Episode 12: Mastering Security & Social Media Growth with Brandon Adams

🚀 Mastering Security & Social Media Growth with Avenger Security CEO Brandon Adams 🚀

What if your business could thrive using organic digital marketing instead of expensive ads? In this episode of 49 Volts, host Josh Bowman sits down with Brandon Adams, CEO of Avenger Security, to discuss entrepreneurship, the power of social media, and the future of the security industry.

🔥 Key Topics We Cover:
✅ How to Build a Security Business – Brandon shares insider tips on how to start and scale a security integration company.
✅ The Power of Social Media – Why TikTok, LinkedIn, and other platforms are game-changers for lead generation.
✅ AI, Automation & the Future of Security – How the industry is evolving and where it’s headed next.
✅ Marketing Without Paying for Ads – How Brandon reaches thousands organically through content strategy and digital presence.
✅ Authenticity & Sales Psychology – Why being real in your marketing builds trust and long-term customers.

💡 Why Watch?
This episode is a must-watch for entrepreneurs, security professionals, and anyone looking to grow a business using social media. Whether you’re a seasoned integrator or someone considering starting your own security company, Brandon drops valuable insights that can help you scale faster and smarter.

📌 Need marketing expertise for the low voltage/security industry?
👉 BowmanVisionMedia.com

👍 Like, Comment, and Subscribe to stay ahead in security, marketing, and tech!

#Entrepreneurship #SecurityIndustry #SocialMediaMarketing #AI #TikTokForBusiness #AuthenticityInMarketing #SecuritySolutions #LowVoltage #BusinessGrowth #MarketingWithoutAds

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Transcript

All right. Hey, everybody. How you doing? This is, Josh, welcome to another episode of 49V. And today we have one of my absolute favorite people, that I follow on social media and one of my favorite people to talk to in general. We have Brandon Adams, the CEO of Avenger Security. How are you doing, Brandon?

00:00:33:16 - 00:00:36:05
Speaker 2
Doing well, doing well.

00:00:36:07 - 00:00:48:13
Speaker 1
So really excited to have you on again. I think the last thing I ever did at Cumulus was talk to you. So it only makes sense that, that we're talking here now, in the new business,

00:00:48:15 - 00:01:02:27
Speaker 1
The fun conversation. And, just before we get started, just for anybody that may be in, cabling or AV or something, not security that isn't as familiar with you. Just give them a quick intro to who you are and what your company's all about.

00:01:02:29 - 00:01:28:09
Speaker 2
So I'm Brandon, I've been doing security, and then we also do fire, security encompasses a lot of different products and a lot of different solutions, but I focus on just the solution aspect of it. And then we resell and then we try to find other individuals that are interested in doing what we do, and doing that as a business.

00:01:28:11 - 00:01:38:11
Speaker 2
And then we try to help them build their own business in their local markets. So I've been doing it for, over 20 years.

00:01:38:14 - 00:01:56:08
Speaker 1
That's awesome. And I love that. I mean, I didn't really know that before we talked the last time. I didn't realize that you had this. You know, I thought you were just a standard integrator with your own team doing your own thing. I didn't know about that aspect where you actually help people build their own integrator as well and support them.

00:01:56:08 - 00:02:09:18
Speaker 1
So I thought that was a really cool business model. And, that's actually a really cool thing. Yeah, because there's a lot of people out there that maybe want to do that and they don't know how. And I think giving them that as a service is pretty cool.

00:02:09:21 - 00:02:41:23
Speaker 2
Yeah. Having it to where, we've got it to where, you know, we operate a certain way. And we found that the way we operate with our clients, creates less friction. And the standard way that other companies operate, and just the way we do things and, we try to keep it real personable. Our motto is for our new guys to stay small and keep it all, you don't need to have a bunch of people working for you.

00:02:41:25 - 00:03:09:04
Speaker 2
A lot of the guys we have when they start, they're solo independent operators, and then they'll develop and or they develop their own team of, you know, either employees or, however they want to do it. We support them however they want to operate. So, you know, it's a huge comfort, and a huge dynamic of enterprise and then basic residential.

00:03:09:04 - 00:03:13:12
Speaker 2
So we try to keep everybody in their comfort zone.

00:03:13:14 - 00:03:33:00
Speaker 1
And so one of the ways I know that you provide a lot of your guidance is through your messaging on social, where you talk about a lot of the different aspects about what they're going to run into, how to deal with it. The right way is to do business. And, you know, I see a lot of your stuff on LinkedIn, which I really enjoy, but you have tremendous reach on TikTok.

00:03:33:00 - 00:03:41:09
Speaker 1
You have a very big audience there. So tell us a little bit about, like, how TikTok has helped you build this business years.

00:03:41:11 - 00:04:05:29
Speaker 2
Well, so I always look for ways that I can display my business in, a way that doesn't cost any money. And so, you know, that's the way if you look at, you know, social media, you know, it's all about, you know, making a message and kind of getting it out there and kind of seeing what kind of response you can get.

00:04:06:02 - 00:04:31:12
Speaker 2
And, you know, I've been doing that for a long, long, long time. You know, I look for ways that I can exploit my business or my business name into some kind of, impression. You know, where, you know, I'm getting people to look at it. And there's a lot of different ways that you can do that.

00:04:31:14 - 00:04:57:19
Speaker 2
The the way that most businesses do it now is with some kind of digital. And so I think your social media is that's all it is. It's a way for you or anybody that owns a business if they're looking for a way to, you know, get their business out. And it's so costing them anything. Advertising is expensive.

