5 Instructors One Full Throttle Sneak Peek

Hello. Hello. Welcome back with another 2026 full throttle instructor chat and I'm here with Andrea Patterson from High Point Companies in Colorado. How are you today? I'm good. How are you doing? pretty good. We're getting ready to kick this off. Um we're so excited to release Full Throttle Education at the show in October. Um it'll be here before we know it. So October 5th through the 9th is the Full Throttle Education. Um and you're actually leading one of the classes in the breaking into commercial track. Yes. Yes, I am. I will be teaching the plans and specs part one, reading plans without costly mistakes. I love that. So, this is another way that we have really elevated Full Throttle for 2026. And when we talk about that we're doing something so different than what's been done at other events in the industry, this is really a prime example of that because your class is actually third in the track. Correct. It is. So, we're teaching even before you read plans and specs. If you're thinking about breaking into the commercial world or you're wanting to take on more commercial jobs, we really start at the very very beginning of what you need in place. What are some things you need to know? Um kind of all the before you really get to your class. So, when you and I have been working together on this one for several months, what do you think stands out to be the most different on full throttle education versus any other education that you've attended in the past? Um, to be honest, there's going over the information for this class, there is no class like this. Um, I've been to various classes with the ven show and other um trade shows like this looking for this information and they don't have it. So that's what I find differently is that this is laid out so much better and it gives real detail and dives real deep into all the things you need to start from point one to get to where we are in this class to make sure that you are on the right track for the bid that you're looking at. and really for your organization, right? Because when you start getting into the commercial world, we all know it's kind of an animal in itself. Um, you can't say, well, I'm doing X amount of, you know, volume and residential, so like I should be able to start taking the next step in commercial because there's there's a whole lot that goes into all of that. So, we're going to give some little sneak peeks on Andrew's class today. Um, so here's the workbook and Andrea and I and the other instructors in this track have put in so much work into this. This is actually our largest track as far as book and content. Um, it did definitely take some time to put this together and Andrea, thank you for all your help with that. So, um, let's actually get into it. So, we're gonna check out a quick page real quick and and let's chat about it. But I think this is super important when it comes to when you start looking at plans and specs and you're you're jumping into this commercial world. There's actually stuff that you should review way ahead of time before you just start getting to the plans that have fence on it. Correct. Yes. So, let's talk about like go through these sequences with me um that are up on the screen and kind of tell me why these are so important. um looking at all of these documents like the transmittals, the introductions, the bid form, all the way down to the RFI deadline. Um it's important to look at these because any of these sheets could have information that you may miss. If you're not, if you're missing, let's say, the addenda log, what you're looking at now could have changed in any of the addendums that have been given to you. So, your scope could include more or less of whatever fence scope you're looking at. And not only that, your fence scope also includes like temporary fencing, gates, all of the other things that you could be missing if you're not reviewing all of these documents before measuring. So, I love that. So, one of the things um we really dug into and some of the examples that we have in your class is really the sheet index. Um, and we actually go over a set of plans that has fencing and gates and gate operators.

And I mean, they have it scattered everywhere in these plans and specs, which I mean, I hate to say it, but it does happen more often than not. Um, you know, when they're we're creating the plans, you know, they're like, "Oh, it doesn't belong on this sheet. It belongs on this sheet." Because we don't yet. Hopefully in the future, we will all have our own little, you know, section you know, the plumbers do and you know, the electric uh the electricians do. So, let's hopefully eventually, you know, the fencing and gates are all on. It would be helpful to have our own section. Yeah. I mean, I think it would absolutely be fantastic. It would definitely make things easier. Four different location sheets, right? So when what is like when we're going through these or you get a new set of plans and specs. So you've actually been estimating for high point commercial jobs for how long? I have been estimating commercial jobs for three years. I've been with the company assisting a little before that for almost eight years. And how many times do you see these revisions or missing agendas or missing plan pages come across your desk? Um, honestly, I'm really good at looking at them, so I make sure that I'm not missing them. But there has been a handful of times where I have missed getting information because I missed the agenda or I looked for an agenda and there was no agenda and I it was kind of too late at that point and I was kind of shot in the dark and hope to God that it we're good. Yeah. So, I know that um it's also not unheard of to get your plans or to get your bid together, right? You're like 99% there. You're ready to submit. You're ahead of the deadline. And then what happens? Here comes an agenda. And without fail, it's like you got to start almost all over. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. That's the worst feeling is that you're ready to go. This is good. It's looking good. We've got our numbers. And then bam, you've got, oh, we're removing this much and adding this much and it'll be a different type or we're adding a gate and so on so forth. It's frustrating because you have now a shorter time period to fix it. Yeah. So, go back and really review everything. And and that's another thing that we talk about in this track is when you're actually bidding commercial work and there are different sections or different types or different phases to actually how to set up your bid internally. So then when that agenda does come out, you're not having to rebuild the entire job. Mhm. Um which you know with the experience that I have and the experience that you have um has probably saved hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours um in the long scheme of things if you start separating them out from the very very beginning. Mhm. So, what do you think is probably the most missed or the most assumed when people start looking at plans and specs that are that are overlooked? Um, verifying that the doc uh verifying the document key to make sure you have the plans and specs and everything is up to date. revisions are not off your most current package that you have and any information with it is the same date. You don't want to be looking at plans that were revised a month or two ago and then you have one sheet that's been revised recently and those informations don't m that information doesn't match. So, do you actually go over in your class where this key is and how to verify it and how to make sure? Because there's there's a lot of information in a set of plans. Like there's a lot and there's a lot of really itty bitty tiny fine print that they sneak in there. Um, so you actually cover all of that as well as ways to doublech checkck and to use AI or to use certain um, programs, I guess, per se, to double check what's all in there, right? Yep. I mean, utilize the tools that everybody has available. Um, I know some of them are amazing and will definitely save the bottom dollar more times than not. Your eyes can miss some information. Having that second look, even the AI will help you a lot in the long run. I love that. I have been there. I have missed it. And said, "Hey, hubby, look this over." And he's like, "You missed this." I'm like,

