Navigating Through Uncertainty Ep. 9 with Anna Olivier

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. 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.

Hi, everybody. Brian Kaskavalciyan with G4 Marketing Group. And today is April 1st. It is about 5:00 in the afternoon. And with me, I have Anna Olivier. And I got— I think it was just a couple of weeks ago that I recorded an awesome interview with Anna, full interview where we learn all about her, her background, her business. Her companies. She's doing some really amazing things. But we've put that on hold so that we can talk about navigating through uncertainty. And Anna and I were just having a conversation about some of the advertising that she's doing. And I asked her if she wouldn't mind jumping on and just doing a quick 10-minute, 15-minute conversation with me about what she's thinking, what she's feeling, and what she's doing right now in her companies. And she was gracious enough to say yes. So Anna, thank you. Tell everybody really quick your company names and where are you, because you have more than one company.

Hi Brian, it's so good to speak with you. I own two companies here in Lafayette, Louisiana. I own Jim Olivier's Home Improvement, which we sell siding, windows, and hurricane shutters. And I also own Roofing Louisiana, which is a roofing company.

Awesome.

So we are in weird times, as we all are painfully aware. So tell me, what are you thinking? What are you feeling?

What are you doing?

Well, it's no surprise that these are challenging times and these are tough times, but they're temporary times. And I'm really focusing on that this is a time to prepare for the future, for the opportunities that are gonna be there. I am looking at this as seed time. This is an opportunity to be planting seeds in our business, in our customers, in our current, past, and future customers. And basically, I'm thinking that it's important for us right now to not see ourselves as victims, but to take control of our destiny and do everything we can of the things that we can control. We can't— there's a lot of things we can't, but there's a whole lot more that we can. And so, you know, I am taking control of those that I can and trying to make sure that we are positioning ourselves for continued success. We're having some opportunity even, you know, in, in these current days and we want to be positioned for success in the future. We want to be ahead of the game and really looking at what opportunities that we can embrace right now.

So generally you have a good attitude about what's going on?

I don't like it, but— Yeah, neither do I. Yeah, but I'm keeping a positive attitude. I don't like negativity and it doesn't get us anywhere. Negativity just brings you down and It just sucks the life out of you and your staff. And now, you know, I do admit it takes a lot of energy to be positive in challenging days, right? But, you know, that's what leaders are called to do. You just kind of pull it up from your gut and you, you know, you just put an encouraging word out there to your staff. Because not only do we have to encourage each other, but we've got to keep our staff encouraged because there can be some fear out there. And so, you know, what do we— we have to overcome that fear and focus. Whatever we focus on gets bigger. So let's focus on the things that we can control, the things that we can change, the things, you know, let's take it— how can we use this downtime to make ourselves better personally? What kind of personal development can we do? What kind of changes can we make in our business? What kind of ideas What strategies can we have for the future? Looking at our marketing, looking at our advertising, how— and how can we give back to our community? Looking for the things that people are doing. I mean, we obviously can't give away a roof or anything, but there are people that— like, there are some restaurants in our area that are feeding those that have been laid off. And so how can we support them? Can we go grocery shopping for someone who is maybe elderly or disabled and can't get out? What can we do that's positive? It's like you got to get out of yourself and look at others. So that's kind of what we're using a lot of energy to do. So we'll, you know, which is taking quite a bit of energy, but we have nothing else to do but try to expend that energy in a positive way.

Wow, wow, what great words of positivity and encouragement. You know, I did a webinar earlier today, and one of the things things that I brought up was this idea of leadership. And I know that you are a very strong leader. And you know, and you're right, it could be tiring to be a leader. And one of the slides that I had actually, and it was, you know, it may have been a little rough, but I believed it to be true. And the slide said, What if I'm just not quote unquote feeling it? And right below that I wrote tough.

You don't have a choice right now.

Exactly.

So with that, with that, what are some of the things that you are— specific things that you are doing for— and let's talk specifically about the team. You know, what are some of the things that you are doing to keep people from going to that place of fear, of keeping them engaged and motivated and still aligned with your vision of the business?

