Your Success is on You // Brad Rapone of Trade Wraps and TORQ / Better Sign Shop

00:00:00INTRO: #72b372;">INTRO: Learn how to build a better sign and print shop from a few crusty sign guys who've made more mistakes than they care to admit. Conversations and advice on pricing, sales, marketing, [00:00:15] workflow, growth, and more. You are listening to The Better Sign Shop podcast with your hosts, Peter Unis, Michael Riley and Bryant Gillespie.[00:00:30]

00:00:37Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: We jump into the episode. I'd like to give a shout out to our sponsor, G C I Digital Imaging Grand Format Printer to [00:00:45] the Trade. We talk a lot about outsourcing on the podcast and the importance of having a. Good partners and G C I Digital Imaging is a good partner to have. Owner TJ Beak and his team focus on providing killer customer [00:01:00] service just the way grandmother used to make it.

00:01:15 high quality trade printer for banners, wraps, and other printed graphics that your customers throw at you, check out GCI Digital imaging@printgci.com.

00:01:30 next edition of the Better Sign Shop podcast. Apparently we need an IT guy, so if you're out there, you are it. You know how to rework audio and. Technological equipment, please hit us up because [00:01:45] we are struggling to get it together here. But as always, I am joined by my friends and co-hosts, Peter, the sign Shop, Yoda Uni's up y'all.

00:02:00 Mr. Magic Mike, the Corll King. All right. Is that what we're settling on? Is that, is that cool for you? Are you good with that? It's, it's,

00:02:10Michael Riley: #c50000;">Michael Riley: it's better than the sign, Jimmy Chaga. So, yeah, I'm cool with it. We're gonna roll with the Corll [00:02:15] King Magic.

00:02:18Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: I, I agree. I agree. It's it better than the sign Chimichanga.

00:02:28Michael Riley: #c50000;">Michael Riley: It's a pretty badass [00:02:30] nickname. Really? I mean, like, I feel like some street cred. Was it right? Like, yeah.

00:02:35Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Yeah. I'm gonna get you one of those standup like poles. That you would like a tension mount between the, the floor and the ceiling.

00:02:45 we would get you on one of those fail videos where you spin around and just fall and like take out your whole bookcase or something. Uh,

00:02:52Michael Riley: #c50000;">Michael Riley: you know, if you send me a stripper pole, I will. I'll

00:02:56Mike: #c50052;">Mike: be on it.

00:02:59Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Let's do it. [00:03:00] Oh, goodness. Oh, I, it feels like it's been a couple weeks since we've all been together.

00:03:15 jump right into our guest for this week,

00:03:18Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: who is our guest this week?

00:03:21Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: I'm glad you asked. Our guest this week is Brad Rapon. He is the owner of Trade Wraps.

00:03:30 wrap shop in Virginia. And, uh, for whatever reason, he is also decided to build his own CRM system and sell it to sign and wrap shops. So curious to grill him about that a little bit as well. I think it'll be a very interesting [00:03:45] conversation. Sounds

00:03:46Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: fascinating. I I'm looking, I'm looking forward to it.

00:03:54Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: SAS program that's, that's clearly exactly what we need. Is more tech here. More tech. [00:04:00] We can't even figure out three microphones and a headset.

00:04:06Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Why,

00:04:06Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: why are we interviewing somebody about tech when we can't figure out our own tech?

00:04:10Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: It's a, it's a, a great question. Uh, okay, let's, let's [00:04:15] solve like, why do

00:04:15Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: I only hear you in my left ear? Can we

00:04:18Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: solve that first

00:04:21Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: before we get into wrap software? Can we get into like, why I can't hear you right. Basic

00:04:28Michael Riley: #c50000;">Michael Riley: audio

00:04:28Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: settings on your computer.[00:04:30]

00:04:30Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: I mean, seriously, we need to be better at this. We stop at this.

00:04:35Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: It's cuz Mike is on Windows. That's, that's all it is. Oh,

00:04:40Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: well, I, I, I kind of went over to the dark side two years ago and I never looked back [00:04:45] a hundred percent Windows a hundred percent. I was a PC user my entire life. And then when Corll Draw decided to introduce the Mac version, I was like, I'm jumping shit.

00:04:56Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: out. That was the only thing holding me to a PC was Carell Draw. Just, [00:05:00] I just never needed to ever

00:05:03Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: use a Mac. And then they introduced Carell for Mac and was like, That's, see, I, Mike,

00:05:10Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: I'm out. Mike hates the Corri Mac version though. He said it wasn't as good. Yeah,

00:05:14Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: I I do too. [00:05:15] It's not nearly as good as the PC version, but it get you, you can get by, you can get by if the PC version's

00:05:20Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: far better.

00:05:21Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: Yeah.

00:05:22Michael Riley: #c50000;">Michael Riley: I, I tried to make the switch to a Mac a couple years ago and for the same thing, like, cool on a PCs available or for Mac is available now I'm gonna [00:05:30] switch. And it was like the biggest nightmare of my life. I think I'm the first person in Best Buy's history to ever like, return a MacBook

00:05:35Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: Pro.

00:05:37Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: They

00:05:37Michael Riley: #c50000;">Michael Riley: looked at me like, we know how to do this.

00:05:40Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Yeah. Sorry, I'm getting, man. You know

00:05:43Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: when there was this one [00:05:45] time, there was this one time you mentioned Best Buy, so I used to work for Best Buy like way back in the day. I was using Corell Draw and I was selling, I was in the PC department and I was selling, uh, computers, like compact computers.

00:05:56Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: That's how long ago this was?

00:06:00 computers. Right.

00:06:01Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: And you know, like there was like the Mac and the app, and I was like, when is Carell Draw ever gonna come out for the Mac? And it was like, never, never.

00:06:08Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: This will never happen. I mean, it was like,

00:06:11Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: there's this guy, uh, what's his face? Uh, Joe Diaz from [00:06:15] Diaz, Shar.

00:06:17Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: a, he's like a big, uh, he was like

00:06:19Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: a big mentor to me in, in the design world. And he tells me, I, I saw him in Atlantic City one day and he is like, it'll never be on Mac. Don't ever have to worry about it. It'll be a,

00:06:28Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: it's a native [00:06:30] PC app. And I'm like, all right, well,

00:06:33Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: so I'm telling, I'm telling myself that maybe I should just buy a Mac and like remote desktop into my pc and then I get the best of both worlds.

