241. Hero - Curt Anderson, eCommerce Evangelist for Manufacturers

We need more evangelists for manufacturing!

Curt Anderson is one of the most energetic and impactful voices that is ensuring manufacturing get the attention it deserves.  He is extremely passionate about helping manufacturers connect with customers through eCommerce solutions and in this epic Hero conversation he shares his amazing story.

Curt took the entrepreneurial plunge in the midst of COVID and never looked back.  He shares a ton of insight into how he responds to the needs of others and builds his business on helping manufacturers connect their solutions to the clients they can serve when they need it the most.  His knowledge around all things eCommerce is incredible and no matter your line of business there are insights guaranteed to help you grow. 

He speaks to the importance of niching down until it hurts and how trying to be everything to everyone never leads to the results you desire.  It was an honor to have Curt share his amazing story and with the energy he brings in this interview you may consider doing this one while working out.  He'll have you laughing, inspired and ready to be the best version of yourself.  Cheers to our hero Curt Anderson!

Remember to keep asking why!

Guest: Curt Anderson - eCommerce Evangelist for Manufacturers at B2Btail

Stop Being the Best Kept Secret: Manufacturing eCommerce Strategies
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Host: Chris Grainger
Executive Producer: Adam Sheets

Transcript

00:00 Chris Grainger

Welcome to ecos y. Today we have a hero conversation I brought in my friend Kurt Anderson, who is a e-commerce evangelist for manufacturers. So how you doing, Kurt? Hey, Chris. 

00:15 Curt Anderson

I, man, if I was doing any better, I don't know where I'd be, so I, there's nowhere I'd rather be than with you right now. So thank you for this incredible opportunity.

I appreciate you, dude. 

00:24 Chris Grainger

Oh, it's an honor, sir. I mean, been following you online. Love what you do, the content you put out, the way you serve others. I, I want to hear your story, so, so tell us about your, Oh wow. Okay. 

00:34 Curt Anderson

Well, let's see. When I was in kindergarten, nah, I'm just kidding. I won't go back. . So I, um, uh, you know, so I, I've cheered a little bit with you.

So I have, uh, uh, you know, out of college I took over, uh, you know what? I took over a failed family business. And so, uh, my, uh, it was my father's business and, uh, he had run some, uh, personal challenges, what have you. And so fresh outta college, I took over this business and I shared with you previously that I, man, I was just a disaster.

Just a big, big. And, uh, stumbled on this thing. E-commerce had a nice run, uh, with e-commerce. I ended up selling that company and now I've been just passionately trying to help manufacturers, uh, with e-commerce. That's on the business side, personal side. Uh, married, I'll be married 25 years. Uh, coming up in May.

I have a teenage daughter who is the light of my life, and that's my, that's me, man. That's who I am. I love 

01:22 Chris Grainger

it. I love it. Now, your business name is, is be to be 

01:24 Curt Anderson

Tale, right? That is correct. B2B Tale. 

01:28 Chris Grainger

Awesome. So we're gonna unpack that a little bit further. I mean, why don't you go ahead and do that for us now.

So, B2B tail, what are you doing there? What, what markets are you serving? How are you helping others? 

01:38 Curt Anderson

Yeah, absolutely. So thank you very much, man. So, B2B tail, you know what, I started it during Covid. This is a, this is a Covid baby right here is Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. So, uh, I had been doing, I sold the company, I had been doing a bunch of different things, uh, bought into little company.

I was doing some consult. I work for what's called the Small Business Development Center, which is a national program that helps small businesses, uh mm-hmm. . I was with the one, uh, center here in New York. And so, uh, I've been doing that. So then during Covid it just kind of came about. I wrote all, uh, I, I, I, you know what, when Covid hit, I was in the midst of writing a book.

So I stopped and I, I, I finished my book and I'm like, now what am I gonna do? And I'm like, I went all in on trying to help manufacturers. Uh, you know, when Covid hit, all the trade shows went away, sales reps couldn't go on the road. Manufacturers desperately needed help making this digital transformation.

I'm like, well, I did it a while ago. I have a lot of fun doing it. I'm gonna put my time, energy efforts, God-given talents into helping folks, uh, figure this thing. And so that's what I've been doing. I work with different universities, I work with different organizations, and we do a lot of webinars, workshops, training on trying to help manufacturers figure out this whole digital e-commerce, uh, transformation, if you will.

