Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / What You Missed at the Spiro Sync 2026 Conference
Transcript
- 0:00Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
- 0:04From the speakers, all of the speakers had a lot
- 0:07of valuable information to share, and I picked up a lot of nuggets
- 0:11that I can take back home and use in my own personal business.
- 0:29Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,
- 0:31managing your real estate, photography and videography business.
- 0:35Spiro is a software platform.
- 0:38You've heard us say it.
- 0:39If you've watched this, any amount of time.
- 0:41It's a software platform
- 0:42designed to help you run your day to day real estate media business.
- 0:46But ultimately, we want to help you grow and scale.
- 0:49Welcome to the Spiro podcast.
- 0:51I'm Craig Magrum, and, this is a special edition.
- 0:54Todd, our owner, founder of Fearless Leader.
- 0:58Todd Kivimaki
- 0:59Todd, we just came off a really awesome event.
- 1:03Oh, Craig.
- 1:04We did. This is, like, the high of an event.
- 1:05We had Spiro sync 2026, and you all were fabulous.
- 1:12Our goal was to bring you together
- 1:15and to help you build your business, to help you feel
- 1:19belonging with the support of an amazing community around you,
- 1:23and then to help you breathe and breathe as what Spiro mean.
- 1:29So Spiro is Latin for the words to breathe.
- 1:34And that was our goal.
- 1:35We wanted to do that.
- 1:36And man, we left energized. Craig.
- 1:39We did.
- 1:39And the the venue we were at, it was called Air Airline aileron.
- 1:45Aileron.
- 1:45You can never say that word quite right.
- 1:48And it dawned on me finally, I'm a little slow on the uptake
- 1:51sometimes, Todd,
- 1:52but the conference was in Dayton, which, of course, is home to the Wright brothers.
- 1:57And we have the right Patterson Air Force Base.
- 1:59You know, the home of flight.
- 2:00We argue with North Carolina about that.
- 2:02Sorry, North Carolina. It was here at Ohio.
- 2:06But the reference
- 2:08to lift and I was looking at ailerons, website.
- 2:12And they're talking about, you know, helping business leaders.
- 2:15Lift in, in their life, in their business.
- 2:18And, and Todd, you guys, you and Shannon had picked
- 2:20a beautiful, beautiful venue.
- 2:25We got it just they were beautiful grounds.
- 2:28But before we dive into this,
- 2:29I should have asked you this before we started recording.
- 2:31Is there anything you want to talk about with what's coming up with Spiro?
- 2:36Well, I think the exciting thing with Spiro is just.
- 2:39It was great to talk to all of you, and just be energized.
- 2:42You all are so incredibly supportive.
- 2:45It was great to see you. We had some new faces.
- 2:47I talked to a lot of like that said, this was the first conference you went to,
- 2:52and I'm so honored that you chose us to be your first conference
- 2:55and then many familiar faces.
- 2:57So it was great to see friends. You know, I was just really energized by it.
- 2:59From a from a technical standpoint, we're working on a cycle right now that's
- 3:03going to polish off the mobile version of your website and desktop versions.
- 3:08We're going to make video downloading super, super simple for your agents
- 3:11and a few other goodies.
- 3:14But, you know, I think the
- 3:15takeaway from these last few days was just the community.
- 3:19Yeah, absolutely.
- 3:21Lots of great conversations in the hallways between sessions.
- 3:26Lots of great questions about building a good business.
- 3:29And, like I said, the venue itself.
- 3:33Can you kind of just describe for those that are listening to the podcast,
- 3:37I want to strongly urge you watch the YouTube version
- 3:41specifically for this episode, because I want you guys of
- 3:46let's describe the venue and we've
- 3:48we've got some great B-roll of the venue that was just absolutely gorgeous.
- 3:53Yeah.
- 3:53So you to get to the venue, you might have flown
- 3:58in to the Dayton International Airport or driven in through the city of Dayton.
- 4:03And then you go north of Dayton ten minutes,
- 4:06and you get to the beginning of the middle of nowhere,
- 4:10and you turn and you go down some country roads
- 4:13to another country road, and you think, am I going to the right spot?
- 4:17I've been to this place many, many times, and still sometimes I'm like,
- 4:20did I turn wrong?
- 4:22And you
- 4:23turn in to the front entrance that has,
- 4:26just a nice, beautiful, not crazy sign out front like a stone sign.
- 4:31And you don't really see anything.
- 4:33You just see this nature scape, this rolling prairie,
- 4:36and you wind down about this 2 or 3 minute drive
- 4:42in and out of this prairie grassland.
- 4:45You might see a deer on your way in or some nature coming in,
- 4:49and then you take a long left last hook
- 4:53and you see this building like it's just supposed to be like
- 4:58it's grown out of the ground and it's not obtrusive.
- 5:02It doesn't even look that big, although it's humongous.
- 5:06And you pull up and you start to think like,
- 5:09why is this building in the middle of this prairie?
- 5:14And so then walking in same thing, you see a different side of it
- 5:18as the parking lots to the left of the building.
- 5:21And as you walk into the building,
- 5:24there's this warmth and cozy feel of
- 5:28just like home, you look straight ahead
- 5:32and you would have seen Shannon and Amy smiling, face welcoming you in.
- 5:37Typically, it's Robin who welcomes you in to the left as the aileron attendant,
- 5:41and you look straight back and you see the water as there's
- 5:44a pretty good sized pond that flows behind it.
- 5:48See a double entry in the entry in the staircase goes down
- 5:52and just it's beautiful.
- 5:53It's just it takes a while to take it all in because it's nothing in your face.
- 5:58But the more you look at this building, in this facility, the more it's like,
- 6:02this is really incredible as to what they did.
- 6:06The architecture is
- 6:08gorgeous and I'm a sucker for like, wood and stone.
- 6:12Like my dream house will have like, stone front.
- 6:14You know, wood timbers.
- 6:16I kind of like that rustic camp cabin type feeling.
- 6:19This, this had that, like, everything just fit where this building was.
- 6:24It did.
