A 43-year-old North Carolina realtor became an unlikely viral sensation thanks to the 27-year-old video marketing manager at his company.
Mike Hege, a 43-year-old realtor at Pridemore Properties in Charlotte, requested a video for presentation on his Instagram and TikTok pages. The resulting video carried the on-screen caption “Asked my Gen Z employee to edit a video for me, and this is what I got!” – and the presentation consisted of a montage of a smiling Hege pausing for heavy inhaled breaths while speaking on his property tours.
The unlikely presentation is part of an online trend called “Letting Gen Z Edit My Videos,” where young employees tasked with corporate video creation create offbeat edits of their older employers speaking. Hege’s video stood out from the trend and captured nearly 3.5 million views within four days of going online. A serious video was also put online, but that captured a lot less attention.
Hege told Today.com that the firm’s video marketing manager, who requested not to be publicly identified, created the video based on their relaxed workplace.
“We give her free reign,” he said. “There’s a level of trust we have … I didn’t know about (the video edit at first). So it was, like, a complete surprise. I think, I think at first I was like, ‘Okay, that’s pretty funny.”
Many online commentators who watched video called for its creator to receive a pay raise. Hege said this was very likely to happen.
“She’s been an employee since February, and frankly, has been crushing it,” he stated. “So, I think her six month and one year review is going to look very good.”
@mikehege.realtor Help, she said I was cringe 😭@PridemoreProperties fyp breathingguy breathingrealtor inhale genzedit genzhumor
Amazing the waste of money on social media. The time wasted… the lack of being able to make or do anything accept try to get click/eyes. Ridiculous.