What does Public Relations have to do with Contracting Everything?

Tersh Blissett: Hello everyone out there in Podcast World. Hope you have a wonderful day. You were listening to or watching the Service Business Mastery Podcast. I’m one of your hosts Tersh Blissett and sitting virtually next to my co-host, Joshua Crouch. And we’re going to talk about PR public relations. Should you have one as a small business, or as a contracting business? HVAC, plumbing, electrical. What’s the purpose in having a PR firm or PR company working with your business? A lot of times people think about PR as bad stuff like my service. My service technician ran over someone, you know. Worst case scenario, obviously.

Josh Crouch: Wow, that’s drastic.

Tersh Blissett: I mean, I have a friend of mine who went through a bad situation with PR, I mean, with public influence and just happening in the world. And so he was he reached out to me and he’s like, you know, [00:01:00] any PR people? Like he was reaching out to everybody he knew. And this happened several years back. But I was thinking to myself at that time, like, why wait until something bad happens to get in touch with a PR firm and develop that relationship? And are there things that can be done pre bad situation like pre somebody falling off of a roof or causing a major accident or you have like a mold and mildew issue in somebody’s house and they went viral on social media sharing it about you? Is there something that you should have, like is there a relationship that you should be building with the PR firm, and if so, why? And that led I mean, honestly, that led me down a rabbit hole of what can they do on the positive side of things, pre negative thing happening. And it’s pretty wild the things that I learned from that. And so I’m excited to talk to Heather about that today.

Josh Crouch: Well, on the digital side of things, I [00:02:00] mean, you guys all see videos and things go viral, right? Having somebody whom you have a relationship with that, let’s say something goes viral, that you don’t want to go viral about your company. You know, maybe one of your employees took a video of your other employee cursing someone out or something, right? Like, oh, I’m going to get this on film. And just having a place where you can go and talk to someone that knows how to navigate the waters of public relations and media, I think is super important. And that way you can hopefully keep what should be a good reputation intact and continue to build your business that way. So the community looks at you like a leader and not just one of those contracting companies they catch in 2020.

Tersh Blissett: Yeah, that too. I didn’t even go down that rabbit hole. But yeah, I’m excited to talk to Heather Ripley with Ripley PR and before I forget, and just so we don’t skip over this or anything throughout the show, she has an awesome book out. It’s called Next Level Now and [00:03:00] we’ll put the link to that in the show notes as well. But yeah, buckle up and be ready to take some notes here.

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Tersh Blissett: Hey, Heather, welcome [00:04:00] to the show. Welcome.

Heather Ripley: Thank you very much for having me.

Tersh Blissett: Absolutely. A little bit about yourself, your background, kind of what you got going on.

Heather Ripley: Yeah, my background is heavy in marketing for about 20 years now. About gosh, 12, 13 years ago, I started my career in-home service, if you will. I started working for Clockwork Home Services in Florida and represented the three franchise brands, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, when our heating and air, and Mr. Sparky, and that’s where I really fell in love with working with contractors learned a lot about their needs just became super passionate about the industry. And then in 2013, I started Ripley PR, an agency that focuses on skilled trades and works with everyone from home service contractors to commercial construction [00:05:00] companies and engineers and architects, and anyone in the building trades. So we do a lot, but a lot of our focus is on the home service industry.

Josh Crouch: So you got hooked into the trades just like everybody. We all kind of fall into the trades. Nobody’s like nobody grows up and be like, I want to be a trades guy or trades gal. And we fall in and it’s like, sucks us in and we can’t ever get out. It’s like a vacuum.

Heather Ripley: Yeah, I was blue-collar. My dad was an automotive mechanic when I was growing up, so I, you know, I’m kind of used to that world.

Josh Crouch: Awesome. So what? So what from. From starting at clockwork in the three franchises here, what made you believe that there was a place in the market for a PR firm to help contractors, builders, architects, and the construction trades if you will?

