Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / What Realtors Look for in a Media Partner

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What Realtors Look for in a Media Partner · The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business

• 0:00
  Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
• 0:04
  You should not be spending your time doing $10 an hour jobs.
• 0:08
  You should be spending your time doing 100 hour $100 per hour jobs.
• 0:26
  Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,
• 0:28
  managing your real estate, photography and videography business.
• 0:31
  Spiro is, it's a software platform.
• 0:33
  It's designed to help you manage, but really also help you scale
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  your day to day real estate media marketing type of business.
• 0:43
  I'm Craig Magrum, host of the podcast.
• 0:45
  Glad to have you back this week. And,
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  it's it's been an interesting start to this podcast.
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  We we had two very fun, realtor
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  guests lined up to be on this episode,
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  to share with us, the topic this week,
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  which is what realtors are looking for in media partner.
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  Todd Kivimaki.
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  our our our, co-host this week.
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  Todd. Welcome back.
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  What a morning
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  Craig, we're going to get through this one.
• 1:15
  This is,
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  but, you know, this is this is life.
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  This is business.
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  This is, the way things go sometimes. Yeah.
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  So we we had a podcast last week.
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  We missed the week before because busy season has hit.
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  But we didn't want to miss another week this week because potentially next week
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  we are going to miss.
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  We're both out of the office next week, so we still wanted to have an episode
• 1:39
  for you guys.
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  So the topic stands.
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  We're going to still talk about what realtors look for from what we know of,
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  in a media partner and, and help you get into the mindset of a realtor
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  a little bit in, in how they think a little bit differently than we do
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  is, is media professionals.
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  Now, that being said, the guests that we had for you, Pam Suarez
• 2:00
  and Janelle Pfeiffer of Berkshire Hathaway Key Realty,
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  in the Detroit metro area, they're in between Detroit and Monroe, Michigan.
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  Two of my favorite people to work with.
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  They're their clients of ours.
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  VIPs in our our clientele.
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  And just a fantastic duo of ladies, true real estate professionals.
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  They do a lot of business.
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  And, we were going to pick their brain, so we're still going to try.
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  What what had happened was just some technical issues.
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  We're going to try and get
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  that worked out with them so that we can still have them on.
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  So you can hear directly from realtors on what it is that they're looking for.
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  So with all that set up, Todd, we're not going to dive right in.
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  Let's hit the Spiro updates first.
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  What's going on with the software.
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  Yes. Craig.
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  Hey, 60 seconds here.
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  We'll get this thing finally launched off the ground.
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  I know all of you going like, hey,
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  it seems normal, but to us it's been a wacky, a wacky recording.
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  Spiro updates.
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  Monday, May.
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  What month is it? May 20th.
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  Tuesday, May 20th.
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  Excuse me, you will get cycle 11.
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  We've talked about this a lot,
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  so I'll be brief, but it's a brand new marketing content.
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  It's going to be beautiful.
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  It's going to be everything you all wanted
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  and then property analytics and many other good things.
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  But we are excited about this.
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  The look and the feel of many of these things.
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  These are going to be reasons that you can reach out to your clients.
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  So not only are these great updates and things that you'll like
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  and they'll like, but
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  this is going to be things you're going to put in your newsletter.
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  This is going to be reasons
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  to reach out to VIPs, explain the great new templates, how they can use them,
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  the reels in the templates, explain property analytics.
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  What are analytics? What's a referring page?
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  So we want to give you not only new features, but then the content
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  and the ideas of how you need to be telling those
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  to your agents to get more bang for your buck, if you will.
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  So that's really what we're trying to connect with.
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  The whole Spiro.
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  Spiro sphere. What do we call that? Craig?
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  It was Shannon. I can't say it.
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  I don't remember. the Spiro sphere.
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  Spiro sphere.
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  Yeah, I like that. Don't know that.
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  But that's the idea of like not only
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  is it a platform, but how can it power your business
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  and how can it allow you to grow your business?
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  It's why we do the podcast.
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  It's why you guys catch me on, tech talks with Todd.
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  Why we do Spiro 101 201 and 301.
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  So we are here for you. We are you.
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  We understand what you do, and, we appreciate all of you.
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  Yeah. For sure.
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  I don't even know how to get this
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  episode rolling in light of everything, Ted,
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  it has been one of those mornings, like we said. But,
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  it's a topic that that you are our listeners
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  and viewers have requested a couple times, and that is what is it
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  that realtors are Realtors are looking for in a media partner?
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  And, you know, Wow has been around, what, 20 years this year?
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  So we've learned 22 this year. 22.
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  Yes getting old getting old.
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  We've learned a few things over the years.
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  And just in talking with realtors
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  and talking business and picking their brains on things.
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  So ideally, yes, we wanted to talk with Pamela, Janelle,
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  and we will at some point
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  we're going to get this worked out because I think you'll really enjoy listening.
