Pantheon Live 2023: Beautiful Things Are Born Out Of Adversity | Ep. 141 | Toolbox for the Trades

Amanda Triolo, Bree Skippington. Welcome back to Toolbox for the Trades. We are live at pantheon 2023. How you both doing?

Doing great. How are you?

I'm doing fantastic.

Bri, how are you?

Happy to be here. Super stoked. Thanks for having us.

So, Amanda, you are from Grasshopper in Saratoga, and Bri, you're with Ad Leverage, and you guys work together to make marketing magic for the industry. You guys were on a few episodes ago talking all about ChatGPT, so I recommend anyone who's listening to that, they should go back listen to that. But you two are here because we are at Pantheon. And I did the mistake. I made a mistake. I made a boo boo. I told Ishmael Valdez that his podcast is the most popular, which is true as of this recording. And you want to beat him, don't you?

We're out to beat Ishmael.

We are going to beat Ishmael.

So we put our three brains together and we've decided that we want to get vulnerable on today's episode of Toolbox for the Trades. By the way, I also want you both to know this is the very first full length podcast episode I'm ever recording at Pantheon.

Hashtag female power. Ishmael, what an honor.

So we were talking before about how it's so tough when you're on social media all the time. It's so easy to compare your life to other people's highlight reels. And we're going to talk a bit today about how the two of you got into the trades and some of the challenges you've come across personally and how you've overcome them regardless of those. Does that sound good?

Yeah, absolutely.

So let's get it. Let's get into first things first. How did you get into the trades? Amanda, why don't you start?

So, in 2016, I actually stepped in to take over a commercial insult only company that was failing at the time. So I signed my name to a lot of debt and, you know, slipping houses at the time. And I was managing an accounting office. So I thought, okay, I know numbers, right? I can do this no problem. You know, I'm down for a challenge. I can flip a house and make money even when things go wrong. Let's do it. So I learned within, like, two months that it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. And what happened was I was like, okay, I actually might go bankrupt here, right? So that was, like, time number one, that I thought I was going to go bankrupt. And you, like, battle through it. You start to make some money, then you lose some people, then you start to make some money, then you can't find good people. And then it's like you get a job, then they threaten they're going to sue you if you don't finish it in deadline. And then it's like unrealistic job deadlines and high stress work environments. So it's really hard to retain people. And when you're a small company trying to grow, it makes it almost impossible when you're in the commercial world, I mean, it's public bid work. They take the lowest bidder, and that means that you are the lowest dollar amount. Right. So how much meat is there really left on the bone at the end of the day? Not much. And so for a while, I started to research residential and how do you get into the residential market? And I couldn't figure out how to pivot from commercial to residential without going bankrupt. So it's like you battle between, is there enough money in the bank for payroll? Can I pay my vendor this week? And so the thing is, a lot of people can like, look at my Facebook page or listen to podcasts and be like, oh, she's an overnight success. But the thing about it is, like, if you just have a conversation with me, it's the furthest thing from the truth because there was at least seven times where I thought I was going to go bankrupt. We came back from, actually right before COVID hit, we actually were having meetings where we were pivoting how to get ourselves out of the financial mess that we were in. There's eighteen hundred dollars left in the bank. And then Covid hit, so it's like, what are you going to do? And Covid was actually like the game changer for us that, you know, the governor of New York shut down construction job sites like we talked about. And so that was the. That was the excuse to be able to get out of commercial and into residential, which was a beautiful thing. So it's like, I think beautiful things are born out of adversity. And, you know, you can be a victim to adversity or you can let it be the reason why you didn't succeed your whole life, where you can take it and learn from it and become something great.

That's amazing. Beautiful things are bred out of adversity. I think that's the title for this episode. Maybe one of my producer is in Eye Shot, which is so rare when I get to record, and I think he likes it. Thank you so much for being honest about that. I love talking about that kind of stuff on this podcast because it's true. I'm on the Facebook pages. I'm looking at everyone, like, talking about their numbers, talking about their annual revenue, and it can get so intimidating sometimes. So I love it when people get real about, like, no, I almost went bankrupt seven times.

Yeah. Our first year in business, we made 800,000. The next year was 1.2 million. The next year was 1.7 million. The next year was 2.1 million. So it's like, there's no overnight success here. Right. It's like you battle and you battle and you battle, and you've got to find a way through. And, like, thank God that Covid happened, to be honest. I mean, you know, I know I shut down a lot of businesses, and so it was a horrible thing. But for people that use those like. Like, trials as a triumph in their life is, you know, you can. Anything can come out of anything bad if you just shift your perspective and you're able to take a hurdle and pivot differently if you need to. That's why our tagline is forward as a way of life.

