Scott Golmic: How to Grow from 0 to 20K in a Month

REPP 2024 Panel Speaker Scott Golmic, owner of The Real Estateographers joins Todd & Craig on this episode to talk a bit about his topic he presented at the REPP 2024 conference: Growing from 0 to 20K a Month in a new to him market. Scott talks about what not to worry about in starting and growing your business, traps he fell into and how to avoid them, and how to best audit and prioritize your time as an owner.

Interested in the book mentioned in this episode? Check out: "How Teens Win" by Jon Acuff: https://a.co/d/7EX4oHV

(Amazon nor Jon Acuff is a sponsor of this podcast).

Want to connect with Scott? Catch him on Instagram at: @TheRealEstateographers and @ScottGolmic

Episode Transcript

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

(00:04):
I think as photographers in general,if you get stuck into art mode,
you start thinking, How can I be betterand better and better and better?
And I think that there's truth in that.
It's like it's goodto always be wanting to improve,
but if people don't know who you are, itdoesn't matter how good your product is.
And so people need to know who you arefirst and foremost.
And so I thinkthat'd be the recommendation

(00:25):
to anyone getting startedor even anyone in business.
You got to answer the question,Do people know who you are?
Welcome to the Spiro podcast.
Managing your real estate photographyand videography business
with your hosts, Todd Kivimaki
and Craig Magrum
Hi, and welcome to the Spiro podcast,

(00:45):
Managing your real estate photographyand videography Business.
Spiro is a software platformthat's designed to help you manage
your day to dayreal estate media business,
but really to help itgrow and scale as well.
Welcome back to another week.
If you're a longtime listener, a viewer,if you're a first time
guest, well,guest that's the right word.

(01:06):
First time listener viewer.
Welcome to the podcast.
Spiro is all about the business ofreal estate, photography and videography.
Todd and I have said many timesthere's a lot of great resources out there
on the creative side of what we doas photographers and videographers
in the realm of of real estate.
And we encourage youto check those resources out.

(01:26):
Just do a search on YouTube.
You'll find all sorts of great videos
and other podcasts out there,but we really want to help you build
a strong business to help you achievethe goals that you have in your
your personal lifeand in the life of your family
and and those around youthat you're empowering through business.
So welcome to the podcast along with meeach and every week, our

(01:46):
our co-host and ownerand founder of Spiro, Todd Kivimaki
Craig, happy Friday
to us for whatever day it is to youlisteners.
And we're getting close to Christmas,so maybe it's already happened,
but I'm excitedthe year is coming to an end here.
Exciting things coming up.
Let's dive right in.

(02:07):
Yeah, I had to dress up for the occasionhere.
Todd.
Oh, Craig, I didn't even notice.
So for those of youthat are just listening to us,
for those of you that are just listening,
it is worth heading over to the YouTube
and seeing Craig's attire right now,because this is fabulous.
So I'm not even going to say what it is.

(02:29):
It's just worth it.
Seeing his Christmas cheer right now.
We were talking that
Craig is going to go to Vegas next yearor wherever the conference is at.
And I, I feel pretty strongly that Craig
needs to wear this, wear this outfit.
So when you go to the YouTube,give it a thumbs up if you can.
This is no ploy to get you to just give usthumbs up,

(02:51):
give us thumbs up at this point.
And we're going to peer pressure, Craig,into wearing not only going
but wearing this outfit at the conferencesnext year.
Todd, you're my employer.
Do I really have a choiceif you tell me to do it,
Yes, it is.
It's just by the people.
It's what I believe in. It'swhat our country was founded on.
That’s what I'm sticking to, Craig

(03:14):
You know, I was telling our guestwho we're going to introduce here
in a little bit that I by nature,I am an introvert, honest, honest.
And so I'm not really outwardlydemonstrative in larger groups of people.
- But when I'm comfortable,- you are wearing the outfit you have on today.
And here's why.
When I'm comfortable with a group,I let loose a little bit.

(03:36):
You got to have some fun Life short.
It's Christmas time.
Yeah.
Got to spread some Christmas cheerhere, right?
Yes. And I have an idea, Craig.
So you know how they putblinders on horses so they don't like.
That's just what it is right now.
You don't know how many peopleare looking at you right now.
Like, not to freak you out.
But yes, there's just three of usin this room right now.

(03:58):
But like, come on, I think we'rejust going to get you some blinders.
in Vegas, it'll be good anyway,so you need a lot of blinders on.
Vegas. It will surprise you purposes.
Oh, my gosh. Okay, let's.
- Enough of this. Let's dive in.- Oh, this is fun.
Let's keep going.I'm getting warmed up now.
You like to make people uncomfortable,but I guess I brought it on myself anyway.
All right.
It is the Spiro podcast.

(04:19):
We like to always open up the podcast
with updates on Spiro, the softwareand what's going on.
So, Todd, I'mgoing to turn things over to you.
Yes, a quick update if you don'twant to hear him hit, fast forward
four times, That'll be a minuteand you want to hear me updates.
So we're redoing the way Dropbox,we're going to host videos with Dropbox,
so we're going to get rid of Vimeo,which is going to be huge.

(04:42):
Vimeo was is is great.
I think it's a great platform.
They just got really, really expensivesince we started using them.
We're in a grandfather plan.
Well, we're on an enterpriseplan with Wow, which is very expensive,
but you guys now are having a big expenseso we don't like that.
We don't want that.And you guys already pay for Dropbox.
It's already integrated.We're going to go to Dropbox.

(05:02):
We think it's a great solution,so we are excited about that.
We're going to make a quick updateto the way you can add
additional appointmentsto give you some more flexibility.
So this was an update that happened,maybe a month, month and a half ago
where you can quickly easily sendsomeone back out to shoot the drone
because it was raining,the reshoot the master bedroom,

(05:24):
or to send two photographers,one for Twilight, one for non Twilight.
So all of those examples of special casesthat happen, we're going to give
a few more flexible options in therefor you to quickly
schedule what you want and markwhat you don't want as well.
So we are excited about that.
Then coming up, looking into the new year,
we have some big ideas

(05:46):
and we want to make sure they alignwith your big ideas.
So it is always super helpfulfor us to know
what you guys wantwhere there are gaps in your business,
where do you feel likeyou need some extra help or
where do you think software could furtherstreamline your business?
We've got a great page for that.
That's the feedback board.
Also the Spiro Super User Group.

(06:08):
Post them in there on the feedback board.
You can upvote other user suggestions,
kind of seewhat the most voted on suggestions are.
That's a great place for us again,by the people.
Craig I'm sticking to it.
This is this is my pitch today.
But collectively as a groupwe want to do what's important to you guys

(06:29):
to bring the most value.
I'm having a flashback to the Post Malone.
face tattoo that we had.
It’s funny you bring this up, Craig.
Glad you didn't put that up for a vote.
That that ballot issue has been expired so that
are we pass our timeline on that
we are
Yeah. Statute of limitations on that.Yeah.

