Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / Justin Cyrus - How to Have FUN in Business - REPP 2025 Conference Presentation

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Justin Cyrus - How to Have FUN in Business - REPP 2025 Conference Presentation · The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business

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Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
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my three rules for business.
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I got it from a from a business guy named Jesse Ensler, and it's,
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it's have fun, make money and have fun making money.
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And it's like, you can make all the money in the world.
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But if you're not having fun, like, I'm sorry you lost
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Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,
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managing your real estate, photography and videography business.
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Spiro is a software platform.
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It's designed to help you manage your day to day business in real estate media,
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but ultimately it's designed to help you grow in scale
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and help you be successful in the endeavor that you've embarked upon here.
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Welcome to the podcast.
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I'm Craig Magrum, host of the podcast New Year.
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We're excited for 2026.
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Without further ado, let me introduce the man, the myth, the legend.
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Todd Kivimaki, owner of Spiro.
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Welcome, Todd. Craig, it's so great to have you back.
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I fumbled through the podcast last week with Nick.
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Yeah.
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And and it was. It was. We made it.
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It was an exciting one.
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But I'm so glad to have you back.
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Glad to be back.
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It's it's going to be a fun year.
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I'm looking forward to it.
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I, I said to Todd and Scott Golmick make a message yesterday.
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I'm doing a thing. Todd. I'm going to do it.
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What's that?
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Craig. I'm doing the tattoo.
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The face tattoo? No, not the face tattoo.
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Not the not the face tattoo. But I'm gonna.
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I'm going to do it.
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We're get we're going to get a to cross right here on the right inside of my wrist
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to, for solidarity with my brothers and sisters in Christ in Egypt,
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who I had the opportunity to go serve in Egypt a couple of years ago.
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And, I'm nervous.
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I'm a little nervous. I'm excited. But it's.
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The date is set. I have my tattoo artist.
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He's a good guy.
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Highly recommended.
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I'm going to be.
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I'm going to be 50 this year, Todd.
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And I'm finally getting a tattoo.
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Hey, I mean, you're going to have an arm sleeve before we know it.
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Nah, I'm not going to go that far.
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But my
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parents, my in-laws might have something to say about that.
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All right.
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Anyway, just something fun to start off the podcast.
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We've joked about the tattoo for years, but let's, let's get rolling.
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We are excited to have a guest.
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He was a speaker at repp 2025.
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Todd, I'm
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going to let you do the formal introduction,
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and let's just dive right into this podcast.
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Yeah, let's get in here.
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You all know him and love him. He's going to bring a lot of excitement.
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He's talking about how to bring fun to your business.
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And I,
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I think we at least I do as an owner.
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I underestimate fun sometimes because we tell ourselves that
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fun is the same as doing good and pushing hard, and then we,
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by some crazy reason, find fun
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and working 18 hours a day and being stressed out seven days a week.
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And you do that long enough, you'll get yourself into what I call
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an owner trap of your business, and I think this is a fabulous way
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to kick off our year here.
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I know many of you are sitting around mid to late January.
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The excitement of Christmas is done right.
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You've wrapped up last year, you're happy.
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Well, any happiness you had about the growth you had last year
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is already worn off because you're like, oh geez, that January 24th,
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my shoots are down or I'm even from last year.
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So that's why I just wanted us all to kind of realign here
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to have just as voice of like, why are we doing this?
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How can that then spread to your team, spread your community, and honestly,
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like not to sound like too like cliche but really spread to the world.
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I think positivity will grow.
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And if and you need to be the positive force in your business.
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So without further ado, good friend of ours.
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So excited to have him on today.
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Justin Cyrus.
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Justin, welcome to the podcast.
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What's going on guys?
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Excited to be here. I don't know, Craig are you talking to the top two?
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I think I think Todd might be in danger of a Spiro tattoo on the shoulder here.
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See it out of I don't know, maybe that's where we're headed. I don't know.
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Todd has already asked me if I would do a Spiro tattoo.
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He'd pay for it, I might not.
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I've got my limits. I'm.
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You know, we're one thing at a time.
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We're. Tell her to.
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But I think her tattoo is a fun way to start the year.
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Right.
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So one cool that is, that is,
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Justin.
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So why don't for those of for the listeners
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that don't know you, can you just give a little background
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as to how you maybe what you did prior to this come into this
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and, and like, what are those this like reaffirming moments in life.
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This is like, hey, I'm going to stay positive.
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I'm like, you know, I think being positive is somewhat of a learned behavior.
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And then you forget that it was a learned behavior.
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But can you just give a little background of of you?
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Yeah.
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So Todd Craig obviously excited to be here.
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And you know, my journey
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into real estate photography has been a whirlwind to say the least.
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You know, my background prior to this industry,
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I had never picked up a camera in my life, my background.
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I was pre-med
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in college until senior year, and then I switched over to chemical engineering.
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So did that for two years.
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And then I was a director of operations for a tech company for seven.
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And so I'm very entrenched in the corporate world.
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I'm loving, I thoroughly enjoyed my job.
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But there is always, you know, that that itch, that hunger for something more.
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I always wanted to be my own boss.
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Never in a thousand life times that I think that photography would utter it,
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but neither do I. I think the next thing would enter it.
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And so anyways, I'm working corporate America.
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We have some budget stuff going on.
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So I was leaving that company and, I decided to go bull riding
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because that's just what you do when you're in North Carolina.
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It just makes sense.
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So, you know,
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I go to the rodeo my whole life, but I've never had the stones
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to get on the back of a monster, so decided that would be what I would do.
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That's fun.
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Yeah. It's just, you know, you know.
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So tattoo first, bull riding side.
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Craig, I just I'm gonna lead you in my direction.
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I love that Justin thing. I've.
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I've broken too many bones in my life.
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I've gotten, not boring.
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I'll, I'll I'll check that,
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bucket list off for all three of us here.
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Yes, I ended up.
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What?
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Bull riding,
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a crazy freak accident flew off the front of them, took a hook to the ribs.
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So, broke, broke seven ribs, collapsed along, you know, hospital for 25 days.
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And it was one of those things that, you know,
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like, you know, when I'm in the hospital, I.
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I left my job, so I have no health insurance,
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so I got a quarter million dollar medical bill.
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I'm unemployed at the point.
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But it's one of those things I like to learn
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did not keep me on this side of the dirt, just to go back to what was comfortable.
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You know, I felt that calling already for something more.
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And so, funny enough, you know, I'm sitting in Cape Fear Memorial Hospital
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in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and I'm just scrolling YouTube.
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Barely could use bars or objects.
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Is so funny.
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My mom was the one scrolling the YouTubes for me.
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I was like, mom, like up a little bit and turn the volume up.
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And, I came across real.
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Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
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My mom was my mom's, like, in the business.
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Like, she knew everything that I was learning simultaneously.
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And, then came across real estate photography and,
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you know, got plugged in with Eli Jones and just a lot of great community,
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you know, across many different states and countries
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and just built, you know, build the confidence to dive in.
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And so I ended up getting out the hospital
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in September of last year, or I guess, two years ago now.
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December of 2024, I knew I was going to build a business, so I launched it.
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So it's January 13th actually, last year, my very first shoot.
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So we're about 53 weeks into the business and man, like what this is done for me
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just in life, not just financially, but just like the confidence.
