Are Facebook Ads a Young Person's Game?

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All right, what's going on? Welcome everybody for tuning in. It is what? July 23rd, 2026. Can you believe it's the middle of the year already? It's crazy, right? Hey, so today we got Sasha back, which is kind of exciting. Sash, I feel like you haven't been here in a couple weeks. You've been just Man, you've been swamped at your business. I know. Just uh running around. What's been going on with you? Yeah. Well, I've been fixing six blowouts for the last I have never in all my life doing this a long time driven a trailer that had had We've only got four wheels on the trailer, by the way, and got six blowouts. So just dilemma I've never experienced in my life. So it was an adventure. A trip that should have taken 5 hours ended up taking 48 and uh yeah just got the trailer back to where it belongs. So that's been my I shouldn't I shouldn't be laughing because I talked to him the entire for two days. I felt like while he was just taking a what three 300 mile road trip and it felt like every couple hours I call him up and he was cussing and screaming alongside the road with a flat tire. was crazy. Don't drive from Yeah. So, I made it. Yeah. Well, welcome back. We missed you. Best co-host ever. Uh, but today we're here to welcome uh Everybody sees you all the time, man. Let's welcome the star of the show here, right? Ivon Fencelight Media, man. Uh, you kind of came in I I think I mentioned this before. You came into the industry, you kind of softplated a little bit, man. You didn't cause any waves. You didn't stir anything up. you weren't there to to, you know, you weren't there to flip anything upside down. You just kind of came in and started helping helping people out in our industry. Um, let's tell everybody about yourself and uh, you know, I'm pretty excited to get into this a little bit because a lot of people won't know some of the details and facts we're going to share about you, but tell everybody about yourself and uh, Fenceite Media. Yeah, absolutely. So, probably the most surprising thing about me is I'm only 20 years old, right? Um, we've been running the agency for about three years now. We work with roughly 30 35 fence companies across both the United States and Canada. And the reason that I got into this business is for two specific reasons. One, I'm a very creative individual. I've always enjoyed putting things together. And when I was a kid, the most fun part about the Super Bowl, I'll be honest, was the commercials. I enjoyed that part. So, as I began to grow up a little bit and meta ads began to be on the rise, I began to dive a little bit deeper into marketing and I have a lot of family background with people who are bluecollar. And my first ever client was actually a fence company still with me to this day. He's about two hours north of me here in San Jose. He's over in Loi. Amazing guy. Bates fencing is the name of that company. And we ran ads for him. We got him great results. began to get a few jobs in every single week. And I thought to myself, if I can do this for him, why can't I do it for other fence companies across the nation? So that's how Fency Media was born and that's how we're here today. Yeah. So Fentilite Media is it's yours. You started that thing on your own. Yep. Yes, I did. Yeah. And what made you I mean you say you you you know you got you basically can kind of relate to blueco collar workers and stuff like that but what made you uh say hey I'm going to do this for fencing. I mean that's not a lot of people think of fencing. They they don't they barely think of us as a trade sometimes. So what would make you say I think I'm going to start uh doing marketing for fence companies. Yeah. When I was first starting off I just enjoyed marketing as a whole. Right. So I spoke with a few different businesses. I you know did ads for Bates Fencing Inc. I did ads for a landscaping company. I did ads for a pool builder and I just had the best conversations with James over at Bates Fencing Inc. It just seemed like like we clicked. We had the same values both in our personal lives and in our business. And I think, you know, being at the fence show already and actually being able to speak with a lot of these fence company owners face to face, I do I began to see a trend in how you guys run your business. It's based on integrity, right? You guys

Enjoy what you do. You guys love what you do. You guys treat every single fence that you guys install like it's your your own. And maybe some trades are the same, maybe they're not. But I couldn't really see that trend in them. So that's what kind of drew me in into fencing. And when I was a kid, um, we had a fence around our backyard home back in Ukraine and I'd break that fence a lot cuz I used to play soccer. I'd kick it into the fence, break the pickets. My grandparents would make me fix it up. So that's also another kind of personal story that I have to tie back into why I decided to work with with fence companies. Wow. Sovan when so obviously you're from Ukraine so if nobody knows you originally so how old were you when you came to the states like tell us a bit about that background growing up in Ukraine and and ending up in in the states and how that all unfolded. Yeah, absolutely. So my father's a very big figure in my life and if I can be half the man that he is when I grow up, I'll be happy. Um, but we actually moved to Japan first before we moved to the United States. So when I was three and a half, my dad got a job to work at a company to code chips for cameras. We lived an hour outside