An AV and integration-focused podcast broadcast weekly

This week's episode of Automation Unplugged we are switching things up with a unique and fun episode where I won’t be the one asking the questions.

About this episode:

That’s right! One Firefly’s very own Kat Wheeler is stepping in as host for this marketing experts episode, and she’s putting me in the hot seat. We’re diving deep into marketing for AV integrators.

In this webinar, we’ll cover:

• How One Firefly evolved from an engineering services firm to the leading marketing agency for integrators.
• How AV marketing has shifted from basic websites and email to SEO, social media, and AI-drive strategies.
• The biggest marketing mistakes integrators make and how to fix them.

SEE ALSO: AU #304: Tech-Driven Growth and the Power of EOS with Richard Quinones

Transcript

Ron:

Hello. Hello there, Ron Callis with another episode of Automation Unplugged. Now today is a marketing experts feature and we are going to be flipping the script. So today I will be interviewed by a member of our team, the one and only Kat Wheeler. So let me go ahead and bring in Kat and, , she's going to get us directed and tell us what we're talking about today. Hi, Ron. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Kat.

Kat:

, I'm happy to be here. This is going to be a good time. We're going to talk a little bit about marketing. You're going to be our expert for today.

Ron:

I, so this is actually your fault, Kat, because you ran this idea by, , Rebecca and Allison and, and myself. And we like, man, that would be really fun. Number one, to have you on as a guest host, you've hosted, , you've hosted an episode or a couple of episodes now in the past, you did a great job and, , I appreciate you volunteering to, to lead this interview. So I'm going to go ahead and I will pull up the graphics just for us.but I'll let you drive.

Kat:

Thank you. I appreciate you having me, , letting me kind of explore interviewing you for a change. I'm sure everyone that you have interviewed will enjoy this little flip. , all right, so this is a marketing experts episode. So we want to focus on Development of marketing and things that dealers can take away from it. So I would love to hear the one Firefly origin story, how it all came about for you. I know a lot of our customers are business owners and entrepreneurs and have started their own business, which is a fun venture, but can come with all sorts of challenges. So let's hear your origin story, Ron, how did it all happen?

Ron:

Yeah. So I, , many. On this podcast, probably no, my background is, , I studied engineering at Virginia tech, and then I went to work for Lutron and then Crestron. And so that was seven years, I would say of a, maybe a master's degree in small business because my, my day job or my field job was a sales engineer out in the field, working with integrators. , what I now know is we all lovingly call integrators, but these small businesses, , Small by the def the government definition, meaning typically less than 50 million in revenue. And I identified that they had all this passion and love for technology, but often they did not have, and we're going way back to 2007. Often they did not have, , all the engineering in house resources to do, , detailed. , drawings, both at the sales phase of the project, maybe where you might want to put device location drawings or lighting plans in front of a client as you're kind of vetting through the scoping process and then into detailed engineered proposal creation where that proposal is actually backed up by engineering documentation and then into all the project drawings that one could create to help a job run more smoothly. Wiring diagrams, rack elevations, CAD detailing. Power plans, you know, so on and so forth, all the, all the stuff that would theoretically lead to a project happening a little more smoothly and a little more efficiently and maybe more profitably. I identified that at least from my observation, there was an opportunity in the marketplace to go do that. And, , so I jumped off the cliff and quit the day job, which at the time was a regional manager, regional sales manager at Crestron and, , at the time I was doing really well, sales. We're great. I was one of the top, you know, handful and the company made those things. , but I just jumped off the cliff and bet on me. I'd written a little, you know, business plan. I think I had purchased some CDs of business plan software and had loaded them on my computer and I had worked through it and built a little game plan. , what I did not do was a lot of field research asking businesses whether or not they actually wanted these services or would be willing to pay for them. And if so, how much would they be willing to pay? And, , I, I'll tighten up this 'cause I could give the 20 minute version of the story and I'll, I'll give you, I'll try to shorten, shorten

Kat:

it. Yeah. This . I, I'll, I'll,

Ron:

I'll abbreviate. I can see Rebecca and Allison now go. Nope. He's gonna give you the 30 minute version.

