How To Get Clients To Sell Themselves On Your Brand Before They Even Call You

Speaker 1 Most guys just think that they're going to keep doing exactly what they're doing. That's the recipe for success.
There's no reason why I should change anything.

Speaker 1 And then you have the guys like you who looked at what you were doing and you said, you know what? This actually doesn't represent the level of service that A1 stands for. Right.

Speaker 1 And so you made a change. And that takes guts.
I mean, that takes balls to do it, right? You weren't complacent though.

Speaker 1 And I see that that's a big challenge with a lot of owners: they get super complacent with what they're doing today.

Speaker 1 And they think that that's the recipe for success for tomorrow. And it just doesn't really work that way.
I mean, they can get there. It's just going to cost so much more.

Speaker 1 It's going to take so much longer to get there. The business isn't going to be worth as much either when you want to sell it.

Speaker 1 You look at the multiples for the companies that have good brands versus the multiples of companies with poor brands. And you tell me how much more money they're getting for a better branded company.

Speaker 2 Welcome to the Home Service Expert, where each week Tommy chats with world-class entrepreneurs and experts in various fields like marketing, sales, hiring, and leadership to find out what's really behind their success in business.

Speaker 2 Now, your host, the Home Service Millionaire, Tommy Mello.

Speaker 3 Welcome back to the Home Service Expert. Today, I have a very, very special guest.
He's made a huge impact in your life and definitely my life. He's the...
king of branding.

Speaker 3 Dan Antonelli is visiting us from New Jersey. I've been out to his shop.
How you doing today, Dan?

Speaker 4 What's up, brother?

Speaker 3 Things are good. He's an expert in logo design, graphic design, branding, web design, small business marketing.
He is the chief operating officer at Kickcharge.

Speaker 3 And before that, he was something to do in the 90s with hip health plan.

Speaker 3 But Dan is the president and chief operating officer at Kick Charge Creative, an award-winning New Jersey-based branding agency that specializes in helping home service businesses redefine themselves and stand out with disruptive brands.

Speaker 3 Dan is a nationally recognized speaker, an expert on home service branding, with several books branding to his credit, including Building a Small Business Brand, which is this.

Speaker 3 And then he's got a couple other books. And then he just came out with his new book, Branded, Not Blanded.
And we're going to talk about that today.

Speaker 3 With more than 2,000 home service brands under his belt, Dan and his team have overseen branding of more home service businesses than any other brand agency in the world. It's pretty unremarkable.

Speaker 3 Tell me a little bit about what you're doing these days, about your journey, why you wrote the new book, what's going on with you.

Speaker 1 Well, the book is just me trying to

Speaker 1 give everything that I've learned in the last dozen or so years since I wrote the last book. and really try to keep the focus 100% on home service.

Speaker 1 And while the last book was was more broad in terms of how to use brands in general for small businesses, this one is 100% focused on how to use branding to help grow your home service business.

Speaker 1 So that's why I wrote this one.

Speaker 1 Like when you look at books that talk about branding, there's a lot of books that are more pie in the sky stuff for stuff that aren't really relatable to the average small business, especially the average small home service business.

Speaker 1 And I wanted to just put the information out there. There's a lot of bad information that continually gets put out.

Speaker 1 And I was like, I got to put something out there so that people can just read this book and understand how this is supposed to work.

Speaker 1 And I wanted to try to put that out to try to help as many businesses as I can.

Speaker 4 So I've got a lot of notes here. I've got my notes.

Speaker 3 What is it that you usually find? I mean, you've been hanging out in the forums as long as I have. We've been seeing people that they go on Fiverr, they go on Upwork.

Speaker 3 They literally think they're brothers, cousins daughter is an artist that's going to school somewhere and i can't stand seeing someone build a bad brand and they're so proud of it like i was

Speaker 3 i was super proud i used to say man everybody sees my shit everywhere they always mention it and they're like you're blown up i see your trucks everywhere well they knew me and just because they hear my radio commercials or see me on tv or see my brand does not mean it's a good thing you know i think people do it for vanity They wrap their truck and they're like, oh, I got something.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, there's so much, like I said, bad information that's put out there. So you see it in the forums when someone posts something on there.

Speaker 1 And I'm sure some people are just trying to be nice and say, oh, that looks cool. But the reality is, is a lot of the stuff that people are doing is not going to have the ROI that it should.

Speaker 1 So I look at that stuff and I'm just. I get upset.
Like I'm sad for that business because I'm like, they just are wasting so much money by doing this.

Speaker 1 And then ultimately, if they ever figure out that it's not working, they're going to have to spend so much more money to fix it later on.

Speaker 1 So I always look at it and just say, well, the cheapest time to build a brand is today. It's not next year.
It's not when you're 3 million or 5 million.

Speaker 1 Like, you know how expensive it was for you to rebrand at 30 or 40 million dollars, right? There was a lot of stuff you had to redo.

Speaker 1 But imagine if you had done that better when you were 2 million, 3 million, 4 million, right? And imagine how much faster maybe you would have gotten to 30 million dollars with a better brand.

Speaker 1 So that stuff is just sad. And there's again, just really bad information.
There's a lack of knowledge about how the medium works.

Speaker 1 There's a lack of knowledge about how brands need to function, even on a truck wrap. Like you see that all the time.

Speaker 1 And so as I said, hey, I'm going to put this out in a book, like everything I know about this. And like, read this before you do anything.
Like, I don't care who you're going to hire.

Speaker 1 Just read this book so you understand because chances are even the designer you're working with doesn't even really understand this.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 3 it's simple as possible to find what you would consider to be a brand.

Speaker 1 So we look at a brand as like a wheel and the center of that wheel is the logo. Okay.

Speaker 1 So the spokes going around that wheel are all the touch points. So they're your trucks, your website, your culture is involved in that, your social.
All those aspects comprise an actual brand.

Speaker 1 But if you don't get that hub right, then that wheel, it just doesn't turn as efficiently as it should.

Speaker 1 And that's the whole crux of the book is that people overspend on their marketing because they don't have a good brand. And a lot of it starts with just poor foundation.
So you get that hub right.

Speaker 1 And then that wheel suddenly spins so much easier. You'll need to spend less money on your marketing, less money on recruitment, and you'll be able to charge more money for your work.

Speaker 1 Like, isn't that the ideal of what everyone strives for? Like people forget about how average tickets are affected by brand.

Speaker 1 They think that they'll be able to increase their average tickets when they have a brand. There it is.
Yeah. That doesn't instill that confidence.

Speaker 1 So fix the foundation before you start doing all these other things.

Speaker 3 So there was a quote in here, and I didn't write it down, but it was something of, it's the price we pay.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Overspending on marketing is the price you pay for an ineffective brand.
or unremarkable brand. And that's actually Roy Williams quote.
Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's the tax that one spends for being unremarkable. So, how do you build a brand that's remarkable within your community? Well, you do something that's different.

Speaker 1 You do something that's disruptive, that doesn't fit in. Right.
And that's the problem, too.

Speaker 1 Is so many guys put brands out there that look like all the same brands in their market because they think that, well, that's what they're doing. It must be working.

Speaker 1 So I'm going to do something kind of like that.

Speaker 4 You know, like what do you mean, like red, white, and blue and be all-American?

Speaker 1 The

Speaker 3 American HVAC company. No one's ever heard of that before.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Red and blue with you know, arrows and stuff that would be genius like it'd be amazing um everybody's like i'm gonna be the veterans oh the worst is that i've ever seen is they really screw this one up there's two things i want to talk about number one is they put discount

Speaker 3 discount whatever yeah or for a brand it's that i suck so i discount myself and number two What really is bad, in my opinion, is when they don't have what they do at all.