Absolutely. 

02:50 Chris Grainger

And since you do work with so many different manufacturers and industries, what are you hearing what are the greatest challenges around e-commerce specifically that you, that you hear particularly, uh, especially moving into the. 

03:02 Curt Anderson

Yeah. You know, one of the first questions like how, where to start, how to start, you know?

Mm-hmm. , I'll do a webinar and uh, kind of, you know, when you go to a webinar, uh, you know, I kind of call it like the d i y you know, it's like, so somebody comes to the webinar and you know, Chris, I'm kinda like that crazy uncle gets your kids all sugared up and wound up and then they, and then he leaves and like sticks you with like your, your sugared up kids.

No, you know, you know, right. Brad, you probably have one in your family or maybe, maybe you're that crazy uncle. Right. But, you know, so I'll, I'll have folks come to a webinar. I get them all worked up, wound up. I try to inspire them. But the thing is, they're like, yeah, great. That was fantastic. Uncle Kurt, I'm all sugared up, but I still, I heard you but I have no idea where to start.

So then we offer a lot like different training and we call it like, do it with you cuz we wanna do it with our manufacturers. We call it, we wanna teach you how to fish. You know, maybe you've encountered this. I've had so many manufacturers that have been burnt by, you know, in, in no disrespect to any firms that they've worked with, but maybe just, you know, there was just a disconnect.

You know, they were speaking different languages, uh, burnt by an SEO firm, or maybe an e-commerce firm, and it just didn't go well. And so what our goal is, like how can we do it with you to help kind of teach you, educate you. Not that the manufacturer's gonna be an SEO expert or an e-commerce expert, but we wanna educate them enough to be dangerous that they, at least now, they're now a competent consumer.

You're educated consumer is always your best consumer. That's what we try to do with our manufacturers. 

04:24 Chris Grainger

I love it. I love, well, I mean, you're doing a great job with that, Kurt, and I'm, I'm curious what people think of e-commerce. There. Sometimes there's something that comes to mind. Maybe there's some common myths out there around e-commerce or particular why it's so hard to do from a, from a manufacturer standpoint.

Any myth that you'd like to debunk it here on the show today? 

04:43 Curt Anderson

Man, I'll tell you know, when you're a solopreneur, starting outta your living room, you know, and budget's a little bit tight, you know, uh, you can still, like, virtually e-commerce is for any budget. You know, like you guys are, are doing a whole e-commerce initiative, you know, a bigger company, maybe you have a stronger bandwidth versus somebody outta their living room.

But even somebody in their living room, they, you know, e-commerce, in my humble opinion, there's no greater means that's more efficient, more effective, easier to kind of kick the tires, test a, a product test a. Let alone, you know, a company that has some bandwidth and some budget. You know, a company that has like 20, 30, 40, 50 employees and you wanna get into this digital transformation.

I'll tell you, e-commerce is an extremely affordable, effective, and a great way to kick the tires on how can we take the business into a new direction. 

05:27 Chris Grainger

Love it. Thank you so much for sharing that. Now, let's say we, we have some, some young people entering the workforce. You're gonna try to give 'em some advice, particularly around pursuing our e-commerce.

Maybe try things headwinds they need to be aware of or things like that. Where are you trying, where are you gonna be telling 'em to, to get 'em ready? Oh, 

05:47 Curt Anderson

phenomenal question. Phenomenal question, man. I would inc. So, you know, my first thought is, man, go all in. Okay. I have a friend who, uh, has a, a son, you know, fresh out, uh, you know, he's college and, you know, he reached out to me recently and he was like, Hey, I know you're, you know, a business guy and I, I'm, you know, and he must become an entre.

And I'll tell you, you know, I'm like, man, go all in. Just go all in. But here's, here's the advice I give, whether they're a 60 something entrepreneur or this 19 year old mm-hmm. , niche down, niche down, niche down. And I'll tell you, I have a tagline. You know, if anybody that kind of, if I'm, if anybody with a is within shouty distance of me, you're, they, they're familiar with this term that I use, I call it niche down till it.

