Before going viral with That ain’t right, Trey Hill was paying for “lunch and learns” – bringing trays of food to real estate offices in hopes of landing a few inspection referrals. Most of the time, the turnout was underwhelming. And when agents did send work his way, it was usually for the worst homes in town.
So Trey tried something different: He picked up his phone and started filming.
In the latest episode of The Ride Along, Trey joins host Brad Lowery and special guest co-host Matt Brading to share how he built Gold Star Inspections into a recognizable brand using short-form video, humor, and a zero-retakes approach to content. He dishes on early flops, going all-in on TikTok, and what it really takes to juggle inspections and content creation as a one-person shop.
Curious how other inspectors are making it work? Don’t miss this episode of The Ride Along Podcast and be sure to subscribe to the newsletter so you never miss fresh tips, inspo, and inspector stores delivered right to your inbox.
Transcript
Brad Lowery
My gosh, we are live streaming guys. Are you live, man? You live there? We are live.
Matt Brading
We’re actually live. Is this thing on? Can you hear me? Hello? Hello? Hello?
Trey Hill
I’m alive and I’m alive.
Brad Lowery
We alive and kicking, let’s roll the intro.
Trey Hill
Yeah.
Brad Lowery
my gosh, it’s another week of the ride along here. I’m excited because we’ve got a freaking awesome guest on the show here. Another guy out of Texas. We’ve got we’ve been featuring a lot of Texas guys lately. That’s because Texas is one of the most inspector rich populations in the country. And we got some absolutely awesome people out of there. But Matt, why don’t you introduce our guests since you guys are basically neighbors, as you put it here before we kicked off the show.
Matt Brading
Yeah, we are. mean, like we don’t live in same neighborhood, but like I was saying before we started the show here, know, Houston is an hour away from Houston. So if you are, you know, an hour away from me, you might as well be my neighbor is what I’m saying. And Trey is my neighbor. And so, yeah, we are my good friend Trey Hill here from Gold Star Inspections is our guest today and really, really happy to have you here, Trey. And yeah, I can’t wait to get into some of these topics with you today, including social media and the challenges we face as home inspectors trying to create content out there. What part of Houston area are you from again, Trey?
Trey Hill
I’m in, I’m in tumbo.
Matt Brading
Alright, alright, that’s what I thought. We’re in Tombow and I’m in green. So it’s like we’re close, but we’re not that close, but we’re close.
Trey Hill
If I had an inspection at his house, that would be close to me.
Brad Lowery
But not only – so I mean, do you guys like refer each other out? Like if one of y’all is busy or? Good stuff. I dig it.
Matt Brading
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Trey Hill
Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Brading
Well, Trey, mean, you know, something interesting about Trey, you know, and I mean, if you guys don’t follow Gold Star Inspections, I mean, you certainly should do that. But Trey has a massive social media presence and a massive following. And he gets predominantly all your business from there, right? Yeah. So he gets all and so.
Trey Hill
Yeah, I love something new.
Matt Brading
I know a couple of years ago, you started doing primarily new construction inspections. That’s it, right? And so people of course call Trey and they’re like, you know, hey, I got this house from . And he’s like, Nope, I only do new construction stuff. he goes, call Matt. so I get some inspections and go to that. You’re missing him whenever I can make it as well.
Trey Hill
You yeah.
Brad Lowery
Dude, I love it. just another guy, first of all, all y’all listening live on line, we’re recording this as we go here. Usually my dog is pretty freaking chill, but he hasn’t gotten to run around with a frisbee tonight yet. And so he’s decided this is a wonderful time to just squeak that toy like crazy in the background. So dog’s gonna be dogs. Yeah. You guys got dogs? Sound off in the comments if you all got dogs.
Matt Brading
Dogs will be dogs, that’s for sure. Let him go.
Brad Lowery
That’s it. But Trey I gotta ask you question, man. So how long have you been doing the social media game because I it never ceases to amaze me that home inspections and home inspectors have taken off as influencers the way that they have the last several years. So how long have you been doing this?
Trey Hill
Right. I would say about three years to be honest, don’t even know this how it all started. used to do, so I’ve been doing inspections over years and the whole thing was to go into the real estate offices, the brokerage offices, go in there, you buy food. I know I have some videos talking about this, but so you buy them food, they tell you people come in and then people show up.
Matt Brading
Yeah.
Trey Hill
You done bought food for 50 people and 10 people show up. And then they say, okay, you only got like, you got 10 minutes to talk, to say something. So then you do your spiel and then one agent or two, maybe say, they say they’ll try you out. And then what do they give you? A bad house, of course. So you get that bad house and then you’re me like, shh. And then they be like, I ain’t using that guy. That guy, he put everything on the report. So actually, during that time I saw an interview with Matt and A Action and with Chris. So I used to look at some of their videos and actually before that time I was not on social media at all. Only thing I did was YouTube. That’s it. And it was just when I was looking for stuff or watch videos. So the whole people, like the social media thing, Instagram, all that kind of stuff, I didn’t have the app.
Matt Brading
Yeah, Chris.
Brad Lowery
Okay.
Trey Hill
I didn’t go on it. I didn’t look at none of that. So I was not involved period. So after I saw that episode and Matt said on there, he’s like, I haven’t done a lunch and learn in like two years. I was like, two years, no lunch and learn I was like, we’re gonna have to try this. So I think at the time he had like, 43,000 followers and now look at them. Then, that was big, you know.
