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Hey, what's going on, everyone? Welcome back to another episode of The Trademark.

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We've got a very, very special guest for you all today.

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We got Jim Klauk from Checker Pro Podcast, and we're super excited to dive in.

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So let's go ahead and get started. Step into The Trademark, your go-to podcast

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for everything marketing and the trades.

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Hosted by award-winning industry marketing experts, Sarah Girardo from Remarketable

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and Eric Thomas from Rival Digital.

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Together, we're here to unite the worlds of trades and marketing,

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bringing you insights, stories, and strategies from the heart of the industry.

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Whether you're a trade professional, a marketing expert, or somewhere in between,

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this is the place for you. Listen in as we're here for the big ideas, the game changers,

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and the everyday successes. Because at The Trademark, we're with the trades and for the trades.

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Welcome back, everyone. Everyone, Eric Thomas here alongside me, my trusty host, Sarah.

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Sarah, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Welcome back, everyone.

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Welcome back. And today we've got Jim Klauk. Jim, how are you doing?

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Eric, I'm doing great. Sarah, it's great to see you again. It's great to see you again.

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So I kind of want to start off this podcast not by the normal introductions

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of who you are, what you do, but I want you to share an inspiring story where

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a local community podcast genuinely transformed a business. this.

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Cause I know that's what we're talking about today.

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And that's what you do. I've got tons of stories.

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I wish you had given me the list of questions before this is going to be tough,

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right? I'm on the hot seat. So yeah.

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So I have, you know, just a number of stories. So I'm, I'm going to tell a, a broad story.

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Then I'll, I'll, I'll think of one specific because what I do is I help home

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service professionals, home service providers gain credibility and authority and have the ability to

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educate the homeowner through podcasts, specifically video podcasts.

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We still have some audio podcasts for some of our clients. And there are just many. So for instance.

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In Houston, Texas, I have a handful of clients.

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And by the way, I've got home service clients all across the United States.

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And one of them recently said, through the podcast, I was able to close a $7,000 water softener deal.

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So that's very, very specific. It's not broad.

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But when we talk podcasts at Checker Pro,

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it's more of a using the podcast technology and putting videos on it and allowing

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the podcast technology to put it out there on Apple and on Spotify and Amazon

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and iHeartRadio, for instance.

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And it allows that home service professional to get credibility.

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But the most important thing is to educate the homeowner, because wouldn't you

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guys agree that before you buy something, you want to learn more about the product or service?

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Yeah, most definitely. I Google everything.

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And we watch YouTube, right? Yeah. Yeah, because we want to learn about the

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product or service and what we do at Checker Pro, which is really kind of fun. It's not that unique.

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It just so happens that I've been working with home service professionals for almost 20 years.

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And that is we just work with contractors to position them.

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But think about all of the products that people need to buy for their home,

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whether it's a garage door, a new HVAC system, a new roof.

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Don't you want to do a little research about the company, the product and who

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is heading that company? And I interview the owner of that home service company on a podcast with their

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brand on it. Like A1 Garage Door Service, Tommy Mello's company,

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we do their podcast for the homeowner.

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Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning, and Electrical. It's a $100 million company in the Houston area.

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Then I've got some smaller companies that do $3, $5 million a year in various different industries.

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That's awesome. And so what initially drew you to focusing on helping the trades

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with creating podcasts? So it started back in 2005.

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I started a company called Checker Pro. And at the time in Houston,

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Texas, at the time, it was like a local Angie's list just in the community I

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was in, in Houston, because I had problem with contractors.

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Contractors, unfortunately, don't have a great name. People don't trust them

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like they would trust a doctor, right? You go to the doctor's office.

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You assume that they have a license and so forth, and you go to their place of business.

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When it comes to a contractor, you don't know if they're insured.

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You don't know if they have a license. They're coming to your home.

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Who knows? Maybe they were in prison. I don't know. You just don't know.

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So what I did is I created CheckerPro where we check insurance,

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licenses, and references on all the contractors.

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So I started that business back in 05, and I ended up doing a radio show in

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Houston to promote the business. We advertised on television and in print and so forth and online a lot with Google.

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And then when the podcasting and videos became so prevalent and easier to do,

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and we knew that the consumer now was looking for more of that type of information before they bought,

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I transitioned from some of the old promotion marketing,

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advertising into the new digital

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space with podcasting and then quickly getting into the video casting.

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And so videocasting, what format are you seeing that's the most popular?

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Is it YouTube shorts? Is that where you're posting? And then,

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of course, long contact. So actually, probably none of the above.

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The most effective tool that we use with the video podcasting, we'll call it,

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is actually using an embeddable podcast player on the contractor's website. So picture this.

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Let's say you need a new air conditioning system and you go to AcmeHVAC.com.

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I don't know if that exists. It could. Sure it does.

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Wild names out there. Okay. So this is just a Brand X company.

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You go to their website to learn more about what they have to sell,

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where they service and so forth. And you look at their competitors and so forth.

