Little Things Create Big Results with Tommy Richardson

Foreign. Hey, everybody. Welcome to this week's episode of Contractor Radio. I am your host, Jim Johnson, the head coach at Contractor Coach Pro. And this show is all about helping contractors get control of their business so they can grow their business and find some personal and financial freedom, which is why we all start our businesses in the first place. I've got an amazing guest on today. This guy is everything media and really what he does is he helps contractors become famous. We've done some things like this on social media, but we're going to talk a little bit about how to become famous on video and various other platforms and why it's so important to your business. And we're probably going to learn some pretty cool things about this guy. But before we get there, we gotta keep the lights on and do what we do here. So we're gonna listen to a little word from one of our sponsors, the amazing sponsor. Get the referral.

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The guys over at get the Referral. So much so that we use them here at Contractor Coach Pro for referrals. If you are looking to get more referrals, track those referrals and reward those referrals. Get the referral is probably your best bet out there to do so. Today we're going to be talking with the founder and CEO of Nubs Media, Tommy Richardson. I'm excited to talk to him because I got some things along the lines of what should we do as contractors whenever it comes to the video work, especially whenever we're out there marketing, should it be just like us shooting pictures of ourselves on camera? Should it be like really highly produced? Should it be somewhere in between? I want to try and get some of those answers, but I also want to find out a little bit more about him, so. Hey, Tommy, one second here. Let's get. Hey, welcome aboard, man. Good to have you.

What's up, buddy? How you doing?

Doing good. Really good. How about yourself?

Hanging in there, trying to stay warm. Not used to 40 degree weather at the beach, but here we are.

Oh, 40, you're in Wilmington, North Carolina, right?

Yes, sir, that's correct.

And it's 40 degrees there today.

It is cold. It actually. It snowed Saturday.

Whoa. Snow very often in Wilmington. Do they.

That's the first time it snowed in through four years.

Oh, wow. Yeah, we. I don't know if you saw, like, Snowmageddon in Texas last year. Yeah, yeah. It's like, we get Snow about every 12 years. What in the heck just happened? Well, we.

We call snow a half inch.

Yeah. We got, like, six inches in. In San Antonio, which is.

That's crazy.

So, founder, CEO of Nubs Media.

That's correct.

Former military on the army, right?

Yes, sir, that's right.

Bragg. That's pretty awesome.

Yeah, bud.

Tell us a little bit about your background and. And why social media came out. What's that all about?

Yeah, so. Yeah, so I'll. I won't go too far back, but I actually started off when we moved to Wilmington. I became a real estate agent when we were here. I did. Did real estate for about three years. I was. I mean, it was pretty good. Things went well. We did $4 million in real estate first year, up to 10 million by the end of year three. But I just didn't. Didn't really enjoy it. So I said, all right, let's make a change. Well, at that time, good friend of mine, Justin Woodruff, had just started Ready Roofing a couple months prior to Hurricane Florence hitting the east coast here in North Carolina. So he asked me if I wanted to come on board with him and do some roof sales. I was like, sure, why not? Sales to sales, right? So I jumped on board with him. And about six months later, I was like, I don't really enjoy crawling on roofs all that much. I'm gonna be honest with you.

So.

But I loved working with the company. It was a whole lot of fun. I love the atmosphere and the culture that Ready Roofing had and still do to this day, by the way, is phenomenal, Phenomenal company. And he goes, hey, man, do you know how to fly a drone? Sure. Why not? I can. I know how to do that. It's just like playing a video game. So started doing that, just doing photos of houses that they completed after Hurricane Florence just to post something, which led me to learn Photoshop and Lightroom. And then it kind of, you know, transitioned into video and all that good stuff as well, which ended up transitioning to social media management and then Google and Websites and all that good stuff. So, you know, we were. We were with them for two years Before I broke off and did my own thing with Nubs Media in August of 2020.

August 2020. Oh, right in the middle of the pandemic.

Yeah, that's right.

So I didn't know the whole thing about ready roofing. So I'm familiar with Justin. I like the guy. And I noticed that ready roofing, you know, I've been around a while, 24 years in this industry, and then all of a sudden, ready roofing is like, everywhere. Yeah, there was social media, there's pictures, there's Justin was speaking and stuff like that. Like, was that from you guys starting to ramp up this aspect of video and social media and that stuff in that business?

I mean, I'd like to think some of it had to do with what I did.

Were they doing it before you got. You stepped into taking that on?

Not to the level that we. That we eventually took it to. You know, they take their phone out, take a picture of something with the sign in the front yard and things to that extent. But getting that large national exposure, I think was a combination of what we were doing. And also that Justin is just an extremely outgoing guy and he can literally talk to anybody. And I think between the combination of those two things, it just kind of catapulted Ready Roofing into what they've become today.

That's. That's awesome. So a lot of on the job learning and a great company, great culture. I actually met a guy at the SRC Summit we were just at that was one of their branch managers or owners.

