Chris Reed, better know in central Indiana as Captain Selfie and owner of Creed Improvements, shares why it’s important to create your own unique brand and the first steps to take when creating your own.
Here is the transcript from the presentation:
Ryan: And so, with that, it is International Ideas Month. And so, what better way to, to commemorate that month than to invite someone who’s created a definitive brand, that you absolutely know who you’re talking to from the minute you see that beard start to head towards you with the bright orange shirt. So, everyone, let’s give Chris Reed, AKA Captain Selfie, a hand.
Chris: Hey, thanks. That’s fun.
Chris: So, I, I, it’s great that you have this format and it’s nice to be able to see each person and, and understand their business a little bit just to kind of touch on some things.
Chris: I’d like to just talk about the technical aspect of, of brand first, because it’s kind of simple and it’s easy to get out of the way. You’re, you’re creating a business for yourself and you’re going to represent something. So, to create a logo for your brand has gotten easier and easier throughout the years.
Chris: Things like LogoTournament and Fiverr, make it really easy for, Fiverr.com, if you don’t use it, I use it all the time. Really easy to get a technical person in order to do something you need, creativity-wise and, and so, like this, I’m going to try to stand up, like this brand that’s on my chest all the time now. The big deck energy and whatnot, it started out, literally, I guess, just tell a story real quick. I launched Creed Improvements about four- almost 14 years ago, and when I did, I got a business card today, kind of a thing, that I picked out some general drafting tools and put them in the corner, because in the end I designed things for people, decks, pergolas, and porches. And I put my name on it and I printed these cards and they looked terrible. You know, it’s still the same 20 bucks to print 500 cards, but I used that and I clipped it and I put it in the corner of a news- an e-mail newsletter tool. That was it.
Chris: Maybe it was SurveyMonkey or whatever it was, but I blasted that out to everybody that I knew. And I said, I was launching my new business and I was really blessed, because enough people that, that knew who I was, and knew the type of person I was, contacted me and said, that looks horrible. And, you need to, you need to spend a little bit of money and make that look good.
Chris: And so, this Creed Improvements logo. That is, is right there. It’s hard to see on Zoom, right. I’m grabbing some paperwork. So, if you see something you’re not allowed, whatever. Anyways, that got created over a burrito dinner with my good friend Kyle Lacy, who said I can’t have my friend looking like such crap.
Chris: And, and I’m saying to you, that, that burrito dinner is probably the same amount of money I’d spend on Fiverr, getting a, a pro to create that brand.
Chris: And what I mean by that is this, your logo is your initial steps into your brand for your business and then you and everything you do is, is the soft skills that come up from brand development.
Chris: So, the last part of, technical part that I like to talk about, before we get into the soft skills side of it, is, is color. There’s a lot to color and you can Google it in, in the forms of advertising and marketing.
Chris: And so, you got to consider your audience, who they are, the typical buyer, and all those things that come along demographically and psychographically, in order to understand your target market. And then you want to identify color that works with those, that target market.
Chris: So, for me I use orange, and it’s, because it’s the color of change and I was a control freak, and I hate change. And so, I decided that if I was going to change my life, I needed to embrace change.
Chris: And one of those ways was, I bought an orange shirt, about, I don’t know, eight years ago, and I wore it out. And somebody said man, look at that guy in that orange shirt. Wow, that’s a bright color, and engaged four or five people in the course of an evening, and a conversation over just the color. And, it helped that a couple of women said that I looked good in that color.
Chris: So, I went ahead and just went with orange. And the reason why it’s this orange is, because across everything that you can buy for your business, hunter orange is universal, ok. And, you can get that in other primary colors, you can get it in blue, you can get it in green. You can get it in a lot of different colors depending on your market and so forth. But, that’s really at the heart of why I chose that orange.
Chris: And I went with it, and what I mean by that, is that when I started Creed Improvements, I had blue and gray and black, and it was like my homage to Superman, without any red in it. And, I went with that to start the business. And, I realized that it just didn’t, it didn’t work, and it was, it was so funny. It took me about two or three years to realize the color change really made a difference, so, and I don’t want to dwell on that part of the story, but, so, having a brand that is correct, that you believe in, that it starts with that logo.
Chris: It starts with your business card, and it starts it, and then from there, it rolls off into, you could say social media and how you put it out there. You can see some of our work that we’ll wrap our work with our brand.
Chris: We’ll put the, we’ll put the colors across the bottom, et cetera. It’s kind of like a picture frame, a lot of the times, but from there it goes all into soft skills and that’s really what I wanted to talk about. It’s, actually, with small business owners, and I’m not trying to insult anybody because I am a micro business, I have three 1099 guys that work for me pretty much every week and I have some other subcontractors that I bring in. So, I am called a micro business. And, it’s not because it was cold in the pool that day.
