Real Estate Sessions Rewind - From Photographer to Innovator: Brad Filliponi, co founder of Box Brownie, on Revolutionizing Real Estate Marketing

Easier as just getting your camera out and going, snap, snap, snap, upload, you know, that's probably the best way to think of it, you know what I mean? Because literally every agent out there has always got a phone on them and the best camera is the one you've always got on you. Right?So it's not another battery you need to recharge.

You're listening to the Real Estate Sessions and I'm your host, Bill Risser. With nearly 25 years in the real estate business, I love to interview industry leaders, up and comers and really anyone with a story to tell.It's the stories that led my guests to a career in the real estate world that drives me into my ninth year and nearly 400 episodes of the podcast. And now I hope you enjoy the next journey. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 376 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast.As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend today. We're going down under. Yeah, you know that.You know, I know a few Aussies and we're going to be talking to Brad Filipponi, who is the the co founder of BoxBrownie.com it is an amazing tool. The moment I laid eyes on it, I was blown away. And Brad had a vision way back in the day and he was able to make this become a reality.Mel joined him in this quest and they've built this amazing tool. So I'm really happy to have this conversation with him today. So let's get this thing started. Brad, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you, Bill. I appreciate you having me on board.

I can't wait to have a conversation with you, first of all about your life because there's some cool stuff going on there. It's going to be a lot of fun. But then I had the chance to interview Mel a while ago and Peter even a while ago.And I'm remiss in not having you on more sooner. However, it's going to be cool because you're Brad Filipponi. So let's start there. Right?I know you live in Queensland and I want to say Queensland because if I said Queensland, you would correct me. I know how that works.And I know just from my interaction with Australia that you're in the northeast corner of the continent, that it's where all the heat is. It's very hot, it's in the north, but because you're in the southern hemisphere, it's hotter. That's all I know about the Sunshine Coast.What am I missing? Tell me what I Should know about where you live, Bill.

Like Queensland, God's country. I feel like think of Queensland, the state as, like I always say, the Californian coast of Australia. Like, we have beautiful beaches.It's roughly 28 degrees Celsius here today. Pretty much you can walk around in T shirts and flip flops or we call them thongs here in Australia.

Yes, you do.

You know, literally, you know, you can walk around in a singlet all year round. We, it's a, it's a beautiful place. We have some amazing beaches. Stunning, actually. And of course, yeah, my, my area is the Sunshine coast.So it's literally sunny 300 days of the year at a minimum.

Wow. So look, I, I did some conversion for the listeners. 28 degrees Celsius, about 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Like perfect weather. Right. It's awesome.And we're in the middle as we sit here and freeze and go with some of the most snow that's fallen in the last two years in the U.S. you're right in the dead center of summer as our seasons are reversed.

Yeah. And pretty much it's. The weather's always good.You know, we do get a bit cold, not we never snow, but, you know, you might put a hoodie on, pants on in the morning if you go into the gym quite early, like I do, I get up pretty early. But look, most of the time I'm T shirt, shorts and you know, just got the Australian cheer going on.

Look, I know that when a Queenslander comes to Melbourne in the wintertime in Australia, they complain a lot because we've got a couple people that work up there and they hate going to Melbourne in July.

Born and bred in Melbourne actually. You know, used to play strange rules football. Pouring rain they call Melbourne. You know, you have four seasons in one day. So I don't mind the cold.Doesn't bother me. I think it, you know, I don't mind a good bone shaking, as you call it. It makes you feel like you're real and you're living. I feel nice.

Let me a question about, about the Sunshine Coast. Is this true that you have a tiny jellyfish that can actually kill swimmers as they swim? Unless they wear like a chain mail swimsuit or something.What, what are we talking about here?

Look. Yeah, we have these things called, you know, box and blue. Blue jellyfish, yeah, they, they are lethal.If you do come across one, you know, you can be in trouble. Luckily to say I'm sure they're in our waters every now and then, but a lot of those are a little bit further north. So we're kind of, you know, our.Our weather's hot, but it's not silly muggy, sweaty hot.