of Tokyo and then we moved over to Certino, California. Um, I'm very grateful in the fact that there wasn't a huge transition in terms of language for me. I have a lot of buddies that come here from Ukraine now and it's a little bit difficult for them to pick up the language, but I went to kindergarten, elementary, middle school, high school, all that stuff here and then college as well. Um, but you know, coming from Ukraine and then from Japan as well, we pretty much started at ground zero. Yeah. And when I was younger, I saw the way that my dad kind of hustled and worked to be able to put food on the table for me and my family. And that really inspired me as I began to get older because I saw the way that he was able to provide for me. And I said, "Well, I want to be able to provide the same way for the people that I love and I care about and that I hold close." So that's really cool. Well, you know, you said because you said you were 20 years old, which uh and that alone tells me that you and I have a lot in common, you know, because I have this coffee mug that that is 20 years old as well. So So, you've got family though that uh actually built fences, right? And that's kind of what you were saying is uh you know, back and doing some fence stuff. So, tell me about that. Yeah. So, back in Ukraine, I have family members that are bluecollar and they don't necessarily run fence companies. They're more under the handyman roof. So, they kind of do a a little bit of of everything. Um, for example, back in our village that we have, my my uncle built a fence. Um, he built a vinyl fence around the house, for example. Then he did some wooden fences for other people in our neighborhood. Um, he's now more into welding and stuff like that. That's kind of his passion. That's that's what he does. Um, and we jam with him sometimes on where he should take his business and stuff like that, but it's two completely different markets, Ukraine and here, right? What's the marketing like there, man? I mean, how do you how would you I mean, I think people are all we're always curious about that because I know Sash does a lot with he he's really familiar with how it works in Europe and things like that as well, but how I mean, if you have started a fence company in Ukraine, how does that how does what do you do? I mean, how do you start a fence company in Ukraine? I think I think at its core from a marketing perspective, marketing is going to be marketing all across the world. Yeah. Right. You need to understand a few things. One is who is your ideal customer? if you don't have an understanding of who your ideal customer is, how can you make advertising or marketing posts that speak to that ideal customer? So that's always that I say and when I ask people when they come on board or when I speak to family members who run Blue Call or any other type of business, I'm like, we need to understand who your ideal customer is first before we begin to brainstorm any

Sort of marketing material. If I was to run ads specifically for him, I think I would still go the meta ads route. Reason being is because we want to meet people with our marketing with where they are at. Everybody's on social media these days. My younger sister to my six-year-old grandmother, they're all on Facebook, Instagram, and everything in between. So, the objective is to meet people with with where they're at. And that could be either with organic posts in local communities and groups, which is why I encourage encouraged them to do, or that could be putting dollars behind your ads and pushing it out to more people in the areas that you service. Yeah. Hey Sash, tell everybody what a meta ad is so that I understand. I'm just kidding. No, I said that's what do you mean? I'm not even sure what isn't it the glasses you put on and you know glasses and off you go. No, I think I think I think you're right. Like I think marketing as a whole is, you know, marketing and you got to reach your your network and I know there's a bunch more questions that, you know, because Brian never shuts up. So there's a bunch more question. But I think coming from another country and coming I fell into fencing so I wasn't you know again not quite like yours but similar blue collar family. Dad owns a painting company, mom's a bookkeeper. But fencing as a whole, the one thing that I knew like I realized coming to America, such a big country, so many people, you know, so much a big the biggest pool I've ever seen coming from where I came from. Um, fencing itself, it has its nuances like you know, Ukraine, you know, cuz Australia doesn't have a lot of PVC. It may be now because I've been out of the country so long, but from a product perspective, do you think that matters at all? Like you got your marketing that you go into and you go, "Hey, Sasha fence, look, I'm going to market this." You look at your market, etc., etc., but then what about what about the product itself? Or like does that even sort of phase you at all? You just go in there and you look at the company, you go, "Hey, I'm not so concerned about what you specialize in. more how do we get you out into the market? Especially coming from another country. I mean Japan like even seeing how the Japanese do it versus all of us. Is there a common thread in our industry do you think? What was the last question? across all the world in fencing? Do you think? Uh I think it's difficult to say because I'll tell you this. I work with some companies where they specialize in only one type of product. Y for example, we have in North Carolina, we work with a company that they only do vinyl