Latest / PropMedia Podcast / The "Uber of Photography": Scaling High-Quality Video Production w/ Blended Sense

Transcript

The "Uber of Photography": Scaling High-Quality Video Production w/ Blended Sense · PropMedia Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, I'm Maddie.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: This is Moses.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: We are the co-founders of pixelmob.com and propmedia.com.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: And this is the Prop Media Podcast, where we talk about everything around property media.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Today we get to talk with Albert and Ransom with Blended Sense, which, if you haven't come across them before, they operate in a couple different verticals, not just real estate, but they provide kind of like Uber of photography sorts of services where they work with talented professionals in different areas and deploy them for specific shoots.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: They have got some fascinating ideas about ways to add value and do upsells and things like that within the real estate vertical.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think it would be really useful.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: So come here, the wisdom they got to drop.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Good to meet you guys.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um tell me a little.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: So Blended Students is a little different than a typical agency or a typical real estate photography company that we've talked to.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: You guys do a lot more with, I think you call it a sweep, which is like a direct matching booking.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us a little bit about what that is.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Orient people to what you guys do that's unique.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, for sure.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like we should have had Abby on this thing.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um Abby's my co-founder, she's the commercial film TV actor.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: And the word sweep Moses uh was made up, and she was the one that did it.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um there you go.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: But part of it is uh, you know, as a commercial film and TV actor getting booked on big gigs with Google Verizon, Samsung, feature film on Amazon.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the more she got booked, the quicker she kind of thought to herself and realized how antiquated the world of production was.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: Very low tech, terrible communication.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: Also, you know, very there's four of us on this call, but very male-dominant, very aggressive words such as shoot, cut, grab, you know, capture.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, capture.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so that was part of creating the word sweep and our processes, is in a world where overnight every business under the sun had to become a media company, right?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: And they're struggling with the concept of not only, okay, even if they accept the fact, hey, I have to produce videos at scale, then they actually have to create the videos, they have to show up, they have to be on camera, etc.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so that was very uncomfortable and very new to most business owners.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: And so it was very important for Blend Essence and Abby's vision was to create a safe environment, was to create something that met the business owner, you know, where they were.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: And so part of that word sweep came from that.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then uh to your point around the matching, um, again, overnight they had to become media companies, and how much do they know?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: Do they have the knowledge, the resources, the time to produce the amount of videos they they need?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: And so we wanted to create a platform where everything, for the most part, when it came to video production, was executed for them and managed by the platform.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh before Bill In a Sense, if you needed a videographer, you needed a source on open marketplaces, right?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like an Upwork or a Fiverr or a Backstage or Facebook Marketplace, you or get a referral.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: And even then, did you really know what to look for?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: What is quality?
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: What equipment is it that you need?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_03: You know, how do you keep brand consistency, uh, etc.?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: And so what we built, um, you know, we feel like it's uh the first of its kind video operating system where on one side of the coin you've got a any business owner, brand, or event can book a vetted invite-only videographer that's a professional running their own business locally, all across the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Peru, and now, and now as earlier this year, uh Spain.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and they can do that seamlessly in a very you know familiar experience, like if they were going to buy something on Amazon or book an Airbnb.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then on top of that, uh, how do we now make the most out of the time they spent filming?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so when all the footage comes in from wherever we're booked to film, that footage comes in through our AI processor and gets organized, labeled, and tagged for them down to what's happening in the clips and who's in the clips.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_03: And so now you can really max as a business who's operationally embedding video, can actually maximize the value of that time spent filming the content, not just get one edited video, right, or two edited videos.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then on the other side of the coin, the the the world of production came so fast in the business, right?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: We know movie, I mean, move we're we're storytellers from the beginning of humanity.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but not until recent did this profession of production become in such high demand for all businesses of all types, right?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: Historically, it was like, oh, I need a commercial, I need a brand story video, and I'm good there, right?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's a consistent need.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so we felt strongly like the demand was outpacing the supply, and uh more videographers are getting into the into the the the workforce, right?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: The equipment is much more accessible now, so you've got folks able to buy a camera and get into it, and there was a big gap between what the business owner needed and what the supply side and the workforce was bringing to the table because we learned quickly, and I'm sure you guys know uh in your experience, most creatives are not the best at project management, at customer service, business management, uh accounting, right?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_03: And so we felt like there was an opportunity to partner, lock arms with these folks that were trying to make a living, doing what they love, building their own businesses, and we can be supplemental revenue and earnings on top of that without adding any extra bandwidth outside of them doing what they love, right?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_03: Showing up, filming, dump the footage with us, and you're done.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so, ransom, tell us a little bit about what that vetting process is.