David VS Goliath Podcast – S1 – Episode 15 – The Hits – Part 1

Adam DeGraide: Coming up today on David Vs Goliath.

Chet Hitt: It’s going to be a great day, I think.

Adam DeGraide: Because today, it’s all about the hits.

Kenneth Tyler A…: We’ve utilized the technology that allows us to geoframe, which is the technical term.

Ryan McEachron: A lot of times, the reason that we have met with success and acquired some of the accounts that we have, is because we were there.

Jack Thomas: We see it all around us all the time.

David Dorman: But that first transaction we did was one of the biggest of my career.

Bob Tasca III: And will either fix it, replace it, or burn it, bring the matches.

Announcer: Welcome to today’s episode of David Vs Goliath, a podcast dedicated to helping small businesses leverage technology to not only help them compete against their large competitors, but win. Your host is currently the CEO of Anthem Business Software, a three time Inc 500 recipient, and a serial entrepreneur with a passion to help small businesses everywhere find, serve, and keep more customers profitably. Please join me in welcoming your host, Adam DeGraide.

Adam DeGraide: Hey, everyone. It’s Adam Degrade from David Vs Goliath Podcast, wearing my Christmas sweater. Merry Christmas, happy holidays and hopefully a great Happy New Year coming next week. This is the David Vs Goliath Podcast, and I am so excited because today it’s all about the hits, the hits and nothing but the hits. We’re going to be covering the six episodes of David Vs Goliath together on the show. Some of the highlights of these interviews. Many new subscribers, many new viewers over the last several weeks, and you maybe didn’t go back and listen to some of these interviews. And this will give you a really great flavor to be able to decide which ones you want to go back and listen to.
I think you should listen to them all, because no matter what kind of business you’re involved in, each episode has a gem and something you can take from it, no matter what. We are so honored that you’re spending time with us on this amazing podcast, trying to grow your business, and having fun doing it at the same time.
Before we do that though, a few housekeeping items. Today’s episode is brought to you by Anthem Software, where you can find, serve, and keep more customers profitably with their all-in-one software, marketing, consulting platform. Visit anthemsoftware.com to take a quick 120 second video tour.
Also, you can visit us at davidvsgoliathpodcast.com, give us your email, receive updates on the podcast. And you can also, if you have a business, apply to be on it. If you go a great story go to the apply section, tell us about it, and who knows you two might be on one of the greatest business podcasts. And I say so myself and I say it all the time, I think this is the place that we can as small business owners learn. We get inspiration, education, and activation right here on David Vs Goliath.
Well, we’re going to get right into it now with Kenneth Tyler Anderson, who is the CEO of King Sixteen, they’re an event experiential marketing agency. Matter of fact, they just threw my Christmas party/birthday party here just a few weeks ago. You’re seeing some of the pictures right now on the screen. As a matter of fact, they even recorded me playing bass on this little diddy, by No More Kings, called Critical Hit, here’s a few seconds of it. We’ll be right back.
(singing)

Audience: I love that song.

Adam DeGraide: (singing).
That was Pete Mitchell on vocals, that was Neil DeGraide and Adam DeGraide on guitar, along with the Aranda Band, the Aranda Boys background and supporting as well, too. It’s awesome. We are so grateful and Katie DeGraide helping sing background vocals as well on that song. What a lot of fun that was.
But let’s get right into it right now with Kenneth Tyler Anderson. This is his interview, a little bit of it, enjoy.
I would love our listeners to have a little bit of insight as to what are some of the tools that you use to get your message out at King Sixteen? And then what are some of the tools you use on behalf of your clients?

Kenneth Tyler A…: Yeah, absolutely. So I kind of put them in two different boxes, if you will. But on the agency side for King Sixteen, we use a lot of tools. So we have, our social media network is really important to us to be able to feature what we’re working on with other brands and clients. And some of these automation systems like with Anthem Software, Planables of the world, Wave apps for invoicing, sometimes these are all pushed together. But the ability for us to be able to broadcast what we’re working on is really important, newsletters going out, social media engagement, et cetera. But also, too, just the day-to-day business, be able to send estimates, putting together proposals for brands. We use a lot of Photoshop and Illustrator. Couple [crosstalk]-

Adam DeGraide: We do too.

Kenneth Tyler A…: Yeah, exactly. A couple really cool resources that are great for people that aren’t prepared to work in Photoshop and Illustrator, by the way, Canva, C-A-N-V-A.com is a great [crosstalk]-

Adam DeGraide: Very familiar with it. Microsoft Paint, no, I’m just kidding.

Kenneth Tyler A…: MS Paint, yes, classic.

Adam DeGraide: I always tell people… people are like, “How do you do all these awesome things?” I’m like, “Microsoft Paint. It’s like the original thing where you drop and drag the little colors in.” I’m sorry, keep going.

