Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / Answering Viewer and Listener Questions

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Answering Viewer and Listener Questions · The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business

• 0:00
  Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
• 0:04
  one thing
• 0:04
  that I would really encourage you to do
• 0:07
  is don't stress necessarily even the photography, the videography
• 0:11
  stress the business benefit to them, adding you to their team.
• 0:17
  Welcome to the Spiro podcast.
• 0:19
  Managing your real estate photography and videography business
• 0:24
  with your hosts, Todd Kivimaki
• 0:26
  and Craig Magrum
• 0:30
  Hi, and welcome to the Spiro podcast,
• 0:32
  Managing your real estate photography and videography Business.
• 0:36
  Spiro is a software platform that was created to help you
• 0:39
  manage and really scale your day to day business.
• 0:43
  We want to see you succeed, and that's what this software is all about.
• 0:47
  The podcast talking about the business of real estate,
• 0:51
  visual media, and just giving you insight from ourselves
• 0:56
  and from others that we know in the business to help you succeed
• 0:59
  and really take off in your market.
• 1:01
  So I'm Craig Magrum, host of the podcast Welcome,
• 1:04
  co-host and Spiro, owner and founder, Todd Kivimaki, welcome back.
• 1:08
  - Another week, Todd - Thank you, Craig.
• 1:10
  It's good to be here.
• 1:11
  They're going way too fast.
• 1:12
  I say probably the same thing every week, but it's great to be here.
• 1:16
  Exciting topics today and always enjoy a lot of good
• 1:21
  feedback a lot and a lot of feedback and questions from everyone out there.
• 1:24
  So please just continue that. I mean, we love that.
• 1:26
  That is like the biggest compliment, just hearing from you all out there
• 1:31
  and you can reach us at hello@spiro.media, via email.
• 1:36
  If you're a spiro user.
• 1:37
  Also, you can send me a message in the pink chat bubble.
• 1:40
  It it all behind the scenes.
• 1:42
  It all comes into the same system for us.
• 1:44
  So you can address it to me and the team will tag me in there
• 1:48
  and I will get back in there and I'll,
• 1:51
  I will respond or you'll hear from us or I'll say, Hey, great idea.
• 1:54
  We're going to cover that on a podcast.
• 1:56
  And I can't tell you just how humbling that is that you all message
• 2:00
  and to hear from you and to hear how it's impacting your business.
• 2:04
  I mean, that's just I don't know.
• 2:06
  It's just it's crazy to me.
• 2:08
  Craig, we talked about this idea.
• 2:09
  It was your idea to do a podcast a couple of years ago,
• 2:13
  prior to us launching this software,
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  and we wanted to do it to empower
• 2:19
  and to just give knowledge to the community out there,
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  mainly because I've screwed so many things up and I know what not to do,
• 2:28
  but it's just so cool.
• 2:30
  Think of that idea you had courageous couple of years ago and now
• 2:33
  all of you listening out there and hearing from all of you.
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  And so it's just humbling.
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  And we just thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
• 2:40
  Yeah, we appreciate it.
• 2:41
  We don't take it for granted that you're watching and listening because we know
• 2:45
  as as owners, as leaders, your time is valuable.
• 2:49
  You've got a lot going on.
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  So the fact that you take the time
• 2:51
  out of your day to to listen or to watch on YouTube,
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  we don't take that lightly.
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  So I hope we hope and pray that this is a value
• 3:01
  to you and continues to help you grow and succeed in what you're doing.
• 3:05
  Because we love what we do.
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  And Todd, I get to tell people that,
• 3:09
  you know, the realtors that I work with and brokerage presentations
• 3:13
  that I've done, I can honestly look them in the eye and say, I like my work.
• 3:17
  You know, I enjoyed the creative side.
• 3:19
  I enjoy building the relationships with you.
• 3:22
  I enjoy knowing that what we're doing is actually of benefit.
• 3:26
  Like we're we're selling a service, right?
• 3:29
  And there's all sorts of products and services out there.
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  Some are needed, some are not necessarily needed.
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  But this
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  empowers homeowners to be able to sell their house to
• 3:41
  to hopefully move up and, you know, increase
• 3:44
  their their wealth and
• 3:47
  just it's truly helping people.
• 3:50
  We're helping realtors with their career by giving them good visual marketing tools
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  that make them look professional and grow their business as well.
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  So we're helping two different entities and in one, one role
• 4:01
  of being a real estate photographer or videographer.
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  So knowing that I've got a clear conscious of what I'm selling,
• 4:09
  of what I'm offering as a service, it is actually helpful.
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  And I get that creative.
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  I don't know.
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  I just hopefully you guys love what you do as well.
• 4:19
  - Yeah, - I kind of rambled there. Sorry.
• 4:22
  No, it's so good.
• 4:24
  Craig The thing about it is, is as business
• 4:27
  owners, we all have good and bad days, right?
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  I mean, we all do.
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  I have good days and I have bad days.
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  And the thing about it
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  is, in a service business and we're a business, the business service
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  that you don't always hear how you impact people.
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  You don't you don't hear that
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  a couple
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  three states over happen to choose this House to make their own
• 4:51
  because they fell in love with the photos and the video like you don't that happens.
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  You don't you very rarely hear it
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  and just remember that you know, it's nice to have
• 5:02
  I would just suggest that you keep a Wins board somewhere.
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  So what are the wins for your company?
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  Keep those, share those.
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  You know, we do it on our Friday morning meeting and it's
• 5:14
  good to always look back and understand
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  that you are impacting people and what you do is valuable.
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  And no matter, you know, the money aside,
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  if you're having a profitable year or not, say it's going to be your best year
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  and you're going to make a good profit and you're happy with all that.
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  If you don't really impact people,
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  you can only do that so many years before you're like, Why am I making this money?
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  Like, What is this?
• 5:37
  Okay, So yeah, I mean, money is a necessity.
• 5:40
  It's but when you just revolve around that and I'm highly motivated by money.
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  So this is someone saying like, Hey,
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  I typically start everything because I realize I can make money on it,
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  but there's only I don't know, I don't want to go too deep in that,
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  but it really makes you feel better when you understand you're impacting people.
• 5:58
  Yeah, yeah.
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  There's purpose to your work, basically.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
• 6:05
  Cool.
• 6:06
  Well, topic this week we've got
• 6:10
  what was it, four or five questions that came in this week.
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  We do. We have quite a few questions before that.
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  Craig I have just a quick announcement if I can.
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  We're, we're going to start.
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  So you all got a really big update a week ago with the Cubicasa integration.
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  So if you have an integrated Cubicasa, that's all then that is streamlined
• 6:27
  and then a whole host of other updates as well.
• 6:31
  If you search the knowledge base for updates, you'll find those release notes.
• 6:35
  One thing just a just a ten second tip.
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  If you need a topic for your newsletter and if you're a US based real estate media
• 6:42
  company, talk about the buyer proof commission update in Spiro that now
• 6:48
  your agents can advertise the buyer commission on the branded website.
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  So search that in the knowledge base if you need more.
• 6:57
  But just a quick tip here.
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  If you're looking for because we are at the very end,
• 7:01
  you're going to be at the beginning the month.
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  By the time you hear this, if you need a September newsletter topic, just use that.
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  Type it out and send that sucker off.
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  And that's a nice touch point for your clients.
• 7:13
  Right
• 7:14
  So additionally, if I can tag on to that.
• 7:15
  Todd, if you're if you're giving a brokerage presentation
• 7:18
  in front of a roomful of realtors, how how slick are you going
• 7:22
  to look knowing what they're dealing with right now?