"Thank you. You caught it." So having that second eyes, whether it's another person or AI or both, you're covering your butt one way or another. Absolutely. And if you are not protected and in the way you actually submit your bid or the details that are actually on your bid, if you missed it, if you are not very specific in the bid that you actually submitted, it's your scope. It's it's yours. So I know that later on in the track once we get class all the, you know, plans and specs and take offs and all that, we actually do have a class that's in this track that talks about how to protect your bid. um how to protect that information and those numbers to make sure that what scope you bid is actually what you're submitting and protected to it be the owner or the GC. Um so I love that. So if you were chatting with someone, you only had a couple minutes to, you know, pitch to them of what the importance is on how to bid commercial or breaking into commercial track. Um, how would you convince them to tell them they need to take this class and some information they're going to take away? Um, I would say that the most important thing is that you are in control of the documents. If you're not, you're going to screw yourself. If you don't know what you're looking at before you do any of the measuring, you're going to miss something and it's going to screw you in the long run. I love that. And and we tested that in this class. I think that was one of the fun things about you and I putting together this class is we actually included some really challenging projects on top of we included one that maybe was, you know, pretty straightforward or that we see, you know, all the time, but we wanted to really show both sides and two totally different projects um that have come across that, you know, sometimes are not all that abnormal. So, I love that you have some straightforward ones and other ones you're like, well, what the heck? You're like, where is this even at? Multiple fence types all spread out. Some are in one location, you got some over here, and you're like, how do I keep this all straight? And then they're images when you're looking for them are very similar. So, you're like, crap, I really got to look. Yeah. Um, you get into some of them. Um it's it's super super super super super fine detail and you have to be organized and be able to get yourself set up from the very very very beginning um in order to actually bid it correctly and to set your team up for success because if the estimator is missing stuff on plans, it's going to mess up the whole job. Unfortunately, that's that's just the nature of it. So it all rolls downhill. So everybody that's watching, this is a tiny little snippet. This is like such a minute part of the class that Andrea is leading in the breaking into commercial track that is on Tuesday, October 6, starts at 700 a.m. Um, Andrea is teaching class 3. So the class one is what to know before you even look at plans and specs. Um, class two is we get into the different types of commercial work because because there are different types. Class three is the plans and specs Andrea what you should know before you start doing your takeoff. Let's, you know, go through all of them. Verify our documents. Um, verify where our scopes are, where they're located, all the particulars. Class four is the plans and specs part two where we're going to get into some takeoffs. And then part or that's part four. Part five is protecting your bid and reviewing your contract because at bid stage there are some things that if you're a word of the job what you should do with your bid when it comes to contract. So we really take the whole breaking into commercial from the very beginning throughout the bid. So Andrea, I want to thank you for your time um over the last few months and being a part of Full Throttle as well as an instructor. We're super excited to have you. I'm excited to be there. So again, uh, Full Throttle Education at the Fen Show October 5th through the 9th. Get your full throttle pass at fenshow.com. Go to events and then you'll see the fence show. Click on it and register. If you are already registered and do not have a full throttle pass and would like to attend uh the breaking into commercial or any other track or education, you can upgrade your pass um on the website. If you're not quite sure

How to do that or need some help, reach out to us at supportfshow.com. And Andrea, we'll see her pretty soon in Las Vegas. Welcome to 2026 Full Throttle, introducing the instructors and a teaser on what is so different on the Full Throttle Education this year. I am here with the one and only Sam Nutello from the dot team. Sam's currently down in Florida just hanging out. So, I decided to steal him for a little bit this afternoon. And Sam, one of the things I'm super excited, we created an entire track that is actually scheduled for Tuesday, which is October 6th at During the Fence Show, and we've created a track called Digital Foundations. Um, and you and your team jumped on um for you to be an instructor, and I'm super excited about it. So, we're going to talk about that a little bit. Um, so before we get into that, like I know that you have a long history. Um, and your experience goes on for years and years, but you actually joined the fence industry specifically. How many years ago, man? I believe we're coming up on 10 or maybe I think it's 10. It it could be 11, but it's definitely 10. Time flies when you're having fun, huh? Unbelievable. I'm telling you, I tell people that I've been in the industry that long, I'm like, "Oh, I'm not that old. I've been doing this since I was five." Well, I've been doing digital marketing for 31 years. It fence is only 10 of those years. Yeah, I know. I know. I am that old. So, what the class that you're leading and the class that you actually we work together with a lot in putting together the curriculum, making sure things were aligned because obviously it's not my forte. I know enough to get in trouble, right? And I come at it when you and I were working on this education from being on the installer organization side of things and those relationships and all of that. So, we we really came at it from two different directions, which I think is really cool um in the curriculum that's being wrote. So, the the track or the class that you're leading is how AI chooses winners. So, what do we mean by that? Like what does that even mean? Well, uh, you know, for folks that aren't real close to AI, I I use Google as the starting point. We all have a pretty good sense that Google's looking for certain things to rank you, and the higher you rank, the better you typically would perform, right? AI is similar. AI is looking for for somewhat different things. But you want AI to like you, and the more they like you, the you know, the more they're going to recommend you. and the more they recommend you presumably the more successful you will be. Right. So what is what do you feel is like one of the biggest misconceptions um to organizations out there when it comes to AI and marketing um together. I think that strangely I hear things on both ends of the spectrum that are uh kind of pretty far off the truth in either direction and the truth is actually in the middle. So on one end of the spectrum, you have folks that somehow believe that AI and Google's basically the same thing. If you do the same things that you do for Google, like that's going to cover you for AI. That is absolutely not true. But then the other end of the spectrum is like, "Oh my god, like we've got to completely sell out, change everything. Anything that was working is is trashed and we've got to just we've got to, you know, and some of this is driven by fear marketing from, you know, new types of digital marketing agencies like you've got to change everything and pay us a million dollars so that we can change everything, you know, and people believe that too, but the truth is actually somewhere in the middle. There's there's a balance of of those two truths at the same time. I love that. So, and you really So, there's there's a lot of changes that you have to make in order for AI to make those recommendations, but at the same time, it's not you have to go in and rechange everything, right? You just got to kind of pivot and change directions a little bit. Yeah. I mean, so look, the basics of of Google rankings, again, this is the baseline because, man, listen, if you're a business owner and you don't have the foundational knowledge of what it even took to try to rank on Google, like