- 6:24And, I don't know much about the architect, but I'm going to look
- 6:28into it a little bit and research, but it really did feel that way.
- 6:33The main hall, the East Hall, was to the left,
- 6:36and it's a, it's, a nice size room with,
- 6:39a giant screen behind it and, details such as nice windows that are up overhead.
- 6:46But then even they have these cool little blinds
- 6:48that go up and not down because they don't want you to see the blinds.
- 6:52So everything is thought
- 6:56completely through in the building.
- 6:58Now, a little history here,
- 7:00not the borealis history, but the individual that built it.
- 7:03His name was Clementi and he was the founder of the Ames Dog Food Company.
- 7:09And he sold it for a couple of billion dollars.
- 7:12And then he started and funded and worked in other businesses,
- 7:16and he was from around the area, and he felt as though he had this desire
- 7:21to give back to entrepreneurs and businesses that were fueling,
- 7:26the local economy and the national economy.
- 7:28And this is a place for entrepreneurs.
- 7:31I have done coaching there many times throughout my career.
- 7:35I would go and do a class that they have or do individual coaching,
- 7:39where members of the facility.
- 7:40So Shannon and I and Steve, we meet there somewhat regularly, and,
- 7:45he just wanted to give back.
- 7:47He was big on taking care of the environment again.
- 7:49Clean dog food.
- 7:50I gave him.
- 7:51The rainwater that is brought off of the roof is used to flush the toilet.
- 7:57So just a lot of really little cool things throughout the building.
- 8:00So speaking of water, there's a waterfall on site as well.
- 8:04Yeah, it's it's pretty incredible.
- 8:05So on the opposite end of the building, down a staircase or the elevator
- 8:10and the complete opposite way are more classrooms.
- 8:13We had three more large classrooms down there where we had the breakout sessions.
- 8:17And if you go out the far door in that
- 8:20wing, you will walk, maybe,
- 8:24100 or 150ft down a path, and
- 8:27you'll get to a railway and you begin to hear this water.
- 8:32And as you walk down and you look out, there
- 8:34is this beautiful waterfall that's in this cave like environment.
- 8:39And it's all natural and it's just the beautiful thing was,
- 8:43this is the first time I'd seen a half frozen Craig.
- 8:46So it was an all moment
- 8:47for me, as it was like it was this beautiful white crusted over.
- 8:50And then the sound of the water.
- 8:52Yeah.
- 8:53When I, when I went outside to to find this because I had seen
- 8:56you post about it on, on our Spiro Sync app.
- 9:01I don't think I noticed in your picture that it was frozen, but when I went down
- 9:05those stairs and came around like, oh wow, that's gorgeous.
- 9:10Yeah, yeah.
- 9:11And it's all natural.
- 9:12They actually looked at this land and built the facility or the campus
- 9:17into the land and orchestrated it in a way that it sat with the waterfall
- 9:21and then the large pond that snakes around.
- 9:24And they have this pond with an island in it, even with a pond with an island.
- 9:30And when it's warm, they have a full walking path.
- 9:32They have a gazebo back there that you can work at, which is just beautiful.
- 9:36And, two woodburning fireplaces, which were just the smell of it.
- 9:41I think they actually it's somewhat gas powered, but it's wood in there.
- 9:45I don't know what they do.
- 9:45I was looking at it because I love a wood burning fireplace.
- 9:48And I always remember, like
- 9:50my mom and
- 9:51dad fighting over who was like, my dad was building the fire the wrong way
- 9:56when we were growing up on Daisy Lane and was a flew open because if you build
- 10:00a fire with the flues not open, you get all the smoke in the house.
- 10:03So like that's a really convenient way to have a somewhat real and a smelling fire.
- 10:09Yeah. Nice furniture.
- 10:10People were gathered around that fireplace and having great conversations
- 10:13and yeah, it's, it was just it was beautiful.
- 10:16And it really brought out the brave part of our conference where I think, you know,
- 10:21there's there's some great conferences out in Vegas, which is one type of vibe.
- 10:26But this was a completely different vibe and feeling.
- 10:29And I really just watching people and listening to people.
- 10:33I think they were truly able to breathe and just yeah, great, great time.
- 10:37And we we appreciate all of you that came out.
- 10:41We know there was a lot of you wanted to come that weren't able to.
- 10:44But Todd, we we talked with some people just to get their first impressions
- 10:50and biggest takeaways, and we thought we'd take this this episode
- 10:53to kind of get attendees thoughts and feelings on on the event.
- 10:59Yeah.
- 10:59And, we're going to play those for you.
- 11:02It's to give you an idea as to what they thought about the event.
- 11:05This was, after day one, and throughout day two, we love doing these events.
- 11:11It's a ton of hard work.
- 11:12Shannon and Steve work their butts off.
- 11:15Yeah, for, quite a few months.
- 11:17And, you all were so generous to come in from Scotland.
- 11:21London, California, Florida, Alberta, Toronto, like, everywhere.
- 11:27Like.
- 11:27And we had this major snow storm at the tail end of it.
- 11:31Yeah,
- 11:33I think I think everybody got home safe.
- 11:36So Shannon had this funny opening line.
- 11:38It made me chuckle.
- 11:39She said, yeah, for many, if you don't know Shannon,
- 11:42Shannon is big on like she's all in, especially with branding.
- 11:45So when she worked for Coldwell Banker, everything was blue, sparkly blue, blue
- 11:49jeep, blue shoes, blue coat, blue everything she came to.
- 11:53Wow. Everything's red.
- 11:55Red car, red backpack, red laptop.
- 11:59She comes to Spiro.
- 11:59Everything's pink now because she's like, oh great pink.
- 12:02I love pink. So, everything for pink.
- 12:05I forgot Todd, she gave me a pink Stanley Cup and I was going to
- 12:08I was going to have that as my is my sipping cup here future episodes.
- 12:13That will be the official Spiro Cup that I drink from.
- 12:16Yeah. The pink strand like anyway.
- 12:18Yeah, but she said on stage she's like, I love the turn.
- 12:20Everything pink.
- 12:22She's like.
