March 5, 2025 • 58 mins
Todd & Craig tackle some of your questions you've sent in. What can we try to help answer for you to help you build a strong Real Estate Media business?
Chapter Time Stamps
0:00 Episode Open
03:45 Developing a Year Calendar
08:00 Never Be Surprised
14:45 Take Care of Your Health
21:26 Spiro Updates
28:54 Answering Listener/Viewer Questions
45:36 Joining the NAREB – Democracy in Housing
57:18 Episode Wrap-up
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Coming up on this episodeof The Spiro podcast.
(00:04):
I started mine because I want to makea lot of money doing it.
I still wish that
I had a better reason, but I think it'sconnecting some to some other reasons.
This is not a bad thing.
Like you have the ability to make moneyand you can impact others with that money.
I begin viewing itfrom that perspective of
how can I impact people now
(00:26):
with the ability to do this?
or what this is allow me to do
Welcome to the Spiro Podcast.
Managing your real estate, photographyand videography business
with your hosts, Todd, Kevin Mackie
and Craig Martin.
Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,
(00:46):
managing your real estate, photographyand videography business.
Spiro is a software platform is designedto help you run and manage and,
you know, take care of your everydayreal estate media business,
but ultimately really to help itgrow and scale as well.
I'm Craig Magrum,and welcome back to another podcast.
If you're, joining us again,if you're a new listener or viewer,
(01:08):
we just want to welcomeyou and, give you a brief explanation.
The Spiro podcast is really all about
helping you build a solid real estatemedia business.
We've said this before in past episodes.
There's tons of great materials out there.
On the creative side of what we dois real estate media professionals.
But we really wanted to dive in intohow to run just a good, solid business
(01:31):
and how to help you.
Really like, like we said before,grow the business.
So welcome back.
Let me introduce our, our,
podcast co-host,and Spiro owner and founder, Todd Kivimaki
it's it's, right around the corner.
Todd. Right around the corner.
- Spring is knocking on the door,- It sure is.
(01:52):
You know, we are getting close to spring,
which translates to busy seasonfor many of us.
And, you know, maybe a change of pace.
I was talking to a group,
yesterday just about the idea of.
You don't have many weeks left.
If you want to get somethingdone, it's got to be here soon.
(02:13):
Because if especiallyif you still do a lot of shooting,
you, you don't have much time.
And even if you don't doa lot of shooting,
your abilityto schedule appointments with clients
is going to drastically go downhillbecause your clients are going
to be in busy season.
So a little bit of a change in mindsethere.
You know, connecting everythingback to the business of
(02:35):
and looking at that strategically,you know, over the course of 20 years
21 years this is year 21 for me.
You know, you just start to pick upon those little things.
So just a quick reminder.Many of you know it.
But if you want to get something done,
you better call that agentif you want to get in front of them.
Because in about two or 3 or 4 weeks,they're like, sorry, I can't talk
- until November- right
(02:56):
And that's exactly what I'm dealing withright now.
Todd, you know,
I've got the dual role of businessdevelopment specialist for for my market,
but also the main photographerfor my, my market.
And I'm basically had to tell some agents,hey, if we're going to meet,
we've got to do itreally in the next two weeks or so,
because once the floodgates open, I'mgoing to be busy shooting.
So I'd like to try and getthose those face to face meetings done
(03:20):
during that slower period.
But and yeah, once spring market kicksin, at least for the northern hemisphere
here, those of you
watching Down Under or listening DownUnder, obviously, you know, different,
different time of year for you.
But yeah, we're going to be ramping uppretty quick.
I've had a lot of agents in our market
say I've got a lot of thingsin the pipeline.
It's been a slow February,but it's going to be coming.
(03:40):
It sure is.
You know one thing and this may be justjump right into our to a first topic here,
but as a business owner,I feel pretty strongly that
you should look at a year long calendar.
I, I have a coach that he hadtaught this technique and I have,
I have a 12 month calendar up on my wallover here to my right.
(04:02):
And it's a, it's an erasable calendar.
So, it has Januarythrough December and months
and this is probably, I don't know, 3.5ftby maybe four feet by three feet.
And I got it on the Amazonand it comes to you
and it comes with, weterase markers and dry erase marker.
So wet eraseis where you write the days of the,
(04:27):
of the week in there.
And then you have to use a wet ragto get rid of those
for the next year,and you have to rewrite them.
But it's just nice
because you can look aheadand you can see because time compacts.
And as you get into business and, and justgetting older, I don't know what it is.
I, had to figure it all out yet,but I'm just going to go faster.
(04:49):
And things that useand the amount of time that you think
you have now, you're going to look backand be like, wow, I had so much time.
I think being able to understand that
you, you ultimately control your time.
And when you feel likeyou are in control of your time,
at least that'swhen I feel like I'm more productive.
- I don't know about you, Craig.- Yeah, for sure.
(05:10):
If if you don't manage your time,somebody else will do it for you.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh,I love that, Craig.
If you don't manage your time,somebody else will do it for you. Yes.
And they don't care about your time.
Right.
The people that will do it for you,they care about their time.
So your time's going to be taken up.
Oh, I love that, Craig.
Just great to caveat on that.
If you if you steal that from meyou're stealing twice.
(05:32):
Okay.
Well same thing with everythingI say
At least all of the intelligent thingsI say, because I don't know
that I have the abilityto come up with those, but.
Yeah.
Yeah. No, I love that idea.
Yeah. So go get it.
Go ahead.
You had a.
Oh, no, I was just going to saymake sure you go back an episode
or two as well,because we talk about time management and.
(05:54):
Yeah, well, all of thatand how critically important it is.
So make sure you watchand listen to those episodes.
Yeah.
One more thing that I was going to mentionabout the calendar is,
you know, just looking ahead,you should have, this is just a quick tip.
And again, I this you're hearing this fromnot this is not me.
This is hearing it from a coachthat coaches this Austin Cheviron.
(06:16):
You need to write on that calendaror your personal items first,
like the first thing that you're supposedto write on the calendar, right?
The birthdays of your family.
You know it.
Take the day.Take your wife's birthday off.
Take your kid's birthdays off.
Take your birthday off.
Okay.
Write those on their anniversaryor whatever else is important in there.
(06:38):
And then you need to go through
and you need to look atwhat else do I need to write off on here?
Look at November and December right now.
You don't want to be surprisedcome November
when you stack it too closeand you take two days off for Christmas.
Yeah, it's.
And then you feel burnout and you're like,why am I working so hard?
And then what you going to dois you make a dumb purchase decision
(07:01):
because you feel like you should buysomething big because you work so hard.
And I'm not saying you should not,but you should never try
to justify your work by a purchase.
And maybe that'sfor another podcast crate,
because that's getting pretty deep there.
Yeah, but you know,you don't want to get caught up in time.
You ultimately control your time.
(07:21):
If you want to take three weeksoff for Christmas, do it.
But plan it now right?
You know, Craig,I coached, I coached basketball,
I think many of you know, and and,I did an extra team this year.
So I typically have always runthe youth league.
So that's third, fourth, fifth and sixth.
So I've run the league and then also I'vecoached teams in the past.
(07:45):
I have two boys in the leagueand they're in separate age groups.
So I've coached two teamsin the last couple of years,
and I began coaching
a little bit older this year at seventhgrade,
and I loved yeah, I love my group of boys.
They were fabulous.
And one thing that we tried to teach them,Jimmy, my assistant coach and myself,
(08:05):
and he's a big proponent on this is
you should never be surprised.
you should neverbe surprised by something.
So let's let's take a let's take ananalogy of seventh grade basketball mind.
So y'all put your 13 year old brain
back in your head.
do I have to?
(08:30):
put your 13 year old brainback in your head
and I'm going to give you a real lifescenario that happen okay.
So in basketball,I'll just set this up a little bit.
in basketball,when you have two teams that have
a hand on the ballor two hands on the ball, like so,
if one person from each teamis grabbing the ball each time
(08:52):
and they're fighting for it,that's called a jump ball.
Okay?
So it's not who can rip it outthe hardest.
You know,they don't want kids getting hurt.
So it's like if two kids on opposite teamstouch the ball and have,
you know, possession of the ball, it'scalled jump ball.
And what that means they alternatewhich team gets the ball.
So team A is going to get the ballthe first time.
(09:13):
Then the next jump ball team Bis going to get the ball.
And there's some exceptions to thatlike at the start of the next quarter.
The next team that's supposed to getthe ball will take it out.
So it's always fair.
It's always fair.
It's it's A or B okay.
And there's actually things in the gymcalled the possession.
The possession arrowthat sits at the scores table.
(09:35):
That shows an arrowto who gets the next jump ball.
Okay.
Also they display this on the scoreboard.
Who has home and awaywho has the next possession.
So it's very clear and it's not that hard
to remember like oh they got itlast time we get it.
Okay.
So I literally had one of my best playerssay this to me.
(09:58):
So it was at a point in the gamewhere things were starting to go a little,
little hairy for us.
We have a very talented team,but a very emotional team.
And we get to the pointthat this individual gets frustrated
and the other team ties him up
and it's a jump ball is called okay.
(10:19):
Now jump ball is displayedon the scoreboard scores table.
And you have a fair amount of theseat a seventh grade game.
And in this
case ithappened to be the other team's ball.
So we lost possession.
It was a turnover okay.
When we began playingbad two and everything
in this individual's world compactedand felt like it was on his shoulders.
(10:43):
And he looked at me and said,
this is not fair.
They get the jump ball every time.
And so this is.
Yeah, yeah.
I went,
so I was like,just go back, run back on defense.
(11:03):
And we watched tape.
I rerecord the games and we watched tapeand like I said, hey, Silas, you know,
do you know what you said to me there?
Hey, he's like, man.
And he and he he kind of knew.
And like, I was like you said to me that
the game's unfair, that the other teamalways gets the jump ball. You
(11:27):
and youwere frustrated, like you had big emotion.
That's why I call big emotion.When you're young, you have big emotion.
I have big emotions sometimes, you know,and we're human.
It's natural to have big emotion
now.
This was two days laterthat we were watching film.
I said, what did that do for you?
That thought in your head, like, you know,that's not true.
(11:50):
You were surprised that
the jump ball was done.
The way the jump ball's done.
You know, it's like you should never besurprised in something.
So just mentally setting yourselfup, right.
You know, for business,you know, I can think back at times
that I was surprised.
I was surprised that we got busy.
(12:11):
I didn't manage my calendar well enough.
I'm like,oh crap. The phone started ringing.
Hey, I was surprised.
My wife delivered our first baby.
Our first son, 4 or 5 days earlier,maybe was two weeks early.
Like Todd, you big dummy.
You should never be surprised
she told you like, hey,I think I'm going to like,
I feel like I'm going to deliver.
(12:32):
I'm like,this is the first time we've done this.
I had a wedding scheduled.
Oh, Todd, what are you doing?
Why are you surprised that life happens?
Yeah.
And in those times, that'swhat I felt like.
I got behind it.
I got the defensive. I'm like, man,this is a fair.
They get the jump ball every time.
When that clearly is not true.
(12:53):
So that's what
if you can begin managing your business,managing your employees that way,
that you are not surprised by situationsthat happen.
You should not be surprisedif you have a down month.
Yeah it happens. It's business.
You should not be surprisedwhen you have an up month.
- Yeah, Craig is your thought.- Let me jump in.
(13:15):
We we've had some great YouTubecomments lately in, in questions
and things like that.
And I forget who it was.
Forgive me if you're watching listening.
But they made a comment
how they just started their real estatemedia business during the winter,
and they were getting a little downbecause it's been tough.
Things are slow. Right.
So they they watched one of our episodeswhere we talked about how it is slower
(13:38):
during this time it'll be heating up
and how much of an encouragementthat was to them.
But yeah, don't be surprisedabout the cycle of business.
Now, obviously for someone new,you might not have thought about that.
But that just made methink about that comment
that somebody leftthat they were encouraged to hear.
Things are going to turn around.
Spring market heats up.
They'll be getting more phone calls.
(13:59):
Yeah.
but yeah,don't be surprised by a down month.
