Show Information

Episode Number: 148

Date: May 11, 2026

Duration: 38:33

Host Contact Information

Host: Justin Deese

Website: JustinDeese.com

Contact: [email protected]

Guest Contact Information

Guest: Dan Antonelli

Company: KickCharge Creative

Guest Website: https://www.kickcharge.com/

Gift to listeners: Family-owned letter template and branding resources available at KickCharge.com

Summary

In this episode of the Freedom Blueprint Podcast, Justin Deese sits down with Dan Antonelli, founder of KickCharge Creative and author of Branded Not Blended, to unpack why branding is one of the most overlooked growth drivers in the home service industry.

With over 31 years of experience and more than 3,000 home service brands developed, Dan explains why branding isn’t just about logos and colors — it directly impacts booking rates, close rates, average ticket size, recruiting, and customer trust. He introduces the concept of becoming “five-mile famous,” showing why community visibility and grassroots marketing outperform blindly throwing money at Google ads and LSAs.

Justin and Dan also dive into how smaller operators can compete against private equity-backed companies without matching their ad spend, why consistency across every customer touchpoint matters, and the hidden ROI of rebranding: improved culture, stronger team morale, and attracting better talent.

If you’re an HVAC, plumbing, electrical, or home service business owner looking to stand out in a crowded market, this episode is packed with practical branding and marketing insights that can reshape how customers — and employees — perceive your company.

Takeaways

• Branding directly impacts booking rate, close rate, average ticket, and marketing efficiency
• “Five-mile famous” community visibility beats relying solely on Google and paid ads
• Fanatical consistency across trucks, uniforms, websites, and signage builds trust
• Family-owned businesses have a competitive advantage — if they communicate it clearly
• The best time to invest in branding was yesterday; the second best time is today
• Strong branding improves recruitment, morale, and company culture
• Customers often decide they trust you before they ever contact your company
• Private equity can outspend you online, but they can’t out-community you locally

Chapters

00:00 – Intro & Welcome

00:50 – Dan’s 31-Year Journey in Branding

02:23 – What KickCharge Actually Does

03:51 – Why Consistency Builds Trust

06:00 – The Science Behind Brand Impressions

07:33 – The Story Behind the Gettle Brand

10:32 – The Average Size of KickCharge Clients

12:25 – Visibility & “Your Trucks Are Everywhere”

14:00 – Fanatical Consistency Explained

16:46 – Why Consistency Signals Reliability

18:36 – When Should You Invest in Branding?

21:01 – Why Branding Compounds Over Time

22:00 – Becoming “Five-Mile Famous”

24:06 – Grassroots Marketing vs. Expensive LSAs

25:30 – The $35K Sponsorship Strategy

26:54 – Childhood Brand Recognition Story

27:51 – Competing Against Private Equity

30:23 – The CHIRP Message & Family-Owned Advantage

31:00 – The Hidden ROI of Branding

34:39 – Where to Find Dan & His Book

36:41 – Outro

Keywords

#FreedomBlueprintPodcast #JustinDeese #DanAntonelli #KickCharge #Branding #HomeServiceBusiness #HVACBusiness #PlumbingBusiness #ElectricalContractor #MarketingStrategy #BrandStrategy #Leadership #BusinessGrowth #CustomerTrust #CompanyCulture #Recruitment #SmallBusinessMarketing #Entrepreneurship #BrandedNotBlended #ContractorMarketing

Mentioned in this episode:

Homeservicehoorah.com

Welcome back to another episode of freedom blueprint podcast. am your host Justin Deese. today Listen, This is a note taker, podcast episode here. Now, all of this stuff is going to be in the show notes as well. So you don't have to feel like you have to write it down, but I got a feeling there's going to be a lot of value being dropped all over this episode today. So, ⁓ without further ado.

I want to introduce our guest today who is Dan Antonelli, the founder of Kick Charge. And my guess is if you're listening to this podcast, you probably know who Dan is. I know that you have wrapped thousands of vehicles and I know that you have created

different industry standard of what a wrap and what branding in general should look like. So, ⁓ yeah, anyways, without further ado, Dan, welcome to the show, man.

Thanks, Justin. ⁓ Yeah, it's been an interesting journey for sure. This is actually our 31st year.