fencing, right? So we have to push a sort of narrative of okay, why is vinyl better than XYZ other material or product within this specific market. We have another company for example in Glendale that does only vinyl and then aluminum fencing and they do that because of well the fires and just the environmental impact that is happening in that specific region of the world. If there is a common thread I think at its core marketing doesn't change right as I mentioned but I think there are some nuances right from market to market is there any sort of weather impact and then even maybe on a company level do we specialize in one specific sort of product as you mentioned um so common thread I would say so so I feel like for me had I, you know, I'm only a little bit older than you. I'm definitely younger than Brian. So, let's just get that straight out. Yeah. Yeah, you heard it. But I think Ivan, I think for me, you know, if I could encourage younger generation like yours to understand why fencing is not this, you know, it's got to, you know, you're digging holes is part of it, right? Like that's part of what we do. But look at what you're doing. Um, you know, look at the there's just so much in fencing. Had I known cuz I traveled a lot like you know Australia is so close to Asia so we traveled a lot but had I got into fencing I tell my kids and their friends it's like they're like what you dig holes I'm like yeah no actually it's part of the job right but there's just so much to our industry and I think you can take it anywhere I really feel that you could travel and get work I feel like the cool thing about fencing

And what you're doing is is bringing that to the communities for the businesses themselves is that the industry as a whole. It's really awesome to see people like yourself. It encourages me because it's like when you got old guys like Brian that are, you know, on their way out like who's replacing all these but who's replacing or who's helping this industry continue to develop and grow, you know. So that's um Is this live? Are we live right now? What what are we live? I zoned out for a minute. I I get like this I I don't norally take a nap this time of day, but you know, but but Susan asked a good question here uh and says, "What is Meta?" Let's tell everybody about that. I did I wasn't kind of joking when I said you said, you know, you're you still the route you'd go is meta. Tell everybody what that means. Is that is that just you're talking about through Facebook? Yeah. So, so Meta is essentially Facebook, but it's also Instagram and a few other companies that they own like WhatsApp, Messenger, etc. that all falls under Meta, right? So, Meta owns a bunch of these different little companies. Um, but when I specifically say Meta Ads, I mean primarily advertising on social media, so Facebook and Instagram. Okay. So, what do you think the difference is between um meta or just doing Google ads or or you know Adwords somewhere? Yeah. My least favorite question of all time is which is better because it is completely two different advertising platforms and people not just even in the fencing industry but just bunch of different type of business that I talk to seem to struggle with that with that concept. So the difference between the two is Google first of all it's different billing right? So you're not paying per impression share, you're paying per clicks. Tends to be a little bit more expensive. Amazing thing about Google is that you're only targeting people at the highest level of awareness. What does this mean? This means that you're going to be reaching out to people who are searching up fence company near me or fence company Las Vegas, fence company Sacramento, fence company Miami, whatever the keyword is. And the way marketing works across both platforms that it's an auction, right? There's a lot of people running ads in your area on Google, you're going to be paying more per click. There's less people running ads on Google, you're going to be paying less per click. But you don't reach everybody on Google. You reach a very small set population of people who are searching up those specific keywords. The reason that I enjoy meta ads so much, Facebook and Instagram ads, especially for my clients, is because most of the time fencing isn't one of those things where it's like a leak in a pipe, right? Or a leak in your roof where you're like, "Shoot, I need to fix this like yesterday." Sure, maybe a hurricane comes through, fences are falling, pets, kids, dogs are running around. Okay, in that case, yes, this is a type of project that needs to be taken care of yesterday. But with meta ads, you're able to reach people from different levels of awareness. People that are thinking, okay, maybe we need to get a fence in 2 to 4 weeks, but then also people that say, "Yeah, we need to get a fence ASAP." And you're able to fill your pipeline up with meta ads much more quickly than you would be able to fill your pipeline up with Google. However, the recommendation that I give for any single fence company that either comes on board with us, doesn't come board with on with us, doesn't matter. You need to have both. And you need to have congruency throughout your advertising. Meaning congruency in your messaging and just you want to have an omni presence, meaning people want to see you everywhere they go and even in their sleep because your branding and messaging is so much out there. Did you understand that, bro? Yeah, I know. I kind of I I think I something went out, but yeah. So, um I do have a qu one question. residential leads or when you start getting into like say we do industrial and I say commercial industrial I don't mean you know general contract I hope I'm not losing everybody I'm talking about uh commercial fencing