00:06:45 I could run Windows n Mac on a MacBook, uh, um, windows N you know what? Whatever the name of the operat system was on a Mac. And I'm like, that's

00:06:54INTRO: #72b372;">INTRO: awesome. That's my

00:06:55Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: winning ticket. That though, led to me saying, let me [00:07:00] try it. Let me make this $2,000 investment.

00:07:14Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: almost [00:07:15] like a little pancake. It was like a piece. Mm-hmm.

00:07:17Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: It was like, I forget what it was called. MacBook or something like that. I can't remember exactly what it was called, but I returned

00:07:23Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: it.

00:07:28Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: Mac to, to Best Buy for

00:07:29Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Corll. [00:07:30] Draw

00:07:30Michael Riley: #c50000;">Michael Riley: reasons. I feel a little better than that. Corll wasn't the only reason, but

00:07:35Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: it was my only reason. Oh, I

00:07:37Michael Riley: #c50000;">Michael Riley: hated it was, it was just awful.

00:07:41Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: All right, let's, uh, off the soapbox, that was cool that you worked at [00:07:45] Best Buy.

00:07:50Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: do you man, I worked at Radio Shack Circuit City

00:07:52Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: and Best Buy.

00:07:53Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: That's the, that's the back. And we still can't, we still can't figure out the headsets. Right. [00:08:00] All right. Let's bring on the guest know. We're back with our guest, Brad Rapon, the owner of Trade Wraps and Torque c rm, the hottest news CRM for the sign and Wrap market.

00:08:15 Brad, happy to have you on, man. Thanks for joining us.

00:08:18Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Well, thank you for having me, gentlemen. I'm happy to be here. Yeah.

00:08:21Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: So for everybody listening out there who may not be familiar, why don't you give us some of your backstory? So

00:08:28Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: some backstory on me, you know, [00:08:30] obviously my name's Brad Rapon. Uh, I've been in the sign business before, uh, I've had a sign shop, failed miserably, started trade wraps, so that's where I am right at the moment.

00:08:45 thriving there. Looking to expand even more through that venture. You know, obviously I have created a software called Torque crm, and now we're promoting out to the sign and wrap world. Okay, so let's start at, let's start at the very

00:08:58Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: beginning there.

00:09:00 unpack. Okay.

00:09:01Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Uh, with, with, with being as transparent as you

00:09:05Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: can, tell us about your first experience in the sign business and why you got into the business and what led to, you said it failed, so what led to those [00:09:15] failures?

00:09:15Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: What were the failures and what led to them? So, you know, like, like anybody who's probably been in the signed world or, you know, 90% of us actually come from.

00:09:30 started a sign shop. There's a small percentage out there that just go in and buy a sign shop. But I was one of those people that, um, I'm a designer by trade, so like my first design job was designing tombstones, uh, which I absolutely loved.

00:09:45 and a plotter to uh, do the tombstones, do the sand blasting for the tombstones. Mm-hmm. And I wanted to, I guess, show people more of my portfolio to be more commercial rather than be like, Hey, let's go down to the cemetery and [00:10:00] check out my portfolio. You know, that's always a good one.

00:10:03Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: It's

00:10:04INTRO: #72b372;">INTRO: a tough sell to

00:10:04Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: be honest. Like Yeah. Right. So I jumped into the sign world because the sign world at the time was using, you know, a mug, composer or something similar to it. [00:10:15] And, uh, plotters, which I was familiar with. So I wanted to do more commercial design work, so I got into a couple sign shops, bounced around a little bit.

00:10:30 ambitious. So I started my own sign shop. And the problem with that is, is that we all start a business because we're good at doing the art of it, right? Doing the work. But what I was terrible at [00:10:45] and what I didn't know that I know now is I was terrible at business.

00:11:00 I even wasn't even a good leader. Like I wasn't a good manager. I wasn't a good leader. So ultimately

00:11:04Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: that's what, what was the name of your first side shop?

00:11:08Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: God, it heard to even say it honestly, it was called impact signs. So it was terrible. Impact [00:11:15] signs,

00:11:16Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: signs that

00:11:16INTRO: #72b372;">INTRO: make a impact.

00:11:19Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: So something like that. Creating solutions that

00:11:21Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: hit hard.

00:11:23Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Honestly, I, I've heard worse. At least it wasn't. No, I've heard, I've heard Brad signs.

00:11:28Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: It's like, honestly, [00:11:30] that's what I was expecting.

00:11:34Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Signs and tombstones.

00:11:36Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Yeah, yeah, exactly. No, there was plenty of those around here. There was like a lot of people with names and then signs and I didn't want that. So I tried [00:11:45] to make like an actual, like company, but I didn't know anything about it. So all I was terrible at it.

00:11:59Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: More details. [00:12:00] Like what, what, what two years into it, like what was the, the point where you're like, this is not working at all. Like,

00:12:09Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: well, I think after like my first year, um, of struggling so bad, I was kind of conflicted [00:12:15] with should I give up now?

00:12:30 like, you know, in my younger years there, you know, I was heavily into martial arts. So everything I did was, I was very headstrong.

00:12:45 you know, I wasn't making good enough sales. Um, I wasn't being profitable. I didn't understand business itself. Um, anytime I tried to get help with it, it just went down a backwards way.

00:13:00 that employees Pretty much at the time? I did have some at the time. Yeah. I wouldn't say anything crazy. Like I'd have like a guy working in the back with me, maybe a designer at the time. I've tried to hire salespeople. Always failed miserably on that sense. So I wasn't a good manager.[00:13:15]

00:13:30 popping up too. So it was like, back in the, the franchise days, there was a lot of franchises that popped up.

00:13:45 All right, so like, let's

00:13:47Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: put a date on it. I, I hate to like date ourselves here, but like,

00:13:51Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: let's see,

00:13:52Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: 9, 8, 7. So this is like 2007. Okay. [00:14:00] Right around that time,

00:14:02Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: right before the, uh, housing crash.

00:14:05Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Yeah. And that, that played a part in it too. But obviously I'm not one of those guys at this point who used those types of things as excuses. But there was a lot going on at that time. A lot of people were pulling back in [00:14:15] business, so like, trying to sell it to businesses would got to be very difficult.

00:14:30 little jet ski in a big ocean. So, so after that, after that massive failure, I bounced around doing, uh, vehicle wrap installations for a while and eventually started trade wraps.

00:14:45 chance at doing it right. And the reason why I did that was because everybody in around here all did signs, but they all had like a specialty. So like everybody did everything, but like this guy did channel letters and like this guy did banners, but [00:15:00] nobody was doing raps.