Chris: It’s because, you know, it is who I like to be. And it’s, it, it’s a lifestyle that I created for myself. And so, Seth, Seth, not Seth Rogen, what’s the guy, Seth, it’s the business consultant coach, he said, if you build a life that you want to live, you’ll never need to take a vacation or retire from it.
Chris: And so, for about the last 15 years or so, I have been on a mission for that. What I do in building decks allows me to do a lot of different things that I like to do in life, that’s to be created and to help. And so, you have to decide for your business, these things that I’m talking about, but for me, these are the decisions that I made, and I hope it helps you.
Chris: So, but when I, when you walk up to someone and hand them your card, and that’s when brand soft skills start, because you’re going to shake their hand, you’re going to look them in the eye. You’re going to do a lot of things that represent your entire business in a nutshell, and that’s show up on time, be respectful, clean your teeth, brush your beard.
Chris: I have, I’ve got brushes everywhere now, because I forget about this thing. It’s just hanging off my face. But, it’s all about those things. It’s about the smile. It’s like, when you walk into a room, you turn on. And what I mean by that is, is that you might just be there for dinner and drinks with some friends. But ultimately, if you’re going to wear your brand, I recommend you do it, because the more logoed wear, depending on your industry, of curse and things like that, the better off is because, you’re not saying to someone, when I walk up with a shirt like this on, hey, I’m here to talk about my business. I’m just here to be, and that being, it checks on when I walk through the door.
Chris: I’m excited about the moment. I’m excited about who I get to meet, anybody that I do meet, I treat the exact same way, respectfully, with a smile, understanding where they’re at and how I can help them with where they need to go.
Chris: All of these things are the things that are core to my body. But, it reflects in every interaction that I have with anyone, and so you might catch me on a bad day when I really needed the lunch and I haven’t gotten it yet and I’m tired and I’m angry and I’m cranky. Those I will apologize for right away, but the rest of the time you’re seeing experience that I want my customers to see.
Chris: And it’s the same when I walk into their house and I speak about their deck and I, and I assured them that they don’t need to make excuses for their house because they’re not going to get to see my house. You know, things that deflect with humor. That are easy, that roll off the tongue, the, you know, you gotta think about them sometimes a little bit. Our old tagline that we developed at a networking event was ‘we take the butt crack out of home repair’.
Chris: And, it was because it, this exchange had gone around 12 people to tell their taglines. And, I’d listen to all these people and I said these words out loud, and everybody fell out laughing. You take the butt crack out of home repair. I never put that in writing, but it haunted me for like years, because people are like, you’re that like crack guy, right?
Chris: Well, I embraced a little bit, on the back of our T-shirt, that, and this one doesn’t have it. But, literally down here, clear right down here at the bottom of this T-shirt, that had one block of text that wrote across. It said, if you could read this, please ask us to tuck in the shirt, and I would purposely leave my shirt untucked, and I would get more people laughing behind my back than ever before, like I could hear ‘em, right? They’re laughing behind my back and I could hear ‘em.
Chris: But I’m saying, I would always turn around and go, ohh, yeah, I apologize. That’s our first layer in our early butt crack warning system, and they would just fall out laughing, I would own them because they were looking at my ass.
Chris: And, I’m just saying from a branding standpoint, all of those things are just me and my humor, and the experience that I want to have with my customer.
Chris: Usually, I want you to do these things for your business, but when I step into someone’s house and I explain to them the way I do, things I say, you know, I’m an audible processor. I’m very visual, so I’m glad to be in your home, but I said, I like to treat my customers like we’ve been drinking together for years, so I might say some things that that, you know, you wouldn’t think that I would say, but that’s my, that’s my defense, is that we’ve known each other for a really long time. And I think of you as a really good friend, somebody that I want to take care of et cetera.
Chris: And so, I say all these things, to say is the core of building your brand, is the experience that you give people in and out of your life every day, the way you treat people is a reflection on your brand.
Chris: And what I mean is that, you know, through networking and everything that I’ve done, I’ve built a business for myself that is 100% referral, and it pays my bills and allows me to help other people, and so it’s exactly kind of the, what I’m looking for, you know.
Chris: And so, I hope that you know, as you develop your brand, you’ll come down to the idea that it’s about, it’s like a, it’s like 100 touches that happen. And when this comes up, there’s all these other things that go along with it, and it’s the other person’s experience that matters the most, when it comes down to how people are going to reflect on their brand and how people are going to repeat the story of your brand.