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But on this particular website, right on the homepage, you see these videos

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in this embeddable podcast player, which we provide.

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It's code that they put on their website. And so now the homeowner can see these

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shorter videos with me interviewing the contractor in a radio show format.

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So I call myself the radio pitchman. I wrote a book. So here's a picture of

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my book called the radio pitchman's podcast playbook. and my history is radio.

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So I've taken radio. I spun it into these video casts.

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And when you go to that HVAC contractors website,

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you see me talking to the owner of that company and you as the consumer get

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a feel for the owner, the culture, how they install,

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how long they've been a business and people have always bought from people they know, like, and trust.

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And that is a a big difference yep people

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got from people i was just saying that this week yeah yeah

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and then and then also when you know when the video is of them being interviewed

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by a third party it tends to give them a little bit more validation because

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it's not like them talking about themselves about how great they are it's someone

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else interviewing them for for that type of validation.

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Yeah. Like here on this podcast, right?

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You're asking me questions and I'm answering, you know, versus me just broadcasting that.

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So what's interesting about that is, is I talk to home service professionals all the time.

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I like to call them home service professionals, such as home service providers,

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because I think the gentlemen and women in the blue collar space should be known

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as professionals, much like the white collar professionals.

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So the home service professional might say, yeah, Jim, but I can take my iPhone

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and I can tell everybody how great I am.

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I say, that's great. And that's better than not doing any at all,

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but it's better to have a third party endorsement.

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And remember back in 05, I said, I started this pre-qualified service for the

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homeowner called checkapro.com and we check insurance licenses and references.

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And I've been doing radio for over 40 years, believe it or not. So it's been a long time.

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So I've taken that radio and I spun it. So when you're watching these videos,

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it looks like the contractor is being interviewed on my radio program and it

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is a third party endorsement, but it's not just a third party.

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It's one where all of our contractors have to become a Checker Pro member,

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which means we pre-qualify them. So whether it's A1 Garage Door Service or Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning,

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and Electrical, go down the list. They've all been pre-qualified by our company where we check insurance licenses and references.

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And that makes a huge difference because the competition probably doesn't have that.

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So then they get third-party backlinks that are authoritative.

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Yeah. This is genius. Why don't you do this? Work with Jim.

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Yeah. Yeah, that's smart. So essentially you say that, and I'm going to make

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a little pitch for my little radio pitch from the book. It is a small book.

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This is like a full-size book, and this is my little book. It only takes 27

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and a half minutes to read if you're me, but if you're smart,

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it probably takes 19 minutes. Nice. I talk about all this. So you talked about backlinks and stuff.

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So when we put these podcast videos on Amazon and on Apple and iHeartRadio,

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we put a backlink back to your website as the plumber or HVAC company.

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So you're getting backlinks from Amazon, from Apple, from iHeart,

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from Audible, from Spotify, wherever we end up placing it.

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So there is that reputation SEO.

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When someone types in your name, Acme HVAC, and they see there's an Amazon link

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coming back to you and there's one from iHeartRadio, they're like,

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these guys are everywhere. They're on Apple Podcasts. Let me check them out.

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So there's that as well. Yeah.

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Yeah. Yeah. That just like in the, in the whole ecosystem of Google,

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because they, you know, that's pretty much what Google just loves these days

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is experience, expertise, authority, and trust.

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And there's no better way to demonstrate all four of those things than to be,

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you know, putting your voice out there across all the streaming platforms and

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to be the author of it and to have it embedded on your website and links back

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to that page and everything like that. it all kind of works together too.

11:11

Absolutely. So picture this, let's say there's a technician that's out at Mr.

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And Mrs. Smith's house and Mr. Smith says, okay, you're company number three.

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I'm going to make a decision. I saw company one and two this morning,

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this afternoon, you're number three.

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Why should I hire you? Because everything's about equal.

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You're a little more expensive. I kind of like you, but what's going to put you over the top?

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And you as a technician might say, well, you know, you need a five ton downstairs

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and a three ton upstairs. We've established that.

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And that's what the competition said as well. So we're on the same page.

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The owner of the company was on the Checker Pro radio show with Jim Clout two months ago.

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Can I send you that recording so you can see the owner talk?

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Competition doesn't have that. And the homeowner said, what else can you do

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to differentiate yourself? And if they didn't ask, you still do it. So if nothing else,

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it, you know, on site, because technology is easy.

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Can I pull it up on my iPad or my phone or can I send you a link?

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That alone can change the game.

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Or you can send an email before you go, right?

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Of that person that goes to the home, depending on what the topic is and how

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they can get to know you better. But I also see it like as what you're doing for like contractors could do the

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same for their local community. Right and bring out other businesses inside of

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their local community they could be the ones that interviewed them and

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then i see it as like you know just kind of

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spreading like wildfire it's not that you're just

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supporting and teaching what you do but it's really what you're bringing to

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others as that third party of authoritative person in the community as your

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brand grows do you think that like that i mean that's a strategy right that's

13:05

what eric that's what but your team does. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

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And we, I mean, I think like even having, I love this topic,

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by the way, on podcasting just in general, because I think there's a lot of

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misconceptions that I'd love to hear your opinion on as well,

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Jim, about contractors starting a podcast.

