Hybrid Sales Strategies with Randy Chaffee

I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer

of specialty metal roofing and other building materials.

Today my cohost is Seth Heckman.

And hi Seth.

Welcome to the show.

Hey, thank you.

Looking forward to it.

Hey, I got a question for you.

Um, you have a dog at home, don't you?

I do

I know you got Roscoe.

Roscoe the dog.

So I have to tell you something.

Your vet, your veterinarian will probably never tell you this, but if your dog,

if Roscoe is ever running a fever, you need to get some mustard because

it's the best thing for a hot dog.

Okay?

that.

That wasn't one of your finest though.

I agree.

Only mustard.

It should be put on a

Well, I, I agree with that.

Yeah.

It's the spicier mustard the better too.

So, Hey, are you good to go?

Oh, let's let our audience know we are doing challenge words.

Um, so each Seth and I and our guest soon to be revealed, uh, has

been, have been given a challenge word that we are challenged to

work into the conversation somehow.

So you, the listening audience can be listening for any unusual

words or phrases we might use.

And you might think, aha, I wonder if that was the challenge word,

but maybe we'll trick you and we'll just say something really stupid.

Anyway, so, um, anyway, you good to go, Seth?

Yep.

Let's get going.

Well, our feature guest today is no stranger to pretty much anyone in

the home improvement and construction industry, it seems through his business

efforts as well as his podcasting and social media, which have absolutely

been voluminous in recent years.

And now his new book, this gentleman is, like I said, just everywhere recently.

Um, our guest today is none other than Randy Chaffee of Source One Marketing,

and ibuyfromrandy.com, a manufacturer's representative known for the care help and

attention he provides to his customers.

Randy is well loved and respected in the construction field.

Randy, welcome to Construction Disruption.

Todd, Seth, that was great.

You almost, it's almost like I wrote that or something.

That was brilliant.

Yeah, you might have No,

No,

I, I, I always pick on everyone and write it myself,

I know you though.

I appreciate that.

The fine kind words and I appreciate it and it's, it's great to be on.

I've known you guys for a number of years now

We certainly have myriad of years

be the word?

now.

You never know.

You never know.

We'll reveal at the end of the

We will.

But a myriad of years and, uh, and, and, and I, those are kind words

because it's exactly the way I feel about you guys, so I appreciate it.

Well, we appreciate you greatly and have enjoyed our

relationship, that's for sure.

So, um, let's go ahead and dig into it.

So you've been around the industry quite a number of years and your

first book is hitting the stores here very shortly, probably about

the time this episode is released.

Um, titled Asphalt and Algorithms, A Road Warriors Playbook for Winning

Results in the Hybrid Sales Arena.

Your book tells a bit about your life story and gives great advice to

those looking for success in sales.

Um, maybe I'm getting the cart before the horse here, but tell us what inspired

and prompted you to write a book.

Well, I appreciate it.

You know, it, it's, uh, it's funny, my, uh, editor and my marketing

team asked me that question well, after I was into the book.

Uh, and, uh.

It was real quick, a simple answer.

The very most important reason, uh, guys, was to honor my dad.

Um, I talk a lot about my dad in the book.

The first two or three chapters are very focused on growing up on the farm.

I was an only child adopted, and I was three days old.

I, I, I refer through that as bought at the baby store, and it must've

been a sale day, but you know, it's what it is, what it is, right?

But, uh, and so we lived three and a half miles out of a small town of 1,201 people.

And so my dad was everything as most dads are.

But I mean, in my world, everything, everything I, I just, who I

hung with every day and a hero.

And so we, we spent a lot of time, I spent a lot of time getting lessons

that I didn't really want at the time, and probably, no, not probably

did not appreciate at the time, unfortunately, I. Probably didn't

appreciate him until after he was gone.

He's been gone 30 years now, and someday I try to be a really, really good boy

so that I can go hang with him again.

Right.

But until then, the uh, the, the, the, the best option I have right now to

pay him back a little bit is to do a book that I can dedicate to him.

So that is the, the first reason, and, and I say this and I mean it, but if

I print one book and it sets on my coffee table and that's it, that's okay.

You right.

That's a success because I did it for him.

But beyond that, the secondary thing is, and probably close

to as important, not near.

Well, okay.

That's not fair.

Not nearly as important to that.

'cause that's pretty important to me.

But is, as you'd mentioned, I've been in this industry for, uh, I,

I, I spilled the beans with our mutual friend, Heidi Ellsworth.

I, I don't wanna her podcast a while back, uh, that I've been

fibbing the, the world a little bit.

'cause I still use the hashtag of four plus decades, which is accurate.

But it's technically five.

Uh, I've been doing this thing forever.

And so you didn't need the Wow.

Wasn't necessary, Todd.

That was,

the problem is my number is just about the same

as yours, Randy, so you're quite okay.

But, but, you know, through that time, uh, had a lot of help.

A lot of mentors, people that never intended to be mentors,

didn't set out to be mentors.

Probably wouldn't even consider themselves, uh, having been mentors.

And I just felt like I hit a point in my life where I learned some things for

the first 45 years of my sales world, of the old school way of doing things.

And, and I loved it.

I got juiced over it.

I, I, I feel like I've become pretty good at it.

But then I learned something new in the last five or six years, uh, in, in, in

the whole virtual, digital way that, that, that what we're doing right now and.

I thought, you know what?

I, I need to start giving back to an industry that's been very good to me.

Uh, I've been blessed to be in, that's why I get involved with some of the boards

that I'm on, like the NFBA and the BFBA.

Some of those things, not for any reason other than I truly,

truly wanna just give back 'cause it's, it's the right thing to do.

And so I felt like writing this book would help me, maybe help a guy

or gal or two out there somewhere wandering around, whether it's in

our industry or out of the industry.

Sales is still sales.

It's still, at the end of the day, there's a person, whatever their sales title is,

and a person, whatever their buying title is, but it's still two people that that's

gotta build a relationship and, and, and, and have confidence with each other.

And so I decided I'd write this book to be able to try to give back and help.

Um.

Thirdly, I just wanna be an author.

I mean, and, and, and, and fourthly, uh, I've been doing, and lastly, I

know you're saying lucky, hopeful hope.

So, hope he's done.

Uh, I wanted to, uh, I, I wanna do more, uh, writing, but I wanna do more speaking.

I wanna do more events, and I love doing that kind of stuff.

And, uh, the book is that final credibility builder.

Right.

And, you know, and I'm so silly with this whole goofy thing

that, uh, I'm glad it's ready.

It's, I'm glad it's in, in, in the formatting stage.

I mean, like you said, by the time this drops, it'll be out, or very

shortly thereafter, I'm already a few chapters into another book.

I, I, I probably can see myself in the process of writing or publishing a

book, maybe the rest of my life, maybe.

Very cool.

So that's, that was the very long version of that.

Well, and, and that's a great answer.

And I have to tell you, um, you know, you gave me a little bit of a sneak

peek at the book and I appreciated that.

And, uh, I agree you did a great job of honoring your father,

um, that came out real strong.

And yet there's a lot of good, helpful information in there.

