May 5, 2025 • 29 mins
In this powerhouse solo episode, Tanya dives deep into the real branding and marketing challenges faced by home service business owners today.
Drawing from her coaching work with service companies, she tackles the biggest pain points holding companies back — from feeling stuck in saturated markets, to not knowing what to post on social media, to feeling weird asking for reviews.
You’ll learn why educating, not just promoting, is key to building a loyal brand following, and how to shift your mindset around visibility and consistency.
Tanya also covers the power of SEO, blogging, and using AI to amplify your content (even if you're not a tech wizard!) — plus insider tips on leveraging platforms like Reddit and Quora to get your brand seen by more people.
If you're ready to stop playing small and start building a brand that attracts, connects, and converts — this episode is your step-by-step guide.
🎯 Key Takeaways:
Why feeling "saturated" is a sign you need a stronger brand, not a reason to quit.
How to educate through social media instead of constantly promoting.
Why you should automate asking for reviews — and how to do it authentically.
How often you should post (hint: you're not annoying people nearly as much as you think!).
What SEO actually means — and simple first steps to get started.
Using AI tools to help with blogging, content ideas, and boosting your website reach.
How Reddit, Quora, and other viral platforms can supercharge your blog traffic.
#HomeServiceMarketing #ServiceBusinessGrowth #BrandingTips #MarketingForServiceBusinesses #WomenInTrades #ServiceBusinessCoach #GrowYourBusiness #AIForSmallBusiness #SocialMediaStrategy #ContentMarketingForServices
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Ladies Kickin' Ass, the no BS podcast
for fierce, unstoppable women inthe service industry.
We're here to talk bold moves,big wins and real talk on what
it takes to build the life andthe business you love.
Let's get fired up, hey, hey,badasses.
Welcome back to the LadiesKickin' Ass podcast.
Today we are going to touch onsomething that I know is driving
(00:25):
all of you crazy, but it's areal problem that we need to
address and we need to talkabout, and that is being found
online.
You know a lot of people getinto the home service business,
and they think you know, like,why are you doing that?
The market is so crowded orit's you hear the term
oversaturated, and you know it'sall about defining who you are,
(00:47):
who the business is, what youstand for and who the people are
behind it.
That will help you really standout.
So today we're going to jumpinto an episode that's just
really the big pain points I'vegot seven of them for you that a
lot of people deal with whenthey are trying to come up with
a unique brand for their homeservice company.
(01:08):
This is a no bullshit podcast,though, because we're going to
talk about all of the thingsthat we're all kind of thinking
about but nobody really talks toyou about.
So, number one, that market issaturated.
Why are you starting there?
There's already so manyelectricians or HVAC or septic
companies, but I really, trulybelieve there's room for
(01:32):
everybody.
You know, I was just having aconversation with one of my
competitors, if you will callthem that, last night.
It was actually somebody that Ihelped build a business with,
and I was speaking to thisgentleman and he was talking
about how he was actually goingto go out on his own from the
business that we had originallystarted together and start
(01:53):
another business, and he wascalling me for information.
He was calling me for feedback.
You know, we just had a greatconversation about how, if we
would all come together in anindustry you know the old saying
, the rising tide lifts allboats.
That's exactly what you need totry to create here.
So one of the first things Iwould tell you to do is to start
(02:16):
partnering up with who thesecompetitors are in your market
and figure out how you can worktogether.
I mean, I think that is really,really important that you do
that, and I really truly feellike, too, for those people that
are just going to be searchingyou out online, say they need a
septic tank pumped and theydon't know who to go to.
So they go to their trustyfriend, google or chat, gpt or
(02:37):
any social media and they typein septic tank pumping are they
going to find you?
This is one of the biggestproblems that we have is that
somebody built you a business ora website for your business
when you started in 2012.
And it hasn't been updatedsince then.
So we got to really make surethat you're standing out online
(02:58):
so that you don't look like justanother septic company, you
don't look like just anotherpest control company, but you
actually look like somebodythat's got fresh ideas, fresh
new ways of doing things.
You've got technology thatyou're actually showing up to
play the game.
Number two is, I feel weird,asking for reviews.
(03:19):
Oh my gosh.
I hear this so many times andit just makes me crazy, because
you know, the people that arescared to ask for reviews are
often the ones that are alsotalking about how they have two
bad reviews and they don't knowhow to get rid of them.
They're concerned about gettingrid of them and the most
important thing for you tounderstand with the home service
(03:40):
business is that those reviews,especially on Google.
I would direct them all toGoogle and I'll tell you why in
a minute.
But I would highly highlyrecommend that you consider
asking every single one of yourcustomers for a review Because
you will, if you're giving greatservice and you have great
(04:01):
processes in place, be gettingmore positive reviews than
negative reviews.
Therefore, when you get anegative review which you will I
think my company's prettybadass, but we still have some
negative reviews.
They don't sting as much.
They also make your businesslook like you're human.
You know we all make mistakes.
Sometimes we don't all agree onhow the ending of this should
(04:25):
go.
Many times a lot of my badreviews or one star reviews
we'll call them learning reviewscome from real estate agents
that are not happy that I didn'tjust pass their septic tank
inspection so that they couldsell the house, but out of
integrity that we have at ourbusiness and integrity of what
we do for the new buyer comingin.
(04:47):
We're not just going to pass itto make some agent happy.
We're actually going to do whatis right.
And when you get those negativereviews that come in, oh babe,
I'm telling you that is the bestlearning tool ever.
We've actually had people tellus that they picked us because
they loved the way we respondedto the jerk that left the review
, so it can be a really great,awesome tool for you to use.
(05:10):
So if you're not asking forreviews with every single one of
your jobs that you go to,you're missing out on a huge
free marketing opportunity, andwe'll talk about it in a minute
on ways to incentivize your guysto really push to get those
reviews while they're actuallyon site at the job.
(05:30):
Number three that we're going totalk about is I don't know what
to post on social media.
