Good Neighbor Podcast Estero
Bringing Together -
Local Businesses & Your Neighbors in SWFL
Good Neighbor Podcast Estero
EP # 243 Behind the Scenes with Freedom Technologies: From Security Systems to Smart Living
Ever wonder what makes a house truly "smart"? Frank from Freedom Technologies pulls back the curtain on the world of home automation and reveals why so many smart devices fail to deliver on their promises.
With over 27 years of experience, Frank's journey from dismantling his father's TV at age 11 to building a thriving technology integration business is both inspiring and educational. After selling his successful Pennsylvania company with 10 vans and 35 builder clients, he moved to Southwest Florida to start fresh—arriving just weeks before Hurricane Irma hit the area!
The conversation dives deep into why proper network infrastructure forms the foundation of any smart home. As Frank explains, "It's not the product. The product works when the back end is set up the right way." This insight is particularly valuable for Florida homeowners dealing with concrete walls, rebar, and outdoor living spaces that create connectivity challenges.
What's particularly fascinating is how Frank has built his business through relationships formed in cigar lounges, connecting with influential people who share his appreciation for the finer things in life. This networking approach—which he's documenting in his upcoming book "Relationships of the Leaf"—has helped him build a client base that feels more like friendship than business.
For seasonal residents who make up 65% of his clientele, Freedom Technologies creates systems that monitor homes remotely, detecting water leaks and managing HVAC while owners are away. By consolidating functions into just one or two user-friendly apps instead of six or seven separate ones, they make technology accessible to everyone.
Need help bringing your home into the 21st century? Frank and his team, including both his sons who've joined the family business, pride themselves on being "big enough to give you the latest in technology, but small enough to treat you like family."
Freedom Technologies
Frank Potoczak
6561 Taylor Rd Naples, FL 34109
239-231-1141
Info@freedomnaples.com
freedomnaples.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 243 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have Good Neighbor Frank from Freedom Technologies Welcome.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you for having me, sir.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Always a pleasure to get to know people in the community and share what they do with our listeners. So without further ado, let's jump right in. And why don't you share a little bit about what you do for Freedom Technologies?
Speaker 3:Yes. So Freedom Technologies we're right here in Naples. We work pretty much most of Colorado County. We are a low voltage provider. What does low voltage mean? So low voltage means everything in your home that doesn't hurt when you touch it the wrong way. Right, that's a good thing. So we do security, we do surveillance, we do networking, we do lighting control, we do automation, we set up home theaters, I like to call it. We bring your home to life after it's been built and it's got beautiful granite and floors and you know all kinds of furniture. We're the ones that actually bring it. We bring the life to the party. That's what we do.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that because with technology nowadays, I'm sure there's so much you can do within a house now.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's endless. It's endless, I mean nowadays, with all the different technologies and a lot of do-it-yourself products out there. I mean we help all kinds of folks, everything from humongous homes and yachts all the way down to a basic Wi-Fi system for a food trailer. So we go all the way through, from the little stuff all the way to the big stuff, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and with technology evolving, there's people that haven't evolved with the technology, so they need help, like yours as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, big time. Big time, I mean down here in southwest Florida. It's a phenomenal market and we've got a lot of our snowbird friends right. So later, over 60 years old. They're not into the tech, and that's what keeps us busy every day, sometimes seven days a week.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So let's back up your story a little bit. How does one get involved in this industry?
Speaker 3:Oh, boy. So I started at 11 years old when I took apart my dad's first console TV when he was sleeping, working second shift. So, as you can imagine, that didn't go too well and he's like you took it apart, you put it back together and I know he had to call a TV repair guy back then. This was what shoot early 80s when that happened. But we got it back up and working. I just had a knack for it, you know, and everything from car audio all the way up through high school and college we used to do remote starters back where I grew up in northern Jersey. So it all started with that. Then went to college and got a little bit more involved into the design aspect of it, how things tick and operate, and started building my own little circuits and stuff like that. And I was always into high-end audio, loved two-channel audio, whether it was 12-volt or my home. But we did very well with that and when we were in Jersey still got married and quit my job six months later and told my wife who she was pregnant, just bought a house and I said quit my job, I'm going into business, we're going into business. She's like what have you lost your frigging mind. You know everybody loves the cushion and I had a pretty decent sales job in a company out in Pennsylvania, but she was always supportive and you know we made it work. You know we started our first year and doing just security systems. I got into installing security systems for homes and was doing a decent amount of it in the business.