Like around commercial buildings right so if I understand your question correctly you're asking me what would be better or what's the difference between running ads for residential slashcommercial and industrial correct I think that's what he's signed I think I I think that was the question. If I was going commercial or industrial, I think it's one of those things where your network actually helps you out more than any sort of advertising. If I was to run marketing or ads specifically for commercial, and if that's what these specific fence companies want to do, I would probably go the Google ad route, funnily enough. Okay? But we do actually see though when we run ads for some of our fence clients on Meta, we do have sometimes commercial, you know, property owners reaching out to us. An example of this, and maybe HOAs wouldn't be classified as commercial, but we had one of our clients in Houston who got a message from the president of an HOA and he did 30 homes for them because the president of the HOA saw a meta ad that we were running and was able to close that deal. It was roughly in the six figure range and then he even went ahead and did a pergola for them and then a few decks in that neighborhood as well. So, but that wouldn't be possible if that HOA president didn't know that this specific fence company, Main Street Superior, existed in that market. Yep. Because people cannot buy from you if they don't know that you exist. You can do the best work in the city and the market and the zip codes that you're in. If people do not know that you exist, you're not going to grow and you're not going to get jobs. So, I think I caught that. Sorry, I lost you guys for a second. I switched over to a completely different Wi-Fi. But um so I think that uh I think I caught the tail end of that. So you're thinking you you can reach the commercial people through just the just they happen to be one of the owners that you caught him on a on a personal level. So yes, sorry. Go ahead. So yeah, so you think that would be more will be better for that? And I know hopefully you didn't answer this while I was gone. [gasps] You think if you're looking for commercial leads, it' be more on um AdWords like Google than than because I I seem to when I have ever ran ads, I seem to have better luck trying to get commercial leads through Google than I did through Meta. Yeah. Because I think there's less commercial properties in any city than there are homes, right? And usually when a commercial property needs to get a fence done or realistically any sort of service that bluecollar do, they would probably be going on Google and searching a commercial fence company near me. As I mentioned, some of our clients do get commercial projects through meta ads, but we don't target those specifically, right? Because our messaging is more dialed in towards homeowners and residential markets. That's your uh that's kind of like your sweet spot is helping people with homeowners and things. Well, there's a lot more homeowners than there are commercial people looking for fence. So, I see why there's a lot more resources for that, right? Um, so, so you you are actually one of our youngest instructors, which is kind of cool. So, um, as of last year, so, you know, are you 20 this year? Yeah, just turned 20 like three weeks ago. So, you were 19 years old when you did our one of the first uh one of the first instructors for us over at last year's fence show. Um, how's that feel? That's kind of cool, isn't it? It is. I wanted I wore a hat throughout the whole entire fence show because I wanted people to perceive me older than I actually am because they're going to be like, "Okay, what can this 19-year-old kid teach me?" So, I slick back my hair, put everything on, put on the most maniest cologne I could find, all that good stuff. Funnily enough, when I got to Vegas, the South Point Hotel, um they asked me for a driver's license when I was checking in and they're like, "You're not 21. Is anyone going to be accompanying you?" And I'm like, "Nope, I am here for business." They had to call over three different managers. I had explained them why I was here, what

The story was, that I have no interest in gambling or any of that stuff at this age. So, I mean, they let me through and I had an amazing time at the fence show. And I met a lot of cool people. I met you in person, Brian. I met Susan. I met, you know, Mr. Fence. And it was um it it was just awesome to actually meet people face to face instead of sitting behind a computer screen because that's honestly what my work is. I love what I do. I love every single one of my clients and having conversations with them. But nothing beats getting a medium rare steak with people in the industry and actually talking to them face to face. Oh, you wouldn't be eating dinner with Ryan then? What do you mean medium rare? Finish cooking. Hey, I paid for them to cook it. They're going to finish cooking it. Now that they're thinking easy on me, man. Okay. It should be less money if they didn't have to cook it, right? Whatever. Hey, I got to ask you a question. So, us older generation that are sort of scared of, and I say scared, but just don't know a lot about, you know, Facebook and social media. Um, how do you how do you work with those those people like myself um that are like, "Hey, I don't really want it." It's not that I don't want to do it, I just it's not really what I'm about. Like, how do you get over that hurdle? Maybe if there is one. The best analogy that I can give when it comes to why are Facebook ads so important is why do companies pay 15, 20 million dollars for a 30 secondond commercial during the Super Bowl? It's because everyone's attention is on the big game. And until a fence company has 2530 million to spend on a Super Bowl commercial, Facebook and Instagram is the second base place to be. Reason being is because everyone is on the damn app. Everyone. And you want to meet your clients and your customers with where they are at, right? 