And it still kind of blows my mind that I'm doing things that I did when I was 15 years old. know, so, you know, at age 15, I hand lettered my first service vehicle with paint. And, ⁓ you know, I still get that sense of excitement when I see one of our brands out there in the wild. Surprisingly, we don't do as much work as you might suspect in our actual community. Like there literally is not a well branded company within within 20 miles.

of my office, believe it or not. Sometimes I want to start a home service company in my neighborhood because there's just no one that actually has a well-branded company here. But it's been a remarkable journey and we're at, I think, almost 75 employees right now, which again, it's just such an amazing group of talent and passionate people. And we're super grateful that we get to build these brands that change people's lives.

And I can't think of a better thing to be spending time on. So I'm really fortunate and blessed to still be doing what I'm passionate about and to be surrounded by ⁓ so much talent here that it's very humbling to see what these people do every day. It just blows my mind. So it's been a great journey.

So I briefly touched on this a little bit earlier, but it really has become where when you see a brand, you're like, ooh, that's a Kick Charge brand. Like it just has a ⁓ artist touch to it. And I think it's really cool. But for anybody listening who's not sure about what all it is that you guys do, can you give us just an overview of like, what is Kick Charge? What does it do? What do you guys do?

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah,

so, ⁓ you know, we're a full service branding and digital marketing company. So a lot of our clients start with us on the branding journey. So we'll create a brand for them. Then we'll integrate the brand on their different channels. So we can do their brochures, we can do their uniforms, their business cards, their site signs, direct mail. And then the truck obviously is a very critical component because the truck honestly is probably the single most important application of

brand is how does it appear on a truck and how do we leverage that canvas and maximize the opportunity there. And then when those things are done, helping them with digital marketing and really trying to leverage the story of that particular brand not through, not only through visuals, but through the words that you read on the website, like what makes this company unique? What do they stand for? What do they believe in? And ⁓ how does that story impact me as a homeowner and make me want

to do business with you as a company.

Well, I in marketing, you know, people do business with people they know, like, and trust. And I think there's such an importance of the story. And there's a lot of, again, I've got a lot of friends that have worked with you over the years. ⁓ That story really becomes that like, and trust with that homeowner. So, ⁓ you know, tell me what is the importance of that brand being the same across, across all platforms, or is it even important?

Exactly.

Yeah,

that's a great point. And that's what I love about what we get to do is ⁓ consistency across all the touch points. So no matter where that homeowner is in the journey of choosing a contractor to work with, maybe they saw the truck, maybe they went to the social media page, maybe they saw a website or saw a brochure or.

got handed a business card. Like every single touch point along that journey should be consistent and should be personifying who this company is, why you might choose them and what I might expect if I actually hired them. And you you, you mentioned something just, just before about no like and trust and you know, we look at trust as being something that is established before that homeowner actually picks up the phone to call you or goes on your website and books a job.

or your technician rings the doorbell. Like what are we doing to establish trust to set the expectation of what that deliverable looks like? Because if I can control what that homeowner believes about that experience, especially if they believe it's going to be a premium experience, then we'll have much less friction in the sales process, right? So much less resistance to higher cost, higher average tickets, because I believe as a homeowner, based on everything I've been presented, that there's a reason why I might expect to pay a premium for this.

this

particular service. And as far as the no part, in terms of no like and trust, the no part is just the idea of using brands as a mechanism to become visible in the community that we're serving. So leveraging every single opportunity that we can to maximize every single impression. So, you know, there's studies that talk about how many times it takes for someone to know your brand, how many impressions it may take. And, you know, a lot of studies put that number somewhere between 15 and 20 times.

Well, but what if we could cut that to five times or or or less? Like what would that mean to our marketing spend? And so the idea of disruption, I certainly talk about it in my book, is maximizing that impression to deliver a promise while also still being memorable and hopefully living in someone's mind for recall later on. And I want to say none of this stuff is very is very complex, but I don't think many people really think about it in terms of distilling it into that process. Right. So

I see the truck. I think something about the experience. It's different enough for me to file it away. And then in two months, I've got a problem with my air conditioner. What was the name of that company that I saw driving by that was really cool and not generic, not sun and snowflakes? You know, what, what, you know, and so if I can, a couple of those impressions and then they start seeing it and they're like, my God, I see these guys all the time. I see these guys all over. I've seen it on my neighbor's driveway. I've seen it in my community. they're, they're the trust,

Yeah.

starting to be established because it's visible. ⁓ And then what I'm being presented with, know, name, tagline, visuals, is making me feel something or connect with that particular company. And anytime you can make a connection beyond just the obvious, you are more likely to be remembered by them later on.

