 Hey, good afternoon Tom Stewart here. I am with Dan Smith And this is smart business post. How's everyone's afternoon? I For one, I'm happy to be here Tom. I know that I Assume the others are well as they tune in Certain they are Beautiful day. It's kind of warm and toasty out there. I don't know What's going on across the country? But we've been seeing three digit temperatures here in Charleston Wow, I imagine there's a dab of humidity in the mix. Is that a fair statement? Well, I'll pass on that we've got temperatures here, but a little more on the drier side, so it works well for me You know big news in the financial markets today the J-pal the chairman of federal reserve Announced that they raise the overnight interest rate that what they call 75 basis points three quarters of percent something They haven't done anything that Since 1994 Yeah, I heard that just just last night several talking heads more than one saying I can't possibly see them go up to 0.75 it's gonna be a half a point It's not likely and then sure enough here. We are and so what does that mean? It means a lot of things, you know, it means that they're taking inflation more seriously, I guess and that's good news But you know, it's kind of you know, theoretically slow the economy down. Maybe put us in the recession at some point I don't know. There's a lot of people that thinks it will Talks about it being inevitable They're more and more companies especially on the tech side because tech's really getting hit hard right now. They're like laying people off Companies that are in the business of brokering Bitcoin Yeah, that's big news there for Coinbase there is some thinking that this will make Which could be helpful to those of us who are having a hard time finding people to work for us So with you being in the industry as long as you have what's your 90 second take on? The roller coaster that we might have in store That's a good question One thing I'm going to throw out there and Like a year ago when we were kind of reading your hands over, you know, do we want to take more? Idol loans and you know money from the SBA and it's like 3.25% is 3.2 or 3.75 maybe 3.75. I don't remember Was a 30 year and and at the time it was like, you know what? This is probably the cheapest money, you know a year or two from now This is going to look like the cheapest money you're ever going to find in your lifetime It looks like that we're heading in that direction. Yeah And there's fixed income investments that you can take money and put it into where you can earn more interest than why You're paying on your idle funds. That's right now. Those are trying to continue to go up You know, let's say fixed income that means that there's very little risk of not getting your principal back It's not like you know, putting it into Bitcoin or something where you know, you know They're safe safe investments There's all of them and hey 100% so If you're still setting on that money and you're not sure what to do with it and you're still thinking maybe I should Should you give it back? I don't hold on to it a little bit longer because the other part of it is Banks are going to start getting tighter because as interest rates goes up, especially economy slows down the banks are Less I've seen this time and time again The banks aren't really interested in loaning money if the economy is going bad to small businesses because small businesses tend to not pay the money back at a higher percentage They're principal back they're not going to learn the money so you might not even be able to borrow money from Other traditional sources another reason to hold on to it. Yeah, for sure. And of course I have I have no experience long-term in what this looks like, but I think the message is clear This didn't this didn't necessarily happen overnight and whatever is in store. Whatever the recovery might look like it's it's just not a It's not an overnight fix. So it's it's slow to Become more challenging but then when when good comes it's going to be slow to return back to normal It's we could be in store for for a timeline greater than a few months if you will so to speak Well, I had a little windshield time this afternoon So I was listening to Jerome Powell to give, you know his you know to speak after after announcing the rate increase And they're hoping that by the time they get to 2024 Inflation will be down to 2% which is kind of their target. That's what they want But you know, that's kind of that's kind of a case Scenario and then they don't for a lot of things. No a year ago They were saying the inflation is transitory Don't worry of a go away as soon as we can start out loading cargo ships and stuff like that. Yeah, I wasn't buying it then You know personally, I'm not sure if I would buy it now It could be it could be be harder longer slog in terms of Where where some of that's going Yeah, I would say in closing those that had the the the fight Giving up is not an option mentality during the pandemic You know put put that energy to good use because those those same people are going to push through This challenge as well and and we'll all come out better for it on the other side as as as we've seen this go around This this pandemic if you will and The things that one of the thought then we're going to move on because this is important too the things that have worked for us in terms of running our businesses and You know being put me on making money and having money in the bank at the end of the month after doing the thing You need to you know do to run your business the things that have worked when prices were stable Aren't necessarily going to work when prices are going up costs are going up at the rate at which they're they're going Don't just assume if I just keep doing what I've done in the past It's going to continue to work for me You have to watch your numbers closely. You have to look at your your P&L You have to look at your cost like your labor costs are going up your supplies are going up your you know Transportation everything is going up So you can