fbpx

Hustleburg Episode 31 – Interview with Ace High Printing’s Rick Herbert

“It was literally trial by fire.”

It isn’t every day that you meet a business owner that fell into their line of work. In this episode of Hustleburg, you’ll hear from Rick Herbert, owner of Ace High Printing, about how he went from doing freelance computer networking for a print shop to managing the place in three weeks. He hasn’t looked back and has spent the last 16 years building and growing a successful printing operation. 

You may remember Rick from the St. Pete: OPEN for Business chats back in April, where he talked about helping fellow small businesses cope with and survive the uncertainty amid the economic shutdowns. In this expanded conversation, we talk about how he found a niche not being served well and grew it into a thriving business.

Ace High Printing

Make Ace High Printing your one-stop shop for all your printing needs:
Website
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter

Get Engagement Training in Your Inbox Now

If you’re not satisfied with the social media results you’re getting, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers a this training via email.

Find out more about Beyond Your Side Hustle here:

Website
Hustleburg Listener Community on LinkedIn
Beyond Your Side Hustle on LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Brett’s LinkedIn

If you enjoyed what you heard in this episode, please take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on your favorite player. Each episode is available on its own post, with the entire catalog here. It’s available on Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotify, or your favorite podcast catcher. We listen to this show and our favorites on Castbox. It’s hosted by Podbean. We appreciate your attention, and we can’t wait to have you back for the next episode. 

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

If you have any questions you’d like to have answered on an upcoming Q&A episode, please take a moment to visit beyondyoursidehustle.com/podcastquestion and ask there. If you’re a St. Pete businessperson who’d like to sit down for an interview, please reach out to us here

Hustleburg Episode 16.5 – Bonus Episode, Audio from St Pete OPEN for Business Chats 2

In this bonus episode of the Hustleburg podcast, we compiled the audio from 5 Zoom video chats with small businesses here in Saint Petersburg about their creative ways to stay OPEN for business. 

You can see these video chats on YouTube.

Donnie and Jackie Minchillo from Joy of Cleaning

Joy of Cleaning Florida 260 1st Avenue South, Suite 200, Saint Petersburg, FL 33701
Mon – Sat 8 am to 6 pm; late night available for commercial

You can find out more at their website, call them directly, connect on Facebook, or engage on Instagram.

Bayboro Brewing’s James Coleman

Bayboro Brewing 2390 5th Ave S, Saint Petersburg, FL 33712
T & R To-Go Hours: 4PM-7PM, Sat: 2PM-6PM Sunday: 2PM-4PM – Take-Out Only

You can find out more at their website, call them directly, connect on Facebook, or engage on Instagram.

Rick Herbert from Ace High Printing

Ace High Printing 3801 16th St N, Saint Petersburg, FL 33703
9AM-4PM – Essential/Business as Usual

You can find out more at his website, call Ace High Printing directly, e-mail Rick, connect on Facebook, engage on Instagram, and keep up on Twitter.

Cycle Brewing’s Doug Dozark

Cycle Brewing 534 Central Avenue St. Petersburg, FL 33701
12-7 Daily – Take-Out & Delivery Only

You can order online at the Cycle Brewing website, connect on Facebook, engage on Instagram, and keep up on Twitter.

Trent A Smith, Realtor

You can find Trent online, connect with him on Facebook, engage on Instagram, find him on YouTube, or give him a call.

Start Marketing Your Business Online With These Three Easy Steps

If you’re just getting started marketing your business online, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers a FREE Getting Started Guide.

Find out more about Beyond Your Side Hustle here:

Website
Hustleburg Listener Community
Facebook
Instagram
Brett’s LinkedIn

If you enjoyed what you heard in this episode, please take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on your favorite player. Each episode is available on its own post, with the entire catalog here. It’s available on Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotify, or your favorite podcast catcher. We listen to this show and our favorites on Castbox. It’s hosted by Podbean. We appreciate your attention, and we can’t wait to have you back for the next episode. 