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  To them and hearing from them, they're just
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  a fantastic, group of ladies that,
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  I just, I,
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  I laugh every time I'm shooting for them because they're just that fun.
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  But they have some really good professional insight on things as well
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  that, that we know you're going to benefit from.
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  So that being said, Todd, let's dive into this.
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  I'm not even sure
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  exactly how to enter this without having Pam and Janelle, but yeah,
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  you've learned a few things over the years about what realtors are looking for.
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  So I guess let's maybe start just with,
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  what's what's like a realtor mindset?
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  Well, we'll ask the overall arching question what is the difference
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  between a realtor mindset and a real estate
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  photographer mindset?
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  Oh, that's a good question.
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  That,
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  honestly, it is very, very close.
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  I think the biggest thing about it is just
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  the translation between the two industries.
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  Okay. And what I'm. Yeah.
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  What I mean by that, Craig, is
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  let's think about the structure of business.
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  So you all out there at some point got
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  the idea was introduced, saw media online.
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  You previously were probably a creative person or enjoyed,
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  you know, creating things
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  and it somehow got you into the idea
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  of is this something that I could do
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  that could I make money off this?
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  Could I support my family?
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  Could I quit my job? Could I reach my goals?
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  Okay, now let's take that same
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  step.
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  Let's take that same timeline with a real estate agent.
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  Many real estate agents probably went through buying prior
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  to being a real estate agent. Excuse me?
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  Drive around, see signs in the yard.
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  Probably bought or sold a home and go, hey, this is kind of a cool process.
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  I like interior design.
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  I like looking at houses. I like helping people.
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  Meet another agent, hear about agent success
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  stories, how agents are providing for their family.
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  How an agent stop doing their previous job and transition into real estate
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  now are working for themselves
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  and to reach their goals, to feed their family,
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  to build a team, to help people.
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  Pretty similar, right, Craig?
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  Very. The makeups the same.
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  You all are employed.
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  We're all employed by ourselves.
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  They, might have people on their team.
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  They might have 1099. They might have w-2s.
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  We know they have VA is because their VA is call us and they place orders.
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  Right?
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  Okay.
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  They have a team of people around them.
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  So the mindset is so close.
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  I think the biggest thing is and just understanding
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  a real estate agent is, is just what they go through day to day.
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  And I think sometimes we feel
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  and we
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  see and I see this online is why are they so cheap?
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  Why do they not upgrade?
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  Why do they, you know, why are houses never ready?
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  Why do they reschedule?
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  Why do they not want to pay a trip fee?
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  Why do they not want to pay a weekend fee?
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  Right?
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  I mean, these are all things that
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  that that's what is in their brain though.
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  So that's what I'm talking about. The translation.
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  Like I could go down every one of those.
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  The reason
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  they don't want to pay a trip fee is because they drive all over the world,
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  and it's part of their standard level service.
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  Now, I'm not saying you should charge a fee,
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  but that's why they don't want to pay trip fee.
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  Why do they think you should work nights and weekends?
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  Because they work nights and weekends.
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  You know, all of these things are very similar,
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  you know, on that one specifically, I've only ever had one realtor
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  out and out, say I work nights and weekends.
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  You should too, because you're serving our industry.
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  But I think it's unsaid from a lot because we'll get text messages
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  at 10:00 at night and it's like, I'm going to bed.
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  What are you contacting me for? Yes, but.
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  So even if it's not outright said.
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  Yeah, and.
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  Yeah, that's a good one.
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  Yeah.
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  Let's talk about client acquisition a little bit.
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  I think, I think this is probably where really the connections the biggest.
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  But let's understand what everybody's doing.
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  So for you and your business client acquisition as a real estate photographer,
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  how many of you by show a hands.
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  And if you're driving, don't put your hands up.
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  Just cannot wait to go make cold calls.
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  Really have to even preface like nobody.
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  Like if you're driving, don't put your hands up because nobody
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  enjoys cold calls,
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  even extroverts.
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  No, I don't, I don't think sell a cold call.
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  I don't know, I think you can I think you can
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  develop the,
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  I think you can develop the knack.
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  And I think it can be driven by the,
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  the output that comes from cold calling.
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  And you can get past the no’s.
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  But it’s never actually something that you enjoy doing.
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  Yeah.
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  You know, I think of, I think of the team at Wow, Craig.
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  Like, you know,
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  probably Chris
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  like, would just pound through cold calls because
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  to, you know, it just go through it like
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  but I still don't I think even though we asked him,
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  you won't be like, yeah, give me a list of a thousand people.
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  I'm looking forward to calling them and getting rejected 95% of the time.
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  Right.
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  So that is
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  that's the way we work as real estate photographers.
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  So we have this yin and yang of business.
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  So we have no business as a real estate photographer.
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  When you started out, what did you do?
