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June 17, 2024 51 mins
Brian Brady, Pres. of Integrated Digital Solutions & owner of WSI Digital Marketing in Vienna, WV talks about how he helps clients outmarket their competition.

Brian has worked for the Treasury Dept, in the hotel industry, and was a 35-year Navy Reservist retiring at the rank of Captain. He earned 14 decorations and served in 3 deployments to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

WSI is a leading provider of marketing consulting services focused on increasing leads and top line sales performance.

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(00:00):
The topics and opinions express in thefollowing show are solely those of the hosts
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(00:21):
FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, thosewho failed to learn from history are condemned
to repeat it. Kevin helen nbelieves that certainly applies to business. Welcome
to Winning Business Radio here at Wfour CY Radio. That's W fourcy dot

(00:45):
com and now your host, KevinHelena, Thanks for joining in today again.
Everybody. I am Kevin Haleanan andwelcome back to another episode of Winning
Business TV and Radio on W fourc why dot com. We're streaming live
on talkfortv dot com, and ofcourse we're on Facebook and that's at Winning

(01:07):
Business Radio. Of course, we'realso available in podcasts after the live show
on as many platforms as you canname. YouTube iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple,
pretty much wherever you listen to yourfavorite podcasts, we're there. The
mission of Winning Business radio and TV, as regular viewers and listeners know,
is to offer insights and advice,to help people avoid the mistakes of others,

(01:30):
right to learn best practices. That'sthe how tos, the what tos,
the what not tos, and tobe challenged and certainly and hopefully to
be inspired by the successes of others. But you know, virtually every successful
person that I've ever talked to hassaid some form of failure in their lives
and careers. Listen, I sayit every week. We all have to
get our knees skinned once in awhile. I'm just driven to keep those

(01:53):
scrapes from needing major surgery. Let'sendeavor to learn from history so we don't
repeat it today. My guest isBrian Bray, president of Integrated Digital Solutions,
Incorporated and owner of WSI Digital Marketingin Vienna, West Virginia. Here's
his bile. Prior to starting WSIin July twenty three, excuse me,
Brian worked for the Department of TreasuryBureau of Fiscal Service in Parksburg Parkersburg,

(02:17):
West Virginia from twenty two to twentythree, where he managed the technical staff
of database administrators from two thousand,excuse me. From nineteen eighty nine to
two thousand and two, Brian workedfor Crown American Hotels Company in Johnstown,
PA, in a wide range ofhotel development and operational positions. From ninety
nine to two, he was thecompany's Information Systems Director. In February of

(02:40):
twenty three, Brian retired from theUS Navy Reserves at the rank of Captain
six after serving for thirty five years. He's earned fourteen personal decorations throughout his
career and served in three deployments inKuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Currently,
Brian is a WSI Digital Marketing consultant. WAI is a leading provider of

(03:00):
sales and marketing consulting services focused onincreasing leads and top line sales performance.
He's at his best when helping businessowners and executives understand how to take advantage
of social media technologies to support theirbusiness objective objectives. His ideal clients are
those that know they need to engagein social media, but struggle to see

(03:23):
how to use it in their business. He's a graduate of penn State University
and holds a Master's of Business administI can talk business administration from Bristol University,
Bristol, Tennessee. Brian and hiswife Tammy are natives of Johnstown,
Pennsylvania. They have one son,Brian Junior, who's married, and they
have three children, McKenna age nine, Carter aged six, and Brooklyn age

(03:45):
four. When he's not saving theworld from bad guys or was or countless
clients from the perils of poor digitalmarketing, he likes to golf, spend
time on the beach and at theircottage in Bedford County, PA. Brian
also plays guitar, loves to explorehis family history using ancestry dot Com,
and, of course, like me, spending time with his grandkids. Brian,
Welcome to Winning Business Radio TV.Thanks for being here. Thank you,

(04:09):
Kevin. It's a pleasure to behere. Oh I'm glad. I'm
looking forward to this. So Iwant to get you know, I like
to ask every guest for a littlebit of background. Where did you grow
up? I grew up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Okay, so tell us
about that town, how big,how small? Kind of what that kind
of give us give us a flavorof the upbringing in that town. Yeah.

