Dennis Oz: Welcome to the Remodel Success Podcast, where we explore the key strategies from top remodelers who have mastered the balance, creativity, craftsmanship, and also business growth. Today’s guest nearly two decades in the industry, leads Showcase Remodels, a company knowns for it’s attention to detail and also personalized solutions in the kitchen and bathroom and deck remodels too.

We will dive into how they bring their clients, the actual service and how they treat their clients and how do they excel their service. So it’s going to be a very interesting conversation for me as well. And it’s really a big pleasure for me to introduce you, Sam DeMaio.

Sam, welcome to the show. Thank you 

Sam DeMaio: for having me today. I appreciate it. 

Dennis Oz: Sam, could you please introduce yourself? 

Sam DeMaio: Sure. My name is Sam DiMaio. Uh, we’re out of South, uh, New Jersey. Uh, we run Showcase Remodels. Uh, you pretty much gave me a great introduction. Uh, with kitchens, bathrooms, additions, new construction.

Uh, 48 rental properties in our portfolio. Um, as well as doing, you know, minor things as far as design and, and build. So, uh, happy to be here. 

Dennis Oz: Great. Sam, there are some trends that you see over the years. I’m sure you have kitchens and bathrooms are two different things, but let’s pick one and let’s talk about the kitchen. What are you seeing the trends in nowadays or what did you see in the past that find really interesting to talk about. 

Sam DeMaio: Okay. So as far as trends in the kitchen industry, uh, we’ve been through a lot of them over the years. Uh, a lot of new, uh, opening faces coming into the game of kitchens as far as branding, bringing in new cabinet lines, new colors, you know, things are always ongoing and, you know, sometimes to keep up with them, you know, you got to find different ways to, uh, maneuver to be able to stay ahead of the curve.

Uh, and I think we were able to, you know, Basically do that a couple different ways. Uh, number one, you know, we’re not only in the customers homes. We’re we’re online looking at, you know, some of the trends online. You can find a lot of resources, uh, go into a couple things. Little keys are, uh, new construction homes.

Uh, you can see the the stuff coming out today That’s they’re kind of ahead of the curve because they spend a lot of money in design and advertising and bringing things in Kind of give you that baseline idea Uh, and then when you bring your cabinets in, uh, and you start to play around with the moldings You’re able to take you know basic cabinetry and basic items and make them look custom.

So that’s another way we can kind of excel, uh, in, in the kitchen design. Uh, also make your kitchen look beautiful for a fraction of the cost. 

Dennis Oz: This is great. Having these trends and keeping up with them , it’s a bringing another question to us. The creativity and functionality. We need a balance between those things.

And it’s not really easy to create this balance in most of the project. How do you guys handle this?

Sam DeMaio: So, uh, how we handle, I guess, design and build, I think might be a little different from most companies, but it’s been very effective for us. Um, and in that, what I’ll say is we have three levels of cabinetry, um, all the cabinetry I like to have delivered to me within two weeks.

Uh, this way, you know, our design kind of looks like this, um, go out to the house. I measure everything up. I could pretty much design a kitchen As I’m there, um, but we also use 2020 in some instances because again, I’m only one person And we have 50 full time employees. We do about four to seven kitchens Uh a month, um, and then we also sell kitchens to to some of our contractors Um, you know, we’ve seven this morning literally seven new construction homes seven deliveries today going out Uh, but in doing so I feel like the the secret potion is this have some kind of system that you lay out You And follow that system and let everyone know what your system is.

So everyone sees that same vision, sees where we start and sees where we have that. That’s in the design phase. You have a checklist. That’s in the pre installation phase. You have a checklist, and that’s during the actual time that you’re doing the work. I’ll have that as well. So in doing so, I like to go out to the house, uh, draw at the kitchen, have a customer sign off.

Um, sometimes I’ll bring cabinets out with me, or sometimes I’ll have them come into our showroom and pick them out if they don’t like what I have there. Uh, they pick them, they sign, um, you know, that’s same day. If we get it all done in that day, um, you know, two weeks we, uh, have the cabinets delivered and, you know, usually that day that they’re delivered, it’s the same day we do the demolition and, uh, those cabinets go in that second day and we’re doing the template that second day.

And the next week the countertops in done. cookie cutter kitchens, I call them, not custom. 

