Thank you so much for joining us on Did You Know?
The Esco HVAC Podcast. Tony Mormino. What's up?
I feel like I've made it. When you get on the
Did You Know? Podcast, you know you made it.
So thank you so much for having me. I just, I
love everything you're doing in social media.
I love seeing the brand that you have built.
And I think that is such a important topic to
discuss because not everybody thinks about themselves
as being like their own brand ambassador. And
there's a lot to that, that if people could just
understand their value to the world, it could
change the opportunities that can be in front
of them. A hundred percent. So let's kind of
walk, let's walk through like yours. Is that
what we're going to talk about? Personal brand
building? This is like my favorite topic ever.
I think we should because yeah, you're like your
own brand ambassador and it's a perfect example
of how to like show yourself and be proud of
who you are and the rewards that comes with doing
that. Well, I love the topic. I think it could
bring some value to your audience and I look
forward to talking about it some more. So I got
a little bit experienced with that over the last
few years. So it's been good. Yeah. How did it
start? I always love that. Where did you begin
with it? So I started getting into social media
heavy during COVID because of, we were trying
to, as a company, trying to get in front of more
engineers because when everything shut down.
for us the lifeblood of our jobs the seed of
our job starts with the mechanical engineer so
we're like okay let's do stuff online we started
doing that we were shocked that people were actually
watching like commercial hvac stuff on you know
we would go live on linkedin like oh my gosh
like so and so's on there such as on there people
are actually watching it so it just grew from
there i am passionate about like i love social
media I should just call it the media. It's not
really social media anymore. We'll talk about
that later. But as you know, you're like, and
by the way, I've learned a lot from guys like
you who've been doing a lot longer than me. So
thanks for paving the way. But yeah, just started
that way and wanting to learn and grow. I'm addicted
to like attention. Like where is the attention
and how do you get it? You know, and I'm agnostic.
If you want to grow a brand online today, you
need to be agnostic to where it is and just go
get it. Just no excuses. Don't give me the TikTok
China thing. If that's where your customers are,
you go at it full force. And by the way, Facebook
knows way more about you than TikTok does. Just
so you know, TikTok would kill to have Facebook's
database. So before you cry that excuse, which
is all it is, you got to find out where the attention
is and then you got to go get it. And then the
branding is like. You know, what is a brand like
people? I used to cringe. I have a personal brand.
Like I'm not a used car kind of like that's the
mentality. But your brand is just your your reputation,
right? Wouldn't you say? I think that's exactly
it. It is your reputation and you're helping
you're helping people see it. You know, Tom Tebby.
from our team. A lot of people have known Tom.
He's been in industry forever. He finally just
decided to retire for like the third or fourth
or fifth time this year at like 82, 83 years
old. Been in the industry forever. seriously
he was like tom did not want to retire he just
loves the sensory so much had his own unique
brand but one of the things that he said to me
one time and it really made me think a whole
lot different about myself he says you know young
man you have been selling yourself since you
tried putting the twinkle in that lady's eye
i'm like oh i guess i have haven't i he says
you just have to do a better job of it i get
it 100 right like we're all really At the core
of it, we're all sales in some respect. You might
be selling yourself to your company as the value
you bring, or even if you're a service tech on
the job, you're selling your services in some
fashion or another. Jeff Bezos says, your brand
is what people say about you when you're not
in the room. Oh yeah. I love that. It's very
simple. Cause you could look up what is a brand.
And I used to have all these, I would memorize
like all this marketing jargon of what a brand
is. And I'm like, I heard the Jeff Bezos thing.
So I just stick with that. Cause I'm kind of
simple and kind of slow with that. So what do
people say about you? And you could have a good
brand, a good reputation, which takes a long
time to build, but you can wreck that in one
day easily. And then you could have a bad brand,
you know, people, what do you want? So what do
you want people to say about you? And is it legit?
