November 21, 2024 • 46 mins
Join us as James brings on friend & colleague, Rob Baughman. Formerly a business owner of an independent remodeling company & now the sales & marketing director of a large fire & safety company. They discuss what challenges each chair Rob sat in, brings to a business as well as the marketing challenges associated.
- If you have marketing questions for James, contact him at: jamesd@mediavisionadvertising.com
- If you would like to learn more about James, click here: https://mediavisionadvertising.com/james-danella-strategist/
- If you would like to be considered as a guest on the show… or if you would like James to speak at your event, reach out to ashleym@mediavisionadvertising.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:05):
Hey, good morning, and welcome back to the marketing
perspective, I'm James stanela,and we are in our second season
now I'm excited. We've addedvideo, as you can see, I'm
really looking forward tobecause we have some special
guests this season, all expertsin their areas, all very
talented, all knowing thingsthat I don't know, which is why
(00:26):
we do this. I am pure marketing.Everything I say is always going
to be from a marketingperspective. The people that I
bring on will be solid in thechair that they're in. So you
get their perspectives as well.And the idea is you, as a
business owner or a seniorperson in business, you get to
take some of this informationand apply it to your world as
you fit. There is no selling.There's no advertising. Here it
(00:48):
is pure education andinformation. This is a topic
driven show. So today we aretalking about what it looks like
from a business owner'sperspective and an employee's
perspective inside the walls ofhow to market a business
effectively. So this issomething I really hope you're
tuning in today. I think itcould be valuable information
(01:10):
and insights that you will walkaway from a lot happier,
hopefully in the near future. Solet's get started.
I'm going to bring on a veryspecial guest and friend and
colleague, and we've met sometime ago, full disclosure. When
he talks about the agency heused to have, he's talking about
my firm. So whether he says itor not, I don't know, but it's
(01:33):
that's how we initially beganour relationship, and I call it
that because it is arelationship. We got pretty
tight. We have helped each otherthick and thin.
I'm excited about where he isnow. He has switched over to
another company, which he isgoing to share. But his insights
are valuable, and I hope you aretuning in and listening today.
(01:53):
Let's get started. So RobBauman, I want to introduce you
to the show. Rob is now with allstar security, and he is the
director of marketing and salesthere, Rob, thank you for tuning
in and being a part of the show.Thanks, James. I appreciate your
invite. It's always good to seean old friend on on the screen,
(02:14):
and
hopefully we we don't go off therails too much today, because
this could be a lot of fun fortwo old friends chatting about
business in the past,
and then all of a sudden westart crying in a corner.
Possible, that's possible. So
(02:36):
you have a lot going on in yourlife and a lot of good even even
family stuff, you know, becausewe know each other. So it's
funny, if you're a businessowner, business owners tend to
carry stuff on their shoulders.You know, there's a lot.
Everybody has a lot going on intheir personal world. How do you
separate that? How do youconduct business and when it
comes to marketing? So myperspective of that is, you have
(03:00):
to have your big boy panties on,and the company has to show
strength, and it has to show
that it can do the job that youwant it to do. But at the end of
the day, it has to be real, andhas to be authentic. And I just
want to say Rob is probably oneof the most authentic people I
know,
and he shoots from the hip. SoRob, I'm really excited that
(03:21):
we're about to talk about this,and thank you very much for
jumping in.
So why don't you uncommon Shutup, and I'd like you just give
us a little exposition. Tell uswhere you came from, if you want
to tell us how it started, so weunderstand your head and the
journey a little bit. Just giveus the bullets here and there,
(03:42):
and then we can dive in.
Yeah, well, I was inconstruction for most of my
life, in some trade form,
for approximately 25 years,
middle 2007 eight, when thingsstarted to go terrible. I went
back to college, got a six yeardegree. It
(04:04):
was only a four year degree, butit took me six to get it.
Went into project management ina firm in a town near us in
Nashville, in Murfreesboro,south of Nashville,
and enjoyed, enjoyed that a lot
could their company changeddirection. I didn't want to go
(04:25):
there.
We parted ways amicably, and Istarted a my own firm with a
partner, and it went really,really well. Now, I've always
been a self marketer, networker,you know the face of my
business. So that was the way Istayed. And I started that way
(04:46):
in 2019 I think it's how you andI met through networking,
and then
when we started talking, and webrought your business.
And to
to market the new businesshonestly, and things went
(05:07):
exponential, but we can go therea little bit
later, and it was a night andday difference. As far as the
traffic.
We went down that road for aboutfive years, and
we can also talk later about howthat ended and where we are, but
(05:27):
now I am currently in anemployee role, which is a very
different place as a businessowner. My I tell people my
stress levels are about a 12 atall times out of 10 I 10,
and the day I started as anemployee, my stress level went
to about a two. So,
(05:51):
yeah, it changed the way Itreated my family at trade and
zere. I treated my grandkids. Ittrained. It changed the way my
wife saw me.
It changed the way I walkthrough life with my shoulders
relaxed, rather than here.
So yeah, I'm,
I'm super excited where I am.Obviously, there's, it has its
(06:14):
cons, and obviously we can talkabout the cons as well,
but I think the pros that way,in my opinion, Now, some people
just love to own a business, andthey love to work under that
stress, and that's, you know,more power to that person.
I find myself
in my fourth business saying, Idon't want to do that anymore,
(06:37):
but James, you still do it, so
I'm a little crazier than youare. You know that I've had
times where I said, I said, Youknow what? I would sleep a
little bit better at night. Iwould. Business owners
understand that if you're not abusiness owner, I'm sorry you
just don't understand that. Idon't care if you're a mom pop
or a big company, businessowners understand when they go
(07:00):
home, it's still in their head.They have responsibilities. They
have responsibilities to theirstaff, to the people that they
serve it. You know, there'sgood, bad and indifferent about
owning your own business, andit's I commend people that are
able to do it successfully. So Ihave had days over the years. I
mean, my company is 20 years inbusiness now, and I have had
(07:23):
times where I was like, youknow, what my life be so much
easier if I just go back andwork. I made more money, I had
less stress. I slept really wellat night, you know? So I get it.
I totally understand that's notwhy we're here today. We're
here. I really want to giveinsights to people,
good, bad and indifferent whenit comes to marketing their own
business. So let's get back toyour as a business owner
(07:49):
when you were handling marketingyourself now, when I met Rob,
Rob is not your average youngbusiness owner. Well, he's not
young, but you know, Hey, wasthat too much across the ballot?
Was too quick. Was just kind ofright across.
Yeah, right. He his, he had anatural gifting for marketing
(08:13):
and sales. He's he's excellentat at at a high level,
understanding human behavior. Heunderstands how to develop
relationship. He understands howto present his offering, and
it's just a matter of, you know,honing and polishing and some of
the strategies behind that. Buthe was way further ahead than a
lot of companies that I meet, soI want to give him that right
(08:36):
out of the gate. So in thebeginning, you were doing all
that yourself. Start with that.Talk about when you were doing
your own marketing, when, whenyour company first got going,
what were the pros? What werethe cons, and then maybe even
some of the successes andfailures there?
Sure, yeah, I think some of thethings that I didn't know before
I did do a lot of marketing, andI actually love marketing. It's
(08:59):
one of my favorite things in theworld of James, you ever need
somebody just holler and patchyboy in her, I'll come work for
you, but
with me. And believe me, whenyou were in transition, in the
back of my mind, I was like, CanI afford Rob?
I wasn't kidding. You neverasked, but it was in my mind, I
didn't, I didn't. But, yet, no,I love marketing. It's one of my
(09:21):
favorite things. I love thecreation part of it. I love, you
know, creating things. And oneof the things I did, even
working for another firm, we hadto market our own work. So we
had to bring in our own leads. Ihad to generate our own leads.
So I did a lot of social media,obviously. And it was, it was a
lot of on
social media, I would use a lotof third person, or I would use
(09:44):
a lot of we group
us terms as a team, building ateam around myself, although
most of the time it was just mebeing the responsible party, but
I would always make myself lookbigger. That's one. It was one
of my tricks.