Kenneth Tyler A…: And you just stayed dead serious and just let them wait to speak-

Adam DeGraide: Yeah, “Microsoft Paint.” “Oh, that’s very-

Kenneth Tyler A…: Wow.

Adam DeGraide: … intriguing.

Kenneth Tyler A…: By the pixel.

Adam DeGraide: And Tyler, you run events, and one of the things you were talking about, at one specific event, you were talking about the concept of geo-targeting around the event. I don’t know if that’s something you want to go into now, but I think it would be good to talk about that event and how you were able to geo-target potential customers of this person you were working for.

Kenneth Tyler A…: Yeah, absolutely. So we’ve utilized the technology that allows us to geoframe, which is the technical term.

Adam DeGraide: Geoframe.

Kenneth Tyler A…: Geoframe buildings, and so-

Adam DeGraide: You got to put the effect on. Do you have an effect over there. You can throw on for that.

Kenneth Tyler A…: Yeah. So, let’s see here, give me a second.

Adam DeGraide: No problem, do it. You got to do it. People are going to love it.

Kenneth Tyler A…: Geoframe.

Adam DeGraide: Exactly.

Kenneth Tyler A…: So this geoframing is pretty cool. It’s a technology that allows us to, within a square meter, draw out whether that’s a polygon or a rectangle, whatever shape we want it to be, to the square meter, a building. And what’s great about this, is that, if you’ve got Location Services turned on, on your phone, which is roughly 94% of cell phones, we don’t know anything about you. We don’t know your age. We don’t know your gender. We don’t know your political orientation. We don’t really care about that stuff. But what we can say is, “Hey, on this date, this phone stepped into this building.”
Well, as you can imagine, if we’re producing an event for, let’s say, Audi, it’s great for us to know, well, they’re likely Audi fans, or they’re least interested in the brand.

Adam DeGraide: That’s right.

Kenneth Tyler A…: What’s great about that is we can then send those phones ads, promoting content for, maybe, a new car that’s being released or a test drive experience that we’re building. And, again, we know nothing about the person, but regardless if they go to espn.com or somewhere else, we can at least disseminate ads just based on the people that were in that building. And so it’s a lot different than IP targeting. IP targeting is like, I’m sure you’ve done this before Adam, where you’re like-

Adam DeGraide: Sure.

Kenneth Tyler A…: … “Hey, we’re looking for great new snow boots,” and then your Facebook feed is just Eskimo shoes. And-

Adam DeGraide: They’re called Eskimo shoes, for the love of God and country.

Kenneth Tyler A…: So, yeah, you get spammed with that stuff. So this is a little bit more targeted and it’s been really helpful for our brands.

Adam DeGraide: And that was Kenneth Tyler Anderson, man, what a sharp guy, what a great business. And I’m telling you, it’s well worth the listen to go back. The second episode we released was with Ryan McEachron, the CEO of ISU ARMAC Insurance Services in the High Desert. What’s interesting about Ryan’s story, is that he inherited the agency from his family, who also inherited it from his grandfather beforehand, so it truly is a family legacy business. Some great gems, enjoy.

Ryan McEachron: I’m glad be with you.

Adam DeGraide: It’s so great to have you, man. I met Ryan many years ago, when I was involved in the insurance industry myself. I had a company called Astonish Results many years ago, worked with about 850 insurance agencies, and Ryan happened to be a client back then. And what I love about Ryan, as I mentioned earlier in the introduction, is that he took over the agency from his father, and he works with his family there, and his sisters have worked there, and it’s really a family affair. That represents a lot of unique challenges in and of itself, wouldn’t you say?

Ryan McEachron: Oh, yeah, course. Anytime you’re working with family, you can always have those weird dynamics, but it’s worked for us over the years. Even when my dad was more involved in the business, and played a much bigger role, to now where we’re at, where it’s just my sister and I have pretty much running it. My mom’s still involved, paying the bills, doing the accounting and whatnot. But, yeah, we’ve always figured out a way to make it work. And it’s been a good business for our family.

Adam DeGraide: Yeah, no doubt about it. And for those listeners who are listening right now, they probably have an insurance agent, but they’ve never really thought about the fact that the independent insurance agent, which is you guys, you’re fighting with the big captive carriers with all that big budget, the Flo marketing, the Farmers do, do, do, do, do, do, do. And you get all these things that are so competitive with such large budgets. Tell the listeners what an independent agency really is, and what makes you unique and beneficial to the potential insured?

Ryan McEachron: Well, what makes us unique, I think, is our ability, being small and agile and being able to move around and do things that the big boys can’t really do. And I think that that’s where we’ve really seen a lot of success. And we do have the ability to do a lot of the things that the bigger brokerage houses do, because of our affiliation with ISU, which is an insurance agency network of agents all across the nation. But we put all our premiums together. We have more clout with the insurance companies. We get better contracts with them.
We get better relationships with underwriters to get policies written for our clients. So we have the ability to do the things that the big brokerage markets and big brokers do, but we’re a lot quicker at it. Because it’s just a small, independent agency, we have about 20 employees.

