Daniel: Hello and welcome to another episode of the You Should Talk to Podcast. I am your host, your Everything, Daniel Wiener. [00:01:00] You should talk to pairs, brands, and marketers for free with vetted agencies because finding great agencies is time consuming and a pain, which we'll get into today. Super excited to be joined by Eric Tessel, who is the VP of Marketing at Door Pro America.

Eric, thank you for joining. 

Eric: Of course. Yes. Thanks for having me. 

Daniel: Before we jump right in, tell, tell everybody about, uh, door Pro America. 

Eric: All right, so Door Pro America is, um, you know, we focus on garage door installation and repair and maintenance. Um, main headquarters is in, uh, Northern Virginia and Gainesville.

Um, but we service, um, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Colorado, and then have some sister companies in North Carolina, New Jersey as well. 

Daniel: Awesome. I love it. Uh, what is an unpopular opinion you have in the marketing world or a, a hot take of sorts?

More controversial, the better. 

Eric: Um, controversial. So I don't know about controversial, but you know, I've been thinking about, um, different things when it comes to, to, you know, what's going on in the world and hot takes and all this. And you know, I think a [00:02:00] lot of us, when we got into, you know, quote unquote marketing, you know, branding, that sort of thing, a lot of it was for like the creative side.

Like I can say that for myself, is that. You know, when you really started like going down this marketing, um, career path, you say, oh, I wanna make all these commercials and really do all this kinda like, fun stuff with brands and logos and be memorable. But what I've seen, um, sort of in my career, when you're able to kind of like take those next, next steps from like coordinator, manager, um, senior manager, director, vice president, um, the biggest leaps is when you can actually connect with finance.

So the, the, all, 

Daniel: all the CFOs right now are having har hearts shoot outta their eyes. They're like, finally, this is our moment. 

Eric: Because I think like the transition is, you know, you want to, you maybe start off into it to be creative and reach customers and sell products and do that kind of thing. But when you're talking about your own career and when you wanna make leaps and bounds, you have to be able to not only communicate with finance, but also be able to relate with them and show that you have an understanding of what's important to them.

So when they're talking about EBITDA or gross margin. Above the [00:03:00] line, below the line, p and Ls, all this kind of stuff. You know, the higher you get in your career, the, the, you know, sort of larger your budget is in general, they're gonna ask you tough questions where, you know, brand awareness and touchy feely stuff is, is great.

And again, that's kind of like why some of us got into it. But they're gonna want to ask you, if they give you X, what are you gonna get for y And the best that you can communicate that by showing them, look, you know, you're gonna give me x for a marketing budget. I'm gonna give you Y for revenue. Here's the gross margin on like a service or an install business, that sort of thing.

The more you're able to relate to them and communicate with them, ultimately you're gonna prove to them that you're able to get and handle more budget because you're gonna able to spend it wisely. So that sort of helps with the transition of marketing being thought of as an expense and more of an investment where if you say, look, if you gimme $1 by the end of the year, I'm gonna give you six or more.

That's all they want to hear. So I think sometimes, unfortunately, we kind of get in these little, these fights about. Hey, maybe, you know, EBITDA is not where we want, or profitability is not exactly where we want. Where can we cut? And I [00:04:00] think as marketers we sort of understand sometimes that marketing is sort of on the chopping bucket as the first thing people look at.

If you can show that look, marketing is an investment, it's gonna pay out this year, next year, whatever the model ends up looking lifetime value, that sort of thing, they're gonna be on the same team as you and it's gonna be easier. So that's just sort of my overall thought process right now is, um, you know, if you can communicate with the finance folks, you know you're gonna be in good shape and not be having as many battles as.

Is if you're just sort of ignoring them and trying just to pitch them. Only marketing dashboards or KPIs and things like that. 

Daniel: Yeah. Should be a, uh, a team sport. Yeah. For the, for all of the disillusioned children or college students listening out there thinking of getting into marketing, it's far less Mad men, uh, and more Excel spreadsheets, to your point, which I think I probably got into marketing back then thinking, yeah, I'm gonna work with the, the coolest brands in the world and do all these, these cool things.

So, uh, it still exists out there. But no, I think that's actually a very good, uh. Just tactical, normal advice. 'cause I see a lot of [00:05:00] combative relationships in the C-suite between finance, procurement, CMO, VP of Marketing, all that sort of stuff. And yeah, it really should be a, uh, everybody should be, you know, fiscally responsible stewards of the, uh, of the brand's budget.

