Too many home services companies focus on 1 channel to help grow their business.
That can be using Home Advisor or Angie's List. Or going all in on Google Ads.
However, the #1 take away that Anthony Winston III -- Founder and Principal at Winston Engineering, Inc. -- shares with us during this interview is that he put his business everywhere.
By joining community events, chamber of commerce, networking groups, partnering with experts such as Book Keepers, web designers, digital marketer, and more -- he's been able to grow and scale his business in roughly 6 years.
Having a well designed and highly SEO optimized website will help you build more brand awareness in your community.
By also leveraging social media channels such as LinkedIn and Facebook and connecting with key decision makers allows for your home services business to position itself as an authority.
This is exactly what Anthony has been doing for a few years, and he explains some of his key strategies and partnerships that has helped him grow Winston Engineering, Inc.
To learn more about The Trust Tipping Point Marketing Podcast, please visit:
www.TheTrustTippingPoint.com
Too many home services companies focus on 1 channel to help grow their business.
That can be using Home Advisor or Angie's List. Or going all in on Google Ads.
However, the #1 take away that Anthony Winston III -- Founder and Principal at Winston Engineering, Inc. -- shares with us during this interview is that he put his business everywhere.
By joining community events, chamber of commerce, networking groups, partnering with experts such as Book Keepers, web designers, digital marketer, and more -- he's been able to grow and scale his business in roughly 6 years.
Having a well designed and highly SEO optimized website will help you build more brand awareness in your community.
By also leveraging social media channels such as LinkedIn and Facebook and connecting with key decision makers allows for your home services business to position itself as an authority.
This is exactly what Anthony has been doing for a few years, and he explains some of his key strategies and partnerships that has helped him grow Winston Engineering, Inc.
To learn more about The Trust Tipping Point Marketing Podcast, please visit:
www.TheTrustTippingPoint.com
Marketing in the home services industry has changed so much over the past few decades. Now even more rapid pace these last few years almost to a point it's impossible to keep up with what's trending. Ever felt like marketing in today's economy is like flushing money down the toilet. That's where we come in and help honest Home Services companies just like yours, learn and understand some of the most effective marketing strategies today, strategies used by some of the top home service companies around the world. My name is Javier Lozano Jr. and welcome to the trust tippingpoint Marketing Podcast. Hey, guys, what's up? This is Javier again with the trust tippingpoint marketing podcast,
Unknown:I've
Javier Lozano, Jr.:got another amazing guest here. His name is Anthony Winston, the third. He's the founder and principal engineer of Winston engineering, Inc. Anthony, how you doing, man?
Anthony Winston III:I'm doing well. Thank you for having me on.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Hey, I appreciate you. Jumping on for this podcast. I know we've kind of been chatting about this for I think almost a year on LinkedIn about trying to get you on an interview. And then just timing wasn't really working. But um, it worked out now. So I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do this. Tell us a little bit more about, you know where you're at. You know, I mentioned you're in California, and then you know, your background, all other fun stuff. And then we'll kind of start diving into the podcast.
Anthony Winston III:Yeah. Well, I'm in Southern California, our company is use air quotes where we'll damar we've never had a physical office since I started the company. So that's where our peel boxes. We're not too far from Temecula wine country, which is there like directly in between LA and San Diego. But as far as my background, I'm originally from Chicago. moved from there. When I was about 14, I spent a little time in Arizona and then eventually finished out High School in California. Nice. And then I went to Arizona state. And there that's what I studied electrical engineering with nepotism power transmission and distribution. I had a professor he was from I forget who it was like Eastern Europe. So you know, very old school. real cool guy always looked out for me, he was kind of a, I consider him an OG in the power industry. Nice. And I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with with my career. I knew I want to do electrical engineering, but there are a lot of facets of electrical engineering you can go into. And one day he just came out and said, he said, You know what, you know, I'm an old, I'm an older guy. It's a lot of guys like myself in the power industry who are retiring. He was like, he was like, You're, you're young, you're smart. He was like your black guy. I think you'll do well. And he was saying that was I think it was his way of saying it's a lack of diversity in the industry. So yeah, he wants to see more folks like myself in the industry. So that's what I did. And I thought I will work for power company out of college. And that didn't work out. So I ended up working for a large government contractor, Raytheon and the Boston area nice and it's off there. I designed test systems for missile radar systems for a while and then I started when I was getting homesick I was kind of just out there with no family. Yep. And then two It was very conflicting right because yes, cool working on these systems but then you realize what these systems can do to people Yep. So that that kind of sat with me and bothered me a bit so
Javier Lozano, Jr.:are you talking about like the system's like like basically the the missiles a defense kind of stuff? Is that what you're talking about or
Anthony Winston III:right meaning somebody could die based on something that I worked on
Javier Lozano, Jr.:so it You almost kind of took a Tony Stark kind of approach from Iron Man,
Anthony Winston III:you know about that I didn't have the the wealth and but like,
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Win Win, Tony Stark saw the missile like that he designed I was like, right next and he's like, Oh, crap, I'm gonna die. Yeah. So it's just I don't know, I'm a big Marvel fan. So sorry.
Anthony Winston III:I am today. My girls just wrapped up one division.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:How is that?
Anthony Winston III:If it's it's hard to get through the first couple of episodes because you don't know what's going on. But okay, you got to stick with it. You know, my kids are five and six. And I was concerned like maybe this is too much for them. And one day they were on Disney plus in their room, like binge watching the whole thing over again. So it's I think it's amazing to see you know, women leads on TV. They brought in the character Rambo, you know, she's a she's a black female superhero. I think that's amazing from other girls to see. But yeah, sorry, I didn't want to go off on
Javier Lozano, Jr.:No, no, man. It's all good. Like, it's like this is the thing is like, I want people to connect with us because we're real people, you know. So that's the thing. It's all good. So anyways, you decided to make a shift.
