Welcome to another exciting episode of Commercial Corner with Jeff and Josue from Lee's Air, Plumbing, Heating, & Roofing! In this episode, host Jeff Stamps sits down with Josue Solis, our dynamic Operations Manager and Marketing Director, to delve into the intricacies of our marketing strategies and the growth journey of Lee's Air. Jeff and Josue discuss the significant roles they play in the company, highlighting the importance of brand awareness and the innovative marketing campaigns that have made Lee's Air a household name. Josue shares his insights on rebranding, the power of social media, and the value of using real employees in marketing materials instead of actors. They also touch on the challenges and successes of expanding into new markets like Sacramento and Visalia, emphasizing the importance of customer service and community engagement. From the humble beginnings with just 15 employees to now over 150, Josue's journey with Lee's Air is a testament to hard work and strategic marketing. Tune in to hear about the creative billboard campaigns, the popular "Spot the Van" contest, and how Lee's Air continues to grow and thrive in a competitive industry. Join us for an engaging and informative conversation that showcases the people and strategies behind the success of Lee's Air, Plumbing, Heating, & Roofing.
Introduction
Josue's Background and Role
Marketing Efforts and Growth
Brand Awareness and Community Engagement
Marketing Strategies and Successes
Community Programs and Engagement
Billboards and Creative Marketing
Company Growth and Vision
Conclusion
Hey, good morning. Welcome again to Lee's Air Commercial Corner. I'm your host, Jeff Stamps, with the commercial manager here at Lee's, and I'm excited to have my friend and co worker, Josue Solis, here today, and He's given me the opportunity to, as to kind of ask him some questions about who he is and what he does here.
And so, uh, I'm just going to kind of get into that this morning with you a little bit host way. I, we, uh, we did a fun thing where I didn't give him any idea of what I was going to ask him this morning, so we can just be a spontaneous, spontaneous, but, uh, we'll just kind of go. Uh, so good morning. So, uh, host way, good
morning, Jeff.
Appreciate you invited me over to, uh, this podcast. Yeah, excited.
So am I, so, uh, I want to take a minute and introduce host way. Um, Very educated young man, uh, been around the world a little bit. And, uh, I know he's got a master's in some, in business and really, really is an important, valuable piece of our business here at Lees.
Josue has a dual role. He's the operations manager, but he also is in charge of marketing. He's our marketing director and marketing manager, which is exciting because I know as I travel around the city and I talk to people and, and, you know, they, they see that I work for Lees. One of the first things I hear is.
Wow. I see your guys's trucks everywhere. And I see your billboards and I hear your radio commercials and I hear your television, I see your television commercials and. I just wanted to show the guy behind all that because host way is the, uh, is the driver behind pretty much all of our marketing now and it's, it's exciting.
You know, we've, uh, we've grown a lot together in our marketing over the last few years, wouldn't you say?
Yeah, we definitely have grown quite a bit. Uh, I've been with Lees Air Plumlee Heating for over five years now. And I actually started as an HR manager. Yeah. And I remember when I first started, we were at 15 employees and now we're over 150, so quite.
Quite a bit of growth. Did you say 15
or 50?
50. Oh, okay. Yeah.
Because I remember when it was 15.
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's exciting, right? Uh, one thing I've learned is you either you're growing or you're dying. Right. Um, and, uh, we, we've had a lot of growth and been very lucky to be a part of it and adapting and evolving to those things that, uh, help us penetrate the market.
Yeah. So what would you say your main goal is? To get this market material out there into, into the community.
Well, the big thing is brand awareness. Right. And, uh, one thing we did three years ago was we actually rebranded, uh, I don't know if you remember the old logo and I've actually seen the low before that logo, which the, the, the corporate name of, of Lee's air plumbing heating is Lee's Accu Tech service.
Right. And I I've seen the yard signs. I've seen the. Signs that you and Tom did way back in the day when the recession was happening in 2008 and you guys posted all these signs, all these empty commercial lots. And yeah, it's, uh, it's, I'm excited with the new brand, um, three years in where, I mean, people say these trucks everywhere, I mean, billboards everywhere, their CR.
our commercials. And that's exciting. Um, what I've learned is, you know, people want to do business with people that they can know, trust and like, right. And what I recognized is, you know, people don't buy companies. They buy the people in the company. Sure.
And
we've, we've done a good job of highlighting our employees and people get excited every time they see, uh, the person that's on the billboard or the person that's on the commercials.
And at the end of the day, it's, it's us. It's people, people that, that, that do well. And highlighting what we provide.
