From Clicks to Cash with Jarod Spiewak

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Welcome to the construction disruption podcast, where we

Intro: 00:00:04

uncover the future of design, building, and remodeling.

Ryan Bell: 00:00:17

I'm Ryan Bell of Isaiah industries, manufacturer

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of specialty metal roofing and other building materials.

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And today my co host is Ethan Young.

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Ethan, how are you doing today?

Ethan Young: 00:00:27

Doing pretty good, Ryan.

Ethan Young: 00:00:28

Enjoying this nice weather.

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Finally.

Ethan Young: 00:00:30

How are you doing?

Ryan Bell: 00:00:31

I'm doing great.

Ryan Bell: 00:00:32

Same.

Ryan Bell: 00:00:32

Uh, we've had some, some.

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Not great weather.

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That's kind of just on the verge of raining one minute and then sunny

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the next, but it's nice to see the sunshine, have some warmer weather.

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It's certainly improving the mood around here at my house.

Ryan Bell: 00:00:45

Absolutely.

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Well, let's get started.

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Uh, today our guest is Jared Spiewak.

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An international speaker and founder helping service and SaaS businesses

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scale to five to 10 million by turning clicks to cash at just 14 years old.

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Jared took his first steps in the business world, earning

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money needed to attend college.

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And after graduating Jared spent a year working in corporate America,

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and then two years with a digital market marketing agency before

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launching the first iteration.

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Of comet fuel at only age 20 annoyed by digital agencies promising the

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moon, but only delivering stardust.

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Jared saw a clear need for a digital agency that provided transparency

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and a revenue focused approach.

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After discovering that 97 percent of lead generation businesses don't know how much

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revenue their marketing is generating.

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And 95 percent of those who think they do don't realize their data is bad.

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Jared, it's great to have you on the show today.

Ryan Bell: 00:01:43

Thank you for joining us.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:01:45

Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

Ryan Bell: 00:01:46

So you started, uh, dipping your toe in the business world

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pretty young at only 14 years old.

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Can you kick us off by sharing a little bit of your story, uh, with

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our listeners and what your motivation was for getting started so young?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:00

Yeah, so I, I ended up starting college at

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:02

15, graduated high school at 16.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:05

And because of that, I had to basically figure something out.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:08

I didn't grow up with a whole lot of money and college is expensive.

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And so those, those two things don't mix very well.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:14

What I did at the time, because I was too young for anybody to really hire

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:18

me is I went to Google and as a lot of people do, I searched for how to

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:22

make money online, which is full of Legitimate opportunities, uh, everywhere.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:27

So that ended up leading to me, uh, being a content writer and I would write at

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:32

the time, like very keyword stuffed SEO content for less than a penny a word.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:36

And I did that for a little bit, but that was kind of my introduction

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to the world of marketing.

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I knew at the time I was going to go to college, but I didn't know exactly

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what for I was interested in business.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:46

But that is what set me down the path of, of marketing in and of itself.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:02:50

A

Ryan Bell: 00:02:51

lot of ingenuity there and how you kind of went about that.

Ryan Bell: 00:02:55

Um, I mentioned it briefly in your intro, uh, but let's go

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kind of a little deeper into what inspired you to launch comet fuel.

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So you saw a need in the market for an agency that provided transparency

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in a A revenue focused approach.

Ryan Bell: 00:03:09

Can you elaborate on that a little bit for us?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:03:12

Yeah, of course.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:03:13

So there's, there's a couple of things that I noticed when, uh, kind of some of

Jarod Spiewak: 00:03:18

my other background is when I transitioned from, uh, working in corporate America

Jarod Spiewak: 00:03:24

to working for an agency to eventually having my own in between all that

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I was freelancing at the same time.

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And that transition was basically made from me having Too many freelance

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clients have actually been like, Hey, what am I going to do now?

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That turned into the agency.

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So what I had was a unique perspective of both working for an agency at the same

Jarod Spiewak: 00:03:41

time that I was working as a freelancer.

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And I saw the pros and cons of both.

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One being the freelancing side of things tended to be a lot more personable.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:03:51

It tended to be a lot more transparent.

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And the agency side of things used to typically is able to get a lot more done.

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The skills are a lot more wider.

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It's not just one person trying to do, you know, a million different things.

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But the challenge was everybody that I talked to that one of the experience

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of working with an agency due to the skill set did not like usually

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the communication side of things.

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The reporting side of things like I have no idea what these people are doing.

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I have no idea if I'm getting results.

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All I know is that they're charging me a lot of money.

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And on the freelancer side of things, the challenge was usually you can

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have a very limited client base.

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Freelancers come and go, they disappear all the time.

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They get full time jobs somewhere, or they take on too many clients, or their rates

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massively increase at a dime's notice.

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Cause you know, they took on a big project, et cetera.

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And so by kind of combining what I really liked about my freelancing experience

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and what I really liked about my agency experience, I felt as though that there

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was something unique there where people could get the best of both worlds.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:04:46

To a certain extent, the other side of that was, of course, on the revenue side

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of things, which was really just a matter of sitting down with people and saying,

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Hey, you know, how much money did you spend on your advertising last month?

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Everybody can answer that question.

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It's not very difficult.

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And then when I ask, well, how much money did you make from

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your advertising last month?

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Either I get, I don't know, or it's we can figure it out, but it takes us forever.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:09

And so we do it like twice a year.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:11

And the challenge then is my third question is how will you determine.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:15

If our relationship is successful and the response is almost always,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:19

if you're making me more money, like, well, we just established, you don't

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know if I'm making you more money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:23

So that seems like a pretty big disconnect.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:25

And, you know, just having that conversation over and over again,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:28

uh, just made it very clear that, uh, we're basically setting each other up

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:32

for failure at the get go before we even decide to work with each other.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:36

We're admitting.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:37

I'm not helping you figure out how much money you're making.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:39

You're not helping me figure out how much money that I'm helping you make.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:42

And we're just going to work together until one of us decides

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it's no longer a good fit.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:05:46

And that's just a recipe for disaster.

Ryan Bell: 00:05:48

So what exactly are the services that you kind

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of provide at, at Comet fuel?

Ryan Bell: 00:05:52

Um, I know when it comes to marketing, there's a huge range of services

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that that are helpful to businesses.

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Do you guys focus, uh, on a few that you really kind of hit it out of the park

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with, or do you have a broader approach?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:06:05

Yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:06:06

So kind of, uh, Encompassing what you mentioned earlier, our core

Jarod Spiewak: 00:06:09

offer is called clicks to cash.

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And within that, I like to say we do four things.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:06:13

The first is we help drive qualified traffic to websites through Google ads.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:06:16

That's pretty straightforward.

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Someone raises their hand and saying, I want to buy red widgets.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:06:19

We want to put that brand that sells red widgets in front of them.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:06:23

The second thing that we do is we help maximize the opportunity that a user

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has to become a lead through creative.

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So that's landing pages.

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That's creative on like the ad copy front.

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The display ads would.

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What have you, so maximizing conversion rates once somebody,

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somebody becomes elite.

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The third thing that we do is help his help, follow them

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throughout the sales process.

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So now they're elite.

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Now they're qualified leader and unqualified lead.

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Now they're at these different deal stages.

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Now they've become a customer.

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This is how much money they've paid you.

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So on and so forth.

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The fourth thing that we do is then use that both quantitative

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and qualitative sales data to then optimize on the marketing front.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:07:00

So you can very easily end up in a scenario where.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:07:04

One keyword drove, let's say 10 leads and one sale, another keyword

Jarod Spiewak: 00:07:08

drove five leads and four sales.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:07:10

But if you're only paying attention to how many people called me or filled

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out my contact form, you're going to spend more and more money on the

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former, which is driving 25 percent as much volume of sales as the latter.