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how do you go and recruit all these top-tier video talent across all of the different uh well, I mean, now in Spain, you're in Europe, you're in South America.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: How does that happen?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, it happens a lot of ways.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um now, how does it happen on where you see we're recording this on April 10th, uh, 2026?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: The how it happens today is a lot of our existing network uh will will send us people uh because they love they love being a part of the community so much.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: So not only the so that's which is awesome.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's kind of uh when you're building a two-sided marketplace, that's how it's that's how it's it's it's designed, right?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Is for both sides to kind of feed each other and for it to sort of grow organically.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've got you know, Maddie, the videographer in, you know, um Asheville, North Carolina, right?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um loves being part of the you know, the Blended Sense ecosystem, has a great experience, gets sent, uh, sweeps, right, makes money, but is also, you know, has you know, builds a relationship and maybe meets other videographers that he can work with on personal projects, gets to know editors, gets tips on how to how to use his equipment, how to film, like gets better because he's part of the network.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then he knows Moses, who's in you know Knoxville, Tennessee, that he's worked with on some projects, and he says, Hey Moses, you know, you should get in with these guys, you know, if you have if you have gaps in your schedule.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we get referrals like that.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, outside of that, if we need to go and source, so if we are expanding into a new territory, whether it's abroad, like a Spain, or if we go to, I don't know, let's say we want to go to Argentina next month, something like that.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, fortunately, we've spent you know the better part of a decade understanding what the characteristics and traits are of a very reliable, professional, talented videographer.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's that's a lot of things.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's the equipment they have, that's the experience they have, that's taking a look at their footage, whether that's on their website or their social channels or just how they shoot composition, right?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need them to be an editor, but we need the we need to know that they know how to you know get the right shots and then and then talking to them, um, getting getting a feel for who they are as as people, because that's one of the things that, you know, as as Albert mentioned, it's a very legacy antiquated industry.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: The world of production for the vast majority of its existence wasn't a you know a business product or service.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was a you know, get producers, raise money, go make a film, and you had you know Hollywood coming together or or or wherever to make a make a movie or a short film.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh for businesses, right?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're that's that's not at all what the you know what the situation is.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: So not only do they have to have the right equipment, they gotta be able to produce great footage, but they gotta be able to deliver a fun experience and comfortable experience in person, right?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta be a good people person, which a lot of creatives aren't, right?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Businesses need help.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: They need help on, hey, did I say that right?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: How do I look right?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Should I do another take of that?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: They need like they need a little bit of you know creative direction on site.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: It should be fun if they're spending the time and the money, right?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: The content will be better when it's fun and they'll keep doing it the more fun it is.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so those are elements that we also found out were really important, right?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can be a great videographer, but if you kind of aren't that fun to be around, it they're probably not gonna come back and book you next month, right?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's a lot a lot of that's kind of led to our developing our sort of secret sauce or what it looks like.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: But fortunately, we're at the scale now with I think about 1,200 videographers and and and photographers across the world that anytime we do have to go into a new territory, especially if it's you know in North America, we can usually reach out to our existing network and say, hey, do you know anyone here?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: And now we're getting a referral from someone who we already know and trust, and that makes it a lot easier.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: That's crazy.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, makes total sense.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm curious, is it more of an agency approach or is it more of like a marketplace?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_03: Full-on marketplace.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was just gonna say, you know, to your question earlier, Moses, around different differentiations from an agency.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_03: An agency is trying to swallow that talent up, you leverage that talent to its extent, to its full, you know, literally take them all, take take them on almost like full time, but not actually having them full time.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: For us, we're actually trying to help be a supplemental revenue to what they're already doing, right?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, we want you to be running your own business, we want you to have your own c uh customers and clients, and then in those gaps in your schedule, we're gonna come on top of that and drive more uh you know, lower load business for you at really fair, even I would say, I mean, many of our creatives across New York City, you know, the big markets, not only will they say they're it's fair earnings, but it's actually, you know, above market earnings.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so yeah, the last thing we ever want to be associated with, especially from the supply side, is an agency.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: Because if you talk to those creatives that have spent five, six, seven years working with agencies, they typically don't have a really great uh uh things to say, right?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: An experience.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_03: They felt like they were taken advantage of, over leveraged, et cetera.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and there's several companies who won't name names, but get dropped in the real estate media space in particular that they feel like that's just uh kind of a mill, or you know, they don't they don't actually want that shoot.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's half of what they would have gotten paid or less.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: That kind of a thing.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like you guys take a pretty pretty different take.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, we do try to match to your point, Moses.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: We do, we we definitely do.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um we that a lot of that comes from Abigail's experience in the world of like big budget production, Hollywood type, you know, type stuff, and just seeing that how creative is across the board were we're we're treated.