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I'm glad you brought that up. So let me know when I can get into this.

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Because yeah because there's just i i've seen the benefit personally of having

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a podcast and i know i know of some that have podcasts that have also seen the

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benefit of having a podcast and i i'll hit you with with one here's the first

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one that i that i hear a lot jim, podcasting can only be done for b2b businesses i hear it all the time yeah so

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and that's not not true at all.

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Are you talking where someone in the home services, in the trades will say that,

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right? Like a plumber? Yeah, like a contractor. Yeah, a plumber. And so I say just the opposite.

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And I'm going to offend a lot of people, but I'm telling you, this is my experience.

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I want you to think about it before you start sending me hate mail.

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If you're a plumber or an HVAC guy or gal or anything in home service.

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How are you getting a benefit from the homeowner that pays you?

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Because let's establish that you are selling to the homeowner.

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If you're not commercial and residential, you're selling to the homeowner.

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Why does the homeowner care if you're talking to another person in the trades about what you do?

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Because that's all we see all the time.

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It's like, hey, I've got bubble with me and we're talking about how you can upsell the customer.

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Customer doesn't want to hear that. So, or we're talking about the conferences

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coming up in Los Angeles and so-and-so is going to be speaking.

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The homeowner is not going to tune in or care.

15:15

So what's that for? Like as the plumber or HVAC guy, what are you doing?

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What is the end game for your podcast?

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Just to chat with friends? Who's the audience? That's my question.

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I think that's the question that we all have as marketers. Like,

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so I always start with who is the audience? Like, who do I want to talk to? Right.

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And then I go in and I'm like, okay, this is the campaign that they might need versus the opposite.

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Some people will think of the campaign first, and then they're trying to fit

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an audience inside of that. And I'm like, I don't think that's how that works.

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But that was a great point. Most definitely. And so what are are some more misconceptions

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about like, who should they be?

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Like, how do they talk to the homeowner?

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Because you're right. Often it's us talking to other businesses.

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But how do if they had a podcast, how do they talk to the homeowner in a way

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that that makes sense for, It's actually quite hard if you don't use a system like ours.

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And I know that sounds very self-serving to what I do.

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But remember, I'm a third party. So when we do that, the focus is on the contractor

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with the consumer getting the benefit and I'm there to distract everybody.

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So for instance, if I'm a plumber and I say, hi, I'm Jim, the plumber.

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And on the program today, we're going to talk about how we can clean out your

16:46

water heaters. And here's the difference between a tank and a tankless and so forth.

16:50

That's educational, kind of like a YouTube video, but you miss so much of someone

16:56

being able to draw things out of you.

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So for instance, you guys are doing a great job of asking me questions.

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You kind of tee it up and I hit it out of the park.

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If I'm by myself, which I could do a Facebook live right now, right?

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And I could just be talking about what we're talking about, but it's just,

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it's less dynamic and less credible.

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Have you heard of the book called They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan?

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So Tommy Mello turned me onto this book. And when he turned me onto the book,

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my whole system changed in terms of how we We position the home service professional

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on these video podcasts.

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So they ask you answers all about asking frequently asked questions the homeowner

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may ask and then answering it.

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So when we do these videos that are podcast videos, and let me be clear,

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I didn't mention this before, and this is going to shock many people.

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These videos that we call podcasts are five to six minutes long.

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But the They Ask, You Answer system works like this. Let's say it's a plumbing company.

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One of the questions I may ask, which will be a frequently asked question,

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is what's the difference between a tank and a tankless water heater?

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So that question is the title of the podcast, the video.

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And then he or she answers that question.

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There's no small talk. There's no like, hey, welcome to the podcast and so forth.

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The way it generally goes is I'd say, Eric, welcome back to the Checker Pro

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Radio Show. And Eric would say, thanks for having me.

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But I don't say, how's your plumbing business and so forth. I'll say,

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a question's come into the radio program about the differences between water heaters.

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So what's the difference between a tank and a tankless?

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And Eric gets into it. And then we're done. And then we do another one and another

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one. And we post those every week. Yeah, that's good stuff. That's really good stuff.

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Especially like there's there's so much like

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value in that as well i mean

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those can those can all get turned into a

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blog article and then the video could be embedded the episode can be embedded

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oh and yeah and we have trans so we have closed captioning and transcripts uh

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we're using a lot of ai now that helps us write the show notes and helps with

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seo and it's it's such a a great time.

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And here's what I tell everybody, Sarah and Eric, if you're not doing videos and or podcasts.

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You've got to really start thinking about it's competitive enough out there

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now. It's not 10, 20 years ago.

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There are small operators and gargantuan ones, and there's some in between.

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And you've got to either figure out, you know, am I, am I going that way or

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am I going out of business because of the big guys?

