Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / The "Full Plate" Framework: Alex Coombs - Northern Spruce Media

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The "Full Plate" Framework: Alex Coombs - Northern Spruce Media · The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business

• 0:00
  Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
• 0:04
  I don't want to suffer.
• 0:05
  I don't want my eggs in one basket.
• 0:06
  If this drops, this is going to hold this strong still.
• 0:23
  Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast, managing your real estate,
• 0:27
  photography and videography business.
• 0:30
  Spiro is a software platform designed by real estate media company
• 0:34
  for real estate media companies to help you not only manage your day
• 0:38
  to day business, but we want to see you grow in scale and have fun doing it.
• 0:42
  Welcome to the podcast.
• 0:43
  I'm Craig Mangrum, and, each and every week, of course, our owner,
• 0:47
  founder and co-host of the podcast, Todd Give a Mickey.
• 0:51
  How's it going, Todd? Oh, Craig, it's so great to be back.
• 0:53
  And the last I can remember, I was without you.
• 0:55
  And I felt like I was just, like, missing my blanket as a, you know, an infant.
• 1:01
  And and my room.
• 1:02
  So thank you for being back. No.
• 1:05
  No worries. Yeah. I was a little under the weather.
• 1:07
  That happens once in a while, but yeah. Glad to be back.
• 1:09
  Feeling much, much better. Good, good.
• 1:11
  Any new? Anything you want to announce? Anything just out of the ordinary.
• 1:14
  Would like to talk about today, Greg?
• 1:16
  I don't I don't know what you're talking about, Todd.
• 1:18
  Okay.
• 1:21
  Okay, I did it.
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  We're going to do it here. Can I? There we go.
• 1:25
  There it is.
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  That's
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  If you're like, what are you talking about?
• 1:29
  Craig, I'm listening to you right now.
• 1:31
  Craig is holding up his arm.
• 1:33
  Yeah, his wrist showing a tattoo that he's been talking about.
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  I did it.
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  I did it.
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  No, I it was kind of weird.
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  He wanted to get my face on his arm, but it.
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  I almost did the Spiro logo, but I thought,
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  wow, I would've been wild.
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  The check wasn't big enough.
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  So that was tattoo number one.
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  I actually got two.
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  We're going to do a standalone episode a little bit with the, the process.
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  My oldest son, Evan, went with me to my appointment
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  and got some, some footage and some photos.
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  So we'll do a fun little mini, episode of of the Spiro.
• 2:11
  The Spiro tattoo edition, podcast coming up.
• 2:17
  So you guys don't want to miss it, because when he showed this to me.
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  So he texted me the other night.
• 2:22
  Oh, you showed it to everybody.
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  Well, if you're listening, you can't see it.
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  Yeah, but he texted me there night, and he texted me pictures of two tattoos.
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  I was like, okay, maybe someone else was in the tattoo parlor.
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  And, like,
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  they took tattoo pictures together because that looks like a really big tattoo.
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  So I was just like, oh, great, you did it.
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  And I didn't know what to say.
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  And now I realize the other tattoo he got like,
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  you all just have to watch the YouTube video because I was shocked.
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  So the design for
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  that one originally was a little bit smaller and
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  my tattoo artist, his nickname is pango.
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  pango put the smaller one up there.
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  I'm like, yeah, that works.
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  He goes, no, I think we need to go bigger.
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  Let's just find your arm.
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  Okay, great.
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  So wait, wait a second.
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  I just have to.
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  Everybody fast forward
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  if you don't want to hear my my tangent here, but Craig, you debate.
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  I mean, we talked about this tattoo for a long time.
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  We did.
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  And you decide that you you finalize the decision of a one inch
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  by one inch or so tattoo on your wrist.
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  Then you showed up to a tattoo parlor, and you're influenced
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  by an individual named pango
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  to get a huge tattoo on your arm.
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  No, no, no. Okay, let me give you context.
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  I was thinking about two,
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  but the other one that I've thought about since, oh, jeez.
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  Probably 20, 25 years was a tray cutter, a symbol that if you're familiar with,
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  Celtic or Irish symbology, the
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  the tri catch, a symbol goes back a long, long time ago.
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  Christian monks eventually adopted it as a symbol of the Trinity,
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  but about a month ago decided, no, I'm not going to do the tray cutter
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  but the Jerusalem cross, because I got to visit Jerusalem.
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  So I actually started thinking about two tattoos.
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  I figured if I'm going to do it, let's just do it right.
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  I'm turning 50 this year.
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  I'm lit.
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  It's my midlife crisis, Todd.
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  yeah, I love it.
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  Yeah, I agree, that's so fabulous.
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  Craig. Like, that's an all in all fun.
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  Like I'm having fun with you, but like to do that.
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  I know that was a big, like thing to make you uncomfortable and to go through.
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  Let's just do it.
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  Kudos to you that the pain,
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  the pain was not as bad as I was expecting.
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  No. Yeah.
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  So anyway, addicting. Now you're Todd.
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  Honestly expect Craig to show up with two more in the next few.
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  You once you get one.
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  As you can tell, he got two.
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  You're going to have five.
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  It's it's it's, it's going to happen.
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  My my son and Pango both started talking to me immediately about a full sleeve.
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  I'm like, let's not let's not rush things here.
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  I might as well.
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  You're going to be 50, Craig. Yeah, it's my motorcycle.
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  Some I, I already have, Alex.
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  I already have a motorcycle.
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  He does have
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  Yeah. The type you look the type.
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  I was the nerd in school.
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  But anyway.
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  Okay, we will work. We are off my off.
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  Yeah. We are.
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  We are way off tangent here.
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  We need to get back to, the the, show order here.
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  That other voice and face you're hearing and seeing right now.
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  We're going to introduce her in just a minute, but let's get back on track.
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  Spiro updates.
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  What do we have going on? Yeah, I can't even think right now.
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  There's going to be updates. I didn't write them down.
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  They're going to be good.
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  But all series video downloaders we made video downloading on iOS
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  is very simple for your agents.
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  They click download.
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  We do some funny thing, some fancy things behind the scenes,
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  and then it goes right to their camera, which is fabulous
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  because they used to have to take it to share.
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  Used to go to files file share over to the camera.
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  It's like, why do I have to take five steps?
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  Like they just have one step now. So that's the big one there.
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  So super excited about that.
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  March 3rd is going to be the next launch.
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  So you're going to see some great updates to a lot of mobile things with websites.
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  We'll put out a full list.
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  But I I'm sorry, all my brain went dead because I was just enjoying the laugh.
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  And this was there's some good things coming.
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  Yeah. Very cool, very cool.
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  All right, well, let's jump into this.
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  I didn't mean to steal the spotlight.
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  Sorry, guys, but we've been talking about this for so long.
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  Craig, you never steal the spotlight.
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  So I love that you actually have the spotlight here.
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  I truly do, because you're always just, like, so helpful.
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  And the voice behind and connecting the segments.
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  So I love you to have the spotlight.
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  All right.
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  Well, let's get it back though on the focus of this episode.
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  Just what was it about?
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  About a month ago or so now?
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  Yeah.
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  January 20th 21st.
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  22nd. We had Spiro Sync. Right. Exactly.
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  And a panel of great speakers that for the next month
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  or month and a half or so, we are featuring
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  to bring you some great content to help you build your business.
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  Todd, I'm going to let you introduce our guest this week, formerly.
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  Well, I'd I'd love to.
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  So if you were at PMRE, she was a keynote speaker there.
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  And, this is where we met and started to talk.
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  And she spent some time with Shannon, and then we're like,
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  hey, we're going to have this conference as well.
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  And we would love for you to bring, not only your knowledge, but
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  her just energy is contagious and just incredible.
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  And so she was a keynote speaker at Spiro Sync,
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  and, she talked about her full plate framework.
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  And we're going to talk about many things today.
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  But many of you know her and love her, Alex Coombs,
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  owner of Northern Spruce Media.
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  Alex, welcome to the show. Thank you.
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  That was a nice intro. I love the infectious.
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  I hear that far often.
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  I heard a lot.
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  I appreciate it, and you truly are. So,
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  have you always been infectious like that?