Like, are you really the person you try to perceive
online? I try to be to the best of my ability,
what I show online. Like when you see me, that's
like, and I'm always saying, look, I'm posting
this because I forget it sometimes that, you
know, what I want is on the other side of fear
or, you know, the people who show up, that's
what it means to win, even when the tough times,
you know, I'm posting that stuff, not because
I do any of that perfect, but because I got to
be remembered, reminded to do that. And I love
sharing that because I know it's helpful. Yeah.
I'm the same way. I'll put a whole bunch of time
into researching something and I'll do a post
or I'll do a video and somebody will come back
later and go, oh, that was so cool. Tell me a
little bit more about that. I'm like, hold on,
let me go Google it. Hey, the other day I Googled
something. I can't remember what it was, but
it was like, I don't know, the inside of a TXV
or something. And my video of me came up. talking
about that topic yeah exactly i forgot i was
talking about that i forgot so i need to remember
this stuff all the time so yeah and it's like
we're creating this living document of this living
breathing document of who we are you know right
as as we start looking at like um media or social
media in general you know really what people
are are doing is they're building their own resume
right like this kind of like social resume And
it's a, it's a continuation of media inputs of
what you do in your life. And mine's got, mine's
a pretty crazy road. Like you go back in mine
and there, there's some, there's some rough times
back in there. And I mean, you know, I was, it
was rough getting started doing that. But isn't
that how it always is? Like somebody showed me
something the other day, like, look at this guy.
He's, I said, you know what he's doing? He's
doing it. He's starting. yeah like that's how
it is when you start it's awkward it's weird
you're doing these weird like cap cut you know
they have these templates where you put five
photos in and it does all these flashy things
because you don't know you're just but that's
how you learn so i love that you said that because
it's true you just got to get started you know
yeah my first one was an iphone 7. i honestly
i didn't even have any intentions of being in
this like brand arena i you know i was a refrigeration
technician i was a mobile engineer i loved what
i was doing did a couple decades of it and i
got into doing training for a distributor And
the new product came out, a new technology, and
there wasn't a lot of education on it. So me
and one of the co -trainers was like, maybe we
should go through, let's walk through this menu.
We've got this piece of equipment. We figured
it out really well. There's nothing out there.
So it's like me and Greg, an iPhone 7, right?
You know, no gimbal, no nothing. Just shaky as
all get out. Yeah. Just so that some of our dealers,
you know, had some information. And like a month
or so later, he's like, hey, Cliff, do you see
there's a thousand views on a video? I was like.
We don't even know a thousand people combined.
I know, right? It's crazy. And so that kind of
began that brand. And I didn't know it at the
time that I was building my brand. But I think
it's important for people to understand that
when you do start taking the time to create content.
that you really are. You're creating a caption
of who you are and the things that you do and
keeping your brand consistent with who you are.
I think that is what makes a brand successful
is when you stay true to who you really are.
So like you said, you're not in the room, right?
Somebody's talking about Clifton Beck and Clifton
Beck's not in the room. I hope it's people who
have actually met Clifton Beck and go, Yeah,
he's that goofy. Yeah, he really is. That's right.
And you're good with that. You're good with that
because that's how you are, right? It's who you
actually are. The authenticity is so important.
The humility is so important. Nobody relates.
We relate to each other on our defects and our
faults. We don't really relate on the guy who's
got the corporate jet, which a lot of that's
fake, by the way. you know breaking news to you
you guys out there who are not in the the media
biz but don't trust any of that stuff you know
the authenticity is really important like i'm
always quick to post something like this is something
i struggle with what do you do you know because
yeah it shows you as a real person you know or
when i'm teaching something i'm like look please
if you leave here with one thing leave here knowing
this because this could really cost you your
business your career You could get you in a lot
of trouble. And I know this the hard way. I've
made this mistake, so don't do it. When you present
it like that, it's like, oh, real people. Yeah.
And picking your topics that you cover, I think,
is crucial. I actually just recently did a live
show with a guest that. there was a very small
portion of the industry that didn't receive it
very well at all. I got a lot of slack from it.
