Boosting Your Brand with Authentic Video: Insights from Josh Crouch

Ever wondered how AI can revolutionize your business operations? Join us as we chat with Josh Crouch, co-founder of Relentless Digital, who shares his incredible journey from an aspiring accountant to a trailblazer in the HVAC marketing and SEO world. Discover how his collaboration with Tersh Blissett on the Service Business Mastery Podcast has led to an exciting new venture, Trade Automation Pros, focused on empowering tradespeople to harness the potential of AI and automation in their businesses. This episode promises to shed light on the rapid advancements in AI and the importance of staying ahead in a tech-driven industry.

The hiring process can be a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. Hear firsthand how we tackled the challenge of sifting through a mountain of applicants by integrating an AI-driven hiring platform. By automating initial screenings, assessments, and communications, we streamlined our process and enhanced the quality of our hires. This transformation not only lightened our workload but also allowed us to focus on final interviews with the most qualified candidates, proving to be a game-changer in recruitment.

Creating authentic video content can significantly boost your brand exposure. We'll discuss how sharing genuine moments and company values through platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube can attract both employees and customers. Plus, learn the benefits of delegating daily tasks to free up your time for more significant endeavors. Whether you're looking to refine your hiring strategies, maximize your online presence, or simply manage your time better, this episode is packed with actionable insights and practical tips to help your service business thrive.

Chapters

• 0:57 AI in Service Businesses Future
• 12:18 Revolutionizing the Hiring Process With AI
• 17:20 Maximizing Hiring Success in Service Businesses
• 30:02 Maximizing Brand Exposure Through Video Content
• 42:42 Delegating Tasks for Business Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:57

welcome to the successful life podcast. I'm your host, cory barrier, and I'm here with my man, josh kraus crack. I mean, I mess up people's name constantly and I initially know your last name kraus, you're.

Speaker 2: 1:08

You know what tersh does it all the time and I always give a shit for it. So I appreciate it, it's, it's. I feel like I'm home right now. Yeah, dude, what's going on? How are you good, real good, happy to be here and happy to chat with you.

Speaker 1: 1:20

Yeah, man, I am too. So, josh, just for the folks that may not know who you are, which I'm sure is not very many, just give everybody a quick background on you and the company and all that good stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:33

Yeah, so my journey in the trade started in 2013. I thought I was going to be an accountant. I've always liked data, numbers, statistics, stuff like that. I got a job at a small local HVAC company as an accountant and quickly learned I did not like doing accounting full-time and started taking over kind of operating or running the business from the inside so like the operations and office management stuff like that. So worked at three different HVAC companies over a period of nine years.

Speaker 2: 2:04

At the last company I wasn't so much kind of running the entire thing, I was more just in marketing and sales. So I got to focus on marketing stuff and, honestly, I just like to learn. So I deep dive into how to grow our business without spending a ton of money. And that led me to really focus on Google, business profiles and SEO. And so the last year I was there, I started Relentless Digital because I was in a best practice group and I was literally just sharing things that I found useful and that were helping us with other people. And then I started having people reach out and ask hey, my marketing company is not doing anything for me. Can you help me out? So it wasn't by a grand design where I was going to launch relentless digital but kind of came out of just other people needing help.

Speaker 2: 2:54

So that was about four and a half years ago already. I left the trades about three and a half years ago to pursue this full time and then since then I've been partnered up with Tersh, who has been on your show and I know you talk to him often and I think most people I think almost everybody knows Tersh. He's the best dressed guy in the industry. So I started co-hosting with him about three and a half years ago on the service business mastery podcast and through our love for AI and automation in the trades, we have started a trade automation pros, which right now is just a course to teach other people how to do automation and to leverage AI with that automation so you can get back time in your day. So we got a few things going on, but they all are for the trades and for the people in the trades.

Speaker 1: 3:47

Dude, that is so needed and it's also, I mean, it's not even the future AI is here. It's been here. Future ai's here it's been here. Um, but my fear is people are just not wrapping their head around how important this is. I mean, this is really, in my opinion, this is like when the internet started, like that's how big this industry is getting, and I'm sure you'll agree with this. I think we're. Last time I checked, I think we are two decades ahead of where we're supposed to be in technology, because of ai oh yeah, I was, oh man, somebody, actually it might have been john.