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  Is it a learned behavior?
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  Because you see how people react and like, how you bring people up or,
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  honestly, I want to really bring this into some astrology shit right now.
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  I think it's because I am an Aries.
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  Okay, so like, it's we just we just have this sort of energy, this fiery energy.
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  And if I, if I go back to like when I thought, like, my infectious
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  energy happened,
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  it was in high school and I started doing the morning announcements.
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  Oh. Yeah. And then I was like, okay.
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  And then all of a sudden I was like, student rep.
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  And then I was head of like, councils and stuff.
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  So I think it was just like it was always in me to be in front of people and stuff.
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  And yeah, just being that voice over the the PA system
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  was always like a cool thing.
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  Yeah, that that is I think and maybe I'm connecting some dots
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  that aren't true, but like the idea of you bringing energy to that was connected
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  through people saying, hey Alex,
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  great job, or just people talking about what you brought.
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  Yeah. No, what?
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  I never even thought about it like that. But it's true.
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  Like after you, after you do it, you walk to your classroom
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  and then it was like, gives you high fives.
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  And I'm like, oh, wow. That's that's pretty neat.
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  Yeah.
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  That must be where it started because I never thought about it like that.
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  now I think it's just been a learned behavior.
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  And I think this is such a key
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  behavior of being a business owner is now doing that and being a good leader
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  is doing that to everyone you impact.
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  And I know you have some like your team is phenomenal.
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  Your culture is phenomenal.
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  And so I think that's maybe where it just carries through.
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  Yeah for sure.
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  I mean, when you go into the office, you can't be that person.
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  That's that's down, that's grumpy and all that.
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  Kind of like of course it's going to happen
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  every now and then, but you got to go in there,
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  say hello to everybody and just just make them feel good.
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  Because, I mean, they spend more time at work than they do at home.
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  So, you know, you got to make that workplace feel comfortable and happy
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  and like not just always feeling like a job.
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  Oh for sure for sure.
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  Well we'll dive more into that because I have plenty of questions for you.
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  But would you mind just giving our listeners that don't know
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  you just a little bit of background how you got into it,
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  what your company is doing now and kind of the size of your team.
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  Just so we have a little more idea? Well,
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  so as you guys know, Alex Coombs,
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  Norther Spruce Media, I started the company around eight years ago.
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  I'm in my eighth year now.
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  I started off by just, you know, my first business.
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  I was designing hats and I made a connection with a realtor,
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  and I made him a hat, and I was like, I was already into, like, shooting.
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  I had a cannon 7d at the time and a lens that, you know,
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  I think it was 24 to 70 or something like that, and a great lens.
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  And, I was just shooting for fun because I just like to do it.
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  I'm a creative.
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  And I asked him, I was like, can I just shoot one of your houses?
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  And this was eight years ago.
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  And I noticed that, like,
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  the photography for houses wasn't great.
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  Like it just wasn't back then.
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  And the video stuff that was just starting to come out also not great.
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  And I was like very keen on shooting video.
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  I, I was a professor at the, the local college here teaching
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  photo and video as well, and all editing and all that kind of stuff.
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  So I knew what I was doing, but I did not know how to shoot real estate.
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  Like no idea.
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  So I said, can I shoot one of your houses?
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  He said, sure gave me the lockbox first.
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  I don't even know how to use the lock boxes like he is.
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  Like going to high school and learning how to use the, the locks for your locker.
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  I was like, I had no idea at all.
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  Like, hey, how do I use this thing?
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  And then I go in.
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  He didn't give me any instruction whatsoever, and nor did I do any research.
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  I just went in, turned off all the lights
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  and the lights were on when they were on, and I turned them all
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  off, and, I shot the house with not a single light on.
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  Literally left the toilet seats up, like, no idea.
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  And, I said I was like, what do you think?
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  And he was like, first, like, leave all the lights, close the toilet seat
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  and make sure your lines are straight.
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  And I was like, oh.
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  Then I started doing research, and every time I shot, I think maybe I did
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  7 to 10 free shoots for him to like, got it.
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  I end up buying a drone, started doing the video stuff,
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  and the word of mouth referral all just started from this guy.
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  You know, eight years ago.
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  And I am where I am today, mainly because he let me shoot his house for free.
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  That is familiar story.
• 12:26
  Yeah.
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  I'm like how do you just start shooting real estate without doing it for free.
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  You know, have you always been the entrepreneurial type.
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  You know the idea of like you were, you were making these hats
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  and all of a sudden it's like, hey this guy's a realtor.
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  Like maybe he needs have you always had that in you?
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  100%?
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  I, I was I was always the type of person that just wanted to continue to do things.
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  I wanted to try new things.
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  I'm still that way right now.
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  Like, I want to get into pottery now.
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  You know, I just want to start. I just want to do something new.
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  So I started shooting weddings.
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  I would try and shoot food.
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  I started to DJ like I was always doing all these creative avenues
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  and, like, I would do them. I'd like it for a bit.
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  Drop off, do something else, like it for a bit, drop it off.
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  But like with the the company I've built now, I can just drop it off.
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  I'm like, I'm, I'm way too deep in it.
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  I can just leave.
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  But no. Yeah.
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  Everything I've done,
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  I've always tried to figure out how can I make money from this, you know.
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  And I think that's where I'm at now in the business is like,
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  yes, there's the real estate, but what else can I do?
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  Because I can't drop the company.
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  So I created the creative department.
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  Now I'm doing consulting and now I'm working with brand.
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  And it's like, okay, cool.
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  Like there's other avenues you can do in your own business
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  to keep yourself entertained. Essentially.
• 13:46
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 13:47
  So that's normal to have all those different interests.
• 13:50
  I felt like I was alone in that.
• 13:52
  Alex oh my God, no.
• 13:55
  Oh yeah.
• 13:57
  That's awesome. Yeah.
• 13:58
  So up there, so with Northern Spruce Media.
• 14:01
  So this is the media, the real estate media company.
• 14:04
  And, and we'll go into some verticals that you had talked about, some ideas of
• 14:07
  maybe you're in that position out there
• 14:10
  listening and saying, hey, I've got a great engine running.
• 14:13
  And I just I've got this passion and I, you know, I see that there could be more.
• 14:18
  When did you realize that there was more for Northern Spruce Media?
• 14:21
  Because it sounds like you guys have grown very big.
• 14:23
  And then you kind of took
• 14:25
  on this idea of an owner role, where
• 14:26
  now you've built people up on your team and empowered them.
• 14:29
  But when did you see that?
• 14:30
  Like, this business could be a little bit different,
• 14:34
  honestly.
• 14:34
  It's just I took a step back and kind of asked myself
• 14:38
  the question, what a lot of entrepreneurs ask themselves, what do my clients need?
• 14:43
  What are they lacking and what they're lacking at the time
• 14:47
  was social media management,
• 14:49
  because social media was now becoming the new newspaper.
• 14:52
  I guess you could say, they're lacking social media management.
• 14:55
  They don't know how to do it.
• 14:56
  They don't have the time to do it, nor do they have the the ambition
• 15:01
  to keep up with the new things that are always updating constantly.
• 15:05
  So I was like, okay, social media management,
• 15:06
  that's an avenue I can make more money from.
• 15:08
  But also I need it for myself.
• 15:12
  And then I asked myself, what social you need the content.
• 15:16
  So a lot of agents were trying to film their own content, wasn't
• 15:19
  working, wasn't hitting.
• 15:20
  You need both to make it happen.
• 15:22
  I just say it's just like you can't have A without B, right?
• 15:26
  It's if you're going to do the content,
• 15:28
  you got to post it properly or else it's not going to hit.
• 15:31
  And you can't have social media management without any content.
• 15:35
  So they go hand in hand.
• 15:37
  So that's where my brain was.
• 15:38
  And I also needed both because when I got so busy,
• 15:41
  all my, all my content was falling through the cracks.
• 15:45
  I was coming last.
• 15:46
  So I was like, okay, let's hire somebody in-house for social content,
• 15:50
  get good at it, and then let's start offering it as a service.
• 15:54
  So that's that's where I realized, you know, at the time,
• 15:57
  agents need these things and I need these things too.