Heather Ripley: You know, at clockwork I quickly realized how powerful PR was [00:06:00] not only to share people’s stories and sell a franchise concept, but I got to know these contractors and realize that they’re missing a huge opportunity. Most contractors that I’ve worked with over the years are very smart people. They’re really savvy when it comes to marketing. And a lot of them like to stand out in their market. They like flashy trucks. They understand billboards or door hangers and all of that. And they understand the importance of marketing daily to make the phone ring. But they were missing an opportunity for PR and just becoming that source for the media to talk about them and to be that credible expert when something big is going on and they need somebody to talk to and PR is more valuable than paid media. It’s more trustworthy when someone [00:07:00] in a home sees a journalist or reporter talking about that company, it’s more trustworthy and credible. And I just saw an opportunity to teach these guys how to leverage PR because it was kind of it still is really the Wild West as far as the contractors that are using it in their market are really standing out and doing things differently than everybody else.

Tersh Blissett: Can you for the people who don’t really know what PR is or what it entails, can you explain a little bit of that?

Heather Ripley: I can, yeah. So I like to compare advertising, branding, marketing, and PR. They’re all related. Advertising is paid media. So you control 100% of the message. You control where it is, what placement you have, and how big your logo is. You control everything. Marketing is kind of like everything you do [00:08:00] that has your logo on it or your brand or your perception. It’s kind of all-encompassing. Pr is earned media. You may be on TV, maybe on the radio, but you’re not paying for that coverage. It’s harder to get because to do that, you have to be you have to be doing some kind of public announcement that’s educational, non-promotional. You have to kind of have that balance of non-promotional, but it’s the perception of your company and changing that perception in your market. So PR can be anything from your messaging to clients to potential clients on social media. It could be a video that you post. It could be responses to reviews online. It can be a lot of different things, but ultimately it’s going to lead to earned [00:09:00] media coverage. And those TV reporters or newspaper reporters seeking you out for comment and then branding is all of those things together. And you know who your brand is in your market. So they kind of all go together. But PR is a very special niche.

Tersh Blissett: So what do you think about that? Well, what do you think about the people who are, or is this a way of? Creating PR like it looks like a PR article, but it’s actually a paid ad.

Heather Ripley: Yeah. Our clients do get those opportunities for advertorials. Yeah. And they can work. I think it depends on the type of media outlet that you are working with. And we’re seeing a lot more of that because as you know, the media world is shrinking. People are paying for news less [00:10:00] because they can find it easily online. So we’re seeing that when we evaluate those opportunities, but they’re not the same.

Tersh Blissett: Yeah, I was going to say, is it the same? Is it almost feel I mean, it devalues the article in my opinion? If you figure out that this is a paid article versus a, you know, an edited article that someone came up with because someone did some amazing work, and all of a sudden you’re like, okay, that’s now I feel bad. Like, almost like I was taking advantage of like, all right, this whole publication is completely useless to me now because it’s nothing but sponsorship ads being paid.

Heather Ripley: It is. It is less valuable and less credible, for sure.

Josh Crouch: Well, and you can blame marketing agencies for demeaning everything, because honestly, there are companies out there, literally in there, like you see it on their website, their package, write, press release every month. And I’m like.

Tersh Blissett: Yeah.

Josh Crouch: Really every month. Now I have to have something you’re going to have something [00:11:00] worthy every month that isn’t just stuffed with a bunch of keywords. So you can try to rank a little higher on the search engines.

Tersh Blissett: But do you have Heather, how do you come up with PR? Because like for me, thinking about things that I could create a press release from, I can’t think of things like that every month, but I know that I have some friends who are in the in the PR world, and that’s exactly what I told her. And I was like, there’s no way I could come up with that kind of stuff. And she’s like, Well, what about this? What about this? What about this? I was like, Oh, I didn’t think about any of that stuff.