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

If you have any questions you’d like to have answered on an upcoming Q&A episode, please take a moment to visit beyondyoursidehustle.com/podcastquestion and ask there. If you’re a St. Pete businessperson who’d like to sit down for an interview, please reach out to us here

Transcription below by Otter.ai

Brett Bittner  

Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of the Hustleburg podcast. I truly enjoyed chatting with these local business people about how they’re adapting so creatively to the ever changing rules to say open to serve our community. If you’re a small business who’s open for business here in St. Pete, or anywhere in Pinellas County, visit St. Pete open for business comm slash open to be added to the listing. And if you’ve done something creative or made a special offer To remain open during the safer at home orders let me know that by email at Brett at St. Pete open for business comm Don’t worry if you didn’t catch it or won’t remember it, it’s going to be in the show notes. If this is your first episode of Hustleburg I’d really appreciate it if you stuck around and listen to another episode or two and possibly subscribed. The last guest in this bonus episode realtor Trent Smith is making his triumphant return after appearing in a regular Hustleburg interview back in Episode 11. If we add something of value in this episode, let us know by rating and reviewing this episode on your favorite podcast player. Regular episodes come out to arrive in your feed on Thursday morning, and this week you’ll hear from Eric Olson from Pelle pub St. Pete. Unfortunately, his business is one that is closed until the safer at home orders relax. But pedal pub offers however is a fun time for you and about a dozen of your friends. I look forward to having you back to hear him share his entrepreneurial journey on Thursday. onto the episode. Last Monday, I had the pleasure pleasure of talking with Donnie and Jackie montillo. From joy of cleaning. I’m joined today by Donnie and Jackie joy of cleaning. Donnie and Jackie have a cleaning service here in St. Pete. And we’re going to talk a little bit today about how they are saying open for business. Thanks for joining me, guys.

Jackie Minchillo  

Thanks for having us.

Donnie Minchillo  

Thank you for having us. Appreciate it.

Brett Bittner  

So, so tell me a little bit about joy of cleaning. What is it that you do? Are you guys primarily residential, commercial vacation rental? What’s your normal non pandemic business like?

Donnie Minchillo  

Primarily, we are a residential cleaning company, but we do have some commercial as well. And we have office spaces and a couple of retail spaces. So and we are trying to move more into the commercial as well. So we have done some post construction cleaning, but we do focus on residential and office cleaning.

Brett Bittner  

Awesome. Now, obviously, we don’t have many businesses open. We don’t have many office buildings open. There’s not a whole lot of construction that’s continuing. So you guys have probably had to be a little bit more creative in how it is that you’re staying open. What are some of the new things that you’re doing or adaptations that you’ve made?

Donnie Minchillo  

I’ll let you

Jackie Minchillo  

well, several things. Obviously this is a, this is a unknown situation for everyone. So there’s been a lot of adaptations made on the fly as announcements are made as guidelines have changed, etc, etc. We’re obviously trying to do as much as humanly possible in the way of just personal protection. So our team is wearing a lot of personal protection gear in terms of face masks gloves, over don’t know the technical term for the little booties that go over this. But so they’re wearing all of that and we have had pretty extensive discussions with our team as well just about their own personal health and monitoring not only for themselves, but for our clients as well. So our team members are taking their temperatures daily in the morning just to make sure that they’re not running a fever. We’re having daily check ins make sure everyone’s feeling good, nothing has changed. And so we’re monitoring that very closely.

Donnie Minchillo  

And we’re also asking our clients, if they do choose to be in their house, let’s say because they are most of them are working from home. And if they still have a job, right, that they stay in a room while we cleaned the rest of the house, and then while that’s gone, they go outside, they go in a different room, and then we can go in and clean that particular room, or if they are able to just stay outside the house while we do the entire cleaning. That’s preferable and we have a lot of clients that are that are totally okay with that.

Brett Bittner  

So you guys are in the fortunate situation of just having to change a little bit in the way that you operate normally, the protective gear and maybe asking clients that may be home when they wouldn’t normally be just to kind of isolate one room while you’re cleaning. So you haven’t had to do a whole lot to change your business model so at least that’s good. So how is it that people can get in touch with you guys when they find that they are ready for residential vacation, commercial cleaning, this is your opportunity to share where they can you know where you can plug whether it’s a phone number website, social media handles in the light

Donnie Minchillo  

bar, the easiest way would be our website. So joy of cleaning FL com that we have all the information about our business to services or employees. And if they would like to get a quote, there is a big bright pink button right on the homepage. So you can just click there and putting all the information about your property, your office or your your your residence, and then we’ll be able to provide you with a quote and also social media. Jackie is the one that does all of it.

