Episode 3 - The Importance of Your Brand

Join The Wash Bros, Matt Jackson and Clay Smith, as they discuss the importance of branding, how they established their brands, and what it takes to grow your brand the right way.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Live from 84 Town in Greenville, South Carolina, it's the Wash Bros Podcast. With your host, Matt Jackson and Clay Smith.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

What's up guys? It's Matt Jackson and Clay Smith, and we are the Wash Bros. This is going to be our third episode, and we're going to talk about branding and how we choose to brand and how it helps our businesses. So you want to kick it off?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Yeah. Brandon. Brand, I think Brandon's really important. Um, especially for me. Um I mean, as far as my logo and everything goes, I mean, I think that I was just playing around on a computer one day at my regular job, just trying to figure out, okay, uh, here's the name of my company. You know, I was all excited about uh I know in the last episode we talked about uh somebody helped name our company. So I got really excited and I'm like, okay, well, I've always been big on reviews. Told you that. Um, I think everybody knows that. I'm really big on reviews. If you go to anywhere I've ever worked in sales, uh my name is at the top of the list on everyone, you know, the little bubbles on Google. Uh that's my name. Um but so since I've always been big on five star reviews, uh, part of my logo is five stars.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

I like that. I didn't even know that.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah. So long reviews every day.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Just pick the third part of it. So yeah, the five stars is what it stands for. You know, five stars. That's that's a big that's a big deal to me. Like last episode I said I'd almost wear it for five stars. So uh I put the five stars in there, and then I just put C3 Wash Bros on top of it. It was uh it was like a clip art type thing. Like it, I didn't know what the crap I was doing. The stars didn't even they didn't even uh align. They wasn't it wasn't perfect at all. You know, I can almost pull it up. I wish we could pull it up here, but um it was it was just it looked it was very looking back now, it was very, very unprofessional. And uh I had a guy uh named uh Matt Barnes, and you know, he fools around with stuff. He's like, Man, can I make you a logo? And I'm like, sure, dude, let's do it. So uh he threw a logo and I love it. Uh a lot of people uh think you know call it simple. I actually had somebody message me not too long ago and say, uh uh you you want to recreate your logo? It's kind of simple. I said, no, we keep things simple. So uh I I you know I'm gonna I may change it up a little bit here and there, but this is my brand. This is where what what all started everything. When people think of C3, this is the logo that that kind of things in their head, or this is the logo that they're looking for online, or yeah, you know, that's just that's just me. It's not something that I'm gonna change. I don't I don't plan on changing. Um and you know, that's the logo that pops in people's heads when they think about pressure washing. The people that know me that think about pressure washing, they think about clay and c three washbros. Yeah, and that's you know, if you're scrolling for something on the internet, that's what that's what you're gonna click on, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Yeah, exactly. And and you also want to maintain can like the continuity with with the logo. You don't want to change it all. You don't want you don't want to change it so much that people are like, what is this? Well people he's diluting what he is.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Well, if you change it too much, is also I think that they're going to get confused on the as to who you are, and it's yeah, yeah, it's almost like having uh it's almost like having multiple put personalities or something. It's like who is this guy? Yeah, I literally trying to be, you know.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

Look at the major brands. You have like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, they they've had the same logo for their entirety because they've they've put the logo out there, it meant nothing, and then they brand it with their reputation and with their quality work and with who they are, especially when you have a personal brand because it's family, yeah. Then that's you the the the logo doesn't really mean anything. It's it's the emotion that you attach to it because of what you do. And it's like you're known for that because of what you are and what you do, not because of oh, that's what the logo looks like. And I think people don't understand that it's yeah, the logo's cool and eye-catching, but if if you don't back it up with good effort and good work and being a good person, it really doesn't mean anything.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Yeah, and you know, I think a lot of people have different uh emotions towards their logos or their brand, um, which I mean it's natural, right? Everybody's gonna think differently. Um, that's just how the world goes around. But I would say as far as low the the logo itself, like that's something that you for me it's like motivation. It's like how can I make my brand better? Like, you know, what where can I put my brand? Where can I put it where people see it? And you know, that's just it's just like I said, it just drives me. Um that's just something that's in my head. Like, if you ever seen the dolls with the stakes in their eyes, well, it's like C3 Watch Pros, the logos in my eyes when I'm yeah, you know, when I'm when I'm working, that's that's kind of me. Like that's I'm working to make my brand better.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Yeah, it's you you put your out like by having a logo and a branding like that, you're making yourself official and like, hey, I I'm real now. Like say you're just starting a business, yeah. I'm just like generic. I don't have pride in my logo. I don't I don't have something that I I put on something and it becomes like an identity of my business. You you're not putting yourself out there and saying, I've set these standards, and these are the standards I'm gonna meet and exceed. And that's kind of what you do with your logo and your branding and a lot of what it represents.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