Dennis Oz: Great. This is a great start to finish. You start with either clients come to you or you come to their house. And also there are another preparation before this, of course. Let’s talk about how you qualify these people because not a lot of people, Sam, they are a good fit for you.

That’s why saying no is a piece of art. How do you handle this? 

Sam DeMaio: Great question. Uh, over the years, you know, in the beginning I would go out to everything. I would chase everything. And, you know, you’re kind of, you know, running around and you’re wasting time and your time is the only thing you can’t buy back.

Um, so I, I think, uh, me effectively this year I, I started, you know, COVID had a big impact on how people communicate, how they’re able to communicate, and how basically you can do almost everything over the phone, on a Google Meet or a Zoom call, and what I encourage, you know, my clients to do a lot of times is, uh, I’ll, I’ll call them, we’ll set up a Zoom meeting, uh, I’ll look at their kitchen, where Uh, as I see their kitchen, we’ve done so many.

I feel like I could show them kitchens like theirs in three steps. Uh, I like to do things in threes. It’s Hey, this kitchen here we’ve done before Mrs. Smith and it looks like this and it’s pretty much just changing out the cabinets, nothing really too crazy. The only thing you might be is, uh, you know, your blind corner cabinet now becomes a diagonal corner.

Stuff, stuff like that. And I’ll have a price. I’ll tell him a rough price right over. The phone I’ll say hey, it’s this price and they’ll say well, how do you know that I said? Well, I do this every single day. Um, i’ve done this exact same kitchen. You see the kitchen Um, that’s kind of how I come up with my formula Uh, then what I do is if they they want to go the next step and they want to you know Open a wall up or do a bigger island.

I have a pricing for that Um, or if they want to do, you know, the third step will go all out It’d be knocking a wall down making the dining room the kitchen One big area. I also have a price for that now Once I have those prices done and they like the kitchen and they like the cabinets and they like the color And we get that all all nailed down I’ll send them Um, pretty much i’ll show them the other invoice of that customer that cost whatever was seventy seven thousand dollars for that kitchen And uh, they’ll say great.

I said, would you like to see that kitchen? Sure. No problem All right, i’m going to go ahead and throw out 10 deposit And then we’re going to go meet at this other client’s house. I’m going to call them up and we’re going to meet there. Uh, you can talk to the client if you want to, uh, you can walk around the kitchen, you can touch it, feel it, see it.

And, um, you know, we’ll kind of go from there. And that’s how I pretty much saw my kitchens now, uh, without even going out to the home. Um, so then once they go there, uh, I take 10 percent deposit. Once, uh, we send our design team out there to do 2020 renderings, all that, and they sign off on the kitchen. Um, that’s when we take the other, uh, deposit, which would be the design completion deposit, which is another 22%.

So we have 32 percent of their money. We order the cabins the day we start 32 percent the day the cabins are installed, 32%, 4 percent for our punch list. And that’s it. We’re done. 

Dennis Oz: Folks, I’m sure that you’re understanding the math behind this process because, here we are talking about not charging up front or we are not waiting too long to get the funding in our bank account because we have to do that in a gradual process.

That’s what Sam’s really explains us here. That’s highly recommended to do that in percentages and deposits. Taking the deposit pretty much like ensures the actual sales. It just avoids that client to go shop around. Is that the reason why you’re charging for deposits?

Sam DeMaio: Yeah, so yeah, what I like to do, um, again, uh, you know, our time’s worth a lot of money and, you know, we, we definitely need to, uh, start to realize as contractors that, that we need that money to survive. That’s our oxygen, right? Um, so customers say, Hey, you know, I want to get free prices. Well, that’s great, but I’m probably not your contractor.

Uh, and I tell them, Hey, you want that contract? You want the cheapest contractor? I’ll help you find that cheapest contractor. I just don’t think you’re going to achieve the level of perfection that you’re going to get with us. Now, are we perfect? No, Uh, but do we try really hard and we’re in the homes every single day and do we try to make you satisfied as much as we possibly can?

Yes, we absolutely do. And then, you know, I think by having, you know, nice reviews online, uh, reviews with pictures on Google, um, some kind of Facebook or even LinkedIn, that’s kind of showing you, hey, what kind of company, what kind of people we have in our company and what we strive for, um, which is our mission statement.

