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A Brokerage's Perspective on Marketing · The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business

0:00
Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
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So I tell my agents that all the time, leverage your time and let someone
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who is arguably better at this than you are take over for you.
0:27
Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,
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managing your real estate, photography and videography business.
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Spiro is a software platform.
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It's designed to help you manage your day to day real estate media business
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and ultimately help it grow and scale.
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I'm Craig Magrum, host of the podcast.
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Glad to have you back this week.
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If you're a returning listener or viewer and if you're brand new to the podcast,
0:49
like we said, this whole, podcast idea is to help
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you build a strong real estate, media and marketing business
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in order to be a benefit to your realtor clients and brokerage clients.
1:02
So, we just we like to celebrate wins.
1:04
If you've got some wins
1:05
that you've experienced lately, leave us a comment in the in our comments,
1:10
here on the YouTube channel.
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Or if you want to drop us an email, you can email us hello@spiro.media.
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We're trying to build community here, help each other in our real estate
1:19
minute businesses, and we want to see you win.
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So we hope this is a benefit to you.
1:24
Great topic. This week.
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Let me introduce, our co-hosts.
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I'm going to say a co-hosts.
1:30
Plural. Todd Kivimaki, owner of Spiro.
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Spiro Media and Spiro media.
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Spiro and Shannon Landers.
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Todd and Shannon, good morning
1:40
Craig.
1:41
Fabulous to be here.
1:43
Hey, I love that we're starting off at wins.
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Like post your wins below, y'all.
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I had a tech talk last night, and if you're wondering
1:51
how to catch those tech talks with me, you can join the
1:55
the Spiro Super User Facebook group and the schedules posted on there.
2:00
So we come, we hang out, we talk all things.
2:02
Spiro, but really we talk to business, we talk life.
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And it's just great to connect with you guys.
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And for some reason,
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it's the first time I was like,
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hey, if you got a win this week, post it in the chat below.
2:12
And we had fabulous things happening. Craig.
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Like people saying like they attended a broker open house,
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or they attended a networking meeting and these were like seeds
2:23
that were planted a year or two ago, Casey shared.
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And, another individual who said that they
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got in front of the whole team and, their agent that was working
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with them, introduce and refer them to others in a group setting.
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And it was such a great win.
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And I was like, were you nervous as can be?
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You tell me you didn't sit in your car in the parking lot.
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And second guess if you should actually go in.
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He was like, I was terrified.
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Yeah.
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I was like, what a good win for you.
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Like that's that is you as the business owner doing
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what your business needs to do.
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And when you do that, you gain momentum.
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And momentum is fun.
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Like that is when you can say business is fun,
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but you have to push the ball up the hill enough to get momentum.
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So let's see if collectively, as a community,
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we can get momentum and cheer each other on and pick each other up.
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And we have a, you know, something that's not such a great win.
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As I get attacked by flies here.
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If you're watching me on YouTube,
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but post them in the chat below and we'd love to celebrate with you.
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Absolutely.
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Yesterday's tech talk was a lot of fun.
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Very cool.
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Join us there to like, don't forget.
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Or because you can do it, you can listen to it
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at least while you're driving, so don't feel like you have to.
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And please don't be like texting and driving like we do.
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Not for most that ever.
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So, but you can listen to the tech talks, and you can always limit ask questions.
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Guys, this is another thing we would love to hear.
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What you want us to talk about on the tech Talk.
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So submit questions below on the Facebook user group.
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Email us.
3:57
Whatever I've sky write.
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Just let us know what you want to hear.
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Sky write
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Is that like a plane with a smoke.
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Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
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Sky writing.
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I'm starting to think, is this a new social media platform
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that I'm clueless on?
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I'm getting old. Good.
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It was the first social media platform, Craig.
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Smoke signals.
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Yeah.
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Oh. Very cool.
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All right, well, we got a great topic.
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That's, Shannon and I teased last week we're going to introduce our guest
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in just a few minutes. But, Spiro.
4:31
Spiro. Yeah.
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Todd, you have some Spiro announcements and,
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and updates to go over, so I'll hand it over to you.
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I do just give me a clock.
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A 60s Craig Spiro updates 23rd
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of September 2025 will launch.
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The big thing is Titus.
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This is pay at close optional.
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It's just going to release the 20 early testers for us.
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Okay, so 20 of you, you'll know who you are.
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You've signed up on the early release form,
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probably about 2 or 3 weeks after that release.
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Everyone can get in.
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This is not only pay at close,
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this is also credit card processing will save you your will,
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save you money on stripe processing because this is more affordable.
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But also you're going to get pay out quicker.
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Along with that, a couple other things are coming.
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The complete revamp of the mobile version of the property website
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editor that's just so you can, if you need to expedite
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or QC and deliver your media on the road the next day, you can.
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It's going to be fully mobile friendly.
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And a few other things in there as well.
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We'll have four release notes, but I do want to get to reminding you
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that if you have not booked your ticket for REPP 2025, you should.
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That's the conference in November.
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Please check them out.
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reppteam.com search for their conference and if you want to
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go to another conference this year.
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Spiro, we are holding our first conference.
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So we're calling it the Spiro sync January 22nd, 23rd.
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You will all have a link and we'll advertise that here very soon for you
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to, jump on the list and buy your ticket and find out more information.
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Awesome.
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Exciting stuff. Very exciting.
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All right, Shannon, I'm so excited.
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We talked last week.
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Towards the end of the podcast, we you had the brilliant idea
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of getting a brokerages input on
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marketing for our fellow, real estate
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media partners and colleagues in this industry.
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And you had a guest in mind, I'm going to turn things over to you
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and let you introduce this week's guest and topic.
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Oh, I get introduced. Okay. This is fun.
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This is exciting.
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Okay.
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So I figure, you know, I always joke and say, let's hear it from the horse's mouth.
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Right?
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So it's not that I'm calling our guest a horse.
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So let me just be very clear that I feel I'm not calling him a horse.
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Okay.
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But why not listen to the agent and to the marketing people and the
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that are at the brokerages to help us figure out either
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where we want to go, what, maybe where we don't want to go.
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And how you can
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connect with that brokerage as a media provider.
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Okay.
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So I have had the pleasure in my career of knowing some amazing
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marketing people, and this guy is one of them.
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So he started at Keller Williams a few years ago.
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I'll let him tell how long.
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So I can't remember.
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And he's amazing.
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His name is Steve Helton.
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He is the director of marketing at Keller Williams Advisors and Pinnacle Group.
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We have the luxury of having four market centers in our umbrella,
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which actually is really cool, and maybe overwhelming at times.
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So you can probably share with that.
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But he gets to work with over
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650 agents and help them with their marketing.
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And so, without further ado, Steve Helton, welcome to the podcast.
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We are so excited you're here.
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Why don't you share just a little bit about you and your background?
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He is also an agent, so he'll share some of that too.
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So I'm going to pass it over to you, Mr. Steve.
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Absolutely. Yeah. Thanks so much.
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I've been, I've been called worse than a horse, though.
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I wasn’t calling you a horse
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I really, promise. so my name is Steve Helton.
