August 14, 2025 • 28 mins
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Ever wondered how successful entrepreneurs spot untapped market opportunities hiding in plain sight? Carl Armijo's journey from civil engineer to thriving business owner offers a masterclass in customer-focused growth.
When COVID-19 disrupted traditional career paths, Armijo pivoted to real estate photography—a choice that perfectly balanced his need for family flexibility with pandemic-era social distancing requirements. Rather than approaching photography purely as a creative venture, he applied his engineering mindset to build systems that prioritize customer service, consistency, and frictionless experiences.
What sets Armijo's business approach apart is his relentless focus on removing obstacles for his clients. Through sophisticated online booking platforms, next-day delivery promises, and streamlined media delivery, he's eliminated the frustrations that plague typical service businesses. His real estate agent clients can order, schedule, and receive their marketing materials without the endless back-and-forth that wastes precious time.
Most impressively, Armijo transformed a common client complaint into an entirely new business opportunity. After repeatedly hearing real estate agents grumble about unreliable cleaning services, he launched Louisville Cleaning Pros—a separate company that complements his photography services while potentially doubling revenue from each property. This strategic move demonstrates how attentive listening and problem-solving can unlock unexpected growth avenues.
Armijo's naming strategy reveals his forward-thinking business acumen: while "Carl Armijo Photography" ties the brand to him personally, "Louisville Cleaning Pros" was deliberately named to facilitate potential future sale—a subtle distinction that highlights the importance of considering long-term exit strategies from day one.
For photographers, service providers, and entrepreneurs alike, this conversation offers practical insights on pricing strategy, handling inevitable s
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Hosted and produced by Gary Pageau
Edited by Olivia Pageau
Announcer: Erin Manning
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin Manning (00:02):
Welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast, the
photo imaging industry'sleading news source.
Here's your host, Gary Pageau.
The Dead Pixels Society podcastis brought to you by Mediaclip,
Advertek Printing andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:17):
Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
I'm your host, gary Peugeot,and today we're joined by Carl
Armijo, who is with Carl ArmijoPhotography and the Louisville
Cleaning Pros, and he's inLouisville, Kentucky, and he's
going to talk to us today aboutcustomer service and how that
applies to all businesses, inphotography and without
(00:38):
photography.
So, hi, carl, how are you today?
Carl Armijo (00:40):
Hey, Gary, thanks for having me today.
I really appreciate it.
I know my name can be achallenge there, but you got it.
You nailed it perfectly, soit's an awesome job.
Gary Pageau (00:51):
Well, thank you.
Now I'll try and say Pageau,right.
Carl Armijo (00:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Gary Pageau (00:54):
Let's talk a little bit about your business journey
.
You're a real estatephotographer, which is kind of a
niche.
How did you get started in that?
Carl Armijo (01:07):
Yeah, so real estate photography really came
about in 2020 for me during theCOVID pandemic.
Really, I have a background incivil engineering.
I've worked for Fortune 500construction management
engineering companies in myprevious life, but during 2020,
you know, there was a perfectstorm of a situation to get me
(01:28):
moving into the real estatephotography thing.
My wife and I started fosteringa child, so I needed more
flexibility with my daily lifeand a corporate nine to five job
wasn't providing thatflexibility to handle that kind
of situation with a new kid inthe house.
Also, we were in this weirdsituation where, you know, we
(01:50):
couldn't go to the office.
Professional headshots weredead because we weren't allowed
to meet in person to do thatkind of stuff.
You know we were shut downbecause of that pandemic.
So, you know, real estatephotography really fit a good
flexibility I can go into a home, we can ask people to leave
(02:10):
that a face to face contact orthat social distancing that was
required by the governmentwasn't an issue.
So it was a way to kind of youknow, continue photography, move
into something different andit's turned out to be like the
best move that I've made inbusiness, because I really enjoy
on the real estate side ofphotography.
To me it's more of anengineering kind of mindset than
(02:35):
it is a creative kind ofmindset, especially when it
comes to business right, because, yes, I want to create
fantastic images that it's goingto get people in homes to look
at them and see that the realestate agents are going to love,
but really it's a, it's aprocess, it's customer service
driven and it's it's more ofthose things that really get me
(02:58):
more excited about real estatephotography than actually taking
pictures of a living room or akitchen.
You know if that makes sense.
Gary Pageau (03:04):
So when you're doing real estate photography,
are you also including, like,the video walkthroughs, sure
yeah, the 3D visual things?
I imagine you have to have likea certain price point on the
property for the real estateagent to do that.
What is that in your area to,let's say?
Carl Armijo (03:24):
you know it makes sense to do all the extra stuff
you know, I don't think thatit's necessarily price point of
the home that's driven.
It is the agent who's drivingthat, based on how the agent
wants to market themselves.
Um, and so that's what I tellagents themselves when I'm
talking to them.
It it's like the best agentsthat I know and work with.
(03:45):
They order the same productsfrom me on every single house
that they sell, no matter ifit's $100,000 house or if it's a
million dollar plus house.
They're doing it the exact sameway.
That way, their customers whoare selling properties know what
they're getting when they hirethis listing agent.
And so, in my opinion, theagents who are doing things the
(04:09):
right way are marketing everyproperty the same way, no matter
how expensive it is or howcheap it is.
And with that being said, themore expensive the house, you
know, the more that other thingsmake more sense in the
marketing standpoint for agents.
You know.
You know we're seeing theprices of houses go up and stuff
, you know.
But anytime you're in the$300,000, $400,000 range here in
(04:29):
Louisville, that's a prettygood size home.
Here it makes more sense toorder things like videos or
360-degree tours, which we do,you know, things like that.
That makes good sense for thereal estate agent and for the
homeowner who's selling the homeso that that property that
makes good sense for, for thereal estate agent, um, and for
the homeowner who's selling thehome, so that that property can
be marketed a little bitdifferent if you really had to
(04:51):
kind of expand your portfolio,if you will, to all these other
things, or were you doing thisfrom the word go with?
Gary Pageau (04:58):
I mean, I just think, like the drone
fly-throughs are kind of crazyand all that, yeah, it's pretty
cool, but it's like a wholenother skill set and kind of
crazy and all that.
Yeah, it's pretty cool, butit's like a whole nother skill
set and a delivery mechanism andall that other stuff.
Carl Armijo (05:09):
Sure, yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I mean I started outwith most of this stuff from the
go.
Erin Manning (05:16):
I started offering pictures.
Carl Armijo (05:18):
You know drone photography, 360 tours.
You know we do things likevirtual twilights, where we can
take a daylight picture and usepost-processing and make it look
like it's a dusk outside.
You know virtual staging, whereyou add furniture inside of an
empty room.
You know having all of theseproducts available to to real
(05:38):
estate agents is a huge plus forthem, right?
They don't want to hire aphotographer to come in and take
pictures of the house but thenwant to hire a photographer to
come in and take pictures of thehouse, but then go hire a
videographer to come in and makea video right.