Jackie Minchillo  

Yeah, we’re joy of cleaning on Facebook, the hot pink logo and joy of cleaning with underscores in between each word on Instagram

or you can give us a call

Donnie Minchillo  

us 72768727 100 am reposting a lot of information about are all the things that we’ve been doing on our social media. So make sure to follow.

Jackie Minchillo  

Yeah, we are also we’re doing a lot of things like trying to share daily tips for disinfection and annotation. So obviously we have some people that are saying, you know, we’re just keeping to ourselves and our family right now. And in that way, we’re just trying to provide information. Obviously, cleaning and sanitation is a factor in disease prevention. So we want to make sure that we’re also being a helpful resource for people right now. And we did add a disinfection service. So we’ve we we did a lot of research right away in terms of CDC guidelines for cleaning solutions that are approved to kill the corona virus and similar virus influenza viruses. So we’ve got those products on hand and we are able to add an add on disinfectant service. If they want to do things like door handles faucet handles remote controls, all of the sort of most highly trafficked highly touched surfaces in your house or office.

Donnie Minchillo  

And one last thing that I wanted to mention that I didn’t mention earlier was that we do cover the entire point Pinellas County, so anywhere from South St. Pete all the way Palm Harbor.

Brett Bittner  

Perfect. Thank you guys so much. And glad to see that you guys are staying open for business. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, appreciate it. Here’s the conversation I had with James Coleman from Baber brewing, a brewery that opened right before the safer at home orders were issued. Today I’m joined by James Coleman of Bay borough brewing. Want to let you guys know that they’re awesome brewery here in town. And they are open for business. James, thanks for joining me today.

James Coleman  

Thanks for having me, Brett. Appreciate it. And so interesting times,

Brett Bittner  

indeed. Well, when times are not so interesting. What’s it like for you with Baber brewing? What is your normal non pandemic business like serving the community?

James Coleman  

Yeah So unfortunately we decided we were going to open the day that the safer at home water was released. So we really haven’t had a a normal functioning day with consumers. So basically we just been broke putting a little brew on hold back and things up a little bit and kind of readjusting to Growler in take out as well. Okay right now so I guess that would be our norm for now.

Brett Bittner  

So you got your part of the takeout delivery and that’s pretty much anything we can do right now.

James Coleman  

Yeah, take out sorry and not delivery yet. We’re still not with the state the state Congress. But yeah, we’re doing we’re doing to go we’re doing a buy one get one half off on the weekends. So trying to help out a little bit trying to move some product and you know, keep keep are my biggest concern is obviously keep in mind my few employees I have here employed through through this

Brett Bittner  

Absolutely, that’s a time or tough time for a lot of business owners as they try to make sure that they’re able to keep their team, their team.

James Coleman  

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Brett Bittner  

So is there

anything away from the normal business plan that you had, that you’ve done to adapt to what we’re currently seeing in our current state of business with the ever changing rules here in the state and county for Bay borough?

James Coleman  

Yeah, I mean, obviously, we’re, we’re just heavily focused on you know, the CDC requirements on on the six foot rule and so forth, ensuring that we have our own personal sanitation regulations whether that’s gloves, mass, I would never ask somebody to come into the brewery if they were if they felt uncomfortable. So we also have you know, handheld tablets and things that we can approach a car with keeping social distancing obviously is important there take in order process in order to convenience of someone’s vehicle. So that’s kind of new to us. You know, as we’re learning the business, we’re also kind of adapting in that in that fashion. So

Brett Bittner  

So you guys have kind of introduced a an unexpected curbside?

James Coleman  

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I never I never knew I’d be taking delivery orders from the vehicle. So

Brett Bittner  

no kidding. Yeah, I think that the times that we’re in, we certainly see a lot of people adapting. And I like to see that we’re able to utilize some of the go options. And I say, alcohol these days.