Matt Brading
True.
Trey Hill
It’s just as you in it, you just start growing or whatever. But I was like, wow. That was a big deal. So actually, so that’s where after I saw that, that’s when I actually started. Because before then, like during COVID and stuff like that, like trying to get business, you walk around with the mask on and stuff. I tried all that kind of stuff. Had the little gift bags and showed the people open houses and stuff like that.
Brad Lowery
Sure.
Trey Hill
Some of them got scared. mean, knocked on the door, had my mask on. It just was, it wasn’t pretty. wasn’t pretty.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, yeah.
Matt Brading
See, I was already kind of, and social media, guess, kicked off for me a little bit, like right as COVID hit. And so I was kind of already like had a foothold and right as soon as I could not. And I continued to advertise in real estate offices really just because I enjoyed it. And you know, actually where I found was better than real estate offices was going to Champion School of Real Estate. See, I got my license or I took my…through Champion School of Real Estate, and they have classes for real estate agents. Well, what you can guarantee there is attendance. And then you get attendance from people that are from various different offices. you’re kind of getting a little bit of, know, you’re getting a few of those out there in different real estate offices, even though, you know, not, you know, just with who’s there, it’s a variety of different people. Nothing like that be more successful. And I really enjoy doing that.
Trey Hill
Right. I was just about to get into that where I was setting it up where I was going to do some Lunch and Learns up there. But I had my cars up there and stuff. Like really now, like this whole time, I got like five good realtors that actually used me all the time. And all the realtors I’ve seen, five of them. And even right now, I’ll try to clear my schedule to get to them. You know, they were thankful, you know what mean? But some of them got from…
Brad Lowery
You gotta keep those ones happy.
Trey Hill
Yeah, I got from Champions and that’s the school I went to also.
Matt Brading
Yeah, I found that doing that was very effective, but then all of a sudden COVID hit and I couldn’t do that anymore. so I said, well, okay, well, I didn’t really need to, because I mean, had, at the time, I had a really good, solid base of realtor. I was just marketing because I felt like I needed to market, you know, as a business. And, but I already kind of had a foothold in social media. So I just kind of kept going there and man, yeah, it’s been, it’s been years now. been like five years since I’ve done anything like that. And so, and so, yeah, it’s, mean, time flies, but yeah, that’s how, that’s how long it’s been.
Trey Hill
Mm-hmm. Right? yeah.
Matt Brading
But social media has been a big thing for me as well as far as how I get my business. And that’s been going on for a real long time. Yeah, it’s realtor referrals. Yes, it’s word of mouth. But social media has been really huge. as, and you, mean, yeah, I’ve been able to work myself into a pretty large following, but you have a massive following.
Brad Lowery
What’s your-
Matt Brading
You just hit the ground running, man, and your content just really connects with people. People really relate to it. And you have amassed a huge following and you should be really proud of that, man. But as content creating home inspectors, I feel like a topic that we should touch on is some of the unique challenges we face making this content in the field all the time. There’s always something and so do you have any, are there any unique challenges that you think like, you have to deal with, you know, that maybe, you know, somebody that’s not out there creating content, something that just, just as certain extra step or something else that you got to do.
Trey Hill
Well, let me take it back just a little bit because so me not being on social media, not on the platforms and you know, I just thought to myself, said, man, who wants to hear about home inspections? That’s boring. That’s what I thought to myself. But then, know, Matt was doing like somebody out there want to hear about it. So my thought was how can I make it educational, but also entertaining because my thought, like I said, I never been on those platforms. I never been on TikTok. Like I downloaded TikTok and did a video. So my thought was these people aren’t here for entertainment. They’re not here trying to learn. They’re not swiping, trying to learn. So my whole thing was trying to combine both of those things together. during home inspection, that was kind of a challenge right there. That was the first challenge. Cause I got my first video up there and you look at this terrible.
Matt Brading
I still got mine up there too. Bad. Bad, bad. Yeah.
Trey Hill
It’s
Brad Lowery
Did you start it off
Trey Hill
terrible.
Brad Lowery
with the good old, hey, it’s Trey here, gold star, it’s nice. Yeah. Yeah.
Trey Hill
Yeah, you do all that. Hey, my name is Trey. I’m about to do this home inspection back. Y’all want to look and see where we go?
Brad Lowery
Immediately swipe out. That’s it. Yeah, that’s
Matt Brading
Yeah, you get like your real nice guy thing going on. Man, yeah, like, man, it’s so funny. We should go back and watch those or maybe we shouldn’t. But it is really funny because there in the beginning, you’re like trying to you don’t really know what to do. And then you start to get your flow, you know, a little bit in and then it changes completely. You go back and look at that old stuff. You’re like, my God, because I do.
Brad Lowery
next
Trey Hill
Yeah, they did. Bye you both. Right.
Brad Lowery
Well, the thing is that was actually, I mean, that was kind of taught back then. I mean, like back in like the Facebook videos days, there were so many inspectors and other influencers that you put your name, your brand, like you had your little opening spiel that you would do at the beginning of every video or like you filmed, you know, landscape because vertical video wasn’t even a thing yet. I used to do the show, Inspection Connection with Rose Buckley.
Matt Brading
I did it.
Trey Hill
Hmm. Yeah.