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I feel like that's something that gets overlooked
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when you become an entrepreneur and every day of being an entrepreneur.
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So you got to reclaim that boldness,
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that that confidence of like, I'm doing the right thing.
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Even when it's tough.
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I think it's my funds part of it.
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So from a hospital bed 18 months ago to where I am today, I mean, I'm
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grateful beyond all measure. Wow.
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Oh my goodness.
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Like you're brand new. Brand new today.
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Oh yeah. No.
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Like I to this day bear, I know enough to get around.
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But if you really sat me down to explain the exposure triangle, I'd be like, man,
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I know what they mean.
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I have no idea what ISO stands for.
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In search of help is what I call it.
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You know, it's, but I but I know, like, low iso digital noise, like,
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I know enough, but, you know, it's but it's been fun.
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I think that's also been part of it is I didn't want to just start any business,
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you know, it's like my my wife's a business coach.
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And so it's, it's really cool to see her coach other people's businesses.
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And I mean, there's 1001 ways to make money in America.
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She's, she's she's she's business coaching
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girl building charm bracelets and doing extremely well.
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It's like there's I have a friend who combined drones and power washing
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you know,
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for like scaffolds in Chicago and like, is there's a million ways to make money.
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So it's like, why wouldn't you at least, like,
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make money doing something that's fun and enjoyable?
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Not to say that those are it just for me.
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Like, I didn't have any experience with photography.
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I was like, man, how cool would it be
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if I got to do this for a career and a livelihood?
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So that was that's always been like my end all, be all with the business.
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And like, y'all know me, I'm a monologue.
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I'm gonna go everywhere with this conversation.
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Real me in a little bit if I'm going all over the place.
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But I'll just kind of jump in.
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Just one last thing here is, you know, my my three rules for business.
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I got it from a from a business guy named Jesse Ensler, and it's,
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it's have fun, make money and have fun making money.
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And it's like, you can make all the money in the world.
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But if you're not having fun, like, I'm sorry you lost, you know?
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And so, I think that's been the game principle for everything.
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So just I think your story is phenomenal.
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Your premed to your senior year.
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You're going to chemical engineering because you're like,
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why not just do something?
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Let's do something easy.
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Like, holy cow, pre-med and chemical engineering.
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Dude. So you're a very high level person.
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You're in the hospital.
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Your mom has to scroll the phone for you so you can look for opportunities.
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Most people would sit there and feel bad for themselves.
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And you said something that I want to repeat that is just phenomenal.
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You said sometimes you have to reclaim the boldness, reclaim the confidence.
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Where did you learn that? At what?
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What that is, like, think about
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quarter of $1 million.
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Quit your job.
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No health insurance quarter million dollars.
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Broken ribs hurt body.
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Can't even move your arms to move to scroll your phone.
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And you're like, I'm going to reclaim my boldness in life
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because I can make something happen that is phenomenal.
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What does that come from?
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Yeah, well, you know, I think we're all products, you know,
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not only where we grew up, but just the decisions we made.
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Right?
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I think I just kind of I don't say I'm wired
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that way, but even bull riding, you know, it's like I was I went bull riding
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just because, like, I like it's not necessarily an adrenaline thing.
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Like that's definitely a part of it.
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But I like doing things that push me out of my comfort zone,
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and I intentionally put myself in those situations.
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Maybe that was a little too far in a different situation.
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But, you know, like I was terrified of public speaking.
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And so I took courses, you know, I, I, had never done photography
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and so I, like I found people that could mentor and teach me.
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And I think just in general, I don't know, I think like, I'm very honest,
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I want to say this properly, but I'm very greedy when it comes to life.
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What I mean by that is like,
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I want everything like I want I want the amazing family.
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I want a great relationship, my wife and kids.
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But I simultaneously
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want an incredible business that can produce wealth for my grandkids.
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I want to travel
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and spend time with my family while I also have like individual boy trips.
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You know what I mean?
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And so like, I think because of that, because I know
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where I want to go, it's almost like,
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like my last on the tech company was, was an education tech company.
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And something we talked about was we call this
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we call it the Horizon Framework.
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And I think that was really important for me
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and kind of what it was you explained it to high school students was oftentimes
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what happens is you get out of college and out of high school, you get a job.
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The job gives you income, which allows you to live a life.
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And by the life you live, you're allowed to leave a legacy.
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And if you just listen to those words, they're very passive.
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It's going to allow me to live a life.
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I'm going to leave a legacy.
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I don't want to leave that. I want to make a legacy. Right.
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And so what a lot of people think of
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in this general direction of career to a life leave a legacy.
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We were all about reframing that of like,
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you got to start with your legacy in mind.
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Like, what are your grandkids grandkids know about you?
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What's your obituary say? Like, what impact did you make?
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And so again, it's like when I start with this is the legacy I want to have.
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Okay, cool.
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In order to make that legacy, what kind of life do I have to live?
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And then by proxy,
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what career or anything like that allows me to, to create that life.
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And so again, I just think like those frameworks,
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those mental models have really helped me.
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And so again, I think from like a tangible, actionable
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step, I just think it's, you know, it's it's
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I think a lot of people think of the worst case scenario.
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And I think part of it is just I've always been best case scenario.
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So it's like, I don't know, man.
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Like I went on a tangent just a little bit longer, but
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something I'm really our church is really big on is evangelism.
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It's like there's a call for Christians to spread the gospel and all of that.
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And it's like a lot of people are like, man, like, what if they curse me out?
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What if they hate me?
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What if they whatever, right.
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I'm like or or what if you make a new best friend?
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What if you like, really impart something in them that they need in that moment?
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It's like it's
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equally it's equal opportunity that, yes, a bad apple thing happened,
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that a good outcome can happen.
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So if you can be a if you can wake up and be in a bad mood for no reason,
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why would you be in a good mood for no reason?
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So that's like the mantle of like,
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I'm just going to choose to go take back that confidence.
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I'm going to choose to just step into it, even when it's a little terrifying and
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not sure what's next.
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Let me ask you something, Justin.
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You're you're naturally,
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optimistic.
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I mean, that and you've chosen that as well.
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But everybody I think I can say everybody goes through periods
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where that's not natural, or the circumstances of life
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are dragging you down and sucking that that energy out of you
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for the owners, the business owners that are maybe, you know, you know,
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I don't want to say depressed state right now, but, you know, at a period of life
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or circumstances that have just kind of sucked some of that joy out,
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how do you pull yourself out of that?
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What what are some of the the the practices,
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the methods, whatever that you've implemented in your life
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to help you endure through that and and not endure?
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What's what's the word I'm looking for Todd.
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To get through, to persevere, to persevere.
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Persevere. Yeah.
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How how have you persevered through that and push through those times?
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Because, you know, obviously, you went through that medical,
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medical problem, but, yeah, just some practical steps that somebody could take.
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I think that's what I'm most excited about.
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Do this podcast with you guys. Right.
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It's like I want to provide actionable steps, right?
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Actually, things that people can implement and not just like high level thoughts
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and for me, again, like, you know, everyone sees like 30.
15:11
How do I 32 I'm all over 32 a 32 year old.
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Justin. Right.
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But like, I mean, I, I struggle with anxiety.
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I mean, I panic.