That's a that's a difficult position to be in, right? So, we're going to assume that maybe there's a baseline of understanding that you you know, you had to have a certain quality website, you had to care about some keywords, but but you had to establish your business, right? You had to you had to make sure that there was consistency across the web, that your business name was consistent, your NA what they call nap, your name, your address, and your phone number, that your NAP information was consistent across the web, your Facebook page, your Better Business Bureau listing, your, you know, your FWA uh listing in in their directory, like all those things. Like all that stuff has to be consistent or you lose trust. And that trust is foundational for AI. That's the foundation. Absolutely. So, we're going to actually pull up this is a sneak peek into the education book for the digital foundations track. So, there's what you guys did with the design this year. Looks good. Very. Thanks. It was um super fun. I mean, to be honest, like these whole workbooks were were a lot of fun to put together. So, can we give a shout out right now to Veronica, by the way? The woman put together about 10,000 pages of like you you think I'm exaggerating, but it's it's literally about 10,000 pages. It is a lot of content. There are um like thousands of pages of content that have been put together over full throttle. And I will tell you that the years of experience and my passion in this industry and being able to share this and being able to do it with instructors like yourself um has been probably one of the biggest highlights of my career to date to be honest. Um I've got to work with some great great people. So uh we're going to just pull up a page from the class that you're actually leading um in this book and it's you know how AI chooses winners factor one the core SEO foundation. So, so tell me about this page and and this checklist and how this all plays in together. Right. So, the core SEO foundation. Notice that this is not the core AI foundation. So, this is this is SEO. This is the this is the basic search engine optimization that you had to do for Google is this is the same. So, this is the part that didn't change, right? Your company name, your primary services, your service area. Um, you know, you have to define that very very clearly. It's amazing to me how many times I will uh be talking to a fence company owner from some part of the country and you know I'm like, "Well, what's your website? Let's take a look at it." And we pull it up and it literally doesn't even say serving southern Idaho or something, right? Like I'm like, "Where do you I don't even know where you do." It's crazy. It It's so easy because we get cute. We're like, you know, making your family's backyard dreams come true, right? that like we'll get real cute about that, but we don't simply say we are ABC Fence specializing in residential fencing in southern Idaho. Like I mean it's crazy, you know. So true. Yeah, it's so true. So that that this is the this is the core. Make sure your phone numbers phone numbers are funny because sometimes companies have multiple phone numbers and you might have once upon a time you listed your phone number, your personal cell phone on your Facebook page years ago. you didn't realize it. All those little inconsistencies lead to lack of trust. So, it's it's kind of goofy, silly stuff, but it's actually important stuff. So, one of the things that's different this year, um Sam, we've known each other for a long time. You know that I'm a very point blank person. Um I kind of, you know, tell the truth where it is and and hit where it hurts. So, at the bottom of this page, you'll actually see the savage tip. And these are tips that I have put together to actually serve as those gut checks. And on this one, it's AI cannot confidently recommend what is not clearly identified. And by that, it's really consistency, right, across everything that's out there in the web that never really goes away. Say it. Say it often. Say it the same way every time, right? I love that. So, if somebody is attending and and they've signed up for the digital foundations track for Tuesday and they're attending your class and this comes up and they're not quite

Sure if they can confidentially, you know, they're not 100% sure if they can check that box that yep, we've done this. Where do they start? or how do they they make sure or verify the information so that you know these these core SEO foundations it can carry over to things. Well, man, that's that's such a great question. So, the the the simple quick answer is that there are tests. There are even some free tests online um that you could do do and like literally you put your website address in and it will run what it calls an NAP test and it just goes out and it checks you know it goes across Better Business Bureau and all these different places in your Facebook account, your Google Business profile, which of course is critical. Um, and it just goes out across all these different places and it does that comparison to see and it'll point out to you like, you know, you're you're the the name of your company doesn't match. Here you say you're ABC Fence. Over here it says ABC Fencing LLC, right? Like those little differences, they they matter. So, there are actual uh, you know, good online tests that you could do this yourself. Um uh or you know there's deeper tests that an agency can run for you that gets even further into all that mess. Oh, so there's actually other sources. It's not that you just have to wing it and and start searching and start googling and start chat GBT and Groank and Claude and whatever other you know. No test is perfect and I would recommend uh we have a list of tests that we recommend that kind of get a greater diversity. But when I teach the course, I I that's one of the things that I'll be showing people in the course is, you know, here is this this URL, just go do this. And here's another one that tests it in a little bit different way. Go do this. So we the that's the kind of stuff we'll be covering in the courses for sure. It's all free. We there's professional tools that we that we use as an agency, but anytime I'm teaching a class, I always make sure that everybody has a free resource that is reasonably good. I love that. So, that actually um wraps up kind of our little teaser, but one of the main questions I have for you, somebody that's watching this is what is one thing if they're attending your track and they want to go through this and they want to make sure that AI is, you know, things are consistent, the SEO foundation's great, and the everything's listed the way that it is, and now they really want to start focusing on how AI chooses. what is the one thing that they should do before they come to Vegas so they know where they stand. They know what what consistencies or inconsistencies are out there. I think that um I think that you should use your own eyeballs. You don't have to run a test. Now, you certainly, you know, you could go look you go to Google or AI be please be careful about the AI tests. Oh my goodness. Like chat I use chat GPT like eight hours a day, right? I use Grock and and I use these things, but man, they're only as good as the prompt that you put in, right? So, if you if you're using if you're not asking exactly the right question, you don't get exactly the right answer. So, please, please, please be careful about the way y'all use AI to get to the bottom of these answers. Use your eyeballs, pull your website up, take a look at what it says, pull your Facebook page up, pull your Google business profile up. um anything that you have and just look like does this stuff match. Right now, of course, we're focusing on just the consistency again of that NAP, the name, address, phone number for trust. This is a tiny tiny piece of what goo uh excuse me, what AI looks for, but that's the baseline. Look, if I don't trust you, we have no relationship, right? So, we have to establish the trust. Then we get into the deeper stuff that AI also cares very much about. So I absolutely love this. I want to thank you for your time. Like this is just a small little tiny sliver of the 90 minutes that you are scheduled in the digital foundation and in regards to how AI is picking winners. This is I mean when we tell you guys that full throttle education is something new and different that's never been done before and we're bringing on a whole new level. This is it. So Sam, I want to thank you for your time. Um, again, full throttle. If you are not registered, go to funshow.com. Um, click events. You can register for your full throttle experience. If you

