Ep2. All Alex's Side Quests Led to This… Here’s How She’d Start Over

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I was designing hats probably from like the age of 24 to maybe 27.
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So I met Jamie, he was telling me about this gig.
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And at the time I was doing weddings, I was making hats.
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I went from one client to so many, like everybody knew who I was in such a fast amount of time because I was doing video, I was doing drone, I was doing all these things.
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I was using iGUIDE, like that first iGUIDE camera.
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Go out, make those connections, hit the ground running, go door knocking to brokerages,
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Instagram and find realtors, DM them, and I would just leave flyers in offices.
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Managing is a whole other level.
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Managing people and emotions and feelings.
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When you're authentic, you're going to draw people that are like you.
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I didn't know that's how you built your stuff either.
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It's just like, we're the same person.
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I love that.
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I want to start with, why did you actually start doing this?
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So the day one or
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Yeah, the day one, I know from my last conversation, you were working in media, you worked for another company, and then one day you were like, I'm going to do real estate media specifically, right?
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Like, why that?
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I was shooting weddings at the time and I was working at Bell Media at the time.
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So that's the old Much Music.
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I was doing my professor job.
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I was DJing like literally any creative outlet like I was doing it.
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I remember being in high school and like it or every time summer came and people were getting cool summer jobs at like...
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wave pools and for the city and like getting good jobs and I couldn't find anything.
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So for the summer, a lot of the time I would just like sit around and or like help my dad out.
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And then the moment like I got my first like wedding gig, I was like, okay, cool.
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And then I started doing more photography jobs and it kind of just picked up that way.
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And like once I started working, I didn't want to stop.
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And I was like, well, I want to do this now.
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I want to do that now.
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I
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It played out, but I'll just answer your question.
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Like, I'm 37.
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I became a professor at 22.
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And I taught till I was 32, 31.
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So I taught for 11 years, essentially.
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And that was wicked.
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Where did you teach?
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I taught at Mohawk College here in Hamilton.
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So that's where like a lot of my employees came from.
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They came from basically I taught them.
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I taught them well.
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And I picked the best ones out of the best.
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And I was like, hey, you want a job?
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Here's a job.
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That's amazing.
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That almost sounds like, like I know they do that in the States with the Ivy League schools, like the big companies, they sponsor the schools just to like hand train.
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So you had your own like Ivy League funnel program for yourself.
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That's pretty sweet.
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And I've kept that relationship.
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So every September I go in and I talk and, you know, I put up on the board like all my employees and I'm like, this is Mohawk, this is Mohawk.
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And then they're like all excited.
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And my most recent employee is also a Mohawk student.
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He's great.
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So that relationship is still there.
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OK, let me then ask.
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You said you were working for your dad and then you got a wedding gig.
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Was that photography, videography?
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What was that?
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It was photo first.
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And then when the guy who I worked with, his name is Derek, he was like, oh, I want to start doing video.
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Video is a thing.
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And I was like, I can do video.
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So then I started doing wedding videos.
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Most exhausting job of all time.
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I hated it by the end of it.
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But yeah.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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I mean, that was I did weddings for a long time, too.
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At one point, I was doing like 30 weddings a season.
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And I was on the on the video side.
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And I was always so jealous of the photographers because.
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It seemed like, I mean, they have to do a lot of directing.
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So all the wedding photographers don't, you know, don't get mad at me.
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But the videography is so gear heavy and there's just so much going on.
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So you're doing that.
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You, but then rewind even further back.
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Cause I just love to know the origins.
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You already were skilled with the camera.
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Like where did that come from?
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I always saw my grandpa taking photos.
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He was always the annoying one on every occasion.
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Hey, get in a photo.
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I just was like, this is something I want to try.
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I don't know why.
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So I went and I picked up my first camera, which was a Canon 7D.
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I actually, and this is a very important point.
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When I bought that camera, I drove across the border because the Canadian dollar was better than the U.S. dollar.
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And I drove across the border.
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I bought this Canon 7D and like a good lens.
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I honestly had no idea what I was buying, but I bought it.
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I smuggled it in so I didn't have to pay more for it.
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And I remember getting questioned at the border, like, do you have anything?
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And I was like, no, no.
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Like literally sweating, just like being a big liar to the border security.
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Oh, yeah.
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I know that feeling.
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But yeah, so I bought my first Canon 7D and I just started shooting.
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Like essentially I was just shooting like whatever I saw.
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And I can't even remember how I met Derek.
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No, I met him at a wedding company.
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So anyways, the one other employee he had, his name is Jamie, and he would just talk so much.
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Oh, I shoot real estate.
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Like, I'm making like $10,000 a month.
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I'm making this much money a month.
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I can like chill on my bow and all this stuff.
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And I was like, shoot, like, that sounds pretty good.
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So then I, yeah, I started shooting it.
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And so what was the first?
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So you're shooting weddings, you're getting tired of weddings.
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There's this Jamie character who's making real estate media sound baller.
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How do you get your first job?
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Are you working for him or are you working for yourself?
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This, once again, connection.
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Maybe everything I'm going to say now is all about connections.
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But I was also, this is another creative outlet, was also designing hats.
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So I opened my first company ever.
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I was a hat designer.
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What age are we or what age are you at that point?
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I was designing hats probably from like the age of 24 to maybe 27.
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The reason I asked so much about age as well, because I think I got into this older than probably some people.
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And, you know, you like and I think that for a lot of people listening, everyone's always so concerned about their age and if they miss the boat.
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And so I like to carbon date things with ages just so people, you know, understand that, like, maybe they see themselves in you or maybe they think, oh, I'm way younger than Alex.
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Maybe I'm too early for this.
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Maybe I'm too late.
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So.
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Age isn't important unless it frees you up to thinking like, OK, that makes sense for me.
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Right.
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One hundred percent.
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But yeah.
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So I was designing hats.
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I was doing hats for like CFL, not NHL, the AHL, my own brand.
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I created my own brand.
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They're selling hats like all online in stores all over Toronto.
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It was called Crafted.
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I'm going to like I'm going to keep on opening up tabs because I find all this interesting.
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Because also this other thing that's coming up for me right now is like you would do like you're a real doer.
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And a lot of people don't give themselves permission, especially at a young age to.
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So what gave you the attitude that you could just do whatever, you know, just create and make money?
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Like a lot of people don't give themselves that permission.
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Did that come from somebody?
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Yeah.
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You know what?
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I don't think it came from literally anybody.
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I think it came from just wanting to try and like have like this thing.
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And I know you know it about me, but if I have a thought or an idea, it is impossible for me to not try to do it or talk me out of it.
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So I the hat company at Bell Media, much music, coolest place ever.
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Two doors down was this amazing hat shop.
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We all know also that I love hats.
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I'd go in every time I got paid.
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I became friends, made a connection at the hat store with the owners.
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And I asked him, like, could I make a hat?
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And he was like, yeah.
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He's like, here's my contact.
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So I contacted their contact.
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His name was, but he's in China.
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So he works at a manufacturing company.
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And he was like, okay, here's all of our samples.
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Sent me all, like...
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materials, colors, like swatches, everything, sent it to my house.
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I was like, okay, cool.
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And then on Photoshop, I designed a hat and I built a logo and all this kind of stuff.
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And I sent it and he sent me samples back of the hat.
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And I was like, wow, it was so cool to like draw something, send it, someone make what I drew.
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And then I was actually able to wear it.
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It was like the craziest thing.
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Oh my God.
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So yeah.
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I think that's so important for people is when like when you make something and to like see it outside of your workshop, outside of your office, outside, whatever it is.
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Like for me, that moment was in, I mean, I probably could, but definitely in university.
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I started writing for the university paper.
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No one asked me to.
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I just thought it would be fun.
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And I was traveling.
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I did this year trip around the world.
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And so I thought it was really funny.
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And I wrote this article called Oliver Does Abroad.
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Yeah.
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And I just started sending it to the paper and then they just started publishing it.
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And then my brothers who were also at university, they were like sending me pictures that my articles were in this paper.
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And I remember it just was so cool that you could do something and then it would be published or created and then shared outside of yourself.
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And I think the more people do that, like, you know, whatever this attitude you have of like, I want to see it, I want to try it.
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And then just to do it and not really be concerned about the result.
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It's just like it's like the paper.
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It's like you put something out there.
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You are vulnerable regardless of what what the medium is like you're vulnerable with it.
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And then when people actually react and then tell you that they took time out of their day to read something of yours, it is just like it hits you.
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So it hits so well, you know, it's like a really beautiful thing to know that someone took the time of their day to read something that you did.
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Right.
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They cared.
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Yeah.
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Well, and how I want to relate this to real estate media is I think that when I look at sometimes like how much content we generate, like when weddings, right, you spend a ton of time one day and then like a month editing, you do one thing.
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And real estate media, you know, your business.
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You guys probably produce like thousands of pieces of content a day.
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So you have to be real comfortable creating and letting go, creating and letting go.
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And that's just like a little asterisk on this entire business.
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I have found that people who want to get into this, who are creatives, like that part, you have to get really good at like being OK with 80 percent quality and keep it moving.
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Right.
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And not not perfect every little detail.
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Yeah.
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And take time to perfect it, though.
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You know what I mean?
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Like if it's not to that standard that you are envisioning, it's like it will take time to perfect it.
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And that's also OK.
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Yeah, that's a good point.
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Yeah, take the time to... Actually, this year, last year, I was a little bit more, I'm just going to get it in and out as fast as possible.
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And I was letting quality, I would say, almost slip a little bit where I was like, ah, it's good enough.
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And then this year, I decided that I would never let something pass that kind of gave me a little bit of a pinch feeling, you know, whether it's just like a...
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extension cord or a trash can that I forgot, like everything's going to go out in a standard that I'm okay with.
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And by doing that, I feel like there's been like good juju that's come back to the business.
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Like I'm feeling it back from the agents.
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And I think also just feel more proud of the business myself.
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Yeah, yeah, exactly.
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So a little sidetrack there.
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I want to go back to, so you're shooting this Jeremy, Jamie, who was the guy?
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And then he says, I'm making $10,000 living on a boat.
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And you're like, I want to do that.
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Yes, exactly.
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So there's this like, and he's older, like I think at the time he was probably in his 50s.
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And this was, I don't know, like 10 years ago, maybe more.
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So he's telling me all this stuff and, and how it's so easy.
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It wasn't about it being easy, but it was easier than weddings, essentially.
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It's fast jobs, like weddings, they take so long.
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So anyway, so I met Jamie, he was telling me about about this, this gig.
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And at the time, I was doing weddings, I was making hats.
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And I got in contact with one of my clients, and he was a real estate agent.
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So we sat down, had coffee.
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And I was like, listen, like I heard that, you know, people need media, like real estate agents need media.
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I was like, I can do video.
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And this was the thing is like video was like almost non-existent at the time.
231
00:12:31.004 --> 00:12:33.426
This was just over eight years ago now.
232
00:12:34.206 --> 00:12:36.147
I was like, can I shoot one of your listings?
233
00:12:36.307 --> 00:12:37.647
You know, for fun, like you don't have to pay me.
234
00:12:37.667 --> 00:12:38.668
I have no idea what I'm doing.
235
00:12:39.428 --> 00:12:40.789
And he said, yeah, go for it.
236
00:12:40.830 --> 00:12:41.570
He gave me a list.
237
00:12:41.610 --> 00:12:46.194
Like he had like five listings that he already had online and I wasn't getting paid.
238
00:12:46.234 --> 00:12:48.656
Like he already had photos done, but he let me just try.
239
00:12:48.996 --> 00:12:51.399
And I got better and I got better.
240
00:12:51.419 --> 00:12:55.122
And he gave me advice, told me to close the toilet seats, actually turn on the lights.