We got to get everybody on the same page with our mission statement because once we have that, we got it. It’s done. So now everyone knows which way we’re going. So we know what we’re trying to achieve on the customer experience side. So I think yes, customers, uh, understanding, Hey, you want to spend time with us?

We’re not, you know, Home Depot, we’re a real kitchen cabinet company, and we’re going to do a lot more than any other company in our area by providing great service, a great product, uh, at a great price. And that’s what I feel we’ll be able to succeed almost every time and every situation and again Not every customer is for us.

I’ll tell them. Hey, you’re not for us, but appreciate your time And thank you so much and you know You you start to see indicators of customers that are just going to waste your time. You learn it over You know over time 

Dennis Oz: You just understand because you’re dealing with a lot of clients over the past years of course, it’s easy to understand their behavior whether they’re a good fit or not this is a great way to evaluate them.

 I would like to dive a little more in technology. 

First let’s talk about design tool a little bit. And then if you have any other tool that you believe it’s bringing you a lot of value to your business, we would like to hear about these tools a little more in detail. 

Sam DeMaio: Sure. Sure. So I’ll start with the kitchen cabinet. Um, you know, tools and software we use, um, which is, you know, 2020.

Um, I have one person in the office and they are dedicated to 2020 only. That’s their own job. Do the designs. That’s it. All the other project managers do all the drawings and the pictures. And they bring it to to Michael and Michael does the design for us in the office Uh, he also uh, we communicate through our our crm which is called builder trend Uh builder trend the the customers are able to log into their account in their portal So they’re able to see the whole process they can see our 18 step kitchen installation process They’re able to make all their selections and confirm all their selections Real time right on builder trend.

Um, we’re now using some of the AI tools, um, for communication, uh, which I’ll get in a minute for a minute. I want to finish the kitchen. I’m sorry. Um, so the other one is chief architect is something that we use, uh, not that so much for kitchens, but we can be used for kitchens, but decks additions, all that, but I feel like 2020 is an easy software.

I feel like AI will have some softwares coming up in the near future. That’ll probably make everything a lot, a lot simpler. Um, and then we also have measuring tools. Um, magic plan is one of them where we can send a link to the customer. They could scan the room. We can automatically have that scan brought into our computer system, which is our sales tool and automatically give the price based off our linear footages.

So when they scan their home, it goes right into our system. We know the linear foot, uh, price for the base trim. We know the square foot price for the flooring. We can pretty much, it does the estimate itself. That’s, that’s where we’re going in that type of direction. So, Hey. People don’t want to be in their home as much anymore.

They want to be able to shop online, click and buy. So talking to them, uh, being able to be face to face on the computer, uh, going through the selections on the computer, seeing the different designs. Uh, I think that’s going to bring us to the level that we need to be going into the future. And if you’re not going to get on board, you’re going to kind of be left in the dark because you know, the early adopters are going to be the ones that just take it to the next level.

And I feel like that’s where we’re going with this. So what we do for AI is obviously we have the software coming up, we’re able to do measurements. Uh, not even going and stepping in the customer’s home, uh, utilizing their phone as long as they have LIDAR. Um, and their, their iPhone, basic iPhone still. I just got the iPhone 16.

It’s got, I’m loading it today. So yeah. Um, and then as far as softwares, um, that we use, uh, that I think are huge. And easy for any contractor, especially kitchens, because all you can do is take a bunch of pictures of kitchens and throw them on a CapCut. So CapCut’s a software you’d start for free, start for free.

Uh, once you do well with it, you know, do the better version. It’s very cheap. It’s it’s dollars, maybe 500, maybe three. I have no idea, but it’s well worth it. But, uh, CapCut’s great. The script is great for, um, making, you know, podcasts or changing videos and taking out the, uh, the words we’re not supposed to use like the, uh, and the end and all those things.

And then, um, you know, doing little text, you know, little text messages to a customer like, Hey, you know, I really appreciate the sale. Uh, I’m gonna have my project manager and he’s right here. Turn to that person. Here’s Mike. He’s going to do the design for you. He’s looking forward to meeting you. Give us a time.

We’re going to send you our account. And set up a time so we come out and do the design. Boom. That little thing I think sets us apart. So, you know, you got that, you got CatCut, um, you have TikTok is pretty big. I mean, I, my son, 10 year old, wanted to show me how to use it when he was six. Uh, we started using it, you know, within the last year.

