Navigating Through Uncertainty Ep. 10 with Tony Hoty

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. Hey, welcome back to the Contractor Cast. 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.

Hey everybody, welcome to another Navigating Through Uncertainty conversation. And with me today is my good friend Tony Hody. For those of you that know Tony, you know that he is at the, the really at the forefront of the industry of what's going on. I mean, he's inside so many remodeling, you know, home improvement, home remodeling businesses. And he is interesting because he's not only a consultant to the industry, one of the best, by the way, but he also runs a very successful retail operation in Ohio. And so we were talking about the current environment and what's going on. And I asked Tony to just have a conversation with me about, you know, and again, I'm gonna ask him the same thing that I'm asking everybody else during this time is, what are you thinking, what are you feeling, and what are you doing? So, Tony, thanks for being here. I know you're super busy, but what are you thinking, what are you feeling, what are you doing?

[Speaker] Well, thanks for having me, Brian. Yeah, I'll tell you what I'm thinking. It's a big shakeup, there's no question about it. It's, you know, a big shakeup, and as a result, we're gonna have to adapt, and we're gonna have to evolve, And we're gonna have to make changes in order to prevail during a time like this. What am I feeling? I'm feeling excitement. I actually enjoy a good shakeup. I love the opportunity to innovate. That's one of my passions in life is innovating and just taking old practices and augmenting them for a greater good, not just my own, organization, but helping other companies augment their process. And so I'm feeling excited. What am I doing? Hustling. Yeah, you know, we got to work, you know, twice as hard at a time like this, in my opinion. There's, you know, no sugarcoating it. You know, when we're not out there trying to convert every inquiry, every opportunity that we have, because they are fewer than previously, then we're innovating on how to create more inquiries and how to convert them at a higher rate. And so that's what's going on right now.

And you guys are, you're still selling, right?

Absolutely. We're in the state of Ohio and we've been deemed an essential business. And as a result, we are taking precautions, not taking vacations. We're doing everything we can to be compassionate and understanding and keeping our staff safe and our customers safe. By the same token, you know, we're out there doing business because, you know, we need to survive and we need to prevail.

What are you telling people that are concerned about having somebody come out to their house for either a presentation or for an installation? A lot of people are having— well, let's, in fact, if we could two-part this question, Tony, one is how are you dealing with the customer side of it, and then how are you dealing with the staff side of it, like, you know, are you having issues with your people not wanting to work or be concerned about, about working? So if you don't mind, hit the customer first and then hit the staff second.

You know, I think, you know, whether or not to do a virtual demo or, you know, push for the on-site in-person demonstration is kind of the million-dollar question right now, and I really believe that, you You know, the virtual demo is almost like, you know, the one-party appointment or commonly referred to as the one-leg appointment. You know, should you or should you not, right? That's the big debate. And so in my opinion, you know, the virtual appointment is the new one-party appointment. And what I mean by that is that it should be an absolute last resort. You should be prepared for it. You should have that option available and you should be sharp on your process if you're going to perform a virtual appointment. You should offer it, you know, by the same token, it should be the last resort. You still want to push to get into the home to develop that relationship, to get eyes on the project so that you can really, you know, inspect and create urgency and all that kind of thing. What are we doing to make people feel comfortable? We are really laying out our process to them, making them understand that we are taking the temperature of our representatives, that we are sending them in rubber gloves with a surgical mask. We are disinfecting our samples in between each and every appointment. So we are taking measures to keep our staff safe and to keep our customers safe. And as a result, we feel a visit from our company is safer than a trip through the drive-through. And, you know, if they're comfortable having us out, we're definitely going.

Cool.

Now, as far as our staff is concerned, you know, luckily I think you attract what you are and not what you want, and my work ethic and my drive to keep going afforded me the luxury of having others around me that kind of feel the same way. And so, you know, everybody's been eager to stay working and, you know, they want to take precautions. You know, my moniker is, you know, disinfect, don't disengage. You know, take the precautions, do everything you possibly can, but don't use this as an excuse to rest back on your laurels.

Yeah.

So we were talking about something kind of interesting, and not to go into too much, this could be taken as negative, but we were talking before we turned on the the recording and you were starting to talk about the biggest problem that this industry had a couple weeks ago.

And do you want to—

and I cut you off because I said, hold on, wait a minute, I want to get that on the recording. So can you kind of go down that path that we were talking?

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, if you would have asked lots of industry professionals what the biggest challenge facing our industry was on March 15th, 2020, most of them would have replied there's a labor shortage, and we just can't, you know, provide the quality labor that's needed to fulfill the, you know, the need in the marketplace. And, you know, poof, that has been taken care of for us. That problem has been solved by the pandemic. So, you know, you have to always have that glass-is-half-full mentality regarding, you know, how the state of affairs, you know, always be looking at the positive side of this. And there is a tremendous upside, whether we want to embrace it or not.