Okay.

You know, it's more of a dry heat, so it's tolerable. I feel I can't stand nothing more than, you know, when you're hot and then you, like just perspiring like you're sweating everywhere.And I just think that's uncomfortable. So we're kind of before that, so we don't get a lot of that in the water, but of course they are around and you got to be vigilant like anything.And yeah, we've got plenty of other things that can kill you, as you know.

My favorite one, I heard from someone down at Raid, my agent was the Drop Bear. You know that you got to watch out for the Drop Bears, right?

You do, you do. They. They drop out of anywhere. No, but not the case. It's just. That's a bit of an urban legend, to be honest. We never had a koala fall on me.But, you know, as I just said to you earlier, I took my two young sons to Australia Zoo, which is about 20 minutes from my hometown. So if anyone visits Australia, come, come say g' day, we'll take to the zoo.But yeah, you can literally pat a koala and you can pack kangaroos and, you know, it's pretty awesome.

That's great. Now you personally look, you're. You. You have a wild side to you. You know that, right?

My 100%.

Okay, let's. Let's start here. Motorcycles, Muay Thai somehow tied into photography. So, yeah, what am I missing? What am I missing from this list of passions?

What else? Well, look, I love camping, you know. You know, I've recently got my family into it and they're really loving it.So, you know, I'm an outdoors sort of bloke and I think life's a bit more fun when you're sideways. So I've got, you know, plenty. A couple of fast cars, I've got a couple of motorbikes. I've always been into that.Let's call it Crusty Demons of Dirt Lifestyle and. And you know, or Travis Pastrana, Nitro Circus. I've got lots of friends who are, you know, used to be professional riders. I also wakeboard.Got plenty of ex pro wakeboarding mates. And yeah, I do a bit of wake surfing on the side. So anything that gets your heart pumping, mate, on the outdoors, you know, I'm all for it.But then I, I love a leisurely stroll, you know, through the forest or got a couple of cool little mountains here that aren't too crazy. But, you know, I just like being outdoors, mate.You know, I'm stuck in front of a screen so often in my life, so to get outside and just get amongst it, you know, I'm all for it.

That kind of makes it really easy to see why photography was kind of a natural for you. Right. Because you're in the first of all. Most of it is outdoors. Portrait photography is a different beast. But that's not what you did for.For a long time. So let's talk about that. How did you come out of school and what was the driving force for you to then really take photography on as your career?

Great question. I actually fell into it, to be honest. So I went to what we call a TAFE here in Australia when I finished high school.Even before then I was actually doing bits and pieces. I was working with a photographer and then when I finished school, I did a TAFE course and then I started working for him full time.And back then real estate photography was not a thing, but he was doing it. And I'm talking back on film camera days, so that's how long I've been a real estate photographer.So what I love is not many property photographers out there. I'd say less than 5% can say they started shooting paid jobs, paid real estate photography jobs on a film camera.And I did that for at least a year or two. Wow. So that's, you know, I'm not. I'm getting older now. I'm close to 40, 40 this year actually.But, you know, I think someone, at my age, there's not many people, I don't think you can quote that I've been probably a photographer. At least I was, I was driving. So 17, 18, so close to 20 years I've been taking real estate photos. And my first, it was like. It wasn't university.Think you think of like a college. I went to a college and studied diploma in photography. What was cool though, Bill, it was the transition period.So obviously digital cameras had just come out, so they had to modify the class. It was the first time they did. So six months of my class I did darkroom and film. The other six months was digital.So I was really on the cuffs of it, mate. And I'd already been doing paid jobs for a bit before then. So, yeah, when you look back, it's, you know, it's been a pretty long and steady ride.But, you know, I really feel that I know Personally, I've done the whole loop.So for me to come and be called a disruptor, I feel no one probably has earned that respect, you know, more than myself or people like me, if you know what I mean. So like a one trick pony. I've been doing this forever and this was like a dream for me to almost get off the tools, Bill.So I'm the founder of the business. It was my brainchild and it was realistically just to get me off the camera because I wanted to start a family.But I just felt like I was stuck in the rat race and it was just me. And I was too scared to go on holidays, mate, every year.I was too scared to have time off because unfortunately the industry is not loyal at times, you know, and, you know, and that's only because people need things back. Yesterday. I, I understand because I actually worked in a real estate office as well for about two years.I was a customer service agent, was kind of in the crossover. When I finished college, I worked in a real estate office. I was shooting real estate photos in my part time.So, you know, I've got my full Australian license, it has lapsed, but I could renew that and I got that when I was like 17. So we used to sell deep waterfront canal properties here on the sunshine coast and also beautiful beachfront homes.So I knew that from an early age what it took to make a, to make a house sell. And let's be honest, it all starts with photos.