(06:50):
I'm going to have to read that documentto see how we can get
that back on the ballot, because they havea lot of tattoo artists in Vegas.
- When we take you there and- I bet they do.
I bet they do. Yeah.
I was tempted.
Briefly wants to get a tattooand then my boss at the time said,
Do you really want to deal with thatwhen you're 80 years old and
it's all saggy and

(07:10):
- it becomes a new thing,- you have a good point.
You know, my boss's name was backthen. Was Todd as well.
What is itwith my bosses and the name Todd?
Really good name. Yeah.
Yeah,it's a it's a it's not a very common name.
Okay.
I don't know.
This is good content, y'all.
Let's. Let's get to some better content, Craig.
Right, Right.

(07:31):
So last weekwe had an awesome, awesome guest,
Assaf Lowenstein,and shared some great information
as part of the owner spotlightsseries on business Continuity.
I just really enjoyed that episode.
Todd He he just had some great info.
And one of the things that we're going

(07:51):
to be trying to do hereat the end of the year and in 2025 is do
more of those owner Spotlight seriestype episodes
because there's a lot of great informationout there from other owners
and other experts in our industry thatwe want to highlight in and learn from.
So we have another guest this weekthat I'm really excited to have on.
I didn't have the pleasureof seeing his presentation at Rep 2024.

(08:14):
But Todd, you didyou want to introduce our guest this week?
Yes. This is an individualI've gotten to know and I love his energy.
If you guys have ever been around himor talked to him, his energy is
just incredible, always super positive.
I feel like if I'm going to do something
like I want this guy with mebecause we're just going to go and do it.
We're going to be positive about itall the time.

(08:36):
We're going to figure out a way.
And that is just a really a refreshing,refreshing
mindset to have, especially as as owners,you know, it's tough.
We as owners of your company, you'redoing something that not many people do.
So seriously, kudos to all of you.
It's not easy to own your own business.

(08:56):
And there's times when our left braingets in our way and we overthink.
And as I look back over the last 20 yearsof being in business,
you know, I'm like, wow, that wasI was kind of a negative time for me.
And over the yearsyou learn mechanisms to stay positive
and this individual is just a breathof fresh air to be around.

(09:18):
I got the pleasure to hang out with himwhile we were in Vegas.
We we went down the Fremont Street.
Craig, we won't take you there,but we went down the Fremont Street.
We walked up and down the lit canopyand just had a good time
doing that.
Also, this other end of this individualis very tall as well.
So I don't feel like you all come up to mein Vegas.

(09:41):
You're like, Wow, you're really tall.
Yes, I am. So is this individual.
So I feel like he's a he'smy brother from another mother.
And I don't know whereI'm going with that.
But anyways, Scott Golmic, y'all,he is on the podcast.
Many of you know him and love him.
Scott, welcome to the show

(10:01):
man.
It is so cool to be hereand listen to the podcast all the time.
So it's great to get a chanceto be on it with you guys.
Scott told me beforewe started recording that he found it
funny and I'm like, Didhe actually mean corny?
Was corny. The word he was looking for
I didn’t get the memo on the dress code.

(10:22):
I wish I knew.
I agree, Scott.
I was I was a bit shocked, too.
I just wanted to see what reactionI got out of you during the staff
meeting this morning, Todd
- it worked.- I loved it, Craig.
I think it's fabulous. Yeah.
And in his background,he had a virtual background
in the staff meeting this morning,and it was Harry and Marv
and the toy shop,and they were right on each side

(10:44):
of his headand he was just sitting there as well.
So it was great.I love it, Craig. I love the festive cheer.
- Brought a smile to everyone's face.- Good, good.
That was the point.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
So, yeah. Welcome, Scott.
Glad to have you. Don't don'tworry about the dress code
now, Scott, can you for those
of you that for those listenersthat don't know you,

(11:04):
can you just give usa little bit of background
about how you got into real estate
photography,kind of what your business is doing now,
and just bring us up to speed withyour real estate photography business?
Sure.
Here's maybe the the minute recap.
So for the last ten years had shotprofessional sports
while living in Pittsburgh.
So at NFL stadiums, pirate games, penguin

(11:27):
games and loved it,we just felt convicted.
It was time to moveand didn't know what work was going to be,
but it felt like it was the adventurethat our family needed to go on.
And so whenever we listed our housefor sale in Pittsburgh,
we chose our realtorbased on the quality of her photos.
And just with my video background,I wanted somebody that was going to market

(11:49):
our house well.
I had no clue that real estatephotography was an industry,
but we legit pickedour realtor based on her photos.
When I met her photographer,that's when I was like,
I think I can do this, and did the deepdive and learned as much as I could.
So we moved to Florida on March 10th, 2023
and at that point started reaching outto realtors.

(12:12):
My first shoot was two weekslater, a free shoot, March 27th,
and then things escalated pretty quicklyand thankful for it.
That year, about three or four months indid like 10K towards the end of that
year, about nine months in, hiredour first part time photographer.
And at this point, no. So we're about a

(12:34):
I don'tknow, 20 months in or something like that
just had our first $30,000 a month,which was a huge win for our company.
- That's amazing.- Oh, that is incredible.
Scott, I knew some of the backgroundof your story.
I didn't realizethe timeline was so small.
You've done it so quick.
I thought you were in businessmany more years because the way you've

(12:55):
grown and scaled and just your businessmindset, kudos to you.
That's exciting.
I appreciate you saying that.
It has been a whirlwind.
You know, I feel like as a parent,you hear that line.
The days are long, the years are short.
I feel that not only as a parent,but in business as well.
And so, yeah, it's flown by and excitedwhere we are and excited

(13:16):
to just imagine where we can be going.
Scott, a question popped into my head
immediately when you shared with us how,how fast things grew.
So you moved to northeast Florida.
You're in the Jacksonville area, correct?
Okay.
So I've got to believe that there wasthere's quite a few real estate
photography companies and individualsin that market already.

(13:38):
So did you find that the market was prettysaturated with other photographers?
I didn't know or care.
And to go back to the blinders comment
the blinders comment that Todd had,I wasn't looking.
I was just going and trying to introducemyself to as many realtors as possible.
And I think that's one of the trapsthat you can get into in this business, is

(14:01):
you start looking at what others are doingand then you feel bad about yourself.
It's like in your personal lifecomparing your life to everyone
else's, like perfect social media,that's not their perfect life.
And so it's thesame thing in business, just
not looking.
And that's what it was.It was just kind of pedal to the metal.
The other thing is we we moved down there.
There was no Plan B, so that helped.

(14:23):
I don't know if I would recommendthat to everybody, but we had to work.
We had to go in.
So there was an incentivelike no other to to get business in.
So the outreach was there and just tryingto become the best known photographer.
I think there's a lot of value in that,
just making surethat people know who you are.
And anyway, yeah,
I think that that's what attributedto some of the success early on.

(14:45):
So you just said a couple of things
that were in your presentationthat you just recently did.
Todd Did you mention that that that's
yeah, the repp
conferenceis where Scott presented at
I think you mentioned it. Craig Okay.
Okay.
See, I'm too close to Christmasand vacation.
My mind is going into into neutral.
So Scott, you did, you did a presentationas part of the panel at Repp 2024

(15:09):
and I was watching your presentationon Eli's channel
and two of the things that you just saidare the notes that I made.
You made a commentduring your presentation
that the best known photographeris better than the best photographer.
I'm like, Whoa,
So can you expound on that a little bit?
I don't think I could creditfor making that up, but I do.

