Ep. 5 Chris Yano
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[00:00:00] Chris Yano:
[00:00:04] Corey Quinn: Welcome to the Vertical Go-To-Market podcast, where you'll discover new opportunities to grow your business. From seven figures to eight, from the world's most successful agencies and SAS businesses. I'm your host, Corey Quinn. Today we're joined by Chris Yano. Welcome Chris.
[00:00:20] Chris Yano: Corey. Thanks for having me, man.
[00:00:22] Corey Quinn: Thank you for coming on. Would you please introduce yourself to those listeners who may not be familiar with you or your background?
[00:00:28] Chris Yano: Yeah, sure. So my name is Chris Yano. Um, I'm the c e o of a company called Rhino Strategic Solutions, and we are a digital marketing company specifically for the home services industry. Uh, started the business back in 2008. Um, stayed in my lane, stayed in my niche, uh, and we've been working with these H V A C plumbing electrical companies.
[00:00:48] Now, like I said, about 15 years. No traditional marketing whatsoever, just straight up digital. And that's it, man. So here I am 15 years later doing the same stuff that I did back in 2008, and I love it.[00:01:00]
[00:01:00] Corey Quinn: That's awesome. For, for context for the listeners, what can you share about maybe the number of clients you have or the revenue or whatever you wanna share? About the size of Rhino?
[00:01:09] Chris Yano: Yeah, sure. We're, uh, we have a little over, um, city. We are a little over YE 800 contractors as customer. And, um, all H V A C, plumbing, electrical, a few garage doors and roofing, like we kind of, the niche obviously has expanded a little bit because of just the nature of some of these companies are doing the same service under one roof.
[00:01:27] Um, but we have roughly, uh, a little over a hundred full-timers and another 70 to 80 part-timers. I should know that number, but I don't know the number of the part-timers. But, um, so we're kind of in that 180, uh, employee.
[00:01:42] Corey Quinn: Fantastic. So I, I would say it's fairly safe to say that you are a major player in this niche,
[00:01:49] Chris Yano: Uh, that would be very safe to say, Corey, I know you already know that we're, uh, well into the eight figure employee, eight figure business.
[00:01:55] Corey Quinn: Fantastic. And what is, what is your role as the CEO there look like?[00:02:00]
[00:02:00] Chris Yano: Yeah, that's a great question. Um, and it's changed obviously right over the tenure of, of being in here and today as it sits as mine is really managing any of our private equity partnerships that we have, um, or any of our larger players who are maybe in that space trying to acquire other customers. I'm, so, I kind of come in from managing our high level.
[00:02:20] Customers, it's also my task to execute on the vision of the business. And so, um, I, I say this to all my employees is, you know, uh, my vision has to be big enough to fit everybody else's visions into it. And so, um, that's what I execute on is how, how can I accomplish those things? And so we, we also have an acquisition target that we have to accomplish, you know, to hit our goal.
[00:02:40] And it doesn't necessarily mean. acquiring, companies that are, you know, just do what I do. Like I'm also looking for other services that might be complimentary of it. Mm-hmm. that I can now bring in house, you know, and then, um, and then kind of make it inside the Rhino family. So I gotta execute on that.
[00:02:55] And then of course, like, Making sure that, um, our brand is out there. I mean, the [00:03:00] thing I love doing the most is, um, I'm probably, even though I'm a ceo, I'm probably better fitted into a cmmo role. Like that's what I love to do. That's my space. And I'm really good at branding and I, you know, doing all the, I can't remember, I mean, I've done five, 600 plus.
[00:03:15] Keynotes, you know, you name it over the course of this 15 years. And I do love it. I love the speaking part of it and putting it out there, but um, it gave me so much more confidence to do it and grow this thing when I only have to focus on this set industry and I gotta learn all this other crap.
[00:03:31] Corey Quinn: So, have you always been focused on home services or was there a time, maybe in the early days when you were a generalist?
[00:03:38] Chris Yano: Yeah. So you'll think, Corey, I was thinking, man, H V A C sells a great industry to get into. Uh, it wasn't that way. It was literally, I just, when I launched, wanted to be a digital marketing company. I learned internet marketing fairly early on, say 2002, 2003. And then really in 2004, I got it and I started to take off and do it.
[00:03:55] And um, it was, I just really liked digital marketing and I was good at it and I thought, and the [00:04:00] entrepreneurial itch, you know, never goes away when you've got it. And so I stepped out and, uh, did my own thing, just kind of, well, being open to serving whomever. , it's just that I could relate more to the blue collar businesses than anything.
[00:04:12] And um, and it was one opportunity had come up with, with a large, uh, H V A C manufacturer. And when that happened, um, it immediately pulled me straight into that niche and I said, um, H V A C is arguably one of the most difficult, uh, difficult verticals in home services just because of the seasonality of the business and the level of competition and spend and all the. it required so much bandwidth that I honestly just couldn't, I didn't have enough bandwidth to do any other, uh, verticals, you know, or any of that stuff. So, so I found my home in, uh, H V A C in 2009, and I've been there ever since.
[00:04:49] Corey Quinn: So just to kinda wind it back a little bit, just kinda dig in a little bit there. So you started in 2008. By 2009 it sounds like you had landed one [00:05:00] larger Home Services HVAC customer. Is that right?
[00:05:04] Chris Yano: I did, I did. So you'll appreciate this man. so even though we were our, you know, and the name of the company back then wasn't Rhino, it was actually called Brickyard Marketing. And so I'll give you a little context. It was when I started my own company. I'm from Indiana originally, even though our headquarters was here in Phoenix, Arizona today.
[00:05:19] Um, when I started in Indiana, the thought process was, I'm, I'm gonna make sure they know I'm a local business. So that way, cuz if you think in like an oh eight, like it was still, people were still just trying to get websites and like, we were trying to talk them into just getting a site and letting go of any phone book stuff.
[00:05:33] Es especially in the Midwest, slower to move. So I had a, uh, a number of, uh, H V A C M plumbing guys, um, that were customers and one particular customer was H V A C and plumbing. And he just happened to be a, a really influential contractor for that specific manufacturer. and he said, Hey, you're doing a good job.
[00:05:56] As long as you give me exclusivity, I can open up this opportunity for you and [00:06:00] I'll, and I'll introduce you to, um, to my manufacturer and see if maybe you can't do this for more H V A C contractors across the United States of America. And I was like, that sounds like a great idea. So when I met with them, I was so outta my league.
[00:06:13] And, um, so I was like trying to study as much as I could and I, and I learned like two key things that I knew the manufacturer was gonna care about. And that was, the brand awareness and market share. If I could, if I could help them grow, market share and maintain the brand, like all the branding, um, you know, all the brand guidelines.
[00:06:31] And I didn't let the contractors deviate from that. I was an asset to.
[00:06:35] Corey Quinn: A hundred percent.