Yeah. So I know one of the, one of the brands that you, that you helped work on was Gettle. And, it's, it's always interesting because they have such an incredible story that even homeowners that I know that live in the areas that they service, they can mimic their commercial and they already know the story about the boy with the flashlight and they're not even in our space. That's pretty incredible.

Right. Right. Yeah, it's wild.

Yeah. And that was, you know, that was probably, I think it was probably 15 years ago that we did that.

that brand for Ken. And I think it was one of the rare examples that a client came to us already having an idea or notion of what that brand story was going to be. And so it was our job to flesh that out and visually represent what that brand story would be. But it blows my mind when I'm in Phoenix or I'm in Vegas and I...

see that brand. mean, you know, I got to personally work on that brand with my illustrator and to see what that has grown into and how many lives have been impacted by that brand, how many jobs have been created. Like that's a really great illustration of our why and what we exist for, right? So just seeing how critical that role played in their growth is certainly just very rewarding for us to see.

and working with Ken, Ken's just such a great operator and such a good guy to work with. And you learn so much just being around visionaries like Ken, but that process was fun. It was ⁓ originally not like the boy is actually Ken's son. I don't know if you knew the story, but originally it was not Ken's son. It was actually my neighbor that it was modeled after. And I had a neighbor that was the exact perfect age. He was 10 years old. He had freckles. We bought the house.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, Duncan, yeah.

hat

that the boy was wearing, like the newspaper boy hat and the overalls. And we illustrated the whole thing. And then we sent it to Ken. And Ken was like, yeah, this is great. I love it. Let's move forward. And then we start the process of actually doing the illustration, which is crazy amounts of labor. I think that illustration was north of 60 or 70 hours to actually illustrate the boy. And then he says, well, hey, you know what would be really cool? We should model this after my son. And I'm like,

You're like, where

was that 40 hours ago?

Yeah.

And I'm like, this is information that might've been useful like a week ago. But so then like he tried to find some, pictures of his son at that age. He didn't have a lot. wasn't the right lighting. And so we, kind of had to really, you know, work hard to get it dialed in so that it looked legit. Right. But it was, it was kind of a cool story. And I got to hang out with his son a few times and meet him firsthand. And I just thought it it must be pretty like pretty cool to have the entire brand

based on a 10 year old version of yourself. anyway.

That's pretty cool. obviously, obviously Gettles a ⁓ giant brand. And I think a lot of times when people see a lot of the brands that you work on, their brain goes to large company, which I mean, I think that's by design, right? But what is the, what is the average size of a company that you work with?

Mm-hmm.

You know, yeah, and that's kind of interesting because many of them were not large when they started with us. Even Gettle, I think, was probably three or four million in revenue at the time.

and was losing money, I think at the time too, it wasn't even profitable before Ken took it over. I would say on average, most of our clients are probably in the one and a half to three million range, but we have tons of startups. We have tons of people that are just, you know, two, three, 400 in revenue. And they're just, they understand that where they want to go, it's going to be harder to get there unless they can get this foundation correct. And I think that that's the most critical thing is.

getting that foundation correct because that affects all the KPIs that matter most, right? So when you look at booking rates and close rates and average tickets, even percentage of ad spend, like all those things are going to be very much affected by the brand and the consumer's perception of the brand. And often I want to say to you, like we have companies that I think they do a great service.

They just don't look like they do a great service. Right. So from my perspective, I was like, well, that's easy. Like I can, I can make any company look like they're amazing. I just can't control what happens after they ring the doorbell. But if they're already doing well from an operational perspective and they've got ops dialed in, then this is just like adding gasoline to the fire because now you're just really leveraging how great they really are with how great they're perceived to be. Right. And if those things come together, that's typically like a recipe for success.

Yeah.

3

I think most people would be ⁓ a little bit shocked to hear the range that you said, which I think it's great. So one of the, was telling you earlier, so I was reading your book, was a couple things that really I went, but one of the things was when we first launched our last business, when we first got the trucks to the time they got wrapped, there was like a six week time period, cause whatever, waiting on all the stuff and you know, I'm impatient. So I was ready to go.

And it went from nobody knowing who we were. And we had, I don't know, four or five trucks that hit the road at the same time. All of a sudden people are calling and texting me going, dude, your trucks are everywhere. And I'm thinking it's the same number of trucks.

Right.