• 16:00
  So it's like I'm making money from it.
• 16:03
  And it's also covering my own costs.
• 16:05
  I love Alex that
• 16:07
  you started with the idea of what does my client need?
• 16:11
  Thing is Business owners.
• 16:12
  We all love the dream, right?
• 16:14
  We all are creative.
• 16:15
  And we love to think
• 16:16
  about what this could be and think about what our clients need.
• 16:21
  And oh my goodness.
• 16:22
  Just the idea of like, hey, what?
• 16:24
  Like asking them and going to them and not creating this
• 16:27
  perfect thing that has no relevance to what they do every day.
• 16:30
  But when you can solve what they need.
• 16:34
  Yeah, they will, they will buy it.
• 16:36
  And so there was this idea, like you had this epiphany
• 16:39
  moment like, what do agents need.
• 16:42
  What did you do with that.
• 16:43
  Then you take it to them ask them do it for them.
• 16:47
  What did that process look like.
• 16:48
  You know what it was is like the moment I got our content and our social media
• 16:54
  looking so good, people were like they started just coming to us being like,
• 16:58
  I want my social media to look like your guys.
• 17:00
  It looks clean, it looks consistent, it's a brand.
• 17:03
  And that's the thing that
• 17:05
  if you look at a real estate agent's page, a lot of time is just scattered.
• 17:08
  Like you don't know what the goal is, right?
• 17:10
  Like, what are you posting with a purpose or not?
• 17:14
  And are you actually getting any leads from it?
• 17:16
  Because, I mean, the generation coming up,
• 17:18
  they're not going to be getting leads from Facebook.
• 17:21
  They're going to be getting leads from Instagram.
• 17:24
  They're going to type in a real estate agent,
• 17:25
  see what their profile looks like, what their account looks like,
• 17:28
  what their media marketing looks like, and be like, okay, I want this person.
• 17:32
  And the only reason why I know that as well is because when my friends
• 17:35
  are going to buy a house, they'd be like, Alex, refer me to a few agents, okay?
• 17:38
  And I'm like, okay, one, two, three.
• 17:40
  All very different.
• 17:42
  And what they do is they go straight to their Instagram account
• 17:44
  and check out their marketing.
• 17:46
  And if it doesn't look good, it doesn't look consistent.
• 17:49
  Then how are they actually going to have consistency on selling a house.
• 17:52
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 17:54
  So true.
• 17:55
  I had I had an agent and this was many years.
• 17:58
  It goes name is Austin Cheviron and he does coaching now and
• 18:04
  he when I
• 18:05
  sold him on we just got this account at his brokerage.
• 18:08
  He was like, okay, Todd.
• 18:09
  So, you know, why do I want to use a video?
• 18:11
  I'm like, well, the video is going to be great
• 18:13
  because it's going
• 18:13
  to, you know, only this many this percentage of agents use a video.
• 18:17
  And if you use a video, you have you differentiate yourself to get the listing.
• 18:21
  He's like, okay, great.
• 18:22
  So we'll do the videos, but then we'll just delete them.
• 18:25
  Like no way.
• 18:26
  He's like, well, we'll just use it as a listing towards
• 18:28
  like why would I, why would I want to waste any other time?
• 18:30
  Like if you're telling me to use the video to get the listing, great,
• 18:33
  I'll get the listing.
• 18:34
  Then we'll just not waste any time on it.
• 18:36
  And I kept giving him these like, okay, well,
• 18:38
  now that you want to use it this way and the point he was making and he made it
• 18:42
  through actually mailing me and acts in the mail,
• 18:45
  there was a box that showed up as he said, this is the story of an ax.
• 18:49
  I was like, if so, Todd, imagine that you're a caveman.
• 18:53
  And I show up and I hand you an ax and I don't say anything,
• 18:58
  and I go away and two
• 19:00
  weeks later you come back and you're shaving your face with the ax.
• 19:04
  He's like, you kind of missed the why of the ax.
• 19:07
  So I always think about that as too many of you.
• 19:11
  And I see him, you create these beautiful videos,
• 19:13
  there's all these great new things, and some are cinematic
• 19:16
  and some have the gags of AI, and they're all they all serve a purpose.
• 19:20
  But if you hand it to an agent and say, go ahead and go to the download page,
• 19:23
  and even it's easy to download to your camera on iOS, they're like, what?
• 19:28
  Like I got a foundation that has cracks in it.
• 19:31
  Like, I don't know what to do with this video.
• 19:33
  Like, did you see that disconnect with your agents? Alex?
• 19:36
  Oh for sure, all the time.
• 19:38
  And the one thing I always say is like a video.
• 19:41
  Sorry, my cat, I'm just going to show you this thing.
• 19:43
  Oh, why? That's
• 19:45
  so freaking needy.
• 19:51
  Her tail is just, like, hitting me.
• 19:52
  I'm like,
• 19:54
  oh, Alex.
• 19:55
  Alex, remember, cats were worshiped once in Egypt, and they never forgot it.
• 20:00
  Yeah, that’s true
• 20:02
  that is true. Anyway. Sorry. Go ahead.
• 20:05
  No. It's okay.
• 20:06
  Yeah, I was just tell my agents like a video is.
• 20:09
  It's it's going to amplify your marketing.
• 20:12
  You know, you're not going to sell the house through a video.
• 20:15
  You're really not.
• 20:16
  But it's it's going to build a brand for you,
• 20:18
  and it's going to allow you to market the house in a different way,
• 20:20
  in a different avenue, rather than, you know, here's the thing.
• 20:23
  A seller, when they want to sell a house, they have probably five agents
• 20:28
  they're interviewing.
• 20:29
  They're all going to come with their marketing packaged package.
• 20:32
  If you have photo video I guide,
• 20:36
  drone.
• 20:37
  And then the one person is just doing like simple floor plans and photos.
• 20:41
  Guaranteed.
• 20:42
  They're going to go with the high level marketing rather than this one.
• 20:44
  And a lot of the time is
• 20:46
  if they go to watch that video, they want to be wowed, right?
• 20:49
  The seller wants to be wowed, and that's how they're going to get that seller,
• 20:54
  and that's how that seller is going to refer them to the next seller.
• 20:58
  So it's just like it's a full circle thing. Right?
• 21:00
  And it's it's allowing people to realize
• 21:02
  that it's not just about getting a video and just posting it.
• 21:06
  It also amplifies your whole marketing.
• 21:09
  And that's how you're going to lock in new agents.
• 21:11
  And I saw a new sellers and buyers. It's
• 21:15
  it's for you.
• 21:17
  Yeah.
• 21:18
  Yeah.
• 21:19
  And we saw that same thing at our company.
• 21:21
  And we still see it as to where it's a it's a super competitive market.
• 21:25
  I mean, I don't know that there's
• 21:26
  more of a competitive market
• 21:28
  or it's one of the most competitive markets is real estate.
• 21:30
  And any tool that you can give someone is a leg up,
• 21:35
  like you're just going to continue and then and
• 21:38
  and again, back to what you said, Alex is like what do they need.
• 21:42
  Like okay.
• 21:42
  So they they don't need a video.
• 21:44
  They need to get more listings.
• 21:45
  They use your services to get what they need.
• 21:48
  So I love that you're thinking about it in that way.
• 21:51
  Yeah, exactly.
• 21:52
  And I see it's like here's the other thing too.
• 21:54
  It's like realtors are all competitive against each other.
• 21:57
  But now so are all these real estate media companies.
• 22:00
  Like we're all fighting for these agents.
• 22:02
  And in my area in particular, there's about 30,000 real estate agents.
• 22:06
  Like it's over.
• 22:08
  It's over time. There's a lot,
• 22:11
  and a good amount of them use us, which is great,
• 22:14
  but we do shoot
• 22:15
  with almost every single agent differently,
• 22:17
  like agents have different standards, especially if they're big agent,
• 22:20
  because it's like if this person in this person
• 22:22
  both go to the listing appointment, what does those packages look like?
• 22:26
  You know, they're both can be really good.
• 22:28
  But what brand do they resonate with at that point?
• 22:31
  Right.
• 22:33
  We shoot tighter for some people.