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I had a panic attack on a plane.
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That's the worst place to have a panic attack.
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But I still up there, you know, and I could have
15:23
I would be in sales and I would fly three times a week.
15:27
Right.
15:27
Twice a week.
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My, my girlfriend, my now wife was in California,
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so when I had a panic attack of flying, I literally had to.
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I drove to California.
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That's how like.
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And what how how debilitating it was.
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And so it's like, again, like, I don't think that it's like, oh, you're
15:41
you're born this way or you're not like,
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of course I might have more of a predisposition, but,
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I do think there's steps and things for every walk of life.
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And so in particular to the business owner who is, you know, maybe
15:53
struggling with whatever it is and the struggle is real
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because it just it's for each person, the struggle.
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Like, man, I need to make this amount of money to pay my bills.
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The struggle can be the other side, man.
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I've got a super lucrative business, but I built this business
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to spend time with my family and now I'm locked into the business.
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So the struggle and the challenge is real on all sides.
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And so I think for me, one of the most actionable things that we as a team do,
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and it's a non-negotiable for us.
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When I started this business again, I was like locked into debt.
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And I looked at like, how much was my monthly payments
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on the medical bills, what's my monthly bills?
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And I was like, in order to live the way I need to live,
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I need to make sure I can make $10,000 a month in this business.
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And again, the number doesn't matter is whatever, whatever you guys decide.
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And so for me, I knew that that was kind of my threshold.
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I've been very privileged and blessed to have a business that's gone past that now.
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But every single month and it was last was I think was Monday for us.
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Monday or Tuesday.
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We actually hit that number this month every time that we hit it that month, on
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whatever day that is, our team goes out to celebrate because like we did our duty.
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Everything else is gravy beyond it, right?
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And I like gravy.
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I want a whole gravy mountain, right?
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But it's like the whole purpose was like, we need $10,000
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to live the life we want, so we're going to always celebrate that.
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So I just think it's like, there's nothing wrong with moving the goalposts.
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We should be striving for more in a responsible way, right?
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Like obviously make the first things, the first things,
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but at the same time it's like, don't miss an opportunity to celebrate.
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And so,
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I think that's the biggest thing, right?
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I talked to people who were just like,
17:25
man, like this month we we dropped, you know, 10%.
17:28
And I think you're still making $44,000, like your last job,
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you were making 14 bucks an hour, you know, so finding the it's like not.
17:35
And again, I love your choice of persevering versus
17:38
you just get through I think words are very important.
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So it's not just it's not just,
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it's not just about achieving something.
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I think it's the celebration is part of it.
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Like a full life.
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You don't just you don't just find things to celebrate.
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It's like you got to go make celebration a habit.
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You finally you got to make a right, like celebrate, make celebration a habit.
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I like that, yeah.
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And if you don't, as the business owner, your team never will
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because they learn that, you know, what's that like when you guys go out?
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Justin. Oh, man.
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We have a good time for for usually for the $10,000 one.
18:12
It's a dinner because we don't always know exactly when it's going to hit.
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You know sometimes orders get smoother. We always make the same.
18:17
Like hey, what a lesson we got, like another dinner with someone else.
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We do our best. Like, hey, that they were going out.
18:23
But I'm really big on, on team culture.
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I actually got this from from Colleen and Tim Kidd with three Palms Media,
18:29
and I loved the way that they built their culture.
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That was really big for me.
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I've always kind of worked in a startup world, even though my tech company
18:37
was still a pretty small team, and I really wanted to build the culture,
18:40
despite only having.
18:41
I've got two photographers and a VA, but we run a small team, but I'm like,
18:45
when we get the chance to celebrate, we're doing it.
18:47
And so on a monthly basis, we do a, team activity is what I call it.
18:53
So I've got an all girl team.
18:54
So next Saturday I'm taking mani patties with them.
18:57
We'll get my nails done because they asked me to.
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This is, you know, it's like I said, maybe 30.
19:01
And then once a quarter we do a team event.
19:04
So it's bigger, right?
19:05
So like, I'm really big on conferences.
19:07
I'm really big on learning, unreasonable hospitality.
19:11
But I will get there was a moment
19:12
revolutionized everywhere I think about just people and loving on people.
19:16
And so he has a conference in New York.
19:18
It's called the Welcome Conference in September.
19:20
So our Q three team event is we're flying the team out to Manhattan,
19:23
having a week out there.
19:24
And again, like, I recommend this
19:26
if you're just starting out, maybe not what you do,
19:28
but again, it's like but you can still do the same idea like have team events.
19:32
If you're a team of one, congratulations, you have a team.
19:34
It's yourself.
19:34
Take yourself out to dinner, celebrate what you know. Right.
19:37
And so just for me, for like a team aspect, I really you know,
19:40
we do bi weekly in person team meetings just to kind of go
19:44
over some a high level, you know, tangible things,
19:46
but also just a chance for everyone to be in the room.
19:48
I think it's so easy to just be like,
19:49
hey, you're going to this home, you're going to that home,
19:52
and we never get in the same room. And so,
19:55
but yeah, I mean, I like, like
19:58
everyone likes fun.
19:59
I don't think there's anyone that does it like fun.
20:01
Maybe you have different levels. Everyone likes fun, right?
20:03
But the difference with me is like my number one core value is fun.
20:06
Like integrity, honesty. All those are great core values.
20:09
I love those as well.
20:10
But like fun is my number one driver.
20:13
And so I try to have that permeating every aspect
20:16
of my business, including the team, including how we celebrate.
20:19
But just I don't know, it's a guiding principle for us.
20:23
Todd I'm thinking of the disc profile right now,
20:25
and I think I have Justin pegged as an I would would you agree with that?
20:29
Just definitely. And I it's not right. Yes.
20:34
Maybe something else.
20:35
Oh go ahead.
20:36
Yeah,
20:37
Something else I just realized we never asked Justin.
20:40
Just know what's the name of your business?
20:42
Oh. Hi, friends.
20:44
It's, it's, Cyrus Media co,
20:47
based out here in Wilmington, North Carolina.
20:50
Awesome. Okay. Yeah.
20:51
Our apologies that we didn't start with that.
20:54
No. Honestly.
20:55
So excited to get in.
20:56
We were good enough. Now, y'all.
20:58
Now y'all pulled my heartstrings a little bit.
20:59
Now y'all don't even know y'all open Pandora's box for me.
21:02
It's so funny again.
21:04
Like, I'm very big on words and intentionality.
21:06
And so when people and again
21:07
it's like, I love that you didn't ask you a business name.
21:09
I'm Justin, I own social media, but I'm I'm Justin.
21:11
Right.
21:12
And so like the same way
21:13
when people ask like, Todd, what do you do for work or what do you do?
21:16
Yeah, like hot to hear the cocktail hour or whatever in like wedding cakes.
21:19
So what do you do?
21:20
And when people ask me that, oh man, I just drive them crazy.
21:23
I'm like, what?
21:24
The question is, what do you do? That's what you asked.
21:26
So what do you do?
21:27
What do I do? I love to spend time with my wife.
21:29
What do I do? I love to buy pickleball. I love to travel.
21:31
I love to go on a walk because it's me.
21:33
It's like, I'm not like, if you ask me what I do for work,
21:36
that's a different question.
