Lighting for Profits - Episode 171

This week on the show we welcome, Daniel Dixon, CEO of ServiceMoxie since May 2019. He is a former U.S. Air Force officer and ex-corporate business consultant who has founded, acquired, and sold several businesses, and is now leading both SendJim and two seven-figure service companies.

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Episode Transcript

To start and grow a successful landscape lighting business, trust is key

Welcome to Lighting for Profits. All light. All Light. All Light powered by Emory Allen. Get rid of your excuses. Your number one source for all things landscape lighting.

That's where the magic can happen. You can really scale a business. We really had to show up for.

Each other from lighting design, install sales and marketing.

You're a scaredy cat salesman, Kurt. We discuss everything you need to know.

To start and grow a successful landscape lighting business. What do you think a hippo has.

To do with your business, Ryan?

Usually it's some weird childhood thing.

Some bully kicks your butt. I think the key factor here is trust.

Here is your host, Ryan Lee. Allot, a lot. All light. Let's go. Favorite day of the week, Favorite time of the day. It's time for Lighting for Profits.

If you're looking to start or grow a landscape lighting business, you're definitely in

I'm Ryan Lee, your host of Lighting for Profits powered by Emory Allen. We're still the number one landscape lighting show in Nashville, Tennessee. Gosh, you guys, we are so fortunate that we get to talk about lighting. I love lighting. It's changed my life. It's changed a lot of people's lives around me and it's just such an awesome industry to be in. If you're looking to start or grow a landscape lighting business, you're definitely in the right place. We're here to educate and motivate to help you dominate. Today we've got an awesome guest lined up. We've got Mr. Daniel Dixon. I think he's working on the title of serial entrepreneur, owns multiple businesses and, he is the leader of senjim. So we're going to be talking about marketing. we're going to be talking about the hardships of starting businesses. And, he's been able to buy businesses and sell businesses and lots of cool stuff. So stick, around. Daniel, has, done a lot and, accomplished a lot of things already and I'm excited to have him on. So stick around. Today, by the way, is voting, day. So I don't know if you know this, but the votes are already in and, it's already been decided that it's time to shine. Okay? So let's make your business great again. Or maybe this is the first time it's ever been great. Okay. And you know, it's not easy being a business owner and, it's not any easier going at it alone. So if you're struggling, you're worried about the future, you know how you're going to navigate this unknown future. Please reach out go to my website. Landscape lightingsecrets. Dot Com. I've opened up my schedule to take on these strategy sessions with you. So what we do is we get on a call and we map out where you're at, where you want to be and what's that road look like to get there and I help you fill in the gaps. Okay so go there right now landscape lighting secrets. com and just click start now. And there's a, there's a case study you can watch and then there's a link to my calendar and get on a call with me. I want to help you A couple quick reminder reminders as well. We got Lighted Up Expo coming up in a few months and it's the first of its kind. We're bringing together landscape lighting, holiday lighting, permanent lighting and event lighting all under one roof. We're going to have some hands on training. So if you want to bolt on one of these new lighting segments to your business and you want to learn the how to design, how to install, how to do these things, you'll have the opportunity to do that. We're going to have vendors so they're going to have all their new stuff there in the trade show area. We're going to have speakers, we're going to have networking. This is the place to be. We're bringing all these lighting industries under one roof and this has never been done before. So I'm excited. You can get your ticket now. It's our early bird pricing. Just go to lightitup expo. com and we've joined forces with Home Service Workshop. So there's actually four or five expos going on. You can purchase one ticket to the Home Service Academy or Home Service Workshop and then you can buy tickets to different shows as well. So get all your information@lightitup expo. com you know performance matters and actually that's a true statement for a lot of things including the kind of lighting you use. So don't sell yourself short with your customer by using budget level products. You know Emory Allen has been at the top of their game for a long time and they're at the top of their game when it comes to performance. So take their VA rating for example. It's the lowest in the industry which means you're going to have a more efficient lighting project. That means you can put more fixtures on one transformer. It's going to save you money over time. Okay. And so I want you to make that switch today. And the easiest way to get with Emory Allen is email Tom Gary Allen dot Com. And Tom's going to connect you with our, well, his discounted contractor pricing. Just mention that you heard about him here on Lighting for Profits and he's going to get you the lowest pricing possible. Don't go to their website unless you like paying more money. Just email tom gmaryallen. com so, hey guys, in just a few minutes we're gonna have Daniel come on. And I'm really excited to have him on. He's become a friend. and, he's super successful guy that I look up to, I've learned a lot of things from. And we're just gonna kind of, shoot the breeze about business and talk about, you know, what he's got going on.

Last week my doctor told me that I needed to give blood

but I gotta share something. And this was, this was an embarrass. I want to be vulnerable, okay? I'm always talking about being vulnerable. I want to be vulnerable with you for a minute. last week I did something that was so embarrassing and my doctor told me that I needed to give blood. I'm. I don't know anything about health, okay? But I know he said my hemoglobin was high and there's some sleep, sleep issues I got going on and everything else. And I have too many red blood cells. So he goes, hey, you need to, you need to, you need to give some blood. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna go give some blood. And I went in feeling good. I went and got lunch before, I was ready to help save the world. Okay, I'm gonna donate some blood. And the guy, the, the nurse gets the, the needle in my arm, everything's fine. And my blood was flowing. And, I even joked around. I'm like, what's the, you know, I'm a competitive person. I'm like, what's the fastest time that someone's, you know, given blood? Like, how long does this take? And he's like, oh, a guy a couple weeks ago did it in six minutes. And I'm like, I think I, I think I can beat that time. I felt like the blood in my, my fingers, you know, I was like, yeah, I got this guy. And so I was like, I was calm, cool, collective. Everything's fine. I'm in, I'm in control. And and he again, like, I, I see the blood's flowing. And he's like, oh, man, you're. You're literally on, on, on track for like record breaking time here. Like six minutes or something along those lines. I'm like, sweet, you know, and, like, in an instant, like, I went from totally fine to. All of a sudden, I go, wow. You know, I'm feeling really lightheaded all of a sudden. And, I. I tell them that. And, I felt myself going pell. And I literally felt the blood, like, going, like, leaving my extremities. And all of a sudden, I'm, like, instantly sweaty and hot. Boom. I'm out. Like, I, I. I didn't even know what happened, okay? I didn't. I didn't know I passed out. But next thing you know, I have the strangest experience, and I'm. All I'm doing, guys, is giving blood. Okay? This is not a, hero, story or anything like that. I'm sitting in a very comfortable chair giving blood. And, I. Next thing I know, I see him and another nurse in front of me, okay? And they are twitching back and forth, like, 100 miles an hour, and I'm like. And, like, it was, like, super fast, like, glitching. Just like the. The Matrix is glitching. Like, what is going on? Like, something's paused with life, you know? And here's the crazy thing. I was like. I was now, like, completely aware, but it was like I was not in my body. Like, I was like, ryan, what are you doing? Like, you're staring at these people. You're moving your eyes back and forth, like, 100 miles an hour. Stop being so weird. They're. They're literally watching you. What are you doing? And I felt like I was, like, leaning up and toward them, like, eye contacting them, and I was like, what are you doing? And I. And I could not control what was happening. Okay? It just. My eyes just kept. Okay. And I finally came to, and it. Honestly, in that moment, I had this memory of, like, all these dreams and all this experience that had happened. It felt like years had gone by. I was like, what just happened? Okay. All these memories kept flooding back in, and I start to realize what happened, and I'm like, you know, at first I didn't know where I was, and then all of a sudden, oh, yeah, I'm just giving blood. Like, what's going on? And then all those memories that I just. I could remember in that moment, and I swear it was years. Then it was just gone, and I couldn't remember any of it. Well, I mean, I finally came to, and it. And it wasn't, Like, I guess I'm kind of a wuss, because it wasn't like, I was like, oh, man, I passed out. All right, hook me up. Let's get out of here. Like, I couldn't even stand up for a while. I was still sweating. And in fact, the guy told me, I went in, I passed out three times. He goes, there was the main time you passed out, and then there was two other times that you passed out. I'm like, holy freaking cow, dude. I'm just trying to get blood here. Like, how can I not handle this? I even had chick fil A before you guys.

