August 26, 2025 • 37 mins
Most contractors think of branding as a nice truck wrap or a catchy logo. But what if the real gap costing home service owners millions is invisible to customers and hidden in the numbers?
In this episode of Profit & Grit, Sarah Ghirardo, marketing leader at ServiceTitan and former head of marketing at Service Champions, shares how she helped grow a $21M HVAC company into a $55M powerhouse. She explains why marketing without math is the biggest mistake owners make, how personal branding can fuel growth, and what it really takes to stand out in today’s competitive trades market.
You’ll hear how Sarah turned “HVAC isn’t sexy” into a challenge, why she believes branding is an infinite game, and the steps owners can take right now to cut wasted spend and build brands that actually drive profit.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
• Why “math before marketing” is the key to avoiding wasted spend
• How branding goes far beyond a truck wrap and builds lasting community trust
• Where home service businesses lose millions in redundant tools, poor CSR conversion rates, and untracked ads
• Why personal branding is one of the most overlooked growth opportunities for contractors
• How AI is changing marketing and where trades owners should start today
Listen now to hear Sarah’s insights on branding, numbers, and building a business that grows with purpose and profit.
More From Profit & Grit
Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here:
http://cfointrocall.com
Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com
Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades.
If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too!
To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber and Blue Collar Success Group
🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin
Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners.
🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com
📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler
📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit
Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades
📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy?
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The point is is that you can go blindly from zero to
five million without math, butyou, once you hit that five
million sometimes people you'regoing to be like whoa, whoa,
whoa, I'm not actually makingany money.
And then I'm throwing all thismoney at a website, I'm throwing
all this money at ads that Idon't know where it's going, I'm
(00:24):
not keeping track of it.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to Profit and Grit with Tyler, where blue
collar owners and insiders spillthe real story behind their
hustle, building businesses thatthrive through sweat and smarts
.
We'll dig into their journeys,from scaling chaos to growing
the bottom line, with lessonsand grit that pay off big.
Here's your host, the bluecollar CFO, tyler Martin.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of
Profit and Grit.
Today we're sitting down withSarah Girardo.
She spent years helping HVACand home service companies grow
and she's seen firsthand whatworks and what doesn't.
In this conversation, we coversome really practical takeaways.
You're going to learn how shewent from retail into HVAC and
(01:13):
turned an unsexy industry into acareer she loves.
Why branding both your businessand your personal brand matters
more than ever.
If you want to stand out andthe steps contractors can take
right now to build strongerconnections with their community
(01:33):
and grow profits, let's getinto it.
Hey, sarah, welcome to theProfit and Grit Podcast Show.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm great.
How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I'm doing okay.
I always love to start aconversation where we've had
technical glitches andchallenges.
That always makes it a littlefun.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
You know working in tech, I completely understand
technical glitches and problemsPart of it, right?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, hey, you know where I'd love to.
I'm just so excited to talkwith you.
I've just watched yourself forquite some time now, researched
you to death, feel like you'rean old friend when I'd love to
start just hearing your storyand learning about you.
So you're someone well-known inthe trades industry HVAC in
particular, I would say but itdidn't always start that way for
(02:17):
you.
You came into that industryfrom I think it was BevMo, if
I'm remembering correctly.
Yeah, when you got into HVAC, Ithink your boss even said, or
as you were about to get intoHVAC, he said HVAC isn't really
sexy, and your comment was alongthe lines like challenge
accepted.
Could you tell me, take me backto that story and share with me
how this all started?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, most definitely so.
I was working as a kind of likea director of customer service
for a large retail alcoholcompany and running 177 stores,
and it wasn't what I wanted todo.
It was something that I neededto do because of the recession
in 2008.
(02:56):
I have a marketing degree.
I started marketing Lots ofstories there, but I wound up
knowing someone that worked atBevMo and that's how I got hired
there.
But then I started making aname for myself at that company
and didn't really know that Ihad that much influence on a guy
(03:17):
in marketing.
And the guy in marketing went toan HVAC company and after about
a year there he realized thathe wanted to bring me in.
I really didn't talk to thisguy ever and I was surprised.
But he was like, look, I have aposition.
I know you're here in the areathe business is in.
It'd be a short commute, but Iwant you to run the call center.
(03:39):
And I was like, yeah, no,absolutely not.
I want to get back intomarketing, like I will do
whatever it takes.
And he was like, well, hvacisn't sexy.
And I was like I do not care,like challenge accepted, like I
will figure it out.
And that's kind of how itstarted and they put me the
(04:00):
company that I worked for,service Champions in Northern
California.
They invested heavily in peopleand they always said that and
Kevin Comerford always said thatthe business is a people and
experience business and that'swhat I loved about the company.
But it made me so passionateabout people and it made me so
passionate about the customerexperience that I just could not
(04:23):
not learn and keep going inthis trade.
So that's kind of what I'vebeen doing.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Did you?
Once you immerse yourself inHVAC world, how did you feel
about it being sexy or not Like?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
did you have a it was not sexy, right.
I was like.
I was like, how do I make thesepictures fun and then take a
brand that you know like is verystoic?
And I mean, when I got there,there was an bald eagle on the
truck and you can see like thecracks in its beak and I was
(04:54):
like, wow, how do I take this?
What do I run with?
What is this?
What does marketing andadvertising look like in this?
And then, yeah, it's not sexy,you know, but I mean I think I
make it pretty sexy, like justbeing around.
No, but it's fun because it's apeople don't call because
(05:17):
they're excited to be like hey,you know what?
Today I'm just so excited Likemy air conditioner broke and I
am so happy to call you rightnow Because I know that I just
really wanted to spend thisamount of money to replace it.
It's just so full of joy.
It's not right.
(05:37):
And so you have to play withthe problem solution in a way
that helps people understand howto buy and why to buy, and it's
so.
It has stimulated my, mythoughts.
It's taken it to the next levelof you know, what does
marketing and advertising reallylook like in this world and how
(05:58):
can we make it fun, but alsohow can we just like create
brands that are remarkable?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, what would you say like what surprised you most
about the trade industry interms from coming from the
outside?
Did anything catch you off likeyou didn't expect?
Or it surprised you?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, that's definitely.
I didn't understand all of themath behind it.
You know, like it's a lot ofmath.
It's a lot of like learningabout capacity and learning
about you know how many trucksin the road, the windshield time
it is, I think, like why youknow, and I went to college at
an engineering school and I tooka lot of statistics and
(06:37):
logistics courses and now it'slike, oh my gosh, I can use them
now.
I never thought I would, but Iunderstand it now.
It's like you're constantlymapping backwards and forwards
and understanding where in themath is the emotional experience
, not only in your techniciansbut in the consumer behavior,
(06:58):
and it's so incredibly importantto know.
But I did not expect it, to behonest, and the only way I
learned it was I had, we had aleader, Like I said, Kevin
Hummerford.
He's just this incrediblevisionary, but also he explained
the math to us so that we couldoperate the business as owners.
(07:22):
That we could operate thebusiness as owners and that's so
respectful, respectable and itreally has taken that
organization to the next levelbut also the people inside the
organization to understand whatthey're doing and what their why
is and put it back to thenumbers.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, that's very cool.
Hey, you know you've mentionednow service champions.
You were very integral as partof your marketing, growing them
from like 40 to 55 million.
I kind of have a two partquestion for you.
One, I'd love to know whatimpact did you have in helping
that grow Like?
What were some key things thatyou did that influenced that
growth?
And then two, I'd love to makeit very relatable to our
(08:01):
audience.
We have a lot of people out inthe audience that are kind of in
that two to ten million dollarrange.
It very relatable to ouraudience.
We have a lot of people out inthe audience that are kind of in
that $2 to $10 million range.
I'd love to know for the Joe H,joe or Jane HVAC owner that's
made like $4 million a year,what should they be doing?
