Marcus Myers is a manufacturer's rep for Audio Visual Equipment, but even by his own explanation, this field is obsolete. Amazon is coming! We talk about how to differentiate yourself in the B2B marketplace and become the value added GLUE that helps people play beautiful MUSIC. From Kenny Chesney to Sanford Stadium to a boardroom near you, Marcus and his team have probably helped get the right equipment to help you enjoy your experience. His interest in music came from his start as a violinist who eventually toured for years with a Christian Rock Group. AND THEN HE TOOK HIS SHOT. He gives you the nitty gritty and details around his acquisition of his current company and how he was able to grow it to the incredible business it has become today. Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
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Marcus’s Links:
• LinkedIn | @marcus-myers-97ba5839
• Website | https://www.hwpco.com/
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GOLD NUGGETS:
(03:14) - Audiovisual Reps in Sales
(15:17) - Starting a Christian Rock Band
(18:28) - Journey of a Musician
(31:45) - Transitioning Careers and Building a Business
(39:05) - Sales Industry Growth and Opportunity Recognition
(45:21) - Buy, Sell, Negotiate Rep Firm Terms
(57:10) - Expanding Services and Increasing Revenue
(01:06:37) - Cooking and Buying Real Estate
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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!
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If you loved this episode try these!
• Using Biology to Change Mindset Momentum | Don Markland
• From the Rats to Riches – The Tales of a Tin Man | Paul Burleson
• Building a Home Service Business with Huge Returns | Joel Mooneyham
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Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!
Marcus Myers is a manufacturer's rep for Audio Visual Equipment, but even by his own explanation, this field is obsolete. Amazon is coming! We talk about how to differentiate yourself in the B2B marketplace and become the value added GLUE that helps people play beautiful MUSIC. From Kenny Chesney to Sanford Stadium to a boardroom near you, Marcus and his team have probably helped get the right equipment to help you enjoy your experience. His interest in music came from his start as a violinist who eventually toured for years with a Christian Rock Group. AND THEN HE TOOK HIS SHOT. He gives you the nitty gritty and details around his acquisition of his current company and how he was able to grow it to the incredible business it has become today. Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
-----
Marcus’s Links:
• LinkedIn | @marcus-myers-97ba5839
• Website | https://www.hwpco.com/
-----
GOLD NUGGETS:
(03:14) - Audiovisual Reps in Sales
(15:17) - Starting a Christian Rock Band
(18:28) - Journey of a Musician
(31:45) - Transitioning Careers and Building a Business
(39:05) - Sales Industry Growth and Opportunity Recognition
(45:21) - Buy, Sell, Negotiate Rep Firm Terms
(57:10) - Expanding Services and Increasing Revenue
(01:06:37) - Cooking and Buying Real Estate
-----
Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!
-----
If you loved this episode try these!
• Using Biology to Change Mindset Momentum | Don Markland
• From the Rats to Riches – The Tales of a Tin Man | Paul Burleson
• Building a Home Service Business with Huge Returns | Joel Mooneyham
-----
Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!
Four reasons. People buy in a row everybody, every customer, even you. It's pain now, pain later, pleasure now, pleasure later, period, anything, anything you're selling. That is why people buy in that order. So if you've got a product that's gonna solve their pain right away, that's where you're gonna get the most influence right away, very quickly. I love that one.
Alan Wyatt:I'm breaking a gold nugget, mr.
Chris Lalomia:Myers. Mr Myers breaks it down from violin virtuoso to Christian rock star group.
Alan Wyatt:To sell a chicken zero. It's a trailer zero sales training, zero education, zero formal sales training. It's just. I think that's probably the bigger part of stuff.
Chris Lalomia:Welcome to the small business safari where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountain top-up success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from any your own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through the safari. All right, small business adventure team, it's time to get rockin. But you know what? Sometimes we have to do a sound check before we get started. And our sound check got real deep, real fast.
Alan Wyatt:That's right. Wow, I'm a little nervous, chris. I'm kind of like if you invited Gordon Ramsay over for dinner and you were cooking.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah. So we, we have a very special guest and this is one where usually I put Alan in the dark and feed him shit and the mushroom world, that's right. At this time he's got me in the dark and he said oh, by the way, here's who we have coming on today. You might want to go look him up. I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm looking him up on there. He was yeah, this is what he does, and I'm not gonna tell you guys yet because I'm gonna have to have explained it because I had to say it twice for me. Well, remember, I'm just a contractor man, so I am.
Chris Lalomia:I tried to use the smallest words I could he did. He used the word rep and I was like nope, uh-huh, nope, not getting it at all. And he goes well, go check out his website. So I do. And what's this guy do? He specializes in audio visual equipment and making sure people sound Perfect. And he walked into here and he's these, look at this Mickey Mouse operation of the small business safari going. You guys are kind of a big deal and I'm like that was very nice of him, but I was waiting for him to say and your little podcast too.
Alan Wyatt:So well, you know he comes in and I know he has a studio that is Unbelievable. As a matter of fact, I think in your studio they interviewed Bono.
Marcus Myers:Not only. Yeah, well see it remotely.
Alan Wyatt:I'm sure you sounded fine and he comes in and we're pretty proud of what we got going on and we are kind of the big deal top 10%.
Chris Lalomia:Right, we are top-tempery. We've broken it.
Alan Wyatt:We've broken into the top 10% of all podcast all podcasts in the universe and yet Again I feel like I just invited Gordon Ramsay to dinner, so you're having fun with the speakers. So nice, give, give me your sling blade again.
Marcus Myers:Well, I mean, actually this is a microphone, but it's fine. We'll work on that later.
Chris Lalomia:I love it All right. So, alan, who do we have in studio, since you know him so much?
Alan Wyatt:Dear friend of mine. Marcus Meyer is one of my favorite people on the planet and what I think our listeners are gonna get into is, you know, we've kind of been on this pattern of More balls than brains. And I'm not saying that that Marcus doesn't have brains, because he's actually one of the Deepest thinkers I know, but here's somebody who started and we got to get into it. He was a musician. We can talk about how much education he had, what. Whatever we want, that'll be fast, yeah, that'll be fast. And now he Owns the largest rep agency in audio visual in the southeast. If you go see a Georgia football game, when you're listening to everything coming through the loud, you know the system and it is booming. Go dogs. That's Marcus. Yo dogs. Yeah, he's hung out with Charles Barkley, the country music scene. You know he's alright, he's kind of a big deal.
Alan Wyatt:Doesn't mean very white, and I want to hear the sling blade.
Marcus Myers:I love mustard. I don't think it's business.
Chris Lalomia:It's like cornbread or something I don't even know.
Marcus Myers:That's what makes it better. It's all wrong.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, all right, before we go down the history of who is.
Alan Wyatt:I do For somebody else who's not sponsoring us. Yeah, should be these guys. All right, and cheers, it's cheers, it's huss brewing out of Phoenix, phoenix, arizona, phoenix. I don't think you can buy it here. It was brought to me by a friend of mine, but this is called Senfo, ipa, CEN, pho, which is abbreviated for Central Phoenix, which is a really cool part of Phoenix.
Chris Lalomia:But I'm actually hitting up every, every alcohol that we have ever sponsored. I'm making Michael get a list together and we're going after him saying if you don't sponsor me, I'm gonna stop drinking. And I know I'm changing. I know I'm changing your GDP talk, that's big.
Alan Wyatt:I was going to Napa Valley next week. Well, that's true, but okay, so this particular two weeks, this particular IPA Hat, am I leaking? You are leaking, oh?
