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The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
From Family Business to Marketing Empire: Logan Shinholser Entrepreneurial Journey
What does it take to transition from working with your family's business to creating a successful marketing empire dedicated to contractors? Join us as we unpack the incredible journey of Logan Schindholzer, founder of Contractor Growth Network. Logan reveals the dynamic shift from working late nights and weekends for his dad's company to spearheading his own venture, using his athletic prowess and storytelling skills to navigate the entrepreneurial safari. Expect to gain invaluable insights into overcoming small business hurdles and capturing the unpredictable nature of success, much like the Detroit Tigers’ unexpected wins.
Growing up in Maryland as a die-hard Orioles fan and embracing the entrepreneurial spirit passed down by his parents, Logan decided to forge his own path instead of joining the family business. His athletic journey, from gymnastics to collegiate diving, eventually led to his induction into the Virginia Tech Athletic Hall of Fame, underscoring the importance of personal choice and passion. Explore how these experiences helped shape Logan’s mindset and fueled his drive to innovate in marketing, particularly with groundbreaking strategies like video marketing and AI-enhanced content creation.
Learn how Logan turned the challenges of entrepreneurship into triumph, leveraging lessons from sports and marketing to empower home service companies. Discover the art of storytelling and building impactful marketing campaigns that draw inspiration from platforms like HGTV. We also delve into effective meeting leadership, customer service excellence, and the power of maintaining strong client relationships. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, Logan's journey is sure to inspire and equip you with the strategies needed to thrive.
I was doing nights and weekends working for my dad's company, doing marketing for him. And then, when that started to work well enough, his buddies who were also contractors said hey, I see what you're doing for your dad, I see it's working, can you do the same thing for me? And it got to the point where I couldn't do sales during the day and then do my dad's stuff and all these other client stuff nights and weekends. And one day quit Indeed said I got about six months of savings that let me see if I can make this thing work. And went into business for myself to do contractor specific marketing and, uh, been doing that now for seven a little over seven years man, what an amazing story.
Speaker 2:So I'm glad to hear that. First of all, uh, high diver in the dolphin show, not the shark world, or in shamu, the killer whales.
Speaker 2:So thank god you're diving in the dolphin show, not the shark world or, in Shamu, the killer whales. So thank God you're diving in the right tank. Welcome to the Small Business Safari where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop.
Speaker 2:I usually like to say let's get ready to rock and roll, alan. We got a big episode but but Alan's fallen mute. Actually I'm not kidding you guys, I actually have killed him. So Alan's dead. You guys don't know that. He's with Dr Dre. If you know the reference, come on Eminem homeboy, especially right now talking about that Detroit Tiger. So I'm in Atlanta.
Speaker 2:If you follow the podcast, you know I'm a big sports nut and if you would have said this July dating myself a little bit because we're in the end of 24, that the Atlanta Braves would have made the playoffs, but the Tigers would have won more games in the playoffs. I would have taken that bet all day long. And here I go the El Tigres are still making it in the playoffs. They came out of nowhere, and so the story I love about these guys is that they were doing the fire sale in the beginning of the year. They were getting rid of all the high-priced talent and they were really building for next year, but nobody told the current players that they weren't going to be any good. And so these guys are so young and stupid they didn't realize that they could just go out there and win, and that's what they started doing.
Speaker 2:And that's one of the cool things about business or in life Sometimes just not thinking that you got those obstacles in front of you and not knowing that you're not supposed to be that good, sometimes you go out there and do some great things, man. And today I have somebody I've been dying to get on the podcast Logan Schindholzer from the Contractor Growth Network on, because I know he loves that story, because he himself was an athlete, is an athlete, don't do that, did some amazing stuff and we're going to get into that. But he's taken that amazing story that he's got and started to turn it into stories for you and we're going to talk all things marketing and what he's done with home service companies.
Speaker 1:So let's get after it. Hey, logan, let's get going. That was a good lead in man. I was a little bummed because, as you're talking about it, I'm an Orioles fan from Maryland. So our year, last year of you're not going to do anything was last year and we won a hundred games, didn't do well in the playoffs, but then this year was our year and if you would have looked at the all-star break you would have thought, man, this team's going all the way, no problem, and at the end of it it was just we died. We were like Alan out there, man, it just didn't go.
Speaker 2:Well, that's right, alan, he's dead. He's dead to me, at least, because his second episode in 150. But no, he was sincerely bummed, he couldn't make it, he had to do an airport run. So he'll be back back. You guys will hear him again next week. We're going to get it rocking and keep it going. So, uh, logan, I love to talk a little bit about people's backstory, because I think a lot of times our backstories tell what our future is going to look like. So, uh, I know, let's, we'll get to the pinnacle in a minute. But growing up in the, I guess you were in the northern virginia area uh, maryland, technically maryland all.
Speaker 1:Not technically, I was in Maryland, a hundred percent A hundred percent, not technically.
Speaker 2:We're not disingenuous. We love Maryland.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So grew up there, did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur, or was that the thing when you were a kid?
Speaker 1:I mean. So my dad was a contractor. So my dad was a pond and water feature contractor up in Silver Spring, maryland. So we grew up in that. I have an older sister and two younger brothers and it was always discussed with us hey, if you want to make money and make change, own your own company. My mom was a loan officer so she was always very keep what you kill. So that was kind of what was just talked to us when we were kids.
Speaker 1:And as we grew up there was never this idea of we all want to be entrepreneurs. At this point now it's just myself and my youngest brother that actually own a company, but the other two one's in the military. My sister works for a nonprofit. But it was never like forced on us by any means.
