Today we’d like to introduce you to Ethan Wardman.
Hi Ethan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
To go back for context, I grew up with my mom just me and her; she got me to where I am today. She did everything she could to give me the life that she never had, and to be honest; I never felt like we didn’t have less than other people because she always made sure I had what I needed, no matter what.
I moved to Texas in 8th grade from North Dakota, and it was quite a culture shock for me, I was always outgoing, but when I moved here, I had a lot of trouble making friends, so I became introverted in a sense.
Through high school, I played football, but still friends were hard to come by. As I graduated high school, I went to TCC but never felt like school was for me, so I stopped going and went full-time at Dicks Sporting Goods. I was there from 2020 to 2023 in January, and when I was about to be promoted to manager, I had to look at what my life was going to look like if I accepted this job, and truthfully it scared me. So, I quit. I went all in, going door to door selling solar, and at the same time, I wanted to start a business of my own but had no idea what, so I left it be. In March, I saw an ad about Real Estate Photography but never pursued it. At the same time selling solar was extremely hard, I was doing marketing for them and knocking doors, and I couldn’t get a sale for the life of me. The CEO messaged me June 22nd and told me essentially he won’t pay me for my marketing services if I don’t get a sale on the doors, and again, I had a choice. Be with a company who obviously doesn’t care for my future or figure something out.
So, it’s exactly what I did. I told him no hard feelings, I’m done. I was faced with nothing in front of me, but my entire life I’ve always figured it out, and I’ve always seen my mom figure it out. I dove deep into Real Estate Photography, researching everything about it, being obsessed and hardly sleeping because remember? I have no way of making money, and I don’t have savings because I couldn’t make any money selling solar. So, I went to every single Realtor event there was, I was cold DMing 50-70 Realtors a day, and one day I actually got a response and then another one and another one. And simultaneously, I went to a Chat GPT event at Texas Connect Realty, and I was 30 minutes early so I could greet the realtors as they were coming in, but I didn’t want to pitch them I just wanted to befriend them, and maybe they would want to use my services. As we got through the event the organizer Jami Cortez from Peoples Title, gave me the floor to pitch everyone, and that’s exactly what I did.
I told everyone I’m a 22-year-old photographer that created a business putting people over business instead of business over people. I do photos, videos, floor plans, and much, much more. And they seemed to love it. Now 3 months later, I’m partnered with 4 brokerages and work with over 200 agents.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Truthfully not smooth at all, from stepping away from Dicks Sporting Goods with a 100% commission job to then stepping away from that commission job, money was incredibly tight, selling random items around my house to make rent and pay bills, now being able to say I created my own business, still it’s not as big as I’d like, but I’m not struggling anymore, and I couldn’t be more proud of myself.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
I run a Real Estate Photography business. I vowed to myself that I will always put people over business instead of business over people because relationships are the most important to me.
We are a full-scale photography company doing; Photos, Videos, Drone Media, Floor Plans, 3D Tours, and Headshots.
Realistically there’s a ton of talented Real Estate Photographers in DFW, but what truly sets me apart is my constant knack for learning about what I do, I use AI in my business to help me keep an edge above my competition and I believe my customer service is THE best in the market.
I’m extremely proud brand-wise that I created a company named after my little brother Maxson; I wanted him to grow up (He is 11) and be proud of his older brother and have bragging rights at school saying how he had a company named after him
Pricing:
- $149 for listing photos (unlimited photos to represent the property)
- $99 for Drone Photos
- $149 for unlimited headshots (1hr max)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://poplme.co/hash/qTarvvAU/4/s
- Instagram: Instagram.com/maxsoncollective
Image Credits
Maxson Collective
Ethan Wardman