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But if you only look at that individual marketing channel, whether it's SEO,

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whether it's Google ads, Facebook ads, what have you, if you're

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only paying attention to what most marketing channels define as success.

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so much.

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You're losing out on what you actually care about, which

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is customers and revenue.

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So we're trying to close that gap and make sure we're paying attention to

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and optimizing for the sales process, not just for people picking up the

Jarod Spiewak: 00:07:43

phone and calling you or filling out a form, which also includes all those

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robots that are also doing that.

Ryan Bell: 00:07:48

On the, so on the front end of things, you're focused on Google ads.

Ryan Bell: 00:07:52

Is that specifically what you focus on?

Ryan Bell: 00:07:55

Or like, do you do Facebook, Instagram ads, that sort of thing too?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:07:58

Yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:07:58

So for the traffic source, we just focus on Google ads.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:01

I'm a big believer in only doing what you're good at.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:03

Like we have tons of people on the team that are familiar with Facebook ads.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:06

I've run Facebook ads.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:07

Half our team has run Facebook ads, but we're not Facebook ads experts.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:10

If that changes one day.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:11

Yeah, sure.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:11

We'll throw it in there, but, uh, there's so much that we still don't know about

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:15

Google that, you know, Between the entire team, we probably have like 25,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:18

30 years of experience on Google ads.

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And there's still things that we're just learning of like, Oh, I did not

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know that that feature worked like that.

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Or, Oh, this is a strategy we haven't considered before.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:28

So having the ability to go really deep on that one channel, uh, I think at

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:32

least for now, uh, benefits us and our clients a lot more than being a lot more

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:37

broad and, you know, PBC or just, you know, email marketing, SEO, et cetera.

Ryan Bell: 00:08:41

Do you guys do anything with local service ads

Ryan Bell: 00:08:44

or is it just pay per click ads?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:46

Yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:46

So what I recommend everybody when they ask me about LSAs is whoever is your

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:50

receptionist should be doing them for you.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:52

It is, there's no point of you ever hiring an agency to do that for you.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:57

Like if you're, Like, don't get me wrong.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:08:58

If you're like, Hey, I literally do not have anybody to do this for me.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:09:01

And you can't do it yourself, but yeah, sure.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:09:04

All you really have to do is file a dispute when there's a bad

Jarod Spiewak: 00:09:07

lead and then adjust your budget.

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And if you're in a market where you can change your bids per lead, it's

Jarod Spiewak: 00:09:12

straightforward enough that I just haven't found a reason to justify.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:09:15

Charging for it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:09:17

So it's not something that we offer.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:09:18

And generally when people ask me, I just say, you know, whoever's answering

Jarod Spiewak: 00:09:20

your phones, they can just file the dispute and you're good to go.

Ryan Bell: 00:09:23

I'm sorry, Ethan, were you going to say something?

Ethan Young: 00:09:25

Yeah, no, I was just going to say, I think there's definitely something

Ethan Young: 00:09:27

to be said for knowing what you're good at and sticking with it and just really.

Ethan Young: 00:09:31

Honing in on that, that's definitely going to help.

Ethan Young: 00:09:33

Um, you know, it, it presents a lot of value to whoever's looking for you.

Ethan Young: 00:09:38

And then you get to have that authority of being an expert in the field too.

Ethan Young: 00:09:41

So I think that's a smart move.

Ryan Bell: 00:09:43

I, that's something I always struggle with.

Ryan Bell: 00:09:44

There's too many, I have shiny object syndrome.

Ryan Bell: 00:09:49

I always struggle to stay focused on something.

Ryan Bell: 00:09:52

Um, In your experience, uh, what would you say are some of the most

Ryan Bell: 00:09:57

common misconceptions or pitfalls that businesses encounter when it comes

Ryan Bell: 00:10:01

to lead gen and, uh, understanding kind of their marketing ROI?

Ryan Bell: 00:10:05

I

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:05

think that I could call it three that, that I feel like most.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:10

Most who I talk to always necessarily fully understand, you know, that might

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:14

be a bit harsh wording, but, uh, the first is, uh, insert any marketing

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:19

channel here will make me money like Google ads will make me money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:22

Facebook ads will make me money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:23

SEO will make me money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:24

It will absolutely not.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:25

Your email list will not make you money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:27

Your Google ads will not make you money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:28

Your website will not make you money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:29

What makes you money is the combination of.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:32

I'll just use Google ads as example, Google ads, sending you traffic,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:36

your offer being enticing enough for somebody to actually want to contact

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:40

you, your copy, your design, et cetera, helping reinforce that offer

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:44

and educate people so that they're more willing to actually opt in.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:48

It's the speed at which your intake or sales team can get in contact with

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that person, how well your intake and sales team is able to nurture

Jarod Spiewak: 00:10:55

that person, whether that's over days, weeks, months, or for some

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sales cycles, years to help them.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:00

Move further and further down the sales process.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:03

It's your sales team's ability to sell your products and services at

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:06

a rate that will help you hit the profit margins that you're trying to

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hit, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:13

All those things put together is what helps you turn a dollar into more money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:17

Cause it doesn't matter if you get a billion people to visit your website.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:20

It doesn't matter if a billion people are like, Hey, here's my credit card.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:23

You know, please charge me if you never actually do that.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:26

You won't make money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:27

And so it's all those things put together working, uh, you know, kind

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:31

of synergetically, if you will, that'll allow you to actually make money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:36

So that's number one.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:38

Number two would be, uh, as I already mentioned, like not tracking beyond

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that conversion, like not knowing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:46

Not just how many people called you, filled out a form, did a live chat,

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what have you, but actually being like, okay, well, how many of the people that

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:52

came in from Google ads specifically, or Facebook ads specifically, or SEO

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:55

specifically, were qualified leads, and what were they inquiring about if you have

Jarod Spiewak: 00:11:59

multiple products or services, and what was the close rate on those particular

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:03

leads, and how much money did they give you, and being able to tie that back to

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:08

Google ads, Facebook ads would have you to say, this was the ROI from this channel.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:12

This was the CAC from this channel.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:13

This was the CPL from this channel and not just take an overall number

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for the entire business, but really tie it back to individual channels.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:21

The third thing that I would say is, um, And this isn't a whole entire can

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:28

of worms is a big problem that a lot of businesses have is you make everybody feel

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:34

equally indifferent about your business.

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So that nobody really cares about what you have going on where you're,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:41

you're fairly, you're trying to target everybody at the same time.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:44

I'll just take an example.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:45

Um, you're a kitchen remodeler and you're like, Hey people, who

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:50

am I trying to target people who want to hire kitchen remodelers?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:54

Okay, great.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:54

That's literally you and all your competition.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:12:56

So you're at that point what somebody is seeing when they

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:00

click on your ad when they visit your website is nothing different

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compared to anybody else's website.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:04

At least nothing that they can understand because they're not a kitchen modeler.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:07

They don't understand the nuances of the business.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:09

And so what happens is you have that approach versus if you're able to

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:14

identify like, oh, the people that I'm trying to talk to watch HGTV.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:18

Okay.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:19

Thank you.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:19

Get really inspired by, you know, whatever the modern aesthetic of a kitchen looks

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:24

like, and then they reach out because they want to bring their kitchen up to

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:27

date, you know, from the past 20 years, well, I'm going to have a very different

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:31

approach in the imagery that I use in the iconography that I use in how I talk to

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:36

that person compared to someone who is.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:40

Trying to min max their ability to spend a thousand dollars, you know, get

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:44

some new paint on the cabinets, maybe put, you know, uh, over, uh, floor

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:48

over whatever the current flooring is with LVP, what have you, spend,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:51

you know, two, three grand and then be like, Hey, you know, this looks

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:55

much more modern while still keeping.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:13:57

You know, what was built, you know, 20 years ago to completely different markets.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:00

That's different.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:01

If you're talking to investor is different.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:02

If you're talking to single family, multifamily, et cetera.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:06

But if you try and lump all of that into a single message, you

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:09

come away being painfully generic.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:11

And so anybody who sees that is just completely indifferent

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:14

to what you have going on.

