Tailored Services: The Secret Ingredient for Real Estate Success

Christian (00:01.543)
Hey everybody, welcome to the show. So today we’re actually gonna dive into the creative side of real estate with 615 Media. They have over 11 years of experience. Paul has built a real estate photography and videography company that’s not only grown year after year, it’s reshaping how homes are presented, marketed, and ultimately sold. So from cinematic video tours to aerial drone footage, these guys do it all. They capture properties in their best light. So 615 Media is setting the bar for high-end real estate marketing.

Without further ado, welcome to the show guys. Super excited to have you on. You and I were just buff chatting a little bit before we started recording. So for those that don’t know you, why don’t you introduce yourselves, talk a little bit about your journey and what you guys are up to.

615 Media (00:45.634)
Yeah, so I’m Paul, one of the also, or co-owners of 615 Media. We’ve been in the industry for about 11 years. We both were very hesitant about getting into the real estate market. When we first started, was before drones were really a thing. Kind of awesome was the innovative side of 615 Media for sure. And I’m more of like the face relationship type guy.

So we work well together from that standpoint. I think when you’re growing a business, that’s what you’re looking for is someone with a creative space and then someone that isn’t hesitant about walking up to somebody and having that conversation. And I think a big thing with us has been being persistent. So stay persistent with your clients, make sure that you’re top of mind, make sure that you’re giving them a quality product. When we first started, you know,

awesome was building drones. You didn’t happen to have the drone license and then the FAA kind of cracked down on that. When they started doing that, we really pumped the brakes and was like, is this really something that can be a career, right? And scalable, something that we can grow, something that we could see ourselves, you know, providing a future for our families and other families. we, my background is heating and air. So I did a lot of the Broadway.

downtown Nashville, probably about 35, 40 % of Broadway I did the heating and air on. So I had a fairly good career there and I’ve had at that time I had two kids. So stepping away from that was a big hesitation for me. I’m providing a great value for my family and just real estate thing, right? Like photos, really? Like, that really gonna be what’s gonna send us to the next level?

And then we really just found, you know, Austyn got his drone license and started really putting boots on the ground. And in the meantime, I was calling agents and cold calling. I still cold call to this day. Like that’s so many people get away from the basics. And I think we all need to go back to the basics and go back to shaking hands. And I say kids and babies. So, you know, you that the real estate world is very relationship based. And that’s what we found our business on. And Austyn’s really been the creative guy on that.

Christian (03:02.695)
That’s awesome.

615 Media (03:02.786)
Yeah, yeah, so I was in school for architecture and I had just gotten accepted to the architecture school at UT. So my parents were not super thrilled when I said, not going to do that. We’re going to go do this business thing. And luckily it worked out, but they were definitely questionable at the time.

Christian (03:22.309)
Yeah, for sure, right? Everybody’s questioning you, how are you gonna make it? Do you have a plan? What’s your strategy? All these different things, but it’s like, this is the thing, when you have unwavering faith in what you’re doing, you know it’s gonna work out. Doesn’t matter what you’re going through, how hard it’s gonna be. I know you mentioned Paul T, even your family, it’s like, damn, stepping away from this, it’s tough, going out to the unknown, right? But.

You you seem like you already had a, you know, great progress with that, you know, building a relationship with people. And as you said, I mean, real estate is all real estate, you know, centric focus on just relationships, right? So I’m curious. I mean, when you first were getting started, can we talk a little bit, a little bit about the early days, right? You know, how did you guys build your book of business? You know, can you talk about maybe, you know, some struggles that you guys went through and ultimately now, I mean, you scaled to, you know, a pretty high level, you know, 32 employees, you’re

One of the largest in the country when it comes to this so I mean why don’t you talk a little bit about you know your early days and Talk about you know from there. How did you scale to where you are now?

615 Media (04:28.162)
Yeah, so when we first started, I was just cold calling, giving out free shoots. If you go on our YouTube channel, we actually focused really hard on YouTube and we’ve kind of just let it die off. But if you go to the very beginning of YouTube, we were the only people, we had a GoPro strapped to Toyota Tundra going through trails. Like we were capturing this property through this agent because no one else can do it. And I think that that

cultivated like something within us where we’re like, hey, this is something that we’re willing to do anything and we’re willing to go above and beyond where other agencies are going to be saying, no, that ain’t for me. passing the baton to the next person that’s going to step up. And that’s something where we were like, man, if you look at those videos, they’re bad off compared to what we deliver now. But that’s something that we’ve always wanted to do.