Nick down till it hurts because like every time you get out of your, you know, when you try to be jack of all trades, master of none, you try to be everything to everybody. You become nothing to no one. What I encourage folks is like, man, pick a platform, pick a lane. So specifically as you're saying LinkedIn or as you're saying e-commerce, you know, maybe become a, a Google shopping expert.

Maybe the a goo uh, maybe an e-commerce shopping cart, uh, particular shopping cart expert. You know, pick, get into a. And like, just give it all you've got. 

07:01 Chris Grainger

Right? Versus I, I love they said just don't, if you try to be a jack of all trades, you, you, you really master nothing at that point, right? I mean, you just, that niche down.

I love that strategy. So important. But I mean, I think it's, it's sometimes it can be scary too, cuz we don't wanna just niche down. We wanna be everything to everybody. Right? 

07:18 Curt Anderson

It, you know, a hundred percent. And I just like, you know, uh, even for. You know, like there's, uh, I was just with somebody last night.

We were doing like a little consulting thing and I'm like, man, like I just, I finally, you know what Chris, I'm 53. I finally figured out what I'm good at. You know what I'm good at. I'm good at admitting what I'm not good at, and whatever I'm not good at, I'm trying to like, just stay out of that lane. , like if, you know, to create a financial relationship with somebody on something, like, I just don't know.

I don't fully understand. It's really, it's just, even just, you know, I don't, I don't mean to be so harsh to say disrespectful, but I'm doing a disservice to that person. I'm wasting my time and energy and so it's, it's, it's very difficult to, you know, and I'm constantly like everybody I work with, like, we're like, let's be accountability partners on like, how can we stay in our lane?

And when I'm not in my, you know what, when I'm in, when I'm outside my lane, you know what makes me look. To my client. Mm-hmm. is when I bring in that other, I bring in a Joe Sullivan, I bring in Jeff Long and say like, Hey, you want video value bombs? You need to talk to our buddy Jeff Long because he is the video guy.

Why would I waste my time stumbling trying to figure this out when I've got a Jeff Long in my back pocket, or I got a Jo Joe Sullivan in my back pocket. So again, it's hard to get there. Maybe the 19 year old might not see that. But as you are more seasoned entrepreneur, and I don't care where you're at with your walk of.

Exploit what you're best at and, and surround yourself with just awesome people. Right. You know, I, as a matter of fact, I listen to your podcast and I think it was either you or Jeff Long talked about the rising tides lifts off ships, and that's, you guys were talking about masterminds as a matter of fact.

And that's, you know, that's what I'm talking about here is like, how do you have that rising tide? 

08:53 Chris Grainger

I love it, man. I mean, and to your point for that 19 year old sounds like you, you lean into pretty heavily around mentorship and trying to help others grow. Mm-hmm. any examples of, of, of mentorship for you, particularly, like do you have a mentor that you work with?

09:07 Curt Anderson

Yeah, but dude, that's a phenomenal question. You know, like you mentioned podcasts, like, you know, what an inspiration like, you know, here Gary V was a, was a, a, you know, a, a virtual mentor to you that inspired you to get this going. You know, uh, I'm a big listener of, uh, ed Mylet, ed, my, let's a great reluctance Oh yeah.

Where he's a, a man deep in faith, and so like I listen to Ed, I kind of view him a mentor. My podcast, part partner Damon Paso's, a, a mentor. But you know, when you look over your career, you know, when you've been going at it a decade, two decades, three decades, you look over your career, you know, there's seasons that come in your life and there's a saying mm-hmm.

you know, when a student is ready, the teacher appears. And I think when you, if you reflect back on your life and you, like, you'll see when teachers appear in your life where you just weren't ready for a transformation or something to hit. Man out of the blue, when you put something out to the universe of like, Hey, you know what, maybe I'll do this podcast.

So then you, Adam, 'em, you get your team, you, you, like, you bring your resources together. And now mult, you know, multi, multi hundred episodes later, now you're rocking it. But, but on your first one, you're like, Hey, how are we gonna do this together as a team? Right? Right. So I think, uh, so my, that was a long-winded answer, but boy, just, you know, put it out there of what your, your goal, your dream, your aspiration.

What were you put on this earth to. And man, get people on your bus to help. And again, the more that you, you've, dude, you do a great job talking about serve, serve, serve. That's like, whenever I heard that word, I'm gonna be thinking of great Chris Granger. And you're just so anonymous with the word serve.