I have so many ideas on what topost on social media.
I have the opposite problem, sowe end up posting so much stuff
.
It's out of control sometimes.
So it's really important,whether you're one way or the
(05:51):
other way, that you make surethat you have a game plan for
your social media, and what youwant to use your social media
for, I truly believe, is thebest thing, is to educate your
customers.
Yes, we want to talk aboutspecials that we're running and,
yes, we want to talk about waysthat we can offer a service and
(06:12):
give them a great deal and doall of this stuff, but what we
really, really, really want totalk to them about is how,
whatever system you work onactually works.
So let's take an HVAC company,for example.
You want to talk about that.
The air conditioner is morethan just a box sitting there.
What's in it?
Educate them on why it'simportant to change out their
(06:32):
filters.
Educate them on what happens ifthey shut their thermostat off
during the day and they thinkthey're saving money, but then
they got to come home and coolit down and it costs even more
money to do that than it did toleave it alone in the first
place.
These are the incredible waysthat you can sound like you know
what the hell you're doing inyour industry and this is what
(06:54):
makes you stand out as anindustry leader.
You know, a lot of times onsocial media, I think, just as a
personal way, we talk a lotabout how many followers we have
or how much engagement we have,or you know, I don't think that
anybody's even seeing my stuffbecause nobody likes it and
nobody does anything.
It's so crazy the way thatsocial media trends change, and
(07:17):
I got a few little stats herefor you on some of this, 80% of
the people won't even call ahome service, that they can't
find on social media or thathave no reviews.
Isn't that crazy?
80%, because a lot of peopleare like, if they don't exist on
social media, I'm not sure theyeven have a pulse anymore,
because so many people actuallygo to social media to use that
(07:41):
as they're searching forbusinesses that they need
services from.
Isn't that crazy, like?
Honestly, google is number onefor search engines that people
use, and you know what?
Number two is YouTube, which isGoogle too, but people go to
YouTube trying to find people.
They also go to Facebook.
How many of you are part ofFacebook groups, and people will
(08:04):
go on and say, hey, do you knowa good pest control company?
Hey, do you have a great raingutter guy?
Do you have somebody that cancome do window shades in my
house?
They're looking for people.
If you're continuously on therepouring in education into those
communities you're a part of,you'll be top of mind for those
people that are asking for you.
(08:25):
So don't be afraid of socialmedia.
What you need to understand withthat, though, is that you have
to engage on social media.
You can't just throw posts upand expect to get great return
or great engagement on yourthings.
I highly challenge you that, ifyou have social media, start
(08:46):
posting more.
I aim for at least one time aday.
I know that sounds like a lot,but there are not very many
people that are seeing yourposts, and we'll talk about that
when we talk about theresolutions here in just a
minute.
But you have to be very, veryconsistent on social media to
see any traction happen.
And consistency means postingand engaging with other people
(09:08):
that you follow.
Go in and follow other peoplethat you admire.
Follow people from across thecountry.
Maybe you can learn some thingsfrom them.
When we first started doingsocial media for our septic
company, we just startedfollowing a whole bunch of
septic companies and then westarted making comments on their
things and they startedcommenting on our things, and it
(09:29):
doesn't really matter whetherit's another septic company or a
customer or a real estate agentthat's doing the commenting.
It is that your post is gettingsome action, so more people
will see it.
So it's very, very importantthat you continue that
consistency with your socialmedia.
The next one that I want to talkabout is I don't want to bother
(09:52):
people by posting too much, sothis is just a slight
subcategory under the one wewere just talking about.
But I talked to so many peopleat socials and we'll talk about
social media, we'll talk aboutmarketing and they're so afraid
to speak up and tell peopleabout their business.
We can't be afraid to talkabout our business anymore.
(10:12):
Our business is who we are,it's how we take care of our
families, it is how we take careof our employees families, and
we have to stop hiding in plainsight.
We're standing out here, we'regetting irritated that people
can't find us online yet we havefree channel opportunities to
promote and we're choosing notto.
(10:34):
And this is where there's major,major stats that come out.
If a business has 1000followers, it has way low amount
of people that are going to seethem.
Only about 10 to 15% of yourfollowers will organically see
that.
So out of 1000, only 100 peoplewill see that.
(10:56):
And if you're posting real orstories, only about three to 5%
will Reels do a little bitbetter, because they're a little
more favored with the algorithmright now and I say right now
because it changes all the timewith Instagram and so you may
get a little bit longer amountof exposure and you'll see those
(11:19):
videos climb in views, more sothan a post that literally
disappears.
I mean, think about it If you'rescrolling through Instagram and
you get scrolling down andyou're like 10 posts in and then
you accidentally scroll back upto the top.
I don't know how that happens.
It's like a magic little buttonyou accidentally push all the
time but you get back up to thetop and you're like, okay, I'll
(11:40):
just go back to that post andthen you're like damn it, it's
gone.
That's because there's so manypeople posting all the time.
It doesn't live there very long.
So if people are in a verysmall window of time, we'll
actually see that post that'sthere, let alone if you're just
posting on stories.
I mean, those suckers are like30 seconds or less and then
they're gone after they watchthem.
(12:02):
So that's not the best way toget a lot of traffic either.
Right now we're seeing a ton ofengagement on Instagram through
carousels.
Now, if you're new to socialmedia, that might blow your mind
.
Just hit up Chet GPT and talkto him about what a Instagram
carousel is.
But we're seeing a lot of greattraction on those.
People are staying on postslonger and they're engaging and
(12:24):
they're reading and they'relearning and we're testing some
of this out with our business.
I know what the ladies kickingass following on Instagram my
carousels are doing way betterthan anything else is, and so
it's really important that youcontinue to test and try new
things, just so that you canmake sure that you're staying
with the trends and theever-changing hellish bullish
(12:46):
algorithm that we're allindentured to Number five, and
this is a big one.