I pushed Austyn because he’s a little more introverted from that standpoint and I’ve put him in some weird situations and he’s thrived and he’s done the same thing to me as far as like learning the cameras and understanding you know what I’m talking about and that’s really helped us. So in the early days you know I’m calling, I’m working and doing stuff and then he’s actually doing a paper route during the night and then going doing shoots in the afternoon. We were both editing our own stuff.

And the ground was very real. I have my wife looking at me saying like really? Why are you doing this? Like you’re making six figures doing heating in there the last year I was making multiple six figures doing heating in there and it’s like you’re gonna Take a huge pay cut like to not even six figures to do this like and I think that’s the biggest risk that people aren’t willing to take and like I said I had two kids at the time and I’m making over a little over 200 grand and then I’m going to 60,000

And that’s our surreal moment of like, are we really gonna make this thing work? And it’s like, we don’t have a choice, we have to, right? So I think as an entrepreneur, a lot of people don’t have that drive or they’re too scared to make that jump. And what I would say to those people is like, you only get one opportunity. So you better step out of your comfort zone and get ready to be uncomfortable. Even today, with the business we’ve built, we’re still uncomfortable in a lot of situations.

615 Media (06:53.902)
You know that when we hire an employee, we look at it because we put them on salary unlike everybody else. They’re putting them on 1099. That’s for a business owner. That’s a safe bet. We’re not interested in safe bets all the time. We’re interested in protecting the people we really entrust in and really care about, which is our employees, which help us grow our business. So we’re putting our neck out there and saying, hey, we’re going to provide you the salary because in the wintertime we really take a hit, right?

Christian (06:54.097)
Mm.

615 Media (07:23.47)
Anybody in this space knows that real estate agents, I think control that a little bit. I think that in their mindset, nobody’s moving. So they mentally take a break. So that also affects us. Where people still need a house during the Thanksgiving, Christmas time. But when agents check out, that’s why it really slows the market. I think I’ve talked to an agent that’s a high volume agent and his best year was December.

And I think that’s to him just being proactive and making those calls and making those dials. And we shoot for him and I’m like, man, how did you do that? And he’s like, no one else is doing it right now. So I think agents do control the market from that standpoint. And when I reflect back on that, I’m just thinking, man, that’s what we do for our employees. We will not get paid before we don’t pay them type thing. So I think that’s what makes us different. And while we’ve been able to scale.

We’ve seen photographers that work with other companies that’s been with them for several years and really great photographers and the photographers hold relationships and they end up coming to join us because they’re like, man, you’re giving us a salary. You’re giving us a gas card. You’re giving us equipment. Like that’s a huge lift for them and the security piece too, right? So in the winter time, I’m getting a paycheck. It don’t matter if I’m shooting or not. And we’ve had several photographers not shoot and you know, we’ve been having some tornadoes here.

Christian (08:38.971)
Mm-hmm.

615 Media (08:47.658)
and bad weather in Tennessee and you know they’re getting paid they’re sitting at home getting paid and that’s just where we have their back just like we have our agents backs and our clients back right we have we really support that and stand behind it where you know that and then i think that’s what started us from the ground up yes

Christian (09:08.675)
I love that story. Yeah, go ahead.

615 Media (09:11.906)
I think a lot of photographers in the space, they’ll get distracted early on because it’s easy. You get a camera, like, I can do weddings, can do corporate events or whatever. So I think the biggest thing about us is we were just laser focused on real estate and didn’t let ourselves get distracted with all these other things you can get into. Because ultimately, real estate, it’s more scalable than weddings and stuff like that. So we’re like, this is what we’re doing, and we’re going to stick to this. And all the distractions, like, nope. So think that’s been huge for us.

Staying focused for sure.

Christian (09:41.873)
I love that, I love that. I wanna talk about how do you ensure when you’re doing your visuals, right, you’re going through your creative process, how do you ensure that when you’re going through that, that it tells a story, right? And how does that emotionally connect with, because obviously you help your agents with this, but how do you differentiate your creative process compared to what other people are doing in the industry?

