Venture Step

Dalton Anderson (00:00)
of Interest Step podcast where we discuss entrepreneurship, industry trends, and the occasional book review. Have you ever wondered why some brands fall flat and others really resonate with you? Today, we're going to be unlocking some secrets with our first guest, Risa Saylor. A serial entrepreneur who has not built one, but many companies from the ground up. And she's going to be sharing some inside scoops today. Before we dive in.

I'm your host Dalton Anderson. I've got a bit of a mix of background in insurance, programming, data science. Offline, you can find me running, building my side business or Law Center Cookbook. You can listen to podcasts in both video and audio format on YouTube. If audio is more your thing, you can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or of course YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Reza Saylor.

is someone who has built a couple companies and had some successful exits. She is multifaceted. She's struggling, not struggling, but I know it's tough to be a good partner, a mom to two kids and also have a enough free time to join this show. So we really appreciate you coming on and we can't wait to dive in.

Risa Saylor (01:23)
Hey Dalton, thanks for having me today. Appreciate it. Excited to be here and look forward to jumping into branding and just talking about, you know, how that is super important for businesses. I know, you know, with businesses that I've built, branding is key. And I think that some companies, especially in the small business sector,

Dalton Anderson (01:24)
Hey.

Risa Saylor (01:51)
can, you know, not, they just aren't real consistent with getting their message out there. So I'm excited to discuss this, yeah, with your audience.

Dalton Anderson (02:02)
No, yeah, so out of the companies that you have have have created, I know that there's the fencing one and then there's the insurance one, like helping like figure out how to file a claim or handle claims. Is there any other any others that I'm not familiar with?

Risa Saylor (02:23)
Yeah, I've also launched physical therapy clinic in the healthcare sector. So I've had two fence companies, our first company we sold just under a million dollars after 10 years. So yeah, and then I have a claims company now. We mostly assist adjusters, appraisers.

On the insurance side, we assist with administrative assistance. It could be claim research, scheduling, whatever assistance that they need. So.

Dalton Anderson (03:05)
Yeah, that's a lot. You got your hands in many different areas. That's great. I think so in the agenda today, we're talking about branding. And when I think about a fence, like there isn't much, once you put a fence up, there isn't much difference between when the fence is put up. But I think the difference is how is it going to stand up like 10 years from now? What's the quality? And then how do you...

how do you handle the customer interaction? And I think that's the part where people get caught up. Okay. Like what's the difference between one service or for the other? I think that's how you handle customer service. But from your perspective for, for certain items, like the insurance claims, the fencing where people are very price sensitive, how, how do you go about branding and providing more value and convincing them to be part of the family or your.

your services per se.

Risa Saylor (04:07)
Yeah, I mean, with fencing specifically, it's super competitive. You have franchises out there. You have private companies. You have guys putting a fence out of the back of their truck. So you have home improvement companies that do fencing, landscapers. So the competition is huge. It's super competitive. Everybody wants to cut price.

And that's why having a brand is super important to get out there to the consumer as to why you're different. Why would they choose you over everybody else? In the past, our companies are competitively priced, but my businesses have never, you know, we've never put ourselves out there to be the cheapest fence company. But we're definitely competitively priced and fair.

Dalton Anderson (05:02)
Mm -hmm.

Risa Saylor (05:03)
So that was a big difference for us. We basically sell our team, our family, our experience. From the design stage, we did primarily residential fence. I would say about 75 % of our business was residential. Did some light commercial. But.

Yeah, I mean, when you're putting yourself out there, I focus on why we're putting up the fence, you know, pets, kids, security, all of those things where there's a lot of companies out there. I mean, it's just, you know, I do not to like share our secrets, but I mean, you want to kind of cater to...

why you're doing it, not just what you're doing. And what really set us apart was as owners, we oversaw every project. In fencing, a lot of the work is just sucked out. It's just a sales guy that comes out. He makes a commission. He doesn't care about the project. I mean, probably if you sign up with those type of companies, you never see them again. So for us, it was just really building a relationship.

Dalton Anderson (05:59)
Mm.

Risa Saylor (06:23)
with our customers too and letting them know that you choose us because we're going to oversee your work. We're going to make sure that everything's installed professionally and we follow through with that. So it's really just about putting out why you're different and what value you're providing to them, I think. That's really what created our success. So.

I feel like when you go to hire for a fence, for example, I mean, it's not rocket sign entry, but there definitely is a professional, you could see like your neighbor that put up their own fence versus a professional company that installed, had their fence installed. It's just, there's a big difference in quality, how it looks.