Adam DeGraide: That’s great.

Ryan McEachron: Yeah, and we’re able to get things done in a much quick and more efficient manner.

Adam DeGraide: 20 employees, those listening would either think that’s a lot or a little, but either way, more than one employee, more than yourself presents challenges. There’s no doubt about it.
But what fires me up about small business is because we are the backbone of this country, and we are the backbone of this economy. And if we don’t have courage to get up and slay that giant of ourselves, who else is going to do it, right?

Ryan McEachron: Yeah. No, we got to. And I think that that’s just the key, is just getting up. I like the analogy of making your bed, because when I was in high school, that was the one thing my psychology teacher taught us is, how to prepare your brain for the day, it’s as simple as making your bed. And it’s worked my entire life. That really [crosstalk]-

Adam DeGraide: Do you do that? Do you get up every day, and make your bed right away?

Ryan McEachron: Yeah. Yeah. You got to make your bed. You got to make your bed.

Adam DeGraide: I’m going to have to check with your wife on this to see if this is actually-

Ryan McEachron: Yeah, no, but I mean, it’s important.

Adam DeGraide: you don’t have a big staff of just people that come in and clean your house every day.

Ryan McEachron: No, I wish. No, we do it ourselves, but-

Adam DeGraide: Oh, that’s great.

Ryan McEachron: … I think it’s something that triggers in your brain psychologically, making bed, it just prepares you for your day. And I think that that’s always been key, and just getting up and doing it and being there. A lot of times, the reason that we have met with success and acquired some of the accounts that we have, is because we were there. And if you’re not there-

Adam DeGraide: That’s great.

Ryan McEachron: … you can’t get them. You can’t get that big account.

Adam DeGraide: Hold on. Say that again, the reason why he got the accounts was because they were there, and you can’t win, if you’re not there, and you can’t be there without the courage to get up and be there. I love that, man. That is fantastic. That was Ryan McEachron from ISU ARMAC Insurance Services.
Next up is Jack Thomas, a young CEO from GetMulch. If you don’t know where to get your mulch, go to getmulch.com. It’s great to hear these technology startups with great ideas to learn about them in their infancy stages, to also follow them throughout their careers. We plan on having Jack back in the future. Here’s a little bit from Jack Thomas.

Jack Thomas: Thank you for having me, Adam, appreciate it.

Adam DeGraide: It is our pleasure and honor. It is not every day that people get to hear from a young tech startup, somebody that had a great idea and decided, you know what, I’m not just going to think it, I’m going to go do it. And that’s what you’re doing at getmulch.com. So our listeners and viewers can know a little bit about it, Jack, tell us the problem you’re trying to solve for and why GetMulch is that solution.

Jack Thomas: So the biggest problem is, is within an industry like mulch, it’s something that I think most of us tend to forget about, not think about as much as I now do with the company. Because we see it all around us all the time, but the ability and the process in getting it, whether you are somebody who wants it installed or whether you just want it delivered so that you can do it yourself, it’s way more complicated than it needs to be. And typically, it’s way more expensive than it needs to be.
And so the problem that we’ve identified is really in the breakdown in communication, more than anything, and actually, as an industry, listening to what the customer needs and how they need it.

Adam DeGraide: That’s awesome. So, basically, the concept behind it was, you want to make it easier for the consumers of mulch, the providers of mulch to connect with each other digitally, so they could order right from the comfort of their phone, their tablet, their laptop.

Jack Thomas: Yeah, exactly, exactly. We are a one stop shop to get mulch installed or delivered nationwide. And we’ve partnered with suppliers and installers and other mulch providers throughout the country to make that more easy on the customer at the end of the day. So that they can call us, whether you have a hundred from properties that need mulch, or whether you are a homeowner that just needs a few yards for your garden space, we have the people to get it to you more efficiently, and at a better price in most cases, on a day-to-day basis.

Adam DeGraide: That’s great. Well, I’m going to need mulch pretty soon. I’m sure you know that, I think I’ve told you that a couple of times.

Jack Thomas: I do. Social media is great. I mean, on the residential side of things, again, the ability with Facebook and Instagram to take something like mulch, which is a beautiful product and makes anything that you put it on look much better. It’s great to have those platforms, and visually-

Adam DeGraide: Do you think I can put it on my hair-

Jack Thomas: Yeah.

Adam DeGraide: … and make it look like I could have more hair? I definitely need hair.

Jack Thomas: I was thinking about it this morning, too, though, it’s like, you could take the front of the house with no bushes, no flowers, no nothing, but if you just lay mulch around the front of a house-

Adam DeGraide: Yes, it’d look good.

Jack Thomas: … that has nothing other than mulch, it’s significantly going to improve it.