Brad Lowery
And she would always start all of her videos, you know, hey, Rose Buckley here, your friendly Maryland home inspector up and it’s like, but now that’s just it does not fly. Yeah.
Matt Brading
Yeah, cut that out, yeah.
Trey Hill
If they stood at the end put say it at the end But like right when you when you start me I like let’s get straight to it and you
Matt Brading
Yeah.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, yeah, that’s it. Now, how did you develop your flow? What’s your normal, I guess, your hook, your structure to your videos? Do you have a formula that you use, or do you just kind of let it rip?
Trey Hill
Nah, I kinda let it rip. here’s a gym that I do. As I’m doing my, okay, first of all, Matt, no, we busy doing a home inspection. And you got to get, I mean, you can’t spend a whole lot of time taking retakes and stuff like that. you inspecting and then you find something and then you do a video or whatever. So anyways, your time is tight, period. I’m a home inspector first, so I’m putting more time into home inspection and finding things. And so that’s my most time period. So what I do is when I’m doing the home inspections and I find something, if it’s big or small or whatever, I might keep on going and think in my head, like come up with some ideas as I’m working. And so therefore, when I shoot the video, I got something that I’m working on or some kind of topic or way of, you because it’s like, you’re talking about videos, it’s like a director, how are going to shoot it, where are we going to talk about all the script, all this kind of stuff got to be right here in this compact video. And you got to, and then you don’t have time to do no retakes. Like I’m not doing retake. And I actually learned like the first, my first one is the best one in ways. So just keep going.
Brad Lowery
Always.
Matt Brading
Always.
Trey Hill
That’s kind of my process. I kind of think of something and then the one that you really think about later, like for a while you think about and you put more work into it, those don’t do good. So the one’s off the cuff that you you think about while you’re there and put it out and yeah, it works.
Matt Brading
I that that’s, mean, I love what you’ve said, how, you know, it’s home inspection first. mean, that’s the deal. Cause a lot of people, they get the vision clouded here. I mean, cause to be quite honest, there’s things that go in my videos sometimes that I don’t go in my reports. mean, I’m not, it’s not like smoke and mirrors. I’m not trying to tell people, you know, this is, I just, sometimes I find something that may not be in my scope of work, but I think it is interesting enough to make a video on. And, and so people get confused though, because
Trey Hill
Mm. Right.
Matt Brading
They literally think my job is what’s out there on the internet. it’s like, that’s actually, couldn’t be further from the truth. Like my work and my inspection report, mean, you know, hundreds of pictures, I mean, tons and tons and tons of comments, a lot of, and it takes a while to put this together. It is, there’s a lot of information that goes in there. It’s not just making a little video or whatever. There’s, those are two really different things. But I do find like for me, and we’ve talked about this a little bit Trey, but like one of the challenges for me, cause I mean, you have to stay, cause we’re both right? Because we, yeah, it’s inspection first. We are content creators. And so we have to, you know, that, that, we have to, and I want to get into the demand on that too, but like, we have to meet that too. We need to keep creating this content. And so we have to keep our mind focused on like inspection first and then video, because I have.
Trey Hill
Mm-hmm.
Matt Brading
100 % being guilty of walking up finding something. Usually it’s the really good like funny stuff too, you know, and I’ll be like, that’s amazing. And I’ll pull out my phone and I’ll video it right away. And then later on when I’m doing my report, I’m like, shoot, that didn’t make it to the report. And I’ve literally taken screenshots from my phone before because I’m like, man, and it makes you think like, man, I’d never want to miss anything because
Trey Hill
And… You’re right. We’ll you in a – Right, Yeah.
Matt Brading
Filming a video, you know, and so I have to stay focused to like go inspection first. That’s a challenge because we’re trying to like in order to keep up with the demand, which is another challenge, like we’re filming stuff daily. We’re making, I mean, not all of it works, but we’re filming stuff daily.
Trey Hill
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Brad Lowery
I try. I want to hear about your workflow. Let’s jump right into that next. But before we do, we got to do our drink of the day segment sponsored by Inspection Fuel we do it’s sponsored by Inspection Fuel because we got a little bit in there. We got to pay the bills here. And so go sign up for Inspection Fuel September eight to the 10th. It’s in New Orleans. It’s going to be at the Marriott there I believe but go to inspectionfuel.com slash register to sign up. Matt what you sipping on?
Matt Brading
Do we? that’s right, that’s right. Nope, I’m not going first on this one. You guys are.
Brad Lowery
All right, it’s right. This is a little tradition that we do just whatever we have to be sipping on during the show. What have you got?
Trey Hill
I actually got some sparkling water.
Matt Brading
What kind of sparkling water?
Trey Hill
This man this is Kirkland and this is so it’s Costco. First time I tried like that’s nasty. Then I made it cold. I can do that.
Matt Brading
Right on, right on.
Brad Lowery
He is a Costco man. Dude.
Matt Brading
Yeah, you get used to it. Sparkling water, you gotta kinda get used to it. But once you do, think you kinda crave it. I do.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, yeah.
Trey Hill
Yeah.
Brad Lowery
And dude, Costco gas, when you drive as much as we do as inspectors, it saves you so much money,
Trey Hill
That’s only gas I go.
Brad Lowery
Yeah. Do it man. I honestly it’s like that’s a life hack.
Matt Brading
Never gonna mess.
Trey Hill
You look like that!