But at the same time, it is a topic that I feel
like if anyone has good documented solid data
for some type of research or some type of product
that they are working on or they have designed,
then they have the right to present their content
to the world. And even if there's people that
disagree with it. And so when you start finding
your brand and who you are, it's very important
to be steadfast in your character traits. Like
what you believe in as a person should be what
your brand stays consistent to. 100%. And you
bring up a great point. When you were talking,
I was thinking. you know you also build a brand
by how you comment and interact with with social
media and i am sick and tired of seeing bullies
in our industry and they're they're everywhere
they're not just oh yeah but when you see a guy
posting something on facebook hey my first or
second or fifth install can you give me some
feedback and there's a lot of professional type
hey this looks great way to go here's what i
would do different then there's a lot of them
who are just they're downright mean and that
that's not good for the industry it's not good
for you as a human and it's certainly not good
for you as your brand or reputation so you know
and i i found too that the loudest critics are
the one who aren't too scared to step in the
arena and they could be really awful um you know
doing this social media thing is not for sissies
i like to say it takes a lot of you gotta you
gotta have some thick skin and i'm pretty much
to the point where and you're probably this way
too or i could ignore it 90 of time unless it's
like 10 30 at night and i'm tired and i've made
the mistake about checking the comments You know
what I'm saying? Don't check your comments late
at night. No, no. That is definitely the worst
time because then it gets compounded occasionally.
Right, right. And then you can't sleep sometimes
anyway. Exactly. And so managing your brand is
going to be a component of that. And you do.
You have choices. You know, life is about choices.
Your brand is about choices. And, you know, you
can build a brand and drive a lot of attention
with negative comments. Social media analytics
loves negative comments. But is it really? the
brand that you want. I've seen some very successful
creators rely on that strategy that those negative
comments are what they're trying to instigate
to be able to drive attention. But when we're
really in the educational realm, I think at least
personally, it's about presenting who I am as
an instructor, right? I don't allow nasty negative
comments in my classroom and I don't allow them
on our social media. So when I get them, I'll
send a nice, polite message. Hey, I appreciate
you joining us. But unfortunately, this type
of comment is not really building any of our
consumers of content, any of our minds that are
looking for education. And we try to provide
a positive and encouraging platform. And I appreciate
you being here, but I'm going to be deleting
this message. And it's kind of surprising how
many of them just disappear, never come back.
But then some will come back and with no more
negative comments. And it's like, OK, I love
it. It's working. Yeah, I think they get a little
shocked. They're like, oh, you know, sometimes
they'll argue with you and then I'll just get
rid of them. You know, because I, you know, I
don't do that often, but sometimes I'm like,
hey, bro, we're here to support each other and
have fun. And, you know, we're not here for this
kind of stuff. And if they keep doing it, I'll
just I'll just block them. It doesn't happen
very often in our industry, but it does happen
sometimes. It does definitely happen sometimes.
Yeah. All right. So as we start building our
brand, right? So someone listened to this podcast
and we are looking at a couple of people who
have started creating their own brands. And you're
saying, I want to create my own brand. I'm going
to start doing some social media. I'm going to
start being recognized. Do you put the same type
of content on every platform or do you try to
cater your content to different platforms? That's
a great question. You're supposed to make it
different to each platform, but who's got time
for that, right? So there are some areas where
like if I post something about me and my wife,
I'm going to throw that on Facebook only, right?
Like I'm not going to put that. No one cares
about that on TikTok or LinkedIn. I did a 9 -11
thing today. This is a good example of that.
I had a picture of me in front of one World Trade
Center in New York City, but I made the copy
different on the platform. On LinkedIn, it was
more like, hey, I've been walking through buildings
my whole life. This building means more than
just steel and glass. It means yada, yada, yada.
Then on Facebook, it was more of a remembrance.
Let's not forget this day kind of thing. It is
important to think about the mindset. This is
something that's taken me a long time to learn.
You got to know the mindset of the viewer on
a specific platform. Tony on LinkedIn is looking
for something completely different than Tony
on Facebook. Same person, but they're in a different
mindset, right? Like a guy on TikTok is there
to relax. He wants to laugh and have fun. He
doesn't want to see an ad. Well, nobody wants
to see an ad, but you get what I'm saying. Like,
so you're supposed to like cater it per platform.