It benefits everybody. 

Eric: Right? Absolutely. And I think to kind of that point, you know, when you're going through school, college. Um, they have you work on these sort of creative campaigns and I remember that. Yeah. 

Daniel: They don't, they don't teach the math stuff. 

Eric: No. Like Excel, well this is, you know, and they're not gonna exactly date myself quite yet, but when I was way back then they maybe like a class or two on Excel and the finance side was like one elective you had to take.

Um, and I actually got my, a minor in psychology 'cause you're thinking like, oh, I want to understand the customer and how people think. Which like, sounds great, looks great on paper. But yeah, again, as you kind of progress, you really need that finance side to be able to communicate with across the entire suite.

Um, 'cause you know, profitability is sort of what kind of moves the train. What, what gets people going. So if you have that, um, those sort of like concrete answers as to what your marketing's gonna produce, the rest of it's easy, right? That you're not, there's not as much like [00:06:00] back channel things and things you have to worry about.

It's like just very straightforward of like, this is what my marketing's gonna produce. Produce. 

Daniel: Yeah. I went into marketing 'cause I suck at math. So, uh, yeah. That, that's why, that's why I'll never be of, of a VP of marketing, you know. Um, to that end, I'm curious, you're currently VP of marketing at Door Pro America.

What got you there. Tell us a little about the journey, and I'm particularly interested in what have you seen, you know, in the realm of consumer behavior and how it's evolved over, you know, the time period of you working in marketing. 

Eric: Yeah, so I was at, you know, I kinda mentioned before, but I actually got my degree from the George Mason University and uh, 

Daniel: good.

We, we got March Madness coming up 

Eric: the best. That's best. They're best runs 

Daniel: in the world. 

Eric: I know, I know. Absolutely. Final 

Daniel: four, they made it Pop 

Eric: Cement 

Daniel: Bantu. 

Eric: They, yeah, they made it to the final four a couple years after I graduated, so that should, that should date me a little bit there. But, um, graduated marketing degree, um, and then got my first job at a local services company, um, out this way, just as a marketing coordinator, like doing the, the, was really doing everything I ever wanted to do, you know, [00:07:00] um, direct mail campaigns, writing radio spots, TV commercials, all this kind of stuff.

Um, had been there a while, then sort of evolved and got involved in more of the, um, private equity backed companies. Um, and sort of, you know, very common, I think, transition right now. But you started that as sort of like local business and then, um, private equity backed and some investment in the marketing growing the company, um, was where sort of like my background, background was and is, is right now.

And as far as like, you know, what can, what's different then and now, um, you know, even if you just talk a little bit digitally. I think back then, you know, everyone was like, okay, well we need to have like an about us section of our website and we're gonna talk about that we're family owned and all these associations and all these awards, and then we're gonna have like a subset of our executive team and all this kinda stuff.

And then when you come to 2026, that kind of like thought process is exhausting. Like nobody has the time to go onto a website and just read for like 30 minutes. It's not what. Consumer behavior is right [00:08:00] now, it's, it's almost that it started out with like, okay, well we want to have these websites that are very in depth and have all of this content, which would rank good for Google and that kind of thing.

But now people's time is so short, people just looking for shortcuts to, to make decisions. Like that's the whole reason of like chat g, PT, and other AI services right now is, hey, can you do like 95% of the work for me? Um, I think right now that consumers just. Overwhelmed with how much information and content that is out there.

They just need like a way to like cut through the clutter, go to somebody that, you know, for garage doors for instance, you, you maybe have a neighbor who replaced it and you're having a similar problem. Say, Hey, did you, you know, who did you use? Were they good? Did they have a good price? Like that's, they're just looking for that shortcut to make a decision that they can trust.

'cause it's people just, again, they just don't have the time. They don't have the, the bandwidth, the, I mean, can you imagine like researching five or six different companies websites for. A decision that you're gonna make. I mean, of course now you're gonna like, just reach out to your network, you know, 

Daniel: people, you're giving, you're giving the pitch for my own business.

Right. 

Eric: I know I was, 

Daniel: I'm even [00:09:00] asking you for, I'm like, yeah, nobody wants to look up a hundred agencies and see the same bullshit copy on the site of all the agencies saying we care. We don't have clients, we have partners. And yeah, they'd rather have a, a 20 minute conversation with me, hopefully, and, uh, get a couple intros shortly after.