I don't know SEO, which standsfor search engine optimization.
If you don't know, so I justkind of ignore it.
That is literally likeforgetting to unlock the door to
your business every single dayonline.
(13:07):
There are a lot of differentfacets to SEO, and there's a
beautiful ability now with AI tobe able to learn a lot about it
, and if you can learn just afew things that you can go into
your website and optimize,fantastic.
I say that because a lot ofservice businesses tend to build
(13:31):
their own websites, and ifyou're one of them, then you
need to learn SEO.
It's so important.
You could have the mostbeautiful boutique store, and if
you never unlock the door,nobody can come in and explore,
and that's really the way that Iwant you to think about SEO If
you aren't updating, if you'renot making it look fresh and new
(13:52):
and it looks like you built itfor an old school monitor and
it's teeny tiny print and it wasbuilt in 1995, people will
think that business is outdatedand they'll skip to the next one
.
We want to make sure that we'restaying fresh and relevant and
we want to make sure that we'recontinuously adding content to
our site or changing it up sothat we can be indexed by Google
(14:16):
, and that's how you startorganically being found online.
Now I know there's a lot ofpeople that are talking about AI
taking over the organic reachof your website, and I will tell
you what I've found with this.
With my septic company, we havea very robust blog on our
website and what I mean by thatis that we have over 100 posts
(14:40):
that talk about different thingspertaining to septic systems.
We post those blogs ondifferent Reddit threads.
We have definitely indexed themon different YouTube videos
that we post on YouTube.
But the more we stretch outthat blog content, the more we
(15:04):
are actually appearing as theactual brains of what AI is
pulling the material from.
And I'll give you an example.
So if I get on Google and Itype in what is a seepage pit.
Two of the three results thatcome back from Google's AI are
direct links to blogs on thePriority Pumping website, which
(15:28):
is pretty cool.
A lot of people aren't talkingabout them.
Also, if you're in an industrylike I am in septic, where
people don't really utilizeblogs and they don't take the
free opportunity to educatetheir customers through their
websites, you have massiveability to rank in that area,
especially if people aresearching by location.
So be sure to make sure thatyou are just optimizing the hell
(15:53):
out of your blogs.
Make sure that you'recontinuously adding that new
content.
It can also be that you areadding that into your Google
business profile.
Some of you may know it asGoogle my Business.
It's GBP now Google Businessprofile.
If you are adding updatesconsistently in there, ai is
starting to pull from thoseGoogle Business updates as well.
(16:16):
So be sure that you're keepingyour content nice and fresh on
there so that you can continueto roll with all of the new
things that AI is actuallyputting out there.
Another thing that drives mecrazy, and as we are moving into
the franchise world, is peoplewith stock photos on their
websites.
People in your community wantto know what your business is
(16:41):
about.
They want to know who are thepeople in your company.
Use photos of your technicians,use photos of your trucks, your
fleet, your office staff.
Whatever you need to do,whether that is hiring a
photography student for 100bucks to come take photos, or if
(17:01):
you actually splurge and spend$1,000 on a branding shoot it'll
be the best $1,000 in marketingthat you spend, because the
ability to multi use thosephotos and those behind the
scenes and videos that you'llget from that shoot with a
professional will last you anentire year.
I suggest that people do thisat the beginning of every single
(17:22):
year, as we know that our teamsgrow and we have people come,
we have people go and we want tomake sure that we're inclusive
of the people that are there,but that is one of the best ways
for you to be able to stand outand be unique.
One thing that we see often inour septic business and if you
(17:43):
go on to Canva, it drives uscrazy.
My marketing guru at my office,heidi, and I laugh at this all
the time whenever we get it onto other people's websites.
It's like blue pants that lookslike he's kind of working on a
railroad and he's got likeyellow dishwashing gloves on and
he's pulling a septic hose.
I don't know who took the stockphotography, but they had to
(18:04):
have made a fortune becauseevery septic company, I swear,
has these photos on it.
Make sure that you're showingwho the technicians are.
Who's going to show up at theirhouse Like who the hell's Seth?
Who's Heidi?
Who's Lauren?
Do you ever get on the phonewith people and you like, try to
picture what they look likeafter you talk to them on the
phone.
Our people show up all over oursocial media.
(18:26):
They're all over our website.
I refuse to use a stock imagefor anything, and that's what I
would love for you to startthinking about when you're
building your brand.
How are you unique?
How are you different than theothers?
Do you want to show up withblue pants and yellow gloves
like all of the competitors?
Or do you want to show up withblue pants and yellow gloves
like all of the competitors?
Or do you want to show up andlook like you're an actual human
in the community?
(18:47):
And that's a house from Arizonain the background, not a
mansion from California.
You know what I mean.
Not that we don't have mansionshere, but they do look
different.
You know what I'm saying andlast but not least, is that you
never talk about your business.
You're out with friends, you'reout at events.
You just want to talk toeverybody else about what they
(19:08):
do.
And you're like I just have alittle, you know, window shade
company.
I just have like a little floorcleaning company, I just do
floors.
Be proud, stand up tall and beso proud of what you do.
When you have passion aroundyour business and the things
that you do for others, you willtransfer that passion into that
(19:32):
person even wanting to knowmore.
When I go to an event and peopleask me what I do is, I teach
people about wastewater.
I have a septic and commercialwastewater business and we love
to educate people on the bestway to maintain those.
Oh well, is there a lot ofseptic here?
Like, people will justautomatically start asking you
(19:54):
questions because you just toldthem that you love to educate
people on it.
It's a great opener and it's agreat opportunity to be able to
tell people what you do withoutjust saying I own a septic
company.
And it's a great opportunity tobe able to tell people what you
do without just saying I own aseptic company and then you jump
to the next thing.
I'm so passionate about teachingpeople what to do with their
systems or how to take care ofthem, to avoid having costly
(20:15):
repairs to take care of them,even though I do those costly
repairs.
