Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / Owner Spotlight Series: Warren McCarthy - REPP 2024 Speaker
Transcript
- 0:00Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
- 0:04And so that was like the biggest pivotal
- 0:07thing that I think helped move business forward, especially.
- 0:13And going into everything that's full time was like, well,
- 0:16I have this wealth of time now.
- 0:18What do I do with it?
- 0:19Kind of like the number one answer is as much outreach as possible.
- 0:38Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,
- 0:39managing your real estate, photography and videography business.
- 0:43Spiro is a software platform designed in-house by a real estate
- 0:48media company to really manage and grow our business,
- 0:51but ultimately to help you grow and manage your business as well.
- 0:55So welcome to another week.
- 0:57For those of you that are returning, for those of you,
- 0:59maybe this is the first time watching or listening.
- 1:02I just want to welcome you.
- 1:03We want to help you build a strong real estate media business and,
- 1:06just give you some, some real life examples and stories of how to build
- 1:10that business and run it day to day, to help you be successful.
- 1:14So we've got a special guest this week.
- 1:16But before we introduce him,
- 1:18let me introduce co-host and Spiro owner and founder, Todd Kivimaki.
- 1:21Welcome back, Todd.
- 1:23Craig. Hey, great to be back.
- 1:25I took a little vacation and you got busy, which is.
- 1:28You know, I think it's just great testimony.
- 1:30We get busy to you all. We know, Craig.
- 1:33Craig is in the day to day of a real estate media business.
- 1:35Our business Wow video tours.
- 1:37I still have a little bit to do.
- 1:38So you see us and then sometimes you don't see us.
- 1:42And I know that's the way your life goes, too.
- 1:44So, But it's Craig.
- 1:46It's great to be back with you here on another week for sure.
- 1:49And just to note, I will be ducking out a little bit early because again,
- 1:53I've got some business to take care of out in the field.
- 1:56So anyway, it's going to be a great week.
- 1:59Todd, we've got a guest on this week.
- 2:00We're really excited to hear from and hear his story and, get gain
- 2:05some wisdom, pick his brain
- 2:06a little bit on his journey and what's helped him be successful.
- 2:09But before we get to that, we always like to go over what is new in Spiro.
- 2:15What, what's going on with the software?
- 2:17Yeah.
- 2:17So a few weeks ago, we pushed an update that allowed you to revamp
- 2:22and give you a lot more options
- 2:23with your order page, specifically your bundle cards, the way you advertise.
- 2:27So you if you haven't played with that and you have time, it might be good
- 2:32to look at your shopping cart order pages inside the bundle set up.
- 2:36Now you have small, medium, and large cards.
- 2:38You can put tags on those.
- 2:40You can load multiple photo shows.
- 2:42You can load a video.
- 2:44So we really wanted to give you tools that of how you could sell better
- 2:48and show your media on the order pages.
- 2:50So that's just a to do in the back of your mind.
- 2:52If, if you don't feel like that's a gap right now,
- 2:54don't feel like you have to go redo that, your system will look fine the way it is.
- 2:58Even with those updates
- 3:01moving into
- 3:01the next, development cycle, we call it cycle 11.
- 3:04That's what we're on.
- 3:05Just a quick highlight here.
- 3:07We're going to revamp and look at revamping that marketing toolkit,
- 3:11giving you some increased and enhanced features and flexibility.
- 3:16Also looking at some property website templates
- 3:19and then a feedback automated feedback method for you,
- 3:24to ask your clients, hey, how did everything go after delivery?
- 3:27So it's going to be a two pronged approach where if your clients
- 3:31if everything wasn't perfect and they didn't say five stars,
- 3:34you can say, hey, we want to take care of you.
- 3:36Let us know what your problem is. Call us, email us.
- 3:38Whatever the contact information is.
- 3:40But if that client clicks five stars and you,
- 3:44then you have the option to send them a different message
- 3:46that says, hey, thank you so much. We value you.
- 3:48Would you help us out?
- 3:50You click our Google review, our Facebook review, whatever review site
- 3:53you want to try to get your review.
- 3:55You know, Craig, this is so I just recently went on vacation
- 3:59and when you go on vacation, it was a new part of that part of the area.
- 4:02We went down to Florida and my brother had lived
- 4:06in this community or this city for he just moved about three months ago.
- 4:10So he knew something about the area.
- 4:11And it just naturally, I think we all at least I search in Google.
- 4:17And, you know, I look at, you know, like my son wanted a skim board
- 4:20looking for a surf shop.
- 4:21We want to be looking for bait shops, looking for baseball or basketball
- 4:25card shops like I search, I scroll, I got, I got Jessica got a massage.
- 4:29Like I search and I read through the reviews, I don't know,
- 4:33I think we all do that, but I think I do some weird things that not everybody does.
- 4:38But I feel pretty confident saying that if we can get you or if you can
- 4:42get more reviews for your business, it's only going to help you.
- 4:45I don't know if people even on the websites in 2025 anymore, so
- 4:50that's fair.
- 4:51But I don't know that I do.
- 4:53Yeah, I mean Google reviews, I think Amazon change that in the way
- 4:57people buy online is people want to know what other people think about it.
- 5:03Yeah.
- 5:03So I'm excited about that update.
- 5:06Awesome.
- 5:07Well good deal.
- 5:07We'll keep those, those updates coming.
- 5:09And don't forget if there is a feature that you're looking for in Spiro,
- 5:14you we have a what's called what is a feature base.
- 5:17Yeah. It's true. Feature base. Yeah.
- 5:19So you can create a free Spiro account and there is an option in there to,
- 5:25either upvote current ideas for the software
- 5:28for development or submit a new one and have others upvote it as well.
- 5:31And that kind of helps us organize,
- 5:34what things get rolled out into the software because
- 5:37we want the software to work for you.
- 5:39So there you go.
- 5:42All right.
- 5:43Anything else before we dive into things,
- 5:44Craig, just a thanks to all of our listeners.
- 5:46I appreciate all of you.
- 5:48You all take such good care of us.
- 5:50I can't tell you how many calls I was on this last week, week and a half
- 5:54since I've been back.
- 5:55And everyone is saying, like, these are potential new users of of Spiro
- 5:59and these are clients that are doing 4 or 5, six, 7000 shoots a year.
- 6:03These are large media companies, and they're all saying, hey,
- 6:07you guys are blown up in the forums.
- 6:09I had to hear what you're doing.
- 6:11So that's because of you guys.
- 6:13Thank you for that.
- 6:15I you know, I'm not asking for an unsolicited plug.
- 6:18If you if we do our job and you like what we do,
- 6:21any time you say, hey, I'm happy with Spiro, it helps us.
- 6:25So and you guys are doing that.
- 6:26Everybody's been saying it to me, so thank you for that.
- 6:29I don't say it enough.
- 6:30Just the love that you guys have is incredible.
- 6:32Yeah, and I don't think we mentioned
- 6:34I missed this, Todd, but one of our viewers on YouTube
- 6:37said, oh, by the way, congratulations on hitting the thousand subscribers.
- 6:41I hadn't even noticed that because,
- 6:44I mean, yes, we would love for more people to watch and listen, but
- 6:48we don't
- 6:49I don't track that super, super tight.
- 6:51We've got other things.
- 6:52But me and I, we're I think we're past a 1040 now.
- 6:56Todd.
- 6:56Even since that note came through.
- 6:58So guys, thank you so much.
