From Cluttered to Classy: Inside Closet Showrooms with Eric Marshall

We've got Eric Marshall, a true industry legend, sharing his wisdom and experiences with host Jacob Edmond. They dive into the challenges of the commercial millwork industry, the differences between the closet and millwork mindsets, and the importance of understanding consumer needs. Eric's journey from building a million-dollar company to now traveling internationally to share his expertise, all while battling stage four cancer, is truly inspiring. Get ready to learn how to take your closet showroom from cluttered to classy with Eric Marshall's invaluable insights.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
01:42 Eric Marshall's Career Journey
03:46 The Impact of Cancer
04:35 Reinventing Through Social Media
05:13 Closet Gold and Industry Insights
13:25 The Importance of Leads
15:08 Closet Industry vs. Millwork
17:18 Marketing and Sales Strategies
30:24 Closet Training Institute
33:37 Contact Information and Conclusion

https://duckworksmw.com/podcast/from-cluttered-to-classy-inside-closet-showrooms-with-eric-marshall

Share The Love:

If you like Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast …

Never miss an episode by subscribing via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or by RSS!

Transcript

Jacob Edmond: 0:00

You have. had basically multiple careers in your lifetime, just in the closet industry already. And you've basically already now embarked on another new one. Um, can you talk a little bit about mentally, emotionally career rise? Where were you before at the time you found out I've got cancer and it's a very advanced cancer. Before that, what was your life? What was your career like?.. Well, welcome back, everybody, uh, to Verifying Field. Today, I have, uh, an exciting guest, Closet Doctor himself, um, Eric Marshall is with us today, and he's joining us from one of his closet showrooms. Um, and, uh, with as, as expected, if you know, Eric, and you guys follow him, um, you've seen his, his personality, his wardrobe, his excitement. So I'm really excited about this one today. Thanks for joining today, Eric.

Eric Marshall: 1:26

Of course. I'm really happy to be on and talk to the viewers. I'm excited to share the knowledge that I have to help people possibly make more money, verify in the field. Yeah. So.

Jacob Edmond: 1:39

Thanks. Yeah. Awesome. Well, to give a little bit of intro for those who maybe by chance haven't heard of you, can you tell a little bit about what you do and, and your background and how you became, uh, the closet doctor and starting the closet training Institute?