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I'm the director of marketing for Keller Williams Advisors and Pinnacle Group.
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A little bit about me and kind of how I got to this position.
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I started out actually as the director of, a music school
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and, like, as a director of the music school, I ran the,
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the entire program, from hiring and firing teachers
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to searching for students and advertising all all of our, events.
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So with that came just a ton of natural marketing,
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kind of hands on job experience.
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And I ran that for about six years.
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It kind of combined my, my passion for graphic design, which,
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I when I went to school at Miami University
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with a degree in English, and creative writing,
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I had a focus in communications to those kind of feet into it as well.
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I was in bands in college, and someone had to design the,
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the, the fliers and the t shirts.
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So I taught myself the Adobe platform.
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And keep in mind, this was before,
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master class and you’ll get by Google, Coursera and stuff like that.
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Right.
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So there was a lot of trial and error.
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But, yeah.
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So I'm self-taught with all of the, Adobe platforms
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and used that in my, my, my career
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as the director of the music school that I was a part of.
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While I was
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there, I actually had a gentleman who,
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I knew in college, I,
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I swept out houses, new construction houses.
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And this gentleman, his son, came to my music school, and he was like,
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hey, man, I've always thought you should be a real estate agent.
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I told you that you should be a real estate agent.
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Why haven't you ever taken my advice?
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And I was just the position. I said, you know what?
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I'm going to take your advice.
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I'm going to, go ahead and get my real estate license.
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So I got my real estate license, and I was doing that very, very part time
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as I was still the director of, the Learning Center.
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And, then one day,
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Covid happened and I woke up in school, was shut down.
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And just like that, I was a full time real estate agent.
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I didn't have another job.
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And as crazy as that
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time was, what a silver lining.
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Because it put me boots to the ground.
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Hey, I've got bills I have to pay.
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How do I pay them?
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I've got this experience in marketing.
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I know what I need to do now.
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I have the time to do it.
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So I did that, and I went.
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I went into production for myself.
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I spent about a half doing full time production, my first year
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of doing full time, I closed on 14,
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deals, which I was very happy with.
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And that was five years ago.
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That's 14 deals now. I would have paid a lot more.
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What I, but I did have kind
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of, like, I kind of missed working at helping.
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Helping people.
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I've always been, had, like, a teacher mindset, and I did miss that part.
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So when I found out that my own brokerage, Keller Williams Advisors, was,
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looking for a director of marketing, it felt like this would be a
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just an amazing, like, you know, marrying of of my my two different lives,
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being able to to teach and work in graphic design and marketing
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while also being able to, like, keep my feet in the real estate world.
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So, I've been the director of marketing for almost four years now.
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I'm still in production.
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I don't do a ton of marketing for myself, because my main focus
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is making sure that I am helping, the 650 plus agents that we have.
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But, I do absolutely have my my feet on the ground.
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I'm still out there.
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You know, closing several deals a year,
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staying up to all of the new trends and all of that helps me,
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be the best director of marketing that I can be.
12:30
Yes, and he is. He's great.
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I love his design.
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Him and I chat all the time about how, you know, it's fun
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for to create branding, right?
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Like when you when you're branding agents and they get excited about it, right.
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Like, that is a really fun thing.
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So, Steve does an excellent job.
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And, I've been thankful to know him for these years.
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What I love about this talk has it's now,
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you know, we get to share this knowledge with all of our media
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professionals and they can input this into some of their business.
13:01
Right.
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So Todd, do you have any burning questions off the top of your head?
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I do, I do.
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I'm, I'm just noting them down because my memory.
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Yes. Is not that so I just have a couple simple ones.
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So I think one thing and serving our clients is
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real estate agents is a real estate photographer.
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It's that we need to actually know and understand what they do.
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And I think one thing that there's some terminology that Shannon and Steve,
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you guys just use second nature, but you guys referred to a market center.
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Can you just help us?
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What is the market center in the Keller?
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Is that a Keller Williams thing?
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What is that inside the ecosystem?
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Just so our listeners know?
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Yeah.
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So, so your brokerage is kind of your, big umbrella.
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So there are you've got your, your cold wells and your Keller Williams,
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and then each one of those in the like,
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our independently owned and operated.
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But there are some small brokerages that are,
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that that
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is as high corporate as you can get, if that makes sense.
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Market center is a Keller Williams term.
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Shannon.
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Do you know, do do other bigger brokerages refer to that as well?
14:16
No, KW is the only one I know that.
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They call it a market center.
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You know, Keller uses a lot of vernacular.
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So when you come to Keller and you are drinking from a firehose
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on the terminology,
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and it's fun.
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And, and I like that they actually call it market centers.
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The point is that it is a market center of agents.
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It's a market center of real estate.
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And honestly, the the way Keller Williams runs
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their franchises at the market Center to make money.
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And so they call it market centers.
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And it is a only KW thing.
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Everybody else calls them offices or brokerages.
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And that's it.
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So but yeah, that KW is vernaculars five pages long
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for like as like a broad scope KWRI.
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So KW regional international is the that the highest tier you can go.
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And then you've got your regions.
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And then inside those regions you have
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at that point, that's where you're kind of getting into your individual names,
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which is kind of like that's like where you find like your brokerages.
15:27
Right?
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So, I am a part
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of specifically Keller Williams Advisors Realty.
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That's where my personal real estate license is held.
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That is divided up between three different offices
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that kind of work together but also work independently of each other.
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And then I'm also the director of marketing
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for Keller Williams Pinnacle Group, which is a different owner.
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But the same
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leadership team that runs, that makes sense.
15:58
Yeah. That's right.
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That OP’s and Tl’s Todd and all sorts of things.
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And OP is an operating principle that is pretty much the one leading
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the charge, probably has the most dollars invested into the market center.
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And market centers have investors, typically 2 to 3
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4 agents that have rolled up and been investors.
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So Sarah is our one of our main investors.
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And as long as there's common ownership, then at least in Ohio,
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you can brand the same, which brings more market power.
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Gotcha, gotcha.
16:34
So your OPI is equivalent to your owner essentially.
16:38
Okay.
16:38
And then is that person always another term like your broker in charge
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or is that sometimes someone different that is someone different,
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especially at Keller now other brokerages that could be the same.
16:49
Okay.
16:49
But at Keller they actually brokers are complete typically.
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Now a broker could be one of those investors.
16:56
Right.
16:57
So very clear like that at many Keller's the broker is an investor.
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But they're not the leader now.
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They're the leader of the the real estate rules
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Steve.
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Is that is that the best way to say that.
17:10
Yeah. Good. Nailing it. Yeah.
17:12
Yeah. Perfect.
17:13
That's super helpful because I think one thing is, is that
17:16
when you go into any of these offices, you have to understand how they operate.
17:21
Like, you, if you're talking to the wrong person or not talking
17:25
to the decision maker, then you should kind of just wasting you, you know?
17:29
Yeah, it's just like you're not going to get anywhere with it.
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So and I think Keller Williams definitely I know, Shannon, you really helped me
17:35
understand that.