Speaker 1:And I know when my dad sold his pond company he just kept talking to us like hey, look like you kids have like first right of refusal. Do you want to buy this thing? And we all said no, we're good, we're going to do our own path. And that was kind of like, if you think about, like kind of what an entrepreneur does is hey, I see there's a really good business model that you have set up. But I'd rather do let me take the hard path and do it on my own and start from zero. And that's what I ended up doing. But no, I never thought I would be in this place, and then I just kind of fell into it, actually seven years ago, so even now it's still kind of surprising to a certain extent.
Speaker 2:That's wild. Hey kids, anybody want to buy my business? Oh hell, no, dad, it had to be not, and now it's such a good model.
Speaker 1:It's new projects with also recurring revenue coming in. Now that you own a business, I'm like I would love to have a business set up just like that, but at the time it's dad's business. You don't want to be in his shadow. I was all for myself and my siblings all dove in college, but my dad also dove in college, so we're already kind of in that shadow to a certain extent. So it just became we want to do our own thing and that's how it all ended up coming out.
Speaker 2:Now, let's get into that. So that's how you got into diving. So dad was a diver and he and he said, hey guys, uh, I'm going to make you all dive. Is that what he did?
Speaker 1:He forced, uh, I'm gonna make you all dive. Is that what he did? He forced us, yeah, forced us, yeah, yeah, it came out of the womb in a speedo already. It was, uh, it was just meant to be, um, no, it was. I mean, so we grew up um, he did very well in entrepreneurship. So we actually had, uh, an olympic trampoline inside of our house. We had a special, uh, probably 25 foot addition, uh, ceiling wise, with a trampoline.
Speaker 1:That is what you see in the olympics and that's what we grew up like, playing on stuff, and then we were all gymnasts or trampolinists, like competitively growing up, and then we all slowly morphed into the world of diving and we all went to college on a scholarship for diving and, um, he never pushed it or forced us and it was really just like, whatever you want to do, you do it. But like when you're exposed to that so much that you just you kind of fall into it and you know next thing, you know, like I just, um, I just I went to virginia tech and I just actually got accepted into the uh athletic hall of fame up there a couple weeks ago. I was getting to it.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, man, well done.
Speaker 1:Congrats on that. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:I mean that is not only just getting a scholarship to go play in college, I mean that's a big deal. And then becoming good at it is a big deal, and then being good at it at the D1 level is an incredible deal. But then to be as good as you were and then get inducted in the hall of fame, man, that I mean we're in rarefied air here. And alan right now, go huh. Once again you brought somebody who's better looking than us, better hair and clearly is a better athlete. And yes, we've done it again. Everybody logan's here.
Speaker 1:So, man, that's, that's awesome that you got that honor, that's I appreciate that and I will say, though, just to to kind of bring me down a little bit for a second I show my wife because I met my wife after all the diving and stuff and after college. So she, she didn't, she can't really like sympathize with that part of my life and recognize what it was. So when we went up there for the weekend I showed her a photo of me like back when I'm diving in. Her first comment was oh wow, your hairline has receded a lot since then. I was like OK, well, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Okay, so have a seat there, bucko. You start thinking your britches get a little too big for your britches, I'll knock you right back down.
Speaker 1:That's what it was, and I wasn't even trying to brag of like, hey, check out this hairline. It was just like, hey, this is me.
Speaker 2:Back in the day I got featured on a magazine for college and she was like, oh well, and so that's how it was, so came right back down to earth so the the diving thing, and that's why I love talking, uh, about that, that's why the part of the lead-in, you know, sometimes you go out there as a sports team not knowing you're supposed to win, um, not knowing you're not, not knowing you're not supposed to be any good, and you, you know what you just buy, just go out there and make it happen diving. I want to talk about fortitude and having you're sitting up there. I mean, did you do the high, like the way up there, diving and the that was my specialty.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, that's 10 meter. Um, yeah, so it's funny that you bring that up, because it's actually a very keen observation that diving is very much a solo sport. You train together. You're technically part of a swim and dive team, so, so they put all the swimmers and the divers. It's like track and field, where divers, though, were viewed as like the kickers of the football team, where, you know, everybody knows if you made it or you didn't make it, and if it's good or not, and you can certainly lose the game, but it's kind of hard to win the game because it's, you know, diving is part of it, but it's just you, and when you're up there on 10 meter, it's very much a fear-based sport because you've got, you know, if you just got like Lou Gayness, who goes up there and smacks his head on the platform, which that doesn't feel good, or if you don't smack your head, but then you know, when you go into the water, if you land flat, that's going to hurt. So it's a lot of pressure. Where it's, everybody is just staring at you. It's super quiet. It's almost as if like, think about if you're in like a big golf tournament and you're like the very start, you're on the first tee, just like the pressure that you feel when you're like I don't want to screw this thing up. It's like that, over and over and over and diving, because it's always just a huge crowd and all eyes are on you and it's up to you and if you mess up, there's no.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, the the past to me was a little bit low and that's why I dropped it. It's, it's all on you, baby. So it's, it's helped a lot with entrepreneurship, I'll say, because, especially early on, um it early on, it helped because it was very much like, if I'm going to do this thing, it's all me to figure it out, I'll make it work. And then, as time goes on now I wish I had more team sport stuff, because I, you know, now that I have a team here at my company, I'm having to like learn to like trust them and rely on them more and more and more, which, in diving, there was none of that, it was just you. So, um, it was a lot of fun. It taught me a ton about myself and all like my speech I gave at tech was less about like oh, here's the accolades, and more about like. These are the things I actually learned that I still do to this day that I got all from diving and being coached here at Virginia tech, so it was fantastic for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you know. Again, you brought that up to the solo part. Yeah, it's not a team sport. Yeah, you have coaches and you have to do that, but it's all up to you to have the mental fortitude and the discipline to go out there and get yourself in shape to do this and then to put it all together and do that, like you said, with a quiet arena. You know I I joked with people that. You know I did a pro am one year where people were there to see the pros and I was out there playing golf with them and they're like right down the sides of where I could probably take their heads right off.
