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Episode transcript from the Close It Now podcast with Sam Wakefield.
Hey, welcome back to Close It Now. Same Wakefield here got my radio voice on today. I am excited to have this interview episode. If you've been listening for a while, you definitely will have noticed I pulled back on the interviews because, and I mentioned this a couple episodes ago with the last interview is I stopped interviewing people that I didn't really know much about and that I didn't have some level of degree of trust. In fact, some of the older episodes, if you've been listening for a while, have been pulled down because people that I had interviewed, turns out one of them ended up being a criminal.
The other one ended up being just a total scumbag. And so we don't want to promote anything that doesn't align with the core values of closeit now. And so with that, that's actually why I'm excited to introduce our guest today because I have known of this guest for a long time. We met in person early this year in Dallas at an event in person. And it was really exciting.
And so we're finally making it happen. Crystal, we're getting you on the show. So for everybody that's listening, if you're not on YouTube, if you are on YouTube, make sure to like and subscribe. And if you're not on YouTube, go like and subscribe. That helps out.
But this is Crystal Williams with Lemon Seed Marketing. Excited to have you on today, Crystal. Well, I'm excited that I'm not a scumbag or a creep today, so that's exciting. No, I appreciate the opportunity. You know, I love to talk, so it'll be great.
Yeah, I love it. So let's. Let's start with something that's just totally off the wall. Tell us a boring fact about yourself. I like to hit people with something bizarre about myself.
No, that's okay. So I low key love to spend time with my kids a little bit. So this is just kind of boring because a lot of people feel this way about their kids, but now they are 19 and 16 and like really going and building their own little adult lives. My oldest son is going to work at our family's pest control company, but he also is a master golf club fitter, so he can modify and fit people for golf clubs. And he took this up when he was like 15 years old.
So he still continues to dude that and like side hustles the heck out of it. So he does a really good job. And then my 16 year old is. Anyone that knows me is. He's quite the personality.
Lots to say right now I'm calling it leadership. We're going to work through that. But little boring fact about me is I am raising two and we're very strong Christian, so two godly men that I'm hoping to make really good husbands one day and dragging them through it, but they are, they're the light of my life along with my husband. And so as busy as I am traveling and talking and doing, they are the reason for everything that. Love it.
Love it. Oh, that's a huge why. Thank you for sharing that. It's always fun when we get to know people a little bit. Before you just dive in forever, I did the give us the brief history of how you got here and I was like, oh man, everybody does that.
Let's do something different. Yeah, good stuff. Well, let's dive into this a little bit. Because marketing is often misunderstood, more often than not. And there's so many things that can fall under the umbrella of marketing.
And so some of the things that are the popular, the shiny object things, if people are on social media or anytime they search marketing. But there's so many other elements to that that most people don't know or understand. So because you have such a. I've listened to several of the episodes with other podcasts that you've been on. You have such an understanding, truly of a robust concept of really what marketing is as a whole and then the different components of it.
I'd love you to give us a crash course on this. Specifically focus on the most misunderstood pieces and maybe the ones that people don't even know about. So fill in some gaps for us. Yeah, absolutely. So I, you know, I come from the industry, so I grew up in this industry.
My family owns and operates a heating and air conditioning and plumbing company here in East Texas. My husband and I own a roofing company, part of a roofing company. And now my sister, brother and I own a pest control company. So no stranger to the home service game, but I also. When you come to East Texas, where I live, you will immediately be able to identify what I would say.
My companies, companies that I have put my marketing hand in. Because we start off doing what I wish everybody would do, and that is we brand first, we strategize afterwards. So we build a solid brand and listen, this hurts people's feelings, but a brand is way deeper than a logo in a van wrap. So while that is bright and it is definitely a core component, preach from the rooftops what your brand store is. But what really starts turning the knob and driving growth is when your community, you're a whole targeted community of where you want to be, the authority in the space when they start to understand who you are and what you mean to them.
That sounds so ridiculously corny, but it is what it is, right? So it is that way because we are naturally, as humans, emotionally driven by impact. So we want to be impacted by your pest control company, your HVAC company, your plumbing company. So we build brands first and then from there we start strategizing of how we are going to position ourselves in the market. Who do we want to be?
Are we the affordable option, the traditional option? Are we innovative or are we elite? Are we professional? Like, there's all these ways to position ourselves in the market. And again, that is a strategy.
So when people say, oh, I'm not racing people to the bottom, I don't necessarily say that right out of the gate, because what is the strategy? Because some of us, when you're brand new and green, building, so like going into a new market, you might need to be the lowest man to get some traction, to get some reviews, to get some growth, and then steadily have a plan for a strategy of, of going up. So when people start throwing out like these little darts of, like, I would never do that. Well, that's why I strategize over the top of you, right? So right now, if we.
And this is a blessing, okay? But if we, my family and I, my brother, my sister and I, my husband's, our husband's wives, if we start a business, odds are we're going to be close to a million dollars in 14 months in revenue. And that's not. We are not magic. We're not magicians.
We're good operators. We try to be good operators and we build a brand first. And it's like people, people will still Argue with me. I've been in business 30 years. Crystal, and I made it to $2 million.
And that's not by accident. And I'm like, oh, no, that was by choice. Yeah. You know, that was 100% by choice. I chose to grow insanely slow.
Yes. And. And you know what? That's. Growth is not everyone's vision.
And that's cool too. Some people love, like, I want to get to $3 million. I'm gonna coast. Right? That's fine.
That is a strategy. Right? That's a strategy. So I think the biggest thing that people miss the most is, number one, that branding component going deeper than a logo. Especially friends.
I love AI AI. Logos scream out to the average person within, like, three seconds. Okay. There's no depth to them. So while it could always be a great, like, here's my ideas, you really still need a professional trained designer to build out that true brand.
And also, you need a. A brand message coordinator. Like, you need someone that can take your editorial language. This again, sounds so corny, but with Rufus, the roofing company that we have, we talk about a celebration. Not a celebration, because Rufus is an armadillo.
Oh, my gosh, this is awesome. Know what runs across the road? A freaking armadillo. And our armadillo. His back is made out of roofing shingles.
His name is Rufus. And so we celebrate your new roof. Right. We made a whole thing about your shell of protection. So that's all editorial styling and messaging that we use that is building that brand in every single customer interaction.
So some of you are like, well, I'm called Gyms heating and air conditioning, and it's a house with a snowflake and a sun, and it's blue. Classic clip art. Yeah. So there's. There's not a lot of teeth to that, and you need it.
And so if. If there are contractors listening and it doesn't matter where you are in the home service space, and you look at your swimming pool business, and there's a swimming pool and a palm tree. Not unique. A snowflake and a fire or a sunshine. Not unique.
