Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / REPP 2025 Recap: Colleen Kydd - Your Impact as an Owner

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REPP 2025 Recap: Colleen Kydd - Your Impact as an Owner · 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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And the whole purpose of it was how you can, go from doing it
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all to delegation and how much delegating you truly can do with virtual assistants.
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Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast, managing your real estate, photography
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and Videography Business.
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Spiro is a software platform.
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We've designed it from the ground up for you to manage your day to day
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real estate media business, and ultimately
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we want it to help you grow and scale as well.
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If you're a returning viewer or listener, welcome back.
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If you're first time, we are so glad to have you.
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The whole idea of this podcast is just to talk about the business
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of real estate media.
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There are cool, a huge number of great content creators,
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in our field for real estate media
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that are putting out some fantastic material on the creative side of what
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we do as photographers, videographers, visual marketing specialists.
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And we encourage you to check out those various channels.
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But we like to dive into building strong businesses.
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So there's a low down for you.
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Welcome back.
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With me, each and every week or most every week, one of us is here.
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Todd Kivimaki.
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Welcome back.
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Todd, owner and founder of, of Spiro and my
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my partner in crime, Craig, thank you for that introduction.
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I was thinking about that on a name tag photographer, creator, photographer,
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a videographer, visual marketing specialist.
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That is.
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That is quite a title.
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I think it's it describes us well.
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So I we might just be over a few too many characters.
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Right?
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Right.
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Or you need magnifying glasses for the small print that has to go on.
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There you go. It's like have your name written on a grain of rice.
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There you go. Yeah, yeah.
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I love it, I love it.
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Well, Craig, we have an and one of my favorite people in the world today.
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So inspirational.
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And we're going to dive into that quickly here.
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But I do want to give you guys just a quick update about Spiro.
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And we have some incredible updates for you that are launching now.
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And we've been talking about this.
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We talked about this at the conferences or we announced it at the conferences,
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and we feel very strongly that
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putting in
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easy ways that you can focus on actions that actually
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change your business from a growth perspective is incredibly important.
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So our first CRM functions will be in the system
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by the time you listen to this.
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So you'll want to check out any knowledgebase guides.
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We're going
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to have lots of training on this, and we're going to be here to support you,
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not just to give you the tools, but we're going to allow you to see
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when is the last time I called my VIPs?
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Do I have follow up set for my VIPs,
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for new clients, for past clients?
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How many clients haven't ordered with me?
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Let me put them right in front of my face and an easy grid
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so that I can set follow up.
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We've done this at Wow for many years.
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We focus on this.
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We have a sales team, and we know that the way
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you consistently grow your business is by focusing on it.
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So that will be in your system. Please go check it out.
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It's there for you. Another thing.
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Hey, Merry Christmas, it's free for all of you.
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So it's not like try it and then you pay for it like it's all in there.
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It's part of the system. We hope you enjoy it.
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We hope you love it.
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We just appreciate all the support from you and the feedback.
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So that is in there.
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The other nice little thing is we're all
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creatives and we have, you know, a visual eye.
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The login page for your real tours
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has all been redesigned and updated or refreshed.
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It looks fabulous.
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So that is in there.
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You can add your Google reviews if you want to scroll those on your login
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page.
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And also if your agents want to set a password,
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they can set a password now so they can keep the Pin if they want a Pin code.
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But if they want a password because they like to share their login,
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there's an account manager.
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And I think there's a better way to do that. But I'm done.
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I'm not going to argue with you all.
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We're just going to give you the feature to set a password.
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I realize sometimes it's easier just to share a password
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so your agents will have all that. So and a few more goodies.
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But I won't take any time here.
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Okay. Awesome.
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Also, before we dive into things, Spiro sync
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coming up in January, we want to talk about that real quick.
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Yes. Just mark it down on your calendars.
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January 22nd and 23rd of 2026.
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It's coming quick, y'all.
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We would love for you to come and be our guest there.
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Come and join us.
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You can find out.
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Get a ticket.
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Tickets are 199.
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Okay so less than 200 bucks Spiro.media.
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Click on Spiro sync
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our guest today is going to be a speaker and going to lead a session there as well.
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We're going to have vendors there Titus, AutoHDR, Cubicasa.
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Cost is going to be there.
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So come and see us Eli Jones and the fam is going to be there.
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So please come hang out.
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We're going to plan for 2026 and it's going to be a great time.
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We're really looking forward to it.
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So awesome.
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All right. Well, Todd, without further ado,
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we just of course like a lot of people have just gotten back
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from a couple of conferences in Las Vegas, one of those being the, repp 2025,
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conference where there was just, a slew of fantastic speakers,
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one of them being our guest today, you know her, you love her, veteran.
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Now, we we've conferred upon her veteran status on the Spiro podcast.
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Do you want to introduce our guest?
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Yeah. I mean, I think you all know her.
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We love her.
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She. It's amazing what she's done from a business standpoint,
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but her inspirational standpoint and just her ability
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to just go towards building relationships is truly inspirational for me.
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So everybody, welcome to the podcast, Colleen Kydd.
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Colleen, welcome.
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Hi. So happy to be back.
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I'm a veteran I love that term. Yay.
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Thank you.
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Seasoned seasoned hardcore gone through the trenches with us.
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Yeah I love it.
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Awesome.
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Well Colleen, glad to have you.
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Your your presentation at repp 2025 was just incredible.
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And so we wanted to have you on to kind of do a recap of that.
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And another, I don't know when you sleep, but,
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another new venture.
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Effort.
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Really exciting thing that, you kind of spearheaded here
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and have gotten going that we would love for you to, to, highlight as well.
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But let's just start things off with your presentation at repp.