241
00:12:55.222 --> 00:12:57.824
Natural light wasn't the thing, wasn't a look.
242
00:12:59.325 --> 00:13:00.506
And I just kept learning.
243
00:13:00.767 --> 00:13:01.988
And then I started doing video.
244
00:13:02.008 --> 00:13:05.691
And I think a lot of agents were like reacting to the videos he was getting.
245
00:13:06.091 --> 00:13:06.972
And it's not like they were good.
246
00:13:07.270 --> 00:13:08.911
Where were they being posted at the time?
247
00:13:08.951 --> 00:13:10.211
Just on MLS or were they?
248
00:13:10.531 --> 00:13:12.232
I think MLS and like Facebook.
249
00:13:12.412 --> 00:13:15.633
And like this is when Instagram was also like starting to pick up with video.
250
00:13:15.693 --> 00:13:17.953
So kind of like it all kind of worked out.
251
00:13:18.213 --> 00:13:20.874
So yeah, posting those videos.
252
00:13:21.274 --> 00:13:25.056
And it got to the point where he's like, okay, he's like, you're actually better than my paid photographer.
253
00:13:25.416 --> 00:13:27.536
I'm going to start paying you and giving you referrals.
254
00:13:28.196 --> 00:13:30.437
And that's just, that's my day one client.
255
00:13:30.817 --> 00:13:33.138
What was the like gestation period there?
256
00:13:33.158 --> 00:13:36.359
Like how long did I take from like learning to like getting paid for it?
257
00:13:36.747 --> 00:13:37.849
A couple months, maybe.
258
00:13:37.869 --> 00:13:41.453
Yeah, I would say about maybe eight listings.
259
00:13:41.994 --> 00:13:42.275
Okay.
260
00:13:42.655 --> 00:13:46.100
And what was your, like, Alex's intention at the time?
261
00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:48.924
Were you like, I'm going to do this to get out of weddings?
262
00:13:48.984 --> 00:13:51.828
Or were you just adding another, you know, thing to your list?
263
00:13:52.228 --> 00:13:54.329
I was adding another thing to the list easily.
264
00:13:54.629 --> 00:13:55.449
Yeah.
265
00:13:55.570 --> 00:14:03.193
My goal, though, like at the time, if I put myself back in my shoes eight years ago, my goal was to become a full-time professor.
266
00:14:03.433 --> 00:14:04.413
I love teaching.
267
00:14:05.054 --> 00:14:05.394
Yeah.
268
00:14:05.414 --> 00:14:18.360
So I was like, OK, whatever I have to do to like stop driving to Toronto, which was a huge, huge effort from Hamilton, stop driving to Toronto or taking the train to Toronto, have enough like side jobs here.
269
00:14:19.560 --> 00:14:22.983
and continue professing and make that my full-time gig.
270
00:14:23.263 --> 00:14:24.685
And I never got that full-time job.
271
00:14:24.745 --> 00:14:27.047
I applied many times, had great interviews.
272
00:14:27.567 --> 00:14:29.228
I just like, I don't think I was there.
273
00:14:29.248 --> 00:14:35.454
I was so young, but I was like, you know, retire, I'm going to retire on professing money.
274
00:14:35.534 --> 00:14:36.635
Like, you know, I thought it was it.
275
00:14:36.935 --> 00:14:41.719
And then I started getting this entrepreneurial build up here, here, here.
276
00:14:42.079 --> 00:14:44.141
And it kind of just like took off.
277
00:14:44.341 --> 00:14:44.561
Hmm.
278
00:14:45.082 --> 00:14:56.322
So the it took off so much that the professor because there was a you're feeling resistance from like not getting that full time job that you're like, you know what, I'm going to go where it's where I'm getting yeses.
279
00:14:56.403 --> 00:14:57.104
Is that what happened?
280
00:14:57.753 --> 00:15:01.697
So essentially, I got so busy with the real estate stuff.
281
00:15:02.398 --> 00:15:03.359
I dropped the weddings.
282
00:15:03.599 --> 00:15:04.880
I dropped my job in Toronto.
283
00:15:05.040 --> 00:15:06.161
I stopped making hats.
284
00:15:06.381 --> 00:15:09.204
And it became just two, real estate and teaching.
285
00:15:10.085 --> 00:15:13.188
And it got to the point where I wasn't sleeping anymore.
286
00:15:13.208 --> 00:15:14.869
I was so stressed.
287
00:15:14.929 --> 00:15:17.091
I had students emailing me all the time.
288
00:15:17.932 --> 00:15:29.920
Simon's always do I had to create like a curriculum and then I had real estate agents messaging me I was just like it became bonkers I was literally at burnout stage.
289
00:15:30.841 --> 00:15:36.965
And I think I was like in the middle of a semester and I talked to my coordinator being like I can't do it anymore.
290
00:15:37.045 --> 00:15:41.388
He's like, you have to he's like you're under contract and I was like, oh my god.
291
00:15:41.908 --> 00:15:43.429
I was like, okay, I'll pull through.
292
00:15:43.649 --> 00:15:47.972
And then once that semester was done, I literally gave it all I had for like the last two months.
293
00:15:48.853 --> 00:15:50.955
Once I was done, I was like, I'm done teaching.
294
00:15:51.855 --> 00:16:01.702
I'm now going to go full time in this because I truly became a terrible teacher because I could only put in 50% and I became a terrible business owner because I could only put in 50%.
295
00:16:02.243 --> 00:16:08.147
And one had to give and it was obviously the teaching because I was making way more money with the real estate stuff.
296
00:16:08.662 --> 00:16:08.862
Okay.
297
00:16:08.882 --> 00:16:13.986
So I'm thinking about people listening to this who are like trying to get more clients or trying to get busy enough.
298
00:16:14.006 --> 00:16:16.889
They're like, I wish I was busy enough where it was a problem.
299
00:16:17.609 --> 00:16:20.572
How did you like, do you think it was timing for you?
300
00:16:20.592 --> 00:16:23.474
Like, how did you get so busy so quickly?
301
00:16:23.494 --> 00:16:25.116
Were you just so much fun to work with?
302
00:16:25.236 --> 00:16:26.397
Was the video?
303
00:16:26.557 --> 00:16:27.778
Was it like, what do you think it was?
304
00:16:28.305 --> 00:16:33.427
Well, the thing is, too, is like taking into consideration that everything was just referral base.
305
00:16:33.747 --> 00:16:35.147
I never shot a listing before.
306
00:16:35.968 --> 00:16:47.091
And I went from one client to, I don't even know, like so many, like everybody knew who I was in such a fast amount of time because I was doing video.
307
00:16:47.271 --> 00:16:48.272
I was doing drone.
308
00:16:48.292 --> 00:16:49.712
I was doing all these things.
309
00:16:49.772 --> 00:16:52.413
I was using iGUIDE, like that first iGUIDE camera.
310
00:16:52.873 --> 00:16:54.014
I was doing all the things that...
311
00:16:54.834 --> 00:16:55.875
nobody was doing yet.
312
00:16:56.295 --> 00:16:58.256
So it exploded very fast.
313
00:16:58.316 --> 00:17:02.138
And it wasn't that, yeah, it was just like my schedule was always full.
314
00:17:02.658 --> 00:17:04.559
It was always, always, always full.
315
00:17:04.679 --> 00:17:08.041
And I was like, okay, like it is time to give up something.
316
00:17:08.081 --> 00:17:09.002
And I get it.
317
00:17:09.082 --> 00:17:13.524
No matter how good your business is doing, it is very scary.
318
00:17:13.544 --> 00:17:18.347
And I'm sure you also felt this too, like in your previous jobs to let go of a stable paycheck.
319
00:17:18.807 --> 00:17:19.027
Yeah.
320
00:17:19.807 --> 00:17:22.788
For something that like you have to really, really work hard for.
321
00:17:23.368 --> 00:17:23.628
Oh, yeah.
322
00:17:23.828 --> 00:17:25.789
I quit a TV editing job.
323
00:17:25.829 --> 00:17:29.009
I worked for the show Survivorman and I was a career editor.
324
00:17:29.690 --> 00:17:35.011
And when we had our first child, that's why I quit, which is a horrible time to quit like a steady paycheck.
325
00:17:35.411 --> 00:17:36.111
It was a great job.
326
00:17:36.871 --> 00:17:41.233
But I remember seeing my baby and then thinking like, oh, like my baby's going to grow up.
327
00:17:41.273 --> 00:17:42.293
Like, what is she going to do?
328
00:17:43.093 --> 00:17:44.093
And what am I doing?
329
00:17:44.113 --> 00:17:45.434
Like, this is not what I imagined.
330
00:17:45.734 --> 00:17:46.614
This is not my life.
331
00:17:46.654 --> 00:17:49.375
So I asked my wife, I was like, do you mind if I quit my job?
332
00:17:49.976 --> 00:17:51.976
And she was like, yeah, I think you should.
333
00:17:52.156 --> 00:17:54.737
Like, she could see, you know, I was kind of like dead behind the eyes.
334
00:17:54.797 --> 00:17:55.738
I just wasn't loving it.
335
00:17:56.598 --> 00:18:01.820
But walking away from a steady job to then be like, and my plan was like, I'm going to make money.
336
00:18:01.840 --> 00:18:04.421
I'm going to replace my income with cameras.
337
00:18:04.561 --> 00:18:06.602
I don't know what that's going to look like, but that's the goal.
338
00:18:06.942 --> 00:18:09.123
Which is the other thing I wanted to ask you when you're...
339
00:18:10.078 --> 00:18:17.888
You're loving, like dream job professor, you know, you retire as a professor, get your sabbaticals in.
340
00:18:18.188 --> 00:18:24.536
When you started getting really busy with real estate, did you have any lifestyle goals or any vision for that?
341
00:18:24.576 --> 00:18:26.699
Or were you just really happy to be super busy?
342
00:18:27.249 --> 00:18:28.951
No, I didn't really have lifestyle.
343
00:18:29.512 --> 00:18:30.373
Another huge goal.
344
00:18:30.633 --> 00:18:35.699
And I think it's just like at the time, it seems so unachievable.
345
00:18:35.999 --> 00:18:41.545
And to a lot of people now, this one goal is very unachievable, was to buy a house.
346
00:18:41.666 --> 00:18:45.830
For me, back in the day, success meant owning a house.
347
00:18:46.591 --> 00:18:52.555
And like it took me so long to get there because, you know, I had part time jobs all over the place.
348
00:18:52.575 --> 00:18:54.657
Like it wasn't solid enough.
349
00:18:54.717 --> 00:18:57.759
And then I started a business and like it wasn't solid enough.
350
00:18:57.799 --> 00:19:00.641
And I had to wait and I had to wait until it was solid.
351
00:19:01.282 --> 00:19:08.007
So a lifestyle, just a simple thing, which is a very difficult thing for everybody these days, was to own a house.
352
00:19:08.427 --> 00:19:08.607
Yeah.
353
00:19:08.887 --> 00:19:09.808
And you just sold your house.
354
00:19:10.267 --> 00:19:11.328
It's almost sold.
355
00:19:11.388 --> 00:19:12.629
I'm hoping by tomorrow.
356
00:19:12.789 --> 00:19:14.811
And is this the same, the first house that you bought?
357
00:19:15.451 --> 00:19:16.352
Is this the first sale?
358
00:19:16.472 --> 00:19:16.732
Yeah.
359
00:19:17.013 --> 00:19:17.773
That's a big deal.
360
00:19:17.873 --> 00:19:19.695
I remember that we sold our first house.
361
00:19:20.516 --> 00:19:22.917
Yeah, it's a crazy, it's an emotional time.
362
00:19:23.238 --> 00:19:28.462
I want to pivot then because what I really wanted to know is, like, first, how you got started.
363
00:19:28.482 --> 00:19:32.986
And just to summarize from what I'm seeing, like, you were a doer.
