December 11, 2024 • 36 mins
Brandon Mills, a business growth consultant at Scorpion Home Services, shares his journey from running a roofing company to becoming a marketing expert for home service businesses. Drawing from his experiences at RoofCon—a conference that grew from a small event to a major industry gathering—Brandon offers practical strategies for business expansion, overcoming challenges, and achieving sustainable growth.
In this episode, we dive into key issues like post-pandemic staffing struggles, competitive benefits, and the importance of documenting processes to build efficient systems. Brandon emphasizes the power of authenticity in brand messaging, balancing lead generation with brand awareness, and leveraging tools like personal branding and Google Local Service Ads. Tune in for actionable insights and resources, including Roofers Catalyst, to help you refine your operations and elevate your marketing game.
NOTABLE QUOTES
"Marketing is really the heartbeat of a business." – Philip
"That's really what brought me into the marketing space was just that was the only other thing I really knew at the time." – Brandon
"Things happen for a reason." – Philip
"What it really boiled down to was more than what did I do, but what mistakes did I learn along the way that I didn't want someone else to repeat?" – Brandon
"When you have systems in place that can run in the background, independent of a specific person doing everything, it made things a lot easier and a lot smoother to run." – Brandon
"When you hire somebody, you force yourself to start being a little bit systematized." – Philip
"If you can just start documenting the things that you're doing and pass that on to the other guys..., if they can do it 80% as good as you, then you can start moving on to the next thing." – Brandon
"It is hard for me to be in your business and replicate it, and so..., the more information you can give the better." – Brandon
"Even though there's awesome software out there that can do all these things, make it look like you record your own video [and] take your own photos." – Philip
"Marketing to everyone, markets to no one." – Brandon
"From the free standpoint, I think there's nothing better on the planet than a personal brand." – Brandon
RESOURCES
Brandon
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bmills.scorpion
Roofers Catalyst: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rooferscatalyst
Philip
Digital Course: https://www.speakingsessions.com/digital-course
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamphilipsessions/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipsessions
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-sessions-b2986563/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealphilipsessions
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's up, guys.
I have a special guest for youtoday.
It's Brandon Mills, who is thebusiness growth consultant at
Scorpion Home Services, helpingroofing and home service
companies get more of the jobsthat they want.
Welcome to the show, brandon.
What's up?
Hey, what's going on, phillip?
Hey, just here, excited for usto be recording.
(00:24):
We've been talking a lot backand forth about different things
business, life, marketing,parenting, all that good stuff
and so it's like, hey, we needto get you on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Absolutely man.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Excited to have you here.
Yeah, I'm pumped to be on man,yeah.
So tell me what you're workingon right now and tell the
audience as well what you'reworking on and there's a lot of
things going on in life, butwhat's that one thing that
you're just really excited about?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, no, it's awesome, man.
I'm glad you asked.
I guess the big thing that I'mworking on right now is just
trying to I mean, honestly, whatyou just mentioned just help
roofing companies get more ofthe jobs that they're looking
for, so that's or, honestly, anyhome service companies.
But we do that a number of waysright.
So one's through you know,through what I do professionally
(01:08):
, but then I'm also I've got a,you know, just a free group
online that we do some trainingsand things like that and um,
but yeah, I mean just, I'm justpassionate about the roofing
industry and helping guys growtheir businesses is really what
it boils down to.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah, and you went to RoofCon recently, right, yeah
yeah, it was a good time, nice,yeah, so tell me about that.
I know I know Hunter Blue aswell Actually, he's in my neck
of the woods and everything buthow was the event overall?
I think it was this was thefifth one that he's done so far.
How was?
How was the event overall?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, so I've been to several Roofcons and so I mean,
yeah, I think you and Iconnected over Hunter originally
, but, yeah, every Roofcon I'veever been to has been top notch.
I was actually at the veryfirst Roofcon 30 guys and maybe
like five or 10 vendors sittingin like this hotel conference
room you know, I think it wasback in 2019 or something like
(02:10):
that and just very intimatesetting and to see where RoofCon
has come from, that has beenjust mind blowing.
You know, we went from, like Isaid, like 40 or 50 guys in a
room to 4,500, I think.
So it's been a wild ride towatch how hunters just exploded
that in just a few short years.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah, man, it is pretty crazy.
I'm trying to look up here.
I don't know what episode thatwas, but I had Hunter Blue on a
while back actually on thepodcast.
So make sure to go back andcheck that out.
But yeah, we talked throughthat and it was incredible to
hear that journey for him andhow they just they did it.
And I think he kind of said andI had another guest on, actually
that has does like home servicetype stuff too and does his own
(02:52):
events and everything theBadass Business Summit and Danny
, something I can't, I'mblanking on his name.
He was a more recent guest butkind of talked to that same
thing and and you saying it waslike 30 guests and then like
five or 10 vendors or whateverhe basically had, all the people
that were there in attendancewere also vendors.
(03:12):
It's like they would attend theevent and they go back to their
booth and basically have to tryand visit each other's booth to
have any audience andeverything.
So it's funny how things startout and you you don't think it's
that great, but really itbecomes that great story that
you can share later on andeverything and just shows the
testament of continuing to pushforward, to being consistent and
(03:35):
taking that action.
Those two guys have done greatthings with their own industries
and their own events andeverything.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, so I actually started out in the roofing
industry and I went to thatfirst one as as a roofing
company owner and what I wasable to take from that event and
implement into my business thenext year, we we doubled in size
pretty much, you know, asdirect result of what we learned
at that event.
And so I've always enjoyedgoing to conferences and things
and just picking up littlenuggets here and there, and it's
(04:04):
always a good time, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I mean that's a great thing about these conferences
that you can really learn a lot,especially if you go to ones
like hunters, where they'rereally about giving value.
There's definitely some othersthat it's more about hey, we're
just going to pitch you on stageand everything gets you to buy
this next program, this nextcourse, whatever it may be, but
those that are actually theretrying to provide you that value
(04:27):
, they're really priceless atthe end of the day and
everything.
So talk to me about.
I know marketing is a hugething, but I would love to dive
into marketing.
Every business owner can usetheir skills and they need more
skills when it comes tomarketing, because marketing is
really the heartbeat of abusiness that branding, that
(04:49):
marketing so that it can lead tosales and business growth.
So talk to us about yourjourney of getting into
marketing.
You just mentioned about havingyour own business going to
RoofCon and clearly you've madea switch a little bit from being
the roofing business owner tonow you're doing marketing and
helping other roofing companiesand home service based
(05:12):
businesses with their marketing.
So talk to us about thatjourney of how you got into
marketing.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, so it's.
I mean, I don't know how deepyou want to go into this.
It's a.
It's a pretty deep rabbit holeat times, but basically,
essentially, years and years ago, I had some health
complications and honestly, I'mnot going to bore you with all
the details of that, but go back, rewind just about two years.
Actually.
I had a seizure on, I think itwas yeah, it was New Year's Eve,
(05:43):
2022.
So I went into an epilepticseizure on New Year's Eve and we
really kind of panicked afterthat.
So, you know, it was one ofthose deals where they diagnosed
me as epileptic, immediatelyput me on medicine, told me I
couldn't drive, couldn't be onroofs any longer.
So, yeah, I mean, I spent, youknow, spent the first part of
(06:05):
2023 just trying to figure outwhat in the world are we going
to do, and unfortunately, wementioned the roofing company.
Unfortunately, I didn't have atthat time, the systems and
processes in place that I needed, and so the system really lived
and died with me, and so wedidn't have things set up to
where it would run without me,and so, really, what boiled down
(06:26):
to is I was left with no ideawhat we were going to do,
knowing that I couldn't drivefor a while and knowing I
couldn't be on roofs anymore.
So I'm like, well, what do Iknow?
Well, I spent the last howevermany years marketing my business
and growing it and getting ourname in front of local clients
and things like that, and so Istarted reverse engineering like
(06:46):
what did we do to get there?
And so that's really whatbrought me into the marketing
space was just that was the onlyother thing I really knew at
the time, the only other skillthat I had acquired, and I just
did that through building my ownbusiness, and the rest has kind
of been history.
