How a Franchise Partner Helped to Transform a Business | Podcast Ep. 167 | Toolbox for the Trades

Hello, contractors, and welcome to Toolbox for the Trades. My name is Jackie Aubel, and today I am chatting with Rebecca Hatcher, the owner of AirServ of Aggieland. Rebecca and I spoke about what it's been like to run a family business for the last 21 years. We talked about some of her successes and her stinkers and marketing campaigns, and we also talked about how franchising helped her grow her business. I hope you find Rebecca as entertaining and as fun as I did. Rebecca Hatcher, you are the owner of AirServ of Aggieland in Texas. Today we are going to talk about running a family business, marketing, and the benefits of partnering with a franchise. I'm so excited to have you on the show. Welcome to Toolbox for the Trades.

Thank you so much. I'm super excited to be here today.

We did a webinar a couple weeks ago that you completely nailed out of the park, and I am so excited to take your insights from that webinar and other insights and put them into the podcast. I know our listeners are going to learn a ton from you, so. So let's get started. But first things first, I've got to give you an icebreaker. If you could have an unlimited resource of anything, what would it be and why?

Absolutely. Chocolate. And do you really need a reason for chocolate?

No, I don't need a reason. Dark milk or white chocolate?

Dark chocolate. Every time. I'm, I'm almost not even really a fan of white chocolate. Like, I'll eat it if it's all that's there, but milk chocolate, yes. Dark chocolate is my preference. How about you?

I love milk chocolate. I try to like dark chocolate a little bit more than I naturally do. I think because I trick myself that it's healthier. So I'm like, I'll just get the dark chocolate because that's. That's healthier. And I won't feel so bad about eating a bar one night.

There you go.

Milk chocolate is my. Is my love language for sure. And I like that both of you, both you and I are like, I guess we'll have the white chocolate because it's here. Yeah, it's.

It's our only choice.

It's our only choice. Let's get into it. How did you get into the trades, Rebecca?

So I'm kind of in the trades by default because my husband was in the trades straight out of high school, went to trade school, and then straight from trade school, went into his first job. Work there, change jobs, work there. And then one day, just Woke up and said, why am I doing this for the man? I'd prefer to do it for me. So, you know, we were young and dumb and didn't know any better. And so we went into business for ourselves. And I actually was not in the business right at first, but, you know, just having him come home and talk to me about his day and things like that, I just really picked up a lot. And so whenever it was time for me to go into the business, I feel like I kind of had that leg up because I knew a lot of the terminology and things like that.

You had been studying the language for a bit before you actually went to the country?

Yes, it honestly, it really like is a whole language all in of itself.

I know I barely, I consider myself like conversationally fluid in the trades, but if you get me into like the actual nitty gritty of what's happening under the hood there, I, I, I, I, no, I won't be able to, I won't be able to fake it much longer. And if I recall, what were you, you were eight months pregnant with your middle child when your husband Don decided to make this switch, decided to start working for himself. What a time.

Yes, no doubt. It was a little crazy right there at first. And I, I worked for a pharmacy. I was a pharmacy tech. And so we did, you know, kind of have that little bit of a cushion. I had a steady income, of course, you know, some six weeks maternity leave, and then I was right back at it again. But, you know, I did books and nights and weekends and when I could, I answered the phone and. But for the most part, you know, he was a one man show and we were just along for the ride.

Yeah. And when, what, so this, you started the business? You and Don started the business 21 years ago. What, at what part did you come in full time?

So I want to say that we were in business probably about five years or so before I came in full time. Right. Whenever all these life changes coincide, when we have babies. Right. Whenever our last child was born, when we found out that I was pregnant, we said, you know what, this is a great time for me to quit working at the pharmacy, start working full time in the business. And so it was that way all the way till now. And, you know, the baby is, she'll be 16 in May, so.

Dang. And going into kind of one of our main topics for today, you guys brought Air Serve along for your journey, or Airset or Air Serve joined you for your journey about 12 years ago. So I would Love to hear a bit about how that changed because I know you told me that the business drastically change once you became an airserv franchise. So tell me about the differences, like before and after air serve. Bas and aas. Before air serve. After air serve, absolutely.

