The Content Play That Took a Local Remodeler National [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 102]

This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy.

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:12

Isabelle Braeutigam

Alex, here's how we went from creating no content at all to now having our own TV show. And a customer who found us from watching one of our episodes.

 

00:00:08:14 - 00:00:11:02

Alex Winter

Wow. That's amazing. Let's get into it.

 

00:00:20:00 - 00:00:24:05

Isabelle Braeutigam

welcome back to endless customers. I'm your host, Alex Winter, and today we have a very special guest.

 

00:00:24:05 - 00:00:30:11

Isabelle Braeutigam

Her name is Isabel Brittingham. She's the marketing director at Custom Built. Isabel, welcome back to the show.

 

00:00:30:13 - 00:00:32:17

Alex Winter

Thanks, Alex, for having me. Excited to be here today.

 

00:00:32:19 - 00:00:40:13

Isabelle Braeutigam

Yeah, I'm excited to have you. We always have great combos. Last time I saw you was in Chicago at Impact Live. It was a great event. How did you find it at the event?

 

00:00:40:14 - 00:00:51:14

Alex Winter

So much fun. We had a blast. Our our whole team was there, which is really unique. We've got our content manager out in California and so everybody was there, Michael was there, Matthew, Joey. And so it just was an extra special event because of that.

 

00:00:51:17 - 00:01:03:16

Isabelle Braeutigam

That's awesome. Why do you think it's important to bring your whole team to the event? I know we're going on a tangent here, but Impact Live is a really cool event. We have twice a year. And you guys, you guys always show up for it. Why do you find value in doing that and bringing your team?

 

00:01:03:18 - 00:01:20:12

Alex Winter

Yeah, that's a great question. And to clarify, that was our whole marketing team. We've got our hosts. They all seem to which that's my next level that I want to get involved. But I think there's so many different nuggets and different, you know, pieces of wisdom that you can take away from a conference like that. And everybody in their unique roles has a different perspective.

 

00:01:20:12 - 00:01:37:18

Alex Winter

So getting everybody in the same room to hear Marcus talk, to hear, you know, different guest talk. And everybody takes away something very different from those talks. And so, you know, when you go to a conference you have a certain perspective. And so you bring that back to your team. But they might have actually needed to hear something else in that conference.

 

00:01:37:18 - 00:01:52:05

Alex Winter

And so getting everybody in the same room again, different roles, different life's different perspectives. Everybody takes away something a little different from the conference, but then also has the same aligned vision. So it's been influential for us, and that's why we've continued to show up year after year.

 

00:01:52:07 - 00:02:14:22

Isabelle Braeutigam

That's a great response. And for everyone out there, if you haven't been to Impact Live, you got to check it out. We have one coming up this fall, so go to impact Live.com and you can check it out yourself. But hey, let's get more focused on what your story here about custom built. So let's paint the picture first for our audience, for people who maybe don't know you and people in our ecosystem that don't know about custom built, what do you guys what do you guys do and what's your role in the company?

 

00:02:15:00 - 00:02:35:09

Alex Winter

Absolutely. So we are a design and build company. So we really specialize in residential remodeling. We'll come into a space for the client and we'll help them create the concept. And it'll take them all the way through completion. So we like to say we help you transform the place you live into a home you love. I am our director of marketing, like you mentioned, so I really oversee all of our creative efforts.

 

00:02:35:14 - 00:02:54:01

Alex Winter

I also work really closely with our sales team. If you follow any of the endless customer principles, you know that having your sales and marketing teams aligned is really crucial for creating that beneficial content to really, actually hit your target audience. So that's a little bit about what I do. I wear a lot of different hats, probably like a lot of people who listen to this podcast.

 

00:02:54:01 - 00:03:12:19

Alex Winter

You know, we're a small midsize company. And so when you're in a role in a smaller company, like, you know, you you look for opportunities for growth, you look for opportunities for expansion, for impacting the team. And so while those are my two main roles and marketing being the focus, I definitely sit in a lot of different seats within our company as well.

 

00:03:12:20 - 00:03:19:17

Isabelle Braeutigam

Yeah, I get that. I've been a small business owner and you wear a lot of hats and you do whatever you have to do to keep the lights on and keep keep people going, right?

 

00:03:19:19 - 00:03:20:20

Alex Winter

Yes, absolutely.

 

00:03:20:20 - 00:03:38:07

Isabelle Braeutigam

So can you talk to us? You've done a really great job historically with bridging the sales and the marketing team together and getting your team unified. And the results really speak for themselves. But can we talk about, like, the the basics and like the importance of content creation and publication and why that matters and how it affects your bottom line?

 

00:03:38:09 - 00:03:57:10

Alex Winter

Yeah. So the story that we're going to get into today would not be possible without the journey that we went on. So I believe it was in 2022. We started officially coaching with, your team over here at impact and going through the program. And we at that point had a third party marketing source that we'd use for many years.

