Rajan Chida on Hooks, Trial Reels and Filming Everything

Quick Summary

Rajan doesn't guess at hooks. He writes three for the same video, posts them as Trial Reels, then gives them 24 to 48 hours before the most-viewed one earns a spot on his main grid. Everything else in the video stays identical, so the hook is the only variable being tested.

The back half is a live scripting session for Ryan's Palm Coast buy: $360,000 for the house, another $140,000 going in, then a high level run through the order of operations with no prices attached. Before you document a build like that, run the numbers on the market in BNBCalc Markets.

Key Points

• Every video becomes three videos in Trial Reels. Same footage, three different hooks, because the hook is the one variable worth testing. He let them sit 24 to 48 hours, then moved whichever one had the most views over to the main grid.
• Finding a hook that works takes volume. Rajan threw 50 to 100 videos before one landed, then ran it about 100 videos straight. With Nithin, a creator he coaches, once a hook won they kept it word for word, and if an idea hasn't worked after about 20 videos he'd pivot rather than commit to a day one of 365 series.
• Dominate a small pond first. Roughly 80% of his videos were the cabin build at his fastest growth, and the pairing that worked was unique plus relatable: a luxury cabin in the Virginia woods, built by a 22 year old. Repeat it long enough and people start calling you the cabin Virginia guy.
• Keep your face clear in the middle third of the frame, with captions right above, below or beside your head so nobody has to choose between reading and watching. Rajan says more than half of Instagram viewers watch on mute, so his test for a good video is whether it still makes sense with the sound off.
• Film everything, since you'll never use about 95% of the clips. A phone is enough, and a tripod plus a timelapse plus a voiceover recorded later beats trying to narrate while you work. Nithin shot the work two weeks before that video went out, which is exactly what buys you the freedom to edit whenever you want.
• Each video goes deep on one thing, the septic system or the windows or the roof, or it stays high level and recaps the whole project while skipping weeks and months at a time. Half-covering two topics inside 30 seconds is where viewers get lost.
• Once you know what quality looks like for your project, quality wins. Two posts a week for six months beats 14 videos and burnout, though Rajan told Ryan to aim for four a week until he finds his footing.

Full Transcript

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Ryan: All right, so focus on one. Journey of it all is the main thing.

Rajan: I would bucket it. So right now, when I had my fastest growth, I'd say like 80% of my videos were cabin and then 20% was, I knew I wanted to have an all-encompassing personal [inaudible] right now, at the end of like two years. But in the beginning, bro, when you're going for some sort of growth, you should focus on one thing. Focus on one.

But the thing is, you don't want to box yourself in at the same time. If you focus on one thing and it doesn't work after like 20 videos, then you should be able to pivot, right? That's why I urge people not to start year-long series. People start like, this is day one of 365, like on January 1st they want to do 365 making a million dollars. I'm like, bro, f*ck that. It's too long, right?

So that's one thing. And then once you have the bucket that you want to film, this is the direction or the progress I want to make, dude, then it's all about finding the hook that works. So for me it was some version of, X videos ago I told the internet that I built the number one Airbnb in Virginia. That sh*t is so long. I never thought it would work, but I had to throw like 50 to 100 videos before I found the one that worked. And then when you find one that works, I spammed it for like 100 videos straight.

Ryan: Did you repeat the same videos like four times, or were you just kind of pumping content and then one hit went viral and you're like, okay, what's the thing?

Rajan: So most of them were doing decently well, but there was one, like my construction loan video, where, let me show you this.

Also inherently, [inaudible], I know that works. It's like when you do "nine weeks ago" or "six weeks ago," inherently the viewer knows they're going to get six months of progress or something. That's a dopamine hit, as in, that's what retention is. It's keeping people in the story. So this is, to this day, my most fire.

So that was like my...

Ryan: Dude, that hook is so long.

Rajan: That's like, yeah, "nine weeks ago me and my boy." But then even me standing on the deck is like whatever.

Ryan: Because you think that that's what keeps it, more than the hook itself? Or like the hook?

Rajan: It's how you did the video and everything combined. I really like this style, so this is another one.

Ryan: Yeah, crazy long. It's so long. You do like no music, and then music hits after the hook?

Rajan: I think I do. It depends on what your hook is, but like, "six months ago me and my boy..."

You just have to find out the most interesting parts. And I think a hook that comes to mind for me is, is it possible for a Canadian... The "is it possible" hook works a lot. So it's like some version of, is it possible for a Canadian to buy a house in Florida? I don't know, but that's also not so specific, right?

It's like, the series is that... I'll show you. The series is that, I don't know, it's like, today's day one of rehabbing my 60 year old bowling alley. That boy, two weeks ago I bought this riverside property for $267,000. Just like a guy in liquor store in Canada. That dude rips.

So it's like, d*mn, I feel like I'm going in circles here. But the "is it possible" hook, I think it's a great way to start. So the thing is, you want to load in a bunch of homes, like build it up.

Do you know what Trial Reels is?

Ryan: Yeah.

Rajan: Okay, yeah, bro. So every time you make a video, you're actually going to have three videos. And do different hooks every like four to three videos, and then the rest of the video is the same. So that's what I've been doing with the people I'm consulting with too.

Ryan: Okay, always three, and the hook's the same?

Rajan: No, the hooks are different. The hooks are different, the rest is the same, because you don't want to have too many variables.

Ryan: Yeah, exactly.

Rajan: You could figure out the hook is the most important part of the video, so that's the variable you want to test.

Ryan: You find like you always are moving while you're saying that hook.

Rajan: I'll show you this. This is probably your best comp. This is probably your best comp. So like this kid, we went through like whatever.

Ryan: Yeah, I started following.

