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This is AI Marketing Experts, where bold marketers and next-gen AI collide. Each week, join us as we decode trends, test tools, and share real wins from the AI powered front lines. No fluff, no hype, just straight talk, and smarter marketing. Tap subscribe and let's geek out on AI.

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Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the AI Marketing Exerts podcast. Uh, I've got our full panel here this week and a special guest we warned you about last week. So, we have got Danny Barrera, the the the one and only somebody we've known for all of us have known for years um and loved to death and uh um and have a whole bunch of good questions about him.

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He runs an amazing agency for contractors. So, he works with small businesses, runs a small business, um, and everything that we're we're all about here. So, uh, welcome, Danny. >> Hey guys, thank you so much for having me. John, thank you so much. I I look at all these beautiful faces, I'm like, that's a dream theme right here.

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So, to all the listeners, uh, this is as good as it gets. So, thank you for having me. I appreciate you guys. >> Yeah. And when we first met you, you were contractor or concrete marketing crew and now you're contractor click. you've kind of expanded to contractors and stuff like that. Um, and kind of really double down on on on the needs of the contractor niche.

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Um, and kind of just to go up one level to get kind of caught up to today because I know you you know I've learned a lot of AI stuff from you from presentations and stuff like that. um how does AI let you kind of go deeper into that contracting niche and and helping them out versus sort of a broader generalist agency and going to the next level like you know where's AI kind of helped you in the last year or so um really help your niche out? >> Yeah.

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Well, la last 12 months, um, we ended up spending somewhere around $300,000 on a project that was replaced by new AI, uh, improvements, optimization. So, it's moving so quick and so fast that even, you know, the the best experts I've been able to to retain and hire haven't been able to predict what's possible with the next iteration of all all platforms, all tools.

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Uh, so I could tell you it's it's constantly it's evolved and changed. And my first thinking with AI was outside of chat GPT, outside of the chat systems which are great, amazing is how do we take every process, every system that we have in our organization and just think about that. think about just sit with it and think deeply into where are our biggest bottlenecks where our friction points and this year 2026 I said it from stage at at the seven figureure agency uh panel was uh it's a transition year of us literally changing our entire business model with AI and right now we're on a mission to democratize marketing for contractors uh we want to make it accessible and I first I want to share so much love and respect for our seven figureure agency

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community. I would not be here without Josh Nelson, his training and his model. Um and it got me to a point where I had the ability to invest in resources in building the infrastructure of AI that's now replacing teams entirely. So um it's a scary move. Uh but what's been happening behind the scenes at contractor click it's we are literally building the tools that are going to in long term replace us as an agency partner and the way I'm starting to see ourselves is a as is a martekch company a marketing marketing technology company infrastructure where um you know that's it we want to make it super easy uh we're working on our latest uh iteration it's uh We've been able to take website full website builds with the proper onpage architecture uh the URL uh you

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know strategy the content strategy and imagine we took literally took our best strategies and created road maps and let the machines now build out entire websites in a matter of like 70 72 minutes 60 minutes 45 minutes. It's insane. It's insane. It's scary. I talked to one of our clients yesterday because I'm I'm literally having that they they they're even like asking like like well it used to take you 90 days to put together this kind of website.

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Now it's like you're telling me you could do it this much you know in in in this speed. Uh and they're wondering what's the biggest difference. So I I think I'm living in a world of possibility and abundance right now more than anything else because you if you can imagine it, you can most likely build it.

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And that started out that's just a small piece of what started out about a year ago in thinking about like how do we um how do we take our duda websites and speed up the process and we accomplished that through a lot of automation. And then I talked to one of my buddies and he literally built out a system because I'm like, "Let me show you what what the structure is, a strategy.

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" He literally built out a system that now is uh duplicating WordPress websites. And I I'm so happy for him. I'm like, "Dude, you're crushing it." You know, he's built the business. But >> in terms of how it's impacted uh the last year, uh John, it's a big question. And there's a lot of ways we can talk about different >> I'll hand it off because I think what you just said there is what I keep telling everybody right now.

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It is AI is the big disruptor but it's also the big equalizer. So the blue ocean moment that we've had, you know, we've had friends that we've we've seen go into niche and agencies and stuff like that in blue ocean and all of a sudden they can blow up to millions and millions of dollars pretty quickly and but they've got a run rate of the next five years.