Yeah, there's definitely, but it's expensive. It's a big ticket item too. So like I get all the do it yourself -ers, you know, props to you. But for people that want to have it professionally done, it's really just about choosing someone. Obviously being licensed and insured is huge. You'd be shocked at how many companies put a sign on the road fences and they have no insurance. You know, none of their guys are covered at workers comp.

liability, all that good stuff. But technically everyone should have that. So, you know, we put out there, it was my husband was my business partner. So, you know, we're a family. Our son was a builder for us, you know, he's third generation builder. So we have that. I don't just you got to separate yourself from everybody else and just finding something of why you're different, why you're better.

Dalton Anderson (07:49)
Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Risa Saylor (08:11)
Why are the best choice? And then of course, you know, we talked a little bit about, you know, being the best team to choose, but also your products. I mean, you've got to make sure that you're out, you're putting, you're installing high quality products too, and having those brands backed. And those are also, you know, relationships that you build with your manufacturers and all of that matters too. So.

Dalton Anderson (08:40)
So with fencing, if we summarize that, it's mostly about your approach and how your approach has an extra bit of care on providing better services than you would otherwise. We've got a good team, we're family owned.

Risa Saylor (09:04)
You've got great products, pricing.

Dalton Anderson (09:04)
We are licensed and insured, our pricing is competitive, and so if you want to pick the other person, that's fine, but this is why we think we're better. And not only doing that, but following through consistently on what you say. And I just think like, okay, so just from my perspective,

It seems like you could really cut through a lot of a lot of companies like just by like doing not necessarily doing the right thing, but having the right approach and then and then whatever your approach is just following through. But I guess people just don't have the long term outlook of okay, like this is a two year project. We'll re we'll reevaluate ourselves and how we're doing in two years.

or maybe they just don't like they lose the passion for it. And so like when you were doing the fence thing and then you've done it twice, right? So the first time that you were doing it, like how long did it take for...

you to know like, hey, like we're onto something here with our branding and our approach in the market until you were like, okay, this is it. Like, this is our bread and butter. We're gonna keep doing this. And you know, this is the right approach. Because I think a lot of people struggle with that. Like, how do you, because I think when you've done this multiple times, you've got that level of confidence and you've got your team, like you and your partner are...

well drilled in, right? Like you know what you're good at, you know what he's good at and you're such a sub -general episodes in those areas and you've done it before. So you've got that level of confidence that a lot of people that when they're doing this for the first time that they don't.

Risa Saylor (10:55)
Yeah, I mean, it can be scary to go self -employed for sure. I mean, I definitely recommend saving. I mean, we saved. We made sure we had a good nest egg. You can work with banks, credit lines, things like that too. There's lots of resources out there. So, I mean, for us, it's just really knowing your competition.

knowing, knowing who your competitor is, and really believing in what you're saying. And yeah, we talked about the follow through follow up follow through. But yeah, we just saw these fences out there, we actually got into it because we needed a fence. And I were just kind of these companies were just falling short. I mean, you call you get an estimate, no one calls you back.

There were no shows. I mean, we had an appointment. No one even showed up. So it just depends, you know, it's being confident and knowing that what you're providing is something that people need. You know, they need reputable, reliable, honest companies out there.

Dalton Anderson (12:06)
Hmm.

Risa Saylor (12:13)
And I think it's just kind of holding on to, and if you do the, if you do the legwork in the beginning and really feel confident in your product or service that you're putting, that you're putting out there, you just have to stick with it. It's like anything else. I mean, it's, it, there's no like secret secret sauce, you know, it's just, it's just about hard work and consistency, you know? And if you just keep, keep doing it, I mean, our first company, honestly,

So when we launched that company, like our marketing consisted of, it was like very competitive at the time, phone book, phone book ads. I mean, it's just crazy like how the trajectory of marketing has changed. So I think also that just, you know, staying up with.

things are moving so quickly with tech, but you have to incorporate all that into your business and staying on top of tech, staying on top of your competition, your price points. Yeah, I think it's just sticking with it and staying up on the times, because things change quickly for all industries. So.

Dalton Anderson (13:31)
No, I agree. I had no idea that you had the primary motivation for starting the fence company was that you're just like, this experience sucks. We could do it better and we could do it better consistently.

Risa Saylor (13:41)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we just, we found, you know, at the time we're in the Carolinas and yeah, there was a ton of fence companies out there, but it was just the lack of professionalism, customer service. It just wasn't there. I mean, when you hire a company to do something professionally like that, I mean, you're expecting it to be installed professionally or the service or product.

to be up to your standards. But there's a lot more that goes into that. If and when there's a problem, which is bound to happen. I mean, there's just issues that come up, especially in construction, that are unforeseen. And how are those handled? And is the company going to stand by any type of errors or I don't want to say negligence, but that can be the case too. Or just an oversight.

So yeah, it was a growing area as well. So we just found that there was a huge need for what we could do. So yeah.

Dalton Anderson (14:52)
And I've had similar experiences, not only with the fence vendors, but just vendors in general, while trying to remodel my nan's home. Like some stuff I can't do myself and I need someone else, like I can't do the roof, things like that. And it's been such a struggle to get people out here to even quote, like, hey, we're ready, we're trying to pay you money.

