May 19, 2025

OMG... WTH did Inspector Preston say now?!

OMG... WTH did Inspector Preston say now?!

Preston Kincaid is no stranger to controversy... or to speaking his mind. And in the last episode we talked a bit about his recent comments in favor of content creators "having a villain" in their videos in order to hook attention. So! We figured who better to elaborate on that view than the man himself? This is worth listening to the entire episode, as Inspector Preston shares his journey into becoming a controversial figure in the home inspection industry, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, storytelling, and audience engagement. We even get into the risks and rewards of creating content that pushes boundaries, the significance of building genuine connections with followers, and the balance between drama and education in social media content. And this isn't just a talk about the benefits of engaging content... we get into the cause and effect that contact can have on our businesses in real life, as well as how you're perceived within the real estate industry.

The TLDR:

  • Preston has unintentionally become a controversial figure in content creation.
  • Authenticity and storytelling are crucial for engaging an audience.
  • Risk and reward must be carefully balanced in content creation.
  • The evolution of content creation can lead to unexpected challenges.
  • Engaging with the audience fosters a deeper connection.
  • Villains in storytelling can enhance viewer engagement.
  • Content should appeal to a broad audience to be effective.
  • Attention spans are short, requiring rapid-fire content delivery.
  • Building genuine relationships with followers is essential.
  • Content should serve the audience, not just the creator.
  • The home inspection community is largely supportive and friendly.
  • People often bond over heroism and defense against industry bullies.
  • Drama can attract viewers, but educational content is equally important.
  • Inspectors should encourage clients to attend inspections for better understanding.
  • There is a distinction between being a home inspector and a professional consultant.
  • Emotional investment in work can lead to better client relationships.
  • Navigating controversy requires careful communication and timing.
  • Self-reflection is crucial for personal and professional growth.
  • Helping clients beyond inspections can build lasting trust.
  • Elevating the industry requires collaboration and support among inspectors.

 

The Links:

Sign up for our newsletter here and never miss an episode: https://pages.theridealong.show/newsletter

Be sure to register for Inspection Fuel here: https://www.inspectionfuel.com/register

 

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We're gonna cut that part out.

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All right, guys, we have the king of controversy on the show today.

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This is going to be awesome.

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So kind of a follow up guys, if you if you watch last week's episode with Trey Hill, Matt,
we had a very interesting conversation with Trey about what makes for really good content

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and basically, uh different different strokes, different folks, different methods,
different styles applied to different people.

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But our guest today had a very interesting take.

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uh So

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You know, Preston, glad to have you on the show,

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Yeah, thanks for having me on.

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Yeah, definitely.

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So Matt, how's everything looking in your world this week, by the way?

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Man just been busy, you know inspections training a new guy.

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Things are things are insane But yeah, you know, I'm just glad to be here with the man the
myth the legend why I get not really a myth I mean Glad to have you here Preston man

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Now, so what?

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you, Matt.

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I haven't seen you since the NACHI conference in Florida, so good to see you again, man.

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Yes, sir.

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Likewise.

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Yeah, we all had a little bit to drink there down at the the NACHI conference as we as
we're prone to do, which actually kind of leads us right into our drink of the day because

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I really want to get into what what we're all here to talk about, which is stuff Preston
says.

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so Matt, what are you sipping on, man?

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man, I am having kind of a, call this like a quick old fashioned, it's not really an old
fashioned at all, but I'm having some wild turkey 101 uh with cherry flavored liquid death

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and an orange peel.

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And so it's like I'm hydrating and dehydrating all in one.

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Cheers.

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Hot dog.

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Preston, how about you man, what you sippin' on?

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All right, I brought the birch beer, but uh it's the unleaded birch beer with a high sugar
content.

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So that's what I'm drinking today.

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Fantastic and I am you know, we're we're kind of shooting from the hip a little bit with
this episode Because I mean, know how it is like one more home inspectors

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schedules don't always align.

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So when you get your buddies that are able to all sit down and podcast at the same time,
we're like, dude, let's get on the air right now.

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Right.

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So I just grabbed something off the back shelf here, sipping on good old travelers.

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We talked about this in a previous episode, which is always a good plug.

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Go back and watch if you haven't.

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ah But man, long day, long workday, spring season's going, uh going pretty good for you
guys.

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But

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Preston, sounds like uh things have been a little interesting up in your neck of the woods
lately in a conversation that we were having on the phone.

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Yeah, man, when are they not interesting?

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So yeah, you know, I didn't, I didn't realize that I had kind of become the king of
controversy.

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But uh,

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In the best way,

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It was sort of unintended, I guess, but yeah.

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Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on locally and nationally, I won't lie, this month has
been, it's been interesting.

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Now that's cool man.

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I well it kind of from what you were telling me before and if you can you can talk about
as much or as little as you want.

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But ah you know when we were kind of comparing different styles ah I kind of feel like
you're the voice of reason right other people are educational informative you know some

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are the happy fun guy you know Matt has gotten to that good positive energy.

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And I feel like you're you've crossed that line.

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I don't know if it happened somewhere past 45, where you're just like, I no longer give
any bleeps.

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You just you're fine with telling it like it is now.

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But

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know, it's it's funny because I didn't realize that I was struggling with Being muzzled as
much as I am and So my whole life.

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I've been very unfiltered.

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I've been very outspoken from the very beginning I have ah Pretty much just said it like
it is and it's really it's really sad in a way because I Think that we should be more free

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to share our opinions even if we disagree with each other

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Right?

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Like I feel like mature adults and whatever else we ship.

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But the problem is when you say stuff that other people disagree with, there's a lot of
people in this world that think you instantly have to be enemies.

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Oh, Preston said something I disagree with.

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he's, you know, use a drone on a roof.

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Oh, you know, he's my enemy now.

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And it's a very strange dynamic to go, man, five years in, it's like this growing a mass
of people that are just like, you know, and,

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I'm still just over here sharing ideas, sharing opinions, whatever.

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And so here I am, I've kind of arrived at, guess I'm the king of controversy.

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So know what that reminds me of is like, because people just have this ability that they
never had before.

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Just start typing and saying whatever they want, which most of most of which they would
never really say in person.

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But somebody described it to me one time like this day and age is like, OK, so like
before, like if you went to a store and you did not like that store, you left the store

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and you just didn't go back to that store because they didn't have anything that they

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could really offer, they could offer you or anything.

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They didn't have anything that appealed to you.

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Now, like the equivalent of what's going on now, like online would be like somebody going
into that store and you don't like it.

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So instead of just leaving and going to another store, you just stand out there on the
curb going, this store sucks.

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Don't go to this store.

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They don't have anything good in this store when there's a ton of people that might have
their own opinion about what's inside that store.

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You know, it's an interesting take.

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My son and I were just talking about that.

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We were talking about the analog equivalent to the online space, right?

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You know, and it's funny because it's not just on the controversy side.

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It's like, can't even go to a website anymore without like eight pop-ups.

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And I told my son, go, you would never walk into a store and have like eight people
jumping out with giant signs, you know, stopping you from coming in to spend money.

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But you're right.

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Like it's not, it's not just that it's like standing outside telling people the store
sucks.

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And then graffitiing on the wall permanently, this store sucks,

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Yeah, it's definitely a weird world we live in when it comes to that kind of stuff.

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I mean, guess it is what it is, know?

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uh Bad press is good press.

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Any type of attention, I guess?

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Yeah, the one, the one thing that I think I have a little luxury that I've got is I'm
somewhat of a short timer.

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So I'm going to be retiring within the next year or two.

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Is that a retirement announcement or does anybody know this?

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Did you just announce your retirement?

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Well, sort of now when I say retirement, that means, you know, I got a lot of irons in the
fire.

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got other businesses.

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got other things going, you know, Brad knows about some of it.

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We got a reality show kind of in the cook and, you know, distilling on the back burner
right now.

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You're still gonna be grumpy online for sure.

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mean, there's no way you're not retiring.

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You're not hanging the hat on that.

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be the grumpy old man.

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But here's the thing is like, you know, you can only call out so many contractors before
you get your ass sued.

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And so I really need to get backed up by a network with network lawyers before we go down
that path.

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But, uh, you know, being kind of a short timer in the inspection space, you know, my son
is now taken over.

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Like he's the now that he got licensed and certified.

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And so I'm in the transition period of right now of weaning myself out of this business
over the next year or two.

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Good luck.

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So he's taking it over.

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How old's your son, by the way?

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think he's the youngest licensed home inspector in the country.

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He shadowed me for two years from the age of 16 and he graduated high school at 17.

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He had to wait to take the NHIE and get licensed because you have to be 18.

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He turned 18 in December, got licensed in January.

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I'm just warning you right now, even though he's taken over the business, his stuff will
still stay in your garage long after he's moved out.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're actually building in my house right now.

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So he and I are teaming up on it.

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So yeah

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That's cool.

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But no, so I mean, you kind of hit on something, which is really the whole reason that we
want to talk here.

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You had a video for those of you guys that don't follow Preston, make sure you go check
him out at Inspector Preston everywhere.

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ah But you were kind of talking, it was a little bit of a coaching video about what makes
for good viral video and what people pay attention to what gets views.

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And part of that was a suggestion that every view kind of needs to have a villain of some
sort, right?

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It needs to tell that kind of a captivating story.

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And so that was something that we were commenting on last week's episode.

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you know, there's a little bit in my mind, there's a little bit of risk and reward there,
right?

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I mean, you you were joking about the corporate lawyers and stuff, but like, the same
time, you know, when you, when you do have a villain, the villain might sometimes bite

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back.

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Now is that like,

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got two cease and desist letters in the last week and a half from two different lawyers.

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You know, like, that's a thing.

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You know, you gotta fight with lawyers and you know, it's, people are online.

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It's funny because I do lives.

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They're like, where's the JKS video?

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Where's the, you know, the next video on the contractor series?

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And I'm like, I gotta work through some legal stuff first.

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It's a thing.

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You know, you put content out and.

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uh

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We're in the midst of cancel culture.

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Yeah, I got a question.

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go ahead, Brad.

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no, no, I was just going to say pivoting off of that.

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Like, so where in your mind does the risk reward factor lie?

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And at what point do you kind of go out?

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Maybe I don't want to push it too far, or maybe, maybe it is worth it because this is a
story worth telling.

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So here's the interesting thing is like, accidentally got into everything that I'm doing
on social media.

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None of this was intentional.

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ah I'll tell you my very first contractor video, I sort of like fell in it, right?

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I got a call from a financial advisor and he said, Hey, I need to hire you to go do an
inspection for this elderly lady.

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I'm like, great.

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Yeah, no problem.

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Pay me five, 600 bucks.

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I'll go inspect this thing.

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But then I'm getting the backstory to it.

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Well, there's some contractors that went there and ripped off half of her roof and

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You know, the whole thing started at $7,000 and they're up to $88,000 now and her, her
driveway is ripped up.