00:15:15 background, I wanted to be, you know, the, the shop that did the better designs, the better material, and the better installs.

00:15:28Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Go for it. Mike. I you're [00:15:30] deep in thought.

00:15:32Michael Riley: #c50000;">Michael Riley: Well, after, after failing like that sign business, I think we all kinda consider the sign the.

00:15:45 You know, essentially in the same, same business, same

00:15:47Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: industry,

00:15:49Michael Riley: #c50000;">Michael Riley: you know, was it like to prove, to prove yourself

00:15:52Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: that you could do it?

00:15:54Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Yeah. Um, yes. Uh, it was, you know, before I felt like I [00:16:00] peaked and I just jumped in. I didn't know anything. And obviously it's kinda like, uh, your, your education, right?

00:16:15 we're learning from it, it's technically not a failure. At the time, it definitely felt like a f failure, like it huge blow to my ego. Like, uh, looking back at it, you know, nowadays, like talking about anxiety, depression and stuff is pretty normal.

00:16:30 stuff, you know, feeling like a failure for everything that we did. So getting back on the horse, it was definitely more of a, I can do this and I want to do it differently. I wanna build an actual business, not just, I guess the place to [00:16:45] get something done or to, to try to just be creative, like I wanna build like an actual business.

00:17:00 was definitely more of a challenge to go that way. And yeah, I did have that chip on my shoulder to get it done.

00:17:15 let that go, honestly. So what did

00:17:18Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: you do differently, like the second time around? Like was it like from the start, like, Hey, I'm gonna like totally go 180 of where I was previously, [00:17:30] or like how, like what was the.

00:17:43Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: So that's, that's, that's a great, great thing to [00:17:45] ask. So the way I kind of, the way, the way it kind of shaped up was, so when I first did my first business, right, I went out, I did the right thing, got the loans, lots of loans, got the printers, got got, got everything right to just do a whole like shop startup.[00:18:00]

00:18:15 asking for wraps to be done, you know? Cause they would see me doing it at other people's bays and then they would be showing it off to their friends.

00:18:30 So it kind of just became like, still I was in between a bunch of stuff. So it kind of just became, hey, well I'm gonna go get the prints made and then I'm going to install them at your bay.

00:18:45 quick. Um, with quality, I could do the design myself, put the graphics on and then get paid right after it's done. So it was a way for me to kind of generate cash and start paying off some of my debts that I occurred.

00:19:00 was an HB business owner and we ended up partnering on this. And it was really start off just to wrap his vehicles cuz he had so many to get done. And so he kind of wanted to have his own in-house crew there. Oh wow. Wow. And so it was a way for me [00:19:15] also to offset that risk and depend on his, uh, business knowledge.

00:19:30 him. But running a vehicle wrap shop or a sign shop, like an HVAC C shop, just doesn't work. So we had to restructure on some things, and I took over learning more about leadership, [00:19:45] learning more about business and those types of things.

00:20:00 shop, I would feel successful. Especially after failing miserably, right? Yeah. Pretty common.

00:20:07Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: for everybody, I think in the industry. Like, Hey, what was that? If I, I said, I think it's a pretty common thread for most people in the industry, especially like the smaller shops, [00:20:15] like, Hey, if I hit a million dollars in sales, like everything's, it'll be gravy.

00:20:21Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: will be fine. Yeah, and let me touch on that too, because this, this was, this was huge for me. So I had that same mentality, right? If I hit a million [00:20:30] dollars in revenue, I will be successful. And so what I ended up doing is I ended up putting everything on my back and pushing and pushing and pushing.

00:20:45 not a good leader. I was definitely way better at selling than I was before. And I had a great customer base, so I ended up just putting everything on my back and pushing and pushing and pushing to get to that million dollar mark.

00:21:00 there, I'm tired, I'm exhausted, and I'm looking at everything and absolutely nothing is different. Nothing. And I felt failure creeping in again because I felt like in my head, if I hit that number, [00:21:15] things are gonna be different. And it wasn't.

00:21:30 said, well, maybe if I try to get 2 million, maybe things will be different then. And then I thought about how much more work that would be and how exhausting that's gonna be.

00:21:45 leadership training and bringing the right people on to help me actually move this business forward. Cuz it can't all be me. It can't all run through me. It's gotta run through other people to actually be scalable.

00:22:00 since then I've definitely created some massive processes and training in my business that has definitely helped scale massively. So everything's going good. Now

00:22:12Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: that's, uh, I guess hindsight is [00:22:15] 2020. Like you see very self-aware now, which is a a hundred percent a good thing. Uh, like at that moment of. Like, Hey, this is, I hit that $1 million mark and it just didn't feel great. Like, [00:22:30] what were, what were the next like steps that you took after you realized like, Hey, I've got to make a big change here.

00:22:40Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: So I remember sitting in this office where we're at, and so I recently had a daughter at that time. [00:22:45] And you know, I'm still working super late, I'm busting my ass, working weekends, working nights, and I'm sitting in here and I'm just like, my daughter's never gonna know who the hell I am.

00:23:00 So I started just like thinking like, look, I just need to learn more. I mean, I, I, I don't consider myself like book smart, but I can learn anything, right? So I just started like googling, like I. Business classes or [00:23:15] seminars or something just to like, just get me something.

00:23:30 coaches in general. Ended up hiring specialty coaches in certain areas that I needed more, more specialized help with. Like I hired a fantastic hiring coach, which definitely helped my game on hiring people.

00:23:45 definitely a skill that everybody needs to know cuz it is a skill. So just massive personal development. And the biggest pill that I had to swallow that most people do in this case is that, especially when it comes to like your team and stuff, how many times do you guys hear everybody say like, oh good.

00:24:00 find, can't find them. Everybody in

00:24:03Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: the sun industry

00:24:04Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: says, I need, I need people can't find them. And if I, if I bring them on and I train 'em, they just leave right? The biggest pill you have to swallow is that the reason why you're having trouble [00:24:15] attracting the right people, keeping the right people is because of you.

00:24:30 to go through some massive personal development on my end as far as learning my personal growth on who I am and how I can treat others better and be a leader for them, to give them all the tools necessary to be the best version of themself for me.

00:24:44Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: You guys [00:24:45] are nodding your heads, Pete, a way for you to like jump in where you at? How much

00:24:51Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: I'm taking so many notes,

00:24:54Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: taking so many notes. Uh, no, no.

00:24:57Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: In all honesty.