364
00:19:33.226 --> 00:19:34.507
You say yes to everything.
365
00:19:35.388 --> 00:19:39.091
You're paying attention to, you know, the people around you who are making money.
366
00:19:39.711 --> 00:19:41.092
You got pretty good at weddings.
367
00:19:41.132 --> 00:19:44.154
You found it like you're like, this is just a bit of a grind.
368
00:19:44.995 --> 00:19:48.877
And then you started doing real estate because of your video skills.
369
00:19:48.917 --> 00:19:55.402
You're kind of like unique in that during that time, you were a unique provider or vendor for real estate agents.
370
00:19:55.482 --> 00:19:57.403
You're doing something very different than everyone else.
371
00:19:57.463 --> 00:19:59.785
So that created a huge referral network.
372
00:20:00.505 --> 00:20:01.406
You got so busy.
373
00:20:01.806 --> 00:20:03.608
You got overwhelmed, overrun.
374
00:20:04.128 --> 00:20:10.194
You had to leave the professor job and then you're going to go full time into real estate media or real estate photography.
375
00:20:10.394 --> 00:20:12.356
At that moment, you're on your own.
376
00:20:12.376 --> 00:20:13.897
You don't have other people that you're working with.
377
00:20:14.217 --> 00:20:16.880
Are you busy enough that you started referring out to somebody?
378
00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:18.201
I was getting busy enough.
379
00:20:18.261 --> 00:20:21.163
That's when I started hiring my students.
380
00:20:22.458 --> 00:20:28.884
Um, so, you know, like when you're in college, you do have gaps in your schedule and stuff and you do want to work.
381
00:20:29.444 --> 00:20:32.707
So I just started hiring them out while they were in school.
382
00:20:33.068 --> 00:20:34.629
So that worked out well.
383
00:20:34.769 --> 00:20:38.733
And like those, those students stayed with me for so long.
384
00:20:39.373 --> 00:20:41.454
So long until they started their own businesses.
385
00:20:41.954 --> 00:20:43.114
They were always freelancers.
386
00:20:43.434 --> 00:20:54.438
And actually, a full circle moment, my student, my first ever full-time hire, just quit because she's going back to school to become an electrician.
387
00:20:54.458 --> 00:20:56.318
And she was with me for, I think, seven years.
388
00:20:56.798 --> 00:20:59.019
And I've known her for— To be an electrician.
389
00:20:59.879 --> 00:21:00.179
Yes.
390
00:21:00.520 --> 00:21:00.660
Yeah.
391
00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:00.780
Okay.
392
00:21:00.800 --> 00:21:01.660
Yeah.
393
00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:01.880
Yeah.
394
00:21:02.763 --> 00:21:03.723
And like, that's the thing, too.
395
00:21:03.763 --> 00:21:09.106
It's like, you know, as an employee, a lot of employees don't have that entrepreneurial spirit.
396
00:21:09.146 --> 00:21:11.126
Like they're never like people are always scared.
397
00:21:11.146 --> 00:21:13.487
You know, I'm going to I'm going to hire a photographer.
398
00:21:14.067 --> 00:21:17.289
And what if they steal my client and like start their own business?
399
00:21:17.329 --> 00:21:20.070
Like, yeah, what if like that could happen?
400
00:21:20.630 --> 00:21:26.353
But most people who are looking for jobs are just because they don't have that entrepreneurial spirit.
401
00:21:26.413 --> 00:21:28.915
Like they don't have that like hustle and that grind in them.
402
00:21:29.295 --> 00:21:30.876
They do need someone to tell them what to do.
403
00:21:31.276 --> 00:21:35.198
They do need like a daily schedule that's already preset for them.
404
00:21:35.658 --> 00:21:39.000
Whereas someone like me and you is we want to create that schedule.
405
00:21:39.040 --> 00:21:40.321
We want to create that path.
406
00:21:40.361 --> 00:21:43.323
We want to create that hustle and that grind for other people.
407
00:21:43.583 --> 00:21:45.364
But yeah, I taught her...
408
00:21:46.513 --> 00:21:48.494
I think her, I met her when she was 18.
409
00:21:48.894 --> 00:21:51.795
I taught her for, I think it was four years.
410
00:21:52.035 --> 00:21:55.116
And then she was my first ever full-time employee and she just left.
411
00:21:55.516 --> 00:21:55.716
Wow.
412
00:21:55.796 --> 00:21:56.316
Crazy.
413
00:21:56.596 --> 00:21:56.916
Yeah.
414
00:21:57.016 --> 00:21:57.296
Cool.
415
00:21:57.697 --> 00:21:59.017
Did you guys have a party?
416
00:21:59.297 --> 00:22:04.539
We definitely ordered pizza and we kind of celebrated her at our wine tour that we did.
417
00:22:04.639 --> 00:22:04.879
So...
418
00:22:05.217 --> 00:22:11.301
In a second, I want to move into kind of like a practical, just like, what do I want to call it?
419
00:22:11.321 --> 00:22:20.706
Like just an exercise of like, if you're going to start today, but before we do that, like if you're going to start a real estate media business today, I just want to talk about how you'd go about it.
420
00:22:20.907 --> 00:22:30.372
For anyone listening who, you know, either is starting or wanting to start, like what is the roadmap that you, Alex, with all your experience would do?
421
00:22:30.412 --> 00:22:31.253
But before we do that,
422
00:22:32.326 --> 00:22:33.306
Cause I'm really interested.
423
00:22:33.466 --> 00:22:36.127
I'm interested in all the business owners that are in our industry.
424
00:22:36.167 --> 00:22:39.227
Like, you know, what did it, what is it that they're actually after?
425
00:22:39.788 --> 00:22:41.128
Like the, the, the goal.
426
00:22:41.588 --> 00:22:54.571
And if it's a finish line, if it's a lifestyle goal and at what point as the business was growing, did you realize, Oh, I've got an, I've got enough volume and consistency that I don't have to worry about this for next year.
427
00:22:54.591 --> 00:22:56.211
Like I know my business is stable.
428
00:22:56.631 --> 00:23:01.353
Did you have a moment where you realized like, oh, I've got a real business and I'm, you know, paying my bills.
429
00:23:02.053 --> 00:23:08.255
And did like things start to shift for you where you wanted to, where you started to become aware that you wanted other things in your life?
430
00:23:08.516 --> 00:23:15.018
And there's a bit of clunky way to ask it, but really what I'm trying to say is like, what is the business doing for Alex's personal lifestyle?
431
00:23:15.302 --> 00:23:17.783
it definitely gave me more financial freedom.
432
00:23:18.184 --> 00:23:24.868
And then once I started to grow a team, like when you're building something, it is hard to take a vacation.
433
00:23:25.068 --> 00:23:26.088
It is very difficult.
434
00:23:26.168 --> 00:23:29.130
Like you got to work your butt off to get there.
435
00:23:30.071 --> 00:23:32.672
But when you do, the reward is amazing.
436
00:23:32.812 --> 00:23:35.314
And, you know, a huge point
437
00:23:36.014 --> 00:23:39.575
in my career was I had photographers out in the field.
438
00:23:40.176 --> 00:23:43.877
I no longer, I think I cut my shooting more in half.
439
00:23:44.377 --> 00:23:45.558
Yeah, I had shooters in the field.
440
00:23:45.618 --> 00:23:46.658
I had an administrator.
441
00:23:46.678 --> 00:23:48.859
I had more admin help.
442
00:23:49.619 --> 00:23:53.821
And I was like, I'm going to take a two-week vacation to Greece
443
00:23:54.861 --> 00:24:02.166
And I'm going to turn off my Gmail, going to turn off all notifications, and I'm going to go because I trust my team.
444
00:24:02.926 --> 00:24:06.068
And when I did that, everything was taken care of.
445
00:24:06.148 --> 00:24:14.214
Like, you know, those eye twitches that you feel when you're first growing a business, the lack of sleep that you have, the stress, the gray hair that just comes out of nowhere.
446
00:24:14.234 --> 00:24:14.334
Yeah.
447
00:24:14.934 --> 00:24:17.935
It all goes away once you build that foundation.
448
00:24:18.135 --> 00:24:20.136
And that's the thing, you can't skip that foundation.
449
00:24:20.516 --> 00:24:22.756
You're skipping the foundation, everything's going to fall apart.
450
00:24:23.197 --> 00:24:33.220
So build that foundation, give yourself a little bit of time, and you will get to that two-week vacation where your whole team has your back because they believe in you and they believe in the business.
451
00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:38.241
And when you're on that vacation, did you feel very like, did you feel like it was earned?
452
00:24:38.261 --> 00:24:39.321
Did you feel any guilt?
453
00:24:39.381 --> 00:24:41.102
Did you feel any uncomfortability?
454
00:24:42.019 --> 00:24:44.202
I did not feel an ounce of guilt.
455
00:24:45.243 --> 00:24:49.408
I felt so stoked to just leave.
456
00:24:51.471 --> 00:24:51.851
I did.
457
00:24:51.871 --> 00:24:53.253
And you know what is crazy?
458
00:24:53.573 --> 00:24:58.439
Out of all the times this could have happened, one of my employees fell.
459
00:24:59.360 --> 00:25:00.200
And broke her ankle.
460
00:25:00.821 --> 00:25:04.262
And the only reason why I found out about it was because I saw it on Instagram.
461
00:25:05.242 --> 00:25:09.584
And then I had to deal with, like, a small ounce of, like, WSIB stuff.
462
00:25:09.924 --> 00:25:11.444
But, like, my whole team had it taken care of.
463
00:25:11.624 --> 00:25:16.206
All the paperwork, all the phone calls, like, navigating through something we've never dealt with before.
464
00:25:16.266 --> 00:25:17.226
They all had it taken care of.
465
00:25:17.366 --> 00:25:19.027
I just needed to sign off on something.
466
00:25:19.627 --> 00:25:22.508
But, like, I wouldn't have known unless I saw it on Instagram.
467
00:25:22.528 --> 00:25:22.628
Yeah.
468
00:25:22.868 --> 00:25:24.709
That's pretty awesome.
469
00:25:24.889 --> 00:25:29.372
Well, not the ankle breaking, but just awesome that you could, yeah, that your team was so dialed in.
470
00:25:30.212 --> 00:25:34.375
Okay, so I want to talk then about your, everything gets taken away from you.
471
00:25:34.475 --> 00:25:37.637
For some reason, you're being forced to move to...
472
00:25:38.517 --> 00:25:40.698
I don't know, North Bay, Ontario or something like that.
473
00:25:41.299 --> 00:25:41.959
You just have to.
474
00:25:42.119 --> 00:25:42.439
I don't know.
475
00:25:42.519 --> 00:25:43.660
Maybe the business got by.
476
00:25:43.860 --> 00:25:45.721
For some reason, you're moving.
477
00:25:46.442 --> 00:25:51.044
But you decide, I'm going to just restart a real estate media business in this new town.
478
00:25:51.385 --> 00:25:52.445
You don't have any employees.
479
00:25:52.505 --> 00:25:54.026
It's just you and your cameras.
480
00:25:54.246 --> 00:25:55.247
What are your first steps?
481
00:25:55.747 --> 00:26:12.952
I would do exactly the same thing that I did when I started my business was go out, make those connections, like literally hit the ground running, go door knocking to brokerages, tackle Instagram and find realtors, DM them.
482
00:26:13.552 --> 00:26:15.413
Not that I did that before, but I was...
483
00:26:16.033 --> 00:26:17.873
printed brochures, went door knocking.
484
00:26:17.893 --> 00:26:19.494
I said, hey, I'm Alex Coombs.
485
00:26:19.714 --> 00:26:21.174
I own a real estate media company.
486
00:26:21.454 --> 00:26:22.174
Here's my work.
