This episode features an interview with Darren Kriz, Real Estate Agent at Revel Real Estate. Darren discusses the impact of content creation in real estate, the evolving social media scene, and must-know advice for aspiring agents.
This episode features an interview with Darren Kriz, Real Estate Agent at Revel Real Estate. Born in Beverly Hills and raised in the San Fernando Valley, Darren knows Los Angeles — the ins, the outs, and everything in between. His unique knowledge of the area helps him find breathtaking homes for his buyers, and it gets his sellers high returns. Darren earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and international management from Cal State Monterey Bay while playing four years of Division 2 baseball.
In this episode, Aaron talks to Darren about the game-changing impact of content creation in real estate, the dynamic evolution of social media within the industry, and must-know advice for aspiring agents.
Guest Bio:
Darren Kriz has the motivation, passion, and determination it takes to win in the competitive Los Angeles market. As an agent, his mission is not only to create successful sales: it’s to build meaningful relationships. He establishes genuine trust with every client and uses their happiness as his guiding light throughout the transaction.
Born in Beverly Hills and raised in the San Fernando Valley, Darren knows Los Angeles — the ins, the outs, and everything in between. His unique knowledge of the area helps him find breathtaking homes for his buyers, and it gets his sellers high returns. By staying on top of current trends and technologies, Darren also ensures that his clients have the most comprehensive, high-quality experiences.
Darren is known for his respectable character, relatable personality, and optimistic attitude. While earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration and international management from Cal State Monterey Bay and playing four years of Division 2 baseball, Darren mastered the arts of self-discipline, perseverance, and time-management. He applies these skills to his profession as a real estate agent, and his desire to help others is what drives him every day.
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Guest Quote
"It's insane how many people just give up so quick, after not seeing much traction. When in reality, like, are you doing this just to get a viral video within a month or two? Or are you doing this because you want to build a long-term business?"
“Anyone that's posting any kind of content in any business, whether that's someone that's trying to get big on Instagram or TikTok even, I always tell them: just make sure you can do maybe two quality videos a week, and just don't stop and just keep putting 'em out. Put out 30 videos in two months, and then if that's not working, then you can restructure and go in a separate direction.”
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Time Stamps:
* (00:01) Intro
* (00:45) Darren’s path to real estate success
* (03:15) Innovative social media tactics
* (07:28) Real estate’s evolution of social media
* (10:33) Unraveling Darren’s most viral social videos
* (13:27) Social media’s influence on real estate
* (17:48) Content-driven business growth
* (22:44) Behind the scenes of property tour filming
* (24:23) Tips for rookie real estate agents
* (26:51) Generational shifts in the real estate landscape
* (30:57) Darren’s inspirations
* (35:13) Fresh content creation vs. recycling trends
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It doesn't matter what you do for a living. Standing out requires a high level of creativity, a healthy dose of ambition, and sheer grit. This is The Standouts, a show where we discuss, explore, and strategize what it takes to achieve the extraordinary. It's about finding your edge and learning how to leverage that for your own success.
I'm your host Aaron Gruscio. Get ready to be inspired to blaze your own path. Today on The Standouts. I have a fellow Los Angeles real estate agent, a pioneer in the real estate content space, and a friend, Darren Criss. Thanks for being here, man. Thanks for having me, man. Really appreciate it. Of course, appreciate you being here.
Um, it's been awesome watching you grow. Online and watching your sales business grow. We both started around the same time We did and I think we kind of like bonded because we had a lot of the same ideologies and Tactics to stand out in Quite a saturated industry and that's what this podcast is all about, you know, finding ways to stand out separate yourself from the rest again I'm super impressed with the direction you've taken your content for those that may not be super familiar with you and the content you make Can you give us a little background?
How would you describe, you know, Darren Krizz online? Yeah. Well, my name is Darren Krizz I'm a Los Angeles real estate agent and Content creator in the real estate space, I would pretty much say. And how I've structured my entire business is pretty much through social media in general. Um, TikTok, YouTube, uh, but I've done everything under the sun in the real estate game when it comes to, you know, cold calling, door knocking, everything.
And I think you just have to feel it like. Figure out what works for you, because one thing can work for someone, that doesn't work for someone else, you know, and, uh, And this, this way just worked for me, so that's just what I've been doing, and just continues to snowball, and that's what I like doing. It's a lot of fun for me, so, yeah.