Anthony Winston III:So I want to get back out to California and began working or got a job. with General Atomics out of Rancho Bernardo, which is basically a small suburb outside of San Diego, and they flew me in, and I just remember it was, I want to say it was late fall, early winter. And if you ever flown to San Diego, you're you like skimming right over palm trees, you see the water. And as I'm landing, I'm like, I better get this job. And they interview me, they hired me. And they moved me. They moved me out back to California. And, you know, working on components that go on battleships and things like that. So the arrestment and the and the catapult system, they're ripping out the steam system, and they want to use electric. So I was I was testing components for that. And that I think about it that that conflict was still there. Because you catch a jet fighter jets, yeah, shooting them off the battleship. But then I started getting into programs with, you know, hybrid electric drive, they wanted to use them on a mining mining application. So you got I mean, motors as big as a house, right? So Wow, it's kind of cool. Well, Tupelo, Mississippi, testing those things. And then I got my PE license and my professional engineering license, which is based in construction, okay. And I realized I can't use this here, those, I don't want to go through the process of becoming a PE just to be a PE and not being able to use it. I use my stamp, for sure. So I quit, took a pay cut and worked for a large electrical contractor. And my, my very first role was the LA federal courthouse in downtown LA. And so I'm commuting, I'm driving an hour to Corona, taking a train an hour and a half into the city. And so I'm going back and forth. And this this commute was horrendous. I can imagine I see. schematic electrical schematics we're building and I'm like, wait a minute, this is way easier than, you know, missile radar systems. So on the train that Google how do you start a business and I would take two laptops with me my personal and my work. And if I didn't have any regular work to do, I will pull out my personal and I just started building my company.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:That's crazy, man. I mean, you you literally went from like, you know, defense, you know, type contractor company, to I'm not saying it's a downgrade, but you literally just went backwards. And then you're going back up again. But you did it because you wanted something different for your life. Is that is that would you would you agree that?
Anthony Winston III:No, yeah, absolutely. The corporate corporate structures really bothered me. Okay. Because it was so antiquated, right? They want you to sit at a desk from nine to five, even if you didn't have anything to do that. That made zero sense to me.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah.
Anthony Winston III:And so I would always try to work from home if I could, I felt like I was more productive at home. Because if you give me a task, I can knock it out much more quickly. Because I don't have any distractions. You don't have co workers come in, hey, you hear about marksmen is blah, blah, blah. Like that. So and I will go to my bosses and say, Hey, I don't have anything to do. I just wrapped up this project. And of course, they may take a day or two to find something for you do but then you kind of stuck. So yeah, I started my company and I started posting on Craigslist, right? Just offering electro engineering services. You're kidding me? Yeah. And my very first project was a I think it was Iranian restaurant was called booth grill in Huntington Beach, California. Okay, no, they're no longer in existence. But he called me I didn't even know what the charge I think I charged him like 500 bucks for a set of electrical plans. Oh, that's cheap, dude. You know, there's no manual pricing. So they got took the day off to I wrapped up his project took a day off to meet with him. I like kinkos to print off his plans and hand them to him. And then I'm noticing little notation mistakes. And I'm in there scribbling on the plans, trying to get it wrapped up and it worked out and got his permits and everything. You know, it worked out well. But Time keeps going. And then I start getting, you know, a couple office buildings, you know, then I started doing a couple Starbucks with someone. Yeah. And then I signed a major warehouse. They reproduced pictures that you'd see in places like z gallery, right, the places where you can buy reproduced drawings. Yeah. And so that contract was large enough to sustain you know, me and my family for three months if I didn't get any more work. So I said, You know what, let's talk to my wife like, I want to Walk away from, you know, my nine to five and do this and show my wife the financials, and she was cool with it. And that was in 2015. And I haven't looked back since
Javier Lozano, Jr.:do that is awesome. That's a cool story. I love that I love the the taking the risks, the whole true entrepreneur journey where you're balancing everything, you know, like, you've got your full nine to five. And you know, and you're kind of dabbling in this whole starting your own business. You know, like, not that not saying that you don't, you're not committed, you're just kind of figuring stuff out. Yeah, you know, and, and then all of a sudden, you know, like, things kind of start kind of turning for you like it, I have something very similar to that, where, when I started my when I started my first company in 2008. Before that, I used to work for a sales, one of their top salespeople for this company called Raj online, we sold like an online registration SAS product. And so basically, I did that for an entire year. So I worked 80 hour weeks, did that for like, 40 hours at my job. And then like, I'd get in at 7am, like, eat at my desk, leave at three, get to my studio by 330 and then start teaching martial arts or fitness classes by four did that till eight, that Monday through Friday. And then I would mark do marketing stuff from like, eight to 10 in the evening, few days a week. And then on Saturday, Sundays, I would just work on marketing and sales stuff. So it'd be like, you know, passing out door hangers go into like stupid, you know, community things. I'm not saying they're dumb, but like, it's just everything. There are a whole
Anthony Winston III:lot of times, you know, a bunch of times it gets
