This Is The Video Strategy Local Businesses Need: Brent Gentling, Bring Your Own Tools BYOT

Ever wonder why some simple, scrappy videos drive floods of real customers while polished promos fall flat? We sat down with Brent of BYOT, a builder-turned-creator with 20 years on the tools, to unpack how clear teaching, strong hooks, and consistent posting turned DIY tutorials into a growth engine. From the dirt-to-lawn video that exploded his channel, to trade show walk-throughs that quietly trigger purchase orders, this conversation maps a practical path for local retailers who want sales, not just views.

We explore how to structure short-form vertical clips for attention and the specific tactics that move the needle: capture interest in the first three seconds, invest in clean audio, keep most videos 30–40 seconds, and let your profile do the selling with clear links and addresses. Brent explains why Facebook still matters for B2C, how TikTok accelerates discovery, and when longer YouTube tutorials deepen loyalty. He also shares the surprising metric that predicts conversions, shares over likes, and tells the story of a plastic caulking finger that racked up tens of millions of views and sold out inventory.

If you manage a hardware store, lumberyard, or building brand, you’ll get a workable blueprint on how to use video to create sales: start now, stay consistent, lean into humor, and spotlight the product expert, not the hard sell. Measure what matters, iterate from real data, and empower your team to test fresh ideas. The result is content that feels human, earns trust, and turns attention into revenue.

Topics we covered:
• Start with useful, step-by-step tutorials
• Lead videos with a strong hook
• Prioritize audio quality over perfect visuals
• Post consistently across your chosen platforms
• Use humor to show personality without hard selling
• Put address and links in profiles, not the videos
• Track shares and saves as signals of buyer intent
• Let product experts do the talking when possible

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👉 About Stefanie Couch & Grit Blueprint

I'm Stefanie Couch, the founder of Grit Blueprint. I grew up in a third-generation building supply business. I've worked inside dealers, distributors, and manufacturers. I built Grit Blueprint to solve problems I saw in our industry.

Grit Blueprint is a visibility, media, and growth partner for manufacturers, distributors, dealers, service providers, and leaders in the building industry.
We help you get seen, build trust, and become unmistakable.

Transcript

Viral Beginnings And Purpose

Brent Gentling 0:00

And that was literally the first video that ever went to a million views on my channel because there was a need for it. People were typing it in just like me at first, but there was no result. I take great pride in the videos I produce because I'm truly there to help you learn how to build. What I have found that is the most genuine and the most engaging is when businesses can incorporate humor because it shows that you have a personality and it shows that you're not just trying to placate to the fact that they're trying to sell you something.

Show Intro And Guest Setup

Stefanie Couch 0:32

Not everything you do is gonna be loved and adored, but again, like you said, if you have haters and you have fans, keep going. You're doing something right. What would you say to a local business that wants to start creating content but doesn't know where to start or what platform or what to do next? What I tell anyone and everyone that wants to really try social media and see where it takes you is Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast, the playbook for building unmistakable brands that grow, lead, and last in the built world. I'm Stefanie Couch, the founder of Grit Blueprint, and I'm a lifelong building industry insider. I was raised here, built my career here, and now my team and I help others win here. The truth is, you can be the best option in your space and still lose to someone else who simply shows up better and more consistently. Each week on the Grit Blueprint, I'm going to show you how to stand out, earn trust, and turn your brand into a competitive advantage that lasts. If you're ready to be seen, known, chosen, and become unmistakable, you're in the right place. Let's get started. Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast. I'm your host, Stefanie Couch, and I'm here today with a really special guest. I have got an amazing social media influencer, brand builder. Brent, welcome to the show.

Trade Show Finds And Tool Innovations

Brent Gentling 2:06

Thank you so much for having me.

Stefanie Couch 2:08

And you have channels on different platforms with over 4 million followers, but you are in the construction industry, and we're here today at an amazing market, do it best group, and true value. What's your experience been so far?

Brent Gentling 2:21

It's been amazing. I love these shows because there's always just so many unique items. I love finding those hidden gems. I love finding the innovations along the way that you haven't seen before. I just saw a brand new bucket, five-gallon bucket that is shaped unlike any other bucket I've ever seen in my entire life.