Risa Saylor (15:15)
What?

Dalton Anderson (15:15)
just come out here and give us a quote or you know, they'll just struggle to get people to quote. It's a struggle to get them out here and then get them get a job scheduled. And some people like, well, we won't do quotes unless it's like, you got to pay us like $100 for us to even get out here. And so, okay, well, I'm paying you money. You want me to pay you money? And then,

But what if your quote is like ridiculous, like $9 ,000 or like $4 ,000 over everyone else? Like how, how do I know? Like I'm there like, okay, well if we pay for you pay for the quote, but then we'll take that off the job price if you do the job. But then I don't know whether they're quotes even competitive in the first place. I get that they have to drive the truck out there and it's time and it could be wasting their time. But I just think that's part of the part of the gig. Honestly.

Risa Saylor (15:47)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, there are times in some industries, like if there's a hurricane here in Florida especially, where people will start charging, especially if it's a lot of repair work instead of replacement. It is costly to a company to come out. So I have heard of in times like that, different times where there will be some charges for estimates and calls.

Dalton Anderson (16:16)
Mm.

So I'm charging you.

Risa Saylor (16:36)
Yeah. But if you're, if you're, I mean, generally these companies, I mean, that is part of business. So roofing super competitive. a lot of companies, you got to definitely do your research on them. A lot of fly by night companies. It was like, I feel like every year there's like new roofers popping up. Fencing is like that too. I mean, there's like every year there's fence companies popping up and then you never see them again, you know.

Dalton Anderson (16:50)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Risa Saylor (17:02)
after the season. So yeah, construction is an interesting field.

Dalton Anderson (17:10)
No, yeah. And your other point about like things not going right. I've worked construction and under my father because he's a GC and I've worked under his most friends before. I do their own companies and I don't think I've ever been on a job site where everything goes right. Like there's always something that goes wrong. If it's minor or major, that's depending on the situation. But I've never been on one.

everything is flawless. There's no, there's no issues like, like construction, those kinds of jobs is every time it's kind of like a startup like thing where you're gathering all the people, the vendors, everyone needs to work together. It's a quick agile team. You're getting all this and everything needs to be on schedule and there has got to be pretty much no flaws in the process or else you're delayed. So.

Risa Saylor (18:03)
Yeah, I mean, I used to tell our team, you know, I mean, we always talk about it, but it's not like if there's an issue, it's more like when. Yes, there's just so many moving parts. Every project is different, you know, every, I'm sure you're, you're, you're experience that with your dad. I mean, for fencing, I mean, every yard's different, you know, stuff underground, above ground. I mean, there's all different things that can go wrong. So.

Dalton Anderson (18:12)
Yeah, yeah.

So that was fencing. Do you want to transition over to the physical therapy or the claims? So we were talking about like your, I think the fencing is, it was a good example because the difference in your fencing is like more of not like always to the quality of your product. But if everyone has similar qualities product, the real.

Risa Saylor (18:41)
Yeah, so.

Dalton Anderson (18:57)
Differentification is like, okay, we're gonna be offering better services here. Like we're family -owned, we have these things going on for us. What about the person we got to quote from? But for physical therapy, I think is a little different and or claims, right?

Risa Saylor (19:15)
Yeah. So, I was a part of opening up a clinic in the Carolinas. And, you know, the biggest thing for physical therapy, what really set our company apart is we did one -on -one, one -hour physical therapy. And it was every therapist had their own room, had their own individual room, which is a different setting than a lot of physical therapy clinics where you go there, you're, you know,

you're passed off to a physical therapy assistant, not even working with an actual physical therapist, except for that initial consult visit, and you're in a big room, bunch of other people, you're on machines instead of getting manual therapy. So the business really set itself apart from...

from everybody else doing the one -on -one one hour, if you can be with a physical therapist for an hour, your odds of getting better quicker are so much higher. So that was that business and that was the business model. Healthcare is very corporate, continuing to go very corporate, like I said, where...

You know, you're just there, you know, 20, 30 minutes, get on a machine, do a couple things. I mean, we'll see you in a couple days. I mean, you're not really getting that, that individualized care, you know, I felt like. So, yeah, again, it's just separating yourself from everybody else. You know, I mean, you really have to do that, especially when you're in saturated industries. So, yeah.

Dalton Anderson (21:08)
No, that's, that's very interesting because my experience with physical therapy from playing sports in high school and sometimes I had to go for physical therapy in college was one physical therapy sucks. Like it hurts. I mean, you're doing things to get better, but it's not, it's, it's not a pleasant TV show that you're watching. either it hurts, it's painful and it's uncomfortable and

One of the things is like, okay, like you have that first session and then they kind of just tell you what to do. And then after that, it's like the same price as when you initially go, but you're getting less attention for yourself. So like you kind of just show up. Like if you were going to the gym by yourself, you like say hi, you check in. And then from there that you just do your routine or whatever. And then you just go.