(04:30):
So, Johnstown, Pennsylvania is aboutseventy miles east of Pittsburgh, so
western Pennsylvania and the beautiful Laurel Highlands. Johnstown was a steel town, so
it was thriving in steel industry fromthe late eighteen hundreds on up to the
mid nineteen seventies. Probably our biggestclaim to fame is the Great Johnstown Flood

(04:55):
of eighteen eighty nine. Yeah.That was a devastating flood that was caused
by a dam that failed. Andthat dam also happened to be a resort
area for many of the steel andindustrial tycoons from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So

(05:15):
they built this beautiful resort on thisbeautiful lake, and without you know,
being too controversial, they just didn'tquite maintain it the way they should have
and the dam failed and I wipedout the town of Johnstown. Now,
yeah, yeah, it's pretty famous, it is. Yeah. There were
two subsequent floods, nineteen thirty sixand nineteen seventy seven, And I grew

(05:36):
up in the downtown area of Johnstown, and so I survived or lived through
the seventy seven flood. Wow.A lot of businesses affected, homes affected.
Yeah, in seventy seven, Iwant to say there were a couple
hundred people unfortunately, that were killedin that flood due to different you know,

(05:57):
all sorts of different reasons. Reallywas the last nail in the coffin
of the steel industry instown. Andthen you know, probably for a lot
of small towns in that same timeframe, that was about when the growth
of suburban shopping malls started to becomevery strong. And you know, our

(06:19):
little downtown area with our two departmentstores and many other boutique you know,
shoe stores and clothing stores just youknow, virtually died. Yeah, yeah,
I could see that. So whatwere your early interests like as a
young guy? Uh, you know, when I was a kid, I

(06:41):
mean, you get again, like, you know, growing up in those
days was just so kind of carefree, you know, just getting out
on your bike and riding with yourbuddies, and you know, my dad
would whistle on the front porch whenit was time to come home for dinner.
You know, we knew it wastime to get home, and my
mother had a bell yep. Yeah. Yeah, So those types of things
just being a kid, you know, played played a little bit of baseball

(07:02):
when I was a kid, andbut mostly just kind of running around with
my buddies and hanging out, youknow, on our bikes and things like
that. So that was his job. Yeah, yeah, where did you
develop the affinity towards accounting? Well, let's see, So I when I

(07:23):
I went to Penn State, Istart my my my original goal was to
go to law school, and Ithought, probably like a lot of lost
law students do, like the themost complimentary undergraduate degree for law school was
political science. Well, I tookmy first political science course, and I

(07:46):
can't remember if I didn't like theinstructor or if I just didn't like the
topic, And maybe it was theinstructor that just didn't make the topic great.
And I changed my major, likeimmediately dropped that political science class,
and I chose I wanted to youknow, I chose like a business degree.
I guess maybe with the still withaspiration of law school, probably advised

(08:07):
in an accounting degree is also acomplimentary degree for you know, for law
school. So I chose I choseaccounting as ash. Yeah, and that
was probably like my freshman year ofcollege. I got it. Yeah,
all right, we're going to backup a little or maybe it's in that
timeframe. Maybe maybe it's not tellus about your wife Tammy. Uh,

(08:31):
yeah, it's a little bit afterthat. So Tammy and I met in
Johnstown. Uh. We were workingat a restaurant, just a mom and
pop owned restaurant. She was awaitress there and I had a little part
time job tending bar. And itwas a really it was one of the
better restaurants in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.It was a seafood restaurant, if you
can believe it or not. ButI'll tell you what. If you ever

(08:54):
talked to anybody that had a crabcake at Serpent Turfy in Johnstown, Pennsylvania,
they will tell you that it isprobably one of the best crab cakes
they ever had. The chef slashowner just had a fantastic knack for preparing,
you know, all sorts of goodseatfood and things like that. He
used to go to Pittsburgh to awholesale fish market to pick up his seafood.

(09:18):
So we met there. We metthere. I'm glad she's not here
because it was probably around like nineteeneighty six, I think somewhere in that
time frame, so after I graduatedfrom Penn State. Cool. Yeah,
And so tell us about Brian andhis family. So, my son is
thirty two three years old, thirtythree years old, his wife Kayla.

(09:43):
He and his wife Kayla have threechildren. They live in They live not
too far from us. We livein Vienna, West Virginia. They live
in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He'sa general manager at a Harty's restaurant in
Parkersburg, West Virginia. It's likeone of the few parties in this area
that's open twenty four to seven,so it's a pretty high volume place and

(10:05):
he's the general manager there. Hestarted at Hardy's. He's worked his way
from the ground floor literally up togeneral manager. Very cool with that,
with the organization that operates those restaurants. And the three kids, you know,
nine they're all two. They're twoyears apart. So right now they're
nine, six and four, butby August they'll be nine, seven and

(10:26):
five. And yeah, they're justa lot of fun. The half of
ground So kidding, I'm with youthere. We have two so far.
So yeah, yeah, all right, let's take a look at some of
your previous positions. Crown American Hotels. You were there for quite a while,
You've had various roles, and yeah, the reason I want to take

(10:46):
you there is just to see howpeople just show people how you kind of
progress, what your background is.You know, we'll talk about treasury,
we'll talk about the Navy a bit, and then we'll certainly dig into what
you do now, but talk aboutthat first couple of role as the internal
auditor to the GM of the hotel. Yeah, so I'll go back even
a little bit further than that,if you don't mind. Kevin my first