A lot of people, uh, I've seen a lot of guys, they don't even have a logo, they just put uh here's a picture of me and my pressure washer, or and it and it this pertains to anything, you know. Here's a picture of me and what I do, and I hope that you call me.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Exactly. Like we say all the time, like we both came from sales and sales and marketing background, so it's like we see what it is. We're not a technician where they're like, I provide service, X, Y, Z, call me. It's people are technician-minded, people are saying, Oh, generic company with with no no reason behind it. I don't have a purpose behind my company, I have a service and I can do anything you want, just give me money. But we're they're not distinguishing themselves and standing out from everybody else who does that. So it's like we're commodities, but when you brand yourself correctly, it's like, oh, see three washbows like, yeah, that's clay, that's cool, dude. Like, he has a reputation and like he's professional with what he does.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Yeah, and I think that's the that's that's what you want to do. I mean, you want you want to brand yourself to make your yourself stick out so that people will call you and they'll think about you, and you know, and I think I've run into a to a to a good bit of that. Uh a lot of people get it probably get annoyed with all the crap that I post. I wouldn't say it's crap, it's good stuff, but the stuff that I post on social media. But all I'm doing is trying to constantly stay in their heads because when that time comes and somebody says something about needing a pressure washer, they think of C3 wash bros. Yep, yep. So um and and a lot of things, a lot of stuff I run into, like these guys, like I think we covered it a little bit last episode. If you're not uh making yourself stand out in your own way, then you're not gonna be noticed. Because if you're doing everything that somebody else is doing and trying to follow the advertising techniques that somebody, you know, you're trying to post the same kind of pictures, the same kind of videos, and trying to do the same thing that somebody else is doing, you know, especially locally, I would say, yeah. Um you're not really gonna stand out. You're really not gonna that you're you're basically wasting your money if you especially if you're promoting those ads, um, because it narrows down your chances of getting a phone call, getting a message, getting a text, because everybody is seeing the same thing. Yes. So if you so if you put yourself out there differently than everyone, then you you're gonna have a higher chance because Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

You almost want to peacock. You want to stand out, you wanna you wanna say, oh wow, I've seen I've seen people pressure wash, or I've seen landscape people, I've seen these companies, they're commodities, they're everywhere. Like, but this one is doing it differently, and then they're gonna be attracted to that because it's like, oh, this is this is new. Our brain, our brain is overstimulated with so many advertisements and and things that it kind of throws it throws blinders on everything that looks generic because you it just blends in. Otherwise, we would be overly distracted with everything, and that's I think almost what like autism is. Like you focus on everything as opposed to like I'm just I I'm like my my brain is filtering, my brain is filtering out what looks like everything else. So especially with social media, we see people jumping on Facebook ads, super generic stuff. Um, like here's a video of me like pressure washing without my face on it, without my logo on it, without trucks on it, without anything that's like branding me. And they just look as a commodity. And a regular person is like, hey, look, you got 20 of these people trying to sell me something. It's gonna be a race to the bottom because they're not doing anything different. So customers who who say, Oh, what can you beat this price? Well, you're not looking any different than the guy who's gonna be price shopping against you.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Well, you're not looking professional, you want to build value, you gotta build value to your customer, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Yeah, it's like are they reaching out to you because they want the service done as cheap as it can be and they're comparing you to three quotes, or are they like, Hey, I like what you do, I follow you, and like I'm a fan. Yeah, and it's a different caliber customer, it's you get different price points out of them, and then they're getting a better quality service, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:18