That might be applicable towhat you've had in your career.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, most definitely , and when I started they were
$21 million.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And when I left, they were $55 million yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And when I left, even more.
They acquired more businessesand they merged into private
equity.
So they went big right.
And what I can tell you is thateven at 21 million, sometimes
you get there without havingstrategic operations in place
that you really understand ofhow to get there.
Right.
You're just like I got here.
(08:40):
I have a great call center, Ihave a great call center, I have
a great whatever.
But this new age of AI andautomation it starts.
It's kind of like the internetstarting over, right?
So if you're a small business,this is your time to play, this
is your time to win, and I thinkthat's the coolest thing.
It just sets the level again.
(09:01):
And if you're a large business,this becomes like a
multi-operational kind ofconsumer behavior.
But to get anywhere, you needto establish a brand in the
community, and what I've learnedis that doesn't matter what
revenue size you are, there areother local businesses out there
that need to be promotedalongside of yours.
(09:23):
And when you bridge those twothings together and you bring
the community together with yourbrand, you're unstoppable,
right?
And it's the little things,it's not.
I watched Lees and Fresno goout on the street with video and
they were asking people of likehey, what's your favorite spot
to eat in town?
I mean, it's the tiny thingsthat you can do to be remarkable
(09:45):
and leave a brand legacy.
Now, often people think, well,it has to be like I have to have
this beautiful truck, you haveto stand out in the crowd,
absolutely.
But that truck has to have astory behind it and that story
is your why.
And so when you're going intobusiness, the first thing I
would say for a small businessis A what's your exit strategy?
(10:07):
B what's your why?
Align these two together.
What's the impact that you'regoing to make?
And then start building a brand.
Obviously, the most contractorswill start with word of mouth
Great, well, where does word ofmouth take you?
It takes you everywhere.
Mouth Great.
Well, where does word of mouthtake you?
It takes you everywhere, right,you can put it in your pocket
(10:28):
and give it away to whoever yousee.
You can hire and recruit.
With business cards.
You can look at exceptionalbusinesses around and be like
hey, I'd love to partner withyou.
What does this look like?
I don't know.
Often, when we start businesses, we don't know.
So, finding a good brand andsticking with a name that makes
sense, that's searchable thatmakes sense to the search,
(10:49):
developing your reputation,getting those Google star, those
reviews, figuring out a way toget into ChatGPT and other LLMs
for search and always, always upthat Google business profile or
whatever they want to call it.
Those days that's the easiest,lowest hanging fruit and all of
the Google products willeventually be linked together.
(11:11):
Now, right now, you're seeinglike a weird search and then
another weird search and then apaid search and like Google
wants to monetize everything.
So like that's a game, right.
And the last thing I would sayis to really understand that
marketing and advertising is aninfinite game and that means
that there are players that areplaying every single day, and
(11:32):
what one person says is rightcould be black hat or gray hat,
which means not tested or justtesting, because the internet is
basically starting over.
Testing because the internet isbasically starting over.
So, yeah, I would just say nowis your time to play.
And if you're ready to play,then hit the ground hard and
guerrilla market it withcommunity.
(11:52):
First build your brand and, youknow, never think that just
because you're small doesn'tmean that you can't be big.
The smaller they think you are,the bigger you'll become.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So I want to dig a little on a couple of things.
You said that was all reallygood gold stuff.
It doesn't mean that you can'tbe big.
The smaller they think you are,the bigger you'll become.
So I want to dig a little on acouple of things.
You said that was all reallygood gold stuff you talked about
when we first started thatconversation.
You said come up with your whyand then also have your exit.
Do you mean when you say exit?
Do you mean your exit plan interms of someday selling or
getting out of the business?
Is that what you mean?
Yeah, you can't be in thereforever?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
right, and what if it doesn't?
What I've ran into is what ifthe family doesn't want it?
Right, and what if?
Like?
What are the what ifs?
And I feel like sometimes we'realways like, well, we'll pass
this down to family and this isgonna be a family generated
business.
But there are millions outthere right now that are like
(12:45):
tired of being the person in thetruck and are wanting to sell
and retire and their familiesdon't want to take it over.
So think about an exit strategythat's aligned to your why, and
your why is probably yourfamily.
Your why is why you startedthis.
Your why is the problems andsolutions that you wanted to
(13:05):
solve for people.
But like, there's got to be away out, right, we can't do this
for the rest of our lives,right?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
right.
No, that's good feedback.
It's funny.
I um, you know, in my, mypractice I see a lot of
family-owned businesses and it'salways just funny to see the
dynamics in a family-ownedbusiness, one that sticks out to
me the father likes to do acertain type of business and the
son likes to do something elseand he's like the minute my dad
retires I'm doing what I want todo and I don't care what he
says.
So it's just kind of funny howyou get to your point, you get
(13:36):
these dynamics that just becauseit's family doesn't mean it's
forever.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Right Forever in a business right.
And the business could evolveand it could be whatever, and
I'm not saying don't think aboutthat, but like, sometimes your
kids don't want it.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
True, true, I said it , it's true.
And then the other thing that Iwanted to mention.
You brought up the word brand alot.
When you're saying brand likein your mind, where do you think
like the owner should bebranding themselves versus the
business also brandingthemselves?
Could you get in a little bitdeeper on both those topics?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, most definitely so.
A brand is a person, a thing ora logo.
It can mean a lot, but it'sabout your mission, your culture
, your vision, and that's reallywhat a brand can start with and
stand with, and you can buildthat with AI.
Just put in your thoughts, dumpit like it's a brain dump and
say help me make a brand of thiscompany.
(14:33):
This is what I envision, thisis what I say.
Now, a personal brand that'sconnected to your business is
incredibly important, and Ithink that the majority of
contractors miss out on this asthe largest opportunity to speak
, to say what you have to say,to teach what you have to teach,
(14:54):
because we don't know what wedon't know.
I go out and I built a personalbrand.
I started doing this in COVID.
I learned that no one wasspeaking about marketing and I
was like I need help.
I was like I need tocrowdsource logic and ideas and
(15:14):
I need help, and what I foundwere communities out there that
were already talking aboutbusiness, but they weren't
talking about marketing, and Iwas like I'm going in, I told
everyone at about marketing andI was like, going in, I told
everyone at where I worked.
I was like I'm going in, I'mgoing to go and help Because I
came from a larger contractor,so I do have larger, I had a
(15:35):
larger budget, I had largerthings I can say that.
But I knew that people neededhelp and I knew that they didn't
know what I knew.
And so how dare I not sharethat?
How dare I not help, was mythought, and that's always
aligned back to my why.
So building a personal brandthat's connected to your
business will only help yourbusiness grow because they will
(15:58):
see you as a leader in thecommunity.
They will see you as a leaderin the industry.
They will help to.
It just builds connections, itbuilds bridges and I think
that's the biggest thing.
So if I could tell any ownerright now, go out there.
And I think like that's thebiggest thing.
So if I could tell any ownerright now, go out there.
And I know video is hard and Iknow posting on social media is
(16:19):
hard, but life is hard.
Choose your hard.
You know you can do.
This is all I would say, that'sgood feedback.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So you would say it sounds like you're a strong
proponent of the personalbranding as well as the business
branding.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Oh, most definitely yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
And I think it is hard, for it doesn't come
naturally for a lot of people,but I even now in the blue
collar world, it's like you seeit so much and it's evolved so
much and to me what seems like ashort amount of time, it's
almost like you're missing theboat, if you aren't being
visible in some way.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, most definitely .
And like now, your social mediachannels are like Instagram and
Facebook, are being indexed onGoogle, and so get out there,
like there is no better timethan now, and if you're just
waiting on yourself, mysuggestion is to take a big leap
.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
We are back for another Service Scalers
marketing tip.
The biggest leak in yourbusiness isn't always bad ads.
It's marketing spend that isn'ttied to the math.