• 22:34
  We shoot wider for some people.
• 22:36
  So it it all just once again, that full circle moment,
• 22:40
  it's all within the marketing and the brand as well.
• 22:44
  Yeah.
• 22:45
  That Alex going back to something Todd talked about with the, with the ax D
• 22:50
  do you guys do anything to educate your clients, your realtors on how to best
• 22:55
  use the media?
• 22:56
  Absolutely. All the time.
• 22:58
  So what does that look like?
• 22:59
  Yeah.
• 23:00
  So for example, the one big thing we were educating
• 23:03
  agents on is I that's the big talk.
• 23:06
  We started with educating everybody on auto HDR.
• 23:10
  We said,
• 23:11
  hey, we're using this amazing new system now.
• 23:14
  Everything's being edited so fast.
• 23:15
  It's going to be clean, is going to be consistent, and
• 23:18
  I guarantee you're not going to come back with changes.
• 23:21
  And if you if you do, it's going to be fixed right away.
• 23:24
  Right.
• 23:24
  Because we have that amazing slack channel with auto HDR
• 23:27
  and they're so on top of things. And I love that.
• 23:30
  And what we would do is I would go on social media,
• 23:33
  whether it's a story, whether it's a post, and educate our agents.
• 23:36
  But the other thing that we do
• 23:37
  and we go an extra step is if we send it through an E newsletter.
• 23:41
  So we'll make a video, we'll send it to all 900 of our agents.
• 23:45
  They get it. Our open click rate is great as well.
• 23:48
  So we know people are watching it.
• 23:50
  So then they're educated on that.
• 23:53
  And then the other thing yeah, back to the AI stuff
• 23:55
  besides auto HDR is all this video I everyone's just mind blown by it.
• 24:00
  It took us about six months to nail it and then trying to figure out the pricing,
• 24:05
  the timing, the credit,
• 24:07
  has been a lot.
• 24:10
  But what we're doing is we're constantly figuring out,
• 24:12
  you know, roadblocks, bottlenecks on on this video.
• 24:16
  I it's we thought, you know, it's going to take us
• 24:20
  two days to edit a massive AI video.
• 24:24
  It's taking us four.
• 24:25
  And then if they need revisions, then it's five.
• 24:27
  And like every time we have an agent calling us,
• 24:30
  which is probably three times a day at this point, everybody wants it.
• 24:34
  We're just saying, hey, just so you know, this is an extra cost.
• 24:37
  Do not expect a 48 hour turnaround time.
• 24:39
  Expect 72 plus.
• 24:41
  And people are like, yeah, no problem.
• 24:43
  But we're sending that out through mailers.
• 24:45
  We're doing constant social media posts on it so everyone is aware
• 24:50
  nothing is going to be a surprise because agents are just so used to that.
• 24:53
  24 48 turnaround time.
• 24:56
  And then when something doesn't come back for four days, they start to panic.
• 24:59
  But we're just so clear with the expectation that there is no question.
• 25:04
  Yeah, I love that.
• 25:05
  I think that's the idea of value and agency value and something they will change
• 25:12
  their
• 25:12
  expectations if you give them clearly where it's like,
• 25:15
  think of how many of us all have thought about this or this.
• 25:19
  I've heard this discussion many times with auto HDR processing in 30 minutes, like,
• 25:23
  hey, I'll upload from the road.
• 25:24
  And my differentiator is going to be that I'll get you your photos back in an hour.
• 25:29
  Yeah.
• 25:29
  And and think like Alex just flipped that on its head.
• 25:32
  It was saying, hey, if like here's value in this video product.
• 25:37
  Like, it's not instant.
• 25:40
  You need to wait for an agent are saying, okay, I understand that I want the value,
• 25:44
  so I'll actually adjust my list day on the contract.
• 25:50
  I'll go five days backwards so that I can let Alex and her team.
• 25:54
  And like the power of that is just incredible.
• 25:57
  When you can begin to flip that, you begin not racing to the bottom.
• 26:01
  You begin not seen who can do it the quickest.
• 26:03
  But when you bring that value, you actually control the sales process
• 26:08
  because you have that relationship with the client.
• 26:10
  Yeah, and I love that you said that because it's so true.
• 26:13
  The moment you give that that client an expectation and a real timeline,
• 26:18
  then they can voice that to their to their seller.
• 26:22
  It is so it's so needed.
• 26:24
  But the moment like you get afraid to talk about it
• 26:27
  then then nobody nobody knows what's going on.
• 26:30
  Right.
• 26:31
  And then you're going to look bad because you're not delivering it
• 26:33
  as fast as you're that, that they're used to.
• 26:36
  So making it clear and I always say this to my team, I say,
• 26:38
  if you go to a restaurant and you're waiting an hour for your food,
• 26:43
  you are not going to complain if that food is the best damn food
• 26:46
  you've ever tasted.
• 26:48
  But if that food comes back and it's not good,
• 26:51
  then you're going to be rattled and you're never going to go go back.
• 26:54
  You're going to leave a bad review. But if the food is good, you wait.
• 26:57
  Now we're going to take a photo. You're going to take that restaurant.
• 26:59
  The restaurant's now getting recognition.
• 27:01
  The same thing I always love to use like different industries
• 27:05
  and what they do and implement that into my business as well. So.
• 27:09
  that's incredible.
• 27:11
  And it
• 27:12
  gives people context as to what it is.
• 27:15
  So you mentioned your team and I'd love to maybe transition into your team
• 27:18
  because what you've built. Incredible.
• 27:20
  So maybe just as an intro, like what does your team look like?
• 27:24
  For those of you that don't know, you know how large your team is.
• 27:28
  Kind of maybe what a simple org chart, if you will, looks like.
• 27:31
  But and then and then maybe like
• 27:34
  some things that you begin to see over the years of like,
• 27:37
  you know, there's this idea of you hire a team
• 27:39
  and you give them tasks to do and you're just a task manager.
• 27:42
  And then you begin to transition into,
• 27:44
  like empowering them to understand what success looks like.
• 27:48
  And that kind of goes into your full plate like idea.
• 27:51
  But I know that's a whole lot loaded, but I just want to give you the floor
• 27:54
  to talk about team, because you have so much great things going on.
• 27:58
  I know I and I think that's, that's a thing that a lot of people
• 28:01
  when I'm doing consulting with people
• 28:03
  that they want that culture, they want to create it.
• 28:05
  And I think the first thing that you got to do is not put a cap on somebody's head.
• 28:10
  So if you if you hire somebody, you know, day one, they don't even know
• 28:14
  how to use the camera, train them because they have a good attitude.
• 28:18
  You see their work ethic and then meet with them.
• 28:21
  You know, I meet with my team six months to a year, and I say,
• 28:24
  okay, what are your goals?
• 28:27
  I know what their goals are.
• 28:28
  If they want to be a photographer forever, cool, that's great.
• 28:32
  But if you're talking about like,
• 28:33
  I want to lead a team, now, I know where you want to go.
• 28:37
  And it's my job to figure out for how you're going to get there.
• 28:41
  So, for example, I had this girl, she was actually at PMRE with me.
• 28:46
  She she was my student at one point.
• 28:49
  Her name is Maya, and Maya was my student.
• 28:52
  I hired her right out of school, and she was shooting real estate,
• 28:56
  and she she was good at it, really good at it.
• 29:00
  And this she was just so creative, and I and I pretty much I put a cap on her head.
• 29:05
  I wasn't giving her the growth that she needed, and she left
• 29:10
  and I was devastated.
• 29:12
  I was completely devastated.
• 29:14
  And it got to the point.
• 29:15
  I think it was like less than a year later,
• 29:18
  I saw that she was maybe looking for work or something.
• 29:21
  I messaged her
• 29:22
  and then she came into the office and I was like, listen,
• 29:25
  I want you back on the team, but I will never let you shoot a house
• 29:28
  for the rest of your life.
• 29:30
  I was like, you are going to be shooting content
• 29:32
  because that's what you're good at.
• 29:33
  That's what you aspire to be,
• 29:35
  and you're going to make me grow this business in a different way.
