What I've Learned From Kevin Dubrosky

Introductions
1

New But Experienced

I am not new to window cleaning but I am just creating my first window cleaning business. I grew up in Hendersonville, NC cleaning windows with my parents as a teenager. They had a thriving business, in that little town, before their divorce.

After high school, I moved away and lived in different places: Eugene, OR; Sacramento, CA and Plains, MT. Then, I moved to a great town, beside where I grew up, called Asheville, NC. I’m sure some of you have heard of Asheville. I’m 33 years old now and creating my own window cleaning business for Western North Carolina (WNC).

My name for my business is: WNC Residential Window Cleaning.

What I Discovered on WCR

My mom has been giving me wonderful pointers about creating and maintaining a window cleaning business. But being addicted to research, I’ve been spending lots of time online learning everything I can from other people. I stumbled upon this site and I am so HAPPY I found you!

While reading through this forum, I have discovered a person who has made a great impact here but is no longer a member.

His name is Kevin Dubrosky.

Kevin Dubrosky’s Advice

In his last thread, he left behind a wonderful piece of advise that I am going to follow. He said:

What’s the best advice I can give you?

Understand that you are in the marketing business, not the window cleaning business.

Homeowners and business owners in your target market are looking for solutions to their problems. They’re looking for vendors (you) that truly understand what drives them nuts, and they’re willing to pay you good money to fix it.

What’s driving your target market nuts right now?

a.) Find the answer to that question.
b.) Figure out how to deliver the solution better than anyone else.

Only then should you shout it from the rooftops. Never, never, never spend a dime telling a boring story. Don’t spend another red cent on postcards, web design, business cards, fliers, estimates, or even invoices, until you can figure out how your company is different in the solution you’re proposing.

Consumers are incredibly sensitive and grateful to companies that work hard to differentiate themselves from the rest of the stack. People say they love apples to apples, but the truth is, we like oranges, too, and plums, and pomegranates. Stop trying to out-apple your competition, and change the game, instead.

I love Marketing! Kevin’s message and many of his other posts really resonate with me.

My mission is to figure out how my company is different in the solution I will propose. Then, I will create my business.

Awe Struck By You

While I have been awe struck by the quality of Marketing advice Kevin offers, I have also been equally awe struck by this whole organization and all the people that offer quality advice / help. In time, I hope to join you all in contributing quality content and help on this forum. This forum and store are both a blessing! My business will be better because of you… each and everyone of you. Thank you!

~John Cannon

P.S. - I’m hoping, one day, I can find a copy of $600/hr. Any suggestions about how to go about that?

P.P.S. - I regret using my business as my username. I wish I had used my own name. Is it possible to change it?

2

He’s still on the boards under a different username, panelessperfection.

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You can ask Chris L. to change your username

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Hey rivetOr,

Thanks for that!

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Cool, hunterst… Thank you!

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Actually Kevin is making a revised $600 h/r with tons of extra marketing goodness! I can’t wait for that bad boy! :slight_smile:

Kevin is a great guy and a marketing blessing to my business!

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Jeremiah,

Thank you for the great news!! A hobby I’ve had for the past 10 years was to read marketing books. The topic is just fun for me. I’ve never thought about how to apply any of it to a window cleaning business. It’s wonderful to see a Marketing dude apply all the advanced stuff to window cleaning.

It’s super cool that you think so highly of him and that he’s helped you so much.

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I just wanted to say that even though the bulk of my post was about Kevin’s advice, I want to talk about the cool factor of the forum and store.

When I first saw this site, the last place I visited was the store. I thought it was just going to be a lame attempt to make money without any real value. However, that is just not the case. I am super happy with the store on this site.

And the forum… holy bleep… this is a massive gathering of people and advice that just out right impresses me. I am not easily impressed. I am impressed with this store and the quality of people in this forum.

I just have to make an extra point to say this because I have been telling my friends and family about how cool this place is.

This may be overkill to some of you but for me, this place is a super insanely wonderful resource that I’m so happy to have found.

~John Cannon

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Available by May 1, 2012. Guaranteed.

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Sweet!

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Wow, I’m very pleased that you’ve been helped by my posts here on WCR.

Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate them all.

And yes, the revised and expanded edition will be available on or before May 1, 2012, guaranteed.