Are already registered and want to upgrade your current passes to full throttle, you can do that. Um, you it helps if you have your registration confirmation already. If you're struggling, you're not quite sure how to upgrade your passes, reach out to supportfenshow.com. um and either myself or one of our team members will be more than happy to help you. And Sam, thank you so much for joining this instructor group on digital foundations. That'll be on Tuesday. We do have some other um stuff that we're working on with you and presentations, which we're super excited to have you. And uh we can't wait to see everybody next month. See y'all in Vegas.

We are back. 2020 isite 2026 full throttle instructor meeting. We've got Nico on here. I'm super excited um to have a little conversation with him. But we're talking about the the real true full throttle education that we've been throwing out and that we've been teasing about that. You know, everybody can say this event's going to be different, right, Nico? How many times have you heard that? We've heard it a lot the last couple of months and I'm excited for what's to come. It's it's going to be a banger for sure. So, have we proven that we're doing something different? I don't know if we've proven it. I mean, from the instructor's side, we've proven it. Absolutely. Well, how does everyone else know? Yeah. Well, that's what we're doing. That's why we're talking about this. There we go. So, I guess let's just dig into it. So, Nico, you um I reached out to you and you're like, heck yeah, I want to be an instructor. And um so you are actually leading a class in our from post to profits which is really geared towards small business. And I say small and I hate that term um because it's really this whole track is geared towards whether if you're brand new or if you've been in the industry for you know a decade and you're wanting to make some changes or some adjustments. I mean this is really a great class for you to take right the whole track. Yeah. This whole thing is not necessarily just for small businesses. This is for business owners. This is for CEOs, managerial individuals. From your project management to your project coordinators all the way through your salespeople. If you have any managerial bone in your body, this is absolutely a course for you. So, I know that when I reached out to you, there was kind of some hesitation, which I got kind of a lot because I was like, "Oh, we're going to write the curriculum with you and we're going to, you know, create this really cool book and we're going to get everything together." And everybody was like, "What in the world are you even talking about?" Like, what? Um, what was your first impression of that? Uh, first impression when you came to me and said, "Hey, we're going to write your content. You can edit a little bit but you guys provide vast majority of it. Uh I had my doubts. I had my doubts. uh after looking at the book and you shared just a quick glimpse of the the cover there, but even just like each day I'm going through some of the content that's inside of the book as I'm preparing my own presentation, making sure that I'm delivering as much quality and value to the individuals in this class. Uh I can't bring possible. I am refining even some of the contextual information that I am having is just reinforcing more of the same ideas. So, I am beyond impressed with how well this has been written. Well, thank you. That really means a lot. We have put a ton of work into this. Um, and making sure that, you know, the information that we've learned over, you know, years and years and years of doing this, sometimes you forget that you know it. Sometimes that you forget that that's in the back of your head. And so, to be able to put it down into a book and share it was actually um it's been amazing to do. and and thanks to instructors like yourself that are, you know, I'm sending out drafts and I'm sending out this, I'm sending like I need some more feedback on this one or I need another input on this one. So, none of it would be possible without all the instructors. So, thank you for that. So, leading is about managing people and accountability without losing your team. Man, have I watched this one go south before? Um, so I guess without having to give, you know, the whole class away because this is a 90-minute session and there's a there's a lot of parts to it, right? It's not just one simple one-word answer and there you go. Yeah. So, you have to figure out who you're dealing with and then really take a look in yourself. If you're if you're a manager and you're having problems with expectations um and holding people accountable, really the first place you should look is yourself, right? You are really hitting the nail on the head. You might as well go ahead and give, you know, you can teach the class