15 years ago, yellow pages worked amazing, right? And now, but as we shift more into this digital age, we want to be able to adapt, right? And my goal is to make sure that my clients calendars are booked and that the owners of the company get to focus on the part of the business that they love. If that's managing crews or if that's doing admin work or if that's doing sales, running the estimates, then they can focus on that. So scratching their head at two in the morning thinking, man, how do I get more leads in the door? What is this Facebook thing even about? And it's a good like I like that analogy. Never, you know, even though you think most of us all love the Super Bowl ads, but you don't really put it in that perspective till what you said you're like, you know, it's a good point. So I feel like us older generation that maybe struggle with that side of understanding the power and it's not even it's the power that they have working on that platform or using that platform. Um I think it's Yeah, that's a good analogy. I like it. Yeah. What do you think? Uh I know more and more people are getting into it. I know we you know we're personally a lot of us here and you know are personally responsible for kind of waking up the fence industry a little bit even more on social media. It was kind of uh you know 5 years ago was a little more asleep at that which is everybody just going on there you know kind of socially now it's becoming more um it is you know there's more groups there's more stuff going on more activity more ads being money spent uh you know on social media for fencing now um but what trends do you think the older contractors are missing I mean you think that uh you know the contractors out there you think there's something they should be doing or they're just completely missing out on yeah so I see especially when it comes to to Facebook ads that's my bread and butter I can give a little bit insight into that. The fence industry as a whole thinks that Facebook ads suck. Or at least majority of the people that I speak to and I see some trends in groups where they're like, "We tried Facebook ads. They don't work." You guys are absolutely wrong. I hate to say it, but you guys are wrong. The reason being that Facebook ads fail for you is one, you're setting them up incorrectly. Two, you might be commoditizing yourself. And what I mean by this is if you're just sorting pictures of fence as an ad and then saying, "Hey, we're the best fence company in the market. Come

Buy from us." If I remove your logo from that ad at the top, you wouldn't know which fence company built that fence. Right? AI slop is something that I'm seeing being used a lot within within ads recently, like these huge flyers being built. If some if you we see an ad and we know that it's an ad because it looks like an ad, we're going to scroll right past it. And that's actually funny enough, funnily enough, exactly what we're I'm going to be covering at the fence show in October is how do we actually make Facebook ads that are profitable and don't burn your budget within the first week or two and then you say, "Man, ads ads suck on Meta." Um, and a little sauce that I can give right now, this is going to be a very big topic during my full throttle education session is the biggest lever that you can pull as a fence company in a local market is using your face and your story behind your ads because homeowners don't just buy from companies anymore. They also buy from people that they know, like, and trust. Wow, great answer. Yeah, great answer. You know, Sash, so um you you've been in all of this stuff. I mean, you've your family you guys have a lot of similar history when it comes to this. Your families were doing this, come from uh different countries coming into the US. Um obviously you're you're a lot younger and better looking than Sash, so you probably had a little bit better advantage than he had. I'm jealous of the beard though, man. I'll be honest. I'm jealous of the beard. I'm blonde. I can't I can't I can't grow. I still get the peach fuzz. Toby, if I took this beard off, we'd crack the monitor. So, yeah, don't be jealous. But he uh he came in and now obviously then he branched into some on the distributor side and then manufacturing side and wholesale. So, he's done it all in there. Um Sach, have you done much with any kind of marketing whether it's Meta, Google, any of that stuff? I think, you know, coming from, you know, Ivan could probably relate to this, you know, a hardworking European blue collar family, right? It's word of mouth. It's working hard. It's to showing up. You know, the one thing that was instilled in me is, you know, dad's one line and he used to make fun, not fun and be like whatever, dad. You know, his broken English was like, Sasha, it's better being broke at home than going to work and being broke. Never change your price. So, if you are not the cheapest, then have the best service or make sure you're attentive and stuff. So, I think I was always like, why would you spend money in advertising? Like, just work