 

00:03:57:12 - 00:04:16:06

Alex Winter

We hired and fired endless amounts of marketing teams. We tried to really implement HubSpot within our ecosystem. That was one thing that was unique, as we did come with HubSpot, and we had a vision for utilizing HubSpot within our business, but just hadn't successfully really done that well up to that point. And really prior to me stepping into my role.

 

00:04:16:06 - 00:04:39:20

Alex Winter

So, that was in 2022 and began the journey again. Zero content creation. Our website was status quo at best. I mean, I will say for the area that we're in Lansing, Michigan, like, there's not, you know, we're not in Chicago or we're not out in like Washington DC or like, you know, a metropolitan area where there's a lot of, other competition, right, doing cool things with content.

 

00:04:39:20 - 00:05:00:20

Alex Winter

So we we were we were status quo. So not not behind, but definitely not had by any means. And so, you know, our owner, Michael Flory, who also happens to be my dad, he, read the book. They ask, you answer now known as endless customers want to say in 2015 and really just got a vision for what we could do as a company.

 

00:05:00:20 - 00:05:23:07

Alex Winter

And really, our heart here is to impact families. And we say we do that through our modeling. So we go through like the messy, the complicated, the ugly to create something that's beautiful and to create something that really is, you know, influential for a whole family system or, you know, whether you have friends or family or whatever your lifestyle looks like, to really create that safe place for you at your house.

 

00:05:23:07 - 00:05:41:13

Alex Winter

And so, that's kind of where we started is like, he grabbed a whole this vision, we weren't creating any content. And then in 2022, we started that journey of, you know, bringing you guys on as a coach because we know that, great coaches can really help make all the difference, in actually implementing a system.

 

00:05:41:13 - 00:06:04:02

Alex Winter

And so we tried it by ourselves a couple times and thought, you know, maybe we'll do it. And it just never ended up taking off. And so we really put all the chips in the middle of the table and committed to going through this program with you guys and, learned, you know, really how to write and release three solid blog articles to produce two long and two short form videos that we put out every week consistently.

 

00:06:04:04 - 00:06:25:17

Alex Winter

And so that was the base. And that obviously takes, you know, your team that takes you having a content manager, a videographer, it takes you having a sales team who's willing to give behind the camera and who's willing to put great content out there. And so, you know, it's not an easy journey by any means, because, you know, oftentimes as a smaller to mid-sized business, like you got your systems, you've got the way that you've run.

 

00:06:25:17 - 00:06:43:03

Alex Winter

And people just in general don't like change. And so, you know, going through this change and actually being, you know, a content first, a video first company was a big shift for our entire organization. But we have definitely seen the rewards of going on that journey the last couple years.

 

00:06:43:05 - 00:06:58:01

Isabelle Braeutigam

Wow, that's an incredible story. And you know it. It's it's funny because I'm similar where like, I don't think I need coaching and I always want to try it first. I'm like, I can let me I'm going back to the gym. Let me just go pick up some weights and see how this goes. And then the next day I'm paralyzed and I don't know what I did wrong.

 

00:06:58:01 - 00:07:16:15

Isabelle Braeutigam

And I'm like, you know, maybe I should get a trainer and not do this myself. So it's but it's one of those things where I think a lot of people can relate to that. I always want to try things first, and then when it doesn't work, then I'm like, okay, I need help and I admire you guys for trying it and then getting into that coaching system here at impact, because it's really worked and I don't want to waste any more time.

 

00:07:16:15 - 00:07:40:13

Isabelle Braeutigam

We're going to just like, tear the Band-Aid off. I want to get into the design and remodeling show. So just to set the stage, this is a show that you developed internally at Custom Built, and it's technically separate from custom built. Right. So the way that this works is like you've designed an entire show to help educate people about remodeling and redesign that isn't self-promotional, that isn't geared towards custom build.

 

00:07:40:13 - 00:07:48:16

Isabelle Braeutigam

It's really just to help people. And then custom build is an option. If they decide they want to do a remodel in their house or if they need help remodeling their home. Is that is that accurate?

 

00:07:48:17 - 00:08:06:00

Alex Winter

Yeah, that's that's really accurate to have done so a year ago. And how this kind of all started because it's, it's a while. It's, it's an interesting wild story. You know, like you get these opportunities and you're like, where did this all come from? And how are we here today? We're we're, you know, one season in and a year removed from season one again.

 

00:08:06:00 - 00:08:25:08

Alex Winter

And then we're starting season two. So renewing it. Yeah. But I had one of a local TV station approached me, and then a gal over there named Susan, she's like, hey, I've, you know, had this vision for a while. I want to do a home improvement show. And I've seen what you guys are doing and, you know, seeing some of your YouTube videos and you guys create awesome content like, what do you think?

 

00:08:25:08 - 00:08:43:09

Alex Winter

Do you think we could do something like this? And so we started talking about it and dreamed about what this would look like. How would shape out? We had, you know, five spots for sponsors. So when we started the show, basically, we put together a framework and we said, here's what we're going to do. We're going to do, 17 minute episodes.