Yes. Yeah, let's talk about that original because Box Brownie's gone through a couple of different iterations, but let's start with the first one.What was your goal? What were you trying to build when you first set out to start the company?

I won't lie, I was just trying to make an income and at that time I was stressed out, mate. I had my mum doing my accounting for me, like I was sending invoices out. But back then there was no accounting software. It was all very manual.And you know, I'd had a. I'd have agencies that wouldn't pay me for three or four months, you know what I mean?And me just running a business, you know, I was always a solo operator. I never had employees. Now I have over 419 countries. Like, it's still bill. It blows my mind, mate. And I don't like people calling me boss.I actually don't like it. It's just like, I just, you know, because I'll clean the windows at work or I'll. If there's something I'LL pick up the vacuum cleaner.I'm just that sort of guy. I'm hands on and I do enlighten, I do like being in the trenches and I don't want any special treatment. I'm not special.I'm just another guy just having a go, if you know what I mean. So yeah, yeah. So it's really realistically I wanted to get myself off the tools and do something different.I was going to go the mines here in Australia and you know, underground and make some good money and week on, week off style thing. But my wife said, you'll like this, Bill.No long distance relationship because she's a hairdresser and she's seen bad things happen with couples and yes, mate, you know, fast forward a bit and that's what made me think of Box Brownie and then I never imagined that I'd honestly travel the world, meet people like yourself mate, and just be doing what we're doing. It's still pinch myself a lot of the time, but I don't think about it. That makes sense as well.

Yeah.So the original idea was to make it easy for other people to do the editing which get you off the tools of the editing part, which is, which is the toughest part of it. Right.

What I thought is, you know, like, look, I, I'll tell everyone at one stage, you know, I, I was scared to outsource Bill as a real estate photographer. I was busy and yeah, I was doing up to nine houses a day. To give you an idea how busy I was, that's a lot. And I, I, I created my own theory.Back then there was no YouTube channels, there was only dodgy forums, you know, that wasn't what there is now. So literally with the experience I got from working with this amazing photographer. His name's Greg Gardner. I'll always give props to Greg.He's just an amazing guy. I wish I could hang out with him more often, to be honest. But you know, he really showed me the robes and said hey, you should get into this.It's a niche thing. Not everyone's doing it. And back then, mate, the I always say that we call it the property week.Like back then the local property newspaper, I guess or flyer was inside our local newspaper and let's call it the, the first four pages and the last four pages, obviously they're all joined, were color gloss and the rest was black and white. So I was taking photos for usually the glossy areas.I'd get the photos printed, I'd throw the shitty ones out and Keep the good ones because obviously you couldn't see what was what.

Right.

And I'd give them whatever I had, you know, obviously they didn't get the bad ones because, you know, something's overexposed or underexposed, etc. And. And that's really where it all began. But, yeah, look, I. Bill, I needed the service myself. You know, I was editing. I was editing photos.I was on the graveyard shift. I was, you know, getting photos back overnight. Which I know in the US is getting closer now.Like it's been standard thing my whole career, so I'm used to it. And one, I. I tried outsourcing, mate. I tried, let's call it 100 or 200 different editors. And you tear your hair out and you'd be like, all terrible.Yeah, I wouldn't put my name to that. And then one day I found someone decent, trained them up. And I won't lie, I was paying $5 a photo.

