Episode 6 Troy Lane

In this episode we dive in (pun intended) with Troy Lane, the founder and owner of Knockout Custom Pools. We talk about the success that his brand has had in the year since we worked together, and very importantly, the ease of use that he has had in hiring others to help him with his marketing. It truly takes a village when it comes to business, and I couldn't be happier that Troy has found his brand, website, and all the files and organization that were put together has made his life so much easier. 

Thank you for listening! If you think it is time for your rebrand, or with any questions about my artistic process, please visit me at jmmartistdesigner.com or reach out at instagram.com/jmmartistdesigner

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

Welcome to Brand Transformations, the podcast where we dive deep into the real stories behind rebranding. I'm Jess Mercier, a brand strategist and designer, and I've had the privilege of guiding incredible entrepreneurs through the journey of stepping into a brand that truly reflects their vision. In this series, we'll explore the struggles, breakthroughs, and unexpected wins that come with rebranding, because a brand transformation is about so much more than just a logo. Let's get started. All right. Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Brand Transformations. Today, I'm so excited to introduce you to Troy. Troy is one of the kindest people I have ever worked with. He's so enthusiastic. He is a family man. He just has the most incredible energy, and I'm so glad that we were connected. I'm going to let him tell you about himself, but welcome, Troy, to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 1:29

I am so happy to be here. I'm glad you asked me to be here because I've been wanting to tell everyone about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:35

So tell us about yourself and what you do, Troy.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39

So I am a custom pool builder and I also own a maintenance company as well. We do maintenance, weekly maintenance on the pools and we also do repair. And around the custom pool building side, we do basically everything. anything around a pool. We do putting greens, outdoor kitchens, extended patios, outdoor living in general. That's kind of the whole gist, though. That's what we do. A little bit of everything. I'm building my own house right now, so I can build a house, but I don't want to do that. I want to continue just in the pool place. I love it. I love being able to just get in. I love the design side, I love to transform someone's backyard into something that they dreamed of. And now I'm experimenting with a bunch of AI when it comes to getting the rendering photos done. So I'll do my renderings and I have them like super, super detailed in the renderings with plants and, you know, actually like they'll have a tree in their backyard that we're not going to take out. I'll make sure to put that tree in the rendering just so like they really feel like they're in their backyard. And the photos that I've been doing and editing, because I'll take screenshots from my software and then I put those into Snapseed. I'm sure you probably heard of Snapseed. I'll put them into an app like that and then edit the photos to make them look more real. And I thought those were like amazing. Well, recently I've been doing it, you know, through AI where it's like, I literally take one of my edited photos or multiples of them and say, Hey, like make this look more real. But, and you just, you've used AI before. So you know how it kind of works. You describe like what you want it to look like better. And then it looks like their actual backyard. Like it's done. You can't even tell that it's not real. I mean, you can, But it's very, very subtle. Like some of them are so good, depending on like which angle I take the screenshot from, like you cannot tell that it's not real. And when I send those in, it's guaranteed sale every time. They're like, whoa, what?

SPEAKER_01: 4:01

That's so crazy.

SPEAKER_00: 4:02

Because I'm not getting designs like that from anyone else.

SPEAKER_01: 4:05

Right, right. And I think that visualization is such a huge, it's a challenge for a on my end of things when I'm like, no, no, no, no. Like I can see it in my head and they're like, I can't see it. You got to show me. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:23

Yeah. People have imagined. I didn't realize either. Like there's some people that like, I can literally have, uh, and I think, I think like half people are this way and the other half aren't, I don't know if you're this way, but I literally will have thoughts and full conversations with myself in my head and like my sister she's like you can like hear yourself talk in your head I'm like yeah all the time like I'll have I'll work myself up anxiety in my head like just thinking she's like I can't sit here and think of words and like hear them yeah I don't but I think of the word and I can imagine myself talking she's like yeah I don't I don't I can't do that I was like huh you know anyway

