Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / Busienss Continuity: Do You Have a Plan? Special Guest: Assaf Lowenstein
Transcript
- 0:00Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
- 0:04yeah I'll just give her my password.
- 0:06Yeah I'll just give them my thing now there is a saying, you know,
- 0:10you know who you're getting married but you will, but
- 0:14you don't know who you're getting divorce from.
- 0:17Right.
- 0:18But this, this, this VA can be, you know,
- 0:21the most sweet person you hire.
- 0:24She, she or he can be the most, you know, adoring person.
- 0:29But then at a flip of a switch,
- 0:32you know, and we can, you know, it's you in psychology, right?
- 0:36You don't know what person you're going to meet when things go south.
- 0:41Welcome to the Spiro podcast.
- 0:44Managing your real estate photography and videography business
- 0:48with your hosts, Todd Kivimaki
- 0:51and Craig Magrum
- 0:55Hi, and welcome to the Spiro podcast.
- 0:57Managing your real estate photography and videography business.
- 1:00Spiro.
- 1:01As you might know, if you've listened or watched before,
- 1:05and if you don't know,
- 1:06what we're going to tell you is a software platform designed to help you grow
- 1:10and manage your day to day real estate media business.
- 1:13I'm Craig Magrum, host of the podcast.
- 1:15Welcome back to another week.
- 1:16If you're returning first time, welcome to new listeners and new viewers.
- 1:21We are so glad that you've joined us and we appreciate that.
- 1:24We don't take that for granted.
- 1:26Along with me each and most every week,
- 1:29the co-host and owner and founder of Spiro Todd Kivimaki.
- 1:33welcome back to another week, Todd.
- 1:35Craig Good to be here.
- 1:36We took a week off. I'm sorry, y'all.
- 1:39I was getting the question, are we going to have another one for this week?
- 1:42So we are
- 1:43we were
- 1:45we got tangled up with a Thanksgiving schedule, I think is what it was.
- 1:49Craig and I didn't plan the best.
- 1:51So my fault, but good good to be back on here.
- 1:54And we've got an exciting topic today.
- 1:56This is one that was presented to me and we'll introduce our guest speaker today.
- 2:02But was presented to me.
- 2:03I thought, Ha, I don't have that and I think I need that for sure.
- 2:08That's important.
- 2:09So really excited about covering this today.
- 2:12Yeah.
- 2:13When I saw the topic, I'm like, Huh, yeah, that's kind of important.
- 2:16And I haven't thought through enough of that, but
- 2:18I didn't think through that for my own business when I had it.
- 2:21So yeah, this is going to be some really good information
- 2:25we're excited to share with you, and I'm kind of excited.
- 2:28We've got a whole slate of guests that we're going to be scheduling
- 2:32to join us here on the Spiro podcasts,
- 2:34especially, you know, for the end of the year here and going into 2025,
- 2:38it's going to be fun. We're going to have a lot of fun
- 2:40Craig, we ran out of things to say,
- 2:44Yeah, so we bring in the real experts now, right?
- 2:47Yeah.
- 2:50All right.
- 2:50All right. Well, let's not drag this out.
- 2:53We always like to give you some updates on the Spiro software.
- 2:56You know what?
- 2:56What?
- 2:57We're working on ideas that have come in, so today, I'll let you take your 30
- 3:00seconds, 2 minutes to us
- 3:04to go over the updates on Spiro.
- 3:08Yes, happy to do so.
- 3:10Updates coming up on the potentially scheduled for the 18th of this month.
- 3:15That's well, I won't tell you when it is from today
- 3:18because it's different for you, Think,Todd. But the 18th of December,
- 3:22we're looking to give you another option for video storage via Dropbox.
- 3:27It will streamline things for you even further because Dropbox
- 3:31is already integrated in a part of the workflow of using Editors.
- 3:35So happy to launch that.
- 3:36Also adding about four new features to the Create appointment
- 3:40function that we launched about a month ago.
- 3:43A couple other various updates, but
- 3:45we will note those those two are the biggest ones to you.
- 3:49I do want to use some of this time
- 3:51to let you know about some training we have coming up.
- 3:54So Shannon and I, who's
- 3:56Shannon's our VP of product at Spiro, and she helped me grow and scale.
- 4:00Wow. As well. She's recruited agents.
- 4:03She's managed agents.
- 4:04So she has a great idea about not only real estate,
- 4:07real estate photography, sales, the whole nine yards.
- 4:11We did a presentation
- 4:13at Eli Jones's conference, the repp conference, about brokerage deals,
- 4:17and this is probably our number one ask this is probably my number one
- 4:21asked question is when people, you know, how did you scale to be the size you did?
- 4:26And that is through brokerage deals.
- 4:28So we covered about 45 minutes of it
- 4:31and the rep conference and we knew that that just would not be enough.
- 4:35So on January 9th, 2025,
- 4:38we will be doing a much more in depth.
- 4:42We will have time for Q&A.
- 4:44And it's a free webinar.
- 4:46No cost to you.
- 4:48We'll put time, place, location on where to sign up for in the show notes.
- 4:53But mark that down.
- 4:54We'd love to have you on there and want you to participate.
- 4:58And because this is the number one thing that helped us grow Wow.
- 5:02To the size that we have
- 5:04Awesome.
- 5:04It's going to be great information to get.
- 5:06So yeah, make sure you get signed up.
- 5:07And again, as Todd said, we'll have the information in the show notes for you.
- 5:10So awesome.
- 5:13Anything else you want to add or you?
- 5:14Good.
- 5:15That is it.
- 5:15Let's get to our I'm excited to dive in here
- 5:17because I have a lot of questions to learn today, too.
- 5:20So let's jump right in.
- 5:22Right.
- 5:22So as you guys know, we like to talk about the business of real estate,
- 5:26photography and videography.
- 5:28Lots of great resources out there on the creative side,
- 5:31we really kind of dive into the business side in a very important topic.
- 5:36That kind of a shame.
- 5:38Todd and I both have admitted we haven't.
- 5:40Maybe thought through quite enough is the issue of business continuity.
- 5:45So you know what?
- 5:47What do we mean by that?
- 5:48Well, God forbid something happens to you as the owner of your business,
- 5:51What happens to your business?