00:24:58Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Um, [00:25:00] being a business consultant, being a franchise consultant, And a sign shop consultant. There's a lot,

00:25:07Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: there's a lot there that resonates with me on multiple levels.

00:25:11Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: that you wrote, you said

00:25:13Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: something, you know, just [00:25:15] because you open up one business doesn't mean you should open up another. And that one and that one kind of, I'm not gonna give you too much pushback, but I do want, we do want you to know I disagree with that.

00:25:24Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Okay. Well, and no, well, let's, lemme clarify.

00:25:30 right. It's just that just because you're successful in one industry doesn't mean that you're automatically going to be successful in another industry. If you're applying the same principles as that one. If you can apply business principles, that's different story.

00:25:45 Okay.

00:25:45Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: That I will agree with then thank you for clarifying that because Yeah. You know, look, you, first of all, tremendous kudos to you for being open and honest. You must be real comfortable with your past in order to talk about this in, in a public setting. So [00:26:00] kudos to you for sharing that story.

00:26:03Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: some,

00:26:04Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: Uh, sign shop. In fact, I actually know some of them. I actually know a lot of sign shop owners that have very little business sense. Okay. And a lot, it's, [00:26:15] it's. It's not something to laugh at. Don't laugh. I, I'm not, don't laugh. No, I'm

00:26:19Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: just, I'm just laughing. It's not something

00:26:20Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: to

00:26:20INTRO: #72b372;">INTRO: laugh at because I, I, you'd be

00:26:22Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: surprised.

00:26:30 or two, like the Emith method. Mm-hmm. How many people think that they can get into business because they think they could do it better than their boss?

00:26:43Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: that up because you are a [00:26:45] victim of

00:26:46Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: what most people try to do, you know? And, and the fact is, is that you have the wherewithal to actually acknowledge it, learn from it is the key to it.

00:27:00 excited to hear about by the way.

00:27:02Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: But

00:27:03Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: you have stopped, first of all, your journey to getting into trade wraps. I have a quick question there. How did you get

00:27:08Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: that name? Well, it came because, um, my partner at the time gave it that name.

00:27:15 because we were doing, he was in the H V A C realm. Yeah, yeah. Right. So he's in trades. So the idea, the idea was to go after the trades. Right. Okay. And that's, we've done that very strongly. And it's been, it's been good. So your great relationships, so [00:27:30] you are, yeah. You

00:27:31Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: go from impact signs, which, but you know, listen, it's a good name.

00:27:45 type of industry. Now, I'm not saying, uh, the trades is not one industry. The trades is multiple industries, but it's a vertical that is blue collar trades, you know, it's, it's, uh, electricians, plumbers, [00:28:00] HVAC

00:28:00Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: painters.

00:28:03Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: right? Those are, those

00:28:04Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: are some significant trades there.

00:28:06Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: So you, you, I've actually was talking about this with someone, with one of my consultant clients the other day. Uh, I was actually pointing them [00:28:15] in this direction, uh, basically saying like, Hey, this is a great opportunity for you to get additional revenue.

00:28:28Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: to hope for [00:28:30] your, uh,

00:28:30Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: opinion on this statement here. Definitely. I said, I said to him this week, I said, Damien, you can find clients where your business thrives when they, when their business expands.

00:28:45 Yes. It's a very interesting vertical because you said that your, you started this with your partner who said, I just want an in-house wrap company. Like they need to expand their fleet to grow their business, and every time they expand their fleet, it's more [00:29:00] revenue for you. So tremendous, tremendous kudos for getting into that business.

00:29:11Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: national work or are you focused more

00:29:13Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: on like regional mom and [00:29:15] pop kind of companies?

00:29:16Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Well, our main focus is definitely our local market. I like to dominate where I can, local domination is what we call it.

00:29:30

00:29:30Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: do you tap into like a nationwide installer

00:29:32Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: network to do your Yeah, we've, we've created our, or we've created our own over the years. Um, just meeting people and reaching out to them and figuring out which ones are the best ones.

00:29:45 mean that they're the best, but we're looking for the honest people. Right. So there

00:29:48Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: could potentially be companies, sign shops that don't really get into the rap game too much, but might have an opportunity here for you

00:29:55Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: to design.

00:29:58Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: Print and then [00:30:00] also get it, uh, installed and sourced locally in their market.

00:30:10Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: is that correct? Yeah, we can do some of that, yeah. All right. So there's a lot of

00:30:13Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: sign shop owners out there [00:30:15] that would love to tap into that kind of market. Uh, so where can they find out about

00:30:19Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: trade wraps? Oh, you can find us online@tradewraps.com.

00:30:30 comment about expanding with a company, um, I always like to say like, the riches are in the niches, right? So specializing your shop, it doesn't have to be wraps. It doesn't even have to be like, um, [00:30:45] even the type of customer that I'm chasing after.

00:31:00 that way that I can turn it out faster and be the expert in that field. Like there's a guy around here, like he's just, he's the banner guy and that man just has banners material on his printers at all times.

00:31:15 banner, so he gets it at a good, at a good rate, and he's just cranking out banners all day, every day. Now he'll do anything else for you, but he's known as the banner guy. And like for me, if you ask me to make you a sign, we're gonna say, sorry, we don't do that. [00:31:30] Yeah.

00:31:30Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: The ability to say no.

00:31:45 still fascinated by that, that's still in the back of my head. But,

00:31:48Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: you know, that's great

00:31:49Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: that you're a niche shop.

00:32:00 took a, you took a risk getting into a business with a partner that you may not know that well, and you built a relationship with this individual and you grew a niche shop.

00:32:15 how many vans do you typically

00:32:16Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: wrap a week in-house? Probably,

00:32:27Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: is a, that is a lot. That's [00:32:30] tremendous. Yeah. That's great. So how, how large of a team do you

00:32:32Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: have now? We have four installers, four full-time installers, and we got two in training right now. Do you do your training

00:32:39Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: internally

00:32:40Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: or do you outsource your training? Oh, 100% internal.

00:32:44Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: Excellent. [00:32:45] Wow, that's awesome. I love that. I, I love

00:32:47Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: what you've built here is very rare in the industry, but I wish more

00:32:52Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: and more people would

00:32:52Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: do well, like you mentioned the EMyth, right? Mm-hmm. And that's a fantastic book. If anyone has not read it, [00:33:00] stop whatever the hell you're doing and just read that book.

00:33:15 is the fact that we are, we're artists out here trying to use our craft to make money.