I love that. So, you mentioned you did some sort of traditional lead generation practices, your, your cold calling, your, your door knocking. What about content creation really, like, stuck with you, and, and why do you continue to make that such a, you know, pivotal part of your of your, yeah, business. Yeah, well, uh, pretty much I have been interested in YouTube in general my entire, my entire life.
I was never really one to just watch TV shows, watch movies. I was always watching YouTube, you know, whether that was in 2010 I was watching like the Pranksters, I was watching all the vloggers back then, the daily vloggers, so, in some way or another I always wanted to get into the YouTube space. Um, didn't know what that was gonna be.
But once I began my real estate journey and into my career, I knew that I had to differentiate in one way or another. And what better than to get on YouTube and kind of intermix both career and social media together. Yeah. And just, they both have just been flourishing, um, in that way. And it's just fun for me.
I feel like, you know, the future of any kind of business is through content, through social media. And if you're not branding yourself, if you're not growing a personal brand, you're not really, you're just pretty much going to be stagnant. Um, I know some people are able to do it without being on social media, without the whole, um, without branding themselves online.
But, I mean, it is possible, but, I mean, we've seen what people have done through content. A hundred percent, yeah, I couldn't agree with you more, I mean. Personal branding is so important, especially in our business. Our personal brands are our business in a sense, you know, and what better way to grow them in today's age than creating content and distributing it for millions of people to see.
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That's signmore. com forward slash Aaron A A R O N to get 30 percent off your first three months on Signmore's best value plan. So what, what type of content are you creating right now? What have you really found success with? In the content space. Okay, so, um, pretty much I've been posting one house tour a week for the past three years I started my YouTube channel.
Um, actually March of 2020 was when I initially posted my first video on YouTube. Nice. Which, uh, crazy time for everyone, you know, that's when, uh, everything shut down. Yes. Um, pretty, pretty wild, but also that was great for social media, great for Our brands because I know like you were like the first person to hit a million followers on tik tok in the real estate space Yeah, and we were both coming up with viral tik toks at the time and growing our followings that way But you know, I just started posting one a week on YouTube and then eventually went to two week house tours Which is very difficult to do.
You have to have a really Consistent system going when you're posting on social media, but now currently I'm posting one a week on YouTube and then pretty much three four Shorts a week, but I also do have a second YouTube channel Which is pretty much my lead generating channel where I post three long form videos a week and two shorts a week on there currently So it's just a whole bunch of content every day.
It's just trying to come up with new ideas of You know, whether that's getting, getting views and then getting leads as well. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I think you've done an excellent job of, uh, really finding your niche. Um, how, how did you go about that? Was there some trial and error involved? Like, how did your, how has your content sort of evolved from when you first started posting?
Yeah, I mean, the social media game is changing so much. Yeah. Every week, I feel like you have to continue innovating. You have to. Watch, you have to consume as well, but you can't get sucked in to, to consuming to where you're just scrolling on TikTok for hours, because I mean, I definitely do that too, um, but, but, um, with that, you'll, you'll learn new ideas, so, you know, I wasn't posting shorts a year ago because of what you see, like, people were saying it would ruin your long form content if you were posting shorts about a year ago, but then, as YouTube started evolving, you know, they started implementing shorts because they saw what TikTok was doing.
Then, uh, you're seeing some channels grow to a million subscribers in a month. Strictly through shorts. So then I figure I gotta start posting shorts in that in that sense But when it comes to the house tours, it's pretty much just trying to bigger and better, you know, always consistently figuring out Editing styles that work, you know When the retention is going to drop from people, um, thumbnails, super important, always changing, but then, but then, you know, like, a year ago, maybe the, um, the average view duration was more important, but now, like, click through rate's more important, so, I know some YouTubers that focus strictly on the thumbnails and titles before the content, like, they'll spend thousands of dollars solely on the thumbnails and titles, which is super important right now, um, and so, and so, yeah, I think just innovating and continually consuming what, uh Like, the important information.
Yeah, it's super interesting. I've heard that as well. You know, creators first focus on what the title of the video will be, and then create the video from there. Yeah, yeah. For creators that aren't just doing, um, well not just doing, but creators that have to actually come up with new ideas every week.