Rajan: Yeah, I wrote every f*cking word that this kid is saying. But for every video he's dropped, he has had three versions in Trial Reels, which is why he's growing so fast.

Ryan: Okay. And then when you're posting in Trial Reels, is it on your feed, or how do you handle that?

Rajan: So it's not in my feed. So I'll show you some of my Trial Reels.

Ryan: Because I always wondered that.

Rajan: So I don't really use Trial Reels that much anymore, because I don't need to test stuff that much. But in the beginning, what I do is, I'd have like three of the same videos posted in trials, and then I'd let it cook for like 24 hours or 48 hours, and then whichever one has the most views, I'd move that to the main grid.

So you see in this video, I can share to everyone. I couldn't do this, but I'm just keeping these in trials.

Ryan: Gotcha.

Rajan: It's just, I just want to keep it in there.

Ryan: And then how much do you feel like that initial photo is important, like that initial visual?

Rajan: It's everything. Especially in the real estate game. If you do a different format, if you do a talking head format, if you do a green screen format, if you do like one of these more different styles, then it doesn't matter as much. But I can confidently say, bro, in the real estate space, that first shot is so important, bro.

Ryan: Yeah, you got to be clear.

Rajan: So bro, I'll even tell you. Actually, I'll show you how even positioning is important.

Ryan: That's kind of the sh*t I really don't know. I could come up with a script, I feel like, to some degree. Obviously that's more of what I know. But the actual videography, and like, okay, is it like you should always be further away from the camera when these shots, that kind of stuff?

Rajan: I guess there's no science to that that I can really tell you, but what I can tell you is, so my boy Sujay, he's been documenting this hotel in North Carolina, and he sent me this video and I was like, I can already tell it's cooked, no matter how good the hook was or the script was.

Dude, people's eyeballs, bro. When you scroll, you have to imagine where your eyeballs sit. Dude, you're not looking up here and you're not looking down here. You're pretty much in the middle thirds. Now you don't have to be perfectly center in frame every time, but you want to be somewhere in this middle third and your face is clear.

And that's one thing. Also, I was telling Bennett, I was like, bro, I just want to make sure that all our faces are clear. I like being far away, that's a cool visual, but you have to know he's talking.

Ryan: Yeah, bro, it's all the way down there.

Rajan: And I was like, I'm confident of this because I wrote him another script, and his most viewed video, bro, is your script now. He's like, look how clear he is in the frame, bro.

Ryan: Yeah, so clear in the frame.

Rajan: And the text is right above his head. Because also, the text was so far apart from where he was, so people almost have to choose whether to read or to see, whereas here I can see and read.

So if you look at a lot of my videos, my text is usually near my head. It's either right below my head or it's right above my head, it's very close there, or it's to the side of my head. I like doing the weird sht with the captions where it's like side of my head or up. You don't need to go through all that bullsht. But that's one thing I will say.

Ryan: So main key so far, hook, the angle, like always having your face.

Rajan: Are you doing any rehab to the house?

Ryan: Yeah, we're doing a whole backyard rehab.

Rajan: Bro, you have to document that.

Ryan: Yeah, exactly.

Rajan: So there's a lot of people that flip houses, and the one thing about new builds is it is so visually appealing that it's hard to recreate with the rehab.

Ryan: But we're doing it. So I could show you. I think I showed you the house, right?

Rajan: Yeah, yeah.

Ryan: So that whole backyard is just blank canvas. So we're waiting to get a quote and we're going to do the pickleball, pool. We're even dropping a pool in there ourselves because there's no pool. So this whole backyard is going to be re-outfitted, like pool, pickleball, putt putt, like the whole...

Rajan: That's so money, bro. It's so money.

For that style, you don't even need to be there live filming. So with this Nithin kid, right, it's like a regular as fcking house in Ohio, bro. But most of his videos are voiced over.

Ryan: Yeah, yeah.

Rajan: That's the one. You almost want to put a unique stake on it. So bro, his parents gave him the money to buy the house, but then I was like, bro, you don't, like, bet you. Yeah, he bet. We made that sh*t up. He technically got a loan from his dad for $50,000, but it's like, why don't we make... We have to put some sort of storytelling. It's still all kind of true. So it's like, week four trying to see if I can pay my dad back his 50.

Ryan: Dude, so this hook is so long.

Rajan: Yeah, I thought this was going to be the worst one, but we trialed three and this was the best. So I was like, okay, once we found the one that works. Hooks, even for you, I would never give a blanket statement.

Ryan: Yeah, yeah.

Rajan: It's just different for everyone. You just never know. You never know.

And once we found that this was the winner, every single time, word for word the same thing, because it's already so hard to find a hook that works. Bro, we're not even changing it. Not even changing one. More filming, that sh*t is, he just tripods it, putting it in the right spot and just going for it. Dude, he only films like three of the lines live.

Like, "they gave me to do my first solo flip. How did a junior in high school even do this? The rest of this house [inaudible], and it looked like the house had a lot of potential, but it was trapped in the six..."

So my one advice is, bro, film everything. Even if you think, even if you never use it. You'll probably never use 95% of the clips. Film everything, bro.

"Because when we bought it we knew we would have to fix it up and bring it..."

So he has all this footage of the old house, but then now he's going to layer over the footage with what it's become.

"...current market wants. And that's what we did. This kitchen was once a dump and now we've transformed..."

Bro, look at that, just the eye candy.

"...and painted the cabinets this taupe color. We then converted the half bathroom in the basement to a full bath. Walls on this house were originally this boring white and green, which we've now repainted with alabaster..."

Like, come on bro. And painted. But it's nothing, bro. Regular as house. Regular as house.

Ryan: Like the journey of it all, it's just...