Speaker 2: 4:33

actually I think it was jonathan porter that posted this last yesterday. It was like a uh, he was either watching something or part of some group and they were talking about the five levels of AI and what's coming and kind of where we are now. And I think level five was, or I think level three or four was like the AI is building the next AI technology, where essentially it kind of almost is like a handoff from like we kind of maybe oversee it, but we might not even know what's going on. And if, if we're, if we're being honest, like Google, like their algorithm, or Facebook or any of these, any of these social platforms it's all algorithms that use intelligence to learn and and give feedback and and post ads and stuff, but I don't think anyone like any human at those companies actually couldn't like go in there and be like, well, if I hit this button, this is going to change the algorithm, because the algorithm is just keeps learning from itself. Right, that's right.

Speaker 2: 5:29

So I think we're some some technologies already at that point and I think we're just we're fast tracking our way to getting there within. I think there was fast tracking our way to getting there within I think there was. I think Jonathan said in the next six to 18 months they project that there's going to be like PhD level AI, so like essentially someone that could essentially pass all the exams and pass college and have a PhD in whatever topic it is, which is exciting and scary because that means that AI is going to be smarter than most of us. I don't have a PhD.

Speaker 1: 6:05

Well, here's how I view that and you know, whenever I, you know I got in, I started using AI immediately when chat GPT came out and I'm going to be honest with you, I've used it to. I've used the way I use it is. I use it to learn. So if there's something that I don't know about, let's say, I was telling you the story about when I was at the previous company and there was an electrical engineer asking the craziest, most technical, ridiculous questions I've ever heard in my life, and so we built this HVAC technician bot that really is built on literally any technician information. It's kind of like master mechanic, right?

Speaker 1: 6:53

Sure with blue on yeah, and so it'll answer literally anything that you want to ask it, and so I had this guy on one phone, and I had the other phone in my hand Every time he would ask me a ridiculous question that I wouldn't have a clue how, because I've never been a technician right, so I certainly didn't know the answer to the questions. I would just plug it in and it would give me the exact answer to explain to this guy, and I spent an hour and a half on the phone, literally with two phones in my hand, and the guy had no idea that I didn't know what I was talking about. He had no clue. So what that did, though, is it taught me the right questions to ask, because I was taking his questions and putting them in and then giving me the answer so I could give it to him, and in that process, I learned more about whatever he was asking me about.

Speaker 1: 7:41

I don't remember what it was specifically, and so you know, if people can just look at this like a learning experience, opposed to this big hill they've got to climb like it's really simple to reverse engineer something. If you don't know how to do something, ask it to teach you how to do the thing, and if you don't know how to do something, ask it to teach you how to do the thing, and if you don't understand that, have them break it down to you like you're five and go. Does that make sense? Of course that makes sense to you, um, but it's really that simple. That's how I've learned so much about things that I know nothing about well, I think something that.

Speaker 2: 8:16

So everyone thinks that, like with ai, or you know, chat, gt or cloud or whatever AI you use, you have to be able to tell it what to do. That's like the prompt right. Honestly, I find that when you ask the AI, what should I be asking you for this specific topic? Whatever we're trying to research or write about, the questions are really good and, honestly for me, it sparks creativity about there. The questions are really good and and and, honestly for me, it sparks creativity. I'm not I've never been the guy big into arts and all and all that kind of stuff. So, like creativity, some of that stuff is not, I just can't process it. But by asking the AI tool, what should I be looking at? Or what should I be looking for? Or if I put in a spreadsheet with a PNL which I did recently and just like, hey, based on this, what kind of questions would you ask someone if you were coaching them? And it gives me like 15 different subtopics with multiple questions under that and it was that's all I asked it.

Speaker 2: 9:15

Um, and I think as far as where we're at with AI, we talked about this just real briefly. With these different levels and stuff the AI is smart enough to like. Right now we're at the enhancement mode, right Like the enhanced human level. I know at some point and this is probably the part that gets scary for a lot of people is at some point where the AI is going to be way smarter than we are. They just have access to way more information and can process it at computing speeds where our brain just doesn't work that fast.

Speaker 2: 9:44

But right now we need to be enhancing humans abilities and using the technology for that, and I think that's where a lot of the solutions are right now, which is a good thing, and hopefully, hopefully, hopefully we put some safeguards in place so that way we don't have this massive loss of jobs and all the scary stuff, the doomsday scenarios that everybody has in their heads. Because I think it can be really beneficial and I know it's been beneficial for for myself, for church anyone that really gets into it and starts understanding, like asking it questions or creating a GPT and we're in digital marketing, creating a GPT for a client. So client gives us all the information about their past and their business, what makes them an expert in their market, and creating kind of like a micro version of them. So that way our content sounds like that business, and I think use cases like that are underutilized right now because people just don't know what's possible.

