From the Yellow Chair
From the Yellow Chair
How rebranding SHOOK up Shanklin—for the better!
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A 65-year family name can open doors—or hold you back. We sat down with Derek from Shanklin to unpack how a third-generation HVAC company protected its legacy while building a brand that finally fit today’s homeowner. The story starts with a strategic pivot: moving from “we do everything” to a focused residential service and replacement model. That clarity shaped every design choice, from voice and typography to the surprising hero of the project: color.
You’ll hear how Shanklin kept the surname and the trust that came with it, then modernized the look and feel to meet their ideal customer where she lives—literally. We talk through the decision to introduce Hank, a friendly hound-dog mascot that turned parades, home shows, and social posts into memorable, shareable moments. It’s not a gimmick for gimmick’s sake; it’s a storytelling tool that lowers barriers and keeps a service brand top of mind. Hank even hosts “Story Time,” creating community goodwill that compounds across channels.
The execution blueprint is as valuable as the creative. Derek explains why they launched internally first—with a surprise van reveal at the company Christmas party—so the team became the brand’s loudest advocates. He details how they phased the rollout over a year, budgeting for wraps, apparel, and signage without overwhelming operations. We dig into the craft of choosing a signature blue that evokes heritage and warmth, and why color became the most praised element from customers and peers. Along the way, Derek shares what he’d change—start sooner—and the leadership principle that drives growth: invest 75% of your energy in people and culture.
If you’re in home services—HVAC, plumbing, electrical—or any local business wrestling with when and how to rebrand, this conversation offers a clear, field-tested path: define your ideal customer, protect brand equity, design for emotion, launch inside first, and let culture carry the message outside. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s considering a rebrand, and leave a quick review to tell us your favorite takeaway.
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From the Yellow Chair is powered by Lemon Seed, a marketing strategy and branding company for the trades. Lemon Seed specializes in rebrands, creating unique, comprehensive, organized marketing plans, social media, and graphic design. Learn more at www.LemonSeedMarketing.com
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We'll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
Setting The Stage For Rebrands
SPEAKER_03What's up, Elimin Heads? Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. Y'all, it is Brenda Palooza in the studio. This entire month, all four episodes are all around branding stories behind brands that we were able to do, branding tactics and techniques, all the ways that you can win with building or refreshing your brand. So saddle up, buckle up, all those good things, and let's dip some lemonade. All right. So in the studio, virtual lemonade stand, as I say, is honestly, you can't help but love this company and this team. But Derek, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. I'm so excited. So excited to be with you. When you shop me over the email, I'm like, yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready.
SPEAKER_03Yes, because we I wanted to give so much respect where respect is due here. So when we met the Shanklin team, y'all were in a transition, y'all had a marketer that was kind of gonna go out on maternity leave. Y'all wanted some support. It ended up where Limit Seed helped you guys rebrand this company, but y'all had been around for such a long time. Yes. So tell everybody a little bit about Shanklin first, where you're located, what you guys do, all that good.
From Name Equity To Market Fit
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, absolutely. I'd love to. I'd love to. So we're third generation. I'm really, really proud to be third generation in the company. Um, we're going on 65 years, so 65 years of a name, a last name. Um, pretty proud of that. You know, my grandfather started it. Um, my dad took over, and my my dad died at an early age, and um he was 58 and I was 25, and my mom said, Here you go. So um it was a it was a challenge, but I'm telling you what, um, you know, glory to God that you know we're here now. And um, we we knew we knew we needed to change as I started to take over the business. Um, I uh it's been 18 years now since my father passed away. And um, dad did a great job of the HVAC. I mean, made a solid name in our community, 100%. And to be truthful with you, that's what we that's what we wrote on was a solid name. It kept us going. Um, we we were able to build off of it, but we knew we needed more. We knew we needed more. So I'm in the business with my brother. Um, we're 50-50 in the business, have a wonderful relationship, and um, it's just just a blessing to work with my brother in the in the business. So, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So our stories align so much. So, for those of you that might be new to listening to my podcast, I'm in the same similar boat. Um, so my grandfather started our family's heating and air conditioning company, sold it to my dad. My dad sold it to my brother, my brother called me to come and work. We all had a wonderful working relationship. I agree. I think that's a blessing. The more I work with people and family in the business, um, having a good working relationship is definitely a blessing. And honestly, a name, your name tied to something is also it can be a blessing and a curse.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03Uh is in your markets. And so, you know, the minute that one of your employees does something crazy, well, you know, it's that Shanklin family. Yeah, or it's the Mid Williams family.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you're right.