Speaker 2:I mean pros are going to do it. Guys. I was sitting there going hey, I think you want to back up a little bit. Um. So once we got on the course, I felt a lot better because there were a lot less people. But oh my God. So back to that, the discipline and having that all the way through. Uh, you didn't come out and go right into entrepreneurship. What did you go do?
Speaker 1:So I came out and I graduated college and the whole goal, pretty much from sophomore year on, was to become a Navy SEAL. So that was really what my goal was. So I had trained for it. I mean, I was like you do your normal go to school. I changed my major to make it more appealing for the Navy.
Speaker 1:When I got out I would go off and do like you know, saturday after dive practice. I would then go through this whole program, get accepted into the program as an officer, uh, go up to OCS, which is how you go from a civilian into being officer. Uh, then I go out to San Diego and that's, um, where Bud's is, which is the Navy SEAL training. And just to do one step back, before I actually got in the Navy, um, I had actually moved out to San Diego to go train and as I was training out there because they let civilians come on base specifically for this program just to get in better shape and get acclimated to some of the stuff I actually got a job as a high diver at SeaWorld. So there was a little bit of like a fun thing there. So I was doing I'd wake up, I'd go to SeaWorld, I would dive in a dolphin show because I was a diver. Easy transition out there and then I would go on to base in the afternoons and I would just work out the whole time on base with the other guys who were also trying to get in. So I did that for a bit.
Speaker 1:But then, once I got accepted into the program OCS, go back out to San Diego, go through BUDS. Buds is their training program. If you've ever seen the movie American Sniper, it's that portion where they're just at the beginning of the movie. They're getting their stuff kicked in. That's what Bud's is. And I go through Hell Week and I didn't make it out of Hell Week. Hell Week is unbelievably hard. It lives up to its name, trust me. And I rang the bell and I quit.
Speaker 1:And then at that point when you quit, that's six years down the drain of everything that I've been. I only had one focus, like I have at this point. I have a degree in chemical engineering that I want to do nothing with, but I did it just so I have a better resume for the military. So when I quit I'm like I got to stay in the Navy because I got nothing else that I have to do. I'm not going to be an engineer Like. That's not who I am.
Speaker 1:So I tried to stay in and it was at the end of their fiscal year, I guess, and they said look we, we got no other spots for you, you're, you're out of the Navy.
Speaker 1:So I was in for a year and a day and at that point I had then moved to San Francisco, cause I just mentally had to get out of San Diego cause I was still living with uh, I had two roommates and they were in buds with me and they both made it.
Speaker 1:So now all the guys who was we were all in the same class together with are coming over to the house to hang out, and then I'm the guy that's like in his room trying to hide from them because emotionally they all made it, and when you don't make it you kind of see, you feel way lesser than and I just didn't want to be around that.
Speaker 1:So when I got out of the Navy, moved up to San Francisco, did inside sales as I was doing all of that I was doing nights and weekends working for my dad's company, doing marketing for him, and then, when that started to work well enough, his buddies, who were also contractors said hey, I see what you're doing for your dad, I see it's working. Can you do the same thing for me? And it got to the point where I couldn't do sales during the day and then do my dad's stuff in all these other clients stuff nights and weekends. And when in one day, quit indeed said I got about six months of savings that let me see if I can make this thing work. And went into business for myself to do contractor specific marketing and, uh, been doing that now for seven, a little over seven years.
Speaker 2:Man, what an amazing story. So I'm glad to hear that, first of all, a high diver in the dolphin show, not the shark world, or in Shamu, the killer whales so thank God you're diving in the right tank. Uh, so thank God for that. Yeah, you know I, I can actually hear the disappointment when you're talking about the buds thing. Um, but for many of us sitting out there, uh, I would say, uh, number one, nah, I'm not going to do that. In fact, I probably couldn't even sit in the sand as long as you guys just sat there for like five minutes. I've seen some of that stuff. I've seen some of the bud shows. So kudos to you, man, for doing that. That's awesome. But I think that translates into the entrepreneurial world pretty easily, and I love Edmund McRaven's speech at Texas A&M. That's pretty viral. Now we're talking about the lessons he learned from that program and then I've actually played that.
Speaker 2:I made some of my managers watch it all and I played snippets for my team throughout the years, because the lessons you learn there are things that you're going to have to go through in business. You know every once in a while it's going to really suck and you have to embrace it and you got to dig. And you got to dig hard, uh, to get out of things, especially when you're in your own business and trying to make shit happen. So you backed your way in to, uh, marketing. Uh, you're like, hey, I got this chemical engineering degree, I'm diving. I actually be a SEAL. I wanted to go save our country. I had to protect everybody.
Speaker 2:And now, next thing, I know I'm doing this marketing thing. Obviously you're excelling at it, because before I got you on this podcast, I had no less than five different people tell me I needed to get you on this podcast. It was so funny because of what you're doing and how you're doing it. So your dad picks up the phone and says, hey, logan, I need some help. And so you said, all right, well, with my vast marketing knowledge, I'm going to help you, dad. And he goes. Well, my vast pockets, logan, I'm not going to pay you, probably.
Speaker 1:So his exact phrasing was Logan, I got a marketing company and if I'm going to waste all this money on marketing, I might as well waste it on my own son. Do you want to try this? So that was the direct quote from him. So it was a uh, from father to son it was. It was a very endearing question and it's funny cause it's a good story. So I'm glad he actually did it that way. But that was literally how he asked me hey, if I'm going to do it between you and me, I'll try it. And that's really where it all started was just learning it.