17:36
Keller Williams as we as we you know, as we
17:40
we have a broker deal actually with Steve's office and offices.
17:43
So, so I just wanted to share that because typically Keller
17:47
Williams offices are the most difficult broker deal to get.
17:53
Yeah.
17:53
So just and we won't go into broker deals today.
17:55
It might pop up here.
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If you have questions let us know about broker deals.
17:58
We we've done a lot of podcast on them.
18:01
But typically you're Keller Williams operate differently.
18:04
So you have to think differently to to speak their broker language.
18:08
I use that phrase all the time. You have to speak their language.
18:11
They're going to look at you like, what are you saying?
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Like, I don't want that thing because that means nothing to me.
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So it's always helpful and understanding that,
18:19
okay, so one other thing I had written down here, Steve.
18:21
And then we'll get into marketing because I have so many questions.
18:24
But you had this Cortez burn the ship moment
18:28
where Covid happened.
18:31
Your other option went away,
18:34
and that required you to focus.
18:38
And I know
18:40
Gary Keller has a book about focus.
18:42
I love the book. I talk about it all the time.
18:45
Can you just give me some insight?
18:46
Because we talk a lot about focus, and I think a lot of listeners out
18:49
there are in a similar position to you pre-COVID
18:54
where they might they might even be full time
18:57
with photography, but they might be doing weddings.
19:00
I shot over 100 of them, but I, I had it removed
19:05
from my brain, the memory of shooting weddings. But
19:09
and babies, they poop on you and families.
19:12
They have crying kids but houses, they don't talk back.
19:15
They're not ready, but they don't talk back.
19:17
Okay, I'm going on a tangent, y'all.
19:18
But when I focus them, it sounds like when you focus, that's what
19:24
really allows you to really double down and succeed in what you're doing.
19:29
Do you mind?
19:29
Can you just share a little bit on what that focus did for you?
19:32
Yeah, absolutely.
19:34
Because you're completely right.
19:36
Another Kellerism is what you focus on expands.
19:39
And I truly, wholeheartedly believe that,
19:44
even before I worked
19:46
for Keller Williams, I really think that that is one of the things,
19:51
you know, it the
19:54
the saying the grass is always greener on the other side.
19:57
Note the grass is always greener on the side that gets watered the most.
20:01
So and really, I mean, that's what it comes down to,
20:06
having like the ability to say,
20:11
okay, today I don't have to worry about getting my kids
20:15
ready for school because they are working virtually during Covid.
20:18
I don't have to worry about,
20:22
you know, fighting traffic to get to to the office
20:25
because I don't have another job anymore.
20:28
All I have to do is,
20:33
time block my day
20:34
in and and actually make it work.
20:38
The the biggest thing that that I think
20:43
helped me focus the most was the idea of
20:48
replace, then erase.
20:50
So this was something that was thought to be by one of my productivity coaches
20:53
before Covid even happened, but it stuck with me.
20:57
If I have my day time blocked and something,
21:01
I have something there that, I realize I'm not going to be able to get to
21:06
at that time, or I'm not gonna be able to get to at that day before I erase it.
21:11
I have to write it down somewhere else.
21:13
So I have to make sure.
21:14
And I try not to kick the can too far down the road.
21:17
Right.
21:18
So I had a rule that I had to be done
21:20
within 24 hours, so no more than the next day.
21:24
And that could have been anything that could have been
21:26
whether, you know, if it's something as simple as checking market
21:29
trends on the MLS or if it was something more extensive, like,
21:34
you know, making contact with ten people in my personal database.
21:38
I made sure that I
21:40
replaced it, wrote it down somewhere else, and then I erased it.
21:45
And then I also made sure to write in what I did there.
21:48
That way I knew, oh, hey, every time I erase, it's I'm erasing
21:54
because I realized I had to mow the grass because,
21:57
you know, that falls to the wayside. Or.
21:59
Oh, every time I erased,
22:01
I realized that I was picking up a click list from progress,
22:03
whatever it might have been.
22:05
And then that way, over time, I could plan ahead.
22:08
Right.
22:09
At what point is it worth it to you to,
22:13
pay for the Kroger delivery service instead of the click list?
22:16
At what point is it worth it to you to hire someone to cut your grass?
22:19
Those are all like individual questions and challenges, but if you can truly
22:25
write out your day and focus on it, I absolutely believe
22:29
that that is what will expand your your business, will expand.
22:32
Yeah.
22:33
I so love that.
22:34
Thank you for sharing that, Steve,
22:35
because I think that there's so much value in there and one thing
22:39
I want our listeners to understand is some of the things that he was saying.
22:42
Now, Steve, we're all in this room creatives.
22:46
Okay.
22:47
So we as creatives, we like to sometimes go back
22:52
and we like to overwork and fine tune something that might be done.
22:57
We might want to make it look a little bit better.
23:00
But the thing that Steve told us all, what did he mention
23:03
when he had time to focus, was calling ten people from his database.
23:08
He didn't say, I need to go back and rework my personal logo.
23:12
Okay, that.
23:14
And so is that what you so
23:16
the what you're telling us, Steve, is the actual action.
23:19
So the focus. But it was actually the level.
23:22
And we talked about different levels of task like an admin, a nurse and a doctor.
23:27
And when you showed up to a
23:29
to a doctor's office for your appointment, the doctor does not check you in
23:33
because if the doctor checked you in,
23:35
then you would kind of be like, well, what kind of doctor is he?
23:38
But the doctor focuses on doctor level tasks.
23:41
So it sounds like not only did you have this bur the ship
23:45
moment, but you had focus on high level task.
23:49
You're completely correct.
23:51
And I will tell you from my experience
23:55
on the other side of this, as, the director of marketing,
24:00
how many times I have
24:02
somebody once a custom business card and,
24:05
and I'll send them the proof and we'll say, here's your business card,
24:08
and they'll say, that looks great,
24:09
but could you move my name like half a centimeter to the right?
24:12
I'm like, sure, sure, sure, sure.
24:13
We send it, send them another proof, and then they come back and, that.
24:17
Yeah, that looks good.
24:18
But also maybe change it black instead of red.
24:21
Listen, I will make those cheap for my agents.
24:23
I will do that all day long because I love them and I want them to be happy.
24:26
But yes, those are the things that like, at the end of the day,
24:30
the color of the name on your business card
24:33
is not going to get you the million dollar deal that you want.
24:37
It's not so, yes, being
24:40
very purposeful and thinking about,
24:44
what are the high
24:45
level tasks that we all know we have to do?
24:49
Maybe they're not the most fun or,
24:52
like, the most beautiful things, but yeah, they're the high level ones.
24:56
The 8020 rule.
24:57
Todd, have you talked you guys talked about the 8020 rule a lot, right?
25:01
I love the 8020 rule. Yeah.
25:03
As someone who is typically lazy, I love the 80/20 rule,
25:09
but it's just very true, right?
25:11
Like you, you've got to live, you know, and what is going to bring you
25:16
the most, power. Right.
25:18
And in your business.
25:19
And so detailing out and detailing those task out
25:24
and getting down to what's going to move the needle is just so critical.