Ryan Bell: 00:14:15

A lot of good stuff there.

Ryan Bell: 00:14:16

Um, I've been, I've been kind of going down this.

Ryan Bell: 00:14:19

Let me see.

Ryan Bell: 00:14:19

I got to think how I want to say this, the, the offer, understanding

Ryan Bell: 00:14:23

the importance of the offer, um, and generating a lead and I, in our industry,

Ryan Bell: 00:14:28

I see a lot where we use offers like free consult for, you know, like, and, and

Ryan Bell: 00:14:34

they're very generic and, and I think there's a big missed opportunity there.

Ryan Bell: 00:14:38

Um, I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit here.

Ryan Bell: 00:14:40

Can you give us an example of what, what makes a good offer

Ryan Bell: 00:14:43

for the construction industry?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:45

Yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:46

So a good offer in general is just whatever is hard,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:50

ideally impossible to ignore.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:51

And I think that there's two directions you could go with this.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:54

One, you can improve your offer by still having the same, I guess you

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:57

could say like the same core offer.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:14:59

I'm not using very good verbiage here.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:00

Um, but you could say, I'm not just the kitchen remodeling company.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:05

I'm the kitchen remodeling company for property investors.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:08

I know that somebody who's buying a property, whether it's a buy and

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:11

hold or whether they're just trying to flip it is not concerned about it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:15

Having the most beautiful looking kitchen.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:17

They're concerned about the ROI of this remodel.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:20

And so if I were to try and approach these people, I would write my copy, design my

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:24

page and not maybe my entire brand, maybe just for a particular marketing campaign

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:28

and make it very clear that I understand the importance of ROI in your remodel.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:32

I understand that you're not putting in a marble countertop for somebody who's

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:35

paying you 3, 000 a month for rent.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:37

I understand that your goal is that every single day.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:41

But this property does not have somebody living in it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:43

You are losing money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:45

And so I'm going to speak to those pain points specifically, even

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:48

if my offer is still at the end of day, get a free consultation.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:51

If everybody else, all these other kitchen remodelers are putting themselves in front

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:55

of people and saying, Hey, we're a kitchen remodeling company, kitchen remodeling

Jarod Spiewak: 00:15:58

company, book a free consultation.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:00

And I'm saying, Hey, I understand the needs specifically of people

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:02

who are property investors.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:04

Please book a consultation.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:05

I'm going to feel a lot more if I'm in that market, I'm going to feel a

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:08

lot more attracted to that offer just because it's a lot more specific to

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:11

me, even though the core of what's.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:13

What I need to do book that call is still the same.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:16

Conversely, I could have a more generic, like, Hey, you know, kitchen remodeling

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:19

company, anybody who's here, you know, come, you know, have a conversation

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:23

with us in which case, um, you know, what are the, you know, what are the

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:27

needs and pain points, uh, of people?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:29

It could be something as simple as I live in an area where.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:32

Most people still just want me to call them.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:34

And I actually have a online booking system where you can schedule your

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:38

estimate without ever having to talk to a person, without ever having to wait

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:41

for somebody to respond to a form fill.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:43

In certain markets, that might be enough, especially if you're in an

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:46

area where nobody's updated their website in the past 20 years, right?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:49

Just that small little technical advantage for somebody like me, who's like, man,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:53

like, Are they going to answer the phone?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:55

Like, how long is that conversation going to be?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:56

If I fill out this lead capture form, is it going to be days, weeks, or

Jarod Spiewak: 00:16:59

months before they respond to me?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:00

Am I going to forget that I responded to these people?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:02

Versus, oh, I could just fill out this form and literally, I have

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:07

an appointment tomorrow at noon?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:09

Great, like that, I'm probably not even going to bother contacting anybody else.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:13

Until unless that appointment goes wrong.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:16

So two ways you can go about it, find the audience a lot more so that your

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:20

offer is already just more specific to them or find a way to position where

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:24

you're already doing easiest way.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:26

What are all the objections that I get from people find out a way to solve

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:29

that objection and then work that into your offer one way or another.

Ryan Bell: 00:17:32

So you've trademarked the phrase clicks to cash.

Ryan Bell: 00:17:35

Can you elaborate on that a little bit, uh, kind of on that concept

Ryan Bell: 00:17:39

and how it differentiates you at Comet fuel, uh, from other agencies?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:43

Yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:44

So at its core clicks to cash is all about trying to track from that first

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:48

initial click all the way to cash being in the bank so that it becomes easier

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:53

to answer a load of different questions.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:56

Uh, like what is our actual ROI?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:17:58

What is our customer acquisition costs?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:00

So on and so forth.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:01

Not just for the overall company, but ideally for the channel,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:04

for individual campaigns, for individual keywords as well.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:07

And then being able to make decisions based off of that data, like the, the,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:11

the keyword, uh, two different keywords performing very differently example that I

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:14

gave before having that data to say, yes, even though when I make this change in the

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:18

ad account, everything's going to go red.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:20

You're going to get fewer clicks.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:21

Your click through rate is going to be worse.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:23

Your cost per lead is going to be higher.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:24

Your conversion rate is going to be lower, but.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:27

I can go into your CRM and I can see that this is actually

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:30

four times more profitable.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:31

So even though Google is telling you, you're doing everything wrong.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:33

The actual thing that matters is telling me that I'm doing everything.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:36

That's right.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:37

And that's something that, uh, that Google simply can't tell you.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:41

You can improve its ability through importing a whole other conversation.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:43

It won't be perfect.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:45

CRM should always be the source of truth, separate conversation, but, uh,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:48

being able to close that gap and being able to answer a lot of really key,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:51

important information, uh, that, uh, You actually care about you actually care

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:56

about the number of leads that you're getting and how qualified there are.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:18:59

You don't care about how many phone calls you're getting that

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:02

like as much as people talk about.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:03

I want the phone to ring.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:05

Yes, we want the phone to ring until it's all telemarketers

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:08

and you're like, wait a second.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:09

Maybe this wasn't the right goal.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:11

Maybe my goal is actually something that's more important further down the line.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:14

So we're trying to really enable that to even be possible for a lot of

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:17

businesses, first and foremost, and then utilize that data as much as we can.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:22

And what happens and I'll try to give you a couple of quick examples.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:26

What happens is we were in the situation.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:29

We're, we're working with this company that depending on the month, they're

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:32

spending anywhere from 400 to 700, 000 a month on their advertising.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:36

So a lot of money within the first month of us working together, we made

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:40

a change that dropped their cost per lead or cost per conversion within

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:44

the ad account by half, which would be everybody celebrating, right?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:48

Like, like, Holy crap.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:49

Like we're working with this big company within like a month,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:52

maybe like a month and a half.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:53

We made this massive improvement.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:55

They're obviously going to love us.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:19:57

However, once we went into the actual CRM, there was no noticeable change in

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:01

the amount of clients that they were actually getting from that massive change.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:05

So even though we, from the ad account, they would be, the reporting would tell

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:10

them that you're going to get double the amount of leads you were getting before.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:12

And No, seemingly different, different result on the sales side and without

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:18

that additional data, we never would have been able to make that decision.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:20