SPEAKER_03Or they assume you're rich, you're low.
SPEAKER_02Well, they haven't hung out with me enough to find out.
SPEAKER_03Uh uh, yeah, so but it it's always it is a blessing, and I do agree, you guys have a wonderful company. And I'll be honest, you can feel the wholesomeness about Shanklin with all parts of your team. Though because we get the privilege of meeting with a couple of your team members, but everyone that we've ever met with fits into that vibe of you care about your customers, you care about your community, and you care about your team. And then however we can take all of that and move it forward um has been, I think, one of your ultimate goals the entire time.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03Um, and so I think I have a lot of contractors, Derek, that listen sometimes and they think they want, they know they need to freshen up their brand, maybe make it something that's more exciting or more uh unique to them, but they feel like, well, I had I've had this name, like everybody knows me by this look, yeah, this half magnet on the side of my truck and no brand. So, what really went through y'all said when it came to making a new brand for you guys?
Choosing The Ideal Customer
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. You know, we had the last name, and the last name carried a lot of legacy, but we we we changed our business model a little bit, and that was what triggered we need a brand, we need to um rebrand. Um, and our business model back when my dad did businesses, we just did everything. If it had to do with HVAC, we did it. Um, we changed our business model a little bit to more of we call it the Mrs. Jones. So we're serving the residential home, the service and replacement business. When we decided to start to start that avenue of looking at what our business model was like, we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we need a little bit different of a brand. Um, just because the the name just said we do everything, you know, and and we did new homes, we did multifamily, you name it, we did it. And when we started to really look into what our business model looked like, hey, we we want to get in what we call the Mrs. Jones house. Um, the the 1500 square foot on the corner of market and cherry that has, you know, the minivan with three kids. I mean, that was our perfect customer. And we just knew we needed something fun to enter that home instead of the 60-year Shanklin made. So that's what triggered it when we changed our business model of what a perfect customer looked like for Shanklin. So that's what triggered this whole thing. Um, and we knew to grow, we knew to grow, um, a customer would look a little bit different than what it looked like when my dad did business, you know, and that was okay. I mean, everybody down the street used us because, hey, they knew the last name, you know. And when we changed our business model a little bit, you know, we didn't get everybody down the street. We had to reach out to further, you know, further parts that maybe didn't know the name. So when we when we seen that, we're like, whoa, well, we we think we just need a a a new brand, but but really the name, the name is what kept it going, and that's what really took the brand and really exploded it. Exploded it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I love this. So I wanted to bring up a couple of things. So I think there was never a doubt that we wanted to keep the name, correct? Because that is where, so this is where people get in their heads like there is so much brand equity, right, in your name. So again, I I'm also a family name business, right? So ideally, I'd love for my name not to be tied to this daggum thing, but it is. We've been in business, we're in business too long to now go back. Also, it was all of our URLs, right? Were Williams and Son.com. So same boat here. So I thought this was a unique way that you really that you guys try to balance the legacy by bringing a more modern approach, but changing your looking at your business as a whole, and this is very important. Who did you want to be in the market and to who? So we, you know, now Lemon Seed creates the um ideal avatar for all of our clients, and let's live off of that ideal avatar because we can we we do not have all the money in the world, we want to be very intentional about who we talk to, and so you know, knowing that, so once you knew that we wanted to stay attached to this one, this ideal customer, and then you built this brand around it that protected the brand equity and legacy, yeah, but also modernized it, right? And so, you know, it honored the last name, it kept the trust, it kept the reputation and the history, but it also gave your y'all gave yourselves permission, if you will, to refresh the look, the voice, and the personality.