00:33:29Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Yeah. [00:33:30] I've heard of, dude, we're

00:33:33Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: dumb. We don't, we don't know what that is. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Speak. So, okay. Robert, Robert Kiyosaki is another author out there that has, he's the Rich Dad Poor Dad book.

00:33:45 called, yeah. He's also got a book called The Cashflow Quadrant. Right. And the premise of the Cashflow Quadrant is you got a quadrant, right. And the, the top square is employee who swaps their time for money, and the [00:34:00] employee's always trying to get to self-employed.

00:34:15 income that day because they're not leveraging people. The self-employed need to be going to the business owner quadrant, which is where the business owner is.

00:34:30 business owner's trying to get to, uh, the investor quadrant, which is leveraging your money for money. And so, so many people probably even listening to this are still stuck in that self-employment quadrant and it's hard to get [00:34:45] out of that quadrant.

00:35:00 mean, look at Chick-fil-A, right?

00:35:15 matter. It's how they make other people feel and they streamline their process.

00:35:27Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: is extremely busy at all [00:35:30] times. I, yeah, the story resonates with me. I get so frustrated when the kids want Chick-fil-A. It's right by the interstate, so it's like 20 minutes.

00:35:45 Chick-Fil-A runs a lot faster, but the Lion's always longer, so I I feel you there.

00:35:51Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Yeah, well they're, they just, they made a niche, right? They said we're doing chicken sandwiches and chicken stuff and they systematize it so well that yes, they have like a franchise.

00:36:00 should always be building your business as if you were going to sell it. So why not build it like in a franchise model to where it's that, I don't wanna say that dumb, but it's that easy, right? I love this guy. I love

00:36:10Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: this guy. I think this guy is tremendous.

00:36:12Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: He's speaking my language,

00:36:13Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: he's speaking my love [00:36:15] language.

00:36:15Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: I wanna ask you a question, Brad, that I think, like Peter and I have asked this many times to like other owners that we've talked to and even on like some of our group coaching calls, like on like the trade wrap side. [00:36:30] Why would a plumber do business with you versus I I'm sure there's plenty of competitors inside your market now.

00:36:40Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: I, you know, I love that question. I get that a lot. Um, and it also, when it comes to [00:36:45] sales, I get that a lot too, cuz people actually ask that question. So like anyone, we all have competition. I don't care if it's the cheapest guy in town, the most expensive guy in town, I be completely honest, I am not the cheapest guy in town, nor do I ever want to be, [00:37:00] right.

00:37:15 you're losing money. So I have a streamlined process to get your design done, to get your prints made, get your vehicle here in and out as quickly as possible to get on the road making money for you so that I'm not just another one of your headaches.

00:37:30 focus on your business and grow your business. How was that Pete? So,

00:37:34Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: no, I'm gonna more vehicles. I'm gonna ask you a un even

00:37:39Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: tougher question now. Okay. They're never tough. Hit me.

00:37:44Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: Couple

00:37:44INTRO: #72b372;">INTRO: of weeks [00:37:45] back. We had a special

00:37:45Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: guest on this, on this show who was also in your line

00:37:50Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: of work. Okay. Mr. Dan

00:37:52Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: Antonelli from

00:37:53Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Kick Charge.

00:37:59Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: [00:38:00] Um, let's, let me ask this question as in only, the only way I know how, why would I pick you over

00:38:09Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: him? Oh, plain and simple. I'm not a design firm. [00:38:15] Oh, well then I'm not giving you my business. Right. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a wrap company that does wraps.

00:38:22Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: Love it. Love the answer. So do you have, do you have any designers on your team?

00:38:28Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Yeah. No, we definitely do. [00:38:30] We're able, so this is the big difference between like what he does and what we do. Right? So Dan does very, very well at shaping. We, we exchanged all the time. We're at the same trade shows and everything.

00:38:45 right? And that's what he does. If you want branding, that's gonna be your guy. But not everybody wants branding. So if you'd want us to do vehicle wrap design for you, not branding, vehicle wrap design for you, we can help you in that dynamic. [00:39:00] But either way, you can even bring your own design to us after you get the design done from him.

00:39:09Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: Fair enough. Yes, you're right. Not everybody needs branding, especially from a franchise [00:39:15] perspective. Like you mentioned earlier, they already have it established,

00:39:17Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: right? Yeah. I mean, people should have good branding, don't get me wrong. But not everybody wants to go through that process and I'm not, and again, and I'll and, and to that, I'll tell you why.

00:39:30 I was actually. Similar to Dan where I was, I was probably a little bit more snooty. I was like, you know if cuz I'm a designer first, right? Right. So I was like, well if I don't, if I don't do the design, I'm not gonna do your rap [00:39:45] because I can't have you driving around with a shitty design.

00:40:00 that. Right? So it was like these atrocious designs, right. And I would just be like, I'm not doing that for you because I didn't design it and I didn't put my spin on it and that kind of stuff.

00:40:15 and I was struggling that week I was in survival mode. And I recently, a couple, about a couple weeks before that, I turned away a guy who wanted fire, ice and some other shit in there, right? And I'm like, nah, I'm not doing it.[00:40:30]

00:40:34Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: of that company. Mm-hmm.

00:40:37Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Yep. And I had to, I made a decision at that point like, am I in the design business or am I in the wrap business? [00:40:45] Because I could have done those wraps and gotten paid today. So I just let people know how I feel. Like I'd be like, look man, this is a great design or this isn't a great design.

00:41:00 customers that are with us that are massive companies. They've done massive amount of work's, gotten hundreds of vehicles from us. And I'm, in my opinion, their design is definitely not the best design. But they still grow and they still buy vehicle wraps from us.

00:41:15 I gonna turn them away? No, cuz I'm in the wrap business. So that's the big difference between us. I

00:41:21Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: see. And, and you wanna know something? That last statement is pretty much it. It spells why you're, why you have been successful in this next venture [00:41:30] here. Because once you realize, and, and trust me, I, oh, I was right there with you.

00:41:45 majority of us don't wanna do a wrap if we don't design it. Okay. I mean, because again, who wants to put that People are seeing that come outta your shop, you're putting that on your portfolio page.

00:41:58Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: text [00:42:00] everywhere and

00:42:00Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: you know, like, let's put your email address on the wrap. Like, no, like, just, just no, just no. Leave it alone. Like I, yeah, I, I've been there. I know exactly what you're saying. And to tell you the truth. [00:42:15] I think the industry that you chose to be in the trades is what led you down that decision, because you are right that HVAC company, Hey, guess what?

