Colleen Kydd: Building Your Dream Team

Colleen Kydd, co-owner of Three Palms Media joins Todd & Craig again on the podcast to discuss "Building Your Dream Team", her topic she spoke on at the REPP 2024 conference. Are you at the point of needing to start to hire and grow your team? Are you wanting to work more ON your business rather than IN your business? Watch/Listen for some great advice and wisdom from Colleen!

Chapter Timestamps:

0:00 Episode Open

02:11 Book Giveaway Contest

03:38 Spiro Updates

05:25 Spiro Academy Info

08:47 Colleen Kydd - Building Your Dream Team

1:03:42 Episode Wrap-up

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Coming up on this episodeof The Spiro podcast.

(00:04):
don't change 100% of your processesfor like 2% of like mistakes.
if one little thing
goes wrong, don't change everythingabout your life because of that.
So I thinkit's the same with your first hire.
Your second hire,your first two VAs don't work out.
Doesn't mean that,
you know, they're not going to work out.

(00:24):
Welcome to the Spiro Podcast.
Managing your real estate, photographyand videography business
with your hosts, Todd, Kevin Mackie
and Craig Mann.
Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,
managing your real estate, photographyand videography business.
Spiro is a software package,a platform designed

(00:47):
to help you manage your day to daybusiness.
Whether you're a small boutiquereal estate media company
or a largegrowing regional company as well.
I'm your host, Craig Magrum,and welcome to the podcast.
If this is your first time,we are so happy to have you in.
Just very grateful.
We don't take that for grantedbecause we know you as a business owner,
especially, your time is busy,so the fact that you're taking time

(01:09):
out of your schedule to eitherwatch or listen,
is not lost on us.
So thank you for taking that time.
Each and every week, our co-host,abd Spiro owner and founder Todd Kivimaki
joins us. Welcome back.
Well, I guess actually,you should be walking me back since.
es.
Well, welcome back, Craig.
You wereyou were out hard working last week, and,

(01:32):
I went into just a black holeof speaking last week.
So, you and Colleen,our guests can say to me today
I'll be the one not speaking today, but,Good to have you back, Craig.
And, excited for another great week.
Yeah.
That fun, northern Ohioweather that we had to deal with and,
rescheduling several shoots.
And you, you serve the clients,and you do what they need.

(01:56):
So, yeah, I,I had, had to take care of business, so.
Awesome.
All right. Well,we do have a guest this week.
We'll be introducing her,
a repeat guest, and we're excitedto have her back on the podcast.
So we'll introduce Colleenin just a few minutes.
But, first, a couple of thingsthat we want to take care of.
So last week know, two weeks ago, Todd,we did a book giveaway.

(02:18):
But no takers on that, so no problem.
We're going to put that bookback on the shelf.
But I have a different book,to give away this week, one that I,
I did a lot of highlighting and, it'sanother John Maxwell
book called Developing the LeaderWithin You and, version 2.0.
- That's a good one, Craig.- It's a classic.
It's a classic, really great materialif you are leading a team.

(02:43):
So we are going to give away this book.
Now, this is my personal copy.
I have a lot of highlights in this.
Not a ton of notes.
I had to go through it,
make sure there was nothing,you know, super dark or introspective
as I was going throughmy leadership journey.
But yeah, excited to give this away.
And, Todd, we're just going to take whatthe first person to respond on the pink

(03:06):
Spiro chat bubble in their Spiro platform
Pink Spiro chat bubble.
I renamed it today.
You guys didn't know thatinto the Shiroe chat.
But anyways, hey,
if you want the book, just let us knowif I missed you last week, let me know.
For the book we gave away. It was good.
We heard from a lot of youwhich is fabulous.

(03:26):
We love hearing from you guys,but mention the book and your message
that you send to us like, hey,I want the book
and we will send itto the first person that wants it. Yep.
All right. Cool. That's taking care of.
We've got a number of updates on Spiroto talk about, Todd.
- What’s goin on.- We do.
So these are coming soon.
Very soon potentiallyby the time you're listening to this.

(03:48):
So about the first week of Marchwe are slated.
And this is going to be a review process
for you to send to your clients.
At any point you wish.
So this could be after
they place the order, after the shoot'sdone, after the media is delivered.
But finding out what they thoughtis incredibly important
to knowing the health of your business.

(04:09):
And if they're happy,
let's ask them for a reviewon a review platform of your choice.
And if they're not happy,at least we can collect that feedback.
We can get them
before they go to the review platformso that we can fix any problems.
So that will be coming.
Also a landing page of your order pages.
So, many of us,we shoot different types of categories

(04:31):
being residential, commercial, short termrentals,
lifestyle, headshots, whateveryou want to put, whatever your web,
excuse me, whatever your order pageadvertisers, you'll be able to group
those onto a landing pageand then advertise that to your clients.
So we're excited about that coming.
And then we have some UI and UX

(04:52):
updates for the waythat the order page is functioning.
So we're going to give you some newgoodies, ability to add more media.
And we want to turn the order pageinto a sales.
More of a sales to what already sellsright now has two upsell features,
but we want to turn itinto selling better for you.
So this will be the first of many updatesto come to allow you

(05:13):
to better advertisewhat you do on your website.
or what you do for your clientson your order page.
Sure, sure.
So awesome.
All right,well, we'll we'll look for those updates.
And then some learning opportunitiesas well with Spyro Academy.
What's going on there.
Yes, the Spiro Academy we have so
Shannon on the team has come upwith this idea and it's fabulous.

(05:34):
Based on your guys's feedback, we have,
Spiro 101, 202, and 301,
something like that.
I figure
this brings back the days of college,but we've got three classes right now,
the first being just a very introductoryclass of the day to day working.
So this is not how do I set up Spiro?

(05:56):
We have guides for that.
We have a white glove servicethat we can do that for you.
This is how do I use it.
The second is how do I price my services.
So this is one that we get asked a ton.
What should I price?How should I price it?
Is this too much?
Is this too little?What does my competitors do.
And Shannon is going to hostand hold that class.

(06:18):
And then Spiro 301is the actual setting up
of the Spiro task and workflowsI taught myself.
That's how to gear up and,make sure that the system can do
all of your taskand to do list after the shoot.
So we're going to guide youwith those things if you want to know when
and where you can, head over to the SpiroSuper User Facebook page.

(06:40):
All of them are as events in there,
and we're going to do themall of the classes at least twice a month.
So check it out on their mark it,put it on your calendar and come join us
and we are there to helpyou get all of that.
Going for your company.
Excellent.
All right. We got a lot going on.

(07:01):
We do, we do.
And it's importantthat we know what you all want out there.
Continue to send us great feedback.
I love hearing from youguys, and I love it.
You guys must be listening to this podcastin the car, and you send in the pink
chat bubble in yourare using talk to text, which is fine.
I don't mind you all.
You apologize profusely for thetalk to text because it spells words

(07:23):
weird and Spiro become Sparo or Sparrowand I don't mind.
Send me your thoughts.
I wantthose are gold nuggets in your head.
Send them to me, I'll analyze it.
It'll get to me.
Okay, so if you have an idea,if you have a need, let us know.
We're here to help.
We want to know what's in your head soyou can email us [e-mail].