Speaker 3 tell me what about google what about yelp i'm like you mean the multi-trillion dollar company like you're trying to become that you're a home service company you can't create your own like what do you do do you know how many times brie has to deal with me when somebody drives by and i'm like

Speaker 3 they say like

Speaker 3 american mechanical yeah and i'm like i have no idea what they do at all

Speaker 3 Sometimes I even write down their website just to find out what they do because I'm like, why do they do this?

Speaker 1 Their brand means nothing yeah bad advice that's all i mean it's just or just not knowing like you can't say it's bad advice or you could say they just don't know there's just like i don't know how to do a load calc in my room i couldn't tell you what kind of springs i need for my garage door i know the shit needs to go up and down right but i don't i i don't pretend to know all those things so you know listen guys get into it as they bootstrap it when they first get into it and i and i understand that but at a certain point you got to decide does this brand actually even represent who i am today and most guys actually never get past that.

Speaker 1 Most guys just think that they're going to keep doing exactly what they're doing. That's the recipe for success.
There's no reason why I should change anything.

Speaker 1 And then you have the guys like you who looked at what you were doing and you said, you know what? This actually doesn't represent the level of service that A1 stands for, right?

Speaker 1 And so you made a change. And that takes guts.
I mean, that takes balls to do it, right? You weren't complacent, though.

Speaker 1 And I see that that's a big challenge with a lot of owners is they get super complacent with what they're doing today. And they think that that's the recipe for success for tomorrow.

Speaker 1 And it just doesn't really work that way. I mean, they can get there.
It's just going to cost so much more. It's going to take so much longer to get there.

Speaker 1 The business isn't going to be worth as much either when you want to sell it.

Speaker 1 You look at the multiples for the companies that have good brands versus the multiples of companies with poor brands. And you tell me how much more money they're getting for a better branded company.

Speaker 4 Well,

Speaker 4 it's faster to grow. You look at the companies, Parker and Sun Service Champions.

Speaker 3 In a way, gen, next gen was an up-a-comer and he's done a great job. But overall, he branded the crap out of himself.
He did a lot more than that.

Speaker 3 But most of these guys have been around, Parker and Sons, George Brazil, which is decent, service champions that have not embraced a new logo. They've just been around for years.

Speaker 3 They got enough service agreements that they don't necessarily need the brand. But it'd be impossible to build what they have in today's market.

Speaker 3 And I'm not going to discount what Leland and, you know, Paul Kelly and some of these guys have built, but ultimately, I look at our new vans and I look at what we've done with the logos and just we're redoing all the wall art.

Speaker 3 We're looking at, you know what's crazy is when somebody walks in and they see the symmetry with what you're doing, it's going to be incredible vertical track. But

Speaker 3 when people see the wall, like it becomes a recruiting tool.

Speaker 1 Like, look,

Speaker 3 I get more clients than I know what to do with. That's what everybody's story is the last year and a half, two years.
But how do you get amazing people?

Speaker 3 And I think that the brand recruits great people. It's not sloppy.
It's, you know, just like clients think, is this person going to just be up? Like, look at the used trucks.

Speaker 3 They just put something on the wrap.

Speaker 3 No, it doesn't attract any great people at all.

Speaker 1 And that's one of the biggest benefits of a rebrand that isn't really talked about as much, right?

Speaker 1 People don't come to us and say, hey, Dan, we want you to rebrand our company because we want to build an amazing culture. Like no one says that.

Speaker 1 That becomes the benefit, though, one of the benefits that happen afterwards.

Speaker 1 And then they realize after how much it has affected culture, recruitment, you know, just the overall morale of the company. So it becomes this catalyst for this positive change in the company, right?

Speaker 1 And so you see that. I mean, look at Amanda from Grasshopper.
Look at the culture that she's built based on that brand, right? And it's just incredible.

Speaker 1 She doesn't have a recruitment problem, like just the way you don't have a recruitment problem, because it looks like a place that I want to be involved in.

Speaker 1 And so you see these companies that struggle with recruitment and a lot of times, oh, no one wants to work for me. I can't get people and no one wants to come.

Speaker 1 Then you look at the branding, you look at the culture, you look at the trucks that the techs are going to have to drive and you're like, yeah, I can see why you're having trouble recruiting people.

Speaker 1 Listen, of course people are going to want high salaries and all those other aspects of it, but are they going to be proud to put on the uniform? and go home with it.

Speaker 1 Or like as soon as they finish their job, they're taking off the uniform because they don't want anyone to really know or be associated with that with that brand name.

Speaker 1 So the cultural aspect of a rebrand is often overlooked because initially that's not what they're thinking about. They're thinking about, well, how do I attract more clients?

Speaker 1 How do I get higher average tickets? How do I make the trucks work for me better in the environment? And those are all great aspects. Those are, you know, obviously critical benefits of the rebrand.

Speaker 1 But the culture is something that just really, really affects so much internally once that rebrand is done. It becomes, you know, just such a positive catalyst for growth.

Speaker 4 When I was at your office,

Speaker 3 first of all, you got one of the baddest ass Corvettes I've ever seen.

Speaker 3 But when I've walked up everything, every detail, it's not like you're just preaching this and not, you're not living up to it at your own building. You saw the timeline, which was remarkable.

Speaker 3 Every detail, it's just such a cool feeling. Even your office, can you pan around there a little bit and just show?

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 3 he's got his bicycle on the wall. You know, he's got a lot of things that he's done for what reminds him of when he was younger.
His daughter won a contest to be on a plane, which is amazing.

Speaker 3 You can tell that story later, but you really live up to what you talk about. I come out of there with so many freaking ideas.

Speaker 1 I've actually got a lot of ideas right now.

Speaker 3 My brain, I love podcasting, man. I'm telling you, these light bulbs go off.
And One of the things that I love in your office is you had a light made.

Speaker 1 You had a light made of your company and does it got kick charge on it but it's made out of yellow and it's got the star it's super cool yeah i mean every single thing within here essentially is on brand you know so the colors how the the culture is infused with the wording the mission statements vision statements our core values those are all aspects that are are basically ingrained within the actual environment and those are things that also again just reinforce what the company believes in.

Speaker 1 What do we stand for? So use these visual cues to keep the employees engaged as far as what do we really stand for here? Like, what do we do here?

Speaker 4 It's great. I got the experience that I love going out there.

Speaker 3 You know, some people don't really understand these basic principles. And I can promise you they'll save themselves a fortune.

Speaker 3 You've talked with my lawyers about copyright laws, but understanding the brand and that it needs to be trademarked, memorable, copyrighted.

Speaker 3 Can you tell me a little bit about what somebody needs to kind of go through before they start coming up with what they're even going to name their brand?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, listen, trademark law and copyright law is something that, again, most people just don't give a lot of thought to.

Speaker 1 So you run into challenges sometimes with names where the name may be available within your state. And you may do a search in your state and say, hey, this name is available.
And that's great.

Speaker 1 And then not realize that that name is actually a federal registered trademark, in which case federal will supersede state so you can launch your business and think you're free and clear and then start working on building your brand and then find out later that that name is actually owned by another entity so you have to be very careful about trademarks when you're naming a company you have to be very careful about trademarks when you're using art to represent your brand so whether it's a an image or a mascot or something similar like that and so those are aspects too that we talk a lot about in the book so you know i kind of like having i basically had a trademark lawyer write that whole chapter because I wanted him to really make sure we had all the right information about trademarking and how that affects home service companies, you know, because we've definitely seen that in instances.

Speaker 1 Guys have been like three years into their brand and then they get a cease and desist from someone that owns the federal trademark for that particular brand.

Speaker 1 And so there's a lot of stuff you need to really know about that. It's not as simple as just checking your state registry and saying, oh, no, look, no one's got this name.
We're good to go.

Speaker 1 So I hate when we have to get engaged in some of those conversations or we're about to rebrand someone and then we do a little research ourselves and find out that their name can't even be used.