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so we wanted they definitely wanted our ecosystem to not only give you know get sent sweeps and gigs, paid gigs, that's awesome, right?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Lead with that, keep the money local, put money in their pocket, right?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: As they're making a living doing what they love.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's obviously the big, you know, kind of the big rock.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but wanted them to more than that feel like they were part of a community, feel like they were respected as pros, right?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're still we have to tell businesses a lot of times too.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we have to like we do a lot of educational content and training on like getting people to understand, like, dude, a videographer, like now and a professional videographer, that is a craft.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you gotta get like there's a lot you gotta know and a lot of reps, and you know, photo too, right?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: So someone that's good at it, that's no different than any other, no different than a you know, someone that's a professional therapist or doctor or mechanic or it name name your profession, right?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so it wasn't that long ago that they didn't, you know, you being a freelance videographer was just not really like a a normal profession you could even be, but the demand in 2026 means that that that it's it's out there.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so we wanted it to be something where they weren't just getting, you know, having a something thrown on their calendar that they gotta go film and they're making like barely enough to make it worth it, and they're just doing it because they gotta pay bills.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's not that's that's not fun.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted it to be something where they're getting matched locally, they're getting all the information, it's something they're like excited to accept.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, cool, it's a blended sense sweep.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: I love those, right?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's always easy.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: I never have to, I'm never going in blind, I'm always meeting cool people, I'm filming good stuff.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to send the footage in, the technology works on the back end.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we do match them locally.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, Albert, the videographer, if you're if you're a you're a PI attorney, Moses, in Orlando, Florida, and you book and we match you to Albert and you have a great experience.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Next time you order filming, that invite's gonna go to Albert first.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so that we do try to, you know, depending his availability, try to keep those relationships, foster those relationships locally, because we know that's important rather than it just being an interchangeable send you anybody type deal.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's an interesting take.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Do you you guys started in real estate?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you've expanded a lot beyond that.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, hold on.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't did you start in real estate?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oddly enough, we started with uh CPG e-commerce.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: The our our our product stuff?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we you know we had a couple of our early clients get on Shark Tank.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: One of them got a deal on Shark Tank.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: We had one of our early clients got bought out by Whole Foods, right?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're product companies, a food food package company.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: So our thought process there was, hey, these CPG e-commerce, like that's the entire thing is run with digital content, right?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's landing pages, it's ads, it's it's you know product spotlights, it's new product rollouts, right?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: The that's the entire business is digital.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's lean in there.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we you know learned a lot about that vertical, and then eventually, not probably a couple years in, we we pivoted to the pro services sector.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for a lot of reasons you guys can you probably already know, but just you know, higher ticket, margin, a little, a little less human capital, um, more you know, asset types that they just needed on a consistent basis.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: So just a lot of reasons where it made a lot of sense from a business perspective.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then from from there, real estate of the pro-service verticals, the real estate, mortgage, finance, legal, medical, it just kind of took off.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we kind of we definitely we definitely probably came onto the national scene as like within real estate.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where a lot of people probably you know nationally or internationally heard about us first.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, CPG e-commerce was where it started, oddly enough.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Fascinating.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: The majority of our listeners are professional real estate photographers and media companies.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: So they run a media agency, or maybe they're a solo shooter, they do photo and video drones, matter ports, like the virtual tours, yeah, floor plans, the whole shebang.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of them, you know, it's listing to listing, but they're looking at like uh opportunities uh to help uh the brokerages or the agent market themselves.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh particularly if they're doing listing videos, they're expanding into let's produce videos and you'll be on camera and we'll actually walk and talk and all this kind of stuff.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: And this is really kind of your bread and butter.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: You do everything, it sounds like, but all all kinds of stuff, events and uh you know, local, you know, town stuff, amenities, everything.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: So give us kind of a breakdown of really kind of the wide range of stuff that you're seeing within the real estate category, because I think it might give people a lot a lot of ideas and some inspiration.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: I love that question.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I think for development of a talent that services that segment, um, understanding that doing the bare minimum is gonna get you lapped, especially in real estate where they're so dependent on video and they're they're um it's a very copycat industry as well.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you know the top realtors will see what the other top realtors are doing, then they'll start doing the same thing.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, creatives that get into the space and just think listings and listings, and I'm just gonna do this video walkthrough, I'm gonna take these photos.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I think that that'll take you so far, right?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_03: And some folks have built their whole careers and business off of just that service element.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but in such a dynamic vertical like real estate, part of why it took off for us is because we started to meet them again, meet the business owner where they were.