He Skipped The Senior Trip For A Camera

An 18-year-old college dropout running a fast-growing real estate media business sounds like a headline, but Preston Day makes it feel like a repeatable playbook. We talk with Preston, founder of The Perfect Plat in Richmond, Virginia, about how he went from zero experience to delivering real estate photography, real estate videography, drone photos, and floor plans that compete with the best in the market. His edge is not a secret software trick, it’s obsession: studying YouTube for hours, shooting constantly, and treating every early job like a portfolio piece.

We also get practical about the business side of real estate marketing. Preston breaks down how he decided what to charge, why he started under market to get established, and how momentum really kicked in after offering free shoots at Homearama, a high-end designer home showcase. The lesson is nuanced: free work is risky when it’s random, but powerful when it’s strategic, visible, and backed by quality that makes people ask, “Who did this?”

Then we go deep on content strategy for realtors. What makes a walkthrough video perform on social media now that attention spans are short? Preston shares a simple hook rule: lead with what viewers can’t see on camera, like location context and surrounding amenities, not obvious features they can already spot. We close with the reality of growth: late-night edits, sacrificing a social life, and scaling a team without letting quality dip.

If you’re building a creative service business, selling to realtors, or trying to turn skill into income fast, you’ll take notes here. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s grinding, and leave us a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Preston

0:00

Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the You Can't Afford Me podcast. So this gentleman I actually had connected with, I was on the golf course, and a buddy of mine was like, Man, have you met this guy, Preston? And I was like, nah, never heard of him. And he pulled up a video that he had done on his phone real quick and I was like, Yeah, I need to meet this dude. Um, I'm not even gonna get into too much because we're gonna get into a lot here in this interview, but uh obviously today we got Preston on the podcast. How are you doing today, buddy? I'm doing great. How about yourself? Awesome, man. So give us a quick rundown of who you are and what you do. Yeah, uh, my name is Preston Day. Um, I run the perfect plat here in Richmond, Virginia. I'm a real estate marketing company. Um, anything real estate media, um, I do. And uh yeah, we're some of the best in the business. Good

Why College Was Not The Path

0:39

stuff. Now let's start with this. How old are you? I'm 18 years old. That is crazy to me, man. Y'all, y'all's generation is eating right now. Right. All right, so let's talk about how you even got into the space. So, 18, are you still in high school? You just graduated high school? Graduated high school last year and dropped out of college. Nice. What college were you at? BCU. So what what brought about the decision to uh leave school? Man, um I didn't like school, I didn't like school in general. Um 2.5 GPA in high school, went to a private school actually. Yeah. I went to Stewart School in Richmond, Virginia. Um, didn't like school at all. And my parents already knew school wasn't for me. Yeah. So, you know, my dad already saw it coming. Um I was playing basketball in high school all four years, um, traveling across the United States, whatever. Yeah. Um, but in in college, I already knew it wasn't for me. And, you know, um I went to an internship um, you know, during during high school, and I was going to major in business, but I had no idea what I was gonna do. Yeah. And so at that internship, I realized me sitting in the cuticle all day was something I was not going to want to do at all. That sitting at a desk, doing numbers, whatever you, whatever you call it, yeah, I didn't want to do it. So I had to figure out something quickly. And now um I just went all in on my business, honestly. I was like, you know, I'm gonna bet on myself. I'm not gonna bet on a piece of paper, I'm not gonna bet on a degree, I'm gonna bet all my stuff on my on myself, and if I fail, it's on me. Yep. And I was like, that's not gonna happen. So that's I'm here now. That's a good way to look at it. Yeah. And a lot of people don't know. The majority of the top CEOs in the world, they were all like C level students. Typically the C students are the ones who start a company, and the A students are the ones that that work for them. Um, how did you when did you get into videography and marketing