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Oh, yeah. Oh, man. I mean, I was I was drained. And then it was the same Crossroads you were where I was like, Okay, this company, because every money, everything we're bringing in, I was just putting it back into the business, you know? And then I just based, like, you know what, I gotta just do this. So talk to my boss during our annual review. It was a bad review, by the way. And he's like, when I told him I started my own company like, this has been going on for a year. He's like, Are you kidding? I didn't know about this. And then he goes, you need to burn the effing ship. I was like, what he's like, you need to burn the effing ship. He said the real word. And, and then I was like, okay, he goes, you need to go all in on this. And like, done. So I put in my two weeks, and never looked back after that. So the company in 2018. Anyways, My point being is that, like, I get where you're coming from, and that's a cool journey, you know, what, what you're kind of what you went through. So, you know, something that you brought up during our conversation before was, and what you mentioned here, too, is, is that, you know, that diversity in this in this industry? And, you know, I know, we want to kind of dive into that, because that's something that is intriguing that in this industry, they are not a lot of people of color, that are in MEP kind of space, you know. And so I'd love for you to kind of like dive in, like, Did you always have a knack into like engineering and this kind of stuff? Or was it something that you just kind of like started kind of pulling yourself towards where you're like, this is kind of cool. I like this, because some people just they just have it, you know, others, they have to work for it. For me, I was always the kid getting in trouble for taking stuff apart. So
Anthony Winston III:I've always been very inquisitive. I remember I remember one time I designed what I thought was a very first solar airplane, I must have been in fifth grade. I'm jotting it down. I wrote the patent drew the panels on the plane. And I get to school maybe a couple weeks later. And I look in a science book. And of course, there's a solar airplane. So I was always that type of I was pretty much a nerd, really thinking of things like that. And I knew I want to be original, I want to be a marine biologist, but then I realized they don't make a ton of money. So I was cognizant of finances Even then, you know, as getting through high school, I'm like, Oh, I want to be a network administrator it. It sounded cool, right. So I went to a Summer Bridge Program at Arizona State University the summer before I started, and I got a taste of computer programming, and I hated it. So I knew I wanted to be engineering. So I looked at a list of engineering disciplines and said, All right, which one makes the most money so it was electrical at the time? No kidding. And that's what I went with. High school, high school and you know, kindergarten to high school was a breeze. Once I got to college, that's when I really started to struggle.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:No, really.
Anthony Winston III:Yeah. Especially especially math and physics. Okay. I mean, I've failed. I think I counted five or six different classes. But, you know, I was never the smartest kid in the class, but you weren't gonna outwork me. So, if I had to take a class over and over again, I was going to make it happen if I had to beat down the doors. I'm a professor. So what I did, right, you didn't have as much access as you do now, with teachers, I mean, that was back in when I went to college 2002 to 2006. So you had to go to these office hours, you had to go to the tutoring center. And that's what I did. And once I started getting to my upper division classes, it became much more easier. That's when I had other classmates coming to me asking for for help with, you know, circuits and stuff like that. So that's really, really, yeah, that's what I really knew. And then I got an internship at APS Arizona public services, which is one of Arizona's largest electrical utilities, okay. And being able to see those drawings and seeing things in action and being at these massive substations and them saying, Hey, don't put a tape measure in the air you can get electrocuted. I that was so interesting to me. And then they gave me the keys to a SUV and sent me all over Arizona, all through the desert with a telescope, because they had a big bushing replacement project on the transformer. So I'm sitting on top of my SUV with a telescope trying to read tiny little nameplates on on transformer bushings. And I did his grunt work, but I just thought that was so cool. So yeah, to answer your question it, school was easy until I got to college. And then I just kind of had to find my way. I just gotta, I realized really quickly that every time I failed a class, it's costing me more money. So that was even much more motivation. As I mean, College is a business. Yep.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah, no, I got I got kicked out of college myself, because of bad grades. And then had to go to night school, how to do like online classes. And when I was taking these online, like these online classes, and like night school, I'd been in classes with other people that have taken for the first time and stuff like answering all these questions like, how do you know, this is like, my second time? And like, Are you kidding? I'm like, Nah, I failed the first one. So once I got my grades back up, I you know, I ended up graduating, but I didn't have a very strong GPA. So it last I checked, I think was like a 2.7. And I was, you know, a few years ago, I was toying with the idea, like, you know, I think get an MBA. And then I'm like, looking at like, the requirements or like, bare minimum 275. Like, you've got to be kidding. And then I'm talking to some of these, like, these people that like let you in for what their what their titles are. But I was like, Look, man, I started a company and I sold it, like, how many MBA students actually have done that. And he's like, pretty much zero. So why does it matter what my GPA is? And like, that's a fair point. You know, we may we may be able to get around, you're not taking the GMAC, like, I'm just telling you like, like, I'm like your ideal candidate. Yeah. And so anyways, I wasn't made for college. That's, that's for sure.