(11:09):
well, you know, I guessthe other thing. As a kid,
I always had paper route, youknow, so I probably probably started working
when I was like, you know, ten to eleven, twelve years old,
having a paper route. But onmy sixteenth birthday, and that was
you know what happened. I wassupposed to go to with my high school

(11:30):
buddies. We were supposed to goto like a lake and have fun and
goof off at a lake. Butlike I got stood up. My friends
never picked me up. But thatday, it was my sixteenth birthday,
and that didn't happen often. Thatwas just yeah, yeah, on my
sixteenth birthday, I got a callfrom the hotel, one of the hotels
that Crown American owned, and it'slike a block and a half from my

(11:52):
house. I applied for a busboy position and I got hired on my
sixteenth birthday, and so a companythat owned the Crown American owned and operated
at that time, it was aSheraton Inn in Johnson, and I just
loved it, you know, Imean, I it was my first real
paid job. It was at agreat hotel. I got to learn so

(12:13):
much and work with so many greatpeople and worked for so many great managed
you know, hotel managers that arejust really customer service oriented and really like
just cut my teeth in the inthe hospitality industry there. So, you
know, all through high school thenbus boy. I think one summer I
worked in the kitchen because I hadlike a fascination with food. That's the

(12:35):
other, you know story. Likeat one point I really wanted to go
to culinary school because of the experiencesI was gaining at the hotel, But
I only wanted to go to oneCulinary Institute of America and that was like
two probably unaffordable, very expensive,So I never pursued my culinary education.

(12:56):
But so worked there through high school, probably came back and worked summers through
college, and then sure enough,in nineteen eighty nine, I guess well,
actually I started working there, probablyin like also about the time I
met my wife. Eighty seven,I was a night auditor at the hotel.

(13:20):
So if anybody knows about the hotel, night audit is eleven to eleven
PM to seven am. And thepurpose of the night auditor of position is
basically just to reconcile the books fromall the day's business activity. And then
in our case, we reported toour corporate office, Crown American, which
was also located right there in Johnstown. So night auditor at the hotel.

(13:43):
And then in nineteen eighty nine,after I came home from boot camp and
I guess you know, we'll couldget to that in a few minutes,
I was hired as an internal auditor, so internal audit for the type of
position I was doing, or ourdepartment, we were more i'll call it
operational auditing. So Crown American alsooperated many shopping centers throughout the mid Atlantic,

(14:09):
and so we would a lot oftimes we would go to the corporate
offices of some of the major retailersto to audit their sales activity that they
were reporting to us, because there'sa you know, percentage rent category,
so there's a base rent and thenfor x amount of dollars over sale a

(14:31):
sales threshold, there's a percentage rent. So we would audit their sales reporting.
Uh. We also went out tothe hotels and did operational audits.
We would do cash counts. Uh. We would do inventory, you know,
end of the month inventory with thefood and beverage staff, you know,
counting food account eggs, counting youknow, you know, the on

(14:54):
the beverage side, you know,verifying the liquor you know, you know,
beer, wine and liquor sales throughmonthly inventory and Okay. So also
at that time, really throughout alot of my years at Crown American,
we were going through a lot ofgrowth and acquisition and we were building hotels

(15:18):
and I one of my jobs alsoas internal auditor, because I had the
hotel experience, is I would goout to our new hotels and train them
to our procedures, to our processesand especially especially like our night auditing and
reporting procedures. UH. And Ireally loved that operational environment being out in

(15:41):
the hotels, and I mean therewere I mean there were times. There
were a couple of occasions where wewere getting ready to open the hotel,
you know, the hotels opening wascoming and some of the rooms weren't ready
and we were like it was allhands on deck, were out there cleaning
rooms and getting rooms ready to rentand everything, and I just I just
loved that environment. So it waskind of natural for me to want to

(16:07):
and then apply and then be selectedto go out and manage a hotel,
which in this case it was inOakridge, Tennessee. Very cool. So
before we go to break, lastquestion before break, what's your key takeaway
from working for them? Uh?Again, I learned so much about good
customer service. Being at the hotelin Tennessee, far away from the corporate

(16:33):
office. I had a lot ofautonomy to operate the hotel, almost as
if it were my own. Ihad we had a you know, I
mean, I had sales goals andbudget goals and bottom line goals. As
you can imagine. Sure, Iwas out in the community, you know,
a lot, doing a lot ofnetworking, and I really, I
think the one thing that really instilledin me working at the managing that hotel

(16:59):
was like like a desire to somedayown my own business. Yeah, that's
cool you. I was going tocomment on that, but I wanted to
let you go. Yeah, whenyou have that autonomy, it does give
you that mindset. Yeah for sure, Yeah, it did for sure.
All right, thanks, We're goingto be right back Brian in one minute.
Everybody will be back with Brian Brady. He is, uh, where's