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right now one-click websites might be a good 3-month blue ocean before it's everybody again. So then it does come back to being the growth partner, the thought leader and understanding. So because now if everybody's the same again, how do I stand out again as as a contractor? So Chris, you've been building out a lot of stuff as well.

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How does where does that dovetail with you um as far as um um Danny and >> Yeah, that's a good question. And I mean, you know, um I've been using Claude Code quite a bit lately. Uh recently came up on the radar for everybody is is Claudebot. Um and you know, I haven't gone that far to actually install that myself personally yet just because of all the security concerns.

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And I I I was like literally this close. I had a machine sitting right here and I'm like, I got an empty machine. Why don't we install it, you know, and see see what could happen? What's the worst thing that could happen? Well, I don't want that to happen. So, uh, I pulled way back on that kind of stuff. Um, so let's talk a little about a little bit about your infrastructure then. Um, there Danny.

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I mean, are are you like use are your your programmers now like all full cloud code? What what how are they able to build these things and and how fast are you able to move on? >> Yeah. Well, everyone has their own taste and you know we have a couple of engineers that their whole thing is about like engineering solutions and then uh we have the the AI integrator specialists but in terms of code code look uh I think Claude has been the most consistent over time. I'm not a coder.

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So if you ask me to write a piece of code, I can figure myself out in the process because I've been conversations every night pretty much for the last uh 13 14 months. Our team is uh oversee. But in terms of like code you know what what code we use dude we have an entire it's it's an entire infrastructure that's been built and it's not built on a single tool you know uh we're thinking about the process and and the impact that we're having to do and uh a big thing for us has been like hey how how do I as a leader just focus on leading the company and not focus on the on the nuances so I'd be the wrong person to ask about like qu code I can get that answer for you. Uh, but I'm going be 100% here with you. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Steam Steve Jobs answer right there. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Well, I'm going to ask because I know we've been talking about internal, but if a small business owner, they may be

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questioning like, okay, but how is it disrupting the actual marketing? So, what we're seeing the local marketing, how would you had that conversation or what would you make sure that they were aware of? to the extra local marketing. >> The local marketing. >> Yeah, that's a great question and and it comes back to fundamentals like the this month uh February um we we create themes for contractor click and uh the first month is conquer the year and we all mapped out like hey what do we want to conquer? what are those things going back to foundation elements um I believe AI it's like the greatest application of how do we go back to making sure that we are firing in all cylinders in all these different areas for example QC website QC is your website built for conversions you could start there and you'd be surprised how many agencies still up to

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this date aren't leveraging in AI to just run some of those redundancies and give it an SOP and a checklist and for the business owner you could also do that as well. I mean it's scary how like these tools are are amazing to do. So I think what what is happening right now there's just so much noise that a lot of people forget about the foundational stuff and uh that is uh John to your point that you brought up about being uh the guide you know the for for the the business owners the resources you got to have people that really know marketing and understand how marketing influences and impacts people and at the end of the day yeah sure thing we see a growth in chat GPT clicks coming to clients websites and all of that. But it's not to the point where my gosh nothing else works except chat GPT or you know all this AI but if you focus on

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the main core components of like hey what what's the brand voice? Do we have clarity on how we want to show up consistently? What's our content strategy? What's our ad strategy? what how is our landing page you know conveying the value that we also preach on the website and in the ads is all of that disconnected.

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So for one place is you can do a lot of that a lot faster and you don't need a lot of uh quote unquote so many other technical specialists right um that are just there you can leverage some of these tools and resources um and then you can use tools like manis for example to help you redefine um research look at your competitors analyze the top 10 area and then try to figure out how do I stand out create better ad strategies, you know, empowering the individuals that are driving the ads, building the content with all of these tools and facilitating. But in terms of like results, what's changing? I think rethinking how we work is what's changing really. Uh how much faster we can do it? You know, it used to take us 6 months to go in discovery of a real landscape, but now if we can deploy 30 days, 45 days, we we could do a lot

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more than we we would be able to do in in 6 months to 8 months. >> And maybe that gives the owner of the business a lot more time to make sure that um Tommy the technician doesn't bend over and show butt crack to all the neighbors and actually so you get hired by the neighbors as well.

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So, you know, things like like literally like you if you can solve these problems easier, you can actually fix the real world, the humanics of it, like the actual be an authentic person, right? Um, and run a better company, >> not just run a digital, >> you know, landscaping company that's so good on digital when the guys show up, the truck's rusted, leaks in the driveway, and the guys smell funny and you know, you know, all that kind of stuff.