I couldn't control what was going on, so I was pissed

Like, I was, like, ready to go. And, you know, I've done, like, the liquid hydration IV stuff. Like, I. I don't like needles. I don't like blood. But, like, I've. I got this, right? And, here's. Here's why I'm telling you the story is because, I couldn't control what was going on. Like, not at all. And. And when I came to, I was, like, pissed. I was just so pissed that that happened because I was embarrassed. I was like, oh, my gosh, dude. And then I couldn't get up, and they're all come back and check on me. There's this big old nurse, dude. He's like, man, this guy's sweating like crazy. He's hot. And he's got the folder with, like, you know, the client files, whatever, and he's just fanning me. And, like, other people in the waiting room can see all this stuff. I'm like, dude, I got to get out of here, man. This is. This is so embarrassing. And there's nothing I could do. I'm basically paralyzed there. If I try to sit up, I get lightheaded. Like, I had to sit there for about 30 minutes to recoup before I could even stand up and walk out of there. And, I was. I was pissed. I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, this is. This is. This was embarrassing. And I. It was embarrassing. Not that, like, I'm going to go back and see these people, whatever. I'm not. Like, I don't get. Like, I get embarrassed, but, like, not long term. It's like, it is what it is. But I was pissed because I. I didn't have control. And as entrepreneurs, we love control, right? We love to say, well, you know what? I'll do that tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. Anyone doing holiday lighting right now knows what I'm talking about, you know, oh, I'm going to. I'm going to, I'm just going to make this money, and then I'll do this, and then I'll work On my business, then I'll hire another person, then I'll start a new business. Then we, you know, we think we have more time and in reality we have less time. And every day that you are alive is a gift, okay? Tomorrow is not promised. And you know, even though we know this, right, we continue to put off our dreams because we're sure we have more time. And I know this was just me passing out, okay? This wasn't like, this wasn't like life or death, you know, anything like that. But I had this crazy wake up call like all throughout this like short experience that I'm m not in control. And as much as I wanted to not pass out, I was like, when I started getting my head, I was like, don't pass out, don't pass out. Like a second later I'm out. Okay? There's nothing I could do about it. Like I am not in control of my consciousness at this point. And even when I came to, I was not in control. It took me time to recover to the point where I could walk out of there and I was so pissed that I couldn't do anything about it. So what are you going to do about it while you are in control? Because there's times, I mean I was in control walking into there and I was control walking out of there. But there was a moment, there was a timeframe where I had zero control. I could not do what I wanted to do. And so while things are good, if things are good in your business right now, what are you doing to prepare? What are you doing to maintain control? Look, I'm just telling you what I wish I would have known and wish someone would have told me. Life is full of obstacles and it's also full of opportunities. So while you don't always have the choice to decide which one comes at you, you do have the freedom to choose how you'll approach them. Right? So I see so many people that are not being intentional right now and they're letting their circumstances dictate their life. It's like, well, I gotta do this. I mean, this is the only time I can make money is holiday lighting or I, you know, I gotta put up with these two, workers because I don't have anyone else or, you know, I just got to do it myself because I can't find anyone. And all these excuses pile up and that's, that's not being intentional. That's letting life happen to you.

When you realize that time is our biggest asset, your intentions change

But when you realize that time is our biggest asset and that there is no guarantee that tomorrow will come, your intentions change. Okay? So think about that for a minute. If I told you that tomorrow may not happen, and you believe that because most of us don't. Most of us think, ah, we got time. But in reality, every minute that you're alive, every day you're alive, you're one. You're one step closer, right? The only thing we know with certainty is no one is making it out alive. It is. Death is coming closer, right? And it doesn't have to be about death, but, like, this little small experience of mine just helped me open up my eyes to, like, man, every single day, I got to be intentional. Every single hour, I have to be intentional. Like, what am I doing with my time? Who am I spending it with? Like, am I sacrificing the time away from my family for work? Is that the right intention? Is it the right reason? Maybe there's a time and place for that. But you got to question everything, okay? Because when you realize that tomorrow may not come, your. Your intentions change. You start thinking and acting differently. So it's time right now to prioritize your priorities, okay? Figure out the obstacles holding you back and get to where you know you should already be. The only way to do this is to schedule time in your calendar. So if you guys had a lead right now and someone called you and they're like, hey, I'm a landscape architect. I need you to meet me over this client's house. This is gonna be like a $200,000 job, okay? I'm pretty sure, like, everyone would prioritize that client meeting over almost everything else. You might even not even show up to one of your kids practices or something. You'd be like, ah, I kind of got to be there because I'm doing this for my family. It's 200,000. See how we make justifications and we lie to ourselves and we. And we make the things that we want to prioritize a priority. Okay? So here's the truth. Scheduling time to be intentional with your life and your business is worth way more than $200,000. So if you have, a thought right now, okay, if I gave you a $200,000 lead and I said you got to be there tomorrow at noon, no questions asked, would you go, well, I can't do it because I've got a job. Or would you go, yeah, I'm going to. I'm going to figure out how to move that job and be there. So mark it on your calendar right now. Okay? When are you going to Be a business owner. When are you going to be a problem solver? When are you going to be the leader for your family, for your community, for your team members, for your clients? Like, when are you going to do this? Because if you're not intentional, it's never going to happen. And I know this because I let my life happen to me for over a decade. Okay, over 10 years. Not that it was wasted. I mean, I learned a lot through this process. Right? But I'm telling you right now, this is how you collapse time. And collapsing time is a skill. It's an art. Like, you can do this, but it takes intention. And so is it going to be Tuesday from 4 to 6? Is it going to be Fridays from 1 to 4? Maybe you can only start with an hour a week. Like, you got to start somewhere, so you can't afford not to do this. Guys, your future self is counting on you. Don't let them down. And, I know it was kind of weird that I got all that out of just passing out from giving blood, but that was what was revealed unto me. And I want to share that with you guys in hopes that I can just change one person's life. So I hope you guys will get intentional.