(17:25):
the I thought I had a tetup there. A president of Integrated Digital
Solutions and owner of WSI Digital Marketingin Vienna, West Virginia. Be right
back right. You're listening to WinningBusiness Radio with Kevin Helene on W four
CY Radio. That's W four cydot com. Don't go away. More

(17:47):
helpful information is coming right up righthere on Winning Business Radio. Have you
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(18:12):
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now and now back to Winning BusinessRadio with Kevin helenan presenting exciting topics and

(18:32):
expert guests with one goal in mindto help you succeed in business. Here
once again is Kevin Helena. Allright, we're back with Brian Brady,
President of Integrated Digital Solutions and ownerof WSI Digital Marketing. All right,

(18:53):
so now move over. How didyou get the job? And tell us
about working for Treasury Bureau of FiscalSo everyone tell us about the Bureau.
Well, I got to Can Ifinish my career at Crown America? I
beg your pardon? Yes, wedid a little bit of them ahead of
myself. Yep, yeah, no, no, no problem. So again
my you know, right after wegot so, I had the job in

(19:14):
Oakridge, Tennessee, the same yearwe got married. So we got married
and we lived in Tennessee and itwas like a great two and a half
years. We lived there for twoand a half years, just loved it.
Really great part of the country,really interesting town. Oakridge, Tennessee
was one of the three sites ofin the Manhattan Project, So really interesting.
Yeah, that's right, huh Oakridge, Tennessee. So but my we

(19:40):
you know, we became pregnant,like in nineteen ninety two, my wife
became pregnant, became expecting, andthere was an opportunity to take a position
back at the corporate office in backin Johnstown, and that, of course
was a great opportunity to return toour families, with our you know,
when our son was going to beborn, and so you know, live

(20:00):
among our friends and family. Sowe moved back to Johnstown and then stayed
there from ninety two until when weleft in two thousand and two, for
about ten years. And so whathappened there was so first of all,
the patriarch of the company, chronAmerican, passed away. Suddenly he had

(20:23):
his son was a primary, youknow, second in command. He had
a daughter that was also involved inthe business. The daughter wasn't never really
involved in a lot of the operations, but the son very heavily involved.
However, then let's see, inthe late nineties, I guess they started

(20:44):
to tell off some of the shoppingmalls. September eleventh comes along, tourism
industry goes down the tubes hotel.The writing's kind of on the wall that
the hotel side of the company isprobably not going to survive either last or
just an interest in not. Imean when I left, we had twenty
seven hotels, and I don't thinkhe really wanted he the owner, the

(21:08):
son that the owner's son really wantedto have that hands on kind of involvement.
So I had an opportunity to moveto West Virginia come to work for
the Department of Treasury. At thetime, it was called Bureau of Public
Debt. So if you ever boughta savings bond, I don't know a
lot of people in your audience knowwhat a savings bond is anymore, but

(21:29):
if you ever bought a savings bond, were those are? Those were issued
issue thank you through the Bureau ofPublic Debt. Through the Bureau of Public
Debt. So, and then aboutprobably ten years ago or so, Public

(21:49):
Debt merged with the Financial Management Service, So if you ever got a check
from the federal government, it saidFinancial Management Service on it, and those
two bureaus merged to become the Bureauof Fiscal Service. Their mission so the
mission of the Bureau of Fiscal Serviceis primarily all federal payment activity, all
federal debt collection activity, and whena lot of people don't even know.

(22:11):
I was talking to somebody last weekright here in Parkersburg. Didn't even realize.
You know, all the Treasury auctionsfor the industrial you know, commercial
industrial securities, personal securities, allthat happens here in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
So the T Bill, the Tbill auctions, the Treasury auctions happened
a couple of times a week.Those are all run right here in Parkersburg,

(22:33):
West Virginia. I never really workedin that side of the of the
of the Bureau. I always workedin kind of the information system side.
And so my you mentioned, Imanaged the staff of database Administrators DBAs,
and we my staff supported you know, many of the applications that Bureau Fiscal

(22:56):
Service, and also other Treasury bureausand another non Treasury government organizations. We
supported applications really across a lot ofa lot of federal government do just out
of curiosity, do aid payments tocountries or NGOs, so they go through
there as well. Let's say,you know, Congress approves of aid package.
Is that is that what that goesfrom? I don't think so,

(23:18):
Kevin, I don't know for sure. That seems sounds to me like that
would go through Department of State.I think the US AID is a subordinate
in Department of State, but allother federal payments come through our bureau.
Now the payment payment Payment Management Serviceactually is located in Kansas City, but

(23:42):
again it's all part of Kansasity,Missouri, but it's all part of Bureau
Fiscal Service. Most recently and mostsignificantly during the pandemic in twenty twenty,
Remember there were a lot of likeaid checks going out to certain categories of
citizens. I can't remember if everybodygot a payment of some sort. Yeah,

