Ryan Rockwell, tell me about your vision.
I wasn't really planning to do what I do now.
It was never really in my,
in the cards, if you want to say it that way,
from the beginning.
I studied chemical engineering,
but I did like computers quite a bit.
I enjoyed working with computers,
and my ex-wife told me I should get into electrical
engineering or computer science or something like that.
And I was like, nah, I'm gonna stick with
chemical engineering because I know it's good.
It's an excellent field,
and I could work in computers at any time.
There's really no need to have that as a,
on my resume saying I graduated such and such school
with this degree with BS in computer science and like that.
I knew I didn't want, I didn't need that.
So, but what I did was, over time was,
as I began to gravitate from more of the engineering
and gravitating forward into doing something
that was more technically related to computers
and stuff like that, doing desktop support,
and from desktop support,
getting into something more like a
implementation and software management validation,
things like that.
I started getting more of a feel for what the,
how buried the industry is with respect to computers.
Now, of course, it's just like, it's everywhere.
This was back in the mid-90s and around the turn
of the millennium, this entry,
and Y2K was obviously a big deal, big concern for people.
So, I said, well, this is actually looking pretty good.
I thought I added some possibilities.
And so what I would do is, I slowly,
as I was working in computers and learning about
that system validation and implementation,
doing some project management and things like that,
then I landed a role working as a implementer,
software implementer with a company called Infor.
They're the third largest software development company
in the world, only behind SAP and Oracle,
but they've all, basically they got so big through
acquisition, so they acquired a bunch of other companies
and bought their products and be able to work
with their products.
And so I started working with product lifecycle management.
I had no idea what product lifecycle management was.
So, as I became more knowledgeable about what that was
and learning that it was really around the life cycle
or the design or what a product would be from,
basically from concept when somebody actually thinks
of something and says, you know, this would be a really
cool product to the point where you actually ramp it up
into an actual product that is actually being used
in the marketplace, industry-wide
or whatever the situation would be.
At some point, that product will usually get to the point
where it's not quite so viable either because there's
an upgrade or because the market shifts from one perspective
to another and then that product will decline
and then it will usually fade away.
So what most customers do or what most companies do
that are then creating products is they're continually
reinventing their products, obviously,
because they want to improve them,
they want to make them better, they want to follow
what the market's trying to do or they're trying
to achieve some new innovative idea that the world
has never seen before and bring that out into the marketplace
as a new thing.
Obviously, we know very well that when Apple came out
with the iPhone at the time, it wasn't the best,
maybe the best designed product in the world, no,
but it would never exist.
So people look at it like, this is amazing.
This, I have to have one and built this desire,
this demand for this new product.
So what I've done, of course, in the past since the day
that I was pretty much hired on with Infor in 2008 to 2014,
was I worked for Infor doing this implementation of software,
learning how it was implemented, what it was supposed to do,
learning more about the concept of PLM and stuff like that.
And in 2014, I basically got fired, got fired from my job
and here I was out in the street again with no job.
And thanks to one of my customers that I had with Infor,
they said they wanted me to work with them
as a direct consultant.
And that was the total hole that I needed.
So I started my own business.
And because I really enjoyed what I did,
I really enjoyed the ability to work with my hands,
to work with software, with customers.
I really enjoyed doing that.
And because I really liked building things with my hands,
one of the greatest things that I do in my spare time
is to build bikes.
That's just something that I enjoy to do.
I love getting my hands dirty with that.
Obviously, computers, I can't get my hands dirty with them,
but I can at least do something with my hands
and be able to construct something,
either through coding, through configuration,
through building computers themselves.
I have three servers sitting next to me
that I've built myself.
And so this whole concept of building things
and innovation and being able to use your mind to grow
and to make the world a better place
through products that you've created
is something that I thrive on, I enjoy that so much.
So now 10 years in the future, obviously,
now I'm in my ear now, 10 years in my business.
And I've been doing this all this time
and I thoroughly enjoy it.
Thank you for sharing that, Brian.
That was very, that was a lot of information
that you unpacked there.
You covered where your vision came from,
you covered how you get started.
But let me ask you the second part.
What is your why?
What gets you out of bed then, Brian?
Yeah, so, and that's really looking now
into the future, if you will.
But again, just being able to work with my hands
has always been a big thing.