(07:43):
Or if you are Spiro user,the pink chat bubble
in the bottom right handcorner will lead you to the same inbox.
And if somebody has a featurethat they'd like to see developed
in the software, what's the best wayfor them to communicate that to us, Todd?
Craig, we have a board for that.
Thank you for asking.
And the upper right hand corner,when you log in to Spiro, there is a

(08:08):
there's something up there says feedback.
I think what that gives up their feedback.
feedback. Yep.
It says feedback. I created the buttons.
So my brain is just going to kick in hereguys.
And I don't have to give you much take as
Colleenis going to give it all to you. So,
as far as knowledge
of what's going to come up,but click the feedback button,

(08:30):
go to a boardand you can suggest anything you want.
You can see what else has been suggested
and you can upvote other userssuggestions as well.
Awesome.
Lots of ways to get feedback to usand we really do value that.
So thank you.
All right.
Well let's dive into this Todd.
And we love having guests.

(08:51):
And we have this guest on once before
and just had a fantastic interviewwith her.
And, just got some really good insighton mindsets.
And, our returning guest was a guestspeaker at the REPP 2024 conference back.
It was that November. Todd.
Yes.
Yeah, back in November.
And, shared a great topic.

(09:13):
And I'm going to let you take overfrom here and introducing Colleen.
Yes. So Colleen Kydd love, Colleen.
I met her a couple years agoat the REPP conference.
And, she has just been a wealthof knowledge for us all in the community.
Not only justfrom a logistical standpoint,
what we're going to talk about today,but also a mindset just so inspirational.

(09:35):
Her story is amazing, and she's built
a really, really great business,a real estate photography business.
And, so I'm excited to have her back ontoday.
Colleen, welcome to the show.
Hi. Thank you so much.
So happy to be to be backback with my guys
back of the Spiro podcast I love it.

(09:55):
Thank you for having me.
Always great to have you on, Colleen.
You just, you were able to get awaya little bit not long ago, right?
Yes. Tim and I, my husband, Tim,
we just went on a weeklong vacation.
We got back, two days ago,we went to Roatan, Honduras.
So it's an island offthe coast of Honduras.

(10:17):
And, it was the very first timethat that we've left,
and we've truly, like, left everythingbehind, like, left everything in the dust.
Like my slack was silence.
My open phone. Well,my open phones are silenced.
My email was silenced.
I told the team,if you need me, reach out to me directly.
And they never did.
So it was a true, vacation.

(10:41):
And it was really great.
And it was a special vacation for usbecause it's just one of my favorite
places in the world.And I used to live there.
And so I got to show it to Timfor the first time.
What life was like on the island.
And a lot, a lot of things have changed,and a lot of things were the same
and saw a lot of friends, and it was just,it was great.
It felt good.

(11:01):
I felt like there was acouple times where I'm like,
I have thisurge to like, just check in on the team.
And I refrained because Ithat is something that I need to work on,
is sometimes I like, will insert myselflike when I don't need to be
and it's a new problem.
So I really held off and it was great.
I was going to ask you
if there were any sort oflike withdrawal symptoms for me again.

(11:25):
No, it's that's a real thing.
Yeah.
No, there, there definitely, were justlike the urge to check in on the team.
And what book.
But it talks about, like, the ownersjust, like, self-sabotaging
by, like, everything's going good,so they have to, like, jump in and, like,
micromanage something and like,I'm like, shoot, that's me.

(11:45):
But, like, I'm aware of it, so, like,I don't I don't do it.
And I didn't do it and they were great.
And I had a meeting with my admin, Jensen,
when we got back, and she was like,goodness, everything went great.
And I was like, yay, great!
That is so awesome.
And Colleen, remind everyone againhow long you've been doing this for,
because it's not very long to get to thatpay off, which is so exciting.

(12:09):
Yes, we filed for our LLCin August of 2022.
Probablyhad our first shoot around November.
I mean,it took us a while to get a client.
But yeah, just just since 2022.
So we'll be three years oldthis year in August.
And which we should mention,
Colleen and your husband's name again.

(12:30):
I'm sorry.
Tim. Yep.
owners of Three PalmsMedia, in Florida.
What? What's your main market, Colleen?
Southwest Florida.
So, like.
Yeah, we're, like two hourssouth of Tampa.
We're port Charlotteall the way down to Marco Island.
Awesome.
That's so great.
And one thing where, Colleen is growingreally quick, they shoot.

(12:53):
It's not like it'sjust they shoot fabulous homes
like huge homes, like high end homes.
So I always love her insight becausewith Wow, we're a little bit different
as to where in the Midwest, in Ohio,I mean, the homes are great here,
but they're not like what Colleen shoots.So, wow.
You know, we're more of a, a volumebased business as to where

(13:13):
Colleen is still doing a lot of volume,but doing high end as well.
So, you know, and to grow it in that shorttime is is just fabulous.
So congrats on that, Colleen.
Thank you.Thank you. Yeah, it's been great.
A lot of hard work,but a lot of good times to.
Yeah.
Now, Colleen for a listener out theresaying oh

(13:35):
vacation.
What's that
I could neverI could never imagine leaving.
I remember some of those tripsvery early on when I left and we vacation,
that it was like having to call backto the States from out of the country.
And there was it wasn't like you got onthe internet message, like you dialed out
like $2 a minuteand talk to someone in the US

(13:58):
and like, you know,you pull your phone out of the room
safe in the morning and you,you know, call back or I would call back.
And it just that feeling of like,oh my goodness, what's happening?
And like all the pre-planning.
So for our listeners out there going like,I don't think I could ever vacation.
Like I'm shooting everything, I'm selling

(14:20):
everything, I'mmaking sure everything gets done.
I'm the answering service, I'mthe quality control, I'm the support.
And I just feel a littlebit stuck in my business.
You know, there.
That's a real thing.
I remember those days as well.
I remember when I was six monthsbehind on billing,
and I was running as fast as I could,and I was happy

(14:42):
because the business was doing good,but it was taking over my life,
and I just felt stuck
and then realizedthat I had to depend on others
to help actually grow the business,to get unstuck, to actually move faster,
to get to the goal of whyI started my business.

(15:02):
So I remember you all outthere, started a business for some reason.
Just remember those reasonsof why you started the business.
But regardless of what your reason is,stay aligned with that.
But you're goingto have to depend on others,
and youcan't do everything in your business
or you are going to crash and burn.

(15:24):
You're going to hate your business.
You're going to feel likeyou're a prisoner of your business
and you're going to startsaying things again like, hey,
what if I just had a 9 to 5 job?
If I remember when you started
your business, you were complainingabout working a 9 to 5 job.
So our brainsdo silly things like that to us.
It's okay. It happens to all of us.

(15:47):
We're here to help you today.
Colleen's here to help youbecause she has become fabulous.
A master at building a team.
Her ability to buildrelationships is incredible.
But we're going to talk specificallyabout a hiring process
for your photographers and the team.
So, Colleen,why is it so important to grow
your, like,if you want to grow your business

(16:09):
and you want to
get out of your business, step out of itso your business can work for you.
Why is it important to depend on others,or is this is something that I only think?
Do you align with these ideas
It's important to depend on othersso you can go on vacation.
That's why that like literally isthe reason that I started my own business.
Because I am just appalled with only 3

(16:32):
or 4 weeks,or some people have two weeks of vacation.
I just couldn't I mean, I couldn't,I couldn't do it.
So I mean, that's why,
you know,if you listen to the first podcast,
that's why I quit my joband travel the world
for two yearsbecause I needed more vacation.
So that was a big reasonthat I, that I wanted,
just ownership over my life in general.

