Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / Client Acquisition and the Value of Empathy

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Client Acquisition and the Value of Empathy · The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business

0:00
Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
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sometimes you have to tell them no.
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Oh, Todd, what is that?
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How can you how can you take care of a client if you tell them no?
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Aren’t I supposed to tell them yes to everything.
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Welcome to the Spiro podcast.
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Managing your real estate photography and videography business
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with your hosts, Todd Kivimaki
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and Craig Magrum.
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Hello everyone,
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and welcome to the Spiro podcast.
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I am Todd Kivimaki, founder and owner of Spiro
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and typically you're hearing my co-host, Craig Magrum, right now.
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He is out on assignment and it is just me today, but I am excited to be back.
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It was a couple of weeks off.
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One of the come at you today.
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Have a few fun topics to talk about and just great to connect
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with you all again
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in the weeks off.
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I took a little break on vacation and we're getting to the point
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that, you know, busy season is starting to wind down.
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And I think it is important
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that you take a little time, a little break for yourself.
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I had the flexibility that I have a large team at.
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Wow and Spiro and I was able to get away during what is still a busy season.
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But I suggest you just think about how you can give yourself a little break here
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and there so that you can revive and rest and then come back better than ever.
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For those of you that might be joining us for the first time, Welcome.
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It's great to have you in here.
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If you don't know, Spiro is a real estate software platform
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that we created, began 20 years ago
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and have adapted over the years for our real estate media business
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and it runs our business of over 12,000 shoots a year
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and about 30 photographers in the field and a large staff,
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and you have the opportunity to use it and allow it to run your business as well.
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So it does everything from the scheduling to the automation of tasks, job tracking
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workflows, dropboxes, organizing editors, and things like that.
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So it's going to automate a ton for you.
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If you would like to find out more information, you can do so at
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spiro.media.
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Also, one thing that we haven't talked about for a couple of weeks,
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maybe months, is the merge fleet, our automated video editor.
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Now the merge fleet is what we've created.
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Again, for us.
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we don't give you anything that we don't use ourselves.
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So we create all of this for our real estate media company
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and we use it every day.
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So the merge fleet is what edits our
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cinematic walkthrough tours, at least that's what we call them.
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And this is a 1 to 2 minute highlight of the home
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that has walkthrough footage that is in Spiro as well.
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You don't need to be using Spiro with all of your jobs.
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It's a standalone version as well, if you like.
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It can automate the process,
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but that might be a good thing for you
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to start thinking about Now as we wind down the year
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and you have a little bit of time to think about,
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what services are you going to add. Looking at the structure
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of your business, we have a full training for you.
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If you going to Spiro in the left hand menu, click Merge Fleet.
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There is a training button that you can click.
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It's free training, you can subscribe to it,
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you can have your photographers, your team subscribe to it
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will be happy to teach them how to shoot video for the merge fleet.
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The cool thing about the merge fleet is it's just ten bucks an edit.
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If it's built into an order.
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12 bucks is a standalone and it does all of your editing for you
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upload the clips about 30 minutes later you have an edited video.
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Again, we put about 9000 to 10000 videos through the year.
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It does just fantastic work for us and we're hoping that
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you at least give it a try.
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You can try test mode in there, that's free.
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You can play with that all you would like.
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So just something to put on your radar to think about before
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we get started today,
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I typically give a quick update
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as to what's coming out in the software and I will do that as well.
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I'm going to talk about what's coming up here very soon
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for launching of new updates and I'm excited about these.
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So potentially by the time you're listening to this,
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these might even be out in the system or maybe you're just a few days away.
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But the largest that I'm excited to tell you about is our Cubicasa integration.
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So you all have asked for it on our feedback board.
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It's the number one requested feature and we've listened to you and we have
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been hard at work and we are coding that and that will be out very soon.
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So what that will allow you to do is to integrate your Cubicasa account
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and will automatically pull those floorplans for you
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back into your Spiro property website.
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So yey! Excited about that.
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The second one is
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allowing the same user a multiple account,
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so right now the biggest one that we hear is editors.
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So we didn't anticipate many of you would share one editor.
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When we built it, we thought, Hey, we have our editors,
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everybody's going to have their own editors.
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And that was probably a little bit of silly thinking we've realized now.
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But previously in Spiro, if one editor was working
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for many photographers, the editor would have to manage
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multiple email accounts, which got a little bit messy.
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Now that editor will be able to just use one email account.
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They'll be able to log in and select what photographer system
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they're going to look at the task for.
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So it'll be much more streamlined to add editors.
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Also, this will flow through with
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admin user accounts and also photographer user accounts.
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So we have heard from some of you that one photographer is working
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for multiple photography companies.
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They'll be able to use the same log in as well and will have to manage multiple
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the next one
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and the third and the the last that I'll mention on the podcast
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today is Default property website order and sections.