Risa Saylor (21:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Dalton Anderson (22:02)
It doesn't feel like when I was going to those things, I'd never felt and there were some places where they gave a little bit more like individual care, like a sports therapist would. But for the most part, it was more like you go there, you do your routine and then you leave. But then when you left, it was like, OK, I basically did this all myself and then I getting charged like six hundred dollars. And I was like, man, I can't do this.

Risa Saylor (22:11)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, you know, a lot of corporate health care is specifically, you know, in the physical therapy realm, it's all about volume, you know, it's just volume. It's not really about getting better. And, you know, they're seeing patients every 20 minutes. I mean, it's just, it's just crazy. So yeah, that was the whole, there are, there are,

You know, things are drastically changing in healthcare. So, you know, it's more of a private care method than, you know, just going somewhere. And I'm sure people see success, you know, with the volume clinics, but it's just offering consumers something different and knowing that there is other options.

Dalton Anderson (22:59)
Mm.

Can you clarify what the, like what you say, I think you said private care. So does that mean that the person using the studio or the facility would be paying out of pocket for the services? Or what do you mean by private care? Because I don't know.

Risa Saylor (23:18)
Mm -hmm.

No, I mean.

Yeah, no, you can't. Well, I mean, you can't. You can come in and pay private pay and not use your insurance. But if you do have insurance or Medicare, the clinics get on board with being in network. But yeah, I mean, some patients do pay privately. I mean, there's even concierge doctors now where we actually, not anything I owned, but.

Dalton Anderson (23:37)
Mm.

Risa Saylor (23:59)
you can pay monthly and go outside of insurance. People are trying, are understanding that they don't have to go to these, you know, chop shop, all about volume. So I think that's with any business, just providing something different, you know, that makes you stand out and why people should choose you over everybody else. But.

Dalton Anderson (24:13)
Yeah.

Risa Saylor (24:27)
When we talk about branding too, I think it's essential that, you know, when you put your business out there, marketing, advertising, everything's the same. Everything is, you know, you have a color scheme. You have, I mean, down to like logo font, you know, when you walk into that physical therapy office or that, that fence crew shows up, you know, everybody has the same, the colors on their shirts and logos and.

you know, signage, you know, when we kind of talk about building a brand, it's really just about being consistent and always making sure that your logo, what you guys are offering is the same every time too. That's really what's important, you know, when it comes to building your brand.

Dalton Anderson (25:20)
And do you do that day one or do you do that further down the line? Day one, day one, everything. All your stuff together.

Risa Saylor (25:23)
Yeah. No day one. You have to have your, you have to have your brand, your logo, what you're putting out there. You know, like I said, for fencing, for example, it was all about, you know, pets, kids, backyards. I mean, that's really what you're transforming and that's really what you're, what, what are you solving for people?

And you have to be you have to put that out there, you know, with your whether you're using, you know, on your website, images, photos, your logo has to always be there. And you have to stay consistent with that, too. You know, you can't put out one ad that looks, you know, I don't know, you have to have colors. Sounds kind of silly. But like everything has to be themed. And it all has to be the same every time, you know. Yeah.

and you have to do that from day one.

Dalton Anderson (26:21)
So for I would say These companies that you have or previously had When you're doing your marketing, I know the the original you were doing phone book But for like I guess like if you do marketing on like Facebook or Google AdWords Are you are you searching more like when you first start? Are you are you doing more for like?

awareness or engagement or like how are you approaching like your first I guess like six months or so when you're just starting out because you can have a great brand but if no one hears about you then I mean no one knows you.

Risa Saylor (26:55)
Well...

Yeah, I mean, you've gotta have a marketing budget. Yeah, I mean, SEO is huge, social media is big. So for fencing, it was all about quoting. You wanna get the estimate, you wanna get that initial estimate, you wanna get in front of people, call us, free estimates, great prices. But you need to make sure you always have a consistent look to all of your ads.

Dalton Anderson (27:14)
Mm.

Risa Saylor (27:26)
Even way back to the phone book, you know, every one of our ads were the same. Look, feel what we're offering, what we're putting out there. One of my biggest social media successes was like a privacy fence. And it was like me privacy question mark. And people like loved it. You know, I mean, it was just, it's just, you just have to be consistent with what you're.

Dalton Anderson (27:31)
Mm.

Risa Saylor (27:53)
what you're putting out there and solving a solution for somebody. Like, you know, why would someone click on, why does someone even need a fence? You know, those are the things you have to put out there. With physical therapy, it's like getting better quicker, you know? But your logo, your colors, your everything has to always be consistent so that people start recognizing you and viewing you as like the industry, you know, standard.

of excellence basically.