Usually they'll come up with the title and the video, the idea first, like the title first and then if they think, Okay, that's gonna be something that might go viral online, Okay, then I'll figure out the content around that because, um, yeah. So, it's crazy though. I love that. It's crazy how much things have changed from when we first started to create content.
I remember we would basically just get together, go to open houses, and walk around with our cameras. Film, make these short form clips, put them together on TikTok. Now, like, at that time, I feel like it was a little frowned upon, almost. Like, people looked at us weird. Like, who are these kids walking into these multi million dollar, you know, luxury estates, just taking videos, but now you go to an open house.
Everyone's just a zombie on their phones. Oh, it's ridiculous, you know. Yeah. Can't get away from it now. No. But yeah, I mean, when we started, like, I started my TikTok in October 2019. Yeah, I think that's exactly when I assume it's pretty much around the same time we all started, you know, our little, our little group of guys.
You know, shout out the Young Guns. Young Guns. But, uh, but we, we started just carpooling to open houses. Yeah. And some days we'd hit like nine, ten open houses. Yeah, man. And, uh, just try to post. Honestly, it was like. 10 to 30 second long videos with the top 5 songs on TikTok, that would work. And sometimes they would get millions and millions of views, you know?
We each have a video with over 50 million views, right? And so, from then, um, but now, that does not work. No, you can't do that. It's way, way too saturated. Um, yeah, it's literally impossible, but it was It was crazy. It was like, kind of like discovering gold when we first realized the potential of TikTok and short form video.
You know, I think what it was is a lot of people did not have the exposure to these types of properties that we did. And you know. Even people living in Los Angeles found the content interesting, but the people living outside of LA who don't get to see these types of properties on an everyday basis, we were kind of giving them like an inside view of what that looks like, and yeah, I think that's really Yeah, and that's where a lot of the views are coming from, like India, the Philippines, you know, United States is number one when you look at the analytics, but the two and three always like You know, India and the Philippines are up there, YouTube and TikTok for me, but, um, But yeah, I mean, when we were posting back then, it was just super easy, like you said.
No one would, everyone would just look at us and be like, like, why are these guys filming right now? But we, we, we knew, like, you know, we could pop off if we just made a decent content of this bathtub. So, you know, but Yeah, I, I, I think that's kind of an important lesson too because today I'm now always looking for opportunities to be, you know, the first to do something or to bring my content to a new platform that not many people are using because if you're early, you can really reap the benefits.
Yeah, and that's another thing about not just, uh, in the social media space, but also in everything, like in stocks, in, in crypto, everyone's like, Oh, if I only invested in 2015, I could be a billionaire right now. You know, if I only started posting TikToks in 2018, and then, and people are always like that.
Oh, you know, you started YouTube in 2019. So that's why you're, you're doing well on it now. But. I mean, in reality, social media is still at like a baby, right? It's in the baby steps right now. Right. So everyone that, that asks, like, should, is it too late to get on YouTube? Is it too late, too late to get on social media's too late.
It's still in the super early proc, like super early in the game. Absolutely. Five, next five to 10 years, YouTube is gonna take over. I mean, I mean, I don't know about TikTok, who knows what's gonna happen with that, but Yeah. Um, but YouTube, you know, they were just, they just partnered up with NFL Network, right?
And they're just doing huge things that. We just see where the attention is going these days. I mean, content and social media is here to stay. Of course, of course. 100%. So, I want to touch on some of your most viral videos. You briefly mentioned the one that you have over 50 million. Tell me about that. How did that come about?
It's the weirdest, like, I don't know, sometimes you just never know on social media, which kinda, which kinda sucks for some people, because they're like, how are you getting that many views, and I'm not, but, but, you know, then also, it just comes with consistency, posting a lot, and then they will reward you, eventually, you will get rewarded if you keep trying to up your quality, you will Um, up the content.
So, the video that went viral was me putting my foot in a booty machine at an open house, and automatically wrapped my shoe in plastic. And, 7 second video, I think the most important thing about that video was that I used the Toosie Slide song by Drake. Yeah. Um, Music's so important. So important.