(24:03):
everybody did it based on filmily,So all those all those payments came
through you know, we're we're youknow, organized and managed through the Bureau
Fiscal Service, whether they were physicalpaper checks or digital payments. I think
also we were putting payments on wewere mailing depit cards. Yeah, so

(24:23):
that was a little bit of thatwas high, a little bit of pressure.
You know, we ran all thaton We had a we have a
main We still have mainframe technology there, or had when I left a year
ago. So all that all ofthose that payment, those that software,
those applications were still kind of housedon our mainframe infrastructure. So is that

(24:48):
but is that intentional or is itlack of development or is it a security
measure or maybe it's a combination.Man that how much more time do we
have? You know, we don't. I just want to Yeah, I
want to get into the current stuff. So but yeah, a little bit
of all of the above. Youknow, there's a big initiative now to
get to kind of move everything offof that mainframe. So yeah, but

(25:11):
they're still in healthcare too. Iknow a company that there is a staffing
company and they sort of have themarket on this language on people consultants that
still use and some are younger thanI just you know, seven year old
guys. You know, some ofthem are younger and they just learned,
but that they're specialists to that industrythat are still you know, these big

(25:33):
mainframes. So yeah, yeah,one of my top mainframe guy, you
know, he was I mean hewas older, he's probably in his late
sixties, early seventies, and justkept on wanting to work. Loved his
mainframe and and he you know,maintains that mainframe is probably one of the
most secure infrastructures available, you know, and the process, you know,

(25:56):
the computing power and the computing capabilityand so forth is really a second to
none, but it cannot hurt.Yeah, all right, so kind of
a big question a long time mmhmmm. A couple of the best lessons
learned from that Treasury From Treasury,well, I was so I was a

(26:21):
manager. I managed a staff formost of my time there, and you
know, being in I mean,it's just really important to you know,
treat your staff like like people,you know too, I was I always
felt like I was, you know, a servant type of leadership style and

(26:45):
given I would always try to givemy employees as much as much autonomy again
as possible to operate and make decisionson their own, you know, within
our framework and our printers. Butthat was probably one of one of the
biggest lessons learned. Kevin is isjust kind of home and home in the
leadership side of you know, partof part of my background. So that's

(27:08):
a good segue to your Navy career. Uh, why did you join originally?
And why did you say so long? And I know, I'm guessing
you went from active duty for anumber of years now. No, you
went right into the reserves, rearreservists. Yeah, I joined the Navy
because my dad and his brother werein the Navy, and I joined it

(27:33):
as you know, as an opportunity. I thought it would just you know,
with you know, with the possibilityof opening some doors, right my
you know, I was my beforeI went to Crown American, Like,
I didn't have like great jobs aftercollege that I was, and so this
was just like an opportunity, likeI said, to kind of open up

(27:57):
another door in my life. Ienlisted in nineteen eighty eight. I went
to boot camp for the from likeSeptember until January of eighty eight into eighty
nine, and then through boot Afterboot camp, I just came right back
and was a reservist. Was inthe reserves in let me clarify that that's

(28:19):
January in Michigan. Yes, no, it's Illinois. It's close enough,
Okay, Great Lakes is in Illinois. It's right on Lake Michigan. And
yes, I was there until earlyJanuary. Yes, there were some awful,
cold, cold mornings, I bet, you know, forming up getting

(28:41):
ready to March of the Chao orwhatever. Yeah. Yeah, so thirty
five years. Yeah, why doyou stay? I mean, thank you,
by the way, we appreciate I'msure there were a ton of things
that the Navy did for you.Why did you choose to stay and uh,
you know, make that long careerout of it. It was a

(29:03):
great part time job. So youknow, from the day I joined,
from the day I enlisted, becauseI because I had already had a college
degree and a master's degree. Mygoal was to become you know, was
to get a commission, was tobecome an officer. So in nineteen ninety

(29:27):
six, I was selected for adirect commission in the Reserve Supply Corps.
So Supply Corp officers in the Navyare the logistics you know, and business
side of the Navy. And sothe Reserve Supply Corps has a very robust
direct commission opportunity meeting like literally candidatescould be could be chosen literally office,

(29:52):
I mean, with with no background, with no Navy experience whatever, to
be selected for a commission. Soso I selected for mission in ninety six,
and that kind of reset everything,right, so I already served for
eight years. That helped me tokeep that twenty year goal in focus,
you know, and I think bythe time I started to approach that twenty

(30:14):
years by by now by then Ihad been selected for uh promotion to lieutenant
commander four and I was talking to, you know, a colleague, a
mentor, and I think I probablysaid something like, as soon as I
make five, I'm doone. Andthis person said, I mean, why
stop there? Why not try tomake six, you know, or even