21:37
But I think so often people like, what do you do?
21:39
And then you're boxing yourself into just a job.
21:41
It's like you're more than that.
21:42
And so, the same way of like, well, people ask me like those questions.
21:45
It's, you know, it's like, you know,
21:47
I of course, I own a real estate media business.
21:49
I swear, people think I must be a bum
21:50
because I don't bring up work on that question.
21:52
Like, so does your wife make the money?
21:53
Y'all just with what I like.
21:56
So I get that, of course.
21:57
Like, that's my media name, but I, I it's the same thing when I go to realtors.
22:01
Like that's a human. That's a person. Like I'm not thinking that.
22:04
It's like they're part of my business or like they're income for me.
22:06
It's yeah, they they might be the head broker for Berkshire or whatever.
22:10
And just like, no, that's Rhonda.
22:12
And I like Rhonda just came back from vacation, you know.
22:15
And so I get like I'm huge into I feel like everyone talks about it.
22:19
I think, you know, you guys have talked about it, right?
22:20
People do business with people, not businesses.
22:23
And so, even that man like that, that made me happy.
22:26
Not even, like bring it on the business
22:27
then it's just like we're three guys having a combo.
22:29
So anyways, but I do have a business.
22:32
There you go. Thank you.
22:34
The psychology of that's amazing though.
22:35
Just like just breaking it down. The thought of,
22:39
the two things stuck out to me. One,
22:42
we have some what in the world
22:46
in 2026 have really overly glorified for some strange reason,
22:52
this idea of grind and grit and getting through.
22:56
And I think all those things are important.
22:58
But the idea of like,
23:01
I am going to choose to enjoy because when I enjoy, others
23:08
can enjoy around me, even to the small detail.
23:12
The fact that when someone asks you what you do,
23:14
you see that as an opportunity to show them that joy.
23:18
Because when you first said that, I was like,
23:21
I'm really kind of mad that I don't do that.
23:23
Like, I'm
23:24
going to I'm going to start doing that because that's such a good mindset shift,
23:28
because if I was in a meeting environment and someone had asked me what I would
23:32
do, I would tell them, like, hey, we had a media company, software,
23:34
we are yada yada.
23:36
And like, for me, not to say, hey, like, I've got a wonderful wife,
23:39
I've got three kids, I coached basketball, you know, I love
23:43
spend time with like I think that's just so phenomenal.
23:46
Like that's almost like an unlock.
23:48
Like sometimes in life you see or hear things.
23:50
And that was one for me.
23:51
That's an unlock that's like it's such a perspective shift
23:55
that that those small little things will change your life forever.
24:01
When you start saying that and then think about that,
24:03
the other person is like, wait a minute.
24:05
Like, that's what they do.
24:07
Like you've just unlocked like this just truth bomb for them
24:11
that they think about life a little bit differently.
24:13
That's incredible.
24:14
Yeah.
24:15
No, I appreciate my why like desire in
24:18
the world is like, if enough people do this, that just becomes the norm.
24:21
You know, like, I can't wait to ask for what they do and they answer the same way.
24:24
And I'm like, that's incredible.
24:25
Like, I heard it from a guy named Todd, you know what I mean?
24:27
Like, you can it's all it's all the butterfly effect.
24:30
But I don't know.
24:31
I mean, like,
24:32
I think like again, I know that obviously this is more of a business podcast,
24:36
but it's it's this. Exactly.
24:37
It's like this is still the same principles
24:39
that I'm bringing into the business world is actually how my business has been
24:42
successful is just like, I love people, I love them hard.
24:46
And you've got to like you said, you've got to fight for joy.
24:48
You got to choose joy.
24:49
You got to choose to love people you know and and don't just don't choose
24:52
to love every person, you know what I mean?
24:54
Like, like story someone wrote, like, you know, you've got a
24:56
there's a, there's a mutual respect that's got to be there and whatnot. But,
25:00
yeah, I mean, I think,
25:03
I just think like, business is a huge part of our life.
25:07
It's it is part of your identity.
25:09
I don't want to I don't want to throw that away either.
25:11
But there's just more to more to life than just working.
25:14
I think when you when you have that balanced well,
25:17
it actually makes your business better and makes your life better, you know, so
25:21
ends up being like an unlock across all aspects of let's,
25:24
let's dive into something you just said you said makes business better.
25:28
Obviously, you know the intentionality of fun in a business.
25:31
Not not necessarily something you hear a whole lot of.
25:35
I'm kind of curious,
25:36
what's what's the effect of your choice to bring fun into your business?
25:40
On your photographers and on your VA?
25:42
How what?
25:43
Like any stories or impact that you've you've seen?
25:47
Cue up the the hour long
25:49
monologue that I, I guess I guess it's really been it's really been fun
25:54
and, I'll kind of all kind of go a few stories.
25:58
I won't go too long into depth, but I think the, the big one,
26:01
the first one that comes to mind is, brokerage presentations and,
26:05
you know, again, that's just an opportunity
26:06
to get in front of as many people as possible.
26:08
And, you know,
26:10
again, again,
26:11
my background is mentoring, and I got all these mentoring stories in my mind.
26:15
And it's one of those things that like, it's not, you know,
26:16
the people know the phrase, it's not what you know, it's who you know.
26:19
But again, like, that's a lot in my opinion, because like,
26:22
I know who Beyonce is, a Beyonce, they sure as heck don't know about,
26:25
you know what she did? I hope she does.
26:28
She did.
26:29
But I know Beyonce.
26:31
Beyoncé doesn't know me.
26:33
And so it's not what you know. It's not who you know.
26:35
Not even it's not even who knows you.
26:36
It's who remembers you. Right?
26:38
Because it's like if I had a brokerage
26:39
presentation in February, but ten of the brokers
26:41
don't have listings until April, I need them to remember me for two months.
26:45
Right.
26:45
And so you gotta make an impact.
26:48
So a business standpoint that's there.
26:49
But even beyond that, it's like, I just want to kick in with these people.
26:52
Like, we got invited to one of the rules that we have not shoot shot
26:55
for this realtor.
26:57
But Becky sent us a text that she would respond.
26:59
She remembered us. We had exchanged numbers.
27:00
She's like, hey, some of us are going out to, to rift.
27:02
It's a burger joint.
27:03
How do you shop for this lady? We just made friends.
27:05
But anyways, like, that's the outcome.
27:07
The way I went about it is,
27:09
you know, Rhonda Mckeel,
27:11
is one of the leads at Berkshire, and she reached out and said, hey,
27:13
like, we'd love for you to come in, present to the team.
27:15
Do you mind?
27:15
Bring in, you know, like, like some breakfast and coffee.
27:18
I said, Rhona, we about to have a party.
27:21
I bring in, you know, like coffee and bagels, like we have in a party.
27:24
And so what I did is, I've got two amazing friends.
27:27
You have incredible businesses, and Harriet Scott runs, runs a coffee cart.
27:32
And so I was like, dude, I'm not bringing, like, box coffee.
27:34
No disrespect, but I'm not bringing I'm not bringing box coffee
27:37
because everything again,
27:38
I think everything in business is a story is how you frame it.
27:42
Right?
27:42
So the reason I brought a custom coffee card is to remind them that we do
27:45
custom work.
