From HVAC Technician to Tech-Savvy CEO: Robert Leath on Building a Future-Ready Trades Business with AI

In this episode of Catalyst for the Trades, Jennifer Bagley is joined by Robert Leath, founder of a thriving HVAC business, and his dedicated account executive, Vee Nettles. Robert shares his raw and inspiring journey from working for a large corporation to risking it all to build his own company from the ground up. He offers a transparent look at the challenges and triumphs of entrepreneurship, from securing funding and establishing a strong brand to embracing cutting-edge AI technology.

 This conversation is a masterclass in modern trades leadership, covering the importance of a high-quality brand, the power of building genuine customer relationships, and the transformative impact of AI on marketing and operations. Robert's story is a powerful reminder that with the right mindset, a willingness to learn, and a commitment to excellence, anyone in the trades can build a successful and future-proof business.

Key Topics & Timestamps
00:00 – Introductions: Meet Robert Leath and Vee Nettles
00:38 – The Leap of Faith: Robert's journey from employee to entrepreneur
03:25 – Funding the Dream: The risk and reward of self-funding
05:31 – Building a Premium Brand: Why high standards matter from day one
06:20 – Adapting to Technology: The evolution from traditional marketing to AI
29:00 – The Impact of AI: A flood of new leads from unexpected places
31:00 – The Power of Education: Why continuous learning is non-negotiable
44:00 – The Human Element: Why customer relationships are still king
01:22:00 – Final Advice: Why you just need to start

Guest Details
Guest: Robert Leath
Title: Founder & CEO
Robert Leath is a testament to the modern trades entrepreneur. After years in the HVAC industry, he took the bold step of starting his own company, building it on a foundation of high standards, exceptional customer service, and a forward-thinking approach to technology. His story is one of resilience, growth, and a relentless pursuit of excellence.

Guest: Vee Nettles
Title: Senior Account Executive
Vee Nettles is a key partner in Robert's success story. As a senior account executive at CI Web Group, she has helped guide Robert's business through the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing, from traditional websites to the new frontier of AI. Her expertise and dedication have been instrumental in helping Robert's business thrive.

Relevant Links

• AirPoint Heating & Air Conditioning
• Catalyst for the Trades
• Just Start AI
• CI Web Group 

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Transcript

Jennifer Bagley [00:00:02]:
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Catalyst for the Trades podcast. I'm Jennifer Bagley, your host and I'm very, very excited today. These special days where I get to have one of our clients and our account executives on the same meeting on our show is really, really exciting. So, Robert, I'm very excited to have you. And of course, the amazing, beautiful Ms. Vee Nettles. Miss Vee

Jennifer Bagley [00:00:24]:
Nettles, Ms. Vee Nettles. I was one of our senior account executives. Robert, thanks for joining us today.

Robert Leath [00:00:31]:
Of course, thanks for having me.

Jennifer Bagley [00:00:33]:
So tell me a little bit about your story. When did you guys get started in business? How did you get here?

Robert Leath [00:00:40]:
It's a wild, wild west story. It was three and a half years we started. My wife and I did. We have four kids. I work for a very large H Vac company that's now probably known across the country. Country because a private equity firm that purchased it numerous times. And I saw people leave that company thinking the grass is greener on the other side. And I'd see them come back numerous times.

Robert Leath [00:01:09]:
And so when I got to my point, I was like, I don't know if working anywhere else is going to solve my problem. So there was a friend of mine, he was also a CEO of his family run companies. And he's like, let's make something. Let's start a company. And I was like, no, I'm doing sales. I'm good. I don't want that stress. And that was like within a eight month process of him, you know, checking in, like, are you sure we're good? I'm like, no, I'm good.

Robert Leath [00:01:38]:
And then something shifted. The company that I worked for got sold again for the third time.

Jennifer Bagley [00:01:45]:
They're taking bites off that apple.

Robert Leath [00:01:47]:
Oh, yeah. And you know, there was a month where I was kind of upset internally and then I shifted my mind after a sales meeting dinner, I should say it was a sales dinner at Mastros, because, you know, all the sales guys get the nice one. And I was like, you know what, Lord, why am I angry? Like, what this company did for me for the last seven years, I got to celebrate that. And if this is a new chapter that I got to explore, let's do it. So I shifted my, my mindset of like being upset about the changes and kind of said, all right, well, let's explore what's different. So then fast forward 10 months later, hanging out back and forth, discussing about how we're going to start a company. And right at the last minute, he pulls out, oh, there's a story behind It. It's not his fault.

Robert Leath [00:02:40]:
It was just a thing he couldn't do. And I was about to put my two weeks in, so I tell my wife, and she's crying. It was on a Friday, and by Sunday, she's like, well, do you still want to do this? And I'm like, kinda. And she's like, we'd be freaking pussies if we didn't do this. She said the F word, but I'm not gonna put that on. And I was like. I was like. I was like.

Robert Leath [00:03:06]:
That's all I needed to hear. Like, I just needed to hear. Because you've got good intuition. And I'm like, all right, let's keep driving. And so for the next six months, I kept doing the logo, did the whole LLC thing, studying to pass my, you know, license and testing and all that, and then we went for it. We refied our house, took out, like, $250,000, started the company. Okay. Started putting in trucks and iPads.

Robert Leath [00:03:32]:
And the company I left from had very high standards, and that's all I knew. So. And we started. So it's been three and a half years. The cool thing is we've been consistent. First year, 1.1 million, 1.2 million. And then. I'm sorry, 1.1, 1.3.

Robert Leath [00:03:49]:
And now this year, we just passed 1.5, which I'm super stoked. So let's go.

Jennifer Bagley [00:03:55]:
Let's go. I love that. I love that. So that's such a different story than a lot of entrepreneurs who move on their own who start with. How so? Yeah, well, one, I think they start completely underfunded. They, you know, they never take out the funds necessary to get the infrastructure in place. It sounds like from your. You had the luxury, the blessing, the opportunity to be able to operate in an environment that already had their shit together.

Robert Leath [00:04:27]:
Yes and no. It was, I would say, yes, a luxury. But we lived in a townhome for, like, 10 years and then built that up and redid it and then got into a home, but built up equity. So there was a lot of years behind that, but it was also a risk. And, yeah, yeah, it's still. It's still. I'm grateful for it, for sure. But, yeah, yeah.

Robert Leath [00:04:49]:
I didn't know anything different. I didn't want to just start with a truck that wasn't right wrapped. That's not what I knew. I knew only to show up with a wrapped vehicle and, you know, wear shoe covers when you come into a home and have a mat at the front door. So I was thankful and lucky for that.

Jennifer Bagley [00:05:05]:
Yeah, a lot of companies learn that lesson the hard way. I mean, the number of companies that have came to us that, you know, started underfunded and didn't put those things in place and are now having to rebrand and lose, you know, their history and start from scratch and whatnot, that's, that's a painful experience for a lot of companies. So congratulations on that. That's a big deal.

Robert Leath [00:05:27]:
I will say, I will say though, the first two months we went live, I was introduced to you guys. And so you guys have been a part of my story from day one. I had Jasmine as my person. She was my girl for the minute, like seven months.

Jennifer Bagley [00:05:44]:
She got promoted and you lost her.

Robert Leath [00:05:46]:
Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure she did. And so the first seven months I was with her, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Just said, okay, let's do it. And then I was blessed with V. And V has been the most amazing, sweet, humble, down to earth person. So. Telling you what, she deals with my brain all over the place when I have meetings with her, but she's so awesome and she always ends on a good note.

Jennifer Bagley [00:06:11]:
Oh, I love V. I absolutely that. I love hearing that story. When you, when you first started, how crazy was it? Because obviously things have changed drastically, evolve drastically. I don't think it's that easy for our clients who have been with us a long time. I feel like when we're looking at our client list, it's like everybody pre 2004, that's a bucket. And then everyone that is newer, that got to come in when we're revamping how we build websites and our entire marketing implementing AI, which is like an entirely new business model. And you've been on both sides, which I don't think everybody goes through that transition really well.

Robert Leath [00:06:53]:
Well, you said the year 2004.

Jennifer Bagley [00:06:56]:
Yeah.

Robert Leath [00:06:56]:
Is that what you said? I was, I, I joined in 2022. June of 2022.

Jennifer Bagley [00:07:03]:
That's not an easy transition. So how, what did it feel like? I mean, because you, you were with us when we were building in WordPress, when we had no AI, when there was Bob who was writing your content or Mary or whatever, when it was slow and slow like a Jeep, you.

Robert Leath [00:07:23]:
Know, I mean, now all I saw, all I saw was like, okay, the pictures look good. All I wanted was, I wanted the brand to. I've said it numerous times, but I've always kind of subconsciously wanted our brand to be like the chip and Joanna Gaines of H Vac, you know, four kids, beautiful wife, great marriage, and we love and care. And you guys did it great. And, you know, we've always tracked where our leads come in from. And you guys have always been number one. And then V, you know, really laid it in with me. I think it was about six months ago about, hey, AI is happening.