Speaker 1: 11:11

Yeah, I agree, I totally agree. So another way to look at this at a very high level, a level that I understand at a very low level. So I'm the director of business development for WhoHire and so WhoHire is, you know it started seven years ago and so what they and I know you're familiar with WhoHire and I'd love for you to talk about a little bit what it's done for you. But what WhoHire has done is taken human data like you're talking about, like the company information. That would be the human data that we're taking, so to speak, like the company information. That would be the human data that we're taking, so to speak, and putting it through a model and then predicting what's going to be the best bet for you to hire when an applicant applies for any job in the trades, and you can match what that applicant's saying against what we've put together, at what we've put together from real humans, to say, all right, this would be the best fit for the job. They're going to stay the longest they're.

Speaker 1: 12:16

You know they answered the questions. There's four different areas that I won't go into that much detail, but that's AI at a really high level. What we're talking about is like just getting on the ground and just start to get into this and really start to get familiar with it. So, in terms of, I'd like for you to tell me, in terms of how you guys hired previously, what's been, what has been your experience so far with the platform. Who are black one?

Speaker 2: 12:49

Yeah, so for the first four years, and while we didn't have employees the first year, but it's like the last three years up until the last couple of months, we we did hiring the way that I'm assuming most people do it, where they put out job posts on, indeed, or run ads on Facebook and bring the applicants in, which, of course, for our business we have. We have the opposite problem because the position's remote, we'll get 400 applicants in 24 hours. Like it's insane what happens when our job posts go. It's very difficult to manage, it's difficult. On the other end, it's a good problem to have, but it's difficult because it's a lot of resumes to look through. And with Indeed and stuff like that, you can put some like filter questions to kind of filter some people out, but a lot of people get through that are not what we're looking for, and then so when that happens, we have to go through. We have to like send them an email with some questions or have a different video platform if we want to send like a one-way video type things, and then we have to manually send them an assessment if we want to send them like a Kobe or a disc or something like that. And it's just it is mentally exhausting to do that because you have all of your normal responsibilities and we're not big enough where we have like a whole HR department where that's all they do. So we actually were very close to hiring an HR manager because of how overwhelming the hiring process was, when I actually had Jonathan on Service Business Mastery and he started talking about it and I did a demo after. I'm like this is interesting, this is like very timely for us. And so we did a demo and walked through it, and I did a demo after. I'm like this is interesting, this is like very timely for us. And so I did a demo and walked through it and I think it's like 500 bucks a month. So if you're listening to this and they raise the price, it's not my fault. It's $500 a month. Right, at least that's what we're paying for our program.

Speaker 2: 14:42

But it is completely changed how we view hiring, because all we have to do is create the initial post, get a live, and when I say the initial post, the platform, what I love about it is it marries AI and automation, and so what I mean by that is if, like, the initial set is a yes, no questions like do you have five or more years of experience? If they say no, it automatically is going to send them an email at a predetermined time. It's not going to be instantaneously, but it can be like an hour later it's going to send hey, no, this, you know, this isn't, this isn't the right fit for us, uh, but if they answer all the questions in there, yes, they automatically get an email a couple hours later with the next assessment or the next thing to do. We don't have to touch anything, we don't have to literally do anything. People almost kind of qualify and disqualify themselves. So that's the first step. And then I think we had it set up where we had some interview questions where they kind of had long form answers that we do approve, or it's literally. We read them and it's thumbs up, thumbs down, and then the emails and stuff all get taken care of.

Speaker 2: 15:52

Then it was one way video and then I think it was the Reggie blueprint, which is, I think, where you guys have married AI to kind of figure out like a flight risk or what's the probability that this person is going to work out in that role. Then, once we get through all of that stuff, then we finally have where we have to sit down in an interview and see someone face to face. So by the time we get to that stuff, then we finally have where we have to sit down in an interview and see someone face-to-face. So by the time we get to that point, the candidates that are lazy, that don't really want the job or just kind of poking around and maybe looking at what's out there, they're gone. They've all been disqualified.