Ryan: Daniel Dixon passed out while donating blood in college

And, it's time to get our guest on. Are you guys ready for Daniel? I know I am. I love having guests, on here, and I like to talk about my own thing, too. But let's get Daniel coming on. You guys ready? Let's go. What is up? What is up, Mr. Daniel Dixon.

Ryan, Great to see you, man. Hey, all I gotta say is you should pass out more often if you got all that out of just passing out, man. Like, you gotta schedule time to pass out, because that was, like, pure gold right there. I was already thinking of, like, some friends and stuff that I need to send this episode to.

Well, dude, I will say this. I'm grateful for almost everything in life, but. And even for that experience. But I'm. I don't know what it is, dude. I do not want anyone that I know and love to pass out. It was like a, kind of frightening and, like, terrifying for me. Like, I felt sick. And even later that night. I don't know, man. I guess I'm just a wuss. But I am grateful that it happened.

Well, I have my own secret to reveal then, because when I was in college, there was a course that I didn't have the best grade in, and the teacher was, like, really big on donating, blood. And she said, if you go Donate blood. Like, we. Anyone in my class can get extra credit. So I'm like, oh, heck, yeah, I'm gonna donate blood. I was in ROTC at the time, so we just did, like, this big workout, and I went straight from there to donate blood. Same thing. Like, I was sitting there totally fine, like, three or four minutes. The blood's going, like, bags filling up fast. The nurse even like, oh, this is going really fast. You'll be out here in no time. And then the next thing I know is I said, hey, I'm. I'm feeling kind of funny. Like, I. I think my feet and, like, my face and stuff started tingling. And then same thing, like, out. And then the next thing I remember, there was, like, two or three people around me. They had, like, a bag of ice on my head, ice on my chest. I'm like, what happened? And it passed out, and they made me sit there for a long time. I didn't pass out more than once, but, yeah, I've had the same experience, unfortunately.

Yeah, that's awesome. See, we are connected. We're brothers from another mother, so that's cool, man. Well, I don't know if you got the same out of your experience, but it's such a small thing. But I'm like, no. Like, I really have this, like, new, like, new look on life. Like, dude, every. Every minute's precious. And. And as pissed as I was that I couldn't do anything, it gets me pissed off of, like, wasted time and wasted intention that I had. And I'm like. And I know a lot of friends and people in our. In my community that I'm like, dude, I don't want you to. To be working on things that don't matter, you know?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It really resonated with me. So, yeah, like I said, you got to pass out more if you can spit that gold out after.

I love it, man.

Daniel Dixon went into entrepreneurship because he didn't want to trade time for money

Well, thanks for coming on here. Maybe just do a quick intro. You've been on here before, but give, us a quick intro to who Daniel Dixon is.

Yeah. So, first, and foremost, I'm a father and. And a husband. And to your point about being intentional, Right? Like, I went into entrepreneurship because I didn't want to trade time for money anymore at my consulting firm that I was working at. got my MBA, went into consulting for these Fortune 500s. They kind of own you because they pay a lot per hour for your time. And your firm is like, yes, you'll be there. You'll do this. You'll do that and, ah, I saw the writing on the walls, like, the more money I want to make, the more time I have to dedicate to this and traveling. And I just said, I don't want to do that. and so I got out of that. I was in the Air Force actually before that. But starting in my entrepreneur career, I started like a carpet cleaning business on the side because my family owned a carpet cleaning business. And they were like, go to school, get a good job. Like, get something stable. Like don't, you know, don't do what we did. Entrepreneurship's hard. And, you know, they're speaking from a perspective of, you know, they had a few, three employees maybe at the most at one time, a small family business. And we had a great upbringing. But, you know, they, it was painful and a lot of, you know, learning and all of that. And so they wanted me to go get a great corporate job. Well, I did it and I realized, no, I don't want to do this. and so I started a carpet clean business, the only business I knew anything about, and had, that, and then got, involved with consulting at Syngen, Got, to become the CEO at Syngen, buying as a partner at Syngen, started a concrete coatings company, bought in as a partner at another business that serves the home service industry. And just kind of, you know, one thing snowballed to the next. But I absolutely love entrepreneurship and, I'm just so happy to meet other entrepreneurs and like, the community that we, that we have and people like you. So that's a brief, I guess, introduction of, where I've been and where I'm at today.

Great intro, great intro that, you know, I love talking business with you. I love talking marketing.

You mentioned you were in the Air Force. Um, tell us a little bit about entrepreneurship

I want to talk real quick about. You mentioned you were in the Air Force. tell us a little bit about the Air Force and some of the things that you can take that you've taken from that and applied to the business world.

Absolutely. So the military is great. Like, if there's any young people out there listening to this and you're thinking, like, what do I want to do? Or I want to be an entrepreneur. But, like, maybe I'm not ready for it yet. Like, the military is a great start for everybody. you will learn skills there that you just can't learn at least as quickly anywhere else. going to boot camp is a great experience. It's, the best experience you'll never want to have again.

Right?

That's how they describe that. but yeah, in the military, I got to be an officer. I was in the space program. So we did launching satellites from Cape Canaveral. I, was an engineer. and the big things that I learned were just like, how to be a leader, how to be a good leader, and what sacrifice meant, right? So, I think leadership and sacrifice go hand in hand. If you're a good leader, there's a difference between, like, being a manager or being the owner of something and being a good leader. and so I learned that and those skills, those. Those people skills, organization skills, right? Like, how do we take really complex things like that come in entrepreneurship? So there's problems that come. Right. Every entrepreneur has had problems. And you're like, well, I can't just Google this. Like, I don't know how I'm going to get out of this. But just taking those problems and breaking it up into, like, very analytical, small things that you can figure out, like, one piece at a time, right? So you might have a huge problem, but let's start like, okay, here's the problem. Let's try to be really clear about what it is and what are my options, right? Like, option one is I do this. Option two is I do this. Option three is I do this. And really just like, trying not to be emotional about things, like, that's a big thing they don't. They teach in the military is like, not to be emotional. and, and to just, like, approach problems, like, with as much logic and reason as possible. So those are, like, huge skills that have helped me. being an entrepreneur, that's killer.

I mean, it's. I feel like everyone that I meet who has, done some, like, done some experience in the military has, those same qualities. They. And then they. They're or they're more organized. They have that leadership, they understand discipline, and, like, they're able to do a lot of things that most people aren't willing to do, which happens to be, like, one of the key reasons why people succeed in business.

Yeah. Yeah. Pushing through those fears, like, that's another one. Right. Is like, a lot of the reasons people don't start when they want to be an entrepreneur is because they're scared. people that are in the military, they're no less scared than you are about, you know, going to fight or being put in harm's way. but they have learned to objectively look at that stuff and do things that may scare you. But, there's really great things that can come of that.