Heather Ripley: Yeah, you really have to look at it a little bit differently. So one thing that we always try to do is we try to be a source for the media, meaning we have to consider what the media wants. Newspapers want to sell ads, so newspapers, and TV reporters need to sell commercials, so they need viewers. [00:12:00] So you have to try to put on their hat when you’re thinking of a story that’s going to be of interest to them. The short answer is we don’t have a shortage of ideas. We’ve been doing this so long that we know, Hey, it’s March and this is an HVAC company. We need to talk about the importance of spring, not spring maintenance. Those things kind of happen in there. They’re not really evergreen stories, but they’re seasonal stories, and they can be a good story for media if you tell it in the right way. For other clients, we have partnered with charitable organizations, and so we know that those things need to be announced, but they need to be announced in a non-self-serving kind of way.

Tersh Blissett: That’s the problem that I run into because it’s like I don’t want a pat on my back and that’s what it feels like. It’s like, I’ll pat you. I know you will, Josh, I appreciate that. [00:13:00] But there’s a lot of times like we did, like Leukemia Lymphoma Society, we’re big proponents in that, and the Georgia Police K-9 Foundation and all these things that we spend a lot of money and time and effort on, but it feels like, okay, we want to do that because we want to do that, not because we want a pat on the back. And so then whenever you talk to someone, they’re like, Well, why didn’t you highlight that you did X, Y, and Z? And it’s like, oh, I kind of feel dirty if I do that. Like, that’s not why I did this.

Heather Ripley: Yeah. So think about it this way. So if you have a company and you’re called ABC Home Service and you issue a press release that says ABC Home Service donates $2,000 to Georgia K9 Association. But if you say Georgia Canine Association receives $2,000 from ABC Home Service, then that’s a little bit more interesting. But the reason we do it is kind of twofold. It’s going to help you recruit because people want to work for a company giving back. [00:14:00] They want to feel good about the company. But also you’re inspiring other companies out there or other people to donate to that organization who probably can’t afford a PR agency on their own and don’t have the awareness maybe to get the donations that they need, to do good work. So oh yeah. It’s, it’s not self-serving if you can do it in the right way.

Josh Crouch: Well I can attest. So when I was back. Running a branch. One of the first things we did, was we did TV ads and it was both for both branches, but it was to help get our branch off the ground. And so they came in and shot the TV commercial. And then later that fall, our manufacturer had a furnace giveaway. For a veteran. It was through American standards and training, I think. And so because I met the reporter and did a little bit on the commercial side, it was one of those things like this is just the marketing. I’m like, Man, what a great story for TV, especially for like a two-minute spot. So I [00:15:00] texted this guy and I said, Hey, we’re doing this. This guy’s got he’s a 20-year vet, he’s got all this stuff is the furnace literally was broken and couldn’t pay for all this type of stuff. And it turned into them coming out and telling a story about his service to the military and to the country. And then what we did for them was secondary. And then honestly, what happened after that is because we gave a good story to that reporter. That reporter reached out more times when because the weather the next year was I think we had a really, really cold winter, really, really hot summer.

Josh Crouch: And he reached out to different times because we were a good interview to discuss things to do, things not to do, and stuff like that, which created this just regular PR momentum, if you will, for us. So I can definitely attest to how powerful that stuff is. If you guys start getting into that world and you start giving tips and advice to your local community because. Just even just giving back, even if they don’t hire you and you just give back and you teach one homeowner [00:16:00] something they did not know that saves them some money. I mean, that stuff is valuable and it’s really valuable. It makes you feel good to give back that way, too. And I think that’s where PR really has a great place. Like if you’re a company like if you’re just starting out may not be the best thing for you to focus on initially. But as you want to grow and get to the point where you want both potential employees, your market, and stuff to start, understand that you guys do good work, and you give great service. How do we tell people that we do these things without, like Tersh said, you know, sitting here and patenting ourselves on the back?

Tersh Blissett: We didn’t write work. I mean, this is all right.

