Podcasts about transcribed

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 28, 2023 44:04

What would you do if...? is the question Gav and Em answer in this week's show. Covering zero to 3rd conditional, they discuss the uses, form, and meaning of these "if clauses" in English grammar. Plus a comprehensive listening task and quiz sheet recorded by their very special guest Arpana from AFBIELTS. Transcription with audio: https://share.descript.com/view/7myWVD9A5A0 Visit our ko-fi page to say thanks: https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod Arpana's links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afbielts/ Website: https://arpegis.my.canva.site/ Listening worksheet for the show: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/lj35rom6aan6wny598q34/Conditional-sentences-with-Arpana.pdf?rlkey=q5keiwkau0ma4tkfi1t2n23n4&dl=0 References: 3rd conditional activity: English File, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, Teacher's Book, 8A, p175

spotify english teacher covering oxford university press transcription conditional gav transcribed 8a arpana

The VO Strategist with Tom Dheere

VO BOSS Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 25, 2023 34:04

In this episode, Anne is joined by special guest Tom Dheere, the Vo Strategist. With over 25 years of experience, Tom knows how to ride the waves of ever-changing technology and market shifts. Discover the secrets to driving traffic to your website through social media, blogging, and top-notch content to keep you ahead of the pack. They share how old-school tactics like cold calling and email marketing might not be cutting it anymore. Boost your confidence with Tom's killer advice on negotiating rates like a BOSS and flipping your approach to snag the rates you truly deserve. Plus, we unveil the controversial truth about Fiverr and how this billion-dollar beast can actually help you charge industry-standard rates… Transcript 0:00:01 - Anne Hey, hey everyone, Welcome to the VO Boss podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and today I am excited to welcome voiceover business and marketing consultant and VO strategist, Tom Dheere, to the show. As a voice actor with over 25 years of experience, Tom brings a wealth of voiceover knowledge to the table In his one-on-one strategy sessions, diagnostic sessions those sound interesting and his mentorship program, As well as speaker appearances at industry conferences. Tom, I am so excited to have you here today. Thanks for joining me. 0:00:34 - Tom Thanks for having me. It's always a pleasure to chat with you, Anne. 0:00:37 - Anne Tom, you know it's chaotic out there. I'll tell you what there's disruption, There's, I say, mass panic, and I think that today more than ever, as entrepreneurs and business owners, we need a strategy more than ever. So I am super duper glad that we are here talking to you about that. So let's get a feel for your take on the industry, because you've been in the industry for gosh over 25 years and I'm sure you've seen it evolve, kind of like myself. Talk a little bit about your experience in this industry and how it's evolved over the years. 0:01:20 - Tom Okay, well, i decided I wanted to be a voice actor in 1994, so I was a graduate school dropout, so I got my. I decided in late 94, got most of my. I got my training in my voiceover demo in 95, which is a cassette tape. I still have it here in the drawer. And then when I got that demo, my coach gave me a little certificate and gave me a stack of Xerox copies of production company listings and said you know, start your good, your cold calling good luck. Because in 1995, there was I mean there was an internet and some websites, but there was no. 0:01:57 - Anne Yeah, there was no social media. 0:01:59 - Tom There was no online casting sites, there was no home recording, there was no digital delivery of audio files, there was no phone patch, there was ISDN. But like, who had that besides? like the, the, the rate, you know the major TV networks, you know. So you had to buy cold called and I called, called for a year until I got my first gig, so until I joined voice 123 in 2006,. That was pretty much, that was pretty much the only way to do it, and also I was going into New York city once a week. Voiceover is unlimited and you'd pay whatever was $35 for a 10 minute meet. Meet up with a casting director or an agent or a manager which is how I got my, my first manager, who I still have to this day, 17, 18 years later. So my cassette turned into a CD which I was duplicating, burning you know. Oh God, the my post office hated my guts. 0:03:04 - Anne Now mail. Yes, cause. 0:03:06 - Tom I had a long a lawn bag of padded mailers and they'd be like, oh geez, here comes Tom again and like, all right, everybody just gets to the side and just tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick you know cause? 0:03:15 - Anne I was just constantly sending it out, yeah, and then that evolved into MP threes. So let's, let's, let's start. I think that there's, there's something, there's a parallel here, a disruption right. Some disruption in the industry right. So it evolved from a tape into a CD, into today, which is all digital right. 0:03:36 - Tom Right And then and then pay a voice bank and voicescom and voice 123 disrupted the voiceover again, again and you know, and now AI is disrupting the voiceover industry. But this is what I say and all my students. 0:03:52 - Anne A pattern Tom. A pattern Tom. Yes, there is a pattern throughout the years, so I don't think that disruption is going to stop anytime soon. 0:04:00 - Tom No, it's going to keep going, and what I like to say is that when the light bulb was invented, it disrupted the candle making industry and nobody cared about the candle makers, except for the candle makers. 0:04:13 - Anne People were saying Oh good I can. 0:04:15 - Tom I can read a book at night without my house burning down. Like that's where everybody was coming from. It's like okay. So the candle makers had a choice They could go to Congress to try to get light bulbs outlawed, they could go la, la, la, la la which a lot of voice actors have been doing especially literally today, this week, on the voiceover groups. Or they could adjust to their candle making industry to accommodate certain parts of the light bulb industry, or they could convert their candle making factory into a light bulb making factory. So, you can either fight it, ignore it, adapt to it or embrace it. And the voice actors that are going to still be standing for lack of a better term on the other side of AI and whatever the next disruption is, the ones that are adapting, evolving learning, growing, operating from a position of abundance as opposed to a position of scarcity, and not shouting at the rain. They're the ones that are still going to have a viable voiceover career. Yeah. 0:05:08 - Anne Yeah, i'll tell you, it has really it has really wreaked havoc, and I think that you know, gosh, you know, and I've been following it and following it And you know, two years ago on the VO Bus podcast, i mean, i think that you and I can both agree to do due diligence and educate yourself on, you know, evolving technologies or disruptive technologies that can affect your business, and that is so very important that we, you know, truly educate ourselves. And I had done a series of interviews, of which I'm still doing periodically, with you know, large companies, people that are working in synthetic voices, ai companies to kind of get to ask those tough questions like Hey, what's happening here? And are you, you know, is there transparency? You know, what are your ethics? You know, do you have, you know, objectives in terms of protecting? you know, voices as you go, and I think it's been an educational journey for not just me as a business owner and a voice artist, but for the AI companies as well. I think we are all learning and evolving with technology as we go, and I've had experience doing that myself, you know, working in technology for over 20 years, and I still consider myself working in technology. So, in terms of you know your, your students and and your clients. What is your? what is your biggest tip now for, let's say, people coming into the industry, how to get a handle on this industry and be successful. 0:06:43 - Tom Do as much research as you possibly can. Work with professional coaches who are boots on the ground blue collar voice actors as well like who are actively engaged in the voiceover industry. That's not to say that there's not genre coaches out there, like Mary Lynn Wissner, for example, who is not a voice actor but is an amazing coach. There are only a handful of people like that, as you know and but people who are actively, who have to continue to grow and evolve with the industry to maintain relevance in the industry And be better than the AIs on a storytelling level as quickly as you possibly can. 0:07:23 - Anne Yeah. 0:07:24 - Tom Because they are getting better and better almost daily. Are they going to completely take over the entire voiceover industry? No, Are they going to. you know, take away a percentage of certain jobs of certain genres, mostly for entry level voice actors Yes, yeah. The trick is how do you get good enough that, when you're starting your voiceover journey, that you're already better than the AIs, so you can kind of leap over? that hurdle and be a human narrator as quickly as possible. That's going to be the challenge. What I think that means is the people that are more naturally talented, the people who have theater training, the people who have on-camera film and TV training, improv training, those people coming into the industry which are all parts of what defines a better actor are going to have a better chance than people just coming at it from other sectors. Frankly, i mean, a registered nurse has every right to stop being a nurse and try to do medical narration for a living, and I encourage that. I've trained people like that, you've trained people like that over the years, but it's going to get harder and harder if they don't have natural storytelling billing, natural storytelling ability, or they haven't been trained in non-voiceover storytelling. So get as many acting classes as you can under your belt. Get as many improv classes under your belt so you can learn how to make strong choices quickly, which is a key to being a good narrator. Understand the technology and maybe get your voice cloned as quickly as possible. 0:09:05 - Anne That's very interesting. I'm finding that I do have some people, because I did the series and I've been investigating and educating myself with AI companies for the past few years, i've had people ask me, and not all of them want to shout the rafters saying, oh, i'm out there trying to figure out how to get my voice cloned or how to get a synthetic voice. But what's interesting is that synthetic voice, the companies that are creating synthetic voices. They're also evolving and changing on a daily basis, and so it's really important that, as voice actors, you keep up with that, and I'm always a big proponent of if you have a business, you want to understand the market in which you're selling And so part of that market. If the market is changing. And, tom, as a business person, you're all about researching and looking at the market as it evolves over the years. And where do you see the market heading in terms of voiceover casting? Where are we going to be able to get these jobs, or where can voiceover talent find work? And I know that's the golden question, right. People like they expect a five-minute answer from me. Where can I get voiceover work? But where do you see that evolving and heading as we move on in the future? 0:10:27 - Tom That's a great question, Anne. There will still always be a place for needing agents, managers and casting directors for high end work, class A national commercials, high end video games and cartoons, high end promo, high end in show narration. I don't think that's ever. I don't think that's ever going to change. Casting sites are going to continue to be as relevant as ever and is still the the most effective way for new voice actors to onboard into the industry. Because you can. All you need is a credit card and you could just join the casting site and start auditioning immediately. The interesting part is going to be the direct marketing part which. I learned the hard way when all of my direct marketing strategies, which worked like gangbusters in 2013, 14, 15, 16, all of a sudden stopped working because, so many of those production companies recording studios that I had worked with through direct marketing strategies have moved to online casting sites just because it's easier for them to curate a roster, manage talent, manage projects. So, um, ai is going to take a chunk out of online casting sites. It's going to take a chunk out of direct marketing clients the low end stuff and stuff that would never normally get like there's audio books out there that will never get produced unless it's an AI voice. 0:11:51 - Anne It's going to do it out of interest or ergonomics or just sure, whatever that sure whatever the rights holder can, um, can afford. 0:11:57 - Tom So you also new students, when it comes to this kind of strategies, need to figure out what. How does what a success look like for them, Which genres do they want to be successful in And which portals do they need to access to become successful in said genres? So if you want to be on the next Pixar film or be in the next fallout video game, you need to get a lot of training, you need to get a top notch demo, you need to get high end agents and you're going to eventually need to join SAG-AFTRA. That's not. That's not changing for everybody else. You know the pendulum is going to swing, stuff's going to move or stuff's going to move around, but you're still going to need you're still going to need the aforementioned good training, good demo good website, good home recording. Um, and the ability to keep up with industry's trends by reading blogs, watching podcasts like this um, working with coaches like, like you and me. Um, it's going to what, what percentage of what genre is going to get lost and where you're going to need to go for each of it. I mean, who can? who can say, but if you have, if, if online casting sites stigmatize you, get over it get in there develop your skills develop your auditioning skills. 0:13:10 - Anne That was it. That was the nugget of the day. That was awesome Sound right of the day. Yeah. 0:13:14 - Tom Because online casting sites like I'm. I know because I'm on voice 123. I audition every day and I regularly see clients that are posting casting notices that I used to work with five, six, seven, eight, 10 years ago, who won't take my phone calls anymore because they're on casting sites. That's the only way they'll talk to me And I'm totally fine with that, because you said you got to go where the buyers are. you got to go where the market is going. That's where they are. That's where you need to be. 0:13:41 - Anne I think there's something to say If we just tell every boss out there, you know, first of all, um, be a boss, right And understand that you really have to stop. And I think, take a uh, uh, take a look at the bigger picture. The bigger picture is we're providing a product, uh, to a market, the market. You have to evolve with the market. It's not about you know, uh, oh, my gosh, it's, it's, it's you know your voice over business and your craft and your and your art, which I completely, yes, it is. But honestly, you know, at the end of the day, right, i want to pay my mortgage, right, and if I want to have a business, it always amazes me, tom, how you know you go to conferences and I know you know when, when, cause I used to, i used to teach business classes as well. Whenever you go to see which classes fill up first, it's always the performance classes, it's always the cartoon and video game. Always those because, well, okay, so they're fine, they they allow the creativity. But, honestly, you know, beyond the fun and the creativity in the booth, you've got to be able to run a business that will make a profit. If you want to write, if you want to do this as a business and you want and you're serious about it I mean, if it's you know, if it's a hobby, that's a difference, that's a different podcast. Sure, you know, and I think that you know what you offer, you know, to people as a, a VO strategist or even just a business strategist, is invaluable. And I truly think, bosses out there, you've got to step back. Um, and yes, of course you know, create the product that the market is demanding Right, and and also know how to run your business right. And so I love your story that you know the people that used to take your calls no longer will take your calls. You know your calls and now you have to work with them on the platform, and mostly because it's easy and more convenient And I will be the first person to ask any of you bosses out there if you're using any form of AI to do anything. Let's say, create a blog post or, you know, maybe play around and change your headshot And you're using the technology to make your jobs better, more efficient, then you cannot be the person that gets upset if you're not, let's say, evolving along with the synthetic voice aspect of it. 0:16:06 - Tom You know, absolutely. 0:16:08 - Anne I mean. So, as we talk to peer to peer, i think, or pay to play platforms, i think online casting is absolutely. What about Tom? let's talk about what about your website, your online platform, your online storefront? What do you think about that in terms of being able to market your business? 0:16:29 - Tom Okay, it's funny because people coming into the industry, you know most of them realize they need some kind of training and then they realize, oh, i need to record from home. You know I need a demo. And then almost all of them think, well, i need some kind of website. But they don't know why they need a website. They don't know how to build a website and they don't know what is necessary to create an effective website. What I tell my students is that no one is gonna find your website nobody. There are literally tens of thousands of voice actor websites out there. The odds of them typing in some stuff on Google, bing, yahoo and finding you is virtually impossible. I mean, tomdeercom is over 20 years old and I've been blogging for 14 years, so I've got really good SEO and I rarely get found on it. Anyway, the point is, your job as a voice actor is to drive traffic to your website, and you do that by being on social media, blogging, creating a presence, creating conversations, creating quality content to get them to notice you. And then there's email marketing and cold calling, which I'm sure you realize that they don't work a fraction as well as they used to, because why should they answer the phone of some voice actor trying to talk about themselves, when they're just gonna go to an online casting site to cast their next project. They're already more than halfway down the sales funnel anyway on an online casting site, as opposed to trying to get them into the sales funnel through cold calling and all that. So driving traffic to your website is extremely important, and then get them to do the most important thing, which is download your demos. 0:18:12 - Anne Everything else, is irrelevant Or click it back. I mean, everything else is secondary to downloading the demo. Right, yeah, but now downloading the demo? now we've got there's the fear. There's now there's some fear that if we allow our audio, you know, freely out there and I, you know I have podcast, you have podcast. Anybody can download this podcast I've been doing it for six years and potentially turn it into a voice. 0:18:40 - Tom Okay, Look everybody. I've been doing this for 25 years. I have done thousands and thousands of voiceover projects. I've probably done tens of thousands of auditions over the years, I guarantee my voice has been cloned without my knowledge many times over. I guarantee that auditions that I have you, that I have done, has been used for broadcast without my consent or without compensation. Every website that exists is going to get hacked at some point. None of our data is safe, it's just not. All you can do is do the best you can to mitigate your risk. try to be secure. I can't worry about submitting my demo and worrying about it getting cloned. I mean if I, if I was worried about that, i wouldn't have a career. I would. I'd be quadruple bolting the door and hiding in the bathtub. There's just nothing you can do about it. So don't worry about don't worry about that. Put the demo out there. I mean because the the the odds of it happening are extremely slim, but the longer you're here, the more likely it's going to happen. It's just you know well. 0:19:45 - Anne Tom, i mean, i think I think really again, we we talk about that bad actors, um, which is so interesting in our industry. Now, the term bad actor, right. Had I not really delved in deep to talking to people outside of my own industry, i would not have known what the bad actor meant. Um, outside of, like the literal meaning of it, right, but the bad actors meaning those companies, right, or those people that may take advantage, unfair advantage, um, with the in in clone voices, without permission, create deep fakes, all of those things. There's always that possibility And I had such an interesting conversation the other day with Shyamala Praga, who is very well known in the AI industry. Um, regarding, you know, laws and regulations and and instead of being reactive which is what we typically are right, reactive, something bad happens and then a law or you know some sort of policy is is established that then, you know, takes care of it. Um, really trying to again educate all of us, not just in our industry but everywhere, that, um, these things could potentially happen and we need to protect ourselves from bad things. Um, you know, what are your thoughts about? I mean, i, like, i really love your, your, your perspective on you can't be worrying about that all the time, but are there any steps that you would recommend to to, let's say, to protect um or to be cautious about that? I mean, i certainly am not going to make my demo not downloadable because I want it to be convenient for people to listen and buy. 0:21:20 - Tom You have to have it. It has to be downloadable because, when it comes to your direct marketing strategies and driving traffic to your website, the odds of them having a voiceover project for you right now, at the time that you have marketed to them successfully and they've actually gone to your website to review your demos, the odds of them actually having a gig for you is infinitesimally small. I can count, i think, on two fingers in 25 years that that's actually happened. Representation and online casting insights are for opportunities now. Direct marketing, driving traffic to your website is for opportunities. later They're not going to remember you once they leave that website of yours You need to have. They need to walk away with the demo, so they stick it in a folder somewhere in their cloud or on their desktop, so when an opportunity comes along that you may be right, for your demo was right there for them to review, or if again another thing that I always like- to say is that, no matter what in a marketplace and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, there are I will pay for things that make my life easier and make my life more convenient. 0:22:25 - Anne So, for example, i hate, i always use this my lipstick. So my lipstick is reliable, dependable, stays on all day, i don't have to put it on again And I you know I use that as an example product. I pay a lot of money for this lipstick. Now I certainly feel that no matter. Look AI, you know pay to play sites, you know driving down, you know rates. I no matter what. If somebody likes and gangooza right and likes her product, they're going to pay the money and they're going to remember me and they're going to buy it again and again. I'd love to hear your thoughts. 0:22:58 - Tom You go to a department store and there's five pairs of shoes on on the shelf and four of them cost, you know, $75 and one of them cost $800. Everybody immediately goes and looks at oh, what's this? What's the value of this? Why is it worth $800? Well, if they says it's worth $800, then clearly it must be worth $800. So I will happily spend $800 on this pair of shoes. So most people coming into the voiceover industry are broke and perceive themselves as an employee or a starving artist. They are already immediately devaluing themselves and training voice seekers to devalue them. So it's a systems of, it's a systems of thought problem. And I'm not going to sit here and blow sunshine up everybody's butt and say you're special, you're wonderful, you're, you're going to. All your dreams are going to come true, because that's not what the VOStratigist does. This VOStratigist does not sell dreams. The VOStratigist sells reality. My job is to give you objective data so you can set, you can make informed decisions about your voiceover career. But you want to do everything you can to set yourself up for success And the first step one is mindset. Know your worth. Know your worth based on your pure talent, know your worth based on your training, know your worth based on your experience. And know your worth based on what the industry standards are. Sag After over here GVAA over there, Know what your worth is and comport yourself And it's maybe it's a little fake it till you make it. I don't. I'm not sure you can do that. Having confidence and being confident in your training and your talent and your understanding of the rates, That should empower you to make sure that people aren't buying stuff from you that are shopping in the wrong aisle. 0:24:56 - Anne And also, i would say, as a as a talent just coming in, i don't think you can expect to get into or to become a top tier you know, professional without making an investment. I mean, that's the other thing too. I cannot tell you how many people they'll be like. You know, i really need coaching, but I just I don't have any. You know, they don't have the budget they don't have And, and so in reality, there has to be those things in place. You can't expect to go in and make a ton of money without investing in yourself and investing in that, in that coaching that's going to help you to be the most human voice actor that you can be. 0:25:37 - Tom Patience is one of the most important skills that you need to have as a new voice actor. Everyone wants to start talking for money as quickly as possible and using their funny cartoon voices that their dentist told them is hilarious And that's all. That's all great, but if you can't afford the training yet, build a budget create a savings plan. be patient, find community theaters or summer theater programs that have free acting and improv training, and develop your foundation of storytelling skills while you're saving money to work with a professional coach like Anne, or work with a VO strategist you know a business marketing consultant like me. There's a ton of things that you can do. But if you dive in when you're not ready or you go with the first demo coach that you can afford and submit to that demo to those agents for the first time, it's not gonna go well. It's not gonna go well. So I'll never tell anybody not to pursue their dreams, but I will tell everybody to be smart about pursuing their dreams by having. This is what I like to say no matter what you're doing in life, do it with both hands and on a flat surface. Be smart about it, i learned that when I tried to open an Amazon box with a pair of open scissors like this, which we've all done, Oh, yeah, yeah, not yeah. Both hands flat surface. 0:26:58 - Anne Very guilty of that. So then, let me talk a little. let's talk a little bit about rates, because what is your best advice for those actors who might be struggling to find work at their desired rates when you know there is this perceived? you know, race to the bottom, with technology disrupting What, how can they pivot their approach to succeed and get rates that they deserved? 0:27:21 - Tom Learn how to negotiate. And it's not like a Middle East Bazaar where you're haggling over the price of, you know, a goat or something. It's just the better that you can understand the rate structure of voiceover on a session level and on a usage level, the better, the more empowered you are to educate your clients or potential clients, because for so many casting notices that I see, or so many emails hey, i found you on Google, whatever they've never cast a voiceover in their life. They haven't the faintest idea what the ergonomics are, what project management is involved or what the rate structure is. Being experienced it's not necessarily a correlation between being professional and experienced. You don't have to be experienced to be professional To understand there is a rate structure. I understand what the rate structure is and I'm able to articulate it to somebody who has no idea how the voiceover industry works. The more that you can do that, the more empowered you are to get industry standard rates and the more empowered you are to educate voice seekers to value you and not let them use cheap rates. Well, i paid this guy five bucks. I'm gonna leverage it to get you to pay you five bucks where you say no, you don't do that You gotta think long term. You have to value yourself and your fellow voice actors, because every time you accept a ratty rate, you're making it harder for everybody else. Every time you accept an industry standard rate, you're making it easier for everybody else. 0:28:51 - Anne Now, but okay. So then here's the question. Yes, i agree that there should be the thought process about the industry as a whole. However, you will always have those voice actors that it is their business, right? I'm a big proponent of saying mind your own business. That means, don't worry about how other people get their business. In that respect, though, do you know what I'm saying? I truly believe I want people to understand their worth in order to make a bold and take the challenge to actually negotiate that worth with a potential client. So, speaking of five bucks, i know that you had talked to me a little bit about an experiment that you had conducted using the online pay to play the F word, fiverr. And I personally, i'm one of those people that thinks we need to talk about this because it is a viable marketplace in the well viable it exists in our industry. Let's put it that way you may not agree with it and you may not feel that it values your worth, but what were your findings? What do you think about Fiverr? 0:29:58 - Tom Okay, it had been coming up so much in conversations with my students, with my fellow voice actors, fellow coaches, producers, panelists at conferences And, like I said, my job as a video strategist is to collect objective data so I can help my students make thoughtful, informed decisions about how to move their voiceover business forward. Fiverr is real, it is here. It's a billion dollar company. There are thousands and thousands of voice actors on it. So I needed to understand what exactly it is, why it is and how it works. So I created an account, I followed the tutorials, i looked at YouTube videos, i built a profile and then you build what are called gigs And a gig is basically broken down by genre. I will narrate I'm an American voice actor who will narrate your explainer video or e-learning module or whatever And then what you do is you build the rate, but you're breaking it down bit by bit. So This is what really fascinated me about it is if someone said to you and I've got an explainer video, how much do you charge? and you probably charge what? 400, 500, whatever sometime around there But if you actually broke down by dollar, how much it costs for you to record the video, how much it costs to edit the video, to clean up, process, format, save, deliver. Do retakes give you permission to use the video in a certain way on a certain platform? if you chop up that $400 into all those little individual things, that's basically what you're doing on Fiverr. So it could say base price $5, but then if you add deliver as a wave file, deliver it within 24 hours you know, we'll only get two retakes. Mvp, I'll move you up to the front of the line, If you, then if you go da-da-da-da, then the total can be $400. It can be an industry standard rate. Fiverr saying oh, we get everything's for five bucks. 0:32:05 - Anne It's more of a marketing position than anything else. And if you think about that in reality, right, if they're going for that market for the people who don't right, who don't have a lot of money to spend and they want to go for lower priced, saying Fiverr and marketing themselves as Fiverr, get affordable, then absolutely I mean as a business they built for a market where there was a hole And yeah, and now of course, because they have so many voice artists on it right. that increases their SEO value, which increases, you know, ease, convenience, of use, and so that's what makes them you know the force that they are in the industry. 0:32:49 - Tom Right. So there's three levels on Fiverr And if you earn a certain amount of money and a certain amount of timing, get a certain amount of ratings in a certain amount of time, then you go to the next level and then the top level and the people at the top level charge industry standard rates and they do fine. The trick is kind of punching through that membrane from the first level to the second, in the second to the third. I feel like that's where it can be challenging. 0:33:12 - Anne Yeah, and I feel like you'd have to work that, because I think you have to earn that right, you have to get so many ratings, and I feel like you'd have to actually work the platform for a bit so that you could get up the ratings, so that you could climb up the ladder, so that you could charge industry rates. But, although not impossible, it's a very interesting concept. And because we are talking about it, bosses, doesn't necessarily mean we are condoning that platform, i mean. But if you look at it from a business standpoint, it absolutely, you know it covered a hole in the market and logically I can see how that works. I absolutely can see how that works Now, do I love that? it makes voiceover seem cheap? No, not at all. And I think to each and everyone out there, it is up to you to make that decision whether you want your brand associated with that brand, because that's a whole other way of doing business, right? So, again, you're almost working for the platform And then that platform represents your brand versus, let's say, for me, i've always been let's do it myself, and you know, seo for me. I've been online for years and it's worked in my favor And I've built up a great clientele list And I'm very fortunate that I'm able to continue on that. And while I am a member of a lot of pay to place, i don't have time to actually audition. And you know, for me, email marketing well, it's probably not quite as effective. Well, it's hard to say. I still believe that there's effectiveness in email marketing if you've got the right message and you have the right subject line, because people have less and less of an attention span. But it's one of the reasons why I built the VO Boss Blast. It was a way to help direct market talent, so that they didn't, you know, and I basically started it for myself. Isn't that like every company. 0:35:05 - Tom Right, if you create a product you want, help You do it to serve your needs. 0:35:09 - Anne I did it because I was like I don't have time. I want to do the podcast, i want to do VOPs, i want to be you know, i'm coaching, so I don't have a ton of time, so let me just create a direct marketing product that I can use. And then, of course, i shared that. 0:35:24 - Tom I do want to say for the record I have not booked anything on Fiverr. I set up my gig, i made adjustments to my rates because you're supposed to refresh it and try to feed the algorithm. I couldn't. I also did the same exercise on Upwork and it worked similarly and I got the same results. I could not. I could not book anything. I guess that just means I'm not a particularly good voice actor. 0:35:47 - Anne No, I think it's because you didn't have 100% of your right time to really devote to it. I mean, that's what. I think That's a part of it. 0:35:55 - Tom And the other thing is understanding the economies of the voice seekers, absolutely. 0:35:59 - Anne Diversify the economies and understanding of you know, money and how it works, of the country of origin of the voice actor too, absolutely, and Tom, i'll be the first one to say I mean, we've been in this business a long time. If you were on Voice 123 in 2006, right, you remember? Freelancer. 0:36:17 - Tom Oh, i was on Freelancer. Oh good, so was I. And Elanzen and Guru, yeah, i was on all of them. 0:36:22 - Anne So all of those evolved into Fiverr. Really, that's really it was that it was like who could bid the lowest right? And I will tell you that, as a you know, entering into the online space, i mean that's where I did get some jobs. Now, did I take jobs that were probably not what I was worth? Yeah, I did, i did, but I learned quickly, you know, and it was a tough, it was a tight, it was frustrating because it was always people under bidding And so you get that type of client, but what you do is you learn about where those clients right, those are the clients that don't value your product Not necessarily you but they don't value the product enough to pay the price right. 0:37:01 - Tom They want to pay the cheapest, the biggest of the pain they are. 0:37:04 - Anne Exactly, exactly So. Wow, what a great conversation, tom. This has been so wonderful and enlightening for the bosses out there. I'm quite sure, tom, how can people get in touch with you and work with you? 0:37:17 - Tom Oh, go to vostrategistcom. I encourage you to book a free 15 minute consult. We can talk about any part of the voiceover industry that you want. I also have a video shop where I've got closing in on 30 different videos covering everything in the voiceover industry, from time management to workflow to genre exploration to managing your finances. I also have a great mentorship program where you can do 30 minute check-ins with me once a week, once a month or twice a month. It also gives you access to some of those videos for free. But, yeah, book a session with me, free session with me at vostrategistcom, and I'd love to chat with you. 0:37:50 - Anne Good stuff, tom. Yeah, bosses, today more than ever we need a strategy for moving forward in our business. So go to it, tom. Thank you again. I would like to talk to you bosses about. As individuals, you know, it can seem difficult to make a huge impact, but as a group, we can contribute to the growth of our communities in ways that we never thought possible. Visit 100voiceswhocareorg to learn how And a big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl You too can connect in network like bosses like Tom and myself. Find out more at IPDTLcom. You guys have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. Bye-bye. Transcribed by https://podium.page