- 7:01Yeah. Yeah, truly humbled by that.
- 7:03Craig, this is on a whim, and I don't even know
- 7:05if we would hire for this position, but if you're out there and like
- 7:07because we don't focus on the podcast a whole lot, we jump on here.
- 7:11We love doing the actual recording of the podcast.
- 7:13We love connecting with the sphere,
- 7:15you know, with our, you know, someone like our guest today, bringing them on.
- 7:19But we don't focus on that thing.
- 7:21Somebody had to tell us we had subscribers.
- 7:23I had no clue that we had.
- 7:24So if that's something you love and you're like, hey,
- 7:26you guys could leverage this better, or you can reach and help more people
- 7:29by doing these things or cutting the videos that way.
- 7:32Shoot me an email please, and give me your ideas.
- 7:34Maybe, maybe you could.
- 7:36You know, work part time for us and we could tune that thing up.
- 7:40For sure, because
- 7:41we want to make sure that anything that guests bring on
- 7:45and that's valuable, that could help your guys's business grow.
- 7:47We can get out to you and then more people.
- 7:49Yeah, absolutely. Great idea.
- 7:52All righty.
- 7:53Well, speaking of having guests on, we do have a special guest this week.
- 7:58For those of you that attended, the REPP
- 8:012024 concert, I'm trying to remember what year we end.
- 8:04Man. Time is flying, Todd.
- 8:08Go ahead.
- 8:09He was.
- 8:10He was, Well, yeah, 23 and 24.
- 8:13And it was a I think you said concert at the convention.
- 8:16The convention for a conference.
- 8:18Did I say concert? You said concert.
- 8:21But I heard you're going to be performing this year, Craig.
- 8:25Actually, I already had one performance, but, yeah,
- 8:28I, I played drums
- 8:30back in high school, which was a years ago.
- 8:33And, and, my youngest has now joined
- 8:37band as a fourth grader, and he, he has started playing drums.
- 8:41So I've been starting to teach them.
- 8:42And I'm like, man, I kind of I can't miss playing drums.
- 8:45Okay.
- 8:45And, decided to join our local, community band.
- 8:50We've got 90 some members.
- 8:52I'm back in a percussion section.
- 8:53We had a concert about a month ago, and, yeah, I'm loving it.
- 8:57I'm really rusty, but I'm loving it anyway.
- 9:00Craig
- 9:01I have an idea, and I promise we'll get to our guest here.
- 9:04Just fast forward 20. 30s.
- 9:06If you don't want to hear this idea, y'all, and you'll get to something better.
- 9:09Craig.
- 9:10So the late night host, who was the guy who was just the drummer wasn't there?
- 9:14Was there a guy that was just played drums?
- 9:16I know Letterman had the bald guy that was keyboards.
- 9:19I feel like there was a late night host that had like the guy in
- 9:23the band only played drums.
- 9:25Okay, it's not that important in my stuff.
- 9:27I go to bed by 10 p.m..
- 9:29I don't know these, I don't know, I don't know the late night show.
- 9:32Well, I said David Letterman.
- 9:33I mean, that shows how long it's been since I've seen one of these. But,
- 9:37okay, what if you were that guy at the conference this year?
- 9:41Craig? Nope.
- 9:42We could get you a drum set and you could interact.
- 9:45You could have musical things and and snares, and we get you bells,
- 9:49and you could bring all of that excitement and commentary to the conference
- 9:54this year. Craig.
- 9:56Thanks. No, thanks.
- 9:58I'm the guy behind the camera, right?
- 9:59Not in front. I don't think I'm going to left.
- 10:01I really like this idea right now.
- 10:03As of 10:01 a.m.
- 10:04eastern on, April 4th here.
- 10:07As we're recording this,
- 10:08I think I'm going to I think we need to make this happen, Craig.
- 10:11But let's get to our guests, please.
- 10:13Thank you. Yes. Please just comment below if you want.
- 10:15Craig on staying in a drum set. No. Nope.
- 10:18Not happening.
- 10:21All right, so he
- 10:21was a conference speaker at Rep 2024 this past year
- 10:26and, just shared a great presentation.
- 10:29Some great thoughts. And Todd from here, I'm going to let you introduce him.
- 10:33Yeah.
- 10:33So he was at both conferences or two years in a row, 24 and 23.
- 10:3923 was the first time I was at the REPP conference.
- 10:41And this individual.
- 10:43So first off, when he has a presence in a room and I'm just like, okay,
- 10:46you like you notice this guy.
- 10:48And then we got to his part where he was talking about his business,
- 10:53and I was like, there's no what?
- 10:54Like, this is honestly a machine.
- 10:56This is an AI robot that's dressed up in a nice sweater
- 11:01and presents well, and there's no way a human could do what he's doing.
- 11:06So, yeah, it's it's insane.
- 11:08And I think it shows that
- 11:11hard work and perseverance will get you where you want to go.
- 11:15And I'm excited to hear his his business is grown and he's doing fabulous.
- 11:19He's got some exciting things happening to his life.
- 11:22We'll get all into that.
- 11:23I know some of you know he's a good friend of mine.
- 11:26Warren McCarthy with McCarthy media.
- 11:28Warren, welcome to the show.
- 11:32Good morning guys.
- 11:32How are you, two?
- 11:34Doing great.
- 11:35Excited to have you on.
- 11:37Well, thank you so much for having me.
- 11:38And I just also want to say I really appreciate you to having me
- 11:41on the podcast.
- 11:42It is a pleasure as an honor and it's just fantastic.
- 11:46So I really appreciate you two. Thank you so much.
- 11:49Oh, thanks for making time for us.
- 11:51So, Warren, for those of for those listeners
- 11:54that don't know you and your story, do you want to take a few minutes here
- 11:58and just kind of give us an idea?
- 12:00I think it's always people always connect with what made you get into it?
- 12:03What did you why did you why did you switch gears?
- 12:06You switched some pretty big gears.
- 12:08You had one path that was like when you when you said that on stage,
- 12:11it's like, wait a minute, he was going to do that. And
- 12:15so if you could just give us a story,
- 12:17I think our listeners would love to hear it.
- 12:18They'll connect with it.
- 12:20Yeah, absolutely. So I'll start from the beginning.
- 12:22So originally I was geared toward a medically oriented path.
- 12:26I studied at the University of Utah.
- 12:29I got my bachelor's in biology, minored in chemistry,
- 12:32and with an emphasis in anatomy and physiology.
- 12:35So I was right.
- 12:36I, I mean, come on, come on.
- 12:39I remember biology class. I was like,
- 12:42I think I had a degree in it. So
- 12:45I, I would, I would, I would cram five minutes
- 12:48before class for our pop quizzes in anatomy class. I.
- 12:54Hats off to you Warren
- 12:55That's not so that's what he said.
- 12:56He's like, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in the ER.
- 12:59I'm in the operating room. And he's like, I'm editing.
- 13:02Not literally, but I'll let you tell the story.
- 13:04Warren. Sorry. Oh, no. You're good.
- 13:06I was in the operating room.
- 13:07Oh my gosh, it was it was a blast.
- 13:10But I did, I did my bachelor's degree while I was doing my bachelors.
- 13:14I was actually working up at the university in the operating room
- 13:18as an anesthesia technician, as, like a anesthesia assistant, staff, stuff
- 13:22like that.
- 13:23And so with that, I was like, okay, so I'm geared up and ready.
