:24 – 00:47:12:03
Daniel Ramsey
And I love Tom. He he’s a great friend of my our desk. He refers business to us all the time, and we refer business to him. And I love the power of that story. For if you’re listening right now, I can tell you, you and you want to be in the luxury world. You want to double your business.
00:47:12:15 – 00:47:18:20
Daniel Ramsey
One of the most powerful things you can do is hire a coach, somebody just like Kristoff did. Tom Ferry is a great.
00:47:18:20 – 00:47:40:23
Christopher Choo
Example of the value of coaching. There’s not an agent I know that doesn’t have ups and downs in their career. I know my career and I think it was 2006, maybe 2007 before the crash where I’d gone, I think three or four months without a single closing. I had listings, but they weren’t selling and things were closing. And now living in Beverly Hills in this lifestyle, it’s very expensive and we’ve got no cash flow coming in.
00:47:40:23 – 00:48:03:08
Christopher Choo
It’s it’s very scary. You know, when you’re more and stuff and, you know, just, you know, going out to dinner, Beverly Hills is $500 for three people. You know, you’re going to hang out and entertain them. That’s another story. So anyways, three or four months and coaching with Tom directly every week and we’re on the phone. I said and I was getting not depressed, but I felt like I honestly in my mind, I felt like I was being sucked down.
00:48:03:08 – 00:48:20:02
Christopher Choo
Like there’s like a spiral of negativity. Yeah. Because it was happening and I was prospecting every day, making calls. I remember saying to my wife and Tom, I said, Tom, I keep making the calls every single day. Nothing’s happening. It’s been four months. It’s my I might as well just taken off for four months and just got worked.
00:48:20:13 – 00:48:35:04
Christopher Choo
There’s no, no, no. Keep doing what you’re doing. Keep being consistent. Keep doing it once there’s no, no, no. You can’t do that. You got to keep going to work. It’s going to happen. Yep. And I remember and I do work every single day of the year, even Christmas morning, New Year’s. I live, you know, 5 minutes away from the office.
00:48:35:04 – 00:48:47:19
Christopher Choo
I come to the office even for a couple of hours just to do I like to have my home time to be my home time. So I just kind of I work and I go home. So I was at the office on Sunday morning at 830 and I get a phone call at the office and it was a friend of ours.
00:48:47:19 – 00:49:05:02
Christopher Choo
And this is back to and this friend we met three our social world of socializing and it one of the most beautiful homes in Los Angeles. So we’ve been to many parties at and we, my wife and I, this is one of the most beautiful homes in L.A. They said, Christophe, we want to talk to you about selling your house and you can meet us tomorrow on Monday morning.
00:49:05:18 – 00:49:24:17
Christopher Choo
And I was like, Oh, this is great. And I knew the house was worth 25, 30 million, and this is 11 years ago today. It’s double that. So and then at that point, I think my high sale was like five and a half million. So I was mentally prepared. I was mentally prepared, but I wasn’t quite ready for that plan.
00:49:24:17 – 00:49:45:01
Christopher Choo
So I called up my wife. I said, Look, I’m going to be working all afternoon. I got to prepare for this appointment. I spent 8 hours that afternoon preparing for this listening appointment, which is the next morning at 830. Met him at the house, walk through the house long and short of it, within 20 minutes I signed a listing contract for over a year I got you didn’t want to pay me.
00:49:45:09 – 00:50:01:01
Christopher Choo
He asked me to commission and I said It’s 6%. He says, Nope, I’m only paying you $1 million to sell this house. I wrote in $1 million, he says. I said, What you want listed for was it was it worth? I said, 20 to 23 million. He says, What do you want listed for? I said, 26 and a half million.
00:50:01:11 – 00:50:17:15
Christopher Choo
He says, Nope, I want to sit for 30 million. I said, Well, if I sell the house the next 30 to 60 days, is that okay? He says no, because it was October. He says, We’re not leaving the country till July. So the kids got to finish school, which is why I think he wanted the higher price. And, you know, so I said the time frame.
00:50:17:15 – 00:50:17:24
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah.
00:50:18:12 – 00:50:25:21
Christopher Choo
You wanted a high price. Somebody longer listing. Right. Get it. So anyways we listed it and we did sell it for 22 and a half million.
00:50:26:23 – 00:50:28:07
Daniel Ramsey
Exactly what you told him.
00:50:29:04 – 00:50:46:08
Christopher Choo
But it was four months of nothing happening and cash flow was almost nonexistent at that point in time. So his signed contract with a potential million dollar commission. 30 million. How am I going to market this house? And we did videos. We could have magazine covers, I don’t know how quite it finagled all that, but I did and we ended up selling it.