They want one appointment.
They want you to be able to doall of it for them and they want
you to deliver it to them thenext day.
And that's the most importantthing that you can do for these
(06:00):
real estate agents is you can bea one-stop shop for them.
They can get all the media thatthey need to market and sell
their property.
Gary Pageau (06:07):
So you're talking a little bit about like them
using you to almost enhancetheir brand, right In the sense
that you're providing this veryconsistent look and it's really
no matter what they do, becausethey're probably thinking, if I
do this across everything Ioffer on my local realtor page
and everybody sees it like that,they're more likely to get
(06:28):
people to reach out to them towant to list their houses with
them.
I imagine.
Carl Armijo (06:34):
That's how I think they should be thinking about it
.
I think the great agents whoare selling a lot of properties
do think about it that way, atleast the great agents that I
work with there's 5,000 realestate agents in Louisville,
right, I'm sure it's the Atleast the great agents that I
work with.
There's 5,000 real estateagents in Louisville, right, you
know, I'm sure it's the sameall across the country.
There's, there's, you know tonsof real estate agents.
You know they say most of themare doing one or two deals a
(06:55):
year, but the real good ones aredoing one or two deals a week,
right, and, and, and.
They're busy, and they're theones who are consistent in their
marketing, consistent in howthey show properties and it
brings clients into them basedon how they do that and keep
that marketing the same.
Gary Pageau (07:14):
We've talked a little bit about the customer
service piece and you said youknow delivering the next day is
vital.
What do you do if you've got aproblem right?
Maybe something's taking longer, maybe the drone was shaky or
there was a smudge on the lensor I don't know what kind of
things could happen.
I'm sure there's a lot that canhappen.
But so how do you handle thosesituations from a customer
(07:37):
service angle?
Carl Armijo (07:38):
Sure, I think there's a couple of things to
think about.
One is clear communication,right?
A couple of things to thinkabout.
One is clear communication,right?
So you have to set expectationswith your clients beforehand on
when they can expect the mediato be delivered.
For me, if we do media on, a,say like a Tuesday, all of it is
delivered Wednesday morning,typically around 8 am.
(08:01):
When they're, you know, gettingto the office.
They have all their pictures,all their videos, plans,
whatever they need to, you know,put together their marketing
package for that house.
They got at 8 am, you know, Ipromise a next day delivery.
The next day delivery allows mesome leeway, right?
If there is a problem andeverything is not ready at 8 am,
you know, as long as they getit that it that day, you know,
(08:24):
it's kind of fallen into kind ofwhat I have promised them or
what you expect.
With that being said, you haveto be proactive in communicating
that there was a problem youknow, um, you know, if you have
an issue with um, you know yourdrone photos, for instance.
Like you crashed your drone andall of a sudden you lost your
memory card, this has happenedto us uh you know, hey, we have
(08:45):
to go back out.
You know, today, redo thosedrone pictures.
I'm still going to get them toyou today.
But you know we had to getanother drone, you know we had
to do whatever Went over thelake To make that happen.
Erin Manning (08:58):
Yeah.
Carl Armijo (08:59):
I mean we've had drones just disappear.
I'm sorry for to laugh, but no,I mean it happens, right.
You know, and it's part ofdoing business.
You know it's a cost you haveto absorb.
You know absorb as a businessowner.
But you just do what you got todo and you still get in their
pictures that same day.
You know whether that meansyou're working late.
You know to go out there and dothat or you know you're you're
(09:20):
bringing somebody into help,whatever it can be it is Like in
that case.
Gary Pageau (09:27):
I mean, what can go wrong with a drone, like in
those situations?
I don't want to turn this intothe drone show, but I'm just
curious like is it just it losesconnection with remote device
and just forgets where it is andkeeps going, or that's happened
a few times.
Carl Armijo (09:42):
You know if you fly your drone too far away you can
lose connection with yourcontroller.
You know sometimes it'llreconnect.
You know I've had to hop in mycar drive to the direction the
drone was flying until itreconnected and then I could
come back.
You know, and things like that.
Most of us use DJI drones andthey do have some great like
built in, like safety features,so that doesn't happen.
(10:02):
But everything now and thenthings do go haywire.
You know, it's easy to crash adrone into a tree if you're not
paying really good attentionright, and that can throw off
your whole, your whole day andyou know, your whole order for
that client and it throws offthe rest of the orders for the
day, you know, because we're notdoing one house a day you know
we're we're trying to do, youknow, multiple houses in a day
(10:24):
and so if you crash on yourfirst house, then you've got to
figure something out for therest of the houses.
So yeah, there's things thathappen but you know it's
communication, it's beingproactive, it's addressing the
issue head on, as soon as ithappens, and just not providing
any surprises to your clients.
People hate surprises.
They understand that thingshappen that can go wrong and
(10:45):
there will be a problem.
Not all are understanding andlike it, but they still
understand that, hey, you don'talways have full control over
everything that happens duringthe day.
Gary Pageau (10:53):
And I imagine I mean I'm sure there's a time
element to it, right, Becausethey want to get the listing up,
especially with as hot as themarket is right now.
It seems like that probablysome houses sell before they
even get the pictures up,probably in some cases.
So I mean you do have someleeway there, right, because you
can prep your, because it's notlike it's you promise it within
an hour.
Carl Armijo (11:13):
It's within 24 of those hours and I don't even do
24 anymore.
Um, I do next day because if Ido an appointment at eight in
the morning on tuesday 24 iseight in the morning on
wednesday that doesn't get muchleeway right right away, so it's
next day, um, and that givesyou a little bit more
flexibility on getting thingsdone, and typically next day for
(11:35):
most agents is perfectlyacceptable for that stuff when
you're like pricing out yourservices.
Gary Pageau (11:43):
Are you considered more premium or average or
budget in your market?
In my market.
Carl Armijo (11:50):
I'm more on the average to high.
I'm not premium.
I'm definitely not the mostexpensive guy in town.
I'm definitely not the thecheapest person in town.
I'm definitely probably average.
If someone's ordering onlypictures, things like that, um,
when they start getting intopackages that include videos and
(12:11):
you know, drone floor planthings, that I'm probably a
little bit more high in thataspect than a lot of people as
well.
Gary Pageau (12:19):
So was that a conscious choice on your part?
That's where you wanted to be,or do you think you're going to
bump up?
Carl Armijo (12:26):
You know, I think that's a very good question
because that's the hardest partabout running a business right.
It's like where do you priceyour services and things like
that?
You know, in 2020, I'd say Istarted too low.
I'd say in 2025, now I'm a lotcloser where I'm comfortable
being where I'm at.
But it's taken me five years tokind of bump these prices up
(12:49):
gradually to get to where I'm alittle bit more comfortable.
Gary Pageau (12:52):
So you know, I would say if you're starting a,
business.