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And what am I doing to differentiate myself? yourself one of

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the things you can do in your marketplace as a smaller operator is

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be more personal be personable be there

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be that person's go-to be the friend

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have you ever gone somewhere where

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you saw maybe a local celebrity and like

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hey that's the guy that does the weather on the tv station

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well that's what happens with this

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stuff when you're in the grocery store shopping and someone says hey there's the

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plumber guy he's the guy on the video and it

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it it it just makes a huge

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difference and this is so new in

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a blue collar world that it's taking a little while for people to fully understand

20:35

this because traditionally in in the trades the trades haven't been cutting

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edge technology they just haven't

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been they've been turning wrenches for centuries and now all of a sudden,

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AI and that, that, that, all this stuff.

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And, and, and there's this big catch-up. And so how are you closing the gap

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between the huge companies in your marketplace and you?

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Yeah. No, I think that's, that's how are you diversifying yourself?

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And then how are you being unique and creative and innovative,

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but not just in the technology that you use, but the the efforts that you put out, right? And...

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There's just so much to do as a marketer in the trades and there's so much to do as a business owner.

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But if you took time to do something different, like you can create something

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different. And I think people forget that. Right.

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So if I was a trades person, how would I get started? What investment?

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What does this look like to start a podcast or a podcast video stream or.

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Or where are you talking?

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Sarah, are you talking about going out on your own or doing it through us where

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we basically are a turnkey system?

21:46

Let's give up. If you're going to do it, you're going to do it yourself. You're not on your own.

21:51

OK, so so I'm going to pitch my book, but I'm not selling. I'll give this away

21:54

for free to anyone. If you want a copy of the book, everything's in here.

21:59

OK, everything's in there. I'd like a signed copy, please.

22:03

Sure. I'll give you a signed copy. And also the book is free on audio.

22:07

If you go to theradiopitchman.com, you can listen to it as a half hour long.

22:11

All the basics are in there. The problem is, is it's kind of like an HVAC technician

22:18

saying, here's the manual on how to install an air conditioning system. Oh, okay.

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I'm going to do that once in my life and it's going to take me forever to do

22:29

it. And I really don't know what I'm doing because I don't have the experience.

22:31

So it's really hard to do alone because of who's going to interview you,

22:37

who's going to be producing this, who's going to keep you on task.

22:42

It's kind of like you can go to the gym by yourself or you can have a trainer or you can have a coach.

22:47

You can have a business coach for your business. Who's going to keep you accountable for it?

22:51

And so if someone wants to do it on their own, I'll talk to them on a phone

22:56

call or Zoom call and I'll give you some some tips.

22:59

If we do it for you, no joke, it takes no more than a half hour a month, your part.

23:07

All we have to do is record you and we do everything else.

23:10

So it's really hard to do yourself because it's like doing your own talk show.

23:18

How do you do your own talk show? Someone has to interview you if you want to

23:21

be a guest. How are you your own guest? I don't know. And so other ways are just not the way to do it.

23:28

You know what they say is, if you're an attorney and you go to court for something,

23:35

you really shouldn't defend yourself, right?

23:38

It's just not a smart thing. It's just better to have someone else do it for you.

23:43

Yeah, I agree. That's why I partnered with Eric. I was hoping that he would

23:46

do everything for me. There you go. So wait let's let's i know sarah had asked this earlier and i knew we wanted

23:55

to come back to it let's talk about the community aspect of it because i don't

23:59

think everything with podcasting has to be,

24:03

always like educational. You know, I think that there, I think that what we've

24:06

been talking about so far is brilliant. How about for like the contractors that want to interview like local leaders

24:13

in their community and other business owners and stuff like that?

24:16

Yeah, that's a great idea.

24:18

And I know some individuals that do that.

24:22

So it's kind of like years ago or even today, you might take someone out to

24:27

lunch or take someone golfing to entertain them and you get to know them.

24:32

It's like a networking opportunity. And then they may refer you business.

24:36

I think that's where you're going with this, Eric, right? Where you're establishing relationships.

24:40

And I think it's a fantastic thing to do.

24:42

If you have a podcast and you're willing to keep it going because over 90% of

24:50

them don't go past episode three. Did you know that?

24:54

Just, just don't go past episode three before they stop. I know. I know.

25:00

So people just don't follow through. It's kind of like, you know,

25:03

on January 1st, I'm going to join the gym and I'm going to lose 20 pounds.

25:06

And, you know, by March 1st, they're nowhere near the gym.

25:09

They're still paying for it, but they're nowhere near the gym.

25:11

So if you can be consistent,

25:14

I think it is a great, great tool, especially in a smaller community where,

25:20

you know, you're not in a city of three or five million people.

25:25

Maybe you're in a smaller area and you get to bring people onto the podcast.

25:29

People love being on a podcast. They feel important. And then they also do what? They share that.

25:38

But you really need to think about how you're positioning the guest,

25:44

yourself, and possibly your company, because of course it's going to be brought

25:50

to you by Acme HVAC company, right?