tv american new york amazon google work ai voice talk sound discover congress boss mvp cd seo gurus boost pixar casting representation mp freelancers strategist frankly voiceover fiverr sag aftra vo upwork xerox oh god transcribed isdn tom you tom no anne ganguzza tom oh tom there tom so anne it

14. What if...? with Arpana (transcribed)

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2023 44:02

english teacher covering oxford university press transcription conditional gav transcribed 8a arpana

13. SPOTIFY VIDEO Mistakes - Pick and Mix (transcribed)

spotify english mistakes cambridge transcription gav transcribed suffixes

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2023 32:11

Do you know the typical English mistakes made by speakers of your language? How do you prepare yourself or your students to avoid these errors? Gav and Em look at the Cambridge exam corpus and highlight typical language mistakes made by speakers of different languages and how you might deal with them. Transcription with audio: https://share.descript.com/view/XeNRe6IP05P Buy Gav and Em a hot beverage to show your appreciation: https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod Episode theme suggested by Charlotte: https://www.instagram.com/charlotte_english_teacher/ Resources: Cambridge Learner Corpus: https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2020/03/02/understanding-common-learner-error-cambridge-learner-corpus/ Suffixes: https://www.latchontolearning.com/post/wacky-word-wednesday-top-10-suffixes

13. Mistakes - Pick and Mix (transcribed)

english mistakes cambridge transcription gav transcribed suffixes

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2023 32:08

12. SPOTIFY VIDEO Giving Up (transcribed)

spotify giving up transcription gav transcribed

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2023 34:09

Have you considered giving up teaching or learning? What was your motivation to stay or leave? This week Gav & Em look at quitting; throwing the towel in; giving up! Whether it's an activity, a class, or even a company, Gav & Em have a motivating guide for you. Buy Gav & Em a coffee/tea here to say thanks: https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod Transcription with audio: https://share.descript.com/view/jinDRSXT0Ay References: Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/tech-support/201501/8-ways-you-can-tell-that-its-the-right-time-to-quit Sergio on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GrammarDrops Confusing words list: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/commonly-confused-words-list

Vocal Health with Nic Redman

VO BOSS Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2023 30:58

In this episode, Anne is joined by vocal health expert Nic Redman to unlock the key to vocal mastery. Together, they delve into the significance of warm-ups, breath control, and overcoming imposter syndrome. Discover the holistic approach to warming up that saves time, enhances performance, and ensures the longevity of your voice. Explore the vital role breath plays in voiceover and gain techniques to master longer phrases while maintaining the sentence and breath system. Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your voice and take your skills to the next level. 0:00:01 - Anne Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and today I'm excited to welcome podcaster, voiceover actor, speaking and recording coach, Nic Redman, to the podcast. Hey, Nic, how are you? I'm so delighted to be back. Yes, i love gosh. I've had you and also Leah from the VO Social podcast voiceover social podcast a couple of times already and now I get to have you all to myself. 0:00:31 - Nic Yeah, we don't need Leah to have a good time. We can do this on our own. 0:00:35 - Anne There we go, and absolutely So. I've been dying to talk to you about your, what I, what I feel is your specialty. You are like the guru of vocal health and I have been wanting to talk to you about that for quite some time, and I know that our boss listeners will have such value out of the wisdom that you have to share about vocal health. So, thank you, thank you, thank you. So let's start, and actually I will say that you know, i rushed into my booth this morning and I did not warm up. And I am speaking and I want my voice to be in tip top shape and I know that everybody always says well, what you know, what vocal warm up should I do and are they, are they important and what can they do to help me get into tip top performance shape? 0:01:26 - Nic Right. So first thing in the morning there's a couple of things I think are really important and also just a dispel if you miss that kind of put people off, warm ups, i think as well. Sometimes, you know, because people are like oh, i don't have time to warm up. I don't know what to do. Like my voice is fine, I don't need to warm up Like there's. You know, I hear all of the excuses on all of the excuses. 0:01:47 - Anne I'm sure you do. It's like. It's like getting on the exercise bike. Right, i'm going to do what I'm going to do and I know it's good for me, but I don't do it. So let's talk about why we should. 0:01:57 - Nic So the thing about a warm up is it's about preparing you to be like the best you can be as a speaker. That's basically it You might be able to get. I mean, we all speak without warming up every day, like that's just life I can communicate with my husband, i can talk to my child and whatever emotion that requires at the time. 0:02:14 - Anne I can order coffee, You know I can. 0:02:16 - Nic I can do what I need to do And I could. But the thing about a warm up is when you're let's call it an elite vocal performer like all your listeners is that it's good, isn't? 0:02:25 - Anne it, i'm an elite vocal performer. Elite vocal performer? Yes, you are. 0:02:30 - Nic It's that. It's that you kind of find something extra right, and also you've sometimes got to speak in a way that is maybe slightly outside of your habitual place, like if you're in a really excited read or a really kind of sensual read or a video game or a character or something that even requires you, for example, audio book narrators. They have all of my respect. They have to record for like thousands of hours for like days and then read another book in the evening and then do another book. I mean, like it's insane. So elite vocal performers have to find something else, and I think that something else can just be longevity and consistency, you know, and a healthy voice that will be there for you and sound the same in the morning as it does in the afternoon or the evening, or that something else could be going outside your comfort range to play a really big character, or do loads of grunts or something that's just different. The thing about what a warm up does is helps you prepare for that. So the main things to focus on for a warm up are the fact that it's like for me, more than about just tongue twisters, and clarity, because that seems to be where a lot of people start like I need to warm up, peter Piper, peter Piper, peter Piper, peter Piper, and like sure, that's that's the first place they go. So what I advocate for because that's what I was trained as as a voice practitioner and as a performer is like a full body, holistic body, mind, breath approach. That being said, still doesn't have to take very long, and so it's all about remembering that you do have a body underneath your larynx, so that needs a little bit of like yes, yeah, i'm well done. Can you imagine if we were all floating larynxes Like I feel like that would actually be quite nice for me because I love larynx, but I like the visual, I think yeah just a little larynx on feet floating around, just floating. So it's about getting the body, the breath, even your head, in the game a wee bit. And that's what I love about warm ups is that you can use them. And this is my sort of, this is my current soapbox is that you know when people say, well, I don't have time to warm up, It's for it doesn't have to take a long time. So five to 10 minutes of the right exercises, because often people are doing things that aren't the most efficient for their voice. And secondly, your warm up can actually save you time. And it does save you time Because if you take five to 10 minutes to warm up before you start, you will trip up over less words. 0:04:51 - Anne So you will have less editing or let's pick up. That's important, so important. Would you see editing, yes, please. Oh my God, i mean really, i think that's all there. I remember when I had my first you know stack, that someone prepared for me that I could apply to my audio file And I was like, oh my God, i just saved so much time. If I can save even more time on me at my editing, oh my gosh, i can do more jobs and be happier, that's for sure. 0:05:15 - Nic So it saves you time because you don't have to do like pickups because you trip over your tongue. She says tripping up over her tongue. 0:05:20 - Anne That always happens. 0:05:22 - Nic I mean the irony of all that, that's my that's me taking the Mickey out of myself. Like you know what I mean posture syndrome. Like you think you're so good at this, i'm going to show you. 0:05:33 - Anne No, you have to give a viable example. 0:05:35 - Nic So I probably the problem. 0:05:37 - Anne And that's interesting because I will say that I know that when okay, before I was a voice actor, I I taught and so I worked at a school and I would do these day long seminars or day long workshops where I would have to use my voice and I would absolutely be feeling it by the end of the day, And I'm quite sure that it is a muscle and that it needs to be worked. And especially because I do a lot of narration I don't do audio books, but I do a lot of e learning, I do a lot of corporate narration And I'm always talking to my students that it is a muscle that needs to be worked And it gosh. It would really help to not trip up so much. Right, I'm always say be more efficient in the booth, So you have to spend the less time editing. Yeah, that way, get it right in the booth, and so I can totally see that. And I will say that sometimes I'm doing other things like marketing, or I'm coaching or doing other things, and by the time I get to those auditions late at night because I think my, i think all of my agents are in cahoots with one another because they send me these auditions late at night at the end of the day And I am so tired And I will notice sometimes my jaw gets a little bit sore And I'm like there's got to be something here that I'm doing that is not right. That's making my jaw sore, like I'm holding tension somehow somewhere in my jaw. 0:06:56 - Nic Yeah, there's loads of different things that we can play around with to sort of minimize those little niggles that creep up, because sometimes those niggles, over a period of time, become something that's much more sort of Much more of an issue, you know. So, yeah, we can talk to you about John, we can have a little release, but just before we do it, in terms of the warm-up and the why, yeah, save your time, because the tongue trip ups also. Save your time because and, if you like, do some exercises to release tension. Like you said, the jaw, the tongue, the lips, the Throat, the body get the breath moving. Play with your range as well, so you get lots of vocal color and expression in there. Then, when you get to your script and you are thinking about What you've got to say and the lines are there and who you've got to communicate with and all that kind of stuff, all you have to worry about is the words and the person that you're talking to. You don't have to think about your voice, right you don't have to think about being interesting and changing color and doing weird things with pitch and weird, strange things with the prosody To make it sound interesting. Because that's one of my bug bears sometimes with voiceovers is I feel like they're trying too hard to make Their voices sound interesting, yes, instead of focusing on the listener. So like what? I love about a warm-up is that when you give someone really a really simple warm-up, it prepares them and frees everything up so that their voice goes wherever their intention needs it to in order to communicate the message. 0:08:14 - Anne So I don't see your time. I love that and I and I love the fact that that you mentioned that People they tend to to try to sound like you know, or predict what people want them to sound like. So they're trying to do all these Like vocal acrobatics when in reality, we just need to be, we have to have intention and we and we need that intention to be able to Not betray us when we want to express an emotion. In that, and I feel that, yes, having not to have to listen or worry about your voice, you know, not necessarily being there for you, i think is is amazing. So I love how you've turned it into not like something that's like, oh god, i have to do a vocal warm-up into how it really truly helps your performance and I think, really to be a better actor, right Yeah 100%. 0:09:03 - Nic It's just prepping all the bit so that they're go where you need them to go without you thinking about them. That's what you know the right kind of muscle memory and prepping everything and also, like my approach is about making it like fun and interesting and nice. So I'm making it quick and easy and something that sort of slots into your routine and can become a habit. And the other thing I said it came across recently as a bit of a warm-up is useful because theory is that, because it works on the body And the breath, and I always advocate a wee mindful minute before you start, just to focus on what your body needs and what your breath feels like it needs And how your voice is feeling is. It is actually almost like a wee bit of a mindfulness practice or a mental health practice as well. So if you're someone who likes a bit of meditation or body work or breath work in the morning, You can incorporate all that into your warm-up and then you're getting like two or three birds with one stone. 0:09:52 - Anne Yeah yeah, and I think, in addition to the vocal work, the breath work too is so important And that is part of a good vocal warm-up, i assume in your, in your, in your recommendations, because I feel like for me, i, you know, a while ago I had a health issue and had surgery and I wasn't able to breathe as well because it's surgery in my chest area And I noticed that I had to start learning how to really breathe and take Diaphragmatic breaths, like big, deep breaths, and the really cool thing about that is that, yes, i healed, but also it allowed me to really understand how powerful breathing is to my performance and how power especially when you're doing long Format and when the copy isn't necessarily written pretty or written well, yeah, when the copies all over the place and you need to be able to execute that effortlessly That is where a good, strong breath is so empowering, really truly empowering, more so than I ever imagined. So in a way, it was good that I kind of learned that I needed to breathe and how much power it could really give me for my performance. 0:11:03 - Nic Yeah, I think one of the things that excites me about breath is Sorry. 0:11:12 - Anne I thought maybe yeah, yeah, well, you know, that's what happened, he's fine Breath yes, yes I love working on breath. 0:11:23 - Nic It's one of my favorite things, particularly with voiceovers, because there are some like interesting misconceptions and hangovers from like earlier breath Dementorologies in voice world that that make breathing for that make people who are doing voiceover sort of have to seem like they have to work A bit harder because they don't quite understand what's going on with the breath. Sure, so what? so what I work with in terms of breath is I I don't I kind of get people to forget about the diaphragm completely. Okay because every breath is diaphragmatic, right, it's the primary muscle of breathing. So you can't, you can't not breathe with your diaphragm. So it's kind of a semantics with the language in one thing. 0:12:02 - Anne But well, maybe I was, maybe I was meaning deep breath. Yeah, exactly, okay, Okay. 0:12:07 - Nic Yeah, so like got it. So what I might? when, when people come to me and they say I need to breathe from or with they're using my diaphragm, what I find they're trying they're trying to, they're trying to do it rather than letting it happen, and what that leads to is people trying to breathe through their belly or Deep and all that kind of stuff, and that leads to engagement of muscles that don't need to be used. Ah, so so what I advocate for and tend to explore is Just is release and flow and movement, because Big breaths are great for, you know, long phrases sometimes and For, sometimes for powerful stuff, if that's what you need. But also, similarly, breath is as much about knowing that sometimes you only need a little breath or you only need a medium-sized breath, because actually what we need is the right amount of breath for the sentence We've got to say no more, no less, and that in itself is sort of an interesting skill to play with in a choir. So all the work I do around breath is like Diver from be gone Okay, and just work on release of the belly, a little bit of gentle engagement on the out breath and on the voice And just understanding what you're capable of. Really breath like my big love, love, love breath. 0:13:19 - Anne I. So that just that intrigues me, because I I'm always talking about when, when you have that long run-on sentence right, and a Voice talent doesn't necessarily anticipate it, and they run out of breath at the weird part, right at the part where it doesn't sound natural. I'm always trying to get them to kind of you know, read ahead, understand where you might need to breathe in order to make that sound natural. How does that come into play with your breathing? 0:13:48 - Nic Yeah, so. So my thing is making sure that the breath system is responsive enough and free enough to breathe quickly when those little top ups are needed quickly and easily and silently, and silently When those little top ups are needed, because I know that often in voiceover there are various things that get in the way of feeling like you know how much type of breath you even need Right. Or you know you're halfway through ascending and you realize it's four times longer than you thought it was going to be Right, absolutely Right absolutely So. there's a really interesting thing about breath whereby, when we're talking in conversation to our mates, right, we don't run out of breath. Our body knows how much breath we need for the thought, but when you're working with other people's thoughts, in voiceover you don't know where they fucking end Like in. Some of them are, like you say, not written very well, so you could be halfway through and you suddenly realize it's like loads longer than it needs to be. But ultimately, as long as we're like engaged and connected to the words and what we have to say, that ascending is going to sort of be as long as it wants. As long as our breath is free and we know which bits to release when we need the breath to come in to top up for us, and you keep that intention of that thought in the background until the end, you can sort of breathe as much as you want. The reason I think this is important and crucial is because sometimes voiceovers push, push, push, push right to the end of a thought, and then everything gets a little bit kind of like tense. 0:15:10 - Anne Yeah, and it's not good for your breath and it feels horrible And it doesn't sound connected. It sounds like, oh my God, I'm going to run out of breath. Yeah, And the list? it doesn't jar. 0:15:19 - Nic It's not nice for the listener. anyway, sure. But, us as, as social listeners, we are used to hearing really long meandering thoughts with our friends and our on our family. Like we're used to people starting a thought and not really knowing where it's going, and then they breathe a bit to top up and then they go off in another direction And we stay with them because we're interested and because their intention is true, like they want to tell us the thing right. So the theory is sort of the same, with voiceover for me, that the sentence can be as long as a sentence in fact needs to be As long as you are, like, committed to communicating that sentence and the breath system behind it is free to respond and be flexible and and fill it when you need to, then that's okay, so, yeah, so I work a lot with helping people understand how to get the breath in nice and, quickly and silently, how to support the breath when they need to. Also how to know where the point is Sure That they need to top up. 0:16:11 - Anne That makes sense, like the organization of the thoughts. 0:16:14 - Nic Yeah, like we speak. 0:16:15 - Anne I always when I'm, when I'm talking to my students, i'm like look, we don't. You don't hear us breathe when we're talking to to one another. We're basically breathing before we start talking, maybe after we finish talking, and then where there's commas or intended commas, and so that's typically where I say you've got to figure out where that breath goes. If it's super long, just kind of organize the thought and then speak that thought. I mean, that's, if you're in that scene, you'll speak the thought without necessarily, you know, running out of breath in the middle of it. Now I'm so conscious of my breathing right now I'm like it's beautiful And you're doing great because, look, you're alive. 0:16:51 - Nic Yeah, right, that's why you're alive and you're making voices perfect. Yeah, i interviewed Barbara Housman for my for the voice quits podcast one of my podcasts And she's this remarkable voice practitioner I have a massive. I've worked with her on and off for years and I train with her at drama school and stuff And she's amazing And she always says well, this is what she said to me was because there used to be a thought in kind of drama training that was like one breath, one thought, one breath one thought. And then you look at Shakespeare and the thoughts are like 19 sentences long. 0:17:20 - Anne This is never going to work. 0:17:22 - Nic So she reframed it for me and she said it's not about it being one breath, It's about it being one thought. So like I can keep that thought going and breathe wherever I need to, because breath is part of the communication as well. Now, i know for some types of voiceover you have to take the breath out and it's like fine, although I feel like with the event, like this AI nod. So this is going on. We need the breath because it's real and human. But that's just, that's just me. But, like you can, as long as you, as long as you really know that you need to say the words, you need to communicate the thing and you need to affect the person listening, you can let the breath come in whenever you want to, as long as it's very easy. So so that's what I work on. I work a lot on making the breath easy, responsive, habitual and kind of instinctive. I try and take people back a lot to noticing breath completely at rest, and then we build up from there and then we build on sound and then we build on thought lengths and things like that. 0:18:16 - Anne So, yeah, love it, wow, breath by breath. So so, in addition to breath being incredibly important when we're talking about performance in an extreme emotion or extreme, let's say, in video games, or we're having something that's highly emotional, where we have to probably utilize our voice more than a normal conversation level, what are your tips for helping? like you know, i don't want to scream the night before I have to record, maybe because I don't want to hurt my voice, or, you know, a lot of times people are like well, don't, you know, don't cough, like try to like clear your breath, or like gently, and there's so many different things that people tell you to do to kind of preserve your voice What sort, what tips do you have for? 0:19:04 - Nic that. So for extreme sessions, definitely a full body warm up And I would also put in place some sort of mid session resets. So two or three minutes of release exercises for the body and the vocal tract, so the throat, the tongue, the lips and the jaw and things every every, you know, half an hour or so. Just ask for a couple of minutes just to reset things so that if any strain has taken place or if any tension is creeping in, you can reset things and release things a little bit. So that's really useful. Always hydrate, of course, at least the day before, if not, like the week before. Can you hydrate too much? Oh, my god, yeah, you can have. Okay, too much of a good thing. People get a bit obsessed with, like the fact that it needs to be water And they carry these water things around that like petrol cans. Like I got eight litres of water, yeah, yeah, that's like my arm would fall off a and be I'd be, i'm waiting all the time anyway, like the last thing. It is eight litres of water. So the the the general guideline at the moment is Is one mil per calorie burned right per day. 0:20:12 - Anne Is sufficient to keep you hydrated. 0:20:14 - Nic So for for a female that's like 1500, for a male That's about 2000, depending on your exercise. So if you exercise more you might need a little bit less. Right you're lazy, alfakar, and you're on the sofa all the time, then you'd probably be fine, but it's also about your diet as well. So if again, if you are a Raw food vegan living in a rain forest, you're probably gonna need you're probably getting more water from your food and hydration from your food than someone who, like, lives in the city and eats frozen pizza all day. But right so it's a whole list, completely holistic thing, like its environment, it's food, it's the fluids you take in. all fluids count towards systemic hydration, so that's hydration of the whole body. So anything you drink that's wet will help you hydrate and counts that even coffee I was gonna. 0:21:07 - Anne I was just gonna say so. I have to have my cup of coffee every morning. You know I have about one, one cup, and people are always like don't drink coffee, it will hot D You know it will, you know it'll dry you out. And I'm like, well, i always chase it with a lot of water. So I mean that's oh good, that for me it worked. So I really do. I mean, i try not to drink a ton of coffee before a session in the morning. But here's a question Sometimes these days, these days, i utilize the morning hours because my voice just tends to be a little bit lower Before it's warmed up to actually do some voiceover work. Is there a way that you can warm up so that you can maintain that kind of a? and what is that phenomenon? What is that phenomenon where your voice is lower in the morning typically? 0:21:55 - Nic so my hypothesis for this is that you're more released, so the vocal folds to. To change pitch, i e go higher and lower the vocal folds Get longer and thinner to go high Okay and shorter and fatter to go low, and it's also about and then they vibrate. Have different number of oscillations per second right because of the size. The. The higher and lower you, the higher you go. This slightly more stretched, intense the vocal folds get. Mm-hmm the lower they are, the more slack they are. Okay, yep, been asleep on lion flap with your lovely natural breath, you know, not worrying about anything. All your muscles are released, your throat's released and rested, and lovely, i would imagine in the morning your vocal folds are just a little bit fatter and more released. Ah, no offense, look at those fat folds. 0:22:50 - Anne Vocal foes. Hey, I don't mind having fat vocal folds and I sometimes people pay me for those. For those fat vocal folds, show me a fire in the morning, yeah great, it's great, so I think that's what it is. And then the more you talk during the day, mm-hmm the more your body ticks on. 0:23:04 - Nic A wee bit of tension, the more your larynx takes on a wee bit of the tongue, everything takes on a bit more tension, so it's slightly harder to get those folds to that more relaxed. 0:23:13 - Anne God, the fat place and is there a way to get them back to the fat place outside of? I'm gonna say vocal placement Right, right to do that, or tension release, really Yeah. 0:23:24 - Nic So I'm interesting gentle exercises That encourage a bit releasing the muscles around the larynx and in the vocal tract So you can do tongue release, jaw release, yawns to open and release the the back of the throat a little bit. Okay, Yeah gentle kind of rehab style, glides up and down your pitch on Whatever. A particular semi-occluded vocal tract exercise works best for you. So semi-occluded exercises are exercises that utilize a sound that sort of partially closes the mouth, so a classic one that everyone knows is a little For some people a little is quite a lot of effort and not the right one for them other versions might be a gentle, puffy kind of Signed and or another one might be just a puffy th, so So, hmm, kind of sounds create a particular acoustic environment in a throat that allows vocal full vibration with minimal input. 0:24:22 - Anne Mmm, and that's a way to release tension. Yes, oh, okay, so do you win? Okay, so You, you work with students independently on vocal exercises, health preparation for. so take me through like what's a what's a typical with you, like, how do you assess my vocal health and my vocal performance? Okay, or just tell me what. you don't have to take me through it. I'm just don't describe what. what's the process of that? 0:24:57 - Nic I I do a lot of ninja listening, so, uh, if the first time you have with me, you're probably like why are we chatting so much and not like just getting started And then I'm like I've been listening to you. 0:25:07 - Anne Uh, but I talk to people. Have you been listening to me so far? 0:25:15 - Nic Like now. 0:25:15 - Anne I'm really piqued my interest. 0:25:18 - Nic So yeah, i do a little. Uh, i don't know if you have Sherlock Holmes, the uh program, like the British program with Benedict Cumberbatch over in America, but he does these like really amazing scans where he looks at somebody and does nose. Everything about him is like so do a cheeky weekend of Sherlock Holmes scan Like voice assessment with that's what part of my training is is being able to listen and go. Oh, i hear this, i hear that, i hear the other. Um, so I do that while we're having to be, chat and make a few notes. I also collaborate that with why you've come. So you know, someone may have come going. I'm losing my voice and I don't know why. Sure, And I will listen and go. Well, that's this, or someone will go. I'm losing my voice And it's because X, y, z And I will go. I don't think it is actually. I think it's this, or or I'll go. Yes, you're right but, let's all try this. So so it's a bit of a collaborative process And I I talk a lot about you know what the needs are, uh, what they expect from it, you know how long we've got together that kind of thing, and we just sort of piece together a bit of a strategy. It's very explorative and it's very bespoke and back and forth And I describe it like kind of sadly as a journey. It's like a journey you know, like. so we like I don't do one to one's really anymore, i do two session, quick top ups or six session kind of packages, because we start together in one place And sometimes by session three we've actually realized it's something completely different and that's often can be a bit disarming or exciting or interesting and you just have to, as a voice, as a voice technique coach, you just have to respond to that. You know I have to teach what's in the room or the zoom. 0:26:49 - Anne Sure That makes sense In front of me Same with any coaching really. 0:26:53 - Nic Um. So you know there's no one size fits all. Right, it's a very back and forwards process. Sometimes I give you stuff I said go away working that for a couple of weeks, give me a shout, how's it going, and we go. Well, this is working. That's not working. And you know, we, we assess it really as we go along. Um, so it's a. It's a really lovely, lovely process. I love one to ones because it's so bespoke. And at the moment I tend to get a lot of people who are like I've tried this, i've tried this coach or that coach or the other coach, and we still can't work out what this is. So, um, and sometimes that's nothing to do with the coach, it's just the learning place the person is in, or you know what's going on in their life. Maybe they weren't open to receiving certain information you know, but you know some. Often it takes a wee while to find the right coach for you and stuff, and you know people come to me and maybe go someone else, like like that's just what happens, um, but yeah. I do get a lot of. what's this weird noise My nose makes, or I can't work out what's happening on this cluster of signs, All that kind of or why am I? you know? quite specific stuff. I'm not the moment, uh, Mike, specific stuff, which is what my book's about. It's like, it's it's voice for Mike users. 0:27:59 - Anne Oh, so let's talk about that, because you do, you have a, you have a new book out, i do. And let's talk about that, because I was just going to ask you about um for being on the mic. What are your tips for being on the mic? So this is phenomenal that you've got a new book out. I do. 0:28:15 - Nic It's called on the mic. Okay, straight forward. 0:28:19 - Anne There you go. 0:28:20 - Nic It's called on the mic and it's voice training for voiceover artists, podcasters, speakers and presenters, so basically anybody who uses a microphone, because that seems to be the people that come to me Sure. Sure, absolutely. And yeah it's been really it's been a really interesting and exciting journey, kind of consolidating all my knowledge into what I'm doing, Into that sort of a place, Um, I think, for there are a couple of things with Mike. Speaking is number one. Um, there's a different type of energy that's needed. So and this again, this can differ from me sat here in Mabouth with this mic to somebody stood on a stage doing an expert speaking gig, Um, so it's about understanding the energy that you need for the space that you're in and the breath that you might need for the space that you're in and I think also as well the style of the delivery is really interesting and how you can use the right kind of voice warm up exercises to get you to a particular space. So if you have to sound conversational for your podcast, there are certain things you can do that are good for that. If you need to get ramped up and deal with your adrenaline to host a conference, then there are certain things you can do for that. So the whole point of the book is to like go through a lot of scenarios, go through the voice training process that I advocate, which is body, breath, sound speech, and just end up with a big fat, a toolkit of things that you can piece together in a way that works for whatever mic context you need. 0:29:44 - Anne I love it. I love it Now. Is this your first book? 0:29:48 - Nic Yes, I mean, I think I'd written Instagram Instagram captions. I was about it Right. 0:29:53 - Anne Right, well, i know I feel like I've written a ton of blogs and I know you've got a great blog out there too. Um, and I'm part of your newsletter, so, um, yeah, so that's so. It's very exciting. So, your first book, and what was that process like? Did it take? like I I'm, because I, of course, you know I'm, i'm thinking about it, and of course everybody says, and you need a book. So, um, writing a book to me, i'm just, i have so much respect because I know how much time well, i know how much time it must take, so what was the process like for you? 0:30:26 - Nic Um, I really enjoyed it, actually really enjoyed it. The hardest bit was starting like with everything, Right, i did a lot of procrastinating. I did a lot of having my whether you believe in it as not imposter syndrome on my shoulder going what are you doing? Who do you think you are? Um, so I did a lot of inviting my imposter syndrome to sit with me while I while I explored what was happening, i was like come on then. 0:30:48 - Anne We'll do it together. 0:30:50 - Nic Um, as soon as I started each little writing session, I I was great, I loved it, I mean you get to the end of the first draft and then you're like what the hell is this? So, actually, what was more exciting and interesting and fulfilling was the editing process and playing around with it. So my advice is set we, set we taught. Set we targets, we regular targets that are achievable for you. Don't edit as you go, cause I got caught up in that and it took me longer, longer than I wanted to to get to the end of the first draft, but just get a first draft done And you could let you. and, interestingly, what happened for me was it started as one book and by the time I'd finished the draft it was another book. So you know it sort of had to go back and and, um, change things up a wee bit. But I actually really enjoyed it. I feel, very proud, but also, you know it's scary, it is a scary thing putting it out there, but you just have to remember who you're writing it for. You know I spent a lot of time as well, you know, basking in the shadows of the greats who've come before me And like there are so many incredible practitioners out there who I still learn from daily and whose books I read and who I just think are remarkable. And I did do a lot of. what if they think my book's terrible? and my business coach was like, who are you writing the book for? And I was like well, my clients. and they're like so does it? like I know what matters to you. 0:32:13 - Anne Do they think you're terrible? Probably not. No, do they care? 0:32:17 - Nic No, they have been asking you for a book, So they're going to be really excited. And do you think those people who you think are amazing are going to look at you and go, ugh, gross, you wrote a book. Or are they going to go? 0:32:29 - Anne that's well done, we've been there actually About time, right About time, there we go, fantastic. 0:32:34 - Nic Yeah, i've had some lovely. I reached out to a few mentors to help me, like, edit a little bit and they were really complimentary, so I'm really pleased with it. I feel it is the first one. 0:32:47 - Anne Well, I am so excited I'm going to rush out and get it. So how can bosses get this book? 0:32:54 - Nic Yeah, so it is on my website. If you go to onthemikbookcom Okay, Onthemikbookcom it should take you to the page we can buy. Perfect, Actually, it'll be. It's on Amazon. 0:33:09 - Anne And it'll be on Amazon as well, yeah, just do that Fantastic. And how can people get in touch with you in addition to buying your book? How can they get in touch with you if they want to work with you? 0:33:21 - Nic Oh well, probably my website, Nicrebinvoicecom. That's probably the best thing I'm also on the island, stern tic-toc and all that kind of nonsense too. So you can probably find me anyway by putting Nic Redman in Perfect perfect. 0:33:35 - Anne Well, Nic, it has been a pleasure. Congratulations. I'm very excited I'm going out there and getting a book now because I and I actually I want to be contacting you because I do have some questions about how maybe you can custom work with me with some of my voice questions that I have. So thank, you so? much again. Yes, absolutely, bosses. Do you have a local nonprofit that's close to your heart? Well, if you ever wish that you could do more to help them, you certainly can Find out more at 100voiceswhocareorg to learn how. And a big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You too can connect and network like Bosses. Find out more at IPDTLcom. Bosses, have an amazing week, Nic. Thanks so much. We'll see you next week. Bye, all right. Transcribed by https://podium.page