• 7:25
  Pull up the your your order website, you know, your order page
• 7:29
  or the I'm sorry, the branded the branded website.
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  Show them they're on the screen.
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  On the large screen. Hey, we know what you're dealing with.
• 7:37
  Look at what we can provide for you
• 7:39
  that's going to set you apart from other photographers.
• 7:42
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 7:43
  And this is a big one, too, right, Craig?
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  I mean, this wasn't just a small change.
• 7:47
  This is like, Hey, we updated section 14 of the contract.
• 7:52
  I mean, this was like a big change.
• 7:54
  Yeah, Yeah. awesome.
• 7:57
  Also, we are going to I'm going to be hosting
• 8:00
  we're calling them tech talks with Todd.
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  I said it correctly that time.
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  I am on the first and the third
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  Thursday of the month at 4:30 p.m.
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  Eastern in the Spiro Superuser Facebook group.
• 8:15
  So if you are a Spiro user and you have not joined that group,
• 8:19
  please join.
• 8:20
  If you're not a spiro user, sign up for free spiro.media,
• 8:24
  then join the Facebook group.
• 8:26
  And I'm just going to host on there.
• 8:28
  Anything tech related?
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  We might hit a little tangent and pivot
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  and talk the business of real estate photography.
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  And also my goal with this is I want to spend time, more time with you all.
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  And this is one thing I shared a week or two ago that when,
• 8:44
  you know, years ago when we just launched Spiro I,
• 8:48
  it was Craig and I and we were connecting with you
• 8:52
  all on a very personal level, and I don't get that as much anymore.
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  You know, I show up in the chat when I can and I,
• 9:02
  I love talking to you and this is kind of how am I, how to use.
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  The other day I was like, I got a question, Is this really Todd
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  That's just so humbling.
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  It's like I'm just sitting here working like, yes, this is like, it's it's crazy,
• 9:16
  but I want to connect with you.
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  I want to hear I want to hear what we can do to make your job easier,
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  not only from a software standpoint, but from a business standpoint.
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  And how can we leverage
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  the 20 years of knowledge that we have with a team that we have and and,
• 9:30
  you know, the efficiency flows that we have to help all of you.
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  So come join me.
• 9:36
  The first and the third Thursday of the month in the Facebook
• 9:39
  Spiro Superuser Facebook group 4:30 Eastern.
• 9:44
  Also, if you are new to Spiro and you are trying to just figure out
• 9:49
  what it's all about and you want to know more about it,
• 9:52
  you're welcome to join my tech talks.
• 9:55
  Also, Nick Kellis, who does a lot
• 9:58
  of our client outreach at Spiro, he is going to be hosting
• 10:02
  group demos and he is on the first and the third Wednesday of the month.
• 10:08
  He's still at that time 4:30 Eastern.
• 10:10
  So if you'd like to be included in that, we will send you an invite.
• 10:14
  We're doing a Zoom invite on that.
• 10:15
  So just hit us in the pink chat bubble.
• 10:18
  You can come once, twice.
• 10:19
  You come every time. Nick's a great individual.
• 10:21
  I've known him for a lot of years.
• 10:23
  He worked in the the TV and film production industry out in L.A.
• 10:28
  for about 25 years.
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  So he did everything from Power Rangers to Wife Swap to LA Ink.
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  And he has a ton of knowledge in production.
• 10:38
  He's a fun individual to talk to
• 10:39
  and he's got a lot of knowledge about Spiro as well.
• 10:41
  So those are some opportunities for you all out there to take advantage of
• 10:46
  and come connect with us on a a live person to person conversation.
• 10:50
  So we're going to be in there and we would love to have you again
• 10:54
  the first and the third Wednesday and Thursday at 4:30 Eastern
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  and then can sign up for that group demo via the pink chat bubble in the system.
• 11:03
  The pink chat bubble will send you the invite.
• 11:05
  Okay, perfect.
• 11:06
  We'll put notes on this in the show notes so that you have access to
• 11:11
  that information. All right,
• 11:14
  cool.
• 11:14
  All right.
• 11:16
  Yeah.
• 11:17
  So a lot of massive updates with Spiro last week.
• 11:19
  Any anything new or anything more that you want to add before we jump into things?
• 11:25
  What we're working on.
• 11:26
  So reshoots is the big thing that we're working on
• 11:28
  and that's going through the the, the back end APIs are all done.
• 11:32
  We've got a we're working on the front end of that now.
• 11:35
  That's design and then coding also just a few small fineses like Cubicasa
• 11:40
  with the integration currently, you need to have Dropbox integrated
• 11:43
  because what the integration does is Cubicasa, it gives it the Dropbox.
• 11:47
  Then we pull it from Dropbox to the property website.
• 11:50
  Some of you are like, Hey, I don't use Dropbox
• 11:52
  and we're coming up with a pivot there to where we'll pull it directly from Cubicasa.
• 11:57
  into the property website there that things coming
• 12:00
  some different import options so how long
• 12:03
  we import media for and also a button
• 12:06
  So if you upload photos and you're waiting for that auto import to happen
• 12:11
  or video or floorplans, we're going to give you a button
• 12:15
  where you can say import now
• 12:17
  and then Spiro will go out and check those folders in Dropbox
• 12:20
  and bring it all back in.
• 12:21
  So other finesses as well, some UI, some UX things, some mobile things,
• 12:26
  but those are the most notable that we're working on behind the scenes right now.
• 12:29
  Awesome.
• 12:31
  Good deal. Always moving forward.
• 12:33
  You guys continue to bring some great ideas,
• 12:35
  so we just want to say thank you for that.
• 12:36
  Yes, thank you.
• 12:38
  All right.
• 12:39
  Well, Todd, we were discussing before the podcast the topic for the week,
• 12:44
  and you said, well, we got a bunch of listener questions,
• 12:48
  viewer questions, and we'd love that again,
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  if you do have a business question about real estate media,
• 12:55
  we can we can tackle creative, but that's not really our forte.
• 12:58
  There's a lot of other great real estate photographers and videographers
• 13:02
  that talk about the creative side. We're talking about the business.
• 13:05
  So if you have a business question, let us know.
• 13:07
  hello@spiro.media and we would love to hear from you.
• 13:11
  So we've got like four or five questions that came in Todd so.
• 13:15
  and if we don't get your question this week, if you've sent something in
• 13:18
  Sorry, Craig, if you said something, then we will get to you.
• 13:21
  Keep sending them in.
• 13:22
  So if we didn't get to you, we apologize.
• 13:24
  But we picked four or five this week.
• 13:26
  Yeah.
• 13:27
  So we're going to we're reading these a little bit called and
• 13:30
  we're just going to give you a honest feedback and and thoughts.
• 13:33
  And I might get stumped at one point, Todd, but we'll see.
• 13:37
  All right.
• 13:38
  So our first question comes from Robert
• 13:42
  from Zenon Media or Zenon Media.
• 13:45
  Hopefully I pronounce that correct.
• 13:48
  He said One main question I know you have.
• 13:52
  Okay, Robert, come on.
• 13:54
  Is that I know you're more important things
• 13:55
  to do with our time than just respond to this.
• 13:57
  First of all, this is what we love to do.
• 13:59
  This is important to us. That's why we do it.
• 14:01
  So don't don't put yourself down there.
• 14:04
  During the Workflows podcast, you mentioned organizing your photos
• 14:08
  for delivery.
• 14:09
  So front of the house, interior front entry, family room, etc.