487
00:26:22.294 --> 00:26:23.734
I'd be interested in work with you.
488
00:26:24.335 --> 00:26:25.995
And I would just leave flyers in offices.
489
00:26:26.675 --> 00:26:29.096
And agents pick up things that look nice.
490
00:26:29.136 --> 00:26:30.956
They won't pick up something that looks not good.
491
00:26:31.236 --> 00:26:33.256
And trust me, my flowers look so good.
492
00:26:33.276 --> 00:26:34.437
They looked good.
493
00:26:34.457 --> 00:26:35.117
They felt good.
494
00:26:35.137 --> 00:26:35.917
They smell good.
495
00:26:36.377 --> 00:26:39.478
It was like high-end stuff because I wanted people to pick it up.
496
00:26:39.598 --> 00:26:41.818
And that's how it also started to snowball.
497
00:26:41.998 --> 00:26:43.778
And that's how I grew in like other areas too.
498
00:26:43.898 --> 00:26:47.059
Like I grew in other small little towns around me.
499
00:26:47.339 --> 00:26:49.560
And a lot of people just like found out.
500
00:26:50.280 --> 00:26:53.201
But once one person finds out, they will tell somebody.
501
00:26:53.581 --> 00:26:55.001
It's like going to a good restaurant.
502
00:26:55.181 --> 00:26:55.881
You know what I mean?
503
00:26:55.961 --> 00:26:58.962
It's like you go to that new restaurant.
504
00:26:59.062 --> 00:27:00.262
They post it on Instagram.
505
00:27:00.742 --> 00:27:03.203
They have somebody that comes in, takes a picture of their food.
506
00:27:03.223 --> 00:27:05.524
Like I'm going to take a picture of my meal because it looks so good.
507
00:27:05.544 --> 00:27:07.384
I'm going to tag the restaurant.
508
00:27:07.584 --> 00:27:10.805
And now 10 other people that just saw my story want to go to that restaurant.
509
00:27:10.945 --> 00:27:11.885
It's all referral based.
510
00:27:12.205 --> 00:27:15.108
You're going to go out, you're going to connect with agents right away.
511
00:27:15.608 --> 00:27:18.390
Quality of presentation is really important.
512
00:27:18.510 --> 00:27:20.852
Obviously, at this point, you know what you're doing.
513
00:27:20.872 --> 00:27:22.754
So you have the confidence.
514
00:27:23.034 --> 00:27:23.595
Exactly.
515
00:27:23.935 --> 00:27:28.199
So if you don't, I guess if I'm listening to this, I'm like, yeah, but I haven't shot a lot of houses.
516
00:27:28.899 --> 00:27:29.920
But I do want to start this.
517
00:27:30.180 --> 00:27:31.902
What is that person doing?
518
00:27:31.922 --> 00:27:33.143
Like, what would you recommend they do?
519
00:27:33.183 --> 00:27:34.764
Like still go to agents right away?
520
00:27:35.345 --> 00:27:38.187
Or should they go build a portfolio?
521
00:27:38.207 --> 00:27:40.549
Because I know a lot of people struggle with that.
522
00:27:41.033 --> 00:27:48.674
this is something that we could talk about in general, but I do think like, yeah, you definitely need to shoot a few houses before, but guess what?
523
00:27:48.834 --> 00:27:51.135
We all live somewhere that has four walls.
524
00:27:51.755 --> 00:27:52.395
We all do.
525
00:27:52.595 --> 00:27:54.696
So like that, that's, that's the easy part.
526
00:27:54.956 --> 00:28:03.177
And also the easy part, there's a hundred thousand YouTube tutorials, like coaches, whatever it takes to teach you how to shoot photos.
527
00:28:03.717 --> 00:28:06.638
I taught myself, you probably taught yourself.
528
00:28:07.098 --> 00:28:07.898
So it's like,
529
00:28:09.430 --> 00:28:10.853
It's an easy thing to learn.
530
00:28:10.873 --> 00:28:13.097
You can learn anything as long as you put in effort, right?
531
00:28:13.457 --> 00:28:14.459
It's not difficult.
532
00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:19.127
The difficult part is putting yourself out there and being vulnerable and having that confidence.
533
00:28:19.248 --> 00:28:20.951
Because it's scary being rejected.
534
00:28:21.051 --> 00:28:21.892
Oh, my God.
535
00:28:22.508 --> 00:28:23.249
And I agree.
536
00:28:23.289 --> 00:28:26.812
I think if you I think the photography is the easy part.
537
00:28:26.912 --> 00:28:32.136
And if you're not going to get past that, then I'm sorry, listener, but just because that's not going to be the hard part.
538
00:28:32.176 --> 00:28:37.540
The hard part is going to be where you start meeting people and you have to not fake it till you make it.
539
00:28:37.560 --> 00:28:41.204
But you just have to say, like, yes, I can do this and I am going to be paid for it.
540
00:28:42.044 --> 00:28:44.707
Um, that's a big block for people, but that's the hard part.
541
00:28:44.747 --> 00:28:47.370
The, the skill side that shouldn't be a concern.
542
00:28:47.390 --> 00:28:57.401
Like you, like you said, go on YouTube there at this point, a bazillion and one tutorials on how to do this as well as, I mean, the equipment you can acquire nowadays almost does it for you.
543
00:28:57.521 --> 00:28:59.143
So it's really much more of a business.
544
00:28:59.498 --> 00:29:06.286
Yeah, and I think now the lucky thing for people is we can just shoot on these.
545
00:29:06.546 --> 00:29:14.715
We have cell phones, so it's like you don't have to go and spend $5,000 to $8,000 on all this crazy equipment.
546
00:29:15.135 --> 00:29:16.998
You got it right in your hand already.
547
00:29:17.098 --> 00:29:21.022
So if you don't want to do that, people are bummed.
548
00:29:21.122 --> 00:29:24.943
very open to accepting cell phone stuff because the quality is it's there.
549
00:29:25.423 --> 00:29:28.625
And the other good thing is like, yeah, you have things like auto HDR.
550
00:29:28.985 --> 00:29:32.226
That's going to make your photos look even better.
551
00:29:32.726 --> 00:29:36.407
So you have someone having your back and it's AI at this point.
552
00:29:36.947 --> 00:29:39.128
Yeah, I've taken my my iPhone.
553
00:29:39.148 --> 00:29:44.650
I think it's a 16 Pro and I just put it on like the H E I C format.
554
00:29:44.670 --> 00:29:46.791
Like so like the super low format sizes and.
555
00:29:48.131 --> 00:29:49.272
Auto HDR accepts that.
556
00:29:49.332 --> 00:29:50.593
I don't even bracket it sometimes.
557
00:29:50.633 --> 00:29:52.474
And I've tested this just to see, right?
558
00:29:52.714 --> 00:29:56.096
On like $500,000 houses, million dollar homes.
559
00:29:56.557 --> 00:29:59.238
And I'll be honest, like a little sneaky.
560
00:29:59.499 --> 00:30:01.800
I shouldn't even, but no real estate agent.
561
00:30:01.840 --> 00:30:05.563
But I often like will shoot exteriors on my phone just because it's so much faster.
562
00:30:05.583 --> 00:30:09.745
I just walk around and go, the water always looks really nice.
563
00:30:09.946 --> 00:30:13.648
And I still, even though it's a single image, I still send it through Auto HDR.
564
00:30:13.708 --> 00:30:14.709
And they just kind of,
565
00:30:15.229 --> 00:30:18.191
Straighten the vertical lines, touch up a few things, and it's on my phone.
566
00:30:18.351 --> 00:30:22.113
And the comments I get back, people are like, it's amazing.
567
00:30:22.393 --> 00:30:23.473
Beautiful photos, you know?
568
00:30:23.674 --> 00:30:25.675
And I've never had any complaints.
569
00:30:25.755 --> 00:30:31.938
And I think both you and I in Mexico were like, what if we just only did cell phones?
570
00:30:31.978 --> 00:30:33.979
That's what I use for, like, all my videos are made.
571
00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:39.122
I've gone back and forth, back and forth from, like, shooting on my phone to shooting on my bigger cameras.
572
00:30:39.142 --> 00:30:39.642
Yeah.
573
00:30:40.262 --> 00:30:42.024
And I keep on coming back to my cell phone.
574
00:30:42.364 --> 00:30:44.786
And that's what we make all our media on now.
575
00:30:45.467 --> 00:30:51.993
And this season in particular, people, well, all of our videos are shot on my phone, on our phones.
576
00:30:52.193 --> 00:30:54.054
Anyone that works for me, that's how I train them.
577
00:30:54.971 --> 00:31:02.735
And we've been getting so many compliments about our videos this year because it's not about the quality anymore.
578
00:31:02.795 --> 00:31:03.895
It's about the pacing.
579
00:31:03.935 --> 00:31:05.696
It's about the angles.
580
00:31:05.756 --> 00:31:09.918
It's like any camera can make good quality photos now or good quality video.
581
00:31:10.298 --> 00:31:11.619
It's how you're using the equipment.
582
00:31:12.059 --> 00:31:16.201
And so for me, when I look at the process, I'm like, I just want speed and simplicity.
583
00:31:16.221 --> 00:31:16.701
Yeah.
584
00:31:17.141 --> 00:31:21.105
And video, I think, is way harder for photographers to pick up.
585
00:31:21.566 --> 00:31:27.892
I think for photographers or for videographers to become photographers in real estate, I think that's easier.
586
00:31:28.272 --> 00:31:32.016
But for photographers to become videographers, I've seen people really struggle.
587
00:31:32.857 --> 00:31:35.740
Phones take so much of that learning curve out of it.
588
00:31:36.020 --> 00:31:38.983
So you just need to learn a blueprint and then stick to it.
589
00:31:39.389 --> 00:31:40.190
No, I totally agree.
590
00:31:40.210 --> 00:31:44.452
I was actually talking to somebody, I think, last Friday about that because that's one thing.
591
00:31:44.592 --> 00:31:50.816
Moving forward, I'm not buying a single $4,000 body with a $2,000.
592
00:31:51.076 --> 00:31:51.717
I'm not doing it.
593
00:31:52.622 --> 00:31:56.284
Moving forward, I'm going to buy a nice rig to make this cell phone look fancy pants.
594
00:31:56.784 --> 00:32:01.126
And the quality is going to look the same.
595
00:32:01.527 --> 00:32:04.768
Maybe a little different in the video side, but the photos, perfect.
596
00:32:04.868 --> 00:32:06.289
Like, it's going to look amazing.
597
00:32:06.489 --> 00:32:08.911
Well, and most videos get watched on phones.
598
00:32:09.111 --> 00:32:10.611
And phones look good.
599
00:32:10.631 --> 00:32:13.033
Like, phone video looks good on phone screen.
600
00:32:13.753 --> 00:32:18.276
So, I mean, we shoot a lot of like big cottages up on all the Muskokan lakes.
601
00:32:18.576 --> 00:32:25.641
And I put my gimbal, I put my phone on my little like phone gimbal and I walk around and the agents, they don't care.
602
00:32:25.941 --> 00:32:27.502
They love the video call.
603
00:32:27.522 --> 00:32:28.302
That's a huge thing.
604
00:32:28.323 --> 00:32:30.044
And I still think people can't get over it.
605
00:32:30.064 --> 00:32:31.485
I still think people want to spend...
606
00:32:32.265 --> 00:32:40.133
you know, $2,000 on a, some DJI gimbal and $3,000 on a lens and then a huge full frame body.
607
00:32:40.954 --> 00:32:41.855
And I'm like, it's too much.
608
00:32:41.915 --> 00:32:48.302
And then the editing time that people take with their videos, it just, I don't, I, I struggle with it.
609
00:32:48.322 --> 00:32:52.286
I just don't think it makes sense, but there's still a lot of businesses doing that.