Kat:

Yep. , so long

Ron:

story short, I learned pretty quickly. For the integrator to be successful at selling design and engineering services, meaning a line item of labor on their proposal, I would need to jump in and offer some guidance or assistance on how they were presenting themselves to the end customer, meaning what is the messaging on their website? What was the sales collateral or, or communication tools they were using to show the architect, designer, builder, homeowner, developer. , were they regularly staying in touch with their customers? And before you know it, we had a graphic designer, a graphic designer on staff, and then a web designer on staff. And then we had social media staff and then we had writers. But if you had asked me, we were an engineering company, but yet we were actually running this marketing business. In addition to engineering and, , and fast forward all the way to the project, we've gotten a little bit smarter at. Running the business. If I personally matured and gotten smarter and surrounded myself with just amazing talent, I realized that, , my passions were for entrepreneurship and serving others. And there was a way that I could do that by just being excellent at marketing. And , and scale back, even though I had my degree and I had to eat my hble pie in engineering to actually scale back the engineering business and programming and some of these other interests and, , the business is really, you know. It is where it is today because of that process of evolution and kind of shifting as necessary to best, you know, getting better at listening to our clients and helping them solve their problems and helping them grow their business. And as I've, my team and myself have leaned in and gotten better at that. The business has, you know, accelerated.

Kat:

I love that. And I think one thing I take away from that, and I think all of the entrepreneurs like listening take away from that is you buy a lot of lessons along the way.

Ron:

, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm interviewing right now. , you know, by the time the show releases, maybe this person's going to be on staff, but we're interviewing for a role here. And some of the people that we are interviewing are, we're finding our previous agency owners. We're, we're, you know, hiring a number of, you know, senior new members of the team here at one firefly. And so many of them talk about the pain and suffering that is running. A marketing agency. Now, any of our listeners that are running their low voltage shop or their integration shop, it's the same thing. You know, the, there's a few business owners, hopefully the ones that listen to this podcast. That are really killing it there there, whether they are flat in their, their business revenue or they're in a growth stage at the end of the day, they're netting the profitability that they are personally aspiring towards and they're, they're doing the things in their company that they love and that they want to be doing and they built the company they're very proud of. That's a very small minority, in my opinion, from my experience as a business owner. There's the, you know, the, the big group in the middle, which work for a crazy person, which is them, they work for themselves and they work a lot of hours. They don't necessarily, you know, make the money that they thought they would when they started that thing. And then there's the businesses that are just, you know, the next segment is that they're just struggling. And Kat, you and I both know we have, we have integrators in the marketplace right now, this spring 2025 that are, are just, they're struggling. It's hard out there. And, , entrepreneurship is one of the harder things anybody could ever set out to do. Particularly if you're setting the benchmark at success, meaning you're doing what you love in the business. You're also have free time to give to friends and family, and you're making the type of money that you want to make. That is, it almost feels like the Holy Grail to so many entrepreneurs. And I would say it did for me. I mean, I've been at this now 17 years or so, 16, 17 years. Most of those years, it felt like this imaginary thing. Like I was Indiana Jones going through the cave and the buzzsaw flying over my head. And, , and I was just, I knew there was a Holy Grail out there. And, , I would just close that statement by saying, as it relates to marketing, I see us, us one firefly is at least being a little light it where we're, whether a guiding light or not, we're a light shedding a little bit of light into the darkness on that adventure of entrepreneurship so that at least we, we help with this scary thing called marketing. And we remove some of that drama, some of that fear, some of that anxiety with how to utilize marketing or branding in a business to help one succeed. I think we've, I'm very proud of the fact that we've, you know, we're helping lots of people out there.

Kat:

I love that and I, yeah, I mean, entrepreneurship is like my biggest fear. I don't think I could take or handle the stress, which is why I work for you.

Ron:

, and, and how I wouldn't wish it just for clarity. I would not wish entrepreneurship on my enemies. And it sounds like a terrible thing to say, like, well, Ron, you're an entrepreneur and you work with entrepreneurs. Most entrepreneurs, quality of life stinks. Most, not all, but most. And, , it's very, very hard now, America and, you know, lion's share of our clients are in the U S and Canada, although we do have clients around the world, , the America and the capitalist society we have is really built on the backs of small business owners. And, , you know, if you have a, if you are that small business owner, odds are, if you're listening to this, , good on you, or if you work for a small business, good on you because it's so much of our. Our GDP in our country is, is produced by small business. I think it's something like 40 percent or so. And it's, it's brutally hard. It's so hard, but it's also like, it's hard, but it's so awesome because you could, if you're willing to put in the time, the money, the energy, and you're willing to eat your humble pie on a regular basis and learn, it's just so many. You know, you're really only limited by your imagination. And I, I think one firefly maybe is a neat demonstration of that. Cause we've hit a lot of roadblocks over the, over the long road. And, but yet we still stay imaginative and creative and trying to find new ways to serve others. And the result is we've been able to continue to prosper.