- 5:53There's a lot of a lot of
- 5:56things to think through with just that One question.
- 5:59What happens to my business if something happens to me?
- 6:03And Todd, you you met somebody.
- 6:05Was it at PMRE or was it a REPP?
- 6:09I've known this individual just through a
- 6:11I met yes, I've met him at conferences and we talked this year
- 6:15at REPP specifically.
- 6:16But yeah, I've I've known this individual just through online
- 6:20- conversations - interactions.
- 6:23Right. Awesome.
- 6:24Well, he's got a wealth of knowledge, owns his own real estate
- 6:29media business also has a background in I believe
- 6:32it's like data security information, business continuity.
- 6:37We're going to let him kind of flesh out, oh, all of his background.
- 6:41But Todd do you want to introduce our guest this week.
- 6:44Yeah, super excited.
- 6:45Many of you know him. He's very active online.
- 6:47So Assaf Lowensteing is on with us today.
- 6:51Assaf, welcome to the show.
- 6:53Yeah, welcome.
- 6:54Hi, everyone.
- 6:56Thank you.
- 6:57Super excited to be here and first time
- 6:59doing any kind of podcast or online recording.
- 7:03So excited to be here and thank you for having me.
- 7:07Yeah, yeah, we're glad to have you now.
- 7:10now Assaf you email me about this topic and I read it
- 7:14and I went, okay, one first, what is he saying?
- 7:18And then two, I read it again and I went, Wait a minute, I,
- 7:21I haven't thought about this.
- 7:23And that actually was more
- 7:26of a learning than like, hey, I don't need to know this.
- 7:29This was this was a this was a good thing
- 7:32for me to find out because, like, I have not thought about this.
- 7:35So as mentioned, you know, business continuity,
- 7:38what happens when something happens.
- 7:40But before we get there, I just love to dive in a little bit.
- 7:45You own and operate a real estate photography business.
- 7:48Can we go there first?
- 7:50Do you mind sharing with us how you got into real estate
- 7:52photography and just give us a little
- 7:55an idea
- 7:55of the type of company you operate and, you know,
- 7:59just bring the viewers up to speed about your real estate photography business.
- 8:03Yeah, absolutely.
- 8:04So, so first of all, before that, a little bit
- 8:08a short a trip down memory lane
- 8:11before doing real estate media for almost 17 years,
- 8:14I was doing tech basically, mainly around
- 8:19testing and task
- 8:22management and smaller companies, larger companies.
- 8:26And before I started this in 2019,
- 8:30I moved to the US with my family.
- 8:33My last position was with PayPal.
- 8:37Basically, I started that back home and I relocated here
- 8:41with my wife, three kids and mostly with PayPal.
- 8:47I was doing I was wandering around, but
- 8:50that was my first introduction to information security.
- 8:54So you see a CISSP certification.
- 8:58Whoever wants to learn a little bit more about that can Google. But
- 9:03and then sadly, June last year,
- 9:09they decided to part ways and I was
- 9:13wandering around.
- 9:15I knew that I wasn't going to go back into corporate.
- 9:20A lot of companies, a lot of tech companies were,
- 9:23you know, finding
- 9:27doing their own reduction in forces.
- 9:29So a lot of talent people were out there.
- 9:32I came to learn about businesses in the U.S.
- 9:35and real estate in the U.S.
- 9:37so I knew I wasn't going to go back to corporate.
- 9:41So initially I wanted to do something about drones, right?
- 9:44I love aviation's. Anything around drones.
- 9:47I learned that the you know, that that the learning curve
- 9:52is probably pretty, pretty
- 9:56challenging.
- 9:57And also the entry barrier with equipment and certifications as well.
- 10:02If you want to do things like commercial, you know, infrastructure inspection
- 10:06and stuff like that.
- 10:09And then I came across
- 10:10surprise, surprise, Eli Jones, right?
- 10:14And it kinda clicked because,
- 10:18Hey, I can fly Drones is part of my day to day.
- 10:21I always loved photography.
- 10:24My wife and I also started investing in real estate,
- 10:27so that would put me into a good proximity
- 10:31with real estate agents and potential investors as well.
- 10:35So that's a good mix of people to be around.
- 10:39And and I wanted to do my my own thing.
- 10:43I'm good at following processes and building working processes, etc..
- 10:48So this is what I've been doing for many years.
- 10:52And I decided, okay, I'm going to dive
- 10:55into real estate media and
- 10:58that the rest is history.
- 11:01So I've been doing this
- 11:03seriously since the end of 20.
- 11:07I would like to see end of 2023.
- 11:10I had to go back home for a visit, for a longer visit.
- 11:13And so only Instagram, but not really shoot.
- 11:17And so
- 11:19and I'm officially finishing my first year with the business.
- 11:23Yeah. Nice.
- 11:25That's incredible.
- 11:25What is the name of your business?
- 11:28So it's Builds n' Lenses
- 11:30pretty much like in and out
- 11:33of Arizona.
- 11:35Yeah.
- 11:36Well, great technical background for sure that you're bringing to your business.
- 11:41So very cool.
- 11:43Well, what a cool story.
- 11:44Assaf
- 11:45I hear so many stories
- 11:48like this where people came from another business
- 11:51and not even a related business, but kind of the same thing either.
- 11:55Love drone, technology, photography.
- 11:59I still am amazed every day at how this business
- 12:03of a real estate media business can tie together so many,
- 12:07so many common threads of us, you know, like myself, like I went to school
- 12:11for tech, love, photography, love, videography, had a systems brain
- 12:16and like, narrowed and found my way, like
- 12:19into real estate photography.
- 12:22It's amazing because if you want to be
- 12:25a solo entrepreneur, you can and you can be very creative.
- 12:28And but if you want to build a business too, it's a fabulous niche
- 12:33that has really not been uncovered a whole lot.
- 12:38And if it has, we're competing with like, if you want to grow and scale business,
- 12:44you're competing with other individuals in town
- 12:47that are creative brains or might not want to grow a business.
- 12:51So and I know nothing against them,
- 12:53but I just say that and this was mentioned at the conference,
- 12:55you know, you're competing against other photographers.
- 12:57So if you want to be a business owner, it's really cool that you can put yourself
- 13:01in a niche where you're competing against people there.