But boy, what great advice from Chris. Guys, when you're out there, you dedicate yourself to serving, great things are gonna happen to you. 

10:41 Chris Grainger

Thank you brother so much for that. I mean, and I, I, my takeaway from what you just said there so many times just. And we get, we get, we get like cripple ourselves in perfectionism.

Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you, our first podcast for Eco Ssy, we didn't hit the record button. So Adam likes to throw me underneath the bus all the time. It happens. It's okay. I love him like a brother, but on the first one, he didn't hit record. So, you know, I have that to come back on. And we, and that's a, that's a running joke between he and I.

But you know what? We just started, you know, and we, and we, and we got it going. We had a plan, obviously a little of a, a little bit of a strategy, but it's evolved, but. Don't cripple yourself with perfectionism. Just get, just put something out there and then just keep 

11:23 Curt Anderson

going. Get on the field, man. You know anybody that's a sports fan, just like, just, you know, you can practice, practice, practice, practice.

Get on the field. Just get on the field and play the game. Throw a block, make a tackle. Just get on the field, right? That's it. 

11:36 Chris Grainger

That's right. Gotta get out those stands. Well, I'm curious, the last question around work and then we're gonna talk, uh, outside of work, we'll have some fun. So when you're doing what you do at B2B Tail and you're serving others and you're out there, you're, you're, you're, you're having a great day.

What did you do that day? What's, what brings you that mo, that joy and that fulfillment? 

11:56 Curt Anderson

You know, man, another great question. So, you know, I, I'm, I'm giving another shout out to our buddy Jeff Long. I know, like when you asked him this question, he was like, you know what? I feel like I've never worked a day in, in my life.

You know, like, I'm not maybe right. Quite, you know, I, I, I have days where I feel like I work, but like, uh, I love what I do, you know, and, and somebody shared with me, were talking like a mentor. Somebody shared with me like, you know, when you're in a moment and like you get chill. And they're like, when you get chills, like, you know, like you're in your sweet spot, you know?

Right. And I strive to like get those chills. So again, like, you know, I've mentioned it multiple times now, you know, I do webinars, workshops, like when we're doing a workshop. And, you know, we see, you know, a client has a light bulb go off, or like, they, they feel the difference. You know, that's, you know, like, and it, and it, it, I just feel blessed, Chris.

I just feel blessed. I love what I do and I'm very passionate about it. And I'm just surrounded by amazing people like yourself and mutual friends that we have. And so, bottom line, every day is, uh, every day is just a God-given great day, how? 

12:55 Chris Grainger

Man, this is just, see, this is why I wanted to have a, this conversation, Kurt, because you just bring that level of energy, brother.

This says, thank you so much for that. So we'll, we'll, we'll get off the professional path cuz I love for these hero conversations to let people know you outside of work. So what do you do for fun? Got any hobbies or anything like that? Do 

13:11 Curt Anderson

you like to share? Yeah, you know what? So, you know, my younger days, tons of hobbies now, like it's faith, family, fun, you know, so I'm very family focused.

Mm-hmm. . And so those are my priorities. Work, you know, uh, unfortunately, like we were just saying, work is a lot of fun. And, uh, so, you know, it's really, my daughter's a figure skater, so I basically, my second home is a skating rink. Okay. When you're, when you're a skating dad, it's like, you know, it's multiple days.

And so I, I love every minute of it. I'm dreading when she's going to, when she graduates and, and I'm not at the rink anymore. I'm not sure what I'll do. I might be calling you for advice, but, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's, you know, family and faith and fun. Those are my, those are my hobbies. 

13:49 Chris Grainger

Love it. Absolute.

And you've mentioned family se several times. So you have a daughter. How long wa was it, you said you've been. 

13:55 Curt Anderson

It'll be 25 years next year. So yeah, 1998. Yeah. Yeah. Time flies. Wow. I don't know, dude, that was like, you talked about a sales per I'm not, I have never deemed myself a good salesperson, but somehow I pulled that one off.

That was my biggest . That was my best sale of my career. How's that one? I'm not, I'm still not sure how I pulled that off. I am 

14:13 Chris Grainger

with you all the way there, buddy. I definitely married up and, uh, you know, she didn't see it coming, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. , 

14:18 Curt Anderson

I'll, I'll kick the coverage. Is you right? Is that the famous line?