I've enjoyed the ride eversince.
Like I said, I just enjoyhelping companies grow their
(07:07):
businesses, and so that's whatbrought me to that side a rather
roundabout way, because I thinkmost guys when they get into
marketing, they either see moneyor they love marketing, and for
me it was definitely adifferent path than most take,
but it's been an enjoyable onefor sure.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, and not that I like that.
That situation happened to you,but it's amazing how situations
happen to us and really changeus.
And I can think back to rightbefore I got married.
I switched to a new job.
I was doing independentcontract work and I knew my next
project was going to be out ofstate for at least six months to
a year and getting married Iwas like, ah, this probably
(07:50):
isn't a good idea.
So I made a change.
But because of getting marriedand making a change to that
company actually it was, I think, about April of 2020.
So right after COVID andeverything.
So because of COVID, luckily Iwas with a stable company, bmw,
but then I also myself ended uphaving a seizure as well, and so
I didn't get.
(08:10):
I mean, we got some tests,everything came back like
inconclusive and stuff like that.
And they said oh, you're notsupposed to drive, Although I
kind of drove anyways.
But I worked it out with mymanager at the time to like only
go into work one day a week andluckily, because of the role I
was in, I was able to work fromhome a lot because of that, but
(08:30):
my other job I had to be on site, especially if I would have
been out of state or beentraveling with other ones.
So things happen for a reasonto us.
And obviously for you it was areally good situation in the end
, because now you're able toprobably be at home a lot more
with your family and you wereable to do this other thing, but
also made you reflect, and Iwould say being behind a
(08:52):
computer, so to say doingmarketing, is a lot safer than
being on a roof.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, like you said, I truly believe everything
happens for a reason and God hasa plan in it all and so, yeah,
it definitely threw us for aloop.
We didn't know exactly whatwhat was going to the other side
was going to look like, right,but, um, you know he, he's
definitely been faithful to usthrough the whole thing and very
, um, very happy that.
(09:19):
You know, obviously it wasn'tworse and you know know, we
found our way on the other sideand found something that I
actually truly enjoy and it'sbeen a good road.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Good, good.
So talk to us about this.
As you said, hey, I grew mybusiness and then I started
reverse engineering how to how Imarketed my business so it
could grow.
So talk to us about what werethose steps that you did to grow
that business.
But then how do you thenimplement that for others to
(09:51):
help them grow their businessthrough marketing?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, so it's looked a little different since I went
to work for Scorpion.
Now we have a team that handlesall that for us, but when I
first got into it, it was justkind of like I said, just kind
of dissecting what did we do andtry to repeat that, and and
actually what it really boileddown to was more than more than
what did I do, but what mistakesdid I make?
(10:15):
Did I learn along the way thatI didn't want someone else to
repeat?
And so one of the biggestthings for me was when I had to
step out.
I think I heard you, or I thinkI mentioned it just a minute ago
that I didn't have the systemsand processes in place, and so
that was the very first thingthat I tried to do is help them
implement systems whether thatwas, you know, crms with
(10:37):
automations and things like thatthat could run in the
background, or just marketingsystems that would help generate
leads that wasn't dependent onone person being out there doing
everything, and so obviouslyyou still need sales guys and
everything to run that, but whenyou have systems in place that
can run in the background,independent of a specific person
(10:58):
doing everything, it madethings a lot easier and a lot
smoother to run, and that was,like I said, one of the biggest
things I learned having to stepout of my business was that
systems and processes are direto every business and so, yeah,
like I said, that's kind of howwe started was getting into that
game and helping companies setup their CRMs and all those
(11:22):
follow-up, automations and dripcampaigns and things like that
that just keep you top of mindin front of your customer.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, and talk to me real quick about this I'm glad
you brought that back up,because I wanted to point that
out about not having the systemsand processes With the roofing
company.
Was it just you, or did youhave a, a crew, like what did
the roofing company kind of looklike?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, at times it was different, right?
So we had just gone throughCOVID a couple of years before
that, and so we were buildingthat direction, we were putting
in the systems and processes.
I had hired a fairly solidsales guy, we had hired a
carpenter.
That was more of a while.
(12:04):
He was a carpenter, he was alsovery much a project manager and
so was handling a lot ofgetting me to the point where I
could actually start to work onthe business.
But again, shortly after COVIDhit, people started realizing
man, we need insurance, we needdifferent benefits and things
like that that as a smallbusiness owner at the time I
couldn't provide.
And so we ended up losing.
(12:26):
We had four guys that we wereslowly building on and lost each
one one by one, just literallydue to benefits.
And it just, it was the perfectstorm because we just lost the
last guy.
And then the seizure happenedand I was planning to rebuild
with, you know, had alreadystarted working towards what 23
(12:48):
was going to look like.
And it just, you know, like Isaid, all things happen for a
reason and actually, lookingback on one point, I think you
know it's easy to look back andsay, well, I wish we would have
done this differently.
But I think on the other sideof things you can look back and
say, well, at least I didn'thave to lay these guys off or
fire them or whatever becausethings didn't happen right or
(13:08):
whatever.
So we can look back and wishthings would have worked
differently.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
But I think it's also really good to realize I got
orchestrated every circumstanceto where it became a fairly
smooth transition yeah, yeah,and I was thinking that exact
same thing, that you know, allthese guys, kind of one by one,
and that stinks, and it stingsas well as a business owner.
You're losing those guys.
But, like you said, at the endof the day, when the seizure
(13:35):
happened, it wasn't like, oh man, what am I going to do about
these guys as well that are onmy crew?
They were already gone.
Yeah, it was kind of an upsidefor sure.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And those guys are all thriving today too, and I'm
thankful for that, because Istill keep in touch with them
and they're all doing well.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah, that's awesome, and one of the things that I
noticed there is that you weretalking about, you had these
guys and so you started to workon the business and everything.
And a lot of times I feel likeus as business owners,
especially solopreneurs, a lotof times we feel like we can't
start working on the businessand we don't put systems in
place because it's just me.
(14:11):
Why would I put a system inplace?
And then the other side to itas well is well, why I need to
hire somebody or have a systemin place before I hire somebody,
and so it's kind of like it's alittle counterintuitive.
But really I feel like when youhire somebody, you force
yourself to start being a littlebit systematized and I don't
(14:33):
say like, hey, go and hire 10different people so you can
start to create your systems,different people so you can
start to create your systems.
No, but I do think that, ratherthan trying to wait until you
have everything together, allthe SOPs in place, the loom
videos, whatever you feel likeyou need hire that first person,
because for me at least, whatI've noticed, especially with my
(14:54):
virtual assistants, as I hiredthat first one and that second
one, I started thinking on thishigher level and started
focusing more on okay, what do Ineed them to do?
How can I be overseeing whatthey're doing without being a
micromanager, of course, butoverseeing what they're doing
and figure out how tosystematize this, rather than
okay, I'm just doing this joband let me just kind of
(15:16):
hopefully hand it off tosomebody, but not really hand it
off and stuff like that and letme just kind of hopefully hand
it off to somebody, but notreally hand it off and stuff
like that.
So I found that as I gotemployees for myself, I was able
to kind of think moresystematically versus beforehand
.
Was that kind of same thing foryou, or do you think you were
already kind of moresystematized anyways?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
No, that's not on paper.
For the business, yeah, no,that's 100% it I had to.
It forced me to start tosystematize after I started
bringing guys on because, likeyou said, when you're solo by
yourself it's like, well, I'vegot my system now.
It's not a true system, butit's it's the system that works
(15:53):
for me.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Right and so it's here my head.
I'll remember it.
I'll get to it, oh, oh yeah, oh, I forgot that.
Hold on, let me write it downon this notepad.
I don't remember where it's atnow.
Good, system.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
But honestly I mean all this funnels back into
marketing too, because we treatmarketing the same way.
I feel like Whether you'rehiring someone or you're
handling your leads or whatever,things fall through the cracks.
And the more you systematizeeverything you know, the better
that becomes.