25:52

So you just have to be careful how you position that, but I think it's a great idea.

25:58

Yeah. I think there can even be good recruitment aspects out of it too. Yeah.

26:04

Like if you interview, that's what Rogers Heating and Cooling does a lot.

26:08

They'll interview like team members and stuff about like their experience working

26:11

there and that's helped with recruitment. That's all good stuff. I will say this. Everyone's mom loves to see them online.

26:18

Yeah. I touched upon this before and I'll say it again.

26:25

And I don't think I can say this enough. when you're online doing a podcast,

26:31

posting anything, don't forget who pays you.

26:36

It's Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It's the homeowner. So be careful what you do and how you act and what you say.

26:44

A lot of people don't agree with me, but a lot of contractors will get on a

26:48

podcast and drop the F-bomb and so forth.

26:51

That's okay in the locker room, if you will, but you're not

26:54

in the locker room it's on the internet right

26:57

and if your name's associated with it google's pretty smart so if you're acme

27:02

hvac company and someone's doing research on h on on your company and types

27:07

it in and a link comes up on page three of some podcast and they click on it

27:11

and they see the owner going dot that f this or that i i just don't think that's a good idea i agree.

27:18

I agree. Sometimes I say cuss words that are not on purpose.

27:21

It's just like unintentionally. And then I'm like, Hey, Eric,

27:25

if you could just bleep those out. I mean, so, you know, it's one of those things that, that no one's going to

27:31

criticize you for not doing it, but someone may for doing it.

27:36

It's like smoking as well. No one says, gosh, Jim, I wish you'd light up next to me.

27:41

But there might be someone who says, I wish you wouldn't smoke near me.

27:44

So it's just one of those. And I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy.

27:49

And I know we're in a blue-collar space, but don't forget, a lot of your customers aren't.

27:55

They're different people. And like I said, no one's going to watch your video

28:01

cast and say, gosh, I wish he dropped the F-bomb more. I want to hire him.

28:06

If he dropped it twice more, I'd hire him to put my water heater in.

28:11

You're absolutely right. No one would say that. yeah

28:15

i know as i said the f-bomb and i didn't say the

28:18

word right okay yeah i don't want

28:21

to get canceled right no

28:25

most definitely and so thinking about the future of community and podcasting

28:31

where do you think like it's going to go to new levels and new heights that

28:36

now that we're really promoting this as as marketers right like i podcasting

28:41

has always been there during covid bit, it seemed to take off, but now like what's next?

28:46

Like I see like just a crazy future because if people actually tap into something

28:51

different, you could have a lot of different content out there,

28:56

which I really think is exciting. What do you see as the future for podcasting?

29:01

Everybody will have a podcast to some extent and every small business will.

29:07

So I'm going to go back in time years ago and,

29:11

If you didn't have a telephone, you couldn't operate. That's a long time ago.

29:15

And then if you didn't get a fax machine in the 80s and 90s, you're behind.

29:20

If you didn't get a website by 2000, people are like, how come you don't have a website?

29:25

If you didn't have email, then if you didn't get social media, right?

29:29

And now we're at a point, if you're not doing a podcast or something that resembles one, you're behind.

29:37

And at some point, and it could be now already, the homeowner in our space is

29:43

going to say, can I see these people that operate this business?

29:48

So at least do videos, right? So anyone can have a podcast.

29:55

Some people shouldn't have one because everyone can have one, right? Right.

29:58

I mean, it's it's so back when I was a kid, when you listen to the radio or

30:02

watch TV, the only people on there were professionals.

30:06

They were paid professionals. OK, today someone could be operating from the

30:10

basement or their attic or I don't know, out of an airplane, maybe.

30:15

And spewing all kinds of crazy stuff.

30:19

It's just it's just it's crazy. So you don't even know if it's legit,

30:23

but to answer your question, yes, I believe everybody.

30:29

Is going to be moving in that direction. Now, what's it going to look like in a few years?

30:33

I don't know. AI is moving so quickly. I'm not really sure what the product

30:38

is actually going to look like, but it's here. Anyone can get into it.

30:44

I just caution you, just because you can buy a gun doesn't mean you should be playing with it.

30:51

That's a bit extreme, okay? That's a bit extreme. That's a bit extreme.

30:56

I like to shock people. Exactly.

31:00

But that may have been a bit extreme. But my point is, is just because you're

31:05

on the air doesn't mean you're doing it right.

31:10

It doesn't mean it's not wasting your time. And it doesn't mean it may not be

31:13

hurting your reputation. A lot of people just don't think a lot about how to

31:18

position themselves well. And I've learned a lot over, over the years.

31:24

I've been, I've been talking into a microphone like this on the radio since

31:28

I was 18 years old, started in college. So it's, it's, it's just one of those things that when podcasting came into play, it was easy for me.

31:39

I'm like, I've been talking to people forever. Yeah.