Yourself now. It might have been a time or two, Nico. Where you are anchoring this conversation is exactly what the trajectory of where the the entire class needs to hold within and keep at the heart of the entire conversation. It's all about how am I looking at myself and how I view myself and then being able to communicate through a lens. I mean, if you're Christly follower, put Christ in the middle of that filter and have a conversation with those in front of you then, which allows you to have more accountability because you can also reflect that same information because you've already reflected it back on yourself. You know, it's the source of truth and you don't want to come off from the source of truth and just give a willy-nilly answer to say, "Hey, yep, this is what you do." There's no documentation. There's no accountability. There's no standard to set forth behind it. We need source truth to work with people. And no, you hit the nail on the head. Knowing oneself is is the very first step to be a good mentor and leader. I'll tell you, in all my years, there have been more times than not where, you know, something happens and it goes ary and the very first thing I do is take a step back and go, "Wait a minute. Did I clearly communicate? Did I train thoroughly? Did I train properly? um is there an SOP, you know, for them to reference, you know, and you just kind of take a step back because if you're not the one clearly communicating and you're not the one who's setting that foundation, how can you expect anybody else to follow that lead, right? So, um I'm gonna actually I will go ahead and pull up this book again real quick so everybody can see it. So, um, the from post to profits class is on Monday, October 5th. It is quickly approaching. Um, it'll be here before we know it. So, this whole track starts at 7 a.m. in the morning. Um, and Nico is leading one of them in here. So, we're going to flip to a a quick teaser page under the content that Nico's actually helped us put together. Um, and that's not the one I wanted, but that's okay. We'll flip here. Oh, the paradox is good, too, though. So, tell me about this page, Nico, because this is such a simplistic way to put it in writing. Yeah. I mean, the easiest, lowest hanging fruit for anybody when we were trying to lead a team or to help a team get over a finish line or hit the basic understanding of a completed project. It's what was the expectation communicated? Where were they going to training manuals, information, scope of work, design intent, where is that expectation clearly explained and where can they reference it? So that's expectation management. And then the follow-up. So we've already completed the project. We follow up now and look at the project's completion like hey did we follow the necessary so the uh the qualified SOPs that we've already driven inside the expectations did we follow through with the individual who's responsible for those pieces did parts and pieces get dropped and now we can identify those items and help them uh overcome the challenges that prevented them from hitting the final expectation. Heard. So, I love that because it's not just a matter of, oh, so and so didn't do this right. And, you know, then you're angry or you're mad or now you've got a a job that, you know, you've lost money on and you've got a mad customer and now you've got a bad Google review and you've got all these things, but it really just takes it back down to the foundation, right? And then making sure that you are teaching and you are training and you are leading your team, not just upset because of the communication or lack of communication. So this savage tip down here I really love um for this one. If a standard isn't written down, it's just a suggestion. Um is the first part of that says and people don't get fired for um I kind of ignoring suggestions. It matters to the profit. um put it on the checklist. So if it lives in your head, don't expect everybody else for it to mean so much more and to be able to hold people accountable. That sounds so much like relationships, Veronica. I know. I can't I'm not a mind reader. I You got to tell me what you want, what

You need. I'm telling you. and write it down if it's that important so I can read it 12 times because I gotta focus and I gotta pay attention. So, uh, let me pull this down. Couple more questions for you. Here's your elevator pitch, Nico. You got you're on the 55th floor of a building. You're in an elevator. You're on your way down. Um, you run into somebody. They say they're in the fence industry. What's your pitch to attend the from post to profits track on Monday? Oh, I am terrible at this. There's a reason why I've not I am not the sales rep for the company here. I'm not either. Brian does this to me all the time. So, if I have to do it, you have to do it. Totally fine. Well, uh, elevator pitch. 30 seconds or less. What we're trying to accomplish here today in this class is just to empower you to understand more information to help you understand what your guys are going through because the primary piece with that is if you want a highly efficient, highly trained, highly valuable, cultur company and even just a team then you need to understand what you're doing inside of your company. So that's expectation management, that's communication, that's training, that's SOP development, that's systems, that's processes. I go to my blues. My face is blue. The idea here is just to help you understand how I how you can help them help you. Yeah. And ultimately, that's what it is. It's a two-way street. And then on top of it, we have pulled it up a couple times um throughout this the education book. So any of the tracks that you guys actually attend, these are your books to take home. Um they are first come first serve. We will have a limited quantity for each track. So if you want to get your hands on it, be in that room a little bit early. It starts at 7 o'clock. Um so you're going to be able to take these home. They are interactive. There are notes places in there. And then on top of that, the tracks have toolbox in the back. So there are some forms and some resources we've already created. we've already worked through and they're in the back of the book for us to give you like here you go. Heck yeah. Everyone So, Nico, I want to tell you thank you um for being a part of the instructor team. We're super excited to have you on for Monday and have you at the fence show. Um it is going to be here so so quick, very fast. I'm thankful to be a part of the team. I'm super excited for what's to come. So, thanks so much for everybody out there. If you do not have your full throttle pass or if you're not registered for the event yet, go to fencow.com um events and you can register. If you already have an expo hall pass and you do not have your full throttle pass, you may upgrade. Um go ahead, check it out. I know pricing is getting ready to go up on full throttle passes again, so might want to sneak in there and grab your full throttle pass so you can hang out with Nico and the rest of the team on the front post to profits track on Monday. So, Nico, thanks so much and we'll see you soon. Absolutely. Thanks, Veronica. So, I am here with Justin and Kyle today from Round to Digital. Um, thanks guys for coming on with me. Absolutely. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. You guys signed up to be a part of our digital foundations track that is on Tuesday, October 6, starts at 700 a.m. Um, and you guys are leading a pretty cool class. Um, I've worked with you guys for the last several months on how to be the fence company Google and AI recommends. I mean, that's a pretty big topic for us to kind of dig into um during a 90-minute session. So, when I came to you guys and we started having this conversation, we talked a lot about full throttle education being so different, right? And we can say all day that the education's different, but now we're going to start proving that it's so different. So when we were putting together this curriculum, what stood out um Kyle to you as it for it being different than any other education session you guys have been a part of? Well, we've been a part of a couple of these and I can tell you the level of involvement that it took for us to come prepared uh to be able to work with you guys uh was a lot more effort on our part, which tells me that there's a lot more substance uh that's associated with

Uh becoming a part of this than uh than we've ever been a part of, which is kind of the cool part. Um the I feel like the the hard part for us is behind us in generating the the outline and the substance to the uh to the actual course. And now we're kind of at the fun part where we get to actually do it and talk about it. So that's kind of the what that's my opinion. So Justin, what about you? I would have to agree with everything Kyle said. I I unfortunately don't think I have too much to add to it. It's the involvement. I've done a lot of classes in the past and I don't think anyone has ever pushed us as hard as you have, Veronica. I don't know whether to say you're welcome or I'm sorry. Let's go with the ladder. The ladder. You're make us look good. That's the That's the best part. I feel like we're you're going to make us look good. So definitely we really wanted to come at it where it we were making things easier for you guys even though prior might not have seemed that hey come on like come on I need this information. Um okay so let's dig into the content just a little bit. Um let's talk about Google visibility because this is such a big topic in our industry. Um so we're going to talk about just Google part right now. So Kyle, when a company wants to get better visibility on Google, what are some first steps that they should take? The first steps are always getting your Google business profile verified. like you really let me take a step back actually because there's a lot of companies that exist and because they've existed for 15 20 years they think oh I'm just super googleable or people are coming from referrals and uh other sources but they don't really take the time to actually start from a foundation of how do I actually appear on Google? Uh so that's the that's kind of what our course is about is kind of going into uh almost a a bit of a self audit on am I actually discoverable.