Carl Armijo (12:55):
You know there's a balancing act between you know
being cheap enough to get newclients.
You know being you knowexpensive enough where you're
comfortable with the work thatyou're doing and the price that
you're getting from everybody.
Gary Pageau (13:08):
And you probably get, I would think, less price
resistance from returningclients right, because they're
used to you, they know what youdo and they value what you do
right.
Carl Armijo (13:19):
That's correct.
Yeah, once I work with a clientthe first time.
They know the process, theyknow the quality of the work
that's coming, they know when toexpect it the next day.
They know how easy it is toorder and pay.
They know how easy it is to gettheir photos delivered and
downloaded.
You know, it makes it reallyhard for them to want to go
(13:39):
somewhere else for $50, you know, or $20, you know kind of thing
, I guess, while I brought thatup you know, I think that's one
of the things that kind of helpsme in my business is I've got
an online ordering platform.
(13:59):
People can go online.
They see the entire menu ofservices that we order.
It's broken down in packagesand then all apart.
Every agent is different, Everyproperty is different, so we
give them you know as manyoptions as they can and how they
want to order and market theirproperty.
They book online.
They get their confirmationemails.
They get reminder emails,reminder texts.
We always show up.
(14:21):
When we say we're going to showup, which is the most important
thing in running a business.
The photos are done.
They're delivered the nextmorning.
They get an email with links.
They get sent email with links.
They get sent to a downloadpage that has all the media in
one page.
They click download and it allgets downloaded to their
computer.
It's super streamlined, supereasy for them and it provides
(14:45):
less resistance for the customerin the long run.
Gary Pageau (14:49):
Yeah, removing friction from a customer is
absolutely like a way toapproach the market.
Is this like an off the shelfplatform you're using?
Yeah, yeah, it is.
Carl Armijo (14:59):
It's geared towards real estate photographers and
what's called the one I use iscalled HD Photo Hub, but there's
other platforms.
I know Zillow owns one calledAereo, and there's some other
things out there that are reallygeared towards, you know, real
estate photographers.
Gary Pageau (15:13):
Um you, you pay by at least mine.
Carl Armijo (15:15):
I pay by the property um to to utilize that
whole platform, um, but it's thecost of doing business.
Uh and it's fantastic for for meand it's fantastic for my
clients.
Um, if you're like me, youdon't like calling somebody
hoping that they answered thephone to get something scheduled
(15:36):
, or sending five or six, seven,eight text messages back and
forth over the period of an hoursomething scheduled where you
can just literally open thephone, go to the website or the
mobile app pick what you want.
Order it know what time I'mgoing to show up, and then I'm
there is there a review?
Gary Pageau (15:56):
I mean, how do you enhance your relationship or
your perception among otherrealtors?
Is there a like, a uh, theytalk amongst themselves.
Or is there a review uhplatform that is preferred by
realtors?
Carl Armijo (16:10):
so a couple things.
Um.
So, the platform that I usewill help me collect google
reviews, and so I do ask forgoogle reviews from all of my
clients.
I ask for a five-star review onevery project, because I feel
like I deliver five-star work onevery project.
Uh, so that helps yeah, um thathelps in in the google organic
search and things like that andyou know getting collecting
(16:32):
those reviews.
But the realtor world's prettysmall, even though there's 5 000
you know real estate agents inlouisville.
They're all in the same groups.
They all you know are in thesame circles.
They talk the majority of mynew real estate photography work
is is word of mouth right it'shey, I got your phone number
(16:53):
from so-and-so I've got thisproperty for sale.
When can you come out?
You know, and then it's, just asyou know, as easy as collecting
the information or directingthem right to the order form so
that they can go and book thatway.
Gary Pageau (17:06):
One of the great things about.
Carl Armijo (17:07):
You know this business is it's a people
business, right, it's a peoplebusiness, right, it's
relationship business.
You know, I see the majority oftime, you know I see the real
estate agents at the propertythat we're photographing, you
know.
So we get to meet in person,they get to meet me, we get to
kind of get to know each other,you know.
Erin Manning (17:24):
I know about their families.
Carl Armijo (17:25):
They know about my family.
You know we're talking, youknow so it's a relationship
building and it's, you know,developing.
You know those relationshipswith, with your clients, you
know that really provides, helps, provide a great customer
experience for them as well.
Gary Pageau (17:40):
You also have migrated or added on another
business which you saw theopportunity as a result of your
real estate business.
So let's talk about that howyou saw a business that needed
to be served or a market thatneeded to be served and you
started a whole other businessto take care of that.
Tell us about that.
(18:00):
Yeah, yeah sure.
Carl Armijo (18:01):
So, yeah, so I started a company called
Louisville Cleaning Pros.
It's a residential home cleaningbusiness, but what I saw you
know my day-to-day interactionwith real estate agents, as I
was doing, you know, photographywas, you know, complaints about
the cleaning crew that cameinto the house or, you know,
delays in scheduling orrescheduling because the
(18:22):
cleaners didn't show up or thecleaners didn't get done in time
, or, you know, whatever thecase may be, it's hard to find
good cleaners.
You know, you hear these things,you know as you're talking, and
so, you know I thought theremight be a hole here that I
could fill, or a need with theseexisting clients that I already
know, that already, trust me,that already, you know, buy from
(18:42):
me.
You know, maybe I can add thiscleaning service in and now I'm
turning, you know, a $300 or$400 house into a $700 to $800
house, you know, because we'redoing not only the cleaning but
you know we're doing the photosas well.
You know I thought it couldhelp streamline my scheduling on
(19:06):
the photography side of things,but also, you know, provide
another way to be more of aone-stop shop for these real
estate agents.
Gary Pageau (19:15):
So really you've kind of gone and expanded beyond
just capturing images and videoto almost becoming a platform
for enhancing the visualpresentation of a home.
Carl Armijo (19:28):
I think that's one way to look at it.
Yeah, for sure, you know, ahouse is only going to show.
Well, one way to look at it.
Erin Manning (19:32):
Yeah, for sure you know it's uh a house is only
gonna show well you know if it'sclean.
Carl Armijo (19:36):
You know, nobody likes walking into a dirty home.
Gary Pageau (19:41):
It's gonna photograph better right it
really helps with that, thatpresentation of the home itself
was there one home that youencountered that was like oh my
gosh, we need to clean this.
Is that what kicked this off?
Not necessarily, no, you knowyou always, I was looking for a
disaster story.
I was really looking.
Carl Armijo (19:59):
Yeah, you know we photograph almost a thousand
homes a year.
You know I've been in everykind of home you can imagine,
you know, from homes that havesuffered fires, that are being
sold, as is.
You know we're taking picturesof that, you know to your
million plus dollar listings inLouisville, which is a big, you
know a big deal in our market tohave a house.
That's over a million dollarsBecause you know we're like a
(20:21):
low cost of living area in theUnited States.