Speaker 3:At that point, technology started getting very popular with intercom systems and camera systems and stuff like that, and the builders that I was working with doing the new construction they said, frank, why can't you just do everything for us? Why do we have to call five or six different subcontractors? And I sat there myself and thought about it. I'm like, why can't I do it? I mean, it's all simple stuff. And that was 1997 when I started my company, uh, in Pennsylvania, and, uh, we left in 2017 when we moved down to Southwest Florida. I sold the company. We were working with about 35 builders at that time. We had, uh, 10 vans on the road, so it was a nice size company, but I was just tired of PA, I guess after a while in the cold, like everyone does, right? Yep, yep, no more shoveling. That's yeah, and you know so again, but yeah, the whole thing as far as coming down to Florida, that's a whole separate story.
Speaker 2:There we go. We can go into that later. But, talk about opening, going off on your own and opening your own business. Obviously, we've all had some type of challenges, whether personally or professionally, through our journey that we can look back at now and say, you know what? I'm in a better place now because of it.
Speaker 3:Something happened along your journey that helped get you where you are today. Well, I always felt that I had the entrepreneurial knack. You know, when I was a young kid I'd go through, sift through people's garbage on the outside that they threw out where they were throwing bicycles away, and I put bicycles together and my friends that didn't have one, I'd rent it to them for a buck a day, you know, when they wanted to. So you know, there, wasark, new Jersey, knocking on. You know hundreds and hundreds of doors getting no. You know hundreds and hundreds of times on a daily basis. But you just keep going and going and going and I think that's where I kind of built that resiliency that, no, is. You know, I'm not much closer to that. Yes, you know as far as any. You know business tragedies and they always say you got to fail to learn. I think I've been very fortunate in some of the decisions that I've made along my business career that I've never really gone bankrupt. I've never really failed. There are some little companies that we started that didn't take off like we expected them to, but it wasn't a huge failure either. You learn right, yeah, you learn. You learn from those things and you move on After 08 and when the market took a dump, we had a lot of money in the street.
Speaker 3:And that was probably one of the biggest lessons that I had was there was a lot of money that was owed to me. And there was a lot of money that was owed to me and there was a lot of money that I owed to my vendors. That was like the top. I mean, we were doing 500, 600 homes a year and when you wake up the next morning and everything tanks and everybody's calling you that the builders are going out of business, they're never going to make it and you owe $2.5 million to your vendors, you say to yourself, holy crap, what are you going to do? The First thing that I did is I called them all. I said listen, you know what? I ain't got the money. I got to collect it, just like everyone that you've been selling products to, but I promise you I will never short you a penny.
Speaker 3:And it took two and a half years to pay everybody back. You know it took two and a half years. Luckily for us as a company, we had the recurring revenue because we do the security monitoring, so we had a couple thousand accounts that was paying us on a monthly basis and that's what enabled us to get through. The one big mistake that I did make I didn't go after some of the smaller companies in town and buy them out. That's where I think was I could have grown much quicker, uh, at that point. But then again I look at it If I was really happy in PA, would I be living in paradise right now? So God's got a mission for us and he's got the, he's got the map all set up, you know.
Speaker 2:Yep Got to follow the plan. So let's talk about myths or misconceptions surrounding what you do that we can kind of clear up for our listeners today. Sure.
Speaker 3:You know? I think that there's. You know there's a lot of things people nowadays think because of. I could just say you know, Amazon, Alexa or Apple Siri or Google Nest all these things that they can actually go and just buy the stuff and plug it in and make it work Siri or Google Nest, all these things that they can actually go and just buy the stuff and plug it in and make it work. Not necessarily that easy, you know. There's all kinds of stuff that you have and I think the biggest issue is that you know we have a Comcast router or a Summit router. It's sitting in the corner of our house someplace, or we're in a condo, we're in Florida, We've got concrete, We've got rebar, We've got everything. They set something up on the other side of the house Like gosh, darn it, it ain't working. You know.