Speaker 1 And so we try to solve some of those problems as early as possible because it becomes very expensive later on to fix them.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you know, A1 fell first in the phone book, but it turns out other people had that idea. Luckily, I got, I was able to get an uncontestable trademark, but there's what's called prior rights.

Speaker 1 Prior use.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 3 There's certain ones we have the ability to win, but overall it's tough so we're working on a bunch of backup plans so we got the lawyers up the yin yang it's it's really hard to even deal with a company like mine because it's not something you definitely i don't want to go after prior use but when i start these new businesses that you kind of know about and other home service companies we're going to go about this i feel like i could go into any home service company and dominate because I got the branding right now.

Speaker 3 And then I understand SEO and pay-per-click and bleed gen and how to train and how to recruit. But one thing that I'll tell you is a lot of people just don't want to bite the bullet.

Speaker 3 They go, man, I've already got eight wrap trucks. I got a couple trailers.
I'm not going to pay another.

Speaker 3 I got to pay dance fee, which I'm fine with dance fee, they say, but then I got to pay to rewrap everything. Then I got to redo the website.
Then he's talking about yard signs.

Speaker 3 And I understand that this is a cost in your mind, but it's actually an investment.

Speaker 1 Correct. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Explain to me just what, how often do you hear stuff like that? Like, oh man, everything's got to to change. And you're like, yeah,

Speaker 1 sometimes it's just like frustrating because they're like, oh, well, I'm at 10 million. It's too late to change.
I mean, we rebranded Gem Plumbing in New England.

Speaker 1 They were $100 million in revenue and they rebranded. So why did they do it? Why did they invest in it? So when you hear guys say, oh, I'm too big or it's too late.

Speaker 1 least expensive time to rebrand is today. It will never be cheaper today.
And you think about missed opportunities. You think about how it affects your overall ROI on your marketing spend.

Speaker 1 And it's sometimes it just doesn't make any sense not to rebrand. But if you're going to look at it and all you see are costs, then you're missing the big picture about what a brand does.

Speaker 1 If you look at it and you say, oh my God, it's so much money for, and I put in quotation marks, just a logo. If you think you're buying just a logo, then yeah, go to Fiverr by all means.

Speaker 1 Like, that's all you'll get. But if you're really looking about how do I create a brand, well, then that's a different investment.

Speaker 1 And that's an investment investment that will have long-term ROI, right?

Speaker 1 So you have to look at the numbers. And obviously, I get that it is an expensive or an expense and it is an investment, but like even look at the trucks.

Speaker 1 So let's say it's 10 trucks and it's going to cost me $40,000 to wrap 10 trucks. Well, you're talking about $40,000 divided by a five-year life expectancy.
So what are we really talking about?

Speaker 1 as far as how many impressions those vehicles will generate over the course of their lifetime versus you buying a single billboard in any given market so you want to compare roi on truck wraps versus outdoor and tell me that you think it's too expensive for you to really rebrand your trucks well go buy 10 billboards then and tell me what you think of that and tell me what the difference is in cost on those things you know so those are the parts where i think people don't understand that they don't understand too even just how much more

Speaker 1 phone calls you're going to get from a better branded truck versus a poorly branded truck.

Speaker 1 How many more times people are going to go to your website because they saw a better branded truck versus a poorly branded truck?

Speaker 1 So, those are the aspects of it too, where it's a total investment, of course, but the ROI is stupid sometimes. Like Jason Bueller's 18 trucks generated $1 million in revenue.

Speaker 1 You think he thinks it was expensive to rebrand? No, it was expensive not to rebrand. That's really where the expense was because he was not gaining traction as fast as he could, you know?

Speaker 1 So definitely got to look at that. But like, again, it's that idea of complacency.
Hey, what I'm doing today is working. I will not change.
So, all right, that's all it's all good.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, it's fine. But there's going to be people coming into your market that embrace the idea of the power of a brand and they are going to start taking pieces of your market share.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's just the way it is.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And I think there's a lot of things here.

Speaker 3 I mean, you've got, I don't know, right now, about five or six companies copying just what you've done for us.

Speaker 3 I mean, it's weird because it always comes back to you somehow because you're, well, my brand's out there quite a bit in 20 states but what people don't understand is you can only read about seven words tops and that's like very very matched usually three to four is what they say and i used to put on my stuff everything i did i mean i'd have springs rollers cables bearings drums you name it i do flip master i do genie clope and amar and then i'd have bbb and yelp and angie's list And man has like, looked like an ice cream truck.

Speaker 3 I mean, it was so bad.

Speaker 3 And now you said keep all of it off if anything you can put the roc on there small because that's a must you know the register of contractors but other than that i'm looking at my trucks right now and they're just so clean and what's interesting and i think the wizard of ad would disagree with this but r and vahe

Speaker 3 one of them called me up this was a year and a half i think vahe actually did with service time and he said hey how are your eight eight four four numbers doing i said we're getting a lot of calls he said we've done some studies and it shows that a local number on the vehicles do, I think it was like eight times better.

Speaker 3 So then we started going back to all local numbers because I'm not going to call a home service company with an 800 number. I'm not.
I just wouldn't do it. Maybe a flooring company that's massive.

Speaker 3 Do you have any thoughts on that?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I mean, listen, at the end of the day, honestly, phone numbers are becoming less and less relevant to begin with.

Speaker 1 So probably

Speaker 1 50% of the trucks we're actually designing wraps for, we're not even putting a phone number on there because it's not really likely the way in which people are engaged with trying to contact your company.

Speaker 1 If you have a really well-branded truck, they're going to just Google your name, right? And they're going to just type in the name and then get the phone number that way.

Speaker 1 But yeah, I mean, to me, I guess if you have an opportunity to put a phone number, a local number is always going to feel more. community-based, more central to them.

Speaker 1 So I agree with using a local phone number if you have the opportunity.

Speaker 1 It's one of the reasons too, also, where I'm not like a huge fan on vanity numbers that spell out things, mainly because the challenge with actually using a vanity number while you're in a mobile environment is really difficult like if i have to spell out something like 1-800 garage and i gotta figure out okay the g is the six the a is the one like i'm supposed to be driving and figuring this stuff out so like you gotta remember that trucks are not a point of purchase medium they are a brand building medium you know it's not a call to action your truck it's when i need service i remember this brand because I've seen it in this community.

Speaker 1 So that's really another thing that relates to that too. But certainly, I would say local if you have the opportunity.
Yeah, I would do that.

Speaker 3 So I had this guy in my office. I get him in here, you know, Ken Gooderoitz with Gettle, probably twice a month.

Speaker 3 And I remember the first podcast I did with him, and he goes, Tommy, when we really went all out and we started putting the radio because the Wizard of Ads believes in radio.

Speaker 3 I mean, Roy's a radio guy. He goes, What I couldn't believe

Speaker 3 is the search brand for Gettle went through the roof, the Sadie, the dog, the holding the flashlight for my dad. He tells a story brand with it.

Speaker 3 And the combination of the beautiful pictures of the wraps and the billboards and then the story behind it. He said, my Google spend is a tenth of what it was.
Exactly.

Speaker 3 And not only that, but they're all searching Gettle. So they're willing to wait longer, higher conversion rate, higher booking rate, higher average ticket.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I want you out here. And then he gave his flashlight, his sunglasses, his,

Speaker 3 you know, the Sadie, the dog away. And what happened was when somebody types in A1 Garage Durham Service, I pay pennies on the dollar because I own the brand.

Speaker 3 And I think people don't understand that piece of it. And I think it's so important.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And to that point, exactly what Ken's talking about is the weaker the brand, the more money he needed to spend on it.
Right.

Speaker 1 So the idea of how even the vehicles affect digital marketing is something that I talk about in the book.

Speaker 1 I talk about the fact of being visible within the community because when I need service, I remember the brand name and then I just go to Google and I type in the brand name.