Alan Wyatt:I opened it before I turned it over to show you the label. Sorry, there we go all the way it. You know it's the common thing right now. Like Tropicalia, they all have these citrusy flavors right. So they have people who live in this neighborhood and everybody out there has lemon trees and grapefruit trees and things like that, so the citrus they use in this beer is brought to them by the neighbors.
Chris Lalomia:And this is a big-time brewery.
Alan Wyatt:Yeah, cool, that is all right.
Chris Lalomia:That's sent, though, from Hust Brewing Company. We'll get a report on that a little bit later from Alan, after we first figure out what a Audiovisual rep is. I just want it let's. Let's figure out what this industry is, and then then we'll go back up, and I want to hear about the history of recording. So what the hell do you guys do, man?
Marcus Myers:Sometimes I don't even know, but it's fun. Every day is different. It's a great job, it's a great career, it's a great business. Hwp stands for Henry W Phillips. Started by Henry W Phillips in 1970, so my partner andI bought the business in 2015, january 1, from David Burgantis, who had purchased the business from his father-in-law, henry and, and back then the Independent manufacturers rep firm was the bees knees and you couldn't stop them, and it was just the coolest thing in the world, because, if you can picture manufacturers making products and needing to get to the customer base without the internet, what did they have back then?
Marcus Myers:Honestly, they had catalogs and Some trade shows, I guess, but mostly you were knocking on doors and people were coming to show you new stuff. That's how you found out. So that's how manufacturers got connected to the customer was through in-person relationships and in-person context, and so the the options out there for a manufacturer are essentially to have a dedicated sales force Working strictly on salary for that manufacturer in the whole country, or sometimes even in the world, but in the country for sure, and so, depending on the size and scope of that manufacturer, they might benefit more from the independent manufacturers rep firm model. Meaning, if Manufacturer a is making shoes and another manufacturers making shorts. Instead of having one or maybe two sales reps in a six-state territory in the southeast, they can actually share my team of Of five or six or, in our case, nine different sales people out in six states selling audio, video, lighting, got it IT security. So an independent Manufacturers rep firm refers to essentially a third-party sales team. So the cool part about that is that when you connect with that customer base, you're sending your products into the territory through a team of people that are Exclusive to that category.
Marcus Myers:So in our case, if we're selling microphones, we're selling sure, incorporated microphones, the number one microphone brand in the world, and Can't tell you how thankful we are to partner with them. Incredible company, incredible legacy, the best products in the world, some fun history there we can talk about. But in partnering with HWP they utilize our nine outside sales reps in six states. But we also don't have another Partnership with another microphone company. We're exclusive to that microphone. So they can trust us to not have any conflict of interest walking into a customer, taking their new product or old product or the needs that they have to the customer base. They're confident that we're Selling their product every day. But what's neat for the customer is that, rather than Only seeing a dedicated, sure salesperson Maybe twice, how often do you need to see the microphone guy? Not often. Right, you know the product. So because we have it at this point, I think right now we have 15 partners, 15 manufacturer partners. We're Much more valuable in that sense to that customer because when we call them we have 15 different products. You're a one-stop shop a little bit. We're definitely, and we can get into this a little bit more. This is how it kind of Progressed over the years and how my partner Trey and I really pushed what we do to the next level. But prior to the internet, you, as an independent manufacturers rep firm, we were personally bringing in products to show them, demonstrate them, and the customers needed us to come tell them about the stuff. The manufacturers needed us to take the stuff to the customer and tell them all about it. With the internet and the scaling of access through the internet to data, both sides said, hey, I can get some of the data and some of the info. So some of the fun stuff that we did was take that approach and shift that value to a more of a contextual value.
Marcus Myers:So there's a great book out there called the Challenger Sale, which we talk about a lot in our company. We've all read it. It's fantastic, and it was a study and a book written over the 80809, 2010 era, when Lovely time, yeah, lovely time, lovely time, but what a great book. This guy went in and interviewed all these CEOs and said, hey, who killed it for you on your sales team? Who was the guy that really made a difference? Guy or girl? What was it? Was it?
Marcus Myers:I think there were seven or eight different types of salesperson, whether it was relational or the technical knowledge based guy. All these different types of salespeople and hands down across the board. They all simply expected that relational relationship salesperson to be the top dog, especially during this downturn. Like, who knows the people? They know the people. That's great at bringing donuts, but what the book really talks about is that the most profitable, valuable salesperson type was this Challenger type, and it made total sense because Do you know about this, chris? Nope, great book. I'm digging, I'm writing it down man, great book.
Marcus Myers:I don't remember the author, but the guy that made hey during that time was not the guy that was relational and brought donuts and hung out. These companies were surviving and they were trying desperately to find new ways to make money. So the guy that was the most valuable was the guy that came into their business and challenged the way that they looked at their own business, challenged the way that they looked at the industry, challenged the way that they did things and said I think you might be doing that wrong. Here's what I'm hearing out there, here's what I think might work for you guys. Oh, by the way, I sell some stuff. So great twist on what traditionally had been. Hey, you've got the relationships. And so, as a rep firm, that book made a big difference to us because, relationally prior to the internet, rep firms ruled the roost and all manufacturers wanted rep firms and they were top dog because they had the relationship, because we're regional.
Chris Lalomia:Gotcha. Yeah, no, you're right, you had to change your model completely because I got the data. Yeah, I can look up. Sure, I'll pick the microphone in need, so I don't need you to do that. I got split sheets, I got all that stuff. Right, I got all that and so. But now you come walking in and with the challenge of mindset is hey, I understand you guys want these sure microphones or one of my other 14 products, but I'm not here to talk to you about my products. I'm here to tell you here's what I just heard about what your competitors are doing Yep hands down.
Marcus Myers:That was a big big shift for us. That was a big deal. So we started to train our folks on how to actually sit there with a prospect and talk to them while they were looking at their laptop, while they were looking at their computer. And it was a really interesting kind of role playing year two for us just working through that shift to what we do, because now the customer has all the information. So 50 years ago they had none, Now they have it all. So how are we gonna be valuable? How are we gonna matter?
Chris Lalomia:So and you guys, are just to be clear. We're all B2B sales here. Yes, we're talking about it. Yes, we are.
Marcus Myers:Yeah, all right. So we spend our time calling on the B2B, the channel they call it. So if you have Georgia, for instance, the University of Georgia, the stadium there, hwp was not the company that designed and installed the system. That was a company called TSAV. We simply called on TSAV and got them to pick our stuff, got them to pick the stuff we represented. And so across our 15 lines which they were different back then, but across our 15 lines we would say these products work together here. These are gonna work great here. Super honest approach, but a real value add based on that challenger concept.
Chris Lalomia:I'm fascinated because it's not a business model I understood and I hope people are picking up what he's putting down and what he's doing and it's a really different and interesting business that we're gonna talk about.
Alan Wyatt:It's a super interesting business, but normally I think we spend a little bit too much time on people's backgrounds before we get into what they can bring to the table. I think one of the things that's amazing about Marcus is how he got to the point of being where he is today. It's an unbelievable ballsy story.
Chris Lalomia:All right, so let's get my ADD head off going down the business path. And, marcus, how the hell did you get into this business?
Alan Wyatt:I mean, where are you from?
Marcus Myers:originally. That is a funny story.
Alan Wyatt:He was a musician.
Marcus Myers:Yeah, at one point. At one point for a lot of points.
Alan Wyatt:Yeah, for a lot of points. It was about 10 years.
Marcus Myers:At one point for many points.
Alan Wyatt:Yeah, it's a fun story. It really is. He was a musician.
