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Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast Digital Marketing Podcast Hosted by Greg Bray and Kevin Weitzel

58 Engaging Home Buyers with Video Storytelling - Shane Austin

During this episode of the Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast, Greg and Kevin sit down with Abrazo Home’s "Chief Storyteller" Shane Austin. The three discuss capturing home buyers' attention by telling stories using video. "There are so many other distractions, so many other social media platforms, so much other noise. How do you hook them? And it truly is with the story. The more you use story to hook somebody in and keep them in. Then you're winning, because you're going to keep people on your website longer."

Abrazo's "Chief Storyteller" (yes, that's his real title) is a man of many talents. From former professional quarterback to mindset maestro to marketing extraordinaire, you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere that Shane isn't naturally talented. Sunshine traded in his cleats for a MacBook and a camera just a few years back - less chance of a concussion in this line of work - and has never looked back. Shane now spends his "work" days documenting the amazing stories surrounding Abrazo Homes. Whether it's Abrazos award-winning culture, one of our incredible teammates, our innovative homes, or our valued homeowners, Shane's creative genius will bring the story to life.

Athletic Career

He played college football at University of Hawai'i. Austin went undrafted in the 2012 NFL Draft and signed with the Everett Raptors of the Indoor Football League (IFL) after the draft. After starting the Raptors final games of the season, Austin was able to gain the attention of the Pittsburgh Power of the AFL. Austin was named the starting quarterback for the Power, but a broken hand caused him to miss two months of the season. Austin then was assigned to the Cleveland Gladiators where he was named the backup to Chris Dieker. With Dieker struggling for the Gladiators, Austin was given the opportunity to start and lead the Gladiators to a 14–1 record as a starter and a berth in ArenaBowl XXVII. The Gladiators lost to Arizona Rattlers in the ArenaBowl, but Austin was named Second Team All-Arena.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Greg Bray: Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of the Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine

Kevin Weitzel: and I'm Kevin Weitzel with Outhouse. 

Greg Bray: We are thrilled today to welcome to the show Shane Austin, the chief storyteller of Abrazo homes. Thanks Shane for joining us. 

Shane Austin: thanks for having me on guys. I'm excited to get started with y'all

Greg Bray: Shane, why don't you give us that kind of quick introduction for people who don't know you and learn a little bit about you. 

Shane Austin: Uh, yeah, so I'm in the marketing department with Abrazo Homes here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And, as you said, my official title is chief storyteller, which really means that I'm helping tell the story of the brand of Abrazo and being able to invite our customers into that story with them.

Kevin Weitzel: Normally, we're going to ask you. To tell us something interesting about you, but I kind of already know something. So I'm just gonna say something. I want you to tell me if it registers any kind of awesome memory in your past. Red [00:01:00] 32, red 32. Does that mean anything to you? Could you enlighten people on what that might mean?

Shane Austin: I mean, honestly, it's funny, you said red, because I want to say back in high school, red was our audible on punt returns or punt team anyways, to run a fake. I played quarterback you could see the jersey in the back when I'm talking about red, that those are my school colors in high school.

And, I was fortunate to go on and play college football at university of Hawaii. And then turn that into a little bit of a professional career in the AFL. And my position is quarterback. So yes, the audibles speak right. Right to my language, red 32. Honestly, I'm already picturing the fake going into my head right now.

Greg Bray: You said what now? I gotta confession, I'm a BYU guy. So BYU in Hawaii had a thing there for a few years going back before. 

Shane Austin: I don't know, that rivery is still not dead by the way. I'm happy to [00:02:00] say that my final touchdown pass in my collegiate career was against BYU. 

Greg Bray: Oh man. Oh. Oh, ouch.

Ouch. All right.

Shane Austin: BYU won....

Greg Bray: Oh, we always let people score at the end when we're way ahead. That's not a problem. Well, that's fun stuff. Well, we got to ask them, how does one go from quarterbacking to the home building industry? I mean, that just doesn't seem like our typical path that, that we see.