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What what was the focus and kind of set it up for us.
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Yes. So this year at repp, I, you know, one question
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I get asked about all the time in my DMs is VA’s vA’s, how do I hire them?
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What do they do?
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What can they do?
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You know, what do I do if my VA’s doing this or that?
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And so, this year I was like, my this this is what I'm talking about.
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I'm talking about virtual assistants this year. So,
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what I did was I wanted to
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highlight, like, all the different roles that my Vas have on our team.
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So I feel like it's, it's sometimes easy to onboard the Vas,
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and you have all these tasks and they're flying around.
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But I kind of went through like the four titles
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that Vas have at my business and the roles that are assigned to those titles.
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And of course, you hybrid, you know, based on where you're at in your business.
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So I really watched through that.
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And the whole purpose of it was how you can, go from doing it
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all to delegation and how much delegating you truly can do with virtual assistants.
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And I was I was actually surprised at the amount of feedback that I got about,
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one, how helpful that was.
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People hadn't kind of thought about it and roles and two,
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you know, I really talked about just the impact you can create
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as a business owner on your photographers, on your clients.
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And specifically for this one, on your virtual assistants,
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you know, through just enriching their lives, allowing them opportunities.
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And a lot of people really came up to me about that one.
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They were like, you know, I, I felt like maybe now that I'm a real estate
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business owner, I can't create impact.
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And you just gave me a light letting me know that I absolutely can.
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Yeah. That's so incredible.
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I think that's one thing that just is so gravitating about you.
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Colleen is just this you're this master relationship builder,
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and you and you don't do it for anything other than just to help other people.
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And it shows. And it's just so phenomenal.
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And I think it's important on a team, when you build a team
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that like the team feels they are winning.
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And sometimes as business owners,
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we have to not win so much and we have to let the team win.
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And then and it's but it's just it's this contradicting
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thought like, oh, let me relate it real quick to my basketball team.
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Like I coach seventh grade basketball
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and every seventh grader wants to score points.
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And I'm trying
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to get into their head right now that when they let their teammates score,
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we call it like, let your teammates eat.
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When your whole teammates eat, you will be fed.
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And I think that's just what's so resonate about what your story is
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and how you tell it and how you just
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built that culture throughout your team.
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Are there.
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I know you're just wired like this, Colleen, but maybe
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are there some things along the way that you've learned as as hiring Vas?
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Maybe let us know how long because you haven't been doing this
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all for a long time. I mean, I've done this a long time.
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I've screw a lot of things up.
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You've just done things correct, and you've grown really fast.
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But can you give us an idea of just like what your experiences are?
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I know you have some cool stories about what you've done for your Vas, but
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maybe you just a little bit of background for our listeners that might not know
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you and then, how that related into your company.
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Yeah.
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So I think it's really important to.
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So all my Vas are from the Philippines that that's where we hire.
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Not that you can't hire from anywhere else, but we hire from the Philippines.
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And taking time to really understand, like them and their culture
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and how they operate so that you can serve them
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so that they can serve you and your clients.
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So, for example, they're a very they're
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very kind, like loving, culture.
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And they, they have this thing where it's like they, they like to save face.
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They don't want to throw anything or anybody under the bus.
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So they're not really going to bring conflict directly to you.
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It's something that you have to create an environment where they are safe.
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They feel safe enough to really openly express things to you
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because you do need to know, you know
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what's working well, what's not working well, especially when you have multiple
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virtual assistants coming together who now have to work together.
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So, you know, we have things like I have them,
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do they have a weekly team meeting where they're doing fun stuff
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and they're creating bonds?
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And then I am meeting with them each individually.
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I'm meeting with my top vas weekly.
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We're doing team meetings so that I can kind of get a pulse on everything.
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And I just connect with them one on one.
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Like, tell me about your life, about your family.
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I understand,
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like their destination, their goals, like what actually matters to them.
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And then I make sure that I bring those up in the one on ones.
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And I,
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just create a place where they know that I care.
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So that's me showing them appreciation, randomly pinging them, randomly,
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sending them things, things like that, so that when I do talk to them,
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they have this level of respect for me, and I can explain
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why it's so important for them to give me feedback.
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And I have to ask for it,
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like I have to ask for it and let them know that it's helping me.
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So then they're like, oh, I'm helping Colleen and she's helped me so much.
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Let me actually tell her these things that I have ideas on that we could do better.
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Or, you know, I actually prefer if I now that we're on autoHDR,
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can I, can I change my, hours, you know, and things like that.
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Like, that's not something that they're always going to just bring up.
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So I feel like I've done a really good job at just kind of understanding
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what their
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what their needs are and giving them a really good environment to relay that.
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So that everybody really does rise together and explaining why it works
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like that.
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And so now they're better about just like opening up to me.
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So I just think taking time to truly understand each person on your team, VA
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or not on an individual level, it's like you can't, you don't
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I don't play favorites, but I do treat people slightly differently
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based on how I know they respond and what they actually care about.
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Not everyone's motivated by money.
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Not everybody's motivated by,
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you know, group shout outs.
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Sometimes if they want it one on one.
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Like you have to understand how people tick.
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And I think that's been a really key and facet of my business
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in creating the culture and the environment that we have is I'm
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getting to understand each person individually.
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Todd as soon as Colleen said,
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relating to, you know, team members differently
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and figuring out what makes them tick immediately
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I thought about you and the disc profile and things like that.
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Can you kind of tie that in?
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Yeah.
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So I, I for a long time you all like I,
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I thought what was important to me was important to everyone at my company.
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And I just really found I'm a really strange individual
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because it was not even close to important anyone else.