I love that. I'm going to get to Bree in shortly, I promise you, Bree. But I have to ask Amanda, did you always have that mindset, or was that something that you learned you had to teach yourself?

So I think I've always been this way as a person, but I think, you know, being in a place of having to fear and worry about, you know, sense of security and financial means and am I going to make it, and understanding the weight that leadership carries that you're responsible for more than just yourself, you know, I carry that burden, and I don't take it lightly. And so for those reasons, it's like, I am. I am a survivor, and it's like, I'm not going to fall victim to hard things that come my way, and I'll find a way. But to this day, even with, like, any decision that we make at Grasshopper, I mean, even with having ad leverage as a marketing partner. Right. It's like anything that we say yes to always comes with the weight of leadership. And what does the weight of this decision mean for the people I'm responsible for? Like, that is how I. Those are the things I think about before I go to bed every night.

Yeah. That is so important. That's the way I like to think, too. And I think that's really a mark of a good leader and someone who creates a culture that people are going to stay at.

That's the goal.

Let's shift momentarily. You've done such a great job. I love how vulnerable you just got. Bree, I don't know how you're going to follow that, but I know you'll be able to. I'm not.

I'm going to reach, deepen, expose some things.

That's. That's how we're going to beat it here.

So, Bri, tell me a little bit about your story. You know, I asked Amanda, how did she get into the trade? She went right into it. So why don't you tell me your story?

Yeah, and that's so funny. We're both so competitive. So now I got to. Now I got to beat Amanda in the vulnerability game. She's going to reach Steve. So my intro to the trades actually was kind of. So a little bit after my intro to marketing. My way into marketing was essential, actually. My mom was always in marketing. She does outdoor. Pushed me into pursuing that in high school. I drop out of high school, I started throwing parties for a living. We call that marketing. These days. You're just having people attend your Facebook events. They show up in real life. It's like, oh, shit, I'm actually a marketer now.

Right.

I could do this and make money out of doing something like Experience. Yeah, it's endorsed on LinkedIn. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I have some of that. So, yeah, got into that. And then it's funny, I'm like, my dad moved to la. I'm like, hey, I like it there. It's cool. I want to move to la. So I started interviewing and a few agencies. Ad Leverage was one. My first interview with Andrew. He was like, completely disregarding me. He's so busy. He's, like, consumed in his job.

Right?

He's, like consumed in his computer. And at the end of the interview, I'm like, you don't seem interested. I'm like, is. What about my qualifications are you hesitant about? And he's like, well, you don't seem to work with the kind of. The clientele that we've got here at Ad Leverage. And I was like, well, I think marketing kind of transcends industries. I know you think I'm primarily events and hospitality, but I'd love a shot at proving you wrong and whatever it is. So he gave me the very friendly challenge of, I'd like you to make a social media plan for a funeral home. I was like, well, for a funeral. For a funeral home. Yeah. So, you know, that's naturally okay.

I just. I just pause real quick. I started my career in social media. So did my call my work wife, Natalie, who's out there right now. I cannot fathom why anyone would follow a funeral home.

Yeah, you know, I'm pretty sure he just wanted me to quit right away and just not even give it an attempt. But naturally I'm very competitive. Gave it a shot and I guess he liked it. I guess it looked good. So started with ad leverage. And I think the first client, one of the first clients I got was Mario Camparano who owns Express Electrical Services. I believe he was just Mario.

Do you know if he's here?

He's not, unfortunately. And Today is his 50th birthday. Texted him this morning. I really wanted him to be here, so I give him a big birthday hug. But no, he's not. But yeah, it's been crazy throughout the years, I mean, and I've gone through trial and error with him a ton. He's taken a big leap of faith with me with the agency building up our home services portfolio, our service site knowledge.

Right.

It's been a very like, hands on learning experience with him. So we've doubled down in the trades. Especially as Covid came about. It was the one advertiser that didn't quit.

Right.

Like car dealerships were stopping, everybody was stopping advertising.

But home services was popping some services, jacked that up.

It's been insane. So fortunately been working with Johnny Dylan, able to kind of like work together on some of the ads products that they're rolling out. So it just has kind of become like our DNA now. It's like home services is what we support, who supports us. It's a thing.

That's awesome. And so you're still working at the first place you worked at when you moved to Los Angeles. That does not happen often. You know, I think I went through about 30 something jobs before I finally landed at service titan. So going into like not comparing people's success to their. Your success, your life to people's highlight reels, I like stumbled in this career. I like, I had no I. Why am I here?

I feel like the most beautiful stories are born of how did I even get into the home service industry.