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, here's one of the I think from a really high level in the industry is cloud-based brokerages, right?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: You guys are familiar with those rev share-based brokerages.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: That came into the scene and changed what matters to the agents underneath those cloud-based brokerages, right?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_03: And what I mean by that is now there's an incentive to recruit and bring in folks into your downline, right, is what they call it, um, and into your ecosystem.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so now you need personal branding.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: Right, okay, okay, okay.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: Now you're going on stages and speaking about the businesses that you built, right?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so, yeah, it's a realtor running a real estate business, but the actions and the type of content that they need are much different than the typical real estate videos, right?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so um those are the things I think that that allowed us to uh kind of grab market share because we were understanding that with our backgrounds.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: Ransom was part of a brokerage, by the way, before right before coming over to Blender Sense as our uh full-time operator.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I was part of OpCity, which was sold to Realtor.com.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_03: I was a fifth employee there.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: And so we had frontline understanding of the vertical in the industry.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that knowledge base allowed us to speak to folks with what they needed now, but also what they were about to need, uh, and be a trusted resource.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's kind of landing the plane here for anyone in the real estate industry producing photos and videos is uh you you you can dominate one or two things, that's great.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: But if you want to expand, you got to be a trusted resource.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: And what that means is your knowledge base of the industry needs to grow.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: You need to understand what's happening, right?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_03: You need to like maybe even see ahead of it so that you can make suggestions and be invaluable to that client, um, not just that deliverable of a listing video.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: So, what are those kind of like the hot trending video types that are like really taking off?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: So in the listing space, it's more cinematic stuff.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: So that could be a walkthrough interview, that could be a sit-down interview with the architect, uh, that could be a short film-esque type of thing, right?
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: Where it's more creative and there's this narrative and a storyline.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's the evolution of that space.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, then you've got um on the cloud-based brokerage side, not only do you have them speaking, but you want testimonials, right?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_03: You want spotlights of your top producers within your ecosystem.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's more of a brand story that's telling, you know, another agent's story, um, and then how it ties into the value you're bringing to them.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, podcasts.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's that's an obvious one, right?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: Especially even even if you're just doing it to get more leads and operationally uh uh locally, right?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: As a local expert, podcasts are huge.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: They could be they could be for better production in in your real estate business or to recruiting and retention, right?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: And so you're bringing on different types of guests, you're speaking uh those those things that you know other folks are trying to get better at, right?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: That they're trying to get more knowledge base.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, let's see.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: What ransom, you have any uh other ones?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, quite a bit.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Something we always kind of will encourage folks to do, and this is not just at uh property spotlights or neighborhood spotlights or whatever, but we always will take a what's the maximum amount of um content juice we can extract from the fact that the business owner uh is there with a professional videographer.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so let's say we're at a you know a listing, whether it's a you know run-in-the-middling or a luxury listing.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, with these some of these luxury listings, you have more storytelling capabilities, you have more shot lists, more things you can highlight, you can kind of go kind of go bigger depending on you know what sort of environment you're in and what what we're filming.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um but if a camera's rolling, telling the business owner to you know load up on the amount of things they can say into the camera.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because with us, not everyone does this, but with us, we productize all the raw footage.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: So all the raw footage, right?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so you know if it's Maddie, Maddie the Maddie the the realtor who's in, I just keep giving you guys different cities.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pick a cool one.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, let's say you're in Denver, right?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you got, I don't know, some cabin, some cabin up in the woods.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that cabin up in the woods, even if it's like not a not a super expensive cabin, there's probably a dozen things right off the bat that are interesting about it that you could just just literally sit there, be mic'd up, talk to the camera and say, so hey guys, something pretty cool about this.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I really love whatever's behind me, this tree, this flower that grows here, the soil here is just literally anything.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, say that in the camera, that's an asset by itself.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's a social post, right?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously you can go get the shots in the in the to do the property spotlight, and you can there's various ways to do that and editing styles.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't really try to concern ourselves too much with like some of the like you know latest trends on like listing spotlights because they change so much.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And once once a trend, once a trend happens, everyone does it, and then every listing video looks the same, and it's just kind of boring to us.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: So um, we would rather take each each situation as okay, cool.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: What does what is what's needed for this what's cool about this property?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: What story can we tell?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh a corollary to that is what helps this business owner?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: What's this business owner trying to do?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Are they all about just listings?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh or are they also recruiting right now?