Marcus Myers:Yeah, at nine I started playing violin. At 16, I was asked to be in a Christian rock and roll band playing violin, so I jumped into yeah, I jumped into Chris's eyes, or like dinner plates right now. Back this, truck up, yeah, bro.
Chris Lalomia:You just said I went to a Christian rock band with my violin. Yeah, dude, yeah, yeah, I was rocking violin. I'm like, hey, charlie Daniels, this is Devil without a Georgia, and he's out here rocking up violin. Yeah, I was waiting to hear. I was shredding a guitar. I'm a mad singer All right.
Marcus Myers:Oh man, it was such a weird process. And the funny part about the story, really quickly, is I think you'll get a kick out of. It is from nine to 16, I'm playing classical music, so I'm not even playing bluegrass, I'm not even playing by ear. They teach you to turn your nose up at that stuff. You're playing what Bach wrote and if you're not FU, you can pound sand. You're playing what he wrote the way he wrote it. You don't take any liberties.
Chris Lalomia:Don't be a hillbilly. Yeah, we don't talk to those people.
Alan Wyatt:Who were you learning?
Chris Lalomia:So I grew up in.
Marcus Myers:Columbia, south Carolina and the University of South Carolina had a great great strings program Wow, incredible. And between junior and senior year I actually attended governor's school for violin at Furman University. Oh my gosh.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, but at this time you're playing nothing but classical, nothing but classical, and so and you liked it, I liked it.
Marcus Myers:I got the chicks in high school. No, no, not in high school. You kidding me. Like strings are like below marching band. I mean it's bad news. Did you play marching band, Chris.
Chris Lalomia:No, maybe you said you get the chicks. No, dude, I don't think so.
Alan Wyatt:That's my dry sense of humor, Chris, oh catch on.
Chris Lalomia:It is a podcast. It really plays through the radio.
Marcus Myers:I did make a step up into the into the chick world with the Christian band, but very slight step up.
Alan Wyatt:I mean.
Marcus Myers:Christian band is not necessarily a whole lot cooler yeah.
Chris Lalomia:So I watched almost famous and I've watched Dirt with, with Motley Cruz. I'm thinking, I'm thinking that's what your, your whole Christian rock band travel experience is. Oh God, no, yeah, absolutely not.
Marcus Myers:But it was amazing. We had a great time. But. But being invited to come in and play with the band was the funniest part of the story, because in classical music you play what someone wrote for you. I'd never improved, I'd never made it up on the spot. So when they invited me to come to one of their practices, they gave me a tape. That's right, people.
Marcus Myers:A cassette tape, yeah, yep, with the pencil and the rewinding yourself and all that, so I put that in in my room spent like four hours writing my parts for the for the three different songs.
Chris Lalomia:How funny is it? It was terrible. You hear about all these rock guys who would say I can't read any music. You actually wrote your music. I don't know if you caught that. I think that's the one thing. That clearly is the one thing I want to bring out. We're going to talk about how dummy is because you didn't go to school, but clearly how smart he is because he was able to play the violin and do that because that is a serious talent and they talk about. You know, mathematicians and sometimes geniuses play musical instruments because it tickles both sides of the brain and it really allows you to demonstrate creativity but yet have a technical background. So clearly, you got, you got. You got some stuff going on, brother. That's awesome.
Marcus Myers:It was fun and it is kind of fun to make that connection to to the creativity that came later in in that, you know, in that business world. So those things have absolutely been connected. I'm 43 now and, looking back, that was a journey that absolutely has progressed along the way. It's just been these different areas. So I'm very thankful to have been able to find different ways to access the skill set that the Lord has blessed me with and that's been a lot of fun to watch, to watch him use that, so. But yeah, so I'm sitting there at our first show, the only one on stage with a dagum music, stand like an idiot and they're just playing along and I'm like reading the music and they turn around halfway through the song and he's like oh, it's your, it's your turn.
Alan Wyatt:The violin solo.
Marcus Myers:Yeah, he's like solo, dude solo. And I looked at him and I was like man, I didn't write that I didn't write a solo.
Marcus Myers:I didn't write a solo, I didn't write a solo and he's like, oh, it's cool, it's cool, don't worry about it, we'll get it next time. So it was pretty embarrassing for there for a little while, but I picked it up. Then about a year later, picked up the hammered dulcimer, which is a cool instrument. That's the one for the chicks hammered dulcimer Also. Not, you're looking for a result here that's gonna happen, in that I met my wife out on the road and it happened.
Alan Wyatt:She loved the violin. Can you come see my hand?
Chris Lalomia:I don't know if I brought this up, but I've seen almost famous in here with Molly Cruz, so again, I think that's how your whole life was right Pretty close, you know, pretty close.
Marcus Myers:It's just, instead of panties dropping, they were throwing Bibles up there. So we, just we were just excited to see.
Chris Lalomia:Christian rock groupies totally different by very different. I haven't seen that movie, yet Lots of coffee.
Marcus Myers:Like, let's go have coffee. That's what we did. We had a lot of coffee.
Chris Lalomia:All right, so you, you were how old when you started?
Marcus Myers:touring 16. Oh boy, yeah, we were driving around on an 18 passenger van, no AC. We'd have the sliding door open on the interstate. The road stuff is where that really comes into play. We, we did all the crazy. We had a. We had an RV at one point that we bought from six pence, none the richer. If you remember the song, kiss me, how's it go, kiss me, you remember that song now good.
Marcus Myers:I'm not gonna say all right anyway, let's just old time band. We bought the RV, drove that thing into the ground, absolutely drove it into the ground. Yeah, trailer Box truck, we drove all over the country. We had a great time. Somewhere around oh three, we got a record deal with the biggest record label in Nashville at the time who had third day Jars of clay cabins, call all these big 90s bands, and we were super pumped and made our album and and within two months of releasing the album Another huge label came in and bought that record label for the big three and then Dropped all the other acts. So that was kind of the end of the road I'm. I went and toured a little bit on my own with violin and it was awful. Just had been in a band, band or brothers kind of thing for Nine years, right.
Alan Wyatt:So then the evening with Marcus Myers and his violin just wasn't playing.
Marcus Myers:No, it was like. You know, I tried to align it to like I really I tried to align it to like the vagina monologues because I thought maybe violin Vagina monologues would make sense.
Chris Lalomia:But no, where the night with Marcus Myers, and so, oh wait, there's so many violent things I want to roll into, but alright, but let's get. I Gotta roll into Lindsay Sterling. I mean this tickets killing it right now.
Marcus Myers:Yeah.
Chris Lalomia:I mean, yeah, dancing around playing the violin, I, yeah, I, of course she's good-looking, but but she can play it. Can she really play and dance?
Marcus Myers:Oh my god, she's amazing, I've never been. Can you play and dance? No, what Well dance? Yeah, no, okay.
Chris Lalomia:All right, and then we used in training at the trusted toolbox. One of the things that had brought to us is there was a violinist who was going to play and I won't remember his name but you can, hopefully you can, give me his name. He was going to play in DC's and play the the big theater there and that night For him to play it was close to 200 to $2,000 a seat. So NPR and Followed him and asked him could you just go play in the DC subway in the morning before? And we're not, we're gonna do it so undercover he goes down there and just starts playing and he's playing in the box in the DC sub, dc like a million dollar violin with a million dollar and he got quarters dollars.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, one note that says I know who you are. You are amazing. Can't wait to see you tonight. He said so the thing we brought up in our training with this violinist was Know your audience. And so when you walk into a home and we're a carpenter, we're a drywall specialist, we're a plumber Know your audience. And are you worth 200 to $2,000 a seat or are you with quarters and pennies school and that? There's a really cool way to kind of tie in this, but it's. He's a very famous violinist that I should know.
