Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / Plug the Leaks!

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Plug the Leaks! · 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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if you just presented and you haven't followed up with someone
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or you haven't tracked some metrics on it, then
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you kind of did it for nothing.
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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 maintain, run, but ultimately
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really to help you grow and scale your real estate media business.
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I'm Craig Magrum, host of the podcast Always good to have you here.
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We hope that,
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if you're a longtime listener or even a recent listener, that you've found
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some value, in the discussion of running business in this industry,
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that, that we've put forth, if you're a brand new listener.
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Welcome. We're glad to have you.
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We just, we really like to celebrate success
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and see people be successful in the real estate media business.
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Let me introduce our co-host, Ian Spiro, owner and founder, Todd Kivimaki.
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Welcome back, Todd
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Craig, It's as always great to be on here today.
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We've got some exciting things to talk about.
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You briefly said that you've come to a conclusion
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on your tattoo for your face tattoo right? not a face tattoo.
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What are you having tattooed on your face?
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Nothing on my face.
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Oh, I was thinking about it.
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Was thinking about the inside of the right wrist there, but no, I just.
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I read this stat, and I'm like,
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now, whether it's true or not, I'm going to just assume it's true.
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But I read there's a 30%,
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increase
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chance increase of developing a blood cancer.
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For tattoos.
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Now, some of that I'm sure some people are going to say no, no, no, that's right.
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And that it might not be true.
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But you know what?
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I just think I'm I'm going on 50.
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Why at this point, why chance it so I'm thinking, well,
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can I pass up pass up on the tattoo decisions made.
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Yeah. No, no judgment on anyone else.
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I've admired some really great looking tattoos.
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So anyway.
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Well, good.
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I mean, I'm glad that we've discussed that.
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I mean, we have we have some exciting things to discuss.
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We talked about bathing last week, Craig.
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Nature bathing.
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Yes. Nature bathing, which explain that because even that sounds weird.
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Todd. Yeah.
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If this is your first time listening to sorry, we really are sorry, but not sorry.
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nature bathing
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is the idea of, like, when you all know, like, you've looked at a screen too much
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or you focused on something too much and you just need to get your head clear.
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This is this idea of going out into nature,
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putting your bare feet in the ground
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and just
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taking a moment to just
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just be grateful about the beauty of nature.
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Yeah. Breathe. Yes.
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Craig.
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And, so we challenge this was a new term to me.
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Now, this isn't something new.
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I mean, if you live around me, you'll find my wife every morning
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going out with bare feet, whether it's 100 degrees or zero degrees.
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And, at first I gave her a little bit of a hard time.
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She probably kill me for even saying this, but then there is really something
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in this.
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So we took a challenge last week, Craig, and we did some nature bathing.
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We did, we did.
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I sent Todd the picture.
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Todd, we're going to have to give Justine these pictures so you can pop
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them up on the screen.
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Yeah.
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The idea was that, yeah, for us both to take some time and just.
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Yeah, breathe and put our feet in the grass.
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And I have to confess, mine was my time of putting my feet in the grass.
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I can't see nature bathing.
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It just feels weird.
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It just it does. It does.
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My time of putting my feet in my grass was actually on the job.
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I was at a shoot.
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It was a really picturesque, though type of property.
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Had a pond in the front of the yard and the sellers weren't there,
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so it was just me.
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And so I, I took my shoes off, took my socks
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off, and I put my feet in the grass right there in front of the pond.
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It was a beautiful moment. That's great.
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And we did not get any complaints from any nosy neighbors that,
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wow, Craig, that you were you sitting with bare feet by the pond.
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So. Right.
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But you as a good moment, you get a moment too, right?
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I did, yes.
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So I just walked out back of the office here, as you know,
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we're in the middle of a cornfield here.
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And I said, we have a humongous, beautiful tree out back.
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I sat underneath that.
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And Craig, in all seriousness,
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I notice things like I notice a caterpillar
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crawling on this on the grass and walking through the grass,
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and I noticed I just could hear the the corn blow.
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And I saw the sun come through, and I heard the birds.
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And I just notice these things.
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I've never noticed before.
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Like the locust shells on the tree going up
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and things that if you're just super fast.
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When I live super fast, I should say I would have never noticed that thing.
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I know the trees out back. I know there's corn out back there.
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I had no clue at just how much was back there.
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Was good to put my feet in the grass and just take.
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I set ten minutes on my on my stopwatch on my phone and turn my phone upside
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down, put it about five feet away from me and just took it all in.
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It's good.
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Speaking of corn
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and hearing the sound of the corn moving, did you know you can hear corn grow?
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Is this a is this a dad joke?
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Oh, it's actually not a dad joke.
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I I've heard it before.
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You again.
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You have to be really still.
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It's got to be a dead still day.
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Like no wind.
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And it helps if it's really humid as well.
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Okay. The corn does really well in humidity.
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And if you're really quiet and you're out in the middle
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on the middle of a cornfield and there's, you know, no cars driving by,
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you can hear it almost creak.
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It's oh, it's yeah, it's it's so the creaking is the idea
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that the stalk is growing and cracking and that's that's what I've heard.
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And I swear I've heard it before, you know, once or twice.
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I don't slow down enough usually.
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Anyway, this is a weird podcast search,
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I guess, but it's people are going to think
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we're a bunch of hippies and, you know, they won't be a hippie with us.
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Post your nature bathing photo below.
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Please make it PG rated.
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Just your socks off.
