How a Cinnamon Roll Landed a $100K Lead

Kasy (00:00):
You need to be unique as well. Everybody gives out hats, pens, t-shirts.

Adam (00:04):
Are those boring? Those are bad?

Kasy (00:06):
I turn them into night shirts. You know what I mean? I don’t wear the shirts out. It has to bring in the people. It can’t be boring.

Adam (00:16):
Paying for Google Ads or Meta ads or Thumbtack, lead generators, all those kind of things cost a lot of money and it’s often just a race to the bottom. The price is always going up. The cost is always increasing. It just feels like, Oh, will I ever actually get ahead? Well, my guest today is Kasy Allen and she’s really good at getting leads for free. Kasy is going to help us understand how to just build your community, get involved and start developing a bigger, stronger local brand. So Kasy, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here.

Kasy (00:45):
Thanks for having me. 

Adam (00:46):
And welcome back.

Kasy (00:46):
Yeah, absolutely. And community is my passion, so I’m super excited to talk about this.

Adam (00:50):
You’re pretty passionate about being local and your husband’s part of it too. Tell me more about that.

Kasy (00:55):
I moved to my area 30 years ago from Texas to Colorado with huge change. My husband was born and raised there. His family homesteaded there. The same community that raised us raised our children, and that means a lot to us. In fact, one of our core values is rooted in community. So we do a lot of give back to our community, whether that be attending events, sponsoring Little League, giving back free cleans, for example, for senior citizens. We try to stay as active in our community as we possibly can.

Adam (01:22):
People say, Oh yeah, I sponsored the Little League and so now I’m part of the community. But that’s different than what I. I feel like you actually are part of. There’s a difference there and you are just so integrated into it. Does that take time?

Kasy (01:36):
It is very intentional. So I have 20 years of digital marketing before I quit my corporate job and joined my husband and growing our company. So I come with that marketing mindset. So instead of going in and saying, let’s sponsor Little League, let’s sponsor Little League and then make sure our logos are on the shirt. Let’s bring them swag. Kids love swag, right? So bringing them key chains to put on their backpacks, bringing a cooler to every game that’s filled with juice boxes and little candies. We have our own baseball shirts, right? So we’re making this more interactive. During the 4th of July parade, we’re bringing in thousands of people and we can put those little leaguers on our float and they’re the ones handing out the candy and the parade.

Adam (02:15):
Okay, that’s a great idea. Yeah. There’s a reason you’re on the podcast today for this episode because this is totally your sweet spot. That’s a great idea.

Kasy (02:25):
Yeah, absolutely. And it elevates. The kids love it. And then the kids are seen at school and then they see this free swag. Not only do they now want to get into baseball, when they see me then at Halloween, let’s talk about Halloween. So we have Tricker Street. So an entire street downtown Granby turns into thousands of kids and parents walking in the street. Two years ago, I changed things up and I handed out ramen. Ramen noodles. Kids love ramen noodles. They have a chance to get candy or ramen. Almost all the kids picked ramen.

Adam (02:54):
Really?

Kasy (02:55):
I handed out over 300 bags of ramen and in fact, the entire street was like, Where did you get the ramen? And they’re running back to where we are so that they can get it.

Adam (03:04):
What’s ramen? What am I missing? 

Kasy (03:06):
It’s random. 

Adam (03:06):
It’s just funny and unique. 

Kasy (03:07):
It’s random and kids love it, just like squishies.

Adam (03:10):
I’ll be darn.

Kasy (03:10):
Yeah. So it’s like standing out and how can you do things differently? At that same event where I was handing out ramen, I was handing out these key chains. I didn’t like them. They were breaking. I put them on all of our vehicles and they kept breaking off. I had over a hundred, so I put them on the table and had the kids take them. Kids love swag, so they took all of them. I didn’t think much of it. My kids aren’t in school, they’re older. I had a parent that’s on the PTA and she says, I see your logo every day at school. She said, Your logo is on every backpack.