Learning Real Estate Media From Scratch

2:14

piece? Yeah, um, you know, it's so funny. Before videography and the marketing thing came about, I had no knowledge behind it. Um, everything was self-taught. Um, you know, I had a uh my parents' realtor, James Nay. Um big guy, everybody. James? Yep, a lot of people know him. He was like Preston. I I recorded a house one time and he was like, Press, you have a really good eye for this. And you know, I tried it out, I looked it up, and I was like, people actually do this for a living. This is crazy. So I looked into it, self-taught everything, and um, yeah. So why why that space? Like you obviously determined that you wanted to be an entrepreneur. Yeah, yeah. I mean, honestly, so when my parents were like looking to, you know, find designs for our new custom house, um, you know, I kind of liked the the aspect of real estate, like the design, you know, the process behind it. I was like, this could be pretty fun because like a lot of people find it boring. You know, a lot of I know a lot of videographers are like, real estate, no, I'm not doing that. Yeah, terribly boring. But to me, for some reason, it was very interesting and caught my eye and it was fun. And so that's that's probably one of the biggest reasons I it was really fun. I enjoyed doing it. Um, I feel like if you don't love your craft, it's kind of hard to excel in it. Absolutely. So um, you know, I uh got into real estate and yeah. Good stuff. Yeah. Uh because we we had similar backgrounds in terms of how we got our businesses started. So I started Enzo at a necessity because I had started two other companies. I needed marketing. There was nobody out there that I could find to do the quality of work I wanted to do, but also at a price point that I could afford. Um, so I ended up doing it myself. And I tell everybody I'm a college dropout, I went to Lawham University and I graduated YouTube University, Simon Kum Laudi. I just went home every night, studied everything I could. Um, so walk us through that process of how you were able to develop that craft. So you go to YouTube, you're like, all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna try this as a profession. Kind of walk us through how you started doing that. Like, what was your first camera? I'm gonna I'm gonna take a guess because generally every videographer's first camera is uh You're gonna guess wrong. Oh, really? I'm gonna throw it out there. It's Canon Rebel is like the camera every year. Absolutely not. R62. Um Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um, you know, I when I left high school, um, I had an option to go on a graduation trip. I was like, you know what? I know the business is gonna come about and I know I want to get into it. Yeah. So I don't want that money. I don't want to go on the bus uh the graduation trip at all. I want to get my first camera set up instead. So that's my parents and grandma got me. Um R63, um Ronan Gimbal, uh 15 to 35, 50 mil, everything you need. Cool. Um I still have that camera today, still use take pictures when it takes great pictures um for video right now, um, A7S3. Um but uh yes, when I graduated high school, I knew it was gonna get into it. YouTube, YouTube, YouTube. Um studying the people that already in the game, studying the best of the best. Who were some of your favorites that you followed? Um, yeah, so James Bottomly in real estate. So James Bottomly, uh Claudia, um, Edgar, a lot of guys, you know, in Florida or whatnot, you know, Canada. Um, one of my kind of good friends now, uh Studio Bryan, kind of one of the best real estate editors in the game right now, honestly. Nice. Um, but um, yeah, I mean, went to went down the YouTube rabbit hole, um, one of those one was on it for hours on end, never got bored. I was just on it all night, every night, um, trying to figure out how I can make something work. Because at first editing videos on a computer look like rocket science. Yeah. Um, but now, you know, I'm all good. But yeah, went down the YouTube rabbit hole and just, you know, went from there, honestly. Yeah, that's funny. When you look at like the traditional education system, it's set up to train people to be employees. Right. And it's not that you weren't willing to learn, it's just that the information that you were being told to learn wasn't something that piqued your interest. Right. But like when somebody finds something that piques their interest, you'll sit and read and watch and listen about it like nonstop.