be doing all those things that you used to do that everything was fine And one day you might find out that you're cleaning a bunch of homes and still don't have enough money to take care Of what you need to do. I'm glad I'm glad you didn't get that let that get away because change is is necessary No doubt, but but mindset is key and it's so easy in the moment of Uncertainty as as we've seen in our industry for people to make decisions that they just don't want to play the game and The game's changing. I don't know what the answers are, but your point is is very very strong the other side of that is This isn't forever and if we if we fight the fight will and make those decisions, you know collaborate with your community We will we'll see the other side My goodness, you know, we started doing this I guess it was about two and a half years ago. We started doing this show right with COVID And compared to COVID this is, you know, walking the park, right? Yeah. Yeah for sure I'm used to paying more for nitro gloves. Well, we'll get through this He's got this great opportunity for those with cash because on the inflation is high But things are selling at a discount. If I was a single man I'd sell my home moving with my parents and scoop up cheap deals in the next few months That is Good advice. I mean, I don't know about moving in with your parents. I mean, there's you know ups and downs with that, but Again if you and I go back to the SBA SBA money that you're let that you borrow that that you're wanting to pay back I wouldn't do it right now. I'd hold on to that that You might have some other uses for that and I think that you're going to see more deals I think if the economy really slows Several things are happening. The economy's you know, going to be slowing down There's a lot of consumer debt There's more consumer debt out there right now than there ever has been people are rising and rising it here. Yeah All of that's kind of leading up to you know, consumer debt's awesome as long as you know You've got you know extra room on your credit card But when all that taps out the next thing, you know, you're not paying your bills and the next thing, you know There's deals be it, you know real estate be it, you know What whatever people need to start selling stuff in order to To to take care of the day-to-day thing. So if you got some cash like I was always saying that Could be good. Yeah We're making some edits right now We're doing all the marketing channels to ensure we're getting the best bang for a buck for we're now watching our P&L closer and ever That's good. Yeah, it's price proactive. They're dumb. I like it You know, it's interesting Based on what I'm saying in in damn maybe you can can tell me what you're seeing as well Even with all the economic uncertainty and inflation, you know Labor's been tight for a long time. But if you ever have you see much domination and demand for house clean services, you know I I honestly feel like there is a transition that is recent for I talked to a lot of cleaning companies I work with a lot of people in the community and What I've heard consistently for the last year is there's not enough People to meet the demand and I'm sure in some markets. That's the case But I'm slowly starting to hear from people in Arizona people in Washington in in my own experience just a slight transition I feel from my perspective Pull back in some respects and I'm not sure if that's just the ebb and flow of this week last week Or if there's a change in play, but I've heard it from a couple business owners in several other states. So What's your what's your take on it? I haven't seen it, but I would expect it Comes down to this consumer deck Here's Dom he's seen seeing some of the same same thing Anybody else out there if you're seeing a drop off in business a little bit hit us up. Let us know because that would be good Good to hear I would expect it because that whole credit going up and You do that at the same time money from banks I remember back Like before the housing market crash like in the 2000s before, you know, the wheels fell off It was there was a lot of demand and a lot of it was being based on credit But as long as everybody's home value kept going up and as long as the banks were willing to You know refinance the second mortgage where they could put more money out of the house Paydown the credit card and kind of Reload, you know, the train kept going but when the house value Where they couldn't borrow money from the banks to pay off the credit card things slowed down in a huge way I Don't know if it's going to be nearly as bad as that. I'm not anticipating I'm certainly not predicting that but I would think there would be a slowdown with a combination of interest rates and the debt going up Yeah, and in my own experience and in the community network. I'm with I'm just starting to hear the onset of that so Like Tom said, let us know I'm curious. How many other people are starting to feel that or if we're still in a In the the feasting stage, we'll see here you go with Dom saying we've got pushback and increase in cancellations The last five days and oh look at six cancels this month financially related Yeah, it's it's reaction meets Headlines, I mean we saw this on the COVID side not to tie it back again but I mean the last week The headlines have been more vocal on where we're going and the financial Uncertainties and there's a segment of the population that is going to be quick To react and knee jerk. No judgment there. So I'm not surprised timing-wise to hear that Now that's that's six different companies including myself That that I would attribute within the last week to identifying or speaking to change But the opportunity in this is You should start getting a little more relief on the labor side So, you know, it's always a imbalance. You've got, you know more demand and you don't have enough supply or vice versa Oh, well Supplies should improve you should get a little bit easier for us to find the quality people we're looking for So it's going to get back