SPEAKER_01: 5:11

you have a highly highly creative brain and I think that that's one of the things that we connected on because you are you know it's so funny because one of the things that I love best about what I do is getting to know different businesses and the way that the business owners brains work and when and I think it's really funny because I love working with so many different types of businesses and for a while I only worked with women and people I was kind of pegged as the like oh well you do the feminine stuff and whatever but I think my thing is that I love to work with people that are passionate and creative and have a purpose behind their business. And so when we met and somebody would have been like, but you're doing a pool company, like you're doing a brand for a pool company. And I'm like, yeah, but wait till you meet Troy. Like he is like, I love listening to you talk about the process. I love listening to all of the information that's in your brain when it comes to like building, like you are so knowledgeable. And when you talked about why you love building the spaces for these people and the memories, like tell me, talk a little bit about that. Like, why are you passionate about building pools? And I, and I'm, I'm minimizing that so that you can maximize on it.

SPEAKER_00: 6:31

Yeah. So yeah, it's super easy for me to maximize that one. So, I mean, you know, I think it goes back to me as a kid. I always, I loved to build when I was young. I wanted to be some sort of invent I used to want to be an inventor you know when I was like five six or whatever you know and I had like this little invention box and I remember being super young I mean probably younger than I think I was just wanting to build stuff just wanting to create something new and now I'm about to this winter when I slow down a little bit I'm about to check a list off I've made a tool that I'm going to patent and try to get a licensing deal and stuff on. So that's like been one of my bucket list things is to create something that like no one else has. And it has to do with pools. Of course, it's a jet removal tool. It's called the jet wrench. It's the only wrench that will remove every type of pool jet. Not every type, but the, the three main comp, the 99% of pools have this jet in them. But anyways, So that's been kind of... when I'm building or designing, I just love, I love creating something that people don't think is possible. So it's kind of cool. I mean, I'm sure you have the same experience where like you create, because that's why you want to see someone's reaction. You want to show them this brand you've made over Zoom because you want to see how they react to it. I'm the same way with designs. I hate when I get like a dry response from someone over a message. It really sucks. So it's like, yeah, all right. And sometimes I'm busy. They don't have time to Zoom. So a lot of times we don't Zoom. And a lot of times they've sent me their design that they already have and it sucks. So I know when I send them mine, they're going to be like, whoa. Yeah. Even if... don't give me this crazy reaction that I don't get to, you know, put in my little jar of goodies, you know, it's like, it's fine because I know that they're blown away. Um, and then, and that's why I'm closing, you know, eight, nine out of 10 of them, because I put the extra effort in to those designs and those renderings. Cause it's not about the money. It's it really, of course it is a living, but I really truly enjoy, um, building something for someone. them to love it you know it's fun so yeah some of them aren't families some of them are single guys single lady old couple that just has had a pool at every house they've lived in and they need the yard art you know they don't care about even swimming in it that's some people are that way and then some people are like hey we want this for our family and I love throwing in little ideas for the kids because I know what my kids love about pools so I'm always conscious of that even even Even water depth matters. My kids hate my dad's pool because he made it four foot deep. You got to be seven, eight years old before you can stand up in a pool that deep because you got to get their little neck above it. It's like when people want to go deep with the pool, it's like, hey, you got to think about this. If you have grandkids or your kids, they're not going to be able to stand up in it for a long time. Oh, we didn't think about that. I'm like, yeah, it's all I hear about. when we go to some new house where the pool's a typical three and a half foot deep in the shallow and the kids are loving it they're freaking out they can run around half the pool when normally they can't so

SPEAKER_01: 10:17

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 10:18

anyway there's little things like that that's what makes me love it is I get to try to persuade them in a way where they didn't know was possible and then I take them through this process where if they built the pool before it's sometimes a nightmare and because they're dealing with someone that's kind of like an ex car salesman that's just can put together like a project and you know put together subs because most of the subs kind of know what to do but if there's like an end goal they don't care about the end goal they only care about their little job and their face they only know their face my plumbers only know plumbing my dig crew they only know dig they don't care if they mess up the dig for the rebar our guys they don't care if they mess it up for their gunite crew they don't care about the other crew so my job is to be able to do all of their jobs if I had multiple of me and be able to see the full picture and a lot of times they're I'm telling them to do something and they're like what why and I'm like don't ask why just do it because I'm not I don't need to explain it to you because you're not going to understand so because I'm looking I'm looking for a certain a look on this pool and i'm very particular on angles and shots i'm thinking about the whole picture and they're not so that's a true pool guy or pool builder that they should be able to do each job individually if they had to