Robert Leath [00:08:01]:
I think we should do this transitional thing. I said, all right, I trust you guys. Let's do it. And you did. And funny enough, the last two months, I'm getting inquiries from cities that are far away from me, all over. Like, I would say that to be. Not to. Like, I would say about good.

Robert Leath [00:08:21]:
Eight different inquiries that are. I'm like, how do you guys hear about us through AI? I'm like, yeah, okay. And before that happened, I actually started watching your. Just start now, AI. And one of the things I love about that, by the way, this is more of a Kudos to you, is you do this 101 course and 102 course. And for people to slow it down and take little quizzes and sections. It helps the brain that's busy. That has been a godsend.

Robert Leath [00:08:50]:
And so I started there, and right when that was going in. Oh, someone from Whittier reached out. Don't pay for that. Someone from over here. Someone from over there. And so it's been. And I'm like, okay. I trusted.

Robert Leath [00:09:03]:
It's following. It's happening, and I hope we keep going that direction.

Jennifer Bagley [00:09:10]:
I was so excited. No wonder V sends me these little messages. And she was like, I have another favorite. You're gonna want him on the podcast.

Vee Nettles [00:09:19]:
Yeah, no, because the journey. I mean, when we first started, you were telling me, and I don't know if you're still doing it or not, but you were doing the. The little ads on the shopping carts.

Jennifer Bagley [00:09:31]:
Remember?

Vee Nettles [00:09:31]:
You're. Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, okay. And that's.

Jennifer Bagley [00:09:37]:
That's.

Robert Leath [00:09:38]:
Well, it's not. It's one of marketing's. It's all over the place. Right. I mean, that. I can't say that I can track that. That brings in a lot. It's more that we live in our area and it's in the Vaughns of our area.

Robert Leath [00:09:52]:
And so it's more of a just to play present.

Vee Nettles [00:09:55]:
Yeah, but I love that.

Jennifer Bagley [00:09:58]:
Yeah.

Vee Nettles [00:09:58]:
And then I'm like, okay, but that's just one little piece of the puzzle. Like, now, here's all these other things that we can do and AI stuff. Are you gonna join me in the ride?

Robert Leath [00:10:11]:
And I did. But you Know those. Go ahead.

Jennifer Bagley [00:10:14]:
What made what? I mean, something's different in your brain. Something allowed you to process and say, trust. It can't be because we built a website with pretty pictures and your brand was properly like, you have something that a lot of company owners do not have. Like, what causes you to trust. When we're like, we just built a website for you in WordPress two years ago and now we want to rebuild the entire thing and new technology, new platform. We've only got six months experience building with it when you said yes. So, yeah, like what? I don't know if I could pull you out of a hat and hand pick companies like yours because we cannot stand still with. I mean, you probably know by now we want to be first to try everything new and keep testing and iterating, which takes a certain kind of patience and personality from a client standpoint to let us play in that petri dish with your brand and your business, it's working, which I love.

Jennifer Bagley [00:11:09]:
But I mean, what, what do you feel like got you to the point where you want to be ahead of the pack, you don't want to follow what everyone else is doing. You want to try these new things. What, what brings you there?

Robert Leath [00:11:22]:
I think it's because, you know, my wife and I, we, we typically trust people in their profession. Not all the time, but we like to give the benefit of the doubt. And you guys know more than I do and I'm too busy running this, so I have to have a spirit that's not prideful, not a know it all. Because if my, you know, checks were extremely huge and I was buying my fourth house, then I can kind of come off that way, but I'm not there yet. And it's having a humble approach of knowing that, hey, let's, let's trust and see what they're going to do. Don't always fight against the grain. You can do that in areas, stay in your lane and, you know, don't major in the minors. Just kind of hone in and you're going to take a risk when you trust someone to do that and they could screw you over.

Robert Leath [00:12:14]:
And there are a lot of people that do that, but this one landed and so I trusted you guys and it was great and it was beautiful. And yeah, I think, I think just coming into, I mean, three and a half years, it's like I'm like an infant right now. There's so many scrapes and bruises on my arms from falling, trying to walk that I have to kind of open up and Receive what people are trying to help us out with and take a chance on that. And there's a spiritual side to it. I pray that, you know, with how we work as a company, that will be rewarded with people we trust. And the biggest prayer has been keep the wrong people out, bring the right people in. That's been the biggest prayer from day one. And so whether that's a CI web group or, I don't know, a mentor of mine, it.

Robert Leath [00:13:04]:
That's just kind of how I have to approach it.

Jennifer Bagley [00:13:07]:
Dude, I love your style. I love your style. This is going to fend well in the next few years of probably the greatest change to all of us have ever seen in our lifetime. You're positioned well. So these moves that you made just for. Go ahead, talk to me.

Robert Leath [00:13:26]:
No, I was going to say, like, when people watch these podcasts, positioned well, yes, I will take that compliment. But there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff that people don't realize. The scariness of what's going on with financing your finances and all the things and the mistakes that you've made and how you're trying to pay for those sins that you've made. Not like we sinned. It was more of a thing of like, yeah, exactly. So everybody that's watching this, like, not fronting here, I'll share anything I've been going through. So when she says position, well, I feel awkward. Like, yeah, I am.

Robert Leath [00:14:02]:
I guess I have a good mindset. But there's still a lot of stuff behind the scenes that we got to fix to keep growing. And I think most successful companies have that. I mean, Steve Jobs, all these different people, that's just one that comes to the head. There's probably a lot of stories where they're like, they're barely hanging on and. But they look cool when they're interviewing. So I just want to be transparent. Like, there's stuff that I'm still learning.

Robert Leath [00:14:27]:
I don't have it all by any means.

Vee Nettles [00:14:29]:
Not giving up. That's the thing.

Jennifer Bagley [00:14:32]:
Your mindset's doing it.

Vee Nettles [00:14:33]:
Yeah, you keep pushing through that. And I think the trust and the mindset and pushing through those pain points and not giving in and giving up.

Jennifer Bagley [00:14:44]:
I mean, you know, yeah, I agree with that. I mean, most of the time we're starting with the basics, which we just ask, please show up, suit up and participate, which you've got that. And then have a good mindset when you get there and be open to evolve. Because who we are, we're not going to be the same Next year as we are this year under any circumstances. V will definitely vouch for that.

Robert Leath [00:15:05]:
I hope not.

Jennifer Bagley [00:15:05]:
Yeah, I'm crazy like that.

Vee Nettles [00:15:09]:
Jen loves Chang.

Robert Leath [00:15:12]:
I dig you. Like, we'd hang out at a party together for sure. Yeah.

Jennifer Bagley [00:15:17]:
Oh, my goodness. No, that's a big deal. I mean, you're, and you're trusting in, like a predictive side to us because a lot of what we're doing is trying to predict how consumers are. Well, one, we're trying to predict how technology is evolving and what's next and trying to make moves in advance of that. And then two, we're trying to predict how are consumers going to adopt that technology and how is that going to change their buyer cycle, their behavior and how they utilize it. And then how do we need to evolve to be able to position ourselves to make sure you're positioned for a new consumer using new technology. And some of these things haven't happened yet, but they're going to happen. And that's what we have to stay ahead of.

Jennifer Bagley [00:15:53]:
So when it, when it comes to AI, so first, what's your involvement? You said that you jumped into just start AI. I think a lot of people open it up and immediately get overwhelmed and close it and they're like, oh, nope, thanks for the invite. I'm out. I just turn my ring.

Robert Leath [00:16:08]:
Not me, not me. I saw it and I'm like, just like, really? I feel like I'm in a secret room and I don't want anybody to know what I'm watching. And not because I'm selfish. I just want to get it down before I share what I'm doing. That's it. Which secretly everybody does. They don't want to really share the book they just found that has all the secrets they want to like, let's understand this first. And then once I have it down, then I'll share.

Robert Leath [00:16:33]:
Right? Let's be honest. No. So it was a thing where I, yeah, I, I, it's tough. So just give you a little background. We're a seven person company, not including me. I just graduated myself to not run any service calls. We're an H Vac company, only residential. So I'm not running service calls, repairs anymore, thank God, because I do them really well.

Robert Leath [00:16:58]:
But I had to make that pull. And then the next move is this was like three months ago, was a year from now. I'm not gonna run any more sales calls. I do all the sales calls. And so that's my biggest, like, challenge of like, all right, we got to get out of this. So it's hard. So I'll have like a couple days. Yes.

Jennifer Bagley [00:17:21]:
I'm 20 years in and I still am like, I want on that call.

Robert Leath [00:17:25]:
I. Well, no, it's good to have that. I'm not, I'm not saying I want to get out of it because I hate it. I get re energized when I'm in the home. I love talking to families. And the older I get, not like I'm super old, but the older I get, the longer I've been doing it, it's more fun and easy and it's kind of cool, you know, when it's your brand, but. So there'll be a couple days where I'm all in. But then I get phone calls and then this, this, and this.

Robert Leath [00:17:50]:
And then I get pulled away a day or two. So it's been taking me a minute. What I've been really. What kicked me off even Manus was this random post thing you guys did on freaking. I don't know, it was the first. Well, yeah, I saw it and then I'm like, okay, is there any more things on it? How do you download that? It's not pre downloaded. At least I can find it. So I use those ideas and I started going to town trying to make my own thing.