Rajan: Yeah, it's such a fun journey, dude. So imagine you have all this b-roll footage of just that shtty as grass, even with drone, bro. Shoot vertically on your drone.

Ryan: Yeah, I gotta just shoot everything, bro, and make it look a*s. So it really is just shoot every... Because that's where I always was like, oh, shoot everything. But it really is just shoot everything and then kind of figure... Like, he's got shots that ended up working. Was most of it just by luck to some degree, or like, you know, like the floor was empty, now the floor is done?

Rajan: Yeah, we scripted all that out. I was telling him to do that, I was telling him to film everything, because I knew we were going to have progress, and he just, like by coincidence, filmed everything.

Ryan: And you found the stuff that worked inside of it all, right?

Rajan: Exactly. So for you it's like, dude, just film everything, make it look sh*t. And bro, because practically for you, how often are you going to be on site?

Ryan: I'm going to move down there as soon as we close.

Rajan: Oh wait, then you're chilling.

Ryan: Yeah, then the whole period of a build I'll be there doing it. So like September all the way probably till November.

Rajan: Dude, that's even better, because you could try out the voiceover format and the live format.

Ryan: Yeah, bro.

Rajan: You could do well.

Ryan: And you think it's worth the Canadian [inaudible]? Or I guess, I just have to test it.

Rajan: I have tested it though. I think one of the things we tried was, that wasn't the first idea we tried. Betting that $50,000 was not the first idea we tried.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rajan: So like I say, you give the Canadian spin. We give like three unique spins, three unique stakes. So like, is it possible for a Canadian citizen to buy property in the United States? Well, I just bought this, yada yada. And then that could be an angle. But you put like four, like one of them could be like, dude, I just bet the Canadian government four hundred thousand dollars that I could turn this into Florida's best city. Something that's tricky, right? But I'm thinking unique.

You have, I have a unique... Because at the end of the day, it is just a house. It is a regular house.

Ryan: Yes, you're putting unique amenities.

Rajan: Yeah, but it's a basic a*s house. It's a basic house. So the premise of why you're remodeling the house should be unique. You want to pair uniqueness and relatability.

So for me, my uniqueness is that I'm building this luxury cabin in the woods. Not a lot of people build cabins in the woods in Virginia. Now there are a couple. But my relatability was that I was 22. So when I paired that together, it's like, oh, a relatable kid is doing something really unique, like I see myself. So for you it's like...

Ryan: I'm always worried about the Canadian side, because it only pushes to Canadians. Which, obviously we still have a decent sized population, but it's like, you know.

Rajan: But I could... Yeah, you never know which direction that takes you, which is a good thing. Most people are trying to move to the U.S. anyways. I think just embracing that you're Canadian doing business in America is enough. Yeah, I think.

But also, bro, I could be wrong. Dude, also messaging. I'll write some of these scripts sometimes and the messaging doesn't land how I want to. I'm not going to lie. Like that video you saw with me in the blue shirt, it was just like, I thought it would land with more real estate people, but it landed with so many health influencers. And I was like, bro, I'm talking about wellness real estate and the numbers in the market, and it just went that way. You just never know. And I to this day can't tell you why.

Ryan: Well, I guess the wellness people are still the people that want to create a wellness thing and then have to use real estate to do it, whereas real estate people might not be thinking about a wellness center unless you have that wellness touch to you. And we might...

Rajan: Yeah, we might have all these hypotheses, but at the end of the day, it's hard to really pinpoint.

Ryan: Are you TikToking too, or not really?

Rajan: Dude, I post on TikTok, but I have never gotten, I haven't gotten one valuable connection from... I've never once answered a DM. Never once answered. That's why I kind of just laid off it, because I'm like, bro, it's just teens. I'd rather have like 10,000 followers on Instagram than have 500,000.

Ryan: The thing is, if you're going to make a whole video, you might as well.

Rajan: I get paid on TikTok now.

Ryan: Okay.

Rajan: Like 500 to a grand a month, which is like, bro, it's fine for just posting the same video. Might as well.

Ryan: Yeah, yeah.

Rajan: But TikTok, I can say confidently, has no value. No value. Like, no value. I would never make a video optimized for TikTok. I couldn't give a f*ck. It's like, make it optimized for Instagram and you're just utilizing Instagram.

Ryan: Like LinkedIn. You ever tried LinkedIn? Really? I should get on LinkedIn. I feel like LinkedIn should be the biggest responder, but I think it, I mean, you got out from Ozzy being like, yeah, I figured that sh*t out, no problem.

Rajan: It was like, dude, so what I did actually, my most viral real estate scripts, I put them as text in LinkedIn and they started doing insanely well. But I only had so many of those, so then I stopped.

Ryan: Yeah, fair. Yeah, sick.

And then in terms of recording, obviously you said the shot, trying to be always very visual for your face, having the script, having the tech.

Rajan: And you only need your phone, by the way, bro. You don't need a camera, none of that.

Ryan: And then for like caption stuff, anything specific that you found works better, like certain templated captions?

Rajan: I personally like just captions that are... I've been debating this, bro, but I like captions that are easily recognizable. But I also see some people that have a very recognizable font, and that's their brand. I just don't think I'm there yet. I've tried to do, I'm trying to do this like weird... I kind of like it, but I also think I don't think it's the most professional.

Ryan: In my opinion, the best kind of... But like, you're not the most professional guy.

Rajan: Yeah, so it kind of, you know. This is the font that I've ripped for like the last two years, the basic standard. It's called system.

Ryan: Okay.

Rajan: It's like, there's thousands of people that use it on Instagram, and it's very easily recognizable.

Ryan: And then so you're mixing the days in with anything else that you're posting?

