Oftentimes, we find it difficult to express our business’s message and vision in our marketing, and sometimes we wonder how to stand out from the crowd when advertising. On this episode of the Service Business Mastery Podcast, we talk with Cassie Pound of Quality Heating, Cooling & Plumbing about how she thinks outside of the box when it comes to her billboard marketing strategy. Cassie is in an area where there are several large companies, but she was still able to stand out while expressing their mission to serve the community!
We talk branding, re-branding, and the amazing community of women in the trades. Cassie shares about those who have supported her as she entered the business ownership part of the HVAC & Plumbing industry, and we also speak about the awesome support that the Women in HVACr have provided to the ladies who are entering into the skilled trades.
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HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical Home Service Brands That Speak To Your Audience with Cassie Pound
Branding Messages For Home Service Businesses
Good morning and welcome back to the Service Business Mastery Podcast. I am one half of the dynamic duo and sitting next to me virtually is Tersh, who is the founder, and the reason a lot of people have joined the podcast space. Today we’re going to be talking about a topic that’s it’s a little bit of a sub-topic in the branding space because we talk about branding a lot, branding your business, your trucks, these types of things. But how do we give that brand a voice and give it life so that way through social media, through all of your other marketing efforts, that brand has something to say to your customers, and that messaging is consistent? So today we have with us Cassie from quality heating, cooling, and plumbing in the Oklahoma area, and she’s become quite a popular figure for women in HVAC and just in HVAC in general. She is going to be speaking at Pantheon, which I believe is next week, next month. I’m sorry, next month. I think it’s in April. Is that right? So I know Tersh branding and stuff like this. This is obviously something you put a lot of effort into with your trucks and wraps in your business. Do you have any thoughts on the topic at all?
Yeah. One of the things that really stuck with me and I can’t remember who told me this, so I don’t know who to attribute this quote to, but basically it. At the point where you are just sick and tired of seeing and hearing about your brand, that’s when the general public and the masses are just starting to recognize it. And so if you don’t wear your brand every day if you’re not branding like every time you turn around. Do you really love your brand? Like, do you really? Is it really your brand or is it just the next advertisement that you’re going to wear the next?
I think if you don’t have a tattoo of your brand somewhere on your body, you’re doing it wrong.
All right, so let’s see yours.
You can’t see my Oh, that’s hilarious.
Yeah. So I’m excited and I love Cassie’s done and their whole team. And it’s really it’s awesome. And you and I, we probably see it more than a lot of people. But to see Cassie and other women in the trades and see what they’re doing is massive, like both of our spouses. Brittany and Julie, are really active in our business. And I mean, we both they’re both working right now so that we can make the podcast happen. And so we’re super thankful, thankful to them for doing that and being willing to be a part of the trade. I took mine out of the medical field and so she was a nurse and was really good and she’s still good at it. She’s still a nurse in the Air National Guard. But I took her out of that field and brought her into the trades, and she hasn’t stopped. She doesn’t look back. And it’s been a really cool experience. And a huge shout-out yesterday was International Women’s Day.
Yeah, it’s Women’s Day, which I mean, honestly, and this is why we’re we’re talking about this and we’re going to have another episode with somebody else here in a little while about something a little different. But women bring such a unique, unique vision to these things that men, we just don’t see. We’ve been doing certain things a certain way for so long. A lot of times I think it’s time for men to kind of step aside, let some women shine through because they have some amazing ideas. And that’s what we’ll be talking about here shortly. Welcome to the show Cassie.
You were talking about wearing your brand daily, and I’m talking about my brand and I’m not. I do wear my brand a lot, so I was like, Where’s my nametag?
I thought you were going to whip out a like a sleeve tattoo or something of the quality heating brand.
It’s crazy with the light, so I’m going to have to ditch it or I’ll be.
So how are you today?
I’m good. How are you? Good.
So share with us a little bit about your background. For those who have never heard of you. Never heard your brand, never seen your brand. Share that experience that you just came from getting into the trades to where you are now.