So before air serve, like I said, you know, Don started off one guy in a truck and he is the most hard working man I know and he does not stop until the job is done. And so, you know, it was a lot of late nights, a lot of, you know, missing time with the kids. And I'm sure anyone who's in the trades can probably, you know, sympathize and empathize with what I'm talking about. But, you know, we just plugged away for a while and we were about nine years or so in and it seemed like we had hit that dreaded plateau, right? We weren't growing any. We were as big as we were going to get in the little bitty town that we were in. The. The town that we're in or that we were in had 5,000 people. You know, it wasn't very big. We did serve the surrounding areas, but even at that we just, you know, we were as big as we were going to be. And so we had gotten to that stagnant stage where dawn said, you know, I can't, I can't keep beating my head against this wall and not growing any. If in this next year we don't see a significant growth or a huge change to our business, it's time for us to back up and reconsider something else. Right. And we had already made it nine years, which statistically is way longer than what most, you know, first time business owners make it, especially in the trades. But we just said we were gonna, you know, look for something to make that shift. And God provided. One day we got a call from Airsource corporate and we thought that they were wanting us to do some work for them. Come to find out. No, that wasn't the case. They were actually wanting us to come talk to them about franchising. And so we did. We bit the bullet and went to Waco and let them woo us and, you know, see what it was all. And I think probably the biggest takeaway from that meeting was it was very clear that not only were we trying to make sure we were a good fit with AirServ, but more than anything, they were vetting us to make sure that we were going to be a good fit for them. Because they really don't just take anyone. And so that made a huge impression on me. And just talking to them about, you know, the business and how much of the business side of things we didn't know. You know, you don't know what you don't know know. And for all those out there that started off like we did, you know, a husband and wife and, and a truck, which there are many, you know, we. We were in our 20s and we didn't know anything about running a business other than we needed this much money to pay these bills and this much money to buy groceries. And as long as we did all of that, we were fine. So we just, you know, took a step back and said is errors or something that we could potentially see the business grow with. And, you know, all the, the training and the, the information that they were willing to, you know, share with us, all the data that they had, 20 years worth of data of what works and what doesn't. And so we said, you know, yeah, we felt like that was the best move for us. And that was 12 years ago. And I have not. Well, there's a lot of times where, you know, the honeymoon is definitely over, but I honestly, I have not regretted it a single day.

Yeah, I really. I'm happy to bring your story to this podcast because I've known about the air serve franchise for my entire duration at service time, and I don't think we've had many air serve franchises on. And obviously, you know, the big thing in the trades right now is private equity partnering with private equity or selling to private equity. So becoming a franchise kind of is a slightly different spin on this current trend that we're seeing. Also, I put down on my notes Wood and Waco, which should be the name of an album title, I think.

Absolutely.

For any aspiring musicians who I know listen to this show, it's definitely country song. Definitely a country song. So I love that we're talking about this, and I would love if you could kind of get into details about how this impacted your business growth. So nine years in, Don is telling you, you know, we got to. We either got to push past. Past this plateau or potentially close. Close shop. So where were you? Right on the precipice of partnering with AirServ. And now where are you today in 2024? Like, what has changed in terms of the business makeup? Like, what does it look like now?