I think that's very important. Um, but going back to the the cut monkey see, monkey do stuff is what I call it. Um, yeah, I mean, I've I ain't gonna lie, I've tried to do reels and stuff like you do, and obviously that doesn't work for me, so I just kind of stop. It's kind of a prime example. Me and you try to do kind of you know, try to do some of the same things, but we kind of figure out figure out what works for you, put your spin on it, and if it doesn't work for you, don't do it.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Yeah, I mean that's and then say what's the newest thing I can do that he doesn't do.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah, I mean, and and that's kind of how me and Matt you know operate behind the scenes. We kind of what we like to say, gauge each other on on where we need what we need to do and whether each other likes it or not. We still tell each other that because we actually care about each other and we care about each other's business.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Yeah, yeah. It's like it's feedback from somebody who's who's not myself, who has obviously, oh, this is gonna be the greatest idea because I heard it from one thing, and then it's just like uh maybe it's not. Yeah. I mean it's like you check each other.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Right, yeah. And and you know, we don't let um our feelings get in between our friendship. You know, we kind of okay, this guy's on to something. This guy's uh this guy, you know, he's obviously been doing it uh a little longer than me, and um, I'm gonna listen and I might, you know, I may put it in my own spin, I may not, you know. Yeah, we we kind of respect each other's decision makings and yeah um opinions, and I think that's why we're sitting here today doing this.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Yeah, because it's again, it's like we're not chasing money, because if you chase money, you're gonna chase it away. Yeah. It's just like people who are so desperate and so thirsty and do everything for the almighty dollar, they miss they miss building value and creating relationships and being good people that attracts money to them, and they just push it all away. That's why we're like on our C or a last episode when we're kind of talking about fragile and people who are like, Everything I do is for like growth, but they don't understand growth comes from within and from building relationships and focusing on our branding and focusing on what emotion and and what value do we convey to our customers and to our community and to our friends.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Um, but I mean, like I said in the last episode, you know, if you if you're not changing as a person to be successful, then yeah, you're not gonna be very successful.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

Yeah, and and business is one of those things you will grow so much faster than when you have a regular job. Because I had a regular job and I was like, ah, five years down the road, I'm still the same person. I'm like, shoot, six months of business and gray hairs pop out.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yeah, I'm like, this is definitely do it to you. It's like this is this is rough. I mean, you know, I'll uh I'll I'll start working about three or four o'clock in the morning, so yeah. I lose sleep thinking about business. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes, but that's not the life you want to live. You know, I catch myself doing that sometimes. I'm like, man, I need to catch myself, I need to go back to sleep.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Yeah, but I also think like the longer you're in business, the more you settle in your ways and you grow, and then you're like, I'm not stretching myself to get to this point. I become at this point, and then it becomes easier, and then it's like, hey, I've I've built myself up to a certain level where I'm competent, so like my confidence comes out, and then I'm I'm more assured in what I do. And then it's like, oh, okay, like what used to be a push to get is now coming in regularly, so now I have to chase that next thing, and that's like where I am now with like, all right, the next thing for me is like trusting others. That's that's the the thing that keeps you up at night. It used to be getting business, but now that comes into place because of like our branding as has done a good job of selling itself for us, and that's like the next stage of you in business, like I say, is like chasing chasing business is uh isn't gonna be as big of an issue as it is in the beginning stages, it starts to come to you because you you do a good job of putting your brand out there, you get you got your Google reviews, and and everything is like the branding isn't a logo. I think people think, oh, branding is a logo. I'd say it's everything, it's like your reputation, is what it what like what do you mean to the community? And people spend all this money for fancy logo, fancy equipment, but they're not not doing anything with it.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