I'd love to see people get 50years out of a system we know
indefinitely.
It's going to fail at somepoint.
That's just how they work.
But I would love to be able toeducate them on the things that
they need to know about thatsystem to make sure that it's
not going to fail earlier thanit should have because of lack
(20:38):
of attention and maintenance.
So be able to haveconversations with people and if
you're not sure what to say,stand in front of the mirror and
have a conversation withyourself.
Think of some things.
I know you hear me talk aboutchat, gpt all the time or
whatever your favorite AI is nowbecause there's so many of them
.
But jump in there and justbrainstorm.
(20:59):
Hey, I'm going to a mixertonight.
What's a great way to lead offtalking about my window washing
company.
It's fascinating Once you kindof teach it the way that you
talk, what it actually comes upwith.
There's so many opportunitiesout there now to just ask
questions and get answers fromthat we can no longer use.
I don't know how to do SEO.
(21:20):
I don't know what to post.
I don't know how to ask forreviews.
I don't know what to post.
I don't know how to ask forreviews.
I don't know is not an excusethat we're going to take into
2025.
We're going to start findingsolutions for this and I've got
a few of them here for you thatwe can just get to really
quickly so that you canunderstand what you need to do
(21:43):
If you fall into any of theseseven categories of things that
you're avoiding doing, to buildyour brand of your service
business.
Number one we're going to getreally clear on who we are and
what we do.
Of course, you have alandscaping business, so you cut
grass.
What else do you do and why doyou do it?
(22:04):
Cut grass?
What else do you do and why doyou do it?
Tie those things together insomething that you tell people
at a networking event or thenext time you meet somebody on
the street and they ask you whatto do, and they will ask
questions.
Give them a reason to follow upwith a question.
It's so important that we dothat.
We want to make sure that we'rebuilding a reputation, not just
(22:26):
a business.
People want to buy relationships.
They want to buy from people.
They can get the same servicefrom 50 other companies that are
out there.
Why'd they pick you?
And if you got the opportunitybecause they did pick you do not
let them down.
Do the best that you can do.
(22:48):
You know, there was thisincredible podcast I was
listening to this week and theywere talking about different
forms of pride, and one of thegreatest forms of pride ever is
knowing that you did the bestjob that you could do, even if
there's nobody there looking.
You know, it's one of thosethings where it's like don't
step over the trash.
That's did the best job thatyou could do, even if there's
nobody there looking.
You know, it's one of thosethings where it's like don't
step over the trash that's onthe floor or leave it better
(23:12):
than you found it.
That's what I was always taughtas a kid.
Those are the things that getyou massively important
five-star reviews all overGoogle, yelp, wherever you tend
to direct them to.
It's so important.
Oh and I did tell you earlierthat I was going to tell you why
to send them to Google.
You want those reviews onGoogle so that when people are
(23:36):
checking you out in the localSEO portion of the Google search
return, so, like you can see,there's three companies that
come back with a map.
It's typically the closest towhere you are.
You want to stand out as therock star choice out of those
three people that come back outand I'll tell you, it makes a
(23:58):
massive difference if you are,especially if you're in an
industry where people don't askfor a lot of reviews.
My company in septic is one ofthe youngest companies in the
valley and we have more reviewsby two times than the company
that's been in business for 40years, and the only reason that
is well, we're pretty damn goodat what we do and we're really
(24:20):
good people.
But the other thing is that wehave automated asking for those
reviews, and what I mean by thatis that you can actually use a
company that will connect withyour CRM that you're using, that
will send out automaticinvitations via text or email in
a campaign style to wherethey'll ask not once, maybe two,
(24:42):
three, four or five times forthat review.
Once, maybe two, three, four orfive times for that review.
We get more reviews on thesecond touch, meaning second
text message that goes out thanany other way.
So be sure to set that up asautomating.
If you need help with that,please reach out to me.
I'd be happy to help direct youin a way and the software that
we use for that.
But it is super, superimportant that you do that and
(25:04):
then incentivize yourtechnicians to talk to them
about leaving a review.
I pay my guys 50 bucks forevery review.
They get back that has theirname in it and let me tell you
they're pretty incentivized tokeep talking to people about
that and I know not everybodywill leave one.
But if you can talk to themabout that and the guys can
reinforce it while they're outthere and then you have a
(25:25):
campaign that's automated,you'll get a lot more reviews
than just asking them one timevia email after a service is
done that they may or may notread.
The next thing is gettingpersonal with your account.
Get personal with your socialmedia accounts.
Get personal with your website.
Let them see who the people arebehind you.
People love stories.
Why did you start this businesswebsite?
(25:45):
Let them see who the people arebehind you.
People love stories.
Why'd you start this business?
Why did you start it in thearea that you started it out.
What do you do for thecommunity?
How else are you involved indifferent kinds of businesses
and what is your background?
People are very interested inthat and, ladies, if you're
owners of this business, get inand get woman owned designation
and promote the shit out of thatthroughout your website.
(26:07):
I have customers several amonth that tell us we picked you
because you're a woman ownedcompany, and it's not always the
women that say that.
So definitely look for thatdesignation.
Google has a designation forthat and Yelp has a designation
for that.
That I know of offhand.
But if there's another placewhere you like to have business
listings at, definitely put inthere that you're a woman owned
(26:29):
business.
It's really important.
We want to show up, we want tostay consistent and we want to
make sure that we are reallybeing the true, authentic people
that we say we're going to be.
If we say we're going to comeout and do a great job, go out
and do a great job.
And if you have employees andsometimes you're kind of this
one subpar and this one's kindof here and there, make sure
(26:51):
that you set a new standard thisyear, in 2025.
What is the standard to work atyour amazing business?
What is the standard for themto excel at this incredible
business that they've chosen towork at, excel at this
incredible business that they'vechosen to work at.
It's really, really, reallyimportant that we do that.