Love that. Yeah. We, as humans, I think we're kind of built with fear, you know? Like, you do see people, you're like, man, how do they do that? But they just have more courage. Like, they've developed a way to have more courage. And I felt like I've. I've been able to have more courage. I didn't have enough courage to go to the military. That's why I look up to anyone who went to the military. I'm like, dang, man, like, as a young person to be able to do that. And. And some people were like, well, I didn't have courage either. I needed the money or I needed whatever, but no, there was still courage there, for sure.

Yeah. yeah, it's, it's a. It's a tough thing, and it's. It's really good. Like, anybody that's out there or their kids are out there and they're thinking, like, should they go to the military? It's just five, you know, four years, three years, whatever. You sign up for a really great experience.

Very cool.

would. Would recommend it to anybody.

That's awesome.

Daniel wanted to get out of corporate America, start his own business

So one of the things you mentioned was you wanted to get out of corporate America, start your own business, because you were done trading time for money. Well, how did that go in the beginning? Because I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs are still trading time for money. How did that go?

Yeah, I had a really fortunate situation, where I didn't have to jump full ship. I always knew that was going to be, like, at some point I would have to do that. But my parents actually had sold their business and retired. and when I started the business, I pitched it to them of, like, they were kind of getting bored of retirement. And, my dad's like, I'm going to go get a job at Home Depot, or I'm going to go get a job at the local golf course and just hang out. And I'm like, dad, they're going to pay you, like, $12 an hour. You're going to have a schedule. You're not going to be able to do what you want to do. I'm like, don't do that. Like, I'm going to start a carpet cleaning business. And he thought I was out of my mind, but I was like, no, look, look, I'll do everything, but I just need you to do, like, one job a day. Like, if you do one job a day, you know, I'll pay you 50 bucks an hour. But, like, I just wanted to start somewhere and, like, build up, like, prove that I could create demand with like what I thought were marketing skills at the time and and have him prove this out for me. And then I could just quit and I was going to do the work and hire employees. well, what ended up happening is like we, you know, the business grew and he hired employees and I never ended up doing the work. So I never had to trade time for money. I was still in my corporate job when I owned that business. and so I got, I got really lucky and fortunate in that regard. But I do know that's like one of the biggest challenges, right, Is like getting out of that, trading time for money as a, as a starting entrepreneur.

Oh, that's real. It's really cool and interesting because most people just start the exact opposite and it's like they're instantly the technician. So was that because you, you kept that job and it was like, well, what has to be true for me to start this business and keep my job?

Yep, exactly right. Like I was finding, trying to find a solution to like, I'm not going to go back into trading time for money. So like, what are my options out there? Like, and if, if my, you know, people listening to say, well, like, well you know, that was super lucky or you can't have like, I don't have my dad or someone that can do that. look for a potential partner, right? Like, is there somebody else doing this at a company where they're already the technician and like, maybe they have a path to be a co founder or some profit sharing or put them into a better scenario where you can lead the business and like, you can provide the parts that you're really good at. Use your superpowers, but like have them, you know, do the, do the labor part. Or maybe you can hire someone that, you know, you don't know, but like, you can put out a posting for that. So any way that you can avoid starting in that position I think is really helpful.

It's so crazy. I, I talk about how like our, our own personal common sense isn't the common sense of someone else. And so when it's like when you have common sense that someone else doesn't, you're like, how do you not know that? It's probably like this, like, Daniel, I'm not even kidding. I didn't know that when I, when I started my first business. I thought that part of being an entrepreneur was like learning the thing and doing the thing and like, you know, rising the ranks and like, I, like I just didn't know like I. So I would have loved to have heard this interview right now, like, 20 years ago to be like, dude, no, you don't have to do the thing. You can just be a business owner. And what has to be true is you'd have to do this and this and this. Because I would have done things totally different. I would have saved so much time, so much headache, and I wouldn't have traded so much time for money. That's so good.

Yeah, and it's, it's one of those things where, like, I probably wouldn't have been the best technician anyway. Right. So there's a win on that side where it's like, hire somebody for the jobs that you don't want to do or that you're not really good at, because there's someone out there that's going to do them better and probably faster and for less money. And I, I recognize, like, not everyone has all the resources when they start. But, like, try to think of scenarios that that can, can make that thing true. it will put you far ahead. Right. Like, and I'm not also not saying don't go out there, don't learn the thing. Like, if you're going to start a lighting business, it doesn't mean be totally ignorant about what your technicians do or, like, how lighting's installed. Right. Because for you to be a good sales rep or a good, marketer. Right. Like, you need to understand the challenges that the technicians face, and you need to understand from a leadership perspective what they're out there doing. But it doesn't mean you have to be out there every job and do everything and supervise every minute.

Yeah, that's so true. Yeah. I mean, because, like, if you do, you hire a salesperson, of course, it's great for them to go spend a couple days with the crew so they can see, wow, our installation practices are way. Actually way better than anybody else's. And here's why. But that's totally different than there's so many entrepreneurs that are still out in the field in their business after 5, 10, even 20 years. They're the guy on the truck. And I don't think anyone ever told him, like, did you know that you don't have to do that? Like, you could decide right now, today what has to be true for me to not be on the truck. And you could map that out, like, yeah, it's just so crazy because you started with that common sense that most people just have never been given permission. So we're giving, we're giving everyone Permission right now.

Yeah. And I would say, too, like, as an entrepreneur, I understand, like, hiring people and getting off the truck and whatnot. I've had the fortunate, you know, career. I've been able to talk to hundreds and hundreds of entrepreneurs. Like, people listening. it's. It's really important that, like, there's. There's courage, right, to start your business. And then I think the second most, like, fearful thing for a business owner is to, like, let go of something that they think that they have to do. Right? So, like, if you're out there installing every day, like, it's terrifying to be like, I'm not going on an install. Like, I'm letting these people do this, or I'm hiring someone to do that. Or if you're out there selling every day and you're like, there's no way someone can sell as good as me. Like, it's terrifying and it takes a lot of courage. But I promise you, the rewards will be massive if you have the courage to, like, take that next step. Just, like, you've had the courage to start your business, and, like, it's probably been great if you've been doing it for five or 10 years. Like, you haven't gone back to what you were doing before. Like, take that. Take the courage to take the next step because it's even more powerful.

Love it.

What businesses do you own now? Yeah, so, uh, right now

so tell us, what. What businesses do you own now?

Yeah, so, right now, partner in Sengen. So I own that business. My brother and I own a concrete coatings company called My Garage Floor Guys in Nashville. and we also am a partner in a bookkeeping business for, customers that, you know, are like, my concrete coatings company, small business owners. We do. We provide bookkeeping for them. I've divested of the carpet cleaning business and have, a few other opportunities that we're looking at. but those are the ones that I'm actively working in now.

Nice.

The most challenging part of being a business owner is managing people

So what's been in your. In your mind, like, you. If you reflect over the last five, 10 years, what's been the most challenging part of being a business owner?