It, you know, even when it wasjust one or two or three of us
doing the work or being part ofthe company, I always made it
(10:08):
seem like we were bigger than wewere,
you know, even so much as tolabel the trucks in a very
professional way, so that whenpeople saw them down on the
road, and then they saw a coupleof graphics online, and, you
know, a few odds and ends, theythought, I've seen you
everywhere, and we've gone overthat as well. James, in the
past, where you know that we'vediscussed that mental
(10:31):
transaction that happens. Rob,Hang on one second. That's
something like, if you all havelistened to the show when we
talk about branding, and peopleget nervous when you talk about
branding. Oh, it's a big term.Only large companies can do
that. But what Rob just said,those basic touches, the
consistency of their brand, ofbeating on a truck, and you go
(10:52):
to the site, and there'sconsistency there, and whatever
collateral they have, he goes,he connected the dots. And
that's branding at a very highlevel. Believe it or not, with
pennies on the dollar. You canactually do that for your own
company. So just that in mind,as he's continuing, I just want
to make sure, I want toreiterate it and put an
exclamation point at the end. Imean, it was $400 in my first
(11:13):
truck rep. I
know everybody's like, what, butI had a white truck, and I got
gray letters, and we just didthem on a font that matched our
logo. And obviously it wasn'tsuper colorful or bright or fun
and it wasn't a full vehiclewrap, but we utilized the paint
on the car against the color ofthe graphic. And before we
(11:38):
started with
Media Vision. We had no color inour logo. It was one of the
first things that changed, andthey added some color to the
logo for creativity. But we hada very basic gray and white.
We created that idea from theclean square design purpose. So
(12:01):
we had all those things in mindthat were
real,
I don't know, just clean andedgy.
And then obviously I just, I hadevery networking event possible,
and I always wore a brandedshirt, and I always showed up
in, you know, clean pants andclean boots and and I made sure
(12:23):
that my presentation was good. Iworked on my elevator speech. I
made sure people knew exactlywhat I was looking for. You
know, there's a lot of thingsyou pick up in books and
podcasts and growthopportunities, you know, such as
having four elevator speechesand rotating the four elevator
speeches for specific items thatyou're asking for.
(12:47):
And then, you know, that's,
that's personal branding andpersonal advertising, just
getting out there and andgrassroots building it. That's,
I guess that's what I did,
that I would add the the firstthing that we did, I remember,
it was more about contentmarketing than it was, hey,
(13:10):
let's go spend a lot of money.
And the content marketing, Imean, just because it's what we
do every day, kind of added tothat. We didn't take away from
what you did or or change muchadding that color was really to
give you an identifying color toyour brand and give you
something that was unique incomparison to what everybody
(13:30):
else was doing. That was doinggray, white and black, you know.
So it kind of sets you allapart, and it did help. I have
to say that color did help
from a brand perspective, but westill, at the end of the day,
you still gotta drive businessin the door today. And with
that, the content marketing thatwe added started to do that
pretty quickly. And then, youknow, we kind of went from
(13:53):
there. One of the things that Iremember very clearly when we
first started talking
was first thing you did was,you're doing a great job.
You praised me for what I wasdoing. You, you, you made sure I
knew exactly what to keep doing.
But the next thing you did wassay, you know, we could do
(14:13):
better in this area, this area,this area right now. And so the
color, obviously, the orangecolor. We got a few
conversations about it. I didn'twant it to be, you know, the big
bucks lumber store orange. And Ididn't want it to be the
university orange. I said itneeds to be something completely
different. And your team found agreat blood orange that I
really, really liked, and itworked for the Nike shirts. We
(14:36):
the orange Nike shirts thatalmost a perfect match. And But
anyways, I learned a lot fromyou guys, especially specific
colors,
specific use of color,
and how that works
in the human mind, and helpspeople connect dots, the use of
(14:57):
font.
I mean, I knew a little bit.
About, you know, font, and thememorization of font and how it
connects the dots.
But other than things like Chickfil A and McDonald's and the big
items,
you know, I didn't know that itwould work on a small business,
but it does. It truly does.
Yeah, it is hard to get that.
(15:20):
I think we had it, though. Ithink we had that recognition.
We really did. You did 100%
when I've talked about yourcompany to other people, Oh, I
know that company, and theywould, even when you were
younger, we they would say,that's a big company, right?
So big. I had an office in mygarage
(15:44):
in the beginning, but then, youknow, by the end, you had three
physical locations. And I neverhad an office because you're
sitting in the office. You'renot really not getting the job
done.
So yeah, and that's the whatRob's attested to the creative
side and the brand side. And itdid actually work. It was part
of the secret sauce. The contentwas a big part of it as well.
(16:09):
Those little the videos I'mgoing to make Rob squirm a
little. We
started doing these videos thatI swear by, and it was, he was
the first company we did thiswith it just was this brainchild
that came out of a create,internal creative meeting, and
we said, well, this is what Ithink we need, and little two
(16:29):
minute vignettes on topic drivena little tip, not handing away
the farm, but giving thehomeowner educational things
they can do for their own home.Like some people don't even know
where the shutoff valve is fortheir water, right? Or the
emergency valve for the gas, orlittle like, my favorite one was
the dryer and the washer. I'llnever forget that. Here's this
(16:52):
man. How tall are you? Rob? Sixfour. I'm six five. Ish,
yeah, six five, yeah.
He's a big guy, you know. Andhe's down, tucked in between the
washer and the dryer, and he'sholding up his phone trying to
take video, like, real crunchygranola, like gorilla style kind
of thing. He's like, James, thisjust isn't gonna work. He goes,
I hate that. He was souncomfortable, but I'll tell
(17:14):
you, like, the minute we pushedthat that video out, we got
like, 800 hits, like, the nextday, like, it was crazy. And
then we were off and running. Hebecame known for doing that kind
of stuff, and he had a prettydecent following because of it.
It cost us virtually nothing.You know, it's not it's not
always about spending money. Sothat's what I mean about content
(17:34):
marketing.
It, it sometimes you got tothink a little bit out of the
box, be a little bit unique, andone of his strengths is being
authentic. So we took advantageof it, and it went off pretty
well. I think,
Rob You hated it, right?
Well, I did hate it. I hateddoing the video work and the
(17:56):
work itself. It was reallydifficult. You know, I think one
of the benefits I had is I'dbeen on a couple of television
shows doing home improvements,and I saw them do it over and
over and over again.
I was gonna, I was gonna bringthat up.
But you said it
so while I was used to, youknow, and I came from that world
(18:16):
like high production values and,you know, multiple takes and
five cameras. And, you know,there's a craft service first.
And here he is holding his owncamera.
He's like, James, what are youthinking here? Yes,
(18:37):
yeah. And, you know, I'm happy,like, when it comes down to
clients, if they want to bringin crews, the bigger, the
better, the more money, the moremoney a client spends, more
money an agency makes sure, goahead and spend the money. And
I'm the one on the other side ofthe table saying, don't spend
that money. Let's do it likethis.
So it was a it was aninteresting dichotomy that it
(18:59):
was, it was, it was reversed,and you wanted bigger and more.
And I'm like saying less, butusually I was the one saying,
No, it's got to be bigger.
And we eventually found our ourbalance between us, and it went
off very well. So again, ifyou're listening, it's not
always about spending more.Sometimes, if you can be smart
about it, you and use the toolsthat you have at your disposal,
(19:23):
you can get the same things donemuch more cost effectively, and
still get the result that you'retrying to get to grow your
business. So that, I have to saythat's has to be one of my
favorite
interactions with the companyover the years, is that time
frame between you and I, I hadthe most fun trying to talk you
down from the tree, like,where's the lights? James, I'm
(19:45):
like, You're it get out in thesunshine.
And we did so. And we definitelyhad some good times. And then
there were some bad times, youknow, the company did. And.
Have its downturn had nothing todo with its marketing, just for
the record, had nothing to dowith anything, any inability.
(20:09):
I'm just going to summarize it.And it was a financial situation
that occurred internally, andthings happen.
It went really horribly. Yeah,there's other videos out there
online that explain that,
yeah, if y'all want to, youknow, I don't want to park
there, because I don't thinkthat's the point of this.
(20:29):
But I bring it up because
I will personally say that Rob'scompany was probably my favorite
experience since I've been toNashville and I saw the
successes. I saw how we wereable to do things without
spending a lot of money. I mean,he had a budget, and little by
little, that budget grew,because he started growing as a
(20:50):
much bigger company. It wasgoing perfect. He was my jewel,
you know, my case study of casestudies, and to see it go away
personally affected me,emotionally. I mean, I know it
affected Rob. We had, had wegotten together more, we would
have drank very heavily. I havea feeling.
(21:15):
So why am I bringing that up?Because if you're a business
owner, it's not business isn'tpersonal, right? It's just
business, but it's more thanbusiness. It's it. It is a part
of you. It becomes a part of whoyou are. And it's like your
baby, in a sense, it's a familymember. The entity becomes this
living, breathing thing, andyour responsibilities grow. And
(21:37):
it's almost like, you knowyou're a father and you have
children, all of a sudden yourlife changes. It's the same
thing when you own a business.So it does get personal. Feels
personal?
Get a coach. I highly recommendhave some have a business coach
that can navigate you or putpeople around you that are
experts in their field. Can Iinterrupt you just for a second?
