April 9, 2025 • 59 mins
REPP 2024 Speaker Warren McCarthy, of McCarthy joins Todd & Craig this week to share his story of how he went from being a full time medical student, to a Real Estate Media Business Owner. Warren shares some great insights and inspiration for you to continue growing your business. You don't want to miss this!
Chapter Timestamps:
0:00 Episode Open
02:12 Spiro Software Updates
05:10 How to Suggest Spiro Features
05:44 Thanks to Viewers/Listeners
07:54 Todd Puts Craig in a Corner
10:12 Guest Intro - Warren McCarthy
57:46 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):
And so that was like the biggest pivotal
thing that I think helped move businessforward, especially.
And going into everythingthat's full time was like, well,
I have this wealth of time now.
What do I do with it?
Kind of like the number oneanswer is as much outreach as possible.
(00:38):
Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,
managing your real estate, photographyand videography business.
Spiro is a software platformdesigned in-house by a real estate
media companyto really manage and grow our business,
but ultimately to help you growand manage your business as well.
So welcome to another week.
For those of youthat are returning, for those of you,
(00:59):
maybe this is the first timewatching or listening.
I just want to welcome you.
We want to help you build a strongreal estate media business and,
just give you some, some real lifeexamples and stories of how to build
that business and runit day to day, to help you be successful.
So we've got a special guest this week.
But before we introduce him,
let me introduce co-host and Spiro ownerand founder, Todd Kivimaki.
(01:21):
Welcome back, Todd.
Craig. Hey, great to be back.
I took a little vacation and you got busy,which is.
You know,I think it's just great testimony.
We get busy to you all. We know, Craig.
Craig is in the day to dayof a real estate media business.
Our business Wow video tours.
I still have a little bit to do.
So you see usand then sometimes you don't see us.
(01:42):
And I know that's the wayyour life goes, too.
So, But it's Craig.
It's great to be back with you hereon another week for sure.
And just to note, I will be ducking outa little bit early because again,
I've got some businessto take care of out in the field.
So anyway, it's going to be a great week.
Todd, we've got a guest on this week.
We're really excited to hear fromand hear his story and, get gain
(02:05):
some wisdom, pick his brain
a little bit on his journeyand what's helped him be successful.
But before we get to that, we always liketo go over what is new in Spiro.
What, what's going on with the software?
Yeah.
So a few weeks ago, we pushed an updatethat allowed you to revamp
and give you a lot more options
with your order page, specificallyyour bundle cards, the way you advertise.
(02:27):
So you if you haven't played with thatand you have time, it might be good
to look at your shopping cartorder pages inside the bundle set up.
Now you have small, medium,and large cards.
You can put tags on those.
You can load multiple photo shows.
You can load a video.
So we really wanted to give you toolsthat of how you could sell better
(02:48):
and show your media on the order pages.
So that's just ato do in the back of your mind.
If, if you don't feel like that's a gapright now,
don't feel like you have to go redo that,your system will look fine the way it is.
Even with those updates
moving into
the next, development cycle,we call it cycle 11.
That's what we're on.
Just a quick highlight here.
We're going to revamp andlook at revamping that marketing toolkit,
(03:11):
giving you some increasedand enhanced features and flexibility.
Also looking at some propertywebsite templates
and then a feedback automated feedbackmethod for you,
to ask your clients, hey,how did everything go after delivery?
So it's going to be a two pronged approachwhere if your clients
if everything wasn't perfectand they didn't say five stars,
(03:34):
you can say, hey,we want to take care of you.
Let us know what your problemis. Call us, email us.
Whatever the contact information is.
But if that client clicksfive stars and you,
then you have the optionto send them a different message
that says, hey, thank you so much.We value you.
Would you help us out?
You click our Google review,our Facebook review, whatever review site
you want to try to get your review.
(03:55):
You know, Craig, this is soI just recently went on vacation
and when you go on vacation, it was a newpart of that part of the area.
We went down to Floridaand my brother had lived
in this community or this city forhe just moved about three months ago.
So he knew something about the area.
And it just naturally, I think we allat least I search in Google.
(04:17):
And, you know, I look at,you know, like my son wanted a skim board
looking for a surf shop.
We want to be looking for bait shops,looking for baseball or basketball
card shops like I search, I scroll, I got,I got Jessica got a massage.
Like I search andI read through the reviews, I don't know,
I think we all do that, but I think I dosome weird things that not everybody does.
(04:38):
But I feel pretty confident sayingthat if we can get you or if you can
get more reviews for your business,it's only going to help you.
I don't know if peopleeven on the websites in 2025 anymore, so
that's fair.
But I don't know that I do.
Yeah, I mean Google reviews,I think Amazon change that in the way
people buy online is people want to knowwhat other people think about it.
(05:03):
Yeah.
So I'm excited about that update.
Awesome.
Well good deal.
We'll keep those, those updates coming.
And don't forget if there is a featurethat you're looking for in Spiro,
you we have a what's calledwhat is a feature base.
Yeah. It's true. Feature base. Yeah.
So you can create a free Spiro accountand there is an option in there to,
(05:25):
eitherupvote current ideas for the software
for development or submit a new oneand have others upvote it as well.
And that kind of helps us organize,
what things get rolled outinto the software because
we want the software to work for you.
So there you go.
All right.
Anything else before we dive into things,
Craig, just athanks to all of our listeners.
(05:46):
I appreciate all of you.
You all take such good care of us.
I can't tell you how many callsI was on this last week, week and a half
since I've been back.
And everyone is saying, like,these are potential new users of of Spiro
and these are clients that are doing 4or 5, six, 7000 shoots a year.
These are large media companies,and they're all saying, hey,
(06:07):
you guys are blown up in the forums.
I had to hear what you're doing.
So that's because of you guys.
Thank you for that.
I you know, I'mnot asking for an unsolicited plug.
If you if we do our joband you like what we do,
any time you say, hey,I'm happy with Spiro, it helps us.
So and you guys are doing that.
Everybody's been saying it to me,so thank you for that.
(06:29):
I don't say it enough.
Just the lovethat you guys have is incredible.
Yeah, and I don't think we mentioned
I missed this, Todd,but one of our viewers on YouTube
said, oh, by the way, congratulationson hitting the thousand subscribers.
I hadn't even noticed that because,
I mean, yes, we would love for more peopleto watch and listen, but
we don't
I don't track that super, super tight.
(06:51):
We've got other things.
But me and I, we'reI think we're past a 1040 now.
Todd.
Even since that note came through.
So guys, thank you so much.
Yeah. Yeah, truly humbled by that.
Craig,this is on a whim, and I don't even know
if we would hire for this position,but if you're out there and like
because we don't focus on the podcasta whole lot, we jump on here.
We love doing the actual recordingof the podcast.
(07:13):
We love connecting with the sphere,
you know, with our, you know, someonelike our guest today, bringing them on.
But we don't focus on that thing.
Somebody had to tell uswe had subscribers.
I had no clue that we had.
So if that's something you loveand you're like, hey,
you guys could leverage this better,or you can reach and help more people
by doing these thingsor cutting the videos that way.
Shoot me an email please,and give me your ideas.
(07:34):
Maybe, maybe you could.
You know, work part time for usand we could tune that thing up.
For sure, because
we want to make surethat anything that guests bring on
and that's valuable,that could help your guys's business grow.
We can get out to youand then more people.
Yeah, absolutely. Great idea.
All righty.
Well, speaking of having guestson, we do have a special guest this week.
(07:58):
For those of you that attended, the REPP
2024 concert, I'mtrying to remember what year we end.
Man. Time is flying, Todd.
Go ahead.
He was.
He was, Well, yeah, 23 and 24.
And it was a I think you said concertat the convention.
The convention for a conference.
(08:18):
Did I say concert? You said concert.
But I heard you're going to be performingthis year, Craig.
Actually,I already had one performance, but, yeah,
I, I played drums
back in high school,which was a years ago.
And, and, my youngest has now joined
band as a fourth grader, and he,he has started playing drums.
(08:41):
So I've been starting to teach them.
And I'm like, man,I kind of I can't miss playing drums.
Okay.
And, decided to join our local, communityband.
We've got 90 some members.
I'm back in a percussion section.
We had a concert about a month ago, and,yeah, I'm loving it.
I'm really rusty,but I'm loving it anyway.
Craig
(09:01):
I have an idea,and I promise we'll get to our guest here.
Just fast forward 20. 30s.
If you don't want to hear this idea,y'all, and you'll get to something better.
Craig.
So the late night host, who was the guywho was just the drummer wasn't there?
Was there a guythat was just played drums?
I know Letterman had the bald guythat was keyboards.
I feel like there was a late night hostthat had like the guy in
(09:23):
the band only played drums.
Okay, it's not that important in my stuff.
I go to bed by 10 p.m..
I don't know these, I don't know,I don't know the late night show.
Well, I said David Letterman.
I mean, that shows how long it'sbeen since I've seen one of these. But,
okay, what if you were that guyat the conference this year?
Craig? Nope.
We could get you a drum setand you could interact.
(09:45):
You could have musical things andand snares, and we get you bells,
and you could bring all of that excitementand commentary to the conference
this year. Craig.
Thanks. No, thanks.
I'm the guy behind the camera, right?
Not in front.I don't think I'm going to left.
I really like this idea right now.
As of 10:01 a.m.
eastern on, April 4th here.
(10:07):
As we're recording this,
I think I'm going to I think we needto make this happen, Craig.
But let's get to our guests, please.
Thank you. Yes. Please just comment belowif you want.
Craig on staying in a drum set. No. Nope.
Not happening.
All right, so he
was a conference speaker at Rep 2024this past year
and, just shared a great presentation.
(10:29):
Some great thoughts. And Todd from here,I'm going to let you introduce him.
Yeah.
So he was at both conferencesor two years in a row, 24 and 23.
23 was the first timeI was at the REPP conference.
And this individual.
So first off, when he has a presencein a room and I'm just like, okay,
you like you notice this guy.
And then we got to his partwhere he was talking about his business,
(10:53):
and I was like, there's no what?
Like, this is honestly a machine.
This is an AI robotthat's dressed up in a nice sweater
and presents well, and there's no waya human could do what he's doing.
So, yeah, it's it's insane.
And I think it shows that
hard work and perseverance will get youwhere you want to go.
(11:15):
And I'm excited to hear his his businessis grown and he's doing fabulous.
He's got some exciting thingshappening to his life.
We'll get all into that.
I know some of you knowhe's a good friend of mine.
Warren McCarthy with McCarthy media.
Warren, welcome to the show.
Good morning guys.
How are you, two?
Doing great.
(11:35):
Excited to have you on.
Well, thank you so much for having me.
And I just also want to sayI really appreciate you to having me
on the podcast.
It is a pleasure as an honorand it's just fantastic.
So I really appreciate you two.Thank you so much.
Oh, thanks for making time for us.
So, Warren,for those of for those listeners
that don't know you and your story,do you want to take a few minutes here
(11:58):
and just kind of give us an idea?
I think it's always people always connectwith what made you get into it?
What did youwhy did you why did you switch gears?
You switched some pretty big gears.
You had one path that was like when youwhen you said that on stage,
it's like, wait a minute,he was going to do that. And
so if you could just give us a story,
I think our listenerswould love to hear it.
(12:18):
They'll connect with it.
Yeah, absolutely.So I'll start from the beginning.
So originally I was gearedtoward a medically oriented path.
I studied at the University of Utah.
I got my bachelor's in biology,minored in chemistry,
and with an emphasisin anatomy and physiology.
So I was right.
I, I mean, come on, come on.
(12:39):
I remember biology class. I was like,
I think I had a degree in it. So
I, I would,I would, I would cram five minutes
before class for our pop quizzesin anatomy class. I.
Hats off to you Warren
That's not so that's what he said.
He's like, I'min, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in the ER.
I'm in the operating room.And he's like, I'm editing.
(13:02):
Not literally,but I'll let you tell the story.
Warren. Sorry. Oh, no. You're good.
I was in the operating room.
Oh my gosh, it was it was a blast.
But I did, I did my bachelor's degreewhile I was doing my bachelors.