James Coleman  

Absolutely. Sorry. I didn’t mean to talk over. Yeah. And you know, Billy, I think even ourselves or personal goals will be to kind of up our sanitation afterwards. I believe that the health department will probably come out with some sort of stipulation, but we’ll probably build or set up a sanitation station for people well after the virus because, you know, we’re gonna get ready to hit hurricane season. And then you know act is, you know, flu season again so this isn’t going away so it’s important for us to begin you know doing our own stuff kind of sanitation policies and requirements in house for sure.

Brett Bittner  

Awesome, James. I know that as a new brewery here in town, you’ve got you got a lot to try to drive in getting your name ID out there getting your brand. Let people know how they can get in touch with you websites, social media handles and the like and how they can patron vapor brewing.

James Coleman  

Yeah, I mean, obviously being new you know, brand recognition is important. We’re always trying to stay upbeat and up and fresh on our Facebook page neighbor growing as well as neighbor brewing.com is where we’re putting rolling out a lot of new content. Obviously being new, we’re still updating even the brick and mortar as well as our you know, staying fresh on the website, I G and so forth, but you know, Mainly I would say Facebook right now is where we’re trying to keep our paper of family. We’re calling it up to date on on the newest and latest of what we’re releasing.

Brett Bittner  

Awesome. James, I want to thank you so much for talking with me today. And I look forward to stopping in as soon as I can.

James Coleman  

Yeah, Brad, I appreciate it. Come come in and see us. We’d love to have you.

Brett Bittner 

Sounds good. All right, sir. 

Now you’ll hear my conversation with ace high printings, Rick Herbert. So joining me on St. Pete open for business today is Rick harbor of ACI printing. How’s it going, man? Oh, very well, sir. So tell everybody what ace high protein is all about? What is it that you guys do when we’re not in the middle of a global pandemic?

Rick Herbert  

The same thing we’re doing now actually, we print we know we have stickers, banners, t shirts and apparel, business cards, postcards, labels, you name it, we print it. If I don’t print it myself, I can find it. I mean, I’ve been here for 16 years since 2002.

Brett Bittner  

Apart down Are you in

Rick Herbert  

a close to downtown? We are just a little north of downtown like the 13th Avenue on 16th Street area. Awesome. Yeah.

Brett Bittner  

So what is it that you’re doing special now to make sure that people know that you’re open? And how is it that you’re serving the community is we kind of face

Rick Herbert  

quite the crisis here. It’s something isn’t it?

You know what we’re doing now, we’ve kind of shifted our business model into helping the locals normally print nationally. You know, we print international ship anything anywhere to you. Right now our business is just to keep other businesses open. That’s really what we’re all about. Do we always print stickers and banners and stuff like that? Of course we do. But it’s more important now. You know, we’re members of local business Coalition’s like keep saying the logo, local shops, one, we do a bunch of nonprofit work, we’re gonna do some brain work for the city, you know, for the city of St. Louis for the police department, things like that. But what we’ve shifted into doing is a whole lot of to go package container label blush tea and coffee and the curious cat bakery and room 901. People like that they’re trying to stay open and get their products out there, whether it’s through delivery or shipping or whatever. We’ve been doing a whole lot of, we’re still open or to go pick up curbside banners and stuff like that.

Brett Bittner  

I’ve probably seen tons of those banners.

Rick Herbert  

Oh, man, they are everywhere. So as far as you know what we do, it’s still the same things we’re doing. But we’ve also switched gears and we’re basically putting everything in a rush without a rush fee. We’re trying to get things to you as quickly as possible. You know, like I said, we’ve been here 16 years, I went through the 2008 crash, you know, and it was all these local businesses that kept us sustained. Well, now it’s kind of my turn to pay it back a little bit and make sure everybody else stays open through this time. So, you know, in addition to rushing things, we’re also giving out crazy stupid discounts. Like I’m cutting things almost down to cost, just to try to keep everybody afloat.