Chris Lalomia:And he eats that pearl man no.
Marcus Myers:I.
Chris Lalomia:Even if you would you all have to look it up after the podcast or I'll drop it somewhere. But because in Germany, when he's really popular in Germany too, and so in that place in Germany it's like even crazier, more expensive. But anyway, the point is he plays violin. I said I had to go everywhere and I'm doing it anyway. So here we go. So you get off the road, you come back home and you go okay, violin, I can't actually crush it. And go top 40, go pop music, I can't play with.
Marcus Myers:Whitney Houston. I can't tour. I couldn't do it and at that time I was getting married. So I Knew my wife and I knew we wanted to have a big family.
Marcus Myers:And you either do three things as a musician. You're either writing music, so you're making money off of publishing From songs being played and you get a piece of it every time it's played, kind of thing. Or you're doing studio work, or you're traveling and I couldn't write to save my life. I couldn't do studio work. I just was terrible at it and I didn't want to travel because I knew that in order to increase your income traveling and have a family, you just got to travel more. So I knew that that was gonna backfire. So didn't have a college degree, didn't even go to school, went to Carolina for a couple weeks and by the time I was in the music program Pell Grant stuff, scholarship stuff, getting paid to go to school. But if you miss the first three Friday rehearsals you lose at all kind of thing. And I mean we had shows every and you're on the road shows every weekend.
Chris Lalomia:So you had to choose. You were living life, though, bro. I mean it was great, right. I mean what's? I mean you want to talk about learning. You could go to school and a protected environment and learn to play music, or you can go do what you happen to you, yeah, and you had to learn to. Well, I can write my music. Then I had to learn to improv, then I had to learn to be with my band of brothers, and so what did you learn? Your skill sets, you were learning. There was how to work within the team, how to improv when things don't go your way, how to change a tire when the tire goes flat, how to guess, because my job was not just to play the damn violin, man. Sometimes my job was that hey, man, do you know how to fix the spark plug?
Marcus Myers:No, and we learned about people. I learned everything about people. Ten years, so many people.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, so you got so many tons of I mean that education alone. Right, there is something College wasn't gonna teach all that no, and I was the young.
Marcus Myers:I was younger than I, was four years younger than everyone in the band. We had a management company and I was a good eight or nine years younger than all them. I was the youngest in the whole crew and out of Columbia, south Carolina, so I got to watch and learn so much about building the business, about them, building the Management company, bringing on new artists, so got a lot of that. Came out of that Super discouraged but also kind of like and I'm only 26. It was actually pretty cool. I got ten years in this whole world but I wasn't 40, having made my play at music and Having to walk away much older, so thankful for that, but didn't have a degree. So but you're married, married you get some pressure. Scary, really scary. My wife is a nurse. If she was very, she was able to help in that sense financially, went to, always had a second job. By the way, ten years, the entire time I was in the band I had a second job.
Marcus Myers:Okay so I had all the things. I knew all the things yes, you're working with people, people, all kinds of different skills and was able to just prove to her I was a prepared provider and that was something that was and should be important to most men. But I walked into that marriage. She completely trusted me. I wasn't sitting there on my ass doing nothing. So, you know, did a lot of looking, a lot of thinking, didn't want to waste a whole lot of time no one that a lot of that stuff out there just required a degree at that time. A lot of it did, so walked into selling insurance. So I knew I knew about people, I knew I could talk to people. I knew that the sales thing was a Low barrier of entry. Right, it's not made for everybody. It's not made for everybody, but it certainly welcomes them all in the beginning.
Marcus Myers:So you're welcome to come in and try it All comers.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, the cage matches on. Guess what? The cage is open.
Marcus Myers:Good luck, bro. Speaking of cages, so I picked up with I don't remember the name of it. It was terrible. It was one of those, one of those products that they just throw people and and Lead gen cards at you and you're, you know you're, you're selling not great stuff. So I was walking into hair salons and hitting up single moms for $8 a month. You know Disability policies that'll maybe pay them. I mean it was awful. Two separate times I met in a trailer with chickens in the trailer, like the second time I was like alright. The first time I was like okay, this is the first time it's like story, this is the story.
Marcus Myers:I can tell it the second time. I was like I'm out, I think you're gonna find another one. I can do another trailer, see one more chicken.
Chris Lalomia:If I see one more chicken in the trailer while I'm trying to sell insurance, who says that right, that once have I ever heard that in my life be the title of this one more chicken. One more chicken in a trailer while I'm trying to sell insurance.
Marcus Myers:Hey, but what? I'll tell you what not to get to. Hey, this is a business podcast, right, but the lesson from that was not what you might think it was. The cool lesson from that was Learning about how all customers lie. All of them are lying all the time. It's so moving.
Alan Wyatt:Yeah, they're not that you think less of them.
Marcus Myers:No, they're just lying. So I, you know I'm, I'm sitting here. I haven't spent 10 years, you know, in in music and Relating to people and for the most part in what we did we could Sit and trust somebody and see him the next year and see him often because we're playing the same kind of venues. But man, when you start selling somebody something that was very different, it goes. It goes from trust to distrust and maneuvering and a lot of things there that you know they're Influencing behavior. So when someone says something, you you begin to learn that what they're saying is either interest in what you're selling or a, a you know, throw away comment to try to get you to leave, kind of thing. So it can be nice, everyone's nice. But one thing we learned and about 10 years ago in the business I mean now heard this from somebody but Four reasons.
Marcus Myers:People buy in a row, everybody, every customer, even you. It's pain now, pain later, pleasure now, pleasure later, period. Hmm, anything, anything you're selling. That is why people buy in that order. So if you've got a product that's gonna solve their pain right away, that's where you're gonna get the most influence right away, very quickly. I love that one breaking gold nugget at Mr Myers.
Chris Lalomia:Mr Myers breaks it down from violin virtuoso to Christian rock star group to sell a chicken zero Sours me chicken to the trailer zero sales training, zero education, zero formal sales training, it just.
Chris Lalomia:I think that's probably the bigger part is amazing the education. I think that's a throwaway really, because he got educated man nine years in the road doing what he did, dealing with people and all the stuff he did. But I want to, I want to get into this now because you got into this business you did net. You've never done Carnegie Sander, no sales training. You know, you figured it out on your way.
Marcus Myers:Yeah, in fact, from insurance six months in I was physically ill every day. Like this is just terrible.
Alan Wyatt:So I called a buddy of mine disease yeah.
Marcus Myers:I probably caught it from the chickens. Yeah, friend of mine said man, just bail out. Friday, come over here. I'm helping this company move into a building and we're doing Tile or something. I know how to do all that stuff. Lots of musicians doing extra stuff, right. So I went over there, ended up that it was an audio video integration company, one of the channel Companies we were talking about the B2B. So they were doing churches, house of worship, av install, and then they had a production side of their company that was doing live touring and stuff like that. So as soon as I realized what they were and who they were, man, I just started getting to know. All of them Worked there, moving them into this building probably maybe four months, something like that and was painting one day and had always painted.
Marcus Myers:I just Got to the point where I'm not using the blue tape that everybody's got to use. Don't need any of that, don't need drop costs, but had always, had always just learned to Be excellent at what I'm doing. My dad taught me that work hard, be excellent. So I'm in the CEO's office painting his deal. We've gotten to know each other a little bit. We're just talking. He's sold insurance for many years. So we're connecting on that. Anyway, we start talking and he's watching me paint and he teaches me something so cool.