00:04:57:23 - 00:05:16:17
Speaker 2
So, you know, for me, it's all about trying to see what kind of organic, result I can get from, digital, creating some kind of digital media and getting it out there.

00:05:16:19 - 00:05:34:00
Speaker 1
Do you think that, like, TikTok gives you better reach than some of the other platforms? I mean, I've noticed you put a lot of the same content that you have on TikTok, on LinkedIn, and I think you get a good audience on LinkedIn, and I think you get some of the right people interacting with you, but it doesn't seem to be nearly as big as TikTok.

00:05:34:00 - 00:05:42:28
Speaker 1
Do you think TikTok is doing a better job of of giving reach versus the others, or what have you experienced?

00:05:43:01 - 00:06:03:21
Speaker 2
So for me and and TikTok is just way quicker. Like if I want to get that message like so for me it's all about getting it out there as quick as I can. So like, I'm busy, you know, I'm trying to do all these other things. So it's it's all about trying to get the message out. And man, it's it's so easy.

00:06:03:21 - 00:06:32:10
Speaker 2
If you compare how long it takes you to get your own your message out to, you know, posted on TikTok versus posted on LinkedIn versus posted on Instagram versus it's just way faster. They've made it way quicker. And then not only that, they they have all the fancy. If you want to jazz it up, you know, it just it's it's built in, it's like it's AI and it's built into it.

00:06:32:10 - 00:07:24:23
Speaker 2
So, you know, it's faster, it's quicker, it's easier. And the same thing from a viewing perspective, it's it's being viewed just way more than, you know, if you post, something on YouTube or Instagram or, you know, it just gets eaten up on TikTok organically. If if you can make something that's either controversial or you can make something that's really creative or you can, you know, I'm finding different ways and techniques that are working with videos, you know, that I'd never thought, you know, I didn't think making a controversial video or making a video where it's just really obscure is going to get better results and something that is just high value, highly, you

00:07:24:23 - 00:07:36:19
Speaker 2
know, like you're giving good information that doesn't have anything to do with it, that, it's kind of insulting, but within. And that's just the reality.

00:07:36:22 - 00:07:55:29
Speaker 1
Yeah. There's so much that plays into it. It's, it's any of us that produce a lot of content. I mean, it is sometimes unpredictable, you know, sometimes you think something's really going to take off, and then this, this other piece of content you put out there, you didn't put as much thought into. Maybe you weren't even sure you wanted to put it out there.

00:07:55:29 - 00:08:20:01
Speaker 1
And then it just it goes almost viral. So it's it is interesting when you go back and analyze what works, what doesn't, you know, there's so much that goes into it, the timing, what's going on in the world that day. And, no, but it shows the value keeping at it, you know, in my view, because the more content you have out there, the more you can kind of analyze that and see what's working and what's not.

00:08:21:13 - 00:09:03:29
Speaker 2
It's all about consistency. Yeah. And, and accuracy of doing it. And, you know, my goal is to just do one a day. And then there's some days where that's hard for me to do and so, you know, feel like doing it, but I still, you know, I try to make up for, you know, how days where I did 2 or 3 videos and I do, try to do them sporadically, you know, just randomly, but yeah, definitely, if you're, you can't you know, I think a lot of people where they get caught up is they, they start something and they don't scenery assaults on, you know, you know, once, twice.

00:09:04:01 - 00:09:41:02
Speaker 2
You know, third, third, third time fourth. You really have to with social media. You almost have to like do it for, okay. You're going to need to do it for every day for 4 or 5 months. And then let's see, let's see if you have one video that got, you know, 20,000 views. And you had you know, I don't know how many impressions you need to, to, to make it to where it's worth your time or, you know, my objective is to get business from it.

00:09:41:05 - 00:10:02:23
Speaker 2
Right? You know, that's that's my objective. Yeah. Like the likes and the commentary somewhat. But my objective is to actually make money from, you know, the post or from the video. So. Well, what.

00:10:02:25 - 00:10:12:21
Speaker 1
What gave you the idea to, to start with TikTok? Was that just something random you saw a lot of people were using it or, what motivated you there?

00:10:12:23 - 00:10:46:08
Speaker 2
I'm I'm down to try try anything. And, you know, I've always, since I've started my career, I've found ways to exploit, you know, some way to get my business name out. You know? You know, like we did when I was in college. I built, you know, auto dialing machines. And so, like, we were calling, like, 40,000, 50,000, 60,000 people or, you know, a week.

00:10:46:10 - 00:11:10:28
Speaker 2
And, you know, eventually that got along and I had quit doing that. And then I got into, well, you know, you know, we can do advertising. So I did a bunch of, shared mail, you know, campaigns for bought in. It's called at the at the time. And, you know, we would buy just millions of pieces of shared mail.

00:11:10:28 - 00:11:39:17
Speaker 2
It was to have the missing child card. And so all that was, it was just a numbers game, you know, and with an auto dialing machine, it was a numbers game with, you know, your social media, same thing, system numbers. And and the more that you can post and get or, you know, any kind of impression, I don't care what you're using, it doesn't really even matter.

00:11:39:20 - 00:12:03:14
Speaker 2
You know, all these people say I will challenge, you know, spike, if they want to spike on me and know what kind of videos I'm making about security. How how about it? You know, you know, Facebook and Instagram and all that. They're all doing the same, same settings. Next. And it's all about just getting your your business is a numbers game for you.

00:12:03:14 - 00:12:36:05
Speaker 2
If you're trying to, you should be about you hopefully getting more business or making more money from that effort. It's like advertising phone book or, you know, posting, you know, on your website. It's the same for me. It's the same thing. And I'm all about anything you can do for your business that's organic, that doesn't cost you anything.