Matt Brading
I’m a Kroger gas. I got a discount there. So
Trey Hill
I thought, shut.
Brad Lowery
There you go. Yeah, no, it’s in Florida. It’s like 30 cents a gallon cheaper than normal pump gas.
Trey Hill
Yeah, maybe Costco gives some money for shouting them out right now.
Brad Lowery
There you go. I like I like the way you’re thinking. I am sipping on just a I’m boring tonight. I got a little little protein shake. I’ve been trying to be more consistent on staying healthy. This was a gosh, I had a conversation. There’s a there’s a video on this. think it’s on the YouTube channels way back a year and a half ago. I was talking with Wally Conway where he was talking about just the importance of prioritizing your own health when you get especially when you get to the crazy season that you’re in. I have an inspector an agent that I did inspections for back in Virginia. She’s down here in Florida now too. She sent me a video. I posted this up on my, my inspection dude, Instagram. She was like, Hey, check this out. This is the first inspection we ever did together. And Lord almighty was I just depressed out of shape. Everything was a meal out of the bag. Cause I was doing three inspections a day, you know, 10 to 12 inspections a week and just
Not taking care of myself at all and I’m like, man, I got you just looking in the mirror I’ve never been like a gym selfie guy. That’s not how I roll but at the same time I was like dude I am pleased with a little bit of the progress made there So I’ve been staying after it. So I snuck into the gym before I started recording here tonight. So take care of yourselves, know What ya sipping on Matt?
Trey Hill
You. That’s good. yeah.
Matt Brading
Well, Inspection Fuel, it’s okay. I got you. I know, I know what’s going on here, but you guys are sponsoring the drink of the day, right? And so, I got you. I am also drinking sparkling water. This is a waterloo black cherry, but that’s just a sidecar. That’s just a sidecar, right? So here’s what I got. This right here is what we call an infinity bottle. Anybody know what an infinity bottle is? What an infinity bottle is? I got my glass right here. I take the.
Trey Hill
Thank you.
Brad Lowery
This was my healthy episode.
Matt Brading
Last little bit of bourbon bottles that I have and I pour it in my infinity bottle. And so it makes my own little ever-changing custom blend of bourbon.
Trey Hill
Mm.
Brad Lowery
Dude, I need it. Is it just like a decanter that you use? Like a standard? Okay, I love it. I gotta get in on that. All right, hey.
Matt Brading
Decanter yeah. Cheers to Inspection Fuel September 8th the 10th.
Brad Lowery
Eight through the 10th. There you go. Cheers guys.
Trey Hill
New Orleans.
Brad Lowery
Let us know. Yeah, let us know what you’re sipping on in the comments. Let us know it’s in your infinity bottle. But back to it, dude, Trey, what is your inspection process like that allows you to be thorough on the job and also crank out content at the same time the way that you do?
Trey Hill
Um, I mean, I just kind of, so like I said, I’ve been doing it like 10 years. So I have my process, um, of how I inspect and, know, what I’m used to putting on report and things like that. So, um, a rule now as far as content and inspection is put in a report first. And that’s my rule. And after Matt knows you see so many houses, stuff just, you know. So even when I walk in the house and I’m turning on lights and stuff like that, if I see something, I go ahead and put in a report. Cause my mind says, we already saw that, you know, and keeps going. Even once I get to that part. So that’s what I do with the videos. I put in a report first and then I’ll shoot the video. So make sure I got what I need to get first. So.
Brad Lowery
That’s brilliant, man. Now do you bring people around with you while you’re doing the inspection or do you do your inspection first and then do the summary walkthrough kind of.
Trey Hill
Yeah, I like the summary walkthrough because, again, after years of doing this, you find I’m not an inspector that I went to a, I went to a house I did yesterday today. Cause I forgot something and realized it was a, let me go back. I’m not an inspector. Like if I miss something, I’m gonna go back and check in and make sure, you know, make sure it’s working. So when people come and start talking to things like that, it can mess up your routine and you can forget that you didn’t do certain things. And then when you start working that report, that’s when you find out, man. So I’m a fan of people coming close to the end. And that way I’ve done my process and then I can walk them through and show them things that I found.
Matt Brading
Yeah, I very much in the same way. Brad does things a little bit differently. I think that, you know, obviously it works for some people to have people watching. It might be a certain personality thing. think Trey and I maybe share that same, you know, personality trait where it’s like, you know, we really need to stay focused because we can get distracted. And, you know, I think the real important thing to think about there is realizing that you have that personality trait, right? Because if I just say, yeah, come on, come on to the inspection. Like I’m actually doing, I, least I feel like I could be doing a client disservice because I feel like I am putting myself into a position where I can easily get distracted. It has happened before, not on purpose, but it has happened before. And let me tell you, man, I’m that inspector too. Like I don’t sleep good if I don’t feel like I’ve done a great job, you know, Brad, you take people around with you, don’t you?
Trey Hill
Yeah. Right. Right.
