Brad Filliponi, co-founder of BoxBrownie.com, joins us to discuss the transformative impact of technology on real estate photography and marketing. Emphasizing the importance of accessibility, Filliponi advocates for the utilization of smartphones, asserting that the most effective camera is the one readily available. He shares insights into the evolution of BoxBrownie, a platform designed to alleviate the burdens of editing for real estate professionals, thereby streamlining their workflow and enhancing property presentation. Throughout our dialogue, we explore the competitive landscape of the real estate market and the necessity for agents to adapt through innovation and effective marketing strategies. Filliponi's passion for service and commitment to providing affordable solutions for agents exemplifies a dedication to improving the industry as a whole.
Takeaways:
- The best camera for capturing real estate images is often the one readily available, typically a smartphone.
- Real estate photography has evolved significantly, transitioning from film to digital techniques over the years.
- BoxBrownie.com was created to streamline the photo editing process, making it easier for real estate agents to enhance their listings.
- Brad Filipponi emphasizes the importance of education and innovation in the rapidly changing real estate industry.
- The Snap Snap Snap app allows agents to take high-quality photos effortlessly, utilizing advanced camera technology.
- Virtual staging is now more affordable, allowing agents to present properties in their best light without breaking the bank.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Easier as just getting yourcamera out and going, snap, snap,
snap, upload, you know, that'sprobably the best way to think of
it, you know what I mean?Because literally every agent out
there has always got a phoneon them and the best camera is the
one you've always got on you.Right? So it's not another battery
you need to recharge.
You're listening to the RealEstate Sessions and I'm your host,
(00:22):
Bill Risser. With nearly 25years in the real estate business,
I love to interview industryleaders, up and comers and really
anyone with a story to tell.It's the stories that led my guests
to a career in the real estateworld that drives me into my ninth
year and nearly 400 episodesof the podcast. And now I hope you
enjoy the next journey. Hi,everybody. Welcome to episode 376
(00:46):
of the Real Estate Sessionspodcast. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. Thank youso much for telling a friend today.
We're going down under. Yeah,you know that. You know, I know a
few Aussies and we're going tobe talking to Brad Filipponi, who
is the the co founder ofBoxBrownie.com it is an amazing tool.
The moment I laid eyes on it,I was blown away. And Brad had a
(01:09):
vision way back in the day andhe was able to make this become a
reality. Mel joined him inthis quest and they've built this
amazing tool. So I'm reallyhappy to have this conversation with
him today. So let's get thisthing started. Brad, welcome to the
podcast.
Thank you, Bill. I appreciateyou having me on board.
(01:30):
I can't wait to have aconversation with you, first of all
about your life becausethere's some cool stuff going on
there. It's going to be a lotof fun. But then I had the chance
to interview Mel a while agoand Peter even a while ago. And I'm
remiss in not having you onmore sooner. However, it's going
(01:50):
to be cool because you're BradFilipponi. So let's start there.
Right? I know you live inQueensland and I want to say Queensland
because if I said Queensland,you would correct me. I know how
that works. And I know justfrom my interaction with Australia
that you're in the northeastcorner of the continent, that it's
where all the heat is. It'svery hot, it's in the north, but
(02:12):
because you're in the southernhemisphere, it's hotter. That's all
I know about the SunshineCoast. What am I missing? Tell me
what I Should know about whereyou live, Bill.
Like Queensland, God'scountry. I feel like think of Queensland,
the state as, like I alwayssay, the Californian coast of Australia.
(02:33):
Like, we have beautifulbeaches. It's roughly 28 degrees
Celsius here today. Prettymuch you can walk around in T shirts
and flip flops or we call themthongs here in Australia.
Yes, you do.
You know, literally, you know,you can walk around in a singlet
all year round. We, it's a,it's a beautiful place. We have some
(02:55):
amazing beaches. Stunning,actually. And of course, yeah, my,
my area is the Sunshine coast.So it's literally sunny 300 days
of the year at a minimum.
Wow. So look, I, I did someconversion for the listeners. 28
degrees Celsius, about 82degrees Fahrenheit. Like perfect
weather. Right. It's awesome.And we're in the middle as we sit
here and freeze and go withsome of the most snow that's fallen
(03:18):
in the last two years in theU.S. you're right in the dead center
of summer as our seasons are reversed.
Yeah. And pretty much it's.The weather's always good. You know,
we do get a bit cold, not wenever snow, but, you know, you might
put a hoodie on, pants on inthe morning if you go into the gym
quite early, like I do, I getup pretty early. But look, most of
(03:40):
the time I'm T shirt, shortsand you know, just got the Australian
cheer going on.
Look, I know that when aQueenslander comes to Melbourne in
the wintertime in Australia,they complain a lot because we've
got a couple people that workup there and they hate going to Melbourne
in July.
Born and bred in Melbourneactually. You know, used to play
strange rules football.Pouring rain they call Melbourne.
(04:04):
You know, you have fourseasons in one day. So I don't mind
the cold. Doesn't bother me. Ithink it, you know, I don't mind
a good bone shaking, as youcall it. It makes you feel like you're
real and you're living. I feel nice.
Let me a question about, aboutthe Sunshine Coast. Is this true
that you have a tiny jellyfishthat can actually kill swimmers as
(04:25):
they swim? Unless they wearlike a chain mail swimsuit or something.
What, what are we talkingabout here?
Look. Yeah, we have thesethings called, you know, box and
blue. Blue jellyfish, yeah,they, they are lethal. If you do
come across one, you know, youcan be in trouble. Luckily to say
I'm sure they're in our watersevery now and then, but a lot of
(04:47):
those are a little bit furthernorth. So we're kind of, you know,
our. Our weather's hot, butit's not silly muggy, sweaty hot.
Okay.
You know, it's more of a dryheat, so it's tolerable. I feel I
can't stand nothing more than,you know, when you're hot and then
you, like just perspiring likeyou're sweating everywhere. And I
just think that'suncomfortable. So we're kind of before
(05:07):
that, so we don't get a lot ofthat in the water, but of course
they are around and you got tobe vigilant like anything. And yeah,
we've got plenty of otherthings that can kill you, as you
know.
My favorite one, I heard fromsomeone down at Raid, my agent was
the Drop Bear. You know thatyou got to watch out for the Drop
Bears, right?
You do, you do. They. Theydrop out of anywhere. No, but not
the case. It's just. That's abit of an urban legend, to be honest.
(05:30):
We never had a koala fall onme. But, you know, as I just said
to you earlier, I took my twoyoung sons to Australia Zoo, which
is about 20 minutes from myhometown. So if anyone visits Australia,
come, come say g' day, we'lltake to the zoo. But yeah, you can
literally pat a koala and youcan pack kangaroos and, you know,
it's pretty awesome.
That's great. Now youpersonally look, you're. You. You
(05:53):
have a wild side to you. Youknow that, right?
My 100%.
Okay, let's. Let's start here.Motorcycles, Muay Thai somehow tied
into photography. So, yeah,what am I missing? What am I missing
from this list of passions?
What else? Well, look, I lovecamping, you know. You know, I've
(06:16):
recently got my family into itand they're really loving it. So,
you know, I'm an outdoors sortof bloke and I think life's a bit
more fun when you're sideways.So I've got, you know, plenty. A
couple of fast cars, I've gota couple of motorbikes. I've always
been into that. Let's call itCrusty Demons of Dirt Lifestyle and.
And you know, or TravisPastrana, Nitro Circus. I've got
(06:38):
lots of friends who are, youknow, used to be professional riders.
I also wakeboard. Got plentyof ex pro wakeboarding mates. And
yeah, I do a bit of wakesurfing on the side. So anything
that gets your heart pumping,mate, on the outdoors, you know,
I'm all for it. But then I, Ilove a leisurely stroll, you know,
through the forest or got acouple of cool little mountains here
(06:59):
that aren't too crazy. But,you know, I just like being outdoors,
mate. You know, I'm stuck infront of a screen so often in my
life, so to get outside andjust get amongst it, you know, I'm
all for it.
That kind of makes it reallyeasy to see why photography was kind
of a natural for you. Right.Because you're in the first of all.
(07:20):
Most of it is outdoors.Portrait photography is a different
beast. But that's not what youdid for. For a long time. So let's
talk about that. How did youcome out of school and what was the
driving force for you to thenreally take photography on as your
career?
Great question. I actuallyfell into it, to be honest. So I
went to what we call a TAFEhere in Australia when I finished
(07:44):
high school. Even before thenI was actually doing bits and pieces.
I was working with aphotographer and then when I finished
school, I did a TAFE courseand then I started working for him
full time. And back then realestate photography was not a thing,
but he was doing it. And I'mtalking back on film camera days,
so that's how long I've been areal estate photographer. So what
(08:07):
I love is not many propertyphotographers out there. I'd say
less than 5% can say theystarted shooting paid jobs, paid
real estate photography jobson a film camera. And I did that
for at least a year or two.Wow. So that's, you know, I'm not.