• 14:13
  What would you recommend when it's a ranch style house
• 14:16
  with everything on a single floor when the flow of the house doesn't
• 14:19
  necessarily go in order from family room to master bedroom, etc..
• 14:23
  Do you have a general opinion?
• 14:26
  Not no.
• 14:27
  Most important to most important to least important shots.
• 14:32
  Yeah.
• 14:32
  - Robert, Yeah. So yeah - good question.
• 14:36
  Craig, We'll just I'll do an answer, you do an answer, we'll just kind of
• 14:38
  go back and forth.
• 14:40
  My quick answer is you have to, of course the front exterior is the most important.
• 14:45
  Then you have to show the entryway.
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  You have to
• 14:47
  you just have to show people what where they're coming in the front door.
• 14:51
  From there you have to decide what is the most important.
• 14:54
  So if there is a okay Den up front.
• 14:59
  But there's a fabulous open family
• 15:01
  room kitchen that's down the hallway straight ahead.
• 15:05
  I go and show the most important.
• 15:08
  I show that we should say, get to the meat and potatoes.
• 15:10
  Okay, Get to the main course.
• 15:13
  But you have to show where that door is coming in.
• 15:15
  I just it throws me.
• 15:17
  If I can't see the front door, the inside, the foyer.
• 15:20
  So get to the meat and potatoes.
• 15:21
  That would be main living areas.
• 15:23
  And then from there, after your main living areas, even if you're going out
• 15:27
  order, you can circle back to you could circle back to the den then.
• 15:31
  So that's still a main living area.
• 15:33
  Then go to your master bedroom, master bath,
• 15:36
  bedroom, bathroom, bedroom, bathroom, toggle
• 15:39
  those back and forth as many bedrooms and bathrooms as you have,
• 15:43
  then come back up and hit the non main items
• 15:46
  which would be a half bath, a laundry room, a mud room.
• 15:50
  Check your Spiro notes.
• 15:51
  Do they want the inside the garage?
• 15:53
  If so, this is what I shoot it.
• 15:55
  Then go backyard.
• 15:56
  Take the best shot first and work your way back in.
• 15:59
  Yeah.
• 16:00
  For me, it doesn't really matter if it's a two story, three story house or a ranch,
• 16:05
  it's still going to be
• 16:05
  the most important rooms in the house in terms of ordering it.
• 16:10
  And you might have to shoot out of order if the house isn't ready.
• 16:13
  Then you go back in in your post when you get home
• 16:16
  and you upload all those photos, you just have to rearrange the photos.
• 16:20
  If if you had happened to have to shoot out of order.
• 16:24
  But yep. Yeah.
• 16:25
  And we we have a guide on that.
• 16:26
  So if you go to the support support.spiro.media search
• 16:30
  after shoot workflow, I did a full video showing you all the software we use.
• 16:35
  There's nothing you have to buy. It's Adobe Bridge, it's free.
• 16:38
  This is literally 20 years of streamlining this and going
• 16:41
  as most efficient possible.
• 16:43
  So just steal that, do it. It works.
• 16:45
  I'm telling you, we do it for 12,000 plus jobs a year.
• 16:48
  30 Some people do it. It works.
• 16:50
  Your photographers will do it.
• 16:52
  Just just clone that. Yeah.
• 16:55
  Let me tack on to Robert's question real quick.
• 16:57
  Tod, would you say there's a difference
• 16:59
  between photos and video in terms of order of the house?
• 17:03
  - Say, for a ranch, - I would, yes.
• 17:05
  So photos are I'm going to go in that order video.
• 17:09
  I'm going to tweak a little bit because
• 17:11
  I like.
• 17:12
  So we do what we call a walk through cinematic.
• 17:15
  That's the way the Merge fleet, a cinematic walkthrough.
• 17:18
  That's the way the Merge fleet was built to edit.
• 17:20
  And that's what we use.
• 17:21
  And even if you don't use the merge fleet,
• 17:23
  I think it's important that you can't disconnect people.
• 17:26
  They need to be able to draw a floor plan after they watch the video.
• 17:30
  So if you ping pong back and forth, it's disconnected for a viewer.
• 17:36
  So you have to go more and more walking in order.
• 17:38
  So let's quickly take the example where you shoot the inside foyer
• 17:42
  but you go to the meat and potatoes of the house, the family room and the kitchen.
• 17:46
  Typically that area is connected
• 17:49
  via a small little hallway or a wet, dry bar
• 17:54
  back to your dining room or your den so you can get back to it.
• 17:58
  Typically, you don't get to a dead end.
• 18:00
  And then from there
• 18:01
  you can circle back to your den
• 18:02
  and then you can walk down the hallway to the master.
• 18:05
  Craig did you do anything different?
• 18:07
  No that's pretty much it.
• 18:09
  I still
• 18:10
  train front load, you know, the most important spaces, but again,
• 18:14
  because we're trying to lay out the floor plan, it really is the same idea
• 18:17
  as photos, at least to me, is I'm going to show where I've come from
• 18:20
  or I'm going to start outside that space so that contextually
• 18:23
  they know where they're starting from before we move into the new space.
• 18:28
  Yeah.
• 18:28
  And then that is just
• 18:29
  a mix of the walking shots and then your cinematic detail type shots.
• 18:34
  Yeah.
• 18:34
  Let's take this one step further, Craig, because we get asked all the time
• 18:38
  about our training curriculum and, and I think it's the best in the industry
• 18:43
  and we're trying to figure out how we can package it to allow you guys to use it.
• 18:46
  But I want to give if you're building your own curriculum right now,
• 18:49
  we just want to give you some variables.
• 18:51
  And this is if you're training a team, some verbals we use is with the order.
• 18:57
  Get to the meat and potatoes.
• 18:59
  So it works for us here in the Midwest.
• 19:02
  That's like the main course.
• 19:03
  You know, that's that's the most important thing first.
• 19:06
  And then when you're inside of a room and even in a house,
• 19:10
  we always ask, what are you selling?
• 19:13
  And does it look good
• 19:15
  With this photo?
• 19:17
  With this video, what are you selling?
• 19:19
  And did you make it look good?
• 19:21
  So those are two verbals that we use.
• 19:24
  Feel free to use those.
• 19:25
  Put those into your training guide.
• 19:27
  Any other verbals
• 19:28
  that I I'm sure we have some, Craig, but anything else that I missed out on?
• 19:32
  Uh, I'm trying to think of some, you know, some of our phrases.
• 19:36
  Nothing's come to mind right off the top of my head.
• 19:38
  But that that's the gist of it.
• 19:40
  Yeah, a quick one. Yesterday
• 19:43
  that guys, I was talking to Brittany, who is our head of customer support.
• 19:47
  at Wow. And she we had a client
• 19:50
  that sent in their own photo and they wanted to Greengrass themselves.
• 19:54
  So this was an assistant for one of our largest agents and she
• 19:58
  she first called in and asked for some tips and tricks
• 20:02
  on how to do Greengrass in Canva.
• 20:05
  And Brittany was very kind like, well, we do not we don't use Canva
• 20:09
  to do Greengrass
• 20:10
  You know, we actually do that Photoshop and, you know, some other programs and,
• 20:14
  and she's like, okay, well, I'm going to send it to you.
• 20:15
  So she sends in this. GREENGRASS And
• 20:19
  the all that I mean you would just imagine grass is terrible.
• 20:21
  I get you know, like it's like green crayon
• 20:24
  on the backyard and Brittany's
• 20:28
  like can I even, can I even put this on the website?
• 20:32
  Like, what if people see this and they think it’s our photos?