Yeah. I wanted to just point this out really quick. And I actually did this when I was talking with James last week. Uh, James, James, if you remember from last, last podcast, our asset managers kind of like, kind of like our local, uh, local, um, celebrity, celebrity.
Yeah. That's the word I was looking for local celebrity. Cause he's in a lot of our, a lot of our print media and a lot of our, uh, our, um, television stuff. Bye. I know that a lot of, a lot of competitors, companies, et cetera, use actors. Um, they use, uh, the, um, network actors, et cetera, but we use our own people.
I was thinking about that last night as I was preparing to chat with you today. I, I haven't heard or seen anything that wasn't our own people. You know, I, I saw every day I see new content that you and Andres, uh, put onto our, onto our social media sites. And being a fan of social media, I'm always looking and excited to see new stuff and, and, oh yeah, there's, there's, you know, there's, uh, uh, there's Amanda from our, our service techs and there's, there's one of our plumbers and there's one of our, you know, one of our warehouse men and, uh, yeah, I really liked the fact that you highlight our people and, and that, you know, You know, for lack of being corny, just keeping it real.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, what's, what's funny with that is, uh, we actually did an A and B test on Facebook on, it was a Valentine's campaign and we put James and another HVAC technician on there and what was, what was interesting to see was James got a lot of, uh, awareness behind his campaign. So we recognize that people like James, people want to see James.
And obviously that does change over time. And, uh, that's some, that's the reason why we moved forward with James is because it's really cool to see that people attract more to his, his, his look. And, um, no, that was, that was a lot of fun. Um, another thing too, I like how you mentioned, you know, we display our, our team members, our people on, on those campaigns.
And I, I learned this the hard way and I do see it with some of our competitors is, Is they'll highlight the AC unit, they'll highlight the, the water, the water heater.
And
we all do that. Everybody does that, but what makes us different and what makes us different is our people. Absolutely. And at the end of the day, it's, it's, it's our technician.
It's our plumber that goes out there and they're having that, that relationship. It's not really the water heater. It's not really the AC unit. It's the people behind, behind the company. And, uh, and I recognize too, social media is a platform. to engage with people. And so it's really hard to, to get a AC unit, an air conditioning unit, or a water heater to engage with a person.
Cause that's what social media is. I mean, if you look at all the, the popular, popular profiles, I mean, it's, it's people behind them.
And,
um, what that too is, uh, It's a challenge sometimes trying to get our own team members on there. Cause they get a little camera shy. They're not used to kind of the camera, but it's, um, I've noticed you start building momentum and you want to keep it going.
And, uh, I, I know when we started highlighting, um, Jesse or our plumber and James, uh, Our team members got excited and like, Hey, I want to be able to work. Hey, I want to get into the commercial. So it's ours gain momentum and just keeping that momentum and keeping the content fresh and new and irrelevant to the community.
So tell me a little bit about, um, so, um, not everyone knows we have, we have multiple locations, so we're now up in the Sacramento area, which we're excited to be up there for the last couple of years. And. We have a location in Visalia too. What's the, the struggles and the excitement about working in different cities in different markets?
Yeah, it's, it's really, it's what's our penetration look like in, in the market, right? Uh, for, for us, Lee's Air and Fresno, we've been in business for over 40, 40 years. And so people are already seeing our name, they're already seeing our brand. And we, we have quite a few trucks, we have quite a few trucks driving throughout the Central Valley.
We're in Sacramento. I mean, we've been there for almost four years, I believe. And it's, it's something new that people are starting to recognize. Right. And so I recognize again, going back to there's momentum that needs to happen. And the hardest part to start is the very beginning, right? Cause I always compare it to when you bought to launch a spaceship, right?
The hardest part to, to, to start when you launch a spaceship is the very beginning, right? where it's going full throttle just to keep that, to keep, to get lift off, getting that train moving, getting that train moving. And, um, another thing too, it's, um, I recognize that the Sacramento areas, it's very, very saturated with, with big competitors.
And, um, obviously you're trying to compete with them and obviously their budgets are a lot bigger than ours. And so kind of finding the niche of knowing, okay, where can we execute? Where can we do well? And what I see time and time again, it always comes back to the fundamentals. It's You know, making sure that we provide good customer service, making sure that the word of mouth gets spread out, uh, making sure that our guys are passing out business cards
and
one thing that we do really well is because we use service tie in, which is our CRM platform to, to do business, uh, we can put tracking numbers on, on certain campaigns.
And, um, what I always see performing the best is the referrals word of mouth. And, and like I mentioned earlier, like, you know, people want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. And when our plumber does a great job, or our air conditioning technician does a great job, I mean, the word gets spread out, like, hey, this is a guy you can rely on, this is a company you can do business with.
