The Art of Succession

Welcome to the Art of Succession podcast

with Barrett Young. Join us as we

explore the strategies, stories, and

insights that shape the journey of

leadership transitions and business

success. No matter where you find

yourself along the journey, this is the

podcast where you'll find the tools to

make it happen.

So, make sure that you're providing them

with resources, with counsel, with ways

in which they can help their business.

If you've lived in California for the

last 3, four or 5 years, you understand

that the insurance marketplace is

extremely stressed. So, the prior owners

really laid out a very strong foundation

for us to be able to build on and

continue to deliver outstanding customer

service.

My name is Barrett Young and this is the

Art of Succession podcast. My guest

today is Brando Guerrera, owner of Made

in the Shade Norcow. Brando will share

his story of entrepreneurship through

acquisition after a 17-year career in

insurance, buying a franchise from an

existing owner about two years ago.

Brando, welcome to the Art of

Succession.

So, I want to get started with our

discussion. Um, what is it specifically

about coming on the Art of Succession

and sharing your story? What do you want

our listeners to gain most uh from

listening to this episode?

Gotcha. Great. Thank you so much for

being on here. Um, so let's start just a

little bit about your employment

history. What brought you to the point

of saying I want to leave that all

behind and and go out into the

entrepreneurship world?

Yeah. Commuting. Commuting to San Jose.

Gotcha. Yeah.

So corporate insurance is different than

being like your local liberty agent,

your local State Farm agent. You are

supporting those agents who are building

up their own book of business, their own

small business in their mind or in in

their worlds.

Correct.

Okay. How much of that interaction with

the stuff that goes into

entrepreneurship were you having in

those various I mean you're supporting

agents but the agents are already locked

in and as customers I mean talk to me

just a little bit about preparing you

for entrepreneurship. Uh how you felt

how you felt prepared for that. Yeah.

Yeah. Great question. Uh I did it from a

couple of different uh places. Uh you

know, when I was an individual

contributor, I was directly working with

those uh agency owners on helping them

uh do two things. Place more business

with the company that I was there

representing or helping them grow their

own book of business besides what they

were placing with us. Because again, as

the pie grows, our slice will continue

to get bigger, right? So there were two

things that I was doing and as I became

a leader within these large

organizations, I was then coaching my

team on how to accomplish those goals.

And what I would always tell them is

that you need to be a trusted advisor to

those agency owners. You need to show up

and add value to those relationships.

Don't be a coke in a joke. Don't be the

guy or gal that shows up and talks them

about how their weekend was, gives them

an ex agency experience report that

shows them how much business they've

written with us, what the profitability

of that book is, and then say, "Great,

I'll see you next month. Have a good

one." Right? There's no value there. You

could have sent that report through an

email. So, make sure that you're

providing them with resources, with

counsel, with ways in which they can

help their business either grow, become

more profitable, or just become a much

stronger business than when you

obviously started to work with them. So,

that's always been part of how I've

engaged, you know, really all aspects of

my my career up to that point. Fast

forward, now I'm on the other side of

it. So now I'm taking all the things

that I was coaching my teams to go out

and support agency owners through. I'm

taking those learnings and applying them

into my own business. And I also

know how to identify effective, you

know, you can call them marketing reps,

you can call them sales managers, those

individuals that are going to be

supporting my business in its growth,

right? Are you that individual that is

going to call me to say, "Hey, just want

to check in. Have any questions for me?"

Great. If not, I'm going to check this

off my, you know, to-do list for the day

and then I will call you next month.

Versus, "Hey, Brando, what are your

goals for this year? What are you

looking to achieve from a revenue

perspective? Are you looking to grow

your business? Are you looking to

expand? Are you looking to bring on more

salespeople, more installation people?

That's great. If so, how can I help you?

or these are the resources that I have

to be able to help you accomplish those

goals. So, I bring a different

perspective from both having been on

that side and now being on this side.

Yeah, I definitely want to return to

that because I think that that's

something that's a challenge. How do you

get the most out of the vendors that are

trying to sell to you and not just have

it be a check-in, but actually get value

from that? So you weren't as that agency

rep, you were not responsible for

selling to the clients or like closing

the deals or anything like that with

their own agents, but you were very much

in a customer service. Convince them to

tap into all the resources that you

could provide to them. And it sounds

like helping with secondary marketing

stuff. How do you know your your region?

what can I do to bring more leads to you

so that they ultimately can get the the

the warmer leads to close and bring into

the company. So

yeah and and being able to even today

right so again all of the things that I

learned in my prior career there's so

many parallels and it's also about

customer segmentation right now I I

don't know if it's a new term but what I

see most often uh these days is ICP

right it's that ideal customer profile

or that perfect customer persona

for each business it's going to be

different for each company that's going

to be different Right? So even though

every single person might have been out

looking for insurance, not every single

insurance company is going to want to

insure that individual. So you have to

understand, right, your customer

segmentation. It's the same thing here,

right? There are certain manufacturers,

vendors that we represent, but each one

of them is going to have a different

customer um persona that is best for

them. Right? There's somebody that is

looking for your most economical option.

Great. We have something for you with

this particular vendor. Or you're

looking for the ultra high-end

customizable, most advanced technology.

Don't particularly care about the price

point. Great. Well, we've got the

perfect vendor for you because that is

who you are as a customer, right? So,

not every single customer is going to be

a perfect fit for every single vendor

relationship that you have, right? And

that's again something that I've learned

that is going to help us become even

better at what we do because we

understand what each customer truly

needs and we're not just pushing one

particular product because not all

products fit all all customers.

Yeah. Great. All right. Let's let's talk

about the shift into your own search

then. what brought uh just quickly what

is Made in the Shade NorCal and what's

the franchise and and how does that um

and then we'll get into how you found it

and made that decision and everything

like that.