610
00:32:52.606 --> 00:32:54.468
And, um, I don't think you need to.
611
00:32:54.770 --> 00:32:55.831
I don't think you need to.
612
00:32:55.952 --> 00:32:56.773
And this is the thing, too.
613
00:32:56.793 --> 00:33:05.264
It's like, OK, there's a difference between people like us, like me, who have scaled the business.
614
00:33:05.564 --> 00:33:10.231
And scaling a business costs a lot of money, loads of money, especially when you hire a photographer.
615
00:33:10.411 --> 00:33:11.753
You got to buy them all the equipment.
616
00:33:12.293 --> 00:33:15.036
And then, yeah, it's unattainable.
617
00:33:15.096 --> 00:33:16.497
Like, you just can't do it.
618
00:33:16.657 --> 00:33:17.998
And, like, I can't do it anymore.
619
00:33:18.058 --> 00:33:18.919
I refuse to.
620
00:33:19.219 --> 00:33:21.301
So doing this is actually affordable.
621
00:33:21.321 --> 00:33:27.106
I'm going to buy my employee a cell phone, and then they can go out and shoot the same quality.
622
00:33:27.207 --> 00:33:28.528
But if you are somebody...
623
00:33:28.968 --> 00:33:33.249
like a freelance shooter, you know, the James Bottomley's of the world.
624
00:33:33.529 --> 00:33:38.711
You're always going to shoot high-end stuff with high-end equipment because it goes hand in hand.
625
00:33:38.751 --> 00:33:43.132
But like, I don't think people like that are going to build big businesses like us.
626
00:33:43.593 --> 00:33:48.294
They make great money being freelancers and they don't want to manage a team.
627
00:33:48.434 --> 00:33:52.716
Managing is a whole other level of like business.
628
00:33:52.956 --> 00:33:53.276
It is.
629
00:33:53.836 --> 00:33:54.756
It's the hardest part.
630
00:33:54.856 --> 00:33:57.237
Managing people and emotions and feelings and
631
00:33:57.437 --> 00:33:59.658
I think you're right with James.
632
00:33:59.698 --> 00:34:03.439
Like so many of those businesses are built in that person's hands.
633
00:34:03.519 --> 00:34:05.740
You know, like they are filmmakers, really.
634
00:34:05.780 --> 00:34:09.921
They're filmmakers making beautiful real estate films.
635
00:34:10.781 --> 00:34:23.926
But that's, I don't see that as a scalable business or even just like a repeatable business because it's like a little piece of him is in every single video that he makes, which is why they're so beautiful.
636
00:34:24.566 --> 00:34:26.067
But it's not scalable.
637
00:34:27.487 --> 00:34:27.667
Yeah.
638
00:34:27.947 --> 00:34:28.168
Yeah.
639
00:34:28.188 --> 00:34:32.191
So that's my that's that would be what I would tell everyone if you're starting a business right now.
640
00:34:33.031 --> 00:34:43.999
For me, the model is and I would be curious to what you're what you think, like for average order value, like is photo floor plans, aerials and video.
641
00:34:44.019 --> 00:34:45.861
Like to me, that's like the perfect package.
642
00:34:46.061 --> 00:34:46.941
Everyone will buy that.
643
00:34:47.902 --> 00:34:54.525
My market, they're both kind of like semi-luxury, you know, anywhere between like $500 and $700.
644
00:34:54.565 --> 00:34:56.246
I feel like agents don't even blink at that.
645
00:34:56.586 --> 00:35:01.148
How do you feel about like where do you guys land in pricing and like your most common packages?
646
00:35:01.428 --> 00:35:09.592
Yeah, our most common package, I would say, is our mid-tier package, which is photos, floor plans, drone, and video.
647
00:35:09.712 --> 00:35:11.292
That is our most book package.
648
00:35:12.293 --> 00:35:16.155
The one above that has like twilights involved, like luxury floor plans.
649
00:35:16.975 --> 00:35:24.140
But yeah, the thing is, and the one thing I always say is like, photo sell the home, floor plans, make sure that it's accurate.
650
00:35:24.300 --> 00:35:25.461
And then video is just for marketing.
651
00:35:25.941 --> 00:35:31.025
You know, like you don't need to start a real estate media company saying, I can do video.
652
00:35:31.505 --> 00:35:34.147
Some people don't want to pay for it because they don't know what to do with it.
653
00:35:34.788 --> 00:35:35.768
But they need the photos.
654
00:35:36.389 --> 00:35:37.149
They need the photos.
655
00:35:37.670 --> 00:35:37.830
Mm-hmm.
656
00:35:38.285 --> 00:35:38.505
Yeah.
657
00:35:38.765 --> 00:35:46.931
So back to this person or you starting a business in this new town, I would say from my point of view, like learn the photos.
658
00:35:47.091 --> 00:35:57.059
I think if you can add video right away, that's just going to make you, it's going to be way easier to book more work because there are, there's like all those middle tier agents are definitely looking for video as well.
659
00:35:57.079 --> 00:36:02.223
And if you can package that together, you can get over that $500 a listing hump.
660
00:36:02.523 --> 00:36:05.165
And I think that's a real magic number for people to hit.
661
00:36:05.605 --> 00:36:16.795
Because then, you know, 20 shoots a month, which is basically one per working day, you're hitting that $10,000 a month, which is just a really nice milestone for anybody and extremely achievable.
662
00:36:16.815 --> 00:36:22.380
And I think that's combining photos, a very simple templated video on your phone.
663
00:36:23.421 --> 00:36:26.784
And then, you know, there's a whole bunch of different floor plans apps out there.
664
00:36:27.225 --> 00:36:28.386
Put those three things together.
665
00:36:28.466 --> 00:36:28.686
Oh, yeah.
666
00:36:28.726 --> 00:36:30.428
And then obviously add a drone.
667
00:36:30.868 --> 00:36:31.509
And yeah.
668
00:36:32.049 --> 00:36:32.810
You're off to the races.
669
00:36:33.290 --> 00:36:36.833
So you're out there meeting agents and you're going to find.
670
00:36:36.933 --> 00:36:44.638
And then what is your like, do you keep on if you were this in this small town, would you keep on hammering and always doing a lot of outbound marketing?
671
00:36:45.039 --> 00:36:51.203
Or once you've got a few people, would you just start serving them and kind of like because you're I'm imagining in this scenario by yourself.
672
00:36:51.243 --> 00:36:52.985
So you're going to run out of bandwidth in the day.
673
00:36:54.429 --> 00:36:54.729
Yeah.
674
00:36:54.809 --> 00:37:03.216
And that's the thing, like what you just said is like, if you do one, one booking a day, $10,000 a month, depends on like what you want to do for your life.
675
00:37:03.276 --> 00:37:04.958
Like that, that's what it comes down to.
676
00:37:06.259 --> 00:37:07.740
And what do you want to achieve?
677
00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:11.603
Like I wanted to achieve big things and I have a hard time saying no.
678
00:37:11.683 --> 00:37:13.505
So that's how I got to where I am.
679
00:37:14.286 --> 00:37:16.768
Honestly, I was like a really good accident.
680
00:37:18.262 --> 00:37:19.603
And my lack of saying no.
681
00:37:20.083 --> 00:37:29.670
But like, yeah, if you're doing, I would say if you're doing more than three listings a day by yourself five days a week, you will run out of time.
682
00:37:29.690 --> 00:37:31.211
You're going to start going into the weekends.
683
00:37:31.651 --> 00:37:33.172
You're going to get those eye twitches.
684
00:37:33.853 --> 00:37:37.275
I'd say one to two by yourself is attainable for sure.
685
00:37:37.635 --> 00:37:38.977
But you're the business owner.
686
00:37:39.017 --> 00:37:39.738
You're in control.
687
00:37:39.898 --> 00:37:47.627
You get to choose if you do want to go from five clients to 20, you know, and do you want that?
688
00:37:47.667 --> 00:37:48.908
Like, do you want to manage people?
689
00:37:48.948 --> 00:37:51.651
Do you want to be like us or do you want to be like a James Bottomley?
690
00:37:51.872 --> 00:37:54.495
Like, it's your choice for sure.
691
00:37:54.959 --> 00:37:58.824
So you said it was kind of an accident that you got to that level.
692
00:37:59.284 --> 00:38:10.477
And I'm still curious because I'm like about you're growing, you're adding more shooters, you're adding more people to the team because you just can't stop saying yes.
693
00:38:11.058 --> 00:38:16.561
That's essentially that's your your business plan was essentially that you have a bad habit of saying yes to everything.
694
00:38:17.102 --> 00:38:20.984
Have you ever gotten to a point where you're like, OK, I'm going to be more intentional now?
695
00:38:21.004 --> 00:38:31.010
Like I'm actually going to start saying no and I'm going to start crafting this to what Alex like has a vision started to form in this in this in this growth that you've had?
696
00:38:31.234 --> 00:38:37.259
We still say yes to almost everybody unless we work with them and they're assholes.
697
00:38:37.859 --> 00:38:41.802
If they're assholes, I will literally just say like this relationship is not going to work out.
698
00:38:42.502 --> 00:38:43.683
We don't speak the same language.
699
00:38:43.984 --> 00:38:53.190
Or if like they're rude to my employees, anything like I am a-okay with firing somebody, especially if it's just like headaches cost you money.
700
00:38:54.191 --> 00:38:57.432
Headaches cost you your team members and I want everyone happy.
701
00:38:57.812 --> 00:39:10.376
So I can hear the listener who's wanting to have, because what your problem is that, and it's not a problem, but you have a bit of a Midas touch.
702
00:39:10.416 --> 00:39:16.859
You do things and you obviously put a lot of yourself and your passion into it.
703
00:39:16.879 --> 00:39:20.340
And because of that, you're rewarded with more work than you can really handle.
704
00:39:20.360 --> 00:39:20.460
Yeah.
705
00:39:21.200 --> 00:39:29.427
A lot of people's problem is that they can't get enough work and they dream about being too busy where they have to start turning people down.
706
00:39:30.308 --> 00:39:31.288
Have you ever thought about that?
707
00:39:31.328 --> 00:39:41.417
Like what what it takes for someone to kind of become magnetic in that sense where the work is coming too quickly because most people suffer from the fact that they're not getting enough.
708
00:39:41.977 --> 00:39:51.668
I mean, yeah, I like I've definitely been in that position where, you know, I can see my team is fully booked and it's just like so consistent for so long.
709
00:39:52.789 --> 00:39:54.651
And it got it did get to that point.
710
00:39:56.012 --> 00:39:57.454
And if it gets to that point again, it.
711
00:39:57.974 --> 00:40:01.397
If I have to go out and start shooting, it means I'm doing something wrong.
712
00:40:01.638 --> 00:40:02.278
We're short.
713
00:40:02.398 --> 00:40:04.540
Like I need to fill my shoots again.
714
00:40:04.680 --> 00:40:06.382
So, but yeah, that happens.
715
00:40:06.402 --> 00:40:19.214
But like, once again, like Oliver, like, I just won't, I won't say no because I do want to grow and I want it like I, it brings me so much joy to provide real estate agents with good quality work.
716
00:40:20.121 --> 00:40:22.823
And it coming from good quality people and a good quality team.
717
00:40:22.983 --> 00:40:32.690
And to know that that agent is basically fulfilling like salaries and like dinner on people's plates at the end of the night.
718
00:40:33.551 --> 00:40:34.771
So that brings me joy.
719
00:40:34.791 --> 00:40:36.072
So like I'll keep plugging.
720
00:40:36.453 --> 00:40:40.976
And I think my team loves to know that I literally won't stop.
721
00:40:41.216 --> 00:40:42.137
I won't stop.
722
00:40:42.217 --> 00:40:46.740
I won't say no because if I say no, I'm closing opportunities for them and their growth as well.