 

00:08:43:11 - 00:09:01:20

Alex Winter

We're going to have, two minute pieces that we'll do, which are like, you know, just shorter educational pieces. And then 15 second quick tips. And those are the three different types of content that will, you know, kind of go with this show package that we created. And really the 17 minute pieces, those big episodes, we started shooting those in the studio.

 

00:09:01:20 - 00:09:21:15

Alex Winter

So it would be like a round table style, like talk show almost. And, you know, the first round of filming that we did, I was, you know, happy that we committed to this, but I kind of felt like, man, like, we're in the remodeling industry, like we're we swing hammers, like we demo walls, like, you know, to sit in a studio just didn't feel like it, did it?

 

00:09:21:17 - 00:09:38:00

Alex Winter

Our process and what we did and what we create justice at all. Like, you know, we were talking about the challenges that you can face during construction, but outside of B-roll, you know, video up on top of what we were talking about, it wasn't like as engaging as it could have been if we were on site. And there was some entertainment to it.

 

00:09:38:00 - 00:09:41:14

Alex Winter

And so I just kind of walked away and man, this feels a little dry.

 

00:09:41:16 - 00:09:46:17

Isabelle Braeutigam

Yeah. Because you're, you're basically on like a TV news, like talk show sort of situation versus like being out in the field.

 

00:09:46:17 - 00:10:05:19

Alex Winter

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And you know, at this point we've been creating videos within our own system. So like, I know that we can create content that's like ten times better just within the team that we have, like with Matthew or our videographer who's on staff, like I know him and I could get together and we come up with the idea he can shoot it, you know, edit it and we can put it together.

 

00:10:05:21 - 00:10:06:08

Alex Winter

So it's.

 

00:10:06:08 - 00:10:19:22

Isabelle Braeutigam

So cool. I have to I have to stop you. So you were in the studio and after you, you filmed and did did the couple of shows, you came out of it going, like, we could do this, we could probably do this even better and started to leverage your team that you already had in place. Like, that's that's magic right there.

 

00:10:19:22 - 00:10:43:20

Isabelle Braeutigam

I think that is so cool because I feel like 4 or 5 years ago, did you ever think you'd be on a TV show or hosting a TV show? Right. Like, you know, the evolution is just, really impressive. And I love that you've gone from the mentality of, you know, being a home and remodeling company to now evolving into doing that, plus being a content creation company and being like basically your own marketing company, which is it's just fascinating to me.

 

00:10:43:20 - 00:10:56:06

Isabelle Braeutigam

I love I love seeing that. So all right. Sorry to interrupt. We'll let you get back in. So you come out of the studio, you go back to your team, right? And you're like all these ideas and all these things that we can do. And where did that. Yeah. Where did that take you? Where was like the next place you guys went?

 

00:10:56:08 - 00:11:10:03

Alex Winter

Yeah. So I mean, Matthew and I really got together and he had a vision for it too. I mean, with him producing all of our content, he would sit in those studio shoots with us and take notes and kind of do some side directing and so he was like, yeah, we could do we can produce something that's amazing here.

 

00:11:10:05 - 00:11:32:18

Alex Winter

And so that kind of was the beginning of our first episodic, I like to call it episodic content or HGTV style episode that we did, and we basically showed for an addition project. We showed one that was in design in our process, one that was currently being built, and then we did a completion party at one that was already built and like, welcome the homeowners and and did a reveal and got all of that on camera.

 

00:11:32:18 - 00:12:03:21

Alex Winter

So that's all I will say. I mean, it took so much coordination, Alex. Like we I had no idea how much producing a piece of content like this would actually take both time resources like what it would actually look like, even though we had produced a lot of content up to that point, it's completely different when you're talking about, you know, 17 minutes of time to fill and then you're talking about really wanting to, you know, give education but also make it really organic, but then also have really solid content.

 

00:12:03:21 - 00:12:10:06

Alex Winter

So it's like, you know, we're not actors by any means. Like I, I've never learned under anybody if we're not a.

 

00:12:10:06 - 00:12:12:21

Isabelle Braeutigam

Reality TV producer. Yeah, yeah.

 

00:12:12:23 - 00:12:30:15

Alex Winter

No. And I mean, honestly, I don't, you know, I don't really prefer that. Like, I am great being behind the scenes and doing like, leadership stuff and don't necessarily want to be front facing, but we're like, all right. Like we've got to do this and we know that this is the way to go as far as like really impacting our community.

 

00:12:30:15 - 00:12:48:04

Alex Winter

Like people want to, you know, people spend the time to watch hours in media, but the media that makes the most impact is one that you can remember after you're done. And so you can do that in a couple of ways, like you can make it funny, you can make it, you know, really meaningful and deep. And then, you know, so that's kind of where edutainment comes in.

 

00:12:48:04 - 00:13:02:21

Alex Winter

And that's why I'm a big believer in that and why when we were doing the, you know, episodes within the studio, I just felt like we're missing something here because there's there's not that, like, gripping story or that funny moment that sticks with you past, you know, turning the TV off.