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And I'm like, and I arrived there and like, literally everything's in perfect condition
and none of the work they're telling her needs to be done.

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And I fall face first into this whole contractor thing where two videos later, I got
contractors here at my house threatening my family.

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Right?

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So there's this weird evolution of how you kind of, once you put it out, it takes on a
life of its own.

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And then if it goes viral that adds a whole nother it's just like constantly breathing
life into the story, right?

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So then you have to do another one and then you're into it.

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How many videos did I do on that first one?

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I think I was like eight or nine videos.

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Yeah.

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So like how much like, okay, we talk about having a villain and we talk about like your
perspective on a lot of things.

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Like how much of that do you think is driven by the fact that you ins like what you expect
the type of homes you inspect, like you are doing some different stuff than like what

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we're doing down here in Texas.

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Most of the people I know as a matter of fact, a lot of the stuff you're inspecting is
completely different than what anybody on the internet is showing.

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Yeah, you know, I didn't realize how unique this area was.

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When I first started inspecting here, I mean, these are old houses.

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I, about probably 80 % of the inspections I do are homes that are at least a hundred years
old.

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And if I factor in the homes, like it's, really is right around the 90th percentile.

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Almost everything that I inspect is like 100 to 200 years old.

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And every once in while I get a 300 year old house, like revolutionary war era stuff.

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And to me it's normal because I live here.

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Right.

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But you know, you start looking online and you realize, so when I do my retreat every
year, there's inspectors that come just for the field trip, because we do a field trip to

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an antique or vintage home.

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And you see stuff that you just would never see anywhere else.

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Right.

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And, you know, I saw your video and I saw Trey talking about how my videos were long.

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Right.

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So.

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Again, that was accidental.

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I don't know if you guys remember Yuri Batavich, but Yuri, super smart guy, amazing
inspector, love the guy, super just nothing but mad love for him.

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He had a channel called inspection therapy and he's telling me he's like, dude, you got to
target them for like 60 seconds or less.

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And I'm coming out with like eight minute videos on TikTok.

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and then.

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But my videos were doing numbers like I would get, you know, when I started off, like I'd
hit them and get like, you know, sometimes half a million, a million views.

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And he's over there with his 60 second videos, sometimes only doing like 10,000 views, but
he was hitting big.

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Like he was actually doing bigger numbers than me.

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And so I started trying that.

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I started doing some shorter content.

195
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I could just never get any traction.

196
00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:40,594
It was almost like the algorithm pigeonholed me into the longer, more educational content.

197
00:13:40,620 --> 00:13:45,483
And every time I tried to veer out of that lane, it would just smack me right back into
my, my little pigeon hole.

198
00:13:45,483 --> 00:13:53,056
It could be that, or it could really be, because I mean, there's a much different like
style to creating that kind of content.

199
00:13:53,056 --> 00:13:57,118
Like what you're doing can't really be done in short form, you know?

200
00:13:57,118 --> 00:14:02,550
And that, and like, you're not really, um, cause I don't want to say like entertaining
isn't the word.

201
00:14:02,550 --> 00:14:03,891
Like Trey was talking about being entertained.

202
00:14:03,891 --> 00:14:05,102
That's not really what I'm looking for.

203
00:14:05,102 --> 00:14:07,963
Like there's not really much in the way of theatrics to what you're doing.

204
00:14:07,963 --> 00:14:09,023
Like there's no doubt.

205
00:14:09,023 --> 00:14:13,377
Like I use that kind of stuff in a lot of my videos, you know, just, I mean not

206
00:14:13,377 --> 00:14:17,489
You know, just just being silly or some type of hook or something like that.

207
00:14:17,489 --> 00:14:21,240
Like you're pretty much just telling things the way it is.

208
00:14:21,379 --> 00:14:23,581
And I think there's a certain realness to it, right?

209
00:14:23,581 --> 00:14:26,482
That I think that's probably what is attracting people.

210
00:14:26,482 --> 00:14:32,788
But at the same time, like it's hard to keep it real and talk for 60 seconds, you know.

211
00:14:32,788 --> 00:14:33,589
I agree, man.

212
00:14:33,589 --> 00:14:40,455
So there was kind of a little byproduct that happened that I have grown to really
appreciate.

213
00:14:40,495 --> 00:14:40,826
Right?

214
00:14:40,826 --> 00:14:48,843
Seriously, when I look at my following, I don't treat my, I don't treat my following or my
base like an asset.

215
00:14:48,843 --> 00:14:54,368
I treat them like human beings because I really do generally like genuinely appreciate
everybody there.

216
00:14:54,368 --> 00:14:59,092
And if you go through my comments, what I get constantly every day is people going,

217
00:14:59,140 --> 00:15:00,420
I learned so much from you.

218
00:15:00,420 --> 00:15:01,780
I learned from your videos.

219
00:15:01,780 --> 00:15:08,860
Your videos helped me buy a home and like it gives my social media purpose and I don't
know if I would have lasted.

220
00:15:08,860 --> 00:15:10,380
I'm two and a half years in.

221
00:15:10,380 --> 00:15:15,780
I don't know if I'd have lasted this long if I was doing 60 second videos that were just
novelty, right?

222
00:15:15,780 --> 00:15:18,061
I would have got bored after, you know, a year.

223
00:15:18,061 --> 00:15:19,401
I don't know their novelty.

224
00:15:19,401 --> 00:15:21,441
mean, like, I I definitely try to be educational.

225
00:15:21,441 --> 00:15:30,701
I just think that there is a 100 % different approach when you're talking about telling
this type of story you're telling than to make short videos.

226
00:15:30,701 --> 00:15:39,021
Like, okay, I, uh, when reels first started, they were 30 seconds and, um, and that is
real short, right?

227
00:15:39,021 --> 00:15:44,645
And I was used to, I think at the time, uh, it might've been like,

228
00:15:44,833 --> 00:15:46,024
three minutes or a minute.

229
00:15:46,024 --> 00:15:49,757
was like a, there's a time limit of video that you could put out like on Instagram.

230
00:15:49,757 --> 00:15:52,920
Um, but, but reels came out and it was 30 seconds.

231
00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:57,724
had 30 seconds and that was the only, I think you had 15 or 30 seconds.

232
00:15:57,724 --> 00:15:58,185
Right.

233
00:15:58,185 --> 00:16:00,587
And until they increased that that's what you had.

234
00:16:00,587 --> 00:16:02,518
And that was like the hot ticket.

235
00:16:02,518 --> 00:16:06,092
If you were going to do well, then you were needing to be making reels.

236
00:16:06,092 --> 00:16:08,693
You need to figure out how to make a video that was 30 seconds.

237
00:16:08,693 --> 00:16:09,844
That was entertaining, right.

238
00:16:09,844 --> 00:16:12,917
And educational or whatever position you were taking on it.

239
00:16:12,917 --> 00:16:19,108
And like it was a challenge like for me right then to figure out where I cut everything
down and condense it.

240
00:16:19,108 --> 00:16:24,143
And what I realized was what I was doing before was I was making videos of things I would
find at home inspections.

241
00:16:24,143 --> 00:16:28,405
I'd be like, look, there's this thing and then there's this thing and then there's this
thing and there's this thing.

242
00:16:28,405 --> 00:16:31,026
What I ended up having to do is be like, here's this thing.

243
00:16:31,026 --> 00:16:32,757
And then the next thing is in another video.

244
00:16:32,757 --> 00:16:33,867
You know what I mean?

245
00:16:35,629 --> 00:16:36,979
Get out of my head.

246
00:16:37,668 --> 00:16:43,968
the, here's the really funny thing that I struggled with is if you notice I'm not big on
any other platform than Tik TOK, right?

247
00:16:43,968 --> 00:16:47,148
So I couldn't figure out Instagram.

248
00:16:47,748 --> 00:16:53,048
I just couldn't figure it out because no matter what I did, you know, obviously I'm doing
longer content.

249
00:16:53,068 --> 00:16:58,348
And when I first started on Instagram, it would just chop everything off at like 60
seconds.

250
00:16:58,904 --> 00:17:00,175
Like it just didn't work for me.

251
00:17:00,175 --> 00:17:04,847
And like the content was garbage because I couldn't really figure out how to post on
Instagram.

252
00:17:06,848 --> 00:17:07,298
Right.

253
00:17:07,298 --> 00:17:15,372
And so, and then tick-tock was a weird bag because when I got on tick-tock two and a half
years ago, it was all 32nd clips.

254
00:17:15,372 --> 00:17:17,493
Like it was all dancing and lip syncing.

255
00:17:17,493 --> 00:17:24,936
And here I come along with my six minute videos and everybody was even AJ was like, dude,
what are you doing?

256
00:17:24,996 --> 00:17:27,916
And I'm like, ah, I'm just doing my thing, you know, like I'm going to do my thing.

257
00:17:27,916 --> 00:17:30,396
And if it doesn't reply, it doesn't fly.

258
00:17:30,636 --> 00:17:36,256
But then what happened was it, it's like, got traction, you know, the algorithm picked it
up, ran with it.

259
00:17:36,256 --> 00:17:39,216
You get a million views on a video and you're like, oh, cool.

260
00:17:39,316 --> 00:17:39,696
Right.

261
00:17:39,696 --> 00:17:42,396
I could do my thing and it's going to actually run.

262
00:17:42,396 --> 00:17:46,136
And then you try, you go, okay, maybe YouTube is really where my home is.

263
00:17:46,136 --> 00:17:47,796
Cause I do long form content.

264
00:17:47,796 --> 00:17:51,868
The problem is I post over on YouTube and all my videos are in portrait mode.

265
00:17:52,802 --> 00:17:53,102
Right.

266
00:17:53,102 --> 00:17:57,076
So everybody on YouTube is complaining that my format isn't landscape.

267
00:17:57,136 --> 00:17:59,498
I can't get on, Instagram.

268
00:17:59,719 --> 00:18:01,991
So tick-tock just sort of became my bag.

269
00:18:01,991 --> 00:18:04,223
Like it was like, this is my groove right here.

270
00:18:04,223 --> 00:18:13,632
I will tell you like YouTube does seem people seem to care less these days about the
portrait style video being there because most of the time they seem to be watching from

271
00:18:13,632 --> 00:18:16,164
their phone and it ceases to matter.

272
00:18:16,205 --> 00:18:20,589
So I have found that less people complain about that because I still move some stuff.

273
00:18:20,589 --> 00:18:22,851
that I have in that style over to YouTube.

274
00:18:22,851 --> 00:18:26,764
So I think that it's not as big of deal as it used to be if it's something you want to
venture.

275
00:18:26,764 --> 00:18:28,045
But I totally get what you're saying.

276
00:18:28,045 --> 00:18:32,479
And you have to make content that fits the platform in order to do well on it, right?

277
00:18:32,479 --> 00:18:35,922
But the fact of the matter is, and this goes back to what we were talking about with Trey,
right?

278
00:18:35,922 --> 00:18:37,804
Because it's all about authenticity.