I was actually working upat the university in the operating room
as an anesthesia technician, as,like a anesthesia assistant, staff, stuff
(13:22):
like that.
And so with that, I was like, okay,so I'm geared up and ready.
I've done a ton of research.
Like at the university,I'm working in the operating room.
I have my degree, a minor and an emphasis.
I'm geared up.
I have full ride masters ahead of meat the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
I was like,okay, we're ready. We're primed.
And looking down the line, I was like,I want to do an anesthesia residency.
(13:47):
I wanted to do the residencyplus a cardiac fellowship.
So I've been working with a lot
of the cardiothoracic doctorsinside the operating room.
I wanted to help run a labwith, like, two other PhDs
outside of thatand a few more other tasks.
That's like department head related.
And so I was like looking at allthe time that I had, I also love to teach.
(14:08):
And I was like, well,
with my, my background and now museologyexpanding that in medical school.
And then applying that, I was thinkingif I could teach at the medical school,
that would be a lot of fun too.
So there were like four different thingsthat all required a ton of time.
And like the effort put inI had no quarrel with.
I was entirely happy to put in the effort,but I was looking at the end result
(14:32):
and I was like,okay, as an anesthesiologist
with a cardiac fellowshipand like cardiac training in addition
to a lab, in additionto like teaching at the medical school,
there was not a lot of timeleft in the day.
And what matters a lot to me
personally is a lot of family time.
(14:53):
I was like,I don't know if this is going to translate
very well until I had about 55 or 60.
So yeah, I started to turn.
I started to pivot.
I was like, okay, well, I've doneheadshots and like some event photography.
I've done some engagement
photos in the past,like during my time at the university.
And I was like, well, this is fun,but I haven't really found my niche.
(15:16):
And so there was this onekind of like hallmark transition
where I was helping out a family friend,and we drove like three hours.
We carpooled to just do like a once offreal estate shoot
because like kind of southern Utah ish,not quite to Saint George.
And I just got to experiencelike the whole transaction
(15:38):
from the seller wanting to list fromlike why they wanted to do something
like selling one of their investmentproperties, rolling equity.
There's like a lot of finance in it.
And then I did the shoot.
It was a ton of fun.
And after that, just seeing that wholetransaction kind of like work its magic.
And both partieswere incredibly happy in the end
(16:00):
and the agent was happylike their clients were happy.
It was just a fantastic transitionfrom all the other stuff I was doing.
I was like, okay, this
I can see potential in itand I think it might be a lot of fun.
And so I start to turn, start to pivot.
I found, Eli online
with like, real estate, kind of shooting
(16:21):
and like, running a real estatein the business side of things.
And I was always like, well,I want to like run some type of business
that I literally had, at the baseof one of the trails near my parents home.
It's like in, in the summer.
It is hot. It is blistering.I was like, you know what?
I feel like people would want ice waterat the bottom of this trail.
So I bought an ice chest.
(16:41):
I bought like ice bagsfrom Costco and like, water.
I felt like a little QR code, like, okay,
it's like a dollar per iced water bottleif you want to take one.
And then, alas, I got like maybe $4and then all my bottles were gone.
I was like, okay, that'sthat's not gonna work all that well.
But returning backto the kind of original story.
(17:02):
So I started to turn.
I started to pivot.
I was like, okay, this businessopportunity might be exciting.
It might be fun.
I'll look more into it.
And it started out as a passion project.
While I was working in the operating room,I was like, okay, you know what?
I'm going to start thisand I need to roll with it
because I need to make some typeof transition
and find myself in a new position
(17:25):
with kind of my end goal in mind.
And so that was like,okay, I need to reel back.
I need to pull back
and see what my other optionsare besides looking into the medical part.
And I found the real estate mediaside of things started rolling with it.
And in May 20th May, 15 of 2023,
(17:45):
I had like the official start,
official start of business.
And that'swhen I was not all in by any means.
I was still workingfull time at the hospital,
but the biggest transition
for me was I hadI had the gracious opportunity
to not only just work days,but I could work nights.
(18:06):
So I transitioned to working nightsin the operating room
and fueling the business during the day.
And so that was awful for a long time.
Yeah, there's no sleep involved with that,and I do not recommend it to anyone.
But it was a round robinschedule of 6 p.m.
to 6 p.m.
now, 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.. Excuse me.
(18:26):
Working in the operating roomand about seven ish,
7:30 in the morning to about 5:30 p.m.
working on the business during the day.
And that just that happenedfor like three days straight.
And then it was like 72 plus ish hours
with minimal sleep every weekfor about eight months.
(18:46):
And that sucked. So no. Yeah,
it was awful. But.
But we made it through.We made it through.
And so and then in 2024,
I believe it was March, I believe it’s March.
I dropped my hours from full time to,like, picking up a couple shifts a week.
(19:08):
And then after about a month, I was like,literally, even if I'm putting only 4
to 8 hours into this positionposition, it's sapping 50% of my energy.
So I just totally left itand transitioned fully
into real estate mediaand had been there ever since.
And it's offered like more timeand more flexibility.
(19:29):
I would say, like, of coursewe're all working a lot and working a ton,
but also help me learna lot more about finding my end goal
and spending a lot of time with familyand being and being able to implement
all of those elements into life now.
And that was something that was reallyhard for me to do, because I'm I'm easily
(19:50):
a workaholicand I love to work, do stuff like that.
But I was like, I have to make I have tocreate space for, my fiancé.
I do create space for myself.
I have to make sure there is that elementof taking care of myself in the moment
and not just thinking, oh, I'mgoing to get that later down the line.
(20:10):
I'll have like a lot of familylater down the line.
So that was kind of the May 2023start to now.
Now the status is,Daxi is running the business with me
and it's been fantastic.
And we have two incrediblephotographers under us.
We're onboarding a couple more VAs,and it's just been fantastic.
(20:33):
And the connections we've made,
the people we've met, the workwe've been doing, and the good of
we've been doing for all of our clientshas just been phenomenal.
So it's been really, really fun.
It's really hard in the beginning.
But yeah, transitionedand here we are now.
Todd ,Warren's story here just
echoes what you have said over and overon this podcast about the purpose of
(20:55):
of creating a businessto make it work for you.
I mean, Warren,you just you just proved Todd's point in,
you know, spot on.
Todd has a ton of wisdom. So
you you're too kind.
And that was something that a coach
helped me on as he definedwhat a business was.
It's, a business is a, a profitable
(21:19):
enterprisethat works without you and works for you.
And I think that's the biggest thing.
I wrote a few things downwhile you're telling your story, Warren.
And every time I hear it, I just.
I love it even more and more.
You said I took it.
I wanted to have the end goal in mind,
and I think that is so important.
(21:40):
You know, you were working in a fieldwhere you were,
like you mentioned,by the time you got to be 50, 55,
you were going to be setand you were going to be, you know,
money wasn't going to be an issue.
Even before that, in that
career space, you know anything, doctor,anesthesiologist.
(22:01):
You know, I had a neighbor as a CRNA.
I'm like, you make that much money?
Like, it's good money, like, but
like there you devote your life to itand you are
you live at the hospital,you live where you're at.
And what those individuals dois incredible.
Like the way that they can save peopleand the things that are coming out.
(22:22):
And you talked about, you know,like being in a lab with other PhDs,
like the things that are intellectualpeople are doctors are creating art.
It's life devoting,but it's life consuming.
And just kudos to youfor thinking about the end goal in mind.
You know, that is huge with doing thatand especially at the stage.
Like what?
What did your parents say when when you,when you told them about this transition?
(22:46):
They were very upset, to say the least.
They're very upset because Iso I'm, I'm half Chinese.
So there's also a kindof like a cultural tie in to,
but they were definitely like,what are you doing?
Like, you had full right in college.
You have a full right masters.
You have everything set up that
(23:07):
so many people are, like, vying for.
Yeah.
And I was like,I have to pull back from it.
I have to.
And it was it was a hard transition for meand it made me upset.
I was like, is this the right path for me?
And it was scary.
It made me worried.
Like a lot of stress and anxiety is like,I don't know if this is the right thing
(23:30):
to do because I'm pulling back fromthe thing I'd been working on for forever.
Really.
It's kind of a paradigmshift in your life.
So let me ask you, I know, Todd,you have more points, but let me ask you
because I remember making my switchand at the end of that four years,
well even throughout thattime what I experienced was,
(23:54):
just a season of thankfulnesslike I've never experienced before.
What what what emotionally.
What was it like for you, Warren,to make that
that transition and go fully in
with whatyou were really passionate about?
It was incredible.
Like, I was worried and fearfulat the beginning, of course,
like transitioning fullyinto just doing real estate media.
(24:18):
I was apprehensive,but once I was and then like,
I can devote so much more time,so much more effort
and feel good about all the effortthat I'm putting in.
And it's just fantastic.
Like the the CEO side of thingsgo better, the brokerage
presentations go better,interacting with clients go better.
And it was justI was like, okay, well, this feels good.
(24:41):
And working towards something moreI can see, I can materialize,
see the building blocksgoing into the business
and things working out for the better,refining processes,
going through new things,experiencing hardships too
with like hiring or hardshipswith clients, or hardships
with like all other aspects of businessthat I would never have thought
(25:04):
about otherwise.
But being able to brace thatwithout devoting other time and energy
to a differentavenue was really, really good to feel.
It was honestly a relieve
Yeah, yeah, that's I know that resonateswith so many other people out there.
Warren, you know, I think we havea lot of listeners that are are dabbling.
(25:24):
I would say in real estate media.And that's okay.
Most like you said, hey,I took my first shoot.
And, you know, I was say, this is kind ofa flier basically at this point.
And you have to do that with things.
You know, we we can never justblindly jump into anything in life.
We always have to test a little bit.
But one another thing that you said, thatyou wrote down, you said that
(25:45):
as you transitiondown the part time in the ER,
you said those even 4 to 8hours were zapping 50% of your energy.
And I, I think we all do it.
We all say, hey, but it's good money.
Like it's paying my my rent right now.
And I have these school bills.
Well you didn’t because you had full ride.
(26:06):
But I had school bill,you know like those of you that have
we all have bills, right?
Regardless of what it is.
And we justify in our brain.
I did this with wedding photographyfor a long time.
Probably too many years.
And I had hired a staff.I was still shooting weddings.
I had, I had an adminthat was running the business.
I had, an a
(26:27):
we had a customer service person,and we probably had 4 or 5 photographers.
And there was still some of those endyears that I was shooting 6 to 8 weddings.
And it was just like, it was like,why am I doing this?
And it's like, well, that's money thatI don't know if it's going to be replaced.
And I think that's just that was a
(26:47):
thought air on my brain of saying,hey, why am I trying to.
No, Todd, get out of that thought.
Because the way where you placed itis, you know, you're going to grow
so much more.
And the idea of the Mike Michalowiczbook of pumpkin planning, of saying
no to something so you can say yesto the bigger opportunity.
So, you know, that's amazing to see that.
You know, I'm sure I'm sure that wasa nice check for 4 to 8 hours in the ER.
(27:10):
But saying no to one thing allowed youto say yes to the bigger pumpkin.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
And I was also just like the,
I think the year of just takingthat full leap that like, I feel most
business owners like when they do thattransition experience
and like even working like 4 to 8 hours,I was like, it's like it's fine.
(27:32):
But it definitely tookit took me away from
so many other opportunitiesthat were there before me.
I mean, I was working during the weekas as most people do.
The brokeragepresentations happen during the week.
The team meetings at the brokeragestake time during the week.
They don't operate on the weekends.
And so I was like, you know what?
Like these, these opportunities
(27:52):
I am missing every single one of themwhile I'm spending my time working.
I need to find a wayin order to make this work.
Yeah, yeah,I think that's so if you're out there
and you're saying, hey, I,
I'm picking up a few shoots,I can think of a few people I know, but,
there's an individualthat's a school teacher
and trying to figure outhow to make the business work.
(28:14):
There's some other individualsthat are working in other fields.
I just specifically knowthat I've talked to.
It's like,and I'm not singling you guys out,
but take from take inspirationfrom your own story.