Yeah. So first I will say that it took us about six months to make that decision. We did not take it lightly to go with. And it's a huge investment, not just your money, but Time and effort as well, because there's a airserv does a phenomenal job of what they call their SureStart. And they go in and they do a lot of training before they even allow you to hang your shingle as airserv. So we, we went through the six months of, you know, courting each other and then we, you know, signed on the dotted line and then, then started the hard work. So anyone considering going into a franchise, any franchise, What I will say is if you think that it's going to be easier than what you were doing before, that is a lie. It is not a magic wand. It's not. They're not going to wave it and all of a sudden your business is going to be, you know, successful beyond your wildest dreams. It is a lot of hard work. But since we've become Air serve, it's like work for a purpose, if that makes sense. It's like every day we know that we're moving the needle, we know that we're not sitting stagnant. Everything that we do, it is propelling us forward in some way. And so we don't mind putting the hard work in. When we know that there is that reward at the end or there's, you know, that light at the end of the tunnel. We don't feel like we're just constantly beating our head against a wall with no reward at the end of the year, you know, nothing in the bank account to show for, for all the hard work that we did over the year. So just having that, that knowledge, that training, being able to put systems into place, that was the biggest thing for us. You know, we were really sort of running willy nilly and flying by the seat of our pants, you know, and this was, this was back when we were still writing handwritten tickets, right? When my, my technicians were invoices that were all sweaty and gross with all that, you know, and I'd have to duplicate them and, and put them inside the system and hard file and things like that. So, you know, it was not an easy transition over to AirServ, but it was incredibly rewarding. And each year we've just learned more. We've put more systems into place, we have better processes now. You know, from a revenue standpoint, every single year we've grown year over year, there hasn't been a single year where have sat stagnant. So that in and of itself has just been huge. And probably one of the biggest changes, I think, is that we were in that small 5,000 population town and Airserv really gave us the encouragement and, you know, the ability, the knowledge and the self confidence to move a whole town over, which was 45 minutes, to a 200,000 population town and get started over there. So we've been in the town we're in now, College Station, for right at 10 years and it has been fantastic. And in fact, you know, not to brag, but yeah, I'm gonna do it. Last year for 2023, we were actually voted best of the Brazos Valley for H Vac, which is phenomenal because 10 years ago they didn't even know who we were here. And we're competing against companies who have been here for 20, 30 years, very well established competitors. So happy to be considered amongst that elite group of tradespeople.

You should brag. You should brag. 21 years in business, growing revenue year over year since becoming Air Serve. I mean, what I just heard was I love the idea of them giving you a purpose and giving you these systems and these processes, giving you a goal to reach to and kind of really transforming how the business, how you think about the business. Because it's true, I think guess when you're a privately owned mom and pop shop, you're just like, as long as we cover our bills, as long as we're making enough money to live comfortably, we're good. But kind of partnering with AirServ seemed to push you out of that thinking and show you what you were capable of if you got the opportunity to expand into a larger market.

Absolutely. And one of the really cool things about airserv is all the people in that room right now, there's over 300 franchises and all the people in that room, they're not your competitors, so they're there to help you. So, so we had people who were, you know, in the next phase of business ahead of ours, mentoring us and helping us. We had franchise business coaches that their whole job was to help us get to that next level and really hold us accountable. And that's one thing we did not have before. The only thing holding us account before franchising was our vendors making sure we paid our bills. Right. So after we became airserv, we had this system of accountability that we just did not have before. And that made us want to be better. It made us want to rise to the level, you know, that, that they had set. And I feel like in the, the years that we've been Air Serve, you know, we've grown not just revenue wise, which, you know, obviously is very important, but we've grown as A company we've grown as, as human beings, you know, we've become better people, better parents, better marriage. Just putting the things in place that we learned through Air Serve and you know, some of their code of values and things like that. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't trade it for anything even, even on the days where, you know, air surf's not my favorite people, I, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I really appreciate your candor here. I. It's never my goal to have interviews where we blatantly talk about how great something is and how, you know, there's no downsides ever. I love how you're being candid about it and I'm not gonna, you know, as it comes up like natively in today's conversation, you know, keep doing it. But I think it's also goes to the fact that anything worth doing is rarely easy. And it sounds like it definitely pushed you. And I think that's something I take away from actually my, myself and my own career, my own journey. You know, things that are easy are rarely going to have the impact on you as a person or on your business. And it's always nice to get that reminder. So thank you for doing that.

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

One thing I wanted to talk to you too. We're going to get into marketing in a second. But one thing I wanted to talk to you is really about how this whole transition impacted your culture. You mentioned that this, that doing this made you and Don better partners to one another and also better parents. I mean, oh my gosh, give me that pill. You know what I mean? So I would love to know how this coming on board with Air Serve changed the culture of your business and then also what was maybe one of the big takeaways you learned personally.