- 13:03Like, I don't know that I really want to do this full force.
- 13:05I might want to do something different so that you can grow and scale a company.
- 13:10So just need to kind of hear that as well.
- 13:14Talking about going back to your email that you sent me, I read it
- 13:17and I had this little drop in my heart because I thought, Well, crap,
- 13:20what if something happened to me?
- 13:23You know, I casually talked about this to my wife.
- 13:27You know, I think first off, like,
- 13:30this is somewhat morbid, but we have to think about it, right?
- 13:32I mean, I thought about this like,
- 13:35I don't think anybody knows the password to my computer.
- 13:39Yeah, that password into my computer
- 13:42unlocks the whole world to my business.
- 13:45It it unlocks my password keeper that only is on the computer
- 13:50that I don't even know because I have to copy and paste it.
- 13:53There's documents that are secure.
- 13:56There's accounts that are secure on there.
- 13:58And I told my wife I was like, Well, you're just going to have to like,
- 14:02if I die, you're just have to take my thing.
- 14:04Like, hopefully I don't burn out
- 14:05because you're going to need my finger to get onto my laptop.
- 14:10Like I didn't know what else to say like.
- 14:12And that was my solution, which was terrible.
- 14:16And we're going to get to better solutions through all the knowledge you have.
- 14:21You got to keep your fingers.
- 14:24Yeah.
- 14:25So Assaf that is
- 14:27that's not the greatest way to set it up but that's the way my brain goes is like
- 14:31but so the idea of business continuity is this idea of if something happens
- 14:37to the business owner, as the business owner, we all operate small businesses.
- 14:42There's a lot that is in our brain only.
- 14:46And how do when something happens,
- 14:49we have other loved ones, we have other employees,
- 14:52and we want to make sure that they're set up to continue
- 14:57in the event that something difficult happens.
- 15:00Is that it would that be kind of your idea
- 15:04of what the definition of of what we're going to discuss today is?
- 15:08Yes. A hundred percent I mean, first of all,
- 15:12business continuity and disaster recovery, right?
- 15:15These are things that every business, no matter how, how big or small
- 15:19it is, need to consider,
- 15:23plan, train and test and be ready for.
- 15:27Right.
- 15:28I was looking so early this year when the information security and
- 15:32availability, which is part of the CIA, we can talk about that maybe later
- 15:39was still you know, up there fresh
- 15:41and it immediately came to mind like I'm the only operator.
- 15:46I mean, my wife, my my better half, as I call her,
- 15:50she knows about the business, but she doesn't know about the business.
- 15:54Yeah, right.
- 15:55And I tell you stories this this plan, this agent he did that.
- 15:59He she did that.
- 16:01But what if, you know, and there's
- 16:05what we call the beer truck test, right?
- 16:08What if a beer truck
- 16:09What if the beer truck struck me, You know,
- 16:12hits me in the middle of the road, and we all have risks, right?
- 16:16We when we go outside every morning, we take risks.
- 16:19And what what happens to the business then?
- 16:23I mean, she has no idea what's my what my password is.
- 16:27What's my you know, my my password to my cell phone.
- 16:32Right.
- 16:32How should how can we reach out to,
- 16:36you know, to HD Photo Hub if something happens, right.
- 16:40And when needs to take off.
- 16:41Maybe the ordering page for 24 or 48 hours, maybe more.
- 16:46You know, someone needs to make delivery.
- 16:48If I did shoots yesterday and clients are waiting today,
- 16:53what happens to those, you know, deliveries that we need to do
- 16:56if I have scheduled shoot for today and I'm, you know, God forbid, hurt today,
- 17:03someone needs to talk to them.
- 17:05Right. So everything around that.
- 17:07So I was really looking at it from a solo operator.
- 17:11But but but again, Wow video tours need to have one, Spiro as a software
- 17:17company needs to have one, and every one of those companies has a different,
- 17:21you know, spectrum of threats and vulnerabilities and risks.
- 17:26Derivatives of those. Right.
- 17:28And risk that should be addressed
- 17:32Say, we're talking to a solopreneur,
- 17:34very small business boutique, you know, real estate photographer.
- 17:38Where would someone like that even start?
- 17:40In thinking through this process and starting to put a plan into place?
- 17:44What what are the steps that, you know, they should start following?
- 17:48Excellent question.
- 17:49Yeah.
- 17:49So, so first of all, we need to understand and, you know, and again,
- 17:53we need to understand the the spectrum of risks that the business has.
- 17:58Right.
- 17:59And with a with a solo operator
- 18:03it's from,
- 18:05from the way I see it, the biggest risk is
- 18:07that I'm not available for some reason.
- 18:11Right.
- 18:11The most you know not we are not shooting in the middle of the desert.
- 18:16So the risks are, you know, I'm being in a car accident.
- 18:20I was injured in some way.
- 18:23You know, these are these are the scenarios that we're talking about.
- 18:26And because it's a solo operator, business,
- 18:32the risk is that no one
- 18:34is there to keep this train moving forward.
- 18:37Right.
- 18:38No one is there to drive things forward.
- 18:41The second thing is that you got to know
- 18:44what you have in order to, you know,
- 18:47build the plan and and proceed through it.
- 18:51Right.
- 18:51So the first thing is to basically map everything you have right?
- 18:56So it's passwords, your bank
- 18:59account, your delivery systems.
- 19:03get a good password
- 19:05manager and basically store all that information in there.
- 19:09Right.
- 19:09So you have bank accounts, the vendors you have,
- 19:12you have and I and I actually got it right.
- 19:16So so you have your social media accounts, you have your phone passcode,
- 19:20you have your credit processors,
- 19:24where are your LLC documents?
- 19:26How you how can you reach out to your insurance agent?
- 19:31What's the phone or his what's his phone number?
- 19:35Your CPA?
- 19:37All of those entities need to be mapped and documented.
- 19:43Personally, I have all my passwords in a
- 19:46I use keepass XP that's local.
- 19:50So everything is local and it's been backed up with
- 19:53with a master password, which regardless of this,
- 19:57I strongly recommend everyone to use a password manager
- 20:01with the master password and let the manager
- 20:04create your own password for your different website.
- 20:07Not to use passwords.