723
00:40:47.060 --> 00:40:50.066
So you do a lot of marketing and a lot of selling.
724
00:40:50.908 --> 00:40:51.909
Yep, for sure.
725
00:40:51.930 --> 00:40:53.733
And that's just in your DNA.
726
00:40:55.035 --> 00:40:55.316
Yes.
727
00:40:55.577 --> 00:40:56.639
Yeah, I would say so.
728
00:40:57.077 --> 00:40:57.297
All right.
729
00:40:57.317 --> 00:41:00.100
So say you're at a random, like just a cocktail party.
730
00:41:00.921 --> 00:41:08.088
Will you generally walk out of that cocktail party with a business card and some sort of like, is it like business just always running on your mind?
731
00:41:08.328 --> 00:41:19.279
I would say like, yeah, if I'm at a cocktail party and like I'm networking with people and I'm just talking and seeing what they do, I always like that's the thing I had to actually had to become better at is like.
732
00:41:20.661 --> 00:41:27.324
Asking people questions because I can get super awkward and like not know what to say and my hands get clean and I stiffen up.
733
00:41:27.484 --> 00:41:35.527
But like as long as I can ask people questions and usually that's about work and family, whatever, where they live, where they're from.
734
00:41:36.367 --> 00:41:38.308
Asking questions allows for that connection.
735
00:41:38.668 --> 00:41:42.109
And I'm going to go bring that back to the day one with the hat.
736
00:41:42.129 --> 00:41:44.750
Like I made a connection by asking how hats are made.
737
00:41:45.330 --> 00:41:47.471
And that's how I got my first real estate agent.
738
00:41:47.811 --> 00:41:50.212
And just like that's how it just spiraled.
739
00:41:50.672 --> 00:41:54.496
So, yeah, essentially I will go to a cocktail party.
740
00:41:54.737 --> 00:41:58.701
I will talk to people about what they do and figure out how can I help them.
741
00:41:59.363 --> 00:42:00.703
Okay, I get it now.
742
00:42:01.003 --> 00:42:03.204
Yeah, so you like to solve problems.
743
00:42:05.024 --> 00:42:07.405
You hear something and you're like, I think I could figure that out.
744
00:42:07.945 --> 00:42:12.726
So I want to give, you know, Mr. and Mrs. Listener something here.
745
00:42:12.846 --> 00:42:18.727
And if I could summarize what's part of been your success is you're a problem solver.
746
00:42:19.107 --> 00:42:20.347
You really care about your work.
747
00:42:20.367 --> 00:42:21.667
Like you really care about it.
748
00:42:22.128 --> 00:42:23.668
And that has built a reputation.
749
00:42:24.428 --> 00:42:33.014
You get a ton of inbound traffic where people request things of you that you're not even really necessarily putting feelers out for, but you'll be asked, hey, can you do this?
750
00:42:33.074 --> 00:42:33.714
Can you do that?
751
00:42:34.534 --> 00:42:38.917
And you have a fearlessness about saying yes and then just figuring it out.
752
00:42:39.458 --> 00:42:40.698
That's the Alex recipe.
753
00:42:41.419 --> 00:42:41.599
Yep.
754
00:42:42.478 --> 00:42:44.139
That is exactly my recipe.
755
00:42:45.039 --> 00:42:47.500
I have always done that.
756
00:42:47.581 --> 00:42:54.364
Because I often wonder too, like I sometimes I tell my wife, I've just built a business off of kind of charm.
757
00:42:54.924 --> 00:43:03.088
And I have had so many days where like the night before, I'm like reading a manual on a new piece of a camera that I bought.
758
00:43:03.988 --> 00:43:07.830
Or, you know, someone's asked me like, hey, can you do this type of AI thing with a video?
759
00:43:07.850 --> 00:43:09.111
And I'm like, I've seen it.
760
00:43:09.572 --> 00:43:12.470
So I'm sure I can figure it out, but I often will say yes to work.
761
00:43:13.340 --> 00:43:15.681
and not know how I'm gonna do it until I'm doing it.
762
00:43:16.341 --> 00:43:19.002
And my wife's like, most people would shit their pants.
763
00:43:19.042 --> 00:43:20.483
That's not a place people like to do.
764
00:43:20.523 --> 00:43:28.266
That's a very odd personality trait, but that's also, I think, so if I were to tell anyone, you need to be okay with that.
765
00:43:28.286 --> 00:43:34.288
You need to be okay not knowing, but trusting that you will figure it out and that you'll do whatever it can.
766
00:43:34.788 --> 00:43:37.989
And sometimes you won't, and that's just a little awkward.
767
00:43:38.009 --> 00:43:39.670
I've fired myself from a couple jobs.
768
00:43:40.511 --> 00:43:43.113
And it's been painful where I'm like, look, I can't.
769
00:43:43.194 --> 00:43:44.735
This is outside of my expertise.
770
00:43:45.416 --> 00:43:45.896
I'm sorry.
771
00:43:46.517 --> 00:43:50.081
And it's embarrassing, but that's the worst part of it.
772
00:43:50.101 --> 00:43:52.143
It's just a little bit embarrassing and then you move on.
773
00:43:52.964 --> 00:43:53.585
And you learn.
774
00:43:53.605 --> 00:43:55.427
You learn never to take that kind of job again.
775
00:43:56.452 --> 00:43:57.373
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
776
00:43:57.393 --> 00:43:57.973
Yeah.
777
00:43:57.993 --> 00:44:02.817
Yeah, because I'm trying to like, what I really want to share with people is like, what is the formula?
778
00:44:02.837 --> 00:44:15.007
But that's the thing that talking to you and lots of other business owners, the formula is being fearless, being adventurous, being a problem solver, listening for what people's problems are and then helping them solve them.
779
00:44:15.588 --> 00:44:23.855
And then eventually that builds a reputation locally, internationally, nationally, whatever you want that builds some sense of reputation.
780
00:44:25.401 --> 00:44:26.722
I was approached this week.
781
00:44:26.782 --> 00:44:34.605
There's a one of the one of our local counselors here is running for mayor and he wants me to like help him with his mayoral campaign and make videos.
782
00:44:35.786 --> 00:44:36.806
And I was like, well, why?
783
00:44:36.846 --> 00:44:40.608
You know, and I was, you know, it's not ego, but I'm just curious, like, why me?
784
00:44:40.628 --> 00:44:41.628
Like, why would you?
785
00:44:41.668 --> 00:44:47.071
And he's like, well, you just like everyone knows that you you're like the creative guy and you you will you do great work.
786
00:44:47.851 --> 00:44:57.962
And that made me like really proud because I guess ultimately out there in this world of of in my little town in my area, when people are like, hey, I need a video done.
787
00:44:57.982 --> 00:44:59.203
I don't really know what to work with.
788
00:44:59.844 --> 00:45:01.666
People like, well, there's that guy, Oliver.
789
00:45:01.706 --> 00:45:04.028
He's always on Instagram, like doing weird things.
790
00:45:04.068 --> 00:45:06.811
And I know he runs a real estate media business, but he's also a filmmaker.
791
00:45:07.892 --> 00:45:10.193
That reputation I built over a long time.
792
00:45:10.794 --> 00:45:14.256
But every time I get a job, I always try to pour everything into it.
793
00:45:14.296 --> 00:45:15.556
I often feel underpaid.
794
00:45:15.777 --> 00:45:18.698
Rewards of that eventually is a really great reputation.
795
00:45:19.339 --> 00:45:24.802
And so that's like my advice to people is it's probably going to be longer than you think.
796
00:45:25.422 --> 00:45:27.303
You're going to have to work harder than you want to.
797
00:45:27.323 --> 00:45:29.364
You're going to often feel underpaid.
798
00:45:29.384 --> 00:45:31.025
You're going to often feel scared.
799
00:45:31.185 --> 00:45:32.806
You're often going to feel not equipped.
800
00:45:33.167 --> 00:45:34.908
But at the end of the tunnel, there is a really nice reward.
801
00:45:37.529 --> 00:45:39.050
It's not like a career path at a bank.
802
00:45:39.110 --> 00:45:40.390
It's kind of like a hockey stick.
803
00:45:40.470 --> 00:45:43.111
It goes really slow and then it can shoot up eventually.
804
00:45:43.431 --> 00:45:43.611
Yeah.
805
00:45:43.651 --> 00:45:48.093
And sometimes that hockey stick breaks and you got to figure out how to get the new hockey stick.
806
00:45:48.293 --> 00:45:48.473
Yeah.
807
00:45:48.493 --> 00:45:50.634
You got to go back to the bench and grab a new one.
808
00:45:52.035 --> 00:45:52.255
Yeah.
809
00:45:52.275 --> 00:45:53.575
Does that resonate with you?
810
00:45:53.615 --> 00:45:54.436
Does that make sense?
811
00:45:54.476 --> 00:45:57.917
That kind of because to me, it sounds like you just have a great reputation.
812
00:45:58.248 --> 00:45:58.748
You know what?
813
00:45:58.908 --> 00:46:04.710
And when you said that, the one thing I hear from people is, you know, Alex, you have a sparkle.
814
00:46:04.950 --> 00:46:07.771
There's something about you that like people are just drawn to you.
815
00:46:07.991 --> 00:46:16.574
And I like maybe it is because I can be super awkward and like I can say random shit by accident and just be like, OK, with it.
816
00:46:16.974 --> 00:46:20.216
And people just think it's really authentic and funny.
817
00:46:20.696 --> 00:46:22.176
And I'm also not a
818
00:46:25.397 --> 00:46:26.759
makes it work somehow.
819
00:46:27.360 --> 00:46:37.753
But yeah, like it be be authentic, because when you're authentic, you're going to draw people that are like you just like how I need to know that that's that's how you built your stuff either.
820
00:46:37.793 --> 00:46:39.055
It's just like we're the same person.
821
00:46:39.095 --> 00:46:39.695
I love that.
822
00:46:40.176 --> 00:46:43.240
But this is the reason why we did this, because we kind of jive.
823
00:46:44.141 --> 00:46:47.125
And we have the same personality and same like mindset.
824
00:46:47.225 --> 00:46:48.828
So like you attract people like you.
825
00:46:49.068 --> 00:46:49.709
You really do.
826
00:46:49.869 --> 00:46:54.395
And the ones that you don't like that you accidentally attracted, fire them.
827
00:46:54.996 --> 00:46:59.062
Because then you'll attract three more that are just like you and you'll be much happier.
828
00:46:59.738 --> 00:47:02.759
It is such a hard thing for people, I think, to accept.
829
00:47:02.839 --> 00:47:06.479
But the more you work on being yourself, the better things are going to go.
830
00:47:06.980 --> 00:47:14.441
And that's the great social media trap of today is you see people being successful and you're like, okay, I'm going to be like that.
831
00:47:14.541 --> 00:47:19.282
But ultimately, they became successful because they are so much themselves.
832
00:47:19.542 --> 00:47:22.263
And so that's a really good example for business as well.
833
00:47:22.703 --> 00:47:22.943
Yeah.
834
00:47:23.523 --> 00:47:23.823
Okay.
835
00:47:23.863 --> 00:47:24.564
So I want to move.
836
00:47:24.584 --> 00:47:28.085
I want to keep going down this, this track of this person building a new business.
837
00:47:28.165 --> 00:47:31.246
You get to 10 to 15,000, like you're a known commodity.
838
00:47:31.286 --> 00:47:33.066
You have a decent reputation in the town.
839
00:47:33.867 --> 00:47:35.127
So now you're at 15,000.
840
00:47:35.167 --> 00:47:41.249
You're about to break because you have, you have so much work and, and you decide, okay, I'm going to grow.
841
00:47:41.469 --> 00:47:44.190
Like I'm going to let this business expand.
842
00:47:44.230 --> 00:47:45.110
I'm not going to cap it.