12. Giving Up (transcribed)

giving up transcription gav transcribed

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2023 33:41

11. SPOTIFY VIDEO Setbacks with Eni (transcribed)

spotify setbacks transcription eni transcribed

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2023 30:52

What setback do you face as a teacher or learner? How do you deal with the challenges of learning a language? Join Gav and Em as they discuss these questions and give their own take on the solutions to overcoming setbacks. Featuring an aspiring learner and content creator, Eni, who will discuss her own setbacks and how she was motivated to achieve her learning goals. Transcription with audio: https://share.descript.com/view/N9l4BZKy7wW Buy us a coffee or tea here: https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod Eni's links Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eni.englishjourney/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@englishjourneywitheni⁠

Binary Saga: Episode 29, Season 3

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Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2023 53:23

Jayzun copes with a difficult loss, while CJ consoles him with bright memories and humor to support him. Transcribed transmissions can be read in text form on our Patreon page. Continue readingBinary Saga: Episode 29, Season 3 The post Binary Saga: Episode 29, Season 3 appeared first on binary saga.

11. Setbacks with Eni (transcribed)

setbacks transcription eni transcribed

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2023 30:54

What setbacks do you face as a teacher or learner? How do you deal with the challenges of learning a language? Join Gav and Em as they discuss these questions and give their own take on the solutions to overcoming setbacks. Featuring an aspiring learner and content creator, Eni, who will discuss her own setbacks and how she was motivated to achieve her learning goals. Transcription with audio: https://share.descript.com/view/N9l4BZKy7wW Buy us a coffee or tea here: https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod Eni's links Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eni.englishjourney/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@englishjourneywitheni⁠

10. SPOTIFY VIDEO UK and USA with PingoLearn (transcribed)

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 2, 2023 29:26

Do you know the differences between UK and USA words? Do you use British or American pronunciation? Do you think about the variation in spelling when writing? This week, Gav and Em will answer these questions and demonstrate fun and instructive ways to present and practice British and American English. Also, check out the amazing PingoLearn app to help you or your students improve their pronunciation and build confidence. Transcription with audio: https://share.descript.com/view/pnANOunPR9o⁠ Buy us a tea or coffee: https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod PingoLearn: https://pingolearn.page.link/howtoenglishpod_p Other references: Dictionary blog: https://www.dictionary.com/e/british-english-vs-american-english/ Espresso English: https://www.espressoenglish.net/british-english-vs-american-english-pronunciation/ Babbel: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/what-are-the-differences-between-american-and-british-english

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Binary Saga: Episode 28, Season 3

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2023 51:11

Vela warmly welcomes the Ambassadorial Delegation from the Manna Empire. CJ and Jayzun finally get to catch up over a couple of bottles of sidras. Transcribed transmissions can be read Continue readingBinary Saga: Episode 28, Season 3 The post Binary Saga: Episode 28, Season 3 appeared first on binary saga.