Marcus Myers:I spent, you know, a good week or so in there just hanging out doing the tile in there in the paint, and he said he said, man, you know what means the most to me about what you're doing? He said your attention to detail, that you want to do a good job, you're working hard, but what that means for me is this job in particular, this painting, a job a lot of people can do that job, but you're doing that in a way where I can watch, I can vert, I can visually see trust in action. Right now, I can trust that what you're gonna do is amazing and if I can't trust a man with a dollar, I can't trust him with a thousand dollars. And that that spoke to me because you know, this is my first Other than insurance was, which was garbage. This was kind of my first intro and to learning some of these concepts that we all spend time reading books on and learning about from you know guys who have been out there as entrepreneurs doing the thing, and that really, that really struck me. So we're finishing up moving them in.
Marcus Myers:I'm kind of coming to the end of this thing. I said, jay, man, I want a job, I want to be here. I know you like what I do. I know that I don't know what you do, but I'm going to learn, I'm going to do whatever it takes. He said, man, I just don't have anything for you. And I said, well, I'll see you tomorrow. I just kept coming, I was like the janitor for like two months. I seriously just did there, took the trash out and like mopped up.
Chris Lalomia:I tell you actually, I'm like Jay. If you're listening, jay, what the hell were you thinking? I mean, I would have made something up. I'm like brother. I think you a hundred times over.
Marcus Myers:Well, eventually they did. I mean, they were a small business still. They really were. They were maybe like 15, 16 people. They weren't big yet and they got to a point where they did well, but they did make something up. They put me into the purchasing team. I think they gave me 30 grand a year to be on their purchasing team and kind of slowly over four years worked up into purchasing manager and then started managing projects all over the country. And then 0809, boom. It was just so. That just dried up and we tried to do some online store stuff because that was starting to pop e-commerce. So did that for a little bit. But man, I was like this is not, this ain't gonna last, this isn't gonna be good. So here's where we get, here's where we're here. We're here. Finally, thanks for being patient.
Marcus Myers:The one of the two partners at Miller Electronics, who was the independent manufacturer rep firm for Shure Microphones or Shure Incorporated, that sold microphones to me as the purchasing manager. We had coffee one day. I was talking to him about minimum advertised price and all the rules about what you can market on your store right online, and he stops me, he goes look, man, I appreciate it, I get it. But I gotta tell you something. I was sitting there this morning and just thought about you because I got a job in Atlanta. I think you'd be great at it. I know you love Nashville, but I want you to interview for this job in Atlanta, and it was the sales rep job in Atlanta I wanted to at this time. You know I'm living in Nashville married and I knew that this company was just gonna tank and no fault of their own per se, but they're in a market where giving to the church kind of drives up at hard times, right. So there wasn't a lot of business for us out there. Touring was struggling, so I took the job.
Marcus Myers:So, thankful October 2010, moved my family two kids to Atlanta to start this job at Miller. That's where I met my future partner, trey, who was the rep in Birmingham at the time, and come to find out the guy that hired me was the partner to another dude, older guy. That was no good. So about a year and a half in, I told Trey I said, man, I'm sorry, I gotta head out, and I went to another firm HWP with the intent to purchase that one day and Trey's boss the other owner ended up frankly screwing him out of becoming his partner. So he called me and said let's start a firm. And I said man, let's buy this one. It's fantastic With all the money. You had no money, no money. That's the next part of the story.
Chris Lalomia:So let's go back to. I write music. I just don't play music, and so you had the foresight to go to this company with the intent of buying it. Talk a little bit more about that. Of course, as Alan has so eloquently put, not a pot to piss in, that's what I would have put. Is that what I said? No, well, you said no money, and that's like so boring. A pot to piss in is so much better Because nobody knows what that means anymore, but anyway, I know what it means.
Marcus Myers:I definitely know what it means. That's what back in the Depression.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, yeah, dude.
Marcus Myers:Right, not even a pot to piss.
Chris Lalomia:Piss poor, you're piss poor.
Marcus Myers:Yeah, you literally were peeing and you didn't have a pot to put your pee in. That was real bad. That was when it was real bad, that's right.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, good, all right. So how did you see that?
Marcus Myers:So I'll be honest with you guys. So much of my story I'd rather have you like yeah, right, so much of my story is in my world. I credit this to the Lord, but so much of my story is being someone who learned from my dad how to always work hard and how to always be excellent at what you're doing. And, boy, especially nowadays, you are going to stand out, and what happens from that, regardless of what you believe, is that opportunity comes from that. It's a combination of preparedness and luck. Exactly right.
Chris Lalomia:We just heard this a couple episodes ago with Jen Gorkathford. Remember her, yeah Her of the Gore Law. That's right, pain, gorkath, gore Pain. She said all I have to do because you're a little bit younger than me and you're a lot younger than Alan, so that's not funny.
Marcus Myers:Why are you laughing so hard? I'm drunk already. I guess it's just the bourbon. That's what we're doing. That's what we're doing.
Chris Lalomia:But isn't that funny how often that comes up. And you just talked about that and I'm sure at some point your dad probably said Marcus, you can't get enough something for nothing. You've got to work hard. You expect to have it all right away, because we've heard that every year. Yeah, my dad heard that from his dad, I heard that from my dad. I tell it to my kids every night, told them last night Do better, do better. And then, of course, my daughter always fires back at me with dad. Well, back to Father's Day. Hey, dad, can you make me a mimosa? I'm like well, sure, kid she goes. I mean not to make you work on Father's Day, but if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have this day.
Chris Lalomia:Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha ha. So yeah, that's, my kid.
Alan Wyatt:She's definitely smarter than me. She is awesome.
Chris Lalomia:This kid has three, all right, but you saw it. You worked hard and again, amen to that, because that people, at the end of the day it still just comes down to sometimes it's just freaking hard work. And you got to pay attention to detail. You had to practice for hours and hours. You just don't pick up a violin and play, trust me, I tried and you just, you can't. It's just it's hard to do. So here you are. You saw it. So opportunity meets hard work, and here we are. And so how did you see that?
Marcus Myers:So at Miller, one of the things I'll say was a big part of it is, yes, working hard. But I think one of the first times that I kind of was able to actually realize that some of that creativity that came from whatever side of the brain that comes from, and all that music world, is the ability to see something that's being asked of you in a way that is meant to incentivize you but is not, and recognizing that personally at Miller in particular, was something that the independent manufacturer REP firm is unique to. So the quick version of this is this older gentleman that was the last remaining partner. He had released kind of this new comp pay policy that was intended to incentivize us as representatives to sell more of the breadth of the products that we had. But he sort of miscalculated in the sense that he ended up kind of just being a math guy, and so he put together a plan that was just calculating certain things. If you sold more of these than the percentage, I won't go into it. It actually de-incentivized someone like me, because I saw that for what it was.
Marcus Myers:So it was the first time that I realized my brain was not only able to look at something just simply as a salesperson, but actually question and kind of challenge that initial intent and say, hey, this is actually completely backwards to what you're trying to get me to do.
Marcus Myers:And when I brought that to him this guy was pretty awful. He honestly was just cruel and mean and awful about it and I won't go into that. But he A didn't listen, didn't take it into account and then kind of was belligerent and go away and just do what I tell you to do. And so it was the first time I really felt like man. I believe that I could actually do this better, and I think at some point that hits certain people in a certain way, and at that point it didn't hit me like I'm going to go start my own business. I'm going to go do this myself. But when the opportunity came along to interview with another firm in Atlanta because my customer base here had become very quickly impressed by me in those relationships, yeah, back to your hard work and you make your networking.