(16:52):
But it is difficult when you, you,you jump ship and you start building
your business and it's going greatand you're getting busy
and it's your baby, it'syour child, it's my child.
And I can no one can babysit it but me.
So, that that was a real struggle for me.
Is is letting go and coming to termswith the fact that nobody

(17:15):
is going to love your babyas much as you like.
It's impossible. Like it's not.
It's impossible.
So you need to recognize that.
And you just need to find peoplethat you can pour into that
you kind of give life to and, and,see them
and not just worry about themseeing you and your business and,

(17:37):
let go, like, you just need somebody
that can do thingsmaybe like what, like 80% as good as you?
I don't know, I'mjust throwing that fat out there.
It's never going to be 100%. And then.
But but I've also found a lot of joy in
building a team and mentoring people
and coaching people and walking themthrough some of the things

(17:58):
that I had to walk myself through.
Like when you make mistakes,shooting or whatever,
and just knowingthat it's all part of the process
and that we expect thatand that we're not perfect,
it's really just abouthow we can learn and grow from there.
So yeah, you have you have to let go.
It's it's hard.
It is hard,but you absolutely have to let go,
or else you will be in a prisonthat you created for yourself.

(18:20):
Okay.
When you want to just vacationlike it's crazy.
Yeah.
So, Colleen,I think that the thing that I've run into
and I think a lot of us have run intowhen we're starting to grow
a team and trying to step backa little bit and work
on our businessinstead of in our business,
is that challenge of the relationshipsthat you've developed with your clients?

(18:43):
Go deep. Right?
They trust you as their photographer,their videographer, whatever.
And the secondyou try to introduce a new person
to that processor a new person to the team, that
that, initial pushback of, well, no,I hired you.
I didn't hire yourteammate or your new member

(19:04):
because what
what how have you handledthat is is you started to grow your team?
I sometimes I feel like people forgetthat our clients are like people too.
And like, they have goals and dreams too,and that you can be honest with them.
It's not like all business.
So we really shared a lot of our goalswith our clients.

(19:27):
We called up our clients.
We told told them about whatour dreams were for our business,
how excited we were about so-and-sothat we just brought on,
that we wanted their feedback on them,things like that.
We share a lot about iton our Instagram, too.
We're, you know, our Instagramisn't perfect or anything, but I do
try to, like, get on there and talkas just like a person.

(19:51):
And I show us training our team.
I, I'm like, hey,we're at a video workshop today
where the whole team's hereand we're training them on X, y, Z.
I do behind the scenesof our team meetings,
like we did, like an award ceremony twice.
Last year.
So, like, I shared that, I'm like,you know, Julien got the whatever award

(20:11):
so that people see us, like, with our teamand how much we're pouring into our team
and that they really arean extension of us.
We're not just like signing peopleand just like throwing them out there.
We're training themor mentoring them or guiding them.
So I think sharing thata lot and talking about it,
and just being open about the factthat this is what we are trying to do

(20:32):
instead of trying to, like, kind ofjust slip a new photographer in there.
We found that just that transparencyhas worked really well for us.
And yes, there are stillthe people that are just like, no
hard stop me, Tim.
And something that I had to get overand realize and come to terms with,

(20:53):
and kind of remove the ego part of it
is that you are going to lose clientsas you grow, and that's totally fine.
Like the clients that built you
to your first level of business
are the ones that are goingto get you to your second level.
So there's a couple people out therethey want just to see Tim every day.
They want just to see, you know, Craig
like you're their guy and they want thatone on one relationship.

(21:14):
And so when we can no longer provide that,
if they choose to go somewhere else, like,I just had to learn to be fine with that
because I'm going to gainten more clients,
like the teams that we work with now.
We can never work with, absolutes,if it was just Tim.
They need peoplethat can do shoot at the same time,
like we're shooting for them three timesat 10 a.m., and things like that.
I've never been able to work with them
when we were solo shooterand then vice versa.

(21:36):
So just recognizing that there'sdifferent clients for different
different types of businesses, and as yougrow, you're going to have to shed,
but you're also going to gain, thingsthat you couldn't do solo.
I love that so much.
Colleen, you said that your first clientsare not the type of clients are going
to take you to like, your tier twoin business, and I think that's so true.

(21:57):
Goodness,there's so much to dive in there.
They're one thing that I loveis your transparency and your honesty.
That was one thing that I,I struggle with, not so much the honesty,
but the transparency of sharingthat as to where
early on as like we'd grow is like,okay, we're just going to send Ryan.
I really like Ryan,and Ryan's really good.
And and maybe they'll just thinkthat it's actually Todd, even though it's

(22:19):
Ryan and Ryan, you know, eight inchesshorter and looks completely different.
And it's so I think that's so smartabout being transparent.
And then also look at this fabulous toolthat we all have with social media.
We're showing thatand being transparent about those items.
So I love that idea.
Showing the behind the scenes,showing the training, sharing the goals.

(22:42):
Because one thing also to rememberis that our
clients have those same goals, Realtors,it's their goal.
They want to grow.
Many of them say,I want to be the number one realtor
or the number one team,
or I want to sell this much likethey're on this journey with us as well.
And being transparent,I can tell you, has moved us so far along.
And in fact, that's one thing that

(23:03):
right after we launched Spiro
that you all told me like, hey,we really want to know what's going on.
Like, you know, we're in the system.We love it.
We want to feel connected.
Just, you know,
you don't have to do everything we say,but can you tell us what's going on?
So I completelyagree with the transparency.
You got to like,make people part of, like, your community,
like, bring them along for the ride, like,have them feel like they're involved.

(23:24):
So I think being transparent and,like, showing, showing
all that kind of makes them feel like,you know, they're like, oh, I was
I was there from the beginningwhen it was just Tim.
And they're like, they likethink it's so cool to like, watch us grow.
Not only from a client perspectiveColleen, but from a team perspective.
Do you find that that transparencylike new photographers coming in.
I'm sure they search you.

(23:46):
They look you up on Instagram.Do they find these things.
Is that give them some insightas to how great your company is to.
And do you think that increases the demandfor them wanting to work for you?
- Oh the employees that.- Yeah. The employees.
Yeah. Yeah.
We get people that reach out to usand ask for a job, which is crazy.

(24:06):
People definitely
see what we're doing and they want to work
at Three Palms Media,which is just something I never expected.
I'm like, wait, so you.
I'll be gone for three months.
Maybe. Awesome.
So that has definitely been helpful.
And then in the interview process,
and even even from the job descriptionright off the bat,
like we talk about that,I want them to understand

(24:28):
that this is like morethan just a photography job.
First of all, it's like literally nota photography job, actually.
But, it's more than just that.
And you're going to get this whole teamand, you know, we meet as a team
every other week and we go out on outingsand our slack channel pops off.
And, you know,there's just a lot of camaraderie here.