(15:30):
That was an instrumental point for meand in my business is that
I think as photographers in general,if you get stuck into art mode,
you start thinking, How can I be betterand better and better and better?
And I think that there's truth in that.
It's like it's goodto always be wanting to improve,
but if people don't know who you are, itdoesn't matter how good your product is.

(15:51):
And so people need to know who you arefirst and foremost.
And so I thinkthat'd be the recommendation
to anyone getting startedor even anyone in business.
You got to answer the question,Do people know who you are?
And if not, how can you find more peopleto work with you?
You know, people buy from peoplethey know like and trust.
And if you're a photographer, trustsyou and likes you and knows

(16:12):
that you represent them well,when you're on that shoot for them,
there's
there's most of your success right there.
Let me tell you about Vegas real quick.
I've never been so nervous in my life.
I mean, here you go. I've.
I enjoy speaking.
Put me in a brokerage presentation.I'm okay.
I like that.
All of a sudden, the lights are down,the stage is lit up.

(16:34):
You've got 250 people in a room, which
maybe doesn't sound like a whole lot,but this room was so long.
I got up thereand it was immediate, just like dry mouth.
Where did everything go?
And and it was it was wild.
But I ask Todd the night before, I said,do you have any advice?
And he said, Just know that everybody inthat room is your friend

(16:55):
and they want to hearwhat you want to say.
And that was really helpful.
So I appreciate that because that was thatwas a test to take it up on that stage.
And so thankful for that opportunityand appreciate that encouragement.
Yeah. Scott,
if youhad that dry mouth, it wasn't apparent.
I mean, I was engaged the entire time.

(17:15):
You did a fabulousjust a fabulous presentation.
There are so many gold nuggets in thereand truly, like just being yourself.
And I'm just I've been aroundScott a handful of times
and I've talked to him,We've had conversations, but every time
I do, I leave going like, Man,today's a great day.
And that is a quality that I don't knowif you understand.

(17:38):
You have that. Scott,but that's a quality you have.
And I think the quality that is likeI went now,
I looked inside myself like this.Every time
is every time that I'm leavinga conversation, do I leave that
in a better way?
Does that persondoes that person understand that
You know, there's positivity.
There is you know,
I share my faith, Craig, And I have sharedour faith, you know, is as a Christian.

(18:01):
That's what our goal is.
As you know, I want to make surethat they see me as different.
And Scott, you every timeI leave a conversation with you, I'm like,
he is just the happiest,most positive individual.
Like he is fun to be around. He'scontagious to be around.
So it's no wonderyour business grew so fast,
you know, once you left.

(18:21):
Well, I.
I appreciate you saying that.That means the world.
Let me tell you your guys podcast.
I feel like I know you guys
and I've listened to you in the carthe whole time or all the time.
And so
the way that you've sharedyour faith is been very impactful to me.
And then also just the ideathat the tagline at the end

(18:42):
to just breathe,I feel like every time I hear
that is the exact right moment,I need to just breathe
because business is wildand things are going, okay, just breathe.
Thank you for that reminder.
Yeah, I have a little bit of a question
backing up on this ideabecause I think it's
just so it's the perfect idea of

(19:03):
like the best known photographeris better than the best photographer.
So again,
the person that has the largest fearand the most friends or connections in
the industry is better than a photographerwho is quality
wise, art wise,the best photographer out of the group.

(19:23):
I'm curious, Scott, how
because your background was shootingvery high end, like the idea of shooting,
you know, NFL professional,you know, sports games like
that is the idea ofhow can we do it the best
and head shots as well.
You know, I'm sure there is every time
every headshot you took,you were probably thinking,

(19:44):
how can I make this next shot,my next best head shot?
Where did
so you sell the house, move away.
And I assume maybe, maybe it'snot fair to say you have that mentality.
Maybe I'm just wrongabout what you had done in the past, but
I'm assuming you were always pushingevery day to make the quality better.

(20:06):
Then you move.
You kind of burn the ship, so to say,and you had this ability
to flip the switch and go, Wait a minute,I understand this market's different.
I what's the mostimportant is being known.
I have toyou know, quality has to be good enough.
But how did that where did you learn that?
Have you always had that orhow did that how did you flip that switch?

(20:30):
Truthfully, I heard it from Eli.
I watched a lot of his content early onand there were a couple of things that
that helped.
I think he even made that comejust like not getting stuck in art mode.
And I think that that was really importantearly on.
It took me a very long timeto shoot a house
because I was trying to be perfectand have the exact right angle

(20:50):
that nobody else can see the differencein besides me and us.
Maybe if we look at it.
And so
one of the things that I started to dowas to just use a stopwatch
and just to make sure that I'm on track.
You know, it was like some
good pressure on meto get in and get out of the house.
And I think that this is true for clients.
It's like, as much as qualityis important, so much is time on site.

(21:16):
You know, you can't be there that longbecause you're inconveniencing the realtor
and the homeowner.
So I think just realizing pretty early onyou got to get in and out
and then the other thingtoo, was sending media.
It was a lesson I had to learn of like,okay, the quality is good enough,
send it and see what happens and everyonecontinue to say, Hey, it looks good.
And so yeah, there was definitely a pivotof having to be

(21:39):
perfect and always striving to be betterand also saying
we need to just get this product outand it's, it's good as is kind of thing.
Yeah, that's and that's Eli Jones for you
those you that don't know
so our good friend Eli Jonesyou can find him over on YouTube
I believe he's at it's Eli Joneshe he has done a fabulous job

(22:00):
with putting out again a lot of businessinformation with how to grow a business.
And so you can find more informationthere.
Now, Scott, one thing that I thinkyou also have an uncanny ability is
you take adviceand you go and run with it.
I know there was another situation where
I think anotheryou were at a at a conference, right?

(22:20):
A gathering.
It was a Eli Jones conference.
And basically it came down that
you should stop doing something.
Do you mind sharing that story?
Because you did it. You did it right away.
That seems scary, i’m like. Oh, boy.
Like to my mind, like, okay,wait a minute, you want to do this?
And then you saw the benefits from it.Do you mind sharing that?
- Because I think there's a lot to learn there. - Yeah, absolutely.

(22:43):
So I was
around the $20,000 revenue month mark,
and so I was at a mastermind conferenceand we were kind of going through all of
our businesses.
And Eli at that pointsaid, at this point, shoots are bad.
Let's like it threw me for a loop.shoots are good,
shoots are what bring in revenueshoots are great
And he said you're going to stalland you're going to slow your business

(23:06):
if you are the one that continuesto do the shoots.
Now, I don't know if they're sayingthat 20,000 is that number
for everybody,but just that mindset of like there's
a tipping pointthat you can't shoot anymore,
you're going to stall your businessand so you need to have photographers
on your teamand not only have them on your team,
you need to be sending themfirst and foremost.
And so that was such a radical changein, in my mind,

(23:28):
my business that that night I went home,
went into Spiro,and I took my name off the list.
All right.
If they say don't shoot, I'm ready.
I'm not going to I'm not going to shoot.I like shooting.
But if that'swhat's best for the business.
And so that night went homeand did it and told our team, like,
all shoots are going to you first.
Now, it hasn't been perfect.
I have still shot,

(23:49):
but I'm in a situation nowwhere I'm more of the emergency shooter.
Something comes up inour team is booked or not available.
I can hop in and do it.
If there's a VIP clientand they really want me to shoot,
I'll still try and point them to the team.
But if there's any issuethat they would go anywhere, great.
I'm coming in and I'll shoot the property.
So that's kind of where we are right now.