Speaker 3:So for us, I always say, no matter what we do, whether we're doing a, a remodel, or we're helping someone, we have to start with the Wi-Fi. And I think you know if anybody gets any advice out of this podcast today is it starts with the foundation. It starts with your network. If you're having any problems with your ring doorbell, with your cameras, with your computers, TVs. You have to have a solid foundation on your network, and it's not just necessarily having a Comcast router. They're only good for so many devices. Now we've got IoT, Internet of Things. We're connecting 100, 200 devices with switches and this and that.
Speaker 3:So it's a big deal to make sure that networks are right, and when that's not right, they blame the product, and it's not the product. The product works when the back end is set up the right way. And that's where we kind of come in and we say listen, we'll help out, We'll set up a new network for you. We'll put access points just like you have any commercial, whether it's in the hospital or office buildings. You've got little access points that are hardwired back to your head end. So you've got full Wi-Fi coverage everywhere, especially here in Florida. Outside, we're all outside enjoying ourselves by the pool. You want to be on your phone with your music and watching the cameras seeing when the pizza is getting delivered to the front door. You've got to have good Wi-Fi, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So talk about technology and things ever-changing, but are there certain things that are new or maybe trending in the industry currently?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you know technology, I think every time I take a look at it. Now, you know I'm actually, you know we're on a job. Right now I'm luckily to have a beautiful studio where this is where I'm at, but it's changing so fast, it has been changing so fast, it's changing so fast, it has been changing so fast. I mean, we go to three or four trade shows a year just to kind of barely keep up with how fast things are changing. The biggest thing that we're dealing with right now is full-blown automation, what is a true smart home. Having an automated light switch and some smart thermostats and some cameras and doorbells from six different manufacturers is not the easiest thing for some of the older folks and having six or seven apps. We specialize in trying to put everything into at least one or two at the most apps. So it's easy for you.
Speaker 3:65% of our clients are those snowbirds. They're here for three, four months and then you know they're up north. So they have to have a system number one that can monitor the HVAC in the home. They need to have a system that's going to monitor water detection if there is a leak, and a host of other things. So we've kind of become a go-to in southwest Florida.
Speaker 3:To make that happen and you know we've got an amazing following. We're five star rated family operated, but we'll get into a little bit of that later. So that's really what it comes down to. Anybody can go and plug stuff in and try to get it to work. The experience comes in over 27 years, as I've been in the business is to number one, be able to pick the products that are reliable number one. Number two, get them to work reliably together. And number three, make it easy for the client, because if it's not easy for the client, he's never going to tell his friends about it, and then he's got that bad taste in his mouth that you know we spent whatever we spent. I should have never spent it. That's the one thing that we never want to see happen with any of the systems that we install.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Now it sounds like your job is very demanding, number one with time but when you do get a moment of free time, you move down here for a reason. What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Speaker 3:Wow. So I am a big uh cigar guy and, um, believe it or not, the whole florida story, if I could kind of segue into that a little bit, starts because of uh, I started, I never smoked cigarettes. Uh, got introduced to cigars back in 2007 when I was uh in jamaica with my wife laying there on a hammock and a guy said, hey, you want a cuban cigar? I like, yeah, I'll take a Cuban cigar. I never smoked, ever then. But it was something that happened that night laying there looking at the stars, I got my beautiful wife with me. You know, business is great smoking the cigar looking at the stars. I'm like, man, this is really nice. It kind of there was, the relaxation was there. But then I always saw, you know, all of these wealthy people that have done very well for themselves in high-end magazines and nice cars and convertibles. They always kind of had a cigar with them. So I kind of attributed that whole lifestyle, you know, with this cigar.