And, uh, honestly, I’ve got a lot of traction from that. Um, you know, this year is the first year I actually spent money on marketing only because we started a one day Bantam division. But, uh, in the past, um, you know, we do over 17 million we’re going to do this year, but, you know, all of that’s word of mouth and we do, we spend 0 in marketing at all.

I just, I do spend my time, a lot of time on creating content for Facebook, Instagram, and staying consistent. Is the most important part with anything you’re doing, like whether it be business, personal, you know, anything you do, you got to stay consistent. So, Hey, if you decide, Hey, eight o’clock, you’re going to post and two o’clock, you’re going to post, or, you know, 10 o’clock you’re gonna post at three o’clock, you’re supposed to do it.

You know what I mean? Sort of one a day. Once you get that down, do two a day. And then stories are important too. You throw a story in there, it gets in front of people. All of a sudden you have jobs. Um, and then again, AI could do all that. You can make 240, uh, content things in probably under 20 minutes. I showed, uh, the new girl that’s doing a bunch of the, uh, social media management for me.

I showed her how to do it. She’s like, I can’t believe that. Yeah. It’s just by learning, like literally watching other people learning and, and kind of growing. So now our, um, even our software, uh, has AI as far as when you call us if it’s after hours. You talk to an AI avatar eventually it’s gonna be me.

It’ll be you’ll hear me It’s not really me, but you’re talking to me. You can ask me questions. Um right now her name is rosie So, uh, you could ask rosie. Hey rosie. I would like a kitchen, uh estimate and she’ll go into whole details with you And then she could actually schedule right there or she’ll schedule the call for you Uh, but you could send her to you know Answer basic questions, advanced questions.

How long is the process going to take, uh, you know, get your address, all that that goes into our CRM platform, uh, which I’m building out, uh, on go high level. So we’re building out our own platform. Um, and then the other thing I did was, uh, I bought a, an advertising company. So I bought, uh, it’s like a magazine comes out every two weeks to about 83, 000 people.

Um, so I bought it to local businesses. I figured that’d be a good way to jump in because, you know, we can’t just be a construction company where we’re workers. We’re actually hands on. We need to be a advertising company in the market because, Hey, if we market correctly, we’re going to get the sales. The sales are going to bring in obviously the jobs and the jobs are going to be Get done by our, our workers in the field.

So top to bottom, we need to be able to be on the same page with that. Um, and then everything’s the numbers, everything comes down to numbers. So 

Dennis Oz: That was actually going to my next question. And you also answered all these questions. So this is great. For this marketing part, you said, puting consistent content is super important, folks just go check Instagram page what Sam does over there. It’s a great job.

There’s a great profile that I ever seen like in the 10 years in my career in the industry one of those best profiles I would say. Going to the digital marketing side of things. Let’s continue from there. You have the social media part of the equation because marketing, we should differentiate our marketing in different places.

You said, we spend zero dollars to marketing. Also, you spent some time, of course without considering that it’s money. You said you were talking about a marketing agency you bought. Do you advertise somewhere or what’s your budget for annual budget? Do you create something like this?

How do you handle the marketing per year? 

Sam DeMaio: Okay. So, uh, up until this year, um, we, I did spend a lot of time and like I told you before, time is money. Uh, I enjoy doing it though. So it doesn’t even feel like I’m working. 

Dennis Oz: Yeah. 

Sam DeMaio: And that’s important to me. So, um, cause you, you spent so much time doing all this work and, you know, it’s, it’s very strenuous.

It’s a long journey for everyone, no matter what stage you’re, you know, whether you’re making a hundred thousand dollars a year, or you’re making, you know, grossing 17 million, you know, everything comes down to, you know, What’s important, which is your life and enjoying your life and having fun with that.

So, uh, advertising dollars, what I found in researching my, again, the only person I’m going to, or only division I’m going to advertise is going to be right now, my one day bathroom, because everything else runs itself. Everyone knows what we’re getting. Everyone calls us in our area. I feel like we really made a mark and we have great clients.

I can’t tell you how happy I am and how grateful I am for the clients that we have. They are the best and they are, they are, they keep us going to keep you motivated to keep our guys motivated. You know, I’m getting texts from my project managers. Tell me, I love this job. Everyone in here is happy. 97 percent of the time, a hundred percent.

No, 

Dennis Oz: We don’t need nine to a hundred percent. Of course we don’t need that. 