00:42:30 I actually know this more than most people, but I, there's more and more people looking for HVAC work and looking for plumbing work. And if they grow another vehicle or two a year, who gives a crap what their wrap looks like?

00:42:45 pocket. Yeah. You know, I don't like the way that Neighborly announces their wrap on, you know, whatever brand that they're putting out these days or whatever brand, like One Hour Heating and Cooling. Or Benjamin Franklin, I think Benjamin Franklin's got [00:43:00] one of the ugliest reps out there.

00:43:03Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: But who the hell, who

00:43:04Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: the hell cares when they have 500 locations and each location having four, five trucks? Who the hell cares? That's business. So for

00:43:11Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: that, my printer, my printer's print blue.[00:43:15]

00:43:17INTRO: #72b372;">INTRO: That's right. They, they

00:43:18Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: sure do.

00:43:19Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: They sure do. All right. So trade

00:43:22Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: wraps.com. That's how our viewer, that's how our viewers, our viewers and listeners can, can, can get in touch with you here. Check it out. [00:43:30] If you ever in need of, of any type of wholesale printing and wrap and install, go see Brad over@tradewraps.com.

00:43:45 we've heard a lot of your journey, tell us how and why you got into developing this unique tool

00:43:51Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: and software for yourself. Well, you know, like I'm always trying to be the best at what I do, right?

00:44:00 problem in my business, and I'm sure other people can relate to this, but whenever there's a problem here, I can always drive it back to communication. Right. There's some form of communication was not done properly, or we didn't communicate properly, customer didn't [00:44:15] communicate properly, and that's why we have a problem.

00:44:30 always a thing. And I've never had a CRM before. I've had a, I've had a software forever. I have like the old school series to do all my production work and thank God we're moving on from that.

00:44:45 actual crm. So like, if I, what's wrong with that Old, old school series? What's wrong with old school series?

00:44:53INTRO: #72b372;">INTRO: I mean,

00:44:55Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: how long ago has it been since it's 1995? How many years is that? [00:45:00] I know almost 30. 30. Like that's, that's the technology is 1995.

00:45:15 so I've never, it's, I've never had an actual cr just pile on the

00:45:17Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: lawsuits, man, just pile on the defamation lawsuits here.

00:45:21Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: I've never had an actual CRM that would actually like, be able to quantify doing sales and communicating with my customers.

00:45:30 Like I've looked at things like podium so that I could like text back and forth with my customers. And I think Podium wanted to charge me like 600 bucks a month or something to do that. And so much more per user. And that's only for like texting and reputation [00:45:45] management, which isn't a bad option, but it's just another software that we have to log into.

00:46:00 wraps. Because when I look at other CRMs that are out there, they're geared towards like tint shops. They're geared towards like car manufacturers and they kind of do some of this, but they don't do this and then they kind of do this, but then they want to charge you a hundred dollars per [00:46:15] user over here and just racks up a high bill real quick.

00:46:30 same thing for his shop. We were comparing notes and um, started kind of working together on some stuff there. And then through the people that I coach, cuz I do my own business consulting, business coaching, uh, for people in our industry.[00:46:45]

00:47:00 torque crm. And so what this does is it brings in all your two-way texting, your recorded phone calls, your emails, any of your social media conversations, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, [00:47:15] and even a web chat, a live web chat all into one inbox.

00:47:30 And it replaces about $2,000 worth of subscriptions cuz it even has built in things like, uh, email campaigns, social media planners, blog posting, tons of stuff here, man.

00:47:45 websites in it. Um, web chat features. And more really, like we're integrating all the AI stuff in there as well. It's fantastic. It's been a fantastic tool for my business and the people that are using it right now are having so much fun using it. [00:48:00] So

00:48:02Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: it like, getting into software is like a different jump, is it, is like a completely different industry and like I've, oh, I've, I've been here.

00:48:15 like the people that I'm working with or coaching are like, Hey, they need, this was,

00:48:22Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: well exactly that. So yes, I had apprehension with it. Like anything, right? Like I have, I do, so I do coaching, I have real estate [00:48:30] and I have this, so I have my hands full already.

00:48:45 is because I get to help people. Cause I wanna be, the guy I wish was there for me. So the driving force for this was to put this out there for it's easy, accessible for anyone else who's starting their business and can actually control their communication with their customer [00:49:00] and actually have them help 'em do sales.

00:49:07Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: that, like, I, I agree with you that 99% of shops that I talk to, like the communication, even just [00:49:15] like after they've taken an order, is not, not great. Like after the sale, it is a good place to like fix your communication.

00:49:30 leads within like 24 hours, let

00:49:33Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: alone just a couple of hours? Oh yeah. So I've, I've built in automations to actually do that. So as like a lead comes in, for instance, any, when a lead comes in from any junction, it then it's on a [00:49:45] timer, right?

00:50:00 customized to you and your business.

00:50:15 around what it can do. This one morphs to you.

00:50:30 door. So now we have automations built in to where if we put you on our install schedule, it sends you confirmation texts and email.

00:50:45 funnels that actually tell you what our dropoff policies are, that type of things. Um, then there's follow-ups after that. So in doing that, we've definitely increased our dropoff on timeness.

00:50:58Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: long were you running this in your own [00:51:00] business before you were like, Hey, let's spin this out, or, or was that like the intention from day one of like, Hey, we're gonna spend this out into its own thing?

00:51:08Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: The intention from day one was definitely not to spin it out.

00:51:15 Um, and even now, whatever I do to it, I'm building it for the betterness of, of me, honestly. Everybody else just kind of gets those benefits of whenever I'm trying to do some new feature with ai, like we have conversational AI coming out soon. This is gonna be huge.

00:51:30 that way has definitely been, was built for us. And then of course to give to other people as well.

00:51:37Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Yeah, I, I think there's a lot to be said for that of like, scratching your own itch. Uh, and I could see why that would be valuable. Like if you've got a working [00:51:45] model for a wrap shop as working well for you, like 90% chance that it's gonna work well for another rap shop in a different location.

00:51:56Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Yeah, no, it definitely has. You know, everybody, we had, all the people that I was [00:52:00] coaching, we had come and do a beta test with us for a while and they got massive success with it so far. And I mean, like I said, the, the best form about it to me is the communication part. It does so much more, like it does a much on the marketing side, but the communication, the [00:52:15] reputation management is fantastic.

00:52:30 uh, no thanks, like they don't want it. Well now I can go and listen to the conversation and I can give them critiques so I can see one if they actually really did call the customer back or if they did text the customer or they did email.