I think I lost him. Yeah, he broke out for a moment there. There you go. It happens. Am I actually discoverable when somebody Googles a fence company near me? Am I actually going to be found if somebody was to use chat GPT or Grock or any of, you know, Claude, any of these ones that there's probably new ones coming out every single day. How do you actually become discoverable? And that is what I feel like a lot of these companies will will miss is they've gotten so used to generating business the way that they always have that they just assume that they're they're discoverable. So that's what our course is going to be taking everybody through is just how let's start at the foundation. How like what am I being found for now and what am I what where are the gaps in my campaign? Um or do I even have a campaign at all? So, I love that you said that because that was a huge part of Full Throttle is really starting at the very beginning. Like, let's build the foundation. You can't build up if your foundation is poor, right? You you can build up to a certain point and then you got to redo the foundation, then you can build up more and then you got to redo it. So, we really did come at the digital foundation track really starting at the basics where if someone isn't a current customer of yours, there is stuff that they can do and they can start to prepare and they can really start to get the ball rolling. So, when their organization is at a point um they're already ahead of the game and it makes things easier for you guys in the long run. Um, so what is a sign, Justin, of a organization that might be having difficulties being seen on Google or through AI? Uh, I think inconsistency is the biggest culprit uh towards being invisible online. inconsistency. You could have uh you could have your business name, you know, Justin Spence Company, uh but then that and that's what it reads on your Google business profile, right? But then you get on my Facebook and it says Justin Spence Company LLC, right? Just a small problem, but that can lead to an inconsistency. And when Google and Chad GPT and Grock see these inconsistencies, they trust your business a lot less. And inconsistency kills it, right? So if the website represents the business one way and your GBP represents it another, the directories can contain outdated information or conflicting names, locations, phone numbers or services, then you're just creating ambiguity. And Google and AI systems are trying to connect all those signals back to one real world business. So the more conflicting information they encounter, the harder you're making that job. Um, and customers experience it the exact same way, right? So if somebody finds you on Google, visits your website, and then checks your social media, and starts seeing conflicting information, they're all going to have questions, too. So we want to make it easy for Google and AI and customers to understand who you are, what you do, where you do it, and why they should trust you. Absolutely. I love that. So, um here is our sneak peek into the digital foundation um education workbook that you guys actually helped us assist put together for your class. Um and the full track. Uh we had a meeting last week um with all of the instructors of this track. And let me tell you, that's that's one lineup that we had it going great. So, we're actually going to skip to one of the pages and give a little bit of a sneak peek and then we'll talk about it just a tad. Let me grab it. So, this one really stood out to me when um we talked about doing this um conversation and recording it is the seven steps in the right order, So, Kyle, why is the order important? Like, it shouldn't matter, right? Like, I can just Oh, well, let's hit number three and then let's go to number two and then let's hit number six and let's go to number one and and backtrack all the information that's out there. Why is this so important to follow these seven steps? They these are things that can be uh that again this is a self audit. So it's like if if your name is inconsistent, there's uh there's directories that just scrape and crawl your website or maybe your website of 15 years ago and they might just put a a phone number that you used to have. Um, and if all of this information is not consistent, the next things are going to be inaccurate and it's going to be challenging for uh you

To build a campaign on. So, um, I think for this course, the way that we structured this, this get this kind of takes you through a digestible bit of, uh, you know, a digestible work order that you can just sit there and say, have I accomplished this? And be able to move on. Um I think that uh there's a lot of information that you know like like if we were to uh you know say step one is complete, step two is complete. A lot of people do have this but uh when we get to step two the name and the uh domain foundation is often inconsistent and that's always at Rounded Digital that's where we always start. We don't necessarily verify uh um or uh claim business profiles for our for the companies that we work with, but we we always offer that as the our first step because if you don't have that, we're probably not going to be able to build a strong campaign, which is basically step two through seven. So even as an agency, we want our clients to be able to start from step one. And it it just made sense to outline it like this like before you come to us make sure that these things are consistent because without it we've we've tried doing it without it back I mean we're we're 10 years old now year one two three we probably would have said yes like let's let's make you a better company let's make you more visible but so many times we've just kind of beat ourselves uh because we were like oh wait we should have start we should have had them do the first step before coming to us because you know chasing down that first step is just it it doesn't make anything go right if it's wrong. Right. So Justin, when you guys have somebody that comes to you and you guys are going through and you know making sure you know what steps they're on or what they're doing, what do you find to be the biggest part that most organizations are weak or lacking in? Honestly, it is by far the Google business profile. Um, you know, there's there's like this anatomy of local search visibility, right? And there's really just eight core pieces to it. You've got your GBP, uh, your behavioral signals, so like your click-through rates and click to calls and driving directions requests, um, your on page and website signals, your review signals, content, keyword footprint. We have we have these eight primary sources of the anatomy of local search visibility. But the one that I see business owners neglect the absolute most is their Google business profile. And if I can preach to everyone right now, I will let you know, make sure that it is completed to 100%. Every week, add new photos and videos to your Google business profile. What's really cool about that is that Google knows where you are. It there's your your photos are geotagged and as you're uploading new photos, you're telling Google two things. One is I'm active in this city. Well, one is I'm in this city and two is I'm active in this city. Um, so consistent photos and then beyond that, the reviews. Uh, having a consistent velocity of of reviews coming into your Google business profile is extremely important. And a lot of business owners don't realize that it's an opportunity for them to respond to these reviews, which gives you an opportunity to use your primary keywords in your review response. Now, don't take that as a sign to l to keyword stuff your review, right? Make sure they're naturally integrated into those responses, but that is a perfect opportunity for you to say something along the lines of, "Oh, thank you so much. We really enjoyed building that vinyl fence for you in Austin, Texas. Uh, you know, the such and such neighborhood of Austin, Texas. Thank you so much for your trust in your business." So on and so forth. So, Google business profiles, focus on that every week. I love that. So, that really answers one of my next big question is so before they come to the digital foundations track, before they get to come hang out with you and have these conversations with you, um I'm assuming the number one thing that they can do to be prepared to come into digital foundations is check their Google. Yes, absolutely. And when you log into Google to manage your Google business profile, there's a little icon that shows how complete that is and get it to 100%. Just do that. If if you can do nothing else, just get it to 100%. And then there's room to work. I love that. So, thank you guys. Um for everybody that is watching, this is one page of this entire class that um Kyle and Justin will be teaching. It is one