Robert Leath [00:18:19]:
And I'm just like this. And there was two weeks where my wife's like, babe, you're stressing me out. All I hear is AI this, AI that. And I'm like, I'm not even a tech guy. I'm not an AI person. I'm kind of against it, but if I don't fall into it, then I'm gonna get left behind. And my. And a lot of it came from the videos that you did.

Robert Leath [00:18:40]:
You did some insights on. Here's the big dogs. This is what's changing. Google's finally getting hit with xyz. And I. All I thought was like, if you ever played Mario Kart and you're falling behind and you hit that magic mushroom and you go up. Yeah. I'm like, this is our time, babe.

Robert Leath [00:19:00]:
This is our time. I don't have to lay off a hundred people. I only have seven. I can pivot very quickly and I can get us. I can get us to 2 million without hiring anybody else if I'm smart with this. And I'm forced myself to figure it out. And so that's what I've been like, working on. And I was doing it today.

Robert Leath [00:19:19]:
And the thing that's annoying is like, I'm spending so much Money on Manus because you're over credits. Yeah, I'm like, oh, no. Every freaking.

Jennifer Bagley [00:19:29]:
Making my eyes water.

Robert Leath [00:19:31]:
I probably spent like 400, $500 so far. And that's with a stretch of multiple times in it, but whatever. And I still don't know if I'm supposed to publish my app or not because I'm still figuring out the tweaks on the side. I would love to ask you a thousand questions.

Jennifer Bagley [00:19:48]:
Oh, let's schedule a one on one. I am 100% down to nerd out and jump into your Manus and go to town.

Vee Nettles [00:19:56]:
And you were so worried, Robert. You were so worried. When I'm. I've got nothing to talk about. I don't know what I. Oh, my gosh. This is exactly why we're here.

Robert Leath [00:20:05]:
This.

Vee Nettles [00:20:06]:
I have the gooseies listening to you.

Jennifer Bagley [00:20:08]:
No, he's making my eyes water because we put so much time and energy in that. And I don't know if anybody's actually listening.

Robert Leath [00:20:17]:
Well, I do. The couple. Like, there's probably been four times. I see who's. I'm like, there's only 15 people on this. Really? They're missing out. What is happening? Yeah. I'm like, good.

Robert Leath [00:20:27]:
You guys stay away. I'll be right here.

Jennifer Bagley [00:20:31]:
Yeah.

Vee Nettles [00:20:31]:
It's crazy.

Jennifer Bagley [00:20:32]:
Oh, my gosh, dude. I'm literally feeling some kind of emotional trigger because I'm so happy that you're using everything you're learning. That is such a big deal. How did you start when you get in there? Like, because it's overwhelming when you first jump in and when you're jumping in, whatever I'm talking about now, you probably. For somebody that starts today, they're six months behind. Like, what would you recommend? It's also called the start. So what would you recommend?

Robert Leath [00:21:01]:
Some of it was the conversations you had. I knew that every week that goes by is like a month quick into how fast it's moving. And that's probably off. It's. The idea is it's moving quick.

Jennifer Bagley [00:21:16]:
Yeah.

Robert Leath [00:21:16]:
Yeah. And before I even listened to just start now, I randomly listened to Tony Robbins and I will. I listened to him interviewing. I think it's Robert Smith and the stuff they talked about. I'm like, this is crazy. And then I saw you and I'm like, oh. And I. I randomly put that in the chat.

Robert Leath [00:21:37]:
And you're probably like, what am I listening to? But you had to go in like four minutes in before it started talking about AI. But I was just mind blown. And I've always loved listening to People that were smarter than me and better than me. I've always wanted to be the dumbest person in the room. And so when I heard that and this, it just light bulb, like, okay, this is our shot. We can make it. And so starting with chat was the first thing, and I'm like, okay, that's cool, that's cool. But then Manus was the first.

Robert Leath [00:22:08]:
I'm like, okay, this, this is different. I want something that's gonna get us to that next level. And I. I'm 38, okay? Just so everybody knows, I knew that if I was going to use this thing, I needed to give it as much information as possible. Which is kind of scary, right? Because that's like a movie if you get everything. But, like, it's a lot of movies. But I'm like, I got to give it all. I want to get the best information that I can get.

Robert Leath [00:22:34]:
And so that helped me out the connectors. Before I even taught on that, I already clicked on that little feature and I just gave it my website, I gave it my, I don't know, core values, everything. Like, all the things I'm like, give me the best information that I need. And so that's how I started. And then it started with, like, a few different ones. Like, I. I have Service Titan. That's what I use.

Robert Leath [00:22:56]:
Oh, my God, it's so hard if you're not computer savvy. I used it for years working at my prior company, but I only saw the mobile side, which is easy behind the scenes. It's like, are you killing me? So I started with something. I'm like, help me fix all of my information that's in Service Titan. Because I know that if you're going to try to use AI with crappy information, you're going to get, like, malfunctioning, happening all over Gi.

Jennifer Bagley [00:23:24]:
Go. Garbage in, garbage out.

Robert Leath [00:23:27]:
So that was like, okay, I'm like, let's start from the bottom and then build up. And so I worked on that was my first super agent, which is almost live. It's literally about to be live. I'm waiting on a stupid Twilio, like, phone number that's got to be approved by a campaign to send text messages. Because what I'm trying to train it to do is go into all my club memberships and send them a text message saying, hey, it's time for your tune up. And there's a lot of things, but.

Jennifer Bagley [00:23:52]:
Oh, you need it. You need. You also need one more thing. You need to make sure V, he needs to get Help desk needs to do an A2P compliant scrub on his website if he's going to do that. Okay, yeah, good. Keep telling me. A2P compliant. Okay, so like, API.

Jennifer Bagley [00:24:11]:
Okay. And then an A2P compliant. Good.

Robert Leath [00:24:13]:
And, like, I'll put it in, trusting what Manus is telling me. And then I'll wait like a week. And then it's like, no, tonight I'm like, why? Oh, no, sorry. You got to fix it this way. Right? Because it's still new and I get it, but every time I'm going, this is the part that's frustrating. And I want everybody to know it takes time. You stick with it and eventually you're going to get there. And I'm almost there.

Robert Leath [00:24:35]:
Like, I literally have three agents that are ready to just prowl, but I'm waiting on. It took three days to even connect to Service Titan. I'm like, sending emails. I'm doing this. I'm literally copying, pasting what Manus is saying and sending it in my email to Service Titan. It took three days and finally connected. And then it showed me that it actually went through my stuff. And I'm like, okay, we're good.

Jennifer Bagley [00:25:00]:
Oh, my God.

Robert Leath [00:25:00]:
But then I go on another task and it's like, it has to start from all over again. I'm like, I didn't know how that worked. I thought you just talk to each other. Right. You're all Manus. Nope, doesn't work that way.

Jennifer Bagley [00:25:11]:
You're building all the connections. Oh, my gosh. You are primed. You are going to flip your lid with what we're launching next, which is mcp. Fully integrated MCP connectivity natively directly into Service Titan.

Robert Leath [00:25:27]:
I know. Every time you say it, I always can't wait to do it. I know. Manus just did a new thing where they do the browser, which is cool.

Jennifer Bagley [00:25:35]:
Yep. I just got a text from my guys last night. Oh, my gosh. Okay.

Vee Nettles [00:25:43]:
Is that your message that you posted on Facebook, Jim, Your screenshots?

Jennifer Bagley [00:25:48]:
I could only post what was okay to post on a public environment where I have a lot of corporate following. Yeah, no, that they just got. Oh, wrong text message. They just got our MCP to, like, not just. Well, I'll just say this. It now has the ability to understand and improve itself and write its own code to become more efficient while it's working. Like, it can predict what you're going to need next and it can start writing the code to be able to perform those actions. Similar to what Manus is doing is making recommendations on what you need for the next connector, the next piece of the app, and so forth.

Jennifer Bagley [00:26:37]:
This is now it's automatically doing that. It's getting smarter as you're utilizing it.

Robert Leath [00:26:43]:
This, by who?

Jennifer Bagley [00:26:46]:
This is what we're building right now, what you're doing. Yeah, you're going to have access. Imagine going to. Oh, I haven't said this in public yet. Here goes. So imagine going to an LLM, a version of Manis, but it's ours and it has access to every LLM necessary for the job at task. So if it's a calculation job, if it's an orchestration job, if it's a code job, if it's a design job, it's automatically going to pull from the correct LLM and it's connected to all of the technology applications that you need to talk to. So single interface, one conversation, you can say, give me a summary of my analytics and traffic for the day.

Jennifer Bagley [00:27:36]:
Analyze all of the calls that came in, compare it to the jobs and quotes that were thrown out today. Summarize it into how many promises did we have for callbacks? How many quotes did we give back? How many quotes did we follow up on? Give me the summary by sales rep, tell me what my financial impact was from today's performance, and build a plan for my management team for tomorrow to address all of the gaps and inefficiencies and send them a slack message in the morning.