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Are they a are they a boutique brokerage that's also trying to attract other agents in the area?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let's record some stuff about that right now.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Even though we're at this cabin in in the woods, let's talk about, you know, let's come with a couple topics so you can record straight to camera.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not only walking out of here with footage for this cabin, but you're also walking out of here with some assets that help what you're trying to accomplish as a business.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we always try to like kind of think of it that way.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we kind of build technology in the platform in order to understand what those pillars are so that every time they're filming, we can sort of you know get as much content.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: gonna be helpful to them for whatever their their business needs.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: Got one more for you, Maddie.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: Just lifestyle.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: I think this one's pretty kind of straightforward.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: But more and more agents are doing it where it's videos nothing to do with real estate.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: They're an agent, right?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: And they're they're a producer, but they're big pickleball.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: They're big into pickleball.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_03: Right now all their content is around pickleball.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: They're big into cars, they're a big golfer, whatever it is.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I think that's brilliant.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's a very soft sale.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's organic.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: I think you connect with you know you you connect at an interest level at a personal level and then everyone you know most people want to either buy a house or have bought a house or they're you know upsell, downsell like all of that stuff.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: And so that comes I think uh I think I I'm a big fan of of agents that approach it uh where it's like hey I'll sprinkle some real estate stuff here but mostly I'm gonna highlight my lifestyle right because a lot of times that's how my clients kind of get attracted to me anyways.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's why they want to work with me anyways.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Seems like the pressure of how you've built your business for like these one not necessarily one off shoots because you're saying like you can trace the through line but you've become masters of upselling to the the client that you capture wherever they are like what other things do they need?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's always a brilliant question to ask in any business.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: But it seems like it's exceptionally relevant to y'all where you might have a lead for somebody in an area of Denver where you've got to source the talent you've got to do all these other different pieces you also got to maximize that opportunity right so it seems like you guys have put a ton of thought into into that and it seems like it's yielding some pretty cool pretty cool results and creativity around what other things do people need.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well the best part of it Moses it's a real win-win win scenario.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah part of helping them shift their mindset to that is that video is now essential part of business in every vertical under the sun not just in real estate right it's just it's a it's a thing that you have to operationally embed and that means that you need to be consistently thinking of new ways and new assets to produce and put out there.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so um yeah it's it's uh it's a win it it is an upsell do we win out of it absolutely yeah but the videographer gets more business it more business from it because they get booked more and the business ends up with more you know ROI from the time and money spent on that footage on on the on filming right and producing it.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah not not casting shade at all upsells are great uh if they're connecting you with something that you need that you weren't thinking of they're only annoying when it's something that you don't actually want.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: 100% yeah luckily for us we've we've kind of we come from the sales world our previous Albert mentioned it a a a little bit but we we were a part of uh we kind of rode the the the pinnacle of the wave of digital products so like websites SC websites SEO SEM email marketing back when that was like you know big outbound sales forces calling in all these business owners and selling these you know you know taking them to a demo and slideshow and kind of that that era is where we come from.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we built big sales teams but with this luckily we've we've never had to do hardly any of that because of just the the the modern consumer has just decided they want to engage for whatever vertical it is with video content.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so people like most people at least you know they get that yeah whether they've taken action on that and decided to go full on with like budgets and marketing dollars toward video you know not everyone's done that a lot of people have but even if they haven't they understand like we don't have to convince people that video is important across the board.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: If we had to we probably would say hey like we wouldn't even probably if someone was like I don't believe in video we probably wouldn't put forth much effort to try to convince them we'd just be like all right cool we'll we'll talk to you at some point down the line.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah all right it's that time in the episode and uh this experiment has not worked in that we have not actually coerced Maddie into producing a great pixel mob commercial yet and so we're gonna up the ante and today he has to do the commercial all right so Maddie you guys should buy Prop Media you know you know buy something that's free propmedia.com all right go check out Prop Media you're right though like that's something that is it's in the water everybody knows that you're gonna get way more views on social or way way better exposure to your ad whatever it is with video instead of stills but I think what stops a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners is they don't like they know they kind of need to do it but their business also kind of runs and they make money.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: They also don't want to look bad like yeah and then some people are really self-conscious but like what what you guys seem to be doing which I think is really brilliant is you're you're making it super actionable to take good steps for business owners if you will whereas like if I'm a business owner and I don't know I own a flower shop down the street or something and I'm like I know I should do some video but then I I reach out to you because I want to showcase my cool space but then you're able to connect me with actionable ways to you know I don't know showcase my cool hybridized flowers that I've been working on for years.