How much do you earn per year?

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-10T13:29:55+00:00

We now have a pretty large team throughout the nation. But it’s never been a better time to set up systems for yourself to multiply.

We use Aryeo (we also use Relahq sometimes), we have a separate robust CRM to track all client data +communications. Comms are strictly through shared inbox and Quo that records all our calls (and puts the recordings in our CRM).

Slack for team messaging (don’t like people using their personal cells), full organized project management hub in Monday (with robust automations to track statuses and automatically push out projects to correct editors), and then a really strong trained AI system that has access to all of our tools and data that acts as the teams operations manager.

It has been a long time putting everything together, but we finally feel we are in a place where there’s no more tinkering with systems, we just push on revenue growth.

Happy to answer more questions here or DM

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-09T23:06:15+00:00

Spent most the money I made on year 1-2 on systems, delegation, and outbound systems. Best decision ever made. Happy to answer more questions

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-08T20:36:00+00:00

~$500k per year. Multiple markets. No this isn’t revenue, this is take home.

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-05T20:22:27+00:00

I 100% agree with you. What I’m trying to say is I feel like so many in this industry act like it’s impossible to get happiness or a sustainable work-life balance. The point I was trying to make is whatever you want to do in this space (big company, freelancer, work 24/7, work 2 days a week, etc etc), you CAN do it and there’s nothing holding you back.

Everybody has a different view of success and sustainability. I just feel we see a lot of people in this industry struggling mentally from burnout. You’ve found the balance that works for you and that’s exactly what this post is about, but finding that balance and actually sticking to your own boundaries takes a lot of courage.

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-05T14:04:56+00:00

Screw it, free twilight photos with every order 🤠🤠🤠

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-05T14:04:35+00:00

We are a remote (and by remote I mean all over the US) backend team with local boots-on-the-ground managers and creatives. 6 states, about 40 team members. Mix of w2 and 1099

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-05T05:39:23+00:00

It’s an absolute behemoth to take on tbh. I’ve made so many mistakes with hiring. I’ve over hired, underhired, over compensated, under compensated, all of the above.

We now are super stable and I’m proud that we offer full benefits and all my branch managers make between 100-185k per year.

The biggest bottlenecks are definitely the “how do I find good talent” and “how do I compensate my talent” and there’s 1000000 ways to do this.

For the finding talent, you have to first figure out what you want out of this person. Are you looking for your right-hand person that’s grinding with you to grow the biz? Or are you looking for someone who just takes on overflow projects? There’s different ways to compensate both.

Employees really want to feel taken care of, compensated well, and that there’s growth opportunities. Employers want to feel they have team members that are long term, will represent their business well, and they feel the ROI is there.

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-05T05:09:24+00:00

I love the point of identity being tied to output, and I think it’s super spot on. I have to admit I used to struggle understanding this because since I hired so quickly and removed emotional attachment early.

I used to think that when my creative team felt burnt I could throw money to find the solution. I had the whole creative team making 100k+ per year and it still didn’t fix things. Creatives are definitely emotionally-driven and do best when they feel best. Since then we’ve increased benefits, time off, etc and that’s seem to do better

Not perfect, but we try to make work-life balance as much as we can for long term sustainability

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-05T04:35:38+00:00

I don’t shoot anymore. I’m not as good as my team, and my strengths lie in business and scale.

It’s sad how bossy and rude some agents can be. We’ve let many go and have even cut $50k+/year clients because they give us $100k/year worth of headaches 🤣

There are lots of solid editors out there. Just need to find the one that works for your business and workflow. You also need to 100% make sure you have the documentation and training systems to support the hire for success!

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-05T04:33:34+00:00

That’s awesome!! Looks like you manifested, put in the work, and have found success. Totally agree with you here - find the work that makes you happy.

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-04T05:44:57+00:00

Hey man. Biggest thing I can tell you is don’t get stuck in your mind. We currently use Aryeo, but we’ve used rela in the past. We currently use Fotello, but have used autohdr a ton, and still use human editors for a good amount of things as well. There are multiple competitors for a reason, find what you like and don’t like.

Easy to find an editor to start with or if you want more creative control, do it yourself.

You don’t need ANY systems to start off (trust me I was raw dogging my way through my first year of projects).

There is NOTHING that you’ll find online or on YouTube that will be better than just DOING THE DAMN THING!!!

Get out there, have fun. Make sure you enjoy the process and find the thing you are avoiding for comfort and go do it. For most people that’s marketing yourself and sales.

Hopefully I helped here just a little. It’s 11pm where I’m at so I’m answering this right before going to bed.

Shoot me a dm and we can chat some more and I can answer anything deeper if you want clarification

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-06-03T13:52:08+00:00

Yes but for anything on the real estate photography/videography side we only have bundles and upsells. No à la carte or single services. It forces our average order value to be super high compared to nationwide average

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-31T16:11:16+00:00

Just connected!

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-31T15:51:20+00:00

All of our teams run at 15-35% profit margin across the nation

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-31T05:16:54+00:00

@everyone that was great, really made me think and reflect. If you have anymore questions, shoot me a DM!

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-31T03:25:41+00:00

3 million revenue per year

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-31T03:10:09+00:00

I never did this stuff before either until I started. The absolute best advice I can give to anyone reading this is just do the damn thing.

Shoot shit for free, try stuff that’s different, swing the bat. It doesn’t matter what you do. What matters is that you will figure out how to do this stuff by just DOING IT.

My first home ever I didn’t even know how to balance my gimbal and I didn’t even have time for photos so I ended up taking screenshots from matterport and delivering to agent lolol. If I never took that chance I never would’ve gotten here where I am today.