25:28
And so Steve and I are very blessed and thankful.
25:31
I think I speak for both of us. We love KW.
25:33
We we do love the mindset,
25:36
mindset to everything and all of this at the end of the day.
25:39
And so they really lean into it.
25:42
So again, people might say,
25:44
you know, drink the red Kool-Aid, drink blue Kool-Aid, drink Kool-Aid, whatever.
25:48
Listen, if you're drinking Kool-Aid,
25:49
that you're getting where you want to go, baby, keep drinking that Kool-Aid.
25:53
It's all good.
25:55
All right, Steve.
25:56
So, you know, we as photographers, as videographers, is the creatives
26:02
we kind of live in a certain certain creative world.
26:05
And we don't always know the ins and outs of how,
26:08
a realtors day goes when you know
26:11
how your day goes as a director of marketing
26:14
and how that relationship between you and the realtor
26:16
in the brokerage, how that relationship connects.
26:20
So to help us is, is the creative side, is the photographers, is the marketer,
26:25
you know, marketing team understand your business a little bit better.
26:29
Can you kind of step us through what it looks like when an agent
26:33
lands a new listing and comes to you
26:35
for marketing advice or marketing help or support?
26:39
What? What does that relationship look like?
26:42
What are you coaching them on or helping them with?
26:44
Can you walk us through that? Absolutely.
26:47
So there's a couple of things. The first is
26:52
I think
26:53
the most obvious is
26:56
they have to have material or systems
27:01
place in place to market the property.
27:05
Right.
27:06
And when I tell, when I tell like agents is, you know,
27:10
you're not just marketing the property, you're marketing, you're
27:15
your seller's wants and needs.
27:19
You can market a buyer's wants and needs right?
27:24
But in this situation, you're marketing your seller's wants and needs.
27:27
Their wants and needs are
27:29
they want to sell their home, or they need to sell their home
27:32
because they want to buy another home, or they need to sell this home
27:35
because they want to retire, and they need to sell this home
27:39
because they want to use the equity to, send their kid to college.
27:44
Right.
27:44
So you really have to kind of think it's not just the property,
27:47
it's it's your seller's wants or needs that you're marketing.
27:51
Not that you're going to go put that out on the internet, right?
27:53
Like, hey, my seller is trying to sell this home
27:56
because they want to send their kids to college. But,
27:59
understanding that, like understanding the need of your seller
28:02
is like priority number one.
28:06
Then it, you know, it comes as simple
28:09
as being prepared
28:12
to actually market the property.
28:15
So for me, what that looks like is before they have a listing,
28:19
we try to get them to understand the, essential things they might need,
28:25
like yard signs, directional or leading signs
28:29
for for sale or open houses.
28:32
Business cards are great, but even things like property flier
28:36
templates or, postcard templates that they can easily plug
28:42
in, the photos into in order to market the property correctly. What
28:48
a lot of
28:49
agents do is they wait until they get their first listing,
28:53
and all of a sudden their listing is going live
28:55
and they don't have any of these things ready.
28:58
So then at that point we're rushing.
29:00
And do you really want the property to go live
29:03
before you have a chance to put your sign in the yard?
29:07
No. Right.
29:08
Because every one of these listings is an opportunity
29:11
to have these little tiny listing babies that pop out.
29:14
And if we don't have it proper,
29:17
if we don't have our information on it, it's going to be much harder
29:22
to turn those, listings into our own business.
29:27
The best way to put it is McDonald's doesn't wait until somebody orders
29:31
a cheeseburger to then go buy the meat to make that cheeseburger right.
29:36
They've got the meat in the back.
29:38
They've got it all right there.
29:40
So not that you need as an agent to go
29:42
spend a ton of money on yard signs.
29:46
But making sure you know where that yard sign is coming from,
29:50
whether that foreign one for your brokerage
29:52
or having one personally made, making sure that you've got.
29:56
And you know, what is your strategy for, directional signs?
30:00
What is going to be your strategy for open houses?
30:03
That's that's all kind of step one.
30:05
Does that does that make sense.
30:07
Absolutely.
30:08
So from there
30:12
what what we have seen
30:14
a lot recently is to be honest,
30:18
a lack of marketing because why.
30:22
Because houses are or were selling themselves.
30:26
Right.
30:26
If you have a house that you have beautiful pictures of and
30:30
you put it online, you were getting offers
30:33
and you were getting offers and hours,
30:37
if not minutes,
30:39
you were getting offers sight unseen or sight,
30:42
you know, not not bodies, physical bodies, not being in the house.
30:45
And you were getting them for over
30:48
asking with waived inspections,
30:51
grazing.
30:53
It was grazing down.
30:55
I’m still waiting for the lawsuits
30:56
to start happening, I'm telling you, they're going to happen.
30:59
Lawyers are going to start getting real rich.
31:01
All these people about all these houses
31:03
without inspections, and then they're going to try to sue
31:05
and they're not going to have a leg to stand on.
31:07
But lawyers are going to take their money anyway and give it a shot.
31:10
Right. So yeah. Yeah.
31:13
So all of these things were
31:16
really preventing people from marketing the homes.
31:19
And when you're marketing your buyer or your seller's wants or needs your
31:25
marketing, your own business, and that is literally how you are going to grow.
31:31
So what I have told
31:33
all agents recently, yeah, well, forever.
31:37
But they're just now starting to listen.
31:40
Is every home that you list,
31:44
not only do you need to have everything from step one that we talked about,
31:49
but you need to plan on
31:52
number one, doing an open house.
31:56
I am a full believer of open houses
31:58
are good for the real estate industry.
32:02
Open houses show
32:07
confidence in in the market.
32:09
It shows.
32:10
Hey look, this is going to be potentially a good deal for both sides.
32:16
It is truly a win win situation.
32:18
You know it.
32:20
Some people are like oh yeah, but my
32:22
my property is going to sell before I have an open house.
32:26
Have the open house.
32:27
Anyway, there's nothing wrong with having the open house after it's gone pending.
32:32
And also
32:34
if you plan to have an open house that opening
32:37
weekend anymore, it's not selling at what?
32:40
Average days on market is longer than three days now.
32:43
Right.
32:43
So if you're going live on a Thursday, you should absolutely be having
32:46
an open house on a Saturday or Sunday.
32:49
I have an agent who is out of our Cincinnati office,
32:54
and I don't want to name drop her just because I
32:56
want to respect her personal privacy, but she is a she's a rookie.
32:59
This is her first year.
33:01
And I met with her yesterday.
33:04
And she has five houses under contract right now.
33:07
And I asked her like, oh my gosh, that's awesome.
33:10
How did you get five houses under contract?
33:12
And she said, well, four of the five came from open houses.
33:14
I mean, people that they are meeting at open houses
33:19
who are unrepresented and why are they unrepresented now?
33:24
Because
33:25
there is a buyer brokerage agreement that has to be signed.
33:28
Right.
33:29
And the only way to view homes without signing a buyer brokerage agreement
33:33
is to go to open houses.
33:35
So you're seeing a lot of unrepresented people walk through these houses.