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  You did the Instagram method.
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  You emailed clients.
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  Then you realized that maybe emailing clients isn't work.
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  So you show up to open houses, you called, you
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  text, you emailed, you drop by offices, you did marketing campaigns.
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  Okay, there's a million different forms of client acquisition,
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  but when you didn't have jobs, you did client acquisition.
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  Then what happens?
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  The phone rings.
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  Can you do a shoot?
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  It's like, Holy cow, this is going to work like Craig,
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  do you remember when your phone first started ringing the first time?
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  Yeah, it was exciting.
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  Yeah, it was really exciting.
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  It was like this high of a lifetime.
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  Yeah.
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  And it and and then you're like, okay, great.
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  What do we do now?
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  You know, I
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  remember the first agent that asked me this is four years in, the first agent
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  that ordered a video from me and said, hey, by the way, can you do photos?
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  I said, Bob, yeah, I can do photos.
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  I'd never done a photo in my life of a real estate property.
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  I hang up the phone he ordered four videos and photos from me next week.
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  I'm like, why did I?
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  I got to figure out how to do photos now.
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  So the I know you guys all went through that and it's a fun time.
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  So you you get your camera gear, you get the photos,
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  you figure out how to schedule it.
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  You get Spiro set up, you you make sure your editor's or autoHDR is online.
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  And then you go and you do the work, okay?
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  And you're busy.
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  You're building relationships with clients, you know, in the house,
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  you're talking to homeowners,
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  you're vacuumin the floor, you're moving pet cages, you're
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  you're making lunch for people in their house.
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  I’m glad I wasn’t taking a drink
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  off camera guys.
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  Todd made a comment.
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  I was right in the middle of a drink,
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  and I've got all of this electronic equipment in front of me.
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  I about spewed it all over. So
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  glad I wasn't taking a drink on that one.
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  Go ahead. Sorry. Yeah. So.
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  So you get busy doing the work.
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  All right.
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  You're tracking how many miles you drive. You're like, yeah.
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  How many drives are you? Drive. Yeah, I drove 40,000 last year.
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  Hey, I stayed up till 2 a.m..
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  You're doing all these things.
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  What are you not doing?
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  You're not doing client acquisition
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  because you're doing the work.
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  Okay?
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  The same thing happens with real estate agents.
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  Now, the the best.
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  They have a very consistent flow.
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  Okay.
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  And I would say that's some of the product of our success at Wow.
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  Is we consistently always do client acquisition.
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  I don't think you can have a successful
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  growing business without being focused on client acquisition.
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  That that optimized workflow.
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  Todd, where you get to the point
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  where you are consistent in doing client acquisition and outreach.
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  That's something you have to grow into, correct?
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  Like you can't just do that as a solopreneur
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  by yourself.
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  At least I felt I couldn't
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  because I was busy working in the business instead of on the business.
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  But as you grew, then you start investing in somebody
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  that can help you consistently do the yeah, the client acquisition.
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  Yeah, yeah.
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  And unless you've come in and your goal and your goal was never to shoot,
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  like if you launched with having a photographer
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  like I don't think there's many of us out there.
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  Maybe I'm just not aware I haven't talked to you.
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  But if you've done that, great.
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  Like if you're like, hey, I'm just going to be the business owner,
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  I'm never going to do the shoot. I'm never going to do anything about it.
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  That typically takes some money to start with or an investment.
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  And a lot of times I think many of you, all of you that I talk to out there,
• 15:04
  like we all bootstrapped this, right?
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  Like Craig, you bootstrapped yours, I bootstrapped mine, it's not like,
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  hey, let's see if we can get 50 grand to hire two people.
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  And and
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  so, yeah, no, I think that's pretty similar.
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  And for the and for the realtor as well, they,
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  they started with just themselves but then eventually grew a team.
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  Exactly.
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  And I think the parallels like that Craig will continue on and on
• 15:28
  and on again because the the realtors do the same thing.
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  The Realtors work really hard to do client acquisition.
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  Their phone begins to ring.
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  Now. They're showing people houses.
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  They're doing listing presentations or writing offers.
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  They're negotiating. They're going through inspections.
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  Appraisals are doing all these things well, what are they not doing?
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  They're not doing client acquisition.
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  Okay. So then they get everything sold.
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  They get to the closing table and they go, hey, I got nothing,
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  nothing in the pipeline. Yeah.
• 15:59
  So I think we're all very, very similar.
• 16:03
  Right.
• 16:03
  Business is business that it is.
• 16:07
  You might we might have a niche in real estate photography but
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  it's still business.
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  And the processes are the same.
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  So okay shifting then from say client acquisition
• 16:19
  that that they're eventually going to hire that out
• 16:21
  or have somebody on their team that is kind of keeping that funnel full
• 16:25
  so that when deals close, they have new deals to work.
• 16:28
  Same thing for for their media and for their marketing, right?