Brad Lowery
I do, yeah. I’ve touched on this in past episodes, so I don’t want to be too redundant about it. For me, it was a product of where I was, in Virginia and Washington, DC. And there were some content creators up there in that neck of the woods. But back during COVID, we were talking about, y’all were talking about not being able to get in offices and market as much. The whole real estate market up there was popping so much that I didn’t have to market either. People were looking for an inspector to come do something in 30 minutes. Now, was things were real estate was flying off the shelf. Inventory was almost non-existent because it was cash buyer competitions. It just going as fast as it came available. So you had to, at least with Ken Humphries, my area manager that I used to work with, back at BPG, he trained me on a methodology where you try to get as much done in two to two and a half hours as possible. And the best way to do that and kind of honor everybody’s time, since everybody had someplace else to be in the DC area, is just to have them come along with you. And the benefit there, if you’re able to kind of walk and talk, is that you’ve got multiple sets of eyes. And this actually, this happened at the home inspection that I had last Monday. I had a couple and there was one thing I was explaining it and I was taking a picture of one thing over here and on my ISN Report Writer app, nice little plug there, and the buyer went, hey, did you see this right here? And it was a product of like, I just hadn’t turned around to see it yet, but I’m glad that he saw it because I’m like, it’s just kind of two sets of eyes and. You know, it also allows me to diffuse situations as they come up. So when somebody, when I look and notice a defect and point out a problem, I can kind of give them the low down on the good, the bad and the ugly or how fixable and repairable it is. So they’re not just scared crapless on a 30 minute walkthrough, like, oh my gosh, this is an overwhelming amount of things wrong. As I’m going around, I’m pointing out things that are right too, you know? So they get to, they feel very invested in it, but. The downside is if you want to create content, you can’t because it’s awkward, right? Like, hey, guys, hold on. I got to film a Tiki talk, right? You know, it can’t really do that. But, you know, it’s you’re limited in what you’re able to do. But it’s just a very different approach. And I’ve thought about, you know, going back since it’s a little bit slower pace down here in Florida. I’ve thought about going back to kind of kind of exactly what you all do. So.
Matt Brading
Yeah, no, let it happen. So I don’t think we can get through this episode without talking about Trey’s tagline.
Trey Hill
You don’t know that that is right now my tagline that ain’t right That’s the tagline.
Brad Lowery
Need to hear it.
Matt Brading
Thank
Brad Lowery
I’m telling you man, I’m sorry for not being educated today.
Matt Brading
That ain’t right. Yeah, that’s actually it. That’s it.
Brad Lowery
That ain’t right. I love it, man. So we got, that’s not supposed to do that and that ain’t right on this show. There you go.
Matt Brading
That’s right. That’s right. We,
Trey Hill
as
Matt Brading
Yeah. I mean, yeah, we got that. It’s not supposed to do that. And then we got. Both in one episode.
Trey Hill
And then, right?
Brad Lowery
Now have you gotten one of those one of those is a specter Randall’s doing this now the little pointy hands have you gotten yourself one of those yet?
Matt Brading
Yeah, man, me and Trey talked about that a couple of days ago, man. I love it. I love it. I mean, I don’t I don’t anticipate buying one. OK, I’m not gonna hop on that. I’m gonna let those guys have that. got we got a few of them out there doing it now. Enough of them out there doing it now. But I tell you what, man, that was a real, real genius thing that he did there, man. was great.
Brad Lowery
Yeah. Everybody’s doing it now.
Trey Hill
You’re right.
Brad Lowery
Yeah.
Trey Hill
I think that was genius. But I’m not going to order it in one like that.
Matt Brading
No, it was, mean, I love it though. I mean, I honestly, I watch it every time it comes up. can’t get enough of it, but I’m not.
Trey Hill
you
Brad Lowery
It’s so creative.
Trey Hill
Really good. Yeah, really good.
Brad Lowery
But Trey, when did you notice your video starting to pop off? And what was it kind of a change or a tweak that you made that really kind of helped to lead to that?
Trey Hill
So, fortunately for me, TikTok hopped up quicker than all the other ones. So like when I first started, I was doing everything and then TikTok kind of went crazy. And so my focus went to what was going crazy, you know, so I started doing more TikTok. But my first video was my first That Ain’t Right video and I did a house. It was a phase two. Them people didn’t buy the house. Anyway, it was a phase two house. just the builder, it was just a lot of stuff just bad. Like the house wasn’t even ready, know, dirty and stuff like that, windows broken, just everything just bad. And so that was my first one doing the that ain’t right. And that one just blew up. And so after that, I knew that, well, shoot, I gotta hit it. That ain’t right, that ain’t right. Every video after that was, ain’t right because I needed to make sure people know my privilege. Yeah, just like the hand thing, you know. Everybody can do that, you know what mean? And of course, people did try to take it. But at that time, I had such a following or people fighting for me and saying, you no, you taking his stuff, you know.
Brad Lowery
Trademark that thing, yeah.
Matt Brading
That’s actually how me and Trey met. That’s actually how I met Trey, was by his loyal following. so one day, you know, and I got, man, it’s not supposed to do that stuff, man. And look, we might’ve talked about this before, but like as a content creator, I find that don’t have a whole lot of time to consume content, you know? And so I actually go out of my way to try to do that now. But I mean, I know back in the…
Brad Lowery
That’s awesome, man. yeah.
Matt Brading
In those days, I wasn’t at all because I was busy working and creating and that was it. You know, like I have to make time for it now. But, but yeah, I wasn’t really consuming any content. So I didn’t really follow people or I just kind of did my own thing out there, you know? And, what I was doing, what I did instead of consuming content was I focused on something that trade doesn’t do at all. Hey, we got to rerecord started over.
Trey Hill
Bye.
Brad Lowery
That ain’t right.