• 29:39
  She has not shot a house since, and she is now
• 29:43
  leading the creative department as a whole.
• 29:46
  This girl, I think she's 24,
• 29:49
  you know, she just she has such a good mindset.
• 29:52
  She, she's she's just so talented.
• 29:55
  And it was my fault at first for putting that cap on her head.
• 29:58
  And it's the same thing I had, one of my lead shooters.
• 30:02
  He he wanted to lead the video department,
• 30:05
  and I was like, okay, let's let you lead the video department.
• 30:08
  And he was still shooting.
• 30:10
  While trying to lead the video department.
• 30:12
  Things were falling through the cracks.
• 30:13
  He's like, Alex, I can't shoot anymore.
• 30:15
  If you want this to be successful.
• 30:17
  I was like, okay, now he's in office every day.
• 30:20
  He's managing the tasks he's doing the QC and he's
• 30:23
  leading video editors and all the shooters as well.
• 30:27
  So he knows what's going on at all times.
• 30:29
  If something goes wrong, he he lets me know if I need to know, but he handles it.
• 30:35
  So I mean my team culture is like we have leads.
• 30:38
  We have just we have the regular shooters.
• 30:41
  We have people who handle the events.
• 30:43
  I have an admin, I have operations.
• 30:46
  And, you know, we all function and flow
• 30:49
  because we all know what's going on and we communicate.
• 30:52
  Communication is key.
• 30:54
  We use slack constantly.
• 30:56
  If anybody's late, they message me or my admin.
• 30:59
  No problem.
• 31:02
  You know, it's it's communication.
• 31:04
  It's also doing things with your team, celebrating small wins,
• 31:08
  birthdays, all that kind of stuff, doing like little event.
• 31:11
  It's all very important because you don't want it
• 31:14
  just to seem like a 9 to 5 where they go in, they hate their life.
• 31:17
  Like you want to make it fun.
• 31:20
  And I think a lot of fun just comes with like working towards their goals as well
• 31:24
  because they they know they see that you see something in them.
• 31:28
  Yeah.
• 31:29
  So Alex, if someone is has an employee
• 31:32
  and they are like, wow,
• 31:35
  I don't even know what they want to do.
• 31:39
  Like I've just kind of said that this is what their tasks are.
• 31:43
  What does that conversation look like?
• 31:45
  Because this is probably an uncomfortable
• 31:47
  I know this was an uncomfortable one for me when I went from like,
• 31:49
  here's all the task you should do, and then check them off to like, hey,
• 31:53
  let's talk about feelings and what you want.
• 31:56
  Like, that seems so weird to me at the time, and crazily so.
• 32:00
  But what does that conversation
• 32:01
  look like when you're sitting with them to understand what they want?
• 32:05
  Yeah, you know it.
• 32:06
  I mean, it can be uncomfortable for sure.
• 32:09
  Especially if somebody is just, like, not the type of person to talk.
• 32:12
  And some, some
• 32:13
  creatives don't really talk and that's, that's totally fine.
• 32:16
  But I feel like you, you got to be vulnerable.
• 32:19
  So they're vulnerable.
• 32:21
  If you can talk about your experience and like where you're at and, like,
• 32:26
  make them see, like, feel that they can also be in your shoes, that
• 32:30
  that is going to allow them to open up.
• 32:32
  But the one thing I actually do is
• 32:33
  if we have our yearly meeting, they fill out a form.
• 32:37
  I want to know what they accomplished.
• 32:39
  I want to know what their goals are, where they see themselves
• 32:42
  next year in five years, and you know what?
• 32:44
  Some people might not even want to be working for them.
• 32:46
  But if they do, where do they want to be?
• 32:49
  And I think that we sit down after they're done writing,
• 32:52
  I give them a week, we sit down and I also make them write it.
• 32:57
  I made a mistake where I let them type it, and I can tell them that
• 33:00
  chatGPT and I was like, this is not authentic.
• 33:03
  So now they can tip.
• 33:05
  Yeah. And I'm like, write it.
• 33:06
  I don't even care if I can't read it because nobody really writes any more.
• 33:11
  But write it so I know it's coming from you.
• 33:15
  And then we, we go through it
• 33:17
  and it's, it's such a good open conversation.
• 33:20
  And as you go through it, you talk about each question
• 33:23
  and it allows them to open up
• 33:25
  because you want them to respond to what they wrote down.
• 33:29
  And I've never had a bad experience with it, honestly.
• 33:32
  that's a great structure.
• 33:33
  And when you begin doing that, then you create a culture
• 33:38
  where that is wanted as opposed to.
• 33:42
  And like we probably all have these experiences from work in our past
• 33:46
  where it's like you just showed up and like
• 33:48
  there's really no input that you could give.
• 33:50
  Maybe it was a large corporation
• 33:52
  or a big company or, you know, something corporate.
• 33:54
  And it's just like, you know, if there's hundreds of people there
• 33:58
  and sometimes
• 33:59
  even if there's only ten, it's just like, hey, nobody's open to feedback here.
• 34:03
  If you can create that culture of like, hey, tell me,
• 34:06
  you know, how could we make your job easier?
• 34:08
  I find that sometimes that's an easy one
• 34:10
  to ask for people because you're like, how can you make the company better?
• 34:14
  People go, oh, I don't know enough about the company.
• 34:17
  But if you say, how can I make your job easier?
• 34:19
  A lot of times people are like, oh, I have this couple nagging things
• 34:22
  and that can segue into them opening up more, for you.
• 34:27
  Yeah, 100%, I totally agree.
• 34:30
  And you know, when it when it comes down to it, I, I'm not
• 34:34
  not everything is, you know sunshine and rainbows.
• 34:37
  If someone if someone shows up to a shoot late
• 34:39
  and there's no actual explanation for that,
• 34:42
  I have to sit down and I have to have a chat with them.
• 34:44
  And we also go through where it's like we write people up,
• 34:48
  we keep track of everything, and it's it's not just like
• 34:51
  I'm just so friendly all the time, but like, it's it's it's a career.
• 34:56
  This is this is a corporation. This is a business.
• 34:58
  And I'm running in to run it, you need to be successful.
• 35:01
  I need to be successful in our clients need to be successful.
• 35:04
  So if you screw up, you're going to still be penalized for it.
• 35:08
  But, I mean, maybe we can go bowling after, you know,
• 35:11
  but yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 35:14
  Okay.
• 35:14
  So the thing that's,
• 35:15
  that's I've got in the back of my head, Alex is, is Todd
• 35:18
  talked about your full plate
• 35:19
  framework and how, you know, your team and culture dynamics fit into that.
• 35:24
  And that was the subject of of your talk at the Spiro Sync Conference.
• 35:27
  But for the for the people that weren't able to make it to the conference
• 35:31
  and maybe don't understand what that term means,
• 35:34
  can you give a definition of full plate framework?
• 35:38
  Yeah.
• 35:39
  And what that looks like in your business.
• 35:41
  Yeah.
• 35:42
  So when I, when I kind of came up with the full full plate framework,
• 35:46
  I don't even realize I was doing it until I sat back
• 35:50
  and I realized the first thing I ask somebody is, how full is your plate?
• 35:54
  You know, it allows me to gauge how how busy they are, how overwhelmed
• 35:59
  they are.
• 35:59
  Are they on their way to burnout or are they
• 36:03
  there's they're not enough for them to do and I need to fill their plate.
• 36:06
  So every time I sit down with an employee, I'm like, how full is your plate?
• 36:10
  And sometimes it's weekly, depending on who it is in the department.
• 36:14
  If I see somebody extremely stressed, I'm like, okay, seriously,
• 36:17
  how full is your plate?
• 36:18
  How full has it been and how much longer can you take?
• 36:22
  Oh, so it's like, okay, my plate's 100% full.
• 36:26
  It's been this way for two weeks.
• 36:28
  I'm like, okay, is it just like a spur of the moment?
• 36:31
  Something going on?
• 36:32
  Is it going to fade?
• 36:33
  Like, how full was it before it became 100%?
• 36:36
  Because it could just be like, okay, it's busy right now, you know?
• 36:39
  So we just got to bite the bullet and deal with it,
• 36:41
  because I'm not going to hire somebody if it's if it's going to fade away.