Josh Crouch: Yeah, well, if you’re in the truck, it’s all right.

Tersh Blissett: Yeah, it’s true. Heather, how large should we be? Like, at what point should we be looking at using a firm, an agency like yours?

Heather Ripley: Yeah, I tell people from day one. But keep [00:17:00] in mind, PR doesn’t have to be an ongoing every day of the year thing. So if you decide to open your door or add a service, you can do a PR campaign that lasts for weeks. So you do a press release. We tell the media, you get some interviews, you put those interviews out on social media, you leverage them, and then feed off of that for a few more months. And then when you have another thing to announce, you do it again. So it doesn’t have to be ongoing. Now, we do.

Josh Crouch: You’re not locked into a retainer for all of your programs, is what you’re saying.

Heather Ripley: No, and it doesn’t make sense to do that for everybody. And I think that that’s one difference. A lot of PR agencies have a minimum that you have to hit. And all of this we try to work with each person, each company to figure out what they need and then create a package around them. Now, a lot of our clients are retainers, [00:18:00] they have HVAC, they have plumbing and electrical. Some of them have some other services too. And it makes sense to do something every month and kind of rotate those services. But for a lot of companies, that doesn’t make sense.

Josh Crouch: Yeah. No, that’s a great point. It’s interesting to think about because everybody thinks when you open a business that leads. Right. Leads. That’s the only thing that is on people’s minds. But that reputation and we talk about that, too, on the digital side, more on the marketing side of it, because even just getting online reviews can be some a lot of companies still, even today in 2022, don’t understand the importance of having other people tell your story of what you do, how you do it, the fact that you’re good at what you do. You showed up on time, all the stuff, and got spots on. I mean, it’s one of those things. It’s ingrained in our head when somebody is on TV, especially [00:19:00] on the news, regardless of what you think of the news. Right. Usually the local news, everybody still trusts, like you’re a trusted source of information and you can really leverage that in a lot of ways, especially a lot of times they’ll give you the clip or whatever, then you can leverage it on all your different social channels and stuff like that. So there’s a lot of really good stuff that you can do after the fact to that to kind of keep that momentum and that snowball Tersh you know, you don’t know what snow is, but that snowball growing. So it becomes a bigger thing. And you can leverage that with maybe some stuff online to really facilitate growth in a fast and efficient manner.

Heather Ripley: Yes.

Josh Crouch: So tell us a little bit about it. So you created a book, right? And you told us before. It took a little while, which and the reason I asked that question is that books and I always go back. Usually, it’s him. [00:20:00] He loves Audible and he sends me recommendations all the time, which I get, like, partially through. And then I stop because I want to implement what I learned. And then it takes me a few weeks and then I get back into the book. But so kind of, I guess, was there a reason that you had all these ideas? You wanted to put them down in a format that kind of. You know, because books leave a legacy. Is there a reason that you really wanted to get that stuff down and get it out to contractors?

Heather Ripley: Yeah. I mean, I feel like my experience in PR and home service could. More greatly benefit more people and more companies if I created a book. Over the years, I’ve worked with hundreds of contractors. Some of them, as we talked about, are those projects that kind of come and go. Some of them have been retainers, but I just feel like [00:21:00] I have a unique set of past experiences that can benefit more people, and I wanted to be able to somehow reach the masses and help more companies. And I do believe that there’s a lot of stuff that smaller home service businesses can do on their own, and then once they get to a bigger size, they need an expert. Pr is such a focused, niche piece of marketing that most people don’t understand. And I just so I kind of wanted to share more and help more companies out and I felt like creating this book would do that. So, you know, it’s really a tool kit, if you will, teaching contractors what PR is because I feel like 99% of them still don’t understand it. And the 1% that does are really standing out and [00:22:00] dominating their markets. So I felt like this would give people an opportunity to test it out, use it more, leverage it. And of course, that helps my agency. But I want to help more contractors.

Tersh Blissett: Should we as a contractor have a book?