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So many of you have asked, Hey, can I rearrange the property website?
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And you can you just manually have to rearrange every property
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website some of you want in a different order
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for all property websites And we will give you that ability.
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Not only will you be able to say all property websites have this order,
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but you can say this company, this real estate company
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gets a different order and then also this agent gets even a different order.
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So we'll take that same hierarchy where you can set it for your company,
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you can set it for a real estate company,
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and then also you can override all of that and have it custom for an agent.
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So some cool things coming up.
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If you'd like to find out more about the software, you can visit
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spiro.media also email us.
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We love to hear from you.
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It's so great to hear from you all.
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hello@spiro.media.
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Great.
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Okay.
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Diving in here today, I wanted to talk about
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two things.
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The first has to be has to do with client acquisition.
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So we hear from many of you.
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So as we're having conversations with you and as Nick and Shannon
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and the team is having conversations, you are asking us just
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tremendous questions about client acquisition.
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And we have grown our company at Wow Video Tours.
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That's our real estate media company through building relationships.
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And I believe very firmly that if you want to grow your company,
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you need to build relationships with clients.
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Now, there are many ways out there
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in the digital medium of 2024
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that you can target agents,
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you can do Facebook ads, Instagram ads, you can do
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private messaging, you can offer discounts,
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you can have landing pages, you can offer, you can put
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ads on Roku and YouTube TV.
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I mean, there's a million things you can do,
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and there's a lot of really cool things.
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I've kind of over the years fallen into this trap of thinking,
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hey, let's just really dive into this digital marketing era
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and let's just from our computers,
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grow and attract agents.
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And I don't want to lie to you.
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There is some success in that, but
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I'm going to age myself here, y'all.
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The older I get, the more that I realize
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that just building
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good, solid relationships
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and investing your time and people is the key to you.
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Growing your real estate business.
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Hands down, bar none.
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There is no secret sauce.
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There is no secret algorithm.
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AI can't do it for you.
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It literally just takes you caring about your clients,
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showing them that by investing
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your time into them in their business.
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And I will stand behind that 100% and we do that
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much like I mentioned, we use Spiro, we use the merge fleet.
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We built this for us and it's enabled us and empowered us to grow.
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We do the same thing at our company.
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We have a sales
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division, I have a head of sales, an assistant of sales,
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and we focus heavily on relationships.
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So I want to tell just a quick little story.
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This came up a morning meeting this morning with the team and
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I thought it was fitting for this topic.
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So about a year ago in one of our markets,
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we had a call about a higher end listing that was coming on the market.
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So think of one of your
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top End luxury listings and we got a call for it, which was great.
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They thought of us
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and this agent, this was the first time that we would have them working with them
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and they came in and there was a few things
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of what they wanted and specifically the timeline of what they wanted
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that we did not feel comfortable saying that we could deliver on that.
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And I'll tell you, this was tough.
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I remember this call coming in that,
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you know, Steve, our director of sales and Chris
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discussing it, and we ultimately decided
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that we would step away from this job.
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Oh, right.
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I mean, that's painful because you work really hard.
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You build relationships, you get a referral,
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you get someone that sees your website, Google business reviews,
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and they call you and they want to buy from you,
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but they want to buy on terms that sets you up to fail
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and ultimately sets them up to fail.
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And I'll tell you, it was tough.
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It's tough
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when you say no to someone.
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This was a big dollar job.
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This was a big listing as far as there was going to be a lot of eyes
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on this listing because everybody looks at the top listings
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and this hurt us,
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to be honest, a little bit from like a,
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you know, an ego
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perspective that we really wanted this job.
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But at the end of the day,
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we had to go back to our core values.
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And our number one core value is
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clients are our number one priority
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and if you have that
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as your core value and if clients are important to you,
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sometimes you have to tell them no.
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Oh, Todd, what is that?
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How can you how can you take care of a client if you tell them no at all?
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Aren’t you supposed to tell them yes to everything.
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That was a trap that I had.
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And wrong thinking over the years is in my DISC personality.
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I'm a high C.
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So for those of you that aren't familiar with this test yet, answer
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a whole bunch of questions and then it spits back
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this report and tells you a lot about yourself
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and high C personalities.
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Want everybody to be okay.
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I want everybody to be happy.
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So it's tough for me to tell people no, it's
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tough for my team to tell people no,
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even for those on the team that it's tough.
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That's not tough to tell them no.
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They’re a different personality type.
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It's tough because they want to win that job.
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Ultimately, they want that revenue and that commission coming into the company.
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So this was a difficult one for us to say no to
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and we moved on.
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You know, not one thing is going to put down your business and we got past it.
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We understood.
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We concluded as a team that this was the best path forward.
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And sometimes you just have to do that.
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And one thing
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that's important when you're doing that is the whole team has to be on board
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that this is the consensus and we're moving on now.