Rajan: Yeah, like I do a lot of collabs now. The advice I'd give to myself at this stage is not what I'd give to you. If you go all the way back down to day one, bro, I'm only talking about the cabin. I don't do...

Ryan: No, you're able to brand. That's always how it is. This niche, then hopefully you could branch out.

Rajan: Yeah, you want to dominate a small pond first. It's so hard when you have both, like you have both companies that you're trying to do.

Ryan: And then you're also, like, I'm also part of the property management side of Jeremy's sh*t, so you're like, well, I want that to go. But I feel like the build out is more viral than anything, and then pulling in like how I did it was starting a property management company, and then that being like...

Rajan: Dude, there's room for it. I just think it's 80. Dude, I've made videos. 80/20. I literally, this is a one-off video in the United States with my other baby. This is just a townhouse I bought and I made a video about this.

Ryan: Yeah, there's totally room for that.

Rajan: But like, bro, if you go back to, I made one video about shoes, but I only talk about the f*cking development, bro. That's all I do.

Ryan: Crazy.

Rajan: I did some like frat house stuff that was also popping up, but you can see I did bucket it, so it's like 80/20. Then I do like the frat house sh*t.

Ryan: And you're really like on day 20, or is it...

Rajan: No, no, no. It's just, yeah, I was posting like maybe three to four times a week.

Ryan: Okay.

Rajan: At the height, bro, when I started going insane, I knew I had a golden opportunity. So I didn't sleep for like two months, bro, and I posted every day. For two months.

Ryan: Okay, but you wouldn't recommend that?

Rajan: F*ck no.

Ryan: Because that's where I get stressed too, you know. It's like you put that pressure on yourself like, I gotta f*cking keep it up and keep it up, posting every day.

Rajan: I don't recommend it for most people, bro. If you're doing a talking head FaceTime style format, then you better post three times a day. But it's like, bro, if you're doing like a more polished and you have a project, bro, there's no reason, bro. There's so many content gurus out there, I'm like, you don't know sh*t, bro.

A lot of people, when I posted every day too, I committed, I did my first 30 days when I wanted to post with quality every day, and it burned me out so much. And then I did it again for another 30 days, and I found myself just pushing the video out even though there was still like 20 to 25 percent more work to be done on the video, or I could have thought about the script a little bit harder. And bro, it just didn't do as well.

Ryan: Yeah, that's the, you know, just pumping them out to pump them out instead of taking the time and doing them.

Rajan: Think about, if you posted every day for two weeks and then got burnt out, that's 14 videos. But if you posted twice a week for six months, bro. Even my other buddies that are viral too, they also realize quality over quantity at this point is the way to go.

I would say for you right now though, you don't know what quality... We don't know what quality is for you yet, because we don't know your project. So you got to do a bit more. So I would like you to be in like the four times a week if you can. When you're on [inaudible], I'd love for you to be like four to five times.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rajan: Once you find your footing, bro. Nithin only posts twice a week now.

Ryan: Okay.

Rajan: Like, once you find your footing, which can be in five to ten videos, because they're replaying your OG videos too all the time.

Ryan: Oh yeah, bro, I'm like...

Rajan: I post my old videos.

Ryan: You repost them?

Rajan: Yeah, I repost my old videos.

Ryan: It works, eh?

Rajan: Yeah, it works.

Ryan: So crazy. Well, I guess once it hits, it hits. It doesn't matter how many times you repost it.

Rajan: Also, if you post... Most people, bro, most people are so in their head that they're like, dude, why do I do the same hook? Why would I do this? Like, bro, do you even remember my last video? And we're friends. No one remembers your last video.

The fact that the recent people call me like the cabin Virginia guy is because I said it so many times. That's like my brand. I wanted that to be my brand. So with this kid Nithin, bro, he's like, bro, I don't know if I should keep saying the same thing. I'm like, nah, shut the f*ck up, bro. Like, nobody knows. It's just brain rot flipping.

And then the people that know you won't DM you and you'll get the value of it. But the only way you separate yourself from like the thousands of people they watch every day is saying the same sh*t, so they're drilled into their brain. Oh, like that's the cabin guy. Kyle's the warehouse guy. That's the warehouse guy, that's the bowling alley guy. That familiarity.

Ryan: Florida guy.

Rajan: Yeah, or like you're the Canadian guy that's buying this.

Ryan: Yeah, we just need to figure out what that is. Which I don't know yet, but I think it's gonna be some version of Canadian.

Rajan: Canadian, but like buying real estate in America.

Ryan: Yeah. Remote building. Anything like remote building. I feel like a lot of, just in today's day and age, I feel like that's huge. But maybe I'm wrong.

Rajan: Yeah, if you weren't on site. [inaudible] kind of gave you is like, is it possible to build a million dollar property without ever stepping foot on the property?

Ryan: Yeah, that would be something like that. Yeah, which I'll do. I'd probably do that as like my next project or so, and like fake it to some degree, I guess, because you still want to go if you can go.

Rajan: Obviously.

Ryan: Obviously, yeah, 100%. Like, do I have to be there? I don't have to be there at all. Like, I have a team that could take care of it all.

Rajan: Yeah, 100%, dude.

Ryan: Yeah, which is nice. Well, sick. Awesome.

Rajan: Yeah, I think for you...

Ryan: Yeah, if you want to keep going though. So one idea I actually had is like, I might post this as our, in the STR.

Rajan: Please do, bro. Please do, bro. [inaudible] anything, bro.

Ryan: Literally, because I think this one especially is like the most personal, because we're not even video recording. Yeah, I feel like it'd be pretty sick.

But there's actually two guys that are in my [inaudible], Alex Cotsen and Cameron Masters, that are like...