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And yes, if you're looking at my picture, my feet really are that big.
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I have skis
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for feet and they're that white, so go ahead and make fun of them.
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It's fun. We'll all laugh at me.
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My oldest son, he's.
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Yeah, we we joke that he's got gigantic feet.
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Just I mean, Michael Phelps size feet,
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you know, they're they're flippers, their size.
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But he's still shorter than I am. And that irks him to no one.
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Okay, let's let's get back on track here.
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A great topic today.
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We're looking forward to.
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It's kind of an expansion of a topic we did back in March.
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We'll set that up in just a second.
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But first, you have a few few announcements you want to make.
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Yes. Conference is in November.
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If you don't know where you're going, pick one of them.
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Go to REPP November 7th and eighth.
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It's in Las Vegas. We'll all be there.
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Come see us if that week doesn't work for you PMRE is two weeks later.
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If none of those work for you, come see us at the Spiro Sync in January.
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It is in Ohio.
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We have finalized dates.
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We have a Save the date posted for you all on the Spiro
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Super User Facebook group, January 22nd and 23rd.
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It's going to be fabulous. I'm excited about that, Craig.
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So come, come to one, come to all of them.
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But this is where you really get out.
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You take a moment to breathe and you get some margin in your brain
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to think differently.
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Right now, when you do those conferences, when you take that deep breath
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at Spiro Sync, it's going to be the middle of January
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and it's going to be really cold.
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So just be careful how deep of a breath you take.
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Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
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You might be coughing right.
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Just real quick about Spiro updates
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and I'll just more or less give you guys a resource.
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I did I did a tech talk, last week, we covered a ton of updates.
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So Titus is coming up.
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Titus is financing for your realtors,
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and this is going to help you increase your average order value.
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I shared two things with you that I hadn't shared before
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that are going to be part of that Titus update.
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They're going to be just incredible features.
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So if you need to get caught up, we won't take time here.
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Go grab that tech talk.
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Worst case, if you don't want to listen to all of it, ask a comment and the video
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or just download the video, give it to AI and have AI give you the information.
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There you go.
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And, we're going to be talking
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with the owner of Titus next week, correct?
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Yes. Next week.
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Nick's going to be on looking forward to it.
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Cool.
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Already?
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Well, without further ado, enough Titan nature breathing talk.
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And in, in all of that, let's dive into it.
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So, Todd, back in March, we did an episode called The Fortune is in the follow up
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and talked about just the opportunities that we have to grow our business
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just by simply following up on phone calls and emails and discussions
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that we've had with, you know, clients and potential clients.
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And it was really good material.
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But you've got some some great material for us today on some practical
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how to steps and systems.
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That will help what you refer
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to as, plugging the bucket.
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Did I get that right. Let me.
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Yes. Yeah.
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The plugging the leak leak.
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You've got leaky bucket, right? Yes. Craig.
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So we're going to continue with that.
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And but we're going to dig in a little bit more.
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So if you listen to that podcast, please stick with us.
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We're going to go deeper.
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So the goal here is any time you do anything is you just try to find
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one little nugget that you can use and adapt into your workflow.
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So and this idea is, I think, a problem that plagues all of us.
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This idea of the leaky bucket. Okay.
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So let's expand on that a little bit.
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Yeah. So you know I love analogies, Craig.
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And I thought this was just a fitting one for this podcast.
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But the imagine your business is the bucket okay.
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And we all want to fill our bucket up with water.
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And the water represents the business jobs coming in.
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It represents revenue.
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It represents a full business okay.
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So the water in the bucket
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and water flows in to the bucket.
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And that's potential business.
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All right.
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And there's a problem where
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you might have some cracks or some holes in your bucket.
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And as water flows in it's flowing out and it's okay Craig.
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Every business has water has some cracks.
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So, I want to caution you
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to not try to make your bucket leakproof,
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you know, like on humongous ships
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and even not even humongous like, large ships.
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They all take on some amount of water.
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And that water, no matter how hard you try, you're
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never going to make the haul or the boat that doesn't take on some amount of water.
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It's actually not a problem because they pump the water right back out.
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Okay, so I don't want you
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to make your bucket leakproof because you're going to have some cracks.
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But if your cracks and holes
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are larger than the water coming in, then we have a problem because
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your actual water levels going down, not staying the same or going up.
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And again,
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we want the water level to go up because our goal is to have a full bucket.
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If your cracks are bigger than the water coming
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in, then you are actually in a decline of your business.
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So kind of go into that that ship example
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of it's kind of the opposite,
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thing where if you're taking on too much water, you're going to sink.
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But you mentioned the pumps.
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There's a system there to take care of that issue.
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And I can't help but think of a job that I had years ago.
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I worked in an inside sales department, and hope you don't mind me telling the
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story, but,
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our inside sales department,
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we had actually two divisions within that inside sales department.
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One was specifically designed to find new business.
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They were called the prospecting, people.
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And then we had, inside salespeople that specialized in retention.
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So it was retaining the new clients that we were landing it.
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Just like you said,
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we didn't keep 100% of our new clients, but had we not had that focus on retaining
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current clients, clients, that that loss could have been even bigger.
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So it was a system.
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It was a very simple system.
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Yeah.
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And sometimes the most simple ones are the best.
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So before I tell you, a simple system, before we go through
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what a simple system is and a system that I use, I just want to ask a question.
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Craig. Okay.
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So I'd like to ask all of you out there.