(21:59):
James, yes, I totally agree withget a coach. I absolutely say
everyone should have a coach.But if you're a business owner,
make sure you vet that coach.Make sure that they're an actual
business coach, that theyactually know business. They've
been in business, they've beensuccessful in business that's
(22:21):
key as well. Or if they're notsuccessful in business, at least
they've learned,
you know, there's so manycoaches out there who've read a
book and had a class and nowthey're a business coach,
and that doesn't qualify someoneto help you run your small
(22:41):
business. So definitely,definitely, definitely, get a
coach, but make sure they comewith high recommendations and
they know terms that you don'tknow, like EBITDA and net, net
and
what does gross margin reallymean? Truly mean, if they don't
know those things,
(23:02):
you know, don't do it. It's notworth it. Wasted money.
Yeah, I think it was a businesscoach that I recommend. And when
I first met him one day, he wastalking about gross, anticipated
revenues. I i almost hugged him,but he's like, six, four and 250
and I decided not to. I
was so happy, you know, I youfind somebody who understands
(23:25):
more than you do, Right exactly.
Hey, before we go away from youas a business owner, one the one
question I really want tounderstand is, what was the
impetus that made you turnaround and hire an agency? What
you got to a certain plateau, orit was, I just don't want to do
this anymore, like because youwere good at it, and I think you
(23:48):
knew you were and you don't knowwhat you don't know, right? But
what, what was the impetus thatmade you go ahead and do that?
Well,
to be honest, I think it was ustalking us, just having
conversations and going throughnetworking. And I saw some I saw
some hope in that. And I when westarted talking about it,
thought that would be reallycool. How much would that cost?
And then, obviously, it was overmy budget, right at first, you
(24:11):
were very generous in helpingme, you know, get started at a
lower level.
And
I did get COVID, so I rememberthat.
And I remember the next yeargoing, Hey guys, we gotta do
something different.
(24:32):
Yeah,
but yeah, once you get used tohaving that many calls per week
and having being able to pickyour work and, you know, being
selective about what you want todo,
it's really hard to go back tofour or five calls a week and
taking every job that comes inthe door.
(24:54):
So I think, you know, that waskind of my impetus to go into
it. I.
And then to stay in it, you kindof just get used to that process
and that speed and that thatload, and then we started
hiring. So then we had to fillthat higher, and then we got
over full. We had to hire somemore, and then it just kept
(25:14):
going. I think there's a wholegrowth segment that someone
needs to have that conversationas well. But that's not it for
this podcast. You know, ascompanies grow, they they have
to add certain key people likeCFOs and things like that to
really, you know, make surethey're guiding ship correctly.
I see it all the time. There'scompanies that they go into
(25:37):
growth mode, but if they'restill acting as a small company,
it gets dangerous. That's whythose coaches and consultants
and stuff are so important.Great.
I appreciate you. That's athat's a great why as to how we
got to work together. And itwas, it was a good experience. I
don't want to park there, butlet's switch over to just for
(26:01):
time's sake, you and yourcurrent role. You're working for
a Atlas, all star. All StarAtlas, wow. I have a company in
New York that I that I workwith.
Just give me the summary of allstar and its capabilities and
(26:22):
size and all that kind of stuff.So I moved into the sales and
marketing director role here atall star fire protection. We are
a fire protection service basedout of Nashville, Tennessee.
They're 34 years old. I've onlybeen here a few months at this
point,
and I was brought here to helpdevelop and train and grow a
(26:44):
sales team in the four marketsthat they owned, which were
Nashville, Knoxville,Chattanooga and Bowling Green,
Kentucky.
Since then,
we've been purchased by a largerfirm, a national firm,
and we are learning how to be anational company at this point.
(27:10):
So I'm growing in that role. I'mlearning along the way. It's
been an adventure and a lot offun,
but I will say again, to comeinto a role where cash isn't my
concern.
I have a budget, but the cash.When I say cash, I'd say it's
(27:31):
more along the lines of howwe're going to make payroll on
Friday.
That's That's not my major
concern. Every week, I get tofocus on the creativity, I get
to focus on the development. Iget to focus on that, the
growth, the recruiting, thehiring,
the development of people, whichis one of my favorite things in
(27:52):
the world. I love to teach.
So I'm really I'm hitting allthe high points of what I love
to do and who I am, and I thinkthat's the biggest thing for me
right now, is just that abilityto do what I love. And you know,
there's several things inbusiness I could do, and it
doesn't always mean that, youknow you love doing them, but I
(28:16):
could do them. I could dodisciplinary action. I could do
budget. Meetings, I could do
negotiations, I could do allthose other things, but they
weren't my fun. They weren'tthat wasn't why I got in
business. I truly got inbusiness because I love
creating. I love growing. I lovebuilding.
(28:38):
So I'm in a constructionbusiness. It is commercial
construction. We do fireprotection,
we do inspections and servicework, and we do full
installation. We're working ontowers, and we're working on
flat land, working on brand newbuilds, and we're working on Mom
and Pop florists. So we reallyget to cover a wide gamut, and
(29:03):
it's so much fun to just get outthere in the world and see that
and be part of it. So that's whyI'm in it. I'm enjoying myself
having a good time.
You kind of alluded to it inbetween the lines, if you're but
I know you, so I want to makesure that our listeners
understand. Can you share whatthe transition was like and
(29:26):
maybe what that past experience,how it helped you bring it into
where you are now?
So
the last year of business wasone of the worst years of my
life.
I can't talk about it withoutgetting slightly emotional.
(29:49):
So when it came to an end,
and all the money was gone, andwe were unable to pay our bills,
and we were.
Able to truly close it in ahealthy way.
It was a full collapse.
And if you've never gone throughthat, I can't explain it, you'd
(30:11):
have to walk beside me it.
So when it, when it fullycollapsed. And we filed chapter
seven, and everything went down,and I lost a lot of friends.
I lost a lot of businessconnections that I had built
over the last 15 years.
(30:33):
I lost a lot,
I won't take away from thepeople that were affected by it,
because they lost as well, andthere's not enough apologizing
for that to be fixed. I can't doit.
It's been proven. I can't offerit enough.
(30:54):
My partner and I did try tostart a new business and keep
going, because it was what weknew and we had to keep going.
That was a complete mistake.
What we should have done wastaken some time to heal and
recoil a little bit. Take timeoff would have been a great
(31:14):
idea, but we were also in themiddle of some things that we
had to close up, and
we didn't know how. We truly didknow how, and honestly,
as many people that were aroundme, I don't think anybody really
knew how to tell me to managethat moment.
So we spent 3045, days somethinglike that, trying to continue to
(31:35):
do business we shouldn't have,but we did,
and when it finally came to theplace where we both learned this
isn't going to work, and I justwent to my partner and said,
If we're going to stay in thisindustry, we can't do it
together, because it can'tafford both of us, and I'm going
to bow out.
(31:57):
And he agreed, and
he went and continued to do workas a smaller business. I I
basically told myself, I'mtaking two months off. I'm going
to lick my wounds and find somehealing,
you know, and just separatemyself. I put the word out to
(32:20):
some networking friends from agroup we all were part of in C
12. And I just said, Hey guys,I'm going to take some time off,
but I put myself on the market.I'm going to be an employee. I'm
going to reach out to somefolks, if you don't mind, share
my name. Here are the thingsthat I'd love to do, and
basically named everything I'mdoing right now.
(32:40):
And a friend of mine, Casey, whowas an owner here at all star,
said, I would absolutely referyou, and I appreciate you
reaching out to me. He said, Butcan we have lunch? And
absolutely I don't have a job,let's have lunch.
And so
(33:03):
we sat down. He said, I reallyneed somebody for this role.
Really need somebody for thisrole right now.
We could really use someimproved sales force in our
company. We could really use youto kind of develop this
department.
And so I jumped on it. Honestly,the pay didn't matter. I just
(33:23):
wanted to do something, and
it's been absolutely
some of the most fun I've had inbusiness.
Simply because I get to doeverything I love. I'm in my
wheelhouse,
everything that's not in mywheelhouse has been taken away,
(33:46):
and the responsibility is notasked. But I'm also included in
a lot of high level meetings anda lot of fun growth
opportunities where I learnthings, and I learn from other
executives who,
you know, I just learned bybeing in the room. So it's been
a fun experience so far.
(34:09):
Well, while I'm sad about thefirst part of how I know you,
I'm really happy for you,because it seems I can attest to
that you're in a better place,and life's a little bit easier,
and you're having a heck of alot more fun doing what you're
kind of meant to do. So therethey are fortunate to have you.