27:46
If you like a certain shot, if you like, if you like a straight on up your shower,
27:50
if you like a straight down like we're going to customize it to you
27:53
from every detail of the shoot to a coffee order.
27:55
So you know, it's like we know our our realtors coffee orders
27:58
because we'll either ask them or we'll start them on Instagram.
28:01
Like, Lauren Riggs Tucker posted this green matcha lavender
28:06
something I don't know what.
28:07
Well, she posted it and I took a screenshot
28:10
and then I just know what her coffee order is.
28:11
I go to Sunday's coffee.
28:13
I say, hey, this is what I need.
28:14
You're like, That's Lauren. Is the Lauren special? I'm like sick.
28:17
So once again, it's that intentionality.
28:18
But anyways, we we get the custom coffee cart.
28:22
I know it was also really fun.
28:23
Is I again, I'm so big on fun because it actually does pay dividends.
28:27
Not just financially in business, but just in life.
28:29
Like, it just it's just fun.
28:31
And so, Danny Carper, one of my other friends, she has a cupcake business.
28:35
So what we did is we made a whole Willy Wonka kind of vibe.
28:38
And, basically everyone there got a free first shoot, just, you know, kind of test
28:42
this out, get our foot in the door.
28:43
This one, your brand. Brand new as well.
28:45
And so what I did is I had, I had Danny, Meg,
28:48
I think probably like 40 red velvet cupcakes.
28:51
And, each one had, like, the Berkshire Hathaway logo on top.
28:54
And so I had everyone kind of pick one.
28:56
I said, don't eat it yet. We're going to do an activity.
28:57
And so at the end of the presentation I said, look, everyone's got a donut.
29:01
On the count of three, we're all going to bite it and it's all gluten free.
29:03
And I just scoop.
29:04
I don't, I don't, don't tell me all that.
29:07
So anyways, in the middle, it's like a blue frosting.
29:10
It's I almost got blue frosting, but what do y'all got?
29:13
Yellow frosting.
29:13
And a yellow frosting is a free pro package.
29:16
Drove all this stuff and I said, that's all right, guys.
29:18
We go count down three two. And it was like everyone's into it.
29:21
You don't feed in the energy they Bite in.
29:23
And it was, Cheryl Hawkins goes, I got the blue, I got the yellow one.
29:28
And I'm like, oh, the pro package.
29:30
And then what's crazy?
29:31
Yeah. Like, you know, it's a go to the one package or one surprise.
29:34
Two surprises.
29:35
Lauren goes, wait, mine's pink.
29:37
What does that mean? But I said, it goes back to one, two.
29:40
I said, you get a pro package
29:41
plus a video like the whole rooms crack it up and going crazy.
29:45
But from a financial standpoint, because again, it's like,
29:47
of course, like y'all are go hear me and see me like I am fun.
29:49
I'm like having fun.
29:51
But my
29:51
my background is engineering and process optimization and systems and and results.
29:56
And we also own a business like I want to own a nonprofit.
29:59
I'd love to have a charity. But like this one, we kind of got to make money.
30:01
I still got medical bills to pay. So.
30:03
But like when I look, when I look back at it, I looked at,
30:06
the rep conference was in,
30:07
I think like November, and I looked at what our Berkshire clients had done
30:11
for I still brought Chick-Fil-A because I still want to bring breakfast,
30:14
I brought Chick-Fil-A, I had Harriet's coffee cart, I Denny's, cupcakes.
30:18
I think I paid about $775 for all three, which is a lot of money.
30:22
I understand that, but from all the clients I got there,
30:25
we did over $21,000 with just the Berkshire agents
30:29
in our first year, and then again like this year and the referrals.
30:32
And that's just the agents who are they're not the people who they referred us to.
30:35
Right.
30:36
So I was like, I mean, that's a hell of a return, in my opinion.
30:38
And so again, it's like the purpose
30:41
first and foremost, honestly, this is hard passion.
30:43
Genuinely. I just want to get I want fun.
30:46
I know the results are going to come as well.
30:49
And then the second one is we got
30:50
we got another presentation coming up with Coldwell Banker.
30:52
It's so funny because we already have this whole team.
30:56
It's 45 agents on a team.
30:57
We have all of them already, for four months now.
31:00
But I was like, wow, I've never done a brokerage presentation.
31:02
I still want to love on you guys.
31:04
So this one, I go make no extra money.
31:06
I know that because I already have their money, but I just love them.
31:09
We're getting a mariachi band and a taco truck, and we're doing Taco
31:12
Tuesday, and we're doing my next month, and I'm pretty excited
31:17
because, like, because again, it's like, yes,
31:18
I want to interact with them like we're doing.
31:21
I mean, we probably do three shoots a day for them at this point.
31:24
So like the money's there with them. So it's I want to love on them for that.
31:26
But also if and when they post about it other Caldwell agency it.
31:31
Now I get to do more brokerage presentations at the Caldwell
31:33
in Hampstead.
31:34
The Coldwell and Staff city other brokerages to see it.
31:36
So yeah, there's a lot of strategy into it.
31:38
I don't want you all to just, like, start blowing your money
31:40
and not having, like, not not like thinking
31:43
what is actually going to pay off in the end.
31:44
Like you do have that, that balance.
31:45
But just like when I sit down I think, hey, I don't want to be known.
31:49
I want to be remembered.
31:50
They're going to have 30 vendors come to them
31:52
this month, not just photographers, but they're going to be inspectors
31:56
and loan officers and mortgages and all of that.
31:58
It's like, I want to be the number one vendor that gets remembered to monologue.
32:02
Todd, do you feel like you just had a cardio workout trying to keep
32:07
I mean,
32:08
I'm at a breath trying to keep both of you just in,
32:12
oh man, that's fantastic.
32:14
Appreciate that.
32:17
Craig.
32:17
I was thinking the whole time like, this is serving the client,
32:20
not selling the client.
32:21
So it's something we talk about all the time.
32:23
Good. Absolutely.
32:25
Yeah, I love that.
32:26
I mean, to give without expecting anything in return.
32:28
And at the same time, you're enjoying as well.
32:31
You're taking care of your buddy who's got a coffee cart, and you're
32:35
employing and empowering local businesses.
32:38
Like you said, you didn't run the Starbucks like you ran to, you know?
32:41
Yeah, the local coffee joint.
32:43
Like, I think that all comes around.
32:44
And I will tell you that realtors will notice that they notice that
32:48
because they do that as well,
32:49
because the coffee joint owner hired them to sell the house.
32:53
So they always go to their coffee shop.
32:55
They'll drive ten minutes further just to support them.
32:58
And I think when you embrace those ideas
33:03
and it can, like you all, don't
33:05
have to go hire a mariachi band for your next co-op or dissertation.
33:09
Just try to build a little bit more in, like, how could you be a little bit
33:13
more memorable?
33:14
One thing that stuck out to me that you said Justin was,
33:17
I could be in a meeting in January, but that broker's
33:19
not going to have a listing until March.
33:23
How are they going to remember me? That's good.
33:25
Like you want to say him?
33:26
Hey, remember the guy that came in and did the cupcake thing?
33:29
Does anybody have his contact card?
33:31
Like that's what.
33:32
And then you are just a staple.
33:35
You like you,
33:36
you have built the relationship and nothing can trump the relationship.
