Own Your Niche

Episode 930: Own Your Niche, with Eric Lanel

Own your niche and provide better services to clients. Learn from Eric Lanel in this podcast episode of how to own your niche.

Own your niche to become an industry expert like Eric Lanel. This approach has been used by many industry leaders that allowed them to plant their flag of authority. Listen to this podcast episode and start the change yourself.

Eric Lanel was born on January 26, 1968, in Queens, New York. He is the only child and son of Julius, a psychotherapist, and Barbara, a social worker, and spent many a dinner conversation discussing human behavior. Eric worked through high school as a mason and started a residential painting company that continued through college. 

Upon graduating with a degree in marketing from Hartford, Eric worked at CBS Television, Walt Disney Company, and Doubleclick before taking the role of President of GWPinc., a strategy agency. Today Eric lives in Livingston, New Jersey with his wife Francine and daughter Zoe. Eric has two adult sons: Adam who works in advertising and Griffin in the building industry. When not working with companies on strategy and developing content he can be found on a golf course or a stream.

What you will learn from this episode on how to own your niche:

• How Eric’s diverse career journey taught him the importance of learning, and how he brings that passion to his work at GWP Inc.
• How a set of unique circumstances led Eric to purchase and take control of GWP Inc., and how Eric has learned throughout his career to create a vision for his companies
• How GWP was operating prior to Eric taking it over, and why he decided to focus the company’s efforts on the particular vertical of the building industry
• How Eric and his team navigated the process of focusing on a specific niche, and what complexities they overcame during the process
• How you must own your niche to get ahead of your competition
• Why “opportunity cost” is a fear that many business owners experience when deciding whether to niche down, and how Eric overcame his own fear
• How one of the first steps Eric took was to determine what the “best” agency in the building space would look like, and how he and his team worked toward that vision
• Why Eric sees his role as a leader as one of always learning, growing, and anticipating the needs of his clients
• How Eric’s podcast, Constructing Brands, offers GWP a platform to better understand their clients’ questions and needs while offering them greater value
• How Eric’s early career experience and family background helped provide him a greater respect for the building trades

Resources:

• Website: https://gwpinc.com/
• Email: [email protected]
• Constructing Brands podcast: https://gwpinc.com/podcast/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/eric-lanel-28a6144/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/gwp-inc-/
• Twitter: @gwp_inc
• Start your journey on how to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

Additional Resources:

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Learn how to own your niche by niching down with Erik Jensen

 

 

Own Your Niche: Full Episode Transcript

 

Get ready to find your recipe for success from America’s top business owners here at Onward Nation with your host, Stephen Woessner.

 

Good morning. I am Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation, where I interview today’s top business owners so we can learn their recipe for success, how they built in, how they skilled their business. In fact, my team at Predictive ROI, well, we’ve been talking about it through the end of 2019. If you’ve been to our resources section on PredictiveROI.com, I would encourage you to go back because toward the end of 2019 and now as we’ve stepped into 2020 and getting ready to step into the second quarter of 2020, we’ve built out that resources section, really a library.

 

So you can download free practical and tactical guides for everything from how to create your ideal client avatar, how to land your dream clients, and even our new B2B podcasting for profit secrets e-book, plus other success strategies that we’ve compiled from the brilliant insights shared by our very generous guests. So just go to PredictiveROI.com/Resources to get yours and everything you request.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: Eric Lanel’s Introduction

 

We will of course send it right to your inbox before we welcome today’s very, very special guest, Eric Lanel. Let me share some additional context around why, when Eric and I were talking about having this conversation in front of you Onward Nation, I got so excited because I knew that some of the things that Eric and his team have been, you know, looking at and researching and strategizing around throughout 2019 and actually before 2019, I knew that those things were going to be excellent lessons, great insights and wisdom that we could all learn from as we stepped into 2020 and further throughout the year.

 

So really, really excited to have Eric here and just delighted that he said yes. So let me give you some additional context here. So for the last 17 years or so, Eric has led the team at GWP Inc., which is an advertising and marketing agency in New Jersey. So just like you, onward, Eric understands the hard work of building a company, scaling a business, hiring, firing business finance, and wearing all of the hats within a company at one time or another.

 

Or sometimes, as we all know, wearing all of them at the same time. And recently Eric led a big shift within GWP in how the company positioned itself in the market. Instead of trying to continue to appeal to any company with a budget. And we all do that Onward Nation. We’ve all done it. They got really strategic. They got really laser focused.

 

They looked at the client list in search of commonalities. What could they find? Could they find some clustering, like certain vertical markets where they had done excellent work and where they were also super, super helpful for a client? And then they landed on one particular vertical market: building materials manufacturers and service providers. Well, okay, so what did they do there?

 

They then recognize the fact that, yeah, we’ve got this depth of expertise within this vertical market, of course, but we haven’t yet really staked or claim we haven’t planted the flag yet. We haven’t decided to become known as the authority in that space. So I’m going to ask Eric. And he’s graciously agreed to take us through that strategic process to take us behind the curtain, because my guess is you might be considering or maybe you’ve already worked through that niching down process.

 

So Eric’s expertise and his experience is going to be helpful to you too, as you’ve maybe recently made that leap or considering making that leap or making that decision here in the second quarter of the year. Well, he didn’t stop there. So I’m also going to ask Eric to take you inside this board decision and to launch a podcast, and why he felt like this was the right form of cornerstone content.