I'm getting older now. I'mclose to 40, 40 this year actually.
But, you know, I thinksomeone, at my age, there's not many
(08:28):
people, I don't think you canquote that I've been probably a photographer.
At least I was, I was driving.So 17, 18, so close to 20 years I've
been taking real estatephotos. And my first, it was like.
It wasn't university. Thinkyou think of like a college. I went
to a college and studieddiploma in photography. What was
cool though, Bill, it was thetransition period. So obviously digital
(08:50):
cameras had just come out, sothey had to modify the class. It
was the first time they did.So six months of my class I did darkroom
and film. The other six monthswas digital. So I was really on the
cuffs of it, mate. And I'dalready been doing paid jobs for
a bit before then. So, yeah,when you look back, it's, you know,
(09:11):
it's been a pretty long andsteady ride. But, you know, I really
feel that I know Personally,I've done the whole loop. So for
me to come and be called adisruptor, I feel no one probably
has earned that respect, youknow, more than myself or people
like me, if you know what Imean. So like a one trick pony. I've
(09:32):
been doing this forever andthis was like a dream for me to almost
get off the tools, Bill. SoI'm the founder of the business.
It was my brainchild and itwas realistically just to get me
off the camera because Iwanted to start a family. But I just
felt like I was stuck in therat race and it was just me. And
I was too scared to go onholidays, mate, every year. I was
(09:53):
too scared to have time offbecause unfortunately the industry
is not loyal at times, youknow, and, you know, and that's only
because people need thingsback. Yesterday. I, I understand
because I actually worked in areal estate office as well for about
two years. I was a customerservice agent, was kind of in the
crossover. When I finishedcollege, I worked in a real estate
(10:13):
office. I was shooting realestate photos in my part time. So,
you know, I've got my fullAustralian license, it has lapsed,
but I could renew that and Igot that when I was like 17. So we
used to sell deep waterfrontcanal properties here on the sunshine
coast and also beautifulbeachfront homes. So I knew that
from an early age what it tookto make a, to make a house sell.
(10:37):
And let's be honest, it allstarts with photos.
Yes. Yeah, let's talk aboutthat original because Box Brownie's
gone through a couple ofdifferent iterations, but let's start
with the first one. What wasyour goal? What were you trying to
build when you first set outto start the company?
I won't lie, I was just tryingto make an income and at that time
(10:58):
I was stressed out, mate. Ihad my mum doing my accounting for
me, like I was sendinginvoices out. But back then there
was no accounting software. Itwas all very manual. And you know,
I'd had a. I'd have agenciesthat wouldn't pay me for three or
four months, you know what Imean? And me just running a business,
you know, I was always a solooperator. I never had employees.
(11:18):
Now I have over 419 countries.Like, it's still bill. It blows my
mind, mate. And I don't likepeople calling me boss. I actually
don't like it. It's just like,I just, you know, because I'll clean
the windows at work or I'll.If there's something I'LL pick up
the vacuum cleaner. I'm justthat sort of guy. I'm hands on and
I do enlighten, I do likebeing in the trenches and I don't
want any special treatment.I'm not special. I'm just another
(11:41):
guy just having a go, if youknow what I mean. So yeah, yeah.
So it's really realistically Iwanted to get myself off the tools
and do something different. Iwas going to go the mines here in
Australia and you know,underground and make some good money
and week on, week off stylething. But my wife said, you'll like
this, Bill. No long distancerelationship because she's a hairdresser
(12:02):
and she's seen bad thingshappen with couples and yes, mate,
you know, fast forward a bitand that's what made me think of
Box Brownie and then I neverimagined that I'd honestly travel
the world, meet people likeyourself mate, and just be doing
what we're doing. It's stillpinch myself a lot of the time, but
I don't think about it. Thatmakes sense as well.
Yeah. So the original idea wasto make it easy for other people
(12:27):
to do the editing which getyou off the tools of the editing
part, which is, which is thetoughest part of it. Right.
What I thought is, you know,like, look, I, I'll tell everyone
at one stage, you know, I, Iwas scared to outsource Bill as a
real estate photographer. Iwas busy and yeah, I was doing up
to nine houses a day. To giveyou an idea how busy I was, that's
(12:47):
a lot. And I, I, I created myown theory. Back then there was no
YouTube channels, there wasonly dodgy forums, you know, that
wasn't what there is now. Soliterally with the experience I got
from working with this amazingphotographer. His name's Greg Gardner.
I'll always give props toGreg. He's just an amazing guy. I
wish I could hang out with himmore often, to be honest. But you
(13:08):
know, he really showed me therobes and said hey, you should get
into this. It's a niche thing.Not everyone's doing it. And back
then, mate, the I always saythat we call it the property week.
Like back then the localproperty newspaper, I guess or flyer
was inside our local newspaperand let's call it the, the first
four pages and the last fourpages, obviously they're all joined,
(13:29):
were color gloss and the restwas black and white. So I was taking
photos for usually the glossyareas. I'd get the photos printed,
I'd throw the shitty ones outand Keep the good ones because obviously
you couldn't see what was what.
Right.
And I'd give them whatever Ihad, you know, obviously they didn't
get the bad ones because, youknow, something's overexposed or
(13:49):
underexposed, etc. And. Andthat's really where it all began.
But, yeah, look, I. Bill, Ineeded the service myself. You know,
I was editing. I was editingphotos. I was on the graveyard shift.
I was, you know, gettingphotos back overnight. Which I know
in the US is getting closernow. Like it's been standard thing
my whole career, so I'm usedto it. And one, I. I tried outsourcing,
(14:12):
mate. I tried, let's call it100 or 200 different editors. And
you tear your hair out andyou'd be like, all terrible. Yeah,
I wouldn't put my name tothat. And then one day I found someone
decent, trained them up. And Iwon't lie, I was paying $5 a photo.
Wow.
You know, we're now doing itfor a dollar. Oh, that's Australian.
So let's call it $4 US. Andnow we offer for a $60. So to give
(14:35):
you an idea, like it was oneof those ideas or concepts, Bill,
where I physically needed itto myself. And I was over my career.
And then conversation with mywife, a penny dropped one day and
I have not worked with. I havenot stopped working at it since.
People think I'm crazy. Iknow. My own family and friends did.
It's all I talked about. Buthey, who's crazy now? You know what
(14:56):
I mean? I think, you know,Brandy is like my third time lucky,
you know, I built twoprototypes before I met Mel, who's
my business partner. Amazing.Amazing at technology, you know,
I think where you could notget more yin and yang than myself
and Mel. And I think theopposites attract and everything
I read, you know, in smalldoses, it's. I just feel that it's
(15:18):
my journey, mate. You knowwhat I mean?
Yeah, yeah.
You.
I know you've been with Melnow. It's. It's nearly a decade.
Do you know that it's almostbeen 10 years?
Yeah, yeah. I think we. Ithink we've had. I should count,
but I'm. I'm bad. I just work,I think. I think we've had roughly
seven Christmases together.That's Christmas parties, if that
makes sense. Seven or eight.So it's getting up there, you know,
(15:39):
the concept myself of boxbrand has been over a decade. Yeah.
For me personally.
Yeah. Good. And as youmentioned, what Mel was Able to bring
to the table was a way to putthat tech over what you were trying
to accomplish and just. Andboy, you guys are able to scale like
it's incredible the way thingshave scaled for you. I think it's
114 countries that you're in.
(16:02):
Yeah, I think it might be 170now, but look, yeah, let's call it
114. You know, people saythey're global. We're a true global
business, Bill. We are selffunded, so we've taken no vc, which
I think is cool as well.There's only a very, very small amount
of businesses that can claimthat. And you know, we're rubbing
shoulders with the big dogs inthe industry and we're just trying
(16:24):
to stay true mate, you know,and do the right thing by our clients,
do the right thing by ourstaff and editing teams and you know,
no subscriptions. We just tryand make it really easy, you know,
where we're the most costeffective way to sell your biggest
asset. And you know, we've gotsome big plans for Vox branding.
Like editing is just thestart. We've got some amazing things,
(16:44):
you know, blue sky, you know,ideas for the horizon. And we're
just here to make the averagereal estate agent's life easy, mate.
That's what we want to be.
I think that the thing that Ishow more than anything when I show
someone Box Brownie is whatyou've done with virtual staging.
Making that as affordable asit is. That is crazy. Talk about
that a little bit.
Thank you, mate. So, you know,I'll start off by saying, and I never
(17:08):
thought I'd ever say this,Bill, but Box Brownie, you know,
our business, we right here,right now, we, we do the most virtual
staging in the world. That's afact. That's fact one, fact two,
it's all real life. Humaneditors, not AI. AI is going to get
terrific. I'm not going to lieabout that. And we can, you know
that that'll be an option inthe future. But right here, right
(17:28):
now, it is not up to scratch.There's numerous reasons I won't
get into it, but it's, it's,it's not as good as the real thing
yet. It will get better. Andwhen it's better, we'll be offering
it. You watch. You know what Imean? So virtual staging, it's a
great tool. I remember ourfirst ever show was Inman San Francisco.