Yeah, Todd Wright.

Yeah, Todd.

Yeah, Todd. Great dude.

I got to sit down with him and watch Catch the end of, I think the Kansas City game, I think is what we're watching. And. Great dude. Really awesome. Enjoyed speaking with him and learn a little bit more about what he does and. And kind of how they're set up. So that's. That's awesome. Before we talk more about nose media, like military. Yeah, that. That background. I have a. A huge appreciation for anybody that serves our freedom is what you guys are protecting. And I think it's absolutely amazing. So first things first. I just want to say thank you.

More than welcome, sir.

It is an amazing thing that people will put up and sacrifice for this country. My grandfather retired military. My uncle retired retired military. My brother retired. Every male member in my family has been in the military, except for me. And the reason for that is I actually went to my grandfather and I said, hey, baseball's over. I don't know what I'm gonna do next. I'm thinking about going to the military. And he said, not you. And I went, what?

Okay.

My job is to talk to all the male members of the family and convince them to go in the military.

Like, that's interesting.

And he goes, not you. And I said, why not? And he goes, well, you realize the highest I made it was a master sergeant in 22 years. There's a reason for that. And kind of butted heads with it. You don't get stationed in Tule, Greenland, because you were doing everything you're supposed to do.

Yeah.

And he goes, you're too much like me. It's gonna go one of two ways for you. You're either going to be Mr. Gung Ho or you're going to be in Thule, Greenland. So I don't think I want to take that chance with my grandson. So you might want to find something else to do. So, military, what is that? Like, I seriously, like, I. I've never been able to ask this question on my show before, but what is it like to go and serve and just do that thing? It was. Did you love it? Did you hate it? Did you just do it? What was.

Oh man, I. I loved it. I loved every second of it. I. My plan was to be career military. This was never part of what I had planned for myself when I was 19, 20 years old. You know, our stories are complete opposites. Is my great grandfather served in World War II and then nobody served in the military until I did. And when I went in in 2008.

Wow.

Yeah. So it was like a major, major gap there. So everybody looked at me like I was crazy. Which, I mean, you know, to a certain extent, you got to be a little crazy to join the military. Right. But man, it was, it was fun. You know, those first couple weeks in basic training, it's. It's a mental shock. You have to get up early, you got to go work out. You know, when I went into the military, I was 6 1, 270 pounds. I was, I was a big boy. I had a. I had a 42 inch waist. Wow. Yeah. And when I got out of basic training, I had dropped three sizes in my ACUs and I was, I was also 180 pounds. So I lost 90 pounds in 16 weeks.

Wow.

Yeah. So, you know, for me it was just like, I gotta go run. That sounds awful. You know, like, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do push ups. I don't want to do any of that mess. Like, I couldn't climb A rope. When I got to basic training, I had to learn how to climb a rope in order to pass certain standards that they had for us, you know. But you eventually just get into that routine, you know, and you don't even realize it until you're out of basic training and you get around your family, you know, like, things need to be done a certain way. You know, like your clothes need to be folded a certain way, you walk at a certain speed. You know, you, when you do something, you don't stop until it's done type of deal. You know what I mean? Like, that's just what you learn. And then when I got to the 82nd Airborne, it was a super easy transition. I mean, it just was. The only thing that really messes with you is when, when I got to Fort Bragg, you, like, basically you're in hold for about a week until they can get you to your unit. So you're just kind of chilling on post, just doing your thing. And they told us they're like, hey, you're going to, you know, this battalion and this company and they're deploying in October and this was in June. I was like, oh, all right. Well, I guess that just got real because that doesn't set in while you're in basic training.

Right.

You know, so once you find that out, you, you start mentally preparing a little bit differently to, for what you actually signed up for. And, but I mean, going overseas, you know, you're, you're with the group that you've been training with for months and months. You guys trust each other, you love each other. It just a, a brotherhood that just can't really be explained unless you genuinely experience it. I would equate sports. Like you, you alluded to baseball. I would equate that or like fire department or police department to the closest thing you can possibly get to, to that type of camaraderie.

Yeah, you see a lot of guys come out of the military and go into, you know, police department, fire department, that kind of thing. You see a lot of people that are in military get out of the military and go the entrepreneur route and, and they have a different level of discipline. Yeah. Have you carried that over, like, from military to what you were doing work wise? Do you still see yourself getting up early, going through a routine, those type of things? Is it embedded in you?

Oh, yeah. I mean, even when I was in college, my roommates hated me because I get up at 5:15 every morning. I don't care if it's a Wednesday or Saturday, like I just, that's just what time I get up and I have my morning routine, I grab my coffee, you know, I do my devotion, you know, I have like me time just for a little bit because I have two kids and a wife and they don't get up till around 6:30. So I got an hour and 15 minutes in the morning, which is the only time of day where it's just quiet, you know, but for me, because I've been doing that since I was 19 years old, it's, it's just easy. It's been 14 years now, you know, and I just do it.

