Commercial Investment Real Estate November/December 2018 | Page 39

S
elling your expertise can be as simple as talking
into a camera — and having a gimmick.
Those searching online for a commercial real
estate professional might discover videos featuring
a smiling Maryann Mize, CCIM. Usually in her one- to
two-minute videos, she’s standing in front of a building,
talking about a property. But what catches your eye is that
as she makes her points, she holds up cards with related
words to underscore what she’s saying. After she makes
the point, she tosses the card away and goes on to the next
point. Mize, senior vice president and senior credit officer
at Charlotte State Bank & Trust in Port Charlotte, Fla.,
leverages that nice gimmick along with a touch of humor to
position herself as a local market expert. Once you watch a
video, you’ll always remember the cards being tossed away.
That’s one way to do it.
Promoting yourself on video can be as basic as talking into
your smartphone camera, or as sophisticated as building a
studio in your office and having guests on a weekly program.
Either approach can position you in the market and
attract customers. With the ubiquity of broadband internet
connections and the availability of cheap or even free video
technology and services, now is a good time to consider this
method to promote yourself and your services.
Go Big or Go Home
CCIM.COM
Michael Bull, CCIM, founder and CEO of Bull Realty
in Atlanta, was already a well-known host of a radio show
(now a podcast), “America’s Commercial Real Estate
Show,” when he tiptoed into the TV realm by video record-
ing the radio show, which took place in a small closet-like
booth. He received calls complimenting him on the show,
sort of. They told him, “The info in your radio show is
awesome, but your video really sucks.” Bull, determined
not to settle for questionable quality, built a studio in his
office with three cameras, professional lighting and audio
recording equipment, a stage, a tricaster for live-switching
the cameras, and a full-time video producer.
That’s more than most people need, but he says that the
videos of his show, in which he interviews industry experts,
and his short “Ask Michael Bull” segments have helped
define him for clients. He also adds QR codes on signs for
properties he’s selling so that people can scan them with
their smartphones to get further information, including vid-
eos for specific properties. Even those who aren’t interested
in that property see that he uses technology in his business.
“So even if they weren’t interested in my property, they saw
I was assertive in my efforts,” Bull says.
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