Or let me ask you ajust a simple question.
Was there everthis like in this moment of like,
I got I've got to quit,I've got to transition?
Was it ever 100% clear that you woke up?
You're like, boom. Yep, I'm going to quitnow. I'm happy. I'm good with it.
(28:35):
Or were you always like,
okay, I know I need to do it,and then you got a little more sure of it.
Like if if our listeners are out therewaiting for this epiphany moment where
they wake up and like the clouds say, quityour job, is that ever going to happen?
I would sayit was definitely more slow transition.
But when it happened to happen fast. Okay.
(28:56):
I remember I was in the operating room,
I was taking on an additional shift
and I was like, it was,I think like 11 p.m.
at night.
And the shift ended at 2 a.m..
And I looked at the clock and like,what am I doing?
Like, I am up so late,I know I have to be up for a shoot at like
(29:16):
I was like it was summer ish area,I think.
And I was like, I have a shoot earlyin the morning, I am not getting enough
sleep.
And I told myself I pulled myself offnight in order to get more sleep,
make sure I'm functioning better,make sure the business is moving forward.
Literally. What am I doing?
And so it was duringthat kind of like 10 p.m.
(29:36):
to 2 a.m.,
time frame.
I was like, okay, literally, I'm tomorrow,I'm putting in my two weeks, like,
I cannot deal with this anymore.
And so I put it in,wait it out that last duration.
And then after that I was like,okay, I'm ready to go.
So it was definitely a lot of builduplike stress, anxiety until that point.
And I was like, it was pretty immediate.
(29:57):
I was like,I can't do this anymore. I'm fed up.
I need this to stop.
And so I transitioned after two weeks
and then we were set and readyand primed for bigger things.
Yeah. Nice.
And did you look back and at any point
do you look back and say,I probably should have kept my job?
Oh absolutely not.
No. There's no way. Yeah,
(30:20):
yeah.
And there is a fine line there like I,I don't want to be the catalyst for you
like more on analyze that very havelike Warren and you should analyze it.
So there's a lot that we kind of skipthrough of analyzing pros and cons
list in a timeline.
So I don't want I don't want to getyou fired up today out there.
And you, you likeif you're listening to this to your on
(30:40):
drive into work, like,please don't go quit today.
Your job like
pleasejust make an informed, educated decision.
But I think proof's in the pudding.
And we hear this again and again
that when you can focus onsomething that will expand
and that has happened,you know, for Warren as well.
(31:02):
So Warren transitioning beyond thatlike let's talk about okay.
So you had your focusfully on the business.
So like now what I get this questiona lot where people say hey
I focused full time. I've made the jump.
Like what do I do now?
How did you wade through those waters.
Oh. So I tried to set the precedent
(31:24):
very early on,
like literally when I shifted to nights
and worked nights and then workedon the business during the day, the,
the prime concernthat I think a lot of people were going
through is like,oh, well, like my outreach is like, okay,
I might like, hit up maybefive people a day or something like that.
(31:45):
And I think fivepeople is a fantastic number.
I was looking at that and peoplewere having kind of one calls with it
and two struggling with ita little bit more.
And I thought to myself, okay,if this is where people's weaknesses are,
I need to make it my absolute strength.
And so I did a massive a massive,massive amount of outreach.
(32:06):
I mean, there was like over Instagram,I was going in like meeting realtors.
I was going to like you even even so faras like some open houses, stuff like that.
But I ramped up my outreachlike absolute crazy
during the eight ish months thatI was in the operating room working nights
and that was the lifeblood of my businessexpanding or our business.
(32:29):
I would say his Daxi is with me in it.
And so that was like the biggest pivotal
thing that I think helped move businessforward, especially.
And going into everythingthat's full time was like, well,
I have this wealth of time now.
What do I do with it?
Kind of like the number oneanswer is as much outreach as possible.
(32:51):
If people are doing anywherelike five ish K a month,
6K, 7k, I'm making some good money.
Then I would say the biggestindicator of future success
is all the thingsthat they're doing on the daily,
with that wealth of time that they nowhave, pulling back from a full time job,
(33:12):
they now have one eitherat least 40 additional hours
during the weekto do an amazing amount of outreach
and two to saturate that time with income
generating activitieslike shoots and stuff like that,
and scheduling brokerage presentationsnow that they have time on their hands.
(33:32):
Even going so far as like
getting like sponsor positionsin brokerages as well.
Like sometimesit could be like a $500 ticket
for a full yearor something to that extent.
But being the prime focus,being able to do
a massive amount of outreachand let absolutely everyone
who knows you and could knowyou know about your services,
(33:55):
know about your incredible real estatemedia, know about who you are,
what's your personality,but what you bring to the table?
Like who, who you are as a team memberand an asset to them?
What you can do to help them fromjust listed and showcasing everything
amazingly, and shortening that time fromjust listed to under contract.
(34:15):
By doing all of those things packed intonow in a full time open schedule.
Yeah I,
I think that's so smart in your businessand that is, that's essentially
filling the top of the funneland you have to fill your sales funnel.
You have to let people know about you.
I think sometimes as creativeswe can get caught in an infinite
(34:37):
loop of thinking,I need to make my photos better.
I need to make my video better,I need to offer this product,
or this piece of equipmentis going to help me.
I'm sorry y'all,and I say this with love for my heart.
It's not it is not.
It is the relationshipyou have with your clients.
You know, just just a fact for you guys
(35:00):
at our media company,we shot over 12,000 tours last year.
We're looking like we're going to do 13five this year.
We're growing on our best year everand we continue to grow.
And I will tell you that
it is not our goalto have the best photos, the best video.
We don't need it.
It's own.
We have to have good.We have to have good, good quality.
(35:22):
But once it gets to an acceptable quality,we're done
messing with it because a little bit moreis not going to get us anything.
We have focused our time, energyand efforts on customer
service and building relationships.
Yeah, and that is why we grow.
Not no realtoris ever going to look and say, oh, hey,
did you upgrade to that new camera?
I'm really noticing how you're ableto layer blend those five, seven images,
(35:44):
I think really look a lot betterbecause you got a little bit
more dynamic range in the darks,like no one's ever going to say that.
Realtors, I hate to tell you, like mosta lot of them don't even really
look at your stuff.
They look at every so many listingsbecause they're busy,
and you don't ever want to be caughtwith a realtor checking up on a listing
going like, why did that?Why is that there?
(36:05):
Why is that bad?
So you have to be of certain quality.
But honestly, they are busy.
They trust you,you deliver on it but don't have
don't have the wrong expectations
of what quality you need to deliverbecause it just doesn't work, you know?
Warren said that he focused on thoseeight months of building relationships.
Yeah,
(36:25):
Craig, you have thoughts on that?
I mean, nothing I haven't said before.
You know, I,I look at my own media that I shoot in,
in my market and it's, it's solid.
I mean, I try to always do a good job and,you know, pay attention to detail.
But I know even with ourwithin our own company,
there are other photographers in othermarkets that I think are better than I am.
(36:46):
But I think what has helped mebe successful, just like
Warren has shared, is,is those relate the relationship building.
You know, I I've been at this now,you know, five ish years total, five
six years total.
And I've developed great relationships.
And Warren, just like you, I, I grindedyou know, I was at the, at the industry
(37:08):
events, I was at the board events,I do brokerage presentations.
I take realtors out to coffee.
I get to know them as people.
You know, these are peoplethat have families and have kids
and they have crazy schedules as realtorsand just meeting in them at the
at that human point of identifyingwith the stress that they're under,
trying to alleviatethe issues that they're facing,
(37:30):
you know, in their business,helping them, win more listings.
It's all relational based.
And, Todd, I, I couldn't agree more.
The you know, I read through thesesome of these forums and in the nitpicking
and I and I'm going to call it nitpicking on the quality of the photo
and, you know, flamboyant versus HDR.
(37:51):
It's like.
We're having pretty good success
not stressing outtoo much on those things, but still,
I don't know if I couldI could ramble on, but Warren.
And I'm right with you.
I, I you're you're on the right trackand and it's proving out for you.
Well thank you I appreciate that.
Yeah.
It's it's been, it'sbeen really cool to see like the,
(38:14):
the difference between focusingon like the creative aspect
and then the business and buildingaspect, the relationships aspect
and seeing all of that come together.
Like even sometimes I'm like, well,how do I still create relationships?
How do I still strengthen relationships?
I'm like, yeah, are theream I missing something?
Is there something elseI need to be doing?
But it's always fallingback to like, the roots and like what
(38:38):
you've been doing in the pastand expanding on that maybe a little bit.
And it's it really works itself outand works itself out
as long as you're intentional with it.
Just like you've been saying,
Warren, I'm goingto I'm going to pivot a slight bit because
and before the show,we talked a little bit about it,
an aspect of your businessthat we really haven't talked a lot
(38:59):
about on this podcast,and you agreed to talk about it.
And I think it's somethingthat many of us are in.
I know myself when I started,
the business, I was dating an individual.
So, you know, she was with meas the businesses got started.
Then we got engaged and got marriedand she had some,
some roles and some things that she did.
(39:19):
And mainlyshe did them because she loved me.
Not really, because it was her passion.
So I think there is there
and there's some times I look backand I'm like, oh, that was like,
that was a misstep by me because,
maybe the way I reactedor that my expectations of of my wife
now wife Jessica and you kind of have thesame scenario with your now fiancé Daxi.
(39:44):
So, would you liketo just comment a little bit?
Because I think we have other listenersout there
that have, you know,their significant other
and maybe they're dating, marriedor engaged or married, but how are there
any tidbits of things that you've learnedor how are you guys working together?
You have any,
tips on working together
(40:05):
with the person you loveand growing a business?
Let's see.
I'm definitely notall knowing by any means.
So, but what has worked Daxi and me?
I'll also kind of preface like whereDaxi was with me during the process.
We started dating in 2022, like before.
I even had a glimpse of
(40:27):
like running a real estate media business,and now we run it together.
So she handles a lot of likethe admin style tasks.
I do like, like CEOslash sales slash like still on site.
As for
and this is still something I'mworking on,
I ask for dedicating more time
(40:48):
to like your loved ones.
Like initially I was awful at it,
especially in those eightish months of like round robin nights.
Like she literallyheld everything together
and she was liketo gave the utmost support.
And she was absolutely incredible.
And she is incredible.
And during that whole process, honestly,I, I would not be where I am today.
(41:13):
We would not be where we are todaywithout her help.
During that critical period.
And she's helped me ever sinceand ever since I started in May 2023.
Like she would make sureeverything is looking great.
It's like I exhaust roasted beyond belief.
But I was still workingand she was patient.
She was kind.
She helped me so muchand it starts to break
(41:37):
like tears in my eyesjust talking about it,
because she has been so pivotalto our success
and like our vision for the future, it'sjust been amazing.
And I think ever since then I was like,
I need to make sure that I'mputting in more effort.
I need to be putting in more effort,one into our relationship,
(41:59):
but also into finding
that boundary between this is work
and this is personal,and I'm still struggling with that.
I still have clients who are like,hey, like,
I know it's Saturday, but my clientsor they have like X, Y, Z, reason
and I initially was availableall week, like seven days a week.
(42:22):
I will shoot every single dayand then I shoot
Saturdays, I shoot Sundays,I'm back on Monday and doing a full week.
And ever since I would say probably late
last year of 2024 like more October and November,
I've really started being ableto implement more processes
(42:42):
that are like, okay, I need to make sureI'm being able to step away.
I'm not available to my clients at 9 p.m.
10 p.m.
at night,so I need to be much more present with Daxi
and with our relationshipbecause that it's it's huge
and it's important to melike I realize it is important to me,
(43:03):
but my initial mind was like,oh, well, I need to make up.
I need to make more time for clients.
I need to make surethey're well taken care of.
But I was lacking so muchin giving more time,
attentionand care and love and trust to Daxi.
And she's been fuelingabsolutely everything since the beginning.
And so she more than has deservedand earned everything that I have.
(43:28):
And so with that, I would say trying
to find a good way to find
finding a way to like,
step back from work,but not leaving clients hanging per se,
but establish boundaries and like,hey, like,
after, say, maybe 6 p.m., 7 p.m.