(24:09):
And I think that that'sone of the biggest things
that I need to step into nextyear is more of that owner role admin role
and continue to hire a team and continueto send the team out.
And so that was pretty radical
of a change and I think so in the coachingprogram, Todd I learned
so much from you in that programand with all the coaches there,
I don't get the idea oflike not implementing right away.

(24:32):
To me,
it just seems like
if you're going to tell me to dosomething, you've done it 20 years done,
I'm going to do it tonight.Like I'm not going to waste any more time.
And so, yeah, tryand just do everything as fast as you can.
that's the opposite of what our brains tell us
are left brain tells us.
So wait a minute.I've never done this before.
This person's telling me to do it.
It seems scary because I've never done itbefore, and the ability

(24:55):
to just goand do that is is a is a great skill.
Scott
There's a difference between knowledgeand wisdom.
Knowledge is just,you know, knowing facts.
Wisdom is the application of knowledge.
So if you can takesomeone else's knowledge and apply it
to your situation,that's that's operating and wisdom.
So take yeah take take coaching apply

(25:17):
that knowledge in and watchwhat what what it does for you.
You know Todd you and I have talkedabout that that tipping point that Scott
just mentioned of removing yourselfand I with my business.
I didn't want to grow into that larger
type of businesswhere I stepped back as, as owner
and took my hands off because I enjoyedthe creative process so much.

(25:40):
And so I stayed small and was morethe boutique type of real estate company.
But now obviouslypart of Wow video tours, it's
kind of the best of both worlds.
I get to still do the business developmentand the shooting, which I enjoy,
but now I'm part of an organization,a larger organization that can serve
our clients even better than I was able toas as a solopreneur, basically.

(26:03):
So, Scott,would you say it's fair that, you know,
there's different strokesfor different folks?
Maybe they don't have the goalof growing a larger business
100%.
There's no right or wrong.
It's what is right for you and your goal.
Yeah, absolutely.
The point being, take the wisdom.
You know that from others and apply it towhatever your situation is.
Yeah, that's perfect.

(26:25):
Yeah. Yeah.
I think one of the scarythings that can be with that is sometimes
if we want to grow and be the owner,I would say
probably a lot of people that listen.
Most of the people that listento this podcast probably have that
that mindsetthat they want to scale a business,
otherwise they won't be listening
this podcast because we're really notthat entertaining otherwise.

(26:46):
So you're getting content that sorry,Craig, almost put your coffee out.
So so I would say
most of you out there listeninghave that mindset.
The thing I would caution you and doing
is thinking that your situationis different than Scott’s,
thinking that your situation is differentthan mine.

(27:08):
You're going to say,Oh no, Scott was different
because he had to do itbecause he was in a new city.
He had no other choice.
I've had this job and I have health careand I have these three other variables.
No, your situation is not any differentor if you go, Todd's done it for 20 years.
It was way different 20 years ago.
Yes. The world was black and white20 years ago, but it was not any different

(27:28):
than what it is now. Don't.
That's the biggest thingwhen I talk to you all is
I always try to stresswhenever I give advice and I.
I talk about brokeragedeals or how to scale.
It took me a
long time to do itand there was bumps along the road.
But the consistency of doing thatand I think that's what it boils down

(27:52):
to a lot, is taking advice,being consistent and not looking back.
Your situation's not any different.
It's not any differentother than the fact that maybe
that's a truth to you,but not true in this world.
So if you want to scale in 2025, you know,
we're at the time of year that you needto start thinking about 2025.

(28:12):
As a business owner,what do you want your business
to do for your family this next year
and work those goals backwardsIf you want to scale,
I would highly suggestyou listen to Scott's story
and you look at making some of the moves
that he made because they were scary.

(28:35):
and Scott has those moments.
He would probably tell youit was a little nerve wracking,
but I just did it like,I'm going to take the advice.
But it does work.
There's tried and true plansthat you can run on, and the idea
of focusing on your business, havingthe mindset that you doing shoot is bad.
I loved that from Eli, you doingshoots are bad.

(28:55):
You know, if you're at 20K a monthand you want to get to 30K a month,
if you do shoot and you're stuck at 20Ka month
over the course of one yearwhen you could be at 30K or more,
you've just burnt $120,000,
10K over 12 months,you've just wasted 120,000
by not making thatdecision to stop shooting.

(29:18):
I think that's
one thing for menext year is I have to get out of the way,
you know, whether it be a limiting beliefor thinking like,
Oh man, 30 is good,that might be as high as we can go.
I don't think thatI necessarily believe that.
But there are things that you're
just talking about right therethat are definitely keeping us down
that I need to eliminateso that we can just grow more next year.

(29:39):
And it's so cool to be in a communitythat you see others winning in
and you get to hear their storiesbecause it does make you think like man,
I can do this too.
And so I don't know.
Do other industrieshave this great of a community?
I can't imagine that like there'sa plumber community or something
that has a podcastthat everyone listens to.
This is phenomenaland it's so cool to get to know everybody.

(30:00):
Yeah, for sure.
I agree wholeheartedly.
Scott, can I can I dig a little bit moreinto your presentation as we're talking
about business growth?
Let's dive into some kind of practical.
So you went from startinga brand new business, $0
to hiringwas it three or four photographers?
Was it was your presentation
so that for that person that'sgetting ready to maybe make that step,

(30:22):
take that leap of faith and back out,you know, from shooting so much,
What what is the first step inin even pursuing that?
How do you hire a photographer?
Is a photographerthe first person you should hire?
Yes, I do think that a photographeris the first person you should hire.
And then I love the model of a part timephotographer.

(30:43):
I love thatthey get paid while they shoot.
And if there is a slow day or slow week
that has already been communicatedduring the interview process
and they're okay with that,that I don't have the stress that expenses
are going outas revenue is not necessarily coming in.
And so to find that person,I think some people feel
like it's a trapto think that that person doesn't exist.

(31:03):
But that's not true.
I've got four great people on my teamthat that fit that model
and this is what they wantedto allow them to do some other things.
So that that modeland I think the other trap is people
thinking that, oh, my clients aren'tgoing to want anyone else to shoot but me.
I've had like a handful maybe say that,but it hasn't
been nearly as much of an issueas I thought it would be.

(31:25):
So I would hire a part time photographer.
And our first photographer was theis the worship leader at our church.
He works at the church, but on Fridayshe doesn't work.
And he was looking just to makesome extra money to pay off his mortgage.
He likes cameras.
Great.
Like this is ideal,you know, I know the person.
I trust

(31:45):
that they are going to treat our clientswell or homeowners well, all the things.
And he already has an interest in cameras.
I'll show you exactly how we shoot it.
And there's just so much trustin sending our team out.
So I think if you can find that person
for me
personally, again, this is like it'snot right or wrong for me.
I would much rather hiresomebody that is kind of in a circle

(32:06):
that I know or as a referral from somebodyI know as opposed to posting.
Indeed at least in this stage of businessbecause it's
just so easy to thentrust them and send them out
there. Yeah, I would.
I would look there first and Gerrididn't have a ton of availability.
I mean, he was available Fridaysin maybe a morning or two in the week.

