Ep. 150 - Creating Your Success Story | Brian Elias

What you're going to do is you're going to create a list every week, okay? And you're going to execute on 100% of your list. Then every day before you start your day, you're going to spend 1 hour of your day planning your day to make sure you're going to knock out that list. And you want to make sure that you fill your day doing things that are working on your business not in your business. This is the Wealthy Contractor Podcast brought to you by G4 Marketing. Interviews with today's top home improvement entrepreneurs about marketing, sales, money, mindset, and lifestyle. Now here's your host, Brian Kaskavalciyan.

All right, everybody, welcome to a very special episode of the Wealthy Contractor Podcast. This is Episode 150. 150. And so as we were thinking about this, I already knew who my guest was because way back when, when we first started this thing like 5 years ago, um, I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea if anybody would listen. I had no idea if it would gain any traction whatsoever. And so of course, I went to the most positive person I know. And I thought, hey, he'll— not only is he positive, but he'll do it, even though there's nobody listening, just because he's an awesome guy. And he likes to give back. And so here we are, he was my guest on episode 1. He came back for episode 50. Came back for episode 100, and now he's back again for episode 150. And he'll be here every 50. Brian Elias, formerly from 1-800-HANSEN'S. Welcome.

Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be number 150, and I look forward to being number 200 after that.

Yeah, so it's kind of cool. So last time we talked, or last time you were on the podcast, You still owned Hanson's. A lot has happened since then. You started a new company.

Started coloring my hair.

You started to color your hair. Cool.

I would be gray if it wasn't for this.

So yeah, it looks good.

Just for Men. That's a commercial, but go ahead. Okay.

All right. I haven't— I try to do it here, but my wife gets mad at me, so I have to do it in hiding. And then she doesn't— yeah, to do it in a way that she doesn't notice.

Well, at least she doesn't listen to your podcast because she doesn't want to hear you anyway.

That's right, that's right. Um, okay, so, so Brian, um, well, basically, here's Brian's— if you guys don't know Brian Elias, you got to go back and listen to his episodes. Again, they're easy to find, 150, um, 100, And the thing I'll say about, about, about Brian is that he built one of the most successful home improvement companies ever. I think it's fair to say ever, you know, since this industry was born. And he did it out of the— starting out of the trunk of his car. So it's not like he had family money. It's not like he had— he had to figure everything out. And, um, built an incredibly successful business. Very impressive. I remember the first time— and we've talked about this before— but I just remember the first time going there. And when we talk about people, we talk about process, and we talk about profit. I mean, the processes that you had in place, the people you had in place, um, you know, and then obviously you were making a whole bunch of money. So Hansen's, a buyer came along, made you an offer you couldn't refuse, you took it, they, uh, thought they were smarter than you, they kicked you out after a year, and, um, which I still to this day can't understand, but that's what buyers do. But then that freed you up to go start something new. So do you want to tell us what that new is?

Well, I— when I sold the business, I had made an agreement that I'd be out of the business. So I will not be your competitor in windows, siding, or roofing anytime now or in the future. That was part of the deal I made with them, and it was a good deal. It was a good deal for them, and it was a good deal for me. So I signed an agreement that says, hey, I'll support them, I'm not going to give away our trade secrets. At the same token, I can give away trade flooring secrets. So I'm going to talk about what I do for flooring today. I started a company called Reflor. I wrote a jingle for it, and I'll give it to you if you want it, uh, where you could play it to your people.

You know what, let's cut— we'll cut it in, we'll cut it in.

Okay, so you'll put— you'll put it in after that.

Brian loves his jingles.

Reflor, Reflor, call 844-REFLOOR. You'll get the floor that you'll adore. Refloor, Refloor your floor. Get that old floor out the door with a new floor from Refloor.

Our low prices save you more.

