June 18, 2025 • 37 mins
While Todd is off this week, Jess Paxson, Director of Operations for WOW Video Tours joins Craig on the podcast to discuss a half year goals check-up, and the goal WOW Video Tours has had of raising leaders within the business. How are your goals coming for 2025? We're over halfway through the year now. Have you thought about raising leaders in your business to free you up to work on the business even more than you are currently?
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Coming up on this episodeof The Spiro podcast.
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when you empower people to grow
as leaders in your organization,they feel a sense of ownership. Yes.
Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,managing your real estate, photography
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and videography business.
Spiro is a software platform.
If this is the first time you're watching,here's here's what Spiro is.
It's a software platform.
It's designed to help you run your dayto day, real estate media business.
And really ultimately,we want to help you grow and scale.
If that's your goal.
Welcome to, this week's episode.
I'm your host, Craig Magrum
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And, normally our, our co-host and ownerand founder of Spiro Todd Kivimaki.
is with us. He is out today.
So I have a very special guest.
Actually, she's not a stranger.
Probably to, to you.
She's been on the podcast before.
Jess Paxson, Director of operationsat Wow video tours
Welcome, Jess.
Hi, Craig.
Happy to be on, of course.
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Nervous as always, but excited to be hereand talk about some stuff that,
I really enjoy.
If this face for radio can do the podcast,you can do the podcast.
No reason to be nervous,
Yeah.
So normally we do Spiro updates.
Obviously Todd handles that.
So we're not we're going to foregothat this week.
But just keep your ideas coming.
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We do have a suggestion boardin your Spiro portal,
that you can, you know,if there's something, some sort of feature
or, you know, some functionalitythat you would love to see in Spiro.
You can put it on that, suggestion boardand it can be upvoted by others.
So we want to encourage you get intoyour Spiro portal and, you can do that.
(01:51):
And, if you don't have a Spiro account,you can sign up for one for free.
It doesn't cost you anythingto have the account.
It's just once you start processing ordersand send those out
is when those charges, eventuallywill will kick in.
So anyway,just wanted to let you know about that.
All right, so this week,
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if you recall the past couple of years,at the beginning of the year
or the end of the year, dependsusually I think we recorded
at the end of the yearand it was at the beginning,
we talk about goals for the yearand the importance of a goal setting.
So we did that,you know, at the beginning of 2025.
Well, we're we're actually nowpast the halfway point, but
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we wanted to do an episode, just to remindyou, check in on the goals that you set.
Back at the beginning of the year.
Where are you at with those?
How are you coming along?
Do you doyou need to tweak those a little bit?
Do you have new goals?
So just kind of a general reminder,
check in on the goals that you'd setat the beginning of the year.
And then we can do course corrections if,
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if we're not quite where we need to be,or maybe we're on track.
That's fantastic.
Or you have some new onesthat you want to implement.
So just to get a general reminder on that.
But one of thewe wanted to talk about one of our goals
at our real estatemedia company called Wow Video Tours and,
here to help us do that,Jess, who I've already introduced.
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And it's, it's,I think a challenging topic.
Jess
And that's the, the issueof raising leaders in your organization.
And we had a goal this year,
of raising some leadersin a very specific part of our business.
You want to
give just a real brief overview,
and then we could talk about the historyand, where we're at with that.
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Yeah, sure.
So, this year, one of our major goalswas raising up leaders
for regional trainers,for our, for each of our regions.
So we felt that it was a good opportunityfor us and for them
to come up within the company,do more of what they enjoy.
You know, they're out there doing thisevery single day.
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You know, most of these photographershave been here
3 to 4 to 5 to 6, two plus years now.
So we have some that are just really good.
Like really good leaders.
They want to do more with us.
So we we implementedthe regional trainer program.
We brought them all in.
We had some long discussionson what they felt would be best.
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And then we put our best foot forwardand implemented that program
and have had I think we started offthis year in February or March, hiring
six new photographers for, you know,kind of spread out amongst the regions.
And they each onboardedand trained these people up and,
you know, took themthrough skill progression.
And we found some gapsalong the way that we had to address
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that we are working on still now,you know,
we do kind of quarterly checkupswith them.
Actually, most of the timeI'm talking to each of them weekly.
So we're addressing those concernsand then like
kind of just building thatand building them as we go.
So let's let's kind ofgo back to the beginning of all this.
So any anyone that's watched the podcastfor a while who's probably,
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heard or seen that we had, position,
that was basically like a directorof training, was a director of production.
And like any companyand like any rules, rules
change,they evolve, they morph into new things.
So we had a little bitabout the history of this.
We had this position of directorof training and director of production.
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So, so
it's evolvednow more into a regional trainer,
type of model with you
as our director of operationskind of heading that up,
can you kind of explain whatwhat was the genesis
or what was the first stepsin making that evolution
from Director of Productionto regional trainers?
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You know, how did the foundation for thatget laid?
Sure.
So we saw, you know, having one person
overseeall the different regions that were in,
that can be difficult.
So that's a huge task for anyone.
I mean, that's coordinatingso many different things,
that's trying to be outand training in so many different regions.
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And when you're doing a bulkhiring at once to try and get these people
up and ready in the fieldduring busy season,
I mean, it's a very, very difficulttask to accomplish and get people move
through the system in the amount of timethat you need to do so.
So if I'm here and I'm I'm the trainerand I have six different regions
to get to, how quickly can I get thesepeople up and running and making money?
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Well, that's a little difficult to doif there's only one of me, right?
So we thought that there was a really goodopportunity to take some people
in the company that have been with us for,you know, quite a while and want to do
more and want to prove, like the skill setthat they have and teach others because,
you know, each of these peoplein the region really care about
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the other photographersthat they work with and the clients.
They want the qualityto be a good standard,
amongst the regions.
So like, you know, they go outand they shoot photo video and these are
the guidelines that they want everyoneto shoot because their skill sets so high.
Right?
So their,their care level is through the roof
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because they wantthat consistency across the board.
So that way we can send any shooter outto any appointment.
And everybody'sgetting pretty much the same quality.
So these are people that we recognizeand realize really wanted to take that
skill set and to teach on and train onand do more, earn more.
You know, just help more.
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Right.
So there wasthere was kind of a step in between the,
the director of trainingand the regional trainers that as we were
looking at growing that positionor evolving that position and recognizing
that one person can't service,how many different markets do we have?
Gosh, is it like six?
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Yeah, yeah, 6 or 7. Yeah.
You kind of miss traveling,you know. It's quite a bit, but. Right.
And and when your home base is itliterally in the middle of a cornfield
outside of,you know, outside of Lima, Ohio,
which a lot of people have never evenheard of for that one person to to travel
to some of our major markets,including one multiple states away.
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Yeah, that was hard.
So the first step was, wasn'tit actually bringing on an assistant to
because yes,
it was very difficult like for thatone person to manage to get everything
coordinated and done, give feedback,call it, keep quality control up.
So it was yeah, it was a lot.
So we brought another one onfor assistance of that.
Yeah.
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So is you know you might have a situationwhere your business is growing
maybe like when I was doing itthis on my own,
I was a one man show to begin with,eventually hired on another photographer.
And I get to the pointwhere the two of us,
even we're kind of maxed outwith what we could do.
And you come to that point in yourin your business
where you have to make a decision.
Do I remain a more of a boutiqueand smaller shop
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or do I you know,or do I take Todd's approach, which is
I want to shoot as many listingsas humanly possible,
and grow it,and you remove yourself from the,
the photographer positionthe photographer owner,
and you start hiring a team to do thatand grow.
Well, then
you've got that question of wanting tohow do I train all of these people?
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And that'swhat Wow has faced over the years.
So yeah. Yeah.
So we went from director, directorof training to hiring an assistant
for that director of training to nowrecognizing, hey, how awesome
would it be to have people in each marketthat we can designate?