279
00:18:37,804 --> 00:18:40,026
You're just being you, period.

280
00:18:40,026 --> 00:18:41,206
And that's it.

281
00:18:41,367 --> 00:18:44,710
And you were you until it actually worked.

282
00:18:44,710 --> 00:18:48,429
And people were like, OK, yeah, I like this because they can.

283
00:18:48,429 --> 00:18:49,989
pick up on the authenticity.

284
00:18:49,989 --> 00:18:53,689
And I think ultimately that's why it worked or why you were able to gain traction.

285
00:18:53,689 --> 00:18:57,112
It's because you weren't trying to do something different and not be yourself.

286
00:18:57,112 --> 00:18:59,283
You know, I got to give Trey a lot of props, man.

287
00:18:59,283 --> 00:19:01,543
Trey, he encouraged me a lot early on.

288
00:19:01,543 --> 00:19:05,775
Um, he even called me last, last year I was driving back from Arizona.

289
00:19:05,775 --> 00:19:11,756
He called me on the phone and he was like, Hey, I just want to give you some encouragement
and I want to encourage you to look at the other platforms.

290
00:19:11,756 --> 00:19:15,878
And like, he's really been kind of an inspiration to me.

291
00:19:15,878 --> 00:19:19,479
And I was one of his biggest fans before I was even posting.

292
00:19:19,799 --> 00:19:21,519
So I just really admire trade.

293
00:19:21,519 --> 00:19:23,740
The one thing that I will say trade does

294
00:19:23,832 --> 00:19:35,250
Better than I think just about anybody is that guy is consistent as hell He is like the
tide going in and the tide going out that guy just consistently posts, you know nice

295
00:19:35,250 --> 00:19:36,882
dovetailed content

296
00:19:37,151 --> 00:19:43,231
I mean, he has the first video I see in the morning and the last one before I go to bed,
You're right.

297
00:19:43,231 --> 00:19:45,545
He puts out a couple of days, like every single day.

298
00:19:45,545 --> 00:19:46,917
He is really consistent.

299
00:19:47,368 --> 00:19:49,420
Now, do you engage with your audience, Preston?

300
00:19:49,420 --> 00:19:51,793
mean, because we were talking about this with Trey last week.

301
00:19:51,793 --> 00:19:54,366
He's definitely more of a post and go style.

302
00:19:54,366 --> 00:19:55,497
Are you more engaging?

303
00:19:55,497 --> 00:20:01,724
Because that's something else you said in that video you posted is that post and ghost
doesn't necessarily work, but for Trey, it does.

304
00:20:03,044 --> 00:20:07,647
So here's the thing, there's some people that are grandfathered, right?

305
00:20:07,647 --> 00:20:19,043
So you think about AJ and you think about Trey and some of these guys that were early on
big earlier on social media and these guys could now, they have a following, they have a

306
00:20:19,043 --> 00:20:24,656
base, they, know, so these guys can get away with things that new people can't really,
right?

307
00:20:24,656 --> 00:20:31,579
So I think if I was just gonna post in ghost right now and I was just starting out, it
would be a much, a much bigger climb, right?

308
00:20:31,579 --> 00:20:33,100
It would take me longer.

309
00:20:33,176 --> 00:20:38,998
because you're not really connecting with your base and you're not growing it and really
kind of creating stickiness.

310
00:20:39,018 --> 00:20:40,859
And what happens is it's weird.

311
00:20:40,859 --> 00:20:45,581
have my, like when I go into my followers, I recognize their icons.

312
00:20:45,581 --> 00:20:46,521
know who they are.

313
00:20:46,521 --> 00:20:47,842
And then I go into my messages.

314
00:20:47,842 --> 00:20:49,112
We have conversations.

315
00:20:49,112 --> 00:20:51,063
Some of these people, I know their families.

316
00:20:51,063 --> 00:20:54,765
Like it's weird how that they're not just followers.

317
00:20:54,765 --> 00:20:57,726
They're like, there's actually a connection there.

318
00:20:57,726 --> 00:21:02,048
And again, I would probably be very bored with social media if that wasn't there.

319
00:21:02,048 --> 00:21:02,397
So.

320
00:21:02,397 --> 00:21:03,528
that crazy though?

321
00:21:03,528 --> 00:21:11,504
I mean, like, cause I literally have friends all across the nation that I've only had
these, you know, communications with like online.

322
00:21:11,504 --> 00:21:15,837
And I mean, like, like you said, like I know their icon, if they change their picture, I'm
never going to know who they are.

323
00:21:15,837 --> 00:21:17,148
So you can't do that.

324
00:21:17,148 --> 00:21:17,709
Right.

325
00:21:17,709 --> 00:21:27,426
I mean, I struggle whenever I changed my profile picture a couple of years ago, because I
thought, man, there are, cause I don't pay attention to everybody's name, but I know their

326
00:21:27,426 --> 00:21:28,456
picture, you know?

327
00:21:28,456 --> 00:21:29,257
And,

328
00:21:29,793 --> 00:21:32,896
There's people that I used to have communications with that I don't see anymore.

329
00:21:32,896 --> 00:21:36,619
I don't know if they've changed their picture, if they bailed from Instagram or if they
died.

330
00:21:36,619 --> 00:21:44,165
I don't know, you know, like, but I, it is wild how many people I communicate with on a
regular basis.

331
00:21:44,766 --> 00:21:51,662
and, I mean, like, I feel like I've, I've made a lot of friends, not just, know, like you
guys, so we get to hang out a little bit in person sometimes and stuff like that, but

332
00:21:51,662 --> 00:21:58,077
there's actual people that I'll probably never meet, but I have, you know, semi regular
conversation with, uh,

333
00:21:58,089 --> 00:21:58,960
meaningful conversation.

334
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:04,358
These are great people, know, people that I kind of consider friends, just I've never met
them in person.

335
00:22:04,358 --> 00:22:06,109
It's a wild thing, man.

336
00:22:06,109 --> 00:22:07,177
It's real cool.

337
00:22:07,177 --> 00:22:07,547
Yeah.

338
00:22:07,547 --> 00:22:13,579
I've got, I've got a couple people on my tech talk following that I literally know right
now that their cars broke down.

339
00:22:13,579 --> 00:22:14,859
They just moved to a farm.

340
00:22:14,859 --> 00:22:16,359
They're struggling with their landlord.

341
00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:19,860
Like it's weird that you, so to me that actually matters.

342
00:22:19,860 --> 00:22:23,521
Like I actually enjoy that part of it is connecting with people.

343
00:22:23,521 --> 00:22:25,422
I don't really see a point.

344
00:22:25,482 --> 00:22:27,162
And this is another thing.

345
00:22:27,282 --> 00:22:30,983
Like I don't really see a point in having a follower base.

346
00:22:31,183 --> 00:22:34,014
If you're not going to actually do something to try to help them.

347
00:22:34,478 --> 00:22:37,880
Like it's not just there to monetize or like benefit me.

348
00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:38,060
Right.

349
00:22:38,060 --> 00:22:40,411
And that's something I talked about in my video, right.

350
00:22:40,411 --> 00:22:45,334
When I did that, that webinar, I talked about what I called content narcissism.

351
00:22:46,195 --> 00:22:51,718
So in a way, I think a lot of times people create content that serves them.

352
00:22:51,838 --> 00:22:55,160
Not, it doesn't serve their, their viewers.

353
00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:55,830
Right.

354
00:22:55,830 --> 00:22:57,328
Here's the content I want to put out.

355
00:22:57,328 --> 00:22:59,948
And they're not stopping to think about what do my viewers want to see?

356
00:22:59,948 --> 00:23:02,824
And it's a, it's a different vantage point for content.

357
00:23:02,942 --> 00:23:06,850
Does that kind of go against the whole idea of just being yourself though?

358
00:23:06,850 --> 00:23:11,458
Or is it be yourself within the confines of what people seem to respond to?

359
00:23:11,736 --> 00:23:13,597
Yeah, no, I'm not pretending to be anybody else.

360
00:23:13,597 --> 00:23:22,082
I'm definitely being authentic and being myself, but I realized that what my followers
tend to want is educational stuff that will help them.

361
00:23:22,082 --> 00:23:25,580
They're not just there to watch novelty stuff, right?

362
00:23:25,580 --> 00:23:33,748
And this is, so this got, this gets into that thing I was telling you about, like the
villain, the catchy hook, the tell a story, right?

363
00:23:33,748 --> 00:23:35,389
I'll give you an example.

364
00:23:35,809 --> 00:23:41,352
This in the first year of posting content, I started analyzing the videos that were doing
well.

365
00:23:41,496 --> 00:23:49,898
Right, you get a million views, you two million views and you go and you look, okay, what
was different about that video and what are the common threads throughout those videos?

366
00:23:50,539 --> 00:23:54,380
And I started realizing that in one, I'll give you an example.

367
00:23:54,380 --> 00:23:55,690
I had a video that did really well.

368
00:23:55,690 --> 00:24:03,803
I think it did 2.7 million views where I said, hey guys, the sellers are looking for me
right now.

369
00:24:03,803 --> 00:24:06,043
I'm over here hiding behind a bush.

370
00:24:06,043 --> 00:24:08,704
I'm hoping they don't find me, right?

371
00:24:08,910 --> 00:24:13,043
But the first thing they told me was they're not hiding anything.

372
00:24:13,404 --> 00:24:13,914
Okay.

373
00:24:13,914 --> 00:24:19,059
So I very easily could have just done a video to say, Hey, I want to show you some stuff.

374
00:24:19,059 --> 00:24:20,530
trying to hide over here.

375
00:24:21,071 --> 00:24:24,734
But I didn't, I actually like created a story first.

376
00:24:25,355 --> 00:24:34,863
And, uh, so when I realized that the story is the engaging part, people are engaged in the
story and they want to see how it ends.

377
00:24:34,863 --> 00:24:36,098
And if I just said,

378
00:24:36,098 --> 00:24:41,022
Hey guys, I want to show you a crack in a foundation today that they're trying to hide
with some styrofoam.

379
00:24:41,022 --> 00:24:44,208
That video would have done 12 views and nobody would have cared.

380
00:24:44,611 --> 00:24:45,369
Right?

381
00:24:45,369 --> 00:24:57,556
I think the part about being yourself is in the delivery, not necessarily that you can
choose to make a video that is, oh so I'm telling a story or I'm just educating or I'm

382
00:24:57,556 --> 00:25:00,878
being funny or whatever, but the authenticity comes in the delivery.

383
00:25:00,878 --> 00:25:06,981
um don't think, you can do different types of content and still be genuine and still be
authentic.

384
00:25:07,300 --> 00:25:10,040
agree 100 % that and that's kind of what I was getting.

385
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:12,680
I was like, I'm not pretending to be anything different.

386
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:16,460
And you guys hear me like, I'm definitely myself in my video.

387
00:25:16,460 --> 00:25:20,100
I'll be like, you know, that's, that's a big bunch of nope.