Sarah Gerardo explained why somany home service companies hit
$5 million or even $10 millionin revenue, only to realize
(17:31):
they're not actually making anymoney.
The gap they're seriouslypouring money into ads, tools
and websites without knowingwhich dollars are working.
If you don't connect marketingspend to book jobs, conversion
rates and margins, you're flyingblind.
That invisible gap can quietlycost you millions in wasted
(17:55):
spend and missed revenue.
So here's an action step Beforespending another dollar on ads,
map your marketing budgetagainst conversions and ticket
size, know which campaigns bringreal profit and cut the rest.
This is brought to you byService Scalers, helping home
service businesses turnmarketing into measurable profit
(18:19):
.
The link is in the show notesand please tell them.
Tyler sent you.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And if you're just waiting on yourself, my
suggestion is to take a big leapgood stuff.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Okay, before I get into, I have some personal stuff
I want to learn about you, butbefore I do that, I've got a
couple more marketing questions.
I want to talk about thisremarket table.
Is that how you say it,philosophy?
It's remarkable okay, sorry Iwas close.
What does that mean?
And I believe it's around amarketing budget.
Could you talk us through thata little bit?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah, so first being more marketable.
I always align it back to SethGodin and the purple cow.
Right, he said your brand hasto stand out to be remarkable.
But the purple cow is no longera purple cow.
It's like a purple cow with adisco helmet and a Ferrari
driving down the road with theoriginal purple cow on the back.
(19:12):
It's totally somethingdifferent, and so that's what my
branding strategy is.
When I teach the trades, it'slike yeah, you can't just be a
Purple Cow, you have to be anoutstanding Purple Cow.
And so that's where Remarkablecame from.
It was the idea of like, well,how do you create just an
extraordinary brand withextraordinary people?
(19:35):
But the biggest thing that I'velearned is and especially over
the years, because I've workedwith over 2000 contractors just
in general teaching marketingand helping the trades what I've
learned is there is limited tono math, to advanced math.
Right, it just depends on whereyou're at, and I believe that
(19:56):
the trades are getting betterwith the math.
But you have to do math beforemarketing, and Marsha Barnes was
the one that said that.
I think she trademarked it.
She's with Valvometer, she'sbrilliant.
And the point is is that you cango blindly from zero to 5
(20:16):
million without math.
But you, once you hit that 5million sometimes people are
you're going to be like, whoa,I'm not actually making any
money.
And then I'm throwing all thismoney at a website, I'm throwing
all this money at ads that Idon't know where it's going.
I'm not keeping track of it.
That's what I'm talking about.
(20:38):
Your operations are obviouslygoing to hit your bottom line,
but your marketing is going tohit your bottom line with your
operations if there isn't acohesive build.
So I give a template away forfree, that is, a budgeting
planner or just a place to keepall of your expenses.
Start with the math how muchdoes this cost?
(21:00):
Let me write this down how muchdoes this cost?
What's money in, money out?
And then the other big thing Isee is I see a lot of wasted
spend in operations.
I see a lot of wasted spend inmarketing.
I see a lot of wasted spendjust in general, because again,
we're going blind and the goalis to never be blind in your
(21:21):
business.
You have to say, okay, well, ifI don't know something, I'm
going to go to a small businessclass.
Maybe they can help me set up amarketing budget, maybe they
can help me set up a P&L.
You know we don't always comein as business leaders knowing
what math we should have in allof these reports.
What do they mean?
And I'm still learning, right,and that's okay.
(21:42):
It's okay to not know what youdon't know, but if you know that
you don't know something, thenit's your job to take action.
Once you hear that you now knowis what I say.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
When you say you see waste, like in marketing and
operations.
Anything stand out as what youlike.
Is it overstaffing?
Is it your software tools theydon't use?
Or what do you typically see?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
It's all of it.
The biggest waste to spend isin, obviously, in software.
That's a big waste, right,they're not using the tools to
their capability, but they'rebuying more tools and then they
have redundant.
They have redundant tools and Iknow that I work with a lot of
different agencies and differentvendors that are working to
(22:25):
reduce the redundancy.
The other biggest wasted spendin marketing marketing in
general would be in Google ads,I see, because they don't know
what they don't know, let's say,don't have time to manage it,
and so that's really where AIwill come in to help leverage
that opportunity that's there totheir own CRM and to their own
(22:48):
data, to make it more of anefficient and automated process
for them.
There's wasted spend in tasksthat we are doing, so, even as a
marketer, time is money and atone point I could spend 8 hours
writing an email.
Why, when I would use AI and Icould get it done in 3 minutes?
(23:09):
What's the automation and theredundant tasks that are
throughout the entire customerjourney, throughout our entire
operations, that need to beautomated and implemented with
AI?
When I look at CSRs, the wastedspend is in the lack of the
conversion, and if they'reconverting at a 37% call booking
(23:33):
rate, then 80% is the goal,right.
80-20 is what we do in tech.
It's the MVP, minimum viableproduct.
But it also goes with life ingeneral, right, no one wants to
do anything at 100%.
That doesn't even make sense.
So, like 80%, if I'm 80% there,what's my average ticket at 80%
(23:53):
?
Well, if I'm at 37%, what's thegap between 80 and 37?
And what's that average ticket?
And that's my missed revenue,right?
And so it's like now I've gotlike a bigger issue and when
technicians when I look at thatkind of wasted spend, I look at
drive time, like traffic istraffic in areas, and so, like,
(24:16):
how much time are yourtechnicians sitting on the road,
maybe doing Snapchat videoswhile they're waiting in traffic
to get to their destination?
How many trucks do you have onthe road maybe doing Snapchat
videos while they're waiting intraffic to get to their
destination?
How many trucks do you have onthe road that makes it optimal
to where you're driving to andhitting the right windshield
time that it's not hitting thebottom line?
So there is ways to spendeverywhere tools supplying,
(24:39):
inventory, management.
It happens everywhere inbusiness.
You just have to think of theopportunities that, okay, like
ask the people in those roles.
What can I help you with CSRs?
Do they need scripts to helpthem, guide them?
Are we going to an AI?
You know evolution with CSRs?
Absolutely you know.
But what will the people do?
(24:59):
Because it's AI plus a humantouch.
So, yeah, it's just reallysitting down and saying with
each department, all right,what's what's redundant here?
And if you're the only personsay, okay, what can I get off my
plate Like this is too much,and we know it's too much, you
can't operate the business andbe in the business and do all
(25:21):
the things Like it's just and bein the business and do all the
things like it's just it's justnot possible and live a healthy
life.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
So a lot of good stuff there.
That labor efficiency one isthe one that always blows my
mind, though, because it's justobviously labor's being one of
your most expensive costs.
How little thought oftentimesis put into whether it be routes
or just timing and schedulingthat can eat up the bottom line
so fast.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, and dispatching for profits, right, and there's
so much, I mean so much thathits the bottom line and so yeah
.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Okay, I want to get a little personal.
I want to learn about you alittle bit.
So you know, my latest researchindicates you're a single mom.
I know you travel a lot basedon you know, learning about you
and watching you and researchingyou.
How do you manage because thisis a common thing for business
owners, Like how do they managetheir work-life balance?
They're working 80 hours a weekand they've got a family and
stuff like that Somehow you'reable to do this traveling and
(26:13):
you've got a child you're takingcare of.
How do you do it?
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, there is no work-life balance.
I stopped telling myself thatlie a long time ago.
But there is a work and a lifeand I'm fortunate enough to have
great parents.
I have a, you know, they have agreat dad and I have a great
mother-in-law, and they are allthere.
(26:36):
We all leaned in together.
Like the divorce happened along time ago and it was
whatever it was.
But what we did as and this isthe reason why I believe that I
married him was because I knewwe had a great family dynamic
and when times got tough, all Isaw was that we leaned in
together and that's kind of howI've been living my life is that
(27:00):
they're like you know, I stayedhome for a very long time and I
had this opportunity to go andno one said, hey, Sarah, don't
do that.