Wow.

You know, we're now doing it for a dollar. Oh, that's Australian. So let's call it $4 US. And now we offer for a $60.So to give you an idea, like it was one of those ideas or concepts, Bill, where I physically needed it to myself. And I was over my career. And then conversation with my wife, a penny dropped one day and I have not worked with.I have not stopped working at it since. People think I'm crazy. I know. My own family and friends did. It's all I talked about. But hey, who's crazy now? You know what I mean?I think, you know, Brandy is like my third time lucky, you know, I built two prototypes before I met Mel, who's my business partner. Amazing. Amazing at technology, you know, I think where you could not get more yin and yang than myself and Mel.And I think the opposites attract and everything I read, you know, in small doses, it's. I just feel that it's my journey, mate. You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah.

You.

I know you've been with Mel now. It's. It's nearly a decade. Do you know that it's almost been 10 years?

Yeah, yeah. I think we. I think we've had. I should count, but I'm. I'm bad. I just work, I think. I think we've had roughly seven Christmases together.That's Christmas parties, if that makes sense. Seven or eight. So it's getting up there, you know, the concept myself of box brand has been over a decade. Yeah. For me personally.

Yeah. Good. And as you mentioned, what Mel was Able to bring to the table was a way to put that tech over what you were trying to accomplish and just.And boy, you guys are able to scale like it's incredible the way things have scaled for you. I think it's 114 countries that you're in.

Yeah, I think it might be 170 now, but look, yeah, let's call it 114. You know, people say they're global. We're a true global business, Bill. We are self funded, so we've taken no vc, which I think is cool as well.There's only a very, very small amount of businesses that can claim that.And you know, we're rubbing shoulders with the big dogs in the industry and we're just trying to stay true mate, you know, and do the right thing by our clients, do the right thing by our staff and editing teams and you know, no subscriptions. We just try and make it really easy, you know, where we're the most cost effective way to sell your biggest asset.And you know, we've got some big plans for Vox branding. Like editing is just the start. We've got some amazing things, you know, blue sky, you know, ideas for the horizon.And we're just here to make the average real estate agent's life easy, mate. That's what we want to be.

I think that the thing that I show more than anything when I show someone Box Brownie is what you've done with virtual staging. Making that as affordable as it is. That is crazy. Talk about that a little bit.

Thank you, mate.So, you know, I'll start off by saying, and I never thought I'd ever say this, Bill, but Box Brownie, you know, our business, we right here, right now, we, we do the most virtual staging in the world. That's a fact. That's fact one, fact two, it's all real life. Human editors, not AI. AI is going to get terrific. I'm not going to lie about that.And we can, you know that that'll be an option in the future. But right here, right now, it is not up to scratch.There's numerous reasons I won't get into it, but it's, it's, it's not as good as the real thing yet. It will get better. And when it's better, we'll be offering it. You watch. You know what I mean? So virtual staging, it's a great tool.I remember our first ever show was Inman San Francisco. I think I'm bad with dates. It might have been 2017, I think. Don't quote me on that. But it was our first. First time in the US first time.One of our first conferences, too, to be honest. And we didn't know what to expect. We couldn't afford the flights as a business, let alone the drink bills.

I'm glad you brought that up. I didn't have to. I didn't have to do that.

