I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer
Todd Miller:of specialty metal roofing and other building materials.
Todd Miller:Today my cohost is Seth Heckman.
Todd Miller:And hi Seth.
Todd Miller:Welcome to the show.
Seth Heckaman:Hey, thank you.
Seth Heckaman:Looking forward to it.
Todd Miller:Hey, I got a question for you.
Todd Miller:Um, you have a dog at home, don't you?
Seth Heckaman:I do
Todd Miller:I know you got Roscoe.
Todd Miller:Roscoe the dog.
Todd Miller:So I have to tell you something.
Todd Miller:Your vet, your veterinarian will probably never tell you this, but if your dog,
Todd Miller:if Roscoe is ever running a fever, you need to get some mustard because
Todd Miller:it's the best thing for a hot dog.
Todd Miller:Okay?
Seth Heckaman:that.
Seth Heckaman:That wasn't one of your finest though.
Seth Heckaman:I agree.
Seth Heckaman:Only mustard.
Seth Heckaman:It should be put on a
Todd Miller:Well, I, I agree with that.
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Todd Miller:It's the spicier mustard the better too.
Todd Miller:So, Hey, are you good to go?
Todd Miller:Oh, let's let our audience know we are doing challenge words.
Todd Miller:Um, so each Seth and I and our guest soon to be revealed, uh, has
Todd Miller:been, have been given a challenge word that we are challenged to
Todd Miller:work into the conversation somehow.
Todd Miller:So you, the listening audience can be listening for any unusual
Todd Miller:words or phrases we might use.
Todd Miller:And you might think, aha, I wonder if that was the challenge word,
Todd Miller:but maybe we'll trick you and we'll just say something really stupid.
Todd Miller:Anyway, so, um, anyway, you good to go, Seth?
Seth Heckaman:Yep.
Seth Heckaman:Let's get going.
Todd Miller:Well, our feature guest today is no stranger to pretty much anyone in
Todd Miller:the home improvement and construction industry, it seems through his business
Todd Miller:efforts as well as his podcasting and social media, which have absolutely
Todd Miller:been voluminous in recent years.
Todd Miller:And now his new book, this gentleman is, like I said, just everywhere recently.
Todd Miller:Um, our guest today is none other than Randy Chaffee of Source One Marketing,
Todd Miller:and ibuyfromrandy.com, a manufacturer's representative known for the care help and
Todd Miller:attention he provides to his customers.
Todd Miller:Randy is well loved and respected in the construction field.
Todd Miller:Randy, welcome to Construction Disruption.
Randy Chaffee:Todd, Seth, that was great.
Randy Chaffee:You almost, it's almost like I wrote that or something.
Randy Chaffee:That was brilliant.
Todd Miller:Yeah, you might have No,
Todd Miller:No,
Todd Miller:I, I, I always pick on everyone and write it myself,
Randy Chaffee:I know you though.
Randy Chaffee:I appreciate that.
Randy Chaffee:The fine kind words and I appreciate it and it's, it's great to be on.
Randy Chaffee:I've known you guys for a number of years now
Todd Miller:We certainly have myriad of years
Randy Chaffee:be the word?
Todd Miller:now.
Todd Miller:You never know.
Todd Miller:You never know.
Todd Miller:We'll reveal at the end of the
Randy Chaffee:We will.
Randy Chaffee:But a myriad of years and, uh, and, and, and I, those are kind words
Randy Chaffee:because it's exactly the way I feel about you guys, so I appreciate it.
Todd Miller:Well, we appreciate you greatly and have enjoyed our
Todd Miller:relationship, that's for sure.
Todd Miller:So, um, let's go ahead and dig into it.
Todd Miller:So you've been around the industry quite a number of years and your
Todd Miller:first book is hitting the stores here very shortly, probably about
Todd Miller:the time this episode is released.
Todd Miller:Um, titled Asphalt and Algorithms, A Road Warriors Playbook for Winning
Todd Miller:Results in the Hybrid Sales Arena.
Todd Miller:Your book tells a bit about your life story and gives great advice to
Todd Miller:those looking for success in sales.
Todd Miller:Um, maybe I'm getting the cart before the horse here, but tell us what inspired
Todd Miller:and prompted you to write a book.
Randy Chaffee:Well, I appreciate it.
Randy Chaffee:You know, it, it's, uh, it's funny, my, uh, editor and my marketing
Randy Chaffee:team asked me that question well, after I was into the book.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, and, uh.
Randy Chaffee:It was real quick, a simple answer.
Randy Chaffee:The very most important reason, uh, guys, was to honor my dad.
Randy Chaffee:Um, I talk a lot about my dad in the book.
Randy Chaffee:The first two or three chapters are very focused on growing up on the farm.
Randy Chaffee:I was an only child adopted, and I was three days old.
Randy Chaffee:I, I, I refer through that as bought at the baby store, and it must've
Randy Chaffee:been a sale day, but you know, it's what it is, what it is, right?
Randy Chaffee:But, uh, and so we lived three and a half miles out of a small town of 1,201 people.
Randy Chaffee:And so my dad was everything as most dads are.
Randy Chaffee:But I mean, in my world, everything, everything I, I just, who I
Randy Chaffee:hung with every day and a hero.
Randy Chaffee:And so we, we spent a lot of time, I spent a lot of time getting lessons
Randy Chaffee:that I didn't really want at the time, and probably, no, not probably
Randy Chaffee:did not appreciate at the time, unfortunately, I. Probably didn't
Randy Chaffee:appreciate him until after he was gone.
Randy Chaffee:He's been gone 30 years now, and someday I try to be a really, really good boy
Randy Chaffee:so that I can go hang with him again.
Randy Chaffee:Right.
Randy Chaffee:But until then, the uh, the, the, the, the best option I have right now to
Randy Chaffee:pay him back a little bit is to do a book that I can dedicate to him.
Randy Chaffee:So that is the, the first reason, and, and I say this and I mean it, but if
Randy Chaffee:I print one book and it sets on my coffee table and that's it, that's okay.
Randy Chaffee:You right.
Randy Chaffee:That's a success because I did it for him.
Randy Chaffee:But beyond that, the secondary thing is, and probably close
Randy Chaffee:to as important, not near.
Randy Chaffee:Well, okay.
Randy Chaffee:That's not fair.
Randy Chaffee:Not nearly as important to that.
Randy Chaffee:'cause that's pretty important to me.
Randy Chaffee:But is, as you'd mentioned, I've been in this industry for, uh, I,
Randy Chaffee:I, I spilled the beans with our mutual friend, Heidi Ellsworth.
Randy Chaffee:I, I don't wanna her podcast a while back, uh, that I've been
Randy Chaffee:fibbing the, the world a little bit.
Randy Chaffee:'cause I still use the hashtag of four plus decades, which is accurate.
Randy Chaffee:But it's technically five.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, I've been doing this thing forever.
Randy Chaffee:And so you didn't need the Wow.
Randy Chaffee:Wasn't necessary, Todd.
Randy Chaffee:That was,
Todd Miller:the problem is my number is just about the same
Todd Miller:as yours, Randy, so you're quite okay.
Randy Chaffee:But, but, you know, through that time, uh, had a lot of help.
Randy Chaffee:A lot of mentors, people that never intended to be mentors,
Randy Chaffee:didn't set out to be mentors.
Randy Chaffee:Probably wouldn't even consider themselves, uh, having been mentors.
Randy Chaffee:And I just felt like I hit a point in my life where I learned some things for
Randy Chaffee:the first 45 years of my sales world, of the old school way of doing things.
Randy Chaffee:And, and I loved it.
Randy Chaffee:I got juiced over it.
Randy Chaffee:I, I, I feel like I've become pretty good at it.
Randy Chaffee:But then I learned something new in the last five or six years, uh, in, in, in
Randy Chaffee:the whole virtual, digital way that, that, that what we're doing right now and.
Randy Chaffee:I thought, you know what?
Randy Chaffee:I, I need to start giving back to an industry that's been very good to me.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, I've been blessed to be in, that's why I get involved with some of the boards
Randy Chaffee:that I'm on, like the NFBA and the BFBA.
Randy Chaffee:Some of those things, not for any reason other than I truly,
Randy Chaffee:truly wanna just give back 'cause it's, it's the right thing to do.
Randy Chaffee:And so I felt like writing this book would help me, maybe help a guy
Randy Chaffee:or gal or two out there somewhere wandering around, whether it's in
Randy Chaffee:our industry or out of the industry.
Randy Chaffee:Sales is still sales.
Randy Chaffee:It's still, at the end of the day, there's a person, whatever their sales title is,
Randy Chaffee:and a person, whatever their buying title is, but it's still two people that that's
Randy Chaffee:gotta build a relationship and, and, and, and have confidence with each other.
Randy Chaffee:And so I decided I'd write this book to be able to try to give back and help.
Randy Chaffee:Um.
Randy Chaffee:Thirdly, I just wanna be an author.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, and, and, and, and fourthly, uh, I've been doing, and lastly, I
Randy Chaffee:know you're saying lucky, hopeful hope.
Randy Chaffee:So, hope he's done.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, I wanted to, uh, I, I wanna do more, uh, writing, but I wanna do more speaking.
Randy Chaffee:I wanna do more events, and I love doing that kind of stuff.
Randy Chaffee:And, uh, the book is that final credibility builder.
Randy Chaffee:Right.
Randy Chaffee:And, you know, and I'm so silly with this whole goofy thing
Randy Chaffee:that, uh, I'm glad it's ready.
Randy Chaffee:It's, I'm glad it's in, in, in the formatting stage.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, like you said, by the time this drops, it'll be out, or very
Randy Chaffee:shortly thereafter, I'm already a few chapters into another book.
Randy Chaffee:I, I, I probably can see myself in the process of writing or publishing a
Randy Chaffee:book, maybe the rest of my life, maybe.
Todd Miller:Very cool.
Randy Chaffee:So that's, that was the very long version of that.
Todd Miller:Well, and, and that's a great answer.
Todd Miller:And I have to tell you, um, you know, you gave me a little bit of a sneak
Todd Miller:peek at the book and I appreciated that.
Todd Miller:And, uh, I agree you did a great job of honoring your father,
Todd Miller:um, that came out real strong.
Todd Miller:And yet there's a lot of good, helpful information in there.
Todd Miller:So I, I think it's cool we.
Seth Heckaman:Oh, sorry Todd.