Speaker 2: 16:24

Every time we've gotten on a hire at the end of the cycle it's been very, very high qualified people, good personalities. You can tell they want this and they have reasons why They've done research on our company. It's a different level of candidate once you get to that point. So it's been like my wife and I talk about often because hiring is so much easier now and I'm not just stating that because I'm on your show Like I literally I've made a comment on a post and I think that's why you saw that and decided if you want to talk about this. But it's literally changed how we view hiring. So it's not this mental hurdle that we have to get over. We just post a job and we just go about our day and we just come, log in and do a thumbs up, thumbs down at a couple of different points and that's it, and then we finally get to the point of a actual interview.

Speaker 2: 17:14

So I would highly recommend and it's not who or something something that's going to help you automate this process. But what I like is that you guys use the AI as well to kind of understand the human psychology component of that, because we were doing Kobe assessments for people. We would get to it like the last couple candidates and then we're sending Kobe assessments and the problem with the Kobe's great, I'd look at it. I'm like I don't really know if this is telling me if I should hire this person or not. Right, I was like well, it kind of fits like what I think that role should be. But you know, unless I'm like really well trained, it kind of fits what I think that role should be, but unless I'm really well-trained, I don't really know. So it was more of a thing. It just didn't really lend to. We're paying for it. It didn't really lend to anything that was like yes, this is the person I need to hire.

Speaker 1: 18:03

Sure, if we're like an HVAC, plumbing or electrical company, if obviously there's a lot of those people that listen to this show, they probably think, well, I don't even have, like, I don't even have enough people to barely interview. So here's what I'll say about that. I had a lady yesterday say like I need, I just need bodies, like I just need people. And so, as we've gotten further in the conversation, she had mentioned that they hire in one location but they move people to a different location like a good ways, like it's like a reload. A reload is what it is, relocation. And I said, well, how many of those people are staying? She said, well, you know, some of them work out, some of them don't.

Speaker 1: 18:46

Well, on average, not relocating someone, it's about half the salary. So if you've got a technician, service technician or a comfort advisor making a hundred grand a year, it's going to cost you 50 grand to replace that person. So, not to mention if you're relocating them, it's going to cost you even more than that. So wouldn't it be beneficial, even if you had two applicants, to know that one of them is going to stay and one of them is not going to stay, before you hire them and spend all that money. It's just, yeah, it does make sense. And it does make sense, I mean, like you mentioned, with the psychographics that we've got and all the data we've pulled from Nexstar, I mean we have the formula for who's going to be your rock stars and who are not going to be rock stars, and it is pretty streamlined. So I appreciate you you sharing that information have you go ahead.

Speaker 2: 19:36

Well, I would actually, yeah, I would actually say something when you so. I know, obviously, the trades being in person and having someone that's in a truck is is is definitely different now after COVID, right, cause the remote positions are like kind of like what everybody, at least with the people that have worked in an office, that's what they want. But I don't know if I would focus too much on some of the indeeds in some of those places. Honestly, I think, going to where all of these technicians hang out, if you look at the, I'm a part of some Facebook groups that have HVAC technicians. I don't read a lot of those because the comments I mean the comments are very entertaining, they're very colorful, but those groups have several hundred thousand people in them and that's just the one or that's just a couple of groups I'm a part of. They're hanging out on Tik TOK. They're hanging out with on YouTube. They're hanging out on TikTok. They're hanging out on YouTube. They're hanging out on Facebook and Instagram. That's really where I think those hiring ads should be, because if you want people with experience, even without experience, but get them in front of that and then don't focus on the experience.

Speaker 2: 20:47

That was one of the things that we did at the last HVAC Prior to the last two years of my HVAC career we always try I always try to find someone with experience and man was that was like that was painful. We get these guys and like, okay, well, at least know what they're doing, we'll throw them in a truck and you know. But just guys with issues Like there was there was this one guy, that awesome installer, really really great installer just couldn't stop, couldn't stop drinking. Like he literally had like beer cans in his truck that would fall out, like it was just bad, real bad, and this was really early on in my career. Um, we had to actually like have a technician, like actually I had to. One day I had to come pick him up at a job site because he like just was like belligerent and I had to take him home and leave his truck there and all this. It was just a mess. But these are the types of guys that we would typically get that had experience, but they weren't people we wanted in customers' basements. They weren't.