Rajan: And in my [inaudible], I tell them the same thing. I'm like, bro, you guys have... That's like the problem with actually a lot of the guys in the group, is that they're almost too successful, that people get confused. Like, you have 30 properties. You can't make one-off videos about every single property unless that is the series.

Ryan: Yeah, right, unless that is like...

Rajan: Unless that is a dedicated series, like you're gonna go to every single property every episode. But you're gonna run out of episodes.

Ryan: Yeah, exactly, like what you should be doing. But every house that I did do, I always put a unique spin personally on.

Rajan: Exactly.

Ryan: Most of them. Like, one house...

Ryan: We redid her living room and balcony. It was always focused on, how do I sell this to people? One house, we turned just a shtty fcking basement, open couch trying to use it as extra sleeping space, into a full game room. I designed it myself. And then the balcony literally was like beachfront balcony with four white chairs, and I turned it into a whole outdoor living room space.

So a lot of the houses we have done conversions on, but we don't have a lot of before sh*t, bro.

Rajan: Like, that's what I'm saying. That should have been like 10 videos. The game room should have been one video, the balcony should have been one video, the furnishing should have been one video.

Ryan: Yeah, the kitchen should have been one video.

Rajan: [inaudible]. Yeah, so this is what I'll tell him, Nithin too, and I keep coming back to him because he's done it so well.

But it's like, every video, you either dive really deep into one topic. So like, if I install our septic system, that's only what I'm talking about. Or only our well, or only our windows, or only our roof. Or a recap. It's like a high-level progression of events. So it's like, for the last seven months we've been building Virginia's number one Airbnb, here's what we've done so far. Week one we poured foundation, then we... Different, like every sentence, then I'm skipping weeks, I'm skipping months, and it's very high-level, surface level.

Where people get super lost is, you dive semi deep into one topic, you come back out, and then you dive semi deep again. So it's like, hey, we did our windows. Yeah, they dive like three, four sentences into that, like they're from Poland, all this stuff. And it's like, oh, and we added this vanity to our sink. It will get far if you're going to do multiple things because it's super high level form, right? So you don't accidentally want to bring two topics into one video if it's 30 f*cking seconds.

Ryan: Exactly, that makes sense.

But yeah, I definitely wish I videotaped more. The problem is, or the hardest part, which I guess that's why I kind of want the advice, do you just stop yourself in the middle of it? Because I just get caught into that project, and then all of a sudden I was the person building the furniture, because the people that were supposed to just f*cking bailed. So that was me and the owner that were stuck there, which was kind of bad luck, but we pulled through.

So instead of having the time necessary to build that furniture, I was just balls-deep in building a f*cking game room. So you're like, how do I pull myself out of that to then film it and then still complete...

Rajan: Bro, literally for you, bro, all I would have done was put your phone on a tripod, timelapse the whole thing, and then voiceover after. That video you saw, Nithin, bro, he did the work two weeks before. But since he had the clips, he had the freedom to make the video whenever the f*ck. You just really got to remember, this guy's like three weeks behind. He's already closed on another house and has started work on it, but we're delaying it because we still want to complete this series.

Ryan: Yeah. That's the beauty also about recording all the clips, and you're able to voice over whenever.

Rajan: Bro, him standing in front of that house was the finished product, but on the inside we didn't show anything, because in that video he was talking about doing the kitchen. It's like, all right, we don't want to show that.

Ryan: Yeah. Yeah, so dude, there is like a [inaudible].

Rajan: But at the end of the day, we're builders, right? So when our windows and our foundation was getting put up, dude, sometimes I was in the sh*t, bro, so I couldn't film it. But since I had clips... I couldn't film it live. I mean, I couldn't talk while the foundation was being poured.

Ryan: Yeah, which seems like, most people aren't doing that.

Rajan: So it's, dude, but if you can do that, bro. Oh, like Johnny does that so well. Like the boy live, live.

Ryan: Yeah, bro.

Rajan: Let me show you.

Ryan: Yeah. Oh yeah, I've seen.

Rajan: He does it so good. That's why I think he really actually just gets it even more than me. But I envy the fact that he's able to stop it all before, like he remembers to capture the sh*t before he does it.

Ryan: I feel like that's the hardest thing.

Rajan: He says it does halt progress a little bit.

Ryan: Yeah, I've got discouraged. So I used to make a lot of videos too. I was getting into it, I was starting to get there, and then you miss something and forget to do something, and then that kind of just knocks your train off of your momentum.

Rajan: Also, you stop if you have a script and you know what's gonna be live as well and what's gonna be B-roll. Then you only need to shoot five clips live.

Ryan: So I guess going back to that...

Rajan: Wait, no, not this one. I think it was this one.

Ryan: What the f*ck. So good, that's so funny.

Rajan: So we don't have to watch a little bit.

Ryan: Yeah, but it's like, so I... I guess the question I was gonna ask you was, how often are you prescripting before videotaping?

Rajan: Dude, at this point now, I go to the site with scripts, bro.

Ryan: You do it. Yeah, but when you first... I guess, so backtracking, when you first started, we're on that, and I guess a lot of people that would listen to it, like what did you do at that point? Because that's like, I hate that. Okay, I gotta remember to film. I'd love to be like, okay, script, build, like you said, five clips, you know what the f*ck you're getting, you're done, and now let me go on with my day.

Rajan: Yeah, it's like if you know what works. I will say, I've never scripted. I haven't scripted. I haven't done pre-made scripting while there's been work done.

Ryan: Okay.

Rajan: I will say, because I was more of a beginner then, like when we were breaking ground level to that sh*t was last year. At that point I was still in school, so I was driving up and then I'd write the script in my notes, because I didn't know what work was gonna be done that day. Like if you know, okay, the windows are gonna be put in, or the foundation is gonna be put in, and you're like, today's day 36, we're [inaudible] windows.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rajan: I'm trying to do something cool, and like the "today's day X" might work, might not work. For him it works because his visuals, like the f*cking bowling ball through the window, bro.