Eric: Right. So you just go on to one of your social networks or just your, you know, a chat group you're in or something to say, Hey, does anybody have any. Restaurants for Valentine's Day, or, Hey, I'm, I'm trying to, you know, I'm going to a different city for vacation. Does anybody got any recommendations for restaurants?

Like, you just don't want to like, sift through all that? I kind of make the, the recommendation or the um, the comparison of when you go to, when you're thinking about going to a restaurant, you just wanna know what the menu is and what the hours are. You don't need to know like how the rib eye is, you know, dried for however many years and that kind, that kind of stuff.

You just wanna like cut through. It's like, okay, this hopefully be my price point. This is near where I'm gonna stay. It's. And a, um, realistic rating and a number of stars, like, I'm gonna cut. Like, that's, that's good and I'm gonna stick with it. And, and that's it. Instead of like, again, the, the time [00:10:00] of people just don't have it.

There's just too much out there. They're very busy with their own lives or, and work and whatever else is going on that the easier you make that and just do a good job, you know, you're gonna kind of cut to the front of the line. A lot of the times, I think. 

Daniel: Yeah. It's exhausting out there for most folks to make decisions, decision fatigue.

Right. Uh, what's your best piece of advice to other marketing leaders about how to, uh, I'll say how to, how to thrive, uh, for the rest of 2026? 

Eric: Sure. I mean, I think, you know, everyone talks about silos and, and different things, but what I've seen is that you really need to be involved in the operational side.

Like nobody is gonna care about your leads more than you. Right. So if you're just generating. Um, like paid search or Google LSA leads and, and then you think that is the end of your job, you really need to go into the call center or the sales department and see how they're handling those leads. I mean, you wanna make sure that they're booking them properly, you know, find out if there's any sort of like anecdotal or better evidence you can say where, Hey, I've [00:11:00] been sending you guys like all of these leads, and the call booking percentage is low.

Like, what's going on? I mean, there's things that you can find just by asking. Um, so the more that you're, you're involved in the operational side and not just stop, once you hand off that lead, the better marketer you're gonna be, the better, you know, the more leads you're gonna be able to send. 'cause you sort of understand that whole funnel instead of just pointing fingers when it gets slow for whatever reason.

And sales is saying like, Hey, where are our leads? And say, oh, what are you talking about? I sent you X number of leads. Like all these campaigns and all these marketing KPIs look great. Really gotta dig into some of the details. I would say too, that, you know, listening to calls, listening and understanding the customer journey.

Can really help too. Um, you know, if you're, again, picking up on things that you hadn't thought about when you put the campaign, or maybe there's something missing on the, a landing page or the CSRs need a little bit more training, those things can really help the, the marketing campaign, the roas, and you know, all of that.

And then again, to the original point, you're responsible as a marketer for all of those KPIs. So you need to follow it down the funnel. You don't want anybody sort of like reporting that [00:12:00] back to you. The, the better grasp that you have on that whole funnel, the better offer you're gonna be. 

Daniel: Yeah, I, uh, the, at the very end of this podcast, my final, like, real question will be what keeps you up at night and stresses you out, which I'll save, but I, uh, talk to a lot of, uh, I'll say just big franchise food companies and many of those CMOs have come on here and one of the most common answers I get around that is, yeah, they.

Good marketing, uh, any marketing can't, you know, outperform poor operations, you know? Right. You can, you can get people to come into a restaurant, but if they have, you know, a bad experience, you can get people to, you know, inquire about a garage door, but if the, you know, the call falls or installation sucks or like whatever the product is, the, uh, disconnect between marketing and operations is a real, a real pain point.

Yeah. That is not, um, you know, is, is something a lot of brands deal with, so I totally checks out. 

Eric: Right. And I would say too, like, it's okay to. To fight for attribution. Um, where if, you know, let's say you only get credit for that initial lead, but then the salesman six [00:13:00] months from now upsells them to the bigger product, the SaaS or something like that.

Who do you think got them that original lead was you? So it's okay to like fight and be a little bit selfish for attribution because again, those are your mar, that's your marketing spend. You're the only one that's gonna be accountable for how it performed. Yeah, it's okay to kinda like raise your hand a couple of times.

And I would say too, that. I think everybody who's even ever been close to marketing has sort of gotten unsolicited or solicited feedback from other people. Like, oh, have you tried this and that to, you know, like, oh, I saw somebody do this, and they kind of give you ideas that maybe you weren't looking for, and it kind of like gets us angry sometimes.