Adam DeGraide: It does. It’s [crosstalk]-

Jack Thomas: And so having social to connect with the customer that way is great. LinkedIn is just a ridiculous solution for connecting with our commercial customers.

Adam DeGraide: No doubt about it.

Jack Thomas: We work with a lot of playground manufacturers and a lot of property managers and municipalities, and that’s where they’re spending their time. And so for us to be able to do direct marketing to those people on LinkedIn has worked great for us.

Adam DeGraide: And we have to take a break from our corporate sponsor, Anthem Software. We’ll be right back.

Announcer: Anthem business software system is designed to specifically help small businesses just like yours, find, serve, and keep more customers profitably. We do this by providing you with the most powerful software, automations, and marketing services to help your business compete and win in this ever changing digital world. Take a short video tour at anthemsoftware.com.
(singing)

Adam DeGraide: One of my favorite interviews I did to this season has been so far, Bob Tasca III. I’ve known Bob my whole life from a single point dealership to 14 dealerships throughout the country. He’s not only runs these dealerships folks, one of the largest automotive groups in the country right now, he also is an NHRA drag racer. This was such an interesting interview. I did two parts on it. You don’t want to miss it. Here’s a segment from part one.
I remember the early days watching your grandfather on TV commercials, and he always had this slogan that was awesome. He basically said, “You will be-

Bob Tasca III: “You will be satisfied.”

Adam DeGraide: … satisfied.” And he actually wrote a book called You Will be Satisfied.

Bob Tasca III: Yeah.

Adam DeGraide: And I’ve taken that whole principle. Even into my businesses, Bob, a little bit. Tell people about what did he mean by that? Did he really mean that?

Bob Tasca III: He actually had a saying he took it one step further, “You will be satisfied. We’ll either fix it, replace it or burn it, bring the matches.” And that was his mentality. I mean, he did whatever it took to satisfy the customer, as we do today. He empowered, at the very lowest level in the company to take care of the customer, because that is the secret. The further up the chain the customer goes, the more expensive it is to solve the problem. And it was his cornerstone, and today, many years later, it’s still our cornerstone.

Adam DeGraide: You’re still using the slogan to this day. Man, think about how proud-

Bob Tasca III: To this day, it’s everywhere.

Adam DeGraide: Think about how proud he would be right now, seeing us two goofy guys on a podcasts here talking to each other.

Bob Tasca III: A goal without a plan is a wish. And I don’t like to wake up in the morning and wish things are going to happen. I like to wake up and make things happen. And a goal without a plan, you’re going nowhere. So you have to have, in my opinion, a couple goals, I tell people, “Five’s too many and one’s not enough.” You need two or three, three or four goals that you wake up each and every day chasing with a plan. How are you going to get there? What are your backup plans? You need to think through all of those processes, and then you need to go out there and do it, and you use a word called accountability. See, I think accountability, that really doesn’t tell at all, it’s consistent accountability is what really is the game changer, in my opinion.
Anybody can be accountable for a day, show me someone that can do it for a month, a quarter, a year, consistently, holding their team accountable to, what I consider, realistic expectations. You can’t ask someone to score 80 points in a basketball game, right?

Adam DeGraide: No.

Bob Tasca III: So it’s going to be realistic. You’re going to have good processes. And then you’re going to hold them accountable to the results that you expect. And what I use a phrase, Adam, my number one responsibility in our company is to put our team in a position to win, in a position to win. You can’t win it. The coach, Belichick, as good as he may be, he’s not going to go out and win every football game. He’s going to put his team-

Adam DeGraide: Really? We saw that the other day.

Bob Tasca III: We saw that the other day. He’s going to put his team in a position to win with the resources and the facility, the marketing, the software, the leadership, whatever you need to do to surround your team, with the people, the talent, the resources to win. And then you got to let them go out and win the ball game and not micromanage them, not suffocate them, let them go out and win. And that’s what we do in our company. It’s been very successful, and we’ll continue to do it.

Adam DeGraide: Is there a specific task, a way, so to speak, where, when somebody comes through the door, what do we want them to think? What do we want them to feel? And what do we want them to do at Tasca?

Bob Tasca III: Yeah. So we have a combination of outside trainers, which we bring in both on the sales side and service side, that kind of backfill the GMs. But it is the general manager’s responsibility to make sure that that his team is executing our playbook. I mean, you’ll hear a lot of sports analogies when you look at how we run our company, but we have a playbook, we have a sales playbook, we have a service playbook. We have a set of processes that need to be followed, every time, without fail, no exceptions. And that’s the challenging thing, you can take the most simplest task, but when you ask someone to repeat it, every day, without failed no exceptions, it becomes very complicated to do, because of complacency.

Adam DeGraide: That was great. Now here’s another segment from part two.
Little story, I don’t buy all my cars from you, Bob, but I buy many of my cars.

Bob Tasca III: Many. Many.