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So wherever you're at, you know, just think about this
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on a scale of 1 to 10,
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how good are you at following up?
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How good are you at doing
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what you say you're going to do?
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Okay, so I would say
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doing what you say you're going to do is critically important
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to getting and growing a business.
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You know, if you think about it, if you don't do what you say you're going
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to do, your clients are going to think that you don't care about them.
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They're they're not important that their business doesn't matter
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or that you just run a crummy business.
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Right.
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And, you know, that's kind of that impacts your integrity.
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You know.
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Yeah, it does.
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And that and that might be a little bit harsh.
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I'm not saying you all do this, but that is
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what the perception is when you don't follow up with someone.
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Right?
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So just rate yourself right now
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on a scale of 1 to 10, how good are you at following up?
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All right. And keep that number in mind.
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So now we're going
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to look at a couple of mechanisms.
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And this was taught to me by a coach.
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And he called it gather and focus.
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All right.
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And again very simple system at its heart.
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But there is so much value in here.
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We're going to help you uncover this.
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So the idea of what gather and focus is, is that
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you take a dedicated time, okay.
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Typically at the end of the week
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where you have probably a two hour block
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and it's just you and you, we're going to go through some capture devices.
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We'll explain that in a second.
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We're going to go through some capture devices to help you
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find those cracks in your bucket,
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to make sure that you do what you said
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you will do, and you'll follow up with people you've talked to.
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So a very dedicated
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system, systematized set of words, systematized approach.
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Yeah.
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To to find the leaks okay.
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All right.
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Yeah. So and this is this is really simple.
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So the first thing is, is you'll sit down I recommend a pen and paper.
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All right.
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So don't type because when you type just I mean how I do this all the time, right.
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If I type or I'm on the computer what happens
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interuptions, pop ups, right.
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Yes. It's crazy.
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15 things come up and now I'm three websites over
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an inch is something I never intended to be doing at that point.
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And I will say, Craig, this is something that I've been focusing on lately, like
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I'm in the habit of like when I wait for something to process.
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Like if I'm using AI and I prompt it
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with a message, there's a little bit of spending time.
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And I've gotten in the habit that while that thing spends for,
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I don't know, ten 20s, I'll switch
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screens and I'll work on something else.
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How many times have we mentioned on this podcast we are not wired to multitask?
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I'm just guilty.
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I'm just guilty
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Can I share a quick, quick story with you?
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Yeah. Tied into this.
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So this past week, my wife has been gone.
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She's been overseas on a mission trip in Madagascar. Out.
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She's coming back tonight. Hallelujah.
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Okay.
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Yeah, yeah, but what I have found, and I don't know,
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I think this is commentary on me, and I need to work on this on me.
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But I have found when she is home, I am not as focused
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on, like, getting things done.
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We both can get into the habit of doomscrolling when she is gone.
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I've noticed my phone.
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I don't pick up my phone as much and I have gotten so much done this week
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just by not picking up the phone.
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I think part of it is I don't want her to come back to a dirty house, right?
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I don't want to be. I don't want to be that husband.
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So I've gotten the dishes done. I've gotten the laundry done.
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I've, you know, Zeke’s school lunches.
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You know, she gave me that task. Here's what you need to do.
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It's like, I don't want to drop the ball.
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It's kind of a matter of pride, right?
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But, yeah.
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Just going back to the basics and put the electronics down.
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It is so hard to do sometimes, but, man, can we get a lot done
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when we go back to old school pen paper like you just.
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You just mentioned
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it's it is amazing, Craig, how much it is, how much better it is. So,
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I, I that's something that we all struggle with.
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So I'm saying this and Craig and I say these things out loud
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just as much as a it's a it helps us remember what we need to do.
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So we're right there with you. Yeah. On this.
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All right.
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So first you're going to spend 20 minutes
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and you're going to go through your text messages okay.
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So you have to be diligent here because you're picking up a piece of technology.
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You're not going to answer calls.
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You're not going to do anything but go to your text messages okay.
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So open up your phone. I've got my phone here.
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I'm going to go in and go through your text messages.
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All right.
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So if it's good for you play a little music in the background just so
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you stay focused because this is a time you're just collecting, you're gathering.
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That's the first part of this exercise is just gathering.
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So I don't want you to feel
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and in fact, you should
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not respond to anyone, no matter how who it is.
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You know, unless your mother's texting you and she needs help with something
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like it's emergency, you know, respond to your mother.
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You know.
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Yeah.
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But go through and just gather information, okay?
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So what we're going to do and and if you're not driving right now,
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you can do some of this.
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So you get the idea.
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And it really is this simple.
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You're like, I'm not giving you anything
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other than a very simple system, but it's going to save you
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and make you thousands and thousands or tens of thousands.
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There's deals in here that you would not believe.
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So scrolling through your text messages, this is the toughest
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one for me, Craig, to keep consistent with because I have
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text messages can somewhat disappear when they go on.
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Once you read them and you get 4 or 5 more text messages,
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that single text message gets pushed down and you have to go find it.
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So scroll through here.
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Look at these names okay.
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So oh here's someone okay I need to respond to this one okay.
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So I, I, I found this one I need to respond to.
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I'm going to write down the name of the individual,
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and I'm going to write down just a quick note
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to help me understand what I need to do.
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Again, you're not doing it.
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You're just gathering.
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So literally spend 20 minutes and yes,
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you're going to go through probably a few months of text messages.
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Okay.
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But for.
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Right, because that far back, that far back Craig.