615 Media (10:07.95)
think a lot of that falls on editing now, more so, engaging edit versus like traditionally, I don’t know if you watch real estate videos, but they’re just super slow hands through a house and you’re asleep by the end of the video. So in the last couple of years, we really tried to innovate on the just keeping it upbeat, doing a lot more like social media type vertical stuff. And then a lot of agents will do multiple videos now instead of just one. So they’ll tell a story and like kind of do it.

Christian (10:10.823)
Mm.

615 Media (10:37.134)
drip campaign on social media for a listing or whatnot. So that’s kind of how things are structured now. And then a lot of it is more of the agent branding now as opposed to just the house. So agents might get one or two listings, but they can brand themselves any day of the week.

Christian (10:54.727)
Yeah, I love that. love that. So what do you wish more real estate agents understood about photography, videography role in selling homes? Because obviously, it’s the biggest thing, right? I if you have something captivating that someone can see and be like, wow, I have to work with this person, right? I mean, that’s going to draw that attention. What do you wish more real estate agents understood how much important that aspect is?

615 Media (11:21.368)
So on that, I would say every agent, when you schedule your photographer, whether it be us or anybody in the country, would be having your mindset and having your clients mindset. This is the first and most important showing that this home is ever going to get. When they put that on the MLS, it hits the low wherever it may go. 20,000 plus people are going to see this. Why are we not?

taking the loofahs out of the shower, why are we not moving the ugly trash cans in the kitchen? Why are we leaving the toilet seats up? The photographer with us in our company, we strive to make sure that those things are tucked away and taken away. Trash cans removed, all that stuff. We allow 15 to 20-ish minutes to redo the house and help guide the agent or homeowner. Because something else that us is, you know,

media agencies or whatnot for the agent. The agent may not be there, but it may be that homeowner’s first time ever moving, you know, and it’s their most valuable asset. handling that with care on our side is very important. So you can’t, you have to be careful from our standpoint to kind of tippy toe a little bit to not hurt someone’s feelings. Like, that rug is kind of ugly, but you ain’t going to say that. You’ll say, hey, let’s move this rug. It’s really going to show the nice tile floor.

or the hardwood floor or whatever it may be. So having the agent understand how important that is and relaying that to their client is very important, I think. Making sure that all the lights are on, making sure the blinds are level and all of them match. Because when I take the photo outside, if one’s shut and one’s open, it looks kind of silly. So for us, we try to catch that and make sure that happens. But that’s what I would say, like number one, that’s the first thing as an agent you need to understand.

This is the most important showing you’re ever going to get. Make sure it hits the market in the right light. Make sure you’re using somebody that’s going to keep your brand consistent. That’s something why we went the way we did was because with us and our editors in-house, we’re able to make sure everything’s consistent. We’re all shooting with the same lenses, the same cameras, the same everything. So when we get that product back, your brand stays the same. That’s important.

Christian (13:38.311)
you

615 Media (13:40.312)
But whenever you’re an agent and you list something on the MLS, it’s public. Now, that’s part of your database. That’s part of your like package. when somebody’s looking for you, they’re looking at, what’s your past history? Let me see some listings you’ve listed before. If they’re not perfect and you’re trying to get a million, two million, three million, 25 million, $30 million home, that homeowner is looking at that. And if you think that you’re going to win the listing over someone that comes in well,

prepared and has that consistency. I think you’re mistaken. think you need to start when you start your brand, you start it off right and you keep going. And something that we introduced was listing insurance during COVID. And it was something where agents, we kept constantly hearing, I would do this, but the price, I would do this, but this. And during COVID, everybody was buying sight unseen and the guaranteed offer or

an offer no one can resist from Alex Hermosy, right? Also now we’re in the truck driving from Georgia. We was doing a big land shoot in Georgia and he was like, hey, here it is. And we came up with this listing insurance and it’s through us, it’s not through a third party, it’s directly through us saying, hey, if you believe that you can sell the listing and you use us, we believe our quality of work can help you sell the listing.