Adam DeGraide: And if you can’t get them for me, you tell me where to get them, which is another thing that I really appreciate about Bob as well, too. Process, man, blueprinting, thinking about these things, so if you’re listening and you’re watching, have you thought about what we’re talking about? What is, insert your company’s, blueprint or way? And I used it early on, I learned this principle from Eustace Wolfington years ago, what do you want people to think? What do you want people to feel? And what do you want them to do about it?
And those three words are powerful, because when you’re mapping out your growth strategy in your business, or you’re mapping out the plan for a new business you’re going to start, what do you want your customer to think about you? What do you want them to feel when they look at your brand? When they call you or walk in or see or communicate with you, however they do it. And then more or importantly, Bob, what do we want them to do about it?
And that’s a place where I’ve seen a lot of small businesses fail, Bob. They’re great at helping somebody think a certain way about them, feel a certain way, but they’re afraid to ask for the sale. They’re afraid, I call it, just ask for the money. At some point, when you’ve earned that trust, it’s okay to say, “So can we help you buy this beautiful vehicle today?” How do you train your staff to not only help have a great experience, but get to the end? And so the customer’s not totally uncomfortable, but at the same time we want to say, “Hey, we would like to earn your business. You love this car. Let’s do it.” How do you walk your people through that last part, which is, in a lot of cases, for small businesses, sometimes the most difficult part?

Bob Tasca III: So we break it down to three things, me, the machine, the money. So you got to build value in me, because ultimately the customer’s going to be buying the car from you, not from the building that says, “Tasca,” on it. So you build value in me, build value in the machine, what they’re about to buy, and then you get to the money. And then, to your point, you ask for the sale, and then shut up, shut up. Just keep your… Ask for the sale and shut up. Because so many times salesmen, they don’t shut up, they just keep talking. They talk the person right out of buying the car. I mean, [crosstalk]-

Adam DeGraide: “Maybe you should think about it. Go home and-“

Bob Tasca III: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. By the time they get done talking, they say, “Oh, you’re probably right. I shouldn’t buy right now. I’m going to come back tomorrow.” And it’s like, wow. It’s like, okay, you did the me, you did the machine, you talk the money, now, just be quiet.

Adam DeGraide: That’s right, let them decide.

Bob Tasca III: And the next [crosstalk]-

Adam DeGraide: And then, by the way, and for them to say, no, it’s totally fine.

Bob Tasca III: Fine.

Adam DeGraide: If the customer [crosstalk], but let them make that decision.

Bob Tasca III: [crosstalk], what’s it going to take, on a scale… We always like to kind of frame it this way, “On a scale of one to 10, how do you rate the car?” So, if the customer rates a car a two-

Adam DeGraide: Hey, if I say… Hey, Bob, let’s do it right now. Ready? I like that car, I give an eight, eight and a half.

Bob Tasca III: Okay. So just before we go down that road, imagine if Adam said a three, how many people in their head rate the car a three or four, and then the guy the salesman’s trying to sell it. Well, you’re not going to sell it, if he rates it a three or four. Now, rates in an eight, okay, now [crosstalk]-

Adam DeGraide: You got a shot.

Bob Tasca III: Got a shot. So my next question, “Gee, Adam, great. What would it take to make it a 10?”

Adam DeGraide: Obviously, it would have to be a right price. Hopefully, a good warranty, and a friendly smile.

Bob Tasca III: Okay. “So Adam, friendly smile, we got covered. Okay. The right price, assuming we can get to the right price and the right warranty, are there anything else that would prevent you from taking this car today, Adam? Anything else that you can think of?”

Adam DeGraide: I love what you just did there, Bob. I love what you just did there, because you literally backed this person in a corner gently. If the person says, “No, now you say let’s [crosstalk]-

Bob Tasca III: Cool, now I know [inaudible]. But if you say, “Well, yeah, [crosstalk]-

Adam DeGraide: I got to talk to my wife. I;m not to sure I can afford it.

Bob Tasca III: So now I know I can’t go all in, because he’s not in a position to say, yes, but, “Yeah, other than warranty and price and a great smile, I’m ready to take delivery now.

Adam DeGraide: Let’s go.

Bob Tasca III: … I love the color. I love the moon room. I love everything.” So now at that point we’ve established or at this point you can come back with numbers that you believe are fair pricing. I mean, “Adam, I know that you’re here because you saw our pricing online.”

Adam DeGraide: Yep.

Bob Tasca III: “Clearly, Adam, our pricing was very competitive. And at Tasca you get all of this, A, B, C, D. We do a sandwich when you come in for an oil change, a car wash,” and you build value and all the things that makes your company different. And then say, “Adam, the price is 499 a month. Okay. And we’re able to discount the warranty, because I know that was important for you. Can we do business today?” And then [crosstalk] shut up.