(24:50):
And that is something we get feedbackon all the time from our team.
Is that they lovebeing a part of Three Palms Media.
Again Craig, we go back to thisalmost every week for something.
We talk about ties back to relationshipsand the importance
of relationships and the importancethat humans just want to connect.
And they want to have belongingand they want to belong somewhere.

(25:13):
And I believe as a whole,people want to do good
and want to do good for youas an employer.
And buildingthose relationships is so important.
being real and authenticwith people and finding that
in, in the marketplaceevery day, marketplace or workplace,
I think is more rare than we realize,

(25:35):
like true authenticity.
And human to human relationship building.
Colleen, I was sharing with the teamthis morning at, during our staff meeting
that I just joined an association uphere in, in my market that,
I, I'm the minority in the room
and the warmness and authenticity

(25:59):
of this group of people in a welcoming,welcoming me as a new member,
just his struck me,you know, in a very profound way.
And I jumped in.
I thought I was going to be the newbiethat just kind of flew under the radar
for a little whileand kind of got to know the group.
And somehow I found myselfon the Public Relations Committee.

(26:19):
Immediately.
But it was because of
just the warmnessand the authenticity and the,
the immediate relationshipbuilding that this group was doing.
And it made me want to be a part of thisand help promote its mission.
And I think it's the same thingwhen you're when you're hiring a team,

(26:40):
the authenticity and, and, just warmnessthat you as the owner can extend
to potential new team members will have
a huge, huge impact on people's lives.
Yeah.
And that has beenone of my favorite parts.
Like I have team membersthat will tell me in their one on ones
or just randomly like how much Timor I or both of us,

(27:03):
have just impacted their their livesbecause I mean, in their one on ones,
we do one on oneswith all of our team members,
every other month about,
and of course, we talk about business
and stuff, but the majority of itis really just about their personal goals,
where they're at,what's truly holding them back.

(27:25):
What?
You know, okay, maybe theymaybe they have arrived late a few times.
It's not because they can'tset their alarm.
Like, why?
Why are you actually, like,why are you actually being late?
Like, what is it that you're, like,holding yourself back on?
And, we, I peel back the layers on thatand a lot of times
it's just a confidence issueor just something they're not, you know,

(27:49):
feeling like themselves, things like that.
So we really dive into a lot of thatand I think that that's
then that's somethingthat not maybe a lot of people experience
when they're talking to their employeror their their man, their leader,
things like that.
But that's somethingthat we really, really focus on because
I think that's really what matters.

(28:10):
And if that can help make thema better person or more comfortable
in their life, then they're automaticallygoing to be a better,
you know, part teammember of Three Palms Media.
Absolutely. So we focus a lot on that.
And I think really being generous
with our timeand just anything like I think as we grow,

(28:30):
just the more we give, the more generouswe are, the more things come back.
So whether that's,you know, compensating them
extra hours for doing something or,
just spending more time talking to them,
calling them things like that,I think is really important.
I think a lot of times, you know,you just want to hire people
and just let them go and not really haveto, like, nurture them.

(28:54):
But I don't think thatthat's going to get you the results
that you ultimately want, because whenwe show them how much we care about them,
they begin to just be much moreabout our clients and how they're doing
and things like that.And it's all just very full circle.
Yeah.
I think that's such a huge advantage.
And, and the way you're doingit is so smart.
Colleen, I when I started off,at least I thought

(29:17):
being a bosswas telling people what to do.
And it's like, hey, I,
I'm going to tell people what to do,and I'm going to be ultra professional,
and I'm going to make sure that they knowwhat they're to do.
And as I flip that and just turn it
into, you're really like Colleen said,peeling back those layers,
like don't hurt.

(29:37):
Like if they've been late or they've donesomething wrong, don't jump
to the conclusions that they did it
because they wanted your companynot to be great.
Like there are so many reasonsunderneath that.
And that's typically typicallywhat you'll find.
They don't want to let you down.
That's why I had a lot of like,I really don't want to let you down.
And then you get some,
you get some
things that come from working,not wanting to let someone down

(30:01):
that can be negative and really
the real core issue wasthey didn't want to let you down.
Also, the other thing to think aboutthose are your employees.
They don't have this.
They have different mindsetthan what you have.
So you might work one way,but they don't want to work that way
or they don't think that's important.
The relationship is important.
Understandthey belong somewhere is important.

(30:23):
You know, a lot of timesI would have talks
with some of my other leaders a whileand they'd be like, I would never do that.
It's like, well, no, I get that.
We don't need to find some.
Like, we're not finding you likethis was the individual
as a head of our training them
at the company a very long time, likeI get that you've done this for ten years
now, like I getyou don't want to go and do that.
We just need to find people who find thatexciting, you know?

(30:46):
And specifically what the photographersof, you know, as you drive
like, let's all be honest,as you start shooting less,
the idea of driving 40,000
miles againbecomes kind of not so attractive, right?
I mean, it's like, yeah, I don't wantto send the car for that long,
but there are people that love to gosee houses and see how people live

(31:11):
and build relationships with realtorsand get to create this fabulous media
that helps realtors advertisehouses, that gets people to sell.
And yeah, yeah, Craig,and you love it too.
And now you're, you're you've kind ofshifted a little bit into a hybrid role.
So it's like you get a goodyou get a good mix of different things.

(31:31):
But that's growthy'all. That's just really growth.
And that's a fabulous thing.
So don't assume that your thoughtsare your employees thoughts right.
So Colleen at REPP 2024,
part of the material that you shared waswas growing your dream team.
So we've we've talked a lot about,you know, relationships and authenticity

(31:52):
and that's great.
But let's kind of drill downon your method of growing your dream team.
Can you kind of step usthrough what you've developed
and how you hire andand find the right team members
and kind of break that downin some practical steps for, for people?
Yes, I can definitely do that.
So we've always donejob postings on indeed.

(32:18):
That'sjust the only place I've ever posted.
When I think about creatingor job posting,
I want it to feel like I want themto get that feeling
that is Three Palms Mediawhen they're reading it.
I try not to make it
so much like all the other job postingsmaybe that you see on there
that just kind of lack personalityand and things like that.

(32:39):
So that's where I first start.
I want every part of the processto give you like a different feeling.
And then I really utilize,like those questions on there
that they have to answerlike little things like,
you know,are you willing to commute to this area?
Do you have a reliable car or are youdo you understand that this is a variable?

(33:01):
Our job like these little thingsthat like, I don't want to like
get on the phone and talk to you aboutand realize you're like, oh, I, you know,
I variable hours doesn't work for meor I don't have,
you know, reliable transportation,whatever, things like that.
So I, I list out all these questionsto make them like, I want them to work
to put in an application, not just apply.

(33:22):
So they have to answer all ofthese questions that I put on there.
And then I put in our jobposting a couple things.
One, I hide a little secret messageat the end that says
if you if you've made itthis far, in your response, right.
I love palm trees.
So that's I love to use detail oriented.
Right.
That that's
so excited about this job that they'rereading the entire job description

(33:45):
and then they'll write,I love palm trees in there.
And I immediatelyI'm like, okay, I can interview you.
I just kind of also ask them to,
send me a video,answering a three questions.
The questions are typicallytell me about yourself and what you love.
And I always like how people answer thatbecause people will answer
that so many different ways.

