Creator Spotlight: Joel Yocca, Absolute Altitude

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In recent years, the real estate industry has been forced to adapt faster than ever before. It has never been more important to produce high quality content for a home. At Aryeo, we’re on a mission to empower real estate photographers in doing what they love. As times change and the industry adapts, we are taking the time to sit down with our customers and learn more about them and where they are today.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Joel Yocca from Absolute Altitude to learn more about his background, how he has adapted his business, and where he is today. He currently owns and manages the aerial production company based out of Northern Virginia, which specializes in commercial film and photography. Its production of high-end content has quickly spread in popularity amongst real estate professionals, golf courses, property management companies and businesses all across the greater D.C. area.

Background

Joel’s career began in film-making and he later went back to school for his Masters in Teaching. He quickly landed a position teaching middle school students in Northern Virginia. In 2016 when the Federal Aviation Administration loosened its restrictions on the use of drones, Joel decided to purchase one. Shortly after, he decided to start offering aerial photos and videography as a side business while he taught at the middle school. Creating media from Drone footage complimented his passion for film-making perfectly!

Joel quickly learned that if you offer exterior real estate imagery clients would also require interior photography as well. Interior photography is very different from traditional photography like portraits or weddings. Joel knew he needed to learn the ins and outs before he could offer clients interior photos of the home in addition to drone footage which he specialized in.

From there, Joel introduced iGuide 3D tours to his product offering suite. His business continued to grow with little to no downtime. After purchasing his own home, he worked with his real estate agent to dive head first into the local real estate scene. Through that connection he was able to meet so many new people and potential new clients in the community that would expand his business opportunities. Suddenly he was shooting agent promo videos to help them with their branding and marketing initiatives and business was steadily increasing.

“We got so busy in August of 2019 I was able to quit my teaching job and went full time in Real Estate Photography!”

The Challenge

Before Aryeo, Joel was working with a number of clients in the greater D.C. area using many different systems to deliver listing content. He started by delivering images through Pixiset but found himself frequently chasing down payments for orders. A download pin was added in effort to avoid chasing payments but this presented a new issue of clients chasing him down for the pin number while he was out on the road shooting.

Video delivery was also a challenge. Joel was delivering an unbranded video by sharing a vimeo video link. In addition to that, he would deliver a branded and unbranded video file through dropbox.  That’s two different systems just to share a video! iGuide 3D tours also had their own unique link to share.

“Essentially clients would get several emails at different times or one email with several different links” Joel said as he was explaining his delivery process.

“I used 4-5 different systems and links. That was a total nightmare!”

Joel knew he had to find a better way to scale his business. Some of the challenges he wanted to solve for were:

• Deliver one link that contains all the content, simplifying the retrieval for this clients.
• Lock content until payment is collected, reducing the time he spent chasing down past due payments.
• Provide access for team members to help with scheduling and marketing needs.
• Reduce the number of calls, texts and emails he was getting from clients to book/schedule new appointments by bringing his order form online.

The Solution

Joel wanted to simplify the delivery of listing content for his clients, but where to begin? There are a few different real estate content delivery platforms out there to choose from. Lucky for Joel, being in the business helped develop friendships in the industry where he could turn for advice.

Joel first heard about Aryeo at the PFRE Conference. A friend in the industry raved about Aryeo and how it had changed his life. Aryeo was the perfect solution to solve for the challenges Joel and his business was facing.

“I needed something I could rely on and that helped me automate processes”

With Aryeo, clients receive one single link to download all of their listing content. No more pin numbers or phone calls asking how to download or retrieve their content. With less troubleshooting phone calls coming in, Joel could focus more on his work.

“The learning curve was almost nothing for me because Aryeo was so simple and intuitive.”

Getting started on Aryeo is a breeze. Not only is Aryeo simple and intuitive, but it also has a ton of available resources like a video learning series, a knowledge-base packed with information, and a live support team that’s available for help along the way!

Results

The days of sending payment reminder messages and chasing down payments is now over. With every listing Joel delivers, he attaches the order equipped with a locking mechanism to ensure clients complete payment before they can download and access the content.

“One of the nice things about Aryeo is the ability to collect payment prior to the client downloading the content”

Besides consolidating links and collecting payment, Joels team members now also have access to extra information and can complete assigned tasks from the shared Aryeo account. This allowed his social media team to use the content in Aryeo to help with marketing initiatives.

Another key value-add for Joel was the ability to design and create an order form that he could add to his website enabling clients to easily place new orders with his business online.

“The order form is awesome! It’s all in one spot, all together, making it so much easier for my clients!”

Partnering with Aryeo has helped Joel grow his business in a major way. Aryeo helps him save time and money by automating processes and adds value for his clients by offering free property websites and marketing materials that can help sell the listing faster.

“The best way to retain your customers is to continually provide them value.”

Conclusion

It was such a pleasure speaking with Joel and learning more about his business. We are proud to be a partner in Joel’s success. Check out Joels amazing work with filmography in this recent luxury listing video!

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We introduced our Customer Spotlight Series to highlight some of the great people and businesses we support every day. Empowerment begins with saving photographers and other content creators time and helping them make more money. Equally as important is sharing knowledge and providing top notch support. By elevating the stories of our customers and building a thriving online community we support those in the pursuit of a sustainable livelihood by helping photographers deliver content, create marketing materials, and more efficiently run their business.

Interested in being featured in our Customer Spotlight series? Contact us at [email protected].