Stefanie Couch 2:39

Okay, I'm intrigued.

Brent Gentling 2:40

I'll double-click. Yeah. So I can't wait to find more.

Stefanie Couch 2:44

What is it shaped like?

Brent Gentling 2:45

It is shaped, it's basically a five-gallon bucket that has a built-in painting mechanism. So you can actually paint with it, but you can also use it as a dustpan, but you can also use it as a pouring mechanism. There's numerous accoutrement.

Stefanie Couch 3:02

Who knew buckets could be fancy, right?

Brent Gentling 3:04

I know.

Brent’s Path From Construction To YouTube

Stefanie Couch 3:05

I love it. Okay. Well, we're going to talk today about everything, social media, everything, how to grow your brand, what to do to get attention and get convert, hopefully, buyers in your store. But I want to start with your story. So tell me a little bit about your background because you actually came up in the construction world. You actually know how to do all the things that you're showing on your channel. And you started this to show people how to do DIY. So tell me a little bit about you and your journey.

Brent Gentling 3:32

So I've actually been in construction for 20 years, you know, in some forms. So I was a laborer on a job site. I went to school for construction management, worked for GCs, subcontractors, and I personally love physically building. Like if I'm not physically building, something is not right.

Stefanie Couch 3:51

Yeah.

Brent Gentling 3:52

Just because personally, for me, I'm dyslexic. And so I just gravitated to being physically active with my hands. And I always loved just doing things around the house, woodworking and so forth. And I bought a house back in 2010 and needed everything. And I just gutted it and just started remodeling it by myself. And I started using YouTube quite a bit at that point to try and teach myself everything. Because I didn't know I had a construction background, but I didn't know how to do everything myself.

Stefanie Couch 4:25

Yeah.

Brent Gentling 4:26

So I started using YouTube quite religiously at that point. And then at a certain point, I couldn't find a video on a specific subject.

Stefanie Couch 4:33

That's pretty early days of YouTube, right?

Brent Gentling 4:36

I mean, I mean YouTube, yeah, early days of YouTube. I started in 2016 my actual YouTube channel. So YouTube was definitely around at that point. But I never thought that in a million years that it'd be my full-time gig now. And I started just off the cuff and on a whim with no experience of video editing and no experience in front of the camera. But I felt like I truly wanted to give back to the YouTube community because YouTube at that point has helped me so much.

Stefanie Couch 5:05

Yeah.

Brent Gentling 5:05

And so that one video led to another, led to another. And I and I started up my home, my own home remodeling business in October 2019.

Stefanie Couch 5:16

Okay.

Brent Gentling 5:17

And uh just building decks, remodeling kitchens, remodeling bathrooms, numerous different types of other home-related type projects.

Stefanie Couch 5:26

What market are you in? Where do you live?

Brent Gentling 5:28

Seattle.

Stefanie Couch 5:29

Okay, gotcha.

Brent Gentling 5:31

And of course, four months later, COVID hits, and no one is letting me in their house because it's Seattle. And so luckily at the same exact time, my video views skyrocket because everyone's stuck at home doing their home improvement projects. And I just tell my wife, I'm pushing all my cards into content creation, and it was the best decision we could have ever made for ourselves.

The Lawn From Dirt To Grass Breakthrough

Stefanie Couch 5:54

Isn't it interesting how life does that for us sometimes? The thing that I'm sure the moment that that happened, you were like, oh man, this is this could be really catastrophic. But it ended up being something that set you to a totally different dimension. I mean, you what was your follower count or your viewership or how many average views were you getting on a YouTube video when you started versus when you hit when that hit, when COVID hit?

Brent Gentling 6:22

So I'd say on average, we were averaging approximately 200 to 250,000 views a month before COVID. And then after COVID, it was easily over a million views a month.

Stefanie Couch 6:35

Wow.

Brent Gentling 6:35

And since then it's never gone down and has only increased. So that's pretty amazing.

Stefanie Couch 6:42

I love that you're doing this though, based on something you already had a passion for. You didn't start it just to get viral views. You started it because you wanted to help people just like you that needed a solution. So I do wonder what was the first thing you searched on YouTube that you were like, I can't find this video, I'm gonna make it.