So there's a science too, to working with operations in a call center before you kind of like jump into their arena and be like, why aren't you booking these leads? Like, you know, what are your people doing? You don't really want to go in guns blazing like that. You have to sort of have a measured. Again, we're kind of all in this together.

It's the best way it's gonna work out if we're all working together and not just like, jump in and point fingers. It's like, Hey, we need to make this whole funnel work, or we're, we're gonna be in trouble here. It's, it's, that's really like the key to all of this is getting outside just [00:14:00] that marketing box, I think.

Daniel: Sure. Uh, my favorite portion of this podcast, what, to be blunt, what's your LinkedIn inbox look like? Uh, as well as your, your email, your text and everything. I find once you get to the VP level. Everything explodes and everybody thinks you're just sitting at your desk with a pile of cash ready to, uh, to dole it out to agencies and vendors.

So I'm curious, are you getting inundated with, uh, outbound and inbound every 12 seconds? 

Eric: Uh, for sure. Um, I say 

Daniel: that anything that in the vein of, is there anything somebody can say to you when you're not in market that gets you, I don't know, on the phone with them? 

Eric: You know, it's, it's, it's really just timing.

Like you just never know, like if you're going through a website. Audit or an agency audit on the digital side, or creative or something? I would just say like, you just never know when somebody's gonna be in market. Um, I would say too, like sometimes people get a little too cute for their own good, where you want to be quirky and, and maybe [00:15:00] like stand out.

But sometimes it just comes, I mean, for what the kids say cringe, like, it's just sometimes just like, okay, like that's like not even, that's like barely professional. Um, so it's okay to like re it's okay to reach out and cold call 'cause how's gonna get business sometimes. But if you're just like a little too cute for your own good, it can really sour people.

And then, um, I think people still have to do their research where I, I, I actually do forward it to my reps that I've had for a long time, but for me, you know, nothing. It drives me more crazy than when I get a cold email or a LinkedIn from a company I'm already doing business with like a, like another vendor, like a media partner or something.

It's like, oh, I, and you can tell they just filled it in from whatever AI chat they're using. Like guys, I spend like 10, 15 grand with you a month with my other rep that I've had for like 10 years. Like, can you. Maybe do just like a tiny bit more research. Yeah. Get it, 

Daniel: get it together. 

Eric: Yeah. 'cause it doesn't, it doesn't necessarily like make you feel valued as a customer if you're just like a, a name on their list that you're already paying them.

Like what is, what's kind of going on in the back end That way Can, can sometimes be a [00:16:00] negative. But, you know, I think again to, I, I would say like cold, cold emailing and those things are okay. I think sometimes, you know, if you're able to track down somebody's phone, it's sometimes not okay just to call them.

Because then it's like going your voicemail, then you're reading the transcript and all this kind of stuff like that can really like bog people down and be a negative too. So you should have at least like some sort of connection to the person before you're calling their cell phone and just like, oh, just check in.

It's like, well if I, once you have my cell phone, we probably would've connected some other time, but I wouldn't be ignoring your call. You know? 

Daniel: Yeah, I think that it's interesting. I, I see all over LinkedIn that cold calling is not dead, but, you know, I know I'm, uh, not the target for many of these things, but anytime I get a fair amount of cold calls and I'm just dis immediate feeling of disgust every time it happens, I wish I wasn't like that.

I honestly feel bad sometimes when I like, don't pick up or hang up immediately, or I just, I don't know who it's working for. So, uh, yeah, I, I agree. Know, know your audience. Says, well, there are presumably some people out there [00:17:00] who do want to get cold called and would rather do that. I'm all for the phone, but yeah, strangers calling my cell phone to sell me stuff feels odd in 2026.

Eric: Yeah, I mean, if it's like your desk phone and they got your work number off of directory, then that's acceptable. I think that's fine. But yeah, that's sort of a invasion of privacy is just sort of like, how did you get this number? You know, again, you're just immediately on the defensive if you're picking up the phone.

Um, just kind of how it is. So, 

Daniel: yeah. Can you think of a great agency experience you've had in the past and what made it so great? 

Eric: Um, 

Daniel: anywhere along your, your career journey? 

Eric: Yeah, I mean, definitely I've had, I'd say probably 50 50. Good and bad. I'd say that the, well, 

Daniel: you'll have a good answer for the next question, which is, what was the worst one?

