Forging a Family Business with Stephanie Allen
It's International Women's Month this week in the virtual Lemonade Stand, and Crystal and Emily are joined by Stephanie Allen from AirWorks Heating & Cooling! She discusses her story about personal branding, community outreach, and fearlessness in marketing strategy.
0:07 - Building a Successful Brand Together
8:07 - The Power of Brand Identity
19:25 - Embracing Local Marketing Strategies
26:31 - Navigating Rebranding and Leadership Advice
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We’ll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
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Speaker 1: 0:07
Let's up lemon heads. Welcome back to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I'm Emily and I'm Crystal, and this week we are talking with a true rock star, someone that you guys are going to be so excited to hear her story and kind of some challenges that she might give you guys to think of things in a different way, and so we are so excited to introduce our guest here in just a little bit. But yeah, crystal.
Speaker 2: 0:30
Yeah, so we are going to really talk a lot about how do you incorporate yourself into your brand. I know that sounds super scary. People are like I'm not doing it. I don't want my face plastered all over vans or riding around town. But it works when it's done correctly and when you really buy in. So I'm super excited to talk about that today. She has a great story to tell. I'm sure it's going to knock your socks off. Let's sip some lemonade. Let's do it.
Speaker 1: 0:59
All right. So here in the lemonade stand with us we have the CEO of Airworks Heating and Cooling based out of California, miss Stephanie Allen. Hey, how?
Speaker 3: 1:10
are you Good, so excited to be here with you guys.
Speaker 1: 1:14
Yeah, we are so excited. We knew your story is very impactful and very relatable to a lot of people. I'll kind of hit on the highlights and then let you explain upon it. But your husband grew up in the industry, working in the field and stuff, and then just didn't like how the company operated and knew that you guys could provide better service to better suit the customers and so I think you all got started on that journey of Airworks. Is that kind of the highlight points of it?
Speaker 3: 1:41
Yeah, super high. So give us more details. Sure, so Kevin started in the industry right out of high school and he was working for a friend's dad, loved working for him, loved working for the company. And then that company sold and so the experience changed and in the meantime I was accepted to graduate school in another state and so I did the whole. If you love me, you'll come with me. And then he said yes, and I said I'm not, actually not ready. And so he stayed behind and he wasn't in love with his job anymore and we figured out that long distance didn't really work so well for us. So he moved out. I went to school in Alabama, so he moved out to Alabama with me and I got him a job at the company that did the inspection for the home that we were buying. And so Kevin went from commercial to residential at that point and he got to learn residential in Alabama and worked for a couple of companies out there and he really realized that, although he loved the trade, it mattered who he worked for and who he worked with, right and their ethics and ideals. That went into the company. Yeah, so we had a little entrepreneurial adventure with a friend in carpet cleaning and he moved to Texas for a few months, did carpet cleaning with him. We lost about $40,000 and a best friend and he came back. So that was like the beginning of our entrepreneurial experience, right and. But we figured out a lot of things and we learned a lot of things in that experience. And then we came back. I bought him the contractor's study guides for Christmas and he studied and I thought so graduate school, I'm an attorney. I was like I'll teach you all the law parts, it'll be fine. I napped during the law parts. Those were really boring, but he nailed it. Yeah. So he passed the exam and we moved back to California and started Airworks. And Airworks started with a brand that I created on Publisher, like with rings, and it was really simple, and so our brand has evolved over the years.
Speaker 2: 3:50
Okay, well, and you know, I think one of the hardest things about so there's a couple of challenges, right. So you were on a different path, a different career path. He was on a path. So you got the whole combination of trying to work together with your spouse and building a new business and kind of like you were having to, like I say this, like you had this vision for yourself where you were gonna go do this legal and like, if you've ever met Stephanie in person, she has a little ball of energy and Right, am I? Yeah, I've seen this. Like I'm here for it, like she and I will. I'm like, if I see her in a room, I'm like, okay, let's go talk, cause Stephanie always gives really good advice, like on just personal development. So I know that it was a little bit of you giving up some things that you probably had dreamed about, along with coming alongside him. I mean, for Christmas you said here's your future, basically Right, and so I know that that was a little bit of a challenge too. But then you, so you created this brand, which a lot of contractors do. Right, a lot of contractors will say my uncle drew this, or my cousin or my best friend or I just started out with something simple. So what kind of clicked with you that made you go okay? So Kevin and I are doing this dang thing Now. How do we get into? Why do we need to rebrand, like what happened, to give you that revelation?