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it like all these different things if you can kind of connect that web I mean that's a that's a real service that I think a lot of people when they really niche down like a lot of our um I guess our listeners are really hyper niched down just into real estate which has its own benefits of like some simple workflow and streamlined business and all kinds of stuff.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I think a lot of times they don't necessarily think about the breadth of what one connection can be.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: That would be really interesting to like pull on that thread in real estate alone and all the different things that real realtors might need that they think they need a listing video.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: But really if they want to really grow their business they need several others that they can tap into over time.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's uh I love that uh hey why are you so stressed out about this listing video?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh because listings are worth so much to you cool what videos are you making to get more listings yeah yeah and that that that little the little loop sometimes never gets closed and they and they don't realize that their listing video is their brand and it's it's really their only brand because they've never put any thought into like you're talking about with the lifestyle videos or or things like that of how do they showcase themselves because that's the real sale for a realtor they're selling 100% themselves.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: They just incidentally sell houses how do you guys handle repeat business um that like continuous content like everyone's like I make that's a good marketplace question.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah I mean in in listings you know they're gonna do a few of those a year bigger ones will do many uh several a month maybe so there's listings but then they've are constantly needing to market themselves so what does it look like when they're working with you and they they're buying into this kind of whole content yeah uh schedule couple different things in the early early years probably I don't know three four maybe a little bit maybe more than that uh years ago we had uh subscription plans where you know we put together you know content plans a monthly a certain budget here's what you get for that you get this many filming sessions this many this many edited assets and we kind of had bundled that we learned pretty quickly that every business is different so it was it was hard to kind of package you know every business into like one of three different you know routes you could you could give them because their their needs are just different.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Even if they you know loved the service their Blended Sense super fans they might only need to use this a couple times a year right and then someone else might be like yeah you guys are fine Blended Sense is okay but they might be booking us five times a month just because their needs necessit you know necessate uh necessitated it there we go we got there um so really what we ended up with is we said hey let's just let's just win with the service let's win with the platform right we don't again back to like we don't need to convince people that they need video the demand's already going to be there we don't have to we don't have to churn that butter that's already that's already going to be there.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if we just build the best platform they're gonna come back on their own.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we developed a um a a credit system where people can come on our platform and they can pay you know normal a la carte retail rates they can book time date location when they need a videographer and photographer they can order XYZ you know edited assets and that's all that's all normal.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then if they recognize that they've got ongoing needs we've got a bundle of credits right where they can just buy in bulk normal normal economic rules apply the bigger the you know the bigger the bundle the more just discount you're getting relative to the a la carte rate and and we just do it that way.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then at the enterprise level we do enterprise rates and so we kind of have like a tiered pricing structure based on the volume that you're that you're purchasing.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then eventually I'm sure we'll bring back some like some some some packages for vertical specific right we have we have some partners we work with in the agency world with like you know website partners where we're where we'll put together a specific website package knowing that hey they just they just sold a brand new website to this doctor this lawyer this this this this realtor whoever and then we'll come in with a preset package of quick okay cool let's go film them let's go work with them for five hours get a brand story video get a web header video get a client testimonial here's all the assets we know are gonna level up a website let's just have a preset package like that so we'll do some of that stuff but really to answer your questions we just sort of win with the platform and so if they're if they find a good video solution and all the raw footage is stored we do all the things that they need out out out of a modern video operating system uh we have no worries whatsoever that they're gonna come back next time they need us.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: All right the maybe the elephant in the room at least as fellow marketplace operators I I think you're already answering this with the credits and like then the operating system as to why the consumer would come back.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_03: Do you ever have challenges on the other side where like I mean once you've connected the photographer with uh the business owner you know there's a natural disintermediation that can happen when locally they're connected now why don't they just go directly to that photographers that have a point of attention with the photographers or the business owner like what does that look like uh the answer is I can tell by the smells that smiles that it it is a thing yeah yeah well it it it is a thing and it but not a thing like we thought like early on we were like hey marketplace we see these open marketplaces this is a big problem right there's teams that are figuring out what we call leakage and so we came into it like that like ready to battle that leakage problem yeah have we seen it happen absolutely um as much as we thought we would no not at all and there's one major reason there's a there's a few but there's one major reasons uh we the videographer is not your editor right we we have the Henry Ford model and so uh what that means is the con the business owner when they're working with us they're used to hyper uh you know way over the top on the delivery time right uh both the raw footage and the edit uh and so what they're used to is getting the raw footage within 24 24 to 48 hours the latest right because the videographer is going home they don't need to edit they're dumping it taking it on right and and then on the editing same thing right the editor is not the videographer so our editors are all you know filmmakers dps that love editing are working off of a