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And, and, and now I say this with humor, but like you all,
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if you're listening to this like you're different.
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Like you're different in a good way, you're all are overachievers.
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Like what makes you tick is not what makes your employees tick.
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And that's way different halfway across the world
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to someone in the Philippines or someone in a different part of the country
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and different part of the world. Excuse me.
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So that's when I started learning about from a coach to this profile, like what?
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What personalities, what, you know, there's love languages
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and there's all there's all Enneagram.
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There's many different personality test,
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but this helps you understand the way you are,
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and then it helps you understand how your employees and team members are.
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And then as everybody starts to understand that, you begin to be able
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to communicate to each other, like for a long time,
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Chris Vogue, our sales manager, like he's a D personality.
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Well, I'm an IS personality.
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So that's means that I want everybody to be okay
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and Chris as a D is going to ask.
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It's a it's more of a dominant personality.
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He's going to ask for everything.
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I felt bad telling Chris no, but Chris was just doing his job.
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He's a sales person.
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He's always going to ask for the sale when I realize this
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and I would just tell him no. He's like, okay, no problem.
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He would go find another solution.
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And it like the weight on my shoulders and the weight on his shoulders
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because I would him haul about it.
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He would ask me for something.
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I'd be like, I don't really want to let Chris down.
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And then I just want answer him and I'd hope he forgot about it.
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Well, he doesn't forget about it.
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I just wasn't doing my job.
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So I think if you all out there are beginning to have employees,
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virtual assistants, photographers, admins, whatever it may be,
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understanding what makes them tick, like Colleen said.
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And then showing that you understand them by your actions.
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That's another thing I screwed up for a lot of years, is I would listen to them,
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but I wouldn't do it then.
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And if you don't do it, then you don't listen to them.
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It's something as simple as,
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like Colleen said, like, I'm going to give you one on one praise
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versus the team praise, because I realize if I shout you out on the team meeting,
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you are going to feel a bit embarrassed about that
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and you'd rather just have a direct message from me.
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One of our photographers just, told him.
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He said,
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you know, something that's different about any other place that I've worked.
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Is that I've brought things to you all.
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Not only have you listened, but you've
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you've actually implemented change, and I haven't really seen that before.
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And that just happened like two days ago.
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And that made me feel really proud because I know what he's talking about.
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I've worked for people before, and we, we do
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genuinely take that into consideration.
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And I want to put my team first, because if I'm putting my team first,
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I really don't have to worry about anything else
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because then they'll be jazzed to go out there and serve.
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My clients and clients talk, and I get more business and it ends up coming back.
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But it really is who I am.
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I mean, I do just love people, so that is my strong suit.
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And I play, you know, my business to my strengths.
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But I think really understanding that and practicing that for anyone listening,
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it really will make your life better.
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Colleen, that's so true.
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And the thing about it, at least for me, is
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at the beginning of changing your mindset,
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it doesn't feel like
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it should work, like it just feels like you're.
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And I think some of it's the culture in 2025,
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like it's a me culture and it's almost like.
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And as business owners, we sometimes feel sorry for ourselves.
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Like we work all this and we and there is a lot of responsibility.
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But what the
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team does for you is way more than you could ever do by yourself.
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So you have to let go and you have to let them do.
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And then you have to empower them.
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So if you're feeling like, hey,
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I just don't know, like I just don't think of my team's there yet.
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And they might not be.
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But sometimes you have to let your
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you have to empower your team and let them screw up,
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and you have to let go and guide them along the way.
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And just one other small point and one to make that,
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Colleen said a lot of times was her time.
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Your time as the business owner is so important,
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and you might not understand it because your time is,
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you know, you don't think anything different about your time,
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but to your employees it is huge.
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Remember, I had a coach tell me this
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when the Lions out
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the play, he can always bite your head off.
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Okay.
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So and that took that took some like that hit me like
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I was thinking like hey I'm fun Todd today and like in the office.
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And it's like, no, wait a minute.
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Like you can always you can change anything
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you want at any second about your business.
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So that's always in the back of the minds of your employees head.
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So your time is so important. You showed them.
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It's just
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she gave you such a great insight, like one little ping message randomly
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like, I'm going to ping a couple people today,
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Colleen on the team that haven't heard from me and say thanks for what you do.
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Like, I really appreciate it because that is such a good tip,
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and you won't believe how far that will go with your employees.
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Yeah, it it really does.
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It does. And it's fun.
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It's more fun when your employees are having a good time
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and they want to show up to your company events and stuff, because they know
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they're going to have a good time and meet good people,
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and they're in a place where they feel like they're cared about.
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Like we just had our holiday party and it was it was so much fun. And,
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I just I just love it.
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And the team told me, they said, you know, we, we, we need to get together more.
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And I'm like, we do like, I have dropped the ball a little bit on that.
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Like we got busy and I got busy.
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And so it goes back to my time.
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I'm like, yes, I need to make more time to do that.
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So we are going to do that in 2026.
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Colleen, when you make the type of impact on
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on your team members, your Vas that you do,
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you told the story about one of your photographers
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making a suggestion and you acted on it.
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You've created an ownership stake in that person.
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They feel part of this business like they they actually have an ownership stake
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in something changes when you feel a stake in something,
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you feel more responsibility. You're more passionate about it.
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So that's I mean, that's huge kudos.
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Kudos to your leadership on that. That's awesome.
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Yeah.
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We all want to belong like everyone wants to feel like I mean that's like human.
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That's the human condition. That's that's wired in us.
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So, that that's why I feel so good.
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So, Colleen, you mentioned the repp
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speech
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presentation that you gave, and it was phenomenal for those
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that were not there, would you mind sharing you mentioned the four different,
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you know, kind of job descriptions of the titles you have.