Shane Austin:  I mean, it's as typical as you want to make it right.

I really just had a passion, not only, I mean, for my love of sports, you know, and I wanted to have that career goal as long as, you know, really till the wheels fell off. But even during my career, I had a passion for video and video editing. And, honestly, really where I got my start was in college, creating a little music video, which hopefully that doesn't surface anymore.

But, that's where I really found the love for [00:03:00] creating videos and editing them. And then really found that there's actually a use for that in the marketing world and, and did a little freelance career for awhile and teamed up with my brother as well. And we had our own little freelance agency and then I actually did a video for Abrazo Homes a few years back.

And they're like, you know what we want you on here full time to really be able to ingrain yourself with the culture and how this really works. So you can tell our story and it was a great decision to be able to join them and, and use the video marketing talents that I had and bring it to the home builders.

Kevin Weitzel: Well, wait a second, wait a second. This might be just a stab, but can I guess that the video that you made in college was it video killed the quarterback star? 

Shane Austin: Sorry.

Greg Bray: As their editor, where's the editor.

[00:04:00] Shane Austin: Well, Hey, it really helps in making highlight videos. That's for sure. 

Greg Bray: Yeah, there you go. Well, tell us a little bit more just about Abrazo Homes, the kind of homes you guys are doing, the market you're serving. What's your buyer demographic is your after just so we have that framework as we continue talking.

Shane Austin: Yeah, no, absolutely. Abrazo Homes, like I said, is here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but we service different communities in locations near Albuquerque, just South and just North with Los Lunas, Rio Rancho, and actually in the future, we're going to be going up in the Santa Fe. And really our demographic is the typical.

Well, the person that is experiencing life changes, right? Where they're either growing their family or they're shrinking their family, or they have new needs. Thanks to a pandemic. They have new jobs. They're moving in from out of state. We're getting a lot of out-of-state buyers from California, wanting somewhere a little bit more affordable where their money travels a little bit further.

And here we just kind of have that perfect, [00:05:00] affordability, but also, really nice product and we're developing new products. Like as we speak, we were just now launching a new community that just has this modern contemporary style, which is completely new for us. But it's really exciting, but the smart home technology in the homes has been something we've been doing for years.

And I feel like we've kind of led the building market at least here in New Mexico. 

Greg Bray: So you talked about video being kind of something that pulled you toward marketing in general, and then you got in with homebuilding. And how does that go into this chief storyteller title? You know, I think I don't know, I find that that title intriguing, right. It's a little different, you know, it gets to get some attention and I guess, you can react to the word storyteller in a positive way. Like everybody's got a story to tell or it's like a little negative, like, Oh, don't give me a story. I want the truth.

I want the real thing. Right. So, how do you kind of where does that [00:06:00] fit in? Just tell us about chief storyteller. 

Shane Austin: Well, you know, when they first hired me on, we didn't really have a title and if you'd look, do any research into Abrazo, you'll notice the titles aren't like really that official for us.

We don't, we just kind of throw titles around loosely, but when Brian, one of the owners said, you know, I think we're going to call it chief storyteller. I even had asked him, I was like, all right, what does that mean? And, ultimately again, it's Abrazo has been around for over 10 years now, actually, I think we just hit the 11th year anniversary.

And when they first started the company, they created their own website and they really made it paint the picture to look greater than they actually were, working out of a little trailer selling homes. And now that Abrazo has grown into the level that it's doing now, it's like the website and the online presence doesn't represent how awesome this company is and how tightly knit our family is and how cool our customers are.

And really, I got brought on to be able to [00:07:00] share those intimate stories and show how awesome we are, because culture is a really big thing. Here at Abrazo Homes. And you know, we just felt like the website, the online presence just didn't really capture the real spirits that Abrazo had to offer.