And,
and recognizing that in the Sacramento area, There is, uh, it takes a little by little, right? People always want that fast turn on the switch and at full throttle and don't realize that there's kind of, there's slow progression towards it. And it also applies in digital world too, as well. The digital platform with, with Google, with the website, with, uh, SEO, which stands for search engine optimization.
Uh, there's, it takes a little by little and another thing too, that I've learned it, it's constantly evolving. You mentioned that I've been doing some schooling and yeah, I've done some schooling. And I, I remember I was talking to one of my professors and she's been doing this for 20 years, the whole digital platform for 20 years.
And she was showing us what the original Google ad looked like and what it looks like now. And it's completely evolved. And I remember one of the books she gave us, uh, to read for, for the semester. She told me like, Hey, like, because it's moving so fast. This book was simply.
And, and, and when she mentioned that, it's like, yeah, if you look at it every year, they come out with a new book just because of how much stuff gets updated. And, um, no, yeah, I mean, I got word yesterday that there was a new update on Google. So, so how do you pivot towards that new update? Because at the end of the day, you know, people search usually on their phones and, and, and, I mean, your, your phone is a computer, right?
And it's every, I mean, a good example is my wife and I want to go eat somewhere and somewhere that we just type in, you know, Mediterranean food near me.
And
there it is, there it is, right? It's, I'm not going to, I mean, I don't know people nowadays. Yes, they still have computers, but I'm not going to go to my computer and type that in.
I can just type it on my phone. And then once I find the spot, hit direction and I'm there. Right.
I was going to highlight a little bit. I really love your spot to van spots. And I noticed, I think you're doing it twice a month now.
Uh, so I'm, I'm no, I'm still doing it once a month, but what I'm doing twice a month is the yard sign contest.
Okay.
So I, I see you, I obviously I get to see you every day and you know, the, our community sees you on some of our, some of our spots here and there. But I think I see the most excitement out of you is when you're out there meeting with the customers. And. And delivering, you know, delivering, uh, delivering award for them for, for spotting our van or keeping a yard site up in the yard because it, you know, you need those things to continue to keep to build momentum in the, in the community and to help more people.
So, uh. Yeah. Um, how long do you think you'll continue to do that?
Oh,
uh,
for a while. Yeah. Okay. Uh, just cause it, again, it's, uh, one thing I recognize too is people will have to see us at least five to seven times to, to finally recognize who we are. Right? Sure. And, uh, yard signs are a great way to kind of show that you're serving that local neighborhood.
And, uh, actually yesterday I drove around town, look for yard signs, um, Again, going back to our CRM service time, able to download the list of who has the yard signs and go drive and see if they have them displayed and, uh, no, it's fun because, uh, I remember one time, I think this was like a year ago. Uh, we did a job, uh, at a customer's house when we showed up.
their front neighbor had our old Lees air sign. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And that was cool to see. Right. And, and there you go. Right. You noticed that that yard sign that we had created another customer, another customer. And, and I have the yard sign displayed at my house. I've had it since I started here at Lees and I've seen our ability, my neighborhood where our trucks have rolled out and does some work for, for our local community, our local neighborhood there.
So there is the rest. Dart science is a really easy way to, to, to kind of show the community that you, you service that area. And, um, going back to spot the truck. Yeah. Um, actually got the idea from, from a company in Vegas that was doing it. And that's another thing too, I always tell people is when you roll out something new, you have to test it.
And
people are very like quick, instant gratification of, I want this to work right away. And I remember the first three months that I ran this, I only got a handful of submissions
and
now going two years strong into it, I think, uh, last time I checked, there was like 150 submissions just for this month alone for the month of May.
So, so it is getting traction and it's an easy concept to be a part of, right? Simply take a picture of our truck out and out in the neighborhood or wherever it's at, uh, make sure you do it safely. Cause I do see sometimes some of these people take pictures. Well, They're driving, but, um, no, it, they, they took a picture and then they upload it onto the, the, the post on Facebook and it's an easy submission and put them in the, in the list and the drawing.
And then, um, once the month's over, uh, usually within the first week of the new month, uh, I'll go live on Facebook, put all their names on this little spin wheel. And they click spin and then the random one to get wins 250 easy contest.
Yeah, that's exciting. And let's talk a little bit about our billboards.
So our billboards have gotten a little famous over the years when we first decided that we were going to go that route. Um, Billboards were funny. They were interesting. They were unique. And, uh, we had a lot, a lot of customer reaction from that. And it was really great. And what's, what's really fun about it is, is, you know, a lot of, a lot of, um, the, uh, marketing out there is from Madison Avenue type stuff where marketing companies are creating stuff for you.