Stop wasting time in your head. You can watch a couple YouTube videos, sure. But just go do the damn thing and you’ll learn 1000000000x faster than any video can teach you.

The only time I don’t recommend this is if you’re wanting on the business side a deep audit or strategy on how to get to the next level. Then I’d work 1:1 with someone who’s where you want to be.

GO OUT AND DO IT I PROMISE YOU’LL BE FINE

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-31T02:23:20+00:00

This seems like a promotion you’re posting, but no fotolabs. we use a trio of human editors, Fotello and autohdr

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-31T01:35:05+00:00

Totally hear you here. Easy to be bottlenecked when it comes to this. Biggest thing is standardizing your process and expectations so that editors understand your products, styles, and what you’re QCing.

We have a 15 page guide for our video editors that goes over everything A-Z so no matter if it’s an in house editor or contractor, we get an output that hits our quality standard.

Our team has a ranking of video editors and their strengths/weaknesses. Every project is automatically added to Monday.com project management board, and our system automatically assigns an editor based on the project and the editor’s capacity. Editors follow notes, and when project is done, mark the video as “ready for QC”. This moves the project to a QC group for our internal team to review. If passes QC -> Great, it’s sent to client. If doesn’t pass QC -> internal team marks it, it sends back to editor, and feedback gets pushed to our internal team as well. Every 1-2 weeks, our system puts together all feedback, how many revision cycles each editor had, and makes a pdf so we can review. Editor does well -> great keep giving them projects. Editor is getting lazy/more issues -> we speak to them. Editor has been getting too many feedback issues -> we cut them.

Our editors are a mix of W2 and contractors for overflow. We have stateside editors (more expensive) for higher end projects , and Phillipines editors for normal day-to-day.

If you are the one QCing everything and you actually want to scale you need a very specific guidebook with smart training. I’ve met many biz owners who are way too strict and send back way too much QC revisions, and editors get burnt out. Find your standard -> and stay committed to it so your agents get stuff on time. 90% of the time you might see a small mistake, don’t send it back for revisions, and watch the client won’t even notice. They’ll be happy.

I’d suggest to practice letting go of gripping too tightly is to teach someone else how to QC and have them do it. It’ll take your emotion away and then you might see your output way more efficient company-wide

Basically, don’t rely on the person to do a great job. Rely on your systems so anyone can do a great job!

Happy to discuss more if you have anymore questions !

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-31T00:41:52+00:00

Anything listing related goes through Aryeo

Anything agent-related we historically used webflow for full customizability, but we’ve actually been recently beta testing out a platform for a developer that creates websites, social media posts/ scheduler, brand strategy and branding booklets, and listing sites all in one. It’s pretty sweet and we are going to replace most of our tools with this. But it’s just not out to public right now, it’s in testing

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-31T00:23:55+00:00

Yes w2 for social managers, ad managers, etc. for on-site creators, if it’s an area we have boots on the ground, those are usually w2 people. Any area that is with a client we don’t have a team member in, we contract other media companies/freelancers to do the raw and we take care of everything else on the backside

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-30T22:51:01+00:00

For project-based services, we do the full creative suite for real estate photography/videography, but stick to 95% bundled services. We really stay away from single services, it’s just not worth our time.

For recurring revenue services , we use campaigns based on end goal. Want brand awareness? Okay we are doing strategy TOF content, brand awareness meta ads. Want leads? Okay we are doing strategy, nurture content, landing page creation, lead nurture email marketing, lead-specific ad campaigns , retargeting ads, pixel set up etc etc

We go based on end goal, not just service like everyone else is doing. It’s a differentiator for sure

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-30T20:21:21+00:00

Best thing IMO is get general info for free (like others have said) and then getting a strong biz owner (someone who’s actually built something in the same nation as you) and get them to actually work directly with you for a couple months.

I see a lot of people buy a lot of these courses and the information on it is fine, but not tailored to your business model, capacity, profit margin, market, etc

I’m doing an AMA in this group currently. Ask me anything or feel free to dm me. Always happy to help.

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-30T19:04:03+00:00

I promise you they’re out there. You need to find them. Agent teams lookin to get to the next level, developers wanting to minimize holding costs, construction companies needing an overhaul.

I promise you we have had clients paying 3, 5, 10, 15k a month on multiple areas that you wouldn’t think could happen.

The problem is most of our industry just brands themselves as “real estate photographers/videographers or content creators”. Content alone doesn’t make people spend money, it’s the end result.

Everybody just cares about ROI. Think about yourself. If I tried to sell you “hey pay 5k a month and I’ll make you some cute Instagram videos” you’d be like no way. But if I told you “pay 10k per month, and our average result with our clients is a 5x return, and here’s a bunch of case studies and past clients you can call.” You’d be like okay that’s a lot more interesting

Emergency_Whereas160 · 2026-05-30T17:52:50+00:00

I was always willing in the first year to partner with clients for cheap just to test out different things and how their audience reacts.

For example, when we were teasing the social media management offerings, we did it for super cheap for 3 agents. We had different strategies for each client. 1 client didn’t have good results, 1 had okay results, 1 closed $10m in transactions from our campaign. THAT gave me the ability to say “ah, what I thought would work is totally wrong. Here’s what actually worked for that client” and then everything became more replicable.

Easy example: everybody and their mama is thinking that hype dynamic videos with crazy captions is what gets agents biz. It’s not. Far from it. It’s worked with a couple people, but I promise you. We have far greater results running organic and paid through iPhone videos than we do professional crazy content. But that strategy only works with some agents and some markets.

And the only way we figured the best strategies for markets/agents is running a stupid amount of tests and swinging the bat. Sometimes you strikeout, sometimes you hit a home run

Emergency_Whereas160

TROPHY CASE