If it don’t sell, if you get fired, it expires, whatever it may be, just let us know and we’ll reimburse you. So we really stand behind, you know, our quality of work and agents were like, that’s awesome. So now then they was bumping up to video and that helped agents also understand like how valuable video is. So that’s something else that I think agents need to understand like that. I pick vertical video over social media or horizontal video because when you list

something as an agent and you’re doing that horizontal video, it doesn’t look good on social media where that vertical really shines on social media. And when you put that horizontal on MLS, well, who has access to that? The consumers don’t. If you have a real estate license, you do. So your customers or your potential buyers are on social media, they’re on Facebook, they’re not on the MLS. So why are we shooting it for MLS for the other agents to see?

Christian (15:42.758)
I

Christian (15:50.439)
Mm.

615 Media (16:04.238)
you know that that agent that may have a buyer may not like you and they’re not showing their client but their classes on social media they’re gonna say hey i want to see that house uh… so so i think the social media is a big big uh… oversight for a lot of people were they need to pay a little more attention to that uh… if it’s two million plus or a million and a half plus i think you need to do both so that that would be my kind of

Christian (16:31.675)
Nah, love that. So let’s walk through the process, right? You know, when you’re working with a new agent that’s just coming on board with you guys, could you explain your process? How are you setting them up? How does your process fully work when an agent wants to come on board with you guys? How do you set them up for success?

615 Media (16:49.87)
Yeah, so usually they’ll call in. They can book online. So mean, this can be a completely automated process on their behalf. But if they do have questions and want to do more of the high end stuff, they call us. We just kind of ask them what they’re looking to do. Is it more of that some agents have quarter million dollar homes and the marketing budget is pretty low. So we’re just going send, we’re just going to do photos on that one. But if they do want to go all out, I mean, we have packages up to three to $4,000. So

If they want to do all that, we’re just walking through like, what do want to accomplish here? Do you want 10 social media videos? Do you want one long form? it’s really, you know, we’re just trying to tailor it to whatever. It’s usually the price point that we’re trying to tailor to. I think a lot of agencies look at this as like a sales process. And I also see a lot of other coaches, you know, and I think this is a misunderstanding from a media agency perspective, in my opinion, which…

whatever that means, but, they, I’m looking at all these coaches and all these other people saying, Hey, you need to get your AOV up. Average order value for anybody that may not know what that term is. So you need to get your AOV up. You, that customer is only getting photos like upsell them, upsell them. And I think agents try to get, they try to get sold so much, right? They got, they got the home inspector. They got the stager. They got the

Christian (17:48.199)
Yeah.

615 Media (18:14.478)
appraiser they got all these other people to yeah mortgage company loan officer all of them hammering them all the time trying to sell them something so i think it rubs people the wrong way when not when i’m calling you and saying hey i noticed you just got photos on this package i really want to see if you’d be interesting getting photos plus it includes all this extra stuff it’s only 50 extra dollars or 100 or whatever they’re like god every time i book with you guys you’re trying to sell me something more

You know, and from our perspective, like, I understand from their perspective a little bit because their photographers are getting paid commission based off of what they shoot, whatever. So then they’re not only getting it from the office, but now the photographer on site is trying to sell them something too. And it’s like, man, I can’t win with you guys. So then they come to us and it’s like, these guys aren’t just trying to sell me something. They’re trying to…

I’ll walk into a house that may be completely vacant and they got photos and video and I’ll say, hey, you know, agent, I think your money is well spent doing virtual staging versus doing this video because the video is just vacant. People don’t really under see, you know, what can actually visualize what can actually fit in here. So in my opinion, you should do for some virtual staging and it will.

maybe even save them money in that situation versus or be the same. It’s usually the same or less. And I’m like, you know, I want to add value and I want people to come in that door. Our main goal is to get that front door open and you as the agent is to sell the property. So when you use us, that’s what you can expect. Your phone will ring, people will come in the door. We’re not going to shoot every little nook and cranny and we’re not going to show the hole in the wall because if I show the hole in the wall, somebody

Christian (19:38.129)
Yeah.

615 Media (20:01.208)
from a perspective of a buyer, they’re gonna go, they trashed that house, where if I can get them in the door, as an agent, you can say, hey, we’re writing that up in the offer, that’ll be completely fixed, you’ll never know it was there. So that’s more of our approach. We’re gonna give and sell what is needed for the property as an agent is growing, and we also understand where they’re at in their journey, right? You’re a new agent, okay, let’s start here. This is your first listing, that’s really nice, so you might wanna start here.

and really pitch them what they need, not what you would love to sell. I see multiple agencies saying, I just upsell somebody from 500 to 1,500 bucks. Well, that’s great. But if they feel screwed at the end of the day, then they’re not going to use you again. And that client is worth more to retain than it is to get a little extra dollar from them right now. So that’s what I would say. That’s kind of our approach. we always

Christian (20:44.423)
All right.