And yeah, if you don't have the knowledge of uh I think we talked about this a little bit in the first episode. Um, but if you if you just if you just go out and buy a bunch of fancy equipment, spend a bunch of money on um you know uh logos and advertisement, but you don't have the knowledge and you don't know how to uh I think what farm your customers and maintain your customers and communicate with customers, you don't know how to keep up with your numbers, you don't know how to do your follow-up calls with the quotes that you've given. Run the business. Um I mean, everything I'm saying is basically if you don't know how to run a business, then you know if you don't know how to be selfless and put your immediate needs ahead.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

If you don't know how to be selfless and sacrifice your immediate needs for like the sake of a customer or your business or your reputation, you're not cut off for business. It isn't oh, I just made this much money chasing it. I I did a job, I made this money, and then I go home.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Yeah, and you only do it one day a week. Yeah, it's like a garden, you have to maintain the garden. Yeah, farm your customers, like you like you're always saying. Yeah, you gotta learn how to farm. And how are you gonna farm your customers? Yeah, you know, there's there's many ways that you can keep up with them, give them a phone call, shoot them a text, shoot them email, but um maybe we'll get we can get into that later on.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

But absolutely, but like for me, what works so much for me is is the branding aspect of it. I like I wanted to, I saw like we were saying, everybody's generic, everybody wants to be XYZ, uh, pressure washing, every every service. I was like, I need to figure out how to be the antithesis of of the big the big players who are very generic. I was like, what can I do? And so that's kind of what like you you decided C3 because of your family. I was like, it at the time it was just me. So I said, I can go back to my roots as like the neighborhood kid, the college kid, pressure washing his neighbor's driveways as like a way to make money. It's like you're trustworthy, you're a guy of the community, and you're not doing it to like price gouge people, you're doing it more to serve and help. So I took that energy and I created the map, the driveway guy character. And of course, I was like, Well, nobody has their face on their truck. So I was like, all right, well, I I look around and I see the big HVAC guys around here, it's like Ronz or or like um Corley, all these guys, like the big home services in South Carolina are names, and they've branded themselves as names because it's like we're a small town, South Carolina, it's like trustworthy. Like it's like call that guy down the street, and that was kind of the energy I had with creating Matthew Guy.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

And I remember uh what was it? Uh the H fat guy that had his freaking face on the back of every van he had it's five star. But yeah, well, it's five star now. But it was just call Larry, yeah, you can't do it. You know, and then see, I remember that, and that was 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Yeah, it's like I drive down the street, and and then I think Corley has something similar. It's like you're driving down the street and this dude's face is plastered on the street. What the crap? It's like, all right, well, how I I can't take good enough pictures like those guys can't. Yeah, but I'm I'm like, well, I can get somebody to create a emoji. So something I went I went on Fiverr and I had a and my first rendition was like $70 on Fiverr, and yeah, it looked like it was drawn um and very like two-dimensional, and I just kind of plastered it everywhere, and then and then I um kind of grew to the point where it's time to wrap my truck, and my web design guy's like, hey man, like if you're gonna wrap your truck, I'd suggest like investing in a logo. I got a connector with a guy who does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work for these big um marketing dudes that sell these logos for like 3k and just went straight to the source. A guy in the Philippines that he's done a lot of work for me and uh drew it by hand and then plastered it on my truck. So I was like, hey, everywhere everywhere I go with my truck, I have like the entire back window is my face that rolls up and down, which is pretty cool. And you were saying that uh you and your wife pretty much drive your your truck everywhere, right? So yeah, it's marketing and business. I'll get jobs, I'll go to Publix, I'll get come back from Publix, I get a quote because somebody's like, Hey, I saw your truck. Yeah, it's like being memorable.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

The QR code, the QR code is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Yep, put a QR code, it's like how do I keep it as easy as possible? And plus, cool thing about the QR code, it sends people to my website who then um Google can keep track of that and I can retarget them.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

So yeah, so you see who uh, you know, if you have a good web uh web website guy, me and me and Matt use the same guys. Um, if you have a good website guy, they'll send you the analytics and everything on what uh you know where where all your traffic's coming from. So if they scan that skew QR code, they should be able to tell you, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:40