Seth Heckaman:I was just curious before we dive, uh, not to give the whole book away and
Seth Heckaman:I we're gonna get into some more of your career in sales here, but I just
Seth Heckaman:curious, can you share a lesson or two from your dad that have had the greatest
Seth Heckaman:impact on the 50 years thereafter
Randy Chaffee:Oh, absolutely.
Seth Heckaman:specifically?
Randy Chaffee:Sure.
Randy Chaffee:And probably I'll, I'll jump to chapter two because, and I'll try to make
Randy Chaffee:this short and and succinct as I can.
Randy Chaffee:Um, we were, I was probably eight, nine years old and, uh, no, I
Randy Chaffee:was 12 years old, excuse me.
Randy Chaffee:And we was planting seed, planting corn on the farm.
Randy Chaffee:Dinner bell rang.
Randy Chaffee:Dinner bell meant we needed to run up to the house.
Randy Chaffee:You know there's no cell phones back in that day.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, I mean, we was planting the seed by horse and bug.
Randy Chaffee:No, I'm just kidding.
Randy Chaffee:But, uh, Todd always established, I'm old, so, but we, uh, so we jumped
Randy Chaffee:in the pickup, drove up the house.
Randy Chaffee:My dad at the time was farming and selling a pioneer brand seed corn.
Randy Chaffee:Um, he had a customer call, rain's coming in, everybody's trying to get planted.
Randy Chaffee:And Walt about 12 miles away, needed some corn and wondered if,
Randy Chaffee:if we could bring some over 'cause he is trying to get finished.
Randy Chaffee:Dad says, we'll drive the pickup son out to the shed.
Randy Chaffee:And we went to the Butler shed and we always called it the Butler
Randy Chaffee:shed because it was a Butler shed, it was made by Butler.
Randy Chaffee:We weren't real smart back in the day.
Randy Chaffee:And, uh, anyway, we loaded up the seeds, he got his little order pad, wrote it
Randy Chaffee:out, and we jumped in and he, I remember he let me drive down to gravel roads.
Randy Chaffee:Until we hit the Tar V. That's what we used to call it was Tar v. I don't know
Randy Chaffee:if Todd, did you call it Tar V in Ohio,
Todd Miller:we did not,
Randy Chaffee:we had in Michigan, we call it the Tar V roads.
Randy Chaffee:No idea where that came from.
Randy Chaffee:So, um, and I didn't care enough to research that, to put it in the book.
Randy Chaffee:So if, if you're looking in the book to find out Tar V, don't
Randy Chaffee:bother, go go chat with Chad GTP.
Randy Chaffee:'cause I did not.
Randy Chaffee:But so we, we get there.
Randy Chaffee:Long story short, fine walk down the back lane, delivery seeds,
Randy Chaffee:rain's still kind of coming.
Randy Chaffee:We get in the truck and I'm driving again, again, 12.
Randy Chaffee:But back in the day, and I said to my dad, I said, why, why did we, we
Randy Chaffee:had to get our seed planted and the rain's coming, and why did we do this?
Randy Chaffee:He goes, son, he says, when Walt gave us the honor of doing business
Randy Chaffee:with us, we promised him that we'd do everything we could to make
Randy Chaffee:sure that was the right decision.
Randy Chaffee:When Walt called, we just respond Whether that hurts us or not, in the long
Randy Chaffee:run, it's the better route to go and.
Randy Chaffee:And he went on a few more.
Randy Chaffee:And I always got with my dad, he was a quiet guy, but he would always do the look
Randy Chaffee:over at you and go, you understand son?
Randy Chaffee:Yes.
Randy Chaffee:Really there's more lessons coming because there's always one more.
Randy Chaffee:But, so that whole ride home was talking about doing that right thing for your
Randy Chaffee:customer, regardless of whether it causes you a little pain point right now or not.
Randy Chaffee:And, and so that's probably, that's just one of many lessons that I,
Randy Chaffee:that I, that I learned from dad.
Randy Chaffee:And uh, and that's in, uh, in, in chapter two.
Randy Chaffee:The, the first, the first, first, first one.
Randy Chaffee:And I want get into as much 'cause somebody's gotta read the book.
Randy Chaffee:I gotta sell one of 'em at least.
Randy Chaffee:Um, talk about being out in bean field and, and pulling milkweed
Randy Chaffee:after we just got done cultivating.
Randy Chaffee:And my not understanding why we would be doing that when we just cultivated.
Randy Chaffee:And there's a story behind that too, but, you know, uh, but yeah, so it
Randy Chaffee:was, uh, yeah, that was the, probably one of the, my more memorable stories.
Randy Chaffee:And obviously it's been.
Randy Chaffee:Pushing high fifties in years since that date.
Randy Chaffee:And it's still fresh in my memory.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, I can still, I can still smell the, the smell of the seeds
Randy Chaffee:and the, and the, and the fertilizer when I tell the story to be honest.
Randy Chaffee:So,
Todd Miller:Oh, cool stuff.
Todd Miller:Yeah, those things stick with you a long time.
Todd Miller:That's for sure.
Todd Miller:Well, I know you've alluded to it and you talk about in
Todd Miller:your book about being hybrid.
Todd Miller:Randy, um, has te tell us a little bit about that pivotal point.
Todd Miller:Um, has that been one of the most pivotal points in your career?
Todd Miller:And and what does that mean?
Randy Chaffee:okay.
Randy Chaffee:Yes.
Randy Chaffee:To answer your question, incredibly pivotable,
Randy Chaffee:pivotable, pivotable, pivotable.
Todd Miller:Hey, that works.
Todd Miller:Either
Randy Chaffee:you'd almost think I did podcasts now and then myself,
Randy Chaffee:but apparently not, not very good.
Randy Chaffee:Um, so, so I was the, I was the atypical, uh, road warrior, pounding the roads.
Randy Chaffee:The airport customer after customer, bro.
Randy Chaffee:Hugs and brewski and, and, and, and burgers in the evening with
Randy Chaffee:customers and pizza pie lunches and building relationships.
Randy Chaffee:One step at a time, one customer time for years.
Randy Chaffee:Juiced loved it beyond compare and still do.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, but when COVID hit, uh, we, uh, we hit that lockdown stage, right?
Randy Chaffee:Couldn't travel.
Randy Chaffee:And in my mind, when we first heard the two weeks to flatten the curve thing,
Randy Chaffee:I believed that like everybody did.
Randy Chaffee:But two weeks still seemed like forever when you're traveling.
Randy Chaffee:I, I, when we hit that lockdown, I was on 11th out of 12 weeks of five
Randy Chaffee:to six days on the road, there's a moment of, eh, a little downtime.
Randy Chaffee:What the heck?
Randy Chaffee:Nobody else will travel either.
Randy Chaffee:I'll, I'll enjoy this.
Randy Chaffee:But I also started going, what if it's longer?
Randy Chaffee:And I had started developing in my head this idea, guys that.
Randy Chaffee:Maybe there's a, a better way.
Randy Chaffee:Not, not, not, not a different, well, different but better way to do this.
Randy Chaffee:And I didn't know what it was and I would've fallen prey.
Randy Chaffee:I'm gonna guarantee you probably to the old adage, if
Randy Chaffee:it's not broke, don't fix it.
Randy Chaffee:Without COVI probably would've continued to do what I always did.
Randy Chaffee:Um, but COVID forced me to start reevaluating how I did things.
Randy Chaffee:So I dove all in.
Randy Chaffee:I had no, I had nothing else to do.
Randy Chaffee:I don't, I'm not traveling and I, I, me being at home is an
Randy Chaffee:oddity at that point, right?
Randy Chaffee:I don't know what to do at this time.
Randy Chaffee:So I, I started doing some webinars.
Randy Chaffee:I've died on a bunch of other podcasts.
Randy Chaffee:Joined a mastermind group where we literally had to do two or three
Randy Chaffee:videos a day to each other, to everybody in the group, get used
Randy Chaffee:to a new way of doing things.
Randy Chaffee:Fast forward through all some of the stuff, and we can always go
Randy Chaffee:back to any, anything if you want in particular, but 30,000 foot view.
Randy Chaffee:I really started digging this new virtual way of doing things.
Randy Chaffee:And at some point there was appeared like we may doing this for a long time, which
Randy Chaffee:we were, I mean, a year and a half, right?
Randy Chaffee:At least of, you know, once in a while you could travel for a little bit.
Randy Chaffee:And then, then we got yanked back again and all those things.
Randy Chaffee:So I started figuring out virtual, I started figuring out doing a
Randy Chaffee:podcast, guesting on podcasts, um, social media, and you can, you can
Randy Chaffee:be in front of and see thousands of people today as opposed to three or
Randy Chaffee:four if you're on the road, right?
Randy Chaffee:And so that made a lot of sense to me.
Randy Chaffee:But then where the hybrid came from, Todd, uh, and Seth, was that, um, there's
Randy Chaffee:two schools of thought that developed.
Randy Chaffee:There was the old school guys that everything I did, they thought I was nuts.
Randy Chaffee:And some of 'em probably still do.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, and they may, they may be right, but still, um, that we're
Randy Chaffee:just gonna wait till this is over.
Randy Chaffee:Whatever time it takes, and we're gonna go back a hundred percent to the old school.
Randy Chaffee:We're not gonna do any of this.
Randy Chaffee:Sending videos and social media garbage and getting on podcasts, that's just dumb.
Randy Chaffee:We're not doing any of that stuff.
Randy Chaffee:But then there was the other side that literally their theory was, nobody's
Randy Chaffee:ever gonna get an airplane in New York City and fly to Dallas and do a meeting
Randy Chaffee:today and fly back this evening in time for dinner with the wife and kids.
Randy Chaffee:Never again.
Randy Chaffee:Everybody's gonna be sitting with their, their, their, their pajamas or
Randy Chaffee:their shorts on, throw a polo shirt or a sport coat on, jump in front of
Randy Chaffee:the camera and that's gonna be it.
Randy Chaffee:And I called BS on that too.
Randy Chaffee:I I didn't buy that for a minute because again, what we said earlier,
Randy Chaffee:right, Seth was people to people still, you still gotta be with them.
Randy Chaffee:So.
Randy Chaffee:That's where the hybrid 'cause, and it comes from back to my dad again.
Randy Chaffee:Pioneer seeds was called pioneer hybrid seed corn because they took
Randy Chaffee:seed corn and, and depending on what part of the country and the, the
Randy Chaffee:time, how, how much timeframe you had, what length of season, was it dry?