33:40
And by having those conversations,
33:43
she's been able to convert them into, into real business.
33:47
So open houses, I know that I went off on a tangent
33:50
there, but open houses are good for our industry.
33:53
What do we all need?
33:55
Listings.
33:56
So real estate agents don't just need buyers
34:02
or sellers, they need listings on the market.
34:06
If there were more listings on the market,
34:08
their buyers and their sellers would actually both benefit from that.
34:12
So, you know, the ideal market is when there are slightly more buyers
34:18
than there are sellers, right?
34:21
So but we need to get those we need to get those listings on
34:24
so that we can build confidence in our buyers again,
34:27
so that the buyers are going to want to buy,
34:31
so having those open houses I truly believe will help
34:34
not just your own personal business, but help the industry as, as a whole.
34:40
I also think that,
34:42
I mean, we could talk all day about social media,
34:44
but if you're not running some sort of targeted ad
34:49
and by targeted, I mean you're defining an audience
34:52
inside the meta platform of who you want this ad to go to.
34:58
Geographically based on,
35:01
what their search history is, whatever.
35:04
You're just you're absolutely dropping the ball.
35:06
This is a super, super passive, low expense way
35:12
to not only get your name out there, but potentially get leads.
35:15
Steve, you used a term that I love
35:18
and you use the term listing babies.
35:22
Can you can you explain that to our listeners?
35:26
Absolutely. So
35:29
every it's a proven fact that,
35:33
every time a house lists
35:36
two other homes within the area
35:40
are likely to also hit the market.
35:43
Okay. And
35:46
obviously, that's not like a,
35:49
what, 100% of the time,
35:52
but it is pretty trackable.
35:54
And if you are not turning the current deals
36:00
that you have into more business, you are missing out on a huge opportunity.
36:06
And what I mean by that is,
36:09
if I have a home for sale
36:11
and whether it sells for 10,000 above asking and one day
36:16
or 5000 below asking in 20 days, if I'm not
36:22
marketing that home correctly and and using that momentum
36:26
to tell my success story one way or another
36:32
through social media, through, postcards,
36:36
through Doorknocking, around that area.
36:40
I'm just I'm not going to get any more business from that area.
36:45
You have to do that, right? You have to,
36:49
one of my favorite things to do for an agent
36:52
is when they have a home sell and they they're the listing agent.
36:56
They had a home sale, and it was in multiple offers.
37:00
Okay, so there's more than one person who wants to move to this area, right?
37:03
There's more than one person who wants to move to this neighborhood.
37:06
So doing a campaign where we reach out to the neighbors
37:11
and we say, hey, look, we have buyers
37:13
who still want to move to this neighborhood.
37:18
What would be a good time for us to talk to see if your home would be a good fit.
37:22
Right?
37:23
That is like such a powerful thing, such a powerful thing you can do
37:26
because it's true. You've got buyers.
37:28
There are people out there
37:29
who want to move to that neighborhood and getting, you know,
37:35
that that's
37:35
it's one of many ways to turn that listing into other pieces of business
37:39
in the other way is to to, like I mentioned earlier, tell the success story.
37:44
Right. Tell the success story.
37:46
I'll tell you how many years ago, selling out
37:49
20 days for 5000 under would have been a success, right?
37:53
To me, it's still a success.
37:55
And yeah, it absolutely is.
37:57
It absolutely is.
37:58
But you know,
38:01
being able to market your
38:04
your sellers win on social media,
38:08
and showing people the life that you changed
38:11
will make them want to work with you and
38:15
get you more business, get you more listings or buyers.
38:19
So there's a couple of things you've mentioned in there, Steve,
38:22
that I'm thinking from the photography company
38:25
or the real estate media companies perspective.
38:27
And I would love your input on.
38:29
And the first thing you mentioned was professional pictures,
38:31
something that you suggest to your your realtors and agents. But
38:37
I would argue that most I think are doing professional photos now,
38:40
but there are still realtors out there
38:42
that are kind of doing their own cell phone pictures,
38:45
you know, things like that.
38:46
What advice would you give to a real estate media company
38:49
that is looking to build a relationship with with you?
38:52
as the brokerage or, you know, the company?
38:56
To to partner and to offer value to those realtors
38:58
and help educate them on the importance
39:00
of professional photos or even video walkthrough tours, things like that.
39:05
What how do you coach the agents and
39:07
and what kind of relationship and qualities
39:09
are you looking for in a real estate media company
39:11
that could bring that value to your realtors?
39:14
That's a really great question.
39:17
So the first thing is,
39:21
like, I truly come from a like we were talking about earlier
39:26
when I said, at what point is it worth it to have someone mow your grass for you?
39:29
Right?
39:31
Just leveraging your time.
39:33
I mean, just leveraging your time right there is I mean,
39:38
how long is it going to take a real estate agent to go through and
39:43
get the right angles with their phone,
39:46
or get the angle of the bathroom where they don't see the mirror or,
39:50
you know what I mean, or the toilet paper that they very clearly missed or whatever
39:55
it that all of that time adds up, all that time adds up.
39:58
So when I'm talking to an agent, I just tell them like, hey, look, be
40:02
smart and leverage your time.
40:03
This is a business expense.
40:06
This is a business expense, right?
40:09
I equate it to
40:11
if I were having a home built,
40:14
I'm going to go ahead and pay someone to paint it professionally.
40:18
I'm not going to look at them and say, hey, how much?
40:20
If, you don't paint the house, let me paint it myself.
40:23
Like, that's a terrible idea. You're getting a brand new.
40:25
All right.
40:26
What?
40:27
The professionals paint it, or it's like showing up
40:30
to a restaurant and being like, hey, is it going to be cheaper if I bring it?
40:34
If I go back there and cook the steak myself?
40:36
Stay.
40:37
Right.
40:38
These are all things that like, they're professionals for a reason.
40:41
So I tell my agents that all the time, leverage your time and let someone
40:47
who is arguably better at this than you are take over for you.
40:52
From a talking to a photography, specialist or photographer.
40:57
I think the
41:00
the biggest thing with that
41:03
they could probably talk to agents about is easing friction.
41:09
So what I mean by that is
41:13
what kind of, you know, red tape are they going to have to jump through
41:17
in order to get their photos scheduled?
41:21
Do they have,
41:22
an agreed upon or, turnaround time?
41:26
How are they going to be delivered?
41:30
What is the process for,
41:33
you know, touch ups or retakes if need be, all of those things.
41:38
Right.
41:40
And just your general being able to, like, put forward
41:44
the general expectations that both like the homeowner
41:49
and the real estate agent and the photographer have all of each other.
41:52
Right?
41:53
You can expect the photographer to get the best pictures.
41:55
If there is a 300 pound dog running around the house, right?
42:01
You can't expect the photographer to get the best pictures
42:03
if there's laundry everywhere, things like that.
42:06
So I think it's just,
42:09
you know, communicating with the agents and maybe even something about
42:13
as simple as how is this getting paid, right?
42:15
Like how when, when do they get paid?
42:18
How at what point do, does the agent have to swipe their credit card?
