We are always trying to encourage people to understand that all aspects of life are understood through the lens of story. Here is a great article about how people operate in story, and how businesses can only do themselves a favor by discovering a fluid story, understanding how to operate in it, and understanding how to communicate the story in a way that will expand it!
Check out this awesome article here!
To the average employee, it’s just a job. Clock in, clock out. Don’t want to go in to work today and can’t wait to leave. Late to work, early to leave…if we can get away with it.
How do you know your professional painting contractor is not just like another company and just not like another employee?
At GreenWay, we believe in something. Actually, we believe in many things.
When I hire someone, I tell them, “You are going to like this job.” They do not sense the bigger picture at first, but what I mean is that we are unlike other painting contractors in so many ways. We are not like your last employer who did not care about you or his clients.
At GreenWay, homes are the investment and painters are the investment. We do not just paint homes, we paint neighborhoods one satisfied customer at a time! The hard earned money you have acquired, you do not want to spend all over again two years down the road. We know that because we talk to homeowners everyday who’ve had some horror story about a painter they hired in the past who did a horrible job…and now it needs to be re-done. He put a paintbrush in his hand and then called himself a painter and you got duped.
We want you to rest assured of these three things:
You see, this is not just another job. This is a lifestyle and a story. We are living it now. We want our stories to intersect so that you can achieve what you are wanting to achieve with the biggest investment you have, your home.
Call today for a free estimate – 513-405-7048
I was recently in a group discussing how to appropriately seek referrals from clients and other sources, and someone present expressed that they really hate changing the tone of their interaction with their customers from being extremely relational to somewhat impersonal just to request leads. He seemed to really love to get to know his clients authentically, and asking for referrals or contacts was a huge disconnect. While many do not have this problem, it is easy for people to understand that this can feel like a sales pitch and much of the issue comes down to how much we buy into our own stories.
I have a very close friend, Dave, who is often a walking endorsement. If he has felt a benefit from a product or experience in his own life, his natural tendency is to promote it as thoroughly as he can whenever he has opportunity. I have heard him sell strangers at the grocery store on his new shoes simply as a form of small talk. This personality is the extreme opposite of my other friend from the group discussion, but there is something we can all learn from Dave. He is confident in evaluating his experiences and firmly believes that his experiences can be shared by others.
We can all learn from this kind of confidence. We live in a world where it is easy to perceive that everyone is simply out to sell something. While we are trying to promote our own businesses, being well grounded in the truth of how we can benefit our clients is the best way to create more frequent, confident, and authentic opportunities to spread the word. When our individual goals with each customer are attached to a larger vision for great service, it becomes easy to have true authenticity in creating conversations that will spark the spread of a great reputation.
Micah Landers
GeoAds
There are many of us who are involved in related and even overlapping fields. This doesn’t often create a very large conflict, because many industries are so large that most of our companies could not begin to handle the volume of all the possible leads in the area. What we promote here at GeoAds is really a more aggressive attempt at making yourself more memorable than competitors, by actually learning to provide a more intentional quality product.
As a business owner begins to dig into how they want to be defined and the direction they are building in, there is frequently a revelation that productivity toward these valuable goals can actually be realized by taking on a more strategic approach to what services are provided. When any company is struggling to keep up with their demand, they should immediately review the profitability of the range of their services.
This is not to say that there should automatically be a cut. It would be foolish to not seek to expand when your reputation begins to proceed you. By discovering what niche you desire to fill, and also by evaluating what niche your already beginning to fill, you have the greater opportunity to balloon in that specific area before taking over uncharted or less reputable territories.
Micah Landers
GeoAds
As you have hopefully gotten used to hearing from us, a company that functions well should be expressing a clearly emphasized story, hopefully uniformly at every employee level. This is something that is nearly impossible to accomplish, but those who are careful to put forward the effort will often reap a shining reputation and customer referrals that do more than any advertisement could ever hope to accomplish.
What you may not realize, however, is just how important it is that your story be an honest one. While a poorly focused, missing, or invisible story is the ultimate missed opportunity to build your reputation in minds, telling a deceptive story is one that will spread the eventual downfall of your organization. A company that falsely seeks its customer’s best interests will be shunned if it is ultimately only trying to get at their checkbooks.
Most companies do not begin with intentions of doing this, but as expansion happens, often a centralized internal message is lost, and while the methods and procedures of the company become standardized, there is a space to eventually begin expressing a message that doesn’t gel with the actual experience, which can be like a poison if customers become sensitive to it.
I rarely meet a small business owner who has any true struggle with this issue, which is generally reserved for larger companies who have experienced detrimental results through growing pains. It is a hazard worth noting, however, because there are a handful of people whom we occasionally meet that eventually turn up to be fraudulent or scammers. I just recently learned of a friend who was almost caught in a bad business deal with a false company built on a mountain of false stories.