Randy Chaffee:Was it wet climate?
Randy Chaffee:And you hybrided right?
Randy Chaffee:Different, different seed.
Randy Chaffee:So I'm thinking hybrid makes sense to me.
Randy Chaffee:How do we take old, how do we take new and not do one or the other, but do
Randy Chaffee:'em both augment each other and do 'em, uh, in, in synchrony with each other?
Randy Chaffee:You, you in and out.
Randy Chaffee:You in and out.
Randy Chaffee:You're in and out all day long.
Randy Chaffee:And, and some days it'll be more old school, some days it'll be more virtual.
Randy Chaffee:Some days it'll be combinations thereof.
Randy Chaffee:So that's where the, that's for me where hybrid came from is trying to
Randy Chaffee:take both of those worlds and bring 'em together in a way that makes some sense.
Randy Chaffee:And, and the key to that is doing it.
Randy Chaffee:And I am speaking to the choir with you guys.
Randy Chaffee:But doing that in a way that is still a genuine and authentic to your
Randy Chaffee:customer or your potential customer.
Randy Chaffee:So in other words, the three of us are here talking.
Randy Chaffee:People are gonna watch this if they never met us, they met better.
Randy Chaffee:See the exact same person three weeks after they watch this program, this
Randy Chaffee:podcast, if we walk in their door, right, they better see the same person as far as
Randy Chaffee:how we act, how we speak, how we think.
Randy Chaffee:Because if you get disingenuous with you're this podcast personality, or you're
Randy Chaffee:this social media personality that's totally different either way that you just
Randy Chaffee:look disingenuous, you look like a liar.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, to be brutally honest, right?
Randy Chaffee:Which, which one is you?
Randy Chaffee:So now do I, which one do I trust or do I trust you at all?
Randy Chaffee:I think I'll opt for not trusting you at all.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:So that's the, again, relatively long story of how I got to the
Randy Chaffee:hybrid thing and what it means to me.
Todd Miller:Very good stuff.
Todd Miller:Well, you have certainly captured and done it extremely well.
Todd Miller:Um, you know, we've touched on a couple times already about the
Todd Miller:importance of building relationships and sales and what that means.
Todd Miller:Um, do you think that is what really separates, let's say, the
Todd Miller:ho hum reps from the really good superior reps in our industry?
Todd Miller:Or is there something else also that makes that difference?
Randy Chaffee:Well, I think that's a big part of it.
Randy Chaffee:I, I think that, um, I, I, I've talked about this before with people, and I
Randy Chaffee:think if you're honest in sales and you do good in sales, that the, one of the
Randy Chaffee:turning points was when you stop selling and start serving, you know, and then
Randy Chaffee:there's a million books wrote about that.
Randy Chaffee:There's a million podcast speakers and, and speakers.
Randy Chaffee:So it's not like that's a new, you know, I can't claim any of that.
Randy Chaffee:The, when you stop selling and you start serving, you start finding solutions.
Randy Chaffee:You start interviewing with the, and listening with a purpose.
Randy Chaffee:So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, uh, develop a relationship with you
Randy Chaffee:to see if this even makes sense for us to do business together.
Randy Chaffee:Can I help you?
Randy Chaffee:Are you the right customer for me?
Randy Chaffee:Is this gonna work or not?
Randy Chaffee:And what's the, what's the issues and the problems that you
Randy Chaffee:have that we can help you with?
Randy Chaffee:And because we all know that one nasty, naughty word in, in sales
Randy Chaffee:for a rep is when you get dragged into that, that awful, awful t
Randy Chaffee:word called transactional, right?
Randy Chaffee:We always lose in transactions.
Randy Chaffee:Trans, and, and, and I, I've, I've said it before.
Randy Chaffee:Well, well, how do you get paid if you don't have a transaction?
Randy Chaffee:I say, okay, step it up a level here and listen to me.
Randy Chaffee:I'm not saying yes, the cash register has to ring someday, right?
Randy Chaffee:But.
Randy Chaffee:If it's all transactional, it, what that really means.
Randy Chaffee:My book is the deep dive down the rabbit hole of Price, right?
Randy Chaffee:Forget about service, forget about quality, forget about relationship.
Randy Chaffee:We just want price.
Randy Chaffee:None of us in the world of sales win that game.
Randy Chaffee:And, and I think equally I would say to people on the buying side is don't let
Randy Chaffee:your rep take you down that road either because you're a transaction to them.
Randy Chaffee:Don't get, don't allow 'em to get commission breath, right?
Randy Chaffee:And, and not care about what you want or need just to get
Randy Chaffee:the sale and get out the door.
Randy Chaffee:And, and I think as what you guys teach a lot, and I've been blessed to
Randy Chaffee:set in on some of your, your seminars in the, even in, in, in home sales
Randy Chaffee:and, and, and one day close, if you will, uh, sometimes gets a bad rap.
Randy Chaffee:'cause I don't think that means I'm gonna sell you regardless
Randy Chaffee:of whether you need it or not.
Randy Chaffee:And I'm gonna hammer you into the ground with a gun to your head until you buy.
Randy Chaffee:And like the old encyclopedia salesman that years ago, I, I
Randy Chaffee:bought from just so he'd leave.
Randy Chaffee:And then canceled it the next day because I just couldn't
Randy Chaffee:figure out how to get rid of him.
Randy Chaffee:Right.
Randy Chaffee:That does us no good.
Randy Chaffee:Right.
Randy Chaffee:So I, I think that if, if we, if we understand, if we sell people,
Randy Chaffee:like we want to be sold, and if you listen to people and ask
Randy Chaffee:enough questions, um, almost every customer, almost every customer will
Randy Chaffee:tell you how to sell 'em, right?
Randy Chaffee:If you listen and he ask the questions.
Randy Chaffee:And, uh, I, I, so I, I think it's not so much of, I, I think, and I
Randy Chaffee:think that's changed today, maybe you guys agree or disagree, but I
Randy Chaffee:feel like it's changed today to where people wanna be treated with respect.
Randy Chaffee:They wanna be, they wanna be counseled, they want to be
Randy Chaffee:taught, they want to be educated.
Randy Chaffee:And you can't dazzle 'em with BS either, because in, in, with the
Randy Chaffee:internet, uh, I'm sorry, they probably know almost as much as you do if
Randy Chaffee:they're a smart consumer, right?
Randy Chaffee:So don't start down that road of, uh, there's, there, there's, there's
Randy Chaffee:this thing that I'm pretty good at, luckily, because I'm not that smart.
Randy Chaffee:Is, I don't know.
Randy Chaffee:I'll find out.
Randy Chaffee:But when I was a younger sales guy, I didn't think you could do that.
Randy Chaffee:Oh, I
Randy Chaffee:had to be the guy that knew it all.
Randy Chaffee:And I, I don't, I would like to think, I don't believe that I ever knowingly knew
Randy Chaffee:it wasn't true and just lied about it.
Randy Chaffee:But I took a lot of freedom with that, right?
Randy Chaffee:Because as a young guy, you didn't know any better, and that's the way you was
Randy Chaffee:trained and that's the way you was taught.
Randy Chaffee:And, and boy, if I, if they, if I, if they think I don't know everything,
Randy Chaffee:well, they're not gonna have confidence in me and buy, they'll
Randy Chaffee:have a lot more confidence in you if you just say, you know what?
Randy Chaffee:That one stumped me, Todd, I think I know the answer, but let, let me
Randy Chaffee:make a quick phone call or lemme call you back in the morning, or,
Randy Chaffee:or whatever that has to look like.
Randy Chaffee:You just gain a massive amount of credibility, in my opinion.
Randy Chaffee:Seth, do you agree with that?
Randy Chaffee:I mean, I, I.
Seth Heckaman:Oh, absolutely.
Seth Heckaman:And, and even, uh, you know, we've had some experience with reps that even if
Seth Heckaman:they're not gonna give you the incorrect answer, outright lie with some about
Seth Heckaman:something, they'll just talk without saying anything, hoping that you, you
Seth Heckaman:forget what you asked in the first place.
Seth Heckaman:There's all sorts of strategies around it, but it just being transparent and
Seth Heckaman:upfront with people and, and then it proves to 'em, like you said, that
Seth Heckaman:you can be that problem solver in their corner, uh, no matter what.
Seth Heckaman:Someone they can trust, someone that knows how to get something done.
Seth Heckaman:Um, absolutely love it.
Seth Heckaman:And it goes way beyond that transactional sort of trap that, that you mentioned,
Seth Heckaman:uh, which you do an incredible job of.
Seth Heckaman:And especially in we're talking about this hybrid world that we're
Seth Heckaman:in, these virtual and digital tools.
Seth Heckaman:I think there that trap is even bigger for some than what it ever was
Seth Heckaman:before, of just hiding behind email or hiding behind, you know, trading
Seth Heckaman:voicemails back and forth or texts.
Seth Heckaman:And so finding that sweet spot to really rise above and, and be that serving
Seth Heckaman:partner, trusted advisor, whatever your language is gonna be for it's powerful.
Randy Chaffee:It is powerful.
Randy Chaffee:It is powerful.
Randy Chaffee:And, and the beautiful thing with, if you do it right, in my opinion,
Randy Chaffee:using the, the, uh, the new school side of things, it'll put you.
Randy Chaffee:Front of more people they get because you know the old saying,
Randy Chaffee:people buy who, if all things being equal buy from no, like, and trust.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:Good friend of mine, Ben Gay III also adds and feel safe with.
Randy Chaffee:And I think that's a incredible thing because I may know you and like you
Randy Chaffee:and trust you, but what happens if something goes awry in this thing?
Randy Chaffee:Do I feel safe that Randy or Todd or Seth is gonna swoop in here like Superman
Randy Chaffee:and, and, and help me, may not leave me out out here on an island by myself.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:And the beautiful thing with, with with technology that we can
Randy Chaffee:use is if it's a new customer, they get to know who you are.
Randy Chaffee:They get to, they get to understand that you like to go watch your grandkids
Randy Chaffee:play baseball or you, they, they know you as a person, not just some
Randy Chaffee:person that they can buy stuff from.
Randy Chaffee:'cause there's a lot of people you can buy stuff from.
Randy Chaffee:Um, but they want to get to know you and trust you.
Randy Chaffee:And so that's for a, a, a potential customer.
Randy Chaffee:I think it's equally important for a customer that has already purchased.