Speaker 3: 5:09
It's so funny. You talk about, like the beginning of the brand. The reason we're air works is because A in the beginning of the phone book, like you don't even need that stuff anymore, right. And then it was air work solutions because we could get the wwwcom, and so that was really important to us at the time when we established. So we started in 2010 and we rebranded in 2021, 2020, 2021. And basically we had had this journey in the company where we had grown to a size bigger than we had ever expected, but I had kind of plateaued because I was raising babies, so I took a break. We had our first baby in 2015 and our second in 2018. And then 2020 rolled around, and this was before COVID. We were at an owner's meeting with John Stones and Fujitsu and ran into Josh Kelly from Clover and I said you know, we're gonna double down and we're gonna do this. And so Kevin and I decided to engage Josh to work with us and eventually, through that engagement, he started asking us difficult questions that we had never considered before, like what's your USP right? Are you an excelling proposition? And we're in a room and we're back and forth about what makes us different, and you know that we give great service and we do it the right way, everybody right. And our brand the family run mom approved came from a pain point. It's actually because my husband said, well, everything we do has to be approved by Stephanie Right, and so I was the bottleneck to progress. But what we figured out was that really helped create this brand that we had, and so that evolved and it's actually Kevin's tagline, the family run mom approved, which is kind of funny because he got cut out of the brand completely and he is like the personality and lifeblood behind it. But at the time Josh told me I was very pregnant with my third, which now you are pregnant with your fourth yeah.
Speaker 1: 7:21
I was very pregnant with my third. Go ahead, emily. When we scheduled this podcast. She's like, okay, I may or may not make it because I might be literally having a baby. So yeah, so she's here today and we're very thankful. Yeah, she's very pregnant.
Speaker 3: 7:37
So I said well, why don't we wait until he comes out, and then we'll have all three of us, all three of the kids? And Josh said two kids makes you look capable, three kids make you look crazy. So I'm not quite sure how he's gonna feel about these four kids. But so that's the beginning of the brand.
Speaker 1: 7:54
Well, that's so interesting. Yeah, I love that and, like you know, for you guys you need to go look them up Airworks out of Ventura County in California. But Stephanie is featured in the logo she herself with her two daughters. And I love your tag on family run mom approved because that makes it super relatable because, like you said, you make all the final decisions for your family. Well, guess what? So does the majority of the other women in their family. So audio is Having your company be kind of stamped as mom approved is super relatable and People can relate and jive with that, knowing that they're gonna appreciate and approve of that work in service too.
Speaker 3: 8:30
And we find that a lot of people comment on that in reviews and in other things that you know they wanted the mom approved service and they're getting it that way and it's really helped us establish our values, our company mission and you know other things along the line.
Speaker 2: 8:47
Yeah so were you hesitant when he was like, hey, you need to put yourself in here Because you're let's be honest, like you're not shy. I'm not shy either. Emily's really not shy, so it wouldn't really bother me to be in a logo. But like what, what? When you first heard that recommendation, what, what did you think? Like what were some caveats that you thought you were gonna have to take into consideration?
Speaker 3: 9:11
Well, I definitely thought Kevin would be part of it and actually when we did our photo shoot, kev was part of it and they cut cut him out of it when they drew the brand, and so that was interesting. I think that I am very careful about the things that my face goes on, and I will say that like I Don't really want my face all over that back of the shirt or what it is like. We have this other Other brand also that has dropped the name, although as we're using it more and more, I'm starting to see myself more the character rather than it being me, so I'm able to separate that a little bit more and we're starting to use that.
Speaker 2: 9:54
Image. So I love that idea. So basically, on those of you that are just listening, on her shirt is the same logo, the same stylistic guy, just without the actual illustration. And you're right, like, really, what that illustration is to me is a persona Just very closely related to who you are. But I definitely think you could kind of spin it into being like this is everyone's mom, right. Like this is every one's mom with her kids.