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Because how many of you did a broker presentation
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three months ago.
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Right.
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We talked all you were excited.
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It's exciting to get that opportunity to go in and present.
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But if you just presented and you haven't followed up with someone
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or you haven't tracked some metrics on it, then
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you kind of did it for nothing.
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So yes, I would go that far back and look at that.
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All right.
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So as you're doing this and and you won't actually do it right now,
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please take some time to disconnect,
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play some music, get in the zone of gathering.
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Okay. Again, gather and focus.
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We're just going to gather at this point and write it down.
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Now let me ask a question again as you're looking at that.
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And if you've if you've scrolled through ten text messages,
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you have probably found someone that you need to respond to.
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And here's a pro tip here.
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It might not necessarily be that the person's waiting on you for something.
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You might have sent over a price list.
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You might have sent over a proposal,
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but it's the fact that
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you are waiting on them to get back to you.
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And again, it in this relationship building
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sales process,
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you need to make that person feel important.
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Okay, so how many people just need a quick bump
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and it could be hey Happy Friday, hope you had a fabulous week.
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Any time to talk next week, okay?
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Or just make it something about what's going on this time of year.
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Hey, how did your kids how was school for your kids?
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Did they enjoy their first day?
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You don't have to sell again.
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You're not going to sell in these, but
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look for text messages that you just need to bump back up.
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And this doesn't have to just be business like I.
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I talked about getting back to your mother.
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How many y'all called your mother this week?
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All right.
22:55
Do we have to answer that?
22:56
No, we don't have to.
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We just have some silence here.
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I've always been bad about phone calls.
23:02
it's just.
23:03
And it's not that you don't want to. Right, Craig?
23:05
Right, right.
23:07
I think part of it is like you're all grown up.
23:09
My mom would tell me I'd be bored and my mom would say,
23:13
call one of your friends.
23:14
It's like, mom, guys don't talk on the phone.
23:16
Girls talk on the phone.
23:17
You know, my my sisters would make phone calls.
23:20
And to this day, they call my parents much more regularly than I do.
23:24
And it's not because I don't enjoy talk with my parents.
23:27
Just get busy with life.
23:29
You just have to.
23:30
Yeah. Set priorities, study schedule.
23:33
What if you have to?
23:34
Honestly schedule?
23:35
I was on the way home this last week.
23:38
I was like, I have not called my mother lately and I called her on the way home.
23:41
I have a seven minute drive home.
23:43
Y'all okay, so most of you have a longer drive home than me,
23:47
and that's if I hit the red lights.
23:49
Okay, so it might be 5 or 6 or 7 minutes.
23:53
Yeah. To all two of them. Exactly.
23:55
And you my mom said, oh, son, it's so good to hear from you as a mom.
23:59
I was just thinking about you.
24:01
And just how was your week and said, always good.
24:03
It was nice.
24:04
You the call.
24:04
And I said, mom, you know, I, I really felt obligated to call and
24:10
and it's just my humor.
24:11
I just I did she laughed about it and oh son.
24:14
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
24:15
How are the kids.
24:16
And we just had a great conversation.
24:18
All right. So it doesn't take long.
24:21
In fact, and I'm getting on a tangent here.
24:23
I'll get off of it in a second.
24:24
But the longer it, the more time in between you touching base
24:29
with someone like your mother, the longer you have to talk.
24:33
So your brain goes, oh, wait a minute, I got to talk longer
24:36
because I haven't talked to my mom in three months. Okay?
24:38
If you call your mom every other week, those calls are much shorter.
24:42
Unless you wanted to be longer.
24:43
Like, I'll go over and see my mom and visit with her.
24:46
But there are some times I just need to call
24:48
and just make sure that she understands.
24:50
I think about her
24:51
and she's important to me.
24:53
So who in your text message list is important to you that you need to say that?
24:58
It's as simple as that.
24:59
There's a group of guys that I text pretty consistently
25:02
and it's just like, hey, hope you had a great week thinking about you.
25:05
Hey, how's the family?
25:06
And these are guys that are important to me and it doesn't take long.
25:11
Like, hey, have a good week thinking about you, man.
25:13
Let me know if you need anything.
25:14
All right.
25:14
So let me ask the question again.
25:16
As we've talked about this,
25:20
on a scale of 1 to 10,
25:23
how how good are you at doing what you say you're going to do?
25:27
I feel like mentally, my number is dropping a little bit.
25:29
Todd.
25:32
And I and it does for all of us.
25:33
Craig.
25:34
Okay, so this is just life because we just typically don't have this simple system
25:41
or anything in place to make sure that we remember these people.
25:44
It's not natural.
25:45
And in fact, it feels it almost feels,
25:50
a little bit bad for us to
25:52
put on our calendar to remember to call mom.
25:57
It's not, though, y'all.
25:59
It's not like Craig said his sister's call a lot more than what he does.
26:04
Okay, so they just naturally do it.
26:08
If you need to touch base with people, just schedule it.
26:11
It's not bad, okay?
26:13
It's just that it doesn't come instinctual to you to do that.
26:17
But it is important, right?
26:19
The very fact that you're making the effort speaks volumes
26:23
to the sincerity of what you're doing.
26:26
Exactly, exactly.
26:28
All right. Yeah.
26:29
So so next week content I would say 20 minutes, 20 minutes on texts,
26:33
going back through texts. Okay. So what's next.
26:35
Yeah.
26:36
So next we're just going to keep going through your Capture devices.