Well, for instance, our sales staff, we are doing Zoom meetings and practicing our pitch, practicing our skills, because we don't want to get rusty. We want to be ready. We are also moving, we're ready for our spring storms, which could have a lot of roof damage and those kinds of things. And if we haven't been keeping our skills up, that's gonna be a little challenging for us. So we're doing Zoom meetings, we're doing a lot of, I'll stop by the office, 'cause obviously we're doing some social distancing and following all those guidelines. But we'll go by and just keep encouraging them that this too shall pass, this is temporary. All of the things that I was just saying to you and to our listeners that we have to focus on something good. And if the conversation starts turning negative, I work very hard at making it positive. We smile a lot. Sometimes just a smile relieves so much pressure. So, you know, and I like to laugh. And so I'm, you know, we'll try and cut up and encourage each other. But we're also taking this time of engagement to say, hey, let's look at this form. What don't you like about it? And let's tweak it. Let's change it a little bit. Let's practice using it. Let's practice using it now. Of course, we're also looking at our pricing and making those adjustments, which may seem like a crazy thing to do in the downtime, but hey, let's just be ready. Because the thing— it is not a good idea, I don't believe, to drop your prices. Maybe to give some incentives, maybe to add value, but I don't think we should be dropping prices.

No.

So because we still are bringing a strong value to the community. So it's just a constant reminder with the staff, you know, through the technologies that we have available, even making personal phone calls to them, checking in with them. How are you doing? Just knowing some of those guys that are on straight commission, that's very scary. That can be very scary for them. So encouraging them to even, you know, whatever they can do, you know, to be successful, you know, working on their pitch and looking for other opportunities. If you're driving to the store and you see something, I don't know, throw out a door hanger or something, you know. You don't have to contact anybody, you know, just anything, because again, these are all seeds that, as I was sharing with you a little bit earlier, You don't plant a seed today and expect an apple tomorrow. So if we don't plant any seeds, we won't get any apples. So we have got to be out there doing whatever small thing that every little effort that we can. In fact, one of the guys, well, before the restaurants shut down, got some free appetizer cards from the restaurant because that's a win-win. And, you know, was giving them out on the appointment. So he has a stack of them. Yeah. And just saying, you know, here, just thank you for having us out. And, or if they, you know, if they didn't decide that at the appointment, he said, well, here, look, why don't you think about it over an appetizer or over dessert on me? And so just any kind of little unique creative thing that doesn't cost anything. And in fact, just to show you, he got 2 sales right away. One right there at the table, and the other client, he was not a mile down the road, and they called him and said, man, if you're gonna send us for coffee and dessert, come on back, we're gonna sign up with you. So, yeah, and we're just sharing that idea amongst our team members, amongst the salespeople, and even the office staff, letting them know what we're doing because they're just as much a part of this. The team sells. It isn't just the salesman, the entire team sells. So yeah, we're looking at our processes and tweaking our systems and cleaning up files and just so that when the, when this is over, there'll be a pent-up demand and I believe the floodgates will open and we will be there and we will be ready and we will be prepared.

That's awesome. Well, Anna, I appreciate you. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

My pleasure.

And for everybody listening, listen, we're all in this together. We have options at every moment, every thought that comes into our head. You have the option of moving forward in faith or curling up in a ball in fear. And hopefully by listening to things like this, by listening to people like Anna, you— it gives you the the, the motivation, the confidence to choose faith, to move forward. And we're going to get through this.

It's going to be—

it's a little bit longer than we wanted, but it's going to be a lot shorter, I think, than the news media would have us think it's going to be. So again, Anna, thank you so much. And for those of you that are listening, look out when this is over. I've got a full episode with Anna. We covered a lot of information. She has an amazing story. She's cool as hell. And again, thank you so much. I really appreciate you.

You're welcome. Appreciate you, Brian. Thank you.

Thanks.

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.