I am with my familyand my actually and I don't have kids.
(43:51):
And so I know that is that's hugewith having a family and being able
to allocate time to loved onesand to my fiancé like that is that's huge.
And setting that precedent early,the earlier the better.
The more that clients knowthey can't reach out at 11 p.m.
or call at 11 p.m.
(44:11):
to schedule a shoot for the next morning,the better.
So yeah, so I would say boundaries ishuge, boundaries is huge.
And then also communication is huge.
And I'm not the best communicatorby any means.
I have a lot of stuff that I need to workon, but communicating
well and also being able to be like, hey,
(44:32):
I have a clientwho's texting me about something.
Is it okay if I manage this real quick?
And then we can get back to X, Y, Z,and this could be like a
on a Saturday at 3 p.m.,something like that, or we're on a walk
near a lake or somethingand just being able to make sure
your partneror significant other loved one knows
(44:53):
you're not just ignoring,you're not just doing Instagram DM.
And while they're talking to you,
you know, so it's it'smaking sure that connection is there,
that transparency is thereand making a space specifically for them.
And that, again,I am not the expert at this whatsoever.
I'm still working on a lot of these things
(45:13):
that I'm talking about,but it has been significantly better.
And so I think with other real estatemedia businesses or business owners
or business owners in general,making space for family
and for the ones that they loveand care about, I think is just huge,
because that's whywe made our business to fuel our desires.
(45:34):
And also
part ofthat is to help the people around us
help the people who support us,especially with Daxi.
My fiancé, she's supported meever since the beginning, and I'm
so grateful for everythingthat she has done, like Beyond Grateful.
And it's it's just been pinnacleto our success,
(45:55):
to the way we live lifeand the way we want to live life.
That that word presence
just jumped out at me.
Yeah,because you can be away from work, but
still not be present with those around youthat you love and care about.
I mean, I had a position at one point that
even when I wasn't at work,I was at work and that was not healthy.
(46:17):
So, yeah, establishing the boundariesto be able to create presence
for those around you that you loveand care about, that's huge more.
And I'm I'm proud of youthat you've recognized that early and,
and are working to make that a possibilityfor for Daxi and others in your family.
That's awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Yeah, yeah.
We always we always talk aboutcommunication and expectations, Craig.
(46:40):
And I think that's just
that's a Warren just said, you know,making sure that we set boundaries.
That's expected and communicating.
And I think if you're out there thinking,I know he's talking to an individual
on a coaching call yesterday and she,she was she was at a point
that she was just doing everything and,and she needed to hire
or she needed systems.
She needed, you know,she needed a photographer.
(47:01):
She needed admin.
If you're worried out therethat clients won't use you
because they expect to contact youafter 5 p.m., after 7 p.m.
for you to shoot on Saturday.
for you to shoot on Sundays.
That may actually be true.
It's probably nottrue. That's probably a thought air
(47:24):
if you have a relationship with them
and you say, hey, I'd really love to helpyou, these are my hours.
Like after 7 p.m.
and they're like, hey, that's not okaywith me, that you, you don't leave
your familyand come work for me after 7 p.m.
or my beck and call.
Then you need to tell them thatthat's not okay.
You need to.
Because saying noto some of those clients will allow you,
(47:48):
even if they transition.
If they leave, saying no to themwill allow you to say
yes to other better clients.
You know, just a quick story.
At our media company,we had a relationship.
We have a relationshipwith a large company
and a couple of our cities,and we are raising prices,
(48:08):
and we didn't reallyfeel the support from them.
Through some of what
the way we like to set up a brokerage dealand we didn't really get the support
from the company, and we stepped awayfrom one of their programs
because it wasn't good for us,and a lot of their clients stayed with us.
A lot of the agents stayed with usbecause we had the relationship
and we've been honoring pricing.
(48:29):
And they get really good pricing.
And it's just it's just way too low.
And we're raising itand it's like a thousand shoots a year.
And, you know, that'sit's a good amount of shoots a year.
And for that, you know,there was this pause
of hesitation of like, well,what if what if we lose them all?
And I told Steve and Stevealready had this same thinking.
It came more from some of the team.
(48:49):
I was like, if we lose them all,then we're going to get better clients.
If we lose those thousand shoots,
we're going to get a thousand shootsthat are a lot better.
Clients that appreciate us more, clientsthat pay more, clients
that don't complain or,you know, look for the lowest price.
So it's painful.
It's definitely painful, but it iswhat is healthy for your business.
(49:10):
And Warren's been talking the whole timeabout having the end in mind
and saying no to bad clientsnow allows you to say
yes to good clientsand continue and end with those clients.
So now looking at your businessin 2025 Warren, what does the future hold?
What what what's on your mind?What's top of mind.
What are you workingon? Where there's some gaps.
(49:32):
What are you excited about?
Yeah, absolutely.
So for 2025 we are in April now.
Our first quarter was great.
And we are like relative last year to like
we have been doing amazingespecially with our team in place.
We have two photographersslash videographers.
(49:52):
We are onboarding two VAs right now.
And Daxi and I, we actually, you know,talked about this a little bit more.
And like our ideal is I want to have us
to be ableto pull me away from more shoots
because as of right now I'm like,we're not even into peak peak season.
(50:14):
And I am saturated with like
six shoots, maybe like seven.
Some days I'm like,
I need to make sure one, I'mgiving these to my photographers as well.
But two,I need to pull myself out of shoot
so I can focus on a lot more of the CEOlike side of things.
I can focus on more things with Daxi,where we collab, where we're doing more
(50:38):
brokerage presentations, we're doing moreoutreach, we're doing more marketing.
And Daxi, actually handled a lotlike she handled the entire process,
basically for hiring our employees,
which took a ton of timeoff of my plate specifically.
And so I was kind of therejust like at the end, like seeing
some of the candidatesthat she had in mind.
(51:00):
And then ultimately we went
we both kind of sat downand went with like our final candidates
after rounds of interviewswhere she was doing
all of the interviewing like round two,like round one, round two for interviews
and doing a ton of like,the indeed postings and stuff like that,
and being able to have someonewho is able to allocate that time
(51:22):
outside of my schedule a specific wayto run all of those time consuming
been tasks I didn't have to slow down,which was incredible.
And I think that's like a big advantage.
Like as a couple working in businesswhere Daxi,
she was able to do her partas kind of like the
the chief admin, our chief administratorfor our company, being able to make sure
(51:46):
everything is in check with hiringemployees, maintaining employees.
And we have like our teammeeting every week.
And she literally madelike a team meeting.
She is like, this is start time and time.
These are the things we want to hit on.
And like all of these other thingsthat I didn't even think about.
And so that was incredible.
It's great to see that process beingimplemented and looking to the future.
(52:08):
So we also are lookingprobably to hire our third photographer.
Awesome.
And maybe in looking toward the future,if we can get to a point where I am
removed from shoots, we have four maybefive photographers under us,
being able to handle our shoot volume.
(52:29):
That would be incredible.
Like absolutely incredible.
And we have two right nowlooking to get a third.
And it's all I thinkall about like speed too.
Especially when I like hiring.
Like hiring.
Well, of course, like hiring with qualityand making sure those systems are vetted,
ready to go.
But being able to hop on it
(52:51):
as opposed to doing exactly what I didlast year
and I did.
I did a ton of volume all by myself.
I was like, let's see,let's what's the limit that I can push?
And it was all just a numbers game.
I did it all myself, but I was not makingtime for all the other things in my life.
It was literally just work all the time.
(53:13):
And now being able to have a teamthat's able to support Daxi
and I in business, handling more shoots
like our Wednesdays are absolutely wild.
We have a ton of shootsand it's fantastic.
And just seeing them be able to grow,being able to do all the things they need
to and having us grow as well as a team
(53:36):
has been huge and I don't. I think,
I don't think
anyone regrets having a team in place,
especially while Daxi and I,we recently got engaged.
We, we actually flew out to China, tomy mom's hometown, got engaged
there and had a, wow, part of their hearttrip in China, went to Japan
(53:57):
and had a part of our trip in Japanand then came back.
But we were gone for two and a half,full weeks,
and our team was there with the systemsthat we have in place.
They were still handling shoot volume.
We still had our nice.
Our biggest month this yearwhile we were gone for over half of it.
So it was awesome. Yeah.
(54:19):
So yeah, it's it's been it'sbeen really, really cool
just being able to have a teamand also looking forward.
And I know a lot of people out theremight be like comparing themselves like,
oh well, Warren's doing thisor someone else is doing this.
Or like these other companies are likedoing all these big things and I'm not.
And the kind of like unhappinessby comparison
(54:43):
definitelyis something I need to work on a lot too.
But being able to recognizethat markets are different,
the things that are being donein your market specifically,
or your efforts insideyour market are not to be discounted
either, like your goals and aspirations
are something that can materializeas long as you're
(55:06):
continuing to work toward themand like doing a direct comparison
to other companiesisn't a reflection on oneself.
So I think that's definitely somethinga lot of us have run into,
like at leastI have specifically anyway. And
it's tough.
And especially looking at bigger teamslike I want to have like a bigger team
(55:28):
that looks like this company, but I justhave to kind of start grounding myself.
I Daxi also grounds me with these topicsas well, and she's like, it's okay.
Like we are fantastic where we are like,look at where you were last year.
Look at where we were two years ago.
Like working like crazy,doing nights, doing days.
And it was just insane.
(55:50):
But where we are nowand look at what we have
and look at what we've accomplishedso far.
And being able to have that ground
has been fantastic, especially forespecially for moving forward
to laying the foundationfor more success and more things to come.
Yeah.
So insightful, Warren.
(56:11):
You know, I think, as Eli says, it's a lotwhere as your business
grows, business only gets easier.
It's still hard, but it gets easier.
You know, think back to, just like youmentioned, thinking back to working to
shift, you know, in the ER and shootingand doing that 72 hours without sleep.
Like, you know, while we all have gapsand things we want to solve the day,
(56:33):
you know,
I have a list of them over hereon a whiteboard of things I want to solve.
Like I think back to many years ago.
I'm like,oh, it's a lot better than doing that.
So it only gets better.
You know, I,I think I'm going to just challenge
all of our listeners out thereto, to start with the end in mind.
I think I see that in everything you do,and I think it's why you're so successful
is your understandingwhere you want to end and that allows you
(56:57):
to build smartly, efficiently andwell because you know where you're going.
So I just I love that
Warren, I just can't thank you enoughfor all the insight.
If anyone has, wants to reach out to youand check you out
or shoot you a message,how can how can they get ahold of you?
Oh, yeah.
So reaching out to our Instagram accounts@mccarthymediaco,
(57:21):
so m c c a r t h y media c o,
that's our best point of contact basicallyfor all listeners, stuff like that.
And if you have any questionsor anything that I could also
like lend some insight to,just feel free to hit us up any time.
And I'm we usually check InstagramDMs pretty, pretty regularly.
So make sure to be able to get back to you
(57:43):
I love it!
Well thanks againWarren for all the insight that you share.
Congrats on your business.
And we'll have to have you back on again.
We'll get an update here,would you or you're willing
to come back on againand share some knowledge with us?
Oh, absolutely.It is a pleasure to be here.
And I really appreciate you, Todd,
for having me on Craig,for having me on the podcast.
(58:04):
And it's just been incredible.
And being able to see where you guyshave been going with your business
has also beenincredibly insightful for Daxi.
and I, we have like incredible goalsthat we want to reach,
and you two are an inspirationand I really appreciate you having us.
you to kind of.
It's that's all our pleasure.
Thanks for everything you share today.
(58:25):
And, we will we will definitelyget an update soon from you.
That's sweet.
That sounds like a plan.Thank you so much, Todd.
All our pleasure. Warren.
Well, awesome.
Well, that is going to do it for us today.
Hey, lots of little nuggets in there.
This is oneyou're going to need to relisten to.
And don't feel overwhelmed from it.
Like Warren mentioned, this isn't somethingthat you need to compare yourself to of
(58:48):
if you can implement something,if you're like, hey, I connect with that,
I need to start doing that.
