Networking That Actually Works; Lessons From A Home Inspector with Michael Van Hall

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it.

0:36Hey there, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I am Bill Gilliland, your host, and I am also the principal at Action Coach Business Grove Partners and one of the founders of the Asheville Business Summit. And today I have Michael Van Hall with me. Welcome to the podcast. He's with Blue Mountain Home Inspections. And, hey, welcome to the call. Tell us a little bit about your business and what all you do. Hey, thank you. Well, yeah, I'm a home inspector. I've been doing it for, I'm going on nine years now, so quite a while. I've got my feet wet pretty well. And, yeah, my business is out of Weaverville, but mainly we call it Asheville.

1:24And, yeah, it's a good business. I wish I had found out about it many, many, many years ago. What did you do before you got into that? A hundred things. Lots of different things. Prior to this, I was running a Hot Springs resort in California. I've just done a lot of things, a lot of things that businesses I've started, jumped in, got my feet wet, and just figured it out as I went. So, yeah, I've had restaurants. I've had health clinics. I've had apartment complexes. I've done house flipping. I've built residential and commercial properties. Yeah, I've got quite a history of stuff. I think all that stuff probably adds up to being helpful in the home inspection business.

2:15It really does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it seems like that's one of those businesses that it's good to have some experience in, at least around things that get built or repaired or whatever. Yeah, so I grew up on a farm fixing equipment. That gives you a little bit of a kind of thing. Then I had an apartment complex and did all the repairs on that and learned as I went. I'd call a plumber him and have him show me what he was doing and how he did it, those kind of things, and then took it from there. So all things like that have really, really played into what I look for now when I'm doing home inspections.

2:52I also had an uncle when I was in my early 20s that hired me for three years. He was a master carpenter, and we put up houses from the hole in the ground to the keys given to the seller. So I got a lot of experience from that. So, yeah, yeah, that's really helped me. Yeah, that's awesome. So you've probably got a really good answer to this question. So if you had to start from square one, what would you do differently? I don't think I'd do anything differently. Okay. Yeah. Not that I can think of. Well, you had a ton of experience, so you brought that. So what have been some of your learnings as an owner and an employer in all those businesses?

3:33Oh, yeah. Well, that's a good question. What have I learned from all that? Take things as they come. do the best you can, and move forward. I love that. I love that. So what do you think the common misconceptions are about running a business? Well, one misconception, of course, is two of them. One is that it's hard, and the other is that it's easy. And they're both kind of misconceptions. It's kind of somewhere in the middle. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I like that. So what do you attribute your growth to? Well, in this particular business, home inspection? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I started out as I have a lot.

4:24I've always run into difficulty with trying to get a business off the ground by doing what's considered in the past advertising or going now online and all Google and all those things and trying to understand if you're getting any bang for the buck. because it's very difficult sometimes to know if somebody comes into your restaurant, if, you know, how they got there, they don't always tell you. And it's hard to get that kind of feedback, especially, you know, years ago when you didn't have metrics and everything. Now, it's a little bit easier to know where they came from. When somebody clicks online, you see there was a click, those kind of things.

4:59So that makes a difference. But what's done the most for me, and I'm sure a lot of other people in the business would be able to say the same thing, is networking. And networking, there's ways to do it that work and ways to do it that don't. That's one of the things I've really learned. Networking, there's a lot of networking groups in any city you go to, and that's a lot of business people that come and they join. And then they come once a week and they stand around, drink coffee and eat donuts and you get little clicks going and nothing ever really happens. That's what it's felt for me. I've never gotten much from that.

5:37But when I ran into a networking group that was more structured and required you to do things and required you to help the other people in the business, that's probably what really took off for me. And that way, I don't know, can I say other businesses? A hundred percent. Yeah, as long as it's positive, yeah. Yeah, BNI, Business Networking International. Yep, yep, great organization. That was a huge start for me because it's expensive. At the time, I quit maybe five years ago because I didn't need it anymore. I was in there for three or four years. And at the time, it was, I believe,$750 a year.

6:14Well, that's a lot more than you pay for your maybe$25 a month to be in another networking group or they're free. But there, it's very specific. You have to go every week. You only can miss a certain number of weeks. Every week, somebody stands up and promotes their business and talks about it. And when you join the club, you are required to spend, have coffee or lunch with every member separately in the group to find out what they do, to let for you to tell them what you do and how they can help you get people. And so you end up kind of with, if there's 25 people in the group, you've got your sales force out there stumping for you because you're also required to bring in every week a list of who you've recommended others in your group to.

6:59And that worked for me because it was very structured. Other people don't need the structure. I needed that structure. And it forced me to go in, learn how to talk in front of people, give presentations. And it really worked. It did wonders for my business. Yeah, B &I is great for, you know, I've been a member of several B &I groups over the years. And, yeah, it's a great – actually, we have a global strategic alliance with B &I and Action Coach. Oh, cool. Yeah. I don't mean to stump so much for them. No, no, no. It's great. I mean, you know – They did a great job. Well, I think one of the things that – I mean, one of – you know, it is hard, particularly for solopreneurs and people like that to have – because you got to do the work and sell the work.

7:53So, you know, as a business person, to have a network that can work for you, I mean, you know, the$750 ,000, whatever it is a year, it's pretty cheap, you know, when it works. And so, yeah, I mean, if you break it down per lead and all of that. So, yeah, I've always thought it was a good system. And yeah, it was good to me in the beginning as well. So yeah, I like that. I did the standard run around town, put your business cards up everywhere, walk into the real estate offices with a stack of cards and hand them to the front desk and say, hey, please let, make sure everybody sees these. Didn't do anything.