Yeah, absolutely. Uh Made in the Shade

is a custom window coverings business.

We specialize in making blinds, shades,

shutters, outdoor shades effortless. We

really do take the time to understand

each customer's needs and we uh are the

only franchise in all of uh Northern

California which is a phenomenal place

to be in and we are here in Rockland,

California in Pler County and we service

uh really all of Northern California. We

go where the opportunity makes sense and

we have like I said a wide ranging set

of vendor options.

So unlike

a Hunter Douglas gallery for example,

right, they could only sell Hunter

Douglas products, we as an independent,

which is funny another parallel to my

insurance world, right? You've got the

State Farms and then you've got the

independent brokers. uh we represent

multiple relationships which I think is

extremely powerful right when you talk

about how to make sure that you've got

the right solution for each one of your

customers.

Okay. So did you start with looking for

a franchise to buy? Did you start with I

mean in your mind I'm going to go out

and start a company. I mean what what's

going through your mind here as you're

making the jump into entrepreneurship?

Yeah. Yeah. Great question. If you live

in California or if you've lived in

California for the last three, four or

five years, you understand that the

insurance marketplace is extremely

stressed.

And I got to a point where I was not as

fulfilled in my career as I had been in

the past, right? For various reasons,

you know, family, uh, you know, being a

priority probably above all. And I knew

that if I wanted to really

see the benefits of all of the hard work

that I am putting in day in and day out

whether it's evening or weekends that

it's truly going to come to me right and

not uh you know a larger organization

and I did search for a business to

acquire or you know I I actually didn't

know right do I build something from

scratch or do I go out and and just buy

something that's already existing and I

happen to be on one of the uh you know

websites that lists different businesses

that are available for purchase and one

popped out and it looked too good to be

true. It checked all of the boxes that I

was looking for. flexible work from home

uh you know healthy profit margin uh

just in time inventory model obviously

don't have to carry a ton of inventory

or showroom or something like that.

Yeah. Yeah. And when I actually spoke to

the individual who had made the post uh

he was a uh individual that worked for

Made in the Shade uh corporate and he

spoke to me about the opportunity. I

eventually got to meet the owner and you

know their story uh you know made sense.

It you know checked out but was more

appealing to me is that the amount of

growth that this county is going to

experience over the next 10 15 20 years

is mind-blowing. Right? I I think it's

the only county in all of California

that is actually experiencing an

increase in population

because you're seeing a lot of

individuals relocating

uh either out of state or if they're

relocating within the state, they're

coming here. So, you've got a lot of

individuals that are leaving the bay.

They're selling their homes. They're

taking a ton of equity out. They're

buying uh homes here. The cost of living

is lower. quality of life arguably, you

know, even better. And it is just a

really great place to to to raise a

family. So, we're seeing a ton of

growth. Uh, you know, they can't build

these new homes fast enough, and the

existing inventory isn't enough to keep

up with the demand. So, there's only

going to be more opportunity for

somebody in my industry to be able to

again capitalize on all of this really

great uh, you know, growth in in

customer base. So, it just makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm certainly biased. I

don't know if the listeners know this,

but I grew up the first 20 years of my

life just one or two counties over from

you in Northern California. So, I'm

familiar with the area and just the room

that there is for for sprawl

pushing away from Sacramento, pushing

out from the Bay Area, uh especially as

you go north, which is where you are.

You're north of Sacramento. So, um so it

sounds like it was a geographical search

mainly that brought you to this one.

then uh doing your due diligence and

everything, it seemed to be a right fit

for what you were looking for. Is that

correct?

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

Had you ever heard of made in the shade

before the search or this kind of

franchise?

No. And again, I don't have any

experience in custom window coverings,

right? I at all.

And I'm fortunate that I was able to

again, we talk about uh do you go out

and build it from from scratch or do you

go into the franchise model? And I am

fortunate that I decided to pursue the

franchise model because it's

established.

There is a ton of support, especially

with this franchise. It is still a

family-owned franchise. I've got the

cell phone of the CEO who is phenomenal.

Uh the franchise itself started in 2004.

Unfortunately, the original uh founder

passed away a couple of years ago right

before I took over. um you know but her

son who was a teenager when she

basically started this whole um you know

franchise was uh there with her and

opened up his own uh franchise location

but has now taken over as CEO and he has

done a ton to reinvest into the

franchise model. So, it was a perfect

time to step into this franchise and be

able to take advantage of all of the

reinvestment that's taking place and

it's just so supportive.

Yeah.

So, I benefit from that as not having

any experience in the industry.

Yeah. I want to make it clear to the

audience that franchises are not just

McDonald's and Subways. There are

nonfood franch there are plenty of them

out there. I mean, I've had an episode

with a franchise broker whose specific

job is is placing franchises with

interested buyers. Um, a fellow

accountant uh in early 90s bought into

an accounting franchise. So, the model

is out there. Um,

was it specific? I mean, were you drawn

specifically to the franchise model when

you were looking at when you were

looking or did you also look at other

like brickandmortar independent

businesses considering your your skills

and everything like that when you were

searching?

Yeah, I gosh, I didn't know exactly what

type of business per se I wanted to take

on. uh a little bit more uh background.

I actually launched an Amazon storefront

for a couple of different reasons. One

is I just wanted to know what what is it

like to actually open a business in the

state of California. I opened it when I

was in San Jose and you at that point

all the different videos about how easy

it is to generate uh you know passive

income opening up an Amazon storefront

and I learned that that is obviously not

the case. Uh you know that's that's a a

balling play, right? you got to buy in

bulk and you got to hold a ton of

inventory because the margins are so

small on most of the items that are

being sold on Amazon. But it was a great

learning experience for me. So it taught

me that's now what I want to pursue. Uh

I was also sometimes I forget these

things because again I was just looking

at so many different opportunities. I

was also at the last interview to

acquire an Amazon last mile delivery

business.