We never would have been able to know that we would have assumed that we

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:23

just made this massive impact on this business that is going to see little

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:28

to no changes as a result of it, even simpler things like we are working

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:33

with the company and the people who handled the technology on the back end.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:37

It just changed over time.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:38

And so they had all these happier automations that eventually broke.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:42

And from our data, we could see people are still filling out the forms.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:45

But what they didn't realize was that 85 percent of the leads that they

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:48

were getting weren't actually being attached to a salesperson on HubSpot.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:52

And so because there's so many salespeople, it's a large organization,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:55

they, you know, they get like tens of thousands of leads a month because

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:57

it's like low cost, uh, high volume.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:20:59

That's not something that like one person is seeing every single

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:01

email that's coming in and seeing, oh, did the salesperson get it?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:04

No, you know, there's just a disconnect between who managed this before and

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:08

someone left, someone new came in, they didn't realize how it worked.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:11

No one realized that something was broken until he went, Hey.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:13

Our data says we have all this.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:15

Your data says we only have this amount.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:17

You know, why is there such a big disconnect?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:19

And we just kind of work backwards until we go, hang on, shouldn't that Zapier be

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:23

firing every time that there's a lead?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:24

And most of the time, it's just not.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:26

And like, whether it's a kind of a smoking gun that breaks or whether it's

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:31

something small, where it's just like, Hey, I was able to listen to sales calls.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:34

And turns out when I listened to your sales, people talk about

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:37

your products and services.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:38

They're like, I have a very different understanding than when I actually

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:40

talk to the owner because I'm talking because now I can hear the people who

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:43

are actually on the ground floor tell these leads why they're not qualified.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:46

I can hear them sell these leads.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:48

I can hear them talk about the features and the products and services and

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:52

like the benefits in a way that I might not have gone from the founder

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:56

who doesn't take sales calls.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:21:58

And so just having that information that isn't normally communicated between

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:01

these teams is just simply game changing.

Ryan Bell: 00:22:04

Is there anything with AI that you're leaning into?

Ryan Bell: 00:22:06

Uh, that's been helping out or, you know, speeding up your processes or that

Ryan Bell: 00:22:11

you've implemented with your clients that helps them kind of speed up what they do.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:16

So when we're, we're talking about AI, I'll assume that

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:19

we're talking about generative AI.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:20

So when it comes to tools like You know, mid journey or chat,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:23

GPT, et cetera, et cetera.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:25

When it comes to these types of tools, um, anything that's visual, I would

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:29

not put that on anything commercial.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:31

Uh, the copyright laws are just still too up in the air.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:34

And, uh, I, I certainly don't want that lawsuit hitting my desk

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:38

when it turns out that, uh, uh, Disney's copyright got involved.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:43

Like you're not winning that like goodbye, basically if

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:46

you're getting sued by Disney.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:48

So I think that's just way too up in the air.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:49

Um, as far as I understand the more.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:52

Text based is, um, from I don't understand the legal component of it,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:22:58

but from what I understand, there's less of a concern around the copyright

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:01

issues for text than there is images.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:03

That being said, even when it comes to text, um, the quality of the

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:08

text you get out is dependent on the quality of text you put in.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:11

So if you're really specific with what you want, you can get.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:14

Pretty good text out.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:15

Am I going to, you know, put in a two second response and then copy

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:19

and paste something into an ad?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:20

Probably not.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:21

But what I do is for some of my personal use cases is when I'm building like

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:26

reporting spreadsheets, GPT is usually writing the equations for me when

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:30

I'm nesting like query functions and V lookups and like left and rights

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:34

and all that kind of stuff that will take me like half an hour to create

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:37

a single equation that will You know, pull a bunch of data, clean it, etc.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:41

I'm just teaching GPT how my spreadsheet is set up and asking it for an equation.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:44

So I can copy and paste.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:45

And that's saving probably hours every time I put together like a

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:49

needlessly complex spreadsheet.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:51

Um, if I'm doing something like writing emails, something that I use it for is I

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:56

will bullet point out what I want to say.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:23:58

And then I'll let GPT determine how to write a cohesive message from that,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:01

and then I go in and edit it to be more in my voice, remove redundancy, etc.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:06

But that saves me a lot of time, where like, man, I know I

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:09

want to say these four things.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:11

I know that if I'm not careful, it can sound as me being, um,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:16

Condescending with my language.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:17

And so I'm going to tell GPT here are my four bullet points.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:21

Please write a message.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:21

This is what somebody sent me.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:23

I want this to be in this tone.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:25

Please keep it short and brief.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:26

I'm going to get the response, edit it, then send it out.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:28

But what I'm never doing is just going from, you know, that message

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:32

right to be sending an email.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:34

It's an, it's an intermediary step that is, uh, it allows me to

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:39

be more efficient, but it's not replacing anything that I'm doing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:24:41

effectively.

Ryan Bell: 00:24:42

Sure.

Ryan Bell: 00:24:43

I found it more than anything.

Ryan Bell: 00:24:45

It helps me get through being stuck.

Ryan Bell: 00:24:47

Um, when it comes to design related projects or, or whatever.

Ryan Bell: 00:24:53

And it's, it's so true.

Ryan Bell: 00:24:54

What you said about, you know, with GPT, what you, you know, what you

Ryan Bell: 00:24:58

put in will change what you get out.

Ryan Bell: 00:25:00

I found the, it's the exact opposite for mid journey though.

Ryan Bell: 00:25:04

If I have a very descriptive Uh, request that usually is horrible, but

Ryan Bell: 00:25:10

it spins back, but the kind of the more generic and simple, uh, prompt

Ryan Bell: 00:25:14

that's put in there, the better the results from what I found, but there's,

Ryan Bell: 00:25:18

there's still always pretty weird, but, but it can really, it can really

Ryan Bell: 00:25:22

get you thinking, um, too, and, and.

Ryan Bell: 00:25:25

Generate some ideas that I, you know, things I would never think of probably.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:25:29

Yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:25:29

I think the idea generation aspect of it is really valuable.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:25:32

And that's, um, yeah, like I wouldn't, you know, like I mentioned, I wouldn't

Jarod Spiewak: 00:25:35

like copy and paste an image that I got out of it, but if I was like, Oh

Jarod Spiewak: 00:25:38

man, like I, I have this general idea or concept for a piece of creative.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:25:44

Yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:25:44

Maybe I'll have it spit out like 10 things, but like, Oh, I really like

Jarod Spiewak: 00:25:46

how it used these colors, or I really like how it designed this one aspect.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:25:50

And then I'm going to hand that to a designer and say, Hey, you know, Here's

Jarod Spiewak: 00:25:52

the inspiration, you know, please create something based off of that.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:25:55

But yeah, yeah, I completely agree.

Ryan Bell: 00:25:57

So, uh, transparency seems to be a key value, uh,

Ryan Bell: 00:26:00

in your approach at CometFuel.