 

00:13:02:22 - 00:13:20:16

Isabelle Braeutigam

Yeah. And it's when you talk about your house, everyone lives somewhere, so everybody wants a house or wants a condo or it's it's very relatable, I guess, is what I'm, what I'm saying. So to be able to tap into that and then I think of, like you said, HGTV. So I started to think about like, move that bus.

 

00:13:20:16 - 00:13:38:22

Isabelle Braeutigam

And then I just would sit on the couch weeping as like, this family got their new home. Like, it doesn't. It does pull on those emotional heartstrings. And it's it's really meaningful. And when you create meaningful content, the, the results and the response from everybody is, is overwhelming at times, which is really cool. And it seems like you've been getting an amazing response from the show.

 

00:13:39:00 - 00:14:07:07

Alex Winter

Yeah, yeah, we really have so far. So I mean, that's that's where we started. We created the one episode, and it was a really big success, like on YouTube and then on the TV stations, the ratings that we got, they actually ended up sharing it nationwide across all of their different channels or like, hey, this is look at this content that we're putting out like, this is the gold standard, you know, and we shot and produced all of it, our custom built, you know, we had some of our team members that we pulled on a second shooters, but we really did pull it off.

 

00:14:07:07 - 00:14:16:22

Alex Winter

And again, it's me and Matthew. And then Joy, our content manager and primarily Matthew shot all the work, put it all together and really created that piece that we have.

 

00:14:16:22 - 00:14:36:17

Isabelle Braeutigam

Yeah. Now I'm and Matt and Joey are very talented, very talented folks as well. You have a good team over there, but that's incredible to get on the national stage. I mean, that's that's that's the dream, right? That's a big deal. So yeah. What's the future look like for the design and remodeling show? You're going to be creating more episodes and what's that episodic content going to look like as you move forward into the future?

 

00:14:36:18 - 00:15:00:08

Alex Winter

Yeah. Great question. So we have done four pieces now that are the episodic content style. And we're going to moving forward into season two with only doing episodic content. So we'll be shooting everything in the field, everything will have a storyline to it. All of our sponsors are going to be highlighted within that story. I think that's one of the thing to note with this show that's unique is, you know, if you're a business owner and you're thinking how can I do this practically?

 

00:15:00:08 - 00:15:14:15

Alex Winter

There's really two ways. One, you can decide you want a TV show, and you go out and you produce it all on your own and like, you put it all behind it and you can use they ask you answer principles and like, you can do that. And we could have done that, but we did go the route of actually partnering with a local TV station.

 

00:15:14:15 - 00:15:34:06

Alex Winter

And that's worked out really well for us. For a couple reasons. One, you know, as a local TV station, they really want to drive viewers to them, so they will strategically put different shows within their, system that drives viewership to their channels, and then they'll give discounted rates to those TV shows. So we get a lot better.

 

00:15:34:10 - 00:15:51:02

Alex Winter

You know, our our spend on TV like goes a lot longer. And then same thing for our sponsors because we're actually getting a lot of promo pieces and a lot of things. So for us, like I did want that real local reach. And being in a local TV station with good ratings helps with that. And then.

 

00:15:51:05 - 00:16:01:21

Isabelle Braeutigam

When you're very you're very community focused as an organization too. So I feel like that plays into the overall mission of custom built, you know, direction as a whole. So I think that's that's really cool to see that.

 

00:16:01:23 - 00:16:21:22

Alex Winter

Yeah, it absolutely does. And then speaking of community focus, we've got the sponsors that are on our show. And so, you know, each one of the sponsors, they have one episode that's really dedicated to highlighting their business. And then they all get the same amount of two minute pieces and quick tips that we produce. And it really has helped drive traffic to a lot of those different businesses.

 

00:16:21:22 - 00:16:42:18

Alex Winter

And then we'll do Sponsor connect. So that was something that was important to me to start doing is like, you know, we're all six different businesses are going to it's going to be seven for season two. And we all have our own missions and our own businesses that we're trying to grow. But like, we know that word of mouth and networking is one of the biggest ways in the construction industry to, you know, continue to make a difference.

 

00:16:42:18 - 00:17:01:23

Alex Winter

And so we do sponsor connects, basically where we get on the same page, we highlight our businesses, we go through show up days and then just connect and like, hey, how can I help your business grow? What are you looking for? And so that has been a cool, organic thing that has come out of the show, as well as just deeper connections with the businesses that are actually sponsors of our show.

 

00:17:02:04 - 00:17:19:09

Isabelle Braeutigam

It's wonderful. It's a win win win, right? Local, other partner organizations and for your organization. And speaking of, this is a great segue. How has this affected business for custom built a do you feel like you're getting more traffic from it? How has it affected revenue? Like were there any results coming off of doing the show?

 

00:17:19:11 - 00:17:42:04

Alex Winter

Yeah. Great question. I, I always think bottom line first it's like for an I put this much effort and energy into what's the return that we're going to get. Absolutely. I will say I definitely think we still have a lot of return to get, but this kind of a TV show drives a ton of impressions. So, I mean, overall, like in the last 2 or 3 years, our business has really just solidified in the area.