42:23
It's as easy, as simple as that are all things that
42:27
and because different brokerages,
42:28
one of the things we know about real estate agents,
42:31
there are a lot of agents who do brokerage hop.
42:33
And yeah, and they do.
42:37
And one brokerage might cover the cost of the photography.
42:41
One brokerage might,
42:43
cover the cost upfront, and then you pay them at the end of the month.
42:47
Other brokerages are completely hands off.
42:49
So I think making sure that the individual agents know how, whatever
42:55
the relationship is that the photographer has with their specific
42:58
brokerage, is is probably the most important.
43:03
Interesting couple questions.
43:05
Steve, thank you so much for sharing.
43:07
So what agents.
43:11
So we talked about removing as much red tape.
43:14
And I think as a business owner,
43:16
the more of that we can do and we can make it easy for our clients,
43:20
the greater success that clients come to you and stay with you.
43:24
Now, do you, in your opinion, see that it's an advantage
43:28
that an agent does not have to pay up front
43:31
for media and say that they could potentially pay at close?
43:34
Is that removing some red tape or is really swiping the credit card
43:38
at the beginning not a problem. Do you?
43:40
And I know we're generalizing here, but from your perspective, working with over
43:44
600 agents, what is there a consensus that you have a gut instinct on?
43:48
Yeah. I honestly do believe that
43:52
a majority of agents would
43:55
much rather pay after the fact for versus paying upfront.
43:59
There are going to be the agents who are very fiscally responsible
44:05
and have no problem, swiping their credit card right there.
44:08
And they want to get their points or whatever right up front.
44:11
But there's seven of them, right? Steve?
44:13
They're seven of those.
44:15
So sorry.
44:16
If there's agents, let's say I'm sorry, I it's just a joke.
44:22
I always tell people like I'm a real estate agent
44:25
so I can make jokes about real estate agents, right? Right.
44:27
That's what I'm saying to.
44:29
I'm like, okay, I can pick on us. Yeah.
44:32
I mean, I coached them for four years.
44:34
Like, I think I need to write a book.
44:35
I'm pretty sure I need to write a book.
44:39
So that being said,
44:41
yes, I think paying after after the fact,
44:46
even if it's not, when the house closes,
44:50
even if it is just, you know, with their brokerage
44:53
at the end of the month, I think it's a huge help, especially with
44:56
some of these agents who, if this is,
45:02
their first deal or even their first couple of years
45:05
in the business, if, you know, they might look at this as,
45:09
okay, well, every penny is going to help me transition
45:13
from whatever job I'm currently into to a full time real estate career.
45:19
And so for those people,
45:22
swiping that card up front could be an issue, right?
45:26
I mean, that was one of the hardest things I had to do
45:29
was when I was working dual career.
45:32
Was not touching the money that I got from the closing that, like,
45:36
my very first closing, it was leaving that money alone. And,
45:41
it was hard to not touch it, right.
45:44
Like it's there.
45:46
So. Yeah.
45:46
So I, I definitely think
45:48
having it
45:49
at the end of the transaction is going to benefit most real estate agents.
45:53
And they can spend money on marketing. Right.
45:55
Like that's where my brain goes like, oh, if I can pay for this like close
45:59
or even even like me, like I had the ability like I just got my invoice.
46:03
So my, my listening from last month or on my invoice.
46:06
But guess what?
46:07
I get paid next Thursday for that, for that listing.
46:10
And then my invoice gets paid on the 20th.
46:13
So I'm solid, like I'm not really paying for it, right?
46:16
It gave me that time.
46:17
So then I ran ads because I had other dollars to spend.
46:22
I love that, I mean, that's such a good point.
46:24
Yeah, it's freeing up some resources, right?
46:28
So not having that expense at the front, I never want an agent to be like,
46:33
oh man, I'd really like to get this listing, but I can't afford to
46:37
get photos right now.
46:39
It's like, no, dude, get the listing.
46:41
Like, right.
46:42
Like that's that's what we call,
46:45
was I had a manager who said this in the past.
46:47
It was their,
46:50
passing up dollar, but
46:53
pennies or something, I don't know, but yeah, that's what it feels like, right?
46:57
Yeah. Stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.
46:59
There we go. That's it.
47:01
Todd loves to say it
47:03
And that's that's I mean yeah that's right there.
47:06
That's what that to me that's what that is. Right.
47:08
And so yeah.
47:09
And this is, this is no different than any other business y'all.
47:13
Like think about a business that produces a product and say they are.
47:18
And Walmart or a big retailer and they get a PO,
47:21
a purchase order and it's for $1 million.
47:24
The cost of goods is $1 million.
47:27
They're finance.
47:28
That's almost money in the bank.
47:30
Like if they know it's going to sell through,
47:31
that money's going to come back, maybe two millions coming back,
47:35
but they have to pay a million now to make the product.
47:37
So this is really no different. I think leveraging that.
47:40
And there's many ways you can do it through a broker deal through Titus,
47:45
you know, and, and your age, some of your agents are doing this
47:48
just by swiping their Amex card.
47:49
They get the points and they pay in 30 days.
47:51
So this is really I know, I know, the Titus is the big thing right now
47:55
because we're launching it, but this is no different than any other business
47:59
where you're just trying to mitigate some of your cost up front.
48:04
So when you get paid, no problem, I'll pay this percentage
48:07
and I'll take the rest is my profit, I think.
48:10
I think remembering that
48:14
any professional who's
48:15
working with a real estate agent, you're in business to business.
48:21
It's not business to consumer, it's business to business.
48:24
Does that make sense? For sure. Yeah.
48:27
So so with that Steve
48:30
you see so you have a ton of agents that come through and you hear
48:35
what is.
48:37
So say there's an agent not working with a professional right now.
48:41
Or say they are a little bit unhappy with their current.
48:45
And they want to look for another media provider.
48:47
Or in your opinion, what is
48:52
how are they finding that provider?
48:55
I, I feel like they are finding it
48:59
from referrals from other agents in the office.
49:02
More almost 99% of the time, that's where they're going to.
49:06
I do not think anyone is necessarily,
49:11
you know, just
49:12
hitting the search engine and seeing what pops up and reading reviews.
49:15
I think they're going to go with real,
49:20
real referrals from other agents.
49:22
And, and maybe a branch off of that is
49:26
if they are seeing properties on the MLS that are beautifully done,
49:32
maybe they and they see that that is buy, you know, and it's listed
49:35
by someone else in their office.
49:37
Maybe that agent will be proactive and reach out to that agent and say, hey,
49:41
we're who did your photos.
49:42
These are great, I love that.
49:43
These are great, I love that.
49:43
So Steve, if you were in thank you for that.
49:46
So I'm going to push a little bit more.
49:47
So if you were a real estate photographer,
49:51
what would you do so that your name spread
49:56
and you could grow your real estate photography business.
49:58
What do you what?
49:59
Yeah, actually, single action or actions would you see valuable?
50:03
You know, I, I think just the same as real estate agents.
50:08
I think you have to ask for referrals.
50:11
I think who do you know that I should know, right?