hard. this your next job will get you the next job will get you the next job and now I don't as I got older older I realized marketing is super important because I grew up in a family that that hard work was first spending money was last right you save your pennies you know that saying you know my dad tell the country one suitcase I'm like okay great so I have five suitcases right but I think that was that's that gap now is that yeah marketing super important. And I think where do you start? I remember spending, you know, it's probably not a lot for everyone, but like 10 or 15 grand a month on Google ads. What did it do? I don't know. Because it just is the money and you don't you don't really know. I think you don't know. You try, like you said, you try and then you maybe don't have the right person or the right vehicle to get your name in and then you just give up. It's like, oh, what's the point? And then you panic when when your market sort of dies down a bit and you panic and then go van what can you do to fix it? And it's like I think that's my lesson is that marketing is super important and you got to market through good and bad times. Now how do you do it? That's ultimately why we got to come to people like you and go guys like yes we this is where you go and etc. But I was scared of it just to be honest. I felt like a lot of it own only my own business too. It it was like, oh, how much money can I really dedicate to this monthly, right? I know sales are so important for any business. I don't care what you do, what business it is, fencing, doesn't matter, but it's like, how do I get there? You know, look at Susan. Yeah, I am still scared. Trust me. You know, see the brick wall behind me? That's real. It wasn't fake because I didn't want to spend money on a green screen. Let's get let's I'm still curious. Does anybody still curious why

She keeps saying what is meta? I mean that's a little weird, right? That's a little weird. Susan. Yeah. But so Ivon, I want to ask you a question probably because you know you're you're you're young enough to probably still remember moments. The Sasha and I we're trying to remember where we took our vitamins today. So, I'm going to ask you I'm going to ask you I'm going to ask you, do you remember the moment um when you just it was like an aha moment when you said, "Okay, this is my industry. This is this industry is for me." Yeah. Um there's a there was a few. One of them was for sure during the fence show um because I just got to meet a lot of different fence companies face to face and hear their story and you know resonate with a lot of what was being said and I saw a lot of people um during the fence show that I look up to like for example Mr. Fence right I mean I saw him everywhere online pulling up there and then I actually got to shake his hand and speak to him in person like wow like this is sick. Um, yeah, from a client perspective, Bates, we generated him 98,000 worth of estimates within 30 days on like a $20 a day budget. He closed 20% of that. I don't remember the exact number, but the return on ad spend during that period of time for people who don't know that it's for every dollar in ad spend that you put in, how much do you get back in revenue? That's return on ad spend. Um, I mean he covered my cost, ad cost, materials, guys even made profit on top of that. And I remember getting that text from him and I'm like, "Wow, like this is this is amazing, right?" And then we began to branch out into Texas and then and then East Coast and so on. We had more clients get awesome results in their own respective markets. And that was my aha moment for was like, "Okay, like this can this can really work for these guys." Yeah. Wow. That's kind of cool. I It's funny you said that because I remember um the only two people I really knew four years ago, five years ago, I didn't know anybody in the industry really. So um I remember I but I knew who um Dan Blanc Fence King was and then uh Sean King, you know, from Mr. Fence. So I I can remember the first phone call and the first conversation with Dan Blanc and I can remember um which was and still we're still good friends and same thing with Sean King. I remember the the I mean it was just I must have been an hour or two long conversation had a lot in common uh you know and things like that. So it is kind of a cool moment to be able to sit there. So I take back I do remember a few and I remember talking to them. So it is kind of cool to to talk to people that you uh that you've watched and stuff online and you kind of uh uh you wanted to meet. Yeah. Absolutely. And I don't know if Sylvia Marquez is still in here. She uh she runs CS Industrial Services. Her and I worked together for a while and I know that she was on the board. Hey, Sylvia. But she was on the board for uh Women of FWA. And I remember when I got invited onto this podcast around the same time last year during the summer and I just felt like I was more part of the industry because I mean I was at the big boy table. I got to speak with actual people who were driving an impact within the industry and kind of inspired other fence companies to do more. Um, so I was very grateful for that opportunity and then Susan reached out to me and asked me, "Hey, do you actually want to teach at the fence show?" And I mean, I couldn't think of any other answer than hell yeah. So that's exactly what I told her. And then flew into Vegas, had an amazing time and I can't wait for October again. It's going to be amazing. October 5th. uh you you'll be October 5th to the 9th. So, education's 5th and 6th and then um 7, 8th, and 9th is the expo. Um we're we're cool. Uh you know, we're we're really glad cool that you're going to be coming back for the second year. I mean, it is Thank you. It is it is really it really awesome to to see people coming back and doing education more than one year. Um I do want to do some rapid fire questions on you. Let's do it. But before we do that, give me uh one thing uh that people should start posting tomorrow. Without for even if they don't if they don't have a budget to hire anybody, don't have anything like that. What's the one thing that you would say fence