Adam (03:40):
Okay. So this is funny and this is very interesting. For our listeners out there who are thinking, Yeah, but Kasy, I want leads. I don’t care about the kids at school had the logo. How does this translate?

Kasy (03:50):
I’m going to try to make this short, but it’s a heck of a story. So I live in a very small community. In fact, in Granby where I’m at, we only have 2,500 local residents. That’s tiny.

Adam (04:00):
Holy cow.

Kasy (04:00):
So then your question should be, how are you making any revenue? My entire county probably has about 10,000 local residents. 80% of our homes are second homeowners. They don’t live there. We’re taking care of second homeowners. So me doing all of this community impact and networking with the community, now I’m getting my name mentioned when those second residents are asking for local referrals. So for example, on Facebook, if they’re going to Facebook or next door and they’re asking for a local cleaner or if they’re asking for. We do a lot of services, so painting and remodeling, our name is getting mentioned without us even having to show up.

Adam (04:34):
If your main client doesn’t even live in the community, then screw it. I don’t need to do all that community stuff, is what I would think. But you’re saying the community is actually recommending you to people outside of the area.

Kasy (04:49):
They are because the people that are outside the area, they can rely on Google and they can rely on reviews. So that’s important, right? I have to do local SEO and I have to be on the top of there, but they also want to hear from people that are local, that those people trust. Unfortunately, in our industry, there’s a lot of trades that give us a bad rap. There’s people that don’t show up for jobs, they take deposits. And so more often than not, they want to get a real referral. And if they get that referral direct from the people that are local, they can then go to Google and they can see all of my good reviews and now they’re starting to build that. In SEO, we call it EAT, right? So expertise and authority and trust. So you’re building all of this online and they’re all connecting.

Adam (05:33):
Do you also get referrals from other contractors?

Kasy (05:37):
We do. We do. So we’re also part of the Grand County Building Association. It’s all builders. So where do we fit in? We went initially, we do remodels now, but we went initially because if I can connect with my local contractors and home builders, I can get window cleans and I can get construction cleans. So I’m networking there to get those to come in. I can actually sponsor an event at one of the builders association. They’re the drink sponsor or the coffee sponsor. You know what I mean? And then they’ll give me five minutes to talk to the contractors. We’re really good at networking and working the room and talking to people and trading business cards. So we’re always walking away with leads from the contractors as well.

Adam (06:17):
So you mentioned trade shows. What goes into that?

Kasy (06:20):
So not necessarily trade shows. I do go to trade shows. Or home shows. What’d you call it? So just local community events. So for example, farmer’s markets. So in our community, we call it Music and Markets. So every Thursday there’s a free concert in the park. Around the perimeter is the vendors. So you have people that are selling fruits and veggies, the farmers, there’s meat there, but there’s also a couple of other vendors like the Grand County Rural Health Network, you know what I mean? Random foods.

Adam (06:47):
And then you guys, Wheatley.

Kasy (06:49):
Well, we didn’t because we would always stare at this one guy on the corner and he was selling windows and you’re like, Nobody’s coming here to buy windows. Nobody goes to his booth and you really feel bad like you want to bring him something. You really feel bad for him because he’s sitting there alone. I was talking to Israel, the owner, and I was like, How do you think that we can bring people to our booth if we did this? When we want to go to a booth, it’s because they have food or they have swag, and then you engage with them. You may not even want to talk to them. Maybe you don’t want to talk about health coverage, but they have cool swag. Maybe I’m going to go talk to you. One of our favorite vendors is the cinnamon roll lady. I think her company is Mixed Sweets or Mixed Bakery. Anyway, she sells four cinnamon rolls for $20, so $5 per cinnamon roll. I asked her, Can we do a partnership where you package one cinnamon roll and sell it to me at cost, your stickers on it, and I’ll get a hundred at cost, and then I’m giving them away. So I’m giving away a freebie, but I need to get leads as well. So if people come to my booth, you get a free cinnamon roll if you sign up for the chance to win a free clean. I mean, and we’re talking a cinnamon roll for a remodel lead. A remodel lead could easily be $100,000 and it was a cinnamon roll. Then I’m trying to think through how we can then still get our lead list. So the few ideas, you know the toy vending machine where you have the little plastic balls and you can put a quarter in and you get your toy?