I mean, I don't think any of us like grew like, thought about like, when I grow up, I'm gonna run a multi million dollar H Vac company, or when I grew up I'm gonna host a podcast for H Vac technicians and electricians, or when I grow up, I'm gonna do advertising for electricians and H Vac folks.

But here we are and we're all.

Happy in our position. So it really just goes to show, kind of got to be open to stuff. House flipping, throwing parties. I have a comedy background. What the hell, man? Why are we here?

Crazy life together. We can create beautiful things.

I know. So we've been talking for a few minutes. I want to get a little bit more content. I have to tell you guys, I have had several partners on the podcast. Like, several. Like, hey, we're this person's partner. Like, we work together. I have never seen people that I interviewed as a duo on the podcast in real life just being friends. And you guys just have such an infectious energy. So tell me about what it's like working with one another.

Honestly, like, right when I met Bri, she's like, one of those people that's a really real, raw, genuine person. And the funny thing is, is, like, I'm actually really bad at texting, like, like, responding back because I'm, like, so focused on the company day to day stuff in my team that, like, if other messages come in and out. This was before we were working together. But Bri, like, remained consistent, like, with the marketing stuff, right? And so I'm like, one day I was like, oh, my gosh, Kelly. I never respond to ad libraries. Like, I got to respond. So anyway, the funny part is, like, I did respond to her for a little while, but she's consistent and she's a great person. And the thing about being friends with somebody like that is that it's hard to find somebody on my age level that's on the same, like, mental caliber wavelength. With Bri, it's like, we're very similar in age, and we both have big goals and aspirations in life and want to accomplish big things. So it's like, it's awesome. She challenges me, I challenge her. Sometimes it's like, now we disagree with one another, but working it through the disagreement, you know, tell me a bit about what it's like working with Amanda.

Brie. It's awesome. I mean, obviously very friendly, dynamic, but she challenges me a ton. I mean, is not afraid to FaceTime me and tell me the marketing budget's too high last month and I want to talk about it. So it's awesome. I mean, I love a challenge. Obviously, we're constantly, you know, in that same mindset of, like, competing to win at marketing, at home, services, at whatever it is that whatever that challenge is right in front of you. So that's been cool and kind of how we've, like, stumbled into creating cxc Right. Is it's like there was this challenge of, hey, what, what time looks like and how, how time's being spent and how we can utilize ChatGPT to make something cool and like, tackled that. And I don't know, it's just a fun, friendly dynamic.

I love it.

Remind the folks listening if they didn't listen to your first episode what CXC is. Oh, these.

Do you have to memorize the mission?

No.

I'll let you.

Which one of them knows their companies vision statement better?

We exist to create unimaginable growth. Go ahead, finish the second half.

Okay. The word revolutionizers in it, that's the important one I really want to drive home because I came up with it.

So we exist to create unimaginable growth to revolutionize the customer experience.

And the customer experience, yes.

I mean, I got it like 95% down.

Here's the important thing. We slay robots. You know, we're gonna leverage it for your business.

The beautiful part about it though, is it's artificial intelligence and it's call by call. Right? And so at Grasshopper, I know we talked about this quickly on the other episode, but I stepped into call by call management to figure out what we were doing right, what we were doing wrong, where we are missing opportunities and like, what's actually going on here. And so when I stepped into that, I actually unpacked a ton. Like, a ton of opportunities we were missing and losing. So we were just in conversation when, like, we talked about challenging one another. She asked me, what was your biggest time suck? Right? And I'm like, call by call management. Like, it takes up so much time when you're talking to technicians. Okay, what did the homeowner say? What did you inform and educate on? What kind of personality are we dealing with? What's important to them? What are their needs, wants, desires, and just understanding. Well, what were we there for? Right? It's a lot when you unpack a call. And so she's like, you know, maybe we can find a way to. To revolutionize this and streamline this. And I'm like, yeah, right, That'll be the day. But believe it or not, we brought it to life.

Amazing. You guys should be so proud of that. We'll link it again in the show notes so people can go to it. Now, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about Pantheon.

Is this both of you?

This is not your first pantheon.

This is my first pantheon.

That's your first pantheon. Oh, my gosh.

I'm Pumped to be here.

I am so excited for you to be here. What about you? Is this your first one?

It's my second, so I was at.

The one in LA last year. Super cool.

But I don't know, this is looking pretty awesome.

We got over 3,000 people here. This is insane. So, Amanda, tell me, what are you most excited about for Pantheon?