Dalton Anderson (28:25)
Yeah, giving yourself that level of authenticity. Like even right off the bat, like set up. I think that makes a lot of sense because like when you're doing it, when you have, either you're doing, I guess a soft launch, when I'm saying soft launch, more like you're working and you're, I guess, not sweaty, or bootstrap, but the,

Risa Saylor (28:28)
Yeah.

Now you have to have all of that set up ahead of time.

Dalton Anderson (28:54)
You know, when you have a company going and you're working at the same time, when things, yeah, yeah, side hustle, they probably find that. It was like all these other words that weren't related. When you're doing that, you have all these other competing things like in your life. And once you start and you have customers, like all that stuff goes to the front, like for the business.

Risa Saylor (28:59)
Somewhere like a side hustle.

You

Dalton Anderson (29:24)
And there's always these little things that add up, like, okay, like maybe my email, like my email, my company email, this different font than what my logo email is, or not my logo, but the font on the website, or like we're using like slightly different colors, it doesn't exactly match. And I changed my color theme or whatever, and they're just misaligned. And then those things slowly add up to being this.

large event where these paper cuts, these paper cuts slowly add up to where you're, you're bleeding. And it's a bad look for yourself and the company because people notice those things. They might not point it out to you, but they see it like, okay, well, are they legit? I mean, they're inconsistent. And I think that's the expectation of like, you want to,

be a company that's seen as legitimate, you have to be legitimate. And to do that, you need to have that stuff set up beforehand and make sure that you have it all taken care of before you get started. Cause once you get started, there's a whole bunch of issues that pop up that you have to deal with that are potential crises. And these things fall off to the side.

Risa Saylor (30:23)
Yeah.

Yeah, like marketing or saying and things like that.

Dalton Anderson (30:40)
No, I was talking more like just like the little like little things that you should take care of like the like the coloring of your emails or or your logo or something like that like my examples might not be the best but like little issues that are like I'll deal with it later and then once you get started like Actually, your company is front -facing and customers are interacting with you and you're getting sales or you're doing quotes or your offering services

Risa Saylor (30:56)
Mm -hmm.

Dalton Anderson (31:08)
There's a whole bunch of other things that come up that are more important that you might not get to all these paper cuts. Yeah.

Risa Saylor (31:12)
Yeah, prioritize. Yeah, yeah, I can. And especially if you're small, I mean, I think it's about organization to having a schedule. So like if you're finding that you're just dealing with, you know, filling orders or, you know, scheduling projects or whatever it is you do, whether it's a project or service, you still have to have the backend business moving forward.

Dalton Anderson (31:21)
Hmm.

Risa Saylor (31:37)
with marketing, you know, the brand. Yeah, you can't, you have to just set up. I mean, my advice would be just to have that on a schedule. I mean, every month. And you can, nowadays there's so much, there's so many great apps and softwares and that you can use that really automate the communication, you know, to your customers. Like you mentioned an email, you know, a drip email. I mean, you can, you can set all that up.

of time, you know, and then just have it go out like an email campaign, for example, every Tuesday, Thursday, you know, and send that out to your, I mean, to your email list that you know, that you're that you're keeping. Yeah. So I think it's about organization and just making sure that you're ready for if you get busy. I mean, you've got to you've got to still wear all the hats and make sure you're hiring.

Dalton Anderson (32:21)
Your leads.

Risa Saylor (32:35)
hiring someone, there's so many, there's virtual assistants now, there's so many people that you can bring aboard.

Dalton Anderson (32:35)
Mm.

And that's going fairly corporate too. I've been listening to podcasts of other executives or private equity folks.

just investors, seed investors. And they're talking about, and it's been brought up over the last couple of months, kind of frequently about these specialized virtual assistants that are more of executive assistants where they can do executive -like tasks, like not as an executive, but an executive assistant to where maybe you don't need all of their time. Like if you were hiring a legitimate executive assistant, but someone who could do those types of tasks and that they're at the upper echelon.

of virtual assistance where they're highly educated and they're going to get paid a good job and are way above what they would normally be able to make in the country, their respective country. And I think that's picked up steam because a lot of times you might need help, but you don't need that much help. You might need 15 hours a week. If those 15 hours are freed up, you could work on higher value things. But...

So I need to hire full -time and so virtual system up

Risa Saylor (33:57)
Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much what our claims company is doing right now. I mean, all of these, you know, guys out in the field, I mean, they need help scheduling, they need research, they need, you know, just primarily administrative tasks done, because they don't have time, but they really can't afford to hire someone full time either.

Dalton Anderson (34:09)
Mm.

Mm.