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So, >> yeah, that's what matters at the end of the day. A lot of people confuse like a marketing agency doesn't solve the business problems. It will only amplify what you have going on. So you have great customer service, great appointment setting, great sales process. Amazing. You're ready to make money.

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Mo I look, I've dealt with over 600 small business owners at this point in time. I can tell you we are here to show them the ropes so they're learning in the process. But right now an example is we are teaching our clients how to leverage simple tools like Gemini, how to build their own applications that that they can use share with the team in a very simplified fashion.

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Uh and that's that's something that we are empowering our clients to do through internal training because I believe the the hardworking business owner out there um they're they're still doing a lot and you know it's wide open like there's no specific book on how to do it right you know >> I think you hit on an important uh factor Danny too and you mentioned brand um what what we're seeing we've talked about on our show before is you know building your brand correctly now on using the AI tools to do so is going to make so much of a difference. um where you know if if you're if you're it's changed you're not the your customers aren't just uh searching anymore they're asking you know and if you're building your brand >> and you're you're answering the questions on the websites the FAQs and all these different things and you can do that pretty quickly now with AI tools >> it it's a gamecher and so it just goes back to what you just said building a

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brand correctly online then having the systems in place you know for your for your scheduling for your followup, for all these other things. And and it's not like we never did those things before, but now it's something that could be automated. It could be streamlined, and it could be easy for the business owner to use.

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I think that that's super important. I'm glad you brought that up. >> You mentioned um using Gemini, empowering your clients to use Gemini to create, you know, applications there. I'm curious uh if you can talk more about the applications that that that they are building or the uses that are really helping that those small businesses save time, save money, make money, things like that.

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Yeah, I've become so I'm going to go and and and answer the question here, but just as a funny sidetrack that we developed this product that we spent a little bit over 90K developed in this analyzer that was supposed to go into like all of our entire Google ecosystem and take all of our ad accounts, all of our data and give us recommendations.

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Our team could chat with it. And then Google launches Vortex last year and in in a deeper way, deeper integration with all of their native tools and we're like holy Like this literally that was uh let's scratch that, let's build it. Like it was like it's insane. But anyways, uh fast forward like uh there's a Google AI studio which if you have a workspace account and the Gemini uh pro in the business uh you know uh that's what we're pointing clients to use.

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And we are having the conversation of like what are those recurrent things that you have to constantly sold for the team quantify specific product. Um we have one client that's looking at their inventory. They have developed their own application with a simple form. Um we have another client that they're like hey I'm developing my leadership team and uh we're like okay what what are you using? There's 90 that io like you know those EOS platforms that they let you use. Well, I don't want to pay for this.

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And then we're like, hey, you could also use ClickUp. And for that conversation was like, what if we just create a simple dashboard that you can track things and like you can create a few users and if you spend two hours, you can create your own software that's internal to everyone in the organization.

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And if you really want to carry that to the next level, then you hire a developer to take it to that finish line because you're not like Chris, you know, I'm I'm not a coder. I don't expect them to have it done, but um that's an example of one another the KPIs um inventory dashboards and I encourage any agency owner as well to do it for themselves.

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It's like what are those things that you know it's taking people a lot of time you don't have visibility as a CEO as a business owner that you want to simplify that data that you could figure out okay what can I create and look yeah you could use other applications but Google is a very simple tool and it's got everything in there uh for one of our clients um they wanted to create their own social media plan we literally helped them create their social media um with their brand voice with their like the planner, the 12 month planner with sequences and it leverages Gemini to spit all of that out and it's insane what you could do that. I mean, we used to get paid to do that kind of stuff, right? So, we're we're literally showing uh the business owners and not all of them get it. Like, we have probably 40 45% of our client base, they're not going to touch AI. Like, they're just not there. They're they're

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past that time. uh but they're open to hearing how to have someone internally leverage some of these tools. So Jennifer, that's those are some of the examples there. Um really there's no limits. Uh the imagination is the the only limitation. >> That's exactly right. Well, our listeners and viewers, I hope they really I I feel that you've motivated them and given them that incentive to start again playing um you know, really taking some of these ideas or what their daily frustrations may be with that internal communications or whatever that might be and seeing what solutions they can come up with. And I like again, it empowers them, it gets them excited, it helps them, they can get the feedback from their team members, the small business owners. But to your point, then a developer could take it to the end to finalize it. But you get there so much faster these days than once it it was before a meeting to have a meeting to get all this information where they can