Yeah. So as far as our culture goes, I think one of the biggest, one of the first things that we learned with AirServ was, and it's in their code of values, is having fun in the process. And I think before we thought as business owners, fun and business were completely separate and so we could have fun in the evenings and weekends and on our own time. And business was business. And so when we really learned that it's okay to have fun doing what we do and it's okay to have fun with our employees and to make the day to day grind enjoyable, that changed our culture immensely. And then another thing I think that Air Serve did that change our culture was it gave us the, the encouragement and the empowerment to know that we don't have to hang on to bad people in our establishment just because they're able to turn a wrench that they're, you know, if we're the employer of choice, there's people out there that are like minded and they see the vision that we see and they, they want to do better and be better because we are setting the bar higher. And so, you know, we're a lot faster at weeding out the folks who are not going to fit in our culture. The, you know, the poison in the. Well, we, we see it a lot sooner, we weed it out a lot faster. And because of that, I think that our culture has grown exponentially. We've got far more long term employees than we've ever had because, you know, we, we are a fun company to work for. People enjoy coming. I'm, you know, I think they do, they don't tell me any otherwise. Right. But you know, I, I have fun getting up and coming to work every day where, you know, before, I'm not saying every day was like this, but you know, there's always those days where you just absolutely dread Monday morning. And since, you know, since we've grown this culture, since we've grown the team that we have now, it is so enj enjoyable to come to work and to hang out with these people. And you know, we get a lot of work done and in these trades, it doesn't matter what trade you're in. These are some of the hardest working people I have ever met in my life. And they have a passion. You have to have a passion for what you do in the trades because if you don't, you know, there are other jobs out there that pay more and are easier, period. But if you have a passion for what you do and you share that passion with the people you work with, with your family, with your customers, you can see it and it comes through. And I think that that really, you know, helps improve the culture overall. So we have fun. We have pizza parties, we have ice cream socials, we have Halloween movie night, we have family game night, we have, you know, revenue goals and all kinds of Battleship games and we play darts in the back, you know, during our lunch break. And we get together on the evenings and weekends, sometimes with each other. And you know, we just try to make it be a family environment, you know, with accountability. There has to be that fine line there. But a family environment where we trust our people, they trust us, and they know that we've got their best interest at heart. And then I think you asked how did that impact me personally? So when we got finished with our training in Waco, one of the first things we did was we took that code of values, that neighborly code of values. And if you've never seen it, I encourage you to. I will email you a copy. It is a phenomenal code of values. Everyone should live by it. But we took that neighborly code of values and we turned it into a Hatcher family code of values. And we had never done anything like that before. I mean, here we had three kids and we were raising them to the best of our ability, but we had never really held them accountable and let them know, you can have goals, you can have dreams. There's, you know, a great big world out there, and we're not going to limit you by, you know, just being here and doing what we do every day or, you know, there's. There's so much more out there, and we want you to experience it in a healthy way. Right. But I think for me, the biggest thing was just knowing that because we do own our own business and there is so much gray area between, you know, what is only air surf time and what is only, you know, the Hatcher time. We had to develop that code of values and we had to make sure that, you know, we were holding our kids accountable, just like we hold our employees accountable. And so that was a huge shift for me. That really helped me personally, as well as, you know, Rebecca, the business owner. Wow.

I've never heard of anyone implementing a code of values in their family before, but, wow, does that make sense? I mean, if you implement a code of values and it's a crazy day where someone's sick, someone's running late, the toilet's broken, and life is just really chaotic, going back to those core values can actually be really helpful. It's kind of how they ingrain, stop, drop, and roll into our heads when we're kids.

Absolutely.

You know, and it's like when you're feeling so overwhelmed, it's nice to be able to grab on to. I'm this. You didn't tell me what the values are, but I'm thinking if I were to create one for my living situation, it would be like, take a deep breath before you respond or something like that. And being able to hand, like to. To call on that in real time could probably be really helpful.

Yeah, absolutely. So it's, I mean, it's very simple. Respect each other. You know, act with integrity. Make sure that, you know, you're, you're. You put yourself in other People's perspective when you're, you know, having issues with them. And. And do we fail? Oh, my goodness. Every single day? Do we forget about the code of values all the time? Do we have to, you know, go back to the system and, you know, figure out was we did wrong and. And fix it? Absolutely. We are by no means perfect people.

You're not?

No, not last time I checked. Really?

Oh, my gosh. I could have sworn you were. That's why I invited you on the show. I'm kidding.