(32:27):
So potentially could be four shoots
in the grand scheme of things.
That's terrible availability.
But in that season of life,in that season of our business for shoots,
I think I was doing 12 shoots a week.
Four is hugeand he could take somewhat off
and if I could just buymy morning back on a Friday
or if I could buy my whole dayFriday, that changes.
And so I wouldif you're in the spot of hiring and you're

(32:49):
feeling stuck, man, go find that personthat's in your circle.
Tell them you're looking to hire.
And if you can find somebody that'swilling to do a day or maybe two or week,
at least get you that rep of interviewing,
of training, of the whole process,introducing people to finance.
Now the next person who might have
a little bit more availability,you've already done it.
And so then you do it againand it's just get the ball rolling,

(33:12):
I think is the is the point hereinstead of waiting and
and think you have to hirethis perfect full time photographer. Yeah
yeah.
That was one of the things I leftyour presentation with, Scott was that
I was really examinedmy life as what items was
I maybe holding back oneven subconsciously because I was like,
I don't know if that's going to work,where it's like this idea of

(33:33):
progress over perfection.
Am I trying to be too perfectwith something?
Like you mentioned, you found
you got rid of the ideathat this perfect hire doesn't exist.
You got that out of your mind.
Like, let me look for this person.
You found this person
and such a great point that this person issomeone that's in your sphere.
So they're going to be a little bit easierto train

(33:54):
in the fact that you have a relationshipwith them already.
You know, you can trust themand they're going to give you
a little bit of grace because they'rethe first person you've trained.
So you're going to learn some thingsthrough training
and then the next timeyou go, you're going to
you could potentially bea little bit of a different person.
You're going to be better at doing itbecause you've done it already.

(34:17):
So that that idea of progress overperfection is is something that
I try to examine every day in our businessand what we're doing.
I would much rather make a decisionand then course correct along the way,
as opposed to waiting on the sidelines,trying to figure out the exact
perfect situation.

(34:38):
Yeah, I would rather just go.
So mistakes are inherent part
of growing a businessand we've all made them.
So we talked a little bit earlierabout knowledge and wisdom.
So the mistakes that you've made, Scott,what what knowledge
have you gained from thosethat you could pass on to somebody else
that maybe isn't at that point yetbut could avoid those mistakes?

(35:00):
What what wisdom would you sharewith them?
Yeah, there's there'sdefinitely some things along the way that
I wish I would have done differently.
And so a couple of themare like creating boundaries.
I think that there is an element of itmight be good early on in business
to just like you want to shoot.
Yes, yes.
Yet you say yes so many timesyou can grow the business.

(35:21):
It also comes a tipping point of like,Wow, your yeses are affecting family.
Your yeses are affectingyour personal life.
So creating some boundaries.
I don't know where that is.
I do think that there's valuein saying yes.
I do think that I wishI would have created
a little bit more boundaries my life,and that's certainly a goal in 2025
in stepping into more of an owner roleand creating boundaries and systems

(35:42):
to protect time with family,to protect weekends and protect time.
So that's one.
The other thing is not celebrating.
Like when you first start, you hit 10Kand you're like, Oh my gosh, I can
Like if you can get there, you're like,okay, cool.
How about 20?
You know? And it's like,What in the world?
We just worked as hard as we couldto get to 10K.

(36:04):
Why not celebrate it, you know?
And so we did have a maybe $15
bottle of champagneonce we hit 30K Okay
that was our celebration
But I do think that it's like, man,I wish I would have.
It's just
maybe it's an entrepreneurial spiritof like constantly moving the goalposts.
We're like, you have a goal, okay,we're going on to the next one.

(36:26):
And it's like,then that's the can't be healthy.
You have to be able to
celebratethe goal that you've been working towards.
And so that would be one,
clearly define your goaland when you hit it,
what what's thatcelebration going to look like?
Do you do you feel likeif you don't pause to do that celebration,
that that could affect morale?
Is there a psychological effectnot celebrating might have on your

(36:48):
on your team?
I haven't thought about it, butI think that that sounds great of like,
yeah, of course,you know, yeah, life's too short.
Why weren't we celebrating more, you know?
And so yeah, that's what I guessif there is one more thing.
You had asked earlier about hiringa photographer first and I jumped in there
because I want to say yes, I do thinkthat you want to hire a photographer.

(37:11):
Definitely,in my opinion, before an admin
or before hiring somebody,somebody different.
But I would put a caveat in there.
I wish I would have hired a virtualassistant before our photographer.
And so at the time, I didn't.
And so I'm training, but I'm still doingthe delivering in the morning
and I'm still doing a lot of these tasksthat I don't necessarily need to do.

(37:32):
I wish I would have hired a VA beforeJared to completely offload delivery.
That was another one of like,
why is it so hard to hand over the reinsof delivery?
But man, am I thankful to have done that nowand have a virtual assistant to do it.
I feel like I could have maxed outa little bit
more as a solo photographerif I had a VA in place.

(37:54):
But yeah, so thankful to have him.
So that'smaybe something else along the way.
If you don't have a VAand you’re approaching,
I don't know, 15 20,000 and you'reyour day is just Max,
you're delivering, you're shootingall day, you're uploading at night.
A virtual assistant can definitely helpyou buy back your time a little bit.
Scott I think that's so great.
And the fact of those are waysthat you can easily buy back your time.

(38:18):
And for those listeners out therethat don't have a virtual assistant, a VA,
what what task are they doing for
you each day just so our listenersknow what they can offload?
Yeah, I mean, their tasks have grown and
so if you don't have a VA yet,I would start with one task
and they are delivering for youand if that's all they do.

(38:41):
So I have two Vas, both work four hourshifts and have kind of different roles.
And so I can go into that a little bit.
But the first VA that I hired is strictlyQC and Delivery
has a photo editing backgroundcame from a referral from Tyler Graham,
a real estatephotographer in Myrtle Beach.
Anyway, if you can just offload that task,that changes your mornings.

(39:03):
And so I would start there and donothing else until they've mastered that.
I use loom quite a bit to recordhow I did it, send it to them.
And so that was part of the trainingand it might have taken a week or two
until they felt comfortable to try itand then they did it.
And you're like, Holy cow,I never have to go back to QC and Delivery.
So I think somewhere along the way it'sjust been a trap that like some people,

(39:24):
when they hire a virtual assistant,they give them
20 things to do and then they wonder,Why isn't this working?
Why isn't my virtual assistant crushing?
Well, there's 20 things take the highest,
most important task and give that to themand then slowly add.
So to give you some other examples,
they will
handle and it requests a lot linesget a touch ups.

(39:44):
At this point, you Know the IG method
that Eli coaches and talksabout reaching out to realtors.
He's now doing that for me,finding realtors on Instagram
and then when they follow back,
I have a video recording a text messagethat he's sending them.
So that's part of our outreach.
He's also finding
houses that maybe don't have great photoson homes.com.

(40:07):
And so whenever he finds those,he's putting that into a spreadsheet
and then eventually sendskind of like a cold email to them about
would you be interested in refreshingor updating your photos?
And so he's finding those for me.
I know that it would be betterif I just got on the phone and called,
but it was not happening for so longthat it felt like we need to
just at least get this ball rolling.