Chris Lalomia:you're being kind to people, you're being good to people, keeping those options open. They're the ones your customers actually brought this opportunity they did.
Alan Wyatt:They did. And this doesn't come from being a Sandler train killer, right, you're just a good honest dude.
Marcus Myers:Yeah, it's like the story of the washing machine salesman that takes a vacation and they pull up Billy, who's the technical guy, and he's just legitimately helping people on the floor, and they promote him into sales and he starts being trained, all the sales techniques and his sales numbers go down Like at some point you're just helping people and if you lose track of that so there was some of that that was also inherently here in the fact that all I did was just honestly work hard for folks. And so the most valuable thing about a salesperson especially in the rep business, especially in our business, but anywhere is the idea that we need to be free employees for that company. You're not a prospect, because I'm the hero and I've got the thing that you need and you want and I'm going to sell it to you. You're the hero, your business is the hero, and I'm going to come in and talk with you about why I do what I do, how I do it and oh, by the way, I've got some things in my trunk.
Marcus Myers:The next little bit that we'll talk about about the rep firm models that we actually, five years ago, started another adaptation to the rep firm model and we called it the PSO or professional services organization. So that's the next part of that story. Is we have gone from the contextual selling to actually expanding our service offering to the manufacturer community who hires us and the customer community who wants things from us?
Chris Lalomia:All right, before we get to that and we're going to run out of time here soon I want to go back to this. So you go to this company, you interview with HWP David Paganis, yeah, and David, who's a second owner, second generation owner, yep, with the intent of I'm going to buy you. He asks.
Marcus Myers:I didn't even think about it, I simply was a year and a half into a new job, just wanting a better boss. Yeah, so he and I sit down. He says let's talk. So we hang for three hours, we eat dinner in 30 minutes and we sit there for two and a half. The waiter's pissed off and we're just having a great time. It comes up. Hey, not only am I looking for someone here, but Atlanta's our biggest market. I'm 50, you know, I'm 58. Which is ancient, alan Ancient.
Alan Wyatt:Sounds pretty spry to me, okay, well, go ahead.
Marcus Myers:So in the rep firm world here's one more little nugget In the rep firm world. We don't own anything, we don't have any assets, so we're at what's called a goodwill company, so the manufacturers are customer based. So, david, is it's hard to buy and sell a rep firm? It's hard to sell it Cause you tell these manufacturers, hey, these are my guys, and the manufacturers have to buy in because we're on 30 day contracts.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, right, so you are basically buying. I mean, we're buying paper. Yes, yeah, you're buying paper and hopes Buying nothing. So he had nothing to sell, right. And so that's why smart on him to say, hey look, I see this young man Starting early, yep, and I'm gonna cause that's the only way he, his exit strategy was gonna be really tough, that's right. So in the business model I'm here to be at, so he drove that in right thing.
Marcus Myers:first thing, and I don't know that he would have. You know, it was a few hours into the meeting. So I think he, you know, needed to get a good feel for me. But it hurt a lot of good things and when he brought that up, hey, would you be interested in this one day? All this stuff came rushing back to me, all these opportunities that had really not presented themselves, in the sense that it hadn't all come into view. So he says I'm looking for this rep, but I'm also looking for someone one day to purchase the company from me and transition into an ownership role. All right.
Chris Lalomia:So let's get into the gritty nitty. And that's why you know I wrote my book. It's called From the Zoo to the Wild and, of course, alan, I put him on mute so he can't rip on me.
Marcus Myers:So I got to push my book out there again.
Chris Lalomia:But so when this goes down, I don't know how much you'd like to share, but a lot of times people go. You know I'm thinking about getting my own business, but how much is too much and I don't have any money. You know, if I'm working in corporate America, I got my 401k. Do I take all my 401k out? It might be a hundred thousand, maybe 200,000. So did you guys work on terms Like an earn out and then and I'm getting into some of this because I know some of it but tell us a little bit about how you were able to buy it.
Marcus Myers:Yeah, and please stop me if there's too much detail. I know we're running out of time, but also think this maybe is what this is about, so I'm happy to share it because it was such an awesome learning experience. I moved into just selling first. Trey came over eventually when he got screwed and I introduced him to Dave and said look, I think we're the pair for you. I didn't want to do it by myself. I honestly didn't. Glad I didn't. Frankly, I love Trey and I think we've done a great job.
Chris Lalomia:So you grabbed a partner, which is another. That's a whole other podcast.
Alan Wyatt:We're not gonna get that so completely foreign to you, Chris.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, because the last thing I was gonna do is pick a partner, and that's in my book. I unmuted Alan now, but, yeah, all right, so we're talking about this. So, all right, you got to get to the part.
Marcus Myers:Oh, this is a great part, great part of the story. So I go to, we go to Dave and we say we're ready. So Shure had been with Miller Electronics and the older gentleman had pitched Trey as the next guy. So then the older gentleman decides I don't really want to give this money up right now. So he puts Trey in a bad light. To stay the owner for a while, to not sell to Trey right away. It was this poker move that backfired Trey, called his bluff and said man, this is crap, I'm out. So it calls me.
Marcus Myers:We go to David. Trey is the relational guy with Shure, which is a huge global company, right? So he says, david, I think if you sell the company to Marcus and I and we're able to come in and shore this up, I think that we can bring Shure over from Miller. I think they'll come to us and they had been with Miller since 1954. So we said we're in, we made the play and we made it strong and at this time David and I had worked together for about a year and a half. Trey comes over and credit to David. David hires a couple of people, wants to see that work first, all the while working with lawyers and attorneys. But the fun part of the story, for those that are out there thinking about this, is that we were way off. Trey and I had never done this. David had done it. We thought the business was worth this. David thought it was worth this way higher.
Chris Lalomia:And for the podcast world you put the first hand down by your ankles, yeah, down by your ankles, yeah, and David had it up over his head, like every business owner always has. By the way, I'm that guy now, but I wanted to be that guy at the ankles.
Marcus Myers:I still go. So we had to learn fast my father-in-law at that time and sold a couple of three businesses. One thing I'll share in the podcast here that was the absolute coolest thing that I would love to share with anyone I can ever talk to is that we were so low down by the ankles he was way up, higher over his head. We were talking about millions of dollars difference and what we thought it was worth and what he wanted to get. And my father-in-law said Marcus, let me ask you something, what do you have now? And I said I got about, you know, $100,000 dollar.
Marcus Myers:And he said okay, if I came to you and told you that I would give you a business and 500 grand a year, but for I don't remember what he said eight years, you're gonna pay me 400 grand back, but you're gonna own the business. Would that be a good deal? Would you do that deal? And I said, well, yeah, I think I got a business out of it, right. And he said yeah, don't be mad at your money. Ooh, that's a great one.
Chris Lalomia:It not good? Don't be mad at your money. Don't be mad at your money and I would tell you guys, I am not as Christian as Marcus is, I am very mad at my money right now. I am always mad. I am consistently mad at my money all the time, or lack thereof. What does that mean?
Marcus Myers:So for us it meant this For us, we couldn't get past this number. It's worth this, it's worth this. We, you know, we Googled crap. We were young, we didn't know what we were doing. And to David, the number we were giving him was like, well, hell, I'll just run it for three more years and shut it down and I'll make what you're gonna pay me Right? That makes no sense. So we were way off. So this concept of get the business don't be pissed that you're paying me 400, you're getting 500. So you're still at 100, but you own a business. So we did it.