Kat:

Well, let's kind of, let's, let's pick at that a little bit. Let's, let's delve into our next topic, which was like, which is like the then versus the now. And you told me something really interesting when we were kind of talking about this last week. And, and I think I knew it, but. Being told kind of made me wake up and realize my own mortality, but you started the business in 2007.

Ron:

The

Kat:

iPhone was invented in 2007

Ron:

makes, makes, makes me feel, it makes me look old. Doesn't it?

Kat:

I mean, same, but I just, I kind of want to, like, I kind of want to delve into this a little bit for our listeners. Cause we are a marketing company. So can you tell me kind of the differences between what marketing was then? And what it is now and how that's kind of evolved over the last, however many years.

Ron:

Well, I'll, I'll age myself a little. And I know there's a lot of folks listening that are my age or even older, but you know, the, the, just to help people kind of frame the answer is that when I started working at Lutron. I was issued a beeper and I was told the strategy on how to pull over and use payphones when I needed to check in with headquarters or customers. And then, well, that's really a sales effort, but, , I'll

Kat:

beat you. I had a boss, my first boss, when I worked for my first rep firm bless his heart and he still used Thomas guides. And so I bought him a Garmin for Christmas one year. You remember the little one and you stuck it on your dashboard or whatever? Yeah, and he accidentally set it to everything but highway. And that was a setting you could have. And I remember him calling me from Pittsburgh, lost, downtown. And he was like, the highway's right there. It's not telling me to get on. I don't know what to do. Because he had, you know, he was one of the roller quarters, drive up to the drive up payphone, Thomas Guide guys. And really, the GPS messed him up.

Ron:

Yes. So I, so I come from that era. So, I mean, if you also think of what was happening in the early or the mid two thousands, , social media was born. So my space was a thing. I never had a my space profile, but I, I. I did not. Oh, I did. I, I did not, I never, never did that. But I was on Facebook within the first year of Facebook launch, so I wanna say it was something like around 2007 or oh eight. Well, I heard people who dunno, to get

Kat:

on Facebook when it started, you had to have a college email account. You could not just get on there. It was only for college kids. So there were very few, there were a lot fewer people. .

Ron:

Yeah. I remember there was some on, on news site. , there was a, no, it was on TV, some, some expose on Facebook. And I was like, you know, this is probably going to be important. So I'm going to join it and try to figure out what it is. And so I would just say in the very beginning of the business, I think that was the nature of your question is, , you know, websites were a thing. And most integrator websites were pretty bad, you know? So if you just think of the real basics of like the purpose of, I would say marketing, but let's say a website it's, you want to have identified who your customer is, meaning who is this, who's your audience and is that website speaking to that audience about who you are and what your services are and what your differentiation or value prop are, where, what areas do you, do you provide that service? How can someone contact you? , do you have any imagery or video or content of examples of your work? Some of those basics I just defined are still relevant today in 2025. But, , there was so much opportunity. The bar was set so low at that point. , there was an opportunity for us to go in and just help integrators with their website. Just do the basics. And at that time, all the work was custom, right? So we didn't have our Mercury or Mercury pro product. And, you know, the, the large portfolio of. Designed content we have today. None of that existed. , the typical integrator, and if you think about us being an engineering shop, but if you then go to a client and you conduct an effective discovery, and let's say you've taken really good notes on. The solutions they want to put in their project and maybe the budget ranges that they want to, they're, they're comfortable spending money on. And if you wanted to come back to them with a visualization or something other than a really scary, dense proposal, there weren't. Many tools in the marketplace. Now I'm going to give Rob Gearheart, former CDF president credit. He had this, this big contract. It literally was a contraption with a monitor and a box and you could roll it and you could do visualizations. But the idea that, , you, the salesperson or you, the design consultant had a, , an idea in mind of what would be best for the client. How could you then go back to that client and present visuals or illustrations of your ideas to help walk the, you know, I call it dropping breadcrbs, helping them understand when a, what you're seeing, what you heard and what your approach to that project is. There weren't that many solutions in the marketplace. So we just started looking at the basics of, well, could, do you have a company brochure? Do you have sample portfolios of your drawings or docentation that you could show clients? And. 2008, the sales portfolio was born. We still have integrators around the world utilizing their sales portfolio. We, we produced, , many, many, many hundreds of those custom books, every single one custom for integrators around the planet. , that had never thought to create a polished marketing presentation of their approach. And, , so those are some of the ideas. Then we started helping clients realize, wow, so you've been serving your customers for 15 years. There's this thing called email. If you put out some thoughtful information into their inbox, they might read it. And so I started hiring writers. There's a marketing, , sorry, an engineering company. With a growing bench of writers on staff, producing content to help, , our clients better communicate with both, you know, multiple constituents, both their existing customers and their existing trade partners and friends, but then also reach out into the ether for this potential new customer, right? This luxury conser ready to build a house or a project that was eager to find the best. technology contractor to be their consultant and system installer. , and that's when then SEO was born and doing content that served both an email benefit and an SEO benefit. And I mean, our, our methods and methodologies have obviously evolved and we're a much more sophisticated marketing operation today in 2025 than we were in 2008. But those were some of the, maybe the environment, , that we were born in. And then you did mention the iPhone. So I'll just add when I started the company in 2007, myself and my two employees that I started the company with. All issued iPhones, iPhones. We literally stood in line, got version one of the iPhone because I didn't know exactly what the iPhone was, but I felt it probably was going to be important. And so I made sure I had my team had it because it was just part of that, you know, thinking. About, you know, we don't always have to fully understand or comprehend what the impact of a technology is going to be current one today, I would say is like AI, but like you can use your Spidey senses and a little bit of experience to say, it's probably going to be important. So like, it's just a good idea to lean in and start to figure it out. And obviously we know where the iPhone went for the home automation industry, which is, it now brought control. Into the palm of your hand for your project, which, I mean, frankly changed everything.

Kat:

It did change a lot. It's funny. Technology works that way. So in that vein of things changing, , I think it's time that we play a little game , and I know this is going to be hard for you,

Ron:

but it is a

Kat:

one word answer game.

Ron:

Oh, one word. That's not my strength, but yeah, let's go.

Kat:

And your one word is going to be trend or tactic. So I will be listing out a list of marketing trends or tactics. We don't know until you tell us, but, , current ones are historical ones and you're going to tell us whether it was a trend or whether it is a tactic that businesses should employ. Okay.

Ron:

Okay.

Kat:

Okay. You ready?

Ron:

I'm going to do my best. All right. Audience, don't judge me. And if you do, just don't tell me you judge me.

Kat:

We're all going to judge you. No

Ron:

more.

Kat:

Okay. , Tik Toks or short form video marketing, Instagram reels, Facebook reels, et cetera. Trend or tactic? Trend.

Kat:

SEO. Tactic.

Kat:

Influencer marketing. Trend.

Kat:

Voice search optimization. Trend.

Kat:

LinkedIn as a primary marketing platform. Tactic.

Kat:

Webinars and virtual events.

Ron:

Tactic, but not B2C, B2B.

Kat:

B2B, okay. Interactive content. Quizzes, polls, calculators, tools. Tactic. Chatbots for customer service.

Ron:

Tactic. That's evolving very fast. So much neat tech. All right. Sorry. More than one word.

Kat:

No, it's fine. That's that. I say, if I say one word and I get a sentence, I'm good. Okay. , personalized video messaging for sales and leads. Awesome. Tactic.

Kat:

Okay. , paid Google ads. Tactic.

Kat:

Social media contests or giveaways. Trend.

Ron:

I don't see it being applicable to our client base.

Kat:

Okay. Email marketing.

Ron:

Tactic.

Kat:

SMS. Text marketing.

Ron:

Trend.

Kat:

B2B not B2C.

Ron:

Yeah. I just don't see our industry reaching out to their luxury conser or specifiers and them wanting to be bothered with that.

Kat:

, user generated content. Do you know, you want me to explain that one?

Ron:

Yeah, tactic. Our clients at the end of the day, the consumers on a buyer is on a journey, a research journey to figure out who to use. And so if you, the small business put out content that you've produced, doesn't have to be highly produced across your website or YouTube or social channels. It's awesome content for a potential. Decision maker or influencer of the decision maker to learn about your business.