Well, what a liar I turned out. No, we. But, I mean, I. I think that it's made us be stronger people. It's made us be a stronger family. And, you know, it's not easy working with your spouse. Oh, my goodness, is it? It's a challenge sometimes. But, you know, we. We do have a lot of respect for each other, and. And we had to navigate through that. You know, what is your responsibilities? What are my responsibilities? You know, where. Where do we come together? And we, you know, all decisions in this area are made together. And, you know, things that we, you know, we know that if that person can't do those things, I can step in and do them. But for the most part, that is that person's job. We, you know, it took us a long time to get to a point where we could respect those boundaries and. And work really, really well together. But, I mean, we even ride into work and go home every day together, almost every day together, because we just enjoy spending that time. Don was actually out on a job site most of the day yesterday, and when he came back to the office, I was like, I missed you today. Like, I really missed you. So it just. I don't know, we had to work through that. And having that code of values, both for air serve and for our family, helped out tremendously.

That's really great to know. And now your oldest son also works in the business, too. So now we're adding another element of family dynamics into business dynamics. Is that same thing looking at those different code of values, is that helping you navigate working with your son and also being his mother?

I think so. I mean, because we are kind of a family organization. We're all very close anyways, so, you know, Austin coming on board, it was such a good fit because he does have. He's got a great sense of humor, and he's charismatic, and he. He is a helper by nature, so he wants. Wants people around him to be happy with the work that he's done. And so I think that that has really helped out a lot for him to just find his place in, in the organization. But I will say, much like, you know, the. Everybody thinks, oh, the, the coach's kid gets away with everything, but in truth, the coach's kid is the one that, you know, runs the most drills and, you know, their parents get upset with them the easiest and things like that, and they don't, they really don't get away with anything. It's very much like for us, for the boss's kid, you know, and our, our employees, they don't treat Austin like he's the boss's kid. They treat him like he is an employee here and he's a member of the team. And, you know, he never has. Has, to my knowledge, has never said, you know, well, I'm just going to go tell my mom and dad, you know, or, or you can't treat me like that because I'm the boss's kid. He's never had that mentality. We, I mean, we've never raised him with that mentality. He, when he was 13 years old, he was, you know, one of our helpers out there, stretching out duct work and working in addicts. And there's never been a thing that we've asked him to do that we weren't willing to do ourselves or vice versa. And we just. I, I hope. I, I feel like we've done a good job of letting him know that, you know, there's no advantage here to being the boss's kid, that he has to work his way up just like everybody else.

And you also didn't put expectations on him to join the business. I know that, too.

Yes.

That was something that you and Don never necessarily wanted for either of your children or expected. I shouldn't say wanted, but more, you never expected or you had no expectations of them to join the family business.

Right. So Don's parents were in the convenience store business, and they really wanted him to, you know, take over the family convenience stores, and it just wasn't his thing. He's always enjoyed working with his hands. He. He knew from high school that he wanted to be in the trades, and so that was kind of a hard transition for his parents to realize that he was gonna, you know, be his own person in life and do his own thing. But, you know, they're. They're exceptionally proud of him now for, you know, going off on his own and being his own person and, you know, his, his passion and his career. And so we said that we were going to do the same for our kids. You know, Austin, by the grace of God, has come into the business with us. Now will he stay forever? I don't know. You know, maybe. Maybe life will take him somewhere else, but for now, he's in the fold. And, you know, I think it's great, but is he gonna buy the business one day? I'm. I don't know. That's not anything that we're gonna, you know, make him do. If he comes to us and says, this is where I see myself going, we'll absolutely support him, but. And then our middle child, Lauren, she's going to college right now to be in biochemistry, so she. She's not got any grandeur of working in the business. She. She worked in the business for approximately one week, and we were like, you know what? This is not a good fit. So. And then Allison is our wild card. We'll see what she does. I don't know. She. Oh, my gosh, she's high maintenance, so she's probably gonna have to come to Workforce just to have some. Some nail and toto money.

I. I absolutely love. This is one of the things when I first spoke with you, Rebecca, I was like, I need to have her on the show because you're just so dry. Like, you're just deadpan with some of this stuff, and it cracks me up. And I know our listeners appreciate it too, because there is nothing more refreshing than somebody telling it like it is, which I think you've done a great job of doing so far. Now, I would be remiss if I did not chat with you about marketing, because as you said in our last one of our. One of our calls, it is your Jammy Jam.

So. My Jammy Jam.