843
00:47:45.290 --> 00:47:49.311
I'm not going to become like a very, like an artist that just works for himself.
844
00:47:49.492 --> 00:47:50.232
I do want a team.
845
00:47:51.172 --> 00:47:52.113
What what do you do?
846
00:47:52.173 --> 00:47:53.174
What's your first hire?
847
00:47:53.194 --> 00:47:53.895
Do you double?
848
00:47:53.995 --> 00:47:55.076
Do you duplicate yourself?
849
00:47:55.136 --> 00:47:56.017
Do you hire an admin?
850
00:47:56.037 --> 00:48:00.902
I know we kind of went over this in episode one, but on this journey in a new town, what's your next step here?
851
00:48:01.282 --> 00:48:03.404
Let me just say, is there a number that you would hit?
852
00:48:03.504 --> 00:48:05.806
Or there's just like, is there a time cap that you would hit?
853
00:48:05.826 --> 00:48:09.270
Like, what would what would make you make that the next hire?
854
00:48:09.625 --> 00:48:15.127
God, I wish I knew my numbers eight years ago, you know, seven years ago, six years ago.
855
00:48:15.147 --> 00:48:15.807
I wish I knew them.
856
00:48:16.368 --> 00:48:19.449
It's just a feeling of when you know you need help.
857
00:48:19.609 --> 00:48:20.509
It's that feeling.
858
00:48:21.089 --> 00:48:25.071
When you realize you have no more time, it's that feeling of like the eye twitch.
859
00:48:25.131 --> 00:48:26.511
It's the feeling of lack of sleep.
860
00:48:26.571 --> 00:48:31.493
It's that feeling that if you keep doing this the way you're doing it, it's not going to last.
861
00:48:32.534 --> 00:48:38.876
And then when you actually start noticing your quality going down because you don't have time to make it what it was, that's when it's also time.
862
00:48:39.331 --> 00:48:43.924
So you're talking like you got to kind of almost touch burnout and then back off a little bit?
863
00:48:44.383 --> 00:48:45.023
I would say so.
864
00:48:45.284 --> 00:48:45.524
Yes.
865
00:48:45.604 --> 00:48:46.564
I mean, that's what I did.
866
00:48:47.084 --> 00:48:49.806
Like I touched I touched I was I was in burnout.
867
00:48:49.966 --> 00:48:51.847
I was a burnout girl like I was burnt out.
868
00:48:52.047 --> 00:48:56.249
But without me doing that, like burning out, I would have never I wouldn't be here.
869
00:48:56.429 --> 00:49:00.411
I'd still be just be doing like a small amount of work, which is totally fine.
870
00:49:00.551 --> 00:49:01.652
But it's not what I wanted.
871
00:49:01.932 --> 00:49:04.493
Well, that's something I want to highlight.
872
00:49:05.174 --> 00:49:08.355
We are a PMRE last year and I've heard it so much on podcasts.
873
00:49:08.375 --> 00:49:10.957
People always talk about burnout, avoiding burnout.
874
00:49:12.176 --> 00:49:15.939
I don't think you can be successful without touching burnout or burning out.
875
00:49:15.959 --> 00:49:17.500
Like I think that's a rite of passage.
876
00:49:17.660 --> 00:49:25.646
And so I think people shouldn't be trying to hack burnout and like build a business without accepting that part of it is burnout.
877
00:49:25.746 --> 00:49:26.467
I really do.
878
00:49:26.927 --> 00:49:30.010
It might be like an old school mentality, but I just don't think...
879
00:49:31.511 --> 00:49:40.779
in the capitalistic world of competing with your, you know, with the other businesses in your town, like you can't do it unless you're like the most talented person in the world.
880
00:49:40.799 --> 00:49:43.241
You can't do it without really pushing your limits.
881
00:49:43.301 --> 00:49:43.521
Right.
882
00:49:43.641 --> 00:49:44.842
I just don't think it's possible.
883
00:49:44.862 --> 00:49:52.689
So I think that's another little, um, if there's a lesson in this podcast is like, you have to be okay pushing really, really hard in the beginning.
884
00:49:53.695 --> 00:49:55.376
And you may burn out.
885
00:49:55.616 --> 00:50:01.821
And there are lots of things you can do when you start burning out, but you should also not be trying to not burn out.
886
00:50:02.201 --> 00:50:02.901
Does that make sense?
887
00:50:04.382 --> 00:50:05.943
For me, yeah, it totally makes sense.
888
00:50:06.104 --> 00:50:15.610
And I'm sure it's making sense to people who are in burnout zone right now or people just touching it or people who never experienced it at all.
889
00:50:16.371 --> 00:50:17.371
I'm sure it makes sense.
890
00:50:17.511 --> 00:50:18.112
Like, yeah.
891
00:50:18.132 --> 00:50:18.272
Yeah.
892
00:50:18.857 --> 00:50:19.037
Yeah.
893
00:50:19.477 --> 00:50:19.697
All right.
894
00:50:19.717 --> 00:50:22.498
So you touched burnout and then you're going to hire somebody.
895
00:50:22.638 --> 00:50:23.519
Who do you hire?
896
00:50:24.019 --> 00:50:26.099
I'm just going to speak for myself.
897
00:50:26.319 --> 00:50:32.401
The first person I hired was a photographer because I still wanted to deal with like talking to the clients.
898
00:50:32.922 --> 00:50:36.923
I wanted an extra hand at shoots or have two shoots at the same time.
899
00:50:37.043 --> 00:50:37.943
That's what I wanted.
900
00:50:39.484 --> 00:50:44.645
And then, you know, I was still in burnout because I was still doing payroll, still doing invoicing.
901
00:50:44.705 --> 00:50:45.706
I was still like shooting.
902
00:50:45.726 --> 00:50:46.286
So...
903
00:50:47.783 --> 00:50:52.885
I always answer this question and say I would always hire admin first.
904
00:50:53.365 --> 00:51:01.128
And that's because, you know, if I hired admin first, then I could have actually really focused on the job and then probably hire another part time shooter.
905
00:51:02.048 --> 00:51:08.670
So kind of take take a step back and be like, what is something that I don't want to do anymore?
906
00:51:08.751 --> 00:51:12.352
What is something that is like on my plate that I can't stand?
907
00:51:13.335 --> 00:51:15.877
I can't stand doing numbers.
908
00:51:15.997 --> 00:51:18.400
I can't stand sitting there like doing invoice.
909
00:51:18.420 --> 00:51:19.460
I can't stand it.
910
00:51:20.061 --> 00:51:24.705
And I wish I got that off my plate way sooner because I was still always falling so far behind.
911
00:51:24.785 --> 00:51:32.832
I remember one time I took a step back because I also didn't have time to send reminders and Ario didn't have that audio pay thing set up.
912
00:51:33.493 --> 00:51:37.676
So I was, oh, I think $80,000 in invoices.
913
00:51:37.737 --> 00:51:37.977
Yeah.
914
00:51:40.739 --> 00:51:50.987
Yes, because I didn't have the fucking time to send invoices or remind people and agents just walking around, not even getting it, just getting free work.
915
00:51:51.527 --> 00:51:53.709
And I was like, man, why am I so stretched?
916
00:51:53.829 --> 00:51:57.412
Because I don't have time to send invoices because I hate it.
917
00:51:58.092 --> 00:52:01.495
But yeah, I would say just take a step back and figure out what don't you want to do?
918
00:52:01.595 --> 00:52:05.538
Like, what is something that is annoying and that you can just write off?
919
00:52:06.114 --> 00:52:09.677
So that brings a good point up that I want to bring in this, like building a new business.
920
00:52:10.338 --> 00:52:24.209
The initial software stack that you acquire, like in my mind, you definitely want some sort of Aereo or HD photo op, some sort of CRM where people book you in, they book in, they're in a calendar, they have an account.
921
00:52:24.229 --> 00:52:26.591
Because that was, I had the same thing happen.
922
00:52:26.971 --> 00:52:30.975
I didn't, I would just give agents all the media and they didn't have to pay.
923
00:52:30.995 --> 00:52:31.155
Yeah.
924
00:52:31.675 --> 00:52:33.255
And last year I was in the same place.
925
00:52:33.295 --> 00:52:39.757
It wasn't $80,000, but it was probably close to $12,000 that were outstanding because agents had just downloaded.
926
00:52:39.817 --> 00:52:42.637
And I was like, and I didn't know who, you know, it took a while.
927
00:52:42.817 --> 00:52:51.939
And so then I was in HD Photo Lab and I was just playing around the settings and I saw this little button and I just toggle it on and agents cannot download media without payment.
928
00:52:53.019 --> 00:52:54.120
And I was like, that seems fair.
929
00:52:54.160 --> 00:52:55.700
Like you can preview it.
930
00:52:55.820 --> 00:52:58.141
And if you like it, you pay for it and then you get it.
931
00:52:58.821 --> 00:53:00.181
And I never have to think about it again.
932
00:53:00.637 --> 00:53:05.722
But did you have when you turn that on, did agents start like freaking out about it?
933
00:53:05.782 --> 00:53:08.965
How did how did that go for you when you change that in your business?
934
00:53:09.555 --> 00:53:15.200
No one, like I've had, maybe it's a bit of a horseshoe, but I'd never really have had any issues.
935
00:53:15.240 --> 00:53:16.901
And I've talked to other people about this.
936
00:53:16.981 --> 00:53:21.125
I think I live in two places where people are super kind and good-hearted.
937
00:53:21.145 --> 00:53:30.372
Because I don't, like, the only time I ever have issues, honestly, and this is, I'll just fully say it, like, there's shitty agents from Toronto that sometimes...
938
00:53:31.153 --> 00:53:32.093
get listings up here.
939
00:53:32.213 --> 00:53:33.834
And they're the only ones who give me shit.
940
00:53:33.894 --> 00:53:36.635
Everyone up here, all the local agents have been amazing.
941
00:53:36.675 --> 00:53:42.657
So they, they were like actually thankful because they're like, Oh, now I just like, it forces them to like do that step.
942
00:53:42.677 --> 00:53:45.097
So at the end of the month, they're not paying four or five bills.
943
00:53:45.438 --> 00:53:47.238
So I had no issues right now.
944
00:53:47.638 --> 00:53:49.439
There is one agent that I shot for.
945
00:53:50.239 --> 00:53:53.804
And it's a pretty big listing, but I barely ever worked with this agent.
946
00:53:54.645 --> 00:54:00.753
And he's got, you know, he's got an outstanding bill of about $1,000 and he can't download the media without paying.
947
00:54:01.474 --> 00:54:03.337
And it's been about 10 days and he hasn't paid.
948
00:54:03.357 --> 00:54:04.939
So I'm like, I don't know what's going on with your business.
949
00:54:05.119 --> 00:54:06.701
I don't know what's going on with that listing.
950
00:54:06.721 --> 00:54:08.023
I don't know what's going on with that listing.
951
00:54:08.403 --> 00:54:10.724
So it's just sitting there and it's I'm like, well, you can't.
952
00:54:10.864 --> 00:54:12.025
And then but I keep on.
953
00:54:12.145 --> 00:54:12.505
I do.
954
00:54:12.585 --> 00:54:17.427
I have checked a few times to see if he just like took screenshots of the images and used it.
955
00:54:17.447 --> 00:54:22.389
Like, I don't know what his game is, but it's a really nice feature that most CRMs have.
956
00:54:23.210 --> 00:54:29.853
And for anyone that doesn't know, customer customer relationship management tool at the CRM, that's just essentially the brains of your business.
957
00:54:30.790 --> 00:54:33.532
That's an amazing feature for what we do because of the volume.
958
00:54:33.592 --> 00:54:35.374
You deliver so many projects.
959
00:54:35.574 --> 00:54:36.835
You deliver so much media.