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Can you give us an idea of what you have found works at Three Palms Media with Vas?
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Yes, definitely.
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So I will go through the titles that we have here.
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And I started out by reminding everybody that you're not a real estate photographer
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and that you're a business owner,
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and when you build a business like you, you need to do it with others.
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So you do need to delegate because it will allow you more energy to
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like, want to want to paying people randomly and things like that.
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So it's really important to delegate.
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And we've done a great job with our VA team of delegating.
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So here are kind of the four categories that I break our Vas down into.
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So the first one is your like admin or your support specialist.
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So this is somebody who is in your inbox, who is in your Cuo or your open phone,
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communicating with clients on project statuses,
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scheduling or adjusting shoots for clients.
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Just providing client success, answering questions for clients and really
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that liaison between your clients and your editing team.
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Hey, this needs a revision.
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Hey, we need to remove this.
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And they also like I have my admin VA,
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pay invoices, like I don't, I don't know how to Pay our Spiro invoice.
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Someone does it. It's not me. So
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so having that person who is your client success.
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Now, some people will be like.
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I'm scared that English isn't their first language.
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The more you hire or the higher rate
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that you hire, the more English that you can get in the Philippines.
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This is why I love the Philippines.
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They speak great English like there.
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I think it comes from maybe them being like the only
22:11
Christian country over there.
22:12
And they were.
22:13
It's different than like when I'm in Indonesia.
22:16
I've been all over Southeast Asia.
22:17
So it's just it's just different.
22:19
Like you're in Indonesia or you're in Vietnam and no one really speaks English.
22:24
You go to the Philippines and they all know who, like,
22:26
they can name, like all of our presidents.
22:28
Like, I don't even know that.
22:29
So they think there's no like literally
22:32
that happened to me when I was in the Philippines.
22:33
This guy, this little boy was like, I can name all your presidents.
22:36
I'm like, I, I don't even know who rules your country or how it works.
22:40
I feel so, so stupid right now.
22:42
But they they take a lot of pride in learning English
22:45
and it really affords them a lot of opportunities.
22:48
So they are great at it.
22:50
We have tools like ChatGPT.
22:52
You can infuse your brand voice into those things, and over
22:55
time, the more you coach them on this, the better that they're going to get.
22:59
I could not live without this.
23:00
Yes, we do have somebody who permanently answers our phone that is stateside.
23:04
I I've seen plenty of people do it with Vas.
23:07
We have so many stateside, but she has an executive admin,
23:11
that helps her and all the time.
23:13
So our second bucket is are like QC or delivery or delivery specialist.
23:18
This is one that everybody knows.
23:20
They got to be quality
23:20
checking the deliverables, fixing or managing any errors or revisions.
23:25
And you know, uploading and delivering those projects.
23:28
And then this is probably the one I got asked about the most.
23:32
It was our social media and our marketing manager.
23:35
So I don't know, I just got blown up about this.
23:38
Like I'm still getting blown up about this.
23:39
So people were interested in this.
23:40
But we have a dedicated social media and marketing manager on our team.
23:44
They were 30 hours a week.
23:46
They're creating, scheduling and posting all of our social media content.
23:49
They're managing the DMs and our story replies.
23:51
Communicating leads to our our our sales and our admin.
23:55
And they create newsletters, email campaigns, do the engagement on Instagram.
24:00
So how we have this work is because people are always like your social media.
24:04
So that I'm like, it's it's literally my Vas, but how we have it working.
24:09
And that took time, you know,
24:10
getting them to understand things that we like to post.
24:13
But I have a slack channel.
24:14
It's called social media.
24:16
And every Tuesday, my social media manager puts all of the posts
24:20
that she's created, as well as the captions in there,
24:22
and I go through them all and I thumbs them up if they're good to go,
24:26
or I'll comment in the thread, hey, change this or change that, or,
24:29
you know, you change this about a zealotry.
24:32
You're not quite understanding. What is it later is.
24:34
So I'll change some things like that and that works really well.
24:38
And we have content like buckets that when we, when
24:41
we're posting she's thinking about our four content buckets.
24:44
Let's see if I can name those off the top of my head.
24:46
One of them is like team culture atmosphere.
24:49
So we'll do a photographer spotlight.
24:50
We'll go behind the scenes of our Christmas party that we just had.
24:54
The other one is education.
24:56
Like here's how you can use your property website.
24:58
And Spiro, here's what a,
25:01
is. Here's something
25:03
about a Zillow tour, like education for realtors.
25:06
And then a third one is, like bundles and features, like, here's the difference
25:11
between a standard social media reel and a premium social media reel.
25:15
And once a month will ask me and my social media admin will ask my,
25:20
admin, what questions are you getting from clients
25:22
that are driving you nuts this this month?
25:24
What are they asking the most? Great.
25:26
Let's go make content out of that and then the fourth bucket is,
25:32
just something I'm not remembering right now, but those are the main,
25:36
buckets that we do there. Maybe it's promotions.
25:38
I think it's like promotions, branding, mini sessions that we have,
25:41
things like that.
25:43
So, I love our social media manager.
25:46
She knew nothing when we hired her because we hired her
25:47
near the beginning and we trained her up.
25:49
But if you, you can either get somebody and really train them up,
25:53
or you can go and hire somebody with lots of experience, maybe knows
25:57
how to do ads, things like that.
25:58
We don't do ads. But if we did, I will.
26:01
Having my social media manager figure it out.
26:04
And then the fourth bucket here is
26:07
either like a, like a head of operations or your VA manager.
26:10
I started to get show me Vas.
26:12
It was very difficult for me to be their direct report.