26:38
And Capture devices are where information might come in.
26:42
And we're going to go to your email again
26:46
technology please be diligent but just scroll through your inbox okay.
26:51
So how many people in there need responded to.
26:57
Craig now,
26:59
you know, some people might use a flagging system.
27:01
Some people might mark it on read.
27:04
That's what I some people might just hope that they remember it.
27:08
How many of you all out there have 4842
27:11
emails in your inbox?
27:12
They're all marked read other than
27:14
the ones that I have left unread because I know I need to get to them.
27:17
But yeah, perfect.
27:20
And that's a good system I'm going to give you guys.
27:22
I'm going to give you guys here some insight into what our system is,
27:26
what I've worked as a simple system and what our customer support
27:31
team uses, sales team uses here at Wow for business emails.
27:35
And you're going to say, Todd, this is so dumb. Simple.
27:38
But it really is.
27:39
And I'm telling you it works because it's this simple.
27:42
So inside my inbox I have my inbox folder and I have a sub folder.
27:49
All right.
27:49
The subfolder is name complete.
27:52
And what I do is my goal
27:55
is to have my inbox, my main
27:58
inbox showing zero emails.
28:03
So how I get zero emails is
28:07
when an email comes in and there's something to do,
28:13
I leave it in the inbox.
28:15
And for me, Craig, it's okay.
28:17
I just leave them red because just being in
28:20
the inbox is signifies that there's something for me to do now
28:24
when I go and do that task or respond to that person,
28:28
I move that email into completed.
28:32
Okay, so boom, it's gone.
28:34
It is not right in front of me.
28:36
I spent a lot of time in my inbox.
28:38
More time than I'd like to admit.
28:40
But when there's very little
28:43
or nothing in front of you in your inbox, that feels really good.
28:48
Like it clears up my brain.
28:51
And knowing that I've responded, and I know that everybody
28:55
I needed to respond to has been responded to.
28:59
All right.
28:59
So simple, simple, simple task of just creating a subfolder in your inbox.
29:05
Name it completed and your goal is to move
29:08
and get back to everybody who needs something.
29:12
Now here's just two quick questions I get asked a lot of times.
29:16
Number one, if you're emailing someone
29:20
and you need to remember to follow up with them, what do I do?
29:23
Okay, so for me, very simple.
29:26
Our sales team does this a little bit differently.
29:29
But for me, if I need to follow up with somebody I put it on my calendar,
29:35
I move the email and then I go put on my calendar,
29:38
follow up with so-and-so, and I paste the body of the email
29:42
into the notes section of the calendar event.
29:46
That way, I know that next Wednesday I'm going to follow up with Joe,
29:50
and I'll get to that point.
29:52
And at and I'll do that task
29:56
now. at Wow, Craig, we use a CRM right?
29:59
For our sales team. Yep.
30:02
Yeah, we're using Pipedrive.
30:04
It's it's a similar type of thing
30:07
where we have a task list and same thing.
30:10
You know, the email will show up in the in the history of that client.
30:15
But if I need to follow up, then I can assign a date
30:18
and even a time when I'm going to, you know, I'll make a title or a header
30:24
of what the task is, and then I can just go back into history and look at the notes
30:29
of what the last conversation was and know exactly what I'm calling about.
30:33
Yeah, yeah.
30:34
And as a, as a, a goal or just a simple,
30:38
process that we always use with the sales team is
30:42
there should always be a follow up on everyone,
30:46
even if it's 12 months from
30:48
now, six months from now, there's always a follow up.
30:51
Right, Craig.
30:51
Yeah, yeah.
30:53
So even like, new clients will, you know, we'll have an initial call
30:56
and then we'll have a second call once the media has been delivered.
30:59
And then we I said a third call or
31:02
email or touch point of some sort.
31:05
Just to check back.
31:06
It's I believe it's about 30 days later where we just kind of touch it.
31:11
It allows us to maintain that relationship and keep things warm.
31:15
Yep, yep.
31:17
And it works. Right, Craig. Simple. But it works.
31:19
Yeah, yeah.
31:20
So we,
31:23
the second thing I was going to say is if you're working in a team,
31:26
if your team is working on one inbox, we have this as well.
31:29
We have seven, ten people in one inbox at Wow.
31:33
And we use the same system, the inbox, a completed folder.
31:37
The only difference is, is that everybody on the team just has a, a color label.
31:43
So it's very common in just about every email program
31:47
that you can put a label on an email.
31:49
And it's a color generally, and everyone's assigned a color.
31:54
So Craig might be orange, I might be blue, Jess might be green.
31:57
And what happens is emails come in
32:00
and if there's no label on it, somebody needs to work on it.
32:04
If I'm going to work on it, the first thing I do
32:07
is I put my blue label on it.
32:09
I don't read through it. I don't begin to work on it.
32:11
I claim that sucker put my blue label on it.
32:14
That syncs
32:16
through everybody's
32:17
inbox, and that does that just through the magic of technology.
32:21
And then Craig would see a blue label on that so
32:23
he knows there's nothing for him to do.
32:27
And I would then work on that.
32:29
If I'm if I'm not the one to do it, I'm going to remove my label.
32:33
Craig might see that and then he might pick it up.
32:36
But the cool thing about this is this is how we keep a
32:38
lot of people in one inbox, and we know who's working on what.
32:42
Once I'm done with that email, I move the email
32:45
and I leave my blue label on it, and I move it to completed.