Right. So McWilliams had this issue that was my family's company. We had this issue of. We were. We were really cool because we had a radiant.
A gradient. I'm sorry. A gradient from orange to red. Okay. Like, but it was a sun, and at the time, it was.
It was super cool. In 1974. Okay. But eventually, we had to migrate. Migrate.
Migrate. Really? We update our logo and we modernize it every three to five years. We're, we're ramping it up because it, it's important to stay relevant. So I, I live in that space.
We're still red and blue. We live in the traditional space and that's okay. Now, Spoton Pest control, my family's pest control company is neon yellow and red, and every vehicle that we drive has these gigantic spots all over it. Our mascot is a ladybug named Johnny because it's Johnny on the spot. Spot.
Of course. Yeah. And Johnny was my grandfather's name. And this is a little sad turn of events here, but my grandfather actually got really, really sick and committed suicide back in 2014. And it was, it was terrible.
It's very terrible for our families. And so my sister, when she was, she's, she's the one that runs my sister and brother in law runs pest control company. When we were ideating on what could our names be, it was like, my dad was like, what about a ladybug? And I was like, oh, a ladybug, okay. Who wants to kill a ladybug?
That sounds terrible. But then we were like, well, he has spots. And then we wanted to make a. We love to get behind a cause, so. Because when you have a cause, it helps you with community marketing.
So we chose suicide awareness, Life after suicide of like helping families figure out how to move on. So Johnny on the Spot, named after my grandfather, helps us tell the story. But again, do you see, like, we built a whole, a whole vibe with our company. And so that's the biggest piece that's missing. And then I would say it rolls right into strategy.
Sam of like, you know, there's a difference between a plan and a strategy. Anybody can give you a plan. We're going to drop direct mail these dates on these times to these audiences. That's great. And then you're a digital company.
Okay. You need to add money, you need to take money away. You need to, you know, we need to add this. But those are all plans. But you have to string all those plans together to make a strategy.
Yeah. How does it work together? Right? How does it work together? The biggest thing, even today I have a client that I literally was like, girl hit pause because she's a tactician is what I've learned.
She loves new ideas and I appreciate that. But eventually it is wild and out of control. You've got, you look up and you're like, this is a cool new company. But they do the same thing that this company does already for me. And this company is doing a good job, I don't need to add them on top of it, see if they can work together.
So we just get clouded with shiny object syndrome and not a true understanding of how things should work or we don't know how to track it. So we just kind of do what social media or some other guy that we know tells us to do. So I know that was long winded for you, but that is how the world of marketing has to be thought about. I love this so much. So let's back up because there was you.
For everybody listening, there was so many nuggets that Crystal just dropped in the introduction of all things here. So let's back up a little bit because there was a couple pieces I'd love to camp out on for a hot minute that I think that people really miss the time to the actual planning and strategy of this. It's funny because there's totally oddball reference here, but one of the since you mentioned being a Christian family, I grew up listening to a lot of Christian rock and roll and metal and those types of things. Now the interesting thing here, and I'm going to tie this in in a second, so this is how so for everybody listening, you're going to see how the thread will connect and this is how you need to think about your marketing. So there was this band called Demon Hunter, this Christian metal band, before they ever wrote a song, recorded a song or anything, they came up with the name of the band, the logo, the message, the every bit of it.
The branding was done. And it's the only band that's ever done that. And now they've gone on to be one of the very biggest bands of anywhere inside that, that genre from day one. They were so huge and they got popularity so insanely fast because while all of the rest of the baby bands are trying to figure it out, they had it figured out first. And so it's just an interesting.
Because marketing is marketing. It doesn't matter what we're doing. And the reason I use that example is for everybody listening, I don't care what your industry is, you've got to think about that first. And so it clearly ties in just in the same way. And so it just made me think of that because it's so important.
And so for everybody that's listening, hit pause and just take a minute and reevaluate. If you would like to talk to Chris, I'm sure she'd happy to take a look for you. One of the first things that we do and I implemented this, Emily and I implemented this almost probably a year and a half ago. Now. Used to, I would say, okay, when you come on Lemon Seed, I'm going to figure it all out.
Now I'm like, no. Before we can create anything, I need to do three things. I need to do an audit of what you're currently doing. I need to build out the ideal avatar, and I need to do a competitive analysis for positioning. And the reason that is is because when you go to the doctor's office and you walk in and you go into the room and you're sitting there, the doctor does not just walk in and say, all right, Sam, here's a prescription for diabetes medicine.
You know what he has to do? He has to take a family history. He needs to understand where your aches and pains are. What have you tried in the past? How much do you weigh?
What's your temperature? What's your blood pressure? Right. We have to do all of this work. Then he can make a diagnosis and a medicine, a prescription for getting better.
And so sometimes that requires, like, okay, the first thing we've got to do is clean up your diet. The first. You know, so before I can give you medicine, we need to do this. So there is so much impact in understanding what you're currently doing from an outside perspective. Because honestly, all the time, I find probably two or three overlaps.
Like, okay, so you have this guy doing your emails and this guy doing your emails. Why? Well, I don't know. I mean, just. And it's.
You know why? I know why. Because most of you are entrepreneurial operators, not marketers, but you're trying to wear the marketing hat for sake of one of two things. Either control, you just have a hard time letting go of control, or you like it, but you really don't have enough time to really do marketing correctly. Right.
So you're in one or two camps there. Either way. Like, literally, Lemon Seed was built for this. Because I'll tell you, anybody that says, oh, I can take marketing completely off your plate. That's a lot.
Unless they are in your business with you every single day in your office. Right. Because somebody has to keep a pulse on the. Every day. What's going on?
How does everybody feel? I mean, it's so corny. Yeah. How. How's the clients responding to these.
These campaigns? Yeah. What is. What is the market bearing right now? What is the competition doing?
Like, we don't want to look like we're copying other people. How do we be unique? And, you know, there's a lot. A lot to that. But that audit, sometimes, Sam, I will come out of audit.
And we're like, okay, 90% of what you're doing is really good. It's performing well. Here's how we can make it even better. We need a strategy to this. You've got good vendors by accident.
You know, I had a client the other day, and I was like, this is a $7 million contractor. Now. They've been in business, like, 40 years. And kudos to 7 million. Like, I mean, kudos.
Okay. The problem was they were like, well, I've gotten to 7 million just by, you know, being just word of mouth. And I said, man, imagine where you would be with marketing behind it. It isn't to diminish where you got with word of mouth. It's to think about all the opportunities you're missing and where you could be now after 40 years with a strategy.