Companies or gate companies need to start posting tomorrow? Yeah. Two things. One, find your local groups within your city of homeowners and just begin to get your name out there. Hey, my name is so and so. I'm with so and so fence company. We do so and so fences and so and so markets. If you're looking to get an estimate, send us a message and we'll get back to you to schedule a free quote. By the way, here are some projects that we've done probably for your neighbors. First thing you should do. Second thing you should do, stop just posting pictures of of your fences. Begin to do before and afters. Begin to do story posts on a job site. Hey, my name is so and so with so and so fence company. We're wrapping up this 150 foot vinyl fence and Sacramento. We did this and this for the homeowner because they wanted to get more privacy and security for their home and then also so their kids had a spacious backyard to run around. If you're looking to get a quote as well, comment or send us a message and we'll reach out to you. That is how you differentiate yourself without even putting any sort of ad budget behind your social media. And the cool thing is is that you can then take that content and then repurpose it into ads as well when you're ready. So, those are the two things that you should probably be doing, excuse me, before you have a budget or ready to begin to run ads on social media. Wow. And that was 45 seconds, everybody. Imagine 90 minutes in a classroom. That was 45 seconds. And that that right there, what you said alone could change somebody's business and uh and probably their family in their future if they were to go and follow that. So imagine the amount of information that you're going to get and be able to, you know, raise your hand or speak up and actually ask some questions and and maybe sit down with you and say, "Hey, you know, this is this is my scenario with my business and and I'm sure you're going to be open to, you know, all that during the class." So, um, that's awesome, man. Thank you for sharing that. That alone was worth doing the podcast right there. Just that 45 second explanation. Um, let's do some rapid fire questions. Uh, this is this is also fun. Sash, you ready for this, too? Got it, buddy. I got it. Okay, this is this is the first one and you got one answer only. Coffee or energy drinks? I'm a coffee guy. All right, there's my boy. Next question. Flat white latte mochiata. Which one? I go black coffee. There you go. Even better. Even better. Even better. Android or iPhone? Uh, iPhone for the phone. Android everything else. Okay, I like that. Favorite Ukrainian food. Gotta go with borch. Red beet soup. The way mama makes it. Haven't seen anybody make it. Susan, look that up and put that in the comments so we can all see what that was. B O R S C H is how you spell it. I'm gonna write that in there. How do you spell it? B O S C H. B O R S C. Yeah. So, followed by that, what's your favorite American food? Oh, I gotta go with steak fruits. And I love myself a good steak and some fries. Yeah, that's I Yeah, don't even tell me about fries. You got it. Let me ask you this question. I know this one's going to be tough one. If you weren't in marketing, what would you be doing? Wow, that is an amazing that is an amazing question. H I I just love business as a whole. I love being able to grow something from A to Z. Start at ground zero and just put blood, sweat, and tears into it. Bring people on board, help other people out, and see something grow. I think I would still be in some sort of business. Maybe it' be brick and mortar. Maybe it would be a fence company. Shoot. Maybe I want to open a Ukrainian restaurant. Who knows? But I think my job would still have some sort of marketing in it because every business needs it. Yep. Brian, you want to keep going? You want me to keep going? Let's do it. No, I think we want to do this. So, uh, this is this be interesting for you though. What app, um, what app you couldn't live without? Man,

Remember it's PG rated, so nothing past PG. Okay. No, it would it would 100% probably have to be either Instagram, Facebook, or just messages. I need to stay in touch with people one way or another. Nice. Uber Eats. Uber Eats might be up there. I won't lie. Sitting at your desk for 12 hours a day. It's Those are all apps that I use on a daily basis almost. So I'm I think So So uh so you you you you when did you start uh fence light? When was that? It's about that was 16 and a half 17. So about three years ago now, give or take. Okay. So So being you've been in business long enough then. So um what was the biggest business lesson you've learned before now turning 2021? Yeah, absolutely. When you are scaled, do not lose quality of fulfillment or quality of service. Because the last thing I want to do for any one of my clients is make a huge promise and then underdeliver where my name gets slandered online. Like that is the last thing I want to do. Like I want to be able to help my clients grow, but at the same time protect my reputation. Which