to, you know, how do I find enough homes to claim? You either have too many homes to claim Or cleaners and not enough homes to claim So to switch back the other way Then it gets into marketing sales right now. It does Indeed, um, you know having systems and processes having everything in place to make sure that you're prepared for You know training the right people growing them that that's all key But at the end of the day if we're in a market change where The phones are maybe not ringing as much or we've got a segment of the population Not everyone but a segment of the population that's going to peel back and and kind of eliminate the The luxury service if you will well, then it makes It brings to the forefront the importance of every call and every lead while always being important and and you know monetarily Of value that we can measure It's even more important The the cost of that lead might be the same It might fluctuate, but the fact is you've got to make more You've got to you got to make more out of what you have to work with In in this environment The cost might be the same but the value is more Yeah you uh paired I guess a a few slide decks if you will Yeah, yeah for sure. You know, I really before bringing that up tom. I kind of want to explain Really my kind of trajectory in the marketing and branding space, right? We're we're talking about sales and marketing and I I saw earlier in the month You know, Liz had made a really good comment. She said sales, excuse me branding For some people Maybe doesn't translate beyond colors or pictures or you know, what the the logo looks like in For for other people we understand that branding is an entire story For me personally, I'll I'll share with you that Homemade better is the name of my cleaning company and we started in 2016 at the very onset of of homemade better I was coming out of the professional space and all I knew Was professional corporate america Um professionals a loose term. Um, it can be defined in a number of ways, but in my mind I was coming from big business and when putting together a residential cleaning company and and having that 22 23 year background That is what I applied to the cleaning company. So my original website just spoke to how professional we are and And really dug into the the corporate look and feel And I'll I'll share very I'll be vulnerable here. I went through a whole phase where people in the community different different contacts Um, I would reach out to asking for help like how do I get to where you are? How do I grow my company? How do I? Find the success that that you have seen and early on the feedback that I got was Typically shrouded in dan you're too stuffy your website's too corporate Your message is not what we traditionally see in our industry At the time I couldn't articulate what I what I can now And if there's one thing that is for certain, I don't want this message to be lost That is there's a number of ways to win. There's an endless number of ways to be successful Your market may be different your messaging your audience So the way that I'm doing things it does not imply the best way When you talk about branding, you know, I relate to that as flavors of ice cream Sure, you can debate, you know, what's the best flavor ice cream and We all might have a favorite, but our favorite might all be different and it doesn't mean that One's really better than the others matter of preference and I want all you branding is the same way if somebody tells you Your branding was too corporate. It was too stuffy. Well, there's a segment of the market that might not like that There's another segment of the market that might prefer that over other alternatives that are out there and if You know, everybody's kind of doing the light thing with like bubbles and so forth and so forth And then all of a sudden bam, you hit him with with with something more corporate There's probably some people in the market like oh, wow, that's awesome. Finally, you know, somebody who's who's bringing a main service that I can relate to Yeah, for certain I I feel like that was part of our evolution of growth It was the initial hump of trying to get over who we are and in proof of concept for certain But then we arrived at a point where We were attracting a different audience and when I look in my market space It's very common to see the traditional Design and approach that you see all throughout the country and and to your point. There's no bad ice cream I'll attest to that But that being said That's true. That's true There was nothing in my market that looked like my company. So my calls were different But I struggled to grow and and the feedback I got was you're just not marketing, right? but I stayed true to that to that that mission and Stumbled across identifying a brand script creating A story for who we are and and how we go to market and and we've all heard the importance of Making sure that you identify your avatar and identify your You know your value proposition But but for me it was a journey of identifying. How do I position? our company as a premium offering in the marketplace so that I'm I'm my phone's ringing with people who have already made a decision for the most part And on the flip side to that my phone is not ringing by those that are looking for an $89 cleaning So there's there's pros and cons to both for for sure Let me share if I can Tom. I'll share an example kind of in brief of some marketing commonalities kind of what What our go-to-market strategy looks like just in brief and then I want to bring up a marketing maturity model I want to really offer a good takeaway today and and explain My evolution in realizing where to put time and time and energy. So May I go ahead and share share the screen here? If you look down the bottom just click on the share option and pick which screen you want to share All right, let me Make this happen All right. Do we see the pdf there? We do Okay, very good. So in brief, this is uh, this is neither right. No wrong. This is Dan's perspective and When I entered into