33:40
It doesn't matter if they undercut you competition.
33:42
It doesn't matter if they're giving away their firstborn child.
33:45
If you have the relationship people don't like.
33:49
For me, like I'm
33:50
really good friends with my insurance guy and insurance, is that just, you know,
33:53
like, and people call me like, I you could be, you know, 10% of what he charges me.
33:58
And I'm always going to use him because he's got my back.
34:01
He's always taking good care of me and I'm good friends with him.
34:03
So, like, those are the things that you want to build.
34:06
You want you want to build a relationship.
34:08
You want an agent who doesn't use you to invite you out to the burger joint.
34:11
That's phenomenal.
34:12
I mean, there's so many just gold nuggets in there. Justin.
34:15
Yeah.
34:16
No, I appreciate like let me give you one other one real quick.
34:19
Just at a more tangible,
34:21
kind of thing that people could use.
34:23
Maybe that's not the $775 one, but one that we did
34:26
for another brokerage presentation I think anyone could do.
34:29
It was a smaller boutique brokerage, so there's probably 12 brokers there.
34:32
And so what
34:33
I did, again, my my mindset always goes, how am I going to connect with them.
34:36
Right.
34:37
And so then being a boutique brokerage, they're smaller.
34:39
So they all their best friends, they all know each other.
34:41
And that's probably their selling point as well to clients is
34:45
we're not a team of 500 like you're going to get to know me.
34:48
And so that's what I wanted to mirror in my presentation.
34:50
So for this brokerage presentation, what I did is I went to every local coffee
34:54
shop around town and I bought I think price is like 12 agents on the team.
35:00
So what I do is I think about $410 gift cards at each coffee shop.
35:04
I probably once like 12 coffee shops.
35:06
I wanted to just like check my box of all of them.
35:08
And then I got some extra target gift cards as well, and I'll explain why.
35:11
So I get all of that.
35:13
Then I go to the presentation and again at the saving of having the presentation,
35:16
I'm explaining.
35:17
Hey, you know,
35:18
we're the kind of team that really wants to know
35:20
you personally, know the shots you want,
35:22
knows the time of day, you want to shoot all of that,
35:24
but also knows your coffee order and not just your coffee order.
35:27
We want to know where your favorite coffee shop is.
35:29
And so then I ask them.
35:31
I say, Jordan, what's your favorite coffee shop?
35:33
She says, Grumpy Grandpa.
35:34
And I've got a whole briefcase like, oh, my briefcase, I've got $10 gift cards.
35:38
I say, here is a $10 gift card to Grumpy Grandpa,
35:40
which is kind of the same price that I would have paid to get coffee anyways.
35:44
But now it's like I'm giving Grumpy Grandpa to Jordan.
35:46
I'm giving Casablanca to Natalie.
35:48
I'm giving another one of Morgan. Right. And so it's it's showing them.
35:51
Oh, man.
35:51
Like, you really are personal
35:53
now, it's great about this because yes, upfront I probably paid $500.
35:57
I also had target gift cards just in case I didn't get their specific one.
36:01
I say sometimes you make mistakes.
36:02
Here's the target. You know what I'm saying? And so,
36:05
so what's cool about that
36:06
is it actually only cost me $120 because it was $10 each one.
36:10
I still have all the gift cards, so I just basically prepaid myself coffee.
36:14
So again, it's you can still have the same intentionality
36:17
without having to drop a crazy amount of money.
36:19
The Berkshire one, I just like you said, I wanted to put my friends on
36:22
like they've got incredible businesses.
36:24
It was a great opportunity for everyone.
36:26
The mariachi band
36:27
I've always wanted to hire a mariachi band is a very personal thing for me.
36:30
And so anyways.
36:31
But hopefully like that other
36:33
presentation style where like the again, it's the same idea has been on coffee,
36:37
but just be a little more personalized and intentional.
36:40
Yeah.
36:41
That's that is such a great tip and something that,
36:44
you know, is, is it confirms that you are personable.
36:48
And one thing I always, I always tell people when they would ask
36:52
me, like, how do I base I tell them how to compete against wow.
36:55
I'm like, well, wow.
36:57
Like, we did over 14,000 jobs last year.
36:59
Like, we don't know everybody's coffee shop.
37:01
Like, you take them coffee, you say, hey, I'll answer your phone.
37:03
That's how we grew. Like I here's my cell phone.
37:06
So you have to use those features and benefits of the space
37:10
in the time you're in and and really take advantage of those.
37:13
And just that customization is incredible.
37:16
Yeah.
37:17
Just I think one thing that so so two questions,
37:20
I think as listeners are, you know, absorbing all this, you are literally
37:25
just over a year into the business and you are
37:29
seems like you're entrenched in the community and
37:34
I think I know why, but
37:36
how do you like if someone's sitting out there and saying,
37:38
have done this for a year and I've really only done maybe one or no
37:42
broker presentations like I, I don't even know how to get in there.
37:46
Can you help our listeners, those listeners
37:49
out there that are saying, hey, I like I think that's cool.
37:53
I'm all for trying those things, but I just need how do you even get the shot?
37:56
Like, what's your strategy for beginning to build this relationships?
38:01
So you get the door opened to these meetings, right?
38:05
Absolutely.
38:06
I think it's very much again, it's
38:09
the same mindset at macro that we do at the micro.
38:12
Right.
38:13
And so what I mean by that
38:14
is that intentionality we're talking about for a large brokerage presentation,
38:18
I'm that intentional with even the very first agent I work with,
38:22
you know,
38:22
and so a lot of the brokerage presentations we got came from
38:26
recommendations from agents.
38:27
We shot for.
38:28
And so again, like, I got stories for days, but one of them was,
38:33
Katie Singer.
38:33
She got us in with Haven Property to do a presentation with them.
38:37
Katie calls us and she says, hey, I've got a really tough client.
38:40
I think it's in this very old British lady
38:41
won't let us touch anything in the house.
38:43
And I said, Katie, we're going to run a hook and ladder.
38:45
I gotcha. She's like, what's a hook and ladder?
38:47
So I roll up with my photographer Mikayla.
38:49
I said, Mikayla, you and Katie are going to go shoot everything.
38:52
Do it as fast as you can, have Katie move stuff, you shoot, crush it.
38:55
I'm going to run. Distraction on Miss Petty.
38:58
So me and his buddy went to one side of the house
38:59
and I was just talking to her ear off girl.
39:01
So, like, why tell me about everything? She.
39:03
She had these Winston Churchill's statues everywhere.
39:06
So I'm like, clearly you're from Britain.
39:07
Tell me about what made you. I'm talking her ear off.
39:09
And the whole time everything's happening over here, and then we make a switch.
39:13
I said, well, I mean, like, what's your garden? Look like?
39:15
I take her out there and Katie loves us, and Miss Betty loves us.
39:19
And that's a that's a secret in this industry, if a homeowner loves you,
39:22
they will rave to you, about you, to to about you, to the to the agent.
39:26
That's.
39:27
Don't ever overlook that step of the process.
39:30
But Miss Betty loved it so much
39:31
that when her home sold,
39:32
she asked me
39:33
and my photographer and Katie, all four of us went out
39:35
to go get tea time at Blueberries Grill.
39:37
So like really made a legit connection with this homeowner.