Adam (08:16):
Yeah. 

Kasy (08:17):
So something like that, but maybe five to 10% of the balls have a golden ticket, a golden bucket. And when you get the golden bucket, you can ask for one of five things. So it could be a free clean, a free window wash with a limit, of course, $100 off of another service or $500 off of a remodel.

Adam (08:37):
How does Jobber help you with all this stuff, all this community stuff?

Kasy (08:40):
Great question. So it’s very important that when sales leads come in that we ask them how they heard about us. And if that’s not there, that we’re capturing it when we visit them. If I can see how people are finding out about us, then I can see if this community stuff is working, right? But I can see if any of my marketing efforts are working. So being able to go into Jobber and export that report showing how somebody heard about us is vital for us to be able to track where all of our marketing efforts are going.

Adam (09:09):
Yeah. Jobber is helping Kasy crush it in business and Jobber wants to help you crush it in business too. So whether it’s switching from a different app or maybe starting fresh from pen and paper, Jobber is for you. Go to jobber.com/podcastdeal, get the exclusive discount, start a trial and start seeing how Jobber can boost your business today. 

(09:30)
So Kasy, I’m a little cynical on this and I’ll tell you why. I have a great brand in my town. People love us, but I just had this cynical view, but no one wants our hat. But you’re saying people do want to wear that kind of stuff if you give it to them?

Kasy (09:44):
Absolutely. 

Adam (09:45):
Change my mindset on that. 

Kasy (09:46):
I feel like you need to be unique as well. Everybody gives out hats, pens, and shirts. 

Adam (09:51):
Are those boring? Those are bad?

Kasy (09:53):
I mean, I turn them into night shirts. You know what I mean? I don’t wear the shirts out. I try to find things that are unique. So the Frisbee’s cool because it’s like guerrilla marketing across a festival, right? Yeah. The one that we added this year is a car trash can. So it’s like a little trash can and it has our logo on it and you put all your little pieces of trash in there and it fits in your cup holder, right? 

Adam (10:15):
What? 

Kasy (10:16):
Totally unique. 

Adam (10:16):
That’s awesome. 

Kasy (10:17):
And then it’s like, well, why that? Because we do cleaning. We do window cleaning and we do residential cleaning. So you clean your car and you’re not going to throw it away. You’re going to see my logo every time you get in your car. 

Adam (10:27):
So what else do you do then? I mean, you’re doing community events, all the swag stuff we’ve covered, and then you’re going to these home shows that you talked about.

Kasy (10:35):
Yeah.

Adam (10:35):
Are there other things? Bingo night? What else do you do? 

Kasy (10:38):
Yes, actually.

Adam (10:39):
You do bingo night?

Kasy (10:40):
Yes. This sounds so funny, doesn’t it? Oh my goodness. But you literally get a fan base doing this every Tuesday’s bingo night and a local business can sponsor it. And then you can do the bingo calling and then with the winner, they can pick out your swag and they love it, especially Yeti cups. 

Adam (10:58):
You have Yeti cups. 

Kasy (10:59):
Yes. And then Thursday’s trivia night. And there’s a following that goes to both of them. And before too long, what you hear from the crowd is, Are we going to see you on Thursday?” 

Adam (11:10):
And be honest, do you really feel like that. You can’t quantify that, can you? You just assume that as long as the phone is ringing, this whole force of my marketing is working.

Kasy (11:22):
Yes. What you can do is ask when somebody calls, How did you hear about me? And then our list, I feel like keeps growing because it’s like,

Adam (11:29):
Frisbee, mailer, event, bingo. 