That's a really good question. I think the most challenging part is the, like, the management of people. And when I say management isn't like, hey, getting people to show up on time or getting people to do this or that, but it's like, it's really like taking responsibility for, like, their career. Right? Like, when I hire somebody, that's, like, how I look at it, and it's like, hey, realistically, If I hire this technician, like, they may not be, like, a technician for, you know, they're 25 years old. They might not want to do this for more than 10 years, like, because it's physically demanding or because they can't really raise a family on that income. So, like, how do I have to evolve my business to create opportunities for that person to, move up and make a career at my company? Right? And so, like, that's really challenging, especially when you're in a small business. Like, same, thing at Syngim, right? It's like, how do I create opportunities for the person that may start as, like, a customer service rep and make a career out of it, right? Because really easy for us to be like, oh, my business only has three people or four people or five people, whatever that number is. And, like, Johnny's great. He's going to be there forever. You know, Susie's great. She's going to be there forever. And, like, I'm just riding high. Ah. And kind of. You talked about this in the beginning of your podcast. Is like, if you're doing great right now, that's awesome. And, like, opportunities are going to come and challenges are going to come. But, like, what are you doing to be intentional, to, like, make sure it stays great? Right? Like, how are we approaching that? And I think one of the most painful things as an entrepreneur is when somebody good leads your company. So, like, I'm super intentional when things are great. How do I make sure those people that are making things great for me, like, are staying around? And it's. It's a challenge because, like, you can't always just create new revenue. You can't just create new opportunities. You can't necessarily grow your company at the rate that you need you to keep people. So, like, just being really creative about, you know, creating those career opportunities for people that you want to keep.

What, what have been some things you've done or that you're going to do to kind of build and advance the career ladder?

Yeah. Culture is a big thing, for me. So, creating an atmosphere where they really feel cared about and you can go through a bunch of different things, right? But, like, some things that we've done, because we're never going to pay as much as, like, other jobs, there always be a job out there that pays more. Just, like, there's always someone out there that makes more money than you. So how do you combat that? Right? You, you give them things that maybe aren't necessarily income, but, like, they can't get somewhere else. So being super flexible with time off as much as possible, right? Like in Syngen we do this thing where it's like every other Friday, it's a half day, or you know, you can combine two half days to take a four day week, right? And we've looked at going to four day work weeks. So things like that where it's like really difficult for them to find that in corporate America or find that with a company that may not care as much about them and you're like, well that's a revenue opportunity I've lost. Well, like how do we get creative about like, can we schedule a different crew on a different day to get that job done? Can we sacrifice that revenue? Can we move that revenue to a different part of the year where it's slow? Like how do we be as flexible as possible to give people time with their family? so that's a big thing we've done. we've offered benefits that like other service businesses like in my garage, floor coding company that other services, ah, service businesses aren't offering. So we look at that and say like, how can we be different? we've done profit sharing in different businesses that we've been with. those are just like some things that come to the top of mind. But treating people like, as much as possible, like family and like owners of the business, right, because you'll get more production, more better results and they'll feel more committed to the business if they're, if they're like, yeah, I'm sharing in the profit and explaining like why this crappy job like is important because like this is a really profitable job and you're going to get a part of this and like really showing them like how, how they impact the company and how that can impact, you know, their income or their opportunities at the company is an important thing that is gold.

I mean in a minute we're going to talk about like marketing. But the challenges of business are like, how do you satisfy your team members and how do you satisfy your clients? And it's like it's this balance. It's like one or the other, sometimes everything's fine and then sometimes they both go to hell quick. But that's so important. And when I was running my business, I tell you what I was not focused on. And what I was focused on was obvious I was big on sales and marketing, right? And I just expected, well, these guys were working for a job. And I totally forgot about all this stuff you're talking about. And then I was like, man, how do you find good people and how do you get people to stay? It's like, well, duh, like, you work on it. You, like, you're intentional about it, and that's it. It doesn't have to be complicated. It's not perfect. You know, I'm sure with all your intentionality, it's. I'm sure you still have people leave and you have to replace people and stuff like that. But just. Just when people see that their leader is actively working on building a culture and they value them as a human being and they want them to spend time with their family, that's such a different message than you're getting anywhere else.

Yeah. And if you own a service business, right, like, there's things that sound daunting that you can just add a little bit at a time, right? Like, it doesn't. And maybe you have a road map. So it's like, hey, I can't add benefits this year. Well, it's like, well, what benefits? Right? Can you add? Maybe the most important thing for the technician is to, like, get health care, right? So, like, maybe this year you can add healthcare. Maybe next year you can add dental. Maybe the next year you can add vision. Maybe the next year you can add 401k, and maybe the year after that you can add matching to the 401k, right? But, like, maybe you can add profit sharing. So, like, go out there and do some research. But a lot of these things were. Sounded big and daunting and expensive to me, but, like, I was really intentional about, like, well, let's go see what it is. And, like, it was more affordable than I thought, for some of these things. And, like, it, you know, just constantly telling the employee, like, hey, I'm looking into this for you.

Ryan: I actually like that strategy, too, because if

I'm doing this for you. And, like, showing that you care. Just showing them that you care, like, means so much.

Yeah, that's killer. I actually like that strategy, too, because if you think about, like, phones, cars, all this stuff, I swear they're holding back, like, features. They're like, well, let's. We'll release that next year and then we'll do that. And, like, they already know what they're going to release, but, like, they want us to buy the new thing so we can do that with our team members and be like, oh, ah, this year's vision, next year's dental, you know.

oh, that's a perfect example right there, Ryan. Phones. Like, we. We've gone to our, like, some of Our crew leaders or like employees and said, hey, like, we'll pay for your phone and we'll pay like 150amonth stipend, right? And we'll put it as an expense on your, on your, pay. And that's non taxable. So it's really like 200amonth of income for them and it's an expense for me, so I get to write it off. I don't have to pay for tax. So like, that's better than just paying them more. Right? So like, thinking about that, and that's like a simple benefit. You could be like, hey, guys, like, I'm gonna add the phone reimbursement stipend for you. And like, just little things to show like. Yes. I'm constantly looking for ways to like, improve your life. If you can, like, help me by doing these things.

All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be very disciplined right now and not go on this whole, pricing tangent because that, the whole reason for that is because you need to make more money so that you can afford to do these things. I'm sure there's people right now going, how am I going to pay this guy and 200? And then I got to do this, and I got to do this. Like, you can't. With your current pricing model and your sales and your current thing, you can't. Like, what got you here will not get you there, but these are the, things you'll have to do. So that's it. I'm going to restrain to just a quick advertising on pricing. Real quick.

Yeah. A perfect example of that, right, Is like a sales guy. We had a customer said, hey, can you move this stuff back? And we're like, no, it's not really what we do. And she's like, well, I had movers and they canceled on me. And we're like, well, we can, but like, if we do it, it's going to be X, right? And it was a lot. And I was like, there's no way she's going to say yes to this. And she was immediately like, yes. And then we told our employees and like, the employees were like, oh, no, like, we don't want to go back there. It's far. And it, you know, the refrigerator weighed a ton. We had to empty it out. And I'm like, guys, you don't understand. We're making like 500 an hour for like, you know, five minutes of work. Like, it makes a ton of sense. And like, we're, when we profit share like this how it rolls down to you, and then, like, everyone was okay with it, right? And it's like, you provide an excellent customer experience. Everyone made a lot of money, customers happy, like, and it's. You're absolutely right, Ryan. But it's like even understanding your pricing, right? It's like, oh, yeah, we, like, $100 might sound like a lot to move that back. the customer's gonna balk at that. And I was like, no, we charge $500. And she was thrilled, right? So, like, yeah, we won't, we won't go down pricing. But we both understand that, like, that's a super important part of, like, being able to run your company because you got to pay your people and all that.