39:40
But then Katie goes back to the brokers and she's literally telling them, like,
39:43
you remember everything I said about bad about Miss Katie?
39:46
Well, Cyrus media go just handle her, you know?
39:49
Let me handle her.
39:49
We did it. Handle her.
39:50
We loved her. Like, genuinely is like.
39:52
She reminded me so much of my grandma.
39:54
My grandma Lois is just like a lovely lady.
39:57
But don't get on her bedside. Right.
39:59
And so it's like, I love I love this, buddy.
40:01
But Katie brings that to her team, and then,
40:06
Colby is the broker in charge.
40:08
Calls me, says, hey, Katie's raving about you.
40:10
Can we get you in for a presentation?
40:11
So, is it always that easy? Of course not.
40:13
You know, if this buddy wasn't there, would it have taken longer for Katie
40:16
to have done that for us? Probably.
40:18
But my intentionality is it doesn't matter is that it doesn't matter what
40:22
the situation is.
40:23
Every single person.
40:25
I'm gonna say that every single person you interact with is an opportunity to the
40:30
is an is an opportunity to the opportunity you've been looking for.
40:34
So what I mean by that and this is something I'm, sharing a lot
40:38
with the community right now is my biggest broker that I work with right now.
40:43
There's Rob Warwick, literally.
40:44
The word family has a building named after them here in town.
40:47
And the university, like it's a big name realtor.
40:49
I get to go with him because one of his teammates sits at the same barbershop.
40:53
I do my Barber, he calls me, says, hey, I would connect you with Corey.
40:57
We start shooting for Corey.
40:57
He goes to Rob my barber, got me my biggest client.
41:01
So again, it's like whether it's a homeowner
41:03
or you're building a great relationship
41:04
with the client or just in the community, it really is about growing upward.
41:08
So every opportunity you have specifically in front of Realtors
41:12
blow their mind, love on them, have great communication, do a great job for them.
41:16
Help them really feel
41:17
the experience that will just bubble throughout the brokerage.
41:21
More brokers will use you. They will rave about you.
41:24
That will work its way up.
41:26
So that's definitely kind of the strategy. We go about it.
41:28
Yeah, I love that.
41:29
You know, if I were to to define a realtor or a bro,
41:33
you know, a real estate professional, I would define them as a problem solver.
41:37
So with agents
41:38
being problem solvers, if you begin to solve their problems,
41:42
if your agent has a miss Betty,
41:43
trust me, that agent's home talking to their significant other,
41:46
like, oh, I got to go over to Betty's.
41:47
And Betty has 4000 statues of Winston Churchill and I.
41:52
We need to move some of them.
41:54
And she, you know, like, how am I going to.
41:57
And you solve Miss Betty and you are
42:01
then like, the guy the company for that agent.
42:05
And then just naturally agents are going to talk, you know,
42:09
and I think this is a misconception I had for a very long time.
42:12
Some agents will not refer you because they see you as like their secret sauce.
42:17
That's such a small percentage of agents
42:20
that it's not, you know, like they will refer you
42:23
because they
42:24
that's just what they're built by, because their business is built
42:27
off of referrals. I sat in a coaching program
42:30
for real estate agents just to continue to get insight.
42:33
And this coach coaches real estate agents and they talk about referrals
42:36
all the time.
42:38
That's how realtors build their business.
42:40
So as you can as you help people, they will refer you,
42:45
and your business will grow.
42:47
Absolutely. Yeah.
42:49
So Justin like just over one year in I know thing, I,
42:54
I think our listeners are, are wondering like, so what does business look like?
42:58
You know, maybe like what a business look like up to three months,
43:01
maybe six months, maybe the four quarters of your business.
43:03
And then what are you planning for for 26.
43:06
Yeah, yeah. So no, last year. Yeah.
43:08
Having never picked up a camera
43:09
we started our first shoot was January 13th last year.
43:13
So from a monthly standpoint we we did grow quickly.
43:15
And I, I really attribute it a lot again to that relationship.
43:18
I said more than anything, like we want to be memorable.
43:20
We want to care. We want to solve problems right.
43:23
And so I think in January 1st month, we to 200 bucks
43:27
I mean did 1200 February 5000 thousand March, 12,000 in April.
43:32
And we did 18,000 in June.
43:34
And then again like I know everyone's different,
43:37
but for me, it's like I'm making the money I need.
43:40
I need it like in the moment.
43:41
And I was like anything beyond that.
43:43
I felt like it would have taken away from my actual desires.
43:45
I mean, look at the beach.
43:46
Although I don't want to do Twilight shoots, I know that's a hot thing.
43:50
And I know, like, I get it, I just want to go surfing.
43:52
So like, I didn't start my shoots till 9 a.m.
43:54
because usually in the morning I'm like with my wife praying.
43:57
Together, we usually go in the water for a walk at the beach or something.
44:00
By 5:00 I'm trying to be on the water.
44:02
So again, like my big thing is just like that balance
44:04
and actually making business serve my life rather than my life serving my business.
44:08
And so like, we kind of plateaued there just because like anything else,
44:11
I would have had a misalignment.
44:13
So then I had to hire team.
44:16
I, hired my first.
44:17
I actually hired Mikayla hella early, I hired her, we had not even made $2,000
44:21
in the business when I hired Mikayla, but I knew how incredible she was.
44:26
She was my favorite barista at a coffee shop.
44:28
I was like, okay, do you want to build this with me?
44:30
Like, I did not interview anyone else.
44:32
She didn't have to talk to me back.
44:33
I was like, you love people and you know, people I like, like know people.
44:37
It's like like actually know like who they are.
44:39
Their orders. Like, she just has that personal ability about her.
44:42
So it was her and I,
44:44
together we, I think our high last year we hit a $30,000 a month.
44:47
In October we finished like, 175,
44:52
last year.
44:52
And so this year,
44:55
man, it's weird.
44:55
It's fun.
44:56
Like, the things that really get me the most excited is really about my team
45:00
right now.
45:00
Like, one of my biggest goals is I would like ten reviews
45:04
on our Google page, specifically about Mikayla,
45:06
because she's the one doing the shoots.
45:07
I want people to be like Mikayla crush.
45:10
Like they know me because I'm talking to them online.
45:11
But Mikayla is on shooting, so that's a big like, KPI for me.
45:16
I'm really I want like I was saying,
45:19
I would put in the effort like, I want to pay Mikayla six figures.
45:22
And like, when I do the math of what our structure is
45:24
and all of that, like, those are the things that drive me.
45:26
And so because of that, obviously we got to make more revenue.
45:29
So from a tangible side of things, we just hired another girl named Olivia.
45:33
Just because we're spending about an hour and a half north.
45:36
And I would ask, north of us is Jacksonville, North Carolina,
45:38
which is Kepler's. You military marine base.
45:41
And so a lot of turnover and things out there.
45:42
And she lives up there of that girl is sharp as a tack.
45:45
20 years old, skipped college, already exited her first business.
45:49
She was going to go start another business,
45:51
but she was like kind of chill for a little bit.
45:52
I said, Olivia, I want to hire you. Hire her on the spot.
45:55
We go to church together. So I knew her family a little bit.
45:57
But anyway, so we're running a team of two people.
46:00
I got a VA in the Philippines.