Chris Lalomia:We made a deal that was great for David and was great for us, because in two years we doubled the business in two years and so and so I that is what you just heard, guys is stuff that you just don't get in business school, you don't get on piece of paper and you don't get unless you get a personal invitation to talk to Marcus Myers and you get this on a podcast about the way he thought about this and worked that deal. Go back. If you didn't catch it, rewind it, listen to it again, because I'm 15 years of my business and, guys, I'm not doing this the rest of my life. I am thinking already about my exit strategy and what I'm doing, and I am right now. I'm David and I've got my hands way over my head and I know that people wanna think way down at their ankles and you gotta come out to an arrangement that works and don't be mad at your money and like I said I am mad at your money all day long.
Chris Lalomia:That's a great story, marcus. Thank you so much for sharing that one. That is that's goal right there. I mean that's like double gold. I can't even tell you how much gold that is, and now he's a big deal and he is a big deal. I mean I wanna, I mean again HWP I looked him up Premier Roup here, and you guys you're supplying some of the biggest integrators out there and again in the manufacturers rep world. So now these are not names we would know, but we would know your sound and your AV stuff if we went to certain places in the Southeast. What are some of those great places?
Marcus Myers:Oh yeah, so there's everything from corporate boardrooms to the production company that does the Kenny Chesney tour. So we just we just went I don't remember the country act we just my wife and I hop backstage and in the green room with one of the country guys recently, just because the production company had all of our gear and we know those folks and they get us the tickets back, you know, backstage to all that stuff. So retail stores, music stores, but we're also in IT and even security. So building automation, security systems, surveillance, anything technology.
Chris Lalomia:So great blend and bicks of music, so we all want to talk about I was about to say something really bad pizza, Christian rock dude. So I can't say start fucker. So I'm not going to say that one, I'm glad you didn't say that, chris.
Alan Wyatt:Good job restraining yourself.
Marcus Myers:Bro so no judgment so good, so no judgment.
Chris Lalomia:But what's the percentage of your business? I think that what you just hit on was that you diversified your base of customers, and I think that is the genius of what you've done. You talked about who wants to hear about a boardroom, who wants to hear about IT, who wants to be able to know, but what's the percentage of mix of your business right now between huge venues and IT and networking.
Marcus Myers:So we call it systems integration, production, rental, staging and retail consumer. Those are the three different categories, and so the systems integration business is probably I don't know 50%, and production would be maybe 30 in the AV side, and then retail maybe 20. But when you throw in AV against security it's probably something like 70, 30 overall.
Marcus Myers:But, the interesting part, I would say, is I didn't really even realize and this is the shortcoming and something I wish I would have known sooner but within that first few years of being there kinda came to the realization that the manufacturers actually are customer, it's not the customer. So if you think about what the RepFirm does, that really changed.
Chris Lalomia:Just look that in for a minute, it just blew your mind. Yeah, look out, Did you hear me? He just, oh my God, he dropped a book and now he's talking about, oh my gosh. He's talking about, oh my God, the manufacturer's your customer. All right, I'm ready.
Marcus Myers:Yeah. So the manufacturer not only cuts us the check, but without them we have nothing to offer. So we have to be valuable to the manufacturer first. So, even though we sit in the middle and we provide value to both, the shift was realizing that the manufacturer needed to perceive and know that we were valuable first, and that's only heightened since the internet. But that's where we shifted to the PSO. So now not only are we sales as a service, we're technical expertise as a service, logistics as a service, marketing as a service, events as a service all this great stuff. That's an expansion of what we do regionally on behalf of these big, huge manufacturers. They can't, they just can't. There's too much dirt and there's too much stuff in there.
Marcus Myers:Regional sales manager. Who's our boss? Says man, I wanna put on event in Atlanta. Who's gonna do that? Well, we do that. The customer says the integrator says man, I don't know how to make this work. Who can I call this 800 number and never get anyone? You know what? I'm gonna call Marcus. So again, we're free employee to that business and they call me when they need to make something work, and that's actually valuable to the manufacturer.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, yeah, right, yeah, because you've opened that door for him, because you guys have submitted yourself in the six state area doing that. Man, well done, I mean, what a great story and great arc. I think if you didn't pick something up on this one, you absolutely, absolutely were closing your eyes and probably driving too fast in your car. Just don't hit that guy in front of you, all right, whoa whoa, whoa, hang on. He might be there. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, watch out, man. All right, slow down. All right, all right, put it back Back. We're back, all right. Good, all right, let's go, because we're all listening on the cars. We know what we're doing. I know what you guys are doing. You're listening to me on the car. You got me on probably 1.5. Keep up with me, big boy, because I talk fast. Let's go, marcus.
Chris Lalomia:So you guys in the business, you guys are killing it, you're crushing it, doing it. Is there room for expansion? Are you still thinking right now, at this point, because you're a younger guy, are you thinking I want to expand? Are you thinking I like where I'm at? This is a good family lifestyle? Again, you've acquired a business and you talk us through that. Where are you at now?
Marcus Myers:So the expansion for us is truly into that service realm. It really is, and eight years ago we were the first rep from in the country to hire an employee that didn't sell anything or pick up the phone. So we hired someone whose only job was to be a technical expert. So when we did that and realized the value that that brought to the manufacturer and then also the customer base, we said, man, we're onto something here, so I gotta believe in your business.
Chris Lalomia:It's just, we talk about computers moving so fast, your business is working so fast, so fast. The fact that you've already gotten ahead of it like that, I mean it's like he's writing his own music again.
Marcus Myers:And now for what it's worth. We're creating revenue streams around these additional services. So where the traditional independent manufacturers rep firm was just simply seeing a commission check, which was a percentage of the sales in our territory, we're now offering technical services and commissioning events things that allow us to bring in revenue from both sides for different things that we do.
Chris Lalomia:Marcus, this has been, for me, amazing. What a great arc. And, alan, thank you so much. I feel like we're smartless, but we're better than those guys, and you brought in a secret guest and I really enjoyed talking with Marcus. And, again, for our listeners, I think this has been amazing. You shared a lot of stuff that you just don't get. Man, we talk about this all the time. You can go to school all day you want. You can go to school for eight years. You would not have picked up what you just picked up in the last hour. So, figured out, listen to this stuff. This stuff is good, but, marcus, doesn't know about the four questions.
Alan Wyatt:I don't think.
Chris Lalomia:Well, you probably didn't tell him, so I'm not you know what, but he's already given us one, because he gave us the book Challenger Sale. That's one. Oh, so sure, flush my question, but go ahead with.
Marcus Myers:Sorry, alan, yeah.
Chris Lalomia:Alan's question is such a throwaway.
Alan Wyatt:It's such a podcast probably the one everybody listens to and writes down. But go ahead, all right, go ahead with your three.
Chris Lalomia:To be fair, the last two books I've listened to are because of Alan's question.
Marcus Myers:Yeah, I just don't want to tell him oh shit, I just did it again. Hey, michael, take that out real quick, that's funny.
Chris Lalomia:All right. So you told us about the Challenger Sale. So that's the book. Is there another book right now that you would tell somebody to go read for our audience? Either looking to start a business, scale a business.
Marcus Myers:I'm not sure. I'm not sure you're going to like this one. I will tell you this I'm a big believer in studying temperament. So if you I'm just going to say it the temperament side of Myers-Briggs and disc, I've done all that stuff. The number one, hands down, most valuable thing that I found, not only in influencing behavior but just in general overall understanding yourself and others and how you communicate, is the Enneagram, and there's a book out there called the Story of you about the Enneagram, and it is an incredible book that can help and allow you to immediately start to discern someone else just through discussion, just through communication, and then be able to orient to there.