26:15
So now we have somebody on our team who is that manager.
26:18
So he is he is ultimately responsible for did everything get delivered?
26:23
Are he is he meeting one on one with all of our Vas?
26:26
Are their concerns addressed?
26:28
He's running different reports and metrics that help me.
26:32
He's investigating new tools.
26:33
Like he was the one that investigated autoHDR before we signed up.
26:38
And, you know, tracking task projects, deadlines, workflows.
26:42
And just really, he, he manages all the Vas.
26:45
So those are our four buckets that we have.
26:49
You can kind of mix and match them, of course, especially when you're growing.
26:53
But those are the four titles
26:55
that we have here that have worked really well for us.
26:57
I have one more question, Todd.
27:00
Yeah, it's very basic question, Colleen, for somebody
27:03
that is just starting to think about bringing on their first VA or team member,
27:09
specifically related to VA, where do you find them?
27:13
Like how do you start your search?
27:15
Yes. Okay.
27:17
So I actually thought you were going to ask what's your first hire?
27:19
And I'm going to answer that because I feel like it's important
27:21
when it's like, sure.
27:22
So it really depends.
27:24
Like what's the most low hanging fruit for you?
27:25
I would say it should be QC like first hire somebody in QC
27:30
if they can hybrid into admin and you kind of have that hybrid role
27:33
until they get really busy and then you can be like okay
27:35
you're just QC and now you're just admin and hire two.
27:39
That's typically where I'm seeing people start.
27:44
Okay.
27:44
And then your question was.
27:49
Where do you find Vas.
27:51
But yeah.
27:52
Is there like a central source of your own
27:56
nirvana? Yes.
27:59
Three places that I find.
28:00
Vas number one place that I've used the most often is onlinejobs.ph.
28:05
This is specifically
28:06
a Filipino marketplace for people looking for virtual assistants.
28:10
Second place is I will just go and find Facebook groups that are maybe real estate
28:14
photography or photography or real estate related or virtual assistants,
28:18
and I will post the job in there.
28:21
And then the third place, there's hey, current VA, do you know any Vas?
28:27
That one works can also sometimes be tricky.
28:29
Just it just depends, you know.
28:30
Is it her cousin that I don't know.
28:33
That's kind of up to you, right.
28:35
But those are the different places.
28:37
And here's a key thing that I do to minimize the amount of time
28:40
I have to do spending to look for Vas or photographers.
28:43
This applies to both.
28:44
I am they have to send me a video
28:48
answering a handful of questions to submit to apply for the job.
28:53
So when I'm posting in a Facebook group, I'm saying do not DM
28:57
me, do not comment, only email me this video.
29:00
If they DM me and they comment, they didn't listen.
29:03
And I'm really looking for attention to detail.
29:05
So that's a little weed out, tool there.
29:09
And I recently discovered, this website that someone told me about at the repp
29:13
conference called Hirevire.com, which is it's cool.
29:19
It's basically like you create a job posting with like the 3 or 5 questions,
29:25
and you can send them that link and it pops up and it records them for you,
29:28
because in the past,
29:29
I was just having them figure it out, like, send me a video from your phone,
29:33
do a loom, like whatever you got to do to get me a video,
29:36
but actually like this hirevire because I can be like, boom.
29:38
Like now when I'm hiring for photographers,
29:40
as long as resume looks good, they answer the indeed questions
29:43
link, link, link like and whoever actually responds
29:46
and completes that one way video interview.
29:49
That is who I'm you know, basing my okay, who am I going to further discuss with.
29:54
That is such great insight.
29:56
I love the idea of doing that and just compacting your time.
30:00
It just does.
30:01
So much like if you ask them for a video and they don't send it,
30:04
do you think they're going to follow your instructions
30:06
when you're asking them to QC photos or respond to emails like it's just so smart.
30:11
It's a way to really maximize your time?
30:14
Yeah.
30:14
You want one point.
30:18
Yeah. Yeah. Because you get 100.
30:19
I mean you could potentially get thousands of I mean you could get a lot of people.
30:23
I mean, if you think about think about the last time you all apply for a job
30:27
or for looking for a job, you can apply for a lot of jobs
30:31
to the point that you forget what you applied to.
30:34
So if someone takes the time to go and do that, read about your company,
30:37
read the instructions, then record the videos.
30:40
It just shows that they're that much more serious.
30:43
Also, if they've read your description, they're understanding your company
30:46
culture, what you do, how their past skills
30:50
relate to what you might need, and then hopefully they're going to answer it
30:55
with that in mind and they're going to tie in some of those things.
30:59
So that is an incredible time saver.
31:02
you know, one thing
31:03
that I kind of wrapped up in the the speech at repp was,
31:09
just going back to how, like, doing it all, the delegating it all
31:13
and the backdrop of my all my slides with my trip to Italy.
31:17
And Tim and I were able to go to Italy for a month in September.
31:20
No slack. No, like I didn't do.
31:23
We didn't talk to them.
31:24
The team really held it down, and I talked about how that was a dream
31:27
come true for Tim, and I, like my parents, were there.
31:29
We got to go to Italy for a whole month and drink like Italian rosé.
31:33
And it was amazing.
31:35
But, you know, our dreams have come true.
31:38
But so have my Vas and my team members.
31:40
And so I had this slide where I talked about how, you know,
31:43
one of my Vas opened their internet cafe this year.
31:46
They were able to do that with earnings that they got.
31:48
And now she's employing her sister.
31:50
Another one bought a house that he's going to be completely rehabilitating inside.
31:55
And and now my third Vas, she's expressed how happy she is that she's able
32:00
to stay at home on her like farm and work at night, but homeschool her kids.