Eric: Um, you know, I think the best companies, I mean, obviously it's, it's not the company, it's the rep, right? It's like you're, you're, um. A project manager or whoever you're assigned to, and the more they understand the business, the the better they are. So I think when it, when they're really asking questions, when they're trying to get to the bottom of garage doors or [00:18:00] HVAC, that kind of thing, you can kind of tell that they have like a vested interest and you're not, they're not just like, oh, this is my 30 minute meeting that I gotta get outta the way before I'm done for the week.

That kind of thing. Um, so the, you know, the more they kind of understand, the better because then when it comes to, you know, how they're suggesting you get more leads or, or change your approach, it's more than just budget. Like when things just whittle down to, oh, you know, things are slow, we need more leads.

Oh, well, let's increase the budget. Like, that's the, like bare minimum of somebody that's their last resort. They should be coming to you with. Oh, I see your business is seasonal, or Hey, I saw this new product out in your space. Like have you guys thought about promoting this? That kind of thing. When they're like actively looking for ways to increase your business 'cause they like truly understand it, that's where you're gonna get the best bang for your buck.

And I think that's where, you know, you get the best creative, you get the best strategy. That's really like where you're getting the best deliverables, I think is where, um, the best agencies have succeeded that way. 

Daniel: Yeah, proactivity goes a long way. 

Eric: Yeah. 

Daniel: Uh, can you think of a specific negative experience?

These [00:19:00] are always the fun ones. What, what, what went wrong and why is it the worst, uh, agency experience you've ever had? 

Eric: You know, I find that, um, and look like no company, no industry's perfect, but when an agency in particular has, you know, it's okay when people like leave jobs and they have to reassign you to a different rep, but when it's like every other month, it should raise.

10 red flags that like, oh, you know, you had this, maybe this, you know, medium to senior level person was part of the sales process and you were sold that they're gonna handle your campaign. Okay, six months after that you're introduced to this like other person you never heard of, but they're gonna catch up.

And then a month after that, it's like a more junior person. And then after like when it's that constant turnover that is like, obviously there's something going on with the company, but you know, you're losing that sort of like. Just knowledge about your business and, and the campaign and what was successful and what have they done to, to make things better for you?

Every time it gets handed off, you know, the baton gets like shorter. It's just not as, it's just not as robust and you're always playing catch up. And then it's just really [00:20:00] just more transactional. You know, I think maybe somebody could come along who's really good and kind of help things out. But again, once that sort of, that, that flywheel of rep turnover keeps coming, it's, I haven't really ever seen it turn around.

It's usually like. Okay, well if you're just assigning somebody random to me, 'cause they have, they may have loose knowledge or they're just next step in the, you know, round robin order. That can be kind of a, a bad showing by the agency. And like what again, like how your value to them, it might be time to.

To look elsewhere. 

Daniel: Yeah. A lot of agencies, I feel, do not handle, um, the communication around that with the clients super well, and don't get ahead of it. Rather than, you know, three weeks prior saying, Hey, this is happening and here's a transition plan. Like the day of or day before. They're like, you know, Sarah's gone.

This is. This is Brad now, you know? Yeah. Uh, and they're like, what are you talking about? Yeah. Uh, you know, and the client feels caught off guard. So yeah, there's definitely an eloquent way to do that. But yeah, it sucks all around. It's one of the most common reasons. [00:21:00] Uh, people find me is so and so left and I'm sick of people leaving and, uh, need a new agency now.

So, yeah, definitely agreed. 

Eric: Yep. 

Daniel: What are you most excited about in the marketing space? At the moment? I've, I've started saying, not ai, anything, but AI just because I feel like everybody's a little excited about ai. So, 

Eric: yeah. You know, I mean, a little bit more to the, the point I had earlier, but I'm seeing like just this, the big shift turning of.

Maybe getting back to basics where again, there's so much information out there, so much ai, all this stuff that everybody's doing. It, can you cut through the clutter by getting back to something that you haven't done in years? Um, so for instance, like in the, in the home services space, you know, back in the early, well really like back in the eighties, even before then, but you had yellow pages and then after that was Google.

So everyone took all the yellow page money, and then they put in Google, and then Google got saturated. So then they put in the [00:22:00] LSAs, and now people are kind of saturated there. And you're kind of like looking for like, what's next? When it might be direct mail or something? Print or just something that not ev everyone has like moved away from 

Daniel: What's an LSA, 

Eric: like Google.

LSA Local service ads. 