SPEAKER_01: 11:52

yep

SPEAKER_00: 11:52

and that's the goal yeah

SPEAKER_01: 11:55

i just it's just so it's so fun like digging into your brain and how similar our businesses are and not being similar in in any way shape or form you know what I mean like being able to see that big picture and break it down and seeing all the angles and I just think it's so cool how like different like you and I like and and so many other people that I work with like how different our businesses can be but also how similar it is like in an experience um can you tell me a little bit about I want to go back a little bit um tell me about your brand before we met and if there's There was a brand and what you had done.

SPEAKER_00: 12:43

Man, it really wasn't anything. I mean, it was just... uh it was just word of mouth it was just me um and i had this like vision of what i wanted it to be um you know long term um when it comes to like online and facebook and stuff because i'd seen like what some other builders did and i'm like okay i love their style but i don't see the builder i don't know who the owner is and then i would see some where it's like you all you see is videos of the owner but they suck on camera the pools are mediocre like i know no one had done like what I had done or what I wanted to do yet and so that was kind of like my first step into all that was getting a website and getting branded that was kind of my first step and I'm so glad I met you to be able to you know for you to be able to do it because I mean I remember when we first went over the first zoom and you were showing me the style guide you know the branding folder and everything and I was like this is exactly what I had in my head, but I don't know how to make that. So it's like, but I was like, I'm, I'm good. I'm leaving it up to her to be able to just do it. And you did amazing. I remember showing it to my wife too. And it's like, even all the houses where you had like pools and houses, it was like all homes that like I would live in, you know, even like just the, the AI renderings of these homes. I'm like, I would live in these houses. Like that's how close you were to what I wanted. It was like, I would have lived in that brand, you know, like that's, that's what I wanted. And I love when, I mean, being a business owner, there's so much that's going on. It's so nice to like my marketing, Brandon, you've met Brandon, you know, Brandon, uh, my new CPA, like I've just been able to surround myself with these people that, um, and you were the start of all this. It's like, I can just say, Hey, I need this. And you just ran with it and did exactly what I wanted. And it's like, you can't ask for more, you know, it

SPEAKER_01: 14:59

was so it was so fun, because you you had such trust in me, you know, like we we met and we had a number of conversations before we really dug in. So, you know, I was, I, you know, hope very clear on like my collaborative stance. And I'm not just going to show you a A, B, and C, and you choose one, we're going to get on the Zooms. We're going to talk through this. I'm going to show you. We're going to make sure we're on the same page the whole time. And you absolutely were there. We were there together 100%. And you were not afraid to tell me, I'm not really sure if I like this. Maybe we should try this. And I think what was really cool was this style of design that we went for with your company is very different than what like any other pool companies in the area were doing. So that was super fun for me to to kind of help you visualize and put together all of those pieces.

SPEAKER_00: 16:03

Yeah, no, it was a blast. And I had a couple people like, yeah, you need to have like a boxing glove. I was like, that's the last thing I want. I do not want it to be fun. I don't want it to be like, yeah, like, I do not want that. I want it to be. I mean, just I want I wanted to be sleek and cool, like cool, but sleek at the same time. And it was like all the, all the little bit of inspirational things I had to give you. It was like, I mean, I feel like it was very little and you just, you totally ran with it. And it was like, yep, that's it. You know, I think I only had, I don't even remember if there was any changes that I had. I don't remember what they were. I mean, it was so minute. But yeah, I mean, I've just, I've just, I need to send you pictures of my trucks. I just got them wrapped and all the logos and stuff. So it was just also the diversity of all the different logos I got. It's like every time I look at them, I have to get into my file all the time for, you know, for different reasons. And I'm just like, gosh, I can't believe she like went to the extent of some of like just logos in different colors. The logo, there's four or five different things to represent the company of so it's like when I give like Brandon for instance when he was making like my little one page website it's like I gave him that whole folder and he's like dude this is insane he's like I have like way more than I need to get this done you know same thing with like the guy that was doing my raps he was like hey man like who did all of your logos and I was like her name's Jess she's great I sent him your info but I don't know if he ever reached out but he was like yeah he's like I just have people that need logos done all the time And they send me like this crap to put on their truck. And he's like, I need this in like vector, like PNG. Like I can't do this out of a JPEG. Like I need you to, I don't know how to do all that. So anyway, I sent him over your info cause he was super impressed as well. And he's a, owns one of the, a very like reputable rap company down in Houston. So he sees this a lot. That's all he deals with. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And