I think I'm bad with dates. Itmight have been 2017, I think. Don't
(17:51):
quote me on that. But it wasour first. First time in the US first
time. One of our firstconferences, too, to be honest. And
we didn't know what to expect.We couldn't afford the flights as
a business, let alone thedrink bills.
I'm glad you brought that up.I didn't have to. I didn't have to
do that.
But look, you know, we're allabout. That's the Australian way,
mate. Have a beer, have ayarn. You know, you get to know people
(18:12):
pretty well. But Inman did aneditorial on us, and I'm forever
thankful it was on our virtualstaging. And next minute we're like,
boom. All these US Signupsgoing crazy, and we're like, whoa,
what's going on here? And wetracked down the blog and Inman,
what's this? You know, we hadno idea what it was. Next minute,
we're on a plane. Next minute,we've got people come into our booth
(18:34):
who already know us. Nextminute, you know, this lovely lady
named Tiff, you know, TiffanyCallender was sending all these people
to us, and we're like, who thehell is Tiff? And then next minute,
this person comes up, shegoes, oh, my name's Tiffany, you're
Tiff. And it just went on fromthere, mate. And the love that the
US Gave us was just incredibleand, you know, forever grateful.
(18:55):
And that's why we spent, youknow, as, you know, we've spent so
much time traveling across theworld doing more conferences over
there than probably most. And,you know, we're coming all the way
from Australia for it. Butvirtual staging, I remember there
was another company at thetime offering it. That's all they
did. Won't name names, but I.I remember it being $80 US per photo.
(19:18):
I'm pretty sure per virtualstaging, we entered the market at
$32 US. And everyone's like,whoa. And what's really cool is since
then, we've dropped that edit25% in price. So with Box Brownie,
there's never going to besubscriptions. And as we scale up,
we want to be the fair guysand bring prices down. So that's
(19:40):
sort of how we work. So,pretty proud on that, because early
days, everyone said that wehad to have subscriptions. It's never
going to work.
There's a commercial aspect towhat you're doing as well, too. When
I say commercial, I meancommercial real estate, because renderings
are something that areincredibly expensive. Once again,
you found a way to make thissuper affordable. Right. Especially
(20:00):
in that world.
Yeah. Really, everything andwe were doing virtual renovations
before it was a thing, youknow like before that was a product
with. Yeah, but renderings wedo a lot of. So whether it's a residential
house, whether it'scommercial, whether, whether you're
selling a multi family complexor commercial complex, we've got
you covered. So literally forall the listeners out there, what's
(20:21):
a render? Brad? It's, it's anartist impression. It's pretty much
a computer generated image.Think a photo of a building or internal
that's not built yet but youcan see what, what's going on. We've
even gone one step furtherBill. And actually we did create
the world's first renderingautomated service. Upload your plan,
(20:42):
select options, hit submit, wework on a proof and send it to you.
So that's, that's anotherworld first we've done which is pretty
cool. But we also do render360 virtual tours. So think of matterport
tour of something thatdoesn't. It's not built yet. That's
the best way to put it.
It's been fun watching BoxBrownie grow. Right. Because there's
always something kind of. Youmentioned there's things on the horizon
(21:04):
and I'm going to ask you aquestion about that in a minute.
But first let's talk. You gotto talk about snapsnapsnap.com first
of all was snap and snap snaptaken. So you just went snap snap,
snap. I'm just curious.
No, we'll look. Think thatlike Mel come up with, come up with
that, with that, that name andI didn't like at the start I had
(21:24):
something else really cool Ithought but no, I'm really down for
it now. Foxbranding.com Ibought that domain before I even
met Mel. I bought it like 10years ago with the dreams to give
you an idea. Like I had, I didhave a dream for all of this. Yeah,
it snaps that like think mate.You know, it's as easy as just getting
your camera out and goingsnap, snap, snap upload. You know,
that's probably the best wayto think of it. You know what I mean?
(21:46):
Because literally every agentout there has always got a phone
on them and the best camera isthe one you've always got on you.
Right. So it's not anotherbattery you need to recharge. Your
phone's got a phone charger inyour car. Like you know we, I actually
on my second prototype we hadit, we had a camera app. It wasn't
anything like it is now, butit Worked so that was cool. And I
(22:11):
remember coming back from aconference, it was an exp conference
and I said to Mal, I saiddude, I'll be on his case for ages
about the app. I'm like dude,we need to pull our finger out and
get this outgoing, you know, Ijust, I know it's what's needed.
At that time, Bill we'd hadset up here in Australia like all
that travel we did. Crazy.When we first would have met, we
used to have an uber basedphotography system where you could
(22:33):
book photographers through ourdashboard. I trained 300 photographers
here in Australia. I'dorganize their patches in all of
our major areas and you couldbook a photographer let's say if
you like, hey, it's 10 o'clock in the morning today. I want
to book a photographer thisafternoon at 2:30 and I want 10 photos.
You can hit a button and doit. So we had that. But I always
(22:55):
felt as a bit of a dying breedbecause of the app, because the phone
technology is getting so good.So as soon as I saw the iPhone 11
with that wide angle lens I'mlike dude, the times now. And I've
tested the cameras too outthere. IPhone 11 and 15 if you've
got an iPhone 11 don't rushout by 15 thinking you've got a better
camera. It might be a littlebit better on the photos you don't
(23:18):
edit but if you use Snap snapSnap, which we can talk about more
and why it's so good mate, theresults are pretty similar. So that's
a good tip for everyonelistening. Don't think you need the
latest phone to make ithappen. Not the case. Yeah. The app
is incredible mate and I'dlove to tell more if you need.
To, you know, let's talkabout, you know, as an agent downloads
(23:39):
the app, they sign up, theyyou know, have a, they probably tie
it to their Apple payaccounts. Brill simple. And what
does it look like? What, howdoes it work? What am I, what would
I be using it for most of the time?
Snap snap snap. Right now it'son, it's on iPhone. Only few reasons
for that. IPhone had aboutseven cameras for us to hack into.
(23:59):
Androids have about 150 plus.So there's a lot more work in it.
That's why just so everyoneknows. So Android, it's pretty much
built now. I would say thatFebruary. So next month if anyone's
listening and they want to tryit out and be one of the first beta
testers, reach out.Brad@boxbranding.com I am not scared
(24:21):
to give my email address outeven though I am the co founder of
what we are. But I'm here tohelp, mate. But. Snap, snap, snap.
It's amazing. It took Melthree years to hack into Apple's
camera algorithm. And thereason is there's a lot of smarts
behind it, mate, it's, it'svery technical. What it does is it,
(24:41):
you know, you open up the app,you press little plus sign which
activates the new shoot, youput your property address in there,
always use your propertyaddress that way because everything's
saved and you know you canlook at the shoots anytime. Then
you start shooting and as soonas that, as that camera opens, mate,
there's no settings to put in.Everything's done behind the scenes.
(25:02):
It actually opens up at 0.6times on the wide angle zoom, not
the 0.5 times. The reason isbecause I'm OCD made as a photographer
and the 0.5 makes things looktoo big. So you're misleading a little
bit there. That's the reasonwhy you can zoom in, zoom out accordingly.
But you press that button,mate. It takes seven HDR bracketed
(25:24):
shots. And for those thataren't camera savvy, bracketing or
HDR photography is you need atripod for best results. And every
professional photographer usesa tripod. So you know, that's why
we do it. Me being one. Ittakes seven different photos at different
light gradients. So dark allthe way to light. And the reason
(25:47):
is Bill, a lot of the USphotography, professional photography,
I see, I challenge everyone,all the listeners out there. On your
professional photos, on yourinterior shots, can you clearly see
outside the window? I know nowit's a bit more of a growing trend.
We've educated the market alot, but a lot of photos. I see.
(26:08):
I was, I was at a. I rememberNagle Red, you know, I don't think
that's a conference anymore inPalm Springs. And I was chatting
to it to a gentleman there andI said, look, yeah, your photos are
great. He goes, oh, myphotographer's the best. Don't need
you guys. Rah, rah, that'scool. I said, do you mind me having.
Can you bring up a shoot youlike? And I have a look and I gave
a marketing health check thereand then and I said, look, I saw
beautiful mountain regions inthat pool shop. I said, why can't
(26:32):
I see that? I can say I knowthe mountains are there. I just.
Because I know photos andwhere they position them and I'm
like why can't I see thosemountains from inside that beautiful
living room? And he's like,he's jaw just dropped, mate. I'm
like, he's like, what do youmean? I'm like, dude, I can't see
outside that window. It's awhite haze. If in Australia I'd be
fired, I would not get workfor that. And he's like, I've never
thought of that. So likethat's what HDR photography is team.