So I, I think it's cool we.

Oh, sorry Todd.

I was just curious before we dive, uh, not to give the whole book away and

I we're gonna get into some more of your career in sales here, but I just

curious, can you share a lesson or two from your dad that have had the greatest

impact on the 50 years thereafter

Oh, absolutely.

specifically?

Sure.

And probably I'll, I'll jump to chapter two because, and I'll try to make

this short and and succinct as I can.

Um, we were, I was probably eight, nine years old and, uh, no, I

was 12 years old, excuse me.

And we was planting seed, planting corn on the farm.

Dinner bell rang.

Dinner bell meant we needed to run up to the house.

You know there's no cell phones back in that day.

Uh, I mean, we was planting the seed by horse and bug.

No, I'm just kidding.

But, uh, Todd always established, I'm old, so, but we, uh, so we jumped

in the pickup, drove up the house.

My dad at the time was farming and selling a pioneer brand seed corn.

Um, he had a customer call, rain's coming in, everybody's trying to get planted.

And Walt about 12 miles away, needed some corn and wondered if,

if we could bring some over 'cause he is trying to get finished.

Dad says, we'll drive the pickup son out to the shed.

And we went to the Butler shed and we always called it the Butler

shed because it was a Butler shed, it was made by Butler.

We weren't real smart back in the day.

And, uh, anyway, we loaded up the seeds, he got his little order pad, wrote it

out, and we jumped in and he, I remember he let me drive down to gravel roads.

Until we hit the Tar V. That's what we used to call it was Tar v. I don't know

if Todd, did you call it Tar V in Ohio,

we did not,

we had in Michigan, we call it the Tar V roads.

No idea where that came from.

So, um, and I didn't care enough to research that, to put it in the book.

So if, if you're looking in the book to find out Tar V, don't

bother, go go chat with Chad GTP.

'cause I did not.

But so we, we get there.

Long story short, fine walk down the back lane, delivery seeds,

rain's still kind of coming.

We get in the truck and I'm driving again, again, 12.

But back in the day, and I said to my dad, I said, why, why did we, we

had to get our seed planted and the rain's coming, and why did we do this?

He goes, son, he says, when Walt gave us the honor of doing business

with us, we promised him that we'd do everything we could to make

sure that was the right decision.

When Walt called, we just respond Whether that hurts us or not, in the long

run, it's the better route to go and.

And he went on a few more.

And I always got with my dad, he was a quiet guy, but he would always do the look

over at you and go, you understand son?

Yes.

Really there's more lessons coming because there's always one more.

But, so that whole ride home was talking about doing that right thing for your

customer, regardless of whether it causes you a little pain point right now or not.

And, and so that's probably, that's just one of many lessons that I,

that I, that I learned from dad.

And uh, and that's in, uh, in, in chapter two.

The, the first, the first, first, first one.

And I want get into as much 'cause somebody's gotta read the book.

I gotta sell one of 'em at least.

Um, talk about being out in bean field and, and pulling milkweed

after we just got done cultivating.

And my not understanding why we would be doing that when we just cultivated.

And there's a story behind that too, but, you know, uh, but yeah, so it

was, uh, yeah, that was the, probably one of the, my more memorable stories.

And obviously it's been.

Pushing high fifties in years since that date.

And it's still fresh in my memory.

I mean, I can still, I can still smell the, the smell of the seeds

and the, and the, and the fertilizer when I tell the story to be honest.

So,

Oh, cool stuff.

Yeah, those things stick with you a long time.

That's for sure.

Well, I know you've alluded to it and you talk about in

your book about being hybrid.

Randy, um, has te tell us a little bit about that pivotal point.

Um, has that been one of the most pivotal points in your career?

And and what does that mean?

okay.

Yes.

To answer your question, incredibly pivotable,

pivotable, pivotable, pivotable.

Hey, that works.

Either

you'd almost think I did podcasts now and then myself,

but apparently not, not very good.

Um, so, so I was the, I was the atypical, uh, road warrior, pounding the roads.

The airport customer after customer, bro.

Hugs and brewski and, and, and, and burgers in the evening with

customers and pizza pie lunches and building relationships.

One step at a time, one customer time for years.

Juiced loved it beyond compare and still do.

Uh, but when COVID hit, uh, we, uh, we hit that lockdown stage, right?

Couldn't travel.

And in my mind, when we first heard the two weeks to flatten the curve thing,

I believed that like everybody did.

But two weeks still seemed like forever when you're traveling.

I, I, when we hit that lockdown, I was on 11th out of 12 weeks of five

to six days on the road, there's a moment of, eh, a little downtime.

What the heck?

Nobody else will travel either.

I'll, I'll enjoy this.

But I also started going, what if it's longer?

And I had started developing in my head this idea, guys that.

Maybe there's a, a better way.

Not, not, not, not a different, well, different but better way to do this.

And I didn't know what it was and I would've fallen prey.

I'm gonna guarantee you probably to the old adage, if

it's not broke, don't fix it.

Without COVI probably would've continued to do what I always did.

Um, but COVID forced me to start reevaluating how I did things.

So I dove all in.

I had no, I had nothing else to do.

I don't, I'm not traveling and I, I, me being at home is an

oddity at that point, right?

I don't know what to do at this time.

So I, I started doing some webinars.

I've died on a bunch of other podcasts.

Joined a mastermind group where we literally had to do two or three

videos a day to each other, to everybody in the group, get used

to a new way of doing things.

Fast forward through all some of the stuff, and we can always go

back to any, anything if you want in particular, but 30,000 foot view.

I really started digging this new virtual way of doing things.

And at some point there was appeared like we may doing this for a long time, which

we were, I mean, a year and a half, right?

At least of, you know, once in a while you could travel for a little bit.

And then, then we got yanked back again and all those things.

So I started figuring out virtual, I started figuring out doing a

podcast, guesting on podcasts, um, social media, and you can, you can

be in front of and see thousands of people today as opposed to three or

four if you're on the road, right?

And so that made a lot of sense to me.

But then where the hybrid came from, Todd, uh, and Seth, was that, um, there's

two schools of thought that developed.

There was the old school guys that everything I did, they thought I was nuts.

And some of 'em probably still do.

Uh, and they may, they may be right, but still, um, that we're

just gonna wait till this is over.

Whatever time it takes, and we're gonna go back a hundred percent to the old school.

We're not gonna do any of this.

Sending videos and social media garbage and getting on podcasts, that's just dumb.

We're not doing any of that stuff.

But then there was the other side that literally their theory was, nobody's

ever gonna get an airplane in New York City and fly to Dallas and do a meeting

today and fly back this evening in time for dinner with the wife and kids.

Never again.

Everybody's gonna be sitting with their, their, their, their pajamas or

their shorts on, throw a polo shirt or a sport coat on, jump in front of

the camera and that's gonna be it.

And I called BS on that too.

I I didn't buy that for a minute because again, what we said earlier,

right, Seth was people to people still, you still gotta be with them.

So.

That's where the hybrid 'cause, and it comes from back to my dad again.