Robert Leath [00:28:09]:
See, I, I wish I could just have like a little index of the proper prompts because I feel like I'm spending way too much money on my dumb prompts. I'm getting better, but I feel like, can I just have a quick little cheat sheet of prompts that do it quicker and better?

Jennifer Bagley [00:28:25]:
Do it quicker? Well, yeah, you're, you're. This would be when MCP is in place. It's a natural language processing, so you're going to be able to just ask it for what you want and it will create the connections in the prompts itself. You'll just be able to talk to it.

Robert Leath [00:28:43]:
So. But something like that on a eight person company doing 1.5, hopefully do 2 and eventually get to 7, that's got to be like a good $15,000 investment for a server, right? Roughly. And then developing because I can't do.

Jennifer Bagley [00:28:59]:
It even well, you'll just subscribe to it and that's all. You'll just subscribe to it. Similar to Manus, but we're setting up specifically for your industry. So it'll be an application you subscribe to. You have your Own connectors just like that. But an MCP lives in the middle. Right now you're trying to figure out how to make all those connections via API calls, individual API calls. The middleware is the model context protocol.

Jennifer Bagley [00:29:26]:
It's that you're missing the centerpiece and that's what you'll have available to you. So same UI UX on the front end. It could be Claude, it could be Gemini, it could be anything, right? We'll have a front end interface. The MCP is the translator that understands your business under like we're designing it and training it for home services for our clients to be able to use connected to automatically. Permanent API native connections to all of your technology that you need to interface with. So anything, submit all these claims, file all these, send every client who's got a 10 year old system who's not in a maintenance agreement an email to recommend we come out for a tune up and they get enrolled in our maintenance plan like this.

Robert Leath [00:30:10]:
Are you finding that text messaging is better than emails and phone calls?

Jennifer Bagley [00:30:16]:
I mean, for you guys talking to contractors, absolutely. But it depends. I would say do both, just let it run both. You could leave a voiceless. I mean that's the benefit of having this. You could do a voiceless voicemail, a text message and an email all with the same single request to every single customer based on those attributes that you gave it. And it could even personalize it. It can even say, hi Mary.

Jennifer Bagley [00:30:41]:
Last time we were out was in March of last year and we looked at X, Y and Z and made these recommendations. I know you didn't move forward with them while at the same time that single request you gave it, it already knows to give Trevor a different message because you were there in June and this was their scenario.

Robert Leath [00:30:58]:
Well, that was, that was one of the hard interesting things about this first agent that I was building. So like when we sign them up for a membership, we're going to be out there twice a year, right. What if they get there in October and it's still very hot because we're in Southern California, Orange county and.

Jennifer Bagley [00:31:20]:
We.

Robert Leath [00:31:20]:
Did an AC tune up. Right. And so then we sold them a membership. How do you like determine? Okay, six months from now we're going to come out and do the furnace tune up. But it's like in between seasons, so it's kind of different. I had to make sure that it knows to read which call. We just did know that we just did an ac. So when you send that text, it's not going to be another ac.

Robert Leath [00:31:42]:
Because it's going to land around that. That springtime. And so that was always the weird part. And so I had to kind of like, tell it, recognize what we just did, and then recommend. Hey, we're here to do your furnace tune up at this point. So there's a lot of little.

Jennifer Bagley [00:31:56]:
You just gave me another. So what we need is one of the connectors to the MCP needs to be weathered by location.

Vee Nettles [00:32:03]:
I was just going to connect the weather channel to that.

Robert Leath [00:32:07]:
Yeah, well, weather. But also, what did we just do? If I just did an EC2 in.

Jennifer Bagley [00:32:11]:
October, that for sure.

Robert Leath [00:32:14]:
Yeah. I don't want to do an AC tune up again in spring. Now we're doing the furnace. And so those are those little tricky parts with H vac.

Jennifer Bagley [00:32:21]:
So it would need to have a connection that was weather, natural disaster, earthquake, fire. It would need all of them.

Robert Leath [00:32:29]:
Wind.

Jennifer Bagley [00:32:30]:
Wind.

Robert Leath [00:32:31]:
Just like the band.

Jennifer Bagley [00:32:32]:
Free. Yeah.

Robert Leath [00:32:35]:
Nobody. Oh, C.V. got it.

Vee Nettles [00:32:38]:
Seeing if anybody knew it, I just aged myself there.

Jennifer Bagley [00:32:42]:
Oh, I love these conversations. Nagara. That's in the top 10 list. Yeah. Okay. This is a really good conversation.

Robert Leath [00:32:52]:
So that's been one that's been a challenge on that is trying to get that figured out, because it is kind of. When do you land and sell a membership? I'm trying to think of any other.

Jennifer Bagley [00:33:05]:
You went through the courses, right? So if someone was just going to start, what was the benefit? I think one of the things you did that a lot of people don't was starting the courses.

Robert Leath [00:33:14]:
Yeah.

Jennifer Bagley [00:33:15]:
On desktop.

Robert Leath [00:33:16]:
Do that. Understand. And the way they break it up is super, super helpful because it's already like a loud language and it's a lot. And we're hearing about it at home and here, and we're kind of doing this to it. But when you go through that course, it stops after two minutes. And then it gives you two or three questions. I think my daughter can answer those questions. That helps.

Robert Leath [00:33:39]:
And then it keeps going on and on and on. And so that really helped me. And then it was stuck in my brain for a while. I'm like, okay, I know what LLM means. I know what X, Y, Z means. And so it's kind of cool. And then the second one comes out. You go through that.

Robert Leath [00:33:52]:
Now I kind of want to go through it again just so it really sticks through. But, like, I don't even have to play the whole video. I can just. All right, let's take the test. And now I'm. I'm getting it down. So it's helpful because I don't know about you, but ever since I've started a company, I don't know what it is you talk to B2B. You know, people that are selling you services, whether it's for your payroll or for your, your website or anything.

Robert Leath [00:34:19]:
And every person you talk to has acronyms. And it drives me nuts. I'm like, I don't live in your world and I don't know what an error is. Like, yeah, but like the acronyms are everywhere and they. It's like you say it to be cool, but like, I don't know what you're saying, dude. So like they break some of that down and it helps a little bit. So you can kind of speak the language. So.

Robert Leath [00:34:42]:
And I told my 18 year old son, I'm like, I'm gonna be on this thing today. And my 13 year old daughter and she's like, I don't know, maybe you shouldn't be on that. I don't know. It's kind of really. You don't even know what you're doing. I'm like, I know. I don't know what I'm doing. Like, okay, dad.

Robert Leath [00:34:55]:
Right. Let me know when it comes out.

Jennifer Bagley [00:34:59]:
Oh my gosh.

Vee Nettles [00:35:00]:
You are way ahead of.

Jennifer Bagley [00:35:03]:
You are way ahead, man.

Robert Leath [00:35:05]:
I don't know.

Jennifer Bagley [00:35:06]:
And you're the, you're the rationale of why I do what I do and why I won't listen. A lot of times when I'm like going to a speaking event, the organizers will come up and they'll tell me, jen, these are contractors and you need to, you know, can you not go too far? And can you kind of just cover the basics and not expand? And I'm like, no, sorry. I'm like, no, no, because they're getting it. Like, this is no. Why I refuse. I'm not going to. I'll build a course so we can slow it down and hit pause.

Robert Leath [00:35:43]:
That was awesome. That really helped.

Jennifer Bagley [00:35:45]:
I love that. This is very rewarding conversation.

Robert Leath [00:35:49]:
Thankfully, I mean, thankfully I'm not taking over my father's company. You know, I'm not in a third, fourth generation company, so I don't have bad habits. Not like I'm saying they all do. I'm just saying I don't have old habits that I'm trying to outgrow. Thankfully, I don't have that. That helps me be a little bit more adaptable and moldable. And I also don't have a. At least I'd like to think I don't have an ego.

Robert Leath [00:36:18]:
So I'm down to say, hey, I Don't know this. Teach it to me like I'm 2012 and I'll even say that in my prompts. It's like, break it down.

Vee Nettles [00:36:29]:
I'm like, dumb it down.

Robert Leath [00:36:33]:
And V's probably thinking in her head, wow, you're way more chatty right now. But we always have our meetings early in the morning. I'm not a morning person. Anything after 11, I wake up a bit more and it's 3 o', clock, 3:10 my time. So.

Jennifer Bagley [00:36:46]:
Oh my gosh, I am wildly proud of you. I want to stay part of the story. I want to have this same conversation six months from now. And I want to know what you build, what you're doing with it. I want to know when you grow, how you grow. I want to know that. I want to know what positions that you would have hired for that. Now you don't have to.

Jennifer Bagley [00:37:07]:
So you can scale without having to break the bank on labor. That's a big deal. Did you get sign up for rebates manager?

Robert Leath [00:37:18]:
No, no, I didn't. But one thing that was funny was the first time I jumped on the 101 course, you guys didn't show the chat side of it. It was literally just the recording. And then after that you could see the chat side of it. So in the first one you shared your phone number on the chat, I'm like, what the hell? I can't see it. But the other ones I can see it. So I would love that so I can ask you. I'm not going to bother you like.