46:01
Cristine literally our heart and beat of the of the company.
46:04
Literally we do nothing without her.
46:06
And so, we're kind of running a small team and so big goals for this year.
46:10
I think from a financial standpoint, I think we're trying to hit 500k over
46:13
kind of going after,
46:14
we should hit this month, which is crazy because it is January
46:17
and I know typically a slower month,
46:18
but we've just been very fortunate to get in with the developer.
46:21
We've got with a few builders.
46:23
I think we're about halfway through a month ish right now.
46:25
We're about 17 times, so we're getting close to the 35 40K, God willing. Wow.
46:30
Yeah.
46:31
All gross.
46:31
But, then I like I think the big thing is just,
46:36
again, as much as I'm like looking at it from a business KPI,
46:39
high level revenue, average order
46:40
value, returning clients, churn, all of that like I do, keep track of that.
46:44
But honestly, like if you guys are more like how many days
46:47
that I get to serve, how many, how many team activities did we do?
46:51
How many reviews did McKayla get?
46:53
Does Olivia feel like she's part of the team?
46:55
You know what I mean?
46:55
It's like, those are the things that's really driving me in 2026.
46:59
Yeah.
46:59
That's incredible. And I mean, there's
47:01
you take care of people and in the end you'll be taken care of.
47:04
And that's that's something that as humans and the world in 26 is just not natural.
47:10
It's not natural to think like, let me give first.
47:12
Even when I need, but let me give.
47:15
And I know
47:17
that it will.
47:18
And if it doesn't come back, us. Okay.
47:19
But there's another time that we're going to come back to me.
47:22
And that's just one thing that sometimes it's it's like there's
47:25
a story of a little boy who has his hand in a jar
47:29
and inside a glass jar, and he's holding on to,
47:33
you know, a quarter at the bottom of the jar,
47:36
and he's trying to get his fist out of the jar,
47:39
but he cannot get his fist out of the jar because it's a fist
47:42
and he's got to make his hand, you know, skinny.
47:45
And the idea of, like, he's got to let go of that to get his hand out.
47:49
It just it doesn't make sense to us in 2026.
47:53
In this culture of the world.
47:54
But I'm telling you all, if you do it, you know, I talk a lot about 2022 and 2023.
47:59
That was an incredibly just terrible year for me.
48:02
And what I learned during that year.
48:05
And like I, I was very dramatic.
48:08
I was like, I just thought I was going to die.
48:10
And I had a I had a coach, the real estate coach that I referenced earlier.
48:14
He sent me a card.
48:14
He said, what if what you thought the worst thing happening to you
48:19
was actually the best?
48:23
And I sat here, I read that card.
48:24
It still makes me emotional.
48:26
Like I, you know, like tears when I open it up. I was like, what?
48:28
It's makes no sense is not the best.
48:30
It's terrible.
48:31
Like, I'm feel this pain right now.
48:33
And like as I look back, that was the best thing that ever
48:36
could have happened to me.
48:38
And just letting go, that's that's the biggest thing of letting go.
48:42
Like get Mikayla to Google reviews, make sure that, you know,
48:46
everybody feels like they're entrenched with the company.
48:48
So that's just incredible wisdom.
48:50
Justin,
48:52
any parting thoughts,
48:54
any other tidbits or, you know, thoughts to our listeners
48:58
here as the middle towards the end of January 2026.
49:02
Yeah.
49:03
You know, I think I think something that just guides me on a daily basis is,
49:08
like, I don't take things for
49:09
granted in the sense of like, yes, I'm fine, but I have to choose fun.
49:12
I have to go make fun. Right?
49:14
And so I think, like anyone listening to this podcast, it's just
49:17
I consistently ask myself every day, what is one fun thing
49:21
I can do in this business?
49:23
And again, I know it's so childish, but it's like if you do it for like a week,
49:26
you'll enjoy it. Like it's actually pleasant.
49:29
You know?
49:29
Case in point is like, don't overlook your team.
49:32
You know, it's like, I don't want you all to take this and then take fun.
49:35
Only being a revenue making move, which sure it is.
49:38
But it's like I tell my photographers, hey, if you
49:40
if you get your car, if you get your realtor
49:42
coffee in the morning, I'll pay for both of your coffees.
49:45
So they're incentivized, like, I'm gonna get a free coffee from Justin.
49:47
I'm incentivizing them to go make people's days.
49:50
And now, like, they're coming to me with, hey,
49:51
by the way, it's past birthday next week, and she really told me she likes this.
49:55
And it's like we're getting it from all angles.
49:56
And so, I mean, I love that, you know, I'm
49:58
I'm empowering them to do these things while also rewarding them for it.
50:02
So that's a lot of like where my fun has been.
50:04
But it's again, it's like, what is one fun thing you could do today
50:09
if you've not taken yourself out to dinner to celebrate everything
50:12
you've done in this business, do that.
50:14
You know, if you have not called an agent, I don't know.
50:17
I was different, like I messaged, my age is like, we're homies.
50:20
I'm just like, Hannah, what do you like?
50:22
What's you doing this weekend?
50:23
You know, it's again, everyone's different,
50:24
but those are things that are fun for me.
50:26
And I just think
50:27
asking that question consistently and making sure you respond to it,
50:30
that was an unlock
50:31
and just something I would love to see more and more people get to.
50:34
I love that post-it note on your all mirror in the morning when you get ready.
50:38
How can you have fun today?
50:39
Write it down, read it, look at it every morning and then do it.
50:43
Just oh incredible wisdom. Justin.
50:46
If listeners want to reach out or see what you're up to,
50:49
see what you're doing, how can they how can they see them follow you?
50:52
Yeah.
50:53
Instagram is typically where I'm at. It's a Cyrus.
50:55
So c y r us Cyrus Media Co
50:59
and I live on that thing, so y'all DM me.
51:01
That's how I've made a lot of our friends in the industry
51:04
is, you know, they just send a DM or I'll DM people as well and just,
51:08
you know, love to love to stay connected.
51:09
So I would love to hopefully connect with more and more people.
51:12
Oh, thanks so much, Justin.
51:13
Just incredible wisdom.
51:14
I just love that, you know, both sides of your brain, the technical.
51:19
And then the fun side of your brain of, like,
51:22
let's just do this and let's give, so much gold nuggets in here.
51:26
Thank you so much for sharing.
51:28
Yeah. Appreciate you and Craig both.
51:30
Our pleasure.
51:31
Well, that's going to do it for us today.
51:33
Thank you so much for tuning in.
51:35
Lots to listen to.
51:37
This is a good one to go back and relisten to, some things to set goals
51:41
and some things to set your mind set right for 2026.
51:45
We just appreciate all of you.
51:47
Well, we're hanging out with a lot of us Spiro Sync right now.
51:50
So this is going to launch when we're at Spiro Sync.
51:52
We're going to do more of those.
51:53
If you haven't made it or if you couldn't make it this time.
51:56
Shoot us a message.
51:57
Hello@spiro.media, if you'd like us to do it again,
52:00
or if you have a question or want somebody on the podcast, we will go find them.
52:04
Bring them on to share with you all.
52:06
Hey, be sure to take time to be thankful for the blessings you have
52:10
and take a breath.
52:12
Thanks everybody. We'll see you next week.