Pioneer seeds was called pioneer hybrid seed corn because they took

seed corn and, and depending on what part of the country and the, the

time, how, how much timeframe you had, what length of season, was it dry?

Was it wet climate?

And you hybrided right?

Different, different seed.

So I'm thinking hybrid makes sense to me.

How do we take old, how do we take new and not do one or the other, but do

'em both augment each other and do 'em, uh, in, in synchrony with each other?

You, you in and out.

You in and out.

You're in and out all day long.

And, and some days it'll be more old school, some days it'll be more virtual.

Some days it'll be combinations thereof.

So that's where the, that's for me where hybrid came from is trying to

take both of those worlds and bring 'em together in a way that makes some sense.

And, and the key to that is doing it.

And I am speaking to the choir with you guys.

But doing that in a way that is still a genuine and authentic to your

customer or your potential customer.

So in other words, the three of us are here talking.

People are gonna watch this if they never met us, they met better.

See the exact same person three weeks after they watch this program, this

podcast, if we walk in their door, right, they better see the same person as far as

how we act, how we speak, how we think.

Because if you get disingenuous with you're this podcast personality, or you're

this social media personality that's totally different either way that you just

look disingenuous, you look like a liar.

I mean, to be brutally honest, right?

Which, which one is you?

So now do I, which one do I trust or do I trust you at all?

I think I'll opt for not trusting you at all.

Right?

So that's the, again, relatively long story of how I got to the

hybrid thing and what it means to me.

Very good stuff.

Well, you have certainly captured and done it extremely well.

Um, you know, we've touched on a couple times already about the

importance of building relationships and sales and what that means.

Um, do you think that is what really separates, let's say, the

ho hum reps from the really good superior reps in our industry?

Or is there something else also that makes that difference?

Well, I think that's a big part of it.

I, I think that, um, I, I, I've talked about this before with people, and I

think if you're honest in sales and you do good in sales, that the, one of the

turning points was when you stop selling and start serving, you know, and then

there's a million books wrote about that.

There's a million podcast speakers and, and speakers.

So it's not like that's a new, you know, I can't claim any of that.

The, when you stop selling and you start serving, you start finding solutions.

You start interviewing with the, and listening with a purpose.

So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, uh, develop a relationship with you

to see if this even makes sense for us to do business together.

Can I help you?

Are you the right customer for me?

Is this gonna work or not?

And what's the, what's the issues and the problems that you

have that we can help you with?

And because we all know that one nasty, naughty word in, in sales

for a rep is when you get dragged into that, that awful, awful t

word called transactional, right?

We always lose in transactions.

Trans, and, and, and I, I've, I've said it before.

Well, well, how do you get paid if you don't have a transaction?

I say, okay, step it up a level here and listen to me.

I'm not saying yes, the cash register has to ring someday, right?

But.

If it's all transactional, it, what that really means.

My book is the deep dive down the rabbit hole of Price, right?

Forget about service, forget about quality, forget about relationship.

We just want price.

None of us in the world of sales win that game.

And, and I think equally I would say to people on the buying side is don't let

your rep take you down that road either because you're a transaction to them.

Don't get, don't allow 'em to get commission breath, right?

And, and not care about what you want or need just to get

the sale and get out the door.

And, and I think as what you guys teach a lot, and I've been blessed to

set in on some of your, your seminars in the, even in, in, in home sales

and, and, and one day close, if you will, uh, sometimes gets a bad rap.

'cause I don't think that means I'm gonna sell you regardless

of whether you need it or not.

And I'm gonna hammer you into the ground with a gun to your head until you buy.

And like the old encyclopedia salesman that years ago, I, I

bought from just so he'd leave.

And then canceled it the next day because I just couldn't

figure out how to get rid of him.

Right.

That does us no good.

Right.

So I, I think that if, if we, if we understand, if we sell people,

like we want to be sold, and if you listen to people and ask

enough questions, um, almost every customer, almost every customer will

tell you how to sell 'em, right?

If you listen and he ask the questions.

And, uh, I, I, so I, I think it's not so much of, I, I think, and I

think that's changed today, maybe you guys agree or disagree, but I

feel like it's changed today to where people wanna be treated with respect.

They wanna be, they wanna be counseled, they want to be

taught, they want to be educated.

And you can't dazzle 'em with BS either, because in, in, with the

internet, uh, I'm sorry, they probably know almost as much as you do if

they're a smart consumer, right?

So don't start down that road of, uh, there's, there, there's, there's

this thing that I'm pretty good at, luckily, because I'm not that smart.

Is, I don't know.

I'll find out.

But when I was a younger sales guy, I didn't think you could do that.

Oh, I

had to be the guy that knew it all.

And I, I don't, I would like to think, I don't believe that I ever knowingly knew

it wasn't true and just lied about it.

But I took a lot of freedom with that, right?

Because as a young guy, you didn't know any better, and that's the way you was

trained and that's the way you was taught.

And, and boy, if I, if they, if I, if they think I don't know everything,

well, they're not gonna have confidence in me and buy, they'll

have a lot more confidence in you if you just say, you know what?

That one stumped me, Todd, I think I know the answer, but let, let me

make a quick phone call or lemme call you back in the morning, or,

or whatever that has to look like.

You just gain a massive amount of credibility, in my opinion.

Seth, do you agree with that?

I mean, I, I.

Oh, absolutely.

And, and even, uh, you know, we've had some experience with reps that even if

they're not gonna give you the incorrect answer, outright lie with some about

something, they'll just talk without saying anything, hoping that you, you

forget what you asked in the first place.

There's all sorts of strategies around it, but it just being transparent and

upfront with people and, and then it proves to 'em, like you said, that

you can be that problem solver in their corner, uh, no matter what.

Someone they can trust, someone that knows how to get something done.

Um, absolutely love it.

And it goes way beyond that transactional sort of trap that, that you mentioned,

uh, which you do an incredible job of.

And especially in we're talking about this hybrid world that we're

in, these virtual and digital tools.

I think there that trap is even bigger for some than what it ever was

before, of just hiding behind email or hiding behind, you know, trading

voicemails back and forth or texts.

And so finding that sweet spot to really rise above and, and be that serving

partner, trusted advisor, whatever your language is gonna be for it's powerful.

It is powerful.

It is powerful.

And, and the beautiful thing with, if you do it right, in my opinion,

using the, the, uh, the new school side of things, it'll put you.

Front of more people they get because you know the old saying,

people buy who, if all things being equal buy from no, like, and trust.

Right?

Good friend of mine, Ben Gay III also adds and feel safe with.

And I think that's a incredible thing because I may know you and like you

and trust you, but what happens if something goes awry in this thing?

Do I feel safe that Randy or Todd or Seth is gonna swoop in here like Superman

and, and, and help me, may not leave me out out here on an island by myself.

Right?

And the beautiful thing with, with with technology that we can

use is if it's a new customer, they get to know who you are.

They get to, they get to understand that you like to go watch your grandkids

play baseball or you, they, they know you as a person, not just some

person that they can buy stuff from.

'cause there's a lot of people you can buy stuff from.

Um, but they want to get to know you and trust you.