- 13:27I've done a ton of research.
- 13:29Like at the university, I'm working in the operating room.
- 13:32I have my degree, a minor and an emphasis.
- 13:35I'm geared up.
- 13:36I have full ride masters ahead of me at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
- 13:39I was like, okay, we're ready. We're primed.
- 13:42And looking down the line, I was like, I want to do an anesthesia residency.
- 13:47I wanted to do the residency plus a cardiac fellowship.
- 13:50So I've been working with a lot
- 13:52of the cardiothoracic doctors inside the operating room.
- 13:55I wanted to help run a lab with, like, two other PhDs
- 13:58outside of that and a few more other tasks.
- 14:01That's like department head related.
- 14:04And so I was like looking at all the time that I had, I also love to teach.
- 14:08And I was like, well,
- 14:09with my, my background and now museology expanding that in medical school.
- 14:14And then applying that, I was thinking if I could teach at the medical school,
- 14:18that would be a lot of fun too.
- 14:19So there were like four different things that all required a ton of time.
- 14:24And like the effort put in I had no quarrel with.
- 14:28I was entirely happy to put in the effort, but I was looking at the end result
- 14:32and I was like, okay, as an anesthesiologist
- 14:35with a cardiac fellowship and like cardiac training in addition
- 14:39to a lab, in addition to like teaching at the medical school,
- 14:43there was not a lot of time left in the day.
- 14:47And what matters a lot to me
- 14:51personally is a lot of family time.
- 14:53I was like, I don't know if this is going to translate
- 14:56very well until I had about 55 or 60.
- 14:59So yeah, I started to turn.
- 15:02I started to pivot.
- 15:03I was like, okay, well, I've done headshots and like some event photography.
- 15:06I've done some engagement
- 15:07photos in the past, like during my time at the university.
- 15:12And I was like, well, this is fun, but I haven't really found my niche.
- 15:16And so there was this one kind of like hallmark transition
- 15:21where I was helping out a family friend, and we drove like three hours.
- 15:26We carpooled to just do like a once off real estate shoot
- 15:30because like kind of southern Utah ish, not quite to Saint George.
- 15:34And I just got to experience like the whole transaction
- 15:38from the seller wanting to list from like why they wanted to do something
- 15:44like selling one of their investment properties, rolling equity.
- 15:47There's like a lot of finance in it.
- 15:49And then I did the shoot.
- 15:51It was a ton of fun.
- 15:52And after that, just seeing that whole transaction kind of like work its magic.
- 15:57And both parties were incredibly happy in the end
- 16:00and the agent was happy like their clients were happy.
- 16:03It was just a fantastic transition from all the other stuff I was doing.
- 16:08I was like, okay, this
- 16:09I can see potential in it and I think it might be a lot of fun.
- 16:13And so I start to turn, start to pivot.
- 16:15I found, Eli online
- 16:18with like, real estate, kind of shooting
- 16:21and like, running a real estate in the business side of things.
- 16:24And I was always like, well, I want to like run some type of business
- 16:28that I literally had, at the base of one of the trails near my parents home.
- 16:33It's like in, in the summer.
- 16:35It is hot. It is blistering. I was like, you know what?
- 16:37I feel like people would want ice water at the bottom of this trail.
- 16:40So I bought an ice chest.
- 16:41I bought like ice bags from Costco and like, water.
- 16:45I felt like a little QR code, like, okay,
- 16:47it's like a dollar per iced water bottle if you want to take one.
- 16:51And then, alas, I got like maybe $4 and then all my bottles were gone.
- 16:55I was like, okay, that's that's not gonna work all that well.
- 16:59But returning back to the kind of original story.
- 17:02So I started to turn.
- 17:03I started to pivot.
- 17:04I was like, okay, this business opportunity might be exciting.
- 17:07It might be fun.
- 17:08I'll look more into it.
- 17:10And it started out as a passion project.
- 17:12While I was working in the operating room, I was like, okay, you know what?
- 17:15I'm going to start this and I need to roll with it
- 17:18because I need to make some type of transition
- 17:22and find myself in a new position
- 17:25with kind of my end goal in mind.
- 17:28And so that was like, okay, I need to reel back.
- 17:31I need to pull back
- 17:31and see what my other options are besides looking into the medical part.
- 17:36And I found the real estate media side of things started rolling with it.
- 17:40And in May 20th May, 15 of 2023,
- 17:45I had like the official start,
- 17:48official start of business.
- 17:50And that's when I was not all in by any means.
- 17:54I was still working full time at the hospital,
- 17:57but the biggest transition
- 17:58for me was I had I had the gracious opportunity
- 18:02to not only just work days, but I could work nights.
- 18:06So I transitioned to working nights in the operating room
- 18:08and fueling the business during the day.
- 18:10And so that was awful for a long time.
- 18:14Yeah, there's no sleep involved with that, and I do not recommend it to anyone.
- 18:19But it was a round robin schedule of 6 p.m.
- 18:22to 6 p.m.
- 18:24now, 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.. Excuse me.
- 18:26Working in the operating room and about seven ish,
- 18:297:30 in the morning to about 5:30 p.m.
- 18:34working on the business during the day.
- 18:36And that just that happened for like three days straight.
- 18:41And then it was like 72 plus ish hours
- 18:43with minimal sleep every week for about eight months.
- 18:46And that sucked. So no. Yeah,
- 18:52it was awful. But.
- 18:54But we made it through. We made it through.
- 18:56And so and then in 2024,
- 18:59I believe it was March, I believe it’s March.
- 19:03I dropped my hours from full time to, like, picking up a couple shifts a week.
- 19:08And then after about a month, I was like, literally, even if I'm putting only 4
- 19:12to 8 hours into this position position, it's sapping 50% of my energy.
- 19:17So I just totally left it and transitioned fully
- 19:20into real estate media and had been there ever since.
- 19:24And it's offered like more time and more flexibility.
- 19:29I would say, like, of course we're all working a lot and working a ton,
- 19:33but also help me learn a lot more about finding my end goal
- 19:38and spending a lot of time with family and being and being able to implement
- 19:42all of those elements into life now.
- 19:46And that was something that was really hard for me to do, because I'm I'm easily
- 19:50a workaholic and I love to work, do stuff like that.
- 19:54But I was like, I have to make I have to create space for, my fiancé.
- 19:59I do create space for myself.
- 20:02I have to make sure there is that element of taking care of myself in the moment
- 20:07and not just thinking, oh, I'm going to get that later down the line.
- 20:10I'll have like a lot of family later down the line.
- 20:13So that was kind of the May 2023 start to now.
- 20:18Now the status is, Daxi is running the business with me
- 20:23and it's been fantastic.
- 20:25And we have two incredible photographers under us.
- 20:28We're onboarding a couple more VAs, and it's just been fantastic.
- 20:33And the connections we've made,
- 20:35the people we've met, the work we've been doing, and the good of
- 20:39we've been doing for all of our clients has just been phenomenal.
- 20:42So it's been really, really fun.
- 20:44It's really hard in the beginning.
- 20:46But yeah, transitioned and here we are now.
- 20:49Todd ,Warren's story here just
- 20:51echoes what you have said over and over on this podcast about the purpose of
- 20:55of creating a business to make it work for you.
- 20:59I mean, Warren, you just you just proved Todd's point in,
- 21:02you know, spot on.
- 21:05Todd has a ton of wisdom. So
- 21:08you you're too kind.