(30:37):
you know state, try to succeedas long as you can. So,
so that's what I did. Imean, I loved, I loved,
you know, once I went fromI mean, I love even when I
when I was enlisted, I lovedevery minute of it. I have absolutely
no regret of any moment ever thatI've done anything in the Navy reserves.
When I became an officer, that'san opportunity to again become a leader,

(31:02):
you know, maybe have a littlemore opportunity to do other things. And
I did in the Reserve Supply Corps, we did a lot of great things.
I was been around the world,you know, for different things,
different whether it's annual training, youknow, my two weeks or three weeks
of training, or deployments. I'vebeen around the world and I've never regretted

(31:26):
a minute of it. So andyeah, so then yeah, like you
can only stay like so at agesixty. Sixty is mandatory retirement and so
so I I punched out last year. Well again, thank you. We
appreciate it and that's part of whoyou are. All Right, we're going
to take a break right now,everybody. We'll be back with Brian Brady

(31:48):
of WSI in just about a minute. Right you're listening to Winning Business Radio
with Kevin Helene on W four CYRadio. That's W fourcy dot com.
Don't go away. More helpful informationis coming right up right here on Winning
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(32:14):
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(32:35):
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local, find local, and savelocal. And now back to Winning Business
Radio with Kevin helenan presenting exciting topicsand expert guests with one goal in mind
to help you succeed in business.Here once again is Kevin Helena. All

(33:05):
right, we're back with Brian Bradyof w SI Digital Marketing. So tell
us about that decision. I'm sureyou had thought about it before you left
the Navy, but I retired fromfrom deserves. What drove the decision to
join WS? I? Uh so, you know, I knew, I

(33:25):
knew I was you know, Ireally didn't have a choice as far as
retiring from the Reserves. I madea decision to retire from Treasury at the
same in the same year. Iguess at Treasury, I just kind of
hit a point where I wasn't reallygoing I wasn't really going to do much
more, go much further, andI just, you know, I mean,

(33:49):
I just sad made the decision toleave. I I but I I
really didn't want to stop, youknow, I always kind of joke,
you know, I didn't want towatch prices right for the rest of my
days. And I didn't really havethe resources to travel the world for the
rest of my days either, youknow, So I just wanted to do
something I met through a Navy Reservecolleague, a franchise consultant, and you

(34:17):
know, you know, just kindof entered into a relationship with him,
and that was probably about a yearprocess. I mean, I think I've
met him in April March or Aprilof twenty twenty two and made my decision
to purchase WSI in twenty twenty three. So WSI is a it's a franchise

(34:37):
or but WSI itself is a globaldigital marketing agency and they sell opportunities or
have opportunities for people like me,solo entrepreneurs or solopreneurs, I think is
a new term to own and operatetheir own business. And so I went
through a couple of different iterations withthe franchise consultant. The first couple of

(35:00):
positions, the first couple of opportunitieswe talked about, were kind of home
services types of businesses, but moretraditional franchises where you have like a geographic,
you know, area or a territorythat you're assigned to. And because

(35:20):
of where I live in West Virginia, it's not a very densely populated part
of the country, and so inorder to achieve the size and the demographics,
the territory that some of these othercompanies were looking for. I mean,
it was just a huge territory.It would have been involved like probably

(35:44):
like like a two hour radius fromwhere I live, all in all directions.
A lot of ground to cover inthose types of businesses. So we
kind of went back to the drawingboard and he presented me with a few
opportunities that were more along the linemillions of of like consulting. I think

(36:04):
I think my my short list wasthis was w s I and like an
IT services, even the IT services, you still had that territory and that
you know, a lot of groundto cover with w s I. You
know, my choice was either likea state franchise, a national franchise,

(36:25):
or a global and uh so Ichose a national so I can work with
anybody in the in the in theUnited States, and I don't have that
geographic restriction, you know, thatgeographic like I don't really need that concentration,
so I can work with anybody inthe in the country. So and
it was more of a you know, I could work from home. I

(36:46):
didn't really need or establish a homeoffice. I didn't really need a brick
and mortar and that was another oneof my criteria with purchase in a business.
I didn't really want brick and mortar. I know, I talked about
leadership a little bit ago, butI didn't really want employees initially, And
so ws I is just a greatfit and for the audience, WSI has

(37:07):
the engine, it's the back endin many franchises, it's here's how you
run the business. Now go forit, right. WSI is still a
partner with you guys. They havethat that whole I mean, they call
them suppliers that all the folks thathave the skills, the capabilities and are
often companies themselves, but are vettedand you know, under that umbrella of

(37:29):
relationship with ws I. So youhave a whole whole bench to pick from.
And it's it's really an awesome setupas I see it. You know,
I've known about ws I and workedwith ws I as a provider.
It's one of those suppliers. Salestraining, as you know, is what
I bring to the table there.But I've met some cool people. But
I really like the structure, theway they've the way they've set it up.