They just said go, and so thesupport from my family has
really been the driver of beingable to get out there and scale
myself and teach the trades andand you know, can I say it's
(27:23):
always been easy.
It hasn't.
Are there lots of bumps in theroad?
Absolutely.
Do I miss my kids?
Yes, but they know why I'mdoing this.
They know that I'm doing thisfor them and not as a guilt trip
for them.
It is really to to buildgenerational wealth and to teach
.
You know single moms that, yeah, life is hard and sometimes I
(27:45):
carry my kids with me andsometimes I, you know, I just
have to figure it out, and Ithink that that was the biggest
thing for me as a single mom isbelieving in myself, being
courageous enough to take a steptowards something that I didn't
even know existed, and justkeep failing forward while I'm
doing it.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I love your transparency.
I, like you, know it's alwayseasy when you get questions like
that to paint this picture likeeverything's perfect and the
reality is life isn't right.
I mean that's cool.
Hey, I want to talk about onthis personal section a little
bit.
More is so.
You know, this industryobviously is male dominated and
(28:26):
you making having your niche inthis world as a female how have
you balanced that, like, howhave you managed so you're being
treated respectfully, you're,you're fitting into the industry
and you become such a, youbecome a powerful voice as well
as a pioneer for other women,which is huge.
So what do you think you'vedone to be able to be successful
in doing that?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I think that first I have relationships with all
people in the trades right, Iknow the balance.
And at first, you know, I was ahuge proponent of women in the
trades.
I'm like, let's go, let's getout there, let's, but it's about
people and it's about beingable to teach people how, how to
, because all people really wantis to be heard, be known, be
(29:08):
seen Right.
And so that was my philosophy.
It was like, well, how can Ibring you out, how can I do this
scrappy, how can I hit theground running?
And it doesn't matter who youare.
And I started with women in thetrades as much as I could,
because I knew that they had avoice and they could share just
(29:28):
this incredible likeintellectual, like operations of
running a business.
And I, what I was seeing outthere was just women that were
so passionate, but they didn'thave a place to stand and I was
like, okay, well, let's justmake up one.
And so I did that as much as Icould and I went to as many
(29:48):
conferences and I helped as manypeople just bring them out to
speak.
And you know, as I love saying,people love to say that I'm a
pioneer, but really all I didwas just help people help
themselves.
Right, I believed in them, andsometimes that's all you have to
do is just believe in people,and I probably believed in them
(30:10):
the most because I felt sobroken from my divorce that I
needed something to believe in,and so I gave back everything
that I could and turn my paininto purpose for others.
And, yeah, so that's why Istarted with my journey with
women, because I just wantedthem to shine as bright as they
(30:34):
were.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Have you ever felt like you've had to work harder
as a female in terms of beingaccepted into the industry and,
if so, how have you kind ofovercome that?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah, there are definitely the boys clubs and
I'm not going to lie Like they,they exist.
It feels like you have to workharder.
It feels like sometimes youhave to be louder.
It feels like sometimes the waythat I could come across would
be labeled as aggressive orbossy and I've been, you know
labeled.
But it also feels like I've hadso much collaboration with men
(31:06):
and that have helped me grow inthis industry, in the tech
industry, in some of my biggestmentors, some of my biggest fans
, are pushing me every year,every day, to grow and I can sit
in the the well, that made mefeel like garbage kind of
(31:26):
conversation, because it hashappened, or I can say cool,
maybe we could have aconversation about how this
would better fit.
You know my, the language that Ilike to speak, the way that I
like to communicate, and maybeI'm not communicating the
appropriate way and in terms ofthe tone that you would like to
hear, but I am wanting to get mypoint across, so let's have a
(31:48):
different conversation, right,and so, like I've learned to
shift my conversation, shift theway I communicate and really
understand, with the intent oflistening versus reacting, and
these are all things I had tolearn because I did, you know.
But it has been a journey oflearning, to be honest, and I
have thoroughly enjoyed learningbecause it's made me a better
(32:12):
person to really understandpeople.
So I can't give enough thanksto the men in the industry and
the men in tech that have helpedme lead the way and have said
hey, sarah, run, and they haveallowed me to fail forward and
they have shown me the way and Ijust I can't thank them enough.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
So one thing I I really appreciated I interviewed
Rachel Evans she goes by missmini splits and it was a little
bit different than men.
And I'm speaking for myself,particularly a lot of times when
we have a career, it's likethat's our identity, that's who
we are.
And what I loved about herangle and I think it's a little
bit of a female trait too isshe's like man.
(32:56):
I come to work, I build mycompany, but it's not what I'm
all about.
I have other interests.
My job isn't me Like, mycompany isn't just what I do,
like it and I just.
It just really resonated withme because a lot of times,
particularly with men, I thinkwe it is like that's us, like
our, our business is us, likeyou take that from us and you
might be taking our soul.
(33:16):
And I just thought it wasinteresting the way she
presented that.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Yeah, and I think as you grow a bit more into
self-awareness, you're like, hey, I have to have some kind of
separation because otherwise I'mdrowning, right.
And?
And sometimes men don't admitthat and and women are like, oh
my God, I'm drowning and like it.
You can see like our reactionshappen, and then we'll shut down
, like everyone will have adifferent reaction to it,
(33:40):
something like that.
But I think what she was onpoint with is there is a life
and then there is a life.
There is a work life and thenthere is a life, and you got to
have both.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
So Okay, I know we're coming up to the top of the
hour.
We got a little bit of a latestart, so I want to be
respectful of time.
I've got two things.
I want to end with One.
I just want your thoughts interms of AI.
We're at the forefront of AI.
Where do you see that kind ofgoing, and is there anything
that right now trades?
Speaker 1 (34:11):
people should be using in terms of software, just
being aware of, yeah, ai andautomation.
The way I like to think aboutit, it's, finally, the ability
to track the truth of our effort, right, like that's what AI and
automation is, and when I thinkabout that, it's making us
efficient in our processes.
An easy AI tool for you to useis Opus Clips for videos, and so
(34:34):
you could just record a podcastlike this, take it into Opus
Clips and it'll chop it up.
Video is where it's at.
So that's one easy tip.
Also, learn Chat.
Learn chat GBT or Gemini orboth, but just pick one, start
dumping your, your brainthoughts into it and see what
you get right, like, put it onyour phone, have a conversation
(34:56):
with it, because you know searchis conversational.
So that's what I would say.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
That's good stuff.
Okay, in terms of just wrappingup a couple last things here,
if someone's out there listeningand they want to connect with
you, where's the best spot thatthey should do that?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Yeah, they can connect with me at my work email
, which is sgerardo, atservicetitancom.
They can connect with me at theTrademark Podcast.
They can follow me on Instagramunder Sarah Gerardo, or
Facebook.
I'm everywhere, so.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Sarah, gerardo, or Facebook.
I'm everywhere so, and I'll putall those links also in the
show notes.
And then, last thing, anyupcoming events or projects
coming up that people might wantto be aware of.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah, most definitely so.
We have Pantheon coming up inSeptember, super excited about
that.
I have another marketing forthe Trade Summit Toolbox Live
Edition coming in December wherewe come together and learn
about marketing in the trades,not just only about the software
but about how the trades arechanging in their marketplace.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Yeah, Pantheon is pretty exciting.
It's on my radar.
I'm still kind of on the fencein terms of I want to help.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Just do it.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
I know it looks so cool.
I look at all the classes andthey all look so good.
Okay, okay, you got my.
You're pushing me Well, hey,thanks so much for your time.
I super appreciate it and can'tthank you enough for being on
the show today.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Thank you so much for having me.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
You too.
What I like about what Sarahshared is that she brings things
back to the basics.