Ryan: Like, yeah, it's like I love the... Like, you could play it. I love the planner. I like the funny fun stuff of it. Like that stuff entertains me.

Rajan: Yeah, more personable.

Ryan: I guess like you were saying, for sure, of it all.

Rajan: Beginning to circle back, it's hard to script things unless you're really aware of what's going on that day. If you can videotape what's going on is like prime. And then most people, what's practical is just film what's going on all the time, dude. It took him like five minutes to film the house when he first got the project. Five minutes.

Ryan: And when you're doing a lot of the filming, because it seems like for him he's doing like shot, shot, shot, I guess because he's scripting it out before, and not a lot of pans. Do you see, like obviously for like the other guys building, he did a lot of panos to get the rooms and that kind of stuff. For your shots, are you mostly doing just straight clip tripod style, not moving the camera too much?

Rajan: Wait, I don't know if I'm missing the question.

Ryan: So like, I find like when I'm filming sh*t, I'll just Boomer style, I walk in and be like, ah, and film.

Rajan: And then [inaudible]. Let me show you a perfect example. So when you have the script line by line, and I'll show you this. I think I need to visualize it for you. But yeah, when I have the script, I go really short lines. You know how I like switch the angle?

Ryan: Yeah, most every line.

Rajan: Yeah. That actually gets me to film faster, because if I know what's gonna be B-roll, like what I can just say into the mic because I know a different clip over it versus live, it makes it so much faster.

Ryan: You just continue talking while you're filming that first piece.

Rajan: It's not even that. It's like I can skip lines.

Ryan: Okay.

Rajan: So like, oh...

Ryan: Got you.

Rajan: So let's say we knew some of those lines were just gonna be voiceover. I would just record myself talking into the camera knowing... I'm just run those lines really fast, and then I go back. Okay, we need to come back live again. And I'll turn it back around.

Ryan: So how do you decide your B-roll? Is it just part of that script, like you're pre-scripting it, and you kind of have to know that you're gonna have clips of it?

Rajan: I knew, so like, this is like... I knew the first shot of this was gonna be live because our deck was getting painted. So I knew this was gonna be live.

Dude, these lines of me, I'm not... I'm literally at home here. These voiceover lines, I did them later, bro, because I just filled them in. And then, I know, I took on my clothes, and same thing, I filmed that at home.

"This morning, I finally got a text that our [inaudible] finally arrived, and our sauna and cold [inaudible]..."

This isn't like the greatest example, because most of this is live, because I'm just...

Ryan: But I feel like you are live more than you are [inaudible], like the other voice.

Okay, so, but I think about... I think about a drone. Is a drone necessary?

Rajan: No, I don't think it's necessary. I overkill it, but it definitely helped that video for sure.

Ryan: Yeah, 1000% of it.

Rajan: Yeah, I did a video. This sht was goofy as fck, but I did a video fully voiced over. I was like, what are the emotions of these lines, and I just acted that out. That's all I did.

Ryan: It slapped.

Rajan: Yeah, I did pretty well.

Ryan: Yeah. And it's like so much easier to me. I kind of like that vibe too, where you're like, oh, I can just take my time, sit in my PJs at home.

And when you're scripting over, are you watching the video while you're talking into the mic?

Rajan: That's what... So this girl, all her videos are voiceover, dude. She's actually the best comp for you. I'm not gonna send you her account.

Ryan: Because I always wondered that too. It's like, because I've made some voiceovers and my guess was like, okay, I'm in CapCut for example.

Rajan: You're using CapCut.

Ryan: You know, you're putting the video in and then you're watching the video and you're talking while you're watching the video. Is that how you...?

Rajan: That's not how I do it. How I do it, it's like I have the script already, and then I actually filmed the clips after to fill them in. So I filmed them after. But you can also do it that way, what you're talking about.

So like this girl Kyle, she literally just goes in...

Ryan: No, she...

Rajan: She always does like that "six months ago I..." I mean, she never talks live.

Ryan: And you think she just filmed a bunch of cute stuff, where you think she's scripted?

Rajan: Like, no. So I've actually talked to her before. She films those clips and then she'll think of the idea.

Ryan: Crazy.

Rajan: Well, she knew she wanted like a mail-letter idea for that, but she didn't have the whole script. She kind of figured it out while she just said, hey, I'm gonna splash some video.

Ryan: Yeah, and then kind of mix it all together. That's really cool.

Rajan: You're also more versatile when you just have clips versus like a rock solid live script.

Ryan: Yeah, it's hard to change. For me, I find it hard to think about the videos, probably like you were saying, without having the voiceover or the script.

Which I guess kind of brings into the music aspect of it too. You just pick your music at the end?

Rajan: Yeah, that's the last thing. That's the last thing, because I feel like OG guru dudes are like, you need music.

Ryan: So valuable from like that TikTok era where it's like you should pick the music first and then flow after.

Rajan: Well, like, no. When you're... I guess when you're talking about a real topic, not trying to just go viral, but actually have something to share, yeah, music, it's just like a play.

What you have to realize too is there's a crazy stat, but over 50% of Instagram users watch the videos on mute. So in reality, the music actually doesn't matter a ton. It definitely does matter, I will say.

Ryan: Yeah, it adds to the tone, it adds to the mood for sure. If you have a sad video and you have a more emotional song, hundred percent.

Rajan: But a really good gauge on if you have a good video is if you can dead-a*s listen, if you can literally listen to it on mute and understand what's going on.

Ryan: Yeah, that's why these captions are so important in my opinion.