Speaker 3: 10:21
You know what helps me with that is, I did a tour of Tommy mellows Facility and there are little Tommy's everywhere, like there he's plastered all over the walls, he's just everywhere, and so I asked him. I said isn't it weird that your face is everywhere? He's like now I love it right. And so it started like kind of changing for me looking at that image. And you know, the kids will never get older. They're like the Gerber babies in it. I will never age either. So it's this now logo image that we're starting to use more and more. We're pulling it apart and we're leaning into it. So, like this morning I did a photo shoot with Lola, my middle daughter, making muffins because it's National Muffin Day. And so we get to use that content in Social and we get a lot more engagement when we're using real photos and real activities that we're doing 1000%.
Speaker 2: 11:17
So that's a good setup for the next thing. So, because your brand is so relatable, it leans into good content, naturally. So I say this all the time if you just pick a lane, whatever the lane is, if you want to be a rabbit, you can do all things around rabbits. If you, if you, if you can create some sort of brand story, then you it just helps with everything. It helps with your stylistic pieces, like what you're writing, jokes that you tell, social media content, email content, community support, like everything is mom approved. So as long as it goes with that mom Theme, it really does help you not have riders block every time you're trying to create new content. For sure, yeah, it's a.
Speaker 3: 12:02
It's easy for us to Give that voice to agencies and they can understand it where we're coming from, how we want to be heard. We also use the mom approved for patches on the technicians shirts or hats, so it's like a badge of honor.
Speaker 1: 12:20
Well, commercials that we've done too, and I love that you're talking about bits and pieces of this, because you even talked about, like, there's certain times where you have just the the kind of bad shape with the same typography and colors and stuff, without the character illustrations, but also peeling out just bits and pieces of just mom approved pieces of the tagline, and so I think that's what a great brand can do for you is to give you just different iterations. It's still the same brand, still the same family. You're not looking like a different Airworks company or something, but it's. It's moldable and it's livable to be on whatever application you need it for. You have those options and varieties to do it, and that's extremely important, I think, something that a lot of contractors miss out on by just designing their own logo inside a Canva, or an inexperienced graphic designer who may not think about all those different iterations?
Speaker 3: 13:10
And I didn't really understand the impact when we started right, but I worked with the best. So Josh got us in touch with Dan Antonelli and the kick charge team and they knew what they were doing. Luckily, Because I didn't you know, and I felt like I was a pain in the butt kind of client. I've learned that they appreciated me. So they say, who knows, maybe I wasn't the most pain you know, but they knew what they were doing and they set us up for success.
Speaker 2: 13:43
Well, let me say this about contractors. So there's there's two situations that you run into with contractors, those that are opinionated, but you can derive direction from those people. That will give a lot of nothing. So they give you a lot of opinion but it's not anything that you can derive direction from. So you know, probably they're telling you the truth, like, yes, you might have been a squeaky wheel, like I don't like this, but at least you had an opinion where you could pivot from. A lot of times, I think contractors, they either they either worry too much and they don't give you enough information, or they overthink it to the point of no return. And so, for sure because kick charge knows what they're doing they do fantastic things Clover marketing and their business coaching style. They did great things. Like I mean, our industry is stacked with really good vendor partners, emily, and I say that all the time. So you probably were a pain, but a good pain.
Speaker 1: 14:38
And I like how you said like you know, you didn't know the power of it beforehand, but you worked with professionals who did so. Like now that you've gone through this process and you've seen what Brandy can do for you, like, could you imagine now, imagine not having invested in this brand and the power? Like, could you imagine where your company be without that, those elements.
Speaker 3: 14:56
No, I think we would just kind of be floating out there.
Speaker 1: 14:59
That's exactly right. Yeah, and that's what I want so badly for contractors to realize, because they're like, how it's fine, like it's all about my expertise, it's all about my quality of service and like, yes, it is, and that is what your brand is. But is your visual representation and your wording and your community engagement on social media and things like that? Is that matching that? And I think so many people don't give importance to their brand.