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Not everybody has to agree with that decision.
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That's way different.
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The team has to be united, though, however, on the fact
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that we're not going to relive this.
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We're not going to rehash it.
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I'm not going to hold a grudge about it.
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I'm not going to be upset about it.
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I'm not going to change my demeanor because I disagree with the consensus.
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That's the
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cool thing about a team and having the correct team is you can sit in a room
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or sit on a chat, a group call with individuals
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and people will say
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that they want something different.
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But at the end of the call they are all on board with the team moving forward.
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Okay, keep the ship moving forward.
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You can't have stragglers going in a different direction.
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And that's one thing that we've had to work on very hard over the years.
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So even if you have a small team right now, maybe it's you and your spouse, maybe
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it's you and your best friend, maybe it's you in a VA halfway across the world.
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Just be aware that being united in a decision
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and you might not get your way,
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but being united and moving forward and not allowing that
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to affect you from a subconscious level
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and changing your demeanor because of it is really key
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and keeping the ship moving in the correct direction.
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So like I said, that happened about a year ago
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that we said no to that job that we all really, really wanted.
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And I found out today a morning meeting that
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that listing went to a different agent.
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So the listing never sold the
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that original agent was effectively, you know,
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they didn't renew, they were fired from the contract and a new agent came in
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and it happened to be an agent that we worked with for quite a long time.
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And it was neat that that agent called us.
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We remembered that property
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and we knew what we wanted
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to do to abide by our standards.
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That new agent coming in agreed
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with us was okay with our timeline
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and we went and we shot the property and literally the team killed it.
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They did a fabulous job.
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It turned out tremendous.
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We got the big job and everybody's
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looking at the big listing, which happens to be our work.
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So that was just a neat one where sometimes
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you take a punch in your business,
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but you do it with really good intentions
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and intentions of truly helping the client, even though
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it seems like you're not giving them what they want, but you're helping them
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and it's just need to see that come full circle.
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I got to experience that.
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Like I said with my team this morning and just to see the smiles on their face,
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you know, Pam would say, Chris, you remember this.
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other people were shaking their heads and the team remembered this one,
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but doing the right thing and abiding
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by your core values
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and being true to them
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is really, really important.
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And making sure that your business has a great foundation
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and can give the clients what they expect.
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So I wanted to bring that up
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because it was a great example
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of sometimes you have to say no
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to truly help a client.
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And that was something that was tough for me, like I mentioned for many years.
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And that leads into our second topic
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that I'd like to talk about is empathy.
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Empathy is a word that in 2024,
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I think gets a little bit of a bad rap
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or is looked upon as almost a negative trait to have,
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you know, having empathy for someone's situation.
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So having some emotions, it could be sad,
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it could be supportive, it could be anger.
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You know, you could be angry because someone has a bad situation.
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But those feelings and those of you, I bring this out a lot.
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It's my it's my feeling clock here.
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So you know, this these feelings on here.
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So the for those of you that aren't look at watching the YouTube video
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on this clock there's emotions like fear,
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anger, disgust, sad, happy, surprised
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and then a whole bunch of others that lead out from those core feelings.
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And these feelings are not always easy for us to talk about,
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but they exist.
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We're human,
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you know, we were given God gave us these feelings for a reason.
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And having empathy I 100%
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firmly believe in is a very, very good quality.
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It's something that I think about.
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It's something that I try to bring in every day,
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always try to think about that person
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that's coming in.
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What are they experiencing?
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You might just get the tip of the iceberg,
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but you didn't realize what was below the water
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and everything that was in their situation and all the bad cards
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that they were dealt and all that they've come through.
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So I think it goes a really long ways to have empathy.
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And in that example where we said no at the beginning to that luxury listing,
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we truly did have empathy
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for the client that we could help them,
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you know, and we express that.
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We express that we want to give them only the best quality that we knew that
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this was important. We were happy that they got the listing.
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We knew how the listing needed to be marketed
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and we knew the timeline that we needed
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and we felt bad that we couldn't help them.
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So having empathy
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is really, really important.
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And a question I get asked from time to time
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is, is empathy a sign of weakness?
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You know, I think sometimes when I am talking with
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with a Spiro user or someone just about business and they
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they kind of have this thought when I when I give them an empathetic
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or asks them to be empathetic as to where they're saying, hey,
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is this showing me to be weak?
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And it's 100% not showing you to be weak.
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It's in fact showing you the complete opposite of being strong
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and being restrained enough to have empathy for someone.
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So let me give you a quick example
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of showing empathy to someone but not showing weakness.
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So we've all had this.
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We've done a shoot for someone and they get an invoice,
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say, for some reason we don't use pay before download
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and they're able to get the media
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and they use it.
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And really, if they use it or not, as indifferent in this example.
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But anyways, you've done a shoot, you've delivered the media and they haven't paid.