Robert Leath [00:37:43]:
But I was just like, I have a question about this. I don't know what to do. Put my phone share with me. I'm just saying throwing that seat out.

Jennifer Bagley [00:37:52]:
There, you can have my cell phone number. I would love to stay in contact with you and hear all your wins. Ask me any questions because you're. This kind of a conversation is what allows me to understand from your point things I wouldn't know because I don't live in a contracting business. Yeah, I want to build it based on the things like just even. Even I didn't dawn on me. We need to connect it to weather, we need to connect it to fire. With all, you know, natural disasters events and everything else.

Jennifer Bagley [00:38:20]:
That's a really easy connection. That would give you guys a lot more predictive capabilities on top of everything else.

Robert Leath [00:38:27]:
That and like, you know, I'm building scripts. Right. So I have a call capacity agent that I'm building where I can look at what our past year was, what we did Each year, what we want to do now. So we have a goal for each month. And I have these scripts. So I was part of a consulting group, which I'm going to pause on now with them. But they're amazing. But I'm pausing and the scripts that AI generated for me were great.

Robert Leath [00:38:59]:
But I said, okay, I live in Orange county, the weather's great all the time. And the new business owner, I mean, sorry, the new homeowner is more 34 to 45. That's, I mean, well, the youngest one is more on the 32, 34. Speak, like, give me scripts that talk to people like that. Because people that are slightly younger than me in my age, they don't deal with bs. I mean, they're, they're, they're very sensitive to salesy things. They don't like when you have to turn a lead and your manager comes out. They want stuff now.

Robert Leath [00:39:35]:
And so I had to like prompt it to give me scripts that are more made for where I live, that are a little bit more savvy. Not like I'm talking ish on, you know, other places in the country, but it's Orange County.

Jennifer Bagley [00:39:48]:
Yeah.

Robert Leath [00:39:49]:
And I'm like, talk to me like. And so what it spit out to me was like, oh, okay, I got it. I went through XYZ and it lists all the things and it's like, you're more straight to the point and educational. People that are our age, they want straight to the point and educational and not pushy. That's what they want. And the old way that I was taught to sell was because I ran a lot of calls with, you know, people 15 older, they're different client, they have the time to spend, they don't have to go anywhere. Their kids are out of the house. So those little things helped with my scripting because I do mailers, which works for mainly 50 and older.

Robert Leath [00:40:28]:
And I love those. Those are my favorite clients in the world because they have time for us to see what we can do and build value. When we're doing a tune up, we'll be like two and a half hours in. Yeah, the other company hasn't done it, but younger people my age, husband's gone, wife's gone, whatever it is they want straight.

Jennifer Bagley [00:40:42]:
I'll give you the key. I watch you on my video.

Robert Leath [00:40:46]:
Exactly. They want quick, fast, convenient and price. That's where they're at. And educational is a bonus. If you can be educational, you're going to separate yourself a bit more. I tend to be a little bit more expensive. Than most of those cheap companies. And unfortunately my.

Robert Leath [00:41:03]:
I wish I could just post on social media little tips on educating young homeowners that have never bought an H VAC system before. Don't go with the cheapest. I know that's what you're going to do because they've never done it before. So what they do is said, I'm gonna think on it. Then they go talk to their parents, see if anybody knows an H VAC guy and if they do chatgpt. Yeah. So it's, it's like I'll give you this one.

Jennifer Bagley [00:41:27]:
So two things I'm thinking of from this is one, get whoever's in the house to take the quote and when you're with the customer, load it into ChatGPT with them on the tablet and.

Robert Leath [00:41:41]:
Someone else's quote or our quote.

Jennifer Bagley [00:41:43]:
Your quote. So when you. Yeah, when. Because if you don't, what's happening is you're leaving the house, they're taking your quote, they're loading it into GPT or GROK probably and then they're asking silly questions because they're not prompt engineers for your business. And so GPT or whatever the AI they're using is, is either helping you, that's what's helping you with your objections. So if you can do it with them, then you can fit feed it because you're gonna, your team is gonna know what to ask for and all the considerations, whether it's a stack home or they've got, you know, allergies or whatever, all their, their duck, all those things. If you can go through GPT with them and get GPT because you're prompting correctly to recommend the high efficiency system on this kind of a payment plan with this kind of a warranty and you know, this ductwork and this thermostat and everything else, if you can get it with them to do that, then you don't leave them to their AI on their own with their bad prompting.

Robert Leath [00:42:42]:
Ah, now it kind of connected. You're doing it with them in real time and saying, let's pull it up. Yes, that's actually a little stroke of genius.

Jennifer Bagley [00:42:53]:
That's a big one that, that's a big.

Robert Leath [00:42:55]:
I was going to. You brought this up. Well, that's huge. And I hope I get a recording of this because I'm not writing anything down. But no, I was going to ask. You said something that was interesting. I think I watched it two weeks ago. You may have done it three weeks ago about putting your prices on your website.

Robert Leath [00:43:14]:
Saw that and I Know it's going that way where people are doing quotes either just sending it email. And this was like probably a year and a half ago. I had this idea. I'm like, okay, you can just send quotes over the phone. How are you building value on that? So I'm like, what if the niche in between there was do a FaceTime. And when I show, you know, I'm doing an estimate, I show before and after pictures. I show our warranties and guarantees. I also show our workers comp and liability insurance page.

Robert Leath [00:43:47]:
I also show our contractor state license number. I do all that. Very professional. And I show them. And pictures help because H vac is very complicated and there's a lot of ways you can install something and it can be crappy. Yeah. So I saw that and I'm like, well, maybe there's a way where a certain age group or generation would appreciate the whole let's do a FaceTime thing. But you'd have to be a master at mastering that FaceTime thing and not just be like, show me this, show me this.

Robert Leath [00:44:16]:
All right, I'm sending it. You'd have to kind of be creative with how you're going to do that. And it turned in from a hour and a half visit at a home, which is what I typically do, to a 15 minute or 25 minute thing that's convenient for that particular age group. That's a different side thing. But what I was going to ask is the whole putting it on the Internet, is it now, like, I got to jump on that and do it or hang tight, wait till spring next year.

Jennifer Bagley [00:44:43]:
So two. Well, okay, three things I don't want to forget. Let me rattle all three off so we don't lose them. And sorry, Krista, we're probably going over. What do I have next? Let me look at my calendar. Okay, we're good. As long as you're good. Okay, so I don't want to forget these three things.

Jennifer Bagley [00:44:56]:
So one of them was the prompts that got you to create the proper language for your ideal client. Do that for us. Give us a writing prompt that explains your target audience, messaging and so forth that we can feed to our AI that's doing your blogging for you. We need that. So get us the perfect so. So when you're doing it, write that. I want to create a prompt for our AI writers that is ideal, that is targeting this audience. This.

Jennifer Bagley [00:45:33]:
Put all of the same stuff in there that you did. And then give that to V and she'll feed that to the team that oversees the AI that's doing your blogging.

Robert Leath [00:45:43]:
I already know that I can copy and paste it.

Jennifer Bagley [00:45:45]:
Okay, yeah, we need that. That one. This. The second piece was the FaceTime quoting. So I have a client in Dallas that when Covid hit, we were the first ones to start VR and virtual coding. Virtual, all of this. And so I started teaching these classes to try and get people to go, you can do this. Like, don't.

Jennifer Bagley [00:46:12]:
Don't buckle up like you're rolling up in a ball and caving. Like, we're gonna set your prices high and you're gonna try this like a petri dish. This is going to be a science project. I want you to start quoting over the phone. Pull up that to this day, they are no longer doing in home quotes. Every single quote they do. There are some they lose, but overall, they're profitable, highly profitable on every single quote that they do. And they're still doing FaceTime calls.

Jennifer Bagley [00:46:43]:
Now they're doing Zoom calls, FaceTime calls. They let them choose the tech technology that they want to do because most people are either using Zoom or Microsoft Teams or FaceTime or whatever. So they're even moving up to that 45 to 55 that at work, they use Zoom. And now they're getting on a Zoom call on their phone, and these guys are killing it. And this, he still, to this day, tells me, still haven't put on a pair of pants, Jen.

Robert Leath [00:47:07]:
So, no, I think. I think seeing a face is still a game changer. I mean, if you want someone that just wants a number that's not my client. Yep, those are the young people. Yeah, you got to have to. You kind of have to adapt. And, okay, this is the new normal or getting to that new normal. But how can I have a little bit of control over that humanistic touch and face and seeing my gestures and hearing my voice going up and down, that stuff matters, and that builds trust.

Robert Leath [00:47:40]:
So if I was going to shift that way, which I got distracted about it eight months ago because, you know, running a company and I was just like. I just thought, I'm like, that's the new thing. And if I could, I could probably still run sales. And I have to remove myself entirely by just doing this and. But who knows what that looks like?

Jennifer Bagley [00:47:59]:
But, yeah, it's out there. I. I think it's. It's interesting because if you look at his reviews, and I'm not supposed to share the exact full company because he likes to keep it a secret, but if you look at his reviews, his reviews highlight that they appreciate the Fact that they met via Zoom or they met via FaceTime, it shows up in the feedback.