388
00:25:20,100 --> 00:25:26,540
And, know, I call these stairs, the widow maker, like I, this is what I say to clients
when they're present, like I do the same thing.

389
00:25:26,540 --> 00:25:27,540
I'm joking with them.

390
00:25:27,540 --> 00:25:32,280
And, know, I'll say things to clients be like, okay, you don't have a TPR discharge pipe.

391
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:33,920
Everybody's gonna die.

392
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:36,546
Like I'll say that to them and they'll start laughing because

393
00:25:36,546 --> 00:25:39,239
Why shouldn't an inspection be fun, right?

394
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:41,161
Right.

395
00:25:42,143 --> 00:25:42,944
Yeah.

396
00:25:42,944 --> 00:25:43,764
Yeah.

397
00:25:44,586 --> 00:25:45,567
Now, I love it, man.

398
00:25:45,567 --> 00:25:51,354
So you're definitely, authentically you in it, but it does come down to being able to tell
a good story at the same time.

399
00:25:51,864 --> 00:25:54,827
Yeah, so here's my secret sauce.

400
00:25:54,827 --> 00:25:56,388
I don't know if it was gonna show up.

401
00:25:56,388 --> 00:25:57,744
All right.

402
00:25:57,909 --> 00:26:03,023
So my secret sauce is the video must appeal to a broad audience, number one.

403
00:26:03,023 --> 00:26:06,586
Okay, so this is what I tell other home inspectors.

404
00:26:06,586 --> 00:26:10,760
You can't just do a video to go, hey guys, I wanna show you this crappy window flashing.

405
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:14,822
If your window flashing's bad, it's gonna leak and your window's gonna fall apart.

406
00:26:15,363 --> 00:26:16,164
Nobody cares.

407
00:26:16,164 --> 00:26:19,246
Like your audience is people that care about window flashing.

408
00:26:19,246 --> 00:26:21,252
So you just reduced your audience down to

409
00:26:21,252 --> 00:26:23,953
50 people in the country, right?

410
00:26:24,494 --> 00:26:34,131
But if you say, if you say, man, I just got an argument with the contractors that were
here flashing all these windows and they promised me they did a great job on these things,

411
00:26:34,131 --> 00:26:37,363
but let me show you the shoddy work, right?

412
00:26:37,504 --> 00:26:47,320
Totally different video because what I just did was told a story, created a villain and
then showed you the defect so that, you know, so it's number one has to appeal to a broad

413
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:47,711
audience.

414
00:26:47,711 --> 00:26:49,814
Number two, there has to be a catchy hook.

415
00:26:49,814 --> 00:26:51,625
Number three, no gaps.

416
00:26:51,625 --> 00:27:01,571
Once you realize that people have the attention span these days of a goldfish, like you
can't have like the millennial pause at the beginning, little gaps, boring gap.

417
00:27:01,571 --> 00:27:03,382
People doom scroll right now.

418
00:27:03,382 --> 00:27:06,775
So if you give them any moment to think this is boring, they're gone.

419
00:27:06,775 --> 00:27:08,135
So it's gotta be rapid fire.

420
00:27:08,135 --> 00:27:11,097
You gotta just beat the synapses in their head to death.

421
00:27:12,128 --> 00:27:13,329
number four, tell a story.

422
00:27:13,329 --> 00:27:15,060
Number five include a villain.

423
00:27:15,060 --> 00:27:16,220
uh

424
00:27:16,706 --> 00:27:20,723
Now, Matt, I don't know if you noticed this, but you have a villain in your videos.

425
00:27:21,246 --> 00:27:26,516
Almost every video you do, there's a villain and the villain is look what this, look what
this builder did.

426
00:27:26,609 --> 00:27:28,491
I mean, there's no doubt it's true.

427
00:27:28,491 --> 00:27:32,013
guess I just don't feel like I'm villainizing them so much.

428
00:27:32,013 --> 00:27:36,747
mean, I think like always, like when we're pointing out defects, like somebody did that.

429
00:27:36,747 --> 00:27:42,360
So there's a way to dissect that to say you have, you know, you're giving somebody a
villain.

430
00:27:42,360 --> 00:27:46,844
I just think I don't, it's not like I go out of my way to do that.

431
00:27:46,925 --> 00:27:48,107
I know it's.

432
00:27:48,164 --> 00:27:53,884
And I think villains, like when you have a villain or a protagonist in the story, it could
be an implied villain.

433
00:27:53,884 --> 00:27:58,724
doesn't, you're not, you don't really have to say, Hey Joe, the builder was just here and
what a jerk he is.

434
00:27:58,724 --> 00:27:59,544
Right.

435
00:27:59,544 --> 00:28:04,024
Like, but when you say, God, like, let me show you what these guys are doing these days in
these new builds.

436
00:28:04,024 --> 00:28:14,754
And then you show, you know, a bunch of, you know, a bunch of rafters with, know, that are
overnotched or whatever, missing King studs, whatever it like you're creating.

437
00:28:14,754 --> 00:28:17,409
The villain is the person who didn't do a good job.

438
00:28:17,971 --> 00:28:18,661
Right.

439
00:28:18,661 --> 00:28:20,285
I can't disagree with that.

440
00:28:21,346 --> 00:28:24,479
And if you really think about it, we're kind of an angry nation now.

441
00:28:24,479 --> 00:28:31,075
It's like everybody's mad about something and we're all looking to lash out at somebody
for doing something bad.

442
00:28:31,075 --> 00:28:32,477
Like it's just kind of how it is.

443
00:28:32,477 --> 00:28:34,669
It's all like hair trigger these days.

444
00:28:34,669 --> 00:28:38,602
So give them a villain and you know, people get engaged in the story.

445
00:28:38,996 --> 00:28:49,283
The interesting thing is there where that tends to kind of rub up against the fact that
the majority, and this is something we were talking about with Treva for, ah the majority

446
00:28:49,283 --> 00:28:56,598
of the inspection community, especially with the younger generation of inspectors, we're
all so freaking friendly and they're all so helpful.

447
00:28:56,598 --> 00:29:00,101
And there really is a good community of good people here, right?

448
00:29:00,101 --> 00:29:03,143
So there's a big lack of villains around this place.

449
00:29:03,143 --> 00:29:06,845
And so I do kind of wonder, and especially because that...

450
00:29:06,845 --> 00:29:07,850
ah

451
00:29:07,850 --> 00:29:14,930
that community continuing online with the social media followers, you guys have so many
good friends that you've made through those communities.

452
00:29:15,310 --> 00:29:29,010
It's do people tend to bond around the person, you know, that's presenting, know, you,
Matt, you, Preston, or do they tend to coalesce around the drama, or that villain or that

453
00:29:29,010 --> 00:29:31,150
need to go after somebody?

454
00:29:31,310 --> 00:29:33,690
do they just, you know, which one is it?

455
00:29:33,690 --> 00:29:35,110
Or is it a mix of both?

456
00:29:35,904 --> 00:29:39,205
So what I think, I think it's a mix of all those things.

457
00:29:39,205 --> 00:29:48,539
And what I do think is that people are looking for heroism and defense, right?

458
00:29:48,539 --> 00:29:50,480
Like there's a lot of bullies in the world.

459
00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:52,871
There's a lot of people taking advantage of people.

460
00:29:52,871 --> 00:29:56,292
The working class has really never been under more attack than they are now.

461
00:29:56,292 --> 00:29:56,622
Right?

462
00:29:56,622 --> 00:30:00,814
So everybody's struggling and everybody's looking for someone to help them.

463
00:30:00,814 --> 00:30:03,625
And yet in the world, there's very little help going on anymore.

464
00:30:03,625 --> 00:30:05,556
Nobody's really helping each other.

465
00:30:05,592 --> 00:30:16,518
And I think that that bleeds into viewership on social media where people see other
stories of people being taken advantage of people being, you know, just crucified in

466
00:30:16,518 --> 00:30:17,379
certain ways.

467
00:30:17,379 --> 00:30:27,085
And then when somebody stands up for them, defend them, protects them, and you look at the
different, you know, social media content creators that really are in some ways a hero for

468
00:30:27,085 --> 00:30:28,365
their clients.

469
00:30:29,026 --> 00:30:33,272
That I think is where the big followings tend to sort of flock to when they go.

470
00:30:33,272 --> 00:30:38,328
that person is saving all those people from making a terrible, from getting scammed from
whatever.

471
00:30:38,328 --> 00:30:44,164
And I think that's the bigger picture for a lot of these content creators on home
inspection.

472
00:30:44,164 --> 00:30:51,902
Some of them are just focused on showing you defects and some of them are showing you the
dynamics in the world that they're trying to protect their clients from.

473
00:30:52,593 --> 00:30:54,805
That honestly might be, go ahead Matt, sorry.

474
00:30:54,805 --> 00:30:57,285
was to say, I definitely agree with that.

475
00:30:57,285 --> 00:31:03,485
mean, you know, I think that there's a mix of different people out there, but I think for
the most part, people do thrive on drama.

476
00:31:03,765 --> 00:31:15,585
And so I think if you're willing to, you know, give them that dramatized point of view,
you can even be like the information can really be the same as just how you present it.

477
00:31:15,625 --> 00:31:20,785
But I mean, I think there's definitely a good cross section of my following that just like
learning.

478
00:31:20,869 --> 00:31:25,071
Um, and so mean, there's not, everybody thrives on the drama, you know?

479
00:31:25,071 --> 00:31:29,474
but I mean, so I think some people like learning, some people like, uh, just your
presentation.

480
00:31:29,474 --> 00:31:32,715
mean, obviously I try to bring a lot of humor to the table with what I do.

481
00:31:32,715 --> 00:31:36,997
Um, and so, I mean, some people really, you know, connect with that.

482
00:31:36,997 --> 00:31:44,061
and I mean, I try to cover a broad audience because of that, but I definitely think like
the shock value stuff really does work.

483
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:50,384
Yeah, I think your content is really, it's sort of the escape at the end of the day,
right?

484
00:31:50,384 --> 00:31:53,386
Like you go through a very stressful day and you fight traffic to get home.

485
00:31:53,386 --> 00:31:57,029
You get to watch your videos and just laugh and kind of, right?

486
00:31:57,029 --> 00:32:05,445
So it's kind of the whole reason we watch TV sometimes is just to kind of escape reality
and just watch something entertaining and fun and a nice guy showing you nice stuff and

487
00:32:05,445 --> 00:32:07,096
educational content.

488
00:32:07,217 --> 00:32:09,819
So Matt, I got nothing but respect for you, man.

489
00:32:09,819 --> 00:32:10,719
I love your content.

490
00:32:10,719 --> 00:32:11,851
I love what you do.

491
00:32:11,851 --> 00:32:13,315
Likewise, brother, for sure.

492
00:32:13,315 --> 00:32:15,269
And I mean, like, yeah.

493
00:32:15,511 --> 00:32:16,634
No, go ahead, Brett.