[00:06:36] Chris Yano: so I did enough studying to just know a little bit to talk my way through it. And then when they said, well, are you staffed to support something like this? The obvious answer was, what do you think Cory?
[00:06:46] Corey Quinn: Heck yeah. We're good to go. Let's roll.
[00:06:49] Chris Yano: I mean, all three of us.
[00:06:50] It'll be great. And so, uh, and that's how it did. And like, you know, I said yes, and then I just figured it out, man. And they said, well, our first, you know, this first dealer meeting for all [00:07:00] these contractors in this region is in three months. And I was like, perfect. And I got sweet. I got three months to get my shit together and get this thing ready to roll.
[00:07:07] Corey Quinn: How many dealers did that represent?
[00:07:09] Chris Yano: Uh, that was roughly like 800 and something like that, the first one. But that was just one, you know, so it, it was just one distributor underneath that manufacturer. Right. And they had like 40 some odd distributors. So there was, you know, a lot of, so that was just a first one and that one took off and we started to realize, We need to be really picky on who we bring on board, so it's the right type of customer, because we knew we were gonna, we couldn't oversaturate in the market.
[00:07:33] Like I, I started, I was learning as I, as it went, as I went, man. Like I was just figuring shit out as I, as it went
[00:07:39] Corey Quinn: True entrepreneur. So you mentioned as you were introducing this, uh, this new opportunity that you felt like you could relate more to blue collar workers. Can you more about that?
[00:07:51] Chris Yano: Yeah, man. And the reason that being is I grew up on a farm. So, um, I come from that world and so I was, it was easy for me to [00:08:00] talk about electrical. Plumbing, H V A C. Cuz in some ways you kinda learn that stuff when you're a kid. Like whether you wanted to or not. You learn how to like just be handy. And um, so I grew up around blue collar folks and so it was easy for me to relate to them and that's a great part of this, of a sales process, right?
[00:08:17] Is being able to relate, you know, to things. And so it was just, it felt most comfortable for me cuz I could have the simplest conversations and then because of it being the Midwest and me growing up in a farming. . Um, it was a easy segue to have that conversation and, and the, and I can like, even still the conversation today would be like, you know, I was in a, I grew up in a farming family.
[00:08:39] I got two sisters. and, uh, I, that's really, really hard work. And I knew I didn't wanna do that. So what I could, what I did was I went the opposite direction and went te the technology route and I thought that's where I'm gonna live. You know, isn't the technology route. Turns out, Corey, 15 years later, uh, I think I've done like, quadrupled the volume of work that I might have done [00:09:00] if I just would've stayed a farmer
[00:09:03] Corey Quinn: Hopefully you enjoyed the ride along the
[00:09:05] Chris Yano: Yeah, it's been great, dude. The journey is the.
[00:09:07] Corey Quinn: Yeah. So as you were beginning to get these opportunities through the manufacturer and the distributor and you, you were building out the business around the home services, did you just fire all your non-home service agency clients, or like, how did you transition into this as being your primary focus?
[00:09:23] Chris Yano: no, I didn't fire him. I felt like, you know, reputation over revenue was a mentality that we always had, and, and it was, you know, I, I didn't want to have to fire anybody and the hope was, Um, would they just not renew, you know, um, or we let 'em go a month to month and then they would start to maybe fizzle out.
[00:09:42] But I didn't want to give them any less care than any, than our home services customers. So, if it was gonna happen, It was gonna happen, not because I pushed him out. So, so there was a waiting period there because, I didn't do that. I just had to, you know, let it ride. But the, the difference is, is that we're not talking like there was [00:10:00] hundreds, right?
[00:10:00] So it wasn't like it, the business was still fairly new, so we didn't have that many. Customers overall. So we let it ride out. I mean, we still, we still had, I have a roofing contractor who's a customer of mine today from 2008. Now, ironically I'm back into roofing, but we weren't for the longest time. But he never went away and he's still runs his little $4 million business and he's still a customer.
[00:10:23] And I still have to upgrade his site cuz he never wants to do anything with it. Crazy.
[00:10:28] Corey Quinn: So, despite, despite the, the, the focus in a different direction, a lot of 'em stayed with you and then, you know, some all the way through, but then that was, it sounds like it was more organic. If they wanted to stay, great. If not, you weren't gonna argue with them.
[00:10:41] Chris Yano: Exactly. I mean, but, but, but keep in mind all of our focus was, was on anything else. And if someone reached out to us and said, Hey, you know, I'm a a pest control company, can you help us? It was like a, oh, you know, well, we aren't taking on any pest control customers at this time, so we had to do some deflecting, which is so hard when you're early in business to turn it
[00:10:59] Corey Quinn: Wow. [00:11:00] That is, that is impressive. How did you, like, how did you manage that? Like what was what, what was your focus?
[00:11:05] Chris Yano: Oh, sure. I'll tell you exactly. I'm Manja. Uh, I, so I'm a sales guy, right? So I'm in sales and marketing and that's what I love to do. That's where I'm best at. But the, my partner in this business, the co-owner is my wife and she's the coo now, we are polar opposites of one another. So she is, Um, incredibly brilliant with operations, with finance, um, that's like her jam processes.
[00:11:26] and, and so our two strengths complimented one another and it was, Hey, if you bring on more of these customers, it disrupts our process, makes us less efficient of a business, and I would fight that. You know, we would fight it out, you know, not physically, cuz she woke me. Um, she's one of those like jersey, you know, Italian girls, so you don't like Muslim too much.
[00:11:47] Um, but, but no, seriously, it was, it was, she helped me understand like you thinking making this sale is better for the company, but it's really disrupting the backend and the process, which makes us less efficient, which means, makes, makes us [00:12:00] potentially worse for our customers. And once I could comprehend that, I.
[00:12:03] Oh, I got it. But we had enough opportunity kind of coming in that I didn't need to focus on that, but it's tough and it's tough to turn that down when you're early in business.
[00:12:12] Corey Quinn: So you mentioned, uh, pest control, which is technically, one could argue its home services, but what if like an attorney came knocking.
[00:12:19] Chris Yano: Yeah, no, no attorneys, so we don't do, I mean we, when I in in pest control, certainly I would include that in home services. It's just that we weren't just home services. It was super specific down to H V A C. That was our goal. H V A C and, and because so many H V A C companies were still doing plumbing and H V A C, it naturally kind of pulled us into a second, but our focus was still H V A C.
[00:12:44] So that's the only reason, like we didn't, we didn't deviate from that at that point. And, and I did it a couple times and I got my hand slapped, and then I learned my lesson quickly, so I didn't do it again. I stayed true to the.
[00:12:56] Corey Quinn: That's awesome. is being a an [00:13:00] HVAC specialty marketing agency important to an HVAC business?