31:43

Now I wasn't on video forever. They say I've got a face for radio.

31:47

So I had to go in and get a facelift and all kinds of work done.

31:50

So I'm kidding. So you guys like, oh my gosh, you should get a refund. fun.

31:59

But so, so then I got used to being on camera and some people are really good on camera.

32:06

Some people aren't, but at least they're trying, but you just have to remember

32:10

who's consuming it and what are they thinking?

32:12

So have, have a third party, look at what you're doing.

32:17

Someone who's not your mother or your wife or your business partner and say,

32:22

you know, would you watch some of my videos and podcasts and tell me what you

32:25

think, because really when we're close to it, we might think it's great.

32:30

Yeah. Or we might not watch it. Right. We might just be like,

32:33

let's just push the button because that's what we're going to do.

32:39

Yeah. I mean, it's hard to hear your own voice. It's hard to see yourself on video.

32:44

And and that's just the truth of the matter.

32:47

Even for me, sometimes like I always go back and critique myself on every video

32:53

and every podcast. And then I'm like, Sarah, you're just like constantly,

32:56

you know, wanting a different iteration.

32:59

But at the same time, like I know myself and it's just going to happen.

33:03

And so it's like I over critique myself.

33:06

So you're right. Having a third party like look at that scenario and situation

33:11

and video content, it always helps.

33:14

But sometimes, you know, you have to teach them what you're looking for in the

33:18

feedback as well. Because if you're just getting it to you need like a third

33:22

party professional to look at it and be like, does this make sense?

33:25

Does this look good versus like your best friend or your mom? You're right.

33:30

Yeah. I was like, this is great. Of course. Of course.

33:35

I recommend keeping it simple like the they ask you answer I had mentioned earlier.

33:41

It's really simple because you know what you're going to talk about.

33:44

It's always framed in that frequently asked question.

33:47

And it's always easy to get frequently asked questions because if you're,

33:51

you know, if you're a roofer and you don't even have an FAQ page on your website

33:56

to use as questions for these video casts,

33:59

you just go to Google and type in roofing frequently asked questions.

34:04

Yeah. Yeah, they're a good one, too. And so if you stay within the framework

34:09

of they ask, you answer with the frequently asked questions,

34:12

you almost can't go wrong for these short form videos versus going off on some

34:17

tangent where you've got, you know, two or three people on the podcast are like,

34:21

so what did you do this past weekend? Well, I went fishing. Boy, the big one got away.

34:25

And my wife, she was cranky. I'm like, who cares? Like, like,

34:29

where are like, what is your audience? What are you trying to achieve?

34:32

Are you just trying to have a good time and have a chat?

34:34

Fine. But if you really want to get down to brass tacks and get your phone to ring with credible.

34:40

Customers i yeah i would keep it tight and

34:43

people tend to go off track

34:46

and unless you can monetize your

34:50

podcast with viewership which is very

34:53

hard meaning you have to have hundreds of

34:56

thousands or millions of followers and or views to

34:59

make money that's not why we do podcasts

35:02

for the most part we do it as a tool to

35:06

get people to buy the water heater so it's

35:10

like a legion absolutely it is obviously yeah it's it's like when you go to

35:16

you know a home and garden show as a plumber and you're there to show your you

35:21

know water heater and so forth and i don't know you i mean you're You're not

35:27

making money by having people,

35:29

you know, give you a dollar bill for some, you know, magic act you're doing on the side.

35:34

You're there to get them to sign up for an appointment so you can go out and

35:39

sell them that new water heater. And the time and the cost of being at that, that home and garden show is just

35:46

the price you have to pay to get into the homeowner's home.

35:51

It's no different. And it's actually like having a home show all day long. 365.

35:58

Think about this. When you go to a home show or any type of trade show and you

36:02

go up to a booth, you learn about what they have to sell.

36:05

You have this exposure online that's organized.

36:10

It's like being at a show every minute of the day. They have to find you, but you're there.

36:19

And so, Eric, what would your ideal marketing funnel look like for a podcast?

36:24

Like if you had this, this kind of situation, like, yeah, it would be obviously an embedded video.

36:31

But how would you want people to subscribe? How would you want to continue conversations with them?

36:37

I would start, I would have my website team go on and pull a copy of every single

36:42

web form submission in the past two years.

36:45

And then I would put them into Excel and filter them and find the most frequently

36:50

submitted messages from the site.

36:53

That would be, for me, I mean, there's like you said, answer the public or answer

36:57

Socrates. That's another good one where you can go find them.

37:01

Yeah, I think that I would find, I would go find what they've got there and

37:05

start pumping them out. I would get with Jim and have him interview me to answer all the questions.

37:12

But yeah. So, I mean, honestly, like, yeah, like you were saying,

37:14

like the example earlier was, you know, what's the difference between a tank

37:18

and a tankless water heater? I would take that, optimize it, put it on YouTube, embed it onto a, on both service pages,

37:27

the water heater replacement page and the tankless water heater installation

37:31

page for folks that are interested in one or the other,

37:35

because then, especially if that video answers it in a way that alludes towards

37:40

tankless water heaters being the better option.