I'll tell you that. Well,thanks. I appreciate
(34:31):
it. Can you provide any insightto somebody who's listening
today, if they are that businessowner? Because we may have just
like, convinced a few people tojust close shop and go and get a
job and just say, Wow, he'sright. Let's just go do this,
you know. And it's possible, ifyou're out there, you know, and
that's what you know your gut istelling you, or God's nudging
(34:53):
you, and you're getting hit inthe back of the head, maybe you
should do that, or maybe this isempowering you to dig deeper.
And really try to grow yourcompany. Can you give some
insights to those people? Eitherway, I don't want to discourage
people who want to go on theadventure of business ownership.
And there are a lot ofsuccessful people out there, and
(35:13):
you don't know if you're goingto be successful at it until you
try
my biggest piece of advice. AndI know people gave me this
advice, and I did not listen mybiggest piece of advice. I feel
like my greatest piece of advice
is to hold the business small
for at least five years. Do notlet it grow. Do not allow it
(35:36):
will want to grow. It will tryto grow. I use the analogy of
just hold your hands around thethroat of that business and keep
it
down.
Because if it grows, it willgrow out of hand like a weed,
and unless you're really, reallyskilled, you're going to
(36:00):
struggle to keep control of it,
and it will get out of yourhands, and you will not be able
to manage it. Keep it smallforcefully. Keep it small.
Reject business. My goodness, ifI don't listen, reject business,
especially that those customerswho don't look like your
customers reject it. It's notworth it.
(36:25):
Hire a good coach one more time.
Get advisors around you, even ifyou can't afford an advertising
company, find an advertisingguru who loves to have coffee
and will advise you until you'rebig enough to hire them.
That's important,
(36:47):
because you can do it on yourown. You truly can to a certain
point. I mean, when you get toan enterprise level, you need
somebody to take that over,because you've got so many other
hats to wear,
just as much as your socialmedia, your your your digital
advertising, your billboardadvertising, all that stuff you
don't want to be managing thatwhen you've got 12 other systems
(37:09):
to deal with.
But yeah, yeah,
if you, if you're nothing else,if you're starting a business,
keep it small for five years.Very important.
That was really good advice.
I took a lot of notes
when
(37:33):
my next slide in the on theother side in the chair that you
sit in. Now, I know you're youngin your role there, yeah, but
there's a lot of companies outthere. There's a bigger company.
Director of Marketing. Whatinsights can you give? Because
you have a lot of vastexperience that you kind of put
into bucket now. So how can youhelp them? For my currency, I
(37:55):
love the creativity part of it,but know you're on, know your
know your product, know yourservice, know who your top three
buyers are. What is their title?If it's business to business,
who's your buyer? Make sure youknow that it's not the CEO.
If you think it's the CEO,you're wrong. I mean,
(38:16):
unless you're an advertisingcompany, and then maybe,
but
know your product
highly recommend, if I can saythat, you can cut it out later.
LinkedIn, Sales Navigator,
I'm finding good success there,
(38:36):
finding people and reaching outto them and giving them, you
know, just let them know who weare.
And,
yeah, if you know your top threebuyers who they are, and you
know the industries that you'retargeting,
and we target all industries, wekind of just rotate them
(38:59):
as we cycle through ourmarketing so we'll rotate
between senior living in schoolsand industrial and
manufacturing, and just keeprolling them through our
marketing plan.
Have a marketing plan
that's important. Develop a planfor a minimum of six months, if
(39:19):
not 12. That way you know whatyou're doing. And the spring,
fall, summer, winter,
who are your targets? In thewinter, it's our market. We have
a lot of freeze ups, so in thewinter time, we're targeting
those businesses that areaffected by freezes,
so that they know our name. So
(39:40):
that marketing plan isimportant, knowing who your
people are and knowing whatbusinesses you're targeting, I
think are probably three
of my top piece of advice.
That's really good informationthe marketing plan part, I had a
tear in my eye
because it's.
(40:00):
I cannot if I had $1 for everycompany I've met that doesn't
have a plan. So the only companythat ever gave me a Brand Book
was Media Vision. And afterseeing that brand book, I'm
addicted to having it. I need itlike I need, I need to disperse
it throughout the company likethese are. These are the Pantone
(40:21):
colors. Please, don't use thewrong blue, please,
because it is that important.Brand standards are very
important. That's the term. See,you know the terms. I'm just
Well, I've been doing it for afew years. I
Yeah.
(40:43):
Well, I know the man that I'mspeaking to today, and I know
his integrity, and I know whathe stands behind. So if, if
you're a business out there andyou do have that kind of a need
of what he's talking about withfire suppression systems, and
he is going to do his besteffort and give you 1,000%
(41:04):
and as the company he standsbehind, because I actually know
the gentleman he was talkingabout. I know KC, and they're a
great company, and they're bothmen of integrity, and
I'm excited about that, thatyou're putting people like that
in the same room. Good thingsare going to happen. So if you
have a need, reach out to rob,if and if you're in the markets
(41:25):
that he talked about, I'm fairlycertain at least let them be one
of the three conversations thatyou have when you're making an
educated decision. And I, I 100%believe that you will not do
wrong by that.
So Rob, if they want to contactyou?
Yeah,
(41:46):
so if you want to reach out toour Nashville number is 615865,
5600,
or all star fire protection.comreach out through our chat
there, and if you want to reachme directly, 6154314,
615-431-3760,
be happy to chat if you if youwant to talk through
(42:09):
fire protection or
any other
services that we offer,remember, every building That is
functioning legally, has to havea fire extinguisher, and they
have to be inspected every year.So happy to do so.
Thank you for that, Rob. So justto close us out today, you know,
(42:33):
we, we, we went in differentdirections, I which I knew we
were going to
but if you're, if you'relistening today, understand
that. So we were talking aboutmarketing, in a sense, but
marketing is a lot more thanjust advertising and even
pure marketing. It's, it's theculture inside the walls, it's
(42:55):
the people. It's, it's thedecisions you make. It's, it's
the circle that you surroundyourself with of a brain trust
smarter than you to make acompany better and stronger when
it comes down to a company thatcan have sustainable growth over
time.
That's what was talked abouttoday, and I hope you took
(43:15):
something out of it. Feel freeto reach out to either one of us
if you have a question, if youwanted to share something we
love that seriously and happy tohelp. And I am, by the way, that
guy that will have coffee withpretty much anybody and help
their marketing effort in anhour or two hour conversation,
because I believe it's importantlike Rob's the same kind of
(43:38):
person it's it's about
educating others to do theirbest, to be their best, and to
give them our best, you know. Sofind people like that that are
willing to be in your circle,and you'll, you'll see
differences in your businessover time. So Rob, thank you so
much for taking the time today.I know, I know you have been
(44:00):
traveling a lot. You're wefollow each other on social
media and Bowling Green Robdidn't chat very good sometimes
in the same day. Yes, he'srunning around, but it seems
like you're having so much funand just loving life, and I can
say that you are happier now. Ifyou're a business owner, don't
go out and sell your businesstomorrow. Just hold on,
(44:24):
you know, think about it. Youknow,
there's pros and cons of both.Understand that, and that was
part of what
Rob you want to close downanything else you want to share,
yeah, call me if, if you want tohave coffee and talk about, you
know how not to feel yourbusiness. I'll be happy to help
you.
(44:44):
I love coffee, and I don't mind.I don't mind sharing my
mistakes. I think, I think it'sbetter to learn from other
people's mistakes
than to make them yourself. Ijust
it's so much better. I.
I've learned a bad lesson in myolder age. So thank you. I
appreciate the time. James, it'salways fun. I was looking
(45:07):
forward to this. I had no ideawhich direction it would go. Not
Me neither.
I know I had a guideline. I knewthe things I wanted to talk
about, but I know us so and someour offline conversations go
like this too. So this is aboutas genuine as you're gonna get.
So thank you very much, Rob.Appreciate you being here. Say
(45:27):
hi to Casey for me. I will. Iwill. So last thing, thank you
again. Today, listeners, you'relistening to the marketing
perspective. I am James tonella.
I do own media, Visionadvertising. You're welcome to
reach out if you have aquestion, if, even if it's a
topic that you don't think wecan, we can talk about we can.
(45:48):
It's okay. My firm also does PRif you've gone through issues
behind closed doors. I knowwe're navigating some new
territory right now with what'sgoing on in the world. I'll give
you my my last little nuggettoday is, if you're still doing
your marketing effort the sameas you did yesterday, it's
probably a mistake. There's somethings occurring. Marketing
(46:08):
needs to stay live and adjust,and your marketing plan has to
continually evolve based onwhat's going on. If you just set
it and forget it, I promise itwill be unsuccessful. So keep
your eyes open, head on aswivel, and we'll keep moving
forward. Thank you again forbeing here. Remember to like,
(46:30):
share love on us. Make comments.Please share the link of the
podcast however you listen toit, because we stream
everywhere, and help continue togrow this podcast. Thank you
very much for being a listenerwith us on the marketing
perspective, and I'll see younext time. Have a great day.