00:12:36:07 - 00:12:58:28
Speaker 2
And so, you know, that's kind of where, you know, I try to focus in on stuff that I can, you know, just post as much content as I possibly can, and I can show these other people that I'm trying to help. Look, you know, yeah, I didn't have this two years ago, but I posted every day on it.

00:12:59:00 - 00:13:18:20
Speaker 2
And after two years of time, you know, I've got 4000 people following me on on LinkedIn. And then I have, I think it's like 19, 18,000 on, on TikTok. To me, that's not a lot. It's not, it's not it is.

00:13:18:22 - 00:13:37:19
Speaker 1
For our industry, though, I think I think it is because we're very niche and very focused. And, you know, I think we're, you know, maybe if you're a race racecar driver or an Instagram model or something like that, you know, you maybe those are lightweight numbers, but, no, I think those are our numbers to be proud of.

00:13:37:19 - 00:14:00:25
Speaker 1
And and honestly, again, I mean, I think that means you have a lot of the right people, you know, seeing your message, you know, because they're part of that focus group. So now those are good numbers, man. I think we got a lot of people in our industry, man. They're sitting on five. You know, they don't we we don't take enough advantage, of what's available to us through social and these, these digital platforms.

00:14:00:28 - 00:14:26:18
Speaker 1
Well, obviously, you and I have had conversations in the past, you know, on LinkedIn about this ban. So if anybody anybody is following me is probably seen I've posted some of the updates. I think Oracle is now looking like, the leader, you know, it being a, a solution to that issue. But, you know, what do you think happens if they don't work that out with Oracle and TikTok goes away?

00:14:26:18 - 00:14:32:20
Speaker 1
I mean, how does that affect your business and your efforts to advertise for business?

00:14:32:23 - 00:14:55:12
Speaker 2
I don't think it will affect it any. I mean, yeah, I might, I might get I've found I've found some business off TikTok, but there will be another, you know, just like they stopped me from doing auto dialing, just like they stopped me from doing facts blasting, just like they stopped. I mean, they do stop these things.

00:14:55:14 - 00:15:29:26
Speaker 2
And you know what I have a real problem with is just their ability to relate, you know? So, like, I don't think it's necessarily the fact that people can get on TikTok and make a message and put it out there. I don't think that's the real problem. People are just failing to relate how TikTok is not necessarily operating laterally within the United States.

00:15:29:26 - 00:16:00:19
Speaker 2
They're not. They're trying to sell, you know, they don't know. They're not creating this relation that TikTok has with like, team. You, they're not creating, you know, the, the, the, the whole TikTok relation with, you know, Chinese products and Chinese goods and how it's not really American products and American goods. You're being it's just a I think it's just a poor way that it's being displayed.

00:16:00:22 - 00:16:16:12
Speaker 2
I don't I don't necessarily agree with it all, but I don't really care. They'll be another TikTok. They'll be another Instagram, and your YouTube will be another. Yeah. I mean, it's just a waiting game.

00:16:16:14 - 00:16:44:19
Speaker 1
Yeah. Instagram's actually experimenting with making reels, a separate app that works more like TikTok. So I mean, it's as you say, I think there's always going to be another, but I think it also just in my view, as an agency. I mean, I think it speaks to the importance of, diversification. You know, even if you have like, you're doing really great on TikTok or you're, you know, I do best on LinkedIn personally.

00:16:44:22 - 00:17:01:29
Speaker 1
And, but I still post to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. I post to my Google page. I don't think enough people are doing that. So when somebody Googles me, they don't just see a picture of my office and all of that. But actually all of my social media posts for the last six months are on there that they can scroll through.

00:17:01:29 - 00:17:22:19
Speaker 1
So I think diversity is really important. So I think that's a good message there. So like what advice would you give to people because, you know, like you said, I mean, my agency exists because there are people out there that either don't have the time or they're not comfortable, or they just don't feel like they're creative. They don't know what to do.

00:17:22:21 - 00:17:42:25
Speaker 1
But for those that are I, I encourage them to take your advice. I mean, you can join these platforms for free. You don't have to buy a sponsored page. You don't have to pay for anything. You know, if you're going to do that work yourself. I mean, do you have any advice or words of wisdom for people that say, hey, I think I can give this a go, but I'm not sure where to start.

00:17:42:28 - 00:18:10:08
Speaker 2
Yeah, you have to. You have to try something. You know, you need to, like, a lot to have a website. A lot of people go to the I need your website or, you can you can build a business just off social media. You know, we have had, dozens of individuals that have created social media, sites.

00:18:10:08 - 00:18:50:29
Speaker 2
And, you know, we have a guy that does he's on Instagram and some industry. He it's one of our partners, but we have individuals that that's how they've generated, you know, 80 to 90% of their business is from doing posts on social media. So it's it's absolutely necessary to if you own a business or you starting a business to have some way organically, okay, that you're getting new clients, that you're getting new business, that you're not having to go out and drum up everything?

00:18:51:01 - 00:19:18:00
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's a hard way to run a business if you're always having to go out. And personally, Jerome, the only way that you can do it is going out. And with your personal face and your personal appearance and, it's just a hard, hard way to make a living. You want to do something where you're you're putting your business out there, where you're getting organic, impressions, hopefully.

00:19:18:00 - 00:19:21:22
Speaker 2
And people calling you.

00:19:21:25 - 00:19:37:01
Speaker 1
Know to agree. I mean, it's it's really hard. You know, you need to scale your presence somehow. And I think that's one of the great things about digital. You know, you had the auto dialer or the fax blast. You had all these things. You're trial paths, like you said, it was all about numbers and.