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  They started out probably doing it themselves.
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  We started out doing our own media, producing our own media.
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  But eventually, you know, we have Tesa on our team
• 16:42
  that does our marketing pieces and does an amazing job.
• 16:47
  But originally we were doing that ourselves.
• 16:49
  Same thing. Correct?
• 16:51
  Correct. Yes. Yeah.
• 16:53
  And this is go ahead. Sorry.
• 16:55
  No I was just going to lead that into the question then.
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  Okay.
• 16:58
  Then that leads into how does a realtor start to invest in
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  outside marketing and and visuals for their listings.
• 17:07
  Yeah.
• 17:08
  So they do that because they begin to value their time more.
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  And all of you do that.
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  All of you should be doing that.
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  So I talk a lot about a time tracking activity where you track your time
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  and then you categorize your time in three categories
• 17:25
  an admin, a nurse and a doctor.
• 17:28
  And think about when you go into a doctor's office.
• 17:31
  When you walk in the front door, is the doctor sitting there checking you in,
• 17:35
  you know, is the nurse sitting there checking you in?
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  Know an admin is checking you in. Okay.
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  Then you go back, you get call back.
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  The admin walks you back, or another admin walks you back.
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  Doctor's not like, hey, let's go do this thing.
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  You get in the room.
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  Who takes vitals?
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  Nurse a nurse comes in and takes five.
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  Okay, so a higher level job.
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  And then the nurse, they do their thing and then you get to the point
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  to where the doctor comes in for your problem or for your checkup.
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  How long is the doctor in the room?
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  Four minutes.
• 18:16
  You know who's been to the dentist lately?
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  You know that's the same thing.
• 18:20
  Yeah, right.
• 18:21
  Yeah. Doctor, everything looks good. Okay, great.
• 18:24
  Okay, look, smile.
• 18:25
  Bite down. Look. Okay, good. Sounds good.
• 18:27
  You got a feeling you got any. You got cavity there? Need a filling.
• 18:29
  Okay. See you later.
• 18:30
  It's like he walks out and I'm like, did he even walk in?
• 18:34
  Right.
• 18:35
  Okay, so but he values his time.
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  He's in there three minutes.
• 18:40
  But he's he's he's not spending his time doing your cleaning.
• 18:44
  He's not spending his time checking you in, checking you out.
• 18:48
  There's people to do that.
• 18:49
  And the same happens with the realtor.
• 18:51
  The same happens with any business as you might find it valuable right now
• 18:55
  that you're quality controling your photos, you should not be.
• 18:59
  That's an admin job.
• 19:01
  That's a $10 an hour job.
• 19:03
  Okay, but let's say it admins
• 19:06
  ten a nurse nurses 50 a doctor's 100 just for
• 19:10
  separation.
• 19:12
  You should not be spending your time doing $10 an hour jobs.
• 19:16
  You should be spending your time doing 100 hour $100 per hour jobs.
• 19:22
  And then the cool thing about this, Craig, is this continues
• 19:25
  as you build a business that $100 an hour job,
• 19:30
  you are on to 500 or $1000 an hour jobs,
• 19:34
  and you bring up people that used to do the $10 an hour jobs.
• 19:38
  That's how you grow a company.
• 19:39
  That's how people get excited about being at a company.
• 19:42
  That's how people see growth and fulfill the fulfillment at a company.
• 19:47
  But it takes you saying no
• 19:50
  to the $10 an hour job.
• 19:54
  You know, it's a funny thing I'll say on the way into the office.
• 19:57
  I think I say this a lot, but I listen to an individual called
• 20:00
  Darren Hardy and it's called the Darren Daily.
• 20:04
  And he talked this morning about.
• 20:08
  As business owners,
• 20:12
  we typically look at the top level people in the industry.
• 20:17
  And he used the idea of like an Olympian like think if you're an athlete,
• 20:20
  if you want to get to the Olympics like, you know, say it's in
• 20:25
  basketball, you know, you want to get to the Olympics, NBA, whatever.
• 20:28
  Maybe we play a lot of basketball.
• 20:30
  So I'll stick with that analogy.
• 20:32
  You're always looking like, hey what what is Steph Curry doing.
• 20:34
  What LeBron do what Michael Jordan do Kobe do.
• 20:38
  What are they doing.
• 20:39
  What are they doing.
• 20:41
  And he argued that it's not what they're doing.
• 20:45
  It's what they're saying no to.
• 20:48
  They're saying no
• 20:50
  to some things in their diet.
• 20:53
  They're saying no to staying up because they know they have to get up early.
• 20:57
  They're saying no to $10 an hour jobs.
• 21:00
  They're saying no to a $1,000 an hour jobs because they're doing
• 21:03
  that million dollar per hour jobs.
• 21:07
  And I think that's the biggest thing.