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really get a good start to it. >> But I think even dumbing it down to the the basic level. Again, on this show, we hear from our audience, we've got people that are like at the ta the tail end of what Danny said. Yeah, I want to make an app so that when my technicians get back to the shop, they take a picture, they talk it into the phone and it just submits it and I know they got back to the shop and there's their time stamp, right? And you don't need to buy something anymore. You could build that right now. And other guys have just I just glazed over their eyes, right? But um on a basic level, are you talking to Chat TBT or your your your um AI friend of choice because your customers are are you talking to it every single day with a little bit of context? Does it know your company story? And did you just have a difficult phone call with a client and you drop that in and go, "How could I have done that better?" Like just on a simple level that that's every that might sound complex to some people, but you could figure out how to do that. I show my team all day long. No, no, no, no. That five minutes and you're done. Like here, let's just do it together right now. And then all of a sudden you see the light bulbs go off and they go, "Oh." And then next thing they show you

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is like, "Wow, that that be it's what I do." But they just run with it. So you're teaching your your clients the AI education. How do you because you've got those different layers of clients too and contractors. How are you finding they're taking that training and and education? >> Well, that that's part of our evolution at contractor click.

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We want to help our clients go into their bigger and better future. And I I think in two to three years marketing is probably going to be 15% 16%. Like our digital marketing services are are no longer going to be what what is our main driver of revenue right now. You know, that's just the reality. uh we're kind of like in in this in this marathon, but it's it's it's fastpaced marathon because some months it feels like we're not moving forward.

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And then I you know, my wife always she's the one that gives me like a reality and she's like, "Hey, you realize you're doing something that's never been done before. Like people are not doing this, you know, with like at this level." And I'm like, "But you don't understand. I feel like everything's just moving so quick, so much quicker.

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" So one of those things is empowering the contractor to have those conversations and saying how are you leveraging AI. So uh last year I created a series called thinking with AI and that started out those conversations because you really have to rethink work with AI and and what would be different what would be possible what are again going back to the same things what problems are you looking to solve? one of our clients um he went back and uh and we we had a a marketing inerson event and and I showed him hey let's go ahead and start building one thing and then he he was like okay well I want to do a visualizer and anyways he called me for Christmas and he's like let me show you something I want I want you to jump on the Zoom call he's like I've been developing this visualizer and I'm rolling it on the website thanks to you I I just facilitated the conversation of how do you go back and start leveraging

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these systems here for your own clarity and and rethinking what what else could I possibly do, you know, inside of my organization. Now, the the biggest challenge I tell you is you have the leaders. If the leaders don't get it, you might have uh someone else underneath them that might be really sharp, techsavvy, but if you don't build that congruency in the in the organization and you're not leading that conversation, it's it's a complete mess.

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And I'm seeing a lot of people take advantage of that opportunity. It's wide open, by the way. If you're an agency owner, you want to empower your clients, you want to audit them, their business, and how they can apply. It's it's a wide open field right now. So, we're kind of doing that.

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They're we're not charging them extra. They're managed client service, you know, a retainer. It's part of the program is what we do. But on a monthly conversation, we're bringing that up. How are you thinking with AI? And that's what we've been carrying internally with our team is the same thing. It's what are you doing different? What have you learned this week? What's different? What's new? What's changed? Uh what what have you broken? Uh and I stay out of the shiny object, guys, because I I have a lot of other things that I'm working on. Uh but uh I do hear from them, hey, I tested this tool. And then if they keep bringing it up, I'm like, great, let's go ahead and Should we show the clients? Uh should we share what's going on? Um but uh yeah I mean some of our clients have brought in their own social media uh in-house because they're like you know I can create my own thing and I'm like great amazing we I didn't make much money on on those services you know so it is it is an interesting conversation

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John because in some in some ways um if an agency is not preparing and and upgrading their own selves and I'm glad you guys put together this group there's a an incredible amount of agencies out there that they're not thinking ahead, man. And they're the clients could do the what they're doing for the clients and they're no longer needed.

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That's just a reality. So, just leading the conversation, every client wants to know about AI these days, even if they're old. Um, invite their um their people that are techsavvy in the conversation and then figure out how to roll that out. So for us, that's what's worked is having those conversations.