And yeah.
And when you're not surprised bywhat what you don't do is
you don't emotionally reactand you plan for it.
Right.
And when you plan
for things, then you can set yourself upbetter.
You still might have a down month,but you're not emotional.
It takes the fight or flight reactionout of your brain.
(14:23):
And I know as I look back
over the course of years, times I'm like,I wish I could redo.
That moment is when I was emotional
Yeah.
And so much goes into thatmanaging your mental your mental state.
Can can I share a personal story.
Yeah.
Any anything mentally personally CraigI we just gives me opportunity to.
(14:43):
No I'm I'm kidding.
Yes. Please do. Thank you
it's gonna be a moment of transparency.
we try to be pretty transparent here
in the last two weeks.
I kind of hit a crisispoint in my, my mental health.
You might not tell from how I amright now, but it's partially
because I've made some changesto help make that happen.
(15:06):
So we have a lot of stressors as businessowners, right?
Is, is business leaders
that, like Todd just said,you shouldn't be surprised by anything?
Well,part of that is, is our physical health
that I just want to do a PSA here,a public service announcement,
make sure that you're carefulwith your health,
making sure that you're getting exercise,and exercise releases endorphins,
(15:30):
which of course is our feelgood hormones, chemicals.
But the way we eat as well.
Now I'm diabetic, all right.
It's it's hereditaryand my dad's side of the family,
but also partially
because I didn't take care of myself withthe way I was eating in, in years past.
And it's it caught up with me.
So for like the past month or so, Todd,I've not been eating the
(15:50):
way I should as a diabetic.
yeah, which is dangerous.
It is, it is.
And I let things pile up on me.
Just.
I had a stressful situation with a client
that actually,he was really cool about things.
I was stressing about itmore and things just kind of hit a head.
And I realizedall of a sudden in the shouldn't
(16:12):
have been a surprise to mebecause I've learned this in the past,
I just quit thinking about it,how it affects my mental health
when I'm eating too many sugars,carbs, things like that.
I get into a depressive state and I.
I overthink thingsand I stress about things,
and I'm not clear headedand I let things surprise me.
(16:35):
So I just want to do,like I said, a health PSA.
To those of you that are businessowners or leaders in your company,
taking
care of yourself physically, both exerciseand what you're eating.
Critically important to making sureyou don't let yourself like I did.
And this these last two weeks,get into a state of mind
that's unhealthy for you yourself,but also everybody around you
(16:57):
because it'll affect your family.
It'll affect your coworkers.
Take care of yourself.
Make sure you're eating clean as you can.
I mean, yeah,you can splurge now and then, but
if you stress eatand I stress eat sometimes,
it's going to be a downward spiral.
So, yeah, just thinking about all of thatwith you talking about surprises.
You know, Todd,it shouldn't have been a surprise to me.
(17:19):
I know this about myself.
I've learned that in the last year or twothat when I don't eat right
mentally, I get into a fogand and not a great place.
So I just want to encouragesomebody out there that might be dealing
with that, too.
Hold me accountable.
Feel free to drop me an email craig@wowvideotours.com.
(17:39):
Craig how you doing with your eatingtaking care of yourself?
I'm going to open myself up there and thenI can do the same for you if you want.
yeah. Oh,thank you for that Craig. And that is.
Yeah, that is, that is super important totake care of yourself to understand that.
And it and also one thing that it doesit's a it's a continuous spiral down.
It is because the the eating bad leadsto not feeling great, which leads
(18:03):
to eating even worse to continuingto going and going and going and going. So
but what helpsis having healthy people around you.
So I let my leadership know.
I did talk to Todd about this.
This is actually probably surpriseto Todd, me talking about this,
but I talked to I talked to Chris,Steve and Jess, who are my
my three supervisorson the sales and operations side,
(18:24):
and they immediately respondedwith encouragement.
Hey, if you ever need to talk,just call us.
I mean, awesome leadership team.
So have people around youthat you can talk to
and just be honest with it,aren't going to judge you,
but are going to support you and helpyou get back on to a healthy track.
I so love Craig thatyou reached out to someone
I had to
(18:44):
Yeah.
And I and I think, I thinkif you're out there thinking you can do it
all, I've had this thought before,I just I'm going to do it.
I'm going to push through.
Please don't.
Yeah. You just as capable as you all are.
And you all are a very capable group.
Remember, you're a group of overachievers,
but do not try to do it alone.
(19:07):
It is just not worth it.
Depend on others, confide in others.
It doesn't have to be everybody.You know. We're not.
We're not asking you to just share itwith the world if you want to.
That's great.
And if that's the form of accountabilityyou want, do it.
You know,I actually I love that, Craig shares,
I love that I love sharing with all of you
because I want you all to hold meaccountable.
(19:27):
If I say I'm going to do something like,I'm going to do what I want to,
I want to make sure I hear from you guyslike, hey, is that update coming out?
Like,yeah, it's coming out March 5th. Yeah.
So use the form of accountabilitythat works for you.
But if you're an introvert,I talked to one.
I had a great, a couple of emailswith an individual this weekend.
I was proud that he reached out.
Said long time listener.
(19:47):
You know,I just hired my first photographer.
I'm trying to figure out what I dowith my time now, okay?
I, I, you know, he even used the ideaof, like, hey, I'm not a,
shiny, 100k per month success story.
If that's,you know, I know who this individual is.
But if you have that same idea, you know,there are those stories out there
(20:08):
and there's those storieswhere, you know, they're doing
100K or 50K a monthand just use those as inspiration.
It doesn't mean it has to be you.
You know, I even look at my businessand I know the businesses out there
that are larger than us.
And when I when I know what revenuewe do monthly and what they do
monthly, I'm like, man,I feel pretty insignificant.
(20:30):
And then I throw that away.
I completely throw it away because I'mlike, look at this cool thing we have.
Our employees are happy.
Like, we look at these coolthings that happened this month.
We hired new individuals, six new photog,whatever it may be.
And I try not to give numbersbecause I'm not.
I don't want you to compare anythingto what I've done.
I've taken a very long time to do this.
21 years.
If you all work at 21 years,you're going to be way bigger than me.
(20:53):
So don't compare.
Use it as inspiration,but it's compartmentalizing
some of those thingsand understanding that.
You got to define success for yourself.
Yes, yes.
And that is so important as a businessowner, I hope you have done that.
If you haven't or if it needs revamp,go back and find that page
in your notebookwhere you wrote down, you know your goals
(21:14):
and you wrote down what success meansor have that conversation again.
Pull up a whiteboard.
Have conversation with your spouse.
You knowthat that's a, that's a team thing there.
But yeah please do follow that.
Yeah.
All right.
We dug in deep right off the bat here.
We sure did.
Let's let's rewind a little bitand talk about Spiro updates
(21:34):
because there's some huge things coming.
Well some exciting things.
So what what do we have coming up?
Very shortly here
Yes, Craig.
Thankyou. We have some good ones coming up.
So this is supposed to launch March 5th,which is probably today
that you're listening to this.
Or maybe it's already happened,but March 5th of 25.
We have some good things coming.
(21:56):
We have our landing pagesgoing to launch for you.
So a landing page is a collection of orderpages.
It's where you can send your clientsto the appropriate order page.
And a quick example is your residentialversus commercial versus
Airbnb order page.
So that will be coming.
You can set that up.
(22:17):
You can put your branding on it.
You can control how it looks.
So excited about landing pages.
Excuse me.
A second thing coming upis the ability to delete
some recordsthat you previously could not delete.
You can only deactivate.
So this is photographers, admins,
(22:37):
editors, service areas and servicecategories.
Off the top of my head.
There might be one more,
but many of you have said, hey,I just want to clean up these list.
And we put that update in so you don't
you can actually delete themand remove them visually from that list.
So, thank you for that feedback. There.
Photographer working hours.
(22:58):
Craig.
So right now,the way that you set your working hours,
if you say you begin working on Mondaysat 8 a.m., your first appointment time,
if you're using automatic scheduling,won't be at 8 a.m..
It will be at 8 a.m.
plus the drive time, right?
Which we love this, this.
I still think thatthis is the best way to do it because,
(23:22):
you can count on that.
You're going to leave your houseno earlier than 8 a.m.,
but we've heard from enough of youthat want to do it
a different way,so we're open to changing it.
You will now be able to change thatmethod to say,
I want my first appointmentto be at 8 a.m., the start time.
And then also you have optionsfor the end time.
(23:42):
So it's not when you arrive home,it could be
when your begin your first appointment,when you end your first.
I'm sorrywhen you begin your last appointment,
when you arrive homeor when you start your last appointment.
So those options are coming in hereso that you can get it
exactly how you'd like it to do another,
(24:03):
another big one we have coming upis photographer service areas.
So right now you have a service areathat is attached to many photographers.
So for us at our companytypically we cover
we do a radius from the city center.
So for Craig, you know, we cover 30 milesfrom the center of Toledo.
(24:23):
And then we have tiers that step out up
to 50 milesand there's a service fee attached to it.
And then we add to that service area
all the photographersthat cover that service area.
Some ofyou say, hey, I just let my photographers
tell me where they're going to coverand the fees that they charge.
And I just pass that on to my client.
(24:46):
And you will now be able to do that.
So you'll be able to set serviceareas on a photographer only
and in the same city,overlapping service areas,
you could charge different service, tripfees to your agent
and that could go directlyto your photographer.
So that is a change coming up nowby default,
(25:08):
all of these new changes that I'm tellingyou will not be toggled on.
So if you're like, hey,I'm not going to use any of these things,
just leave your system the way it is.
You have to explicitlygo in and make these changes.
Craig,I'm going to go quick here on these.
Just a couple more of these.
Sure.
Musicpay music options for the display page.
So we've had enough of you say, hey,can you put music on the property website?
(25:30):
Boom. It's done.
We have a, abilityto, we're going to be able
to translate the invoicesand the company portal.
So for our international users,
you have requested that a lot,and we get it done for you.
And then lastly, right nowinside the system,
when you have completed a job,your clients can
(25:51):
actually leave you a rating,and they're doing that.
We're going to give you a reportso you can see those in bulk.
So excited to bring all this to you here.
March 5th of 25.
Excellent a lot of great changes.
So a lot of great updatesand keep those coming.
Todd, real quick,if somebody wants to make a suggestion
on a feature that they'd like to seein the Spiro software,
(26:12):
what what's the best,easiest way for them to do that?
Yes.
If you get out a piece of paperand you write it down
and you mail it to the North Pole,that we're not just kidding.
No, no, that was mean.
I really do love your suggestionthat that was a complete joke.
Todd is feeling snarky today.
(26:33):
it's sunny today. I'm in a good mood.
It's Friday. I'msorry, y'all, please do not take that.
That was with joy.
That was with love inmy heart. As a joke. It was
our feedback.
ho ho ho
put that on your Christmas wish, kiddos.
Oh. Great.You guys just roast me for that one.
Please give me a hard time.
(26:54):
I give it right back to me, I enjoy it.
Yes, I do enjoy it.
Upper right hand corner.
Spiro,there's a feedback button. Click it.
It will take you to our feedback board.
And we've created that
this board based on you guysletting us know that we you wanted it.
So it's we want it because you want it.
And it does help us too.
Yeah.
So we want to know howyou want to use the system.
(27:18):
We want you to feel pride in the system,and we want you to feel like
it does what you need it to do.
So pleasesuggest on there and look at that board.
If you like another user's suggestion,upvote it.
The higher up it gets,the more likely we are to tackle that.
Update.
Oh, Craig, I've got one more thing.
(27:39):
Okay. And this is. Yeah. This is.
I can't give it.
All right. Now.
So you're all going to hate me.
But this is a tease.
I think we figured out a great solution
for you are for automated photo editing.
We are? Yes.
(28:00):
You know, there's beenthere's a lot of it out there.
We've been looking at a lot of it.
We've been looking at,
for years now, literally years.
And Jess, our head of ops at Wow, has done
a ton of testingwith a lot of different vendors.
And we feel we found one we really loveand we're vetting it a little bit more.