Christian (20:52.359)
Yep.

615 Media (20:58.478)
You know, at the end of the year, I call every one of our clients every single year, try to just follow up with them and say, hey, thank you so much for using us. Is there anything we could do better in the new year? That’s it. I’m not selling them nothing. I’m just calling to follow up. And I have agents that has used us since the beginning say, I cannot believe you still do this. And it makes me feel great. And I think that’s a missed opportunity as agency owners and people in the industry, even if you’re a real estate agent or a builder, you worked with a client.

Follow up with them. Follow up with them.

Christian (21:32.283)
No, I-

615 Media (21:32.482)
getting a little time consuming. Yeah, yeah, I’ve currently built out a sales team now, but this is the first year I’ve had a sales team, but we got a little over 3400 clients. So it definitely took me about two and a half weeks last year to call everybody every every day I was dialing, which I’m putting in a dollar, but still I’m calling them and I’m talking to them. I’m leaving them a voicemail. They’re not picking up.

You know, and that’s important. That’s what I’d never want to lose is the touch of, these people care. These people, no matter if you spend $200, $100, $50 to, you know, $100,000, I don’t care where you’re at in the spectrum. I appreciate your business. And I think that’s what everybody should feel like. It’s not, I’m giving this person more treatment because they spend this much money. Everybody’s in a different journey in life. So treat everybody the same way, and it will come back.

Christian (22:27.847)
100 % right they say when you give you shall receive right but a lot of people are focused on more like you said the transactional aspect upfront How can I upsell this person? How can I get you know all these different things and it’s like you got to leave with value man You know You really got to just be upfront with somebody and just be be their friend and try to set them up for their possible best position Right and really just take a step back on that right and just nurture and just be there right and it’s no Coincidence obviously in the success you guys have built

because you put relationships as the number one priority. So that’s what I wanted to ask you as well too. mean, you got 32, over 32 employees, you got 3,400 clients. My first question to you, the clients aspect, how are you managing 3,400 plus clients, you know, doing that? Like what type of systems do you guys have in place? You know, how does that work for you guys? I’m curious.

615 Media (23:22.51)
Yeah, the systems have definitely been the biggest pain points, especially once you get over that, I millionish mark. Yeah, a lot of what we do, mean, the photographers have the relationship on site and whatnot. And then our staff over here in the office kind of keep it on the scheduling, and they need everything. So just making sure that people can always get a hold of us. We just hired another phone person. I don’t ever want people waiting more than like five minutes to get a hold of us, especially when they need something.

Christian (23:28.421)
Yeah.

615 Media (23:51.818)
ASAP. So that’s been huge. recently updated our systems and we just switched over to Zendesk. So that’s helped a lot on the just the ticketing, making sure nothing gets missed. And then our CTO has been phenomenal in this and he’s been able to, guess he has a, I’m not a code person, but he has a server that’s making all of our systems talk together. So when a shoot gets booked, it goes in there to the editors and they can see who shot it and.

Does the client have any specific notes or preferences on how they like stuff edited? So that’s been huge. Having a CTO on staff. Before that, we used Zapier, so it’s not like a big business couldn’t do these things. Or a small business couldn’t do these things. So Zapier was huge back in the day. then, yeah, mean, just having the, we use Aereo for like scheduling and stuff. It’s just, and then getting all these systems to talk to each other, I think is the biggest pain point. And that’s.

having Carl, which is our CTO, think that that was another, that’s another thing like agency owners are scared to make hires, right? Like, like it’s like, if I hire this person, he’s six figures, right? So it’s like, if I hire this person, you can get no CTO any less than six figures, I can promise you, not anybody that knows what they’re doing. So the, but.

Me and also are like, hey, we rather get our raise later. We see the future, right? See the future as an entrepreneur, see the future. When you hire those key players, know that they’re going to serve you more purpose than getting that little nugget right now. that on, let that person shine for you. that’s been a huge, like Austyn said, huge for us. he’s been able to tie in so many things and automate things that if he were not in place, we would have to have two to three more people.