- 12:22And then I looked at the weather forecast and I turned the US pink or the US
- 12:26turn pink, something like that.
- 12:27And the pink is ice on a map.
- 12:31And that's exactly what we did and what we did not want ice.
- 12:33And we got it.
- 12:35Yeah.
- 12:35It's crazy.
- 12:36All right, well, without further ado, myself, Todd and Nick Kellis, you
- 12:42you probably know Nick from, helping on board on the on the Spiro.
- 12:46We talked with those of you that came to the pod
- 12:49to the podcast, those of you that came to the conference.
- 12:52And, so for those of you that weren't able to make it, here's
- 12:55a little summary of people's impressions of the first
- 12:58ever Spiro Sync conference.
- 13:02Hey, we're
- 13:02at, the very first Spiro sync conference.
- 13:06I'm Craig Magnum, obviously.
- 13:08And, this has been a fantastic first day was yesterday.
- 13:12This is day two, and we're just talking with attendees.
- 13:16Is that the right term? Attendees?
- 13:18Well, we'll call it good.
- 13:20So just get getting first impressions.
- 13:22Biggest takeaways.
- 13:23I'm going to introduce yourself.
- 13:24I'm Marty Petrick, revision photography of, northeast Ohio area.
- 13:28This has been phenomenal.
- 13:29If you have if you're thinking about it for next year, just do it this time.
- 13:34What's been your biggest takeaway, Marty, from day one?
- 13:37The camaraderie.
- 13:38It's amazing.
- 13:39The camaraderie between all the different photographers that are here.
- 13:42We're not we're competitors, but we're not competitors.
- 13:45It's more like a family.
- 13:46Yeah, it's it's an awesome theater.
- 13:48It's here.
- 13:49Familiar. Familiar name. Nice to meet in person.
- 13:52Nice to meet you. Finally.
- 13:53All right.
- 13:53Introduce yourself. Name? Company.
- 13:55Where in the world are you?
- 13:56So, Peter Tice, Chase media.
- 13:58And, so we're based out of the Pittsburgh market,
- 14:01and, we've been using you guys since.
- 14:03Is it November 23rd?
- 14:05So two and a half years, something like that.
- 14:08As far as the, the event goes, this has been great.
- 14:11Like, I 99% chance coming back next year.
- 14:14Like, barring injury right now.
- 14:16But a snow storm right now.
- 14:18So, yeah.
- 14:19As for future watchers, there's a snow storm coming tomorrow.
- 14:22So anyway,
- 14:24yeah, the camaraderie has been great.
- 14:25The, the lecture has been great, but for me, it's been like the focus.
- 14:29And I think part of it was like a couple of the,
- 14:32keynotes or whatever, but a couple of the big sessions yesterday
- 14:35have had like, I thought it was this problem with my business.
- 14:38And I'm starting to realize now that that's an issue.
- 14:41We'll get back to that. But this is the issue.
- 14:43So that aspect has been very helpful.
- 14:46And then of course, you know, how do I make sure I'll help that
- 14:49industry. It's a whole nother conversation. Right. Anyway.
- 14:51Well we appreciate you coming out.
- 14:52Thanks to both of you.
- 14:54Has been I think very, very worthwhile. Awesome.
- 14:56Thank you.
- 14:57All right.
- 14:58Continuing the, the interviews with, spiro users,
- 15:02podcast watchers and listeners and our brothers from across the pond,
- 15:06let me introduce, have you introduce yourself?
- 15:09Name? Company. Where in the world are you?
- 15:11So I'm Steven Webb.
- 15:12Company is Elite Media Limited,
- 15:14and we're based in Glasgow, Scotland, in the United Kingdom, so I Todd,
- 15:19you don't see this right now,
- 15:20but we might have to put some closed captioning on the bottom.
- 15:23Yeah.
- 15:25Okay.
- 15:25I'll go.
- 15:25Spoken Glaswegian if I,
- 15:27if I speak in the normal Glasgow accent, you want you to understand what you said.
- 15:31Sorry.
- 15:32Anyway, man, long trip for you guys for 22 hours.
- 15:36Yeah. And and introduce yourself as well.
- 15:39My name is Eduardo Chavez.
- 15:41I'm Mexican.
- 15:43But I've been living in Glasgow for the past seven years.
- 15:46I met my best friend here, Steven, and we came with the idea
- 15:50of starting a business.
- 15:51We ended up in real estate media.
- 15:54That's so cool.
- 15:55Yeah, and then in Ohio with you guys.
- 15:57Yeah. It's great.
- 15:57I think I want to get you guys on a standalone podcast just to talk
- 16:01about international real estate media.
- 16:03Yeah. So over to we'll talk in the future.
- 16:05But first impressions of our very first Bureau psych day one.
- 16:10What what were your impressions?
- 16:12What was what was your biggest takeaway?
- 16:13Honestly, it was absolutely fantastic.
- 16:15The collaboration and the support that you get from,
- 16:18you know, like everybody else who's had the same business.
- 16:20So it's quite lonely there in Scotland,
- 16:22there's not many people that are doing what we're doing.
- 16:24And to come in here and everybody's
- 16:25kind of speaking the same language that we understand.
- 16:27It was just absolutely brilliant. Everyone's so friendly.
- 16:30And yeah, I took away so much from yesterday and I'm still processing it all.
- 16:34And I think that, like, if we managed to get home on Sunday,
- 16:37like through this storm, I, I don't know,
- 16:39maybe we would need to come and stay with the UK, but,
- 16:41yeah, when we get back home, I just feel like I'm just going to be totally like,
- 16:45enthusiastic and,
- 16:46like, hitting the ground running and I'm just buzzing to get started again.
- 16:48So, yeah, it's been amazing.
- 16:50Eduardo, who was your your biggest takeaway from day one?
- 16:53Well, I think,
- 16:55all the information that we gathered,
- 16:57all the information that was provided to us, just,
- 17:02you know, shows that we're doing the right things.
- 17:04You know, it's assuring that we're in the right path for success.
- 17:08Right? In our company.
- 17:10We're very happy and very grateful.