So I want you to agree with metoday, as we wrap up here, that
(27:12):
we're not blending in witheverybody else anymore.
You're going to make a planthis weekend to figure out how
you can stand out from the otherpeople that provide your kinds
of services in your area.
And there is no more.
Babe.
You weren't born to blend in.
You were born to stand out.
We're not hiding in plain sightanymore.
Now go kick some ass.
(27:33):
That's a wrap, ladies.
Now go out there, own the hellout of your dreams and keep
kicking ass.
Want to keep this fire going?
Connect with us on social.
All the links are in the shownotes, and if you're ready for a
sisterhood that levels up lifeand business, be sure to check
out Badass Inner Circle.
Stay bold, stay fierce and beunapologetically you.
(27:54):
I'll catch you on the nextepisode.
Let's do this.
Welcome to Ladies Kickin' Ass, the no BS podcast
for fierce, unstoppable women inthe service industry.
We're here to talk bold moves,big wins and real talk on what
it takes to build the life andthe business you love.
Let's get fired up, hey, hey,badasses.
Welcome back to the LadiesKickin' Ass podcast.
Today we are going to touch onsomething that I know is driving
(00:25):
all of you crazy, but it's areal problem that we need to
address and we need to talkabout, and that is being found
online.
You know a lot of people getinto the home service business,
and they think you know, like,why are you doing that?
The market is so crowded orit's you hear the term
oversaturated, and you know it'sall about defining who you are,
(00:47):
who the business is, what youstand for and who the people are
behind it.
That will help you really standout.
So today we're going to jumpinto an episode that's just
really the big pain points I'vegot seven of them for you that a
lot of people deal with whenthey are trying to come up with
a unique brand for their homeservice company.
(01:08):
This is a no bullshit podcast,though, because we're going to
talk about all of the thingsthat we're all kind of thinking
about but nobody really talks toyou about.
So, number one, that market issaturated.
Why are you starting there?
There's already so manyelectricians or HVAC or septic
companies, but I really, trulybelieve there's room for
(01:32):
everybody.
You know, I was just having aconversation with one of my
competitors, if you will callthem that, last night.
It was actually somebody that Ihelped build a business with,
and I was speaking to thisgentleman and he was talking
about how he was actually goingto go out on his own from the
business that we had originallystarted together and start
(01:53):
another business, and he wascalling me for information.
He was calling me for feedback.
You know, we just had a greatconversation about how, if we
would all come together in anindustry you know the old saying
, the rising tide lifts allboats.
That's exactly what you need totry to create here.
So one of the first things Iwould tell you to do is to start
(02:16):
partnering up with who thesecompetitors are in your market
and figure out how you can worktogether.
I mean, I think that is really,really important that you do
that, and I really truly feellike, too, for those people that
are just going to be searchingyou out online, say they need a
septic tank pumped and theydon't know who to go to.
So they go to their trustyfriend, google or chat, gpt or
(02:37):
any social media and they typein septic tank pumping are they
going to find you?
This is one of the biggestproblems that we have is that
somebody built you a business ora website for your business
when you started in 2012.
And it hasn't been updatedsince then.
So we got to really make surethat you're standing out online
(02:58):
so that you don't look like justanother septic company, you
don't look like just anotherpest control company, but you
actually look like somebodythat's got fresh ideas, fresh
new ways of doing things.
You've got technology thatyou're actually showing up to
play the game.
Number two is, I feel weird,asking for reviews.
(03:19):
Oh my gosh.
I hear this so many times andit just makes me crazy, because
you know, the people that arescared to ask for reviews are
often the ones that are alsotalking about how they have two
bad reviews and they don't knowhow to get rid of them.
They're concerned about gettingrid of them and the most
important thing for you tounderstand with the home service
(03:40):
business is that those reviews,especially on Google.
I would direct them all toGoogle and I'll tell you why in
a minute.
But I would highly highlyrecommend that you consider
asking every single one of yourcustomers for a review Because
you will, if you're giving greatservice and you have great
(04:01):
processes in place, be gettingmore positive reviews than
negative reviews.
Therefore, when you get anegative review which you will I
think my company's prettybadass, but we still have some
negative reviews.
They don't sting as much.
They also make your businesslook like you're human.
You know we all make mistakes.
Sometimes we don't all agree onhow the ending of this should
(04:25):
go.
Many times a lot of my badreviews or one star reviews
we'll call them learning reviewscome from real estate agents
that are not happy that I didn'tjust pass their septic tank
inspection so that they couldsell the house, but out of
integrity that we have at ourbusiness and integrity of what
we do for the new buyer comingin.
(04:47):
We're not just going to pass itto make some agent happy.
We're actually going to do whatis right.
And when you get those negativereviews that come in, oh babe,
I'm telling you that is the bestlearning tool ever.
We've actually had people tellus that they picked us because
they loved the way we respondedto the jerk that left the review
, so it can be a really great,awesome tool for you to use.
(05:10):
So if you're not asking forreviews with every single one of
your jobs that you go to,you're missing out on a huge
free marketing opportunity, andwe'll talk about it in a minute
on ways to incentivize your guysto really push to get those
reviews while they're actuallyon site at the job.
(05:30):
Number three that we're going totalk about is I don't know what
to post on social media.
I have so many ideas on what topost on social media.
I have the opposite problem, sowe end up posting so much stuff
.
It's out of control sometimes.
So it's really important,whether you're one way or the
(05:51):
other way, that you make surethat you have a game plan for
your social media, and what youwant to use your social media
for, I truly believe, is thebest thing, is to educate your
customers.
Yes, we want to talk aboutspecials that we're running and,
yes, we want to talk about waysthat we can offer a service and
(06:12):
give them a great deal and doall of this stuff, but what we
really, really, really want totalk to them about is how,
whatever system you work onactually works.
So let's take an HVAC company,for example.
You want to talk about that.
The air conditioner is morethan just a box sitting there.
What's in it?