the marketplace, this was very common. This was um I don't know how many websites that lady that lady works for a lot of companies. I'll I'll tell you tell you that much and ultimately the the bucket You know nondescript cleaning solutions and we just kind of we kind of go on and on and and that's that's pretty common So this is interesting your examples of you've got the pictures We've all seen and you've got the titles we've all seen And all of the copy is just warm ipsum. So I guess in reality it might as well be because nobody's going to read it anyway, right uh, yes, if if um, if I'm a consumer looking to buy and I'm receiving the same general cartoon character Again, I say that at risk of it of getting thumped on the head way by some really good friends in the community Or you say the same, uh, you know two women that that that we see in in so many marketing messages for me Tom it was an intentional act and I'm going to go to market Differently I'm going to go to market differently Here's an example just in brief without without going overboard on part of our brand scripting process for homemade better was determining What is our look? What is our feel and this particular? slide Preview kind of brings to highlight The goal for homemade better is to elevate an offering that is premium in nature It's trustworthy. It's warm. It's welcoming. It's friendly But more importantly, it's not a bucket and it's not bubbles and it's not people cleaning It's emotion. It is You know reaction and and it's hitting people in an area that That isn't particularly common in our in our environment and you can see that on my website You can see that in our facebook ads This this accumulation of of pictures and imagery really speaks to what we're what we're shooting for Tell me tell me how does that resonate with you and in terms of uh, You know just just your your first time seeing that tom it invokes a motion, you know it it You're not just looking at something you're feeling something And I I get how this works Yeah, for sure for sure now that didn't um That didn't come about uh overnight um by no stretch the imagination I went through um the struggles and there's so many people in the community. I I I can't tell you how many times I've said this out loud Endlessly and that is I think the reason why we grew as fast as we did in under five years Had everything to do With my knocking on doors that I was never invited My asking for time for people who didn't know who I was I was looking I was watching and In learning and I attribute You know the the learning the growth to To the help of others So my hope here Is with the next couple slides. I don't want to bore you with a slide deck, but the next couple slides here I really want to tie together My pivotal moment in realizing how I can better approach sales and marketing To grow our company in a more effective effective manner. Um, so looking at the marketing ecosystem here Certainly not marketing ecosystem before we jump into this. I mean, that's kind of an interesting term we talk about marketing we talk about sales we talk about all the different ways that we market the content yadda yadda yadda Explain ecosystem Yeah, so there is a existence of all the things that we know we need to do And depending on who you are and how far you are along in your Business acumen or your small business experience or your own cleaning company, for example you know your Tom your list of the top 10 things that you need to do To be successful in your cleaning company Well, they might differ from mine because you've been doing it for 30 years and you know what works and you know What doesn't whereas somebody who's just starting in the industry Their thought is I I have to have Google ads and I I have to have an automated texting campaign The the ecosystem is all things that are relative to marketing relative to growing sales creating a Brand if you will And and how do you go to market doing that and more importantly where? Especially when we talk about the the financial You know forefront Where where should we be putting our money? There's so many options out there and And and how do you make that happen? okay As we move along the slide here, you know, this is certainly Maybe worth screen capture for some people I know for me I I can tell you about a time where I thought I knew all the things I needed to do I have to get a website and I have to get an seo guy Or gal and I need someone to run My my ads and I'll farm all of that out And I'll be I'll be good to go But no one told me that there's 58 other things that I can be doing that Might cost less money or might be more effective Um, it just simply wasn't something that I that I knew Um, all I knew was I needed to make the phone ring more and for some of us myself included Um, I I tapped out it. Okay. Google facebook yelp home advisor. We're talking circa 2016 Um, well gosh, I've covered it all. I'm spending money and the phones are not ringing as much as I need them to be Um, how do I grow and candidly? I I didn't know this list existed. I I didn't know what else what else was out there. There's there's a lot to There's a lot to take on and it doesn't happen overnight so if I Want to generate The quantity of leads I need to generate in order to grow my my house cleaning business Do I need to do all of these things? Uh, it is not necessarily um, a matter of Of of requirement. It's not a matter of what you That that you need to check all these boxes. I think more importantly Uh, and and and really that leads me to the to the next slide. I don't know if you were queuing me up there I know you haven't haven't seen this but um, that really breaks into what is uh seen here as as the marketing maturity model now This is not Uh, something that I want to take credit for this is not my design. This is not my brain um, but in the process of my Redefining our brand and really I mean we redid our website. We really redid our logo. We did a full Um release within our market and and introduced the new homemade better Um, and upon doing that