Pricing Strategy For A New Business

5:52

Um, let's talk about how you got your business formulated. So you were working with James Nay off a off of one one video, you just popped in, did some stuff with him, and he was like, hey, this is cool, this is a career path for you if you so choose. Um, you skipped the graduation trip and you got the gear. Um, how did you figure out what your business model was gonna be, how much you were gonna charge? Like, walk us through all that. Yeah, man. Um, so you know, after I formed at LLC and whatnot, um, I kind of went off the market, honestly. And so I knew my quality of work, and I knew when I was just starting out, um, my prices have changed dramatically ever since I started. My journal started this company probably like eight months ago. Yeah. Um we're gonna break that down because that's yeah, for sure. Um, but I kind of went off the market, and what I mean by that is everything everything that everybody was pricing their stuff at, I've kind of went probably $100 down. Like lower loaded myself probably uh $200 down, honestly. $200 down under what you know, what everybody was charging. And um, you know, that was kind of a way to show my quality of work while not breaking the bank. So that's kind of something I've you know used to get grab more clients. So what what was the thought process behind that? Because I 1000% agree with that. When I first started this company, our services were, I mean, I'd say our average client's paying us 15 to 2 grand a month. When I first started, I was charging people 300 bucks a month. Right. Well what was the thought process for you? Like, did you learn that from someone? Yeah, no, I didn't learn it from anybody, honestly. I I it's kind of like, you know, a kind of a mindset I kind of grabbed, um, you know, trying to get more clients with, you know, easy as possible, just to, you know, get myself established. Yep. Honestly. So get myself established, I'm gonna raise prices later, but I'm gonna use this as a mechanism to get clients initially. Um, you know, so I I went really, really far under. And um, like I said, prices have changed, but now I'm established. Um, everything kind of worked out. Nice. So what's uh give us a range of prices for your services? Yeah, yeah. So, you know, honestly, when I first started out, um, you know, I think everything was around like 150 bucks, 175 bucks. Um, but right now, um, you know, agent wants the listing 50 photos, drone photos, and a floor plan, 275. It's still very Yeah, that's a great price. It's it's still a great price. Honestly, I've done my research and I still do think I believe I'm the lowest. I'm the lowest in the market. Um, but for the quality of work um and the amount of clients and how quickly I'm growing with that, yeah, um, it's drastic. I think you're doing it right because I mean you're the newest kid on the block. You don't want to come in with premium pricing like within your first year starting out. Right. Every single year. This is something I've had to learn. Like, I've at this point I've either founded or co-founded probably 10 to 11 businesses. Right. And the biggest fear I've always had, and I still struggle with this today, is every year I'm doing an evaluation of my business and going into the new year, and I'm like, raise prices. And the first thing that pops off in my head is, man, if I raise prices, are my clients gonna leave me? Like, are people gonna stop messing with me? And the opposite has happened no matter what industry I'm in. Every time I've raised my prices, I've gotten more business and I've gotten higher quality clients. Once you start cutting away the coupon clippers and people like that, like it gets a lot smoother uh in that process. So when you first started, um well, let's talk about how you acquired your first