Speaker 1:At the time he hired a guy named Tom Reber who was doing like one-on-one coaching just for some of this marketing stuff, and so Tom was teaching me what a blog was. And now Tom is way bigger than it was back then and it's got a whole brand and it's huge now. Blog was and you know, now Tom is, you know, way bigger than it was, you know, back then, and it's got a whole brand and it's huge now. But back then, I mean, I was on the phone once a week with Tom where he's just like reading over a blog and he's like, hey, man, this is what a WordPress website is. So Tom actually taught me all the fundamentals and stuff and then you know now it's.
Speaker 1:You know it's it's past that but, funny enough, all the fundamental stuff that I was taught back then we tried so many hacks and tricks and ways to game the system and any way that we slice or dice it.
Speaker 1:The stuff that actually works is the stuff that I was doing back then. That still works really well and it's all just putting out great content and highlighting what makes a company stand out compared to everybody else and really just showing what it looks like to be a customer of that company's, but doing it online. So that was like the premise back then and now it's funny it's the same exact thing that works and the more I'm in it, the more that, like all these tricks, I realized just they don't work and we try them just to see if maybe this is a way to go from step seven to step 7.2, but it never works that way. So it's all just the straightforward stuff of just we like to take a good brand that does good stuff and put them up there and make sure everybody knows what it looks like to work with them.
Speaker 2:I think that should be your tagline, right? Hey, if you're wasting money on marketing, which we all are why don't you waste it on me? My dad did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know how to use it, so trust me, I can spend it pretty well.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's an awesome line. Yeah, we've had Reber on the pod man he is. Obviously he is an energy source brother. When you get around him, I mean you're in orbit with him. We were rocking and rolling on that pod and that was a lot of fun. So getting a chance to deal with him on a weekly basis I'm sure was exhilarating and exhausting all the same time, uh, and getting, you know, fired up.
Speaker 1:Well, I was like 24 years old, so like I'm sure I was way more hyped up than he was, like I was ready to go. So, um, no, I mean I'm yeah, I mean it's he's. He gets fired up about this stuff. And then I know, like when you get somebody in his world that's like hey, whatever you tell me to do, I will do it. Because the beauty was most of the people that he's always coached, they have a full-time job of running a business. So then now when he's like hey, you got to go home and write these blogs, none of them are going. Oh, I cannot wait to get home at 8 o'clock tonight, say hey to my family and then go write a blog.
Speaker 1:I had all the time to write a blog, so that's what I was doing, and so it was funny. I was like joking with my dad about it, like a year in, and my dad was like Logan, I talked to Tom, he loves working with you, because he'll say, hey, get this stuff done, we'll check in in two weeks to see how it's going, and you get it done that same day. And I was like, well, it wasn't that much work. Like he just told me to write like these four blogs and I just wrote them and that was it. But when you have all this other stuff of a business to also do on top of it, it gets pretty tough. Back then, that's all I did, so it was great.
Speaker 2:Man, great stories. Let's talk a little bit about what you do today for clients. Let's talk about some of the things you've done. Let's start dropping some gold nuggets on what we could all start doing and figuring this stuff out.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So the whole premise of what we look at is our whole goal at CGN is to help you generate referral quality leads online and the whole backstory to that of of why everybody likes referrals so much. And there's really three factors of why people like referrals. The first one is I'm a referral. I come into your space I can see, oh my God, this looks amazing, like this kitchen is beautiful. I didn't you know. This is so nice. I love it. Because you're in the space. I can see, oh my God, this looks amazing, like this kitchen is beautiful. I didn't you know this is so nice. I love it because you're in the space. You can feel it, you can see it, you can touch it. It's awesome. You get excited. That's like the first part.
Speaker 1:The second part of why referrals are so good is the person that you're in their house. You trust them so much because you know, hey, chris is my boy. We've been hanging out for years and years and years and if he's saying, look, you got to hire this company. They're great, like their. Their process was awesome. We did a design phase up front man. They even texted me every single day at the end of the project just to give me an update. That was awesome. And at the end of it I'm going to go Chris, I think I want to do this man, but like, just is $150,000 project, it's like okay, cool. And at that point, that's why referrals are so good, because now if I call the contractor, I've already seen your work, I see the craftsmanship and I hear from somebody that I trust. Oh wow, this looks amazing. How was the process? Oh, process was great. And then I know ballpark pricing. So I'm not calling you up with a $15,000 budget, hoping that you're plus or minus five grand and you're like I can't even look at this thing for less than 50. So those are the three things that are really what makes referrals so great, and we essentially just replicate that process online.
Speaker 1:You know we are very big into media and video and stuff like that, because that is the easiest way to show off the craftsmanship and the story behind it, which also allows you to build that trust with the actual homeowner there as well. And then we like to build everything around that from an online perspective. So you have this beautiful media, you get it up on this website. That highlights the story. It shows the before photos and the after photos as well, and it's got pricing associated with it and the basic process there, and then you just put that on blast. You can run ads around it. Seo gets driven towards it.
Speaker 1:So essentially, it's this whole idea of, instead of just putting a bunch of stuff out there and hoping that it sticks, it's actually building out campaigns around the actual projects that you're doing, because at the end of the day, even the old school guys are like look, my work speaks for itself, I don't need a market, my work does all the heavy lifting and it's like perfect. Then let's take your project, that's your work. Let's make it look even better through nice video, high-end photos, good storyline and narratives, and let's go ahead and put it out to the community and the market and we'll see what they say about the whole thing. So that is, in a nutshell, what we do at CGN.