And so that was what I was tasked with is to be able to convey. That heartbeat that makes up Abrazo and makes us so unique. And to be able to not only tell our own story, but also tell our customer's story and be able to enter their story because everybody does have their own story and their own plans in life.

And that's why they're looking for a house. we just invite them into our story. So we can also learn their story and build them the perfect home that fits those needs and fits those plans that they have for them. 

Greg Bray: Unpack that a little bit more for us. Just when you say, tell the story, what does [00:08:00] that turn into on a day to day kind of activities? What are you looking for? How do you decide how to present that? What goes into some of that planning? 

Shane Austin: Yeah. So, I mean, really it's storyboarding whatever project that we're working on. Like right now we just released a brand new community is our first self contained development.

We drew actually inspiration from Ford Bronco. If you saw that their whole release and their grand reveal, it was a very big buildup. And then they had this awesome grand reveal. I was, we were kind of inspired by that when we want to release this brand new community, it's our first time ever doing it's really hot new product.

And it's a premium price level than what we're typically used to selling. So we really wanted to be able to demonstrate to our, a new demographic of buyers, you know, the type of quality that we have. So we wanted to, to build it up. We wanted to create a story behind that [00:09:00] suits because people, they don't just buy.

What they externally want and desire. I mean, obviously you need a shelter and a lot of home builders build great houses from a physical standpoint, but really when you're telling a story, You're you're drawing into their internal interests and their internal problems. And that's where people really make those buying decisions is when they feel emotionally attached to not only your product, but your company and what you stand for.

And that's ultimately what I have in the back of my head, as I'm creating these, you know, these pieces is how can we really emotionally pull in draw our customers in so that they are just brand advocates and that they're diehard fans. 

And, where are you from a raw kind of production scale?

Greg Bray: Are you guys doing stuff in a studio or is it just kind of live on the street type of stuff and you're just [00:10:00] kind of taking the real, like the selfie type of thing and editing that, or are you got the perfect lighting? What kind of production efforts are going into some of this? 

Shane Austin: Well, I mean, you're right here at the Abrazo creative studios in my home office.

Now I will say there's a mix of both because a lot of people like that raw organic content where you just take it from your cell phone, it's just right there and it's very personal. so we do what we do mix in a lot of that, but we also have our professional quality stuff.

So when I set up an interview, whether it's one of our employees, team members or a customer doing a testimonial, I'll set up a two camera shoot with great lighting and highlight that the home and the background and we'll have the camera slowly sliding. So it gives that parallax effect and it's very high end.

So we do have a mixture. We have both like the premium level video stuff, but we also have that raw just straight from your phone type of content as well. 

Kevin Weitzel: Now who's the [00:11:00] brainchild behind a lot of the concepts. Like, are you just producing and executing everything? Or are you coming up, like, who came up with the idea of having these very intimate and personable conversations with Mac and Brian?

Shane Austin: Well, you know, originally when, Mac and Brian hired me, that was one of the first inspired kind of goals was to not like just highlights all of our team members and do an employee bio video, basically, rather than just having your bio picture and your buyer description, which we have having a video that brings you in as well, which I've interviewed are our owners as well when I bring them into that.

So I mean there is a lot inspired there, but also the thing that I love about the way that Mack and Brian run Abrazo is that they find people that are very well self-motivated self-managed self-organized and come up with their own ideas and run with it. So a lot of these ideas, you know, [00:12:00] all grab some inspiration from Mac and Brian.

I'll also chat with Sheena, who's our marketing director. But a lot of times they just let you kind of run wild with it and they don't micromanage. They just say, Hey, we trust you and we trust in your talents. You know, do what you want with it. And that's, what's makes it really fun is I get to allow that creative process to just kind of flow and they usually give green lights to the idea.

 

Kevin Weitzel: You got an idea, you want to throw it, you want to call a flea flicker. You've got their blessing right behind it.

Shane Austin:  Right. If I gotta call Omaha and I got to call an audible on the spot, usually they're ready to go with it. They like the ideas that are pitched that way. Now, if it's going to cost them a little bit different than that, they might look into it a little bit.