Refloor, Refloor your floor. Refloor, Refloor, go ahead and click Refloor. Get a lifetime floor that you'll love more at 844-REFLOOR. That's 844-REFLOOR. What I really love is you brought up the 3 important Ps, but you forgot about number 4. Number 4 is planning, okay? Plan your work, work your plan. Your plan's gonna go off. It's gonna have mistakes. You're gonna have flaws. It's never gonna be perfect, but you've gotta execute on whatever plan you have. And when you forget to plan, Okay, you fail to plan, you might as well plan to fail. And I do believe in that. So when you're talking about those three things, without planning, you can't get there. So I set out— as ridiculous as this sounds today— is I'm going to build the largest flooring company in America. Okay, I got some pretty steep competitors. I got Empire Carpets, or Empire today, I've got a company called 50 Floors, and I, I got Home Depot and Lowe's. How am I going to beat them? Well, I decided to build a model that nobody could compete with. I'm gonna do only hard surface flooring, no tile, no carpeting, and I am going to have all of the product that I sold the customer in stock. So if they buy today, I can install them today or tomorrow. And that is the mission. And I want to do it without a single piece of paper, okay? Not for the installer, not for the sales rep, okay? Not for this office. Everything electronic. Everything on our cell phone. Or on a tablet. So when you start to think about it, it seems pretty easy, okay? But you have to plan out every little thing that happens. So I've got to be able to, from the time an appointment comes in, the customer is generated into our website, okay? They put it in, they enter their name We call them back. Again, no paper. We set the appointment, get sent to our rep's cell phone. They go out to the appointment, they look up the appointment in their iPad. We give their full presentation, we do the work order in the iPad. It goes right into our system. So if an order comes in today, it's processed within 5 minutes of when it comes in, and we're ready to execute on that order. Then we send it to the contractor electronically again. There's no need for paper. And then when the customer is done, they sign the iPad or the, or the phone, the link on the phone saying we're completely satisfied. And then we send them a link for the 5-star review. And that's how we do it every day. Now, do we have holes in our plan at the moment? Yes, we do. But we are working through those holes, and we're making sure that we get through those and making sure that we work out a plan to make sure that that can't be interrupted. So every day we're working towards the same mission. We started off with one location in the Detroit market, and now we're up at three. We have Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio. Our next office opens up February 1st, and that's in Cleveland. Okay, and we have 4 slated for 2022, and we plan on hitting all 4. So by the time the end of next year comes, we're going to be at 7 locations. Okay, all in-home, all selling the same products. All being handled centrally. So when that order comes in from Toledo, it gets sent to our Detroit office, processed, financed, the whole nine yards. And that's what we're doing right now. And, you know, we're on track right now to, I'm guessing, do between $15 and $20 million next year. Not bad for a company that's a year and a half old in the middle of COVID Yeah. So that's my game plan. And, you know, you brought up about profits, okay, and process. Just, you want to make sure you don't leave out that thing called planning.

Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about— let's dive a little deeper into planning. So, you know, you've, you've got big ambitions. I, I would imagine that a lot of the people that are listening to this are not necessarily planning on multiple locations in different states and doing, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars. However, all the principles that you're talking about are, are all exactly the same. So it's interesting, you know, the product that you chose and the way that you went about— I hope everybody kind of got that, you know, one of the big conversations that I have on, especially on the wealthy contractor side, not on the G4 side, is with general contractors. I mean, it's a horrible business. It's like the worst business you could be in. And the replacement business is great because it's, you know, you sell it in the house, you sell it face to face, it's sold at a premium, you can finance it, and you can get it installed in a day or two. Less than a week, you're in and out. And the model just— it works. It becomes a sales and marketing game. So when you talk about planning, so like looking at next year, you've got a company that's, you know, doing a million, couple million a year. They want to grow by 20 or 30% next year, 15, 20%, whatever the number is. Where do they start on the plan?