Anthony Winston III:And that's it. And it's, it's sad, because, you know, we're the my wife was just watching that scandal about the, you know, the rich folks getting their kids into all these fancy schools. Yeah, yeah. And they talked about standardized testing and how basically pointless they are. And then to, like you mentioned, the GPA, if I'm hiring somebody, like a GPA doesn't tell you, Anthony was working three full time jobs. Yeah. In college while taking a full load it GPA doesn't tell you that. So if I'm hiring somebody fresh out of college, yeah, look at the GPA. Obviously, it can be one point something right, you got to know you care a little bit, but I'm gonna get dig into your backstory and fully understand who you are. Because to me that that doesn't tell the full story. And it's, it's sad that we're putting minimums on these kids. And, you know, yeah, I can see the anxiety in these kids are focused on GPA. And it's pretty, pretty sad.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:No, I totally agree. I mean, like, my, like, I joke with my wife, like, she's, I say, she's a smart one, because she can take any test in AC, you know, like, she, she, she's got a real real realtor license, but a year and a half ago or so. And I'm joking with him, like, you'll probably just aced this, like, this is like dealing with the study, you'll probably get, you'll pass it. And like for me, I just, I just never could figure it out. Like I'm not a test taker. And that was that was always a struggle. But I agree with what you said, something you said earlier that resonates with me is is that even though you struggled in college, no one's gonna outwork you, you know, you are going to be the hardest working person out there for your your class and your programming. And I think that speaks volumes, in my opinion. You know, um, and that's something that's another way of setting yourself apart from the competition, you know,
Anthony Winston III:yeah. If you gotta approach this, approach things you want with a certain level of aggression, to be honest with you. Yeah, I was a pretty good athlete in high school. And I mean, I was raining six foot 262 while I'm on varsity, but I was the one who would i would do tip off, right. And I'm sometimes going to get a seven footer. Yeah, great. I rarely lost a tip off. No kidding. But and, you know, I was, I was probably the leading rebounder on the team. I was just very aggressive at what I wanted. Yeah. And I took my education and, and even now my business with a certain level of aggression like you. You're not gonna outwork me, I don't work crazy hours that I don't do. Mainly because you need downtime and to, you know, have a wife and two little ones. So yep, I got to make sure that I carve out plenty of time for them. But during the time that I am working, I'm working very hard.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Nice. No, I hear you, man. And so, you know, with your background in this, I mean, like, like, like we said earlier that there aren't a lot of people, you know, that are people of color that are in this industry? And did was that something that affected you? Did you want to come in to kind of like, almost say, like, hey, it can be done? Or was it just like, I want to do this and whether I don't care who I am, you know what Color My Skin is? You know, what sex? I'm whatever. Like, what was your thought process? Um,
Anthony Winston III:so let me kind of back up a little bit. I've had culture shock multiple times in my life. So growing up in Chicago, on the south side, in my elementary school, she might have one white kit, right? It was all black. So that was that was my reality. When Black History Month came around. It was a big deal, right? Yeah, the school getting colored in red, black and green, right. And, you know, notable black folks, but they paced on the walls. And then I moved to Arizona. And it wasn't very many of us. And I remember being in class, and it was a white girl behind me. And she was like, Can I touch your hair? And I just thought that was so odd. Why do you want to touch my hair? And then I went to California, and it was a lot more diverse. So now now I'm seeing a lot more Asian students, right? Even more Hispanic students and a lot of black students as well. So that was that was interesting and cool at same time. And then when I went to Arizona State, I mean, you talking 2%? African American population, right? Yes. With that said, I go through all these steps. Understanding that when I do get a job when I'm when I am out there, when I do see a lot of professionals, it's mostly white folks, and you understand at a young age that you have to work twice as hard to get just as far. Yep. So that's, that's kind of been my mentality. I mean, all through my corporate career working for other folks. Most often, I was the only black person in the room. Gotcha. And you notice that you notice it immediately. And sometimes it's a little disheartening. Yep. times. And then once I jumped in to construction, you see the same things like I will be in these planning meetings. And it's the same thing, right? Yeah, I was lucky in that. Actually, my boss at General Atomics, he was actually Canadian, but he was from Trinidad. So I think it was Trinidad. So that was kind of cool to see a black face. That was sounds weird. But a black person who was really high up in the chain, dressed well, he was just like a really good example of how to behave. Just how to be in the corporate world. And he seemed to do a better than everybody else. And then when I got to helix electric, by my boss, I think he was Haitian. So I learned a lot from him. So things like that. It's very helpful. Because sometimes in order to be something you have to see it. Yep. And that's, that's one of the main reasons why I like coming on these podcasts. Why post so heavy so heavily on social media? Yeah, before the pandemic, I was trying to go to high schools and talk to these kids. Because again, if you if you don't see it, sometimes you don't believe it. And Yep, let's be honest, there's not a lot of not a lot of MEP engineering owners out there in general. Nope. So it's good to let these kids know the different types of career paths that they can go down and they don't know if I can do it. You damn sure.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah. Now, that's great. I mean, you're doing it with the intent of, of almost setting an example of you know, and say, Hey, it can be done. And, and you're doing it in a, I think in a caring way, like in a motivational way. You know, when you're, you know, what you're talking about with with talking with kids and stuff like that, and showing them the opportunities of what can be done. And I mean, that's, that's thing is like, I think the reason that you and I connected on LinkedIn is because you do post heavily, you know, you are putting a lot of content on there about the MEP industry. And I mean, that's at the time when I used to work for a commercial HVC company, and I was targeting people that were kind of like you, you know, that had connections like that, that are in the commercial space, that, you know, might open a door, you never know, you know, I'm saying, but that stuff doesn't happen, if you're not out there pushing, if you're not out there promoting, you know, you've got to, you can't just sit behind your computer, or you know, that sort of stuff, you know, so, so I totally get where you're coming from, you know, on that end as well to where you're leading by example. And I love that I think that's important that, you know, people that are in positions like you and I, you know, that have had success, or either host podcasts or, you know, have run a business or own a business right now, whatever that case is. We need to lead by example, you know, like, we need to be out there and be the leaders. And we need to almost position ourselves in a way that's just different from everybody else. So we stand out. I mean, would you agree?
Anthony Winston III:Yeah. Especially engineering, a lot of engineers and in general are kind of socially awkward. Okay. I'm not gonna sit so
Javier Lozano, Jr.:true, and you're totally not.
Anthony Winston III:And it took a lot of time to at least get to this point. I'm still I still don't really like, public speaking. But I knew everything I do is for for the, for the company, right? Yeah. And also to, like you said, try to be an example to younger folks coming up. Because speaking on the business side of things, when you send me the video for this, right, I'm gonna blast it out. It's going to increase SEO. So that was somebody Google's MEP engineering firm near me. Hopefully, we pop up, right?
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah. That's the goal, man.