queue and they're making more like north of 70% of their yearly earnings off of our queue and so they're really dedicated to you know editing and turning those things over and so that naturally what that does is create its own barrier for everyone involved videographers we our proposition to them is hey you're gonna get fair if not more than fair market earnings without anywhere close the amount of work that it takes on to take on a client that you're having to do everything for and they love that that's what they love about the platform right these are these are folks again running their own businesses that now can make an extra 10 15% every year with us without anywhere near the workload right and so that that helps you know naturally helps that part out of it um the other piece is the the cost of time and money with us because it's broken down the way it is in the credit system and the menu uh for a business owner on both the time it's that it takes to get the stuff produced and the money that it takes it blows away working directly ironically with one person or one production company it's typically slower and takes more money uh more uh cost to to work with them and so this this kind of Henry Ford model puts everybody in the in their best position to succeed right so like I come from uh baseball we always try to put the best of the players in the position to succeed and I think we were doing that with the marketplace and the way it's constructed that it's naturally creating um this defense against leakage where even if it happens everyone's thinking twice about it right the videographers think twice about it we even had instances where videographers get asked by the business owner hey can I work with you directly and like absolutely they they send ransom and I a message is like by the way no I don't want this to happen.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: So you know just letting you know uh and I think that's one of it there's other there's other catalysts to why we haven't seen as much leakage it's also a managed marketplace is not open so all all dialogue and and um you know interactions we have a a oversight on the platform has oversight on it we have oversight on it um and uh yeah I don't know Ransom you want to add to that but I think that's you know to answer your question Moses have we seen it absolutely is it as much as we thought no um and I think that's one of the biggest reasons why yeah all of that is is definitely the the strongest foundational reason why uh some additional elements of just the I I would probably say is the experience of what we built it's a it's a holistic experience.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: So not only are you know when when when a customer is booking and ordering through blended sentence they get their videographer um but then once that videographer uploads the footage they're also getting all that footage in our platform which our platform is a one of its kind where the raw footage is organized labeled indexed tagged facial recognition auto transcriptions all the clips are organized by what's happening in the clip is it a stage clip an interview clip a b-roll clip an establishing shot so from a footage organization the platform's a huge value and the platform videographers can't can't access that so you can't do that so so yeah so there's a lot of you know there's sure sure like like Albert said you can go you know there is some occasionally maybe we'll hear about something where people are you know hey can you just come do this for me we'll see here and there but it's really in seven years that's a single digit times that we've at least I'm sure that I'm sure it's happened that we don't know about it because we don't you know we don't have visibility into everything but single digit times that we've probably seen where it's like oh it looks like these you know maybe maybe they went and did something together off platform kind of a deal.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: But the way we built it out is is sort of incentivizes both but both parties are are winning with the setup.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a little bit of a barrier to say hey let's work together directly because maybe they can do it for a little bit slightly different you know economic exchange but they're not there's a lot of elements they'd be losing by doing that.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a one-to-one of just hey let's go do this and the exact same thing will happen but I'll make more and you'll pay less that that that breach doesn't exist.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: Alright maybe one one last one last thread uh for our our real estate photographer videographer you guys are coming at this from you've entered the real estate space and you brought something that I think is pretty interesting into it.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: For the for the average photographer they're showing up at a house shooting it following their formula and they're moving on and they're sending the photography back to the realtor but you guys have this whole like brand kit idea which is super common in other industries but you guys push that with a realtor too is that right like you actually have them do an entire like brand analysis kit before you ever shoot even a listing.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me a little bit about that.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah again trying to create a win-win-win scenario right for our creatives they've got direction they've got clear kind of concepts uh that are coming directly from the business owner not being fed to them by an agency who's trying to take what the business owner said and then turn that into a PowerPoint and then send that to the creative and then for the business owner for them to exercise that muscle because if you're gonna create videos your brand's gonna be out there right and to your point earlier Maddie if you do it the wrong way you're gonna look bad right and so you have we're we're trying to help them shift their mindset to hey this is operationally embedded and it starts with your brand kit um and so uh that that part and then brand consistency right and our editors leverage the brand kit um so that consistency of output uh is key and tied into that exercise of the brand kit um so yeah that's and that's again all platform based uh which makes it sticky also makes it uh that win-win win kind of scenario uh but to your point man that's what that's what I said earlier like if you the riches are in the niches that is a very viable thing but you got to take it a step further and become a ir ira irreplaceable value asset and the way you do that is by almost being ahead of the game for them right and so if you're gonna be doing listing photos and videos for uh for realtors man you better be educated on like what are those trends what is not trending what's not working you know like where do those listing videos live where are you posting them but I would say less than 50% of folks are gonna know exactly where all these listing videos go.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_03: They're probably gonna say the MLS and it's like okay cool you know but like knowing that allows you to be more of a value asset when you are creating those videos and and you can be you know helpful um you can be a soundboard and just and just again be irreplaceable in the minds of that client um because I feel like oftentimes especially in real estate because of the listing photos and video product they can just get so head down they get so busy in the trenches that they're always busy and they're always booked because there's always listings and then all of a sudden it stops and the you know the well dries up and then what happened then?