50:15
Who else is in your office that you feel like could use my services?
50:20
And it is when when I'm telling real estate agents,
50:24
about how to ask for referrals.
50:27
I'm, you know, I'm telling them, hey,
50:30
you got the house under contract once they're under contract,
50:33
and they're really happy to plant that seed of.
50:34
Hey, I'm so glad we got this under contract.
50:36
Just so you know, by the end of this, I'm hoping to give you, like,
50:39
such a good experience that when you close, you've
50:42
got the name of somebody else who might want to use my services.
50:46
Obviously, we are dealing with a 30 day, maybe 21 to 45 day
50:52
time period of being under contract that we have time to plant the seeds.
50:56
And I know photographers have less of a time, but
51:01
if you're not,
51:02
if you're not asking, I don't know that you're going to get to get them,
51:07
can you say that one more time, Steve?
51:12
if you're not asking, I don't know that you're going to get them.
51:14
I mean, I think I think that's what it comes down to.
51:18
So I can't just throw a referral code into your account portal
51:22
and expect you to use it. No, no.
51:28
There's the again.
51:29
There's the seven agents who might. Right.
51:31
But I mean, yeah, I think a majority of it is, is,
51:36
you know,
51:38
I don't think in real estate there is a secret sauce.
51:42
I that's one thing that I have found is there is not
51:48
a, there's not a secret sauce.
51:49
Everyone is kind of eager to, to share.
51:52
Sure.
51:53
Who they like to use all of the real estate agents they are.
51:58
Not that they're just going out there
52:00
singing their praises, but no one, no one is going to say,
52:05
oh yeah, when I keep this photographer to myself, right.
52:09
They're going, you know, they want to share.
52:10
I think the majority. Yeah.
52:13
You got a few that are probably 90 that say, I'm not going to share.
52:17
Yeah.
52:18
But yeah, I mean, because anymore you can figure out what company it is
52:22
pretty quickly. So yeah.
52:24
Yeah.
52:25
So but there are so there's a feel of out there
52:27
that think that, you know, that media company is their secret sauce.
52:31
So what they do remember and honestly,
52:35
this is to any business, you're
52:38
you are your secret sauce, right?
52:41
You are the sauce in your business.
52:44
Right. It's.
52:45
Oh, I like that one to tell him I have to make that shirt.
52:49
You are the sauce in your business.
52:51
You have to do the little things more that other people are not willing to do that.
52:57
You know,
52:59
Steve, if you ever heard any, like, direct feedback from Realtors on why
53:03
they like the photographer that they're working with,
53:05
besides the quality of the photo or the video, is there any like professional
53:09
characteristics or even personal characteristics on why
53:13
Realtors like working with certain individuals or companies?
53:17
I think I honestly think it comes
53:19
down to the ease of ordering and paying.
53:27
Besides professional quality, right?
53:29
So if we're leaving that out, I think it comes down to the ease
53:34
of ordering, paying and receiving deliverables.
53:37
Fair enough.
53:38
Pretty pretty to the point.
53:40
I mean, yeah, you know, and and do I think that
53:43
there is a like a human element like.
53:49
Yes, I obviously think that people want to talk with people who are friendly.
53:54
I think that people want to talk with, you know,
53:57
they want to make sure that
53:58
they are, getting what they paid for.
54:02
I will tell you,
54:06
I was going to say maybe I'll like.
54:07
Maybe I will do it. Do it.
54:09
Come on
54:10
No one will nickel and dime you like a real estate agent
54:14
Wait, what?
54:15
No one will nickel and dime.
54:16
You like a real estate
54:18
I mean, it's really,
54:21
What this 50 cent charge for, I don't understand.
54:23
What's this 50 cent charge or,
54:27
So they want to know what that what they're paying
54:30
for is what they're getting.
54:33
Yeah.
54:33
And realtors, they, they offer a high level of service.
54:37
I mean, and so if you think of that, they are
54:40
and they're busy and, you know, so they're looking for that level of service back.
54:45
And and that level of service is different for everyone.
54:47
So there's not like a five step process like you'll connect differently.
54:51
And that is the human element that Steve Steve had mentioned.
54:55
Yes Steve Steve Steve, as we begin
54:58
to wrap up here, I'm going to pivot a little bit.
55:02
What trends do you see
55:04
for real estate media, like what's catching your eye?
55:07
What do you think's valuable as we approach the end of 2025 here?
55:12
I don't know that this is necessarily new,
55:14
but it is certainly not going anywhere.
55:19
Our attention spans are about that big.
55:21
Right?
55:22
And I feel like the idea of 32nd
55:26
video is, it's where we are at.
55:30
We are this far away
55:33
from the next video at all times, right?
55:36
Yeah.
55:36
Like your thumb moves half an inch and you're at the next video.
55:41
So. Yeah.
55:41
So I think that short, quick cut media, I do still think that there's, that
55:46
there is a, time and place for long form,
55:49
but I think that,
55:53
that is probably the
55:55
the biggest followed by agents getting in front of the camera.
56:02
I think that we are
56:04
in a time and place where
56:08
if there is a product that is being advertised and
56:13
I don't see the person who is
56:14
claiming to have created the product, I think I'm being scammed.
56:18
Because it's so easy to fill in things now, right?
56:24
Like getting in front of the camera is so easy to do,
56:29
and if there is a company
56:32
or a business who doesn't have,
56:34
especially a small business who is not like actively
56:39
in front of the camera or actively putting out content,
56:43
it makes me wonder how legit are they?
56:47
How serious are they?
56:50
What kind of business are they actually like
56:52
producing if they're not doing these things?
56:55
So getting in front of the camera and it's hard for some people because,
57:00
you know, I mean, you know, one likes how they look on camera or whatever,
57:04
except for me.
57:07
Yeah, I know
57:08
there are there are tons of, you know, I mean, that's that's the truth, right?
57:10
It can be really, really, really hard
57:14
and overwhelming and
57:17
my, my biggest thing is,
57:20
respond to the good comments and ignore the rest, right?
57:23
Like, get a guy kind of have a thick skin or get ready for it.
57:27
But I do think it's really important for agents to get in front of the camera.
57:30
Yeah.
57:31
That is that is great advice, Steve.
57:33
Thank you so much for sharing your incredible insight
57:36
from so many different fields.
57:38
We got so many different brains of Steve today.
57:40
So thank you so much for spending time with us today.
57:43
Yeah, it's my absolute pleasure.
57:44
Thank you guys so much for having me.
57:45
I loved, I loved every minute of it.
57:47
Well, thank you,
57:49
Shannon, do you want to wrap us up here?
57:52
Do you want to, give us a little more information about,
57:55
I know we talk pivoting slightly, but let's talk a minute about the Spiro sync.
58:00
Yeah, because we talked a lot about.
58:02
We haven't really dug into it, but what is it?
58:04
You are the brains behind it.
58:06
You just want to tell our listeners like we've we've
58:08
said, and people are like, what is that thing?
58:09
But give us some insight.
58:11
What is this thing that we are going to come to?
58:15
So the idea really like there's a couple things.