Especially back then. It was, yeah, it was the number one trending song at the time, but then the song says, uh, left foot up, right foot slide, and you know, I put my right foot up and put it in the booty machine, so people understood what that meant. It worked. It worked, and everyone around the world, pretty much, a lot of the viral content also, a lot of the comments will be hateful comments, you know, they're all just like, why don't you just take off your shoes, you know?
Of course. Why do you have to waste plastic? Stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, that got like 50 million views, um, in 2020, and then crazy thing also, I reposted it two months ago on Facebook. It got 45 million views, um, three years later, which is, never know sometimes. But then, I posted it on YouTube Shorts, and it got 3, 000 views.
So, then it's like, at that point, I don't understand sometimes, so. Yeah, you never know. You have some videos that you think are gonna kill it and blow up, and they just never amount to anything. And then the other ones you don't expect at all just, you know, skyrocket. Exactly. So you really never know. You mentioned something really interesting though, um, in the comments, how people would Like, argue or, uh, you know, some sort of controversial topic then leads to, you know, more arguing.
Ultimately, I think my most viewed video is my most viewed video because of controversy. And I think, um, that goes a long way. And, and content, you know, when I had that Shark Tank video, people were just going crazy in the comments. Like, these sharks don't belong to be here. They'll find something.
Everyone's going to find something, but ultimately that, that controversy, that banter in the comments is, is going to help you. Like it's just going to help you grow. Helps engagement. Helps the algorithm push it out to more people. 100%. That's why it's good. So some people go out looking for that controversy and they'll post.
Two insight, violence in the comments section. Exactly, yeah. No, it's, it's wild all the types of content you can, you can come up with these days. Um, I'd love to switch gears a little bit and talk about how your content, your digital presence has helped your, like, real estate sales business. How has it helped your real estate sales business?
Yeah. So, um, like I said, before I started getting on social media, I did everything under the sun when it comes to trying to get business in the space. You know, I started in the industry, um, when I was 20, just fresh out of college, pretty much. And I, Joined a Zoom group and cold called. You know, that's what I was doing.
I was cold calling every day and I didn't want to stop cold calling until I realized that this is not what I wanted to do. Just solely, like, not expires. I'm not even talking about expires. Just solely just farming, cold calling. Yeah. And I wanted to get, I got to 50, 000 cold calls until I finally just called it quits on that specific form of prospecting.
And after that, then I was like, okay, now maybe I'll try door knocking. I got to 10, 000 doors to when I was like, okay, you know, it's kind of hot, I'm sweating, I don't really want to do, just walk to doors and spend every day doing this. Even though it works for so, like Tons of people, you know, it's, it's, a lot of people have built billion dollar businesses off door knocking, obviously, but, but so then, um, once I started posting content, I kind of was focusing on just that, so, like, strictly content house tours, and I didn't see any kind of traction from it for probably nine months of consistently posting one, uh, twice a week, and then also, typically, you're not going to see leads from.
Homes that are 5 million plus from YouTube, you know. You can, but majority of them are just looky loos. They love to see nice homes, they love to see Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, things like that. But so, I found another niche within the house tour space at the time, in 2020, which was the new construction builds.
Um, by Toll Brothers, and at the time there was really no videos online of these new construction homes and they were also starting at 1. 5 million dollars before upgrades, which is pretty impressive and also that to say that it's in the Los Angeles County with views, I think people were pretty Pretty, uh, perplexed by that.
They were like, how is that even possible? Yeah, yeah. So once those started getting traction, like also the first one I ever did, got over a million views. My most viewed YouTube video to this day has 1. 4 million views. Really? Um, and, but now, and the title of that was 1. 5 million dollars before upgrades, whatever.
Now that home's going for over 4 million, so. But the crazy thing is that nine months in, I was posting tons of these new construction home builds. Then I would start getting emails of people. Curious. Interested. Wanting to see it. So I'd go on, I'd tell them, okay, let's go on a showing. Let's go check them out.
We'd go check out these new builds and then, eventually, if they liked it, you know, they put down a A deposit, and those are much easier to go through escrow process, um, than like a traditional home that's on the market. Right, right. But, but so, um, yeah, that started to snowball, and then eventually, I led people from this Porter Ranch community into another community, a new build community, Deer Lake Ranch in Chatsworth.