Free Shoots That Sparked Momentum

9:05

clients. How do you feel about that? Yeah, man. Um funny story. So at first, you know, I was offering free shoots, um, offering free shoots to new clients and whatnot. But when I first started out, um I offered free shoots to everybody during this thing called Homorama. Yep. Homerama for people don't that don't know. Smart dude. Designer home showcase. Um, best builders come out and just show off what they can do. Yep. Um, $1.5 million homes and higher. Um, everybody goes all out, right? So offered free shoots to everybody. Photos, videos, whatever you need, I'm here and do it for free. The first one was Miss Legault with um Legault Homes. Yep. Um, did amazing work for her, and that got so much attention from everybody around Homorama. Um, everybody, don't want to say too much. I know who was paid to do there, be there. But they said out of everybody that's come through, I was the absolute best by far. And so after that, that turned into pay shoots from every other company that was already there. Um, and then grabbed a lot of attention on social media from that, and it just skyrocketed from there. But thing about it though, is that before that, I knew that was gonna be my turning point. I knew it because I knew my quality of work and I knew what I can do, yeah, and I knew what everybody else was doing around here, and I knew confidently and some of ego, some of confidence that I can be the best. And so that's what happened in just business took off after that. Super smart. I always tell people when you first get started in business, give your product or service away for free. Yeah, let people get a taste of you. And if you're really him, if you're really that dude, people will mess with you. Exactly. Um, I'm interested, like, how did you accelerate that learning curve so quick? So, like when I first got into videography, like I started with the Canon Rebel, like most people except for you. Yeah. Um, and you know, just constantly watching YouTube, I really got my own honing in on uh the skill set. I just started vlogging on a daily basis because I was like, if I force myself to have to ultimately make a movie every single day, this is gonna help me with filming, editing, like things will continue to scale from there. I felt like it took me a year to really get my skill set to a point where I was worth the amount of money that I was charging. I mean, you've had the business for eight months, but like how how long ago was Homerama? Homerama was last November. Okay. So November, October, something like that. And then so when did you get the camera? I got the camera August, September. All right, so from August to November. August, September, October. That's three months. Yeah. How in the world did you get your skill set up that quick? Because that is not a normal thing. Um, obsession. Obsession. Like you've fallen asleep to YouTube videos on editing and filming? Like, seriously. Yeah. Obsession. Like 10, 12 hours a day without fail. Yeah. I mean, I mean, right now, I mean, I'm working 17 plus I'm 17 hours a day, something like that. Um, but it's obsession. I mean, I'm in love with it. I think obsession will be anything all the time. Was that did you start like just filming your parents' house and like uh parents' house um offered free shoots, like I said. Um, James was a big help as well, um, offering, you know, give me some shoots. And now I look back at them, they're completely terrible. Um, had no idea what I was doing. But let me let me tell you on that. A mentor told me when I got into the game, he said, if you look back years from now and you're not embarrassed by the first pieces of content you put out, you waited too long to do it. Right. So the fact that you're already embarrassed by stuff that you did months ago, that's a very good sign of growth. Yeah, yeah, terrible. So um, yeah, I mean, obsession and just hard work, honestly. So where did are there any other entrepreneurs in your family? Like I'm interested in uh the support that your parents and your your grandmother gave you. Yeah, man. Um grandma worked for the government, my mom works for the government right now, dad. Um at Dominion, nobody I have no entrepreneurs in my family. No. Um just me. My brother is in um health science he majored in health science in the health field now. Um my sister in um high school, so no, no entrepreneurs, no nothing, just straight grit. So that's interesting then, because not a lot of parents would be like, yeah, I'm excited about my son quitting college and starting this business. Um, what were those conversations like? Yeah, um, so like I said, my dad's a realist, you know, and he knows I didn't I didn't like school, so he knew college I was most likely not gonna get too far in. Yeah. Um my mom, you know, she went to the University of Richmond and VCU. Um she was all about school. Um, so that conversation with my parents wasn't too it wasn't too hard because they knew my capability and they saw where the business was going. So you know what? Give it a shot, you can always go back. So if anything was wrong, just you can go back and call it a day, right? But they knew where it was going, they could see where it was going, and they knew I was determined to do it. So do so. So um, yeah, they were they were fine with it, and now they're more than happy. Were you nervous at all when you first went to your parents and were like, hey, I think college is no longer for me? I don't think so. I wasn't nervous because no matter what they really thought, I was confident of myself. So um, yeah, I wasn't really nervous. How old do you think you were when you discovered that you had that entrepreneur genius? Because I've I truly believe entrepreneurs are born, they're not made. Yeah. 17, 18? Yeah, so I mean, turn you know, 18, um April. And um, yeah, I mean, I I just, you know, it was just a natural thing for you. It was natural. Love it, love it.