• 20:35
  I'm like, Brittany might give you a verbal use.
• 20:38
  Give the people what they want.
• 20:41
  We've said that for years.
• 20:42
  There has to be a point in your business to where you just give them
• 20:45
  what they want, because now we have to fight the individual.
• 20:49
  They wanted to save $10 on.
• 20:51
  green grass. Okay, that's fine.
• 20:53
  I'm I'm not hating them for that.
• 20:56
  That's their choice.
• 20:57
  They're great clients of ours,
• 20:59
  if that's what they want, we have to give it to them.
• 21:01
  You can only try so hard and care more.
• 21:04
  And if that's just not their priority, this assistant, she want to save money
• 21:10
  and she didn't.
• 21:10
  She was happy with the Green grass
• 21:12
  over spending it to have us do it in a professional way.
• 21:16
  So give the people what they want.
• 21:18
  At some point you just do what they want
• 21:20
  And sometimes you have to be careful.
• 21:22
  Like whatever market this was for us, evidently they're allowed
• 21:28
  to green the grass, but like in my market, our board doesn't allow grass greening.
• 21:33
  So what I always do is I've gotten that request a couple of times.
• 21:36
  I'm like, they ask, Can you do can you green the grass up?
• 21:39
  I'm like, We're able to yes, we have the technical
• 21:45
  expertise to be able to do so.
• 21:46
  However, just just to educate real quick,
• 21:50
  the board actually does not allow exterior
• 21:52
  editing other than sky replacements.
• 21:56
  So in if it's caught, there is a potential for a fine.
• 22:00
  So I just want to provide that information to you.
• 22:02
  At that point. It's in their hands.
• 22:04
  If they say do it, we're not going to get fined.
• 22:08
  But as an affiliate member, I want to make sure I'm trying to support
• 22:11
  the board's rules and educate, you know, members of that local MLS board.
• 22:16
  But at that point, it's their business decision. So.
• 22:19
  Mm hmm.
• 22:21
  And just a simple thing like that.
• 22:23
  I mean, that takes time.
• 22:24
  It took time for Craig to find that information or have that conversation
• 22:28
  with the person at the board, but that just shows that you're all in
• 22:31
  and you that's what will gain you long term clients.
• 22:36
  Yeah.
• 22:36
  And credibility and yes because we got a new
• 22:41
  I forget what her position was, but it was basically the communications
• 22:45
  director but she knew all the rules for the board, but she was new.
• 22:49
  So I when I got back into this business after I'd been out for a little bit,
• 22:54
  I just asked for again, the visual, you know, photo and video rules for the board.
• 23:00
  And she's like,
• 23:02
  We've never had a photographer ask us that.
• 23:04
  That shoots in this area. Yeah.
• 23:06
  So she was like impressed that we actually asked for the rules to begin with.
• 23:11
  But I told her, I said, Well, we're affiliate members of the board.
• 23:14
  We want to abide and support the board
• 23:16
  and make sure that we're setting our clients up for success.
• 23:20
  So that's going to make an impression on the board and word will spread.
• 23:24
  So give yourself some credibility.
• 23:25
  Find out what your local board rules are and just be
• 23:29
  a center of education for your clients.
• 23:32
  Craig You're such a brown noser.
• 23:38
  Okay, So that's one way of putting it, Todd.
• 23:42
  All right, you I'm sorry.
• 23:43
  Don't take that.
• 23:45
  But let's take this to the business benefit of brown nosing, okay
• 23:48
  yeah, it’s alright
• 23:51
  now we got some alliteration going there to the business.
• 23:54
  The business benefit of brown nosing.
• 23:56
  I like that.
• 23:57
  Oh, yes.
• 23:58
  We need, we need a tune right now to play theme song for that.
• 24:01
  Right.
• 24:02
  Oh my gosh. Okay.
• 24:04
  So anyway,
• 24:05
  tying in the sales aspect of this, people buy from people they like.
• 24:09
  That's one of one of the, you know, maxims that's out there.
• 24:15
  Be a likable person and make sure that you're
• 24:19
  you're letting people know you're looking out for them.
• 24:21
  People appreciate that.
• 24:22
  And some of these realtors, they don't know the rules.
• 24:26
  They they haven't if they read them, they've forgotten them
• 24:30
  because they're too busy with transactions and whatnot.
• 24:33
  But if you can be a part that that's how you ingrain yourself in their team,
• 24:38
  make yourself the expert on what's allowed in their market.
• 24:43
  Now, again, they're going to have the final say.
• 24:45
  They're the boss, right? The client's the boss.
• 24:48
  But anyway, we could we could beat that.
• 24:51
  Yes, I know.
• 24:52
  I'm completely kidding you giving Craig a hard time. So,
• 24:57
  you know, I would be offended, but I know you too
• 24:59
  well, so.
• 25:03
  All right.
• 25:04
  So, Rob, great question.
• 25:05
  Long answer to a short question, but hopefully that that helped you out.
• 25:09
  All right. So should we move to the next one time?
• 25:11
  Yeah, let's do it.
• 25:12
  All right.
• 25:13
  So this comes from Owen Jack in.
• 25:16
  Oh, I see.
• 25:17
  I hate not knowing how to pronounce names.
• 25:19
  I'm going to say ione.
• 25:24
  Anyway, I like the team from the team from River Media.
• 25:28
  Thanks. I'll take the fall on that one.
• 25:30
  Okay, so River Media says Love the podcast.
• 25:34
  Been super insightful and helpful.
• 25:35
  Helpful to us. We are a team.
• 25:37
  I love this, Todd. I love this.
• 25:39
  We are a team of a couple of high school seniors
• 25:42
  from Massachusetts who love photography and videography,
• 25:46
  and we only recently started doing real estate media jobs,
• 25:50
  only recently.
• 25:51
  Hey, you started.
• 25:52
  I mean, why did you take so long?
• 25:55
  I wasn't thinking of starting a business as a high school senior.
• 25:58
  Yeah, all right.
• 25:59
  I was busy playing drums and marching band and dating my girlfriend.
• 26:02
  Anyway,
• 26:04
  hey, I'm thinking about college, okay?
• 26:06
  Our big problem right now is right.
• 26:08
  Right is We're having fun on this podcast.
• 26:12
  Anyway, our our big problem right now is getting our first clients in the space
• 26:16
  and growing our reach.
• 26:18
  That's the same for everybody, right?
• 26:20
  How did you guys manage to close your first deals and leverage them to grow?
• 26:25
  Great question.
• 26:27
  They said we're thinking about getting coffee and donuts as well as business
• 26:30
  cards.
• 26:31
  Other offer free shoots for realtors and open houses this weekend.
• 26:36
  I think any of those are good ideas.
• 26:37
  I said a lot of stuff is a bad idea.
• 26:40
  Any idea where you're being proactive to get yourself out front?
• 26:44
  Hey, go for it.
• 26:45
  I mean, anyway,
• 26:48
  okay, so there's the first question.
• 26:49
  They have a couple of questions.
• 26:50
  So let's tackle that first part.
• 26:53
  Todd, How did you start?
• 26:54
  How did you get your first job?
• 26:56
  Yeah, so this one so this goes back.
• 26:59
  I was
• 27:01
  in my second year of college
• 27:04
  and I've been doing real estate production and as a senior in high school
• 27:08
  I started doing it, but I was doing weddings and just some other productions.
• 27:12
  And then I pivoted,
• 27:13
  you know, about a year and a half, two years later, into real estate.
• 27:17
  And I did that.
• 27:19
  Now, the advantage that I have and you have the same advantages
• 27:23
  no one was doing real estate video at the time.