Risa Saylor (34:20)
and commit to that. When you hire someone full time, you have benefits, you know, you have all. So, yeah, virtual assistance is huge. It's really popping up. I mean, you know, all over every industry. Executive assistance, yeah, I mean. But I do think that it's nice to be able to hire someone. I mean, you have to train them to some level, you know, bring them up to speed on what it is you do, how you want it done.

Dalton Anderson (34:45)
Yeah.

Risa Saylor (34:50)
and it is kind of hard when they're there part time or just a couple hours a week. I mean, I think probably having like a focus on this is what we need primarily because being pulled in so many different directions, I mean, that, that would be difficult for somebody, especially, you know, when you're, cause when you're not in the business every day, I mean, you kind of forget like, yeah, do that, you know? So, but no virtual assistance huge.

Dalton Anderson (35:12)
Yeah, yeah.

Risa Saylor (35:18)
A lot of people are doing it and you can just 1099 these companies too, which is nice. Yeah, I think it's great for everybody. For part -time work.

Dalton Anderson (35:29)
No, and speaking of hiring, and I was, I wanted to ask, so when you first start those companies, your first hire is like really important. Like that's gotta like reflect like you guys, like what the founders want, like you and your partner and the values that you're trying to present to your potential customer or your current customers. And so how do you...

How do you go about finding, because I think if you get the first hire wrong, I mean, that could really mess up your branding because that's the first line of defense really. I mean, if you're overseeing every project, yes, like you'll still have a touch to it, but if your first employee that it was hired doesn't necessarily align with the values that you're trying to present, then it could really throw things out of whack. So how do you go about?

Risa Saylor (36:21)
Sure.

Dalton Anderson (36:23)
making, like I guess, how do you go and evaluate your first hire versus hiring this person versus someone else? Because then the first hire is very important in my mind.

Risa Saylor (36:35)
Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, when you're trusting somebody to be an extension of your company and to project what it is that, you know, your culture, your values, what you're selling, what you're in, you know, your service, your product. Yeah, it's huge. I mean, your employees are a direct reflection of you. I think it's just about being a good leader and obviously interviewing, you know,

Making sure you're conveying your brand and what your culture is going to be like. I think it really starts with you to kind of set the pace and set the stage for what's expected, your work ethic, and obviously do research, references.

like for fencing, we're big on seeing their projects, you know, what have they installed, and then there's always training too. I mean, there's just ongoing training, being involved, overseeing their work.

You know, just having an open door policy too, if they have any questions. But I think it's all about the leadership, all about you as an individual, making sure that they're equipped with everything they need and just working together. You know, it's a team, it's a team effort.

Dalton Anderson (37:59)
Yeah, setting the right tone and references, reviewing previous work. Yeah.

Risa Saylor (38:04)
Yeah, I mean, standard hiring, yeah. Standard hiring, but then also just, you've got to communicate what your expectations are to them and provide that initial training and making sure that they understand and that they're doing what you need, so.

Dalton Anderson (38:25)
I think that's fair. I think it's a fair measure approach. So we've talked about things to do. What about some bloopers, you know, things that maybe we should avoid doing as far as branding. I know one that you've talked about was like make sure all your messaging is consistent and themed.

Risa Saylor (38:42)
Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing that I see where companies, I mean, they'll put out something on social media. It might be cute, but it's just all over the place. You have to really have a know your audience, know your target market, and making sure that everything you put out is consistent. I mean, you see it all over in real estate, with real estate teams, you see it.

you know, obviously big companies, everything that they're putting out is always the same feel. It's always, it's what you come to expect, if that makes sense. I mean, if you're just doing like a bunch of different things and it's forgettable, you know, I mean, you want to do something that's real memorable, it stays in people's mind.

Dalton Anderson (39:33)
Yeah.

Risa Saylor (39:39)
It's like Starbucks. I mean, when you pull up, it doesn't matter if you're in the US or if you're across the globe, you're expecting that your white chocolate mocha is the same taste, flavor. Everything is consistent, and that's really what it's about. Yeah, so.

Dalton Anderson (40:00)
I think we've all met that person who they're in everything. They're like, well, I'm an artist. I'm a, you know, I do art, oil paintings. I'm also, you know, a skydiver, landscaper, e -commerce person, Bitcoin. Like they're in like 15 different activities. And it's like, you can't even follow what's going on with them. And so I think that's similar. Like, okay, like.

If you want to be remembered for doing something, you have to be consistent on what you've got going on. I think that aligns both with your company and your personal life. If you're trying to be good at something, you can't do 25 things. You've got to pick a couple that you value and that you appreciate.

And then stick with those and be consistent for a while. And then maybe after a couple, I would say, depends what you're doing, but maybe six months you could reevaluate. But like say like this podcast thing, I'm going to reevaluate the podcast in two years. So I don't care. I like how it goes. Like I'm obviously I want it to go well, but I'm not looking at the numbers or trying to figure out, do I do it this week or like what's going on? I'm just doing it for two years. And then from after that, we'll see, you know,

Risa Saylor (41:16)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's about, yeah, I mean, you're setting goals. I mean, you have to have goals. You have to have benchmarks. You know, and it's always about reevaluating. You know, once you get really good at one thing, you know, there's something else that you probably need to address and fix. And there's always a constant, it's never perfect. You know, it's always changing. You have to stay on that consistently.