- 21:10And that was something that a coach
- 21:12helped me on as he defined what a business was.
- 21:15It's, a business is a, a profitable
- 21:19enterprise that works without you and works for you.
- 21:23And I think that's the biggest thing.
- 21:25I wrote a few things down while you're telling your story, Warren.
- 21:28And every time I hear it, I just.
- 21:30I love it even more and more.
- 21:31You said I took it.
- 21:34I wanted to have the end goal in mind,
- 21:37and I think that is so important.
- 21:40You know, you were working in a field where you were,
- 21:44like you mentioned, by the time you got to be 50, 55,
- 21:48you were going to be set and you were going to be, you know,
- 21:50money wasn't going to be an issue.
- 21:55Even before that, in that
- 21:57career space, you know anything, doctor, anesthesiologist.
- 22:01You know, I had a neighbor as a CRNA.
- 22:03I'm like, you make that much money?
- 22:05Like, it's good money, like, but
- 22:08like there you devote your life to it and you are
- 22:11you live at the hospital, you live where you're at.
- 22:14And what those individuals do is incredible.
- 22:17Like the way that they can save people and the things that are coming out.
- 22:22And you talked about, you know, like being in a lab with other PhDs,
- 22:24like the things that are intellectual people are doctors are creating art.
- 22:29It's life devoting, but it's life consuming.
- 22:33And just kudos to you for thinking about the end goal in mind.
- 22:36You know, that is huge with doing that and especially at the stage.
- 22:40Like what?
- 22:41What did your parents say when when you, when you told them about this transition?
- 22:46They were very upset, to say the least.
- 22:50They're very upset because I so I'm, I'm half Chinese.
- 22:52So there's also a kind of like a cultural tie in to,
- 22:56but they were definitely like, what are you doing?
- 23:00Like, you had full right in college.
- 23:02You have a full right masters.
- 23:04You have everything set up that
- 23:07so many people are, like, vying for.
- 23:10Yeah.
- 23:10And I was like, I have to pull back from it.
- 23:12I have to.
- 23:14And it was it was a hard transition for me and it made me upset.
- 23:19I was like, is this the right path for me?
- 23:22And it was scary.
- 23:24It made me worried.
- 23:26Like a lot of stress and anxiety is like, I don't know if this is the right thing
- 23:30to do because I'm pulling back from the thing I'd been working on for forever.
- 23:34Really.
- 23:36It's kind of a paradigm shift in your life.
- 23:40So let me ask you, I know, Todd, you have more points, but let me ask you
- 23:43because I remember making my switch and at the end of that four years,
- 23:49well even throughout that time what I experienced was,
- 23:54just a season of thankfulness like I've never experienced before.
- 23:57What what what emotionally.
- 23:59What was it like for you, Warren, to make that
- 24:02that transition and go fully in
- 24:04with what you were really passionate about?
- 24:08It was incredible.
- 24:09Like, I was worried and fearful at the beginning, of course,
- 24:12like transitioning fully into just doing real estate media.
- 24:18I was apprehensive, but once I was and then like,
- 24:21I can devote so much more time, so much more effort
- 24:24and feel good about all the effort that I'm putting in.
- 24:28And it's just fantastic.
- 24:29Like the the CEO side of things go better, the brokerage
- 24:33presentations go better, interacting with clients go better.
- 24:36And it was just I was like, okay, well, this feels good.
- 24:41And working towards something more I can see, I can materialize,
- 24:45see the building blocks going into the business
- 24:49and things working out for the better, refining processes,
- 24:53going through new things, experiencing hardships too
- 24:57with like hiring or hardships with clients, or hardships
- 25:00with like all other aspects of business that I would never have thought
- 25:04about otherwise.
- 25:05But being able to brace that without devoting other time and energy
- 25:09to a different avenue was really, really good to feel.
- 25:13It was honestly a relieve
- 25:16Yeah, yeah, that's I know that resonates with so many other people out there.
- 25:20Warren, you know, I think we have a lot of listeners that are are dabbling.
- 25:24I would say in real estate media. And that's okay.
- 25:27Most like you said, hey, I took my first shoot.
- 25:29And, you know, I was say, this is kind of a flier basically at this point.
- 25:34And you have to do that with things.
- 25:36You know, we we can never just blindly jump into anything in life.
- 25:40We always have to test a little bit.
- 25:42But one another thing that you said, that you wrote down, you said that
- 25:45as you transition down the part time in the ER,
- 25:49you said those even 4 to 8 hours were zapping 50% of your energy.
- 25:55And I, I think we all do it.
- 25:57We all say, hey, but it's good money.
- 26:00Like it's paying my my rent right now.
- 26:03And I have these school bills.
- 26:05Well you didn’t because you had full ride.
- 26:06But I had school bill, you know like those of you that have
- 26:09we all have bills, right?
- 26:10Regardless of what it is.
- 26:11And we justify in our brain.
- 26:14I did this with wedding photography for a long time.
- 26:18Probably too many years.
- 26:19And I had hired a staff. I was still shooting weddings.
- 26:22I had, I had an admin that was running the business.
- 26:25I had, an a
- 26:27we had a customer service person, and we probably had 4 or 5 photographers.
- 26:31And there was still some of those end years that I was shooting 6 to 8 weddings.
- 26:36And it was just like, it was like, why am I doing this?
- 26:40And it's like, well, that's money that I don't know if it's going to be replaced.
- 26:45And I think that's just that was a
- 26:47thought air on my brain of saying, hey, why am I trying to.
- 26:51No, Todd, get out of that thought.
- 26:53Because the way where you placed it is, you know, you're going to grow
- 26:56so much more.
- 26:57And the idea of the Mike Michalowicz book of pumpkin planning, of saying
- 27:00no to something so you can say yes to the bigger opportunity.
- 27:03So, you know, that's amazing to see that.
- 27:06You know, I'm sure I'm sure that was a nice check for 4 to 8 hours in the ER.
- 27:10But saying no to one thing allowed you to say yes to the bigger pumpkin.
- 27:15Yeah.
- 27:16Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
- 27:17And I was also just like the,
- 27:19I think the year of just taking that full leap that like, I feel most
- 27:23business owners like when they do that transition experience
- 27:26and like even working like 4 to 8 hours, I was like, it's like it's fine.
- 27:32But it definitely took it took me away from
- 27:35so many other opportunities that were there before me.
- 27:38I mean, I was working during the week as as most people do.
- 27:41The brokerage presentations happen during the week.
- 27:43The team meetings at the brokerages take time during the week.
- 27:47They don't operate on the weekends.
- 27:49And so I was like, you know what?
- 27:51Like these, these opportunities
- 27:52I am missing every single one of them while I'm spending my time working.
- 27:57I need to find a way in order to make this work.
- 28:01Yeah, yeah, I think that's so if you're out there
- 28:04and you're saying, hey, I,
- 28:06I'm picking up a few shoots, I can think of a few people I know, but,
- 28:10there's an individual that's a school teacher
- 28:11and trying to figure out how to make the business work.
- 28:14There's some other individuals that are working in other fields.
- 28:16I just specifically know that I've talked to.
- 28:18It's like, and I'm not singling you guys out,
- 28:20but take from take inspiration from your own story.
- 28:23Or let me ask you a just a simple question.
- 28:25Was there ever this like in this moment of like,
- 28:28I got I've got to quit, I've got to transition?
- 28:30Was it ever 100% clear that you woke up?