494
00:32:16,634 --> 00:32:21,915
now saying Matt is America's funniest home videos and Preston is Jerry Springer.

495
00:32:21,915 --> 00:32:23,122
No, I'm kidding.

496
00:32:24,238 --> 00:32:25,448
I'll drink to that

497
00:32:25,448 --> 00:32:28,232
He's the midday the midday crew.

498
00:32:29,354 --> 00:32:30,238
Wow.

499
00:32:32,355 --> 00:32:33,257
Yeah.

500
00:32:34,198 --> 00:32:36,210
I I enjoy covering a lot of ground.

501
00:32:36,210 --> 00:32:47,319
mean, I will say that my older videos probably a few years back and honestly, mean, I was
probably, you know, growing quite a bit more if I think more about it because I used to

502
00:32:47,319 --> 00:32:49,870
just be a lot angrier.

503
00:32:50,711 --> 00:32:52,112
I think I was a lot angrier.

504
00:32:52,112 --> 00:32:57,696
think I was less of the comedy and more and more like kind of grumpy and angry.

505
00:32:58,148 --> 00:33:00,149
I'm actually becoming increasingly grumpy.

506
00:33:00,149 --> 00:33:01,539
I was friendlier at the beginning.

507
00:33:01,539 --> 00:33:03,409
Yeah, I'm getting worse.

508
00:33:03,409 --> 00:33:06,750
Like what's happening right now is it's been interesting.

509
00:33:06,750 --> 00:33:10,792
This month I've really had to take stock because I've gotten a lot of feedback, right?

510
00:33:10,792 --> 00:33:24,906
From realtors, from other people that are, if I had one wish, it would be that people
understood the separation between what I do for a living as an inspector and what I do

511
00:33:24,906 --> 00:33:26,702
online as a content creator.

512
00:33:26,702 --> 00:33:32,444
They're, completely separate, even though I do inspection themed videos, not always,
right?

513
00:33:32,444 --> 00:33:36,065
Sometimes I do videos on, you know, milling logs and other things.

514
00:33:36,065 --> 00:33:36,855
Right.

515
00:33:36,935 --> 00:33:49,038
And so what I do on social media is like completely separate from my business, but a lot
of realtors and other people really kind of mash that together and they can't really

516
00:33:49,038 --> 00:33:49,698
separate the two.

517
00:33:49,698 --> 00:33:51,219
I'll give you an example.

518
00:33:51,459 --> 00:33:56,080
There's, there's an active boycott happening in my area right now of realtors.

519
00:33:56,472 --> 00:34:02,436
because they look at my content and they think that I'm being mean-spirited or something,
right?

520
00:34:02,436 --> 00:34:05,177
Cause you're calling out problems or whatever.

521
00:34:06,678 --> 00:34:14,063
But there's other realtors that tell those realtors, like, I didn't think Preston was
talking about me or my clients, right?

522
00:34:14,063 --> 00:34:22,091
They're able to kind of differentiate the difference between me saying, this house is for
sale.

523
00:34:22,091 --> 00:34:23,141
Like it's for sale.

524
00:34:23,141 --> 00:34:27,112
This house right now is currently being sold to somebody else.

525
00:34:27,413 --> 00:34:29,393
And this wasn't disclosed to this.

526
00:34:29,393 --> 00:34:34,695
Like this is a big problem that was covered in foam or like whatever's happening.

527
00:34:35,735 --> 00:34:44,938
For me, I can't not, I can't not get upset about that because I know that they're trying
to conceal something and sell that problem to somebody else.

528
00:34:45,938 --> 00:34:51,812
And when I call that out and they, if they think it's mean spirited, other realtors will
say no, like

529
00:34:51,812 --> 00:34:54,334
You know, he's protecting our clients, right?

530
00:34:54,414 --> 00:35:04,142
So it's, weird when you get the different vantage points in that whole thing too, is like,
you saw the video I had of a realtor locally where she was saying that I was bad mouthing

531
00:35:04,142 --> 00:35:05,242
realtors.

532
00:35:05,303 --> 00:35:10,747
I heard from about six different realtors in that office where they said, I never felt
like Preston was talking about me.

533
00:35:10,747 --> 00:35:12,608
It's a shoe fits kind of thing.

534
00:35:13,049 --> 00:35:13,670
Right.

535
00:35:13,670 --> 00:35:21,600
So there, there lies the kind of the sticky parts of doing anything that's controversial
or raw.

536
00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:30,366
unfiltered and so one of the things I'm gonna have to learn how to do is to Queue up my
videos and wait a month or two to post them

537
00:35:30,455 --> 00:35:31,425
I that.

538
00:35:31,566 --> 00:35:32,246
I do that.

539
00:35:32,246 --> 00:35:44,041
think it's a really good practice like to keep you out of, you know, uh getting, you know,
any friction or because, you know, the other thing is like, you know, it can if the stars

540
00:35:44,041 --> 00:35:51,295
aligned or whatever, can damage somebody's sale of a property, you know, and and I don't
want to do that.

541
00:35:51,295 --> 00:35:54,076
I just I just want to do what I got to do.

542
00:35:54,076 --> 00:35:55,979
So I do wait so that I don't like.

543
00:35:55,979 --> 00:35:58,870
get in the middle of mess up somebody's transaction or anything like that.

544
00:35:58,870 --> 00:36:09,088
I'm not trying to do that, but I do think that people have a real tough time
differentiating the online version of what I do versus the actual hard ass work and the

545
00:36:09,088 --> 00:36:12,360
long detailed report that I'm delivering.

546
00:36:12,510 --> 00:36:14,361
that's they never see, you know?

547
00:36:14,361 --> 00:36:18,964
And so they, I mean, I get so many people that are like, Oh, your, your job looks awesome.

548
00:36:18,964 --> 00:36:19,607
I want to do that.

549
00:36:19,607 --> 00:36:20,227
How you do that?

550
00:36:20,227 --> 00:36:22,687
I'm like, yeah, no idea about my job.

551
00:36:22,687 --> 00:36:25,110
You have no idea how hard I'm working.

552
00:36:25,110 --> 00:36:25,716
man.

553
00:36:25,716 --> 00:36:26,656
man.

554
00:36:26,776 --> 00:36:29,868
I know that can't be overstated.

555
00:36:29,868 --> 00:36:30,398
Honestly.

556
00:36:30,398 --> 00:36:40,882
It's like the one thing about this job I don't think people get is that the inspection
itself is only maybe a third of what you do.

557
00:36:40,983 --> 00:36:42,063
It's probably 30%.

558
00:36:42,063 --> 00:36:43,143
Right?

559
00:36:43,143 --> 00:36:45,484
We think the inspection is the whole thing, but it isn't.

560
00:36:45,484 --> 00:36:46,675
You have the inspection.

561
00:36:46,675 --> 00:36:48,005
That's a big part of it.

562
00:36:48,005 --> 00:36:54,349
But then you have actually communicating all of those findings to a client in a meaningful
way as a consultant.

563
00:36:54,349 --> 00:36:54,675
Right?

564
00:36:54,675 --> 00:36:58,174
you also have this written report component that is the other third, right?

565
00:36:58,174 --> 00:37:03,818
It's all like 33 % right across that board where people think the inspection is what we
do.

566
00:37:04,077 --> 00:37:10,917
They think we literally just walk through and like find items and like get mad about it
and put a video out and that's the end of our job.

567
00:37:10,917 --> 00:37:15,717
And like, we have like a six item checklist and like they think it's just easy, right?

568
00:37:15,717 --> 00:37:24,826
I mean, I get it because all you see is the video, but man, it's just so much more to it
that they just don't see.

569
00:37:24,826 --> 00:37:29,410
They don't see the 120 page report times three for the inspections that day.

570
00:37:29,410 --> 00:37:33,052
And they don't see you sitting there until two o'clock in the morning sometimes.

571
00:37:33,313 --> 00:37:34,074
Right.

572
00:37:34,074 --> 00:37:39,098
Set the alarm for five to wake up in the morning to finish that third report before you go
to work.

573
00:37:39,799 --> 00:37:40,500
Yep.

574
00:37:40,500 --> 00:37:41,351
Been there, done it.

575
00:37:41,351 --> 00:37:46,305
But that's honestly where content can, it really does walk that fine line, right?

576
00:37:46,305 --> 00:37:50,258
Because you said two things that can either make or break you.

577
00:37:50,258 --> 00:37:53,030
Number one, you said hero, right?

578
00:37:53,030 --> 00:37:58,835
This positions home inspectors, content can position home inspectors as the hero, which we
are, right?

579
00:37:58,835 --> 00:38:01,447
We wouldn't be in this job if it wasn't to be helpful.

580
00:38:01,447 --> 00:38:07,722
We wouldn't be working for home buyers and trying to protect them from making a bad
investment if we weren't wanting to be helpful, right?

581
00:38:07,722 --> 00:38:09,768
So that accurately portrays

582
00:38:09,768 --> 00:38:12,630
what we do Matt that portrays those long hours, right?

583
00:38:12,630 --> 00:38:18,715
I feel like that represents the true intent behind why we do get upset or because we're
concerned.

584
00:38:18,715 --> 00:38:20,047
We're not concerned for our sake.

585
00:38:20,047 --> 00:38:22,579
We're concerned like why would we, it's not our house.

586
00:38:22,579 --> 00:38:29,056
Why would we give a fine flip unless we actually truly cared about the people that we were
working with and representing.

587
00:38:29,056 --> 00:38:31,518
yeah, because I don't have the same problems at my house.

588
00:38:32,912 --> 00:38:37,774
Well, here's something you never hear people say, right?

589
00:38:37,774 --> 00:38:48,098
And this is something that we all know is true, but the home inspector is the first person
in the entire transaction to tell somebody the truth about the house.

590
00:38:49,979 --> 00:38:57,493
The listing agent's job is to take beautiful pictures, to tell you how amazing the views
are, to help people envision living there.

591
00:38:57,493 --> 00:38:59,163
And that is, I'm not faulting them for that.

592
00:38:59,163 --> 00:39:01,400
That is their job, right?

593
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:07,123
Their job is to sell a house and that's what they're doing to fulfill their fiduciary duty
to their seller client.

594
00:39:07,123 --> 00:39:08,903
So they're doing everything they're supposed to do.

595
00:39:08,903 --> 00:39:12,485
So they're going to tell you all the wonderful things about the house, the buyer's agent.

596
00:39:12,485 --> 00:39:16,567
Now there's some really good ones that know a lot, but they're not really home inspectors.

597
00:39:16,567 --> 00:39:23,049
So they can say, you know, this doesn't look good, but it's up to us to go in there and
say, this is definitely not good.

598
00:39:23,049 --> 00:39:23,950
Right?

599
00:39:23,950 --> 00:39:26,050
So all the way through it.

600
00:39:26,251 --> 00:39:29,662
Now imagine all the people buying homes with no inspection.