- 20:10We put that
- 20:12my wife Lee, she she knows where
- 20:15to find this copy for Builds n' Lenses it's in Google Drive.
- 20:20You know what's the master password she has that you know set aside
- 20:25so she knows okay if something happens, she knows where to go,
- 20:29how to grab that, how to load her own, you know, under her own account.
- 20:33Yeah.
- 20:35Keep that XP open.
- 20:36It and she has everything right.
- 20:39She now knows everything she she needs to know.
- 20:42So this is where I would start.
- 20:45It's excellent.
- 20:46So Assaf
- 20:46Let me unpack that a little bit,
- 20:48ask you a couple questions just about the password manager,
- 20:51because I am using a password manager, but I don't think I'm maximizing all of it.
- 20:57The idea just to maybe clarify here, a password manager is a
- 21:02a either a local or a cloud based system.
- 21:08That is, you are setting as the user.
- 21:12There's a main password to get into this manager.
- 21:17There's extensions and you install it on your devices.
- 21:20And then from there you allow this password manager
- 21:24to not only fill in your passwords when you go to that site,
- 21:28but you allow it to create those passwords. Yes.
- 21:32Because the idea is and I did it for many years,
- 21:35I use the same password for everything and I use a very simple password.
- 21:39And then and and that's just not good.
- 21:43We want that.
- 21:45So you need to use something secure.
- 21:47Hackers are getting very good
- 21:48at understanding passwords and cracking those passwords.
- 21:53And so a password manager is doing that.
- 21:55Now, you said something about can you tell me the main difference?
- 21:57So you use the idea.
- 21:59I didn't write the name, but you said it's local.
- 22:01So local versus in the cloud.
- 22:03Why did you choose again?
- 22:05What was the password program you used and why did you choose that one?
- 22:09Yeah, so I'm using Keepass XP.
- 22:13Okay, it's for Mac.
- 22:15I, I don't remember if it has like a Windows version,
- 22:20but it's basically a local key store.
- 22:23It doesn't use any cloud storage.
- 22:26There were some recent hacks into
- 22:31I think it was one one password or some or LastPass the one of those.
- 22:36And to be honest, I'm not familiar with any recent hackings.
- 22:40You know, I stood for obvious reason.
- 22:43I stayed away from the information security world.
- 22:47So I'm not as well versed in recent news.
- 22:51I can tell you that I do also use Bitwarden
- 22:54for my VA’s work
- 22:57Okay.
- 22:57She accesses my my Instagram and my
- 23:03my nordvpn password.
- 23:05So she just, you know, she's part of the organization.
- 23:08You can set up an organization over there and she's part of that.
- 23:12So she doesn't know the actual password or use it.
- 23:16yeah, so okay, so I'm so glad you mentioned that.
- 23:18So it sounds like you're using two different processes here.
- 23:22The local Keepass XP
- 23:25is what you use and then you shared with your wife,
- 23:28but then also in your business for your VA and other people for your business,
- 23:34you have chosen not to give them the log in and password
- 23:37and you've added them to bit.
- 23:39Warden There's one password.
- 23:41LastPass There's a million of them out there.
- 23:43But the idea is let's add that individual as a user and then
- 23:48how does that program facilitate
- 23:51your VA to get into your accounts?
- 23:55Yeah, So it was a little bit of,
- 23:57of, of an uphill struggle or some some knowledge gap over there.
- 24:02But essentially, you know, in a nutshell bitwarden has
- 24:06this organization
- 24:09structure or notion
- 24:10where you create an organization in there
- 24:14and you create the login entries that you want to share, right?
- 24:19And you basically invite someone else to that organization.
- 24:24And when they try to log in, it's the Instagram.
- 24:28It will pick up, you know, based on the information it has in there.
- 24:33So and it will allow them to log in without knowing the passphrase.
- 24:39So it's really yeah.
- 24:41When when once it works, it works beautifully without without hiccups.
- 24:46It just took some time to figure this out.
- 24:49Yeah.
- 24:50And this is something that we didn't always used to do at Wow.
- 24:53And we we have adapt,
- 24:55we have adopted and just everything about it, it's more secure.
- 24:59But also when, when people transition, it
- 25:03just allows you to quickly and easily cut all of that off.
- 25:07So I assume you're probably just
- 25:10in the idea of putting adding someone to an organization.
- 25:13You can take them out of the organization or if they travel or whatever
- 25:16it is, you can just disable their account and then boom, they are,
- 25:20they are disabled.
- 25:20And, and do you know Assaf in those programs?
- 25:24Is it typical?
- 25:25So if you share your Instagram password with your VA through this bitwarden
- 25:32they can use it when they're signed in,
- 25:33do they ever have access to actually view that password?
- 25:37no, no.
- 25:40So it's it's a role based access, our back as it's called, basically.
- 25:45And they're just users, right?
- 25:47So they're not admin to my account to my bitwarden account.
- 25:52Now one thing to say Todd about what you about
- 25:57your previous comment a lot of people and I see this in the community are
- 26:04are choosing to yeah I'll just give her my password.
- 26:07Yeah I'll just give them my thing now there is a saying, you know,
- 26:11you know who you're getting married but you will, but
- 26:15you don't know who you're getting divorce from.
- 26:18Right.
- 26:19But this, this, this VA can be, you know,
- 26:23the most sweet person you hire.
- 26:26She, she or he can be the most, you know, adoring person.
- 26:31But then at a flip of a switch,
- 26:34you know, and we can, you know, it's you in psychology, right?
- 26:37You don't know what person you're going to meet when things go south.
- 26:43Right?
- 26:43You can say something and they'll be like, well, you know what?
- 26:46I'm going to delete your account right now.
- 26:48And and and that's it. So
- 26:52I don't
- 26:53you know, there's a level of trust that trust should be gained.
- 26:57I will never give this amount this so much access as if, you know,
- 27:03giving the actual password to a VA, someone who had never met,
- 27:07someone who may be interviewed a couple of times.
- 27:11Yeah, that's something that will never happen.
- 27:14I think some of us have the personality and it may maybe more
- 27:18in the creative realm that we want to trust people.
- 27:21Maybe as humans we want to trust people, but as a creative,
- 27:24we might be a little more lenient in the idea of systems.