Eric Marshall: 1:57

Yes. Um, it's a bit of a story, but I'll get into it because it's part of the fun of the whole thing is like, what has happened to me and why I'm where I'm at today. So I was one of the first employees. Back in California in the early, early eighties. It might even have been in the seventies. I'm not sure how long ago. Um, but I came into the industry when there really wasn't an industry. And I got, I was lucky enough to be on some teams to help develop some products. And I worked at California clauses for probably the first 20 years that it was in existence. Uh, excitingly got to travel to a lot of places. And help open stores and do product line development. And I did. Installation sales, uh, production management, manufacturing, all that kind of stuff. I was actually a manager of a store in Los Angeles for a little while. And it was really exciting. And then it sold in 1990 and I kind of, um, went separate ways and I started working, I started working for the same guy that, um, founded the company at another company, um, helping with the closet industry again. And then, I don't know, about 15 years ago, I started getting asked to speak at different. Woodworking and closet shows about the industry and that's where I found my jam. Um, I love word working I love selling but I really love um helping people get to do more stuff. And so that developed into the I have a really good relationship And IWF and the closet show and they are really I'm, really blessed that they invite me a year to come speak. I'm speaking at eight at IWF. I think Five times. I'm not exactly sure. There's so many schedules going on right now. It might be seven because somebody just recently asked me to speak in their booth each day. Um, and it's just a lot of fun. And, um, the real part of the story, the part that projected me to the closet guru and the doctor of clonatology is, um, about two and a half years ago, I actually got cancer. Um, and it was a really high stage. My wife doesn't even like me saying it was stage four. Um, but kind of, I had this incurable cancer in there, trying all kinds of things to get me better. And I ended up in bed for about seven months, um, practically suicidal. I'm sorry, but that's where I was at. Um, you know, I'm in control, so nobody's telling me when I'm going to die. I'm going to figure it out myself. Um, and I was in bed just scrolling on the internet and I started developing I was kind of in bed for about seven months. Um, I was almost suicidal, if not suicidal, um, thinking to myself, I'm going to decide when I'm going to die and you're not going to tell me. And so I was scrolling through the internet and Facebook and Instagram and, like, on LinkedIn. And I started, like, um, started talking to people because I had nobody to talk to who was stuck in bed. And I literally developed a following over LinkedIn within that seven months. of people that really needed some help in the woodworking industry. And I started talking about how they can do things better and things like that. And then, um, the woodworking network actually contacted me and asked me if I would speak at a show that they were doing. And, um, and then AWFS asked if I would come to Vegas and speak. And I spoke on this subject called closet gold, and that's the idea that closets have come of age, um, that they're really kind of more in line with cabinetry than we've ever thought they were, and we can do more stuff than cabinet guys can, um, just because we're flat panel processing, um, we're frameless cabinets, we use slab doors, um, we can manufacture in a day and return to your house and do stuff immediately, and we can cut it any size you want to, and we have 115 different pre finished colors that don't require going to a spray booth. And, uh, that speech right there talking about that projected me into going internationally and visiting shows and, uh, now I'm going to China, Italy, and Germany again this year. Um, and the NKBA has asked me to do a tour, um, in Italy with their top 15 best cabinet customers. So, I don't know. I don't know. It's projecting me into this area that I didn't ever think I'd be. I thought I'd be having a closet company the rest of my life. Literally during that seven months of me thinking crazy thoughts, I gave my closet company away. And now I don't actually own one, although I do sell and install closets, uh, weekly, because I travel all over the world. As you know, if you're following me, I just got home from Montana. We did some installation training over there. The week before that, I was in Ohio. The week before that, I was in Washington, D. C. It just goes on and on and I just meet with people and install and sell and do what I do. And that's all I do now. I just share the information that I've learned in my years of experience, which is 46 years of doing quality organization, which is basically doing cabinets and woodworking. It's the same thing. And so that's kind of my background of my history and it's an exciting story. Um, it comes from like From doing something to get getting into a place in your life where you don't know what you're going to do anymore and to project it into something that's super amazing and you're touching more people's lives than you ever thought you would. And so I really take it as a blessing. Um, I'm still working on my cancer every day. I have to go to therapy. Um, and I have to talk to people and it's, it's a job in itself. Um, but I take it in stride because life's still life. I'm excited about it. So that's where I'm at. That's awesome. And

Jacob Edmond: 7:37

that's, that's why I'm excited to, uh, to have you on and, you know, and I think obviously there's There's I could have a Phil Phil months worth of podcast with knowledge you could share. But what I'm really interested to dig a little bit more into, uh, because ultimately what this podcast about Millwork, but it's really about the people in Millwork and people like you that have stories to share. Um, and I think in those stories, as we unpack Your experience there's, there's nuggets of wisdom and knowledge, you know, for, for, uh, people like me that are, you know, still earlier on our careers or in mid careers or wherever they're at, you know, you were at a point in one. I don't think people realize this. You mentioned there 46 years or whatever. Um, you're in your sixties, is that right?

Eric Marshall: 8:22

Yeah. I'm 61. Yeah.

Jacob Edmond: 8:24

And I don't, I like, I would never have guessed that I don't, I don't, you know, you look great for, for 61 by the way. And so I think that's probably something that people who maybe even follow you, it would be surprised to hear you're 61. And with that, you have had basically multiple careers in your lifetime, just in the closet industry already. And you've basically already now embarked on another new one. Um, can you tell, talk a little bit about. Mentally, emotionally, career wise, but where were you before at the time you found out I've got cancer and it's a very advanced cancer before that, what was your life? What was your career? Like, where were you mentally? Because you're in a totally different place now, right? But I think where you were before that is probably a place. A lot of people can relate to.