00:19:37:04 - 00:20:02:11
Speaker 2
I think too many people are scared of being judged. Right. And so they they just don't don't do it because they're worried that, they're going to say the wrong thing and they are in it and they're going to have to go off and say, you're an idiot, you're stupid, and it's going to shut them down personally.

00:20:02:13 - 00:20:33:23
Speaker 2
And, you know, too many people care about what other people think, and that's a problem with. Yeah, I there's a lot of like even my you know, I can tell you right now that if you were to add up all the professionals that do what I do on LinkedIn, put them in a room and you start asking them real questions about real world applications and insecurity.

00:20:33:23 - 00:21:03:01
Speaker 2
Fire. And they've got their nice, and their P and then whatever, I don't care. They don't know anything about the real world. They know. And you have a lot too many fake especially on LinkedIn. Fake individuals that have that portray themselves like they're the real professional. And it's just a kind of it's I don't know, I don't I don't really understand.

00:21:03:01 - 00:21:38:15
Speaker 2
You know, I never thought that it was as bad as it, it, it actually is until I started poking and prodding and putting real code and real, reality, you know, like real circumstances, real situations in front of the real professionals and kind of seeing how they judge it, how they view it. It just blows my mind. So people should not care about making a mistake or making some kind of error.

00:21:38:15 - 00:22:05:18
Speaker 2
You can just delete the video. They're not gonna remember in two months what you said or and not only that, if you do make a video and you do say something wrong, oftentimes those videos do better from an impression. Then you can you can just say, oh, well, I just wanted to see if you you guys knew what you were talking about.

00:22:05:21 - 00:22:06:01
Speaker 2
There's some.

00:22:06:01 - 00:22:28:07
Speaker 1
Psychology around this. I had you run a baster on a couple epis episodes ago, and she's a, you know, she's into psychology and helping people with public speaking and and sales, you know, type psychology. And, you know, something that we were talking about that I think she's talking about what you're saying right here is just like we are actually turned off.

00:22:28:11 - 00:22:45:08
Speaker 1
I mean, we're all human and we all screw up. And to be honest with you, when you see someone that is totally perfect and everything's, you know, absolutely amazing and there's nothing wrong and they never make a mistake and they never get it wrong, and that's a turnoff. We don't like that. That feels very fake. That feels very phony.

00:22:45:08 - 00:23:03:10
Speaker 1
It doesn't. It feels very synthetic. Because that's not real life. I mean, I can tell you three things I've screwed up already today. And I'll bet you any real human, if they're being objective, could probably tell you three things they screwed up by now at this point in the day. And they may not be big things. Hopefully they're not always big things.

00:23:03:10 - 00:23:24:10
Speaker 1
But, you know, I've already kicked the doorjamb. I stepped on the dog's tail. I didn't mean to. And then I almost shut the trunk lid on my hand. You know? I mean, we just go through our day with folly. As humans, we're not perfect. So I think it's an interesting point that you make because we're so worried about being judged and we're so worried, you know, about these things.

00:23:24:10 - 00:23:44:28
Speaker 1
I think you're right. I think that's part of it. Not wanting to seem foolish, either because it may hurt their career or just out of just general human. I don't want to be embarrassed, but honestly, as you say, I mean, the more real that you can keep it, the more you find out that people are attracted to that.

00:23:45:01 - 00:24:04:02
Speaker 1
And, and we're kind of worried about something we shouldn't be worried about. You almost should be worried about. Like, how do I make sure that I'm not always looking too perfect? Honestly, that should what you should be worried about. Like, don't hide all the flaws because that's going to come off as kind of fake. And that was kind of the last topic I wanted to cover today.

00:24:04:05 - 00:24:23:22
Speaker 1
That was a really good transition. I mean, the authenticity is so important, right? I mean, is that what I mean? I could tell you just me as someone that has gotten to know you because I was a follower and a fan of what you were doing. I love the fact that and we've talked. I don't always agree with your opinion, but I love the fact that you're very sincere.

00:24:23:22 - 00:24:42:17
Speaker 1
Like you're just, you know, you get on, you turn that camera on and you talk about how you feel and you're not trying to hold back and and guess what? People are going to want you to say. You're you're saying what you feel and what you believe and what you see and agree or not like you just you keep it on point.

00:24:42:17 - 00:24:49:21
Speaker 1
I mean, do you think that authenticity that you bring is why you have a good audience?

00:24:49:24 - 00:25:25:25
Speaker 2
Yeah. I think what I've noticed is if I make videos about something, that's that's what I get. So, you know, if I make videos on access control or, you know, I make videos on fire, that's I'm going to get videos on fire. And when I make videos about, you know, customers I don't like, you know, are people's attitudes that I don't really care for.

00:25:25:27 - 00:26:10:05
Speaker 2
I don't get that. I get what I'm searching for. So, you know, I don't really want the same when I look at my business, I'm not after the same thing that all these other businesses that you see here in fire after, you know, I've got my own way of doing things. And so, you know, for me, it's all about getting out the way that I want things done and how I want to do stuff, and the type of customers that I want and the type of clientele that I want and the type of partners that I want.

00:26:10:07 - 00:26:41:10
Speaker 2
And just that's what I try to make videos about. And, you know, I think people have a hard time with, you know, especially for customers. You know, I'm not interested in dealing with you. I'll tell a customer, I have no problem telling clients. I have no interest in trying to help. You know, what are my interest in trying to, you know, deal with you, for, you know, selling fire or selling any kind of security product or solution.