32:07
And how that's a dream come true for her.
32:08
And then our other one, Feby, she's my longest standing one.
32:12
People have heard me talk about her, but Feby,
32:15
she's been able to make so many of her dreams come true through this.
32:17
She's gotten on a plane for the first time.
32:19
She's traveled for the first time. She really wanted to travel.
32:21
She really wanted to go to the Taylor Swifts tour and see the Eras tour.
32:24
We sent her to Singapore, we got her to that tour and she was so excited.
32:28
So it's like we're everybody's dreams are coming true.
32:31
It's it's not just mine.
32:32
And I think that's where the impact really hit everyone in the audience.
32:36
You're like,
32:36
wow, I have the ability to really change people's lives and not just your Vas.
32:40
My photographers too.
32:41
But you know, we're not talking about them today.
32:43
So it really is it made me emotional on stage because
32:48
the business is elevating everybody.
32:49
And I'm like, that is so freaking cool.
32:53
It is.
32:54
And Colleen, remind the
32:56
listeners how long you've been in business.
32:59
We just celebrated our third anniversary.
33:03
Three years in like, like October.
33:06
So we're in three years.
33:07
Incredible.
33:09
I know that is, so incredible what you've done in three years.
33:14
It's it's magnificent.
33:17
Yeah. Congratulations on that.
33:19
It’s been a lot of fun.
33:20
It's been a lot of a lot of hard work.
33:22
A lot of hard work. This wall.
33:23
No, I know, but
33:25
I feel like sometimes people are like, oh, you just make it seem so easy.
33:29
I it's I apologize.
33:31
It's it's not easy, but it is fun and it is rewarding.
33:34
And when you bring teammates along the way, it it is a lot easier.
33:38
But you know, it's it's a lot of work and we love it.
33:41
And it's been great.
33:43
Yeah.
33:44
One thing that I think is a superpower that I've seen you guys over
33:47
these years, Colleen, is that you guys set goals and you focus
33:51
and you are focused on taking care of your people.
33:54
You're focused on these processes.
33:56
You're focused on doing these things a lot of times.
33:59
And just one quick point
34:00
I want to make when you were telling us about the four buckets of social media,
34:03
you're like in the fourth is I forget it right now.
34:06
It's like, there might be this one thing, but I, I that's so important
34:11
as a business owner that you can't own everything at your business.
34:15
At one point, Colleen knew it.
34:17
She put her stamp of approval on it and she measures it,
34:21
I can tell you throughout the year, and it will be changed at the correct time.
34:25
When it comes to measure it, you can't keep it on your head.
34:29
A coach I'm big on time tracking.
34:32
We've done many podcasts on a coach taught this to me,
34:35
and you need to move up different columns of hourly wages
34:40
and I won't go into it now, but if you are so focused
34:44
on these low levels, like what are the four buckets of these items?
34:48
It's like, no, wait a minute, I'm looking at how I can change lives, impact
34:51
our team, how we can grow to where we need to go.
34:55
I know that on my team, someone knows this like the back of their hand.
34:59
They're thinking about how to improve it.
35:01
So I just that's such a good sign as a good business owner of like,
35:05
I don't know everything, but I know somebody on
35:08
the team knows that, and I know that I measure it at some.
35:11
I know I measure it at this point in the year and we look at it.
35:14
But right now
35:15
I'm focused on these bigger things that are helping my business grow larger.
35:20
Yeah, that's so true.
35:21
That actually came up a lot at the conference,
35:23
because I talked to a lot of people and a lot of people ask me questions,
35:26
and I was like, I don't know.
35:28
And they were always like,
35:29
wow, I want to get to that place because it's only so cute.
35:33
I'm like, I don't know what's the setting?
35:36
I'm like, I don't know just how.
35:39
What's your process for autoHDR
35:40
I’m like, I don't know, like I just don't know.
35:43
Like other people on my team know that.
35:45
I'm like, okay, I did delegate like I have.
35:48
I'm not just saying this like, yes, that has been a really important part.
35:51
Is really delegating.
35:52
You know, all of that out in my team
35:55
members have made so many mistakes, you know, not as many as me, obviously,
35:58
but they've made so many mistakes because I'm letting them do things,
36:03
and I need them to make the mistakes, because when they make the mistakes,
36:05
that means they're trying.
36:06
They're out there, they're learning,
36:07
and they're not typically going to make those mistakes again going forward.
36:12
Such good advice.
36:13
Yeah.
36:14
But you know, Colleen, I want to shift gears a little bit
36:18
because there's something else that I know
36:20
is a huge passion of yours that has been growing lately.
36:24
By by letting those things go on, delegating those things, it's
36:27
freeing your energy up for other passions,
36:31
one of which kind of started coalescing at repp.
36:34
So I kind of want to let you just run with that.
36:38
What what's going on with this, this new movement, that we're hearing about.
36:43
There's a movement, Craig.
36:45
There's a new movement.
36:47
It is,
36:49
I don't know.
36:50
I didn't know how else to set this up, but
36:53
I had so many women come up to me at the repp conference
36:57
and just talk about like, oh, this is so cool.
37:01
Like, I relate to you in this way.
37:03
And in our conversations, they're just different.
37:07
They're they're different.
37:08
They can they can be different between women.
37:11
We're just women. And that's that's how we are.
37:13
And I got a lot of,
37:16
like a
37:16
business owner as a women, a woman and all these things.
37:19
And a lot of the conversations like, we need a space
37:22
or we need a meetup or something like that.
37:24
And I'm like, we do.
37:26
And I'm like, this is feels like something I, I need and want to do.
37:30
So I created a Women in Real Estate Media Facebook group.