- 28:32You're like, boom. Yep, I'm going to quit now. I'm happy. I'm good with it.
- 28:35Or were you always like,
- 28:37okay, I know I need to do it, and then you got a little more sure of it.
- 28:41Like if if our listeners are out there waiting for this epiphany moment where
- 28:44they wake up and like the clouds say, quit your job, is that ever going to happen?
- 28:49I would say it was definitely more slow transition.
- 28:52But when it happened to happen fast. Okay.
- 28:56I remember I was in the operating room,
- 28:59I was taking on an additional shift
- 29:02and I was like, it was, I think like 11 p.m.
- 29:05at night.
- 29:06And the shift ended at 2 a.m..
- 29:08And I looked at the clock and like, what am I doing?
- 29:11Like, I am up so late, I know I have to be up for a shoot at like
- 29:16I was like it was summer ish area, I think.
- 29:19And I was like, I have a shoot early in the morning, I am not getting enough
- 29:23sleep.
- 29:23And I told myself I pulled myself off night in order to get more sleep,
- 29:28make sure I'm functioning better, make sure the business is moving forward.
- 29:32Literally. What am I doing?
- 29:33And so it was during that kind of like 10 p.m.
- 29:36to 2 a.m.,
- 29:38time frame.
- 29:38I was like, okay, literally, I'm tomorrow, I'm putting in my two weeks, like,
- 29:42I cannot deal with this anymore.
- 29:44And so I put it in, wait it out that last duration.
- 29:48And then after that I was like, okay, I'm ready to go.
- 29:51So it was definitely a lot of buildup like stress, anxiety until that point.
- 29:56And I was like, it was pretty immediate.
- 29:57I was like, I can't do this anymore. I'm fed up.
- 29:59I need this to stop.
- 30:01And so I transitioned after two weeks
- 30:04and then we were set and ready and primed for bigger things.
- 30:08Yeah. Nice.
- 30:09And did you look back and at any point
- 30:12do you look back and say, I probably should have kept my job?
- 30:16Oh absolutely not.
- 30:17No. There's no way. Yeah,
- 30:20yeah.
- 30:20And there is a fine line there like I, I don't want to be the catalyst for you
- 30:25like more on analyze that very have like Warren and you should analyze it.
- 30:29So there's a lot that we kind of skip through of analyzing pros and cons
- 30:34list in a timeline.
- 30:35So I don't want I don't want to get you fired up today out there.
- 30:38And you, you like if you're listening to this to your on
- 30:40drive into work, like, please don't go quit today.
- 30:43Your job like
- 30:46please just make an informed, educated decision.
- 30:50But I think proof's in the pudding.
- 30:52And we hear this again and again
- 30:53that when you can focus on something that will expand
- 30:56and that has happened, you know, for Warren as well.
- 31:02So Warren transitioning beyond that like let's talk about okay.
- 31:05So you had your focus fully on the business.
- 31:09So like now what I get this question a lot where people say hey
- 31:13I focused full time. I've made the jump.
- 31:16Like what do I do now?
- 31:17How did you wade through those waters.
- 31:20Oh. So I tried to set the precedent
- 31:24very early on,
- 31:27like literally when I shifted to nights
- 31:30and worked nights and then worked on the business during the day, the,
- 31:35the prime concern that I think a lot of people were going
- 31:38through is like, oh, well, like my outreach is like, okay,
- 31:42I might like, hit up maybe five people a day or something like that.
- 31:45And I think five people is a fantastic number.
- 31:48I was looking at that and people were having kind of one calls with it
- 31:52and two struggling with it a little bit more.
- 31:55And I thought to myself, okay, if this is where people's weaknesses are,
- 31:59I need to make it my absolute strength.
- 32:02And so I did a massive a massive, massive amount of outreach.
- 32:06I mean, there was like over Instagram, I was going in like meeting realtors.
- 32:11I was going to like you even even so far as like some open houses, stuff like that.
- 32:16But I ramped up my outreach like absolute crazy
- 32:20during the eight ish months that I was in the operating room working nights
- 32:25and that was the lifeblood of my business expanding or our business.
- 32:29I would say his Daxi is with me in it.
- 32:31And so that was like the biggest pivotal
- 32:35thing that I think helped move business forward, especially.
- 32:40And going into everything that's full time was like, well,
- 32:43I have this wealth of time now.
- 32:45What do I do with it?
- 32:47Kind of like the number one answer is as much outreach as possible.
- 32:51If people are doing anywhere like five ish K a month,
- 32:566K, 7k, I'm making some good money.
- 33:00Then I would say the biggest indicator of future success
- 33:05is all the things that they're doing on the daily,
- 33:07with that wealth of time that they now have, pulling back from a full time job,
- 33:12they now have one either at least 40 additional hours
- 33:16during the week to do an amazing amount of outreach
- 33:21and two to saturate that time with income
- 33:24generating activities like shoots and stuff like that,
- 33:27and scheduling brokerage presentations now that they have time on their hands.
- 33:32Even going so far as like
- 33:34getting like sponsor positions in brokerages as well.
- 33:38Like sometimes it could be like a $500 ticket
- 33:40for a full year or something to that extent.
- 33:44But being the prime focus, being able to do
- 33:46a massive amount of outreach and let absolutely everyone
- 33:50who knows you and could know you know about your services,
- 33:55know about your incredible real estate media, know about who you are,
- 33:59what's your personality, but what you bring to the table?
- 34:02Like who, who you are as a team member and an asset to them?
- 34:06What you can do to help them from just listed and showcasing everything
- 34:11amazingly, and shortening that time from just listed to under contract.
- 34:15By doing all of those things packed into now in a full time open schedule.
- 34:22Yeah I,
- 34:23I think that's so smart in your business and that is, that's essentially
- 34:28filling the top of the funnel and you have to fill your sales funnel.
- 34:32You have to let people know about you.
- 34:34I think sometimes as creatives we can get caught in an infinite
- 34:37loop of thinking, I need to make my photos better.
- 34:41I need to make my video better, I need to offer this product,
- 34:44or this piece of equipment is going to help me.
- 34:46I'm sorry y'all, and I say this with love for my heart.
- 34:49It's not it is not.
- 34:51It is the relationship you have with your clients.
- 34:57You know, just just a fact for you guys
- 35:00at our media company, we shot over 12,000 tours last year.
- 35:04We're looking like we're going to do 13 five this year.
- 35:07We're growing on our best year ever and we continue to grow.
- 35:11And I will tell you that
- 35:12it is not our goal to have the best photos, the best video.
- 35:16We don't need it.
- 35:18It's own.
- 35:19We have to have good. We have to have good, good quality.
- 35:22But once it gets to an acceptable quality, we're done
- 35:25messing with it because a little bit more is not going to get us anything.
- 35:29We have focused our time, energy and efforts on customer
- 35:32service and building relationships.
- 35:34Yeah, and that is why we grow.
- 35:36Not no realtor is ever going to look and say, oh, hey,
- 35:39did you upgrade to that new camera?
- 35:40I'm really noticing how you're able to layer blend those five, seven images,
- 35:44I think really look a lot better because you got a little bit
- 35:46more dynamic range in the darks, like no one's ever going to say that.
- 35:50Realtors, I hate to tell you, like most a lot of them don't even really
- 35:54look at your stuff.
- 35:56They look at every so many listings because they're busy,
- 36:00and you don't ever want to be caught with a realtor checking up on a listing
- 36:03going like, why did that? Why is that there?