00:26:41:13 - 00:27:08:15
Speaker 2
You don't have companies that operate like that. You know, your typical business is not going to operate like it's smart. But, you know, it's for me, you know, I'm not the typical business. I'm not I'm not trying to offer a I'm not trying to make everybody happy. I'm trying to make myself happy. So but yeah, it works both ways.

00:27:08:17 - 00:27:33:04
Speaker 2
You know it. You know, for me, I can do that because I've been doing it for 20 something years. But for a new like, if you're trying to start your business out, you can't operate like that. You can't. You've got to be able to suck it up and deal with people you don't like, and you do stuff that you don't want to do.

00:27:33:06 - 00:28:06:09
Speaker 2
But I have, you know, thousands of clients paying me every month. And, you know, I don't have to worry about what I say or what I do, on a daily basis, you know, and then, you know, there's a lot of clients that I do have that, you know, I, I don't really appreciate like I should. And it's because, you know, circumstances or situations that I've gotten into in the past.

00:28:06:11 - 00:28:47:23
Speaker 2
And so there's a lot of new clients that I've gotten that off TikTok or social media that, you know, look, if you appreciate me as an individual or person, I appreciate you back. Let's just operate. And so I've gotten a lot of that. What? You know what I'm searching for, social media. If I put that into it or whatever I'm trying to put into it, I get back, it takes it takes years of doing it.

00:28:47:25 - 00:29:14:03
Speaker 2
You know, it takes a year. A year of doing it before you can see, you know, these results. And I think I don't think, you know, for a lot of people won't do something and not see results and keep doing it for a year. And so that's why, you know, I just highly recommend even the guys I have now, I'm like, dude, just do something.

00:29:14:08 - 00:29:36:06
Speaker 2
You're not doing anything. They complain that they don't. They're not they don't have any business or they're complaining. And I'm like, well, what are you doing? You're not doing anything. Just do something. Try something. You're not going to get anywhere. All right? You're not gonna hurt anything. Trying something.

00:29:36:09 - 00:30:07:26
Speaker 1
I agree, and, you know, like you were saying, you know, in the beginning, you know, you you may have to suck it up a little more to try and, you know, earn your earn your spot and get to the place that, you know, there's another podcast called Talking Shop with, Benji the door talk, John Harris and my friend Baer Halverson and John Harris was talking about, you know, in his new business that and and even in his career before he had a business, it was like, you know, I had to say yes to everything so that I could then earn the right to to be able to say no to things.

00:30:07:28 - 00:30:14:07
Speaker 1
Yep. And to be more selective. So I think that's a really good way that you're describing that. You have.

00:30:14:07 - 00:30:38:16
Speaker 2
To you're going to break your but when you start out, you should be doing anything and everything. So you learn and you know, a lot of people you need to learn. You need to learn how to deal with. I can pretty much, you know, I, you know, an analogy that I try to give all my guys is I have been in 30,000 closets.

00:30:38:19 - 00:31:02:01
Speaker 2
Okay, I can go in your closet. And I know exactly the type of person you are. I can read you like a book at that point. Because it's just because I've dealt with there's so many different types of personalities, but when you start out, when you start your business, you should be willing to take a beating. Okay?

00:31:02:04 - 00:31:27:14
Speaker 2
You should let the customers curse you, disrespect you. I don't care, it shouldn't be about the issue. It should be about you. One getting the job so you can learn it's a transaction, more transactions. You can get out up initially, the better off you're going to be. But there are jobs and I can tell you that that will ruin you.

00:31:27:17 - 00:32:05:09
Speaker 2
You know, you have Joel who do what we do, and security and fire and custom integration. You know, I've had several dozens of clients throughout my career where I had to be like, do you work on okay? And I should have cut those ties with that client way before, you know, I should have seen it coming. But the only way that I know how to not get in those circumstances, I'll never get involved again is from the experience and then from guidance.

00:32:05:09 - 00:32:31:18
Speaker 2
You know, I try to, like, got a lot of my guys will call me and be like, dude, start asking me like, did you tell a guy it's 195 an hour? You know, that's hard labor, technical work, get your money up front. You know, I try to guide them. But no, it's not what we do is not.

00:32:31:20 - 00:33:04:12
Speaker 2
It's probably the most complicated, ground technical job you can have because there's so many different variables that you get into that you have to deal with. It's not it's not a lecture. It's not just two hours and you're dealing with data and data, you know, all kinds of operating systems and switches and there's all kinds of limits on those.

00:33:04:12 - 00:33:13:27
Speaker 2
And it's just it gets ridiculous. And so you have to have an appetite.

00:33:13:29 - 00:33:27:25
Speaker 2
To where you're going to lose your launch and you're going to lose your dinner, and you're going to be stuck there, and it's going to suck. But hopefully you're going to learn from it.

00:33:27:28 - 00:33:29:26
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:33:29:28 - 00:33:34:28
Speaker 2
And you'll you'll hopefully never have to ever deal with it again.

00:33:35:01 - 00:34:02:15
Speaker 1
I mean, where else is wisdom going to come from? I mean, it comes from being in all those situations. And, you know, we developed the ability to understand that we've seen this movie before, right? We you know, you kind of know, okay, every time a customer starts off and we're having this kind of an interaction, and then we run into this kind of a situation and they start asking these kind of things I already know, like this is going to end up in a bad place.