Yeah, yeah. And and I mean, you're just collecting data points. So anytime somebody goes to a website, you say, Hey, that one person went to the website. I can retarget that one person. I can say, Hey, send this ad to people who've gone to Matt the Driveway guy's website.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

You want to make sure you're spending the money, right? You want to make sure you're tracking everything, whether it be phone calls, text messages, emails, Facebook messages. Uh, you want to know what's working for you and your business because me and Matt, it's it's not it's not gonna be the same for us, I wouldn't say.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

No, yeah. Like you have good Google naturally, I'm thinking, because you picked a name with WashPro. Organic, so you have a lot of good organic reach. So I'm like, man, I've been focusing a lot on my Google, and then you get better reach than me on certain keywords. Right. So it's it's figuring out like the like what's working and how do you make it work more?

SPEAKER_01 18:25

It's all hit or miss, really. Yeah, you just gotta figure you just gotta figure it out. It's just something you gotta dig into.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Yeah, it's like I'm not it's not like oh if you're if you're winning in this area, I'm like, okay, I'm not I'm not uh like emotionally feeling a certain way about this. I want to know. So I'm like, send me like what's why is this working so I can figure it out and like reverse engineer it.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

And sadly, I can't tell you. Uh he gets lucky. Yeah, a lot plays a lot into it. Me and him, me and him talk about it all the time. Like, dude, I don't know what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Well, yeah, you never know who's gonna click on your your site and be like, hey, I got like 40 properties I want you to clean, and then you just hit it off with that guy. And it's like, man, that's a relationship that you created by like being a good person and having a good brand, and then it leads to a good business partnership.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Yeah, I mean you could take uh you could take all the digital aspect out of it and just go back to old-fashioned times, right? So you could get lucky that way too. You know, you never sometimes I'm at the bar or something and and I'll run into somebody and they own a business, say, oh, you know, I need something clean, or they you're out and you're out getting a Gatorade or something, but in between jobs, and you have your shirt and they see your equipment and they're like, Can I get a card? Or, you know, how are you putting yourself out there?

SPEAKER_02 19:33

And I think too, by branding yourself and however you choose to, and being like, hey, that's a nice professional looking thing, you got a nice hat. You look like somebody you you look different than ninety-nine percent of the guys out there who don't have that stuff. Yeah, the guys are just like bleach chain t shirts and they say, I can do everything. They're like painters, yeah. Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's like, are we are we wanting to be a specialist and be the experts at pressure washing, house washing, driveway cleaning, window cleaning?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