is why we also have a limit for how many clients we take on board every month because the last thing I want to do was exactly that. Yep. It's a good point. So, I do want to You've already answered this question. This will be the last one. Um, what's the biggest myth about Facebook ads? That they don't work. It's It's as simple as that. So, that's awesome. Everybody that's been listening, I'm sure um you got a little insight um into uh exactly what you're going to be offering at the Fence Show. So, uh go to fenceshow.com, get registered, share this if you can, like it, comment. I don't even know why people say that because I don't know what that means or how you're watching it, but uh like, comment, share, things like that, right? But it just sounds like you're supposed to do it, right? But if you enjoyed anything at all, share it with somebody. Drop some comments in there. We'll be watching it. If you have a question about something, um you're coming back for a second year as an instructor. Um is there going to be anything different about this class you're going to be teaching? We're going to be going more in depth. That's that's for sure. Meta has also had some change over the past few months with how ads are being pushed out and how Facebook's algorithm scans everything. And this could be a whole entire podcast and workshop on its own. But my goal during the fence show is to show up and in those 90 minutes, give you guys so much value that it's a no-brainer for you to go back to your hotel room and just want to begin to implement as fast as possible. We're going to have workbooks ready for you because ideas without implementation are worthless. So, I'm excited to be there. Thank you so much for having me, guys. F show is going to be amazing. Can't wait to order room service again. That was awesome, man. Hey, before we wrap up, Ivan, is there anything besides getting, you know, telling everyone how to connect with you, the last question I really have, um, is there anything next is like what's in what's coming for, um, Fenceite Media? like is there anything you can share with us or it's just a wait to see like what what what's next for you guys and your team? Yeah, absolutely. So, I did actually just hire a few new people to to join my team. I can't wear all the hats in my business at at the end of the day. Um, and especially when we're bringing on more clients, it became a little bit difficult for me to oversee every single ad account that's under our management. As I mentioned, quality of service is really important to me. So, we're actually changing a lot of things in how we deliver results for our clients, how we do reporting. At the end of the day, funnily enough, cost per lead to me is a vanity metric. I care more about what is our cost per booked appointment per estimate, and what is our costs per deal closed. And we want to have more congruency from front end to where ads are being ran to back end to what is happening with deals being closed, appointments being set, etc. So, we're working on some really cool tools for our clients. We're kind of reshifting the way that we also think about ads

Because full transparency, I don't know everything there is to know about about advertising. I'm learning something new every single day and then I bring it into my company. I bring it into my clients and we implement. So, a lot of a lot of cool stuff coming. I'm really excited. Um, and it's going to be a great second half of the year. Awesome. Awesome. So besides the fence show um at fentshow.com you can register to come see you in person um how do people connect with you? How are they going to get a hold of you? Yeah, so probably my social media would be the second best way to go. If you guys are seeing my ads, hit the link below and schedule a call with me if you want to chat a little bit about how marketing could look like for your fence company. Um I have a lot of different posts on social media with a lot of free value on how you can guys begin to run ads yourself. And if you don't want to wear all the hats in your business, well, you can reach out to me and my team and I will take care of you. So that would be my first name, my last name. So Ivon, I van, my last name, Balchuk, V A L C H U K, and then an extra K at the end. And that's on both Instagram and Facebook. Nice. Or go to fencelight media, I believe it is, right? Flight media. Click I'm sure there's a place on there to click on uh message you or get a hold of you on there or click on an email. Um that's awesome. Thank you for joining. Uh obvious it was really insightful even you know for all of us that uh you know knew you were coming on. It was really great to have you come on and give us some pointers. Uh next week's episode we've got Josh Clark from High Steel Fence. If you don't know High Steel Fence you're missing out. Bunch of great guys and gals over there. So um looking forward to always seeing them any chance we get. Uh they're going to be talking all about sales. So we got uh you know we're talking about some media stuff to this week and some sales next week. So tune in everybody. Sash, great to have you back. Ivon, we're gonna see you shortly anyway. Absolutely. Gentlemen, thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it, man. Everybody tuning in. Thank you. Uh like, share, comment, post, do whatever you're going to do with it, but just do something when you see this. All right, we'll talk to you guys. Thanks. I'm going full throttle.

You want to go full throttle with me? Go to fenshow.com to register now. Make sure to check out our podcast. See you at the Fen Show.