- 17:12With Spiro, all the team put in a big,
- 17:15big effort to put this to get this thing together.
- 17:19And, we're thrilled with so happy we came.
- 17:22It's this. It's brilliant.
- 17:23It's an honor for us to have you guys. Thank you. Here.
- 17:26Thank you so much for having us.
- 17:27It's great.
- 17:27Awesome.
- 17:28Oh, Chris, this is the beginning of day two.
- 17:30The morning of Spiro Sync.
- 17:32And, where one day and one day to go.
- 17:36And, would you mind sharing your experience,
- 17:39let the listeners know a little bit about you, where you're from, company name.
- 17:42And what are we doing day one? Okay.
- 17:44My name is Chris Kelsey.
- 17:46I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, and the name of my company
- 17:50is Kelsey and company Red Carpet Photography.
- 17:55I've been in business since the pandemic.
- 17:58Okay.
- 17:59Because of the pandemic, I lost my full time job.
- 18:03I was doing photography part time for many, many years.
- 18:06Okay, but I was photographing people, so I pivoted to real estate
- 18:11photography and,
- 18:14it's been a life.
- 18:16It was a lifesaver for me.
- 18:18So I've been doing it for about three and a half years now since the pandemic.
- 18:22And, because of events like this,
- 18:26it has helped me, hone in on the business and get a lot better.
- 18:31So I'm grateful to be part of this conference here
- 18:35that Spiro was having the very first, first one.
- 18:38So yesterday was excellent.
- 18:41From the speakers, all of the speakers had a lot
- 18:45of valuable information to share, and I picked up a lot of nuggets
- 18:49that I can take back home and use in my own personal business.
- 18:53And not only the, the speakers just meeting the other attendees.
- 18:59A lot of the
- 19:00attendees, you got some, some newbies and you got some older,
- 19:05people who've, who've been in the business a lot longer.
- 19:09So just listening to other business owners,
- 19:14it's been
- 19:16an eye opener.
- 19:17Good.
- 19:17So, I've learned a lot, and I'm looking forward
- 19:21to day two, and I'm pretty sure I'll pick up a lot more.
- 19:25And we want to thank you
- 19:26for hosting the event, and I'm very happy that I'm able to attend.
- 19:30Well, our pleasure, and thank you for coming.
- 19:32You're welcome.
- 19:33Continuing on, from Spiro Sync 2026.
- 19:37Introduce yourself. Who are you?
- 19:38Your company, and where in the country are you?
- 19:41Hey guys, it's Emma from listing Ora by Ambient Visual Studios.
- 19:44We're based out of Washington, DC.
- 19:47You came. Always.
- 19:48I did awesome in the cold.
- 19:50It is very cold here.
- 19:51It's cold and it's going to get colder.
- 19:53All right, so our very first Spiro Sync conference.
- 19:56Yeah. Honest feedback. What's been your first impression.
- 19:59Honest feedback ten out of ten I think the value
- 20:02for what you're getting here is amazing.
- 20:05I have considered doing some other masterminds that maybe
- 20:0920 times the price, but I think you guys need to raise your price next year.
- 20:14Number one, raise your price next year.
- 20:16If you didn't come, you're missing out.
- 20:18There they are jam
- 20:19packing every day with everything you need to really transform your business.
- 20:23So I will say if you're planning, considering, thinking, come
- 20:27and two come ready to absorb.
- 20:30Come with your mic, come with your notepad.
- 20:32Come ready to soak in everything and use it.
- 20:35It's like drinking from a firehose all the time.
- 20:37Like I used to be a consultant.
- 20:38We did it all the time. Awesome, awesome.
- 20:40All right, so what's been your number one takeaway between day one or day two?
- 20:45The thing that hit you the hardest.
- 20:47So for where my business is at right now, I am trying to scale.
- 20:51I am trying to move away from being an owner operator to just being an owner.
- 20:55Delegation has been on my mind.
- 20:57Systems have been on my mind, and the workshops that I've been able to attend
- 21:01have been able to answer those questions for me and allow me to bounce ideas off
- 21:06of those people who are doing ten times better than me and still trying to grow.
- 21:10So one helps me feel like one.
- 21:13I'm not in a bad position for two.
- 21:15The answer is in in reach.
- 21:18Like I'm ready.
- 21:19I'm already doing the things I need to do, so it's just adding that confidence
- 21:22that I need to keep executing and refining it for me.
- 21:25You're awesome, I am, I thank you, thank you.
- 21:27You guys are awesome. Thank you for doing this.
- 21:29Please keep doing it annually, every year, or maybe twice a year.
- 21:32Maybe I'll pass it on.
- 21:33Maybe twice a year.
- 21:34All right. Thanks. I'ma no problem. Take it easy.
- 21:36All right. We're continuing.
- 21:38Just the attendee testimonials and feedback
- 21:41and and, meeting so many great people.
- 21:43And, you guys were, well, you were in my session yesterday, and that was all.
- 21:48So I hope it was beneficial.
- 21:50But introduce yourself. Your company.
- 21:53Where in the where in the world you are.
- 21:55I say world, not country.
- 21:56Because we have some Scots here somewhere.
- 21:59But, yeah.
- 22:00And, just share impressions of the spiro and conference
- 22:04and your biggest takeaways so far between day one and day two.
- 22:08Absolutely.
- 22:08So I'm Nelson Brown with Apollo exposures and we are based in Huntsville, Alabama.
- 22:13And this is our first conference.
- 22:15And the real estate media world.
- 22:16Oh awesome.
- 22:17So we're honored.
- 22:18It's it's been amazing here at Speedo Sync.
- 22:21We've learned a lot.
- 22:23There's a lot of takeaways,
- 22:25but the one that stuck out the most is something that we value.
- 22:28And our company is the faith.
- 22:30The seminar that you did, you know, just taking that being a light to the world
- 22:35through our company and helping realtors and anybody that we interact with.
- 22:40So, you know, Christ.
- 22:42So I think that was a really that was a blessing to be a part of that.
- 22:45And we appreciate that. Great.