And so that's for a, a, a potential customer.

I think it's equally important for a customer that has already purchased.

Because all that does is augment that decision or that

that decision was good, right?

Because they've already just spent $42,000 with you.

They're still waiting for the job to be completed.

But boy am I glad I bought from Todd because man, I just saw him

doing this and saw him doing that.

I saw Seth doing this, and these guys are good dudes.

I feel good about this.

Right?

So I think it, it goes further to cement that buyer decision after

the fact, not just before the fact.

Absolutely.

It's when they see you running the, uh, the additional seed down

the road before the rain comes, that's when it gets cemented.

All the further.

Yeah.

Good stuff.

I'm curious, Randy, you, you know, we're

talking about your transition from the salesperson perspective.

What, uh, what was your experience with your customers having to

transition to this sort of new way?

Also, you know, were, uh, was everyone readily, uh, you know, accepting?

Did were, was any more difficult than others?

Or what was that experience like?

Oh, it was a, it was across the board.

It, it, it was a, uh, it, it was, uh, I had at the time when nobody traveled.

It was, there was no other option.

The, the work came into play, Seth, when you, you were back out traveling

and that became the norm again.

So many people that they're used to calling on and went back to normal.

Um, I didn't stop doing what I did.

I went back to calling a customer.

I travel all the time.

But I augment in between.

Or I'm doing a quick video from the hotel parking lot, uh, with coffee on the hood

of my car, be heading out for the day.

You know, my, my what, what cool socks am I wearing for the day?

Right?

I'm, I'm still doing those things, but I'm doing it while I'm on the road.

And so, but to answer your question, some customers, um, uh, didn't

respond, no, I'll say negatively, but just not at all for a while.

But more and more of them started seeing and started doing it in their own

businesses and started understanding that.

And I'm not saying I take credit for that.

I'm just saying that they started seeing these things happen and understand

that, uh, you know, a statement that I like to make, 'cause I think it's it's

very accurate, is you go back probably longer years now that I'm thinking,

but 10, 15 years, let's just use, if you didn't have inter or if you didn't

have a website, you didn't exist.

You just didn't exist to, A lot of people still need a website today,

but in today's world, if they can't find you on, on social media, if

they can't find you virtually to a lot of people, you don't exist.

And, and the problem that comes into play there is people my age,

I, I'm on social all the time.

I'm probably a bit of an, an anomaly to that standpoint maybe, but I

don't think as much as, as you think.

But that, that's my first go-to is I, is, I wanna see, if you're on LinkedIn, I

wanna see if you got a Facebook presence.

I wanna see if you did a, a reel or whatever and, and, and get to know you.

And so I, I, I think we we're, we, we've, we've really come full circle

with, with businesses across the board understanding that the value there is,

again, I've said it a million times, it's not instead of, but in addition

to, uh, I would never say that anything falling under the new school, the virtual,

the digital, the new age, what are.

Phrase you want to give.

It has nothing to do with not doing the other.

And it has to do with, but also to give you an example of where it comes into

play with people that travel big distances like I do, if I've got a guy in calls in,

kind of has an interest in Maine, that's a long ways from either Michigan when I'm

there or from Florida where I'm at still right now, in my old school days, Mr.

Energetic and aggressive and probably not real smart, I'd just drive or jump

on a plane and go spend $2,000 on a, on a trip to go see a guy that you find out

can't really buy from you anyway, or has no interest in, or maybe you can't sell.

So using technology, the Zoom and the teams or the Google beats or

whatever to, to uh, to discover.

To do the discovery call sometimes setting here like this,

finding out in 15, 20 minutes.

Get to know each other a little bit.

What are you looking at?

Here's a couple of things we, we probably should talk about.

Um, it goes a, goes a long ways of you not wasting your time.

My coming all the way to Maine and mind not wasting time and money

coming all the way to Maine to find out that this is never gonna work.

And secondarily with that, as I kind of hit on earlier, if I do come

to Maine, 'cause it makes sense.

You already know me and I already know you.

We've, we, we've got that initial uncomfortable for some, I mean,

for us guys, it's done a long time.

I, I find no discomfort in meeting new people.

But some people that's an uncomfortable thing.

And for customers it may be, but they already know you.

They've talked to you, they've, they've probably in the interim before the

two weeks before you flew to Maine in that little example, may have followed

a couple a. Post that I did, they may have caught a video or caught

a podcast I did or was guesting on.

So all of a sudden it's like, geez, I know this Randy Guy.

Right?

You're light years ahead of where you were starting the old way, but the key

there still did it the old way though.

At the end of the day, I'm still shaking hands.

Good to see you.

You had a good meeting.

You go grab a burger and you give him a bro hug at the end of the day.

Hey, thanks for the time.

I appreciate it.

I'll get back.

Right.

It's, it's still that you, you never get rid of that.

Good stuff.

Well, we've talked a lot about how you do it.

Um, maybe for an audience member out there who isn't real familiar with you.

Um, tell you, tell us a little bit about your core business today, the

lines that you rep and sell, who your typical customer is, that type of

Sure.

So, so I, yeah, you know, I'm a rep agency source one marketing

is my rep agency, and, uh, we rep predominantly in the, uh, the metal

roofing and post train building world.

I am doing a few things in the steep slope world for one of my manufacturers.

But, um, so I rep products.

My target customer would be the roll former, the, the metal roll formers,

that, that roll metal, uh, whether they're standing seam guys or the ag panel,

our panel, whatever that case may be.

Uh, that would be my target panel or, uh, audience, if you

will, customer fasteners and.

And, and, and, and underlayments, which I'm blessed to sell some

underlayment for you folks.

Uh, vents, uh, a barn door components and stuff for the ag world.

Some equestrian products, you know, bubble fo installations,

a lot of those kind of things.

So that's really my, my, my core business.

Um, I cover, uh, uh, for the bulk of my world is, is the

Great Lakes in the Northeast.

Uh, I do a little bit in Florida with a couple lines.

I have a couple of renegade lines, which are sort of non territorial,

where I just kind of, if I know somebody, the manufacturer's

renting my Rolodex, if you will.

If I know somebody and there's nobody selling 'em, my and I got a relationship,

I'll, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll work with 'em, but, but my core group is,

is real, some Florida, but really, uh, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New York

State, and up in the New England state.

So, um, and yeah, it's, it's, uh, I've been with some of

these manufacturers 25 years.

That's impressive.

or, or, or, or, I just, they just haven't got tired of me yet.

I'm not sure

Well, as a manufacturer that's worked with

you for almost 25 years, we can definitely say it's the, the former.

So you've done a great job for us.

And if you're looking for some, uh, the premium underlayments on the market, you

can call Randy and talk to him about, uh, roof, aqua guard, underlayments.

it's, I'll tell you what, it's it's world class stuff.

I, and I'm glad, I mean, I love the way you snuck that little, little promo in

a little promo.

almost think you'd done this before.

That's, that's amazing.

yeah.

You know, as a manufacturer who's always trying to, you know,

improve our strategy and respond to the changing world around us.