Adam DeGraide: You know what, man, I got to tell you, businesses listening, if you just rewind this section and run your business like this, you’re going to sell more stuff.
It takes a lot of courage to get into that NHRA drag race car and fly like the wind. Tell people what that is like the first time, I want you to think back to the first time you got in there, tell us that story.

Bob Tasca III: Well, I don’t know if the word is courage or crazy, Adam, one of the two, I guess. But, no, I think it fuels my passion. I’m a competitive guy. And all I think about is competing and winning, and at the highest level in drag racing, which my grandpa father did back in the ’60s. And I was fascinated about the stories about what they did. “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday,” was a phrase that my grandfather quoted. And to get the opportunity to actually be able to live my dream, and drive a nitro funny car for Ford Motor Company [crosstalk]-

Adam DeGraide: That’s serious, you can’t just drive down the street and get nitro fuel can you?

Bob Tasca III: No, no. It’s pretty regulated, but it’s intense. I tell people it’s like pulling the trigger of a gun and riding the bullet. It’s a very violent, violent experience of acceleration and deceleration. We’ll pull over six and a half G of acceleration and over negative 7Gs, when the parachutes come out. So it’s a 13 plus G swing from hitting the throttle to when the parachutes come out. And it’s no mistakes. It’s a sport, that if you blink, you lose. And I think that’s the [crosstalk]-

Adam DeGraide: You literally don’t blink. And I was watching a video of yours online on the YouTube where you said that, “For that three and a half, four seconds, you can’t breathe.”

Bob Tasca III: No.

Adam DeGraide: “The G forces push so much pressure on your ribcage and lungs that it literally-“

Bob Tasca III: Oh, it compresses your lungs inside your chest. You can feel the air come out of your mouth. And then the shoots come out and you hit the parachutes, it’s like trying to inject you through the windshield, and it compresses your chest. And you get out of the car, I remember I had a friend of mine say, “Bob, you look a little ridiculous getting out of the car.” I said, “What do you mean?” “You’re all out of breath. You’re moving…” He goes, “You just drove for three seconds. How could you possibly be out of breath?” And I started laughing, I said, “Well, truthfully, your adrenaline’s rising, you can’t breathe, and you’re accelerating…”
The acceleration rate in the car, I put it in perspective, I think people can relate to this, zero to 60 in a Shelby GT 500 Mustang, really, really, really fast car, about 3.2 seconds. Zero to 60 in a nitro funny car, half second, point five.

Adam DeGraide: Oh, my gosh. It’s unbelievable.

Bob Tasca III: Zero to a 100 and point eight of a second, and then we’ll start to cover a football feel every half second.

Adam DeGraide: Nope.

Bob Tasca III: So the acceleration rate on the car is extraordinary. But for me, I don’t know anything else on the planet that really gets my competitive juices flowing more than [crosstalk]-

Adam DeGraide: Oh, I see it. I watch you on TV, I see you do it. Now, I also know that your mom’s a nervous wreck when she watches it. You actually blew up once. And I saw that, and, literally, my heart skipped a beat. I’m like, “Oh God, please make sure he is okay.” You literally blew up in the car. What did that feel like?
And we have to take another break from another sponsor right here on David Vs Goliath podcast. Stay tuned, we’ll be right back at

Speaker 10: At King Sixteen, our agency has done some exciting things over the years. We’ve designed and built amazing experiences for customers, and launched several vehicles for Audi and Porsche. We’ve thrown extravagant parties inside whiskey distilleries, and featured amazing products for brands like RayBan and Fossil. We’ve booked some incredible talent and designed cutting edge stages for those performances. We even threw a red carpet gala in the middle of nowhere on a horse farm with hundreds of celebrities, which was difficult. I guess you could say we’ve done some amazing things for our brands and partners. Now, the only question is, what will King Sixteen do for you? Find out at kingsixteen.com, that’s King S-I-X-T-E-E-N.com.

Adam DeGraide: Our first real estate agent ever was David Dorman. David Dorman has a great story. This episode was moving and touching in a lot of ways as well, too. David shares a little bit about how he lost an employee and how difficult that was. And he also says some great things that are motivational as well, too. I highly recommend that you guys check this episode out. Here’s a little bit of it right now.
You’re the very first real estate agent that we’re having on David Vs Goliath. For fullest closure, you’ve been my real estate agent before in the past. You’ve done an amazing job for me. And one of the things I love about David is that, I’ve seen David from the first time I moved down to Florida in 2003, all the way to now my most recent home purchase, he’s helped me, and to see how much you’ve grown, David, from then to now is amazing in your business. Tell the folks watching and listening how you decided that you wanted to become a real estate agent and the progression of where you were and where you are now.