Anthony Winston III:So it's kind of a cool cycle, where Yeah, it not only benefits the business, but also maybe some little black kid on the south side of Chicago may see this. And he's like, you know what, that sounds like a cool thing to do.
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Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah, no, I totally agree, man. It's it's so true. It's it's, it's funny because, um, you know, you brought up this earlier, the beginning of the of the interview about one division and having female leads. And, you know, I have a little boy and I have a little girl, and we watch a lot of Marvel movies, the kids love it. And, and but I try to make it a point to let my daughter see these female rules of like power and strength. Because especially now, like, because I want my daughter to basically be almost like work scares boys away. They're like, I don't know if I'm, like capable of dating her because I want her to be so confident in herself that her stand is are so high, you know, and simply with my son, don't get me wrong, you know, like, I want the same thing for my son as well, too. But, you know, we'll watch like, you know, Captain Marvel or Wonder Woman and stuff like that. And I want her to see that there's opportunity for her to be a strong woman and it's okay to be a strong woman and to be opinionated. And to not agree with everything. Like she's, she's a difficult child in our family. But you know what, like, there's a part of me, I'm like, I kind of want her to be like that, because I don't want her to be a pushover. whenever she's 18 years old. You know, I'm pretty sure you can relate to that.
Anthony Winston III:Absolutely. And you know, my wife, she's she. She brings that point home all the time. Yeah, we try to instill in our girls independent. Yeah, it's a quick story. You mentioned Wonder Woman. And the first one came out I think my youngest was two or three. And I was in a liberal in Washington by myself, which I thought I was the same were like, Wonder Woman gets catapulted into like a steeple, a church steeple or something like that. Yeah. completely destroys it. Next thing I know, she goes upstairs and she has like a little dog house, which we don't really, I don't know who bought it because we don't buy our kids dolls. And she starts like kicking it over and I'm like, oh, okay, I guess you enjoy Wonder Woman, she's been influenced.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:That's awesome. So I want to shift over to now what you know, what we were chatting earlier to is about starting your business, you know, you were basically, you know, working your full nine to five and on your free time you were researching how to start a business. Like, tell me about that journey, you know, a little bit more like, because a lot of our people in our audience either have an established business, or they're probably looking to learn how to start a business. And they and they don't know where to look, you know, and I personally, I've always had an entrepreneurial mindset, I've always been like, I can figure it out, I can find it, I can research it something like, I've always been that kind of person where like, I'll Google it, and I'll start diving in really deep and figuring this stuff out. And, and other people, it's it's a shift. I mean, like you have a very strong academic background, you know, and now, I'm not saying all but not a lot of people go from a very strong academic background to where they go starting a business because I think it is a different mindset. I feel as though most entrepreneurs not all, but most entrepreneurs are not necessarily like strong and academics. Like either they were not I kind of look at him like a Gary Vaynerchuk almost where they go to college, they get a degree, but it doesn't do them any, you know, any justice, whatever. And then like, they start running a business with their pop. And then next thing you know, it's a, you know, $65 million company. Like I like that wasn't overnight. I know, that took like 15 years for him to achieve that. My point being is is that is is that's it's a tough transition. And so I'd love to hear more of that journey.
Anthony Winston III:To me, it wasn't for one people got to get over the fear of leaving their job dependent in obviously, you need to put some research into what it is that you're trying to jump into. But Yep. folks will say, oh, man, not that scary. To me, it wasn't because if it didn't work out, I can go back out and find a job. So at the base, that you really have to have a strong foundation for the business that you're going to do. Well, one, let's take it back a step further. Okay. You need to find out if the market actually wants what it is you're trying to sell. I love that love that. I didn't necessarily do that. I just assumed everybody would. But years later, like about six months ago, my business mentor he suggested I look at this book, I do a ton of audiobooks. It's called the write it. And it basically teaches you how to prototype an idea. So not prototype but prototype an idea, which means that you prove it out before you actually spend a ton of time and money and get frustrated and all that interesting. So an exam, an exam, I'm sorry, well, you can say I'll say who's the author that I do audiobooks to? It's like Alberto something. If you type the book, the right, it'll pop right up. It's a yoga yellow book. Perfect. But he gave an example, IBM thought of talk to text. Some decades ago. Yeah. And they didn't know how to do it didn't want to spend a bunch of time and research to actually build it. So they brought in folks who this could benefit. So maybe it's at the time they call them secretaries, but administrative assistants. Yep. And say sediments on in front of the screen and said just talk and the person would talk and the word just scroll across the screen. And some thought, Oh, this is great. Some thought it was kind of weird, but they didn't know it was somebody in another room typing, listening to what they're saying. No kidding. Another example of somebody who came up with some type of device. And they went and bought an Ikea looking best, walked into IKEA set up a sales stand, and just waited to see who would buy it. And they had a fake barcode. And of course, they tried to buy it and it wouldn't work. So he just gave it to him for free. interest. Oh, obviously don't do that. I mean,
Javier Lozano, Jr.:yeah, no, but the the point you're making is test your market to see if they want what what you're trying to offer.