Sam DeMaio: I think revenue wise, what I’m hearing in the industry, cause I, I do some speaking events myself, but, um, more like the real estate side, but, uh, Tom Reber, I was on his podcast and he does, uh, you know, contractor fight.

He was on HGTV, super nice guy. I just flew out to Denver to see and support him and those guys. And they’re all great. Uh, I think the number is, uh, again, we talked about numbers. You got to know your number. So, uh, 10 percent is kind of where I see the benchmark. In the industry, uh for kitchens and bathrooms, uh that they spend anywhere between 10 and 15 I would say 10 and stay conservative Uh, but then on the back end you need to know what your profit margin in but that’s a whole new course on the side You know what I mean?

I don’t want to go too far in it, but i’m going to say 10 percent of marketing So if you’re doing you know, that’s 1. 7 million I should be spending. I don’t spend anything close to that. So Um again this year’s the first year I spent you know money at all But where I put my dollars right now is uh, google google lsa You Which is local services.

I tried pay per click. It doesn’t really bring me what I want, but I haven’t maximized it yet. I’m still learning. Uh, but Google LSA, the first weekend I put it on, I made over 50, 000, um, in two days, and that was again, working from my phone from my beach house. So literally customer called in. Wanted something I was able to talk to her and I was able to also defuse the thing that she’s getting five different bids I said no, that’s not how this this works here.

Dennis Oz: Just for our listeners, Google LSA is Google local services guys, this is where you see Google sponsored that Google recommended like you have the badge at the top of the Google search screen that the search engine results page just to let you know go ahead. Sorry about that.

Sam DeMaio: Your Yeah, I was able to follow that Anything, anything for social media, anything for Google local services, anything, I also give a special phone number to that.

And then that’s all tracked in our other program, which is I’ll go high level. People can build it themselves, um, or they can hire someone to do it. It’s very easy. Uh, I have like maybe seven contractors I work with kind of coach them. I give it to them as part of our deal. And, uh, you know, they do well, they do well.

And we do different ideas. We put them together. We have like a little mastermind and, you know, that kind of builds our, our, you know, my, I learned too, like, Hey, I’m teaching them, but in turn, you can learn from anybody, it doesn’t matter your level of, uh, you know, experience is just go out there and go do it and try and see what works and what doesn’t and the things that’s working, do more of that.

That’s it. And that’s the things that aren’t working. But yeah, Google LSA is great. Uh, paper ad for me for the bathrooms is great because my target market for the one day bathroom is, you know, 50 plus, and maybe they can’t get in the tub so much. So getting over that tub lip 17 or 19 inches is too high.

Uh, so we’ll do a tub to shower conversion in a day. And, uh, you know, it’s been very effective. 

Dennis Oz: Very good. Let me ask you one question. Sometimes we receive a lot of questions, marketing questions too. Bringing the customer is actually 50 percent of the battle. 

We are not an e commerce business. We have to do a lot of talking and communicate with the customer. Sometimes we just give quotes and people just disappear. How do you follow up with these people? Do you use any email templates that you maybe create through AI or implement them?

I’m sure you have a lot of examples with one email or text message. Would bring these people back just because you’re following up. Do you have some sort of things that you implemented in the company? 

Sam DeMaio: We do. Uh, so we, we automate everything. We automate everything. Every job is thrown into a box. So when the job, when the salesman leaves, if he goes out to the home and you’re not doing over the phone, or even if we are, if it’s not sold, it gets put in to a certain level.

So estimate said, did not get the job at time. We do a followup rehash call the next day. Uh, with someone from the sales team, maybe a manager, maybe just another salesman and where he goes in, dives in and says, Hey, you know, is there something different though? Was there something to hold you up? You know, what did you like about our, you know, our presentation?

What didn’t you like about our presentation? And we kind of go into detail on that and we’re able to, uh, you know, effectively, um, probably about 40 percent of the time, close it right there with that rehash. Our rehash is around 40. 40 percent that next day close, even if they’re not. Um, and, uh, you know, what we do is if they go under 30, we coach that person.

So, you know, our sales metric would be KPI, 40 percent on a new leads. And then, uh, the guys that are doing the best, they get the rehashes, um, and they’ll get the credit for the rehash too. And they need to stay about 40%. They want to have that little bonus to them because they’re not doing the full presentation.