Growth in the trades isn't justabout ads or a good truck wrap.
It's about telling your story,building trust in your community
and putting yourself out therein a way that makes people want
(36:35):
to work with you.
From my side as a CFO, I seehow this shows up in the numbers
.
Companies that take brand andvisibility seriously usually
close more jobs, keep betterpeople and create stronger
profits.
It's not just marketing, it'slong-term business strategy.
(36:56):
If you're running a homeservice business in that $2 to
$10 million range and trying tofigure out how to move to the
next level, I'd be happy to talkabout it with you.
You can book an intro meetingwith me at cfomadeeasycom.
Once again, that'scfomadeeasycom.
(37:16):
No pressure, just an intromeeting.
Thanks.
The point is is that you can go blindly from zero to
five million without math, butyou, once you hit that five
million sometimes people you'regoing to be like whoa, whoa,
whoa, I'm not actually makingany money.
And then I'm throwing all thismoney at a website, I'm throwing
all this money at ads that Idon't know where it's going, I'm
(00:24):
not keeping track of it.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to Profit and Grit with Tyler, where blue
collar owners and insiders spillthe real story behind their
hustle, building businesses thatthrive through sweat and smarts
.
We'll dig into their journeys,from scaling chaos to growing
the bottom line, with lessonsand grit that pay off big.
Here's your host, the bluecollar CFO, tyler Martin.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of
Profit and Grit.
Today we're sitting down withSarah Girardo.
She spent years helping HVACand home service companies grow
and she's seen firsthand whatworks and what doesn't.
In this conversation, we coversome really practical takeaways.
You're going to learn how shewent from retail into HVAC and
(01:13):
turned an unsexy industry into acareer she loves.
Why branding both your businessand your personal brand matters
more than ever.
If you want to stand out andthe steps contractors can take
right now to build strongerconnections with their community
(01:33):
and grow profits, let's getinto it.
Hey, sarah, welcome to theProfit and Grit Podcast Show.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm great.
How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I'm doing okay.
I always love to start aconversation where we've had
technical glitches andchallenges.
That always makes it a littlefun.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
You know working in tech, I completely understand
technical glitches and problemsPart of it, right?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, hey, you know where I'd love to.
I'm just so excited to talkwith you.
I've just watched yourself forquite some time now, researched
you to death, feel like you'rean old friend when I'd love to
start just hearing your storyand learning about you.
So you're someone well-known inthe trades industry HVAC in
particular, I would say but itdidn't always start that way for
(02:17):
you.
You came into that industryfrom I think it was BevMo, if
I'm remembering correctly.
Yeah, when you got into HVAC, Ithink your boss even said, or
as you were about to get intoHVAC, he said HVAC isn't really
sexy, and your comment was alongthe lines like challenge
accepted.
Could you tell me, take me backto that story and share with me
how this all started?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, most definitely so.
I was working as a kind of likea director of customer service
for a large retail alcoholcompany and running 177 stores,
and it wasn't what I wanted todo.
It was something that I neededto do because of the recession
in 2008.
(02:56):
I have a marketing degree.
I started marketing Lots ofstories there, but I wound up
knowing someone that worked atBevMo and that's how I got hired
there.
But then I started making aname for myself at that company
and didn't really know that Ihad that much influence on a guy
(03:17):
in marketing.
And the guy in marketing went toan HVAC company and after about
a year there he realized thathe wanted to bring me in.
I really didn't talk to thisguy ever and I was surprised.
But he was like, look, I have aposition.
I know you're here in the areathe business is in.
It'd be a short commute, but Iwant you to run the call center.
(03:39):
And I was like, yeah, no,absolutely not.
I want to get back intomarketing, like I will do
whatever it takes.
And he was like, well, hvacisn't sexy.
And I was like I do not care,like challenge accepted, like I
will figure it out.
And that's kind of how itstarted and they put me the
(04:00):
company that I worked for,service Champions in Northern
California.
They invested heavily in peopleand they always said that and
Kevin Comerford always said thatthe business is a people and
experience business and that'swhat I loved about the company.
But it made me so passionateabout people and it made me so
passionate about the customerexperience that I just could not
(04:23):
not learn and keep going inthis trade.
So that's kind of what I'vebeen doing.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Did you?
Once you immerse yourself inHVAC world, how did you feel
about it being sexy or not Like?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
did you have a it was not sexy, right.
I was like.
I was like, how do I make thesepictures fun and then take a
brand that you know like is verystoic?
And I mean, when I got there,there was an bald eagle on the
truck and you can see like thecracks in its beak and I was
(04:54):
like, wow, how do I take this?
What do I run with?
What is this?
What does marketing andadvertising look like in this?
And then, yeah, it's not sexy,you know, but I mean I think I
make it pretty sexy, like justbeing around.
No, but it's fun because it's apeople don't call because
(05:17):
they're excited to be like hey,you know what?
Today I'm just so excited Likemy air conditioner broke and I
am so happy to call you rightnow Because I know that I just
really wanted to spend thisamount of money to replace it.
It's just so full of joy.
It's not right.
(05:37):
And so you have to play withthe problem solution in a way
that helps people understand howto buy and why to buy, and it's
so.
It has stimulated my, mythoughts.
It's taken it to the next levelof you know, what does
marketing and advertising reallylook like in this world and how
(05:58):
can we make it fun, but alsohow can we just like create
brands that are remarkable?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, what would you say like what surprised you most
about the trade industry interms from coming from the
outside?
Did anything catch you off likeyou didn't expect?
Or it surprised you?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, that's definitely.
I didn't understand all of themath behind it.
You know, like it's a lot ofmath.
It's a lot of like learningabout capacity and learning
about you know how many trucksin the road, the windshield time
it is, I think, like why youknow, and I went to college at
an engineering school and I tooka lot of statistics and
(06:37):
logistics courses and now it'slike, oh my gosh, I can use them
now.
I never thought I would, but Iunderstand it now.
It's like you're constantlymapping backwards and forwards
and understanding where in themath is the emotional experience
, not only in your techniciansbut in the consumer behavior,
(06:58):
and it's so incredibly importantto know.
But I did not expect it, to behonest, and the only way I
learned it was I had, we had aleader, Like I said, Kevin
Hummerford.
He's just this incrediblevisionary, but also he explained
the math to us so that we couldoperate the business as owners.
(07:22):
That we could operate thebusiness as owners and that's so
respectful, respectable and itreally has taken that
organization to the next levelbut also the people inside the
organization to understand whatthey're doing and what their why
is and put it back to thenumbers.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, that's very cool.
Hey, you know you've mentionednow service champions.
You were very integral as partof your marketing, growing them
from like 40 to 55 million.
I kind of have a two partquestion for you.
One, I'd love to know whatimpact did you have in helping
that grow Like?
What were some key things thatyou did that influenced that
growth?
And then two, I'd love to makeit very relatable to our
(08:01):
audience.
We have a lot of people out inthe audience that are kind of in
that two to ten million dollarrange.
It very relatable to ouraudience.
We have a lot of people out inthe audience that are kind of in
that $2 to $10 million range.
I'd love to know for the Joe H,joe or Jane HVAC owner that's
made like $4 million a year,what should they be doing?
That might be applicable towhat you've had in your career.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, most definitely , and when I started they were
$21 million.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And when I left, they were $55 million yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And when I left, even more.
They acquired more businessesand they merged into private
equity.
So they went big right.
And what I can tell you is thateven at 21 million, sometimes
you get there without havingstrategic operations in place
that you really understand ofhow to get there.
Right.
You're just like I got here.
(08:40):
I have a great call center, Ihave a great call center, I have
a great whatever.
But this new age of AI andautomation it starts.
It's kind of like the internetstarting over, right?
So if you're a small business,this is your time to play, this
is your time to win, and I thinkthat's the coolest thing.
It just sets the level again.