- 27:29And the thing about it is, if it just helps you connect this in your brain,
- 27:34like it's not, don't think it like you're thinking something bad about that.
- 27:38VA like that.
- 27:39You won't give it to them.
- 27:40Do it because you're protecting yourself.
- 27:42You're protecting your clients, and they can still get everything they need.
- 27:47They can get access, but you're protecting everyone involved, even them.
- 27:51Because if you think about it now that VA, if you give them
- 27:54that log in and password they have,
- 27:57there is a pressure on them if you don't realize it or not.
- 28:00I've realized this over the years that as we give people information here
- 28:04at Wow, that that means they get pressure.
- 28:07There's a pressure
- 28:09sometimes over the years there, I've had some people share some information.
- 28:13They shouldn’t have share with others, and not that it was earth shattering.
- 28:18It's just it put so much pressure on that person because that individual
- 28:22now knows something and they feel burdened by that.
- 28:26So that at least helped me and my brain.
- 28:28And actually, it's a lot easier when you start doing this
- 28:32because if you're keeping track of passwords
- 28:34and you're typing them out and you put them on Google Drive,
- 28:36but nothing's going to be picked up sooner than what you think
- 28:39and you're going to have something compromised.
- 28:43Absolutely.
- 28:44Yeah.
- 28:45So password manager, we all need to get
- 28:48we need to understand what our sphere is like, where we
- 28:51where we have some gaps that so Assaf say we go and we do the password manager
- 28:56we get that set up, what, what should our next step be.
- 29:00Is there something we didn't think about with that or is or
- 29:02where would you go next to say, hey, this is, this is
- 29:05one step closer to being covered in the event of a disaster.
- 29:08Yeah.
- 29:09So, so the next thing that I would do that I plan to do with
- 29:13my business is basically come up with an with an SOP
- 29:17a standard operating procedure like a day one checklist
- 29:23what what you know.
- 29:24Okay Assaf was hit unfortunately by a big truck.
- 29:29Right. Someone needs to pick up from here.
- 29:31So this document needs to be in a well known place,
- 29:35you know, to your significant other or anyone else
- 29:38that you chose to pass the, you know, pass control to.
- 29:45It can be
- 29:46maybe a good friend, maybe someone else from the from the family
- 29:50and they need to be able to open this document and just follow it.
- 29:57Right.
- 29:58So first thing is communication, right?
- 30:01We need to talk to our clients, right?
- 30:04We need to let them know that something happened.
- 30:07Maybe it can be through a social media post.
- 30:10And if you have a newsletter, we can do that.
- 30:14Maybe a text message, right?
- 30:16We have potentially we have
- 30:19agents who are waiting for media delivery, right?
- 30:22So we need to reach out to them.
- 30:24Hey, something happened.
- 30:26We got you we are going to take care of you.
- 30:29We're going to deliver as promised. Right.
- 30:32So for that to happen, that person need to know at least
- 30:36how to make delivery right now.
- 30:39One one aspect of that that we didn't talk about yet is having a VA, right?
- 30:44So if your VA is doing delivery, then obviously you're well-prepared.
- 30:49Right? Right. So he or she can do that
- 30:53If you have
- 30:55appointments
- 30:57scheduled for the next day, you need to reach out to them.
- 31:00Right. Okay. This is not going to happen.
- 31:03Here's a list of other referred photographers, you know, business people
- 31:08that that we know that can potentially help you.
- 31:12Right.
- 31:12If you want to be like super valuable and super productive, you can you know,
- 31:17whoever is running the business now can reach out to those photographers.
- 31:20Hey, listen, this happened.
- 31:22We need you to help us out.
- 31:24Can you accommodate these shoots? Right.
- 31:26Something like that.
- 31:31Next,
- 31:32I would reach out to the ordering platform.
- 31:35Right.
- 31:36So for that, we need to have either an email or a phone number.
- 31:40We give him a call.
- 31:40Hey, this and that happened we need to pull down
- 31:44for, I don't know, 24, 48, 72 hours.
- 31:48We need to pull down the ordering page
- 31:51and put like a banner or some type of a message.
- 31:54Listen, this happened.
- 31:56If you want more information, please call us or
- 31:59write us an email and we'll get to you as soon as possible.
- 32:02Something like that.
- 32:03And again, have these templates like ready.
- 32:06So whoever
- 32:09operates the
- 32:10business now doesn't need to think about that, right?
- 32:13Just copy paste. Basically, this is the verbiage.
- 32:16Just put that in in, in our in our ordering page.
- 32:21If you have a VA, same thing, reach out to them.
- 32:25How to reach out.
- 32:26We're going back to the assets list from before.
- 32:29Right.
- 32:30So if you communicate by Slack, so this is the slack this is the VA write
- 32:36A few words this and this happened.
- 32:38We're going to either,
- 32:40you know, maybe closing business for a week or something like that.
- 32:44Just for you to know, because she or he are part of the business.
- 32:47This is how I treat my VA she’s part of my business.
- 32:52We're going to
- 32:54stop operations for a week and we'll let you know what's going on
- 33:00then.
- 33:00Insurance agent.
- 33:02You know, we need to talk to our insurance agent.
- 33:05We need to talk to our CPA.
- 33:07We need to check financials.
- 33:10Right? Okay.
- 33:11What's the what's the standing balance?
- 33:14How many, how much money do we have in our in our bank accounts, things like that.
- 33:18So just have a checklist
- 33:21that will go through those items that will at least set the, you know,
- 33:2724, 48 hours, first critical hours
- 33:32that will stabilize the business.
- 33:34And and and make things clearer for what to come.
- 33:40Man this is so good, Todd, I can't help but think right now,
- 33:44you know, this time of year when in much of the US,
- 33:47things have slowed down a little bit activity wise in terms of shoot.
- 33:50And we've talked so much about working on your business,
- 33:53not working in your business during that time.
- 33:56This is a perfect time
- 33:57to start putting together this sort of contingency plans, Assaf.
- 34:00This is great stuff. Thank you for sharing this.
- 34:02Yeah, yeah.
- 34:04This is this is super one question I had for you Assaf was
- 34:09so we
- 34:10talked about setting giving some of this information.
- 34:14I think one thing that popped in my brain is like, we want to make it
- 34:17super simple for the other individual to do this because remember, say
- 34:21this is your wife and she's doing this.