Uh, we saw tremendous growth tremendous growth Month over month and and I attribute a lot of that to just a different brand a different image and a different strategy Um, so what we're looking at here the marketing maturity model again. This is this is screenshot worthy for some people Um, it really helped visually compartmentalize For me What I need to work on today Uh, what I need to get in order and build upon To strengthen my foundation before the next level To make sure I've got everything in order before going to the next level and I can tell you my experience I I can't speak for others It was very much a An evolution of I I know I need to have a website So I'm going to come over here and and I'm going to check this box on a website And I I saw somebody online mentioned That they um, they run google ads So I I need to come over here and I you know, I need to find where Um, you know where my faith uh, social paid social ads are Um, and as I'm trying to go along and and grow and and learn, um, you know, I'm I'm told uh, you know by um You know other people in the industry you've got to upsell right you've got to make a close And then you've got to have options to upsell. That's how you're going to get more more revenue And okay, I'm going to come over here to this box and I'm going to check this off and you get the idea There's so many things to choose from But more often than not I would venture to guess Um, if anyone is like me I've I'm randomly checking these boxes and hoping for the best And that's due in part because I might only know of of 18 of these boxes even existing Uh, but nobody sat me down and said hey Dan all these build upon each other Uh, and that would have been that would have been very valuable. Um early on I would say so What was the origin of this particular grid that we're looking at was this Something that I guess initially you were maybe building and I mean Did you develop this over time? No, no, this is not um, this is not my My content, so I want to be transparent there. So you you're you're you're you're Barring this from somewhere else. I call this the best practices It Yeah, we're looking at best practices here. We are let me let me share how I acquired it though That's I think the important part the the the way that this was acquired was through um, the process that that that that took several months In defining our brand script defining our our voice It was in the midst of We're going to create a new website. We're going to create a new logo We're going to create a new marketing strategy and we're going to reposition ourselves in the in the market kind of next level And this is a I would say smack in the middle of the of the pandemic the the initial phase if you will and So I I invested time and money In finding, you know a trusted partner to go through the process And I I didn't do it on my own. I mean there's there's just cause to reach out to the right partner to help move you along a lot faster than you know struggling for Two and a half years as as I did and in the process of developing who we are what our voices are our go to mission strategy All on on paper all very intentional all with research and design and intelligence We we we ended up with the outline the framework for Now this is the website we need and this is what we want that website to say And this is what we want that website to look like and in the midst of that process I was introduced to the maturity model and as I mentioned earlier earlier visually It was disawakening. Oh my gosh if I can spend time and energy in this light baby blue color building the foundation for For homemade better If I could not spend time money and energy over here That doesn't help me Tie things together. Let's get a strong foundation Then I put a lot of focus and energy into that And then I think the the chart is pretty self-explanatory, but there's The next evolution and that is you know growing so you've got the foundation in place and Now you're focused on growing with the different strategic initiatives there And then if and when the time is right There's the option to to take that even further and and that's in the the ignite Category so I felt it very prudent to share this today because I can't sit here and say You just need to make your website look better than everyone else You just have to You know Disregard the naysayers and do what your heart tells you It's been an evolution for me tom and and and this has been part of the process I'm looking at this model here and under the build part I'm trying to figure out you mentioned like the new logo and so on and so forth the new website is That represented in one of these light blue boxes here Yeah, so I think the The the marketing website is You know the foundation of your online presence and this speaks to Making sure that you've got the appropriate, you know Boxes in place to have an effective website. Do you have trust elements? Is it mobile friendly? Um that initial foundation for us. I mean that highlights 2016 to 2020 I mean we had a website that I created on wordpress with a $450 template I'm not a website developer But it was good enough to get me going and that really that checked the box here Whereas you can see ideal client brand script. That was at a later stage That was that was not something that was effective For me to do Three months in the into the industry when I was still trying to figure out, you know, what cleaning products to use To be to be humble When you're starting out you do what you can do with what it is you have but I'm also hearing at some point you reached out to You know professional who has I guess presented this model to you as part and parcel of that so Is part of the takeaway maybe that we should be getting here is You know when you get to the point where you don't have to do this by yourself. Don't do it by yourself Yeah, and that can be said in Uh a number of ways right your time is finite your time is valuable um and at the end of the day there is um There's value in making sure that you're focusing on the 20 percent