58:20
Todd and I got in a room, we were doing some planning
58:22
and we were just talking, and I told him, I said, you know, there's some key
58:25
things about our company that we just can never change.
58:27
Their core values,
58:29
but that's how we are going to keep them and we're never going to change them.
58:31
And one of those was listening to our users to make changes.
58:35
Right.
58:37
Again, I think spear was
58:38
great because we own a media company and so we understand the issues.
58:42
We understand what Steve's talking about. Right?
58:44
We we get to these things.
58:46
We have these relationships with brokers.
58:48
So we get to put that into the system.
58:49
But there's multiple ways to run a business.
58:51
So we need to hear from our users how they're using the system.
58:54
We also can't lose our customer support.
58:57
Just how we want them interacting with our people.
58:59
They are human.
59:00
We want that human to human contact and we just can't lose that.
59:03
So Todd said them to me and he said, well, how do we bottle that up?
59:08
And I'm like, well,
59:11
we should probably have an event and let our users vote
59:16
on what we're going to do in 2026.
59:18
And Todd jumped out at the table and said, yes, that's what we have to do.
59:23
And, so, Spiro Sync kind of came and we we talked about it and we were like,
59:28
we're trying to, you know, of course you want a catchy name, right?
59:31
Who doesn't, Steve. Right.
59:32
You want catchy brand names and, well, I was like, we're we're kind of like,
59:37
sycing up together, right? We're syncing with our users.
59:40
We're syncing our brains. We're sycning thoughts.
59:43
And we wanted this to be all business to.
59:45
Right? Like, this is all business.
59:47
It's it's hey, you're going to come help us out with Spiro.
59:49
Let us know what you want for your business and your platform.
59:53
But then this is a conference where you get to get around like people,
59:57
community and discuss best practices.
1:00:01
What isn't working here from some others and and so Spiro
1:00:05
Sync came together.
1:00:09
The idea really behind how will operate this event
1:00:14
is something that I used to host called,
1:00:17
either rebar or real estate buyer camp or rebar.
1:00:22
However, we're supposed to say it.
1:00:24
And before Covid, these were done all over the country.
1:00:28
They're still done.
1:00:29
I think just Covid
1:00:31
kind of took a hammer to it, and then everybody stopped doing it.
1:00:35
But the premise around that is, can we invite real estate
1:00:38
agents to come and just share with each other?
1:00:42
And we have people lead sessions.
1:00:44
They're just leaders in the in the topic
1:00:47
right there and then everybody in the room is sharing best practices.
1:00:51
Todd, you are a part of these events.
1:00:53
They are a fantastic
1:00:56
time to engage in best practices with your fellow community.
1:01:01
And so that is how we're going to kind of operate it.
1:01:04
But then we're going to add a little special thing at the end,
1:01:08
because who's tired.
1:01:09
And Steve knows this because he goes to lots of KW event,
1:01:13
who is tired of going to a really amazing conference
1:01:17
and you leave and then you never implement
1:01:19
or get done the amazing things that you just listen to,
1:01:24
right?
1:01:25
Like so hard.
1:01:26
So the second half of the second day is all about workshopping the topics,
1:01:31
and you get to choose and you're going to leave this conference
1:01:35
with something ready and
1:01:37
or at least ready to implement or already implemented in your business.
1:01:42
So I'm excited.
1:01:44
It's going to be a lot of fun.
1:01:45
We're gonna have a lot of different people there.
1:01:47
I've been talking already to just different people that are to become
1:01:50
agents, that are going to be teaching us again, like how to sell them,
1:01:55
different people from different, you know, brokerages
1:01:58
and just really bringing, a lot of awesome subject matter experts.
1:02:02
I'll call them into the, into the,
1:02:06
conference that we're doing now.
1:02:07
This first one, I will say it's be really limited attendance.
1:02:10
So the registration link is going to come out next week.
1:02:15
So this
1:02:16
is it's going to get a little interesting, Todd, on this first one.
1:02:20
Yeah.
1:02:21
But we'll do it again.
1:02:21
Like Shannon said we have a limited attendance.
1:02:25
And so look out for that link.
1:02:27
Get in.
1:02:28
And, we hope we see you all there January
1:02:31
22nd 23rd of 2026.
1:02:34
Yeah, it's it's going to be here before we know it guys.
1:02:36
Football started.
1:02:37
That means Christmas is almost here.
1:02:41
Although man I'm going to tell you guys what green Bay.
1:02:45
Oh last night today.
1:02:49
Look look riddunkilous.
1:02:51
Good day Jordan love is not on my fantasy.
1:02:54
And they're going to be in Dallas at week four.
1:02:56
And I like that is just marked that that game is on my calendar.
1:03:00
Man I can't I didn't even I didn't even check my fantasy lineup.
1:03:03
They play football on Thursday.
1:03:05
So I'm hopefully I had everybody in that need to be in
1:03:09
what I had.
1:03:10
Of course I have Daniels.
1:03:12
And so that didn't fit me well last night.
1:03:15
And I actually thought about pulling the cord
1:03:16
and pulling them out because green Bay last week looks so good and I did it, so.
1:03:20
Yeah.
1:03:21
Well, I, I'm probably gonna lose the second week in a row, guys.
1:03:25
Yeah. I'll go down.
1:03:28
You know, we should do fantasy league between a, like, Spiro, like our
1:03:31
just listeners and just like, real estate professionals.
1:03:35
It'd be kind of fun that we all got in the league, and we all could.
1:03:37
I mean, there could be a lot of them, but we could all.
1:03:39
Yeah. Oh, no doubt.
1:03:40
Like how many?
1:03:41
Like, then you can have the champions of the champions of the year.
1:03:44
You know, there's nothing like maybe that's an idea for next year.
1:03:47
Well we definitely should maybe do some fun.
1:03:49
Like there's fun football playoff pools that you can do.
1:03:52
Like once you get down in the playoffs.
1:03:54
And it's like you have to pick the teams and it's kind of like the NCAA stuff.
1:03:58
So we can maybe do some of that.
1:03:59
I mean, yeah, that might it might be fun.
1:04:02
Yeah, yeah.
1:04:03
Lot of good things are happening
1:04:04
I mean the updates coming out are amazing.
1:04:07
Titus is really going to help impact our business as, like, as you said,
1:04:11
a lot of agents,
1:04:13
they have the ability to pay at
1:04:14
close that that's going to be really great for them.
1:04:17
And maybe we can actually
1:04:19
help some new agents get business because of that feature.
1:04:22
And that would be really cool.
1:04:24
Yeah, that'd be great.
1:04:26
Well, Shannon, Steve, thank you so much for your time today.
1:04:29
We appreciate all the insight that's going to do it for us today.
1:04:33
We thank you for being listeners.
1:04:34
If this was helpful,
1:04:36
if you could share this podcast with someone you know that would help
1:04:39
us, it's just a small way to say thank you back to us.
1:04:42
We're here for you. We appreciate all of you.
1:04:44
Be sure to take it. Take time to take a breath.
1:04:47
Enjoy the blessings you have.
1:04:48
We'll see you all next week. Thanks.