Scaling Without Letting Quality Drop

14:17

What's the what's the vision for where you want to take your company? Is it do you want to stay a solopreneur? Do you want a team of vetters? Do you want other videographers and photographers? What's the vision for? Yeah, for sure, man. Um, you know, I think that a lot of companies around here, when they scale, I think quality dips. And I'm not gonna say who, what, but I think I got some names in my head. I have plenty of names in my head. Um, I think quality dips. And so I want to keep myself solo as long as possible without the quality dipping. Um, mind you, when I do scale, I know I'm gonna have to scale. Yeah. And I'm gonna be honest, with the flow I have right now, hiring here and like as uh hiring a videographer probably come before the summer's over. Um and so, you know, I'll probably come in the next three months, honestly. And so, you know, I want to be able to hire people on my team where the quality won't dip at all. I don't care how much I have to pay them, I don't care if I have to pay them way more than what I really need to. If I have to take, you know, I'm not gonna say profit loss, but if I have to make less to get more clients through the door and keep my quality high, that's what I'm gonna do. It's not it's not because of, you know, it's not a money grab. I don't want to, I don't the money can money is all gonna come back. So it's like, if I can keep the quality the same and get more clients to the door, that's what I'm gonna do. I did that at one point. Some employees were here making more money than the CEO was. Yeah. But it was just something I had to do for that period of life. And the thing I love, man, like you said you were pulling like 17-hour days. Like, this is the time, first off, like up until up through your 20s, you're supposed to be broke and you're supposed to be hustling. Right. Like, this is the time in your life where you're gonna have more energy than you ever will in your entire life. You don't have as many commitments, like, I'm assuming you're not married, I'm assuming you don't have kids, like uh, I don't know your housing situation if you're still with the family, like you know, so you don't have all these overhead costs where you have to go out and make a certain amount of money to survive. Right now, it's like hone the craft, sharpen my skills, build the business, and then that'll come. But you are I I'm not even sure you realize how much further ahead you are of your peers. Right. Like, as we sit here, you're on a podcast, it's uh Wednesday afternoon. Um, most of your friends are in a lecture hall right now. Right. Learning theory, they're gonna graduate because I got a whole thing about college. Like uh I the system has dramatically changed before my generation, because when I came around, I was like, I don't see as much value in this, but I came up in the generation before you where it was like you're a loser if you don't go to college. Like, you man, you ain't going to college. Like it's either college or the military. If you're staying at home, then you're a loser. But now I know people with master's degrees at a barista's at Starbucks. Like you went hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to get this piece of paper, talk about it, and now you're not even able to use it. And you know, I think the average first-time home buyer now is at the age of 41. Talk about like, dude, you're gonna be buying your first house at 19, 20 years old. Like, so miles ahead of where your friends be. Like where you're positioning yourself right now, most of your friends will be 32 before they get close to where you're at right now. So, number one, man, just commend you for the work ethic, the vision you have, like doing this. Um, let me ask you this just from an entrepreneurial standpoint, what is it that attracts you to entrepreneurship the most? Because a lot of people think, honestly, I'll break it down like this. When you first start a business and it's just you, your situation is a little bit different. This is what I would normally say to someone. When you're a solo entrepreneur and you're doing all the work and you're wearing all the hats, you're not truly an entrepreneur yet because ultimately you just created a job for yourself. Once you get to a position where you're making money and you don't have to be there or actually do the work, that's where I think like the true entrepreneurship development happens. But not knocking what you're doing, because it's the exact same thing I did. Like it was just me. I had to do all the work, I had to make all the calls. I was the janitor, I was the accountant, I was the social media manager, I was all those things. Um, but the thing that a lot of people don't understand, and it it's refreshing that you're starting it this way. A lot of people don't understand, like when you become the CEO, it wasn't until a couple of years ago I could even hire a company to, you know, clean our office. Right. Like sometimes El Presidente had to scrub the toilets because I was like, I don't want to spend this extra income on that. Right. Um, so for you, what is it about entrepreneurship? Because a lot of people think like, oh, I get to your own boss, you get to make your own hours, da da da. But you're working harder for yourself than you ever will for someone else. Exactly. Um, honestly, I don't really know what to say to that. Um, honestly, it's just being able to be my own boss. That's one thing. Um And let me say this too, before I go into anything, not having to report to anybody and being able to go and do whatever you want to and not work whenever you want to is cool, but it's a blessing at the same time. Yeah. Um, and so um being an entrepreneur right now, um betting on myself is very intriguing because I know if I fail, it's on me, so nobody else. Yep. Um I don't have to rely getting fired around anybody, I don't have to rely on being laid off or anything like that. Um of course housing markets can change or differ where business can be slow, of course. I mean that can happen to anybody, any business. Yep. Um but everything. You can prepare for that stuff. Yeah, and and and everything's on me, and so being able to do whatever I want when I want and kind of determine my own success. I mean, the sky's the limit. Yeah. Well I I remember when I dropped out of school and I determined that I was gonna start a business. Um actually no, it was a couple years after I dropped out of school, I kind of fell in the mental health space for almost a decade. Um and then when I left my last corporate job, called my mom, first thing she said to me was, Well, what about your health benefits? And I was like, it is the best thing for my health possibly to work for myself versus like the stress that I'm you know dealing with working for somebody else at this company. Right. Um so yeah, I'm I'm just admiring like the path you're on and and the things you're doing. Let's let's go further on that five-year plan. Like, where do you want the business to be in five years? I want to be more hands-off, more um, you know, running the business without, you know, actually being hands-on out in the field. Yep. Uh, I do have other plans behind the scenes, I'm probably gonna not say too much about, but big things are coming. Um, but yeah, I want to be more hands-off, have a team of you know, shooters, editors, and um let the um business run its run its course. Um, mind you, while keeping the quality that I want to maintain, as if I was the one they are doing. Yep.