(37:51):
So let's talk about the work thatyou do. So digital marketing right,
tell the audience what the heck isit? I mean, I think
people generally know it's that Internet thing. No, it's I want you to
be a little more specific than yeah, it's digital market because some people really
don't know what that is. Yeah. So, you know, we always
we talk about how WSI has beenaround since almost thirty years now, since

(38:16):
like nineteen ninety five, we werecalling the Internet the Information super Highway back
and so and so was Al Gore, right, just yeah, yeah,
yeah. They identified a need andyou know, an opportunity to help business
owners navigate this new thing, andit just has continued on up until where

(38:38):
we are today, and it's continuingto grow and explode. But in short,
you know, we work with businessowners or other marketing executives that are
that are frustrated or really uncertain abouthow to increase sales or compete in their
marketplace. We work with business ownersto get them exposed to advanced lead generation

(39:02):
methods using digital marketing tactics like websitedesign and development or content optimization, search
engine optimization. Social media marketing isso important today and again not going anywhere.

(39:23):
We also help with email marketing justoverall kind of lead nurturing. So
those are the types of tactical ifyou will, you know, services and
products that we provide in the digitalmarketing space. So tell us why and

(39:44):
some will know this, but againjust to clarify, why is it important
that content what I say, So, we know that content on a website
needs to be relevant, but italso needs to be carefully chosen for the
search engines. Talk about that,right, yeah, so so yeah,

(40:06):
your the content on your website needsshould be consistent with you know and and
compatible with with Google search results.And so that's one of the things we
one of the one of the thingswe do is we're kind of setting up
or talking to customers about search engineoptimization, is we'll try to identify the

(40:30):
keywords that might be relevant when peopleare searching for their type of business,
and then depending on what those keywordslook like or what the keywords are,
will build the content of the websitearound those keywords. The other thing that's
really important with your website, youmentioned to keep it current, and one

(40:53):
of the ways of doing that isby continual blog posting. We'll develop we
help our customers with developing. Youknow, they're developing their blog kind of
strategy, their blog posting strategy,or their you know, their calendar,
all again relevant to the keywords thatare most applicable to them, all you

(41:17):
know, most for the main inthe main purpose of you know, coming
up on that Google search. Youknow, some of the customers we we
work with are just you know,sick and tired of their competitors getting ahead
of them on the Google search.You know, so they'll talk to us
about how how to you know,how to move up on the Google search,

(41:39):
and you guys can run an audit, uh given permission, you guys
can run an audit on that company'swebsite and the way they go to market
through through online means and really comeback with a meaningful set of data.
What does that data tell you?Uh? Just it can tell us tell

(42:00):
us how they rank, how theirwebsite ranks like like, uh, comparatively
in their industry, how their whattheir domain we call it domain authority without
getting to techie, but what thosenumbers look like in their industry for their
particular type of business. We canshow them how they stack up against their

(42:23):
competition, which is very important toyour point earlier, why they're lower in
the search rankings than a competitive act. Yes, yeah, and then you
know numerous other kind of analytical typesof you know, results and and and
data. We can we can helpcustomers understand what their what their web presence

(42:47):
kind of looks like. So smallcompanies, medium sized companies, even big
huge companies don't manage a lot ofthis stuff themselves. Why not so for
small let's start with small companies.I mean with small companies, you know,
many times it's just a very smallstaff. And if they're a printing

(43:08):
shop, let's say they're focused onmanaging their printing business, or a law
firm for example, maybe just asmall law firm, single lawyer or maybe
a couple of partners. I mean, they're probably working twelve hours a day
in the legal profession. They justdon't have the time or the expertise to

(43:30):
focus on digital marketing or to dotheir own digital marketing. So those are
ideal you know, customers of oursbecause we can step in and help them
and become their digital marketing partner whilethey can take care while they're taking care
of their core business. Medium sizedcompanies, you know, and that to

(43:52):
so medium and larger sized companies mayhave the capability in house, depending on
the marketing staff, what the whatthe background is the marketing staff. We
can work with marketing executive executives tohelp, you know, augment their digital
strategy or to help them implement theirdigital strategy. We can work with marketing

(44:16):
executives or even in medium or largersized companies to actually develop a digital strategy
that will help them. You know. We we like to say, you
know, we'll say, rather thanshooting and then aiming, aim and then
shoot, so you could spend afraction of your marketing budget to develop a

(44:39):
strategy before you, you know,implement all sorts of tactics that may or
may not be beneficial for you.I love that analogy, shoot that aim.
Yeah, yeah, but that's whatI mean. I've I've never used
that term, but I love it. That's what I've seen companies do a
lot. Right, Somebody gets itstuck in their brain. They get a