Right. And that's it. And that's just the power of branding. Yup, that's just the power of branding. I mean, we have clients that have one truck.

But now they stand out. Yeah.

and they get that same response. I see you guys all over and you know, the owners chuckle in themselves because they've got one truck. And ⁓ it's again, the idea of maximizing that particular impression, right? Because if it was a white van blending in, there's no reason for me to register that in my mind. But I see it. I see this, this cool truck and it's different than everyone else. The colors are different. I see it once. And then maybe I see it, you know, two days later or three days later, but now I'm like, man, I'm seeing these guys all over. And it's just like, well, you think you're

Mm-hmm.

seeing them all over. It's the same thing what do you think about sometimes with cognitive bias when you buy a red car of a certain make and then you think you're seeing it all over. You're not really seeing it all over but it's it's meaningful to you and now you're you're seeking it out and it's you know it's you know more relevant to you at that point. So absolutely we hear that often yeah for sure.

That activating system, man. Yeah.

Yeah.

So there was another part in the book you were talking about that really resonated with me too, because as we grew, we'd start doing a little bit of stuff on Facebook and a little bit of billboards and a little bit of this and a little bit of that. In the book you were talking about, each of those people want to put like their own spin. And it was frustrating because then at the end of the day, they all looked totally different. And there wasn't this brand guide that...

Right.

It took me, it took me quite a few years to figure out the importance of that. But, but that's a lot of what you guys help people with, right? Like they're going to have this brand guide that's going to be clear as they present their brand and as they use these other companies, they're now going to be able to go, no dude, here's the roadmap. Here's the blueprint. Here's the codes. Follow it.

Yeah.

Yeah, 100%. I mean, I think I may even use the term in the book, fanatical consistency, as it relates to branding being integrated across the channels. And for us, when we have obviously the opportunity to control that, then we know for sure, no matter where that anyone is on that journey, it is dialed in and it is on brand 100%. One of the frustrating things is when we don't have the opportunity to do some of the other assets later on. And I'll see a Facebook ad.

And I'm Facebook friends with the owner and I'll take a screenshot and I'll send them a message. I'm not trying to be rude. I'm just like, dude, what happened? Like, where did this font come from? Like, where did this color come from? It's not even in the brand guide. So, you know, I'm very OCD about that stuff, but there's a reason why I'm OCD. You know, can you imagine suddenly, you know, Coke deciding that it's going to introduce blue into its palette, like randomly, like would they ever do that? No, because they're protecting the brand identity.

at every single touch point. So when you have multiple vendors handling different aspects of your marketing, sometimes the brand gets diluted, especially if you don't have a brand guide for them to follow. But even sometimes having a brand guide for them to follow, whatever designer is on the job, maybe he's like, hey, this would be really cool if I just use this font instead. And I'm just like, my God, like you're killing me here. Like, why did we invest all this money in branding if now we're going to start being inconsistent and diluting it? just again,

And like little things like that may not seem like a significant issue, but I want the customer any single time they see anything related to your company to know immediately where that's coming from. And when you introduce those other aspects, suddenly it becomes a little confusing for them and not ideal.

And so in my head, I'm thinking about consistency, Like for typically when customers are working with service businesses, consistency is what they want, right? And so I think subconsciously, I mean, maybe customers pick that up and they go, there's not even if they don't know it, but it's the consistency. they going to show up on time? Are they going to do what they say they're going to do? If there's a problem or they're going to return like that consistency level, I feel like subconsciously they lose. Is that, I mean, does that sound right?

Sure.

yeah no hundred percent and you know again like i i i went to the website but then the guy rolling up in the truck it looks different

same company is it? know, and if you have to have them have that second of pause, like asking that question, or when they hand out the business card, but it looks slightly different than the uniform the guy's wearing. And they've already been on the social media channels, but that looked slightly different. Like, so, you know, there's an element of trust that's built up over that repetition. And if that repetition is very consistent, then there's a certain level of expectation about what those different touch points would be. And, you know, for us even just to get

granular to the sense of even the equipment sticker that you're going to put on that piece of equipment like should be dialed in and should be branded like it should be it should look exactly the way the other pieces look and I should know immediately what company is being represented. So it's one of those things where it's not often talked about as far as how critical consistency is across channels. And I think there aren't really a lot of companies probably like us that soup to nuts can handle every single aspect of it.

you know, maybe, you know, there's great digital marketing companies, there's some branding companies, very few put those pieces together. And therefore that's oftentimes when you see some of the dilution happening within the actual brand standards.

