In this episode of the Full Throttle Leaders Podcast, host Michael Falato interviews Spencer Ricks, the new Head of Marketing at BoxHouse. Spencer explains BoxHouse’s core product: factory‑built, steel‑framed homes that fold flat for shipping and can be deployed quickly. The homes are about 400 sq ft, single‑level (with a loft model in development), and designed to feel spacious despite their compact footprint. BoxHouse targets workforce housing—highlighted by a deployment of 400 homes in Pecos/Monahans, West Texas—and disaster‑relief scenarios, such as the delivery of ten homes to Typhoon‑hit Saipan. Spencer discusses his diverse background in B2B SaaS, healthcare, fashion, and journalism, emphasizing storytelling as the heart of effective branding. His first initiatives at BoxHouse included creating a 20‑page messaging guide, redesigning the logo, and launching a new website (boxhouse.com). He outlines the ideal audience for outreach: media contacts and partners interested in the company’s mission, rather than individual home buyers. Contact information (spencer@boxhouse.com) is provided for further inquiries.
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All right, everybody. Michael Fulato here again from Full Throttle Fulato Leads GT and Full Throttle. This is Full Throttle Leaders Podcast. We have Spencer Ricks, who I used to work with, helping his company Fullcast at the last. position. Now he's head of marketing at Box House. Spencer, what's your new job? What do you do and how did you get there?
Thank you. Yeah, so I, uh, so Box House, it's super interesting concept. We make factory-built homes, uh, steel-framed homes, uh, and I actually, you know, I, I've been working in software B2B space for a while, and this company is headquartered in St. George, Utah, which is a pretty small town on the border of Arizona. And that just happened to be where I live. So I connected with them and, um, was able to see the vision. They have a super, super— it's a very— it's a, it's a mission-based company. Um, the goal for this company is to tackle affordable housing head-on. So that really attracted me, uh, to this company. And it's, uh, it's been a lot of fun so far. I've been here 3 months.
And who does— who do they serve the most? Like, what's the ideal customer profile of the FoxHaus company?
So we have a few. One of the most— the best uses of our homes is workforce housing. So there's a place down in West Texas called Pecos and Monahans. It's in the middle of oilfield country, very barren, not very many homes, not very many cities even. And people were traveling long ways and living in RV parks. And we were able to put down around 400 homes that are being used for workforce housing there. So it's really cool. That's, that's one of the use cases of our products. If you go to our website, boxhouse.com, you can see a few others. It's also great for disaster relief because our homes are foldable and they fit inside of a shipping container. They can be placed anywhere. And the concept is right after a storm, right after housing is destroyed, They can be placed. So we have 10 homes right now in Saipan, a little tiny island over, uh, by Guam. They were hit by, uh, by a typhoon back in April, and so we were able to send 10 homes there to be used by families who lost everything from the typhoon.
And how big are these homes about?
They're small, uh, you know, around 400 square feet or less. Uh, small footprint, but if you ever step inside of one, they, they feel large. They unfold. Um, so it's, it's different than a tiny house where it's like very corridor-like. Uh, they unfold, so it's, it feels like a large home in there. They have everything you need, uh, all the amenities, all the— it's great living space.
Samaritan's Purse might be a good client for you because they're, uh, faith-based. Um, you heard of Samaritan's Purse?
I haven't actually, no.
No, I, I did a, a contract with them a couple companies ago, and they basically fly in and when these whole things happen like hurricanes and, and bring food and water. But I mean, they are— they're Bill Graham Jr.'s organization, so that'd be kind of interesting. Also the one, the one Twin Towers, that guy that gives homes to veterans when, when, you know, They're accessible. Is it ADA accessible type stuff, your homes as well, or no?
Yeah, I mean, most— they're all single level. We do have a loft house model that's being produced right now, but yeah, most of the homes are single level, so makes it easy for that.
It was Tunnel to Towers. That was the other one. It's a really cool organization. What kind of got you to where you're at today, and what's some tech or technology or tactics that kind of said, you know what, this is a really great idea? This helped me in the last 6 months of my life or 12 months of my career, or something that really went bad and you're like, don't do this, everybody.
Yes. I mean, I've had— I, uh, before I worked here, I, I was mostly a fractional marketing director. So I worked with lots of different companies. I've worked with, with companies in marketing for, uh, healthcare and, uh, tech and SaaS, like I said, um, even some fashion and like some consumer brands. And before that, I was working for an educational company doing outreach to high schools. So I have like, I have a lot of experience in marketing in different industries. What is really cool about this company and where I'm heading now is I, you know, I really, like I said, I wanted something that is mission-focused. It's hard with so many companies just chasing the bottom line and chasing the dollar. So trying to find some kind of organization that has a bigger purpose. So that's something that really attracted me to this. But also, like you asked about my background, what led me to this too, I, you know, a big part of my background is also journalism. I graduated from college and I went straight into journalism for a while. I was a reporter. I worked at KSL up in Salt Lake. I worked, uh, I wrote for the Seattle Met magazine in Seattle. So I know how to tell a good story. And if you know anything about branding, if you know anything about marketing, marketing is all about telling a good story. So, uh, some people forget about that. Some people get too in the weeds about marketing and chasing leads and, and too analytical. But, you know, when it all boils down to what makes good marketing, what makes good go-to-market, It's telling a good story. So when I started at Box House, uh, the first thing I did was establish, uh, a messaging guide for our company. We had lots of fragmented messaging, lots of fragmented sales tactics and marketing stuff out there. And so my goal was just to bring everything together, put it in a messaging guide that encompasses all of our messaging, how we want to come across in the market, how we want to talk about what we do. And so that was around 20 pages or so, but, uh, most— for most companies doesn't have to be that long, or sometimes it has to be longer if you're a bigger enterprise. But that's just one example of what I did first. Um, and then after that, uh, what is also great for branding is, uh, a new logo. So we took a look at our branding and our logo, and we had to make a switch just so it fit our message better. So we, uh, we, we launched the new branding a couple weeks ago, and, uh, that came out with the new website boxhouse.com, which we're super excited about.
Awesome. What's, what's, uh, some ways to get a hold of you so people can reach out to you? And who do you want, uh, to reach out to you?
Um, well, my email is spencer@boxhouse.com. Uh, Like I said, right now we, we are growing. It's an exciting company to be part of. If you are interested in collaborating or learning more about what we do, you can always reach out to me. I'm interested in, you know, we, we don't want to put the cart before the horse. And so I'm not, I'm not saying, you know, if you're interested in putting a house in your backyard, reach out to me. I'm not, I'm not your guy for that. I'm not a salesperson, but— But if you're a media contact or someone who's interested in what we're doing, yeah, feel free. We have some, some great stuff happening.