And so I’ve been in the industry since about two thousand fourteen. My everyone’s like, you know, the question is how did you get here? What brought you to the trades? The obvious answer is I married that fine, man. I married him in twenty thirteen and he was in had been in the industry for about. At that point, about 20 years. I was a manager for Best Buy at that point and had been at Best Buy for like eight years and had no intentions of doing anything else. We got married and I decided that retail life was a little more demanding for a now married person, so I started doing some different things. And so my background always stays true to HR and sales, people management. And so in 2014, I came on with Oscar right as the business came out of the gates and have been doing the thing since then. And so we have learned a lot of lessons through those years, a lot of trial and error, a lot of big mistakes, a lot of little mistakes. And so. That’s it, that’s the story there. We as far as our branding goes. We started out with just the basic logo, paid 50 bucks for a logo and you know, and
Do you think that’s all a lot of people start, they start with something, right? You got to start somewhere and have something.
Now, was quality already in existence whenever you married?
Yeah, he had Oscar, had worked for a commercial company for several years and they allowed him to operate a residential business. And so he did that. But then at some point that became him working about 20 hours a day. And so the decision on what he was going to say and so he had been in management and for a bit previously for a while. And just how to make that jump on either stay in that commercial piece or make the jump and do it for himself. And then everyone always says, Well, how long did he do that before you jumped in? When he went full time, I came behind him within about like 30 days because when he was full time, we really, truly had already been full time. Yeah, he was just doing juggling two operations.
So at what point did you rebrand? Like, what was yours? Was there somebody saying, Hey, look this your first brand was good to get you started, but you really need to go with a better-looking design or something like that?
It’s a funny story, actually, because we have this logo and I almost being in it. We almost ban it. So I don’t I don’t even know if I have anything that could show you. But it was decent and we were partial. It had served this for us. And so whenever we started working with Dan and he, Dan Dan will hurt your feelings.
And that’s Dan Antonelli with Kick Charge.
I’ve never seen Dan do that when he sees some of these trucks out there
And he’s just like, Okay, so I know you like it, but we don’t know. And so, no, he’s not too harsh, but we were so partial to the brand, to what we had, and I kept saying, Well, we have a brand, we have a brand, and he’s like, No, you have a logo, okay? And so my team, thought we were crazy. I remember we didn’t really talk to anyone about that process. We were just going to change the logo. And then I introduced it in the team meeting and they’re all like, Why are you doing this, you know, like this? And I was so I thought, panic, I’m like, We can’t do it. We’ve just wasted this money. We can’t do it because the team is going to be bought into it. And then within about 30 days, they were all like, I can’t believe we didn’t do that sooner.
So tell me, tell me this because we did something similar. When we rebranded, we went through a similar experience. What did you do with all of the old old branded stuff that you just trash? Or did you keep using it until it just didn’t replenish it or it wasn’t?
So when we made the flip from the old logo to the new logo, everything went immediately. So in my personal life, everything left. Yeah, now I have two shirts in like a jacket for like.
Yeah. Yeah.
They’re sitting in the back part of the closet, they’re still there, but they’re
They’re not going to be using any like company like T-shirts, anything that we had. We put them in a big box and the team could grab them for like mowing shirts and undershirts. But they still weren’t allowed to wear them even as an undershirt to work. Because you know how often we’ll take off your button down for a little bit because it’s hot or you sweat through it or whatever, and I didn’t want that to be the wrong logo. And so every once in a while and someone who’s been here for a while, we’ll pop in with an old jacket and I’m like, I will sew a patch on top of that. So it had to be for me. It had to be a hard, a hard and fast rule, a switch and no turning back.
Cassie, can I ask you so what, like what size were you guys when you guys decided to do this?
And when we changed, we did like
The number of employees or revenue, whatever you want to share.
Seven or eight employees, maybe Kelly is listening in. Her desk is right there, so I keep waiting for her to be like, you know, when we were running, we were about three million in revenue and at like seven.
Do you feel like that was a good time to do that? Or like in reality, should you have tried doing that at day one? Because I mean, we all know that getting a real brand that’s going to last through the ages is not a 50 dollar investment. So if you were just starting out your business, do you think it would be a good justification to go ahead and make that investment at that point? Or do you think that you need to? I mean, are you OK with being a couple of million dollars or even a million dollars before you
Try to rebrand, you know, like on this side of it? Yeah, I wish we would have done it from day one. But the truth is, is the guts to do it. Because whenever you’re starting a new business, you’re betting everything. And so you, you’re already thinking about everything else and you’re just like, How could I possibly put that much money or any money into that when I don’t even know what’s going to happen tomorrow? And I think plenty of people who have. Very basic. Respectfully, you do great. Yeah. And at that point, you know, looking back on things that I. I would have loved to have done it differently, but I think doing it at the time that we did was the right time anyways.