And I know that that was something that you really got to embrace once you joined Airserve. So tell me about your most memorable or successful marketing campaign.

Oh, my gosh. Well, I will honestly say that there have been a lot of stinkers, a lot that I was so excited about. And I thought, man, this is the one. This is. This is the marketing campaign that is just going to, you know, set our air conditioning company above everybody else in town. And then it was an absolute flop. And so I think just any campaign that you can see that return on investment, any campaign where I can go inside service titan and see that that campaign made us money, is one that I get really, really exc. Out. But, you know, not to tie this into marketing pro, because I know that that's probably a whole separate conversation. But I will tell you some of my favorite campaigns have been here recently since we've been on marketing pro and getting to, you know, have that cohesive email campaign, direct mail campaign, you know, all put together and you know, also have the SMS go out. That is phenomenal. So I'm loving being able to use my creative side, which is really why I like marketing. I'm a creative person. I'm very right brained. My husband is very left brained. He is very analytical and logical and I am very creative and you know, crazy and I live in chaos and he has to reign me back in sometimes. But so any marketing campaign where I can, you know, just get creative and have fun with it is probably some of my favorite ones. I really love running like drawings and contests and you know, things like that. We don't make a lot off of it but they're always so fun and you know, people always remember them. So I, I like that. We did one, one time. Probably one of the most memorable ones we did that was a stinker. Was, was a 12 days of Christmas campaign. It was probably four or five years ago, I guess. And oh man, I put so much work into that because every single day was a new, a new drawing, a new contest for 12 days and I did graphics and I did prizes and I did all kinds of stuff. And by the end if somebody said 12 days of Christmas to me, I probably was going to punch them in the face because I legitimately was tired of that campaign and it reaped no rewards whatsoever. So the following year someone in our office was like, are we going to do the 12 Days of Christmas again? And I was like, shut your mouth. That is not happening. No, never will we ever do that again.

So yeah, when Rebecca said this one was a stinker, I'm literally walking off screen. I am, I am just loving this because I'm, I'm in marketing obviously. I've been, I've been in marketing my whole career more or less. And sometimes, man, it's the, it's the initiatives you spend the most time on that just like fizzle out. But then the, the half baked idea that you throw out as like a. We could try this ends up being the most successful one. You know, you mentioned contests and drawings. Are you like putting in contests for like get a free installation or like what does that look like? Because I haven't really heard those explained to me. So I would love to hear what you're doing.

Yeah, so some of them. And you're right. So it is, it's the, it's the half baked ideas that I spent five minutes on, then end up, you know, having this huge return on investment. I'm like, how did that even happen? One of the ones that we just did and it was a lot of fun to do was Super Bowl. So I'm. I'm not a huge. Unless. Unless my team is playing in the Super Bowl. I really could care less about it. But we did a Super bowl campaign and it was the super bowl showdown. And right. Whenever they announced who the two teams going to the super bowl were, opened it up and we let people vote for whoever they thought was going to win the Super Bowl. And then the. The day after the super bowl, that Monday, we pulled from the Chiefs anybody who voted for the Chiefs. We did a drawing, a random drawing, actually. I have a computer program I put everybody's names into from a spreadsheet and it randomly draws a winner. And it's great because I don't have the, you know, I don't have to sit here and be like, well, did I? Actually, you know, I don't. Well, I don't know this person, you know, so I might be able to just put everybody in there. And it's random. So I. It was a TV. It was a 50 inch flat screen TV that they won. And so actually, as luck would have it, one of our really good customers, who's been a customer of ours for like six or seven years, but fantastic guy, he won the tv. And initially we were just going to have one of the technicians, you know, drop it off at their house house. But when we found out who it was, the whole office went and we delivered the tv. We put a big red bow on it. His name's Mark. We put a big red bow on it, we delivered the TV to him and he was thrilled. Him and his wife were just tickled pink. They took a bunch of pictures with the TV for us. And so, you know, just things like that. Some of them are air conditioning related. We'll put a drawing in for free Advantage plan or, you know, your supply of filters or free UV light or something like that. But honestly, some of the most fun ones have nothing to do with air conditioning. It's just to gain traction on our Facebook page. And that's what this one here was for, you know, likes and shares on the Facebook page. So perfect.

Yeah.