32:50
And the reason why I leave my blue label on it is because if anybody's ever
32:53
searching the inbox and this email pops up,
32:57
they know who took care of this.
33:00
So Craig could come back to me very easily and say, hey,
33:03
back in April, you responded to so-and-so.
33:06
Did they do this thing?
33:08
All right, so it keeps that line of knowledge going, right?
33:12
And it's a great workflow because then it it really kind of
33:16
how do I put this?
33:17
It kind of gives ownership or accountability to each person.
33:21
Each possible leak in the bucket.
33:24
Yeah.
33:25
Yeah. So
33:27
now if you don't have a system right now that's okay.
33:31
And let's get back to the idea of gather gathering.
33:35
You're just going to gather through your email.
33:37
So scroll through your email again go months back.
33:40
You know can you make it back to it's August now.
33:44
Can you make it back six months.
33:47
Just set yourself 20 or 30 minutes here.
33:49
Play your music or radio station you like and just go back.
33:54
There's going to be some people in there that you need to respond to.
33:56
I can guarantee, oh, I didn't get back to Bob.
34:00
Okay, put that down.
34:01
And again you're just gathering this information.
34:03
Just write it down on your notebook
34:06
and, you know, the name, maybe the date and something that prompts you
34:10
so you can quickly
34:11
and easily search for the email again, and then you can respond to Bob.
34:15
Right. All right. So you're going to you're going to go through that.
34:17
You don't have to ask the question, what about Bob?
34:21
You got that?
34:23
Craig, I don't know how many our listeners are going to get that.
34:26
But you guys sailed on my first try. Yes.
34:31
Folks, if you didn't catch the reference, look up.
34:34
What about Bob? Bill Murray?
34:37
You can thank me. Incredible movie.
34:39
You can thank me later.
34:42
I got you up one.
34:44
But what up, Bob?
34:46
I'm glad you did.
34:46
That. Played almost constantly.
34:48
There was a rotation of videos
34:52
that my brothers and I played, and that was one of them.
34:56
I'm going to I got to watch that movie tonight.
34:58
Now, that was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.
35:01
Okay, Bill Murray, genius. Anyway.
35:04
Good one. Okay.
35:06
All right.
35:07
We're we're we'll.
35:09
Yeah. So we'll just continue here.
35:10
And you guys are understanding this cadence.
35:12
But the thing I want to again,
35:13
caution you about is don't not do this because you think this is so simple.
35:17
I can guarantee you and you all are coming to me now
35:21
saying, hey, August has really been bad.
35:26
Like, you guys are sending out the S.O.S.
35:28
flags, like, seriously and I and this is
35:31
for those of you that I coach in orbit that have really big businesses.
35:35
And this is you all that have are just starting.
35:39
All right. So this is across the board.
35:42
And so please don't take it.
35:44
Don't not do it because it's so simple.
35:49
Okay.
35:49
The next thing I want you to go through the next capture device is your calendar.
35:53
So go back into your calendar and scroll back.
35:57
You know, look at day by day.
35:58
What events have you had on there?
36:01
Ideally, if you can hide your shoots,
36:05
probably hide those because there's probably not something actionable.
36:09
Or maybe there is.
36:10
Maybe if you see an agent name, it might trigger you to say, hey,
36:13
I shot the first property for that agent, and I was excited
36:17
about getting that agent, and I haven't heard from her.
36:20
All right, you probably need to call the agent.
36:22
Just check in. How'd your summer go, kids?
36:24
Back to school?
36:25
It's that simple. Again, don't call now.
36:27
Just write the agent's name down.
36:29
Okay, so look through all your calendar events.
36:31
And this is a big one, Craig.
36:33
Because if a person was on your calendar, you probably went to them.
36:38
You had a zoom meeting with them.
36:40
Like this took a lot of time.
36:42
So are these people important to follow up with?
36:44
Yes. So we want to make sure we follow up with them.
36:48
All right.
36:48
Ten minutes on your calendar
36:51
okay.
36:51
Here's a couple more.
36:53
And this kind of encapsulates just about all of my capture devices.
36:58
But I go through next.
37:00
Go through, bring out your phone again and go through your photos.
37:05
Okay.
37:07
Oh, yes. You've talked about this.
37:10
Yeah.
37:10
So I use typically with a capture device.
37:13
I use my phone as a capture device, the camera.
37:15
And there's a lot of times I'll take a picture of something.
37:18
It might be a picture of the screen, it might be something that I've written down.
37:23
But I take a picture of it because there's something actionable for me to do here.
37:29
You might also find the picture of the brokerage meeting you were at the room,
37:33
and that might trigger you to say, oh, I went to that.
37:36
I need to follow up. Okay.
37:37
So scroll back through your images
37:41
and do you have anything?
37:44
Just do you have a little nugget, a little flake of gold in there sitting there.
37:49
You got to get it up okay.
37:51
You got to get that into the jar.
37:54
So write that name down.
37:56
Write that idea down.
37:58
And I give a practical example of that.
38:01
Yeah please. So I didn't physically write it down.
38:03
I'm going to have to start doing that.
38:05
But I was going through my social media.
38:07
I follow a lot of our clients that I serve in our market on Facebook.
38:12
And of course, when I'm scrolling through, I see a lot of their activity.
38:17
And an example, a client that I've worked with
38:20
for a number of years now, and she's always been very, very happy.
38:24
I saw a post from her come up, a new listing
38:28
had professional
38:28
photos tagged, but it wasn't ones that I shot.