(26:55):
It's, it's the ability to seein a photo how our amazing human
body I see in real life, youknow, we, we can control and balance
the light whether it's reallysunny or it's dark and shadowy. That's
what HDR photography doesbecause you're capturing every lighting
aspect that's needed. And thenour editors by hand, real life humans
(27:19):
edit that photo and prettymuch lay them, rub out what they
want, keep what they need,replace sky, do actually 17 Photoshop
tasks to your image for A$60.So that's one aspect of Snap. Snap,
snap. One last fun fact. Thealgorithm, it doesn't just take seven
photos, it actually takes 70up to 70 micro photos just to give
(27:44):
you an idea. So that's what itdoes for the $160. So that's why
it's, it's a true world first,mate. It's, it's everything I knew
as a photographer in an appthat's just a push button system.
On top of that it does dataDusk or our Twilight effect, which
is our second most popular edit.
Yep.
Globally. You can also removeitems, kitchen clutter, cars out
(28:06):
the front, rubbish or skipbins, you know what I mean? Out the
front of a property, thingsyou can't actually have control of
moving, you can remove it alloff the app. You what you want, submit.
And lastly Bill, you can dohigh quality. Our best selling virtual
staging off the phone. Noother app does that right here, right
now. So look at, you know,we're going to give all the listeners
(28:29):
a free coupon trial. At theend we'll have a code word for you.
As we spoke about, if you'rean existing Box Brandy user, I want
to hook you up as well so wecan talk about that later. But that's
why the app's so good, mate.It honestly turns your smartphone
into a secret weapon. It'sDSLR professional quality. And when
you marry the photos up likeI've done tests and you know me,
(28:49):
we do blogs and you know,we're all about training. I Love
it. And I've taken photos onmy old camera setup. Nikon compared
to the phone. To be honest.Everyone's actually says I like the
phone photos better. But whatthey all say is I can't tell the
difference. Wow. And I'mtalking a laptop photo. But then
when they shrunk down theproperty portals things get pixelated
(29:09):
and lower. Lower resolution.Mate. You. You physically can't tell
the difference. It's, it's,it's, it's wild.
Wow.
And we're not here to replacephotographers or nothing like that.
We're just embracing thetechnology and I don't like, oh,
pick up the scraps if you wantto call it or you know, there's always
room for a professionalphotographer in the industry. 100
biggest asset as an agent. Butyou've got to call them. You've got
(29:32):
to fit in their schedule. Youcould have a rural property that
takes an hour to drive there.There's no photographers. I've heard
it all. This app is available24, 7 photos back in 24 hours guaranteed.
You know, standard edits andoh, average turnaround time for our
image enhancement is threehours at the moment, mate. So that's
(29:52):
what the system tell us.
So I'm a little behind. I'm alittle behind on Box Brownie. You
guys have really come a longways. Give me. Let me ask you this
question as best you canbecause I don't want you to give
away anything that would helpanyone else. But what's next on the
horizon? Is there somethingyou can tease us with?
What's next? What's next?We're really just trying to secure
(30:16):
a lot of. We're just trying tostreamline what we do. You know what
I mean? AI is coming.Artificial intelligence. We can't
ignore that. Things that we dodo that people don't know about.
We've got some productscoming. Probably not a lot I can
talk about really. But we.What's really cool is we have switched
on our booker photographeruber based system again which is
(30:36):
quite cool. We're pretty bigin Japan. We've got 30 photographers
on the ground Japan, which ispretty fun.
Wow.
That's going on. We've justswitched one on in my local town
again just to sort of get itrolling around Australia again. That's
something we're just playingwith. It's just a bit of fun really
mate. But I think what we'rereally trying to do this year is
streamline what we do get. Youknow, always improving our systems.
(30:59):
We aim to give the Bestcustomer service available. We get
really comments all the time.We're just trying to tighten our
ship and being self funded, wecan pivot pretty quick and we've
got our ideas there of wherewe need to go. Really cool too on
our editing. I just got off acall before you. I run a quality
control team. So we secretshop our editors, which is pretty
cool. And look at about100,000 images a month, which is
(31:20):
not all of them, but it'sscratching the surface and it's random.
So obviously we're, you know,the founder is in the trenches. Still
doing that because I careabout our clients. So what that means
is the good editors get work,the bad editors get suspended and
our clients just get top notchwork. So we'll fix the photo, mate,
even if you haven't seen it.So with Box Brownie, you can do free
(31:43):
changes yourself. If you'relike Brad, I dislike that furniture,
change it. Or I don't like thesky you've used. It's all free, you
know, but we fix things aswell behind the scenes, even if you
don't know about it becausethat's just how we roll.
That's cool. Look, I'mwatching the clock. I gotta get you,
I gotta get you back to work.It's. It's nighttime where I'm at,
but it's. Your day isstarting. Let me. Final question.
(32:06):
You're probably gonna get tobed. I've got all the time you need,
mate, and I'm here for you.
All right. Final, finalquestion that I always ask every
guest. That's one what onepiece of advice would you give a
new agent? Just gettingstarted in the business.
Look at. That's a tough one,mate. Get yourself educated. You
know, there's a lot ofbeautiful prop tech, property technology
(32:28):
out there. It is crowdedthough, let's face it. You know,
there's. There's a lot oftechnology out there these days and.
But look, I suppose I alwayslike to say, don't become the next
Nokia, you know what I mean? Ithink you've got to, you've got to
try and innovate and you've.Not that, not that Nokia haven't,
don't get me wrong, but youknow, everyone's on an iPhone or
a Samsung these days, you knowwhat I mean? So I think just be sure
(32:50):
to keep yourself educated. Goto conferences or listen to podcasts
and I think educate yourselfis a big thing. Yeah. And just back
yourself, really. I think, youknow, you are who you hang out with
and I think you Know, just Isuppose the harder you work, the
luckier you become, mate. Sothat's probably, you know, one aspect,
(33:12):
of course, course, you know,and this is not selling us, I promise.
But like obviously good photossell property. Let's face it, that's
what makes your phone ring. Sonot saying just use us, but, you
know, there's lots of ways outthere to be seen and to have good
marketing. So like it's a bitof a down market at the moment. I
know there was, you know,Covid, there was some stupid prices
(33:34):
and I think they still gettingthat. But I think these days there's
fierce competition. There'sbeen some big stats of all the agents
who have left the industry inthe U.S. you know, Nir have done
some statements and I thinknow more than ever, even during COVID
when things were sellingquickly, you still should have given
a damn about how yourmarketing looks. Don't, don't be
(33:56):
sloppy because on these typesof markets this is where you're going
to pick it up. So I think yourlistings are your online presence.
They're like your window cardto the world. So much like having
a beautiful suit and, youknow, a clean car. I think having
beautiful looking marketing isanother step towards, you know, selling
a home and then gettinganother listing as well. So I think
(34:19):
it's always, it's all thoselittle one percents, mate, that all
add up, doesn't it? You know,education and doing what you say
and just delivering on whatyou do, I think is a big thing too.
Good. Love it.
Was that answer all right for you?
That's good. I love it. I loveit. Brad, if someone wants to reach
out to you, I think youalready told us, it's basically bradoxbrownie.com
(34:43):
but you also. So you said youhave something special for the listeners.
Let's talk about that real quick.
I do, I do. So obviously ratemy agent, another fellow Australian
sort of prop tech company, youknow, kudos to the Aussies. But look,
we want to give back, ofcourse, obviously, right by agent.
You've got a profile picture.We do profile retouching. So take
(35:05):
a photo on your phone. Phonecameras are pretty awesome. We can
retouch it. Whether you wantto remove wrinkles, remove a pimple
or braces, whiten your teeth,change your tie, anything like that
we can do. We can even removethe backgrounds as well. If you want
that sleek studio look, we'vegot a code word. So if you haven't
signed up to boxbrownie.comthat's the website boxbrandy.com
(35:30):
sign up. There'll be a couponcode area. It's pretty easy. Rate
my agent, all in capitalletters, no spaces. It'll get you
$25 Australian credit, whichis a big, big sort of giveaway. Now,
from what you know, from whatwe. From what we usually give away.
And $20American. So try thatout if you want to try. Snap Snap
(35:51):
Snap team. And you're anexisting user. Guys, email me. Brad@boxbranding.com
I will physically give you atraining session on whatever you
want. If you want an officewebinar, a one on one training session
with anything we do, I amhere. Okay? Honestly, I'll do it
myself. I won't handball it,but yeah, if you're already a user,
that codeword won't work.Email me, we'll catch up. I'll put
(36:13):
it in your account and I'llhelp any way I can.
That's awesome, Brad. This hasbeen fantastic. Everything I thought
it would be, there is passionjust oozes from you, which I'm sure
you've heard before. You arevery passionate about what you do,
and I love the fact that thatpassion comes from a place of service
and help and making it betterfor people at an affordable price.
(36:34):
I keep using that phrase, butit's amazing. So thank you so much
for your time today. This is amazing.