You know, it's funny you mentioned that. I'm talking to two different companies right now that are both. Both sitting at right around the $15 million a year mark. And they both told me the same thing. We're like, we don't know exactly how we got here, but we did.
And they. In fact, in that same conversation, they both admitted to me that they're like, man, I feel like I've been building this blind, and it's fine. It's time to. I'm tired of beating my head against the wall. It's time to finally get some strategy in this thing.
And both of them said, I wonder where we would be had we started this process earlier. We get all the. It's huge. It's huge. There's something about branding that I want to go back to, because you covered it quickly.
But I think there's some, really. Some serious meat here that people need to understand is, first of all, the deciding of the positioning in the market. Who do we want to be? And there's nothing wrong with a company that decides to be. Or a new construction company, or we're a company that's based on volume instead of the highest margins, et cetera.
And there's. There's a fit for every single one of those. It's like good, fast, and cheap. Pick two. Which of the.
What does that company want to look like? And so I'd love for you to talk about the importance of the. The branding matching that. Because what I see a lot of times is somebody has this, like, really crazy cool brands that in no way gives off the vibe of what the company. How the company is actually positioned in the Marketplace.
So homeowners select people get confused on. Well, who are you? I thought you did this. Yeah. So, yes, every day.
So let me give a quick story. So this client comes to Lemon Seed, and he's like, well, I rebranded, you know, two years ago. And he. I'm like, okay, it's got, like, this paradise look, and it's got a parrot, and it's got all this cool stuff. So I'm like, okay, before we talk about that, tell me about this.
So. Because you're not in a tropical area. So I'm like, tell me about this. And he's like, well, I don't know what to say. I said, well, let's start with the parrot.
What does that parrot mean to you? Do you love parrots? He goes, no, I just. I mean, the company said this was good, so I went with it. I was like, yeah, well, what I notice is now, but all of your language from your social media, so what's on your website is very traditional language.
And this over here is like Jimmy Buffett. It's five o' clock somewhere, so. And he's like, I don't know how to do that. And so I'm like, right. So do you feel like you really align with this brand?
Yeah. Are your service tech showing up in a Hawaiian shirt or what's. Look what's going on here? No. So I was like, this is.
It's. It's just false and it's inauthentic. And so what makes it. It's not that. That's still not good.
Right. So this is going to sound weird when I say this, but you know how much easier it is when it's authentic to you. So, like Lemon Seed, for example, when Emily called me, we decided to be together. I kind of named ourselves, like, Apex Marketing. And then I was like, do you want to do this with me?
She was like, yes, but we're changing the name. Yeah. I was like, okay, what are we? Yeah, what are we? So we were like, oh, we're bright, we're fresh, we're energetic.
And so she was like, like lemons or like lemonade. So I was like, that sounds fantastic. So now when you see bright yellow, like, people are saying, y' all are always so cheery, so full of energy, so happy. Right? That's because it's natural for us to be lemony zesty.
Okay. Same thing. Like my brother for McWilliams. He's very traditional family guy. We want to do really good work.
We want to have really good installs. So there's no need to make us like a rocker vibe. You know, we are traditional style. And we made our mascot around my grandfather, who started the business in 1974 after he retired from the Navy. So we created Sailor Mac, the mascot.
And that, that. What. What it did, though, is it's. It made us a little bit more approachable because we knew that traditional wasn't really going to be a differentiator. But Sailor Mac could be, but it still matched that traditional Americana kind of vibe that we were going for.
But what it does is, is it there has to be truth and authenticity to things other than this looks good. Picking things off of a shelf, I think is a recipe for disaster. Another time, Emily, where I had a show and the guy comes up and is like, I've had this new brand for three years and I've never done anything with it. And I spent like $40,000 getting it. He's like, but I just don't know where to start.
Yeah. And I'm like, man, the number of companies I work with and have worked with that had that same experience. Like, we did all this. Rebrand now what? Yeah, no.
What's next? And so literally, Lemon Seed, our rebrand packages are 100% built off of just section one is getting the logo, section two is building out all the collateral, and section three is implementing the dang thing, like, how do we move forward? And so that's a big differentiator for us. But honestly, I just watch it all the time, where you also have a cool mascot or icon or color, but it's never woven into your messaging either. So again, another story.
Client has a Rhino. And I'm like, oh, okay. But I'm like, I don't see anything. Do you know what a group of rhinos is called? A crash.
And so I would be like, I would make a whole social media campaign around crashing out the new way to crash out. Right. Like our team comes in. But that is. That is editorial language.
Yeah. That is high. It makes it all make sense. And right now, things can be very disjointed. Or you've got this gold, very astute and proud logo.
And then you're like, hey, Everybody, it's only 29 for us to come out here. Like I used. Exactly. And that's a great example of the. The.
The vibe that we get is this super polished, professional high end. And now we're. We're messaging that, hey, we're the low. We're the low end bottom, like, cheaper circuit. Right?
It's not. It creates this, like, mental incongruence in people's minds going, well, they don't even know who they are. Well, and people like, wait a minute. Like you're. Wait a minute.
Because let me tell you, some people are very attracted to prestige, okay? So they want to be like, okay, I really don't want this van pulling up to my house that's got four clowns on the side of it, because they're, you know, the ringleader HVAC, Right? They want a simple, more approachable look. So there is power in that. So then you need to.
Your, you know, your message needs to match. I'll laugh a little bit. So, you know, I. I laugh. I love cleverness.
And so the other day, this guy posted and he said, if you women keep using these filters on social media, we're not going to be able to identify you if you ever go missing. And I thought, no, that's a pretty funny statement. But it's the same way. Like, I want. I want contractors to think like this.
If I did not know anything in your market and I saw your Facebook post or your digital ad of some sort, or how would I know that that was your company or what makes it reek of your company? Odds are it could go with any company. A $99 spring tune up is not unique. Anybody could run that. Yeah, my brain instantly goes to all of these ads that I see scrolling it.
All you see is a technician standing by an air conditioner or a technician standing by the thing, whatever the thing is. If it's a garage door, whatever it. Is, a water heater. Doesn't matter. No idea what company that was.
You have no idea who to even call because it was just. Well, instead. Yeah, instead, like with Spot on, it has got spots all over it. And Johnny's like, hey, we're Johnny on the spot. Have you spotted.
Nobody else can use that. Have you spotted roaches in your kitchen? You know, no other pest control company can use that same verbiage. It screams spot on pest control. And so, so many people are like, I'm running ads, crystal.
I'm spending $10,000 a month. And I go, look at it. I'm like, this is so boring that no one is noticing. You're blending in. This is so good.
So let's. Let's take a quick detour because I want to get your opinion on this maybe slightly controversial mascot or no mascot. Okay? All of my personal companies have mascots, okay. Because they just lower that barrier of entry.