[00:13:05] Chris Yano: Yeah. I think even more so today. It is because it's easy to tell the story to them that I've done this for 15 straight years, like only this for 15 straight years. I know how to drive a service lead and how to drive a replacement lead. So just maybe an expert in the industry from my side of the field, like and, and if you'd say, Hey, they met with you, Corey, who does all these trades, but then they meet with me, who's been doing this one?
[00:13:29] and I know how to speak the lingo and how to share the exact information that they want. I know exactly what their, what their, um, opposition's gonna be, so I know what to overcome before they even ask it. I knew all the things about the business that were important to them, and I knew how to help drive the bottom line and grow the business.
[00:13:43] So, yeah, like I got, I, it's a competitive advantage and, and today it's no different. It's actually, I would say it's even more so today because now you can find like a niche agency. You want expert in your field, and that brings comfort to you because they know your [00:14:00] business, they know how your consumers think, and that's the position that we put ourselves in.
[00:14:03] It's just now we're, you know, a, a, a much larger business,
[00:14:07] Corey Quinn: Sure. And so I'd love to dig in one, one more level. So why is that important to them?
[00:14:13] Chris Yano: uh, uh, just I think it brings comfort to the fact that, that they know, like to me it is. If I know exactly what. To do, to bring in new customers for you. And that's really the only reason they're reaching out to a business like mine in the first place, is to bring in new customers. Then that's one piece. I know how to do that because I've been doing it for X amount of years now.
[00:14:32] Right. So I don't have to guess on what to do versus some others who might, because let's say, I guess wrong on a paper click ad and it starts blowing up and it costs them a lot of money, but they didn't get a lead. That's a, that's a black. I don't have to worry about doing those things because I know what to bid at, what temperature, whether it's 10, 20, 30, 40 degrees in Phoenix, in LA and Boston.
[00:14:53] Those things have been figured out because I've done the same thing every single day for the same industry. So there's value in that and there's value in telling [00:15:00] that story. And then there's also, when you show the results, the results, they support the that, that theory, if you
[00:15:06] Corey Quinn: Sure. So it's, it's a lot of evidence to support the, the expertise.
[00:15:12] Chris Yano: Absolutely. And, and, and, and another thing is, You, you start getting champions that are like saying, yeah, they are what they said they are. They do what they say they would do. They know our industry. They know how my consumers think. So basically Chris or Rhino is able to answer all the objections on the website before the customer even asks it to get them to click and go further.
[00:15:31] To even get the lead, like you figured out the whole path and it's basically a one stop. Now it's a, you get a testimonial from them. You can share it all over the place in social. And if you get all those video testimonials, they can't all be making it up. Like we can get lucky on a couple of customers, but if you get enough people saying this over and over again and you get the right people, like the right, the right players that people respect in that industry, like the herd mentality kicks in, they wanna be like them and they use Rhino.
[00:15:59] Um, that's the [00:16:00] path that I learned quickly. Like I need to get some A players on board and do a really good job for them and get their support to help scale this.
[00:16:06] Corey Quinn: Would you say, you mentioned the word lingo, being able to speak the lingo. Do you, does home services or hvac, that industry, do they have a lingo or an insider language?
[00:16:14] Chris Yano: Absolutely. And one thing I always love to ask, um, to, to differentiate that, cuz you'll have plenty of people say, um, well we are H V A C specific too. And I always wanna say, Hey, if you wanna find out the truth, if they actually really know heating and air conditioning, ask 'em what a heat pump is and what does a heat pump do because that's part of these things.
[00:16:33] Not everybody knows what a heat pump is. They might look at an air conditioning unit and say that's an air condition. When the reality is it's heat pump or like, depending on where you're at or, so being, being skilled in the lingo lets them know, you know what you're talking about. You know, talking about a thermostat, talking about it.
[00:16:50] All it does is bring another level of comfort. Right? It's just another way to connect because you're speaking the same language, cuz the worst thing we can do as marketers or SaaS companies is talk way above their head and lose them.[00:17:00]
[00:17:00] Corey Quinn: Interestingly, it's your earlier point. I think that's more of the norm. And as a, from a competitive advantage perspective, being specialized will help you to stand out because you're not, you know, speaking in generalities. You're speaking in specifics using their language.
[00:17:13] Chris Yano: Absolutely, man, you nailed it. That's exactly it, because now it gives me a competitive advantage. You can relate more to me. I'm more like
[00:17:18] Corey Quinn: Right, exactly. Yeah. How did you and your employees learn this lingo? Like how did you go from a generalist, you know, guy who didn't have this expertise to, from a language perspective, how did you learn that?
[00:17:31] Chris Yano: You know, I think this was a skillset I learned actually before I even started the business, because early on before I started the company I was working for, God, I'm gonna date myself, bro. Um, I was working for, uh, yellow Page. And, and, and I was, uh, I had, that was when you saw to like, pick up the phone and call.
[00:17:50] Like I was cold calling and it was just easy for me. Uh, somebody had taught me, and I don't remember who it was, but it was easy for me to find the, like the category that I liked [00:18:00] and just. Call roofers, you know, over and over and over again. And as I would talk to them and ask questions, I would listen to what they said about like, uh, using words I didn't know.
[00:18:09] And I would say, okay, clearly they want to hear this word or, and so I need to, whenever I say it on my next call, it's like, okay, cool. I need to make sure that I'm mentioning, you know, um, I understand. Are you doing Cedar shake, Russ? Are you doing asphalt shingles? Are you doing, you know, ceramic tile? I was just paying attention to what they were asking.
[00:18:25] That I butchered on the call before and I just kept getting better and better and better and better at understanding, you know? And then, and then when you get a customer that comes on board, it's just saying, what are the things I need to know? Like what are the most important? And not being afraid to ask your customers, Hey, what don't I know about this, that I should know?
[00:18:41] And so many of them actually want to help you get there. But that's what I did early on, man, cuz I would just find that one vertical that I was really, really comfortable with and just keep hammering it over and over and over and learning from it. And you know what's. The more I did it, the more I started selling it.
[00:18:56] Corey Quinn: There's a, there's a saying that, uh, practice makes progress.
[00:18:59] Chris Yano: [00:19:00] That's good. That's a hundred percent right. As long as you, as long as you are consistent with it, right,
[00:19:04] Like and you can, you stick to it.
[00:19:06] Corey Quinn: So today, how do you attract a new home service clients?
[00:19:09] Chris Yano: I'll tell you what Mayer just telling you about the day when I'm picking up the phone cold calling my sales team. babied in here. Um, and, and part of it is like be, it's just because br you know, I told you like I believe in this reputation over revenue model and the hope is you, you follow that and the revenue follows and that's what happens if you, if it's done the right way.
[00:19:29] Um, but that's what happens. And so the brand is, is very well known because it's been 15 years, right? So it, it's, we have great brand equity in the home services space. And so we give a lot of repeat, you know, a lot of repeat and referral business that comes in. I mean, that's. referral business is huge for us just because of the tenure in the space and some of the players that we have as customers.