Speaker 2:All right. So I engage with you guys. You guys come in. Obviously we talk about video, but we we step back. I know we all. Everybody likes to talk about. Well, let's talk about strategy and this. That I get, that we're going to do that, but kind of the sizzle you're bringing to the table is video and I think that's one of the big things. Obviously, you said something that's really key and one of my big points that we bring up in this pod all the time man, 40% of my business comes from repeat clients today, but the next 30% come from referrals referrals from clients, referrals from other contractors, referrals from that. So I'm digging and spending all my marketing money on the last 70 percent and when you're doing that. But so referrals are huge and to get a referral like lead online, I mean that to me is a unicorn. I mean I love that idea. So you're bringing the video, you bring it in, you start going around. So is it? You're helping us kind of figure out which channels to do, kind of put everything all together.
Speaker 1:There's a it's, there's a whole like process to it. But in a nutshell, we'd come in there, we do all the video stuff that we need to get done and then we create, let's say, a two and a half minute testimonial video from your client and the difference of what most testimonial videos are going to be like is's going to be, let's say, your client is Jim and Jim's going to go. Look, I hired Chris. Chris was so nice to work with. I really liked, you know, the communication. It was great and that's fine.
Speaker 1:But it doesn't get anybody excited to actually then remodel their space or make any sort of change. It only works really well if somebody is hell bent on already getting the kitchen remodeled. Our job is to actually get people excited about wow, I haven't really been thinking that much about I should remodel my kitchen, but now that I see this, this is exciting and that's actually what HGTV Architectural Digest that's what they're so good at is. They're not showing you the process as much. Hgtv does a little bit more, but they do it in such an exciting way that when they show the final product, it makes you actually want to put whatever they're doing in your home or you want to move into that house or whatever it is. So that's the whole goal is we want to, first off, create excitement around the actual projects that you're doing, because nobody's going to buy, especially with what a remodeler or a high-end handyman is doing. These are all want-based things. These are very expensive. They can remodel their kitchen, which is going to take a few months, it's going to be very disruptive in their home and it's going to cost them $150,000, or they can do 10 really good Disney vacations with their family for that same amount of money. We have to say,000,. Or they can do 10 really good Disney vacations with their family for that same amount of money. And we have to say look, your money is better spent on a new kitchen than those 10 trips that you're going to make so many memories with. You know Mickey and Minnie and all this stuff.
Speaker 1:So it's not enough just to say, hey, we're better than the everybody else in the area. We have to actually get you excited and then we take that in that video and then we'll chop it up into smaller segments, run those as social media ads. And now it's instead of you creating a commercial and putting it on tv and running it that way. Now you get to create a bunch of mini commercials and you put them on social media and instead of saying we want to run it all over you know the atlanta area, which massive we can just hit these few small neighborhoods that are really your hotspot and we're just driving people from those videos back to your website on that specific project page where they can now actually learn more about that specific project and they go oh, this is actually right up the road from me.
Speaker 1:This couple looks a lot like me because we're in the same neighborhood, all that kind of stuff, so it's all just consistently driving exposure around. This is what your life can look like, because we did this for one of your neighbors already and we're just associating our name with this transformation. So that's basically what it is. You know it helps out with SEO as well, like marketing is becoming so multi-channeled and like it's a whole ecosystem that it's it's not as linear anymore, where it's like you do this, then this happens, you do this, then this happens. It's all video helps out with SEO, cause it's, you know, google likes to see that stuff. So it's all kind of intertwined at this point. But overall we are helping to build a brand and get the exposure of what it looks like to be a client of yours out to the markets that you want to be in front of.
Speaker 2:Actually, if you listen to the pod, I'm part of a CEO mastermind group and we did a small breakout this morning on marketing. So this is all really timely, where we talked about ideas and what we're trying to do for the next upcoming year and different things, and I, one of our one of our key things that we talked about man is videos King, and getting content out there that's video related, puts people in that space so they can see what it's like to work with you and you just hit on it. So I think what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to go dress up with Mickey mouse and start walking through some of my projects so they know they can go to Disney world with me and go check out my handyman stuff. Well, maybe not, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I mean it'll stand out.
Speaker 1:And if that's what you're going for, I'd be like there's so many and we have a video team, that like it's because I used to do the video. That's really how I started with my dad's stuff, was writing the blogs, and I just took an iMovie class in high school and I was like, set up a camera or like my phone, give him a microphone, and he would just talk through a project and go, yeah, this client, they were dealing with this and they were frustrated. So we came out and we did this, this and this, and now they're super happy and I would just do B-roll of just photos of the project, of like the progress going on, not realizing that that was like a good storyline in and of itself. And then I just started putting it up on YouTube and on social media. And then what started to happen was he would have clients that, um, I remember this, we would go out to the projects and he was really good at, uh, customer service in the sense of we'd always do a pre-job walkthrough with the entire crew and at first it was just hey, this is, you know, logan, it's actually my son. Hey, this is Nick. Hey, this is Mike. And then, as we started doing these videos, we would go up and my dad would go all right, just hey, this is Logan. And they go oh, I know Logan, that's Nick, that's Mike, that's Andrew, and the people already knew who we were. So that level, and at the time I thought, oh, this is kind of cool. But as a business owner, that level of trust was a huge factor in why they hired him versus everybody else that they could have hired in the market.
Speaker 1:So the video stuff has been around, for it's been a thing for, like, I started doing it 10 years ago with him. It's not going anywhere, it's only become more and more prevalent. So you got to do it. But, man, it is such a good thing, like, and they start to reference, like individual videos. It's super cool because it, like it shows them this is who you're going to be working for and working with and it just builds up that trust and rapport upfront in such a quick way compared to if they just read a job description and they go through enough interviews with me. So it's, so it's huge. Man, everybody's going to have to be doing it in the next five years. It's just when do you rip the bandit off and make it happen?