Page of the track that starts at 7 a.m. on October 6th. Um we're super excited about this track. There's some really great Google and AI and Facebook and all of this great stuff that we have going on in the digital world. So, make sure that you have your full throttle pass. If you um are not currently registered for the fence show, which is October 5th through the 9th, go to fence show.com. It's right down there at the bottom. Um go to events and click register. It will actually give you the option for your full throttle. If you currently have a expo pass and you are not a full throttle pass holder, you can upgrade your pass to full throttle. So, you can come hang out with these guys. um come have these conversations and definitely learn more about what you can do before you actually hire um maybe Round to Digital to handle your marketing and your digital world footprint. So, thank you guys so very much and uh we'll see you guys in a few weeks. All right, we're looking forward to it. See you. Bye. Super excited to introduce Alec from Secure Line Marketing. Alec, thanks for joining me this afternoon. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. So, uh, before we get started, why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself and about Secure Line. Yeah. So, I'm Alec. I'm one of the owners of Secure Line. Um, we do all types of digital marketing specifically for fence contractors. We have a pretty simple methodology. Um, the clients, the customers should hold all the power. So, we put ourselves in positions where we need to perform immediately to show value. and it's worked well for us because we're we're good at what we do. So, yeah, we're a small scrappy team with over 45 or 50 years experience just among our leadership team and uh um I just think it benefits everybody when you keep your marketing team on a short leash and very hungry. And so, we dive right into that. So, one of the things I loved when um we were introduced and I had a chance to chat with you was exactly that. you know, it was really geared towards customers and that's what FWA and Fence University is really about is making sure that customers and small contractors have things readily available and the knowledge experience um to either change or to adapt or to grow or to even start the next phase, Digital marketing is absolutely such a huge thing in our day and age now and it seems like it's constantly evolving. Yeah. So to bring in your guys' knowledge and expertise was super fun. One of the things um I we have talked about a lot in this process is is this new full throttle experience. So if you were to tell the viewers kind of what is you know you hear us t say it all the time that full throttle is so different. We're doing something that the industry's never done. How what what are we doing? I mean how would you say that this is so different than everything else that you've done? Yeah, I think um what I really like about it is it's it's taking responsibility for the way that it's set up. It's taking responsibility for the entire package of information. Um it's not I don't think it's possible to like dip your toe in a topic and pull out and really feel that you're an expert in it. And so by creating these like these tracks where the the speakers are essentially coordinating their speeches with each other to provide as much information as we can um to everyone who attends. I think that's special because well first of all no one wants to listen to one person talk for you know six hours straight. It's uh would be a terrible experience. So you get different perspectives and you can see um what we all agree on and what we think differently on and um but at the end of it the experience is going to be a full package of information that is you know what's nice is you're asking us to make our speeches very actionable so all the speakers are on the same page. We all have the same mission going into this and we're really like approaching the education at the at the convention very uh very holistically which I think is is going to be really powerful for the folks who are able to attend. So when we started this process and you and I started chatting and we started working um on your class within the digital foundation track that will be on Tuesday. What was so different from the very beginning um from that very first phone call. Um I you know the feedback that I

Got during all of these instructor meetings. Um but I just want to know like what was going through your head when you had that meeting with me? Uh, well, honestly, I was like I was like, "Oh, you have uh there's a lot more there's a lot more structure than I'm used to having, you know? It was like, okay, here's what we want you to do. Here's the deliverables we want at the end. Um, here's the things like that we want you to cover." And it's because my speech is fitting in with the the rest of the landscape of the speeches. And I that's definitely a unique experience. Um, it's definitely a unique experience. So, in some ways it's more work and then in other ways it's less work. Uh because it's being it's being coordinated from a different level, not just, you know, me getting to go on stage and just, you know, riff and right with speech. So, I like that. And with with all my experiences in the fence industry and I come from an install world, an organ, you know, from an organization that's actually got, you know, guys in the field and we're watching our numbers and we're, you know, working on our marketing and and you know, for years I was a point of contact for that. So, making sure that there were, you know, photos up and, you know, things were constantly flowing and that kind of stuff. So I when you and I sat down and we talked about um one of the the main things that I wanted to get out in this track were things that you should know either you know before you've even hired on with an SEO or with a digital marketer and then all the way through like what that process looks like to where you start getting contracts and then what time and attention really goes into it after you're signed up and things are flowing because it doesn't job. No. Um, but there's there's places that they should be in an organization and goals that they should hit and things they should have in place before they decide to take this next step. Right. Definitely. It's uh, well, it's a topic close to my heart. Unfortunately, I think a lot of folks in the fence industry have experienced where they're evaluating multiple companies and they can't really tell the difference between them because they're all saying the same thing. and then they sign up and the results are not what they expected them to be or they're just like waiting waiting waiting waiting for some results to happen and they're like well you know like my mentor or my friend said that it would eventually work so I'll just keep pouring money into it and so uh for me like it's a it's an ethical it's an ethical situation for me it's one of the reasons that um we formatted our company the way that we did um no one is forced to stay with us. Um, and we don't own anything that we put on your site. So, everything is from day one, everything is yours. Um, because there's a lot of, well, the one thing all marketers have in common, they sure know how to make themselves look good. Um, but under the hood, there's there's sports cars and there's clunkers. And so I'm happy I got this topic because I do talk to so many companies and there's just, you know, the industry is rife with practices that aren't in your in the customer's best interest and and um so I'm happy I get to shine some light on it. So, we're gonna we're gonna pull this up real give um the education um what the book looks like, what these students as they're walking into a track that you're leading this class on on this, you know, before, during, and after in SEO and taking your steps on this is a book they're going to get. So, so they're getting this content in writing. Love that. Yeah. Um, so we're going to just we're going to just check a quick page. We're going to kind of look at some stuff. Um, ask you a quick question in regards to this so students can actually see, you know, the type of content. What's so different? You know, we can all say that we're doing something different, but then until you actually see things, um, it kind of matters. So, ownership and contract terms. This is not something that we normally think about in the digital marketing when we're we're wanting to either change or adapt in our current marketing or we're wanting to grow and expand our digital marketing. You don't think about this, right? you meshed with somebody uh at a