But, my experience has alwaysbeen the cleaner the house is,
the less clutter the house is,the way better your pictures are
going to look, the way happierthe client's going to be, you
know, and if we can add aservice in there that's going to
help that home get there.
It's like a win-win for for allof us.
Gary Pageau (20:43):
I just thought that was just interesting, that
whole idea where you saw a needthat needed to be filled.
Rather than like, do what mostpeople would have done, which is
, hey, I'm going to find somecleaners that I trust and kind
of bring them in, you decide tostart a whole separate company
to do that.
Now is that like a completelyseparate company with separate
people, or are you wearing twohats at all times?
Carl Armijo (21:04):
Yeah, so it's a.
It's a completely separatebusiness entity on paper, a
separate, you know, website,phone number, all that, all that
stuff, right.
So you know I'm running it as aseparate thing.
I did that intentionally and onpurpose for a couple reasons.
You know one you know if youhave a company that's called
louisville cleaning pros, youknow you can also service, you
(21:25):
know, anybody who wants housecleaning.
You know, weekly, monthly,biweekly, whatever they want
there.
Two, it's not tied directly tome.
So people aren't expecting Carlor Miho to come out and clean
their house, which I'm not goingto do.
I'm going to have cleaners whocome out and clean your house.
I'm going to stand behind thework and I'm going to make sure
(21:45):
it's done right and if it's not,we're going to come back and
we're going to redo it.
You know it's a littledifferent in my photography
business, which you know it'sone of the things that I kind of
go back and forth on.
I don't know if it's great ornot, but I named it Carl Armijo
Photography.
So a lot of people expect me tobe there right.
I've got a great employee, um,you know she goes out and does
(22:09):
real estate photos for us aswell.
Everybody loves her.
You know things are great thereas well, but it's you know,
it's a hard barrier to breakwhen you name your company after
yourself.
You know.
Gary Pageau (22:18):
I think, if I could do it again.
Carl Armijo (22:19):
I probably wouldn't do it that way, but you know,
you learn the hard way and youknow here we are and are.
So it is what it is.
Gary Pageau (22:28):
So what has that done for your business, for your
overall?
Like the two businesses, has itenhanced the photography side,
or is it just another revenuestream?
What's been the impact of that?
Carl Armijo (22:41):
Right now I wouldn't say it's helped the
photography side any.
The photography side helps thecleaning side more than anything
.
Right, um, you know it's aanother, another stream of of
revenue the way I thought aboutit was a future kind of thing is
am I going to want to do carlor meo photography, you know,
(23:02):
into my 70s?
I don't know.
Um, that's too far in advanceto know, but would I be willing
to run a cleaning company intomy 70s, or build a company that
is more able to be sold laterbecause of what it is and what
it's called, you know then?
Then yes, I think that's asomething that's a possibility
(23:23):
down the road for a cleaningcompany, right?
So you know, that's kind ofkind of why I've structured it
that way as well, just to buildit right.
You can sell it later.
Gary Pageau (23:34):
Yeah, it's kind of interesting because of the way
you said, because in the CarlArmio photography you're kind of
the brand or the product in asense, even though you have a
staff member, you're kind of theface of the company.
With this other adjacentcompany you don't have to be
correct, it can be a totalseparate thing.
(23:55):
So like if you did want, ifsomebody did offer you, hey, I
want to buy your cleaningbusiness, it's pretty easy to do
, whereas maybe somebody doesn'twant to buy carl correct.
Carl Armijo (24:04):
yeah, yeah, carl, army on photography be a lot
more tricky to sell because it'sattached to somebody like me
and I'm sure there's ways youcan get around that, you know,
by removing yourself from thecompany and you know doing.
You know, there's plenty ofpeople who've done it
(24:26):
successfully and done that aswell.
But you know, photography ismore of a little bit kind of
different game when it comes tothat, because people kind of
associate it with thephotographer itself.
Gary Pageau (24:36):
Sure, sure, sure.
So when you're looking atbuilding the cleaning side of
the business, are you relyingsolely on the real estate piece
or how are you trying to growthat piece independently?
Carl Armijo (24:46):
real estate piece, or how are you trying to grow
that piece independently?
So yeah, to start with it's ahey, we're going to work with
the people that we know.
Right, we're messaging thepeople that we work with already
.
You know, we're hitting it onFacebook.
We're hitting them throughemail, you know we're getting
the word out that way.
That way they know that thisexists as well, um, but you know
(25:07):
, once you kind of get that ballrolling, you know you have to
expand that business in otherways.
You know whether that's through, you know, facebook ads or
google ads, or you know, youknow it's organic seo.
You know things like that.
You know you can't rely on yourown network, um, to to grow a
business forever.
You know that pipeline kind ofruns dry.
(25:29):
In a little bit of time you geta boost to start with to get
going, kind of get you off yourfeet.
But then you really have tokind of take the bull by the
horns and market that businessand you know, treat it like a
real business to get thatrevenue coming in and get those
new leads and customers.
But we've built it the same way.
We have an online orderingplatform.
(25:51):
That way, people don't have tocall if they don't want to call,
they don't have to text.
They can, you know, doeverything online.
We'll show up when.
When we say we're going to showup, we're going to clean the
house.
You know, it's the same kind ofprocess that I built Carl
Armijo Photography, that I'vetaken over to Louisville
Cleaning Pros because I've seenthe success that the online
(26:13):
ordering platform has in anindustry that a lot of people
don't always associate that with.
Gary Pageau (26:19):
Do you think you're going to be able to like add a
third business now that you'vekind of looked at this sort of?
You know, I can kind of takethe same model of easy online
ordering, service, fulfillmentkind of thing, I mean it's easy,
like once you have that processdown.
Carl Armijo (26:36):
You can replicate it more than twice yeah, you
know, it's all a matter of howmuch you know how much bandwidth
you have as a person, right?
You, you know I am married withfamily, you know.
So it's like you know, you gotto balance you know running you
know two businesses already withwith family life, with with
(26:56):
things like that, and not get,you know, not get burnt out, you
know it's easy and mostbusiness owners know it's easy
to focus only on your businessand just run a hundred miles an
hour and neglect the other partsof your life.
And most of us are businessowners like to do business, we
like to run our business, weenjoy it, we have fun with it,
(27:19):
but it's too easy to get caughtup into it, neglect other parts
of your life.
So I don't see myself startinga third business, like in the
near future.
But you know, I'm only in myforties so you never know what's
going to happen, you know asyou get older and you know
things are going well.
Gary Pageau (27:33):
So where can people go for more information?
To learn about you and yourvarious businesses.
Carl Armijo (27:39):
Yeah.
So, um you know, I've got threewebsites out there that people
can hit up if they want to see.
Um so for my real estatephotography side of things.
People can visitlouisvillerealestateimagescom.
I'm also a headshotphotographer, you know, and you
can see that at carlarmijocom,that's C-A-R-L-A-R-M-I-J-O.