A little bit more, but no, they're great at just allowing you to let your greatest gift shine and, and run free with them. 

Greg Bray: So, Shane, I think that from a, you mentioned testimonials with customers in the video there, I think there's a lot of builders who haven't quite taken advantage of the power of video [00:13:00] yet, especially from a testimonial standpoint. You get these little three sentence testimonials and it's, it's from Joe wherever and you're just like, eh, did Joe really write that? I don't know, but when you get Joe on camera, it's like, wow, this is real stuff, real people, real feelings. How hard is it to get the home owners to agree to do a video and what kind of goes into getting them comfortable with that whole piece of the process?

Shane Austin: Yeah, well, I will say most people are not comfortable on camera, so you nailed it on the head. But ultimately, I mean, you're going to want to go with the customer and you talk to your sales team and you really identify which ones are the real diehards, the ones that are going to go to bat for you.

They're going to be the ones that are your brand evangelists. And they're the ones that are just absolutely floored by their new home and you catch them in that peak state when they're on their high, they've just closed. They've got their keys. They're excited. It's surprising that more [00:14:00] people are willing to do it than you would think.

Now to get them over the experience level of being on camera, because that is usually an uncomfortable situation for people, but not everybody is very experienced with that. I will typically have them just talk to me rather than looking at the camera. Cause that's a little awkward and uncomfortable at first and basically we'll just be conversational and I try to make it as conversational as possible.

I might even have some early questions that probably won't be used, but it helps them get comfortable, get going into the flow of things. And then you tune out the camera, then you're just having a conversation with a person which most people are comfortable with with doing 

Greg Bray:  So are you prepping them with some of the questions ahead of time?

Like this is what we're going to talk about or do you go kind of unscripted completely? 

Shane Austin: Yeah, I'll send out some bullets ahead of time, you know, of different things, but similar to you guys, you know, you might have bullets and questions asked on a podcast, but then you know how it goes, 

Kevin Weitzel: no operational secrets here.

Okay. 

Shane Austin: Trade secrets. [00:15:00] But I will say that you do, based on how the conversation goes, you do kind of go off script and you go off of questions that are right there in the moment and questions that you're actually truly curious about. You're welcome. 

Kevin Weitzel: You're welcome. 

Shane Austin: And none of this is scripted by the way, all of this is off task.

Greg Bray: So actually we're way off our original questions already. And I'm loving it. This is great stuff.

Kevin Weitzel: I have a question about the scripted, because that does bring up an interesting concept. I've always wondered why a lot of the testimonial videos that I've seen, you know, a lot of them come from auto industries, the ones I've seen most of them.

And they're always caught at that moment of high elation. You know, I just got my keys, you know, they haven't had to worry about having to bring it back cause they hear a weird noise engine or that they have a door that won't close on its own, you know? So those kinds of things. So have you ever considered doing one about the satisfaction of a solved problem client.

Like they bought a home and not all homes are perfect. They have a warranty issue and what was your process like dealing with, you know, our warranty [00:16:00] process? 

Shane Austin: Actually, no, I love that you bring that up. It's something, there's actually, I'm getting you guys behind closed doors here.

We're actually some ideas that we're going to be implementing soon that have not been implemented yet. But but to go to that question, You know, the home building process is like a rollercoaster ride, like right. There's highs and lows. And there's those peak moments that you're just absolutely excited,

and then there's that moment where you're waiting on permits to be approved. And you're like, why isn't my house moving? And there's definitely some emotional lows and some frustrations. And one of the things that we want to, invites our prospects into learning about not just the highs, but the lows.

And I think incorporating those questions into those testimonials is going to be more realistic, more authentic, and people can relate with them. So, yes, we'll ask those questions at the highest say, Hey, when you went through your frame, build walkthrough, how exciting [00:17:00] was that? To see it starting to come to life, but then,

talk about some of the challenges. Talk about when you weren't seeing the speed that you wanted to go and closing day got pushed back a couple of weeks. Like what realistically were you going through then? And then you got the keys finally, and then you're back to that emotional high again.