You know,it might be a good nudge forward.
So thanks for spending some time with us.
We really appreciate you.
Have a great week coming up here,and be thankful
for all of your blessingsand be sure to take a breath.
Until next week, y'all. We'll see you.
Coming up on this episodeof The Spiro podcast.
(00:04):
And so that was like the biggest pivotal
thing that I think helped move businessforward, especially.
And going into everythingthat's full time was like, well,
I have this wealth of time now.
What do I do with it?
Kind of like the number oneanswer is as much outreach as possible.
(00:38):
Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,
managing your real estate, photographyand videography business.
Spiro is a software platformdesigned in-house by a real estate
media companyto really manage and grow our business,
but ultimately to help you growand manage your business as well.
So welcome to another week.
For those of youthat are returning, for those of you,
(00:59):
maybe this is the first timewatching or listening.
I just want to welcome you.
We want to help you build a strongreal estate media business and,
just give you some, some real lifeexamples and stories of how to build
that business and runit day to day, to help you be successful.
So we've got a special guest this week.
But before we introduce him,
let me introduce co-host and Spiro ownerand founder, Todd Kivimaki.
(01:21):
Welcome back, Todd.
Craig. Hey, great to be back.
I took a little vacation and you got busy,which is.
You know,I think it's just great testimony.
We get busy to you all. We know, Craig.
Craig is in the day to dayof a real estate media business.
Our business Wow video tours.
I still have a little bit to do.
So you see usand then sometimes you don't see us.
(01:42):
And I know that's the wayyour life goes, too.
So, But it's Craig.
It's great to be back with you hereon another week for sure.
And just to note, I will be ducking outa little bit early because again,
I've got some businessto take care of out in the field.
So anyway, it's going to be a great week.
Todd, we've got a guest on this week.
We're really excited to hear fromand hear his story and, get gain
(02:05):
some wisdom, pick his brain
a little bit on his journeyand what's helped him be successful.
But before we get to that, we always liketo go over what is new in Spiro.
What, what's going on with the software?
Yeah.
So a few weeks ago, we pushed an updatethat allowed you to revamp
and give you a lot more options
with your order page, specificallyyour bundle cards, the way you advertise.
(02:27):
So you if you haven't played with thatand you have time, it might be good
to look at your shopping cartorder pages inside the bundle set up.
Now you have small, medium,and large cards.
You can put tags on those.
You can load multiple photo shows.
You can load a video.
So we really wanted to give you toolsthat of how you could sell better
(02:48):
and show your media on the order pages.
So that's just ato do in the back of your mind.
If, if you don't feel like that's a gapright now,
don't feel like you have to go redo that,your system will look fine the way it is.
Even with those updates
moving into
the next, development cycle,we call it cycle 11.
That's what we're on.
Just a quick highlight here.
We're going to revamp andlook at revamping that marketing toolkit,
(03:11):
giving you some increasedand enhanced features and flexibility.
Also looking at some propertywebsite templates
and then a feedback automated feedbackmethod for you,
to ask your clients, hey,how did everything go after delivery?
So it's going to be a two pronged approachwhere if your clients
if everything wasn't perfectand they didn't say five stars,
(03:34):
you can say, hey,we want to take care of you.
Let us know what your problemis. Call us, email us.
Whatever the contact information is.
But if that client clicksfive stars and you,
then you have the optionto send them a different message
that says, hey, thank you so much.We value you.
Would you help us out?
You click our Google review,our Facebook review, whatever review site
you want to try to get your review.
(03:55):
You know, Craig, this is soI just recently went on vacation
and when you go on vacation, it was a newpart of that part of the area.
We went down to Floridaand my brother had lived
in this community or this city forhe just moved about three months ago.
So he knew something about the area.
And it just naturally, I think we allat least I search in Google.
(04:17):
And, you know, I look at,you know, like my son wanted a skim board
looking for a surf shop.
We want to be looking for bait shops,looking for baseball or basketball
card shops like I search, I scroll, I got,I got Jessica got a massage.
Like I search andI read through the reviews, I don't know,
I think we all do that, but I think I dosome weird things that not everybody does.
(04:38):
But I feel pretty confident sayingthat if we can get you or if you can
get more reviews for your business,it's only going to help you.
I don't know if peopleeven on the websites in 2025 anymore, so
that's fair.
But I don't know that I do.
Yeah, I mean Google reviews,I think Amazon change that in the way
people buy online is people want to knowwhat other people think about it.
(05:03):
Yeah.
So I'm excited about that update.
Awesome.
Well good deal.
We'll keep those, those updates coming.
And don't forget if there is a featurethat you're looking for in Spiro,
you we have a what's calledwhat is a feature base.
Yeah. It's true. Feature base. Yeah.
So you can create a free Spiro accountand there is an option in there to,
(05:25):
eitherupvote current ideas for the software
for development or submit a new oneand have others upvote it as well.
And that kind of helps us organize,
what things get rolled outinto the software because
we want the software to work for you.
So there you go.
All right.
Anything else before we dive into things,
Craig, just athanks to all of our listeners.
(05:46):
I appreciate all of you.
You all take such good care of us.
I can't tell you how many callsI was on this last week, week and a half
since I've been back.
And everyone is saying, like,these are potential new users of of Spiro
and these are clients that are doing 4or 5, six, 7000 shoots a year.
These are large media companies,and they're all saying, hey,
(06:07):
you guys are blown up in the forums.
I had to hear what you're doing.
So that's because of you guys.
Thank you for that.
I you know, I'mnot asking for an unsolicited plug.
If you if we do our joband you like what we do,
any time you say, hey,I'm happy with Spiro, it helps us.
So and you guys are doing that.
Everybody's been saying it to me,so thank you for that.
(06:29):
I don't say it enough.
Just the lovethat you guys have is incredible.
Yeah, and I don't think we mentioned
I missed this, Todd,but one of our viewers on YouTube
said, oh, by the way, congratulationson hitting the thousand subscribers.
I hadn't even noticed that because,
I mean, yes, we would love for more peopleto watch and listen, but
we don't
I don't track that super, super tight.
(06:51):
We've got other things.
But me and I, we'reI think we're past a 1040 now.
Todd.
Even since that note came through.
So guys, thank you so much.
Yeah. Yeah, truly humbled by that.
Craig,this is on a whim, and I don't even know
if we would hire for this position,but if you're out there and like
because we don't focus on the podcasta whole lot, we jump on here.
We love doing the actual recordingof the podcast.
(07:13):
We love connecting with the sphere,
you know, with our, you know, someonelike our guest today, bringing them on.
But we don't focus on that thing.
Somebody had to tell uswe had subscribers.
I had no clue that we had.
So if that's something you loveand you're like, hey,
you guys could leverage this better,or you can reach and help more people
by doing these thingsor cutting the videos that way.
Shoot me an email please,and give me your ideas.
(07:34):
Maybe, maybe you could.
You know, work part time for usand we could tune that thing up.
For sure, because
we want to make surethat anything that guests bring on
and that's valuable,that could help your guys's business grow.
We can get out to youand then more people.
Yeah, absolutely. Great idea.
All righty.
Well, speaking of having guestson, we do have a special guest this week.
(07:58):
For those of you that attended, the REPP
2024 concert, I'mtrying to remember what year we end.
Man. Time is flying, Todd.
Go ahead.
He was.
He was, Well, yeah, 23 and 24.
And it was a I think you said concertat the convention.
The convention for a conference.
(08:18):
Did I say concert? You said concert.
But I heard you're going to be performingthis year, Craig.
Actually,I already had one performance, but, yeah,
I, I played drums
back in high school,which was a years ago.
And, and, my youngest has now joined
band as a fourth grader, and he,he has started playing drums.
(08:41):
So I've been starting to teach them.
And I'm like, man,I kind of I can't miss playing drums.
Okay.
And, decided to join our local, communityband.
We've got 90 some members.
I'm back in a percussion section.
We had a concert about a month ago, and,yeah, I'm loving it.
I'm really rusty,but I'm loving it anyway.
Craig
(09:01):
I have an idea,and I promise we'll get to our guest here.
Just fast forward 20. 30s.
If you don't want to hear this idea,y'all, and you'll get to something better.
Craig.
So the late night host, who was the guywho was just the drummer wasn't there?
Was there a guythat was just played drums?
I know Letterman had the bald guythat was keyboards.
I feel like there was a late night hostthat had like the guy in
(09:23):
the band only played drums.
Okay, it's not that important in my stuff.
I go to bed by 10 p.m..
I don't know these, I don't know,I don't know the late night show.
Well, I said David Letterman.
I mean, that shows how long it'sbeen since I've seen one of these. But,
okay, what if you were that guyat the conference this year?
Craig? Nope.
We could get you a drum setand you could interact.
(09:45):
You could have musical things andand snares, and we get you bells,
and you could bring all of that excitementand commentary to the conference
this year. Craig.
Thanks. No, thanks.
I'm the guy behind the camera, right?
Not in front.I don't think I'm going to left.
I really like this idea right now.
As of 10:01 a.m.
eastern on, April 4th here.
(10:07):
As we're recording this,
I think I'm going to I think we needto make this happen, Craig.
But let's get to our guests, please.
Thank you. Yes. Please just comment belowif you want.
Craig on staying in a drum set. No. Nope.
Not happening.
All right, so he
was a conference speaker at Rep 2024this past year
and, just shared a great presentation.
(10:29):
Some great thoughts. And Todd from here,I'm going to let you introduce him.
Yeah.
So he was at both conferencesor two years in a row, 24 and 23.
23 was the first timeI was at the REPP conference.
And this individual.
So first off, when he has a presencein a room and I'm just like, okay,
you like you notice this guy.
And then we got to his partwhere he was talking about his business,
(10:53):
and I was like, there's no what?
Like, this is honestly a machine.
This is an AI robotthat's dressed up in a nice sweater
and presents well, and there's no waya human could do what he's doing.
So, yeah, it's it's insane.
And I think it shows that
hard work and perseverance will get youwhere you want to go.
(11:15):
And I'm excited to hear his his businessis grown and he's doing fabulous.
He's got some exciting thingshappening to his life.
We'll get all into that.
I know some of you knowhe's a good friend of mine.
Warren McCarthy with McCarthy media.
Warren, welcome to the show.
Good morning guys.
How are you, two?
Doing great.
(11:35):
Excited to have you on.
Well, thank you so much for having me.
And I just also want to sayI really appreciate you to having me
on the podcast.
It is a pleasure as an honorand it's just fantastic.
So I really appreciate you two.Thank you so much.
Oh, thanks for making time for us.
So, Warren,for those of for those listeners
that don't know you and your story,do you want to take a few minutes here
(11:58):
and just kind of give us an idea?
I think it's always people always connectwith what made you get into it?
What did youwhy did you why did you switch gears?
You switched some pretty big gears.
You had one path that was like when youwhen you said that on stage,
it's like, wait a minute,he was going to do that. And
so if you could just give us a story,
I think our listenerswould love to hear it.
(12:18):
They'll connect with it.
Yeah, absolutely.So I'll start from the beginning.
So originally I was gearedtoward a medically oriented path.
I studied at the University of Utah.
I got my bachelor's in biology,minored in chemistry,
and with an emphasisin anatomy and physiology.
So I was right.
I, I mean, come on, come on.
(12:39):
I remember biology class. I was like,
I think I had a degree in it. So
I, I would,I would, I would cram five minutes
before class for our pop quizzesin anatomy class. I.
Hats off to you Warren
That's not so that's what he said.
He's like, I'min, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in the ER.
I'm in the operating room.And he's like, I'm editing.
(13:02):
Not literally,but I'll let you tell the story.
Warren. Sorry. Oh, no. You're good.
I was in the operating room.
Oh my gosh, it was it was a blast.
But I did, I did my bachelor's degreewhile I was doing my bachelors.
I was actually working upat the university in the operating room
as an anesthesia technician, as,like a anesthesia assistant, staff, stuff
(13:22):
like that.
And so with that, I was like, okay,so I'm geared up and ready.
I've done a ton of research.
Like at the university,I'm working in the operating room.