(28:22):
So hopefully we'll have something toyou coming very soon
where you can get like very quickturnaround time.
It's cheaper than what you're payingyour layer blended editors right now.
And it's literally thesame or better quality. So,
interesting
you know, kind of holdthat thought on you there.
Hopefully next weekwe'll have an announcement of your see it,
(28:44):
on our channels,but super excited about this.
We're excited about it.
Our real estate media companyI think this is a game changer.
Stay tuned.
More details to come.
All right, Todd, this week,we want to dive into some listener
and viewer questionsthat have come in and, some good stuff.
(29:05):
We we do this from time to time.
We always encourage you,if you've got a business related question
that you'd like to see addressed, please,you can leave, you know,
leave a comment on the YouTube channel,email us at hello@spiro.media.
We want to provide contentthat's really going to help your business.
You know, it'd be very temptingfor us to just blab every week,
but we wantgood pointed, focused intended.
(29:30):
Topics to
talk about intend your puns, you cowards.
That's that's a t shirt I'm going to get.
I'm going to wear that with pride.
Okay.
So we're going to dive in and,
and just answer some of these questionsthat might lead to other discussions.
But again, if you do have a question,leave a comment on the YouTube channel.
Or if you're listening, you can email us.
Hello@spiro.media. All right.
(29:53):
So Todd, I had
one of our, our viewers,reach out to me on Facebook. I,
we love connecting with you guys.
Facebook, whatever.Look us up. Well, friend.
Yeah, we have some great discussions.
But Nick reached out to me,and we've had an ongoing discussion.
Just some really good thingsthat he's been asking.
And I've shared some of my,my experience and and insight,
(30:17):
for what it's worth,you know, that in a in a dime
might get you a cupof coffee at McDonald's, but,
Nick, Nick asked.
He was listening.
I mean,
I gotta be honest, right?
I love it.
Nick said, hey, I was listeningto the most recent episode in two things
(30:39):
popped into my head, and this first onethat I thought was a good one.
He goes, number one.
I know knowing my why is important.
I read Simon Sinek is Sinek. Sinek.
Sinek.
Yeah. So I read his book on that too.
But what if my why
is selfish?
(31:02):
How do you sell that to people?
See, I'm
not going to go into the details,but he, he does it because he just
he finds the work enjoyable. But,
he ultimately in his
in his own opinion,his wife is just kind of selfish.
So, Todd, when I'm out there trying to win
(31:23):
some new clientsand they want to know why I do what I do,
and if I'm honest with myself, it'sjust because I'm selfish.
I want to make money.
I personally just enjoy the work,but nothing much beyond that.
How do you answer somebody like that?
Well, this, this.
So this is onethat I, I struggle with for a long time
(31:44):
because when I thought about my why,why did I start the business?
I mean, might and I don't thinkthat one's bad at all, Nick.
I feel like mine's bad.
I started mine because I want to makea lot of money doing it.
It's like, okay.
Yeah, yeah,I know I struggled, I struggled with this
thought for a long time.
I am motivated by money.
(32:04):
I think I shared thismaybe a year or so ago,
maybeI haven't talked about on the podcast,
but I began thinking about this andand this is
in a time where I was doinga lot of thought about business,
and the whys came up and goals came upand everything came back to me
like thinking I just do itbecause I can make money at it.
(32:25):
And I was like,you are a terrible person, Todd.
Like terriblelike, what is wrong with you?
Like, why don't you want to savesome mammals and,
you know, some ocean somewhere?
Some kids in a different country, like,what is wrong with you?
Seriously? And I,
(32:46):
I, sorry. Well, no problem here.
If you're not watching.
And I so I shared this.
So we're in a small group at church,and it's a group of three other couples,
and we we meet every other week and we eatand we share things like this,
you know, how's it going?
And I, I shared this,I'm like, I'm a terrible person.
(33:07):
I'm terrible.
Like, I'm motivate like money.
Like I always think, why would I dookay so I can make money in it.
Why would you do this thing?
Why did you start Spiro.
Oh, because I thinkI can make money at it, like.
Like you should just be puttinga hole somewhere. Todd
and I shared this and
I still, I still wish that
(33:28):
I had a better reason, but I think it'sconnecting some to some other reasons.
But my group share it with me.
Like that.
This is not a bad thing.
Like you have the ability to make moneyand you can impact others with that money.
True money by nature is not a bad thing,right?
(33:48):
It's you can use money in a bad wayand you can covet money, right?
But enough of it.
You, the love of.
Yes, exactly the love of money. Right.
But that's way different than making money
and not,
you know, being so attached to itthat you love it.
And that is what propels you.
(34:11):
But then what do you do with your money?
So I think,
you know, for me, that being I was like,okay, that's great.
You know, thanks for trying to
I don't expect you guysto not make me feel good at this.
You know, is a small group and, and and
but I begin viewing itfrom that perspective of
how can I impact people now
(34:33):
with the ability to do this?
Or what does this allow me to do?
Okay, so,
being in business for 21 years, and again,I don't want you to feel the pressure of
like, hey, I, I can't do this right now,but I've done this for 21 years.
I've been very blessed.
And I had the ability to coach more.
(34:53):
So I, and let me connect the dots herepretty quickly here.
And then Craig,I'll get your thoughts on this.
But because we've been successful
financially and we've
grown a team that we can
again motivate and make successfuland try to fulfill their goals.
If it's money, time,whatever it is related,
(35:16):
then I have the abilitybecause I have a great team
and we've poured back into our clientsas well, that I can take less time
working during this season of life,that I can go impact
third, fourth, fifth,sixth and seventh graders.
Yeah, as a coach and hopefully show them.
(35:38):
Just a different way of living thatthat's my goal.
My goal as a Christian as well is like,can they see
can they see Christ in mewhen I'm with them?
So I knowthat's a little stretch for money,
but it allow me to dothings allowed me to, you know,
pay the team like we were happywe were able to give raises.
We are to give some, profit share.
(36:00):
We are able to give things to some people.
This yearwe're able to hire more or last year
and all of that moves everyone along.
So it's just maybe a little bitof a change in perspective.
I still wish though, Craig.
I was like, hey,
I'm really motivated to go buildbuild schools in some other country.
I'm just really not.
I'm motivatedto impact these kids that I coach.
(36:21):
I'm motivated. Like,I love talking to all of you.
Like many of you, email me like I'll havea call with you like I'm not advertised.
I'm gonna have a call for everyone.
Like all these group calls,like you all might say,
Todd, you create this contentbecause you want to sell Spiro.
And that's kind of how we started it.
But still, we're we do thisbecause we want to help you.
(36:42):
Yeah, and you're not forced to use Spiro.
If you're listening to us right now,we we give this all to you.
Like I, Craig and I share everything we doall of the years of experience
we share it with you openlybecause we just enjoy hearing
and seeing you guys grow and you guysaccomplishing your goals
(37:02):
I think I've shared
I'm kind of the opposite of Todd,where most of my career I was actually.
You're a good person, Craig.
You're a good person too.
It's not what I was saying.
No, but most
-now, how do I move forward for that- just say yes?
I am Todd.
No I'm not.
Deep down we all have some dark,deep stuff right now.
(37:26):
But for the grace of God, you know?
Anyway, now we're.
Yeah, we're going to get off.
No, but most, most of my career,
I did work in nonprofitsbecause I, I am primarily motivated,
motivated by serving peoplenow works really well doing what I'm doing
because I've found somethingthat I truly believe is of value
(37:47):
to other people,
both the realtors that we're serving,but ultimately to the sellers
to help them sell their home.
I mean, that's a needed thing.
So we're providing a service that I truly,deep down, believe
is helping people,and it's something I enjoy doing.
So, Nick, you know, Nick shared he justenjoys doing this and he's making money.
That's okay.
(38:08):
But I
think transitioning from thethe personal selfish,
which hehe alluded to the selfish reason for
don't stop there.
Go ahead.
And yeah, look at what motivates meand then tie that in as well.
So yeah, it might ultimately bea selfish thing initially
(38:30):
that, you know, I worked like I said,I worked in nonprofit.
I never made a ton of I did not makea ton of money most of my career
because you don't in nonprofit,you're not in the nonprofit world
primarily to make money.
It's because you do want to serve.
But I have a familyto take care of as well.
So I do need to make a decentamount of money.
Did care for the peoplethat God has entrusted me with, right?
(38:53):
So that that is a somewhat
selfish reasonI want to make better money,
but also find something doing thatI enjoyed that I know
is going to benefit other people.
And even if you're not there yet,hey, I'm not there that I really want
to help your business grow.I'm doing it because of this.
Yeah, ultimately, just keep
(39:14):
thinking through it and find whatreally motivates you and tie it in.
Just make make that tie in.
- I don't know if it made sense but- no 100% of you just make sure it's always
that you're coming from a place of lovein your heart.
If it's not all authentic,then you might want to reevaluate
and find the authenticityand your clients will see it out.
(39:35):
Your employees will see it out.
If it's your friend, not authentic,it just won't work right.
You can force it so long,
but it's you're going to hit a pointsomewhere where you get enough friction
that it's notgoing to work for you, right?
Yep. So okay, so there was listenerquestion number one.
Yeah, thanks Nick for that
And yeah I appreciate that.
(39:55):
Hopefully that that answered things.
All right. Second question. Todd.
Annette, left a comment on our episodewith Colleen Kydd
and, asked about the part 107 training.
She said,I assume that you pay your photographers
to do that trainingand to to take that test.
(40:16):
Is that the case? Todd?
So I'll give two answers,because some of you have employees
as photographers,and some of you have subcontractors
at the end of the day, both
should be compensated for doing this.
I, I think it's tough to ask peopleto do something for free.
(40:39):
Hey, especially your employees, 100%.
If they are studying, thenthey should be paid for that time, right?
The other the other way you could do itis you could just bonus them
when they get that service certification.
Okay.
So if you if you're like, hey,I don't really want to take into account,
is this person a fast learneror a slow learner?
(41:01):
You could just say, hey, when you pass it,you're going to get 500 bucks.
And that will go towards,
the time you put into it.
That will go towards the test.
Like maybe you make them pay for the test
so you can decide what you want to dothere.
I do think you should compensate peoplefor their time.
Right. From a contractor standpoint,
(41:23):
we then
so they have the abilityto make more money.
Of course.
And that's the other thingthat they're going to do,
both employees and subcontractors,they're going to make more money
when they have drone.
But we do pay out a, a bonus
when and if that photographer has a drone.
And, Craig, I believe we do this.
(41:43):
Like if they come to usand they have that license already,
they're just going to get that.
Like we don't careif they have to take it or not.
It's just the ability of havingthat license and being certified.
That's what we care about.
That enables all of usto get further along in the process.
Yeah, exactly.
So Annette,hopefully that answered your question.
(42:06):
Another one here, Todd.
And we might be able to answer this,I don't know.
They asked,do we spiro/wow video tours,
have training available for businessesto provide
to their photographers,like a training program?
Is that available outside of our company?
(42:26):
I'm so glad you asked this.
I don't have a great answer for youright now with getting it to you.
We have and and this is
maybe being me being a little conceited,but I'm not trying to be conceited.
I feel as though we have createdthe best training resource.
at Wow for our photographers,
(42:47):
the guide, the curriculum,
the layout of it, the levels,the video series.
Like. I feel like it's.
I feel like we're doing somethingpretty unique.
And again,I'm sorry, I'm tooting my own horn, but
and again,we've worked on it for 21 years.
And the person that createdit was a, a teacher by trade,
(43:09):
and he's probably shot more housesthan anyone out there as well.
So putting a teacher and a photographer,a videographer,
and then someone who has the brainto organize all of it.
And we'reand we're improving that right now.
So we just put six new people through it,and we're changing and adapting
and we're building some questionnairesand things in there.
We have been discussing this at Wow,just to be transparent
(43:29):
of how we can get it to all of you,how we can kind of white label
it a little bit, how we can make you
put your own spin on it and allow youto put a photographer through it,
or even just say, hey, wow, I,I need to keep shooting and doing this.