Okay. And I don't know if um you're

familiar with it.

These are private private vehicles that

would they're not the big trucks or

anything, but they take them from a

private location to the the house.

They are actually uh so last mile

delivery is the product gets to the

Amazon warehouse and then they need to

get the actual product to somebody's

home. For a long time, Amazon was doing

that on its own, but then realized that

they needed to scale their delivery

capabilities much much faster and

bigger. So, they created this program

called um Amazon

IBO, independent business owner, uh or

DSP, sorry, DSP, delivery service

partner, where you would essentially

become an operator of a delivery route.

and they were giving out basically a

$10,000 grant to start up your DSP

business with Amazon. So, you're not an

actual employee of Amazon. You are a

independent contractor of Amazon. But

the problem was that they were looking

for operators that were going to be at

their warehouse from basically 6:00 a.m.

to 5:00 p.m. to run these routes. Well,

that was counter to what I wanted, which

was to actually be involved in my

community. I can't really do that if I'm

having to be at the warehouse

overlooking all of the operations

of the delivery route. I got a chance to

job shadow somebody and that individual

was phenomenal at what he did and

because of that I realized like this is

not for me. Like I can't I can't pursue

this. Uh although it might be very

lucrative at the end of the day, I am

not going to be fulfilled in that role.

Uh so again just just looking and

happened to stumble across this

particular you know listing and it

checked all of my boxes and that's why I

pursued it and I stopped looking for

obviously other business models out

there.

Gotcha. Okay. So, I was going to ask

leading into this, why did you choose to

buy an existing franchise from an owner

trying to get out versus just opening a

new one with the model, but it sounds

like through the acquisition process,

you didn't know about this franchise

company and it was specifically this one

being listed. What do you think looking

back? What do you think are some of the

benefits? And then we'll get into some

of the drawbacks of buying an existing

franchise license or you know um

franchise from an owner trying to get

out versus just starting fresh with a

company.

Yeah. And again uh I I've said this uh

before but people do business with who

they know like and trust. And as I

learned more about this particular

business, I did my due diligence not

just from a business valuation

perspective, but more importantly the

reputation that this business had in the

community. So I was on Google trying to

find out what kind of reviews are posted

for this business, you know, what are

people saying. Same thing on Yelp and

not surprising that both uh platforms

have it rated as five stars.

Great.

So five star rated to this day. We take

a ton of pride in that because that is

where again your referrals are going to

come in. Somebody is going to continue

to be a customer of yours because of the

experience that they've had. So, the

prior owners really laid out a very

strong foundation for us to be able to

build on and continue to deliver

outstanding customer service. And that

to me was extremely important in do I

acquire something or do I try to build

that out on my own. So being able to

actually take something that already had

a really wellestablished uh you know

reputation in the community was

something that you can't easily just

replicate, right? Because it takes a it

takes years to be able to build out that

kind of goodwill in the community.

Yeah. Gotcha. So this existing owner m

had a reason for selling but it wasn't

like they were distressed and failing

and trying to get out from under under

this fee or anything like that. So

that's good.

No. Yeah. And I'll share with you that's

where my experience in the corporate

world really made a lot of sense. Right.

So I described my experience in the

corporate world in in three ways. I uh

you know really developed a strong

executive leadership um set of skills uh

talent acquisition and sales management.

So if I were to describe to you what my

particular role is within this business,

it's twofold. It's being the CEO, right?

I set the strategy, long-term goals, and

everything that a CEO does for an

organization. And the second is CRO,

which is a chief revenue officer. So, I

am going to be in charge of all of the

business development activities, uh, you

know, getting our name out there,

digital marketing, advertising. I don't

do any of the design consultations. I

don't do any of the installation. What

I've learned from established successful

businesses is that you you find the

right people, you put them in the right

spots, and you let them go out and do

what they do best. So, I'm very

fortunate that I've got a team that goes

out and delivers on our promises, which

is to provide a great customer

experience where we're helping a

customer choose the best product for

them. And then an amazing islation team

that goes out and make sure that the

product looks like what it should have

or should rather, right? When you're

looking at what um you know, the product

was going to do in your home. And our

installation team, our lead installer,

uh, always goes above and beyond. He

does a little bit more than he should,

right? So, he does a little bit of, you

know, touchup with paint till, you know,

patch up things, uh, because he just

really cares about doing an outstanding

job. And that's again my job, right? Go

out, find the right people to help make

this business successful.

Gotcha. How much of that already existed

when you acquired the business as far as

teams in the field, recurring revenue,

deals in the pipeline, all that kind of

stuff versus and we'll get into where

you've grown it eventually, but I'm

trying to get an idea on the value of

what you were buying here, too.

Yeah. One of the things that I've

learned in this industry is that the

prior structure that was in place here

is very common and that is for it to be

a husband wife duo. The wife goes out

and does all of the design consultations

will help customers choose the product

and then the husband will do all of the

installation. Right? So he'll be the one

that'll go out and make sure that

everything fits the way it should. And I

basically had to hire all new people

because it was it was a husband wife

duo. And part of the reason why they

wanted to uh sell the business was that

the the wife in particular

wasn't able to scale the business in the

way that she wanted to, right? She

wasn't having great luck with hiring uh

you know the right sales consultants. uh

wasn't able to to hire the right uh you

know office administration uh you know

support and was stuck working in the

business and was not able to work on the

business

hard to replicate her eye for design and

ability to communicate with clients and

the systems needed then sounds like

so whereas you came in as an executive

who knows how to run the the back office

of a business they were very much

technicians interior designers,

construction, all that kind of stuff

that goes into this that had bought a

franchise that fit what their experience

was then.