960
00:54:37.555 --> 00:54:40.558
Make your agents pay for it when it's delivered.
961
00:54:41.038 --> 00:54:45.742
Unless you have some sort of relationship with them where you don't want to do that.
962
00:54:45.762 --> 00:54:46.682
But I would turn that on.
963
00:54:48.063 --> 00:54:53.565
You know, when we got that, some of my agents were upset about it.
964
00:54:53.645 --> 00:54:55.205
What do you mean I have to pay for my photos?
965
00:54:55.345 --> 00:55:01.807
I mean, like, you have to pay for your photos now so I don't have to chase you because I don't have time for that.
966
00:55:01.867 --> 00:55:03.968
Just as much as you don't have time for anything else.
967
00:55:04.608 --> 00:55:05.589
Some agents were upset.
968
00:55:05.649 --> 00:55:06.029
But, like...
969
00:55:07.051 --> 00:55:08.293
You know, it's just a change.
970
00:55:08.353 --> 00:55:09.575
It's something they have to get used to.
971
00:55:09.595 --> 00:55:12.879
And it's like, you know, if you use me, you're going to have to use that.
972
00:55:12.939 --> 00:55:19.448
But if you use probably anybody else now, everywhere, almost every CRM has it.
973
00:55:19.568 --> 00:55:21.010
So you're going to have to use it anyway.
974
00:55:21.110 --> 00:55:21.811
So go ahead.
975
00:55:22.212 --> 00:55:22.672
Be mad.
976
00:55:22.873 --> 00:55:24.355
But it's just the name of the game.
977
00:55:24.665 --> 00:55:30.571
And I think there's some businesses like net 30 and getting paid once a month and they do all their accounting and they just want to pay in lump sums.
978
00:55:30.812 --> 00:55:31.693
But I don't know.
979
00:55:31.713 --> 00:55:35.497
I don't I just think real estate real estate media because it's so fast and transactional.
980
00:55:35.597 --> 00:55:36.998
It's just way cleaner for everybody.
981
00:55:37.178 --> 00:55:39.301
They're all putting it on their business credit cards anyways.
982
00:55:39.601 --> 00:55:40.142
It's all, you know.
983
00:55:40.622 --> 00:55:44.843
All right, I don't want to run too long on this, but let's go to level three.
984
00:55:44.903 --> 00:55:47.243
We've built the business.
985
00:55:47.523 --> 00:55:48.184
Now you have a team.
986
00:55:48.224 --> 00:55:48.824
You have a shooter.
987
00:55:48.984 --> 00:55:49.764
You have an admin.
988
00:55:49.964 --> 00:55:51.004
You have a good reputation.
989
00:55:51.184 --> 00:55:52.484
Things are like churning along.
990
00:55:52.985 --> 00:55:54.825
And now you want to escape it.
991
00:55:55.345 --> 00:55:59.626
And that's actually, I guess, kind of even where you're at in your business.
992
00:55:59.666 --> 00:56:05.427
Like what are the steps that someone does when they're at that stage and they think, you know what, it's time for me to do a career change.
993
00:56:05.487 --> 00:56:09.228
How do you start setting up to escape or sell a business?
994
00:56:09.634 --> 00:56:12.878
Well, I definitely haven't sold anything yet, but I'm going to get there.
995
00:56:13.358 --> 00:56:16.021
That is going to happen probably in the next four or five years.
996
00:56:16.802 --> 00:56:22.127
So I guess that's on the vision board or that's just something that you're open to?
997
00:56:22.698 --> 00:56:23.959
It's definitely on the vision board.
998
00:56:24.099 --> 00:56:26.541
And also on the vision board, it says, I'm going to be a millionaire.
999
00:56:28.762 --> 00:56:29.122
Yeah.
1000
00:56:29.242 --> 00:56:33.485
So yeah, I, the thing is, is like, you know, you're good.
1001
00:56:33.645 --> 00:56:35.126
And like your team is good.
1002
00:56:35.366 --> 00:56:44.873
If you can, like you go travel somewhere and like work from a coffee shop in Europe and just like maintain things, make sure things are good.
1003
00:56:45.273 --> 00:56:50.997
That is, that is when you know your business is running and like, you're happy with your salary and your employees are also happy with their
1004
00:56:52.037 --> 00:56:54.298
that's when things are awesome.
1005
00:56:54.819 --> 00:56:55.259
You know what?
1006
00:56:55.759 --> 00:56:56.440
Good example.
1007
00:56:56.780 --> 00:57:00.262
I went to Costa Rica for 20 days on my own.
1008
00:57:00.822 --> 00:57:06.165
I basically every morning I worked in a coffee shop, chimed in, hey, is everything good?
1009
00:57:06.305 --> 00:57:07.025
Everything's great.
1010
00:57:07.085 --> 00:57:10.787
Went surfing all afternoon, chimed back in in the afternoon.
1011
00:57:11.147 --> 00:57:11.808
Everything good?
1012
00:57:11.908 --> 00:57:12.648
Everything's great?
1013
00:57:13.089 --> 00:57:13.409
Awesome.
1014
00:57:14.149 --> 00:57:15.070
I don't have to do anything.
1015
00:57:15.650 --> 00:57:17.431
You know, I don't have to do it.
1016
00:57:17.491 --> 00:57:19.492
I can just get paid my salary.
1017
00:57:20.112 --> 00:57:21.233
Everyone's getting paid their salary.
1018
00:57:21.413 --> 00:57:23.694
Clients are getting their photos and it's working.
1019
00:57:24.495 --> 00:57:29.798
So 20 days, no like Alex emergencies where the company is like, we need you?
1020
00:57:30.318 --> 00:57:30.718
Zero.
1021
00:57:30.998 --> 00:57:32.719
People are like, stop coming online.
1022
00:57:33.380 --> 00:57:35.041
And I'm like, but I still want to work.
1023
00:57:35.101 --> 00:57:36.902
Like I love, like I love it.
1024
00:57:36.922 --> 00:57:38.823
I just want to see how everyone's doing.
1025
00:57:39.362 --> 00:57:44.233
Like that, I think, is like a nice story to tell everyone who's growing their real estate media business.
1026
00:57:44.889 --> 00:58:00.434
is I do think compared to weddings, compared to portraits, compared to pet photography, compared to travel photography, like this as a photography business is something that you can create into a real business that is extremely templated.
1027
00:58:00.874 --> 00:58:11.938
You can dial in whatever your brand is, whatever your unique take on this is, but you can build it into a system that you have a, like you're a more scaled up version than me.
1028
00:58:12.658 --> 00:58:18.880
I have a business in two different regions with like a dedicated shooter in each region and then I'm kind of a swing person.
1029
00:58:19.140 --> 00:58:25.442
But I often leave both of those businesses kind of on autopilot and they work.
1030
00:58:25.802 --> 00:58:26.762
Like they kind of work.
1031
00:58:27.522 --> 00:58:31.083
And so it's really, really good business and it's worth putting in the time.
1032
00:58:31.123 --> 00:58:40.466
If you're a photographer and you want to build something that you can make money off of but doesn't demand your soul for every single shoot, like real estate media, uh,
1033
00:58:41.146 --> 00:58:42.567
I think is a great option.
1034
00:58:43.207 --> 00:58:44.447
I totally agree.
1035
00:58:44.627 --> 00:58:45.288
And you know what?
1036
00:58:45.668 --> 00:58:46.208
Here's the thing.
1037
00:58:46.508 --> 00:58:52.650
I could pack my bags, move anywhere I want, and I know the business is going to run fine.
1038
00:58:53.210 --> 00:58:55.071
Like, I don't need to be here at all.
1039
00:58:55.551 --> 00:59:03.494
And I think that's everybody's dream, you know, is to make money while they sleep and to climb a mountain while your business is making money.
1040
00:59:03.614 --> 00:59:05.915
Like, you know, that's the lifestyle, man.
1041
00:59:06.406 --> 00:59:06.606
Yeah.
1042
00:59:07.427 --> 00:59:18.715
So to close up this episode on a like, what do you think is, is there any threat to this business or your business in the near future where you're like, is there any outside force that's coming in?
1043
00:59:18.735 --> 00:59:24.400
We're like, oh, we could all be, because I think any of us that have these businesses that are somewhat mature,
1044
00:59:25.297 --> 00:59:26.277
We've got a pretty great gig.
1045
00:59:26.678 --> 00:59:28.879
And I think there's more people who are building their businesses.
1046
00:59:28.919 --> 00:59:38.143
But is there anything that's disruptive that's coming along where you're like, I kind of worry, but will I have the stability for all my employees and my company long term?
1047
00:59:38.403 --> 00:59:44.005
You know, like obviously the biggest change in my business in the last year was I used to have in-house photo editors.
1048
00:59:44.205 --> 00:59:45.065
I no longer do.
1049
00:59:45.506 --> 00:59:46.686
Clients are happier though.
1050
00:59:46.846 --> 00:59:48.547
Like the consistency is better.
1051
00:59:49.127 --> 00:59:49.908
Things are faster.
1052
00:59:49.928 --> 00:59:52.689
I think the only thing that...
1053
00:59:53.469 --> 01:00:00.993
shooters are scared of or other real estate media companies are afraid of is the cell phone, you know, and I will just give a really good example.
1054
01:00:01.013 --> 01:00:11.317
I put a comparison on Instagram a few months ago of Sony iPhone said how fast I shot this, how fast I shot this.
1055
01:00:11.357 --> 01:00:12.238
Can you tell the difference?
1056
01:00:13.038 --> 01:00:14.058
Nobody could tell the difference.
1057
01:00:14.279 --> 01:00:16.259
And then I was like, I shot this on my iPhone.
1058
01:00:16.780 --> 01:00:21.842
And the only people that were mad was the other real estate media companies being like, you're degrading the industry.
1059
01:00:21.862 --> 01:00:25.463
And I'm like, no, I'm just going to adapt to the industry.
1060
01:00:26.203 --> 01:00:32.726
And that is the word that I think everybody needs to pay attention to is adapting.
1061
01:00:32.966 --> 01:00:41.350
Because everything is moving so quickly, whether it's floor plans, whether it's photos, whether it's videos, the processing, everything is changing so fast.
1062
01:00:41.370 --> 01:00:42.010
Yeah.
1063
01:00:42.130 --> 01:00:47.695
And the only thing that is going to hold a real estate media company back is if they don't adapt to the change.
1064
01:00:48.316 --> 01:00:48.576
All right.
1065
01:00:48.716 --> 01:00:50.818
So that is going to be episode two.
1066
01:00:50.858 --> 01:00:54.101
That's kind of the imaginary building of a new real estate media business.
1067
01:00:54.902 --> 01:00:57.124
We are going to be, you know, these are coming out.
1068
01:00:57.284 --> 01:01:07.333
If you are following along with us and you have questions specifically for Alex or for me or episode subject you'd love us to tackle from our different perspectives, please.
1069
01:01:08.034 --> 01:01:10.056
comment, you know, or send us an email.
1070
01:01:10.237 --> 01:01:14.362
We will have all that in the bio of the podcast.
1071
01:01:14.842 --> 01:01:20.309
And we really want to get involved with the community, find out what you two want, because I can talk to Alex all day.
1072
01:01:20.329 --> 01:01:21.911
I have lots of stuff I want to ask her.
1073
01:01:22.552 --> 01:01:25.195
But eventually, we really want this to serve the community.
1074
01:01:25.215 --> 01:01:30.882
So let us know what you want to hear, and we will start designing the podcast around those questions.
1075
01:01:31.322 --> 01:01:31.783
See you next time.
1076
01:01:32.143 --> 01:01:32.644
See you next time.
1077
01:01:32.964 --> 01:01:33.405
Toodaloo.
1078
01:01:33.705 --> 01:01:34.006
Toodaloo.