Send Jim helps companies get high quality leads, the leads that, you want

Very cool. So one thing that I feel like people are always going to struggle with is lead generation. So let's pivot a little bit and talk about marketing, talk about how to get high quality leads, the leads that, that, you know, you want. introduce Send Jim. How did you first get involved with Send Jim?

Yeah, so, I got involved with Syngen because of Josh Latimer. And I was listening to his podcast and he had someone, on there by the name of Michael Dalkey. Michael is, like, a very successful in corporate America, moved into entrepreneurship in the home services space. And I'm like, that's me. Like, I want to be that guy. And so I reached out to him and, I said, hey, this is my situation. I would love to meet you. And he's like, well, that's crazy. We happen to be in the same city. Let's connect. And so we connected and we were, you know, met occasionally for a year or so, became friends, and then he invested into Syngim to help Josh. And, Mike said, hey, I got this guy that would be perfect to help, you know, with this project at Syngem. They brought me in to consult with them, and then the rest is kind of history. And I got involved with Syngem.

That's awesome.

yeah, yeah. So pretty, pretty, pretty random.

The first time I found out about Send Jim was my very first client for Landscape Lighting Secrets was Luke Jensen. And yes, Luke was like, oh, you know, I was like, so tell me about your business. And he's telling me all this stuff, and he goes, yeah. And then we send brownies, you know, when we're done with, with a job. And I'm like, how do you, how do you do that? He goes, oh, send him. And I'm like, what's a Send gym? You know, like, I was so ignorant. I had no idea. And this was seriously back in. I mean, it's not that long ago. 2019 or 2020, you know, I can't believe I didn't even know about it or whatever. But he's like, yeah, it was 2020. He's like, yeah, we send brownies. I'm like, that is like the coolest thing ever. Like, and it's automated. Like, you don't have to do anything. No, it just, just happens. And they always send us a picture, like thanks for the brownies or whatever. I thought that was so cool. Just even if you only sent brownies, I thought it was a cool company.

Ryan Lee uses automation to send personalized postcards to customers and neighbors

But, talk to me about some of the other things that you guys do.

Yeah, so we send postcards, right. And we can send them to customers, we can send them to specific neighborhoods. we can send them to the neighbors of customers. This is where it gets really, you know, powerful. because your neighbor all of a sudden just got this, you know, beautiful up lighting in their front yard or landscape lighting. And they're, you know, driving by at night and they're like, oh my gosh, look at the, like Mr. And Mrs. Smith, that house looks amazing. I wonder who did that. And you know, we can now hit all the neighbors around Mr. And Mrs. Smith saying like, hey, we did Mr. And Mrs. Smith's lighting. Check it, you know, check us out. so we send postcards hyper, hyper targeted in scenarios like that every time a job's completed. We can send to the neighbors of your customer. we can send handwritten cards. We can send, those are the ones that are written with like a ballpoint pen. We have like an incredibly high open rate because it looks like handwriting.

And by the way, like when you send the postcards to the neighbors or these handwritten ones, these can be just like a one time deal. Or you can set up on automation, right?

Yep, automation. We can do sequences. The sequences can be intermixed with, other things like gifts, handwritten cards, postcards. We also send ringless voicemail. So I don't know if you guys are familiar with this. Really powerful, I use it in my business. But we go like once a quarter and we look at all the open quotes, right, that for some reason we didn't close. and my sales guy is good, so we close a lot of them. But like, for some reason if there's people that said no, we'll go back like a quarter, and we'll say, hey, I want to look at all those Open quotes and send him is connected to your CRM so you can see all those open quotes really easily. And I send a M voicemail, and it delivers to their voicemail, as a missed call. And it'll say something like, hey, this is, you know, Daniel from my garage floor guys. I just wanted to see if you're still interested in having your garage floor coded. I know you said no at the time, but, you know, maybe things have changed. We also have a special going on right now. shoot me a call back or send me a text at this number. And I'd love to connect with you if you're still interested. And every quarter, we close like, two or three jobs like that, right? Like, people said no because their budget or their timing or whatever, or they. Whatever the reason was, they felt pressured. They want to get another quote, but, like, they didn't end up doing it. And then we follow up and sending those voicemails that are pre recorded. The people think they called you, took the time to call and follow back up. It's all automated. You only have to record it once. You can send it to 100 people at a time. And, you know, it generates $10,000, a revenue a quarter just by sending that one voicemail.

So really powerful tools that one is.

Seriously.

I don't know why, but that's my favorite part. And, I used it here in Landscape Lighting Secrets. And I got to just share the story real quick because I felt guilty after because, you know, you don't say their name. You just do it like you do. Hey, what's up? I'm like, hey, hey, what's up? It's Ryan Lee. Sorry I missed you. You know, I was like, sorry, I missed you. Like, you know, they, like, I called them or whatever. I, just want to make sure you knew about our event coming up. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And then, you know, I left it, and I had people texting me back, oh, my gosh, sorry I missed you. They were calling me back. Like, they're like, oh, hey, sorry, I don't. I guess I didn't hear the phone ring, but, yeah, I really want to talk to you. And da, da, da. and then I confessed about a week later. I, like, was like, hey, guys, I got. I just got something on my mind. I got to tell you. Like, I didn't call all of you personally. It was a ringless voicemail through send Jim. And I did it for a couple of reasons. One, because I. I didn't have the time to call everyone back. So I do feel guilty, but I wanted to show you like, the things you're not using, like that you're, you're missing out on these opportunities. And they're like, dude, I could have sworn that was like, that was you. I'm like, no, it was me. It's just that I, I sent that exact same message to a hundred people at the same time. Like, that's wild. So just showing them that experience. I felt guilty, but I had good intentions, you know, I was like, I wanted them to see, like, dude, this your customer will feel. Oh man, I just missed them. And I'm glad they called me because I do want my garage floors done. I do want my lighting done. We've just been busy. We were on vacation and we got the kids back to school. But, but man, it's getting dark at like 5:30 now. We definitely need lighting, you know, so so many people could make. And by the way, landscape lighting, an average ticket is 10,000. So when you say, you know, you made 10,000, I'm, lighting people might make 20, 30, $40,000 every time they do this. Every quarter.

Yeah, Very, very powerful. Right? And something like that just for, for instance, is like you're talking about like 35, 40 cents of call, right? So you send it to the 30 leads that didn't close or 30 quotes that didn't close, cost you 15 bucks. And like you generate 10, 20, $30,000. Like, I mean, I don't know what your margins look like, but pretty sure that's dumb if you're not doing that. So not calling anyone dumb, but like, now that you're aware of it, you should be doing it.

All right, I'll say it. You're dumb if you're not doing it.