• 21:08
  As a business owner will you say no to the $10 an hour job
• 21:13
  so that you can focus on what's going to get you along the furthest?
• 21:19
  So let's
• 21:19
  translate this back to the realtors mindset.
• 21:23
  And for a new agent that maybe hasn't
• 21:26
  grown into that type of mindset yet, where they
• 21:30
  they're not seeing the value of investing in
• 21:32
  outsourcing some of these things, how do we, as photographers,
• 21:35
  help them grow into that mindset and show them the value
• 21:39
  of not doing the $10 an hour or worth more than $10 people?
• 21:44
  We understand that, but helping them understand that their time is
• 21:47
  better spent not doing their own photography and video.
• 21:51
  Yeah, I, I think that there is also it's
• 21:56
  always through education and building relationships.
• 22:00
  So you're going to show them the difference.
• 22:04
  Maybe you're just showing them how they could use that,
• 22:08
  or how you could use a video to get more reach on social media,
• 22:12
  how they could link the unbranded site to the on unbranded property
• 22:16
  website to the MLS, how they can use their tracking code
• 22:19
  to try to retarget the on branded page traffic.
• 22:23
  You know,
• 22:23
  like all these high level things, I can't tell you how many times
• 22:26
  I've walked into an office.
• 22:27
  And I'm sure you have Craig two at a, just a Tuesday morning company meeting.
• 22:32
  And I always try to given those meetings, I try to talk about something
• 22:36
  that is not selling them photos or video because I want them to
• 22:41
  I want I want to walk out and they go, hey, how did he know that?
• 22:45
  Like, I, I think I need to do that.
• 22:47
  I think I saw the top agent doing that
• 22:49
  and he just told me how to do it, but I don't really get it.
• 22:52
  So I think I'm just going to call him.
• 22:57
  You know, another thing we talk about is photos.
• 23:00
  Don't be a commodity.
• 23:02
  There is.
• 23:03
  You do not want to sell a commodity or you just don't because
• 23:06
  it's a race to the bottom because somebody is going to do it for $3 an hour.
• 23:12
  But it's just no fun that everybody's going to try to cut it out.
• 23:15
  You don't want to be a commodity.
• 23:17
  You need to sell on value.
• 23:19
  And that's a hard thing.
• 23:21
  That's a hard thing for real estate photographers.
• 23:23
  But that's a hard thing for real estate agents.
• 23:25
  Many of them go, oh yeah, I'll do it.
• 23:29
  The best agent ten, they, they get a 3% split each side.
• 23:33
  Like I'll do it for two.
• 23:34
  And they feel like they need to walk in and do it for two to beat
• 23:37
  the agent that does it for three.
• 23:40
  That doesn't work.
• 23:41
  Because honestly, the best agents, they do it for four,
• 23:43
  three and a half or four and they sell on value.
• 23:47
  And that's the same thing we can do is we sell them value.
• 23:50
  And your value is going to be a little bit different
• 23:52
  from when you start to when you build a team.
• 23:55
  So what we the value we sell at Wow doing
• 23:59
  13,000 is 13,500 this year
• 24:03
  13,500 jobs this year.
• 24:04
  The value we sell is consistent consistency.
• 24:08
  A team around you support when you need it.
• 24:11
  Dedicate to train photographers that go through continuing ed that have continued
• 24:17
  education and feedback.
• 24:20
  We support you.
• 24:21
  We support your events.
• 24:23
  You like all these things. This is what we sell.
• 24:25
  We sell our size. We sell the people.
• 24:28
  You have somebody.
• 24:29
  If you need something, you go to support, if you need scheduling and you go to scheduling.
• 24:32
  And we have
• 24:33
  we have highly trained individuals in each aspect that can help you do something,
• 24:39
  okay.
• 24:40
  If you're single, if you're if you are a solo preneur
• 24:43
  right now, you're not selling that, okay?
• 24:46
  What you're selling is I get to know your business.
• 24:51
  I the love for creating and how I can make your listing
• 24:55
  look that if you need something, you call me.
• 24:59
  I will take care of it.
• 25:00
  I care about you so much that I'm going to take care of these things.
• 25:03
  You have my cell phone.
• 25:05
  Probably don't do that.
• 25:06
  We all do it, I did it. It's a terrible idea.
• 25:08
  As you grow, you want to get rid of that.
• 25:09
  But we can help you get out of that idea.
• 25:12
  What the what to say then.
• 25:13
  But it's just a a different feature and benefit
• 25:17
  as you go along and building your business.
• 25:22
  Yeah.
• 25:23
  And people will value professionalism and knowing that they can trust you
• 25:27
  to represent them.
• 25:28
  Well, I a couple weeks ago, we talked about that record
• 25:32
  listing that I had that I was just over the top excited about,
• 25:36
  you know, I walked in, it's a almost $3 million property
• 25:40
  and what struck me immediately was how down to earth the seller was.