Brent Gentling 7:01

Good question. So the the true emphasis of the channel was how to grow grass from start to finish. And there was a number of grass-related videos on the platform, obviously, but I had I could not find a video on literally weeds and dirt to beautiful grass. And that was literally the first video that ever went to a million views on my channel. Wow. Because there was a need for it. And all of a sudden, people people were typing it in just like me at first, but there was no results. Yeah. And so luckily that was the that wasn't the first video I did, but it was the one that really got the ball rolling in terms of my mindset.

Stefanie Couch 7:41

So what type of grass was it? I'm curious. And also, um, did you do a series? Because that's something, you know, that's something I always wonder about is was it multiple videos? Did you cover weeds and all that in one video and then go to the next thing, or was it just one long video?

Brent Gentling 7:59

That was one long video. Okay. So, in all honesty, especially at this point, it wasn't even that long. I was at that early stage, because that's very early stage in 2016, 2017 for me. And I'd say that video is probably 10, 12 minutes long.

Stefanie Couch 8:14

Okay.

Teaching Over Entertainment

Brent Gentling 8:15

And now my videos are at least 20 minutes long, seemingly.

Stefanie Couch 8:18

Yeah, I saw something recently about you know the algorithm and all those things, and they said eight to twelve minutes was kind of optimal. But I think if you're doing something really interesting or multi-step, you know, I think it can be longer. What I get asked that a lot. What what is your answer? Is 20 minutes kind of where your sweet spot is and when you found?

Brent Gentling 8:36

Personally, for me, in terms of just pride, like I take great pride in the videos I produce because I'm truly there to help you learn how to build. Like, I know there's there's a lot of content creators out there, and I'm not gonna you know put a negative connotation to more entertainment-based channels, but there are plenty of channels out there that are just more education or much more entertainment based. My personal objective is to truly teach you how to build. Yeah, and I that's why step-by-step process is being shown from start to finish. And I'm literally voiceover in the entire process of the project because I really do want to teach you how to build.

Naming BYOT And Building A Team

Stefanie Couch 9:20

One of the most interesting things to me, though, is that you're not doing entertainment necessarily for the sake of entertainment, but I think our brains find those processes. The most entertaining thing because I will watch a concrete finishing video where someone has a trial and they're moving it super smooth, you know, to get it beautiful and perfect. I'll watch that for hours if I can. It's so entertaining. And woodworking videos, you know, uh, what is more beautiful than something like walnut with a router? Um, it's so cool. And I see a lot of those videos that get, you know, millions of views. I'm sure a lot of them are yours. So I don't know if we've mentioned this yet, but your channel name is BYOT. So tell me what that actually is.

Brent Gentling 10:02

BYOT stands for bring your own tools. Okay. And my wife actually made the name. So I again, all credit to her on the name because I remember early on when I thought about making the channel, it was another you know, month until I actually produced a video. And that whole time I was thinking, what do I name it? Do I name my my name? Like, how how am I gonna name this channel? I was just, I had horrible ideas. And at a certain point, we weren't even married at the time. I just asked her in the car, what do you think I should name the channel? And within 10 seconds, she blurts out, How about BYOT? Bring your own tools. And I was like, Where in the world did this come from? And we've just been sitting on this for the last month.

Stefanie Couch 10:50

She's a creative genius. Exactly. You know, I work with my husband and uh we're a team, and he's behind the camera here. And I think it is really interesting how sometimes you you're too close to things or you've just been thinking about it too much, and then someone else that maybe isn't the creative person or whatever by nature comes out with he's really good at copywriting. And so um, I'll say something, and he's like, Nope, this. And I'm like, What? Where'd you come up with that? Same thing. I love it. It's the power of a great team, right?

Brent Gentling 11:21

Yeah, I am very mindful of the fact that I'm not where I am today without my wife and the support that she's provided me because even before content was paying the bills, like the most fear I've ever had in my entire life was giving my two-week notice to my last employer and being freed from the element of always having a steady paycheck. And that was by far the most intimidating factor I've ever felt. And I just remember that that moment that she believed in me, more than myself.