Yep.

Okay.

Absolutely correct.

How much leverage or how much wiggle

room did you have as the acquirer to

work with the business owners to set the

valuation of the the buyout of this

thing? How much of that was directed by

the higher level? What were the metrics

that were that were looked at for the

acquisition?

Yeah. Uh it was um a multitude of you

know variables I'd say factors. Uh I did

take out an SBA loan, an SBA 7A loan. So

the the valuation wasn't uh so much you

know my doing or really anybody else's

uh except for the lenders who brought in

and did a formal business valuation.

Right? So from there we worked on what

the actual um you know purchase price

would be based on what they see. So

there was obviously some negotiation for

the most part but you know really it was

their uh putting together that business

valuation that um allowed us the ability

to be able to acquire it at at a fair

price.

was I I imagine did you have to go

through training with Made in the Shade

in order to get approved leading up to

the the valuation or how much of like

earnout how much did they have to stick

around? Talk to me a little bit about

the transition here.

Yeah. Uh definitely training uh was

expected of me before I formally took

over the um you know business itself and

that was a week of uh training down in

San Antonio which is where the home

office is headquartered out of and had a

really great experience. Uh I learned a

ton and again I was able to make some

really great uh personal relationships

with the CEO and some of the other home

office staff. It's grown since then uh

just to support all of the different uh

functions that are now available to us

as franchise owners. And the

uh prior owners were ex just great and

they stuck around to help with the

transition of the installation team as I

brought on new people and the transition

of the design consultants as I brought

some people on and being able to help us

with the the systems, the quoting

systems, uh you know, telling us about

all the different contacts uh you know

within uh the different uh vendors that

we would be doing business with and

helping us with, you know, calls that

they were getting because the, you know,

prior customers had their personal phone

numbers, uh, and they're still available

to me to this day. Uh, the, um, prior

owner, uh, is, uh, now in, um, financial

planning and wealth management and

she's, uh, getting involved in the

community as well, so I do see her from

time to time at different networking

events. Uh, so she's still, you know, a

member of the community and we do still

keep in touch. But they were great in

that transitional period. Uh we didn't

have any specific, you know, you have to

stay on board for at least 90 days. Uh

she was very clear, I will make myself

available to you uh for as long as you

need me and uh make sure that I can be

as um you know, much of an asset for you

with during this transition time.

Okay. And how long did that end up

taking?

September. Uh gosh, I'd say

November. November, Decemberish.

Okay. So within 90 days then it was

transferred over. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean again made themselves

available to us even after that. I mean

I still get messages from her about hey

so and so just reached out to me asking

for uh you know some help on on a you

know product we sold them like great

appreciate that. Uh but the great thing

is that again with the home office

support uh anything that we may have

gone to her for now that we know exactly

you know how to operate the business

itself we're going to to to home office

for some of that additional help.

Gotcha. Okay. So it was a husband and

wife team. Does that mean that the team

was two people when you bought the

company or did they have like another

two or three

uh installation was um husband and there

was another member of the family that

was pitching in on a very limited

part-time basis. Right. Whenever there

was maybe a larger job, you know, he'd

come in and he'd help out with uh you

know, just some of the staging and some

of the cleanup and things of that

nature, but you know, not full-time. And

then they also hired a part-time uh

administrative staff person. Uh but her

availability during the week was

limited. It was it was very part-time

just really taking phone calls and

trying to do as much as she could to

help with some of the again

administrative functions but really it

was you know the husband and wife that

were the core of how the business itself

ran and grew for the entire time that

they owned it.

So you finished that three-month

transition December 2023. You had all of

24 and now most of 25 here. Um talk

about your plans. I mean, did scaling

it, how many teams, how many employees,

um, how you identified people, did they

also have to go to San Antonio? Like,

just talk through the growth and your

intention to did you want to start off

with just one crew or did you want to

quickly get to a certain size? Talk

through that for me.

Yeah. Well, this is where I can tell you

some of the biggest challenges that I've

ever faced as a leader. I mean, you

know, as as you know, when you're going

out to get funding or you're going

through some kind of uh, you know, uh,

again, uh, you know, loan process, uh,

you know, you have to put together a

business plan. Well, I could have thrown

out that business plan basically week

two when I took over because it was

basically uh, useless.

So, I'll give you some some examples of

the challenges and the struggles, which

is why I, you know, said what I said

earlier, and that do not give up. Do not

give up. Uh, let's see here. The first

installer that I hired that was working

with a prior um owner, the husband, uh,

found out that he was spending a little

bit more time at the casino than he was

at some of the job sites after he was

allowed to go and do installations on

his own.

Right. And that again didn't think to

myself I would ever have to

confront. Right. You expect somebody to

do a job and clearly

come back and get the next one, not take

the rest of the afternoon.

Exactly. Exactly. And uh you know when I

asked like, "Hey, what's going on here?

We see that you're spending a little bit

more time at the casino than than on job

sites." The response was, "Well, I

really like their lunch."

It's like, "But you're but you're

three-hour lunch,

right? But like you're on the other side

of town. Like for you to get there and

then eat their lunch and then be back at

the job site just logistically doesn't

make sense. Clearly had had some

problems but you know had to part ways.

Fast forward uh it would have been the

summer of last year. one of the

biggest

challenges I've ever faced uh

essentially took to took place um in our

industry in our job measurements are

essential. They are critical. Right. If

you're off by an eighth of an inch,

you're

no longer blackout curtains.