They’re just at the end of the game. Now that’s just one. Uh, also I do automation texts, uh, when they call in the same day. Uh the second day if they don’t call us back we do emails Uh third day, uh, they’re going to get a text in the morning and they’re going to text in the height And then it kind of slows down and then uh, you know, eventually, uh at the end of the seven days We do a 10 day then we do a 14 day Then we go monthly and then we go over three months and then we go over six months So everything’s automated until they say go away because we ain’t going away until they say And even when we do, we say, Hey, you know, while you’re here, um, you know, just so you know, we also offer all these services and they go, go away.

Okay. I’m out of here. I’m out. You basically want to touch them as much as you can for as long as you can, until they tell you, go away. Or Hey, a lot of times they say, let’s just get this job done. I’m excited. 

Dennis Oz: This is great follow up. Sam, thank you so much. This is great advice. 

Folks, I’m sure that you’re enjoying this show as much as I do and Sam is sharing all his golden nuggets here today.

So Sam, in our listeners that are people who are just starting. They’re testing different things. They require a lot of recommendations and suggestions.

 Think about the times that you just started. How would you do the things a little bit different? And your progress from the start? 

Sam DeMaio: Okay, so I’ll do it in a quick quick way.

So I joined the military when I was 17. So my junior went to went to boot camp junior high school came back finished. Uh, then I was in Camden County Jail, the worst jail in the pretty much U. S. right? Uh, Camden is the worst town. I was there for five years. I was a correctional officer. Um, I also did the military when I was there.

And I learned a lot about structure and I learned about setting goals and keeping those goals going. Then I became a police officer, but I already started my business then. So when I had 10 years in and I was making the same money with my business, I was easily able to go, Hey, I know what I want. I don’t want this police job anymore.

I want to do this business. And you know, that’s where I started. So, um, I think in going with, um, you know, What I would have did differently is I built the business around myself, making myself the bottleneck, right? The owner’s always going to be the bottleneck. They always want to have their hands in it, hands in it, hands in it, especially as they grow.

And you have to change your mindset. You have to go, uh, from a business owner to CEO. There’s actually a whole psychology about, you know, flipping that switch. And now you’re not, you know, the, the boss so much. You’re, you’re more of a CEO. It’s a different type of position where you’re working on the business instead of in the business, uh, in doing so too, I would have.

I didn’t have the money. I definitely would have paid for some kind of coaching, um, in the beginning, instead of doing it so late, like literally, you know, when I already made it, like made it in my head, um, you know, I started doing coaching, uh, three years ago, uh, I read a book. called, uh, Traction from Gino Wickman, big, big game changer for me.

And, and could I have done the whole thing myself? You know, after reading the book without hiring a Traction coach, because that’s what I hired, I hired a coach through Traction. 

Dennis Oz: Let’s talk about EOS since you mentioned Traction. Let’s talk about this briefly. What do you share about this?

Sam DeMaio: Okay. So EOS, um, is definitely a game changer. It brings the whole team in, the coach, you know, it’s not just me being coach. It’s, it’s my team. Uh, what, what I learned from it is accountability, right? Everyone is now accountable because we have the greatest people. We do, we have the greatest people working here.

It was just, everyone was doing everything. And when something went to the side or something got overlooked, it was. Everyone’s passed the buck, EOS, uh, running EOS L10, you know, meeting. We do it every Tuesday morning from 10 to 1130. It has a whole form that you follow. Uh, we follow that to the T. Um, I did do a little break off of, there’s another book, I think it’s seven powers of, I can’t remember, but Ali V is the, uh, the author of that book.

I mix his meetings, like they’re shorter in with the L10. We built our own little meeting. So we have that for the high level. And then. The guys have their own little meetings outside of what I do. Um, I hired a COO, so he runs the company now. Uh, I just work on the company. I’m doing social media and I’m trying to do the marketing and then the training side.

So we built a training center on the second floor of my office here. Um, so we’re able to change, train up to 26 people at a time on installation on sales. On how to, you know, handle a better customer experience because that’s what it’s all about. Better customer experience and then bring in our AI tools.

Um, we started a podcast. We didn’t launch it yet, but I’ve done about eight or so episodes. Once I have about 20, then I’ll do one a week. I just want to get the good flow. Uh, my first, uh, person I had on was Dennis, uh, you. Um, if you look him up, he was one of the guys that sold, I can’t remember what, uh, he sold his company for a lot of money, pretty much retired.