Second Channel And Trade Show Strategy

Stefanie Couch 11:57

It's uh it takes a lot for you as a person to do that, but then when they're the one that is encouraging to do it, it is really powerful. I love that story. Yeah, and I'm sure she's a big part of uh what you do now and has helped you get to where you're we where you are. Let's talk about where you are. So you, I see you, we met at a trade show. Uh, we met at the National Harbor show a few months ago, and we have a mutual friend, Kat, who's amazing. Shout out Catherine Emery. And she and I were working on something uh at the event, and we just happened to run into each other. You have Instagram, YouTube, you have two channels on YouTube now, right? So tell me about the second channel.

Brent Gentling 12:39

So the the first YouTube channel is BYO Tools, which is just very tutorial-based content. The second channel is now BYO Trade.

Stefanie Couch 12:48

Okay.

Brent Gentling 12:49

And that's specifically trade show content. And it's still in line with cool tools and construction materials, but specifically in mind for trade show realms.

Local Business Content That Converts

Stefanie Couch 13:00

Yeah, and I I know your videos get a lot of views because I see them. Uh, you were at International Builder Show. You, you, you hit all of the main trade shows now. What do you see for someone who isn't an influencer that wants to do content that people pay attention to? Because attention is what the new economy is about. You know, we need to get views with people that actually want to buy our products or come to our store. But if you're a local business, you may not need to get 20 million views to get that tool sold or to get a lawnmower out the door or to help a customer with a problem that they have on a job site in their town. This episode of the Grit Blueprint Podcast was sponsored by Do It Best Group. Do It Best Group is the largest co-op in the world, and they help independent hardware and lumber yards all over North America win. Do It Best offers services, products, and people that can help you win long term. They are the champion of independence. What would you say to a local business that wants to start creating content but doesn't know where to start or what platform or what to do next?

Brent Gentling 14:13

It's a great question. And uh social media can take you in very unique directions, and there's just numerous types of content, so it is hard to gravitate towards a certain aspect. What I tell anyone and everyone that wants to really try social media and see what it how it you know where it takes you is just start.

Stefanie Couch 14:36

Yeah.

Just Start And Stay Consistent

Brent Gentling 14:37

And stay consistent. The the consistency factor is massive because not only is it does it showcase to the fact that your audience is like, hey, this guy's committed to producing content. Uh they're gonna be more inclined to follow you. But it's also gonna open you up to new opportunities.

Stefanie Couch 14:56

Yeah.

Brent Gentling 14:57

I certainly in my wildest dreams would never have expected that I would be the trade show guy. But the fact of the matter is, is I just started, I went to the International Builder Show. Uh I had been going to that show for years, and at a certain whim, I decided to film a couple things at that show, never thinking that uh they'd take off.

Stefanie Couch 15:20

Yeah.

Brent Gentling 15:20

Well, I posted a couple of them and they just exploded.

Stefanie Couch 15:23

Wow.

Brent Gentling 15:24

Never and I'm said to myself, why in the world is this simple little 30-second video doing so much better than my normal day-to-day content, which was the DIY realm on certain pots.

Stefanie Couch 15:37

That were taking days, I'm sure, to produce and make.

Brent Gentling 15:58

Let me transition. And that's really hard for people, especially when people are set in their ways of like, this is the type of content I want to produce. This is exactly how I want to produce it, and so forth. It's more about just staying consistent and pushing the envelope in certain directions once you actually find success.

Adapting To What Performs

Stefanie Couch 16:14

Yeah, and you gotta be consistent to be able to even get the data, even know what is working. So I always want to know the details. So for someone listening that maybe is thinking, well, what does that mean? I've made 30-second videos. So I just want to clarify you're posting this on probably Instagram and YouTube Shorts, maybe.

Brent Gentling 16:33

I post every day on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube.

Stefanie Couch 16:38

Okay. So for someone who is vertical vertical content. So we're talking about the way your phone looks when you look at it on the screen. That's what this needs to look like. But because I want to go, most of these people listening may not be social media experts. So I want to go super super simple. If you were a local hardware store or lumberyard, you only had time to make one or two videos or one or two posts, and you needed to pick a flat a platform to start on. What would you tell most? I know it depends on the locations. What give me some starting points for people maybe listening?

Vertical Video, Daily Posting, And Hooks

Brent Gentling 17:11

It's interesting when you're a business and you're already an established business trying to get views and trying to get engagement because obviously you're automatically trying to sell people.