Ryan Bell: 00:26:02

How do you provide clients with clear visibility into the performance and ROI

Ryan Bell: 00:26:08

of their, their marketing campaigns and kind of what you're doing with them?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:12

Yeah, so I think one is just when we're communicating just Being

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:16

honest, like as, as silly as that sounds, um, just the feedback that I get from

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:20

people, like when I just said, like, Hey, like, thanks for sending me your goal.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:23

I don't think that's realistic.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:24

It's not going to happen.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:25

Like you're just not going to be able to do that.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:27

And that small amount of pushback, I think a lot of people are just afraid to get

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:31

that pushback, especially, um, uh, within the agency world, like you don't have,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:36

like anybody can start an agency tomorrow.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:38

They want to, there's no barrier to entry.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:39

There's no license that you have to have or anything like that.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:42

And because of that.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:43

There are tons of agencies out there that simply really just don't know where

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:47

their next dollar is going to come from and understand like anybody who started a

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:50

business, you know, that there's a point in time where like, I don't know where

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:53

my next dollar is going to come from.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:26:55

And I think when you're in that state, it's really, it's.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:00

You're incentivized almost to do anything in your power to retain

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:02

those people and be like, yes, I can hit that goal no matter, no matter

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:05

what, like, yes, you want to turn a dollar into a billion dollars.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:07

I got you like, sure, but that's just not going to happen.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:10

And so I think just being like, like, don't get me wrong.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:14

I'd much prefer to keep you as a client, but I'm not going to go out of my

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:16

way to lie to you or to deceive you.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:19

Potentially.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:20

I'm just going to be like, Yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:21

Like that doesn't make sense.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:22

Cause I don't want to be in that phone call three months from now

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:24

where like you told me that you were going to do X, Y, and Z like that

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:26

make, that doesn't make me feel good.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:28

So I'm going to avoid that from, from the get go.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:31

So I think that's one thing, like just being honest and having no problem, just

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:34

telling people like that's not going to work or like, that's a dumb idea, but

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:37

you know, more nicely than that, or, you know, what have you, uh, I think the

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:40

other component of it is just because of how we try and track things, we just

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:44

have a lot more insight and visibility already where I can go into the CRM and

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:48

be like, Hey, like you spent a dollar.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:50

You made 8.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:51

You told me your goal was to make 6.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:54

I don't understand why you're upset.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:55

Like, we can have that conversation and we can have that transparency and

Jarod Spiewak: 00:27:58

be like, oh, well, something changed.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:00

Oh, our margins are down.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:01

Okay, great.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:01

Now I understand your perspective.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:03

Now let's re evaluate this goal.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:05

And we're working together and not, you know, seeing each other as the

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:08

bane of each other's existence.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:10

Essentially, you know, just.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:11

Like, we're here to work together.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:12

We're here to, you know, partner.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:14

If you see me as the enemy or if I see you as the enemy, then it's just

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:17

not going to be a good relationship and we should just kind of cut that

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:20

out and like find somebody else.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:21

I have no problem telling you we're not a good fit or

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:23

referring you to somebody else.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:24

I don't have an issue with that.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:26

I think that's just kind of my personality that just translates to the business

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:30

where like I know that this is going to be a painful conversation in six months.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:33

I'm just going to do what I need to do to avoid that today.

Ryan Bell: 00:28:35

Save yourself some big headaches that way.

Ryan Bell: 00:28:37

Probably.

Ryan Bell: 00:28:39

Um, are there any trends or shifts that you, uh, foresee kind of coming in the,

Ryan Bell: 00:28:46

in your industry, in the construction industry, anything, any, anything

Ryan Bell: 00:28:50

on the horizon that you are kind of predicting, uh, might help shape or

Ryan Bell: 00:28:55

change kind of where we're headed.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:56

What has been interesting is.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:28:58

I've been having this conversation about, uh, so the very short background is clicks

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:03

to cash started off as a spreadsheet that I would walk people through and be like,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:06

tell me each step of your sales process.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:08

Like I'll play around with the numbers and I'll show you basically the

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:10

difference in you only caring about cost per click conversion rate versus

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:13

everything being basically optimized.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:15

So.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:16

What happened over time was more and more people just naturally through other

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:21

people communicating this learn the value of tracking and more and more people that

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:26

I talked to have at least attempted to try and track beyond just a conversion.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:30

Some have done it successfully.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:31

Some have done it not so successfully.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:33

There are more softwares that are being set up that by default are helping

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:37

you, uh, more easily track leads.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:41

And attribute them to individual channels and help you track them

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:44

throughout the sales process, etc.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:46

There are more agencies that I run into.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:48

They're trying to educate their clients about this.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:50

So, I believe that over the next few years, it'll be more common for

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:55

service businesses specifically to have greater insight into how you.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:29:58

Well, their marketing is performing just due to natural shifts.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:01

What this also means, though, is businesses who are late to

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:05

the game are going to be at a substantial disadvantage because

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:09

right now it's a massive advantage.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:11

If you have the ability to know by marketing channel your your stats of

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:15

leads, qualified leads, you know, all the things that we've already talked about.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:19

Pretty much none of your competitors do that.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:20

Even when I talk to companies that are doing, you know, 10, 15, 20 million a

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:23

year plus, a lot of them don't really have that insight, or at least not

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:27

in an automatic way where it doesn't take a bunch of people pulling reports

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:29

together and hoping for the best.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:31

But a few years from now, that'll, that might be the norm.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:36

In which case, if you're still like, Hey, like I judge my success based off

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:38

of phone calls and form fills, everyone else is making decisions based off of.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:42

Potentially a year or two of sales data and I have zero sales data that

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:47

I'm including in my optimizations that you know, that's just night and

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:50

day for a lot of businesses and I think that that'll what that'll cause.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:55

Is where things are working, people are going to double and triple down their

Jarod Spiewak: 00:30:58

budget because they know that it's working and that's going to cause cost

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:01

to rise your cost per click is going to go up your, you know, the difficulty

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:04

of keywords to rank for organically is going to go up the amount of noise that

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:06

people are getting in that market Jones going to go up because everyone's going

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:09

to try and capitalize on it, which means.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:11

You might see your cost per click, let's say increased by 35 percent

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:14

over the course of a quarter or a year and you still don't have any

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:18

additional transparency as to how this is performing versus something else.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:22

And you just don't know what decisions to make about this.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:24

Should I spend 35 percent more per click?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:26

Should I not?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:27

I don't know.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:28

Other people are.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:29

What do they know that I don't?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:31

And even if I start this process today, they still have two years of data on me.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:35

So like for me, I, even if you don't have everything connected now, the most

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:38

basic thing you can do is do everything in your power to know what lead source

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:42

your leads came from a lot of other stuff here at CRM will automatically do for you.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:46

You can go through your notes and you can see, Oh, this person, I

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:50

had a call with them on this date.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:52

And the, here are the notes of the call.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:54

I can retroactively update that they were, went from a lead to a qualified lead.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:31:57

That's fine, but I can't retroactively most of the time.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:01

I'm not going to be able to retroactively know that this lead

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:03

two years ago came in from SEO, or it came in from this conference event

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:08

that I went to, or this came in from Google ads, Facebook ads, what have

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:11

you, so attribute leads to marketing channels, everything else is like.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:15

A thousand times easier.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:16

Once you have that, assuming that you have some sort of even basic CRM,

Ryan Bell: 00:32:19

what's your favorite CRM?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:21

So if you can afford it, I quite like HubSpot mostly because

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:26

it's very plug and play for a lot of this tracking that I'm talking about.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:29

It's literally like connect to Google ads.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:31

It'll automatically send tracking templates into your account.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:33

People convert, especially if you're using like the HubSpot forms, it'll

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:36

automatically tell you where your leads are coming from and you can do a lot of

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:38

this stuff without Zapier or any other integrations or like fancy, like cookie

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:42

capturing through tech manager, et cetera.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:45

For simple B2B, I like Close.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:47

That's what we use.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:48

I've used them for years.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:49

Um, if you have very low volume, a spreadsheet is fine and you can

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:53

worry about like a tool later on.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:55

You know, if you deal with like a couple leads a month, you know,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:57

you're not going to be overwhelmed with a, with a spreadsheet.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:32:59

So, how smart if you can afford it?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:01

Close if you're B2B.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:03

If, if you're something in between, there's like a million of them out there.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:06

It really just depends.

Ryan Bell: 00:33:07

Pretend I'm about 20 years younger.

Ryan Bell: 00:33:10

What, and I'm a aspiring entrepreneur, I'm looking to get into the digital marketing

Ryan Bell: 00:33:15

side of the construction industry.