Speaker 2:Would you say YouTube is the number one place you would stick your videos first if you're just like getting out of the gates.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it all depends on what kind of video, because to have a good YouTube video it has to be very intentional, a lot of editing going on. It's better for longer video, which is naturally going to be a little bit harder to film, and stuff like that and get correct, because now you have to keep somebody's attention and engagement for a much longer period. Versus social media, you could just do something that's a little bit more candid on Facebook or Instagram and like that plays pretty well there. Just because it's really meant to be a short, maybe you stay on the video for 15 to 30 seconds, which on Instagram plays pretty well, but 15 to 30 seconds on YouTube is such a small amount of time that YouTube's not really going to want to show your stuff. So there's different use cases.
Speaker 1:Um, I just started on YouTube because I like the storytelling stuff and I like doing a little bit longer two, three minute videos. Um, cause it's actually it's funny that now that the short videos that are 15 to 30 seconds like to do a good one, it's it's almost harder cause you're trying to pack a lot of stuff into a very short period of time. It's kind of like when Mark Twain says I would have written a shorter letter if I had the time. It's like that at this point. So I like YouTube. I'm a big YouTube person. If I had to pick one platform for video, I would say go there, because then it's also easy to text clients a link to the video of hey Chris, check out this last project that we did. It's just like the one that you're talking about. You can embed it on your website email signatures, stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's amazing. All right. So what I got to know, though, is yeah, so you actually did some of the pond work with your dad. So when you built the pond, I got to tell my story, because I got to believe you have the same one. So we, uh we went to work for a client. I got to know him a little bit, and then we went back to do more work. Well, he had a pond in the back of his house, it was. It was built in, but it wasn't working.
Speaker 2:When I was there the first time and it was working the second time, when I went back out and I I saw you had a net over it I'm like, oh, man, you got your pond work and he goes. Yeah, I learned a big lesson. I'm like, really, man, what's going on? He goes. Yeah, so I get this pond work and I get it all there. I get the koi brought in, these big goldfish. You know koi, everybody's. He goes. I put him out the back, he goes, and I I don't know what happened, but, man, they were all gone within like two days. I'm like what the hell? He goes. Yeah, who knew? Here in atlanta, we had birds, and he said they're out there. He said I got a bird who's just fed off these things. So he said I learned you had to have a net so they actually.
Speaker 1:So that is super common. It's going to be like heron that do that, but they also, um, raccoons, will go in there and they'll also have not cougars but some sort of like big cat that will swim and dive down. It's unbelievable. And these things like I have a pond at my house that my brother put in and I have one fish. That's $800, just $800 for one fish. So imagine they come in and take that. But what they will create is these things called fish tunnels, where it's a little bit of like survival of the fittest, where the smart fishes realize, okay, there's a bird coming in, go ahead and swim under there and just hang out because the birds can't get on there. So they will create fish tunnels and fish caves for them to hide. So you don't always have to have the net if it's built correctly, but it's if it's already built and you don't have a fish cave or fish tunnel, you're kind of it's kind of hard to like retro that back in there you go, so that's the reason you should have that video.
Speaker 2:I birds of prey swooping in, grab cool they're smart man.
Speaker 1:They'll just sit on the like in the water, or they're standing on the water where it's like a little bit shallower, so it's not even like they're swooping in. They'll just stand there and wait and as soon as they see a fish that they can get, they go right in. They fly out and then it sounds like with your neighbor they're just, or the guy they just did it over and over and over again until he had nothing yeah, no, that's a good video.
Speaker 2:Great, there's great content right there.
Speaker 1:Survival of the fittest I, I have fish tunnels, yeah.
Speaker 2:All right, so you build video. The first step, or maybe a small baby step, is to get some of these things and go onto YouTube. What are some of the cool things that are coming out now that you're starting to do? I know you said there's not really new tricks, this is just ground and pound, but what are some of the things that you're doing to take us to the next level?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so a lot of this stuff. So, like one of the things I'll just stay on video that we are pretty excited about is a lot of. Let's just stay in the remodeling space. A lot of remodelers have really nice photos of their work. Well, if you want to do more video stuff, it's kind of hard to have like a video of somebody talking and then you just have like a you know slider of these, just photos that come through. So we actually there's a software out now that we can take these photos, put them into the software and it'll create walkthroughs of the space from the photos. So it makes it look as if, like you're walking through and actually, uh, you know, just doing like a normal like scan of the space, um, in a really professional way.
Speaker 1:And I was like watching one of the videos, uh, that we were doing it on because we had a bunch of photos but we didn't have like B-roll video footage of and I had no idea. And at the end the video guys were like, did you know that that was AI? And I was like, oh no, and they said, oh yeah, those are all. We just took their photos and you can say, hey, here's a photo I want you to walk through this kitchen and then turn left after the island and it's getting good enough where it actually looks like we were in there with a really nice video camera, walking in and turning left.
Speaker 1:The way that they do it in well, we do it in our projects, but the way that HGTV does it on like a big reveal and stuff like that, so that's something that's like super, super cool. That makes what we do even better, because it's now just taking a static thing and turning it into video. So all this new AI stuff. There's a lot of rabbit holes that people can go down and, unless you're like in these individual worlds, I would probably say stay away, because you can just spend hours on it. We have to use it for work, so it works out well for us, but a lot of this AI stuff is making a lot of the things that we do a little bit easier, which is fun.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's amazing. We just got done doing a photo shoot of two a kitchen and a bathroom that we finished and I've got the high-end photos and I was like I took my own camera with my own little video while we did it, but I was like that's nothing to speak of and I actually don't have anybody who can do all this stuff except me. So an old man with a phone and a bunch of cool pictures, but you got a way to make those pictures come to life. That's super cool, man.
Speaker 1:It's great. Yeah, it is fun for us, though, because we get to kind of nerd out over this stuff and it's just progressing so fast, so we love it All right, let's talk a little bit more.