Cool. Yeah, I often have questions about that because I have tons of friends who have used Dan and kick charge to do their brands. And it’s a full range of the gamut. Like, I have some friends who like they didn’t have an employee yet, and they used them to create a brand and a really lasting brand and impression. And then I have other friends who were at the seven, 10 million range and they used them. And then I mean, there are others with massive, massive companies and they’re rebranding so often. Any time I see anybody that’s gone through a rebrand, I want to. I always want to ask that like, do you regret not doing it sooner? And hindsight’s 20 20. Like we, we all are like, Oh yeah, I wish I would have done this a long time ago. But I mean, if it if you did it a long time ago and then it failed, would it? You know what, Josh is that your dog barking did that dog?
Yeah, I try to mute myself. My sister-in-law is coming over to pick up Britney right now. So sorry, my boxer pit bull. Or they’re trying to get on the podcast
Just like a real person and you’re not in this studio. And right? Yeah.
It’s not fancy It’s. It’s not fancy at all. I’m in the basement.
I love it. Casey, tell us, Casey. And I said this Like, Well, Yesterday…I swore I was going to be like, I’m not even going to say her name because it’s going to come out Casey. And because Josh corrects me every time I say it, Cassie, I’m sorry. Whenever you have something really awesome with billboards, can you kind of share what that is and what made you think of this? Like, how did you? Because that’s not a normal kind of. Advertising, I guess, is,
You know, so for us, I recognize that we really weren’t in that billboard space and I wanted to be. So in the day-to-day business, I handle all of the marketing. And so I bounce ideas off of Oscar and the rest of the team. But I handle that. That’s like my day-to-day gig. And so I really wanted to put us out there for the onto billboards. But if you’re from the Oklahoma area, there was a company that’s prominently on billboards number one, and so I wasn’t sure if my one or two billboards could compete and what that was going to look like. And then, you know? Truly, most senior companies, plumbing companies, It’s like insert plumbing company name here through dudes on the Billboard, right? Yeah. And respectfully, like, I have some very good friends that are the two dudes on the billboards and also nationally, right? Like, I love you guys and I get it and it works, but I didn’t want to be just me an Oscar on the billboard. We’ve done that. And, you know, then I’m like, Man, I did that once, and then I changed hair colors and it was like, Who is that on the bill? I still got into it, you know? And so I wanted to just really think about how we could deliver who we are truly on a billboard that someone’s going to see and knowing that someone’s going to see it for, like, what, five seconds and then roll past it and they might see it a couple of times a week. But what story am I telling them? And so I really started just trying to think about who we are as a person or as a company, I’m sorry in our biggest.
Our number one core value is to serve people. We’ve always done that and we have always, you know, I think the community knows that we donate to all the sports, to the local school, to the food bank, and they know we do that. And we and we don’t talk about it. I’m not here for like, wow or whatever that, you know, the recognition for that we just laid from our heart. But one thing I felt like maybe we were missing when it came to. It became to our mission of serving people was just what else that meant besides money, you know, and we really want to get down to the nitty, to down to everything with our team and so into our with our group and so in our community. So for me, it was let’s get to get on a billboard and let’s celebrate the people in our area. And so we’re throwing we’re putting these people on the billboard. We have an email address where you can submit your picture and your celebrations. So like this week, there are three different celebrations. They’re all birthdays. And so it’s really cool that we’re going up around town and then we post them so they know they changed over today, actually. And so we post them and then we put the locations of the billboards because they kind of change throughout the month. And then these people are going to the billboard and taking a picture with it and putting it on social media and tagging their friends. And then that’s getting shared.
You can’t pay for that kind of advertising.
You know, it was really it grew just evolved. And it just evolved in a way that I didn’t expect it to the heart of it was, we love this community. Period. That was the heart of it. Let’s you know, these kids and really everybody, we’ve celebrated a wedding on this billboard already. We’ve celebrated bachelor’s degrees. But then these kids too, when they get on, they’re eight or 10 16. They’re so excited. They’re on a billboard. You know, I was a billboard and so.