Uh that is going to move your business in the right direction And allowing your team to you know handle the 80 percent and that is A place that i've been able to arrive to but goodness not without pain Not without falling back three steps every every four steps taken To be candid And my message is not I've made it In any respect But but yes a reaching a point where Where you're able to hand that off I don't remember who the talking head is but there's a And I I I'm probably going to do this a disjustice, but the point still stands. There's a talking head. I heard say Um the recipe for success. I'm I'm paraphrasing Uh, but the the goal of an entrepreneur Um is to work as hard as you can as fast as you can No, no to work is pardon me to work as hard as you can to grow as fast as you can before you burn out and when I heard that um, it was It was a pivotal moment that I just I never forgot work is as Hard as I can to grow as fast as I can Before I burn out and being able to hand that off to trusted team members and make sure that You know, I'm not ready to throw in the towel because I've been in the business for 15 years And I'm still struggling to get it going um, that's been part of my Uh drive if you will Yeah, starting out. We're all in a race against burnout You know, can you can he gets where you need to go before you burn out? And yeah for for certain. Um, I can I'd be happy to make this Available on the slide deck. There's a few more pages here that are a value. I believe If anyone is interested we can certainly Have them, you know, you jump on my website and and get that Sure sure. We'll um share your website How people can hit you up to to get a copy of this that would be awesome if you want to share I'm sure a lot of people would would would would appreciate this So yeah back to that that that marking maturity model you want to throw that back up here again Yeah, for sure. I think that's pretty uh pretty insightful Could you argue that I guess there's a couple of things You you basically built your own website and you did a you know a lot of do-it-yourself stuff initially, but The idea was I'm getting this wrong. Tell me but it sounds like the idea was To get as big as you can as quickly as you can so I think you can then invest in You know outside talent to implement aspects of what we're looking at here that You know, you didn't have the tool set to do or maybe you couldn't do it as good as they could. Is that right? Yeah, that that's true. And there's a couple different factors that come into play. I mean expense is one of them I mean, we're all limited by You know our operational budget and and and wanting to do things wise Um, but at the same time there's a risk element um, there's a risk and I would argue there is different varying degrees of those that embrace change Um, I I cannot and I am not standing on any pedestal of success But there are people that I've spoken to In the industry in life outside of the industry That really want things to be different whatever that might be Um But they're resistant to change Um and and or they're resistant to outsourcing they're resistant to getting help Um for me in particular, I've got you know trusted resources on the on the marketing side on the SEO side I I'm I'm a person of technical acumen. I've got technical aptitude Um, and and I know my limits. I mean there is a um A place for me to to put my time and energy and it's not Trying to figure out how to run google ads. Um, I probably could But that's that's not where my time is is best spent um, so yeah, I would I would argue that um That that's been part of what has helped me Uh helped me move along and I don't I don't think I'm alone in that in that capacity I think that's a recipe that's seen with with a number of businesses That that we all look up to You know, it's interesting though because if you think about where this was You talked about, you know, the number of years I've been doing this This would have looked a whole lot different say 20 some odd years ago You know, it was, you know, the internet really wasn't much of a much of a factor In the marketing mix or anything digital. So it was all pretty much analog You know running a big yellow pages ad accounted for more than 50 percent of the leads that you know, most companies were getting at that point so It was simple. It was just really, you know, you you you you stroke to check and you just kind of let the thing go but Now it's more You know, you know, you got a higher talent, but it's it's it's a lot more complicated It's a long thin tail of things that you have to do. There's not just one or two things and um You know, this is this is this is this is insightful and I guess I guess takeaways for myself is You know That whole race against burnout, you know work as hard as you can to grow as fast as you can and then, you know, take what you're what you're what you're building and invest in You know the tools and technology and the talent to You know do the marketing There's a whole nother dimension of this the sales part of it. What do you do with those valuable leads you're getting? We probably need to save that for another discussion. Sure. Sure This is good. So you you got this from uh from a firm that you worked with I did. Yeah, and in my reason for sharing that today He has everything to do with this being an epiphany for me um and in in my own experience, I can't speak for others um I I would follow early on what I Heard or read was working for someone else and I would encourage anyone that's watching the the show today um to to realize if if not already known um the the discovery that I had and that is When I see something that is working for somebody and I I am destined to copy that um and And then feel disappointed because it's not working for me I'm failing at the time to realize That I'm just seeing that that surface existence, right what? um all of a sudden a person in the industry is touting that they have great success with um with this marketing channel or this marketing method And uh early on in in you