Brett Bittner  

Got it? Well, I certainly going to be helping local business community and earning users Some goodwill with your your local business friends. So that’s, that’s fantastic. Now where is it that people can find out about a site printing, online phone number, specials, all that stuff.

Rick Herbert  

We’re on all the socials at a Thai printing website is Bayside printing calm, perfect phone number is 727-542-3897. And as far as the specials, just shoot me an email, get on the website, go to the contact, go to the socials and tell me what you need. I’m willing to work with anybody about anything and everything’s case by case I get that because not everybody needs the same thing. So if you need it, let me know I’m here. I’m open. I’m ready.

Brett Bittner  

Awesome. Rick, I want to thank you so much for serving the local business community here. And I’m sure that all of that goodwill that you’re creating now will come back in spades when things bounce back.

Rick Herbert  

Sounds like a plan to me.

Brett Bittner  

Next up is my conversation with Doug Dozark from cycle brewing. So I’m joined today by Doug does From cycle brewing, Doug, thanks for joining me today.

Doug Dozark  

Thanks for having me.

Brett Bittner  

Oh, Doug, tell us a little bit about what cycle brewing does on a normal everyday, pre pandemic kind of a day.

Doug Dozark  

I well, pre pandemic, it’s a small taproom with, you know, seating where bar, we have outside seating so you can enjoy the sidewalk and besides Central Avenue and for brewing operations, we brew pretty regularly we’re processing beer, we’re, you know, busy keeping the taps flowing.

Brett Bittner  

How many beers do you have on tap at one time? Normally?

Doug Dozark  

We have anywhere from at least 12 I think we actually have about 20 for the day we have to close.

Brett Bittner  

Sure. So with all of the things that you do normally with the taproom a lot of it is centered around the community and in person consumption. What were some of the creative things you had to undertake as a We face the pandemic and some of the safer at home orders and stay at home orders.

Doug Dozark  

Well, the the biggest challenge was the uncertainty. So we were trying to stay on pace with the changes. So it was initially it was okay, we need to keep more distance have fewer people limit capacity than that I think lasted for about four hours and then it was okay now you can’t be open at all. And then there was some rules regarding essential business and alcohol and all bars were supposed to close. But that did that apply to breweries? We didn’t know the mayor’s office couldn’t give us an answer. So it was just for two weeks. It was constant, calling, checking, adapting. And finally we got to the point where as it was this what we’re doing, we don’t feel like we’re creating a risk so we were no longer allowing people in the tap room you couldn’t consume on premise that ended pretty early. But then to go sales limiting hours so we were open later and now we’ve cut back the hours even farther because I guess with everything being closed downtown after dark is not as pleasant as it used to be. Okay, so we’ve we’ve had to continue to adapt but now we were to the point where if they come and tell us to close, we’ll close. But that’s the last step is to do no business.

Brett Bittner  

Sure, sure. So you guys are doing takeout. Are you offering delivery through anything, any of the services

Doug Dozark  

or through yours how we we have not done delivery yet we are in the process of getting signed up with Uber Eats, which is something we were probably going to put into place back in January. But with everybody going into that, that process is very slow. We’re signed up licenses approved, that could happen anytime. But now we’ve been just doing pickups we do. We have our website, which we used to do beer sales with a shipping company which was a courier service, little Legal loopholes that’s changed a little bit but we put the website back up we started selling beer online so people can order online and then just come pick up shorter interaction time less standing around so we don’t have we try not to have people hanging out on the sidewalk, which there’s sort of allowed to do but it doesn’t look good. And it’s certainly not as safe as it could be. So we’re doing everything we can to speed up processes and make it easy for people to get there and get back home.

Brett Bittner  

Well, speaking of making it easy to get beer How is the easiest way for people to pick up some of the brews that you guys are putting out upcycle brewing.

Doug Dozark  

ordering online and picking up is pretty darn easy. You can you can if you’re just out and you think of it we are still able to take orders at the tap room. We have a space that is set up where there’s a very wide table between the customer and our staff so you six feet is very easy to maintain. Our staff is doing everything Any packages they’re handing over, we actually use ice propyl alcohol in the brewery for sanitizing regularly anyway, so we’re spreading down package wiping things down before we hand them off. We’re doing I think, everything we can do everything that’s reasonable to ensure people’s safety. I’m sure people are taking it home and washing it themselves anyway, which, please, you know, take all the steps.