And, you know, you are working with, you know, 20 plus manufacturers probably

at this point and know many others.

I'm curious what, uh, what are some things that you've seen man

manufacturers do really well?

You know, we don't need to name any names necessarily, but you know, as

you're working with all those folks, what, who, um, yeah, what are some things

that, the ones who are really responding well to this new world around them?

And, uh, what opportunities do you see for manufacturers to keep improving on

what they're doing in their go to market?

Well, yeah, that's a great question.

And this one's probably, it's probably used a lot, but it's never adhered

to, is becoming customer centric.

There's, there's so many manufacturers that still believe that we make

widgets, whatever that widget is.

Yes, of course you make a widget, but that's not really what you do.

What you really do is, is perform a service and, and supply a solution

for whoever your customer base is.

And if we have to get away from, I just make stuff and, and I'm

gonna supply you whatever stuff I make under my rules all the time.

And either you live with it or, or don't.

Because, uh, you, you guy, I'm sure familiar with Jeffrey Gitr and, uh,

great writer, uh, uh, I've followed everything he's done for years.

And I love one of his statements he said once about, you know, when

people say, well, but it's our policy.

Okay?

We all have to have policy.

So before anybody gets nuts, I'm not saying it's, it's, it's free.

It's it's free being to being here.

Right.

And we can just do what we want.

There has to be some procedures.

I'm not saying that, but I. Shouldn't the policy be?

What is your issue Mr. Customer, Mrs. Customer, if you have an issue

or a problem or something that we is not within our policy, can we make,

can we find a way to make this good for you, to make this work for you?

And because like Jeffrey said, once I listen to me, he

says, because here's the deal.

Your policy is this.

My policy is to not pull out my credit card by product from you

and my pro and my policy wins.

Right?

I mean, it's, it's as simple as that.

Again, not saying you don't ha you gotta ha you can't be a company that

has no policies, no procedures there.

There's gotta be base.

But I think we, we we, we lose sight sometimes as manufacturers of being

customer centric, of, of, of realizing that customers always have choices,

uh, regardless of how good we think we are, regardless of how good our product

is, how great a dog and pony and, and.

I know all three of us on here do as good a dog, a pony show with the

customers, anybody in the country.

I can talk all day about all the thousand and 15 different reasons why my fastener

better than everybody else's in the world.

And after the first one, you don't care.

I mean, it's the end of the day, right?

It goes deeper than that because guess what?

Every fastener in America, if it installed properly, will hold the

roof on and it won't fail, right?

So I don't have a monopoly on that, right?

So let's not stop pretending we do.

And, and the the, the thing, if you and I tell anybody that'll listen to our

reps or sales guys is always operate under, uh, you incorporated, right?

Because even if you're a company guy myself, it's easier as a rep because

I kind of run my own gig, uh, under rules and regulations that people

like yourselves put out there, right?

I don't get to do what I wanna do.

Uh, but my point is, even if you're a company guy, an employee, you gotta

operate like this is your business.

If, uh, if you, if you go to your customers at the standpoint that this

is a repeat customer and I'm gonna get repeat business, I'm gonna get referrals,

but I'm only gonna get any of that.

If I actually do what I say, I'll do, take care of them and treat

them like with the respect and, and that they deserve and desire.

And, and be honest, it should have, because guess what?

They have choices all day long.

They have choices.

And again, back circling back real quick, if we think, well, they'll never leave

us because we make the best widget.

Oh yeah.

They'll leave you real fast if, if you don't take care of 'em.

Because you know what?

Here, the breaking news, right?

And we need the CNN or Fox News banner here, breaking news.

There are some less than quality products in any industry, right?

But for most anybody in our industries that are been around

and, and, and, and have established themselves, it's gonna work.

It's not junk.

Okay?

So they, the customer does have choices, and the key is, as a manufacturer

or as the rep for that manufacturer, salesperson, whatever your title

is, if this is a, a key thing that I try to follow is if you buy Randy,

there's this one thing in the world of eight and a half billion people

that I'm better than everybody.

Number one is being me.

You can't beat me at that one.

I guarantee you can't beat me at that one.

Right?

So if you can get to a point where I'm your guy, you trust me, you believe

in me, um, you know, now I can do a lot of things that mess that up.

But if I don't mess that up, uh, that gives you a lot of, it.

It, it, it buys you a lot of leeway on, on, on when things go awry a little bit.

You know, I, I know this messed up is not your fault, but can you fix it, please?

I know you will.

You know, so I, I think that's the thing is.

We circling back to your original que, I think we've lost in a lot of

cases remembering the why and if, and if we don't have a customer.

'cause they're not a nuisance to us.

I mean, we open the door every day for one reason and one reason only.

If you get right down to it, it's to service that customer the best product

and the best service at the most fair price And fair is a, an operative word.

Right?

Fair.

'cause we both have to make profit and guess what?

That's not a bad word.

So, uh, I think if we do that, uh, we'll be successful.

If we don't, you're gonna struggle.

Absolutely it.

At no time in history did customers have more alternatives, viable alternatives

than they have today, at least for most

Exactly.

And, and you know, you, I think about that alternative because I

remember one time traveling with a guy and he kept wanting to.

Get a Dairy Queen blizzard about every four and a half, five miles,

and we got off one exit because we figured out of the 412 fast food

places, there had to be a Dairy Queen.

Right.

We didn't find one, but we did find a frosty blizzard or a, a Wendy's frosty.

There you go.

you know, so, but again, we had choices.

Right?

And the fact that Wendy's did such a good job of promoting the fact

that they're pretty tasty too.

We didn't get back on the turnpike and drive on another 80 miles to find a,

and, and, and checking Google, trying to figure out where a dairy queen was.

We just made a choice to have a Wendy's frosty.

So,

The alternative, uh, most readily available to

solve your problem at that moment.

So we've gotta position ourselves to be that Wendy's frosty, no

question.

You know, taking, sort of going, looking at it from the other end of the

equation on that customer perspective.

Curious for those customers who are out there, you know, whatever customer

may be, contractor, supplier role, former, you know, uh, any customer

trying to take a more proactive approach to finding suppliers or

vetting suppliers rather than, you know, relying on, uh, serendipitous

sort of engagements or opportunities.

What's, what's your advice for them?

Uh, 10 shows.

And when I say attend shows, I mean really engage in attending shows, not just,

uh, show up and go, oh, show's open.

They just cut the ribbon.

And I guess I'll go wander around, you know, have a plan, set up some

plans ahead of time with people you wanna meet, uh, make, make,

make, make the best outta shows.

'cause that's some of the best times to.

Easily meet not only your rep who may be there, but he can introduce you to

the customer service manager, the CEO, the director of sales, whomever that

may be, and, and, and really be able to, to do a little bit of a deep dive

into, into the services and the products and what they can, can do for you.

And the beautiful thing beside with that, uh, Seth, is you could find

that information in today's world on the internet someplace, right?

All of us do a great job.

I mean, you, I, I can find everything I wanna find about most things from a

product standpoint, but a, I get to touch it, feel it if you're the contractor.

But more importantly, I get to meet the people behind the scenes.