You have to close your eyes and you have to sort of use your imagination. Saying, if I were finished with this a year from now, what would the business look like that I would be smiling about? So you brought up this general contractor thing. Problem with the general contractor isn't that there isn't work out there. There's tons of work. Yeah. Okay. It's systemizing that that's very hard. So I would tell any general contractor who wants to be enormously successful to pick a path and go down. You want to be the kitchen guy, be the kitchen guy. You want to be the roofing guy, be the roofing guy. You want to be the flooring guy, be the flooring guy, window guy, whatever that is, the walk-in bath guy, the gutter guy, the gutter cover guy. Pick a path and go down it because then you're marketing what you're capable of doing consistently. Windows are windows. Okay, very rare do I see a triangle window, although I've seen it. They're very, very rare. Okay, typically I can do 98% of roofs that I was ever— roofing is easy, so it's square footage. Siding, same thing. So you have to ask yourself, when you start down this road of having to bring in the plumber and the electrician and the permits and this and that and the EPA and all the rules you have to follow you're better off locking yourself into specialty. So I chose window siding and roofing, but when I started, I just chose one of those. And then over time, what I realized is that there was other demands for exterior home improvements. So once I was successful at windows, I started to market to my existing customers my siding. Then I did siding for years. Then I started to market to my existing customers roofing. And then we became one of the largest roofers out there. And what I'd urge people to do is to take their business and specialize in something, be a pro at something. And then lead generation, which is the business— and I'll say that over and over again— lead generation is the business. You are in the new business business. I'm sure I said that in other podcasts.

I'll keep saying it, keep saying it, okay?

You're in the new business business. You must find new customers to fill your funnel, to create this automatic system that just works every single day. And that's what I would tell people to do, is to plan it that way. Does that answer your question, or— I'm not even sure.

Well, but look, one of the things that you talked about right there was vision. So as the leader of a company You have to have a vision of where your company is going, and then you got to be able to sell other people on that vision.

So some people, some people say to me, Brian, you're so creative, you're so this. I am a thief. Every idea that I've ever had, I've stolen from somebody else. I am not creative, okay? I'm a thief. I go, oh my God, that's a really good idea, I'm gonna steal that. And by the way, That's legal in this country. It's called competition. Okay? We have to have— we have to go and steal their ideas. So, if you don't have a vision of your own, take a look at somebody successful, steal their vision. But remember what I said, take a look at somebody successful. Please do not come up with some crazy new idea that's never been done before. Okay? Leave that to Steve Jobs. He did a great job. Okay, crazy lunatic, love the guy. At the same token, what you don't want to do is you don't want to try to reinvent the wheel. You just want to build the wheel on a consistent basis and be able to put a hefty profit into your pocket every month. Yeah, and that's the mission.

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And you know what's funny is one of the things we were gonna talk about is Accelerate and at Accelerate this year, and I'm gonna loop around to something else, but I just wanted to throw this in. Our theme is success leaves clues and clues lead to shortcuts. And what you're talking about there is you're calling it stealing. I call it, you know, seeing a good idea. And the key to that though, the key to that, you're stealing it all, you're stealing it. But what's the key to that? Because 100 people could see that exact same thing, but only one, maybe two, at the most 5 are going to actually take the idea and actually do something with it. So the key really is what? It's actually implementing, actually going and doing something. Um, how does— how do you get so much done?

I don't have the fear that others do. I scratch it, that's a, that's, that's a lie. I have the same fears that everybody else does, but I am not unwilling to allow those to get in my way. And when I recognize that I have fear in front of me, I go, okay, we're moving that fear out of the way, okay, so we can get shit done. And we need to move that fear out of the way, and we all have it. So I don't want you to think, oh, Brian's above that. I am not above that. I'm willing to work through it. I'm willing to move it out of the way. I'm willing to barrel through it because I'm afraid now of not executing. I'm afraid of not doing those things to make it happen. If somebody else can do this, if Empire can sell flooring, okay, and get it installed the next day, I can do it. I can do it better than they can. I can do it faster. I can do it more profitably. So I'm gonna take all of their good ideas that they've had, okay? Add some other people's good ideas to it and build a successful model. And so far, I put onto my LinkedIn, I challenge them, okay? Because one day they're gonna wanna buy me. I already know that. And I can't wait to kick their butts Okay, and then have them work a deal with me to say, hey, we, we'd like to acquire you. And that's the mission. And if it's not them, it'll be somebody else. Yeah.