Ryan Bell: 00:33:17

What advice would you give

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:19

me?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:20

Assuming so when it comes to the marketing stuff, DIY don't

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:23

initially hire someone else.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:25

Um, you need to establish a baseline.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:27

Uh, Chances are, uh, marketing is way more complicated than you

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:31

realize at this, at this point in time, there's a lot more components.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:34

Um, you, then you've realized there's a lot more that goes into branding

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:37

and positioning than you realize.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:39

And it's very easy to hire a company that they might even be great at what they do.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:43

They may even be the best and you could still crash and burn.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:47

Because of what you don't know what I recommend to pretty much everybody who

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:50

hasn't worked on a specific channel before is start off by spending

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:55

your own time or somebody on your team's time to establish a baseline.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:33:58

You spent a dollar and you only made 25 cents back.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:02

Not great, but you'll be shocked how many agencies you'll hire.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:05

That you spend a dollar and you make less than 25 cents back.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:07

And it's definitely not worth it for you to work with them.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:09

If you having little to no knowledge or experience to better job.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:13

So start off, establish a baseline.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:15

And then when you do have a conversation with somebody else to take it over, you're

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:18

giving them way more ammo for them to help you because you have baseline data.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:22

You have you.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:23

Have a rough idea of where your cost per click is.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:25

You have a rough idea of how you're converting.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:26

You have a rough idea of what is or is not working.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:29

And so somebody like myself or another agency can go in there and start off not

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:33

on square one, but you know, square 15.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:36

And like I said, you also have that baseline where you can actually

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:38

compare and get a sense of an idea if they're doing a good job or not.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:41

But if you have, if you've never tried it before, you don't know.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:44

Like if I'm spending a dollar making 2 back, is that great?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:47

It doesn't seem great, but.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:49

Maybe if I tried it myself, I'd only be making 30 cents back, and this is actually

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:53

a massive improvement to what I thought I could do, and I still might want to do

Jarod Spiewak: 00:34:57

better, but at least I know it's better for me to hire somebody else at this

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:00

point, because if I did it myself, like I tried it and it wasn't working, or I tried

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:04

it and it was only a two extra turn, now it's a five extra turn, what have you.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:06

So that's one, establish the baseline before you hire somebody else to do it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:10

Um, Next, I would just say, like, learn marketing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:13

I think a lot of businesses, like they see marketing as a necessary

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:17

evil to grow their business.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:18

Most people that start a service business, they do it because they did that thing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:22

Like I was, I was on roofs for 20 years.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:25

Now I own a roofing business.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:26

I know I was a plumber for 20 years.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:28

I owned a plumbing business.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:29

You know, you don't see a whole lot of people that, you know, You

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:31

know, I was a plumber for 20 years.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:32

Now I own a FinTech company like it happens, but you know, it's just not

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:35

the most common path and marketing is often seen as the bane of the existence.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:40

It's a necessary evil and it tends to be kind of the lifeblood of

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:46

the business, a sad reality for anybody who is a technical person.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:50

Like my background is doing the work.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:51

I'm not a salesperson that started an agency that, you know, I'm a.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:54

You know, I was doing the work, then I started my own company.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:57

Guess what?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:57

Nobody knows the quality of your work until they've paid you.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:35:59

If you can't convince them to pay you, it doesn't matter if you're the best

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:02

in the world or the worst in the world.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:03

You're still not making any money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:05

And so being able to help people understand, guide them to

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:08

understand, are you the right fit?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:10

Why you're the right fit in a way that they understand.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:12

Nobody cares that you've been in business for 20 years.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:14

Nobody cares that you claim that you're the best.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:16

Literally, everybody else does the same exact thing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:19

So, I would recommend starting to understand marketing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:22

Like, whether that's books, whether that's podcasts, it doesn't have to be, you

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:24

know, you don't have to become an expert.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:26

But, if you're in a position where, like, man, I put my website in front

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:31

of people, nobody's contacting me.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:33

I've hired four agencies.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:34

None of them are working.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:35

All of these agencies are bad.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:37

Yeah, maybe, you know, maybe you, you know, hired for, you know, unfortunate

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:40

events, but, uh, you know, chances are there's a disconnect between

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:45

who you're trying to reach and what and how the company's positioning

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:47

themselves and you hiring an ad agency isn't going to solve that problem.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:52

A branding agency, maybe probably not going to want to spend that money on it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:36:56

So spending that little bit of time to understand how people work, how people

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:00

decide to buy things will, uh, I think massively improve your success rate in

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:06

business in general and your growth.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:07

Every single business that I've worked with who the founder Has

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:11

either a background in marketing or they just understand marketing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:15

Their businesses almost grow a hundred percent faster.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:18

Not like the, their businesses almost definitively grow way faster than

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:22

businesses that I talk to that just don't really understand marketing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:25

But like I've worked with businesses that have gone from in the construction space,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:28

uh, home services space go from like zero to multimillion within like a year or two.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:33

So, and, and they have a great looking brand.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:35

They just started off with a great understanding of marketing and

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:38

they were able to leverage that to scale their company massively.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:40

I also have conversations with people who have been in business for 20

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:43

years and they're like, yeah, I've had a moving company for 20 years.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:45

I still only have one truck.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:46

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:48

And, you know, yeah, they might have a great service, but the people who,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:52

who see that business don't understand that it's a great service because they

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:54

don't know how to communicate that.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:37:56

And, you know, that that's, you know, sometimes that makes all the difference.

Ryan Bell: 00:38:00

Great advice.

Ryan Bell: 00:38:01

Well, thanks so much, Jared.

Ryan Bell: 00:38:02

Uh, this has been great and we're thankful for the time, uh, we've had with you

Ryan Bell: 00:38:06

today and everything you've shared.

Ryan Bell: 00:38:07

Um, we're close to wrapping up what we call the business end of things.

Ryan Bell: 00:38:10

Is there anything that we haven't covered today that you'd like to share?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:14

Don't be afraid to try stuff.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:15

This is a conversation I have a lot of people, um, throw stuff at the wall.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:20

Like nobody, I've rebranded my company several times.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:23

Like we started off as, you know, I was a freelancer.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:25

Then I rebranded to Blue Dog Media when I started my agency.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:28

I knew from day one that wasn't going to be the right name.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:30

We started out as an SEO company.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:32

We then realized that, hey, our clients Growing faster through

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:35

ads when we started, you know, taking on a couple ads clients, we

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:38

completely shifted from SEO to ads.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:40

We then changed the name from BlueDuck Media to CometFuel.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:43

Big changes that, you know, people freak out about, like,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:45

oh, like, that'll never work.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:47

People are going to be so confused, like, nobody cares.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:49

Like, it's, you know, we're not, you know, we're not a 400 million

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:52

company that gets national press attention every time I sneeze.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:55

Like, nobody cares if we change our name.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:38:57

Um, and, you know, try stuff, like, it's, it's okay.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:00

If people aren't, you know, this.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:03

Yeah, I'll try to keep this short.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:04

But if you know, sometimes I'll tell people is, oh, like

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:07

nobody's buying from us, right?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:08

Like, okay, like, tell them it's 50 percent off.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:11

It's like, Oh, no, everyone's gonna buy from us.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:12

I'm gonna lose so much money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:13

I'm like, just try it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:14

And you're gonna be shocked to find out that it wasn't the pricing that

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:17

was causing people like something you might even be able to make it free

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:20

and people still might not buy it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:21

Be that interested.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:22

Why?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:22

Because maybe you just, they didn't understand what it is that you do.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:25

They didn't understand the value that you provide.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:27

You know, you're one of X amount of other companies in the area.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:31

Nobody's, you know, depending on how long you've been in business, they might

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:34

not have ever heard from you before.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:36

It might not be the pricing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:37

It's not the licensing that you have.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:39

It might be that when they Google you, um, Nothing comes up.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:43

Like it's, it's not about your ad copy.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:45

It's not about the colors on your website.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:48

It's, I don't know if I'm willing to pay a company that I've never

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:51

heard of that has no online presence.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:53

12, 000 to redo my roof.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:55

Just, just try stuff.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:56

See what works.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:56

If it doesn't work, try something else.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:57

Like there's no, there's no pain.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:39:59

Like there's, there's no issue.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:00

Like reposition yourself, try something else.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:02

You know, you're the kitchen remodeler for investors today that didn't work.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:05

Now you're the kitchen remodelers for commercial properties

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:08

with at least a hundred units.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:10

Figure stuff out until it works.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:11

Once you figure out what works, triple down on it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:13

Like nobody's going to care that you change.