[00:19:51] And, um, but it's, it, it's where it went from being our leading our lead, our main lead source. Um, [00:20:00] what's become our, our main lead source is our podcast, the to the Point Home Services podcast. , you know, become massive in this space. You know, 40, 45, 50,000 downloads a month, all home services. So when people hear that, kinda like they'll listen to yours, Corey, and you start to build a trust just because they, you know, people li are listening to you, they trust you, and you bring on, you know, people to, you know, kinda like I'm on here talking about, like, I didn't just, I'm not wet behind the ears and building an agency and a.
[00:20:27] It's 15 years. So I, I have an idea of what I'm talking about and my content might y you, I might share something that someone listening hears and says, yep, I gotta make sure I implement that. Like, focus on this, ask the jargon and start to learn the things. It was no different for me. I'm sitting here bringing on like some of my biggest com, you know, um, customers, having them share all the things that I know the listener is, you know, going to run into in hopes that it fixes it well, that builds a trust, right?
[00:20:53] Without me even knowing who they are and. The volume people that reach out from that podcast that wanna do business with [00:21:00] Rhino is exponential. And so we, it works. It works. So it's become our largest lead source. The problem is, and for listeners, is if you're a business like mine, , you can't oversaturate a market.
[00:21:13] That's a great way to get beat up on your reputation. So, um, because if you oversaturate inevitably you're gonna, somebody's results are gonna be impacted negatively and it's gonna give you a black eye. And people love to talk more smack than they do good. So you have to be cautious on that. And, and that's the downside to.
[00:21:30] the side, the podcast becoming so large is the volume of thi of people reaching out is like four times what it was. And so there's a lot more nos that have to happen, which sucks. But the s all I'm doing is the same thing. I'm sharing all the different stories. I'm enjoying that part of it, and it, so it's now become our, our largest lead source.
[00:21:48] So these guys are babied Corey, all they do is just pick up the phone.
[00:21:52] Corey Quinn: My
[00:21:52] Chris Yano: And they gotta go through their questions.
[00:21:54] Corey Quinn: you
[00:21:55] Chris Yano: See, I've got a, I only have a four person sales team. Everybody's like, you have what? I'm, [00:22:00] I got four, four people on our sales team covering the entire United States of America, Canada, and Australia.
[00:22:05] Corey Quinn: God bless 'em. These are, these are high quality problems.
[00:22:08] Chris Yano: yeah, but they're also high performers, baby. They are high performers.
[00:22:14] Corey Quinn: At what point, so you mentioned referral business and then the podcast, we'll talk, we'll talk more about the podcast in a second. Cause I think that's, uh, very interesting. But from a referral business perspective, overall. really sounds like in 2008, nine is when you really got this opportunity with this manufacturer and you started building out the business.
[00:22:30] When did referrals become meaningful? At what point in the process of, of verticalizing specializing in in H V A C, did referrals really start, you know, rolling
[00:22:40] Chris Yano: Well for me, BEC and, and I think it's, I think it's worth just explaining a little bit more of what that manufacturer process looks like to give it some more context. Um, and it. you go to work for manufacturer, they're basically putting you in front of all They, they bring everybody together like a conference, you know, an event.
[00:22:56] It's all their H V A C contractors. And they're saying, go to this breakout. [00:23:00] Here's Chris. He does digital marketing. Look what he did for this guy and look what he did for this guy. Go sit through his breakout and then I go and give a presentation and show them exactly what I just did for that contractor.
[00:23:10] And then I had him share a nice little testimonial that I then shared with them so they could see not only did, what did we do, but what was the end? And, and the, the referral process really started to begin then because a year into it, I'm back in front of this group cuz you gotta keep mine. This is like on like 2010 now.
[00:23:29] they came back in and this guy was talking. Yeah, it was great. This guy was talking. Yeah, it was great. And then next thing you know, it's like they're referring me and referring me and saying the same thing. Well, he's not in my market, but you should go use. Brickyard at the time, and so it started pretty frequently at that first year, but it could have went the opposite way if we sucked.
[00:23:47] You know what I mean? Like it
[00:23:48] Corey Quinn: Yeah, it works both ways.
[00:23:49] Hm. Yeah.
[00:23:51] Chris Yano: So there was like just, there was a few times where we didn't get it right. We, and they would complain. And you can't have that many [00:24:00] complaints when you work at the manufacturer cuz they'll get rid of you and, and you. It's all on how we handled it.
[00:24:04] Like I said, reputation over revenue. So I was like, did we make a mistake? We made a mistake, here's a refund. And that sucks to refund when you're small business. Um, but it was only if it was valid. So this is the key ingredient to. Rhino strategic solutions today is, I learned super fast that I needed to be accountable to that manufacturer because I was way over leveraged on lead source by then, cuz they were sending me ev like 95% of our business coming from that manufacturer.
[00:24:32] So I was way lopsided. Didn't have the knowledge I have today about diversifying lead source. Um, had they pulled, I'd have been a dead meat. So I. Okay. Some of these contractors aren't being truthful. Um, what they're trying to do is actually get out of the contract with me because they've mismanaged their business and their funds, not me.
[00:24:54] So what we had done since literally day one with them, And I thank God this is not my [00:25:00] job anymore, is we would do the website bill, we would do the search engine optimization, we would do the paid ads, and then we would throw the call tracking numbers in there, just like you could do in the phone book ads.
[00:25:10] That's the only thing I ever felt good about phone book ads was the call tracking number. , but then I would listen to every single one of those phone calls that had come in for our customers, put it in an Excel spreadsheet. So that way I had, it was Ms. Jones called in, it was repair lead. Jill was the C, the office manager that booked the call.
[00:25:29] And was it a past customer, yes or no? And then I would reach out to 'em the next month and. Did you sell Jill? Did you sell Bob? Did you sell? And then they would give us the revenue if they remembered it. If they knew and we would be able to turn, like say, okay, well you spent $5,000 this month and you made $87,000.
[00:25:48] Like I feel like this thing's working really, really well. But the flip side could be as the customer who's trying to get out of it, could it if I was legit doing a good job? Cuz now they said, well you guys aren't doing anything, or this isn't working, or [00:26:00] whatever tactic they use. And I would just literally pull up that spreadsheet and.
[00:26:03] well we brought in 78 new service leads for you and 42 new install leads. Here's the name, address, phone number, your booking rate's, 18%. Like is it really me or maybe is it the csr sta it was just accountability.
[00:26:15] And then, and then if the manufacturer was like, Hey, this customer's upset, I would say, but it's not really us.
[00:26:21] Look, it's, it's them and they need some coaching. So, but you gotta be incredibly confident in your results to go that deep. And that's what we did. And it worked.