But when you did not have— so this is going back a long ways— but when you didn't have the team of people that you've got around you, how did you get so much stuff done? Because I think a lot of people, especially now, you know, look, you've got companies that were historically, you know, $2 or $3 million or $6 million or $10 million that are doing 50% more, right? Everybody's so busy they can't keep their heads straight. How are— how am I going to now go and do this in my business? How am I going to put that into play? How am I going to put this idea into place?

What you're going to do is you're going to create a list every week Okay, and you're going to execute on 100% of your list. Then every day before you start your day, you're going to spend 1 hour of your day planning your day to make sure you're going to knock out that list. And you want to make sure that you fill your day doing things that are working on your business, not in your business. Well, Brian, I don't have that type of staff. Yep, you're right, you do not have that type of staff. So you're gonna have to wake up at 5:30 in the morning and start this and work till 7, 8 o'clock at night, okay? Until you can afford to put a sales manager in place, till you could afford a marketing director, till you can afford an installation coordinator, till you can afford HR or IT, you have to do all of those things yourself. But what's really nice today is there's companies like G4, okay, for marketing after the sale. That didn't exist when I started handsets, okay? There's companies like i360 where you can have computer software designed for our business. That didn't exist. I had to build my own. So with all of these things that are already in existence, You have great stepping stones today to be able to get to these crazy achievable numbers so much faster, and that's, that's a great thing. So whatever obstacles people say that there are, they're all in their head.

Yeah.

Okay, what you really want to do is, how am I going to sell one job this week? Doesn't sound like a lot, but you sell a $10,000 job Okay, with Profited Right, that's a 40% net profit. That's $4,000. I can live on $4,000 a week. Okay, so what we want to be able to do is say, okay, now we got to find what we can live on. We don't want to live too high, always want to live below our means, but we want to set our business up. Okay, I got one customer. How did I do that? Good. How am I going to get three next week? And you have to walk before you run. You have to figure out how you're going to get that. Well, I ran a Google ad and I got a lead. Okay, great, you sold it, good job. Let's run 3 Google ads, let's get 3 leads, let's sell all 3 of those. Well, how am I going to hire the crew? You're going to pay them more than the next guy will pay them so they'll want to work for you. Okay, Brian, I can't find anyone to install my work. I hear all the problems. Really? That's not true. You can find an installer tomorrow. You just have to be willing to pay them, okay, above market so they want to come work for you instead of somebody else. And all of a sudden, magically, you're in business and you magically have those people. You know, I drive around and I see some Starbucks are closed because they can't find staff. It's right in front of our eyes. Pay them $20 an hour. Okay, we're going to be paying $4.50 for a cup of coffee. Okay, but they're not willing to go there yet, but that's what's coming. Okay, this is actually what I've talked about many times in my life, which is, um, you know, this is what capitalism is. Okay, if there's a supply and demand, okay, you have to, you have to think about it from that point of view and say, well, no one's coming in at my Okay, $75 a window. Okay, let's see what happens at $150 a window. Magically, people will show up.

Yeah, but you got to make sure that it's in your pricing model so that you're not giving up profitability in order to make that happen.