You.
Hey, good morning, and welcome back to the marketing
perspective, I'm James stanela,and we are in our second season
now I'm excited. We've addedvideo, as you can see, I'm
really looking forward tobecause we have some special
guests this season, all expertsin their areas, all very
talented, all knowing thingsthat I don't know, which is why
(00:26):
we do this. I am pure marketing.Everything I say is always going
to be from a marketingperspective. The people that I
bring on will be solid in thechair that they're in. So you
get their perspectives as well.And the idea is you, as a
business owner or a seniorperson in business, you get to
take some of this informationand apply it to your world as
you fit. There is no selling.There's no advertising. Here it
(00:48):
is pure education andinformation. This is a topic
driven show. So today we aretalking about what it looks like
from a business owner'sperspective and an employee's
perspective inside the walls ofhow to market a business
effectively. So this issomething I really hope you're
tuning in today. I think itcould be valuable information
(01:10):
and insights that you will walkaway from a lot happier,
hopefully in the near future. Solet's get started.
I'm going to bring on a veryspecial guest and friend and
colleague, and we've met sometime ago, full disclosure. When
he talks about the agency heused to have, he's talking about
my firm. So whether he says itor not, I don't know, but it's
(01:33):
that's how we initially beganour relationship, and I call it
that because it is arelationship. We got pretty
tight. We have helped each otherthick and thin.
I'm excited about where he isnow. He has switched over to
another company, which he isgoing to share. But his insights
are valuable, and I hope you aretuning in and listening today.
(01:53):
Let's get started. So RobBauman, I want to introduce you
to the show. Rob is now with allstar security, and he is the
director of marketing and salesthere, Rob, thank you for tuning
in and being a part of the show.Thanks, James. I appreciate your
invite. It's always good to seean old friend on on the screen,
(02:14):
and
hopefully we we don't go off therails too much today, because
this could be a lot of fun fortwo old friends chatting about
business in the past,
and then all of a sudden westart crying in a corner.
Possible, that's possible. So
(02:36):
you have a lot going on in yourlife and a lot of good even even
family stuff, you know, becausewe know each other. So it's
funny, if you're a businessowner, business owners tend to
carry stuff on their shoulders.You know, there's a lot.
Everybody has a lot going on intheir personal world. How do you
separate that? How do youconduct business and when it
comes to marketing? So myperspective of that is, you have
(03:00):
to have your big boy panties on,and the company has to show
strength, and it has to show
that it can do the job that youwant it to do. But at the end of
the day, it has to be real, andhas to be authentic. And I just
want to say Rob is probably oneof the most authentic people I
know,
and he shoots from the hip. SoRob, I'm really excited that
(03:21):
we're about to talk about this,and thank you very much for
jumping in.
So why don't you uncommon Shutup, and I'd like you just give
us a little exposition. Tell uswhere you came from, if you want
to tell us how it started, so weunderstand your head and the
journey a little bit. Just giveus the bullets here and there,
(03:42):
and then we can dive in.
Yeah, well, I was inconstruction for most of my
life, in some trade form,
for approximately 25 years,
middle 2007 eight, when thingsstarted to go terrible. I went
back to college, got a six yeardegree. It
(04:04):
was only a four year degree, butit took me six to get it.
Went into project management ina firm in a town near us in
Nashville, in Murfreesboro,south of Nashville,
and enjoyed, enjoyed that a lot
could their company changeddirection. I didn't want to go
(04:25):
there.
We parted ways amicably, and Istarted a my own firm with a
partner, and it went really,really well. Now, I've always
been a self marketer, networker,you know the face of my
business. So that was the way Istayed. And I started that way
(04:46):
in 2019 I think it's how you andI met through networking,
and then
when we started talking, and webrought your business.
And to
to market the new businesshonestly, and things went
(05:07):
exponential, but we can go therea little bit
later, and it was a night andday difference. As far as the
traffic.
We went down that road for aboutfive years, and
we can also talk later about howthat ended and where we are, but
(05:27):
now I am currently in anemployee role, which is a very
different place as a businessowner. My I tell people my
stress levels are about a 12 atall times out of 10 I 10,
and the day I started as anemployee, my stress level went
to about a two. So,
(05:51):
yeah, it changed the way Itreated my family at trade and
zere. I treated my grandkids. Ittrained. It changed the way my
wife saw me.
It changed the way I walkthrough life with my shoulders
relaxed, rather than here.
So yeah, I'm,
I'm super excited where I am.Obviously, there's, it has its
(06:14):
cons, and obviously we can talkabout the cons as well,
but I think the pros that way,in my opinion, Now, some people
just love to own a business, andthey love to work under that
stress, and that's, you know,more power to that person.
I find myself
in my fourth business saying, Idon't want to do that anymore,
(06:37):
but James, you still do it, so
I'm a little crazier than youare. You know that I've had
times where I said, I said, Youknow what? I would sleep a
little bit better at night. Iwould. Business owners
understand that if you're not abusiness owner, I'm sorry you
just don't understand that. Idon't care if you're a mom pop
or a big company, businessowners understand when they go
(07:00):
home, it's still in their head.They have responsibilities. They
have responsibilities to theirstaff, to the people that they
serve it. You know, there'sgood, bad and indifferent about
owning your own business, andit's I commend people that are
able to do it successfully. So Ihave had days over the years. I
mean, my company is 20 years inbusiness now, and I have had
(07:23):
times where I was like, youknow, what my life be so much
easier if I just go back andwork. I made more money, I had
less stress. I slept really wellat night, you know? So I get it.
I totally understand that's notwhy we're here today. We're
here. I really want to giveinsights to people,
good, bad and indifferent whenit comes to marketing their own
business. So let's get back toyour as a business owner
(07:49):
when you were handling marketingyourself now, when I met Rob,
Rob is not your average youngbusiness owner. Well, he's not
young, but you know, Hey, wasthat too much across the ballot?
Was too quick. Was just kind ofright across.
Yeah, right. He his, he had anatural gifting for marketing
(08:13):
and sales. He's he's excellentat at at a high level,
understanding human behavior. Heunderstands how to develop
relationship. He understands howto present his offering, and
it's just a matter of, you know,honing and polishing and some of
the strategies behind that. Buthe was way further ahead than a
lot of companies that I meet, soI want to give him that right
(08:36):
out of the gate. So in thebeginning, you were doing all
that yourself. Start with that.Talk about when you were doing
your own marketing, when, whenyour company first got going,
what were the pros? What werethe cons, and then maybe even
some of the successes andfailures there?
Sure, yeah, I think some of thethings that I didn't know before
I did do a lot of marketing, andI actually love marketing. It's
(08:59):
one of my favorite things in theworld of James, you ever need
somebody just holler and patchyboy in her, I'll come work for
you, but
with me. And believe me, whenyou were in transition, in the
back of my mind, I was like, CanI afford Rob?
I wasn't kidding. You neverasked, but it was in my mind, I
didn't, I didn't. But, yet, no,I love marketing. It's one of my
(09:21):
favorite things. I love thecreation part of it. I love, you
know, creating things. And oneof the things I did, even
working for another firm, we hadto market our own work. So we
had to bring in our own leads. Ihad to generate our own leads.
So I did a lot of social media,obviously. And it was, it was a
lot of on
social media, I would use a lotof third person, or I would use
(09:44):
a lot of we group
us terms as a team, building ateam around myself, although
most of the time it was just mebeing the responsible party, but
I would always make myself lookbigger. That's one. It was one
of my tricks.
It, you know, even when it wasjust one or two or three of us
doing the work or being part ofthe company, I always made it
(10:08):
seem like we were bigger than wewere,
you know, even so much as tolabel the trucks in a very
professional way, so that whenpeople saw them down on the
road, and then they saw a coupleof graphics online, and, you
know, a few odds and ends, theythought, I've seen you
everywhere, and we've gone overthat as well. James, in the
past, where you know that we'vediscussed that mental
(10:31):
transaction that happens. Rob,Hang on one second. That's
something like, if you all havelistened to the show when we
talk about branding, and peopleget nervous when you talk about
branding. Oh, it's a big term.Only large companies can do
that. But what Rob just said,those basic touches, the
consistency of their brand, ofbeating on a truck, and you go
(10:52):
to the site, and there'sconsistency there, and whatever
collateral they have, he goes,he connected the dots. And
that's branding at a very highlevel. Believe it or not, with
pennies on the dollar. You canactually do that for your own
company. So just that in mind,as he's continuing, I just want
to make sure, I want toreiterate it and put an
exclamation point at the end. Imean, it was $400 in my first
(11:13):
truck rep. I
know everybody's like, what, butI had a white truck, and I got
gray letters, and we just didthem on a font that matched our
logo. And obviously it wasn'tsuper colorful or bright or fun
and it wasn't a full vehiclewrap, but we utilized the paint
on the car against the color ofthe graphic. And before we
(11:38):
started with
Media Vision. We had no color inour logo. It was one of the
first things that changed, andthey added some color to the
logo for creativity. But we hada very basic gray and white.