Stefanie Couch 17:22

Sure.

Brent Gentling 17:22

And as an audience member, you don't hate people trying to sell you. Like no one likes to use cars salesman. What I have found that is the most genuine and the most engaging is when businesses can incorporate humor in a fun, unique way because it shows that you per have a personality.

Stefanie Couch 17:41

Yeah.

Platform Choice And Growth Patterns

Brent Gentling 17:42

And it shows that you're not just trying to placate to the fact that they're trying to sell you something. Have fun with your products and have fun with social media because that's what it's there for. I mean, you don't have to be, you can you can be a type knit business and have like check out this new product. But I think personally, especially with businesses, if you're able to incorporate some type of humor-esque aspect to it, it's very valuable. There's there's literally a woman. I I even looked this up. There is a woman that has uh Judy's cafe. Okay, and she's super viral and makes these amazing videos about her pancake house. I've never wanted to go to a pancake house more. It's four hours away, and I'm trying to figure out whether or not I rent a car to go to this pancake house from here. Just because of how good her videos are.

Stefanie Couch 18:38

I feel like maybe I've seen this. Uh, this does she do like it may not be the same person, but uh like stages photos with she kind of gives them something and then she's putting them in the video, the customers, without actually telling them she's in the video. This may not be the same one.

Brent Gentling 18:54

Uh, I don't believe so.

Stefanie Couch 18:56

She's like, can you hold this broom? And then they take pictures or video of the person holding the broom, they think they're just like helping an employee out, and then they're all of a sudden in the video.

Brent Gentling 19:04

So like they're seen that one, but it is different. Yeah.

Viral Vs. Valuable: Track Shares

Stefanie Couch 19:07

They're not in on the joke. Um, there's a great, I actually had a conversation with him a few weeks ago, but there's a great hardware store here in Indianapolis, and you got to check this out. It's called Sullivan's Hardware. They do hilarious videos and they they do go viral a lot. And the guy that owns his name, Pat Sullivan, he is the third or fourth generation hardware store owner, and they do a lot of events. They have a beer garden in their location, and they do some really funny stuff. Like he does the coleslaw fest. Um he has like his employees will do videos or reels where they're riding a grill through the store. Um, and you know, they'll have like they'll see me rolling, they're you know, and it's like everybody thinks that's funny. And you've got a lot of things that are not so serious in this business. In any business, really, you know, there's a lot of people that like to laugh. I don't know. Anybody that doesn't like to laugh now. Maybe what you think's funny and what I think is funny is different. But like you said, try some things. So, what about the person who these are the objections I feel like I hear sometimes? Okay, well, but I am a serious business and I do want to build, you know, people's respect and reputation. What if people think I'm stupid because I post dumb stuff on social media or I post funny stuff on social media? What would you say to that rebuttal?

Final Takeaways And Closing CTA

Brent Gentling 20:26

People, there's always gonna be a hater out there, whether you post a quality video that's very serious or a funny video that's very serious. I assure you, as someone who gets thousands of comments a day, that there is always gonna be a hater. And it's it is what it is. And the elements that I've come to as far as a resolution for that is the fact that I love negative comments now. Yeah. Because I love the back and back-forth tussle between people that love it and people that hate it.

Stefanie Couch 21:00

Yeah.

Brent Gentling 21:00

And the more people that love and hate, that means there's gonna be more engagement. And if there's more comments on your video that whether they love it or hate it, the algorithm catches that and promotes it because you know, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, they don't care if people are writing negative comments. They just care that there's engagement. People are staying on that video longer. My number one video on any platform is a culking finger. That is literally a six-inch long piece of plastic with a finger at the end of it, a plastic finger that's four culking joint lines, crisp joint lines. That that on that on Instagram alone has 50 million views. And the comments are quite entertaining. I'm sure. And I literally sold out his entire stock on Amazon and then started selling thousands of dollars worth of their product on their own website.

Stefanie Couch 22:01

Wow.

Brent Gentling 22:01

And it just showed that, okay, there might be plenty of negative comments, and there are plenty of people that are not gonna purchase that, but there's also plenty of people that are.