Josh Crouch: That’s a loaded question. How do you answer that one? Tersh. Tersh. You should have a book.

Tersh Blissett: Yes. No, I shouldn’t have a book. You should. What about podcasting? Because I know that you have sent us some people for podcasting. What is that? Does that fit into the contractor side of things as far as being a guest on shows or even having your own podcast?

Heather Ripley: Yeah, and that’s that’s an interesting question that you ask because a lot of companies hire a PR agency for different reasons. Some of them have hired a PR agency because they felt [00:23:00] like their company was theirs and they wanted to retire in five years. And they were afraid that if they handed the company down to their son, it wouldn’t be worth anything. Good point. So we’ve actually worked with a company for nine years now that had that happen. The father wanted the son to own the company and kind of position him as the expert in the market. So we’ve done that. Another company wanted to sell it. Someone that you know, Mike Agugliaro, we worked with him since 2013 for the gold medal and I knew initially that he wanted to build the company, he wanted to sell it. And so that was the strategy with the gold medal was to really get that name out on a national level, not just in the market that he served. So podcasts made sense for Mike. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it does. We have another client in California that wants to strategically [00:24:00] buy up other companies, so he wanted to share the fact that he’s looking for a specific type of company. So for that person, national media attention does help.

Josh Crouch: So it can. So that that last bit because there’s a lot of buying and selling. So you don’t have to go into details about that client. But what is something like that look like? If somebody either A wants to sell or B wants to buy to get the word out in a way that’s like. That isn’t sending a letter to all your competitors type of thing. Like how do you get the word out in a way that’s a little more formal than that?

Heather Ripley: So twofold answer. The first answer is, if this person wants to buy other companies, this person has a very specific type of company he wants he wants the owner to stay on and run the business because their team, the technicians [00:25:00] love them, the team loves them. He just can’t get his business past a certain size. He’s not good at growing the business, but really good at running the business. So he wants to buy the company, keep that person involved and run it, but not own it anymore. So national media kind of talking to that contractor who’s struggling a little bit and letting them know that there’s an option out there. The other answer, as far as acquisitions go from from my standpoint and from other clients we’ve had over the years that wanted to sell blue frog plumbing. And Jane was a client that hired us to sell. So what we did with both of them is we position the brand as a growing, credible, really solid household name in the markets they serve and get them national media coverage that makes them more valuable [00:26:00] to the buyer and makes the company worth more money because they have this history of PR coverage that is valuable.

Tersh Blissett: How much of that history do you think it would take? Do you think it’s like a year or like they need five years of that or.

Heather Ripley: For Mike, I can’t remember when he sold gold medal to Horizon. I think it was maybe 2018, 2017. So that took a few years. But he was waiting for the right deal, the right situation. Blue Frog was maybe six months and they were acquired. So it can vary.

Josh Crouch: Today. It’s like three weeks.

Heather Ripley: Yes, that’s true.

Josh Crouch: Here’s the money. Let me have your company. Have you. Have you seen that side of the PR pickup over the last.

Heather Ripley: Oh, yeah.

Josh Crouch: Two or three years since I guess since HOMESERVICES really. I mean, it’s been exploding, but it really took off in [00:27:00] 2020 when COVID started and everybody started staying home more and all that kind of stuff.

Heather Ripley: Oh, yeah. We’re seeing a lot more private equity companies buying up groups. Yeah, we see that. And then they contact us to handle their family of brands. Pr A lot of them don’t want to advertise the fact that they’re buying.

Tersh Blissett: Oh yeah, that makes sense.

Heather Ripley: They’re just too busy and can’t handle all the leads right now. That could change down the road if we have another economic downturn. But your your goals as a company owner can. I can show you how you need PR. Basically, you probably do need PR, but if your goal is to sell, if your goal is to retire and leave a legacy business, if your goal is to buy up other companies or if you’re just wanting to grow, the PR strategy needs to take that into consideration [00:28:00] because it will vary depending on what your goal is.