Anthony Winston III:Exactly. And so I wish I had known that because i've you know, I've had a failed business couple failed businesses in the past, working on another one. Hopefully that works out. But I wish I had this book at you know, a while ago. Uh huh. And so once you've gotten past that point, you're like, Alright, the market wants it. Yeah. Then you have to really set a good foundation, right? Go two years, whatever your state's business website, it gives you a step by step on what you need to do. So in California, you have to get your Articles of Incorporation. Once that settle, you have to get your your Ei n so you can go to the tax website. takes five minutes if that. Then once you get all that stuff done, you can to open up a bank account, yep, give yourself an address, go get a peel box, something like that. You set those foundations. And then make sure that you're you know, you get yourself QuickBooks or whatever program you want to use so that you can track adequately track your sales, because it's kind of a side note. A lot of people didn't get the PPP loan, do a COVID, because their books weren't straight, right? You trying to pull all these reports and you're having issues. So it's always good to have your ducks in a row. And then you know, make sure your website is tight. Get you hire somebody to do a website, don't I mean initially, maybe go to Wix or whatever the case may be and create your own thing. But those aren't necessarily SEO optimized or SEO. friendly. Yep. So SEO search engine optimization is when somebody Google's you, or Google's or service, you pop up in the area. That way, you're not spending as much on ads. And then, you know, be out there marketing, be on social media at LinkedIn. Try to be of service like you have a business, but you're doing podcasts. So your podcast is is educational, right? It's teaching people stuff. Yeah, at the end, you're going to be like, Hey, this is what I do come by this. Yep. So try to figure out just ways to do it. I mean, I hired a public relations, person who sometimes reaches out to different publications, just trying to get me in there. And it's all circling back so that we get more business. And I think you hit a lot of stuff here is, you know,
Javier Lozano, Jr.:like, the beginning part, I really do feel like you can do on your own, like the you know, filing for articles, incorporation, getting your di n number, opening a bank account, like someone like they're like, I'm gonna hire an attorney to do all this stuff. Like, dude, you're wasting money, like hundreds, if not 1000s of dollars, like you could do this in probably over a weekend. You know, it's just like, and it's either Google it, or literally do what you just said, Go to your Secretary of State's website for your state, typing that kind of information. Like we said, it's step by step, because I'm trying to remember whenever I did this 13 years ago, it's it was exact same thing. And so it I mean, I figured it out at well at that at that point. But yeah, it's the same thing there. And then there are parts where I do think you're right, that you have to hire out someone to do expert things. Like the website stuff, a lot of people say that they can get away with like a Wix website. And I agree with you, it's good for now, but it's not good for business. And the main reason I say that is is that it like if you want to be a professional brand, and you want to be taken seriously as a strong brand that actually does good jobs, good work for your community, then the first thing people see is your website, you know, and if if it's like, like, sketchy or kind of like, this doesn't look good, doesn't have a good design style doesn't flow doesn't convert, like none of those things, then what good is your website? And so people and we hear this a lot in art, and in our company, people say like, well, web sites are useless. Well, they're useless. If it's not used correctly. It's like saying like a car is useless. If you don't have the key. Well, yeah, like, you need a key to turn the thing on, so you could drive to where you want to go. And that's the same thing with websites, you know. So I think there's a balance, there's things that you have to sit down and you have to say, like, I can figure this out, this is not bad. And then other things that are like, this is above my paygrade. And I need to hire this out. I'm wasting too much time. I mean, did you feel that balance like of shifting of like, I can do this? I'm going to hire this out? Oh, yeah.
Anthony Winston III:First, was the first person I got on board. It might have been my my bookkeeper shout out to Rianna over Ritter accounting, she started her her own bookkeeping, and I think she does tax taxes now. But I met her. So I'm on a board of directors at the local chamber here. And I was at an event and she was there. And I said, I want you on my team. So we pay her whatever, we pay her a month to reconcile all our books. If we got questions on QuickBooks, she takes care of it. Yeah. And then in terms of my website, Tom over at avatar website, or what avatar web services we got today. Love it, the complete name. He's amazing. He rebuilt my website. Anytime I need update, he puts it on there. I'm constantly adding blogs and project examples. So he's always adding that making. The goal is to try to be as organic as possible as opposed to paid ads. We still do paid ads, but Yep. If I can reduce that, that would be nice. Yep. And you know, you have to, you have to spend your time doing what you're really good at. Think about your hourly rate. If you make, I would say around number $100 an hour but you pay someone else $30 an hour to do it much quicker. That just makes sense.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah. I mean, that's something that we use in our company, we call that leverage services. I mean, like, we look at an iPhone, like all those components in the iPhone, there's probably 10 or 12 companies, 15 companies that all contribute to making the iphone, apple does not make every single piece of that iPhone, they just came up with the idea, like, this is what we want. And then some of those people that make the components of the iPhone are their direct competitors, like Samsung, like these are companies that are competing against them. But if they if they designed everything themselves, the if, like people were complaining about $1,000 iPhone, you'd be paying $3,000 for an iPhone.
Anthony Winston III:You know, I'm saying, exactly, you gotta you gotta leverage the talent around you even, you know, my hires, you know, my employees. There, they're very good at things that I'm not good at. And that's, that's by design. You want people to be smarter than you who you hire. Yep.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:That makes sense. So then, you know, like you, you understand marketing in general? Did you always have an open mind towards marketing when you first started your business? Or was it more of like a? Okay, I get it. I guess this stuff is important, because I feel as though some business owners are like, sales, sales, sales, don't worry about marketing. And I'm not saying it's wrong. It's just it's the nature of the beast, like sales basically puts money in your pocket.
Anthony Winston III:Yeah, I think I knew it was important immediately. Okay. So I'm an older millennial. So I've come up. I knew a time before computers and computers and cell phone, my first cell phone was actually when I got to college. Yep. Then social media came on. So I was already kind of ingrained into that. Yeah, maybe not so much on the social media side. But I understood that, at a minimum, that website, you need something? Because you have to, it's easy to send a link, right? It's easy to send a link, say, hey, go here, then try to constantly recreate flyers about your services. Of course, when you go to conferences, you create flyers and things like that. But that website, that's, that's your resume, and it has to be on point.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah, no, it's I'm glad you're saying that. And so as you know, as you're kind of, you know, taking this journey with you starting your company, you're, you're using marketing to kind of grow your, your brand and your business. Are there certain things that you you know, over the course of the past six years, that you've learned that like, Hey, I get more bang for my buck, if you will, doing this? Because to me, it seems as though like you have like an omni channel approach. Like you have a website, you do some paid ads, you are part of some networking groups, you have like power partners, or whatever, or like, you seem to have all these other pieces. I think that's brilliant. I think every business needs to have that. But are there certain things that you're like, I get a lot of bang for my buck out of when I do this?