We created that idea from theclean square design purpose. So
(12:01):
we had all those things in mindthat were
real,
I don't know, just clean andedgy.
And then obviously I just, I hadevery networking event possible,
and I always wore a brandedshirt, and I always showed up
in, you know, clean pants andclean boots and and I made sure
(12:23):
that my presentation was good. Iworked on my elevator speech. I
made sure people knew exactlywhat I was looking for. You
know, there's a lot of thingsyou pick up in books and
podcasts and growthopportunities, you know, such as
having four elevator speechesand rotating the four elevator
speeches for specific items thatyou're asking for.
(12:47):
And then, you know, that's,
that's personal branding andpersonal advertising, just
getting out there and andgrassroots building it. That's,
I guess that's what I did,
that I would add the the firstthing that we did, I remember,
it was more about contentmarketing than it was, hey,
(13:10):
let's go spend a lot of money.
And the content marketing, Imean, just because it's what we
do every day, kind of added tothat. We didn't take away from
what you did or or change muchadding that color was really to
give you an identifying color toyour brand and give you
something that was unique incomparison to what everybody
(13:30):
else was doing. That was doinggray, white and black, you know.
So it kind of sets you allapart, and it did help. I have
to say that color did help
from a brand perspective, but westill, at the end of the day,
you still gotta drive businessin the door today. And with
that, the content marketing thatwe added started to do that
pretty quickly. And then, youknow, we kind of went from
(13:53):
there. One of the things that Iremember very clearly when we
first started talking
was first thing you did was,you're doing a great job.
You praised me for what I wasdoing. You, you, you made sure I
knew exactly what to keep doing.
But the next thing you did wassay, you know, we could do
(14:13):
better in this area, this area,this area right now. And so the
color, obviously, the orangecolor. We got a few
conversations about it. I didn'twant it to be, you know, the big
bucks lumber store orange. And Ididn't want it to be the
university orange. I said itneeds to be something completely
different. And your team found agreat blood orange that I
really, really liked, and itworked for the Nike shirts. We
(14:36):
the orange Nike shirts thatalmost a perfect match. And But
anyways, I learned a lot fromyou guys, especially specific
colors,
specific use of color,
and how that works
in the human mind, and helpspeople connect dots, the use of
(14:57):
font.
I mean, I knew a little bit.
About, you know, font, and thememorization of font and how it
connects the dots.
But other than things like Chickfil A and McDonald's and the big
items,
you know, I didn't know that itwould work on a small business,
but it does. It truly does.
Yeah, it is hard to get that.
(15:20):
I think we had it, though. Ithink we had that recognition.
We really did. You did 100%
when I've talked about yourcompany to other people, Oh, I
know that company, and theywould, even when you were
younger, we they would say,that's a big company, right?
So big. I had an office in mygarage
(15:44):
in the beginning, but then, youknow, by the end, you had three
physical locations. And I neverhad an office because you're
sitting in the office. You'renot really not getting the job
done.
So yeah, and that's the whatRob's attested to the creative
side and the brand side. And itdid actually work. It was part
of the secret sauce. The contentwas a big part of it as well.
(16:09):
Those little the videos I'mgoing to make Rob squirm a
little. We
started doing these videos thatI swear by, and it was, he was
the first company we did thiswith it just was this brainchild
that came out of a create,internal creative meeting, and
we said, well, this is what Ithink we need, and little two
(16:29):
minute vignettes on topic drivena little tip, not handing away
the farm, but giving thehomeowner educational things
they can do for their own home.Like some people don't even know
where the shutoff valve is fortheir water, right? Or the
emergency valve for the gas, orlittle like, my favorite one was
the dryer and the washer. I'llnever forget that. Here's this
(16:52):
man. How tall are you? Rob? Sixfour. I'm six five. Ish,
yeah, six five, yeah.
He's a big guy, you know. Andhe's down, tucked in between the
washer and the dryer, and he'sholding up his phone trying to
take video, like, real crunchygranola, like gorilla style kind
of thing. He's like, James, thisjust isn't gonna work. He goes,
I hate that. He was souncomfortable, but I'll tell
(17:14):
you, like, the minute we pushedthat that video out, we got
like, 800 hits, like, the nextday, like, it was crazy. And
then we were off and running. Hebecame known for doing that kind
of stuff, and he had a prettydecent following because of it.
It cost us virtually nothing.You know, it's not it's not
always about spending money. Sothat's what I mean about content
(17:34):
marketing.
It, it sometimes you got tothink a little bit out of the
box, be a little bit unique, andone of his strengths is being
authentic. So we took advantageof it, and it went off pretty
well. I think,
Rob You hated it, right?
Well, I did hate it. I hateddoing the video work and the
(17:56):
work itself. It was reallydifficult. You know, I think one
of the benefits I had is I'dbeen on a couple of television
shows doing home improvements,and I saw them do it over and
over and over again.
I was gonna, I was gonna bringthat up.
But you said it
so while I was used to, youknow, and I came from that world
(18:16):
like high production values and,you know, multiple takes and
five cameras. And, you know,there's a craft service first.
And here he is holding his owncamera.
He's like, James, what are youthinking here? Yes,
(18:37):
yeah. And, you know, I'm happy,like, when it comes down to
clients, if they want to bringin crews, the bigger, the
better, the more money, the moremoney a client spends, more
money an agency makes sure, goahead and spend the money. And
I'm the one on the other side ofthe table saying, don't spend
that money. Let's do it likethis.
So it was a it was aninteresting dichotomy that it
(18:59):
was, it was, it was reversed,and you wanted bigger and more.
And I'm like saying less, butusually I was the one saying,
No, it's got to be bigger.
And we eventually found our ourbalance between us, and it went
off very well. So again, ifyou're listening, it's not
always about spending more.Sometimes, if you can be smart
about it, you and use the toolsthat you have at your disposal,
(19:23):
you can get the same things donemuch more cost effectively, and
still get the result that you'retrying to get to grow your
business. So that, I have to saythat's has to be one of my
favorite
interactions with the companyover the years, is that time
frame between you and I, I hadthe most fun trying to talk you
down from the tree, like,where's the lights? James, I'm
(19:45):
like, You're it get out in thesunshine.
And we did so. And we definitelyhad some good times. And then
there were some bad times, youknow, the company did. And.
Have its downturn had nothing todo with its marketing, just for
the record, had nothing to dowith anything, any inability.
(20:09):
I'm just going to summarize it.And it was a financial situation
that occurred internally, andthings happen.
It went really horribly. Yeah,there's other videos out there
online that explain that,
yeah, if y'all want to, youknow, I don't want to park
there, because I don't thinkthat's the point of this.
(20:29):
But I bring it up because
I will personally say that Rob'scompany was probably my favorite
experience since I've been toNashville and I saw the
successes. I saw how we wereable to do things without
spending a lot of money. I mean,he had a budget, and little by
little, that budget grew,because he started growing as a
(20:50):
much bigger company. It wasgoing perfect. He was my jewel,
you know, my case study of casestudies, and to see it go away
personally affected me,emotionally. I mean, I know it
affected Rob. We had, had wegotten together more, we would
have drank very heavily. I havea feeling.
(21:15):
So why am I bringing that up?Because if you're a business
owner, it's not business isn'tpersonal, right? It's just
business, but it's more thanbusiness. It's it. It is a part
of you. It becomes a part of whoyou are. And it's like your
baby, in a sense, it's a familymember. The entity becomes this
living, breathing thing, andyour responsibilities grow. And
(21:37):
it's almost like, you knowyou're a father and you have
children, all of a sudden yourlife changes. It's the same
thing when you own a business.So it does get personal. Feels
personal?
Get a coach. I highly recommendhave some have a business coach
that can navigate you or putpeople around you that are
experts in their field. Can Iinterrupt you just for a second?