Daniel: Oh, gotcha. 

Eric: Yeah, sorry. Um, no, 

Daniel: no, no. 

Eric: But like, 

Daniel: I don't, I don't know all the anagrams either, you know, 

Eric: but, um, like the, the industries. They all kind of move, like there, there's some leaders who are out there and, and who are the first ones to do it? Um, like we had been doing OTT Connected tv, we probably started eight or nine years ago, and I had to tell people like, oh, like this is the streaming stuff.

Like that's on, and then now everything's streaming. So I was, you know, I, I don't know if people kind of talking with their friends, but streaming, I mean, the articles are out there, is how expensive it is at this point. That I think there's this almost momentum to go back to the cord 'cause it's less expensive.

Like you're not gonna get everybody, not every demographic's the same, but [00:23:00] can you be more efficient with some of your buy if, um, the. If everyone's doing streaming and maybe they're over targeting, can you get some customers who aren't streaming yet or some who are gonna go back to the court or just watch broadcast TV and you run your spots there because everything else has moved to connected tv.

So just kind of a soapbox of, you know, not shaking fist at a cloud, but can you get back to some things that maybe we haven't done in a while? Because everyone is like still always like kind of crowding the same space. What can you do to like. Really stand out. It might just end up being placement, whether that's, you know, radio, there's a lot of conversation about, but like billboards and print and all that.

Like people still look at that stuff, right. So, you know, you don't, you don't have to necessarily just copy your competition all the time. Like there's things you can do to really stand out. I think, 

Daniel: yeah, I'm close to going back to the chord largely because out of spite, maybe because I find it insane, the amount of.

Things I need to watch. All the stuff I once watch, particularly sports, I need like 27 [00:24:00] different, uh, you know, apps to, uh, to watch my, my favorite team, so, right. Yeah, I think, I think a robust, uh, media mix is, uh, more important now than probably ever to your point of, you know, finding, uh. Going back to basics, but also finding maybe like lesser known spots.

You know, a hotter topic these days in my world is like exploring Reddit and things like that. So, um, yeah. I like that. 

Eric: Yeah. Yeah. 

Daniel: Here's the, here's the, the final one I mentioned, uh, or the final work one. What, what does keep you up at night or stress you out from a marketing or business standpoint? 

Eric: You know, I've, I've always felt just kind of like personally responsible for how busy it is.

That way, no matter where I'm at, it's like when I hear things or. Things are slow. Like, oh, we don't have enough leads right now. Um, really just like keeps me up at night because, you know, sometimes you have good reasons, but they don't necessarily have to be excuses. I mean, sometimes both things can be true, right?

Where, you know, if you're weather dependent like an HVAC company, it's mild. I mean, yeah, people are not [00:25:00] thinking about repairing or replacing their system, but there's still things you can do. But I've always like felt that it's marketing's jobs. Like really, like drive the whole company that way from a revenue standpoint.

So if you're. If you're hearing from the call center, the technicians or people on the field, that kind of thing, that it's slow. Like I always like just take that like really personally. Um, so sometimes you really just like try to like get outside of your own box and you know, look at your calendar, your meeting mix, whatever you're doing, and like, okay, what else could we possibly be doing?

Um, it's really get things going. So that's like what really? Keeps me up at night is really the responsibility of marketing's role in like, driving the business and revenue. 'cause again, like where else is this supposed to come from? Right. It should come from us. Should come from on the marketing side.

Daniel: Sure. No, it's good. It's good to care. I hope you, uh, I hope you sleep at night though. Uh, we will, we will finish with a couple fun ones. What was your very first job? 

Eric: My very first job was, um, I was, worked at a pumpkin patch and uh 

Daniel: Okay. 

Eric: The only real, the only real [00:26:00] responsibility they gave me was parking cars.

So, 

Daniel: okay. Were you of legal dropping age? 

Eric: Oh, no, no, no. Oh, sorry. I was more like, uh, waving them in like an airplane mechanic eye. Okay. Um, so like more just like making sure they could park close to each other so we could 

Daniel: Pumpkin patch controller. 

Eric: Yeah. So maybe in my resume back then I said, oh, maximize capacity by, uh, I hope parking customers or something like that.

Um, but no, that was the first one and did that for, I think just the one year. Um, but that was definitely something I tell kids about now. Yeah, for sure. I 

Daniel: like that. What would your final meal be? 