saga cj binary vela transcribed

The Art of the Cold Call

Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2023 33:10

We may all be over cold calling, but we can't pretend it isn't an art form and occasionally a necessary skill. Today we are going over what it takes to close luxury listings with just some good, old fashioned cold calling.ResourceCheck Out His WebsiteReal Estate Marketing DudeThe Listing Advocate (Earn more listings!)REMD on YouTubeREMD on InstagramTranscript:So how do you track new business, you constantly don't have to chase it. Hi, I'm Mike Cuevas to real estate marketing. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It's your job to remind them. Let's get started.What's up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing, dude, podcast, folks, we're gonna be chatting about today's luxury listing. That's one of the top questions we see in all the Facebook groups. A lot of the questions we get written in the show, and they're always like, hey, how do I get luxury listings? And usually, my response is, Well, you got to hang out with the people who focus on those homes. Because if you don't, that's how you build a relationship with them. Right? That's actually how Josh Altman got a start. If you ever read his book, Josh Altman used to hang out in the Starbucks. I think I have his book right here in my library somewhere. But he used to hang out in the Starbucks. That's how he got his first listing he heard overheard eavesdropping in the line, some athlete was selling his house, he threw his coffee way, gets behind them and starts a conversation. And that was how he got his first listing. But he put himself in that environment. So what we're going to do today is our guest is going to prove me wrong and every single way, because he's really good at something I'm not. And most Realtors aren't, to be honest with you either. But that's why it's probably working for him and what he's an expert in is actually going about and getting luxury listings. But starting that prospecting journey on the phone. We're talking about possible cold calling, and I don't know yet we're gonna get into an interview him, but this is phone prospecting, and I can't do it. I hate sales. I can't do it. I just can't do it. I can't pick up the phone and call someone and try to sell my shit. I like when they come to me. But I do know phone prospecting works very well and our other company owner advocate, we are creating all of our seller leads through cold calling, and we're cold calling certain aspects. So it does work. Yes, but this dude's gonna give us the magic. So without further ado, let's go ahead and introduce our guest George dilemmas. Did I say that correctly? Yes, you did. Right. Damn, I know that. I was taking notes when you said it a couple of times. That's why. But let's just say hello to your guests. Tell us a little bit about yourself who you are, where you're at. And I got all kinds of questions for you.Absolutely. Again, my name is Georgia lamas. I'm located here in the Panhandle in Florida. You're probably asking what the heck is that? Well, that's in a historic part of this is called 30. A. That's where all our vacationers come down and investors it's also Destin, Florida is in that area. Lifetime, vacationers come down here as well. And yes, big part of my business sold over 100 million. And I'd say 99% of that's come through phone prospecting, whether it's expired listings, just sold pendings. If I see a significant sale, maybe get to know the neighborhood a little bit call in. And basically, I'd love to kind of run through that. See if I can give some good knowledge out to everybody.That's crazy. How long have you been in the business first?I've been in the business I got my license in 2013. Probably didn't start till end of 14 or 15. I think more than 14 I was still full time in another job.And are you from your local geographic area? Or did you transplant in ornumbers from Boston grew up there? Spent a quite a few years down in South Florida as a little kid moved back up to Boston came up to this area by chance and yeah, that's really it really came up here by chance? No, definitely didn't know anybody didn't have a sphere really had nothing. You just went to work.That's why I ask is that because you know, when you have a sphere real estate is not that difficult. You stay in friendly relationships, and it'll provide consistency in your business, you might not get superduper rich, you'll have to prospect for that. However, you could have a consistent and make a very good income just off relationships as long as you have them. But when you don't, what do you do? Right? So alright, let's get into this. So talk to me about why phone prospecting first and is this the first thing you've ever done? Did you ever try anything else out and you stumbled into this? Why did you how did you end up on the phone? Because most of us run away from us?Sure. So when I started out I mean literally our first year is like throwing spaghetti at the wall right? See what sticks here. Back in the day. I was blogging, back back loading SEO to try to get mine right. I'll tell you though, I did it and like I get on the first page but then I would you know inbound wasn't coming right. I would sit open houses i I'd like to but I didn't really love it. I didn't really ever like dealing with buyers. I'd rather blow my brains out and having to drive around for days with people hats off to those who do it. So how do they get into it? I started going on YouTube how to how to get listings. I started studying listings, how they sold you know, the photos were bad description was bad. I started studying like, why did this happen? And I stumbled across a guy from Massachusetts so I probably gravitated to him being there. And I saw his YouTube video He did live calls and I literally write down the scripts. What did he say? How did he say it? So that was really the starting to it. And then I just started calling scared as hell phone ring. Don't answer, don't answer, don't answer that answer and stumble. But I have excitement. I have energy, like, because I would go back years later and go, Why the hell did someone listen with me? I had no clue what I was doing. But I just didn't stop. So that was the evolution started there. And then just over time, I studied my craft every day. I'm probably like you, you know, tons of reading, looking into things. Why do people say certain things? How does the brain work? When somebody says something? What's subconscious do? And that's what I really did.There's an art to it. It's not so much like if you know how to like, it's very similar to dating guys. But there's an art to it, right? You gotta like, you gotta get an interest. Because let's be honest, like I get all the today I get all the might be what's up might be spam, or what's the word on your phone? Again, like spam likely? And I'm like, I'm not picking that up, you know, like all the time. So I mean, that's even gotten harder, and you're still having success. So start at the beginning here. How do we find the people to call? What's you grabbing data sets? Are you targeting anyone distressed? Where you call him? And how do you know they're likely to move? And then like, how do we narrow the list out first, we'll start with that.Depending on your market, now, this market doesn't have as many expireds that's how I kind of cut my teeth on it back in 15. It was an old market, which were kind of returning to now and obviously some parts of distress. But so I would start there, I would get one of those local services, whether it was red X volken. Seven, I like Vulcan seven personally no endorsement, of course, but I used to use it. And it would pour in that day, you'd see all the expires, all the cancels. And then I would be I would really pick and choose even at that point. And this is no offense, anybody I didn't want to deal with the $500,000. Seller. For the markets I was in. They were almost first time home sellers. Lot. It was for all the work to do for there. Why not go after bigger ones. So I'd see ones that would expire? One to 2 million, 3 million, 4 million some cases up to 10. So that's the first start.Quick question, do you find that a lot of people go after that higher end expired? Or do you feel like people get a little bit timid and scared away from that? Like, I wonder how many people are actually calling luxury? Like, how many people are calling the $10 million expired? Sure.Over. So here, our average price point on 30 days? Shoot? Well, it was up as high as like 2.2 million. It's obviously come down. So yes, which somebody call it 10 million. And they don't get as many calls now. Because number one, like you said, scared as hell to do it. The ego protects us, right? Ego says, hey, they probably wouldn't want us they don't they don't want anybody calling their phone. So yeah, that stops them. The ego when you start telling yourself a story, oh, I shouldn't call their day, they probably already have an agent and go back with their agent and start telling that story. But yeah, I'd ask, Hey, you know, Mark, I'm curious man, you must be your phone must be blown out. You're getting all these calls about your home coming off? Like no, not really. And I'd start tracking that. So okay, anything over 5 million, the calls dropped way off.Interesting. Good point, guys. Take notes. Man. That's a really interesting point that somebody got said, Okay, who else other than expires? What are you doing now?Also a little bit expired. Again, not much. But more. It's just sold pendings. Now, I will say, you know, I'm part of a team I was invited to join a couple years ago, it's been the best thing I've ever done. But it also gives us an opportunity to market around our own sales, of course. So we'll do a lot of that. And a lot of that, I will say it's not the lowest hanging fruit so that you'd have thick skin or it's going to be a lower conversion rate. But you're calling you're just educating them. Hey, great news. I don't know if you saw the Carter sent over. as well. I'll put a scannable code on it where they can watch a video I'll talk about the product sold. Just let them know what happened. Hey, great news. market is starting to flatten out. But your neighborhood property just wandered to contract and 15 days it was listed at $1,100 a square foot. I'm shocked to see that I'm just extremely happy. I wanted to share it with you guys. Hey, before I let you go, Mark, I am curious, though, if you could get a strong price like this. Would you have any consideration in selling right now? What's you know? What's your thoughts? Then you just get into a real conversation. Now. Truth be told, I've done this so many times. I've had repetition. Oh, so you could say one thing over time I've learned it's a practical intelligence, knowing what to say how to say it for the highest value? I'll find I'll know ahead. So you might say no, no, we're not going to sell right now. Okay, I understand that, you know, but what price point you say no to or if you were to sell? Is this more of a time based thing that you have to wait six months, or you just don't have somewhere else to go up to this? Because these are investment homes. So if it's off the beach, maybe ask hey, you know, I'm curious. I love it's interesting. If you could ever sell anything closer to the beach, would that be like the dream? Would you want to do that? And just kind of get into it from there.But yeah, you just said some interesting these are investees like second homes. Yeah. so nice in your market. So that's interesting. She got a lot out of state people might not be privy to like What the hell's going on every day and whatnot. And that's to your advantage. It's not it isa cheat code here. You're right, because they don't have an agent. And most of the time, let's be really honest with ourselves, right? What's the old NAR stat? 80% of people loved their pest agent. It's even probably higher than that. How many times they use them again? And then the numbers dropped way down.18%? Yes, you guys fail to stay in touch with them?Exactly. So even here, it's even easier because out of sight out of mind, I don't see them. So if I can get a relationship started, if they don't want to sell right then you're not we're not thinking about selling right now. Great. And of course, we get the follow up process started emails video, and thenin front of them run from there. Yeah. Interesting. I like this a lot. Guys. There's a lot of nuggets. We're unpacking over here. Out of curiosity, you just said that. The market in you're in? You're in Florida, I'm in San Diego. And is the market depreciating? there right now, currently DLLs are a values and how much have a hit? has it taken in the last six months?Sure. It here it's really it's a it's a it's not a strange thing. It's unique. We're having some neighborhoods that have I would say in my words completely pulled back. You know, they were at, let's say 2 million. They're lucky to get now at one eight, in some cases, right, because they have too much inventory temper stuff, right, like 2022. But some of the waterfronts we're still seeing 2200 square foot 2400 square foot, now there's less of it. And I will say the sellers and buyers, it's a it's a war because there's good inventory, and then there's bad. And the bad inventory is overpriced and not turnkey. The good inventory is priced closer to market. And as beautiful finishes completely redone. Even the furniture is upgraded. Because for our market, that's an important things people buy the homes furnished. And that way they can walk in they'll do it. But yeah, I mean, sales drop off with 30%. Less than last year, I handled the numbers this week. But if I had about 30% Less transactions. Yep.And you guys just work hard, harder. I mean, that's the opportunity zone itself, because a lot of the agents who just list a house on the MLS wait for the buyer to come. You know they're gonna reality is when the shifts happen, you want a business, it happened last time, it's gonna happen again, probably. But for those of you who are listening, actually doing the ship full time, you have an opportunity, you're gonna have to grind like we all did. I grinded, when I started this dude grinds every fucking day. And if you're not grinding, like you're not going, there's no easy button in this business. And whatever that grind is for you. For me, it was content creation. For George, it's calling. And there's a thing out there for you guys. Alright, let's go to the art of the call here. Because this is interesting. I don't know if we should roleplay this or what but walk me through. I'm a seller, all of a sudden you interrupt my day with a call. And this is more of like a circle prospecting thing. You're just starting to build a relationship through a phone call getting their information and then farming them essentially. Is that what I'm hearing here? Yeah,I mean, that's good, especially now that the markets come down, you're it goes right back to what it was from 2015 to 2019. Okay. And the call, you're right, so you hit it, and it's different tonalities but the opening is very simple. We don't want to waste your time because again, as you said a little while ago when you look at your phone, and scam likely because you know what you build that habit up in your subconscious to say that salesperson narrator is telling you don't pick that phone up. Yep. Well, I get you on the phone. It's very simple. The tonality straightforward. So Hey, Mark, and like, yeah, in the south, I do a couple things that are different than I would in where I was before, but the South is the uptick. A mark, right there. It's like do I know this person? A mark. It's George, local agent here in Destin. Hey, the reason for my condo keep it quick. I saw your home came off the market. I'm sure you're getting a bunch of calls from people telling you to sell your house in 30 days, cash buyers and all that stuff. They'll usually say yeah, they're calling. Oh, cool. I wasn't calling about that. The reason I was calling I was looking at the photos of your house. I have to ask this how in the world did this thing not sell? You got a beautiful kitchen? You know, it looks like you have a bigger lot.Calm I'm millennium. Yep.Implied compliment. And then the way I look at it, I become their friend. Right? Because I will say that that line right there. Three weeks ago was worth 7.6 million of a listing I got because when we got to did the phone call to get it sat down with him. I asked the NSA I'm just curious. I know we have great side trails, sales track history, but what made you invite me to your house? He knows well. No one ever asked me why my home didn't sell it. So you know all the stuff we study and we take surveys as we talk to people we know that line works. Yeah, so we asked that line. You know, because we're generally interesting. This house is beautiful happen. They'll tell us and they bash their agent. I will tell you this 100% Don't do that. Don't join in. Just say I I can say, hey, I get it. You know, sometimes we hire people with the best intentions doesn't work out. It is what it is. Go right to the next question is usually it's always an ARB, typically, because we want to give them opportunities to answer not yes or no. Hey, Mark, I'm curious. You told me you're taking it off. We'll understand that. But if you had sold this, we're going to reinvest here locally, are you going to cash out? Take your bag of money and head for the hills? Let him answer. And all we're doing is building up rapport. Yeah. And then we start, we start positioning ourselves like, Hey, if you are going to put it back on, we have the conversation, you know, will become a problem solver. Yep. You know, George, I was thinking about, you know, cashing out, maybe reinvesting in, you know, upstate Georgia, a lot of Mountain House, we're interested. And, you know, I will push on the pain a little bit, but I'll just say, Wow, is that dream dead? Now? You know, the agent, unfortunately, couldn't do it. Is that dream dead? Well, we're not really sure. Well, what if there was a preference? Which would you still want to hold on to this and not get to Georgia? Or if you could find a different solution and move? Or move your equity to the next house? Would you want to do that? What's the best choice for you? And they're really motivated, we'll get to it. And if they're not, then we just simply go back into, like you said, get the email, follow up, stay in touch, educate them through our videos and talking about market updates. And then hopefully, one day secure that listening.Did you guys catch the importance of the tonality in the beginning, and I tell us all the time for people that we create content for is that the tonality is everything, no one's gonna remember what you're saying. They remember how you're seeing it. If you notice the pitch in his voice right at the beginning, and he said that on purpose, he goes, it's got to be a little op ed in the south, because you got to play you got to chameleon, with these people. And you got to mirror them. And when you do that, they're subliminally more attracted to you. I remember one of my old agents. I started when I was in Chicago at a brokerage and then I tried to do lead generation for agents and no one could ever convert. Like, it was just I just gave up. But I would record their phone calls. And, and we were I was bringing in a ton of calls. We're getting inbound calls like crazy. But then when I would listen to this one guy was one agent on my team and he was like, this is this is how he sounded when he go. And they were their inbound calls. Okay, these weren't outbound. These are inbound leads sellers calling. You go. Hello? Yes. Oh, hold on a second. Let me grab my pen. That was his opening line. Let me grab my fucking pen. Are you shitting me? Like, let me grab my pen so I can sell you something as all he said. And I'm like, and his tone was so off like it made me hurt. How important is that tonality?Oh, it's everything. It's like you just said because even I tracked back when I used to call when I told you I would think back and I took my as a friend. I always talk to him in California, we always prospect back and forth and conversations. And one thing we both joke about how the hell did somebody pick us? We didn't know we're talking about we didn't know how to close efficiently. But what we did do and it brings you right back to what you said the tonality. Yeah, now as time went on, and there's a guy that I always credit with me, and I quote, he coached me for a month and put me on track to get higher listings. And when we did that, he was trained by Jordan Belfort program, and I really dove deep into the tonality, because there's stuff he does like the Whisper. You know, like, sometimes I may get into a situation where I'm like, you know, Mark, can I tell you why that scares the hell out of me that you're thinking about using the same agent. And then you can come up, you know, my energy comes up, I might know, for me, I had to have an internal thing that says, George, stop speaking so fast. That's awesome. Yeah. So you're right, there's going to be times where NL you put down in really, what makes you say that you can come up, you can come down, you know, a lot of times too. And this isn't a tonality part, but asking permission, giving them the ability to say no, Hey, Mark, would it be okay, if I'm direct with you right here? And then they'll Yeah, of course, what is it and then that's a way to get your point across without having to be too salesy or talking too much, because they give you that permission. Now, of course, be direct, but I gotta tell you the plan you have set up, I've seen it happen before. The percentage of it working out for you to get this money out is probably not in your best interest. And can I explain why we're going to it? But the tonality if you hit it right in the head, sometimes I will whisper over my tongue really down and elongate words. You know, Mark, how in the world did that not sell? I work on that crap so much that sometimes people will laugh. They started laughing because they're like, I don't know. I don't know how my household doesn't sell. And then you can you can feel that come back to you and you're talking to him, and it gets you you do it enough times it registers like in my brand new binder, you pause the slightest bit when I asked, Hey, this is Georgia, my local agent here in town, and you can hear them. And I know Mike, you've been getting calls, haven't you? Yeah. I mean, I gotta tell you, you get the worst the worst calling because they're not trained on what to do and how to work and help you efficiently And then we kind of go into it. But the tonality without it. It's, you're right. It's like, Hello, how are you? What are you doing? It stays flat. Well, that's, it'swhy I hang up when I get cold calls from India because I can hear the boiler room in the background of people without making outbound calls. And you just hear me like, dude, I'm gonna, I'm on the other end of the sales floor, like, fuck off. You know, like, I don't want to talk to you. Alright, so this is cool. I like this a lot. The second piece, though, is that he did in his coffee, he hasn't paid attention and taking notes was that he differentiated himself. And instantly, he told them the opposite of what everyone else was telling them. He knows what they're already telling them. Right? Is that accurate? Correct. Yeah. So tonality match, then differentiate what the fox in it for you him or the color and then what makes you any different from everybody else. And agents aren't commodity guys, sometimes just listening and caring is the difference?That we're, we're the number one team here so we can talk about our numbers. But if you go right into like, if you're, if you're a kick ass agent in that neighborhood and sell all the homes, right, and my home comes off, yes. People want to work with winners. We know that right? Well, any walk of life we want. That's why we cheer for athletes, we go to the best restaurants, we try to go to the best things here near because people want to be affiliated with winners, right? But if you go in and you're like, oh my god, you know, last year, we sold this to did it and you start talking about yourself too much. You can even lose them there. Yeah, 100%. That's not about because you leave the conversation, you'll feel great. Oh, man, I just told Mark that we sold the most homes here on the water. He's got to choose me. But then an agent comes in and basically shifts to I'm a problem solver. I'm going to put all my energy into this. But let's really dive deep dive, what exactly do you need to get to this house to make it for you to move? Now, I'll get to that part. And then I'll reintroduce myself and say, hey, you know, I didn't mentioned at the beginning mark, but I had to tell you this. We're the number one team here. We sell XYZ last year, and I might bang in my chest and show you how impressive I am. I'm only saying this because if you do decide to sell your house again, you can feel great inside knowing that this is the transactions we handle day in and day out. And we can sell this house, it's just going to be a matter of either fine tuning the marketing, maybe we'll see some stuff in the house that we may want to change a little bit. Or maybe you do have to adjust your price. But before we get into that, and then we go into another question and then close from there. Love it.Let's get to the video stuff. Then you just carry on the conversation questions question based selling, you know, like pagan Mike ferry course, if you guys want to learn more about that, let's get into the nurturing. So I think that's where the conversion happens. So you're, I just want to know, like, what's your expectation to me talking to you? Like, I don't think you give a shit. If you get a listing appointment on the first one. I think you just want to put them on your drips.Yeah, because anybody who ever talks about calling, I hear some other coaching programs makes me cringe. Like the ones that don't tell the truth all the times like oh, yeah, just get them get an appointment, get 100 appointments a month, all that that bullshit, which is great. But let's be truthful, you're right. A lot of their times, like, Hey, I may need, I want to just take 30 days off the market, jaded them, they need a time off. And that's again, that's when you align, hey, I completely understand you know what, Mark, that's probably the best option right now. Why don't you take the 30 days off, let the listing cool off, and then jump back in anddemonstrate why I'm the man for the job. Yep, real content and video and all that great.And I like Bom Bom personally, because I can do screen records. So if I'm talking to you and say, Hey, Mark, I'm going to keep you updated. If I see a really strong sale, should I be sending that to you keeping you updated? And they'll say, of course yeah, please send it over. And then the videos are simply you get the screen record up Tom, I usually have the MLS background, it's just walk them through it. Or if it's a significant thing, or one better. If I had material that I want to share that I didn't want to bore you over the phone and just talk about it. I'll do a screen share screen record of it. And just show you Hey, I didn't have a chance really to go with this mark below, you're gonna see this. And here's some more material about it. And sometimes if we like we do some of the best videos here in terms of marketing a home. So I'll take a video. Pause right now pause excuse me, take the audio out of it. Play in the background. Explain why it's so important. Why it transitions the way it does. That's great. Because what it does is really start showing like holy shit this guy's way too much in the real estate listing. It'smore demonstration. That's what I like about it is that it's the key and then you're leveraging content not to sell to demonstrate and there's a major difference between that because most people will just start selling on when they're you're on video. They're gone. I mean, me, me, me, they always revert back to like, trying to talk someone into something. When the reality is you don't have to talk about anyone in anything. You just have to show them what you know. And that demonstration will in fact help convert them on over to you Do you guys set this up on? Are you doing these personally? Or are you like, Hey, I talked like so you talked to the guy and Mark, we hang up the phone, I basically tell you, I'm gonna take 30 to 60 days just to chill, I'm burnt out on this home selling process. I'm an Airbnb for another 45 days. Let me get some cash flow. And then maybe I might want to relist this. How often are you touching base with them? In that scenario, like? Or do you put them on an automated like drip or these videos are going out where you have different sequence of videos that you that like an FAQ or a case study, maybe listing videos that you guys have done? Like what kind of content? And how often? What's the frequency?I do, I do keep when a home valuation, and I let them know ahead of time, how am I gonna send this to you? I say keep in mind, this is an algorithm and your prices, you're gonna see it one month go way up, it'll probably pull back. But they're all kind of the same AI model. Number two, I'll send a screen record, initially first day, just thanking them showing some material. And then it just really depends on it. Yes, we will do some case studies, like you said, Hey, I just wanted to share this with you. When you are getting ready to gear up in 30 days. Here's something we recently did, we'll kind of go through it. I am starting to implement more of the pre recorded just pre recorded couples, and it won't be specifically Hey, Mark, look at this. I'll just let them know, Hey, you're gonna have some stuff come across, kind of showing you a few things that we're doing. We're really excited about them, so that we don't have to take the time of every time going. Hey, Mark, it's George Blankenship. It was more of, hey, this is exactly what I wanted to show you. Yeah. So we'll pre record that.And I'm sure you have your your video on when you're doing the screen recording, right? Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah. And that's important, guys, because now you're putting the face with a name. And it just makes you more human. Right. We do a lot of research to do a lot of these conversion videos for law firms and attorneys. And that's all it is. It's the same thing. It's a very similar business model as an agent. But it's all conversion because people can inquire, but you got to file it, like no one's going to just call you up and list it happens, guys. But there aren't like so many common lists means like that everyone wishes like I wish the business was like that. It's not. But he's building a giant database is what he's doing. He's making calls. I guarantee you he has set time blockers making these calls. But what he's really doing is building a database. And that database is just sending up because these people will eventually move just a matter of when and 80% of them are going to hire the first person they meet with again. Now maybe they might meet with two or three people in an expired situation. But the vast majority of sellers don't want to do that. They don't give a shit. They just want to know they hired the right person. They don't want to go interview 20 agents and then try to figure out who's does this who does that no one cares. They want the job done, especially in this market. These are high D personalities you're dealing with or dealing with multimillion dollar properties or bottom of the line people I'm sure.Yeah. And you're right. I mean, they just wanted to have this one for anytime course, I've sold in other markets where they're this Israeli neighborhood, and you want to but again, they want somebody who's going to it's expired. And what I can sell on it. Look, I'm a bulldog, you're not to hire me to get the results done. You did it the first time it didn't work out. We all try one way. And now it's time to go a different way. And that's why again, we bring everything that's different. And the difference is me. Right? Yeah, you could we could plug in 100 people on this team or any the biggest teams, like you mentioned, Josh Dalton, the beginning, obviously has a big team, you could plug in anybody in those numbers. If you don't know how to close correctly, if you know how to make that client feel special. If you're going to be a problem solver, those numbers are going to shift for you. It is going to be something you can talk to your friends about, oh, I'm on this team and we sold this. Well, how are you using those numbers correctly? You know, how can you bring those numbers in and give service to your clients? Yep.That's the name of the game guys. You're a real estate problem solver. You're not a salesperson, you take care and you help people who have problems with their real estate because that's essentially what it is like, and if you focus it on that it's a lot easier to sell through that way. Very cool. Dude, this is awesome. Any other things you want to add? I think we got it all I think people got Oh, one thingI do want to say I think it goes back to this right? Like you send out video you do a ton of it. I mean, I mean, you're titling who you are. All that is is an invitation, right? Whether we're calling doing a video, we're giving them a future invitation to either open our email again, or to pick our phone up. If you got a lot of fake yeses, and you weren't like you said you're very monotone and you didn't excite them you didn't. Nothing went off in their gut to say let me call let me let me stay in touch with this guy or woman. You don't do any of that. You just gave him the worst limitation in the world. And they're gonna take it crumple it up in their head and throw it out. If you suck you said you sent over videos, and your videos are boring. And then just like the videos like Hey, Mark, I know we have 30 days till it's time to list again. I can't wait to use it. They're gonna like who the hell is this person? Yeah, you give that invitation. I'm like, holy shit. No one said number one, no one's sending you stuff. No one's going over in detail. He's done. He's definitely put himself as an expert and there's someone we can trust that we like and then It closes from there.Yeah, I like it. It's all demonstration, folks. And I like how you're using video. In all aspects of this. I'm all for that. Dude, this is awesome. Why don't you tell people where they can find you? If you guys have referrals or destin area, why don't you let them know how they can reach you so that you get credit for that.Appreciate it. And I think the best way that everybody's using it now is just, I love Instagram, you can go to G dilemmas, ar e, you can find me there. We're also going to starting starting a video series on YouTube, it's going to be more of a talk show, it's gonna be called cocktails or for closers. We've already kind of started it, if you ever want to tune in our first demo, one should be coming out and hopefully the next five to six days, go to our editor, of course, because we we tried to put 30 minutes out there, make it fun. And that'll be going on all the time too, as well. Just some great stuff to know about our it's going to be all about 38 What's the selling for what are things getting listed for so if you ever just want to watch a fun thing, and I promise you, it won't be the same kind of thing you see out there gonna be more of a talk show that I don't think we're seeing as much on YouTube.I like it, keep hostile and do a great job. And thanks for sharing all that knowledge. It was quite a bit like people come on this show. I think it was fucking packed. Go watch that again, guys. It's gonna be stuff like that, that's gonna get you through the next market. You're gonna have to do things different in whatever way it is. And if you're not uncomfortable right now, you're not growing and you're not going to grow period. You have to constantly push yourself to do shit you don't want to do and in the days you do, I promise you you will look back and think the fact that you did it. That's the only time we ever grow as individuals as business owners as you want to constantly be the most uncomfortable person in the room. That's at least my motto. It hasn't served me wrong yet and I don't know anyone else who else who does it because it keeps pushing you content. Being content is for losers. Can't be contented hustle, go for it. We don't have to do it working hard either. You can just do it working smart. Appreciate you guys. If you guys have any additional questions on this dude, leave some notes. Contact them but thank you for listen to their episode real estate marketing podcast. You guys know where to find me? Check out our software referral suite.com www dot referral suite.com We farm your database for you so they don't forget you exist and then people start calling you and referring you it's very simple. If you understand Gary Keller's millionaire agent book well, this is a software modeled after that. And it makes content creation very fucking easy. Go there at WWW dot referral. suite.com Appreciate guys listening. We'll see you next week. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We'll see you next time.Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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10. UK and USA with PingoLearn (transcribed)

Play Episode Listen Later May 26, 2023 29:24

united states american uk british dictionary transcription babbel american english gav transcribed espresso english