Cassie, would you mind if I shared my other screen here and showed the kind of what that looks like because I remember when You’ve when I first saw you come out with this idea, I’m like, This is freaking brilliant. Like because we used to do yard sign contests and have like pictures like a happy customer next year, and that got some good traction. But this is like a whole nother level. I just want people. So if you’re listening to this, I would. I would definitely try to go to the Facebook group for quality heating, cooling, and plumbing. It’s so simple like the design is so simple. There’s no like, Hey, buy stuff from us, call us for this tune-up. It is literally celebrating their customers and people in the local market. We’re. I mean, whoo hoo hoo from Emmett’s family doesn’t want to share this with everybody they know because it’s cute, right? I just love the idea of how simple it is. And the billboard looks great. I mean, the brand really pops on there.
I have to tell you, I had submitted it and then I told Dan and then Dan’s like, No, so you can’t help me redesign it. I love him, and I love that. I love my relationship with Dan because he knows I’m not going to take him personally and we make some changes. But yeah, so he helped us with that design on the billboard and then we throw those up there. Those are just like the proofs that I get. So we put out three a week and then we put the proof out onto social so it can be shared. And then all of the comments would be It’s visible to see, like where the billboard location is now.
These are all digital, correct?
Yes. Ok. Yeah, because they’re saying. They change every Tuesday, every once in a while, every once in a while, we will leave one up a little bit longer for a longer celebration or something.
Gotcha. That’s cool. And that’s really cool. Now, whenever you started that up and you started the celebration and everything. What? What? Like, explain that process, like how did that flow like? My thought is like, someone would be like, no, I don’t want to be up there or like, did you ask for them? Obviously, like, probably somebody local. Kind of share that story. Like because, yeah, supporting that whole process out and then getting the email address set up for it and all that stuff.
So I knew what I wanted it to look like, but I knew I. It was going to take a minute for people to understand what I was doing. And so I don’t I didn’t want to fake it either and just put fake celebrations up there. And so we sent it out to our team first. And so I sent out to the team and was like, Hey, do any of you have a birthday and anniversary? Your child’s birthday, your wife’s birthday? Anything coming up? And so that was the first round were employees or employees, children’s birthdays, that was the first round. And then at that point, it’s just I haven’t had every once in a while. I won’t have one and we won’t have one in the box in the email box. And so I’ll post on social again and share it a little bit. But most of the time we have on build just from that, that email, and last week we didn’t have. I want to do at least three. And so last week we didn’t have the full three. And so I put in that white box instead of a picture of a person I put, you know, want to be featured and put up the email,
And that was successful with getting more people to come into the box. So you can see that people are actually paying attention to the billboard. Billboards aren’t dead?
Yeah, they are. And I, you know, it’s funny because if you want to talk to me a year or two years or three years ago, you said it didn’t work. Those are hard. There’s no way to track it. Roi is on a billboard. You don’t know. It’s just like truthfully on a truck rap. The rap looks great, and they’re probably going to say that they saw your truck, but which one, you know, right? And so it’s just hard to track a true ROI on it. But ultimately, it’s just fulfilling the brand and we’re staying constant in the area with the brand.
And explain what that means. Though, like explain what? Staying consistent and staying constant with your brands. Is it like just. Putting a logo on a truck in and. That’s it putting out a billboard sign and that gets enough traction. Or is there more to it?
For us, the brand is who we are through and through, through and through, you know, how we eat, sleep and breathe, the words that come out of our mouth, how we portray ourselves in the customer’s home, how we portray ourselves on social media with our ads and our face. All of our advertisements. The message is still the same that no one ultimately is here to provide a solution to the customer and then that we are who we say we are where someone that you can trust. I was actually getting my hair done yesterday. Looks great, nice. I was getting my hair done yesterday and the lady sitting next to me just happened to need a plumber. And I sat there and I listened because I was like, I know my hair lady is going to say something. So I was like, I’m just going to sit here and wait, and I wait. I sat there in the story she’s telling about who she’s been dealing with. I don’t know who it is, but it was multiple companies and it was multiple people who had let the experience let them down. So now that they’re not trusting that any plumbers, they’re not trusting any, and that’s a story of the trades, right? I feel like we so for so long have had to bring the value back in what we’re doing. And so I just sit and listen to her about, you know, they didn’t show up or they didn’t call me back and then they didn’t quote it. And then they told me they would. And then now I don’t trust them at all. And so for us, our brand starts with. At the top of all of that, like we want to be, we want you to trust us, we want you to know that when you call us like our, our logo has that cue and someone asked me the other day, What’s that star mean? And I’m like, Man, that stars like the company. We are providing that five-star experience every time. That’s our goal. And so our brand just wraps into all of that. What’s been the
Like the community feedback? I know you have people reach out like, Hey, I want to put my son or daughter or my wedding or whatever on the billboards. But what has been the feedback like your team has been getting like your technicians out in the field? Do they bring back feedback for you?