8:32Really didn't do anything. But what worked for me once I got my feet wet giving presentations is to go into a real estate office and say, hey, can any way that you could set up a time for me to meet with your realtors and give a presentation. Huge difference. When you can tell them what you do, how you're different. I've always had luck with that. That's been a big thing for me. Yeah. That did a lot for me. So B &Is and realtor meetings was a pretty good, yeah. And all the realtors, if you're calling on realtors, by the way, every realtor group in the world has a meeting every week for realtors, for their realtors.

9:12Yeah. I've done a couple online. you know, online, they wanted me to do some, help them do some planning and stuff. So, yeah, it's been, it's been pretty easy. So you've been in a lot of things, you know, balancing personal life and business. What are your thoughts around that? Well, that's another thing. One of the reasons I wish I'd found this business many years ago, I would have gotten in a lot, a lot sooner that you, you can make good money for the amount of time you put in. Now, maybe you're not busy and you only do one inspection a week when you get started or a month but for that time you might make a hundred or two hundred dollars an hour right and it's pretty hard to find without much experience and not a lot of training required to get licensed and um people are really realtors are very helpful they want you to succeed that's what i've learned and uh that's yeah that's it's such a great business for that and if you you can be as busy as you want you set up your own calendar if you only want to work mornings you can do that You want to work three days a week, you can do that.

10:16You can work all the time if you want to. It's all up to you. So it's just such a great business that way as far as balancing your life in whatever way you want to or whatever necessitates. Yeah, yeah. It's beautiful. When you do it right, being in business for yourself can give you some freedom. So that's fantastic. And I've had, you know, I'm getting a little bit older. So I've had some surgeries in the last few years. I've had hip replacement, that kind of thing. And you can just block off your calendar for those three weeks or six weeks, whatever you need to do, and start coming back. After that, it doesn't really hurt too much.

10:57And so taking time off, if you need two weeks off for Christmas vacation to go to the Caribbean, you can do it. You don't have to ask anybody. So it's really great that way when you're your own boss. Yeah, I like it. So this is the quickfire round. And BEPIC is an acronym that we came up with when I wrote a book. And so I just want like a couple of words or a quick fire answer to your thoughts around, and I'll give you the thing. So the B in BEPIC is bring the energy. What are your thoughts around that, bringing energy? Well, bring the energy to your work, definitely, and especially when you're chatting with people and your clients and your realtors.

11:40Yeah, I love that. How about the E is education? Education. That's a huge one. In all the businesses I've started, I've many times just jumped in with cold feet, not knowing much about it. I bought a restaurant and jumped into that, not being a chef, not ever having 20, 25 employees, anything like that. But if you do the research, you talk to other restaurant owners, you find out what they do and take the things from that that fit for you. um that's kind of what i've done yeah so self-education yeah especially now with the internet you can just get so much information and it's uh it's been really helpful yeah i like it how about planning p for planning planning yeah well i make i'm a list maker i make all kinds of lists so everything that pops into my head goes on a list and then i look at it later and i start crossing off the things that I have done or need to do.

12:37And yeah, planning's huge. I love that. How about inspiration? I is inspiration. Inspiration comes mainly, I would say, from what's the word? Success. Every little success breeds more inspiration to keep on going and do it more. I like that. Yeah, that's been my, and inspiration, of course, from others that have had success, I had inspiration from my father, who was a successful entrepreneur, and trying to emulate him has been a big thing in my life. Love that. How about C is commitment? Oh, yeah. Commitment's big. Absolutely. Got to be committed to what you're doing or it's not going to go anywhere.

13:20Yeah. Yeah, I like that. So what words of advice would you offer to other business owners who are looking to grow?

13:30network that's that's just the biggest thing get in front of people um you can slowly move along as others uh use you use you in their business get to know you through your work but to grow it um you really got to get out there and it's not like i said just handing out car or putting up cards on bulletin boards just it's just not going to do it i don't mean don't do it i just mean it's just you've got to get in front of people, in front of realtor groups, network with a good organization. That's just everything. Yeah, yeah. People buy from people. I mean, that's just, they still do. Yes. It's still a thing.

14:08So what's the next thing for you and the business? Well, I think we were, as many home inspectors and realtors were, we were so barraged with with work during COVID, which still I can't figure out, but it was super busy. And now things have slowed a little bit and you just make your way through that. Take your time, take some time for yourself during this time, work on networking and getting around people during the slow times. And then it'll come back. It always does. Yeah. Yeah. Appreciate that. Appreciate that. So lastly, what's the best way for someone to get a hold of you if they want to get a home inspection or just want to talk to you.

14:51Yeah. Call my phone number, 828-484-2202. And website, just the name, bluemontanhomeinspections.com. I love it. I see. And the other, again, the other thing, of course, these days too, but make everything as easy as possible for the customer. And that's with your website, signing up for inspections, payment, all that kind of stuff. Spend the money you need to, to make it easy. Perfect. Perfect. So that's fantastic. Listen, thank you so much for being part of our community and all you're doing out there. We know that you're going to be a continued success. You obviously love what you do, and that's half the battle, right?

15:36Yep. I do. Hey, and until next time, all the best. Thanks so much. I appreciate it, Bill.

15:47Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs Podcast. Here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part. It's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs. Plus, you guys know how it works. The more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly.

16:35Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. it's not screened it's my real email just send it to me i can't wait to talk to you hey and until then all the best