So I use that one? That's right, that's right. . I, I'll kick the coverage for sure, man. So 

14:26 Chris Grainger

now, now you mentioned, so, uh, where is home for New York? 

14:29 Curt Anderson

Is that where you sitting? I'm in Lakewood, New York. I live in a beautiful little lake. It's called Chatauqua Lake. It's like a little touristy area. Uh, Russ, you know it.

It's lot of factory, so along the Great Lakes, uh, from like, you know, from Illinois all the way through New York, they call it the Rust Belt. I'm in the rust Belt. So there's a lot of heavy duty manufacturing where I'm at. And uh, so just, I absolutely love where we live and it's beautiful. It's a beautiful fall day.

And so that's where, that's my world. 

14:53 Chris Grainger

Okay. Now do you have other family in the area or are you guys spread all out or is it all 

14:58 Curt Anderson

kind local? Yeah, we, we, we have a little bit of family, but it's pretty, you know, like Jersey, Connecticut, California, my wife's mother's in Seattle, and so, you know, we've, we've got people kinda bottle over the place, you know, so, uh, you know, it's, it's, it makes it challenging, you know, but we love going to, you know, we love heading out to Seattle or my, my mother, she winters in, in, uh, Phoenix and then summers in Seattle.

So we get, Hey, let's go to Phoenix, or let's go to Seattle. So, you know, it makes it nice. 

15:23 Chris Grainger

That's awesome. That's all. Well, thank you for sharing about your family. I personally, that's my favorite part of all the shows is just hearing about the people and their families and all the cool things. Cuz I mean, we get so wrapped up in our careers and at the end of the day, man, it's not what's under the Christmas tree, it's who's around it.

So I just, I just enjoy that. So thank you for sharing that. How about things you would just enjoy consuming for fun? I mean, you, you, you already have a, a, a killer LinkedIn live show, but what other podcasts, YouTube channels, books maybe that you enjoy reading that, that you, it could be per personal or professional what, whatever.

I just, I love sharing resources with our listeners. 

15:58 Curt Anderson

Yeah, great. Um, you know, I'm an avid reader. Uh, I'm an avid, you know, podcast guy, so, you know, unite. We just mentioned Ed Mylet. That's a big one. Um, yeah, there's a great book I've got right here. It's called, uh, there's a guy named Guy Raz. He has a, he uh, he has a book called How I Built This, and then he has a podcast, the same name.

That's a pretty good one. Okay. You know, I'm, I'm John Maxwell. I'm a big John Maxwell reader. Yeah. And his podcast, um, just, you know, I just, I'm, I'm just constantly reading man. Just, you know, yeah. You know, eager learner, like how to get better, do better. And so, you know, Kindle's my best friend on my, on my phone, you know, and so I'm constantly reading.

16:38 Chris Grainger

That's it. I, me too, man. I'm, I'm a big time reader. I got the Maxwell Leadership Bible right here by my side. Right here. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Yeah, it's really cool man. It's got a lot of his insights in it and, and from a leadership standpoint, you know, in the scripture. So, good stuff, man. Well, thank you for sharing that.

Uh, those resources. We'll make sure, we'll put that one book, uh, we'll link that up into show notes for our listeners. If you want to get a copy, we'll grab it there. We'll also make sure you have a copy of Kurt's book. I'm holding that up for our YouTube followers right now. Stop being the best kept secret manufacturing e-commerce strategy, so we'll make sure that link is in there as well.

Cause I forgot, I'm, I'm, I'm talking with an author man. This is a big deal. This is, 

17:17 Curt Anderson

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. . I don't even, that's sound buddy. I don't even have a comeback for that one, so. Well, and what's funny is, so, and I, I think sometimes you ask folks like, what's on their nightstand. I actually, and, and, uh, just hit me right now as you said it, that you've got John Maxwell's book right there.

I have a John Maxwell book that it was given to me by Nicole Donnelley. She's my partner in crime, great industrial B2B marketer. She'd be an amazing guest for you on this program. Yeah. She bought me that book and it sits right on my nightstand and I, I. Peeking in and just John Maxwell is just such an inspiration.

No doubt. 