Randy Chaffee:Because all that does is augment that decision or that
Randy Chaffee:that decision was good, right?
Randy Chaffee:Because they've already just spent $42,000 with you.
Randy Chaffee:They're still waiting for the job to be completed.
Randy Chaffee:But boy am I glad I bought from Todd because man, I just saw him
Randy Chaffee:doing this and saw him doing that.
Randy Chaffee:I saw Seth doing this, and these guys are good dudes.
Randy Chaffee:I feel good about this.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:So I think it, it goes further to cement that buyer decision after
Randy Chaffee:the fact, not just before the fact.
Seth Heckaman:Absolutely.
Seth Heckaman:It's when they see you running the, uh, the additional seed down
Seth Heckaman:the road before the rain comes, that's when it gets cemented.
Seth Heckaman:All the further.
Randy Chaffee:Yeah.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Seth Heckaman:I'm curious, Randy, you, you know, we're
Seth Heckaman:talking about your transition from the salesperson perspective.
Seth Heckaman:What, uh, what was your experience with your customers having to
Seth Heckaman:transition to this sort of new way?
Seth Heckaman:Also, you know, were, uh, was everyone readily, uh, you know, accepting?
Seth Heckaman:Did were, was any more difficult than others?
Seth Heckaman:Or what was that experience like?
Randy Chaffee:Oh, it was a, it was across the board.
Randy Chaffee:It, it, it was a, uh, it, it was, uh, I had at the time when nobody traveled.
Randy Chaffee:It was, there was no other option.
Randy Chaffee:The, the work came into play, Seth, when you, you were back out traveling
Randy Chaffee:and that became the norm again.
Randy Chaffee:So many people that they're used to calling on and went back to normal.
Randy Chaffee:Um, I didn't stop doing what I did.
Randy Chaffee:I went back to calling a customer.
Randy Chaffee:I travel all the time.
Randy Chaffee:But I augment in between.
Randy Chaffee:Or I'm doing a quick video from the hotel parking lot, uh, with coffee on the hood
Randy Chaffee:of my car, be heading out for the day.
Randy Chaffee:You know, my, my what, what cool socks am I wearing for the day?
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:I'm, I'm still doing those things, but I'm doing it while I'm on the road.
Randy Chaffee:And so, but to answer your question, some customers, um, uh, didn't
Randy Chaffee:respond, no, I'll say negatively, but just not at all for a while.
Randy Chaffee:But more and more of them started seeing and started doing it in their own
Randy Chaffee:businesses and started understanding that.
Randy Chaffee:And I'm not saying I take credit for that.
Randy Chaffee:I'm just saying that they started seeing these things happen and understand
Randy Chaffee:that, uh, you know, a statement that I like to make, 'cause I think it's it's
Randy Chaffee:very accurate, is you go back probably longer years now that I'm thinking,
Randy Chaffee:but 10, 15 years, let's just use, if you didn't have inter or if you didn't
Randy Chaffee:have a website, you didn't exist.
Randy Chaffee:You just didn't exist to, A lot of people still need a website today,
Randy Chaffee:but in today's world, if they can't find you on, on social media, if
Randy Chaffee:they can't find you virtually to a lot of people, you don't exist.
Randy Chaffee:And, and the problem that comes into play there is people my age,
Randy Chaffee:I, I'm on social all the time.
Randy Chaffee:I'm probably a bit of an, an anomaly to that standpoint maybe, but I
Randy Chaffee:don't think as much as, as you think.
Randy Chaffee:But that, that's my first go-to is I, is, I wanna see, if you're on LinkedIn, I
Randy Chaffee:wanna see if you got a Facebook presence.
Randy Chaffee:I wanna see if you did a, a reel or whatever and, and, and get to know you.
Randy Chaffee:And so I, I, I think we we're, we, we've, we've really come full circle
Randy Chaffee:with, with businesses across the board understanding that the value there is,
Randy Chaffee:again, I've said it a million times, it's not instead of, but in addition
Randy Chaffee:to, uh, I would never say that anything falling under the new school, the virtual,
Randy Chaffee:the digital, the new age, what are.
Randy Chaffee:Phrase you want to give.
Randy Chaffee:It has nothing to do with not doing the other.
Randy Chaffee:And it has to do with, but also to give you an example of where it comes into
Randy Chaffee:play with people that travel big distances like I do, if I've got a guy in calls in,
Randy Chaffee:kind of has an interest in Maine, that's a long ways from either Michigan when I'm
Randy Chaffee:there or from Florida where I'm at still right now, in my old school days, Mr.
Randy Chaffee:Energetic and aggressive and probably not real smart, I'd just drive or jump
Randy Chaffee:on a plane and go spend $2,000 on a, on a trip to go see a guy that you find out
Randy Chaffee:can't really buy from you anyway, or has no interest in, or maybe you can't sell.
Randy Chaffee:So using technology, the Zoom and the teams or the Google beats or
Randy Chaffee:whatever to, to uh, to discover.
Randy Chaffee:To do the discovery call sometimes setting here like this,
Randy Chaffee:finding out in 15, 20 minutes.
Randy Chaffee:Get to know each other a little bit.
Randy Chaffee:What are you looking at?
Randy Chaffee:Here's a couple of things we, we probably should talk about.
Randy Chaffee:Um, it goes a, goes a long ways of you not wasting your time.
Randy Chaffee:My coming all the way to Maine and mind not wasting time and money
Randy Chaffee:coming all the way to Maine to find out that this is never gonna work.
Randy Chaffee:And secondarily with that, as I kind of hit on earlier, if I do come
Randy Chaffee:to Maine, 'cause it makes sense.
Randy Chaffee:You already know me and I already know you.
Randy Chaffee:We've, we, we've got that initial uncomfortable for some, I mean,
Randy Chaffee:for us guys, it's done a long time.
Randy Chaffee:I, I find no discomfort in meeting new people.
Randy Chaffee:But some people that's an uncomfortable thing.
Randy Chaffee:And for customers it may be, but they already know you.
Randy Chaffee:They've talked to you, they've, they've probably in the interim before the
Randy Chaffee:two weeks before you flew to Maine in that little example, may have followed
Randy Chaffee:a couple a. Post that I did, they may have caught a video or caught
Randy Chaffee:a podcast I did or was guesting on.
Randy Chaffee:So all of a sudden it's like, geez, I know this Randy Guy.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:You're light years ahead of where you were starting the old way, but the key
Randy Chaffee:there still did it the old way though.
Randy Chaffee:At the end of the day, I'm still shaking hands.
Randy Chaffee:Good to see you.
Randy Chaffee:You had a good meeting.
Randy Chaffee:You go grab a burger and you give him a bro hug at the end of the day.
Randy Chaffee:Hey, thanks for the time.
Randy Chaffee:I appreciate it.
Randy Chaffee:I'll get back.
Randy Chaffee:Right.
Randy Chaffee:It's, it's still that you, you never get rid of that.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Todd Miller:Well, we've talked a lot about how you do it.
Todd Miller:Um, maybe for an audience member out there who isn't real familiar with you.
Todd Miller:Um, tell you, tell us a little bit about your core business today, the
Todd Miller:lines that you rep and sell, who your typical customer is, that type of
Randy Chaffee:Sure.
Randy Chaffee:So, so I, yeah, you know, I'm a rep agency source one marketing
Randy Chaffee:is my rep agency, and, uh, we rep predominantly in the, uh, the metal
Randy Chaffee:roofing and post train building world.
Randy Chaffee:I am doing a few things in the steep slope world for one of my manufacturers.
Randy Chaffee:But, um, so I rep products.
Randy Chaffee:My target customer would be the roll former, the, the metal roll formers,
Randy Chaffee:that, that roll metal, uh, whether they're standing seam guys or the ag panel,
Randy Chaffee:our panel, whatever that case may be.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, that would be my target panel or, uh, audience, if you
Randy Chaffee:will, customer fasteners and.
Randy Chaffee:And, and, and, and underlayments, which I'm blessed to sell some
Randy Chaffee:underlayment for you folks.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, vents, uh, a barn door components and stuff for the ag world.
Randy Chaffee:Some equestrian products, you know, bubble fo installations,
Randy Chaffee:a lot of those kind of things.
Randy Chaffee:So that's really my, my, my core business.
Randy Chaffee:Um, I cover, uh, uh, for the bulk of my world is, is the
Randy Chaffee:Great Lakes in the Northeast.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, I do a little bit in Florida with a couple lines.
Randy Chaffee:I have a couple of renegade lines, which are sort of non territorial,
Randy Chaffee:where I just kind of, if I know somebody, the manufacturer's
Randy Chaffee:renting my Rolodex, if you will.
Randy Chaffee:If I know somebody and there's nobody selling 'em, my and I got a relationship,
Randy Chaffee:I'll, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll work with 'em, but, but my core group is,
Randy Chaffee:is real, some Florida, but really, uh, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New York
Randy Chaffee:State, and up in the New England state.
Randy Chaffee:So, um, and yeah, it's, it's, uh, I've been with some of
Randy Chaffee:these manufacturers 25 years.
Todd Miller:That's impressive.
Randy Chaffee:or, or, or, or, I just, they just haven't got tired of me yet.
Randy Chaffee:I'm not sure
Seth Heckaman:Well, as a manufacturer that's worked with
Seth Heckaman:you for almost 25 years, we can definitely say it's the, the former.
Seth Heckaman:So you've done a great job for us.
Seth Heckaman:And if you're looking for some, uh, the premium underlayments on the market, you
Seth Heckaman:can call Randy and talk to him about, uh, roof, aqua guard, underlayments.
Randy Chaffee:it's, I'll tell you what, it's it's world class stuff.
Randy Chaffee:I, and I'm glad, I mean, I love the way you snuck that little, little promo in
Seth Heckaman:a little promo.
Randy Chaffee:almost think you'd done this before.
Randy Chaffee:That's, that's amazing.
Seth Heckaman:yeah.
Seth Heckaman:You know, as a manufacturer who's always trying to, you know,
Seth Heckaman:improve our strategy and respond to the changing world around us.
Seth Heckaman:And, you know, you are working with, you know, 20 plus manufacturers probably
Seth Heckaman:at this point and know many others.
Seth Heckaman:I'm curious what, uh, what are some things that you've seen man
Seth Heckaman:manufacturers do really well?