- 36:05Why is that bad?
- 36:06So you have to be of certain quality.
- 36:07But honestly, they are busy.
- 36:09They trust you, you deliver on it but don't have
- 36:14don't have the wrong expectations
- 36:15of what quality you need to deliver because it just doesn't work, you know?
- 36:19Warren said that he focused on those eight months of building relationships.
- 36:23Yeah,
- 36:25Craig, you have thoughts on that?
- 36:27I mean, nothing I haven't said before.
- 36:29You know, I, I look at my own media that I shoot in,
- 36:32in my market and it's, it's solid.
- 36:35I mean, I try to always do a good job and, you know, pay attention to detail.
- 36:39But I know even with our within our own company,
- 36:42there are other photographers in other markets that I think are better than I am.
- 36:46But I think what has helped me be successful, just like
- 36:50Warren has shared, is, is those relate the relationship building.
- 36:55You know, I I've been at this now, you know, five ish years total, five
- 36:59six years total.
- 37:00And I've developed great relationships.
- 37:02And Warren, just like you, I, I grinded you know, I was at the, at the industry
- 37:08events, I was at the board events, I do brokerage presentations.
- 37:12I take realtors out to coffee.
- 37:13I get to know them as people.
- 37:15You know, these are people that have families and have kids
- 37:18and they have crazy schedules as realtors and just meeting in them at the
- 37:23at that human point of identifying with the stress that they're under,
- 37:27trying to alleviate the issues that they're facing,
- 37:30you know, in their business, helping them, win more listings.
- 37:35It's all relational based.
- 37:37And, Todd, I, I couldn't agree more.
- 37:39The you know, I read through these some of these forums and in the nitpicking
- 37:44and I and I'm going to call it nit picking on the quality of the photo
- 37:48and, you know, flamboyant versus HDR.
- 37:51It's like.
- 37:54We're having pretty good success
- 37:55not stressing out too much on those things, but still,
- 38:00I don't know if I could I could ramble on, but Warren.
- 38:03And I'm right with you.
- 38:04I, I you're you're on the right track and and it's proving out for you.
- 38:09Well thank you I appreciate that.
- 38:10Yeah.
- 38:10It's it's been, it's been really cool to see like the,
- 38:14the difference between focusing on like the creative aspect
- 38:18and then the business and building aspect, the relationships aspect
- 38:22and seeing all of that come together.
- 38:24Like even sometimes I'm like, well, how do I still create relationships?
- 38:28How do I still strengthen relationships?
- 38:29I'm like, yeah, are there am I missing something?
- 38:32Is there something else I need to be doing?
- 38:34But it's always falling back to like, the roots and like what
- 38:38you've been doing in the past and expanding on that maybe a little bit.
- 38:42And it's it really works itself out and works itself out
- 38:46as long as you're intentional with it.
- 38:48Just like you've been saying,
- 38:49Warren, I'm going to I'm going to pivot a slight bit because
- 38:52and before the show, we talked a little bit about it,
- 38:55an aspect of your business that we really haven't talked a lot
- 38:59about on this podcast, and you agreed to talk about it.
- 39:01And I think it's something that many of us are in.
- 39:03I know myself when I started,
- 39:07the business, I was dating an individual.
- 39:09So, you know, she was with me as the businesses got started.
- 39:13Then we got engaged and got married and she had some,
- 39:17some roles and some things that she did.
- 39:19And mainly she did them because she loved me.
- 39:22Not really, because it was her passion.
- 39:24So I think there is there
- 39:26and there's some times I look back and I'm like, oh, that was like,
- 39:30that was a misstep by me because,
- 39:34maybe the way I reacted or that my expectations of of my wife
- 39:38now wife Jessica and you kind of have the same scenario with your now fiancé Daxi.
- 39:44So, would you like to just comment a little bit?
- 39:49Because I think we have other listeners out there
- 39:50that have, you know, their significant other
- 39:52and maybe they're dating, married or engaged or married, but how are there
- 39:58any tidbits of things that you've learned or how are you guys working together?
- 40:02You have any,
- 40:04tips on working together
- 40:05with the person you love and growing a business?
- 40:09Let's see.
- 40:10I'm definitely not all knowing by any means.
- 40:13So, but what has worked Daxi and me?
- 40:17I'll also kind of preface like where Daxi was with me during the process.
- 40:22We started dating in 2022, like before.
- 40:25I even had a glimpse of
- 40:27like running a real estate media business, and now we run it together.
- 40:31So she handles a lot of like the admin style tasks.
- 40:34I do like, like CEO slash sales slash like still on site.
- 40:40As for
- 40:42and this is still something I'm working on,
- 40:44I ask for dedicating more time
- 40:48to like your loved ones.
- 40:51Like initially I was awful at it,
- 40:54especially in those eight ish months of like round robin nights.
- 40:58Like she literally held everything together
- 41:01and she was like to gave the utmost support.
- 41:05And she was absolutely incredible.
- 41:06And she is incredible.
- 41:08And during that whole process, honestly, I, I would not be where I am today.
- 41:13We would not be where we are today without her help.
- 41:16During that critical period.
- 41:18And she's helped me ever since and ever since I started in May 2023.
- 41:23Like she would make sure everything is looking great.
- 41:26It's like I exhaust roasted beyond belief.
- 41:28But I was still working and she was patient.
- 41:30She was kind.
- 41:32She helped me so much and it starts to break
- 41:37like tears in my eyes just talking about it,
- 41:39because she has been so pivotal to our success
- 41:43and like our vision for the future, it's just been amazing.
- 41:47And I think ever since then I was like,
- 41:51I need to make sure that I'm putting in more effort.
- 41:55I need to be putting in more effort, one into our relationship,
- 41:59but also into finding
- 42:02that boundary between this is work
- 42:05and this is personal, and I'm still struggling with that.
- 42:09I still have clients who are like, hey, like,
- 42:12I know it's Saturday, but my clients or they have like X, Y, Z, reason
- 42:17and I initially was available all week, like seven days a week.
- 42:22I will shoot every single day and then I shoot
- 42:25Saturdays, I shoot Sundays, I'm back on Monday and doing a full week.
- 42:29And ever since I would say probably late
- 42:33last year of 2024 like more October and November,
- 42:38I've really started being able to implement more processes
- 42:42that are like, okay, I need to make sure I'm being able to step away.
- 42:46I'm not available to my clients at 9 p.m.
- 42:5010 p.m.
- 42:51at night, so I need to be much more present with Daxi
- 42:55and with our relationship because that it's it's huge
- 42:59and it's important to me like I realize it is important to me,
- 43:03but my initial mind was like, oh, well, I need to make up.
- 43:06I need to make more time for clients.
- 43:08I need to make sure they're well taken care of.
- 43:10But I was lacking so much in giving more time,
- 43:15attention and care and love and trust to Daxi.
- 43:18And she's been fueling absolutely everything since the beginning.
- 43:23And so she more than has deserved and earned everything that I have.
- 43:28And so with that, I would say trying
- 43:30to find a good way to find
- 43:35finding a way to like,
- 43:36step back from work, but not leaving clients hanging per se,
- 43:40but establish boundaries and like, hey, like,
- 43:44after, say, maybe 6 p.m., 7 p.m.
- 43:47I am with my family and my actually and I don't have kids.
- 43:51And so I know that is that's huge with having a family and being able
- 43:56to allocate time to loved ones and to my fiancé like that is that's huge.