Chris: And what I mean by that is, did they have a good experience with your business? Was there good follow up? Was there, was there competitive pricing in the marketplace? I never, never, never, never make excuses for charging too much, but I will always figure out a way to develop good quality for my clients, so that they appreciate the value of what they got, and so-
Chris: When you’re, when you’re putting together your brand, be unique. There’s so much out there in the marketplace that is vying for people’s attention, that it’s hard to own a piece of someone’s mind for recall, we call these Kleenex, even though that’s just a brand for a nose tissue, and it’s, and it’s that point, is that they own, Kleenex, owns my space when it comes down to that.
Chris: Can you own somebody’s space, Marcus, for carpet cleaning? Boy, I don’t know that I’d try. I think if I was your consultant, for today, for example, I would focus on exactly what you said, the apartment managers, the building managers, the people that are that are in your space that are going to lead you to the most minutes possible. I would focus my time and energy and money and budget towards getting my brand in front of them in unique and creative ways. That would give you a shot at their business, and again, there’s lots of books on those kind of things and stuff out there.
Chris: My favorite one is “Sell Anything” by Chet Holmes.
Chris: If you’re not, if you’re not, if you’ve not looked at that book, it’s 100, like 100, it’s like 100 step way in which to access your target market and to really focus on getting yourself in front of those people. I really like his style, too, anyway, so let’s see that, I had a list that I wanted to go off and I just, as a way in which to remind myself of the things that-
Chris: When you think about your ideal customer and who that person is, that’s this kind of goes over to targeted networking a little bit more than brand, but understanding that ideal customer, when you’re in small businesses, you should never be out looking for your target customer.
Chris: You should always be out looking for the three to four people that are also looking for your targeted customer.
Chris: For me, it’s real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and other trades like plumbers and roofers and things like that. Those are the people that I look to meet. If they’re at a networking event, I want to go talk to them because they’re going to be going after my targeted customer next week and they’re going to be meeting with people that might need a deck, and they’re going to be in people’s homes, that kind of thing. So.
Chris: For, again, understanding your target customer is great and it’s certainly how you should serve up the majority of it. But I, in a micro business, I felt, I feel like I want to find those people that are out hunting for the same customer that I am.
Chris: Help your customers become your brand ambassadors. Oh, that’s a really great one, I love that one. I have so many, I’m gonna just say this is an inappropriate, incorrect way.
Chris: Hi, Carol, you’re on to hold [unintelligible].
Chris: But, I have so many women on Facebook, between 30 and 50 years old, that know who I am. And, I’ve never served their business, their, them, my business has never served them, but they will, when someone says, hey, I need my deck, I need to build a deck or whatever, just go, Oh, you got to talk to Chris Reed. And those are the people that on, through social media, OK, as an example, you can take those people and put them on your close friend list and you’ll see a notification of each and every thing that they post on Facebook. And yes, it can get annoying.
Chris: OK, don’t get me wrong about the intensity of what I’m talking about trying to do, but you can then like and comment positively and supportively to anything that they put up there as a reward for them being a brand ambassador of your, of your company.
Chris: And if you’re trying to build networking teams to help grow your business, it’s a great way in which to be able to just do it for 30 or 60 days with each new person that you bring into your circle, and if you then take them off that close friend list, the algorithm will continue to put their stuff in your preview, but you’ll have, you’ll have helped create that relationship social opportunity for the product, the algorithm to work for you long term.
Chris: I think I’ve already talked about it, but do everything with quality. Again, I’m human. I completely mess up, a lot of which I quickly try to own, and walk backwards with the person as quickly as possible.
Chris: But, I want to try to be, the words I like to use as focused intentionality. It’s a, it can get kind of deep, if you want to talk about it, but it’s the idea of checking my stuff at the door, realizing that I’m out, like, when I first started driving the Captain Selfie mobile. I literally put a piece of paper on the dash that said ‘don’t drive like an asshole, your brand is on the outside of your car’ and I left it there, for like a month or two. Because I would drive like I always used to drive, and I realized that I’m racing my brand around and cutting people off and trying to get somewhere like I was a race car driver. I couldn’t do that with my brand on the outside of my vehicle.
Chris: So, think about how you represent yourself from the moment you step through the door to any event and a lot of times I find a lot of blessing in that, and that, and with that, and I’m going to try to wrap this up and then open it to conversation maybe, but, you know, for me, I have found more joy in getting out there and being intentionally focused on helping other people through networking and helping them by understanding who they’re looking for and trying to funnel to those people that can help me as well and I’ve never regretted that time that I’ve spent, because I don’t know today what it is that’s going to happen for me.
Chris: But, I do know that I’ve connected to a person and that connection takes outward, outward focus and intentionally focused on helping another person, because in the end, they’ll help me 10 times more than if I tried to get them to help me for the moment I met them if that makes sense.
Chris: Anybody got questions or anybody want to talk about anything we talked about so far today?