But, you know, if I do a short that's educational,
you know. Let's go over the sensible heat equation.
I'm going to put that pretty much anywhere. It's
universal. It's universally nerdy and boring,
like my wife would say, but that's how we do
it. I would say if you're starting out, depending
on what your niche is, if you're a tech, you
probably should be on TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
Professionals, LinkedIn is a no -brainer. Don't
try to do them all at once. I think that's overload.
Try and just document your day and talk about
the things you like and spread it out. Even if
you're in HVAC, you might like to cook or you
might like to grill or you might like to fish.
Put it all in there. My niche is what Tony does.
That's my niche. I try not to be this HVAC guy,
but most of what I do for a living and everything,
I get paid to create that content, so you'll
see a lot of that. I try to put all kinds of
different stuff on there. unfortunately my life's
pretty boring so there's not much more on there
but are you kidding you live in the mountains
you got yeah you do a lot you can mix it up though
you see it you can mix it up but take it slow
like you know don't try to do so many a day and
you got to learn it and yeah but it's so powerful
like people the amount of people who see what
we do is really surprising to me like my origin
story you talked about your first video how we
were like a thousand people we even know a thousand
people right i was sitting in a We were on vacation
and we're sitting in a resort like a little like
my family was still sleeping. So I went down
to the clubhouse area, opened a computer, and
I've been wanting to get out, do a YouTube video
for like five years. But it's scary the first
time. Right. Isn't it like it goes through your
mind? Like, what are people going to think? What's
my friend from high school going to say? You
know, all these weird things come up in your
head. And as men, you try to play like, oh, I
just need to get a better mic and all these excuses.
But really, when it comes down to it, it's just
it's just scary. So something came over me and
I just did it and I turned it on and I recorded
me talking over a PowerPoint preso. You can't
even see me on the video. And it was like the
difference between hot gas reheating, hot gas
bypass. I know that blew up. That was the one,
huh? That was the one that was the first one
on, uh, on the YouTube channel. And it, it, you
know, I was like, people are what, what people
actually watching this. What can I do next? You
know, it's a long, long way to get to where I'm
at now, but that's how you got to start. So,
yeah. Yeah. Pick that. Pick something that you're
passionate, something that you know that you're
good at. And then for me, it's a matter of trying
to teach it to someone. Right. A lot of times,
like my son, my son's 26. He's a firefighter.
He's he's experimented with HVAC. worked part
-time for a while with a local contractor, not
really his thing. And so many times when I'm
presenting a content, I'm actually imagining
that I'm telling my son, hoping that like maybe
one day my son's actually going to watch my videos
and go, that's what dad was trying to tell me
about. Love that. I love that. And that's such
a good point because we were talking before,
no one cares about. Our companies or our products,
they care about what value you bring to them,
right? They don't care. Here's a new slash. No
one cares about your company and no one cares
about your products and it features. They care
about what it can do for them. How is this going
to make me more successful? How is this going
to help me get a raise? How is it going to make
me look good at work? You know what I'm saying?
How am I going to get ahead? How am I not going
to get in trouble? These are what people care
about. They care about the same thing you and
I care about. So when you plug into that and
try to bring them, somebody explained it to me
as like a value gap. Like people are at point
A and they want to be at point B, whatever that
is, number of followers, amount of sales, amount
of business you do with engineering firm A. To
get from A to B, there's a value gap there. You've
got to provide value, whether it's digitally,
like you and I do a lot of, or if you're a sales
guy, you're going to their office and you're
doing PDH classes. You're walking them through
job sites. You're showing up when there's a problem,
things like that. That's how you get the success
in anything, let alone social media. You like
that? The value gap? That's pretty bold. That's
big. I like that. That sound is so good. I might
clip that out and post it later today. I think
you should. I guess, I mean, it summarizes, like,
why do we do what we do? If we could say one
smart thing to every podcast, that's our goal,
right, Clifton? Oh man, I do. Yeah, so you gotta
bring value and you gotta, you know, but you
can bring value in different ways, right? Like
you can bring value through education, which
you and I do a lot of. If you're funny, which
I'm really not, I can make a good meme, you know?