Matt Brading
That ain’t right. So, yeah, so where was I? We were talking about, yeah, yeah, yeah, how we met. So what I did instead of consuming content was I kept up with all of my comments, which we should talk about, Trey doesn’t do that, but I was keeping up with comments, was replying to people, was pushing engagement and all that stuff. All the things they encourage you to do. I was doing all that. And so this guy pops off and he’s like,
Brad Lowery
Taglines and how you guys met.
Matt Brading
Telling me how much I’ve ripped off Trey. Like he just like, I can’t read. said something ugly to me. And he said, he said, you’re just, you know, copying Gold Star Inspections. He called me a copycat, all this stuff. said, Hey bro, I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you’re talking about. Like, I don’t know what’s going on. And I was kind of sarcastic to him because I was like, Hey, if you want to defend Gold Star Inspections, whoever that is so much, why don’t you be nice and tag them in this, you know, cause I had a large account at the time. I was like, if you tag them, people will see it, you know.
Trey Hill
And alright.
Brad Lowery
Yeah.
Matt Brading
But instead
Brad Lowery
Yeah.
Matt Brading
You’re just saying this and no one even knows. I can’t even go to the guy’s page. Well, me and the guy went back and forth several times and then he finally told me he was like, yeah, he’s bigger on TikTok. was like, oh, I don’t even have TikTok. And I go, okay, all right. And so then he, then he finally, I think he ended up emailing me or something, some way to find you. And so I did, I found it. I looked up Trey and I was like, we’re in the same city.
Trey Hill
Thank – we’ll
Matt Brading
We’re the same city. was like, this guy’s got to be a great guy. So I looked through his content. He was creating some awesome content. And so I called him up. I just, his number was right there. I called him up. answers the phone. Gold star, Gold Star Inspections. said, yeah, this is a Matt with Texas edge home inspections. I was hoping I could talk to Trey or something like that. And he goes, yeah, I’m on a job. Can I call you? Wait, who is this? This is Matt with Texas edge.
Trey Hill
Ha
Brad Lowery
Hahaha. I’ve heard of you.
Matt Brading
He was like, I watch your stuff. And then, mean, that’s it, man. You know, we’ve been friends ever since, basically.
Trey Hill
Yeah, and kudos to Matt, you know, calling me and doing that. Some people don’t do that. But yeah, I was like, man, what’s up, man? What’s going on? I gotta watch your stuff all the time.
Brad Lowery
Of it.
Matt Brading
Yeah, it was cool. I mean, like, you know, because people even still today try to like, you know, put us against each other, you know. I feed into it. Drey doesn’t at all. But which I commend you for that. I mean, I mean, this dude, you know, he does he marches to the beat of his own drum, man. I mean, he puts out this content, pretty much posts and ghosts you don’t really talk to nobody on there, do you? He doesn’t engage with anybody.
Trey Hill
Right.
Brad Lowery
See.
Trey Hill
The deal is and in the beginning though so in the beginning and also on the other side I have three young babies. I got an older one, no 25, 24 but then I got three young ones. One is five and I got seven twins, boy and girl that’s three, they’re about to be four in July. So you think about three diapers, three kids in diapers crying, all that.
Brad Lowery
That’s nice man.
Trey Hill
Mama ain’t once I’m done working and I come home mama said you are home. You got these babies where they need to eat. They need diapers, you know, so. And in the beginning I tried because that’s what they say. You got to you got to talk to the people you got. You know, so I was trying to do that and you know what you’re doing. So I just never had, you know, had that time to do it. So I just started post and ghost, you know, basically and.
Brad Lowery
Yeah
Matt Brading
Right. You ain’t got time to be fooling around with these comments.
Trey Hill
And the people, you know, people start talking, you gotta have thick skin. Sometimes you’re going there and read stuff and then get you going and stuff like that. And I did that early on, but then I kind of stopped and now I let the people talk, you know, they start talking and somebody else start talking and they arguing back and forth, whatever. And yeah. And I learned that, what’s that, interactions or whatever, what they call it, whatever, interactions, but.
Matt Brading
Engagement.
Brad Lowery
Engage with Laya.
Trey Hill
Yeah, engagement. So the more they do, the more it puts the video out. So yeah, keep talking.
Matt Brading
Yeah, yeah, I love it when people get in arguments with each other on there. That’s great. When I don’t even have to do the work, they just argue with each other.
Trey Hill
Right, right.
Brad Lowery
You’d have to say the word sigh.
Trey Hill
Exactly.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, well actually that’s another question that I want to ask both of you guys because Preston Kincaid posted something he was it was kind of a you know six steps that Content creators or aspiring content creators need to take as home inspectors and one of them I find this to be very controversial it works for him it works for certain other individuals that we will or will not name on the show here, but he definitely espouses the always have a villain in your videos approach, whether it be the builder or the homeowner or the there’s always somebody who’s the bad guy, you know, and I, I don’t know that I agree with that just because I’m like, I’m, I’m here to be helpful. I’m not here. I feel like that only pushes the deal killer narrative. But what y’all take on.
Matt Brading
Well, I think do you, you know, if that works for Preston to have a villain in his videos. And let me tell you, brother, it works for him on TikTok. It works very well for him on TikTok. And so, I mean, he should do that, right? I don’t do that, but I do a variety of different things. And so, you know, there’s definitely some villains in some of my videos, but I wouldn’t say that I make that a habit. What about you, Trey?