Being passionately intentional about streamlining your company’s ability to stick to the story on every level will keep you from ever even having to question whether anyone is perceiving cracks or false hopes in your story. Don’t leave any room for questions!
Micah Landers
GeoAds
Here at GeoAds, we get the priveledge of coming into contact with many unique varieties of companies. There really are a very wide spectrum of business models that lean heavily upon yard sign advertising to get the word out throughout the local communities!
In seeing such a diversity, even within TBN circles, it has become easy to spot the frustrations many business owners face and where the often arise. Many small business owners are so focused on the practical aspects of making their efforts more profitable that they lose their grip on the story they are telling. Often busy entrepreneurs don’t even realize that their clients, employees, and other associates can see the frustrations they are muddling through. When a business is getting the best of its owner or operator, it can have damaging effects on the relationships throughout that persons network of influence, regardless of the individuals knowledge of the vibe they are exuding.
When people begin to take our messages to heart, it creates a lot of relief and reassurance about the vision they have in what their company is pursuing. When a company is continually returning to its chief goals and redefining itself based upon the bigger picture of the role it strives to fill, there is space for confidence to grow in all of the aforementioned relationships involved.
When you forget to ask yourself why your so busy, you will begin to lose effectiveness in what you do.
Micah Landers
GeoAds
It is really a great experience to write an article one day and unearth one that rings with the same message the next. A story is truly the simplest and ultimately the more sure way that an honest company can learn to flourish along with its customers.
Here is a link to an article from the New York Times concerning the importance of a story.
Even if your company has not worked with GeoAds yet at this point, you are probably somewhat familiar with our unique methods for strategizing yard sign placement and creating long term visibility within the local community for our partners. We recently had a client company land 5 big contracts in less than a month using our methods! We believe firmly that this is a really useful service for our clients on a short term basis, but our real focus in this is actually to help companies recognize and seek after a larger, long-term goal. The goal of gaining a space to tell a story within individual’s minds.
We further seek to achieve this goal through Brand & Story Development. Most small business owners do not really recognize the value and potential they have in simply being intentionally straightforward.
Let me put it this way. We as human beings are always telling a story. Even a mathematic problem or a list of related facts can convey a story to those who understand how to interpret it correctly. No matter what form of communication we are involved in, we are portraying some form of a story. So the question for your company is simply this, “What story am I telling?” When this question takes on a business aspect, there are a multitude of factors such as advertising, customer service, and employee relations which become complex factors. Ultimately, however, most companies are telling mixed or confusing stories. While individual complexities create unique situations, a quick evaluation from this standpoint can usually give us some immediate indicators for improvement.
At GeoAds, we really want to emphasize the need for an honest story. If your company doesn’t truly have something valuable to offer to clients, we don’t seem much reason in trying to help you improve your story. We don’t really even want to try to partner with companies who are ultimately not benefiting anyone. For a business owner, the question finally comes back to how greatly you believe you are offering value, and learning to expound upon that value.
A quick example of this is our partner company, Greenway Painting. Greenway has experienced tremendous growth in only a few years of existence as a company. While many of the skilled painters who work for Greenway have a decade or more in experience and it shows in the work, the company grows easily because of the straightforward honesty that has a trickle down effect from Carl, to his supervisors, down to even the newest employee. Referrals come flying in not only because the product is superb, but the company story that is expressed is both honest and believable. People like being a part of it.
At GeoAds, we seek to help other companies realize this business formula. If you have something worth while, you don’t need to stress about getting everyone’s attention. You need to focus your energy on continuing to refine the product you deliver, and how to become a better story teller.
Micah Landers
Chief of Operations
GeoAds
GeoAds
A division of GreenWay Painting, LLC
If you’re a small business owner, you probably do not have the time or energy to be doing your own advertising. You’d rather be paying attention to doing the work you set out to do. Most forms of advertising aren’t really even appropriate for you or your budget unless you have already experienced tremendous growth and have alleviated the need for it. Perhaps you have looked for cheaper forms of advertising before, but have come back unsatisfied. Welcome to GeoAds.
GeoAds is designed to provide small local companies of any variety with geographically strategic advertisement placement at a rate which even a brand new company can afford. We are committed to helping small businesses get their name out there in real physical space and in locations which are the most ideal for their target audience. We are also available to do monthly based campaigning promotions for special events you or your company are hosting.
So whether your company is looking to build up anything from a local radius of residential customers to an entire Tri-state of commercial clients, we are here to optimize your advertising dollar.
Not dollars, just dollar, because one dollar is all it takes. We want this to be affordable for all companies and start ups, so we offer a rate of a dollar per sign per week. It really can be that simple.
If your interested in pursuing what we have to offer, you can contact GeoAds at advertise@greenwaypaint.com