(34:05):
Like when I say, tell me what you love,like so many different answers,
feel like they get to tell.
Tells me a lot about the person.
And then I ask,
something like, you know,why does this job interest you?
And then, like, what are youyour goals or what are you looking for?
Something like that?
I want them to put in the workto actually apply.

(34:25):
I want them to be excited about it.
So they send a video and then I,and then I'll do, like 15 minute.
I have calendly,so I'll, I'll do like a 15 or
20 minute calendly and I'll,I'll send out that link and I'll say, hey,
let's jump on
a phone call or whatever,a video call, video
specifically I need to see eitherlike it cannot be just over the phone.

(34:47):
And, so we do that.
And my goal for thatis that I'm not talking.
They are.
So I need to understand who they are,what their I call it.
I'm trying to figure outwhat their destination is.
What do they desire?
Do they want to be working full time?
Do they want to be part time

(35:07):
because they also want to be like halfstay at home dad?
Like what are they actually looking for?
What is their desired end state?
Because it needs to line upwith what we need for
just the uniqueness of this job.
So I'm having them talk,and then I will move on
to in person, 90 minute.
Usually they go about 90 minutesor 90 minutes in person interviews.

(35:31):
And there's where we'll really diveinto more of the job and things like that.
Like they don't need to
I don't need to tell themevery little detail about the job
on the 15 minute phone interview.
It's really like me understanding
what they wantand need to see if that lines up with us,
and then we can go and really talkabout everything after that.
So we meet up in person, we talk,we keep it conversational.

(35:53):
I'm looking fordo you have good eye contact?
I'm looking for, you know,
did you walk into the roomwith confidence?
Because walking into thesedifferent houses every day
isn't actually easy at all.
Like you're walking into a new environmentevery single day.
So I'm looking for those thingsI do not care
if you've ever touched a camera before,do not care.
I don't care about mediaor anything like that.

(36:16):
I really care about them as a person.
And their
if their schedule works for their life.
Now, sometimes people just reallywant to be a photographer and videographer
and they will say that the schedule worksfor their life and it does.
So that is why it's so importantfor you to understand,
like what is their actual destinationbefore you start talking about the job?

(36:39):
So that's kind of our interview process.
I'll just pause there.
I can talk about training and stuff too,but I didn't want to go too long.
If you have any questionsor comments on that,
I have, I have a few.
Colleen, I love the idea of usingthat word destination.
I'm going to borrow a miss, stealthat from you and start using that.
I think that's so importantto understand what the individual do. You.

(37:03):
So during this process,
Are there times
where you begin to maybe bend or flex
on what you need because you feelso you can't find people to do it?
Or is there?
I know looking back at Wow,like sometimes you're like,
oh, we're going to take a flieron this person.

(37:24):
It's just like, we don't knowif people really want to do this.
I guess that's maybe a better question.
Do you find that
with that process thereand making people work
during the interview process,which I think is really smart,
but like kind of some of these,
for the lack of a better term, hoopsto jump through, do people do that?
You are there people out therewanting to do this job?
Yeah, yeah, there's definitelypeople out there that that want to do it.

(37:49):
And I just don't have time to like wasteon the people that just are mass applying.
And, you know,they see a higher hourly rate.
Because we're W-2 and we pay hourlyand things like that.
And, but it's variable, right. So,
I get a lot of job applicantsbecause they're
they'd be like,oh, 30, $35 an hour, things like that.

(38:12):
So that attracts a lot of people.
But you do have to make sure thatthey actually want to, to do this job.
But there is people get excitedabout not being behind a desk.
People get excited about workingfor a local small like business.
People get excited about,like you said earlier, Todd
getting to explorebeautiful Ohio or Southwest Florida.

(38:32):
They want to be out and about.
We want to see stuff.
They want to talk to people every day.
They're like,oh my God, I get to fly a drone.
And sometimes I think about I'm like,this job is pretty cool.
It's cool. It is.
You know, there'sdefinitely people out there
and people that it works for their lifebecause it is.
So that's the biggest thing. I'mlooking forward, like destination, like

(38:53):
this is a variable.
Our job for us.
I cannot guarantee ours.I can not hire you full time.
That's not part of our business model.
So examples of people on our teamare a wedding photographer,
wedding or a DJ,
a guy whose wife works full timeand he wants to,
like, have a lot of flexibilityto be like a dad to his four year old kid.

(39:16):
And but but loves the ideaof, like, going out and being creative.
He used to actually run a whole.
He was a creative director,like a big marketing like thing.
And he's like,I no longer became the creative.
I just became the manager.
I want to be hands onand I want to be a dad.
I'm like, oh, that's a good fit.
Like, you think that these people don'texist, but they actually do.
And then

(39:37):
what are some other,you know, people in school on our team?
And then there is peoplethat do rely on Three Palms Media
for the majority of their, income.
And they do they work like 30something, 35 hours a week or so.
And that that works for them,
at people that want to learnhow to use a camera, things like that.

(39:58):
So there is a lot of good things,about it.
The biggest one iswe can not gaurantee hours.
That's what we really have to uncover.
Is that going to work for you or not?
Yeah, I think those those expectations
and communication upfront will save you so much in the end.
And I know many times
again, I was like, oh,I might I'm going to compromise on this

(40:19):
because I feel like we didn'tget really good applicants.
Like, please, y'all do not compromise.
You're not going to find a perfect person.
I'm not saying that.
But if there is something that is core
to the job, like don't hire them.
You're someone who needs full timework with seasonal variable.
All of the things that come intoreal estate photography,

(40:42):
like don't
bend on that because they're goingto get through a busy season
and they're going to realize like,hey, they're slow season
and they're going to go findsomething else that they need.
So please don't compromiseon some core aspects of
of what we all need as real estatephotographers or real estate
photography business owners.
I keep getting these emojis coming up.

(41:03):
I don't know what I'm doing you all, but Ioh my goodness, these emojis.
This is just like Ithere's probably a setting somewhere.
I do have one more question, Colleen.
What can our.
So someone hiring for the first timeposting
on that great ideaof be personable with the job description.
Use questions appropriately.
Go back you all and listen.

(41:23):
She gave you what she does. Do that.
What is the idea of like top of funnel?
How many people come in?
How many people do you come down to?
How many people do you have to talk to?
What is just from a numbers standpoint,can you give us just a rough estimate
of kind of numbers of peoplethat need to apply, people
that you review their questions,
that actually answer the questions, peoplethat you talked to 15 minutes

(41:46):
and then down to like that hourand a half interview.
Yeah.
Well, first of all,it has like the more first of all,
the more you hire people,the better you're going to be at it.
And I have made multiple mistakes.
I probably hired 3 or 4 people againstmy gut and none of them have worked out.
I learned no longer thatlike Todd just said, do not compromise.
But it's really hard.

(42:06):
Like the first person I hired,he was super creative
and I thought he was goingto make amazing videos.
And he was, you know, he was
absolutely not good at anything else.
Like,
you know, the organization,the accountability,
the emotional intelligence.None of that was there.
I was blinded by, like,knowing how creative this person was. So,

(42:27):
and then you learn more like,it can be a painful process.
Like,I, it's very hard to just get it right.
Like, the even times where I'm like,okay, I'm a pro now.
Like, I know how to hire peopleand I would still make a mistake.
So I give myself a little bit of gracethere, but it varies.
I have gotten as many as like70-100 applicants like on indeed.