So I think that that makes it more realistic and more authentic asking those. 

Greg Bray: I love that idea because if you can teach me that feeling the low is normal. Right ahead of time before I go through it, then when it comes, it's like, Oh yeah, that's right. They warned me about this. Oh yeah, that's right.

So, and they still got through it. It wasn't like everything blew up, but if I'm expecting the high the whole time, then that that gap and expectations is much harder to overcome. So I think that's a great idea to try and be as real as possible. And now of course, sandwich it between highs.

Right. Don't just talk about the low, but, 

[00:18:00] Kevin Weitzel: so when you were ready to walk away from this home purchase, 

tell me how you felt. 

Shane Austin: So sets the expectation, right. So that they do expect, okay, there might be some lows, so it does help that process out. 

Greg Bray: So, Shane, when you look back now, you've been brought onto the company to add this extra piece and getting this message out.

Are there some results that you can point to or things that you say, wow, it's working or it's helping, whether that's just some anecdotal feedback or some obvious sale numbers or anything like that that comes to mind. 

Shane Austin: Yeah. You know, when I was first getting hired by Abrazo, that was a tough part to you know, quantify is what are the milestones or the metrics, because we really, we were really into data and analyzing that data and that's, you know, all of our advertising goes out like you won't see us on billboards or radio ads because you can't track it.

So when we're looking at what part of the sales funnel can we really track to [00:19:00] quantify. You know, whether this is working or not, it was tough because there's so many different factors that go into it. I mean, the closest thing that we can come to from a quantifiable standpoint would be our website visitors turning into leads.

And that percentage was one of our lowest percentage in that funnel, because once we get them in as leads, we have a great online sales coordinator that will actually, now we have two that lead them to, that sales rep, and that leads into the construction process. Like every other part of that funnel.

We have great percentages, that was an area we felt we could, we don't need more visitors, website visitors, or viewers. We need more qualified leads that come in and that's about bringing them in and engaging them more. And I feel like video is one of the most engaging aspects there. 

Kevin Weitzel: Now I'm a firm believer in making decisions based on analytics, making decisions based on real hard data numbers. And  you said something that's [00:20:00] pretty interesting to me. I just want to make sure that I'm understanding, and this may be a rhetorical question, but when you said that you don't use billboards and radio ads, because they're not trackable.

Did you mean that they haven't been relevant for 30 plus years? Is that what you really meant? And then you're throwing your money in the toilet when you do though, either one of those two, those two albums. 

Shane Austin: I think it also billboards is a touchy topic to Brian, one of our owners, because when there was a prank war within our company, that was the prank that ended all pranks was a, one of our sales reps, ended up buying an ad on a billboard with our owner, Brian, who, you know, is bald, bald head and put on a wig.

And it says like alpaca wool plugs for sale. It was in one of the most busy intersections. And so maybe that's the real reason we don't do billboards. Maybe there's a personal tie to that. 

Greg Bray: little trauma trauma associated. [00:21:00] Wow. That's a pretty serious prank effort there. I got to say. That's pretty serious. 

Shane Austin: So, you know, we just had April fools the other day. So I did put together a video for April fool's day with showing all of the pranks that go on, because we do have a fun atmosphere and culture. And that was one of the ones that you will see in that video. So definitely look up the Abrazo Homes April Fools, pranks video.

And you'll see that one. 

Kevin Weitzel: Well, I'll tell you one metrics that does work when you have industry people like me and Greg and countless other people that I know that watch Abrazos social media, like a hawk, you're doing something right. Cause when you get the players that are literally selling to other players, then you're a winner in my book, because if you can draw my short attention span in and get me checking your Facebook page, just to see what's coming up next.

Your clients are doing it too. You know, your potential customers are doing it as well. 