00:34:02:17 - 00:34:27:05
Speaker 1
Like, this looks good. It seems like good work. It seems like a big customer, but I already know in the end, they're not going to be happy. I'm not going to be happy. So let's let's not do this. And, I think the other the flip side of it that I would throw out there, too, is that I've been through a lot of things in my career where I actually learned how to manage it better and learned that it actually could be a great customer.

00:34:27:11 - 00:34:48:19
Speaker 1
Like sometimes you run into people that kind of come across as rude, especially when you're younger. You don't really understand that they're just given a T straight like later you realize this is the best possible customer because this person's telling me exactly what the conditions are, exactly what they want. They're communicating. They're not just saying, you know, nice things, but then they're going to stab me in the back later.

00:34:48:19 - 00:35:04:23
Speaker 1
Like, you know, this, this is not a rude person. This is a person that's making my life easy because I understand exactly what they want. And you end up treasuring that type of, relationship versus run away from it. So I think that experience really helps you. There's a lot better guidance in the future.

00:35:04:25 - 00:35:37:26
Speaker 2
I actually that's what I try to find is on me as a business, you know, me as a business owner. I try to find businesses that need my services, right? That I can talk to the owner. Okay. And he understands me and I understand him. And when he needs something, I can just tell him, hey, this is what we can do, and I can shake his hand.

00:35:37:28 - 00:36:02:04
Speaker 2
I don't have to send him an invoice. I don't have to send him anything. I'd rather deal with that guy than some corporate enterprise. I need it all itemized. Line item. I need it. There's a huge. It's like who I would rather, and I do. I look for these guys. You know, I can have is my customer to where I can just send them an email.

00:36:02:04 - 00:36:30:26
Speaker 2
Hey, this what we need to do? You know, the video machine is 650 each. Cameras 350 to 450, depending on how complicated it is. I don't have to get real specific. And they're like, okay, go ahead and do it. Anybody would rather deal with that in some for sure. I mean, so. I forgot what I was going to said, I'll come back to it.

00:36:30:26 - 00:36:32:23
Speaker 2
Or second, if, you know.

00:36:32:26 - 00:36:57:17
Speaker 1
That's just, what story I wanted to tell, though, like you were talking earlier about how people were afraid of rejection and afraid of being judged. And, you know, it's all about the volume. You know, it's a numbers game. How many of these, posts do I have to make for each new customer? How many? You know, that's kind of where that data analytics and that benchmarking and things come into play, where it really helps you see it a different way.

00:36:57:17 - 00:37:19:05
Speaker 1
And I used to used to tell people that were kind of younger and learning sales, or even folks that have been around that just were trying to understand my style because I never really cared that people were going to tell me no, as long as I was doing my job correctly and I was not being pushy and doing things wrong, it's okay.

00:37:19:05 - 00:37:39:27
Speaker 1
Like not everybody is going to be interested. And I used to tell his story about, like, I learned sales from Boomhauer on King of the Hill. It's that old cartoon I love that showed. You know, one day it was like Boomhauer was sort of the skinny guy, and he always had a girlfriend, you know? Always had a lady on his arm and, you know, seemed like he had it all put together.

00:37:39:27 - 00:37:59:08
Speaker 1
And. And so they were trying to help Bill the barber, who didn't have as much luck with the ladies. And they took him to a shoe store. And he's like, you know, I'm at a teach you how to get a date. And so Boomhauer went around the store and 19 different people told him, no, these ladies were like, no, no interest.

00:37:59:08 - 00:38:20:18
Speaker 1
Get away from me. You're gross. Get away! And then 20th one said, okay, sure. And he's like, yeah, man, that's how it's done. You know it. It's just, you know, don't worry about all the nos. I always used to say, okay, well how many no's until the yes. You know, that's if I need to talk to 20 people that tell me no before I get to.

00:38:20:18 - 00:38:42:19
Speaker 1
Yes. That means if I need five new sales, you know, that's how many people I got to talk to. And you can almost count the nos as part of your progress, you know, and getting to that number and, and I think if you could just kind of change your mindset a little bit and, and see it that way, just kind of like I'm not good at golf and I don't really have time to play anymore.

00:38:42:19 - 00:38:57:15
Speaker 1
But I used to watch the Golf Channel. And there's this, Martin that teaches you how to play golf, and he'd always talk about, you know, get your first bad shot out of the way. You're gonna hit 20 bad shots, even if you have a good handicaps. Let's just count them up. Oh, I was my third bad shot.

00:38:57:15 - 00:39:04:28
Speaker 1
Good. You know, I only got, you know, five more to go. So I it just made me think of that when we were talking earlier.

00:39:05:00 - 00:39:50:03
Speaker 2
So I used to run a, I work for a dealer program, and I work for several dealer programs. I work for corporate America for half a dozen years after I got to college. And we would do various things to for the programs or we do advertising or whatever, but, one in particular, we sold security and we had vans, and so we'd still young people up into vans and we'd send them out on the streets knocking doors, and they would try to get in the house and sell security.

00:39:50:05 - 00:40:03:14
Speaker 2
And we did this for years. And you, you had it was always the people that had the most amount of handicaps that were the best sales guys.

00:40:03:17 - 00:40:35:14
Speaker 2
It was it was always the people that had the most tore down personalities and broke down personalities that were the number one sales guys. They were always the ones that came up with, the best strategies to stability, getting the houses, to build, building Social security. But it was all a numbers game. That's all it was. And that's once they could understand.

00:40:35:14 - 00:41:07:02
Speaker 2
That's all it was. It was just a number. And you knocked on the right house. They were just about to call somebody. They got in the house. They realized I had a security system trying to figure out what to do. It's in the right place at the right time, and it's all just a numbers game. But, you know, you have a lot of people more more of that story is, you know, you have a lot of people, they're worried about being judged.