At a fence show and you're like this is great and absolutely and like you know this is what we can do for you and these are the services and everything's great and you kind of do some shopping but contract terms are not something we think about that's normally commercial world or even residential contracts. So we really put this in black and white for everybody to take home and use as a resource. Yeah. Yeah. There's some um there are there's some very well-known companies um that try to appeal to the masses and it sounds good on paper and then you find out if you decide the results aren't there that if you leave there's pieces of what you've been counting on that are actually not yours. So instead of hiring someone to help build your business, you've hired you you you actually were paying for a rental. And so then it becomes difficult. You get faced with very difficult decisions about okay when should I break up with this company because my leads could drop by, you know, 20 to 40 or 60% until I figure out another solution. And a lot of companies, a lot of fence companies just didn't budget for that. They often don't find out about it. So on that page, it talks about um things you could look for in the fine writing of the contract itself about uh who owns the domain, who owns the website, who owns uh any graphics on the page, um how long are you tied to them, um how long are you tied to them, if they're using tracking numbers, a lot of folks will use, which I do recommend, dynamic tracking numbers, so you can tell how many leads came from each of your marketing channels. Uh if you leave, do you keep those numbers or do they get the numbers? Do you need do do you need new ones? Um the historical information, um most of them are pretty explicit about any applications or software. They'll tell you how much it'll cost to keep using it if you want to keep using it. But it's a um you know, it's a it can be a bit of a Pandora's box um because you have a relationship with the person selling you and then you get the service agreement and you think, "Hey, I trust this person enough with my business. I'm sure this is in my best interest." And they tell you it's normal. Hey, don't worry about it. It's normal. This is all what we do. and then a year down the line you're trying to pull yourself out and you can't because the thorns are in there. And not saying that even companies that make you sign these contracts or that they own, you know, the content are not great, not providing these great services. That is not that the whole point of this class, right? The class is really just to bring the awareness and really the different services or different things that could happen. Yes. Within signing up for an SEO. Um, and then I've learned more and more throughout this because obviously digital marketing is not my strong forte is is when you say SEO, which on an organization standpoint, you think everybody is created equal, right? A fence post is a fence post is a fence post. It goes in the ground. Yes, there's different techniques. There's different ways to do things, but in the end, installation is installation. Yeah. One of the things I learned um in speaking with all of you guys that are speaking in this track is man but what a difference and even services and different things that everybody does and you know things that secure does that's different than everybody else um which is which is pretty cool for me to actually dig into um in this industry. So, if you were to tell someone, so let's do your elevator pitch, right? If you're on the 52nd floor, you're going down, you have this 10-second pitch of why someone should attend this digital foundation track that involves so many great instructors in the digital marketing. Um, what would that be? Well, if um if you're finding your fence company or your or your marketing in general has either stopped growing or plateaued or it's suddenly become a lot more challenging, this is going to be a great way to get a lot of different perspectives on that problem quickly. And it's going to give you a game plan or multiple game plans that you can test and apply yourself um to try to shake your fence company loose and get the revenue going where you want it to go again. I love that. And for anybody that's watching right now before they get to the fence show and on October 5th

Through the 9th and have a chance to sit in your class, what are some things that if they're currently with an SEO or they're getting ready to, you know, take this next step into hiring an SEO? Yeah. What are one or two things that they should be checking or doing prior to coming to your class? Um, some of the best things that you can do is um, well, probably the most ob one obvious one before you hire any marketing company is, um, talk to your team about what are what makes us different from all of our competition in the area. It's very hard to sell, you know, ice to an igloo. You want to have some contrast or ice to an igloo. Ice to an Eskimo. Hey, it works. Some contrast to your brand. And then the other things you can do that will certainly help is get very good at taking photos. um standing in the same spot getting before and afters and um because having that folder is going to make everything go so much faster. But I think a lot of it comes down to identity and then most marketing companies in a short conversation will tell you based based on where your revenue is at how consistent your leads are if SEO is what you should be investing in now or if there's other channels that maybe come first. And I love that one of we did kind of take a little bit of approach on this is that even before you reach out to secure line um in regards to services, we actually put in the book of things that you could be doing and to help get to that point. So when you are ready in your organization to start this next phase because it is another phase of growth um you know we kind of lay that out in the full throttle book which was something really cool and I know something different for you to actually put into writing. So yeah, um I appreciate your time. I appreciate all of your guys's work um and communications and time with me to create this full throttle experience. And we're super excited to offer the digital foundation track again. It will be October 6 starting at 7 a.m. in the morning. Um yeah, Alec was super excited about that, guys. So thank you for your time. Thank you for being an instructor. We are going to dig way more into this during the full throttle experience next month in October. Um, and so we're excited to share all that with you. So, Alec, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you. Thanks for your hard work putting all this together and for inviting us. Absolutely.