But I'll tell you our billboards that you see out there. Um, and I know this firsthand because I've had a couple that were my idea. That ended up on a board because you listen, you know, and a lot of the stuff that goes out there now or have came from ideas from within inside of our location. And I know you're, you're constantly, you're, uh, you're constantly saying, well, bring me the idea, bring me the idea.
And I know there's a lot of other people in the company that have, that have brought him as well. And there's some really good ones out there. You know, our upside down billboards are famous and some of the other. Some of the other ones with just a little short, little, short, little bits of information on there that catch people's attention is it's fun.
And you've, uh, you've come a long ways with that.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, I, I'm a firm believer of when you gather a lot of minds together, you can do really great things where if it's just me thinking about it, uh, you know, I'm very limited on my time and my space in my, in my brain. But when you have different minds together, I mean, you could really do great things and you're right.
Um, I got a lot of, I appreciate every time somebody gives me an idea and I jot it down because we all have great ideas. I mean, we, we go, we think thousands of thoughts a day and just writing them down and executing them on is the biggest part of it. Just make sure we execute on them. Uh, but no, yeah. Uh, I, I know the one that you gave me the idea of was, was to have Lee at the end of every friend,
friendly, professionally.
Timely.
Timely. Yeah. Yeah. So we we did that, right? Yeah. And that got some, and I got that. So what really inspired me on that one was 'cause I also, I respond to all the reviews that come in and, I mean, we get a lot of reviews throughout the week. And, uh, the most common thing I see was he was professionally, he was professional, he was friendly, he was informative.
And um, I mean, those are things that we, we strive every single time we go out to a customer home is to educate them. To be professional, to be on time to help them, to help them. Yeah. So, um, that was fun. And again, you know, we, we highlight our, our team members, right? We highlight people that are going to go out there and people do get excited when they see that person on the billboard show up to their house.
Um, I've, I've talked to Jesse quite, quite a bit and he's told me like, yeah, people always get excited when they, when they say, are you the guy on the billboard? Like, yeah, that's me. I'm the guy on the billboard. Oh, you're real. Like, yeah, I'm real. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, uh, to add to the billboards is, um, You know, we're very lucky to have Tom, Tom's owner of the company, and he's given a lot of great direction and guidance of, you know, how do you want to be displayed?
And you're right. There's a lot of companies out there that have billboards. So how do you differentiate yourself? And that the way you do it is basically just, just not be normal, right? Not want to be normal and, um, be above the noise is what I've, learned be above the noise. And Yeah, I think our billboards are one of a kind and I see everybody's billboards.
I look at them and some are pretty cluttered and some are just your regular, I'm just driving by another billboard that I've seen. Uh, and some of, um, I've been creative. I've seen some creative one. There's like a local, uh, veterinarian place that I've seen. They always have creative billboards, which I think it's funny.
And,
um, and, uh, no, yeah, it's always good to have the the reaction of the community, what they think and, and, uh, how they like our billboards. Yeah.
So I know early on when we were deciding to go in the direction the company's been going in is really growing one of the fastest growing companies on the West coast.
Cause I know you and Tom used to travel all over the United States and visit other larger companies and kind of dream about how could, how could we become this company and what do we need to do? So, I mean, it's, this didn't just fall in your lap. I mean, I know you guys have visited a lot of the big shops and.
And I looked at what was working for them. As you mentioned earlier, uh, earlier in this, uh, podcast about, um, getting ideas from other companies and we still do that. So it, uh, one of the things that a lot of people don't know is we still have visitors come in. Well, we had, we had visitors this week, almost every week we have people that are in here now.
They're coming and looking at us when we used to be the company that went out and look at them. And that's, that's such a, such a compliment to what we've been able to achieve here together as a team. You know, we've gone from, like you said, from, you said, when you started, there was 50 people. When I started, there was 11.
And now, um, I think we're closer to, I think you were light on the 150. I think it's closer to 200 now from what, from what I heard yesterday. So, uh, man, we really appreciate all of the hard work that you've done. And I'd love to have you back on here and tell us about new ideas. Cause I know you'll be working on more stuff today, but, uh, yeah, you're real, real blessing to the company and to the community.
And I just wanted to let everybody see who was behind a lot of these great ideas. It would be, uh, um, negligent of me not to point out the fact that, um, is so much to do that. You've now added some additional help on your team. And, um, we have, we now have a videographer now that, that is filming a lot of the stuff and I'll have him on here soon.
So you guys can meet him as well. But, uh, I wanted to thank you for coming on this morning and, you know, just, uh, uh, Let us see your smile and tell us about what we're doing here. So thank you.