(28:02):
You can also visitlouisvillecleaningproscom and
you can see kind of the onlineplatforms that we use for for
all of those websites to kind of, you know, allow people to
order, you know, photographywhether it's headshots, real
estate or order cleaning allonline without having to pick up
the phone.
Or, you know, talk to somebodywhich people love awesome.
Gary Pageau (28:23):
Well, thank you, Carl, for your time.
I think I think everyone'slearned a little bit about you
kind of looking to see whereopportunities are right, because
I think that's what a realbusiness owner and entrepreneur
does is see something in themarket and then creates a
business to fill it.
So I think people will learn alot from what you're shared here
.
Thank you so much for your timeand hope to talk to you again.
Carl Armijo (28:42):
Thanks, Gary.
Erin Manning (28:45):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
wwwthedeadpixelssocietycom.
Welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast, the
photo imaging industry'sleading news source.
Here's your host, Gary Pageau.
The Dead Pixels Society podcastis brought to you by Mediaclip,
Advertek Printing andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:17):
Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
I'm your host, gary Peugeot,and today we're joined by Carl
Armijo, who is with Carl ArmijoPhotography and the Louisville
Cleaning Pros, and he's inLouisville, Kentucky, and he's
going to talk to us today aboutcustomer service and how that
applies to all businesses, inphotography and without
(00:38):
photography.
So, hi, carl, how are you today?
Carl Armijo (00:40):
Hey, Gary, thanks for having me today.
I really appreciate it.
I know my name can be achallenge there, but you got it.
You nailed it perfectly, soit's an awesome job.
Gary Pageau (00:51):
Well, thank you.
Now I'll try and say Pageau,right.
Carl Armijo (00:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Gary Pageau (00:54):
Let's talk a little bit about your business journey
.
You're a real estatephotographer, which is kind of a
niche.
How did you get started in that?
Carl Armijo (01:07):
Yeah, so real estate photography really came
about in 2020 for me during theCOVID pandemic.
Really, I have a background incivil engineering.
I've worked for Fortune 500construction management
engineering companies in myprevious life, but during 2020,
you know, there was a perfectstorm of a situation to get me
(01:28):
moving into the real estatephotography thing.
My wife and I started fosteringa child, so I needed more
flexibility with my daily lifeand a corporate nine to five job
wasn't providing thatflexibility to handle that kind
of situation with a new kid inthe house.
Also, we were in this weirdsituation where, you know, we
(01:50):
couldn't go to the office.
Professional headshots weredead because we weren't allowed
to meet in person to do thatkind of stuff.
You know we were shut downbecause of that pandemic.
So, you know, real estatephotography really fit a good
flexibility I can go into a home, we can ask people to leave
(02:10):
that a face to face contact orthat social distancing that was
required by the governmentwasn't an issue.
So it was a way to kind of youknow, continue photography, move
into something different andit's turned out to be like the
best move that I've made inbusiness, because I really enjoy
on the real estate side ofphotography.
To me it's more of anengineering kind of mindset than
(02:35):
it is a creative kind ofmindset, especially when it
comes to business right, because, yes, I want to create
fantastic images that it's goingto get people in homes to look
at them and see that the realestate agents are going to love,
but really it's a, it's aprocess, it's customer service
driven and it's it's more ofthose things that really get me
(02:58):
more excited about real estatephotography than actually taking
pictures of a living room or akitchen.
You know if that makes sense.
Gary Pageau (03:04):
So when you're doing real estate photography,
are you also including, like,the video walkthroughs, sure
yeah, the 3D visual things?
I imagine you have to have likea certain price point on the
property for the real estateagent to do that.
What is that in your area to,let's say?
Carl Armijo (03:24):
you know it makes sense to do all the extra stuff
you know, I don't think thatit's necessarily price point of
the home that's driven.
It is the agent who's drivingthat, based on how the agent
wants to market themselves.
Um, and so that's what I tellagents themselves when I'm
talking to them.
It it's like the best agentsthat I know and work with.
(03:45):
They order the same productsfrom me on every single house
that they sell, no matter ifit's $100,000 house or if it's a
million dollar plus house.
They're doing it the exact sameway.
That way, their customers whoare selling properties know what
they're getting when they hirethis listing agent.
And so, in my opinion, theagents who are doing things the
(04:09):
right way are marketing everyproperty the same way, no matter
how expensive it is or howcheap it is.
And with that being said, themore expensive the house, you
know, the more that other thingsmake more sense in the
marketing standpoint for agents.
You know.
You know we're seeing theprices of houses go up and stuff
, you know.
But anytime you're in the$300,000, $400,000 range here in
(04:29):
Louisville, that's a prettygood size home.
Here it makes more sense toorder things like videos or
360-degree tours, which we do,you know, things like that.
That makes good sense for thereal estate agent and for the
homeowner who's selling the homeso that that property that
makes good sense for, for thereal estate agent, um, and for
the homeowner who's selling thehome, so that that property can
be marketed a little bitdifferent if you really had to
(04:51):
kind of expand your portfolio,if you will, to all these other
things, or were you doing thisfrom the word go with?
Gary Pageau (04:58):
I mean, I just think, like the drone
fly-throughs are kind of crazyand all that, yeah, it's pretty
cool, but it's like a wholenother skill set and kind of
crazy and all that.
Yeah, it's pretty cool, butit's like a whole nother skill
set and a delivery mechanism andall that other stuff.
Carl Armijo (05:09):
Sure, yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I mean I started outwith most of this stuff from the
go.
Erin Manning (05:16):
I started offering pictures.
Carl Armijo (05:18):
You know drone photography, 360 tours.
You know we do things likevirtual twilights, where we can
take a daylight picture and usepost-processing and make it look
like it's a dusk outside.
You know virtual staging, whereyou add furniture inside of an
empty room.
You know having all of theseproducts available to to real
(05:38):
estate agents is a huge plus forthem, right?
They don't want to hire aphotographer to come in and take
pictures of the house but thenwant to hire a photographer to
come in and take pictures of thehouse, but then go hire a
videographer to come in and makea video right.
They want one appointment.
They want you to be able to doall of it for them and they want
you to deliver it to them thenext day.
And that's the most importantthing that you can do for these
(06:00):
real estate agents is you can bea one-stop shop for them.
They can get all the media thatthey need to market and sell
their property.
Gary Pageau (06:07):
So you're talking a little bit about like them
using you to almost enhancetheir brand, right In the sense
that you're providing this veryconsistent look and it's really
no matter what they do, becausethey're probably thinking, if I
do this across everything Ioffer on my local realtor page
and everybody sees it like that,they're more likely to get
(06:28):
people to reach out to them towant to list their houses with
them.
I imagine.
Carl Armijo (06:34):
That's how I think they should be thinking about it
.