Ethan Young: 00:40:14

No, I would say the funny thing is like you're saying that kind

Ethan Young: 00:40:17

of applies to if you are having success or if you aren't having success,

Ethan Young: 00:40:20

because if you are having success, like you said, with your business,

Ethan Young: 00:40:22

well, you can still pivot to something new, but if you're not having success,

Ethan Young: 00:40:26

you're already not having success.

Ethan Young: 00:40:27

You may as well try something else, you know?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:29

Yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:30

Yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:30

It's funny.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:31

Um, just kind of.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:32

Anecdotally, um, like I, I've done things where it's like, Hey, like

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:35

literally like take your pricing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:37

This mostly for like SAS companies, like take your

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:39

pricing, make it 90 percent offer.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:41

You know what?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:41

Tell the next 10 people that you're going to get the product

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:44

completely for free for life.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:45

Like we can set it up and automatically.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:47

So like, you know, it can't, you know, no more than 10 can get it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:50

And everyone's always afraid, like, Oh, I'm going to lose so much money.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:52

I'm like, no, what I'm afraid of is that even when you tell them that's

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:55

free, they're still not opting in.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:56

Like, that's the problem.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:40:57

Yeah.

Ryan Bell: 00:40:58

Yeah.

Ryan Bell: 00:40:58

No kidding.

Ryan Bell: 00:40:59

Wow.

Ryan Bell: 00:40:59

That's interesting.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:00

That's a very interesting way to look at it.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:01

Yeah.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:02

Well, uh, so before we close out, I have to ask if you'd like to

Ryan Bell: 00:41:05

participate in our rapid fire questions.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:08

These are seven questions.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:10

Some are serious.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:11

Some are silly.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:12

All you got to do is give a quick response.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:14

Are you up for the challenge?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:41:15

Yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:41:16

I mean, has anybody ever said no?

Ryan Bell: 00:41:17

No.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:41:20

Oh, I won't be the first.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:21

I kind of don't know why we ask anymore.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:23

It's just kind of built into our scripts and how we present it.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:26

But I've thought that too, like, why do we even ask?

Ryan Bell: 00:41:29

We just need to do it.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:30

Roll right into it.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:31

Um, Ethan and I will take turns asking Ethan.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:33

You want to kick us off and ask the first question?

Ryan Bell: 00:41:35

Yeah, I can do that.

Ryan Bell: 00:41:36

Um, what's

Ethan Young: 00:41:37

one book or movie that's had an impact on your life?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:41:40

Oh, uh, this is easy.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:41:41

Uh, profit first by Mike Mike fits.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:41:43

I, this is a book that I send to every client that we work with.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:41:48

It's a book that I've created some content about.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:41:51

It's the, there's a lot of things that go into this book, but what it helped me do

Jarod Spiewak: 00:41:56

was establish a cashflow management system book talks about a couple of things.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:00

But for a long time, I had a problem where I was like, Hey, we have

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:03

X amount of money in the bank.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:05

I don't know how much of this money I can spend.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:08

Without freaking out.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:09

And so I delayed hiring people because I didn't feel as though I could afford

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:12

it while at the same time paying for things that I didn't necessarily need

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:17

because, hey, this is a one time purchase.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:19

I know how much money I have today.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:20

I don't know how much money I'm going to have in six months.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:22

So I don't know if I can hire this person that I'm going to

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:23

have to pay for X amount of time.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:25

And what this did, Is it just helped me better understand how

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:29

much money do we actually have?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:30

How much money can we spend?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:31

How much money do we need to allocate for X, Y, and Z?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:33

And it made me, uh, much more comfortable in making financial

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:37

decisions on the business rather than just seeing what I had, which was, uh,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:41

an operating account and a tax account.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:43

I'm like, great.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:44

I'm confident that the government isn't going to be mad at me

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:46

because I'm paying them, but everything else that I have in here.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:49

How much of this can I spend without getting into potential liquidity issues?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:54

And now I can answer those questions by just logging into the bank and just

Jarod Spiewak: 00:42:58

looking at, Oh, this is, this is the account that is the play money account.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:01

That account can go to zero, makes no difference in the business.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:03

That account has 20 grand in it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:05

Someone wants to, you know, we want to get started on a project that we want

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:07

to allocate 15 grand for no problem.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:09

Sign off on it by a 50 grand in a single account.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:12

And that's the entire business.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:14

Someone is asking me for 15 grand.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:15

Now that's a scary question.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:17

That's a scary number.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:19

I don't know how much money I can spend.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:20

So, uh, long winded answer.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:22

Profit first.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:22

I highly recommend everybody read it.

Ryan Bell: 00:43:24

Question number two.

Ryan Bell: 00:43:26

If aliens landed tomorrow and offered to take you to their planet,

Ryan Bell: 00:43:30

what earthly possession would you insist on bringing with you?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:34

Probably Probably the simplest answer

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:37

would just be food and water.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:38

Like who knows what, who knows what they use on their planet.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:41

I might not be living for very long if I don't

Ethan Young: 00:43:43

good answer.

Ethan Young: 00:43:45

Um, question three, if you could have any superpower, but it would only

Ethan Young: 00:43:49

work when you're actively crocheting, what would that superpower be?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:53

Okay.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:53

So if I'm actively crocheting, that kind of limits what I can do at the time.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:43:57

Um, I guess I would say.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:00

Let's go with controlling time.

Ethan Young: 00:44:02

Oh, okay.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:03

Because I feel like you can kind of do

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:04

whatever you want at that point.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:06

And if we want to be pedantic about it, like how do you define crocheting?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:10

As long as if I'm holding, I don't know what they're called, but

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:13

the sticks, and I have some yarn, does that count or do I have to?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:17

Actively be moving them either way, you know, how quickly I think I can, uh,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:22

I think I can find some new ones there where, uh, I think that would work.

Ryan Bell: 00:44:25

Very thoughtful answer there.

Ryan Bell: 00:44:27

Next question.

Ryan Bell: 00:44:28

How do you define success?