Speaker 2: 21:46

The best thing we did at the last place is we used interplay learning to have a curriculum, because I think one of the hardest things to do in the trades is the owner typically did. At the last place is we used interplay learning to have a curriculum, because I think one of the hardest things to do in the trades is the owner typically is the one that's the tech right, that's just the. It's not always the case, but typically it's it's the case. So give me one second. Somebody decided to make a smoothie this morning, so what we did? So we started adopting interplay learning because we wanted to start training our own people, not not only the texts we have, but we wanted to be able to bring on anybody. And this was a big push for myself because I'm not a technical person. So I'm like man if we could get someone with just a great attitude and train them up and then use our team to fill out the rest of the gaps of the training. And what was great about platforms like Interplay Learning? And now Synergy has one for CSR, technician and sales coaching. That's online and virtual. The lessons are laid out for you. You don't have to reinvent the wheel and create the curriculum. You just have to assign the training and then schedule time to come back and have your team discuss it.

Speaker 2: 23:04

So our best hire we ever made was a guy who was 42 when we hired him. He just finished a five-year contract at uwm, uw, milwaukee, as a college theater director. He set up like the sets and stuff for so he was, he was handy-ish but had no, he wasn't a trades guy. He wasn't like your typical trades guy very good communicator, great personality. So we hired him and started bringing him on as a maintenance tech and went through interplay learning and had kind of set up a foundation. And if it was in the past we would have never hired this guy cause he didn't have any experience. And we're you know, you're looking at a six, 12, 18 month curve where it's like trying to get them up to speed. Um, but because we hired for personality and not technical expertise, this guy's reviews that customer would leave were like books. He would. I mean they just loved him and his personality because he would sit there, he would listen to them, he would hear their concerns and he ended up being our best selling tech over after about two years and it was just. It was like an eyeopening experience for me because everything that I thought I knew I realized I didn't know and I kind of retrained my brain.

Speaker 2: 24:15

So anytime I have clients that talk about this stuff or ask like, hey, where are other people finding techs? I can't find them. You got to look If there's no top-tier technicians available, which most of them are very well compensated and are very secure in their jobs, so they're probably not going to leave unless they're unhappy. You got to go the other direction. I know it's painful, it's a bandaid, you just got to rip off. But once you do it and you realize that's what Tommy does I mean everyone knows, everyone sees what Tommy's built right.

Speaker 2: 24:49

The reason Tommy was so successful and got such a great multiple and all this stuff is because he grew, he home grows technicians and he never has empty seats in his classroom. They'll just run ads and they. They have a hiring process and I think they use a combination of you guys and rapid hire pro to run the ads and stuff They've, he's, he's. I mean they're 250, 300 million, whatever they are. There's some ridiculous number now, but it's all homegrown technicians and it's quite a story. It's great to see that in the industry.

Speaker 1: 25:21

Yeah, because they don't have the baggage. And so even hiring somebody with a lot of experience, they're going to do it their way and it doesn't really matter what you say. Even if you're the owner, it doesn't matter, they're still going to do it their way and it doesn't really matter what you say, even if you're the owner, it doesn't matter, they're still gonna do it their way and they're not moldable.

Speaker 1: 25:36

Yeah, there, there's. No, you don't. You can't teach that dog new tricks like, because they're not gonna. Then it's just not, they're not gonna do it. So then you get stuck with a guy that has experience but he's not doing what you need him to do, because he's got experience and he thinks he knows more than you or whatever. Where you got a fresh guy like your theater guy you know shit, right, he doesn't know anything. So he's just a sponge. And I agree with you. I, yeah, I totally agree. The more people we can pull from outside of the industry, the better, because you can make them what you want.

Speaker 2: 26:09

A hundred percent and that's. I think that's. I know the mindset has shifted quite a bit over the last couple of years, but there's still too many people that are just hoping for that guy or that gal with two to five years of experience. They're just not going to be out there as plentiful. You may find some once in a while, but you're better off off mentally If you prepare yourself to just find a great personality, someone that fits the culture, someone that wants to learn the traits and someone that's eager. You're going to have a much better experience overall and I think they're going to be a really great most of the time, a really great asset.

Speaker 1: 26:48

Yeah, I agree, and you know in in this it's a to be attractive, though the company's got to be attractive to attract. That's a whole other story. He advertises in, like, you know, top golf and a couple of other places that are. You wouldn't normally think that that would be effective. But it 100 is because you've got a guy that's like well, I'm doing theater and I'm not happy, I'm not making any money. This guy says I can make 120 000. I'm just making the number up. That seems like a pretty good deal, seeing as I'm only making 55 and I'm, you know, working 60 hours a week.