Eric: You know, I'm on a constant lookout for just the best steak I can find. So we're, you know, having girlfriend and I haven't necessarily created a, a food blog, but we try these places that are, you know, they have like a, you know, higher end steaks and you're just trying to find the best one for the best value.

So that's gonna be, that'd be the final meal, was like the best steak I could possibly find, um, is what we're always on the hunt for. 

Daniel: One of my unpopular [00:27:00] food opinions. I love to cook and I love to cook steak, and I feel not always, but generally underwhelmed or disappointed by like really expensive steakhouse.

Eric: Yeah, I look like, I mean, everyone's gonna, you know, everyone's kind of got their, their talk about how expensive it is to go out to eat now, which is a hundred percent true. 

Daniel: I just wanna be wowed if I'm paying like a hundred bucks for a steak, you know? Right. 

Eric: I don't want 

Daniel: a sparkler coming out of it or something.

Eric: Right. I mean, you definitely want it to be worth it from that perspective. So if you're gonna pay 50, $60, it better not be worse than the one that you picked up on the way home and kind of cooked and seasoned yourself. So I'm with you. So that's what the. We're always on the hunt for, for sure. 

Daniel: We'll have to report back on that.

Uh, my final question, who's somebody who inspires you personally, professionally, or both? 

Eric: You know, I, I really think it is family. Um, right now with my girlfriend and, and our kids. You know, it's coming 

Daniel: up on Valentine's Day. You gotta say that. I 

Eric: gotta say, you 

Daniel: gotta say, I'm like, I'm like blinking, like blink if it's something.

Yeah, yeah. Like, no, no, no, no. Say it, say your girlfriend. 

Eric: No, I think, um, I think it's true though 'cause they kind of help you, keep you grounded, right? Where [00:28:00] it's, you know, what's really important in life and those sorts of things where. You know, if you're ever in a tailspin or you're, you're not having a great week, you know, generating leads, that kind of thing can help you gr get grounded and, and kind of, kind of take you out from like maybe, um, you know, some of the, the negative thoughts you might have about sort of where you are position wise, that kind of thing.

And I think also, you know, in particular, it can help with being a sounding board, um, where you're just like listening where somebody's just listening to you, you're like, oh, you know, everyone kind of has run into work every once in a while, right? Where you're just telling them. Everything, the sort of like word vomit of like everything that's going on at work and they don't have any context of anything about what Johnny or Susie are doing or anything like that, but you're just like, oh, we have this and we have this meeting and then there, there's this, and they're just, just the being able to get that off your chest.

I really actually like do fine, like helps a lot. Like just being able to like talk it through. Absolutely. Um, with people and I think like, you know, that you can get it off your chest, take a deep breath, and then just sort of like, be better the next day, I think is, is what it's all about [00:29:00] for me. 

Daniel: I love it.

Free therapy. Uh, anything you'd like to leave, uh, the, the audience with about Door Pro America? Anything new coming out? Anything you want 'em to check out? When's the perfect time for them to seek out Door Pro America? 

Eric: Anytime, yesterday. Today, tomorrow. Perfect time. Okay. Um, you know, there's all kinds of, uh.

Reports out there about how a garage door replacement can be the number one home improvement project from an ROI perspective. Um, where you think about actually the, the surface area of the front of the house, how much the garage door actually takes, takes up of it so you can really get some good, um, ROI people are thinking about, you know.

Uh, changing out the garage door 'cause they're looking to sell their home soon. Obviously Door Pro America is here to help, but, um, that can really help the, the overall, um, value of the home by replacing an older door. And imagine you gonna a beautiful home and then the garage door is so loud. Sounds like a.

A jet taking off and, or there's like, you know, just not looking very nice against the, against the home. You, you changed out for some of the nice products that we have, it could really make an impact. So, you know, marketing aside, I [00:30:00] mean, I think there's, there's something to be said of like, yeah, the, the garage door, when you pull up, it's like something people would notice, especially if it looks bad.

That can be something you really need to fix if you're looking to, to move or just upgrade the look of your home. 

Daniel: All right. Awesome. Well, I will, I'll flash your cell phone up on the screen for people to call. Please, for people to call you if they need a new garage door after work, please. You heard it here first, twenty four seven three six five today or tomorrow?

Call Eric. 

Eric: Absolutely, yes. 

Daniel: Awesome. Thank you so much for joining, Eric. This was awesome, and we'll chat with you soon. 

Eric: All right, sounds good. Thank you very much. [00:31:00]