(40:29):
And so he's doing some of that.
And so that's another thingthat I think a virtual assistant can do.
Documents,any mistakes photo editors are making
so that I can just easily communicatethat to editors,
builds an ongoing invoice.
So at the end of the month, wheneverI get my invoice from our editors,
I can compare itto what our virtual assistant says,
just to make sure there's nodiscrepancies.

(40:50):
He's monitoring my emails for me.
And again, these are all things that havegrown into it sending review requests.
That's been phenomenal.
And then kind of building playbooksand then also texting clients
that we haven't worked with in 90plus days, kind of a check in point.
And so that's everything.Those are the tasks that he does.

(41:10):
I have a separate virtual assistantthat does a little bit more social media
specific stuff, but anyway, it's beena game changer having them.
Oh, that is great.
That's just a cheat sheetyou gave us. Scott.
So thank you for that.
Rewind that back to you all, writethose task down.
Start with QC and deliveryand show them how to do it.

(41:31):
Record yourself doing that,watch them doing it.
Let them do it and watch themand then have them do it
and confirm that it was correctas you take them through.
Yeah. Can I hop in real quick?
I feel like I also just want to sharewhat our other virtual assistant is doing
and just give youa little bit of perspective.
I might be payingmy virtual assistants too much.
I heard that at the conference,paying $7 an hour

(41:54):
and they they do a tremendous job.
And so for 4 hours it's $28.
And you have to reconcile in your headif they only QC and deliver and you
get to buy back your time your morning,would you be willing to pay $20?
The answer is yes, always in.
So that is literally the only task done.
Everything else is is bonus.
Okay, so our other virtual assistantbrought on a referral from again,

(42:17):
like even the virtual assistants have beenreferrals are kind of like
within a network and so that'swhat's worked for me a realtor.
Her social media really stepped up.I talked to her about it.
She had a virtual assistant.
I asked, Is there room for herto do more work?
And now I'm working with her.
So at this point,her priority is social media.
We don't have like a calendar necessarily.
It's just constantly hear the ideas

(42:37):
and we're always workinglike two or three days in advance,
creating layouts
on Instagram, using Instagram, IG layouts.
So the storieswe just show three vertical sorry,
we show three horizontal photosin that vertical frame
and we tag the realtor,we tag the brokerage like a cheat code.
They then are looking for contentthey shared on their channel.

(42:58):
Now we're in front of their whole officebecause they've shared our very simple
IG story.
So she's doing these things again.
Like I could be doing it, but I wasn't in.
So it was like,Is it better for me to do nothing
or to bring on somebodythat can just be consistent for us?
And so liking post managing my inbox,she did a market research project, finding

(43:19):
other companies in the area.
I just want to make sure we're in theballpark of pricing all of our services.
She created a list of every brokeragein the three counties we serve in,
sent a cold email, and then I'm goingthrough and following up with them.
She also just built our newsletterand so this is phenomenal.
Like we're now three months into havinga newsletter, which is exciting,

(43:41):
sending client care emails two days later.
Just to follow up,make sure you got your media okay.
if you haven't left to review,would you be willing to leave us a review?
And then also here some training in itshow to use spiro, how to maximize spiro.
And so that training's in there
anyway, I can go on with the list
but start smalland then grow that list from there.

(44:04):
Pick your, your,
the activity that you can offloadthat's causing you the most stress,
probably fairto say, offload the things that aren't
necessarily revenue generating
so that you can spend your timebuilding more business.
That 32nd plug to a bookthat rock my world
Buy Back Your Time by DanMartel talks about time audits in there.
I don't know the three specific words,but it's basically you like audit

(44:27):
your time, You figure out which thingsyou need to offload and then you fill it
with a higher leverage activityand then you just repeat that cycle.
And every time you go through cycle,
like it's time for me to do the timeaudit, it's I need to to do that.
And I do those spots to, to be ableto offload some of these tasks also.
That's that's a wisdomyou can share with your clients as well.

(44:48):
Especially, you know, new,
newer realtors that are trying to do itall by themselves.
They're trying to take their own photos,they're trying to edit their photos,
their videos.
Is that really building their business,you know, showing them the value of how
you can bring benefit to them
and help them grow their businessby offloading those things off their plate
so that they can go out and networkand build business.

(45:10):
I mean, you're adding valueto their their business,
just likeyour VA’s are adding value to yours.
Yeah, that's a good point.
I'm a huge I'ma huge believer in the time audit.
I think we did a podcast on thisor a portion of a podcast, but I'm
I just started again you are I'mholding up so here's my time audit
and so it's a simple it's it'sliterally a time tracking.

(45:30):
So this timesheet is Monday through Fridayand we can we can find a copy
and put there for you but this is Mondaythrough Friday seven until 8 p.m.
and of course you're not going to use itall but every 15
minute block,you just writing down what you're doing
and over the course of a day in a week,
you then at least the way that I doand I had a coach

(45:51):
teach me this was you go back throughand you categorize
those activities as admin
he used nurse and doctorkind of mentality where the doctor is
the highest the most bang for your buckif you will.
Adminis those things that Scott just talked
about, like, hey, we're not,I don't need to do these.

(46:14):
In fact, it's a waste of my time to dothese and I can train someone to do these.
So if you've never done a time audit,now's a great time to do it
and just really seewhere you're spending your time
and then another good time ismaybe in six months
when we're back into busy season.
And I suggest you do those time auditsfor at least two weeks.
So you get a really good idea.
I know you're like, Oh, Todd,you want me to write down for two weeks?

(46:35):
Yes, do it. I do it.
I won't tell you to do it.If I didn't do it myself.
And I do this twice a year, at leastI do it for way more than two weeks.
And it is one of the most valuable thingsI have ever done.
Because I look back at it,I'm almost horrified like you did that.
Or the other thing you dois you realize like,
Wait a minute,do I really want to write this down

(46:55):
or do I want to take account that
I just spent 30 minutes on Facebook like,No, I check it.
We all need to be on it.We need to check it.
But when you start scrolling,you start watching
those stupid little videos of someone.
It's for me, it's basketball
because, you know, I'm in the algorithmfor basketball plays.
And what I watchlike three too many basketball plays.
Like I got to get off here.
This is not valuable for my time.

(47:15):
our guest,if you're just hopping in, Scott Golmic,
he is the owner of the. I Loveyour business named the Real Estate.
I can't even say it.How do you say it Scott?
The Real Estateographers
Let’s go.
Wether you need a photographer orvideographer just call The Real Estateographers
That's the idea.
it’s a long name
long email address.
So Scott gave a presentationat the REPP conference 2024 and Scott,

(47:41):
when as a business owner, when you findyourself kind of stuck in a situation or
too much on your plate,
what what,what would you suggest to the owner
to kind of step back or
get out of that stuck situation?
Yeah,
Yeah.
Well, the time audit,I would absolutely do that.
But there's this sayingthat really impacted me and it's

(48:04):
When in doubt, Zoom out and I would just encourageeverybody to do that.
If you're going through a hard seasonor it feels like
you're doing way too much or whatever, if
it's kind of like the stock market,if you look at like every second
or minute, hour or whatever.
But if you zoom out, ideallyyou're just seeing this in.