Speaker 2: 27:35

That's a great yeah, well, if you're in the if and I know Tommy shared a lot of stories about the like the restaurant business, because he's always he's actually I got his book right here uh, it was funny because he had the marketing chapter, which was chapter three, and I'm like, okay, let's see what Tommy says about marketing.

Speaker 2: 27:50

And it was literally all about like recruiting and the whole chapter was, and I was like this is interesting, it's just a completely different take, cause a lot of times people say marketing, they want to talk about Google and Facebook and all the things, and Tommy's like, no, it's just recruiting, recruiting, recruiting, recruiting. Cause if you keep recruiting great people, you can buy, he can buy back his time and he can go out and do the things that he's been able to accomplish and still have a company that everybody loves. So it's an interesting perspective and so really it's kind of flipping the paradigm a little bit, where we always thought we had to have the experienced people and then we had to pay a ton of money for marketing. But he's kind of all about the people internally and taking care of his customers, because those customers tell other people in the same market and they grow that way as well.

Speaker 1: 28:42

Yeah, 100% Happy employees, bring on other happy employees. So let's shift gears for a second. Yeah, hvac owner, I'm listening to this. What are you seeing right now? You know, I don't know what is the strategy maybe that you're using that is working with your marketing. Can you give us some things that people could do, maybe on their own, before they have to hire a marketing company? What do you got in that realm?

Speaker 2: 29:16

Yeah, it's a great question and it, while it changes a lot of it, does stay the same. You know, obviously you need to be to be found on Google and for me, like, if I'm a great example, like we're a digital marketing company, you think that we would run all of our own marketing. We don't. I have vendors. I have vendors running Facebook. I have vendors running Google ads. I have vendors running helping with Facebook. I have vendors to produce content that I record. I have a vendor that helps write emails. He takes, he asks me questions. I give him my answer to the question and my experience and he turns it into a really well-crafted email.

Speaker 2: 30:02

And for me, the one thing that you cannot replace from a business owner standpoint is creating video content for yourself and putting out your image, your information, your core values into the world, because one it's helped us attract employees. So when people see the ads and they go and start digging around on our stuff, I'm like, oh my God, you guys are like. You guys are everywhere. Man, it seems like a great company to work for. So they come in positioned exactly where we want it to. We want we want them to feel like this is a great company, because then we can attract people that want to work at a great company. And two, it's just constantly. We hear all the time like I see you guys everywhere, you know, and honestly, for me, content is it's gotten a lot easier because we have podcasts and things like this that we can just repurpose.

Speaker 2: 30:53

But short form content, um, I I tried doing it where I do like a video a day. That didn't work for me. The bet what I do is typically on the weekends, uh, and I've and I use chat gpt a lot to help with video scripts and ideation. Like, give me 25 video ideas about this and okay, of those 25, maybe I like 10 of them. Okay, of these 10, write me a 60 second video script. So a couple of prompts, real simple, gives me a video script. I use tools like big view B-I-G-V-U for the teleprompting thing, so that way, like when I'm looking at my camera right here, it's telling me what to say.

Speaker 1: 31:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 31:38

And sometimes I wing it, uh, but honestly, I like to be a little bit more prepared with that stuff. So, but the video content piece, especially the short form content, you can't replace that. And if if I have clients listening to this and as I tell them the same thing like, yes, you can, if you can learn to do all this I learned I didn't go to school for how to rank on Google, I just learned it through videos. Anyone can learn this stuff. But it the amount of time it takes to learn it to just to save yourself a couple bucks isn't probably worth it. Video you can. You don't have to know anything. You can literally like hire people on Fiverr to edit a video for $10 and just send them the video. Like, I want a great video and anyone knows how to post on social media. So those are the things that I think are probably the biggest benefits. Just show your personality.

Speaker 2: 32:30

If it's not, you find a tech or an office staff member that loves being on camera and tell the story for you. Those are the things that you can't replace that stuff. And to try to bring someone out to record the video and then clip it up later and do all that stuff. It's very expensive. Just turn your phone around and shoot video.

Speaker 2: 32:48

Talk about your company, talk about how awesome you are, talk about the breakfast that you have for your employees or the benefits they get of working there or the bonuses that they get during christmas or whatever. Just talk about it and share that stuff and you'd be surprised on how many people actually pay attention to that stuff that you don't even realize. And that's something I think that anyone can do, because we have cameras everywhere today. So that's something that you shouldn't replace by doing like because there's like a, there's AI, video programs and stuff out there now. But just be your real, authentic self, because that that drives Google brand impressions and brand impressions Google loves, so it will help your overall marketing by doing that as well.