Brett Bittner  

Yeah, for sure. Well, Doug, where can people find out more about you online websites, social media, the news that you guys are putting out about any changes that you might have and things you might find out from the city or the county.

Doug Dozark  

We are posting on Instagram and Facebook. Instagram probably has the largest following so any updates any releases? Since we didn’t have normally this time of year, we would have a lot of barrel aged beer on draft so that people could come and try them. Obviously, we can’t sell it to class right now. So we’ve been hand bottling some of those limited beers. Those are putting those up on the website on usually on Friday for Saturday pickup brings in more people which has some concerns but we’ve kept it limited they have a whole day to pick up and we haven’t had issues with crowding or anything like that and the only way to get it is online so people are staying home ordering this nobody lining up to we’re keeping that very very remote and removed I guess you could say but yeah so the Instagram Facebook our website will be updated but the website is mostly just for ordering we’re not putting a blog post there anything so if you’re looking to order cycle brewing calm or shop dot cycle brewing calm will take you directly to the store. guys to go we have growlers on there. We have the bottles we have all the other bottles, the normal bottle release bottles that we have all available, including some some limited stuff.

Brett Bittner  

What are some of the limited things that you have? For this weekend upcoming that’ll be on the website tomorrow.

Doug Dozark  

Yeah, we have. So we did a festival beer. So we have a festival in March for barrel aged De Beers. We just call it festival only or fo. That one we always have draft and we look forward to sharing the draft with the local community after the event. Now we have it in these little bottles so there’s new, smaller bottles, that beer will go up this weekend. Some more of one of the days of the week set that is sold out Wednesday was very popular. That’s vanilla coca damia. We want to add some more cakes of that. That will go up this weekend and then a couple more of the did a collab with angry chair over in Tampa for the confection affection event. A couple of those beers we have very limited quantities of a couple leftovers from that will go up as well.

Brett Bittner  

Awesome, Doug, I really appreciate you taking the time with me and letting st Pete know that you are open for business.

Doug Dozark  

We are and I appreciate Everybody who’s been coming out so far, it’s, it’s been enough. It’s been good. Great. Thank you so much.

Brett Bittner  

Thank you. And here’s Trent Smith, a realtor at exp realty who regular Hustleburg. listeners will recall from Episode Number 11. Hey, I’m joined by Trent Smith. For those of you who have listened to the hustler podcast, you’ll actually remember him from Episode Number 11. He had a lot of really valuable information when he talked about his entrepreneurial journey. And I knew that he would be one of the best people to talk about the creative things that he’s doing to adapt, Trent. Thanks for coming on, man.

Trent Smith  

Hey, Brad, thanks for having me. I’m ready for this. It’s gonna be a fun one.

Brett Bittner  

Awesome. Well, I know that you’re a realtor, but not everybody else does tell everybody kind of what your normal business is like.

Trent Smith  

Well, my normal business is about prospecting and setting appointments, trying to find people who want to buy and sell a house or if they know anybody. buy and sell a house. But of course with the whole Coronavirus thing. The my normal methods of prospecting are a little rattled. So I had to start getting creative with it a little bit.

Brett Bittner  

So normally you’re doing a lot of that stuff face to face, right?

Trent Smith  

Yeah, so a lot of is face to face going out meeting people. One of the reasons I got into this business is because I like just talking to people. And I’m really good at striking up conversations with strangers, as well as knocking on doors and just going into neighborhoods and seeing if anybody wants to sell their house. So obviously, I can’t do that right now. So I have to do other things.

Brett Bittner  

What are some of the creative things that you’ve done to adapt the way you’re doing business here in St. Louis?

Trent Smith  

Well, first of all, the first thing I did after everything started shutting down was I just started calling everybody I know friends, relatives, people who live out of state, people who I met last week, reaching out to them just you know, telling them That I’m here for them anything they need, any way I could help them. I don’t even talk about real estate. The purpose of this call is just to keep that relationship established, letting them know I’m thinking about them. And fortunately, a lot of the people I talk to that I know, are they still have jobs and are still in good situations. Some people, unfortunately, are not able to work right now. So I see if they need anything, you know, if I could do anything for them.