Speaker 3: 15:24
Yeah, and really the brand helps the whole company like march together right. It's kind of like the beat of the drum where leadership is definitely a big part of that and important, but it gives us the ability to focus the direction right and so we can always go back to are you behaving like a mom approved technician? Are you showing up mom approved? You know our packages are built around that same idea where we have, you know, the Band-Aid version versus the kitchen sink version, and so we've taken the brand and allowed that to help us shape who we are.
Speaker 2: 16:02
I'm telling you it just it gives your business legs, it allows you to navigate through all these other things. So the other day I was meeting with a contractor that wants to private label but the name of their company is a family name, which, again, nothing wrong with it. It takes one to know one Like I come from that but a family name and there's really not a ton of identity going on. So really we had to go through this whole discovery practice of let's talk about who you are, what you guys do, why you do it the way you do it, and then lean into this versus our clients that have a strong brand that has some identity to it, some weight to it. It just leans right into. We have a client that is a bumblebee in Louisiana, so obviously his maintenance club we called the Hive Club and all these levels of different Queen Bee and all of these things, and man, it's a lot easier to go that direction. And so if you don't have one, I just really encourage contractors. It's more than it does, more than just build identity for you. It literally gives you all this motivation and idea creation inside your own business.
Speaker 3: 17:07
You guys actually gave me an idea about private label, because we private label, but we use our brand or we use our company name, and I love that you have a different name on the equipment versus your company name. So we're going to start pivoting towards that. Yeah, I think it just gives some.
Speaker 2: 17:27
So when you private label and it's the name of your own brand, so like when you to go to any national retailer or any grocery store and you buy their brand, it's normally the generic brand, right, it's not normally the high end brand. So we were trying to get away from that stigma, to really elevate it by making it complementary to our brand, so to our legacy brand, as I call it. So no for sure Again, though, you just have so many opportunities for naming conventions when you have a strong brand to go from. So all right. So what it? So we've kind of mentioned this a little bit, but like going beyond just a logo, right? So, as far as, like your maintenance plan, or community support, or employee engagement, what are some things that you guys do to reiterate that brand, maybe internally to your existing team or even to your community, our maintenance?
Speaker 3: 18:19
plans called the family plan. Ok, you know, welcome to the family. And we really we have the, the family discount, etc. So we lean into the family side of things with the with the mom approved. We have different levels of packages for our equipment. We have mom's choice and down to Band-Aid, so there are different ways that we incorporated in there. We, like I said, with the technicians we remind them that they are always entering a home as a mom-approved technician. What does that look like? How would they speak in that way? And I think it helps them understand the persona that they're giving off as well. And as far as community goes, we're very involved in our community from a mom standpoint, right. So we engage with PTAs and we get involved with fundraisers and donations and we give back. We are actually looking to do more local marketing and engage our local fan-based and social supporters versus doing big media. So we did big media last year in order to really establish ourselves as a major player in our market. But we've done that and we hear a lot about oh, we see you on TV or we've seen these clips, and so we're evolving in 2024 to a much wider grass roots type of a marketing campaign.
Speaker 2: 20:01
So you know that's like near and dear to my heart. So I love that boots on the ground style marketing because it is little tiny points of engagement all the time and I just think relationships and engagement even if it's a high five, a hug from your mom, like you know, all of that is so impactful and memorable. But you know I also love like mass media strategy. So television commercials, radio blitzes, billboards, I love all the things. But I definitely think this is the year. I definitely think we're in going into a market with a buying pattern of they're only doing what they have to do with people that they know and love. So if they've got to spend the money, they want to do it with people that they know, love and trust. And so now is the time to turn up that trust factor, turn up that engagement factor and really invest in in your communities, in your own people, so that you leave this really good memory with people. So if they think of you first when they have to make a big decision.
Speaker 3: 21:04
And we saw that our phones stopped mid September last year and we were like what are we going to do? And we figured out that it's the community engagement that really counts and I baked like 700 cookies that weekend. Oh my God, and we did a postcard and delivered me and the girls with the wagon delivered postcards door to door with bags of cookies, right. And then we did a whole social campaign around that because that's something a mom would do. In that card we wrote phone stopped. We have, you know, 40 families that we're feeding. If you've been putting off maintenance, think about us, et cetera, et cetera, and we did get some good play from that at the time, but the residual has been really interesting. So those phone numbers, you can see that engagement later.