00:41:07:02 - 00:41:27:14
Speaker 2
Like, you had a lot of companies that didn't do door knocking. They didn't do it because they were worried, people are going to judge me. They're going to think we're a horrible company if we're knocking doors. You know, that's not that's not appropriate. Yeah. You shouldn't do that. You know, you can't you can't put your business on.

00:41:27:14 - 00:41:53:04
Speaker 2
Tick tock. That's assessing appropriate. You know you have you're always going to have people. And since. All right in high school yourself people all point their finger. You know, they want to judge you. They want they want to well, he's and they're not doing anything. They're just sitting around. Point the finger at other people. What do they care what other people do?

00:41:53:06 - 00:42:15:13
Speaker 2
You know, you shouldn't worry. You shouldn't be worried. If you're trying to run a business, you're trying to start out your business. You should be looking for anything and everything that you can do to get people to call you anything doesn't matter. And if you want to, you shouldn't worry about people pointing the finger at you or judging you.

00:42:15:16 - 00:42:27:12
Speaker 2
And if you, Bob, if your videos bother you, if your message bothers you, just take down the video. It's gone. You control that.

00:42:27:14 - 00:42:28:11
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:42:28:14 - 00:42:47:21
Speaker 1
Like Ben Howard said, you know, I'm not worried about the 19 else. I was worried about getting to that one. Yes. You know, let's let them let them judge. Let them say, you know, it's, like my mom had a something on her shelf that used to say, if you want to not be criticize, you know, do nothing, be nothing, say nothing.

00:42:47:23 - 00:43:07:01
Speaker 2
And you can go overboard. You know, the thing that I worry about and I've seen it too, is, you know, people prey on the wrong things in order to sell security. And, you know, I think that that's somewhat improper, if you're doing that. But.

00:43:07:03 - 00:43:10:10
Speaker 1
I mean, like a fear based messaging.

00:43:10:13 - 00:43:46:16
Speaker 2
Yeah. That and I don't know, it, I, I have a hard time with, you know, certain industries that are selling like access control that really, aren't you. Yeah, I don't know. And it's a huge issue. Like if they're just focusing on one and one thing in particular, kind of their message. They're not, relaying everything that they possibly should.

00:43:46:18 - 00:44:15:11
Speaker 2
I don't know, you have a lot of you have a lot of you have a lot of products and solutions that I don't really understand how they're even in our market. And so that's hard for me to swallow. They don't make, I don't even understand why they're in in our industry. And then you have a lot of.

00:44:15:13 - 00:44:42:22
Speaker 2
Issues. I don't know, I just don't know that, you know, like, our regulation to our industry is really where it needs to be. So, you know, you have a lot of products and solutions that are being sold. They shouldn't be sold. And then you have a lot of, you know, just regulations that are being followed. No one's really watching.

00:44:42:25 - 00:44:48:06
Speaker 1
You don't really have a lot. You have, you know, a you are listening on stage.

00:44:48:06 - 00:44:48:16
Speaker 2
You do.

00:44:48:16 - 00:45:15:06
Speaker 1
That isn't even it actually isn't even mandatory everywhere in the US that you are. You all listed. It sure is a good idea. But there are products out there that are not. And then you have FCC requirements, which is more around, you know, signal emission coming from the devices. I can tell you that was probably the the biggest eye opener for me, realizing that was when I was part of the NFPA.

00:45:15:09 - 00:45:43:26
Speaker 1
I was on the 730 and 731 committee for Premier Security. And that's when I kind of realized, like the NFPA, if you look at like the national electrical codes, some of the other aspects fire alarm, you know, are more enforceable, are, typically adopted by local authorities from a premise, security standpoint, there's very few places in the US and you do who they work because they asked all the questions when we would have our committee meetings.

00:45:43:26 - 00:46:06:01
Speaker 1
That would be the questions and suggestions and and feedback out there. And it was like from three inspectors around the country, the same three, you know, and they were the only ones that were really adopting that as like an enforceable code. So I do I think you're making a reasonable point. I think you can almost make any product you want and introduce it to the market.

00:46:06:01 - 00:46:10:20
Speaker 1
I don't think there's a lot of regulation around that.

00:46:10:23 - 00:46:41:04
Speaker 2
You know what they look like, even if you look at the inspections here, in Texas, you know, I go to various jurisdictions throughout the state, Texas, they look at, the surface, you know, everything's inspected on the surface, you know, placement on the spot. You know, you know, they're not really inspecting the back end of how everything's isolated and wired configured program.

00:46:41:04 - 00:47:18:26
Speaker 2
They don't. Yeah, they don't. And they're not supposed to. The problem the problem with it too, is, they try to enforce, like, all the enforcement that we have in our industry is on us. So all the regulation and enforcement is on us. So, you know, what they do is they try to regulate, they enforce the companies that are paying them the license.

00:47:18:28 - 00:47:40:12
Speaker 2
And that's what they do. There's no rules in and you have two thirds of, I would say two thirds of the systems are being installed by companies. There's no license. That's true. And so there's no regulation.

00:47:40:15 - 00:48:05:16
Speaker 1
That's very localized. And I think all of the low voltage industries have this. So, you know, I've had over 25 years of structured cabling putting in the copper and the fiber optics and so forth. And you know, like my my new office here, I'm in Dublin and Dublin has a low volt permit. Doesn't matter if it's AB structured cabling security, whatever it is, you have to pull a permit.