like a small c category of things and people hey that's the go to or are we trying to be a generalist and and nobody and I'd say that pertains to any entrepreneur that's doing a business especially when you're I think you have to have if you're gonna offer multiple services I think you have to have different departments for that and different professionals correct in every department that specialize in that service.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Yes you don't want to do everything because if you do everything then you're gonna be really shallow and then people aren't going to see depth and value in you. Yeah yeah yeah and and like I've said before you know a lot of people talk about word of mouth but eventually you know word of mouth is great it's a great source of it's it's probably the best source of uh work that you get but eventually you run out of people you know and it's a slow growth people are always like ah I don't need to advertise I mean I've like there's so many people have flooded our space and and these are cal good people you like you have to stay in front of people and word of mouth used to be oh I'm gonna just knock on my or my next door neighbor or the person I go to church with or the guy at the bar but word of mouth is now Facebook. It's like I'll use Facebook as more of a branding thing than truly getting business. I want people to see my my branding and my videos and then like me know me from my personal personal bull reels where like it's my face and I'm doing the work and like it's relevant do memes memes were something I used to do a lot that helped out shows that I'm like a funny guy and I like to have fun and I'm not all business all the time. So that's that's all creating an emotion behind your brand and by doing it on social media you can reach so many people and they can follow you and they can be your fans you don't have to know them and you have word of mouth with them. And that's one thing that's cool about social media that you and I both utilize it's like the the we're talking about the Facebook groups and you can get tons of word of mouth out of Facebook groups off people you've never met. And no other time in history you could do that. It used to be like oh this is my dad and he knows your dad so like he you should hire him. Nowadays it's like if you're not getting in front of as many eyes as you can with something like social media where you can put your brand image out there you're really gonna miss out. And because it it's not just a slow growth if you don't do it. You're gonna be like replaced by somebody who's doing it and then you become irrelevant.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Right. Yeah and and going back to the branded thing I'm sure you get this a lot too but uh like I'll be I'll go out places be getting gas at the gas station not even with any of my work stuff on or anything they'll they they'll walk by me be like you're that pressure washing guy right I'm like yeah it's like oh I've seen it on Facebook see me. Yeah so that and it makes you feel it makes you feel like you've done your job like they know who you are because you've done the proper work and put yourself out there to let them know that hey you are the pressure washing guy.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Yeah and with branding it's it's it's different are you like the the cheapest way to get a lead probably isn't branding but branding is the long-term investment into making customers come to you. So like oh I've seen your truck all over the place. All those people who've seen my truck and know me haven't used me. But they may suggest recommend me to somebody they may eventually use me or they may not ever need my service but they are a fan of mine. They know who you are and that's the branding in the community is adding value it's like oh yeah man I know who you are. It's like I live in an apartment I can't help you. I'm not a customer of yours but like I'm I'm a fan and they know who you are and it's just investing in getting yourself out there and being unique and and putting your own personal spin on stuff so you're not copying everybody else. Like I can run an ad with just me making a satisfying pressure washing thing and I can get a ton of leads. Or before and after or before and after but those leads aren't going to convert the same way as somebody who's like oh I follow you I like you like I'm a fan of yours and then I see value in you.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

And I think with those type of ads like you're just getting people that are uh just wondering like just oh I wonder how much it would cost to get mine yeah you're not getting somebody that's already they're not you're not getting somebody that's looking for your service you're getting somebody that just come across your ad and is like hey I I I can I think I need that done how much would it cost you know you're not getting a serious customer I would say and that's another thing we talked about too is like the caliber of leads between say Google where it's hey I need my house brush washed who's gonna be the first to pop up that's a that's a a customer ready to buy so it's a more expensive lead but it's also a higher converting lead and it's usually a better customer.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

And they need it done. And they need it done because it's it's like hey I have a need who's gonna do it so that's why like our Google reviews are really important having a lot of stuff on our like Google page we so many people in an industry have a website but it's from like 2008 and it's not updated and it and it it's not relevant anymore.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Yeah and basically I would say like as far as the Google goes you're you're basically when it comes to that you know say the Google customer comes on there I think that you're trying to outvalue the other it's basically I don't I don't want to say the word compete but it is basically a competition on who can outvalue who. Absolutely yeah and you have to understand the Google algorithm or give them a lot of money to to rank higher on those uh Map packs so if you can't if I can't outvalue Matt or map Matt can't outvalue me then we're basically wasting money when our ads pop up correct against each other. So another another thing too people are like I spend this much money on my ads but they're only thinking at from a technical standpoint oh I did this I did this I did this I was like yeah but your ad copy sucks or your message sucks your offer sucks like you can go and talk to a hundred people but if every person you talk to feels awkward or they're like oh I'm good man you're not gonna close that many but if you talk to a hundred people and your branding's good and you're a good person and and they sense value in you you're gonna close more leads and the same applies to social media and that's why the SEO guys get paid the big bucks right right but uh but yeah uh branding's very important you got to value yourself you gotta you gotta prove to yourself you can't just show value you gotta prove to yourself that you give value great quality work um and basically work for that five star review yeah it's it's funny because if anybody's in the pressure washing space or any type of space and we all have websites and we're all number one in Greenville.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