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This is this is fairly common, especially in busy season.
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Realtors are busy, okay?
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It's not that they're not going to pay you
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this is that they're busy,
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but say you have an outlier invoice that's due out
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and maybe it's 90, 120 days past due.
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You know, it's a decent amount of money
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and you'd like to get paid for the work you've done
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and you've reached out to the agent,
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you've emailed them, you know, in Spiro, the system
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automatically sends invoice reminder emails for you.
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So weekly they're getting invoice reminder emails monthly they'll get it
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automatic text message from Spiro
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that bumps them in a different way to their phone via text message.
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But they have just ghosted you
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and you are fuming.
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You are not happy.
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This is for a lot of money.
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You've done your work and you don't know what to do.
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So what I would suggest is, one,
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reach out to them
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via direct communication and a voice to voice or a face to face.
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So a phone call or a meeting.
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Okay, This is imperative in these situations
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that you have
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voice communication with them.
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Okay
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email, text messages.
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Things can all get lost in translation.
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Tone and emotion can get lost in translation,
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and it can take a situation like this
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really bad because people get defensive.
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And I can tell you from experience that that has happened to me.
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Where I haven't wanted to pick up the phone because
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there's a little bit of a scary conversation, right?
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Like nobody loves to have a conversation, you know,
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call another grown adult and tell them to pay their bills.
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Right.
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Who loves to do that?
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Who started a business
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because they want to go collect money from other grown adults?
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Yeah, none of us.
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So this is not not like I look forward to these conversations.
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My team doesn't look forward to these conversations.
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So it's natural that you're having some of those emotions on this emotion clock.
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You know, it might be a little fear, it might be a little disgust,
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there might be a little frustration
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infuriated, irritated,
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suspicious, skeptical, judgmental.
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You might be some of those you might have some
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or many of those feelings.
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This is
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not the highlight of owning your own business.
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Is doing collection goals,
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in fact, is the reason why we switched our company
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earlier in the year to pay before download where we invoiced 12,000 people a year.
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I mean, talk about a pain of collecting.
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I mean, we we had a person that did collection.
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We spent a lot of money on people just calling.
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We had a collection company.
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So I get it like, I don't like to do this either,
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but I firmly believe that you need to call this individual.
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And in calling this individual,
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you need to be careful and have empathy about how you approach them.
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Okay, So let's not assume that they received
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any of your emails, all 300 of them asking for payment.
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Let's not assume they received any of the text messages.
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Let's not assume anything when we call them,
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but let's have some empathy for their situation.
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So I would call them and when I got them on the phone,
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I would say, Hello, Agent.
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Hey, it's Todd with Wow Video Tours.
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Hey, I hope you're doing well today.
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I know you're busy.
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I just have a quick question.
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I'm doing a little bit of bookkeeping and getting caught up on my end.
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And I noticed that you had an outstanding invoice
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and I'm sure you probably get a hundred
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or hundreds of emails a day, so I'm sure it was just overlooked.
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But I wanted to call as a courtesy, and I just want to check in on that,
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make sure everything went okay.
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I saw you use the list, the photos online, and I hope your sellers just love them.
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And then also I want to see if I can help with that payment
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by just quickly taking a credit card over the phone.
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And then at that point, just stop talking.
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So I use this trade a lot as the where my older brother taught me this.
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He taught me that he who talks first loses.
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So let's break down a little bit as to what I did in that conversation.
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One much like I suggested to you, I didn't assume anything.
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I didn't come in angry because this person
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is owed me $1,000 for 90 days.
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I didn't come in angry because the house they used the photos
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or maybe the listing was sold and this agent got paid.
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Why wouldn’t they pay me?
25:54
So I put that all aside.
25:56
I'm not saying maybe I didn't think it
25:59
right and maybe we all thought it.
26:01
We're still human.
26:03
But I didn't say it and I didn't bring that emotion in.
26:05
There was a divide and clean slate.
26:10
For all I know, this agent
26:12
has had health issues, has had
26:16
financial issues, has had a problem in their life
26:19
where they've been off the grid and they're dealing with something
26:22
that is incomprehensible to me and my business.
26:28
So I was friendly,
26:31
I softened.
26:32
I use softeners.
26:34
So you probably get 100 or one hundreds of emails a day.
26:38
I gave them a little bit of an out
26:41
At this point, I'm not looking for blame.
26:45
I've done that before in the past
26:47
and I've wanted justification during the call
26:52
and I've said some things that quite honestly,
26:55
15 years later, my holy crap, Todd, you said that
26:59
we've lost that we lost the client.
27:03
You know, there were there was one,
27:05
quite honestly, that she had all this money for a long time
27:10
and a lot of money
27:12
and she was ghosting me
27:16
and we shot multiple
27:19
listings for her, which we shouldn't have done, but we did.