Speaker 1: 21:55
Well, because that was so memorable to them, versus seeing a billboard Like. I remember the lady that came and brought me cookies, like, and so they might not have needed you, right that second, but it was memorable, so it stuck with them. So when they did need you, you were the first one that they thought of.
Speaker 2: 22:09
Yeah, and you know so, something that happens a lot of times. So I'm going to say one little off topic statement here. So you know when things happen to you in your life, right, so you know babies being born or getting married or someone passing away or just a very difficult time you always remember the people that showed up right, and that's because it is unexpected, or you know people had to go out of their way to do things. So I think when your booth is set up at a festival and you're the one that's given out all of these balloons to all these kids and your kid got to take a picture with the mascot and get a hug and get a balloon they walk away like, oh my gosh, that was such a meaningful experience. It sounds so corny, but when you delivered, when you're walking down the street pulling this wagon full of homemade cookies there is nothing more American and enduring than this and so people are like, oh my gosh, that was wonderful, right, and really in the back of our heads we're like buy from us, you better buy from us, you better call me when you have a problem. But I think that realistically, we have to get to a place where we understand that not everything has immediate and directional ROI. So you're right, residual is where you have to put your eyes. When I coach contractors about just marketing in general, I'm like listen, there's marathon strategies and there's sprint strategies. Some things we know are not gonna immediately pay off, but they will pay off in the long run. Listen, that's how Limit Seeds builds our business Pay now for results later. And we realize that every single day, like after we go to a show, literally right now, people say I saw you in 2022 in San Francisco and we're like what show is that? So? But we just try to stay out and about. So when people decide that they need our services, we're there and it's understanding that that's a marathon strategy versus quick sprints, which are where you come into play with rehash strategies and pay per click strategies and all of those things that drive us crazy, because the point of them, the exact reason for those tactics, is to drive immediate calls, and so when they don't drive immediate calls, we get upset. The problem is contractors don't know like. Well, I went out and delivered cookies yesterday. Why is my phone not ringing? Versus I launched a text campaign. Why is my phone not ringing? Like? Those are two totally different. You have to have two totally different expectations for those things.
Speaker 3: 24:31
I think understanding your plan, your business plan, in the one, three, five year is important as you invest in this branding also, because last year was a very expensive year for us doing media. I don't have to do that this year. Right, I made that splash At least this is what I'm saying to myself. Hopefully the market agrees with me, right, but we've made that splash, we got introduced and now we're able to leverage the brand and the identity that we've portrayed out to the community in different ways, and so I think that it's just really important. When people think I can't afford investing in new branding or what it's going to take to reroute my vehicles, can you afford not to Right, amen, amen. It means you are going to continue that sprint for the rest of forever if you don't invest in the marathon. So there's both that you have to do as you're growing, but you get to temper them down at different times, so I can temper down my sprint and just work on my marathon.
Speaker 2: 25:43
Well, I don't know about y'all, but the odds of me winning a sprint are less likely than me winning a marathon. But honestly, like man, if you sprint like I tell people this a lot of people only rely on the sprint and what it does is it makes you so winded Like I mean it's really such a good analogy, because I will talk to contractors that literally are on the verge of crying and when I dig in and I start looking at what they're doing, I'm like gosh, everything is so pitiful, like you're just literally begging for every single lead and I'm like, what are you doing to keep yourself from being in that? You're on a hamster wheel when I like, oh, ppc and GLSA and all these rehab strategies, like they're not working, they're not working. And I'm like, yeah, because no one freaking knows who you are and there is very little demand. At certain times of the year, there's very little demand. You live in California with the most perfect weather. Yeah, whether is it hardly ever going to help you? I live in East Texas. Like, if we get, if we get some strong weather patterns one direction or the other, east Texas freaks out, and one thing we will not go without is air conditioning and so give us a few hundred day, hundred degree days, and we're we done, capped out, like we're at capacity. So but yeah, no, that's great advice. So it kind of leads me to that. So the last question we wanted to ask you, because I know you have such great thoughts and opinions on leadership and branding, but what is your advice for contractors that maybe they're afraid of really honing in their brand and leading their company through a rebrand? Like, what is your advice to those people?