Likewise, Bill. Just verygrateful to be in the position I'm
in. The real estate industryhas been very kind to me. So, you
know, it's great to be able togive back. And, you know, I think
the universe always gives backin marvelous ways. So whatever I
can do, you know, I'm justhere to help. I'm. I'm just stoked
(36:55):
and just living the dream,mate. You know what I mean? Like,
yeah, no, so just whatever Ican do more seriously, I'm here for
anyone.
That's awesome. Cheers, mate.
Cheers, mate. Hope we get tocross paths again soon in the US
or maybe over here. And yeah,thank you. Thank you very much for
having us on today.
Thank you for listening to thereal estate Sessions. Please head
(37:16):
over to ratethispodcast.comresessions to leave a review or a
rating and subscribe to thereal estate Sessions podcast at your
favorite podcast listening app.
Easier as just getting yourcamera out and going, snap, snap,
snap, upload, you know, that'sprobably the best way to think of
it, you know what I mean?Because literally every agent out
there has always got a phoneon them and the best camera is the
one you've always got on you.Right? So it's not another battery
you need to recharge.
You're listening to the RealEstate Sessions and I'm your host,
(00:22):
Bill Risser. With nearly 25years in the real estate business,
I love to interview industryleaders, up and comers and really
anyone with a story to tell.It's the stories that led my guests
to a career in the real estateworld that drives me into my ninth
year and nearly 400 episodesof the podcast. And now I hope you
enjoy the next journey. Hi,everybody. Welcome to episode 376
(00:46):
of the Real Estate Sessionspodcast. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. Thank youso much for telling a friend today.
We're going down under. Yeah,you know that. You know, I know a
few Aussies and we're going tobe talking to Brad Filipponi, who
is the the co founder ofBoxBrownie.com it is an amazing tool.
The moment I laid eyes on it,I was blown away. And Brad had a
(01:09):
vision way back in the day andhe was able to make this become a
reality. Mel joined him inthis quest and they've built this
amazing tool. So I'm reallyhappy to have this conversation with
him today. So let's get thisthing started. Brad, welcome to the
podcast.
Thank you, Bill. I appreciateyou having me on board.
(01:30):
I can't wait to have aconversation with you, first of all
about your life becausethere's some cool stuff going on
there. It's going to be a lotof fun. But then I had the chance
to interview Mel a while agoand Peter even a while ago. And I'm
remiss in not having you onmore sooner. However, it's going
(01:50):
to be cool because you're BradFilipponi. So let's start there.
Right? I know you live inQueensland and I want to say Queensland
because if I said Queensland,you would correct me. I know how
that works. And I know justfrom my interaction with Australia
that you're in the northeastcorner of the continent, that it's
where all the heat is. It'svery hot, it's in the north, but
(02:12):
because you're in the southernhemisphere, it's hotter. That's all
I know about the SunshineCoast. What am I missing? Tell me
what I Should know about whereyou live, Bill.
Like Queensland, God'scountry. I feel like think of Queensland,
the state as, like I alwayssay, the Californian coast of Australia.
(02:33):
Like, we have beautifulbeaches. It's roughly 28 degrees
Celsius here today. Prettymuch you can walk around in T shirts
and flip flops or we call themthongs here in Australia.
Yes, you do.
You know, literally, you know,you can walk around in a singlet
all year round. We, it's a,it's a beautiful place. We have some
(02:55):
amazing beaches. Stunning,actually. And of course, yeah, my,
my area is the Sunshine coast.So it's literally sunny 300 days
of the year at a minimum.
Wow. So look, I, I did someconversion for the listeners. 28
degrees Celsius, about 82degrees Fahrenheit. Like perfect
weather. Right. It's awesome.And we're in the middle as we sit
here and freeze and go withsome of the most snow that's fallen
(03:18):
in the last two years in theU.S. you're right in the dead center
of summer as our seasons are reversed.
Yeah. And pretty much it's.The weather's always good. You know,
we do get a bit cold, not wenever snow, but, you know, you might
put a hoodie on, pants on inthe morning if you go into the gym
quite early, like I do, I getup pretty early. But look, most of
(03:40):
the time I'm T shirt, shortsand you know, just got the Australian
cheer going on.
Look, I know that when aQueenslander comes to Melbourne in
the wintertime in Australia,they complain a lot because we've
got a couple people that workup there and they hate going to Melbourne
in July.
Born and bred in Melbourneactually. You know, used to play
strange rules football.Pouring rain they call Melbourne.
(04:04):
You know, you have fourseasons in one day. So I don't mind
the cold. Doesn't bother me. Ithink it, you know, I don't mind
a good bone shaking, as youcall it. It makes you feel like you're
real and you're living. I feel nice.
Let me a question about, aboutthe Sunshine Coast. Is this true
that you have a tiny jellyfishthat can actually kill swimmers as
(04:25):
they swim? Unless they wearlike a chain mail swimsuit or something.
What, what are we talkingabout here?
Look. Yeah, we have thesethings called, you know, box and
blue. Blue jellyfish, yeah,they, they are lethal. If you do
come across one, you know, youcan be in trouble. Luckily to say
I'm sure they're in our watersevery now and then, but a lot of
(04:47):
those are a little bit furthernorth. So we're kind of, you know,
our. Our weather's hot, butit's not silly muggy, sweaty hot.
Okay.
You know, it's more of a dryheat, so it's tolerable. I feel I
can't stand nothing more than,you know, when you're hot and then
you, like just perspiring likeyou're sweating everywhere. And I
just think that'suncomfortable. So we're kind of before
(05:07):
that, so we don't get a lot ofthat in the water, but of course
they are around and you got tobe vigilant like anything. And yeah,
we've got plenty of otherthings that can kill you, as you
know.
My favorite one, I heard fromsomeone down at Raid, my agent was
the Drop Bear. You know thatyou got to watch out for the Drop
Bears, right?
You do, you do. They. Theydrop out of anywhere. No, but not
the case. It's just. That's abit of an urban legend, to be honest.
(05:30):
We never had a koala fall onme. But, you know, as I just said
to you earlier, I took my twoyoung sons to Australia Zoo, which
is about 20 minutes from myhometown. So if anyone visits Australia,
come, come say g' day, we'lltake to the zoo. But yeah, you can
literally pat a koala and youcan pack kangaroos and, you know,
it's pretty awesome.
That's great. Now youpersonally look, you're. You. You
(05:53):
have a wild side to you. Youknow that, right?
My 100%.
Okay, let's. Let's start here.Motorcycles, Muay Thai somehow tied
into photography. So, yeah,what am I missing? What am I missing
from this list of passions?
What else? Well, look, I lovecamping, you know. You know, I've
(06:16):
recently got my family into itand they're really loving it. So,
you know, I'm an outdoors sortof bloke and I think life's a bit
more fun when you're sideways.So I've got, you know, plenty. A
couple of fast cars, I've gota couple of motorbikes. I've always
been into that. Let's call itCrusty Demons of Dirt Lifestyle and.
And you know, or TravisPastrana, Nitro Circus. I've got
(06:38):
lots of friends who are, youknow, used to be professional riders.
I also wakeboard. Got plentyof ex pro wakeboarding mates. And
yeah, I do a bit of wakesurfing on the side. So anything
that gets your heart pumping,mate, on the outdoors, you know,
I'm all for it. But then I, Ilove a leisurely stroll, you know,
through the forest or got acouple of cool little mountains here
(06:59):
that aren't too crazy. But,you know, I just like being outdoors,
mate. You know, I'm stuck infront of a screen so often in my
life, so to get outside andjust get amongst it, you know, I'm
all for it.
That kind of makes it reallyeasy to see why photography was kind
of a natural for you. Right.Because you're in the first of all.
(07:20):
Most of it is outdoors.Portrait photography is a different
beast. But that's not what youdid for. For a long time. So let's
talk about that. How did youcome out of school and what was the
driving force for you to thenreally take photography on as your
career?
Great question. I actuallyfell into it, to be honest. So I
went to what we call a TAFEhere in Australia when I finished
(07:44):
high school. Even before thenI was actually doing bits and pieces.
I was working with aphotographer and then when I finished
school, I did a TAFE courseand then I started working for him
full time. And back then realestate photography was not a thing,
but he was doing it. And I'mtalking back on film camera days,
so that's how long I've been areal estate photographer. So what
(08:07):
I love is not many propertyphotographers out there. I'd say
less than 5% can say theystarted shooting paid jobs, paid
real estate photography jobson a film camera. And I did that
for at least a year or two.Wow. So that's, you know, I'm not.
I'm getting older now. I'mclose to 40, 40 this year actually.
But, you know, I thinksomeone, at my age, there's not many
(08:28):
people, I don't think you canquote that I've been probably a photographer.
At least I was, I was driving.So 17, 18, so close to 20 years I've
been taking real estatephotos. And my first, it was like.