 

00:17:42:04 - 00:17:58:11

Alex Winter

Like a lot of people know who we are. A lot of people see our trucks now. People are seeing our TV shows. We've had several clients calls and like, hey, do you guys have a TV show now? Like, what's this I'm saying? Like, tell us about it. And, just opens up more conversation for us, like reconnect with people in the show.

 

00:17:58:11 - 00:18:17:09

Alex Winter

Hey, here's what we're doing and our vision with it. So yeah, we definitely I'm seeing a lot of impressions from it every time we put out one of our episodic content, pieces on YouTube, we get a ton of views. So our latest one is, I think, 97 K for viewership. So we're we're getting close to that 100,000, mark, which will be awesome.

 

00:18:17:09 - 00:18:30:19

Alex Winter

We had that, that's a my job. Yeah. Whenever we put our content out, it's produced really well on YouTube as well. So that's kind of fun is we're not only just putting out through the TV station, but we actually put it all on our YouTube channel as well. So I ask.

 

00:18:30:19 - 00:18:43:15

Isabelle Braeutigam

You about that. That was going to be like my next, my next foray into like, so you have these episodic pieces of content. How do you repurpose them? Do you use them for short form content and then are there other like episodic ideas that maybe you guys are going to start doing as well?

 

00:18:43:17 - 00:18:44:07

Alex Winter

Yes, I.

 

00:18:44:07 - 00:18:46:10

Isabelle Braeutigam

Can see yes to all of it.

 

00:18:46:11 - 00:19:05:13

Alex Winter

I'm getting excited as we're talking, Alex, because we're like literally right now in the planning phase for season two and deciding all of those pieces. So yeah, so much, content. Like, I love to reuse content because if we're going to spend a lot of time and effort and energy into, you know, creating an awesome piece, then I want to get it into every area that I can.

 

00:19:05:13 - 00:19:25:08

Alex Winter

So social media, YouTube, right. Like everything on our website, on our sponsors websites, on the TV show website, like all over the place. So we definitely are doing a lot of that where we use the content in multiple ways. Also with us taking over production of the show, we with the two minute pieces and the 15 second quick tips for changing the style.

 

00:19:25:08 - 00:19:41:20

Alex Winter

So that's going to be a lot more, entertaining again. And the 15 second quick tips are going to be like YouTube shorts that you would see. So we're actually going to work with our sponsors and teach them, hey, here's how you create a short and we're going to take the raw footage. And then we'll actually do all the editing and put it together.

 

00:19:41:22 - 00:19:58:08

Alex Winter

But I mean imagine Alex, we're sitting there watching a local, you know, station and hearing about the news, and then all of a sudden, like, you know, a YouTube short pops up. It's just completely different content than what you would typically see on your on a normal channel. And so it's a, it's a unique way to like really engage people.

 

00:19:58:08 - 00:20:02:12

Alex Winter

And then also it's very entertaining compared to what you would normally see on TV again.

 

00:20:02:12 - 00:20:31:08

Isabelle Braeutigam

So it's so cool. And I keep saying the word cool because it's really fascinating to me that you're finding ways to create real entertainment, slept like content that people want to watch. That is going to be fun and engaging to watch, but that also isn't self-promotional, isn't it? It's not salesy. It's not like, oh, well, we're doing a deal and come check out this not it's it's very much an awareness play, but it 100% solidifies you and your company and your community as as a real player, as a force to be reckoned with.

 

00:20:31:08 - 00:20:37:16

Isabelle Braeutigam

And that's somebody that they can trust and hopefully want to do business with when they can afford and when it's time for them to remodel their home.

 

00:20:37:18 - 00:20:48:05

Alex Winter

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So getting back to your ROI question, because I do want to answer that. So we have seen again like a lot of brand awareness from there. So like a lot of people know who we are. We've had

 

00:20:48:05 - 00:20:54:19

Alex Winter

clients call us. We've had people in the community, our networking groups, all of our sales advisors are involved in different local networking groups.

 

00:20:54:19 - 00:21:12:12

Alex Winter

So we push that out through them. And then people have shared it. So it really has permeated our community. I do believe that we still have a lot more growth to do in that area. And so there's a lot of opportunity, especially we've got a second location up in Northern Michigan. And so in that community as well, we're really going to push the TV show up there.

 

00:21:12:14 - 00:21:36:14

Alex Winter

So we still have a lot to do there, but we have seen a lot of brand awareness from it. The show ratings have been off the charts. Again, like they use our piece of content and push it out nationwide to all of their different stations, which was awesome. And then my favorite, story, which it's sometimes really hard with these type of marketing, initiatives to really track true like return on investment and true revenue from it.

 

00:21:36:16 - 00:21:50:20

Alex Winter

I mean, you can and you will like over time you'll see more and more deals come from it. But you know, when you ask somebody, hey, how did you hear about custom built? They might be like, oh, Google search, but that might not have been the first time that they heard about us. The second time. The third time.