Speaker 1 I don't go into Google and I type in heating repair phoenix. I type in Gettle instead.
Because of course it's so much easier to rank higher for Gettle than it is for heating repair Phoenix.

Speaker 1 So that's the other aspect of it that people forget about how it's related to like, well, how is branding related to digital marketing or even my trucks related to digital marketing?

Speaker 1 It's because, well, I'm visible in that community and I've made an impact. I've created a disruptive brand that people remember.
And look at Ken's brand.

Speaker 1 Ken's brand doesn't look like red and blue arrows, right? Why would anybody care about that? Why would anybody remember or, you know, the sun in the snowflake logo?

Speaker 1 Well, no, it's a boy holding a flashlight. There's a story behind why that boy is holding that flashlight.
And I can connect with that as a consumer. I can feel something.

Speaker 1 So the brand created empathy. Okay.
And that's another aspect of the branding that people forget.

Speaker 1 You know, they create brands that they like and they forget about the fact that who you're selling to is a middle-aged woman in most instances. Well, what is she like?

Speaker 1 So putting her at the front of that conversation is certainly something that all branding should really do, especially in home service.

Speaker 4 It's a great story.

Speaker 3 And anytime you're able to create a story, I started creating a story. on a lot of my ads and i you know my mom

Speaker 3 my mom's actually going to start doing doing some radio with me. I don't know how that's going to go.
I don't want to be there when she's recording it, but she's a great woman.

Speaker 3 I took a lot of sound bites out of the book. And I want to just talk through.
I'm going to randomly pull these out through my other questions here.

Speaker 3 The weaker your brand, the more you will spend to market your company. We just went over that.
Of course, branding alone won't make your business successful. I mean, you still got to book phone calls.

Speaker 3 You still got to hire great people and train. It's not like you're just going to all of a sudden, and this, these things, like they say, they take time.

Speaker 3 It's not like your new rep all of a sudden triples your business. What it'll do is over six months, you'll see a noticeable difference, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 To that point, though, right? So the idea of operationally, you need to be running a very well-run company, of course, right?

Speaker 1 But what we're trying to do with that branding is make it so that it matches what you actually deliver as a company. So you have a lot of great companies that perform a great service.

Speaker 1 They just don't look like they do.

Speaker 1 So if the brand matches what the deliverable is, then that's a win because you ring that doorbell and they already expect something positive before you get the chance to prove it. Okay.

Speaker 1 So that's the other aspect of it is basically controlling the conversation before it takes place.

Speaker 3 So brand controls the consumer's first impression, service controls the last impression, which I think you were just saying there.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Yep.

Speaker 3 I'll go back to some of these a little bit. I've got to see you in your office.
You've got a Mac.

Speaker 3 And what you do is you really start drawing out, like, it's not just this process where you're like, throw a bunch of shit at the wall see what sticks you go into what big brands what colors they have is there a huge hvac company versus the garage door company you're going to look and make sure you're distinct and then explain to people it's not just something that you guys take it's not a couple hours worth of work and i don't think anybody really understands the process you go through Yeah, so I mean, I would say anyone that's looking to do this, I mean, definitely want to research your market.

Speaker 1 So you want to see what other brands are in your market. You want to look at every one of those brands and what those trucks look like, right?

Speaker 1 Because the truck is the most visible personification of your brand. It's the most visible aspect of your brand within your own community.

Speaker 1 So, you want to make sure that you're picking colors that are different. You want to make sure you're doing a strategy that feels different.

Speaker 1 If there's a lot of really uber clean brands in your market, well, maybe you do something that is nostalgia-based, maybe you do something that is mascot-based.

Speaker 1 Like, you got to look at what's happening in that market and then also try to think about how we can craft a story around this particular brand.

Speaker 1 What can we say about what we do that's different than what everyone else says? You know, and I always sort of use this benchmark as a test.

Speaker 1 Like if you go on your own website and you replace your name with your biggest competitor's name and see if the website still makes sense.

Speaker 1 If it reads exactly the same, then what is actually unique and compelling about your own brand?

Speaker 1 right so try to think about how you can use branding as a way to tell a unique story you know ken does a great job of this of course like, you know, we do things the right way, not the easy way.

Speaker 1 That already tells me something that is a little bit unique and different about how they approach and tackle the job that they do for a homeowner.

Speaker 1 So, from a homeowner perspective, that tells me a lot. It's like, well, yeah, maybe they might charge me a little bit more, but it's going to be done the right way.

Speaker 1 And that's what I'm most interested as a homeowner. I mean, of course, I want value, but I want to make sure that it is done the right way.

Speaker 1 So, try to think about how you can create brands that can tell a story that is unique, whether it's humorous, whether it's nostalgic, whether it's something that speaks to value.

Speaker 1 You know, those are all things that you can consider.

Speaker 1 But definitely the research of what the market is doing will help dictate the idea of how you build something that's disruptive in that particular space.

Speaker 3 I agree. I got a good question here that I want to read out loud here.

Speaker 3 What happens when you build a big, successful brand? Then your competitor who is a franchise outbids you on pay-per-click and they increase your PPC name.

Speaker 3 Can't trademark due to our company name having a geographical city location reference in the company name. We have been in business for over 60 years, so change the name is not an option.

Speaker 3 And I'll go ahead and leave that up there for you. So in my opinion, Jennifer, number one is I don't know your name, but it's very easy to write a bunch of articles by blogging.

Speaker 3 and increasing the link building into your name,

Speaker 3 you're going to get cheaper, cheaper.

Speaker 1 There's what's called a quality score.

Speaker 3 Now, Now, if your competitor is a franchise, they're paying a lot more. Here's the best way to describe it, Jennifer, so you have some idea.

Speaker 3 If I'm Coca-Cola and I decide I'm a bigger brand than anybody, and there's this op brand of root beer, just say AW Root Beer, I could actually bid in front of AW Root Beer.

Speaker 3 I don't know how big the AW is, it's just a bad example, but Coca-Cola could come above there. It could say Coca-Cola within ANW.

Speaker 3 But am I giving the best quality response, the the quality of what the searcher searched Root Beer? Coca-Cola came up.

Speaker 3 They could own that spot for like $500 versus a dollar that A ⁇ W Root Beer would pay because Google wants the best brand to come up for the searcher, right? The person that they're typing in Google.

Speaker 3 So if you increased your quality score, and this is where all my time and energy would be spent. You could be paying pennies compared to that franchise on those keywords.

Speaker 3 That's more of a digital marketing question.

Speaker 1 But Dan, do you have any insight?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I would say too, part of that, I would say, relates back to the brand itself, because even if they are trying to buy your keywords for your own brand name, make sure that your brand is unique and compelling enough so that even if they clicked on that, basically the competitor's ad, which is under your name, they would go to the website and realize this isn't the company I thought I was trying to get.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 So that's where you have to make sure that the brand itself is unique, memorable, and something that they'll realize when they go to the other click, you know, when they click on that, oh, well, this isn't the company I was thinking about.

Speaker 1 So that's, again, just making sure that that brand is really, really well done and executed.

Speaker 3 They'll bid on your name. I bid on all my competitors' names.
I mean, I bid on pretty much, we've got thousands and thousands of campaigns.

Speaker 3 There's nothing that's illegal about bidding on someone's name. But if you don't stand out is what Dan's saying, and if you stand out, and we stand out, our website stands out.

Speaker 1 I mean, I can show you right now, just go to a1garage.com and you'll start to see our vans are on the main website as you scroll a little bit right towards the center dan actually designed the website and you know you're getting the right company yeah it's so funny you just mentioned that because that point about the van being prominent high up on the website i don't understand why that's missed so often That is, again, the most visible aspect of your brand within your own community.

Speaker 1 So why isn't your van featured prominently on the top of your website? Because I want to know, oh yeah, that's the van that I keep seeing in my neighborhood, right?