[00:26:31] Corey Quinn: Yeah, the benefit of being digital marketing is that it's much more measurable than even, even the yellow pages potentially, but certainly like more traditional marketing, uh, sources and that was great that, that. Manufacturer, gave you the benefit of the doubt. Obviously you came with evidence, which is important, but, to kind of substantiate your position on that.
[00:26:53] But I think the big point that you're making, which I think is really smart, which is that word of mouth can go, [00:27:00] you know, it's, it's word of mouth, whether you're a good business or a word of mouth. If, if you're a bad business, in other words, people in the industry will be talking about you.
[00:27:09] Because the, the one of the benefits of, of verticalizing is that you get the benefit of, of being visible in a relatively small community. Well, if you're not, if you don't have a long-term vision, or if you're not, you know, focused on re reputation over revenue, which I think is a great way to put it, then ultimately if you are not taking care of people, that will get back to you and that will negatively hurt your ability, make it much more difficult to grow than the opposite approach.
[00:27:35] Chris Yano: Yeah. Think, think about it from this perspective. How many times do you get pissed at somebody In my a at a company and like for me, I just, we booked a, a boat for, for spring break and the guy tells us last week, That after ignoring multiple emails that he's not going out anywhere, he decided not to do it.
[00:27:53] So we had to change our plans. I mean, we booked a yacht and I'm talking like a, a yacht. Nice one. I've never done that before, by the way. So it was the first time I was excited about [00:28:00] it. My whole family
[00:28:00] was excited
[00:28:01] about it because I'm speaking down in Fort Lauderdale, so it was like we got a great plan.
[00:28:07] I immediately am like, I'm gonna leave this guy a negative review. And I'm not that guy. I don't leave because I'm so sensitive to that. But most people are happier to leave a negative review. Not happier. They're just more inclined to leave a negative review than a positive review. Like you have all these experiences and so you, you, it's so, you gotta be so cautious with handling these escalations or fires or whatever you wanna.
[00:28:31] The right way because you know they want to tell 10 people that you did a shitty job. And They'll tell one person. If you're lucky that you did a great job.
[00:28:40] Corey Quinn: that's exactly and I think of just there's, within hvac I know that there's online communities, there's conferences, associations, there's natural places where they're gonna talk about things including this. and that's where these, the sort of. Your reputation is easily spread.
[00:28:57] Chris Yano: Yeah. And, and, and it, and listen, like we all get [00:29:00] it wrong. Like nobody gets it right all the time. And a lot of it is in the accountability. Did you own it? And what did you do with it next? And, and I'm a big believer in. Um, and owning it, you know, and just saying, yeah. And I think that that's part of building the reputation Doesn't mean you have to get it right every time.
[00:29:14] Just means you need to make, when you, when you do get it wrong, you, you make it right. And, and that will help your rep, that will help manage your reputation. Cuz you, you weren't perfect. Nobody thinks everybody's perfect. And when you weren't perfect, you messed something up, you fixed it and you owned it and that feels good.
[00:29:30] It's no different than my employees. I tell 'em the same thing, you know, you make a mistake. I probably made the same mistake. Own it so we can move through it faster and I'll respect you so much more if you just own it. And then now we can work through it quicker. We're not have to like dance and for me to figure out what you, if you did or didn't do it.
[00:29:44] I say this too to this day, the number one thing that. is the best marketing strategy ever or to run your business is to genuinely care. Like if you genuinely care. It's one of our core values. It seems like, so like [00:30:00] cliche to say that, but if, if you genuinely care, like you don't have to fake it, it comes across that way like, and you do the things to try and make it right.
[00:30:09] If you genuinely. and, and I'll say like, I don't have like do one-on-one contractor calls, you know, and things like that, you know, anymore. I mean, maybe I do one-offs here and there, but I would always say you're an H V A C. , you can probably bank on two months. I'm probably gonna let you down. Like of that 12 year agreement, I'm probably gonna let you down two months.
[00:30:33] And it's not because I want to, it's just because I have to rely on Mother nature to to drive lead volume. And there's only so much I can do in a shoulder season. But if you look at our relationship as a whole, I'm probably gonna make you really happy for 10 months, and I'm sure you could probably live with that.
[00:30:48] Right. I'm, I'm doing a setting expectation is I'm going to probably fail in there somewhere because the reality is, is that at some point in time, you probably will, there's human beings involved in it, so it's just owning it and that builds trust to your point.[00:31:00]
[00:31:00] Corey Quinn: Let's jump into the Point podcast.
[00:31:03] Uh, we see the logo
[00:31:04] Chris Yano: Mm-hmm.
[00:31:06] Corey Quinn: Can you tell me more about the, the podcast?
[00:31:09] Chris Yano: Yeah. So I didn't wanna do it and I got like today, today I actually feel like. If you're a marketing company, having a podcast is like having a website back in the day, like getting a web. If you, if you have a marketing company, you've almost got a podcast. There's so many of it, and I think it's great cuz I listened to, I, I take in so much content from podcasts, but here's how I started it.
[00:31:30] I started it, the, the, the conversation started in 2019 and it was, I had a partnership with Gary Vaynerchuk. I think I told you this.
[00:31:37] Corey Quinn: Yeah, you did. It
[00:31:38] was a
[00:31:38] Chris Yano: so, so Gary pushed on me to start a podcast, cuz this was back in when he and I had a three year partnership. And, and he was like, start a podcast and I'll go on the podcast and we'll help build it and it'll be, it'll, we'll make it the biggest podcast in the home services industry.
[00:31:53] And I said, I don't wanna do that, man. My job is hard enough. I'm trying to do all these things, you know, and that seems like another full-time [00:32:00] job. And it is. And I was like, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. And he said, so this is how the guilt tripped me. . He said, you just sat here and told me that giving back is one of your core values and that you get frustrated that you have to say no to these different contractors.
[00:32:15] And he is like, so I'm giving you an out to launch, a podcast that gives back to them without them becoming customers. And you're saying that's not a good idea. And I was like, well dang, when you put it that way, it's like, actually it seems like a, a pretty decent idea. And so, um, he literally talked to me, talked me into it, hooked.
[00:32:35] With his podcast producer. They helped us buy all the equipment, all the things, get all the setup done, and, um, trained my, my pro, one of my guys here to be the podcast production guy slash video slash social media at that point in time for us. And in 2020, the like two weeks into 2020, before all the pandemic stuff like really hit, we launched it and I brought on from all the relationships I had created through [00:33:00] throughout all these years with these A players in the H V A C industry.
[00:33:03] I was like, sweet, I'm gonna swing for the fences with these A players first, so that way they can see like, oh my. Now, I never got to meet this particular a player, but now I get to hear him talk on here and he's telling me what I should do with my business. This is great. Then it's free. And I brought in another A player, then another a player, and it started to take off.