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And then we partner up clients that are more on the advanced side so that they have their own groups that they can chat with. Um and uh one last thing here is we've um this year we moved into the circle community um because we were having a hard time with engagement um and and and grouping people and we'd have to create different you know training centers and portals and we're like man I just want one place that I can log in as and then roll out all of my training and have segments of people all of them consume at their own pace. So that that's in an effort to double down on that. John >> and then we have professionals that come in and talk to our clients too. >> So it's all the way is not just on me. >> And that makes sense like you're just transitioning from the doer of service, the vendor. Um where you always gave massive amounts of advice. I've known you for years, Danny, and you guys helped your clients with the the the the thinking and and you're the marketer of

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your services. Let me help you think better on that. And that part is just expanding because of AI. Well, the services, you know, might be get easier and faster and they could take some inhouse. Sure. But that that thinking and utilization actually just is is growing to fill the void anyways and it needs to.

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So the communities, the circle, all of that. That's brilliant. >> So let me let me ask real quick. I want to interject here is what I'm hearing you say is that you know the future you're you're saying that 15% of what you're doing now or was doing last year for your clients is what you're going to be doing in the future.

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What's what's the other 85% almost sounds like software and training to me? >> Software and training. Software training. I have a couple of other things I'm not going to talk about here uh in the in the group. Just stay tuned. We appreciate each and every one of you for following the journey. Um, but uh, you know, it's it's big dreams, big plans.

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Hey, we want to impact the lives of 100,000 blue collar hardworking business owners. And I, you know, for as much as I would love to, you know, dream about that being on the agency environment in the old old school way, and I mean that very respectfully because that's what's got me here. is you need the management, you need an account manager, you need a, you know, an entire team.

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I want to make it so much easier for people to find success cuz I think about my father and I think about growing up like man, we had to move from before he was a preacher, he became a preacher and he sold his businesses. We were literally moving from house to house in El Salvador because sometimes he couldn't make it work. I think about that guy.

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I'm like, how could I help him with he couldn't afford a full stack agency, you know, a5 $6,000 monthly retainer? So, for me, I I've looked at and I meditated, prayed on this, and I'm seeing the gap just getting so much bigger. And as an agency, you're going to either make the jump to be up here, charge high retainers, or you're going to look at this and say, I'm going to be moving here into this lower ticket arena, which is what we're moving slowly into.

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make it more accessible. The amount of support needed here from a human resource is a different level of support. If I want to go and hire a Google Ads strategist with a lot of experience in the roofing industry, water damage, that guy at the at the minimum, like someone really good at what they do, it's 120,000 a year salary, right? It's a reality.

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So I I got to go premium. If I'm not going premium, my economics at scale, they're not going to work. They're not. So I found that to be a frustrating internal conversation. And I love to help people out, guys. Like that's what it is. So I think about those numbers, uh, Chris, and I'm like, what can we build that's going to replace, you know, what we do in managed service? What can we facilitate? Uh, medium buying, you know, the website building is a big thing.

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um making it more accessible because websites everyone needs a website nowadays like it's even more important to have a website how can we make it even better you know uh so that's that's the the the road map Chris uh the main things yeah education training is a big one um technology is what I'm 10xing down on uh because it's it's a different level of scale and I'm learning it's not all sunshine and rainbows uh it's a lot of different pains but I'm here you know, having fun with it.

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>> And like your dad, some people don't want to own like I mean, I always talk about it like I just did my my part two webinar yesterday on how to survive the next 24 months in the home cleaning services, carpet cleaning, and I I kind of laid out that harsh truth that um it's a it's our internal conversations, but I just said you you've you've got to understand your lane.

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You're either a carpet cleaner that just happens to own a business or you're a business owner that just happens to be in the carpet cleaning world. And that's in anything. You're just, you know, like a like a any contractor, any there's guys that like guys and gals out there that just want to go out and do the work.

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They love get like they just they have their name on the side of the truck and they're going to be them and their brother-in-law and their cousin and the the neighbor down the street and that will be their business and they need us as much and they need that help as much as the guy that says, "You know what? I never want to be in the truck.

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I want to hire people, but I want 20 trucks and I want to buy out the I want and they're both are legitimate, very legitimate businesses. >> Um, and both of them need that help, that that hand up, right? So, >> thousand, you made such a good point and that's the exact same thought process >> because we're like, hey, I Maddie, you know, she's the co-owner of the agency.