601
00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:34,910
They're literally going into the biggest purchase of their life and nobody has told them
the truth about what they're buying.

602
00:39:34,910 --> 00:39:35,784
Completely blind.

603
00:39:35,784 --> 00:39:36,695
Yeah.

604
00:39:37,241 --> 00:39:37,581
Yep.

605
00:39:37,581 --> 00:39:37,972
crazy.

606
00:39:37,972 --> 00:39:41,662
Like it's, so bad that you, can't even believe it's a thing.

607
00:39:41,918 --> 00:39:55,343
Well, my question is, where do we're having taken stock of, know, kind of, I guess, from
being controversial in a sense of being bluntly honest, brutally honest, uh from taking

608
00:39:55,343 --> 00:40:03,241
that approach, and then seeing the reaction that it could have toward people and that it
might misrepresent your true intentions versus

609
00:40:03,900 --> 00:40:09,994
other content that's done so well because you are essentially trying to be the hero in the
story, helping the home buyer.

610
00:40:09,994 --> 00:40:14,417
Where now do you make the pivot in content going forward for yourself?

611
00:40:14,417 --> 00:40:16,808
I do you kind of keep leaning into what was working?

612
00:40:16,808 --> 00:40:20,129
Do you switch it up a little bit, maybe soften it?

613
00:40:20,129 --> 00:40:29,626
Not that you're one to be soft in any way, but how do you kind of, how do you pivot in a
sense so that you are accurately portraying who you are in the field?

614
00:40:29,860 --> 00:40:34,983
All right, well, here's the thing that I figured out about myself in the last two weeks.

615
00:40:35,483 --> 00:40:39,885
This last two weeks has been very introspective and self-reflective, right?

616
00:40:40,846 --> 00:40:42,927
Yeah, yeah.

617
00:40:42,948 --> 00:40:48,481
So the number one thing I figured out is I actually care about what I'm doing, right?

618
00:40:48,481 --> 00:40:49,501
Like I really care.

619
00:40:49,501 --> 00:40:51,772
Like I'm not just doing this for money.

620
00:40:52,553 --> 00:40:58,008
And so I put a lot of pressure on myself to always learn and be better and...

621
00:40:58,008 --> 00:40:59,498
to do things that are uncomfortable.

622
00:40:59,498 --> 00:41:00,309
I'll give you an example.

623
00:41:00,309 --> 00:41:02,889
And Brad, you guys actually, you guys probably both know this.

624
00:41:02,889 --> 00:41:09,731
I encourage all of my clients to attend the inspection and to be a meaningful part of it
and to ask a million questions through the inspection.

625
00:41:09,731 --> 00:41:11,512
I encourage them all to do it.

626
00:41:11,832 --> 00:41:13,052
Now I will be honest.

627
00:41:13,052 --> 00:41:17,173
I hate it when they attend and I hate it when they ask me a million questions, right?

628
00:41:17,213 --> 00:41:21,655
So I do it because it's the right thing to do, not because I want to do it.

629
00:41:22,135 --> 00:41:26,596
Now there, can give you a hundred examples of my business and things that I do.

630
00:41:26,712 --> 00:41:30,674
that's the right thing to do, but I hate doing it, right?

631
00:41:30,755 --> 00:41:31,855
So I just do it anyway.

632
00:41:31,855 --> 00:41:32,816
It's because I care.

633
00:41:32,816 --> 00:41:34,978
I really truly care about what I'm doing.

634
00:41:34,978 --> 00:41:38,080
And I really want to make sure that people know what they're buying.

635
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:40,942
And that is also not just on the bad side.

636
00:41:40,942 --> 00:41:43,743
I don't just go in and alarm everybody about everything.

637
00:41:43,743 --> 00:41:50,768
Sometimes I have to tell people this giant crack that you see in your foundation really
isn't that big a deal, right?

638
00:41:50,768 --> 00:41:56,718
There's times when I have to explain to them like, this is probably being caused by that
downspout outside.

639
00:41:56,718 --> 00:41:57,208
You know what I mean?

640
00:41:57,208 --> 00:42:00,830
You're like a 10 foot piece of plastic away from solving the problem.

641
00:42:00,830 --> 00:42:04,072
So sometimes I have to be able to explain these things to them.

642
00:42:04,072 --> 00:42:05,313
And I had one of those this week.

643
00:42:05,313 --> 00:42:11,886
I had a client, she was literally on verge backing out of her deal like five times and the
house was nice, right?

644
00:42:11,886 --> 00:42:15,358
So there was part of me is like, know, listen, this is a nice house.

645
00:42:15,678 --> 00:42:16,869
I wouldn't run away from this.

646
00:42:16,869 --> 00:42:19,860
Like these are all very straightforward and simple repairs.

647
00:42:20,001 --> 00:42:24,293
So that was the first thing I really learned about myself is that I care about what I do.

648
00:42:24,293 --> 00:42:26,370
Number two, I'm

649
00:42:26,370 --> 00:42:28,001
I'm emotional about it.

650
00:42:28,121 --> 00:42:31,643
So I tend to be kind of shoot from the hip emotional about things.

651
00:42:31,643 --> 00:42:37,886
So that, that works both on the side of, can't believe I'm seeing this to I'm pissed off
that I'm seeing this.

652
00:42:38,086 --> 00:42:43,929
You know, I show up to a house to inspect it and there's guys spray foaming the basement
foundation while I'm there.

653
00:42:44,690 --> 00:42:47,711
How am I not supposed to think that's suspicious as hell?

654
00:42:48,532 --> 00:42:48,852
Right.

655
00:42:48,852 --> 00:42:52,214
I think any inspector would think that's suspicious as hell, but there I go.

656
00:42:52,214 --> 00:42:54,615
get a cease and desist letter from a lawyer.

657
00:42:54,915 --> 00:42:55,696
Right.

658
00:42:55,696 --> 00:42:56,300
So.

659
00:42:56,300 --> 00:42:59,158
Everybody's mad at me for saying that was suspicious.

660
00:43:00,316 --> 00:43:03,775
Now, were you able to actually figure out what was going on back behind it?

661
00:43:03,775 --> 00:43:05,961
Were they actually trying to cover up anything?

662
00:43:05,961 --> 00:43:07,065
I didn't see the follow up to it.

663
00:43:07,065 --> 00:43:08,245
I apologize.

664
00:43:08,322 --> 00:43:13,313
No, actually couldn't see what behind obviously they spray foam did it's forever sealed.

665
00:43:13,854 --> 00:43:16,384
I did have a very nice conversation with the company owner.

666
00:43:16,384 --> 00:43:21,576
He assured me that they took photos and can prove that none of it was rotted or damaged
when they sprayed it.

667
00:43:21,576 --> 00:43:22,857
I believe him.

668
00:43:23,517 --> 00:43:29,059
Turns out it was scheduled to be spray foamed since January, but it was just too cold.

669
00:43:29,199 --> 00:43:32,980
So it wasn't quite as suspicious as I thought it was right up front.

670
00:43:33,454 --> 00:43:38,635
but you would think that somebody would let the inspector know that, you're gonna be
showing up to a house that's being spray foamed.

671
00:43:38,635 --> 00:43:40,439
I would have said, let's do it the day before.

672
00:43:40,439 --> 00:43:43,085
Like, you know, let me inspect it before they cover everything up.

673
00:43:43,085 --> 00:43:51,005
Yeah, sometimes, okay, I get it that your story tracks, but like there was a bad time.

674
00:43:51,005 --> 00:43:54,505
There was a bad timing of everything you should have told me so that I wouldn't be
blindsided.

675
00:43:54,505 --> 00:43:56,385
And then maybe it would be a lot less suspicious.

676
00:43:56,385 --> 00:43:59,965
You know, I go to do pre drywall inspections down here every once in a while.

677
00:43:59,965 --> 00:44:03,625
And sometimes when I'm there, the builder is putting up insulation.

678
00:44:03,625 --> 00:44:09,025
They've sent people to put insulation in the walls while I'm there and I'll call the
client and I'm angry about it, right?

679
00:44:09,025 --> 00:44:12,503
Cause I'm like, Hey, okay, I'm going to send you this report, but nothing.

680
00:44:12,503 --> 00:44:15,364
quite says, I don't care what's in the report.

681
00:44:15,364 --> 00:44:19,926
Like I'm going to go ahead and throw up insulation so we can't see anything that this guy
points out.

682
00:44:19,926 --> 00:44:27,019
Like, you know, while I'm there, like, come on, you know, like, I mean, look, it's no
better for you to do that.

683
00:44:27,079 --> 00:44:36,483
After right after I leave, it's, it's certainly not better for you do that before I show
up, but how insulting is it to what I'm trying to do and to your clients who have paid me

684
00:44:36,483 --> 00:44:42,385
money to be there than to just show up and have somebody cover up all the stuff that I
just pointed out in a report.

685
00:44:42,808 --> 00:44:43,358
Yeah, man.

686
00:44:43,358 --> 00:44:52,474
And that's the thing is like, if I didn't care about that, and I wasn't emotional about
that for my client, I don't think I would be an effective inspector.

687
00:44:52,795 --> 00:44:53,175
Right?

688
00:44:53,175 --> 00:44:57,077
I would just be some guy going through the motions, writing reports, I would just be a
report mill.

689
00:44:57,077 --> 00:45:01,650
And I would, I don't want to be, I would, I would quit the business before I would do
that.

690
00:45:01,962 --> 00:45:02,932
Well, let's be honest too.

691
00:45:02,932 --> 00:45:06,066
mean, it's again, everybody here has competing interests, right?

692
00:45:06,066 --> 00:45:13,724
Like more likely than not, excuse me, on that property, the builder is not trying to
slight Matt.

693
00:45:13,724 --> 00:45:21,167
He just wants to get the house finished so that they can get onto the next build on the
next building, get that subdivision done so that they can move to the next project site,

694
00:45:21,167 --> 00:45:21,437
right?

695
00:45:21,437 --> 00:45:23,818
Because all they're trying to do is crank out inventory.

696
00:45:23,818 --> 00:45:32,362
Same way that realtors, no offense to the good realtors out there, but you do have those
that just want to get the deal across the line, right?

697
00:45:32,362 --> 00:45:36,663
And so it's, again, we're the one that's being honest with the buyer.

698
00:45:36,663 --> 00:45:42,246
And, you know, I wouldn't necessarily take it personally, Matt, but because that guy, the
former just wants to get done.

699
00:45:42,246 --> 00:45:42,897
That's all.

700
00:45:42,897 --> 00:45:47,320
it personally, but what it does is it angers me for the client.

701
00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:48,740
I'm angry for them.

702
00:45:48,740 --> 00:45:50,952
Like I'm not mad at the building, you do whatever you want.

703
00:45:50,952 --> 00:45:54,924
You know what, you should have thrown up the insulation for our guy here because it made
my job a lot easier.