I have my degree, a minor and an emphasis.
I'm geared up.
I have full ride masters ahead of meat the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
I was like,okay, we're ready. We're primed.
And looking down the line, I was like,I want to do an anesthesia residency.
(13:47):
I wanted to do the residencyplus a cardiac fellowship.
So I've been working with a lot
of the cardiothoracic doctorsinside the operating room.
I wanted to help run a labwith, like, two other PhDs
outside of thatand a few more other tasks.
That's like department head related.
And so I was like looking at allthe time that I had, I also love to teach.
(14:08):
And I was like, well,
with my, my background and now museologyexpanding that in medical school.
And then applying that, I was thinkingif I could teach at the medical school,
that would be a lot of fun too.
So there were like four different thingsthat all required a ton of time.
And like the effort put inI had no quarrel with.
I was entirely happy to put in the effort,but I was looking at the end result
(14:32):
and I was like,okay, as an anesthesiologist
with a cardiac fellowshipand like cardiac training in addition
to a lab, in additionto like teaching at the medical school,
there was not a lot of timeleft in the day.
And what matters a lot to me
personally is a lot of family time.
(14:53):
I was like,I don't know if this is going to translate
very well until I had about 55 or 60.
So yeah, I started to turn.
I started to pivot.
I was like, okay, well, I've doneheadshots and like some event photography.
I've done some engagement
photos in the past,like during my time at the university.
And I was like, well, this is fun,but I haven't really found my niche.
(15:16):
And so there was this onekind of like hallmark transition
where I was helping out a family friend,and we drove like three hours.
We carpooled to just do like a once offreal estate shoot
because like kind of southern Utah ish,not quite to Saint George.
And I just got to experiencelike the whole transaction
(15:38):
from the seller wanting to list fromlike why they wanted to do something
like selling one of their investmentproperties, rolling equity.
There's like a lot of finance in it.
And then I did the shoot.
It was a ton of fun.
And after that, just seeing that wholetransaction kind of like work its magic.
And both partieswere incredibly happy in the end
(16:00):
and the agent was happylike their clients were happy.
It was just a fantastic transitionfrom all the other stuff I was doing.
I was like, okay, this
I can see potential in itand I think it might be a lot of fun.
And so I start to turn, start to pivot.
I found, Eli online
with like, real estate, kind of shooting
(16:21):
and like, running a real estatein the business side of things.
And I was always like, well,I want to like run some type of business
that I literally had, at the baseof one of the trails near my parents home.
It's like in, in the summer.
It is hot. It is blistering.I was like, you know what?
I feel like people would want ice waterat the bottom of this trail.
So I bought an ice chest.
(16:41):
I bought like ice bagsfrom Costco and like, water.
I felt like a little QR code, like, okay,
it's like a dollar per iced water bottleif you want to take one.
And then, alas, I got like maybe $4and then all my bottles were gone.
I was like, okay, that'sthat's not gonna work all that well.
But returning backto the kind of original story.
(17:02):
So I started to turn.
I started to pivot.
I was like, okay, this businessopportunity might be exciting.
It might be fun.
I'll look more into it.
And it started out as a passion project.
While I was working in the operating room,I was like, okay, you know what?
I'm going to start thisand I need to roll with it
because I need to make some typeof transition
and find myself in a new position
(17:25):
with kind of my end goal in mind.
And so that was like,okay, I need to reel back.
I need to pull back
and see what my other optionsare besides looking into the medical part.
And I found the real estate mediaside of things started rolling with it.
And in May 20th May, 15 of 2023,
(17:45):
I had like the official start,
official start of business.
And that'swhen I was not all in by any means.
I was still workingfull time at the hospital,
but the biggest transition
for me was I hadI had the gracious opportunity
to not only just work days,but I could work nights.
(18:06):
So I transitioned to working nightsin the operating room
and fueling the business during the day.
And so that was awful for a long time.
Yeah, there's no sleep involved with that,and I do not recommend it to anyone.
But it was a round robinschedule of 6 p.m.
to 6 p.m.
now, 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.. Excuse me.
(18:26):
Working in the operating roomand about seven ish,
7:30 in the morning to about 5:30 p.m.
working on the business during the day.
And that just that happenedfor like three days straight.
And then it was like 72 plus ish hours
with minimal sleep every weekfor about eight months.
(18:46):
And that sucked. So no. Yeah,
it was awful. But.
But we made it through.We made it through.
And so and then in 2024,
I believe it was March, I believe it’s March.
I dropped my hours from full time to,like, picking up a couple shifts a week.
(19:08):
And then after about a month, I was like,literally, even if I'm putting only 4
to 8 hours into this positionposition, it's sapping 50% of my energy.
So I just totally left itand transitioned fully
into real estate mediaand had been there ever since.
And it's offered like more timeand more flexibility.
(19:29):
I would say, like, of coursewe're all working a lot and working a ton,
but also help me learna lot more about finding my end goal
and spending a lot of time with familyand being and being able to implement
all of those elements into life now.
And that was something that was reallyhard for me to do, because I'm I'm easily
(19:50):
a workaholicand I love to work, do stuff like that.
But I was like, I have to make I have tocreate space for, my fiancé.
I do create space for myself.
I have to make sure there is that elementof taking care of myself in the moment
and not just thinking, oh, I'mgoing to get that later down the line.
(20:10):
I'll have like a lot of familylater down the line.
So that was kind of the May 2023start to now.
Now the status is,Daxi is running the business with me
and it's been fantastic.
And we have two incrediblephotographers under us.
We're onboarding a couple more VAs,and it's just been fantastic.
(20:33):
And the connections we've made,
the people we've met, the workwe've been doing, and the good of
we've been doing for all of our clientshas just been phenomenal.
So it's been really, really fun.
It's really hard in the beginning.
But yeah, transitionedand here we are now.
Todd ,Warren's story here just
echoes what you have said over and overon this podcast about the purpose of
(20:55):
of creating a businessto make it work for you.
I mean, Warren,you just you just proved Todd's point in,
you know, spot on.
Todd has a ton of wisdom. So
you you're too kind.
And that was something that a coach
helped me on as he definedwhat a business was.
It's, a business is a, a profitable
(21:19):
enterprisethat works without you and works for you.
And I think that's the biggest thing.
I wrote a few things downwhile you're telling your story, Warren.
And every time I hear it, I just.
I love it even more and more.
You said I took it.
I wanted to have the end goal in mind,
and I think that is so important.
(21:40):
You know, you were working in a fieldwhere you were,
like you mentioned,by the time you got to be 50, 55,
you were going to be setand you were going to be, you know,
money wasn't going to be an issue.
Even before that, in that
career space, you know anything, doctor,anesthesiologist.
(22:01):
You know, I had a neighbor as a CRNA.
I'm like, you make that much money?
Like, it's good money, like, but
like there you devote your life to itand you are
you live at the hospital,you live where you're at.
And what those individuals dois incredible.
Like the way that they can save peopleand the things that are coming out.
(22:22):
And you talked about, you know,like being in a lab with other PhDs,
like the things that are intellectualpeople are doctors are creating art.
It's life devoting,but it's life consuming.
And just kudos to youfor thinking about the end goal in mind.
You know, that is huge with doing thatand especially at the stage.
Like what?
What did your parents say when when you,when you told them about this transition?
(22:46):
They were very upset, to say the least.
They're very upset because Iso I'm, I'm half Chinese.
So there's also a kindof like a cultural tie in to,
but they were definitely like,what are you doing?
Like, you had full right in college.
You have a full right masters.
You have everything set up that
(23:07):
so many people are, like, vying for.
Yeah.
And I was like,I have to pull back from it.
I have to.
And it was it was a hard transition for meand it made me upset.
I was like, is this the right path for me?
And it was scary.
It made me worried.
Like a lot of stress and anxiety is like,I don't know if this is the right thing
(23:30):
to do because I'm pulling back fromthe thing I'd been working on for forever.
Really.
It's kind of a paradigmshift in your life.
So let me ask you, I know, Todd,you have more points, but let me ask you
because I remember making my switchand at the end of that four years,
well even throughout thattime what I experienced was,
(23:54):
just a season of thankfulnesslike I've never experienced before.
What what what emotionally.
What was it like for you, Warren,to make that
that transition and go fully in
with whatyou were really passionate about?
It was incredible.
Like, I was worried and fearfulat the beginning, of course,
like transitioning fullyinto just doing real estate media.
(24:18):
I was apprehensive,but once I was and then like,
I can devote so much more time,so much more effort
and feel good about all the effortthat I'm putting in.
And it's just fantastic.
Like the the CEO side of thingsgo better, the brokerage
presentations go better,interacting with clients go better.
And it was justI was like, okay, well, this feels good.
(24:41):
And working towards something moreI can see, I can materialize,
see the building blocksgoing into the business
and things working out for the better,refining processes,
going through new things,experiencing hardships too
with like hiring or hardshipswith clients, or hardships
with like all other aspects of businessthat I would never have thought
(25:04):
about otherwise.
But being able to brace thatwithout devoting other time and energy
to a differentavenue was really, really good to feel.
It was honestly a relieve
Yeah, yeah, that's I know that resonateswith so many other people out there.
Warren, you know, I think we havea lot of listeners that are are dabbling.
(25:24):
I would say in real estate media.And that's okay.
Most like you said, hey,I took my first shoot.
And, you know, I was say, this is kind ofa flier basically at this point.
And you have to do that with things.
You know, we we can never justblindly jump into anything in life.
We always have to test a little bit.
But one another thing that you said, thatyou wrote down, you said that
(25:45):
as you transitiondown the part time in the ER,
you said those even 4 to 8hours were zapping 50% of your energy.
And I, I think we all do it.
We all say, hey, but it's good money.
Like it's paying my my rent right now.
And I have these school bills.
Well you didn’t because you had full ride.
(26:06):
But I had school bill,you know like those of you that have
we all have bills, right?
Regardless of what it is.
And we justify in our brain.
I did this with wedding photographyfor a long time.
Probably too many years.
And I had hired a staff.I was still shooting weddings.
I had, I had an adminthat was running the business.
I had, an a
(26:27):
we had a customer service person,and we probably had 4 or 5 photographers.
And there was still some of those endyears that I was shooting 6 to 8 weddings.
And it was just like, it was like,why am I doing this?
And it's like, well, that's money thatI don't know if it's going to be replaced.
And I think that's just that was a
(26:47):
thought air on my brain of saying,hey, why am I trying to.
No, Todd, get out of that thought.
Because the way where you placed itis, you know, you're going to grow
so much more.
And the idea of the Mike Michalowiczbook of pumpkin planning, of saying
no to something so you can say yesto the bigger opportunity.
So, you know, that's amazing to see that.
You know, I'm sure I'm sure that wasa nice check for 4 to 8 hours in the ER.
(27:10):
But saying no to one thing allowed youto say yes to the bigger pumpkin.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
And I was also just like the,
I think the year of just takingthat full leap that like, I feel most
business owners like when they do thattransition experience
and like even working like 4 to 8 hours,I was like, it's like it's fine.
(27:32):
But it definitely tookit took me away from
so many other opportunitiesthat were there before me.
I mean, I was working during the weekas as most people do.
The brokeragepresentations happen during the week.
The team meetings at the brokeragestake time during the week.
They don't operate on the weekends.
And so I was like, you know what?
Like these, these opportunities
(27:52):
I am missing every single one of themwhile I'm spending my time working.
I need to find a wayin order to make this work.
Yeah, yeah,I think that's so if you're out there
and you're saying, hey, I,
I'm picking up a few shoots,I can think of a few people I know, but,
there's an individualthat's a school teacher
and trying to figure outhow to make the business work.
(28:14):
There's some other individualsthat are working in other fields.
I just specifically knowthat I've talked to.
It's like,and I'm not singling you guys out,
but take from take inspirationfrom your own story.
Or let me ask you ajust a simple question.
Was there everthis like in this moment of like,
I got I've got to quit,I've got to transition?
Was it ever 100% clear that you woke up?
You're like, boom. Yep, I'm going to quitnow. I'm happy. I'm good with it.
