Justin Bartley #2 - Ep. 74 - Taking ‘Free Days’ Has Got To Be A Regular Goal

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. Hello and welcome to the Wealthy Contractor Podcast. This is Brian Kaskavalciyan with G4 Marketing Group. If you're one of our regular listeners, you know, I typically interview home improvement entrepreneurs and ask them about specific strategies they've used to become a wealthy contractor. In fact, we have quite a few killer episodes we've recently recorded with amazing strategies to implement in your business, but I've decided to put those aside right now because of the unique environment we find ourselves in. In. Instead, what I'll be doing over the next couple of weeks is sharing conversations I'm having with some of these same people to find what they're thinking, feeling, and doing right now. My hope is that by sharing these conversations, you'll hear how others are overcoming some of the challenges you might be facing right now. I also sincerely hope to inspire you and build your confidence. One thing you will notice in all of these conversations is the underlying expectation that what we are experiencing right now is a temporary setback. It will pass, and there will be even greater opportunity on the other side. So enjoy these conversations. We're all in this together. Stay the course. Do not give up. Keep moving forward. And always believe in yourself. All right. Hi, everybody. I've got Justin Bartley here from Next Door and Window. Justin, welcome. Thank you for being with me. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Brian. Happy to be here today.

Yeah. So as you know, I'm calling, talking with clients and friends and people in the business that I, that I trust and asking, basically asking them, you know, what are you thinking? What are you feeling? What are you doing? See what we can tell people out there.

Yes. Well, I can say what I was feeling this morning when I was laying in bed ready to get up was, gee, I don't know if I want to get up today. But what I reminded myself was that I need to get up and exercise and move my body. So, you know, sticking with your routine, getting up, exercising first thing when you wake up, for me, that's been, that's been, you know, the most important way to start out. A way to clear your mind in the morning, get up, do your thing, go in the basement, go outside for a 2-mile run. Just get active because that will, that will clear your mind for, uh, for the day to deal with these issues. Get enough sleep, get your 7-8 hours of sleep and eat, eat, eat right. And those are the basic things right now. I think just to start off your day, start with that strong, strong foundation. So from a, from a mindset standpoint. You always talk about it, Brian, that's probably the most important thing to focus on right now.

Yeah.

Keep your mind clear. We're all going to get through it over these next few weeks or months. Yeah. It's going to be very positive on the other side.

Yeah.

So that's what I'm focusing on right now is sticking with, you know, an active routine, eating healthy, and keeping yourself healthy because your customer and your teams rely on your leadership right now.

Yeah, that's really great advice. And I did a webinar for our clients a little while ago, and you'll be getting, you know, you'll be getting a link for that, anybody that wasn't there live. And I started with that. That's exactly what I started with was mindset. I did not— so we're recording this on March 18th. You know, I didn't sleep well last night. I was, I was a little stressed out. I did before going to sleep. It was like, I don't know, 10 o'clock, 10:30. It's kind of weird out there. It's quiet, super quiet, you know, not a lot of stuff going on. And I went for a walk, move my body around. I had worked out in the morning, but I thought, well, let me get out and get some air. And but tonight I'm going to sleep. I think that's really great. Advice and, you know, getting up and doing something in the morning is great advice. You've been through this before though, in business. This is, this is different, right? We're not, this is not something we've been, it's, it's kind of unprecedented, but we've seen snippets of this before.

Yes. There's always first, first time events. And then it appears that we're going through something like that right now. You know, we had 9/11, of course, and I, I hadn't, I started my business right after that. But we went through the financial crisis of the housing market decline, you know, in '08, '09. So we went through that, but this is something new and different and uncertain. So with that uncertainty always brings with it a lot of fear. But again, that's when our companies and our teams and our customers need our leadership. So this is the opportunity to shine. This is what we all do as business owners. This is what we signed up for. Right. Problem solve and get through the tough times.

Right. You know, one of the things I've always admired about your business is how much of your business comes from— and you do a significant amount of business— comes from relationships that you have with your customers, with your existing customer, well, past and current customers. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? Because, well, go ahead and I'll tell you why.