704
00:45:54,924 --> 00:46:03,689
But what angers me about that is that I have to tell the client, hey, there's a good chunk
of this house that I really can't see that you paid me to look at.

705
00:46:03,689 --> 00:46:04,769
And so it's not me.

706
00:46:04,769 --> 00:46:05,750
Like, I don't care.

707
00:46:05,750 --> 00:46:06,720
It's the client.

708
00:46:06,720 --> 00:46:08,511
I get mad with them.

709
00:46:08,952 --> 00:46:10,912
That's who I'm fighting for.

710
00:46:11,757 --> 00:46:22,117
leads me to believe if that's the path we're starting down, we're like, you knew I was
coming today and you send the insulation crew over there to put insulation up, you know,

711
00:46:22,117 --> 00:46:24,697
at the tail end or in the middle of my inspection.

712
00:46:24,697 --> 00:46:26,297
I'm only there for a couple of hours.

713
00:46:26,297 --> 00:46:27,877
You knew what time it was scheduled for.

714
00:46:27,877 --> 00:46:29,777
This is all been communicated.

715
00:46:29,777 --> 00:46:37,357
And so for them to show up while I was there, it's insulting, but they're just telling me
they don't care.

716
00:46:37,357 --> 00:46:38,027
and, and

717
00:46:38,027 --> 00:46:43,759
my client just paid me for a report and that their builder obviously isn't going to care
or do anything about.

718
00:46:43,759 --> 00:46:47,150
And I'm just like, this is the look that you've got right now.

719
00:46:47,150 --> 00:46:47,760
You know what I mean?

720
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:50,721
And it's the look I'm going to give to the buyer.

721
00:46:50,721 --> 00:46:54,581
I'm going to tell them, you know, this is what they did.

722
00:46:54,762 --> 00:46:57,162
You know, you got a choice to make here.

723
00:46:57,162 --> 00:47:03,344
You can either let me do my inspection report and then get it and act like you care and
then go do some things about it.

724
00:47:03,344 --> 00:47:06,955
Or you can have the guys come start covering up all the stuff that I just found.

725
00:47:06,955 --> 00:47:08,790
while I'm still there, you know?

726
00:47:08,790 --> 00:47:12,359
And I don't know, I get offended, but yeah, it's for the client.

727
00:47:12,359 --> 00:47:13,541
It's for the buyer.

728
00:47:13,710 --> 00:47:13,880
Yeah.

729
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:20,943
And I think that anger shows that you care about what you do and you care about your
clients, which is what really drives the best inspectors.

730
00:47:20,943 --> 00:47:21,864
Right.

731
00:47:21,864 --> 00:47:31,267
So I couldn't imagine being an effective inspector if, so there's a thing called fiduciary
duty that we talk about, but people sometimes don't actually really talk about what that

732
00:47:31,267 --> 00:47:31,588
is.

733
00:47:31,588 --> 00:47:37,730
And fiduciary duty means caring about your client's best interest above all else, above
all else.

734
00:47:37,730 --> 00:47:42,232
Your, your sole job is to look out for that person period.

735
00:47:42,232 --> 00:47:43,705
You're not there to make realtors happy.

736
00:47:43,705 --> 00:47:45,500
You're not there to make builders happy.

737
00:47:45,500 --> 00:47:47,043
You're not there to make attorneys happy.

738
00:47:47,043 --> 00:47:49,608
You are there to protect your client period.

739
00:47:50,014 --> 00:47:50,474
Yeah.

740
00:47:50,474 --> 00:47:59,609
Well, and it's interesting because some of the, some of the higher ups who are so
supportive of the show here in the production, ah that's not, not to kiss you know what

741
00:47:59,609 --> 00:48:03,561
it's truly, they, they care about home buyers than they care about inspectors.

742
00:48:03,561 --> 00:48:12,887
And so they care about the show, but they asked like, so what are you, are you guys going
to do any content that's really geared toward new inspectors or considering inspectors?

743
00:48:12,887 --> 00:48:17,219
And I've told them, I'm like, I feel like everything we do is useful to new inspectors.

744
00:48:17,219 --> 00:48:19,176
Cause if you're thinking about getting into this field,

745
00:48:19,176 --> 00:48:23,261
This might be the most important five minutes of the show that we've produced, right?

746
00:48:23,261 --> 00:48:24,835
Like, don't come, yeah.

747
00:48:24,835 --> 00:48:27,968
doing, I was doing that before I was doing social media.

748
00:48:27,968 --> 00:48:31,050
Cause you know, I got the jumpstart program, right?

749
00:48:31,050 --> 00:48:40,528
So what I did when I first started my inspection business full time and really focused on
it, I mapped out literally every step of what I did to start my business, including the

750
00:48:40,528 --> 00:48:43,040
stuff that didn't work, the mistakes I made.

751
00:48:43,180 --> 00:48:48,625
And I put it all into this video just to try to help new inspectors to say like, here's
what I did.

752
00:48:48,625 --> 00:48:49,195
Here's what worked.

753
00:48:49,195 --> 00:48:50,016
Here's what didn't work.

754
00:48:50,016 --> 00:48:52,027
Here's the, here's what I recommend.

755
00:48:52,027 --> 00:48:53,228
Here's why.

756
00:48:53,262 --> 00:48:54,333
And then that sort of grew.

757
00:48:54,333 --> 00:48:57,916
And then it was like, went into insurance and it went into all these other areas.

758
00:48:57,916 --> 00:49:04,842
And still to this day, one of the things I love the most is doing web free webinars to
help other home inspectors.

759
00:49:04,842 --> 00:49:05,623
Right?

760
00:49:05,623 --> 00:49:15,661
I feel like if we do more of that, if we help to lift up other inspectors and really we
can rise with the tide and we can elevate our industry, we can sit around a bitch and moan

761
00:49:15,661 --> 00:49:19,783
and complain about why our industry sucks and prices are going down and all this stuff.

762
00:49:19,783 --> 00:49:21,876
But if we're not doing anything about it,

763
00:49:22,018 --> 00:49:23,465
we are still part of the problem.

764
00:49:23,465 --> 00:49:24,847
I 100 % agree.

765
00:49:24,847 --> 00:49:27,901
And that actually is a really good segue into a question that I wanted to ask you.

766
00:49:27,901 --> 00:49:30,473
Actually, I guess I got to start with another question.

767
00:49:31,175 --> 00:49:40,326
So I mean, for the people that are watching for like the three people out there that are
watching that don't know who Preston Kincaid is, can you tell the audience where you are

768
00:49:40,427 --> 00:49:40,937
located?

769
00:49:40,937 --> 00:49:42,569
Where do you inspect?

770
00:49:43,126 --> 00:49:53,785
man, I'm glad you asked that question because as, as you know, if you know, you know,
there's a lot of people that accuse me of being bought off by the builders.

771
00:49:53,785 --> 00:49:54,785
All right.

772
00:49:54,926 --> 00:49:59,750
Where I live is in the middle of the forest, the middle of nowhere.

773
00:49:59,750 --> 00:50:02,522
am in upstate New York, Oxford, New York.

774
00:50:02,522 --> 00:50:05,054
I literally live in a town called Preston.

775
00:50:05,375 --> 00:50:06,977
So I'm Preston from Preston.

776
00:50:06,977 --> 00:50:09,795
Well, wait, what came first, the chicken or the egg here?

777
00:50:09,795 --> 00:50:10,477
I gotta know.

778
00:50:10,477 --> 00:50:11,991
Did they name the town after you?

779
00:50:11,991 --> 00:50:13,936
uh

780
00:50:13,936 --> 00:50:14,536
of funny.

781
00:50:14,536 --> 00:50:18,476
I I thought my farm and I thought that it was serendipitous.

782
00:50:18,476 --> 00:50:21,376
The road right in front is called Preston center road.

783
00:50:21,716 --> 00:50:26,956
I didn't realize there was actually a town called Preston cause the house was listed in
Oxford, New York.

784
00:50:27,016 --> 00:50:32,096
So here I am out in the middle of nowhere where I live, dude, it is farmers.

785
00:50:32,096 --> 00:50:34,136
It is down home people.

786
00:50:34,136 --> 00:50:38,936
There is not a single building development within a two hour radius of me.

787
00:50:38,936 --> 00:50:39,436
None.

788
00:50:39,436 --> 00:50:41,516
There's I've never met a builder.

789
00:50:41,590 --> 00:50:43,442
I've never done a new build inspection.

790
00:50:43,442 --> 00:50:45,383
Not one, not one.

791
00:50:45,644 --> 00:50:47,846
So like that's where I'm at.

792
00:50:47,846 --> 00:50:56,525
I'm, I'm smack between Syracuse and Binghamton, New York, not, I'm a few hours, three
hours from Albany, but I'm up here in the forest, man.

793
00:50:56,525 --> 00:50:57,686
I'm in the woods.

794
00:50:57,709 --> 00:51:05,693
That's funny because like I get so many people that get mad like angry at builders in my
content, but like only about half of my videos are on new construction.

795
00:51:05,693 --> 00:51:11,076
But I think a lot of uh online home inspection social media videos are new construction.

796
00:51:11,076 --> 00:51:13,608
It's really easy to film at a new construction house.

797
00:51:13,608 --> 00:51:19,461
I think we see a whole lot of videos made on new construction and people are just like so
livid about all the new construction going on.

798
00:51:19,461 --> 00:51:24,356
They think every video they see is on new construction and they're like, how are the
builders getting away with this?

799
00:51:24,356 --> 00:51:27,341
And I'm like, Hey, this is clearly a homeowner DIY job.

800
00:51:27,341 --> 00:51:29,041
What are you talking about?

801
00:51:29,221 --> 00:51:40,461
Anyway, I did have a question for you and really I wanted to, I wrote it down here, but
it's basically I just wanted to know, like, do you have, cause we were talking about

802
00:51:40,461 --> 00:51:41,441
younger inspectors, right?

803
00:51:41,441 --> 00:51:42,681
Newer inspectors.

804
00:51:42,681 --> 00:51:47,461
If you had, and I know that you probably get this question a lot, but it sounds like you
put some thought into it.

805
00:51:47,461 --> 00:51:51,901
So, you know, what is a piece of advice that you would give for up and coming home
inspectors?

806
00:51:51,901 --> 00:51:54,721
And I'm going to say this, I'm going to get more specific with it.

807
00:51:54,721 --> 00:51:56,821
Up and coming home inspectors,

808
00:51:56,873 --> 00:52:03,758
in your area and maybe not your immediate area because like you're out in the middle of
the woods and Preston, New York.

809
00:52:03,758 --> 00:52:07,250
But I mean like maybe in your state or something.

810
00:52:07,250 --> 00:52:10,922
Do you have any advice for people coming into the industry?

811
00:52:10,922 --> 00:52:15,644
I mean besides, know, watch the Ride Along podcast, besides that.

812
00:52:15,644 --> 00:52:16,390
It's a good one.

813
00:52:16,390 --> 00:52:16,821
man.

