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Louise Thomas
Editor
A realtor is showing off a video that his Gen Z employee made for the business.
Mike Hege, a real estate broker based in Charlotte, North Carolina, who works at Pridemore Properties, took to Instagram to share what his 27-year-old marketing manager came up with to post on social media.
“Asked my Gen Z employee to edit a video for me, and this is what I got!” both the text on the screen and the post’s caption read.
The video itself featured Hege seemingly in the time before he’s about to start as he pauses and takes an opening breath, with the employee stitching together each moment. The employee joked about the clip being a compilation of her boss’s breaths as they marked the location for the post as “Mike’s Breathing.”
As of Monday, July 15, the post has been viewed more than 55 million times and received more than four million likes. In response, many people took to the comments to beg the company to give the employee a raise due to how well-done the video was.
“Give her a raise because this 100 percent caught my attention far more than whatever you were going to say,” one comment read.
Another commenter agreed, writing: “Give her a raise.”
“I’m freaking hollering and crying at the same time I can’t stop watching,” a third comment read.
“I had the biggest and longest laugh and have to keep rewatching. I’m dying,” another commenter admitted.
One viewer suggested that Hege was guilty of the “millennial pause,” which is the tendency to take a moment before starting to speak at the beginning of videos on social media, likely due to a lag in the technology.
“I will not be shamed for the millennial pause,” the comment read.
In an interview with Today, Hege explained that he allowed the employee to make a video with a more creative concept because of the level of trust they have with each other. “We give her free rein. There’s a level of trust we have,” he told the outlet.
He mentioned that, normally, the videos consist of Hege showing off various properties or other random tips about real estate, and this was her first time making a clip based off of an internet trend.
“I didn’t know about [the video edit at first]. So it was, like, a complete surprise. I think at first I was like: ‘Okay, that’s pretty funny,’” Hege said.
“We want to help people through the process of finance and real estate. This video was all about like the humanity of it. The authenticity that she tried to convey that we can we can have a good time,” he added. “This was the editor’s way of showcasing that we’re real people and that we can have fun and be on the lighter side.”
He even acknowledged all of the comments on the clip asking for him to give her a raise. “She’s been an employee since February, and frankly, has been crushing it. So I think her six month and one year review is gonna look very good,” Hege said.