• 36:45
  Right.
• 36:46
  So asking those questions has allowed me to grow.
• 36:51
  You know, I never want someone to be burnt out.
• 36:54
  I never wanted someone to come in and hate their job.
• 36:57
  I never want someone to call in sick because, like, they just don't want to go in.
• 37:02
  You know, I wanted to
• 37:03
  create that culture and that experience where it's like, hey, Alex, my place full.
• 37:08
  It's been full for the last five months.
• 37:09
  I need help now. And I was like, done deal.
• 37:12
  Like, it's not even a question for me.
• 37:14
  It's it's done.
• 37:15
  I will get someone hired right away.
• 37:19
  And, and and that is allow people to also
• 37:21
  trust me because I have their back.
• 37:24
  But that's how I've scaled is is
• 37:26
  taking a step back, asking those questions and figuring out what we need to do
• 37:31
  to make their plate less full, because, I mean, if your plate's full at 100%,
• 37:36
  you're probably doing other tasks that are not allowing you
• 37:39
  to focus on what you're really good at.
• 37:41
  So let me scrape some food off onto someone else's plate.
• 37:44
  Hire them part time, fill your plate with the things that you're actually good
• 37:47
  at and that you enjoy.
• 37:49
  Todd, this sounds eerily familiar,
• 37:51
  like admin nurse doctor is what I'm thinking right now.
• 37:56
  Yeah, it goes along the same idea of like, what are you doing?
• 38:00
  And understanding.
• 38:00
  And, Alex, we talk about like, you know,
• 38:05
  classifying the segments of work that we do every day.
• 38:08
  And some things are going to be admin level.
• 38:10
  Maybe
• 38:11
  that's the food that we need to scrape off when you need to give to someone else.
• 38:15
  And, you know, maybe I haven't done enough doctor level task
• 38:18
  because I haven't had the room to do that.
• 38:19
  But the doctor level task is what moves the business along.
• 38:23
  And then and then the cool thing with all that and with the whole
• 38:26
  are the the full plate framework.
• 38:28
  Like if you're scraping off some of your admin work,
• 38:31
  you know, down to the next person, that's actually that usually
• 38:34
  a doctor level work and you're moving people up through your company.
• 38:38
  Yeah. So
• 38:39
  do you.
• 38:41
  Yeah, yeah.
• 38:42
  Do you find that okay, so as you're having these conversations,
• 38:46
  I think the first thing was and this is why I love verbal so much.
• 38:48
  And like many of you know, like I did basketball, I still do.
• 38:51
  And I still use like basketball verbals today for life lessons.
• 38:54
  But do you find your employees are like
• 38:57
  they ask each other, use this full plate terminology.
• 39:00
  Without you? Oh for sure. Yeah.
• 39:03
  I think they communicate with each other being like my plate is full.
• 39:07
  Like the leads communicate that to their to their team.
• 39:12
  To kind of give a feel for where they're at.
• 39:15
  Yeah.
• 39:15
  And I just, I so love this because it's like it's,
• 39:18
  it goes back to the morning announcements with you.
• 39:20
  It's like you found the value in communication.
• 39:24
  And now you've given everyone a language to communicate feelings
• 39:29
  which are sometimes hard to be communicated.
• 39:32
  But we've given them this tool of how to say it, that everybody goes, oh,
• 39:36
  wait a minute, that's a bad thing, that you have a full plate.
• 39:38
  Like, let me, let me take some of that from you.
• 39:40
  Yeah.
• 39:41
  And do you find that that helps build culture and builds morale
• 39:44
  and gives people like this central like alignment of what things mean?
• 39:49
  Oh, I totally think it does. Yeah.
• 39:51
  And it allows them to work together.
• 39:53
  And it allows that team
• 39:54
  culture to be a team like, no, we don't want one person drowning.
• 39:58
  If someone is drowning, whoever whoever has that 80% will help them.
• 40:03
  And that's where we're at right now, especially with the this AI video stuff.
• 40:06
  Like we have found that we're kind of being slow and the shooters,
• 40:11
  when they're not shooting they come in and they're editing.
• 40:13
  So the other day we had I think five people editing videos,
• 40:17
  because we just needed that extra help.
• 40:19
  But it's because we never want anyone to feel like they're alone or are struggling.
• 40:24
  That's incredible I love that there's.
• 40:27
  So we could probably talk for three days Alex about all the great.
• 40:31
  But I want, I want to get to some of these verticals because when you,
• 40:34
  when you were talking about this like like me and I saw the room perk up
• 40:38
  and there was questions, but
• 40:40
  can you talk about and I assume in some of these conversations with
• 40:43
  how full is your play my place. Not very like I'm empowered.
• 40:45
  I think I have these ideas. Here's a new vertical.
• 40:48
  Can you one can you explain for the listeners?
• 40:50
  They're like, what is a verb?
• 40:51
  What does that even mean? Can you explain that to us?
• 40:54
  And then how did you take this unified communication in this culture of
• 40:58
  communication is good to lead you into those next steps.
• 41:02
  Yeah.
• 41:03
  So I mean, adding verticals for me was allowing myself
• 41:07
  not to have all my eggs in one basket,
• 41:09
  because when you have your eggs in one basket and let's say in real estate,
• 41:13
  real estate is like the bumpy road you can ever experience.
• 41:16
  You never know what you're going to get.
• 41:18
  Month to month economy really can screw up like anything can happen.
• 41:23
  You know,
• 41:23
  so it's like if you have your eggs all in one basket in real estate
• 41:27
  and the market's down, whatever the agents feel, you feel.
• 41:31
  If there is a lack of shoots in January, what do you where's the money coming from.
• 41:38
  Right.
• 41:38
  So that's that was a huge struggle for me.
• 41:41
  I, I was booming in business.
• 41:42
  We were doing so good.
• 41:44
  You know, we were so busy I, I did the full plate.
• 41:47
  I asked people and everyone's like, we need extra help, got extra help.
• 41:50
  And then all of a sudden, bam!
• 41:52
  The market completely wiped out.
• 41:55
  And when it wiped out, I,
• 41:57
  I suffered I suffered big time.
• 42:00
  And I was like, I never want to feel this again.
• 42:03
  Like I was stressed and I feel like if you're running a business
• 42:07
  in real estate media, you wake up with anxiety like you just,
• 42:11
  you know, the last thing I wanted to do was feel that all the time.
• 42:16
  So that's why I was like, I need to ask myself, what do my clients need?
• 42:21
  How can I leverage a different vertical and gain more money?
• 42:26
  And what I wanted to do was create subscriptions.
• 42:28
  So we created subscription based with the social media management.
• 42:31
  Subscription based off the content creation.
• 42:33
  We created a marketing vertical as well.
• 42:36
  Do people need SEO?
• 42:37
  Do they need ads? What do they need?
• 42:40
  Because I was getting emails like, hey, do you do you do this?
• 42:42
  And I was like, no, do you do this?
• 42:44
  No. And I'm like, okay, I've said no way too many times.
• 42:48
  And I just, I could have had more income, more money coming in.
• 42:53
  So that's basically where it comes from, is I don't want to suffer.
• 42:57
  I don't want my eggs in one basket.
• 42:58
  If this drops, this is going to hold this strong still.
• 43:01
  You know, it's it's like that back burner having a back up.
• 43:05
  And then when they're both great, you're just like, yeah, you know,
• 43:09
  we need to save the money.
• 43:13
  So these ideas are vertical.
• 43:15
  Alex and I love these different things.
• 43:17
  And that might.
• 43:18
  So to some listeners out there and to a solo preneur,
• 43:21
  this is probably not for you.
• 43:23
  So I don't I don't think Alex is saying, hey, if you're not busy
• 43:27
  right now in February of 26, which when we're recording this.
• 43:30
  Yep, I don't go and start another company.
• 43:33
  Like you need to go build relationships with clients to get more business.
• 43:37
  But I think what you're saying, Alex, is when you grow to a certain size
• 43:42
  and you understand what people's goals are, and you do things
• 43:46
  at a high level and people ask you like, can you do that for me, too?