Yeah, as the trainers,I will say so as as you all are growing
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and you're bringing on more photographersand you're taking
and removing yourself from that position,and you begin to train others.
I think
a really important foundation to have isand this is something that Wow has,
and I think to
the reason we'reable to grow and be so successful with
it is because of the training programthat we have all the documents, we have
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all of the materialthat we have created for,
the new photographersand the trainees to be able to,
review and to train on and, you know,for them to be able to go into that
and know exactly what our photo guidelinesare, our video guidelines are.
So if you are growing and if you arehiring and adding on new people,
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the documentation is so incrediblyimportant because you want to be able to
then eventually take yourselfout of that position as well as a trainer,
you want to be able to do what we're doingand bring someone in as a regional.
Give them all of that documentationand all those guides to be able to follow.
So just that's just one thingI recommend having as well.
Like if and building that structure.
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Yeah for sure.
Yeah.
Having something writtenI mean it also gives the, the added
benefit of consistency in the workand what clients can expect from you.
And that's one of the thingthat even with our training program,
one of the challengesI've run into, like in the market that I,
I shoot in, in and do businessdevelopment and development for is
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agents who can be incredibly loyal.
Realtors can be incredibly loyal.
Sometimes they they shop at pro shop.
We know that.
But when a realtor really gets comfortablewith you as part of their team,
they don't want anyone elseshooting for you.
And even if another photographer has
a really good eyeand some good talent and really is
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there, providing the same qualitythat you are, is the photographer.
Yeah.
The agent
somehow still in their mind says, no,you're you're photography is different.
You just have a certain eye,which there might be
a little bit of difference here and there,but it's negligible if.
Yeah, I mean it's definitely a challenge.
We all have our favoritesand things like that that we go through.
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But yeah, to, to keep that,good consistency across the board,
you have to have everythingcompletely laid out and know, you know,
what it is that each person'ssupposed to do when they're out there
and how you're supposed to shoot and stufflike that.
So. Right.
So we've got this foundational,
training program for the photographers
now, Jess, as as we've been trainingregionals and bringing up leaders
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and in the Wow organization, what that is,is there documentation for the trainers?
Yeah. So I'm glad you asked. That's okay.
All right.
That's something.
So when we brought these regional trainerson, you know they've got experience
in the field. They've been with us. And
but as I'm doing these check insand stuff like that with them
and actually we just had it a new personas a trainer as well.
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He was one of the new shootersa few months back, but he's really soared
and he's actually able to assist more nowand help with training.
So one of the things with him and I werechatting about was like, you know what?
What do you needmost from me to help you feel successful?
And one of those things was just, well,knowing more like what
I need to do on day one with this person,what do I need to do on day two?
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What do I need to do on day three?
Like how many training appointments dothey need to be on with me?
You know, what skills do we start with?
What do I start discussing with themfirst?
So, you know, we've got the guidesand the videos that are very extensive,
but those are aimed more towardsthe new hire, not the trainee.
So what I'm doing right now
is I'm building that documentationfor the training for day one checklist.
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Day two checklist, day three checklist.
In order to get them by weektwo up and running to be successful.
And for us to be a little more hands off.
What does that progression for a trainerlook like?
So those are the guides and the thingsthat we're working on right now.
I've got about 70% of it done, but
right now it's just been like,so this is going to help me.
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This is going to help me.
Not only me but the the trainer,but the time that I'm spending
on the phone doing these callsand things like that with the regionals,
you know, checking like,did you do this today?
Did you do this?
Well, this will allow me to be a little,
little more hands off as wellfor them to have that checklist.
And, you know, one of the goalswe always have in business is to be able
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to take ourself out of thingsso we can do other things right, to focus
so we can grow and build well,this is just something that I saw.
We have a gap for.
And in order for me to be able to free upsome of my time doing this, coordinating
and making sure things are goingsmoothly, let's just create a checklist.
We canthey can check this, I can check in on it.
They can submit it.They can submit it with feedback.
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It can be a form,whatever it is that we need it to be.
It's being built out right now.
And like we like to use Clickup and someother like Google Doc forms and stuff.
So it'll probably be in that kind offormat to where they can go to this link.
They can submit the form,you know, put all their feedback in,
and then it'll kick me an email.
It'll be live feedback.
They don't have to always callif I'm not available.
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I mean, that happens. We'reall in meetings here and there, right?
But we want to stay connected.
So that was just one of the inefficienciesthat we kind of found
that we're building out right now.
So then as we continue to grow, it'sgoing to go much smoother.
So let me let me shift gears a little bit,because I just had
this thought up in my mindand we didn't talk about this.
So I'm throwing a curveball.
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Okay, Craig, throwing a curveballis just off the cuff conversation.
It is. It is.
So a lot of times, you know,we talk about, retaining clients.
You know, in our business, we wantwe want that long term relationship
with the realtor.
We don't want them bouncing around.
We're we're going to provideVIP care, you know, for our hire.
About what?
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So in our businessand or in our industry, collectively,
when we start hiring other photographers,typically what the owner does
is they'll make it a 1099 position,a contractor, right.
It's more rare.
It's not unheard of, but more rare to havephotographers on as actual signs or
here in the in the States
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or employees.
So the in the back of my head, I've gotthis question is, is there a challenge
in keeping contractors,as part of your team long term?
Like we want to keep clients long term?
Have we found over the yearsthat it's been a challenge to
to retain good photographers?
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Well.
I mean, we've had peoplecome and go, right?
But these trainers, like,
I guess, I mean,they've been with us a while now, like,
we're building them uplike everybody wants to grow, right?
Typically when you start a profession,it's like, okay, what's my opportunity
here?
What's my what's my income potentialand what's my growth potential.
(16:44):
So yeah, it's not always easyto keep people
if that third one like growthpotential isn't there.
You know, we offer great incentivesand like yearly incentives
for being here so long and like pay bumpsand stuff like that just for me.
I guess the
longevity that that they're here, but,yeah, I mean, the regionals.
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So this regional program,
they get an hour,they get a, they get a pay for training,
and then they also get a pay bumpfor training for the loyalty of,
you know, checking in on peopleor doing doing all the,
like, client quality care that we providewith the clients.
They're doing that with these traineesas well, checking in on them,
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building team bonds and stuff like that.
You know,
this only helps themand the team like, sorry, this is a
when this is a little new to me, I'mtrying to collect my thoughts on this,
but this is greatbecause it's helping them build team bonds
with the people in their city as well.
And they're responsible for that,like they're responsible for to go out,
like to connect with these people,do some great group meetings.
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One of our Charlotte regional trainers,she likes to get people together.
Pizza night, whatever it is,
go over a few things like thatpeople are struggling with.
And, you know, there'sa sense of ownership for her on that.
And there it is.
There it is.
That was that was the exact wordI was looking for.
Yeah. You then you nailed it.
Because I think, yeah,when you empower people to grow
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as leaders in your organization,they feel a sense of ownership. Yes.
And obviously yes, increased pay.
We all want to increase our pay,
but that's not always someone'sprimary motivator.
Sometimes it's just the pride of ownershipor having a leadership role.
And the pride, pridein a good way of of seeing,
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like being able to build upwhat you're doing is making a difference.
That's yes, that's to a leader.
Yeah, I know, at least for me.
And I know for you like what we wantmost for the people that we're helping
lead is for them to grow and for them
to have a sense of belonging and stufflike that in a company and a voice.
And that's what we arehelping give these people and to in
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turn give the people that they arenow leading.
Right.
Like, that's yeah,that's probably one of our main goals
as a leader is, is to push that along.
You know what I mean? Yeah.
So that's yeah, that sense of ownership,the sense that their voice matters.
Like, you know,
another goal we'llhave here soon in the off season is just
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let's do a deep diveinto our processes for shooting.
Like what can we do to improveand these regional trainers
are going to be ableto give all that input.
That's going to make an impacton a difference on the company
in a positive way.
And, and then in turn go overand like go over into the clients,
you know, so it's yeah, full circle.