No, we take our mascots anywhere. People run up to them. But I have also seen great success without mascots. Okay. An icon.
So we have a company in Indianapolis called LCS Heating and Cooling. They were like are not really mascot people. But we added this house that was like a rocket because we're going to launch your comfort. Right. So I say, if you ask me, I always lean into mascot first because y', all, it's just so dang grippy.
It draws you in, it's fun. And there's so much language that I could to me it makes your marketing life have. It opens all these endless things. Okay. Endless opportunities for messaging and programming.
Yes. But it isn't to say that strategically that's the only option I think it right now. And it also could be trendy. And here's the good news. With a mascot, you can push and pull that mascot when you need it.
So if I'm really pushing like financing as an offer, I tend to go less on the mascot side because financial financials are a little bit more higher level thinking than the fun side of your mascot. But when you want to, when you are serious about boots on the ground, guerrilla marketing, I'm going to get out and about a mascot. Just game changer. Sure. Yeah.
So there. There everything from the plushies to somebody in a costume, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely. You can check out my social media Today, my roofing company had a red ribbon cutting at their newest location.
Emily did all the signage designs because it is branded to a T. But there was Rufus the mascot out there at the ribbon cutting and there was grown adults taking pictures with. Love it. Oh, that's so cool. Super, super cool.
And there's something I want to ask you about because so getting a little more tactical here because one of the things that I see so often is most companies and most owners or people who are doing it themselves or even using their marketing companies, quote unquote, they don't. Everything is so out of order in where they're spending their money. So is there a hierarchy of where to start, how to build in? Because I see companies like, oh, I'm going to try billboards for a year, I'm going to try this for a year. So it's not strategic, of course.
So that's a huge part of what we're talking about is being strategic. But when you're putting together these plans, depending on somebody say if somebody's got a more limited budget, where are the places to start and where to grow into have. And I guess part two to this question is are there some things that you absolutely don't do before others. Yes. So the answer is yes.
So I would say this. I need you to get a brand, I need you to get on social media and I need you to take care of your digital footprint. So, meaning, what does it look like as a company? Who are we? Who the heck are we?
What do we stand for? What do we do? Number two, can you just start posting on social media? Just start posting pictures of your vans, pictures of your people, little things at least three to four times a week. And then our website matters.
And actually I'd probably put website before social because if people are interested in what you're saying, they're going to go to your website. Yeah. Landing place a catcher's net. Right. And this does not have to be overly complicated.
Now, right now we've got everybody in our ear about don't do this and this is dying and this is building. No, it's not. Yes, it is. Right, Lots of back and forth SEO versus AIO conversation. Yes.
And listen, truth be told, right now you need to be looking at both because we still have traditional shoppers, new shopping styles are coming. It is what it is. Welcome to the life of marketing where everything, the only thing consistent is change. That's how it works, right? So I would say the very first thing I would do is get a website company.
Make sure you own all of your content, that you own your URL. Don't sell your soul to the devil. Own everything. Give them full access so they can do their job. But you need to maintain ownership of everything.
I would start with my website. And listen, I hate to break it to you, branding matters on your website, language matters on your website. But pretty will not sell you one more system of any sort of prioritize, prioritize conversion and ease of use for the customer journey. You need to prioritize that no matter what. Then make it pretty.
Okay? So don't exchange. Well, it would look so much prettier if I had this at the top instead of these four buttons. That is going to cost you thousands of dollars. So you want to be pretty, it's going to cost you money.
So there is a happy medium there. So you see, to communicate well with your digital vendor on your goals, but your main goal needs to be conversion and ease of use for the consumer. So once those three things are in place, that's foundational marketing. Okay? Right now, as of today, that's what I would consider foundational marketing.
Then we need to start adding layers of icing to our cake here, okay? So the first layer would naturally to me be Google local service ads, some sort of paid approach, making sure that all of your directories and your Google business profile are all nice and clean. So, so they're all filled out appropriately. Your Google business profile has pictures, it has history statements, you're answering FAQs. It is correct.
And then launching GLSA on top of that. GLSA is not always a rock star for everyone. But I just think it's good to be in the mix. It's very low on the threat factor, but so that would be next steps. And then after that then I start looking at who am I.
So if you're brand new company, direct mail is a really awful way to go. And I say that because it's. You're dragging it alone. Okay. So direct mail performs better when people already have trust and have built authority with the brand that they're seeing the direct mail for.
So if they get a piece of direct mail, it's the first time they've ever heard of your company or seen it. Odds are you're gonna have a very low return. So you have to mail a lot longer and a lot more consistent to really drive the same growth that a good brand would have with one or two drops. Sure makes total sense. Direct mail is consistency and strategy and the offer being a low barrier of entry.
So if you get on there and you drop one piece of direct mail that says I can sell you a system, 0% financing for 60 months and you drop it once every six months and you're like, direct mail really doesn't work for me. Well actually you didn't work well for the direct mail. You wasted your money. Wrong strategy. Yeah, wrong strategy.
Right, but somebody told me they told you wrong. Right. So that is a strategy. So when I get a 20 year old company that's been in the market for a long time and they've got a decent website and they're doing social media, I start saying, why have we not launched direct mail? Because for 20 years your community has seen your trucks and heard your name and seen whatever, all the things you've done.
So direct mail is the biggest one that I set aside. The other one that I'll say is mass media. So let's talk out of home style media. The expectation of those tactics are a slower one to one correspondence. So that sounds fancy, but basically just because I can't measure one to one, I put up a billboard, I sold a system, I spent a thousand dollars, I made $5,000.
That's extremely hard to do with out of home marketing because there's not a direct tie in. Like there isn't when I clicked on a digital ad and made a purchase. Yeah. It's not just directly trackable. So mass media, what I see is people get excited to launch mass media so they, they spread it very, very, very thin and very, very weak and sporadic.
So then you get this false narrative in your head that well, billboards didn't work for me and radio didn't work for me and OTT didn't work. And it's probably because we spread our budget too thin, our message was too weak and our flight date, so the time, the run time of it was too small and too short. So I would tell you, you gotta kind of be able to invest. When you're talking about mass media here, we're talking about radio, tv, billboards, what else? Is there anything else that falls under that category or is that exclusive to that?
No, no. So I would say anything out of home. So like, you know, cool things like bus stops, wrapping bus stops in your town or big bus wraps in your town or like right now you can buy doctor office messaging, you can buy at topgolf for those of you that have that. You can buy placements there, you can buy gas pumps, you can buy grocery carts. There's all kinds of cool stuff out there, right.