Rajan: Like for my style of video, they're so important. There's some people that don't use captions at all.

Ryan: They don't? Blows my mind.

Yeah, and so when you're captioning, are you just like Instagram caption or whatever editor caption? Are you like writing out the caption?

Rajan: I don't write them out. So CapCut, on like their premium feature, has an auto caption, and then I'll chop it up. But I do an extra step where I'll perfectly sync them, and then I'll also, like you saw, they'll move around on screen. Once one cut they'll be here, and then one cut they'll be above my head.

Ryan: Like, are you writing personal, like minus 1,000, like you didn't say that, or add 22,000?

Rajan: Oh yeah. Yeah, I had some things that the auto captions f*cks up and I have to go in there manually and [inaudible].

So that's like one area. So I have an editor now, and the captioning, bro, was the hardest part for me to communicate, because I'm like, bro, I dead-as just do that sht on the fly. Like, I don't know.

He's like, bro, how do I know to put it on the side of your head versus the top? It's just for fun. I feel like sometimes you gotta just say to some dude that is trying to follow a specific order, take a breath, dude, be creative. You don't need to just be my brain. You are your own person, be free, throw your own little mix in there.

Ryan: If it works out, for sure. Yeah.

Okay, so we're getting almost full picture here. Yeah, I think what would be fun to do, like as a last hurrah, is showing how maybe with my idea in mind, like how you would script something out.

Rajan: Yeah, so like, all right, let me get some baseline information. So now we're buying the house for... Actually, let me get this pad.

Ryan: Yeah, yeah.

Rajan: Let me [inaudible] it.

Ryan: Oh, we just went under contract.

Rajan: A numbers video for real estate is like always classic. I love doing that.

Ryan: So we went under contract two weeks ago. Okay, I want to say at this point now, for 360,000. That was the price. The asking was 375, we negotiated down at 360. Included in that 360 at the current moment is new roof.

Rajan: So work to be done is new roof.

Ryan: Then we had the inspector come in, discovered that the HVAC system is also 20 years old and probably not working, so new HVAC and some plumbing. Inside of that, we're probably gonna spend about a hundred K on renos between the backyard and interior.

Rajan: So be specific.

Ryan: So like pool. Yeah, so we're doing pool, pickleball court, 100%. And we're definitely doing like a fire pit and kids playground. Hopefully that will be stage one, and then if we have more money left over, we'd love to do the putt-putts, or the little bit of extra, like maybe even a soccer field or like that outdoor pool.

Rajan: Soccer amenity, yeah, I've seen those.

Ryan: Yeah, kind of that vibe. And then interior, so potential rental [inaudible].

Rajan: Do you have a budget you're trying to stay under for renos? Under...

Ryan: Under 200.

Rajan: So let's just say like under a hundred, or you're planning to spend...

Ryan: So we have our down payment. That's gonna be like 35K with the partner, and then we're both probably putting in another 70. So I would say, because we're putting in 200 total with down payment as the plan, so we're trying to keep the total under 200.

Rajan: But the actual, like, okay, so you get it under contract. The money that goes back into the property is 100, is about a hundred.

Ryan: 140, because we got 70. We got 70 after closing, roughly 70 or 80. So we're around 120 to 130 in renos. That's pretty much the total.

Rajan: Dude, you know what you could do, bro. I actually have the exact video comp for you, bro.

Ryan: Let's go.

Rajan: I don't know if you've seen this dude, like...

Ryan: Yeah, dude, I love this guy. I actually just started following his YouTube. He's kind of pretty genuine. I fck with this. I thought I didn't fck with him. I thought he was kind of, you know, because he's a little bit OG.

Rajan: But he sees like OG. He's an OG guru.

Ryan: I was a little bit skeptical about him. We're talking about Mr. 48. But then I started getting into his YouTube and I love it, and I'm not a big YouTube guy anymore, but he got me wanting to be back on that like day-in-the-life vibe. Like really cool.

Rajan: Really. So this guy, he didn't step foot on this Airbnb and he made a video about it. This is low-key like he definitely said he copied my sh*t.

Ryan: Wow.

Rajan: Same thing. It's like a just a straight template.

"They got to spend big money, so they're buying the $1 million, $2 million beachfront houses, and none of those are cash flowing. Of course, you got the value of appreciation from a beachfront, but I really want to prove that you buy the $350,000 house, you amenitize it, and that's going to do the same amount as buying a $750,000 waterfront home."

A lot of the times, there's so many moving parts that people want to jam everything in about them, and you can't do that. You just have to leave some stuff out sometimes.

Two weeks ago, I bought this property in Florida for $360,000 as a Canadian citizen.

Ryan: That's not too wordy. Yeah, I don't think that's that bad.

Rajan: The plan is to put another $100,000. Bro, I'm not creating something original. I'm deadass just copying the same template.

Ryan: You do that a ton. You see one, and you're just like, yo, this template's fire.

Rajan: I will say, the videos that have the most upside for me are when I do just go to the site and come up with them on my notes. I will toot my horn a little bit where I think I do have that talent to come up with it on the spot.

Ryan: 100%, bro.

Rajan: That format was mine, and then Blake copied me, and I'm just copying his again because he did it better than me.

Ryan: Yeah, that's fair. He's definitely a master of it, too. I do find I'm more natural when I'm not writing sh*t down as well, too. I feel like that's my way of doing it as well. We're just copying somebody else's template. We still got our own OG.

Rajan: The cool thing about that at the end of the day is that you're not stealing, and I'm not stealing anything from them. No idea is fcking original, bro. Anyone that complains, they're btches about someone copying their video, is like...

Ryan: You take it as a compliment?