 

00:21:50:20 - 00:22:06:10

Alex Winter

That might have been the first time, you know, and they kind of realize I kind of don't I mean, I'm, I'm busy and I know, like when I look and research a company like, I typically I to see them multiple times. So like recognize who they are. And I might not remember the first time where I actually heard of them, I saw them.

 

00:22:06:10 - 00:22:08:03

Isabelle Braeutigam

I'm the same way. Yeah, totally.

 

00:22:08:05 - 00:22:31:22

Alex Winter

So it takes multiple touches, right? To really like engage people. But one of my favorite stories, we had a client sign up for a bathroom project, and they're working with our advisor, Diana and Diana was, you know, getting ready to, like, close the deal and sign the agreement to get into design phase. And, what the client looks at, Diana says, hey, when do I get to meet Michael?

 

00:22:32:00 - 00:22:51:12

Alex Winter

Like, well, he come out to one of our meetings, and Diana was like, yeah, he will like, you know, tell me more about that. How do you know Michael? And this is not the only time that we've had somebody say, like, when do I get to meet so-and-so based on watching a video? Or, you know, you show up at somebody's house and they seem like they know you somehow or give you context in your life that you're like, wait, how do you know that?

 

00:22:51:12 - 00:23:20:20

Alex Winter

And it's it's all from video. So that point aside, but this client was like, yeah, like, when do I get to meet Michael? And so Michael came out to the kickoff meeting where we, you know, take all the measurements, existing conditions and just talk with this couple. And they their eyes were lighting up. And just like your guys's episode was so cool, like we watched it and, you know, we were actually working with another contractor and had signed an agreement and had like a three day right of precision and just felt like, you know, we didn't want to move forward with his contract or something felt awful about it, but we weren't really sure what

 

00:23:20:20 - 00:23:36:17

Alex Winter

we were going to do. And then I saw your TV show, and then the next day, one of your trucks drove through my neighborhood and I was like, that's it. Like I'm calling custom built. And so that was the other agreement and decided not to move forward with them, called us. You know, the job is now in production and we're producing that right now.

 

00:23:36:18 - 00:23:53:23

Alex Winter

But that I mean, that that's like what I'm going for is like, yeah, let's show people what we do so that when they come in, they already understand that we're going to be able to help them solve the problem the best way. And they're confident and they're excited to work with our team. Like we love to work with clients like that.

 

00:23:53:23 - 00:23:58:18

Alex Winter

And so for us, I see this content like just expounding on that.

 

00:23:58:21 - 00:24:13:00

Isabelle Braeutigam

Yeah. Wow. That's a beautiful thing. That's really the dream scenario right there in my opinion. Wow. Yeah. Very cool. And and it's your dad's like a celebrity now everybody wants to see Michael. Everybody I know I know. Can you blame them? He's pretty amazing. He really is. Yeah.

 

00:24:13:00 - 00:24:15:22

Alex Winter

He's he's pretty charismatic. He walks into a room and definitely lights it up.

 

00:24:15:22 - 00:24:25:02

Isabelle Braeutigam

So. And are you are you still going to be hosting the show too? Are you going to be continuing to host? Okay. So yeah, you're going to get that celeb status to know. And now you're ready for that.

 

00:24:25:08 - 00:24:27:22

Alex Winter

Yeah I it's not a lot. We'll see how it comes out.

 

00:24:27:22 - 00:24:44:12

Isabelle Braeutigam

Like so we talked about a lot of the positives. And there's a lot of positives for everybody out there watching and listening. And I'm just fascinated with this whole story and I'm so happy for all the success that you've had and it's well deserved. Can we talk a little bit too, about maybe some of the difficulties that you've had?

 

00:24:44:12 - 00:25:01:03

Isabelle Braeutigam

Because it sounds wonderful, but coordinating show and doing all the things that you've done, you make it sound easy and it sounds fun, but there's a lot of there's a lot that goes with it and maybe a lot of things that you didn't know about or some impediments you might have had. Yeah. I'm just curious if you could share maybe a few of those with us just to like, enlighten us a little bit.

 

00:25:01:05 - 00:25:17:07

Alex Winter

Yeah. I mean, that is a whole like we could probably create a whole podcast list on that topic of, like, you know, what to watch out for, what not to do. All of that. But, I mean, at a high level, like the amount of time that this is going to take, like it is a lot of time on your team.

 

00:25:17:07 - 00:25:38:20

Alex Winter

And for us, you know, we are continuing to go towards like, hey, we're a video. We're we're a media company that remodels. But at this point, honestly, like, we are so full on remodeling company and we will always be like, that's a product that we produce. But what I mean by that, and if you follow any of like the endless customer principles, like you'll know media is the way that you actually really funnel a lot of business.

 

00:25:38:20 - 00:26:07:07

Alex Winter

And so if you have a really strong marketing team and really strong content, then you can just continue to feed your business. And so that media first mindset, that video first content first, like is really important to just make it so that, you know, you always have that lead flow coming into your business, right? And you're not running into like a ton of seasonal ups and downs, which, you know, our business definitely does have like the remodeling business about like February, March timeframe.