00:50:46:08 – 00:51:07:05
Christopher Choo
But so don’t get discouraged. Keep, keep at it no matter the worst days. Just keep doing what you’re doing. What is your option? Go home, sit and be depressed. And he comfort foods or whatever or keep going after your dreams and goals because eventually they will happen. So I just wanted to bring that thought in that don’t get discouraged, just keep moving forward, keep your mindset positive.
00:51:07:05 – 00:51:09:18
Christopher Choo
Because if you keep doing that, the magic will happen.
00:51:10:13 – 00:51:31:03
Daniel Ramsey
How long if a if an agent wants to transition and we’re about to wrap up, guys, so if you have any questions, Chris, often I will be on Facebook after this. You can, you know, ask questions if you’re watching this in a replay mode or, you know, later in the week or we get you via email, we’ll answer questions as you go.
00:51:31:03 – 00:51:55:11
Daniel Ramsey
But we’re about to end. Christoph, how long does it take to break into luxury number one and R? And a follow up question is how long should I expect it to take to build an influencer kind of marketing strategy, video and social media? Those are the two, I think, questions that you can weigh on heavily to help our audience.
00:51:55:16 – 00:52:18:08
Christopher Choo
That’s a really good question. The way you ask it just brought to my thought three different things. So my initial reaction to that is 3 to 4 years minimum for all of those things. When I look back and think about when I transition to Beverly Hills, it took about three or four years to go from selling $280,000 houses to really start getting some good traction in a luxury marketplace.
00:52:20:02 – 00:52:43:07
Christopher Choo
When I look at the video marketing, it took about four years from starting starting that to start monetizing that with my website and marketing took about four years building the website before I started getting deals from the website. Yes, social media. It took about four years doing social media consistently before I started getting referrals and deals from that.
00:52:43:07 – 00:52:48:13
Christopher Choo
So pretty much across everything, the timeframe is about four years from what I’ve seen.
00:52:48:14 – 00:52:52:08
Daniel Ramsey
But why? Why do you think that is? I mean, that’s pretty consistent.
00:52:52:17 – 00:53:10:05
Christopher Choo
Yeah, it is consistent. I, I think it takes time for people. People need to know you like and trust you before they’ll do business with you. And that even means an agent. Meaning if there’s an agent that you meet somewhere or at a conference and then they follow you on social media, they may not know you, they may have heard you interview speak, but they don’t really know you.
00:53:10:13 – 00:53:19:18
Christopher Choo
But if from that point that they meet you over time, they see you consistently, meaning I do a lot of I do consistent content. I mean, 45 posts a day on all every platform.
00:53:20:01 – 00:53:20:19
Daniel Ramsey
On all of them.
00:53:21:00 – 00:53:38:18
Christopher Choo
So they should be able to see me somewhere somehow as they see me consistently. And it’s top of mind recognition and then this comfort. And now I’ve been more and more videos, not just the houses and the parties and the lifestyle. I’m doing videos kind of behind the scenes of my day to day life and experiences and the challenges of your work.
00:53:38:18 – 00:53:59:10
Christopher Choo
On helping clients. What I like literally just talk about whatever is pertinent that day in an escrow or a negotiation. I’m trying to do videos every day about what’s going on to help educate agents and people, and last year we did like five or six referrals to get like a quarter million in referral business from agents. And I said, well, what makes you what made you think of me?
00:53:59:11 – 00:54:25:23
Christopher Choo
Remember, they met me in passing at a conference or they heard you speak at a conference. The following on social media. They see me consistently, but the agents say primarily the agents say they like my kind of how to videos and the behind the scenes videos like I did a video of of I was talking about sewer line inspections in L.A. and how sometimes in this particular property it was in Bel-Air they could not find the sewer, you know, you know, to sort it out, you know?
00:54:26:00 – 00:54:46:12
Christopher Choo
Yeah, yeah. Send the camera outside. They couldn’t find it, so they had to pull up the toilet in the bathroom and send the camera down the toilet. Yeah. The last thing I want to show a picture of a remove toilet in a bathroom. But I didn’t. I talked about the exact situation. I said most people today do sewer inspections and told the problem, told the resolve, and this is what’s happening.
00:54:46:20 – 00:55:06:09
Christopher Choo
She said she saw that video. She didn’t know about that and that’s why she called me for a referral. And it was a property I sold for $8 million. So so again, giving value without giving value to agents to potential sellers, potential buyers or just anybody giving value to them without expecting something. Return the will come in return anyways.
00:55:06:23 – 00:55:18:17
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. Well, we’re going to end Christoff, you’ve been amazing today. This has been awesome. What’s the one thing you want to leave the audience with? Like how would they get a hold of you? And then what’s the one thing you’d you’d like to leave the audience with today?
00:55:19:01 – 00:55:37:22
Christopher Choo
Get a hold of me. It’s really simple. Just Google my name. You’ll find me all over the place. It’s everywhere, it’s simple. I’m on every platform that I’m aware of. And I think you can find me on Facebook, but I’ll send you to my business page because I’ve been full for like ten or nine years. So but all the platforms, you can follow me and they’re open, so there’s no limits.