Balancing Legacy With A New Look
SPEAKER_01And I think it probably just invigorated things again, yes, absolutely, you know, and it just took that name and it made it stand out. You got to remember when my dad, I'll never forget when my dad made the logo. We had a logo before that. My grandpa just had the name in the exploit. And then my dad, and I I don't even think I was born yet. Um, my dad, I'll never forget, asked a lady at the church to hand paint a logo around the name, and she did, and she would paint our bands, and oh, and I just look at that and I think, you know, when I looked at that, I was like, I wasn't even born when my dad decided to make a logo. I'm 46 years old now. I think we need to change something here. Yeah, I think we need to change something, and that's what made it trigger. I said, We're going off of this um of this name with the legacy with a little hand-stetched logo that that a lady at our church did.
SPEAKER_03But it's so that but it it just shows the evolution, yeah, and it shows the intentionality. Like back in the day, as I say, you know, back in the day, a family's name meant something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know, and it it really meant trustworthiness. Nowadays, you know, there's been so many, you know, lineations to go through things and stuff, but honestly, like I really see there's so much value in understanding where you come from and where there's you know, where how people got started doing branding before they even understood that they were branding.
SPEAKER_02Yes, you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So, okay, let's talk for a minute about the decision to add a mascot.
The Mascot Debate Becomes Hank
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I'll tell you, when when we did it, we're like, we want to make this fun. That was our our our core, you know. We if we're gonna go through this rebranding thing, we want to make it fun. We're very involved in the communities. Um, any parade, any any opportunity we can come in to something fun, we are there. Um, and we're like, you know what? We need something that just when when kids see it, when people see it, they just laugh, you know, and we thought, well, let's talk about a mascot. I'm telling you what, we went round and round with mascots. I don't know if you remember that. We had every every mascot you could think, and we came down to it is we figured out how much people love their dogs. When we enter a home, people just when we make uh pay attention to their dogs and pet them, and maybe a service technician or a salesman or somebody, people just love that. They love that we are are paying attention to their dogs because they people enjoy their dogs in their home. You know, that's something that you know is relational. And we thought, you know, let's make a fun dog, a fun dog. Um, you know how we came up with the name of our mascot. I don't even know if you know this. This is a really good good one. We came up with the word Hank. How did we come up with the word Hank? I don't know if you know this. Hank is in Shanklin, S H A N K L I N. That's how we came up with the word Hank. And yeah, and we just like we liked the hound dog look. We liked um it was just a fun dog, you know, it was fun, and I think it was a little nostalgic. It was very much so.
SPEAKER_03Umish color, yes, that's the Shanklin blue, yes, right. And so here's what happens to most people, though, Derek. Most people are like, I could never have a mascot, it's too gimmicky, it's too kitschy, and I'm like, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yep, exactly. And we knew we wanted a mascot uniform to go to the parades and everything, and I'm telling you, it is a hit with selfies, kids taking selfies and putting them on social media with with the mascot. It was a hit. Um, it was it was just well worth doing the mascot because it put fun with the with the brand, yes, and it it lowers so many barriers, yes, right.
SPEAKER_03So now people have a reason to kind of be nosy and check you out, and even adults they love a character. It's it's um it allows us to like loosen our inhibitions and oh my gosh, it's so cute, you know. And you want your kids, and all Shanklin needs if you're looking at this, is just a business move. All you need is an opportunity. All I need is one minute of your time for me to engage, and now I've got you thinking of me, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yes, exactly, right? Exactly.
Why “Gimmicky” Works When Strategic
SPEAKER_03Yes, they're gimmicky, but at the end of the day, it's only gimmicky because it has a strategy, yeah. Right. So people people confuse a gimmick, like it's not we're not bait and switching people here. Yeah, there this is all authentic, it's very real, and it is a storytelling tool. Hank now gives us something to sink our teeth into when it comes to Hank's promises, Hank's this, Hank that all of your your whole spiel is around dogs. You even mentioned the whole reason behind having a dog was because people care so much about them, and so now you've just connected it.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yep, yep, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03And so this is for really built for memorability, right? So staying memorable, staying top of mind, and then honestly, again, I'm a lazy kind of person when it comes to I don't want to recreate the wheel every time I go to a community event.
SPEAKER_02You're right.
SPEAKER_03Now, when you have Hank, your your dog or your mascot, whatever it is for you, it's pretty much like, okay, this is what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01Yep, we're gonna be there. Absolutely, you're exactly right, and and it gets people attracted, you know. Sometimes let's take a home show. You put Hank in a home show, you get 54 50 more traction at your booth because people are just their guards down, they're like, Hey, we want to come and see what this whole fun thing's about, you know. Oh, you happen to do heating coin, by the way. It just it just breaks so many barriers down, it does, it does.