That's part of the planning process, right? You have to say, this is what it's going to take. So you have to say, can I get a crew at this price? Okay, can I get product at this price? You model it out. And you'll have to sell the job, okay, on the principles of, I'm going to do a great job, I'm going to be here holding your hand to the day of the installation, and I'm going to do you a beautiful job. And at the end of the job, I'm going to ask you to walk through because you're my boss, okay? And I'm going to ask you to walk through that project with me, and if I've done exactly what I promised, I want you to pay me. If I did not live up to my promise, what I'd like you to do is point out anything you see that I've gotten wrong, and I'm going to make sure that I fix that project to your liking before my contractor leaves that house. So when you're hiring me, you're hiring a service. And that's the message that you need to be conveying, either through yourself or through your salespeople, on every project you do, because the customer deserves a good job, and that's what we're going to give them every time. Okay, even when things go out of control, we can always get them back in shape. If the roof leaks, we fix it. If their window leaks, we fix it. If their floor doesn't look right, we fix it. Whatever it is, we have to make it right for that customer because they are our boss. People say, Brian, you don't have a boss. Yes, I do. Every single one of my customers is my boss. By the way, I have a second boss. Those are my contractors, okay? I work for them. It's my job to supply them enough work, okay, where they're thinking, I don't want to go anywhere else. So I want to make sure that I provide that type of environment, okay? And I build that kind of relationship because they're, they're there to make a living, okay? And I want to make sure that I supply them the very best living that they can Cool.

So interesting what's, you know, what you're doing with Reflor and how it's growing. And, you know, it's interesting what you said about stealing. I've talked about that here a lot. Is why be an inventor when you can just become an executor? You know, you just go and learn and watch what other people are doing. And what's interesting about Reflor is you've basically taken your book that you created at Hanson and just said, okay, I'm not selling windows, roofing, siding, I'm gonna adapt my book to flooring. Very, very cool. And a lot of the same, I would imagine, a lot of the same processes, a lot of the same systems, same psychology, right, of as far as the sales, the sale goes, right?

There's a little, the only difference that I noticed is when I sold roofing or windows, those were much more of need items. Yeah, people need a roof, people need windows. People don't need their floor redone, they want their floor redone.

Okay.

It's also much more of an emotional purchase. They're excited about their new floor. Okay. I haven't yet to have a customer that's so, oh my God, I can't wait to get my new roof.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, nobody wants a roof, but isn't windows are a want though, aren't they?

Yes, some of them. They, they feel like it's a change in the look of their house. Sure, there's a want, but that's not a to me, it's still, it's still a neat item. They're much more excited about a floor. I mean, they really are.

Interesting. So let's talk about— I'm looking at the clock here. I really want to get your take. We talked a little bit before we turned on the recording about the environment today, how good things are today. And I'm asking everybody, like, what's your take on it? Where do you see it going? And what are the things that you're doing today to make sure that when the inevitable happens, that you're not going to be a victim of it?

Well, I went through 2008, and I had a different attitude than most people. And I'll, I'll repeat what that is. There was, there was a recession. 20 to 25% of my state was not working. And what I came to realize is 75% of the people were working. So instead of focusing my energies on the people that were not working, I focused all my energies on the people that are. So when there's a recession, you can choose to participate, bitch about it, whine about it, or fight your way through it and realize that some of your competitors are going to bitch and whine and be out of business. And that gives you more opportunity. And that's exactly what happened. What's happening now is you're going to see massive inflation. So, and it's already happening. You go to the drive-through and you order some food that used to be $4, you're now talking $7 because people demanded a $15 an hour wage. I promise you, it's funny, people are like, oh, the corporate executives can spare this. The corporate executives are not losing anything. The only one that pays for high prices is the consumer. So the consumer is going to see this inflation happen. It's happening with gasoline right now, and it's going to continue to happen in every industry. And with that being said, we're all going to be raising our prices, charging more, paying more. And then eventually people are going to do cutbacks and there's going to be some more unemployment, and I'm not going to participate again. And that's what I'm going to tell everybody on your podcast: do not participate in the noise nonsense. Somebody will always need a roof, siding, windows, flooring, gutters, or any other type of remodeling that you have people listening to. They're going to need your service. You're just going to have to find the people that are working. And believe me, they'll always be the majority of the people working instead of the majority of people not. So don't participate and don't listen to nonsense. It doesn't make a difference who your president is.