Honestly, when I was going through the session schedule and, like, looking at the sessions I wanted to attend, there were at least six different instances where there was multiple sessions at a time that I really wanted to be at. And I'm like, okay, what are my goals this year and what sessions can I attend this year that are aligned with them? Because there's multiple sessions in each time slot that I really wanted to be at. So just unpacking what the goals were, what was going to like, what's one thing I know I could get from that, that's going to push the needle that much further for us. So I'm excited to learn a ton. I came here to learn. I've got some people from my team here, and I love to pick up anything and anything that'll help us move forward that, you know, in any direction there.

So I love that. Re. What about you? What are you excited to learn more about?

I couldn't really hear Amanda, but I was pretty sure she said my speaking slot was the first one. Yeah, it was the first on her agenda. Okay. She wants to make sure none of the team misses that.

Okay.

It's the. It's the headline, right? I'm super excited. Y' all have Venus Williams. That's pretty cool. That's a pretty cool headline. I'd love seeing, like, how somebody who has excelled so much in sports or whatever it is. How does that, like, relate to home services? So how. I think ours has her, right? Like how they're going to, you know, extract that kind of. That performance spirit out of her to relate to the home services industry, I think is going to be really cool. So.

So you're speaking a little bit. All right, well, what do you see? This is going to come out after, so you can spoil it. What are you talking about?

Okay, so I think we're talking basically through Marketing Pro Ads Optimizer. So essentially how you're able to take, like your revenue from service site and poured it into the ad platforms and leverage that data for optimizations to generate more revenue, it's pretty wild. It's pretty incredible what they've developed. So we actually developed something similar at Ad Leverage that we have been Using for two and a half, three years. So I think one of the case studies we're walking through is next gen and it literally just sent them from like utilizing Google Ads and being able to generate like $2 million a year out of it. This year they're going to generate 40 and that's non branded. Like it's insane. The proportion of their business that it represents is just ridiculous. And we've been able to do that only by way of pulling the revenue out of service site and getting it into the ad platform. So that's what we're going to be showing people what to do, how to do it with your guys product and it's been, it's been awesome dude.

I can I just tell you working for a company that develops something like Marketing Pro is so humbling. I've worked for many startups before coming here that don't exist anymore. And the fact it always like warm sounds cheesy but it warms my heart to know that I'm working for a brand that actually has a really valuable product. And you were telling me before we hit record Amanda, that Marketing Pro gave you like tremendous ROI right away, right?

Yeah. So I was really hesitant to jump into Marketing Pro because of the price point. It's a hard price point to swallow sometimes for smaller contractors who are just finding their way. Right. We talked about humble beginnings. You know it was a lot of money for a smaller contract in the beginning but I was like okay. So out of curiosity we tried our first campaign, we tried with Marketing Pro. I spent like six hours trying to figure out how to optimize it myself. Like we didn't have an agency partnership at the time. Right. So I was really learning everything.

I love it when the owner also like puts on their marketing hat and they're like I will design this email now I've opened an email and I can do it.

I sure did. And we launched a follow up campaign for Rehash actually and we were like well let's just try a one day only 10% off email campaign and launch it to all open estimates. And so we did and we had, we were just picking up the phone call and hey, just wanted to make sure you receive the email today. You get 10% off of any open estimate. It's good until end of day today. And then we'd have the math all figured out. So we're like let's just call so they know how much they're saving. Make sure they got the email. And so myself and Kara in my office actually we are. Both of us were calling and we were able to close $216,000 in almost 10 business days. And we were like, whoa, I don't care what the monthly expenses anymore.

That's awesome.

Yeah, that's. Now obviously that's, that's a one time campaign that we set up. Right. So I'd imagine, you know, we still sometimes have a rehash campaign, but finding success like that is, you've obviously got to also put the work in it. Like you can't just turn on an email, send it out and say marketing, marketing pro. Didn't work because I didn't sell anything. Like there's some work that goes into it, but just being able to have that as a resource that can even filter down to all open estimates was awesome.

So I want to know, I have a couple more questions for you ladies and then I'm going to release you out to the wild. You've been so like, I so appreciate the time. I think you're both brilliant and I love that I know you, you're both so smart and I could tell that you're both sponges for information. What podcasts, what books, like, what do you listen to? Like, what do you use to like, get your gears turning? How do you learn? And like, how are you always, you know, figuring out, finding out what you don't know?