Pros and Cons of Working Leads

Play Episode Listen Later May 20, 2023 23:27

Should you be working leads? Is it really worth it in the long run? How can you be maximizing clients in the easiest way possible?Three Things You'll Learn in This EpisodeWhat you should and shouldn't do in this market.Where the business is.Should you buy leads?ResourceCheck Out Exclusive Agent Referrals Real Estate Marketing DudeThe Listing Advocate (Earn more listings!)REMD on YouTubeREMD on InstagramTranscript:So how do you track new business, you constantly don't have to chase it. Hi, I'm Mike Cuevas to real estate marketing. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It's your job to remind them. Let's get started.What's up ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode, the real estate marketing dude, podcast, folks we are going to be chatting about quite a bit today. And what I wanted to focus on was what you should and shouldn't do in this market. And depending on where you're at, around the country, things aren't what they were 18 months ago. But that doesn't mean business still isn't being had. So we're bringing on a killer here, he's got over 90 agents in his market. And he hasn't really necessarily seen that effect yet. Because he's constantly staying on top of trends. He hasn't stopped bringing in inbound leads, despite market conditions. And as a result of that is that's why this team has really suffered anything on the numbers, right. But lead generation is pretty expensive, you can lose a lot of money in it very quickly. And for somebody that knows all these different platforms and whatnot, one of the questions we're seeing all around the country is like, Hey, what should I invest my money in right now? Because businesses now Should I buy Zillow lead? Should I buy realtor.com? Should I join one of these referral networking companies? What the fuck is it? So that's what we're gonna be chatting about today is what are we going to what do you do? How do you analyze let's do the pros and cons of lead generation within the real estate space as of 2023, coming into summer, so without further ado, let's go ahead and welcome our guest, Jeremy Wilson. Jeremy, what's up, man? Hey, thanks for having me. Mike. I appreciate your appreciate your time and you having me on for sure. Why don't you tell everyone who you are? What do you do? Where are you at? Yeah. Jeremy Wilson, I'm in, in my home bases Charleston, South Carolina. That's where we started a business about 16 years ago. And, you know, with the lead sources, scaling us we were able to move into a few other cities in South Carolina and and Georgia over the last few years and grow our agent count. And it's all based on lead sources, primarily. So we went from about 10 agents three years ago. And now we've got about 90 agents and four cities, just in the last three years. And out of those what kind of how many numbers of homes are we selling monthly right now. We'll do about 1500 transactions this year, in those in those four cities. Last year, we closed about about 375 million about 900 transactions. So you know, if you, if you take the leads, they're just gonna keep sending you.So you got you know, you understand lead generation, at least in real estate, you probably are a numbers analytical like crazy, and he's from Chicago believe that he's from Chicago. That's why you guys notice everyone like from Chicago works hard. And like actually kicks ass.Except sports. But that's a whole nother story.So here's the question that I have. And I'm like, I've always been refer, we talked about before, you got to show I've always been mainly referral, I do create a lot of content. That's been my business model. It's been our business model as a marketing company and whatnot. But I am dabbling a lot in the lead generation space, we've different company called owner advocate, and we have a referral model. And we get agents referrals and collect a referral fee for the leads we generate. And I've learned a lot in the last year or so on that business. And what I can tell you guys is that lead generation in general is very expensive game. And the vast majority of people can't play the game because they don't have the resources to do so. Right? Whether that's the CRM, the auto responder set up the right way, or it's the budget to nurture for six to nine months before that thing actually starts kicking. There's a whole number of things, but there isn't a grit, which quick thing that I've seen yet is there? No, absolutely not. Now, it's exactly what you said, big, big admin team that nurture the leads, because the agents are not going to do it. You know, they, you know, they want these bottom of the funnel leads that even though they're expensive, they want the quick money. Yep. So walk me through how it works with you guys, regardless of lead sources, like what is that? What do I need to have? If I'm thinking about actually doing this? What is the number one thing I should be doing? Like? Is it my CRM? Is it my auto responder? What's the offer winning offer right now? Let's go through some of those things. Yeah, yeah, I think the CRM is super important, as well as just having enough agents and having teams that are deep enough to be able to handle the number of leads and and just over the years, we've always been a team where we didn't bring any new agents on unless we had the leads to get them. So we just don't bring in agents just to have, you know, more people sitting on the seats on the bus. You know, it was just simply because we had too many leads to handle. You know, so So the CRM is very important. And we've always been a first to claim model some agents or some teams call it Shark Tank. We've tried every way to handle the leads in the past butThis seems to work the best, it creates a little bit of urgency. And then you know, we manage it, my admin team manages on the back end. So agents don't get too greedy and take too many, too many leads to where they can't handle, you know, but inevitably, it still ends up being where, you know, they take the calls, you know, a lot of these are connection calls, because there's a little black synopsis, you know, Joe, which are almost all connection calls, and they get on the phone, and they try to qualify him right away, when they meet him for the first time. But if they're not buying right away, then they can get pushed into automation, in hopes that they'll eventually come back around. So it works great for that low hanging fruit. How many? Because there's different three referral model than buying leads, right? So it's do leads only like I'm talking about zillow.com are buying leads, right? How many leads on average? Do I need to buy before I finally get one and let's just say I'm pretty good at converting, like, I'll just say, I'm not shy, like can actually talk to somebody, I got my shit together, how many things I need to buy to actually like, what you'd expect with the numbers. Yes, so every source is a little bit different. Of course, as you can imagine, we track a few of the sources independently, like Zillow flex, and our best agents are converting 12 To 1512 to 16%, on Zillow flex, as you know, not every agent is doing that. And you know, of course, we've got measures in place to bump them up on the on the scale their realtor.com, you we usually convert those at eight to 10%. Again, some agents, the killers that are just crazy aggressive, you know, they'll convert them a little bit higher than that. So, overall, you know, before we added some of the top of the funnel, lead sources, pay per click, and social media, which we just started six months ago, everything else was bought into the funnel, we would convert eight to 13%, on average for blended conversion. And we do about 15 to 20 Different lead sources that are all bottom of the funnel.So you know, our intent when we brought in these pay per click and social media leads that we knew were going to be more of a long term nurture and probably a lower conversion percent, but much, much cheaper leads is that the agents would would like these because they're they're no referral fee less expensive, even though it took a little bit longer to nurture. Yep. And awesome. I like it, folks. Lead Generation. So basically, what we're talking about is I had offers is like a manufactured lead that you create on your own. And there are a lot of companies that you have to get approved for a lot of these companies know that they're not just gonna go out and take anyone I know with ours, like we really are concerned, we're no, we're not Oh, Joe, or anything like that. We're tiny right now. But, you know, we want to make sure you can convert before we started investing money in you it cost money to generate these leads. And the vast majority is right, like the vast majority of people won't follow up on them in the right way. How important is that?Yeah, and they've changed over just the last two years, these these lead sources, you know,realtor.com has changed their platform, you know, they've tried to do this market VIP thing, which is more of like an invite, only, like you talked about, you know, only inviting certain teams that prove conversions, elaflex izly, that's all about finding the right team that's got the systems in place. Now. Oh, just in the last few weeks, it's been one month since I launched their ojo Plus program. And that's exactly what they're doing. They're splitting the leads in half. And they're finding one or two teams in each market, that can really do a good job with conversion. And they're analyzing, you know, it's weekly calls with your advisor to make sure you're doing a great job with it. So yeah, I think all the paid lead sources are really going away. You know, we're still spending, I think, $600,000 a year on realtor.com leads, but I know that eventually that's going to go away. And it's going to be more of the opposite the model or the market, the IP model. So that's what I'm sort of seeing as well, it's you know, a lot of the companies go that way. And it's because lead generation is expensive, guys, that's good. You said at the very beginning, in tackling it unless you really know how to run all these these things at once. Because you do need social you need retargeting going, you need that to sort of nudge you need just knowing what to target to begin with to create. There's a whole lot of moving parts on this stuff. So what do you what between the agents that you have right now who's succeeding? Who's not? Like, what? What do we have to do hear? It's no, it's not rocket science. You know, if you pulled up our CRM right now, without ever talking to a single one of our agents or listening to any of the phone calls, it's the agents that are just persistent and hard work. And then following up and being organized, those are the agents that are killing it, you know, that they put in the work, they're getting to make the money. It's it's the agents that are just kind of sitting back and hoping that the business will come to them that that just aren't succeeding, unfortunately, what other additional lead sources other than the than the handoffs and the purchased ones, I think you mentioned you guys had like a big, a lot of you had a huge amount of referral type leads and whatnot. Yeah, we're, we're starting to do a lot more referrals. You would think that a team of 90 agents brings in tons of referrals across the country, especially with the leads that we get on the front end being the bottom of the funnelEverybody that our agents are talking to, and we're getting a ton of leads, you know, about 80 to 100 leads a day for our team. And every single person our agent talks to is either moving away from here or moving to here, in most cases, you know, very little, they're very small percentage of the time, or they move in and, you know, within our market. Solooking at those numbers last year, I was embarrassed, you know, we, I think I told you earlier, Mike, we last year, for a team of 90 agents, we received 60, outside referral fees to our company where our agents referred somebody across the United States and a closed. So you know, obviously, when I looked at that number, and we've got, we've got to fix it. So we sat back, and we talked to our agents and tried to find out what was going on. And basically, it was two things, they didn't know how to approach that lead that they were on the phone with for the first time and what to say to them to get a referral off of it. And then the second thing is they didn't know how to find the agent, or they didn't know how to find the agent, but it was just very time consuming, very much a hassle they didn't have time to put into to throw them into a Facebook group or, or anything like or go Google search to find an agent wait for the agents to call them back, which doesn't happen. So so let me I just want to unpack that for all your broker owners listening. And that's just like free money. Literally not having a referral network for your agents like just to go ahead and refer just bottom of the line money right there, you guys. That's sure I don't even think about that, because that's something else I want you guys to really pay attention to, he says, the vast majority of the leads are either moving into or out of their market, which means they're non local. Okay? I want to unpack this a little bit. And the people who convert on leads are always non local. completely fucking weird. or crazy.Okay, and I'm gonna unpack each of these, firstly, to the non local, why is it non local? Why didn't Why is non local former lead generation? Well over 80% of people use the first person they meet with many of which they refer to or they personally know like, or trust or, or know, it's a still referral based business. All lead generation tends to be the ones that convert the vast vast majority of these are moving in or out of a market. Would you agree that? Yeah, absolutely.What does that tell you guys as an agent, what kind of content should you be creating around that? Right? So there's, there's one big hint because everyone tries to go out and spend money on targeting the people that are just moving in or they want to go target like spend money on all this other stuff. And they don't realize that the ones that convert are the ones that don't know anyone in the market yet.And there's a big correlation there. I'm not just theory right? But if there's a correlation, big time with it, too, are the weirdos. Why?Okay, I see them come in there. They're introverted. They're super weird, or they're a hoarder. Okay, these are the these are these, these I'm not joking. Okay. These are the investor deals, okay. And there's like a small percentage of them in the market. But these are the ones that the house is falling apart. There's a distressed situation, they're embarrassed to talk about it. There's a number of ones B K's foreclosure, late payments, high debt, you name it. That's a whole nother that's the that's the inner local right there. Okay, type of typically for lead gen. That's why investors never have a lead generation problem despite market conditions.And the third one is just like, just the weirdos that are introverts, they just don't have they don't know anyone. It's very rare. But they're out there. It's just you're not gonna get rich out of them, though. It's gonna be like a unicorn, when you see on your local and you don't have an agent, you don't know an agent. Okay, great.For sure.Everybody usually knows five agents, you know? Totally. What does that tell you guys on where to spend your money, though? Like and where do you spend your efforts? If you're gonna go into lead? Gen, you got to understand that people you're probably gonna do lead gen with are probably not familiar with the market you're in, what kind of content you create around the market you're in? That's right. Yep. All these bottom of the funnel lead sources or are not familiar with our market. And that's why they're on these websites. Correct? Yep. So that's, that's really interesting. You Pat and you guys probably have like you're doing 100 leads a day. That's what 350,300 52,000 leads a year.So you know, you know what you're doing? Yeah, a lot. A lot of leads coming in. Geez.What's up with the what do you think we're, what direction are we headed here? I'm curious to know if like, since the cost of housing got doubled, with interest rates going up, you know, how has that affected lead generation? I remember in markets past, there'll be big teams that could literally go closed doors overnight. Because the market shifted and they couldn't the ROI they had last month wasn't the ROI they're gonna get this month so they couldn't make smart decisions. What do you see happening is the buying habits changed? Not so much. What's what's going on over there? And, you know, we just talked about it last week in our meeting, so my main market is Charleston, South Carolina. And if you look back 18 months ago, in our whole entire emAlas, there was about 900 homes available to buy. And interest rates were still good. You know, there wasn't any inventory, nobody can find a house, it was multiple offers way over full price. And now fast forward 18 months, there's 2500 homes available. Okay, so three times as many homes available. There's interest rates are up quite a bit from 18 months ago. But there's still no, there's still not enough inventory for the amount of buyers. So, you know, honestly, I'm worried about when rates do drop, it's going to be crazy. You know, how many of those are reloads coming in that Charlson marks I know all my friends are moving out that way, everyone from Chicago is getting the hell out. You know, so you still have that inbound. I'm curious to know what's happening in like, some like Sacramento, I had an agent on and they're like, Dude, we're down. Like, where I pre pandemic levels. He told me the other day. So I guess a lot of it's where you're in the country, too. Yeah. And we're, you know, Columbia, South Carolina, Greenville, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and all of our market, all four of our markets are about the same. You know, just low inventory, things are still settling over full price. You know, I think it's stopping the people that are moving local, that have great rates already locked, and I think it's stopping those people, but people that are moving down from New Jersey that are paying ridiculous, you know, ces every year, you know, it's a no brainer for them to move down here and buy something in this inexpensive market. Yeah, they feel like it's cheap. I mean, people from California are like, oh, man, you got 3400 Square house for under a million bucks. Crazy. Under 750. Whatis this? Oh, my gosh, the pricing around here is this insanely? Yeah. And I've been doing it in Charleston for so long. So I see a house, it's now you know, $500,000. And for so long, it was $200,000? And just seems like it went up overnight. But it's still very affordable in the in the big scheme of things, you know? Yeah. You can almost that's an interesting market to be watching. But yes, that's I would agree with that, because you still have ocean from then it's going to climb until like other oceanfront markets.Very interesting, dude.Anything else you want to sort of any other tips? What do you anything else you want to chat about on this? The referral model is really interesting. You just didn't realize that, hey, if I'm going to be selling someone's house, and they're moving out of town, I might as well just get a referral free from our other agents in the in the market. Yeah. And I think that's it for the teams that I talked to across the country and team leaders and broker owners, they've got to have a solution for their agents on how to send referrals out because agents are frustrated with the Facebook groups and, you know, blasted out there. And then 50 People respond in the first five minutes. And then we got to weed through those people. And really, you know, they get frustrated, and they send that referral to any agent that responds. And that agent maybe has done one deal in their entire life, but they just happen to be the first one to click on that Facebook and comments on it. So you know, our solution has a team. And what we've rolled out nationwide is just, you know, even our own agents on our team, go to exclusive agent referrals.com.com, submit a referral, within 20 or 30 minutes, you're going to have a referral agreement sent back to you with your information as the sending agent, the other agents information in that market that we've already interviewed ahead of time, make sure that they've been in the business, they're closing deals, and you can trust them. And then the referrals information, it's a 25% referral agreement. And that's it, it takes you one minute to find a great agent. We've already interviewed instead of going to these Facebook groups and hoping you're gonna get on the phone with these agents, you already got some network setup. So if I already said anywhere, I just put it in there and I gotta get someone that's not going to like screw me over make me look like an asshole. No, you put it in there. We've interviewed these and they've been interviewed by my team that's been in business for a long time. You know, we make sure that they know how to follow up with leads that great with communication. They've been in the business at least two years are closing at least 15 deals a year. And we go to work and an agent never has to be worried about well do they have an agent in this area? Because some of the counties that we don't have agents, if we get a referral for that county, our team has a protocol they go to work immediately and we blast about 10 different Facebook groups. We go to Zillow, we go to all these different intranet sites, and we go to work and within an hour we're gonna find an interview a qualified agent in that area and get them hooked up for your referral. So we do all the legwork work for you. It's absolutely free if you're sending referrals if you want to have an exclusive county it's simply $10 per month to have that county and you get all exclusive referrals for you for that county. I was always hesitant to send referrals I'll give you guys a quick story. Right before I got out of the business in Chicago I referred is like a college friend of mine right? Never Refer a Friend of business especially one that's drinks a little bit more than they should. But long story short is that he's a contractor right? So one of my good friends bought a house, refer them over to you know, do some drywall and redo the bathroom and paint and whatnot. It was just a mess. Like the guy messed up didn't show up. She had to redo the whole job. She was like $15,000 At the end of the day that job ended up being my entire like month for a time and it was my problem right because it's a friend of mine Mike why you hook me up with this good? Dude is terrible. I don't readFor people for that reason contractors ever, no matter how well I know them, and I feel the same way about real estate agents do, yeah, that's a good thing you're doing there, because that should take some of theworry out because it's your brand when you're putting your name with somebody else. And just me if you refer anyone, this is why referrals always work, regardless of what context are in, is that people are wired to want to refer people shit. That's just the way God made us. We want to help others, we want to seek the help of others, like that's just what we are. It's how we're wired. And the fastest way you could kill your business is when you send someone a bad referral. Because if you ever sent someone to a restaurant where they serve hair and food, you wouldn't like them too much, either. And that's what you're doing when you send someone shitty service. So just try that. And we do have, we do have one failsafe that agents get worried about they're like, Well, what if I send a referral there? And I don't like the agent. But when an agent goes on our website to send a referral, Mike, they one of the questions on there is do you want to talk to that referring agent or receiving agent before they call the lead? And I'd say about 70% of the time to send the agent is putting Yes, because they want to talk to that agent, even though we've said we've already interviewed them, embedded them and everything. I don't blame them for wanting to talk to the agent and make sure if you don't use them. Yeah, absolutely. You should like you should want to know, especially if it's a trusted like a family member, just a name and number, like great. But if it's a friend or family member, you got to know what value you're sending them to. That'll come back and haunt you it never fails. can tell you that? I really appreciate why don't you tell them what that website is? It's pretty cool. Some of that is again, and then wrapped up. Yep, exclusive agent referrals.com is the website. It's easy. At the very top it says submit a referral. And if you're interested in locking down a county in the network, just click on not a member and we'll we'll get you scheduled for an interview. And your other website is Chuck town homes.com If you guys want to see what he's doing pretty nice site. I'm on it right now. But yeah, you could go click around he's in four different cities for any you guys looking to see how he's doing it and what he's doing. But yeah, this is cool, man, I appreciate you coming on. And I appreciate you sharing that information. And folks,you know what I'm gonna say referrals are always the lowest hanging fruit and the way that you always generate a lot of business, or at least consistent business not saying you get rich off them, but you can have a career off of them. No doubt as long as you follow the system and if you want that damn system, it's called www dot referral. suite.com Those referral suite.com We farm your database with content so they stopped forgetting who the fuck you are. And stop referring and cheating on you with other realtors. It's that simple. We foreign people. If you've read the millionaire agent by Gary Keller, I built out a software that his brain wanted to. That's all it is. Alright, so go ahead and go there referral suite.com It's s w e t. And appreciate you guys listen to their episode. We'll see you guys next week. Bye.Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule a time to speak with the dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We'll see you next time.Transcribed by https://otter.ai

09. SPOTIFY VIDEO Get Social (transcribed)

Sustainable Winegrowing with Vineyard Team

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2023 41:50

Do you use social networks for your teaching and learning? How many different types of posts are there and what are the benefits of each? Take a trip with Gav & Em and their amazing social media influencers as they present the advantages of using social media for language learning and teaching. Transcription with audio: https://share.descript.com/view/jQa22w4c6Wh Buy us a coffee or tea: https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod Guests: Marta at English Smart Llama https://www.instagram.com/english_smart_llama/ Vivi from Ki-Bird English https://www.instagram.com/kibirdenglish/ Mike at Mike English Academy https://www.instagram.com/mike_english_academy Andy at Andy's Everyday English https://www.instagram.com/p/CqBJx1jIgRZ/ Charlotte at English in Athens https://www.instagram.com/english_in_athens/ Pearl at Pearl English Academy https://www.instagram.com/pearl_english_teacher/ Sergio at Grammar Drops: https://www.youtube.com/@GrammarDrops Other references https://postfity.com/blog/promote-language-school-using-social-media-8-social-media-marketing-tips-language-teachers-schools-case-studies/ https://blog.hootsuite.com

spotify english athens transcription gav get social transcribed video get

181: Can Applying Compost Reduce Water Use?

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2023 27:07

The health of a grapevine starts at ground level – literally in the soil. The California Department of Food and Agriculture is helping farmers improve the quality of their soils through the Healthy Soils Initiative. Taylor Jones, Ph.D., Director of Viticulture at Star Lane and Dierberg Vineyards used his funding as an opportunity to study the effects of compost. After completing two three-year trials in six different soil types in two American Viticulture Areas, Taylor found that compost additions significantly increased organic matter, Reduced Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium usage by 35 percent, and decreased water use dramatically. Listen in to hear the only downside to increasing the use of compost on your vineyard. References: 149: Fair Market Trade: Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Grapevines 151: The Role of the Soil Microbiome in Soil Health 163: Onsite Compost Production Using Vineyard Waste 165: Become a Microbe Farmer: Make Compost 167: Use Biochar to Combat Climate Change California Department of Food and Agriculture's Healthy Soils Initiative Compost Benefits and Quality for Viticultural Soils Compost use in premium vineyard development Dierberg Vineyard Taylor Jones LinkedIn Tyler Jones: taylor@dierbergvineyard.com Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - DONATE SIP Certified Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. Transcript Craig Macmillan 0:00 Here with me today is Taylor Jones. He's Director of Viticulture at Star Lane in Dierberg Vineyards. And we're gonna talk about some soil health projects that he's got going. Thanks for being on the podcast. Taylor Jones 0:10 Yeah. Thanks for having me. Craig Macmillan 0:12 I just learned about this recently, and you talked about a little bit in the vineyard team tailgate meeting that got me interested, you have more than one thing going on? Is that right? Yeah, yeah, we do. And these projects are funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture Healthy Soils program. Is that right? Taylor Jones 0:25 Yes, that's correct. Craig Macmillan 0:27 We'd love to chat about that part of it a little bit later. But right now, I really want to know what you're doing. How many projects, what are they about? What are you trying to find out? Taylor Jones 0:33 We have two projects, we were awarded two different grants, one for each of our vineyard properties that we have. So we have one healthy soils project over in Santa Rita Hills that started in 2018. And it's a three year program. And then we have another project that's healthy soils program at our Star Lane Vineyard in Happy Canyon, AVA and over their three year project also. And that one started in 2020, I believe. So we just hit our final year, this this last year. So yeah, to two different projects. And essentially, we're the states paying us to put compost down and improve our soil health. So we're jumping on that and trying to see what actually happens in the vineyard after compost has been applied. Since we're getting all of this compost from CDFA. It's we're going to use the money that we're saving on the compost to kind of do some some studies and see what's actually being impacted in our vineyard soils. Craig Macmillan 1:30 So talking about the Star Rita AVA, project. Taylor Jones 1:33 Over at Santa Rita hills, we have Drum Canyon vineyard, and over there we were awarded, it was 35 acres of compost applications, we had six tons per acre. For three years, over the three year span, we had 18 tons per acre put down down over there what we did, we tried to, as best we could make an experiment, you know, it's kind of hard to make a proper randomized trial. In a field when you're doing compost applications with your normal operations, we try to apply compost in all the areas that we could in our vineyard and while leaving a few barrier rows that we could do tests. And so we had, for example, we'd have 10 rows applied with compost, and then a few rows, no compost so that we could test those rows separately see what's going on. Are there changes in organic matter? Are we seeing changes in compaction, all the good stuff that comes with soil, so testing soils for nutrition, microbial populations, and then also water, I think water is the big thing. So that's how we set everything up on the property, we have five or six different soil types that we apply conference to and in each soil type, we did our own measurements there. And we were able to have soil moisture probes in most areas so that we could utilize those to help with some data. We really saw a lot of benefits from putting the compost down. I mean, we're in you're entering our sixth year after application, the state's requiring us to send a final numbers and we have to do one more test of organic matter. So that's coming up soon for our final dataset. Overall, we saw some great really good impacts from from the healthy soil program at that site. Craig Macmillan 3:11 Before we go farther, are we talking about banding under the vine we're talking about broadcasting? Taylor Jones 3:14 Whenever you do your grant, you have to specify what you're going to do. And in our case, we went with banding the spreader that we have is a bander you know we'd have six foot rows and we have a ag soil works hydraulic gripper, the wings move. So we're in an area where we have a lot of compaction. Typically we like to rip every three years every other row. And so that kind of led to the decision of banding. We're getting the compost close to the vine. Since we're in a six foot row, our rippers going right down the vine row right next to the root zone. So we're trying to get everything incorporated and move down lower in the soil profile. That was our target what we did we since we had three different years, and we didn't want to rip every single year, we did well alternating rows. One year we did every other row with a compost band and rip. The following year we did the even numbered rows with the compost band and rip and then the final year, our desire was to go no till so at the final year, we banded and we just did a light disk and seed on top of that, that we didn't unnecessarily rip over again. So it was technically a combo of riping and broadcast. Craig Macmillan 4:22 Unrelated just further conversation that I've had weed control under the vine using some kind of cold federal weed knife or using herbicides? Taylor Jones 4:31 For the extent of this trial. We use it herbicides, trying to keep all the weeds down as much as possible so that we're not seeing any funky results coming from having weeds all over the place. So we try to keep the berms clean as possible. Craig Macmillan 4:42 And this one has been going for a little while now. What kind of preliminary results do you think you're seeing? Taylor Jones 4:47 We're seeing some some great preliminary results. The most impactful result that we're seeing is water. Our water usage has declined dramatically. I mean, we went from irrigating every two weeks historically, this will be my eighth vintage here at the company, we used to always pretty religiously we'd water every two weeks, if not more over on that property. And every year, we were kind of able to spread that out, we were seeing water holding capacity almost increase. So last year, we ended up waiting 79 days from basically from bloom until we harvested, we were able to not water at all. Pretty amazing, we were able to heat stress, we have totally sensors in the field that help us tailor our irrigation strategies, but that 79 days of no water being used was significant for our operation in terms of water savings, you know, propane costs, even the irrigator had more time to do other things besides troubleshoot the irrigation system. I think all of that kind of stemmed from the organic matter increase. We saw, on average over a three year timespan, the average was about point 2% increase in organic matter per year for those three years. And you know, 1% organic matter is more or less 20,000 gallons of water per acre that you can hold. That's our goal. Let's try to increase organic matter by 1% and try to achieve that extra water holding capacity. Let's see how high we can get and so we had different different soil types reacted differently in terms of how well they held water. What kind of soils do you have out there? We're talking about the Santa Ynez River Valley, we're talking about being relatively close to Lompoc, for those of you who are interested, there is tremendous will type variability all through that area. And Drum Canyon is relatively on the west side of that area. I would describe it as that what kind of sils do you have out there? So we have top of the hill pure sandbox, as you go down the hill, we have some nice Shaylee loans. As we continue down, we get more and more loamy but a little bit more clay and silt as you kind of go to the flats. We're getting a lot more water holding capacity there in the flat zone. And then we have another corner of the vineyard that is the lowest coldest spot and that's mostly sand like a kind of like a sandy clay. So huge variability in soils, we kind of have almost all the types on our property, which is well fun for me. Craig Macmillan 7:12 Fun for you. Tremendous variation in water holding capacity. Taylor Jones 7:15 Oh yeah, we had a block we tried to establish our sandy soils, and that was watering twice a week with four gallons per vine, like just trying to get those vines. I mean, it's windy there, we have a lot of struggles and sand is sands an issue trying to get vines established. And to get that taproot down, otherwise, our loams on the hillsides, they tend to have good drainage, they're maybe two feet deep before you hit a layer of sandstone. So our soils are fairly shallow. So we get good water infiltration and penetration, good ability to stress the vines out quickly, but not really holding water. Well, as you get to the flood zone, we've always been able to irrigate a little bit less often those soils kind of have more of clay particles, they're holding on to water a little bit more, until you hit the sandy zone and there are definitely watering twice as much as we do in other areas. Craig Macmillan 8:02 But you're seeing improvement in all these areas? Taylor Jones 8:05 Definitely every single area of all in line with each other and what what we're seeing in in our sandy soil series, we saw the higher increase in organic matter than the other soil series. And we were able to irrigate slightly less in those zones than the other ones, which then in previous years percentage wise, which was surprising, but also I'm so glad water is the same you know, in our sandy soils, we saw almost it was point eight 5% organic matter increase total over a final timespan. So that's the equivalent of 16,600 gallons per acre that of water that was used, On the lower end some of the, our loamy silty soils, we ended up getting about a point seven 2.45% increase over five years. So a little bit different there. But you know, we didn't need as much help with holding water in those soils of the sandy soils. So it kind of balanced out percentage wise in terms of how much water we were using. Craig Macmillan 9:06 What about above ground? Did you see changes in the vines, the fruit crop load, wine quality? Taylor Jones 9:11 Not so much crop load tons tons per acre, we're pretty spot on throughout the vineyard with seasonal variability. For better or for worse. Some areas we had too much vigor, some areas are vigor was improved overall vigor was higher than than previous years, even with reduced water and reduced and reduced fertilizer inputs as well. So yeah, above ground pruning weights increased a little bit. But that was that was kind of expected. We're having a lot more vigor. But yeah, fruit load was not impacted, which is fine. We're not like trying to pump out as much fruit as possible. Craig Macmillan 9:43 We've made wines out of these? Taylor Jones 9:45 Yes. So why is not really a lot of changes in wine. Our winemaking team. They make a couple different wines. A lot of its blended from different areas of our flat zones. And in our other ranch we saw some Yans increasing Other than Yans, that's about it in terms of wine quality was still on point with with every previous year, so no changes in wine quality and no changes in Brix or pH, anything like that phenologically ripening, everything seemed to be pretty, pretty standard for our ranch. Craig Macmillan 10:18 And that's a good transition. So what about the Happy Canyon? Taylor Jones 10:21 We're just getting some, I'm finally organizing some data for Happy Canyon. And they're we're seeing similar results. And if anything this year more so or we have had some pretty significant rains. But our cover crop took off a lot quicker than any previous year, this last November, November, December is when we put our final load of compost in from healthy soils. So we were in year three, and we're finally seeing cover crops just taking off. Unfortunately, I think the only downside of these projects has been a lot of increase in in inter row weeds, we've had a lot more weeds creeping up. And that's just I think, some of the compost we're getting this now the seed beds in there just stuck there. And you can see the Malvo just coming up right where we planted and ripped, which is frustrating, but I'll take the soil benefits and deal with the weeds later, you know. Happy Canyon, we're seeing very similar results, we're starting to be able to use less water on a per annual basis, we have a little bit less soil diversity over at Happy Canyon a lot more silty clay silty on the hillsides, clays towards the bottom and the flats. That grant there was 95 acres of compost and give that reference over over a three year timespan that ends up being it was 58 $59,000 worth of compost that we got to not to have from the state which which was phenomenal. And then at the Star Lane project, we're only doing four times an acre, not six tons an acre, the grants kind of based off of what compost you're buying and your carbon nitrogen ratio of your compost, so four tons an acre and Happy Canyon still with the goal of trying to go no till over there. And we're seeing similar increases in organic matter where we're getting that point 2.25% increase year after a year. So there were targeting hopefully, my goal is to find one block, maybe that we can get a full 1% increase in that would be amazing. But it's good to see similarity over two different ADAs two different ranches. It's nice to see the similarities kind of confirming what we're seeing at one ranch versus the other ranch. Craig Macmillan 12:24 And I want to come back to that. But before I forget, again, we're talking about this is four tons per acre banded, you are not tilling the middle right now. Taylor Jones 12:32 Correct. Craig Macmillan 12:33 But you are tilling with that piece of equipment over at the Santa Rita ranch when you have to occasionally yes in terms of no tilled you for see Star Lane being able to farm with a no till system indefinitely? Or do you have plans that you'll have to reset the system every so often? And if so, how would you go about it? Taylor Jones 12:53 That's that's a good question. I think that I would love to go no tilling indefinitely, unfortunately, with the rate of compaction all of our soils have and then the heavy equipment we're using it's it's inevitable that we're going to have to rip and till but I don't think that we'll ever have to do like every single year full plowed down kind of stuff. I'm totally fine with instead of ripping every three years, let's double that to rip every six years or even further down the road, see how far we can push it. I think with our compaction results that we're seeing in both ranches, our rate of compaction has reduced by about 80% We should be able to go for about five and a half years without ripping instead of every three years. So we can probably push that to six years and rip and then you know, maybe future copost applications will help reduce that even more. We're doing some no till trials where we planted a vineyard and started it no till and comparing it to the same block that's being tilled annually every year. And so far, we're five or six years in now and seeing no differences in yield or plant growth which is promising because I think that for our soil future we kind of need to go the the no till route and you know show that it can be done. And let's see what happens. Craig Macmillan 14:06 Something that we didn't touch on that. I think if our listeners are not familiar, this is in Santa Barbara County, Santa Yenz Valley. Happy Canyon and the Star Rita AVAs are about as different as you could possibly get in my opinion. So fill us in a little bit about what's going on soil and climate between those two branches. Taylor Jones 14:24 Both are similar in terms of frost. I mean we had we always have the same amount of frost days I feel like but yeah, so So Santa Rita hills a lot closer to the ocean. You've got the Santa Ynez mountain range, they're going east to west kind of funneling in all the morning fog so we get Santa Rita Hills morning fog usually burning out towards the end of the day, high winds and that that kind of leads to some nice distressed plants are really big fluxes in temperatures with daytime highs versus nighttime colds very similar toHappy Canyon Aava like stuff over there, we get a lot warmer during the day, we're seeing a lot more 90 degree plus days than what we would see in Santa Rita Hills. And with with the way the climates moving, both ranches seem to be trending towards more and more and more high heat days. And we're seeing more cold days as well. And out at Happy Canyon, we're kind of on the far edge of Happy Canyon where Star Lane is and we have morning fog kind of creeps in and it will kind of tickle the edge of our ranch almost kind of recedes a lot more back into Santa Ynez. So at Star Lane, we get a lot more a lot less foggy mornings, kind of ocean mist, and we have a lot more beautiful sunny mornings out. But over there, we also have a lot of wind as well, the significant amount of wind. So AVA wise, they are, you know, they're fairly, fairly similar, I would say only because you have some of that marine influence. High winds with soil types are completely different. And just like the amount of the day that you're getting sunlight in different areas, and wind is fairly different as well. Craig Macmillan 16:05 Tell me a little bit about the Healthy Soils program. I think this is a really fascinating thing. I remember when it started, and how did you find out about it? How did you get led to it? What was the process like for getting into it? Taylor Jones 16:17 Trying to think I found it, I really liked looking for grant money, I came from an academic background. And if there's free money to be had, why not apply for it, we use all the tractor replacement grants, we're trying to get electrification grants, you know, find money where we can find it to help our help our company out. Pretty sure we just stumbled upon this program being available. And we basically talked to CDFA. And we're like, Hey, we're interested in applying and said, Here's the process. And it ended up being kind of ridiculously easy. I'm surprised that more people don't apply for Healthy Soils programs, there's just an an online application that you fill out, not only while you're filling out this application, they make you use the Comet Planner tool online, which is a really fun tool, if nobody's used it before, just to estimate greenhouse gas emission reductions based on you know, that's, that's kind of the core of the program is reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing organic matter in your soils. And comet planner can kind of help you look at that. So there's some criteria you have to meet, you cannot have applied compost on these fields within I forget what it was in the last five years or something like that. If you've been applying compost, you can't get the Healthy Soils program. So we used some areas, we had put compost down so we couldn't use those zones, which is why in our Drum Canyon Ranch is 69 acres, but we could only put compost down on 35 of that. So that's one One limitation of the program. But overall, you pick your blocks that you want to do you set out a sampling protocol for them. And they'll usually accept it. And it's essentially you sample your soils every year during the program prior to compost application. And they'll reimburse you for those soil samples as well. So that you can track your organic matter. That's that's all they require. We submit our soils for more testing than just organic matter. Yeah, overall, it's a really simple end of the year, you have to send them proof of your project. And that's generally photos of the compost arriving pictures of the team implementing the compost, actually putting it into the ground, receipts, invoices that you had for just everything to prove that you've done what you do. And then yeah, it's three years. And then in year five, you have one last soil sample to send to the state. So overall, it's a simple application process. I found it one of the easier grants to actually apply for. Craig Macmillan 18:38 You mentioned that you were doing soil analysis beyond just the soil organic matter what what variables are you looking at? Taylor Jones 18:44 We just submitted for a full a full soil health panel looking back on it, I wish I would have added bulk density on that, because I think that would have been interesting to see how it changed. But you know, hindsight is 2020 but we looked at you know, NPK, calcium, magnesium cation exchange capacity. Any differences in pH, soil moisture, sodium, just kind of the whatever you send to us soil lab, whatever they'll give you for those tests. I think the biggest thing was we reduced our NPK usage by about 35%. At both ranches after this soil results showed you know we had some NPK increases, but not really as much. I think what we're seeing more so is our vines, roots, finding new areas where they haven't been before. And they're kind of being able to utilize resources that previously weren't available to them. So that's leading to our decrease in fertilizer usage, which is great. We're trying to go towards organic and getting away from a lot of inorganic fertilizer usages would be spectacular. Craig Macmillan 19:47 That reminds me of something so have you been applying either synthetic organic NPK formulations on top of the compost as the compost been it for the fertility program? Taylor Jones 19:56 We still do add a little bit, a little bit of NPK but more so calcium, we will have more calcium applications. Especially out in Happy Canyon, we have really high serpentine soils and really bad magnesium problems. So we're always trying to add in gypsum and calcium whenever we can. The Drum Canyon Ranch, not too much of a problem over there we have a problem with potassium uptake. Um, so we do increase our potassium usage they're coming into this year, I think we're really going to reduce based on what we saw last year in terms of vigor and vine health. I mean, our nitrogen applications are going to be really low. Phosphorus, we're always pretty fine on we don't need to use much will probably continue with potassium, but we'll see what petioles looked like this year. Craig Macmillan 20:40 Well, we're running out of time. Is there one thing that you would tell a grower one piece of advice you'd give to a grower regarding what you've learned from this project? Taylor Jones 20:49 I mean, the advice is use compost, I think we're we're seeing root zones reaching areas they haven't before where we're using significantly less water, which is just key to farming in California and really in the world going forward. You know, you're you're increasing your CEC or your cation exchange capacity so less nutrients down I mean, you're getting compost is kind of like a win win scenario. The only downside is weeds. Our soils are seem to be returned to normal. We had earthworms returned for the first time since I've been at this ranch. Five different soil pits we found earthworms in which they've never been in before. They're kind of creeping in from the edges, which is awesome. I think we're gonna maybe transition to worm farming. Craig Macmillan 21:33 (laughs). Where can people find out more about you and what you do? Speaker 2 21:39 you could always find out. Dierberg and Star Lane Vineyards, we have Dierbergvineyard.com. Starlanevineyard.com. Otherwise, I kind of just bounced around the Santa Barbara County. I think it always... Craig Macmillan 21:50 Just like if you're looking if you're looking for him. Just go to Santa Barbara County and drive around a little bit. Yeah. Probably near a vineyard. Taylor Jones 21:58 Yeah, exactly. Craig Macmillan 22:00 He has a lot of friends. Taylor Jones 22:02 But no, yeah, you know, I'm happy if people want to reach out to me. You know, my emails, Taylor taylor@Dierbervineyard.com. Yeah, happy to help people out with applying for grants or if they want to chat or look at some data. I'm always down to see what other people are seeing and compare what we're seeing in our AVA versus another AVA or different grower strategies for compost applications. You know, I think information sharing is the way to go. Craig Macmillan 22:28 Yeah, totally. Fantastic. Well, Taylor, I just am so happy you could be on the on the podcast, this has really been fun for me. Taylor Jones 22:35 Thanks for having me. Craig Macmillan 22:36 This is a topic. It's obviously a hot topic, continuing topic. And I think that the longer that we as an industry have been doing this, because this isn't something that people were doing in the 70s for instance, you know, is this you know, we've all had to learn we've had a compost is not just compost, you need look, the analyses and this rate is not the same as that rate and on the soil does that and the fact that you guys are doing that work along with everybody else and that you're sharing information. I think it's really fantastic. So, thank you so much for your contribution. Taylor Jones 23:03 Yeah. Thank you. Craig Macmillan 23:04 So our guest has been Taylor Jones. He is director of viticulture at Star Lane and Dierberg Vineyards in Santa Barbara County. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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Binary Saga: Episode 27, Season 3