Marcus: Yeah, Chris. What are, you mentioned that, you know, 100% of your business is referral, right? So are, do you spend any money in advertising? If so, what are some things that you’ve done you thought were beneficial and maybe some things to stay away from?
Chris: So, I believe in boosting posts on Facebook, for example, but it’s very important to target who sees them. And I literally get down to, I’ve built personas for Hamilton County based on areas, in which to make sure my spend, because if you leave that at all up to Facebook, some guy in Africa is going to wind up liking your post and that just frustrates the hell out of me, for sure, but as far as, as far as micro business, the best part about advertising is that it’s 100% write off, so to speak against your tax burden for your business, so it’s an expensive business and it’s a good thing.
Chris: So invest it wisely.
Chris: If, again, I’m not saying run out and do this, but, boy, is there a way to to to sponsor a Little League team in the in the heart of Westfield? Is there a way in which to, you know, have your brand be seen by soccer moms and people, you know, busy people in general, people that have sports team kids are super busy, you know what I’m saying?
Chris: Again, I’m not taking a lot of time to drill down onto you, but creative ways in which you can make micro spends to help little kids in neighborhoods. Fluent neighborhoods, let’s call it that, too, could help, I think.
Carol: Hey Chris, I have a specific question about your business. I know you do decks, do you do deck design?
Chris: Uh, yeah, design for clients. I’ve actually put together just designs on a building materials list and we sell that to a client as well so they can themselves.
Carol: OK.
Chris: Or have somebody else build it or whatever. If you know, like a lot of times, that’s for people that are out of market. I can’t, I’m not going to go to Muncie and build the deck for a guy, but I could design it for him and tell him exactly how to build it, and then he could get a crew locally to build it.
Carol: What about Pendleton? Do you cover Pendleton?
Chris: It’s on the edge. I would say it’s on the edge. But yeah, we love that.
Carol: OK, OK. Thank you. Yeah.
Ryan: Chris, you talked earlier in your presentation about choosing that hunter orange as a distinct color, what advice would you give somebody about choosing the colors they’re going to use for the brand?
Chris: OK, so, first off, is to do some research on the type of customer it is, what they look like, et cetera. And then to, again, it’s not the way the consultants might tell you to do it, because I’m kind of like the renegade, how cheap can I get this thing?
Chris: You want to start doing is doing a bunch of Google searches on color and advertising and the usages of color in advertising, and I start reading a little bit about how Fortune 500, Fortune 100 companies use color in it, and it’s got a, it’s going to work towards that, that segment.
Chris: So, you know, if you’re in the food business, you know orange and yellow, or, I’m sorry, red and yellow. They are deemed making people hungry and stuff like that, and once you start understanding that, you’ll start seeing everything around you a lot differently. But, I’m saying to pick that, those colors that don’t detract from the brand, that can bring something to the brand, as well as, I don’t know that anybody here, well, I’ll pick on Marcus. But, Marcus, your business is, there’s a, there’s Goliaths out there, that have been in business for a really long time and have thousands of employees that do what you do.
Chris: And they’re, and that’s not to say that they’re any better than you, but what they have probably done is they’ve probably paid some consultants a bunch of money in which to help them to curve and to adjust the trajectory of their brand. And so as much as to rip them off of that hard earned money they’ve spent, and learn from it, is to stand on their shoulders as you grow your business.
Chris: I don’t know if that helps or not. But that’s kind of my take on picking color and looking at it, et cetera, it’s interesting, that’s for sure.
Chris: You know, might actually, if you have the money and you could spend it is to do an A/B on a business card. And put a, put your brand represented one way on one side of it and another way on another side of it, and experiment with the response to it as well, and there’s lots of different ways to do that.
Chris: Especially with web products. You know, you can put up pages on your website that look different, but they’re the same, and to see how the response goes to people that do those kind of things, so colors, interesting.
Ryan: Does anyone else have any questions for Chris?
Ryan: Alright, Chris, I think you left everyone speechless otherwise.
Ryan: And tell our viewers how they can get a hold of you if they’re interested in having a discussion or if they’re ready to have their deck built?
Chris: So, uh, through Facebook, you’ll find me or my business, Creed Improvements, since it’s an easy way to chat with me, texting is my favorite, 317-626-1177 is the number. You can certainly call it. You’ll probably get voicemail, because I text a lot, as well as it’s just noisy at the job site and things like that.
Chris: So, I just, I tend to miss a lot of calls that I catch, and love to connect if we’re not already connected. Send me a friend request on Facebook, I always try to keep 10 slots open, to get rid of some older people and bring in some new people, so thanks again for the opportunity just to share, as well as to help if I could.
Carol: Hey, Chris, could you be sure that contact information in the chat box.
Chris: Sure.
Carol: OK.
Ryan: Well, everyone, let’s give Chris a hand for his presentation today.
Chris: Thanks guys.