Seth Heckaman:You know, we don't need to name any names necessarily, but you know, as
Seth Heckaman:you're working with all those folks, what, who, um, yeah, what are some things
Seth Heckaman:that, the ones who are really responding well to this new world around them?
Seth Heckaman:And, uh, what opportunities do you see for manufacturers to keep improving on
Seth Heckaman:what they're doing in their go to market?
Randy Chaffee:Well, yeah, that's a great question.
Randy Chaffee:And this one's probably, it's probably used a lot, but it's never adhered
Randy Chaffee:to, is becoming customer centric.
Randy Chaffee:There's, there's so many manufacturers that still believe that we make
Randy Chaffee:widgets, whatever that widget is.
Randy Chaffee:Yes, of course you make a widget, but that's not really what you do.
Randy Chaffee:What you really do is, is perform a service and, and supply a solution
Randy Chaffee:for whoever your customer base is.
Randy Chaffee:And if we have to get away from, I just make stuff and, and I'm
Randy Chaffee:gonna supply you whatever stuff I make under my rules all the time.
Randy Chaffee:And either you live with it or, or don't.
Randy Chaffee:Because, uh, you, you guy, I'm sure familiar with Jeffrey Gitr and, uh,
Randy Chaffee:great writer, uh, uh, I've followed everything he's done for years.
Randy Chaffee:And I love one of his statements he said once about, you know, when
Randy Chaffee:people say, well, but it's our policy.
Randy Chaffee:Okay?
Randy Chaffee:We all have to have policy.
Randy Chaffee:So before anybody gets nuts, I'm not saying it's, it's, it's free.
Randy Chaffee:It's it's free being to being here.
Randy Chaffee:Right.
Randy Chaffee:And we can just do what we want.
Randy Chaffee:There has to be some procedures.
Randy Chaffee:I'm not saying that, but I. Shouldn't the policy be?
Randy Chaffee:What is your issue Mr. Customer, Mrs. Customer, if you have an issue
Randy Chaffee:or a problem or something that we is not within our policy, can we make,
Randy Chaffee:can we find a way to make this good for you, to make this work for you?
Randy Chaffee:And because like Jeffrey said, once I listen to me, he
Randy Chaffee:says, because here's the deal.
Randy Chaffee:Your policy is this.
Randy Chaffee:My policy is to not pull out my credit card by product from you
Randy Chaffee:and my pro and my policy wins.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:I mean, it's, it's as simple as that.
Randy Chaffee:Again, not saying you don't ha you gotta ha you can't be a company that
Randy Chaffee:has no policies, no procedures there.
Randy Chaffee:There's gotta be base.
Randy Chaffee:But I think we, we we, we lose sight sometimes as manufacturers of being
Randy Chaffee:customer centric, of, of, of realizing that customers always have choices,
Randy Chaffee:uh, regardless of how good we think we are, regardless of how good our product
Randy Chaffee:is, how great a dog and pony and, and.
Randy Chaffee:I know all three of us on here do as good a dog, a pony show with the
Randy Chaffee:customers, anybody in the country.
Randy Chaffee:I can talk all day about all the thousand and 15 different reasons why my fastener
Randy Chaffee:better than everybody else's in the world.
Randy Chaffee:And after the first one, you don't care.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, it's the end of the day, right?
Randy Chaffee:It goes deeper than that because guess what?
Randy Chaffee:Every fastener in America, if it installed properly, will hold the
Randy Chaffee:roof on and it won't fail, right?
Randy Chaffee:So I don't have a monopoly on that, right?
Randy Chaffee:So let's not stop pretending we do.
Randy Chaffee:And, and the the, the thing, if you and I tell anybody that'll listen to our
Randy Chaffee:reps or sales guys is always operate under, uh, you incorporated, right?
Randy Chaffee:Because even if you're a company guy myself, it's easier as a rep because
Randy Chaffee:I kind of run my own gig, uh, under rules and regulations that people
Randy Chaffee:like yourselves put out there, right?
Randy Chaffee:I don't get to do what I wanna do.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, but my point is, even if you're a company guy, an employee, you gotta
Randy Chaffee:operate like this is your business.
Randy Chaffee:If, uh, if you, if you go to your customers at the standpoint that this
Randy Chaffee:is a repeat customer and I'm gonna get repeat business, I'm gonna get referrals,
Randy Chaffee:but I'm only gonna get any of that.
Randy Chaffee:If I actually do what I say, I'll do, take care of them and treat
Randy Chaffee:them like with the respect and, and that they deserve and desire.
Randy Chaffee:And, and be honest, it should have, because guess what?
Randy Chaffee:They have choices all day long.
Randy Chaffee:They have choices.
Randy Chaffee:And again, back circling back real quick, if we think, well, they'll never leave
Randy Chaffee:us because we make the best widget.
Randy Chaffee:Oh yeah.
Randy Chaffee:They'll leave you real fast if, if you don't take care of 'em.
Randy Chaffee:Because you know what?
Randy Chaffee:Here, the breaking news, right?
Randy Chaffee:And we need the CNN or Fox News banner here, breaking news.
Randy Chaffee:There are some less than quality products in any industry, right?
Randy Chaffee:But for most anybody in our industries that are been around
Randy Chaffee:and, and, and, and have established themselves, it's gonna work.
Randy Chaffee:It's not junk.
Randy Chaffee:Okay?
Randy Chaffee:So they, the customer does have choices, and the key is, as a manufacturer
Randy Chaffee:or as the rep for that manufacturer, salesperson, whatever your title
Randy Chaffee:is, if this is a, a key thing that I try to follow is if you buy Randy,
Randy Chaffee:there's this one thing in the world of eight and a half billion people
Randy Chaffee:that I'm better than everybody.
Randy Chaffee:Number one is being me.
Randy Chaffee:You can't beat me at that one.
Randy Chaffee:I guarantee you can't beat me at that one.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:So if you can get to a point where I'm your guy, you trust me, you believe
Randy Chaffee:in me, um, you know, now I can do a lot of things that mess that up.
Randy Chaffee:But if I don't mess that up, uh, that gives you a lot of, it.
Randy Chaffee:It, it, it buys you a lot of leeway on, on, on when things go awry a little bit.
Randy Chaffee:You know, I, I know this messed up is not your fault, but can you fix it, please?
Randy Chaffee:I know you will.
Randy Chaffee:You know, so I, I think that's the thing is.
Randy Chaffee:We circling back to your original que, I think we've lost in a lot of
Randy Chaffee:cases remembering the why and if, and if we don't have a customer.
Randy Chaffee:'cause they're not a nuisance to us.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, we open the door every day for one reason and one reason only.
Randy Chaffee:If you get right down to it, it's to service that customer the best product
Randy Chaffee:and the best service at the most fair price And fair is a, an operative word.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:Fair.
Randy Chaffee:'cause we both have to make profit and guess what?
Randy Chaffee:That's not a bad word.
Randy Chaffee:So, uh, I think if we do that, uh, we'll be successful.
Randy Chaffee:If we don't, you're gonna struggle.
Seth Heckaman:Absolutely it.
Seth Heckaman:At no time in history did customers have more alternatives, viable alternatives
Seth Heckaman:than they have today, at least for most
Randy Chaffee:Exactly.
Randy Chaffee:And, and you know, you, I think about that alternative because I
Randy Chaffee:remember one time traveling with a guy and he kept wanting to.
Randy Chaffee:Get a Dairy Queen blizzard about every four and a half, five miles,
Randy Chaffee:and we got off one exit because we figured out of the 412 fast food
Randy Chaffee:places, there had to be a Dairy Queen.
Randy Chaffee:Right.
Randy Chaffee:We didn't find one, but we did find a frosty blizzard or a, a Wendy's frosty.
Seth Heckaman:There you go.
Randy Chaffee:you know, so, but again, we had choices.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:And the fact that Wendy's did such a good job of promoting the fact
Randy Chaffee:that they're pretty tasty too.
Randy Chaffee:We didn't get back on the turnpike and drive on another 80 miles to find a,
Randy Chaffee:and, and, and checking Google, trying to figure out where a dairy queen was.
Randy Chaffee:We just made a choice to have a Wendy's frosty.
Randy Chaffee:So,
Seth Heckaman:The alternative, uh, most readily available to
Seth Heckaman:solve your problem at that moment.
Seth Heckaman:So we've gotta position ourselves to be that Wendy's frosty, no
Seth Heckaman:question.
Seth Heckaman:You know, taking, sort of going, looking at it from the other end of the
Seth Heckaman:equation on that customer perspective.
Seth Heckaman:Curious for those customers who are out there, you know, whatever customer
Seth Heckaman:may be, contractor, supplier role, former, you know, uh, any customer
Seth Heckaman:trying to take a more proactive approach to finding suppliers or
Seth Heckaman:vetting suppliers rather than, you know, relying on, uh, serendipitous
Seth Heckaman:sort of engagements or opportunities.
Seth Heckaman:What's, what's your advice for them?
Randy Chaffee:Uh, 10 shows.
Randy Chaffee:And when I say attend shows, I mean really engage in attending shows, not just,
Randy Chaffee:uh, show up and go, oh, show's open.
Randy Chaffee:They just cut the ribbon.
Randy Chaffee:And I guess I'll go wander around, you know, have a plan, set up some
Randy Chaffee:plans ahead of time with people you wanna meet, uh, make, make,
Randy Chaffee:make, make the best outta shows.
Randy Chaffee:'cause that's some of the best times to.
Randy Chaffee:Easily meet not only your rep who may be there, but he can introduce you to
Randy Chaffee:the customer service manager, the CEO, the director of sales, whomever that
Randy Chaffee:may be, and, and, and really be able to, to do a little bit of a deep dive
Randy Chaffee:into, into the services and the products and what they can, can do for you.
Randy Chaffee:And the beautiful thing beside with that, uh, Seth, is you could find
Randy Chaffee:that information in today's world on the internet someplace, right?
Randy Chaffee:All of us do a great job.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, you, I, I can find everything I wanna find about most things from a
Randy Chaffee:product standpoint, but a, I get to touch it, feel it if you're the contractor.
Randy Chaffee:But more importantly, I get to meet the people behind the scenes.
Randy Chaffee:'cause the person I only person I may ever see is, is my rep. Now I
Randy Chaffee:get to meet some of the other people.
Randy Chaffee:But more important than that, I think.
Randy Chaffee:Is if you build a relationship with this manufacturer as a builder,
Randy Chaffee:um, it's important that the Todd or Seth of the world know you as well.