- 34:25And I think of my wife doing this.
- 34:26Like not only is this
- 34:28like she has to bear the burden of you not being here anymore,
- 34:33but she's got she has this burden almost that, like, this is my thing.
- 34:38Like, I started this, like she supports me in it, but this is my thing.
- 34:42And now it's like this burden for her.
- 34:45She's emotionally trying to figure out she's got the kids figuring out.
- 34:49And then not only that, but you're saying, Hey, by the way,
- 34:51could you go run the business? What?
- 34:52I spend 100% of my time doing and yeah,
- 34:56can you try to draft a clever letter?
- 35:00Not clever, but can you try to draft an appropriate letter to our clients?
- 35:05She doesn't know your clients She doesn't know our client.
- 35:07She doesn’t know any realtor. So I think
- 35:10starting is key, but also just understanding and making it
- 35:14simple doesn't have to be complex, but giving as much information as possible
- 35:20to my question of
- 35:22of what the plan is when something happens and this is a little bit outside
- 35:26of creating the plan.
- 35:27But what to you know, you mentioned
- 35:31like, hey, we'll shut down business a week, maybe we're shutting down.
- 35:34Would you suggest that
- 35:38as the business owner,
- 35:39you're having a conversation with that next person as to
- 35:44what would you like to happen?
- 35:46You know, maybe maybe my wife would want to run it.
- 35:49Maybe she doesn't. I don't actually know that.
- 35:51Is that would you suggest having that conversation?
- 35:55Absolutely. Absolutely.
- 35:56I think it's it's crucial, right, Because if the other person
- 36:01has no
- 36:02interest and this is part of of of getting ready.
- 36:06Right.
- 36:06Because it is 100% possible that after, you know, communicate
- 36:12with everyone making delivery, referring to other photographers,
- 36:18we decide to close shop
- 36:21and, you know if if I'm you know so
- 36:25if I'm only like you know again God forbid these are horrible scenarios.
- 36:29Right.
- 36:29But if I'm like only injured right, then I'll be up and running in a month.
- 36:34Right. And we'll figure it out from there.
- 36:37But if I'm not here anymore, right, then and again, these are horrible thoughts.
- 36:43But, but my, my wife, we she she will be able to.
- 36:47Okay, I'm not doing this right.
- 36:49We're, I don't know, packing things and going back home
- 36:54or anything like that.
- 36:55But absolutely. Yes. I mean,
- 36:57one thing I'm sorry because my brain just started working.
- 37:00So this this contingency plan or this, you know, disaster recovery.
- 37:05So this is I was kind of thinking this as past, like if I wasn't here any longer.
- 37:10But this is this isn't just that.
- 37:12This is if I can't come in every day
- 37:14and do what I'm doing, like this is a plan is if I can't walk.
- 37:18I mean, we can't go shoot houses.
- 37:19I can't walk if I can't talk or if I'm if I'm in a coma.
- 37:23So this is more than that, correct?
- 37:26Yes. Yes, absolutely.
- 37:28I mean, again, I'm looking at the most
- 37:32severe or extreme
- 37:35cases, But, you know, if you break a leg
- 37:38and you were the only photographer, what do you do?
- 37:42Right.
- 37:42The thing is, the difference is that my my,
- 37:46if I break a leg, my brain is still here.
- 37:49Right. And I'm still able to.
- 37:52Okay.
- 37:52I know a few photographers I can call people.
- 37:56I can call my clients, say, listen, I can do this.
- 37:58I broke my leg.
- 37:59I'm going to hook you up with someone else.
- 38:02Right?
- 38:02So I know other people who I'm going to, you know, still provide
- 38:06an excellent service.
- 38:08But I know the in and in the out of my of my business.
- 38:11I know how to access things.
- 38:13I know how to crawl and I know how to send Dms
- 38:17I'm thinking
- 38:18even not worst case scenario but say you have
- 38:22you know, contracted photographers and something happens
- 38:24to a particular photographer in a market and they're the only one.
- 38:29Yeah, same, same idea.
- 38:30Do you have a plan to replace, you know,
- 38:32in, in cover for that photographer in that market.
- 38:34Todd You remember last year I got rear-ended by a semi on.
- 38:38Yeah, you know, on the expressway and now think
- 38:42Thank you God I was able to walk away.
- 38:45My first call wasn't even to my wife.
- 38:46My first call was to the client that I was on my way to.
- 38:50And I actually remember that story.
- 38:52Yeah, Yeah, I know.
- 38:55I saw it.
- 38:56I think you also posted like a photo on your on your Instagram something.
- 39:00Yeah. Craig should not be here.
- 39:02That car accident was incredible.
- 39:05I mean, that was truly an act of God sent him in that that was very,
- 39:09very grateful.
- 39:10But had I not been able to walk away.
- 39:12Yeah. What's the plan for the photographer in the field?
- 39:15If something happens, do You know one of your employees or contractors?
- 39:19Do you have a do you have a plan in place, you know, for communication?
- 39:23You know, for that?
- 39:24Had I not been able to walk away, would my wife know to to reach out to Wow
- 39:29video tours and, hey, Craig's been an accident and cause
- 39:33she's going to be overwhelmed. Right.
- 39:34You're a significant other or your first emergency contact
- 39:40that the emergency authorities might be contacting.
- 39:42Are they even a think to contract, you know, contact you as the employer?
- 39:47So, yeah, so much to think about through this.
- 39:50This even gave me a thought of, you know, so when many years ago
- 39:54was I have a 12 year old is my oldest but the day that he was born
- 39:58I shot a wedding because I just didn't
- 40:02like I, I, my wife's like, I don't know why you took that wedding.
- 40:05I'm like, Oh, I booked it now.
- 40:06It's just like, you know, I realize that it was getting closer.
- 40:11And so, you know, I was scrambling, calling people
- 40:15so that I would just have to show up for the main portion of the ceremony
- 40:17and got coverage.
- 40:18But like,
- 40:19it would be nice not to shoot a wedding the day that your son's born, you know?
- 40:23So I think even the idea of not some poor planning on my behalf,
- 40:27but setting those things up, we had a user on our superuser
- 40:31Facebook group the other day.