I think it's awesome that we can have
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contractors that are empowered to lead
with, with a companyand build that camaraderie,
because I feel like in a lot of companies,probably independent contractors,
they don't mix much with other contractorsthat they're working for.
So to be able to build,like a team, culture,
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even with contractors,I mean, how cool is that?
I mean, it's one of the most importantthings to me is that people feel like
they belong in a group and that they havethat family sense and culture.
And like, it'ssomething that, you know, with contractors
and with everybody
spread out in different regionsand some of us in office, some of us,
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you know, across the worldworking virtually whatever it is like,
you know,we try and bring some of that team culture
together for everyone, and we know wherewe have some room for improvement.
Those are some other things, goalsand stuff that I'm working on right now.
But yeah, we I mean,that's one of the reasons that we are able
to keep people here is that teamatmosphere that support that they get.
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We don't throw them out in the fieldand tell them to figure it out.
There's that support dynamic and teamatmosphere and family atmosphere
that I hope they feel most daysthat we're always here for them.
So yeah.
Do you do you have any any success storiesthat you know from some of the
the people that we've raised up
as regionals that might inspire an honorlistening to this right now?
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I mean, I'm trying to think, Craig,but like
so many of them, I mean, like, they'rejust loving and enjoying this role.
Like the excitement I hear in their voice
when they're checking in and like whenthese people are being brought up, like,
I mean, things that used to take us monthsto get them approved on
and skill sets, like, I think one of.
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I've heard them say
that, you know, they it feels likeI'm fast tracking this person.
Well, it does feel like thatbecause you're there
and you're focusing with themand they are being fast tracked.
And one of the, one of the thingsthat they're proud of is of
for that is that they're nowproviding this new person
a fast track to income.
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You know,I mean, that's why we all work, right?
Like, I mean, for the most part,like we all share,
we all have to provide for our family.
It's not the only reason.
But this, like the financial goalsthat they can now set and help
help this person achieve because they'rekind of fast tracking them in a sense.
I mean, that's somethingthey're excited about.
That's something that they are like,they're pumped that
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they're able to do that for someone elseand earn income training in the, in the,
you know, during the.
Yeah.
What whatI love seeing is the regional trainers
that want to see, you know,the other vidtogs
vidtographers,we call them vidtographers on our team.
Get more shoots. Yeah.
And it reminds me of I just saw this clipand I'm horrible with sports.
(22:30):
Some of you have probably seen this clipon YouTube.
Shorts or,you know, the reels on Facebook, but it's
he plays for the Philadelphia EaglesI believe it's the Eagles.
He was on the bench and one ofthe assistant coaches was talking to him
about getting him back in the game because
I'm guessing he was ahe was a running back or something,
because it was something about gettinga personal record of most yards in a game.
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And he this coachwanted him to be able to do that.
Well, this guy was a veteran.
He said, no, let the young fellas eat.
So what he was
doing ishe had a chance to get a goal for himself.
Right?
But he recognized that the young guys,the team
was far enough ahead in the scorethat they were comfortable.
They were probably going to win the game,that he didn't need to be in the game.
(23:16):
He wanted to see the young rookies,get in the game
because if they got in the game, they wereguaranteed a certain amount of money
or something like that, and getting themthe experience in their paycheck
and whatnot, and that kind of selflessness is, is huge.
We definitely have regionals like that.
I was chatting with one yesterdayand and, this morning
(23:37):
he had shot me a text and it was like,
hey, I'm going out with this person todayto do a little bit more training.
And I've heard him say multiple times,like, just so selflessly, like,
hey, I'd rather this personget some work so we can
so he can work on his skillsets a little bit more.
And, you know, I'll just do some feedbackhours and training hours and stuff
like that in the background.
He's like, but I would prefer thatwe give this person this.
(23:58):
So then that way they're not losingany income and stuff like that.
So yeah, yeah, we've had a lot of selflessacts like that, that it's just
it's niceto see them recognize those things.
I mean, that's why we selectedthe people we did.
They are true leadersin that aspect. Right?
You know, you want to get but let me thinkabout how I want to phrase this.
(24:20):
You want to get your,your photographers, success.
You want to get thethe realtors requesting them.
So we just hired a guy
in the last few months,Brandon, to our team.
And hehe came out with me up in my market,
and I was just really impressedwith, you know, young guy, very sharp.
(24:41):
And I'm like,I think this guy is going to go places.
So that just in, just last week,just we had a client
that was needing,a shoot and couldn't get in right away.
But we managed to make it work.
And I had gone into the ordersto to look at her order
and see when this, you know,when the shoot day was and everything.
And we have a field in Spiro
(25:02):
that allows a realtorto request a certain photographer.
So my goal is, you know, when,when I get more help in my market
that the realtor will request somebodyother than me
because I can't do it all myself, but b,I want that other photographer
to have income opportunities.
Well, when I looked at this order,
it was specifically requestedBrandon shoot this.
(25:25):
I'm like yes, yes, yes,I would love to see that.
That is the best. Yeah,it was it first available.
It was Brendan, you know, he was chosen,as is the requested photographer.
And this is for an agentthat does a lot of business in this guy.
What? Jess he’s been with us. What?
Maybe shooting actively three, two,three months? Yes.
(25:46):
Yep. I'm like, yeah, yeah, he's killed it.
And Craig,I mean, that's just another like,
the people we bring on, I mean, hiringis just a whole nother thing.
We shot another another podcastand stuff like that down the road.
But man, I, we could tellwhen we hired him on, he was motivated.
He was going to get this done.He seltzers.
He practices.
(26:06):
He does things in his off timeto get better, to build his skill set.
And it's showingbecause you requested he's get.
I've had people email in about himspecifically with his customer service
and how he shows up and yeah, just he doeshe shows up in so many different ways
and, and, you know, you
you as an owner, you might get luckyand find that fantastic person.
(26:28):
But to have trainers and mentors forthat person that will keep them motivated
to pour into them, that's just that'sjust going to motivate them even more.
Yeah.
So it's just it's kind of a cascade effectwhen you know it just as you're pouring
into people that we've identified, asis people, we want to be regional trainers
that causes them to buy,and they get excited about their work.
(26:50):
And then that cascadesdown to the photographers
that they're training and mentoring,and they get excited and want to do more.
So it's just that there's nothingbut good things about developing leaders
in your organization and letting go,being willing and trusting.
And that's a huge thing.
You got to be able to trust.
Yes you do.
And these these peoplewe selected are people we trust.
(27:12):
That doesn't mean you don't checkin. And sure, sure.
One of the big things I've learned here,and Steve always says that, you know,
what is it? Trust but verify.
Yeah Ronald Reagan right there. Yeah.
Trust but
verify that people verify make youthey are.
And like most of them like Craig Craigin Cincinnati called this morning.
(27:32):
He was out yesterday just to do a check inand you know, and it's just nice
to hear the excitement in the voice
like, yes, I think this is becausewe just did another new hire in Cincy.
And so we're like, yep,we think this is a really good fit.
Like customer service skills are great.
Like like they're excited though.
They're excitedto take these people under their wing.
They're excited to help more availabilityfor the clients, and for them.
(27:53):
And just to build people like you can tellleaders just have that built in them.
They want to build people.
I think that's, you know, that's importantto give that opportunity
Well that's awesome Jess, with,
you know, the regional, regional trainers,that being one of our major goals.
And so with this being the halfway pointthrough the year,
(28:14):
and we've had this goal of raising upregional trainers, what what would you say
to the person that is maybe toyingwith with some new goals?
Or maybe they didn't set goalsat the beginning of the year?
What what's the what's the starting pointfor for getting your goals in mind
and then keeping up with themkind of checking in?
(28:34):
Yeah.
I mean, so when you're setting your goals,you also have to ask yourself,
why am I setting this goal?
What's the reason behind this goal?
How long do I think it's going to take meto accomplish this goal?