(48:25):
The idea is if you
zoom out from the pressures of the day
to day and get a glimpse on business
and what however long your businesshas been in play like, for me,
we're 20 months inand there has been a roller coaster ride.
Please know that this has not beenall easy and smooth sailing.
There are a number of days waking up,not knowing what is going on and

(48:48):
trying to just figure it out.
So just in full transparency,this is not all rainbows over here.
And so the idea of just, yeah, when indoubt zoom out was really impactful to me.
Todd, can I canI share a practical example?
When he said that something just explodedin my head?
Yeah, be great.
Okay,so you know that my youngest son, Zeke

(49:10):
and I, we started jujitsu trainingback in March of this year, right?
Yeah. Yeah. And that that finished up.
It was a father son cohortthat we did through our church.
And the physical aspect of this cohortwas our was
this jujitsu trainingthat where we earned our yellow belts.
So I decided to continue.
I've never been in a fight in my life.
I've never thrown a punch in my life.
Okay.
So the fact that I decided to continuekind of I'm blowing my own head, that

(49:34):
I have these goals to to just get myselfin better shape physically.
And I've found that it helps me
mentally, you know, kind of unplugfrom everything else.
Because when you're in jiu jitsu,when when you're grappling with
with this other guy
and they're tryingto throw an armbar on you
and they've got control ofwhat's called the box,
which is,you know, your shoulders, your hips.

(49:56):
And there's one other I'm blanking out onwhen they have control of that
box and, and
or maybe you have control of theirs,but they're trying to get out.
You're kind of stuck in this situation,right,
where you got to figure out very quicklywhat you're going to do next.
our instructor.
Scott,the phrase is almost exactly the same.

(50:19):
When in doubt, circle out.
Everything is circles.
In jujitsu, it's circlingout of the position that you're in
to open yourself up to other possibilities
of your plan of attack, basically.
So that that was a beautiful exampleyou just shared of zoom out
so that you can get the bigger picture,so that you can then reengage

(50:40):
and keep moving forwardwith whatever your plan is.
So thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, absolutely.
I love that. To circle out. Yeah. Yeah.
I think it's so, so relevantthis idea of zooming out
just a few practical thingsbecause I'm not good at that.
There's times where I still do day andI look back, I'm like, I didn't zoom out.
And I think I tie this in to the ideathat Scott gave earlier of just moving

(51:03):
the goalposts where you get the 10Kand you're like, Oh, what's 10K anymore?
It's no big deal.Like I should have been at 20.
I was like, Now wait a minute,the goal was ten.
And when we were doing no K, you know, or
we're doing oneshoot a week, 10K was fabulous.
So just a couple of practical thingsthat I try to do.

(51:24):
I try to screenshot wins an email
or I write it downand I to keep and I keep in a folder
and we share those as a team
and I encourage the other team members
to just take a screenshotor just save that moment in time
that we had that win.

(51:45):
And then we share those at Friday meeting.
We have a staff meeting on Fridayfor Wow and then we have a staff
meeting on Thursday,So we always start off with wins.
What was good this weekand I think that's just one thing.
That is because when I,when I sit in Friday morning meeting
and I sit there and I andif I don't save them or if my team doesn't

(52:06):
save them, you look back and you go,
what the heck happened this week?
And you remember when Sally was unhappyand when Tom could
unzip a video, you know, a zip folder.
And when a photographer, a drone,like you remember those things, that's
the way our brain works,you know, at least the way my brain works.
I remember what went wrong,
but I don't sit back there and go, Oh,

(52:27):
Jess did this incredible thing and Besaput in these 12 orders in a room,
figure it all out.
And Jessie did this thing where sheshe referred two people in and collected
a lot of invoices like so screenshotit's super simple.
Write it down.
Keep just at leastkeep a log of it somewhere.
And then just one more thing on that.
If you have kids, encourage

(52:49):
your becoming teenager kids to do this.
John Acuff, We mentioned him quite a bit.
He has a podcast that is calledAll It Takes is a Goal.
He wrote a book for teens and it's calledHow Teens Win. I'm coincidentally
I'm reading that to my ten year oldand my 12 year old right now.

(53:12):
And one of the very early thingsthat actually his daughters
wrote the book, which is kind of coolthat his daughter suggested,
and John had them do this as their dad,but had them write down those wins.
I thinkit's an incredible correlation that
our brains as a entrepreneurand a business owner

(53:34):
are very much like 10, 12, 13,14 year old boys or girls.
And for those of you that don't knowor haven't been around,
I've had I've had the blessingto coach a seventh grade team this year.
I've coached younger.
I'm still am, but
I have a seventh grade team that is teensand I haven't had a teen yet.
So I'm learning things as a dadI’m learning things as a coach

(53:56):
and just the anatomy of a brain.
The frontal lobe of a
male of a boy does not developuntil they're 18.
You know what your frontal lobe does, you all?
it makes you not jump offof something when it might hurt you.
It makes you not say somethingthat is crazy.

(54:19):
You're not allowedlike it's your decision making.
A little tap on the shoulderthat says this is probably not a good idea
to do this.
And your kids don't get thatuntil they're 18 years old.
So having them write down those wins,and I think as entrepreneur,
we don't get it until we're 18 years oldin business.

(54:40):
It actually took me longer.
Like I look back over 20 yearsnow, I'm like,
Wait a minute,I just didn't connect the dots.
Like my frontal lobe of businessdid not develop yet.
I had all these great things,but everything was telling me it's bad.
So I would suggest just to write that downand a long winded approach.
But I think it's so valuableto celebrate those wins, like Scott said,

(55:02):
and to just get it as a very easy way,
a concrete way to remember them,because your brain
doesn't want to remember them because it'sjust the way we're wired as humans.
Scott do you have any tips
on the idea of when in doubt,zoom out.
I'm fascinated with that.I love that idea.
Did you have
what was the tipping point you where yousaid, wait a minute, I'm pushing too hard?

(55:24):
You talked about setting boundaries.
The family was kind ofyour moment was like,
wait a minute,I need to change something here.
There's been a number of those momentsalong the way,
so I don't know thatthere is just one, but
I think as a solo shooter,it was just becoming
way too much to try and do everything.
And so hiringthat was like a tipping point.
But even this past September,it felt like everything stopped.

(55:48):
The business stopped.
There were no calls, there were no emails.
I thought, okay, it was a fun run,you know, throw in the keys and
and go start something else.
But it's like, it's crazywhat your mind can do to think that
after a slow day,maybe a slow week, a slow
two weeks, your confidence is shot.
My confidence is shot.
And so I look back at it, but it was likefour weeks of just really quiet business.

(56:12):
There was a hurricane,maybe some other things.
I don't know what was going on,but it was slow.
In Septemberand that kind of threw me for a loop.
And so that kind of mentality,I mean, I'm not perfect at it, but even
just saying it helpschange your perspective and man,
if you can just have a conversationwith that kind of topic
in mind about zooming out,then I think that you'll be a lot better.

(56:32):
But I don't know, something
that definitely helps his communityto having people around you,
other real estate photographersaround the country or wherever,
just to connectand ask them some questions and
all of a suddenthey can give you some truth
that you already know,but you're not allowing yourself to hear.
And so I think that's probably
one of the best ways that you can doit, is just get connected in a community.