(09:01):
And if you're a large business,this becomes like a
multi-operational kind ofconsumer behavior.
But to get anywhere, you needto establish a brand in the
community, and what I've learnedis that doesn't matter what
revenue size you are, there areother local businesses out there
that need to be promotedalongside of yours.
(09:23):
And when you bridge those twothings together and you bring
the community together with yourbrand, you're unstoppable,
right?
And it's the little things,it's not.
I watched Lees and Fresno goout on the street with video and
they were asking people of likehey, what's your favorite spot
to eat in town?
I mean, it's the tiny thingsthat you can do to be remarkable
(09:45):
and leave a brand legacy.
Now, often people think, well,it has to be like I have to have
this beautiful truck, you haveto stand out in the crowd,
absolutely.
But that truck has to have astory behind it and that story
is your why.
And so when you're going intobusiness, the first thing I
would say for a small businessis A what's your exit strategy?
(10:07):
B what's your why?
Align these two together.
What's the impact that you'regoing to make?
And then start building a brand.
Obviously, the most contractorswill start with word of mouth
Great, well, where does word ofmouth take you?
It takes you everywhere.
Mouth Great.
Well, where does word of mouthtake you?
It takes you everywhere, right,you can put it in your pocket
(10:28):
and give it away to whoever yousee.
You can hire and recruit.
With business cards.
You can look at exceptionalbusinesses around and be like
hey, I'd love to partner withyou.
What does this look like?
I don't know.
Often, when we start businesses, we don't know.
So, finding a good brand andsticking with a name that makes
sense, that's searchable thatmakes sense to the search,
(10:49):
developing your reputation,getting those Google star, those
reviews, figuring out a way toget into ChatGPT and other LLMs
for search and always, always upthat Google business profile or
whatever they want to call it.
Those days that's the easiest,lowest hanging fruit and all of
the Google products willeventually be linked together.
(11:11):
Now, right now, you're seeinglike a weird search and then
another weird search and then apaid search and like Google
wants to monetize everything.
So like that's a game, right.
And the last thing I would sayis to really understand that
marketing and advertising is aninfinite game and that means
that there are players that areplaying every single day, and
(11:32):
what one person says is rightcould be black hat or gray hat,
which means not tested or justtesting, because the internet is
basically starting over.
Testing because the internet isbasically starting over.
So, yeah, I would just say nowis your time to play.
And if you're ready to play,then hit the ground hard and
guerrilla market it withcommunity.
(11:52):
First build your brand and, youknow, never think that just
because you're small doesn'tmean that you can't be big.
The smaller they think you are,the bigger you'll become.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So I want to dig a little on a couple of things.
You said that was all reallygood gold stuff.
It doesn't mean that you can'tbe big.
The smaller they think you are,the bigger you'll become.
So I want to dig a little on acouple of things.
You said that was all reallygood gold stuff you talked about
when we first started thatconversation.
You said come up with your whyand then also have your exit.
Do you mean when you say exit?
Do you mean your exit plan interms of someday selling or
getting out of the business?
Is that what you mean?
Yeah, you can't be in thereforever?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
right, and what if it doesn't?
What I've ran into is what ifthe family doesn't want it?
Right, and what if?
Like?
What are the what ifs?
And I feel like sometimes we'realways like, well, we'll pass
this down to family and this isgonna be a family generated
business.
But there are millions outthere right now that are like
(12:45):
tired of being the person in thetruck and are wanting to sell
and retire and their familiesdon't want to take it over.
So think about an exit strategythat's aligned to your why, and
your why is probably yourfamily.
Your why is why you startedthis.
Your why is the problems andsolutions that you wanted to
(13:05):
solve for people.
But like, there's got to be away out, right, we can't do this
for the rest of our lives,right?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
right.
No, that's good feedback.
It's funny.
I um, you know, in my, mypractice I see a lot of
family-owned businesses and it'salways just funny to see the
dynamics in a family-ownedbusiness, one that sticks out to
me the father likes to do acertain type of business and the
son likes to do something elseand he's like the minute my dad
retires I'm doing what I want todo and I don't care what he
says.
So it's just kind of funny howyou get to your point, you get
(13:36):
these dynamics that just becauseit's family doesn't mean it's
forever.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Right Forever in a business right.
And the business could evolveand it could be whatever, and
I'm not saying don't think aboutthat, but like, sometimes your
kids don't want it.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
True, true, I said it , it's true.
And then the other thing that Iwanted to mention.
You brought up the word brand alot.
When you're saying brand likein your mind, where do you think
like the owner should bebranding themselves versus the
business also brandingthemselves?
Could you get in a little bitdeeper on both those topics?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, most definitely so.
A brand is a person, a thing ora logo.
It can mean a lot, but it'sabout your mission, your culture
, your vision, and that's reallywhat a brand can start with and
stand with, and you can buildthat with AI.
Just put in your thoughts, dumpit like it's a brain dump and
say help me make a brand of thiscompany.
(14:33):
This is what I envision, thisis what I say.
Now, a personal brand that'sconnected to your business is
incredibly important, and Ithink that the majority of
contractors miss out on this asthe largest opportunity to speak
, to say what you have to say,to teach what you have to teach,
(14:54):
because we don't know what wedon't know.
I go out and I built a personalbrand.
I started doing this in COVID.
I learned that no one wasspeaking about marketing and I
was like I need help.
I was like I need tocrowdsource logic and ideas and
(15:14):
I need help, and what I foundwere communities out there that
were already talking aboutbusiness, but they weren't
talking about marketing, and Iwas like I'm going in, I told
everyone at about marketing andI was like, going in, I told
everyone at where I worked.
I was like I'm going in, I'mgoing to go and help Because I
came from a larger contractor,so I do have larger, I had a
(15:35):
larger budget, I had largerthings I can say that.
But I knew that people neededhelp and I knew that they didn't
know what I knew.
And so how dare I not sharethat?
How dare I not help, was mythought, and that's always
aligned back to my why.
So building a personal brandthat's connected to your
business will only help yourbusiness grow because they will
(15:58):
see you as a leader in thecommunity.
They will see you as a leaderin the industry.
They will help to.
It just builds connections, itbuilds bridges and I think
that's the biggest thing.
So if I could tell any ownerright now, go out there.
And I think like that's thebiggest thing.
So if I could tell any ownerright now, go out there.
And I know video is hard and Iknow posting on social media is
(16:19):
hard, but life is hard.
Choose your hard.
You know you can do.
This is all I would say, that'sgood feedback.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So you would say it sounds like you're a strong
proponent of the personalbranding as well as the business
branding.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Oh, most definitely yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
And I think it is hard, for it doesn't come
naturally for a lot of people,but I even now in the blue
collar world, it's like you seeit so much and it's evolved so
much and to me what seems like ashort amount of time, it's
almost like you're missing theboat, if you aren't being
visible in some way.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, most definitely .
And like now, your social mediachannels are like Instagram and
Facebook, are being indexed onGoogle, and so get out there,
like there is no better timethan now, and if you're just
waiting on yourself, mysuggestion is to take a big leap
.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
We are back for another Service Scalers
marketing tip.
The biggest leak in yourbusiness isn't always bad ads.
It's marketing spend that isn'ttied to the math.
Sarah Gerardo explained why somany home service companies hit
$5 million or even $10 millionin revenue, only to realize
(17:31):
they're not actually making anymoney.
The gap they're seriouslypouring money into ads, tools
and websites without knowingwhich dollars are working.
If you don't connect marketingspend to book jobs, conversion
rates and margins, you're flyingblind.
That invisible gap can quietlycost you millions in wasted
(17:55):
spend and missed revenue.
So here's an action step Beforespending another dollar on ads,
map your marketing budgetagainst conversions and ticket
size, know which campaigns bringreal profit and cut the rest.
This is brought to you byService Scalers, helping home
service businesses turnmarketing into measurable profit
(18:19):
.