Anthony Winston III:So I used to kind of take a shotgun approach, right, where it's a wide spread, and you try to hit as much as you possibly can. So sometimes I would go to drive around the city stop at every construction site, I see going into the construction trailer, meet who's ever there and just kind of peek over to see who the architect is or who the general you know who the who did the engineering drawings and write that down and try to reach out to the architect, or I will see a lease a bunch of leaf signs and a shopping center. And I will go and print up flyers and stick the flyers in a Windows thinking, Oh, for restaurant moves in here, maybe they'll hire me. And I got no response on that. My biggest response is, in terms of marketing is one. Good SEO so people find us by googling LinkedIn. LinkedIn has been amazing. I get tons of work off there. Do you really? Oh, yeah.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:You get both residential and commercial or is it mostly more commercial?
Anthony Winston III:Are we get it all residential? Say it's mostly commercial, but we get residential, commercial indoor agriculture. I post a lot on Instagram as well. Instagram, I will consider more supplemental because I haven't got any direct business. But for instance, one of my clients, we did an indoor Aqua ag place in Oregon for him. But he's on Instagram a lot. So if he's on Instagram a lot, he sees my posts a lot, which when he wants to do something else, or referred me I'm at the top of his mind, so it's more indirect. We post on Facebook as well. I don't really get much from Facebook, Twitter. I don't really post like to it but I don't get anything from that. Yeah, I want to do like Snapchat but then just started getting too much. And then I got tik tok. And I was like, Alright, at this point. I have a call with Somebody who actually I think went to Arizona State, she reached out to me because she saw an article I was recently in. But she does social media stuff. So I'm like, Alright, let's, maybe we should sub this out, too.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah. Well, it seems as though you have like focus social platforms, like you mean, you're strongly active on LinkedIn. And then you have like, like, supplemental social platforms, you know, we're like, Instagram, you're active, but it's, it's more of kind of, like, just so you stay top of mind. You know, and I think that's important for all businesses, because we can get overwhelmed with all these social media platforms, you just got to almost sit there and say, I'm going to commit to one or two platforms, where I'm going to post regularly, continuously engage with my community, learn from people, and then go from there, you know, as opposed to just, like, be everywhere to everyone. And I think it's important that sometimes like taking a step back and just saying, I'm just gonna focus on this is so different from like, focusing on a trade, if you're going to, you know, focus strictly on you know, hv AC, or strictly on plumbing. Like, there's nothing wrong with that. Like, if you start a business that does hcac, but you want to go into plumbing, like you can start HVC and eventually dive in the plumbing because they kind of overlap a little bit, you know? Yeah. But I think there's, there's, there's something to be said on on social media to just say, I'm going to focus on one platform. When you got into LinkedIn, did you have like, because I was the same way to you. But did you have the thought process of like, why would I want to be on LinkedIn? Like, this? Is? This is b2b, like this is not my people? Or was it different?
Anthony Winston III:For me, it was, it was a, it seemed like a almost a no brainer in that, because most of my work is b2b. So it almost seemed like a no brainer, because everybody's there, like, it's the Facebook for professionals. And I mean, you can reach out to the super top CEOs or, you know, everybody down at the bottom and in between, so yep, it's an amazing platform. And I try to post things that are engaging. So maybe things about the industry, I try to maybe post something funny about it, write something funny, sometimes a funny post or something to kind of best still professional Lee, professionally related. And then, you know, posting articles and things like that. I wish I could get to a point where people are like sharing things 1000s of times, because that's when you really pick up momentum. Yeah. But it really To be honest, it's about quality and not quantity. So
Javier Lozano, Jr.:I'm glad you're saying that, you know, because you're posting consistently. And, and that's important. But then you're also posting relevant stuff that your audience is going to probably appreciate. And at one point, they're probably going to reach out. I mean, when when you're like you say you get a lot of business from LinkedIn. I mean, is it something that you can say, my activity being spent here on this platform has returned more than my time is typically worth?
Anthony Winston III:Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I use a program that will send automated messages to target folks. And then once they respond, I'm then able to take over because you can spend hours and hours and hours trying to try to connect with folks. Yep. But I have other things that I have to do. So that's, that's been super helpful. So I was saying my return on investment is great. And I have the was the premium account or whatever with the little girls navigator. Yeah. No, not the Sales Navigator. The one just below that one. Oh, okay. I don't know what that one is the name of I know, I know, a little flag or whatever. But it allows you to send in mails to people. Yep. So it's LinkedIn has been been been really, really good. And I would say a word of advice to people who are trying to get business on LinkedIn. Do not send 10 paragraphs of what you do. Because you
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Thank you.