(56:56):
We were we were meant for community at mymy worst times in life that I've found
is when I get stuck inside my own head
and you kind of isolate yourself offfrom everybody else.
So, yeah,that's that's great advice, Scott
just incredibleinformation.
Scott,
As we wrap up here,
any remaining advice or words of wisdom

(57:17):
you want to give our listeners?
Yeah, you know,
I've got revenue goalsfor next year at REPP, I wrote down
I want to have a $75,000 monthand it's a huge jump from 30.
A lot'sgoing to have to happen to get there.
So it's fun to have those revenue goals.
But one of the best nuggets
that I heard atthe conference was not even

(57:38):
at the conference. I mean, it's amazing.
You go to these things
and it's the lunch that you hadwith somebody, the breakfast.
You go to Fremont Streetwith Todd and the gang.
You know,like those conversations are incredible.
Well, there was one conversation thatreally stuck out, and it was with Austin.
And he said, I want to be famous at home.
And I just love thatconcept because I think that

(58:01):
I want to provide for family.
I want to grow this business.
Yeah, I love growing the businessand I have goals there,
but man,I don't want to miss the mark at home.
And so
anyway, I can get a little emotionaltalking about it.
That's my goalfor 2025 is to be famous with kids
at home, famous with my wife at homeand just being present in so

(58:24):
putting those boundaries into place,continuing to grow the business,
but really focusing on familyis my goal in 2025 and we own a business.
We get to do that.
We get to make those decisionsto create that time.
Sometimes it's easier said than done,you know, like you start a business
because you want to have more timeand more money
and then you just invest all of your timeand money into growing it. But

(58:47):
I see what's
possible out thereand I want to achieve those revenue goals
while achieving just an incredible family
and at home.
Wow. Scott Wow.
That is hits home with me.
I mean, they hit me in the chest
and I think that's somethingthat is just so valuable.

(59:07):
And I think it's something that we maybeneed to talk more of on this podcast.
I think the demographic of our listeners
might just be in a marriage,
know, getting marriedor maybe just having kids.
I'm not really sure.I'm just kind of guessing.
I would say overall, you know,as I think about
seeing the people in the room

(59:29):
or on a community, you know, on Facebook,I would say overall they're younger.
And I think that'ssomething something that
as being
in the younger phase of life will do
everything will trade time for money.
And I shared this a week or two agoand I didn't make this up.
This came from someone else.

(59:49):
But we'll trade all of our time for money.
But at the end of your life,
you'll trade all of your money for time.
And navigating that as a businessowner can be tough.
And like you mentioned, Scott,we start this business
and we have goals of familyand we have personal goals in mind,

(01:00:10):
but we let our left brainkid ourself to say,
just push through,we'll just go 80 hours now.
So you don't have to go 80 hours then.
But when you get to then
that 80 hours will not be worth it.
You will wish that you didn't go 80 hoursbecause you can't get back in time.

(01:00:31):
You might have the money then,but it will mean nothing to you
because your kids are grown
and they forgot that you missedtheir basketball game or football game
or their concert or their recital,or you just weren't at home.
So that is something that I I'm convictedwith.
Scott.
That is something that I thinkit's important for all of us

(01:00:52):
truly to consider
and to keep at the top of our mind
100%.
As a fellow dad with both of youthat does have a teenager.
My oldest is 19.
He's already moved out of the house, man.
I'm going back to the timethat I was manager of a radio station.
I was working70 hours a week and looking back at that,

(01:01:12):
it was the worst time of my marriage.
It was the hardest time with my oldest,
you know, just for the behavioral issues,just full transparency here, guys,
because I was the manager, right?
I owned I didn't own the station,but I owned the station.
That was my responsibility.
And I made that my priority,

(01:01:33):
thinking that it all rode on me.
And as owners of businesses,we can be tempted
to feel that pressureand feel that responsibility.
But guys, I'm telling you, like Scottsaid,
like Todd just said, that that 70 hours,
you might gain it for the business,but you lost it with your kid

(01:01:55):
and you don'tyou don't ever get that back.
Now you can try and rectifythat in the future
and spend more time,but you can never go backwards.
So that's why we say take a breath.
You know, that's what Spiro means.
Is breath.
Yeah, we want to be successful.
We want to grow our businesses.We have a responsibility to do that.
But there is a balanceand and it is possible.

(01:02:17):
So yeah. Scott, thank you.
Thank for sharing that.
Appreciate taht
Every time.
I hear that. Just take a breath, man.
It just hits me so hard.
our guest, Scott Golmic.
He's the owner of The Real EstateographersThere I got it.
Presenter at the REPP 2024 conference,
gave a presentation and starting from $0to hiring three photographers.
Scott, thank you so much.

(01:02:37):
Making time this week to join us hereon the podcast and sharing your wisdom.
Thanks so much for having me on.
Scott if anyone wants toget a hold of you, they can follow you.
Where can they find you at.
Yeah. Easiest way is on Instagram.
Feel free to send me a messageif you want to reach out and do that.
It's @TheRealEstateographers
It's a little drone pinso you could see it on there.

(01:02:58):
Also have a personaljust Scott Golmic Instagram.
And so that's verythe easiest way to connect
and since the REPP conference there'sbeen some really cool conversations
with photographers around the country,so please feel free to reach out.
All right.
Well,we're closing down to the end of 2025,
coming up on Christmas hereand the New Year's.
And we've got one more,I believe, one more podcast

(01:03:20):
going to do for 2025.
Shannon Landers from our teamis going to be on with me next next week.
I believe it is.
Todd And we're going to be talking aboutthe first quarter forecast for 2025.
Shannon's got some great insights,so make sure you
you catch that that podcast episodeand we just to say

(01:03:40):
from the entire Spiro team guyswe appreciate you
we are privileged to be in thisthis real estate photographer
community with you and thank youfor watching and listening you know
here in 2024, it's just been a blastgetting to know everybody.
Todd, any any thoughts from you?
Tune in next week.
Shannon is a wealth of knowledge
Shannon joinedthe team almost just over six months ago.

(01:04:01):
I believe her almost six months ago.
Shannon helped me grow and scale Wow.
Shannon has an incredible wealthof knowledge of the real estate industry.
She's recruited agents.
She built our sales and marketingprogram at Wow.
She then ran real estate offices.
She is a realtor
so she has a ton of knowledgecoming up here, so please tune into that,

(01:04:23):
you guys, if you haven't met her yet,you'll love her.
A ton of information thereand just great insight
and sorry, I won't I won't be joining you.
I'm taking my kidsto go see Christmas lights.
- good for you- I’ll send you all picture
priorities
That's awesome.
All right.
Well, guys, again, thank you so much.
It's been a great week. Scott, again,thank you for joining us.
- We appreciate you man- Thank you, Scott.

(01:04:45):
Thanks, guys. Merry Christmas.
Yeah, Merry Christmas.
All right, guys,make sure you take time this week.
Be thankfulfor the blessings in your life.
And like we've talkedabout a couple of times, this episode,
make sure you carve out some timeto take a breath.
You have a great week. Take care.
Thank you for joining usfor the Spiro podcast,
managing your real estate photographyand videography Business.

(01:05:05):
This is a production of Spiroand wow video tours.
You can find out more about Spiro
is real estate, media, business managementsoftware at our Web site.
Spiro.media.