• 43:51
  I think as a business owner, does that give you confidence?
• 43:53
  Like, hey, like you're none of us want to throw one more thing on our shoulders.
• 43:58
  I think this weight of a business owner is a real thing with everyone,
• 44:02
  but when you spread that off against your team, does that give you the confidence
• 44:06
  or where did you find the confidence is saying, we can do this.
• 44:10
  Yeah.
• 44:10
  You know, I had the confidence because I knew my team was was smart.
• 44:15
  They're strong and they're dedicated.
• 44:17
  And I mean, ultimately if I'm going to create a new vertical,
• 44:20
  everyone has to be on board.
• 44:21
  It can't just be me.
• 44:23
  And I recognize that my team was on board for it because,
• 44:26
  I mean, they also saw as we're all in one basket, they
• 44:29
  they wanted they didn't want layoffs to happen, you know?
• 44:32
  So it's like, let's create something that's going to keep us safe.
• 44:38
  And, you know,
• 44:39
  being a business owner, a CEO like you got to take risks.
• 44:42
  So, yeah, it was a risk.
• 44:43
  I hired two people when we were so slow.
• 44:46
  And I created something out of it because I believed in myself, essentially.
• 44:52
  But, I mean, yeah, everybody has to be on board, and you have to take a risk.
• 44:57
  And sometimes the risk doesn't pay off, and that's okay.
• 45:00
  I've taken many risks.
• 45:01
  And as business owners, we always take risks.
• 45:04
  And if it doesn't work, what did you learn from that risk?
• 45:07
  Right.
• 45:08
  As long as you learn something, you're good.
• 45:11
  So what you just said, Alex just triggered a conversation.
• 45:14
  A memory of a conversation I just had with,
• 45:17
  someone else in the industry that is looking at trying to bring on
• 45:20
  a business development specialist, and it's slow.
• 45:24
  You know, finances are always a, a concern when you're looking to hire.
• 45:29
  How do you how do you set up your decision making matrix
• 45:32
  on how and when you can afford to bring somebody on?
• 45:36
  Because it's specifically when it's slow, like you just said?
• 45:39
  Yeah. You know what?
• 45:41
  I think at the time, what I did was I cut my salary a little bit,
• 45:45
  I took break, I took a little hit myself.
• 45:47
  And I mean, if I didn't do that, I wouldn't be here,
• 45:51
  right?
• 45:52
  It's you.
• 45:54
  There's a quote by Jim Carrey, maybe I'm going to have to find it, but
• 45:58
  it essentially goes around if you can't,
• 46:02
  take a hit for maybe a year
• 46:05
  to better yourself in the long run, then you're then you're not going to grow.
• 46:10
  And I'm at the point my business right now where
• 46:12
  my plate is so full, I need some, but I need I need that extra help.
• 46:17
  I'm looking for that person right now.
• 46:19
  I'm looking for a COO.
• 46:20
  And that COO is going to be expensive.
• 46:23
  You know,
• 46:24
  I need someone to take so much stuff off my plate
• 46:26
  so I can add different verticals and growth, the consulting being one of them.
• 46:30
  Like I need to focus on that.
• 46:32
  So I need, I need I don't even want to know what's going on in real estate.
• 46:36
  I don't even want to know what's going on
• 46:37
  in the creative department, so I can focus on all these other things.
• 46:41
  And it's going to be a risk.
• 46:42
  You know, it's it's such a, an expensive risk.
• 46:46
  But like, you gotta
• 46:47
  be confident in yourself, and you got to make sure that
• 46:50
  you can do it the moment, like, you hesitate.
• 46:53
  It's like when you're going for a run and you think for a second, like,
• 46:56
  I need to stop, then you'll stop.
• 46:58
  But if you keep saying I can, I can hit that stop sign.
• 47:01
  I can hit that lamppost. I can hit that corner.
• 47:03
  You're just going to keep going.
• 47:04
  So it's all mental. It really is.
• 47:07
  Makes sense. Todd.
• 47:08
  It's like that concept of, I think of it in terms of equipment.
• 47:12
  When I bought my first drone, that was a chunk of change.
• 47:15
  And I'm a fiscally, I'm pretty conservative.
• 47:18
  At least I was back then.
• 47:19
  I've got I've loosened up now.
• 47:22
  Well clearly.
• 47:23
  Tattoo's well, you know.
• 47:27
  But it's the idea of you have to spend money to make money.
• 47:30
  And it's the same with the the people on your team.
• 47:33
  You've got to be willing, as the owner,
• 47:35
  to invest your money, even if it's your own salary
• 47:39
  and spend money because that's what you're doing.
• 47:42
  You're taking money out of your own pocket to spend it,
• 47:46
  to make it, to make money and and grow the business.
• 47:49
  Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah.
• 47:52
  So Alex,
• 47:54
  there is you mentioned consulting a couple of times and can you, can you
• 47:58
  because I know there's listeners out there like wow this is incredible.
• 48:01
  Like what are you doing. Right.
• 48:03
  Can you give us a little insight on that for sure. For sure.
• 48:06
  So it all goes back to my day one.
• 48:08
  So my actual first big job was at the age of 22,
• 48:12
  I got hired as a college professor teaching, photo video and editing.
• 48:18
  And the only reason why I got that was because I was
• 48:21
  so, like, I was so dedicated at school.
• 48:23
  Like, I was the one that at one point, I fell asleep in the classroom,
• 48:26
  woke up the next day, and the teacher was turning on the light
• 48:29
  like I just like I was so dedicated to school.
• 48:31
  I know, and you know what? I'm not booksmart.
• 48:33
  I'm really not. I'm street smart.
• 48:35
  But like, I always even know like I know that about myself.
• 48:39
  I always want to give it my all.
• 48:41
  And even if I got, like,
• 48:43
  a 70%, I'd be happy because I knew I put in that extra time.
• 48:46
  And anyways, so, like, hard work pays off.
• 48:49
  I can just say that.
• 48:51
  So yeah, teacher and I was a teacher for 11 years, and the reason why I stop
• 48:54
  was because I was I was a professor, I was working so hard.
• 48:58
  I was running Northern Spruce media and at one point it became
• 49:01
  I was 50% good at business, 50% good at a teacher.
• 49:05
  And I was just like, I can't be 50% like I need to be 100%.
• 49:09
  So I dropped the teaching and the business took off essentially.
• 49:12
  Yeah.
• 49:13
  So with consulting staff, I realized last year
• 49:17
  the amount of people that were messaged me on Instagram
• 49:20
  just asking to ask me questions and, you know,
• 49:23
  want to pick my brain on business, the the team culture, the growth.
• 49:27
  How did I do this? How did I do that?
• 49:29
  And I spent hours, hours just talking to people all the time.
• 49:34
  And I was like, okay, I think I need to like do something with this.
• 49:37
  So it came to my mind like, maybe I should just start consulting.
• 49:43
  And just really help
• 49:45
  people through these growing pains that they're having,
• 49:49
  all surrounding the full plate and I've been doing it
• 49:54
  since January, not very long, and it's going so well.
• 49:58
  And I really love seeing people being like, okay, Alex,
• 50:02
  you help me with this, you help me with that.
• 50:03
  Like,
• 50:05
  I wouldn't have been able to do this without you.
• 50:07
  And I'm just like, it's a it's a give back moment for me.
• 50:10
  And I'm like, it makes me so happy because I want everyone to succeed.
• 50:14
  I want to see people's business thrive.
• 50:16
  I want people to, like,
• 50:17
  alleviate time off their plate so they can go on vacation, you know,
• 50:21
  not work 14 hours, 16 hours a day because that's what you do
• 50:25
  And it's just like there's there's ways around it.
• 50:28
  So the consulting is truly me helping people
• 50:32
  alleviate things off their plate, giving them better systems and operations.
• 50:36
  One of them being is like, for example,
• 50:38
  I just have my list of vendors, you know, I always say, hey, go to Spiro.
• 50:42
  Hey, go to auto HDR.
• 50:43
  Hey, go to Ring Wave.
• 50:46
  And these systems are going to help you because they've helped me.
• 50:49
  And it's just a trusted element with that too.