Exactly. Yeah. Because we are a custom

product. So, if your if your

measurements are off by an eighth of an

inch and you show up and it doesn't fit,

guess what? That's it. You're throwing

that thing in the trash. So, we had one

of our former design consultants

basically botch

at least two months worth of of products

and it was detrimental to the business

from a financial perspective. It brought

us to our knees. And the challenge with

that is you don't find out

if a mistake has been made until weeks

after because again, we're custom. So,

you show up, you measure, you input the

information into the system, it gets

ordered. Depending on the product, it

could be anywhere between 3 to 8 weeks.

you finally get the product, your

installer schedules the installation,

and then you're looking at maybe that

eighth, ninth week when you're in the

home and oh, there's a problem. This

doesn't fit. Like, what's going on here?

Or hey, uh, we're short one shutter and

I'm not sure where it is. Well, it

wasn't ordered. or hey, it looks like we

order two of the same one, but they

asked for something completely different

over here. So, needless to say,

and you've done two of these design

consultations a day since then.

Oh, uh, for that for that particular

time, we were again averaging some of

our best months.

Yeah. which is great until you find out

that they, you know, half of them were

wrong and you have to eat the cost of

the replacement because you don't expect

the customer to pay for that high ticket

item. It's got to come out of your own

pocket. So, it was a it was a challenge.

I mean I again a lot of sleepless nights

trying to figure out how am I going to

be able to get out from this particular

financial you know burden that's been

placed on me. Um and I had to make some

difficult decisions and I had to

contract the business before I could

grow the business. Uh so we had to cut a

ton of just overhead and expenses to

make us a leaner organization. Uh very

fortunate to say that we're obviously in

a better place today than we were back

in you know September. Um, but it wasn't

for

uh, yeah, a lack of uh, really just

really uncertain as to whether or not

I'm going to be able to keep this uh,

you know, operation going if things

don't don't get better. And eventually

they did. Uh, so again, part of the

challenge and the learning was the

hiring the right people,

not giving up, finding ways to make it

work.

Yeah. I I think there's a misnomer in

the franchise model of they give you all

these systems, they give you all these

ways to do things, but you still as a

boss have to hire people that are going

to stick to that, right? A franchise can

be delivered really well and

authentically to the the systems that

they've been given or they can be done

lazily or sloppily. Um it's still in it.

You still have to set the systems in

place that check everything and make

sure that it's that it's being

consistent, right?

Absolutely. And in taking action, uh,

you know, I would say that my learning

was that I didn't take action soon

enough,

right? Part of me was, okay, let's

continue to give this individual, you

know, a second chance, a third chance, a

fourth chance, but at some point

it's it's either, you know, the business

continues to keep its doors open, or you

keep somebody employed until they decide

to leave. And clearly, that individual

was not was not going to be going

anywhere.

uh what other what other downsides or

what other changes to this whole

acquisition process would you have made

um or did you discover in that first

year?

I you know I I' I've been asked this and

and I have always said is that I

wouldn't change a single thing. I I'm

not one that is full of of regrets or

regrets doing one thing over another

because each of our decisions has put

you in the spot that you're in today.

And I wouldn't change today for anything

because you have no idea what this

decision would have led to. In

hindsight, it may have been a better

decision, but you have no idea, right?

So, I am a firm believer that I really

don't have any regrets because all the

things that happened have put me in the

spot, which I'm very grateful for. I

will say that there are assumptions that

I made that I definitely wish I wouldn't

have walked into with these kinds of

assumptions. So, you may laugh at this,

but when I was looking at all of the uh,

you know, data, the performas, the

performance of the business,

I just thought that it'd be as easy as,

okay, for us to grow, all I need to do

is just increase our Google spend

more leads and we're going to get more

appointments, we're going to get more

sales. That's it.

Yeah. Growth is linear. Just do twice as

much and get twice as much. Right.

Exactly. Exactly.

Was I wrong? Was I wrong? Uh, clearly it

was going to take much more than just

doubling our Google ad spend to be able

to help us get more leads, to be able to

help us get more sales, to be able to

help us grow to the extent that I want

us to. I I have really great um, you

know, big plans for this business. I

want to be a $10 million a year revenue

generating operation. I want to be the,

you know, number one, you know, seller

of custom window coverings in Northern

California. I I don't play for, you

know, small small things, right? I I

wouldn't have left an extremely

lucrative extremely lucrative

career to be here and play small ball.

That's just not who I am. What I've

learned is it's going to take longer

than I thought, but at the end of the

day, it's it's mine, right? I own it.

It's ultimately, you know, my um

business to to help grow and

assumptions are probably the one thing

as I look back like I shouldn't have

realized or I shouldn't have thought

that it was going to be that easy. It's

it's been a lot more challenging, but

it's been great. Like I love it. It's

been just a really really cool journey

so far.

Yeah, I want to jump into that. Uh

testing the assumptions and changing

them. Um, but before that we do that,

what kind of support do you have from

the home office as far as like your

region to be the biggest in Northern

California? Is there like an exclusivity

that they have? Because that's one of

the benefits of smaller franchises is if

they really are focused on quality

versus we're going to have a McDonald's

on every single corner, two subways

across the street from each other kind

of thing. What What's their goal for

California? How many franchises would be

like their their goal of three and done

kind What's that look like?

Yeah. Uh and again I keep saying this

but I am extremely fortunate that I

ended up with the franchise that I did.