That is unique and different. But what happens is we get star eyed with that and we either go there instead of foundationally. So then we got all this cool stuff out in the market but nobody can book a call with us because our website's down. Yeah, right. There's gotta be a balance there.
But really you, to me it's a layered approach constantly. So you know, I've got that foundation of a brand and a website, social media. I added on paid ads like Google local services, Google business profile work and my directories and all of that. Then I start layering on a few fun things. As I say, like is it a direct mail strategy?
Do we want to do, Is it canvassing with door knocking and door hangers and flyers? You know, is it speaking my language now? When is that a structure? And then even next would be now I really would love to do billboards. Okay, so let's talk about the billboard strategy.
The most expensive way to buy billboards is all along the interstate. Because you know, who else wants to have billboard like McDonald's and Buc EE's and all of I want the little inner town billboards. Everybody else around the country. I'm glad you Referenced Bucky's. But if you've never been to or know what a buc EE's is, then you're missing out.
So just dropping that in there. I love buggies. I was just there because you know what they have. So. But you know, they'll say, literally, it's wild as you're driving through Texas, which, you know, I live in a humongous state, so I drive for days and so.
But they will say, the next best restroom break, 365 miles, stop at Buc EE's and then there'll be another one a hundred miles away from the best barbecue in Texas. But they don't buy one billboard 365 miles out. They buy 50 billboards. They buy every single one between there. Yes.
And it just all of a sudden you're like, we should freaking stop at the. Whatever this is with the beaver. Okay. Or the otter that people call it. Right.
But it's because it's a strategy that you can't take it lightly. Now, I say that, like, digital boards have come around. Digital billboards are different because I can do really cool stuff with digital billboards because I can change them very quickly and easily. So I might say, hey, for the first two weeks, I'm going to run a Mother's Day promotion. Like, nominate your mom for best mom.
And then the other half of the month, I'm going to put their mom and a message on my digital billboard, like, here is a sailor Max shout out to Crystal Williams nominated. And it's all of a sudden your mom. And now people are going to be like, oh, my gosh, my mom is on the McWilliams billboard. Yeah, right. Like, so we can do that.
We can't do it with a static board, because I can't. I'm not paying for it to be wrapped all the time. Right. So again, what is the strategy behind adding those tactics? Be Wrapping buses is super cool.
And people are like, well, my target market doesn't ride a bus. Well, friends, they're not on the bus. Yeah, you can't see it. If you're on the bus, you see it driving by. It's a mobile billboard and it's gargantuan.
It's humongous. Yeah. Right. So, you know, in wrapping city bus stops, it's not about the person sitting waiting on the bus, by the way, we love them, too. Okay?
But it's not about the person waiting on the bus. It's about the people that drive by and see it. Remember, we want. Our ultimate goal is Top of mind awareness, where when they think of heating and air conditioning or whatever, garage doors, they don't think of everybody else. They think of you.
One of the moments that I knew we were doing a good job because when I started back with McWilliams, I was what we call the community marketer. So I managed our marketing vendors and I was out and about at everything I could be in the community. Every ribbon cutting, every shop tour, everything in our community, I was there. And one day this lady comes up to me. She's like, hey, I really need to call y'.
All. Like, my dad, you know, he's a dentist and he has these other places. And I said, oh, well, thanks for choosing us. And she goes, are there other heating and air conditioning companies in Lupkin? I'm like, nope, no, there sure is not.
Thank you very much. You know, because, like, that's such a power statement. We just became synonymous as the authority in the heating and air conditioning space. Yeah. And, you know, you start getting kicked in the butt by your competitors because they'll start seeing what you're doing, they'll feel the pain, they'll rise to the occasion, and they tend to fall back.
So you have to be ready for that roller coaster because you're like, they're copying everything I do. What's the best form of flattery? So what you got to do, you got to re strategize. Okay, now they're doing billboards. I'm not going to be on one more billboard once.
Now I'm like, you can have it. Second left, sloppy seconds right. Let me move over to. Then I'll launch these big radio blitzes. And my community is continuing to be environmentally exposed to my brand while I can't I keep the competition guessing.
That brings me a little joy. You never know what we're going to do next. Oh, that's fine. That's fine. So here's a.
And what I'm hearing in this too, is consistency is crucial in this. So question for you, too. So on the other side of the same coin, what are some of. Either from your own experience, the biggest bombs that you've tried that were just awful, that didn't work. And.
Or what are some of the things that you see that are some of the biggest bombs with the companies you work with that just go nowhere? That seems like a good idea on the surface level, but is really not. So I think over romanticizing things and expectations are what set us up for the biggest failures. So, you know, a good sales pitch is going to be like, we're going to change your life. The phone's going to ring off the hook and then it doesn't.
And that, that happens all the time, I think is just as salespeople, we tend to over promise and then under deliver. And so that. And I'm generalizing, like, I tend to be a lot more like, you're not going to see immediate results from a Lemon Seed partnership. I tend to be overly probably too honest. But because it's.
That's. There's hardly anything that is going to drive immediate leads other than canvassing and door knocking and outbound calling. You need leads. Of course. That's the difference in prospecting versus marketing and advertising, which most people don't even use the word prospecting or know exactly what that is.
So my clients will know when I say this is a prospecting play. Right? So I use the analogy. I'm an analogy girl. I use the analogy of marathons and sprints.
So if you tell me so. Remember, Lemon Seat is a fractional cmo, so we are not most of the time the actual vendor. So I will have vendors that will tell my clients, we can do this, this, and this in 30 days. And so I'm going to tell them, okay, I'm expecting this to perform like a sprint. It is going to immediately with a very little bit of waiting and build time.
Drive lates and they'll say yes. Odds are that's halfway true. Either. The onboarding's terrible. So one thing right now is like, everybody telling everybody they need to go with like AI Voice agents, right?
Oh, my gosh. I don't disagree. I've got three companies right now that like, are delaying training because they're installing that into their company right this minute. So I don't disagree that that's a cool option to look at. What I disagree with is like, we are literally from cold turkey.
We're going from three CSRs to everything's AI number one. We didn't position our market. We haven't thought this through. It is definitely something that can alleviate and it can. It can make it better.
Right. It can ease the burden. It can do a lot of great things. So don't get my words twisted here. You can do a lot of great things, but this idea that all of a sudden you're never going to have to have anybody answer the phone, send everybody home, you don't even need office anymore, right.
Is a little wild to me. Are we maybe headed that direction? I don't know. It's a good thought. Are we there today on whatever day of the week it is, I'm going to say no at this moment, as of this recording.
Yeah. I believe that we need to take a more traditional scheduled approach than a all or nothing approach. So I've seen that be horrible. The onboarding be bad, the customer experience be bad, which, you know, pisses me off. Now I'm like, now we're just.