Randy Chaffee:Because if, if, if you need something, there's a special deal, an issue, a large
Randy Chaffee:project, a a, an emergency that went, something that went awry, it, it's, it's
Randy Chaffee:way better if they call in or, or, or Randy in my case calls this, says, Seth,
Randy Chaffee:you, you know, I got this customer and man, we just dropped the ball on this.
Randy Chaffee:It's, it's, it's, it's a bad deal right now.
Randy Chaffee:And, and who is it?
Randy Chaffee:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Randy Chaffee:I remember meeting him last year.
Randy Chaffee:The IRE, right?
Randy Chaffee:I don't, we'd all like to say that that doesn't matter, but it does matter, right?
Randy Chaffee:Because you've built that relationship.
Randy Chaffee:So I think the, there's a, for the attendees, and I love that
Randy Chaffee:subject, um, it's easy for us all to think about trade shows and it's
Randy Chaffee:all on the rep's responsibility.
Randy Chaffee:I. There's a lot of that.
Randy Chaffee:That's what we're there for as exhibitor.
Randy Chaffee:But you have an equal responsibility in my mind as an attendee.
Randy Chaffee:If you want, you get outta the show what you put into it.
Randy Chaffee:So meet the right people, uh, have a plan and uh, uh, make it worthwhile.
Randy Chaffee:'cause there, there, there's plenty of time to, you know, go get Wendy
Randy Chaffee:Frosty's or plenty of time to go get a burger and a beer with the boys.
Randy Chaffee:You can do it at the show, but don't do it.
Randy Chaffee:Instead of spending that time making those communications because you, you
Randy Chaffee:spent 2000, $3,000 to go to Vegas, you probably ought to do something
Randy Chaffee:besides gambling and, and, and hitting the hotel lobby bar at two o'clock.
Randy Chaffee:That's all I'm saying.
Randy Chaffee:Not that I'm against that.
Randy Chaffee:I'm just saying there probably should be some other things you might
Randy Chaffee:wanna do, uh, while you're there.
Randy Chaffee:And, and again, you'll get out of what you give.
Todd Miller:I think that's great advice and, and I agree with you.
Todd Miller:I think, you know, I see people attend these shows and, um.
Todd Miller:Know, they just don't really put into it to get out of it what they can.
Todd Miller:So that's fantastic advice.
Todd Miller:Well, I'm, I'm curious, Randy, and I know you're a guy who's always
Todd Miller:reading and you're talking and, um, you've got a lot of connections.
Todd Miller:Who do you find inspiration from these days?
Todd Miller:Who are you, who are you paying attention to and learning from?
Randy Chaffee:Well, you, I love that question.
Randy Chaffee:Um, of course you guys, and I gotta say that, not just 'cause you're on
Randy Chaffee:here, but you guys are doing it right.
Randy Chaffee:And for anybody that watches you guys and deal with you
Randy Chaffee:guys, uh, Isaiah's top notch.
Randy Chaffee:And, and, and I enjoy being around people that do things the right way.
Randy Chaffee:But, uh, I mentioned one name earlier, a guy that's become very
Randy Chaffee:important to me, uh, Ben Gay.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, I've become a good friend.
Randy Chaffee:Um, he actually wrote the forward for my book, which is kind of cool.
Randy Chaffee:Um, and, and Todd, you were so kind to write some kind words, uh, uh,
Randy Chaffee:of endorsement or praise for the book, which I, I assume you didn't
Randy Chaffee:read it 'cause if you'd read it, you wouldn't have said anything Nice.
Todd Miller:Oh, I absolutely read it.
Randy Chaffee:but I appreciate that.
Randy Chaffee:But, um, you, the one thing that I found, and, and I'm gonna come at this
Randy Chaffee:a slight different angle since I love networking, as you well know, we do,
Randy Chaffee:we, all three of us are networkers.
Randy Chaffee:I love networking.
Randy Chaffee:I love networking within the industry that we all live and, and breathe
Randy Chaffee:and work and, and hugely important.
Randy Chaffee:And, and we do that if we're, if you have any involvement in the industry,
Randy Chaffee:you probably got a bit of common sense that tells you I probably should
Randy Chaffee:network within the industry, but.
Randy Chaffee:I also find within any industry, there's group speak, right?
Randy Chaffee:We all think a little bit alike on subjects.
Randy Chaffee:There's, there's, there's outer parameters, but there's
Randy Chaffee:that certain group thing.
Randy Chaffee:The, the one of the great blessings that I've had in the last several
Randy Chaffee:years doing what I've been doing, more social media stuff, podcasting,
Randy Chaffee:hosting, guesting, is I've got to meet so many people out of the industry.
Randy Chaffee:They have nothing to do with my industry at all.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, I can name a, a, a couple, uh, uh, Lieutenant Colonel Oak, McCullough
Randy Chaffee:Oaks out out of Daytona, Florida.
Randy Chaffee:He's a, uh, he was, uh, a lieutenant colonel, the Army, first cal led
Randy Chaffee:troops into battle, uh, trained troops, leadership, you know what I mean?
Randy Chaffee:Leadership, like he talks about, he makes mistakes now he's out
Randy Chaffee:now, but when he people died.
Randy Chaffee:18, 19-year-old kids died.
Randy Chaffee:Leadership in our world, we, we forgot to ship a role of underlayment.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, it's, it sucked, but nobody's dying over it.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:So, you know, he, he brings a great perspective on leadership.
Randy Chaffee:And, and, and he, he made a statement once that, uh, when lieutenants graduate,
Randy Chaffee:uh, from the, from the academy, the first thing they do is they throw their
Randy Chaffee:hat in the air and he goes, celebrate.
Randy Chaffee:Go have a couple beers.
Randy Chaffee:Do what you wanna do.
Randy Chaffee:It's all about you today.
Randy Chaffee:'cause it's the last day of your life that it's about you.
Randy Chaffee:It's always about your people after today, but today go, you enjoy, you earned it.
Randy Chaffee:But after today, it's never about you again, ever in your life.
Randy Chaffee:He says, I have responsibility to you.
Randy Chaffee:You may report to me eight ranks below me, but I work for you.
Randy Chaffee:I have a responsibility to teach you, to train you, to guide you, to protect you.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:So he's, he's a guy that's.
Randy Chaffee:And another guy, uh, Dave Sanderson.
Randy Chaffee:I'll just give you two.
Randy Chaffee:Dave's another guy out the industry.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, Dave is an international speaker, swims with the seals, not the, not
Randy Chaffee:the, the, that kind of seal the, you know, I was gonna do the seal noise,
Randy Chaffee:but that might've been too much.
Randy Chaffee:Um, it sounded like a walrus anyway, so, um, but, uh, but he, and with the Navy
Randy Chaffee:Seals, he became most well known, uh, when Sully had to put the, uh, the, that uh,
Randy Chaffee:the flight into the east, the east river.
Randy Chaffee:He was the last guy off the plane after, with Sully in the
Randy Chaffee:first, uh, the first officer.
Randy Chaffee:And he talks about, um, that whole event and what happened.
Randy Chaffee:And he wrote several books.
Randy Chaffee:But one of the books that I love and Dave's become a good friend,
Randy Chaffee:um, moments in Time says, nobody ever knows when that moment in time
Randy Chaffee:will come, but your whole life is preparing you for that moment in time.
Randy Chaffee:His moment in time.
Randy Chaffee:There was guys, you don't live through that.
Randy Chaffee:When, when that's going into the river, we, the river, we're dead.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, you don't, that's a unsurvivable, basically.
Randy Chaffee:But they did.
Randy Chaffee:And his comment was, and, and he would say way better 'cause he lived it,
Randy Chaffee:is that I couldn't just get off this plane and rush out the exit to safety.
Randy Chaffee:I need to make sure everybody else got out too ahead of me
Randy Chaffee:because I was here for a reason.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, I should have been dead.
Randy Chaffee:I, I just, I just gotta, I got a, I got a, I got a new day here, right?
Randy Chaffee:And that was his moment in time.
Randy Chaffee:And so now he spends, he, he travels the world speaking about
Randy Chaffee:that and talking about that.
Randy Chaffee:So that's just two people that, that I follow a lot that are
Randy Chaffee:really, really, really good people.
Randy Chaffee:But like I said, I, uh, I'm meeting a guy next week in, uh, uh, in, um, Pennsylvania
Randy Chaffee:that, uh, I've got to know Rob an spa.
Randy Chaffee:He's an spa.
Randy Chaffee:Media.
Randy Chaffee:He writes a lot of books.
Randy Chaffee:He does a lot of marketing.
Randy Chaffee:Become a friend.
Randy Chaffee:Never been him personally.
Randy Chaffee:Going to next week, I really, really try to.
Randy Chaffee:Since some of the things that I've been doing in the last five or six years that
Randy Chaffee:we've talked about here that I talk about in the book, um, I go out of my way to
Randy Chaffee:try to meet up with people that I've met virtually that I've never known before.
Randy Chaffee:And I'll tell you one of the things I talk about in the book about how if you,
Randy Chaffee:if you do this right, when, when you walk in, you meet him, it's like his old buddy.
Randy Chaffee:It's like you knew him forever, right?
Randy Chaffee:And that's been so true.
Randy Chaffee:I've met so many of these people.
Randy Chaffee:Um, when, when I, my, uh, Wes, my producer director buddy in
Randy Chaffee:Powell, will you guys know?
Randy Chaffee:'cause you've been on my, my podcast met Ben Gay and his wife Gigi out
Randy Chaffee:in, in Sacramento a couple years ago.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, he walks in the door and it was not like, I wonder where Randy
Randy Chaffee:is, or I wonder where Ben is.
Randy Chaffee:The second he walked in the door, we knew each other be right, because
Randy Chaffee:we've talked 10 times virtually, or 50 times virtually, and talked
Randy Chaffee:on the phone and, and communicated.
Randy Chaffee:So I, I think that's the one of the.
Randy Chaffee:Winding back to, uh, I dunno if it's a starting point, but the beauty of virtual
Randy Chaffee:and the beauty of, of, of taking advantage of these opportunities we have, whether
Randy Chaffee:you like it or not, virtual's here, whether you like social media, it's here.
Randy Chaffee:Is there bad things?
Randy Chaffee:Absolutely.
Randy Chaffee:There's bad things in everything.
Randy Chaffee:If you do use it for the right reasons.