What Makes Real Estate Videos Work

20:53

Explain to us what what are realtors looking for these days? So I had this is ultimately how I started Enzo. Right. So I looked at the potential clients that I could serve, and I said, Who are some of the professionals in the community that know the most people and can connect me? And I was like, Well, realtors, that seems like an easy logic there. Um, so we started doing walkthrough videos, all that stuff. Now primarily we just focus on the branding for realtors, like their podcasts, like their social media content, things like that. Right. Um, when I was in the game, we were charging like 150 bucks a walkthrough video. Um, we were doing more, it was more horizontal content, it wasn't the vertical piece. Um, sometimes we would do those lifestyle shoots where it was like, you know, we'd stage a family in there eating popcorn on the couch so people could visualize themselves in the homes. Um Realtors always expected a uh 48 hour turnaround time. Honestly, they would have preferred a 24 hour turnaround time, but I I was like, we just can't adhere to that. Um and for us, it was I don't know, I think what realtors are looking for today with content is very different than what we were doing a couple years ago. So break down the content. What What makes a good walkthrough video? Yeah, man. Honestly, you know, showing everything in a timely manner. I'm gonna say that. Um, showing all the parts of the house, all the main details part of the house in a timely manner. Yeah. Um for a regular size home, say you want that done in under a minute, but you also want to have you know all the engaging stuff at the front. So, you know, social media's intention span. Yeah. Very, very, very quick. Yeah, I mean swipe up really quickly. Yep. Um so you want to have, you know, great hooks and stuff like that. That's what I was gonna ask you about the the hook point. So like give us an example. Like somebody's selling a property, let's say this house is valued at six hundred thousand dollars, it's three thousand square feet. Generically, what's a hook point that you use for a walkthrough video like that? Yeah, man. Um, so honestly, if if you want a good hook, you don't want to show or say, you don't want to say a hook that's like in the video, like of course the buyer knows that, you know, has a nice master kitchen. Like you can see that in the video. Like, you want to say something that the that the viewer does not know, um, where it's located, what it's surrounded by, um, things they can't see on the camera to keep them there, to be like, okay, what's next? You know what I'm trying to say? So um, you know, saying things that the the the viewer can't see is a great starting point. What are you what are you seeing from the realtors that you're working with in terms of feedback? Like, is what are the average views that they're seeing it on? And I know that doesn't always depend on the videographer and the content that you provide. Yeah, yeah, let me say this. Um, there's a lot of times I work with realtors right now, um, when it comes to publicity, when they want to have their own vision with these videos, listing videos, brand new videos, walkthrough videos, whatever you want, um, there's a lot of times the publicity can differ. Yep. And because the creative thinking behind it, it won't be the same. Like, realtors, you sell the houses. I'm not saying you don't know what you're doing, right? But the videographers do this for a living. And they study the game. This is what they do, and that's what you do. Like, so it's like if if the videographers try to go sell a house right now, I'm sure he wouldn't know much at all, right? Vice versa. So it's like, I I I like to I I I give the realtors you know what they want, right? Yep. I give them what they want. So if they want to script it, whatever they want to, please go ahead, right? Yeah, but when I do it, I can't say the results will will change. I mean, I there's a guy, Scott Waters, um, he's with real. Um we do a lot of videos with him, videos 50,000 views, right? Yep. Um, have video right now, 50,000 views um or or more. So it's like whenever we script and we come up with something creative, the videos are gonna perform. Because he he's he's young, but he his mind is open to anything. So when we do these videos, and there's one client, I have a one client that likes to do his own scripting and videos 2,000 views or less, a thousand views or less. I'm like, this is what you want, but I mean, there's things, there's ways we can go about this. But I'm not gonna tell him that. I don't I don't want to tell them that because I'm not trying to lose clients right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, so it's it's uh right now I'm just giving them what they want. You give them what you want, but to a certain point, like, and this comes with time and experience and building the business, but like, you know, we're at the point where I can tell the client, like, look, I'm telling you straight up, this is gonna flop on social if you don't listen to it. I still wanted this, okay, cool. So don't come back to me when this thing gets 300 views because I told you this is not gonna play well. Yeah. Um, and normally, like, my one-liner that I normally say to clients, well, in my professional opinion, normally that shuts the conversation down where I'm like, hey, you're the client at the end of the day, you're paying me to do a job. But in my professional opinion, here's how I would do it. Most clients would kind of back off from that and be like, you know what? You're right. Because as a realtor, if I hire my realtor and you tell me, like, hey Sam, if you paint these bedroom walls pink, I can probably get you another $20,000 on the selling price. All right, cool. I'm not asking any questions. You're the expert. You're telling me, and I'm not planning on living here any longer. We're selling my home. Exactly. But if that's what you recommend, that's what we're gonna do. Um, no, I absolutely love that. Um, let me ask you this, and I this is how I tie up every every