Mark will never forget that he got that TV from air service. So when he does need a new system, who's he gonna call? Right? The folks he got the TV from. Oh, yeah.

Oh my goodness. I would never forget that. If I got a free TV from one of my local companies. No, that, that's who I'm going to from now on. That is so cool. I don't know why, but there was something in my mind that was like, are all their drawings and contests H vac related? But no, I guess you could do a drawing on anything. Like I know we've done it at Service Titan, like free iPads and, and whatnot. But I think that's such a cool way and I love that your entire team came in because that's just showing up for the community and you know, seeing your see everyone seeing each other's faces, I know that that is such a big part of, you know, I grew up in a town of 2 million, so I have a bit of a skew. 20,000 versus 2 million. Like I, as a city, as a city kid, I'm a city kid. Like there's no other way to put it. I speaking with a lot of folks for this podcast, like community engagement is so integral to success, especially if you are in not a borough of 2 million people. So I think that must have had like such a nice ripple effect through the community just going through and giving Mark that television.

I, I hope so. And actually Mark works for our local police department so honestly couldn't have been a more deserving person. Uh, he, he said I cannot wait to go to the police station and tell everybody about the new TV I got and we'll have the next super bowl party at our house. So yes, it was, it was very rewarding to get to see how excited he was. And like I said it, it's crazy that it was so random because it couldn't have gone to a better person. He has referred us so many times and has used us loyally for many years. And his daughter, and I'm sorry, his son and daughter in law use us loyally. And so we were really excited. Like I said, the whole team was excited when they found out who it was that got the tv. But I think, you know, some, some things that we do, I think have a bigger impact on the community and some things, you know, they are a little smaller, maybe a little more private. But the person who is involved never forgets that. I know I wouldn't.

Yeah. And I think that's actually a big part of why so many people find this career so rewarding is because you truly get to see that, that, that one on one interaction with the customer. You really, when you are able to provide exceptional service or able to give them a little something Extra. I know that. That. That's something that I think a lot of people take a lot of pride in and drives their purpose for running these companies. So I love that we got to talk about that a bit.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, one of the things that was kind of taught to us through airserv is everything you do in your community, people are watching. Right, Right. Good or bad, eyeballs are on you. And so not only are our vehicles huge billboards going down the road, but our people are as well. And one of the best Facebook posts we ever had was two of my guys were in a van. They were on their way to a maintenance call. A little old lady had a flat tire on the side of the road. They pulled over and helped her change her tire. And she took a picture of them changing the tire and put it on Facebook and tagged us in it. That our guy guys stopped what they were doing and helped her change her tire. And that Facebook post got more likes and shares than probably any other Facebook post we've ever done. And, you know, we didn't do it for. For that. We did it because it was the right thing to do. But, you know, I think people are afraid to use those moments as a way to plug their business. And did we do it because we want to plug Air Serve? No, but she. She took the picture. She put it out into the world. And so we were able to say, hey, you know, this is our team. These are the people who you're calling to your house. Right. They'll stop on the side of the road, even though they're running late to a maintenance call and probably will have to miss lunch because of this, they'll stop on the side of the road and, you know, help somebody out. And anytime you're part of a. An organization that does things like that, you know, it just makes you feel even better about, you know, those people.

So, yeah, that's so great. I want to wrap up our section on marketing a bit. You mentioned now several channels, email, direct mail, texting, Facebook. Is there one channel you get more or less success with? Like, which do you have a favorite channel? Which ones are performing the best for you?

Well, honestly, the recurring services on the sms SMS campaign has been one of the best. That was like a brilliant thing for a system for service titan to put into place because it really helps us connect with our customers and we don't have to take the time to sit there and call each one individually. And I know that there's something to be said for that personalized touch. And there are people who don't respond through the sms and we do end up having to call them. But so many more people book maintenance calls with us than the past. Because I don't know what it is about picking up the phone and calling somebody. Like, I would rather take a butt whoop and then have to pick up the phone and call somebody to get something done. But if I can just shoot them a quick text, you better believe that's what I'm going to do. So I don't know what it is about that. People love it. And then email campaigns, we've, we've honest to goodness had so much traction on some of our, you know, drip campaigns through marketing Pro, some of our estimate follow up campaigns, a thank you campaign, you know, you wouldn't think that you would get a lot of return on investment on an email that's going out thanking people for already using airserv. But for whatever reason they're seeing that thank you and then it's reminding them, oh, I need to, you know, that technician told me I needed to go over this here. And then they call back either with questions or can you please send me the estimate or, you know, whatever. And so we've actually even gotten some ROI on, you know, thank you campaigns. So I love email and email, like I said before, email is a way for me to be able to use my creative side. I Canva and I are like this. Canva is my love language. So yeah, I, I love getting on there and doing all the things and throwing them inside of a marketing pro email and zapping it out there and, you know, seeing what sticks.