Eric Marshall: 9:16

Yes, but my demeanor has always been the Eric Marshall demeanor. I'm kind of like this. super weird outgoing guy, um, which really hasn't changed. Yes, it changed for seven months while I was crying myself to sleep at night in bed. Um, but right before that was really funny. I, I had just won an award, um, at Woodworking 100. Um, we did for six years in a row, um, grown at double digit growth. Um, my company was just me and my two sons. It was just literally three of us. Um, a small family woodworking company. Um, we had started that company about six years before that, um, because we had all left different careers. My youngest son had just finished college, he's like, I don't want to go to work dad, I see you, you go to vacations all the time. I want to do that. And so he joined the company, um, my oldest son joined the company and the three of us um, took a half a million dollar company, um, to right before, right before I got diagnosed with cancer, um, was, it was December. We had just hit a million dollars in business, which was super exciting for us to actually join that club. Cause I've heard it so often, man, you got to get to a million dollars. You got to get to a million dollars. And when you get to a million, you got to get to five, you know? And so we were just planning our next year's growth to try to hit 2 million in that year. And, uh, it was a super exciting time. We were really busy. Um, it was still kind of COVID times. We were still feeling the growth from all of that, and uh, it was just totally a sucker punch when the doctors told me that I had cancer, I told them, uh, no I don't, you guys are nuts, I'm in perfect health, like, I go hiking all the time, I'm in active sports which are really weird because I skateboard, that's my sport, um, and I'm, I'm 60 years old, I have really good testosterone, like, I'm not overweight. I eat whatever the heck I want to. I just stay busy in woodworking and I stay healthy. And I was like, no, no, you guys got the wrong paperwork. Somebody else's test was that test. Cause I just didn't believe it. And it literally took me a couple of months and a few more doctors to tell me, Hey, settle down. There's something wrong with you. Um, cause I didn't have all the normal signs. Woodworkers. I'm yeah. If there's girls online. Kudos, women of We're Working Go For It, but we're mostly guys. And a lot of us are getting older. And if you haven't gotten checked yet, this is my shout out to you. If you had gray hair, bro, you need to go get checked for prostate cancer. Cause it's more common than you think. And I didn't have any of those signs. So I was just like, shut up. This is not what I'm going to do. I'm going to continue to grow my business. And then it just, as you know, it just went like that. It just totally, because my active this in the business just kind of shrank. And, uh, The suns have taken over. Um, they're doing okay now. They're trying to build it back up and they will. Um, but I was at the top of my game at that time. It's at almost 60 years old. I had just built a company in about five years to do a million dollars in installations. And, uh, that was just so weird. And then, you know, to be on this soup and come back up to where I'm at now, um, and helping so many other people do that. And. It's really funny. I'm working with, um, not just multi million dollar companies, but, uh, billion dollar companies now, um, helping them build their business. And, uh, it's just that, it's that, it's funny because the same steps you do to get to 500, 000 or your first thousand or your first million or your first ten million or your first hundred million, it's the same steps. And I've listened to very successful people in my career, I worked with some of the largest closet companies in the world, um, on how to do those things. And I keep hearing the same thing, you just gotta keep doing the same thing over and over again. Like, my favorite quote is from, um, the guy that really taught me, Neil Walter. He goes, there's nothing more important than waking up in the morning and finding out where you're gonna get your next lead from. I'm like, wait, wait, what did he say? He said, there's nothing more important than waking up in the morning and finding out where your next lead is coming from. That's what you have to do every day. He says really nothing else matters. Unless you're figuring out where your next lead is coming from, you don't have a pipeline of business coming. And so you really have to work on that. If you're going to build your business, where is your next lead coming from? It's not the next sales, it's not the next installation, it's not where you're buying your board. As the owner of the company, you need to figure out like today, where am I going to get a lead so we can go sell something, so we can manufacture so we can install. And that's kind of the steps I've taken all along. It's just, where am I going to get my next lead from? It's, it's golden advice from a guy who built a big business, um, and it's something we can all use. So stepping back again, we were right at the top of our game, building a business to something really cool, sucker punch right in the face. You're not going to do that. And then, like my wife says, Lori, she said, you know, you've reinvented yourself at 60 years old. Like, I never thought about that. It doesn't come to mind. You just think you're on this path to go somewhere and, and sometimes you have to change and it's your responsibility to take that change and do what you can with it, you know, if it's going to be, it's up to me, you know, that kind of attitude. Yeah, so that's a really thing. The fun things that I love to say, number one, the reason for the appointment is to book another appointment. Everybody that reason for the appointment. Is to book another appointment. Zig Ziglar told me that.