Speaker 2:We're coming to the end of the episode. I want to talk a little bit more about other stuff. You guys do we talk video, but let's talk about some of the website. Market research strategy.
Speaker 1:What are you doing with some other clients? Yeah, so it all starts off with just figuring out the whole research, discovery strategy component. So you come in and you're like, look, I, I'm trying to target this one very specific type of clientele. Um, they are this, this and this. We've already. It's. It's really picking your favorite customer you've ever worked with before and replicating them by figuring out all the things that matter to them. And really how, how would would they pitch you to one of their friends to become a referral and reverse that into it?
Speaker 1:So once we get all the research done and we know exactly what we need to do, what the messaging is, who we're going after, we have the video. Videos look great, put it up on a website. The website is built around it because, at the end of the day, the website is still the foundation of all things marketing. It houses your videos, your photos, your projects, your process, how people can contact you, all that stuff. So that is still like we are known as a website company through and through. Still, I think we've probably built in seven years, maybe like a little over 600 websites at this point. So we've done a ton of them all in the contracting space.
Speaker 1:So we know a thing or two about how they should be set up and designed, and then from there it just becomes a game of how do you actually get you know the traffic to those to the website where they can see all that stuff. And that's where the ads come in, whether it's Google or Facebook. Social media comes in. We'll do all that stuff. And then SEO, which is really all the content creation around uh, blogs, landing pages, stuff like that to drive traffic to the site. So it's really we have a graphic that we use whenever we like, talk strategy with people of. At the center of everything, you have this website and then everything else that's a marketing activity. It has like an arrow pointing from that activity into the website. So the website's key, that is your place to get people excited about the projects, highlight what you do, why you do it, how to get in contact with you, and then it's kind of off to the races from there.
Speaker 2:So you talked about pointing back to the website. So I got two companies right, you got. You got company and company B sitting here in Atlanta. So let's hypothetically both do a pretty good job, which one wins at the end of the day if they're both similarly equal and getting ready to get picked and we can talk about conversions inside and the process. But two equal companies how does your marketing propel company A above company B in that selection?
Speaker 1:So just so I'm on the same page with you. You're saying if let's say you have your website and that I have a website that we built for somebody in the same market, what is going to be the differentiating factors there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I mean it's all going to come down to who the client is.
Speaker 2:I'll insert here because Alan's not here. I will insert Chris. That was a stupid question. Yeah, I will insert Chris. That was a stupid question. Yeah, Shut up All right.
Speaker 1:No, you're good so it all comes down to who's the client and what are they really looking for. But our big thing is our, the websites that we like to build out. They're very design focused, meaning you know, I know you've handyman, but you also have remodeling, and handyman is going to be a little bit more of like look, you want somebody who's going to come out there, they do a good job, they're reliable and it's really. It's a smaller project and that's you know it's good and as long as you can really show that you're trustworthy, everybody's happy. The remodeling side the way that I that we do it and I would approach it if I was in your shoes is this is the excitement piece. Again, you're going to come in. This is time. It's a lot more money, so it needs to look and feel higher end. That gets in that excitement pieces. And that's where nicer design on the website comes in, where the elements that are on the site the photos, the videos, those things pop. It's called like visual storytelling, where you're using the visuals of the site to really let people like, ruminate and start to be creative in their mind of like, oh, that would look amazing in our backyard or wherever it is. So those are the components, where it's really set up, where it's almost like a persuasion um thing on the site, where easiest way I can explain it is um.
Speaker 1:Back to your Disney world thing. You got Disney World and you got Six Flags. Both of them are amusement parks, both of them have rides, both of them have games, both of them have characters. But when you go on Disney World's website, they're not selling the roller coaster. If you go on it you will see photos and videos of families with Mickey and fireworks and they're laughing and they're giggling and they're talking about how magical it is. And you go on Six Flags website and Six Flags is check out this new rollercoaster.
Speaker 1:If you want to buy it in bulk, we can give you a discount, or if you're an investor, here's our pitch. So they are doing the same things but they're doing it in such different ways that that is the difference between website A versus website B. One of them is selling the widget, one of them is selling. This is the end result and if you do that in the right way, that will win. Now, if that's significantly higher price, then some people may go. You know what? I don't really care about this kitchen anyway, I might as well get the six flags one, but for the people that a lot of us are actually trying to target, which is the high-end of the market, they want Disney World. They don't want Six Flags. So that's really how you do it from a website perspective.
Speaker 2:Man, what a great analogy too and I'm not dissing on Six Flags, since we have one here in Atlanta. However, logan, you absolutely hit on it You've said it a number of times that underlying current of you need to tell that story, you need to make that customer the hero of that story and put them in that space where they go. You know what? I did not want to spend $150,000 on this kitchen, but by God, I want that feature and I want those features. I want to feel like that when I'm in my kitchen.
Speaker 2:And now I start to think about it a little bit and go, hey, well, that's right. You know, your number one asset, your house. The number one place you're going to raise your family, is your house, the number one place you're going to have a lot of your experiences. The rest of your life will be in your home with your family. So we talk a lot about that at the trusted toolbox, about the home and making the customer a hero of our story and being the number one asset. Let's get that improved, let's get it maintained, let's elevate your lifestyle in your home so you can enjoy it.
Speaker 1:So I think, I think your storytelling thing is just spot on and you add the visuals into it of like cause you could talk about it on the site, which is great, but then you add the visual piece to it and it's almost like the storytelling. You're like setting up the whole story and then boom, right next to it is the photo or the video or whatever it is, and that's the solution to what they're looking for. And that's when you merge them together. It's a beautiful thing man dig it.
Speaker 2:All. Right, logan, how can everybody find you? And then we're gonna go into our last series of questions.