SPEAKER_01: 18:20

I, and it's so funny because I definitely, I have people that have asked me if I do wraps and specific, like, I'm like, I that's for the rap dude, guys that are actually doing the vehicles. Cause I can't even imagine like that. It's, it's gotta be a different template for each vehicle. Like I know my brain and how, what, what lengths I would go to make sure that a wrap was right. And so I I'm like, I'm all about collaborating. with somebody on that end but being like no like this is the this is the rap person but I think that I think it's really important for people to understand that like the more than just one logo thing because now you're seeing it because now you have the brand you have your folder you have your files you've got your hat we were just talking about the hats like before we jumped on like you've got your logo on your hat but you've got your merch you've got your rap you've got your website you've got your marketing stuff you've got so many different places where you want to represent your company. And instead of just throwing one logo on everything, you have all of these different visual elements to really step up the game. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 19:29

it just makes it look like you are super uber official. And my trucks have three different logos on them. of the same company, like the hood, I have this one, but it's like the full, it's the full color one with the water. Yeah. On the rear view mirror or on the back glass, I have the linear logo because it just fits in the window better. But I have two service trucks that are the little Ford Mavericks and their, their back glass is like a Jeep. It's like a rectangle.

SPEAKER_01: 20:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 20:03

And then the F F one 50 is more of like, it's bigger. So I have the regular logo on that one so I was able to like diversify the trucks and then on the doors I have like the big one on the two doors and it's like centered but anyway it's like that was awesome and then like all my merch like my logos are different on all the merch so it's cool so

SPEAKER_01: 20:29

that's so fun I loved the transparency that we put with like the water reflection and the logo like I remember when I did that and before i couldn't wait to show you because i was just

SPEAKER_00: 20:43

so like one of my favorite parts like when i'm telling people like when i was going through all this all the hats and merch and doing the wrap i was like hey i want to make sure like the water looks good and the and the logo it's like one of my favorite parts about it you know it's funny i had somebody point out to me the other day uh they were like oh wow yeah like your logo is like it's like like a what it's like a pool but also like a boxing ring full of water i was like i mean i don't remember when we did these logos like two years ago and i'm like dude i never thought about that

SPEAKER_01: 21:17

that is really funny i mean and then i just it that it was really cool the way with like the k and how it's angle and like there are just so many things i need to like reshare this with like you know because the podcast is going to come out and it's it's all audio but I feel like I need to show people again this brand because I think it's

SPEAKER_00: 21:40

really stuck. Yeah, you need to have some pop-ups or something as we're talking about it.

SPEAKER_01: 21:45

Yeah, I think that that's awesome. Oh my gosh, this is so cool. Um... Did anything unexpected come after you got everything and you started using anything? Was there anything unexpected that popped up that afterwards you were like, oh, I wonder how to use this? Were there any challenges along the way? Not

SPEAKER_00: 22:10

really. Not really anything other than me just not being tech savvy. That's pretty much it. The way my computer computer is it's hard for me to find the file but now like I have it just pulled up on my screen or on my homepage and it's right there because I always need it but that was like the only thing it's like gosh where are these dang logos at like because it was trying it was hard because I couldn't get them to pull up on my computer it was always so dumb there wasn't anything wrong with the file it was just for some reason it was in some like it was just deep in my downloads where I had to go through like four or five different pages to get to it. I don't know why. I ended up just saving it onto my home screen and now it's right