(28:35):
Or were you always like,
okay, I know I need to do it,and then you got a little more sure of it.
Like if if our listeners are out therewaiting for this epiphany moment where
they wake up and like the clouds say, quityour job, is that ever going to happen?
I would sayit was definitely more slow transition.
But when it happened to happen fast. Okay.
(28:56):
I remember I was in the operating room,
I was taking on an additional shift
and I was like, it was,I think like 11 p.m.
at night.
And the shift ended at 2 a.m..
And I looked at the clock and like,what am I doing?
Like, I am up so late,I know I have to be up for a shoot at like
(29:16):
I was like it was summer ish area,I think.
And I was like, I have a shoot earlyin the morning, I am not getting enough
sleep.
And I told myself I pulled myself offnight in order to get more sleep,
make sure I'm functioning better,make sure the business is moving forward.
Literally. What am I doing?
And so it was duringthat kind of like 10 p.m.
(29:36):
to 2 a.m.,
time frame.
I was like, okay, literally, I'm tomorrow,I'm putting in my two weeks, like,
I cannot deal with this anymore.
And so I put it in,wait it out that last duration.
And then after that I was like,okay, I'm ready to go.
So it was definitely a lot of builduplike stress, anxiety until that point.
And I was like, it was pretty immediate.
(29:57):
I was like,I can't do this anymore. I'm fed up.
I need this to stop.
And so I transitioned after two weeks
and then we were set and readyand primed for bigger things.
Yeah. Nice.
And did you look back and at any point
do you look back and say,I probably should have kept my job?
Oh absolutely not.
No. There's no way. Yeah,
(30:20):
yeah.
And there is a fine line there like I,I don't want to be the catalyst for you
like more on analyze that very havelike Warren and you should analyze it.
So there's a lot that we kind of skipthrough of analyzing pros and cons
list in a timeline.
So I don't want I don't want to getyou fired up today out there.
And you, you likeif you're listening to this to your on
(30:40):
drive into work, like,please don't go quit today.
Your job like
pleasejust make an informed, educated decision.
But I think proof's in the pudding.
And we hear this again and again
that when you can focus onsomething that will expand
and that has happened,you know, for Warren as well.
(31:02):
So Warren transitioning beyond thatlike let's talk about okay.
So you had your focusfully on the business.
So like now what I get this questiona lot where people say hey
I focused full time. I've made the jump.
Like what do I do now?
How did you wade through those waters.
Oh. So I tried to set the precedent
(31:24):
very early on,
like literally when I shifted to nights
and worked nights and then workedon the business during the day, the,
the prime concernthat I think a lot of people were going
through is like,oh, well, like my outreach is like, okay,
I might like, hit up maybefive people a day or something like that.
(31:45):
And I think fivepeople is a fantastic number.
I was looking at that and peoplewere having kind of one calls with it
and two struggling with ita little bit more.
And I thought to myself, okay,if this is where people's weaknesses are,
I need to make it my absolute strength.
And so I did a massive a massive,massive amount of outreach.
(32:06):
I mean, there was like over Instagram,I was going in like meeting realtors.
I was going to like you even even so faras like some open houses, stuff like that.
But I ramped up my outreachlike absolute crazy
during the eight ish months thatI was in the operating room working nights
and that was the lifeblood of my businessexpanding or our business.
(32:29):
I would say his Daxi is with me in it.
And so that was like the biggest pivotal
thing that I think helped move businessforward, especially.
And going into everythingthat's full time was like, well,
I have this wealth of time now.
What do I do with it?
Kind of like the number oneanswer is as much outreach as possible.
(32:51):
If people are doing anywherelike five ish K a month,
6K, 7k, I'm making some good money.
Then I would say the biggestindicator of future success
is all the thingsthat they're doing on the daily,
with that wealth of time that they nowhave, pulling back from a full time job,
(33:12):
they now have one eitherat least 40 additional hours
during the weekto do an amazing amount of outreach
and two to saturate that time with income
generating activitieslike shoots and stuff like that,
and scheduling brokerage presentationsnow that they have time on their hands.
(33:32):
Even going so far as like
getting like sponsor positionsin brokerages as well.
Like sometimesit could be like a $500 ticket
for a full yearor something to that extent.
But being the prime focus,being able to do
a massive amount of outreachand let absolutely everyone
who knows you and could knowyou know about your services,
(33:55):
know about your incredible real estatemedia, know about who you are,
what's your personality,but what you bring to the table?
Like who, who you are as a team memberand an asset to them?
What you can do to help them fromjust listed and showcasing everything
amazingly, and shortening that time fromjust listed to under contract.
(34:15):
By doing all of those things packed intonow in a full time open schedule.
Yeah I,
I think that's so smart in your businessand that is, that's essentially
filling the top of the funneland you have to fill your sales funnel.
You have to let people know about you.
I think sometimes as creativeswe can get caught in an infinite
(34:37):
loop of thinking,I need to make my photos better.
I need to make my video better,I need to offer this product,
or this piece of equipmentis going to help me.
I'm sorry y'all,and I say this with love for my heart.
It's not it is not.
It is the relationshipyou have with your clients.
You know, just just a fact for you guys
(35:00):
at our media company,we shot over 12,000 tours last year.
We're looking like we're going to do 13five this year.
We're growing on our best year everand we continue to grow.
And I will tell you that
it is not our goalto have the best photos, the best video.
We don't need it.
It's own.
We have to have good.We have to have good, good quality.
(35:22):
But once it gets to an acceptable quality,we're done
messing with it because a little bit moreis not going to get us anything.
We have focused our time, energyand efforts on customer
service and building relationships.
Yeah, and that is why we grow.
Not no realtoris ever going to look and say, oh, hey,
did you upgrade to that new camera?
I'm really noticing how you're ableto layer blend those five, seven images,
(35:44):
I think really look a lot betterbecause you got a little bit
more dynamic range in the darks,like no one's ever going to say that.
Realtors, I hate to tell you, like mosta lot of them don't even really
look at your stuff.
They look at every so many listingsbecause they're busy,
and you don't ever want to be caughtwith a realtor checking up on a listing
going like, why did that?Why is that there?
(36:05):
Why is that bad?
So you have to be of certain quality.
But honestly, they are busy.
They trust you,you deliver on it but don't have
don't have the wrong expectations
of what quality you need to deliverbecause it just doesn't work, you know?
Warren said that he focused on thoseeight months of building relationships.
Yeah,
(36:25):
Craig, you have thoughts on that?
I mean, nothing I haven't said before.
You know, I,I look at my own media that I shoot in,
in my market and it's, it's solid.
I mean, I try to always do a good job and,you know, pay attention to detail.
But I know even with ourwithin our own company,
there are other photographers in othermarkets that I think are better than I am.
(36:46):
But I think what has helped mebe successful, just like
Warren has shared, is,is those relate the relationship building.
You know, I I've been at this now,you know, five ish years total, five
six years total.
And I've developed great relationships.
And Warren, just like you, I, I grindedyou know, I was at the, at the industry
(37:08):
events, I was at the board events,I do brokerage presentations.
I take realtors out to coffee.
I get to know them as people.
You know, these are peoplethat have families and have kids
and they have crazy schedules as realtorsand just meeting in them at the
at that human point of identifyingwith the stress that they're under,
trying to alleviatethe issues that they're facing,
(37:30):
you know, in their business,helping them, win more listings.
It's all relational based.
And, Todd, I, I couldn't agree more.
The you know, I read through thesesome of these forums and in the nitpicking
and I and I'm going to call it nitpicking on the quality of the photo
and, you know, flamboyant versus HDR.
(37:51):
It's like.
We're having pretty good success
not stressing outtoo much on those things, but still,
I don't know if I couldI could ramble on, but Warren.
And I'm right with you.
I, I you're you're on the right trackand and it's proving out for you.
Well thank you I appreciate that.
Yeah.
It's it's been, it'sbeen really cool to see like the,
(38:14):
the difference between focusingon like the creative aspect
and then the business and buildingaspect, the relationships aspect
and seeing all of that come together.
Like even sometimes I'm like, well,how do I still create relationships?
How do I still strengthen relationships?
I'm like, yeah, are theream I missing something?
Is there something elseI need to be doing?
But it's always fallingback to like, the roots and like what
(38:38):
you've been doing in the pastand expanding on that maybe a little bit.
And it's it really works itself outand works itself out
as long as you're intentional with it.
Just like you've been saying,
Warren, I'm goingto I'm going to pivot a slight bit because
and before the show,we talked a little bit about it,
an aspect of your businessthat we really haven't talked a lot
(38:59):
about on this podcast,and you agreed to talk about it.
And I think it's somethingthat many of us are in.
I know myself when I started,
the business, I was dating an individual.
So, you know, she was with meas the businesses got started.
Then we got engaged and got marriedand she had some,
some roles and some things that she did.
(39:19):
And mainlyshe did them because she loved me.
Not really, because it was her passion.
So I think there is there
and there's some times I look backand I'm like, oh, that was like,
that was a misstep by me because,
maybe the way I reactedor that my expectations of of my wife
now wife Jessica and you kind of have thesame scenario with your now fiancé Daxi.
(39:44):
So, would you liketo just comment a little bit?
Because I think we have other listenersout there
that have, you know,their significant other
and maybe they're dating, marriedor engaged or married, but how are there
any tidbits of things that you've learnedor how are you guys working together?
You have any,
tips on working together
(40:05):
with the person you loveand growing a business?
Let's see.
I'm definitely notall knowing by any means.
So, but what has worked Daxi and me?
I'll also kind of preface like whereDaxi was with me during the process.
We started dating in 2022, like before.
I even had a glimpse of
(40:27):
like running a real estate media business,and now we run it together.
So she handles a lot of likethe admin style tasks.
I do like, like CEOslash sales slash like still on site.
As for
and this is still something I'mworking on,
I ask for dedicating more time
(40:48):
to like your loved ones.
Like initially I was awful at it,
especially in those eightish months of like round robin nights.
Like she literallyheld everything together
and she was liketo gave the utmost support.
And she was absolutely incredible.
And she is incredible.
And during that whole process, honestly,I, I would not be where I am today.
(41:13):
We would not be where we are todaywithout her help.
During that critical period.
And she's helped me ever sinceand ever since I started in May 2023.
Like she would make sureeverything is looking great.
It's like I exhaust roasted beyond belief.
But I was still workingand she was patient.
She was kind.
She helped me so muchand it starts to break
(41:37):
like tears in my eyesjust talking about it,
because she has been so pivotalto our success
and like our vision for the future, it'sjust been amazing.
And I think ever since then I was like,
I need to make sure that I'mputting in more effort.
I need to be putting in more effort,one into our relationship,
(41:59):
but also into finding
that boundary between this is work
and this is personal,and I'm still struggling with that.
I still have clients who are like,hey, like,
I know it's Saturday, but my clientsor they have like X, Y, Z, reason
and I initially was availableall week, like seven days a week.
(42:22):
I will shoot every single dayand then I shoot
Saturdays, I shoot Sundays,I'm back on Monday and doing a full week.
And ever since I would say probably late
last year of 2024 like more October and November,
I've really started being ableto implement more processes
(42:42):
that are like, okay, I need to make sureI'm being able to step away.
I'm not available to my clients at 9 p.m.
10 p.m.
at night,so I need to be much more present with Daxi
and with our relationshipbecause that it's it's huge
and it's important to melike I realize it is important to me,
(43:03):
but my initial mind was like,oh, well, I need to make up.
I need to make more time for clients.
I need to make surethey're well taken care of.
But I was lacking so muchin giving more time,
attentionand care and love and trust to Daxi.
And she's been fuelingabsolutely everything since the beginning.
And so she more than has deservedand earned everything that I have.
(43:28):
And so with that, I would say trying
to find a good way to find
finding a way to like,
step back from work,but not leaving clients hanging per se,
but establish boundaries and like,hey, like,
after, say, maybe 6 p.m., 7 p.m.
I am with my familyand my actually and I don't have kids.
(43:51):
And so I know that is that's hugewith having a family and being able
to allocate time to loved onesand to my fiancé like that is that's huge.