Brad Lowery
Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Trey Hill
No, I don’t. kind of, I’m kind of a happy, fun inspector type when I do my videos. Like during the inspections, I’m boring. Okay. Just be truthful. You’re quiet and you’re just looking and stuff. But my most, the best part of the day is actually me shooting videos. So I actually enjoy it. And so I try to bring some life into it and try to bring, try to be funny. If I see something funny about it, I want to put that in there. So I’m just more so on that side, but I’m like, Matt, you know, whatever works for you work. Of course, you know, you got all these different kinds of movies. You got scary movies. You got happy movies. You got comedy. Everybody watching them. So and it kind of like I said, social media is like TV on your phone. So whoever, whatever people like, that’s what they’re going to go to.
Matt Brading
For everybody. My assessment of your content, is like, you’re not making a villain out of anybody. You’re just an advocate for the people. And like, that’s it. Like, you know, he’s going to say, Hey, get it inspected. Cause they’ll leave your house like this, you know, but he’s not, you know, saying, not, not speaking specifically to any builder or saying, you know, anything necessarily bad about the builder or, or any, nothing like that. Just, you know, get it inspected. Let me help you. Let us help you.
Trey Hill
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Brad Lowery
Yeah.
Matt Brading
So you’ve been an advocate for the people you’ve been an advocate for the industry of home inspection and you know stuff that you put out there the stuff I put out there I mean, I mean if we’re just increasing awareness to people to get home inspections like I feel like we’re doing our job That’s what it was for. Even if you don’t call me man. Call Trey call somebody get You know, yeah Get it looked at you know, and the thing is is you know, we yeah, do I want you to call me? Don’t you call? Yeah, I mean, of course
Trey Hill
I’m gonna get some help from somebody.
Matt Brading
But I can’t help everybody. I can’t help everybody here. And my reach, your reach is nationwide at the minimum. mean, we can reach people all the way across the US and further. And so why not be an advocate for the industry itself? And that’s where I feel like Trey’s position really is. At least that’s the impression that I get. He’s not making a villain out of anybody. But I mean, some people do that, like you said, and it is very successful for some people. But I think…
Trey Hill
Yeah.
Matt Brading
The biggest thing when it comes to creating content is to be yourself. You’ve got to be true to yourself. Because if you’re not true to yourself, then it’s going to show and people are not going to think it’s authentic. They’re not going to like your content. And if being true to yourself means having a villain in your videos, like for Preston, then that works. That’s the reason why it worked for him. That doesn’t make him a villain. He’s just a different personality.
Brad Lowery
Mm-hmm.
Trey Hill
Yeah. Yeah, everybody got their thing. Like he’s able to do long videos. I mean, I was like, wow, you know, you know, he can do it and like tell the story, whatever. you know, whatever. I think like you said, fine, fine. works for you and be yourself after all the like from the beginning of starting content to now, I think the whole thing was learning how to press record and be yourself.
Brad Lowery
Mm-hmm.
Trey Hill
That’s the challenge. A lot of people press record and it change. It change where they are. So, yeah.
Matt Brading
Yeah. Well, that’s what we used to do. We had to figure out that it’s actually okay to just be yourself. You got to kind find that little groove, you know?
Trey Hill
Yeah, yeah. Right. It comes with reps, repetition. Keep you doing it, keep doing it. Now, press record is nothing. It’s part of your day, you know what mean? So yeah, that’s really what my thing is. Again, going back to being new on social media, I said nobody wants to see a commercial. You know, I think a lot of people, I’m an s baby, so. A lot of people looked at it and take it that way when they said, we’ll put business on social media. And they like, let me talk about my company. Let me sell my, and it’s a commercial. My name is Trey Hill up from Gold Start specs, You need inspections and call . You know, it’s a commercial. And like, what do we do on YouTube when ads come out? Soon as that’s skipped, we’d be waiting five, four, three, So nobody wants to see a commercial.
Brad Lowery
Yep. Yep.
Matt Brading
You
Trey Hill
So even on that side of content, polished content, okay, there’s a place for it and there’s a place where it’s really, you, sometimes when you’re looking at a video and it looks too polished, it looks like a commercial. So you’re like, next, next. So I try to be genuine and clear cut on that, but yeah, I’m not, I mean. That’s basically what it is. I’m not trying to do a commercial. And a lot of times I don’t even say, get an inspection, you need an inspection. I go another route, so I might say, yeah, you don’t need an inspection, but you’re gonna need a plumber or you’re gonna need somebody to figure out where this mold’s gonna come from. You don’t need an inspection.
Matt Brading
I had somebody get so mad at me one time because I started out a video and I said, four reasons why you should not get a pre drywall inspection. Right? And like I ended the video saying, you know, so this is the reasons why you shouldn’t get a pre drywall inspection. Save your money because you’re going to need it when all this water comes to your house. One guy got so mad at me because, and I guess he didn’t watch it to the end, but he was like,
Trey Hill
You. Mm-hmm.
Matt Brading
You know, I like all your stuff, but you saying full reasons why you shouldn’t get an inspection. I’m like, bro, it’s sarcasm, man. I’m sorry. didn’t get the joke. I mean.
Trey Hill
Right. Right. Right.