Speaker 1: 33:35

Yeah, and it gives the people a peek inside of you, know who you are, and that is you know, unless you're not a great person, and then you're probably not going to do this anyway. So but but I agree with you and you know, having somebody come in I guess it's fine, but there's a level of authenticity that that's missing, and people know that, subconsciously, they know this was a performance, not performance, but it wasn't you and it just doesn't hit the same as if it's you on the camera.

Speaker 2: 34:13

Absolutely. You can't replace that stuff. It's crazy and I don't do the sales for our company anymore, but Brittany, my wife hears it all the time. She does the sales and they see us everywhere and I say, well, that's the game, that is the game in 2024 and probably moving forward. You have to, Because there's certain customers that are on TikTok, certain age group, there's certain age group on Facebook. There's certain age group that likes rating blogs. There's certain group on YouTube, Like, if you are not on these platforms, you are missing a segment of your market.

Speaker 2: 34:47

You just, I mean, it just depends If you have a certain you know if you live in an older area, you still want to be on the Better Business Bureau. You know, if you live in an older area, you still want to be on the Better Business Bureau. You know there's just a whole different demographic and you have to kind of really get into that and know who that is. But to be safe, be everywhere and then you don't have to worry about it. You just you show up wherever they are.

Speaker 2: 35:10

Contractors can do, and it's worked out, has worked out really well for me, both at the last HVAC company that I worked at, and Relentless Digital is give value to your Facebook groups, whatever that looks like. So for us it's a little different, right Cause we're not in a local sector. But if you're, if you're in, if you're on Facebook, search for all the main cities that you want to serve. Just search the city name and find groups, and then your feed will start teaching you that when somebody needs HVAC or plumbing or electrical services, those posts will pop up. Groups tracker or Debbie AI, or figure out how to set it up yourself and get alerts. When someone types in keywords that are important to you, and then those keywords, you automatically get an alert.

Speaker 2: 36:07

You can click on a link, go right to the post and start giving value, or drop your company name, or however you want to go about that. I I prefer not to drop my company name. I always prefer to try to engage and ask questions, but it can work either way. But you get alerted to those things and now, all of a sudden, your company name just keeps showing up. And then what people say when they hire you? Yeah, man, you guys are recommended all the time and even if it's yourself or your family members doing it, just get your name out there as often as possible and it will pay dividends long term.

Speaker 1: 36:34

Yeah, debbie, I've used Debbie, it's a man, it's a, it's such a, it's such a good tool, like it just saves so much time, I mean, and I don't use it currently cause I don't have any reason to, but if I were, if I owned an HVAC company, best believe I'd be using that.

Speaker 2: 36:55

And that's. That's the kind of stuff that can save you. It's not only saves you the time, like then I don't have to go scroll Facebook endlessly to find something or go search in a group for a keyword. Bring it right to me. Go to the social media platform, do what you need to do to get grow your business and then get off of it. You know that that's. We all know. These, uh, social platforms are like a vortex. They suck you in. I'll go to. It happens probably once a day. I haven't.

Speaker 2: 37:18

I'm like I'm going to go message someone on Facebook because I don't have their email or something. I go to Facebook and the first post that pops up always seems to grab my attention. And then all of a sudden I'm scrolling and then I'm like why did I get on Facebook? And then I close out Facebook. And then I close out Facebook and then, of course, as soon as I close it, I'm like this is what I was going to do. And I go and I'm like, okay, just stay focused. Like, go do this thing and don't get distracted, because it is a distraction. But if you put some tools and some parameters in place, like that, it's really helpful. Like I, literally I'll get emails, certain groups that I really want to make sure that I'm engaged with every day for different posts, and it's great because I can just go right to what I need to and then I can get off. I don't have to stay on and go search for other stuff.

Speaker 1: 38:04

I think even in Devy you can just reply right there in the, in the, in the platform.

Speaker 2: 38:09

So I have Devy hooked up. I've I have not done. I know what it does. I don't use it as as much, I just haven't gone like deep enough into it, but I know it. It can do a lot more than I'm using it for. I just know it's one of the options. When I was doing research groups tracker, I set up first that one. I have to still manually click and then go to the uh the thing. I think devy's got a little bit more ai functionality where groups tracker is just kind of like a notification system.