Educate them on why it'simportant to change out their
(06:32):
filters.
Educate them on what happens ifthey shut their thermostat off
during the day and they thinkthey're saving money, but then
they got to come home and coolit down and it costs even more
money to do that than it did toleave it alone in the first
place.
These are the incredible waysthat you can sound like you know
what the hell you're doing inyour industry and this is what
(06:54):
makes you stand out as anindustry leader.
You know, a lot of times onsocial media, I think, just as a
personal way, we talk a lotabout how many followers we have
or how much engagement we have,or you know, I don't think that
anybody's even seeing my stuffbecause nobody likes it and
nobody does anything.
It's so crazy the way thatsocial media trends change, and
(07:17):
I got a few little stats herefor you on some of this, 80% of
the people won't even call ahome service, that they can't
find on social media or thathave no reviews.
Isn't that crazy?
80%, because a lot of peopleare like, if they don't exist on
social media, I'm not sure theyeven have a pulse anymore,
because so many people actuallygo to social media to use that
(07:41):
as they're searching forbusinesses that they need
services from.
Isn't that crazy, like?
Honestly, google is number onefor search engines that people
use, and you know what?
Number two is YouTube, which isGoogle too, but people go to
YouTube trying to find people.
They also go to Facebook.
How many of you are part ofFacebook groups, and people will
(08:04):
go on and say, hey, do you knowa good pest control company?
Hey, do you have a great raingutter guy?
Do you have somebody that cancome do window shades in my
house?
They're looking for people.
If you're continuously on therepouring in education into those
communities you're a part of,you'll be top of mind for those
people that are asking for you.
(08:25):
So don't be afraid of socialmedia.
What you need to understand withthat, though, is that you have
to engage on social media.
You can't just throw posts upand expect to get great return
or great engagement on yourthings.
I highly challenge you that, ifyou have social media, start
(08:46):
posting more.
I aim for at least one time aday.
I know that sounds like a lot,but there are not very many
people that are seeing yourposts, and we'll talk about that
when we talk about theresolutions here in just a
minute.
But you have to be very, veryconsistent on social media to
see any traction happen.
And consistency means postingand engaging with other people
(09:08):
that you follow.
Go in and follow other peoplethat you admire.
Follow people from across thecountry.
Maybe you can learn some thingsfrom them.
When we first started doingsocial media for our septic
company, we just startedfollowing a whole bunch of
septic companies and then westarted making comments on their
things and they startedcommenting on our things, and it
(09:29):
doesn't really matter whetherit's another septic company or a
customer or a real estate agentthat's doing the commenting.
It is that your post is gettingsome action, so more people
will see it.
So it's very, very importantthat you continue that
consistency with your socialmedia.
The next one that I want to talkabout is I don't want to bother
(09:52):
people by posting too much, sothis is just a slight
subcategory under the one wewere just talking about.
But I talked to so many peopleat socials and we'll talk about
social media, we'll talk aboutmarketing and they're so afraid
to speak up and tell peopleabout their business.
We can't be afraid to talkabout our business anymore.
(10:12):
Our business is who we are,it's how we take care of our
families, it is how we take careof our employees families, and
we have to stop hiding in plainsight.
We're standing out here, we'regetting irritated that people
can't find us online yet we havefree channel opportunities to
promote and we're choosing notto.
(10:34):
And this is where there's major,major stats that come out.
If a business has 1000followers, it has way low amount
of people that are going to seethem.
Only about 10 to 15% of yourfollowers will organically see
that.
So out of 1000, only 100 peoplewill see that.
(10:56):
And if you're posting real orstories, only about three to 5%
will Reels do a little bitbetter, because they're a little
more favored with the algorithmright now and I say right now
because it changes all the timewith Instagram and so you may
get a little bit longer amountof exposure and you'll see those
(11:19):
videos climb in views, more sothan a post that literally
disappears.
I mean, think about it If you'rescrolling through Instagram and
you get scrolling down andyou're like 10 posts in and then
you accidentally scroll back upto the top.
I don't know how that happens.
It's like a magic little buttonyou accidentally push all the
time but you get back up to thetop and you're like, okay, I'll
(11:40):
just go back to that post andthen you're like damn it, it's
gone.
That's because there's so manypeople posting all the time.
It doesn't live there very long.
So if people are in a verysmall window of time, we'll
actually see that post that'sthere, let alone if you're just
posting on stories.
I mean, those suckers are like30 seconds or less and then
they're gone after they watchthem.
(12:02):
So that's not the best way toget a lot of traffic either.
Right now we're seeing a ton ofengagement on Instagram through
carousels.
Now, if you're new to socialmedia, that might blow your mind
.
Just hit up Chet GPT and talkto him about what a Instagram
carousel is.
But we're seeing a lot of greattraction on those.
People are staying on postslonger and they're engaging and
(12:24):
they're reading and they'relearning and we're testing some
of this out with our business.
I know what the ladies kickingass following on Instagram my
carousels are doing way betterthan anything else is, and so
it's really important that youcontinue to test and try new
things, just so that you canmake sure that you're staying
with the trends and theever-changing hellish bullish
(12:46):
algorithm that we're allindentured to Number five, and
this is a big one.
I don't know SEO, which standsfor search engine optimization.
If you don't know, so I justkind of ignore it.
That is literally likeforgetting to unlock the door to
your business every single dayonline.
(13:07):
There are a lot of differentfacets to SEO, and there's a
beautiful ability now with AI tobe able to learn a lot about it
, and if you can learn just afew things that you can go into
your website and optimize,fantastic.
I say that because a lot ofservice businesses tend to build
(13:31):
their own websites, and ifyou're one of them, then you
need to learn SEO.
It's so important.
You could have the mostbeautiful boutique store, and if
you never unlock the door,nobody can come in and explore,
and that's really the way that Iwant you to think about SEO If
you aren't updating, if you'renot making it look fresh and new
(13:52):
and it looks like you built itfor an old school monitor and
it's teeny tiny print and it wasbuilt in 1995, people will
think that business is outdatedand they'll skip to the next one
.
