My name is Phil, and I am a real estate photographer. I actually began my journey in the real estate industry in the year 2000, right after graduating high school. From being a full-time agent to working on real estate teams, processing short sales, and working as an office administrator, I have been involved in every aspect of real estate. Somehow, I landed in full-time photography, drone operation, and videography. Since I was a child, my love has been for music and anything else that allowed me to be creative. So when I was introduced to the concept of photography as used in real estate in 2010, I was utterly intrigued. That year, I worked as a listing coordinator and glorified receptionist for Coldwell Banker in Tampa, FL. I loved the agents and staff that I worked with, but the pay was bad, and the room for long term growth was limited. Plus, it wasn't fascinating, and I was bored out of my mind. I felt like I was in Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. In fact, I even wrote a song about it (shameless plug - it's on one of my YouTube channels). Looking for a way to supplement my income, I found a job writing real estate descriptions on Fiverr. The person posting the job was also named Phil, and we struck up a relationship immediately. One day I noticed the signature line of his email said, "real estate photographer." I asked him if he could tell me more about that, and...the rest is history. My life changed the day I met Phil. In fact, I dedicate this book to him because he changed my life and has inspired me to do the same for others. I came to the table with a significant amount of experience in this field, but he introduced me to a whole different aspect. Once I realized it existed, it just clicked! The knowledge and experience he shared with me have been a gift, almost like a superhero ability. To this day, we remain very close friends. I want to share this gift with as many other people as possible. Since high school, I have always been searching for additional income streams. MLMs were very attractive to me, even selling weird stuff (I did door-to-door sales of knives, for example) - just anything that's kinda out of the box. I am incredibly gullible, too. I'll believe whatever sales pitch is given to me and tell myself, "I can do that!" Up until this point, nothing I tried really worked. I've wasted a ton of time and money just trying to find ways to make money. But I am very excited and proud to say that real estate photography worked for me! I can also assure you that I came into this with ZERO photography experience. To this day, I will not claim to be a high tech guru or gearhead or extremely knowledgeable about photography's inner workings. I am none of these things. But what I have been taught has given me all the tools needed to succeed in this job. Which leads me to a question...what is success? I think it's something different for everyone. But for me, it meant having a job that I enjoyed, being able to be creative, and the ability to provide for my family. For you, success could look different. But I can confidently say that if you are kind, likable, willing to learn, and have an interest in photography, you can do this! It's crazy, but I have met photographers who are not kind, not good at their job, unprofessional, and they still make a living doing this. It is frustrating to run across these individuals because it's easy to see the untapped potential they are unwilling to access. Whether you'd like to work part-time, have a flexible schedule, make good money, carve out your own empire, and put the pedal to the metal, I will go over several available possibilities. Ultimately, the purpose of this book is to illustrate my journey of becoming a real estate photographer, what life is like in this industry, and, hopefully, to help you discover if it's what you want to do - and how to do it. An e-course with step by step lessons is available at lenslife.me