So then as a business owner, by hearing that now, think about that, right? So I’m going to have to have three people or I can hire the CTO. Those three people are going to cost more than the CTO. Those three people may solve the problem right now, but that CTO may need two to three months at least to get that system built out. So yeah, your clients, but your clients don’t know any different right now.

615 Media (26:11.48)
So go ahead and make that key higher, let him start building those processes. And then it’s streamlined. I know AI’s started coming a long ways too. So we haven’t introduced a ton of AI in our systems yet. We do have AI video, photo, video editing we just introduced, but we haven’t introduced a ton of that yet, but that’s where the CTO comes in where he can start practicing with that, making sure it’s good, making sure it’s hitting the marks before you introduce silly stuff to your clients.

Christian (26:19.367)
Mm-hmm.

615 Media (26:40.974)
I think as a business owner, it’s easy to see new shiny object, plug it in, and then it might irritate your customers. So make sure whatever you’re pushing out is going to be what you need. So having those systems and processes in place, and then now we have a follow-up process. And within the sales team I just built out, we have a follow-up process of what that looks like. If this client books and there are new clients, we’re going to follow up. If this client booked and…

we’re going to follow up and make sure they’re happy with the stuff. As a smaller business owner, you probably don’t have the time to touch all those touch points right now. But if you would go ahead and hire that next photographer and free up some more of your time, you would have that time. So in every business we went to go hire, as a larger business, we’re anywhere from 10 to 20 % margins, right? So.

as a smaller business owner in this industry, they’re at 35 to 45 percent margins. So when we approach them to join us, they’re like, well, you have to pay me 200 grand. Well, that ain’t never going to work. So that’s where they will always stay where they are if they don’t build out processes and take a pay cut. So what I would say, you know, that’s been a big thing for us is we’ve always hired people before we gave ourselves a raise if we’ve seen a need in that.

Christian (27:48.103)
Mm.

615 Media (28:04.418)
So hire those key hires, have your systems, have your processes. And there was something that came up yesterday. We was talking to the CTO and trying to get something figured out. And he was like, well, I’m just trying to make sure it was like 20 bucks a month or something. And we’re like, just do it. And he was like, are you sure we should do that? Because he’s looking out for the money. But we’re like, that $20 a month is going to make us thousands of dollars a month. So just go ahead and do it.

Christian (28:30.919)
Mm-hmm.

615 Media (28:32.686)
So that’s where our mindset more so is, is like, we’re looking at the future. So you have to stay looking at the future. you stay looking at right now, how much money can I put in my pocket right now? You’re not going to scale and you’re not going to grow.

Christian (28:46.791)
That’s it. And you want to give your clients the best experience, right? What you guys are already doing, right? So everything at top tier level. Well guys, man, I wish we honestly had another hour to talk about some more topics that I put together, but unfortunately we don’t. So I want to give it to you guys. Where do people need to reach out to work with you? Where can people find you and just talk a little bit about your process, about that.

615 Media (29:10.018)
Yeah, so if you’re in Tennessee or South Texas, you can work with us on a pro level, 615.media. And 615.media on Instagram is where we mainly post. And then anyone else, agents across the country, can use our app. We have a mobile app where you take them on your phone. And our team here post processes the images. And they look pretty good. So you can also do floor plans on that app. And that’s called ListKit. So ListKit, if

you’re outside of Tennessee and Texas, and then 615 if you’re inside Texas and Tennessee. So. And you can still get, like I said, you can get the floor plan. You can get digital twilight, weekend virtual stage. And all those images are still getting hand edited by us. So the quality is still going to be there. We’re Photoshopping out of mirrors, make sure the photos are level. But it is only for iPhone. So make that clear. Sorry, Android users.

Christian (30:00.807)
Awesome guys awesome. Well, I appreciate you both jumping on and sharing all the values sharing everything you guys are doing It’s incredible what you guys have built and I’m just wishing you guys nothing with the best In your future endeavors guys be sure to reach out to 615 media We’ll definitely be sure to drop all the info in the description So, know exactly where to find them and to reach out to but again guys, it’s been an absolute pleasure Wish you nothing but the best and take care everybody

615 Media (30:27.278)
Thank you.