We want to make sure that we'restaying fresh and relevant and
we want to make sure that we'recontinuously adding content to
our site or changing it up sothat we can be indexed by Google
(14:16):
, and that's how you startorganically being found online.
Now I know there's a lot ofpeople that are talking about AI
taking over the organic reachof your website, and I will tell
you what I've found with this.
With my septic company, we havea very robust blog on our
website and what I mean by thatis that we have over 100 posts
(14:40):
that talk about different thingspertaining to septic systems.
We post those blogs ondifferent Reddit threads.
We have definitely indexed themon different YouTube videos
that we post on YouTube.
But the more we stretch outthat blog content, the more we
(15:04):
are actually appearing as theactual brains of what AI is
pulling the material from.
And I'll give you an example.
So if I get on Google and Itype in what is a seepage pit.
Two of the three results thatcome back from Google's AI are
direct links to blogs on thePriority Pumping website, which
(15:28):
is pretty cool.
A lot of people aren't talkingabout them.
Also, if you're in an industrylike I am in septic, where
people don't really utilizeblogs and they don't take the
free opportunity to educatetheir customers through their
websites, you have massiveability to rank in that area,
especially if people aresearching by location.
So be sure to make sure thatyou are just optimizing the hell
(15:53):
out of your blogs.
Make sure that you'recontinuously adding that new
content.
It can also be that you areadding that into your Google
business profile.
Some of you may know it asGoogle my Business.
It's GBP now Google Businessprofile.
If you are adding updatesconsistently in there, ai is
starting to pull from thoseGoogle Business updates as well.
(16:16):
So be sure that you're keepingyour content nice and fresh on
there so that you can continueto roll with all of the new
things that AI is actuallyputting out there.
Another thing that drives mecrazy, and as we are moving into
the franchise world, is peoplewith stock photos on their
websites.
People in your community wantto know what your business is
(16:41):
about.
They want to know who are thepeople in your company.
Use photos of your technicians,use photos of your trucks, your
fleet, your office staff.
Whatever you need to do,whether that is hiring a
photography student for 100bucks to come take photos, or if
(17:01):
you actually splurge and spend$1,000 on a branding shoot it'll
be the best $1,000 in marketingthat you spend, because the
ability to multi use thosephotos and those behind the
scenes and videos that you'llget from that shoot with a
professional will last you anentire year.
I suggest that people do thisat the beginning of every single
(17:22):
year, as we know that our teamsgrow and we have people come,
we have people go and we want tomake sure that we're inclusive
of the people that are there,but that is one of the best ways
for you to be able to stand outand be unique.
One thing that we see often inour septic business and if you
(17:43):
go on to Canva, it drives uscrazy.
My marketing guru at my office,heidi, and I laugh at this all
the time whenever we get it onto other people's websites.
It's like blue pants that lookslike he's kind of working on a
railroad and he's got likeyellow dishwashing gloves on and
he's pulling a septic hose.
I don't know who took the stockphotography, but they had to
(18:04):
have made a fortune becauseevery septic company, I swear,
has these photos on it.
Make sure that you're showingwho the technicians are.
Who's going to show up at theirhouse Like who the hell's Seth?
Who's Heidi?
Who's Lauren?
Do you ever get on the phonewith people and you like, try to
picture what they look likeafter you talk to them on the
phone.
Our people show up all over oursocial media.
(18:26):
They're all over our website.
I refuse to use a stock imagefor anything, and that's what I
would love for you to startthinking about when you're
building your brand.
How are you unique?
How are you different than theothers?
Do you want to show up withblue pants and yellow gloves
like all of the competitors?
Or do you want to show up withblue pants and yellow gloves
like all of the competitors?
Or do you want to show up andlook like you're an actual human
in the community?
(18:47):
And that's a house from Arizonain the background, not a
mansion from California.
You know what I mean.
Not that we don't have mansionshere, but they do look
different.
You know what I'm saying andlast but not least, is that you
never talk about your business.
You're out with friends, you'reout at events.
You just want to talk toeverybody else about what they
(19:08):
do.
And you're like I just have alittle, you know, window shade
company.
I just have like a little floorcleaning company, I just do
floors.
Be proud, stand up tall and beso proud of what you do.
When you have passion aroundyour business and the things
that you do for others, you willtransfer that passion into that
(19:32):
person even wanting to knowmore.
When I go to an event and peopleask me what I do is, I teach
people about wastewater.
I have a septic and commercialwastewater business and we love
to educate people on the bestway to maintain those.
Oh well, is there a lot ofseptic here?
Like, people will justautomatically start asking you
(19:54):
questions because you just toldthem that you love to educate
people on it.
It's a great opener and it's agreat opportunity to be able to
tell people what you do withoutjust saying I own a septic
company.
And it's a great opportunity tobe able to tell people what you
do without just saying I own aseptic company and then you jump
to the next thing.
I'm so passionate about teachingpeople what to do with their
systems or how to take care ofthem, to avoid having costly
(20:15):
repairs to take care of them,even though I do those costly
repairs.
I'd love to see people get 50years out of a system we know
indefinitely.
It's going to fail at somepoint.
That's just how they work.
But I would love to be able toeducate them on the things that
they need to know about thatsystem to make sure that it's
not going to fail earlier thanit should have because of lack
(20:38):
of attention and maintenance.
So be able to haveconversations with people and if
you're not sure what to say,stand in front of the mirror and
have a conversation withyourself.
Think of some things.
I know you hear me talk aboutchat, gpt all the time or
whatever your favorite AI is nowbecause there's so many of them
.
But jump in there and justbrainstorm.
(20:59):
Hey, I'm going to a mixertonight.
What's a great way to lead offtalking about my window washing
company.
It's fascinating Once you kindof teach it the way that you
talk, what it actually comes upwith.