I've got, by the way, memes are like the language
of the internet. If you can make good memes and
make people laugh, you can be rich. You can quit
your job like tomorrow if you can do that well.
They're so powerful. and the best some of the
best content i've ever had have been memes either
video or or or just image wise right um so you
can bring value through making people laugh through
information through relatability to sharing your
flaws and they're like oh him too you know not
that you you don't have any so you don't you
don't get to do that part but oh I have to say,
building a brand is such a rewarding experience
when it starts becoming successful and you start
having influence because that's really what it
does. You become an influencer of something within
an industry or within a space. And as you start
building that, I can tell everyone listening
that as you start creating your own brand, yes,
the spotlight is going to be on you more often.
But in return, it also puts your own focus on
what you're saying it, what you're saying, how
you're saying it and how it is being received.
And it's kind of like looking in the mirror.
A lot of people are uncomfortable speaking. They're
uncomfortable recording. But once they record
and play it back and listen to themselves, that's
when the fine tuning begins. And I know for me,
I had to get those first few in to be able to
actually see myself and what I'm putting out
to be able to learn how to start fine tuning
from there on. Did you struggle with a lot of
fear when you started? I still struggle with
a fear. Yeah. I really do. Yeah. You know, how
am I going to be perceived? Am I going to, you
know, say a wrong word? Am I going to stutter?
I'm going to, what am I going to do? Right. But
you have to get past that because it's just like
having any group of people, right? Walking into
a conversation, you're always hesitant of what
you're going to say and how you're going to be
received. But you just have to get past that.
and you have to go out and try it and the more
you try it the more comfortable it gets it's
so true i i am not naturally you know people
see me today because i'm pretty comfortable it
doesn't i was like oh i get to go on this podcast
today i was actually genuinely excited about
it yeah when i first started i would have been
terrified oh yeah and i would have prepared like
i would have thought through all the things i
was going to say and this this and some of that's
fine in the beginning if that gives you a comfort
level know if you need notes or just something
like that but uh i think that's fairly normal
and what i've learned is if there's no fear or
walking through the fear there's no growth nope
like nobody grows just sitting around comfortable
at least i don't i wish i could wake up every
day and grow more but it's like you got the fear
you face it you go through it and then you learn
and you grow and that's the that's the path to
growth in anything and i had i had one of our
uh senior guys asked me not too long ago he's
like how do you do it how do you do it with don't
you get scared and i said he said something like
i don't remember how he phrased it but how do
you get to where you're at without being afraid
and i said well you don't you just do it scared
you do it afraid but without the afraid part
there is no growth you can't get successful without
that in my experience so there's got to be there's
a purpose to the fear um And the purpose is when
you go through it, you grow. Like that's been
my experience. And that's 99 % of it. And I talk
to major manufacturers all the time because,
you know, in HVAC, at least in commercial, and
I think in residential too, we're a little bit
behind the scene in terms of social media. Oh
yeah. Right. And I talked to the major manufacturers
and, you know, we'll talk for an hour and they're
like, yeah, we need to do this. And then I'll
say, okay, who wants to come on the podcast?