37:34
And it is funny because the conversations in that Facebook group,
37:36
they're just different
37:37
than the ones in like the repp, you know, Facebook group or whatever.
37:41
Like we open up more, we're talking about like the real things that are holding us
37:46
back, the real human things that are holding us back
37:48
or causing us strife, you know, in our life or in our business.
37:51
And so it's been a really great place to connect.
37:54
And there's been women in there that have asked questions
37:56
that are like, I wouldn't normally ask this
37:58
and the other group, but I feel comfortable asking it here.
38:00
And, you know, I this is just by demand.
38:03
Like, I wish I could take credit for this, but, it has been really cool.
38:08
And I'm like, wow, we did really need this.
38:09
So now I'm thinking about like, what things could we do?
38:13
What things could we do to get the girls together?
38:16
And I have a
38:17
couple ideas I'd love to do, like,
38:20
I'd love to do like a women's retreat, like women in real estate media retreat.
38:24
And so this is this is just in my brain right now.
38:26
I have no plans.
38:27
I don't know how this works, how it would happen or anything like that,
38:30
but like to get us together to, like, reset, like, yeah,
38:35
we can talk about business, but I'm not going to be like at 2:00.
38:38
We're talking about sales.
38:39
No, it'd be more like, let's get together and actually reset.
38:44
So typically not that men are,
38:46
but typically women are wearing a million different hats.
38:50
And if you're business owners, one of them
38:52
and you have family, which I don't, I don't have any kids one day that really,
38:57
like, let's just get together and reset
38:59
for our ourselves and connect with other people like Craig.
39:03
I think you said earlier, like,
39:04
or maybe I was on the last podcast I listened to you on about how the
39:09
having the numbers in your phone, from the connections
39:11
you meet at the repp conference, like nothing is more valuable than that.
39:15
And I feel like this is just a place
39:16
where it's a step further and it's uniquely set to women
39:20
coming together and just connecting so that we can pick each other up
39:25
throughout the year when we're high or low, all those different things.
39:28
So I've got some some cool ideas, but I love any women listening here.
39:33
Just search it on Facebook.
39:34
It just women in real estate media.
39:37
Some cool conversations going over there and I would love any ideas.
39:41
You know, the people need to tell us
39:42
what we want and happy to be one small part of making that happen.
39:47
Very cool.
39:48
I'll, I'll I'll search the group out, I won't join, I won't apply to join,
39:52
but I'll find the URL and we'll put that in the show notes.
39:55
Yeah, that would be great not to exclude anybody,
39:58
but we were like, I'm all for getting in touch with my feminine side,
40:02
but I don't think you you'd want me
40:06
there. Just way.
40:07
You're the only, I left you so I could go with this.
40:10
Craig. I'm just going to.
40:11
I'm just going to leave it.
40:13
Yeah.
40:15
I would like to have fun in the podcast right.
40:18
So we can be all professional, but
40:21
we got to have fun.
40:22
You got to have fun.
40:23
So, yeah, I'm excited about it.
40:24
But a lot of people are just like, you know, you're the only, You mean Shannon?
40:28
I think the only women on the stage like giving a keynote.
40:31
We did have some other, like,
40:32
dynamic women, Rachel and Shannon, that were on a panel, as well.
40:36
So, they're just like, yeah, we'd like to hear more from women. So,
40:42
Eli has our Eli
40:43
saw, like I
40:43
posted a story about it or something, and Eli commented, he's like, done
40:47
next year because I said we should do a women in Real estate media, you know,
40:50
at the rep conference next year.
40:52
And he was like done.
40:53
And I'm like, all right, it's that I won't forget that we're doing that.
40:57
Very cool how that was cool.
40:59
I love that.
41:00
That's so great.
41:01
You, and kind of continuing with that, Colleen a of a get together,
41:06
you're coming to our get together, you're going to be,
41:10
main speaker, and you're in a Galena group as well.
41:13
That's Spiro sync.
41:14
I mean, we'll find a room for you women.
41:16
Aileron at the place, so we should.
41:20
I mean, Shannon can help me with that, for sure,
41:21
because Shannon was in on this, like, she was part of the spark
41:24
plug here at the.
41:25
It's a women in real estate media.
41:27
Her and I were chat at the spiro booth after she gave me my awesome
41:30
pink spiro hoodie that I am now obsessed with that I wear all the time.
41:33
I like really big hoodies and my when Shannon when I got that from your booth.
41:37
When I got that at the booth, I put it on immediately.
41:40
Tim goes, and that's going to be your new favorite hoodie.
41:42
And I was like, yes, it already is.
41:45
So but I, I,
41:49
I'm so excited to come to Spiro Sync.
41:51
Let's do it. Ohio in January.
41:53
I can't think of anywhere else that I'd rather be, Todd. Yes.
41:56
Let's go.
41:57
Yes, it's going to be great, Colleen.
42:00
You're going to love it.
42:01
This the aileron, the campus.
42:03
It has real wood burning fireplaces.
42:06
I was there two days ago.
42:07
We did leadership planning for Spiro, and the fireplaces
42:11
were burning like it's the most fabulous smell.
42:14
It's like you're not going to walk out smelling like a woodsman.
42:17
Like it's just a nice little smell at the fires burning.
42:21
It's a beautiful facility. Looks out to this lake.
42:24
So it's it's going to be cold, but it's going to be a great time.
42:29
I'm really looking forward to coming in.
42:31
I'm from Ohio so I'm used to it.
42:32
But no, I'm I'm excited and I wouldn't miss it.
42:35
Todd I'm just wondering what's wrong with smelling like a woodsman.