• 25:44
  And he just immediately said, you're the professional.
• 25:47
  I'm going to get out of the way.
• 25:48
  You do your thing at that level.
• 25:51
  I was talking with Jess our operations director.
• 25:53
  I went from that shoot. Todd no joke.
• 25:56
  Back to back to I $150,000 Listing,
• 26:00
  where the seller felt that they needed to tell me every shot I needed to take.
• 26:04
  Oh, yeah. This is a.
• 26:08
  And I just I kind of chuckle, I didn't judge,
• 26:11
  I'm never going to make a seller feel,
• 26:16
  like they're a bother because my mindset is I'm
• 26:19
  part of that Realtors team and I need to represent them well.
• 26:23
  So even if I have to bite my tongue as a professional, I'm
• 26:27
  going to do that to to represent the realtor well.
• 26:31
  But the mindset difference that just pointed out to me and I thought
• 26:34
  was really good was somebody that is at a $3 million house level,
• 26:39
  has a different mindset in that they know the person that they're hiring to sell
• 26:43
  their house is going to bring in professionals,
• 26:45
  and they really don't have to worry about the nickels and dimes
• 26:48
  and pennies of a job.
• 26:50
  Now, yes, they do because they're financially successful,
• 26:54
  but they trust somebody in a lower financial state
• 26:59
  has to worry about every penny.
• 27:01
  And so they they have a sense of I have to have some control over this
• 27:06
  to get every penny I can out of this.
• 27:08
  And just understanding those different mindsets as a professional,
• 27:12
  I think, just goes to really helping us serve our realtor as well.
• 27:16
  And in walking in with that professionalism and and understanding
• 27:20
  the mindset of the seller, it goes beyond just photography.
• 27:24
  So that's that's a value that you can bring
• 27:26
  to your seller or to your, your real estate realtor clients.
• 27:30
  Spit it out Craig?
• 27:32
  I don't know exactly where I was going with that, but that just
• 27:34
  that's something I've been chewing on the last week or two here.
• 27:36
  Oh that is I hadn't heard that situation, Craig,
• 27:40
  but that is fabulous because I think the $3 million owner, he valued his time
• 27:46
  so much, he already spent the time he needed and his time was valuable.
• 27:51
  He was doing the 10,000 or the the 100,000 per hour jobs for.
• 27:56
  He walked back into his home office and was going back to work.
• 28:00
  He didn't have time to walk through his house and show me every little thing.
• 28:03
  Yeah, yeah, they hired us to take care of that.
• 28:06
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:08
  He did his due diligence at the beginning of the process that was vetting
• 28:11
  the agent and understanding, and he trusted in them.
• 28:14
  And that agent probably set proper expectations.
• 28:17
  Your best agents will say, hey, the photo and video guys are going to come in
• 28:22
  and I've used them for X amount of time.
• 28:25
  They are fabulous. They're going to do their thing.
• 28:28
  Please just stay out of their way.
• 28:30
  Yes, that's what they're going to say.
• 28:33
  I love working with those agents.
• 28:34
  It makes my job so much easier.
• 28:36
  Yeah. And and that homeowner, he went sure.
• 28:40
  Yeah.
• 28:40
  Like, honestly, you couldn't
• 28:41
  even pay me to get in your way because I'm not doing that job.
• 28:45
  I have bigger jobs to do.
• 28:47
  And I've just done my job by hiring you.
• 28:50
  That's the time I needed to spend.
• 28:52
  So I trust that everything
• 28:55
  proceeding is going to be to the level that we've set.
• 28:59
  By communicating through expectations in this conversation,
• 29:03
  I think you can almost look at it
• 29:05
  from like a cost benefit analysis type of situation.
• 29:08
  Okay, so say the the owner of the $3 million house,
• 29:12
  he's making buku money, right?
• 29:15
  What is the lost opportunity that he has
• 29:18
  and what he can make of doing his job, his million dollar job
• 29:23
  versus walking through to make sure that I'm doing my job.
• 29:27
  He's it's cost him something to do that.
• 29:30
  So it's the same thing with that.
• 29:32
  We can walk that through with our realtors that maybe aren't quite there
• 29:36
  to that mindset of what what's the the opportunity
• 29:39
  you're losing by shooting your own photos and having to maybe edit those.
• 29:44
  It's costing you money.
• 29:45
  You're leaving money on the table,
• 29:46
  and we want to help you not leave money on the table.
• 29:49
  We want to get you to the 200, 300 and $400,000 house level
• 29:54
  as a newer agent and help you grow your business.
• 29:58
  It's all about the business.
• 30:01
  Yeah. And when you have those conversations,
• 30:02
  I know we've had many over the years, Craig.
• 30:04
  Those agents go, oh, like I never thought of that.
• 30:07
  Like that is the thing I get.