Kat:

, marketing automation with AI, your favorite thing.

Ron:

Oh, it's, it's a tactic that's going to continue to evolve at lightning, lightning speed.

Kat:

, cold calling. For sales,

Ron:

not B2C, not B2C. So I'm going to say, I don't know if that's a trend or a tactic. It's certainly a tactic for businesses. Oh gosh. I think that integrators could try cold calling. It would probably really stink and not be fun. But if they were trying to build their specifier relationships, probably, you know, if you're good at good phone, you know, you have a chance of maybe breaking the ice.

Kat:

All right. Yellow pages ads. Remember those?

Ron:

Oh my gosh, that was a ancient trend.

Kat:

Okay, billboard advertising I

Ron:

I mean it depends on your business But if you're really going for that needle in the haystack luxury consumer, I I don't see that being a It's a tactic, but I don't see it being a tactic applicable to our luxury CI, you know, integrator.

Kat:

Direct mail.

Ron:

A super interesting tactic that's kind of, I think, experiencing a resurgence.

Kat:

Interesting. Okay. , giveaways, freebies, like branded pens, stress balls.

Ron:

Never hurt me to a B to C. So an integrator trying to appeal to a consumer, maybe some, some of that tactic, , at a home show, , is a, is a maybe, but giveaways or different things of value could be an interesting email list. , growth strategy. So if you had a long vision, you're playing the long game to grow your outreach in a marketplace, there are absolutely ways to put things out that are appealing if you wanted people to sign up for a newsletter list.

Kat:

Interesting. Okay. Radio ads.

Ron:

I want to say general it's a, it's a tactic generally not applicable to the typical, you know, by appointment only luxury integrator. But I, there are cases like a client. We have, we have a client in Oklahoma and for his hi fi shop, he uses radio and he kills it. So I, I think it had, it depends on your market, but I, there might still be a place for it in some markets.

Kat:

All right. You made it.

Ron:

I don't know if I passed or failed that, but I, I, here's what I did. Cat. I did my

Kat:

It was not a test.

Ron:

Okay, good.

Kat:

, okay. So that wasn't a test, but this may be a test. So next I'd like to, I'd like to talk a little bit about fails because we talked a little bit about buying lessons and the growth challenges and struggles of an entrepreneur. And I know we've seen, or you've seen some of these along the way. So maybe you could tell me what are some of the biggest marketing fails that AV integrators have made?

Ron:

Absolutely. I, I want to do that, but I also just want for the sake of the audience, I'm going to put this bigger. Oh no, I broke it.

Kat:

No, you got it. You can do it. Oh, there

Ron:

we go.

Kat:

There you go.

Ron:

There you go. So for those that are watching Kat's graphic, she has, oh my gosh, some rather crazy and ridiculous marketing fails, , up on the screen, which you just have to watch it. I couldn't even take you through it, but there's nine of them and they're, they're all pretty funny. , all right, I'll give you one. There's like an ad for a strawberry lemonade, it says strawberry lemonade forever. And then it says for a limited time only, not forever, if it's a limited time. I just,

Kat:

here's my thing is like, it's like, you know, that for a company of that size, you know how many times, like how many people had their hands on that before it went out and it still went out like that. That's the part that stresses me out because you know how many meetings were held about that ad.

Ron:

Yes.

Kat:

I think that that's where I go with it. Like you or I can make a mistake, but for like huge, like corporations to make mistakes

Ron:

like this, it makes me insane. Here's a marketing fail. So I, again, I, I talk to small business owners every single day of the week, usually six days a week. And I've done that for like the last 25 years. And it never fails that I, the, what I'm about to describe as a marketing fail. I hear at least once a week for years and years and years. And so the story goes, the, I talked to the fella who was in the Northeast and super nice guy took our call and he. Oh, why did he, he, cause he, he wanted to change services with something with us. And he's doing very, we appreciate every bit of business, but he was doing a little, a little thing with one firefly. And I just, he allowed me to go into a bigger conversation and I said, you know, how's business, how's life. And he just described to me here in, , at that time it was Q1, 2025. And he said, business is way off. Low, you know, lead gen is off. I used to be generating all my business through leads and referrals. It's way off. And, , you know, things are really bad. Things are dire even. And I asked him, so what are you doing? Like, what are you pro actively? If you're in the driver's seat of this business, you're, you're driving this race car, are you in the driver's seat or are you in the passenger seat and his life just happening to you? I E what are you doing proactively to improve your brand, , to improve your outreach to your customers. This fella had been in business for 25 years, knows lots of people. And he goes, no, no, no. You don't understand. Marketing doesn't work with my customers. My customers call me when they need me, my customers. Don't respond to marketing. And I was like, wow, that's super interesting. And you can imagine where I took the conversation. I was like, well, do your customers use this thing called the internet? Might they use the internet? Might they occasionally go and search for this or that? , might the home network you put in nine years ago, might it need a refresh? And might it be helpful if you put some, , regular communication in front of that customer, , about what's possible and wifi six or wifi seven, you guys don't throw apple apples or tomatoes. I don't know what the current wifi thing is, but I, whatever the current network technology is, , and or. , might someone you've served in the past, , be doing a remodel or an upgrade to their home, or might they be moving to a new home and might, because you did that installation seven years ago, might they have forgotten and they're trying to remember, Hey, what's that, that guy, what's that gal that did our work, who would I call? And, and at the end of that dialogue, he was super resistive, but he actually acquiesced on, and I think the, where we landed the plane was he did agree. He probably should work on his reviews on Google because I had him just simply go to Google and type in the name of his business. And it's like nothing crazy or exotic, no solutions, no city names, no brand, none of that really fancy stuff. Just type the name of your business and press enter. And he was like, Oh my God, he had like a 3. 1 star rating and it was less than 10 reviews. And the profile, this thing called the Google business profile was entirely very unflattering with the images that were posted online. And I, I just tried to describe to him that, you know, as, as life goes on, the role of the internet in your business simply evolves, doesn't go away. And that it's a good idea for you as a business owner and operator to be in the driver's seat, mindful that stuff is probably, you know, there are things I just call good ideas, like having, you know, a brand you're proud of good idea, having your vehicle wrapped, good idea, having a website you're proud of good idea, emailing your customers, good idea. You know, I can keep going, but there's just a lot of things that aren't terribly exotic and just call it the basic blocking and tackling of being a business.

Kat:

So what I'm hearing is the biggest marketing fail out there is dealers not being aware of their presence. Like they don't even know what they're showing to people or what their first and what someone's

Ron:

first impression of them. It's being mindful that the customer is going through this journey to learn about the technologies that are possible and then learn about the brands that might be available within that product category. And then they'll go through the process of learning, which installing business integrator dealer, would they want to do that work? And then post sale realize that if that customer stays in love with you and your business, they will tell all their friends. So that's just, it's, it's a really good idea to acknowledge that cycle and to be active at each step of that customer journey. And put your business out there and know that if you're one of the few in the brave and you're, you know, 30 minutes into this conversation and you've gathered that nugget by definition, you're in the minority of competitors in your marketplace that are even listening. And then you're going to go even to a smaller group that are then going to do something about it.

Kat:

And that's

Ron:

where those businesses are well positioned for future success.

Kat:

Well, let's level it up after that, too. Let's say you're an integrator and you're aware and you want to, you want to expand on your business and you want to expand on your digital presence. Tell me, talk a little bit about the role of storytelling in delivering that message and how telling your, selling yourself and telling your story Is a good vital part of marketing.

Ron:

Well, it's just one basic principle. And, and I, I'm now, again, I'm involved in a lot of interviewing and I keep interviewing these candidates and they're like, well, I don't want to toot my own horn. I was like, man, you're in an interview. If you don't toot your horn right now, then there's nobody that's going to step in here and do that for you. And the same goes for a, , a business, your business. If you're listening to this or watching this. Like you want to put your best foot forward and tell your story, who are you, what do you stand for? You know, we don't have to use fancy business terms like mission and vision and purpose and values, but just like what's the essence, like where did your business come from? Why did you start your business? How is your business different than other businesses? And that messaging should be on your website. It should be in your collateral, your brochures or whatever. It should be in the minds and in the dialogue from anybody that you work with that is client facing, whether that is salespeople or that service people. Right. It is a good idea to make sure that your people in the field, touching your customers and your prospects, understand how to talk about your company and understand that if your company is some has some differentiated benefit or tagline or capability, they all know how to describe that succinctly. And if you simply do that and know how to tell your story. You're going to close more business and you're going to have people out in the wild, ultimately telling their friends about you, because guess what? Most businesses won't be organized enough or mindful or thoughtful enough to think that uniformity across their team, telling their own story and their solution offering and their differentiation and their value prop, most integrators will not be. Dedicated enough and focused enough to actually have that trained across their team. And so that's like step one. And then if you look at, well, you have a target audience, whether that's a luxury conser, and that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Like one, one guy's luxury sale is a 5, 000 sale. Another guy's luxury sale is a 5 million project. So it's very subjective. It means different things to the folks that are listening, but knowing your customer and knowing the, the, the message you ultimately want to get across, then you get into, well, how do you do that method of communication? And at the core stories are more memorable than facts. And so communicating through stories, whether it's your sales pitch or whether it's your, the way you communicate on social media. Maybe the type of videos you produce. Maybe you tell a story. You're like, well, how sexy can cutting a speaker in be? It can be really interesting. If there's a customer that is ultimately thinking about putting some cool multi room audio in their project, you are on camera with your little DJI gimbal, and you're telling the camera what problem you encountered or what the client wanted to accomplish. And then you put it on a stand and you go up there and you cut that sucker in, you pull that wire down, you connect it and you come back to camera and you complete the rest of the thought. You're going to have some people on the edge of their seat. And so it's just a matter of a lot of times we as business owners are just operators in businesses. We think, well, no one's going to care about this. You're completely wrong. Cause the rat, although your audience might be very specific and a very narrow, if they come across your messaging, They're going to be compelled. They're more likely to be compelled to reach out. And that's really what you want. It's not a nbers game. You don't want a thousand people to raise their hand. You want three people to raise their hand that are highly qualified. And if you put out great messaging across all your client touch points and prospect touch points, you're in a much, much better leveraged position for that content to matter.

Kat:

I love it. You nailed it. This is my favorite part of what we do. is talking to each integrator and learning about their business and helping them tell their story in the most effective way possible because they're all different, they're all unique, and they all have something to say. And I, that's my favorite part. All right, we're going to keep it moving forward and we're going to talk about your favorite thing. Which is the future. I know you're a futurist kind of guy. You like to think about it, and I don't want you, this is not your 30 minute spiel. This is your . Let's keep it this year. Let's keep it 20, 25, 26. What do integrators need to think about for their future?

Ron:

But I think, yeah, so I think 2025 is a year. Where the idea that outreach to the specifier community, particularly through events and education, I think it's, it's accelerating. Maybe this is going to be a, a peak year of focus on that type of strategy. , meaning, you know, if you go and do great work for Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Smith might tell one or two of her neighbors or family members. If you go and are able to forge a relationship with a, an architect, And you do great work and you're a great consultant and advisor to that architect. That architect could feed you five projects a year for the next ten years. Like it's possible. So, and I'm going to say that secret's out. That cat is out of the bag. People are going, h, that, that would be neat. So then how do you do that? And, , I have a, I have sad news for everyone that's leaning forward right now. Going, oh my God, Ron's going to tell me how to do that. There's no silver bullet. It's slow. Steady nurturing of relationships and delivering value at a 10 times rate of anything you might ask for. And if you go to that architect, specifier, developer, person that could feed you lots of vole of work, and you just find every way to try to bring, be valuable to them and helpful and assistive to them, a good way that an integrator can do that today is there's so many technological changes, particularly in lighting, but in so many categories. , in the night, the wiring or infrastructure requirements in projects, network infrastructure, you know, the, the, the fact that, you know, so much technology today is streaming locally to the display and not necessarily being distributed from a hub course that there's caveats to that, but it's just, there's just a lot happening. And the architect's job is to be super informed to the conser, to the customer and an integrator, for example, could be just super valuable, helpful and, you know, advising them without the expectation that they better get that job. And it's just one example. You can also do CEU education. That's another one. Luncheon learns, , as a bounty of of strategies. I think that's going to reach a feverish pitch here in 2025. I think the economy has seems to have slowed a little bit, although my prediction it's going to heat up in the second half of 2025. , we'll see. That's my Nostradamus moment there. Hopefully I'm right. Probably wrong. We'll see. , but if that is, , if that is true, cool. Then the architects have a little bit, the designers and such have a little bit more free time right now. Possibly integrators are, are totally off of the sugar high of COVID and all the free spending and free money in the economy sloshing around. So there's, you know, people are not as quick to be spending all their money, you know, enhancing their home. , particularly in the mid market and down markets, you know, there's a little bit less of that right now So it's just the integrator has a little bit more hunger and desire to grow his network his or her network The architect and specifier has a little bit more time available to grow their network. So I think there's going to be some merging , so if you don't have a strategy there And , if you haven't thought critically about how marketing and branding could help you do that Now is probably a really good time and then the other big theme I would say is the way that the internet is working, , particularly cause of AI. , so not only are there so many amazing AI tools and technologies for us to leverage as business operators, but it is changing the nature of, for example, how Google works and things that might have worked to help your business be visible and dominant ways in the past are likely. Now, very different. And so if you're not paying attention to that, you have a really strong chance of getting left behind. So as a new tactic, I think that it's important to look at the role of the internet visibility, page one visibility. It's important to look at your strategy on social media. It's a little bit nutty, but I feel that I've seen the whole rollercoaster from the rise to the fall to now the reemergence of the role of social media. In the lives of businesses, , here in North America. And so I, I think that's an important thing to look at. And then again, it's, , you mentioned chat bots at the beginning, one of the questions, you know, I'll just say, stay tuned to us. We, we have, you know, neat things to announce, , this year in 2025, just about leveraging technologies and the uniqueness of every single business. That's listening to this or watching this and how can all of those unique facets of their business, their story, their solutions, their brands, their preferences, their availability. , and how can that ultimately be served up with both leveraging AI and han interaction, , via all the touch points, whether that's website or Google business or social media. When fireflies very hard at work, looking at that problem. And we're very, very hard at work at actually developing really unique, , one of a kind solutions to help our vertical. So we're, , not to toot our horn, but I will, cause this is my cat. We're doubling down on R and D investments. I mean, we believe. That a lot of our future growth and prosperity is going to be because we're investing and reinvesting profits in our success into what's next. So it's not just, you know, pocketing it, but rather reinvesting, , looking out three to five years ahead. Where's our industry growing? What are the needs of the small business owner, the service business, and how can we be best positioned to support them? And, , super excited about the future.

Kat:

I will let it, , So lots of good stuff today, Ron. I appreciate you letting me flip the tables and interview you for a change instead of you being the interviewer. But I think we have one more thing to cover and I'm going to let you do it.

Ron:

We do. So this segment, this is our marketing expert segments. This is where. In this case cat, but, , up until now, I have been interviewing various members of the one firefly team and the amplify people team. So within our hiring, , services business, and the goal was to shed light on nuggets of wisdom that ultimately could help our audience. You know, maybe there's one thing out of this dialogue that someone could take and implement or dig deeper into. And, , the other types of automation on plug shows are where I interview industry, , , players, whether they're business owners or consultants or reps or manufacturers, and then the third type of content is where we repurpose webinars and other educational content. And we put that out both in video and audio, but this segment. This is the virtual baton handoff. I'm handing you the baton. There it is for everyone listening. I'm handing her a virtual baton and cat. You are going to be interviewing. The one firefly team members about, , all things marketing moving forward. So I, first of all, I want to say congratulations and I'm excited to see where you take this segment and, , what are your thoughts? Are you excited about that? What's ahead?

Kat:

I'm super excited. This is, you know, I, you know, I love to tell a good story and I love. I love our team, and we have some really smart, really talented people on our team who I cannot wait to get in front of the camera for what is maybe their first time doing it and talking, you know, to some of our customers, albeit in a unique fashion, and I've got some fun stuff planned. We're gonna, we're gonna learn about some people, we're gonna learn about some marketing tactics, we're gonna play some more games. , and we're going to have a really good time. I think it'll be some fun stuff for everybody out there and kind of like you said, you know, give our customers some really interesting things to think about, help them broaden their horizons in some ways a little bit and get them thinking.

Ron:

Awesome. Well, I'm excited to see you run with that. We have obviously a great team behind the scenes that make this show work. So I want to give a shout out to all of them, each and every one of them. , thank you all. And, , and yeah, Kat, let's, , let's. Cut it there. And the audience is now going to start to see you once a month interviewing our marketing experts here at one firefly. So see you soon. Thanks everybody.

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Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.

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Resources and links from the interview:

• Katharine Wheeler LinkedIn Profile
• Ron Callis LinkedIn Profile
• Who We Are

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