Can you guide my photographer through it?
Can you review their practice sets?
Can you let me know their progressionof skills?
(43:50):
All the mini checklist and, and, testthat we have in there.
So we're thinking of howwe have a done for you where we manage it.
And then at the end of the period,we say, hey, this person's ready to go.
They're certified in these levels,they're still working on these.
Or we just say, hey,here's how you can use it.
You manage the progression of skills.
Excellent.
(44:11):
So yes, we have training not quiteavailable yet for public concern.
I have bad sound effect there.
Where's my sound effects at?
Did I just make a jokeand not even realize it?
Well,it was like what the sound effect is like.
Yeah, we have it, but you can't.You can't have it.
Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right,
all right.
(44:31):
Well, Todd,I know there was not a ton of questions,
but we did want to address thoseand spend some time talking about it,
but also encourage youin other ways of this episode.
Oh, Craig,I have another question for you.
- I have a question for you.- Okay, all right.
Well, I'm on the spot now.
Yeah.
I mean, always, you know me,I love doing this.
- Of course you do.- I'm trying to think I have.
(44:53):
I have a real question. I'mtrying to think of.
I can think of a zinger or a question realquick, but it's not coming in my head.
Okay, great.
Great entertainment value. There
let’s make Craig Turn red
CraigCraig and I are coming to you guys live
from your local bar here soon.
And we're going to be touring.
(45:13):
That'll be a trip.
Should I get a bar? Can you imagine?
Right. Isn't that great, Craig?
I mean, that's like Vegas or a bar,like you're.
I was just thinking Vegas.
Oh my gosh.
Okay, y'all, that's really not happening.
Right. But it's funny to laugh at.
We are going to try to get Craig outto Vegas
(45:34):
or to whereverthe conference is at this year.
But Craig,
I love asking this because you havethis is like the best feedback
we get are the answers
you give, and I think it's so relatableand you're so good at giving advice here.
What anythingnotable from your week this week?
Because I think our,
our listeners should be thinking like,if you're doing it again,
your position is a hybrid roleand shooting
(45:55):
and selling, I think that's so relevantto our listener.
So what what happened?
Well, it wasI guess technically it was last week.
Now that I think about itwasn't necessarily this week,
but it's a recent development.
Actually, overthe course of the last couple of months.
Oh, yeah, it'sbeen a little bit of a journey. So,
(46:15):
we just, Wow video tours just became,
a member of the,
National Associationof Real Estate Brokers,
they're known as realtists,not realtors, realtists.
And I learned about, the Greater
Toledo RealtistAssociation, from one of our clients
(46:36):
that is a minority owned,brokerage here in Toledo.
It's one of,I believe, three in in Toledo.
And, it's a realtor and realtist that I'veworked with for a couple of years.
She was at two other brokerages, before.
But how has started her own,her own brokerage.
(46:56):
And in doing a sit down meeting with himand getting to know the entire team,
one of their,
one of their realtist,one of the realtors in the brokerage,
told me about thisGreater Toledo Realtist association.
I had never heard of it, and I yeah, I itI yeah.
And the parent
(47:17):
organizationbeing the National Association
of Real Estate Brokers, which is different
than the National Associationof Realtors. NAR.
Okay. Right.
So I'm learning about this organizationthat I've never heard about.
And what it is is
it is a professional real estateassociation of, of black in
(47:37):
and minority realtors or realtists,realtists.
Right. That started back in 1947.
And there's a whole historyand, and I want to go too deep into it.
But the whole, purpose and mission of this
organizationis to promote democracy and housing.
(47:58):
Right?
There is there is a,
a generational wealth gap between,
let's say, white Americans
and black Americans and minority,you know, minorities in our country.
And there's a whole historyof the challenges
that black Americans faced in, owningproperties,
(48:18):
buying in, quote unquote, whiteneighborhoods, things like that.
And this the, the organizationthat developed to answer
this was the National Associationof Real Estate Brokers.
So you can look them up,look them up on, on the web.
It's, but the website is a nareb.com
(48:40):
and if you go to the Who We Are page,you'll get the whole history.
I don't want to spend the whole episodetalking about the history,
but they saidyou really ought to become a member.
We don't have a photographer in the groupas an affiliate.
And I'm like, okay.
But the primary reason they really caughtme was really the mission.
So let me dive a little bit,go into some personal my family,
(49:04):
we are an adoptive family.
My two boys are adopted.
My oldest, Evan, he's 20 years old now.
He isbiracial, African-American and white.
And then my youngest is, Zeke is.
He's going to be ten short very shortly.
He is black.
All right.
So I have a vested interestbecause of my boys
(49:27):
in seeing them grow
develop wealth, generational wealththat they can pass down to their families,
and for them to not have to face
any sort of discriminationor anything like that.
So when they told me about thisorganization, I was very intrigued,
mainly because my family and Ihad a vested interest because of my boys.
(49:48):
Right now, professionally speaking,obviously, yes, this will provide
networking opportunities and maybebusiness is going to come out of this.
But they saidyou really ought to join. So,
over the last,
I think it's been about a month.
We did join.
I went to my first,general general meeting.
(50:11):
Yeah.
I think it was about a month ago in town.
I had a ball.
That's good.
Yeah.
Just a fun group of people like to laughand I was blown away
by a couple of things.
Number one, the the guest speakerthat they had was the superintendent
of Toledo Public Schools,Doctor Romulus Duran, who I've always
heard amazing things about, butI've never heard this guy speak before.
(50:33):
And he, oh my gosh, you want to talk abouta motivational speaker
and a guy with a vision?
He is turned Toledo Public Schools aroundand I just I was captivated
by his speech and everythingthat's happening in Toledo public schools.
And part of part of what they're doingis, providing
vocational training for students,and they're going to be providing
(50:55):
they're talking about,
well, maybe I shouldn't talk aboutI can't remember if I can talk.
Well, no is in the blade.
It was in the Toledo Blade.
They want to provide studentstraining on how to become realtors
to get into the real estate industry.
I'm like, man, what a great,you know, and working with the Greater
Toledo Realtist Associationand possibly doing that,
(51:17):
just so many cool things happening.
I'm like, this is a great organizationto be a part of.
And, something I can really get behind.
And that Wow video tours can get behind,
so did that
what, to a new member orientation and, so,
I’m in this organization on behalf of, well,now and I'm thinking, okay,
(51:38):
I'm just going to kind of flyunder the radar for a little bit,
get to know people,you know, get get my feet under me.
Yeah.
I mean, that's your introvertin this, right?
I mean, it's like, hey, to hang.
- Okay.- You got you learn what I can.
I'm here to learn, you know, because I'mhearing things that I've not heard
because of the circles I'm in. Right.
And so they tell usabout the various committees,
(51:59):
and one of the committeesis the public relations Committee,
all about promoting,communicating the message
of the organizationand how bad they need help.
Because there's only two peopleon this committee right now. And I'm like,
I'm a media guy.
That's my whole background is PR, I,
I know, I know how to write public serviceannouncements.
(52:20):
I know how to contact in the mediaregulator because that was my my world
for almost 20 years.
So I see those of younot here not watching on YouTube.
My arm kind of started sticking up.
And was your other armpulling it down at the same time?
Yeah, right.
So and all of a sudden two sets of eyes,just their heads
(52:41):
jerked around that they're like, Craig,yes, you're perfect for that committee.
And they lit up and I'm like,what have I got myself into?
I was, I was kind of be quiet.
Just so I got sucked into the public
relations, committee for the GreaterToledo Realtist Association.
To be honest, I'm really excitedbecause this this is a mission
(53:02):
I can really get behind, and help promote.
And, those of youin, you know, in other markets,
I'd encourageyou check out this organization.
It's a great, great mission and somethingI really believe we should be supporting
as real estate media professionals,in promoting democracy and housing.
So, check that out again.
The website is a nareb.com, and
(53:27):
I Google there'slocal chapters all over the country.
So yeah.
So that was my my kind of big eventfor the last two weeks or so.
I'm really excited to be part of this.
That's exciting.
You know that's a great opportunityI think Joy on our team
that in Charlotteshe she mentioned that she is a part of
(53:47):
you know that that organization as well.
So, you know, great opportunity.
I have no clue.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat the real estate industry is so large.
Yeah, that, you know, there is,but this is a group in 1948,
- you said Craig,- 1947 47.
Yeah.
It's been around for a long time,but it you know, what was really the
(54:10):
the most impactful thingwas that that new member orientation.
Todd.
You know, I obviously I got in there,but people started
talking to me a little bit moreand I told them
my intent was just to be kind of quietand listen and learn because
I was
I was the minority in that room.
(54:32):
And I shared with them, I said honestly
I was just here to listen and learnbecause and I just said that to them.
I said for the first time in my life,
I'm in the minority,
in an organization, in a room, and I
obviously I've heard some things before,I've learned some things,
but I want to be quietand just kind of listen and learn
(54:54):
and see how can we contribute,how can we be a value?
What can I learn from this experienceand from other people's experiences
in life, particularly in thethe area of homeownership,
and wealth generation and passingthat wealth on to new generations.
So, I'm like I said,yeah, I'm, I'm really excited
to be a part of this and, and to learn and
(55:16):
I when I walked in,
one of the realtist there looked up Craig,
and this is someone I had done one shootfor before, and, and, he kind of lost
contact with her, and, and,she's like, I've got listings for you.
I'm so sorry I haven't contacted you.
It was out of sight, out of mind.
I started using someone else,and I didn't even say anything.
(55:39):
I'm like,okay, that that that's great. But.
And and she laterthen told me at the end of the meeting,
you are going to get so much businessfrom this. I said, you know what?
I I'm thankful for that.I'm grateful for that.
But again, I'm here to learn primarilyand and just be of benefit however I can.
So yes, let's just be real.
(55:59):
There are businessnetworking opportunities,
but if you're going to join,be authentic about it.
And and have a real again why of whyyou would want to be part of that group.
Make sure your your motives are good.
I love that, Craig.
And it's just, you know, serve firstwithout expecting anything back.
Right. You know, that truly is that.
I love how it's so aligned with,you know, with your,
(56:21):
you know, your boys and wanting to get in.
I love the ideaof being the minority in a room.
I think there's somethingthere's some character building there
and some learning.
Yeah, I know when wewe played summer basketball,
and this was the first year that my sonplayed it, we were the same minor.
We were the minority in the room.
And and you know,Boston was in third grade at the time
and it didn't really knowanything different,
(56:41):
but started to pick up is like,you know, I'm like, no, this is good.
This is great for us.
And oh my goodness, the relationshipswe made out of those families,
we still see them.
I still give them a hug when we're in gyms
and we we go to different schools now,but we still see each other.
All these events,
breaking down those walls and yeah, it'sjust incredible.
And so much can be learned when we go.
And I think you said it well, Craig, like,let me learn from you.
(57:02):
Let me get it. Not what I've heard.
That can be dangerous.
Right. The telephone game.
But, such a great opportunity there.
And, a cool thing to get involved with.
Yeah, for sure.
All right,
well, you got anything else, Todd
Craig, I think that is it for today.
We, Well, we're that we said.We said you all.
(57:23):
Hey, this is going to be a short one.So it was.
And hopefully this was a valueyou to. Yeah.
If you have questions,send them in and we'd love to answer them.
Keep them coming.We're here to support you guys.
So pleaselet us know how we can help
for sure.
Againyou can email us hello@spiro.media.
Or if you're watching on YouTube,feel free to leave a comment.
We do try to keep track of those.
(57:43):
Generally it's me checkingthose and I'll pass things on.
On to Todd if needed.
But I'm out shooting full time as wellin a meeting with clients.
So if we don't get to your questionor we missed something right away.
You can email us,and and that will get to us even quicker.
But, yeah, we would love to hear from you.
So, guys, thanks for your your attention.
(58:06):
We do appreciate that.We don't take it for granted.
We know you're busy, so thank youfor taking time to watch and or listen.
And, you have a great week.
Make sure you take time to be thankfulfor the blessings in your life.
And make sure you takea breath. Have a great week.