I think the great agents whoare selling a lot of properties
do think about it that way, atleast the great agents that I
work with there's 5,000 realestate agents in Louisville,
right, I'm sure it's the Atleast the great agents that I
work with.
There's 5,000 real estateagents in Louisville, right, you
know, I'm sure it's the sameall across the country.
There's, there's, you know tonsof real estate agents.
You know they say most of themare doing one or two deals a
(06:55):
year, but the real good ones aredoing one or two deals a week,
right, and, and, and.
They're busy, and they're theones who are consistent in their
marketing, consistent in howthey show properties and it
brings clients into them basedon how they do that and keep
that marketing the same.
Gary Pageau (07:14):
We've talked a little bit about the customer
service piece and you said youknow delivering the next day is
vital.
What do you do if you've got aproblem right?
Maybe something's taking longer, maybe the drone was shaky or
there was a smudge on the lensor I don't know what kind of
things could happen.
I'm sure there's a lot that canhappen.
But so how do you handle thosesituations from a customer
(07:37):
service angle?
Carl Armijo (07:38):
Sure, I think there's a couple of things to
think about.
One is clear communication,right?
A couple of things to thinkabout.
One is clear communication,right?
So you have to set expectationswith your clients beforehand on
when they can expect the mediato be delivered.
For me, if we do media on, a,say like a Tuesday, all of it is
delivered Wednesday morning,typically around 8 am.
(08:01):
When they're, you know, gettingto the office.
They have all their pictures,all their videos, plans,
whatever they need to, you know,put together their marketing
package for that house.
They got at 8 am, you know, Ipromise a next day delivery.
The next day delivery allows mesome leeway, right?
If there is a problem andeverything is not ready at 8 am,
you know, as long as they getit that it that day, you know,
(08:24):
it's kind of fallen into kind ofwhat I have promised them or
what you expect.
With that being said, you haveto be proactive in communicating
that there was a problem youknow, um, you know, if you have
an issue with um, you know yourdrone photos, for instance.
Like you crashed your drone andall of a sudden you lost your
memory card, this has happenedto us uh you know, hey, we have
(08:45):
to go back out.
You know, today, redo thosedrone pictures.
I'm still going to get them toyou today.
But you know we had to getanother drone, you know we had
to do whatever Went over thelake To make that happen.
Erin Manning (08:58):
Yeah.
Carl Armijo (08:59):
I mean we've had drones just disappear.
I'm sorry for to laugh, but no,I mean it happens, right.
You know, and it's part ofdoing business.
You know it's a cost you haveto absorb.
You know absorb as a businessowner.
But you just do what you got todo and you still get in their
pictures that same day.
You know whether that meansyou're working late.
You know to go out there and dothat or you know you're you're
(09:20):
bringing somebody into help,whatever it can be it is Like in
that case.
Gary Pageau (09:27):
I mean, what can go wrong with a drone, like in
those situations?
I don't want to turn this intothe drone show, but I'm just
curious like is it just it losesconnection with remote device
and just forgets where it is andkeeps going, or that's happened
a few times.
Carl Armijo (09:42):
You know if you fly your drone too far away you can
lose connection with yourcontroller.
You know sometimes it'llreconnect.
You know I've had to hop in mycar drive to the direction the
drone was flying until itreconnected and then I could
come back.
You know, and things like that.
Most of us use DJI drones andthey do have some great like
built in, like safety features,so that doesn't happen.
(10:02):
But everything now and thenthings do go haywire.
You know, it's easy to crash adrone into a tree if you're not
paying really good attentionright, and that can throw off
your whole, your whole day andyou know, your whole order for
that client and it throws offthe rest of the orders for the
day, you know, because we're notdoing one house a day you know
we're we're trying to do, youknow, multiple houses in a day
(10:24):
and so if you crash on yourfirst house, then you've got to
figure something out for therest of the houses.
So yeah, there's things thathappen but you know it's
communication, it's beingproactive, it's addressing the
issue head on, as soon as ithappens, and just not providing
any surprises to your clients.
People hate surprises.
They understand that thingshappen that can go wrong and
(10:45):
there will be a problem.
Not all are understanding andlike it, but they still
understand that, hey, you don'talways have full control over
everything that happens duringthe day.
Gary Pageau (10:53):
And I imagine I mean I'm sure there's a time
element to it, right, Becausethey want to get the listing up,
especially with as hot as themarket is right now.
It seems like that probablysome houses sell before they
even get the pictures up,probably in some cases.
So I mean you do have someleeway there, right, because you
can prep your, because it's notlike it's you promise it within
an hour.
Carl Armijo (11:13):
It's within 24 of those hours and I don't even do
24 anymore.
Um, I do next day because if Ido an appointment at eight in
the morning on tuesday 24 iseight in the morning on
wednesday that doesn't get muchleeway right right away, so it's
next day, um, and that givesyou a little bit more
flexibility on getting thingsdone, and typically next day for
(11:35):
most agents is perfectlyacceptable for that stuff when
you're like pricing out yourservices.
Gary Pageau (11:43):
Are you considered more premium or average or
budget in your market?
In my market.
Carl Armijo (11:50):
I'm more on the average to high.
I'm not premium.
I'm definitely not the mostexpensive guy in town.
I'm definitely not the thecheapest person in town.
I'm definitely probably average.
If someone's ordering onlypictures, things like that, um,
when they start getting intopackages that include videos and
(12:11):
you know, drone floor planthings, that I'm probably a
little bit more high in thataspect than a lot of people as
well.
Gary Pageau (12:19):
So was that a conscious choice on your part?
That's where you wanted to be,or do you think you're going to
bump up?
Carl Armijo (12:26):
You know, I think that's a very good question
because that's the hardest partabout running a business right.
It's like where do you priceyour services and things like
that?
You know, in 2020, I'd say Istarted too low.
I'd say in 2025, now I'm a lotcloser where I'm comfortable
being where I'm at.
But it's taken me five years tokind of bump these prices up
(12:49):
gradually to get to where I'm alittle bit more comfortable.
Gary Pageau (12:52):
So you know, I would say if you're starting a,
business.
Carl Armijo (12:55):
You know there's a balancing act between you know
being cheap enough to get newclients.
You know being you knowexpensive enough where you're
comfortable with the work thatyou're doing and the price that
you're getting from everybody.
Gary Pageau (13:08):
And you probably get, I would think, less price
resistance from returningclients right, because they're
used to you, they know what youdo and they value what you do
right.
Carl Armijo (13:19):
That's correct.
Yeah, once I work with a clientthe first time.
They know the process, theyknow the quality of the work
that's coming, they know when toexpect it the next day.
They know how easy it is toorder and pay.
They know how easy it is to gettheir photos delivered and
downloaded.
You know, it makes it reallyhard for them to want to go
(13:39):
somewhere else for $50, you know, or $20, you know kind of thing
, I guess, while I brought thatup you know, I think that's one
of the things that kind of helpsme in my business is I've got
an online ordering platform.