Our team when we first, so we use Teams, Microsoft Teams to communicate, and I remember as I had asked for the celebrations, but I didn’t really tell them what it was for. I said, Hey, does anyone have any of these things coming up if you do message me? And so no one knew, and then I just threw the billboards up. So we have Microsoft Teams, and I remember one of the guys pulled over and took a picture of the billboard and was like, Hey, we’re out here, you know? And so and it was it’s just like fulfilling for me to know that they feel proud that they work for this company and that we’re being recognized. We’re recognizing them, we’re recognizing their spouses and their family and their friends. And so and another thing I should mention is to be featured on our billboard. It can be we can feature anyone. We do try to stick with three to four a week. However, the priority our club members take priority. So we have seven. If you’re a club member, you are a priority on being featured on the billboard. And so our guys talk about that now with club membership. Hey, you can be on our billboard, you know, not necessarily. It wasn’t meant to be the benefit, you know, but we do. Those are club members, our, our team, our family too.
Back to your brand. The. You’re explaining like your technician uniform, is it pretty lax or are you very strict about it? Like everywhere that I worked in the past in my business, like if the guys can get away with it, I feel like they were where they were, where they’re they’re random. And so it’s like, All right, guys, I see that you don’t want to wear this hat that I purchased. What style do you like so that I can buy that? And then I now I have a whole row of different random fitted trucker hats like all these other ones. And so like, there’s no excuse anymore for them to wear their random whatever yeti hat and with a fish hook in it now they can wear one of their branded ones. And so is that explain your uniform process. And because that’s part of your brand too, is making sure your guys are consistently in uniform.
Yeah, so there’s the residential team is the field team has black pants, a gray buttoned-up shirt with the logo, their name on it. Super nice quality. We’re super excited about it. It was a new product that was through the company that we use Black Belt, Black Boots, Hat. The option is a hat or no hat, but if it’s a hat, it’s a quality hat and we are very we’re sticklers on that for sure. And so in fact, I don’t we don’t even really let them wear hoodies because hoodies get sloppy and sloppy real quickly. You know, Oklahoma, Oklahoma’s weird with the weather, and this year we just really haven’t had a winter. And so this morning we had an insurance benefits meeting and it’s cold, you know? And so I’m like, Guys, you got like three more days on the hoodies, and the next week we’re ditching them because it’s not uniform. And so when we buy the hoodies, everyone gets a hoodie every year. But the rule is you can’t wear them to work. Therefore, you know, your free time and then it gets cold. And when we start layering because with their uniform, they do have a uniform jacket and a uniform zip hoodie that’s through the uniform company. But, you know, when they start wearing it, I get it. I don’t want you to freeze, but I am very hardcore about a uniform. And I will tell you right now that that came from Best Buy. I, my guys, I’m a product of that. And so I was a manager at Best Buy for eight years. But apparently, I still love Blue Eye and I have a lot of staff that works for this company that previously worked for Best Buy.
And I think about them all the time, especially when I’m trying to mimic things I’m trying to do here. The uniform was a non-negotiable. You could not walk in and work your shift and a different shirt. And so that’s the same thing here. And so it’s a non-negotiable. I will they get so many hats a year for free, but if I walk by you and your hats filthy and you just haven’t bought one because you didn’t want it, I’m going to give you another one for free because I will trade it and I’m going to take it away and I’m going to throw it away because, you know, you sweat through them and then they start looking crazy. And then we have guys, you know, our hats aren’t the exact same. We’ve got some that are the logos on the left, them in the middle, the different colors. So we try to switch it up with the hats, but they’re still quality. Has that? Yeah. So quality and you know. Well, and then going back to the style. Anybody who truly wears a hat on a regular basis knows that the Richardson one 12 is that we don’t buy it if it’s all Richardson 112. I don’t even anymore. In fact, we order like one hundred and fifty at a time because of shipping delays and issues. So we order a hundred and fifty at a time. We normally sell like seventy-five the first day. And then as soon as we get that order, we order another hundred and fifty. So we’re prepared. I’ve made the mistake of buying a cheaper hat or the Richardson 112 replica.