Speaker 1 So that part of it too, I don't understand why digital marketing companies somehow, they haven't quite figured out to put a van on every single site that they really create like you should.

Speaker 1 It's the most visible. personification of your brand.
Why wouldn't we want to try to connect that homeowner with that van that they keep seeing?

Speaker 1 So you may have a cool logo, but if it's only just sitting on the top left left of the website, that may not even, you know, how it actually lives on the truck.

Speaker 1 Like, so make sure that they see the truck is just one other tip I would say for sure. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3 That the truck is your main thing. They're seeing, you know, I talk to a lot of amateur companies, and there was once a time that I was an amateur, so I'm not talking down to them.

Speaker 3 But they go, yeah, my guys like trucks.

Speaker 3 I'm like, even if I prefer trucks a little more, I've got the largest, tallest ProMasters, the longest ones I can get.

Speaker 3 Now, fortunately, I'm still able to get trucks but i'm like i should say vans pro masters my point is

Speaker 3 there's a few really cool things about a van number one it locks up at night i like that aspect but if i get a choice and a guy's like well i kind of like a truck because of this i'm like do you like a truck or do you like to make more money because a van just looks better on the side of a road when i pull up to a house you got a billboard when you're looking out your window or everywhere you go what are your thoughts on that and have you have you ever talked talked to anybody that was kind of torn, you know, I could get away with a van, truck's a little bit better or a little bit better gas or whatever it might be?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, one's a beautiful canvas and the other is a marginalized canvas.

Speaker 1 It's really just the way it goes, you know, so if I have to work around toolboxes, if I have to work on just a pickup truck versus a service van, it's a no-brainer. It's definitely something that.

Speaker 1 We speak about like when a client comes to us, whether it's, let's say it's a plumber and he's got a utility body with a million tool chests on the side of it.

Speaker 1 And he's like, yeah, but it's super convenient to work on. I'm like, well, I appreciate that aspect of it, but it's awful to brand because I've got to work around now all this crap.

Speaker 1 I've got to work around door handles and latches and stuff like that. So 100% vans, if you can go that route, it's going to just generate more impressions.
It's just going to be more visible.

Speaker 1 It's why a bigger billboard costs more money than a smaller billboard. You know, there's a reason for that.

Speaker 4 I like box trucks. One of the questions was box trucks.

Speaker 3 I find that box trucks, if I have a choice, I think it may make a lot more sense for plumbers and whatnot. But what ends up happening is they're really tall.

Speaker 3 I can get in my vans comfortably and I can fit everything I need and I can buy them for cheaper.

Speaker 3 And then here's the nice thing: everybody wants these ProMaster vans in three, four years. So as my lease to own comes into effect, all they do is pill the wraps off and they sell them for 20 grand.

Speaker 3 Now, yes, it's going to cost me 50 for a new one, all done up.

Speaker 3 But what's nice is there's what I learned from enterprise, and that's what I use, because they showed me this chart, Dan, and they showed me as the miles went up and they got all these lines going through it,

Speaker 3 and there was depreciation. So there was this target value.

Speaker 3 If this line coming down is like depreciation coming down, and then you've got miles going up, there's this life at at about 100 to 120,000 where it's the most amount of money for the miles, and then it just drops off from there.

Speaker 3 So that's like the premium time to sell that vehicle.

Speaker 3 I added all these plastic pieces on the side and the back because how bad does a wrap look when there's shit banging up against it on the side and it's it's dented pretty bad

Speaker 1 so what i would recommend and this is just a food for thought dan to add in is anybody that's doing setting up their trucks they should use the plastic on the inside to protect and those drafts will look a lot better and the brand stands out more yeah you look at the box trucks by the way we talk about box trucks the box trucks that we did for ellen roar at zoom drain when we rebranded them you know so those are really good box trucks canvases and she didn't go with having all the tool chests on the side she want a smooth side box truck and like just so much more impact that way than having to work around all those tool chests.

Speaker 1 So that's a good example, I think, of a very well-branded box truck. She's got the Isuzu ones, I believe.
And we did the front in one color and then the box is in a different color.

Speaker 1 If anyone's seen the Zoom drain, like you could look at their stuff, but great canvas, those ones especially.

Speaker 3 I've heard you talk about the characters and you're like, do you want it to be human or should we do an animal or should we do the brothers? Like what?

Speaker 3 What are some of the decisions someone should be thinking about when they're like, should it be like a big shark coming out of the thing or should it be?

Speaker 3 And you've done a lot of different things with this. You got the cardinal.

Speaker 3 What are the questions that you're talking to owners about when deciding that?

Speaker 1 Well, again, just trying to get into the mind of Mrs. Jones and trying to figure out how to craft a visual that will be appealing to her and that will help her feel most at ease.
Okay. So that's why.

Speaker 1 you know, you've heard me talk a lot about aggressive mascots and mascots that have like all these muscles and they look very masculine in nature.

Speaker 1 And you have to be very careful with those types of images because they are frightening.

Speaker 1 Like they are sending the wrong message, especially to women who are already afraid of who's actually coming to their home.

Speaker 1 So we try to look at if we do a mascot or mascot branding, we'll talk about approaches.

Speaker 1 We'll look at the market to see what is already in the market and whether it makes sense to have another mascot in that particular market or not.

Speaker 1 But we definitely want to make it something that will feel

Speaker 1 warm, that will feel friendly, and that will make them feel at ease with who's coming to their home. And people forget about that.

Speaker 1 Like you think about how much money on the consumer packaging side is spent on getting women to feel like they want to buy fabric softener.

Speaker 1 So like imagine that your home service brand has to be built in the same mindset. Like, how do you build a home service brand that is like fabric softener, right?

Speaker 1 It sounds crazy to think like that, but that's exactly what you're trying to do is trying to make them feel at ease with someone who is coming into their home. Okay.

Speaker 1 So we want them to be friendly, happy, look professional, of course, right? But also make them feel at ease.

Speaker 1 And so you just got to look at the different styles and what's already in the market and then make decisions based on that. I mean, that's how we do it.

Speaker 3 You know, it's from what women want with Mel Gibson, but they talked about come see the softer side of Sears and that increased sales dramatically because they started targeting women.

Speaker 3 And I think a lot of us as men, sometimes we try to build this badass rap and we got like Tarzan popping out of there Rambo and just we're like it's G.I. Joe time.

Speaker 3 And it's like, I don't know, it's like rampage. And it's like, no, that's cool for like seventh graders that are men,

Speaker 1 but that's not something that appeals that I don't want somebody in my house. I'm thinking, yeah.

Speaker 1 And what do they do, Tommy? They ask all their technicians who are also men. Yep.
Most Most of the time. And they say, hey, what do you guys think of that? And like, yeah, that's badass, man.

Speaker 1 That looks so cool. And you're like, okay, but Mrs.
Smith doesn't think that's cool at all. And she's the one making 70, 80% of the phone calls.

Speaker 1 So why do we build brands that are cool to my buddies and my friends if I'm a guy instead of really addressing how the brand needs to speak to women first?

Speaker 3 It's crazy. And, you know, you look at Dollar Shave Club that's made for men.
The majority of women were the one that bought the Dollar Shave Club for their husband or boyfriend.

Speaker 3 So I think that's a great point you bring up, Dan. And when I talked to you originally, I said, Look, man, I'm not changing A1.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 You tried to convince me otherwise, but I said, Here's what I want. I want something that feels good.
I want something that looks like it's from the 1960s that you get a warm fill.

Speaker 3 Said, I've been on the side of the truck for a long time. So just make a character, make it timeless.
And you came back with just, it's absolutely remarkable. And

Speaker 3 I like A1 for a reason. People, I keep hearing now that even in the 1930s, when I'm watching an old movie, like, yeah, that's A1.
That's quality. That's top notch.

Speaker 3 It means first in class for people that that's what it means. But now I'm like, you got to have what you do in the name and you got to make it something.