27:23
And she won’t email, she won’t text message.
27:28
I didn't try to call.
27:31
I was like, Oh man, I don't want to talk to her about this.
27:34
And then I saw online because I was friends with her on Facebook
27:38
that she posted that she got this new piece of jewelry.
27:43
And this was a
27:44
this was like diamond earrings, like nice jewelry.
27:48
And like, I was infuriated, like literally infuriated
27:52
that she is out there, like, almost to me,
27:58
like gawking over the fact that she's got these new earrings.
28:02
Like, how dare she she owes me money.
28:04
We've done four shoots for her.
28:05
She owes us thousands of dollars.
28:08
And I sent her a Facebook message.
28:10
And I hate to admit that I even did this.
28:13
And I mentioned the fact
28:15
that she's all this money.
28:19
She hasn't returned any any email, any text message.
28:23
She's ignored us,
28:25
She's sold the listings,
28:29
and now she is out there flaunting
28:31
the fact that she's got this new piece of jewelry.
28:35
Come on. What's wrong with you, lady?
28:37
Seriously?
28:39
And I took I did not use empathy at all
28:42
in this conversation.
28:46
And of course, like there always is,
28:49
there was a circumstance
28:53
she was going through a divorce, kids involved
28:57
and a whole bunch of other things.
29:00
She didn't buy the earrings.
29:02
They came through.
29:03
I forget what the situation even was, but she didn't spend cash or money
29:06
on the earrings.
29:07
They were through a settlement of some sort.
29:09
Anyways, long story short, then of the day, I was like, Oh
29:14
wow, I like
29:15
you assumed a whole lot of things there.
29:18
And like for a few thousand dollars life
29:20
to not have empathy that this individual was going through a divorce.
29:24
Her kids were split between her and her husband or ex-husband.
29:29
Anyways, long story short, not to go too much into that.
29:31
I've done this the wrong way,
29:34
and I can firmly tell you that
29:39
taking the higher road is always better.
29:44
And Darn it, I, I get these,
29:47
I get these comebacks and things come to me so quickly.
29:50
I'm quick witted and I like love
29:53
to take jabs like they come to me so fast and I've had to really restrain
29:58
those over the years because it is not worth it.
30:02
It's not worth it with your clients.
30:04
It's not worth it with your family, your spouse, your kids.
30:09
It is just simply not worth it.
30:12
That will do
30:12
nothing but tear down relationships
30:16
and in the end make you alone like we lost the client.
30:20
So to this day, that was 15 years ago.
30:23
Still, to this day, she doesn't shoot with us.
30:28
Was I was I right?
30:29
Was I just was I just I don't know if I just. If I.
30:31
But was I right? Yes, I was right. She owed us money.
30:34
She got us a lot of money. She had closings.
30:37
She paid other people she paid her house payment.
30:39
She paid other things.
30:42
Why didn't she pay us?
30:44
But still, don't let that allow you to assume
30:49
and connect dots that shouldn't be connected.
30:53
So that's the way I've done it wrong.
30:56
And so in my phone script conversation that we just went through
31:01
a few minutes ago,
31:02
you know, I gave the client softness like, Hey, you probably get 100 emails a day.
31:06
I'm sure you've overlooked it. I know you're really busy.
31:09
I wanted to give you a courtesy call.
31:11
I'm thinking about you.
31:13
I want to make it easy for you.
31:14
I could take a quick credit card over the phone,
31:17
and then I just let them talk.
31:21
Okay, so that's super important.
31:23
And then hear what they have to say.
31:25
They might say, Oh, holy cow, Todd.
31:27
I didn't realize that it has been so busy.
31:29
This real estate market has been crazy.
31:33
Finally, it's getting more back on track from last year.
31:36
Last year was a really tough year for me.
31:38
This year
31:39
I've had some really good business come in and I've just been working day and night
31:43
and I've had this thing and that thing and my kid needed surgery
31:47
and this happened and my husband's been traveling
31:50
or my spouse has been traveling and I've had the kids.
31:53
Who knows what you're going to get back?
31:57
You might just get a simple, Oh, thank you for calling.
32:00
I've been meaning to pay that.
32:01
Yes. Let me give you my credit card number.
32:07
So listen to them.
32:08
Have empathy for what they tell you
32:11
and then come up with a plan that works for you and them.
32:14
You know, worst case to just say, hey, I'm really sorry, I don't have any money
32:17
right now,
32:19
I have a closing coming up in a month
32:22
and then find out what works for you and them,
32:27
you know, can they put it on a credit card?
32:30
With a credit card, you at least have until your next statement to pay.
32:33
Some people don't like doing that.
32:34
Some people and I.
32:36
I completely feel I understand why.
32:38
Like, if you ever been in credit card debt,
32:41
like you you get a little scared of credit cards
32:44
by my parents at a point very early on,
32:48
they had credit card problems
32:50
raising three boys,
32:53
trying to work, trying to start things.