37:43

If someone searches water heater replacement near me and ends up on your water

37:47

heater replacement page and starts watching that, they just went from a $3,500 sale to an $8,000 sale because they were like,

37:54

oh, this video or they had a third party endorsement and he answered this question.

37:59

It seems like tankless is the answer. So that's how I would use it as a funnel. I'm sure there's a million different ways.

38:08

Yeah, I mean, think about it. There's a minimum of 21 ways to repurpose your

38:12

content, but the end goal is to capture the conversion.

38:17

So it's like the lead form, what are you giving back if someone watched it?

38:24

There's just so much. There are so many little channels going through my mind

38:28

as to how to repurpose it, but also how to recapture and then rehash, right?

38:34

So even sending these to your existing client database that might have missed

38:39

the opportunity of the replacement and wanted to repair or missed the opportunity

38:45

of replacement just in general, like you could give them more information with these videos.

38:51

And then, you know, you're taking them off site, but at the same time,

38:56

you're providing value. And I think a lot of times contractors miss that.

39:01

They're like, here's the offer. Here's the offer. Here's the offer.

39:04

But like, that's not the nurture.

39:06

The nurture is the value. The nurture is the education.

39:11

And hearing, you know, hearing someone else ask those questions,

39:16

but hearing an owner, like truly answer them.

39:19

It's just so valuable in today's

39:22

world because there's so much junk on the internet like you could search for

39:26

anything and come up with some kind of random answer because we put the junk

39:30

on the internet does that make sense like we do it that's our job as marketers

39:34

so yeah you can search anything and webmd will let you know that you've actually

39:38

already died oh of course.

39:42

Of course. Of course. So along those lines, I'm going to show you a couple of books here. Absolutely.

39:52

Before I started doing podcast and video, I helped my home service professional clients.

40:01

With long form direct response radio, long forming an hour long radio program

40:07

that was an infomercial, but it sounded like a radio show called the Checker Pro Radio Show.

40:12

This book called When Can You Do It was written by one of my customers, Tom Decker.

40:16

And in 12 months, we tripled his business with radio alone by using this direct

40:26

response method, meaning that we educated the consumer,

40:29

told them everything they needed to know, and then they picked up the phone

40:34

to call. So every phone call wasn't a lead.

40:36

It was an appointment because they were able to disqualify themselves.

40:42

I don't want to get deep into this, but if you can give out the price of something,

40:46

which isn't always possible, but we were able to do it for Tom's business because

40:50

he was selling solar attic fans and attic insulation. And we knew what it cost

40:54

per square foot to put the insulation in.

40:57

So every call that came in was an appointment. And eight out of 10 of those

41:03

appointments turned into a job. And so I learned a lot doing that. He wrote this book, When Can You Do It?

41:09

Because when can you do it is the only question that the homeowner asks after

41:15

they heard that radio show. They know what it costs. They know how long it takes. They know you, the owner.

41:22

And I wrote the foreword to this book, but when can you do it?

41:25

Isn't that what all home service professionals want to hear from the homeowner? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

41:33

So when you go out to the house, they already know everything because they watched your freaking videos.

41:37

They know everything. They know you. They know the culture.

41:41

They may know roughly what it costs, how long it takes to put in,

41:45

what type of product they want. So when they're calling, they don't have a lot of questions versus just going

41:52

to Google and typing in, I need a new water heater.

41:56

And then calling someone blindly and saying, Hey, I need a water heater.

42:00

Can you come out and give me a quote versus, Hey, I watched four of your videos.

42:04

Hey, I love your owner. He's handsome.

42:09

I'm ready to have you guys come out. Can you give me a rough idea of what it costs?

42:14

Oh, You can't. Well, that's fine. Then tell me when you come out.

42:17

But they're already down the line.

42:20

And also these these video casts are are a way of the homeowner determining

42:27

whether or not they are your customer.

42:31

For instance, let's say someone makes $40,000 a year and they're in the market for a new car.

42:40

We're talking totally different industry now, a new car.

42:43

And they're on the internet and they end up on the Bentley website.

42:48

They know darn well they're not buying a Bentley. They can't afford the wheel.

42:52

But they go to the Kia website and they're like, yeah, this looks like something I can afford.

42:56

So they disqualify themselves from the Bentley. Does that make sense?

42:59

Now, I know a lot of people are saying, I'll take any lead.

43:03

No, you do not want any lead. You want a qualified lead, right?

43:08

Because any lead is a waste of your sales guy's time.

43:12

Does that make sense? You guys still with me? yeah yeah so

43:15

when they watch the videos they get a feel for you

43:18

know what i think i'm a customer of this type of service

43:21

company which is a good thing because you

43:24

want them to be sold on it before you go

43:29

out to their home and a lot of people don't get that the the service companies

43:35

that are mature and understand they're like yeah yeah i want that guy versus

43:38

i can convert anybody buddy well okay oh gosh you beat me to it because i i

43:45

was just about to say like i think one of the most.