So I love leadership podcasts. So the Craig Groeschel leadership podcast is one of my favorite podcasts. But I also have a leadership coach that I hired for myself. Nice. And so he's got me on this awesome like, coaching schedule where he challenges me. I have what's called growth work instead of homework. And you know, it's books. Like right now I'm having to learn how to play chess, which I, I don't know how to play chess, but I'm learning how to play chess. But he, he challenges me and forces me to think about things differently and challenges me to read. And sometimes my growth work is reading, but Good Degree is one of my favorite books I've ever read. And but the thing about growing, right, is you've gotta some people, like, I know people that read like 100 books a year. Right. But what are you doing with the information that you're retaining? So I try and be very intentional about what I spend my time learning and researching and reading, which is kind of why I have a leadership coach as well, because it's streamlined for me and what my goals are. But that's been like my biggest developmental token today.

I love that. Thanks for sharing. And I agree. I mean, I sometimes, like, love that. That number of, like, I read 100 books this year, but it's like. But did you, you know, can you tell me what you learned from it?

All of them and. Right. Like, what. Life change has come from that. Right. But another thing too is, like, where I learn is I reach out and ask questions to people that are much smarter than me. Right?

Yeah.

Like people like Bri, People like, you know, our partnership at AD Leverage, People that are in. In higher positions that I aspire to be to someday. Right. I ask them questions. And, like, you can't be afraid to ask questions just because you don't know or be embarrassed that you don't know. Like, I learned very early on, the more humble that you are as a person, like, people respect that, you know, and there's some people that'll take the time and answer you, and there's some people that'll ignore you, but just ask the question. You never know.

I think humility is such a important quality to have just in life, especially in this industry. And you were so humble just at the top of this episode, talking about all of your stuff. And so get ready, people are going to approach you with a ton of questions now. I know they already do, but now they really are. Bri, how do you learn? Like, what is what stuff? Like, are you excited about how do you expand your mind, all that stuff?

Definitely don't read 100 books a year for sure. Probably lucky to get one a year. But of them, I actually have a four tattoo because I was really into the four hour work week and another book called 4,000 weeks, they're kind of on different ends of the spectrum, but the four Hour Work Week, to me is like, so much about time value. And it's actually funny that that's how we stumbled into the CXC conversation is what's your biggest time suck?

Yeah.

And how can you optimize that? So it's. It's taught me a ton. Why I'm, like, so interested in leveraging ChatGPT.

Right.

Is because of the ways in which you can save time and utilize your time more effectively.

Right.

That's a huge one for me. And then 4,000 weeks is about the brevity of life. It's making you think about your own mortality, which is very humbling, as we were just discussing. So try to be in when you.

I think that perspective, though, is so important. Like, you think of, you know, it's so easy to get wrapped up in technology in your Business, you know, there you can numb through work like you could be a workaholic and that can be bad. But when you actually put it into perspective of your life, like, what am I actually doing here? I only have 4000 weeks. How am I using this week? I think that's so smart.

Yeah.

So thank you so much for sharing that final question. And then I'm going to let you go. If someone approached you, either of you, just a random, and they're like, I'm thinking about starting a career in the trades, what would you say to them?

So our mission statement as a company, right. Is we create opportunities that change lives and lead people to make great decisions. I'm not passionate about heating and cooling at all, but it's like having to evaluate what am I passionate about as an individual and as the owner of the company. What does that mean for a company that I want to be able to grow and develop and lead people with. Right. So it just so happens that through heating and cooling we're able to create opportunities that change lives. And that is my purpose. Right. Being able to facilitate, helping somebody, you know, become from good to great or helping somebody become the best version of themselves. I think it's funny that it's through heating and cooling, through the home service industry, but it's just find what you love and find your purpose and passion and feel it through that.

I love that. Re, what would you say?

Yeah, I mean, with that? I mean like the trades, funeral homes, not super glamorous. Right. But it's a medium that helps you facilitate, like Amanda said, and what drives her opportunities. Right. In any situation it has the stigma.

Right.

Like when they took trade classes out of the school, blue collar, you don't want to do that. You don't want to work with your hands. Like, I mean, I'm literally looking out at a sea of millionaires right now. Not going to lie. And all of these people are in, are in the trades like it's a no brainer.

Exactly that.

Yeah. And there's so much money to be made. And the beautiful thing is it's not a one size fits all model.

Yeah.

You can focus on maintenance, you can focus on install, you can focus on service, you can focus on residential, commercial, you can focus on plumbing, electrical, H vac. Like it's not a one size fits all model. So if you don't want to have high risk and you don't want to have aggressive growth goals, don't and still make a great living for you and your family, you know, heck yeah.

Ladies, thank you so much for doing a podcast. I'm pretty sure this one may blow Ishmael out of the water. What if I just title it Screw you, Ishmael? Xoxo, Bri and Amanda, can we.

I mean, will it go viral?

It might be. It might work. Thank you guys so much, and I hope you have a great time at Pantheon.