Yes, absolutely. Our customers are always at the foundation of everything. Our existing customer database and through the seasonality, through the wintertime, we always rely on our customers to bring more business to us during those times. Certainly during this time is no different. And, you know, communicating with your customer database through email is critical right now. As if anybody's going to be calling you for help with their projects, it's going to be your customers. So there's no question that emailing your customers with, you know, your plan for your business, what you're doing right now to, you know, take the necessary precautionary steps, those things will bring tremendous comfort to your customers and at some point they'll feel comfortable to reach out to you when they're ready to move forward with a project or want to have someone come out to the home. You know, it's going to be your customers that react first. And just a sample of something that happened today, you know, I'm a customer of G4. G4 sent out a great email today on, you know, on my behalf, on our company's behalf, about proper sanitizing methods in the home. And I actually had a customer call to ask for me to just to thank me on how much he appreciated the email. So those are the things that right now, communicating with your staff, of course, and your customers is probably the most important thing that we can do to really show our leadership through these tough times.

Yeah, again, I just a little while ago did a webinar just for our clients. And one of the things that I talked about there was that, like you, You've made this investment in your customers for years and years, and they are the ones that are going to get us through. And so I think, I believe, and anybody that's heard me speak at any of the industry events knows what I speak about. I speak about this topic. I speak about developing customer relationships, not only because, you know, not only because it's kind of the right thing to do and it's a great business strategy, but they're the ones that are really going to help us get through times like this. And so one of the things that we're going to do for clients like, like you is if we're not sending out as many thank-yous, we want to make sure that we are in their mailbox. And so we were, you know, our, our, we're putting together a bunch of direct mail pieces that are going to start going out over the next few weeks. And yeah, there is going to be offers in there, but it's also for stuff like, like what you just said. It's just goodwill. It's just keeping our name in front of them because when they start to feel more comfortable, which I got to believe is going to be sooner rather than later because as Americans we don't do good sitting at home all day every day. So I got to think that, you know, pretty soon we're going to figure this out. And if we're, you know, staying in touch and staying top of mind, I think they're the ones that are going to help us get get through it.

Yeah. Yes. The communication right now is critical because everybody's uncertain. So reaching out to your customers and certainly your team, the number one priority. So, you know, one thing that I did today after I, I got up and I realized, you know, I took that clarity time this morning to sit down for about 2 hours and just think through current situation, which changes every day, but you have to deal with what's in front of us right at the moment. I took about 2 hours and just sat and wrote down strategy, a plan. These are the things that we need to do for our teammates, and these are the things that we should be doing for our customers. Just wrote down, you know, 10 or 15 bullet points, priority things we need to do. And, you know, once you have a solid plan in place, you need to just communicate that with your team and lead them through this. And so that was very, you know, a thing I did today that was very helpful. It helped me at least bring a little clarity that, well, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but at least we do have a plan. We're out in front of this, and, you know, we're going to clearly communicate that to, to all the people involved with our business.

Yeah.

So, so they, they can feel that leadership.

Yeah. And you've always been very proactive in your business, and I, and I think that that's, that's great advice. And it kind of, I guess it it gets you focused on the solution rather than on the problem. Is that fair to say?

Absolutely. And again, it's not anything that any of us can predict, but we can say with certainty that this is going to pass and it looks like it's going to be a relatively short period of time. It's going to be pretty sharp and severe though. In the meantime, But we do think that, you know, this is just my own personal opinion based on looking at the numbers, that, you know, we will come out of this and we're hopeful for a very strong second half of 2020. But it's going to be— there's no doubt there's going to be a few months of, you know, some rough, rough times with a lot less business coming in. But all that demand will be there, you know, at some point. And we're hopeful that that's going to be in in the second half of this year. So setting up your business with the marketing, keeping some sort of marketing plan going, and that's a day by day. You have to be prudent and you might have to cut back in some areas, but you do need to keep the marketing machine running and really focused on your customer marketing. If you have a priority, for us, it's to market to our customers first. And everybody else after that. But we're going to do our best to keep our marketing plan running and just make some cuts here and there with the plan. And that's going to be a week-to-week decision.

Yeah. And it's really interesting that there are— somebody said it the other day. I guess there's kind of 3 people here. There's the person that's just like, this is it, this is the apocalypse, and they're rolling up into a ball and they're shutting everything down. Then there is the optimist that says, no, we're gonna get through this. And I would put you in that category. And everybody that I've talked to basically of my clients and my friends and the people that I trust have said the same thing that you've said is, gotta keep marketing going, gotta keep pushing forward, gotta be proactive. And then there's people, I guess, in the middle that are kind of on the fence and they're, I think the ones most at risk, because the people on either end, the person that's decided, oh, I'm going to shut down and I'm going to let this kill me, kill my business, they've made a decision. You've made a decision. The person in the middle is kind of, they haven't really made a decision. I think that, and one of the things I hope to do with this, and you've just verified it, is make a decision, but make a decision like the one you've made. It's, I'm going to be optimistic about this. I'm going to keep marketing. I'm going to stay in front of my customers. I'm going to do everything I can every day to be proactive and stay in front of this thing. And I'm going to come out better on the other side.