David Dorman: It’s an interesting story, because at the time, I’d already worked at the theme parks. When I first moved here in ’85, I worked at SeaWorld, then I worked at Universal as a acapella doo-wop singer, and at the time I was working at, I just finished up at seven years at Disney in attractions. And I was kind of just trying to figure out what to do with my life. But I felt like I had some really good customer service skills from those parks and all that.
So I’m working out at [Bally], back when Bally was still open, are they even open anymore? And the guy next to me was talking about timeshare. I’m like, “I could do that and do this singing waiter thing.” And then I realized, as I got into it, I didn’t want to do timeshare, but I wanted to do residential real estate. And kind of got hooked up with an independent brokerage and then eventually with Century 21. And that’s when I met you.
And that’s actually, I’ve told you this before, but since your listeners probably don’t know is, once you and I got together, that first transaction we did was one of the biggest of my career. And it really gave me the confidence and the finances to really grow my business. And now what, 21 years later, I am the owner and the broker of our franchise.

Adam DeGraide: It truly is amazing, because I remember, so people thinking back then like, so it was 2003, the internet was still relatively new, but that’s how I found you. I went online and I searched for real estate agents in the Orlando area. I was looking to buy a vacation home at the time. And you were one of the first that came up, there was a few others. I talked to a few others, you were responsive, you were quick, you go back to me. And so you’ve always valued that stuff. It’s pretty amazing, when you think about it now, how many employees do you have right now working with you at your particular franchise?

David Dorman: Well, employees, you’re probably thinking agents as employees, technically, they’re independent contracts. We are about 60 agents and about five or six employees. It’s a lot of behind the scenes people-

Adam DeGraide: That’s still great.

David Dorman: … that manage our business. Yeah. Yeah. And we’re constantly looking to grow that.

Adam DeGraide: Yeah. That’s great. It’s so fascinating to me, because real estate is one of those things where it’s shifting so quickly, technologically, now, as you know. I mean you watch TV commercials, they’re all either trying to get rid of the agent or they’re trying to knock down the rates of an agent or they’re trying to make it easier for people to buy and they are. And a lot of those tools are great. But what has that been like for you to have to compete in that environment?
Because, obviously, you’re a small business competing in a very large space. You’re kind of like fighting jockey to get that placement, so people can know how to find you and see you. What has been the evolution for you from the early days of the internet to now? There’s so much technology, how do you stay relevant and current?

David Dorman: It’s a lot of research. It’s a lot of paying attention to any bit of information you can get, and it’s about not panicking. For example, I’m constantly on Facebook and Inman News, LinkedIn looking to see what everybody else is doing, but not getting so caught up in it that I panic. I mean, when these brokers, what you’re talking about, things like OfferPad and similar, they’re called iBuyers, where they pay cash for a house and they basically cut us-

Adam DeGraide: Correct.

David Dorman: … out of it. But the reality is nine out of 10 people don’t want to do that, they want someone who’s going to be hands on with them. Another big change that’s happened over the years when I first met you till now, is that you have big teams of people, where there’s a group in town and the agent says, “I sell 800 homes a year.” And I’m like, “No, you don’t, because you would be a crazy person if you sold 800 homes yourself in a year.” Now, what they’re really talking about is their team of 20 people sold 800 homes a year, which is still impressive, but it’s not the same as an individual. When I say, “I’ve sold a 100 homes in a year,” I’ve sold a 100 homes in a year.

Adam DeGraide: That’s David Dorman. David, Merry Christmas to you and your family as well, and Happy New Year and happy holidays.
And last but not least on this part one of the hits and only the hits was Chet Hitt. Chet Hitt has the coolest name, of course, on the hits, he does have the coolest name. Chet Hitt owns two cemeteries, five mortuaries, two restaurants, a farmer’s market, and a distillery. That is a lot of stuff going on. This was so much fun. And only on David Vs Goliath, can we make death fun? Check this out.

Chet Hitt: Glad to be here. It’s going to be a great day, I think.

Adam DeGraide: It is going to be a great day. One of the things I always said, when I was younger, raising my first set of children, I read a book by Zig Ziglar called See You at the Top Chet, and one of his ideas that he had in the book was, every morning you wake up, you clap twice, and you say, “It’s going to be a great day.” And I remember, for years I would run around the house, and I’d wake up in the morning, at like six o’clock in the morning, and I’d go, “It’s going to be a great day.” And my kids would be like, “What on Earth are you doing dad? That is crazy.”
But it’s always been a really important thing. I think people don’t realize that how you start the day from an attitude perspective affects the rest of the day, right?

Chet Hitt: Absolutely.

Adam DeGraide: If you wake up with a bad attitude, you’re in no danger of having a good day. But if you wake up with a great attitude, you get a chance at it. And speaking of great attitudes, tell the listeners all the different businesses right now that you’re juggling and managing. I think they’d find it fascinating.