SPEAKER_03Um, it definitely does. And honestly, again, you know, you had this legacy, yeah. Now you've got this updated look. Now, tell me a little bit. I know people are interested in this, you don't have to give us exact numbers, but it was a decent investment because you guys were a decently sized company. So, what did that look like? Like, how did y'all go about deciding? Do I do all new signs? Do I wrap every vehicle? Do I get all new uniforms? How hard did y'all come for all the new stuff?
Budgeting And Phasing A Rebrand
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, we knew it was gonna be a big investment and we were ready for it because it was time. Um, but we gave ourselves a year. We're like, hey, this does not have to, everything does not have to change right this second. We said we're gonna spread this out in a year. You know, we had 32 trucks that needed wrapped. Um, so we just did them, you know, and and we had all of our clothing, our apparel, our, you know, let everything, but we just did it little by little. Um, but what the what when we started doing it, we we did all the fun stuff. So we did this right at Christmas time and New Year's is when we revealed our new brand. So we went out. The first thing we did when we got our our new brand is we bought uh we bought Hank socks, we bought Koozies, we bought all the fun stuff that we could put this new brand on. We didn't go out and buy new signs right away or new shirts. We we did that eventually. We bought the fun stuff because this was something fun that we wanted to reveal to our employees. That was number one, that was our number one importance is to build the culture with our employees, get excited, and then down to our customers. And so, no, we just we just strung it, strung it out within a year, um, made a budget for what it was gonna look like for that whole year, and it took us a whole year to re-wrap and re-logo everything, and it wasn't as bad, it wasn't overwhelming, wasn't overwhelming.
SPEAKER_03Well, it was digestible, exactly.
SPEAKER_01It was very digestible.
SPEAKER_03I do know that you guys out of the gate though, y'all did a hefty little amount so that it was enough to make a splash.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Yes, we we did two brand new vans off the off the get-go. Um, they were new, so we didn't have to re-wrap them. We did a lot, like you said, we bought socks, we bought um, oh, there was just a bunch of fun things we bought brand on them. Again, yeah, we we did enough to boom get the get the ball started, but also we didn't want, we knew we couldn't do it all at once. We knew we couldn't do all once. And by the time the year was over, we budgeted for it and it turned out great.
Internal Launch That Built Culture
SPEAKER_03It it really did and it's not so you made a good point, it's not so overwhelming, um, but it's but also it's also good. Like every time people turned around, I'm like, is that another Shanklin van? Y'all all of a sudden look like you multiplied, right? So I I always say, is it expensive? I'm gonna say, if if I'm being real, I mean I could twist this all different directions. It is an investment, yeah. It is an investment, which also would be a reason why the smaller of a company you are, the better it is to rebrand. Because after you build these long legacy 40, 50 year old companies, it's definitely a challenge, yeah. But it's not it's not where you can't approach it and strategize towards it, right? So let's let's talk a little bit more, even more about that internal buy-in and culture shift. So I personally, again, I'm on the outside, but I personally think that Shanklin has a a good culture. Um, overall, I think I would consider that you guys have a great culture, and I'm sure you've lost people and all that good stuff. You're not probably um free of all of that good stuff and business, but overall, but you know, this could also come with when you rebrand, it might people might assume that you sold to private equity or that you are getting ready to sell, or y'all think you're somebody. Like, how did you introduce this to the team? Because this is a big part for Lemon C. We always try to do an internal launch and an external launch, yep, and helping clients walk through that. But how did they respond? What did y'all do? How was morale, pride, all those things?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's kind of a two-part question. I'll start out when we were designing our rebrand, we wanted to make sure we weren't competing against ourselves and thinking that, hey, oh, Shanklin sold out.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01You know, we were trying to keep it so well that everybody knew that, hey, this is just a new look. It's not a new company, it's a new look. Um, and it that went over very well, but we knew we had to overcome that when we were doing the brand. We're like, we want to make sure that we just don't look like a whole new company, somebody came in and bought it. So that went over real well. You had a couple people here and there, but all in all, that went amazingly. The next thing is we really wanted to make it fun for our people. We wanted to make it fun for our culture, build culture. Um, that was a big thing. And what we did was we wrapped the van and we kept it secretive. We hid it in my brother's garage where nobody could see it. Um, some people had seen a quick glimpse of it, but we tried to keep it on our leadership team. That's all that knew about our our new brand. Okay. We had our Christmas party. We brought everybody into the Christmas party, and it was in a barn with a garage door, and we drove the van right into the Christmas party and revealed it and brought Hank in. Nobody ever seen Hank the mascot.