But one of the big things I'verealized is rather than I feel
(16:27):
like we always feel like we haveto create content, to systemize
right, whether that's like youmentioned, like the Loom videos
and different things like that Ithink we feel like we have to
create something.
But what I've realized throughall this is a lot of it's just
documentation.
If you can just startdocumenting the things that
you're doing and pass that on tothe other guys and start to
(16:47):
replicate yourself that way, itmay not be perfect, you know,
they might not do it as good asyou, but if they can do it 80%
as good as you, then you canstart moving on to the next
thing.
And again, I think marketingcan be a little bit of the same
way, because no one's ever goingto market your business exactly
the same way you would want to,but if you can get them at
(17:08):
least the vision behind it andthen you can start to scale that
vision a little bit.
While it may not be exactly theway you want it to look every
single time, if you can createsomething that's scalable and
repeatable, I think that'sreally what it boils down to,
you know.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And you just hit on a really good point there.
This was actually a question.
It was more along the lines ofhaving, like, somebody internal
such as a virtual assistant orsomething helping with social
media management, but it gotbrought up actually in builders
of authority.
I don't think you were on thecall today with that, but
somebody yeah somebody, askedthe question how do we get get
somebody else to impersonate ourbrand voice?
(17:49):
And this was more along thepersonal branding side.
So when it comes to the businessbranding, I would say it's a
little bit easier for a thirdparty or somebody else in the
company to take over thatmarketing for the business.
But what would be somesuggestions for you of how we
could use a social media managerwhether it be in-house, through
(18:12):
a VA or we outsource tosomebody like Scorpion to start
doing that more on the personalbranding side.
To start doing that more on thepersonal branding side, what
are some suggestions that youhave for us to really help us be
able to create that personalpersona, even though let's say,
like you're doing the postingand content creation on my
behalf for my personal brand?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing and this is
something I talk to companyowners about all the time and
it's really hard to get peopleto realize, but it is hard for
me to be in your business andreplicate it, and so, if you're
trying to replicate what thatlooks like, the more information
you can give the better.
(18:55):
And so, whether that's sendingpictures with a voice memo of
saying, hey, this is what we'redoing in this picture and this
is the message I want to portray, that way you're not having to
sit there and type something out, but you can send that
information on quickly to thatperson and they can implement
what you're trying to get across, I think that's something that
can be really helpful.
It's actually something I'mthinking through for myself with
(19:18):
my own personal brand, if youwill.
Helpful.
It's actually something I'mthinking through for myself with
my own personal brand, if youwill.
Um, my son is 15 and it'ssomething that you know video
editing and social media andstuff like that is things that
he's interested in.
I've been thinking through,like what it might look like to
have him help me with some ofthis, but I'm like, like you
just mentioned, it'd be reallyhard for me to to get a 15 year
old to think, to think?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
like me.
Yeah, yeah, that was the idea,Especially 15 versus.
I don't know your age, but Iknow you're not 15.
Right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I'm 40 this year actually, but yeah, it's going
to be really hard for me to helphim see through my lens.
But if I can really whether itbe through, like I said, a voice
memo or something to where Ican really portray hey, this is
what.
This is the message I'm tryingto get across through this
content, I think is helpful andI think, providing as much
(20:09):
in-house content as you possiblycan, because where I see a lot
of social media people, you knowwhether it be social media
marketing agencies or you knowwhatever that may be, va or
whatever is if they have to comeup with their own content for
you, that makes it really hardbecause you can only use so many
stock photos and things likethat and make it look like Phil
(20:30):
Obsessions.
It's just not going to happen.
So I can put a whole bunch ofpictures of podcast mics or VAs
or whatever and it might get thepoint across to an extent.
But the more you can sendpictures of yourself or content
of you doing something, even ifyou're just putting cameras up.
Going back to the documentationthing we were just talking
(20:52):
about, just document some ofwhat you're doing and send that
off with as much informationabout it as possible.
I think it's going to be theeasiest way to get your own
brand out there.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
I like that, the voice memos you know, having a
picture and doing a voice memo,or it could be a video with the
voice memo as well.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
But because that's actually something I stole from
Builders of Authority actually.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, it's good.
I appreciate you mentioningthat, but it's a great piece of
advice right there and even withthe video, I've noticed that
some people and that they'll sitthere and literally basically
put the caption as what was saidin the videos, like no, let's
add to that, let's not sayexactly the same thing in
(21:38):
everything and like you say youhave to to kind of document it
At the bare minimum.
Talking about you, yourbackground, who you are,
especially if you're trying tohand this off to somebody that
doesn't know you at all.
The more they know you, thebetter, like you said, but if
they don't try and give thatbackground Background on the
company, why you built thebusiness, who you are, why
you're doing what you're doing.
Do you have family, kids,what's their names, ages, stuff
(22:04):
like that.
There's so much that you cangive them for them to be able to
research on Something else tothat as well.
If you haven't hired this outyet, have them go back and look
at previous content.
Even if it's not great, it'sstill going to be your voice too
, so they can look at yourprevious content.
I see you know they like tojoke around a lot or like they
like to be sarcastic or orwhatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
They're gonna see your style and then just be able
to make it more of a strategicapproach and everything and I've
considered that, I've nevertested yet is building like a
custom GPT and, you know,building your own brand voice,
right, and so train the GPT toat least in some extent, think
(22:50):
like you and talk like you, useyour personality and upload some
content that would explain whatthat would look like.
Upload some content that wouldexplain what that would look
like.
Create a custom GPT that yourVA or your social media
marketing person can type in andsay okay, I want to.
I want to create this contentusing Phillip's brand voice.
Help me create this.
(23:12):
You know, something like thatmight even be helpful.
I'm I've not tested it to seeif it would work or not, but as
much as I've used chat, gpt andand tried to help it create my
own brand voice, I think thatsomething like that could be
helpful as well yeah, I wouldsay, yeah, that could definitely
give that good base forsomebody else, but obviously at
the end of the day they can'tjust copy and paste that.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
That's not gonna be a good thing.
And then actually I saw on thenews today where they were
talking about there's some newAI videos going out that you can
put in like what you want anddoes like a video call to
somebody and it impersonates youand everything like that.
And so, even though there'sawesome softwares out there that
can do all these things, makeit look like you record your own
(23:56):
video take your own photos.
Don't try and use that AIsoftware to create that.
And actually I think I think itwas you that posted the other
day.
I was like, wow, ai has come along way.
But then you like circled threerandom things and it was like
the, the person's, it was reallyfeet for hands, but it was like
they were like a server orsomething like that.
It was like, yeah, ai has comea long ways.
It's like yeah, ai has come along ways.
(24:17):
You can't hardly notice thatit's a fake.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Then there's feet for hands.
Yeah, I think I mean going backto your original question as
authentic as you can be Now,however that looks, whether you
pass that on to somebody elsewith some notes or whatever, as
authentically you as you can be,I think is the key there,
because nobody can trulyreplicate you.
And that's whether that'ssocial media, your website,
(24:47):
whatever marketing you're doing,whether you're creating a
social media platform or you'rerunning ads, make sure that it
represents your brand.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah.
So obviously we mentioned aboutdocumentation, putting things
in there about you, but thebetter the vision you can have
for this, because if you justsay, hey, I want to market to
people, okay, cool, let mecreate content to people, that
makes a lot of sense.
Like, so, what is the servicethat you do?
Who are the people that youwant to talk to?
(25:17):
What's that message that youwant to get across?
At the end of the day, what doyou want to be known for?
There's so many factors that gointo that, which is really this
vision that you need to cast,and the more crystal clear that
vision can get, the easier, I'llsay and it's still not easy,
but it'll be a lot easier andmore palatable for somebody to
(25:40):
take over your social mediacontent.
For sure, versus, yeah, we justwant to sell our services to
people.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, okay, you hit on a great point there, actually
, something I talked to a lot ofmy clients about and something
we talk about in our group a lotis ideal client profile and
really what that is is who doyou want to sell to?
So figure that out, put a nameto that person, get very
specific.
So I want to sell to people,right, like what you said.
(26:11):
Well, what kind of people?
Men or women, okay, well, okay.