Speaker 1: 38:35

Yeah, yeah, but it is a powerful tool for sure, but you got to be open to using it and that's just the thing. Like, if anybody, whoever's listening, if we've heard one thing today like you just got, you don't have to go into all this shit we just talked about. Like, this stuff is not like your head may pop off, but at least start looking into using Claude or using chat, and if you don't know something, just ask it. You know, like we talked about earlier, just ask it what you need to ask it, but get started, because right now there's still time for people to get started and not be so far behind. But before long you're going to be so far behind, you're going to have no choice but to hire somebody, and that's where your groups are coming in, because you do. There is valuable information inside of the automations group that you guys have set up, and so if you are curious about this stuff, go join. What are the names of the groups?

Speaker 2: 39:39

Yeah, so the way we've set it up is. So the three big and I say big I mean the ones that are most heavily talked about, the three CRMs or FSM programs in the space, we have a service Titan automation hub group, we have a house call pro same name, house call pro automationation AI Hub or something like that, and then, sarah, we'll probably create some others. It's just those are the ones that we have the most familiarity with. Tersh uses, sarah, we both use ServiceTitan and I have a lot of familiarity with Housecall Pro as well, but we try to share tips, just free stuff. We ask questions to try to get engagement from other people, like what are other people that use the same software you use? What are they doing? And then give tips, some things that we know that can save time. It's completely free.

Speaker 2: 40:26

Obviously, our goal is to promote people to get in our course, but we got the Housecall Pro Group's like 800 people. The Service Time one's got 1,400 people that are in it. So there's a lot of good comments and stuff in there and you can learn this stuff for free. Just start dabbling, start training your brain to look for this stuff, because it is incredibly valuable, and I will say if you feel overwhelmed and you're looking like, how do I get back time, how do I feel like I actually own a business and I don't own a job, I would definitely recommend reading buy back your time with Dan Martell. It's going to, it's a, it's more of like a mindset shift and you give you some practical things to to to do, and I think that will change the game for some people too, cause I think the trades doesn't focus on hiring like a virtual assistant or executive assistant as much as they should.

Speaker 2: 41:18

I feel like every business owner or high-level executive should have somebody doing managing their email, managing their calendar, helping them with social media posts or engagement like organizing your life, so you can focus on the things you do best. Like if, if you're high up at a company or management, it's, you really shouldn't be doing $10 an hour tasks. You should be focused on the 25, 50, a hundred dollars in our tasks. And I think, if, if we there's, if we look at our selves like that we're, we're going to get so much more done. We're going to be so much more profitable. We're going to be so much more profitable. We're going to be so much happier. There's a lot of. There's a lot of stress and unhappiness in the trades and I think if we can all kind of help lift each other out of that, I think it's going to be a better place for everybody to work.

Speaker 1: 42:04

Yeah, I totally agree. I wouldn't be able to function without having an assistant that does.

Speaker 2: 42:11

I won't ever not have one. If one leaves, I will definitely find one. And even the great thing about it is your assistant helps create the playbook for the next assistant. That's literally what I have mine. Doing right now is like everything you do on a daily basis. It needs to be recorded, it needs to be on a playbook tasks, links, like everything so that way if something happens or it doesn't work out, I have the next assistant ready to go. Hey, this is how you do this task. Just go click here and watch the video.

Speaker 2: 42:42

And, honestly, I've gotten to the point with how busy we are with the kids and stuff. We're probably a ways away from doing this. We're also on a health kick, so we're cooking a lot of our own food and stuff, where I can see what Dan Martell was talking about, like having a house manager, someone to help with these things, cause I'm like it takes hours a day to do just those things and those things really aren't getting us any closer to monetary or business or life goals. They're just kind of things that we do that could be done by somebody else. So I could see that I'm not there yet, but I could see why he had he has a personal assistant that kind of takes care of all that stuff for him.

Speaker 1: 43:22

Yeah, just like the person that checks your email. It's the same same difference. Yeah, a hundred percent, josh, appreciate it. My friend, where can people find you?

Speaker 2: 43:33

Probably the most engaged place I am is probably Facebook. Just if you've got a question about marketing, feel free to direct message me. I'm pretty easy to find on there. Otherwise, I can send you an email and you want to put that in the show notes so people can email me too?

Speaker 1: 43:47

Perfect, appreciate you, my friend, thank you. Thanks, corey Got it.