Chris Lalomia:I hope you're hanging with us right now because we're bringing Marcus back. He just hit me because I'm a huge discophile and still thinking about the Enneagram, but I'm still such a disc dude. It is such an important piece for the way I run my business and he just drops that one right there at the end.
Marcus Myers:So I knew you'd like that, oh my God, that's awesome. Marcus is a high D, double B, high D, secondary C. But I will say this the Enneagram straight up, chris, is like disc on crack. You will not be disappointed. It is shockingly impactful.
Chris Lalomia:Oh my God, all right, I've had it suggested to me. All right, people go out there, check it out, cause I'm about to do the same thing. I'm going down the journey. I might be doing a little Hayawask, I might be doing a little Aaron Rogers, getting to the cave and get all negative, whatever, whatever, and then figured out. I think I gotta go there because I've been a big disc guy for 15 years. I've been doing it for 12 with all my people. Everybody in my company has been disc profiling Incredibly helpful. Yeah, but the Enneagram All right, man, that's a good one. All right, number two question. See, I said number two, thanks, question. Yeah, because that's what I think of your first question. Number two, number two All right, what does number two do for you? All right, let's go back to it. What is the favorite feature of your house? The favorite feature, cause I'm a home remodeler. I'm a renovator, handyman. I love my house.
Alan Wyatt:Marcus has an awesome house.
Marcus Myers:It's pretty awesome. It is pretty awesome the favorite feature, the favorite TV.
Chris Lalomia:The favorite feature. It's like it might be his garden.
Marcus Myers:It's the garden. Well, it's his garden, bro. I'll show you all the pictures. Anti-av it's out of this world. I can't do technology every second of my life, so I get out in the dirt and it is fantastic.
Chris Lalomia:Oh my God. The garden, so people. That is so key is what he just said you can't be so focused on your business 100% of the time you can do it.
Marcus Myers:It's not helping, I do.
Chris Lalomia:I think about it all the time, even while you're digging into the dirt man or playing in the pool or drinking in Tahoe or going to the pro-am or going to a wine or LA Nastas.
Alan Wyatt:I mean after a weekend.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, so you got to have time for yourself. That's awesome. That's awesome that you work at the garden and that actually is a huge fit Cause I was waiting to hear maybe I had a violin room, I had a music room or the man cave.
Alan Wyatt:You'd think he'd have the best man cave ever.
Marcus Myers:I have four daughters. We've missed that on this whole podcast. I don't get man anything, unless I'm in the bathroom.
Chris Lalomia:Back to back to back to no pot to piss it. Yeah, I seriously, I seriously. One of my buddies, he, he was the sixth and he had, he had five older sisters. Oh the, the, the dad right, there was not enough bathrooms in the house. The dad we used to line up and piss the mason jars in the back of the garage because he could never get into a bathroom. And we saw him out there. I'm like what the hell is that he was doing?
Chris Lalomia:You know, and we, and now everybody knows. So there you go, mason jars the backyard because dad could never take a piss.
Marcus Myers:I will tell you just real quick, not to be too cheesy, but the garden thing is not just the escape. I've learned this too. There's still so much value to knowing yourself through disc or enneagram and knowing that there's still the component of being able to, um, to have action that accomplishes something. But it doesn't have to be this big, huge, massive business owner thing. So I struggle just kind of sitting around, but the garden is a great way to go do something and see some results.
Chris Lalomia:You know, I think that and I talk about this all the time with my guys in my business is uh. When I worked at the bank, every night I used to throw my briefcase over my shoulder, get in my car, my Mercedes E, and then uh, out of my parking spot with my custom suit and my cufflinks and I drive home and guess what I got to show it for?
Alan Wyatt:There was nothing in the briefcase Zero, zero, yeah.
Chris Lalomia:Now I don't have the Mercedes, I don't have the cufflinks, I don't have the custom suit, but my guys get to send me pictures of what they did in houses and we are truly extraordinary individuals working and doing remarkable activities in houses every day. That's right bro I think I've done it this morning, because isn't that so rewarding. And then I tell you guys, for all the money I used to make at the bank, that I wish I would have been able to get the dogs. You still sound kind of bitter. No, not bitter.
Marcus Myers:Better You're not bitter. I'm hearing this. Someone told me three weeks ago share joy is double joy. That's it, and it's so true. Yeah, I love it. Share joy is double joy when I see these pictures of stuff that my guys do.
Chris Lalomia:Uh, you know, and I mean I'm pretty handy, but these guys just kick my, kick my butt. The fact that we have a company that does this stuff and it's, and that's what.
Alan Wyatt:I told them so we're doing pretty cool at my house coming up and we're at.
Chris Lalomia:We're going to do some really cool stuff. And, by the way, he is very excited. He is very proud of his barbecue Bustard Bustard. You know what I think? I did just skip the customer service plus to go right to the end.
Marcus Myers:I want a DIY nightmare story, a DIY nightmare, and I don't want to do it yourself, yeah. Oh, dude, big green egg Hands down.
Alan Wyatt:Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh, that's God.
Marcus Myers:It's the great turkey disaster of 2017. That's how my family knows it. Oh my God, dude, it was too big. The the turkey was too big for the egg. My dad comes over, just dumps oil on it. The drip pan is too small for the turkey. The things just dripping everywhere so that all the flames come up. Everyone starts screaming. I'm back in the garden, I come running back and there's a six foot I kid you, not six foot tall torch coming out of the top of that egg. And it's right next to my house and my wife is screaming like the house, the house. I mean it was awesome. So I like hurl the thing open, which may back draft. All the flames come out. My brother's arms just all his hair on his arms just get burned off. I throw the water on it, which is also terrible, but it worked. So it didn't put the fire out.
Marcus Myers:And my father-in-law said so this black, this turkey is just black. I mean just completely black. And he said well, how long has it been on? I said about half an hour. And he said is it black on the outside? How long was it black? I said a couple of minutes. He said just finish it. Finish the cook 225. Sure enough, it was awesome. All that black char held in all the moisture. So I just peeled the char off and it was amazing.
Chris Lalomia:The. There it is. You want to learn how to cook on green egg? Let it go to YouTube. You can check out Marcus Myers.
Marcus Myers:Yeah, I'm a big disaster.
Chris Lalomia:I highly recommend this shit out of your turkey, I think yeah sing it first.
Marcus Myers:It'll hold the moisture in. You heard it here first, people, Marcus this has been amazing.
Chris Lalomia:I have enjoyed this. I hope you did as well, and if you didn't listen to something and pick something up, shame on you. But again, don't hit somebody. All right, all right, but can you go out there and give me a review? I'm just, I'm begging. I'm begging. Is that bad? It's bad sales, right. I mean, I mean, I need more confidence, as coach John says. But I just just give you a freaking review, will you? Alan wants to hear more about his commercial real estate. He says hey, chris, you know, you know I sell commercial real estate. I said, yeah, but you don't want tire kickers. So if you want to buy commercial real estate and you're not a tire kicker and you're serious, I want you to call Alan. But don't bullshit him, do not tire kick him. Don't, don't kick my tires, because if you kick his tires I'm going to come kick you in the nuts.
Alan Wyatt:That mean, you won't slash your tire.
Chris Lalomia:You won't like that, because Chris is always angry about his money. All right, everybody, we're out here. Keep going up that mountain top and let's make it happen. Cheers everybody.