The link is in the show notesand please tell them.
Tyler sent you.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And if you're just waiting on yourself, my
suggestion is to take a big leapgood stuff.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Okay, before I get into, I have some personal stuff
I want to learn about you, butbefore I do that, I've got a
couple more marketing questions.
I want to talk about thisremarket table.
Is that how you say it,philosophy?
It's remarkable okay, sorry Iwas close.
What does that mean?
And I believe it's around amarketing budget.
Could you talk us through thata little bit?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah, so first being more marketable.
I always align it back to SethGodin and the purple cow.
Right, he said your brand hasto stand out to be remarkable.
But the purple cow is no longera purple cow.
It's like a purple cow with adisco helmet and a Ferrari
driving down the road with theoriginal purple cow on the back.
(19:12):
It's totally somethingdifferent, and so that's what my
branding strategy is.
When I teach the trades, it'slike yeah, you can't just be a
Purple Cow, you have to be anoutstanding Purple Cow.
And so that's where Remarkablecame from.
It was the idea of like, well,how do you create just an
extraordinary brand withextraordinary people?
(19:35):
But the biggest thing that I'velearned is and especially over
the years, because I've workedwith over 2000 contractors just
in general teaching marketingand helping the trades what I've
learned is there is limited tono math, to advanced math.
Right, it just depends on whereyou're at, and I believe that
(19:56):
the trades are getting betterwith the math.
But you have to do math beforemarketing, and Marsha Barnes was
the one that said that.
I think she trademarked it.
She's with Valvometer, she'sbrilliant.
And the point is is that you cango blindly from zero to 5
(20:16):
million without math.
But you, once you hit that 5million sometimes people are
you're going to be like, whoa,I'm not actually making any
money.
And then I'm throwing all thismoney at a website, I'm throwing
all this money at ads that Idon't know where it's going.
I'm not keeping track of it.
That's what I'm talking about.
(20:38):
Your operations are obviouslygoing to hit your bottom line,
but your marketing is going tohit your bottom line with your
operations if there isn't acohesive build.
So I give a template away forfree, that is, a budgeting
planner or just a place to keepall of your expenses.
Start with the math how muchdoes this cost?
(21:00):
Let me write this down how muchdoes this cost?
What's money in, money out?
And then the other big thing Isee is I see a lot of wasted
spend in operations.
I see a lot of wasted spend inmarketing.
I see a lot of wasted spendjust in general, because again,
we're going blind and the goalis to never be blind in your
(21:21):
business.
You have to say, okay, well, ifI don't know something, I'm
going to go to a small businessclass.
Maybe they can help me set up amarketing budget, maybe they
can help me set up a P&L.
You know we don't always comein as business leaders knowing
what math we should have in allof these reports.
What do they mean?
And I'm still learning, right,and that's okay.
(21:42):
It's okay to not know what youdon't know, but if you know that
you don't know something, thenit's your job to take action.
Once you hear that you now knowis what I say.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
When you say you see waste, like in marketing and
operations.
Anything stand out as what youlike.
Is it overstaffing?
Is it your software tools theydon't use?
Or what do you typically see?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
It's all of it.
The biggest waste to spend isin, obviously, in software.
That's a big waste, right,they're not using the tools to
their capability, but they'rebuying more tools and then they
have redundant.
They have redundant tools and Iknow that I work with a lot of
different agencies and differentvendors that are working to
(22:25):
reduce the redundancy.
The other biggest wasted spendin marketing marketing in
general would be in Google ads,I see, because they don't know
what they don't know, let's say,don't have time to manage it,
and so that's really where AIwill come in to help leverage
that opportunity that's there totheir own CRM and to their own
(22:48):
data, to make it more of anefficient and automated process
for them.
There's wasted spend in tasksthat we are doing, so, even as a
marketer, time is money and atone point I could spend 8 hours
writing an email.
Why, when I would use AI and Icould get it done in 3 minutes?
(23:09):
What's the automation and theredundant tasks that are
throughout the entire customerjourney, throughout our entire
operations, that need to beautomated and implemented with
AI?
When I look at CSRs, the wastedspend is in the lack of the
conversion, and if they'reconverting at a 37% call booking
(23:33):
rate, then 80% is the goal,right.
80-20 is what we do in tech.
It's the MVP, minimum viableproduct.
But it also goes with life ingeneral, right, no one wants to
do anything at 100%.
That doesn't even make sense.
So, like 80%, if I'm 80% there,what's my average ticket at 80%
(23:53):
?
Well, if I'm at 37%, what's thegap between 80 and 37?
And what's that average ticket?
And that's my missed revenue,right?
And so it's like now I've gotlike a bigger issue and when
technicians when I look at thatkind of wasted spend, I look at
drive time, like traffic istraffic in areas, and so, like,
(24:16):
how much time are yourtechnicians sitting on the road,
maybe doing Snapchat videoswhile they're waiting in traffic
to get to their destination?
How many trucks do you have onthe road maybe doing Snapchat
videos while they're waiting intraffic to get to their
destination?
How many trucks do you have onthe road that makes it optimal
to where you're driving to andhitting the right windshield
time that it's not hitting thebottom line?
So there is ways to spendeverywhere tools supplying,
(24:39):
inventory, management.
It happens everywhere inbusiness.
You just have to think of theopportunities that, okay, like
ask the people in those roles.
What can I help you with CSRs?
Do they need scripts to helpthem, guide them?
Are we going to an AI?
You know evolution with CSRs?
Absolutely you know.
But what will the people do?
(24:59):
Because it's AI plus a humantouch.
So, yeah, it's just reallysitting down and saying with
each department, all right,what's what's redundant here?
And if you're the only personsay, okay, what can I get off my
plate Like this is too much,and we know it's too much, you
can't operate the business andbe in the business and do all
(25:21):
the things Like it's just and bein the business and do all the
things like it's just it's justnot possible and live a healthy
life.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
So a lot of good stuff there.
That labor efficiency one isthe one that always blows my
mind, though, because it's justobviously labor's being one of
your most expensive costs.
How little thought oftentimesis put into whether it be routes
or just timing and schedulingthat can eat up the bottom line
so fast.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, and dispatching for profits, right, and there's
so much, I mean so much thathits the bottom line and so yeah
.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Okay, I want to get a little personal.
I want to learn about you alittle bit.
So you know, my latest researchindicates you're a single mom.
I know you travel a lot basedon you know, learning about you
and watching you and researchingyou.
How do you manage because thisis a common thing for business
owners, Like how do they managetheir work-life balance?
They're working 80 hours a weekand they've got a family and
stuff like that Somehow you'reable to do this traveling and
(26:13):
you've got a child you're takingcare of.
How do you do it?
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, there is no work-life balance.
I stopped telling myself thatlie a long time ago.
But there is a work and a lifeand I'm fortunate enough to have
great parents.
I have a, you know, they have agreat dad and I have a great
mother-in-law, and they are allthere.
(26:36):
We all leaned in together.
Like the divorce happened along time ago and it was
whatever it was.
But what we did as and this isthe reason why I believe that I
married him was because I knewwe had a great family dynamic
and when times got tough, all Isaw was that we leaned in
together and that's kind of howI've been living my life is that
(27:00):
they're like you know, I stayedhome for a very long time and I
had this opportunity to go andno one said, hey, Sarah, don't
do that.
They just said go, and so thesupport from my family has
really been the driver of beingable to get out there and scale
myself and teach the trades andand you know, can I say it's
(27:23):
always been easy.
It hasn't.
Are there lots of bumps in theroad?
Absolutely.
Do I miss my kids?
Yes, but they know why I'mdoing this.
They know that I'm doing thisfor them and not as a guilt trip
for them.
It is really to to buildgenerational wealth and to teach
.