- 44:02And setting that precedent early, the earlier the better.
- 44:06The more that clients know they can't reach out at 11 p.m.
- 44:10or call at 11 p.m.
- 44:11to schedule a shoot for the next morning, the better.
- 44:14So yeah, so I would say boundaries is huge, boundaries is huge.
- 44:19And then also communication is huge.
- 44:21And I'm not the best communicator by any means.
- 44:24I have a lot of stuff that I need to work on, but communicating
- 44:28well and also being able to be like, hey,
- 44:32I have a client who's texting me about something.
- 44:35Is it okay if I manage this real quick?
- 44:37And then we can get back to X, Y, Z, and this could be like a
- 44:42on a Saturday at 3 p.m., something like that, or we're on a walk
- 44:46near a lake or something and just being able to make sure
- 44:49your partner or significant other loved one knows
- 44:53you're not just ignoring, you're not just doing Instagram DM.
- 44:56And while they're talking to you,
- 44:57you know, so it's it's making sure that connection is there,
- 45:01that transparency is there and making a space specifically for them.
- 45:07And that, again, I am not the expert at this whatsoever.
- 45:11I'm still working on a lot of these things
- 45:13that I'm talking about, but it has been significantly better.
- 45:16And so I think with other real estate media businesses or business owners
- 45:21or business owners in general, making space for family
- 45:25and for the ones that they love and care about, I think is just huge,
- 45:30because that's why we made our business to fuel our desires.
- 45:34And also
- 45:36part of that is to help the people around us
- 45:39help the people who support us, especially with Daxi.
- 45:43My fiancé, she's supported me ever since the beginning, and I'm
- 45:46so grateful for everything that she has done, like Beyond Grateful.
- 45:52And it's it's just been pinnacle to our success,
- 45:55to the way we live life and the way we want to live life.
- 45:59That that word presence
- 46:01just jumped out at me.
- 46:04Yeah, because you can be away from work, but
- 46:07still not be present with those around you that you love and care about.
- 46:10I mean, I had a position at one point that
- 46:13even when I wasn't at work, I was at work and that was not healthy.
- 46:17So, yeah, establishing the boundaries to be able to create presence
- 46:21for those around you that you love and care about, that's huge more.
- 46:24And I'm I'm proud of you that you've recognized that early and,
- 46:27and are working to make that a possibility for for Daxi and others in your family.
- 46:33That's awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much.
- 46:36Yeah, yeah.
- 46:36We always we always talk about communication and expectations, Craig.
- 46:40And I think that's just
- 46:41that's a Warren just said, you know, making sure that we set boundaries.
- 46:45That's expected and communicating.
- 46:47And I think if you're out there thinking, I know he's talking to an individual
- 46:50on a coaching call yesterday and she, she was she was at a point
- 46:54that she was just doing everything and, and she needed to hire
- 46:58or she needed systems.
- 46:59She needed, you know, she needed a photographer.
- 47:01She needed admin.
- 47:03If you're worried out there that clients won't use you
- 47:08because they expect to contact you after 5 p.m., after 7 p.m.
- 47:14for you to shoot on Saturday.
- 47:15for you to shoot on Sundays.
- 47:17That may actually be true.
- 47:20It's probably not true. That's probably a thought air
- 47:24if you have a relationship with them
- 47:26and you say, hey, I'd really love to help you, these are my hours.
- 47:29Like after 7 p.m.
- 47:30and they're like, hey, that's not okay with me, that you, you don't leave
- 47:33your family and come work for me after 7 p.m.
- 47:37or my beck and call.
- 47:38Then you need to tell them that that's not okay.
- 47:43You need to.
- 47:44Because saying no to some of those clients will allow you,
- 47:48even if they transition.
- 47:49If they leave, saying no to them will allow you to say
- 47:53yes to other better clients.
- 47:58You know, just a quick story.
- 48:00At our media company, we had a relationship.
- 48:02We have a relationship with a large company
- 48:04and a couple of our cities, and we are raising prices,
- 48:08and we didn't really feel the support from them.
- 48:11Through some of what
- 48:13the way we like to set up a brokerage deal and we didn't really get the support
- 48:16from the company, and we stepped away from one of their programs
- 48:20because it wasn't good for us, and a lot of their clients stayed with us.
- 48:23A lot of the agents stayed with us because we had the relationship
- 48:26and we've been honoring pricing.
- 48:29And they get really good pricing.
- 48:30And it's just it's just way too low.
- 48:32And we're raising it and it's like a thousand shoots a year.
- 48:35And, you know, that's it's a good amount of shoots a year.
- 48:39And for that, you know, there was this pause
- 48:42of hesitation of like, well, what if what if we lose them all?
- 48:45And I told Steve and Steve already had this same thinking.
- 48:47It came more from some of the team.
- 48:49I was like, if we lose them all, then we're going to get better clients.
- 48:52If we lose those thousand shoots,
- 48:54we're going to get a thousand shoots that are a lot better.
- 48:57Clients that appreciate us more, clients that pay more, clients
- 49:00that don't complain or, you know, look for the lowest price.
- 49:03So it's painful.
- 49:05It's definitely painful, but it is what is healthy for your business.
- 49:10And Warren's been talking the whole time about having the end in mind
- 49:14and saying no to bad clients now allows you to say
- 49:19yes to good clients and continue and end with those clients.
- 49:23So now looking at your business in 2025 Warren, what does the future hold?
- 49:28What what what's on your mind? What's top of mind.
- 49:30What are you working on? Where there's some gaps.
- 49:32What are you excited about?
- 49:34Yeah, absolutely.
- 49:35So for 2025 we are in April now.
- 49:39Our first quarter was great.
- 49:41And we are like relative last year to like
- 49:45we have been doing amazing especially with our team in place.
- 49:49We have two photographers slash videographers.
- 49:52We are onboarding two VAs right now.
- 49:56And Daxi and I, we actually, you know, talked about this a little bit more.
- 50:02And like our ideal is I want to have us
- 50:06to be able to pull me away from more shoots
- 50:09because as of right now I'm like, we're not even into peak peak season.
- 50:14And I am saturated with like
- 50:17six shoots, maybe like seven.
- 50:20Some days I'm like,
- 50:21I need to make sure one, I'm giving these to my photographers as well.
- 50:26But two, I need to pull myself out of shoot
- 50:28so I can focus on a lot more of the CEO like side of things.
- 50:33I can focus on more things with Daxi, where we collab, where we're doing more
- 50:38brokerage presentations, we're doing more outreach, we're doing more marketing.
- 50:42And Daxi, actually handled a lot like she handled the entire process,
- 50:47basically for hiring our employees,
- 50:50which took a ton of time off of my plate specifically.
- 50:54And so I was kind of there just like at the end, like seeing
- 50:58some of the candidates that she had in mind.
- 51:00And then ultimately we went
- 51:01we both kind of sat down and went with like our final candidates
- 51:06after rounds of interviews where she was doing
- 51:08all of the interviewing like round two, like round one, round two for interviews
- 51:13and doing a ton of like, the indeed postings and stuff like that,
- 51:17and being able to have someone who is able to allocate that time
- 51:22outside of my schedule a specific way to run all of those time consuming
- 51:26been tasks I didn't have to slow down, which was incredible.
- 51:31And I think that's like a big advantage.