• 27:25
  Literally no one like it wasn't it wasn't out there.
• 27:28
  It wasn't even a thing.
• 27:29
  Video was really not even a thing on the Internet.
• 27:31
  YouTube was around.
• 27:32
  But remember, everybody was on dial up. Dial up.
• 27:35
  So, yeah, I mean, this was 2004 and most people were on dial up.
• 27:39
  So you're not streaming anything.
• 27:40
  Nobody had a phone that had any data.
• 27:43
  It was a beautiful time for you.
• 27:44
  Those that weren't around. Like it was incredible.
• 27:47
  Anyways, I used just my
• 27:53
  enthusiasm for that medium
• 27:57
  for video to my advantage.
• 27:59
  So you guys need to do the same thing because you come at it
• 28:04
  from a different angle than I do.
• 28:07
  So I'm 41.
• 28:08
  That's way different than the 17, 18 years old that you guys are.
• 28:12
  You guys know a lot about technology and how your generation
• 28:16
  and the generations ahead of you are using and consuming media.
• 28:20
  So you need to just show your enthusiasm for that
• 28:24
  and you need to approach some agents.
• 28:27
  Hopefully, maybe your moms or dads have used an agent.
• 28:30
  That's what I did.
• 28:30
  I went to that agent first and I showed them what I had.
• 28:36
  You don't necessarily need to sell anything at this point.
• 28:38
  You can get to there, but build those relationships with just educating agents,
• 28:43
  do something different, see what's in your market now.
• 28:47
  I had the flexibility that doing something different was just doing anything,
• 28:51
  but you all have this new fresh perspective
• 28:55
  of a 17 and 18 year old with media in 2024.
• 29:00
  Do something different, see what's being used out there.
• 29:03
  Come up with an idea of how it can be used different
• 29:05
  on a different platform in a different way,
• 29:07
  and then show that to people, explain it to them.
• 29:11
  And once you do, just see what their response is
• 29:15
  when they start asking you how much it cost, you know you have a good idea
• 29:21
  that that's what happened to me.
• 29:22
  I'd show it to people and literally y'all, I had a
• 29:27
  they used it.
• 29:28
  They would make DVD players and they were portable and they had
• 29:32
  a battery in them and a little screen that you would hinge up a 7.8 inch.
• 29:36
  You remember those, Craig?
• 29:38
  and they had a car charger and not USB.
• 29:42
  We didn't have USB back then, y'all.
• 29:44
  It was a cigaret lighter. Right. Okay.
• 29:47
  And so I would travel around and I'd have a DVD.
• 29:51
  That's the way
• 29:51
  we brought video in our pocket and you had to put it into this mechanism
• 29:56
  and I would simply open it up in an office and I would play that for people.
• 30:01
  And they started asking how much it was.
• 30:03
  At that point I knew I had an idea that people wanted
• 30:07
  and I could put a price behind it.
• 30:09
  So that would be my short answer there.
• 30:12
  I know I have some more questions, but that's what I did.
• 30:14
  I would find those same unique
• 30:16
  side propositions of what you know in your head.
• 30:18
  Use your enthusiasm, because those realtors like these guys,
• 30:22
  they're going back.
• 30:22
  Hey, these guys know nothing about real estate
• 30:24
  and you probably don't, to be fair, you know, a little bit,
• 30:27
  but you probably don't know a ton about real estate
• 30:30
  because you just haven't worked with realtors for years.
• 30:33
  But you do know media.
• 30:35
  And if you can show that enthusiasm
• 30:37
  like these guys might know something that I don't know, right?
• 30:40
  My so when I started my company
• 30:43
  Cee Imaging Solutions that are really not
• 30:46
  doing that anymore, other than some portraits and things like that.
• 30:49
  Anyway, the very I knew I wanted to get into the real estate media space
• 30:55
  and so there was a local realtor that my wife knew
• 31:01
  and she ended up being the listing agent for the youth pastors at our church.
• 31:07
  So I reached out to our youth pastors and said, Hey,
• 31:11
  I'm looking at starting a real estate photo, you know, photo and video business.
• 31:15
  And I'd like to start to build a portfolio.
• 31:19
  Could I provide the the listing photos and video for your for your home?
• 31:23
  And they said, oh,
• 31:24
  well, talk to our realtor because, you know, she's taking care of that.
• 31:28
  So I reached out to this realtor.
• 31:30
  I had never met her before. My wife knew her.
• 31:32
  Somehow she
• 31:33
  I think she went to school with her son or something, introduced myself.
• 31:37
  You know, said how I knew, you know, her clients
• 31:40
  and I just made the offer, told her what I was looking at doing and said,
• 31:44
  you know, I'd like to offer you a free shoot.
• 31:47
  It's going to help me to build a portfolio.
• 31:49
  And if you're happy with the photos and video,
• 31:51
  you know, feel free to use them to to market the home.
• 31:54
  And she agreed to it.
• 31:55
  So I shot that house and then I offered one more free shoot.
• 32:00
  I don't remember who it was.
• 32:02
  And I had two listings I had shot.
• 32:05
  Right.
• 32:06
  So what I did next was I reached out to again, it was a church relationship,
• 32:11
  my former pastor who had gotten his real estate license
• 32:14
  and had kind of moved into the real estate area.
• 32:17
  And this guy was kind of a mentor in my life.
• 32:19
  And I asked him
• 32:21
  again, this is where my coffee meeting started.
• 32:23
  I asked him to coffee and said, I want to run
• 32:26
  an idea past you and show you something that I'm dreaming about.
• 32:30
  And Todd, it goes back to what you just said Show your passion, you know?
• 32:34
  And I get to tell people I love what I do and people they latch on to passion,
• 32:38
  enthusiasm, like authentic enthusiasm.
• 32:41
  People will latch on it.
• 32:43
  It's a it's a positive attitude.
• 32:45
  It's it's infectious. Right.
• 32:47
  So I sat down with his name is Scott, and told him
• 32:52
  what my dream was of of starting this business.
• 32:55
  I said, I've shot two listings and and I showed him the photos and
• 33:01
  had I done video, actually, I hadn't done video yet.
• 33:04
  I started with just photos,
• 33:06
  showed him the photos and his eyes
• 33:08
  Got like this.
• 33:09
  Okay, for those of you listening and you're just wide eyeballs. He said, Craig
• 33:13
  I've been doing photos on my cell phone and they look horrible.
• 33:17
  He's said, this is amazing.
• 33:19
  And now because Scott was a friend and a mentor
• 33:23
  and he knew me and I knew him, I got a break.
• 33:28
  I'll just be honest.
• 33:28
  I got a break and he gave me a 12 shoot contract on the spot.
• 33:33
  Nice.
• 33:34
  I told him I wanted to upgrade my camera.
• 33:36
  He said, How much does the new camera cost?
• 33:39
  So I told him what it was going to cost in
• 33:41
  what the average cost of a shoot would be.
• 33:43
  He said, I will contract with you
• 33:44
  for X amount of shoots that will help you get that camera.
• 33:48
  So it helped.
• 33:49
  I had somebody that knew me, but I would say,
• 33:52
  Do you know any realtors that you have any sort of relationship with?
• 33:57
  Not that you're
• 33:57
  trying to take advantage of a friendship or anything, but
• 34:01
  friends want to support friends, right?
• 34:04
  So if you have a relationship with somebody that you know well is a realtor,
• 34:09
  ask them out to coffee, say, hey, I want to, you know, I'll treat, but
• 34:12
  I want to share just a dream that we have, you know, for for River Media.