Men, how old?
Young?
Well, okay, men, how old, young, old, middle-aged?
Okay, and start just narrowingthat down a little farther and a
little farther.
Get as close to that idealclient as you can possibly get
and message directly to them,because that's going to be huge.
(26:31):
I mean because if you're likeyou said, if you're just broad
brush strokes on all peopleeverywhere, I just want to work
with everyone.
Anyone who has a heartbeat, Iwant to work with them.
You're not going to.
You're going to actuallymarketing to everyone.
Markets to no one.
I think that's incrediblyimpactful to understand and
(26:52):
grasp as a company.
Yeah, the more specific becausea lot of people think they're
going to put them paintthemselves in a box if they
start marketing to a certainperson, but what they realize is
when you niche down and reallyget hyper specific on who you
want to work with and you cantarget that person, it makes
your, your messaging just somuch more authentic.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Exactly and so much more relatable too, I think,
with us being both being dads,we start talking about dad life
and parenting and oh, we weretalking about our wives and
getting on the podcast here torecord here late at night and
everything Like that's somethingthat we're sitting here
building camaraderie over.
We're able to relate with that,obviously, but us just even me,
(27:33):
even me just saying that rightnow there's other people like,
oh man, I've had the sameconversation with my wife Right
now, I know there's somebodyelse out there listening, some
other guy out there listeningright now that's saying that
exact same thing.
That's what it is.
It's about relating withsomebody.
If you're just plain vanilla,you're not going to relate with
anybody.
I always like to use an icecream analogy, because if I say,
(27:54):
man, I just love vanilla, don'tthink many people just love it.
I mean, they'll probably likeit a lot, I think it's really
good.
They could have a vanilla icecream, no problem.
But if you say something about,man, pistachio ice cream or
rocky road ice cream is myfavorite ice cream, you're gonna
have more people being like ohman, me too, yeah, and it makes
more sense because it's not thisgeneric flavor like a vanilla
(28:16):
or a chocolate.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
So you want to have a pistachio ice cream actually
makes that point even clearer,because on the other side you
now have who you're not talkingto.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
You're not talking to the guy who doesn't like
pistachio ice cream.
And so now you've weeded outthe guy who you don't want to
communicate with right now thatnot to be rude about it but
you've narrowed that down andnow you're saying like well, if
I disagree with you because Idon't like pistachio ice cream,
philip, you're just not my idealclient right now.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah, yeah, exactly Exactly.
And and that could also comeback to be a benefit for you as
well, because now you're morememorable.
And that could also come backto be a benefit for you as well,
because now you're morememorable Whether the person
liked pistachio ice cream or not.
Now they're like oh man, that'sthe guy that liked the
pistachio.
I can't believe that's gross.
But now you've got somethingthat probably turns into a joke,
especially guys.
I feel like we just rag eachother about anything and
(29:09):
everything, so like, oh man, youlike that pistachio, that nasty
crap or whatever, and you likethat pistachio, that nasty crap
or whatever.
And you're like, you know, youjust brag each other back and
forth and like, oh, you must bea vanilla lover.
You know just little thingslike that.
But those little things arewhat truly set us apart,
especially when it comes to themarketing space.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah.
So, yeah, I was making abroader point even there too,
though, because, like whenyou're, when you get specific
about who that guy is thatyou're talking to, you're very
specific about who you're nottalking to, right?
So if you're talking to a45-year-old dad in the Midwest,
then you're not talking to thesoccer mom in California, right?
(29:50):
And so now you know I'm notgoing to engage there, I'm not
going to message to them, and so, yeah, it's just incredibly
powerful when you figure out whoam I trying to work with and
then, like you said, who am Itrying to relate with?
I just think there's so muchpower especially if you're
talking about a personal brandor social media content getting
(30:12):
very clear about those things.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Awesome.
So what's that next step thatyou think we should take to
really take our marketing to thenext level?
I know I opened that up superbroad, but what's something like
on your mind right now?
That's probably just like oh,people need to start doing this.
I've been seeing this thingwrong.
What's that thing that we, asbusiness owners, should be doing
right now that you think we'renot doing to help our marketing
(30:37):
get better?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
One thing I see a lot is a lot of just misconception.
There's a lot of people thatare either misunderstanding
marketing or I see a lot ofpeople putting money into a
thing that's maybe brandawareness related and expecting
to generate leads immediatelyout of that thing, or vice versa
(31:00):
, you know.
And so, um, a little bit ofeducation goes a long way on on
marketing, um, you know, Italked to especially refers a
lot.
Um, you know, I keep I hear alot of things about.
You know, well, we run thisbillboard over here.
Well, okay, how many leads haveyou gotten off that billboard?
Well, I don't know of any.
Okay, well, how much are youspending on that?
(31:24):
Quite a bit.
Is that helping you?
And so here's the thing it's notthat the billboard is bad, it's
misunderstanding the purpose ofthe billboard.
The billboard is there forbrand awareness, to bring you
top of mind.
It's not really there togenerate a lead most of the time
.
And so I think that's one ofthe biggest things is just
getting a little bit ofeducation and understanding what
(31:46):
a lead generating activity isversus a brand awareness type
activity and leaning more intothe one that you find more
appropriate for where you're atin the business right, and so if
you're in a position where Ineed leads right now, then a
brand awareness campaign can behelpful.
(32:07):
But that wouldn't be where I'dput all my eggs in that basket,
and I just see that mistakehappening over and over and over
again.
It's just allotting marketingdollars towards the wrong type
of activity, if that makes sense, and so we can get deeper into
that, but I'm just trying tokeep it narrow and broad.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
No, no, I like that and it's something I think,
especially newer business owners.
But even I've seen seasonedbusiness owners do the same
thing, where they'll go to anetworking event and expect to
get leads out of that Like no,you are there networking, You're
casting that broad netliterally and doing that brand
awareness, letting people seeyou, get to know you and be
(32:48):
familiar with you.
But it's really the one on onesafter that or the follow up
conversations after that thatreally turn into that lead
generation activity.
But I've seen too many peopletry and treat a networking event
like it's a lead generationactivity yeah so just another
great example.
They're obviously not on themarketing side.
That's in person, I guess,guerrilla marketing, if you want
(33:09):
to call it that and everythingbut all work in hand yeah, yeah
for sure.
so so tell, tell us, like us,one thing that would be a lead
generation thing that we can dotoday, because I think most
people leads is what they'relooking for.
They're looking for the leads.
Obviously, we need that brandawareness, we need to continue
to do that, be top of mind andstuff like that, but we also
(33:30):
need to eat as well.
So what's one piece of adviceyou guys?
To start, at least attempt togenerate some leads today.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah Well, I mean from the free standpoint.
I think there's nothing betteron the planet than a personal
brand, Stepping away from yourbusiness's Facebook page and
start to generate exactly whatwe've just been talking about on
the rest of this, call Somesort of an authoritative,
(33:59):
authentic voice that is builtaround your ideal client profile
and start to try to.
One thing that I try to do is Ifriend request as many of my
ideal clients as possible andthen I create content on
Facebook targeted at that person.
So I think that's a free orrelatively low cost way to
(34:22):
generate leads.
But again, that's going to be along term play.
I think another.
Just everyone hates it.
None of us like to do it, butGoogle Ads is still,
unfortunately, the easiest,Especially if you're in home
services.
Google Local Service Ads isgoing to be the most
(34:43):
cost-effective lead generatingtool out there.
To just be very simple andactionable, I think getting on
Google Guaranteed, getting allof your background checks and
everything that you need to getthat qualified, and then running
some simple local service ads,getting all the reviews that you
need for that.
(35:03):
It can be very complicated wecan talk through that, but it's
not as complicated as Googlelikes to try to make it.
Unfortunately, to make itunfortunately.
But yeah, getting all that done, jumping through Google's hoops
and setting some sort of budget, whether it be $1,000, $1,500 a
month, just towards that, Ithink is going to be a really
(35:24):
low cost way to get some highquality leads.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
I like it.
Yeah, definitely Google ads ifyou're in the local home service
based business type thing, butpersonal branding, like you said
, that is the most importantthing and really that's how we
connected.