32:55
They had credit card problems.
32:56
And so this day, my mom goes to the bank,
33:00
she gets cash from the bank and she takes it to where her mortgages
33:04
and she pays in cash to the need to do is they apply in money.
33:08
Now they're retired.
33:11
They both had fabulous careers,
33:14
but still they she's been burned by credit cards.
33:17
So don't be offended that someone doesn't want to put something on a credit card.
33:21
Doesn't help you.
33:22
I realize that.
33:24
But then come up with a plan.
33:25
Hey, can I call you back in a month?
33:27
When do you think that house is going to close?
33:30
Well, I should have.
33:31
I should have the closing.
33:33
It's set for the, you know, the 10th of next month.
33:36
Okay, great.
33:37
Would it be okay if I called you back then on the 10th, the next month?
33:42
And, you know, I'd be happy to take the credit card over the phone.
33:46
Yeah, sure, That'd be great. Yeah.
33:48
Thanks for the call.
33:49
I appreciate you working with me.
33:52
And you know what?
33:52
If you take that route, you've actually build a bridge
33:56
you haven't broken one down.
33:58
And who knows?
33:59
The agent might refer you.
34:01
You've given them a good level of customer service,
34:05
and you've left them in a way that you didn't come at them
34:08
and you didn't assume anything and you didn't bring anger or frustration or
34:13
any of, you know, missed
34:14
thoughts against them.
34:17
So empathy is incredibly important.
34:19
It's important
34:20
in dealing with not only your clients, but like I said, everyone in your life.
34:25
And I would just really encourage you to
34:30
think about every situation
34:32
from an empathetic standpoint.
34:37
On our Morning Call this morning,
34:40
I also we also talked about
34:43
some ways that we are building more relationships
34:47
with our clients and
34:51
circling back around to the idea of client acquisition.
34:55
And we believe firmly that building relationships are important.
35:00
I wanted to give you just a few simple ideas
35:04
as to actionable things you can do that will help you build your business.
35:09
That leads to client acquisition, that leads to you
35:14
hitting your goals.
35:16
So the first is joining your local MLS.
35:21
Okay. So
35:23
in every U.S.
35:25
market and throughout the world, there's this type of structure as well
35:29
where you have a local board
35:33
that kind of governs the multiple listing services,
35:37
but all the listings coming in and then the U.S.
35:40
realtors, every realtor has to be a member of that
35:44
MLS to sell real estate in their market.
35:48
And I every MLS
35:51
we've come across, I'm sure some of them don't, but I would guess
35:55
almost everyone, every MLS does, has what they call affiliate memberships.
36:01
So this is everyone, not realtors, that are adjacent
36:05
or servicing the realtors that can join the board.
36:09
And so a simple thing to do is if you are not a member of your board,
36:14
you need to take a couple hundred bucks and you need to join.
36:18
We are members and all of our boards, all of our cities and we are active.
36:24
We attend, we know what's going on and it
36:28
pays us back tenfold.
36:32
Okay, let's think about this.
36:34
There is from MLS, that is what every realtor,
36:38
everyone that you want to sell to, they belong to that
36:42
there's community there.
36:45
Why wouldn't
36:46
you also want to be involved in that community?
36:51
And it's super simple to join.
36:53
So type in to Google, search for your city.
36:58
Name MLS board.
37:00
Okay, so for us, Columbus, Ohio, MLS Board, I did it in Inter and first resort.
37:06
Click on it and you will find in there it is different.
37:11
That's different for every board.
37:12
So you know, the same Columbus or one of our markets, the buttons
37:15
not going to be the same thing, but basically you need to look to join.
37:18
So look, join membership, whatever it's called,
37:21
or if there's a phone number, give them a call.
37:22
There's someone local in your city sitting at that office that can help you out.
37:30
So you need to look for membership.
37:32
You say, Well, Todd, why would I join?
37:35
Why would I join the board?
37:36
Well, you're going to join the board one, because you're going to become involved
37:39
in that community
37:41
because every person you want to sell to also is a member of that board.
37:45
I think that's reason enough.
37:47
But also, you can attend events,
37:51
you can begin to qualify and prepare.
37:54
extra learning, continuing education, C.E.
37:57
continuing education for the agents where you're the authority.
38:01
Also some other things that we've seen is that you can gain access
38:06
to those electronic key boxes in your city.
38:10
So if there is supra or century,
38:14
the electronic key boxes, you know, when you show up in an agent,
38:16
let's you in. and they pull that little key box out of their pocket and they punch it
38:21
in or that it's on your phone now I'm going to show my age.