You know single moms that, yeah, life is hard and sometimes I
(27:45):
carry my kids with me andsometimes I, you know, I just
have to figure it out, and Ithink that that was the biggest
thing for me as a single mom isbelieving in myself, being
courageous enough to take a steptowards something that I didn't
even know existed, and justkeep failing forward while I'm
doing it.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I love your transparency.
I, like you, know it's alwayseasy when you get questions like
that to paint this picture likeeverything's perfect and the
reality is life isn't right.
I mean that's cool.
Hey, I want to talk about onthis personal section a little
bit.
More is so.
You know, this industryobviously is male dominated and
(28:26):
you making having your niche inthis world as a female how have
you balanced that, like, howhave you managed so you're being
treated respectfully, you're,you're fitting into the industry
and you become such a, youbecome a powerful voice as well
as a pioneer for other women,which is huge.
So what do you think you'vedone to be able to be successful
in doing that?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I think that first I have relationships with all
people in the trades right, Iknow the balance.
And at first, you know, I was ahuge proponent of women in the
trades.
I'm like, let's go, let's getout there, let's, but it's about
people and it's about beingable to teach people how, how to
, because all people really wantis to be heard, be known, be
(29:08):
seen Right.
And so that was my philosophy.
It was like, well, how can Ibring you out, how can I do this
scrappy, how can I hit theground running?
And it doesn't matter who youare.
And I started with women in thetrades as much as I could,
because I knew that they had avoice and they could share just
(29:28):
this incredible likeintellectual, like operations of
running a business.
And I, what I was seeing outthere was just women that were
so passionate, but they didn'thave a place to stand and I was
like, okay, well, let's justmake up one.
And so I did that as much as Icould and I went to as many
(29:48):
conferences and I helped as manypeople just bring them out to
speak.
And you know, as I love saying,people love to say that I'm a
pioneer, but really all I didwas just help people help
themselves.
Right, I believed in them, andsometimes that's all you have to
do is just believe in people,and I probably believed in them
(30:10):
the most because I felt sobroken from my divorce that I
needed something to believe in,and so I gave back everything
that I could and turn my paininto purpose for others.
And, yeah, so that's why Istarted with my journey with
women, because I just wantedthem to shine as bright as they
(30:34):
were.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Have you ever felt like you've had to work harder
as a female in terms of beingaccepted into the industry and,
if so, how have you kind ofovercome that?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah, there are definitely the boys clubs and
I'm not going to lie Like they,they exist.
It feels like you have to workharder.
It feels like sometimes youhave to be louder.
It feels like sometimes the waythat I could come across would
be labeled as aggressive orbossy and I've been, you know
labeled.
But it also feels like I've hadso much collaboration with men
(31:06):
and that have helped me grow inthis industry, in the tech
industry, in some of my biggestmentors, some of my biggest fans
, are pushing me every year,every day, to grow and I can sit
in the the well, that made mefeel like garbage kind of
(31:26):
conversation, because it hashappened, or I can say cool,
maybe we could have aconversation about how this
would better fit.
You know my, the language that Ilike to speak, the way that I
like to communicate, and maybeI'm not communicating the
appropriate way and in terms ofthe tone that you would like to
hear, but I am wanting to get mypoint across, so let's have a
(31:48):
different conversation, right,and so, like I've learned to
shift my conversation, shift theway I communicate and really
understand, with the intent oflistening versus reacting, and
these are all things I had tolearn because I did, you know.
But it has been a journey oflearning, to be honest, and I
have thoroughly enjoyed learningbecause it's made me a better
(32:12):
person to really understandpeople.
So I can't give enough thanksto the men in the industry and
the men in tech that have helpedme lead the way and have said
hey, sarah, run, and they haveallowed me to fail forward and
they have shown me the way and Ijust I can't thank them enough.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
So one thing I I really appreciated I interviewed
Rachel Evans she goes by missmini splits and it was a little
bit different than men.
And I'm speaking for myself,particularly a lot of times when
we have a career, it's likethat's our identity, that's who
we are.
And what I loved about herangle and I think it's a little
bit of a female trait too isshe's like man.
(32:56):
I come to work, I build mycompany, but it's not what I'm
all about.
I have other interests.
My job isn't me Like, mycompany isn't just what I do,
like it and I just.
It just really resonated withme because a lot of times,
particularly with men, I thinkwe it is like that's us, like
our, our business is us, likeyou take that from us and you
might be taking our soul.
(33:16):
And I just thought it wasinteresting the way she
presented that.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Yeah, and I think as you grow a bit more into
self-awareness, you're like, hey, I have to have some kind of
separation because otherwise I'mdrowning, right.
And?
And sometimes men don't admitthat and and women are like, oh
my God, I'm drowning and like it.
You can see like our reactionshappen, and then we'll shut down
, like everyone will have adifferent reaction to it,
(33:40):
something like that.
But I think what she was onpoint with is there is a life
and then there is a life.
There is a work life and thenthere is a life, and you got to
have both.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
So Okay, I know we're coming up to the top of the
hour.
We got a little bit of a latestart, so I want to be
respectful of time.
I've got two things.
I want to end with One.
I just want your thoughts interms of AI.
We're at the forefront of AI.
Where do you see that kind ofgoing, and is there anything
that right now trades?
Speaker 1 (34:11):
people should be using in terms of software, just
being aware of, yeah, ai andautomation.
The way I like to think aboutit, it's, finally, the ability
to track the truth of our effort, right, like that's what AI and
automation is, and when I thinkabout that, it's making us
efficient in our processes.
An easy AI tool for you to useis Opus Clips for videos, and so
(34:34):
you could just record a podcastlike this, take it into Opus
Clips and it'll chop it up.
Video is where it's at.
So that's one easy tip.
Also, learn Chat.
Learn chat GBT or Gemini orboth, but just pick one, start
dumping your, your brainthoughts into it and see what
you get right, like, put it onyour phone, have a conversation
(34:56):
with it, because you know searchis conversational.
So that's what I would say.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
That's good stuff.
Okay, in terms of just wrappingup a couple last things here,
if someone's out there listeningand they want to connect with
you, where's the best spot thatthey should do that?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Yeah, they can connect with me at my work email
, which is sgerardo, atservicetitancom.
They can connect with me at theTrademark Podcast.
They can follow me on Instagramunder Sarah Gerardo, or
Facebook.
I'm everywhere, so.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Sarah, gerardo, or Facebook.
I'm everywhere so, and I'll putall those links also in the
show notes.
And then, last thing, anyupcoming events or projects
coming up that people might wantto be aware of.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah, most definitely so.
We have Pantheon coming up inSeptember, super excited about
that.
I have another marketing forthe Trade Summit Toolbox Live
Edition coming in December wherewe come together and learn
about marketing in the trades,not just only about the software
but about how the trades arechanging in their marketplace.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Yeah, Pantheon is pretty exciting.
It's on my radar.
I'm still kind of on the fencein terms of I want to help.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Just do it.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
I know it looks so cool.
I look at all the classes andthey all look so good.
Okay, okay, you got my.
You're pushing me Well, hey,thanks so much for your time.
I super appreciate it and can'tthank you enough for being on
the show today.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Thank you so much for having me.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
You too.
What I like about what Sarahshared is that she brings things
back to the basics.
Growth in the trades isn't justabout ads or a good truck wrap.
It's about telling your story,building trust in your community
and putting yourself out therein a way that makes people want
(36:35):
to work with you.
From my side as a CFO, I seehow this shows up in the numbers
.
Companies that take brand andvisibility seriously usually
close more jobs, keep betterpeople and create stronger
profits.
It's not just marketing, it'slong-term business strategy.
(36:56):
If you're running a homeservice business in that $2 to
$10 million range and trying tofigure out how to move to the
next level, I'd be happy to talkabout it with you.
You can book an intro meetingwith me at cfomadeeasycom.
Once again, that'scfomadeeasycom.
(37:16):
No pressure, just an intromeeting.
Thanks.
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