'cause the person I only person I may ever see is, is my rep. Now I

get to meet some of the other people.

But more important than that, I think.

Is if you build a relationship with this manufacturer as a builder,

um, it's important that the Todd or Seth of the world know you as well.

Because if, if, if you need something, there's a special deal, an issue, a large

project, a a, an emergency that went, something that went awry, it, it's, it's

way better if they call in or, or, or Randy in my case calls this, says, Seth,

you, you know, I got this customer and man, we just dropped the ball on this.

It's, it's, it's, it's a bad deal right now.

And, and who is it?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I remember meeting him last year.

The IRE, right?

I don't, we'd all like to say that that doesn't matter, but it does matter, right?

Because you've built that relationship.

So I think the, there's a, for the attendees, and I love that

subject, um, it's easy for us all to think about trade shows and it's

all on the rep's responsibility.

I. There's a lot of that.

That's what we're there for as exhibitor.

But you have an equal responsibility in my mind as an attendee.

If you want, you get outta the show what you put into it.

So meet the right people, uh, have a plan and uh, uh, make it worthwhile.

'cause there, there, there's plenty of time to, you know, go get Wendy

Frosty's or plenty of time to go get a burger and a beer with the boys.

You can do it at the show, but don't do it.

Instead of spending that time making those communications because you, you

spent 2000, $3,000 to go to Vegas, you probably ought to do something

besides gambling and, and, and hitting the hotel lobby bar at two o'clock.

That's all I'm saying.

Not that I'm against that.

I'm just saying there probably should be some other things you might

wanna do, uh, while you're there.

And, and again, you'll get out of what you give.

I think that's great advice and, and I agree with you.

I think, you know, I see people attend these shows and, um.

Know, they just don't really put into it to get out of it what they can.

So that's fantastic advice.

Well, I'm, I'm curious, Randy, and I know you're a guy who's always

reading and you're talking and, um, you've got a lot of connections.

Who do you find inspiration from these days?

Who are you, who are you paying attention to and learning from?

Well, you, I love that question.

Um, of course you guys, and I gotta say that, not just 'cause you're on

here, but you guys are doing it right.

And for anybody that watches you guys and deal with you

guys, uh, Isaiah's top notch.

And, and, and I enjoy being around people that do things the right way.

But, uh, I mentioned one name earlier, a guy that's become very

important to me, uh, Ben Gay.

Uh, I've become a good friend.

Um, he actually wrote the forward for my book, which is kind of cool.

Um, and, and Todd, you were so kind to write some kind words, uh, uh,

of endorsement or praise for the book, which I, I assume you didn't

read it 'cause if you'd read it, you wouldn't have said anything Nice.

Oh, I absolutely read it.

but I appreciate that.

But, um, you, the one thing that I found, and, and I'm gonna come at this

a slight different angle since I love networking, as you well know, we do,

we, all three of us are networkers.

I love networking.

I love networking within the industry that we all live and, and breathe

and work and, and hugely important.

And, and we do that if we're, if you have any involvement in the industry,

you probably got a bit of common sense that tells you I probably should

network within the industry, but.

I also find within any industry, there's group speak, right?

We all think a little bit alike on subjects.

There's, there's, there's outer parameters, but there's

that certain group thing.

The, the one of the great blessings that I've had in the last several

years doing what I've been doing, more social media stuff, podcasting,

hosting, guesting, is I've got to meet so many people out of the industry.

They have nothing to do with my industry at all.

Uh, I can name a, a, a couple, uh, uh, Lieutenant Colonel Oak, McCullough

Oaks out out of Daytona, Florida.

He's a, uh, he was, uh, a lieutenant colonel, the Army, first cal led

troops into battle, uh, trained troops, leadership, you know what I mean?

Leadership, like he talks about, he makes mistakes now he's out

now, but when he people died.

18, 19-year-old kids died.

Leadership in our world, we, we forgot to ship a role of underlayment.

I mean, it's, it sucked, but nobody's dying over it.

Right?

So, you know, he, he brings a great perspective on leadership.

And, and, and he, he made a statement once that, uh, when lieutenants graduate,

uh, from the, from the academy, the first thing they do is they throw their

hat in the air and he goes, celebrate.

Go have a couple beers.

Do what you wanna do.

It's all about you today.

'cause it's the last day of your life that it's about you.

It's always about your people after today, but today go, you enjoy, you earned it.

But after today, it's never about you again, ever in your life.

He says, I have responsibility to you.

You may report to me eight ranks below me, but I work for you.

I have a responsibility to teach you, to train you, to guide you, to protect you.

Right?

So he's, he's a guy that's.

And another guy, uh, Dave Sanderson.

I'll just give you two.

Dave's another guy out the industry.

Uh, Dave is an international speaker, swims with the seals, not the, not

the, the, that kind of seal the, you know, I was gonna do the seal noise,

but that might've been too much.

Um, it sounded like a walrus anyway, so, um, but, uh, but he, and with the Navy

Seals, he became most well known, uh, when Sully had to put the, uh, the, that uh,

the flight into the east, the east river.

He was the last guy off the plane after, with Sully in the

first, uh, the first officer.

And he talks about, um, that whole event and what happened.

And he wrote several books.

But one of the books that I love and Dave's become a good friend,

um, moments in Time says, nobody ever knows when that moment in time

will come, but your whole life is preparing you for that moment in time.

His moment in time.

There was guys, you don't live through that.

When, when that's going into the river, we, the river, we're dead.

I mean, you don't, that's a unsurvivable, basically.

But they did.

And his comment was, and, and he would say way better 'cause he lived it,

is that I couldn't just get off this plane and rush out the exit to safety.

I need to make sure everybody else got out too ahead of me

because I was here for a reason.

I mean, I should have been dead.

I, I just, I just gotta, I got a, I got a, I got a new day here, right?

And that was his moment in time.

And so now he spends, he, he travels the world speaking about

that and talking about that.

So that's just two people that, that I follow a lot that are

really, really, really good people.

But like I said, I, uh, I'm meeting a guy next week in, uh, uh, in, um, Pennsylvania

that, uh, I've got to know Rob an spa.

He's an spa.

Media.

He writes a lot of books.

He does a lot of marketing.

Become a friend.

Never been him personally.

Going to next week, I really, really try to.

Since some of the things that I've been doing in the last five or six years that

we've talked about here that I talk about in the book, um, I go out of my way to

try to meet up with people that I've met virtually that I've never known before.

And I'll tell you one of the things I talk about in the book about how if you,

if you do this right, when, when you walk in, you meet him, it's like his old buddy.

It's like you knew him forever, right?

And that's been so true.

I've met so many of these people.

Um, when, when I, my, uh, Wes, my producer director buddy in

Powell, will you guys know?

'cause you've been on my, my podcast met Ben Gay and his wife Gigi out

in, in Sacramento a couple years ago.

Uh, he walks in the door and it was not like, I wonder where Randy

is, or I wonder where Ben is.

The second he walked in the door, we knew each other be right, because

we've talked 10 times virtually, or 50 times virtually, and talked

on the phone and, and communicated.