There are many other franchise um you

know models within this industry. Uh but

again the blend of still family-owned

CEO is a phone call away to the

reinvestment that they're making into

the franchise model. uh you know and I'm

always the first one to raise my hand

like hey if you're going to be launching

something like I want to be the beta

tester like give it to us like that's

what I want. Uh so we all got new

websites last year as again this

reinvestment started to um really take

off and I was you know messaging the CEO

frequent like hey when where are the new

websites coming out like when when are

we going be able to get our website up

and they've been great like okay gotcha

Brando we're going to give you the

website next after we launch the San

Antonio one because that's really the

one that we want to test because we

don't want to give you something that is

going to break down right we want to

make sure that it's actually going to uh

you know be be good for you and they've

been phenomenal. Um, so I would say that

uh has been just really huge for me in

the support. I never feel as if I am

being left out in the cold without

anybody to go to. Now from an

exclusivity perspective, I technically

own uh Plazer Nevada counties. Those are

my two, you know, formal territories.

But because there's no franchise besides

me, I can go into other counties, right?

Elorado County, Sacramento County, uh

until somebody decides that, hey, you

know what? I want to start my own Made

in the Shake franchise and I live in,

you know, Fulsome, so I'm going to open

up here and I'm going to take over this

particular territory. That's when I

would not be able to go in and take on

business from that um you know,

territory. And I'm very respectful. So

obviously if that were to take place um

you know we'd work with that particular

individual help them uh because I'm a

firm believer in being able to you know

um lift somebody up as you're you're

climbing up yourself and that's um you

know again part of the value proposition

working with this uh franchise. It's

very tight-knit community.

Okay. So, as the business grows and as

you scale and become a a 10 million

closer and closer to a 10 million

operation, you can buy more counties,

you can buy more areas to expand your

exclusivity then. So,

yol.

Um, okay. So, let's talk about

challenging those assumptions and and

what have what have you had to learn as

a business owner to test and adjust and

experiment within the business to get

the results that you're looking for?

Talk a little bit about that. Mhm.

Uh yeah. Uh gosh,

the it's

because the franchise is clearly not

going to do it all for you. They're

going to set you up with some stuff, but

they're not just going to send

everything to you and

turnkey and you walk away and no

marketing. Right.

Correct. Yeah. It's it's a well, you

know, I was going to start the uh answer

with it's a double-edged sword, right?

Is that hey, we are treated as

individual business owners, which is

fantastic. we get support, right? But at

the end of the day, we decide the P&L,

we decide the investment strategy, we

decide the advertising strategy, and

being able to identify our strengths.

So, what I've uh again, not having come

from the industry, there were questions

that I had about why is it that this

particular product is so competitive?

like what is it about this particular

product that I was very surprised is our

number one seller in the state and the

CEO uh shared with me that yep at one

point everybody that in the industry

realize how how lucrative this

particular product line is so then you

started to get a lot of smaller

competitors entering the space and when

there's more competition that means that

prices go down so there is going to be

again a lower margin for that product

line, but it's just the number one

seller for our market.

I should have taken action on the

sooner, which is instead of playing in

that very competitive space. Right. Talk

about the blue ocean theory. I need to

go over there and I didn't

that everybody's ignoring.

Exactly. I I didn't take action until

not too long ago where I said, "We're

not going to market this product line

anymore. We're not going to invest in

keywords in this particular product line

anymore because our margins are going to

be below average in comparison to all of

the other product lines that we have to

offer. In addition to that, our lead

design consultant,

her strength is being able to really

provide a consultative experience.

And when I because I did mystery

shopping of my competitors back in

December

and there was a very stereotypical

profile of who showed up and it was, you

know, just an older male who was really

knowledgeable on shutters but wasn't as

knowledgeable in some of the other

product lines.

And that is going to be where Arley

design consultant is going to shine

because she can speak intelligently

about color, about fabric, about the

differences between these different

manufacturers

without making assumptions that the only

thing you want is this in white and we

can put that in every single window of

your home.

Right? So, we have seen our numbers

improve from

not providing as many options to our

customers as we have been in the past.

Not to say we don't offer it. We're just

not advertising it aggressively like we

were in the past.

Gotcha. Okay. So, you won't necessarily

Well, maybe you would talk somebody out

of it, but if they really insist, you

are able to do that,

but you're not just going in saying, "We

can do this for you."

Yeah. What we do and even when somebody

says, "Hey, you know what? I want I want

this particular product line. Great.

Let's sit down. Let's talk about it.

Tell me why is it that you think that

you want this particular product line?

And they'll say, well, you know, my

neighbor has it or you know, my parents

have it in their home and I really like

it. Great. But tell me what is it that

you want your window coverings to do for

you? Right? Is it insulation? Is it

privacy? Is it light control? And if

they tell us that it's um you know

mostly uh light control or insulation,

then guess what? This is not the best

product for you and this is what you

might consider. But if you're completely

sold on this product line, all right.

Well, just so you know, even within this

product line, there's so many other

options for you to consider. And here's

what we have to offer. Right? So, we're

here to educate. We're here to make sure

that the customer understands truly what

it is that they're going to be investing

in versus just showing up and pushing

them a direction because that's what

we're comfortable with and that's

basically what we recommend to every

single customer we meet when they tell

us that they want a specific product

line.

Gotcha. Okay. Um I mean we're running

out of time. I did want to return to the

question just from your days at the

agency.

um as a business owner who deals with

brand reps and deals with vendors and

everything and having been that at one

time, how do you get more attention,

gain more engagement and um just get

more out of our vendor reps that

sometimes we're stuck with and we can't

we can't change them. How what would be

your recommendation just from having

been on the inside of that?

Yeah. uh and again having been uh an

individual contributor and a leader

within those larger organizations.

I keep going back to this relationships

are critical

especially for these larger

organizations because they will divert

resources to who they consider to be

their best partners.

So, I can give you a couple of examples

from an ini individual contributor

perspective. When I talk to one of our

vendor reps today, I know that they're

going to be the ones that I can count on

to help me when I need help. Whether

it's, hey, you know, these are my plans.