- 22:46For doing that. For sure. It's a privilege. Thanks.
- 22:49My name is Steve Richardson with Ultimate Real Estate Media.
- 22:52We're based in the greater Indianapolis area.
- 22:54So Indianapolis and surrounding donut counties,
- 22:56but we do service all of Indiana.
- 22:59You know, humbly, I will say, when I first attended,
- 23:02when I first got to this conference, if you would have asked me,
- 23:04I would have said, my my systems are great.
- 23:07You know, my customer follow up is great.
- 23:09And now that I've been here with other professionals
- 23:12who are more experienced than I am and just learning
- 23:14some of the things that they're doing, it's literally been mind blowing.
- 23:17I'm excited once this is to get back home, I'm changing some things,
- 23:21doing some things different.
- 23:22But I'm going to it's going to be a new me, a new business in the rest of 2026.
- 23:27So what's been your your number one takeaway so far?
- 23:29Like one nugget that just really popped out at you at any of the socials,
- 23:34the importance of working on my business instead of always working in my business.
- 23:40I kind of reached that point where
- 23:43I feel like I was making more with it just being me
- 23:45and not having additional photographers, and that I'm realizing
- 23:49based off my business goals, to get to that next level.
- 23:52It's it's not going to success isn't going to be built alone.
- 23:56It's going to be built with the team. That's good.
- 23:58That's really good.
- 23:59Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Hello.
- 24:01My name is Justin Dickey. I do not have a company.
- 24:04I am a solar operator out of Huntington, West Virginia.
- 24:08When I saw the advertisement for this event, I knew I had to be here.
- 24:13And I'm glad I came a meeting.
- 24:14Tons of new people.
- 24:15I'm getting bits of information from everyone.
- 24:17How they operate their business, what they do differently, what I can implement.
- 24:21And I've been to several breakout sessions.
- 24:23I'd say one thing I really took away was the Cost acronym
- 24:27that Eli went over, to figure out where your bottleneck in your business is.
- 24:32Additionally, I need
- 24:34to let go of some of the processes that I'm taking care of.
- 24:38Either get an admin figure to handle that
- 24:41or, you know, just any kind of help.
- 24:44So how long have you been in business? Just.
- 24:46I've been at it for two years.
- 24:47Awesome. And, excellent decision.
- 24:50Yeah.
- 24:51Very happy, very blessed. Having fun.
- 24:53Tons of fun. All right. That's good to know.
- 24:56Awesome.
- 24:57Awesome. Gentlemen, thank you for taking the time.
- 24:59Appreciate it.
- 25:00All right.
- 25:00Continuing the conversation, getting more, first impressions of Spiro.
- 25:04Think a familiar name and face.
- 25:07We've seen a lot of conferences on.
- 25:10Go ahead to introduce yourself, your company
- 25:12and where in the country you are.
- 25:14And my name is Ian Jones.
- 25:15I own a VM group and we're in Las Vegas, Nevada.
- 25:19Oh, I was like, no, we're in Dayton, Ohio.
- 25:21Yeah, the conference was in Las Vegas,
- 25:24but his business is in Las Vegas as well.
- 25:27All right.
- 25:27Our very first video conference.
- 25:29We're a little nervous obviously being our first event.
- 25:31But on the first of the first impressions and opinions, personally, I love it.
- 25:37You know, you don't get a lot
- 25:38of opportunities to be around other professional media company owners.
- 25:42So, you know, just like the other events that
- 25:44go on throughout the year in different parts of the world.
- 25:48You know, most value is going to be
- 25:50the in-between sessions that are happening on stage, right?
- 25:53As valuable as the sessions on stage are like,
- 25:56it's really the connections in between.
- 25:57And, you know, to just the more opportunities I can get,
- 26:01to meet other media company owners, there's more opportunities for me
- 26:04to learn and grow my business.
- 26:05Great building community, 100%. Yeah.
- 26:07Community and growth is what Saint is all about.
- 26:11You know, it's that's what I have in mind for my business.
- 26:13What was your biggest takeaway from day one?
- 26:16I think the biggest takeaway that.
- 26:17Oh, it's almost everything is. Excuse me for a second.
- 26:20There's there's a lot of there's a lot of people who have the same problems
- 26:24as you do or a very, very parallel problem. Right.
- 26:26And there's a lot of people who overcome the problems that you're currently having.
- 26:30So it's nice to meet
- 26:32those people and
- 26:33just get a different perspective on the I don't want to say problem.
- 26:37Let's change the word to issue, right?
- 26:39Whatever issue you have.
- 26:40But how are people approaching, how people solve, how people
- 26:43move beyond that issue? Right.
- 26:44And the more opportunities you can get to connect
- 26:49with other media company owners who may or may not have had that. And
- 26:53the more opportunity you have to fix that, that issue.
- 26:56Right. But at the same time,
- 26:58providing that to somebody has immense value as well.
- 27:03Yeah.
- 27:04Like, oh, I actually know what I'm talking about that that's really good.
- 27:07What I love is the feeling suddenly that I'm not alone.
- 27:10I'm not the only one dealing with this issue,
- 27:13because when we're out on the shoot, we feel like
- 27:15we're the only ones dealing with this issue or struggle or whatever it is.
- 27:19So yeah, to getting this kind of community is, oh, okay, this is normal.
- 27:24Yeah, yeah, type of thing.
- 27:25So how about you introduce yourself?
- 27:28Company. Where in the country are you?
- 27:30Okay. Hi, I'm Clay whistler.
- 27:32I own Whistler Studios, real estate media and, eastern Iowa.
- 27:36Awesome. Yeah.
- 27:37All right. First impression of Spiro sync.
- 27:39I loved it.
- 27:39You're one. I love the size of it.
- 27:42The room is, like, just the perfect size for people to kind of get into.
- 27:45Small groups are one on one and,
- 27:48talk, connect, get to know each other, learn about each other's businesses.
- 27:51I love the breakout sessions. Yeah.
- 27:54They're really collaborative.
- 27:56A lot of people asking questions, problem solving together.