00:48:05:18 - 00:48:25:05
Speaker 1
You have to meet their regulations. There is an inspection process and it's way more formal. But I could go next door to Hilliard where I live, and there's nothing like that. I can do anything I want. And if it's not going to touch the electrical system, for example, there's really no permit and no one to inspect it.

00:48:25:05 - 00:48:47:28
Speaker 1
So and it is like within Ohio, there's just every city's different. You know, that's something I learned 15 years ago was like before I would quote a project for any of these systems. Security cabling didn't matter. I would have to go to the website of that, city village district and I would have to look and see what their policy was.

00:48:47:28 - 00:49:11:22
Speaker 1
So it is it is not a universal standard everywhere. And electrical is a little bit that way. But you're going to have small differences from one place to the next. In general, they adopt the NFPA as a whole. And then there just may be small things that they either don't accept or or do accept that maybe, you know, isn't required elsewhere.

00:49:11:24 - 00:49:24:21
Speaker 1
And low buildings, I think that's one of the challenges we have, is there really is just very little, standardization, at least from a regulation standpoint. I mean, it's just everywhere you go is different.

00:49:24:23 - 00:49:53:15
Speaker 2
There's no I mean, it's bad here in Texas. The state of Texas has adopted 2019, NFPA as a whole throughout the state of Texas. And each of the jurisdictions can adopt a higher than that if they choose. Some of them have a they don't even know what it is in 2019. It's so, no one knows. It's it's just what it is.

00:49:53:15 - 00:50:17:10
Speaker 2
The NFPA can do a way better job than, clarifying a lot of the rules, because I think that's that's honestly half the battle is, you know, they write it and the they write it to where it's not really understandable. And it's, it's problem. It's actually.

00:50:17:12 - 00:50:18:21
Speaker 1
Committee effort.

00:50:18:23 - 00:50:20:08
Speaker 2
Bigger problem.

00:50:20:11 - 00:50:23:18
Speaker 1
That's what happens. It's a committee effort, you know.

00:50:23:21 - 00:50:24:13
Speaker 2
You know.

00:50:24:16 - 00:50:44:08
Speaker 1
And they're all pretty much like volunteers. You know, I didn't make any money when I was in NFPA. You're volunteering your time and you have like 30 or 40 different people, you know, and what you have is like every sentence is a compromise amongst the 30 people that cared to opine and and the ten that never say anything.

00:50:44:11 - 00:50:50:11
Speaker 1
And it does sometimes get a little convoluted. I would agree.

00:50:50:13 - 00:50:52:07
Speaker 2
Yeah. No. And it it's.

00:50:52:09 - 00:51:17:17
Speaker 1
It's about well Brandon I had a lot of fun. I love having you on. I hope to have you on again. Yeah I'm going to keep following. I hope you keep spitting fire, telling the truth. Doing what you do. Because I think you're a lot of fun to fall. I learned a lot from watching you, but I also really enjoy it because, you know, like you said, there's so many people out there that, you know, they're just saying things.

00:51:17:17 - 00:51:35:27
Speaker 1
Maybe there's nothing really behind the curtain. That's not all of them there. So there's a lot of people out there that really are very smart, but there's definitely people out there like that. I think people like you shine, because of that. You know, I think that's that that's a backdrop that helps you stand out. So, personally, I really, really appreciate you.

00:51:36:00 - 00:51:50:03
Speaker 1
Before we go, for anyone out there that's watching and thinking, hey, maybe I'd like to start my own security integrator. So maybe I'd like Brandon to help me with that, maybe be a part of this program. You know, how would they get Ahold of you?

00:51:50:05 - 00:52:13:18
Speaker 2
They can make contact, either through LinkedIn. I publish all my my cell phone or business number. I'm really easy to get in contact. A public. You know, I have all my email numbers and everything public. But, yeah. No, you definitely should. You don't have to do it, you know, full time. You know, I don't recommend anybody jump into full time.

00:52:13:20 - 00:52:42:28
Speaker 2
I recommend jumping into it part time and figure out a solution and then try to offer a couple solutions. Try to implement, build your business, book a business slowly. Yeah. You know, make everything real comfortable. But I've guys had it take some years, you know, a year to two years. It's not uncommon. But it shouldn't be something that you should be scared of.

00:52:43:00 - 00:53:08:28
Speaker 2
It's easy to do. Anybody can do it. And there's no better feeling than working for yourself rather than working for somebody else right now. Better feeling in this world, controlling your own destiny, working when you want to work, doing what you want to do. You don't have somebody telling you what to do. You get to invest how you want to invest.

00:53:09:01 - 00:53:31:16
Speaker 2
You need to prepare for retirement, how you want to prepare for retire. And you get to run your, show. You get to call your own shots. And if you've ever thought about doing your own business, if you've ever thought about being, you know, a private security integrator, please make contact. Please make contact.

00:53:31:18 - 00:53:50:07
Speaker 1
Absolutely. You got my recommendation. You know what you're doing. And again, I think you're always out there shooting straight, trying to send the right message. So, we'll also put your contact information in the video description. And, for the rest of you, if you do need help with marketing, if you do, want to help get exposure.

00:53:50:08 - 00:54:05:14
Speaker 1
Bowman Vision media.com, we can help you with all your marketing needs. We are going to take a couple week break from the podcast. We do have the ISC West show coming up, so we'll be there. So we will see the rest of you in April. Happy spring everybody. We'll see you later.

00:54:05:16 - 00:54:06:28
Speaker 2
Thanks, Josh.

00:54:07:00 - 00:54:10:10
Speaker 1
Thank you.

00:54:10:10 - 00:54:34:02
Unknown
Hey!