 

00:26:07:07 - 00:26:25:00

Alex Winter

Everybody forgets that their deck was covered by snow. And they're like, well, we want it fixed, you know, tomorrow. And we want it to be composite and we want it to be redesigned and all this stuff. And so there's just natural like ebbs and flows to our business. But yeah, some of the, the background to create this, I mean, you definitely need a videographer for.

 

00:26:25:01 - 00:26:44:14

Alex Winter

We really couldn't do that without Matthew. Just time wise. Like, you really need somebody who's really dedicated to excellent video to always improving the quality of your videos, to doing research and saying, you know what? What's trending right now, what's out on YouTube that's really performing well, and then what are some of those bigger content pieces that we could produce?

 

00:26:44:14 - 00:26:49:21

Alex Winter

So you need that you need, team commitment, like, I think that, yeah.

 

00:26:49:23 - 00:26:52:21

Isabelle Braeutigam

It's huge. It really is. Everyone has who's.

 

00:26:52:23 - 00:27:08:03

Alex Winter

Buying is so huge. And I mean, this honestly taken us years in some ways to really get to buy in. And I would say, you know, we're still an actively growing company. And so as we bring new people in, like you got to continue the buy in, like you can't just stop and say, we've got our team now and everybody's bought it.

 

00:27:08:03 - 00:27:27:00

Alex Winter

And like, you got to continue to show the team why this is impactful, continue to, you know, shared at your quarterly meetings and your one to ones and like make it real to everybody in the company of like why why we're doing this because otherwise it just looks like, okay, leadership has this idea of producing this TV show and and nobody feels connected to the real vision behind it.

 

00:27:27:00 - 00:27:32:16

Alex Winter

Right. So, that's that's a, that's a big thing is the buy in.

 

00:27:32:18 - 00:27:49:11

Isabelle Braeutigam

And so how about I have a question just to interject, how about like for people that you featured on the show. So having clients in their homes, how did you select that and what was that process like trying to get people on? Did you have people who didn't want to be on the show, or were people open to it, like what was, can you give us some background on like what that process was like?

 

00:27:49:13 - 00:28:08:07

Alex Winter

Yeah. Great question. This this is a really interesting one because I actually think as business owners and business leaders, we get in our own way when it comes to this. I think people and I've seen this over and over again, are so much more willing to, you know, showcase and stand behind a product, the product that they truly believe in.

 

00:28:08:09 - 00:28:30:00

Alex Winter

So we've been super, like, blessed to work with a lot of incredible, incredible clients. And so the ones, the Turners that were featured in our first episode that we, we shot like one of our team's favorite segments is them walking through the house and like, you know, here's the Clippers talking about how he really wanted this to be this project, to be a love letter to his wife.

 

00:28:30:00 - 00:28:50:01

Alex Winter

And this was like, super honest and open about like, you know, here's why we did what we did and what this has changed for our family. And now we're able to host better. And so like, I think the bottom line is you have a really great product. People want to help you grow your business, especially if you ask now if you don't want to ask other people now.

 

00:28:50:03 - 00:28:54:05

Alex Winter

And so for us, like as we started to really publicize this, like, you know, we've had.

 

00:28:54:05 - 00:29:11:12

Isabelle Braeutigam

People be like, yeah, of course we'd love to be involved in something like that. You guys want to throw a completion party for us? Like we'll invite our friends and family, like, yeah, of course, like we want to show off the new work that we've done in our house. And so, I mean, the biggest thing for us to get over was, I think, the hurdle of ourselves.

 

00:29:11:12 - 00:29:27:06

Isabelle Braeutigam

And then it comes back to me. Right? Like I had to really get through. My brain is like, you know, if I have a business that I love, like, of course I'd want to share my experience and I do that actively. And so a lot of our clients think similarly and it's really just putting together an organized ask.

 

00:29:27:06 - 00:29:43:13

Isabelle Braeutigam

I mean, because it does take time. And so we work with a lot of busy professionals. And so that is I think the biggest piece is just being very clear with your ask now that you have to have everything figured out front when you pitched the idea, by no means. That's what we do. It's usually like got this style of content we're producing.

 

00:29:43:17 - 00:29:58:11

Isabelle Braeutigam

We'd love to feature you guys on it. What do you think? And the response has been overall really positive from our clients. But I mean, you definitely have to get that buy in from your clients, to really make the piece what it what it is for us.

 

00:29:58:12 - 00:30:16:00

Alex Winter

Yeah, that makes sense. I like the you said something, too, about how you make it part of the experience. We're like, yeah, let's throw a party at the end and we can film it and have your friends over, and you can showcase your house like you can make it an experience for your customers that change it from just in a transaction of, like, doing business to something deeper and more meaningful.

 

00:30:16:02 - 00:30:17:04

Isabelle Braeutigam

Yeah, absolutely.