43:50

Powerful positions that any business owner can be in is when they have people

43:55

coming to them pre-positioned to buy versus like, I would rather get 10 calls that, uh,

44:03

that eight, 10, I'm sorry, 10 appointments out of 10 calls, because all 10 of

44:08

them listened to me and they heard me talk about why does it cost this much?

44:13

Why doesn't it cost this much? What's the difference between a good contractor and a bad contractor.

44:17

And so we get 10 calls and eight of them turn into jobs versus like you said,

44:22

I can convert anybody, get my people on the phone, get me in the door and you

44:26

get them 80 calls at a 30% answering rate.

44:29

And then you get the 11 PM text message, need leads.

44:36

Yep. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's not efficient as chaotic as stressful. Yeah. Yeah.

44:41

Yeah. So I think that's such a good place to be in too.

44:46

Yeah. So if you could give, to wrap this up, if you could give one piece of

44:51

strategic advice to someone looking to start their community podcast, what would it be?

44:56

If you want to start a community podcast, like we discussed before,

45:00

and you want to invite guests on that you can partner with and so forth,

45:05

I would sit down with a pen and a pad of paper and write Write down what you

45:11

want this podcast to produce for you, such as I want to get to know other business leaders, number one.

45:20

Number two, I want them to refer me to business.

45:22

Number three, I want my customer, my prospect to be able to watch this or listen

45:28

to this and start writing that down.

45:31

Then you got to figure out how you're going to produce it and how you're going

45:35

to to distribute it. And that's not that difficult.

45:38

He's got to figure out what platforms and how you're going to get them on those platforms.

45:42

I'm not really sure where you want me to go with that answer for the question,

45:45

but you need to figure out what, if you're going to put time into this and time

45:50

is money, what is the objective? I think that's exactly what I wanted to get out. It's like you can have a podcast

45:56

and you can talk about anything. Like you said, some people just chat with one another and it's a conversation.

46:01

And then others are doing, you're doing another way to inform of,

46:07

to provide value, right?

46:09

To frequently ask questions in a third party authoritative setting.

46:12

So there's so many different structures of a podcast.

46:15

But the advice you gave goes to all saying just what's your why?

46:21

Like, what's the objective? what's the goal?

46:23

And I think, you know, even for us, we're out there, we're like,

46:27

oh, we want to talk about marketing in the trades and marketing in general.

46:31

And we talk to all these like business owners and successful people.

46:35

But you know, our why is to bring out people and, you know, it's constantly

46:40

it's we're working on our content to really understand that as we grow.

46:46

So, you know, As much as I'd love to say some people need to write things down

46:50

and really go through their content, I think that some people are just getting

46:55

started, and I don't think that's a bad thing either. I think it's just kind of good for them for getting started.

47:01

Now let's go back and reformat and restructure.

47:05

Yeah, absolutely. I will say this, that if anybody who is watching and or listening

47:11

to this would like to bounce their idea off of me, I will talk to you. do it no charge.

47:19

If you want to reach out to me, you can. Yeah. And how can they find you?

47:25

TheRadioPitchman.com. Jim at TheRadioPitchman.com is probably the best way.

47:32

The easiest way might be also Facebook. If you're on Facebook,

47:36

which a lot of people are, just type in my name, Jim Clouk, and I will come up.

47:41

I could be friends with a lot of

47:43

people who are watching this i have a lot of friends out there in home service so yeah

47:47

i don't think i'm that difficult to find yeah so

47:50

yeah and but i so here's why

47:53

i love helping people at no charge because i learn stuff because someone might

47:57

have a great idea i'm like oh wow yeah i like that angle do you mind if i steal

48:01

that yeah yeah i think your angle brilliant never a bad idea right yeah yeah

48:07

most definitely well we really appreciate you being on the trademark with us today.

48:12

It's been just an absolute honor learning from you and learning this brilliant

48:15

strategy of what you're doing with podcasts and video podcasts.

48:19

And it makes complete sense. So thank you for your time today.

48:24

And we look forward to seeing you at RocketX and hanging out there.

48:30

Sarah and Eric, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me on the program.

48:34

You guys do a great job. And congratulations on your podcast cast because you

48:39

know I'm pro podcast and I do look forward to seeing you in Dallas May 1st through

48:43

3rd. Awesome. Awesome. Thanks Jim.

48:46

And that wraps up another episode of The Trademark where we bridge the worlds

48:50

of the trades and marketing one story at a time.

48:54

We can't wait to see you next time. Thank you to The Trades for giving back

48:58

big, loving big, and taking massive action.

49:02

Don't forget to join us next time for more engaging conversations and innovative

49:06

ideas. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a review and share it

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49:14

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49:16

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49:20

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49:24

Until next time, keep making your mark in the trades.

49:27

Thank you for listening to The Trademark. Goodbye for now. And remember,

49:31

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