Long Nights, Sacrifice, Next Steps

26:04

show. Um, and this is a a shorter period for you, but what has been your biggest struggle as an entrepreneur so far, and how are you able to overcome that? Great question. Biggest struggle. I'm not gonna lie, I think a lot of my struggles right now are starting to develop just because of the fact that um back then I wasn't as busy, so it's kind of pretty navigate everything. Yeah. Um, right now I'm getting a ton of clients through the door. The days are very long. Um and right now, my biggest struggle, geez, um as an entrepreneur, I don't think that I have a huge struggle right now with getting the clients through the door. Um I'm gonna say this, a lot of my work right now is starting to speak for itself. And I'm starting to get a lot of recognition. Um I just joined Real Producers as well. So um, you know, again, you know, starting publicity with them. Um let me say this. Uh working so late at nighttime right now is starting to take a toll. It's not taking a toll that, you know, I that I'm tired because like I shoot, I can get five hours of sleep, four hours of sleep and I'm good. Yeah right. As I get older, that's not gonna work. Yeah, no. Um but at the same time, it's like how do I I I know how to, it's just how do I do it for real? I know what to do, but how do I get to that point? To get more hands off while, like I said, keeping the same quality of work. So right now, staying up late night editing videos while trying to deliver stuff next day early in the morning. Yeah. Let me actually I'll lie, I got one more question for you because that prompted something else in my head. Because ultimately, what you're doing right now, a lot of people don't recognize this. When you say yes to something, you're saying no to probably 20 different other things. Your social life has to be null and void right now. Like you're not going out with friends and stuff. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, I have a I have a girlfriend. Um, you know, see her see her enough, but friends wise she gotta be really understanding. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, friends-wise, though, like, you know, people I talk to hang out with, yeah, no. I mean, a lot of my friends right now are like D-1 basketball players and stuff like that, because I used to play basketball, so you know, they're all gone. But at the same time, even the summertime, I mean, business is is is booming summertime. Oh, yeah. Spring and summer is spring and summer, that's the that's the what yeah. So social life right now is not really existing other than my girlfriend and family. Yeah. That's just straightforward. And how do you feel like at this moment? Because I look back when I was 18, 19, 20 years old, my social life was everything. Yeah. And I didn't realize it at the time, but like those relationships I cultivated during those moments have helped me out in business now. Um, and also it's finding that balance where like you gotta grind, you gotta hustle, but at the same time, you gotta enjoy the future fruits of your labor at some point. Like, whether it's like, hey, once every two weeks I'm gonna go out on a Saturday night and we're gonna do X, Y, and Z. Right. Um, do you feel like you're saying no? Like, is it hard for you to tell your friends, like, nah, man, I can't make it, but I gotta get this work done? No, because as of right now, I see it as a sacrifice, right? It's how young I am and how hard I'm working. Uh what I say is, you know, I'm working hard now so I can relax later. Yep. Um, and so I'm putting all my time in now to become very successful and you know, make that that path bright. Yeah. So right now I'm making a sacrifice so I can um, you know, yeah, relax later. You you give up the things you want to do now, build so that for the rest of your life you can do whatever you want. Exactly. I love it. I love it.

Where To Find The Perfect Plat

29:32

Well, dude, appreciate you coming on the podcast, man. This has been awesome. If people want to book your services, they want to find you, where can they go? Yep, the perfect plat on Instagram, theperfectplat.com. Yeah. There we go. Appreciate you, man. Yes, sir. I appreciate you. We'll see you guys on the next episode.