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uh she's got I would say she's got more say and pull in in influence into what we're doing in decisions than than I do at this point. And one of the things is like let's think forward a little bit. Where do you where do we see ourselves? what are the risks we're willing to take to evolve and and that was one of those conversations is like okay if we're going to scale people and we're not like yeah can we be high ticket really high ticket because this is a great pocket you're good at what you do and you go ultra high ticket meaning above 5,000 and six 8,000 a month retainer minimum managed managed retainer a month the expectation here is much different than the one down here. It's much different. Now, if if you try to bring this level of expertise down here, which we've tried, it doesn't work. It it's too it's an overwhelming amount and and it

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doesn't make the guys that are under half a million dollars wrong for not aspiring for more because I had a conversation with this guy and his name is Chase. Shout out Chase. And he's like, you know, because of you guys, I'm able to see my kids, go and play their sports, take my daughter to swimming lessons.

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I have a business that's profitable. He doesn't aspire to be He's like, I make more money than the guy at $2.5 million a year. And this guy, because I'm like, Chase, we got to we got to like we're doing really good for you. I I want I want you to make more money. He's like, no, you you've done good.

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So, I'm like, I I would love to serve more chases. and and there's s such a big amount of underserved um contractors out there which is part of part of the vision here you know that that was a great point yeah >> and word of mouth has turned into AI so like I mean that's what that's the other scary moment for those guys we're talking about because they go I used to get I get all my work from word of mouth I go and it's like okay well that's now this because whether you've got a bunion on your toe or you want to figure out if a a new lamp in the living room not saying that I just bought new lamps for my living room but I just bought new lamps for my living um take a picture with Chad GPT and go what would look here and boom you get five different choices. Well, that means when I go to ask for a carpet cleaner or a contractor, I'm not asking my neighbor and my best friend anymore who what's the mechanic Brad that I'm going to take my car to. I I now need to I ask my AI friend and that was 1% of search this time last year. It's arguably higher, but they 30% of search now and will be 80% of search by this time next year. And there goes all the word of mouth

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businesses that you and I just talked about. there goes all of those chases and all like what are you gonna do now buddy because like the word of mouth is they're talking to their AI friend if you don't have that infrastructure um and that that content going up and those happy customer stories and all that kind of stuff um and back out in the real world again that that the real world exists again that 40-year window of cheap money and all this kind of stuff is gone.

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You have to go back and see what they did like 40 years ago where people knew other people and went and and and and interacted and and all of that like everybody had to to to run a business as well. So your your brand is great online and your brand is well known offline as well. So your they both have to work together in the same playground again and that's that's new as well.

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So the risks are huge opportunities. I think the other part that Danny touched on too was some of his clients, they are, for lack of a better word, they're they're afraid of AI or they don't know what to do with it yet, right? And and the six of us have been in not only the marketing industry for many many years, but we've also been on the cutting edge of what's happening in the AI world for at this point two plus years.

00:34:05
Um, and so I I remember um just just this week I had a longtime associate uh business owner come to me and says, "You know what? Um, we don't even know what ChachiPT or Gemini do. Can you show us because they know they need to they know that the boat is going fast now. They better jump on whereas a year ago like, h yeah, whatever.

00:34:26
" Now they know they know they have to get real with it. And then when you show them, you know, to use a phrase from Danny, they're just like, "Holy man. I can't believe what this does." You know, I'm like, "Guys, I'm showing you the basics. I'm showing you the very basics of what's happening with AI and marketing and what it can do in your life and everything else and and they just they're like, "Oh my god, I need more, you know, how do I learn more?" So, you know, how do you how do you see that, Danny, with your large list of clients of the ones that are just now looking at maybe I need to embrace this. Um, I I I'm missing the boat. >> Exactly. You got to meet them where they're at because I've made the mistake being too high level and then I'm like, I I excuse me, I just literally lost 90% of the room. 100% of the room, you know? Uh, cuz I get excited. You haven't heard me on this podcast then D. Come on listen

00:35:25
>> the first one in the in the I I bless I baptized the podcast here. Sorry about that. Uh, but I did talk to myself that way and I'm like, man, did I did did I make that point across and and I've had a lot of these conversations where uh this year it, you know, I took what worked, what didn't work, and one of them was like trying to put everyone in the same room.