• 34:16
  It's a team effort.
• 34:17
  So, you know, we're young, young guys.
• 34:20
  We have an entrepreneurial dream that we want
• 34:23
  to share with you and they are realtor.
• 34:26
  They've started their own business. They get it.
• 34:29
  So that that would be my suggestion
• 34:31
  and try and find a relationship and share your dream.
• 34:35
  So Scott became my biggest cheerleader.
• 34:37
  He marketed for me.
• 34:39
  I mean, like he spread because the people started seeing the photos.
• 34:42
  They're like, Who's doing your photos?
• 34:43
  And he he was my biggest cheerleader, so.
• 34:46
  Fine. A raving fan.
• 34:47
  That's that's one of your terms, Todd.
• 34:49
  - Yes. Yes. - Turn him into a raving fan.
• 34:52
  They will help you so much.
• 34:53
  And being authentic and just being honest about where you're at.
• 34:57
  We had a Oh, I like that ringtone. Craig
• 35:01
  WI. I thought I had it silenced.
• 35:03
  Sorry, guys.
• 35:06
  So Steve and I had had a very large presentation this week and there was
• 35:12
  this was a new thing for us and we didn't really we haven't done this.
• 35:16
  This is,
• 35:18
  this is, this would be something new for our business.
• 35:21
  And we knew a lot of what it would entail.
• 35:25
  But there was some parts
• 35:26
  that we just haven't done this before and we were very open and honest about that
• 35:30
  and this client was so enthusiastic about it.
• 35:34
  Really appreciate that.
• 35:35
  We're like, Hey, we don't really know this portion right here.
• 35:38
  We want your feedback and we want to be able to take
• 35:41
  your feedback and build this portion to meet your needs.
• 35:45
  People love being asked for help.
• 35:50
  I know that's somewhat hard to believe in 2024.
• 35:53
  Ask people for help and you will begin to build a relationship.
• 35:58
  And they will.
• 36:00
  It doesn't mean they might not always be a client.
• 36:02
  They might not be a client, but they might refer you.
• 36:05
  But they might just give you
• 36:06
  a little piece of information that you needed and we'll move you along.
• 36:09
  So just keep talking to realtors.
• 36:11
  Join your board, okay?
• 36:13
  Go to board events. We talked about the board already.
• 36:16
  Go to board events, stop by real estate offices.
• 36:19
  You can take donuts, You can take whatever you want.
• 36:21
  Another idea. Most of the U.S.
• 36:25
  right now.
• 36:25
  And I'm trying to figure out where these guys are.
• 36:27
  I think they're in the U.S., but it's it's summer.
• 36:30
  Go take stock footage of local restaurants,
• 36:35
  local buildings, landmarks,
• 36:38
  water, downtown, schools, subdivisions, get a bunch of stock footage.
• 36:44
  And then when you meet with these realtors, give it to them,
• 36:46
  send it to them, say, hey, we want to make we want to add to your marketing.
• 36:50
  We've heard from realtors that they're looking for some stock footage.
• 36:54
  I wanted to introduce myself here.
• 36:56
  We've included three of these local landmarks.
• 36:59
  There's a million things you could do, but just keep trying and keep talking
• 37:02
  to realtors.
• 37:04
  Yup,
• 37:06
  second part of their question, they ask about important technical
• 37:09
  and professional tips and tricks, you know, shooting straight lines.
• 37:13
  What resolution.
• 37:14
  And that's getting more on the creative side.
• 37:16
  There's a ton of great resources out there.
• 37:20
  Any any that you would you would suggest hard
• 37:23
  for them to learn those sorts of things.
• 37:24
  Craig, Yeah, there are a few off the top of my head.
• 37:27
  So I mean, you mentioned straight lines. You have to have verticals.
• 37:30
  Verticals, that's the biggest one bracket.
• 37:32
  Your image have a wide angle lens and send it to an editor
• 37:35
  and you're probably okay if you're looking for a like a well oiled training course.
• 37:40
  I'm not only learning photography, but building your business.
• 37:42
  Eli Jones does a fantastic job, so I've gotten to work a lot with Eli.
• 37:47
  Eli's a partner in Spiro and they have an incredible coaching program.
• 37:53
  And so REPP coaching. R E P P coaching reppteam.com is
• 37:59
  where you can go and send them a question and talk to their people.
• 38:03
  It's free to talk to them so they'll let you know what they have.
• 38:05
  But I've seen so many success stories out of his group.
• 38:08
  - It's really neat to see. - Yeah, awesome.
• 38:12
  Yeah.
• 38:12
  And just do it do a search on YouTube even.
• 38:15
  I mean, there's so many great content providers on the right under.
• 38:17
  Mike Burke, Nathan Cool.
• 38:20
  Those guys are fantastic.
• 38:21
  Mike Burke Sorry, Mike Burke is inside real estate photography.
• 38:25
  He has a ton of stuff that you can I mean, it's all out there, it's free and then.
• 38:29
  Nathan Cool.
• 38:30
  Nathan Cool photo So you'll find both of them on YouTube
• 38:33
  and they have a ton of great, great content.
• 38:38
  All right.
• 38:38
  And then finally and I love this, what's the best way to talk to realtors
• 38:42
  and what are some professional things
• 38:44
  they expect from you and how you conduct business?
• 38:47
  I know Craig's mentioned coffee meetings, pitching to brokerages,
• 38:50
  but I feel here's what I want to key in on, Todd.
• 38:53
  But I feel that since we're all 17 to 18 years old,
• 38:56
  we don't have enough experience in general to do something like that.
• 39:00
  Yeah,
• 39:02
  you want to
• 39:03
  answer first because I have thoughts on that last part.
• 39:07
  Oh, go ahead, Craig.
• 39:09
  Okay,
• 39:10
  one word comes to mind when you said,
• 39:13
  since I feel we're all 17, 18, we don't have enough experience.
• 39:16
  Confidence.
• 39:18
  Yeah, walk in with confidence and.
• 39:21
  Be open that you don't know it all.
• 39:24
  I mean, I would make light of it.
• 39:25
  So we know we're young,
• 39:27
  you know, we're we're in high school but here is our dream again.
• 39:31
  It goes back to sharing the dream and
• 39:35
  and ties in with what you said, Todd, With people
• 39:38
  that want to help, others, that want to mentor others.
• 39:41
  I would be honest and say, this is what we're wanting to do.
• 39:45
  We want to add value to your business.
• 39:47
  We want to do something that we enjoy doing.
• 39:50
  So we're looking for partners that would mentor us in real estate.
• 39:53
  I've never done this, but this is just kind of stream of consciousness coming out.
• 39:59
  But one thing
• 40:00
  that I would really encourage you to do
• 40:03
  is don't stress necessarily even the photography, their videography
• 40:07
  stress the business benefit to them, adding you to their team.
• 40:12
  So what are you bringing of but a business benefit to their team?
• 40:16
  The goal is they're always looking for more listings.
• 40:20
  They want to grow their listing business
• 40:21
  because that's where they make the most money, right?
• 40:24
  So if you can position yourself as a part of their team,
• 40:28
  that's going to add value to their listing business.
• 40:30
  I want to help you grow your business and here's how we can do it.
• 40:35
  That's bringing benefit to them that that's going to impress.
• 40:39
  Yeah, I love that, Craig.
• 40:40
  If a 17 year old comes to me and says,
• 40:42
  I want to help you grow your business, I don't expect any 17 year old to say that.
• 40:46
  - Yeah, where this kid come from. - Right, Right.