Jacob Edmond: 15:06

I think those, that's awesome advice. And I think that that segues, um, into an interesting, you know, I, I guess, uh, there's a different mindset that closet guys have. From mill workers, and you've, you've kind of alluded to this in multiple ways. Right. And we talked about this when we were together in Utah a little bit, but it's, you know, 1 that. It's very much, it's similar. We're panel processing or making cabinets that serve our purpose. They go into a house to go into a closet, but the, from the sales side, you know, like the fact that you're thinking about, okay, where, where is my lead coming from? Um, what is the point of booking disappointments to book another appointment? You know, I, that, I spent my whole career so far in really commercial millwork, right? Which is in many ways, a very old school woodworking industry, and it is more craftsmen than business and sales guys. And so I think business and sales guys get a bad rap in the industry if they're not craftsmen first. Um, But craftsmen struggled to adapt to what they can learn from the business guys. Though, is, you know, I think, uh, a lot of times in commercial millwork and case where, you know, you have craftsmen who started businesses. And they were craftsmen 1st, and then they've learned how to run a business, but there's almost an aversion. You know, and I, I, to me, it's a bit of, it's an ego, but as an aversion to, Hey, what can I learn from outside the industry about sales, about business, about everything you just described, Hey, where are your leads coming from? You know? And I think honestly, for a lot of business, this is, they don't even have to think about that. There's this idea of like, well, my last job is going to create my next job. That's word of mouth. It's whatever. But the hard part about that is if you, you can't control that. Like, you can't, you can't ramp up. Hey, I need more business. How do I go get more business? And so I

Eric Marshall: 17:16

I totally agree with what you're saying about that. Like, so call the companies are different. They're more, they're really marketing companies. They're not really like, let's not be to go back. Like you said, they're not high in Fine finishing woodwork. Um, but does it matter? Does it really matter? Cause in the end, um, why are we in this business? To make money, we make money to support our lifestyle and our families and the things we want to support. Um, you know, yes, in the past two years, I've changed my mental attitude about what I want to support because I can support me, but I can support others too. And, uh, It's funny because, you know, I talk about all the time, like, um, a board foot, a board square foot, when you measure it out and you sell it, it sells for a certain amount. And my, my father's tape measure, um, measured the same way. Um, it's still a board square foot, but he didn't charge the same amount of money that I charge, um, when I sell my board square foot. And so you got to find out what's going to make you the best reburn on investment, um, for what you're doing. And you can totally be a fine finishing woodworker, um, but provide a product line that actually does more for your customer than just looks. Cause the key about cloth is they're functional. They're trust me. I think they look good. It, it looks good. Um, yes. Fake wood. Who really cares? What it does is where the money's at. Like when you buy a new car, um, you could buy the base model. Let's go Chevy, the LS. Um, it still drives down the road. It stops, it steers, it gets you from point A to point B. Um, but the LTZ has massaging seats. And heated steering wheels and there's more value in that and I'm pretty sure That the sixty thousand dollar entry grade chevy truck and the hundred and twenty thousand dollar totally spidered out 22 spinner rims with everything you can imagine on it. It practically tells you where to go Um doesn't cost the manufacturing company that much more to make it. It's just got an eccentric value Um Would blow your mind on how much money they're gonna make on the upgrades For instance, hey, hey california claws don't hate me, but they got this video online If you haven't seen it before california clauses nashville won the d heart award Um for the i'm pretty sure the number one friends of the year just a couple of years ago, and they made this video um walker hayes Made it for them. Um And it's called nashville like and their chorus goes Because every time when I get paid, I think I should have sold more upgrades. Um, and that's what we do at closet companies. We're totally selling an upgrade product that you yeah. They literally wrote this video. You could watch it on YouTube and it's so ballsy, Jacob, because, um, there we go. It's so ballsy because in the video, literally the first session of the video, the owner of the store is standing in front of blackboard or a whiteboard and he goes 77 percent increase in installed sales this year. Good job. Good job. Like 77 percent increase in sales this year. Are you freaking kidding me? I know a bunch of woodworkers to be happy with 10 or 20. That'd be crazy. Like 20 percent more sales this year. And they did 77 and that was actually the slow year. Um, because they had a 250 percent increase in sales in two and a half years.