We're we're number everybody is number one in Greenville for pressure washer top rated uh Greenville pressure washer yeah we are all the best of the best of the best and nobody can compete with us because our website says so yeah but that's just what our website says when everybody says the same stuff you have to figure out how do you brand yourself to to back it up with work and reputation and I think it nobody even thinks about that. Like what I see people they they get into pressure washing oh man I can make good money doing this why am I going to change and it's purely like my sole focus is to get the job done as efficiently as I can and then be on to the next but if you come in with a mindset of like how can I brand myself and position myself here as like the premium service in the marketplace and be different you're just gonna get all the business come to you. And it's that's to me it's working smarter not harder. Like with branding it's if you have no money in the beginning it it's really tempting to kind of jump into I can do anything I can be handyman just to get quick money. But branding is like that long-term investment into creating customers that come to you and then it just the the problem then is like how can I just manage all this workflow and and then maintain.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Yeah and I mean you know as far as if you don't have a lot of money and and you're trying to brand yourself you're trying to get your name out there's many many many different uh low cost and free ways that you can get your name out there. And it and I think at the end of the day it makes it that more um special when you do finally get to where you yes kind of want to be because a lot of people think that you have to have money to make money and that's not the case. When you're at your lowest and you you're broke and you don't have any money that's when you find out who your true self is and that's when you you get to where you need to be as far as succeeding.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Yeah if you have money and throw money at a problem you can you can kind of dilute you can if you got a ton of money you can throw money at a problem and you don't see the trueness of it. You can temporarily temporarily it's like a band get rid of your feelings get rid of the the real world temporarily or you could just dump a ton of money into something that's not a great product but all that investment is going to cover up like a bad process. Right. And you see that a lot oh you just but are you like optimizing where you can be and I think that's like you and I both started kind of the economic way we didn't have a lot of money to put fun put into this we didn't have investors we didn't have anything. So it's like okay if it didn't work today I lost money and I didn't have money to lose so like you and I both started out using these social media groups or these Facebook groups and that's like word of mouth and branding and then putting ourselves in the in the community where we were the trusted person for the service. And then you you get to the point I'm at that point now where I'm focusing more on like Google than I am Facebook and you're at that point now too where like I'm getting ready to make a transition. Yeah it's like you got so much you have so much initial business coming in that like pays for you to have the ability to invest more in like better ways of customer acquisition like Google and like we're saying like man this year you started out doing some like really high-end homes because you're looking really good on Google and stuff like that. You're not chasing these kind of oh I got three quotes type of customers who pick you up in the Facebook groups and yeah that's great when you're starting because it's a pretty much free lead but like you're gonna find a cap there. And then you've done a good job of like kind of shifting up and then that's kind of the name of our game is we have a limited amount of time in our day so we need to kind of trim the fat a little bit and then and then make sure that as we grow ourselves so do our customers.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Yeah and as far as like uh I think me and you've talked about it before like what is it you can't buy time or timing is everything or uh you can always get more money but you can't buy time.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

You can't buy time that's what I'm so you like time is the only resource that we have that you you can't say oh I just make more money.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Yeah I mean you can't build it up you know overnight. Yeah I mean I learned that hard way I thought I was gonna jump straight into it and boom there it is and I'm gonna make a crap ton of money and I'm gonna have a successful business and everybody's gonna know who I am straight overnight and that's I'll tell you everybody knows who you are that's cool but then it's like ah this is tiring. Yeah I'm gonna go hang out my cats. Yeah because then you get people like uh I think it was uh a few days ago it it it comes in it comes in waves like you just get a lot of people phone calls and you know a lot of those phone calls are taking up the time you need to be on the phone with customers and you know talking with them and you know when you get to that point putting yourself out there it's just it it becomes overwhelming at times because then again you don't want people to think that you know oh he's he doesn't have time for me anymore or he doesn't uh you know what I'm trying to say it's just the the people don't understand the quality of life that a business owner has to have yeah you you kind of focus on what is vital for my business and then what is vital for my family and then what is vital for my mental health.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Yeah you know and then everything else is just right extra you can fit it in if you can but you shouldn't prioritize that. Yeah and at the end of the day your your friends are going to know who you are you know if if they're your true friends. And you you you grow as a person you outgrow friendships you outgrow it's like unfortunately it sucks.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

I mean it's part of life but it kind of sucks because you're just like man I didn't ever want it to be that way you know yeah but like it'll all be good. Yep