38:24
It never used to be on your phone use actually have little devices
38:29
that you would
38:29
put into that you put your code in, you'd put into the lock back and let you in
38:33
but that realtor they pull up their app on their phone
38:36
and they pointed out the lock box you can get that
38:40
in most cities now every MLS is different again,
38:43
but we have them in all of our cities and that is another reason,
38:48
a feature why agents use us because they don't have to let us in.
38:52
It costs us money,
38:54
costs money to join the board, it costs money for every key.
38:58
But It is a benefit of using our services
39:00
that the agent doesn't have to let us in.
39:04
So that's another reason why you can get or why you should join the board.
39:09
Now just looking at.
39:11
So if you're still skeptical, click through
39:16
the MLS website
39:18
and look at something that has to do with
39:23
events or activities.
39:26
And I've done that.
39:27
So again, I'm in one of our boards here
39:29
and just looking at these events and again, you have access to these.
39:33
You might have to join or you might have to sponsor many of them
39:35
you can just go to.
39:36
But let me just read you down the events.
39:38
So in the event I'm on this board, one of our markets for August 15th,
39:44
they have a class
39:47
mastering your MLS beyond the basics that you could attend.
39:50
Introduction to Commercial Real Estate.
39:52
That's a CE.
39:53
They have an all member webinar.
39:55
This is again on the 15th on the 15th they have buyer representation
39:59
new landscape. Okay? And the U.S.
40:02
commissions are changing.
40:04
They're talking about it. Four items on the 15th alone that you could attend
40:07
and be involved in on the 16th new member orientation on the 20th golf outing
40:14
public
40:15
records, using technology to generate business.
40:18
Holy cow. Look at all of these events.
40:21
And this isn't even that we haven't made it to a Friday or a weekend yet.
40:25
They have YPN
40:27
Some Volleyball coming up.
40:29
That's the Young Professional network.
40:31
They have another golf outing.
40:33
These are all member webinars
40:35
and you can be involved in these and you know who's there,
40:40
The people that you want to buy from you.
40:44
So again, I know I'm kind of beating this over the head, but
40:47
if you are not a member,
40:49
I can tell you that you need to join your board
40:52
and you need to start building relationships and you need to attend.
40:55
And this is typically where Craig would go, Oh, you're telling me I'm
40:59
an introvert.
40:59
I need to show up to these events.
41:01
Yes, you need to.
41:03
You don't have to present at them.
41:05
You don't have to be the biggest personality.
41:07
You can still go to them as an introvert and you could just have one
41:10
on one conversations.
41:12
You don't have to even play Sam volleyball if you don't want to
41:16
just go
41:17
and talk to the people that aren't playing, sitting on the sideline,
41:21
build some relationships.
41:25
So one other thing that I mentioned was
41:28
CE classes, and I'm not going to go too much into this.
41:31
We briefly talked about it, but this is something that we do at our real estate
41:35
media company is the board is always looking
41:40
for people to come and teach
41:43
and you're saying, well, wait a minute, I don't know anything about what
41:46
core PAC is.
41:47
I don't know about this really
41:48
is public records are I don't know about the buyer commission.
41:52
I don't know about what am I going to teach, Todd?
41:54
Well, it's very simple.
41:55
You're going to teach agents how to use technology,
41:58
you know, technology, you know, media
42:02
and believe it or not,
42:04
you can put together a course that tells them
42:09
how to use media.
42:10
What types of media are there, how to use them,
42:13
how to use them on social media, how not to use them on social media,
42:17
how to get more leads, what are lead pages, what are forum, what's Google,
42:20
my business, all these things that you're a master at and you know
42:25
you can teach them to agents.
42:29
Now, it's not simple.
42:31
It's not rocket science, rocket surgery or whatever.
42:34
The funny thing is, it's not like sending them
42:37
a man to the moon.
42:40
But there is a structure
42:42
and there are rules about these CE classes.
42:45
But you know what the cool thing is,
42:47
is every real estate agent, at least in the U.S.
42:51
and I'm sure it's like this
42:52
throughout the world as well, there's some form of variance of this,
42:55
but every real estate agent has to have so many continuing education hours
43:00
every year to continue to sell real estate.
43:05
So they have to go to these classes now.
43:09
They don't have to go to your class.
43:11
But I will tell you that looking at the demographic of realtors
43:18
and this is a pretty safe statement, but
43:22
most realtors don't really understand
43:25
and get technology and media second nature.
43:29
So they are looking at that and they're like, Oh, I love to learn
43:32
about how I can utilize this thing in my pocket.
43:36
This laptop and the Internet
43:38
to get more clients.
43:41
So I can tell you it's it's a highly looked upon class.
43:46
If you can put one in, get one approved.
43:48
Now, there is a process
43:49
that I won't go into it today and every board is a little bit different.
43:52
But once you join
43:53
and when your join in as a new member, ask whoever's onboarding you to say,
43:57
Hey, I'm really interested in putting together a CE class.
44:01
Do you have any information on that?