No. Well, yeah, we have we buy Richardson the same thing and the feedback that I and some guys want to see it hats and I was like, You know what, I’ll buy. And I have a slew of these different Richardson styles of hats. But I did find the same thing. Like, I tried getting cheap one time, and then it was. Nobody wore it. They stayed on the shelf forever, and I was like, OK, that just wasted that money.
And then we had a few people that wanted like a flat bill hat.
I think that’s what I have right here.
It is a very thick hat, and they don’t breathe as well. So we stick with the Richardson one for sure.
Makes sense. Somebody asked in the chat When you’re selling them to your guys, how much are you selling them for? Are you just whatever the cost is on the cost?
We don’t mark those up at all. And if we bottle them and honestly, we used to say they’re 15 dollars, well, now they might be 16. Twenty-five because or whatever, you know because the cost is continually changing. But we don’t put anything on top admin fee or it’s just straight the cost of them. And then we give away a ton of hats. So we have we were at a football game one day and I was like, everyone sitting in the section has a quality hat on and I don’t know if any of that. No, I love that. And so that sometimes our team will buy extra hats to pass out to their family. And so we try to keep them right at cost.
Have you ever thought about offering the swag because you, your brand are a great brand? And have you thought about it because we get asked this from time to time? Hey, I want that that hoodie that you have that your guy has or your hat. Where can I buy one of those from? Have you ever considered doing something like that, like on your website or something?
Yeah, we’ve talked about that a few times, and I don’t know. Its part of me is like, do they really, you know? And then so no, we haven’t a lot of times when people call and they’re like, Hey, can I get a hoodie or a hat? Most of the time I’m like, Yeah, come by and get one, you know, because that’s another advertisement, really?
They were willing to wear it.
Then people are going to see that brand and bring it into their family, and people are going to mention or say something about it.
You know, we’re in Oklahoma, and we’ve all seen the older men that have the carousel hat on, you know, and that’s those older men are my family. That’s what I’m saying. And so now I trade them, I’m like, Wear my hat, you know, and so I love to see that I love even, you know, it makes me laugh. Like, Have you guys watched the Tiger King? Yes. Yeah, that’s in Oklahoma, right? The whole time that dude is wearing that swag, I think it’s slightly car dealership and it’s like that guy gave that out away. And it’s like. So I’m sitting here thinking, like, this dealership is still in business. Is he happy or not? Like, is this a good look for him? But ultimately, it was literally like thousands and thousands of hours or hundreds of hours of advertising because the guy for the whole series, you know, so.
Absolutely. So we have skipped over a question. Yeah, I was actually going to ask that. If you don’t have that, if you’re not going off of what Rich said here if you don’t have billboards if you’re not in the Billboard game, what’s your advice to the people that are considering doing it or they’re in a demographic area that billboards just aren’t really a feasible thing, like in New York City, for instance?
You know, honestly, I think that you can celebrate people wherever you want. If you’re going off of my design or my, you know this, I did specifically, you can celebrate them wherever you want. You can celebrate them. Make your yard sign. That would be a cool idea. It would. Maybe not. So you couldn’t change it so frequently. Or like, maybe you’d have to print a picture. Use social media is a really good place. Like, we get a ton of shares on social media. I post as I said, I posted this morning the three new billboards for the week, and those have already been started to get shared of Hey, go see my daughter’s billboard here. These are the locations. And even if you weren’t sharing the bill that there is a billboard just celebrating those people and just showing your commitment back to the community, so you know. Soft subject, private equity’s purchasing a lot, right, and that’s fine. Private equity does not own our company and we are still very much locally owned that is what we will keep delivering that and doing that is how committed we are to our community. The owners of this company still live right here with you. We’re still sitting on the sidelines with you at the football games and we’re still donating money to your children’s youth sports. We know your names and so doing, sharing that commitment with the community and sharing in their celebrations really just drives that back in your commitment to them.