Yeah, yes, big Canva user here. I respect and love all of the designers I work with. I cannot do work that they do. But give me Canva and I can do something. Thank you for sh. Shouting out all those campaigns. And I just wanted to make one note about the thank you campaign. You know, I think for a lot of marketing these days, it's just keeping folks top of mind. And like you said, you know, getting that thank you email can remind a customer or homeowner, you know, oh, yes, and I also have to do this and so it makes sense why that would generate some ROI for you guys. You mentioned your creativity. For anyone who's watching the video, you've got a lovely office that is decorated with like all these very cool plant like wall plants. I have something similar. You can't see it in my frame, but it's one of the reasons you and I connected when, you know, we first Met. Where do you, where do you go when you are looking to spark creativity for yourself?

Well, I have a craft room at my house. I'm a crafter. I have a craft room at my house. It took me getting a couple kids out the house before I could convert a bedroom into a craft. But that is sort of my de stress, safe space, if you will. And I love the fact that I have a whole room to myself because I don't have to put my projects up. You know, whenever I'm not working on them, I can just close the door and leave. It is fantastic. So. But right now our son is actually getting married. Austin. He's getting married. And so I've been working on a lot of wedding stuff, just, you know, all the things that go along with a wedding. So I'm, I'm loving being able to, to do that. But as far as, you know, creativity goes, my, my mom's a super creative person and so I grew up in the sewing room. She loved to sew, she loved to craft, she loved to do all the things. And so I, I don't know, I just sort of picked up on it. My dad's super musically talented and so I really like music as well. And so between the music and my crafts, that's like my happy place, place. And my best friend Melissa, she hates crafting. It gives her hives. But she will come sit in my craft room with me and drink glass wine while I craft. So it's fantastic.

That's a good friend. That's a good friend.

Yes.

I also love crafting. I also have crafting. So we'll also have to create the crafting for the trade spin off in addition to our chocolate for the trade stuff.

Definitely.

Final questions for you, Rebecca. Final question. What are your personal hopes for the business five, ten years from now?

I think much like probably anybody who's listening to this, my hope is that some person in a massive Cadillac with long horns in the front and a 10 gallon cowboy hat throws open the door of this business and says, I want to buy this air conditioning shop. How much? And then just writes us a check back. Like, that's, that's the hope, right? Barring that not happening. Right. I think that the biggest thing for me is I just want to continue to see us grow. I want to continue to be able to be a blessing for the people that we work for and for our customers and let them be a blessing to us because that's really what it's all about. And I want to make money and go on trip trips and spend time with my kids and eventually my grandkids. And I'm just super thrilled that we own our own business. So we will have the flexibility to be able to do those things whenever the time comes. And you know, for anybody out there who is, you know, on the beginning of owning their own business, I would say stick with it because one day you will realize that you're no longer working in the business business, you're now working on the business and those are the times where you can leave and you know that you know it's not going to burn down while you're gone, right? You're going to be able to spend time away from the business and know that everything's okay. So five years, I hope that we're able to, you know, step away a couple days a week and be able to enjoy our time in life. Five years from now, we'll be empty nesters. And so I'd like to be able to do some traveling and know that, you know, even if we do still own the business, which that's the plan, it's still running like clockwork even if we're not there. And 10 years from now, I don't know, maybe moving on to the next thing, maybe, maybe we'll start a new location or you know, start doing something completely different. Maybe I'll open up a marketing business or go to craft fairs. I don't know.

I love that. Rebecca. Well, thank you so much for joining me until watch the trades. I'm so happy I got to share your story. Thanks for cracking me up today.

Thank you so much for having me. This has been so much fun.