42:38
I mean, that's kind of well, put down the woodsman.
42:41
I mean,
42:43
for all the woodsman listening, I.
42:45
I don't have a problem with woodsman.
42:47
I actually, I chop some wood on my own here.
42:49
I, I use a, like a splitter because I, you know, I, I'm not that strong,
42:53
this swing ax.
42:54
And I don't know where I'm going with this, Craig.
42:56
So I'm just going to stop because it's just not adding to the podcast.
43:00
I'm the agent of chaos in this episode, evidently.
43:02
Okay, let's let's get it back on show.
43:05
Our guest of this episode has been Colleen Kydd of Three Palms Media.
43:09
You're located. We're in Florida.
43:11
Where where exactly are you guys?
43:13
Fort Myers, Florida, southwest Florida.
43:17
Awesome.
43:18
Colleen, thank you so much for joining us.
43:21
You are so welcome.
43:23
And Craig, if this works, I can give you I have like a link tree
43:28
to I'll put that presentation about the VA's in there.
43:33
So and then I also have like retired guides of like how
43:36
like my hiring guide for how I hire Vas and photographers and,
43:41
and some other stuff that people always ask me for.
43:43
So I put them all in this cute little link.
43:45
So I'm happy to, provide that for you for the show notes.
43:48
If that is something that we use, that would be incredible.
43:51
Thank you so much for offering that to the listeners and viewers.
43:54
Yeah, yeah, that is great.
43:55
Also, Colleen, if listeners are not following you now,
43:59
you also have this incredible ability
44:02
and knack of just connecting with people through social media videos.
44:06
I love watching your videos. You did like this.
44:08
This fitness weight loss journey.
44:10
And then you did the trip and you just like.
44:13
And then you spoke recently at the aspire conference in Columbus.
44:17
A really big conference, really big names.
44:19
And like, you're documenting all this, I, I've been in your house virtually.
44:23
I've seen your house tours. Like how can people follow you?
44:26
Because if you are not following Colleen, please do,
44:28
because she's just a source of light and enjoyment.
44:32
And I just I think you all need to follow her.
44:35
So how can people follow you? Colleen.
44:38
Yes. So they can follow me personally @itsColleenKydd.
44:43
I post a lot on there and then they can follow three Palms Media
44:46
@ThreePalmsMedia. But, yeah.
44:49
You know, one thing that's been so cool about starting my real estate
44:52
media business for me, it's unlocked this like world
44:56
where I now fully understand that I can do anything that I want to do.
45:00
And I just think that that's really, really cool.
45:02
And it's it's continue to be a big stepping stone for me and making
45:05
like, other dreams that I have come true that maybe, like
45:08
I didn't always think could come true or I didn't feel comfortable saying out loud,
45:13
so I just can't be, you know, more grateful for, you know,
45:16
the opportunities that I've been presented through starting my own business.
45:19
And then I've been able to kind of
45:21
just leverage that confidence to go out and do other things.
45:23
So, yeah, I've got some dreams that I want to do and things like that.
45:27
And a lot of it really just goes back to the core of just like creating connection,
45:31
bringing people together, making people feel less alone
45:34
and letting them know that, you know, they don't.
45:35
They can do whatever they want.
45:37
Like there's there's nothing that they can't do.
45:39
So I talk a lot about that.
45:41
I'm passionate about that. I talk about it mostly.
45:43
So I remember for myself,
45:45
and I just happened to share it with everybody else along the way.
45:48
I love that, Colleen.
45:49
Thanks for all you do for the community.
45:51
You're doing so much for the community.
45:52
Such an impact on them.
45:54
Thank you for doing that and continuing to add and just give, give, give.
45:59
Well, thank you.
46:00
Thank you all for having me on. Thank you for everything.
46:02
I'm really looking forward to Spiro Sync. Thank.
46:04
Like anytime I can get in a room with a room
46:06
with other people who speak the same language
46:07
as me, it's never not been like the most valuable time that I spent.
46:11
So I'm really, really excited about that.
46:13
And thank you so much for always being so kind and,
46:16
having me on.
46:18
We're excited to see you.
46:19
January. Colleen, thanks for joining us.
46:22
All right.
46:23
Well, Todd, that's going to wrap things up this week.
46:27
Getting close to Christmas here.
46:29
Another great guest joining us the week
46:32
the following week of that was a oh repp, repp conference speaker.
46:38
I'm getting all tongue tied.
46:39
I'm just think it's going to work great.
46:41
Yeah. I'm so excited.
46:43
And then, I'm going to be off through the end of the year.
46:47
So, Todd and Shannon, I think are going to be, shaking things up
46:51
on, future episodes, which is always fun.
46:55
So, any parting thoughts?
46:57
Todd?
46:58
Just such wisdom.
46:59
I, I think if you haven't listened to Colleen on the podcast before, go back
47:03
and listen to it. Follow her.
47:04
There's so much in there and there's so much that
47:07
we sometimes get caught up as business owners and little things.
47:11
And at a 10,000ft view, when you can step outside of that
47:14
and see the little things are catching you up
47:16
and focus on the big things, that's where you're going to see those leaps
47:20
and your business.
47:20
And that's what she's so powerful at doing in her own business, her own life.
47:24
Absolutely, absolutely.
47:27
All right.
47:27
Well, that's going to wrap things up this week.
47:29
Thank you so much for taking the time to, to join us.
47:31
Whether you're watching or listening, just make sure you take some time.
47:35
I, we wrap the, the, you know, the podcast up every week this way,
47:40
but especially this time of year.
47:41
Just make sure you take time to be thankful for the blessings in your life.
47:45
And make sure you take a breath.
47:46
Have a great week. Take care.