So I find this a commonality, especially in people that are either successful or on their pathway to success, is that they do get up early, they have that me time in the morning that allows them to kind of get ready for the day. You mentioned you do a devotional. I do the same. It's this time where I can be really focused without all that distraction. And so the reason I was asking all that stuff is because on the other side of things, you're creating the distraction. It's something that we have to be very aware of, mindful of, because I believe that we've become a very surface level information society right now and we're walking on thin ice. Like, too much of that stuff doesn't give us any depth and we get into trouble. How do you balance that? Like, because I, I mean, is that like new concept to you? Like, hey, I'm over here going, I need my me time, my quiet time, my focus time. And I'm gonna go out here and create a bunch of distraction because I need people's eyes on my stuff.

Yeah. So I know for me, this may sound weird to some people. I'm not on social media that much. I'm really not. That's just, I don't know, like, I just, I just don't do it. Like you go to the bathroom or something, I'll scroll TikTok or Instagram or whatever. But outside of that, I don't really like lay around the house and, and look at my phone. I just don't do it, you know, I, and, and that it's hard for me to do because I want to see how our stuff is doing. I want to see how my, you know, our customer stuff is doing. You know, like, did this video work, did that post work? Are they getting the engagements that they want and so on and so forth. But I have an amazing team around me that assist me in that. I actually, my sister works for me. And she's 23 years old. She has a degree in, you know, social communications with a concentration in social media management, I think is what it's called.

Wow.

I think that's what. I couldn't believe. That was a degree.

Yeah. I was like, that's a thing now.

Yeah. I couldn't believe it when she told me that's what her concentration was in. It completely caught me off guard. But so I hired her. She's been with me for a year now. She got hired January 1st of 2021, and she's been with me for a little over a year now. And, you know, fortunately, with her, she. She really takes care of that side for me, so I don't have to keep an eye on it. You know, she just does it. You know, same thing with our website stuff. You know, I got a guy that does that for us. His name's John. He is absolutely amazing. But, yeah, to. To balance between those two is really hard because I understand how important it is to have that quiet time free of distraction, but it's my job to disrupt that at the same time for my clients.

Yeah. You know, you mentioned this. I want to look.

Right.

I want to look. I want to see. I want to see how we're doing. And that's that dopamine rush that we get from somebody validating whether we did well or not. Right. Yep. That's why people make posts on Facebook, is to see how many people like them is really what it comes down to, because we constantly go back looking to see, hey, did somebody like that or not like that? I've had to really compartmentalize that stuff because I'll find that it will take me to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. Yeah. Sounds like you've found the same thing, like you had to compartmentalize your business. Would you say that roofers need to do the same thing in their world? Is like, compartmentalize those things so they can stay focused on what it is they're after?

Yeah. I think it's just a healthy thing to have. Right. Because the way that I look at it is you post it, you trust that it's going to work, and you continue that trust. And if you're continuously going back and checking on something over and over and over again, then you don't trust it and trust what you're doing, trust what you're saying, trust what you're putting out there, and the results will speak for themselves, because that's how I have to look at it as well. Right. Because I don't, as the owner of Nubs Media, I don't create my own post. I don't do it like that's, that's what my social media team does. They take care of that for me. And I've had to condition myself, which has taken a long time. I don't need to go back and, and look at every single word and all that because I have to trust that it's done the right way. And now, and, and even so, after six or seven months of really going to social media hard, now we're starting to see the results of that. I mean, we've gotten, you know, a couple of messages in the past couple days, you know, if people wanting us to come do work for them. And I had to just say I trust that they know what they're doing. And that is extremely hard to do.

Yeah, we as a type, personalities that start businesses, entrepreneurs, we feel like we got to have our eyes on everything. And as our business starts to grow, we start to bring people into place. We can end up being the pinch point.

This.

Everything's got to pass through us and all it does is slow us down. And so it sounds like you guys are speeding up quite a bit.

Yeah, I mean, this is, this is the time of year where everybody starts looking for that next marketing company. I know that sounds so bad, but the next marketing company, because they're like, okay, we know what our marketing budget is for the year. These are the things we want to accomplish. Who can fit inside of that budget and give us the highest results possible. So, you know, for us, it's been, you know, a month straight of people reaching out to us and basically them interviewing us, us and us interviewing them at the same time, making sure that it's a good fit both ways. So this is the just that busier time of year where you're starting to ramp back up. And then you'll see sometime in December or sometimes even mid November, it'll start trickling off again and then it'll ramp back up and so on and so forth.

Yeah, that seasonality of our business plays a big part in that. So you know as well as I do there's 9 million marketing companies out there.

Oh, yeah.

And that's probably being light. How frustrating is it for you to see on social media the comments that contractors make about marketing companies?

I'm so glad you asked this question. Oh, I'm so glad you asked this question. So here's the deal is trying to put this lightly.