Anthony Winston III:Keep going. And I get those I do I delete. I'm sorry if you can't tell me what you do in a couple sentences. I just don't have the time. So keep it short. And if someone says no, take it as a no and move on to the next prospect. You get folks who were like, Did you see my message? Did you see my message? You tell them? Yes. I saw it. I'm not interested. Oh, what did you think about it? I'm like, No, don't be a car salesman.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:I feel the same way. I sent a message to this this one person yesterday actually, as like, Hey, did you see my message and and I was like, Look, first of all, I'm gonna jump on a phone call. Whenever you know the agenda is I go on top of that. I don't just jump on every single phone call because I literally get asked to jump on A quick phone call four to five times a day, I would not be doing my job. And so I'm like, like, if you want me to jump on a call, tell me an agenda. If it's something that jives with me, I might jump on a call. If it does, I'm not gonna jump on a call, I don't have time for that. Like, like, I got hired to generate more business for our company. Like that's, that's my job. It's not to jump on a phone call to go talk to somebody.
Anthony Winston III:It's like, you have to tell them what your business is very quickly. And there needs to be some type of call to action. Don't say, you know, oh, I'm, I'm glad to welcome you to my network. If you need any, any introductions in my network, it's like no, as LinkedIn, I can reach out to whoever I want to say what your business is, what you're selling, and a call to action. Check it out website, would you like to schedule a call? And then go from there?
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yep. No, it's good. I'm glad you're touching those things. Cuz I think those are important. So I mean, we've talked about SEO, and the importance of how, you know, getting your website to rank on Google to show up when people are typing in type of services in your area, talking about social media, is there anything else that you typically kind of use as well too for marketing and just helping generate business? Cuz I mean, like, I, from what you kind of said, you have this omni channel approach almost. So is there anything else you want to kind of share really quick before we, we jump off here?
Anthony Winston III:And this is more for I would say, the betterment of, of society. But it all it typically comes back in business, use your skill set to, to better the overall world. Love that man, be involved in the community as best you can. I still feel like I don't do enough. Like right now I'm helping an organization. They're doing a summer camp for architects, for young, aspiring architects, and I'm trying to figure out ways to do renewable energy teach kids about solar and battery backup, things like that. Yeah, it's a partnership with Southern Cal California Edison and the organization. It's called Noma. But getting involved with that, I'm in a room with architects. And when they think of MEP engineering, they think of me. So don't get me wrong, I want to make sure that we get as many kids are interested in architecture and engineering as possible. Yep. But it keeps you at the top of your mind, like, just be involved in your community, be involved with your local chamber. They, you know, be on the boards of directors at certain things to be that voice in the room. One thing that I like is that on my board, I'm the only black person in the room. So a question came up about diversity and how and all this other stuff, right? A lot of people can talk to that, but I could, so I was able to be that voice in the room. So just just lend your voice and your talents to the community. And I think that, you know, karma, I believe in karma. So
Javier Lozano, Jr.:yeah, and it's, it's, it's like, what you're telling me is like you're putting yourself in vulnerable opportunities. And when I say vulnerable, I mean in the good way, not in a bad way. They're, you're putting yourself in opportunities where you are top of mind where you can help and speak about something where you can educate where you can contribute to the community and you're doing it you know, a to give back but be like, you know, that there's gonna be an opportunity there down the road that you could probably get business out of it as well too. And I think it's okay to do that. But you know, like it's it's you have to have the right intent you know, and it seems like that's what you're doing
Anthony Winston III:don't don't go in there trying to trying to sell people don't go read right do that just be there genuinely be there because you want to you want to help or learn or whatever the case may be. Yeah. And and you know, like I said, it comes back to you. Awesome. Hey, Anthony. This
Javier Lozano, Jr.:has been this has been a great interview. I think we've covered a lot of stuff I think you you know, you really just kind of nailed a lot of great things and I really appreciate your time man. Is there anything that you want to kind of share with the audience like you know, how can they connect with you on social media? Or is there you know, where you can probably gear them towards for you like where they can probably get traffic, you know, going to your website, what would you like to share?
Anthony Winston III:Yeah, so just kind of generalize what we do we do MEP, so h HVAC, electrical and plumbing engineering and construction permit plans for residential, commercial and indoor agricultural build buildings. There's no project too small. On the residential side. We do things from a small Edu we've done massive 20,000 square foot mansions multifamily, small coffee shops up to like big warehouses and manufacturing facilities. You can reach us. You can follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, just search Winston engineering or you can reach out to me on LinkedIn under my name Anthony went to that third. Our website is just Winston EMG calm Yeah, that's how you can reach us and make sure you focus on your, your, your website, May, our website used to be Winston engineering LLC, calm as too long.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yes. Thank you for saying that too. Because like, you're doing all these little things. I'm like, Yes, that's it good that you're saying all these things. You got it, man. It's awesome. So hey, this has been a great interview. I really appreciate your time. This has been fun. And I'll make sure to put all of your social media handles as well too. So people can act whenever we launched this podcast, so that they can also connect with you go to your site, you get some of that Google juice as well, too. So nothing wrong with any of that. But again, Anthony, this has been great. Appreciate your time in. All right. Thank you.
Outro:Thanks for joining me on this episode of the trust tipping point marketing podcast. I'm your host, Javier Lozano, Jr. A lot of home service companies come to us at anchor a meeting help with their overall marketing strategy in their digital presence. So what we ended up doing was pretty good customer marketing playbook to help businesses just like yours. The Home Services space, have a improved digital marketing roadmap. And one of the highlights during this Home Services customer playbook is the importance of having a marketing hub, which we call a website killer. And I'll be honest here, today's websites are dead, outdated and ineffective. After 17 years in 1300 plus websites, we've discovered the best approach to customer activity, and to win more businesses by having a marketing marketing hub will help set your home services business apart from your competition in place you space. To learn more about what marketing hub is scheduling free customers Home Services playbooks by going to anchor wave.com slash playbook. We're gonna answer seven simple questions, and we'll give you free access to this playbook. Again, go to anchor wave.com slash playbook to get free access to our home service and digital marketing playbook.