But now I look at my business, my business had that,
it was established in 2014.
I pretty much worked on my own for a long time.
My business was up and down, just kind of following
whatever customers I was able to gather.
I had no real ability to market myself
as a implementer, because obviously I didn't know much about,
I'd done other businesses, but again, the ability to,
it's one of those weird conundrums.
If you have a job, you have to dedicate yourself
to the job, but then you can't market yourself.
Then if a project would end, of course,
now I have loads of time, but I don't have any money now,
and now I'm having to try to build my business,
but it's usually because I don't have this consistent
marketing strategy going on, then things are up
and down there as well.
And so it doesn't really gather traction
and be able to really move forward.
So what I do now is, with the help of First Class Business,
is I'm using their knowledge and know-how
of what Jax has been able to provide
to further my business from a website,
from social media, branding.
Obviously, strangely enough, I just got this shirt here,
which is where it is, with my new logo on it
for the first time I'm wearing this.
I just received the shirt yesterday,
and I'm now showing my new logo that was actually
generated through First Class Business.
I love it, and this is something I would never really
have been able to do myself because of the fact
that I have a lot of business.
I just hired a new guy, and he is now helping me
in expanding my business to give myself,
because work is coming in more faster now
than what I'm able to manage.
And I don't want to have, I really strive to be consistent
and be aware of what the customer is looking for.
Because I don't want the customer to think,
oh, this guy, all he's in it for is for the money.
He doesn't really care about me as the customer,
and I don't want that to happen.
I've seen that too many times in the past,
and these companies get too big,
all they do is it's all about the cash, the cash inflow,
and that's all they care about.
I'm not that way.
I'm much more interested in making sure
the customer is comfortable, that I'm providing
the best solution I possibly can,
so that when they are able to get out of that,
they see it was money well spent.
If I ever realized that I left a customer's,
and they were dissatisfied with what I did,
I would want to go back and say,
what did I do wrong, or what can I do to improve?
Because I want to make sure that they understand
that it was not because I was going to their doorstep
to try to get a quick dollar,
that I was really trying to look for their benefits.
Wow.
This is, oh, the value you just gave
in that two minutes of talking is tremendous,
and I really mean it.
So, tell me one thing.
What stopped you in the past from,
because now you find first class business,
and so have I, but what stopped you in the past
from finding someone like first class business
or a marketing firm to increase your business,
and what was the difference between them
and first class business?
That actually is a great question,
and I don't know if I have a really good answer
for that necessarily, but it's one of those things
where when people start their business,
they're typically not looking for an expert in marketing.
They're looking to get the job done,
and so if they have a customer,
usually they're concentrated on working with the customer.
If they don't have a customer, then they're usually saying,
what do I need to do to get a customer,
but they're not looking at it saying,
sometimes I need to find an expert,
and it's all about exposure.
I'll use the word exposure, because I'm sure,
the problem is that when you come in
as a new business owner, you are bombarded from all sides
of people saying, I can make your business better.
I'm an SEO, I can make you thousands of dollars,
millions of dollars, and you hear,
you're like, nah, that's not gonna happen.
And so you become very leery about other people
coming in to tell you what to do about your business,
because they don't know my business like I do,
and you become very, you fold your arms,
you're like, I'm not gonna do this,
and you become very, very calloused
and protective of your business,
because it's fledgling, it's new,
and you don't want your new business to go under
because you don't have the cash to spend on marketing.
So you're saying, well, I have to do this on my own.
I gotta start thinking of this stuff.
What do I need to do?
The fact you don't have a budget,
then it limits you to what you can and cannot do.
So obviously, shoestring budgets and fledgling businesses,
struggling to get off the ground as a startup business
is very common, and you're afraid,
because you're saying, I don't have working capital,
so I can't just go out and spend three grand, five grand,
20 grand on some marketing schema or marketing campaign,
that may or may not work.
And so you're afraid to invest that kind of money
in some marketing schema.
You don't know if it's gonna work or not,
and nobody will ever tell you,
we can guarantee that you're gonna have
this much money come in.
Who's gonna say that?
It's like prospecting in a stock market.
They're not gonna tell you you're gonna make
an extra amount of money on your returns.
They're not gonna say that,
because they don't know.
Nobody knows.
It's a risk.