00:35:47
So, you got to understand where they're at um and and figure out they're really entry level. And if they're entry level, number one, I don't need to teach that. I don't need to be involved like, hey, our team is totally competent and capable. And you'd be surprised. You put one of your rockstar account managers there to go and teach them. We have someone called Melissa.

00:36:06
She's incredible. She loves to to uh present um put it put her on a Zoom call, you know, and like she takes care of the conversation, the clients, gives different examples and you become more of a facilitator and and give guidelines and prompts etc. So one thing we've done is like uh Manis is great at doing deep research.

00:36:27
we found uh you know and perplexing and all of that. So like Manis is a great tool and if we know there's going to be uh so right now we're the majority of our business is home improvement. The majority of our clients their home improvement uh we we create a 12-month plan on based on these industries how should we uh teach our clients if we want to teach them the basics fundamentals of AI chat GPT etc.

00:36:54
just let manage go and do the research for you. Like it's as simple as that and keep it that simple. Now for the more advanced stuff, it's like every quarter it's what's working now. Uh and uh um I did a summit two years ago, not last year because last year was a development year for me.

00:37:09
Um this year is I'm I'm bringing that summit back again. It's a contractor AI summit. Uh we have in place to do a big sum much bigger than we've done. Um, and the goal there is to just get the mass population to come in and we want to hear, we want to pay attention based on surveys. So, um, we do surveys at the end of the month for clients.

00:37:30
What are you looking to learn? You know, what are your needs right now? And based on that, Laura, um, that's our content plan for the year. And then, uh, that's where the circle comes in. The circle um, uh, training comes in. And we used to have a system much like the seven figureure agency platform which is nice but it just the engagement was not there people couldn't find stuff like it was hard for us to manage three different communities and I just wanted to simplify so we're going to circle now and that is so that we can structure the entire road map for advanced intermediate and entry level uh we're calling them different names but that's just in a summary and then just building the training there and we're not just doing AI We're doing marketing, marketing with AI, how to do it yourself, like how to bring your assistant, your spouse to go and learn how to do this. Like we're literally teaching clients how to do it. Um, but just having those conversations has improved retention with some of our

00:38:29
stronger clients, too. Um, you know, that's just what it is. Marketing performance wasn't there. And we had a client that uh in November said, "Hey, I've only stuck around because I really love your guys training." I'm like, "Man, that's sad to hear, man. you know, what else could we do? And it's like, well, I don't want to spend more money, so we'll we'll just keep it there.

00:38:46
So, it's like, okay. Well, >> but it's interesting, you know, that's another piece of feedback. Uh but that's how we uh how we tap into different levels. Uh Laura, cuz uh yeah, what I found is people can get frustrated if they're they're >> and there's so much information >> and they're too advanced.

00:39:03
That's that's the downside is there's so much information online that you can go down rabbit holes like you can get overwhelmed and having that hub however that is anybody in the audience listening having having that that sort of somebody curate vet it confirm it have a larger audience of similar people like you that say are you using oh no you're using claude you're doing this you you've created this thing and then all of a sudden it kind of take a deep breath and go okay so I don't have to know if um Claudebot is worth installing on my home computer and having it give out all my financial information to somebody, you know, in China tomorrow kind of idea because the community is like like there there's a leader and a community that you've built around that and I love that idea. >> Um any famous last question for the group um for Danny before we we wrap it up? I think we've covered a lot and given a lot of people a lot of thought here which is what we love to do.

00:40:01
Danny, you mentioned um home improvement. Knowing that you had had come from that uh the concrete contractors and everything, are you finding that the AI that those businesses need like it has the niche disappeared with AI or is it evolving? Like do those businesses need something different or is it the same? That's I I love that question from a an IP perspective like people could hold IP and say only I know the niche now it's that you can go and do market research and be very well when I went into concrete and I took it seriously it took me some time and then I shared some of some of the the planning strategies in the seven figureure agency communities like how do you research the niche how do you go you could do that and then learn the lang language and learn like

00:40:59
the buyer cycle, the sales cycle, the language and all of that. Um, so from entry point, it's definitely gotten easier, but from the implementation uh point, performance, there is so much more value to be niched down. If you're a performance, you're niche down so much more. Um, I love the concrete industry.