00:55:39:04 – 00:56:00:13
Christopher Choo
What do I want to leave you with? Believe in yourself. Always keep your mindset positive. Despite of that, in our business, it’s like a roller coaster all day long, you know? I wake up with a good attitude. Sometimes I wake up and I sometimes wake up with a bad attitude or we’re feeling upset, you know, it happens. But I have to quickly catch that and focus on how can I contribute to my clients?
00:56:00:20 – 00:56:22:24
Christopher Choo
Coming to the office with a bad attitude or being upset isn’t going to help my clients, is going to help me get more deals, is going to help close that escrow, isn’t going to help that seller sell their home. So you’re so focused, keep positive, be consistent, be happy do affirmations every day, meditate every day, be your best self, don’t hold back and don’t be afraid and always be tested and tried.
00:56:23:05 – 00:56:25:00
Christopher Choo
I think those are my final words of advice.
00:56:25:21 – 00:56:38:23
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. And we just listed your website and where to follow you on YouTube. Crystal, Thank. Thanks so much for your time today. It’s been this has been really fun, actually, and I really appreciate everything today.
00:56:39:18 – 00:56:40:11
Christopher Choo
We should do it again.
00:56:41:10 – 00:56:42:07
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. We will.
00:56:42:07 – 00:56:45:06
Christopher Choo
Talk about when you even get to the other points, but it’s okay next time.
00:56:45:16 – 00:56:51:03
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, well, there’s a lot there’s a lot that we unpacked here today and and we will have you back for a number. So I will.
00:56:51:03 – 00:57:06:24
Christopher Choo
Suggest the guys that are following me, I mean, for, you know, the platforms, but in particular follow my YouTube channel. There’s any video like this video. Once we get it, they’ll go on my YouTube channel and that way you can access all the interviews I’ve done, my speaking engagements, which I’ve done many of them, and my TV segments.
00:57:06:24 – 00:57:23:10
Christopher Choo
And you can just, just follow what I do. And in a minute, don’t do it my way. Do what I do in a way that makes sense for you, your personality, your lifestyle and your community. If I worked in Malibu or in Maui on the beach, I wouldn’t be wearing pinstripe suits and ties every day, doing flip flops, shorts and a t shirt.
00:57:23:10 – 00:57:48:00
Christopher Choo
Right. So I’ll be authentic. That was the one thing I’ll just leave it with at the video influencer summit that we had months ago in Colorado, there were 24 top video influencers in North America speaking, and I know most of them, we all basically said the same thing in different ways. Consumers today want authenticity. They want real. Why is it that the number one TV shows are reality TV?
00:57:48:15 – 00:58:12:22
Christopher Choo
And for me personally, I’m in Beverly Hills. I maybe flashy or boujee to some people, but that’s just me. I said that’s just who I am. I like to be dressed and I like to wear fancy things and I’m in Beverly Hills. That’s my lifestyle. So I purposely that’s purposely why I don’t edit my videos. That’s purposely why I do the live or the just the non edited walking tours because I’m a very down to earth down home kind of person.
00:58:13:08 – 00:58:32:24
Christopher Choo
People may know that just seeing a picture of me or seeing a quick clip of me, they might think, Oh, that stuck up Beverly Hills guy. And he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But that’s not who I am, and it was never who I was. So I try to be purposely really authentic and natural so that people will relate to me as opposed to what they think I am.
00:58:33:19 – 00:58:58:13
Daniel Ramsey
I love that man. I love that. MJ says thank you for meeting when things are slow. The night is very dark so I think that is a real situation for us. Real estate brokers and agents out there. You know, our business is challenging, there’s a lot of competition and so having yourself stand out and being different like you have done is really the avenue that we all need to go down.
00:58:58:13 – 00:59:21:12
Daniel Ramsey
So again, Christoph, thanks for being here. Appreciate you, brother. We’ll have you back. This has been great. Thanks for watching, guys. If you don’t have an assistant, then you are an assistant and you’re telling yourself you’re not worth more than ten bucks an hour because you can hire a real estate virtual assistant from us for for I mean, for pennies of what you’re actually worth.
00:59:21:16 – 00:59:41:18
Daniel Ramsey
Most real estate people are worth thousands of dollars a day or an hour, just prospecting, just picking up the phone and talking to people, usually not do your own paperwork. You should not do your own marketing assistant work. I love you guys. Go on our website my outlets dot com get a consultation. It’s free. We will help you double your business.
00:59:41:22 – 00:59:44:10
Daniel Ramsey
Christophe, thanks for being here today. Appreciate your time.
00:59:44:19 – 00:59:53:21
Christopher Choo
Thanks, guys. See you later.