And setting that precedent early,the earlier the better.
The more that clients knowthey can't reach out at 11 p.m.
or call at 11 p.m.
(44:11):
to schedule a shoot for the next morning,the better.
So yeah, so I would say boundaries ishuge, boundaries is huge.
And then also communication is huge.
And I'm not the best communicatorby any means.
I have a lot of stuff that I need to workon, but communicating
well and also being able to be like, hey,
(44:32):
I have a clientwho's texting me about something.
Is it okay if I manage this real quick?
And then we can get back to X, Y, Z,and this could be like a
on a Saturday at 3 p.m.,something like that, or we're on a walk
near a lake or somethingand just being able to make sure
your partneror significant other loved one knows
(44:53):
you're not just ignoring,you're not just doing Instagram DM.
And while they're talking to you,
you know, so it's it'smaking sure that connection is there,
that transparency is thereand making a space specifically for them.
And that, again,I am not the expert at this whatsoever.
I'm still working on a lot of these things
(45:13):
that I'm talking about,but it has been significantly better.
And so I think with other real estatemedia businesses or business owners
or business owners in general,making space for family
and for the ones that they loveand care about, I think is just huge,
because that's whywe made our business to fuel our desires.
(45:34):
And also
part ofthat is to help the people around us
help the people who support us,especially with Daxi.
My fiancé, she's supported meever since the beginning, and I'm
so grateful for everythingthat she has done, like Beyond Grateful.
And it's it's just been pinnacleto our success,
(45:55):
to the way we live lifeand the way we want to live life.
That that word presence
just jumped out at me.
Yeah,because you can be away from work, but
still not be present with those around youthat you love and care about.
I mean, I had a position at one point that
even when I wasn't at work,I was at work and that was not healthy.
(46:17):
So, yeah, establishing the boundariesto be able to create presence
for those around you that you loveand care about, that's huge more.
And I'm I'm proud of youthat you've recognized that early and,
and are working to make that a possibilityfor for Daxi and others in your family.
That's awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Yeah, yeah.
We always we always talk aboutcommunication and expectations, Craig.
(46:40):
And I think that's just
that's a Warren just said, you know,making sure that we set boundaries.
That's expected and communicating.
And I think if you're out there thinking,I know he's talking to an individual
on a coaching call yesterday and she,she was she was at a point
that she was just doing everything and,and she needed to hire
or she needed systems.
She needed, you know,she needed a photographer.
(47:01):
She needed admin.
If you're worried out therethat clients won't use you
because they expect to contact youafter 5 p.m., after 7 p.m.
for you to shoot on Saturday.
for you to shoot on Sundays.
That may actually be true.
It's probably nottrue. That's probably a thought air
(47:24):
if you have a relationship with them
and you say, hey, I'd really love to helpyou, these are my hours.
Like after 7 p.m.
and they're like, hey, that's not okaywith me, that you, you don't leave
your familyand come work for me after 7 p.m.
or my beck and call.
Then you need to tell them thatthat's not okay.
You need to.
Because saying noto some of those clients will allow you,
(47:48):
even if they transition.
If they leave, saying no to themwill allow you to say
yes to other better clients.
You know, just a quick story.
At our media company,we had a relationship.
We have a relationshipwith a large company
and a couple of our cities,and we are raising prices,
(48:08):
and we didn't reallyfeel the support from them.
Through some of what
the way we like to set up a brokerage dealand we didn't really get the support
from the company, and we stepped awayfrom one of their programs
because it wasn't good for us,and a lot of their clients stayed with us.
A lot of the agents stayed with usbecause we had the relationship
and we've been honoring pricing.
(48:29):
And they get really good pricing.
And it's just it's just way too low.
And we're raising itand it's like a thousand shoots a year.
And, you know, that'sit's a good amount of shoots a year.
And for that, you know,there was this pause
of hesitation of like, well,what if what if we lose them all?
And I told Steve and Stevealready had this same thinking.
It came more from some of the team.
(48:49):
I was like, if we lose them all,then we're going to get better clients.
If we lose those thousand shoots,
we're going to get a thousand shootsthat are a lot better.
Clients that appreciate us more, clientsthat pay more, clients
that don't complain or,you know, look for the lowest price.
So it's painful.
It's definitely painful, but it iswhat is healthy for your business.
(49:10):
And Warren's been talking the whole timeabout having the end in mind
and saying no to bad clientsnow allows you to say
yes to good clientsand continue and end with those clients.
So now looking at your businessin 2025 Warren, what does the future hold?
What what what's on your mind?What's top of mind.
What are you workingon? Where there's some gaps.
(49:32):
What are you excited about?
Yeah, absolutely.
So for 2025 we are in April now.
Our first quarter was great.
And we are like relative last year to like
we have been doing amazingespecially with our team in place.
We have two photographersslash videographers.
(49:52):
We are onboarding two VAs right now.
And Daxi and I, we actually, you know,talked about this a little bit more.
And like our ideal is I want to have us
to be ableto pull me away from more shoots
because as of right now I'm like,we're not even into peak peak season.
(50:14):
And I am saturated with like
six shoots, maybe like seven.
Some days I'm like,
I need to make sure one, I'mgiving these to my photographers as well.
But two,I need to pull myself out of shoot
so I can focus on a lot more of the CEOlike side of things.
I can focus on more things with Daxi,where we collab, where we're doing more
(50:38):
brokerage presentations, we're doing moreoutreach, we're doing more marketing.
And Daxi, actually handled a lotlike she handled the entire process,
basically for hiring our employees,
which took a ton of timeoff of my plate specifically.
And so I was kind of therejust like at the end, like seeing
some of the candidatesthat she had in mind.
(51:00):
And then ultimately we went
we both kind of sat downand went with like our final candidates
after rounds of interviewswhere she was doing
all of the interviewing like round two,like round one, round two for interviews
and doing a ton of like,the indeed postings and stuff like that,
and being able to have someonewho is able to allocate that time
(51:22):
outside of my schedule a specific wayto run all of those time consuming
been tasks I didn't have to slow down,which was incredible.
And I think that's like a big advantage.
Like as a couple working in businesswhere Daxi,
she was able to do her partas kind of like the
the chief admin, our chief administratorfor our company, being able to make sure
(51:46):
everything is in check with hiringemployees, maintaining employees.
And we have like our teammeeting every week.
And she literally madelike a team meeting.
She is like, this is start time and time.
These are the things we want to hit on.
And like all of these other thingsthat I didn't even think about.
And so that was incredible.
It's great to see that process beingimplemented and looking to the future.
(52:08):
So we also are lookingprobably to hire our third photographer.
Awesome.
And maybe in looking toward the future,if we can get to a point where I am
removed from shoots, we have four maybefive photographers under us,
being able to handle our shoot volume.
(52:29):
That would be incredible.
Like absolutely incredible.
And we have two right nowlooking to get a third.
And it's all I thinkall about like speed too.
Especially when I like hiring.
Like hiring.
Well, of course, like hiring with qualityand making sure those systems are vetted,
ready to go.
But being able to hop on it
(52:51):
as opposed to doing exactly what I didlast year
and I did.
I did a ton of volume all by myself.
I was like, let's see,let's what's the limit that I can push?
And it was all just a numbers game.
I did it all myself, but I was not makingtime for all the other things in my life.
It was literally just work all the time.
(53:13):
And now being able to have a teamthat's able to support Daxi
and I in business, handling more shoots
like our Wednesdays are absolutely wild.
We have a ton of shootsand it's fantastic.
And just seeing them be able to grow,being able to do all the things they need
to and having us grow as well as a team
(53:36):
has been huge and I don't. I think,
I don't think
anyone regrets having a team in place,
especially while Daxi and I,we recently got engaged.
We, we actually flew out to China, tomy mom's hometown, got engaged
there and had a, wow, part of their hearttrip in China, went to Japan
(53:57):
and had a part of our trip in Japanand then came back.
But we were gone for two and a half,full weeks,
and our team was there with the systemsthat we have in place.
They were still handling shoot volume.
We still had our nice.
Our biggest month this yearwhile we were gone for over half of it.
So it was awesome. Yeah.
(54:19):
So yeah, it's it's been it'sbeen really, really cool
just being able to have a teamand also looking forward.
And I know a lot of people out theremight be like comparing themselves like,
oh well, Warren's doing thisor someone else is doing this.
Or like these other companies are likedoing all these big things and I'm not.
And the kind of like unhappinessby comparison
(54:43):
definitelyis something I need to work on a lot too.
But being able to recognizethat markets are different,
the things that are being donein your market specifically,
or your efforts insideyour market are not to be discounted
either, like your goals and aspirations
are something that can materializeas long as you're
(55:06):
continuing to work toward themand like doing a direct comparison
to other companiesisn't a reflection on oneself.
So I think that's definitely somethinga lot of us have run into,
like at leastI have specifically anyway. And
it's tough.
And especially looking at bigger teamslike I want to have like a bigger team
(55:28):
that looks like this company, but I justhave to kind of start grounding myself.
I Daxi also grounds me with these topicsas well, and she's like, it's okay.
Like we are fantastic where we are like,look at where you were last year.
Look at where we were two years ago.
Like working like crazy,doing nights, doing days.
And it was just insane.
(55:50):
But where we are nowand look at what we have
and look at what we've accomplishedso far.
And being able to have that ground
has been fantastic, especially forespecially for moving forward
to laying the foundationfor more success and more things to come.
Yeah.
So insightful, Warren.
(56:11):
You know, I think, as Eli says, it's a lotwhere as your business
grows, business only gets easier.
It's still hard, but it gets easier.
You know, think back to, just like youmentioned, thinking back to working to
shift, you know, in the ER and shootingand doing that 72 hours without sleep.
Like, you know, while we all have gapsand things we want to solve the day,
(56:33):
you know,
I have a list of them over hereon a whiteboard of things I want to solve.
Like I think back to many years ago.
I'm like,oh, it's a lot better than doing that.
So it only gets better.
You know, I,I think I'm going to just challenge
all of our listeners out thereto, to start with the end in mind.
I think I see that in everything you do,and I think it's why you're so successful
is your understandingwhere you want to end and that allows you
(56:57):
to build smartly, efficiently andwell because you know where you're going.
So I just I love that
Warren, I just can't thank you enoughfor all the insight.
If anyone has, wants to reach out to youand check you out
or shoot you a message,how can how can they get ahold of you?
Oh, yeah.
So reaching out to our Instagram accounts@mccarthymediaco,
(57:21):
so m c c a r t h y media c o,
that's our best point of contact basicallyfor all listeners, stuff like that.
And if you have any questionsor anything that I could also
like lend some insight to,just feel free to hit us up any time.
And I'm we usually check InstagramDMs pretty, pretty regularly.
So make sure to be able to get back to you
(57:43):
I love it!
Well thanks againWarren for all the insight that you share.
Congrats on your business.
And we'll have to have you back on again.
We'll get an update here,would you or you're willing
to come back on againand share some knowledge with us?
Oh, absolutely.It is a pleasure to be here.
And I really appreciate you, Todd,
for having me on Craig,for having me on the podcast.
(58:04):
And it's just been incredible.
And being able to see where you guyshave been going with your business
has also beenincredibly insightful for Daxi.
and I, we have like incredible goalsthat we want to reach,
and you two are an inspirationand I really appreciate you having us.
you to kind of.
It's that's all our pleasure.
Thanks for everything you share today.
(58:25):
And, we will we will definitelyget an update soon from you.
That's sweet.
That sounds like a plan.Thank you so much, Todd.
All our pleasure. Warren.
Well, awesome.
Well, that is going to do it for us today.
Hey, lots of little nuggets in there.
This is oneyou're going to need to relisten to.
And don't feel overwhelmed from it.
Like Warren mentioned, this isn't somethingthat you need to compare yourself to of
(58:48):
if you can implement something,if you're like, hey, I connect with that,
I need to start doing that.
You know,it might be a good nudge forward.
So thanks for spending some time with us.
We really appreciate you.
Have a great week coming up here,and be thankful
for all of your blessingsand be sure to take a breath.
Until next week, y'all. We'll see you.
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