That’s a great point. I have Josh and I talked about this a lot. We’ve even talked about it on the podcast, and I’ve asked different individuals who both have experience being purchased by VC or PE and people who are thinking about doing it now and thinking people who are really smart in that field, like, how do you talk? How do you have the advertisement? How do you share with people whenever your competition all around you is getting purchased by these companies and it’s exactly like you just explained, they’re like, you’re still it’s still family-owned. We’re still locally, we’re still a local business. And Its VC is not new, but it’s new to our space and it new-ish to our space.
This is coming really hard, but yeah, it’s not new.
It’s not but, you know, Oscar has been in the industry for twenty-seven years and he’s like, Cassie, I’ve seen this. Exactly. Yeah. And it was in the commercial industry in 2008, and so and so, and he rode right through it and dealt with it. And so we’re not it’s not new and. I have no disrespect, I probably anyone who is in the social media groups with me, they’re probably like, Girl, you were fired up one day and I was fired up one day. But you got to do what you got to do and you go the route that you feel is best for your business. For us, Oscar and I have always been very focused on building a business that we can be proud of and that we could say that we did. We are the first generation in our families of doing anything like this, of being business owners and being able to say that we did. This is a big, much bigger piece for me than chasing maybe a buyout or anything like that. And I mean that with all respect that I can because I know it’s a tender subject for people who have sold and it is a good spot for them, it’s just not the best for us.
Yeah, I mean, honestly, there are three ways to exit the business. You pass it along to an inheritance, a family member, you die and it just goes away or you sell it. So I mean, some people like that’s their end goal is to build a business up to sell it. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
I don’t know why at all. And I totally understand that you know, people are like, always ask me what my why is? And. The truth is, when you when people say, what is your why not nine percent of the time everyone’s first thought is, well, my husband and my kids like me. But the truth is, my husband and my kids are always going to be my wife. Whether I worked for this company or I work for someone else, I still have to feed them. They’re always my wife and so my our why? Really shifted into being this team and being able to see that I’ve got a man standing right there, I can see this is my office window. We’re providing a career for his family. He was here so excited the other day about being able to file his taxes and see the income that he made last year, how that has changed through the years, and knowing that he knew nothing about being there until he started here. And that’s incredible to think that he’s not in debt. He has no college debt and he’s able to be in a career that’s sustainable and pandemic proof. And whether he’s with us forever or not, he can do this gig forever.
So let me ask you, so this is something I think all business owners struggle with. This is how do you make sure that you reflect on those things so that way, because like the daily grind and all the things, all the things that are trying to grab your attention? Well, you don’t even reflect. And all of a sudden, it’s been seven years and you’ve had a business. You’re like, Holy crap, we got this business and It’s here. Look, look at how far we’ve come. Do you do anything that helps you reflect once in a while on like your team members or anything like that?
Do you know? It’s hard. It is because you don’t want to gloat and you don’t want to think you’re doing better than you are. And then I saw something on Facebook a while back that said, you are praying for something today while you are living a prayer that you had. Previous True. Man, that’s so true. And so to sit there and think like because it’s so easy to be like, February sucks, right? And it’s so easy to be like, Man, I sucked. I’m like, What in the world? February is terrible, you know, and that’s just how it goes. And then I step back and think, Well, wait a second. Mary sucked, but it was not as bad as last February. Holy cow.
Let me explain to you how relevant the statement you just made is. Like all of February, my team has felt the wrath of Tersh. We didn’t. We didn’t convert this job. And then one of my guys is like, Would you put that pressure on me in June or July? Like to like converting everything, every. And I’m like, but our overhead is still the same in February as it is in June and July. And I was looking at our dashboard and I was like. Man, like that we grew eighty-two percent over last February. Like, I need to chill out a little bit about this.
You did, but then but we all you probably grew eighty-two percent overhead over the last two. Yeah, unfortunately, I did. You know, I think the biggest thing for me and being able to like remember where we came from is my friends in the industry who keep me grounded and remind me like the good things, because the bad days, sometimes the bad days outweigh the good in your brain, you know, like in reality, the bad day is nothing. And so I have just really made such a great network of friends through social media that are in this same business. Lastly, Harmful was supposed to be on here with me today, and she’s not but for me and that girl. I can message her day or night and feel, bring me back down to reality or tell You to know and have resources like that. Are like vital for this, because you think like the people in your in which the people on your team, you think they get you, they get it for sure, but they’re not business owners. From the business owner’s perspective, they got right. Not at all. And so they don’t get that burden. And so being able to have that conversation with other business owners is huge.