Stefanie Couch 22:10

Yeah, I have a few thoughts on that. You know, being lukewarm is where you don't really get love and you don't really get hate. Nobody cares about you at all. I can't imagine anything worse. But I am a girl wearing pink leopard print with a pink hat. So obviously that's not exactly my vibe. But I will say, uh, you know, I post mostly on LinkedIn. Right now, that's been my platform. So I'm gonna get some some pointers from you on other platforms. But LinkedIn is more B2B, it is more serious. People think they, you know, it's it's changed a lot in the last few years. People used to use it as just a resume when you needed a job, but that's not really what it is now. However, you still get some hate. So I had a guy one day brace yourself because this is this is unbelievable. He posted on my thing and said, I hate your hats. You look stupid. And I left that up there because I was like, Yeah, then all of the people that love my hats, like you said, they were like, We love her hats, she's amazing, you know, hats are so cool. And I'm like, get them, you know. But you either have raving fans or you have raving haters. And if you have haters, it means someone cares enough to put a comment on. So I would say to people, not everything you do is gonna be loved and adored, not everything's gonna go viral. But again, like you said, if you have haters and you have fans, keep going. You're doing something right. So when you have a young hardware store, social media manager that has an idea, maybe let them try it. Because I I hear a lot of these people hire people right out of college. That's awesome. They have ideas that are not the same thing you've been doing for the last 20 years on your Facebook. Let them try some stuff on TikTok, see what happens. So if you were gonna give some people, you know, just general pointers, I'm gonna just open the floor. Give me like Brent's top 10 for what to do if you know nothing and you want to do something on social media. You already gave, I'll I'll tee you up with number one. I think it's the most important thing is be consistent and just start. So that's two. So give me the other eight.

Brent Gentling 24:13

The other eight. No pressure. No pressure. Um, so another one, make sure you have good quality audio.

Stefanie Couch 24:20

Okay. Because people so you have a mic on right here, um, DJI little mic. So you can get these on Amazon or or at Best Buy or whatever. So we'll we'll put a little link up there or something for for a mic. We'll give you some options that we like to use. We both use the same mics, I think.

Brent Gentling 24:35

Yeah, because people can get through some rough visual elements, especially if they're like looking for that type of content.

Stefanie Couch 24:46

Yeah.

Brent Gentling 24:46

But if they don't have good audio, then they check out real fast.

Stefanie Couch 24:50

I agree with that. Totally.

Brent Gentling 24:51

So make sure you have good quality audio. Make sure you captivate your audience right away. Uh you know, don't just be in front of the camera and not have something visually happening immediately because it is that short attention span.

Stefanie Couch 25:08

First three seconds, you would say, need to be like bang.

Brent Gentling 25:11

Yeah, because when I'm going around walking around these trade shows, I edit my videos very strategically to have that impressive factor at the very beginning to showcase you visually nicely, because that's always important. Okay. Because if you catch them at the beginning, they're way more likely to follow through to the end.

Stefanie Couch 25:31

They want to, they want to answer that curiosity or whatever they you read at the beginning, I'm sure. Okay, that's four.

Brent Gentling 25:39

The uh if in terms of if we're talking you know, short form vertical content, I try and keep it between 30 to 40 seconds. Okay. Generally, 30 to 45 seconds on most platforms. TikTok's a little different just because TikTok they pay you more per view if it's over a minute long. Okay. So that uh that's something I always think about because I do want to have engaging quality content, but I don't want to just draw out the content if it's not necessary.

Stefanie Couch 26:14

Sure.

Brent Gentling 26:14

There's a lot of filler that I can cut out very easily, trust me. Uh if uh if you're a business, obviously you you can talk about hey, I'm Jeff from Yada Yada store here at uh you know, having a deal going on. But generally speaking, I you don't need that.

Stefanie Couch 26:35

Yeah.

Brent Gentling 26:35

You know, if people are truly interested in your platform and finding you, make sure you have your address in your profile page. Make sure you have a link in your profile page to find your business.

Stefanie Couch 26:48

That's a good one.

Brent Gentling 26:49

You do not need to say your name, you do not need to shout out your business. Yeah because if people truly are engaged with your video and your your audience wants to find you, the people that are actually engaged will find you if you at least have the link to your website or an address.