SPEAKER_01: 23:02

there. You have it backed up someplace though, right? You have it

SPEAKER_00: 23:06

backed up. I've got it on my phone and I have it on my computer. They're all there. Once I figured out how to access them every time, I was like, okay, I just need to do this from my computer every time because I can't. I try I'm on the road so much you know that I try to do too much for my phone sometimes that was that was really where my frustration was was on my phone I couldn't mess with it there

SPEAKER_01: 23:34

yeah those files are there a lot for a phone to undertake I've actually had somebody try to tell me that they tried they were like oh this AI file is an opening on my phone like something's wrong like well that's Adobe Illustrator that's actually just a master file you're probably not ever going to use that it's just there in case you know but yeah you're you probably don't have adobe illustrator on your phone because nobody does um do you feel um do you feel like this has done a certain this this branding has done a certain um like helped your business like do you think that it's taken you up to yeah

SPEAKER_00: 24:21

yeah for sure i mean like i was saying it was the start of me getting to the next level without it I mean I wouldn't really be where I'm at because it has so much to do with like for instance like the when Brandon came in after you did which was a long time after you we did logos and stuff like what like two years ago a year

SPEAKER_01: 24:42

and a half it was like a year and a half I think I actually checked I sent you your final folder in January of 24 okay

SPEAKER_00: 24:51

okay so it was a year later I got Brandon in and I mean I had so much like the brand was already there he just needed to show everyone so that was and it made it just so easy for him and anyway that was like that's I mean it was literally everything I mean I could not go anywhere else I couldn't start anywhere else, I should say, unless I got the brand done. And then I was like, all right, now I can, you know, get on social media. And I had all these ideas and I was going to try to do it. And I was like, all right, well, this isn't working. And then I met Brandon. Like I met Brandon probably about six, seven months after I had done the branding with you. And I was doing really, really well last summer, killing it. And then all of a sudden it just fell off and everybody waited for the election. So I didn't really build any pools after August last year. Yeah. So I was like in a spot where I'm like, all right, like I knew how much it was going to cost to go with Brandon. And I was like, ah, I was like, dude, I just can't swing that right now. Like, and I wish I would have, cause it probably would have helped me get a little bit of a jumpstart. And I, well, I don't know. I started at a good time with him. I started in January before I had any closings or anything. And I was really relying on it working. And it, I mean, it did, it did amazing. He's, He's done a fantastic job.

SPEAKER_01: 26:26

He's killing it with your video content. It's so, I love when you pop up in my feed and I'm like, he really is showcasing all of those things that I said that I like, I admire about you, your knowledge and, you know, and your charisma. He's getting you, you know, in front of that camera and in front of people and really bringing the voice of the brand and your company to life. And he's killing it. It's awesome. It's fun to watch.

SPEAKER_00: 26:53

It is. good he really brings it out of me too like when we're shooting i mean he's he's like hey man like you know you're a little low today like what's going on like he'll try to he's like he's literally like a producer you know like he's just like hey come on let's let's do this you

SPEAKER_01: 27:07

know

SPEAKER_00: 27:08

and i'm like okay all right all right you know all right let's go you know i'm good but yeah it's it's

SPEAKER_01: 27:15

That's that's I mean, I love it. I love watching it all happen and seeing everything. And I love seeing all of the success. If you could give a business some advice, like if they're thinking, oh, OK, like I've got this logo, but it's not really a brand and I really want to build my business. And I think it's time. What would be some advice that you would give to a business owner when they're ready to kind of step up to the next level like you have?

SPEAKER_00: 27:45

Oh, yeah. Yes, probably. but no I would just stress like hey you need to be not just not known but branded like that's like people will know who people are but when you're branded it's like you're embedded in these people and having you know the diversity that I have because of you it's allowed when when I did take off on my social media it just allows that stuff to do a lot better than it would before because it's not so mixed into the rest you know because there's just so much social media content now like you have to be different in every way shape or form so that's that was another thing that was super important because I had been viral before so I knew that I had to if I wanted to do it on Facebook and Instagram is way harder than TikTok so that's where I had went viral before but I wanted to I knew I had to be perfect if I wanted to get the type of reaction out of Instagram and Facebook that I gotten out of TikTok, which it wasn't even anywhere the same. It was way less, but I'm posting on TikTok and yeah, you get 10 million views, but it's like, you don't, those people could be all around the world. So I'm trying to hit just my County, you know, anyone else.