Rajan: Unless you're in market-to-market, house-to-neighbors, everybody's helping each other out. Unless it's blatant, word-for-word. That's happened to me once or twice. Then I was like, you can change some of the words, bro.

Ryan: I think I told you guys that story of one of my clients. They basically took all my ideas, bought another property down the street, gave it to their sister, did the exact same sh*t I did, even took the game room idea I had, didn't do it for their house, but did it for the next house.

It was more like my company is the luxury co-host with a darker blue and gold logo, and theirs is TNG Luxury Stays with a dark blue and gold logo. I might send them a lawyer's letter for that just because it's like, come on, be a little.

Rajan: Two weeks ago I bought this property in Florida for $360,000 as a Canadian citizen. The plan is to put another $140,000 into it to turn it into something special.

Ryan: You're like, that's something special, eh?

Rajan: That's exactly what he did. Into something crazy.

Ryan: Yeah, unique, crazy.

Rajan: Crazy, unique. This is just a template. A lot of it actually should be tailored to how you talk. I would have said insane. I just say that sh*t a lot.

Ryan: You're insane. If I was natural, I feel unique.

Rajan: Six months ago I bought this place as a [inaudible]. Because I just say it all the time, when we always say it. I spent another $525,000 turning it into something special.

Ryan: Yeah, he's kind of wholesome like that. Something special. But we're definitely not doing wellness. We're doing extravagance.

Rajan: The most extravagant Airbnb in the town of Palm Coast.

And then now, you know how I said I had to go really deep into one topic or have a high level progression of events. I just want to go through the plan of exactly what you're going to do. Super high level. What's the order of operations?

Ryan: So it's like roof, HVAC, plumbing. Roof is going to be done before, and HVAC is going to be done before closing. And then we're going straight into the backyard.

Rajan: Yeah, honestly, that'd be dope.

Ryan: We've just been really super masterclassy. But then right now we're doing the script and he's writing it. So I feel like there would be some cool shots if we do more short form of us just sitting and chatting and kind of clipping it. More than doing a whole pod video and having him writing right now over it.

Rajan: You have to leave in like two minutes now.

Ryan: Yeah. I was saying just get a little bit of B-roll maybe. Just in case, like while we're just chatting right now, like us chatting and then him over the shoulder.

Rajan: And like, I don't really... I can't really think of too much. I like the B-roll. I'm going to need that too.

Ryan: Yeah, exactly. I was like, wait a second, we're going to end up clipping this.

Rajan: So I also, a lot of times when I write my scripts, I read them out, because they want to be conversational. This is what fcking AI sucks at. And I just can't prompt it right. Even with how much I've loaded up my Notion, I still have to go in and rewrite this sht. So you got to talk as if you're talking to one of your boys.

Yeah. Two years ago I bought this property in Florida for $360,000 as a Canadian citizen. The plan is to put another $140,000 into it to turn it into something crazy. The most extravagant Airbnb in the town of Palm Coast. Here's the plan. First, we're going to put on a new roof.

Why are you going to put on a new roof?

Ryan: Have to. It's 25 years old.

Rajan: Yeah. Roof's shot.

Ryan: Yeah. This roof.

I mean, you could chat. We're just kind of, we're finishing up right now.

Jamie: Is it pod?

Ryan: It's pod.

Jamie: Oh, we're live podding?

Ryan: We're live podding.

Jamie: Writing?

Rajan: I'm physically scripting a video.

Ryan: We're scripting a video on the pod. We're masterclassing. We are teaching how to script business creator short form videos live on the Short Term Rental Pros Podcast.

Rajan: Yes, we are. Yes, we are.

Ryan: Jamie is coming in to tell everybody that while we've been working hard, we need to go hit the boat.

Jamie: We're hitting the boats. We're hitting the water.

Ryan: Raj evidently can't, or apparently can't swim.

Rajan: Can't swim. It's not apparently. That's a fact.

Ryan: We're going to put that statement to test and see if it is really true. We may or may not give him a life jacket. This may or may not be the last podcast Raj ever does.

Rajan: Don't say that.

Ryan: So you guys heard it here.

Rajan: The last script he ever scripted. I'm going to go out with a bang.

Ryan: I'm going to go out with a bang. There you go. That's what you get for listening to the Short Term Rental Pros Podcast.

Jamie: All right, I'm going to go inside and put a bathing suit on. We'll see you in a minute.

Ryan: Yeah, we're good. All right. Whoever's got to clip this, I feel bad. We're going to close this out. Unfortunately, we might not complete this podcast. I think you can actually finish this off.

Rajan: Yeah. So two weeks ago, I bought this property in Florida for $360,000. The plan is to put another $140,000 into it to turn it into something crazy. The most extravagant Airbnb in the town of Palm Coast. Here's the plan. First, we're going to put on a new roof. This roof right now is 25 years old and is not going to cut it.

And then you have a visual.

Our HVAC is also 20 years old and needs to be replaced. Then we need to completely redo the plumbing. Now on to the outside. We're going to do this, this, this.

And then that's how you end it. Now on to the outside, we're going to do this many, this many, this many, and this many here. Now back into the inside. Super high level too, you don't need to go into any of the details. Super high level. This here, this here, this here.

Ryan: Yeah, yeah. No prices for that.

Rajan: No prices. We already said $140,000 for the rest of it. And that's it. [inaudible] come to life, follow me.

Ryan: Let's go, baby. Welcome to the Short Term Rental Pros Podcast. Come on. We'll see y'all on the next episode. Gang, gang, and shout out to Raj. Let's go. You know, you got to check his other podcast for his Instagram. Otherwise, we'll link it in the bottom. But he is the OG. You just got the masterclass from the legend, Raj. Thank you so much.

Rajan: Thank you for having me, brother. Respect.