There's so many opportunitiesout there now to just ask
questions and get answers fromthat we can no longer use.
I don't know how to do SEO.
(21:20):
I don't know what to post.
I don't know how to ask forreviews.
I don't know what to post.
I don't know how to ask forreviews.
I don't know is not an excusethat we're going to take into
2025.
We're going to start findingsolutions for this and I've got
a few of them here for you thatwe can just get to really
quickly so that you canunderstand what you need to do
(21:43):
If you fall into any of theseseven categories of things that
you're avoiding doing, to buildyour brand of your service
business.
Number one we're going to getreally clear on who we are and
what we do.
Of course, you have alandscaping business, so you cut
grass.
What else do you do and why doyou do it?
(22:04):
Cut grass?
What else do you do and why doyou do it?
Tie those things together insomething that you tell people
at a networking event or thenext time you meet somebody on
the street and they ask you whatto do, and they will ask
questions.
Give them a reason to follow upwith a question.
It's so important that we dothat.
We want to make sure that we'rebuilding a reputation, not just
(22:26):
a business.
People want to buy relationships.
They want to buy from people.
They can get the same servicefrom 50 other companies that are
out there.
Why'd they pick you?
And if you got the opportunitybecause they did pick you do not
let them down.
Do the best that you can do.
(22:48):
You know, there was thisincredible podcast I was
listening to this week and theywere talking about different
forms of pride, and one of thegreatest forms of pride ever is
knowing that you did the bestjob that you could do, even if
there's nobody there looking.
You know, it's one of thosethings where it's like don't
step over the trash.
That's did the best job thatyou could do, even if there's
nobody there looking.
You know, it's one of thosethings where it's like don't
step over the trash that's onthe floor or leave it better
(23:12):
than you found it.
That's what I was always taughtas a kid.
Those are the things that getyou massively important
five-star reviews all overGoogle, yelp, wherever you tend
to direct them to.
It's so important.
Oh and I did tell you earlierthat I was going to tell you why
to send them to Google.
You want those reviews onGoogle so that when people are
(23:36):
checking you out in the localSEO portion of the Google search
return, so, like you can see,there's three companies that
come back with a map.
It's typically the closest towhere you are.
You want to stand out as therock star choice out of those
three people that come back outand I'll tell you, it makes a
(23:58):
massive difference if you are,especially if you're in an
industry where people don't askfor a lot of reviews.
My company in septic is one ofthe youngest companies in the
valley and we have more reviewsby two times than the company
that's been in business for 40years, and the only reason that
is well, we're pretty damn goodat what we do and we're really
(24:20):
good people.
But the other thing is that wehave automated asking for those
reviews, and what I mean by thatis that you can actually use a
company that will connect withyour CRM that you're using, that
will send out automaticinvitations via text or email in
a campaign style to wherethey'll ask not once, maybe two,
(24:42):
three, four or five times forthat review.
Once, maybe two, three, four orfive times for that review.
We get more reviews on thesecond touch, meaning second
text message that goes out thanany other way.
So be sure to set that up asautomating.
If you need help with that,please reach out to me.
I'd be happy to help direct youin a way and the software that
we use for that.
But it is super, superimportant that you do that and
(25:04):
then incentivize yourtechnicians to talk to them
about leaving a review.
I pay my guys 50 bucks forevery review.
They get back that has theirname in it and let me tell you
they're pretty incentivized tokeep talking to people about
that and I know not everybodywill leave one.
But if you can talk to themabout that and the guys can
reinforce it while they're outthere and then you have a
(25:25):
campaign that's automated,you'll get a lot more reviews
than just asking them one timevia email after a service is
done that they may or may notread.
The next thing is gettingpersonal with your account.
Get personal with your socialmedia accounts.
Get personal with your website.
Let them see who the people arebehind you.
People love stories.
Why did you start this businesswebsite?
(25:45):
Let them see who the people arebehind you.
People love stories.
Why'd you start this business?
Why did you start it in thearea that you started it out.
What do you do for thecommunity?
How else are you involved indifferent kinds of businesses
and what is your background?
People are very interested inthat and, ladies, if you're
owners of this business, get inand get woman owned designation
and promote the shit out of thatthroughout your website.
(26:07):
I have customers several amonth that tell us we picked you
because you're a woman ownedcompany, and it's not always the
women that say that.
So definitely look for thatdesignation.
Google has a designation forthat and Yelp has a designation
for that.
That I know of offhand.
But if there's another placewhere you like to have business
listings at, definitely put inthere that you're a woman owned
(26:29):
business.
It's really important.
We want to show up, we want tostay consistent and we want to
make sure that we are reallybeing the true, authentic people
that we say we're going to be.
If we say we're going to comeout and do a great job, go out
and do a great job.
And if you have employees andsometimes you're kind of this
one subpar and this one's kindof here and there, make sure
(26:51):
that you set a new standard thisyear, in 2025.
What is the standard to work atyour amazing business?
What is the standard for themto excel at this incredible
business that they've chosen towork at, excel at this
incredible business that they'vechosen to work at.
It's really, really, reallyimportant that we do that.
So I want you to agree with metoday, as we wrap up here, that
(27:12):
we're not blending in witheverybody else anymore.
You're going to make a planthis weekend to figure out how
you can stand out from the otherpeople that provide your kinds
of services in your area.
And there is no more.
Babe.
You weren't born to blend in.
You were born to stand out.
We're not hiding in plain sightanymore.
Now go kick some ass.
(27:33):
That's a wrap, ladies.
Now go out there, own the hellout of your dreams and keep
kicking ass.
Want to keep this fire going?
Connect with us on social.
All the links are in the shownotes, and if you're ready for a
sisterhood that levels up lifeand business, be sure to check
out Badass Inner Circle.
Stay bold, stay fierce and beunapologetically you.
(27:54):
I'll catch you on the nextepisode.
Let's do this.
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If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.