Kasy (11:32):
We call them friends of Wheatley Creek. And it’s like if you saw us in the community, then you’re friends of Wheatley Creek. A referral, we always keep those separate. We do have, I saw your vehicle. That includes, I saw you in the parade. I got a really big lead off of somebody that was in the parade. They called and said, Hey, I have a house here locally that I would like you to come see for cleaning annual, so a recurring contract. Went and saw it. She fell in love with us. Very large house, probably 4,000 square feet. Come to find out it’s a family ranch and now we have all three houses.

Adam (12:03):
That’s sweet. Do you ever speak? Do you ever get invited?

Kasy (12:06):
Yes.

Adam (12:07):
That was assumptive because I can just tell you would’ve gotten to invite to speak somewhere. So that was an assumptive question, but have you?

Kasy (12:13):
So here’s what’s cool. Yes. So yes, I do local speak. So we have a local economic development and they do, I believe it’s once a month they do classes at the library and it’s mainly for new business owners. Maybe they don’t even have a logo, maybe they don’t even have an LLC. So very, very new. So I go and I’ll teach AI 101 or marketing 101 or they can’t even get their listing on Google and they’re like, I’m stuck. What I do? So then we’ll do a workshop and work through that. So I do a lot of the small business that are just getting started events and they’re tiny, right? 20 people are in the room. But what’s interesting is this goes back to the SEO, the EAT. I’m building that experience. I’m building that authority. I’m building that trust. It’s getting mentioned on social media. My name is connected to it. And so all of these little factors are helping with SEO and then AI as well to help us rank better.

Adam (13:12):
Be sure to grab our community marketing playbook to help put all of Kasy’s tips into action. Either scan the QR code on the screen or click the download link in the episode instructions to get your copy today. 

(13:25)
Do you ever try to get into local press?

Kasy (13:28):
Yes.

Adam (13:29):
Or anything like that?

Kasy (13:30):
Yes. The one that we did that worked really well was Cleaning for a Reason, which is why we clean for free for cancer patients in our community and it made the front page.

Adam (13:39):
Wow, that’s awesome.

Kasy (13:41):
Yeah. And then it told our story about how we’re giving back to the community. Also our story about our local roots. We recently had a lady that had a stroke and she couldn’t work. And obviously as the mom of four or five kids, it’s hard to support your family when you’re in need. So we’re able to offer a free clean and I think that is having that availability to expand it beyond just the cancer patient really helps us reach our clients. And again, that’s another story that I can send in the newspaper.

Adam (14:11):
Yeah. Okay. All right, Kasy, devil’s advocate here, because I think some of our listeners are thinking this right now. I think they’re thinking, Well, Kasy, you’re wonderful. You’re very pleasant. Everyone likes you. You’re very likable. You have a warmth about you. Of course you do all this stuff. Is this something that our listeners can do or is this just a Kasy superpower?

Kasy (14:33):
No, totally you can do it. I think it takes a passion for your community. I’ve worked for a lot of companies and they say that they believe in sustainability. They believe in giving back. They believe in volunteering for the community, but they volunteer once a year to take a picture to put on social media. 

Adam (14:46):
Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of right there.

Kasy (14:48):
Right. Or they go to one community event and then now they say they’re community-minded. You have to really want this and you have to really be passionate about it. I try to focus every Friday for community. So I front load all of my work. Monday and Fridays, I do no meetings. All my big work and my big projects, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday I try to connect with the community.

Adam (15:10):
I’m a hawk with my time. I’m not a big fan of working nights and weekends after normal business hours. Got five kids, wonderful wife. And so for someone like me, and you protect your time too. I’m almost allergic to working after hours. Do I have to give that up a little bit to do some of these things? I mean, bingo nights aren’t happening during business hours.

Kasy (15:29):
Sometimes you do, but I also feel like you can get burned out when you sign up for too much. Don’t go to the chamber and then the Builders Association and then three or four other ones, you’re going to burn yourself out. Start with one. I actually joined our, it’s called a Main Street organization, which is like a chamber, but it’s nonprofit, so it doesn’t charge the members. And their meetings, their board meetings are every other month. So it’s only six meetings a year. Their events are community minded events that you would want to go to anyways. Music in the Market, music in a farmer’s market, I’ll go to that every Thursday, no problem.