(21:59):
James, yes, I totally agree withget a coach. I absolutely say
everyone should have a coach.But if you're a business owner,
make sure you vet that coach.Make sure that they're an actual
business coach, that theyactually know business. They've
been in business, they've beensuccessful in business that's
(22:21):
key as well. Or if they're notsuccessful in business, at least
they've learned,
you know, there's so manycoaches out there who've read a
book and had a class and nowthey're a business coach,
and that doesn't qualify someoneto help you run your small
(22:41):
business. So definitely,definitely, definitely, get a
coach, but make sure they comewith high recommendations and
they know terms that you don'tknow, like EBITDA and net, net
and
what does gross margin reallymean? Truly mean, if they don't
know those things,
(23:02):
you know, don't do it. It's notworth it. Wasted money.
Yeah, I think it was a businesscoach that I recommend. And when
I first met him one day, he wastalking about gross, anticipated
revenues. I i almost hugged him,but he's like, six, four and 250
and I decided not to. I
was so happy, you know, I youfind somebody who understands
(23:25):
more than you do, Right exactly.
Hey, before we go away from youas a business owner, one the one
question I really want tounderstand is, what was the
impetus that made you turnaround and hire an agency? What
you got to a certain plateau, orit was, I just don't want to do
this anymore, like because youwere good at it, and I think you
(23:48):
knew you were and you don't knowwhat you don't know, right? But
what, what was the impetus thatmade you go ahead and do that?
Well,
to be honest, I think it was ustalking us, just having
conversations and going throughnetworking. And I saw some I saw
some hope in that. And I when westarted talking about it,
thought that would be reallycool. How much would that cost?
And then, obviously, it was overmy budget, right at first, you
(24:11):
were very generous in helpingme, you know, get started at a
lower level.
And
I did get COVID, so I rememberthat.
And I remember the next yeargoing, Hey guys, we gotta do
something different.
(24:32):
Yeah,
but yeah, once you get used tohaving that many calls per week
and having being able to pickyour work and, you know, being
selective about what you want todo,
it's really hard to go back tofour or five calls a week and
taking every job that comes inthe door.
(24:54):
So I think, you know, that waskind of my impetus to go into
it. I.
And then to stay in it, you kindof just get used to that process
and that speed and that thatload, and then we started
hiring. So then we had to fillthat higher, and then we got
over full. We had to hire somemore, and then it just kept
(25:14):
going. I think there's a wholegrowth segment that someone
needs to have that conversationas well. But that's not it for
this podcast. You know, ascompanies grow, they they have
to add certain key people likeCFOs and things like that to
really, you know, make surethey're guiding ship correctly.
I see it all the time. There'scompanies that they go into
(25:37):
growth mode, but if they'restill acting as a small company,
it gets dangerous. That's whythose coaches and consultants
and stuff are so important.Great.
I appreciate you. That's athat's a great why as to how we
got to work together. And itwas, it was a good experience. I
don't want to park there, butlet's switch over to just for
(26:01):
time's sake, you and yourcurrent role. You're working for
a Atlas, all star. All StarAtlas, wow. I have a company in
New York that I that I workwith.
Just give me the summary of allstar and its capabilities and
(26:22):
size and all that kind of stuff.So I moved into the sales and
marketing director role here atall star fire protection. We are
a fire protection service basedout of Nashville, Tennessee.
They're 34 years old. I've onlybeen here a few months at this
point,
and I was brought here to helpdevelop and train and grow a
(26:44):
sales team in the four marketsthat they owned, which were
Nashville, Knoxville,Chattanooga and Bowling Green,
Kentucky.
Since then,
we've been purchased by a largerfirm, a national firm,
and we are learning how to be anational company at this point.
(27:10):
So I'm growing in that role. I'mlearning along the way. It's
been an adventure and a lot offun,
but I will say again, to comeinto a role where cash isn't my
concern.
I have a budget, but the cash.When I say cash, I'd say it's
(27:31):
more along the lines of howwe're going to make payroll on
Friday.
That's That's not my major
concern. Every week, I get tofocus on the creativity, I get
to focus on the development. Iget to focus on that, the
growth, the recruiting, thehiring,
the development of people, whichis one of my favorite things in
(27:52):
the world. I love to teach.
So I'm really I'm hitting allthe high points of what I love
to do and who I am, and I thinkthat's the biggest thing for me
right now, is just that abilityto do what I love. And you know,
there's several things inbusiness I could do, and it
doesn't always mean that, youknow you love doing them, but I
(28:16):
could do them. I could dodisciplinary action. I could do
budget. Meetings, I could do
negotiations, I could do allthose other things, but they
weren't my fun. They weren'tthat wasn't why I got in
business. I truly got inbusiness because I love
creating. I love growing. I lovebuilding.
(28:38):
So I'm in a constructionbusiness. It is commercial
construction. We do fireprotection,
we do inspections and servicework, and we do full
installation. We're working ontowers, and we're working on
flat land, working on brand newbuilds, and we're working on Mom
and Pop florists. So we reallyget to cover a wide gamut, and
(29:03):
it's so much fun to just get outthere in the world and see that
and be part of it. So that's whyI'm in it. I'm enjoying myself
having a good time.
You kind of alluded to it inbetween the lines, if you're but
I know you, so I want to makesure that our listeners
understand. Can you share whatthe transition was like and
(29:26):
maybe what that past experience,how it helped you bring it into
where you are now?
So
the last year of business wasone of the worst years of my
life.
I can't talk about it withoutgetting slightly emotional.
(29:49):
So when it came to an end,
and all the money was gone, andwe were unable to pay our bills,
and we were.
Able to truly close it in ahealthy way.
It was a full collapse.
And if you've never gone throughthat, I can't explain it, you'd
(30:11):
have to walk beside me it.
So when it, when it fullycollapsed. And we filed chapter
seven, and everything went down,and I lost a lot of friends.
I lost a lot of businessconnections that I had built
over the last 15 years.
(30:33):
I lost a lot,
I won't take away from thepeople that were affected by it,
because they lost as well, andthere's not enough apologizing
for that to be fixed. I can't doit.
It's been proven. I can't offerit enough.
(30:54):
My partner and I did try tostart a new business and keep
going, because it was what weknew and we had to keep going.
That was a complete mistake.
What we should have done wastaken some time to heal and
recoil a little bit. Take timeoff would have been a great
(31:14):
idea, but we were also in themiddle of some things that we
had to close up, and
we didn't know how. We truly didknow how, and honestly,
as many people that were aroundme, I don't think anybody really
knew how to tell me to managethat moment.
So we spent 3045, days somethinglike that, trying to continue to
(31:35):
do business we shouldn't have,but we did,
and when it finally came to theplace where we both learned this
isn't going to work, and I justwent to my partner and said,
If we're going to stay in thisindustry, we can't do it
together, because it can'tafford both of us, and I'm going
to bow out.
(31:57):
And he agreed, and
he went and continued to do workas a smaller business. I I
basically told myself, I'mtaking two months off. I'm going
to lick my wounds and find somehealing,
you know, and just separatemyself. I put the word out to
(32:20):
some networking friends from agroup we all were part of in C
12. And I just said, Hey guys,I'm going to take some time off,
but I put myself on the market.I'm going to be an employee. I'm
going to reach out to somefolks, if you don't mind, share
my name. Here are the thingsthat I'd love to do, and
basically named everything I'mdoing right now.
(32:40):
And a friend of mine, Casey, whowas an owner here at all star,
said, I would absolutely referyou, and I appreciate you
reaching out to me. He said, Butcan we have lunch? And
absolutely I don't have a job,let's have lunch.
And so
(33:03):
we sat down. He said, I reallyneed somebody for this role.
Really need somebody for thisrole right now.
We could really use someimproved sales force in our
company. We could really use youto kind of develop this
department.
And so I jumped on it. Honestly,the pay didn't matter. I just
(33:23):
wanted to do something, and
it's been absolutely
some of the most fun I've had inbusiness.
Simply because I get to doeverything I love. I'm in my
wheelhouse,
everything that's not in mywheelhouse has been taken away,
(33:46):
and the responsibility is notasked. But I'm also included in
a lot of high level meetings anda lot of fun growth
opportunities where I learnthings, and I learn from other
executives who,
you know, I just learned bybeing in the room. So it's been
a fun experience so far.
(34:09):
Well, while I'm sad about thefirst part of how I know you,
I'm really happy for you,because it seems I can attest to
that you're in a better place,and life's a little bit easier,
and you're having a heck of alot more fun doing what you're
kind of meant to do. So therethey are fortunate to have you.
I'll tell you that. Well,thanks. I appreciate
(34:31):
it. Can you provide any insightto somebody who's listening
today, if they are that businessowner? Because we may have just
like, convinced a few people tojust close shop and go and get a
job and just say, Wow, he'sright. Let's just go do this,
you know. And it's possible, ifyou're out there, you know, and
that's what you know your gut istelling you, or God's nudging
(34:53):
you, and you're getting hit inthe back of the head, maybe you
should do that, or maybe this isempowering you to dig deeper.