So for anybody who's listening to this, who's thinking, well, I've got a white van with a sticker on it and I feel like I'm not big enough for this, or they think they need to wait till tomorrow, for those owners, when would you say is the best time to make this investment in their business?

Yeah, mean, ideally the best time was yesterday. The second best time is today and the worst time is honestly tomorrow. And I think until you understand the tax that you're paying for being unremarkable.

you won't ever understand why it's important to invest in branding. But it's sometimes ironic to me because it's the same companies that are hating on how much they are endeared to Google for their lead gen, how much every month their credit card's getting whacked for LSA and PPC, and yet it's the same people that are virtually invisible in the community that they're serving. And so there's a cost to that invisibility. There's a cost to no one knowing that you exist and

that

So imagine that at you know with weak branding your booking rate is 50 % But imagine if before they make pick up the phone to call you they already think that you're qualified and I think you're gonna be a great company and let's imagine your booking rate goes to 60 % and you do 50 calls a week Well, what exactly would that translate into additional revenue if your average tickets is $2,000 a ticket, right? So when you start actually looking at how just changing some of these KPIs

and fixing some of the challenges that are inherent in the brand that you have that are affecting those KPIs, you're like, my God, like if I just improve this by 10%, that would equate to this much more in revenue. And then is the investment in branding really expensive or is not investing in branding really expensive, right? So.

⁓

Yeah. And, ⁓ it's, it's crazy because the, the, ⁓ customer acquisition costs is not ever going to go down. I don't, I don't suspect, ⁓ you know, for awhile, people were like, well now there's going to be AI and AI will tell you AI is going to capitalize on it. They're going to figure out how to charge businesses for it. That mean Google was the same way, right? When they first came out with like the LSAs, it was really cheap. Even pay per click. I remember paying like

Yeah.

75 cents back in the day. ⁓ and that is long gone. Like that's not a thing anymore. So, that's only going to get more expensive and being memorable because if somebody has seen your brand and they see it over and over again, and they, they, they inherently have this trust already built in. I mean, when they call you, they've already decided they're not price shopping you, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Pretty much,

yeah, pretty much.

Again, like the idea of that five mile famous and what can you be doing as ⁓ a a owner to become five mile famous and everyone is so quick to just throw money at digital and I understand that digital obviously has to be a very big part of your marketing budget. But few companies want to take the time to invest in the community. They don't do things like attending home shows. They don't do things like participating in community events like Fourth of July,

or Halloween parades. think Stephanie from Anchor is a great example of someone that has truly embraced how important community relations are to her business. So that people aren't typing in, you know, where she's at and saying, air conditioning repair near me. They're typing in Anchor heating and air because, my God, I remember these people, they were at the parade. I remember these people, they sponsored the Little League. I remember these people because I saw them here, right? So those grassroots efforts just have such a tremendous impact.

yeah.

Mm-hmm.

on again living in someone's mind and signifying to the people of the community, hey we're here to serve you, like we're part of this community, we're not private equity, like you know that's another common thing where people are like how do I compete against private equity, like we'll do the things that they're not doing, right, show the people that you are from this community, that you care about this community, you're contributing to this community, and those grassroots efforts just yield tremendous dividends, it's just people don't want to take the time, they're like it's hard to commit to saying okay we're gonna send the team out on a

yeah.

Saturday

to sit at an event or to be in the parade or to have the wrap truck pulling a trailer and throwing candy out like you know I was literally at a I remember being at a Halloween parade where my daughter was in the marching band and I'm waiting on the street and there's thousands of people on this route it's like a one-mile route and all these trucks are coming by and different different companies and they're handing out handing out candy and I'm just thinking of myself

I have nowhere else to look right now. I have nothing else to do but just watch what's going by at two and a half miles an hour.

Okay.

And those impressions like you can't buy that exposure. It was like $150 to get to participate in it. So you want to tell me where you're to have that many eyeballs on your brand demonstrating that you're a part of this community for $150. Right. But yet, oh, let me just write a check to Google and do some LSA and I'm going to pay, you know, $75 for the click or $50 for the click. Right. So, so it's not, I want to say sometimes I say it's not sexy to do it.

Yeah.

but it's probably not really the right word, but it takes time and it's an investment. But I think people get so caught up in how hard they need to go on digital. I'm just like, listen, don't forget about the grassroots stuff. know, get your name in front of the people you're trying to serve and demonstrate to them how important it is. Like I literally have a carpet cleaning company that we did the branding for that invested $35,000 this year to sponsor every single soccer team, every single softball team.