Speaker 3 I make it stand out and something you can tell a story about. Yeah.
Because you really got to think about what's the story? What does it stand for? What are the quarterbacks?

Speaker 3 And then, you know, I got a page here marked.

Speaker 3 You've done all these wall graphics.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 3 And they look really good. Lots of wall graphics work on it for us.
And the brand should be all-encompassing. It should be the yard signs, the business cards, the uniforms.
We get really dirty.

Speaker 3 So you redid our logo so that the age a certain way and it's not too far away, the spacing. But these black shirts, they look professional.
and they never get dirty. In the dryer, they don't fade.

Speaker 3 So that's why they work.

Speaker 3 But ultimately, you want your core value, your mission, your vision, and the colors to be on every billboard, every yard sign, the website, the business card, the graphics you're putting up at home shows.

Speaker 3 And very rarely do I see everyone nail every piece of this.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And in your case, too, when we originally spoke, your original brand colors were black.
and red and white really were your three primary brand colors.

Speaker 1 And I said, those are very aggressive colors. Those are very masculine colors.
And let's soften this approach. So we went with

Speaker 1 red because we knew red had value in your prior branding. So I didn't want to throw that away.
And I said, we'll keep the red, but let's introduce brown and let's introduce ivory.

Speaker 1 And let's soften this whole look

Speaker 1 and make it warmer. And that was really the whole goal of that exercise was to make the brand warmer because I wanted it to appeal to women.

Speaker 1 I wanted it to look very premium also because those are more premium based colors.

Speaker 1 So that aspect of it too, just looking at your brand colors and picking colors also that are more in the spectrum that tend to be more favored by women.

Speaker 3 The fact is I hate regular cloth. The stretches and it breathes nice.
And that's one of the major things that you want to make sure every single thing you're thinking about.

Speaker 3 Dan just called me last week and he said, hey, man, we need to get you a pair of A1 shoes. And I'm the type of guy that I'll have every single guy wearing those shoes.

Speaker 3 So I just want to make sure that they're safe and they're not, you know, slip resistant and they're going to last well for my guys. So I'll test them out for a while.

Speaker 1 But we

Speaker 1 look at that.

Speaker 3 Is that the kick charge booster?

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 3 That's cool, man. So he just pulled up for those of you listening.
He's got a pair of kick charge shoes on. And, you know, A1 is part of my life now, and it always will be.

Speaker 3 No matter what, it's going to be a legacy business. I'm going to do a lot more things.

Speaker 3 I've kind of been telling Dan, I want you to start thinking about some other industries because there comes a point in my life, Dan, where we're moving so fast, it's great.

Speaker 3 But I still feel like if I make a decision, it takes a month.

Speaker 3 And then I'm twiddling my thumbs and waiting for the team to catch up because I feel like sometimes The team is everything and we're building a massive team and this is going to be a multi-billion dollar company in revenue and the 20% bottom line.

Speaker 3 Revenue is for vanity, profits for sanity. But ultimately, I just see there's a lot of gaps out there.

Speaker 3 We're headed into a market right now that's leaving a lot of people uncertain, which is amazing because they're all quivering.

Speaker 3 And most of the companies that aren't listening right now, because most of the companies listening are very familiar with my thought process, but a lot of these companies are going to cut their marketing first.

Speaker 3 They're going to never invest in their brand. The economy goes bad.
They're going to keep all those shitty people people working for them.

Speaker 3 A lot of them are great, but they still are going to keep that guy that shows up with a bad attitude and he cusses and he rolls his eyes at the meeting rather than getting rid of the trash and double downing on marketing.

Speaker 3 What are your thoughts going into an uncertain market? Let's just call it that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, I just look at that as opportunity.

Speaker 1 So again, the more guys sitting on the sidelines, the more guys being complacent in their marketing just leaves the market open for opportunity for those that do embrace the power of branding.

Speaker 1 So we're certainly booked out for a while, and I don't see a lot of people suddenly calling us up and asking us to cancel the scheduled appointments with us.

Speaker 1 So I know those people really get it, but there are a lot of people that will become scared and they'll, they'll start really cutting back on this when they should be kind of doubling down on this investment.

Speaker 1 Because if there's so many people that aren't, that makes it so much easier for you to be actually disruptive.

Speaker 1 So I think it's going to be a great time over the next several years, even if the the market's doing bad.

Speaker 1 You could see how much money continues to flow into private equity and how much money continues to flow into this industry. And I think it actually is going to accelerate even further because

Speaker 1 people can't just be putting money into the market anymore because it's not generating returns. So where can they put money where the returns have been relatively consistent, even through COVID?

Speaker 1 And certainly the home service sector is one that I think you'll continue to see a lot of money coming into private equity. At least that's my opinion.

Speaker 3 It's going to be interesting. There's four trillion dollars on the sidelines and i got to tell you you invested in a house right on the beach right

Speaker 1 yeah

Speaker 3 i'm looking at buying some stuff but i got to tell you

Speaker 3 as i'm looking at real estate i'm definitely not running in because of the uncertainty because if interest rates continue to go up it becomes what's called a buyer's market yeah about a decade now it's been a seller's market it's better for a seller than a buyer's what that means a seller can make more money by selling when it becomes a buyer's market that means i can negotiate more.

Speaker 3 I can start offering lower amounts. And I'm not the only one.

Speaker 3 I know a lot of people, a lot of buddies of mine, a lot of friends that are girls and buddies that are just like, I'm not buying in the next six months because I want to see what's going on.

Speaker 3 And it's scary for new construction. That's what I tell people.
Don't have a big amount of new construction. A lot of people say, oh, these customers are my customers for life.

Speaker 3 you don't understand they're always going to need to build and i'm like yeah but they start going to cheaper models and they start paying a a little bit later. They start tightening up.

Speaker 1 One guy goes out of business, you get burned.

Speaker 3 If you had that, that was some of the money you were planning on making payroll with. You know, Dan, I want to pivot a little bit here towards the end.
You posted a picture the other day.

Speaker 3 You were all swallow up at the gym. You started going three to four days a week.
And you said, listen, I've missed this. You just retooled yourself.

Speaker 3 You know, I know you went through some health issues that we don't need to go into, but you basically had a second chance.

Speaker 3 And you decided to make the most out of it. I want to hear a little bit as a business owner, what has it done for you clarity-wise? What has it done for you emotionally?

Speaker 3 What has it done for you just for your family?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, it's not a huge deal, but I mean, I had a double bypass surgery about 18 months ago, and I just got really lucky that I was able to get myself fixed up.

Speaker 1 And so, you know, you kind of go through a bit during that process of really trying to figure out, first of all, like, what do you want to do the rest of your And then you recognize the fact that you've been gifted with this opportunity to actually be alive.

Speaker 1 So I got really lucky, you know, was a second doctor, like a second opinion that found what was wrong with me. And then I had surgery a couple of weeks after that.

Speaker 1 And so I kind of, first off, look at every day as being very grateful that I'm still here. Okay.

Speaker 1 So you kind of get into a rut and you forget just being grateful, grateful for your health, grateful for your family, grateful for your team.

Speaker 1 And while I was out, I mean, listen, double bypass surgery or any bypass surgery, it's the real deal. It's not fun, right? And so I couldn't work for probably about four weeks.

Speaker 1 I mean, I was messed up. Like, I really thought like after the surgery, I was like, I'll be back in a week.
And man, like, it's the real deal. But I had to rely on my team.
I had to trust them.

Speaker 1 And I think the years leading up to it, I didn't give them enough trust. I didn't let them run things as much.
And I was involved in things that I shouldn't have been involved in.

Speaker 1 And then I basically came to see how well this place can run without me. And we've had our most successful 18 months since then, right? Because I don't run day to day anymore.

Speaker 1 I have someone on the team that does that. And I've let people take on more responsibility.
And I've stayed more focused on the stuff that I love, which is working on brands.