And really try to grow yourcompany. Can you give some
insights to those people? Eitherway, I don't want to discourage
people who want to go on theadventure of business ownership.
And there are a lot ofsuccessful people out there, and
(35:13):
you don't know if you're goingto be successful at it until you
try
my biggest piece of advice. AndI know people gave me this
advice, and I did not listen mybiggest piece of advice. I feel
like my greatest piece of advice
is to hold the business small
for at least five years. Do notlet it grow. Do not allow it
(35:36):
will want to grow. It will tryto grow. I use the analogy of
just hold your hands around thethroat of that business and keep
it
down.
Because if it grows, it willgrow out of hand like a weed,
and unless you're really, reallyskilled, you're going to
(36:00):
struggle to keep control of it,
and it will get out of yourhands, and you will not be able
to manage it. Keep it smallforcefully. Keep it small.
Reject business. My goodness, ifI don't listen, reject business,
especially that those customerswho don't look like your
customers reject it. It's notworth it.
(36:25):
Hire a good coach one more time.
Get advisors around you, even ifyou can't afford an advertising
company, find an advertisingguru who loves to have coffee
and will advise you until you'rebig enough to hire them.
That's important,
(36:47):
because you can do it on yourown. You truly can to a certain
point. I mean, when you get toan enterprise level, you need
somebody to take that over,because you've got so many other
hats to wear,
just as much as your socialmedia, your your your digital
advertising, your billboardadvertising, all that stuff you
don't want to be managing thatwhen you've got 12 other systems
(37:09):
to deal with.
But yeah, yeah,
if you, if you're nothing else,if you're starting a business,
keep it small for five years.Very important.
That was really good advice.
I took a lot of notes
when
(37:33):
my next slide in the on theother side in the chair that you
sit in. Now, I know you're youngin your role there, yeah, but
there's a lot of companies outthere. There's a bigger company.
Director of Marketing. Whatinsights can you give? Because
you have a lot of vastexperience that you kind of put
into bucket now. So how can youhelp them? For my currency, I
(37:55):
love the creativity part of it,but know you're on, know your
know your product, know yourservice, know who your top three
buyers are. What is their title?If it's business to business,
who's your buyer? Make sure youknow that it's not the CEO.
If you think it's the CEO,you're wrong. I mean,
(38:16):
unless you're an advertisingcompany, and then maybe,
but
know your product
highly recommend, if I can saythat, you can cut it out later.
LinkedIn, Sales Navigator,
I'm finding good success there,
(38:36):
finding people and reaching outto them and giving them, you
know, just let them know who weare.
And,
yeah, if you know your top threebuyers who they are, and you
know the industries that you'retargeting,
and we target all industries, wekind of just rotate them
(38:59):
as we cycle through ourmarketing so we'll rotate
between senior living in schoolsand industrial and
manufacturing, and just keeprolling them through our
marketing plan.
Have a marketing plan
that's important. Develop a planfor a minimum of six months, if
(39:19):
not 12. That way you know whatyou're doing. And the spring,
fall, summer, winter,
who are your targets? In thewinter, it's our market. We have
a lot of freeze ups, so in thewinter time, we're targeting
those businesses that areaffected by freezes,
so that they know our name. So
(39:40):
that marketing plan isimportant, knowing who your
people are and knowing whatbusinesses you're targeting, I
think are probably three
of my top piece of advice.
That's really good informationthe marketing plan part, I had a
tear in my eye
because it's.
(40:00):
I cannot if I had $1 for everycompany I've met that doesn't
have a plan. So the only companythat ever gave me a Brand Book
was Media Vision. And afterseeing that brand book, I'm
addicted to having it. I need itlike I need, I need to disperse
it throughout the company likethese are. These are the Pantone
(40:21):
colors. Please, don't use thewrong blue, please,
because it is that important.Brand standards are very
important. That's the term. See,you know the terms. I'm just
Well, I've been doing it for afew years. I
Yeah.
(40:43):
Well, I know the man that I'mspeaking to today, and I know
his integrity, and I know whathe stands behind. So if, if
you're a business out there andyou do have that kind of a need
of what he's talking about withfire suppression systems, and
he is going to do his besteffort and give you 1,000%
(41:04):
and as the company he standsbehind, because I actually know
the gentleman he was talkingabout. I know KC, and they're a
great company, and they're bothmen of integrity, and
I'm excited about that, thatyou're putting people like that
in the same room. Good thingsare going to happen. So if you
have a need, reach out to rob,if and if you're in the markets
(41:25):
that he talked about, I'm fairlycertain at least let them be one
of the three conversations thatyou have when you're making an
educated decision. And I, I 100%believe that you will not do
wrong by that.
So Rob, if they want to contactyou?
Yeah,
(41:46):
so if you want to reach out toour Nashville number is 615865,
5600,
or all star fire protection.comreach out through our chat
there, and if you want to reachme directly, 6154314,
615-431-3760,
be happy to chat if you if youwant to talk through
(42:09):
fire protection or
any other
services that we offer,remember, every building That is
functioning legally, has to havea fire extinguisher, and they
have to be inspected every year.So happy to do so.
Thank you for that, Rob. So justto close us out today, you know,
(42:33):
we, we, we went in differentdirections, I which I knew we
were going to
but if you're, if you'relistening today, understand
that. So we were talking aboutmarketing, in a sense, but
marketing is a lot more thanjust advertising and even
pure marketing. It's, it's theculture inside the walls, it's
(42:55):
the people. It's, it's thedecisions you make. It's, it's
the circle that you surroundyourself with of a brain trust
smarter than you to make acompany better and stronger when
it comes down to a company thatcan have sustainable growth over
time.
That's what was talked abouttoday, and I hope you took
(43:15):
something out of it. Feel freeto reach out to either one of us
if you have a question, if youwanted to share something we
love that seriously and happy tohelp. And I am, by the way, that
guy that will have coffee withpretty much anybody and help
their marketing effort in anhour or two hour conversation,
because I believe it's importantlike Rob's the same kind of
(43:38):
person it's it's about
educating others to do theirbest, to be their best, and to
give them our best, you know. Sofind people like that that are
willing to be in your circle,and you'll, you'll see
differences in your businessover time. So Rob, thank you so
much for taking the time today.I know, I know you have been
(44:00):
traveling a lot. You're wefollow each other on social
media and Bowling Green Robdidn't chat very good sometimes
in the same day. Yes, he'srunning around, but it seems
like you're having so much funand just loving life, and I can
say that you are happier now. Ifyou're a business owner, don't
go out and sell your businesstomorrow. Just hold on,
(44:24):
you know, think about it. Youknow,
there's pros and cons of both.Understand that, and that was
part of what
Rob you want to close downanything else you want to share,
yeah, call me if, if you want tohave coffee and talk about, you
know how not to feel yourbusiness. I'll be happy to help
you.
(44:44):
I love coffee, and I don't mind.I don't mind sharing my
mistakes. I think, I think it'sbetter to learn from other
people's mistakes
than to make them yourself. Ijust
it's so much better. I.
I've learned a bad lesson in myolder age. So thank you. I
appreciate the time. James, it'salways fun. I was looking
(45:07):
forward to this. I had no ideawhich direction it would go. Not
Me neither.
I know I had a guideline. I knewthe things I wanted to talk
about, but I know us so and someour offline conversations go
like this too. So this is aboutas genuine as you're gonna get.
So thank you very much, Rob.Appreciate you being here. Say
(45:27):
hi to Casey for me. I will. Iwill. So last thing, thank you
again. Today, listeners, you'relistening to the marketing
perspective. I am James tonella.
I do own media, Visionadvertising. You're welcome to
reach out if you have aquestion, if, even if it's a
topic that you don't think wecan, we can talk about we can.
(45:48):
It's okay. My firm also does PRif you've gone through issues
behind closed doors. I knowwe're navigating some new
territory right now with what'sgoing on in the world. I'll give
you my my last little nuggettoday is, if you're still doing
your marketing effort the sameas you did yesterday, it's
probably a mistake. There's somethings occurring. Marketing
(46:08):
needs to stay live and adjust,and your marketing plan has to
continually evolve based onwhat's going on. If you just set
it and forget it, I promise itwill be unsuccessful. So keep
your eyes open, head on aswivel, and we'll keep moving
forward. Thank you again forbeing here. Remember to like,
(46:30):
share love on us. Make comments.Please share the link of the
podcast however you listen toit, because we stream
everywhere, and help continue togrow this podcast. Thank you
very much for being a listenerwith us on the marketing
perspective, and I'll see younext time. Have a great day.
You.
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