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well you got lapped right now there's now there's cameras that do it for you or there's another creative that's now offering XYZ elements on top of it.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah that brand kit is super super important to our processes and we're we're continuing to blow it up we're actually wanting to create a um a vocal dialogue between the business owner and our platform so that we can then transcribe that we can feed it into our AI.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_03: The AI can now be more of a helpful real-time pocket producer for the videographers like for example we have a huge enterprise real estate customer they don't want any alcohol in any video right no video that we ever produce for them and we produce a ton of videos for them they don't want any alcohol in it uh today we hit there's still communication that needs to go through the platform for the videographers and the editors tomorrow in a world where that brand kit is completely blown out to even a vocal dialogue that transcription now becomes a pocket producer and every videographer who's booked on any sweep for that client gets that info hey Maddie no alcohol remember this is for this client no alcohol in any shot you know um and so we're we're continuing to to invest in the brand kit concept uh and making it more intentional more embedded more of a true centralized place for your brand identity so that video becomes even easier right more efficient faster etc I think you guys need to use your like facial recognition to look for those alcohol bottles and like swap them out with some gen AI some coke bottles or vape with some powers the guy has a wine cellar and it is just stocked with Fanta.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_03: Right is my seven up collection yes I love that not too far away from being able to do that today with faces but we're we're learning and teaching the AI how to recognize brands right so the brand like prop media behind you right or Pixel Mob on your shirt because we get booked from sponsors a lot at events and sponsors have random folks at their booths right but they do have their brand and they want a clip of their brand in the wild.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly yep nice I what I love about the brand brand kit that's not uh super obvious and I think there's something to learn here for videographers um and photographers is that um when you collect that information that's actually like a way for that that customer get bought into you retention once it's a retention thing i've i've now invested yeah I don't I don't want to do that not just my money but right like I don't want to go do that with another videographer like I'm already I'm bought in here and I also believe now because I gave that information that they'll use it and so they know me um they know my preferences they've got my logo all that stuff so that's a that's a great lock in habit business gap for create multi creatives which is okay right like that's why there's development in longtime uh learners right learners are earners is like what is the intention here is it a transaction am I just trying to transact with this individual as many times as possible before we're not or am I trying to build a long-lasting relationship because I understand the concept that getting new clients is way more expensive than keeping your current clients right and and if if this is the intention then my actions are going to speak to that way and I am going to take the time up front to to build a brain kit for my you know my my clients coming in.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then if they do have a competitor approach then we we used to do something similar when I was in real estate where we have a a very thorough upfront um needs analysis.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then I I would always love it when somebody would come back to me and was like yes this other guy talked to me about it and he didn't even like ask me anything.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like he didn't want me to come in and talk about all my needs and like what I wanted to accomplish in the transaction.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just like I don't this is not my guy.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it it creates a professional standard if you will of like well anybody who isn't doing that is immediately sus.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: If the customer has experienced that.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's interesting.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: All right guys well I think we're out of time so tell us uh if somebody's interested in following you or interested in connecting with you as a blended sense photographer like how would they do that?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh website blended sense.com uh it's free to create an account.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_03: However you're not able to take on sweeps until you're vetted uh but once you create an account that puts you at least in the queue to get vetted so blended sense.com create an account on studio uh across social media is just at blended sense uh very active on all socials so DMs work awesome uh and then our emails are just our first names at blendedsense.com awesome well thank you very much Albert and ransom it's been a pleasure thank you for sharing your your wisdom from the industry and we'll see you around appreciate you guys it was fun thanks for having us y'all