It wasn't university. Thinkyou think of like a college. I went
to a college and studieddiploma in photography. What was
cool though, Bill, it was thetransition period. So obviously digital
(08:50):
cameras had just come out, sothey had to modify the class. It
was the first time they did.So six months of my class I did darkroom
and film. The other six monthswas digital. So I was really on the
cuffs of it, mate. And I'dalready been doing paid jobs for
a bit before then. So, yeah,when you look back, it's, you know,
(09:11):
it's been a pretty long andsteady ride. But, you know, I really
feel that I know Personally,I've done the whole loop. So for
me to come and be called adisruptor, I feel no one probably
has earned that respect, youknow, more than myself or people
like me, if you know what Imean. So like a one trick pony. I've
(09:32):
been doing this forever andthis was like a dream for me to almost
get off the tools, Bill. SoI'm the founder of the business.
It was my brainchild and itwas realistically just to get me
off the camera because Iwanted to start a family. But I just
felt like I was stuck in therat race and it was just me. And
I was too scared to go onholidays, mate, every year. I was
(09:53):
too scared to have time offbecause unfortunately the industry
is not loyal at times, youknow, and, you know, and that's only
because people need thingsback. Yesterday. I, I understand
because I actually worked in areal estate office as well for about
two years. I was a customerservice agent, was kind of in the
crossover. When I finishedcollege, I worked in a real estate
(10:13):
office. I was shooting realestate photos in my part time. So,
you know, I've got my fullAustralian license, it has lapsed,
but I could renew that and Igot that when I was like 17. So we
used to sell deep waterfrontcanal properties here on the sunshine
coast and also beautifulbeachfront homes. So I knew that
from an early age what it tookto make a, to make a house sell.
(10:37):
And let's be honest, it allstarts with photos.
Yes. Yeah, let's talk aboutthat original because Box Brownie's
gone through a couple ofdifferent iterations, but let's start
with the first one. What wasyour goal? What were you trying to
build when you first set outto start the company?
I won't lie, I was just tryingto make an income and at that time
(10:58):
I was stressed out, mate. Ihad my mum doing my accounting for
me, like I was sendinginvoices out. But back then there
was no accounting software. Itwas all very manual. And you know,
I'd had a. I'd have agenciesthat wouldn't pay me for three or
four months, you know what Imean? And me just running a business,
you know, I was always a solooperator. I never had employees.
(11:18):
Now I have over 419 countries.Like, it's still bill. It blows my
mind, mate. And I don't likepeople calling me boss. I actually
don't like it. It's just like,I just, you know, because I'll clean
the windows at work or I'll.If there's something I'LL pick up
the vacuum cleaner. I'm justthat sort of guy. I'm hands on and
I do enlighten, I do likebeing in the trenches and I don't
want any special treatment.I'm not special. I'm just another
(11:41):
guy just having a go, if youknow what I mean. So yeah, yeah.
So it's really realistically Iwanted to get myself off the tools
and do something different. Iwas going to go the mines here in
Australia and you know,underground and make some good money
and week on, week off stylething. But my wife said, you'll like
this, Bill. No long distancerelationship because she's a hairdresser
(12:02):
and she's seen bad thingshappen with couples and yes, mate,
you know, fast forward a bitand that's what made me think of
Box Brownie and then I neverimagined that I'd honestly travel
the world, meet people likeyourself mate, and just be doing
what we're doing. It's stillpinch myself a lot of the time, but
I don't think about it. Thatmakes sense as well.
Yeah. So the original idea wasto make it easy for other people
(12:27):
to do the editing which getyou off the tools of the editing
part, which is, which is thetoughest part of it. Right.
What I thought is, you know,like, look, I, I'll tell everyone
at one stage, you know, I, Iwas scared to outsource Bill as a
real estate photographer. Iwas busy and yeah, I was doing up
to nine houses a day. To giveyou an idea how busy I was, that's
(12:47):
a lot. And I, I, I created myown theory. Back then there was no
YouTube channels, there wasonly dodgy forums, you know, that
wasn't what there is now. Soliterally with the experience I got
from working with this amazingphotographer. His name's Greg Gardner.
I'll always give props toGreg. He's just an amazing guy. I
wish I could hang out with himmore often, to be honest. But you
(13:08):
know, he really showed me therobes and said hey, you should get
into this. It's a niche thing.Not everyone's doing it. And back
then, mate, the I always saythat we call it the property week.
Like back then the localproperty newspaper, I guess or flyer
was inside our local newspaperand let's call it the, the first
four pages and the last fourpages, obviously they're all joined,
(13:29):
were color gloss and the restwas black and white. So I was taking
photos for usually the glossyareas. I'd get the photos printed,
I'd throw the shitty ones outand Keep the good ones because obviously
you couldn't see what was what.
Right.
And I'd give them whatever Ihad, you know, obviously they didn't
get the bad ones because, youknow, something's overexposed or
(13:49):
underexposed, etc. And. Andthat's really where it all began.
But, yeah, look, I. Bill, Ineeded the service myself. You know,
I was editing. I was editingphotos. I was on the graveyard shift.
I was, you know, gettingphotos back overnight. Which I know
in the US is getting closernow. Like it's been standard thing
my whole career, so I'm usedto it. And one, I. I tried outsourcing,
(14:12):
mate. I tried, let's call it100 or 200 different editors. And
you tear your hair out andyou'd be like, all terrible. Yeah,
I wouldn't put my name tothat. And then one day I found someone
decent, trained them up. And Iwon't lie, I was paying $5 a photo.
Wow.
You know, we're now doing itfor a dollar. Oh, that's Australian.
So let's call it $4 US. Andnow we offer for a $60. So to give
(14:35):
you an idea, like it was oneof those ideas or concepts, Bill,
where I physically needed itto myself. And I was over my career.
And then conversation with mywife, a penny dropped one day and
I have not worked with. I havenot stopped working at it since.
People think I'm crazy. Iknow. My own family and friends did.
It's all I talked about. Buthey, who's crazy now? You know what
(14:56):
I mean? I think, you know,Brandy is like my third time lucky,
you know, I built twoprototypes before I met Mel, who's
my business partner. Amazing.Amazing at technology, you know,
I think where you could notget more yin and yang than myself
and Mel. And I think theopposites attract and everything
I read, you know, in smalldoses, it's. I just feel that it's
(15:18):
my journey, mate. You knowwhat I mean?
Yeah, yeah.
You.
I know you've been with Melnow. It's. It's nearly a decade.
Do you know that it's almostbeen 10 years?
Yeah, yeah. I think we. Ithink we've had. I should count,
but I'm. I'm bad. I just work,I think. I think we've had roughly
seven Christmases together.That's Christmas parties, if that
makes sense. Seven or eight.So it's getting up there, you know,
(15:39):
the concept myself of boxbrand has been over a decade. Yeah.
For me personally.
Yeah. Good. And as youmentioned, what Mel was Able to bring
to the table was a way to putthat tech over what you were trying
to accomplish and just. Andboy, you guys are able to scale like
it's incredible the way thingshave scaled for you. I think it's
114 countries that you're in.
(16:02):
Yeah, I think it might be 170now, but look, yeah, let's call it
114. You know, people saythey're global. We're a true global
business, Bill. We are selffunded, so we've taken no vc, which
I think is cool as well.There's only a very, very small amount
of businesses that can claimthat. And you know, we're rubbing
shoulders with the big dogs inthe industry and we're just trying
(16:24):
to stay true mate, you know,and do the right thing by our clients,
do the right thing by ourstaff and editing teams and you know,
no subscriptions. We just tryand make it really easy, you know,
where we're the most costeffective way to sell your biggest
asset. And you know, we've gotsome big plans for Vox branding.
Like editing is just thestart. We've got some amazing things,
(16:44):
you know, blue sky, you know,ideas for the horizon. And we're
just here to make the averagereal estate agent's life easy, mate.
That's what we want to be.
I think that the thing that Ishow more than anything when I show
someone Box Brownie is whatyou've done with virtual staging.
Making that as affordable asit is. That is crazy. Talk about
that a little bit.
Thank you, mate. So, you know,I'll start off by saying, and I never
(17:08):
thought I'd ever say this,Bill, but Box Brownie, you know,
our business, we right here,right now, we, we do the most virtual
staging in the world. That's afact. That's fact one, fact two,
it's all real life. Humaneditors, not AI. AI is going to get
terrific. I'm not going to lieabout that. And we can, you know
that that'll be an option inthe future. But right here, right
(17:28):
now, it is not up to scratch.There's numerous reasons I won't
get into it, but it's, it's,it's not as good as the real thing
yet. It will get better. Andwhen it's better, we'll be offering
it. You watch. You know what Imean? So virtual staging, it's a
great tool. I remember ourfirst ever show was Inman San Francisco.
I think I'm bad with dates. Itmight have been 2017, I think. Don't
(17:51):
quote me on that. But it wasour first. First time in the US first
time. One of our firstconferences, too, to be honest. And
we didn't know what to expect.We couldn't afford the flights as
a business, let alone thedrink bills.
I'm glad you brought that up.I didn't have to. I didn't have to
do that.