Stefanie Couch 27:09

Okay, gotcha. So if you were gonna start tomorrow with one platform for a local lumberyard or hardware store, what platform would it be?

Brent Gentling 27:18

I'd say the most valuable one for a business itself, I'd say is Facebook still, just because the people that are avidly going to hardware stores are generally gonna be more prone to finding Facebook. And Facebook, you can provide a bit more information to your business.

Stefanie Couch 27:36

I'd say especially in the B2C channel.

Brent Gentling 27:38

Yeah, I'd say upfront and honest, TikTok is the fastest growing one that I've seen because Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube were always very slow growth, and sometimes I had massive jumps, which I did, but it took a considerable amount of time to get there.

Stefanie Couch 27:59

Yeah.

Brent Gentling 27:59

TikTok, I was at thousands of followers within a couple weeks.

Stefanie Couch 28:05

Wow.

Brent Gentling 28:06

And then you know, a hundred thousand followers within months, which was just crazy to me, which I hadn't seen before.

Stefanie Couch 28:14

Wow. So the goal for a lot of B2B channel is not to go viral, it's to get contractors or builders or people to come in and want to do business with them for years to come. So, how do people do that?

Brent Gentling 28:28

In terms of just getting consistent customers, yeah.

Stefanie Couch 28:33

Like a contractor, you you were that contractor, you know. I think viral videos still can work for that, but I don't want people to feel like if I can't get a million views, I shouldn't do this. And I do feel like a lot of people in our industry feel that way. Like, hey, if I can't be B Y O T, I might as well not try. And I don't think that's true. So tell me what your thoughts are on that.

Brent Gentling 28:53

The the element, it is a good question, especially for businesses. And it really does take the strategic mind to realize okay, even if I have a small audience, that small audience could be a very dedicated audience, and that might be even more valuable to businesses than even massive audiences like myself. Because to be quite honest, I don't even put myself in most of my content other than the uh the DIY tutorial-based content. The vast majority of the content I produce now has nothing to do with me because I want to still keep it educational to and to give the product the best light possible. Yeah, I keep myself out of it because the person that's in front of that booth knows the product inside and out, and they're always gonna be more genuine and providing more value to my audience because of that.

Stefanie Couch 29:42

Yeah.

Brent Gentling 29:42

And so I think that's valuable, but it also takes away for the fact that I can't really sell myself sometimes. Yeah. But also think about when you're posting a video, take a look at how many shares it is, how many shares there are, because that's what I really find valuable with content is even if it has a million views and you know 10,000 likes, that doesn't mean that the video might be getting to the right people. Take a look at the shares because those, if someone actually likes the product and is sharing it to someone, that means that they thought so much about that product that they want to share that product with someone they actually enjoy and appreciate. And the best case in point with this was that I had a business reach out to me ahead of time from uh World of Concrete, and it was an aluminum concrete form business. They had never done anything hardly at all on social media. And I stopped by their booth and I posted about their product because I thought it was a cool product, and it went super, I mean it didn't even go crazy viral. It you know, it had hundreds of thousands of views, which for me is not insanely viral, but it had a ton of shares and they their phones were ringing off the hook with their product line because if someone sees a a product that's very dedicated to that business, concrete form work, yeah, that means that they know someone in concrete that is interested in forms. So that that means that those shares are very valuable to them.

Stefanie Couch 31:22

But when they need it, they need it right then.

Brent Gentling 31:25

Exactly.

Stefanie Couch 31:25

That's awesome. Well, I'm excited to have the do it best members and all of the people that listen to this be able to use some of this. I want the in them to take away one big takeaway and just try one thing. You don't need to do everything, you just need to do one thing. So that's what I want to leave with. Thank you so much for joining me. And I am excited to see all the amazing content that gets posted from this show because there's some pretty cool stuff happening here today.

Brent Gentling 31:50

I've already seen some amazing products and cannot wait to post them. So thank you for having me.

Stefanie Couch 31:56

Well, thank you so much. And we will see you next time on the Grit Blueprint. Thank you for listening to the Grit Blueprint podcast. If this episode helped you think a little differently about how to show up, share it with someone in your building world who needs it. If you're ready to turn visibility into growth, then head to gritblueprint.com to learn more and book a call to talk to us about your growth strategy. Until next time, stay unmistakable.