00:41:22
Like, I really do. I I it just hits home for me. I feel home there. But I can tell you that with almost like the looking at the future ahead, if I would have stayed just in this one pocket, I would not be able to have the reach that we the runway that we now have with Contractor Click. And that was a hard decision.

00:41:43
Uh but if I was in roofing, I would stay in roofing. No need to go anywhere else. Plenty. If I was in landscaping, I would stay there. Uh and and that's it. That's been my observation just for me. But yeah, uh the niche I I said the execution is what's becoming the the most critical part right now.

00:42:05
It's in the ability and the confidence of the team to deliver results for the niches because the the challenge for us has been as we scaled multiple niches. We literally have to go out and hire people that have worked for agencies in those niches and then you know kind of recreate the entire infrastructure for delivery.

00:42:21
So, it's we multiply our our chaos. Um, and yeah, I don't Yeah, I don't think niche agencies will disappear. It will only get better. You you'll get better and stronger as you go deeper. >> Yeah. >> Follow my footsteps. Unless you love pain and suffering. >> And we heard it the last the last >> I truly tell you guys.

00:42:50
>> Yeah. I'll ask a question that I I want to ask. What question do you wish we would have asked you today? Because you're bringing such value. You've gone deep on so many things. There's a lot of nuggets here that I know that our listeners and viewers are going to run with, but what's the one question you really wish we would have asked? >> It's a great question.

00:43:10
I mean, how are you preparing yourself and your team for the the future? Like that's we've doubled down on our people and I said this from stage this year for us. It's a a top grading year for for all of our talent and I can't save people. I literally started out the conversation this year with like hey I'm going to give you so much opportunity the best that I can but I can carry if you're not moving fast enough with us.

00:43:39
I can't keep you around. And and the biggest challenge is like we've had amazing performers from an execution perspective that just have not embraced AI. And unfortunately, I'm I'm I'm sorry, we've had to make the decision of having to cut some people off that were incredible humans, hardworking individuals.

00:43:59
So, I've been working a lot on the mindset piece and getting them to level up their mindset, learn that change is amazing. Speed is great. uh remove that resistance of technology of like my job is in ka in in you know uh it's going to be removed no like I showed our web team we have a great CRO implementation specialist web designers web project manager and we're like that's one of the the departments that's literally we're replacing with AI and technology I'm like guys I want I need you to get really good at what you do like the best at what you do and so I think That's a conversation I don't I don't hear a lot from agency owners. They want to level themselves out, but if you want to grow and scale, it's all about the team and how are you carrying that forward and I don't think there's enough people that really understand what's happening. So,

00:44:58
you kind of have to build it as you go and you know, so as you level up, you level them up and then you challenge it, create the environment so that they grow. Um, and that's a big one. That's that's really what we're working on. what I'm working on. >> No, that's a brilliant that's good good pin to put in the end of this because we're small business owners as we started this whole thing with.

00:45:16
So, it's not just the agency. It's like anybody listening to this, as Danny said earlier, it's the top down. You can't, you know, take Janice at three levels deep to be the one that sort of is the driver of this whole thing. We know it's it's it's going to crap the bed. you've got to be as the owner of the business leaning in, joining these groups, doing all that kind of stuff and and being the the the maven and um the north star for the team to show that's where I'm heading that and pulling them along, giving them a hand up because some people won't come along for the ride and this ride is not a 5year 10ear maybe maybe we can nurse that to retirement you know gal in the back corner unfortunately anymore. Maybe maybe it is time that you know those kinds of things those harder decisions have to be made but as the owner level be in charge of those. So um no I think that's a great way to great way to end it and I really appreciate you coming on the call. I think you've given a massive amount of value to our audience and again where if anybody needs to uh reach out to you we

00:46:15
got contact contractorclick.com any anywhere else that they they can find you on socials or whatever. So, it's contractor that click. Um, I'm looking forward to growing uh my socials this year. If you can find me at Instagram, that would be amazing. It's Danny Barrera and on Facebook. Um, I would love to connect with all of you and and thank you so much for having me.

00:46:39
>> Keep an eye out for that AI Summit that he's got running if you're in the contractor niche. Um, get, you know, get your tickets, join the audience, be be part of that. And uh yeah, with that um everybody who watches um give us the comments what you thought of this episode, any questions you have for Danny, we'll pass them along as well.

00:46:54
And as Brad always says, like, follow, subscribe, share it with your friends, your family, and your granny. And uh we will see you next time. Take care.