Now all he does is go across the world, talk about marketing. He’s in Dubai a couple weeks ago, and, uh, I met him in Philly. I spoke in front of all these people about, uh, websites. And, uh, funny story with him is I wrote to him because I knew he was like the best in that industry. And he’s like, Hey, I’m $1,500, uh, back and forth, $1,500 for the hour to assess you.

I paid the 1500 before I even, he said he is got this cheaper. I said, forget about the cheaper thing. I already paid you. When are we doing this tomorrow? So, uh, next day I saw him three o’clock in the morning. He was liking my post on Instagram. And facebook and uh, we had our call he said hey he said sam, uh, let me let’s look at your website It’s absolutely horrendous.

It’s horrible. He’s like, uh, you have no traction. He goes for some reason. You’re the most popular in this area Um, do you ever work inside? I said i’ve never worked on my website ever nor do I care to uh, he said but I gotta tell you And I never told a contractor this before, um, your Instagram and Facebook are off the charge.

He’s like, you’ll even need to do the SEO part of it. And that’s what I do. So don’t even worry about giving me money for that. We became friends that way. Um, and he used me as the example that, Hey, you don’t have to use SEO. It’s, it’s great. We’re what it’s for. Um, but the way he’s doing it, it’s a little different because again, companies now it’s so easy to hop on your phone and surface.

Scroll and learn about a company. So it’s what sets your company apart. You know, in our case, you know, I’m kind of the face of the company and I go on jobs and I get involved with my installers or my project managers that we talk and we make it fun. And people see that and appreciate the realness of it.

You know what I mean? So again, you don’t have to be perfect, you know, uh, make it 50 percent good when you start and go, your goal is to get to 51 percent the next day. Getting 1%, you know, better every day. That’s, that’s my goal in life. So, um, you know, I think in doing that, that’s where we’re at with marketing.

That’s where we are with business. That’s how we build a culture. And all of a sudden things just start coming together. Uh, and then it just takes off like a rocket ship. That’s kind of how it’s been for me. 

Dennis Oz: I’m so grateful that you Sam showed us. Being a great business owner starts with being a great entrepreneur.

 I’m sure that the listeners who is watching this show today, they will be amazed with the information that you shared.

Dennis Oz: We usually ask this question at the end. Please don’t share a personal number, but, what’s the best way to get back to you if anyone has a follow up question?

Sam DeMaio: Yeah. So, I mean, I’m open to any questions. I like to help other people out, especially grown businesses, uh, especially people that also look to eventually give back to the community, uh, because again, that’s all what it’s all about. You can make all this money. It means nothing, right? Uh, make the money, enjoy the money, give back, right?

So that’s, that’s our whole mission, Stephen. Get it and give it. So, you know, get it, understand it, give it back to somebody else. Hey, you learn something, you help out. So, uh, getting in contact with me is pretty easy. Uh, I’m all over social media, uh, uh, the showcase remodels. If they looked it up on Instagram or Facebook, um, or, uh, my, my Facebook or my Facebook’s maxed out at 5, 000 friends, I can’t add any more.

And I can’t do professional mode yet. Um, so I can’t, can’t really write you there, but, uh, Instagram, you know, I just started Instagram for my personal page. I never, I had, I only have my business page. So. Sam DeMaio, S A M D E M A I O, uh, right on Instagram. I’ll get back to you. Uh, also if you write to Showcase Remodels Instagram, I have a chat bot.

So it’s going to try and sell you a bathroom. So it actually goes back and forth, but it’s, it’s a little aggressive. So I got to tweak it a little bit. Comment down a little bit, but you’re right. It says fantastic choice goes into all these things. And, uh, you’re thinking of a conversation on a real person.

It’s really not. Um, so, uh, yeah, one of the people are reaching out to me. Uh, he saw one of my other podcasts, he was talking to, he wanted, he wants to meet me and it was trying to sell him a bathroom. It was so funny, but, uh, yeah, we have a lot of fun with it, with what we do. 

Dennis Oz: Thank you so much for your contribution here, Sam. I do appreciate it, folks. Thank you so much for joining us today. That was another episode of the Remodeler Success Podcast, and we’re going to see you next time. Goodbye. 

Sam DeMaio: Thank you.