I mean, we've been in part ofthe groups as well, but it was
through personal branding,trying to build ourselves up
being somebody that'sself-motivated and trying to be
(35:50):
a self-improvement as well.
So, yeah, a lot of amazingthings.
Brandon, I appreciate your time, the value that you shared here
.
If people want to follow you,especially those in the roofing
and home service basedbusinesses, where can they go?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, I'm Brandon Mills on Facebook.
I've got a Facebook groupthat's really geared more
towards roofing companies, butit's Roofers Catalyst.
But honestly, unless you're acompeting marketer, I'll
probably let you in.
But yeah, roofers Catalyst, wejust talk about just general
marketing things, personalbranding, things like that.
(36:25):
I look to be at least launchingsome sort of YouTube channel in
the next year or so, but I'venot done that yet.
So really just on Facebook,brandon Mills and Roofers
Catalyst.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Facebook group Awesome Well, brandon, thank you
so much for coming on the show.
We appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you, phillip.
What's up, guys.
I have a special guest for youtoday.
It's Brandon Mills, who is thebusiness growth consultant at
Scorpion Home Services, helpingroofing and home service
companies get more of the jobsthat they want.
Welcome to the show, brandon.
What's up?
Hey, what's going on, phillip?
Hey, just here, excited for usto be recording.
(00:24):
We've been talking a lot backand forth about different things
business, life, marketing,parenting, all that good stuff
and so it's like, hey, we needto get you on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Absolutely man.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Excited to have you here.
Yeah, I'm pumped to be on man,yeah.
So tell me what you're workingon right now and tell the
audience as well what you'reworking on and there's a lot of
things going on in life, butwhat's that one thing that
you're just really excited about?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, no, it's awesome, man.
I'm glad you asked.
I guess the big thing that I'mworking on right now is just
trying to I mean, honestly, whatyou just mentioned just help
roofing companies get more ofthe jobs that they're looking
for, so that's or, honestly, anyhome service companies.
But we do that a number of waysright.
So one's through you know,through what I do professionally
(01:08):
, but then I'm also I've got a,you know, just a free group
online that we do some trainingsand things like that and um,
but yeah, I mean just, I'm justpassionate about the roofing
industry and helping guys growtheir businesses is really what
it boils down to.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah, and you went to RoofCon recently, right, yeah
yeah, it was a good time, nice,yeah, so tell me about that.
I know I know Hunter Blue aswell Actually, he's in my neck
of the woods and everything buthow was the event overall?
I think it was this was thefifth one that he's done so far.
How was?
How was the event overall?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, so I've been to several Roofcons and so I mean,
yeah, I think you and Iconnected over Hunter originally
, but, yeah, every Roofcon I'veever been to has been top notch.
I was actually at the veryfirst Roofcon 30 guys and maybe
like five or 10 vendors sittingin like this hotel conference
room you know, I think it wasback in 2019 or something like
(02:10):
that and just very intimatesetting and to see where RoofCon
has come from, that has beenjust mind blowing.
You know, we went from, like Isaid, like 40 or 50 guys in a
room to 4,500, I think.
So it's been a wild ride towatch how hunters just exploded
that in just a few short years.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah, man, it is pretty crazy.
I'm trying to look up here.
I don't know what episode thatwas, but I had Hunter Blue on a
while back actually on thepodcast.
So make sure to go back andcheck that out.
But yeah, we talked throughthat and it was incredible to
hear that journey for him andhow they just they did it.
And I think he kind of said andI had another guest on, actually
that has does like home servicetype stuff too and does his own
(02:52):
events and everything theBadass Business Summit and Danny
, something I can't, I'mblanking on his name.
He was a more recent guest butkind of talked to that same
thing and and you saying it waslike 30 guests and then like
five or 10 vendors or whateverhe basically had, all the people
that were there in attendancewere also vendors.
(03:12):
It's like they would attend theevent and they go back to their
booth and basically have to tryand visit each other's booth to
have any audience andeverything.
So it's funny how things startout and you you don't think it's
that great, but really itbecomes that great story that
you can share later on andeverything and just shows the
testament of continuing to pushforward, to being consistent and
(03:35):
taking that action.
Those two guys have done greatthings with their own industries
and their own events andeverything.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, so I actually started out in the roofing
industry and I went to thatfirst one as as a roofing
company owner and what I wasable to take from that event and
implement into my business thenext year, we we doubled in size
pretty much, you know, asdirect result of what we learned
at that event.
And so I've always enjoyedgoing to conferences and things
and just picking up littlenuggets here and there, and it's
(04:04):
always a good time, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I mean that's a great thing about these conferences
that you can really learn a lot,especially if you go to ones
like hunters, where they'rereally about giving value.
There's definitely some othersthat it's more about hey, we're
just going to pitch you on stageand everything gets you to buy
this next program, this nextcourse, whatever it may be, but
those that are actually theretrying to provide you that value
(04:27):
, they're really priceless atthe end of the day and
everything.
So talk to me about.
I know marketing is a hugething, but I would love to dive
into marketing.
Every business owner can usetheir skills and they need more
skills when it comes tomarketing, because marketing is
really the heartbeat of abusiness that branding, that
(04:49):
marketing so that it can lead tosales and business growth.
So talk to us about yourjourney of getting into
marketing.
You just mentioned about havingyour own business going to
RoofCon and clearly you've madea switch a little bit from being
the roofing business owner tonow you're doing marketing and
helping other roofing companiesand home service based
(05:12):
businesses with their marketing.
So talk to us about thatjourney of how you got into
marketing.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, so it's.
I mean, I don't know how deepyou want to go into this.
It's a.
It's a pretty deep rabbit holeat times, but basically,
essentially, years and years ago, I had some health
complications and honestly, I'mnot going to bore you with all
the details of that, but go back, rewind just about two years.
Actually.
I had a seizure on, I think itwas yeah, it was New Year's Eve,
(05:43):
2022.
So I went into an epilepticseizure on New Year's Eve and we
really kind of panicked afterthat.
So, you know, it was one ofthose deals where they diagnosed
me as epileptic, immediatelyput me on medicine, told me I
couldn't drive, couldn't be onroofs any longer.
So, yeah, I mean, I spent, youknow, spent the first part of
(06:05):
2023 just trying to figure outwhat in the world are we going
to do, and unfortunately, wementioned the roofing company.
Unfortunately, I didn't have atthat time, the systems and
processes in place that I needed, and so the system really lived
and died with me, and so wedidn't have things set up to
where it would run without me,and so, really, what boiled down
(06:26):
to is I was left with no ideawhat we were going to do,
knowing that I couldn't drivefor a while and knowing I
couldn't be on roofs anymore.
So I'm like, well, what do Iknow?
Well, I spent the last howevermany years marketing my business
and growing it and getting ourname in front of local clients
and things like that, and so Istarted reverse engineering like
(06:46):
what did we do to get there?
And so that's really whatbrought me into the marketing
space was just that was the onlyother thing I really knew at
the time, the only other skillthat I had acquired, and I just
did that through building my ownbusiness, and the rest has kind
of been history.
I've enjoyed the ride eversince.
Like I said, I just enjoyhelping companies grow their
(07:07):
businesses, and so that's whatbrought me to that side a rather
roundabout way, because I thinkmost guys when they get into
marketing, they either see moneyor they love marketing, and for
me it was definitely adifferent path than most take,
but it's been an enjoyable onefor sure.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, and not that I like that.
That situation happened to you,but it's amazing how situations
happen to us and really changeus.
And I can think back to rightbefore I got married.
I switched to a new job.
I was doing independentcontract work and I knew my next
project was going to be out ofstate for at least six months to
a year and getting married Iwas like, ah, this probably
(07:50):
isn't a good idea.
So I made a change.
But because of getting marriedand making a change to that
company actually it was, I think, about April of 2020.
So right after COVID andeverything.
So because of COVID, luckily Iwas with a stable company, bmw,
but then I also myself ended uphaving a seizure as well, and so
I didn't get.