17:49 Chris Grainger

Absolutely. Well, Kurt, we we're getting close to the end before we, we wrap up. We like to do a lightning round. Sure. It's just fun stuff back and forth just to let our listeners know a little bit more about you. So if you're willing to play, man, we'll jump right in late on brother. Alright.

Alright. 

18:03 Curt Anderson

What's your favorite food? My favorite food. You know what? I'm a smoothie junkie, so I'm gonna go, I like, I just, I'm a huge smoothie guy, so I'm just, I'm gonna, whether we consider that off fruit, right? So that that throws, that goes into the food label. How's that? 

18:17 Chris Grainger

Okay. All right. And that's the first smoothie that, that someone, when I've asked that, that that's come up.

So, okay. It, that's interesting. Of 

18:23 Curt Anderson

course I did ask, it's like I'm addicted to 'em. Like, it's like, it's almost like a little, it's like a problem. But anyway, I love smoothies. I'm a smoothie. So, Chris, if you and I ever get together, dude, I'm buying you a smoothie. How's that? I'll, I'll take 

18:34 Chris Grainger

it. I'll take it.

What? What's your favorite 

18:36 Curt Anderson

drink? My favorite drink? You know, I. Should I repeat the same answer? You know, so I, you know what? I'm an orange juice junkie, so I, uh, orange juice. Okay. Yeah, so I'm, that, that's about as hard as I go as far as, you know, if you're out with me on a Friday night, I'm sipping orange juice or water, but, uh, you know, I'm an orange juice guy.

18:53 Chris Grainger

That's it. That's it. Now we already know that you have that one book on your nightstand. What else is on your 

18:58 Curt Anderson

nightstand? You know, great question. Probably, you know, uh, probably a lamp and, uh, that John Maxwell book and probably my phone. Plugging in my phone. Right? I think that's the only thing that are on my 

19:09 Chris Grainger

nightstand.

That's it. Now, what's the favorite app on your. 

19:14 Curt Anderson

Favorite app on my phone? You know, that's a great question. Uh, you know, kind like we just mentioned, Kindle. I'm a Pandora. Mm-hmm. got music junkie constantly, constantly listening to music. So I'd say Kindle and, and Pandora. And of course, you and I are both big LinkedIn guys.

I'm popping in LinkedIn on my phone, so I gave you, I gave you three. How's that? So 

19:31 Chris Grainger

that's it. That's it. We'll, we'll, we'll accept that. You can go three now. Every good pastor has three points, right? There you go. You're an evangelist. So that's it. , . I love it. So what's, now you mentioned you're a big music guy, so what, what music are you listening?

You 

19:46 Curt Anderson

know, I try to do a mix. So I, you know, I've, uh, uh, I, I do some, I do Christian music. I used to never listen to Christian music and now like, you know, I'm a big Christian music guy. I like, I enjoyed grunge from the nineties. I, you know, like I try to get, I like r and b, so I, I like to mix it up. So I, I like to keep a variety going.

I had, I had Lady Gaga going on, uh, on the Pandora the other day. How's that one little lady, guy? Guy, I think Katie Perry was in that mix. So I try to keep a nice variety rolling. So, uh, that's, that's what I'm listening. 

20:14 Chris Grainger

Okay. Well, what's your, what's your favorite Christian 

20:16 Curt Anderson

artist? You know, um, my, that's a great question.

Uh, you know, I, I listened to Toby Mack. I listened to, uh, was it King and Country? Um, yeah, like, uh, Hillcrest or, uh, hill, um, hill Song. I, uh, you know, Buffalo, you know, like, so, uh, a lot of that stuff. Um, So I like, I like a little bit of, of a lot I think. 

20:37 Chris Grainger

Okay. Yeah, I saw Toby Mack, uh, once or twice. He's, he's awesome.

And, and, and 

20:41 Curt Anderson

concert you've seen in concert? I've never seen him in concert, so, yeah. And this is like, this is pretty, uh, pretty new to me on the, you know, like in the past few years I've really kind of gotten into it. And so yeah, I really enjoy, uh, um, who's Pat Barrett? I'm a big Pat Barrett fan. Okay. 

20:55 Chris Grainger

Okay.

Well, let's do a couple more. What's your favorite sports? 