And then typically breakingthose things up in steps?
Because we all want the fast track, right?
We all want to get done with thingslike next day.
(28:55):
That's like, I don't know how many timesI tell Todd and Steve,
you just can't go fast enough.
I don't feel like I just,I just want it done now.
But, like, that's not realistic.
That's not realistic for any of us.Hardly.
So, would you say stepone is write it down? Yes.
Step one is write it down.
Okay. Write it down. Plan it out.
Hold yourself accountable.
(29:15):
Do you check in on your goals?
Like if not daily? Weekly for sure.
See the progress you made?
I like to write everything down,whether it's on my whiteboard or I read.
I keep a checklist of my of the goalsthat I'm setting on
Trello and breakany breaking it down in steps.
That's how I hold myself accountable.
So if you are not holding yourselfaccountable, sometimes an accountability
(29:38):
buddy helpsor verbally saying your goals to someone.
So then that waysomeone else knows what your goal is
to helpyou hold yourself accountable for it.
But those are all really,really key steps in achieving your goals.
Writing them down, knowing the reasonwhy that you have this goal,
doingyour check ins on it and breaking it up.
(30:00):
If it's something that'sgoing to take a while to do for sure,
know how long it's going to take youat least at least a good,
guess you need to know that,because then in your mind you're like,
okay, well,if this is going to take me three months,
then I need to start making progress in
on it now,because otherwise I'm never going
to get there by month threeif I don't start breaking it up.
(30:20):
So breaking things up, holding yourselfaccountable, writing things down
and then celebrating the winswhen you when you hit things like that's
really importantto like you in order like as humans,
we all want to do good, right?
Like we want to feel successfulin the goals that we've set.
So when you do reach like,you know, step one
(30:41):
or step two out of step ten,you need to celebrate those wins.
Like those little steps.It's just going to help.
Feel that joy.
Keep the morale up.
Yep. Keep the morale up.
And if you're setting team goals,that's another big one too.
These are all just goals for yourself.
But celebrate the wins with the team too.
(31:02):
When you have thingsthat you've set for them
and they've achieved those don'tjust don't do not just brush them off.
If it's a team goal,that's the biggest way to set yourself up
for failure at a companyis by not not celebrating the wins.
You got to celebrate the wins.Even the little ones.
So, I've been reading a bookthat Todd mentioned.
(31:22):
I've been trying to finish itfor the last year.
I was horrible, I didn't read for a while.
But it's called soundtracksby, John John Acuff.
Yeah.
And he
there was a section of the book
where he was talking aboutthis horrible boss he had and, you know,
the time track every little thingwhen he went to the bathroom,
when he would pour himselfa cup of coffee.
And this boss was just relentless.
(31:43):
And even if he hit goals, it was like,well, it should have been this,
you know, you should have hit this,and nothing was ever good enough.
Well,
he ends it by basically sayingI was a terrible boss to myself.
It was his.
He wasn't celebrating his wins. Yeah.
And when it was onlylooking at the negative
and that's a broken soundtrack.
And yeah, celebrating
(32:05):
those soundtracks are so incrediblyimportant to Craig.
Like, and if you guys haven't readthis book, this is a really good book.
John has an amazing podcast podcastas well,
and weeklyweekly newsletter that he sends out.
If you guys don't subscribeto those things, I definitely urge you
to check it out.
It's free that cost anything for that,for that newsletter, and then podcast.
(32:25):
But the book is great. And he's right.
Like the things that you tell yourselfdaily, they need to be positive.
If you're constantly saying, man,I can't do this.
It's like me being on this podcast.
Well, that's just me telling myselfI can't do it.
That doesn't mean I can't do it.
Like I can do anything if I tell myselfI can do any, you know what I mean?
Within reason, I can do anything.
(32:48):
But anyhow, you have to.
You have to have those positive mind,
those positive soundtracksin order to reach your goals.
Like if I go in every dayand I'm just like,
oh man. Like,I don't think that I can do this.
Like, you know,can I do that all the time?
Guess what?
Like, I'm not going to want to do itbecause I don't think I can do it
and I'm justsetting myself up for failure.
So yeah, those those soundtracks are incredibly important to to achieving goals.
(33:14):
It takes one step.
The first step is the hardest.
It is, you know, like this morning,I have not been exercising
the way I need to.
And it's like I'm getting older.
Jess and I,
I used to be a super early morning person,and I'm finding more and more.
I don't want to get out of bedas early as I used to.
And this morning, like, dang it, I knowI have to go to the doctor this morning.
(33:35):
He's going to read me out because Ihaven't been doing what I'm supposed to.
Okay, Craig started this morning.
Yeah, it's cramming.
It's not going to do anything
for the doctor's appointment,but I drag myself out of bed.
I took my brisk walk.
You know,I think I was out there maybe 25 minutes.
You got to start somewhere.
But as I was walking,I started feeling better.
I wasn't as achy.
(33:55):
The blood started flowing.
So fixing that soundtrackand taking the first step of the
goal that you've got set,
if you can get
that to that, the goal gets easier.
And, I knowwe were talking about this recently,
just how the things that I don't liketo do
is what I start my day with,because I don't want to to exercise.
(34:18):
So I get up and walk on my treadmillfor 2 to 3 miles every morning.
I do the dishesbecause I don't like doing them at night.
I'm not going to do them at night.I'm tired.
I want to sit down after a long day.
I sweep and they'reI mean, those are three of them.
And, you know, there's a few others,but, like, she records a podcast
at 9:45 in the morning,she gets that out of the way.
(34:41):
I know I do, but
I start my day with the things that I feelare very challenging for me
because then when I can check those offmy list, I'm
like, heck yes, I got this done,I can do this, I can do anything.
Now my mindset is freshand ready for work,
and when I come home,I know I don't have to do dishes.
I know I got to get on that treadmillunless I feel like it.
(35:02):
I'm just getting some of thethe hardest parts out of the day.
It's the same way when I come in here.
I like to get my really goodproductivity things done in the morning
when my mind is freshand like I'm not dragged down, I'm
not hitting that 2:00 crash or whateverit is.
And so, yeah, setting those goalsand just holding yourself accountable
for them every day.
Yeah, you're going to see that progress.
(35:23):
Our guest,Jess Paxson, Director of operations
at Wow Video Tours,for talking about goals.
The halfway point through the yearone of our goals being raise
regional trainers,to invest in our photographer team.
And maybe that's a goalthat you have as well.
So hopefully this is giving yousome great ideas.
Jess thank you so much.Appreciate you taking the time.
I know your your plate is full.
So thanks for taking time on the podcast.
(35:44):
It's my pleasure.
It's been, fun being on with youtoday. Craig.
Yeah. If you've got some goals,we'd love to hear them.
And and we can check in with you as well.
Feel freeto leave a comment on the YouTube channel.
If you want to drop us an email,you can email us at.
hello@spiro.mediaand we would love to hear from you.
Maybe you hit, maybe you didn'tget some goals written down this year.
(36:07):
Well,
today is the best day to
do that, so write down the goalsyou got six.
Now let's call it five and a halfmore months to the end of the year.
Man. Time is flying, Jess.
Yes, yes it is.
Well in the world.
Anyway,
Start today.
Write down that goaland we want to celebrate the win with you.
When you hit that goal, drop us again.
(36:28):
Drop us an email. In the email.Todd. Night.
hello@spiro.media
We would love to celebrate this with you.
So hope that was a good check in for youguys.
Againjust thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Yeah you're welcome.
And Iwill let you get to the rest of your day.
For the rest of you,make sure you take some time
to be thankfulfor the blessings in your life.
It takes some time to breathe as well.
(36:48):
Celebrate the winduring that time of breath
All right,you have a great week. Take care.
Coming up on this episodeof The Spiro podcast.
(00:04):
when you empower people to grow
as leaders in your organization,they feel a sense of ownership. Yes.
Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,managing your real estate, photography
(00:26):
and videography business.
Spiro is a software platform.
If this is the first time you're watching,here's here's what Spiro is.
It's a software platform.
It's designed to help you run your dayto day, real estate media business.
And really ultimately,we want to help you grow and scale.
If that's your goal.
Welcome to, this week's episode.
I'm your host, Craig Magrum
(00:47):
And, normally our, our co-host and ownerand founder of Spiro Todd Kivimaki.
is with us. He is out today.
So I have a very special guest.
Actually, she's not a stranger.
Probably to, to you.
She's been on the podcast before.
Jess Paxson, Director of operationsat Wow video tours
Welcome, Jess.
Hi, Craig.
Happy to be on, of course.
(01:09):
Nervous as always, but excited to be hereand talk about some stuff that,
I really enjoy.
If this face for radio can do the podcast,you can do the podcast.
No reason to be nervous,
Yeah.
So normally we do Spiro updates.
Obviously Todd handles that.
So we're not we're going to foregothat this week.
But just keep your ideas coming.
(01:31):
We do have a suggestion boardin your Spiro portal,
that you can, you know,if there's something, some sort of feature
or, you know, some functionalitythat you would love to see in Spiro.
You can put it on that, suggestion boardand it can be upvoted by others.
So we want to encourage you get intoyour Spiro portal and, you can do that.
(01:51):
And, if you don't have a Spiro account,you can sign up for one for free.
It doesn't cost you anythingto have the account.
It's just once you start processing ordersand send those out
is when those charges, eventuallywill will kick in.
So anyway,just wanted to let you know about that.
All right, so this week,
(02:13):
if you recall the past couple of years,at the beginning of the year
or the end of the year, dependsusually I think we recorded
at the end of the yearand it was at the beginning,
we talk about goals for the yearand the importance of a goal setting.
So we did that,you know, at the beginning of 2025.
Well, we're we're actually nowpast the halfway point, but
(02:33):
we wanted to do an episode, just to remindyou, check in on the goals that you set.
Back at the beginning of the year.
Where are you at with those?
How are you coming along?
Do you doyou need to tweak those a little bit?
Do you have new goals?
So just kind of a general reminder,
check in on the goals that you'd setat the beginning of the year.
And then we can do course corrections if,
(02:56):
if we're not quite where we need to be,or maybe we're on track.
That's fantastic.
Or you have some new onesthat you want to implement.
So just to get a general reminder on that.
But one of thewe wanted to talk about one of our goals
at our real estatemedia company called Wow Video Tours and,
here to help us do that,Jess, who I've already introduced.
(03:17):
And it's, it's,I think a challenging topic.
Jess
And that's the, the issueof raising leaders in your organization.
And we had a goal this year,
of raising some leadersin a very specific part of our business.
You want to
give just a real brief overview,
and then we could talk about the historyand, where we're at with that.
(03:40):
Yeah, sure.
So, this year, one of our major goalswas raising up leaders
for regional trainers,for our, for each of our regions.
So we felt that it was a good opportunityfor us and for them
to come up within the company,do more of what they enjoy.
You know, they're out there doing thisevery single day.
(04:01):
You know, most of these photographershave been here
3 to 4 to 5 to 6, two plus years now.
So we have some that are just really good.
Like really good leaders.
They want to do more with us.
So we we implementedthe regional trainer program.
We brought them all in.
We had some long discussionson what they felt would be best.
(04:23):
And then we put our best foot forwardand implemented that program
and have had I think we started offthis year in February or March, hiring
six new photographers for, you know,kind of spread out amongst the regions.
And they each onboardedand trained these people up and,
you know, took themthrough skill progression.
And we found some gapsalong the way that we had to address
(04:45):
that we are working on still now,you know,
we do kind of quarterly checkupswith them.
Actually, most of the timeI'm talking to each of them weekly.
So we're addressing those concernsand then like
kind of just building thatand building them as we go.
So let's let's kind ofgo back to the beginning of all this.
So any anyone that's watched the podcastfor a while who's probably,
(05:06):
heard or seen that we had, position,
that was basically like a directorof training, was a director of production.
And like any companyand like any rules, rules
change,they evolve, they morph into new things.
So we had a little bitabout the history of this.
We had this position of directorof training and director of production.
(05:28):
So, so
it's evolvednow more into a regional trainer,
type of model with you
as our director of operationskind of heading that up,
can you kind of explain whatwhat was the genesis
or what was the first stepsin making that evolution
from Director of Productionto regional trainers?
(05:49):
You know, how did the foundation for thatget laid?
Sure.
So we saw, you know, having one person
overseeall the different regions that were in,
that can be difficult.
So that's a huge task for anyone.
I mean, that's coordinatingso many different things,
that's trying to be outand training in so many different regions.
(06:12):
And when you're doing a bulkhiring at once to try and get these people
up and ready in the fieldduring busy season,
I mean, it's a very, very difficulttask to accomplish and get people move
through the system in the amount of timethat you need to do so.
So if I'm here and I'm I'm the trainerand I have six different regions
to get to, how quickly can I get thesepeople up and running and making money?
(06:36):
Well, that's a little difficult to doif there's only one of me, right?
So we thought that there was a really goodopportunity to take some people
in the company that have been with us for,you know, quite a while and want to do
more and want to prove, like the skill setthat they have and teach others because,
you know, each of these peoplein the region really care about
(06:57):
the other photographersthat they work with and the clients.
They want the qualityto be a good standard,
amongst the regions.
So like, you know, they go outand they shoot photo video and these are
the guidelines that they want everyoneto shoot because their skill sets so high.
Right?
So their,their care level is through the roof
(07:17):
because they wantthat consistency across the board.
So that way we can send any shooter outto any appointment.
And everybody'sgetting pretty much the same quality.
So these are people that we recognizeand realize really wanted to take that
skill set and to teach on and train onand do more, earn more.
You know, just help more.
(07:39):
Right.
So there wasthere was kind of a step in between the,
the director of trainingand the regional trainers that as we were
looking at growing that positionor evolving that position and recognizing
that one person can't service,how many different markets do we have?
Gosh, is it like six?
(07:59):
Yeah, yeah, 6 or 7. Yeah.
You kind of miss traveling,you know. It's quite a bit, but. Right.
And and when your home base is itliterally in the middle of a cornfield
outside of,you know, outside of Lima, Ohio,
which a lot of people have never evenheard of for that one person to to travel
to some of our major markets,including one multiple states away.
(08:19):
Yeah, that was hard.
So the first step was, wasn'tit actually bringing on an assistant to
because yes,
it was very difficult like for thatone person to manage to get everything
coordinated and done, give feedback,call it, keep quality control up.
So it was yeah, it was a lot.
So we brought another one onfor assistance of that.
Yeah.
(08:40):
So is you know you might have a situationwhere your business is growing
maybe like when I was doing itthis on my own,
I was a one man show to begin with,eventually hired on another photographer.
And I get to the pointwhere the two of us,
even we're kind of maxed outwith what we could do.
And you come to that point in yourin your business
where you have to make a decision.
Do I remain a more of a boutiqueand smaller shop
(09:04):
or do I you know,or do I take Todd's approach, which is
I want to shoot as many listingsas humanly possible,
and grow it,and you remove yourself from the,
the photographer positionthe photographer owner,
and you start hiring a team to do thatand grow.
Well, then
you've got that question of wanting tohow do I train all of these people?
(09:27):
And that'swhat Wow has faced over the years.
So yeah. Yeah.
So we went from director, directorof training to hiring an assistant
for that director of training to nowrecognizing, hey, how awesome
would it be to have people in each marketthat we can designate?
Yeah, as the trainers,I will say so as as you all are growing
(09:49):
and you're bringing on more photographersand you're taking
and removing yourself from that position,and you begin to train others.