Yeah, but the reality of it is, and I think what you're saying is it's all about your attitude about it. So there is going to be a contraction. I think we all agree that at some At some point, probably next year, there's gonna be a contraction, but you just, you're not gonna participate. But by the way, you know what's funny is I still to this day tell this story. I first met you, I wanna say it was like 2010. What year was it where the government had that program for Windows?

I think that was right around 2010, right?

Okay, so that was coming to an end, and you and I were in your office. We were talking about a bunch of things, but I asked you specifically about that because everybody else was freaking out. Oh my God, this thing's going away! Because it was, it was a government program that was helping to sell windows, but it was going away. And everybody's freaking out over it. And I asked you, well, you know, what are you going to do? Oh my God, this thing's going away. And you said, Brian, I don't care, I'll just come up with a different offer. That's not exactly what you said, but it's basically what you said. And that completely changed my thinking about these cliffs, right? And I still to this day tell that story. Um, But you gotta be prepared though. Um, you know, with Hansen's in 2008, you probably also went out in like 1999 or 2000, you went through it, right? And then in—

I did.

And then in the '90s it happened. So it happens every 10 years. So what were some of the things— I mean, you, you had to have prepared for it in the business. You must have seen it coming and prepared for it. Do you know, like, what, what should people do? I mean, yes, the attitude is one thing, but what are some practical things that people should do with their business right now, um, knowing that, hey, you know, we got to build a business with a good solid footing under us?

If you have a plan for lead generation and a plan for sales and a way of executing installations, you're already doing the work. All you have to do is model your offers to the people that are working and making sure that you're marketing to those people. So if you're buying a list, you're not going to buy a list of auto workers when the auto workers are laid off. You're going to think different. You're going to focus on the things that you can control. Okay, the economy is getting better here over at, uh, at Refloor. A lot of people are still doing flooring even though the economy has slipped. We're ready to go to work for you, and we're willing to drop our drawers to go to work for you. Give us a call at 844-REFLOOR. Okay, and we'll bring that store to your door. Call today. And people will call. But if you think that they won't, you're wrong. If they need a floor and they're tired of looking at that floor, they're gonna call. If their husband's working, they're not thinking to themselves, well, you know, I don't know if I'm gonna do it because my, you know, my, my, you know, my wife— but whatever the story is that you think that they're telling, you you're going to get less phone calls during that time while consumer confidence is down. However, you're going to also have a lot less competitors. And with that being in mind, you've got to be able to— willing to write the check to get the business. And that's what you're going to do.

Well, and you just brought up a good point. And this is what I was trying to get to is, how do the people— you just said, you're going to have a lot less competitors. Why are you going to have less competitors? Let me hit you a different way.

They're going to be afraid. Okay, they're scared. They're going to— oh, we got to hoard our money. Cash is king. Okay, to me, new business is king. That's the number one. How do I get new business during this? So you have to be thinking, you have to be saying to yourself, okay, what worked? And then When something doesn't work, you got to be able to act fast and say, okay, that didn't work, we'll try this. And we keep trying things till we find out a recipe that works. Okay, the economy is getting better over at Refloor. Save big money. We're saving 50% off installation. We need your work. If you're looking for the right time to get a new floor, the right time is right now. Okay, you're working, we want to go to work for you. Our people are standing by, by the phones, and our installers are standing by ready to put your new floor in place. Now I just made that up off the top of my head.

Yeah.

And there's a story that you can tell your customers that you can make up, but at the end you're telling the customer the truth. I'm willing to work for less. Okay, my crews would be willing to work for less. All I want to do is have the opportunity to go to work for for you. And you've got to convey that message to customers.

Yeah. Yeah, marketing becomes— messaging in marketing becomes critically important. And you can't become one of the less competition people. And I think there's a lot of things good. We've talked about it on other episodes of the podcast. So we won't go into all of that here. But I think what's interesting, and I've always you know, with you from the minute I met you, the, the marketing mind, the way you think about marketing, and we've covered this in other podcasts with Brian, um, but just tell everybody again about your, you know, your underlying kind of philosophy is about mom. Do you, do you mind just sharing that again? Just kind of for people that have not heard it before, it'll be great. For people that have heard it before, it's a great reminder of messaging when it comes to marketing.