Play Episode Listen Later May 15, 2023 75:44

While CJ enjoys the chaos of a busy house, she is given an opportunity for her own adventure. Jayzun reveals a startling discovery in his investigation. Transcribed transmissions can be Continue readingBinary Saga: Episode 27, Season 3 The post Binary Saga: Episode 27, Season 3 appeared first on binary saga.

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It's Time to be a Badass

Play Episode Listen Later May 13, 2023 29:39

This market is tough and requires real elbow grease. Time to take charge and be a real badass if you wanna succeed and thrive in this market.Three Things You'll Learn in This EpisodeWhat you should be looking for in this market.Why you need to be an investigator in real estate.How you can be a badass in this market.ResourceCheck Out Stefani's WebsiteReal Estate Marketing DudeThe Listing Advocate (Earn more listings!)REMD on YouTubeREMD on InstagramTranscript:So how do you track new business, you constantly don't have to chase it. Hi, I'm Mike Cuevas to real estate marketing. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It's your job to remind them. Let's get startedWhat's up ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast. Oh, my goodness, folks.You saw the title the show, I mean, you just gotta be a badass, you gotta be badass right now, that's the name of the game. Because times like these are times when you have to double down. Business isn't as easy as it was 20 months ago, 24 months ago and 90% of you have never seen a shift in the in your careers yet, because we haven't had one since 2012. And we riding on this market. And there's not a lot of people out there telling you what to do when the shift happens. So that's sort of been the theme of our show the last few months here, actually, last few episodes, what do you do in this market, and we want to try to add as much value as possible. So we get pitched be on the show every day, guys. And I get a lot of cool stories. And the one that we have today is very cool. And I thought it'd be very appropriate to have on the show, especially with market conditions, because I think some of you need a kick in the ass. And I think she's going to be able to do that for you today. So without further ado, I do want to introduce my guest. She's got quite a compelling story. And she's a badass. So properly introduced. Miss Stephanie Boyd. How are you, Stephanie? I'm great. Thanks for having me, Mike. Why don't you tell everybody? Who are you? Where are you from? Andwhat are you known for? Well, let's see. I am from a little town in California called Sacramento, we have a new state capitol.And I am aI like to joke that I'm a teenage grandma. So I started out as a single teenage mom years ago. And I was always kind of a rebel and uh, just kind of did things my own way. So I went ahead and started college at 16 got my first kick ass job as a criminal investigator, just as I was turning 21. And I just walked straight out of my college career into a very heavily male dominated career of law enforcement, criminal investigations, where my job was to go into the ghetto and interview all the murders friends and families, and or whatever other crime my client was charged with. So I was representing the defense. Andpeople would always ask me if I was armed as I went to these interviews, and I definitely never was, I thought about carrying a concealed weapon. But I just really always relied on my wit and charm to get me in the door to make friends with myadversaries, I suppose you could call them.And so that experience really trained me quite well to join the world of real estate when I decided to get my real estate license in 2000. And join my family's real estate company. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that Gort door knocking didn't scare you too much. Um, no. While it has, there have been times where it's not my favorite thing to do. But I'm sure everybody goes through that. But as far as being scared to it, or timid or nervous to knock on that door? No, because nothing is worse than,you know, a victim behind the door of some terrible crime that I have to talk to. So if I don't have to deal with that, and I'm just dealing with the homeowner who may or may not want to sell their house or refinance or whatever the case may be. Much less stress much lower risk involved.I mean, yeah, people hardly everYeah, I mean, like, in so many people right now and look at the industry is tough right now really is I mean, talking about my mortgage broker friends, and I mean, they're getting crushed. Oh, yeah. They're and they're and, you know, everyone's just when you get down a little bit like this, on the other hand, like, you know, look at your former job. I mean, we're looking at like cool houses and stuff, and then people are getting down on themselves. You're having to deal with like, people, I witnesses murders, you know, like, that's just probably a great mindset to have to tackle this industry. Because right now it is tough.And so you just went from being a criminal defense.Researcher, attorney, investigator, investigatorTo frickin go and write into real estate? And what kind of those skills you still use today? Because that's pretty cool. I've not met anybody who's gone into that you can almost be like your real estate detective.Exactly. Yeah, really. And during my career as an investigator, the thing that got me interested in real estate Well, other it was my family's company, of course, but I would call my mom a lot to have her help me stock people through real estate records. So she had access to all the property, the tax records, she could find the owners, if I had, like, a guy was looking for who didn't want to talk to me, I'd find out who his landlord was, and go start putting the pressure on his landlord. And so it kind of did translate rather nicely into a real estate detective job, which is kind of what we have to do now in this market is a bit of sleuthing around. Yeah, find those distressed properties. Yep. See what kind of solutions we can help come up with, you know,I think you hit the nail on the head right there, folks, if you're not paying attention, when these markets shift, like there's going to be distress, I forget whose I think it was on our show. More, maybe I was on someone else's show. But someone just pass along the data about the 60 to 90 day lates that are coming down the pipeline. And that was in Phoenix in particular, but they're the highest that we've seen in quite some time. And that's just sort of the writing on the wall, like the rates are still going up, the cost of living isn't going down. And it's something that you could be you should be concerned with, right. And if this economy and the stock market does what I think it's going to do, but my you know, that's my opinion, people are going to be having problems, but she's focusing on distress, I'm doing the exact same thing. I think that the distressed market is where it never fails. There's a reason why other real estate investors are just sitting at the on the sidelines, salvat tating, waiting for the shoe to drop. What's your opinion on that? Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, I think a lot of them are over extended, and they're either salivating or crapping their pants.As they lose it, you know, becausea lot of these folks went out and bought multiple properties when rates were low, and now, you know, for whatever reason, I mean, obviously, COVID did a lot of weird things to the economy and to jobs and moved a lot of people out of their office buildings and commercial properties to go work remote, and companies folded and everything else. So you know, a lot, there's definitely investors waiting to lap up the rewards of that. And then there's also equal numbers of investors losing their shit, because they're overextended and they can't make the payments on everything, they're not getting the rent that they want, for the first time in years in my market here in Sacramento, rents are actually starting to go down over the past six months.So, you know, it's, everyone's gonna start feeling the crunch. And the, you know, unfortunately, hopefully, everybody that could qualify for their first time home went out and got one were when rates were in the twos, and they're just going to sit there, which it looks like they're doing because there's no inventory in that market.And with rates in the sixes and sevens on those purchase prices that are already high, you know, a lot of first time buyers are just really priced out of the market. Butdefinitely,investors are waiting for prices to come down. I mean, if we see a repeat of what happened after the subprime mortgage meltdown, you know, we're gonna see, prices come down significantly, they've already started to they pretty much returned to their pre pandemic levels here, you know, they shot up during the pandemic, really.And they're about, you know, I mean, it varies based on neighborhood and zip code and everything else, you know, but we're, we're coming down to the pre pandemic levels and as I mean, that's what the Fed is trying to do with their rate increases is basically crashed the economy, they have to bring the prices down.Literally, he literally said we need to crash the real estate market, like out of their mouths, guys. Yeah, they're trying to raise the rates because they need it to slow down. Remember, like the real estate markets 25% of people directly or indirectly employed the United States. some way shape or form? Yeah, title rep builders, contractors, everything's tied to real estate, so much of it.But so, I hear you're saying I thinkbeing and you're also in the lending world, too, just so everybody knows she gets the real estate on end of it, but she also understands loans and mortgages.and under things and what I'm hearing you say is that you're focusing on distressed.Yeah, a lot of people need to bail out one way or another. I mean, the banks are getting bailed out right and left, and who knows how that's going to affect and trickle down to the rest of us. But essentially, a lot of people are going to need a bailout. And so you can, you know, find distressed properties,through the physical signs. As you drive around, as you walk around in your neighborhood, title companies can get you those lists of data,to find the pre foreclosures and everything. And then it's just really about making relationships with those people.You know, making friends with your mailman. And he keeps, I mean, my mailman lets me know everything that's going on in my neighborhood mark, with whose lives in their house who's about to go down. He chats with people all over the city. And so it's my little secret that I trust with my mailman to find out. Here's the link who I need to go talk to, you said something that I'm not sure if you guys picked up on. But it's true. This is a real problem right now is with the rates at like, what what are they? What's the rates today? Seven? I mean, it depends on, you know, borrower paid Lender Paid, but yeah, with no points, no fees are in the sevens with 7%. And all these people who locked in and just in the last year and a half, two years ago, locked in at what 2% 1.75 on investment properties on a 15 year loan I did at the height of the pandemic, how big of an issue is this, in your opinion, because no one can move, like, you're not going to be able to replace that if you replace that property, you're gonna end up with something less desirable than probably fit your lifestyle today. I mean, unless you're downsizing,or moving majority Fornia. I mean, that's where a lot of painting, you know, but what's interesting in my market is we're not seeing the inventory reflect a mass exodus, but people are still continuing to talk about this mass exodus, people are still, you know, the markets back east in oh, what he Kentucky, Ohio, Kansas, Tennessee, you know, Texas, I mean, the less popular places people are still finding affordable deals out there. But the more popular places prices have come up in response to people leaving California and heading out, down south slash East.But we're not seeing huge inventories as people continue to leave here. So I guess they're renting out their houses for high rents, even though the rents are coming down, they're still you know, relatively unaffordable for most people, you know, $1,800, for a two bedroom apartment in Sacramento, my son moved back to Ohio recently, to rent a two bedroom apartment for 795 or something, maybe 695. So, you know, it's three times more to just pay rent out here. And, of course, the housing prices are high, much more than that. So in other things, she said, guys, as she says, she's focusing on people's problems, she's not focusing on her transaction, count her commission count, she's not sitting there tallying up the sales board to see who's number one this month, she's focused around helping people that have problems first and foremost. And I've been the last few shows, we've been saying that, like focus on serving others, first and foremost, focus on the problems they have, and be the one that could provide that solution to those problems, because that's what makes you different. Anyone could sell a house, but markets like these are hand to hand combat, you got to be able to go and know where the deals are going to be. And I highly agree with that. Focus on the investor niche, not only just the people who are selling, but the investors who buy because that I believe is going to be a big niche and anyone who's gonna stay in that market stay in that niche over the next 1218 months. I think you're gonna you're gonna take territory, I think you're gonna take brand, and you're gonna succeed very well in this market. The ones who are gonna get their ass kicked are the ones who got their ass kicked in 2007. And those are the ones who didn't adjust. And there was a whole lot of them. And they didn't they didn't adjust to reo. They didn't adjust to short sale. They just kept on being the traditional agent waiting for John and Jane to come down the house. Have a kid and move out to the fucking suburbs. It's not how would these work in these markets? Not saying don't market your database. I'm all about that market, your database stay in front of that network. Generate that business when it comes. Just be ready. But in first of all in terms of niching down all in on distressed Yeah, what is maybe what is this?Measure A well, so a lot of areas, it depends on your regulations, but there could be taxes owed on the property. So in California, you have to go five years without paying your taxes before it goes to a lien sale. But in Texas, they only wait 12 months, you didn't pay your taxes were selling your house, you know.And other states have like tax lien certificates. So you go in and you invest in you buy these certificates that you get a certain amount of interest on and some of it's quite high like 24% interest in, oh, I don't remember which state butsothen you're kind of gambling on whether this person is going to pay you back or pay the county back, or whether you're going to get to buy this house and evict this person and take their property from them with the tax lien certificate. So there's those there's foreclosures, there are landlords who didn't get any rent for two years during the pandemic. So this is happening more and more, I think where, you know, the all the moratoriums have now ended.Tenants are, you know, I mean, I think they've been paying rent again for a while. But there's been a backlog in the court process in the eviction process in the foreclosure processes, all of the chickens are coming home to roost for a lot of these properties. So how big do you think that market is? Like from those moratoriums and all that, like, is it gigantic is it I mean, I hate to be doom and gloom, but I think it's gonna just get bigger and bigger. Because a lot of those investors are in Adjustable Rate type of situations with their mortgage on this properties. There's just so many factors out there that are unpredictable. And just the jobs, the inflation, this, all of these unprecedented conditions are like coming together. And I don't see how it's not going to be worse than 2008. I would love for someone to convince me otherwise. But the banks collapsing is not a good sign. There's just so many things that point to disasters, catastrophe. I don't disagree with you at all. And it's I laugh to keep refreshing, it's just, I want to, I want to be all unicorns and rainbows and everything. But um, yeah, it's, I think it's gonna get worse before it gets better. And I think people have been saying that for a while. And it's still true that it's going to continue to get worse before it's going to get better.You know, worldwide, things are not good. Thethe central bank, introducing a digital currency very quietly concerns me quite a bit.Saudi Arabia and Iran making friends over in Syria and trading for gas and Chinese currency is a bit concerning. So you know, all of these things, really, if we're honest, point to a real problem of the currency collapsing. And nobody knows what happens when the currency collapses, because they've been propping it up for so long. They've been bailing out these banks they've been, and we're paying for it at regular tax paying US citizens, we've been paying for itthe whole time. And, you know, it's they, if you want to know the truth, it pisses me off to talk about this 4% inflation that we're at, and we want to get it down to 2%. I don't know if you listen to Jerome Powell's comments out, it sounded like maybe did he mentioned the 2% target inflation rate about 19 million times? And, you know, is he talked around it and basically threw in there how we're gonna have to crush this thing to get to that. But if you really look at inflation, as it practically applies to our lives, like I don't know how they get this 4% number, because if you go into the grocery store, and Safeway, things are like 50% higher than they were a year ago. Yep. Gas is, you know,$2 higher than it was three years ago. A guess that's almost 100% inflation and what I'm paying for gas, the housing market, just for a quick example, my first house I bought in 97, for a little over 100,000. And it's worth a little under 700,000. Now, so that's 700% inflation over those years, between then and now in the housing market. So where are they? You know, I don't exactly understand their mathWith these inflation numbers, but it's exponentially worse than they want to admit that it is. It's I agree afew months ago, we're you know, that's what once they start raising the rates I've seen same same things like I'm more worried about the affordability issue. But it's so odd because there isn't an inventory issue. Yeah, technically, we think there should be an inventory issue. But we haven't seen a huge inventory issue. I mean, in surplus, I mean, you think we'd have more properties coming on the market, more things happening. But yeah, there's still tight inventory levels. But then yeah, you've seen all these other outside circumstances that are there. And you know, what we're talking about here, guys, we're focused on affordability, affordability. And that's where the problem solving thing comes in. And how you can use it as an advantage during this time, because if what we're saying is, is what if what we're saying is accurate, where you want to agree with us or not, there's gonna be a shortage of agents that know how to take on these types of properties and get people out of these situations. And that skill is going to get you paid if you take time to develop it. Definitely. And just being creative and thinking out of the box, meeting your neighbors, making relationships with people. One way that I get a lot of action is through my volunteering efforts. I meet other volunteers, and guess who has time to volunteer, people who are retired or who have, you know, good income, stay at home moms,you know, comfortable people who have time to spend a day, a month or a day a week or whatever, at volunteering, Meals on Wheels is one place that I spend some of my time, and I just do some outreach in the community working with other agencies, nonprofits, churches, who are also trying to come up with solutions to solve the homeless problem, which is a huge crisis in California, I'm sure you're aware.And I've met 10s of people and then 10s, of reifies, and business with the networking that I've made through volunteering. And one other interesting market I've noticed is,so I've got some marginal borrowers who have marginal credit, but what they have is job history. And so I had a friend, slash client call me frantically talking about how our 401k is losing value. And she's been on her job 33 years, and she wants to take as much out of her 401k as possible, and use it to put a down payment on a house. And therefore, in that way, she'll be able to get her payment to what she can afford. Because normally, this would be an FHA borrower three and a half percent down,you know, but with these prices with these rates, we need to figure out a way to somehow come in with more than three and a half percent in order to hit that affordability that we're talking about. And so the way that she's going to do it, is to buy a house, you know, a 300,003 50 house and put 150, down out of her retirement, so she only has a $200,000 mortgage. So, you know, this type of creative solution, I mean, it's out there, but a lot of people, they don't want to risk that retirement, they're,you know, they're not comfortable with that. But in this instance, people are watching their retirement accounts lose value. And, you know, who knows what's going to be going on by the time you're actually ready to retire. And so a lot of people feel like the risk is worth it to go ahead and take the money and run and at least you know, that you have a house to live in, in your retirement, and maybe you're going to be getting less of a pension, but maybe that, you know, will equal out in the long run as you secure your financial future through housing. So maybe they bought a property with it, you know, I think maybe people, I mean, there are lenders who definitely still want to do loans out there, even though the guidelines are tightening, even though credit is bit crunched, you know, they're, they, they don't want to go out of business, either. They want to find borrowers to get them into these loans. So I'm seeing my wholesale lenders coming up with new products, home equity lines of credit that they never offered. I mean, those were out of style for years after the subprime market crash and everything. So a lot of, you know, new products, there's just a lot of different solutions coming up the pipeline. And as we, I mean, we have to try to proceed as though it's not going to be complete doom and gloom and then prepare for the worst in the back of our minds, you know,I don't think that the solution is to just crawl in a hole and wait for the apocalypse. No, you got to keep fighting every single day. You got to be a badass. Yeah, you got it. You got to keep on going. I mean, that's what this business is. It's not always easy. You know, it's not and neither is any business neither. And you guys, aren't you guys aren't salespeople, we're business owners, ultimately brokers jobs and to put money in your pockets yours. So you know, you have to go out there and win the business. And sometimes that's going to be going after distressed market buying data realizing 60 to 90 day lates. History, knowing where distressed is that starting to network with a lot of divorce attorneys probate,foreclosure defense, there's a lot of strategic relationships you could get in. But look, every single thing that we've talked about today focused on problem solving those, what I want you to get out of the show, is focused on being the world's best problem solver. And you won't have a client problem, because people will be coming to you to solve theirs. So don't overthink this business be the real estate problem solver. She's the real estate detective, you're gonna be very high in demand. And regardless, you still gonna have a business at the end of the day. So adjust with what is out there, you listen to what we're saying, adjust the business people still move, okay? People have babies, people still die, that means people still move. So as long as that happens, and people are having babies and people are dying, which last I checked happens every day, there are still gonna be people moving. But who is moving is what we're saying is probably going to change the people who are stuck in their homes at that 2% rate, well, they're not going to be as likely to move anytime soon. Then the ones who are just, you know, missed their first mortgage payment,or just lost their job, or missed their first car payment, or have high credit card debt. Those are where a lot of the investors are concentrating their times, I can tell you, that's what we concentrated our lead generation efforts at. And it's just, that's where I believe the opportunity is gonna be if you're gonna chase trends, if you want transactions in the next coming months.Focus on the problems. It'll be there any closing thoughts? You have Stephanie?Um, well, I like to always remind people that if you're the smartest one in your friend group, it's time to go out and get some new friends. So it's really nice as we go along, that everyone loves to listen to us and hear our words of wisdom and everything. But if you want to learn and grow, and come up with new ideas, you really have to go out and find people that are smarter than you to hang out with. So, you know, join some networking groups, find some new smart friends, and they will make you smarter, and more of a badass. Absolutely, what if they want to follow you, website or anything you want to give them? I'm Stephanie boy.com. And I'm on all the usual places, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or those usual places figured out tick tock yet, but I hear tick tock is where you could go wild and get, get people come to your website and all of your other social media, so I haven't gotten into it yet, either. Justnot anymore. I have a couple of videos, but I just have it. I'm gonna say I'm too tired. But try to figure it out. So look for me on tick tock in the future. Thanks, folks. Thank you for coming. And thank you for listening on an episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast. Folks, visit our site, visit our software, check it out. It's called referral suite.com That's referral suite W S W. E E t.com. Visited if you'd like to mark your database stay in front of it. We make referral marketing, very freakin simple and content creation. Very simple. All you got to do is give me a couple hours a month and you will be everywhere all of the time. Thanks again for coming on the show. And thanks for listening. Make sure you subscribe, follow us on our channels. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye. Bye. Awesome. Good times. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with the dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We'll see you next time.Transcribed by https://otter.ai