Jacob Edmond: 21:15

Wow.

Eric Marshall: 21:16

Isn't that nuts? And, and that's cabinet guys are struggling. It's because they do mud rooms and garage cabinets and, and laundry rooms. We, they do laundry rooms that we, as cabinet guys don't even know how to do. And laundry rooms have so much value to her, to her. And we'll don't worry. We'll record this. I'll do it again. They have so much value to her. You can charge an enormous amount of money to build cabinets in the laundry room just because she wants it so badly. She's like, Oh yeah, you're going to put hanging space for me. Like I already got hanging space in there. This is how it works. She's like, Oh yeah, honey, when can we do it? Like she becomes a salesperson.

Jacob Edmond: 21:54

Yeah.

Eric Marshall: 21:55

So, and that's what,

Jacob Edmond: 21:59

yeah, I think that's the key difference though. And we are recordings. I think this is getting at least the audio, but I think what's, what's so interesting to me in the difference in mentality, I know there's commercial guys that are just like raging right now. Like, Oh, but it's different. Our business is different. And, but I think what's important is that what you're explaining is closet guys. You know, and I think this is true of so many other industries. Yeah. They think about the end consumer and what's important to them. And too often in millwork and in casework and, and, and, and we're as craftsmen trying to justify our price, what we're selling, how, because of the value that it is to us. So like, Oh, but the quality of the material is so good. And the time we put into it, what you're not thinking about though, Why is that person buying this? Yeah. And even if it's on the commercial side, if it's the GC making a decision, you've still got an end consumer. What is the, the use case they're trying to fulfill? And the best example of this, uh, kind of the way to to put it is, I mean, you talked about the car, but is why, uh, the, the wife who wants the laundry room or the closet or the kitchen or whatever it is, right? Um, what is it that she wants? She doesn't want cabinets. She wants a place that she can post pictures on Instagram that she's proud of, that that's where she cooks. She wants a place to host her family that's functional, but also looks good and makes her feel like, Hey, when I'm cooking, when I'm getting stuff, whatever it is, it fills that need in a way that, Hey, I'm proud. And I want to do that here. Like there's a functional, uh, uh, Purpose people are buying stuff and whether that's a business buying a reception desk or wall panels or whatever. And as mill workers, very little, if ever, are we thinking about that? Not in our marketing, not in our sales, not in our, our, our process, what we do. And so I think that is what's missing. What I'm, what I'm kind of understanding what you're describing is different in closet.

Eric Marshall: 24:09

Yes. What we're so concerned about where the walnut was. and how old it is and she doesn't give a crap about that. She wants to know where her glasses are going and. Like how easy is it to find them because her lifestyle, so the, the days of the stay at home mom are, are gone and over with. And so she's not working too. And plus she's got to also make a home life. She's got to provide for the home that it's a place to live and feel good and come home from the stress. We live in such a stressful work that she wants to everybody in the whole house to come home and sit down and, um, Everything is placed where it's supposed to be. Everybody knows where to find things and it's easier and lifestyle. That's what California Closet has done so well at, is they've made it a lifestyle product, not, uh, how good is the wood product and we have to justify it. And so the sales are so much easier because we, in the closet industry, we focus on what it does for you, not what it's made of. I haven't said particle board to a customer in seven or eight years because they just don't care the knowledge that I bring to them is so much past. What I'm making out of or what kind of hinges are if they soft close They don't even ask that to closet companies. Oh, is it soft close? Obviously, it's soft close. Why would you do anything different? Let's move on to like what it's going to do for you How much more square footage are you getting out of your

Jacob Edmond: 25:46

right

Eric Marshall: 25:46

and so and so that's what we try to focus on is just like We're creating a space in the house that's usable and functional and actually making the house bigger. You know, you buy a 2, 300 square foot house. If you add, um, 125 square feet of shelving space in the garage because you put in one garage cabinet, now it's a 2, 600 square foot house. Then you do the closets and create another 250 square feet of shelving in there and now it's a, now it's a 2, 900 square foot house. You know, and she totally gets that. She loves that. It's what she's willing to shell out the dough for or, or just hammer on him until he's going to do it too, you know, cause he is stuck. He is totally stuck in, Oh wait, what's it made out of? Like how much should this really cost me? And guys shouldn't be selling to women that don't think like that. They don't think like that. Why are we trying to sell in that method?

