I sat down with Bern McGovern, a San Diego realtor who completely transformed his business by pivoting from traditional marketing to creating hyperlocal content.

But actually added traditional back in, more on that later.

When I met Bern, what struck me wasn't his subscriber count (though 10K YouTube and 25K Instagram followers are impressive). It was his brutal honesty about failure.

"I spent a year and a half making restaurant videos following the Gary Vee model," he told me. 

"I got ONE lead. Total."

But then he made one simple change.

Instead of interviewing local businesses, he created a single video about moving to San Diego. It got 2,000 views, and the phone rang the next week.

That caller ended up buying SIX homes through him.

-Andrew

BERN'S 3-STEP CONTENT SYSTEM:

GO MICRO, NOT MACRO

Most agents try to cover entire cities or regions. Bern does the opposite:

"Instead of making one video about Carmel Valley, I make five videos about specific neighborhoods within Carmel Valley."

These micro-neighborhood videos get fewer views but attract precisely the people looking to buy in that area.

THE GREEN SCREEN REVOLUTION

Bern went from 400 to 25,000 Instagram followers in months using a dead-simple setup:

• Permanent teleprompter desk in his office

• 8 local news sources bookmarked

• ChatGPT to transform articles into scripts

• 3-minute production time from idea to posting

"I find an article, feed it to ChatGPT asking for an IG script, tweak it to sound like me, film against a green screen, and post. Videos regularly hit 50K views."

"People now come to me with questions about what's going into empty storefronts or upcoming developments. I've become the neighborhood expert."

THE BUSINESS IMPACT:

Bern's approach completely transformed his revenue model:

• Year 1 (2017): $65,000 income after moving markets

• Year 3 (2020): Over $1,000,000

And before you dismiss this as "just lucky timing during COVID," consider this:

Bern has now diversified from 70% YouTube-dependent to a 50/50 split with geographic farming. His hyperlocal newsletter targeting 2,500 homes has a progression that proves consistency wins:

• Year 1: One listing

• Year 2: Two to three listings

• Year 3: Already two deals in escrow in Q1 (at $1.5M+ each)

"Most people quit farming after one year. The magic happens in years two and three when people have seen your name consistently."

THE SECRET WEAPON:

"YouTube leads hug you when they first meet you. They already know you, like you, and trust you. It's better than a referral because they feel like they know you personally."

I mean, when was the last time a Zillow lead hugged you? Never, right?

But get this: one guy in Pennsylvania was watching Bern's videos and heard him casually mention, "No one ever sends us donuts." So what does this guy do? He mails donuts to Bern's office. Just because.

Here's what actually works:

For a year and a half, Bern was making videos about local restaurants and businesses (think Gary Vee style). Result? One lead. Total.

Then he switched to something simple: "Here's what you need to know about moving to this specific San Diego neighborhood."

That first relocation video? 2,000 views, the phone rings a week later. That person has bought six houses from him since.

The weirdly simple approach:

Most agents make one big "Living in San Diego" video. Bern makes five videos about tiny neighborhoods within one area. They get fewer views, but the right people watch them.

"I'm not worried about views anymore. The people watching that specific video are the people I want."

And honestly? It shows. He gets 3-5 solid leads a month. Not tire-kickers, people who've basically pre-qualified themselves by binge-watching his content.

Seven years later, he's at 10K subscribers and a million-dollar business. Not because he went viral but because he just kept showing up.

WANT MORE?

Search "Learn the $1M/YR YouTube Strategy For Realtors in Only 52 Minutes" on YouTube or your favorite podcast app to watch or listen to the full episode now!