Speaker 1 But I don't get involved in payroll or HR or stuff like that. Like I stay focused on what I really love.

Speaker 1 And so I look at that event as the best thing that ever happened to me because it just gave me a new appreciation for what I have and what I've been blessed with.

Speaker 1 You know, listen, tomorrow is promised to no one.

Speaker 1 So while I respect the idea of not doing anything stupid financially as far as where you may spend resources, I also recognize the fact that there's no Brinks truck that's following the hearse to the funeral home with a bunch of cash in the gasket, right?

Speaker 1 So yeah, I mean, I decided to live a little bit more for today because I just, I don't know what tomorrow looks like.

Speaker 1 So if that's one lesson that people can get out of that is just be very grateful for being here today. Be grateful for your team and allow your team to take ownership of things.
They'll surprise you.

Speaker 1 I shouldn't have been surprised, but I've been just so amazed to see how well the team here has really taken the ball and run with it. And it's been the best experience for me.

Speaker 3 You know, I remember you were there and I was on the phone with Gina all the time and you're like, dude, we set a record month when I was getting my surgery. Like she collected too.

Speaker 3 And like, it's amazing. You're absolutely right.
The team is incredible. They do amazing things.

Speaker 3 And Steve Jobs on his literally some of the last things he talked about is he goes, you're going to learn to take your food as medicine or you'll be taking medicine for food.

Speaker 3 And I think every aspect, not just eating, not just cigarettes, not just alcohol, but the working out, the cardio. You do a lot of biking and it makes you feel better too.

Speaker 3 And all of a sudden, you go through and there's a little bit of a high that gets you through the day. And it doesn't need to be eight cups of coffee.

Speaker 3 I'll tell you, I'd be very careful on how much caffeine you're taking in a day. If that's what you rely on, if you need five-hour energy, seven times a day.

Speaker 1 I don't take any caffeine.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 3 it's great. You're looking good, man.

Speaker 3 I wanted to point out, too, is a lot of times these guys, some of the companies that have come to me, they're like, what do you see me doing if we were to partner up?

Speaker 3 Well, I say, first of all, let's make you a millionaire. Secondly, just write down your dream job.
You just said earlier, you said, look, I like to build brands. And I come in here.

Speaker 3 I think you show up because you enjoy your work. You don't have to be there.
And I think that if I could help other companies, especially in garage doors,

Speaker 3 say, you don't have to have this anchor on you anymore. You get to go on real vacations.

Speaker 3 Take as much PTO time as you want. Do the things you love again.

Speaker 3 It's just to me, there's all these, like, look, I got a text message today. And they're like, well, where do you see me? I want to stay in the business for another decade.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Well, where do you see yourself? What's a dream job? What's the Dan Antonelli kick charge job, basically, is what I'm asking.

Speaker 3 And if it's everything you want to need and love, and you could build your employees that could be homeowners, make more money, and your people could have new trucks and real PTO,

Speaker 3 then why don't we make this a win for everybody? Which is my new book called Elevate. I built a company in which everybody wins.

Speaker 3 And I'll tell you what, Deion, this book, what was the coolest thing for you? It's an amazing book. Branded, not blended, Kickcharge, your home service brand.

Speaker 3 And by the way, Kickcharge has a TM by it. It stands for Tom Mellow or Trademark.
And then the four is by Kent Gooderich. So what was your favorite thing about writing this?

Speaker 1 I think the fact that I was able to interview so many owners during the process and just learn how the work that we had done for them had changed their lives. I mean, we know that.

Speaker 1 We hear that on a daily basis.

Speaker 1 But basically to be able to put that in the book and to speak to them and to recognize And we all live that as a core value here is the fact that we design as if lives were at stake. Okay.

Speaker 1 And we recognize that our work has the ability to change people's lives. And I can't think of a better job to have than to be able to do that on a daily basis.

Speaker 1 So getting those people to participate in the book, and they were all so happy to share their stories, I thought it made the book so much more authentic because it wasn't just me talking about like, hey, you should rebrand or you should invest in branding because it's going to be great.

Speaker 1 No, it was like 25 home service owners talking about what it has meant to them and what it has done to their business and so that was really the best part of writing that book for me was collecting those stories like even the story i got to share for you i mean i'm so proud that we were able to work with you to build the brand for a1 i mean it's one of our probably most successful brands that we've had the opportunity to work for look at how many lives were affected by what we did together.

Speaker 1 And that's,

Speaker 3 that's, you got the sign out front.

Speaker 3 I mean, look, yeah, I got you guys doing, don't take this the wrong way, but like, I got busy, you got busy, and I just had my own guys put together the wall graphics.

Speaker 3 And I got all these notes to send to Gina because I want to get the timeline redone. And we came up with some decent stuff.
I mean, but it doesn't scream kick charge on it. And that's an issue.

Speaker 3 And I don't care if it says kick charge on it. I wanted to scream quality.
And that's what kick charge stands for.

Speaker 3 What's interesting is you got a couple of cool pages on here with rois you've got in six months gi uh 108 ideal temp 112 in one year

Speaker 3 hansen heating and air six years after 1133 you've got c town 137 increased revenue in two years 53 in quality 619 in in uh looks like gi plumbing and then you got this other page here percent of consumers that did not have one company in mind when searching appliance repair 80 80 carpet 74 decks and patios 83 electrical 90 home remodel 68 house cleaning 90 hvac repair 84 lawn care 80.

Speaker 3 i mean this is just astronomical roofing 80

Speaker 3 if you guys don't get this book i mean this is giving me ideas what businesses i want to go into what what niches

Speaker 3 i mean this book weighs it weighs a lot I mean, it's a heavy-duty book. It's got all the glossy pages in it.
It's really done well, Dan. You really

Speaker 3 did yourself here. I really think it's excellent.
You got stories in here. You got how to pick the right color palettes.
You got when to pick the animal versus the brothers versus this.

Speaker 3 You've got how to pull it all in on the internet side of marketing as well. I think it's worth buying a few copies and getting some for some friends you care about.

Speaker 3 You know, Adam's coaching his younger cousin.

Speaker 3 And man, I had him talk to you. Remember, Joel?

Speaker 3 And Joel's just got done spending $1,500 on a brand, and $1,500 is a lot to him.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, listen, you're not going to like this, dude.

Speaker 3 I'm going to give him one of these books. I just saw Billy Klein this weekend.
I gave him one, but there's a lot of young people out there.

Speaker 3 I got a buddy of mine in Las Vegas that's a UFC fighter. And I'm going to send him the book because he's got a little maid service.

Speaker 3 The least you should do is pick up five of these and give them to five people you know. You got somebody at church.
You got someone out there that needs this. What does this sell for?

Speaker 3 It's about 29.95.

Speaker 1 Is that yeah, it's it's like 29.95 through my site, or it's 35 through Amazon. And I think we have a special for you, Tommy, and anyone that's listening.

Speaker 1 There's a link that we're going to post that'll be 25, so it'll be less than anywhere else actually.

Speaker 1 And that'll actually come through me. You'll get my amazing autograph on that book, too.
It'll be worth hundreds.

Speaker 3 It will be. And you know, the deal is with Dan,

Speaker 3 I'll tell you, he cares. And this book, it explains it all.
And Ken's got a really cool story in the beginning of how that brand kind of came to be true.

Speaker 3 Really, the first one that told me about you was L Levy. Ken backed it up, but L Levy was like, his tip for me was, Tommy, I learned this trick a long time ago.

Speaker 3 I'm not sure from who, but he takes a picture of it black and white. He looks without any colors and says,

Speaker 3 Does what you do stand out?

Speaker 3 And mine looked like complete crap.