But look, you know, we're all about. That's the Australian way, mate. Have a beer, have a yarn. You know, you get to know people pretty well.But Inman did an editorial on us, and I'm forever thankful it was on our virtual staging. And next minute we're like, boom. All these US Signups going crazy, and we're like, whoa, what's going on here?And we tracked down the blog and Inman, what's this? You know, we had no idea what it was. Next minute, we're on a plane. Next minute, we've got people come into our booth who already know us.Next minute, you know, this lovely lady named Tiff, you know, Tiffany Callender was sending all these people to us, and we're like, who the hell is Tiff? And then next minute, this person comes up, she goes, oh, my name's Tiffany, you're Tiff. And it just went on from there, mate.And the love that the US Gave us was just incredible and, you know, forever grateful.And that's why we spent, you know, as, you know, we've spent so much time traveling across the world doing more conferences over there than probably most. And, you know, we're coming all the way from Australia for it. But virtual staging, I remember there was another company at the time offering it.That's all they did. Won't name names, but I. I remember it being $80 US per photo. I'm pretty sure per virtual staging, we entered the market at $32 US.And everyone's like, whoa. And what's really cool is since then, we've dropped that edit 25% in price. So with Box Brownie, there's never going to be subscriptions.And as we scale up, we want to be the fair guys and bring prices down. So that's sort of how we work. So, pretty proud on that, because early days, everyone said that we had to have subscriptions. It's never going to work.

There's a commercial aspect to what you're doing as well, too. When I say commercial, I mean commercial real estate, because renderings are something that are incredibly expensive.Once again, you found a way to make this super affordable. Right. Especially in that world.

Yeah. Really, everything and we were doing virtual renovations before it was a thing, you know like before that was a product with.Yeah, but renderings we do a lot of.So whether it's a residential house, whether it's commercial, whether, whether you're selling a multi family complex or commercial complex, we've got you covered. So literally for all the listeners out there, what's a render? Brad? It's, it's an artist impression. It's pretty much a computer generated image.Think a photo of a building or internal that's not built yet but you can see what, what's going on. We've even gone one step further Bill. And actually we did create the world's first rendering automated service.Upload your plan, select options, hit submit, we work on a proof and send it to you. So that's, that's another world first we've done which is pretty cool. But we also do render 360 virtual tours.So think of matterport tour of something that doesn't. It's not built yet. That's the best way to put it.

It's been fun watching Box Brownie grow. Right. Because there's always something kind of.You mentioned there's things on the horizon and I'm going to ask you a question about that in a minute. But first let's talk. You got to talk about snapsnapsnap.com first of all was snap and snap snap taken. So you just went snap snap, snap.I'm just curious.

No, we'll look.Think that like Mel come up with, come up with that, with that, that name and I didn't like at the start I had something else really cool I thought but no, I'm really down for it now. Foxbranding.com I bought that domain before I even met Mel. I bought it like 10 years ago with the dreams to give you an idea.Like I had, I did have a dream for all of this. Yeah, it snaps that like think mate. You know, it's as easy as just getting your camera out and going snap, snap, snap upload.You know, that's probably the best way to think of it. You know what I mean? Because literally every agent out there has always got a phone on them and the best camera is the one you've always got on you.Right. So it's not another battery you need to recharge. Your phone's got a phone charger in your car.Like you know we, I actually on my second prototype we had it, we had a camera app. It wasn't anything like it is now, but it Worked so that was cool.And I remember coming back from a conference, it was an exp conference and I said to Mal, I said dude, I'll be on his case for ages about the app. I'm like dude, we need to pull our finger out and get this outgoing, you know, I just, I know it's what's needed.At that time, Bill we'd had set up here in Australia like all that travel we did. Crazy. When we first would have met, we used to have an uber based photography system where you could book photographers through our dashboard.I trained 300 photographers here in Australia.I'd organize their patches in all of our major areas and you could book a photographer let's say if you like, hey, it's 10 o' clock in the morning today. I want to book a photographer this afternoon at 2:30 and I want 10 photos. You can hit a button and do it. So we had that.But I always felt as a bit of a dying breed because of the app, because the phone technology is getting so good. So as soon as I saw the iPhone 11 with that wide angle lens I'm like dude, the times now. And I've tested the cameras too out there.IPhone 11 and 15 if you've got an iPhone 11 don't rush out by 15 thinking you've got a better camera.It might be a little bit better on the photos you don't edit but if you use Snap snap Snap, which we can talk about more and why it's so good mate, the results are pretty similar. So that's a good tip for everyone listening. Don't think you need the latest phone to make it happen. Not the case. Yeah.The app is incredible mate and I'd love to tell more if you need.