We're pissing people off. I mean, people call a service company for service and we forget that. So here's another little side. I'm gonna. Let me deviate for one second.
I promise I'll come back. Yeah, yeah. No, you're good. That are touting these conversations all over the map. It's totally fine.
Well, those of you that are touting how cool it is that you're booked three weeks out, I'm like, that's really not a flex. Maybe it's a flex that your marketing's working. But let me tell you, what it's doing is pissing off customers. Because odds are not. You're.
I can see it. No, no, no. They want me. They're willing to wait only until somebody else scoops in and vultures that thing and they'll scoop it right out from underneath you. So remember, I go into new markets and get to where you are after five years in 14 months.
Because I have the people, the systems and the branding in place to serve, you know, who wins games on the weekends and at night, whoever will show up. So you know what? When you're telling me, I do not know why I can't grow, but my technicians get off every day at three. So let me tell you what I'm going to do. All it takes is one company opening in your market that says, now working five to seven with no overtime charges.
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. One of the reasons when I was in the field last, the last company I was with, when I was still a rep, we were 24 7. Legitimately. 24 7.
I mean, I started a sales appointment at 1am One time right after being out all day. You know, it's insane to me. I work with so many companies. Like, oh, we don't run any sales appointments after five or on the weekends. And we only run service until this.
And we don't do week. And I'm like, are you kidding me? They're like, well, I don't know. Our guys just didn't really want to work that hard. I'm like, so you clearly don't want to grow your company.
There's A really, really good friend of mine, a guy named Christian, he's at a company in San Antonio right now. They will do a same. It's their HVAC company. They'll do a same day install as long as it's booked before 6pm that day. If it's 5:55 and you sign my contract, I can have a crew here in less than 90 minutes to do your new install.
How much do you think that is? Like that guy that's two or three weeks out. We're grabbing it, I'm stealing it left and right. Well, and I'll say, I'll say this too. There is, there is an internal strategy.
Y' all are gonna get sick of me saying that I need to get that tattooed right here. So this is what I gotta do. I gotta figure out how to incentivize my team to be able to work those kinds of hours. And so I also have to give them a little bit of balance. So hey, I work two late days a week.
Like I work till 10 o' clock two days a week, but then I'm off the next whole entire weekend. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I'm off three days. There are ways to not burn out a team to still offer full long service plans. It just takes a strategy. Strategy, yes.
You just rotate them and say guaranteed same day install. I've ordered by 6pm Friends. We're stealing market share. Yeah. Oh, 100%.
100%. We're stealing market share. And it's not that you have to go that direction. Do not become a follower like that. But what you have to do is you need to think about it right now.
What's missing in your market. You need to save people time or money, one of the two. So what is it going to be? Because that's what people base their decisions on. And even saving them money doesn't have to be tangible dollars.
It can be lower interest rates, it can be shorter pay terms. It can be, doesn't have to be price point, you know, so. Exactly. Yeah. That's such a big misconception.
It's not always the discount that wins the deal. And I especially being more on the sales training side, this is the conversation I have all day long every day. It's like we don't have to discount to win the business. Is there a time and a place for a promotion? Yes.
Discounting for the sake of having a lower price? Absolutely not. There's so many things we can do to add value that people will 100% grab onto other than, well, the Price is just cheaper. And it's like, how do we marry all of this together into one concept of this? Saving time, saving money.
It's the convenience. It's, we're here for you when you need us. All of these things, and this is just such a good conversation. My brain's kind of scattered on this, but no real point there. It's just commentary.
Yeah, well, and here's the deal, too. You want to be this approachable, fun company, and then you're like, hey, you know, by the way, we can't install for three weeks. So you're like, like, I don't know about you again. Maybe it's my Texan coming out. Like, who the heck can wait three weeks to get an air conditioner?
Not me. I'm way too precious. Yeah, that just tells me, you know, my business Operation Brain goes, well, you guys just suck at hiring and training. Yeah. But they'll be like, we're booked out six weeks.
And I'm like, yeah, I would not. I would be petrified. If I was your marketer, I would be like, please fix that. You know, so it's not a place. So I'll go back to your first question.
Yeah, no, go ahead, go ahead. Well, so, like, AI Answering service, I think, is a cool thing. I think it kind of bamboozled a few people at the beginning because we just went all in and now we're kind of back to the middle. But honestly, I think any new software, any new tactic, any new idea that's out there, jumping into it feet first is not a bad idea most of the time. But you better have your.
Your doctor because you're gonna have to clean up some stuff because odds are the company launched the best product that they had. But there's still going to be things that affect your company specifically, you know, going with the. The highest and best CRM or launching. Launching Marketing Pro. Great idea.
You ask me, I think it's a great idea, but odds are I need to look at your service titan first. Because if your service titan is full of junk, Marketing Pro is going to frustrate you to no end. Yep. This is one of the things we do is we will look through people's P. Ls and this is one of.
That's one of the biggest things we cut for people immediately. It's like, this is awesome when you're ready, but if you're not, it's complete. It's a complete and total waste. There's plenty of other, you know, services and companies, you know, digital follow up companies or, you know, all these things. But if we're not optimizing and ready for it, it's only a drain on the company.
Yeah. And listen, we've got like, I mean, you can work with Chirp, you could work, work with a company called OnePath. You could work with Set Sale for your selling. You could do Marketing Pro. You could do, you know, house Call Pro.
I mean, there is a lot of cool options. But again, y' all know what I'm going to come back to. What the heck is our strategy? Strategy? Yeah.
Getting where we want to be. And sometimes it's an operational strategy. I would love for a contractor to say to me, hey, I operationally, this is my plan. I want to know where our marketing strategy helps me accomplish my operational strategy. Y', all, that is like music to my ears.
Yes. But a lot of times people are like, hey, everything sucks. It's a marketing problem. Marketing gets none of the accolades, but all the blame. Yeah, no doubt, right?
So no one goes, hey, we're killing it with marketing. What they say is, my team is killing it. Right? I hear the same thing. They're like, oh man, this is, it's all, it's all the leads.
It's all the leads. And you know, I step one site and we sell 80% close rate at insane margins. And they're. I'm like, it's not the leads, guys. You don't, you change marketing company four times and they're still the same.
You just don't know how to convert them. You don't know how to, how to do anything with it. I need to say this too. Another thing that'll piss some people off. So forgive me.
No, I'm a good person when I say this. Some of you, it is, it is not them, it is you. Okay? It is you. You as a contractor owner, either you're over controlling or you don't have a good understanding of performance or you are too add to sit in something and let it work.
So you bring on a digital vendor in three months, it doesn't work. You're offloading, you're onboarding a new one. You didn't like their strategy, you're offboarding, you're added a new one. So you added another. You added GBP on top of that from this company and before you know it, you don't own anything.