I think
a really important foundation to have isand this is something that Wow has,
and I think to
the reason we'reable to grow and be so successful with
it is because of the training programthat we have all the documents, we have
(10:10):
all of the materialthat we have created for,
the new photographersand the trainees to be able to,
review and to train on and, you know,for them to be able to go into that
and know exactly what our photo guidelinesare, our video guidelines are.
So if you are growing and if you arehiring and adding on new people,
(10:34):
the documentation is so incrediblyimportant because you want to be able to
then eventually take yourselfout of that position as well as a trainer,
you want to be able to do what we're doingand bring someone in as a regional.
Give them all of that documentationand all those guides to be able to follow.
So just that's just one thingI recommend having as well.
Like if and building that structure.
(10:54):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah.
Having something writtenI mean it also gives the, the added
benefit of consistency in the workand what clients can expect from you.
And that's one of the thingthat even with our training program,
one of the challengesI've run into, like in the market that I,
I shoot in, in and do businessdevelopment and development for is
(11:17):
agents who can be incredibly loyal.
Realtors can be incredibly loyal.
Sometimes they they shop at pro shop.
We know that.
But when a realtor really gets comfortablewith you as part of their team,
they don't want anyone elseshooting for you.
And even if another photographer has
a really good eyeand some good talent and really is
(11:38):
there, providing the same qualitythat you are, is the photographer.
Yeah.
The agent
somehow still in their mind says, no,you're you're photography is different.
You just have a certain eye,which there might be
a little bit of difference here and there,but it's negligible if.
Yeah, I mean it's definitely a challenge.
We all have our favoritesand things like that that we go through.
(12:00):
But yeah, to, to keep that,good consistency across the board,
you have to have everythingcompletely laid out and know, you know,
what it is that each person'ssupposed to do when they're out there
and how you're supposed to shoot and stufflike that.
So. Right.
So we've got this foundational,
training program for the photographers
now, Jess, as as we've been trainingregionals and bringing up leaders
(12:25):
and in the Wow organization, what that is,is there documentation for the trainers?
Yeah. So I'm glad you asked. That's okay.
All right.
That's something.
So when we brought these regional trainerson, you know they've got experience
in the field. They've been with us. And
but as I'm doing these check insand stuff like that with them
and actually we just had it a new personas a trainer as well.
(12:48):
He was one of the new shootersa few months back, but he's really soared
and he's actually able to assist more nowand help with training.
So one of the things with him and I werechatting about was like, you know what?
What do you needmost from me to help you feel successful?
And one of those things was just, well,knowing more like what
I need to do on day one with this person,what do I need to do on day two?
(13:12):
What do I need to do on day three?
Like how many training appointments dothey need to be on with me?
You know, what skills do we start with?
What do I start discussing with themfirst?
So, you know, we've got the guidesand the videos that are very extensive,
but those are aimed more towardsthe new hire, not the trainee.
So what I'm doing right now
is I'm building that documentationfor the training for day one checklist.
(13:35):
Day two checklist, day three checklist.
In order to get them by weektwo up and running to be successful.
And for us to be a little more hands off.
What does that progression for a trainerlook like?
So those are the guides and the thingsthat we're working on right now.
I've got about 70% of it done, but
right now it's just been like,so this is going to help me.
(13:55):
This is going to help me.
Not only me but the the trainer,but the time that I'm spending
on the phone doing these callsand things like that with the regionals,
you know, checking like,did you do this today?
Did you do this?
Well, this will allow me to be a little,
little more hands off as wellfor them to have that checklist.
And, you know, one of the goalswe always have in business is to be able
(14:16):
to take ourself out of thingsso we can do other things right, to focus
so we can grow and build well,this is just something that I saw.
We have a gap for.
And in order for me to be able to free upsome of my time doing this, coordinating
and making sure things are goingsmoothly, let's just create a checklist.
We canthey can check this, I can check in on it.
They can submit it.They can submit it with feedback.
(14:37):
It can be a form,whatever it is that we need it to be.
It's being built out right now.
And like we like to use Clickup and someother like Google Doc forms and stuff.
So it'll probably be in that kind offormat to where they can go to this link.
They can submit the form,you know, put all their feedback in,
and then it'll kick me an email.
It'll be live feedback.
They don't have to always callif I'm not available.
(14:57):
I mean, that happens. We'reall in meetings here and there, right?
But we want to stay connected.
So that was just one of the inefficienciesthat we kind of found
that we're building out right now.
So then as we continue to grow, it'sgoing to go much smoother.
So let me let me shift gears a little bit,because I just had
this thought up in my mindand we didn't talk about this.
So I'm throwing a curveball.
(15:18):
Okay, Craig, throwing a curveballis just off the cuff conversation.
It is. It is.
So a lot of times, you know,we talk about, retaining clients.
You know, in our business, we wantwe want that long term relationship
with the realtor.
We don't want them bouncing around.
We're we're going to provideVIP care, you know, for our hire.
About what?
(15:39):
So in our businessand or in our industry, collectively,
when we start hiring other photographers,typically what the owner does
is they'll make it a 1099 position,a contractor, right.
It's more rare.
It's not unheard of, but more rare to havephotographers on as actual signs or
here in the in the States
(15:59):
or employees.
So the in the back of my head, I've gotthis question is, is there a challenge
in keeping contractors,as part of your team long term?
Like we want to keep clients long term?
Have we found over the yearsthat it's been a challenge to
to retain good photographers?
(16:22):
Well.
I mean, we've had peoplecome and go, right?
But these trainers, like,
I guess, I mean,they've been with us a while now, like,
we're building them uplike everybody wants to grow, right?
Typically when you start a profession,it's like, okay, what's my opportunity
here?
What's my what's my income potentialand what's my growth potential.
(16:44):
So yeah, it's not always easyto keep people
if that third one like growthpotential isn't there.
You know, we offer great incentivesand like yearly incentives
for being here so long and like pay bumpsand stuff like that just for me.
I guess the
longevity that that they're here, but,yeah, I mean, the regionals.
(17:05):
So this regional program,
they get an hour,they get a, they get a pay for training,
and then they also get a pay bumpfor training for the loyalty of,
you know, checking in on peopleor doing doing all the,
like, client quality care that we providewith the clients.
They're doing that with these traineesas well, checking in on them,
(17:26):
building team bonds and stuff like that.
You know,
this only helps themand the team like, sorry, this is a
when this is a little new to me, I'mtrying to collect my thoughts on this,
but this is greatbecause it's helping them build team bonds
with the people in their city as well.
And they're responsible for that,like they're responsible for to go out,
like to connect with these people,do some great group meetings.
(17:49):
One of our Charlotte regional trainers,she likes to get people together.
Pizza night, whatever it is,
go over a few things like thatpeople are struggling with.
And, you know, there'sa sense of ownership for her on that.
And there it is.
There it is.
That was that was the exact wordI was looking for.
Yeah. You then you nailed it.
Because I think, yeah,when you empower people to grow
(18:10):
as leaders in your organization,they feel a sense of ownership. Yes.
And obviously yes, increased pay.
We all want to increase our pay,
but that's not always someone'sprimary motivator.
Sometimes it's just the pride of ownershipor having a leadership role.
And the pride, pridein a good way of of seeing,
(18:31):
like being able to build upwhat you're doing is making a difference.
That's yes, that's to a leader.
Yeah, I know, at least for me.
And I know for you like what we wantmost for the people that we're helping
lead is for them to grow and for them
to have a sense of belonging and stufflike that in a company and a voice.
And that's what we arehelping give these people and to in
(18:52):
turn give the people that they arenow leading.
Right.
Like, that's yeah,that's probably one of our main goals
as a leader is, is to push that along.
You know what I mean? Yeah.
So that's yeah, that sense of ownership,the sense that their voice matters.
Like, you know,
another goal we'llhave here soon in the off season is just
(19:15):
let's do a deep diveinto our processes for shooting.
Like what can we do to improveand these regional trainers
are going to be ableto give all that input.
That's going to make an impacton a difference on the company
in a positive way.