Speaker 3 And I didn't know what we did by the black and white picture i you kind of tell it's a garage color it's just a really bad rap who am i kidding it was the shittiest thing of mankind but i took pride because i'm like well everybody says they see it it's not the best part

Speaker 1 yeah it's seeing it and recognizing what the promise is that's where most people don't put those two things together you could make your trucks purple and pink and everyone would say they see it right wouldn't they they would say i see your trucks all the time but what does it say about the expected deliverable is the part that most owners don't connect those dots together.

Speaker 1 They don't, they don't link those two thoughts together.

Speaker 3 I mean, I don't know how Dan sleeps. Yesterday he took apart my yard sign again and had some changes to it.
And it's little things, the little subtleties, the spacing, the bigger title at the top.

Speaker 3 And, you know, it's important that you do these things right. And I recommend anybody that hasn't branded their building, when you come to vertical track, you'll see what Dan's capable of.

Speaker 3 It's so powerful what you guys are going to see in our old building because we really just decided to put the money in to make it that bring that the new training center feel to the old building last thing here is usually we finish up first of all is there any other books you built building a small business brand you got the bland and not branded you got a couple early books that i know i have on my shelf i couldn't find them but Any books that stand out to you that you've read recently that really made a big impact on your life?

Speaker 3 Maybe not even recent books?

Speaker 1 i mean i really like the book building a story brand i think that that's a really good book for people as well obviously it's related to donald miller right miller so i think that that's a really good book for people to check out i mean i love traction as well traction is probably one of my favorite books as far as management is concerned yeah

Speaker 3 cool well listen we talked about a lot of stuff You talked about the book quite a bit. Any final thoughts, anything you wanted to touch on that we didn't really touch base on?

Speaker 1 I mean, we covered so much, probably the one area we didn't talk a lot about is naming.

Speaker 1 So I think the book does a great job to talk about naming and the sort of the obstacles that a lot of companies work against with poor naming. So we do a lot of naming as well here.

Speaker 1 We'll probably name 40 or 50 home service companies this year. So naming is probably one of the biggest chapters in the whole book.

Speaker 1 So I think people will find a lot of really good information about naming and does their name work? Does their name not work?

Speaker 1 What are some of the tips to use to creating your own name if you were starting from scratch?

Speaker 1 So I think that that aspect of it will provide a really good roadmap for people to follow, especially if you're going to be in a startup.

Speaker 1 Like you could read this and really learn about how to do it right from day one.

Speaker 1 I think it would be a really good thing for you to, you know, really research and learn more before you start putting money into any branding.

Speaker 3 Last thing I'll say is there's still 40 people on here. There was about 55, 60 at the highlight.

Speaker 3 This is an investment.

Speaker 3 And listen, at the end of the day, I'm not telling you you got to do it. I had a mistake happen, Dan.
I'll tell you. I had a guy listening to my podcast that's talking all about you.

Speaker 3 And he went out and spent the full-blown package with you. And I said, okay, we got to build the website and do some SEO and get your GMB.
And he goes, Tommy, I don't have any money left.

Speaker 3 He goes, I wrapped the two vehicles I had. And I said, okay,

Speaker 3 I don't got a website yet. Like, okay.
So you spent everything you had. And he goes, well, you said how important it was to brand.
I said, that's the most important thing.

Speaker 3 But there's one more thing is make sure you got money in the bank or have a line of credit. I didn't realize I needed to go out and say that.

Speaker 1 So I would say this.

Speaker 3 I know Dan's working on some creative financing ways, even to get the wraps done, to get these stuff done.

Speaker 3 But also, if you're young and you got 10 grand in the bank account from your mom or you saved up mowing lawns or whatever it was, you know, talk to Dan.

Speaker 3 But Dan's not going to just tell you this is what you need to do. You need to make sure it's your right time to do this.
If you got zero money, I just want to put quotes out there.

Speaker 3 Just understand this is something that needs to be done with every business. And it will always be never a good time.
I promise there's never a good time. And Dan.
deals with this every day.

Speaker 3 It's just not a good time right now. I need to call you back.
I need to do this. Smart people are sprinting towards kick charge.
They're literally going in headfirst, going, I have to have this.

Speaker 3 And they're like, Dan's like, I can't get you in right away. Because the fact is, Dan can't hire enough quality people to do the kind of job he wants done.
Right, Dan?

Speaker 3 I mean, it's impossible to just go out and find 10 artists that'll deliver the quality you want.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that certainly is our biggest challenge. We're trying to hire as many people as we can, but there is a certain standard that the brand represents.

Speaker 1 And I'm not willing to basically cut corners or do things half-assed. That's just not in our, in our DNA.
So very strategically, we find people, we seek people out.

Speaker 1 And we have, you know, five full-time brand developers now, plus myself. So we are doing about five per week.
And that's literally the only thing these guys work on.

Speaker 1 They don't work on anything else, but just branding. We have another whole team that does, you know, like your wall wraps and other stuff like that, but literally that's all this entire team does.

Speaker 1 So the other five designers that we have, they'll do brochures and web and all the other things, but it's hard, you know.

Speaker 1 But I also don't, you know, like I said, it's just really important that the quality stays with us.

Speaker 1 I don't want to be the McDonald's of steaks or hamburgers, you know, there's a premium for what we do. And I'm not willing to sacrifice that just to do more guys.

Speaker 1 Like, I just want to maintain that level of of excellence that we're really known for.

Speaker 3 I am emailing you right now because I feel like I need to redo my timeline.

Speaker 3 I just feel like anybody that looks at something in there and they don't see the kick charge quality, I just, I kind of feel bad.

Speaker 3 Most of my day is not going towards vertical track. Brie does an amazing job.
So three weeks out, my brain goes into vertical track mode.

Speaker 3 And that's when I'm like, shit, I need to get this, this, this, do this, this, this, this, this. And then you're like, dude, can you give me like some more time?

Speaker 3 And you know, this is kind of like my life. I, it's last-minute stuff, but ultimately, you guys come through for me every time.

Speaker 3 And I, I owe you more gratitude than I could ever imagine even putting into words. You've changed my life.
You've changed the people that I've introduced you's life.

Speaker 3 And I think the people that are listening to this podcast says you're going to change their life. So appreciate who you are.

Speaker 3 Thank you for just everything you do to the industry and giving back the home service because it means a lot to me. If you guys don't have branded, not blended, you're a fool.

Speaker 3 You need to go online and order right now. Who cares about the $5 savings? That's going to be posted on the site.
We'll make sure we add that. But five bucks, get your hands on it today.

Speaker 3 Give one to a loved one. And I promise you, you'll be thankful for it.
Dan, thank you so much for doing this today.

Speaker 1 Tommy, thanks for everything, brother. So grateful for everything you've done for me and so proud of what we've done together.
So I can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks, bro.

Speaker 3 It's going to be awesome can't wait man you take it easy thanks everybody for watching see you later

Speaker 5 hey guys i just wanted to thank you real quick for listening to the podcast from the bottom of my heart means a lot to me and i hope you're getting as much as i am out of this podcast our goal is to enrich your lives and enrich your businesses and your internal customers which is your staff and if you get a chance please please please subscribe you're going to find out all the new podcasts you're going to be be able to ask me questions to ask the next guest coming on and and do me a quick favor leave a quick review it really helps us out when you like the podcast and you leave a review make it four or five sentences tell us how we're doing and i just wanted to mention real quick we started a membership it's homeservicemillionaire.com forward slash club you get a ton of inside look at what we're going to do to become a billion dollar company and uh we're just we're telling everybody our secrets basically and people say why do you give your secrets away all the time and I'm like, you know, the hardest part about giving away my secrets is actually trying to get people to do them.

Speaker 5 So we also create a lot of accountability within this program. So check it out.
It's homeservicemillionaire.com forward slash club. It's cheap.
It's a monthly payment.

Speaker 5 I'm not making any money on it, to be completely frank with you guys, but I think it will enrich your lives and further. So thank you once again for listening to the podcast.
I really appreciate it.