And I think.

was one other team, the basketball teams, and their name is on the back of every single Jersey. So there's hundreds and hundreds of families that their child is wearing the name of this carpet cleaning business. And again, do you think now any one of those parents when they need carpet cleaning is going on Google and typing in carpet company near me? Or are they going to just type in the name? So that's an extreme. And I actually, I'm really excited to hear some of the results because he's doing it now, like it's happening right now. And, but I think he,

was again at the at the time you know just how much money he was continuing to spend on Google and he's like I'm not seeing the ROI on Google my acquisition costs are so high and you know let's let's do this and let's be visible and not only that they have a mascot with this brand that is a physical mascot as well and they go with the physical mascot to some of these games and they interact with all the people that are at the games and they hand out candy the parents like let me take a picture with you like so again

like it's it's really you know grassroots organic work but I think it's really important again no like and trust like I saw you at the game like you sponsor my kids team like the guy that's sponsoring your kids team is probably not ripping off the community right you know so so ⁓ I think again just diversify but never forget how important it is to get that visibility to get that five-mile famous you know we look at sight signs as another thing to invest in very simple things

Yeah.

to be doing. Don't make it look like every other square white sight sign though. Like make it visually interesting and different. So I want to stop and look and say, ⁓ I see that they got a new air conditioning system. that's cool. And file it and register it. Right. So

So it's interesting, you just told the story about the soccer team because when I was a kid growing up, we had a sponsor that was a door and window company of our baseball team. And same thing, they basically sponsored like five or six different age groups to make sure and hit them all, right? Well, I wasn't the avatar at the time, cause I was 12. But when I got to the point, when I was an adult and I needed doors and windows, I was super happy to call them.

And the owner was still there. So was, it was like a cool conversation to tell him like, cause I'm pretty sure that my one order probably paid for all of that for the entire time. Cause doors and windows are expensive, but, ⁓ but at the same time, every time I've ever needed doors and windows now, that's the guy I call. And it just was because of that local sponsorship, ⁓ to another point you made too. ⁓ you know, obviously private equity is a huge conversation in our space. And I think.

Yeah.

Sure.

You know, I hope anybody listening took note of what you just said. You're not going to beat the private equity businesses in the Google game. They will run you broke. It's not going to happen, but they're not hanging out at the baseball games and the softball games and the soccer games and the, the local content. Most of them are, I don't actually know any that are, ⁓ I know most of them that I'm aware of. The first thing to do is cut that kind of stuff out. So, I think it's, it's definitely,

Right. Right.

very, very important to make sure you're hitting those things so that you're, that you're top of the mind, because the cost to hit your name versus plumber near me, big gap in that.

Yeah,

it's crazy. And on that point too, Justin, I want to share a tip for people that are competing against private equity in their space. think one thing for people to understand and consider is that most homeowners still don't know the difference. They actually don't really understand or know.

They do not.

what is happening with the consolidation. And so we encourage our clients and we actually have a template on our website that anyone can download. It's on our resource page. And it's a letter that we recommend that they send out to all their existing clients talking about.

why family owned matters, who we are as a company, what contributions we make to this community, and letting them know that a lot of the companies that they may be getting estimates are from are owned by Wall Street instead of Main Street. And getting that message out there, like we even have went so far as to have some of our clients using like CHIRP before the technician even rings the doorbell and having a message from the owner just saying, hey, just, you know, we're really excited for the opportunity

to come to your home today. Just want to let you know we are family owned and we're proud of that. You know, there's a lot of things happening in the industry you may not even be aware of. And this is what makes us different. You know, we sponsor the little leagues. We're part of this community. We're grateful for the opportunity to serve you. And I just want to let you know how much it means for me to serve you and your family. Right. So, again, like before the tech gets the ring the doorbell, we're hitting them up with what is different about our service and why that matters to you as a homeowner. So stuff like that, I think, is really important. But people, a lot of

complaints about how hard it is to compete against PE, but you don't see a lot of tangible actions taken to put the messaging out about why that's actually important for me as a homeowner.

Hmm.

That's really good. Yeah. Cause I do see companies that, that, that do say that, okay, we're locally owned and operated, but really a lot of times, especially when you're talking about AC, if it's 105 outside, it's more about who gets here. The fastest sometimes, right? Um, again, I've had service people pull up to my house before that got out of their truck and I was like, they're not coming to my house. Like, it's just not, it's not, they might be the nicest person on the entire planet.