[00:33:22] And then Gary didn't come on until like, I can't remember if it was like episode 20 or something like that. Like he waited till I had it together before he came on. And, and then from there it, it really blew up. And, and that, you know, so he'd been on a few times now, but he's the one that pushed me to start this thing in the first place.
[00:33:43] Now here's the, here's the deal. It actually quadrupled the problem because the whole thing was, is like, Hey, this is a way to give back and not have to say no to as many contractors because you're already saturated in a market. Well, when this thing started blowing up and all these home services companies started listening to [00:34:00] podcasts, And this thing is as big as it is, it quadrupled the problem cuz people were just reaching out nonstop.
[00:34:05] Like I said, you know, the podcast has become the biggest lead source
[00:34:08] Corey Quinn: Yeah.
[00:34:09] Chris Yano: and now it's like, well shit, now I have to say no five times more than I used to have to say it before. So it
[00:34:14] kind of had,
[00:34:14] Corey Quinn: It's a perfect nightmare. Goodness. So I'm curious, how do you have that conversation with someone who is an HVAC contractor in a market that maybe you've closed out or you're saturated in? Like how do you handle that?
[00:34:26] Chris Yano: Yeah. I, I actually think they respect it and, and it sucks to this day still. And, um, you know, and, and I don't have to have them as much, but I can just reference like when I did have to have it as, um, it, it, I'm an empathetic person, man, so, Having to say no to somebody and, and because it's gonna make them feel like dang or sad or whatever, and, and I know they're gonna go and find someone else to do it.
[00:34:45] So that's the competitive side of me. That's. , but I, but I learned early on, like I said, I know what's right and, and, um, if I care about my reputation then and, and I tell them, Hey, listen, if I oversaturate in this market and I bring you on board, I would run the risk of doing this. [00:35:00] And it's not worth it.
[00:35:00] It's not worth it for you. It's not worth it for me, and it's not the right thing to do. And people can understand that, you know, just being genuine. Like I said, if you genuinely care and you tell them it's not a thing, I mean, There's rarely does somebody get pissed at you and be like, well, screw you if you're not taking me out.
[00:35:14] I'm not big enough for customer view or whatever, and this is just the what you're telling me, like that doesn't happen as much as you might think it would.
[00:35:20] Corey Quinn: Jumping back into the podcast, who are your primary listeners? Who are the people who are tuning in to to listen to your podcast?
[00:35:26] Chris Yano: yeah, sure. All H V A C, plumbing, electrical contractors, some garage door guys and roofing. Um, a lot of the private equity groups do because they love to hear who I'm having on to see who they might be able to potentially go after. Um, a lot of general managers at these companies, um, even technicians, owners, it's like, but it's everybody kind of in that, in that whole home services space.
[00:35:46] More specifically, h vc, plumbing, electrical. Garage doors is a little bit, mainly because my buddy Tommy Mellow, has a massive, you know, garage door company. Um, sup very, very close friend of mine. And you know, because we run together like [00:36:00] naturally, some garage door guys kinda listen to this and come on and, um, but we, that's it, man.
[00:36:05] We just, we stay, stay in our lane, you know, only, and that, because that's who we are working with every day. Is those, is those contractors?
[00:36:13] Corey Quinn: Can you share what Rhino X is?
[00:36:15] Chris Yano: Yeah, man, there it
[00:36:18] Corey Quinn: Eh? Oh
[00:36:20] Chris Yano: So, so this was another thing that I, that I did when we were in New York. It was me and my wife and, um, our two other executives. And it was, we were with Gary and his COO at the time, James Ori. And we were talking about just the vision for, for Rhino in 20 20, 20 21 and what we're gonna do in the trades and all the branding effort and all the things we were gonna do.
[00:36:43] And I said, , man, I'd really love to put on my own private event. That'd be so cool. And my wife's like, absolutely not. Like, we're not doing that. She's like, you have this big vision, you know, you wanna do all these things and you could do X, Y, and Z and that will be way better for us than you launching your own conference.
[00:36:58] So, so, [00:37:00] no, we're gonna back burner that. And so Gary says, , Hey, all you gotta. Is say yes. And she's like, say yes. So, and we have this on video somewhere too. I gotta find it. And because our videographer was in there doing some filming and so is Gary's and Gary's videographer caught it and my wife goes, my wife flips, flips Gary off.
[00:37:22] And she's like, fuck you Gary. I don't know if you can play that, if you have to bleep that out. I apologize.
[00:37:26] Corey Quinn: no, we're good. We're a, uh, we're explicit here.
[00:37:28] Chris Yano: So he, uh, and he starts laughing and we're laughing, but she meant it. She was like, not a chance. Like, don't, don't take his side. So we, we didn't end up doing it because we did the podcast and I, and I pushed it off and I decided, like through summer, I was like, you know what?
[00:37:42] I think, I think we're gonna do this thing cuz I can use the podcast. It's built big enough now that we could promote it. . So it was another one of those ideas that came up in those, in those meetings on how to scale this thing and push the brand that I thought I'm, you know, I have all these people I'm bringing on that are players.
[00:37:57] What if I brought them together and then brought in the people who [00:38:00] want to spend time with them, keep it small, charge a big price for a ticket so that way you, you weed out anybody who's not really serious. I didn't want him to come here for the pictures. You need to come for the actual content and do something with it.
[00:38:12] And I, that's what we did. Like I, I was able to, to talk her. And I said, I'll keep it small. First one was only 20 people, 20 people. I brought in, um, a buddy of mine, um, who was, uh, former UFC lightweight champion Gins Pover, um, back, back, early on in UFC stuff. And I brought in Gary . So,
[00:38:33] Corey Quinn: He headliner.
[00:38:34] Chris Yano: Gary came in and hung out for like four hours with us, which was cool cuz it wasn't like normal.
[00:38:38] You go and watch Gary speak, he speaks, he walks out, maybe you do a meet and greet. No, he hung out for like four hours with us, like in the evening session. So we used that to. Build the excitement on it for the next one. So those 20, the 20 people that came had like the best experience. We, we recorded all their testimonials, we shared it, we brought their stories out, what'd you take away?
[00:38:59] What'd you [00:39:00] implement? And then the next year was a little bit bigger. And that's when we brought in Mike Tyson and, and Larry Fitzgerald. And this year we just did a, another one I brought in the former president of Starbucks, Howard. And then, um, and then I brought in, uh, Nelly. So this year we did a private concert with Nelly.
[00:39:16] Corey Quinn: that's amazing, amazing experience. What impact does that have on Rhino? Like what, what, what's the benefit of doing that?
[00:39:25] Chris Yano: Yeah, it's great. So, um, and for me, because I'm known as the guy who brings the people together in this podcast, that's kind of, uh, another extension of that. It was now I could bring together all the best players like this last one we. for those that are in this industry. Let me just say, if you could, if you could imagine whatever industry that you're in, whatever vertical you're in, if you could imagine, say your top six.