Speaker 3:And you know, when we came down here which was a whole separate thing, I mean, I pretty much sold everything. I made a decision within a month, closed on the house a month and a half, told my wife that we're going to move the following year. I says two months later we're almost done with the remodel. I said, screw it, we're moving this year. And that was two weeks before Hurricane Irma. So that was we're in boxes. 16 foot storm. My wife is crying, we're all gonna die. Holy crap, what did I do? I sold everything up in pa and I'm like, honey, 16 feet, it ain't coming this far, don't worry about it. You know so. But anyway we went to for the weekend, my son and I my oldest that's in the company with me. We went to san diego for a trade show. I sent her to a friend's house in atlanta with the, my two other children and the dog. So it was a challenge in the beginning.
Speaker 3:But the thing always is Frank, how did you get to where you are in seven years? How did you build such a nice company? How did you build such a great following? We see you everywhere. You're involved in all kinds of things and doing barbecues and donating money to Collier County Wounded Warrior. Where do you get the time for all of this stuff?
Speaker 3:And it really comes back to me hanging out in all the cigar lounges and meeting the amazing people that really have put me into positions that I've met other people. Hence I'm writing a book via a ghostwriter it's going to. It's called relationships of the leaf and I'm putting together a whole little entrepreneurial story about where I really want to get some of the younger generation to get rid of the vaping and the garbage that they're putting. I says go grab an all natural stick for 10 bucks or five bucks. Go sit in a cigar lounge, meet somebody, talk to somebody about relationships, because most of the guys that are smoking these cigars in these lounges that I go to they've made it.
Speaker 3:You know they're at the upper echelon, they're the top 1% of people. You know that's who you want to be hanging out with. And that's kind of what I did, you know. And seven years later, a couple thousand customers later, like I said, 99.99% of my clients that we have we're friends. I can call any single one of them and say, hey, can I show your house? Or I get all the other phone calls. Hey, frank, we're going on the boat or we're going to Bimini or we're going to. So there's no lack of things to do when you do good and you do a good job and you treat people fairly.
Speaker 2:It all comes around, it all comes back around.
Speaker 3:It all does and you know, god willing, like I said, it keeps going because I'm loving life down here and now I've got both of my sons in the business and we've got some gals in the office that are taking care of paperwork and we're busy as can be, and you know, but we worked hard for it. We worked hard for it. We worked hard for it. In the beginning it was seven days a week for the first two years just to get our name out there and get to where we're going Now. The referrals are flowing in. The Google referrals are coming in. I do a decent amount of Facebook advertising because I love to get in front of the camera, so that we're having some fun stuff with that as well.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 3:You got to enjoy what you do and have a passion for it, for sure.
Speaker 2:So is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about freedom that they don't know?
Speaker 3:So, yeah, this is what I tell everybody when I record my videos or anything like that that freedom technologies were big enough to give you the latest in technology, whatever you want that's out there, but we're still small enough to treat you like family, and that's, at the end of the day, it's what it's all about. We treat you the way you would want to be treated. We treat your mom or your grandma or whoever it is. That's the most important part. Anybody can sell, anybody in this. You know in Southwest Florida can sell you a bill of goods and bill of products. What's most important is to make sure that the company is there for you after the service, whether it's text messages, whether it's phone calls on the weekend or whatever it may be. We still respond to texts up until 11, 12 o'clock at night. If I'm in the hot tub having a cigar, guess what? I get a text. I still respond, and I think that's how you build a solid foundation and a solid business.
Speaker 2:Absolutely About customer service, 100%. So how did our listeners go about contacting you if they wanted to learn more or had some questions?
Speaker 3:So yeah, so freedomnaples. com is our cool website. You can go through there and leave information there. You can call our office at 239-231-1141. Or email me which I love to get the frank@f reedomnaplescom.
Speaker 2:Very good, very good. Any last words for our listeners today?
Speaker 3:No, just like I said, if you're planning on doing any kind of remodel, if you're planning on building a home, if you're looking to do any kind of technology, make sure you do a little bit of research and get multiple quotes. That's most important. Again, don't be sold a bill of goods because then you may run into something and definitely check the referrals. Get three or four referrals from that particular company you're trying to work with to make sure that they are who they say they are 100%, Frank.
Speaker 2:It's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and we'll see you out in the community soon.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, jim, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPEstero. com. That's GNPEstero. com, or call 239-296-2621.