- 51:33Like as a couple working in business where Daxi,
- 51:37she was able to do her part as kind of like the
- 51:41the chief admin, our chief administrator for our company, being able to make sure
- 51:46everything is in check with hiring employees, maintaining employees.
- 51:51And we have like our team meeting every week.
- 51:53And she literally made like a team meeting.
- 51:56She is like, this is start time and time.
- 51:57These are the things we want to hit on.
- 51:59And like all of these other things that I didn't even think about.
- 52:02And so that was incredible.
- 52:04It's great to see that process being implemented and looking to the future.
- 52:08So we also are looking probably to hire our third photographer.
- 52:14Awesome.
- 52:14And maybe in looking toward the future, if we can get to a point where I am
- 52:19removed from shoots, we have four maybe five photographers under us,
- 52:27being able to handle our shoot volume.
- 52:29That would be incredible.
- 52:31Like absolutely incredible.
- 52:32And we have two right now looking to get a third.
- 52:35And it's all I think all about like speed too.
- 52:39Especially when I like hiring.
- 52:41Like hiring.
- 52:42Well, of course, like hiring with quality and making sure those systems are vetted,
- 52:47ready to go.
- 52:48But being able to hop on it
- 52:51as opposed to doing exactly what I did last year
- 52:55and I did.
- 52:57I did a ton of volume all by myself.
- 53:00I was like, let's see, let's what's the limit that I can push?
- 53:04And it was all just a numbers game.
- 53:06I did it all myself, but I was not making time for all the other things in my life.
- 53:11It was literally just work all the time.
- 53:13And now being able to have a team that's able to support Daxi
- 53:17and I in business, handling more shoots
- 53:20like our Wednesdays are absolutely wild.
- 53:23We have a ton of shoots and it's fantastic.
- 53:26And just seeing them be able to grow, being able to do all the things they need
- 53:32to and having us grow as well as a team
- 53:36has been huge and I don't. I think,
- 53:41I don't think
- 53:41anyone regrets having a team in place,
- 53:44especially while Daxi and I, we recently got engaged.
- 53:47We, we actually flew out to China, to my mom's hometown, got engaged
- 53:53there and had a, wow, part of their heart trip in China, went to Japan
- 53:57and had a part of our trip in Japan and then came back.
- 54:01But we were gone for two and a half, full weeks,
- 54:04and our team was there with the systems that we have in place.
- 54:07They were still handling shoot volume.
- 54:09We still had our nice.
- 54:11Our biggest month this year while we were gone for over half of it.
- 54:16So it was awesome. Yeah.
- 54:19So yeah, it's it's been it's been really, really cool
- 54:22just being able to have a team and also looking forward.
- 54:26And I know a lot of people out there might be like comparing themselves like,
- 54:30oh well, Warren's doing this or someone else is doing this.
- 54:34Or like these other companies are like doing all these big things and I'm not.
- 54:38And the kind of like unhappiness by comparison
- 54:43definitely is something I need to work on a lot too.
- 54:47But being able to recognize that markets are different,
- 54:51the things that are being done in your market specifically,
- 54:55or your efforts inside your market are not to be discounted
- 54:59either, like your goals and aspirations
- 55:03are something that can materialize as long as you're
- 55:06continuing to work toward them and like doing a direct comparison
- 55:11to other companies isn't a reflection on oneself.
- 55:15So I think that's definitely something a lot of us have run into,
- 55:19like at least I have specifically anyway. And
- 55:24it's tough.
- 55:24And especially looking at bigger teams like I want to have like a bigger team
- 55:28that looks like this company, but I just have to kind of start grounding myself.
- 55:33I Daxi also grounds me with these topics as well, and she's like, it's okay.
- 55:38Like we are fantastic where we are like, look at where you were last year.
- 55:42Look at where we were two years ago.
- 55:45Like working like crazy, doing nights, doing days.
- 55:48And it was just insane.
- 55:50But where we are now and look at what we have
- 55:52and look at what we've accomplished so far.
- 55:54And being able to have that ground
- 55:58has been fantastic, especially for especially for moving forward
- 56:03to laying the foundation for more success and more things to come.
- 56:08Yeah.
- 56:09So insightful, Warren.
- 56:11You know, I think, as Eli says, it's a lot where as your business
- 56:15grows, business only gets easier.
- 56:18It's still hard, but it gets easier.
- 56:20You know, think back to, just like you mentioned, thinking back to working to
- 56:24shift, you know, in the ER and shooting and doing that 72 hours without sleep.
- 56:29Like, you know, while we all have gaps and things we want to solve the day,
- 56:33you know,
- 56:33I have a list of them over here on a whiteboard of things I want to solve.
- 56:36Like I think back to many years ago.
- 56:38I'm like, oh, it's a lot better than doing that.
- 56:41So it only gets better.
- 56:43You know, I, I think I'm going to just challenge
- 56:45all of our listeners out there to, to start with the end in mind.
- 56:49I think I see that in everything you do, and I think it's why you're so successful
- 56:53is your understanding where you want to end and that allows you
- 56:57to build smartly, efficiently and well because you know where you're going.
- 57:02So I just I love that
- 57:05Warren, I just can't thank you enough for all the insight.
- 57:08If anyone has, wants to reach out to you and check you out
- 57:11or shoot you a message, how can how can they get ahold of you?
- 57:15Oh, yeah.
- 57:16So reaching out to our Instagram accounts @mccarthymediaco,
- 57:21so m c c a r t h y media c o,
- 57:25that's our best point of contact basically for all listeners, stuff like that.
- 57:30And if you have any questions or anything that I could also
- 57:33like lend some insight to, just feel free to hit us up any time.
- 57:37And I'm we usually check Instagram DMs pretty, pretty regularly.
- 57:41So make sure to be able to get back to you
- 57:43I love it!
- 57:44Well thanks again Warren for all the insight that you share.
- 57:47Congrats on your business.
- 57:49And we'll have to have you back on again.
- 57:51We'll get an update here, would you or you're willing
- 57:53to come back on again and share some knowledge with us?
- 57:56Oh, absolutely. It is a pleasure to be here.
- 57:58And I really appreciate you, Todd,
- 58:00for having me on Craig, for having me on the podcast.
- 58:04And it's just been incredible.
- 58:05And being able to see where you guys have been going with your business
- 58:09has also been incredibly insightful for Daxi.
- 58:12and I, we have like incredible goals that we want to reach,
- 58:15and you two are an inspiration and I really appreciate you having us.
- 58:21you to kind of.
- 58:21It's that's all our pleasure.
- 58:24Thanks for everything you share today.
- 58:25And, we will we will definitely get an update soon from you.
- 58:29That's sweet.
- 58:29That sounds like a plan. Thank you so much, Todd.
- 58:32All our pleasure. Warren.
- 58:34Well, awesome.
- 58:35Well, that is going to do it for us today.
- 58:37Hey, lots of little nuggets in there.
- 58:40This is one you're going to need to relisten to.
- 58:43And don't feel overwhelmed from it.
- 58:44Like Warren mentioned, this isn't something that you need to compare yourself to of
- 58:48if you can implement something, if you're like, hey, I connect with that,
- 58:51I need to start doing that.
- 58:52You know, it might be a good nudge forward.
- 58:54So thanks for spending some time with us.
- 58:56We really appreciate you.
- 58:58Have a great week coming up here, and be thankful
- 59:01for all of your blessings and be sure to take a breath.
- 59:04Until next week, y'all. We'll see you.