Shane Austin: So I appreciate that, but it is definitely the team and coming from a team sport, I understand all the [00:22:00] pieces that go into it. And we do have a great marketing director, Sheena shout out to Sheena, but also just our team.

And I'm actually, it's a team of female rock stars. I'm the only male guy on the marketing team. And they are just absolute rock stars and everything that they do. And we all just work and gel well together and communicate well and that goes to that success that we're seeing on the social media side.

So thank you for that. We really appreciate that. 

Greg Bray: So Shane to kind of touch on that from the team standpoint, I think. That while there are some other builders that I know of that are doing it. I think it's still pretty unusual to have video production on the in-house team. Would you agree with that statement from just what you're aware of?

How for someone who doesn't have that on their team yet, what are some of the reasons they should consider it? Or what do you think some of the reasons are that they're scared to do it or just haven't considered it yet? 

Shane Austin: I mean, obviously the cost is probably one of the [00:23:00] barriers to entry because it can be a full-time position or if you're outsourcing, you're paying a, somewhat of a premium cause videoing isn't cheap, you know, it's a lot more expensive than photo.

In my opinion, obviously I'm biased, but it draws in the customer that much more. It's something that literally brings you in because it's it's movements and there's parallax and there's their sound and music. And it touches all the senses rather than being this two dimensional thing.

It really brings your company and your brand to life on a three-dimensional platform is where we all live and breathe. So I don't know if you necessarily have to get somebody full time in house right off the bat. You could just outsource some videos here and there at first, but it was really important to Brian and Mac to get me in.

Grained with the team and understand the culture and understand this market really intimately to do this job effectively. And, [00:24:00] I'll say that they're, they're kind of pioneers that they are future lookers, they're always, you know, a few steps ahead. I always look into the future and it is unusual to have somebody full-time in the home building industry.

It's not unusual maybe in other industries, but they're definitely leading the way in a lot of those things. And now a lot of people want a storyteller on board. It seems like.

Greg Bray: no, I agree that I think it's something that we're probably gonna see more and more of as people start to.

I mean, again, like you said, the emotional connections between visual with sound and motion, everything as opposed to a picture, we all get hooked on videos. I mean, gosh, you look at just what YouTube has become over the last 10 years. It's just crazy, you know, and it's because people like to consume that.

Just a couple more questions, cause you've been really generous with your time today. And as we kind of wrap up a little bit, when you guys plan the videos, do you have a target length that you're going for? Have you experimented with [00:25:00] different links at all to kind of see what connects? I know I have some opinions, but just curious on your thoughts on links.

Shane Austin: Yeah, no, that's a great question because we have kind of experimented different different lengths and seen different results. But you know, a lot of these things change too with the social media platform that you're on. Like currently right now, Facebook is really organically pushing three minutes or longer videos.

And where, as you know, in the past, it might've been a lot shorter content because they think, Oh, nobody has the attention span. You gotta get everything within 30 seconds. And I've done 32nd ads, which it's really tough to make a short video as opposed to a longer video, because you've got to cut so much out.

But the three minutes plus, you know, on Facebook, I think it lends to the trend that. They're really wanting to consume more storytelling, content, more engaging content, and they want to have people on their platform longer. So they're going to naturally organically push the longer videos that are still [00:26:00] grabbing people's attention.

So when you get to those longer duration videos, you got to be able to capture somebody's attention for three plus minutes when there's so many other distractions, so many other social media platforms, so many other noise and how do you hook them? And it truly is with story. I mean, people will technically, well, I mean, they'll pay money to sit down in a theater for two and a half hours to just watch a movie because of the storytelling ability.

So the more you can do that and hook somebody in and keep them in. Then you're winning because you're going to keep people on your website longer. You're going to keep them on your social media longer. They're going to be top of mind more often than not with those longer content videos.