To, you know, let's talk about, you know, as an agent downloads the app, they sign up, they you know, have a, they probably tie it to their Apple pay accounts. Brill simple. And what does it look like? What, how does it work? What am I, what would I be using it for most of the time?

Snap snap snap. Right now it's on, it's on iPhone. Only few reasons for that. IPhone had about seven cameras for us to hack into. Androids have about 150 plus.So there's a lot more work in it. That's why just so everyone knows. So Android, it's pretty much built now. I would say that February.So next month if anyone's listening and they want to try it out and be one of the first beta testers, reach out. Brad@boxbranding.com I am not scared to give my email address out even though I am the co founder of what we are. But I'm here to help, mate. But.Snap, snap, snap. It's amazing. It took Mel three years to hack into Apple's camera algorithm.And the reason is there's a lot of smarts behind it, mate, it's, it's very technical.What it does is it, you know, you open up the app, you press little plus sign which activates the new shoot, you put your property address in there, always use your property address that way because everything's saved and you know you can look at the shoots anytime. Then you start shooting and as soon as that, as that camera opens, mate, there's no settings to put in. Everything's done behind the scenes.It actually opens up at 0.6 times on the wide angle zoom, not the 0.5 times. The reason is because I'm OCD made as a photographer and the 0.5 makes things look too big. So you're misleading a little bit there.That's the reason why you can zoom in, zoom out accordingly. But you press that button, mate. It takes seven HDR bracketed shots.And for those that aren't camera savvy, bracketing or HDR photography is you need a tripod for best results. And every professional photographer uses a tripod. So you know, that's why we do it. Me being one.It takes seven different photos at different light gradients. So dark all the way to light.And the reason is Bill, a lot of the US photography, professional photography, I see, I challenge everyone, all the listeners out there. On your professional photos, on your interior shots, can you clearly see outside the window? I know now it's a bit more of a growing trend.We've educated the market a lot, but a lot of photos. I see. I was, I was at a. I remember Nagle Red, you know, I don't think that's a conference anymore in Palm Springs.And I was chatting to it to a gentleman there and I said, look, yeah, your photos are great. He goes, oh, my photographer's the best. Don't need you guys. Rah, rah, that's cool. I said, do you mind me having. Can you bring up a shoot you like?And I have a look and I gave a marketing health check there and then and I said, look, I saw beautiful mountain regions in that pool shop. I said, why can't I see that? I can say I know the mountains are there. I just.Because I know photos and where they position them and I'm like why can't I see those mountains from inside that beautiful living room? And he's like, he's jaw just dropped, mate. I'm like, he's like, what do you mean? I'm like, dude, I can't see outside that window. It's a white haze.If in Australia I'd be fired, I would not get work for that. And he's like, I've never thought of that. So like that's what HDR photography is team.It's, it's the ability to see in a photo how our amazing human body I see in real life, you know, we, we can control and balance the light whether it's really sunny or it's dark and shadowy. That's what HDR photography does because you're capturing every lighting aspect that's needed.And then our editors by hand, real life humans edit that photo and pretty much lay them, rub out what they want, keep what they need, replace sky, do actually 17 Photoshop tasks to your image for A$60. So that's one aspect of Snap. Snap, snap. One last fun fact.The algorithm, it doesn't just take seven photos, it actually takes 70 up to 70 micro photos just to give you an idea. So that's what it does for the $160. So that's why it's, it's a true world first, mate.It's, it's everything I knew as a photographer in an app that's just a push button system. On top of that it does data Dusk or our Twilight effect, which is our second most popular edit.

Yep.