 

00:30:17:04 - 00:30:36:09

Alex Winter

Yeah. That's so cool. All right. It's that time of the show. We're getting to the one thing, which is my favorite part of the show. We've covered a lot of ground. What would you say for people out there watching and listening that they should really take away from this conversation? What's the one piece of advice that you would give if people are inspired by this, to want to try to start their own show or start creating content?

 

00:30:36:10 - 00:30:43:11

Alex Winter

Maybe people aren't shooting video yet. Like what would you say to people out there that are trying to get on the endless customer journey?

 

00:30:43:12 - 00:31:02:11

Isabelle Braeutigam

It's good. I would say I would say two things. I would say don't let perfection stand the way of you starting something. And, you know, for me, I definitely care a lot about the content that we put out. And I have at times, like, stop myself from putting content out because I'm like, that's just not quite what I want it to be.

 

00:31:02:13 - 00:31:20:05

Isabelle Braeutigam

And I think this show is an example of that. Like we went in to this show with, you know, studio episodes, and I walked away from that shoot and I was like, like it just not quite what I want. I watch the pieces back and I'm like, it's not what I want. But if we hadn't started, then we wouldn't have ever created the episodic content.

 

00:31:20:05 - 00:31:39:03

Isabelle Braeutigam

So starting is really important and you're going to refine it along the way. I mean, we were talking before, we have done this podcast like we started our podcast, you know, a month and a half ago. And like, we're still actively developing what that looked like and, you know, intentionally made the decision of, yeah, it's not perfect. Now, we don't have our studio space fully built out.

 

00:31:39:03 - 00:32:01:08

Isabelle Braeutigam

So it's audio only and there's limitations. But like if we ever just start doing it then we're not going to be able to get better at it as we progress. Right. So that's the biggest piece is, you know, if you've been considering doing the endless, you know, customer's journey and you really don't know like what it's all going to look like like just start like start somewhere.

 

00:32:01:08 - 00:32:21:05

Isabelle Braeutigam

Start with those content pieces. Start with a coaching call with impact. Like give it a go and like commit to a certain time frame of really like just doing the basic principles. Because that's the other thing is like anything like you have to give it time to actually produce and you have to give it time to see what's the return on it.

 

00:32:21:07 - 00:32:43:21

Isabelle Braeutigam

And oftentimes, like I know for us, this TV show is going to be something that is a long term, producer. It's not a short term commitment that we made. It's going to be something that we continue to go after. So that's one thing I would say. And then the other thing that just comes to mind, and I've been chewing on this, Alex, is there's this quote and it says this is a little bit out there, but it says, if you want to go fast, go alone.

 

00:32:43:21 - 00:33:09:05

Isabelle Braeutigam

If you want to go far, go together. And so I think that this journey of endless customers and jumping into it, you have to have a team again. You have to have a committed team. And so if you want to go far with impacting your community, with, you know, doing the best kind of business that you can, educating people so that they're the most informed and confident with the decisions they make, like you have to do it together.

 

00:33:09:05 - 00:33:16:17

Isabelle Braeutigam

It's not just going to be you by yourself, it's going to be together. So those are the two pieces that I would leave listeners with great advice.

 

00:33:16:17 - 00:33:24:08

Alex Winter

Isabel. And that's an awesome quote. I may have to steal that can. Yeah, hit us with that one more time if you want it. If you want to go far, go alone, and if you want to go.

 

00:33:24:10 - 00:33:30:18

Isabelle Braeutigam

So if you want, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Together.

 

00:33:30:18 - 00:33:39:07

Alex Winter

Wow, I love that. Very cool. Well, Isabel, thank you so much for your time and for sharing all this amazing stuff happening at Custom Build. I really appreciate it.

 

00:33:39:08 - 00:33:41:11

Isabelle Braeutigam

Yeah. Thanks, Alex. It was awesome to be here today.

 

00:33:41:12 - 00:33:45:08

Alex Winter

Am I going to see you at Impact Live in August? Are you are you coming through to Hartford?

 

00:33:45:10 - 00:33:51:16

Isabelle Braeutigam

I don't know, we'll definitely be there next April. We we like to come through at least once a year, I'm sure about August.

 

00:33:51:16 - 00:33:58:06

Isabelle Braeutigam

Yeah, that's a really great point. If you haven't been to Impact Live, you definitely want to check it out. It's a great event where you can meet people like Isabel.

 

00:33:58:08 - 00:34:08:14

Isabelle Braeutigam

The next one is happening in Hartford, April 18th through the 20th. We do two events a year. Go to impact plus.com. And in the navigation there's an Impact Live icon. You can click on it. They'll give you all the information you need.

 

00:34:08:14 - 00:34:09:10

Alex Winter

That wraps up our show.

 

00:34:09:10 - 00:34:11:15

Alex Winter

So, Isabel, thanks again. And, great talking with you.

 

00:34:11:15 - 00:34:16:22

Alex Winter

All right. And for everyone out there watching and listening, this is endless customers. I'm your host, Alex Winter. We'll catch you on the next episode.