So I, I think that's the one of the.

Winding back to, uh, I dunno if it's a starting point, but the beauty of virtual

and the beauty of, of, of taking advantage of these opportunities we have, whether

you like it or not, virtual's here, whether you like social media, it's here.

Is there bad things?

Absolutely.

There's bad things in everything.

If you do use it for the right reasons.

It's like with ai, I use AI all the time for stuff because you can hate it.

You can be scared of it.

It may end up, we're all don't exist someday.

And it's just, I don't know what it is.

We're a bunch of little things wandering around like a pop

can, I don't know what we'll be.

I can't change that.

So all I can do is use what I have to my benefit.

And so when I get an opportunity to meet people either or out of the industry,

I, I go outta my way to do that.

And, uh, I I would challenge anybody to do that.

You, you don't work in a or you shouldn't work or, or, or live in a vacuum.

You know, where, where people, and in today's world, uh, it's a tiny,

tiny, tiny little world now, right.

Uh, it's, it's, I I, we had on a great guest a couple weeks ago for the return

guest, um, David Rogers from, from the uk, two-time author, speaker, TEDx guy.

Um, you know, and, and now I've never met Dave yet 'cause I don't, I really

get to UK for any reason, but if I do, I guarantee you I'll, we'll meet up somehow.

Um, it's just, so anyways, that's, that, that's the key to that

is just man, just meet people.

Go out and see 'em, get to know 'em.

Learn their life.

Have a new friend.

Great advice, Randy, and uh, it's been a great talk

and rambunctious time together.

I've enjoyed it.

Um, I'm curious though, um, is there anything you haven't shared and

give a shout out to your own podcast and some of your, uh, social media

you're doing out

you.

Um, but we've covered everything.

I mean, it was, it was, it was a great, great time.

Um, my, my website is I buy from ad.com.

Uh, my book will be available on there.

Uh, if somebody was silly enough to want a sign copy, um, uh, it'll be

on Amazon, it'll be on, it'll be a Kindle, a soft cover and a hard copy.

Uh, we'll do an audio book at some point.

That's probably down the road.

'cause I've decided I'm gonna read it myself whenever I find time to do that.

Um, that won't be till fall though.

So.

Um, so you can find me on Amazon under just Randy Chaffee

or Asphalt and Algorithms.

Um, I buy from randy.com.

Find a book, find anything to do with my agency.

I'm all over social media.

In some shape or form of either building wins Live, which is my podcast, uh, you

can find me on YouTube in places for Let's chat with Randy Chaffee, which is

an industry based, uh, YouTube channel.

We're just kind of getting off it, off, off the ground right now.

Um, and on social media, it's either it's, it's either Randy Chaffee or

the Randy Chaffee or Randy Chaffe, the rep one, some, any of those things.

But I've kind of played with it.

And if you, I guess I'm messing with it enough if you type my name

and it comes up, so I dunno if that's good or bad, but I'm there.

Communicate with me though.

I love it.

Don't just, don't just like stuff, well, I want you to

like stuff, like lots of stuff.

But, but, but communicate.

Say, Hey, I mean, I, like, I, I enjoy talking to people and I'll do my best

to respond to anybody that reaches out.

Well, cool.

Well, you're a huge asset to our industry, Randy, and we thank you for

not only your friendship, but your service to our industry over the years.

So thank you.

Well, before we close out, I have to ask you if you're willing

to participate in something we call our rapid fire questions.

So these are seven questions.

Randy has no idea what we're going to ask.

Uh, some are serious, some are silly.

Are you up to the challenge of rapid fire?

let's give it a shot.

I mean, hey, what's the worst I'll do is, I mean, I've looked stupid before,

so, and I'm pretty good at that.

Not at all.

Let's do it.

Um, Seth, why don't you ask the first question?

All right.

Rapid fire question number one, uh, to make sure we include

another of your favorite passions.

Can you recommend one or two of your favorite Michigan Reds for all of us?

Ooh, there you go.

Yes.

Black Star Farms.

Black Star Farms, uh, Cabernet.

It's uh, it's a pure cab wine.

It's not a blend.

Uh, black Star Farms has a location on, uh, on the Leal Peninsula and on

Old Mission Peninsula and Top Notch.

Fantastic.

Now you made me thirsty.

Can we hurry this thing up?

There.

Okay.

Question two.

What are your favorite and least favorite things about being a road warrior?

Favorite thing by far is I just love people.

I, I, I just love people that, that by far, I, I enjoy

cementing the relationship.

I enjoy bro hug and, and, and, and rubbing little, little Johnny's head

when you see him, when he comes running up and you haven't seen him in a year.

Uh, those kind of things on the road.

That's my favorite by far.

Uh, least favorite.

I don't have a lot of least favorites 'cause I love it so much.

Uh, I, I, I, I probably would say that over doing this for so many years, it,

it, it gets a little less exciting to be gone as much as what it used to.

And I, and I, and I, and I'll couch that with, I don't mind being gone.

I don't look forward to it as much as I used to.

But I get into Uber to the airport and I'm back in road mode.

I'm back in hybrid road warrior mode, somewhere between the house

and the airport, which is 40 minutes.

You know, and once I hit airport, once I hit that, I mean, I mean, I'm all in.

Let's go rock and roll, baby.

It all kicks in.

Good stuff.

All right.

Question number three.

What is a product or service you have bought that was a

real game changer for you?

Probably.

Probably chat, chat.

DTP.

We, we touched on that.

I, I, I'm a big lover of ai.

I'm not afraid of it.

I don't know, I, I, I'm a novice still.

Uh, but the, the speed that allows me to do things, uh, it,

I never use it to write articles.

Let me back off.

I would use it to fix stupid, right?

Uh, which is a lot.

But, but you know, I, I, I would never sit and just write an article using, you know,

for a trade magazine or a book chapter.

Uh, but, but it, but, or, or, or like for blogging, if I wanna write a blog.

Can't think of what do I wanna write about?

I, I, I'll say, give, give me 20 things and I'll go, no, no, no.

Maybe.

No, no.

Ah, that's the one.

So I, I, that's probably, there's a lot.

But that's the first one that comes to mind, Seth.

Very cool.

Good stuff.

I think it's a great tool Also.

Next question, what is your personal theme song at this point in your life?

Wow.

Um,

hard one if you've never thought of it.

I've never thought of it.

Um, okay.

I'm gonna, how about this one?

I'll, I'll go with this one.

Um, I'm a believer by either Neil Diamond or the Monkeys.

Not even, not even so much the words, because I'll be

honest with you about music.

I would be the worst.

I know no worst to any song,

I, I'm right there with you.

but, but I like the, the theme of, I'm a believer.

I think you gotta be a believer if you're not a believer, uh, and you

don't have dreams that wanna chase your dreams, I'm not sure what you got,

but you, you're missing out on a lot.

So I like, and I like Neil version, Neil Diamond's version.

Better just.

Awesome.

Good stuff.

What is one thing that you wish everyone in our industry was better at?

Oh yeah, that's easy.

We, we, we've touched on that is, is being an adapter.