Speaker 1:I gotta dig in easiest way head to our website.
Speaker 2:Contractor growth network comm contractor growth network comm, Logan Schindholzer. He is going to help you elevate not only your brand but your story and get you guys some leads. I'm convinced of that. I actually know some people who've used him and they're very happy with him. I just actually heard from one of them just last week, by the way. So I'm all happy with that, All right, but we've got to ask you some questions. So what is a book? I know we've been talking a lot about video, but what is a book you would recommend to all of our audience?
Speaker 1:So here's a book that I have referenced a lot and I've sent it to people recently that are not even in business, but it is a book called how to Lead Engaging Meetings.
Speaker 2:Whoa, how to Lead Engaging Meetings. Shoot, I gotta write that one down and I'm stuck. Hey, alan, feel for me for a little bit.
Speaker 1:I had so many meetings that were just like what's the point of this, what's the point of this? And then I just Googled, like how do I lead a good meeting? And this book popped up and I read it and it's it is one of those. It's a no fluff book and it gives you the rules around. Essentially question number one does this need to be a meeting? And that's like a big one of like the amount of times that I would call a whole team meeting just for me to think out loud and be like, hmm, that was a really good thought, logan, but like I didn't need to spend $1,200 in payroll to have everybody listen to me right now. So how to lead engaging meetings fantastic book.
Speaker 2:How to lead engaging meetings. Love it All right. What is the favorite feature of your home?
Speaker 1:So it used to be our screen and porch because it's in the back. But now my little brother, tj, actually just put in a walkway that there's a pond and a stream in our front yard that goes under it. So when you're walking up on our house, it was all is meant to just be hey, take out the old red brick brick, do some hardscaping and you know as our walkway in and we'll like it. And now, well, right, right before he did it, we were watching the frank lloyd wright uh, falling water house youtube video and I was like I want that. He's like well, we don't, we can't do that, but like we could put a little stream under your walkway, how about that? And then, right before he started digging it, he was like oh, by the way, if we dig a big hole over here on this section, we can actually make this a whole koi pond.
Speaker 1:So now, when you walk into my house and my wife learned about the project as the project was happening, so she said she was like, yeah, I just came home one day and there's a three foot hole. I didn't know that was a thing. And we're like oh, oh, yeah, remember we talked about this last night. We're putting a pond in now. Um, so now when you walk in our house, it's the whole front is just a walkway over top of a stream in a pond. Um, we love it that is.
Speaker 2:It's so cool homage. Homage to the history and the in the, the roots.
Speaker 1:I love it, I love it yeah oh, that's super cool, all right.
Speaker 2:One last thing. So we are customer service freaks. We love talking about that. That's how I built my business. That's super cool, all right. One last thing. So we are customer service freaks. We love talking about that. That's how I built my business. That's how I've gotten to over 900 Google reviews and a 4.7 rating. A little humble brag in there, because we just got over 900. So we are customer service freaks. What is a customer service pet peeve of yours? When you're out and you're the customer?
Speaker 1:I hate when and I make sure I don't do this I hate when it seems like it's my fault, when somebody like I'll give you an example If I'm on the phone with a client and the audio sounds bad, I will never say, hey, chris, your audio sounds bad, because then it feels it's pointed at you and I'm very sensitive towards that if someone's coming at me like that. So if they're like, hey, you sound off, or you said I'm like look man, you don't, you have no idea if it's me or if it's you, why did you just blame me for this problem? So it's a very specific, unique pet peeve. But I hate when I'm the customer and it feels like the blame is coming back to me without us doing our due diligence. So I know from my side, when I work with clients, I will never say, hey, your audio sounds bad.
Speaker 1:Or or hey, your connections off. It's always hey, I think there's a problem with the audio or with the connection. So I'd make it neutral. I'm pretty sure I know who it is, but like if, right now, if our zoom cut down and it popped back up, I would never be like Chris, what happened man? It would always just be like hey man, I don't know what happened, but the internet, uh, cut us off somehow and just leave it at that.
Speaker 2:I love that because, well, number one, yes, I did. Uh, if you watch on YouTube, you'll see that I did cut my video off. I was still listening. I just cut my video off because I uh, I mentally challenged, but that's a different story.
Speaker 2:But coming back to what you talked about, is that you know, in that mastermind group that I'm part of, uh, one of the things we do is we, we, we process issues and I am so good at solving everybody else's problems. But while I'm doing that, because it's not as personal and passionate for me, I'm realizing, huh, I probably have that same issue too and that's that same thing. If you want to go start putting the finger and pointing at people, you just made it personal. And especially when you're in the contracting business and you're trying to provide a great customer experience, you just put them on edge and you put them on point and you're like, all, right now you're not going to solve anything because right now they're trying to figure out how to figure how they can point right back at you and go well, wait a minute, I hired you, what are we doing here? So I think you're right, because I think the big thing that a lot of people don't realize when, as a contractor, comes in the house, is that we all want the same thing. We want you to have an elevated lifestyle, we want you to have a better home and, yeah, we want to get paid for it, because we do what we're doing Just like you go out and go to work and get paid for it. Yeah, we want to get paid for it too, but if it's the right number, you get the right thing. Then we both want the same thing. So I think that's been great.
Speaker 2:Logan, this has been amazing, and I'll tell you what. Adventure Team. If you didn't learn something today, that's on you because you got to go out there. I'd say go out there and get those videos rolling man, let's get video out there. And if you can't figure out how to do it, Contractor Growth Network can definitely help you, especially if you're in that contracting space and I know a lot of you are, because I've been hearing from a number of you guys over the last month or so. So let's go make it a great day. Hopefully you got something out of this, but I know I did. Let's go make it happen. See you next week.
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