But look, you know, we're allabout. That's the Australian way,
mate. Have a beer, have ayarn. You know, you get to know people
(18:12):
pretty well. But Inman did aneditorial on us, and I'm forever
thankful it was on our virtualstaging. And next minute we're like,
boom. All these US Signupsgoing crazy, and we're like, whoa,
what's going on here? And wetracked down the blog and Inman,
what's this? You know, we hadno idea what it was. Next minute,
we're on a plane. Next minute,we've got people come into our booth
(18:34):
who already know us. Nextminute, you know, this lovely lady
named Tiff, you know, TiffanyCallender was sending all these people
to us, and we're like, who thehell is Tiff? And then next minute,
this person comes up, shegoes, oh, my name's Tiffany, you're
Tiff. And it just went on fromthere, mate. And the love that the
US Gave us was just incredibleand, you know, forever grateful.
(18:55):
And that's why we spent, youknow, as, you know, we've spent so
much time traveling across theworld doing more conferences over
there than probably most. And,you know, we're coming all the way
from Australia for it. Butvirtual staging, I remember there
was another company at thetime offering it. That's all they
did. Won't name names, but I.I remember it being $80 US per photo.
(19:18):
I'm pretty sure per virtualstaging, we entered the market at
$32 US. And everyone's like,whoa. And what's really cool is since
then, we've dropped that edit25% in price. So with Box Brownie,
there's never going to besubscriptions. And as we scale up,
we want to be the fair guysand bring prices down. So that's
(19:40):
sort of how we work. So,pretty proud on that, because early
days, everyone said that wehad to have subscriptions. It's never
going to work.
There's a commercial aspect towhat you're doing as well, too. When
I say commercial, I meancommercial real estate, because renderings
are something that areincredibly expensive. Once again,
you found a way to make thissuper affordable. Right. Especially
(20:00):
in that world.
Yeah. Really, everything andwe were doing virtual renovations
before it was a thing, youknow like before that was a product
with. Yeah, but renderings wedo a lot of. So whether it's a residential
house, whether it'scommercial, whether, whether you're
selling a multi family complexor commercial complex, we've got
you covered. So literally forall the listeners out there, what's
(20:21):
a render? Brad? It's, it's anartist impression. It's pretty much
a computer generated image.Think a photo of a building or internal
that's not built yet but youcan see what, what's going on. We've
even gone one step furtherBill. And actually we did create
the world's first renderingautomated service. Upload your plan,
(20:42):
select options, hit submit, wework on a proof and send it to you.
So that's, that's anotherworld first we've done which is pretty
cool. But we also do render360 virtual tours. So think of matterport
tour of something thatdoesn't. It's not built yet. That's
the best way to put it.
It's been fun watching BoxBrownie grow. Right. Because there's
always something kind of. Youmentioned there's things on the horizon
(21:04):
and I'm going to ask you aquestion about that in a minute.
But first let's talk. You gotto talk about snapsnapsnap.com first
of all was snap and snap snaptaken. So you just went snap snap,
snap. I'm just curious.
No, we'll look. Think thatlike Mel come up with, come up with
that, with that, that name andI didn't like at the start I had
(21:24):
something else really cool Ithought but no, I'm really down for
it now. Foxbranding.com Ibought that domain before I even
met Mel. I bought it like 10years ago with the dreams to give
you an idea. Like I had, I didhave a dream for all of this. Yeah,
it snaps that like think mate.You know, it's as easy as just getting
your camera out and goingsnap, snap, snap upload. You know,
that's probably the best wayto think of it. You know what I mean?
(21:46):
Because literally every agentout there has always got a phone
on them and the best camera isthe one you've always got on you.
Right. So it's not anotherbattery you need to recharge. Your
phone's got a phone charger inyour car. Like you know we, I actually
on my second prototype we hadit, we had a camera app. It wasn't
anything like it is now, butit Worked so that was cool. And I
(22:11):
remember coming back from aconference, it was an exp conference
and I said to Mal, I saiddude, I'll be on his case for ages
about the app. I'm like dude,we need to pull our finger out and
get this outgoing, you know, Ijust, I know it's what's needed.
At that time, Bill we'd hadset up here in Australia like all
that travel we did. Crazy.When we first would have met, we
used to have an uber basedphotography system where you could
(22:33):
book photographers through ourdashboard. I trained 300 photographers
here in Australia. I'dorganize their patches in all of
our major areas and you couldbook a photographer let's say if
you like, hey, it's 10 o'clock in the morning today. I want
to book a photographer thisafternoon at 2:30 and I want 10 photos.
You can hit a button and doit. So we had that. But I always
(22:55):
felt as a bit of a dying breedbecause of the app, because the phone
technology is getting so good.So as soon as I saw the iPhone 11
with that wide angle lens I'mlike dude, the times now. And I've
tested the cameras too outthere. IPhone 11 and 15 if you've
got an iPhone 11 don't rushout by 15 thinking you've got a better
camera. It might be a littlebit better on the photos you don't
(23:18):
edit but if you use Snap snapSnap, which we can talk about more
and why it's so good mate, theresults are pretty similar. So that's
a good tip for everyonelistening. Don't think you need the
latest phone to make ithappen. Not the case. Yeah. The app
is incredible mate and I'dlove to tell more if you need.
To, you know, let's talkabout, you know, as an agent downloads
(23:39):
the app, they sign up, theyyou know, have a, they probably tie
it to their Apple payaccounts. Brill simple. And what
does it look like? What, howdoes it work? What am I, what would
I be using it for most of the time?
Snap snap snap. Right now it'son, it's on iPhone. Only few reasons
for that. IPhone had aboutseven cameras for us to hack into.
(23:59):
Androids have about 150 plus.So there's a lot more work in it.
That's why just so everyoneknows. So Android, it's pretty much
built now. I would say thatFebruary. So next month if anyone's
listening and they want to tryit out and be one of the first beta
testers, reach out.Brad@boxbranding.com I am not scared
(24:21):
to give my email address outeven though I am the co founder of
what we are. But I'm here tohelp, mate. But. Snap, snap, snap.
It's amazing. It took Melthree years to hack into Apple's
camera algorithm. And thereason is there's a lot of smarts
behind it, mate, it's, it'svery technical. What it does is it,
(24:41):
you know, you open up the app,you press little plus sign which
activates the new shoot, youput your property address in there,
always use your propertyaddress that way because everything's
saved and you know you canlook at the shoots anytime. Then
you start shooting and as soonas that, as that camera opens, mate,
there's no settings to put in.Everything's done behind the scenes.
(25:02):
It actually opens up at 0.6times on the wide angle zoom, not
the 0.5 times. The reason isbecause I'm OCD made as a photographer
and the 0.5 makes things looktoo big. So you're misleading a little
bit there. That's the reasonwhy you can zoom in, zoom out accordingly.
But you press that button,mate. It takes seven HDR bracketed
(25:24):
shots. And for those thataren't camera savvy, bracketing or
HDR photography is you need atripod for best results. And every
professional photographer usesa tripod. So you know, that's why
we do it. Me being one. Ittakes seven different photos at different
light gradients. So dark allthe way to light. And the reason
(25:47):
is Bill, a lot of the USphotography, professional photography,
I see, I challenge everyone,all the listeners out there. On your
professional photos, on yourinterior shots, can you clearly see
outside the window? I know nowit's a bit more of a growing trend.
We've educated the market alot, but a lot of photos. I see.
(26:08):
I was, I was at a. I rememberNagle Red, you know, I don't think
that's a conference anymore inPalm Springs. And I was chatting
to it to a gentleman there andI said, look, yeah, your photos are
great. He goes, oh, myphotographer's the best. Don't need
you guys. Rah, rah, that'scool. I said, do you mind me having.
Can you bring up a shoot youlike? And I have a look and I gave
a marketing health check thereand then and I said, look, I saw
beautiful mountain regions inthat pool shop. I said, why can't
(26:32):
I see that? I can say I knowthe mountains are there. I just.
Because I know photos andwhere they position them and I'm
like why can't I see thosemountains from inside that beautiful
living room? And he's like,he's jaw just dropped, mate. I'm
like, he's like, what do youmean? I'm like, dude, I can't see
outside that window. It's awhite haze. If in Australia I'd be
fired, I would not get workfor that. And he's like, I've never
thought of that. So likethat's what HDR photography is team.
(26:55):
It's, it's the ability to seein a photo how our amazing human
body I see in real life, youknow, we, we can control and balance
the light whether it's reallysunny or it's dark and shadowy. That's
what HDR photography doesbecause you're capturing every lighting
aspect that's needed. And thenour editors by hand, real life humans
(27:19):
edit that photo and prettymuch lay them, rub out what they
want, keep what they need,replace sky, do actually 17 Photoshop
tasks to your image for A$60.So that's one aspect of Snap. Snap,
snap. One last fun fact. Thealgorithm, it doesn't just take seven
photos, it actually takes 70up to 70 micro photos just to give
(27:44):
you an idea. So that's what itdoes for the $160. So that's why
it's, it's a true world first,mate. It's, it's everything I knew
as a photographer in an appthat's just a push button system.