(13:59):
People can go online.
They see the entire menu ofservices that we order.
It's broken down in packagesand then all apart.
Every agent is different, Everyproperty is different, so we
give them you know as manyoptions as they can and how they
want to order and market theirproperty.
They book online.
They get their confirmationemails.
They get reminder emails,reminder texts.
We always show up.
(14:21):
When we say we're going to showup, which is the most important
thing in running a business.
The photos are done.
They're delivered the nextmorning.
They get an email with links.
They get sent email with links.
They get sent to a downloadpage that has all the media in
one page.
They click download and it allgets downloaded to their
computer.
It's super streamlined, supereasy for them and it provides
(14:45):
less resistance for the customerin the long run.
Gary Pageau (14:49):
Yeah, removing friction from a customer is
absolutely like a way toapproach the market.
Is this like an off the shelfplatform you're using?
Yeah, yeah, it is.
Carl Armijo (14:59):
It's geared towards real estate photographers and
what's called the one I use iscalled HD Photo Hub, but there's
other platforms.
I know Zillow owns one calledAereo, and there's some other
things out there that are reallygeared towards, you know, real
estate photographers.
Gary Pageau (15:13):
Um you, you pay by at least mine.
Carl Armijo (15:15):
I pay by the property um to to utilize that
whole platform, um, but it's thecost of doing business.
Uh and it's fantastic for for meand it's fantastic for my
clients.
Um, if you're like me, youdon't like calling somebody
hoping that they answered thephone to get something scheduled
(15:36):
, or sending five or six, seven,eight text messages back and
forth over the period of an hoursomething scheduled where you
can just literally open thephone, go to the website or the
mobile app pick what you want.
Order it know what time I'mgoing to show up, and then I'm
there is there a review?
Gary Pageau (15:56):
I mean, how do you enhance your relationship or
your perception among otherrealtors?
Is there a like, a uh, theytalk amongst themselves.
Or is there a review uhplatform that is preferred by
realtors?
Carl Armijo (16:10):
so a couple things.
Um.
So, the platform that I usewill help me collect google
reviews, and so I do ask forgoogle reviews from all of my
clients.
I ask for a five-star review onevery project, because I feel
like I deliver five-star work onevery project.
Uh, so that helps yeah, um thathelps in in the google organic
search and things like that andyou know getting collecting
(16:32):
those reviews.
But the realtor world's prettysmall, even though there's 5 000
you know real estate agents inlouisville.
They're all in the same groups.
They all you know are in thesame circles.
They talk the majority of mynew real estate photography work
is is word of mouth right it'shey, I got your phone number
(16:53):
from so-and-so I've got thisproperty for sale.
When can you come out?
You know, and then it's, just asyou know, as easy as collecting
the information or directingthem right to the order form so
that they can go and book thatway.
Gary Pageau (17:06):
One of the great things about.
Carl Armijo (17:07):
You know this business is it's a people
business, right, it's a peoplebusiness, right, it's
relationship business.
You know, I see the majority oftime, you know I see the real
estate agents at the propertythat we're photographing, you
know.
So we get to meet in person,they get to meet me, we get to
kind of get to know each other,you know.
Erin Manning (17:24):
I know about their families.
Carl Armijo (17:25):
They know about my family.
You know we're talking, youknow so it's a relationship
building and it's, you know,developing.
You know those relationshipswith, with your clients, you
know that really provides, helps, provide a great customer
experience for them as well.
Gary Pageau (17:40):
You also have migrated or added on another
business which you saw theopportunity as a result of your
real estate business.
So let's talk about that howyou saw a business that needed
to be served or a market thatneeded to be served and you
started a whole other businessto take care of that.
Tell us about that.
(18:00):
Yeah, yeah sure.
Carl Armijo (18:01):
So, yeah, so I started a company called
Louisville Cleaning Pros.
It's a residential home cleaningbusiness, but what I saw you
know my day-to-day interactionwith real estate agents, as I
was doing, you know, photographywas, you know, complaints about
the cleaning crew that cameinto the house or, you know,
delays in scheduling orrescheduling because the
(18:22):
cleaners didn't show up or thecleaners didn't get done in time
, or, you know, whatever thecase may be, it's hard to find
good cleaners.
You know, you hear these things,you know as you're talking, and
so, you know I thought theremight be a hole here that I
could fill, or a need with theseexisting clients that I already
know, that already, trust me,that already, you know, buy from
(18:42):
me.
You know, maybe I can add thiscleaning service in and now I'm
turning, you know, a $300 or$400 house into a $700 to $800
house, you know, because we'redoing not only the cleaning but
you know we're doing the photosas well.
You know I thought it couldhelp streamline my scheduling on
(19:06):
the photography side of things,but also, you know, provide
another way to be more of aone-stop shop for these real
estate agents.
Gary Pageau (19:15):
So really you've kind of gone and expanded beyond
just capturing images and videoto almost becoming a platform
for enhancing the visualpresentation of a home.
Carl Armijo (19:28):
I think that's one way to look at it.
Yeah, for sure, you know, ahouse is only going to show.
Well, one way to look at it.
Erin Manning (19:32):
Yeah, for sure you know it's uh a house is only
gonna show well you know if it'sclean.
Carl Armijo (19:36):
You know, nobody likes walking into a dirty home.
Gary Pageau (19:41):
It's gonna photograph better right it
really helps with that, thatpresentation of the home itself
was there one home that youencountered that was like oh my
gosh, we need to clean this.
Is that what kicked this off?
Not necessarily, no, you knowyou always, I was looking for a
disaster story.
I was really looking.
Carl Armijo (19:59):
Yeah, you know we photograph almost a thousand
homes a year.
You know I've been in everykind of home you can imagine,
you know, from homes that havesuffered fires, that are being
sold, as is.
You know we're taking picturesof that, you know to your
million plus dollar listings inLouisville, which is a big, you
know a big deal in our market tohave a house.
That's over a million dollarsBecause you know we're like a
(20:21):
low cost of living area in theUnited States.
But, my experience has alwaysbeen the cleaner the house is,
the less clutter the house is,the way better your pictures are
going to look, the way happierthe client's going to be, you
know, and if we can add aservice in there that's going to
help that home get there.
It's like a win-win for for allof us.
Gary Pageau (20:43):
I just thought that was just interesting, that
whole idea where you saw a needthat needed to be filled.
Rather than like, do what mostpeople would have done, which is
, hey, I'm going to find somecleaners that I trust and kind
of bring them in, you decide tostart a whole separate company
to do that.
Now is that like a completelyseparate company with separate
people, or are you wearing twohats at all times?
Carl Armijo (21:04):
Yeah, so it's a.
It's a completely separatebusiness entity on paper, a
separate, you know, website,phone number, all that, all that
stuff, right.
So you know I'm running it as aseparate thing.
I did that intentionally and onpurpose for a couple reasons.