Which I ended up selling multiple homes on one street in that community. Wow. Because of, it was at a little lower price point than Toll Brothers, but it was, Still pretty similar build, similar finishes to what you'd see in Port A Ranch, and same views, unreal properties. And so, and then from then on it was just, you know, once you get a little taste, then you decide to double down, keep going, try to, you know, just go harder on more content, more follow up, stuff like that.
Yeah, I had enough emails coming in that I could just kind of just go harder on. Pushing it out toward everyone that's been reaching out. So, yeah, and so that's, so, so then I was focused on new builds from, from then, and it's been, uh, been flourishing for the past three years now since that. That's awesome.
Yeah, very impressive. I think, uh, at least for my content, people are always asking, are you generating leads from, from this? Are you generating leads on TikTok? And I am, but as you know, the leads we get on social media. We have to qualify them a lot. A lot of them are bogus, but I tell people it's mostly for my personal brand, you know, mostly for, for brand exposure.
Would you agree with that? Or do you think people can, you know, solely build real estate businesses off of, you know, just creating content? So I would say my house tour channel, if I'm just going to be Trying to get views, then I'll just post the most expensive new construction home, which is what I'm pretty much focusing on now on that channel.
I won't really post any more lower end homes to try to get leads. Um, but if someone wants to get leads through YouTube, I would suggest posting, um, about their local neighborhoods, about their areas, maybe show, um, like what the lifestyle is. I know a lot of people that are doing this in several other cities around the globe that are doing multi millions of dollars.
Um, just by posting a couple videos a week, talking about their city, and then, you know, cause YouTube works with Google, and the SEO from that, if you're typing in, looking to move to West Hollywood, you know, there'll be just a handful of videos that pop up. Obviously, the competition is a lot harder in Los Angeles, it's so wide, there's so many different areas, but, so it's gonna take a little bit longer to gain traction through content solely like that, but, I mean, it works in local markets for sure.
And, and uh, if you come up with a system, a strategy, to where you can do it consistently over time, I mean, I think that's where most people fail is when after two months they don't see much traction, they're only getting like a couple hundred views, they don't realize what six to ten months can do for your business if you don't quit, if you don't stop, which is hard for a lot of people because sometimes you don't have the capital to continue just making content without seeing income coming in, but once you realize What can happen and have that vision it would definitely it definitely will pay off in the long term.
Yeah hundred percent. I couldn't agree more Consistency is key, of course, of course. So a lot of your content house tours I'm curious about the craziest properties you've ever toured and filmed you have one that stands out in your mind I do and it just happened last week actually, okay Pretty crazy. So I was invited to film a house in Santa Barbara Um, Montecito, Summerlin area specifically, but this home was Insane.
It's known as the Bella Vista estate. So yeah, they typically hold weddings there for a quarter million dollars Uh huh, which is insane and it's on 20 acres. There's a polo field there That is the size of 10 football fields, you know, well put into perspective Yeah, how big a polo field is but so the property was just listed for 70 million dollars there's a There's a disco ball nightclub where Katy Perry's done a concert down there for 4, 000 people and the homeowner They gave us full tour of the entire property and they said with those four to five thousand people It still felt empty which is crazy.
Wow. How big is the house itself? The house is just under 30, 000 square feet just under yeah, not quite 30, 000. We're getting there, but But yeah, there's a polo clubhouse on the lower half of the structure. Wow. Um, they gave us a Range Rover golf cart to just tour around because you can't walk around that property.
No, no. Um, there's a historical monarch butterfly garden over there. Um, that's because one day they discovered like a thousand very rare butterflies. So they named it a historical garden. on the property, which is cool. There's a full restaurant in there, which is a thing that I've never seen. I've never seen a restaurant in a house, which is amazing.
Um, but yeah, so I would say, I mean, there's a lot more, but I will be posting a, probably when this comes out, the video will be up already. Um, full tour of it should be a long video, but yeah, that's going to be exciting to see. Um, how long does it take you to film an entire house tour of a property that size?
Yeah. So that day was, that's a long day. You know, we got there. 8 a. m. and we left about 9 p. m. So, we were going to stay the night there, but, um, we got pretty much everything we needed and we, you know, sometimes, yeah, we didn't really want to stay the night there, but, but yeah, cause then we, we wanted to get some twilight shots and some night shots because that obviously enhances the video, makes it look a lot better.