- 28:00It's been fun to see that. Very cool.
- 28:02What was your biggest takeaway from day one or piece of nugget?
- 28:06Yeah,
- 28:06I would say one of the things I won't say it's my biggest, but it was a good one,
- 28:10was just Eli going through the focus framework in his breakout where he was
- 28:14saying, there's like a little formula where I was talking about
- 28:18this is how many clients you need to get to get to this point in your business.
- 28:22But it was $50,000 and, a month.
- 28:26And and then using this formula, this is how,
- 28:30many clients you need to get per month to get to that point in the time
- 28:33you want to do it.
- 28:33So practical kind of word vomited there, but, you're good, you're good.
- 28:37So basically, I figured out how many clients I need to get a month.
- 28:40That was very nice. So.
- 28:41Yeah. Yeah, that was good.
- 28:43Gentlemen. Thank you, thank you. Yeah.
- 28:45Spiro sync, I, you know, and,
- 28:48what do you think of all this is?
- 28:50You know, it feels kind of unique to me.
- 28:53What's your take on this community
- 28:55event that Todd and Shannon and the team have put together?
- 28:58I think it's awesome. I mean, I, I love your team.
- 29:00Like I've said, I always learn from you guys,
- 29:03but the Spyro and rap community as well, in particular,
- 29:06and they kind of intertwine, are so unique.
- 29:09It's such a good group of people who are just looking
- 29:11to help each other and grow with each other,
- 29:13even if they're in the same market.
- 29:15I love being around these people know, just so growth oriented, so positive,
- 29:19awesome people to be around.
- 29:20I want to be in person with them as many chances as I get.
- 29:23And then just yeah, tons of learnings like business fundamentals.
- 29:27So I'm learning even if we're just talking about,
- 29:29you know, real estate photography, it's like, how do you build a team?
- 29:32How do you build good culture?
- 29:34Get yourself out of the day to day.
- 29:36It's everything comes back to refinement of the basics.
- 29:39And it's so good to hear people who have crushed it in the industry
- 29:42getting up and sharing that.
- 29:44And I think everyone's walking away smarter, fired up, motivated.
- 29:47But also just going to be a smarter operator of their business.
- 29:50And we've talked I mean, we chatted about this, you know, just casually.
- 29:53It's what fascinates me is every rep owner has is like their own little duke,
- 29:59like they have a little fiefdom
- 30:00and they all kind of run it their own way
- 30:01and they all get their brain kind of stuck.
- 30:04So stuck in the way you've been doing.
- 30:05Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was talking to Eli about that.
- 30:07Eli took it global. Yeah.
- 30:09And you know.
- 30:10And what how he he brings people along.
- 30:13And I think Todd took a global with software as a service.
- 30:16The most interesting thing to see with Todd was he
- 30:20set up Spyro in his brain.
- 30:23And then and Shannon will joke about
- 30:25the last two years we've been learning how to make it more global.
- 30:29Right? Because we all are.
- 30:30And people will get into ruts. You're running your own business.
- 30:33You're not talking to other people. You're not interacting.
- 30:35You don't have to.
- 30:36I mean, you watch a pot, you listen to a podcast on your way home,
- 30:38but you got to deal with footage and clients in 19 other things.
- 30:42And so it's neat to see people come in and go, I hadn't thought of that.
- 30:46I hadn't thought of that. And we're just get out of your own way.
- 30:48It's like you probably see people
- 30:49not adopt Spiro because it doesn't have some exact feature
- 30:52for the way they've been doing their workflow.
- 30:54It's like, yeah, realistically, you can probably just change
- 30:56that part of your workflow and do it the efficient way
- 30:58that they design in the software.
- 31:00Or I see people all the time.
- 31:02They're like, I can't adopt, I can.
- 31:03It's not my exact style.
- 31:05Your clients aren't going to notice.
- 31:06Realistically, you need to do what's best for you and your goals, which is like
- 31:10getting yourself uninvolved from the day to day, having scalable systems.
- 31:14And I think like or even, you know, some people are just scared
- 31:17of cold calling or whatever that mindset barrier is.
- 31:19You talk to people,
- 31:20you see them doing it and winning and they're like, oh, I can do that.
- 31:23And when you're sitting at home
- 31:24not talking to other people in the industry, you lose.
- 31:27You don't have that perspective. Yes.
- 31:28Yeah.
- 31:28You need to get that perspective,
- 31:30perspective and the energy that comes with getting that perspective.
- 31:32Yeah. What he said 100%.
- 31:34He said, well I you are the future makes me feel good
- 31:37when when my brain doesn't work I'm like pretty pictures.
- 31:40I think I knew the guy that made that.
- 31:42I appreciate you got the good stuff.
- 31:44Thank you. Brother.
- 31:45Nick here from,
- 31:47Wow. On the, custom client side.
- 31:49And then Spiro, business development specialist.
- 31:51And we are here at Spiro Sync at aileron
- 31:54in lovely, albeit a little chilly.
- 31:58Dayton, Ohio.
- 32:00Me yeah. Bob's mall.
- 32:02The Canadians are walking around with our jackets on.
- 32:05It's like they're gonna get sun at lunch.
- 32:07And the poor Southerners are like, oh,
- 32:09so yeah, we got a snow storm coming, and we are, still having a ball.
- 32:12And here with two dear friends that I had, the, the,
- 32:16honor of bringing into our onboarding program.
- 32:18Go ahead and introduce yourselves. Who are you? Where are you from?
- 32:21I'm Ron, from Metro Shores Media, and this is the CEO, Tracy.
- 32:26The boss. The boss. Deborah.
- 32:28What are you guys loving about this event?
- 32:29Spiro sync here.
- 32:30That first ever.
- 32:31You know, the community, the knowledge.
- 32:34Don't talk to me.
- 32:35I love the I love the people.
- 32:37Most of the part. My
- 32:41part of the business is the
- 32:42heavy lifting, the the shooting, the drone, the video stuff.
- 32:46Not so much the day to day stuff.