Robert Leath [00:48:20]:
Well, today was the first day that someone, he, he had seven different companies out. I'm like, dude, how do you have that much time? I can only do two, seven different companies. I was one of them. We were one of them. And he's getting down to the nitty gritty. And it's been like a four week process, which isn't my typical way of closing deals. It's just, he's just one of those guys and he said one of them. One of them.

Robert Leath [00:48:45]:
And he's. No, he's probably 50, 48, 52. But he's. I think he appreciated it because he sat through so many and he had to take a half day of work off each time. Like, and so that makes it convenient. I'm like, so you did one on FaceTime? He's like, yeah. This guy said that my daughter was sick and I can't go and I'll just do it over FaceTime. Like, well, I'm curious, how was your experience? Because I feel like that's probably where it's going to start heading.

Robert Leath [00:49:10]:
It's like, well, honestly, it was kind of nice. It was convenient. I walked around and I've showed him what I needed. Now I don't think this guy did it the way that I would do it, which would do a presentation with pictures. But for him, it was easy for him to just be like, here you go. This took 20 minutes. Send me a quote. There's not as much humanistic there, so you got to make it more humanistic.

Robert Leath [00:49:30]:
But it still was nice to hear that he was like, it was convenient. So I'm like, okay, that's the new. Let's get that.

Jennifer Bagley [00:49:37]:
I like that you treat this like. That's why I don't want to miss a sales call. I want to be able to every week I've got to be on at least one. Not because I need to be in control, but because the closer I am to the client, the more I understand them. That's how. That's my science project. I need to understand that. That's why I do these.

Vee Nettles [00:49:56]:
We really got used to it during COVID you know, and not being able to leave the house and doing like telehealth appointments. And now we work remote and it's like, I love doing my doctor's appointments over Zoom. I don't have to leave the house, I don't have to put my pants on. I can literally see my doctor.

Robert Leath [00:50:12]:
I'll Never forget. I'll never forget. I'll make it quick. So we're going. I'll never forget the first time I did one over FaceTime. It was this lady that was really freaked out. We all wore our masks and we were slammed during COVID We're free. I'm wearing gloves.

Robert Leath [00:50:25]:
I went into her house while she was upstairs, did my whole thing, showed her, hey, this thing is probably time to replace. Okay, let's go over replacement options. I'm like, you know what, I'm going to the back of my truck. I'm going to put me on, I'll put you on and we'll go through it. And I was there with my gloves and my iPad and I just showed her pictures before and after, before and after. She said, all right, let's do it. $36,000. She walked out with her gloves and used my little Apple pencil to sign the iPad.

Robert Leath [00:50:50]:
Like, all right, our guys will be there tomorrow. You could just be upstairs. And that was it. But like, it works, but it's just.

Jennifer Bagley [00:50:57]:
You know, I love it. Keep evolving and let the consumer choose. Make all things an option and let them have the choice. That's, that's the same way I feel about AI calls, AI booking, AI texting, everything. Let them know it's AI and let them choose. If they want to talk to a human, they'll ask for it. What we're noticing right now in the AI conversions, we're getting less than 30% that are ever asking for a human. Calls are closing.

Jennifer Bagley [00:51:21]:
They're getting booked faster. It's just interesting. It's interesting. What I am definitely noticing is when a consumer is using an AI bot, we're listening to call recordings. The consumer, this is customer homeowner in California. They, I think they were outside of Malibu. He had his AI agent call the electrical company. The AI agent was asking for a quote for five Tesla Charger installs.

Jennifer Bagley [00:51:51]:
We're listening to it because, you know, we record the calls to check quality and whatnot. And we're listening to the call and you could hear as soon as he said the address where he lived, I looked up the house on Zillow like a 10 and a half million dollar house. I can see the five car garage on the Zillow photos. Right? And the con, the customer service rep was just being a jerk, like, I'm not going to talk to you unless you're a real human. And the AI was being so sweet and trying to get through to him and saying, this is really important. We need to get this done. This is the third company I've called. And they were like, nope, not going to talk to you.

Jennifer Bagley [00:52:27]:
I was like.

Robert Leath [00:52:30]:
Yeah, no, I had a. We. We tried a AI answering service for like three months, which the dumbest mistake I could have made was during summer. I don't. I just. I don't know why I said, okay. Stupid.

Jennifer Bagley [00:52:44]:
And, yeah, you need 120 day training time.

Robert Leath [00:52:48]:
Yeah. Well, there was this. We would listen in and it would kind of sound rude and older people called in and it doesn't work because they're, you know, they got to repeat things and so on. And we just, we exit. This one guy, this was the nail in the coffin. He's like, I've been in marketing for 25 years. And you know what? I go through my mail and I throw stuff all the way and I just, I just sit there and I throw it away. And I saw your letter and I said, you know what? I'm gonna give them a shot.

Robert Leath [00:53:15]:
It's a picture of me, my wife, and then my dog at the bottom and like an easy one page letter and. But I called and I got this AI thing and I said, you know what? Forget it. And I'm like, dang it. And I called him back and I'm like, hey, I just heard this. I'm so sorry. We're testing her out. We named her Taylor. I'm like, we're testing Taylor out.

Robert Leath [00:53:37]:
You know, he's like, well, you know what? No worries. I'll think about you next time. Like, dang it. And he told me that whole story. So I'll wait to do the answering thing and maybe just half hours. I'm gonna do. Yeah, it still needs a little work. Better though.

Vee Nettles [00:53:50]:
It has definitely gotten better since we tried those out.

Jennifer Bagley [00:53:53]:
Yeah, keep. Put it in your back pocket so you can turn it on and turn it off. I'd rather have it answer if you're not gonna. No voicemail. I need all leads to get answered within 18 seconds. If they fill out a form, if they want a book, if they don't want to talk to anybody, at least it's an option. I would definitely do that. You asked about pricing, and I have.

Robert Leath [00:54:17]:
One more question after that.

Jennifer Bagley [00:54:18]:
Yes, keep that question. So pricing, what, what we're able to track right now is when all things are equal. So right now you have a competitive advantage in your market because the majority of your competitors all are living in an old school WordPress website. One blog post a month. They don't have great content. So all things are not Equal. So you're going to grow faster and have more visibility on AI search because you have higher volume of content, you've got a low code website, you've got AI enabled, right? All these things are happening for you. But when we've got three of our clients that are in one market and all three of them have an AI enabled, low code website, killer content, daily blogs, what we are noticing is that technical specifications, I.e.

Jennifer Bagley [00:55:10]:
financing details, product detailed warranty information, pricing information will always win. Always win. So when you talk about time, it depends, that's just who's going to get referenced on AI search engines and Google overviews, AI overviews, generative search and so forth. I think from a consumer standpoint, we all want pricing transparency. So if you don't have anyone else in your area that's offering pricing transparency, then that's your judge of when it's critical. But the second someone does, the second it's apples to apples and they have pricing transparency and you don't, it's hard to gain. First time becomes your enemy then because it's like if I go back to 2008, I remember sitting in front of a audience of 250 contractors. I was a keynote speaker for Mitsubishi's Diamond Dealer conference.

Jennifer Bagley [00:56:10]:
And I remember asking this audience, how many of you guys are investing in content, SEO, web and so forth. Digital. And out of 250 people, there were only three companies that raised their hands. And I was like, literally, why did they ask me to speak at this conference? What is this H Vac industry? I'm not supposed to be here. This is not good. So that was my first like foot in the H Vac industry. But if you go backwards, like those three companies, I'm still friends with the TM that's working with those three companies. They didn't make any negligible gross errors.

Jennifer Bagley [00:56:46]:
They didn't have to rebrand, they didn't go to a web company that demolished their website and set them back to go. Like they didn't make any gross errors. Those are the juggernauts that exist today that prevent anybody from getting onto page one of Google in those markets right now. Like they're not going to slow down so anybody can catch up. You cannot beat them. No small company can. So I kind of feel like there's that same. Not kind of.

Jennifer Bagley [00:57:10]:
I believe that that same principle applies. Those companies that position themselves in advance of waiting for competition to warrant them to do it will be the juggernauts of the future. That's my thoughts.

Robert Leath [00:57:28]:
Yeah, I Mean, I mean, what do we have, 10 months, eight months before these large companies pivot? Who knows?

Jennifer Bagley [00:57:36]:
I don't know. I don't know.

Robert Leath [00:57:39]:
I don't know There and then I was the one. It's a two part question one. I was the one on the one. I think it was the 103 course that you just put up. And I actually participated in the chat and I was the one saying, hey, not to be a downer, this is more a philosopher question. What happens when everybody is doing this? How do you stand out? And you thankfully answered that. I vaguely remember what you said, so that's why I'm kind of asking it again. But that's the first thing that's been in my mind when I first jazzed up on all your videos and everything that you've been talking about and the podcasts have been listened to from other places.

Robert Leath [00:58:16]:
I'm like, this is rad. But what do we have? Like a quick two year bubble, if that. And then what happens when everybody's doing it? Like, how do you stand out? Is this. And then I start thinking of like the movie, you know, ready player one. And we're going to be in that place, you know, that's, that's going to be there. But Steven Spielberg's killed it with movies that have always been true with what he said. Yes, minority report, huge 100. Anyways.