Thank you for joining usfor the Spiro Podcast,
managing your real estate, photographyand videography business.
This is a production of Spiroand Wow video tours.
(58:30):
You can find out more about Spirois Real Estate Media Business management
software at our website, Spiro.media.
Coming up on this episodeof The Spiro podcast.
(00:04):
I started mine because I want to makea lot of money doing it.
I still wish that
I had a better reason, but I think it'sconnecting some to some other reasons.
This is not a bad thing.
Like you have the ability to make moneyand you can impact others with that money.
I begin viewing itfrom that perspective of
how can I impact people now
(00:26):
with the ability to do this?
or what this is allow me to do
Welcome to the Spiro Podcast.
Managing your real estate, photographyand videography business
with your hosts, Todd, Kevin Mackie
and Craig Martin.
Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,
(00:46):
managing your real estate, photographyand videography business.
Spiro is a software platform is designedto help you run and manage and,
you know, take care of your everydayreal estate media business,
but ultimately really to help itgrow and scale as well.
I'm Craig Magrum,and welcome back to another podcast.
If you're, joining us again,if you're a new listener or viewer,
(01:08):
we just want to welcomeyou and, give you a brief explanation.
The Spiro podcast is really all about
helping you build a solid real estatemedia business.
We've said this before in past episodes.
There's tons of great materials out there.
On the creative side of what we dois real estate media professionals.
But we really wanted to dive in intohow to run just a good, solid business
(01:31):
and how to help you.
Really like, like we said before,grow the business.
So welcome back.
Let me introduce our, our,
podcast co-host,and Spiro owner and founder, Todd Kivimaki
it's it's, right around the corner.
Todd. Right around the corner.
- Spring is knocking on the door,- It sure is.
(01:52):
You know, we are getting close to spring,
which translates to busy seasonfor many of us.
And, you know, maybe a change of pace.
I was talking to a group,
yesterday just about the idea of.
You don't have many weeks left.
If you want to get somethingdone, it's got to be here soon.
(02:13):
Because if especiallyif you still do a lot of shooting,
you, you don't have much time.
And even if you don't doa lot of shooting,
your abilityto schedule appointments with clients
is going to drastically go downhillbecause your clients are going
to be in busy season.
So a little bit of a change in mindsethere.
You know, connecting everythingback to the business of
(02:35):
and looking at that strategically,you know, over the course of 20 years
21 years this is year 21 for me.
You know, you just start to pick upon those little things.
So just a quick reminder.Many of you know it.
But if you want to get something done,
you better call that agentif you want to get in front of them.
Because in about two or 3 or 4 weeks,they're like, sorry, I can't talk
- until November- right
(02:56):
And that's exactly what I'm dealing withright now.
Todd, you know,
I've got the dual role of businessdevelopment specialist for for my market,
but also the main photographerfor my, my market.
And I'm basically had to tell some agents,hey, if we're going to meet,
we've got to do itreally in the next two weeks or so,
because once the floodgates open, I'mgoing to be busy shooting.
So I'd like to try and getthose those face to face meetings done
(03:20):
during that slower period.
But and yeah, once spring market kicksin, at least for the northern hemisphere
here, those of you
watching Down Under or listening DownUnder, obviously, you know, different,
different time of year for you.
But yeah, we're going to be ramping uppretty quick.
I've had a lot of agents in our market
say I've got a lot of thingsin the pipeline.
It's been a slow February,but it's going to be coming.
(03:40):
It sure is.
You know one thing and this may be justjump right into our to a first topic here,
but as a business owner,I feel pretty strongly that
you should look at a year long calendar.
I, I have a coach that he hadtaught this technique and I have,
I have a 12 month calendar up on my wallover here to my right.
(04:02):
And it's a, it's an erasable calendar.
So, it has Januarythrough December and months
and this is probably, I don't know, 3.5ftby maybe four feet by three feet.
And I got it on the Amazonand it comes to you
and it comes with, weterase markers and dry erase marker.
So wet eraseis where you write the days of the,
(04:27):
of the week in there.
And then you have to use a wet ragto get rid of those
for the next year,and you have to rewrite them.
But it's just nice
because you can look aheadand you can see because time compacts.
And as you get into business and, and justgetting older, I don't know what it is.
I, had to figure it all out yet,but I'm just going to go faster.
(04:49):
And things that useand the amount of time that you think
you have now, you're going to look backand be like, wow, I had so much time.
I think being able to understand that
you, you ultimately control your time.
And when you feel likeyou are in control of your time,
at least that'swhen I feel like I'm more productive.
- I don't know about you, Craig.- Yeah, for sure.
(05:10):
If if you don't manage your time,somebody else will do it for you.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh,I love that, Craig.
If you don't manage your time,somebody else will do it for you. Yes.
And they don't care about your time.
Right.
The people that will do it for you,they care about their time.
So your time's going to be taken up.
Oh, I love that, Craig.
Just great to caveat on that.
If you if you steal that from meyou're stealing twice.
(05:32):
Okay.
Well same thing with everythingI say
At least all of the intelligent thingsI say, because I don't know
that I have the abilityto come up with those, but.
Yeah.
Yeah. No, I love that idea.
Yeah. So go get it.
Go ahead.
You had a.
Oh, no, I was just going to saymake sure you go back an episode
or two as well,because we talk about time management and.
(05:54):
Yeah, well, all of thatand how critically important it is.
So make sure you watchand listen to those episodes.
Yeah.
One more thing that I was going to mentionabout the calendar is,
you know, just looking ahead,you should have, this is just a quick tip.
And again, I this you're hearing this fromnot this is not me.
This is hearing it from a coachthat coaches this Austin Cheviron.
(06:16):
You need to write on that calendaror your personal items first,
like the first thing that you're supposedto write on the calendar, right?
The birthdays of your family.
You know it.
Take the day.Take your wife's birthday off.
Take your kid's birthdays off.
Take your birthday off.
Okay.
Write those on their anniversaryor whatever else is important in there.
(06:38):
And then you need to go through
and you need to look atwhat else do I need to write off on here?
Look at November and December right now.
You don't want to be surprisedcome November
when you stack it too closeand you take two days off for Christmas.
Yeah, it's.
And then you feel burnout and you're like,why am I working so hard?
And then what you going to dois you make a dumb purchase decision
(07:01):
because you feel like you should buysomething big because you work so hard.
And I'm not saying you should not,but you should never try
to justify your work by a purchase.
And maybe that'sfor another podcast crate,
because that's getting pretty deep there.
Yeah, but you know,you don't want to get caught up in time.
You ultimately control your time.
(07:21):
If you want to take three weeksoff for Christmas, do it.
But plan it now right?
You know, Craig,I coached, I coached basketball,
I think many of you know, and and,I did an extra team this year.
So I typically have always runthe youth league.
So that's third, fourth, fifth and sixth.
So I've run the league and then also I'vecoached teams in the past.
(07:45):
I have two boys in the leagueand they're in separate age groups.
So I've coached two teamsin the last couple of years,
and I began coaching
a little bit older this year at seventhgrade,
and I loved yeah, I love my group of boys.
They were fabulous.
And one thing that we tried to teach them,Jimmy, my assistant coach and myself,
(08:05):
and he's a big proponent on this is
you should never be surprised.
you should neverbe surprised by something.
So let's let's take a let's take ananalogy of seventh grade basketball mind.
So y'all put your 13 year old brain
back in your head.
do I have to?
(08:30):
put your 13 year old brainback in your head
and I'm going to give you a real lifescenario that happen okay.
So in basketball,I'll just set this up a little bit.
in basketball,when you have two teams that have
a hand on the ballor two hands on the ball, like so,
if one person from each teamis grabbing the ball each time
(08:52):
and they're fighting for it,that's called a jump ball.
Okay?
So it's not who can rip it outthe hardest.
You know,they don't want kids getting hurt.
So it's like if two kids on opposite teamstouch the ball and have,
you know, possession of the ball, it'scalled jump ball.
And what that means they alternatewhich team gets the ball.
So team A is going to get the ballthe first time.
(09:13):
Then the next jump ball team Bis going to get the ball.
And there's some exceptions to thatlike at the start of the next quarter.
The next team that's supposed to getthe ball will take it out.
So it's always fair.
It's always fair.
It's it's A or B okay.
And there's actually things in the gymcalled the possession.
The possession arrowthat sits at the scores table.
(09:35):
That shows an arrowto who gets the next jump ball.
Okay.
Also they display this on the scoreboard.
Who has home and awaywho has the next possession.
So it's very clear and it's not that hard
to remember like oh they got itlast time we get it.
Okay.
So I literally had one of my best playerssay this to me.
(09:58):
So it was at a point in the gamewhere things were starting to go a little,
little hairy for us.
We have a very talented team,but a very emotional team.
And we get to the pointthat this individual gets frustrated
and the other team ties him up
and it's a jump ball is called okay.
(10:19):
Now jump ball is displayedon the scoreboard scores table.
And you have a fair amount of theseat a seventh grade game.
And in this
case ithappened to be the other team's ball.
So we lost possession.
It was a turnover okay.
When we began playingbad two and everything
in this individual's world compactedand felt like it was on his shoulders.
(10:43):
And he looked at me and said,
this is not fair.
They get the jump ball every time.
And so this is.
Yeah, yeah.
I went,
so I was like,just go back, run back on defense.
(11:03):
And we watched tape.
I rerecord the games and we watched tapeand like I said, hey, Silas, you know,
do you know what you said to me there?
Hey, he's like, man.
And he and he he kind of knew.
And like, I was like you said to me that
the game's unfair, that the other teamalways gets the jump ball. You
(11:27):
and youwere frustrated, like you had big emotion.
That's why I call big emotion.When you're young, you have big emotion.
I have big emotions sometimes, you know,and we're human.
It's natural to have big emotion
now.
This was two days laterthat we were watching film.
I said, what did that do for you?
That thought in your head, like, you know,that's not true.
(11:50):
You were surprised that
the jump ball was done.
The way the jump ball's done.
You know, it's like you should never besurprised in something.
So just mentally setting yourselfup, right.
You know, for business,you know, I can think back at times
that I was surprised.
I was surprised that we got busy.
(12:11):
I didn't manage my calendar well enough.
I'm like,oh crap. The phone started ringing.
Hey, I was surprised.
My wife delivered our first baby.
Our first son, 4 or 5 days earlier,maybe was two weeks early.
Like Todd, you big dummy.
You should never be surprised
she told you like, hey,I think I'm going to like,
I feel like I'm going to deliver.
(12:32):
I'm like,this is the first time we've done this.
I had a wedding scheduled.
Oh, Todd, what are you doing?
Why are you surprised that life happens?
Yeah.
And in those times, that'swhat I felt like.
I got behind it.
I got the defensive. I'm like, man,this is a fair.
They get the jump ball every time.
When that clearly is not true.
(12:53):
So that's what
if you can begin managing your business,managing your employees that way,
that you are not surprised by situationsthat happen.
You should not be surprisedif you have a down month.
Yeah it happens. It's business.
You should not be surprisedwhen you have an up month.
- Yeah, Craig is your thought.- Let me jump in.
(13:15):
We we've had some great YouTubecomments lately in, in questions
and things like that.
And I forget who it was.
Forgive me if you're watching listening.
But they made a comment
how they just started their real estatemedia business during the winter,
and they were getting a little downbecause it's been tough.
Things are slow. Right.
So they they watched one of our episodeswhere we talked about how it is slower
(13:38):
during this time it'll be heating up
and how much of an encouragementthat was to them.
But yeah, don't be surprisedabout the cycle of business.
Now, obviously for someone new,you might not have thought about that.
But that just made methink about that comment
that somebody leftthat they were encouraged to hear.
Things are going to turn around.
Spring market heats up.
They'll be getting more phone calls.
(13:59):
Yeah.
but yeah,don't be surprised by a down month.
And yeah.
And when you're not surprised bywhat what you don't do is
you don't emotionally reactand you plan for it.
Right.
And when you plan
for things, then you can set yourself upbetter.
You still might have a down month,but you're not emotional.