814
00:52:16,821 --> 00:52:19,042
You know, I have a lot of respect for Brad.

815
00:52:19,042 --> 00:52:20,474
Brad, you're like Trey, man.

816
00:52:20,474 --> 00:52:21,494
You're consistent too.

817
00:52:21,494 --> 00:52:25,368
I love the fact like your production is unlike, man, you do a good job.

818
00:52:25,368 --> 00:52:25,718
All right.

819
00:52:25,718 --> 00:52:31,432
To answer your question, Matt, when I do my webinars, I always start them off the same
way.

820
00:52:31,432 --> 00:52:35,255
I've had webinars that had upwards of 600 attendees before.

821
00:52:35,636 --> 00:52:43,582
And what I will do is I will ask in my webinar, raise your hand if you're a home inspector
and everybody raises their hand.

822
00:52:43,582 --> 00:52:46,156
And it's a trick question because the first thing I say is

823
00:52:46,156 --> 00:52:47,177
All of you are wrong.

824
00:52:47,177 --> 00:52:49,859
If you have your hand up right now, you are completely wrong.

825
00:52:49,919 --> 00:52:53,462
There is not a single home inspector in the home inspection business.

826
00:52:53,963 --> 00:52:58,105
And if you are just a home inspector, you are only doing half your job.

827
00:52:58,386 --> 00:53:07,934
We are all professional consultants and we need to start thinking of ourselves that way
because when you think of yourself as a professional consultant, you realize then the

828
00:53:07,934 --> 00:53:10,115
inspection is just part of your job.

829
00:53:10,416 --> 00:53:15,480
The part where you consult with your clients, you look out for the best interests, you
make recommendations.

830
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:16,681
you offer to help.

831
00:53:16,681 --> 00:53:23,086
have four videos of me helping clients of mine for free, re-level entire buildings.

832
00:53:24,268 --> 00:53:31,573
Like, so I do that because I'm a professional consultant and I'm trying to help these
people as much as I possibly can.

833
00:53:31,814 --> 00:53:38,850
And if I can go help them with some of this stuff that would normally cost tens of
thousands of dollars and they can borrow some of my tools and we can go do it on a

834
00:53:38,850 --> 00:53:43,916
weekend, I've now just made a friend for life, but I also have people that trust me,
right?

835
00:53:43,916 --> 00:53:49,778
So it's really fulfilling a higher purpose, not just looking at a house with a flashlight
and a camera, right?

836
00:53:49,778 --> 00:53:57,200
So these guys that are running in, writing reports, running to the next one and not
spending the time with their clients, they're home inspectors.

837
00:53:57,600 --> 00:54:01,921
I'm a professional consultant and I'm going to conduct myself as one, right?

838
00:54:01,921 --> 00:54:07,042
And that's my advice because guess who's going to be replaced by AI when it comes along?

839
00:54:07,243 --> 00:54:08,803
The home inspectors.

840
00:54:09,883 --> 00:54:12,814
The top, the top tier.

841
00:54:12,814 --> 00:54:22,267
consultants won't be replaced anytime soon because they're providing a much higher level
of service that's really helping people through the process, sometimes well after they buy

842
00:54:22,267 --> 00:54:23,048
the home.

843
00:54:23,639 --> 00:54:25,073
That's an interesting perspective.

844
00:54:25,073 --> 00:54:26,136
I like that.

845
00:54:26,136 --> 00:54:31,909
I mean, I definitely operate that way, but I'm not sure if I've ever really thought about
it that way, but I definitely operate.

846
00:54:33,460 --> 00:54:40,480
Well, guys, the dog is telling me here that it's time to take him on a little walk out the
door there, if you will.

847
00:54:40,480 --> 00:54:43,684
ah But Preston, thanks so much for coming on, dude.

848
00:54:43,684 --> 00:54:45,236
This has been an absolute blast.

849
00:54:45,236 --> 00:54:46,468
inspection fuel.

850
00:54:46,468 --> 00:54:48,710
Are you going to be at inspection fuel?

851
00:54:49,832 --> 00:54:51,813
Preston, are you going be at

852
00:54:51,852 --> 00:54:58,232
I would like to go so yeah, well Yeah, yeah, shoot me over the details.

853
00:54:58,232 --> 00:54:59,723
Yeah, I'll go I'll go

854
00:54:59,723 --> 00:55:00,093
actually.

855
00:55:00,093 --> 00:55:00,574
No, seriously.

856
00:55:00,574 --> 00:55:11,664
Like, Hey, look, if you've been on the show, uh I've, I've got a standing order that
basically all of the previous guests will hook up with, we'll cover the cover the fair or

857
00:55:11,664 --> 00:55:15,138
not the fair, not the airfare, but the fee ah for the ticket to it's extra fuel.

858
00:55:15,138 --> 00:55:15,328
Yeah.

859
00:55:15,328 --> 00:55:16,179
The entrance fee.

860
00:55:16,179 --> 00:55:20,058
So if you want to come, we got you covered, I'll help you out with that.

861
00:55:20,058 --> 00:55:21,800
Just shoot me over the details when it is.

862
00:55:21,800 --> 00:55:23,501
Matt, you're going to be there, right?

863
00:55:24,283 --> 00:55:25,636
I won't miss it for the world then.

864
00:55:25,636 --> 00:55:28,858
Yeah, details for everyone watching September eight through the 10th.

865
00:55:28,858 --> 00:55:30,040
Thanks for the plug Matt.

866
00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:32,372
September eight through the 10th down in Nola.

867
00:55:32,372 --> 00:55:33,062
That's it.

868
00:55:33,062 --> 00:55:38,507
But Matt, we've got just I want to go ahead and tease this real quick because this is a
fun episode.

869
00:55:38,507 --> 00:55:40,358
And again, Preston always fun sitting on with you.

870
00:55:40,358 --> 00:55:42,050
need to come on your show, by the way.

871
00:55:43,020 --> 00:55:45,783
Hey man, let me plug something real quick.

872
00:55:46,404 --> 00:55:48,947
May 18th, 7 PM Eastern center time.

873
00:55:48,947 --> 00:55:50,159
got a webinar going on.

874
00:55:50,159 --> 00:55:51,290
It's free.

875
00:55:51,290 --> 00:55:58,118
You can go to hijumpstart.com and it's the whole webinar is about how to become a home
inspector.

876
00:55:58,539 --> 00:56:02,964
I've now shared, I've already brought in 107 people into the business this year.

877
00:56:03,582 --> 00:56:04,419
That's awesome dude.

878
00:56:04,419 --> 00:56:05,165
Good for you man.

879
00:56:05,165 --> 00:56:06,598
Good for you.

880
00:56:06,598 --> 00:56:07,480
attend the webinar.

881
00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:10,481
you have any interest in becoming a home inspector, we're going to go through everything.

882
00:56:10,481 --> 00:56:12,476
I will answer any question thrown at.

883
00:56:12,754 --> 00:56:16,996
And keep watching the show here because there's some really cool stuff.

884
00:56:16,996 --> 00:56:21,238
uh I am flying out to Austin, Texas this Friday.

885
00:56:21,238 --> 00:56:27,620
uh Actually, you know, this will be happening after I guess the show is going to drop and
this will have already happened.

886
00:56:27,620 --> 00:56:33,342
But uh post-production will be well underway for what we're going to be filming in Austin,
Texas.

887
00:56:33,363 --> 00:56:39,239
We're going to be working with Matt Reisinger, uh one of the biggest names in friggin
building science.

888
00:56:39,239 --> 00:56:42,110
I mean, massive following over on his YouTube platform.

889
00:56:42,110 --> 00:56:44,770
But Matt, tell them a little bit about the house we're going to be looking at.

890
00:56:44,853 --> 00:56:57,127
So he has been filming for the last maybe six months or so, uh maybe longer than that
actually, him building a house out in the Northern Austin area that he calls the Risinger

891
00:56:57,127 --> 00:56:57,357
Build.

892
00:56:57,357 --> 00:57:02,995
There is a ton of footage out there of him building this house from the ground up and it's
about finished.

893
00:57:02,995 --> 00:57:04,719
I mean, it is finished.

894
00:57:04,739 --> 00:57:12,653
There's maybe a couple of like small things that still need to get done on it, but
finished enough and we're gonna go out there and do some filming at the Risinger Build.

895
00:57:12,653 --> 00:57:19,913
And if the stars align, we hope to do a little bit of podcasting with Matt himself.

896
00:57:20,322 --> 00:57:28,870
Listen, I'll get you guys out here because this summer I'm going to start, we're going to
build four homes and I'm going to go all old school stack stone foundation, post and beam

897
00:57:28,870 --> 00:57:32,022
construction, peg, joinery, the whole bit.

898
00:57:32,043 --> 00:57:34,845
So yeah.

899
00:57:35,226 --> 00:57:35,626
Yeah.

900
00:57:35,626 --> 00:57:37,718
I'm milling all my lumber on my sawmill.

901
00:57:37,718 --> 00:57:39,460
So we're to build four homes.

902
00:57:39,460 --> 00:57:40,391
It's going to be interesting.

903
00:57:40,391 --> 00:57:41,982
I'm going to do a bunch of content on it.

904
00:57:41,982 --> 00:57:43,643
But this is why it's so cool.

905
00:57:43,643 --> 00:57:51,849
originally when this show started out, it was designed as a road trip where I shadowed
home inspectors in the field showcasing really cool different types of houses around the

906
00:57:51,849 --> 00:57:52,530
country.

907
00:57:52,530 --> 00:57:55,712
And so this is kind of like what one, because I mean, Matt, it's awesome.

908
00:57:55,712 --> 00:57:57,534
It's more fun to do this two is better than one.

909
00:57:57,534 --> 00:58:00,016
So we've, we've got the cohost locked down.

910
00:58:00,016 --> 00:58:00,686
This is awesome.

911
00:58:00,686 --> 00:58:08,894
And now we get to really kind of like do the first, we're going back to this a little bit
where we get to do cool series style content on site.

912
00:58:08,894 --> 00:58:10,605
long form on YouTube right here.

913
00:58:10,605 --> 00:58:14,008
We're breaking out all the bells and whistles and showcasing really cool homes.

914
00:58:14,008 --> 00:58:19,012
So Preston, it would be awesome to do the same with you as soon as you're underway back up
there in New York.

915
00:58:19,182 --> 00:58:19,938
Yeah, man.

916
00:58:19,938 --> 00:58:22,192
Hey fist bump to both you guys

917
00:58:22,192 --> 00:58:33,420
it that's it I gotta look where my camera is which one am I bumping here it's it all right
love it press some things again absolutely definitely and thank you guys everybody so much

918
00:58:33,420 --> 00:58:41,856
for watching great as always having you on here be sure to follow Preston Matt and the
show here and if you want to follow me you can't do it's at inspection dude why not I'll

919
00:58:41,856 --> 00:58:50,367
jump in on it but definitely stay tuned and we will always see you right here next time on
you got it