You know one you know if youhave a company that's called
louisville cleaning pros, youknow you can also service, you
(21:25):
know, anybody who wants housecleaning.
You know, weekly, monthly,biweekly, whatever they want
there.
Two, it's not tied directly tome.
So people aren't expecting Carlor Miho to come out and clean
their house, which I'm not goingto do.
I'm going to have cleaners whocome out and clean your house.
I'm going to stand behind thework and I'm going to make sure
(21:45):
it's done right and if it's not,we're going to come back and
we're going to redo it.
You know it's a littledifferent in my photography
business, which you know it'sone of the things that I kind of
go back and forth on.
I don't know if it's great ornot, but I named it Carl Armijo
Photography.
So a lot of people expect me tobe there right.
I've got a great employee, um,you know she goes out and does
(22:09):
real estate photos for us aswell.
Everybody loves her.
You know things are great thereas well, but it's you know,
it's a hard barrier to breakwhen you name your company after
yourself.
You know.
Gary Pageau (22:18):
I think, if I could do it again.
Carl Armijo (22:19):
I probably wouldn't do it that way, but you know,
you learn the hard way and youknow here we are and are.
So it is what it is.
Gary Pageau (22:28):
So what has that done for your business, for your
overall?
Like the two businesses, has itenhanced the photography side,
or is it just another revenuestream?
What's been the impact of that?
Carl Armijo (22:41):
Right now I wouldn't say it's helped the
photography side any.
The photography side helps thecleaning side more than anything
.
Right, um, you know it's aanother, another stream of of
revenue the way I thought aboutit was a future kind of thing is
am I going to want to do carlor meo photography, you know,
(23:02):
into my 70s?
I don't know.
Um, that's too far in advanceto know, but would I be willing
to run a cleaning company intomy 70s, or build a company that
is more able to be sold laterbecause of what it is and what
it's called, you know then?
Then yes, I think that's asomething that's a possibility
(23:23):
down the road for a cleaningcompany, right?
So you know, that's kind ofkind of why I've structured it
that way as well, just to buildit right.
You can sell it later.
Gary Pageau (23:34):
Yeah, it's kind of interesting because of the way
you said, because in the CarlArmio photography you're kind of
the brand or the product in asense, even though you have a
staff member, you're kind of theface of the company.
With this other adjacentcompany you don't have to be
correct, it can be a totalseparate thing.
(23:55):
So like if you did want, ifsomebody did offer you, hey, I
want to buy your cleaningbusiness, it's pretty easy to do
, whereas maybe somebody doesn'twant to buy carl correct.
Carl Armijo (24:04):
yeah, yeah, carl, army on photography be a lot
more tricky to sell because it'sattached to somebody like me
and I'm sure there's ways youcan get around that, you know,
by removing yourself from thecompany and you know doing.
You know, there's plenty ofpeople who've done it
(24:26):
successfully and done that aswell.
But you know, photography ismore of a little bit kind of
different game when it comes tothat, because people kind of
associate it with thephotographer itself.
Gary Pageau (24:36):
Sure, sure, sure.
So when you're looking atbuilding the cleaning side of
the business, are you relyingsolely on the real estate piece
or how are you trying to growthat piece independently?
Carl Armijo (24:46):
real estate piece, or how are you trying to grow
that piece independently?
So yeah, to start with it's ahey, we're going to work with
the people that we know.
Right, we're messaging thepeople that we work with already
.
You know, we're hitting it onFacebook.
We're hitting them throughemail, you know we're getting
the word out that way.
That way they know that thisexists as well, um, but you know
(25:07):
, once you kind of get that ballrolling, you know you have to
expand that business in otherways.
You know whether that's through, you know, facebook ads or
google ads, or you know, youknow it's organic seo.
You know things like that.
You know you can't rely on yourown network, um, to to grow a
business forever.
You know that pipeline kind ofruns dry.
(25:29):
In a little bit of time you geta boost to start with to get
going, kind of get you off yourfeet.
But then you really have tokind of take the bull by the
horns and market that businessand you know, treat it like a
real business to get thatrevenue coming in and get those
new leads and customers.
But we've built it the same way.
We have an online orderingplatform.
(25:51):
That way, people don't have tocall if they don't want to call,
they don't have to text.
They can, you know, doeverything online.
We'll show up when.
When we say we're going to showup, we're going to clean the
house.
You know, it's the same kind ofprocess that I built Carl
Armijo Photography, that I'vetaken over to Louisville
Cleaning Pros because I've seenthe success that the online
(26:13):
ordering platform has in anindustry that a lot of people
don't always associate that with.
Gary Pageau (26:19):
Do you think you're going to be able to like add a
third business now that you'vekind of looked at this sort of?
You know, I can kind of takethe same model of easy online
ordering, service, fulfillmentkind of thing, I mean it's easy,
like once you have that processdown.
Carl Armijo (26:36):
You can replicate it more than twice yeah, you
know, it's all a matter of howmuch you know how much bandwidth
you have as a person, right?
You, you know I am married withfamily, you know.
So it's like you know, you gotto balance you know running you
know two businesses already withwith family life, with with
(26:56):
things like that, and not get,you know, not get burnt out, you
know it's easy and mostbusiness owners know it's easy
to focus only on your businessand just run a hundred miles an
hour and neglect the other partsof your life.
And most of us are businessowners like to do business, we
like to run our business, weenjoy it, we have fun with it,
(27:19):
but it's too easy to get caughtup into it, neglect other parts
of your life.
So I don't see myself startinga third business, like in the
near future.
But you know, I'm only in myforties so you never know what's
going to happen, you know asyou get older and you know
things are going well.
Gary Pageau (27:33):
So where can people go for more information?
To learn about you and yourvarious businesses.
Carl Armijo (27:39):
Yeah.
So, um you know, I've got threewebsites out there that people
can hit up if they want to see.
Um so for my real estatephotography side of things.
People can visitlouisvillerealestateimagescom.
I'm also a headshotphotographer, you know, and you
can see that at carlarmijocom,that's C-A-R-L-A-R-M-I-J-O.
(28:02):
You can also visitlouisvillecleaningproscom and
you can see kind of the onlineplatforms that we use for for
all of those websites to kind of, you know, allow people to
order, you know, photographywhether it's headshots, real
estate or order cleaning allonline without having to pick up
the phone.
Or, you know, talk to somebodywhich people love awesome.
Gary Pageau (28:23):
Well, thank you, Carl, for your time.
I think I think everyone'slearned a little bit about you
kind of looking to see whereopportunities are right, because
I think that's what a realbusiness owner and entrepreneur
does is see something in themarket and then creates a
business to fill it.
So I think people will learn alot from what you're shared here
.
Thank you so much for your timeand hope to talk to you again.
Carl Armijo (28:42):
Thanks, Gary.
Erin Manning (28:45):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
wwwthedeadpixelssocietycom.
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