Yeah, I just, I think that owning your own business, it's more so about putting in the hard work and it's not really even just, it's not even motivation. It's just consistency, you know, and doing the same thing and just grinding it. You know, I mean, that's what it's about.

Dalton Anderson (42:03)
Yeah. So it was just a little bit of effort, right? Like a little bit of effort than, than other people. I recently, I recently found out that after 20, this is related to podcasting and after 21 episodes, you become a top 1 % podcast.

Risa Saylor (42:10)
Exactly. So true.

Dalton Anderson (42:25)
because I guess like on episode count, because a lot of people, they just stop after 20 or after I think 2020 episodes. Like people just stop doing it and they don't, I mean, it's just, it's just an effort thing. Okay. Like not every episode is going to be great. We just got to keep going and consistently work on it and make little improvements and reevaluate big picture stuff when the time comes. But just slowly just put your head down and kind of just.

pump out episodes. I think it's similar. Definitely not as challenging obviously, but...

Risa Saylor (42:58)
Yeah. I think like having a focus, you know, like even when we initially talked, like, you know, making sure that when, when, when your audience, you know, tunes in that they know, and they can expect quality information from you on specific topics, you know, and that doesn't mean in two years that what you're doing today,

It's going to evolve. I mean, you're, you know, things are going to, things are going to change. I mean, businesses are always changing, whether it's technology, you know, whether it's marketing changes, product changes, services, what you're putting out there. But at the end of the day, every day you're doing it and you're doing it the same, essentially, you know, like I would imagine you wouldn't want to.

I don't know, talk about XYZ and the next week you're like talking about a run club or talking about, you know, I mean, you've, you've got to have, it's really just about the target market. What, who are you, who are you, who are you speaking to and why are they coming to every week and just doing it. And I think you can definitely build value, loyalty. It's exciting. I mean,

It's nice to hear different perspectives and starting a business is no joke. My businesses were all on a small scale. They never were these huge private companies, but part of that too is, I mean, that's a lot to take on. I mean, I kind of like my personal life and my flexibility and there's pros and cons to both. But...

Yeah, I think just making sure that what you're putting out there is the same and that you're able to reproduce that week after week.

Dalton Anderson (44:57)
Yeah, no. And speaking of change, it's like, I think we talked about briefly before we started the recording, but it seemed that there's just some changing going on on how things are being branded. And there's this kind of trend of like creator founders and these, I guess it's deemed as like founder marketing. And it talked about a bit, but I have those examples, which is like the Marcus Malone.

has a, his method is documentation and he uses his Instagram to, in his social media accounts like YouTube, to document the problems, ongoing problems and issues and how he troubleshoots and builds the business and how he goes about like designing a product from scratch, like making the designs on the computer to printing it out, to getting it created, to figuring out all these things.

Which is cool. And people resonate with the documentation of the business and it gets them to buy into the whole idea of the company. Cause like they can see the love and the passion that he's providing to the products and he really enjoys it. And there was this other company called good girl snacks. And this is two female founders, their best friends. And it's basically a story like from day one, like how do you go about creating a pickle company from scratch?

And then there are some other aspects where there is the, I would say, providing value, which I think people are pretty familiar with. I guess a good example would be if you were a trainer, you could figure out by providing value to your audience by just doing exercises on there. Like, okay, if you have this pain, do this exercise and it'll help you out.

And there's the other thing where you try to communicate with other influencers to get, provide perceived value and validation of what you're saying by having them interact and collab with you. And so I think that's a little different. And we've seen the founder marketing with, with larger companies like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman, where the feature releases are getting pushed through by the founders.

and not necessarily like a company announcement. They're hearing it directly from them, from their profile, and that's where the news is coming out from the founder and not the company, which I think is a little bit backwards than what it used to be.

Risa Saylor (47:27)
I mean, I think that that's good though, because people relate to other people. It's all about tapping into the consumer's emotions. When you get to know these founders, you want to use their products and services. You want to be a part of it. They kind of create a following. I mean, that's what influencers do. Whether you can relate or you want to relate.

You know, so yeah, I mean, that's that that personal branding. It's I think it's more so just tapping into people's emotions. Getting to know people. I see a lot of brands, especially online, where, you know, or the even the bloggers, it's like, you get this backstory, you know, it's like, I was.

Dalton Anderson (47:55)
Yeah.