(08:10):
I mean, we got some tests,everything came back like
inconclusive and stuff like that.
And they said oh, you're notsupposed to drive, Although I
kind of drove anyways.
But I worked it out with mymanager at the time to like only
go into work one day a week andluckily, because of the role I
was in, I was able to work fromhome a lot because of that, but
(08:30):
my other job I had to be on site, especially if I would have
been out of state or beentraveling with other ones.
So things happen for a reasonto us.
And obviously for you it was areally good situation in the end
, because now you're able toprobably be at home a lot more
with your family and you wereable to do this other thing, but
also made you reflect, and Iwould say being behind a
(08:52):
computer, so to say doingmarketing, is a lot safer than
being on a roof.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, like you said, I truly believe everything
happens for a reason and God hasa plan in it all and so, yeah,
it definitely threw us for aloop.
We didn't know exactly whatwhat was going to the other side
was going to look like, right,but, um, you know he, he's
definitely been faithful to usthrough the whole thing and very
, um, very happy that.
(09:19):
You know, obviously it wasn'tworse and you know know, we
found our way on the other sideand found something that I
actually truly enjoy and it'sbeen a good road.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Good, good.
So talk to us about this.
As you said, hey, I grew mybusiness and then I started
reverse engineering how to how Imarketed my business so it
could grow.
So talk to us about what werethose steps that you did to grow
that business.
But then how do you thenimplement that for others to
(09:51):
help them grow their businessthrough marketing?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, so it's looked a little different since I went
to work for Scorpion.
Now we have a team that handlesall that for us, but when I
first got into it, it was justkind of like I said, just kind
of dissecting what did we do andtry to repeat that, and and
actually what it really boileddown to was more than more than
what did I do, but what mistakesdid I make?
(10:15):
Did I learn along the way thatI didn't want someone else to
repeat?
And so one of the biggestthings for me was when I had to
step out.
I think I heard you, or I thinkI mentioned it just a minute ago
that I didn't have the systemsand processes in place, and so
that was the very first thingthat I tried to do is help them
implement systems whether thatwas, you know, crms with
(10:37):
automations and things like thatthat could run in the
background, or just marketingsystems that would help generate
leads that wasn't dependent onone person being out there doing
everything, and so obviouslyyou still need sales guys and
everything to run that, but whenyou have systems in place that
can run in the background,independent of a specific person
(10:58):
doing everything, it madethings a lot easier and a lot
smoother to run, and that was,like I said, one of the biggest
things I learned having to stepout of my business was that
systems and processes are direto every business and so, yeah,
like I said, that's kind of howwe started was getting into that
game and helping companies setup their CRMs and all those
(11:22):
follow-up, automations and dripcampaigns and things like that
that just keep you top of mindin front of your customer.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, and talk to me real quick about this I'm glad
you brought that back up,because I wanted to point that
out about not having the systemsand processes With the roofing
company.
Was it just you, or did youhave a, a crew, like what did
the roofing company kind of looklike?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, at times it was different, right?
So we had just gone throughCOVID a couple of years before
that, and so we were buildingthat direction, we were putting
in the systems and processes.
I had hired a fairly solidsales guy, we had hired a
carpenter.
That was more of a while.
(12:04):
He was a carpenter, he was alsovery much a project manager and
so was handling a lot ofgetting me to the point where I
could actually start to work onthe business.
But again, shortly after COVIDhit, people started realizing
man, we need insurance, we needdifferent benefits and things
like that that as a smallbusiness owner at the time I
couldn't provide.
And so we ended up losing.
(12:26):
We had four guys that we wereslowly building on and lost each
one one by one, just literallydue to benefits.
And it just, it was the perfectstorm because we just lost the
last guy.
And then the seizure happenedand I was planning to rebuild
with, you know, had alreadystarted working towards what 23
(12:48):
was going to look like.
And it just, you know, like Isaid, all things happen for a
reason and actually, lookingback on one point, I think you
know it's easy to look back andsay, well, I wish we would have
done this differently.
But I think on the other sideof things you can look back and
say, well, at least I didn'thave to lay these guys off or
fire them or whatever becausethings didn't happen right or
(13:08):
whatever.
So we can look back and wishthings would have worked
differently.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
But I think it's also really good to realize I got
orchestrated every circumstanceto where it became a fairly
smooth transition yeah, yeah,and I was thinking that exact
same thing, that you know, allthese guys, kind of one by one,
and that stinks, and it stingsas well as a business owner.
You're losing those guys.
But, like you said, at the endof the day, when the seizure
(13:35):
happened, it wasn't like, oh man, what am I going to do about
these guys as well that are onmy crew?
They were already gone.
Yeah, it was kind of an upsidefor sure.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And those guys are all thriving today too, and I'm
thankful for that, because Istill keep in touch with them
and they're all doing well.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah, that's awesome, and one of the things that I
noticed there is that you weretalking about, you had these
guys and so you started to workon the business and everything.
And a lot of times I feel likeus as business owners,
especially solopreneurs, a lotof times we feel like we can't
start working on the businessand we don't put systems in
place because it's just me.
(14:11):
Why would I put a system inplace?
And then the other side to itas well is well, why I need to
hire somebody or have a systemin place before I hire somebody,
and so it's kind of like it's alittle counterintuitive.
But really I feel like when youhire somebody, you force
yourself to start being a littlebit systematized and I don't
(14:33):
say like, hey, go and hire 10different people so you can
start to create your systems,different people so you can
start to create your systems.
No, but I do think that, ratherthan trying to wait until you
have everything together, allthe SOPs in place, the loom
videos, whatever you feel likeyou need hire that first person,
because for me at least, whatI've noticed, especially with my
(14:54):
virtual assistants, as I hiredthat first one and that second
one, I started thinking on thishigher level and started
focusing more on okay, what do Ineed them to do?
How can I be overseeing whatthey're doing without being a
micromanager, of course, butoverseeing what they're doing
and figure out how tosystematize this, rather than
okay, I'm just doing this joband let me just kind of
(15:16):
hopefully hand it off tosomebody, but not really hand it
off and stuff like that and letme just kind of hopefully hand
it off to somebody, but notreally hand it off and stuff
like that.
So I found that as I gotemployees for myself, I was able
to kind of think moresystematically versus beforehand
.
Was that kind of same thing foryou, or do you think you were
already kind of moresystematized anyways?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
No, that's not on paper.
For the business, yeah, no,that's 100% it I had to.
It forced me to start tosystematize after I started
bringing guys on because, likeyou said, when you're solo by
yourself it's like, well, I'vegot my system now.
It's not a true system, butit's it's the system that works
(15:53):
for me.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Right and so it's here my head.
I'll remember it.
I'll get to it, oh, oh yeah, oh, I forgot that.
Hold on, let me write it downon this notepad.
I don't remember where it's atnow.
Good, system.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
But honestly I mean all this funnels back into
marketing too, because we treatmarketing the same way.
I feel like Whether you'rehiring someone or you're
handling your leads or whatever,things fall through the cracks.
And the more you systematizeeverything you know, the better
that becomes.
But one of the big things I'verealized is rather than I feel
(16:27):
like we always feel like we haveto create content, to systemize
right, whether that's like youmentioned, like the Loom videos
and different things like that Ithink we feel like we have to
create something.
But what I've realized throughall this is a lot of it's just
documentation.
If you can just startdocumenting the things that
you're doing and pass that on tothe other guys and start to
(16:47):
replicate yourself that way, itmay not be perfect, you know,
they might not do it as good asyou, but if they can do it 80%
as good as you, then you canstart moving on to the next
thing.
And again, I think marketingcan be a little bit of the same
way, because no one's ever goingto market your business exactly
the same way you would want to,but if you can get them at
(17:08):
least the vision behind it andthen you can start to scale that
vision a little bit.
While it may not be exactly theway you want it to look every
single time, if you can createsomething that's scalable and
repeatable, I think that'sreally what it boils down to,
you know.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And you just hit on a really good point there.
This was actually a question.
It was more along the lines ofhaving, like, somebody internal
such as a virtual assistant orsomething helping with social
media management, but it gotbrought up actually in builders
of authority.