SPEAKER_03I love it.
SPEAKER_01Brought Hank in, and Hank jumped out of the back door of the van. And everybody lost their mind. Oh, it was people crazy because they had no idea mascot was coming with the rebrand. No idea. That went over so well, so everybody was just like, wow. Oh my, they had no idea about the mascot. They knew we were rebranding. Couple people kind of seen a little glimpse. Um, but all in all, they had no idea what it was gonna look like. At the Christmas party, we gave out as much Hank apparel as we could give. Everybody, the whole family, kids, wives, everybody. That went over amazingly, amazingly. When they came in the office after um New Year's, we came in and we gutted the office. Everything old that was hanging from the wall came off, and we put up new stuff. So when you walked into our office, I think it was on a Tuesday that New Year's, I believe when they came back, everybody kind of came back in full. It was like a whole new office. But again, we didn't spend that much money. We just bought, you know, new signs to go on the walls, um, nothing major, just it was a whole new look, and nobody had any idea it was coming. Nobody had any idea it was coming.
Story Time With Hank And Community
SPEAKER_03And so I'm gonna tell you like this is how this is my philosophy on why internal release matters more than external release. Okay, your internal release is where your team, internal new brand release, is where your team to all of your points here is it's your opportunity to sell your own team first. Yes, okay, because honestly, you cannot allow your entire team in on your rebrand process, you'll never get anywhere. Okay. Um, so two or three trusted advisors or who should be involved in in rebranding, and then when you announce the rebrand to your team, you do it as if it is the best decision that you ever made, and everybody better get excited because if you're excited as the owner, they're looking at you.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03So when you showed up at that Christmas party and out jumped Hank and all the Hank swag, and the kids are laughing and the music's playing. People were like, Oh my gosh, this is so exciting. We're going places.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_03Instead of randomly walking outside as techs are loading their vans and being like, Here, wear a new hat. Yeah, it doesn't have the same buy in and inflection that actually sells. Celebrating what's about to happen.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yes. You're exactly right. Yeah. It was just fun. People wanted to be part of it. You know, one when they were taking the videos and they were posting them on social media that night from our Christmas party. People were just ranting and raving. Oh my goodness, that looks like so much fun. I wish I could be part of that Christmas party. It was it was just a vibe, a fun vibe, a real fun vibe, you know. And then they came in the office that next week, and all the signage was different in the office, you know. We you know, we had posters on the walls, and you know, the the apparel. People love apparel with the brand. I'm telling you, I don't care what it is, they dig it, and just to go out there and get that apparel. Um, and it wasn't nothing crazy fancy either. Cheap t-shirts, just in the middle of the winter, they're sucking up cheap t-shirts, you know, they love them.
Collective Marketing Over One-Off Wins
SPEAKER_03It's because they belong to something, yes, yes. We you, y'all, everybody, we made this, we made this feeling and this group that they belong to, and we just got to be a part of it. But at the end of the day, I think what really impacted those people was number one, you cared enough. And listen, I know y'all were not pumped up to spend a bunch of money on swag. Nobody goes write the check, you know. But when you can be when you look out across that venue, yeah, and there's all these people embracing your family's new look and feel. If you would have taken Hank and showed it to everybody, people would have had opinions, but now everybody loved Hank because it wasn't like it was an option.
SPEAKER_01Nope, nope, it wasn't.