It takes the fight or flight reactionout of your brain.
(14:23):
And I know as I look back
over the course of years, times I'm like,I wish I could redo.
That moment is when I was emotional
Yeah.
And so much goes into thatmanaging your mental your mental state.
Can can I share a personal story.
Yeah.
Any anything mentally personally CraigI we just gives me opportunity to.
(14:43):
No I'm I'm kidding.
Yes. Please do. Thank you
it's gonna be a moment of transparency.
we try to be pretty transparent here
in the last two weeks.
I kind of hit a crisispoint in my, my mental health.
You might not tell from how I amright now, but it's partially
because I've made some changesto help make that happen.
(15:06):
So we have a lot of stressors as businessowners, right?
Is, is business leaders
that, like Todd just said,you shouldn't be surprised by anything?
Well,part of that is, is our physical health
that I just want to do a PSA here,a public service announcement,
make sure that you're carefulwith your health,
making sure that you're getting exercise,and exercise releases endorphins,
(15:30):
which of course is our feelgood hormones, chemicals.
But the way we eat as well.
Now I'm diabetic, all right.
It's it's hereditaryand my dad's side of the family,
but also partially
because I didn't take care of myself withthe way I was eating in, in years past.
And it's it caught up with me.
So for like the past month or so, Todd,I've not been eating the
(15:50):
way I should as a diabetic.
yeah, which is dangerous.
It is, it is.
And I let things pile up on me.
Just.
I had a stressful situation with a client
that actually,he was really cool about things.
I was stressing about itmore and things just kind of hit a head.
And I realizedall of a sudden in the shouldn't
(16:12):
have been a surprise to mebecause I've learned this in the past,
I just quit thinking about it,how it affects my mental health
when I'm eating too many sugars,carbs, things like that.
I get into a depressive state and I.
I overthink thingsand I stress about things,
and I'm not clear headedand I let things surprise me.
(16:35):
So I just want to do,like I said, a health PSA.
To those of you that are businessowners or leaders in your company,
taking
care of yourself physically, both exerciseand what you're eating.
Critically important to making sureyou don't let yourself like I did.
And this these last two weeks,get into a state of mind
that's unhealthy for you yourself,but also everybody around you
(16:57):
because it'll affect your family.
It'll affect your coworkers.
Take care of yourself.
Make sure you're eating clean as you can.
I mean, yeah,you can splurge now and then, but
if you stress eatand I stress eat sometimes,
it's going to be a downward spiral.
So, yeah, just thinking about all of thatwith you talking about surprises.
You know, Todd,it shouldn't have been a surprise to me.
(17:19):
I know this about myself.
I've learned that in the last year or twothat when I don't eat right
mentally, I get into a fogand and not a great place.
So I just want to encouragesomebody out there that might be dealing
with that, too.
Hold me accountable.
Feel free to drop me an email craig@wowvideotours.com.
(17:39):
Craig how you doing with your eatingtaking care of yourself?
I'm going to open myself up there and thenI can do the same for you if you want.
yeah. Oh,thank you for that Craig. And that is.
Yeah, that is, that is super important totake care of yourself to understand that.
And it and also one thing that it doesit's a it's a continuous spiral down.
It is because the the eating bad leadsto not feeling great, which leads
(18:03):
to eating even worse to continuingto going and going and going and going. So
but what helpsis having healthy people around you.
So I let my leadership know.
I did talk to Todd about this.
This is actually probably surpriseto Todd, me talking about this,
but I talked to I talked to Chris,Steve and Jess, who are my
my three supervisorson the sales and operations side,
(18:24):
and they immediately respondedwith encouragement.
Hey, if you ever need to talk,just call us.
I mean, awesome leadership team.
So have people around youthat you can talk to
and just be honest with it,aren't going to judge you,
but are going to support you and helpyou get back on to a healthy track.
I so love Craig thatyou reached out to someone
I had to
(18:44):
Yeah.
And I and I think, I thinkif you're out there thinking you can do it
all, I've had this thought before,I just I'm going to do it.
I'm going to push through.
Please don't.
Yeah. You just as capable as you all are.
And you all are a very capable group.
Remember, you're a group of overachievers,
but do not try to do it alone.
(19:07):
It is just not worth it.
Depend on others, confide in others.
It doesn't have to be everybody.You know. We're not.
We're not asking you to just share itwith the world if you want to.
That's great.
And if that's the form of accountabilityyou want, do it.
You know,I actually I love that, Craig shares,
I love that I love sharing with all of you
because I want you all to hold meaccountable.
(19:27):
If I say I'm going to do something like,I'm going to do what I want to,
I want to make sure I hear from you guyslike, hey, is that update coming out?
Like,yeah, it's coming out March 5th. Yeah.
So use the form of accountabilitythat works for you.
But if you're an introvert,I talked to one.
I had a great, a couple of emailswith an individual this weekend.
I was proud that he reached out.
Said long time listener.
(19:47):
You know,I just hired my first photographer.
I'm trying to figure out what I dowith my time now, okay?
I, I, you know, he even used the ideaof, like, hey, I'm not a,
shiny, 100k per month success story.
If that's,you know, I know who this individual is.
But if you have that same idea, you know,there are those stories out there
(20:08):
and there's those storieswhere, you know, they're doing
100K or 50K a monthand just use those as inspiration.
It doesn't mean it has to be you.
You know, I even look at my businessand I know the businesses out there
that are larger than us.
And when I when I know what revenuewe do monthly and what they do
monthly, I'm like, man,I feel pretty insignificant.
(20:30):
And then I throw that away.
I completely throw it away because I'mlike, look at this cool thing we have.
Our employees are happy.
Like, we look at these coolthings that happened this month.
We hired new individuals, six new photog,whatever it may be.
And I try not to give numbersbecause I'm not.
I don't want you to compare anythingto what I've done.
I've taken a very long time to do this.
21 years.
If you all work at 21 years,you're going to be way bigger than me.
(20:53):
So don't compare.
Use it as inspiration,but it's compartmentalizing
some of those thingsand understanding that.
You got to define success for yourself.
Yes, yes.
And that is so important as a businessowner, I hope you have done that.
If you haven't or if it needs revamp,go back and find that page
in your notebookwhere you wrote down, you know your goals
(21:14):
and you wrote down what success meansor have that conversation again.
Pull up a whiteboard.
Have conversation with your spouse.
You knowthat that's a, that's a team thing there.
But yeah please do follow that.
Yeah.
All right.
We dug in deep right off the bat here.
We sure did.
Let's let's rewind a little bitand talk about Spiro updates
(21:34):
because there's some huge things coming.
Well some exciting things.
So what what do we have coming up?
Very shortly here
Yes, Craig.
Thankyou. We have some good ones coming up.
So this is supposed to launch March 5th,which is probably today
that you're listening to this.
Or maybe it's already happened,but March 5th of 25.
We have some good things coming.
(21:56):
We have our landing pagesgoing to launch for you.
So a landing page is a collection of orderpages.
It's where you can send your clientsto the appropriate order page.
And a quick example is your residentialversus commercial versus
Airbnb order page.
So that will be coming.
You can set that up.
(22:17):
You can put your branding on it.
You can control how it looks.
So excited about landing pages.
Excuse me.
A second thing coming upis the ability to delete
some recordsthat you previously could not delete.
You can only deactivate.
So this is photographers, admins,
(22:37):
editors, service areas and servicecategories.
Off the top of my head.
There might be one more,
but many of you have said, hey,I just want to clean up these list.
And we put that update in so you don't
you can actually delete themand remove them visually from that list.
So, thank you for that feedback. There.
Photographer working hours.
(22:58):
Craig.
So right now,the way that you set your working hours,
if you say you begin working on Mondaysat 8 a.m., your first appointment time,
if you're using automatic scheduling,won't be at 8 a.m..
It will be at 8 a.m.
plus the drive time, right?
Which we love this, this.
I still think thatthis is the best way to do it because,
(23:22):
you can count on that.
You're going to leave your houseno earlier than 8 a.m.,
but we've heard from enough of youthat want to do it
a different way,so we're open to changing it.
You will now be able to change thatmethod to say,
I want my first appointmentto be at 8 a.m., the start time.
And then also you have optionsfor the end time.
(23:42):
So it's not when you arrive home,it could be
when your begin your first appointment,when you end your first.
I'm sorrywhen you begin your last appointment,
when you arrive homeor when you start your last appointment.
So those options are coming in hereso that you can get it
exactly how you'd like it to do another,
(24:03):
another big one we have coming upis photographer service areas.
So right now you have a service areathat is attached to many photographers.
So for us at our companytypically we cover
we do a radius from the city center.
So for Craig, you know, we cover 30 milesfrom the center of Toledo.
(24:23):
And then we have tiers that step out up
to 50 milesand there's a service fee attached to it.
And then we add to that service area
all the photographersthat cover that service area.
Some ofyou say, hey, I just let my photographers
tell me where they're going to coverand the fees that they charge.
And I just pass that on to my client.
(24:46):
And you will now be able to do that.
So you'll be able to set serviceareas on a photographer only
and in the same city,overlapping service areas,
you could charge different service, tripfees to your agent
and that could go directlyto your photographer.
So that is a change coming up nowby default,
(25:08):
all of these new changes that I'm tellingyou will not be toggled on.
So if you're like, hey,I'm not going to use any of these things,
just leave your system the way it is.
You have to explicitlygo in and make these changes.
Craig,I'm going to go quick here on these.
Just a couple more of these.
Sure.
Musicpay music options for the display page.
So we've had enough of you say, hey,can you put music on the property website?
(25:30):
Boom. It's done.
We have a, abilityto, we're going to be able
to translate the invoicesand the company portal.
So for our international users,
you have requested that a lot,and we get it done for you.
And then lastly, right nowinside the system,
when you have completed a job,your clients can
(25:51):
actually leave you a rating,and they're doing that.
We're going to give you a reportso you can see those in bulk.
So excited to bring all this to you here.
March 5th of 25.
Excellent a lot of great changes.
So a lot of great updatesand keep those coming.
Todd, real quick,if somebody wants to make a suggestion
on a feature that they'd like to seein the Spiro software,
(26:12):
what what's the best,easiest way for them to do that?
Yes.
If you get out a piece of paperand you write it down
and you mail it to the North Pole,that we're not just kidding.
No, no, that was mean.
I really do love your suggestionthat that was a complete joke.
Todd is feeling snarky today.
(26:33):
it's sunny today. I'm in a good mood.
It's Friday. I'msorry, y'all, please do not take that.
That was with joy.
That was with love inmy heart. As a joke. It was
our feedback.
ho ho ho
put that on your Christmas wish, kiddos.
Oh. Great.You guys just roast me for that one.
Please give me a hard time.
(26:54):
I give it right back to me, I enjoy it.
Yes, I do enjoy it.
Upper right hand corner.
Spiro,there's a feedback button. Click it.
It will take you to our feedback board.
And we've created that
this board based on you guysletting us know that we you wanted it.
So it's we want it because you want it.
And it does help us too.
Yeah.
So we want to know howyou want to use the system.
(27:18):
We want you to feel pride in the system,and we want you to feel like
it does what you need it to do.
So pleasesuggest on there and look at that board.
If you like another user's suggestion,upvote it.
The higher up it gets,the more likely we are to tackle that.
Update.
Oh, Craig, I've got one more thing.
(27:39):
Okay. And this is. Yeah. This is.
I can't give it.
All right. Now.
So you're all going to hate me.
But this is a tease.
I think we figured out a great solution
for you are for automated photo editing.
We are? Yes.
(28:00):
You know, there's beenthere's a lot of it out there.
We've been looking at a lot of it.
We've been looking at,
for years now, literally years.
And Jess, our head of ops at Wow, has done
a ton of testingwith a lot of different vendors.
And we feel we found one we really loveand we're vetting it a little bit more.
(28:22):
So hopefully we'll have something toyou coming very soon
where you can get like very quickturnaround time.
It's cheaper than what you're payingyour layer blended editors right now.
And it's literally thesame or better quality. So,
interesting
you know, kind of holdthat thought on you there.