38:31
It wasn't ones that wow shot.
38:33
So immediately I'm like, what happened?
38:38
I screenshot that post that had the address and everything, and
38:43
I just, I shot it.
38:44
I attach it to an email and shout it to my work email.
38:47
This morning I pulled up my email.
38:50
I'm like, I'm going to take care of this before we dive into our meetings,
38:52
because I want
38:53
I haven't talked to her in a long time because I've been busy with that.
38:57
With the busy season and got her voicemail, left her voicemail.
39:02
He just wanted to follow up.
39:03
I know we haven't talked in a while.
39:05
Congrats on the new listing.
39:06
So even though I didn't shoot it, I congratulated her on the new listing
39:10
because that's important to her.
39:12
And, and I did mention I just got the awkwardness out of the way.
39:15
I said, hey, I saw we didn't do the photos for that.
39:18
You know, we'd love to chat.
39:20
Just get your feedback on things, she responded.
39:23
I think within about 30s and said, hey, I'm just going into a showing.
39:28
But can I, can I call you back?
39:29
I'm like, hey, no pressure. No, you know, no rush.
39:32
Take care of your showing.
39:34
Just wanted to check in.
39:35
I gave her a synopsis of the voicemail.
39:38
And she said yes, let's catch up.
39:39
So no awkwardness,
39:42
but we're going to have a good conversation.
39:43
I'm going to find out, you know, the why.
39:46
So just very simple screenshot emailed it, followed up.
39:51
Yeah, it's that simple Craig.
39:53
That's such a fabulous technique.
39:54
And get in the habit of doing it in the moment.
39:57
Yeah okay.
39:59
Now I will just give you one little tip and just some verbiage that I use.
40:02
If I'm if I'm standing in front of someone that I'm doing something for,
40:07
okay, I'll pull out my phone and please be cognizant.
40:10
I try to never have my phone when I'm with someone because I feel though it's
40:15
I feel it's rude because they should have my attention.
40:18
If I pull out my phone, I verbally communicate to them like, hey,
40:22
I'm going to get this done for you.
40:24
I'm just emailing myself a reminder.
40:26
I'm emailing the staff right now.
40:28
Verbalize that to them and then say good at sent.
40:32
I'll get this in the morning, okay?
40:35
And then put your phone back away. Yep.
40:37
Exactly.
40:38
So super simple things are just verbalize it.
40:41
And if you tell them that you're going to get back to them in the morning,
40:45
please get back to them in the morning.
40:47
Yeah.
40:47
So that's why it's so important to put it into your inbox
40:51
because just like Craig said, he got there,
40:53
he saw he already took the screenshot of the listing.
40:57
If he would have left it in his camera, Craig,
40:59
it probably would have disappeared forever, right?
41:03
At least for a while.
41:05
Yeah, but that's where if you make this a regular cadence,
41:09
like you've talked about, you go through those photos every week,
41:13
at least you're staying on top of it
41:16
all week at a time, at the very least.
41:19
Yeah, yeah. Great.
41:21
So that is gather and focus you all.
41:23
And again this was this is not a me thing.
41:25
This is, taught to me by a coach.
41:27
His name is Austin Cheviron.
41:29
And he does this and I find value in this.
41:33
So I want to pass it along to you guys.
41:35
I think you guys are working so hard out there.
41:38
And I know some of you are saying, like, I just I need new business, and I just
41:43
you've probably worked really hard to have opportunities
41:48
to get business and now those people are warm leads to you.
41:53
Or they might be current clients like Craig discovered today.
41:56
We had already done a property for this individual wall, so
42:02
it's awkward, like Craig said, to have those conversations.
42:05
But you got to do it.
42:06
You got to go find them.
42:07
You got to have tough conversations.
42:10
But the idea of first is just gathering this and focus
42:14
on what you've worked hard for, to just push it across the finish line.
42:17
I wonder if it's hard for us, Todd somewhat
42:20
to at least for me, when you take that hour or two
42:24
where you're gathering and focusing, it can feel unproductive, right?
42:29
Because you're not responding to messages, you're not taking action.
42:32
It's like all internal, focused and maybe at least for for some people.
42:37
And I think this is one of my struggles is when I'm
42:41
taking that time to organize, I don't feel productive.
42:44
However, once I have all of that information focused and written down,
42:49
it's it's a task because it's a checklist and suddenly
42:53
I can focus then on the
42:56
actionable part of that list and I can start bringing stuff out.
43:00
And it feels great when you can take, you know, check off those things.
43:05
And you've had a very concentrated, actionable, time
43:11
that at the end of that, when you've checked off all those things
43:14
and you've made those phone calls and done those follow ups, it feels really good.
43:19
And it it's given you focus to be more efficient in a shorter
43:23
amount of time and get a lot done and have some great results.
43:28
Yeah, yeah.
43:28
And that's all that that kind of that high of getting things done right Craig.
43:32
Like that hit a dopamine.
43:34
You know it's tough to start on the first one.
43:36
But once you do it you you realize that it's really kind of satisfying.
43:42
And it gets a bit addicting to go through your list.
43:44
And then when you get your list done, like, there's nothing better than that,
43:49
like you're done, go enjoy your family, go do whatever you want to do.
43:54
And and you can do that feeling good that you've secured
43:59
some loose ends or some leaks and your bucket of your business.
44:03
And even if you don't get through the whole list, having it written down
44:06
and knowing
44:07
I don't have to try and remember that when I'm having dinner with my family,
44:12
your mind can relax a little bit because, you know, I already have it written down.