The language is a mess. You're in and out of contracts and I just have to look at it like, what is this? This is an old mess. Because we won't just Be still for a minute and let us work things out. I rarely, and I'll say rarely, because I do run across it.
Run across a digital vendor that I'm like, alert, abort ship, jump ship, move around. We've been hitting one lately. Can I do a yes. And on that real quick? And I want to.
You can totally add to this for everybody out there. If your web, your digital company that does your website wants to build on, go high 100%, run from that. Because it's so limited in what the capabilities are. Are there some uses for that? Yeah, but if that's their main thing, man, that means they've got a lot to learn.
So I'd love to hear your perspective on that. But that's what we're running into. And it's amazing. Odds are it's not robust enough for you either. And another thing, like, I have some of my contractors that are working with a local.
A digital vendor, meaning, like local to them. So this particular digital company, let's say they work for all different types of industries. Odds are they're not going to be nailing the strategy that you need for home services. And most of you just have a personal connection to that vendor. And so you have to decide, like, do I want performance optimal, maximized performance, or do I care about this personal relationship that's performing well.
And we want to push feedback to them. So Lemon Seed comes in. Now, listen, when we come in, Sam, it's not exactly like your vendors are like, oh, thank God. They're nor they're. Normally it ruffles feathers because they're like, who are these people?
Yeah, but we tell them, listen, our goal is unification. It is not divorce. Okay? We want to keep us all together, but to keep your spot on our team, you gotta do your part and you have to communicate with us and you have to pivot. And we have to see that you are thinking for my client.
So your role is digital. So think digitally, come to us and say, did you see the new update for gvp? Did you see the new update for Apple Maps? Did you see the new update for how we need to be doing aeo? If I've got to bring it all to you, then we have a problem.
I could be the digital vendor and that's not my role. So play your position and we'll have a whole baseball team that's killing it for us, offense and defense. But they don't love that because all of a sudden now we're going to hold them accountable. And we also see through Vanity metrics decently. I mean, don't get me wrong, but, you know, we're not necessarily digital experts of doing it, but we know what it should look like.
Oh, this is so good. This is so good. So I had a question. So one more thing. And then one.
So one more question. But the one thing that this podcast is known for, and thanks for being so, I'm just made of questions today. One thing this episode, this podcast is known for, is giving people actionable items they can implement immediately out of every episode. And so be thinking of that while I ask you this other question as something that you can give people to just start with right away and run with. But the question is, I brought on a new plumbing contractor just the other day a couple weeks ago, and he was asking me.
He ended up. It was one of the ones that we found that they had an awful experience with their digital marketing company and were overpaying by four or five times what they should be for what they were getting, et cetera, et cetera. It's awful. So they broke up. So we're recommending some new solutions for them.
But his question was around this. How important is it? And you kind of already touched on this. But when it comes to a digital marketing company, you know, the website, all of that, how important is it to go with somebody local versus or does that even matter? My answer to him was, you know, honestly, it shouldn't really matter because if a company is worth their salt, they've got a few tools.
All they have to. Cause his concern was, well, the company somewhere else know my market. And I said, well, first of all, your market's not unique. There's markets just like yours all over the country. I know it feels like it because you're there, but you're not.
The second piece of that is any good company has a handful of tools. All they have to do is hit go, and it's going to instantly do a market survey and know exactly what's performing in your market or not. And so that was my answer to him. But I'd love to hear your perspective on that question. This feels bad, but I prefer so.
You're right. Good marketing is good marketing. And if they understand marketing in general, they'll do fine. Not what you guys do, actual the 1. Website builders and those types of things.
No, no. Yeah, yeah. Website builders for sure. SEO, that type of thing. Yeah.
So here's the deal. Like, I love you contractors, but like, your little town in East Texas is the same rural town in Virginia, in Tennessee. And Florida, it's the same little rural town. Yep. If it's a city, it's a city.
If it's a town, it's a town. And if you're going to preach hyper local to me, hyper local meaning literally you care about your specific market, then I would expect that you have a very robust boots on the ground strategy. If you care that much about how unique your community is, you would have a very robust approach to community marketing, street style marketing. But the reason that I advocate for home service focused agencies is exposure. Okay.
So to that same point, if, and I'll use, there's a couple of good ones, but you know, whomever let's use top serve, like Jonathan Bannister. Right. Okay. They're, they are, they know the traits so they're going to be able to go, man, this strategy at this budget worked really good for this small market in Tennessee. Hey, other clients, small market, East Texas, what we.
You're literally have all of these case studies that are really performing. So just the exposure to what's working in other places with other budgets, with other brands gives you such a niche vision for what's working and then you can hone your skill. So if I'm a multi sport athlete. Right. I only have so many hours in the day to be a good swimmer, golfer, baseball player, track runner, football player.
Right. So eventually I started really excelling at one of those because I only have so much time. So same thing here. If I'm a very robust agency without a dedicated team. So I'll take a look.
If I. If you're a local agency that has a dedicated home service team, that's a different story. But odds are they're doing a hospital, a tobacco shop, your HVAC company, a pet store, you know, so there's no, there's nothing cultivating their growth. They only have your account to look at. That's why I advocate for home service based companies, if that makes sense.
It does, yeah, that makes total sense. I appreciate that. And it's such a good perspective too. And you're right, that's why. Well, I mean, just like any specialist, you know, people specialize in things for a reason because they get good at it, not because that's all they.
Well, I mean it might start because that's what they like and want to do, but because of that, that's where the hyper focus goes. And so they get really freaking good at that thing. If they're the ones that are constantly growing and innovating and pivoting to the new. Yeah, I love it. So let's get to the what can people do immediately question and then I 100% want to give everyone an opportunity to get your contact information and how to get a hold of you if they'd like to have the conversation around the marketing for their companies.
What does that look like? And do an audit and see how you could potentially help them. Absolutely. So I think what you could do immediately, I have two things. Number one, just, I said it earlier, just start posting on social media.
It immediately starts getting you some attention and some spark or assign somebody on your team, listen, you have a CSR that is pretty active. Spiff them and let them see, give them space to go create and see if you don't just get some traction. So that's one. The other one is Google Business profile. I think people miss this.
Before you get into gbp, can you give us a little direction on social media? Because I see some things that are absolutely, I say would be a detriment versus being good, good for posting. So the easiest place to start with is your own team, your own building, your own truck. So if literally in the morning you post a picture of. Here's our CSR getting ready to take calls today.