• 40:49
  So it's going to stop me in my tracks.
• 40:51
  I'm going to listen because at the very least, I'm just curious.
• 40:55
  I want to. I want to meet you.
• 40:56
  I want to learn a little bit more about you.
• 40:59
  So I would say
• 41:01
  pitch to them
• 41:02
  the business benefit of what you can do to help them grow their business while
• 41:07
  also growing and adding even more value as your business grows and matures.
• 41:13
  Yeah, yeah.
• 41:14
  And for all of you, for everyone else, that's not 17 or 18,
• 41:18
  that works for you too.
• 41:21
  I can't tell you how powerful it is.
• 41:23
  If you ask somebody that, how can I help you grow your business?
• 41:27
  How can I help you get more listings?
• 41:29
  What are your goals?
• 41:30
  Ask people those questions.
• 41:33
  It is honestly like a secret recipe
• 41:36
  to build relationships with people is ask.
• 41:39
  Yeah.
• 41:40
  So the only thing I'd like to add to that and I'll just
• 41:42
  it's just a verbal, but I 100% agree with what you said.
• 41:47
  This is a limiting belief on your side.
• 41:49
  That you don't have enough experience in general to do something like that.
• 41:55
  Just flip that on
• 41:56
  its head and get rid of that first.
• 41:59
  And you have a ton of experience in a lot of things.
• 42:01
  You just don't know that they want to know that you think they want to know about
• 42:06
  contracts and real estate and inspections and appraisals and all that stuff.
• 42:10
  Yeah, no, they want to know
• 42:11
  what's in your head with media because they understand the other stuff.
• 42:14
  They know it.
• 42:14
  They do it all day, every day.
• 42:16
  there's, I have, there's, there's realtors
• 42:18
  in their forties that don't understand Stories and Reels.
• 42:21
  Well, how can you help a 40 year old realtor?
• 42:25
  I'm 48, Todd I,
• 42:27
  I get it about reels and stories, but I don't.
• 42:30
  I didn't grow up with them. Right.
• 42:32
  So how how does that impact potential customers?
• 42:35
  You know?
• 42:36
  So bring your expertise in digital media to the to the table.
• 42:40
  Yeah. And just one tip.
• 42:43
  This is this is
• 42:44
  going to seem silly, but they're not realtors.
• 42:48
  They're real tours.
• 42:50
  They're real tours. I know that seems weird.
• 42:53
  They're not like you call them realtors.
• 42:55
  They might correct you, actually.
• 42:57
  They’re, real tours.
• 42:59
  Okay.
• 42:59
  Even just use that little tip them like, Oh,
• 43:01
  this person, as I say, what we are now, that's that might be gone away.
• 43:05
  There's a whole nother
• 43:07
  legal case.
• 43:08
  But anyways, realtors is how you pronounce the word.
• 43:10
  Yeah. There you go.
• 43:12
  All right, So, Owen, Jack, Ioen that's how I'm going to say it.
• 43:17
  Email me the phonetics on that.
• 43:20
  craig@wowvideotours.com , I'll feel better.
• 43:25
  Okay. Should we go to the next question?
• 43:26
  Let's do it to Joe.
• 43:28
  All right. I think we have time for one more here, Todd
• 43:31
  Joe You know what?
• 43:32
  I'm going to let you introduce this one.
• 43:34
  Sure.
• 43:35
  So Joe says
• 43:38
  we'd love to get your thoughts on a couple of things related to start up.
• 43:41
  First, I am in Columbus area so that's an he
• 43:45
  he notes the one that Wow operates in so we're in the same
• 43:48
  How saturated as the real estate market here.
• 43:51
  I've looked through a lot of listings and they don't seem like many
• 43:55
  have professional looking media.
• 43:57
  Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong areas.
• 43:59
  I like to get going and make a living doing this,
• 44:01
  but I want to be realistic as well.
• 44:05
  And he also goes on to say
• 44:07
  that currently he's working a 9 to 5 job.
• 44:10
  I can't walk away from my 9 to 5 job and give up my salary yet
• 44:14
  I wholeheartedly believe I'm providing the maximum customer service.
• 44:17
  But I worry about falling short because I may not be able
• 44:20
  to meet a client's expectations because of obligations from my job.
• 44:24
  Any thoughts on how to handle this?
• 44:26
  Is it just communication up front?
• 44:30
  I just can't see real estate agents willing to work with me
• 44:32
  if I'm transitioning for a year plus because of market saturation?
• 44:38
  Yeah.
• 44:40
  Craig What would you say to Joe?
• 44:42
  So I'm just thinking of back when I started mine, I had a 9 to 5.
• 44:46
  It's funny, I was watching Eli's Facebook stream
• 44:49
  yesterday and a very, very similar question came in about a 9 to 5.
• 44:53
  And when do you have time to do this and even get it going?
• 44:57
  And what they shared and this is basically what I did was
• 45:00
  do you have time after your 9 to 5 to do one shoot?
• 45:04
  Right. Multiply that times five days a week.
• 45:06
  You know, build it up slowly where as soon as you know.
• 45:10
  Yes, we're getting into fall.
• 45:11
  Columbus, you know, the light is fading faster.
• 45:14
  So it might be difficult with with the light dropping.
• 45:19
  But can you fit in one shoot after work each day?
• 45:22
  Can you do any Saturday shoots?
• 45:25
  Personal beliefs.
• 45:26
  I don't like to shoot on Sunday at all, but maybe.
• 45:29
  Maybe you can shoot on a Sunday, too.
• 45:32
  When do you have the spare time where you can fit it?
• 45:34
  I think your idea of being upfront with the realtor about this being you're
• 45:38
  just moving into the space and here are my available times.
• 45:42
  I think people respect honesty.
• 45:44
  I've got another real estate photographer in this, a competitor in this market.
• 45:48
  He's a full time firefighter, but he does this on the side.
• 45:51
  He does great work and he's got some clients
• 45:54
  that they understand his schedule and that he has limited availability.
• 45:57
  And, you know, he's maintained both jobs.
• 46:00
  But I would say just start where you can.
• 46:04
  The other major thing is
• 46:08
  you want to be real careful, make sure you have enough savings built up
• 46:13
  for whatever period of of
• 46:15
  time that you think it's going to take to make that transition to full time.
• 46:19
  So before I made the jump of of going full time
• 46:25
  and quitting my 9 to 5, I made sure we had enough in our savings.
• 46:28
  And that can be hard.
• 46:29
  You might have to. And again, Eli mentioned this last night.
• 46:31
  You might have to give up some things right
• 46:33
  now, you know, in terms of your budget
• 46:35
  to start saving money to build up that savings.
• 46:38
  But I would check your savings account, build that up as much as you can,
• 46:42
  and that just you just have to pull the trigger and just start shooting.
• 46:46
  Yeah, that's a great, great, great tips there.
• 46:49
  You have to find
• 46:52
  you have to you're focused a little bit, Joe.
• 46:54
  And I mean this with with love from my heart.
• 46:57
  Like you're focused on what you can't do.
• 47:00
  Focus on what you can do.
• 47:02
  So what are the benefits of when you can shoot?
• 47:05
  Well, you're typically shooting like, at wow, we don't shoot during those times.
• 47:09
  As somebody once said that are 5 p.m., Sorry, you're not getting us typically
• 47:13
  you're not getting us on a weekend usually, so you can shoot all those times.
• 47:18
  Hey cool.
• 47:19
  You can include Twilight.
• 47:20
  It could be a Twilight shoot because you're off at those time.
• 47:22
  So sell the positive.