SPEAKER_01: 29:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:15

But we had, I mean, we had one, the first ad we posted was so good Brandon did such a good job on it I think we got like 40 it's like 30 or 40,000 views on the first ad and it just exploded I mean it was like I booked out for the entire summer it was crazy that's

SPEAKER_01: 29:41

amazing

SPEAKER_00: 29:42

like if you I don't know if you've went on to any of the links any of the like his one page website link it's I told him I was like hey look when you do my one page website like model it after my website because I want him to like correlate I want him to look the same and he did great but because I didn't want to change that. I didn't want my brand to be different.

SPEAKER_01: 30:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 30:07

You're going to make me kind of website. It's got to look like Jess's. Yeah. That was literally what I told him.

SPEAKER_01: 30:16

No. And I think that that also, I mean, with the style guide and like everything that you had, like I, what, what I love hearing is, you know, when you go to the rap guys, when you go to this, this marketing guy, when you go to apparel people, like you've got the visuals and it kind of takes, It takes the guesswork out of everything and it makes it seamless. And that makes me feel like I've done what I'm supposed to do is like make your life easier. And like, you're not, you know, worried about designing absolutely everything all the time because you've got it spelled out for you. So you're, you've got the puzzle pieces.

SPEAKER_00: 30:55

All the question is out. All you have to do is be, you know, able to send a file. And I had hard times with that at times, but.

SPEAKER_01: 31:04

But you figured it out.

UNKNOWN: 31:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 31:06

Once you're, you know, not a dingbat, you can, once you figure out how it needs to be sent, you can be fine. No, it's only just you being able to send the file. She's got everything else done.

SPEAKER_01: 31:21

That's awesome. Well, this was like, this was awesome. I can't even believe it's been a year and a half. Like it feels like it was just yesterday that we finished up and it's been so fun. It was so fun working with you and it's so fun seeing all of your success. Thank you for spending the time with me today and sharing your story. I'm hoping that this reaches somebody out there that they can think of like, oh, what if I did this? And what if my company could do this? And what success could I have?

SPEAKER_00: 31:54

Yeah, for sure. No, that would be super cool. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 31:57

Well, will you tell, I guess, anybody in the Houston area, so probably not my California listeners or anybody that you my friends up in New England, but can you tell anybody local that might be listening how they can reach you or a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00: 32:18

Yeah, so if you wanted to reach me and you wanted to or want to reach out and build a pool or we also do weekly maintenance as well, but really pushing obviously the construction. It's knockoutcustompools.com. Thanks to the lovely Jess. And then I have knockoutcustompools on Instagram, knockoutcustompools on Facebook. And that's pretty much it. I mean, we post content almost daily on social media. So we've got some really, really cool ones coming up. I'm like, so we can't even, we only film once a month. So we only do like two or three pools a month. So it's, I've got, I don't even know how many, 50, 60 that I could shoot. It's going to be a while before everybody sees everything, but that's how you can get a hold or reach me and follow and follow along. I do lots of informational stuff. If you're thinking about building a pool in the future and you're just not sure of a few things, just following, you'll learn so much just about pools in general. You know what is entailed in owning one once you get one. My goal as a builder is to make it as easy and seamless as possible like Jess has done for me with my branding so

SPEAKER_01: 33:41

well thank you so much again it was it was an absolute pleasure working with you I hope to continue to do website updates and you know that I'm here for you whenever you need me so

SPEAKER_00: 33:54

oh yeah of course I've got some good ones coming up that we talked about a couple months ago but I want to get some stuff updated on there when I get a chance but

SPEAKER_01: 34:03

it's awesome all right well congratulations on all of your success, Troy. And thank you everybody for listening. And we'll catch you on the next episode of Brand Transformations.

SPEAKER_00: 34:14

All right. Thanks, Jess. It was so good seeing you.

SPEAKER_01: 34:16

Bye.