I don't think you were on thecall today with that, but
somebody yeah somebody, askedthe question how do we get get
somebody else to impersonate ourbrand voice?
(17:49):
And this was more along thepersonal branding side.
So when it comes to the businessbranding, I would say it's a
little bit easier for a thirdparty or somebody else in the
company to take over thatmarketing for the business.
But what would be somesuggestions for you of how we
could use a social media managerwhether it be in-house, through
(18:12):
a VA or we outsource tosomebody like Scorpion to start
doing that more on the personalbranding side.
To start doing that more on thepersonal branding side, what
are some suggestions that youhave for us to really help us be
able to create that personalpersona, even though let's say,
like you're doing the postingand content creation on my
behalf for my personal brand?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing and this is
something I talk to companyowners about all the time and
it's really hard to get peopleto realize, but it is hard for
me to be in your business andreplicate it, and so, if you're
trying to replicate what thatlooks like, the more information
you can give the better.
(18:55):
And so, whether that's sendingpictures with a voice memo of
saying, hey, this is what we'redoing in this picture and this
is the message I want to portray, that way you're not having to
sit there and type something out, but you can send that
information on quickly to thatperson and they can implement
what you're trying to get across, I think that's something that
can be really helpful.
It's actually something I'mthinking through for myself with
(19:18):
my own personal brand, if youwill.
Helpful.
It's actually something I'mthinking through for myself with
my own personal brand, if youwill.
Um, my son is 15 and it'ssomething that you know video
editing and social media andstuff like that is things that
he's interested in.
I've been thinking through,like what it might look like to
have him help me with some ofthis, but I'm like, like you
just mentioned, it'd be reallyhard for me to to get a 15 year
old to think, to think?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
like me.
Yeah, yeah, that was the idea,Especially 15 versus.
I don't know your age, but Iknow you're not 15.
Right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I'm 40 this year actually, but yeah, it's going
to be really hard for me to helphim see through my lens.
But if I can really whether itbe through, like I said, a voice
memo or something to where Ican really portray hey, this is
what.
This is the message I'm tryingto get across through this
content, I think is helpful andI think, providing as much
(20:09):
in-house content as you possiblycan, because where I see a lot
of social media people, you knowwhether it be social media
marketing agencies or you knowwhatever that may be, va or
whatever is if they have to comeup with their own content for
you, that makes it really hardbecause you can only use so many
stock photos and things likethat and make it look like Phil
(20:30):
Obsessions.
It's just not going to happen.
So I can put a whole bunch ofpictures of podcast mics or VAs
or whatever and it might get thepoint across to an extent.
But the more you can sendpictures of yourself or content
of you doing something, even ifyou're just putting cameras up.
Going back to the documentationthing we were just talking
(20:52):
about, just document some ofwhat you're doing and send that
off with as much informationabout it as possible.
I think it's going to be theeasiest way to get your own
brand out there.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
I like that, the voice memos you know, having a
picture and doing a voice memo,or it could be a video with the
voice memo as well.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
But because that's actually something I stole from
Builders of Authority actually.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, it's good.
I appreciate you mentioningthat, but it's a great piece of
advice right there and even withthe video, I've noticed that
some people and that they'll sitthere and literally basically
put the caption as what was saidin the videos, like no, let's
add to that, let's not sayexactly the same thing in
(21:38):
everything and like you say youhave to to kind of document it
At the bare minimum.
Talking about you, yourbackground, who you are,
especially if you're trying tohand this off to somebody that
doesn't know you at all.
The more they know you, thebetter, like you said, but if
they don't try and give thatbackground Background on the
company, why you built thebusiness, who you are, why
you're doing what you're doing.
Do you have family, kids,what's their names, ages, stuff
(22:04):
like that.
There's so much that you cangive them for them to be able to
research on Something else tothat as well.
If you haven't hired this outyet, have them go back and look
at previous content.
Even if it's not great, it'sstill going to be your voice too
, so they can look at yourprevious content.
I see you know they like tojoke around a lot or like they
like to be sarcastic or orwhatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
They're gonna see your style and then just be able
to make it more of a strategicapproach and everything and I've
considered that, I've nevertested yet is building like a
custom GPT and, you know,building your own brand voice,
right, and so train the GPT toat least in some extent, think
(22:50):
like you and talk like you, useyour personality and upload some
content that would explain whatthat would look like.
Upload some content that wouldexplain what that would look
like.
Create a custom GPT that yourVA or your social media
marketing person can type in andsay okay, I want to.
I want to create this contentusing Phillip's brand voice.
Help me create this.
(23:12):
You know, something like thatmight even be helpful.
I'm I've not tested it to seeif it would work or not, but as
much as I've used chat, gpt andand tried to help it create my
own brand voice, I think thatsomething like that could be
helpful as well yeah, I wouldsay, yeah, that could definitely
give that good base forsomebody else, but obviously at
the end of the day they can'tjust copy and paste that.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
That's not gonna be a good thing.
And then actually I saw on thenews today where they were
talking about there's some newAI videos going out that you can
put in like what you want anddoes like a video call to
somebody and it impersonates youand everything like that.
And so, even though there'sawesome softwares out there that
can do all these things, makeit look like you record your own
(23:56):
video take your own photos.
Don't try and use that AIsoftware to create that.
And actually I think I think itwas you that posted the other
day.
I was like, wow, ai has come along way.
But then you like circled threerandom things and it was like
the, the person's, it was reallyfeet for hands, but it was like
they were like a server orsomething like that.
It was like, yeah, ai has comea long ways.
It's like yeah, ai has come along ways.
(24:17):
You can't hardly notice thatit's a fake.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Then there's feet for hands.
Yeah, I think I mean going backto your original question as
authentic as you can be Now,however that looks, whether you
pass that on to somebody elsewith some notes or whatever, as
authentically you as you can be,I think is the key there,
because nobody can trulyreplicate you.
And that's whether that'ssocial media, your website,
(24:47):
whatever marketing you're doing,whether you're creating a
social media platform or you'rerunning ads, make sure that it
represents your brand.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah.
So obviously we mentioned aboutdocumentation, putting things
in there about you, but thebetter the vision you can have
for this, because if you justsay, hey, I want to market to
people, okay, cool, let mecreate content to people, that
makes a lot of sense.
Like, so, what is the servicethat you do?
Who are the people that youwant to talk to?
(25:17):
What's that message that youwant to get across?
At the end of the day, what doyou want to be known for?
There's so many factors that gointo that, which is really this
vision that you need to cast,and the more crystal clear that
vision can get, the easier, I'llsay and it's still not easy,
but it'll be a lot easier andmore palatable for somebody to
(25:40):
take over your social mediacontent.
For sure, versus, yeah, we justwant to sell our services to
people.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, okay, you hit on a great point there, actually
, something I talked to a lot ofmy clients about and something
we talk about in our group a lotis ideal client profile and
really what that is is who doyou want to sell to?
So figure that out, put a nameto that person, get very
specific.
So I want to sell to people,right, like what you said.
(26:11):
Well, what kind of people?
Men or women, okay, well, okay.
Men, how old?
Young?
Well, okay, men, how old, young, old, middle-aged?
Okay, and start just narrowingthat down a little farther and a
little farther.
Get as close to that idealclient as you can possibly get
and message directly to them,because that's going to be huge.
(26:31):
I mean because if you're likeyou said, if you're just broad
brush strokes on all peopleeverywhere, I just want to work
with everyone.
Anyone who has a heartbeat, Iwant to work with them.
You're not going to.
You're going to actuallymarketing to everyone.
Markets to no one.
I think that's incrediblyimpactful to understand and
(26:52):
grasp as a company.
Yeah, the more specific becausea lot of people think they're
going to put them paintthemselves in a box if they
start marketing to a certainperson, but what they realize is
when you niche down and reallyget hyper specific on who you
want to work with and you cantarget that person, it makes
your, your messaging just somuch more authentic.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Exactly and so much more relatable too, I think,
with us being both being dads,we start talking about dad life
and parenting and oh, we weretalking about our wives and
getting on the podcast here torecord here late at night and
everything Like that's somethingthat we're sitting here
building camaraderie over.