Ryan Bell: 00:44:31

And do you think you've achieved it based on your own definition?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:34

I think success is really difficult to, to define.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:37

Um, I don't think, I don't think it's like a, a single thing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:41

Cause like, I think success in like, My personal life is

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:44

different from my business life.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:46

I think success from my personal life versus like when I'm sitting

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:48

down and playing a video game and what I define success in that

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:51

moment is going to be different.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:52

Uh, for me, there are two things that I really just kind of look towards.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:56

Like one, can I sleep well at night?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:44:59

Like that, that's something that's really important to me, like knowing that,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:02

uh, by my own definition of ethics and morals, which are going to be universally

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:06

different for everybody, but I'm doing things that align with my goals.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:10

You know, my interest, you know, sometimes that's saying no to, you know, really high

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:15

paying products because I know they're going to be a nightmare and like, but

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:18

being able to sleep well at night, knowing that, you know, a week from now, I'm not

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:21

going to be up at three in the morning trying to finish deliverable or, you know,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:25

firing a client who is being, you know, belligerent to a team member of ours,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:29

Did I have to personally deal with that?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:30

No, but it doesn't make me feel good that that's happening at all.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:32

It's not going to make them feel good.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:33

And so, you know, just kind of cutting that loose and, you know, getting rid of

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:36

them, uh, helps me sleep better at night.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:38

So that's one that's really important to me.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:41

The other side is just happiness, which is obviously, you know, also something that's

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:44

kind of a moving target, depending on just what's going on day by day, but in the

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:48

macro, um, just being happy with, Where I am on things, just it's still being fun.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:54

Um, if it's not fun and I'm not happy doing it, then I just don't

Jarod Spiewak: 00:45:59

really see a point in doing it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:01

So it just has to be fun for me.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:02

Like where we could probably simplify the company and make a lot more money and

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:07

grow a lot faster and I could work a lot less, but it wouldn't be as fun for me.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:11

And so I just wouldn't do it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:12

Like I just don't have the capacity to do something that I don't personally enjoy.

Ethan Young: 00:46:16

If you woke up tomorrow with the ability to speak to animals,

Ethan Young: 00:46:19

what animal would you go to first?

Ethan Young: 00:46:21

And what's the first question you would ask?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:23

Uh, so we've kind of been living with our friend's dog for the

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:27

past year because, um, she's active duty.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:29

And so when she's gone, we're, we're watching her dog.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:32

Um, she whines a lot.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:34

And so I think I would just want to know what, what are you whining

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:36

about at this particular moment?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:38

Because like, you've been fed, you've been watered, you've gone to the

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:41

bathroom, like you've been outside.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:43

And Like, why are you just looking at me and whining?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:45

Like we've played, like what's going on?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:47

Like, am I missing something?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:48

Like, you need me to do something.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:50

Uh, so I think that, I think that would solve a lot of frustrations

Jarod Spiewak: 00:46:54

in a my and hers relationship.

Ryan Bell: 00:46:55

Yeah.

Ryan Bell: 00:46:56

You know, I, I thought about this when I was writing these questions

Ryan Bell: 00:47:00

and I use chat GPT to come up, to help come up with these, uh, But

Ryan Bell: 00:47:04

there's like so many animals, right?

Ryan Bell: 00:47:06

But, but my answer would probably be a dog too, even though I feel like I have

Ryan Bell: 00:47:09

a good understanding of what my dogs want and when they there's times you're right.

Ryan Bell: 00:47:13

Like, well, what do you want right now?

Ryan Bell: 00:47:14

Just tell me, spit it out.

Ryan Bell: 00:47:18

Okay.

Ryan Bell: 00:47:18

Um, we are on to question number six.

Ryan Bell: 00:47:21

If you had to pick one celebrity to be your personal assistant

Ryan Bell: 00:47:25

for a week, who would it be and what task would you have them do?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:47:29

Let's see, I mean, I think Ryan Reynolds would be a fun one,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:47:33

just because he seems like a fun dude to hang out with, like, like he can do

Jarod Spiewak: 00:47:36

whatever he wants, like just being around him would probably be a good time, um,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:47:41

man, that, that might be the best, best answer I can give off the top of my head,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:47:45

um, yeah, I mean, there's, there's so many interesting people that I'd love

Jarod Spiewak: 00:47:49

to, like, have a conversation with, just see how they, how they think about

Jarod Spiewak: 00:47:53

things, but if I'm going for just, I

Ryan Bell: 00:47:58

mean, he's, he's a genius when it comes to marketing and branding stuff.

Ryan Bell: 00:48:02

I mean, he's, he's turned so many companies and brands into gold mines with

Ryan Bell: 00:48:06

his humor and, and just being him really.

Ryan Bell: 00:48:09

So good answer.

Ethan Young: 00:48:10

All right.

Ethan Young: 00:48:10

You last question, um, what's a valuable lesson you've learned from a failure

Ethan Young: 00:48:15

in your career or personal life?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:16

I mean, there's just so many failures to choose from.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:19

Um, uh, I think something that's just been really, Always difficult for me to like

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:26

I constantly have to remind myself like you can't you won't always win even if

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:29

you do everything right like you can still like you can have the best communication

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:35

you can have the most thorough onboarding process the most thorough reporting

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:39

process the most thorough, uh, you know, uh, Review of everything that you do, you

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:45

could be, you know, consider it the best in every aspect of what you're doing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:49

You can still end up losing.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:51

Someone could still be unhappy with what it is.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:53

You could set proper expectations.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:54

They could change their expectations, not tell you and still get mad at you.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:57

And, you know, you're just like, man, like, no matter what I,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:48:59

like, I did everything in my power and I still lost here.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:02

And I think, um, just accepting that because every time a

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:04

situation like that, Uh, occurs.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:06

I always try to find the solution to it.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:08

How can we make sure that this doesn't happen again?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:10

And, you know, sometimes we're then going down a rabbit hole

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:13

that we really just don't need to.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:15

And it's like, Hey, like it, it sucks that this happened, but like, it's okay.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:19

Like we were all adults here.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:20

Like we said, our goal is to do X, Y, and Z, then suddenly

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:24

the goal changed to a, B and C.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:25

And we didn't know we failed to meet the ABC expectations.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:28

We got told that yeah.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:29

When we were being fired and you know, that, you know, that sucks, but it

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:35

doesn't make sense for us to spend the next two months being like, okay,

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:38

what if we were asked everybody every day, like, did your goals change?

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:41

You didn't tell us because then we annoyed the 99 percent of

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:43

people who that doesn't happen to

Ryan Bell: 00:49:45

good stuff.

Ryan Bell: 00:49:46

Well, Jared, thank you again for your time today.

Ryan Bell: 00:49:48

Um, for anyone that wants to get in touch with you or connect with you,

Ryan Bell: 00:49:51

what's the best way they can do that.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:53

Yeah, absolutely.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:54

So if you want to learn more about CometFuel, you can go to cometfuel.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:57

com.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:49:57

All of our contact information is where you expect it to be on a website.

Jarod Spiewak: 00:50:00

And if you want to do me a huge favor, you can look up Jared Spiewak on YouTube

Jarod Spiewak: 00:50:06

for my consistently inconsistent channel.

Ryan Bell: 00:50:08

Perfect.

Ryan Bell: 00:50:09

We will make sure to put those notes, uh, or I'm sorry,

Ryan Bell: 00:50:12

those links in the show notes.

Ryan Bell: 00:50:14

Well, thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Construction Disruption

Ryan Bell: 00:50:18

with Jared Spiewak of Comet Fuel.

Ryan Bell: 00:50:21

Please watch for future episodes of our podcast.

Ryan Bell: 00:50:24

We're always blessed with great guests.

Ryan Bell: 00:50:26

Don't forget to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or

Ryan Bell: 00:50:28

give us a thumbs up on YouTube.

Ryan Bell: 00:50:30

Until the next time we're together, keep on disrupting and challenging those in

Ryan Bell: 00:50:34

your world to better ways of doing things.

Ryan Bell: 00:50:36

And don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter, make them smile

Ryan Bell: 00:50:41

and encourage them to simple yet powerful things we can all do to change the world.

Ryan Bell: 00:50:46

God bless and take care.

Ryan Bell: 00:50:47

This is Isaiah industry signing off until the next episode

Ryan Bell: 00:50:50

of construction disruption.

Intro: 00:50:54

This podcast is produced by Isaiah industries, manufacturer of specialty

Intro: 00:50:59

metal roofing and other building products.