And it's like, it's like crickets. Well, we got
to do this, this, this. Or it's like, I explained
to them how to do a factory video. Like, here's
what you want to do, yada, yada, yada. And they're
like, well, we'll think about it. We need to
get a, I said, you got one of these? And I like
hold up my iPhone. I'm like, bro, that's like,
this is a better movie studio than Hollywood
had like 20 years ago. Maybe that's right. It's
incredibly powerful that you could do that right
in the palm of your hand and launch something
in literally like two minutes. It doesn't take
long. um yeah the fear is overcoming the fear
overcoming the fear i think that maybe i'll call
this podcast that overcoming the fear that's
one of my favorite topics because for me it's
like i was i was like paralyzed you know we first
started doing this we didn't take our time and
like record a few and then post and we went right
for live like let's go linkedin right because
that's kind of my mindset is i want to go for
the you know i want to go for the the big enchilada
and uh may have been a little bit of mistake
and i remember sitting there about to hit that
live button because going live in front of strangers
is one thing when it's in front of your co -workers
and peers there's something really scary about
that and for me there is anyway and i was like
oh my gosh and the first one this is a funny
story the first live we did i hit the button
i was using the same platform restream i hit
the button yeah and it said live streaming not
available right now try again later and we had
like no we had like 200 people registered for
this live so i'm like oh my gosh this couldn't
get any worse my life's over and then the co
-host with me he's like what do we do i said
i don't know what do we do so we prayed for a
minute and then we tried it again and it worked
so that's hilarious that's a great story but
it's so like but now you know what's so funny
when something like that used to happen and i
bet you've had this experience too clifton when
you're live and you fumble a word or you make
a mistake or the the mic's not working oh i messed
up let me turn my mic on now it's like a fun
moment where you can relax and make a joke out
of it but in the beginning it's like you ruminate
over that all night oh my gosh i said this i
should have said that and it was like and it
would just churn in my head over and over and
that's all fear and insecurity too by the way
as you know if you're shaking your head but like
if you're listening that's that's called rumination
that's very common now i just like When we're
live and we fumble something, I'm like, yep,
we're live. Now, you know, that's part of it.
We got our first mistake out of the way. And
people, you know what? People love that. Like
they respect that rather than what I used to
do is I tried to cover it up like it didn't happen
and they wouldn't say anything. But anyway. Yeah,
I think it's easier to flow right on through
and people appreciate that. And you're right.
It's all about overcoming that fear. Once you
get past it, you know. now you're now in your
nice happy place again yeah and i love that you
said overcoming the fear because you know a lot
of men videos like on youtube you need to be
fearless you need to be blah blah blah no you
don't you just need to do it scared that's the
definition of courage is to be scared and do
it anyway and that's one of my favorite monos
by the way do it scared i love that like you
could actually do something scared you know a
lot of people don't know you could even do that
And, you know, to be fearless is not in my vocabulary.
I'm naturally not a fearless person. And I think
there are some people who are, but sometimes
you probably experienced this. Sometimes I'll
go to a factory and I'll like interview someone
and they're just so good and natural and easy.
And they're like, that was fun. I'm like, where
do you come from? Like, have you ever done this
before? He's like, no. And I'm like, oh my gosh.
Like what? It drives me crazy. It took me like
six years to get comfortable doing this. Yep.
I actually just had one yesterday on a podcast.
He was like going into the podcast. He was very
nervous. And we got through the podcast. I'm
like. You're not serious. This is definitely
not your first. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was afraid
to get on the mic. I'm like, you're like one
of the best speakers I've heard in a long time.
Isn't that crazy? It is crazy. And, you know,
this is worth mentioning, too, because I think
you brought this up about video. You know, there's
three types of media that have been around forever.
We relate them to the old school, like writing.
OK, like news, but you might be a good writer.
you know and that was like newspaper there's
audio like radio right like what we're doing
here and then there's video which is like tv
so there's there's very successful people that
are that don't get on camera they're only audio
or they're great writers or they take good pictures
you know so that's another way to you know to
to grow if we're talking about growing your brand
that's another way to do it you bet building
right articles on linkedin if you're a professional
those get a lot of views newsletters and stuff
like that and you just try to give back and A
couple of things I've learned. I'm a big Gary
Vee fan. I don't know if you ever watch him,
but Gary Vaynerchuk. And he, he says, document
your day. Like that's a game. It was a game changer
for him. Like, you know, I'm going to post something
about being on this podcast. You know, I'll post
something about that. But just document, you
might be a tech out working on a thing and you
want to. take a 30 second video and say, Hey,
if you ever wonder why this happens, you know,
here's what you need to do, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, post it and you're done with it.
Or you're working on your car, you're working
in your yard or whatever. So if you just kind
of document what you're doing, um, it makes things
easier. So. Very cool. Great advice. Great advice
from the fantastic brand of Tony Mermino. And
we hope this, uh, encourages you all to overcome
your fear, create your own brand, build that
brand. And it may take time. absolutely be worth
it. Tony, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you, Clinton.