Adam (16:02):
Yeah.

Kasy (16:02):
Okay. So that was an easy first start. And then we added on the Builders Association and that again is once a month. I feel like ease into it and then it gets. And I’m with you. I protect my time too. I try to get off every day at five o’clock. I don’t want to work later. You get burned out and I don’t want to get burned out. I love this business and I love what I’m doing and I think I owe it to the business and myself to protect that time.

Adam (16:27):
Any other closing thoughts on this whole community aspect?

Kasy (16:32):
If you really love it and you dive into it, there’s a lot of opportunities to get involved in your community. Three years ago I signed on with Destination Granby and I was a board member. Today I’m the board president. That’s a lot of time and commitment, but it’s been fun in the time that I’ve served in the last two years. It’s been amazing. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned to network with a lot of businesses and because of the position I’m in, every new business that comes to town, I get to meet. So it’s a really interesting position to be in and I love that I took that opportunity. It’s a big time commitment, so it’ll probably be the last time I do it, but I’m super excited that I was able to do that and get that experience. So ease into it and then take on more as you can.

Adam (17:11):
Alright Kasy, ready for lightning round? I’m going to ask you a bunch of questions. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.

Kasy (17:15):
Let’s do it.

Adam (17:15):
What’s your favorite hack when you’re setting up a table at a community event?

Kasy (17:20):
It has to bring in the people. It can’t be boring. Bring in the kids because they love freebies and they’re going to go and grab their parents and then find another way to bring the parents in.

Adam (17:31):
What’s your favorite kind of community event?

Kasy (17:34):
The music. The one that brings the people together that they want to go to and it’s not something that’s requiring people to come together.

Adam (17:40):
Business cards, yes or no?

Kasy (17:42):
Oh my gosh. I’ve never worked in an industry where business cards are used so much in my life. Yes, business cards all the time. Carry them with me all the time.

Adam (17:50):
How do you handle follow-up when you meet a good prospect, if you will, out in the community?

Kasy (17:55):
Depending on what lead it is, Israel is really good at sales. So if it’s a big remodel, we’re probably putting him on the phone and then we are scheduling an onsite assessment at ASAP. 

Adam (18:06):
Tell me a common mistake people make when they set up a table at an event.

Kasy (18:11):
It’s boring. It’s flat too. When you go to a store and things are displayed, they’re elevated so you can see them instead of being flat. So think of baked goods, right? If it’s all flat, you can’t see it when you’re walking by. You’re trying to attract people in. So display is just as important.

Adam (18:29):
Last one. What time do you wake up in the morning and what’s the first thing that you do?

Kasy (18:34):
I’m not a morning person, but the older I get, the more naturally I wake up at nine. And the first thing I do, I’m still checking the schedule, making sure that my team is good and they’re out the door. And then I sit at my desk and get started on projects.

Adam (18:50):
Kasy, the best. Thanks for being here.

Kasy (18:51):
Thank you. 

Adam (18:52):
How do people find out more about you, Wheatley, all the stuff that you guys are doing?

Kasy (18:55):
You can find us on all of the socials at Wheatley Creek, and then our website is wheatleycreek.com.

Adam (19:00):
Well, all your second homeowners and all your community people, all the clients that you serve, your employees, your subcontractors, everyone that touches you, they’re better for it. So keep up the hustle and great work. Thanks for being here.

Kasy (19:12):
Thank you.

Adam (19:13):
When growth stalls, should you raise your prices or sell more jobs? Next week, we’re breaking down the trade-offs behind both strategies and how to choose the right path for your business. Thank you for listening. I hope that you heard something today that will inspire you to build your community and actually really become a community-based business. I know it helped me a lot as well. I’m your host, Adam Sylvester. You can find me at adamsylvester.com. Your team and your clients and your family deserve your very best, so go give it to them.