Right. And it's all about who you associate with, right? I mean, as a business owner, sometimes it's a lonely place, but G4 has a great network to it's all about staying connected with positive people. And so G4 is a great place to do that. There's a lot of podcasts out there that have positive messages going on. And you want to stay in tune with what's happening out in the marketplace and regarding the virus. But at the same time, I choose to really tune out of the broadcast television because it's just mass fear if you turn on the TV. So, you want to be, you know, you have to be informed with what's going on, but at the same time, you know, choose positive forces around you, and there's plenty of that out there. So, that's what I've chosen to do, and we, you know, we certainly, I have no question we're going to make it through this and be a much, much stronger company. On the other end. And through this, it also does force you to make some tough decisions. You have to be lean and, you know, you might have to cut costs and do the necessary things in your business to get through it. So you can't pretend to just hope it goes away. You have to make those tough decisions, but, you know, you can, you can make it through and, you know, we will make it through. And, you know, we look forward to some, some normal times ahead. Yeah. Which we're hoping is around the corner in just maybe a few months.

Yeah. Well, I'm hoping weeks, but let's see. Let's see what happens. Well, look, I know you're busy and I appreciate you so much as a friend and as a client. And you're right, you don't have to go through it alone. We're entrepreneurs and man, we're so in our heads and other people don't always understand us. So I I think reaching out to others, this has helped me, by the way, I'm doing some of the reason why I'm doing this is for me too, because I, you know, I want to be inspired. I want, I want to raise my confidence too. And I hope that hopefully I've helped do that a little bit for you and hopefully for the listener as well. I know that your message is always a positive one. And again, I really appreciate it.

Sure thing. And I wanted to, just give maybe one or two other examples of something we're doing right now.

Please, yeah, that'd be great.

This is, this is the time that, you know, they're, they're very well maybe a new normal. And so this time has really forced us to focus on some things that we haven't done in the past, such as all of our teams right now are training on using online meetings. Our salespeople are learning how to use online meetings. And we are actually offering online meetings for our customers at this time who maybe they're not comfortable meeting with us in their home. We're actually offering online presentations.

And who would have thought?

Right now we have some customers that are willing to do that. And one other strategy we're using for our installations, because naturally we have a lot of jobs to be installed and you need to get jobs out on the street installed to keep cash coming in. And we all have used Zip walls in our business for the lead procedures and for the cold. And so, when some of our customers are a little uncertain, you know, that's something that our installation team is offering to our customers, you know, installs with Zip walls, just to give a little more peace of mind for those customers maybe who are on the fence. So, I think the best advice right now is to be very flexible with your customers, listen to their needs, and do your best to adapt to the current conditions as they are.

Great advice. Who would have thought in this industry that owners would have allowed online meetings to happen? People have been talking about it for years, and most people that understand this business say, "No, no way." But when push comes to shove, you gotta do what you gotta do. And we'll get rid of it soon. It'll go away, hopefully.

Right, and right, we're doing it for a limited time. And I didn't say we're emailing proposals. I said we're offering online, just like we're doing right now, so that our reps have a chance to go through a proposal, share their screen, and have a two-way communication in that process.

Jobs still need to be sold, not bid.

Absolutely.

Awesome. Well, Justin, thank you again. I appreciate you and I will talk to you again soon.

Okay, Brian, thank you. All the best.

Thank you for listening to this special edition of the Wealthy Contractor Podcast. I hope it gave you the confidence to know that there are other successful contractors out there just like you who are not letting circumstances get in the way of providing excellent service to their customers, serving their communities, and achieving their goals. This will pass, and your attitude and the messages you take in right now will determine your mindset and where you end up. I'd encourage you to listen to the other podcasts in this series that we're releasing regularly, as well as going back to prior episodes of the Wealthy Contractor Podcast to hear from like-minded contractors in the industry so you can pick up on strategies, tactics, and tools that will help you overcome the circumstances around you. We'll be back to regularly scheduled podcasts soon. So until next time, this is Brian Kaskavalciyan with G4 Marketing Group and The Wealthy Contractor.