• 30:08
  I can think of a story from from Steve.
• 30:10
  And this was of a of a local agent here in Lima.
• 30:13
  We had an agent show up the office one day and
• 30:17
  I mean the office.
• 30:18
  We're out in the middle of, of of a cornfield.
• 30:21
  I we truly are the office.
• 30:23
  Like, we're literally in the middle of a cornfield, like my neighbor.
• 30:26
  Like we have neighbors, but they're farther away.
• 30:28
  Oh, my in-laws live next door.
• 30:29
  So they'll tell you, listen, about Ohio,
• 30:32
  I was, oh, hi.
• 30:36
  And so we actually walk.
• 30:39
  I have a West Virginia story about Ohio and how they pronounce our state name.
• 30:44
  I'll save that for I'll save that for a different podcast.
• 30:47
  Go ahead. I'm sorry.
• 30:48
  No, no, it's it's it's good.
• 30:50
  So we hear the door chime go off and we have a chime that goes off
• 30:54
  and some comes in and you that's always like it's probably someone here.
• 30:57
  This was like an off day when not many people are in the office like who's here?
• 31:00
  Typically it's it's the post, you know, the, the, the male lady showing up
• 31:04
  and she's got something. But it wasn't around that time.
• 31:07
  And like some people typically walk and we have a we have a big building.
• 31:12
  And so people wander around like it's fun to see.
• 31:15
  It's terrible.
• 31:15
  But like people walk in
• 31:16
  and we have a kitchen in a boardroom and then we have like an entryway
• 31:20
  and you might not see anybody for 50ft of the office.
• 31:24
  You're like, snaking your way back in.
• 31:26
  And typically people are like, hello.
• 31:28
  And so that hello comes like, okay, somebody in here that clearly
• 31:32
  we don't know who they are
• 31:33
  and they're looking for us or they're looking for wow, internet.
• 31:37
  Craig, I can't say how many people you guys know.
• 31:38
  Do you have wow internet in your area?
• 31:40
  We had a guy come and he's like, you guys sell the interweb like
• 31:45
  Well, we don't have the interweb here.
• 31:47
  This is not the you have the Google, the Google, the Google.
• 31:51
  Sorry. Yeah.
• 31:53
  So, sorry, I'm just taking forever on this story, y'all.
• 31:57
  But it has a point.
• 32:00
  Realtor shows up.
• 32:02
  He's like 19 years old, brand new realtor at one of our local companies,
• 32:07
  and he's just got, like, this gusto.
• 32:09
  And he's like, hey, I'm calling like, expired listings.
• 32:12
  I'm calling for sale by owners like he's got like, he is there
• 32:17
  ready to make his business happen.
• 32:20
  And he comes in, he's like, hey, I'm trying to get this one on the lake.
• 32:23
  The lake's about 45 minutes away from here,
• 32:25
  and it's a million plus our listing and kind of thing.
• 32:28
  Like, okay, you've had no listings, you haven't sold a house,
• 32:31
  but let's just pick up.
• 32:32
  Let's sell the million dollar plus house on the lake.
• 32:35
  Why not? It sounds like a great place to start.
• 32:38
  I mean, you got to admire the tenacity and the confidence.
• 32:41
  Oh, I love it. It's fabulous.
• 32:42
  Like, why? I'm. I'm not going to sell the tour.
• 32:44
  Give me the million dollar house.
• 32:45
  That's like a 5X.
• 32:47
  And so Steve was like like, all right.
• 32:51
  Yeah. Like this is great.
• 32:51
  Like one.
• 32:52
  We're honored that you walked in and asked us, like,
• 32:55
  how can you be different in this listing presentation?
• 32:58
  Because he doesn't look like he's ever done it before.
• 33:01
  He hasn't done it before. I mean, he's a nice looking kid.
• 33:03
  He speaks well, but he's he's 19 years old.
• 33:07
  And so Steve gives him some prints off some of our brochures,
• 33:11
  give some of our information,
• 33:13
  sends him some video links of some things that we've done in the past for that
• 33:17
  the company he's at and and has him all prepped to go get this listing.
• 33:21
  And so he went in and he gave this spiel, sold the media
• 33:27
  and like, they, they took him up on it, which was incredible.
• 33:31
  Like us crazy.
• 33:32
  So so when you when you can become a source of knowledge
• 33:37
  to your realtors and that was a referral, by the way, I just want to point that out
• 33:42
  like the broker at his company said, oh, why don't you go see Steve over it?
• 33:46
  Wow. Like, hey, they're just like, go buy the building.
• 33:49
  And he's like, sure, I'll do it. He walks in.
• 33:51
  So when you build those relationships, your clients will refer you.
• 33:55
  And if you are the source of knowledge,
• 33:58
  who's not looking for more knowledge, right?
• 34:00
  Right.
• 34:01
  That's why you guys are on this podcast.