Right. Stay at night for a little bit. Um, but yeah, I would say normal, a house not like that though, it's going to take like four hours, but that home specifically, because you know, it's going to be like, No one has really ever toured that house in its entirety before. So when you get homes like that, we want to showcase it in the best way possible.
Totally. Especially when we're invited there. Yeah. And, uh, but that house has been showcased on YouTube on a video with over 12 million views. Um, AirRack, very popular on YouTube, posted a video, um, about it. So the video was touring the biggest house in the world, or in California, compared to the smallest house.
Gotcha. Yeah, so that, that's, uh, that's That's one place where we actually saw the property originally and we, yeah, and so, so yeah. Yeah, that actually gets me curious because your property tours are pretty in depth. Like you go in detail. How do you prepare for something like that? So when I first started, also this goes into how the content has changed.
My first video of full house tour was three minutes long. Traditionally, most real estate people, real estate agents, people that are going to post content about a home just want to do a quick walkthrough with music in the background where they're just pointing, showing off the house, and that's kind of what I did for my first, like, five videos until I realized, like, YouTube promotes, like, the longer the video, YouTube will push it out more because you can put more ads in the video, especially when you're monetized.
Oh, that's good to know. So the longer the video, normally, they'll push it out more, which is why podcasts are doing so well now, because you can just put 20 ads in the video and YouTube makes more money, and so that's how that works, but, um But how I used to prepare would be I would do thorough research on the property and write out like a list of bullet points and then make sure and also ask the agent or the developer specific like hidden gems, little things that you wouldn't typically notice while just walking around the home.
Yeah. Um, which I'll still get now. They'll send me occasionally, they'll send me some property details, some small information, but. I'll say majority of the time now, I, I try to not waste any time at all, and I'll just pretty much schedule it and then show up and go. Yeah. Now, because I've seen so many homes, it's just way easier for me to walk in there and just do it kind of on the fly.
Gotcha. I've kind of seen everything there is to see in houses. Yeah. Much easier that way for me overall. Definitely. No, that makes sense. Considering a career in real estate but need to do it based off of your schedule, study at your own pace from a laptop, tablet, or even your smartphone. It truly does not get more convenient than this and at such an affordable price.
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Head over to realestate u.com and use the discount code standouts. Make sure to share it with others eager to kickstart their real estate career so they can save 20% off as well. If, if I'm a brand new real estate agent and I want to start creating content, start building my brand online, what, what advice would you give me?
Yeah, as a brand new real estate agent, I'd say the biggest, like, number one piece of advice I would give is just consistency is key. I mean, we've been talking about that. Um, but I would say come up with a system. Whatever it is, whatever, whether that's posting local videos, or posting tours of homes, or whatever, like, um, interviewing people, like doing a podcast, things like that, I would say give yourself at least, like, three to four months minimum, bare minimum, until you start going a different direction with that.
And, like, make, that's what, anyone that's posting any kind of content in any business, whether that's someone that's trying to get big on Instagram or TikTok even, I always tell them, like, just make sure you can do maybe two quality videos a week and just don't stop and just keep putting them out. Put out 30 videos in And then, if that's not working, then you can restructure and go a separate direction.
Um, because, I mean, just so many times where people will post, where they'll say, Okay, I'm down, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna go hard. And then they'll do it for a week, two weeks, and then they stop. It's insane how many people just Give up so quick after not seeing much traction when in reality like are you doing this just to Get a viral video within a month or two or are you doing this because you want to build a long term business?
What through the next three to five ten years, you know? And that's that's just the vision that I've had throughout since I started in the industry, you know When I got into real estate, I said I'm gonna do this for 10 years, you know, at least. Like, I'm going all in. I'm not gonna just settle at being mediocre in the space.
I want to really just stand out, you know, what the podcast is called. So, but there we go. So that's why I say consistency, of course, and just set a structure, a plan, and just don't stop. I love that. Yeah, I don't think enough people realize it's, it's really a long term play when it comes to content creation and social media strategy.
You can't expect results overnight. No, with anything, you know, this is applicable to just about anything. Yeah, but yeah, 100%. We're definitely on the younger side in a Industry that is dominated by experience and older people. How have you been combating sort of the ageism and What sort of critiques are you getting from maybe the older?