Josh Crouch: So. So, Tersh, you got to start making yourself a national brand now.

Tersh Blissett: Oh, yeah.

Josh Crouch: That way you can get those ten remote locations.

Tersh Blissett: I don’t know about podcasting, though. I got to figure that that part of it out. I don’t know anything about podcasting.

Josh Crouch: Yeah. Yeah. Have you have you seen it with any of the PR? So have you seen more of a turn to people like wanting to from the public relations side get on like certain podcasts and stuff? Have you seen that in your.

Heather Ripley: Definitely. In the B2B space, I mentioned that we represent a lot of B2B companies in the home service space. So those technology companies, for instance, coaching companies, they do want podcast interviews. So same in construction we represent. Several construction tech companies that do different things for contractors. And they want those podcast interviews because they want to get in front [00:29:00] of that general contractor or commercial contractor or whatever. So yeah, the niche podcasts are absolutely something that our clients want.

Tersh Blissett: That makes sense.

Josh Crouch: Awesome. Well, Heather, we’re working. People learn if they want to have a conversation with someone on your team about what that looks like and what different packages and things you guys have, where should they go?

Heather Ripley: Yeah, the easiest thing is visit Ripley Parks, click on Contact US. You can call me or email me. My email is H. Ripley at Ripley Park and I’m willing and available to talk to anybody at any time. I like to have a conversation to see if PR is a good fit for the contractor, or maybe it’s something that they have a marketing person that can do some stuff in-house. I’ll work with them. One [00:30:00] thing I do want to mention real quick is that the very beginning of the show you mentioned that building a relationship with the PR agency is important in the in the event that you could have a crisis someday. Yeah, I would say more importantly, it’s having a relationship with your local media, because if you are seen in a positive light to your media outlets, they’re less likely to cover a negative story. And we have seen that happen where they just kind of ignore something that was brought to their attention because they like you.

Josh Crouch: So that’s a really interesting point, actually.

Heather Ripley: Yeah. So I would say that’s more important and a PR agency can help you do that, but it’s really good to have that relationship.

Tersh Blissett: That’s a good point, Heather. And I meant to bring that up, and I didn’t even think about it throughout this whole conversation. But yeah, I’m glad you I’m glad you said that because it is. I mean, for me, it’s [00:31:00] kind of an ego thing, too. But whenever you get that phone call and they’re like, Hey, we know that you’re an expert and X, Y and Z, would you mind come and talk to us about this? Well, sure, I’d love to come talk to you about that. But at the same time, if they like you as a person, then they’re less likely to run that negative article or that negative ad, which is a great point. Don’t even think about that aspect of it.

Josh Crouch: So the prevention of something by having a positive image. Because how much.

Tersh Blissett: Time does that take though, as a business owner like do you? Because that’s what I’m sure a lot of people are thinking like this is going to take a lot of time to build up these relationships and PR stuff.

Heather Ripley: Well, one of the first things that a media outlets going to do, if they do hear a negative story, they’re going to Google you and see what else people are saying about you. And if all they find is positive press, they’re probably not going to cover it. Quick examples. Peyton Manning, whether you liked him or not when he had anything negative happen, [00:32:00] very few outlets talked about it for very long. So it’s kind of like that. If you if they can Google you and see a bunch of positive stories about charitable giving and all this stuff out there, they’re less likely to cover you even if they don’t know you.

Tersh Blissett: Sweet. Thank you. Heather do you have anything else, Josh?

Josh Crouch: No, no, that was great.

Tersh Blissett: Well, we appreciate you coming on and sharing with us, Heather. Absolutely. If anybody has any questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out to Heather. We put all of your information in the show notes and in the chat area also. So with that being said, I hope you have a wonderful and safe week. And thank you again, Heather, for coming on the show.

Heather Ripley: Thank you.

Josh Crouch: Thanks, Heather. Thanks.

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