If you wish, you may read an extended free excerpt here:
WindowCleaningBusinessCoach.com

You can also read an other excerpt over here, right here on WCR:
Squeegeenomics- Persuade the Mind « Windowpedia

Enjoy, and thanks again.

And keep at it!

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Welcome, John. Remember “iron sharpens iron”, we all feed off each other when the threads and posts are good.

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Hey Kevin,

You’re welcome. I’ve already read Squeegeenomics! You know what came to mind as I was reading it?

“Wow… Kevin is like the ‘Robert Cialdini’ for window cleaners.” You give principles of persuasion that work within our niche like Robert Cialdini does for the general business world in his book Influence.

Another one of my favorite Marketing books is All Marketers are Liars, by Seth Godin. Many of your references to telling a story remind me of Seth’s worldview of marketing.

But, also, as you said in previous posts, “Marketing is Marketing.”

I will be studying Squeegeenomics more thoroughly and looking forward to the book!

My dream is to create my own Marketing company. Didn’t I read that you are a partner in a Marketing company, now? Not only have you shown me what is possible, but you have paved a path to the goal I want to achieve… with Window Cleaning. How freakin’ cool is that?!

~John Cannon

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Hey Dan,

That’s a great point! It’s why I’m here… to be sharpened. Your point provides me with the extra motivation to think hard about my business and create quality posts. Quality begets quality. Crap creates crap.

Very good point, Dan. Thank you.

~John Cannon

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…

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Hi Brian,

Can you help me out? Who’s Paul? Have I missed someone or left someone out?

~John Cannon

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Hey Mr. Cannon! You will fit in just fine here. And you won’t find a better bunch of folks anywhere else online.

Welcome aboard buddy!

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Hi Ryan!

I’m VERY glad you believe I will fit… I really like it here. Your endorsement of the people seems very accurate. Thank you for the warm welcome. I, genuinely, appreciate it.

~John Cannon

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Cool.

Mozart once said “I really do not study or aim at any originality.”
[SIZE=1](You can read the quote here: Pushkin’s Mozart and Salieri: themes, character, sociology - Robert Reid - Google Books)[/SIZE]

Neither do I.

All I try to do is migrate all the research and amazing insights from guy like Cialdini (and countless others) into the window cleaning industry, and any industry that my clients happen to be in.

I’m simply a migrator. An adapter. An applier.

Yeah, I’ve begun my own marketing company, I’m not a partner in one.

You can do it, too, if that’s what you want.

Get your feet wet with your own company and your own money first, that’s the best way to do it. It’ll build out your knowledge base, and give you the experience you need to be able to help other people do the same thing.

And keep studying. Like crazy. With purpose.

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That is a perfect quote by Mozart. The whole passage is noteworthy but the last sentence is the summary.

It’s very interesting that you say what you’ve said. I am a researcher and connector… connecting ideas to one another and just like you said:

Migrating them.
Adapting them.
Applying them.

It just comes natural to me to be this way. Ideas and their connections haunt and titillate me. You being who you are gives me permission to use marketing ideas for window cleaning.

Thank you for the encouragement that I can create my own marketing company, too.

Your advise about getting my feet wet with my own company and money, first, is gold. I find myself fascinated with copywriting and direct response (offline marketing).

“And keep studying. Like crazy. With purpose.” That’s a quote to that’ll stick in my brain.

I read your blog post, “Apple messed this up. Have you?”

I really jive with this post and I’m not kissing your tush. I’m genuine. A great point: “The better (more profitable) question is: What stories are your customers telling about you? They have already decided what your company stands for.”

So true! But I like how you apply that idea.

IDEA: Why not make up a little postage-paid survey for clients that have recommended you, with one line on it:

“When you recently recommended us to your friends, what did you say about us?”

And leave the rest of it blank.

You might find out for the very first time what your brand actually stands for.

It’s cool that you use Apple because they seem to have caught their stride. I did not know that, at one time, they tried to tell the “powerful” story.

Glenn Livingston of Pay Per Click Search Marketing stresses the power of research and surveys. He use to teach his clients to create surveys first before they even made a website. The idea is good in theory but the internet doesn’t work like it use to. Now, he encourages his clients to create a site and then find ways to learn from them with tests, measures and surveys through their sites or sales funnel or whatever creative way they can find.

I file all this away and I know that later on I will learn something that will trigger all of these ideas and I will find a way to combine them… and apply them to my business in some way.

I have this hunch that our brains work in a similar way.

Too cool!