SPEAKER_03So I I loved that. So let me ask two more questions. I know at the time, one of the things that sticks out with me that at the time y'all had a marketing girl on team. Um, and I know she's gone on to do different things, but one of the things that she was doing then was I think it was story time with Hank. Yes, and so I thought that was a really unique thing. Tell me a little bit about what you know about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, she would she would just do story time with Hank, and you know, um Hank would go out in a community somewhere, um, a little community event, and really anybody could come to it, you know. She would she would just have the stories it would tell. They'd read books, or you know, Hank would tell a story on social media, you know, um, Hank would tell maybe a story of the week, a highlight of the week, you know, and it was always about more about what Hank was saying rather than what Shanklin' saying. That's really what it meant. It was who was saying about that story time, it was Hank. It wasn't Shanklin, it wasn't maybe one of the technicians, it wasn't the marketing girl, it was Hank, you know, and whenever they they would say story time with Hank, you had no idea what Hank was going to be talking about that week, you know. So that that was really fun. That was really fun, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I'll tell you too. So again, this is not one unit was sold because of story time with Hank.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03So you didn't go, okay, now I just spent time taking Hank to the local library doing story time. We better sell the system. It is a true understanding, in my opinion, of collective marketing. Yeah, it's a it's the overall customer experience every day of their life.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_03Some semblance of an interaction through a van wrap, through a radio jingle, through a commercial, through an email, through a story time. It's the collection of all of those things that really create synergies around your brand to build that top of mind awareness.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Exactly.
Biggest Surprise: Power Of Color
SPEAKER_03So, okay, last question here results, surprises, lessons learned. But like I want to know what is maybe one thing that caught you by surprise how well it was done, or or and or something that you probably would do differently next time.
What We’d Do Differently
SPEAKER_01So I'm glad you asked that because if you weren't gonna ask this, I was gonna tell you one thing. Um number one thing that caught me by surprise, and I had no idea it meant anything. I thought this is the that we should not be even concerned about this, and we spent more time on this number one thing on our brand. And now I look back and I'm like, oh my, I am so glad we did it. Colors, the colors of the brand. I can't even tell you that is probably the number one compliment we get, is those colors just stick out, they show nostalgia, you know, they show a generation, a 65-year generation by colors. If you would have told me color was the game changer of our brand, I'd tell you you're crazy. I'd say, just give me a red and blue. That's all we we used to be red and blue for 65 years. I had no idea there were so many differences colors. I think when we were going through our brand, I think we went through different 50 different blues. I didn't even know they made 50 different blues. And that was one thing. And now I as I what three years now, four years we re-branded. I'm three years, I'm thinking. Yeah, I get more compliments of the color and how it shows the nostalgia of the brand. There's no way when I was doing this, started to do this, I would say that would be my least thing to worry about. Put red and blue in. We've been red and blue for 65 years, but when you guys came up with that blue, that was a game changer. Game changer, 100%.
SPEAKER_03Well, it evokes emotion through color, and it's wild, it's so wild. But when you truly listen to like Emily and her team on the graphic design side, like how they talk about colors and and fonts and positioning, it is like it's all designed to evoke emotion. It's wild, but you're right, you're definitely right. Was there anything that you would do differently, even if it's with rolling out the brand or with how you do things, what would you do differently?
SPEAKER_01Would have done it sooner.
SPEAKER_03That's a great answer for me.
People First: Culture Scales Growth
SPEAKER_01And I'm serious, I and and yeah, I would have done it sooner, and I'll tell you why, really. Um, I'm glad we did it when we did it, but you know, there's there's a lot of change in the industry. You guys see it. Anybody watching this podcast knows there is so much change in this industry, you know, private equity. We could go on and on and on. And and I think if we would have done it a little bit sooner, um, we would have been the more staple. Um, because there was a couple people, a couple of our competitors, one or two that did rebrand before us, um, but not to the level that we did. Um, but but just really sooner. Um, I'm glad we did it the way we did it. Um, we had our whole leadership team in on the decisions making. It wasn't the owners making the decision. We had um three other people, and then my brother and I. So there were five people on our team um making the decisions. You need a team to make decisions. Um, the owners aren't the ones that make the final decision on the brand. I I found that out clearly because a lot of people on our leadership team gave us pushback. Like, Derek, no, we don't we shouldn't go that route, or we shouldn't go. And now I look back like, wow, I'm glad I had a great team. I'm glad I had I hired the right team to help us rebrand also.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, we tell everybody like, hey, there's a difference in a committee and a team. So a team of two or three trusted advisors that participate with you from the beginning to the end is where you can definitely get some good feedback. But listen, it's it's really hard to get a lot of people to agree to everything. But I really think that you guys did a great, a great choice here. Glad to hear that you wish you would have done it sooner. So, Derek, last question. Um, if you could give anybody advice, business advice or any kind of advice. I mean, you've run this thing um for a long time now, 18 years, you said. Um, you and your brother, tell me a little bit, what it be one piece of advice, just overall, that you think a contractor might need to hear right now in the today's landscape.