(42:48):
And then there's the timeswhen I have phone interview
like.
12 to 20 people at times.
It's not always like that.
It wasn't like that this last round.
But, you, you learn and having that videothem send you that video
and that wasn't something I always didthat is really helpful to cutting down

(43:09):
on my time, because if I can see somebodytalking and on a video
that's almost as good as that
15 minute phone call,it's almost as good. So
that has really helped me cut back on,like doing like 20, 15 minute phone calls.
I don't do group interviews.
I know a lot of peoplesuggest that we don't do it.
It's not my vibe.

(43:30):
I, you know, and I've also neverreally tried it so I could be missing out.
But we don't do that.
And then I will interview in person
if I'm looking for one photographer,I will interview,
at least four, four people in person.
So talk in person. Okay.
We were interviewing about fourin person, 4 or 5, and we're hiring 1

(43:51):
or 2, at a timeas typically what we've been doing.
Gotcha.
And then after your,your interview, Colleen,
is that the final interview and you decideor to someone else in your team
get them. How does that look?
It is right now.
It is the final interview.
I will know after that interview.
I think as we're growing now,if we'd like to bring a team member or so,

(44:14):
kind of call them up a little bit, I don'tknow when that is, no idea when that is.
And involve them more in that, like whatwe're looking for and things like that.
But, so far just got one interviewand then we're, we're, we're good to go.
Now when I hired my admin, there wasit was more involved.
I felt like that was a
bigger job I interview for.

(44:35):
So I interviewedtoo many people in person.
I think I interviewed eight peopleand I was looking for one,
and it's because I was so nervous about,like getting this one right.
And, you know, the truth is I foundthe person that I wanted, like right away.
But I kept going because I felt like I,I was so scarred.
Sometimes you, like,go so far the opposite way. Right?
I was so scarred for making a mistakewith my first photographer.

(44:55):
Even though I was probably on my fourth
photographer at the timebefore I hired my admin.
But it was painful.
But I always call people in person.
I cried, I criedwhen I had to call these admin people.
A lot of them are really great,but Tim and I just believe that
if you interview them in person,
you have to give them a phone calland not just an email.
And so I had to call seven peopleand tell them they didn't get the job.

(45:18):
And it was it was awful.
So I don't want to interviewthat many people again for a job like.
Yeah, I agree 100%.
You should
you should call them if they came.
And they have got to that point
and they spent an hour, hourand a half with you.
You should call them.
You never know.
You might hirethese people down the road, right.
You know, don't if they got to that step,they're pretty good.

(45:41):
So don't write it off.
Some things might change back.
We've caught a couple.
Our first guy that I hired and fired,the guy that I didn't hire, Julian.
I had to call him back, a couple monthslater and be like, I need you on the team.
Like.And this was before I fired the first guy.
I just.
I knew I made a mistake,I called him, he was still intrested,

(46:02):
like, when we, you know, told himwe didn't get the job.
We call him stuff like that.
I've had, a girl on my team. Faith.
I made a mistake.
I didn't hire her.
I hiredsomebody else based on the wrong reasons.
And I called her, told hershe didn't get the job.
A day later,I called her, and I said I made a mistake.
I really, really think that I'd loveto have you on the team.

(46:22):
And honestly, that kind of almost madethe it like, stronger, the relationship
a little bit stronger.
Now she's an awesomemember of our team. So
give yourself some grace.
If you're out there and you're trying tohire like it is not easy, it is difficult.
But you learn.
And I'm just big on going with my gutand every time I don't, I regret it.

(46:42):
What just struck me, Colleen, is
you called Faith backand said I made a mistake.
Yeah,
I've never heard an employer door say that before,
and so I'm just trying to put myselfin Faith's position right now.
Craig.
I've never made any mistakes at leastduring your time here, so that's just.

(47:02):
I wasn't trying to say anythingthere about that. No,
no, but I'm just I'm tryingto think, like, how would I process that
as a potential employeethat this employer was that,
transparent and
honest, like, no,seriously, like that would make me want
to get to know that employer betterand work for them, that they're willing,

(47:25):
even in the interview process,to say, hey, I messed this up.
I would respect that incredibly.
And I can't helpbut think that once they're on the team
and you continue that kind of culture,that they just get
totally bought in to your missionin and your business.
And yeah, it might not beto the level of it's their baby as well.

(47:46):
But man, that that kind of transparencyand honesty,
I would respect that in a leader.
And that's awesome that you,you said that.
Yeah, it worked out and it did.
It createdlike I created a different vibe.
Yeah. With her. So
for sure.
Amazing.Colleen, we're getting close to the end.

(48:07):
I, I maybe you could give us just thecliff note version on what the timeline.
So you've made a decisionto the final candidate, and you have
someone you're excited to bring onyou to, a team that works for them.
You've qualified them.
You know, that whole process,
maybe just a cliff note version of whatthat training like.
Now what I've done, the tremendoustask of finding someone.

(48:31):
I'm excited about them.
Now, how do I get them to actually goout there and do what I need them to do?
Because at this point,you all, you're not out of the woods.
You've actually createdmore work for yourself.
You're getting you're getting closerto freeing up your time.
So don't stop now.
But how does someone go, Colleen from
I've got the candidate now,how do I put my brain into their brain?

(48:54):
What do I give them?
What do I do?What does that timeline look like?
Just so our listenersknow kind of what to expect?
Yeah, absolutely.
So we have them start.
We're always ready for themto start like the next day.
So it's really about them too.
They have to put likewhat are they going to do.
And we send them
like a onboarding checklist
that they need to dobefore they get to their first day.

(49:17):
And that is things like,
you know, I'll invite them to slack,signing them to Spiro.
Get having them download the,you know, five dozen apps
that they need like the Zillowtours and Matterport and whatever.
All that logging because they don'tneed to do that in front of me.
Like that is just,
you know, so get anythingthat they can done like admin side done.

(49:37):
Before that we use gusto to onboard them.
We send them an offer letter. They accept.
We kind ofgo through that process with them.
And then we have Tim calls itChristmas Day is their first day
because they get all of their, equipment.
So we we supply their equipment, itthrough comms media.
So they get all their equipment.
Tim walks themthrough all of the equipment.

(49:57):
Most of these people are seeingthis equipment for the very first time.
They don't have experiencewith the camera.
So, Tim, spending quality timewalking them through all of these things,
teaching themhow to take care of their equipment,
how to, you know, things like that.
We're big on that.So that's a big part of it.
And just some admin stuffon that first day

(50:17):
after that, we do a second day where we,
Tim isworking with them in a vacant house.
Sometimes it's my parents house.
By vacant, I just mean no.
You know, clients are there,
and is showing themhow to do all of those things,
and then they willthen go out and shadow Tim.
Or now they shadow our lead photographer.