- 32:48But when you have got involved, the people from Spiro
- 32:50have been really great at helping
- 32:52and then meeting the people that are in the business and,
- 32:55gain insights from them to help us grow our business has been fantastic.
- 32:59Yeah. Coolest thing. What's your biggest takeaway?
- 33:00Some really good speakers here.
- 33:02High powered stuff.
- 33:03I mean, hey, what's cool is it's like it's the people you would see
- 33:05at a typically bigger convention or conference.
- 33:09And then in this small, we're all getting to know each other
- 33:12that speak to that, like the,
- 33:14the personality, you know, getting getting closer to people that, you know,
- 33:17and figuring out what they're doing and then realizing that all the mistakes
- 33:21I'm making, they've made.
- 33:22So it helps us to feel better about moving forward.
- 33:26Yeah.
- 33:26Things like we, our community, everybody here, we're just saying everybody here
- 33:29has, has had a full bladder and a setting sun.
- 33:34Oh, yeah.
- 33:35There's nobody in this room.
- 33:36It's like you have an experience, but I have everybody here, you know?
- 33:39So we're all kind of a humility.
- 33:41Yeah.
- 33:42And and a camaraderie.
- 33:43Yeah. Cool. Well that any. Should anybody come.
- 33:45What do you say the next year, Spiro saying, are you ready to go be here.
- 33:49Let's do it. Yeah, absolutely. I can't wait.
- 33:52That's been phenomenal.
- 33:53Yeah. Thanks. Love you guys. You guys are great.
- 33:56And you're just up north. All right, great stuff.
- 33:58Hey, guys. All right.
- 33:59More, more interviews here from the Spiro Saint conference.
- 34:02And I'm standing in the company of greatness right now.
- 34:06These are our
- 34:07regional trainers and, vid dogs for, while video tours
- 34:11and our Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton markets heavy.
- 34:16Introduce yourselves.
- 34:17And then, biggest takeaway from the conference so far.
- 34:21All right.
- 34:22I'm Michael, I'm the regional trainer for, Columbus market for wow video tours.
- 34:27My biggest takeaway is how every market in real estate is so different.
- 34:31And all the people here
- 34:32are adapting to their markets and to service their clients.
- 34:35Yeah,
- 34:37I am, Nathan Adams.
- 34:38I am in the Dayton market. I'm the regional trainer there.
- 34:41But yeah, like Michael said,
- 34:43we're just being able to learn new things, other areas of the world
- 34:47and how they adapt and grow and the real estate market.
- 34:50And yeah, being able to network is nice.
- 34:54I'm Craig, I'm from the Cincinnati market.
- 34:57My biggest takeaway, by the way Craig great name.
- 34:59Oh, it is great. No, no it's a it's a really
- 35:03my biggest takeaway is just this industry is really evolving right now.
- 35:06A lot of things are like,
- 35:08brand new to me, coming here and checking it out a lot with the AI
- 35:11and the auto HDR. Everything's just,
- 35:14moving very fast right now, it seems like.
- 35:15So it's kind of cool to just learn some new stuff and
- 35:19see how things are changing.
- 35:20Yeah. Excellent guys. Thanks for joining me.
- 35:23Thank you. Thanks for having us.
- 35:25Man, what great feedback
- 35:26and insight from those that were able to make it to Spiro Sync 2026.
- 35:31our first ever.
- 35:34Thank you so much to all of you that came.
- 35:35Todd, any final thoughts?
- 35:38Things to wrap up with here as we,
- 35:42as we end the near of this episode?
- 35:44Yeah, just a huge shout out, like you said, an echo.
- 35:46Thank you to all of you that came, that took the sacrifice of coming off,
- 35:50leaving your business, leaving your families,
- 35:52and coming out to see us and spend some time with us.
- 35:55One of the thank all of the speakers and the breakout room leaders.
- 36:00It was great.
- 36:02This was fueled by you.
- 36:04People were moved by you.
- 36:05People's businesses will be changed by what you shared.
- 36:08So thank you for that.
- 36:10Also wanted to shout out our sponsors, this cannot be done without our sponsors.
- 36:14And the thing about our sponsors is that these are all people
- 36:18that are extremely close to us.
- 36:19We asked four people to be sponsors,
- 36:21and if one of them would have said no, we would have had three sponsors.
- 36:25So that is just how important
- 36:28people are to us and how much we trust these individuals.
- 36:32Repp coaching Eli and Jared and Aaron P they were there.
- 36:37We think they have some phenomenal things with repp coaching and engine and talent.
- 36:41And, he is just doing some incredible things for the industry.
- 36:45So thank you to Eli and the team.
- 36:48AutoHDR Matt and the team were there.
- 36:51The just what he showed on stage of what's coming.
- 36:54And I'm not going to not going to spoil it is incredible.
- 36:58What they're working on, we sent over a million images to autoHDR
- 37:03last year and could not be happier in the way that he has just changed
- 37:05the industry is amazing.
- 37:08Nick at Titus, Nick and Brian at Titus.
- 37:11And Brian was there as well.
- 37:12Titus pay at close our business.
- 37:15We're loving that out.
- 37:16Wow. Pay it close. Agents are loving it.
- 37:18It's giving them the ability to market the listing the way they need,
- 37:21the market, the listing, and not have to worry about paying it.
- 37:24We're also saving a ton of money in our credit card processing, so huge
- 37:28shout out to them that they are creating these products just for us.
- 37:31And last but not least, Aaron with Cubicasa Cubicasa.
- 37:35We use them and love them. Use them every day.
- 37:37Aaron is a phenomenal individual.
- 37:39I always love spending time with him. Our values align.
- 37:42He's just a great family man and we are happy to do business with them.
- 37:46And we just want to thank all four of them for coming
- 37:48and making the event possible, making it a huge success.
- 37:53It was it was a great time and I really enjoyed talking with everybody.
- 37:57You know, Todd, you did to you and your awesome pink, pink
- 38:01fur coat.
- 38:05You walked into the room and my
- 38:08of course, Todd would do that.
- 38:10Oops.
- 38:11You know, y'all know I love to have some fun, and I.
- 38:13I honestly love it.