Hopefully next weekwe'll have an announcement of your see it,
(28:44):
on our channels,but super excited about this.
We're excited about it.
Our real estate media companyI think this is a game changer.
Stay tuned.
More details to come.
All right, Todd, this week,we want to dive into some listener
and viewer questionsthat have come in and, some good stuff.
(29:05):
We we do this from time to time.
We always encourage you,if you've got a business related question
that you'd like to see addressed, please,you can leave, you know,
leave a comment on the YouTube channel,email us at hello@spiro.media.
We want to provide contentthat's really going to help your business.
You know, it'd be very temptingfor us to just blab every week,
but we wantgood pointed, focused intended.
(29:30):
Topics to
talk about intend your puns, you cowards.
That's that's a t shirt I'm going to get.
I'm going to wear that with pride.
Okay.
So we're going to dive in and,
and just answer some of these questionsthat might lead to other discussions.
But again, if you do have a question,leave a comment on the YouTube channel.
Or if you're listening, you can email us.
Hello@spiro.media. All right.
(29:53):
So Todd, I had
one of our, our viewers,reach out to me on Facebook. I,
we love connecting with you guys.
Facebook, whatever.Look us up. Well, friend.
Yeah, we have some great discussions.
But Nick reached out to me,and we've had an ongoing discussion.
Just some really good thingsthat he's been asking.
And I've shared some of my,my experience and and insight,
(30:17):
for what it's worth,you know, that in a in a dime
might get you a cupof coffee at McDonald's, but,
Nick, Nick asked.
He was listening.
I mean,
I gotta be honest, right?
I love it.
Nick said, hey, I was listeningto the most recent episode in two things
(30:39):
popped into my head, and this first onethat I thought was a good one.
He goes, number one.
I know knowing my why is important.
I read Simon Sinek is Sinek. Sinek.
Sinek.
Yeah. So I read his book on that too.
But what if my why
is selfish?
(31:02):
How do you sell that to people?
See, I'm
not going to go into the details,but he, he does it because he just
he finds the work enjoyable. But,
he ultimately in his
in his own opinion,his wife is just kind of selfish.
So, Todd, when I'm out there trying to win
(31:23):
some new clientsand they want to know why I do what I do,
and if I'm honest with myself, it'sjust because I'm selfish.
I want to make money.
I personally just enjoy the work,but nothing much beyond that.
How do you answer somebody like that?
Well, this, this.
So this is onethat I, I struggle with for a long time
(31:44):
because when I thought about my why,why did I start the business?
I mean, might and I don't thinkthat one's bad at all, Nick.
I feel like mine's bad.
I started mine because I want to makea lot of money doing it.
It's like, okay.
Yeah, yeah,I know I struggled, I struggled with this
thought for a long time.
I am motivated by money.
(32:04):
I think I shared thismaybe a year or so ago,
maybeI haven't talked about on the podcast,
but I began thinking about this andand this is
in a time where I was doinga lot of thought about business,
and the whys came up and goals came upand everything came back to me
like thinking I just do itbecause I can make money at it.
(32:25):
And I was like,you are a terrible person, Todd.
Like terriblelike, what is wrong with you?
Like, why don't you want to savesome mammals and,
you know, some ocean somewhere?
Some kids in a different country, like,what is wrong with you?
Seriously? And I,
(32:46):
I, sorry. Well, no problem here.
If you're not watching.
And I so I shared this.
So we're in a small group at church,and it's a group of three other couples,
and we we meet every other week and we eatand we share things like this,
you know, how's it going?
And I, I shared this,I'm like, I'm a terrible person.
(33:07):
I'm terrible.
Like, I'm motivate like money.
Like I always think, why would I dookay so I can make money in it.
Why would you do this thing?
Why did you start Spiro.
Oh, because I thinkI can make money at it, like.
Like you should just be puttinga hole somewhere. Todd
and I shared this and
I still, I still wish that
(33:28):
I had a better reason, but I think it'sconnecting some to some other reasons.
But my group share it with me.
Like that.
This is not a bad thing.
Like you have the ability to make moneyand you can impact others with that money.
True money by nature is not a bad thing,right?
(33:48):
It's you can use money in a bad wayand you can covet money, right?
But enough of it.
You, the love of.
Yes, exactly the love of money. Right.
But that's way different than making money
and not,
you know, being so attached to itthat you love it.
And that is what propels you.
(34:11):
But then what do you do with your money?
So I think,
you know, for me, that being I was like,okay, that's great.
You know, thanks for trying to
I don't expect you guysto not make me feel good at this.
You know, is a small group and, and and
but I begin viewing itfrom that perspective of
how can I impact people now
(34:33):
with the ability to do this?
Or what does this allow me to do?
Okay, so,
being in business for 21 years, and again,I don't want you to feel the pressure of
like, hey, I, I can't do this right now,but I've done this for 21 years.
I've been very blessed.
And I had the ability to coach more.
(34:53):
So I, and let me connect the dots herepretty quickly here.
And then Craig,I'll get your thoughts on this.
But because we've been successful
financially and we've
grown a team that we can
again motivate and make successfuland try to fulfill their goals.
If it's money, time,whatever it is related,
(35:16):
then I have the abilitybecause I have a great team
and we've poured back into our clientsas well, that I can take less time
working during this season of life,that I can go impact
third, fourth, fifth,sixth and seventh graders.
Yeah, as a coach and hopefully show them.
(35:38):
Just a different way of living thatthat's my goal.
My goal as a Christian as well is like,can they see
can they see Christ in mewhen I'm with them?
So I knowthat's a little stretch for money,
but it allow me to dothings allowed me to, you know,
pay the team like we were happywe were able to give raises.
We are to give some, profit share.
(36:00):
We are able to give things to some people.
This yearwe're able to hire more or last year
and all of that moves everyone along.
So it's just maybe a little bitof a change in perspective.
I still wish though, Craig.
I was like, hey,
I'm really motivated to go buildbuild schools in some other country.
I'm just really not.
I'm motivatedto impact these kids that I coach.
(36:21):
I'm motivated. Like,I love talking to all of you.
Like many of you, email me like I'll havea call with you like I'm not advertised.
I'm gonna have a call for everyone.
Like all these group calls,like you all might say,
Todd, you create this contentbecause you want to sell Spiro.
And that's kind of how we started it.
But still, we're we do thisbecause we want to help you.
(36:42):
Yeah, and you're not forced to use Spiro.
If you're listening to us right now,we we give this all to you.
Like I, Craig and I share everything we doall of the years of experience
we share it with you openlybecause we just enjoy hearing
and seeing you guys grow and you guysaccomplishing your goals
(37:02):
I think I've shared
I'm kind of the opposite of Todd,where most of my career I was actually.
You're a good person, Craig.
You're a good person too.
It's not what I was saying.
No, but most
-now, how do I move forward for that- just say yes?
I am Todd.
No I'm not.
Deep down we all have some dark,deep stuff right now.
(37:26):
But for the grace of God, you know?
Anyway, now we're.
Yeah, we're going to get off.
No, but most, most of my career,
I did work in nonprofitsbecause I, I am primarily motivated,
motivated by serving peoplenow works really well doing what I'm doing
because I've found somethingthat I truly believe is of value
(37:47):
to other people,
both the realtors that we're serving,but ultimately to the sellers
to help them sell their home.
I mean, that's a needed thing.
So we're providing a service that I truly,deep down, believe
is helping people,and it's something I enjoy doing.
So, Nick, you know, Nick shared he justenjoys doing this and he's making money.
That's okay.
(38:08):
But I
think transitioning from thethe personal selfish,
which hehe alluded to the selfish reason for
don't stop there.
Go ahead.
And yeah, look at what motivates meand then tie that in as well.
So yeah, it might ultimately bea selfish thing initially
(38:30):
that, you know, I worked like I said,I worked in nonprofit.
I never made a ton of I did not makea ton of money most of my career
because you don't in nonprofit,you're not in the nonprofit world
primarily to make money.
It's because you do want to serve.
But I have a familyto take care of as well.
So I do need to make a decentamount of money.
Did care for the peoplethat God has entrusted me with, right?
(38:53):
So that that is a somewhat
selfish reasonI want to make better money,
but also find something doing thatI enjoyed that I know
is going to benefit other people.
And even if you're not there yet,hey, I'm not there that I really want
to help your business grow.I'm doing it because of this.
Yeah, ultimately, just keep
(39:14):
thinking through it and find whatreally motivates you and tie it in.
Just make make that tie in.
- I don't know if it made sense but- no 100% of you just make sure it's always
that you're coming from a place of lovein your heart.
If it's not all authentic,then you might want to reevaluate
and find the authenticityand your clients will see it out.
(39:35):
Your employees will see it out.
If it's your friend, not authentic,it just won't work right.
You can force it so long,
but it's you're going to hit a pointsomewhere where you get enough friction
that it's notgoing to work for you, right?
Yep. So okay, so there was listenerquestion number one.
Yeah, thanks Nick for that
And yeah I appreciate that.
(39:55):
Hopefully that that answered things.
All right. Second question. Todd.
Annette, left a comment on our episodewith Colleen Kydd
and, asked about the part 107 training.
She said,I assume that you pay your photographers
to do that trainingand to to take that test.
(40:16):
Is that the case? Todd?
So I'll give two answers,because some of you have employees
as photographers,and some of you have subcontractors
at the end of the day, both
should be compensated for doing this.
I, I think it's tough to ask peopleto do something for free.
(40:39):
Hey, especially your employees, 100%.
If they are studying, thenthey should be paid for that time, right?
The other the other way you could do itis you could just bonus them
when they get that service certification.
Okay.
So if you if you're like, hey,I don't really want to take into account,
is this person a fast learneror a slow learner?
(41:01):
You could just say, hey, when you pass it,you're going to get 500 bucks.
And that will go towards,
the time you put into it.
That will go towards the test.
Like maybe you make them pay for the test
so you can decide what you want to dothere.
I do think you should compensate peoplefor their time.
Right. From a contractor standpoint,
(41:23):
we then
so they have the abilityto make more money.
Of course.
And that's the other thingthat they're going to do,
both employees and subcontractors,they're going to make more money
when they have drone.
But we do pay out a, a bonus
when and if that photographer has a drone.
And, Craig, I believe we do this.
(41:43):
Like if they come to usand they have that license already,
they're just going to get that.
Like we don't careif they have to take it or not.
It's just the ability of havingthat license and being certified.
That's what we care about.
That enables all of usto get further along in the process.
Yeah, exactly.
So Annette,hopefully that answered your question.
(42:06):
Another one here, Todd.
And we might be able to answer this,I don't know.
They asked,do we spiro/wow video tours,
have training available for businessesto provide
to their photographers,like a training program?
Is that available outside of our company?
(42:26):
I'm so glad you asked this.
I don't have a great answer for youright now with getting it to you.
We have and and this is
maybe being me being a little conceited,but I'm not trying to be conceited.
I feel as though we have createdthe best training resource.
at Wow for our photographers,
(42:47):
the guide, the curriculum,
the layout of it, the levels,the video series.
Like. I feel like it's.
I feel like we're doing somethingpretty unique.
And again,I'm sorry, I'm tooting my own horn, but
and again,we've worked on it for 21 years.
And the person that createdit was a, a teacher by trade,
(43:09):
and he's probably shot more housesthan anyone out there as well.
So putting a teacher and a photographer,a videographer,
and then someone who has the brainto organize all of it.
And we'reand we're improving that right now.
So we just put six new people through it,and we're changing and adapting
and we're building some questionnairesand things in there.
We have been discussing this at Wow,just to be transparent
(43:29):
of how we can get it to all of you,how we can kind of white label
it a little bit, how we can make you
put your own spin on it and allow youto put a photographer through it,
or even just say, hey, wow, I,I need to keep shooting and doing this.
Can you guide my photographer through it?
Can you review their practice sets?
Can you let me know their progressionof skills?
(43:50):
All the mini checklist and, and, testthat we have in there.
So we're thinking of howwe have a done for you where we manage it.