- 40:32I asked like, Hey, I'm going to vacation two weeks,
- 40:35which is a great thing to do right now.
- 40:36If you're in the States, it's a great time.
- 40:38If you need to rest and recharge, it's a great thing to do it.
- 40:41And he said, How can I make sure I don't take any bookings?
- 40:44So, you know, it was a simple answer and there's a way to do it.
- 40:47But even just planning for that in the messaging, like you said Assaf
- 40:51the messaging as to here's we believe in proper
- 40:56communication or good communication and always set proper expectations.
- 41:02When you do that as a business, everything begins to fall in place
- 41:06and just communicating to people that you are going to be gone for two weeks.
- 41:11People might not love it, but they're understanding
- 41:14and then setting expectations with what they can do now.
- 41:17And when you'll be back, we'll tie up all the loose ends of people
- 41:21making up their own idea and their own story.
- 41:25And we know when we let people make up their own ideas and their own conclusions,
- 41:29the world can get crazy.
- 41:31So that is that is,
- 41:34you know, one thing that I I'm taking so much away from this.
- 41:37So we've done a password manager.
- 41:40We've created this plan
- 41:42which is basically just this idea of
- 41:45when something happens, who to contact, what to do, what you want said,
- 41:49and then communicating with that individual.
- 41:53You know, we talked about that for us and here's our significant other
- 41:57and what they would like to happen with the business.
- 42:02Yeah, what else aren’t we thinking about because this is a topic that I'm like,
- 42:05I never thought of this.
- 42:07There's got to be 100 things I'm not thinking about.
- 42:10Is there another like big item that we need to think about off?
- 42:14Absolutely. Absolutely.
- 42:15The the
- 42:17you know, everything is good, everything is documented.
- 42:21And now you have to test it
- 42:24and you have to test it.
- 42:27You have to do
- 42:30maybe a couple of of
- 42:32those exercises every year, you know,
- 42:36where you call your your significant other your wife.
- 42:41Hey, listen, we are going to test this thing right now.
- 42:44Right.
- 42:45And there
- 42:47you know, whoever is taking the
- 42:50the whoever is taking control needs to do okay.
- 42:54This is the Google drive location.
- 42:56I need to download the file
- 43:00side note, you have to make sure that that you know, password
- 43:05manager of file is updated because as we move forward,
- 43:09we add more services, we change passwords maybe.
- 43:13Right. So we have to keep those updated.
- 43:16So they take down the file, they log in, make sure that master
- 43:21password is working, making sure that the log ins are correct.
- 43:26Go through the SOP, you know, give them a call.
- 43:29Maybe HD Photo hub have changed their phone number.
- 43:33Maybe they change their,
- 43:34you know, customer support, maybe Spiro change their phone number.
- 43:37Right.
- 43:38And just go through the items
- 43:41and make sure that things are okay.
- 43:44If there are any questions addressing those questions, adding, you know,
- 43:48it's it's a live document, basically. This SOP
- 43:52whoever is reading it and going through it,
- 43:54maybe they have additional ideas, maybe they have more.
- 43:57they can add that to the to the document.
- 44:02And this is very, very important.
- 44:05And yeah, yes,
- 44:09I immediately I immediately thought of the tornado drills
- 44:11and the fire drills that we had, you know, as kids and school kids, it's chaos.
- 44:16You got to practice in it.
- 44:18You got to have it be muscle memory.
- 44:20That makes perfect sense. Yes.
- 44:23I mean,
- 44:25I feel so unprepared now.
- 44:28You know, this is stuff that you should have personally for your family as well.
- 44:32Excellent point. Yes, you should.
- 44:35You know, doomsday the emergency folders, I have that as well.
- 44:39I'm not I'm not a doomsday prepper.
- 44:43But, you know,
- 44:44having one place where, you have your hopefully this is the family trust.
- 44:48This this is the bank account.
- 44:50This is the, you know, phone numbers,
- 44:54etc., etc..
- 44:55Because you you know, life is life and you do
- 45:00can’t really predict anything.
- 45:03It's unpredictable.
- 45:04And you have to be ready, especially when you have kids.
- 45:07Right?
- 45:09When you have someone that looks looks up for you and waiting for you,
- 45:12at the end of the day, it's it's a big thing.
- 45:15Yeah.
- 45:16You know,
- 45:16God, God forbid something terrible does to you and you're out of the picture.
- 45:20The best gift I think you could give your family is this kind of plan Assaf
- 45:25you take the stress.
- 45:27Not all of the stress, but you take a big bulk of the stress off
- 45:30your your spouse, your significant other, your kids.
- 45:34You know, I just had a friend that their parent passed away.
- 45:37And thankfully their parents already had.
- 45:39You know, the funeral was preplanned and everything.
- 45:42And the their kid just said it.
- 45:45It just made things so much easier during that time of grieving.
- 45:48You don't you don't want to add stress to somebody that's already in deep grief.
- 45:53Yeah.
- 45:53You know, again, God forbid something terrible happen.
- 45:56So this this is really important information.
- 45:59So thank you for sharing this with us, Assaf.
- 46:03Assaf, if if our listeners
- 46:06have questions, there's probably
- 46:10more we didn't cover than what we did cover.
- 46:13And some of the details in doing this.
- 46:16Could they reach out to you with those questions?
- 46:19Yeah, absolutely.
- 46:20I'm on Instagram. My DM’s are open.
- 46:22@buildsnlensesmedia
- 46:26builds and lenses media and yeah, feel free to reach out,
- 46:31happy to, you know,
- 46:34help and
- 46:35and jump on a call if needed so for sure
- 46:38excellent
- 46:40appreciate your willingness to just
- 46:42be a blessing to this community and help them with this That's awesome
- 46:46yeah yeah.
- 46:48Any closing thoughts Assaf, about the topic today?
- 46:52No, I mean,
- 46:54we we worked so hard for ourselves,
- 46:56for our families, and we want to leave something, you know,
- 47:01that will push our families forward
- 47:05and making our goals,
- 47:09you know, making our dreams come true, essentially.
- 47:12And we put so much energy and thought into pricing
- 47:17and what gear and what lens and what gimbal and what all of that.
- 47:21But it's really a question of being aware.