So, they get excited when I share with

them our story, our goals, what I'm

looking to do. When they ask me how I'm

looking to grow my business, this is a

red flag. I'm not telling them that I'm

just gonna grow from customer referrals,

right? Like, what's your marketing

strategy? Well, we really don't market.

We just, you know, we really grow from

from referrals. And if that's true,

you've been in business for 25 years and

your business is able to really scale

and grow just from referrals, that is

fantastic. I hope that my business gets

there someday. But even then, I don't

think that I'm going to rely on just

customer referrals to help me grow my

business, right? I am going to continue

to invest in marketing, right?

Advertising. So, when a rep hears that,

they should get excited because guess

what? They're going to be rewarded for

the growth in their market. So, if they

identify you as maybe somebody they

didn't even think about that is going to

have an impact on their territory

results, then they should be stepping up

to the plate to say, "Yes, I want to

support you because that is how you're

going to help me, so I need to help

you." But if that particular marketing

rep isn't who I would consider to be

like a really strong strong marketing

rep, then you need to make a

relationship with their manager

because then you're going to have that

individual that you can refer to. Say,

"Hey, listen. Um, would you mind if we

maybe spoke to your manager about this?

I just really like to find out if they

would be able to help me out in some

way." Right? Because then you have

another layer of support.

that you can lean on because maybe

you've identified your marketing rep

isn't the strongest and it happens,

right? I

you know, I know from experience. I know

I know I know how it works. Uh and those

individuals

are going to be able to then go to bat

for you when there's maybe some extra

funding available,

right? Or maybe there's some

considerations they might be able to

extend you because they've identified

you as somebody that is influential in

their territory as well, right? So, you

know, it's it's it's relationships. I

mean, they really do, you know, run the

world.

Yeah. Part of that relationship is

training that sales rep that not all

leads are created equal. Do you have any

advice on on that? When a software

company just says, "Well, we're going to

send you every inquiry that we come

across in this area." How do you teach

them that not everyone is somebody that

you want that you're able to do business

with and and get to a higher quality?

Yeah, it's a great question. Uh, how

much control do they have over those

leads being sent to sent to you, right?

Because some of I mean, I think at this

point everything is so automated is that

it may not even touch a human before it

just gets directed. We actually had a

situation uh recently, believe it or

not. So, it's a great uh question. uh

there's a vendor that we work with and

we do get notifications that leads have

come in and we respond to all of them

because again it could be somebody that

has a you know pretty big project uh but

turned out that this individual

accidentally submitted a request for a

consultation and this individual is

actually a custom window coverings uh

professional himself.

Oh, another secret shopper.

Yeah, correct. Yeah, it could have been.

Right. So I don't know

but systems are set up in a way that I

don't think humans are even touching

those particular leads but if I were to

provide you know feedback I suppose or

or recommendation to say hey

what is your ICP what is your ideal

customer profile look like and if you

don't want a one window you know job

in or or you prefer a whole house,

right? So, I really want leads that are

a a new build that have more than 10

windows that I can go and potentially um

you know, deliver a consultation to.

Like, those are the customers that I

want. So, can you set up your system in

a way that would give me those leads? If

it's less than 10 windows, really, we

don't we don't want them. We just don't

have enough time for them. But really,

this would be my ideal customer. Is

there a way that you'd be able to set up

your system to filter everything else

out except for these in this zip code?

That would be fantastic. So, got to help

them understand who your ideal customer

profile is.

Yeah. And building that relationship

with that rep or with that rep's manager

makes them more eager to pull the

strings behind the scenes to to filter

that out then.

Well, absolutely. I mean, again, there's

another vendor that uh we've developed a

really great relationship with that is

is extending opportunities to me that I

never would have imagined and it

potentially puts us in a position to

work with one of the largest uh

distributors in the entire country.

Right? And that's because again the

passion people people sense that, right?

Think about how you're able to really

engage somebody in conversation and are

you somebody that they're going to enjoy

working with? Are you somebody that is

going to fill them with the sense of

inspiration of like, yeah, you know

what? I want to help you. I want to

support you because you've got some

pretty pretty cool goals, right? Versus,

you know, just been a really

pulling teeth every time I talk to my

accountant.

It's been a really horrible month. I

just I don't know. I don't I don't get

it. the phone isn't ringing and we're

just not getting any jobs and you know

people are just not uh looking to buy

right now and I don't know it's just

like well yeah if you're not looking to

grow your business and you're just

waiting for the phone to ring it works

both ways right you can pick it up and

make calls doesn't just work uh you know

in ringing um that's what I would

recommend is just getting your your

support you know people excited

nice Okay. Well, Brando, we've come to

the end of the episode. That was a quick

one. Um, is there anything else that I

haven't asked or covered uh that you

want to that you want to add before we

jump into the lightning round?

Uh, no. Uh, you know, again, I mean,

there's just so many things that I can,

you know, chat about. Uh, so I I say

that all of the questions that you've

asked, I've been able to provide you

with at least a glimpse of what it's

been like, uh, to obviously be on this

uh, almost 2-year journey. And it's only

going to get better. the challenges are

going to get bigger, but I'm, you know,

excited to, you know, tackle them and

grow from them and build out an even

stronger business.

Yeah. Great. All right, let's jump into

the lightning round. Um, coffee or tea,

and how do you like it prepared?

Uh, coffee, black, no sugar, no cream.

Okay. Um, pie or cake? And do you have a

favorite kind?

Uh, cheesecake. My wife makes a

phenomenal gluten-free cheesecake and it

is decadent and it is delicious. She

needs to sell it, but she she doesn't

want to.