Robert Leath [00:58:43]:
But like what happens then now? Is there going to be a fallback of like getting that humanistic touch as long as you got your, your stuff here and you, I mean that's, it's going to be a back and forth. Yeah, you don't really know, but it's a.

Jennifer Bagley [00:58:59]:
But it's our job to try and predict that. So what I, I think it's twofold. I mean, obviously, like if I was going to put what our next moves are, what our next moves are going to be. One, obviously mcp. We've got to address not just digital marketing. We have to address operational efficiency. I do not just want to be a digital marketing company. I want to address the entire organization.

Jennifer Bagley [00:59:24]:
I want a successful entrepreneur, financially successful entrepreneur, healthy. I don't want them freaking drained because entrepreneurship kind of sucks. So I want to address that. The second thing that we have to solve for is we've got to figure out how to invoke the conversion in the LLM. You know how when you're on ChatGPT and you're searching or whatever platform and you're just getting these text queries with the sources, when it's Content related. And it's not a map query with contact information. We need to be able to inject a conversion button or a conversion tool into the LLM. So there's been companies that have done this.

Jennifer Bagley [01:00:08]:
Well, like that's one of the food companies. It's a. Groceries. Fresh. Fresh. Something I can't remember.

Robert Leath [01:00:17]:
Fresh and easy. They're out of business.

Jennifer Bagley [01:00:18]:
Yeah, no, I can't remember which one. So we're, we have a, a specific handful of companies that have figured out instacart. Instacart has figured out. Not fresh. Instacart has figured out how to be able to allow a consumer with an AI agent to fully build and check out in AI with an AI agent without ever leaving AI. That requires an MCP in between your booking system and your website that can display in the prod file that we're delivering or your LLM file that we're delivering to the large language models. We have to get it to work regardless of which container of content is being displayed. To answer the consumer's prompter question.

Jennifer Bagley [01:01:06]:
That's first. Dave from OnePath is working with that, working with us on that and that they are so freaking smart. Fingers crossed. We have to fix that because then you got to be first to be able to convert within the AI platform. The second piece we have to do is we've got to figure out how to have AI to AI communications, which means we've got to be able to translate our AI answering systems to Jibberlink, which is an entirely different language. Have you ever seen that?

Robert Leath [01:01:36]:
No.

Jennifer Bagley [01:01:37]:
So go to go to YouTube and search for AI to AI conversation and it's going to be the first three videos are going to pull up. That's JibberLink. When two AIs realize they're having a conversation together, they will convert to a higher efficiency language which is sound. So I'm not going to do it because I'll sound weird. But yeah, it compresses the conversation. What would be an hour long conversation? Planning a wedding will compress it down to a 30 second conversation where they can plan the entire wedding. Because there it's the sounds, the tones that are doing that that would be next. The third thing that I believe will come would be it makes sense that if, when every Apple device is an.

Jennifer Bagley [01:02:22]:
When every Apple device, every Google device, every car has an AI agent built into it. Why I don't even think websites will exist at that point because like Windows icons, pages, navigations, tools that come wimps, Windows icons, pages and menus. It doesn't make sense that I would have to, in tomorrow's age, go to a website clickety click all around and do all those things because it's going to be a human conversation with conversating with their personal AI assistant. Like it just needs to function. So I think in that instance, I believe that a website will turn into a conversational avatar that represents your business and all of this content that we're producing right now becomes the training data for that avatar. Just like you're in Manus and you're.

Robert Leath [01:03:09]:
Like, the website's the new business card.

Jennifer Bagley [01:03:12]:
That's it. And when they get there, the mascot of these companies is now an avatar that you can just have a conversation with.

Robert Leath [01:03:21]:
Yeah.

Jennifer Bagley [01:03:22]:
Why do they have to click if you can just talk to it?

Robert Leath [01:03:25]:
And then I don't know when you're going to do this next one, but I saw it. We don't have to go into it because I know we're out of time. But you said something in, I think, one of your boardrooms and I think you didn't mean to say it and you're like, oh, shoot, yeah, that's a whole nother thing when manufacturers can sell straight to the consumer. If I'm saying that right, Isn't that something. You said it like five boardrooms ago or something like that. And that was like, oh. And you said contractors are now just going to be installers. And I was like, I don't install, so I'm screwed.

Robert Leath [01:04:01]:
And that was a wake up call. So I don't know what you're building on that conversation, but I can't wait to hear that one. Because that was like a, a little jolt to the sack right there. I was like, oh, geez, okay.

Jennifer Bagley [01:04:13]:
Yeah. If you leave the United States and Canada, if you leave North America and go anywhere else in the world, that's.

Robert Leath [01:04:20]:
How they do it.

Jennifer Bagley [01:04:20]:
That's how it's done. So it's in their plans. Because most of them, their corporations are not in the United States. I mean, are, they're not based originally in the United States. Manufacturing is not in the United States. I had a group of our contractors that went to go visit the Hisense distribution center. And it's. Hisense is the largest electronics manufacturer there is, I think on the planet.

Jennifer Bagley [01:04:48]:
I mean, they're, they're huge. And they just started in the United States selling heating and air conditioning systems. They, when they went to go visit, they walked into the warehouse and they all put on the headphones to go on the tour. And there wasn't a Single light on. It was just a cool, dark warehouse for their entire manufacturer. The entire thing is robotics. And it was this kind of wow moment.

Robert Leath [01:05:17]:
I think a friend of mine did a search on Amazon. You could see Goodman Condensers. I'm like, oh, shoot, they're selling cars now. This is this. So I'm like, when I first heard that, I'm like, so do. I got like five, four years to make this company really awesome and then sell it real quick before people don't want to buy it anymore.

Jennifer Bagley [01:05:35]:
Or maybe you're the first company to buy your first two optimus robots with autonomous car and a foreman who oversees the conversation in the home.

Robert Leath [01:05:49]:
Now, I listened to a podcast, and I don't think AI is anywhere near to be able to work on old homes. I think they can build new construction because it's under controlled environment. They can put in the foundation. Well, I listen to another podcast with Tony Robbins on that, and I'm like, yeah, I could see that. But this, at least we're good for a minute, you know, because what if.

Jennifer Bagley [01:06:10]:
It does all the heavy lifting for you?

Robert Leath [01:06:14]:
I've seen the movies. I know what's coming.

Jennifer Bagley [01:06:16]:
I know this trucks everything back and forth and sets it all up for you. You still have the really skilled technician that's inside of it. I think those are possible as well. But I would start thinking like that that's.

Robert Leath [01:06:29]:
A random. A video on my feed on Instagram from the 1950s, the original drywaller guy working with Latham plaster, like, from Disney. And so I'm like, that's where we were. And this is where we're at.

Jennifer Bagley [01:06:42]:
I spoke at a roofing conference and I was. This is like three months ago, and I was talking to them in advance, and I was like, what are the biggest issues before I get on stage in roofing? And they were like, well, number one is going to be employment, because obviously ice is out there and they're having to do some weird things and so forth. And they were like, number two is going to be injury and insurance. And they were like, number three is robotics, which solves problem number one and number two.

Robert Leath [01:07:07]:
Yeah.

Jennifer Bagley [01:07:08]:
And it was. It was very interesting. So robotics is going to be next. But you know, as you guys are when you have. I think the flip side to this is what you alluded to earlier is the human experience. Like those that are able to create a truly unique experience once you get in that home. I mean, AI is going to help you with all these other things. And robotics might even help you when you're in the home and, you know, this is it might go run and pick up stuff from a supplier for you and do all of these things.

Jennifer Bagley [01:07:40]:
But when you get to the home, like, it's the person that shows up with baked cookies or. Or has a freaking hedge trimmer in their van. And while they're there and Mary's, you know, hedges are looking crazy. They're like, let me knock this out for you real quick, Mrs. Jones. I mean, I think it's gonna be, you know, this really personal connection of something unique and something different. Like they pulled my trash cans in. I mean, all the stories I tell about the people who take care of my home and our family, there are all those unique things that I didn't pay them for that I remember.

Jennifer Bagley [01:08:17]:
And those are the stories that people tell. And I think that's where you get to. You get to lean on. On people being amazing humans. And you're going to look for that, like, who has the best personality and who's willing to step out of their way and do something totally outside of scope. And like, I noticed your door was hanging loose. This is a quick fix. Can I take care of this for you real quick? Yep.

Jennifer Bagley [01:08:41]:
I think it's going to be that. Yeah, you know, I do. I think it's going to be a hug. Petting the dog. People.

Vee Nettles [01:08:51]:
Still want that human connection, you know.

Jennifer Bagley [01:08:55]:
They do.

Robert Leath [01:08:55]:
I agree.

Jennifer Bagley [01:08:57]:
I think this is a good place to wrap this up. Otherwise Krista is going to cut me off. She's already. It's absolute pleasure, Robert, getting to spend time with you. V take amazing care of. Of your. All your clients. But I love Yalls relationship.

Jennifer Bagley [01:09:16]:
You guys continue to press the envelope. V's going to give you my cell phone number. I want to hear about all these things.