And, and then in turn go overand like go over into the clients,
you know, so it's yeah, full circle.
I think it's awesome that we can have
(19:36):
contractors that are empowered to lead
with, with a companyand build that camaraderie,
because I feel like in a lot of companies,probably independent contractors,
they don't mix much with other contractorsthat they're working for.
So to be able to build,like a team, culture,
(19:57):
even with contractors,I mean, how cool is that?
I mean, it's one of the most importantthings to me is that people feel like
they belong in a group and that they havethat family sense and culture.
And like, it'ssomething that, you know, with contractors
and with everybody
spread out in different regionsand some of us in office, some of us,
(20:18):
you know, across the worldworking virtually whatever it is like,
you know,we try and bring some of that team culture
together for everyone, and we know wherewe have some room for improvement.
Those are some other things, goalsand stuff that I'm working on right now.
But yeah, we I mean,that's one of the reasons that we are able
to keep people here is that teamatmosphere that support that they get.
(20:40):
We don't throw them out in the fieldand tell them to figure it out.
There's that support dynamic and teamatmosphere and family atmosphere
that I hope they feel most daysthat we're always here for them.
So yeah.
Do you do you have any any success storiesthat you know from some of the
the people that we've raised up
as regionals that might inspire an honorlistening to this right now?
(21:04):
I mean, I'm trying to think, Craig,but like
so many of them, I mean, like, they'rejust loving and enjoying this role.
Like the excitement I hear in their voice
when they're checking in and like whenthese people are being brought up, like,
I mean, things that used to take us monthsto get them approved on
and skill sets, like, I think one of.
(21:24):
I've heard them say
that, you know, they it feels likeI'm fast tracking this person.
Well, it does feel like thatbecause you're there
and you're focusing with themand they are being fast tracked.
And one of the, one of the thingsthat they're proud of is of
for that is that they're nowproviding this new person
a fast track to income.
(21:46):
You know,I mean, that's why we all work, right?
Like, I mean, for the most part,like we all share,
we all have to provide for our family.
It's not the only reason.
But this, like the financial goalsthat they can now set and help
help this person achieve because they'rekind of fast tracking them in a sense.
I mean, that's somethingthey're excited about.
That's something that they are like,they're pumped that
(22:07):
they're able to do that for someone elseand earn income training in the, in the,
you know, during the.
Yeah.
What whatI love seeing is the regional trainers
that want to see, you know,the other vidtogs
vidtographers,we call them vidtographers on our team.
Get more shoots. Yeah.
And it reminds me of I just saw this clipand I'm horrible with sports.
(22:30):
Some of you have probably seen this clipon YouTube.
Shorts or,you know, the reels on Facebook, but it's
he plays for the Philadelphia EaglesI believe it's the Eagles.
He was on the bench and one ofthe assistant coaches was talking to him
about getting him back in the game because
I'm guessing he was ahe was a running back or something,
because it was something about gettinga personal record of most yards in a game.
(22:54):
And he this coachwanted him to be able to do that.
Well, this guy was a veteran.
He said, no, let the young fellas eat.
So what he was
doing ishe had a chance to get a goal for himself.
Right?
But he recognized that the young guys,the team
was far enough ahead in the scorethat they were comfortable.
They were probably going to win the game,that he didn't need to be in the game.
(23:16):
He wanted to see the young rookies,get in the game
because if they got in the game, they wereguaranteed a certain amount of money
or something like that, and getting themthe experience in their paycheck
and whatnot, and that kind of selflessness is, is huge.
We definitely have regionals like that.
I was chatting with one yesterdayand and, this morning
(23:37):
he had shot me a text and it was like,
hey, I'm going out with this person todayto do a little bit more training.
And I've heard him say multiple times,like, just so selflessly, like,
hey, I'd rather this personget some work so we can
so he can work on his skillsets a little bit more.
And, you know, I'll just do some feedbackhours and training hours and stuff
like that in the background.
He's like, but I would prefer thatwe give this person this.
(23:58):
So then that way they're not losingany income and stuff like that.
So yeah, yeah, we've had a lot of selflessacts like that, that it's just
it's niceto see them recognize those things.
I mean, that's why we selectedthe people we did.
They are true leadersin that aspect. Right?
You know, you want to get but let me thinkabout how I want to phrase this.
(24:20):
You want to get your,your photographers, success.
You want to get thethe realtors requesting them.
So we just hired a guy
in the last few months,Brandon, to our team.
And hehe came out with me up in my market,
and I was just really impressedwith, you know, young guy, very sharp.
(24:41):
And I'm like,I think this guy is going to go places.
So that just in, just last week,just we had a client
that was needing,a shoot and couldn't get in right away.
But we managed to make it work.
And I had gone into the ordersto to look at her order
and see when this, you know,when the shoot day was and everything.
And we have a field in Spiro
(25:02):
that allows a realtorto request a certain photographer.
So my goal is, you know, when,when I get more help in my market
that the realtor will request somebodyother than me
because I can't do it all myself, but b,I want that other photographer
to have income opportunities.
Well, when I looked at this order,
it was specifically requestedBrandon shoot this.
(25:25):
I'm like yes, yes, yes,I would love to see that.
That is the best. Yeah,it was it first available.
It was Brendan, you know, he was chosen,as is the requested photographer.
And this is for an agentthat does a lot of business in this guy.
What? Jess he’s been with us. What?
Maybe shooting actively three, two,three months? Yes.
(25:46):
Yep. I'm like, yeah, yeah, he's killed it.
And Craig,I mean, that's just another like,
the people we bring on, I mean, hiringis just a whole nother thing.
We shot another another podcastand stuff like that down the road.
But man, I, we could tellwhen we hired him on, he was motivated.
He was going to get this done.He seltzers.
He practices.
(26:06):
He does things in his off timeto get better, to build his skill set.
And it's showingbecause you requested he's get.
I've had people email in about himspecifically with his customer service
and how he shows up and yeah, just he doeshe shows up in so many different ways
and, and, you know, you
you as an owner, you might get luckyand find that fantastic person.
(26:28):
But to have trainers and mentors forthat person that will keep them motivated
to pour into them, that's just that'sjust going to motivate them even more.
Yeah.
So it's just it's kind of a cascade effectwhen you know it just as you're pouring
into people that we've identified, asis people, we want to be regional trainers
that causes them to buy,and they get excited about their work.
(26:50):
And then that cascadesdown to the photographers
that they're training and mentoring,and they get excited and want to do more.
So it's just that there's nothingbut good things about developing leaders
in your organization and letting go,being willing and trusting.
And that's a huge thing.
You got to be able to trust.
Yes you do.
And these these peoplewe selected are people we trust.
(27:12):
That doesn't mean you don't checkin. And sure, sure.
One of the big things I've learned here,and Steve always says that, you know,
what is it? Trust but verify.
Yeah Ronald Reagan right there. Yeah.
Trust but
verify that people verify make youthey are.
And like most of them like Craig Craigin Cincinnati called this morning.
(27:32):
He was out yesterday just to do a check inand you know, and it's just nice
to hear the excitement in the voice
like, yes, I think this is becausewe just did another new hire in Cincy.
And so we're like, yep,we think this is a really good fit.
Like customer service skills are great.
Like like they're excited though.
They're excitedto take these people under their wing.
They're excited to help more availabilityfor the clients, and for them.
(27:53):
And just to build people like you can tellleaders just have that built in them.
They want to build people.
I think that's, you know, that's importantto give that opportunity
Well that's awesome Jess, with,
you know, the regional, regional trainers,that being one of our major goals.
And so with this being the halfway pointthrough the year,
(28:14):
and we've had this goal of raising upregional trainers, what what would you say
to the person that is maybe toyingwith with some new goals?
Or maybe they didn't set goalsat the beginning of the year?
What what's the what's the starting pointfor for getting your goals in mind
and then keeping up with themkind of checking in?