[00:39:48] Like ideal companies that like the biggest and the baddest in that. In that I had five of those, of the six at Rhino X on a panel, and it's because I have relationships with all of them. And then you [00:40:00] bring in these other 40 or 50 contractors that can then come network with them, get their cell phone number, so if they have problems, they can reach out to 'em afterwards.
[00:40:07] I don't even speak at my own conference other than to be the mc. I don't present anything. I don't pitch anything, none of that stuff. I just bring everybody together and I bring together the content and the panels and the speaker. . But when they, but then I also create a mastermind session for them, and this is the key ingredient that makes it, to me, it's the Super Bowl of the event, like the flair of the event with like Gary coming in, or maybe not so much Gary, cuz he's really good with education, but like even, um, bringing in Nelly as a concert or Mike Tyson is excitement.
[00:40:35] It's ex the experience, it's entertainment, it's the cool be it's cool to meet them, but that's not what you take away. And the real takeaway is during the daytime session, I have everybody who's. Submit all the challenges that they're currently facing in their business or they think they're going to be facing in their business.
[00:40:51] And then I split those groups into Masterminds and they work directly with those five, five or six speakers that I bring in. They're like what we call 'em, the legends, and they [00:41:00] basically do working, they do workshops with them to solve their problems together.
[00:41:04] Corey Quinn: My goodness.
[00:41:05] Chris Yano: now they're, yeah, so they're working with the best of the best to solve their problems, getting their cell phone numbers, making connections with them, and I brought that together, which is great for our brand because it, it's, it shows.
[00:41:18] We continuously stay at the top of the heap. In this space, we have the, we have the closest relationships with the best. Even the up and comers that are customers of ours, you bring them in to speak to, that are influential. The guys going from 50 to a hundred million and that the guys that you want to talk about or the, like, the next wave of, of those legends coming in and you bring 'em all in together.
[00:41:39] You'll walk out of that thing and the only way it's not worth it, I mean, we'll charge $10,000 a seat to be there. And the only way you don't make that money back is if you just didn't participate. That's the only way. It's not worth it for you to get in there and there. And there's a wait list for 2024.
[00:41:53] That's like 50 people long already.
[00:41:56] Corey Quinn: My goodness. This is masterclass in how to run a [00:42:00] successful event. That's awesome.
[00:42:01] Chris Yano: thank you, Corey. It's the, um, it's the, the fear, you know, the FOMO factor is real. but when you create such an intimate, private event, it's invite only, it seems scary cuz you want to promote it, right? You want to promote. But then you just kinda let the people reach out and say, I wanna be a part of it.
[00:42:18] I wanna be a part of it. I wanna be a part of it. We have to add you to the waiting list. So I kept it small on purpose. At 20, we maxed at 50. Today 50 is the number. I'll never go higher than that. But this year I added sponsors in, so now the event does pretty well. Um, so not only does it serve its purpose, but it's also a revenue generator.
[00:42:34] Corey Quinn: That's awesome. And uh, I imagine because it's exclusive invite only that you get the sort of the, the word of mouth train running as well because again, it's a smaller community and who's going, who got to go, who's in, who's not? And how do you get to the next one? And. Yeah, it's brilliant.
[00:42:51] Chris Yano: exactly. And then you, and then what you do is you just, If you, you, because we have so much social media, is you take videos from the events. I have my videographers there and they're [00:43:00] asking, you know, all those same legends, Hey, what do you think about this event? This is the most blue chip event of all the events I've ever been to.
[00:43:05] Then you have the speakers and you come and post it all over social, and then I take two of the panels and I post them as podcast episodes so people can hear them and they're like, oh, I gotta get to the next one. So just using that, you know, machine to continue to push the event and create the.
[00:43:22] Corey Quinn: switching gears a little bit here, do you go to home services conferences?
[00:43:26] Chris Yano: A million percent. You gotta stay in there. You have to stay in there. You have to have like, to maintain brand equity, you gotta be, have, have consistency in what you're doing. And so it's. Um, I literally just got a text right now from my guy. I say I'll pop up my screen just saying, Hey man, this show's been super great.
[00:43:40] Our brand equity is getting stronger. Um, and that's just it cuz we're newer into roofing. It's just keeping pumping into it, you know, and being a part of it. And, um, like I, this is like the most profound thing that Mike Tyson said in his presentation. Cuz honestly I didn't know what the hell he was gonna say cuz he's kind of a wild guard.
[00:43:57] And I did a q and a with him, and I had to like submit my questions [00:44:00] at a time and he, he ended up crushing it, but, um, he'd said, uh, consistency kicks, determinations ass. And I was like, and, and so for me, that was kind of like a driver for me for like, I use that as kinda like my battle cry for a little bit.
[00:44:15] I'm like, you know what? , and I'm super determined, but my determination can fall off sometimes, so I gotta just stay consistent. It's kinda like people going to the gym, right? Or whatever you decide to do, if you get on a weight loss, it's the consistency part. Like you gotta stick with it. But that's what you gotta do with branding, right?
[00:44:31] That is branding in a nutshell, right? You gotta make sure you're consistent, putting it everywhere and figuring out how to keep your name in, in everybody's, you know, top of mind or get, or get it the top of.
[00:44:40] Corey Quinn: For an agency that's transitioning into focusing into a vertical, what would you say about how to choose which conferences to go to and and to participate in?
[00:44:50] Chris Yano: Yeah. So, um, this is where my, my sales slash marketing brain will kick in, because I've been, I've been that, and you have. You know, selective on where you go and maybe your [00:45:00] resources aren't like, my resources are today cuz you're, you know, you gotta pay attention to what you're spending and where cuz you gotta max it out.
[00:45:05] but my whole thing was like when I'm going into the roofing industry for the first time, I just started researching what are the events? and I started seeing who are they pushing or promoting on there. And then I would reach out to that person to like, to, you know, if it just meant like a cold call, reaching out, saying, Hey, all I'm doing is checking in to see what'd you think about this roofing conference?
[00:45:23] Like, is it well attended? Is there a lot of vendors there? Like, what, what is, like, what's the purpose of it? And so I would try to figure out, What are the bigger ones that I can attend and what's a coup, what's an intimate one that I can attend? And I just tested to see which one can I get more traction from.
[00:45:40] And there's different strategies to both. But ultimately, if you can work your way into a speaking spot, that's the ideal thing because now you gain attention. And what we're trying to do at these events is get attention and you can go and educate without selling anything ever. If you just, if you just go into this thing with.
[00:45:58] Um, if you, [00:46:00] uh, sales by education mentality, I promise you it's gonna do you so much better. So lean into that. But yeah, if you could get a speaking engagement that's, that's clearly the best thing to do. If not, you better have somebody who can go in and work that room and go and talk to everybody and, and start to get, you know, create some brand awareness for you.