Uh just plain or with any kind of

filling or

uh it's um I mean her recipe I feel like

changes and I'm not going to give away

her secret ingredients, but it does end

up getting um you know different fruit

toppings uh you know strawberry,

blueberry, raspberries. I mean it is ah

it is so good.

Nice. All right. Uh, I mean, that could

lead into the next question, but what's

your what's your favorite holiday and

why?

Ah, it's a great question.

It's Christmas and not so much because

it's my f it's it's my favorite because

it's my children's favorite and the

sense of excitement, right? the buildup,

Christmas Eve, families together, and

then they wake up and it's as much the

the toys, but it's their enjoyment. It's

how excited they get. It's being able to

share and all of that. That's why it's

for me right now my favorite holiday.

Yeah. How how old are your kids?

Uh they just turned five and two in

March.

Wow. Golden age for Christmas for sure.

Oh, absolutely. Oh, yeah.

Um, do you consider yourself a morning

or a night person? And do you have a

favorite routine?

Today I am a morning person and I've had

to work on making myself a morning

person. My favorite routine is waking up

before the family, having coffee,

getting on my soul cycle, do a 30 minute

ride, and uh then being able to go out

uh you know, get showered and spend um

as much time in the morning with my kids

and and wife as I can before each of us

uh goes out and starts their day.

Great. Awesome. Um what's a common

belief among entrepreneurs that you

would want to challenge?

I go back to that, you know, you're

going to grow from referrals. Don't get

me wrong, it it's great, right?

Referrals are absolutely a phenomenal

way to get business, but it's

a strategy for growth that just

naturally plateaus, right? So, I would

say if you're looking to, and again,

this is if you're looking to grow your

business because not everybody is. If

you're looking to grow your business,

you need to rethink that model and be

more aggressive in marketing,

advertising, leveraging social media.

It's never been easier to take advantage

of those, you know, free tools that are

available to all of us.

Yeah. And I think business owners, just

to piggyback off of this, I think

business owners underestimate how much

marketing your existing clients to get

better referrals, how much opportunity

there is to there. Um, that that's not

tapped into at all. when you just say we

grow through referrals. So, okay,

awesome. Um, what's one thing that you

would want your successor to remember

you for?

Ah, great question.

I think it's what the prior owners have

been able to establish and basically

passed on to me, which is this extremely

great re uh reputation in the community,

right? It's it's the five-star reviews

and the words that we hear from our

customers about how great of an

experience they had, how much they

enjoyed working with each one of the

individuals that they get a chance to

interact with. Because oftent times it's

not me. They're not actually talking to

me, but they're talking to our team in

some way. And I want to continue that

whether it's uh, you know, another three

different design consultants that that

join us. It's it's our reputation as a

whole that continues to really um you

know help us in just being more

established um you know community

partners.

Great. Thank you. Um where are you

finding creativity right now?

From outside of my industry.

I I really I I really enjoy listening to

audio books and podcasts. Uh funny

enough. And I really enjoy learning

about what's going on in other other

industries, how you know AI is being

leveraged. Uh how you know a certain um

you know marketing tactic might have

used in a different completely you know

separate industry uh and being able to

use it here right to see if it works.

Yeah. So just learning wherever I can uh

to find inspiration.

Yeah. Awesome. Um, what do you have

coming up in the next year that's got

you really excited?

Yeah, I am training to complete my first

triathlon.

Okay.

Yes.

Full full iron man or

uh No, it's it's called a super sprint.

Okay.

Which is the the second easiest.

Yeah,

there's four.

Uh so this is a quarter mile swim, a

12.4 four mile bike ride and then I

think a three something mile run.

So a 5k run. Yeah.

Yeah. Yep. That's exactly right.

Nice. When is when's that coming up?

That'll be August 23rd. Uh Folsam Lake

in Granite Bay.

Oh, cool. All right.

Yeah.

Very nice. Yeah. I did a sprint uh same

same distance super sprint then about

two years ago and training for that was

so much fun. It was like I felt it was

hard enough that I'm like I have to

train for this. I can't just go out and

wing it. Um and it was just fun to get

off the bike and have to run or get out

of the pool and have to have to pedal.

Just that that interchange of

disciplines was was a real challenge. So

I can I can understand that excitement.

Yeah. And uh right now what I'm working

on the most is the swim discipline.

That's you know typically where most

people need the most help. It it's so

much harder than you think. I mean, I've

grown up my life in pools and and lakes.

Folsam Lake one of them.

But swimming laps is so different than

like, you know, dog paddling next to a

boat or, you know, swimming out to a

platform or something like that. So,

absolutely right.

Well, uh, good good luck to you on that

one. Um, I'm sure you'll have the time

of your life. Hope you come out of that

and look forward to another one. Uh,

that that would be awesome. So,

that that's what I've been told. I might

um get a little addicted to them and and

we'll see. So, just going to take it one

one at a time.

Nice. All right. Um and then Brando,

where can people find out more about

Maiden Shade NorCal and everything that

you've got going on?

Great. Well, thank you for that

question. Uh you can find us in all the

socials. Uh you know, Mitsnorcal,

Facebook, Instagram. Uh our website's

probably going to be the best place,

which is mitsnorcal.com.

mitsnorcow.com.

It has all of the information about who

we are, how to schedule a uh home design

consultation, and uh let us help you

with those window coverings.

Awesome. All right, we will link that

down in the show notes. Thank you so

much for your time. I appreciate it,

Brando. Thanks for being a guest.

Of course, my pleasure. Thanks for

having me, Barrett.

You've been listening to the Art of

Succession podcast with your host,

Barrett Young. Twice a month, we'll

bring you interviews sharing the

successes and challenges from business

owners with their own succession

stories. The Art of Succession is

sponsored by GWCPA and is provided

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engaging in any transaction, you should

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