Generation on on your content are people kind of like looking down upon it Do agents understand it who have been doing this for a while? Like how are you, you know dealing with that? Yeah, and uh, yeah, I mean, I'll definitely tell you I'd like to get your insight too on being a younger agent as well in the space, but so that's also another reason why I fully dove into social media because when I was doing the traditional Cold calling, handing out flyers, stuff like that.
I feel like a lot of these homeowners, a lot of these potential clients, looked down upon me as just a replaceable salesman, you know, to where Now that I've built a presence online, people that can research me, look me up, and see a little bit about who I am. Um, whether that's just watching a 20 minute long house tour of me talking about some things.
They can, like, once they start to know, like, and trust me, they reach out to me as the authority. And that's how they feel a little bit more comfortable. And that's, those are the people I like to work with as well. Much better, uh, quality clients. Uh, through social media than you'd get through the traditional route because they're reaching out to you instead of you reaching out to them.
And so I think that as a young real estate agent has made me Also more confident in the space to, to, uh, not thinking that I'm just so young in the game to where I need to have so much experience before I can start helping people find a home, you know? But, yeah, that's just from my experience. What about you, being a young agent as well?
Have you had similar thoughts? Yeah, yeah, totally. Um, I knew coming into this, It was going to be a challenge, um, just from looking at some friends of mine who were trying to do real estate sales and, and were struggling. So I really did look to content creation as a way to stand out, separate myself and create that social proof, you know.
Being able to meet with a client and share with them that I'm, you know, a pretty established face online. Please check out my content. And having them do that, they immediately recognize that, you know, I do have value to add. Um, I am capable, um, and, and I think, yeah, being able to, to share with people, you know, my journey and, and having it exposed online definitely goes a long way.
Um, cause yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm sure you've experienced this, but, I mean, you just basically said you did. Cold calling, door knocking, the traditional ways of generating leads in in our business People definitely look down upon people our age Whether it's you know, they don't trust us because we haven't been doing it for long enough You know, these are some of our clients biggest assets There's a lot of money that we deal with here and trusting a kid in their 20s.
It's impossible. Yeah, I don't blame them I don't blame them. Yeah I mean, there's so many people in LA too and the competition is, you know, everyone has their real estate license out here, it seems. You know, you meet people every day, every week that say, Oh, I'm, I'm in real estate too. But how do you stand out from them when it comes to like, in the client's eyes?
So, and that's where building a personal brand will come in other than you just cold calling and saying. Oh, can I sell your house? Totally. Yeah. I think it's also about providing value back to the client. You know, it's, it's hard when you're just cold calling someone, you know, doing traditional sales tactics to really add value to them.
You know, you can provide advice all day long, but if you can actually create content that provides some type of value, Um, some type of education or inspiration, whatever it may be, to your ideal clients or your ideal audience, like, that goes so far. Of course, of course. And yeah, whether that's being the expert in a specific area or knowing specifics about a house, maybe the history of someone's home, um, yeah, so many different ways you can add value and I think that, you know, goes a long way when dealing with anyone.
Awesome. Yeah. I'm curious what inspired you to get your real estate license and start selling real estate in arguably the most competitive real estate market in the world. Yeah. Well, I mean, in general, I'm a very competitive person. My entire life was based around, uh, playing baseball. I played college baseball and so I was always, and my entire dream was to become a professional baseball player, play on the LA Dodgers, you know, family with season ticket holders, um, back in the day.
And so once I. I didn't get drafted and realize that that wasn't the route I was going to be taking. I knew I had to get into something else where I could actually compete, instead of just staying stagnant, working in a corporate job. So, and I'd also have always had a A passion for architecture and just L.
A. is the perfect place for being into in real estate, you know You're not gonna see homes like this anywhere else around the country at all, you know, even even New York You don't even get you don't get anything remotely close to anything out in L. A. And so So then once I wanted to, and then also, you know, that, that, that saying that quote that, um, 90 percent of millionaires I think, or something like that are, did it through real estate, something in that sense that I saw when I was like 18, when I was trying to figure out what.
So, I wanted to learn everything I could before, I didn't know if I wanted to be necessarily an agent in the real estate space or just strictly try to build up some capital to where I could invest in the beginning. But so I wanted to learn everything I potentially could, which is why I initially got a property management job, um, as a leasing consultant.