So, Cassie, if your phone has been blowing up, you might expect a call from Julie after this episode. I didn’t want to skip over her comment. She is probably going to be asking you some questions about this to do it because I know a Tersh actually, Julie and Tersh have a local podcast. I serve on the chamber for their local savannah and stuff like that. So I think this idea has gotten just from the comments and stuff. We’ve seen a ton of really, really useful insight because a lot of times they go on those groups and are like, I need help with marketing. What does that mean, like you literally can go about 50 different directions? What do you want to do? And a lot of times I don’t think people have any idea on what they want to do. They just like someone helps me. Here’s some money.
So you know, what’s funny about that is I used to be that same person, and there’s this one marketing guy that I use. If he’s watching, he’s going to laugh. Honestly, he’s like my like, we have a brother and sister relationship. Probably that we can, literally. Some days he’s probably like, I don’t even need you to be my customer. And there used to be a time that I would be like, I need you to do this for me. I need you to do what. There’s nothing that any of you in the marketing field can do to pull out the vision of my company for me. You cannot get that, you know, on the day today, you can try and you can have the conversations. But unless you’re in this building five days a week, you do not understand. That’s the point of this company and the vision of this company. There’s absolutely no way. And then, you know, respectfully, with you guys in the digital community, you’re serving me, but maybe also 30 other customers, and that’s fine. That’s what you need to do. You cannot keep us all straight. And so what I found was I used to be putting this expectation on my marketing companies of advertising the way I want to be advertised, but not actually telling them how the heck to advertise me. And so I pulled back on that this year and I started making some changes there. But the biggest thing is us is making sure we’re delivering to. We work with you, Josh… Like what we want or what we want to look like on social media. I’m not going to I’m not the graphics people or on our Google, my business, or on our website. I’m not the graphics person, but I can tell you what I want it to look like and then you help me bring that to life. I can tell you what we’re doing today or what we’re doing in the community. But if I’m not telling you that, how in the world are you going to know?
Yeah, absolutely. That communication aspect of it, it’s definitely we could dive into we could everything that you just said just now, we could dive in more rabbit holes about that. But honestly, to respect your time, we need to wrap this up. But I really appreciate you coming on and sharing this and sharing about the way you’ve grown, grown through the trades, and the community relationship building that you’ve done within the group, the Facebook groups, and stuff. So. Josh, you have anything that you want to add there
That we didn’t add too much more to your probably already busy day and week with other people reaching out. I know you’re very giving with your time and I see stuff on social media, so I know you probably give even if you didn’t do any of this, but I think you’ll probably get some more questions after this actually goes live on our podcast stream.
Feel free to message…anybody who’s listening. I do not mind that whatsoever. Sometimes I will be slower. But hey, Dan, I’m so excited to see that. I’m glad you popped in. I’m proud to be a part of Dan’s story, for sure. And so, and I hope he heard me say
We won’t tell him the bad things you said. Don’t worry.
What did that out? All of them made me learn, and Dan’s been such a vital part of me understanding what a brand really is. Truly and so but really, I don’t I don’t mind anyone reaching out, messaging me on Facebook. Add me on Facebook. I’m here to help. Here’s the deal is until I found people like me to help me. I didn’t know what in the world I was doing, and so I’m not here to charge anyone anything. I just want to tell you what I’m doing, and if you can do it, you don’t need my permission to put someone celebrate. Happy Birthday on Facebook. I saw Stacy and Mike in Oklahoma City there. They’re an hour and a half away. I saw they posted one today like they didn’t need my permission to do that. I just had a wild idea and threw it on a billboard and it worked. Now, if you’re in Tulsa, I’m going to probably go.
So, Julie, you’re safe.
That’s for me. I think it’s really just like, again, focus on not that that was billboards aren’t about us, you know, our names on there, but we’re really just trying to meet our customers where they’re at and celebrate them in those moments. As I said, we can not stop weddings like these people were not just their engagement, but like, Hey, we’re engaged and we’re getting married in three days. Wow. To be a part of it. And so awesome. It was a cool experience.
Thank you so much for coming on. And thank you, everybody, that’s watching. This has any questions. Don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us here. And yeah, would that be instead? I hope you have a wonderful and safe day until we talk again next time on Service Business Mastery Podcast. We’ll see you then.