Jacob Edmond: 26:46

Right. Well, and, and in that case, you know, like in my case, right? Like I, you just spoke to me, right? I have a garage that has high ceilings. That's a bunch of wasted space. And I have stuff that I would love to put up there, but it's down here. Right. And so, you know, it's like, okay, what you just described, Hey, if I can actually multiply my storage space by adding shelves, but also the reason I don't is, you know, my wife knows, Hey, I'm capable of doing that myself, but I don't have time. I don't want to do that. And so even if you're. Marketing in this case. So that's a wife. Hey, look, don't, wouldn't you love your, your, to have like a mudroom in your garage where all your kids stuff can be stored and have all your husband's tools and stuff up off the shelf. Well, also for me, what are you, what am I buying? Oh, I could be doing that. And I could spend five weekends this year trying to do that. Or I could pay you closet guy or Miller guy to do it for me. What am I getting out of that? I'm getting five weekends back and I'm getting a solution today. Hey. That's done and installed and not, I don't have to worry about that anymore. So like from a marketing and sales perspective, there's, there's multiple customers there that you could be speaking to and it's not just the end product, but what are you, what are you providing them? I'm solving a problem for you as a customer that if you were to do this yourself, maybe you could save some money, but are you, how much is your time worth to you?

Eric Marshall: 28:07

Video, like it's all about the upgrades, like, What kind of upgrades are you able to rely to her? You know, that's, that's, um really where I've gotten really good at this whole thing is like, I'm traveling now, um, searching for more upgrades, because bottom line is, if you just build a cabinet with doors and some shelves in it, um, that's semi functional. If it's got, um, Like if the doors roll 180 degrees instead of 90 and you can get into more access and you can slide something out of there that's got some kind of like little hooks or pockets or cans or whatever. You know, Reva shelf or Rishalu or Haifla have figured out some kind of little piece you can put on there. You just doubled the price of the cabinet because of the value you've created in that shelf. Because again, we're selling board square foot. How much is return on investment on your board square foot? It, that's all that really matters is like, how much are you charging per board square foot to create more space for your customer that she can do what she wants to with the space? Um, So yeah, that's the crazy part. Like, if you do that, you've just made more money,

Jacob Edmond: 29:24

right?

Eric Marshall: 29:25

The inside of a cabinet, it took you, okay, great. Some of you are really fast at building boxes, but it took you an hour to build a box. We charge about an hour per box to build or install a box, but to put four screws in and slide something in there, it takes a few minutes and it doubles the price. And you didn't have to manufacture anything. You just had to wait for a delivery, you know, so it's, it's kind of crazy how as industry people, we get stuck in those different kinds of scenarios. So,

Jacob Edmond: 29:54

um, today, you know, you, you travel around and you are going, like you said, learning about the upgrades you're also though you constantly travel around and speak at, uh, conferences and a lot of what you've done, like you did this at the wood tech summit, you, you invited people down and said, Hey, cabinet guys, millwork guys, come spend an hour with me. And I'll tell you how you can build cabinets. And make more money in your business, you know, supplement what you're doing with cabinets also do this. Talk a little bit about what you're doing with closet training Institute and how you, you know, how you are, um, speaking to cabinet guys about how they can do closets as well.