- 38:14Like, if you all have some fun at my expense.
- 38:18So I have older brothers,
- 38:19and we grew up by giving each other a hard time in a loving way.
- 38:23And I am always happy to laugh at myself.
- 38:25So I thought, why not a double XL pink fur jack
- 38:28faux fur jacket?
- 38:31Guys, you remember how Todd challenge you
- 38:34to do face tattoos on me a while back?
- 38:38If you happen to find a picture of Todd instead of pink faux fur coat,
- 38:43feel free to do some creative, image generation.
- 38:47You know, AI could probably do some amazing things with Todd's picture in that coat.
- 38:52And please email those to us.
- 38:54Hello@Spiro.media.
- 38:56We would love to see.
- 38:57Yes, I'll print them and put them on my wall.
- 39:00I want some quick funny story, Craig.
- 39:02So the day of the VIP event on Saturday,
- 39:06wake up and go.
- 39:07And I was leading the session.
- 39:08We were planning for 2026.
- 39:11And, I start to drive and I have Nick Kellis with me.
- 39:14I'm taking him.
- 39:15We're going down to the venue, and my tire pressure
- 39:18monitor says that my front right tire has 3 pounds of pressure.
- 39:23Three, three oh GPA.
- 39:26Now I put 10 pounds of of of it was 10 pounds low about a week and a half ago.
- 39:30And when the cold dipped in and that was somewhat normal.
- 39:33I don't have the newest of all cars.
- 39:36And I thought, well, you know, maybe it's just older tires and,
- 39:41I start driving that three quickly goes to zero.
- 39:45I'm like, okay, this is like either something's wrong
- 39:48or with the reading or the tires is completely flat.
- 39:52Well, the tire was flat.
- 39:53Long story short, we pull into the gas station.
- 39:56I try to put air in it.
- 39:57It will not accept any air here. And,
- 40:01I told Nick I was like, let's just drive
- 40:02across the street, down the road and, you know, just drop it off.
- 40:06There is like, you can't drive on it.
- 40:07He's like, you're going to ruin something.
- 40:08I'm like a rim. Yeah. For one. Yeah.
- 40:11I was like, okay, let's change it because it's four degrees outside
- 40:14and it sounds like a fun thing to do right now.
- 40:19We're tough in Ohio like that. Yeah.
- 40:21So Nick, Carter, and I, they help me, we get the tire changed and, get the spare on.
- 40:27We drive, I drive down the road, and, I, I'm wearing this pink faux fur jacket.
- 40:33By the way, there's a picture of me changing the tire,
- 40:37and I'm kind of liking the jacket by now.
- 40:41But every time you walk into a place where people don't know you.
- 40:47It's kind of interesting.
- 40:49You know, if I just pursued.
- 40:51Yeah.
- 40:51I walk into a group with all sync people they like, they embrace me.
- 40:55And, you know, they just laugh at me and, you know, and then the kind, loving way.
- 40:58And I feel good, you know,
- 41:00when I walk in this tire shop is a little bit of a tougher tire shop.
- 41:03You know, dudes not saying anything because you got you,
- 41:06you know, tattooed up and a little bit tougher.
- 41:09And I, I all six foot seven of me
- 41:12walking with this double XL pink faux fur jacket and,
- 41:17I got my water bottle with me because I carry my water bottle everywhere.
- 41:21And I don't even know what this man is thinking, but I'm just like, don't ask.
- 41:25I know it's ridiculous. I,
- 41:28I just,
- 41:30you know what dominated the conversation in that shop the rest of the day?
- 41:36So anyways, that was me in Dayton, Ohio, with a pink faux fur jacket
- 41:39at the tire shop, and then Nick and Carter rescued me and got me out of there.
- 41:43And then with the VIP. But I just thought it was funny.
- 41:45I was like, oh my goodness.
- 41:46I'm walking around Dayton, Ohio with this pink faux fur jacket.
- 41:49I saw that photo on Facebook.
- 41:51I think we're we're going to grab that.
- 41:52That'll be here in this episode.
- 41:54Again, another reason to make sure those of you that are listening to the podcast,
- 41:57make sure you get the YouTube version as well.
- 42:01So I couples all the time.
- 42:03So that's it for me. But I just had to tell that.
- 42:06So y'all get laugh at me a little bit more.
- 42:08It was a good time.
- 42:09We would love to hear from you if, if you didn't weren't able to make it,
- 42:13but you have interest in maybe coming to another event.
- 42:16We would love to hear from you and get your thoughts on what you know.
- 42:19What are you looking for in a conference? In an event?
- 42:22Drop us an email. Hello@spiro.media.
- 42:25And who knows, there might be more of these events coming up.
- 42:28So, Todd, thank you so much.
- 42:30Thank you to you and Shannon for just putting on a fantastic, event.
- 42:34For those of us that are continuing to invest in or in ourselves
- 42:38and in our businesses, I think everybody had a great time. So.
- 42:42Hey. My pleasure. Thank you for speaking.
- 42:44I had a lot of great comments about your session.
- 42:47If you're asking, hey, did you record the session?
- 42:49We did.
- 42:50And, we will, begin to get those edited
- 42:53and let you all know how you can get those if you would like to listen to them.
- 42:58Awesome.
- 42:59All right, guys, thank you for joining us
- 43:02another week here on the Spiro podcast.
- 43:05And as I challenge everybody at the end of the conference,
- 43:08if you have a business topic, something a business related question
- 43:11about how to build a strong real estate media business,
- 43:15again, email us hello@Spiro.media.
- 43:17We would love to tackle that question.
- 43:19If we don't know the answer, we'll find somebody that does.
- 43:22We have a lot of great speakers, a lot of great business owners out there
- 43:25that have dealt with things, that we would love
- 43:27to get on to the podcast and to share their knowledge with you.
- 43:30So again, hello@Spiro.media
- 43:33Until then, make sure you take time, especially during
- 43:36this cold part of the year, at least here in the Northern hemisphere.
- 43:39To be thankful for your blessings and make sure you take a breath.
- 43:44Have a great week!