But if you're able to talk to somebody who says,
look, let's start out small,
work on the things that are most important first,
use that budget, even if it's $5,
I don't think it'd ever be that much,
but if you say, if you have $100
you're gonna spend towards something,
let's make that money work the best possible.
And then based on the growth that you gain
from that little investment,
we can now expand and start to invest a little bit more,
expand the horizons, get somebody to look at something
a little bit deeper into something like maybe obviously,
Facebook ads or something like that,
or I'm gonna get on LinkedIn
and I'm gonna start to promote my business through LinkedIn.
Whatever.
But as long as you're able to work with what you can do
and then expand that to something more than what you can do
because you're growing,
as long as your business is growing, that's the key.
The problem is of course,
it really does come down to you're saying, I'm afraid.
I'm afraid of what could happen.
If this thing fails, I'm out of a job,
I'm out of my business, so to speak, right?
My business goes under and I lose.
So this is where first class business
has been helping me personally is because, okay,
even though my business is established, established,
that does not mean that I'm going to sit on my laurels
and pretend like I've got everything figured out.
I don't.
So I'm willing now to say, okay,
now I can invest some real money
in making my business grow even more.
Not necessarily exponentially.
No, I don't necessarily want to be making seven,
eight figures in six months.
No, what I wanted to do is be able to say,
now I'm reaching this audience that I could not reach before
because I didn't have the knowledge of how to get to them
or some sort of method by which they're coming to me
and asking me about my business
instead of me trying to go out and knock on doors.
You are, you're absolutely correct.
Let me add my golden nugget to that situation.
Sure.
I spent five bucks on Facebook advertising.
I am dumbfounded and I am guilty of this.
I had the golden nugget in my hand when I realized this,
which is the craziest part.
I started Facebook advertisement for contractors online.
What I would do is create Facebook pages and advertise,
sometimes for free and sometimes paid.
The way free would work, I would just post on Marketplace.
And every day I would get leads from people looking for it
and I would send those leads to different contractors
throughout the country.
And on Facebook's end, I would spend like 40 to 20,
20 to 40 bucks a week
and probably get like 10 leads a week.
Dirt cheap leads I would get.
So people can spend five bucks a day and land a lead.
That is very, very possible.
And entrepreneurs are just afraid because they don't know.
It's a fear of the unknown that gets them most.
That costs them opportunity costs.
Like if you were to spend the same amount of time
working at a job, you would have made this much money.
But because you took this time not doing any actions,
you lost so much opportunity there.
And that's what costs most entrepreneurs
and they don't calculate that.
So I totally agree that.
And working with First Class Business Me
has opened my mind to possibilities
that I did not realize.
And I haven't even started my journey.
I mean, I have, but essentially I haven't started
my journey getting clients for my marketing agency.
Because I feel like I have so much to learn
and I'm building that step by step with the right base.
And I think, and you're on the same path as me.
So I'm cheering for both of us there, Brian.
I am, I really am.
Now I appreciate that, Harry.
And like I say, you also, you were able to
describe that quite well.
That really work with what you have.
If you don't have a $20,000 budget for marketing,
don't spend $20,000.
But you have to know where to put your money
to have the most bang for your buck.
And the return on investment, the ROI that you get
is really based on what type of business you have.
But you need somebody to be able to analyze it.
Because we typically don't, we just,
you know, it's like throwing spaghetti against the wall.
You know, you throw it on the wall, then it sticks.
Oh, no, it didn't, okay.
So, and we get discouraged because we assume
that because you tried something and it didn't work,
oh, well, marketing's a failure anyway.
It's no good.
And you lose the capability of saying,
okay, wait a second, let me take a step back.
Let me analyze what I did here
and have experts provide some real world knowledge
of saying, look, I'm not trying to knock
what you're trying to do.
But you would be better putting your money
towards this thing because your business
is geared towards this specific requirement.
You know, like for my business,
I don't typically expect to find many customers
through Facebook or LinkedIn.
Well, Facebook, I would say.
LinkedIn for me would be much better
because my business is more technical.
So people browsing on Facebook,
they're not gonna be looking at saying,
PLM, I need this guy.
No.
But LinkedIn, which is much more of a executive level type
of networking platform is a completely different story.
And I would suspect that would get much better return
on my money through LinkedIn than I would from Facebook.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is gonna get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.