So mom is the person who defends the family. She's in charge. She is running the show. I don't care what household you're in, mom is running the show. Okay, a lot of people think it's dad, but it's not. That being said, you have to have messaging for mom that works because she has the money in her hands and she's going, a little for you, a little for you, a little for you, okay? But I want my house to be beautiful, and that's on her list. So what you have to do is you have to speak to her in her language, and you have to make sure that she buys into the story, okay? Mom doesn't say, oh, a new roof is going to be beautiful. That's not going to motivate her because she's not going to believe you. So what will she believe? Your roof is 20 years old and it's gonna leak, and when it leaks, you're going to have a problem regardless of the economy. You need to make sure you get in front of that. Pick up the phone and call Joe's Roofing, okay? Nothing better than Joe's, okay, during this economy because Joe works for less. Call today. That's it. Message mom. Speak her language. She doesn't want water coming in her house. That's what scares her. So she's trying to protect her family. So you have to message everything around her. Other, you know, when the economy is good, you're having your friends over. They're going to look at your floors. They're tired of— you're tired of the floors. They look awful. 'You're gonna be embarrassed. It's Christmas time. You're gonna be embarrassed. Let us come out. We can have new floors in your home tomorrow and make your home somewhere you're gonna be proud to have your friends and relatives over. Call today, 844-REFLOOR, okay? And we'll bring the floor to your door, or the store to your door, whatever, whatever it is.' And you want to, you want to convey that message. And it's so important that they feel that you genuinely care. And fact of the matter is, the one thing about me is I do care. Yeah, that customer is number one to me. Mom is it. So I need to impress mom, and I need to speak with what she's concerned with. So she wants a beautiful home, okay? She wants to be able to afford that floor. So I might not have mentioned payments. Hey, Mom, We can get you that floor for 0% interest, okay, and $14 a month for that room. $14 a month and you can have the floor that you're gonna love. Pick up the phone for $14 and call today. I mean, all of a sudden you'll start to realize it all follows the same theme. Yeah, okay, says we care about you, we care about your budget, we got to make sure we can— it's affordable for you to get the work that you need done.

Yeah, one of the, one of the things about successfully marketing, um, advertising, creating lead generation is having a person that you are writing to or writing for. And a lot of people don't know who that person is. And so that is an amazing lesson on— they call it your customer avatar. It's called all kinds of different things, but you know, you've heard it probably most as customer avatar. And Brian, just his avatar is very clear, right? He knows who the avatar is, and so he knows what's going on with her. And depending on where she is, where the economy is, you know, you got to know your market, you got to know your people. And, um, he creates messaging that appeals to her and gets her to raise her hand and say yes. That is a problem I need solved. So it's, it's, it's really very, very good.

And it's also that you have to understand there's only really 3 groups of people. You got middle America, okay? You got upper middle America, okay? You got the upper class, okay? Those are your 3 groups because you can't sell the people got no money at the bottom because they have no money. So those are your 3 groups. So which group do you want to be in? So I'm not going to have the same message for Mr. and Mrs. Social, you know, the high-end people, okay? You rich people, I'm not going to say you can get that room done for $14 because they don't care, okay? What they care about is something different. What they're concerned about is, hi, how can you least disrupt my life, okay? Make my house beautiful and don't bother me with stuff, okay? And show me a color I really like. That's what they're looking for. Yeah, right. That personally is not my customer, but there's plenty of people who are going to be listening to this podcast and go, well, that's my customer, right? And that's great. Say what they want to hear. We're going to be in and out of your hair in no time.

Yeah.

Okay, they're not worried about the economy, I can tell you that, because when you're rich, you have plenty of money and they can, they can fight through that.

That's right.

Okay, upper middle class try to act like the rich. Okay, so you're going to be something similar there, but Middle America, they're concerned with every ounce of their budget.