(50:40):
So we've got Julian and Justin on our teamthat do this
trainingnow, like we'll say, okay, Faith, Julian,
Faith and Julian, you're a pairJulian go off and and train her.
And that's part of him.
He's now a lead photographer.
So we have themshadow us for a little bit.
Kind of like that first weekfrom Christmas Day to Shadow is a week,
and then that next week,we're kind of shadowing them.

(51:03):
And we are trying to get them upto speed on photos, floor
plans, Zillow tours,and we're teaching them drone.
And meanwhile,the very first day we were telling them,
you need to get your drone license,like now, like start setting now.
We give them all the shiny materialthey need.
They go off, they take this.
We talk about thisa lot in the interview process.
You're going to have to take a test.

(51:24):
It is not an easy test.
Are you up for this task?
Use all the resources hereand then use our team members who have all
taken this test to ask questions, sowe make sure they get signed up for that.
That's a big part of it.But we're teaching them drone.
And our goal is about, you know,three weeks in or so that they can be, out
doing photos, floorplans, Zillow tours, stufflike that on their own, hopefully drone.

(51:48):
We say that they have to get the dronewithin the first 30 days.
Some get it sooner than others.
And that is the the process.
And we want themto get really good of that with that.
So then we send them out.
And like the hardest part of the jobis finding your flow and like learning
how to work with the clientsand stuff like that.
So we let them do that for a little bit.Everyone's different.
It is not one training timelinefor every person.

(52:11):
We, while we're doing that,we are doing a loom.
Every night looms over there.
Their shoots could have done betterhere, could have done better here.
This is what we do. We are.
You're dead honest with the feedback.
I mean, we make sure that they knowthat a big a question that we ask
in the interview process ishow do you handle, you know,
constructive feedbackand things like that?

(52:32):
That we find is really helpful.
Like don't sleep on the,the looms that those really help.
I was behind on one of our team membersand I did a bunch of looms for her.
And then the next day,her photos immediately got better.
So you just need to stack those.
Those building blocks is they can'tlearn at all just from watching Tim.
You got to get them out thereand then continue to give them feedback

(52:53):
once they're really in a flowand they've got the drone license,
they're doing drone.
Then we layer on reels and video.
And then we have a video certificationat Three Palms Media
that is just us saying your videocertified. And,
we all do some video workshops sometimes,like talk about broader training.
We'll, we'll block half a day.
We'll bring the team,we'll break them into two groups,

(53:16):
and then we'll have different peopletraining each other on video.
And they love those workshops becausethey get to hang out with the team.
One, they get to learn from each other,which they love.
And, we have seen those immediatelyupskill their videos
directly after the video workshops,but that's kind of our process,
and it really isabout checking in with them.

(53:37):
How do you feel like you're doing?
We have a 30, 60, 90 dayformal check in with all of our new hires,
things like that.
And you will know after the first coupleto learn to work out or not.
And you do need to let them go fastif they're not going to work out.
So with working out
for your company,
does this mean, like the first mistakethey make or

(53:59):
how do you handle mistakes and how do youyou've already said this a little bit.
I think it's super important with how youhandle these, especially very early on.
What, what and maybe a little bit
more on your strategy for that feedbackand those mistakes.
We let them know that mistakesare a rite of passage,
and we expect them to make mistakesand that we don't care about the mistakes,
we care about what they can learnand how they can rebound from them.

(54:22):
So we'll have people be like,I'm not going to miss anything.
And I'm like, you will miss,
you will.
Don't be too hard on yourself when you do.
And then they do.
And some of them get upset.Some of them, you know,
that's a conversationthat we have to to talk about.
And that's where personalities come intoto play differently.
So we, we embrace mistakes.

(54:43):
We champion mistakes.
We talk about them a lotbecause it is actually impossible for them
to not make mistakes.
So we are very you know,
that's our talk track around thatand then we'll share mistakes
that team members have madewith like the whole group.
Which can sound brutal, but we like if I,

(55:05):
do a loom.
And there was things that I see so manynew photographers make that mistake
or whatever,or I'm going to put it in the chat and,
talk about it that way.
Same when they do somethingreally great as well.
But we encourage peopleto learn from each other's mistakes.
So we talk about that.
And then like one of my favorite storiesis my
my first photographer,Julian, who's great, he is fantastic.

(55:28):
And one day he was on site
and he dropped his cameraand it shattered the whole LCD screen.
And, I can only imagine just the sheer
terror that went through his mindwhen this happened.
And anyways, we didn't know about it.
He called us later that day and said,hey guys, this is what happened.
I dropped my camera,shattered the LCD screen.

(55:49):
I am so sorry.
But, based
on where I was, I knew team memberLeanne wasn't working today.
I called her up.
I went and got her camera.I came back to the job.
I got the job done.
I got all my job done this day. And,
you know, I'm so sorry.
And, you know,tell me what the next steps are.
And I was like, Julian.
I was like, I, I'mso sorry that you dropped the camera.

(56:13):
Like, we know you.
We know that that uncharacteristic
I said, I just want to point out like,this is exactly what I'm looking for.
You came to me with a solution.
You didn't come to me with a problem.You figured it out.
You got it done.
I said, that's incredible.
And I couldn't ask for anything more.
So I really flipped it into a positive,which I truly believe that it was.
Share that with the team.
And that's a story that I feel likedemonstrates exactly what I am

(56:34):
looking for.
You know, they crash a drone.
We figured out if you crashingthree drones, there's a problem.
But, you know, I never made them payfor the equipment or anything like that.
We always kind of made it with kindness.
And, if it's a continuous mistake,then there's a problem.
But we've already talked about it.
So we talk about everythingexactly. When it happens.
Yeah.

(56:55):
That's so important.
That's that's a great wayto handle that Colleen and then use it.
Use it for good and use it
for a learning experiencedown the road with the rest of your team.
Yeah, definitely.
So yeah, that's that's how we do it.
And we encourage a lot of camaraderiebetween the team.
So we've got a photographer supportchat and slack where like that's
where the photographers can hop inand be like,

(57:15):
my drone's not working or whatever or hey,you shot this video.
You guys think about it.
And we encourage that chat to pop off.
And and it does.
So there's a lot of camaraderiein there too.
And people will share their mistakes.
People will share their wins.
So that we can all like kind of,you know, learn from each other.
So, Colleen,if a listeners out there going, hey, I,

(57:36):
I don't know about this hiring thing,I hired one,
and that individual is a bad.
Should they try it again?
Is it worth hiring?
Yes. You should try it again.
It is worth hiring.
And when you
find somebody that loves your companyand loves working alongside of you
and loves learning from youand their life changes because of you,

(57:57):
I mean, I mean, that's way betterthan anything else like that.
So, so rewarding,
and you know, also likethat's that's very me and that's very Tim.
That's a reason that we want day one.
We wanted to grow a team.
So that aligns with our vision,
and our goals for our businessfrom the very start.

(58:20):
I think that there is plenty of peoplethat they love shooting like, great.
You don't need to hire any
anybody else to shoot.I would suggest that
you still need to hire,even if you want to be a solo shooter.
I think you need to hirean excellent virtual assistant.
I go through the same interview processeswith my virtual assistants.
I find them myself.
We pour into them.
We make them knowthat they're part of a team.