44:15
I know I'm not going to forget because I'm going to go back to my list
44:18
and all the detail will be there.
44:20
Yeah, it's amazing what your brain can do.
44:23
And it's amazing what your brain can do
44:26
even when it's not
44:30
being a checklist.
44:31
Our brains weren't made to be a checklist okay.
44:34
It hurts your brain.
44:35
It's like how we get clogged up.
44:37
I gave myself a thumbs up again with technology here.
44:40
I see, so don't make your brain a checklist.
44:43
Just get it down and, you will feel better about that.
44:48
Good deal. Fantastic advice. Todd.
44:50
Thank you for sure. Craig.
44:51
I did miss one because she's gone for this.
44:54
Yeah, I, I,
44:55
just one more capture device for you to look at if you write down in a notebook.
45:00
Okay, so that notebook that you're writing, go to your notebook.
45:03
Like I keep a daily notebook and I keep it digitally.
45:06
Just go through that.
45:07
I keep notes of my meetings and just go backwards.
45:10
And is there anything in there that you need to take that you need to clean up?
45:14
Okay.
45:15
So write it down on your checklist
45:16
and then you've brought it back up to the top of your page.
45:20
Good, good advice.
45:22
And just a tip I use there.
45:23
And I stole it from someone else.
45:24
But when I write in my notebook and when there's something for me to do,
45:29
I draw a box.
45:31
And then I write what I need to do.
45:35
And in the box. This is so stupid. Simple.
45:38
But the box is just so I can go back and I can put a check mark in it.
45:43
Like if I look at a page, it has a box on it.
45:46
I immediately know there's something for me to do
45:49
and then I can later when it's done, check it off and that feels good as well.
45:53
An easy visual clue to make it less stressful
45:56
to find that information that, yeah, you know, you have to follow up on.
46:00
That makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Could you.
46:03
All right.
46:05
Any any parting thoughts, any any summary for us
46:09
challenges just to do it.
46:11
I think you'll be surprised.
46:12
Then comment below.
46:14
How many things did you find?
46:16
How many loose ends or leaks in your bucket did you find?
46:19
I remember a month ago you were really excited about that lead,
46:23
but if they don't feel excited
46:24
about the excitement from you and you haven't followed up with them, do it.
46:28
It's there.
46:29
You guys have your business and your pipeline.
46:32
Just please follow up.
46:33
Do what you say you're going to do.
46:35
Chad, you mentioned just as I
46:36
as I think through this, you mentioned the panic that some people
46:39
are starting to have with August and things slowing down a little bit.
46:43
I think for at least those
46:46
that have done this for a little while and I include myself in this,
46:50
I'm actually getting to the point where I look forward
46:52
to a little bit of a slower season in terms of the activity of shoots,
46:56
so that I can follow up on all of
46:59
the opportunities and getting
47:00
back in touch with clients, not taking them for granted.
47:04
Because I start to get a little, antsy or anxious
47:08
about not keeping in contact with people because I'm so busy with the shoots.
47:12
So take this season of of things starting to slow down a little bit
47:17
to do exactly what Todd just shared here, where you can take an hour or two
47:21
and go through your, your capture devices and spend
47:24
those, you know, 20 minutes going through your, your texts and,
47:27
and just all the things it will make you feel so much better.
47:31
I felt good making that
47:33
that phone call this morning to a client that I haven't talked to in a while,
47:36
at least for me.
47:37
Todd I think it's partially a guilt thing,
47:38
like I feel guilty that I even talk to her.
47:41
So now that guilt is relieved, it's like, okay, yeah,
47:44
you know, we're going to catch up again.
47:45
We're going to get things rolling again.
47:49
Exactly.
47:50
Yeah. It's crazy how that just flipped a switch.
47:52
Like you felt the little bit of pit when you saw the, the images,
47:57
the new listing in the images. They weren't ours.
47:59
And think now it's like, oh, this is great.
48:00
Like she responded right back to me, like,
48:02
there's something here we're going to uncover. Right.
48:04
And nice job with that. And we're okay.
48:06
You know, I yes, I might not have gotten to do that. Shoot.
48:09
It might have been something as simple as I didn't have availability
48:11
when she needed it and she just had to get it done.
48:14
I understand that, you know, but the relationship is still there,
48:18
and she's totally okay with with talking about whatever it is.
48:22
Yeah, I love it.
48:23
Love it guys, thank you for tuning in.
48:26
Hopefully this has been profitable for you.
48:28
And and you can start to kind of take some time and get things organized
48:32
mentally. Take a breath.
48:34
It's a great
48:35
system to plug the leaks in your bucket,
48:39
and you're going to see that water level rise in.
48:44
It'll be nothing but good for you.
48:45
So, Todd, thank you.
48:47
My pleasure.
48:49
All right.
48:49
Well, that's going to wrap things up next week.
48:51
We will be talking with Nick, the owner of Titus.
48:55
An exciting new integration coming to Spiro.
48:57
So make sure you don't miss that.
48:59
And, just a lot more on the way for the rest of 2025 as well.
49:03
We are so thankful for the, the time that you take to listen to watch,
49:08
feel free to share if you found value in this, leave us a like that just helps,
49:12
helps us
49:12
get things out to more people to help them have successful businesses as well.
49:16
We appreciate you.
49:18
You have a great rest of the week and we will catch you next week.
49:21
Take a breath. Take care.