09. Get Social (transcribed)

english athens transcription gav get social transcribed

Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2023 41:54

Back to the Basics

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2023 27:02

Business has changed and it's scary. What do you do in a downturn market? You go back to the basics, because there is still a lot of money to be made now.Three Things You'll Learn in This EpisodeThe basics of marketing in this economy.What you're doing wrong right now.Why this market is so scary, but doesn't have to be.ResourceCheck Out The Locker RoomReal Estate Marketing DudeThe Listing Advocate (Earn more listings!)REMD on YouTubeREMD on InstagramTranscript:So how do you track new business? You constantly don't have to chase it. Hi, I'm Mike Cuevas to real estate marketing. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It's your job to remind them. Let's get startedwhat is up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast, folks, we are gonna get back to some basics today.People are wondering what the hell do I do? What should I do in business isn't the same as it was 18 months ago, we don't know what the hell's going on anymore. And people are like, freaking out. Chill, dude, these are the best brand building opportunities to take share and territory than ever. But I understand it's very scary for a lot of people right now. Because reality is most of you have never seen a shift. None of you guys have seen a down market to the tune of about 85% of you. And if you've never seen a down market, you're probably shitting your pants right now and rightfully so. So what we're gonna be chatting about today is what do you do in a down market, this will be my second and a half one, I believe in my career. And we're gonna give you guys some very, very basic advice. But it is basic. And unfortunately, what we're chatting about today is you got to go back to the basics. One of the gurus I followed when I first started my career, I think, as Craig forte, who said, You must be brilliant at the basics. You got to be brilliant at the basics. And I think that's correct, but if not, whoever it is, thanks.I still think about that. And it's absolutely true. The big teams out there right now and there's a lot of you guys are listening to this, you're getting your ass kicked right now that $20,000 of ad spend, you've been spending monthly? Well, the ROI isn't converting the same way it is because when there is a market shift, what you can't control are consumer habits. And that's exactly why today's episode is gonna be going back to the fucking basics. So without further ado, we have Mr. Jake Dixon on the show today, Jake runs the locker room, which is a coaching company, a really kick ass coach, coaching company, very bottom of the line guy and he's dealing with this in all markets across the country, because they have students everywhere. And I think what you're going to get today is a lot of insight on what you should be doing right now. So quit freaking out, grab your pen. Stop running on your treadmill and listen to what Jake says Jake, how you doing, dude? Doing great, Mike. Glad to be here, man. Let's rock and roll. Thanks for coming on the show here. Why don't you tell everyone a little bit about yourself? Jake's a dude.I'd say why don't you Tom, how'd you get your why you guys have so many coaching students? Why should ever listen to you? Well, you guys been doing? Yeah, I'm gonna dudes. Dude. I'm a coach dude with the marketing dude, what a great combo here. So yeah, my quick background is I played college and professional baseball. Hence inspiration for come coming up with the locker room, a lot of symbolism, a lot of sports analogies, some of which I'm sure I'm gonna drop on you and your audience today. But we specialize in working with broker owners team leads, as well as the agents who we feel are underserved I lovingly refer to as the blue ocean, which are any agents launching their careers, their dual career, they're selling fewer than 24 homes per year. That's right Blue Ocean Strategy book. And that is that's our bread and butter. There's plenty of coaching options out there for the mega mega superstar agents and producing agents. And we can serve you as well. But our messaging and our specialization is really birthed the newer, lesser producing crowd that wants to level up. I remember when I first got into real estate, I was doing a keg stand. And then a week later walking down Michigan Avenue wearing a suit and I'm like what the fuck just happened. And I joined a company that was called home touch. They're out of business since but we had a kiosk and water tower mall right next to Fannie Mae chocolates. And if you've ever been to water tower mall, it's a tourist trap. And there's a lot of people now you might not be able to walk through there without getting mugged. But that's a different story.And I sold my first four, six houses right off the floor. And it was we'd have listings, sitting there, right? And listings would just be sitting there. And then people would stop and be like, Oh, what's that worth just certain note the same concept as a window shopping when you walk past the real estate office in a place you've never been to before you always say hey, what does that house going for here? Right? So it was very easy to have these conversations and I was only 22. But instantly I knew the name of the game was having conversations because of that. Right? And that's so basic, and the gurus will tell us so you're one more note away from your next Yes, the way I look at content creation brand and all that as your own more view away from your next referral and our client because 10 to 15% of the people that see your shit, they're moving and 100% of them have referral for you guys. So my version of going back to basics is always go back to the basics if not everyone you know that knows of that you'd invite to your wedding or funeral with an unlimited budget doesn't know the fact that you're in real estate. That's what I mean. Go back to the basics. Now. How hard is it? I've never understood this real estate. I can't get business I can't get business. How hard is it just inlet the with Facebook IIemail, social media just know the let the people 100 to 200 people that you would say hello to in the grocery store. How hard is it to remind them? You're in real estate? This isn't rocket science.No, you're exactly right. And that's why we say here our motto at lockerroom is real estate's a contact sport, it's time to get your jersey 30. Some of you are going home every day without a speck of dirt to be shown for on that jersey. And so, to emphasize the point you're making there, you're absolutely right, right. We have something a concept here something crunchy, maybe called the five to 25 challenge. All we've done is repackage something that otherwise becomes numb and unsexy and made it sexy again, because I can beat you over the head, like every other person about lead generation and making your contacts. But we just repurposed it, calling it the five to 25 challenge. So math majors out there. Here's what that is. It's five contacts a day for five days a week, over, let's say, 50 weeks out of the year. Anybody can do that. I don't care if you're launching your new business, your dual career are you the busiest superstar mega producer out there, you can have five intentional conversations every day, no excuses. So that's 1250 Real Estate conversations over the course of the year. And I've been tracking this religiously now for seven years. And again, keep in mind my audience, but I see consistently a 2% conversion rate meaning for every 50 people I talk to, it will yield me one new piece of business. So what's 1250 Real Estate conversations times 2%? Right? You guessed it 2525 sales in a year puts you now in the top three to 5% of producers according to Nar put that on your fridge, you know? And yeah, what am I gonna talk about? I can't just call people to say, What am I gonna say, Jake? Well, that's a problem. Mike, you know this as well, as I do is I work with so many agents who say, Well, I've already talked to everybody I know. And I call bullshit because what you actually have done is you cherry, pick your database, show me your your phone contacts, and then show me all the friends and people you have on your social media. You mean to tell me you talk to every single person, highly unlikely what you've actually done is just cherry pick your database, because you're so busy on or worried about what am I supposed to say? So it's not a contact issue. It's a skill set issue, which is scripts and dialogues and having the confidence to go speak with people. I hear that all the time people like, especially with content creation, like Dude, I'm not gonna send that video. On Facebook. Everyone already knows I'm in real estate. I'm like, Oh, really? How many deals did you last year, because I break down the math for and here you guys can break down the math, if you're sitting at home too. And how many deals you do last year, they'll say 12 how many friends you have on Facebook 1000? Well, out of those 1000 Friends 100 250 of them fucking moved. But all 1000 of them had a referral for you that you failed to get. And you're telling me you only did 12 transactions over the course of your lifetime. 80% of the people who moved us the first person they met.What are you talking about? The numbers don't add up, right? That's basics. That's basics. It's being everybody's looking for the shiny object get rich, quick pill. And the reality is, last time I checked, unless you want a robot or artificial intelligence mechanism to replace you. We just got to get back to the basics, which is what this is all about. I equate this to a former life when I used to give young kids baseball lessons, right? Again, I have a significant background in sports like, and so I would teach a 12 year old for example, the same way I taught that kid how to grip a bat or hold that baseball properly,is literally the same thing those guys on TV are doing earning millions of dollars a year. They're the best at what they do. Okay, so So the bottom line is this. If it's true in baseball, I've got to be I've got to be led to believe it's true in the sport called Real Estate that the fundamentals don't change, the fundamentals stay the same, right? It's just that the game speeds up. So instead of that kid throwing 55 miles an hour in Little League, now they're throwing 95 miles an hour in the major leagues. But guess what, the grip and the how they hold the bat is the same. So agents the same way you close 12 homes per year is the exact same thing it takes you to close 112 homes per per year, you just need to master the fundamentals. And then notice that the game speeds up but the game and the fundamentals don't change themselves.I gotta take a quick interruption here. Just to show how on brand Jake is and he doesn't catch us if you're not watching us on video. He's got a locker, like a gym locker behind him. And when we're talking about brand and all of this stuff not to interrupt as Carson has had to bring this up is that he's living it like he's not scared to do it. The way he's talking. He's using like all these analogies and I guarantee you that that's has a ton to do and people I feel like I get you dude, you know, but he's not not being himself at the same time. So when people are like, Hey, I don't know what to talk about. When I have these conversations. It's like what do you mean you don't know what to talk about? What do you an introvert. Like you just call someone up and say what's up? I would call up like my frat bros and be like, hey,What's up, dude? What are you doing? And you just say, I've been talking to you I'm in the car, like realtors are in the car for like two hours a day, dude. Like just I would just call people up, like what's going on bro? And then eventually, during that conversation, you're like, so How's work going?And then they're like, Oh, how's it going with you? I just sold the house. Oh, yeah, it's just that constant reiteration. And you never know. And then you're right. Like, what you'll find is like 10% of people, most people don't know they're moving yet to guys this year. Like, you gotta admit it. Some of these some of these people in here relate in yourrelationships and your your database are going to be getting pregnant, they didn't mean to. Right, some of them are going to be like getting sick or losing their jobs, bucks, none of them are going to sell their damn companies, and they're going to want to upgrade, right? So it's just you don't know where it is. But what happens is that when somebody wants to freakin move, 80% of them hire the first person they meet with. And nobody wants to talk about real estate all day long, until they're in the market ready to buy or sell. But that doesn't mean you can't be talking100% Man, I'm doing a class coming up. And it's called CRMs, but not what you think. And of course, I just like to have fun with people and mess with them. But so CRM is an acronym, because I get asked all the time, what's it going to take to make it through this market or, you know, survive, and whatever. So I put in an acronym CRM. So it's consistency. Number one, consistency. Number two is relationships. Number three is market knowledge. And number four, the s, of course, is skill set. If you master those things, and implement those things now, or whatever the cyclical industry is doing, you're gonna be just fine. And that's kind of what we're talking about getting back to the back to the basis, it's not necessarily the shiny technology object. Mice version of CRMs is consistency relationships, understanding the market knowledge and skill set development. Yep, go there. I think that, like, if we're, what we're really going here is like you're working on a business, you're working on your brand is what it comes down to. It's not chasing a bunch of leads, guys, like that's gonna burn you out, especially in a market like this. You know, like, I'm gonna assume that. I mean, we're about to see two more bank failures coming up. fads retarded, and they they're raising interest rates, and they're causing these bank failures that gets the writing's on the wall.And I don't know, I don't know what's gonna happen. But there's an opportunity there, right? No one's talking about that right now on social. So like, what kind of conversations can you have on a brand? Well, I'm just gonna talk about current events.You know what I mean? Like that, there's so many ways you can go out and do it. But the other thing you want to think about in times like these is that so many people are very quiet right now. And that's why you want to be very loud. And in a shift, that's where the opportunity is, you could take territory and territory doesn't have to be physical territories attention, guys. And the more attention you have, the more territory you're gonna get, and more people know you are then the more conversations you have, like we're talking about. And it's nice when you have these conversations, and you do them with content or you reach out one on one, whatever it is. You're building a brand at the same time. It doesn't happen overnight. Jake wasn't an all star pitchers first round were you Jake. I mean, I'd like to think I was maybe in my head, but hell no, it took a lot of work alot of reps. No, I love what you're saying there because it's it goes back to being human. We are human beings and stop making it weird. Like, dude, sometimes the word lead generator prospect freaks people out. I don't know, I'm just a small town, dude, from the sticks of Illinois. To me, it's going out and making friends and having real conversations. Congratulations, you lead generated because in a normal conversation, which means it's back and forth. If you ask somebody enough questions, they're bound to ask you back something like how are you or how's your business? That's when the real estate Gods open up the clouds and it's your chance not to blow it. And because you can subtly input something about real estate, like you said, here's another little little trick on words, one of our coaches, which I thought was genius, recently was targeting this the subject of like, well, what am I supposed to say, you know, I can't just call him when I need something and beat him over the head with who do you know, look at a buy, sell, invest in real estate. That's the worst. I hate that. Don't do that. Please, just stop doing that. Don't do that. That's like saying, Who wants to sleep with me today? Right.It's a booty call.So so check it out, though. So she said we need to start need generating and stop worrying about lead generating need and Edie if I call somebody say how are you? What can I do for you, especially in that post COVID era, all that other stuff will take care of itself? Start position yourself of being a person of value in a connector and asking how can I help? What do you need from me? And the rest of the stuff will take care of itself. So maybe some of you need to start need generating and quit worrying so much about lead generating. I love that. I got an email today from one of our clients. She's a mortgage broker, and I think she's the last mortgage broker I've left as a video client.Because you guys all quit, because you're scared. And what happens is, is that she's crushing it. She actually reached out this morning and she's like, Hey, I have a real estate agent. And her and her husband also own a bakery, and I want to add value to her. So I'd love to feature her on like a business type interview and mend that relationship. I'm like, That's an excellent idea.Because she's swimming upstream guys, like, you know, she's thinking in the future she's cultivating and every other lender in her market are dying, and they're sitting underneath the desk shaking,scared and not doing anything, just worrying about what's gonna happen tomorrow. But she's being proactive, and she's taking territory. This is what I mean by that. And it's super super. It's not rocket science. It's grassroots, you know, and you're right. So you can do it from the numbers game with the database, or the five to 25 challenge. But again, to your point, just there, you know, I'm a strong advocate of forming your top 50 MVPs. I don't care if you're a brand new agent and a new market or whatever. But who are your MVP is those raving fans, those core advocates, and some of them are probably most of them are in the form of other people within the real estate industry, insurance agents, carpet cleaners, pest control companies, general contractors, on and on and on. If I have coffee or lunch with one of them a week for 50 weeks, you can't tell me that 50% of them probably are going to refer you a piece of business this year. That's 25 sales right there. Yep. Now make it a symbiotic two way relationship. It's not all of what's in it for me. But hopefully your listeners are, you know, get what I'm saying here. You approach it the right way. But you got 50 People like that in your back pocket, and even half of them deliver for you every year with one referral. Jackpot. Yep. Sobesides reaching out cultivating relationships, what else can we be doing?Why personally, I'm a big proponent of this, we need to be focusing on ourselves, how are you growing yourself? How are you protecting that thing upstairs in your brain or in your head called your brain? And so I'm a big proponent of personal growth. And that's why people are listening to your podcast. I have to assume Mike because they dig your content and it helps snap them out of the funk. Who you're surrounding yourself with what conferences what what things are you feeding yourself because right now, that sucker upstairs is very delicate, and there's so much fear so much noise that we can buy into and become a victim of or we can drown out the noise rise above it and be that agent who's standing there stronger than ever before, whenever the economy or whatever rebounds, because I suspect you feel the same way. I don't give a shit who's in the White House. I don't care what the stock market's doing today. I'm in control of things more than a lot of people care to admit, you know, and if we just stop paying attention to the crap and take control, we'll be just fine. Yeah, you got to surround yourself you're actually having an event coming up soon. I believe in Orlando. Why don't you tell them about that really quick? Yeah, go into events, get your ass out of the you got sometimes just gotta step outside your comfort zone guys. I always came back from events, implementing at least one thing, but more importantly, I got reengaged and reactivated because I was so burnt out. So I'd get the hell out of town go to an event. And then I come back and all sudden, I'm like a new man. What are you having? Yeah, as in you're right. I mean, there's tons of events going on. People are craving connection out getting out from behind these computers and zoom screens all over again. So yes, and everybody's gonna roll their eyes when I say this, but it's in Orlando in August. Oh my gosh, it's so hot. Get over it. We'll be inside. Okay, so August 10 11th. And 12 is our event in Orlando, it's called the TLR breakthrough event. You can go to TLR nation.com/breakthrough event to get all the details. We have two days for agents and two days. For broker owners and or leader leaders in general, it's going to be amazing. So yeah, we're looking forward to it. We've got about 125 spots for agents, 125 spots for brokers. We'd like to keep them small and intimate. And our events are very different from the majority, because they're very heavy on the workshop and collaboration. You're not going to just leave with pages of notes, you're going to leave with things done ready to implement when you get home. Yet, take action.Folks, what I would be doing right now is learning how to use your damn phones and creating a whole lot of content. People are like, Oh, I can't create content. Yes, you can you have three options. One, you learn how to do it and you start doing a bunch of short form stuff. And videos, too. You hire somebody to do it for you. But that just depends if you have the budget, and then threeyou do a little bit of both. There's no shortage of it. But like for those you that are short on budget, then learn the time put the time into what else you do and don't have any clients. So what else are you going to be doing right now?Um, if you have if you're too busy then you have money because otherwise you wouldn't be busy so then reinvest that money could be in such a cheapass like, you have to focus on putting it into the business you guys, you can't be quiet right now I would I think created I saw create a lot of noise I saw an awesome probably the best ad video I've ever seen was Ryan car 32nd or 62nd real best ad I've ever seen on social at least for real estate agent targeting real estate agents. And he basically just said the same shit. Like he's like, dude, like, these markets are great double down on your brand. I never bought a lead in my life like the television show doesn't hurt. But same thing. You know what I mean? It's he's, he's on point is it's true. It's just a giant popularity contest. Yeah, you're right. I mean, we have a whole section on our event from Jeff fitzer. Some people might know Jeff, who listened to this and he's going to talk about marketing and videos specifically at our event. And it reminds me what you're just saying of Gary Vee, or depending on who you follow. There's all different opinions on this. But he says stop worrying about creating and start documenting. Right and so my buddy Josh down in Jacksonville, Florida, was notorious. He has 1000s of videos on his YouTube channel, mega mega agent 65% of his business comes legit from YouTube. And to make a long story short, one of his most popular most watched videos of all time, check this out now was he got a nasty letter from his HOA? Basically saying, dude, you got all these nasty hard water stains on your mailbox, it looks like shit, you need to you need to do something you need to paint your mailbox. So he could have just painted in mail his mailbox. But what he thought to do is repurpose that as an opportunity to talk to his neighbors, that where he lives works and plays, right? And so he flips his video camera around on his phone and says, Hey, what's up neighbors. It's your local favorite, you know, realtor, Josh here, blah, blah, blah, look, I'm getting ready to paint my mailbox, I got this letter. Here's a couple tips on how to go about painting your mailbox. So it looks like a million bucks. Like he was going to do it anyways. But it was just that I'm amongst the people. I'm a man of the community. And oh, by the way, I'm a real estate agent. You know, it was just beautiful. He's got so much business on video like that. Crazy. That has nothing to do with real estate. Like it's no, it's so we had a guy that started. He's just doing a that's a good tip. If you guys doing short form content, you have to upload it as a real please don't upload it as a regular video. So we had this guy and he was we're doing all of his editing work. And you know, he stopped talking about real estate, you start doing barbecue reviews. And in all of his videos, he's always wearing like a hat that says like, I'm a realtor or shirts that say I love real estate or something like that. So he doesn't have to say it. So he's just branding, the fact that he's in real estate, but it's very guy Ferraris. He's going around and just doing restaurant interviews. And all he's doing is eating. Right. And he's just he just he's a total dude, he looks like it. He started uploading them as reals. I mean, it shipped blew up like he's got like, every real now is like 3000 views, 4000 views, 10,000 views. And now he's become known as like this barbecue guy. On the flip side, we have an attorney I started doing content for and she's a bankruptcy attorney. And she's like, well, what can I do to stand a little bit different? She's like, 75 years old. And I'm like, what do you do on the weekends.And I found out that she knits picture that 75 year old who knits a My Great. Well, all I want you to do on video is just start, I want you to be knitting a ball of yarn. While you're telling me about bankruptcy. It's very simple. No one's gonna care what you talk about, but they remember how you said it. So it's very simple to build attention right now, you guys, you don't have to overthink this stuff. But you have to start doing it. Because right now, there's a lack of people doing it. A lot of your competition is scared. And when you just take the earnest and start doing it, you're gonna get the noticed. That's what a shift is. Yes, it won't pay off right now. Probably take 3678 months, but I could guarantee you in 12 months from now, a year from now, you'll come back and you'd be like, Holy fuck, I was so glad I started creating that content. That's awesome, man. I've never heard anyone who hasn't like I have not heard anyone who have it. The only time it doesn't work is if people don't like you. That's nothing I can help you with. You're in the wrong damn business.So reminds me like I don't know if you follow like Dave Portnoy or somebody who just does pizza reviews. Oh, yeah. Love. You know, all the do does is pizza review.Best pizza review was in the South Loop. I live in the city, Chicago, and he's doing a pizza review at eighth and state and it's a pizza place I've been to many times, and there's a cardigan stolen right behind him with a cop just sitting there waiting. And it's the best pizza review ever. And he's just eaten a pizza testing. And he's just like, dude, that car just gets stolen.Right in the middle of the city, but that was one of the it wasn't just a pizza show. Like that's why I'm talking about I remember that. But now I'd also remember he's the pizza guy. So like, you guys, be you. That's the point though. Like the end of the day. What are we doing here? I would argue or submit at least it's to win the mindshare battle. If I can win their mind. Look, I don't have to remind them every day.Some day or every conversation what I do if I'm doing my job effectively, they'll know. But what are we going to talk about between now and then seven years or nine years from now when they have an actual real estate need to buy or sell? We better find something else to talk about and stay top of mind with each other. So whether it's pizza or barbecue or knitting or whatever, take something you naturally enjoy. Create some video content like you're saying with it, and you stay top of mind amongst the people. Yep.Not that hard, guys. You just got to do it. Folks, we appreciate you listen to this episode. Why don't we Jake, tell them again about that event. I might be going there. might check it out. Love to have you. So yeah, man. It's Orlando, the TLR breakthrough event August 10. Through the 12th you'll find your dates accordingly on whether your agent days or the broker days, just simply go to TLR nation.com/breakthrough event we'd love to have you cool, Folks, we appreciate you listening to Episode The real estate marketing dude podcast. Folks, if you need help building your content, I want you to visit our new software we just released it's called referral suite referral suite.com That suite s wet like the blue popsicle.com and visit it if you're having trouble staying in front of the people that matter most that are responsible for the vast majority of your business. Give me one to two hours a month and I'll make sure they all know who the fuck you are. Appreciate guys listening and we'll see you guys next week. Peace. Thank you. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We'll see you next time.Transcribed by https://otter.ai