Ryan, talk about direct mail, what the best practices are

okay. Hey, I want to ask you, you had sent me this case study. I want to talk about some data here, some, some numbers around you. did one for landscape lighting. let's talk about that real quick. Like, what can people expect? because I know people hear direct mail works, right? And then the thing is, what I've found, and I've been preaching this for a long time, is the first is the worst. Like, if I only had $5,000, I would not just spend $5,000 to send like 10,000 people one postcard. If I was going to do direct mail, I would rather send like a bunch of postcards to a smaller group of people. talk about direct mail, what the best practices are and how to get the best results.

Yeah, that's a Great question. mail is a really tricky thing because, it's not like a pay per click or a search or things where people are actively looking for you and then clicking on. You're just trying to stand out among the crowd, right? Like those people that are looking in Google or are already looking for your service. They just happen to choose. You're trying to get them to choose which company, right? And you want them to choose yours. With mail, it's, you know, disruptive, what they call disruptive marketing. You're trying to. They're going about their day, grabbing their mail, and then you're trying to disrupt their train of thought. I mean, like, oh, dang, like, look at that lighting. That looks beautiful. Like, I always want to do something like that to our house. So it's a little more difficult to get response. but to do something like that and have success, you want to look at timing is huge, right? So timing is really, really important. You want to know when your customers are buying. So like, for example, my guess is something like lighting very slow. From the businesses I talk to from like Thanksgiving, through Christmas, right? People are like worried about the holidays. They're spending money on Christmas, their families coming in, they got all this stuff they're trying to organize or buying gifts. Like, it's cold outside, they might not be looking at their yard, whatever. But like, so timing is really important. I won't harp on that anymore. what Ryan said is really important too. Like, the first one is the worst. So you would want to. If your budget's $10,000, let's send it three times. And let's send it over the course of our busy buying season. So when are the most leads coming in? That's when we're going to want to send it. That means the most people are interested in this type of thing right now. And let's say that's three months or five months, you want to spread those three cards out. So, if you have five or, $10,000, I'd do 3,000, 3,000, 3,000. And we want to spread it out over the entire buying season, right? Because if you hit them in, let's say your buying seasons from March to June, if you hit them in March and you put all three cards in March, like, maybe March is a bad month for them. Maybe their bonus comes in May, right? So like, they're like looking at this, I mean, like, oh, I can't afford that right now. But if the card hit them in May or June, they're like, oh yeah, I got money in my pocket now. Or maybe it's like right after their tax return comes, right? So like mail is a game of staying in front of someone for as long as you possibly can because when they're in the market they will buy from you, but you have to stay with in front of them as long as they're in the market, right? So the longer you can stay, the better. And it's not necessarily as many homes. And then with mail, it's really important to get hyper, hyper targeted. And what I mean by that is like, like Ryan said, don't blast out to 10,000 homes. Like let's choose the 3,000 homes that we're really likely to buy, right? So like let's look at only owner occupied. Let's look at a neighborhood where we already have a lot of work, right? So maybe we already have had jobs there. We put out yard signs where we did the jobs. They we've knocked on doors of the neighbors maybe or we've left five arounds, door hangers. maybe we're already on the community Facebook page as recommendations. So like we're leveraging our brand and we're going to hit those areas because we already have good brand recognition. Like the most difficult thing or getting the worst response is like going to a neighborhood where you've never been, right. It's like a brand new business, like no one's heard of you before. Whereas if the postcard's just reinforcing of like oh yeah, I saw these guys endorsed on Facebook and I think maybe my friend used them. And like now I've got an offer in front of me on a card like that that makes a ton of sense, right. So there's a bunch of things, the card design, but I think the, the case study you're referring to, Ryan, was a lighting company. they mailed a thousand cards, they got nine leads and sold four jobs. and so that cost for them was about $1,400. So if you think of like four jobs times your average ticket, this company's average ticket was only 4,000. So they generated 16,000 in revenue off of a fourteen hundred dollar cost. But if you're at a 10,000, right, like and you sold three jobs, that's 30,000 on a $1,400 cost. Pretty good math.

Oh yeah. Well if, I mean it's just a trade off if I say, all right, if I, if I just give you fourteen hundred dollars right now, cash, Daniel, you'll give me sixteen thousand dollars worth of work. I'd be like, let's do it like four times a day, you know?

Yeah.

And, and I would also be like, okay, well why are they only $4,000 jobs? Let's get them up to 10, 12, 15 and so on. So you're right. I mean, even at the lower average ticket of four grand, it's still a no brainer.

Yeah. And if your budget's small, right, you're like, I can't do a thousand dollars every month or whatever. Like, that's why neighbor mailing is so impactful, because it's automatically choosing neighborhoods that you're already working in and it's getting neighbors of people that just used you. You could say, like on your card, ask your neighbor about their new lighting, you know, their new lighting project or whatever, their new outdoor lighting. And then those people, it gives them like a license to be like, hey, like, I want to, you know, I got this postcard, I want to ask you, I saw your lights, they look amazing. Who did that for you? So, and you're only sending like five or, you know, six or ten at a time, whatever number you choose. And so it works really well for a small budget because you might do, let's say two jobs a day, three jobs a day, one job a day. Not sure how big your company is, but if it's only one job a day and you send five cards for every job, like you're only sending five postcards a day. Right. Like, that's not going to kill anybody's budget.

Yeah, very cool. No, that's awesome, man.

Ryan: Postcards are a great way to build brand recognition

I mean, I hope people will give it a shot and not just be like, I've had people say, oh, I tried it, not necessarily just directly about send Jim, but like with direct mail. Like, oh, I did it once or twice and it didn't work out for me. I'm like, well, yeah, this is a long term game. In fact, the year one, even if you're hitting people four times a year for that first year, the second year is going to be better than the first. The third is going to be better than the second. Because you're building a brand, you're building that presence, you're building trust. There's so much happening here. I had people, they would hang onto postcards over two years and we would put little dates on them so we could see. And I'd be like, are you crazy? You've been hanging on this for two years, like, and like, yeah, we got other ones, but this is the one that we hung onto. Or Whatever. I'm like, holy cow. So yeah, it's, it's super important that people stick with it. It's a long term strategy. So if it's like, I only have $1,000. Yeah, it is kind of gambling at that point. Like if it works great, you just made 14,000, reinvest, invest some back. But like, you really have to look at it like, what's your annual budget? What's your bigger term budget for this?

Yeah. And I'll be the first to say, right, like if you have a lead source right now that is crushing it, like throw more money into it. Don't go starting like something else or like taking money away from that to do postcards, max that thing out. But like, if you get to my point in my garage floor business, like, my agency's like, you can't spend any more money on Google, like there's no one else searching it. You can't spend any more money on Facebook. Like it's getting really inefficient. Right. And so like, I need another lead source and print has been really good for us. But I'm not saying like, hey, abandon everything. Postcards is what you should do. I'm saying like it is a, a tool in your tool belt. And if you like, want to be an experienced carpenter, you know, or handyman, like you got to have a lot of tools. So like, you know, in your infancy, maybe you don't have that tool, but like you should add the tool to your tool belt when you can.