Globally. You can also remove items, kitchen clutter, cars out the front, rubbish or skip bins, you know what I mean?Out the front of a property, things you can't actually have control of moving, you can remove it all off the app. You what you want, submit. And lastly Bill, you can do high quality. Our best selling virtual staging off the phone.No other app does that right here, right now. So look at, you know, we're going to give all the listeners a free coupon trial. At the end we'll have a code word for you.As we spoke about, if you're an existing Box Brandy user, I want to hook you up as well so we can talk about that later. But that's why the app's so good, mate. It honestly turns your smartphone into a secret weapon. It's DSLR professional quality.And when you marry the photos up like I've done tests and you know me, we do blogs and you know, we're all about training. I Love it. And I've taken photos on my old camera setup. Nikon compared to the phone. To be honest.Everyone's actually says I like the phone photos better. But what they all say is I can't tell the difference. Wow. And I'm talking a laptop photo.But then when they shrunk down the property portals things get pixelated and lower. Lower resolution. Mate. You. You physically can't tell the difference. It's, it's, it's, it's wild.

Wow.

And we're not here to replace photographers or nothing like that.We're just embracing the technology and I don't like, oh, pick up the scraps if you want to call it or you know, there's always room for a professional photographer in the industry. 100 biggest asset as an agent. But you've got to call them. You've got to fit in their schedule.You could have a rural property that takes an hour to drive there. There's no photographers. I've heard it all. This app is available 24, 7 photos back in 24 hours guaranteed.You know, standard edits and oh, average turnaround time for our image enhancement is three hours at the moment, mate. So that's what the system tell us.

So I'm a little behind. I'm a little behind on Box Brownie. You guys have really come a long ways. Give me.Let me ask you this question as best you can because I don't want you to give away anything that would help anyone else. But what's next on the horizon? Is there something you can tease us with?

What's next? What's next? We're really just trying to secure a lot of. We're just trying to streamline what we do. You know what I mean? AI is coming.Artificial intelligence. We can't ignore that. Things that we do do that people don't know about. We've got some products coming. Probably not a lot I can talk about really.But we. What's really cool is we have switched on our booker photographer uber based system again which is quite cool. We're pretty big in Japan.We've got 30 photographers on the ground Japan, which is pretty fun.

Wow.

That's going on. We've just switched one on in my local town again just to sort of get it rolling around Australia again. That's something we're just playing with.It's just a bit of fun really mate. But I think what we're really trying to do this year is streamline what we do get. You know, always improving our systems.We aim to give the Best customer service available. We get really comments all the time.We're just trying to tighten our ship and being self funded, we can pivot pretty quick and we've got our ideas there of where we need to go. Really cool too on our editing. I just got off a call before you. I run a quality control team. So we secret shop our editors, which is pretty cool.And look at about 100,000 images a month, which is not all of them, but it's scratching the surface and it's random. So obviously we're, you know, the founder is in the trenches. Still doing that because I care about our clients.So what that means is the good editors get work, the bad editors get suspended and our clients just get top notch work. So we'll fix the photo, mate, even if you haven't seen it. So with Box Brownie, you can do free changes yourself.If you're like Brad, I dislike that furniture, change it. Or I don't like the sky you've used.It's all free, you know, but we fix things as well behind the scenes, even if you don't know about it because that's just how we roll.

That's cool. Look, I'm watching the clock. I gotta get you, I gotta get you back to work. It's. It's nighttime where I'm at, but it's. Your day is starting. Let me.Final question.

You're probably gonna get to bed. I've got all the time you need, mate, and I'm here for you.

All right. Final, final question that I always ask every guest. That's one what one piece of advice would you give a new agent?Just getting started in the business.