On top of that it does dataDusk or our Twilight effect, which
is our second most popular edit.
Yep.
Globally. You can also removeitems, kitchen clutter, cars out
(28:06):
the front, rubbish or skipbins, you know what I mean? Out the
front of a property, thingsyou can't actually have control of
moving, you can remove it alloff the app. You what you want, submit.
And lastly Bill, you can dohigh quality. Our best selling virtual
staging off the phone. Noother app does that right here, right
now. So look at, you know,we're going to give all the listeners
(28:29):
a free coupon trial. At theend we'll have a code word for you.
As we spoke about, if you'rean existing Box Brandy user, I want
to hook you up as well so wecan talk about that later. But that's
why the app's so good, mate.It honestly turns your smartphone
into a secret weapon. It'sDSLR professional quality. And when
you marry the photos up likeI've done tests and you know me,
(28:49):
we do blogs and you know,we're all about training. I Love
it. And I've taken photos onmy old camera setup. Nikon compared
to the phone. To be honest.Everyone's actually says I like the
phone photos better. But whatthey all say is I can't tell the
difference. Wow. And I'mtalking a laptop photo. But then
when they shrunk down theproperty portals things get pixelated
(29:09):
and lower. Lower resolution.Mate. You. You physically can't tell
the difference. It's, it's,it's, it's wild.
Wow.
And we're not here to replacephotographers or nothing like that.
We're just embracing thetechnology and I don't like, oh,
pick up the scraps if you wantto call it or you know, there's always
room for a professionalphotographer in the industry. 100
biggest asset as an agent. Butyou've got to call them. You've got
(29:32):
to fit in their schedule. Youcould have a rural property that
takes an hour to drive there.There's no photographers. I've heard
it all. This app is available24, 7 photos back in 24 hours guaranteed.
You know, standard edits andoh, average turnaround time for our
image enhancement is threehours at the moment, mate. So that's
(29:52):
what the system tell us.
So I'm a little behind. I'm alittle behind on Box Brownie. You
guys have really come a longways. Give me. Let me ask you this
question as best you canbecause I don't want you to give
away anything that would helpanyone else. But what's next on the
horizon? Is there somethingyou can tease us with?
What's next? What's next?We're really just trying to secure
(30:16):
a lot of. We're just trying tostreamline what we do. You know what
I mean? AI is coming.Artificial intelligence. We can't
ignore that. Things that we dodo that people don't know about.
We've got some productscoming. Probably not a lot I can
talk about really. But we.What's really cool is we have switched
on our booker photographeruber based system again which is
(30:36):
quite cool. We're pretty bigin Japan. We've got 30 photographers
on the ground Japan, which ispretty fun.
Wow.
That's going on. We've justswitched one on in my local town
again just to sort of get itrolling around Australia again. That's
something we're just playingwith. It's just a bit of fun really
mate. But I think what we'rereally trying to do this year is
streamline what we do get. Youknow, always improving our systems.
(30:59):
We aim to give the Bestcustomer service available. We get
really comments all the time.We're just trying to tighten our
ship and being self funded, wecan pivot pretty quick and we've
got our ideas there of wherewe need to go. Really cool too on
our editing. I just got off acall before you. I run a quality
control team. So we secretshop our editors, which is pretty
cool. And look at about100,000 images a month, which is
(31:20):
not all of them, but it'sscratching the surface and it's random.
So obviously we're, you know,the founder is in the trenches. Still
doing that because I careabout our clients. So what that means
is the good editors get work,the bad editors get suspended and
our clients just get top notchwork. So we'll fix the photo, mate,
even if you haven't seen it.So with Box Brownie, you can do free
(31:43):
changes yourself. If you'relike Brad, I dislike that furniture,
change it. Or I don't like thesky you've used. It's all free, you
know, but we fix things aswell behind the scenes, even if you
don't know about it becausethat's just how we roll.
That's cool. Look, I'mwatching the clock. I gotta get you,
I gotta get you back to work.It's. It's nighttime where I'm at,
but it's. Your day isstarting. Let me. Final question.
(32:06):
You're probably gonna get tobed. I've got all the time you need,
mate, and I'm here for you.
All right. Final, finalquestion that I always ask every
guest. That's one what onepiece of advice would you give a
new agent? Just gettingstarted in the business.
Look at. That's a tough one,mate. Get yourself educated. You
know, there's a lot ofbeautiful prop tech, property technology
(32:28):
out there. It is crowdedthough, let's face it. You know,
there's. There's a lot oftechnology out there these days and.
But look, I suppose I alwayslike to say, don't become the next
Nokia, you know what I mean? Ithink you've got to, you've got to
try and innovate and you've.Not that, not that Nokia haven't,
don't get me wrong, but youknow, everyone's on an iPhone or
a Samsung these days, you knowwhat I mean? So I think just be sure
(32:50):
to keep yourself educated. Goto conferences or listen to podcasts
and I think educate yourselfis a big thing. Yeah. And just back
yourself, really. I think, youknow, you are who you hang out with
and I think you Know, just Isuppose the harder you work, the
luckier you become, mate. Sothat's probably, you know, one aspect,
(33:12):
of course, course, you know,and this is not selling us, I promise.
But like obviously good photossell property. Let's face it, that's
what makes your phone ring. Sonot saying just use us, but, you
know, there's lots of ways outthere to be seen and to have good
marketing. So like it's a bitof a down market at the moment. I
know there was, you know,Covid, there was some stupid prices
(33:34):
and I think they still gettingthat. But I think these days there's
fierce competition. There'sbeen some big stats of all the agents
who have left the industry inthe U.S. you know, Nir have done
some statements and I thinknow more than ever, even during COVID
when things were sellingquickly, you still should have given
a damn about how yourmarketing looks. Don't, don't be
(33:56):
sloppy because on these typesof markets this is where you're going
to pick it up. So I think yourlistings are your online presence.
They're like your window cardto the world. So much like having
a beautiful suit and, youknow, a clean car. I think having
beautiful looking marketing isanother step towards, you know, selling
a home and then gettinganother listing as well. So I think
(34:19):
it's always, it's all thoselittle one percents, mate, that all
add up, doesn't it? You know,education and doing what you say
and just delivering on whatyou do, I think is a big thing too.
Good. Love it.
Was that answer all right for you?
That's good. I love it. I loveit. Brad, if someone wants to reach
out to you, I think youalready told us, it's basically bradoxbrownie.com
(34:43):
but you also. So you said youhave something special for the listeners.
Let's talk about that real quick.
I do, I do. So obviously ratemy agent, another fellow Australian
sort of prop tech company, youknow, kudos to the Aussies. But look,
we want to give back, ofcourse, obviously, right by agent.
You've got a profile picture.We do profile retouching. So take
(35:05):
a photo on your phone. Phonecameras are pretty awesome. We can
retouch it. Whether you wantto remove wrinkles, remove a pimple
or braces, whiten your teeth,change your tie, anything like that
we can do. We can even removethe backgrounds as well. If you want
that sleek studio look, we'vegot a code word. So if you haven't
signed up to boxbrownie.comthat's the website boxbrandy.com
(35:30):
sign up. There'll be a couponcode area. It's pretty easy. Rate
my agent, all in capitalletters, no spaces. It'll get you
$25 Australian credit, whichis a big, big sort of giveaway. Now,
from what you know, from whatwe. From what we usually give away.
And $20American. So try thatout if you want to try. Snap Snap
(35:51):
Snap team. And you're anexisting user. Guys, email me. Brad@boxbranding.com
I will physically give you atraining session on whatever you
want. If you want an officewebinar, a one on one training session
with anything we do, I amhere. Okay? Honestly, I'll do it
myself. I won't handball it,but yeah, if you're already a user,
that codeword won't work.Email me, we'll catch up. I'll put
(36:13):
it in your account and I'llhelp any way I can.
That's awesome, Brad. This hasbeen fantastic. Everything I thought
it would be, there is passionjust oozes from you, which I'm sure
you've heard before. You arevery passionate about what you do,
and I love the fact that thatpassion comes from a place of service
and help and making it betterfor people at an affordable price.
(36:34):
I keep using that phrase, butit's amazing. So thank you so much
for your time today. This is amazing.
Likewise, Bill. Just verygrateful to be in the position I'm
in. The real estate industryhas been very kind to me. So, you
know, it's great to be able togive back. And, you know, I think
the universe always gives backin marvelous ways. So whatever I
can do, you know, I'm justhere to help. I'm. I'm just stoked
(36:55):
and just living the dream,mate. You know what I mean? Like,
yeah, no, so just whatever Ican do more seriously, I'm here for
anyone.
That's awesome. Cheers, mate.
Cheers, mate. Hope we get tocross paths again soon in the US
or maybe over here. And yeah,thank you. Thank you very much for
having us on today.
Thank you for listening to thereal estate Sessions. Please head
(37:16):
over to ratethispodcast.comresessions to leave a review or a
rating and subscribe to thereal estate Sessions podcast at your
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