Chet Hitt: Well, I run three different companies, but the crazy thing about it is, it’s all about the team that we have on staff. I mean, they’re the ones who get the results. So every great entrepreneur can have great ideas, but if they don’t have the team behind them to get stuff done, they’re not going to get to where they need to go. So it takes a team effort to get there.
But with that being said, I actually started off kind of a crazy game that I played, I worked for a family business for years. My father started it and my brother took over, so I worked for him for years. And then I was wanting to be a partner and he was promising me a partnership, and didn’t deliver. So long story short, I was playing racketball when I was 26 years old with a buddy of mine in Victorville, California. And he said, “What a shame that my mother couldn’t be buried in our hometown of Apple Valley.” And I said, “Dude, we should build a cemetery.”
So, literally, the next day, we looked at a contract. I drove down to LA to Forest Lawn, the granddaddy of all cemeteries, and I started measuring graves. And then when-

Adam DeGraide: Wow.

Chet Hitt: … I realized, I measured these graves, I figured what the heck you can get about 1600 graves per acre. And so I turned around, started this little cemetery with a buddy of mine. And after a few years he took off with his other business, so I took him out and here we are. And right now we are the largest privately held cemetery company in Southern California.

Adam DeGraide: That is amazing. And how many cemeteries are there right now? I think there’s a handful, right?

Chet Hitt: I have two cemeteries and six mortuaries.

Adam DeGraide: Wow. On David Vs Goliath, we don’t typically talk to cemetery owners and mortuaries, but this is a real business. I mean, I would imagine that… I think, is it referred to as a death industry? Or how do they refer to it as the actual industry itself?

Chet Hitt: Yeah, the death industry. And the crazy thing is, is when I started, what was funny about it is, I used to sell graves door to door-

Adam DeGraide: Wow.

Chet Hitt: … and people would laugh at me. And I knocked on doors, and told them my story, and one led to another, to a referral, to a referral, to another, to another, to the point now, we do about a million dollars a month in gross sales.

Adam DeGraide: That’s unbelievable. And for the listeners listening to David Vs Goliath, so think about this, 26 years old, Chet’s out there having a conversation, recognizes a need, and then he doesn’t wait to figure it out, the very next day goes out. And this is the thing Chet that people don’t really appreciate about entrepreneurs and business people is, if you hesitate on an idea, you’re most likely never to do it. So if you see something and you have an idea, strike hard, strike fast. And as the dojo leader from the Cobra Kai says, “Show no mercy,” on the idea.

Chet Hitt: Correct.

Adam DeGraide: You got to get out there and do it. And to start that and to now, all these years later, having such an amazing business like this, it’s inspiring for people that are listening to the show. Chet Hitt boom, boom, boom. That’s all I keep thinking about when I actually hear your name. It’s awesome. And that’s kind of what you’ve done in life. You’ve kind of like, you’ve woken up every day and you said, “I’m going to punch and fight my way through this. I’m going to build some businesses. I’m going to start them and I’m going to go out there…” You said you have almost 150 employees.
One of the things we talk about on David Vs Goliath is courage. It’s the stone that I believe that the shepherd boy David took out there and slayed that Goliath with, is the stone called courage. And it takes a lot of courage to start one business or two businesses or whatever the case may be. If you look back on the beginning, when you were 26 years old, and you found about this need, for someone being buried in the High Desert, for example, and there wasn’t some place to put that individual, what was it in you that woke up that follow morning and said, “I’m going to do this”? Because I think people don’t know what that intangible is.

Chet Hitt: Well, when you start a new business, you’re generally broke. So there’s two reasons to want to do it. One, you want to serve and take care of people. The next thing is you want to try something and you got to have it in your gut to want to do it, and out think it, and you got to live and breathe it. I mean, hey there was times that, I’m 57 years old, I’m on cholesterol, blood pressure pills, everything else, because I wanted it so bad, you’re up all night long. I mean, how many people that are an entrepreneur, has a little next to their bed, because they woke up at two o’clock in the morning to write the notes down and keep on going. So you’re going to want that push and that drive.
But I think that’s the biggest difference of where I’ve come from is, there was two needs. One, make a living and also take care of your family at the time. So when I started on knocking on doors, people laughed at me, but on a Saturday I’d hit a hundred doors and get enough appointments to get me through the week. And I had to work my way backwards to say, “Okay, as an entrepreneur or a salesperson or something like that, when you’re on commission,” because I didn’t have the money to be on salary, so if I didn’t sell a space, I didn’t get a commission. So that was the whole thing. So I backed my way into the numbers that I had to make, and how many doors I had to hit to get this many appointments.
And then what did my closing ratio become? And then as I started closing more and got better and fine tuning my machine, I built a team. And as I built a team, it grew from there, but-

Adam DeGraide: That’s awesome.

Chet Hitt: … it was all about trying to pay your Edison bill, pay your mortgage, and put food on the table.

Adam DeGraide: Great to be back. Thank you so much Chet Hitt, that was awesome. We’re dedicated here and committed on the David Vs Goliath Podcast to bring you nothing but the best inspiration, education, and things that you can activate in your business right now. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for watching. Merry Christmas, happy holidays. And we’ll see you next week. Have an awesome day.