Risa Saylor (48:20)
you know, so overweight and I was just addicted to sugar and you know, like people like, my gosh, that's me. You know, it's like, but this is what I did. You know, I'm clean eating now and these are all my great recipes. And, you know, people are like, my gosh, they overcame. I mean, you know, that's, that's, yeah, it's, it's an emotional marketing is very emotional. yeah, it's, it's important to tap into that for sure. It creates a long hold.

Dalton Anderson (48:34)
Mm -hmm.

Risa Saylor (48:49)
a long -term, you know, kind of holding on people.

Dalton Anderson (48:53)
Yeah, and on your just having retention on your audience, like having them return, like to see what happens next. It's like almost like a like a like you're streaming your own reality, like not reality TV show. But I my mom described it as like a business blog, like you're vlogging, but it's up to business and for the documentation piece. I don't.

Risa Saylor (49:17)
I mean, people are going to come back for you because they like you. They like hearing you. They like your perspective. They are interested in the information that you're putting out, but you want to keep that consistent and having a good direction, a good following. I mean, that's kind of how companies create like a, you know, you always hear it. it's like a cult -like following. You know, I mean, every, it's like a tribe.

Dalton Anderson (49:33)
Yeah.

Risa Saylor (49:44)
I mean, that's really what you want to tap into. So, yeah, I mean, founders are huge. I mean, I think people also like hearing from other people that are successful and that have had success, especially in business. It's like, what did they do? How did they do it? At the end of the day, I think everybody, that's really what everybody's trying to get to.

Dalton Anderson (50:13)
Yeah.

Risa Saylor (50:13)
It's different for everybody, but yeah.

Dalton Anderson (50:16)
I would like to do like a zero to, like I think people call it like zero to hero, but like that's what my, my thought is like, okay, like if I, I would like to document the company and entrepreneurial stuff that I, ventures that I'm going to be doing while podcasting. I've done some episodes about it, but been having some stop gaps here with some other.

requirements are taking up my time, unfortunately, but I'm going to get back onto it. And the idea was like, okay, with some of these episodes, I would document what I'm doing and like, like what, what things are my troubleshooting? I mean, there's going to be a certain amount of lag time. I'm not going to be like real time, like, okay, like I'm designing this product and I'm getting it from this person, you know, or like, you know, this is who I'm using to help manufacture the molds and all this other stuff, but not, not to that level of detail, but you know, where people could resonate with it.

kind of see, okay, this is what, like, that's how they went about it. And like, these are the issues that they're having. And then hopefully I could like, yeah, it's doing $50 ,000 a month. That'd be great.

Risa Saylor (51:20)
Yeah. Well, also look at all these entrepreneurs that, you know, they do have success in something, right? And then what do they do? They go and they want to teach you how to do it. You know, I could teach you, I can show you what I did, you know, just pay for this bundle, pay for this program. Consulting work is huge, you know, hire me, I can show you as your consultant.

Dalton Anderson (51:50)
Mm.

Risa Saylor (51:50)
you know, how to do it, what to do. Yeah, I mean, I think everybody's, you know, really looking for the same thing. So, but yeah, you should, that would be exciting. It's really just providing a solution to people and what they're looking for and the information that they need to, I mean, they can come on your podcast, get information about how to brand instead of like, you know, scouring the internet and...

I don't know, it's nice to go to like a one spot and be able to get some clear, concise clarity on what they're trying to do. Yeah, they want to create a business.

Dalton Anderson (52:25)
I think that podcast episodes, and I don't want to get too technical, but they're like a compression algorithm to where you're like a book, you read a book, like you're compressing years of someone's life or experiences in a couple hundred pages or so. And then for podcasts, you're compressing a year's worth of information in like 40 minutes.

And so you're really getting a lot of valuable stuff from whoever is talking. In this case, you're talking and you're presenting and sharing your time with everyone. But you've done the same thing for, not same thing, but you've done this branding thing for years and years. And like, you already know, like when you do it again, it's so easy for you because you've done it so many times. You've got that confidence and you have that.

I would say ambition to do so. And so when you sharing this information with someone, it's really valuable and I really appreciate your time today. And I hope maybe like episode 150, we could do another one.

Risa Saylor (53:40)
Yeah, that sounds great. I appreciate you having me.

Dalton Anderson (53:45)
Okay, to conclude everyone, we went over branding and what not to do and what to do and how do you go about competitive research and how do you provide a better offering to your customer, potential customer and.

and finding the right niche to operate in and potentially expanding from that. But, you know, being comfortable with where you are and not expanding too much to where you have to sacrifice social aspects of your life. And so there is a balance and finding the balance that's right for you and your family. Think about that because it's not always about making the most money or expanding. It's also about, you know, who do you want to be perceived as like to your kids or?

to your friends and your family. So that's also an aspect that people don't talk about and you talked about briefly, but it is important. And so that's kind of the summary. As always, good afternoon, good morning, good night, wherever you are in this world, and I'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening, bye.