Robert Leath [01:09:21]:
I was just gonna say it. Gonna say it.

Jennifer Bagley [01:09:23]:
I'm not gonna forget that. So if you were to close the webinar, what would you recommend to all those that are listening? Robert, how would you close?

Robert Leath [01:09:32]:
So the typical close is just start, right? Just start. But I think it's like, yeah, I mean, find a quiet place that's very hard to do if you're a contractor and just jump it and use your creativity. You're gonna probably spend a lot. If you go on a manus like I did and not prompt correctly. I keep asking, add more tokens. I'm like, that's another 30. Like $30. And that was like four hours ago.

Robert Leath [01:10:01]:
But like, but you know what? It's a journey and it's worth it. And it's just like when you started a company, you're gonna be like banging your head against here. And one thing it's helping me train on is I don't ask as much questions to people anymore because it's so relatively there. Like, I'm kind of like, I start to kind of look down on people. Not in a bad way. I'm kind of like, dude, can you just google it or search it or chat it? And so it's. Yeah, it's just good. Yeah.

Robert Leath [01:10:31]:
Just jump in and see where it.

Jennifer Bagley [01:10:32]:
Takes you to start. I love that. V. How would you wrap it up? Especially, Especially for somebody that's looking at building their business and starting to leverage more of an AI enabled. I know you get the, you got the best of the best right here. How would you rec. What would you recommend?

Vee Nettles [01:10:51]:
Don't be scared of it. Like, and that, and I think at the end, that's what I've really just kind of reiterated to all my clients. Like, grab a cup of coffee, find a quiet spot. Yeah. Make it a priority to just sit down and, and jump in when you can. And don't be scared to just start somewhere. Just start somewhere and you'll, you'll surprise yourself.

Jennifer Bagley [01:11:13]:
Yeah, I love that. I love.

Vee Nettles [01:11:14]:
Yeah. You know, and the classic case, it's like we talked about. I'm like, just, just do it and see where it goes. And now look where he's at. He's like, oh, scaring me.

Jennifer Bagley [01:11:23]:
He's like so far past where I.

Vee Nettles [01:11:25]:
Thought he was gonna be like, this is crazy. I love it. I love it. And I want more people to see this and just be like, we can all do it. You just got to start somewhere.

Jennifer Bagley [01:11:37]:
Yeah, I would agree. I would agree. You guys have been absolutely amazing. I think my, my ending, kind of the catalyst for the trades moment would be that when you get started right, you need to give yourself some grace. When you get started with an AI enabled marketing agency, for example, when you get started with just start AI or when you get started learning how to leverage AI in multiple aspects of your business, whether it's marketing or operations or finance or csrs, or you're getting a AI conversion platform in place, you got to be willing to invest 120 days into the refinement period that it takes to perfect it. No different than you would invest 120 days or more into refining and training and teaching a new technician or a new CSR or new employee. Right. I think that that's the biggest thing is like, don't quit One yard before the touchdown.

Jennifer Bagley [01:12:44]:
Don't get in and expect perfect. I just posted something online that was like, perfect is the death of progress. Like, in order to become more efficient, you've got to make it through the AI training period. Whether it's you and the blog post we're writing. Like, we need 120 days to really perfect and train. We got to invest in the AI so it gets smarter and sharper. But don't delay progress or quit. Like, just don't delay.

Jennifer Bagley [01:13:13]:
Don't quit.

Robert Leath [01:13:14]:
Yeah, yeah, I. Sorry, I got pulled away. Someone was dropping something off.

Jennifer Bagley [01:13:18]:
Perfect.

Robert Leath [01:13:18]:
One of the takeaway things was, we're all older now, learning this stuff, so our patience is thin and our time is small. But what if you stay with it? Just like anything in life, you gotta kind of start to train yourself to. To learn something new, and you got to do that by little small things. Okay, hold on. Before I get emotional about this. What's a smarter way to ask this? If. I don't know, Let me just do. I mean, if you're doing Google, just search that.

Robert Leath [01:13:51]:
But when you see it work, like, I started to see it work, I'm like, shoot. I'm all, yeah. I'm like, actually testing it. That's the fire where I'm like, I got a couple agents going. And I'm like, all right, let's do this. I've been three days in, I press comes back and it talked to, and I'm like, oh, shoot, the world is mine. I just gotta keep going. It's kind of cool.

Robert Leath [01:14:16]:
It's a little bit addicting, and it's. It's kind of weird because, again, I'm not. I'm not this. I'm. I'm music and movies. I'm not computer. I've had to force myself to do it. But when you see a little win, just like in anything in life with your company, with your marriage, with your relationship, that little win motivates you, but it's kind of on another level because it's like Matrix happening and it's doing.

Robert Leath [01:14:42]:
And I'm like, oh, I don't want anybody to know about this. Let's close this computer and not share until I get it figured out. And then I'll share, but until then, I'm not going to share. So, no, it's. No, it is exciting and, you know, knowing, like, I thought I was going to make all these different agents, but, like, one that I want my technicians to have when they're out in the field. There's already a Third party that made that. And the AI said, hey, that's going to take lots of money to make. Maybe just do a third party to make or to do it.

Robert Leath [01:15:15]:
So. But I think it's writing out on a board and I'm not even exaggerating. Like, this is my thing that's been up. It literally has. Okay, we've got customer insights, field marketing strategy, content generator. I've got, you know, this that I had to write out for myself because it gets very crazy. Like these are all my little agents I'm trying to make. And don't get distracted with all these different names.

Robert Leath [01:15:43]:
Like, I kind of got overwhelmed and I just said, you know what? I'm gonna stick to just chat and Manus. That's it.

Vee Nettles [01:15:49]:
Yeah.

Robert Leath [01:15:50]:
Because I keep hearing the newest, latest thing when you guys are posted. I'm like, that's just, that's just the noise, Rob. Focus on these two.

Jennifer Bagley [01:15:56]:
Noise.

Robert Leath [01:15:57]:
So.

Jennifer Bagley [01:15:58]:
Yes, yes, yes, yes. I freaking love you. I am so proud of you. I can't even.

Robert Leath [01:16:06]:
He's gonna get a. She's gonna get a bonus now. She scored.

Jennifer Bagley [01:16:11]:
Good girl. I take. Be serious. When she says, you gotta, you gotta meet our client. They are blowing and going. That's amazing. Well, I, I'm, I'm very, very proud of you. Um, keep looking at your dashboards.

Jennifer Bagley [01:16:27]:
I just looked at your, uh, I just looked at your daily blogging and AEO. You're making massive progress. Four weeks from now, you're going to go probably to 15,000 impressions and massive clicks. Eight, four more weeks after that, we're going to be sitting at 25,000 impressions. I get. I've seen it over, like now, you know that platform is only five months old, but now I have enough data to go. I can predict the future with this. I know exactly what you're going to.

Jennifer Bagley [01:16:55]:
Results are going to be at 120 days.

Robert Leath [01:16:58]:
Well, it's very exciting. And one last closing statement is I've watched these videos and I always see the people on it. Like they must be killing it. They must be doing well. Oh my gosh. And yes, there is a truth to that, but I may have a good mindset and that's cool and we're talking about it, but there's still a lot of stuff I gotta figure out. Like I don't have it all figured out. I'm not trying to front here.

Robert Leath [01:17:23]:
Like, I'm still trying to figure things out that I made a mistake on two years ago or eight months ago. So I'm three and a half years in, we'll see if I'm here in five years or by the year, the fifth year. But I'm not here to say that I'm fronting it. I'm still learning and figuring it out, and everybody's.

Vee Nettles [01:17:42]:
Everybody's figuring it out and learning right alongside you and right with you. Yeah.

Jennifer Bagley [01:17:48]:
I'm 20 years in, and every day I'm like, I don't know how to do that. Let's.

Robert Leath [01:17:55]:
Well, yeah, if we're at a party, you mean? And my wife would just chat forever. And V, obviously, too, we'd have a blast because we'd just be like, all right, let's figure it out. I think you were talking to someone saying, let's talk about this. And then you guys just nerded out for six hours and did it. And I'm like, yeah, that's pretty much what I would do. Let's have a cocktail and go for it.

Jennifer Bagley [01:18:16]:
Yeah, I'm excited for that. All right. I need to know when I'm in your neighborhood. I would like to have. Make that happen.

Robert Leath [01:18:24]:
Sounds good.

Jennifer Bagley [01:18:25]:
All right. Thank you so much for your time, you guys. Those of you that stayed with us. We're an hour and 20 minutes in. I believe you just hit the longest podcast we've recorded so far. I know this is going to be highly. But highly beneficial for everybody that's watching. Watching you guys.

Jennifer Bagley [01:18:39]:
Anybody can do it, right? Just start, get started, stick to it. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. Like, share, comment, leave us insights on who you want to have on what kind of stories you want to hear or what your success stories are, and we'll see you on the next one. Thank you.

Robert Leath [01:18:56]:
Merry Christmas.

Vee Nettles [01:18:57]:
Merry Christmas.

Jennifer Bagley [01:18:58]:
Happy holidays.