00:52:45 going back and forth. Nice. So

00:52:47Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: like even, even like the out outbound calls are recorded and tracked inside the system.

00:52:54Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Yep. So it's definitely helped for training as well. So like, you know, having salespeople onboard and I think for them, [00:53:00] even just hearing their own voice and how they talk to customers, they've definitely been upping their game, but also then I'm able to give them pointers back and say, Hey man, like try this this time instead of like talking like this, talk like this, or you gave 'em the wrong information here or you gave 'em the right [00:53:15] information here.

00:53:18Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Nice. What um, how long were you guys in like development for this? I asked for my own. Purposes, cause I've got like a couple of, of software projects in the works right now. Is it [00:53:30] no CRM though?

00:53:30Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Is it ever outta, is it ever out of development? It's, it's never not, but it's never done.

00:53:37Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: they take you guys to get to the point where like, Hey, this is working well for us, let, let's take it and launch it for other people?

00:53:43Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: I'd probably say about [00:53:45] six hard months. Six hard months. Lots of nights, lots of weekends. Um, even still now, lots of nights and lots of weekends. We rolled it out to our beta team.

00:54:00 team cuz they were so eager to get it. I kept trying to push it off and they were, they were just like, Brad, I want this now. Like, I need to use this now. And I'd be like, Hey. And you know, of course I'd be telling 'em like, Hey look, I just made this. Like, it's so cool.

00:54:15 tease. And so they're like, just, just give it to me. Just give it. Definitely our first couple people that we onboarded was disastrous, but you know, obviously we learned from that. We move on. Okay. How many people

00:54:27Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: do you have

00:54:28Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: on the platform now?[00:54:30]

00:54:45 on perfecting even our own website.

00:54:56Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Okay. What does, uh, what does your pricing look

00:54:58Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: like, Brad? [00:55:00] So we have like three different tier pricings, like most things.

00:55:15 looking at 1 97 a month. And then if you want some of our templates, you know, like if you wanna jumpstart and have us come in and install like commercial rap templates, um, personal rap templates or tint stuff, if you guys do tint, [00:55:30] like we got templates for that already set up, then you're probably looking at, um, 2 97 a month right there.

00:55:45 one. It's about $3,000. Depends on like how big of a shop you are and how much customization you want. But the big thing here that I love that I wanted to add to this, that I actually absolutely hated for other CRMs, we don't have a user [00:56:00] limit on there and we're not charging you for users.

00:56:15 $99 a month, but then it's, you know, a hundred dollars a month after that for every user you put on there.

00:56:20Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Yeah. I like that. Right. Just like having been on the other side of that, like paying per user e especially when you've got different roles within a shop, right? [00:56:30] You, you, ideally you want everybody on your team to be in the same platform, but mm-hmm. Some of those people are gonna use that more than others, but it's still like, I feel like some, some platforms penalize you based on that.

00:56:43Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Well, like one of the best [00:56:45] automations that we made we're actually one of the simplest ones. How many of you guys have a missed call? Yeah. Every single day, right? So if you think about what your average ticket is, right? If you miss a call, that's whatever that average [00:57:00] ticket is. So for me, like the average vehicle wrap for me is about 4,500 bucks, right?

00:57:15 there. So what we have is you have an automation built in to where it can tell if that is a new person calling in and there's a 50 50 chance that it's like somebody trying to sell you a car warranty or Right.

00:57:30 business funding. It's a $4,500 sale. Right. Or to whatever your average ticket is. So we have it, so if it misses the call, it texts them back and it starts to engage with them. It's like, Hey, thanks for calling trade wraps. Sorry we missed your call. How can we help? And [00:57:45] it just starts a texting conversation.

00:57:58Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: curious, since you brought up [00:58:00] text messaging like. On the wrap side, like trade wraps, like how, how much business do you guys do through text messaging now versus email?

00:58:09Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: You know, I absolutely love it because I, you know, so I'm big on, we sell business to business, [00:58:15] right? And so I used to see all these people out there that were like, yeah, texting back and forth with their customers and stuff. And obviously that would have to be done on your phone. So I either have to give everybody phones or they're using their personal phones, [00:58:30] which you definitely don't want.

00:58:45 I gotta be honest, ever since we started texting people through this platform, they have been so much more responsive through texting.

00:59:00 off today, right? Oh, yep. On my way right now. It's been fantastic. The rate of business, like actually even like our web chat, right?

00:59:15 website? Yes. On any website, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Usually it's like a portal and it's like a sell whole separate app you have to log into. Oh, and it's like a portal, right? And then like once you, once you go onto it, they're usually gone, right?

00:59:30 gone, then you kind of miss out on it. So what this does is it creates a form, so the web chat actually draws them into a texting conversation. So, Gotcha. And so now if they walk down the street or they're in another country, whatever, like we can still have our communication here. So the [00:59:45] texting has definitely upped our game big time.

00:59:48Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: nice. I, Mike and I harped on this. Hey, how long ago was it, Mike? We did the shop management software episode where we just waxed for like an hour and a half. [01:00:00] But like for anybody out there, I, I just want to get your take on it of like the cost of building your own system versus like buying something that's already made.

01:00:15 it. Like, I think you're in like a unique position because you've actually built it, you started building your own system and now you're selling that system. But like, well, and this is maybe six hard months and then, but [01:00:30] like I, for everybody that's out there thinking of like, Hey, we're gonna build something ourselves.

01:00:45 involved.

01:00:46Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: I'm gonna, I melted my brain for six hard months. I'm still melting my brain. I'm, like I said, I don't consider myself like book smart, but I can learn anything but this. That's a whole realm that I had no idea what the [01:01:00] hell I was doing and there was a lot of trial and error with it, that's for sure.

01:01:15 customers, right? I got very good at understanding what value is on how to skip time. Like the big thing for us is we need to condense time.

01:01:30 said, I hired plenty of coaches in my day now and some of them were very specialized into. I'm just gonna go ahead and hire a hiring coach, right? And he's gonna teach me everything I need to know about hiring and just get that done, right?

01:01:45 school, like, we're just gonna go right there. So I'm at the point now where like, I understand value very heavily. So if I have the opportunity just to buy something already done, that gets me to what I want to get to faster so I can focus on growing my business, I'm totally down for it.