Brad Lowery
May watch though. That’s jeans. That’s a hook that gets them to watch. Especially
like save that kind of like shock jock stuff for like when you start to see the numbers dip a little bit. Just throw something like that out there where they’re just like wait, what? You know it’s yeah, it’s it gets their attention.
Trey Hill
You’re right.
Matt Brading
feel like we had to touch on something here. We were talking about challenges that we face as content creating inspectors, right? And I think one challenge is social media is always changing. One platform might die completely. So if you don’t have your hands in all of them, at some point, I was really late to the TikTok game and…
Trey Hill
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Matt Brading
Thankfully, I’ve had a couple of videos do pretty well in the last couple of weeks. I had one just last week that popped off. And so I’m finally actually starting to get the traction on it, but it’s taken like three years. Like I thought my following from Instagram would just, you know, allow my TikTok account whenever I first started. I did this intro video, Trey was in it, man. I did this intro video with Trey and some other friends and it was like, hey, I’m on TikTok and like nothing.
Trey Hill
All
Matt Brading
Man, nothing happened. It was the slowest moving platform that I’ve, you know, at least since I had a following that I’ve dealt with. And so I didn’t know what to make of that, but it’s taken a long time, but I finally started to figure it out. I’m starting to get some things going. So things are constantly changing and they constantly change the rules and the algorithm. mean, lately, you know, Texas edge has been dropping followers, you know, and that seems to be happening to a lot of folks I know as well with larger accounts. And so I mean like, you know, I don’t know. mean, I’m blessed to have what I have. But the thing is, is like that could disappear at any moment. And that’s really where I’m getting at because Trey had a very substantial Facebook account. Facebook was one of those things I ignored for years. And then a couple of years ago, I started to put a little bit of effort into it by the advice of somebody that said, Hey, you know, it’s actually, there’s a lot of movement over there. And I did an account that stayed stagnant for years. put a little bit of effort into it and it just popped off and it went up, you know, and now it’s kind of leveled out at this point, but it’s pretty large. You had a large Facebook account, something happened.
Trey Hill
Yeah, some somebody decided to hack up in there. They said, Trey don’t need all these followers. I need them. They took them, took all my followers. So we had got up to , followers. And it actually was somebody was I think it was somebody was trying to get into where they came over, basically saying that.
Matt Brading
So what happened there?
Brad Lowery
Yeah.
Trey Hill
We trying to do an interview and stuff like that and some kind of way they got in there and Just took the followers.
Matt Brading
So your followers just disappeared.
Trey Hill
Yeah, it just disappeared like…
Brad Lowery
Were you able to rebuild? mean, I know you’re working on rebuilding, but how successful has that been so far? it just as have the previous audience been able to find you on the new account or
Trey Hill
So that’s the deal, like how you gonna say, here I am when you don’t have nothing. And then the, so I was late to Facebook. I’ve never had Facebook count, you know, whatever, I didn’t do Facebook. So I was late, that was my last one. And I said, you know, and it’s the thing, it kind of blew up quicker than what I expected. But on Facebook, there’s a bunch of accounts that like was still like uut of all the platforms, Facebook got the most accounts that would steal your content and post it. they were, somebody got a page that said that ain’t right. And they post all my videos.
Matt Brading
Report them whenever I see them I report them.
Trey Hill
I reported, I don’t see nothing happening. Like I reported, and a lot of mine on the old account, a lot of people report all kinds of accounts and they, know, nothing happened. So I don’t know what’s going on that front, like on Facebook, as far as them securing and making sure that stuff stays, you know, legit, but I don’t think they’re doing a good job.
Matt Brading
Is your new one starting to grow a little bit? I know you’d seen a little.
Trey Hill
Yes, Brad did a video and that that put some gas in it.
Matt Brading
I – he means Matt. Brad didn’t even know who you were.
Brad Lowery
I was trying to think I was like, did I what did I? Well, but we will tag you in this one. Yeah, yeah.
Matt Brading
But you didn’t do you didn’t. Yeah, Trey, know, we try to help each other out, right? Trey did a video to kind of send some people over to my YouTube page. And I did the same for him over on Facebook. And man, like the people like it’s so funny because most of the time I just get people saying, hey, you ripped off Trey. But like whenever Trey’s like, hey, go check out Matt. I’m like, hey, go check out Trey. Like the people were so kind. And they made sure to know like, Trey sent me here. Gold Star sent me here. You know, I’m a new subscriber, you know, looking forward to all this stuff is so, so nice. It was really refreshing. It was really cool. And I saw a pretty substantial jump, like a noticeable jump on, on YouTube within a few days of that. man, I really appreciate that.
Trey Hill
Mm-hmm. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it too.
Brad Lowery
I appreciate you coming on the show for sure Trey. Where can everybody follow you? mean drop your handle here for each platform that you’re on so we can help you at least rebuild a little bit of that Facebook page.
Trey Hill
So if you want the real trade Gold Star Inspections, all of them are the same. It’s gold.star.inspections. All of them. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok is the same one. Gold.star.inspections. If it’s something else? That ain’t right.
Matt Brading
That ain’t right.
Brad Lowery
I love it. I love it.
Matt Brading
Great.
Brad Lowery
Well, dude, Trey, thanks so much for coming on the show. And thank you everybody for watching. Go follow Trey, go sign up for Inspection Fuel, and we’ll see you next time right here on He Got It.
Matt Brading
The Ride Along.