• 34:03
  Because we're not that entertaining.
• 34:05
  The jokes aren't great.
• 34:06
  Like, you're trying to look for the ways we've screwed up over the years so
• 34:09
  you don't do it.
• 34:11
  We're all looking for knowledge.
• 34:15
  So when you can put that to use and when you understand what to say no to
• 34:20
  and when you can be that
• 34:23
  source of knowledge for your agents,
• 34:26
  then they will think, hey, you need to talk to Craig.
• 34:29
  Craig knows this thing about social media.
• 34:31
  I don't know what it is, but he was talking about it.
• 34:33
  It seemed like it was really cool.
• 34:34
  You should call him and have that done for you.
• 34:36
  Do listing.
• 34:36
  Yeah. I mean, what a what a story.
• 34:38
  And it's again, it's all about mindset and understanding of the realtor's mindset.
• 34:42
  There's so much more we could go into, Todd, but honestly,
• 34:45
  we want to save a lot of this content for when we can actually get
• 34:48
  Pam and Janelle back on. Right.
• 34:50
  And then pick their their brains on this.
• 34:52
  So we don't want it to, you know, to steal all the content.
• 34:56
  Because we really want you to hear it from
• 34:58
  a realtor's, mouth and experience.
• 35:01
  So with that, I think that that's a good starting point for this topic.
• 35:06
  And, and we'll do a part two on this
• 35:07
  as soon as we can get that, that time scheduled with, with, Pam and Janelle.
• 35:12
  But let that be a starting point for you.
• 35:15
  If I, I love working with new clients like new realtors, Todd,
• 35:20
  because I want to see them grow and succeed because I feel good about what
• 35:24
  I'm doing then in my role in that, I'm truly serving somebody
• 35:28
  and helping them, get some wins.
• 35:31
  And for me, that's a win.
• 35:33
  You know, it's not about all the money, because if I'm shooting, say,
• 35:36
  a $70,000 house, you know, they're going to start small.
• 35:40
  Their, their their invoice is not going to be that big.
• 35:43
  I'm not making a ton of money on that, but the satisfaction of seeing them,
• 35:48
  be wowed.
• 35:49
  And that's
• 35:50
  part of why we're called Wow video tours by the media that we're giving them,
• 35:54
  that they can deliver to their seller, and the seller is wowed.
• 35:57
  It makes them feel good. They want to get the next listing.
• 36:00
  They can use that, you know, that shoot to show their next potential,
• 36:05
  seller and client and see them grow and succeed and be a part of that.
• 36:10
  And that's just part of what I love to do in this.
• 36:13
  And I'm sure it's the same for our, our listeners.
• 36:15
  But going in with that attitude when you're working with a new client,
• 36:20
  a new realtor, and really communicating how much you love what you do,
• 36:25
  that that actually gets a lot of traction.
• 36:30
  Because people want to work with people that love what they do.
• 36:35
  So just let that shine through and understand that your mindset
• 36:38
  is actually very similar to the realtors mindset in terms of business.
• 36:43
  If you can understand it is, you know,
• 36:46
  business partners,
• 36:48
  it's going to do nothing but good things for you.
• 36:51
  So I think that's a good place to wrap up, Todd.
• 36:55
  Yeah, a lot of good stuff in here.
• 36:56
  Just try to take one nugget away from it, understand your client a little bit more,
• 37:00
  connect with them and, you'll be surprised how similar they are to you.
• 37:05
  Like Craig said. Yeah.
• 37:07
  Good deal.
• 37:08
  All right. Well, we are going to be off next week.
• 37:10
  But we will get back to this ASAP.
• 37:13
  We know it's busy season for many of you as well, so,
• 37:16
  thank you so much for the time that you do take out.
• 37:19
  As we've said countless times, we appreciate that.
• 37:21
  We know you're busy, you're an owner, you've got a lot on your plate.
• 37:24
  But the fact that you take the time to to listen or watch is not lost on us.
• 37:28
  And we appreciate your time because we know it's valuable.
• 37:31
  So yeah.
• 37:32
  Craig, if you sorry, before you wrap up, if you're looking for content in the off
• 37:36
  week, we had an incredible tech talk with with me with Todd yesterday.
• 37:40
  That would have been May 8th on Spiro super user Facebook group.
• 37:45
  We covered some really great topics.
• 37:47
  There are some questions.
• 37:48
  We had a nice group in there,
• 37:49
  a nice size of a group and went over a lot of business items.
• 37:53
  So if you're looking for some content,
• 37:55
  go back and see if you can't play that again.
• 37:57
  There was some really good, business building conversations in that.
• 38:02
  Awesome. I might have to watch that.
• 38:06
  All right, well, you guys, thank you again so much.
• 38:09
  Make sure you take some time to be thankful for the blessings in your life.
• 38:12
  And be sure to take a breath, have a great week.