You know, and as you were saying that, one of the things that came up for me was that, you know, and you got to be careful about this kind of talk, but, you know, there are some companies that aren't going to make it. There are some companies that are not going to need all of the people that they had. A month ago. And so, like you said, that's going to open up an opportunity for us to, to find new people. And I think that along, along those lines, one of the things that we could do to prepare, you know, those of us that have decided we're going to fight through this thing and we're going to be, you know, we're going to, we're going to be— not to be too dramatic, but we're going to be victorious on the other end of this— is really looking at our company culture. And I know that that's something you talk about a lot. And you want to talk a little bit about that? Because people come to— people leave a job because they either felt like they were not appreciated that they were not being paid for the value that they were providing. And quite frankly, they didn't like the company culture. And so what are some things that people could be thinking about or actually doing during this month of April? And I think my personal opinion, and sorry to talk over you, Tony, but my personal opinion is, and we've started kind of a, our mantra is, you know, we even started this thing, #SayDa. You know, if you go to the Wealthy Contractor at Facebook, you'll see it all over the place, #SATA, which means stay active through April. So you gotta use this time to really look at all of your processes, to look at all of your, your systems, to look at your, your profit model, and come out of this on the other side a better company. And one of the areas that you could be very focused in on is culture. And so that's where I'll, I'll turn it over to you. What are some things that people should be looking at in terms of culture?

Yeah. Culture eats strategy for breakfast, as they say, and, you know, everything rises and falls on leadership. And so I think it's the job of the leaders of the organization, you know, the executive team to create the culture, create the environment that is, you know, employee-friendly, you know, it's compassionate, you know, it's empathetic and, you know, in tune with, you know, their feelings and making them feel healthy, safe, you know, having, you know, groupthink and having everybody provide their feedback on how they think we should handle things. And of course, as a leader, asking them to look at both sides of of the equation, you know, consider whether we should continue to operate business as usual or whether we can, because it's business unusual, you know, what adaptations we can make and have them buy into the changes, to the new innovations that we're making in our process. That way, you know, they're a part of this and it becomes a battle cry in the organization. And I think that really makes a great deal of difference in making them feel appreciated. It's not always compensation. Right? Sometimes it's, again, making them feel safe, making them feel a part of, having buy-in in the process, you know, getting their feedback and their input on any changes and, and, you know, innovations that are taking place at this time is a great way to give them ownership of their position with your organization. Yeah.

Yeah. Good advice. Good advice. So what are some of the other things? And then, and then I'm going to let you go because I know you got a busy day, but What are some of the other recommendations that you have for the home improvement business owner during these times to come out of this, I've been saying stronger, smarter, and wealthier, what are some of the things that they, some of the other things they could be looking at and doing?

Well, one exercise that I really think is important is to kind of focus on those spheres of influence, you know, what we can control and what we can't control. Obviously, there are certain things that we cannot control at the present time. We cannot control the pandemic. We cannot control the governor's ordinances or how the government chooses to create guidelines and regulations at this time. However, what we can control is how many phone calls we make, how many times we attempt to contact our customers, how we innovate, how we look for opportunity. And I just think that there's so much on the, on the upside that we're not considering simply because we've been shaken by what's going on. But when one door closes, another opens. You know, there's just going to be so much opportunity with reduced cost in advertising and, you know, a lot of attention on the mailbox right now with stimulus checks and tax returns coming and just all kinds of opportunities that will become available. And, you know, we just have to keep our eyes peeled for that. And one great way to do that is to, you know, constantly consider those spheres of influence, you know, what I can control and what I can do to improve my situation, and, you know, not focusing on what I can't control.

Love it. Well, Tony, as always, you, you've always got a positive word. You've always got great strategies and real-world stuff that companies can execute. And I always have appreciated that about you. And you always do come up with the, you know, with the coolest new stuff. And so thank you for that. Hey, let's quickly, before you go, tell us a little bit about what's going on with your event.

I know you've got an event coming up.

In May in Baltimore. I am fortunate enough to be one of the speakers. What's going on with your event? I mean, I cannot wait to get on an airplane and travel, believe it or not. I think a lot of other people are. When this, when this shit's finally over, I'm doing two things. One, I'm going to either Fleming's or Morton's down the street and I'm gonna get a nice big fat steak and I'm gonna line up like 3 or 4 drinks in front of it. That's gonna be number 1, and then I'm gonna go home, number 2, and I'm gonna plan a vacation. But number 3 is I'm probably gonna go to your event. So what's going on? Where are we with that?

Yeah, so at the present time, LeadCon is still on schedule for May 6th and 7th. We are really optimistic and hopeful that it'll be just on the other side of the flattening of the curve with respect to infection rates, and we really believe the social distancing will be kind of lifted and we'll be able to get together there. So we're excited about that and we really feel that the industry needs this event. We always have felt that way, but now that other events have been postponed and canceled indefinitely, it's just so important that we get together, that we network and share, and we want to keep the economy moving for the greater good at large, but keep our industry moving and can give them much-needed inspiration and education. So we're excited for that. The show must go on.

How do people get tickets?

So you can go to leadcon2020.com or visit, you know, TonyHody.com, and you can get tickets. And worst-case scenario, if, you know, the event were to get postponed or if you weren't able to make it in person, there is a live stream option only available to those who have registered. So definitely giving people a number of choices to, to handle that.

Okay, so it's LeadCon, L-E-A-D-C-O-N 2020, right?

Correct.

Okay, yeah. And then is there an option there for them to choose a sponsor? Are you doing that?

Yeah, yeah, there's an option for them to choose a sponsor, and that will give them a greatly reduced, uh, ticket cost by, you know, selecting a sponsor to—

so yeah, so when you're there, select G4 Marketing and take advantage of that through G4 Marketing because we will be there regardless of if it's May 6th and 7th, we're there. If it's June 6th and 7th, we're there. If it's July 6th and 7th, we're there. Whatever it is, Tony, you know that we are, we are going to be there and we're going to be excited. All right. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Tony.

Thank you.

Talk to you all soon.

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.