And then at the end of the period,we say, hey, this person's ready to go.
They're certified in these levels,they're still working on these.
Or we just say, hey,here's how you can use it.
You manage the progression of skills.
Excellent.
(44:11):
So yes, we have training not quiteavailable yet for public concern.
I have bad sound effect there.
Where's my sound effects at?
Did I just make a jokeand not even realize it?
Well,it was like what the sound effect is like.
Yeah, we have it, but you can't.You can't have it.
Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right,
all right.
(44:31):
Well, Todd,I know there was not a ton of questions,
but we did want to address thoseand spend some time talking about it,
but also encourage youin other ways of this episode.
Oh, Craig,I have another question for you.
- I have a question for you.- Okay, all right.
Well, I'm on the spot now.
Yeah.
I mean, always, you know me,I love doing this.
- Of course you do.- I'm trying to think I have.
(44:53):
I have a real question. I'mtrying to think of.
I can think of a zinger or a question realquick, but it's not coming in my head.
Okay, great.
Great entertainment value. There
let’s make Craig Turn red
CraigCraig and I are coming to you guys live
from your local bar here soon.
And we're going to be touring.
(45:13):
That'll be a trip.
Should I get a bar? Can you imagine?
Right. Isn't that great, Craig?
I mean, that's like Vegas or a bar,like you're.
I was just thinking Vegas.
Oh my gosh.
Okay, y'all, that's really not happening.
Right. But it's funny to laugh at.
We are going to try to get Craig outto Vegas
(45:34):
or to whereverthe conference is at this year.
But Craig,
I love asking this because you havethis is like the best feedback
we get are the answers
you give, and I think it's so relatableand you're so good at giving advice here.
What anythingnotable from your week this week?
Because I think our,
our listeners should be thinking like,if you're doing it again,
your position is a hybrid roleand shooting
(45:55):
and selling, I think that's so relevantto our listener.
So what what happened?
Well, it wasI guess technically it was last week.
Now that I think about itwasn't necessarily this week,
but it's a recent development.
Actually, overthe course of the last couple of months.
Oh, yeah, it'sbeen a little bit of a journey. So,
(46:15):
we just, Wow video tours just became,
a member of the,
National Associationof Real Estate Brokers,
they're known as realtists,not realtors, realtists.
And I learned about, the Greater
Toledo RealtistAssociation, from one of our clients
(46:36):
that is a minority owned,brokerage here in Toledo.
It's one of,I believe, three in in Toledo.
And, it's a realtor and realtist that I'veworked with for a couple of years.
She was at two other brokerages, before.
But how has started her own,her own brokerage.
(46:56):
And in doing a sit down meeting with himand getting to know the entire team,
one of their,
one of their realtist,one of the realtors in the brokerage,
told me about thisGreater Toledo Realtist association.
I had never heard of it, and I yeah, I itI yeah.
And the parent
(47:17):
organizationbeing the National Association
of Real Estate Brokers, which is different
than the National Associationof Realtors. NAR.
Okay. Right.
So I'm learning about this organizationthat I've never heard about.
And what it is is
it is a professional real estateassociation of, of black in
(47:37):
and minority realtors or realtists,realtists.
Right. That started back in 1947.
And there's a whole historyand, and I want to go too deep into it.
But the whole, purpose and mission of this
organizationis to promote democracy and housing.
(47:58):
Right?
There is there is a,
a generational wealth gap between,
let's say, white Americans
and black Americans and minority,you know, minorities in our country.
And there's a whole historyof the challenges
that black Americans faced in, owningproperties,
(48:18):
buying in, quote unquote, whiteneighborhoods, things like that.
And this the, the organizationthat developed to answer
this was the National Associationof Real Estate Brokers.
So you can look them up,look them up on, on the web.
It's, but the website is a nareb.com
(48:40):
and if you go to the Who We Are page,you'll get the whole history.
I don't want to spend the whole episodetalking about the history,
but they saidyou really ought to become a member.
We don't have a photographer in the groupas an affiliate.
And I'm like, okay.
But the primary reason they really caughtme was really the mission.
So let me dive a little bit,go into some personal my family,
(49:04):
we are an adoptive family.
My two boys are adopted.
My oldest, Evan, he's 20 years old now.
He isbiracial, African-American and white.
And then my youngest is, Zeke is.
He's going to be ten short very shortly.
He is black.
All right.
So I have a vested interestbecause of my boys
(49:27):
in seeing them grow
develop wealth, generational wealththat they can pass down to their families,
and for them to not have to face
any sort of discriminationor anything like that.
So when they told me about thisorganization, I was very intrigued,
mainly because my family and Ihad a vested interest because of my boys.
(49:48):
Right now, professionally speaking,obviously, yes, this will provide
networking opportunities and maybebusiness is going to come out of this.
But they saidyou really ought to join. So,
over the last,
I think it's been about a month.
We did join.
I went to my first,general general meeting.
(50:11):
Yeah.
I think it was about a month ago in town.
I had a ball.
That's good.
Yeah.
Just a fun group of people like to laughand I was blown away
by a couple of things.
Number one, the the guest speakerthat they had was the superintendent
of Toledo Public Schools,Doctor Romulus Duran, who I've always
heard amazing things about, butI've never heard this guy speak before.
(50:33):
And he, oh my gosh, you want to talk abouta motivational speaker
and a guy with a vision?
He is turned Toledo Public Schools aroundand I just I was captivated
by his speech and everythingthat's happening in Toledo public schools.
And part of part of what they're doingis, providing
vocational training for students,and they're going to be providing
(50:55):
they're talking about,
well, maybe I shouldn't talk aboutI can't remember if I can talk.
Well, no is in the blade.
It was in the Toledo Blade.
They want to provide studentstraining on how to become realtors
to get into the real estate industry.
I'm like, man, what a great,you know, and working with the Greater
Toledo Realtist Associationand possibly doing that,
(51:17):
just so many cool things happening.
I'm like, this is a great organizationto be a part of.
And, something I can really get behind.
And that Wow video tours can get behind,
so did that
what, to a new member orientation and, so,
I’m in this organization on behalf of, well,now and I'm thinking, okay,
(51:38):
I'm just going to kind of flyunder the radar for a little bit,
get to know people,you know, get get my feet under me.
Yeah.
I mean, that's your introvertin this, right?
I mean, it's like, hey, to hang.
- Okay.- You got you learn what I can.
I'm here to learn, you know, because I'mhearing things that I've not heard
because of the circles I'm in. Right.
And so they tell usabout the various committees,
(51:59):
and one of the committeesis the public relations Committee,
all about promoting,communicating the message
of the organizationand how bad they need help.
Because there's only two peopleon this committee right now. And I'm like,
I'm a media guy.
That's my whole background is PR, I,
I know, I know how to write public serviceannouncements.
(52:20):
I know how to contact in the mediaregulator because that was my my world
for almost 20 years.
So I see those of younot here not watching on YouTube.
My arm kind of started sticking up.
And was your other armpulling it down at the same time?
Yeah, right.
So and all of a sudden two sets of eyes,just their heads
(52:41):
jerked around that they're like, Craig,yes, you're perfect for that committee.
And they lit up and I'm like,what have I got myself into?
I was, I was kind of be quiet.
Just so I got sucked into the public
relations, committee for the GreaterToledo Realtist Association.
To be honest, I'm really excitedbecause this this is a mission
(53:02):
I can really get behind, and help promote.
And, those of youin, you know, in other markets,
I'd encourageyou check out this organization.
It's a great, great mission and somethingI really believe we should be supporting
as real estate media professionals,in promoting democracy and housing.
So, check that out again.
The website is a nareb.com, and
(53:27):
I Google there'slocal chapters all over the country.
So yeah.
So that was my my kind of big eventfor the last two weeks or so.
I'm really excited to be part of this.
That's exciting.
You know that's a great opportunityI think Joy on our team
that in Charlotteshe she mentioned that she is a part of
(53:47):
you know that that organization as well.
So, you know, great opportunity.
I have no clue.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat the real estate industry is so large.
Yeah, that, you know, there is,but this is a group in 1948,
- you said Craig,- 1947 47.
Yeah.
It's been around for a long time,but it you know, what was really the
(54:10):
the most impactful thingwas that that new member orientation.
Todd.
You know, I obviously I got in there,but people started
talking to me a little bit moreand I told them
my intent was just to be kind of quietand listen and learn because
I was
I was the minority in that room.
(54:32):
And I shared with them, I said honestly
I was just here to listen and learnbecause and I just said that to them.
I said for the first time in my life,
I'm in the minority,
in an organization, in a room, and I
obviously I've heard some things before,I've learned some things,
but I want to be quietand just kind of listen and learn
(54:54):
and see how can we contribute,how can we be a value?
What can I learn from this experienceand from other people's experiences
in life, particularly in thethe area of homeownership,
and wealth generation and passingthat wealth on to new generations.
So, I'm like I said,yeah, I'm, I'm really excited
to be a part of this and, and to learn and
(55:16):
I when I walked in,
one of the realtist there looked up Craig,
and this is someone I had done one shootfor before, and, and, he kind of lost
contact with her, and, and,she's like, I've got listings for you.
I'm so sorry I haven't contacted you.
It was out of sight, out of mind.
I started using someone else,and I didn't even say anything.
(55:39):
I'm like,okay, that that that's great. But.
And and she laterthen told me at the end of the meeting,
you are going to get so much businessfrom this. I said, you know what?
I I'm thankful for that.I'm grateful for that.
But again, I'm here to learn primarilyand and just be of benefit however I can.
So yes, let's just be real.
(55:59):
There are businessnetworking opportunities,
but if you're going to join,be authentic about it.
And and have a real again why of whyyou would want to be part of that group.
Make sure your your motives are good.
I love that, Craig.
And it's just, you know, serve firstwithout expecting anything back.
Right. You know, that truly is that.
I love how it's so aligned with,you know, with your,
(56:21):
you know, your boys and wanting to get in.
I love the ideaof being the minority in a room.
I think there's somethingthere's some character building there
and some learning.
Yeah, I know when wewe played summer basketball,
and this was the first year that my sonplayed it, we were the same minor.
We were the minority in the room.
And and you know,Boston was in third grade at the time
and it didn't really knowanything different,
(56:41):
but started to pick up is like,you know, I'm like, no, this is good.
This is great for us.
And oh my goodness, the relationshipswe made out of those families,
we still see them.
I still give them a hug when we're in gyms
and we we go to different schools now,but we still see each other.
All these events,
breaking down those walls and yeah, it'sjust incredible.
And so much can be learned when we go.
And I think you said it well, Craig, like,let me learn from you.
(57:02):
Let me get it. Not what I've heard.
That can be dangerous.
Right. The telephone game.
But, such a great opportunity there.
And, a cool thing to get involved with.
Yeah, for sure.
All right,
well, you got anything else, Todd
Craig, I think that is it for today.
We, Well, we're that we said.We said you all.
(57:23):
Hey, this is going to be a short one.So it was.
And hopefully this was a valueyou to. Yeah.
If you have questions,send them in and we'd love to answer them.
Keep them coming.We're here to support you guys.
So pleaselet us know how we can help
for sure.
Againyou can email us hello@spiro.media.
Or if you're watching on YouTube,feel free to leave a comment.
We do try to keep track of those.
(57:43):
Generally it's me checkingthose and I'll pass things on.
On to Todd if needed.
But I'm out shooting full time as wellin a meeting with clients.
So if we don't get to your questionor we missed something right away.
You can email us,and and that will get to us even quicker.
But, yeah, we would love to hear from you.
So, guys, thanks for your your attention.
(58:06):
We do appreciate that.We don't take it for granted.
We know you're busy, so thank youfor taking time to watch and or listen.
And, you have a great week.
Make sure you take time to be thankfulfor the blessings in your life.
And make sure you takea breath. Have a great week.
Thank you for joining usfor the Spiro Podcast,
managing your real estate, photographyand videography business.
This is a production of Spiroand Wow video tours.
(58:30):
You can find out more about Spirois Real Estate Media Business management
software at our website, Spiro.media.
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