Look at. That's a tough one, mate. Get yourself educated. You know, there's a lot of beautiful prop tech, property technology out there.It is crowded though, let's face it. You know, there's. There's a lot of technology out there these days and.But look, I suppose I always like to say, don't become the next Nokia, you know what I mean? I think you've got to, you've got to try and innovate and you've.Not that, not that Nokia haven't, don't get me wrong, but you know, everyone's on an iPhone or a Samsung these days, you know what I mean? So I think just be sure to keep yourself educated. Go to conferences or listen to podcasts and I think educate yourself is a big thing. Yeah.And just back yourself, really. I think, you know, you are who you hang out with and I think you Know, just I suppose the harder you work, the luckier you become, mate.So that's probably, you know, one aspect, of course, course, you know, and this is not selling us, I promise. But like obviously good photos sell property. Let's face it, that's what makes your phone ring.So not saying just use us, but, you know, there's lots of ways out there to be seen and to have good marketing. So like it's a bit of a down market at the moment.I know there was, you know, Covid, there was some stupid prices and I think they still getting that. But I think these days there's fierce competition. There's been some big stats of all the agents who have left the industry in the U.S.you know, Nir have done some statements and I think now more than ever, even during COVID when things were selling quickly, you still should have given a damn about how your marketing looks. Don't, don't be sloppy because on these types of markets this is where you're going to pick it up. So I think your listings are your online presence.They're like your window card to the world. So much like having a beautiful suit and, you know, a clean car.I think having beautiful looking marketing is another step towards, you know, selling a home and then getting another listing as well. So I think it's always, it's all those little one percents, mate, that all add up, doesn't it?You know, education and doing what you say and just delivering on what you do, I think is a big thing too.

Good. Love it.

Was that answer all right for you?

That's good. I love it. I love it. Brad, if someone wants to reach out to you, I think you already told us, it's basically bradoxbrownie.com but you also.So you said you have something special for the listeners. Let's talk about that real quick.

I do, I do. So obviously rate my agent, another fellow Australian sort of prop tech company, you know, kudos to the Aussies.But look, we want to give back, of course, obviously, right by agent. You've got a profile picture. We do profile retouching. So take a photo on your phone. Phone cameras are pretty awesome. We can retouch it.Whether you want to remove wrinkles, remove a pimple or braces, whiten your teeth, change your tie, anything like that we can do. We can even remove the backgrounds as well. If you want that sleek studio look, we've got a code word.So if you haven't signed up to boxbrownie.com that's the website boxbrandy.com sign up. There'll be a coupon code area. It's pretty easy. Rate my agent, all in capital letters, no spaces.It'll get you $25 Australian credit, which is a big, big sort of giveaway. Now, from what you know, from what we. From what we usually give away. And $20American. So try that out if you want to try. Snap Snap Snap team.And you're an existing user. Guys, email me. Brad@boxbranding.com I will physically give you a training session on whatever you want.If you want an office webinar, a one on one training session with anything we do, I am here. Okay? Honestly, I'll do it myself. I won't handball it, but yeah, if you're already a user, that codeword won't work. Email me, we'll catch up.I'll put it in your account and I'll help any way I can.

That's awesome, Brad. This has been fantastic. Everything I thought it would be, there is passion just oozes from you, which I'm sure you've heard before.You are very passionate about what you do, and I love the fact that that passion comes from a place of service and help and making it better for people at an affordable price. I keep using that phrase, but it's amazing. So thank you so much for your time today. This is amazing.

Likewise, Bill. Just very grateful to be in the position I'm in. The real estate industry has been very kind to me. So, you know, it's great to be able to give back.And, you know, I think the universe always gives back in marvelous ways. So whatever I can do, you know, I'm just here to help. I'm. I'm just stoked and just living the dream, mate. You know what I mean?Like, yeah, no, so just whatever I can do more seriously, I'm here for anyone.

That's awesome. Cheers, mate.

Cheers, mate. Hope we get to cross paths again soon in the US or maybe over here. And yeah, thank you. Thank you very much for having us on today.

Thank you for listening to the real estate Sessions.Please head over to ratethispodcast.com resessions to leave a review or a rating and subscribe to the real estate Sessions podcast at your favorite podcast listening app.