(58:41):
Or maybe you need an adminor something like that
so you can't do it alone,even if you plan to shoot alone.
So, I think it's an important thingfor anybody to try and learn.
And I mean, what I said, I've hiredfour people that didn't work out.
Maybe more.
First person didn't work out, peoplethat you think are going to work out,
and then their life changeswhen they leave.

(59:01):
And it's devastating.
You know,
first person leave that I was just like,like truly heartbroken over.
And he leftbecause his family moved to Nashville
and he wanted to be in Nashville
and that'swhat was going to propel his life forward.
He said, I love what I do.
Do you know anyonethat I could go work for in Nashville?

(59:22):
And I said, yes, I absolutely do.
So now he's working at National MediaCo with Kevin up in Nashville
and, you know, it'sheartbreaking to see him go.
But Tim, Tim always says as Tim says,you know, our whole goal is to leave.
If that person leaves like betterand we can like
get them to their next steppingstone,then we've done our job.

(59:42):
You really can't hang on to people,either.
So, we did everything that we couldto get him set up,
according to what he wantedand how grateful he was for that.
It's just like that.That, to me, is like what it's all about.
So I would say, I mean, everything you'vedone in your business so far, right?
Is scary. Like, startingyour business is scary.
Getting clients is scary.

(01:00:03):
Having your first mistakes is scary.
Like it all is uncomfortable.
So you just kind of gotta keep doing itand you will get better.
Like the first time
that we Tim picked up a video camerato go shoot like the video starts.
You know, the first time we hired,we sucked at it.
So we you're going to suckuntil you just keep kind of keep doing it.
But so many people that one bad experiencechange their whole perspective

(01:00:26):
or their whole view and something that,like Eli Jones has always said is like,
don't, don't change 100% of your processesfor like 2% of like mistakes.
I don't know.
He says it more eloquently, butit's basically like if one little thing
goes wrong, don't change everythingabout your life because of that.
Know.

(01:00:47):
So I thinkit's the same with your first hire.
Your second hire,your first two Vas don't work out.
Doesn't mean that,
you know, they're not going to work out.
I always look at, like,what did I do wrong?
Like, I like Craig.
When you were, like,I called her and said I made a mistake.
Like,you have to take ownership of everything.
It is your business.
I don't blame my photographerswhen they make a mistake.

(01:01:08):
I don't blame them.
I'm like, what did I do wrong?
We sent a photographer out the other dayto early to a top client,
and they didn't communicate to usthat it was this, like huge $17
million listing that they need,blah blah, blah, like crazy. And
it got messed up and it was my fault.
I sent him out too soon.
And things like that.

(01:01:28):
We had to go out on sitethree times until we figured it out.
So it was just one of those
that I got really doubt about ita couple of weeks ago, because I just,
I felt like I dropped the ball, you know,and then I just had to pick myself
back up and be like,
you know, let's just, you know,learn from this and move forward.
And I talked to the guy on our teamand was like, you're great.
You're doing great. Like,these are the mistakes I made.

(01:01:50):
Here's where you can improve and like,let's just crush it going forward.
Like I was like, how much did you learnin these three days? He's like a lot.
Yep. So yeah.
Well, our guest, our guestthis week, Colleen Kydd,
co-owner of Three Palms Media in southwestFlorida,
Colleen was the one of the guest speakersat the REPP 2024 concert.

(01:02:12):
Concert? How about conference?
Was there a concert?
I don't know, maybe there was,
but sharing a growing your dream team.
Kelly, thank you so much.
Just for sharing your knowledgeand your experience with us in
for for those that are looking to growtheir teams,
just awesome, awesome material.
You are welcome.

(01:02:32):
And I do have my job descriptions,that I gave away to people all the time.
So if you want our job description,I'll send it to you.
Just,
DM me at Three Palms Media on Instagram.
Or you can reach out to me at Colleen.
[e-mail]
It's T H R E E palms media dot net.

(01:02:55):
Thank you Colleen for that.
That they can get that from you.
So yeah wow what a giveaway.
Thank you for that.
And then y'all go backand re listen to this.
And she gave you the procedure for hiring.
Just write that all down step by step.
Create a quick documentso you know what to do.
You can always come back and listen tothis or listen to her presentation at Rep.

(01:03:15):
But write it all down.
That will make things a little bit quickerfor you and a step by step.
And then that's just a draft.It doesn't have to be perfect.
You can come backas you learn things, add to that draft,
but that's kind of given to you on aon a plate there.
Thank you Colleen,so much for everything you shared today.
You're welcome.Thank you for having me. Love it.
As always.
It's our our privilege.

(01:03:37):
We love having you onand we'll do it again.
Looking forward to it. Awesome.
Well, Todd, any closing thoughts from youbefore we, wrap things up here?
There's so many good ones in there.
Craig, I think one of the thingsthat I just love, that the point
that Colleen made is just it's not alwaysgoing to be easy with growth.
You know, you're going to screw things upand that's okay.

(01:03:58):
I screw things up every day.
We unfortunately don'treally live in a world
with a lot of mediathat it looks like people screw things up.
We do screwed up every day.
It's just a natural part of growth.
So begin to embrace thatand don't be surprised by it.
When you're surprised by it,your left brain kicks up.

(01:04:19):
You get these emotions that get triggered,and then you go, oh my goodness,
I should close down my business.
On the flip side of that, if
you expect that and embrace the ideathat screwing something up
and learning from it is growth,it can just allow you to move
along so much easier, not even just fasterwill allow you to move along faster.

(01:04:40):
But it's the ease of the ideaof like a lot of us as business
owners, it's just us out thereand we feel like we're on an island.
We feel like we're alone.
The cool thingis, is when you get this process down
and you grow a team, it'sso just rewarding
to see your team take that onand to have a community around you.
They love the community, you love it.

(01:05:00):
It just there's so muchthat feeds into it.
So please just keep trying.
Yeah, I like the way Colleen couched itin terms of mistakes.
It's a rite of passage
is such a positive way of looking at it.
So awesome.
Well guys,thank you so much, guys, ladies,
all of you, for,watching or listening this week.

(01:05:21):
We really do count it a privilegeto be able to be part of your sphere, and
hopefully add some value to the businessthat you're growing and working in.
Not just working on, butworking in and on, each and every week.
We don't take that for granted.
So thank you for your time.
If you have any, thoughts or comments,please be sure to share
those, here on the YouTube channel,or feel free to drop us an email.

(01:05:44):
[e-mail].
We would love to hear from you.
And, don't forget about that bookgiveaway.
The first person to messages on the Spiropink chat bubble did I?
Yeah, I said that right.
Yes, I forget what you renamed it,but I forget what I renamed it.
Yeah, right.
But we would love to hear from you.
It's, John Maxwell'sDeveloping the leader within you 2.0.

(01:06:06):
We would love to just,bless you with that book as well
and help you continue to growin your leadership of your business,
that you're runningand growing and developing.
Guys, thank you again so much.
Make sure you take some time to bethankful for the blessings in your life.
You got to make that timeeach and every day
and make sure you take a breath as well.
You have a great week.
Thank you for joining usfor the Spiro Podcast,

(01:06:29):
managing your real estate, photographyand videography business.
This is a production of Spiroand Wow video tours.
You can find out more about Spiro
is Real Estate Media Business managementsoftware at our website.
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