44:03
And they do. I will tell you they do.
44:05
So probably you a four or five page document
44:08
that outlines what you need to do,
44:10
or maybe she'll tell you who you need to talk to, but
44:13
you can put together a class now, you can't openly advertise.
44:17
This is not a sales demo for your company,
44:21
but I will tell you
44:22
from experience that it is worthwhile to do that
44:25
because you are in there, you're the instructor, you're
44:29
educating them on how to do maybe create
44:32
and use this media and naturally,
44:36
who are they going to come to when they need it done?
44:39
Oh, remember that great instructor who taught us how to do this?
44:44
Oh, I'm going to call them. And then they call your business.
44:46
And it's a great way to grow not only in relationships,
44:50
but your clientele as well.
44:54
So if you're not a member, some actionable things to do.
44:56
If you're not a member, search
44:59
your city name MLS board, give them a call.
45:03
There's no pressure.
45:04
I mean, don't they don't care if you join or not. Give them a call.
45:07
Ask them how much it is to join is probably a couple hundred bucks a year.
45:10
It's not a lot of money.
45:12
And then talk to them about CE classes and talk to them about how to get involved.
45:16
Ask them, Hey, I'm just starting my real estate media business
45:20
and I'm really looking to connect with agents.
45:23
What are good events to go to?
45:27
They know they they organize and they attend these events.
45:30
Just ask them. So,
45:34
hey, we hope I hope this has been helpful today
45:38
for those of you that are just join in on the first time.
45:40
Typically, Craig, my better half is here with me
45:43
and Craig is fabulous and he typically has the good things to say.
45:48
But I hope you're able to gain a little bit from this podcast today
45:51
and a nugget or two in there to help you think about how to handle situations.
45:55
Again, this kind of ties in with some series
45:57
that we did about a month ago about critical communication.
46:01
You know, having empathy is important in that.
46:03
And then just a few very easy ways
46:07
to build more relationships, to work on client acquisition a different way.
46:12
If you're only DMing people right now and offering free shoots,
46:17
nothing wrong in that.
46:18
But we believe firmly in building relationships.
46:21
Visit your board. Join your board.
46:23
Oh, I know one other thing I going to tell you just in and out here, one other
46:28
organization that you can join that we've done for the first time this year is
46:32
we joined the Home Builders Association in one of our cities.
46:36
And it we were hesitant to do it.
46:39
There was a cost involved in that to join the Home Builders Association.
46:43
But, you know, we just did we just shot
46:46
the nine homearama homes
46:49
for that community for their homearama this year.
46:53
So if you don't know what homearama is, homearama,
46:55
it might be called something a little bit different area.
46:57
But basically builders get together
46:59
and in a neighborhood or multiple neighborhoods, they build
47:02
the creme de la creme of houses and it's showcasing their work
47:07
as a builder and they need to advertise there’s typically a homearama website.
47:13
And there's media that's done and
47:17
you could do that media.
47:19
So we just got them.
47:20
We shot all of them. We got the bid for the whole thing.
47:22
We did all nine homes.
47:24
And you know what the cool thing
47:25
is, is, you know, almost every realtor is going to be looking at those.
47:30
And that's our photos, It's our video, it's our media, it's
47:33
displayed in the houses. We have credit for it.
47:36
So what a better way
47:39
to promote your business.
47:42
And again, sometimes you have to spend a little bit of money
47:44
to make a little bit of money, but that in itself, heck.
47:47
One of those shoots alone paid for the the cost to join the homearama.
47:52
Plus, what's it worth for every agent that walks
47:55
through there, seeing our media, seeing it on the website,
47:59
seeing our name on there.
48:00
I mean, holy cow is gold.
48:01
So some creative ways and some things you can do.
48:04
You're going to have to spend a little bit of money,
48:06
but you got to spend it to make it.
48:08
And we have seen a lot of fruit from this labor in our business.
48:12
And I know you will too as well.
48:14
So thanks for staying with us today.
48:16
If you have any questions or comments, we'd love to hear from you all.
48:20
You can reach out to us.
48:21
hello@spiro.media again,
48:24
If you want to find out more about the software, if you want a demo,
48:27
we'll give you a personal demo of the software, show you why it's different.
48:30
Show you how it manages the 12,000 plus shooting year that we do.
48:34
Again, email us or fill out the form on our website,
48:38
which is spiro.media, and you'll talk to Nick, Shannon, myself
48:43
and we'll make sure that you're taken care of.
48:45
So, hey, have a great week.
48:48
Be thankful for all the blessings you have and be sure to take a breath.
48:53
See you all.
48:54
Thank you for joining us for the Spiro podcast,
48:56
managing your real estate photography and videography business.
49:00
This is a production of Spiro and wow video tours.
49:04
You can find out more about Spiro
49:06
is real estate, media, business management software at our Web site.
49:10
spiro.media