[00:46:16] Corey Quinn: There's so many other questions I have for you, but, uh, I think we're gonna have to wrap up here in a couple minutes and I really wanna thank you for your time. Um, what are some positive aspects of taking a vertical approach to business in general?
[00:46:29] Chris Yano: in a lot of ways it was an accident for me, so I'm gra I'm grateful it worked out that way. It was just opportunity that came up. But what I've learned is if I ever was to do this again, I would do it the exact same way where I took a niche and focused on it because, You know how like racehorse have blinders on, you know, cause they, that way they can only see what's in front of 'em.
[00:46:48] It, it kind of blocks out the other noise. You can just hyper focus on one vertical, learn all the things about it. You can get educated on it and then you can go out. Like focusing on the, on the niche [00:47:00] allows you to learn it quicker and to increase your confidence more and to re legit be good at it. You know, you legit be good at it.
[00:47:08] And then tell that story cuz. I mean, I don't know about you man, but if I do the same thing every single day, I better be getting better at it. You know? And you do. If you just look at the same thing over and over and over and over and over again, you start to figure out what to do and you can do that quicker.
[00:47:23] When you focus on a vertical, you, you can scale a massive company in one vertical in the United States alone, a big company, I'm talking 20 million company for sure. Like you can do it by focusing on an vertical
[00:47:37] a
[00:47:37] Corey Quinn: And I and I imagine be very profitable and very happy with
[00:47:41] Chris Yano: a million percent because you become more efficient, right? And you can start to, you start to build a scalable, repeatable model because you learn what to do, you learn what works. Now you start to figure out how do I do it and be more efficient at it.
[00:47:53] Corey Quinn: Amen. What are the negatives to verticalizing?
[00:47:57] Chris Yano: um, kinda like what I was saying is when you do are [00:48:00] in a vertical, you miss out on potential opportunity. I mean, the only time I ever, um, consider doing something outside the vertical is if the opportunity is great enough to disrupt the process. Um, and that certainly happens, but, um, you, so you, you missed out on potential opportunity.
[00:48:14] And, and the same thing is, is that, . If you mess up enough times and it goes bad and you get black eyes, when those guys get together for whatever conference that they have and you know they all got them and somebody starts saying negative things, it spreads. And so you could cripple your business if you do too many negative things.
[00:48:31] That's why I'm saying reputation over revenue. Do what's right. You may think like, I can't afford to give that guy $5,000 back. No. What you can't afford is that guy getting pissed and going and telling all of his buddies, and then you have no vertical because nobody trusts you. So you do what's right.
[00:48:45] That's one of the, that's one of the things you have to be cautious of is you gotta legit do a good job for them. And when you, if you don't, when you mess up and you will, you own it and you can make sure you manage that reputation.
[00:48:56] Corey Quinn: Last question for you, Chris. What is your [00:49:00] motivation?
[00:49:00] Chris Yano: man, that's a great question. So, um, the one thing that means probably the most to me, besides my family, but in regards to this business that I like to accomplish with it is, I'm a huge, and you, I can, we may have this conversation and for sure Jamie knows this about me. Um, but I'm a huge, uh, believer in giving back.
[00:49:17] Um, and doing good is good business and not the cliche word of it, like, here's what we do. , the bigger I grow this business, this is the platform that I feel like I've been given to serve the masses. And so, um, that I carry that on my shoulders, but I'm willing to take that because the bigger I grow this thing, the more lives I'm impacting beyond what we're actually doing with digital marketing and is I get to have my employees.
[00:49:43] go into a community service day once a month, every single Friday, and I pay for it. I pay their salary to go and serve the community. And so if you can imagine at the volume people we have, that's a lot of salary that I'm paying for them to have zero output, right? For actual in operations of the business.[00:50:00]
[00:50:00] But what I'm doing is I'm pouring so much into them as a human being and they're going and giving back to people that they may have never, never done before. Not cuz they didn't want to, they didn't know how to go. And what it also does is it builds the culture of the business. These guys are going and serving other people together and, and if you have a heart whatsoever, it feels good to do those things.
[00:50:20] So it really helps us minimize turnover in the business, but also we're now giving back at scale. And so every time we get bigger, Not only am I able to cut bigger checks to all these organizations, I'm also be able to put be the hands and feet, like sending my team out there to go and serve it. And a lot of 'em are saying, I'm gonna go and serve all my own time at different times.
[00:50:38] And I did that. It's like a, like a, for a lack of a better term, a pyramid scheme of giving back that I created. One that you can be proud of though. You know what I'm saying?
[00:50:47] Corey Quinn: Yeah,
[00:50:47] Chris Yano: And that's
[00:50:48] a big driver for me and my kids. See that about me, you know, and, and, and the, that's, you know, the big legacy I, I think I want to leave is I built a really reputable business where I was able to give back a ton.
[00:50:58] And because I focus so much on [00:51:00] the reputation, I focus so much on the employees and making sure that the employees are cared about, they, they're improved, they have all the tools that need to be successful and made them better human beings. And I'm able to give. I am good if, if, if, if I was, I don't want this to happen, but if I die tomorrow, I would be fulfilled.
[00:51:16] I've done a good job. I've lived a full life.
[00:51:19] Corey Quinn: You've had a massive impact on so many lives.
[00:51:22] Chris Yano: Yeah. Yeah, and that feels
[00:51:23] good. Thank you.
[00:51:25] Corey Quinn: Thank you, Chris. That's awesome. Where can folks reach out to you if they wanna connect and uh, learn more?
[00:51:31] Chris Yano: Um, sure. It, the best thing to do is, I mean, I'm on LinkedIn, you know, I'm pretty much a, uh, pretty much live my life on the record at this point. So, um, I have people reach out to me on Facebook, reach out to me on Instagram. Like any of the social platforms, I'm pretty accessible for the most part, so sometimes to a halt
[00:51:48] Um, and then, uh, I'll, my emails is easy too, but. If you know a good g, if you know anybody who's 80 h adhd, you know, email's probably the last resort you should use, uh, especially if it looks like [00:52:00] my inbox, but I'll give it to you anyhow. It's c y a n o at r y n o s s.com. That's [email protected] But hit me up on social media.
[00:52:08] That's the best way to do it.
[00:52:09] Corey Quinn: Beautiful. Thanks Chris.
[00:52:12] Chris Yano: Corey, I appreciate you do keep good luck with this man. I love that you're doing it. I love that you're kind of, you know, powering through this for the niches, bro. So keep at it.
[00:52:19] Corey Quinn: Thanks Chris. Appreciate that. It means a lot. All right folks, that's it for today. I'm Corey Quinn, and I hope you join me again next time for the Vertical Go To Market podcast. If you recede value from this amazing show, I'd love a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thanks, and we'll see you next time.