Kevin Weitzel: Shane how much more engagement does Facebook really need, have you seen the analytics for the amount of mind numbing time people spend on Facebook? I'm a crack addict when it comes to Facebook, I'm on there all at the same time. I don't know how to put my phone down. 

Do they really need some other vehicle to keep you tied [00:27:00] into? 

Shane Austin: It is crazy. All that goes on, like psychologically to how they hook you in and these video content. Creators are understanding the psychology of it and it really just shows how much we can be kind of mindless zombies when we get hooked on something. Then you go into a wormhole and you're like, Oh my gosh, where did time just go?.

 Like, I just went deep into that world. And Facebook has it fricking down. I don't know if they have it down as much as Tik TOK. So we'll see if Tik TOK makes a play in the home building industry yet. I think thats you know, we've debated internally with the team if that's going to make a push.

But it would be interesting to see, because I want to say is right now the most addictive platform out there. But it all is because they can engage and pull people in with video. 

Greg Bray: So Shane, I'm just curious. Are you familiar with Donald Miller's StoryBrand book at all? Have you looked at that one?

Shane Austin: I have. I'm actually, it's funny. I'm going through one of their courses right now. Okay. [00:28:00] Simple. And so literally this morning working out, I was watching Don Miller. 

Greg Bray: Yeah. I mean, for those who haven't, he talks a lot about how you use story and the elements of story to engage in a marketing message context, right.

And as you know, and takes learnings from movies and things and that the hero and the guide, and, you know, the results and all these things that tie into, I recommend it highly to anybody who has, who's a marketer who isn't familiar with it. Cause it's not just about actually making videos.

It's about any type of messaging that you're doing in marketing and connecting with your audience. 

Shane Austin: Well, the funny thing about him too, is I actually just finished the book.

When Mack and Brian were kind of courting me to be brought onto Abrazo. So it was right then when I was talking about that kind of, that StoryBrand language, and maybe that's where the whole story teller title came from. So StoryBrand definitely had a huge influence on me being [00:29:00] here with the browser homes.

Okay. 

Greg Bray: Well, great. Well, we'll tag a link to that book in our show notes for those who are interested in it and we'll make sure we've got an affiliate link there. So we make lots of money on those resells. 

Kevin Weitzel: So are you okay with noncompeting market professionals contacting you?

Shane Austin: Yeah, sure, absolutely. 

Kevin Weitzel: Yeah. How do we get ahold of you. 

Shane Austin:, well, you can get ahold of me either just at my email, which is shane@abrazohomes.com or I'm on most of the social media platforms @shaneaustin10. So you can reach out to me there or just go to their Abrazo Homes, channels at Abrazo Homes.

Kevin Weitzel: Send them home, baby, send them home. That's the way to do it. Yeah. 

Greg Bray: Well, Shane, again, we really appreciate your time. Do you have any last thoughts or a piece of advice for our listeners today for wrap-up? 

Shane Austin: You know, you brought up StoryBrand. So I think I'm going to have to borrow one of the pieces of advice that I like to hold onto from what I got from that.

And it's focused on making your [00:30:00] customer, the hero. A lot of people get a lot of brands make themselves the hero and look at all the awards that we have and all the stuff that the customers don't care about, make the customer, the hero. You're just the guide, helping your Yoda to Luke Skywalker.

Luke Skywalker is your customer help guide them along? Their own journey of transformation into your new homes. So that would be my biggest piece of advice. Make the customer the hero, not yourself. 

Greg Bray: Love it. Love it. Well, again, Shane, thanks so much for sharing. I know we dove into a lot of different areas today, but I think it's all great information.

I think there's a lot of folks that are still trying to figure out video and you guys are somebody to pay attention to if you're trying to get some ideas. So go copy Shane's ideas, everybody, and we'll see  

Shane Austin: Imitation is the highest form of flatter. So we really appreciate it. 

Greg Bray: And thank you everybody for listening today to the Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast.

I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine 

Kevin Weitzel: and I'm Kevin Weitzel with Outhouse. Thank you. 

 

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