We're able to relate with that,obviously, but us just even me,
(27:33):
even me just saying that rightnow there's other people like,
oh man, I've had the sameconversation with my wife Right
now, I know there's somebodyelse out there listening, some
other guy out there listeningright now that's saying that
exact same thing.
That's what it is.
It's about relating withsomebody.
If you're just plain vanilla,you're not going to relate with
anybody.
I always like to use an icecream analogy, because if I say,
(27:54):
man, I just love vanilla, don'tthink many people just love it.
I mean, they'll probably likeit a lot, I think it's really
good.
They could have a vanilla icecream, no problem.
But if you say something about,man, pistachio ice cream or
rocky road ice cream is myfavorite ice cream, you're gonna
have more people being like ohman, me too, yeah, and it makes
more sense because it's not thisgeneric flavor like a vanilla
(28:16):
or a chocolate.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
So you want to have a pistachio ice cream actually
makes that point even clearer,because on the other side you
now have who you're not talkingto.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
You're not talking to the guy who doesn't like
pistachio ice cream.
And so now you've weeded outthe guy who you don't want to
communicate with right now thatnot to be rude about it but
you've narrowed that down andnow you're saying like well, if
I disagree with you because Idon't like pistachio ice cream,
philip, you're just not my idealclient right now.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah, yeah, exactly Exactly.
And and that could also comeback to be a benefit for you as
well, because now you're morememorable.
And that could also come backto be a benefit for you as well,
because now you're morememorable Whether the person
liked pistachio ice cream or not.
Now they're like oh man, that'sthe guy that liked the
pistachio.
I can't believe that's gross.
But now you've got somethingthat probably turns into a joke,
especially guys.
I feel like we just rag eachother about anything and
(29:09):
everything, so like, oh man, youlike that pistachio, that nasty
crap or whatever, and you likethat pistachio, that nasty crap
or whatever.
And you're like, you know, youjust brag each other back and
forth and like, oh, you must bea vanilla lover.
You know just little thingslike that.
But those little things arewhat truly set us apart,
especially when it comes to themarketing space.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah.
So, yeah, I was making abroader point even there too,
though, because, like whenyou're, when you get specific
about who that guy is thatyou're talking to, you're very
specific about who you're nottalking to, right?
So if you're talking to a45-year-old dad in the Midwest,
then you're not talking to thesoccer mom in California, right?
(29:50):
And so now you know I'm notgoing to engage there, I'm not
going to message to them, and so, yeah, it's just incredibly
powerful when you figure out whoam I trying to work with and
then, like you said, who am Itrying to relate with?
I just think there's so muchpower especially if you're
talking about a personal brandor social media content getting
(30:12):
very clear about those things.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Awesome.
So what's that next step thatyou think we should take to
really take our marketing to thenext level?
I know I opened that up superbroad, but what's something like
on your mind right now?
That's probably just like oh,people need to start doing this.
I've been seeing this thingwrong.
What's that thing that we, asbusiness owners, should be doing
right now that you think we'renot doing to help our marketing
(30:37):
get better?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
One thing I see a lot is a lot of just misconception.
There's a lot of people thatare either misunderstanding
marketing or I see a lot ofpeople putting money into a
thing that's maybe brandawareness related and expecting
to generate leads immediatelyout of that thing, or vice versa
(31:00):
, you know.
And so, um, a little bit ofeducation goes a long way on on
marketing, um, you know, Italked to especially refers a
lot.
Um, you know, I keep I hear alot of things about.
You know, well, we run thisbillboard over here.
Well, okay, how many leads haveyou gotten off that billboard?
Well, I don't know of any.
Okay, well, how much are youspending on that?
(31:24):
Quite a bit.
Is that helping you?
And so here's the thing it's notthat the billboard is bad, it's
misunderstanding the purpose ofthe billboard.
The billboard is there forbrand awareness, to bring you
top of mind.
It's not really there togenerate a lead most of the time
.
And so I think that's one ofthe biggest things is just
getting a little bit ofeducation and understanding what
(31:46):
a lead generating activity isversus a brand awareness type
activity and leaning more intothe one that you find more
appropriate for where you're atin the business right, and so if
you're in a position where Ineed leads right now, then a
brand awareness campaign can behelpful.
(32:07):
But that wouldn't be where I'dput all my eggs in that basket,
and I just see that mistakehappening over and over and over
again.
It's just allotting marketingdollars towards the wrong type
of activity, if that makes sense, and so we can get deeper into
that, but I'm just trying tokeep it narrow and broad.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
No, no, I like that and it's something I think,
especially newer business owners.
But even I've seen seasonedbusiness owners do the same
thing, where they'll go to anetworking event and expect to
get leads out of that Like no,you are there networking, You're
casting that broad netliterally and doing that brand
awareness, letting people seeyou, get to know you and be
(32:48):
familiar with you.
But it's really the one on onesafter that or the follow up
conversations after that thatreally turn into that lead
generation activity.
But I've seen too many peopletry and treat a networking event
like it's a lead generationactivity yeah so just another
great example.
They're obviously not on themarketing side.
That's in person, I guess,guerrilla marketing, if you want
(33:09):
to call it that and everythingbut all work in hand yeah, yeah
for sure.
so so tell, tell us, like us,one thing that would be a lead
generation thing that we can dotoday, because I think most
people leads is what they'relooking for.
They're looking for the leads.
Obviously, we need that brandawareness, we need to continue
to do that, be top of mind andstuff like that, but we also
(33:30):
need to eat as well.
So what's one piece of adviceyou guys?
To start, at least attempt togenerate some leads today.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah Well, I mean from the free standpoint.
I think there's nothing betteron the planet than a personal
brand, Stepping away from yourbusiness's Facebook page and
start to generate exactly whatwe've just been talking about on
the rest of this, call Somesort of an authoritative,
(33:59):
authentic voice that is builtaround your ideal client profile
and start to try to.
One thing that I try to do is Ifriend request as many of my
ideal clients as possible andthen I create content on
Facebook targeted at that person.
So I think that's a free orrelatively low cost way to
(34:22):
generate leads.
But again, that's going to be along term play.
I think another.
Just everyone hates it.
None of us like to do it, butGoogle Ads is still,
unfortunately, the easiest,Especially if you're in home
services.
Google Local Service Ads isgoing to be the most
(34:43):
cost-effective lead generatingtool out there.
To just be very simple andactionable, I think getting on
Google Guaranteed, getting allof your background checks and
everything that you need to getthat qualified, and then running
some simple local service ads,getting all the reviews that you
need for that.
(35:03):
It can be very complicated wecan talk through that, but it's
not as complicated as Googlelikes to try to make it.
Unfortunately, to make itunfortunately.
But yeah, getting all that done, jumping through Google's hoops
and setting some sort of budget, whether it be $1,000, $1,500 a
month, just towards that, Ithink is going to be a really
(35:24):
low cost way to get some highquality leads.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
I like it.
Yeah, definitely Google ads ifyou're in the local home service
based business type thing, butpersonal branding, like you said
, that is the most importantthing and really that's how we
connected.
I mean, we've been in part ofthe groups as well, but it was
through personal branding,trying to build ourselves up
being somebody that'sself-motivated and trying to be
(35:50):
a self-improvement as well.
So, yeah, a lot of amazingthings.
Brandon, I appreciate your time, the value that you shared here
.
If people want to follow you,especially those in the roofing
and home service basedbusinesses, where can they go?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, I'm Brandon Mills on Facebook.
I've got a Facebook groupthat's really geared more
towards roofing companies, butit's Roofers Catalyst.
But honestly, unless you're acompeting marketer, I'll
probably let you in.
But yeah, roofers Catalyst, wejust talk about just general
marketing things, personalbranding, things like that.
(36:25):
I look to be at least launchingsome sort of YouTube channel in
the next year or so, but I'venot done that yet.
So really just on Facebook,brandon Mills and Roofers
Catalyst.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Facebook group Awesome Well, brandon, thank you
so much for coming on the show.
We appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you, phillip.
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