Eric Marshall: 30:35

Yeah. So currently I'm, like you said, I'm traveling around and, um, speaking at different conferences, um, just like the Almonte conference up in Utah that we met at. But more importantly than that, I've got a training center in Scottsdale, Arizona. Um, tomorrow nine guys are coming in. Um, and we do a, we do a full day, um, presentation about how, um, you can start selling those upgrades and what those upgrades might be. And then more importantly, how you design that into your current, um, business and how you would manufacture it and what you would do to create that. And then. Some techniques on how to sell differently. Like I literally teach that, how do I sell differently, um, these product lines? And then obviously you make more money by doing that. And so that's what I'm currently doing. I'm traveling around. Um, we do in house and then do your location both ways. We can do that. Um, so it's, it's super simple to do that kind of stuff, but if you don't have the knowledge, it's like. It's not simple. It's like, wait, how do I switch? Cause I'm doing it a certain way. You know, if it's not, if it's not broke, why would I fix it is what I get a lot, you know? Hey, we're doing just fine. I'm like, really? Uh, what kind of truck you driving right now? You know, what, how much were the jeans you bought? What is your wife going to do in the afternoon? Um, Do you, does she pick the kids up from school or is she struggling to get back from work? How can we replace those incomes to where we can have a better lifestyle? I want you guys all, no matter where the ego's at or what you're selling, to have a little bit better lifestyle. Um, because then you can give more to what you love. Could be your wife, could be your kids, could be your parents, could be a struggling industry friend, could be, I don't know, the American Cancer Society. I don't know what you're going to give your time and money to, but, We all have a better lifestyle when we start doing those things. When we start giving back to the community or giving back to our family, uh, because of a value that we created for another customer until we made more money, our life's just naturally get better. We feel better about what's going on. And so then we can put more time also into work and have more fun, go meet more people. Go on vacation in Tahiti. Who, who cares? Go help some people in Tahiti while you're there. You know, I, I know people that make a lot of money doing this and they spent a lot of time goofing around, but they also give a lot of money back to things that they care about. And you can do that when you make that kind of money. You know, you literally can double your income. Just you can double your income just by putting a pullout in every single cabinet you sell. And all you have to do is say, Hey, we've got this cool product. Look what it does. And the customer is just like, Oh yeah. Let's do it. So it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun doing what I'm doing today. Helping people do more

Jacob Edmond: 33:36

Awesome, If people are interested in finding out more about that how they can learn from the closet training Institute reach out and contact you What's the best way for them to do that?

Eric Marshall: 33:46

Just call my cell phone or go on our our link tree cause training Institute. We're on Instagram We're not a conventional company by any means. We literally don't even have a website. Like, I think they're dumb today. Um, I think there's other ways to market yourself. whether it be through Instagram or LinkedIn, or you have a link tree or you have some kind of way to search the internet and find yourself that's free today because there's all kinds of ways to do that. Um, you'd get ahold of me, my phone number 602 684 6066. Um, our link tree is a closet training guru. Um, we do the closet training guru. You just search the closet guru. You'll find us. Um, you can message me on Instagram. You can message me. Okay. On LinkedIn, um, you can message me on my Facebook. I might look at it. I don't know. I don't do Facebook that much anymore You know, I I thought Myspace was cool. Um now I think Facebook is in the same place Myspace is at So just find us Scream my name out the front door. I might show up because I could be in your town. Who knows?

Jacob Edmond: 34:51

Awesome.

Eric Marshall: 34:52

Yeah,

Jacob Edmond: 34:52

well, I will be linking your link tree and that all that stuff, uh, in the show notes for everybody. So it's quick and easy for everybody to reach out and contact you. Um, as he mentioned, you'll, uh, you'll be at IWF here in Atlanta. We'll be there as well with a booth. Um, tomorrow you said you having some guys out there to talk and you never know, you might be popping up at a trade conference or a shop near you. Um, and very active on Instagram. I will say that. Um, so we'll link that as well for everybody.

Eric Marshall: 35:22

And more importantly, the, the, the links in venue for me is a B2B place. Um, it's where I'm super active at. Um, and I, I will Facebook message you, but I think that LinkedIn place is a place for all business owners. Um, it's kind of a safe place. Currently, there's not a lot of trash talking going on there. Um, and so it can help. And I post videos on there every day. And hopefully those are some little tidbits that you can get to help grow your business. Um, but thank you so much, um, for letting me do this for you guys today.

Jacob Edmond: 35:57

Yeah. Thank you, Eric, for, for joining me. I've been excited to have you on and we'll definitely look to have you again, um, in the future.

Eric Marshall: 36:05

Okay. Hopefully I'll have a pretty face instead of this blank screen.

Jacob Edmond: 36:10

I appreciate you, Eric. And until next time, thank you everybody for joining in and listening today and go follow Eric on Instagram.

Eric Marshall: 36:19

Thank you.