Uh, apartment community in Brentwood, learned everything I could, went on leasing showings every day, you know, doing that while I was getting my real estate license at the time. Once I got my license, just dove right in and just, uh, you know, wanted to, wanted to compete and kinda outdo anyone in the space.
You know, I, And then also, while you're in the industry, you meet people every day, and you see people that are killing it in the real estate game as an agent, and you think, if, if they can do it, why can't I? You know, what's, what differentiates them from me? And this is where my competitive spirit comes in, to where I just wanted to crush the competition in any way that I possibly could.
So, so, uh, so yeah. Went full, full force into it. So you're here because you're, you're a standout, you're a, you're an innovator in this space, someone I really admire. Who do you look up to? Who do you draw inspiration from In, in the real estate industry or content creator space? Mm-Hmm. . Yeah. I mean, I would say I don't, um, specifically idolize any in particular person.
Um, but I do get bits and pieces from everyone, whether that's when I. First got my license binge watching, million Dollar Listing, you know, and just getting obsessed with, uh, the homes out here and some of the people on the show as well. Um, so I definitely saw how their businesses were flourishing, being in the space.
And then I also get ideas from, um, I would say I listened to a lot of podcasts, like all of all of them. I feel like a ton of podcasts every day and just, I get bits and pieces from everyone that's doing things in the social media space. Mm-Hmm. in general, whether that's. The, uh, you know, the big time YouTubers that are just being creative, or the people that are building businesses such as, like, the Ryan Pinedas, the Alex Hermoses, the guys like that.
And just getting bits and pieces from all of them, um, and then putting it, kind of, my own spin on it into my head, um, is where I kind of draw inspiration from in general, so. I love that. Yeah, I think that's super important, and anyone looking to get into any industry or You know, beginning to create content, I think it's important to kind of take samples from, from other people, you know, understand what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong, take the things that you align with and, and apply it to your own business, you know, you don't necessarily need to do any copying or, you know, Directly taking strategies from people, but I think it's great for anyone to have a decent understanding of what's going on out there What the pioneers are doing what the standouts are doing and sort of just taking bits and pieces and implementing them into your own business Of course, yeah We can't solely just take what one person says and make like structure our entire lives around that or else You don't have your own opinions and you're not a right your own person You're not an actual human being which is where I feel like A different conversation, but a lot of people these days are just on social media and they'll see one thing and they'll completely agree with that without looking elsewhere at other sources and wondering why they think the way that they think and, and all that.
So yeah, bits and pieces are where I draw most inspiration from. I think it's the same with content too, because especially on TikTok, so much of content is about Recycling trends and, you know, taking trends and applying them to your own, um, niche or whatever that may be. You should spend some time being a consumer as you touched on earlier and understanding what's out there, but there needs to be a balance.
You can't just continue to recycle trends, otherwise you're never going to have your own voice. Like, you've got to really create your own voice, but it's great to implement trends from time to time. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of creators that have built their following around just making viral con trying to make viral content based on what trends are going on, but then, why are people fo then they're not building a strong fan base because people are only following them because they are keeping up with whatever trend is going on right now instead of like Coming up with their own innovative ideas, but I mean, it's, it's good to start sometimes if you, if you, if something works, just keep hammering at that, build the following, and then sometimes you can go a different direction, which is why we see a lot of these, like, TikTokers that are building their following through doing dumb things and then going into like music or business after they've grown, like, to millions of followers, which is another direction you can go after, you know, and that's where the long term play comes in, if they have that in the back of their minds.
Awesome, so what's, what's next for Darren Kriz and your, you know, journey through content and real estate? What's next is just continue to keep innovating, build a team under me, um, as big as possible but also as strong to where I can continue to get the leads that I'm getting week by week and dishing them out to other people and then focusing on the quality leads because that's what we all want to focus on pretty much.
while building my personal brand through all forms of social media, continually innovating through what social media is doing, staying up to date with that, and just trying to, uh, get better as a, as a human being every day as well, you know, also that just, uh, you know, trying to reach my full potential in all aspects of life.
Amazing, man. Well, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate your time. That was a really insightful conversation. I'm sure everyone's going to love to hear your story. Oh, thanks for having me, man. I really appreciate it.