- 47:25Right At the end of the day, we walk outside from the moment
- 47:28we open our eyes, we are assuming risks over ourselves.
- 47:33Right.
- 47:33And I think that this is one of those things
- 47:37that are so important which are being overlooked.
- 47:40You know, as both of you said.
- 47:42Right. People do not think about that.
- 47:45And and I hope that this episode will, you know,
- 47:50open open the eyes of other colleagues and other, you know,
- 47:55photographer,
- 47:57Journey partners.
- 47:59And I hope it will make you know, you'll find that
- 48:04It sure has for me.
- 48:05I have a list of to do, items
- 48:06I'm going to do and some discussions I'm going to have with my wife.
- 48:10So, you know, this is this is one of those things we joked
- 48:13we joked a few weeks ago where we said, oh, we have other topics
- 48:17you're talking about fun topics on.
- 48:18Craig's like, yeah, like insurance and all this.
- 48:20I'm like, What?
- 48:21That is not.
- 48:22But that is much needed like risk assessment,
- 48:27you know, business continuity insurance.
- 48:31All that has it exists for a reason.
- 48:35It exists to take that burden off of loved ones around you
- 48:39and it’s something that no one
- 48:42no one is like, oh, great, Todd, we're talking about this today.
- 48:45But if I if we didn't think it was important, we would not talk about it.
- 48:49You are a business owner.
- 48:51This is a responsibility of owning a business.
- 48:53As fun as it is or not.
- 48:55It's something that you need to do.
- 48:57All right? Absolutely.
- 48:59Yep. Yep.
- 49:00Excellent.
- 49:01Just, you know, we have this recorded.
- 49:03Todd admitted I was right.
- 49:04I That's what I heard.
- 49:06Did I say that?
- 49:07But I think that's what I heard.
- 49:12One more thing, Todd. Just.
- 49:13Just for you.
- 49:14Because, you know, you guys also have Wow video tours.
- 49:18And Spiro, again, I think I mentioned that at the beginning.
- 49:21You guys also have to do this kind of analysis,
- 49:25and it's a completely different one, right?
- 49:27Because Spiro is a software company, you should be like around,
- 49:32you know, penetration testing and network analysis and stuff like that.
- 49:37And there's there are a lot of a lot of moving parts
- 49:41with this type, these types of companies as well.
- 49:45Even more, I would say, for sure.
- 49:46Well, thank you, Assaf.
- 49:48such a pleasure to have you on the day.
- 49:49- Thank you for sharing. - Thank you verry much for having me, guys. Thank you.
- 49:52Yeah.
- 49:52Our guest this week, Assaf Lowensteing of Builds n' Lenses
- 49:56If you want to reach out to him with more questions
- 49:58about business continuity, you can reach him on Instagram.
- 50:01It's @buildsnlensesmedia
- 50:04We'll have it right on the screen and in in the show notes as well.
- 50:08Thank you for the clarification on that man What good information
- 50:12this week and just really good stuff to think deeply about.
- 50:16And you know, Todd, I have somewhat of a personal plan with some of this, but
- 50:20I'm thinking, man, I've got a little bit more work I need to do on this
- 50:24and make it easier for Gail, you know, for for our family as well.
- 50:28So hopefully this has been a value to you this week.
- 50:31We like I said, we plan on having more guests in 2025 to bring you
- 50:35some really good business information to make your business stronger.
- 50:39And we just hope it's a benefit and a blessing to you.
- 50:41And yeah, thanks guys, for watching.
- 50:44Todd, any any closing thoughts from you
- 50:47as we wind down 2024?
- 50:49Enjoy it.
- 50:50It's, you know, try to take some time to enjoy it.
- 50:53The holidays are going to come upon us.
- 50:55I, I had these
- 50:58big intentions to continue to work and get so much more.
- 51:00I wanted to before Thanksgiving and I just got to a point like, you know what,
- 51:04My family's important, my time's important, you know?
- 51:07And as a business owner, don't underestimate that.
- 51:09I Right.
- 51:11I know we're all saying, Yeah, but you don't understand my business.
- 51:13No, I do.
- 51:14I understand how important it is I understand how much might revolve around
- 51:17you and how much you're almost really close to freeing up your time.
- 51:21I've been almost really close to freeing up my time for 20 years
- 51:24until I actually free up my time intentionally.
- 51:29You know, I left the building still here, business still operated.
- 51:34We still took orders, everything still happened.
- 51:36And so if you need to do that, sometimes it needs to be tough
- 51:40and you just need to leave, of course, communicate what you're doing.
- 51:44But take some time.
- 51:45It's super important during this holiday season,
- 51:48right
- 51:49Todd
- 51:49Todd and I had a discussion yesterday and he said, Craig, you're hard on yourself
- 51:53because I'm looking at my numbers and goals and,
- 51:56you know, things have definitely slowed down in terms of number of shoots.
- 51:58And my number isn't quite where I want it.
- 52:01It's it's not a bad number by any means, but I beat myself up a lot.
- 52:05And so I go into overdrive in in my business development
- 52:08specialist role as shoots have slowed down,
- 52:11I can get back out there and meet with realtors.
- 52:13And so I feel this pressure and anxiety to get back out there.
- 52:16And I'm trying to remember, Yeah, Christmas is coming up.
- 52:19That's time I need to slow down with my family.
- 52:21I'm not saying stop work, but don't.
- 52:25I'm preaching to myself here, guys, just so you know,
- 52:28don't don't beat yourself up so hard.
- 52:31You still have business.
- 52:33Maybe it's not at the goal.
- 52:34You quite want it, but you're still bringing in an income.
- 52:38You're still serving your clients well.
- 52:40You're doing a great job.
- 52:42Take some time to breathe.
- 52:43That's what Spiro means is breath.
- 52:45Take a breath. Right.
- 52:46And that's what we try to encourage you each week.
- 52:48Take a breath, sit down, be thankful for the blessings in your life.
- 52:52And we're going to say, have a great week.
- 52:54Take care.
- 52:55Thank you for joining us for the Spiro podcast,
- 52:58managing your real estate photography and videography business.
- 53:02This is a production of Spiro and wow video tours.
- 53:05You can find out more about Spiro
- 53:07is real estate, media, business management software at our website.
- 53:11Spiro.media