We kind of touched on, but, but not as much as I, as I probably do in

the book, but I've adapted a lot and that's a lot of the nature of the book.

But adapting is one thing, but developing an adapter mindset

is a whole different thing.

And once you develop the mindset that I'm just an adapter and, and, and

forget about this, it is not easy.

None of us like change on certain things, but if you anticipate it,

you realize it's gonna happen.

And you look at it with, there's three words that, that, depending on

how you say 'em changes everything.

It's, why can't I or why I can't Too many people instantly why I can't do that?

Why I can't do this, why this product won't work.

Instead of, well, why can't it with, you know, with a question mark, why can't it?

Maybe you can, let's find out.

So I think being an adapter is by far the most important thing I.

Okay.

Next to last question, if you had a time machine, what time and

place would you like to visit?

I can assume I can go either direction.

Absolutely.

I think the future's still there, so I'll just let that play out.

I probably would go back to, and I'm thinking about again,

what we talked about earlier.

I'd probably go back to my, oh, maybe 50, about 1960, uh, interesting

music time in the sixties, right?

All from the war, music and, and all that.

And, but it was good music.

Uh, good old rock and roll music back in the day.

But more than that, seriously, touching on what I talked about earlier is

if I could go back, that means I've already been here, which means I know

what I know now, and I'd go back and, and, and try to be a, a, a bit of a

better son and let my dad know that what he was talking about was, yeah.

That's pretty, that's pretty good stuff, dude.

You know, as opposed to having to wait till I go see him again someday.

Right.

Beautiful.

And last one, what do you wish to be remembered for at the end of your days?

Probably just as a guy that cared, just cared about people, they

wanted to do what's right for everybody.

Whether it's family, whether it's customers, whether it's, uh,

manufacturer friends, whether it's just friends in general, or even

people that aren't necessarily friends.

But, you know, IIII, I really try to practice and I've always been

good at this, and I'm still not always you, you get in your own mind

sometimes and you gotta get out of it.

But, um, what reminds me is I walk into Publix, which is our local supermarket

chain that we all go to here in Florida.

And so many times you walk in and, and everybody's walking their head down.

You're living in Florida, it's sunny and hot all the time, and

what do you got to be so down about?

Right?

But it's amazing when you just say.

Hey, how are you today, ma'am?

Oh, I'm really good.

How are you?

Thank you.

It's like changes their whole atmosphere, even if it's only for another 45

seconds while they get to their car.

And maybe I'd like to think they get in their car for a minute and

they go, wow, that was a nice man.

You know?

He, he, uh, that made me feel good.

So I think I, I, I, I, I try to leave people with a good feeling.

I, I, I, 'cause we're, we're all in this, you know, big world together, right?

So,

You do a great job at that.

You really do.

Thank you.

I like people unless I don't,

there's a couple.

I mean, let's be fair, I'm not perfect, right?

We all, we all know there's, we all know there's only one

perfect dude, and that ain't me.

So I'm, I'm not even close to trying.

But, but, uh, uh, uh, you know, I, I think that, uh, e even, even those

people, I try to do better understanding that some of that's not maybe, who

knows what they're going through.

What's, what's their, what's their story, you know?

And so anyways, that's it.

We'll see.

Doing the best, doing the best we can.

Right?

Yep.

Absolutely.

Well, thank you again for your time to get day.

Um, we'll put this in the show notes, but again, shout off a

couple of your, uh, websites and places where people can find you.

I'll buy from randy.com because why wouldn't you?

Right?

Absolutely love

uh, the home, if we ain't got it, you don't need it.

it's a funny story how that was one day, but, um, and uh, basically anywhere on

social media, uh, just find me under Randy Chaffee or some derivative thereof.

And remember the name of the book, asphalt and Algorithms, which by the

way, you, you know, I think originally that title, we had a title change at the

Yes, you

and, and real important, but that was going to be my journey to

hybrid, which we kind of put in the, the subtitle, but a important key to that.

Probably a great, great place to end.

It's your show.

But, um, I was sold on that.

I was married to my title, but a key thing is I hired an editor.

And I hired a marketing and, and, and formatting and book

cover people to work with me.

And they sat me down one day, said, we know you're married to it and you know

you're not gonna like this conversation.

But basically I said, you think my title sucks?

Right?

I said, well, not really sucks, but we don't like it.

And they gave me, which we don't even go, they gave me reasons why from a

marketing standpoint they didn't like it.

I said, so, well, what do you want?

What do you think?

And they told to me and I go, you're nuts, asphalt.

Now what does that mean?

That's dumb.

I said, think about it and we'll, we'll do this in two days.

I called 'em up that evening.

He said, we don't need to do it in two days.

He says, well, we gotta go back the drawing board.

I said, no, I'm in.

I'm in.

So my point of all that is when you hire good people that you trust, it's

something you gotta listen to 'em.

Yep, yep.

they know more about marketing books than I do.

Right.

experts in their field for a reason.

Exactly.

So anyway, but I appreciate you guys having me on.

I appreciate your friendship and all that you guys do together, just as people

and, and, and as Isaiah Industries.

And, uh, it's just, it's been a blast being on, I appreciate you giving me

this opportunity to chat my, my book and, uh, I'd love to have anybody

who wants to come out to, to get it.

Not because I just wanna sell a whole bunch of books, even

though I do, I'm not a liar.

But with that said, I, I, I feel like there's something there that maybe a

little bit of help to somebody here and there, so, or I wouldn't have

wrote it 'cause I had a lot to do.

I didn't, I didn't have the year and a half spent to do this, but

I took it because I just felt like the right thing I wanted to do.

So,

Well, absolutely.

We encourage everyone.

Check out asphalt and a algorithms soon available.

Um, well, Randy, well thank you very much.

It's been a great, uh, great time together.

We appreciate it.

Great deal.

no, thank you.

I appreciate it guys.

Thank you so much.

And I have to ask, I know I got my challenge word

in, Randy, you, you got yours in your challenge word, Randy was.

Hey, Wendy's Frosty.

You did it a couple

times.

I got, I got mine in, which was rambunctious.

Seth, did you get yours in?

I did Serendipitous.

You did it so well.

I didn't even catch it, which is the goal.

That's

He snuck it right in there.

That was, that was well done.

Serendipitously, you got it in there.

Thank you.

you go.

I'm just amazed at when I gave you that word pre-show that I

said it right, because that's one of those words that's hard for me to say,

I, I was worried about it too.

well, what?

And it's really, and it's not.

It's really hard to say, after a couple of Black star Cabernets,

No, no doubt.

you know that S word?

Oh, you know that one?

Oh, good stuff.

Good stuff.

Well, thank you to our audience for tuning into this episode of

Construction Disruption with Randy Chaffee of Source One Marketing.

Please watch for future episodes.

We always have great guests.

Don't forget to leave us a nice thumbs up or good review.

And until the next time, uh, we're together.

Keep on disrupting, keep on challenging, looking for better ways of doing things.

And don't forget, Randy touched on this earlier to have a positive

impact on everyone you encounter.

So God bless and take care.

This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode

of Construction Destruction.