All right, Brian, so this has been really good as always. Um, to the listener, I always am fascinated by the way this man thinks. He's different. Um, than how people think. You know, the whole thing that you say about the fear, um, you know, I don't battle with it like I used to, but when I was coming up, um, I've told you this before, it was a big thing for me. And I think that, um, you know, I, I wish I'd known you 20 years ago and could listen to, uh, you say the things that you've said. So hopefully by sharing things like that on this podcast, hopefully, um, some of the people that are listening that may have that fear show up, um, hopefully you've given them some ideas, some tools, some inspiration, some motivation, whatever, to fight that fear.

When I come to Accelerate, I, I know you have me talking. Yeah, I'm going to do a little section on fear and overcoming that. Okay, because when people ask me questions, they're all— they all seem to be fear in disguise.

Yeah.

And I see that a lot, and it's like, it's almost heartbreaking for me when I listen to the questions because, well, what about this, Brian? What if this happens? What if this— and you can't what-if yourself to death. You have to push through this. And I really think it's important. And I, I think that, you know, when I, when I went to my first Accelerate conference, it blew my mind because there were so many amazing ideas. I kept writing and writing things down, and I remember how long my list was of things to do after. And it was so exciting, and I got some great ideas out of the speakers there. And I know you're going to have a great lineup again, and I have a really good lineup. Yeah, I'm going to be there, and I wouldn't miss it for anything, half so I could share ideas, but I want to steal other people's ideas because there's lots of smart people. And you know what smart people really like to do? They love to share their ideas, not to brag, in exchange for other good ideas. And when I come to your event, I'm going to get other good ideas. And for that, I mean it from the bottom of my heart, I thank you and thank you for having me again. Yeah, and I'm sure I'm there.

Yeah, awesome. Well, so for everybody that's listening, hopefully you will hear this before Accelerate, um, February 15th and 16th, right here in South Florida. We should have, uh, beautiful weather, but we have an amazing lineup. Go check it out at accelerateevent.com. accelerateevent.com. Brian, my friend, thank you Appreciate you taking your time and being my guest as many times as you have and believing in this way back when, when even I didn't believe in it. So thank you. I appreciate it.

I'm honored to have you as my friend more than anything else.

Thank you. All right, everybody. So hopefully you've enjoyed this episode of the Wealthy Contractor Podcast. So until next time, This is Brian Kaskavalciyan with G4 Marketing Group. Thanks for listening to today's episode of The Wealthy Contractor Podcast. Let me ask you, did it help you look at your business in a different way? Did it spark an idea or ideas that you hadn't thought of before? Do you have a list of action items that you can take and implement into your business or your life today? I really hope so. If it did, I'd like to ask you a favor. Would you leave a 5-star review of the podcast? By doing so, you'll help other contractors find the podcast more easily so that we can help them achieve more success, wealth, and freedom. And before you go, make sure you subscribe to the Wealthy Contractor Podcast so you get access to the latest episodes as soon as they're available. We're always striving to provide you with great content, so you don't want to miss what's coming up. In fact, if you haven't already, make sure you go to thewealthycontractor.com and get your free copy of my latest book, The 7 Secrets to Becoming a Wealthy Contractor. Just pay shipping and handling and I'll take care of the cost of the book. And finally, a big thanks to G4 Marketing for sponsoring The Wealthy Contractor Podcast. For over 12 years now, G4 Marketing has been the secret back office relationship marketing team for hundreds of home improvement and home service businesses just like yours. You get the customer and our proven system turns that customer into 5-star reviews and profitable repeat and referral business. If your home improvement or home services company completes at least 10 jobs per month, they have a solution that will work for you. To find out more, sign up for your free, no obligation, 10-minute discovery call at www.g4marketing.com/discovery. /strategy. That's gfourmarketing.com/strategy. Set your discovery call up today and they'll help you set your business up for long-term profits and success. So until next time, this is Brian Kaskavalciyan.