Speaker 3: 27:16
Seek counsel so you might not be the one that is strong enough to completely do it for your company and you question everything. So I believe in expert advice and making sure I pick the right people and trusting. Sure, I'm involved in that process. But I'm not a marketer, I am not a brand. You know I don't know a whole lot about brand. I'm a consumer so I can lean into that part of it. But as far as rebranding, it's scary, own that. Know that it's scary. You're making a really good investment for your company and you should do it with counsel. So write those questions down. Seek advice and you know the industry is so much smaller and accessible than you would think. There is so much feedback that you can get from others in groups. Now you have to take that with a grain of salt. But when you find a couple of people that you can really that you respect and lean on, then seek their advice. If it was just me, my face would never be on a van. Yeah Right, I'm not interested in that. I like being like the strength and the power behind the face. I didn't want to be the face. I wanted to put Kevin out there and then I wanted to make that work, and so, but with Kevin's encouragement and the other experts that we had, it just made sense to diversify us and move that direction. So, as you rebrand, think about the ripple effects that you're looking for, think about the marathon and find a coach or, you know, find an expert to help guide you on this path.
Speaker 1: 29:09
And trust them. You know, we see all the time where sometimes people they ask the experts but then they don't trust them or do what they say. They try to argue with them, and so I think you're so right in seeking the counsel but also, I'd say, trusting the counsel as well.
Speaker 3: 29:24
I remember my mom like when you would get ready for school and say what should I wear today? And she would always say jeans, a t-shirt and a sweatshirt. And I'd say, now I'm going to wear a dress. She's like why do you ask me anyway? Then why do you ask me? So same kind of thing. You know, if you were going to take somebody's expert time and have them consider, then you need to weigh into that advice too, or let that advice weigh in, and I'm so glad that I did.
Speaker 1: 29:47
Oh for sure, for sure, yeah. So I think the moral of the story today is don't be boring. Do something different where you can build a brand. Trust the expert advice and you will see the difference in your company. You will say how could I not have done this? It'll pay off.
Speaker 2: 30:06
Absolutely so. When you see Stephanie, it shows what Stephanie she's out and about. She's always paying attention. One thing I will say, and I learned this I was like watching her the first time because I was like what is she going to do over there? But it's, she's in little groups and she's talking to people that do things differently than her, or, and then she'll walk away and then later on I'll be like, hey, what were they saying? And she's like, well, I'm really not going to keep a lot of what I just heard. It was good to hear it, but I was like, okay, I'm impressed with this, because I struggle with the same thing. Like not every person, every person deserves to be heard, but not every person's opinion deserves to be applied. So it's a good opinion. That I have now realized does not match my either it's morals or your business strategy or whatever, but just being a sponge in all of these events that you go to. So if you're going to, if you're going to pay attention to the noise that's out there on social media and at these events, if you're going to be active like that, you better be a dang good filter of what you're going to do.
Speaker 3: 31:04
It's a really good point and as I have become more comfortable in my leadership and business and brand, I'm able to do that. So I was really nervous in the beginning to engage in best practice groups or other things because I didn't want them to lead me down a particular path that didn't feel right in my gut, and so this brand has also helped me establish that voice and it's a filter and so I know this fits or this doesn't fit.
Speaker 1: 31:34
That's fantastic.
Speaker 2: 31:35
Yes, girl, you've been so good, so excited for you to welcome that fourth little sweet baby. Thank you, thank you. You do great things. Don't ever stop doing what you do, because you empower a lot of women. You're super passionate about that motivational like. We just adore you. So thank you so much for sharing everything you had to say today.
Speaker 1: 31:55
Thanks, ladies, talk to you soon, awesome. Well, thank you for listening to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review, give us a shout out, give us a follow. We appreciate all of that and, as always, thank you for sipping some lemonade. We'll see you next time.