Oh, 100%. I mean, I feel like it's a necessary, I mean, of course when someone does a Google search for, you know, landscape lighting installer near me, you know, there's, there's pretty good interest there. you don't know just because they're in a neighborhood that you did a lighting job, that they're, that they're interested in lighting. But I'm telling you, it's education. And a lot of times, especially with landscape lighting, the markets are not educated on what it is. And so this is why you can be in a nice gated neighborhood and only a couple of the houses are spending tens of thousand dollars on lighting. And then the neighbors have solar, they just, they just haven't been educated. So this is the cost of doing business. If you want to educate your client and get them ready to buy from you. And if you only do it a couple of times, then you educated someone else's company like you educated for somebody else. So you got it. You got to stay in this game long enough. And you really want to be everywhere. Because if someone is searching online, yeah, you want to be found there, but you also want to be the guy that when they open up their mail, they see you time and time again.

Yeah, it's brand recognition. It's all. It's super strong branding and it legitimizes your brand, right? It's like, am, I hiring a guy that I just like randomly saw before and after photo on Facebook that's probably not even his photo that he stole from somewhere else online, Right? Or is it like, am I hiring this company that like created a beautiful postcard that has like, you know, a picture that's theirs and you're like, dang, like they're legit, right? Like, there's a difference there. And like, if you can be both, even better. But there's a difference from like hiring the irrigation company that I see drive by, it says like landscape, lighting and like a know, crooked thing on their truck versus like, oh, this postcard. Like, and, and like all the stuff Ryan teaches, right? About like pricing and whatnot. Like, that plays into what they think about your brand, right? So if they saw it on your truck and your truck doesn't look good or they, you know, saw you on a cheap Facebook ad, like, that's gonna. In their mind, before you even talk to them, they're putting a price range in their head, right? Versus like they saw a beautiful large postcard. They already know, like, this is going to be expensive. But, like, this is what I want, right? Like this, I'm paying for quality. It like sets the message right off the. Right off the bat.

Yeah, totally.

Syngem is a tool that lets you automate indirect mail and marketing

All right, so as we wrap up here, I want you to tell us about the new thing. I saw you guys were promoting a managed service, something like that. Because, you know, you. Anyone can go do send him themselves, right? But I guess, you know, there's people as you, as you scale. It's like, you know what? I want to kind of delegate. I don't want to do this myself. Talk to us about that.

Yeah, it's one of those things like a, I'll call it a fail as an entrepreneur where it's like it took me forever to figure this out. But like marketing agencies, like, you don't hire a marketing agency to do your, like Google AdWords and be like, oh, here's the tool to do your Google AdWords. Now I'll show you how to use it. No, like you want them to go do it for you and do it well. And like, and you take it off your plate, right? Like you don't ever want to think about it again. That's the goal. And so what you saw with Syngem is like, we developed this amazing tool and we were telling people like, hey, this is how you use it. You should go learn how to use it. And what we found is like our best customers had this budget to use indirect mail and mail work for them, but they didn't have the time to like execute on it or learn about it or use all the features. And so if you're out there thinking like, hey, I'd love to add mail, but like, I don't want to figure out how to integrate it to my CRM. I don't want to, you know, learn about what a postcard looks like or have a designer or anything like that. We now launched a managed service. it's really inexpensive. It's 399amonth. It's not like a percentage of ad spend or some crazy like $3,000 a month like some of the marketing agencies are. It's really low because we're not trying to make money on that part of it. We're just trying to make it super easy for you. So we're really doing at our cost includes all the design work. It'll include like a marketing plan for you. So we'll build out a marketing calendar according to your industry.

Nice.

You'll get an assigned like expert to you. And it's all about just maximizing the ROI for you, without you having to do anything.

I think that's huge, you know, and I think a lot of people will still be tempted not to do it because they're like, I'm going to save $400. But it's the same thing. Like, well, if you're not using it, there's no value there. So this is an investment to make sure that you've mapped all your things and I haven't signed up so I can't speak of it. But you know, if you have that account manager saying, all right, well this is when we're going to insert a ringless voicemail and then this is when we're going to send out this. Like that's, that's where the magic happens if you're using it. And that return is obviously not that hard to get.

Yeah, it's it's a, it's really a no brainer if like you want to use mail. And getting to where I've gotten my Career. Like, the thing I would say is, like, it's the who, not how. Right. You've probably read the book or heard of it. but it's any. Anytime there's something out there to do, like, who can do it. It's not. It's more about who can do it and who you can find to do it for you and who can do it really well, and not about how do I go learn how to do this. Right. Because there's probably someone out there that's better at it than you, that can do it more efficiently and more effectively. And Ryan talked about at the start of the show, like, your time isn't so incredibly valuable. Right? Like, being an entrepreneur has allowed me to spend time with my family, like, m. I would have never imagined. And that's, like, the most important thing to me. And do I work my butt off and have a lot of stressful situations and challenges? Absolutely. But I have time to spend with my family, and I have time to focus on these big problems and how I retain my people and all that, because I hire out, I find the expert for everything, and I give it to them. Right. So unless it's something like that, you're really passionate about, like, you want to learn about direct mail because you've always wanted to learn about postcards, which no one ever said. Like, then you should probably hire someone to do it.

Well, you're. You're a man who practices what you preach. You started your first business that way. Who, not how. So that's killer, man.

Syngem will build custom postcards for Lighting for Profits listeners

All right, so, you've got, you're gonna do something for our listeners.

Yeah. So if you're interested in, Syngem, just go to syngim. com, check us out. You can start a chat there. Any questions, you can book a free demo. They'll show you the product, they'll answer all your questions. I really recommend the demo route. or you can just sign up. But no matter which way you go, if you want, we would be more than happy to offer you a free custom postcard. So we'll build the card specifically to your business, your branding, all that. and we can get everything set up for you. It's a $300 value, but we will do that for free. For landscape, our lighting for profits listeners. just tell them you heard us on the podcast and we'll get that going for you.

Love that. Thanks for doing that, man.

Of course.

That's so cool.

thanks for supporting us, Ryan. We. We've had a great partnership, and I love what you're doing. And, man, I keep thinking lighting's my next business. Every time I see you or hear your name or see you popping my email, I'm like, man, I gotta do a lighting company.

Well, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. I think. I think one day there'll be something there. also kind of a they say shameless plug, but landscape, Lighting Secret members have an additional discount as well. So if you guys are in Landscape Lighting Secrets, there's a. There's a link in the content portal. If not, just hit me up and I'll get you guys that. But if you're listening and you're not a member, that's okay. He's still hooking you up for being a listener of Lighting for Profits. Mentioned that you heard. Heard him here on the podcast. And they'll hook you up. So, Daniel, thanks so much, man. I appreciate you coming on.

Hey, it was great, Ryan. I appreciate the time, too. And, you guys listening. I appreciate your time. Good luck in your business. Have a great rest of your week. And, Ryan, we'll talk soon.

Go crush. See everybody. Have an awesome week.