Randy Chaffee:It's like with ai, I use AI all the time for stuff because you can hate it.
Randy Chaffee:You can be scared of it.
Randy Chaffee:It may end up, we're all don't exist someday.
Randy Chaffee:And it's just, I don't know what it is.
Randy Chaffee:We're a bunch of little things wandering around like a pop
Randy Chaffee:can, I don't know what we'll be.
Randy Chaffee:I can't change that.
Randy Chaffee:So all I can do is use what I have to my benefit.
Randy Chaffee:And so when I get an opportunity to meet people either or out of the industry,
Randy Chaffee:I, I go outta my way to do that.
Randy Chaffee:And, uh, I I would challenge anybody to do that.
Randy Chaffee:You, you don't work in a or you shouldn't work or, or, or live in a vacuum.
Randy Chaffee:You know, where, where people, and in today's world, uh, it's a tiny,
Randy Chaffee:tiny, tiny little world now, right.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, it's, it's, I I, we had on a great guest a couple weeks ago for the return
Randy Chaffee:guest, um, David Rogers from, from the uk, two-time author, speaker, TEDx guy.
Randy Chaffee:Um, you know, and, and now I've never met Dave yet 'cause I don't, I really
Randy Chaffee:get to UK for any reason, but if I do, I guarantee you I'll, we'll meet up somehow.
Randy Chaffee:Um, it's just, so anyways, that's, that, that's the key to that
Randy Chaffee:is just man, just meet people.
Randy Chaffee:Go out and see 'em, get to know 'em.
Randy Chaffee:Learn their life.
Randy Chaffee:Have a new friend.
Todd Miller:Great advice, Randy, and uh, it's been a great talk
Todd Miller:and rambunctious time together.
Todd Miller:I've enjoyed it.
Todd Miller:Um, I'm curious though, um, is there anything you haven't shared and
Todd Miller:give a shout out to your own podcast and some of your, uh, social media
Todd Miller:you're doing out
Randy Chaffee:you.
Randy Chaffee:Um, but we've covered everything.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, it was, it was, it was a great, great time.
Randy Chaffee:Um, my, my website is I buy from ad.com.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, my book will be available on there.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, if somebody was silly enough to want a sign copy, um, uh, it'll be
Randy Chaffee:on Amazon, it'll be on, it'll be a Kindle, a soft cover and a hard copy.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, we'll do an audio book at some point.
Randy Chaffee:That's probably down the road.
Randy Chaffee:'cause I've decided I'm gonna read it myself whenever I find time to do that.
Randy Chaffee:Um, that won't be till fall though.
Randy Chaffee:So.
Randy Chaffee:Um, so you can find me on Amazon under just Randy Chaffee
Randy Chaffee:or Asphalt and Algorithms.
Randy Chaffee:Um, I buy from randy.com.
Randy Chaffee:Find a book, find anything to do with my agency.
Randy Chaffee:I'm all over social media.
Randy Chaffee:In some shape or form of either building wins Live, which is my podcast, uh, you
Randy Chaffee:can find me on YouTube in places for Let's chat with Randy Chaffee, which is
Randy Chaffee:an industry based, uh, YouTube channel.
Randy Chaffee:We're just kind of getting off it, off, off the ground right now.
Randy Chaffee:Um, and on social media, it's either it's, it's either Randy Chaffee or
Randy Chaffee:the Randy Chaffee or Randy Chaffe, the rep one, some, any of those things.
Randy Chaffee:But I've kind of played with it.
Randy Chaffee:And if you, I guess I'm messing with it enough if you type my name
Randy Chaffee:and it comes up, so I dunno if that's good or bad, but I'm there.
Randy Chaffee:Communicate with me though.
Randy Chaffee:I love it.
Randy Chaffee:Don't just, don't just like stuff, well, I want you to
Randy Chaffee:like stuff, like lots of stuff.
Randy Chaffee:But, but, but communicate.
Randy Chaffee:Say, Hey, I mean, I, like, I, I enjoy talking to people and I'll do my best
Randy Chaffee:to respond to anybody that reaches out.
Todd Miller:Well, cool.
Todd Miller:Well, you're a huge asset to our industry, Randy, and we thank you for
Todd Miller:not only your friendship, but your service to our industry over the years.
Todd Miller:So thank you.
Todd Miller:Well, before we close out, I have to ask you if you're willing
Todd Miller:to participate in something we call our rapid fire questions.
Todd Miller:So these are seven questions.
Todd Miller:Randy has no idea what we're going to ask.
Todd Miller:Uh, some are serious, some are silly.
Todd Miller:Are you up to the challenge of rapid fire?
Randy Chaffee:let's give it a shot.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, hey, what's the worst I'll do is, I mean, I've looked stupid before,
Randy Chaffee:so, and I'm pretty good at that.
Todd Miller:Not at all.
Todd Miller:Let's do it.
Todd Miller:Um, Seth, why don't you ask the first question?
Seth Heckaman:All right.
Seth Heckaman:Rapid fire question number one, uh, to make sure we include
Seth Heckaman:another of your favorite passions.
Seth Heckaman:Can you recommend one or two of your favorite Michigan Reds for all of us?
Randy Chaffee:Ooh, there you go.
Randy Chaffee:Yes.
Randy Chaffee:Black Star Farms.
Randy Chaffee:Black Star Farms, uh, Cabernet.
Randy Chaffee:It's uh, it's a pure cab wine.
Randy Chaffee:It's not a blend.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, black Star Farms has a location on, uh, on the Leal Peninsula and on
Randy Chaffee:Old Mission Peninsula and Top Notch.
Seth Heckaman:Fantastic.
Randy Chaffee:Now you made me thirsty.
Randy Chaffee:Can we hurry this thing up?
Seth Heckaman:There.
Todd Miller:Okay.
Todd Miller:Question two.
Todd Miller:What are your favorite and least favorite things about being a road warrior?
Randy Chaffee:Favorite thing by far is I just love people.
Randy Chaffee:I, I, I just love people that, that by far, I, I enjoy
Randy Chaffee:cementing the relationship.
Randy Chaffee:I enjoy bro hug and, and, and, and rubbing little, little Johnny's head
Randy Chaffee:when you see him, when he comes running up and you haven't seen him in a year.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, those kind of things on the road.
Randy Chaffee:That's my favorite by far.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, least favorite.
Randy Chaffee:I don't have a lot of least favorites 'cause I love it so much.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, I, I, I, I probably would say that over doing this for so many years, it,
Randy Chaffee:it, it gets a little less exciting to be gone as much as what it used to.
Randy Chaffee:And I, and I, and I, and I'll couch that with, I don't mind being gone.
Randy Chaffee:I don't look forward to it as much as I used to.
Randy Chaffee:But I get into Uber to the airport and I'm back in road mode.
Randy Chaffee:I'm back in hybrid road warrior mode, somewhere between the house
Randy Chaffee:and the airport, which is 40 minutes.
Randy Chaffee:You know, and once I hit airport, once I hit that, I mean, I mean, I'm all in.
Randy Chaffee:Let's go rock and roll, baby.
Todd Miller:It all kicks in.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Seth Heckaman:All right.
Seth Heckaman:Question number three.
Seth Heckaman:What is a product or service you have bought that was a
Seth Heckaman:real game changer for you?
Randy Chaffee:Probably.
Randy Chaffee:Probably chat, chat.
Randy Chaffee:DTP.
Randy Chaffee:We, we touched on that.
Randy Chaffee:I, I, I'm a big lover of ai.
Randy Chaffee:I'm not afraid of it.
Randy Chaffee:I don't know, I, I, I'm a novice still.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, but the, the speed that allows me to do things, uh, it,
Randy Chaffee:I never use it to write articles.
Randy Chaffee:Let me back off.
Randy Chaffee:I would use it to fix stupid, right?
Randy Chaffee:Uh, which is a lot.
Randy Chaffee:But, but you know, I, I, I would never sit and just write an article using, you know,
Randy Chaffee:for a trade magazine or a book chapter.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, but, but it, but, or, or, or like for blogging, if I wanna write a blog.
Randy Chaffee:Can't think of what do I wanna write about?
Randy Chaffee:I, I, I'll say, give, give me 20 things and I'll go, no, no, no.
Randy Chaffee:Maybe.
Randy Chaffee:No, no.
Randy Chaffee:Ah, that's the one.
Randy Chaffee:So I, I, that's probably, there's a lot.
Randy Chaffee:But that's the first one that comes to mind, Seth.
Seth Heckaman:Very cool.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Todd Miller:I think it's a great tool Also.
Todd Miller:Next question, what is your personal theme song at this point in your life?
Randy Chaffee:Wow.
Randy Chaffee:Um,
Todd Miller:hard one if you've never thought of it.
Randy Chaffee:I've never thought of it.
Randy Chaffee:Um, okay.
Randy Chaffee:I'm gonna, how about this one?
Randy Chaffee:I'll, I'll go with this one.
Randy Chaffee:Um, I'm a believer by either Neil Diamond or the Monkeys.
Randy Chaffee:Not even, not even so much the words, because I'll be
Randy Chaffee:honest with you about music.
Randy Chaffee:I would be the worst.
Randy Chaffee:I know no worst to any song,
Todd Miller:I, I'm right there with you.
Randy Chaffee:but, but I like the, the theme of, I'm a believer.
Randy Chaffee:I think you gotta be a believer if you're not a believer, uh, and you
Randy Chaffee:don't have dreams that wanna chase your dreams, I'm not sure what you got,
Randy Chaffee:but you, you're missing out on a lot.
Randy Chaffee:So I like, and I like Neil version, Neil Diamond's version.
Randy Chaffee:Better just.
Seth Heckaman:Awesome.
Seth Heckaman:Good stuff.
Seth Heckaman:What is one thing that you wish everyone in our industry was better at?
Randy Chaffee:Oh yeah, that's easy.
Randy Chaffee:We, we, we've touched on that is, is being an adapter.
Randy Chaffee:We kind of touched on, but, but not as much as I, as I probably do in
Randy Chaffee:the book, but I've adapted a lot and that's a lot of the nature of the book.
Randy Chaffee:But adapting is one thing, but developing an adapter mindset
Randy Chaffee:is a whole different thing.
Randy Chaffee:And once you develop the mindset that I'm just an adapter and, and, and
Randy Chaffee:forget about this, it is not easy.
Randy Chaffee:None of us like change on certain things, but if you anticipate it,
Randy Chaffee:you realize it's gonna happen.