Services, Growth, And Maintenance Plans
SPEAKER_01You know, um, from a business owner where you put your energy, um, we we put our energy in our in our people. I'll I'll tell you that right now. Um, if if somebody's out there looking to rebrand and really put a lot of energy in building their business, um, me and my brother probably put 75% of our energy in our people. Um, we work on our people, we lead our people, we we train it's just all of our energy is going into our people. Um, even if you're a smaller business and you're still out in the field, maybe a little bit. Put your energy into good people. Um, build a great culture where they walk in that front door and they can feel the vibe of the culture. They can just, it just radiates through either a new employee walking in for an interview or you know, somebody's been with us for years and years and years. That was the biggest thing when we rebranded. We wanted the culture. We had a great culture, but we wanted it to just explode with this new brand. And that's where we put our energy into. And that's really what how we grew over the years was just building a fun culture with good people. And those good people will serve your customers at a high level, and you will grow the business.
SPEAKER_03You will grow absolutely well. Listen, guys, uh, Derek, if you don't mind, so Schenklin, where are you guys located for everybody?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're we're in Maslin Canton, Ohio, um, right at the Hall of Pro Football Hall of Fame, right in the about middle of Ohio. We are. Um, we're in a rural area though. We are in a rural area um where we're surrounded. Um, so we we are definitely we're not no heavily populated areas.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you're not in a major metro area. Yeah, and then what services do you guys provide?
How To Reach Derek & Closing
SPEAKER_01So our biggest one is uh residential HVAC eating coin. Um we have entered into the electric also. We got into electric, and that was another thing when we rebranded. We were not doing electric with our old brand, we brought electric into our new brand, so it was a it was a new um thing we were doing. So we do the electric also and duct cleaning also.
SPEAKER_03So awesome, awesome. And y'all have a maintenance plan and all those good things.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yep. You know, it's funny thing is is uh back when my dad was running the business, he didn't have a maintenance plan. We had zero maintenance plans, so we had to build that from scratch, and it was a great thing. Yeah, we have we have quite a few maintenance plans now, which keeps the business driving during our slow seasons.
SPEAKER_03During our slow seasons, yes, absolutely. Well, listen, I just want to say um this is the epitome of home service contractors from the heart of the country. Shanklin is such a great representation of when a family can maintain a family-owned business, put their people first, and be a great place to work, but also evolve with the the times and with the industry. And so thank you so much for letting us work with you and letting us be a part of what you have going on. Your team is absolutely precious. I have some great pictures of us at a service nation event. Um, so we also will be posting on our social media some before and afters for Shanklin. So you'll be able to go check it all out. But Derek, if anybody wanted to reach out to you just for some advice or or anything, what's the best way for them to contact you?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. I'll be truthful with you just through my email. Um, is that okay if I just share my email? And here's one thing why I I love to help others because I've had so many people in the industry help me when when we were one, two employees. I mean, I was digging for somebody to help me that that knew how to grow. So any way I can help, I I love it because I love giving back to so many people invested in me over the years. So, yeah, my my email is uh Derek D-E-R-E-K at shanklinheating.com. Perfect out and any questions or anything about the brand um uh or even business, I I'd be more than happy to I think you're very giving.
SPEAKER_03And so we will make sure that Derek's email is in the show notes. If it gets lost and you need a connection, email us at hello at lemoncmarketing.com and we will get you all connected. Well, Derek, thank you so much. Y'all are such a blessing to Lemon C. So thank you so much. And for our listeners out there, thank you so much for listening to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. If you loved this, share this episode with someone that you think needs to hear it. Leave us a review, go support Shanklin, and uh thank you for hanging out and sipping lemonade with Derek and I today. Have a great rest of your day. Bye.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, Lisa. We'll see you.