This is Susie, she's the voice behind the phone. Then the next day it is, you know, Jonathan and Juan are headed out, standing there, literally it's a 10 second video of them putting ductwork in the back of their truck, right? And they stuck the vans and they get in, they drive off like, you know, Jonathan and Juan are so excited to be meeting out today, headed out to do another great install. Or it's the sunrise over your warehouse or over your building, it's your vehicles, two of them parked in a row, right? So just if you focused on your people, your building and your trucks and do little videos around your warehouse, around your office, even if it's not perfect, perfect is not number one.
Perfection is procrastination in disguise. Yes. Okay, stop waiting to be perfect. So what you need to do is real authentic content from you, from your actual physical geolocation is golden. Another thing is post reviews.
So if someone says Jim was a fantastic technician, which I know that Google's coming out right now and saying like don't mention people's names, but whatever. Or if you know it was Jim that went and got this great review, put a picture of Jim that you took alongside the review and posted to your social media, let Jim read the review, you know, spot on. Pest control came out and was able to immediately solve my Problem. So glad I chose them. And then have them like thumbs up.
The camera, be like, thanks, I was there. This was me. Yeah, that was me. It's so heartwarming and engaging versus a graphic that says open 24 7. So if you can just think very simply like that not don't over complicate it.
You don't have to do all these really cool TikTok trends and, and transitions and professional video people. Just start with natural content. You do a weekly meeting with your guys and you feed them donuts, take a picture of them standing behind the donut box and upload. Like there's just things, a lot of things that you can do there and it builds brand and it's just kicks up dust a little bit about around who you are. I like it.
I like it. Something I just thought it's totally random thought. But you know, when you guys do safety checks on their vehicles, have a take a picture of them, you know, testing the air pressure in the tires, checking the oil, those kind of things. Hey, we care about your safety. We're going to make sure our vans aren't going to drip oil in your driveway.
Well, and it also shows potential other technicians that you care about the vehicles that they're driving because they could be driving around in a janky. That's why. Big recruiting tool. Yeah. Somebody cleans their van out.
Let's get a picture of the inside of the van being nice and clean. Ooh, hey. And stocked. And they're like, they get to drive a van that has all Milwaukee tools inside of it. I'm jealous of that.
Yep. Right. I'm telling you, it secretly lurks as a recruitment tool 100%. Okay, now you can get to GBP. Yeah, GBP is my other one.
Yeah. No, no. I think it's so important people have that direction though, because otherwise they, if they don't know where to go, anywhere will get them there and then it's usually straight into a brick wall and then they'll stop doing it. It. Yes.
So along this same vein, you need to be posting to your Google business profile at a minimum weekly a before and after a technician spotlight. Oh, this is good. This is good for me. It's basically a free billboard on Google's homepage for you. Right.
And when you have activity, it's signals to Google relevance. And relevance is like, oh, more people care about this. So it's not set it and forget it. It's very much a robust opportunity. GVP is included in Lemon seed social media packages for this Reason we will take good content.
Maybe we're going to take a picture and make a post about it in a different way but then we'll just upload that picture to your GBP. Also make sure that it's filled out. The FAQs are filled out, your phone number is there and matching. If you have online quoting and booking, it's. It's set up and it's correct and it's tracking over into whatever CRM your own and then making sure that if there is a chat or form fill option that your team has a speed to lead mentality where they know.
Tell your team I pay a lot for these leads so please prioritize. Checking our inbox or checking your emails four hours later is what listen, you have four seconds. So we need a speed to lead there. So to recap, two things I would do simple posting on social media three or four times a week. Game changer.
Taking those same photos, same concept to go. Really make sure that your profile is really filled out. You're actively updating it very consistently and it is correct and you're getting reviews. Game changer. Love it.
One piece that I would love to add real quick into the social media. What Crystal did not say is every single time you post on social media having a right now systems are $1,500 off right now. This discount right now, right now, right now, right now. Don't always just have a promo of some sort of thing. It's.
That's. If that's all they ever see, then they're. People check out. It's just white noise at that point. Yes, yes, absolutely.
It's social media, it's not advertising media. Yeah. All right, so I love it. So how can people get a hold of you? Yeah, so you can email me.
com and fill out the contact us form. It actually allows you to go ahead and book a time with Lupita. She's my marketing girl. She'll meet with you, kind of give you the overview of it and then she and I together build your plan and present it to you. Okay.
So she comes on, just gathers lots of data information because again we need to. Before I can build a plan for you, we need to meet with you. So beautiful. It's completely complimentary. We do not charge anything and we're a soft sale on the side of here's what we offer.
Whether a good fit or not. com Find me on social media. But we put, I put out my own podcast that you're going to be on pretty soon. From the Yellow Hair is a podcast where I talk about this stuff all day long. We do monthly webinars and social media lives and newsletters because listen, I love to give content and when contractors are ready to grow and hit the gas, they'll call us.
And so we would love to be considered for either helping you refresh the brand of your company or strategy or both. We would love to visit and if you mention close it now in your onboarding form, I will take $250 off your onboarding. Oh, thank you. Hey, I didn't even know that Crystal was going to offer that for everybody in the community. We'll make sure to, I'll make sure to get that in the liner notes, in the show notes for everybody paying attention.
So check into that and yeah, that's a huge discount. Appreciate that. Absolutely excited to do it. Awesome. Well, thanks for being on today.
This has been really enlightening and I've really enjoyed this conversation for everybody listening. This is such a sales focused podcast most of the time and one of the reasons I love having marketers on is in order to be good at sales, everybody, you have to think like a marketer. It's all about positioning, it's framing. You've heard me say over and over, it's never the thing, it's how you frame the thing. People need to know why something is important or they need to know why.
It's the why behind everything. So that's the strategy is why are we doing this? Why are we doing that? How do these threads tie together? So it's just in the same way that we do that with ourselves, every bit of it carries over and it's the same concepts and principles in the marketing philosophy for your company.
Because at the end of the day, realistically, marketing is just sales for your company. Sales is just marketing for your product, if you think about it like that. And it's very, very, very similar. So the functionality is the same. The way that we approach it is the same.
And so I really want you all to view what you do through both of those lenses. And the more that you can tie those together, the better. All of the things that you do will improve. So that's my little wrap up bow, Emotional BO on the end of the of our podcast. I love it.
Thank you for letting me be here. Absolutely so for everybody listening. Also, I will make sure to announce when the episode will release when I'm on Crystal's podcast from the Yellow Chair. I'm really excited about that. And until next time, everybody, you know how we do this.
Go be someone worth buying from. You've been listening to the Close it now podcast. Our passion is to dive headfirst into the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of HVAC and home improvement, and at the same time, covering fitness, nutrition, relationships and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all. We hope you've enjoyed the show. If you did, make sure to, like, rate and review.
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