08. SPOTIFY VIDEO Fillers and Discourse Markers with Valerie (transcribed)

Sustainable Winegrowing with Vineyard Team

Play Episode Listen Later May 5, 2023 36:36

Do you use filler words and discourse markers? Do you teach and learn them in your classroom? This is Gav & Em's discussion topic today. Featuring a very special guest, Valerie Fridland, a sociolinguist studying the interactions between language and society and the author of the hilarious and educational book Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English (Viking). In today's show, Valerie explains the uses of one of the most common filler words, like. We hope you, like, enjoy the show, Gav & Em. Transcription with audio: https://share.descript.com/view/p4KnOH8DHdB Buy Gav & Em a coffee or tea: https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod Valerie's book: https://www.amazon.com/Like-Literally-Dude-Arguing-English/dp/0593298322https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/language-in-the-wildh ttps://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/valerie-fridland/ Grammar Girl Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grammar-girl-quick-and-dirty-tips-for-better-writing/id173429229 Speechling.com article: https://speechling.com/blog/15-common-english-filler-words-you-should-know/ Gav's activity based on Speechling's article: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rYcCuH753GD55x_l2DbiIVgIakPOZbNJCgDOaNsguLc/edit?usp=sharing Auxiliary activities: Cutting Edge, Intermediate, 1B. Three Person Snap Cutting Edge, Pre-Intermediate, 3B. Neither do I New English File, 2nd Edition, Upper-Intermediate, 1B. Grammar - Auxiliary verbs

spotify discourse 1b cutting edge intermediate 3b markers transcription fillers gav transcribed pre intermediate

179: Farming with Alternative and Renewable Energy

Play Episode Listen Later May 4, 2023 24:25

One way that growers can farm sustainably for the future is through vineyard fleet management. Marc Di Pietra, Regional Service Maintenance Manager for Treasury Americas, a subsidiary of global wine company Treasury Wine Estates, is doing just that by exploring alternative fuel sources and automation. Electric and hybrid vehicles reduce carbon emissions and lower the cost of fuel. The use of remote-operated equipment improves safety for operators, upscales the workforce, improves efficiencies, and has the potential to passively gather valuable data. The challenge is the existing infrastructure needed to support these tools. Learn what equipment Marc and his team are trialing as they work towards a goal to use 100% renewable energy. References: May 12, 2023 Integrating Mechanization Tailgate Meeting - REGISTER 77: Vineyard Pruning Technology 173: Reduce Your Carbon Footprint with Lightweight Wine Bottles Agtonomy Guss Monarch Tractor Polaris Robotics Plus Marc Di Pietra email Marc Di Pietra LinkedIn Stavros Vougioukas, Ph.D, Professor and Department Vice Chair, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, UC Davis Treasury Wines Estates Treasury Wine Estates 2022 Sustainability Report Treasury Wine Estates on LinkedIn Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - DONATE SIP Certified – Join to protect natural and human resource with us Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. Transcript Craig Macmillan 0:00 And our guest today is Marc Di Pietra. He's Regional Service Maintenance Manager for Treasury America's part of Treasury Wine Estates. And thanks for being on the podcast. Marc Di Pietra 0:09 Thank you, Craig, I really appreciate the opportunity to talk with you today, especially about some of the things we're working on. We're really excited, quick background on me. I joined Treasury wWine Estates in mid 2018, then transitioned into vineyard operations around 2019. And then since then, I've been focused on our equipment, sleep management in the vineyard with an eye on what farming of the future looks like. Craig Macmillan 0:28 Farming of the future. That's a really interesting topic and a really big question, what that is going to look like, what kinds of things are you doing? What kinds of things do you do as part of this position as part of this project? Marc Di Pietra 0:40 It's a great question, because every day it changes, right. But two of the biggest areas of opportunities that we see, we see alternative fuel types, fully electric, hybrid hydrogen or alternative fuel sources, and then also automation or remote operated mechanization. And so for alternative fuels, two of the major points here are obviously the rising cost of fuel, and then also how to lower our carbon emissions. So Treasury as a whole and supportive lowering emissions, we've been implemented two key goals in our journey. And that starts with a target of 100% renewable energy by 2024. That's the first step. And then the second step of that is net zero for scopes, one and two by 2030. So pretty big, lofty goals there. But that's why we're starting that path now. Craig Macmillan 1:24 So Marc, can you kind of explain what scope one and scope two are in the world of carbon accounting? Marc Di Pietra 1:30 Yeah, sure. So scope. One, emissions are direct greenhouse gas emissions that occur from sources controlled or owned by an organization. So an example like fuel combustion, boiler, furnace vehicles, things like that. Scope, two emissions, or indirect greenhouse gas emissions through the purchase of electricity, Steam, heat, or cooling. And then lastly, scope three, which is much bigger than that as activities from assets not owned or controlled by the organization, but indirectly affected value, like shipping supply chain, gas bottles, things like that. Craig Macmillan 2:00 Yeah. And there's a lot of folks that are getting interested in that part of my job with Niner Wine Estates is who I work for. We're trying to figure out what's the carbon footprint of the glass we use, and many other people are looking at that same thing. Because when you stop and think about it, you go, Hey, wait a second, this came from France. And it weighs X, huh. You know, and so it's that kind of scope three stuff is really interesting to a lot of people. Marc Di Pietra 2:23 Treasury on the background has done a lot of work on that to understand that big picture. Craig Macmillan 2:26 And we have an episode that mentions that. Marc Di Pietra 2:28 And the second big piece, which I hadn't hinted on was automation, also a key initiative because it allows us to help improve like our operator safety, upscale our existing workforce while improving efficiencies in the field. There's also an added bonus, that with this type of technology, we'll have the ability to gather passive data, which right now, it's still relatively new. But as we continue to grow and develop, we can process that data to make smarter decisions, you would ask some of the things that we're working on. So here in the US, we're working with GUSS remote operated spray systems, we've got Agtonomy, which is electric and remotely operated alternative to the tractor that you're familiar with. We've got two atari and Polaris electric, RTVs, Robotics Plus systems, which is both hybrid and remote operating. And we're also currently waiting for order of Monarch tractors that should be here in the next couple of weeks. Our international teams, they're also using some different equipment as well, such as vide bots or farm, Kelby, the yields and a few others. Craig Macmillan 3:25 Talk to me about these alternate fuel things. I think this is a really interesting idea. And I haven't really followed it, tell someone who's never heard of this kind of thing, how this works? Marc Di Pietra 3:35 Well, the easiest way to think about as you're driving up and down the road, and you see a gas station, and you see those three different price points, for 87 89, and 91. And that's all pretty basic, but then you add in the cost of diesel on top of that there are other ways to fuel equipment as well. So we have a fully electric like you're familiar with your Tesla's or your Chevy bolts, but there's also hybrid, which you're familiar with to it has been doing this for a long time. And then there's also other types of fuel, like methane and hydrogen that are out there as well. The real big challenge that we're seeing, at least on our end, is the infrastructure to support all of these different growing ideas. That's why we're currently trying both electric and the hybrid options. Craig Macmillan 4:14 Do you think that there is a future for things like methane, hydrogen, those ideas have kind of come and gone? And I think a lot of it, like you said, is the infrastructure part? Marc Di Pietra 4:21 You know, it's a great question, because I don't have all the answers. But I do know that different companies are trying things to capture, especially in farming, so where you have dairy farms that can collect the methane, you've got the fermentation process, which allows you to capture different chemicals across the way. So I think there is a place for it depending on where you're at. And then again, it goes back to how you can capture and store that safely. Craig Macmillan 4:45 So let's go back to electric and hybrid. You mentioned a whole range of different vehicles that could run on electric and hybrid. Can you tell me a little bit about is it a hybrid tractors or strictly electric tractors? These are the things that need more house horsepower, and they're a little bit big You're What's that landscape looking like right now? That's very exciting for a lot of us. Marc Di Pietra 5:04 Yeah. And it's a great question because again, that's those are all the things that we're asking ourselves. The reason we're so spread out is because we're in the early adoption phase, and Treasury has allowed us to be that. So we're trying different pieces of the puzzle to see what works best for us. The reason we've tried a fully electric tractor is because there are currently two or three options out there that we feel really comfortable with demoing in our fields, it's not going to take the place of what we're currently doing. But it allows us to step into our farming practices and see if it is truly a viable option. Hybrid is a little bit more of that in between step, it's, you know, it's one step towards that end goal of zero emissions, because it is more efficient. You know, you get the benefits of that. But also, it doesn't completely Have you dependent on the grid, the electric grid or infrastructure of what's happening around you. You talked about going into larger formats, and there is a concern about battery life there. And that we know that that technology is changing rapidly. So we are starting with a couple see how it evolves, and then we can make an informed decision based on that. Craig Macmillan 6:06 Stay with tractors are these vehicles that are coming to you from manufacturers ready to go? Are you making modifications yourself? Are you taking with a base unit making modifications to something that's already existing? What kind of involvement does it take on your part to work with this technology at this point? Marc Di Pietra 6:21 Depending on the program that we're using, so let's say on our for example, that comes to us more or less ready to use. So they have tools that will connect to your standard three point. So there's not much modification or or there but another company, Agtonomy that we're working with, we're on the ground level with them while they're still developing. So it gives us an opportunity to give our feedback of what we're looking for. So we're seeing a lot of rapid change quickly that will help support our needs. Craig Macmillan 6:46 Will that tractor still be based on a three point hitch? Marc Di Pietra 6:49 It will have a front mounted tool bar on the front? And we're talking to them about getting front and rear mounted tools? Craig Macmillan 6:56 What kind of horsepower? Are we talking here? Are we are we comparable to a regular track layer? Are we talking to a regular four wheel drive depends on the size, but are we in the same range? Marc Di Pietra 7:06 That's the goal, you know, obviously Electric is more efficient than your standard diesel motor. So when you get a diesel motor that says they're pushing 100 horsepower, we believe that the electric range tractor that's stating a range between 45 to 85 horsepower is comparable to that 95 to 100 horsepower tractor. Now again, there's still a lot of work going on to validate that, but we have seen improved efficiencies and we think that will be if not, they're close to it. Craig Macmillan 7:34 And getting really technical. What is the power supply? Like for these? Are you having to bring in extra electrical service above what you already have? Because a lot of shops don't have a 480? For instance, amperage? What kind of amperage do you need? It sounds like a totally new kind of thing. Marc Di Pietra 7:50 Yeah, so for the two that I've mentioned, for us, we are using both 60 amp circuit with a 48 amp charger capability, as well as some 100 amp circuits that will support an 80 amp charger. So we're not using anything that is above and beyond like we would see with a Tesla quick charger. And in both of those cases, though, with the 40 and 80 amp chargers, we're still looking at a charge time of overnight, four to six hours. Craig Macmillan 8:15 So that's very practical. Really. That could work. Marc Di Pietra 8:17 Yeah. And because Treasury has several ranches, we are looking at it holistically, excuse me, we're implementing different charging systems on different sites as well to understand the draw on the need of those to see how efficient they are affected they are on our site. Craig Macmillan 8:32 Is there any real change for the tractor operators? Are there new things they need to learn how to do or is it kind of based on what they've been doing is, Marc Di Pietra 8:39 There is a big change for the operator because they need to understand that it's not sit in the seat, turn on the key and hit the gas pedal. It's understanding what the screen is telling you when you turn on the tractor, where you're at power wise. So there's some nuances, but ultimately, it still runs and drives like a tractor that you're familiar with. It's just like learning a new a new cellphone, for example, Android versus iPhone. Craig Macmillan 9:02 Yeah, I just got a new phone and I'm struggling. I have to admit. You also had mentioned passive data collection, which I'm very interested in. I've been tracking this concept for quite a few years now. What kinds of data are you interested in collecting? And how's it been going so far? Marc Di Pietra 9:15 We have been talking to several different companies that offer passive data. But our goal is to try to implement it on the platforms we're currently working with. I referenced the Agtonomy a lot, because again, our input is going into their development quite a bit. They're looking to add sensors to their machines to gather that data that we're looking for. I would say we're still in the very, very beginning stages of that. Some of the benefits of using this passive data is the machine will have more than two sets of eyes on like our current tractor and operator with that we can gather information around density, disease cluster counts, as well as monitoring the sensors that are out in the field such as irrigation or moisture. And just about anything else you can think of that a sensor can gather for you. Craig Macmillan 10:00 And you're in early trials with it sounds like you actually started collecting data. I was a little confused. Marc Di Pietra 10:07 Oh, excuse me. No, we haven't there are companies out there that we spoken with. But again, we're trying to rely on our partnerships and use their platform. Again, we're trying to do a lot of things on one machine to see what's valuable to us long term. Yeah. Craig Macmillan 10:21 And you had mentioned remotely operated vehicles. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Tell me about that. I just think that is so cool. Autonomous machines. Marc Di Pietra 10:29 Thinking about remote operated, there's several factors involved. First and foremost, it's important to me and our team is the safety of our operators. Currently, we've got spray teams that are working, you know, in the middle of the night, they're working back and forth, up and down each row. So what this allows the operator to do is get back outside of the tractor, manage, ideally, multiple machines from one computer. So obviously, efficiency gains, but you're getting that operator out of harm's way out of the way of the equipment as well as out of any chemicals you might be spraying along the way. Craig Macmillan 10:58 Are there elements of this that are controlled by computer or artificial intelligence, what I'm thinking of is there's been some work by John Deere, in particular, with GPS guided tractors in the Midwest, where you set a path and it will go wherever you tell it to go little trickier when you have a row on either side, especially if it's a seven foot row or something like that. How hard is it for an operator to control this thing? Marc Di Pietra 11:23 Actually, from my experience, so far, controlling it with through a laptop computer, controlling not one machine, but multiple machines seems to be quite easy, because there are so many sensors on the platform that will allow it to tell you not only where it needs to go to go from, say, your barn or your shed to where it's starting a job for the day. But while it's going through the row, it's looking for any obstructions that might be in the way whether that's a tumbleweed. Coyote, a person, you know, all of those things for safety, but it also gathers all of that data. And it also knows where all the other machines are as well. And the operator is sitting behind a laptop, making sure that each path because they can see multiple machines on one screen, you know, through data points on a map, it can say, hey, that machine is going well. It's has 25% solution left, and it's tank. So we need to stop at at this point. And all the machines are talking to each other. So there's awareness about what's happening around it as well. Craig Macmillan 12:17 That's amazing. That's amazing. How far down the path are you with this? Marc Di Pietra 12:20 Well, I mean, there's two commercial products available now that we will have in our vineyards. Currently, we have the GUSS spray system. They've started in nuts in the Central Valley. But now they've they have actively sprayed over 1 million acres. And we have the first two vineyard sprayers in California that we will have started spraying with I guess in the next, like two weeks or so. Craig Macmillan 12:41 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, here we are. It's time Yeah, exactly. Marc Di Pietra 12:45 It came fast. Yeah. Craig Macmillan 12:47 From a cultural standpoint or a management standpoint, I just am curious. What kind of terrain are we talking about? Are we talking about really steep slopes, we talked about flatter ground, we talked about narrow rows. Treasury has properties all over the place, I'm sure there's a variety of topography that you're having to work with. Marc Di Pietra 13:01 Yeah, out of the gate, we're starting at a ranch that is relatively flat, it's got long half mile rows. So it'll be nice and efficient for the machine to go up and down back and forth all day long. But the goal is ultimately to take it into the foothills where we're talking up to 10 to 15 degrees of incline that we should not see any problems. And that's with, you know, the equipment that we know we have worked Agtonomy for example, I've seen their machine, go up a degree a slope of about 25 to 30 degrees, no problem. Craig Macmillan 13:25 We're talking about the machinery. Now let's talk about what the machines are doing. So we've talked about spraying, which is absolutely amazing. Are we using this for under vine cultivation? Are we using this for mowing or using this for tilling what kinds of things you're able to do with these machines? Marc Di Pietra 13:40 One of the biggest benefits is the underlying cultivation piece, which will allow us to reduce the chemicals that we use in spraying specifically around our herbicide use. We've seen the ability with this autonomous equipment or remotely operated equipment to use undermine tillers and we could do multiple passes with that volt we'd knives, sunflower cultivators, things like that. We can also do a mount where we have a mower on the front and cultivator on the back, that's been a huge benefit and time savings for us as well. Craig Macmillan 14:08 What are you seeing at this point? Or what are you thinking about? And I know that a lot of things you haven't really kind of gotten into yet, but I know you're looking forward in thinking about this, what is this going to look like from a maintenance standpoint, and also from an employee training, regardless of the position because we're going from a period of having a diesel mechanic, someone who understands how hydraulics work basic things around having vendors who can come out and replace a tire and all that kind of stuff. It sounds like there's going to be some very, very different kinds of maintenance and repair issues here. And we already mentioned drivers, it sounds like there's going to be some very different set of skills that folks are going to have to have to make these systems work. What's that wood in your imagination? What that's looking like right now? Marc Di Pietra 14:44 Yeah, I think one of the greatest things is the opportunity to upskill our existing workforce. I mean, honestly, it's been really great to see the initial hesitation from our guys when they see this stuff rolled out on the ranch, but then ultimately, once they get their hands on it, how quickly they've adapted to it. And that's been the great Interesting to see because you know, it's getting harder and harder to get employees for the vineyard, it's they're just not available to us, which I'm sure everybody's experienced. So this has really been a great opportunity to see these guys get excited about something new, and upskill them. From a maintenance standpoint, believe it or not, it's actually been much easier than we've anticipated. There's much less regular preventative maintenance needed. So we're not doing oil changes every 500 hours, because electric components require less, they're all sealed. So there's no going into there and changing fluids and things like that. Also, the software on these systems are also capable identifying similar like your car with like a check engine light comes on the system identifies those issues and points us to to those repairs much faster. Now that said, as we evolve, I do see the need to have someone on the team who has a solid understanding of the computer systems and how to address these types of issues outside of our current model, but we also know like we've seen with the car manufacturers, they're training folks up for that. And we're, I've already reached out to a couple of the local, I wouldn't say local, but the the training like UTIs and the wild Tech's of the world to see what type of implementation they haven't talked with them about their job boards. So any young folks coming out of those programs might be looking for something interesting. Craig Macmillan 16:14 You guys are doing so much stuff. This is amazing. You got a lot going on. Marc, is there any one thing though, that you're really excited about that you're really, really optimistic about at this point? Marc Di Pietra 16:24 I would say from a process standpoint, like I said, it's really about the operator safety, you know, getting these guys out from behind the tractor in the middle of the night, the efficiency that it brings the reduction of chemicals, like that's all the process stuff that I'm excited about. You know, there are several cool companies out there that we're working with, you know, these guys have great ideas and great minds. And we're all thinking forward. I think that's been one thing that I've really enjoyed is seeing people not worrying about just today. But looking forward. Craig Macmillan 16:52 And when you look into that crystal ball, what kinds of things do you see coming down the line, not things that you're able to trial now, but things that have potential on the future? There's a lot of work being done, like the precision vineyard project with Cornell and Carnegie Mellon and folks like that, what do you see out there on the horizon? It's, you know, a year ago with science fiction, hint now is starting to look like it could actually happen. Marc Di Pietra 17:10 Yeah, I think as the autonomous piece gets smarter and better, that's going to be a huge game. And again, I go back to one operator being able to control multiple machines. So that creates efficiency. Again, it goes back to operator safety. For me, it reduces those long days, it reduces middle of the night work for those long hours, and the monotony and the safety of that individual operator, I also really liked the idea of passive data stuff that we've not been able to easily get before and then be able to make smart decisions in the field. If you've got a spot that is say disease prone or not producing as strong as other areas in the vineyard, we'll be able to capture that data and make smart decisions go forward to improve that. Craig Macmillan 17:48 Measure, to manage, right, get to get the data to make good decisions. Marc Di Pietra 17:52 And I think that's going to be the biggest opportunity is how do we manage all of that data? That's what I'm really curious about. And that's, that's one thing that I would really like to figure out how to unlock in the future, because we can talk about it. But there's nothing there that can manage multiple systems, multiple points of input. And then whether that's a comparison of like for like mechanical versus the, you know, the future, or whatever that might be, there's so much that we just don't know how to do yet. Craig Macmillan 18:18 This is a huge area. But is there one thing that you would advise growers are one thing that you would say to growers around automation, hybrid electric, passive data collection, the future basically the future of this kind of mechanization in this kind of electronic world that we're moving into? Is there one piece of advice or one thing you'd one message you'd like growers to know? Marc Di Pietra 18:37 I think everybody needs to be curious. It's all something that we need to be thinking about, talking about and to help ourselves in the industry and our planet. I mean, there's a quote that I always think of when I talk about this stuff as a rising tide lifts all boats, you know, everybody wants to keep their secret to keep their grapes or their strawberries the best, I understand that. But this technology, the way it's going, you know, labor and employee safety, it's a huge concern for everybody. And I think the more we're talking, the more we're asking questions. And you know, you brought up John Deere. I mean, they're looking into it. Now New Holland is looking into it now. And this is all things started by small people having these ideas, and it's all rolled into bigger things. I encourage everybody, just be curious and talk about it. Craig Macmillan 19:17 This is great advice. And I think that that's important for our industry. And one of the things I've found over time grape growers are curious and grape growers are willing to experiment within limits and try different things. And I hope that no matter who you are out there, that you will heed Marc's advice and be creative and be optimistic and be open minded. Where can people find out more about you and the things that you're doing? Marc Di Pietra 19:40 I mean, feel free to reach out to me, obviously, through LinkedIn, feel free to, you know, share my email, if that's an option. Again, I'd like to talk to anybody who's doing something or ask questions. Craig Macmillan 19:49 Absolutely. And we have a page for each podcast where we will post any kind of resources including contact information, links, papers, anything and so Be sure if you find this interesting to check out the venue team podcast website and take advantage of all the information that's there. Well, Marc, that's all the time we've got for today. Our guest today has been Marc Di Pietra. He is regional service maintenance manager for treasuries America of treasury wine estates. I want to thank so much for being here. This has been a really fascinating conversation. For those of you who are new to downloading the podcast please, again, go to the vineyard team podcast website. We've got hundreds of episodes now on all kinds of different topics. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Binary Saga: Episode 26, Season 3

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Play Episode Listen Later May 1, 2023 65:22

Jayzun's investigation at Ki leads to an amazing discovery for Vela. While CJ provides an update on the Empire's political changes and family shenanigans. Transcribed transmissions can be read in Continue readingBinary Saga: Episode 26, Season 3 The post Binary Saga: Episode 26, Season 3 appeared first on binary saga.

The Power of Visual Imagery and What it Says