know before this evolution or discovery here You know, I'm I'm I'm chasing to to figure out how to crack the nut But failing to realize that that component works well for that business because there's 12 other pieces Behind the scenes that I'm not aware of that all tie together and this really here is a um a transitional piece for me to understand That there's there's more to the story and there's building blocks for getting there and it it didn't happen overnight for me Um, it may not happen overnight for other people. Every market is different. Everybody's skill is different Um, but I really wanted to share this because it was a an awakening um for me as I kind of evolved from My own home brew do it myself wear all the hats to um, okay now it's time to to step up our game and Take a risk, uh spend some money and and and believe in the the the Believe in the and they're being you know, the destiny of success We just have to put in the work to get there so as far as a takeaway for for for our audience is that What you're telling us that you know, you need to you know get to the point and where you have the opportunity to pursue something like this There's the takeaway is is twofold. Tom Yes, ideally getting to a point in which you're not wearing all hats Is I would argue the fundamental benefit for being an entrepreneur, right? We're after um We're after time In and we're after money. We need the money to pay the bills um, we need the money to to to achieve whatever our requirements and life are But ultimately the win, uh, the win is time Um, I'm I'm still growing. Uh, I I'm I'm not there yet Uh, but the ability to you know make the The the play at school the ability to take my daughters to the dentist on the fly The ability to decide that you know, we're going to take off early for Um the holiday two days, you know earlier a week earlier than than anyone else that that prize of of time Is not because I have um A great cleaning methodology. It's not because we use fantastic cleaning supplies um, but every bit about creating The right processes and building the right team Building the right foundation so that we have a presence in our market That establishes a trustworthy brand That is effective in marketing So that we can get the opportunity to close those sales When that engine is working as it should among other things. I'm not simplifying it in any respect Internal so p so on and so forth The prize in our space is is the entrepreneurial freedom and I didn't have that for the longest time. Some people don't have that today And and the the final takeaway there is You can get there faster. You can get there faster with the right partner with the right guidance, uh, and um, You know willing to take that leap of faith outside of status quo Work hard make money be willing to trade that money for time, which is another way of saying it is your Basically hiring other people or investing in technology. Whatever the case might be to take stuff off your to-do list where you've got more time to Spend it more wisely more beneficial more productively in your business or in your family or outside interests Yeah, good good close because time looks different for everybody time might be the ability to create another business whereas For someone else time might be sitting at the lake. Um, so you're you're right, uh, but yes, that's that's wildly Uh wildly important in in my perspective in sales and marketing Effectively, um, we'll we'll get you there. It can get you there. It's the catalyst So we've got a couple of comments and popped up robin's just kind of chiming in on What dominoe we're sharing that things are slowing down a little bit Hmm something to be keeping an eye on in the weeks ahead Um all making a whole marketing discussion All that but we're important Um, robin's got a question for you dad Yeah Also, no, do you use videos in your website and social media? If so What return would you expect by incorporating video either produced or doing yourself videos in the marketing strategy? Yeah, um early on uh before the current, um website that I have now Um, I was partnered with a local firm in town That handled um our video and they created video facebook ads they did I mean this is early on again kind of right at as soon as I possibly could I was looking to partner with those that could help me get farther faster Um to answer robin's question, you know, uh, I do not have any website videos in place today Um, and the reason for that is I just haven't um taken the investment to do so at the level of quality that I Want to continue with Now I would venture to say that depending on um, Where you are in the evolution of your your business or growth Uh, there are some people that would argue some videos better than no video And there are those in the seo space that would argue Google doesn't care whether it's on an iphone or uh a six thousand dollar camera Um, it is a matter of you know, does your website have videos? So there's great value in that. Uh robin mine does not today But the hold up there is um just Me wanting to make sure that when I get to that stage It's at the level and caliber that that is in a line with uh with our brand all together So the whole saying you know duns better than perfect Maybe that's true, but Duns not necessarily Good relative to something that's Bad Sure or in my case directly customer facing for sure. Yeah, so, um If you have the skillset, I guess to do it yourself. That's that's awesome. Um I don't know. I've seen but and would you argue that part of that your brand as well some companies have a brand that's more Kind of do it yourself and if it's like too slick, it's almost going against the brand It it is um, specifically there's a gentleman that comes to mind in texas who Was adamant adamant that the business has to be about your kids And your wife and you have to showcase that you're a family and you're local in the community and at the time I I didn't want to do that and I didn't see the value in that Um in hindsight that that has worked extremely well for this