Randy Chaffee:And you look at it with, there's three words that, that, depending on
Randy Chaffee:how you say 'em changes everything.
Randy Chaffee:It's, why can't I or why I can't Too many people instantly why I can't do that?
Randy Chaffee:Why I can't do this, why this product won't work.
Randy Chaffee:Instead of, well, why can't it with, you know, with a question mark, why can't it?
Randy Chaffee:Maybe you can, let's find out.
Randy Chaffee:So I think being an adapter is by far the most important thing I.
Todd Miller:Okay.
Todd Miller:Next to last question, if you had a time machine, what time and
Todd Miller:place would you like to visit?
Randy Chaffee:I can assume I can go either direction.
Todd Miller:Absolutely.
Randy Chaffee:I think the future's still there, so I'll just let that play out.
Randy Chaffee:I probably would go back to, and I'm thinking about again,
Randy Chaffee:what we talked about earlier.
Randy Chaffee:I'd probably go back to my, oh, maybe 50, about 1960, uh, interesting
Randy Chaffee:music time in the sixties, right?
Randy Chaffee:All from the war, music and, and all that.
Randy Chaffee:And, but it was good music.
Randy Chaffee:Uh, good old rock and roll music back in the day.
Randy Chaffee:But more than that, seriously, touching on what I talked about earlier is
Randy Chaffee:if I could go back, that means I've already been here, which means I know
Randy Chaffee:what I know now, and I'd go back and, and, and try to be a, a, a bit of a
Randy Chaffee:better son and let my dad know that what he was talking about was, yeah.
Randy Chaffee:That's pretty, that's pretty good stuff, dude.
Randy Chaffee:You know, as opposed to having to wait till I go see him again someday.
Randy Chaffee:Right.
Seth Heckaman:Beautiful.
Seth Heckaman:And last one, what do you wish to be remembered for at the end of your days?
Randy Chaffee:Probably just as a guy that cared, just cared about people, they
Randy Chaffee:wanted to do what's right for everybody.
Randy Chaffee:Whether it's family, whether it's customers, whether it's, uh,
Randy Chaffee:manufacturer friends, whether it's just friends in general, or even
Randy Chaffee:people that aren't necessarily friends.
Randy Chaffee:But, you know, IIII, I really try to practice and I've always been
Randy Chaffee:good at this, and I'm still not always you, you get in your own mind
Randy Chaffee:sometimes and you gotta get out of it.
Randy Chaffee:But, um, what reminds me is I walk into Publix, which is our local supermarket
Randy Chaffee:chain that we all go to here in Florida.
Randy Chaffee:And so many times you walk in and, and everybody's walking their head down.
Randy Chaffee:You're living in Florida, it's sunny and hot all the time, and
Randy Chaffee:what do you got to be so down about?
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:But it's amazing when you just say.
Randy Chaffee:Hey, how are you today, ma'am?
Randy Chaffee:Oh, I'm really good.
Randy Chaffee:How are you?
Randy Chaffee:Thank you.
Randy Chaffee:It's like changes their whole atmosphere, even if it's only for another 45
Randy Chaffee:seconds while they get to their car.
Randy Chaffee:And maybe I'd like to think they get in their car for a minute and
Randy Chaffee:they go, wow, that was a nice man.
Randy Chaffee:You know?
Randy Chaffee:He, he, uh, that made me feel good.
Randy Chaffee:So I think I, I, I, I, I try to leave people with a good feeling.
Randy Chaffee:I, I, I, 'cause we're, we're all in this, you know, big world together, right?
Randy Chaffee:So,
Todd Miller:You do a great job at that.
Todd Miller:You really do.
Todd Miller:Thank you.
Randy Chaffee:I like people unless I don't,
Randy Chaffee:there's a couple.
Randy Chaffee:I mean, let's be fair, I'm not perfect, right?
Randy Chaffee:We all, we all know there's, we all know there's only one
Randy Chaffee:perfect dude, and that ain't me.
Randy Chaffee:So I'm, I'm not even close to trying.
Randy Chaffee:But, but, uh, uh, uh, you know, I, I think that, uh, e even, even those
Randy Chaffee:people, I try to do better understanding that some of that's not maybe, who
Randy Chaffee:knows what they're going through.
Randy Chaffee:What's, what's their, what's their story, you know?
Randy Chaffee:And so anyways, that's it.
Randy Chaffee:We'll see.
Randy Chaffee:Doing the best, doing the best we can.
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Todd Miller:Yep.
Todd Miller:Absolutely.
Todd Miller:Well, thank you again for your time to get day.
Todd Miller:Um, we'll put this in the show notes, but again, shout off a
Todd Miller:couple of your, uh, websites and places where people can find you.
Randy Chaffee:I'll buy from randy.com because why wouldn't you?
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Todd Miller:Absolutely love
Randy Chaffee:uh, the home, if we ain't got it, you don't need it.
Randy Chaffee:it's a funny story how that was one day, but, um, and uh, basically anywhere on
Randy Chaffee:social media, uh, just find me under Randy Chaffee or some derivative thereof.
Randy Chaffee:And remember the name of the book, asphalt and Algorithms, which by the
Randy Chaffee:way, you, you know, I think originally that title, we had a title change at the
Todd Miller:Yes, you
Randy Chaffee:and, and real important, but that was going to be my journey to
Randy Chaffee:hybrid, which we kind of put in the, the subtitle, but a important key to that.
Randy Chaffee:Probably a great, great place to end.
Randy Chaffee:It's your show.
Randy Chaffee:But, um, I was sold on that.
Randy Chaffee:I was married to my title, but a key thing is I hired an editor.
Randy Chaffee:And I hired a marketing and, and, and formatting and book
Randy Chaffee:cover people to work with me.
Randy Chaffee:And they sat me down one day, said, we know you're married to it and you know
Randy Chaffee:you're not gonna like this conversation.
Randy Chaffee:But basically I said, you think my title sucks?
Randy Chaffee:Right?
Randy Chaffee:I said, well, not really sucks, but we don't like it.
Randy Chaffee:And they gave me, which we don't even go, they gave me reasons why from a
Randy Chaffee:marketing standpoint they didn't like it.
Randy Chaffee:I said, so, well, what do you want?
Randy Chaffee:What do you think?
Randy Chaffee:And they told to me and I go, you're nuts, asphalt.
Randy Chaffee:Now what does that mean?
Randy Chaffee:That's dumb.
Randy Chaffee:I said, think about it and we'll, we'll do this in two days.
Randy Chaffee:I called 'em up that evening.
Randy Chaffee:He said, we don't need to do it in two days.
Randy Chaffee:He says, well, we gotta go back the drawing board.
Randy Chaffee:I said, no, I'm in.
Randy Chaffee:I'm in.
Randy Chaffee:So my point of all that is when you hire good people that you trust, it's
Randy Chaffee:something you gotta listen to 'em.
Todd Miller:Yep, yep.
Randy Chaffee:they know more about marketing books than I do.
Randy Chaffee:Right.
Todd Miller:experts in their field for a reason.
Randy Chaffee:Exactly.
Randy Chaffee:So anyway, but I appreciate you guys having me on.
Randy Chaffee:I appreciate your friendship and all that you guys do together, just as people
Randy Chaffee:and, and, and as Isaiah Industries.
Randy Chaffee:And, uh, it's just, it's been a blast being on, I appreciate you giving me
Randy Chaffee:this opportunity to chat my, my book and, uh, I'd love to have anybody
Randy Chaffee:who wants to come out to, to get it.
Randy Chaffee:Not because I just wanna sell a whole bunch of books, even
Randy Chaffee:though I do, I'm not a liar.
Randy Chaffee:But with that said, I, I, I feel like there's something there that maybe a
Randy Chaffee:little bit of help to somebody here and there, so, or I wouldn't have
Randy Chaffee:wrote it 'cause I had a lot to do.
Randy Chaffee:I didn't, I didn't have the year and a half spent to do this, but
Randy Chaffee:I took it because I just felt like the right thing I wanted to do.
Randy Chaffee:So,
Todd Miller:Well, absolutely.
Todd Miller:We encourage everyone.
Todd Miller:Check out asphalt and a algorithms soon available.
Todd Miller:Um, well, Randy, well thank you very much.
Todd Miller:It's been a great, uh, great time together.
Todd Miller:We appreciate it.
Todd Miller:Great deal.
Randy Chaffee:no, thank you.
Randy Chaffee:I appreciate it guys.
Randy Chaffee:Thank you so much.
Todd Miller:And I have to ask, I know I got my challenge word
Todd Miller:in, Randy, you, you got yours in your challenge word, Randy was.
Randy Chaffee:Hey, Wendy's Frosty.
Todd Miller:You did it a couple
Todd Miller:times.
Todd Miller:I got, I got mine in, which was rambunctious.
Todd Miller:Seth, did you get yours in?
Seth Heckaman:I did Serendipitous.
Todd Miller:You did it so well.
Todd Miller:I didn't even catch it, which is the goal.
Todd Miller:That's
Randy Chaffee:He snuck it right in there.
Randy Chaffee:That was, that was well done.
Todd Miller:Serendipitously, you got it in there.
Todd Miller:Thank you.
Seth Heckaman:you go.
Randy Chaffee:I'm just amazed at when I gave you that word pre-show that I
Randy Chaffee:said it right, because that's one of those words that's hard for me to say,
Seth Heckaman:I, I was worried about it too.
Randy Chaffee:well, what?
Randy Chaffee:And it's really, and it's not.
Randy Chaffee:It's really hard to say, after a couple of Black star Cabernets,
Seth Heckaman:No, no doubt.
Randy Chaffee:you know that S word?
Randy Chaffee:Oh, you know that one?
Randy Chaffee:Oh, good stuff.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Todd Miller:Well, thank you to our audience for tuning into this episode of
Todd Miller:Construction Disruption with Randy Chaffee of Source One Marketing.
Todd Miller:Please watch for future episodes.
Todd Miller:We always have great guests.
Todd Miller:Don't forget to leave us a nice thumbs up or good review.
Todd Miller:And until the next time, uh, we're together.
Todd Miller:Keep on disrupting, keep on challenging, looking for better ways of doing things.
Todd Miller:And don't forget, Randy touched on this earlier to have a positive
Todd Miller:impact on everyone you encounter.
Todd Miller:So God bless and take care.
Todd Miller:This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode
Todd Miller:of Construction Destruction.