01:02:00 value has to be there and if the value's there, I have no problem spending the money. That's a great answer. So for all the, the smaller guys or even some of the larger guys that are still stuck in that box in your head that I have to do it, [01:02:15] let go, grow your business, focus

01:02:20Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: on one or two things at a

01:02:23Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: time.

01:02:30 Kajabi before.

01:02:32Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Mm. I've heard of it. No, I don't. It like the, like an online learning platform type of

01:02:39Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: deal. Yeah. So at some point in time you guys are probably paid for a class and you had to show up to these, like [01:02:45] online class and it was like a video and some text below on how to do whatever, some supporting documents, things like that.

01:03:00 time, could you, instead of building out a platform for yourself, could you actually take that six months and apply it to building training for your customers or for your, in your employees to help further your business forward and have onboarding a lot faster?[01:03:15]

01:03:18Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Agreed. Cool guys, do you, do you, Pete, Mike, do you have any questions on the, the signage thing before we wrap this up? Or, I'm sorry, not the signage thing, but the tort, uh, the [01:03:30] CRM thing. I have a

01:03:33Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: mission for Brad. Not really related work, but

01:03:36Michael Riley: #c50000;">Michael Riley: So, sounds like you started out your career not being much of a business person, kinda hating the business side of things and making a lot of mistakes there, [01:03:45] but seems like now you're kind of a business geek and you really, really seem to enjoy it.

01:04:00 where you were just sitting there making cool shit all day long, not dealing with the business at all?

01:04:04Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: That's a, that's an excellent question because if you asked me years ago that question, I probably would say, no, I want to go back and do my art right.

01:04:15 wanna wrap a vehicle or design something. You ha if you've started a business, you owe it to yourself or, and it also depends on whatever your vision is, right? If you want to, if you want to be self-employed, you should just go ahead and. [01:04:30] Work for somebody else. Cause otherwise there's too much risk involved being self-employed and you get none of the upside benefits.

01:04:45 your vision has to be what you, what you're trying to accomplish. And for where I wanted to go, what I wanted to take and bring up the people that I wanted to bring up, it requires more than just me.

01:05:00 am a very artistic person, so details on art side are great, but like numbers and data and all that kind of stuff is super boring to me. Straight up, honestly. Right? Super boring. But I've had to learn to be that guy to understand [01:05:15] what growth is. And so that's not my natural tendencies, but I would say yes, I do love business more because I understand it more and the more, and it's never something that I'm fully done learning.

01:05:30 I can push home how I'm gonna actually drive this business forward.

01:05:33Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Yeah. There was a, there was another podcast I was listening to. I can't even remember the podcast now, but like, just a week ago, that tells you how bad my memory is. Or it could be that I've got three little girls that [01:05:45] it put all these gray hairs on my head.

01:06:00 totally away from tech and like, anything remotely crazy exciting. Uh, but they, they said, uh, this, this is what really stuck with me was like, if you're gonna be in the game, learn to love the game.[01:06:15]

01:06:30 guy was with, with just everything. And you know, I think there's something to that of being able to like, get yourself up for whatever it is that you're, you're doing.

01:06:45 keep yourself interested in the game. So even if you don't necessarily enjoy it at first, like keep yourself in the game, keep playing the game until you know you've got that respect or you, you've got that fire for it. [01:07:00] And like, strikes me, you have to become obsessed. Like you're that type of guy of like, hey, like I hated all this stuff, but like now, like Mike said, you seem like you enjoy it.

01:07:12Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: well, of course. And, and I watched that documentary as well [01:07:15] and I definitely had big takeaways from it. Um, That I could apply in business as well. And the key takeaways from that is to become obsessed, right? But one of the key points of that is, even in Michael Jordan's situation there, [01:07:30] who you are today is not who's gonna get you there or where you're trying to go, right?

01:07:45 So like when Michael Jordan was trying to go for that next round of championships, he had to be completely different. There was a, they did a whole segment on like, oh, they made a big deal.

01:08:00 to actually achieve them. He has to attract different people, right? So that's what we have to do in business as

01:08:04Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: well. Well said, well said. So, uh, as we transition to a close here, Brad, like what's, what's the future for you?

01:08:14Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: What's the future for [01:08:15] me? Well, uh, future for me is to continue to, I just, I can't stop growing, you know, I gotta keep growing. Everything. Like taking trade wraps to another level is where I'm at right now. Um, I wanna get torque into as many hands as possible [01:08:30] to help their business as much as possible.

01:08:37Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: a like the last question I got, which is always a tough one, what do you wanna be remembered for?

01:08:43Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Ooh, what do I wanna be [01:08:45] remembered for? I wanna be, like I said in the beginning here, I want to be the guy that I wish was there for me. Cuz when I was down and feeling, thank you, thank, when I was down and feeling [01:09:00] like after that million dollar mark I told you, I hit that plateau of, I hit the million dollars and there was nothing there for me and nothing changed.

01:09:15 I'm very envious of the H V C plumbing industry cuz if you, and I wanted to start one of those businesses today. There are plenty of coaches, there are plenty like kind of businesses in a box to help get you up to where you need to be.

01:09:30 what our industry has. And specifically even just my, like the, the wrap industry. Like there's not a lot of people out there that have systems and processes down to grow and train installers and businesses that are actually business [01:09:45] oriented.

01:09:51Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Well said. It was very nice. Nice sentiment. Cool. Been a great conversation. I've, I've really enjoyed, um, like [01:10:00] hearing you talk about your journey. Uh, if people are interested in torque crm, is it, what's the website?

01:10:08Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: The website is toric crm.com. It's t O R Q cm.com. You can definitely [01:10:15] click on the link there and, uh, schedule a demo. We'll do a live demo for you. Um, again, or if you just wanna have a conversation, you know, I'm always down to have conversations with people cause I'm always trying to grow and give back as well.

01:10:27Bryant Gillespie: #de4a1d;">Bryant Gillespie: Excellent. Well, Brad, we uh, appreciate having you on, man. [01:10:30] I really appreciate you taking the time out.

01:10:33Brad Rapone: #6600cc;">Brad Rapone: Been enjoyed. Well, thank you again. Thank you gentlemen. Thanks Brad. Take care

01:10:37Peter Kourounis: #583e31;">Peter Kourounis: bud.

01:10:38INTRO: #72b372;">INTRO: If you liked this episode, make sure you hit subscribe to get all the latest episodes and check out our website, better [01:10:45] sign shop.com.

Your Success is on You // Brad Rapone of Trade Wraps and TORQ

GCI Digital Imaging