• 50:52
  It gives it gives you a new level of energy, too, doesn't it?
• 50:54
  Because it's one of your passions.
• 50:56
  Exactly, exactly.
• 50:58
  So I'm like, okay,
• 50:58
  I want to focus on this, and I, I can't unless I get shit off my plate.
• 51:02
  So I'm, I'm trying to do that so I can focus on this more and take on more clients.
• 51:08
  Yeah I think that's incredible.
• 51:10
  So if you're out there listening and you're saying, hey,
• 51:13
  I've got this full plate and I want to become something else,
• 51:17
  what do you need to remove off your plate so that you actually have a little margin
• 51:21
  so that you can focus on something.
• 51:23
  It's difficult.
• 51:24
  And our left brain, as humans love
• 51:27
  to kick up our fight or flight and think that the world is going to end.
• 51:31
  And we always tell ourselves that this time is different.
• 51:35
  This decision is different.
• 51:36
  Well, you all forgot that you quit a job
• 51:38
  you hated to actually go full time in your real estate media business.
• 51:42
  Like forgot how heavy that was.
• 51:44
  You know, think about Alex just told us like, hey, you 11 years
• 51:47
  as a professor and then like, I'm 50/50, you can't be.
• 51:51
  You didn't want to be 5050.
• 51:52
  So if you're like, I'm 50/50 right now, what do you need to let go of
• 51:56
  so that you can be 100% of what you want to grow into?
• 52:00
  Yeah, yeah, exactly that.
• 52:02
  That's that's the thing.
• 52:03
  And sometimes people don't even realize how, how much they shouldn't be doing.
• 52:09
  It's and
• 52:11
  I have one client right now.
• 52:13
  We had a call set up and he was just like he answered in the car
• 52:16
  and I'm like, no, I can't consult you while you're driving.
• 52:19
  And he's like, sure, I just got booked for a last minute shoot.
• 52:22
  He's driving.
• 52:23
  And I was like, man, I was like, this is exactly what your problem is.
• 52:27
  You know,
• 52:28
  they're you're you're you're doing the QC in the morning, you're doing invoicing,
• 52:33
  you're doing all the shoots, you're doing the editing, you're doing the bookings.
• 52:36
  I was like, you can't do this anymore.
• 52:38
  You're going to die.
• 52:39
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 52:41
  Alex Hormozi has, describes it in a way where he's like,
• 52:44
  you know, if, if right now, if you're not doing actions to grow
• 52:47
  to where you want to grow and say you're say you're at 25K a month
• 52:51
  in your business, and those actions will get you to 50K a month
• 52:55
  every month that you don't do that you are losing $25,000.
• 53:00
  Yeah.
• 53:00
  So it's like, hey, I'm going to go do this shoot for $400, or I'm going to say no
• 53:04
  to something that's going to get me $25,000.
• 53:07
  Yeah.
• 53:08
  And also it also goes back to, you know, if you do this for so long
• 53:12
  and you just keep putting yourself through the ringer, one,
• 53:15
  the most important thing that you're losing is time.
• 53:19
  Time is so like time is so valuable.
• 53:22
  You're just never going to get that time back
• 53:24
  because you're just so focused on other people
• 53:27
  and other things that like, are not bringing you joy.
• 53:31
  And then if you're not getting joy
• 53:32
  in what you're doing, you're going to hate your life.
• 53:35
  You're going to hate your job, and you're going to regret so many things.
• 53:37
  So that's the first thing I say is like,
• 53:39
  let's get you some time back because you've just lost so much time.
• 53:44
  Yeah. That is incredible. Alex.
• 53:46
  If there's listeners out there wondering and wanting to find out more
• 53:50
  about that and what you can offer, you know how you can help them.
• 53:54
  What where can they find more information that maybe your media company to?
• 53:57
  Where can they where can they follow you at and find you?
• 54:00
  Honestly, the best thing to do is just follow Northern Spruce media on Instagram.
• 54:05
  You can find my handle straight on the, the page there.
• 54:08
  So that's the easiest way to go about it.
• 54:11
  And then you can email me, text me whatever.
• 54:14
  I'm I'm an open book.
• 54:18
  Awesome.
• 54:18
  Our guest this week, Alex Coombs from Northern Spruce Media.
• 54:21
  Alex,
• 54:22
  thank you so much for taking time with us to to share your full plate framework.
• 54:26
  I know it's a tongue twister.
• 54:27
  Hey, I'll give you a better, better wording for it.
• 54:32
  I know, of course, of course.
• 54:34
  It was incredible.
• 54:35
  We'll definitely have to have you back on.
• 54:37
  And, like I said, I think we could talk for five days on here.
• 54:40
  Yeah. Easy, easy.
• 54:42
  all right Alex something I like to
• 54:44
  to always pick people's brain on especially as a fellow owner.
• 54:48
  Well, I'm not the owner, Todd’s the owner, anyway,
• 54:51
  what is your one best piece of advice that you would give somebody listening
• 54:56
  or watching this episode right now that owns a real estate media company?
• 55:01
  Honestly, the best piece of advice I can give is just try
• 55:04
  and find a way that's going to give you some time back.
• 55:08
  Because time is the most valuable thing in life.
• 55:10
  And if you don't have time to do what brings you joy,
• 55:13
  then you're going to end up hating what you're doing.
• 55:15
  So find time for you as it's the most important thing.
• 55:18
  Because right now I'm going to the spa
• 55:22
  because I need to do what brings me joy today.
• 55:24
  Because I've been working way too hard.
• 55:26
  Good for you. Okay. For you. Yeah.
• 55:30
  Incredible things to live by. And a challenge to I.
• 55:32
  It really is a challenge.
• 55:34
  And it's just, like, out there, like, I challenge you to take that.
• 55:38
  What? Alex? Just setting.
• 55:40
  Can you find some time and what's going to bring you joy?
• 55:43
  Because you just don't want to build a business you hate, right?
• 55:46
  That's it.
• 55:48
  Good stuff.
• 55:50
  Alex, thanks again for joining us.
• 55:51
  We appreciate it. You're welcome
• 55:53
  Todd.
• 55:54
  Always fun.
• 55:56
  We got more great episodes lined up, more speakers from the Spiro
• 55:59
  Sync Conference that we're going to be featuring here on the podcast.
• 56:02
  And, again, we just want to thank you for, thank you.
• 56:06
  Who's watching this or listening right now
• 56:09
  is you're maybe on your way to a shoot or maybe, a brokerage presentation.
• 56:13
  We don't take your time for granted.
• 56:15
  And really appreciate the the the fact that you're taking time, to listen.
• 56:20
  And hopefully this is bringing you great content.
• 56:22
  If you have a business question, something that you'd like to see us address,
• 56:26
  we're open to that.
• 56:27
  If we don't know the answer, we'll find somebody that does.
• 56:30
  Just drop us a line.
• 56:31
  Hello@Spiro.media.
• 56:33
  We would love to hear from you. Todd.
• 56:35
  Anything final you want to add?
• 56:37
  I just love good energy.
• 56:38
  I think at the end of the day, like I'm ready to go.
• 56:40
  Like I can go run right now and I don't run over.
• 56:43
  You get to know me.
• 56:43
  I'm a very large individual, like I hate running.
• 56:46
  I joked with the team this morning, like, I don't run because I don't want people
• 56:49
  to think Sasquatch.
• 56:50
  They found Sasquatch.
• 56:52
  Like, I feel like I could go run now.
• 56:53
  Like, Alex, you're just.
• 56:54
  Energy is so incredible.
• 56:57
  And I think it's just a thing, like an inspiration
• 56:58
  for all of us as business owners to, like, be that inspiration to your team.
• 57:02
  So thank you for that.
• 57:04
  Thank you. I appreciate it so much. That's so nice.
• 57:07
  All right guys, thank you for tuning in this week.
• 57:10
  Whether you're listening or watching.
• 57:12
  We just really again, we appreciate it.
• 57:14
  And, we'll be back next week in the meantime, make sure you take
• 57:17
  some time, that time that you find that Alex has encouraged you on.
• 57:21
  Be thankful for the blessings in your life.
• 57:23
  Make sure you take a breath. Have a great week.