• 47:24
  Hey, Twilight shoots, Focus on that.
• 47:26
  Focus on the weekends again.
• 47:28
  Even just a Saturday, one or two appointments, those will start to add up.
• 47:32
  They do.
• 47:32
  Then you can carve out that little niche.
• 47:35
  And much like Craig said
• 47:37
  with the firefighter in his market that can shoot on his days off.
• 47:40
  I did the same thing when I started.
• 47:42
  When I was in college.
• 47:43
  I would give my schedule to my agents and they knew, Hey, Todd,
• 47:47
  Todd's off on Tuesdays. He doesn't have class.
• 47:50
  They just knew my schedule.
• 47:52
  By Monday, they'd all send in their jobs.
• 47:55
  And they love the idea, like, Hey, we got this college kid that's coming up.
• 47:58
  And they knew on Tuesdays I was available to make them the schedule.
• 48:00
  I'd send them back the times of their shoots
• 48:03
  and I'd go shoot 8 to 10 listings on Tuesdays.
• 48:06
  Like it was a good little gig for a college kid.
• 48:10
  And I did that every Tuesday, and I shot on the weekends too.
• 48:13
  So just find the just find the positives and what you can't do
• 48:17
  and I know you're asking a question, but are some limiting beliefs in here as well
• 48:22
  that you don't think you can and you really can?
• 48:26
  So I love that you emailed me.
• 48:27
  I love that we're in the same market.
• 48:29
  And that's the beautiful thing about businesses.
• 48:31
  There is so much availability and Columbus is a large market
• 48:35
  and even in not large markets, there's just so much possibility to build
• 48:39
  relationships with people and it's such a satisfying thing to do.
• 48:44
  So thanks for emailing that in as well.
• 48:46
  And Craig, I love your tip.
• 48:48
  Sorry all of finish my run on sentence, but financials are very important.
• 48:53
  Yeah.
• 48:53
  If you all out there are not doing financials
• 48:57
  and in a program you need like your you should have
• 49:01
  QuickBooks
• 49:02
  or Xero or something for your business or a spreadsheet.
• 49:05
  It doesn't have to be a software use Excel
• 49:07
  and you should be doing the same for your personal finances.
• 49:10
  What do you spend every month?
• 49:12
  How much do you spend on your housing?
• 49:15
  How much do you spend on transportation?
• 49:17
  How much do you spend on food?
• 49:19
  And that's groceries versus eating out.
• 49:21
  You need to understand where you spend your money.
• 49:25
  And then if you want to make this transition, you have to start cutting
• 49:29
  because you're going to have to live lean for a little bit
• 49:32
  because you need that time and just be prepared for it.
• 49:36
  Prepare for the worst, and then hope for the best and work
• 49:39
  hard to get the best. But and everyone else out there.
• 49:43
  If you're not putting your financials, your personal financials
• 49:47
  into a program, you need to start doing that now.
• 49:51
  You need to know where you're spending your money.
• 49:53
  I use Quicken at home.
• 49:56
  It sinks in just like QuickBooks.
• 49:58
  We use those two platforms in the business.
• 50:00
  But again, you can use whatever you want.
• 50:01
  I sit with my with my wife, I review it.
• 50:04
  We look at what our spending is.
• 50:06
  That is super important because it is it is way too easy
• 50:09
  to spend money in 2024 y'all
• 50:11
  no joke.
• 50:12
  Holy smokes.
• 50:13
  My kids started
• 50:14
  collecting ball cards and my hey, can I get a la de la Cruz like a sign?
• 50:17
  I'm like, why am I?
• 50:18
  I don't even want this ball card like Mike.
• 50:20
  Like, it's just so easy to think, Let's buy something.
• 50:23
  No, we don't need to buy anything. That's the problem, right?
• 50:27
  So we're spoiled.
• 50:28
  - I’ll stop my rant - Yeah, I would say we could go on forever on that
• 50:32
  because I'm still struggling with that one.
• 50:34
  It's like, Oh, that seems kind of cool, right?
• 50:37
  Yeah, let's let's minimize that.
• 50:40
  That's something I feel like millennials are good at is
• 50:45
  there seems to be a minimalist there.
• 50:46
  Anyway.
• 50:47
  Yeah, we're going to
• 50:49
  get off on a rabbit trail here.
• 50:51
  All right.
• 50:52
  So three great questions.
• 50:55
  I don't think we have time to tackle another one right now.
• 50:57
  Yeah, we can save that for the next hour.
• 50:58
  Sorry, If we missed you, we'll get you.
• 51:00
  We'll get you in future podcast. Yep.
• 51:03
  But great questions.
• 51:04
  Thank you to everyone that emailed those in or
• 51:07
  sent them through the Spiro interface again Spiro.
• 51:10
  hello@spiro.media is the email address
• 51:13
  and we would love to hear from you and help. However we can.
• 51:16
  So, Todd, any final, final closing thoughts for me?
• 51:19
  I'm just going to put first and third Thursday's come be with me
• 51:23
  in the Spiro Superuser 4:30 p.m.
• 51:26
  Eastern, I have a fear of being alone in there.
• 51:28
  So somebody come join me.
• 51:31
  I have it on my calendar time.
• 51:32
  I was actually thinking I was actually thinking was starting yesterday.
• 51:35
  And so like I went into the Spiro of Super Users group.
• 51:38
  I'm like, Well, there's no there's nothing.
• 51:40
  I looked at my calendar.
• 51:41
  Oh, no, it starts next week. Okay.
• 51:44
  Which is this week that you're watching this podcast. Yes.
• 51:48
  So starting September of 2024, the first
• 51:52
  and the third Thursday in the Spiro super user Facebook group, 4:30 p.m.
• 51:56
  Eastern.
• 51:59
  nice.
• 52:00
  That’s terrible, somebody clip that that's so bad.
• 52:04
  I'm just saying I'm going to clip that
• 52:06
  No, Justine clip that out of here.
• 52:10
  I've got the original recording, Todd
• 52:14
  while I go back and get your cell phone ringer. Then
• 52:18
  did you catch what song?
• 52:19
  What? That ring was?
• 52:22
  I don't know what it's called. I know this song.
• 52:24
  It's going back to the eighties.
• 52:26
  It's from it.
• 52:27
  I don't know if anybody caught that.
• 52:29
  If he did send us a message kudos,
• 52:32
  if you knew what the song was it was, who could it be now by men at work?
• 52:36
  Yeah, that's okay. That's what it's called.
• 52:37
  I might do a meme of Craig and tattoo something on his face.
• 52:42
  New listeners have no idea what you were just talking about,
• 52:45
  We're losing so many people this week. I'm sorry.
• 52:47
  Y’all we need to end this thing, we're done.
• 52:49
  We're done.
• 52:50
  All right, guys, thanks for watching.
• 52:52
  Thanks for listening.
• 52:53
  We will be back with more shenanigans and whatnot.
• 52:58
  But in the meantime, things are slowing down a little bit.
• 53:02
  Actually, this last month was crazy busy for me.
• 53:04
  But as the fall and winter comes on here in the northern Hemisphere,
• 53:08
  take some time,
• 53:10
  be thankful for your blessings and make sure you take a breath this week.
• 53:13
  Have a good week.
• 53:14
  Thank you for joining us for the Spiro Podcast,
• 53:17
  managing your real estate photography and videography Business.
• 53:21
  This is a production of Spiro and wow video tours.
• 53:25
  You can find out more about Spiro
• 53:27
  is real estate, media, business management software at our website.
• 53:31
  Spiro Dot Media.