21:00 Curt Anderson

Well, you know, I'm an Ohio State graduate, so I'm gonna go with Ohio State Buckeyes. How's that? I gotta go with my, my alma mater. There 

21:07 Chris Grainger

you go. There you go. What's your all time favorite movie? Oh, 

21:12 Curt Anderson

saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks, man. Ooh, that's my, that's my favorite of all time.

Favorite private 

21:17 Chris Grainger

Ryan. Nice, nice. Love it. And last question for you, Kurt. Dogs or cats. 

21:23 Curt Anderson

Oh dude, I have 135 pound Rottweiler man. That's, I'm, I'm, I'm all about the dogs. Nothing personal about the cat people, but I'm all about the dogs. 

21:32 Chris Grainger

Hey bro. And, and there's only one right answer to that question. You got it.

So, I'm so thankful you did, cuz now we can remain friends, so 

21:38 Curt Anderson

that's awesome. That's right. I'm, I'm, yeah. No disrespect to my cat friends, but I'm, I'm, I'm, yeah. I'm a, I'm a raving over the top dog lover. 

21:48 Chris Grainger

Well, Kurt, this has been awesome. We always wrap up eco ssy with the why. So if somebody comes up to you and wants to know what your personal why is, what are you gonna tell '

21:56 Curt Anderson

em?

Yeah, you know, it's, uh, it's my family. It's, you know, my wife and daughter are, you know, totally my why. You know, I, whether that's cliche or not, but that's, you know, my daughter's a light of my life, and so I just really try to, you know, every day I'm striving, try to be the best dad that I can. You know, when you and I connected, I just love right in your headline how you, you know, you put it right out.

I had come across your, your profile, you know, quite a while before we actually connected. And I was just like, man, I've gotta meet this guy. And so again, it's just such an honor and privilege being here today and being with like-minded folks that are just passionate. You know, we're just trying to better ourselves every day and we're on that quest.

And so, man, dude, I cannot express my thanks for today. Thank you for this opportunity. Appreciate you and. 

22:40 Chris Grainger

Thank you brother. Now where, where do you want people to go to connect with you? We'll give, we'll give a call out, we'll make sure everything's synced up in the show notes, but where should they go if 

22:47 Curt Anderson

they're just listening?

Sure. Absolutely. Love to connect with anybody on LinkedIn. That's where I live, that's where I hang out. That's where you and I hang out. So, uh, love, you know, drop me a connection. I'd be honored to hear what you have going on and, and, you know, anyway, like we keep talking about today, Chris, how can we serve and, uh, stop by B2B detail.

It's my. And, uh, just, you know, love to help anybody out there that wants to figure these things out together. 

23:12 Chris Grainger

Well, Curtis, it's been an honor my friend. Thank you so much for joining us and for sharing your, your hero story. You definitely are hero brother. Hope you have a wonderful day. 

23:20 Curt Anderson

Hey, right back at you, brother.

Thank you, man. 

23:22 Chris Grainger

What a fun hero conversation with Kurt Anderson. I'll tell you what, that guy full of energy, full, just, just, he's someone you just wanna be around. You feel better just being in his presence. So I hope everyone enjoyed that. Remember what he said, niche down. You can't be everything to everyone, but niche down.

Find out what you're good at and, and then lean into that. 100%. Highly encourage you to go check out Kurt, what he's doing at b2b. All the wonderful content he's putting out online, uh, particularly LinkedIn. That's, that's where he lives. He has a wonderful show he puts out, I believe it's every Friday, it's just a weekly show, the LinkedIn Live, where he, he dives deep into topics with different guests that really it's just all about serving others and helping them grow.

So again, if you enjoyed this sh episode, share it with someone. Hit Go to your butt, your phone right now. Hit, hit the button, send it out. It's really, I. Then while you're there, give us a rating. Five stars, give us, write a review that will make all the difference as well. Again, eco ask why we're here to serve, particularly in the areas of people and ideas over products.

So we hope you enjoyed this conversation. We hope you enjoyed this story. And remember, keep asking why.

Thank you for listening to Eco s y. This show is supported ad free by Electrical Equipment Company. Eco is redefining the expectations of an electrical distributor by placing people and ideas before products. Please subscribe and share with your colleagues and friends. Also leave comments, feedback, any new topics that you would like to.

To learn more or to share your insights, visit eco s 

25:00 Curt Anderson

y.com. That's E E C O A S 

25:04 Chris Grainger

ks w h y.com.