Brett Bittner  

So you’re working on building those long term relationships, anything specifically that you’re doing, and it’s exceptionally creative right now?

Trent Smith  

The second thing I’m doing is doing my normal for sale by owner calls where people list their house for sale like they own the house and then they want to sell it themselves. And so I reach out to them, and I see if they need any help with anything and to let them know that I would like to help them them out and get their house sold faster for them. Okay,

Brett Bittner  

and so a lot of this you’re having to do virtually or over the phone, anything that you are particularly proud of that you’ve done to help generate some leads.

Trent Smith  

I’ve just been doing a lot of the same old but one of the things I wanted to share with people that I have been doing that I am kind of proud of was when everything started shutting down. Obviously a lot of us have a lot more time. So what I started doing was going through my house and taking everything that I possibly can and selling it through Facebook marketplace mostly. So like shelves old, like musical equipment that I’m not playing with anymore, and anything I can get that’s worth anything $5 $10 or even like I sold my kayak for $350. But what I’m doing with this process is the people that I talk to that come over and buy the things that I’m selling, you know, I think give them my business card. I asked them if they know anybody looking to buy or sell. And also in this process, you get a lot of messages people just asking if this is for sale and whatnot. So I would have like 4050 people that asked if they could, you know, the item is for sale. And then after I sell it, I go back to them like Sorry, I didn’t get this, but I’m also a realtor. Do you know anybody looking to buy or sell right now?

Brett Bittner  

So it looks like you’ve done some creative lead generation then through the sales of stuff that you have just kind of lying around.

Trent Smith  

Yeah, and actually, this did work. One time, I had a couple of VCRs that I sold for, like 10 bucks apiece, and this guy came to buy a VCR from me. And I was like, by the way, Here’s my card. Do you know anybody selling a house or buying a house? And then he said, I really, I have a rental property that I want to sell. So I ended up selling him the $10 VCR and then I sold his house It was a low end it was a lower price. We’re in a property. So I made an extra thousand bucks, which I know I’m sure a lot of people would like an extra thousand bucks, but he’s also got his primary residence that he’s going to be selling soon too. So just for selling a $10 VCR he came over I gave him my card and I might get two deals out of it.

Brett Bittner  

That’s awesome. Well let the folks that are watching know how they can get in touch with you where they can find you online.

Trent Smith  

I yeah, you can search you can google Trent a Smith or you can find me on Facebook Trent a Smith realtor. Or you can just add me as a friend on Facebook, Trey Smith, I’m also on Instagram. Or if you want to just give me a call 727273418 anytime I’d love to help anybody out.

Brett Bittner  

Awesome. Well, thanks so much for talking with me today. And I know like I said, I knew you were going to be somebody who had something creative in the way you’ve been adapting.

Trent Smith  

Yeah, this is the time to be creative. And also I’d like to add anybody who is in kind of kind of a Self Employed type industry videos is really the way to go. One thing I do is I try to post at least one video every day. And what I do is I’ll post on Instagram and Facebook. And I really just try to keep it under a minute. So like 59 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, because I don’t think people really want to sit there for that long and listen to me. But one of the things this does is it makes it makes you like it makes you front of mind with people. They’ll scroll through Instagram or Facebook and they’ll see your video they might not watch it, but they will see you doing videos and that gives you a little credibility, because you’re doing something that 90% especially in my industry, only 10% of realtors do videos. So they’ll at least see the video and then I’ll be front of mind on even better if they watch it. They might like it so

Brett Bittner  

awesome. Well thanks again for and I appreciate you hanging out with me today and telling folks that you are open for business.

Trent Smith  

I’m open for business In the real estate industry prices have gone down a little bit in some areas. Of course there are a lot of people who are holding off to this whole Coronavirus thing and, but there are still plenty of business out there for me. And I even have a couple deals in the works so I’m doing it.

Brett Bittner  

Awesome, man. Thanks again.

Trent Smith  

You’re welcome. See you later.