(28:34):
Yeah.
I mean, so when you're setting your goals,you also have to ask yourself,
why am I setting this goal?
What's the reason behind this goal?
How long do I think it's going to take meto accomplish this goal?
And then typically breakingthose things up in steps?
Because we all want the fast track, right?
We all want to get done with thingslike next day.
(28:55):
That's like, I don't know how many timesI tell Todd and Steve,
you just can't go fast enough.
I don't feel like I just,I just want it done now.
But, like, that's not realistic.
That's not realistic for any of us.Hardly.
So, would you say stepone is write it down? Yes.
Step one is write it down.
Okay. Write it down. Plan it out.
Hold yourself accountable.
(29:15):
Do you check in on your goals?
Like if not daily? Weekly for sure.
See the progress you made?
I like to write everything down,whether it's on my whiteboard or I read.
I keep a checklist of my of the goalsthat I'm setting on
Trello and breakany breaking it down in steps.
That's how I hold myself accountable.
So if you are not holding yourselfaccountable, sometimes an accountability
(29:38):
buddy helpsor verbally saying your goals to someone.
So then that waysomeone else knows what your goal is
to helpyou hold yourself accountable for it.
But those are all really,really key steps in achieving your goals.
Writing them down, knowing the reasonwhy that you have this goal,
doingyour check ins on it and breaking it up.
(30:00):
If it's something that'sgoing to take a while to do for sure,
know how long it's going to take youat least at least a good,
guess you need to know that,because then in your mind you're like,
okay, well,if this is going to take me three months,
then I need to start making progress in
on it now,because otherwise I'm never going
to get there by month threeif I don't start breaking it up.
(30:20):
So breaking things up, holding yourselfaccountable, writing things down
and then celebrating the winswhen you when you hit things like that's
really importantto like you in order like as humans,
we all want to do good, right?
Like we want to feel successfulin the goals that we've set.
So when you do reach like,you know, step one
(30:41):
or step two out of step ten,you need to celebrate those wins.
Like those little steps.It's just going to help.
Feel that joy.
Keep the morale up.
Yep. Keep the morale up.
And if you're setting team goals,that's another big one too.
These are all just goals for yourself.
But celebrate the wins with the team too.
(31:02):
When you have thingsthat you've set for them
and they've achieved those don'tjust don't do not just brush them off.
If it's a team goal,that's the biggest way to set yourself up
for failure at a companyis by not not celebrating the wins.
You got to celebrate the wins.Even the little ones.
So, I've been reading a bookthat Todd mentioned.
(31:22):
I've been trying to finish itfor the last year.
I was horrible, I didn't read for a while.
But it's called soundtracksby, John John Acuff.
Yeah.
And he
there was a section of the book
where he was talking aboutthis horrible boss he had and, you know,
the time track every little thingwhen he went to the bathroom,
when he would pour himselfa cup of coffee.
And this boss was just relentless.
(31:43):
And even if he hit goals, it was like,well, it should have been this,
you know, you should have hit this,and nothing was ever good enough.
Well,
he ends it by basically sayingI was a terrible boss to myself.
It was his.
He wasn't celebrating his wins. Yeah.
And when it was onlylooking at the negative
and that's a broken soundtrack.
And yeah, celebrating
(32:05):
those soundtracks are so incrediblyimportant to Craig.
Like, and if you guys haven't readthis book, this is a really good book.
John has an amazing podcast podcastas well,
and weeklyweekly newsletter that he sends out.
If you guys don't subscribeto those things, I definitely urge you
to check it out.
It's free that cost anything for that,for that newsletter, and then podcast.
(32:25):
But the book is great. And he's right.
Like the things that you tell yourselfdaily, they need to be positive.
If you're constantly saying, man,I can't do this.
It's like me being on this podcast.
Well, that's just me telling myselfI can't do it.
That doesn't mean I can't do it.
Like I can do anything if I tell myselfI can do any, you know what I mean?
Within reason, I can do anything.
(32:48):
But anyhow, you have to.
You have to have those positive mind,
those positive soundtracksin order to reach your goals.
Like if I go in every dayand I'm just like,
oh man. Like,I don't think that I can do this.
Like, you know,can I do that all the time?
Guess what?
Like, I'm not going to want to do itbecause I don't think I can do it
and I'm justsetting myself up for failure.
So yeah, those those soundtracks are incredibly important to to achieving goals.
(33:14):
It takes one step.
The first step is the hardest.
It is, you know, like this morning,I have not been exercising
the way I need to.
And it's like I'm getting older.
Jess and I,
I used to be a super early morning person,and I'm finding more and more.
I don't want to get out of bedas early as I used to.
And this morning, like, dang it, I knowI have to go to the doctor this morning.
(33:35):
He's going to read me out because Ihaven't been doing what I'm supposed to.
Okay, Craig started this morning.
Yeah, it's cramming.
It's not going to do anything
for the doctor's appointment,but I drag myself out of bed.
I took my brisk walk.
You know,I think I was out there maybe 25 minutes.
You got to start somewhere.
But as I was walking,I started feeling better.
I wasn't as achy.
(33:55):
The blood started flowing.
So fixing that soundtrackand taking the first step of the
goal that you've got set,
if you can get
that to that, the goal gets easier.
And, I knowwe were talking about this recently,
just how the things that I don't liketo do
is what I start my day with,because I don't want to to exercise.
(34:18):
So I get up and walk on my treadmillfor 2 to 3 miles every morning.
I do the dishesbecause I don't like doing them at night.
I'm not going to do them at night.I'm tired.
I want to sit down after a long day.
I sweep and they'reI mean, those are three of them.
And, you know, there's a few others,but, like, she records a podcast
at 9:45 in the morning,she gets that out of the way.
(34:41):
I know I do, but
I start my day with the things that I feelare very challenging for me
because then when I can check those offmy list, I'm
like, heck yes, I got this done,I can do this, I can do anything.
Now my mindset is freshand ready for work,
and when I come home,I know I don't have to do dishes.
I know I got to get on that treadmillunless I feel like it.
(35:02):
I'm just getting some of thethe hardest parts out of the day.
It's the same way when I come in here.
I like to get my really goodproductivity things done in the morning
when my mind is freshand like I'm not dragged down, I'm
not hitting that 2:00 crash or whateverit is.
And so, yeah, setting those goalsand just holding yourself accountable
for them every day.
Yeah, you're going to see that progress.
(35:23):
Our guest,Jess Paxson, Director of operations
at Wow Video Tours,for talking about goals.
The halfway point through the yearone of our goals being raise
regional trainers,to invest in our photographer team.
And maybe that's a goalthat you have as well.
So hopefully this is giving yousome great ideas.
Jess thank you so much.Appreciate you taking the time.
I know your your plate is full.
So thanks for taking time on the podcast.
(35:44):
It's my pleasure.
It's been, fun being on with youtoday. Craig.
Yeah. If you've got some goals,we'd love to hear them.
And and we can check in with you as well.
Feel freeto leave a comment on the YouTube channel.
If you want to drop us an email,you can email us at.
hello@spiro.mediaand we would love to hear from you.
Maybe you hit, maybe you didn'tget some goals written down this year.
(36:07):
Well,
today is the best day to
do that, so write down the goalsyou got six.
Now let's call it five and a halfmore months to the end of the year.
Man. Time is flying, Jess.
Yes, yes it is.
Well in the world.
Anyway,
Start today.
Write down that goaland we want to celebrate the win with you.
When you hit that goal, drop us again.
(36:28):
Drop us an email. In the email.Todd. Night.
hello@spiro.media
We would love to celebrate this with you.
So hope that was a good check in for youguys.
Againjust thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Yeah you're welcome.
And Iwill let you get to the rest of your day.
For the rest of you,make sure you take some time
to be thankfulfor the blessings in your life.
It takes some time to breathe as well.
(36:48):
Celebrate the winduring that time of breath
All right,you have a great week. Take care.
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