individual I mean, he's built a small empire on capitalizing on his family and his kids and and Um, I look at that now and I think well, I'll be darned. He wasn't wrong Um, arguably neither was I but at the time I just I couldn't comprehend that and he couldn't comprehend Uh, you know my go-to-market strategy and and you know years later. We're both In a place that we're grateful for More than one way to bake a cake For sure for sure. Yeah um, and ultimately at the end of the day more than one way to bake a cake and um, an endless number of of talent opportunities out there to get you Uh, to where you need to be faster. Um, and uh, it looks like you looks like you're going somewhere with that Well, I'm just We're getting up to the top of the hour So I wanted to make sure that everyone knows A little bit about dan smith You're talking a lot about your your your, you know cleaning company and you've had a lot of success with that You've learned a few things over the years doing that as well. Some of that you've shared with us some of what you've learned and Arguably things you've learned outside of your cleaning company as well You're you're kind of rolling up into another business venture that you have I just shared the link and and chat you want to Take a moment and tell us a little bit about uh, business made better. Yeah for for certain um, but business made better was initially born out of the necessity for technical assistance technical aptitude and and to be um, to the point Uh, I had a person directly ask me at an industry event if I would help them Configure and get through the onboarding phase of of made central. This was really ground zero And I said to that person. Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. They asked if they could pay me and and um If I have to take your money, I would love to I'll all kidding aside the person to my left same event Said wait a minute. Hold on. Could I pay you? And that was really the birth of a business made better. It was really on the consulting side And and helping so I have worked with a fair number of customers And and clients if you will Helping in a number of ways Primarily surrounded around made central The next evolution if you will uh, was what you see on screen now and that was the creation of um premium campaigns and automations within made central And to be transparent what you see the offer that is available Through business made better.com is specific to made central at this time that that is Likely to change in the in the future, but today It's it's available and specific for made central clients. Um, I'll I'll close with this The umbrella that is business made better Is Changing and it's growing and one of the the Really strong value propositions that I've been able to To uncover my my quick claim to fame is we're in an environment where There's all these technical elements that people have in place to run their business And not all of those elements talk to each other not all of those vendors talk to each other And not every business owner understands what they need to do or or they need to do it so I'm I'm in this continual growth and in scale of business made better In what ultimately is becoming a technology translator Being able to take my technology background of 23 years in corporate enterprise america being able to learn what I apply what I've learned in the residential home services space Growing my cleaning company to what it is and then adding the value that I am to Just to never increasing number of of clients that I'm partnered with That's that's where we are today I can't make big promises because as we all know execution is is key but there are there's there's There's two different recipes that are that are in the oven and one on the on the back shelf So stay tuned. We've got we've got other things in in in motion I think it's safe to say and it's obvious I think it's obvious to everybody that technology is changing how our industry operates and What we see today is going to be different, you know in the months and years ahead and It's going to be coming more complicated it's going to be more technology driven in the future even than it is now and Having a lot of the term technology translator. Is that is that what I think I heard you say it is indeed. Yeah So, you know somebody that can help that knows how to run a house cleaning business That understands the technology that can can kind of bring those two together You know, I think it's going to be tremendous amount of value and You're doing good work. You're doing important work. You're doing important work I I appreciate that. I I would say the the email templates for made central We'll call that my my opening act. Um, what is ever increasingly becoming more evident? is the Uh, the technical application of you know, help my business achieve this or how do I do that? And I'm I'm excited. I'm I'm enjoying it and It's of course going to be something I need to learn to scale As as I did the the house cleaning company. So I'm excited for what the ride looks like I appreciate the opportunity But if anybody wants to get a hold of you they can go to businessmadebetter.com. There was a contact form I understand if anybody wants the the slide that and there's more You got a bigger deck that that you're working from you you'd be able to share that if they just reach out and yeah Yeah, for sure. If you want to hit the contact page On the upper right hand corner filling your information. I'd be happy to uh Share that if you are looking specifically for the sales and marketing maturity model slide deck Please let me know I'll fire that off if you have any other ideas in mind I'm always happy to jump on a discovery call and See what you have in mind Dan as always, you know, you're you're an awesome guy and certainly an awesome guest. Let's appreciate you sharing with us this afternoon Thank you We're pretty much wrapped up for today, but we're going to be back next wednesday five o'clock eastern. So See you here next week. You'll take care. Thank you son. Bye everyone