Yeah.

True. Yep.

Yep.

that somebody gets out looking ratty, they open their service door van and tools fall out. They're not coming to my house. It's just not going to happen. those, but those companies are so aren't spending and investing in branding and training and you know, things that make you a really good company. So, well, cool. Dan, ⁓ any last thoughts before we, before we wrap today?

Yeah.

Absolutely.

I would say the one thing that I think people underestimate when you think about branding and a lot of people just associated with, well, it's going to be this cool new logo. It's going to...

we'll put on the truck, we'll put on the website. I think a lot of owners underestimate what it does for culture internally and what it does for their mindset as an owner. And I think that that's something that a lot of people don't start the conversation with us saying, hey, Dan, it's really important that we build a better culture for my company. So I want to get a new brand. don't think about it in that terms, but they find out afterwards, after experiencing what the brand does, how much it impacts culture,

impacts recruitment and overall morale of the company and what it does to their mindset. So it basically re-energizes them about their own business. And they get really excited about, putting on the new swag and seeing the new truck roll in and then sharing that enthusiasm. know, enthusiasm translates downward into the team. So as the owner is more energized about the business, it's obviously going to translate down to the people. And then the messaging behind why we're doing this as a company,

Yeah.

is because I'm trying to create a better future for you as an employee. I'm trying to build something here that you can grow into, that you will have a long-standing future and a great place to be a part of. And when you hear owners talk about how hard sometimes it is to recruit great talent and recruit A players, sometimes you have to be introspective about that question and you have to ask yourself, does this actually even look like a company that I want to be a part of? You know, what I want

to apply for a job here? What kind of van am I going to get if I apply here? What does my uniform look like? You know, and people want to distill it down to how much money someone's going to get paid, right? And of course, you know, how much you can earn is going to be a factor. But

Do I want to be a part of something that I'm excited about, that I see a future, that they're growing, that they're creating more opportunities for people into leadership roles and things like that. that's, again, a lot of the companies that have hired us have start really small, but then they've grown and grown and grown. And that enthusiasm and that excitement, I think, is something that most owners underestimate the impact that that piece. It's like one of those things that doesn't show up on the balance sheet.

You can't measure mindset and enthusiasm and culture shift. But I mean, you could look at turnover, you could look at recruitment costs, and you could see some of the metrics being affected by there. So I just think it's one of those things that, especially if you're struggling in some of those areas, ask yourself the hard question, does the brand I have today...

actually reflect what we deliver on a daily basis to our customers. And if you could say yes, honestly, if you say, oh my God, we look as good as we perform. Great. Then don't change your brand. But if it looks like the company that was two, three, five, 10 years ago, when you didn't have a budget to invest in branding and you did the best you could, but it's now you've just kept it and you kept on keeping it and you never evolved. So, you know, I think thinking about all those things together, it's not just about the marketing KPIs, it's about all these

other aspects.

And all the things you mentioned do affect the top line. They do affect the revenue and they do affect the bottom line. So, that's really good. So, ⁓ Dan, that was all good stuff, man. That was good. So anybody listening, they go, I got to reach out. I got to find out more and see what it would take to work with you and your team. How would they go about doing that?

Yeah.

Sure, you can hit us up at kickcharge.com and send us a message or you can hit me up on Facebook. I always make this offer to people, like if you have a brand right now and you're not sure about it and you just want feedback on it, like I'm not a hard sell kind of guy. If you want to message me and say, hey, here's my truck, what do you think? I'm happy to give people feedback. And I would say also too, like even if you never hire Kick Charge, get a copy of Branded Not Blended. There's just so much great content.

been great. super blessed and fortunate for everything that trades have been able to provide to my team and my family. And I just thought it'd be something good to put in writing. You don't make any money writing books. That's that's for sure. But I'm like, if I could help some people avoid some of these mistakes, and even if they can't afford to work with a branding agency, they at least go into the process knowing as much as possible about it.

as a fact.

That is good. again, all that information will be in the show notes, including how to get in touch, with kick charge to get more. And like Dan said, hit him up on social media. He's, he's willing to jump in and give you some, feedback. Can't ask for more than that. So, Dan, appreciate it, man. Thank you so much for coming and hanging out with us today.

You got it. Thanks, Justin.