(45:00):
do a certain thing without really theevidence that that's the right thing to do,
right, and then here's a layup. Why not just set it and
forget it? Well, we touchedon it earlier. Yeah. Yeah,
it's continual, continual optimization, continualyou know, you know, management of

(45:22):
your content making sure, it's yourcontent's current, making sure you're speaking to
your audience, you know, thingsin terms of items that are relevant to
your audience today, to your markettarget market today. So it's a it's
an ongoing management type of process.And the fact that Google changes all the

(45:44):
time is and maybe all the timeis an overstatement, but often right,
Yeah, yeah, the dreaded algorithm, you know, the the Google is
changing. You know their algorithms there, you know they're they're kind of back
back end processes to again, keepup with what customers are looking for for

(46:07):
how businesses connect with their customers.Google's making changes all the time, and
it's important to have a partner likeus to understand what's going on there to
help optimize your front end. Yeah, it would be near impossible for someone
who's who's not a digital marketing expertto understand all that. And I don't
I don't mean to belittle anybody.I'm just saying it changes all the time.

(46:28):
You guys are in the business ofkeeping up with that and making sure
you're taking advantage of the latest andgreatest. So another reason, right,
who is your who is your idealclient? I don't mean by name,
but you know, describe what thatlooks like. Yeah, I kind of
touched on a little bit ago.So anybody that's really like not happy with

(46:50):
their current digital marketing partner or theirwebsite, they might want to just overhaul
their website. Maybe it's been outthere for a while and it needs refreshed.
I'm working you know a lot ofpeople ask me, well, what
vertical were you working in? Idon't really work in in a specific vertical
right now, However, I doseveral of my clients are in the professional

(47:13):
services area, insurance, bookkeeping,and tax preparation, real estate. Those
are good clients to have, especiallyinsurance and bookkeeping are really good, good
you know, ideal, candid,ideal clients for me. And in terms
of the work, uh and thethe engagement, there's often some upfront work

(47:36):
website, you know, audit results, all that, and then there's an
ongoing maintenance component, right yeah,yes, cool. What is it often
that you help some prospective clients seethat maybe they don't see you know,
the thing that I mean. Italked to prospect all the time about their

(48:00):
their Google business profile and the importanceof maintaining that and you know, engage
that's like the perfect spot to toengage with your customers outside of your website.
You know that you're a business,especially a small medium business. Their

(48:22):
the Google business profile is the keyto their local presence, their local online
presence, their local search presence.That's where their customers go to put their
reviews, good or bad. SoI talked to prospects all the time about
the importance of engaging with the people, your customers that are out there giving

(48:46):
you reviews again, good or bad. Learn how to handle those bad reviews
knock on wood if you get abad reviewer, to learn how to handle
and engagement those customers. And uh, that's that seems like the one thing
that I talked to most of myprospects and clients about pretty regularly. All

(49:07):
right, last question, believe itor not, it is time to wrap
up. What is the best wayfor people to connect with you? I
noticed some of the contact information youput on this in the crawl I did.
I put my email address b dotBrady at WSI world dot com.
I'm on LinkedIn Brian Brady. WSIsearch would probably get you to my profile

(49:29):
on LinkedIn, you know, andthen art or THEWSI world dot com website
slash Brian dash Brady. I didn'tput that on the crawl. That's all
right, that's right. Well,this has been fun. Thank you so
much. I know you're busy.Thanks for taking the time to be here.
It's been great having you on theshow. Thank you, thank you
very much. You're more than welcome. And thank you everybody for watching and

(49:51):
listening. This is a show aboutbusiness and business challenges. Often. If
you've got concerns about the growth ofyour company, feel free to reach out
to me on Facebook or LinkedIn atWinning Business Radio, or you can drop
me a note. One of mymany email addresses is Kevin at Winning Business
Radio dot com. Our companies WinningIncorporated. We're part of Sandler Training.
I always say we develop sales teamsat the high achievers and sales leaders into

(50:15):
true coaches and mentors. We're nota fit for everybody, but hey,
maybe we should have a conversation.Thank you to our producer and engineer Wan
for another job. Well done one. Thank you so much. Be sure
to join us next week Monday,June twenty fourth. We're going to do
it all again. Thank you,Brian Brady. Until then, this is
Kevin Halenan, you've been listening toWinning Business Radio with your host, Kevin

(50:37):
Helena. If you missed any partof this episode, the podcast is available
on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio.For more information and questions, go to
Winning Business Radio dot com or checkus out on social media. Tune in
again next week and every Monday atfour pm Eastern Time to listen live to
Winning Business Radio on w four cyRadio four or Sey dot com. Until

(51:00):
then, let's succeed where others havefailed and win in business with Kevin Haleanan
and Winning Business Radio m
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