 

Now, that might not be the right form of cornerstone content for you. Maybe it’s having a YouTube series or whatever, but he made a commitment and a decision to build his thought leadership. So we’ll go into that process too, because as a business owner, Onward Nation, you should be doing that too. And as always, onward, Eric and I are going to talk through several other lessons that are going to be super helpful as you look to build and scale throughout the rest of the year.

 

So without further ado, welcome to Onward Nation, Eric. 

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: How GWP Inc was Founded

 

Why thank you, Stephen. Glad to be here at Onward Nation. Well, I’m glad to have you here, my friend. Thank you again for saying yes. And before we dive into this conversation about strategy and niching down and focusing on a vertical market, and then your thought leadership in the bold decision that you made there before, before we dive into all of those, we’re going to be great lessons for Onward Nation business owners.

 

Take us behind the curtain. Tell us more about you and your path and your journey. And then we’ll dive in. Wow. So before GWP, do you know what? I’m always kind of one of those guys who takes a step back and really wants to understand and know what I’m getting involved with. So I worked at CBS television and got an understanding of the TV landscape, worked for Disney, was involved with stewarding Goal.com.

 

For those of you guys who remember the Go Network back in the old days, everything was the Go network, which was Disney’s foray into the internet when they purchased infosec, went over to Double Click and was involved with the really strong group there, involved with trying to shape how DoubleClick was going to interact with with online. Real.

 

So I guess my background is learning, you know, taking a step back and trying to really understand and learn all different media vehicles because the strategy stuff, for whatever reason, it was fairly intuitive. My parents were both psychologists, so they understand or they love thinking about psychology and sociology, how people think and why they think, and why we all are individually, ourselves.

 

So I think I kind of got born into that kind of family. But sales was always something interesting to me. So when you, when you, you combine, salesmanship with understanding how people think, I think you naturally find yourself walking into the advertising world and so my background kind of took me there and, and gosh, Stephen, I guess it’s I hate sucking at things and so it’s probably not because I want to be the best, but I don’t want to suck at things.

 

So TV, radio, print, outdoor, all those places I worked at, I think arguably the best companies and to me, they were there to teach me what the best do or how to best do it with the thought that one day maybe I’d want to do it. Actually, it was for myself. I figured I’d find a company that was in distress, and I’d buy it and turn it around.

 

And if I understood all the aspects of marketing, I’d be ahead of the game. So that’s how I found myself to GWP and a circuitous route. I actually bought a different business. And, the deal was getting a little murky and one of the folks who was involved with buying the business pleaded with me to meet with a fella who owned an agency called GWP that was involved with strategy for fortune 100 companies and, and said that his buddy who owned this company really needed me.

 

And, yeah, it was kind of one of those things where I felt like I couldn’t turn my back on it. And out of nowhere, the deal that was there was no way it was going to go away. Went away. And, so I met this fella who owned GWP and then I jumped right into this advertising business that we’re in right here.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: Making Successful Divisions

 

That is awesome. And also, I’m sure at some point, some unfinished business owners, you really piqued their interest because you were able to do the flip side of what most business owners want to be able to do, and that’s sell their business. Right? To somebody like Eric Lanel. So I’m sure many, many business owners thought,

 

Well, that’s interesting. I want to learn a little bit more about that process, and we will probably come back to that. So I think if I’m hearing you correctly, that some of that early on experience with CBS, with Disney, with Double Click and, and others really gave you a standard of excellence. This is what the best companies do.

 

This is what they look like. And that model, that imprint is still with you today. Am I tracking you? Yeah. You know, it’s funny when we’re talking about it, there was a little bit of a tweak to that and what it was is there was a financial guy who I knew as an advisor, a family advisor, and what he pointed out to me, which I actually didn’t realize then.

 

And as we’re talking about it, I’m realizing it now. And in each one of those places I created a division that didn’t exist prior to Wow at CBS, I created a division that partnered up all the local TV stations there, their late news and made a unwired network. At Disney. I created sponsorship opportunities for dotcom. So I guess I walked in and I saw what these companies were doing really, really well and learned that, but also identified opportunities and untapped.

 

And I think that’s kind of what led me to well, I know that’s what led me to deciding to go into business on my own because that financial guy said to me, Eric, you’ve done these at these established places. You’ve made successful divisions. I’ll support any move you want to make if you need any capital, because you’ve already proven it.

 

So I guess it wasn’t as scary for me because I had a guy to my right who said, you’ve already proven yourself to me. So that probably gave me a lot of confidence for me to believe that I could do it. Yeah, absolutely. Because then you’re not, you know, venturing off into the great unknown. You’ve already got some great experience that, you know, CBS may not have been, Eric Lanel Inc., but starting a division within those companies, I mean, that takes a lot of Hotspur, that takes a lot of guts to be able to do that, to be able to do it well, that’s awesome.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: Define Your Goal Clearly

 

Congrats. So take us inside GWP before you made the shift and and what I mean by the shift is again, context for onward business owners. When you’ve made this shift to now focus on building materials manufacturers and service providers give us the pre version of GWP. And then and then what was leading into that decision.

 

Okay. So you know what I realized that over the last 17 odd years our business was all coming to us through word of mouth. Right. So I really did very little new business based and any real typically if locally if we were friends, I would help you and you’d become a client of mine. And for whatever reason, I gravitated to people who are super smart and entrepreneurial and in my mind, get it?

 

And, you know, take on life in a certain way. Those are the people who I’m attracted to. I like being around. And, in this area, at least, they all seem to either own or run businesses. So those and they’ve become and are my clients locally and regionally and they’re awesome people. But I realized nationally, my clients were people who I had worked with on one job, and then it fractured off and one went somewhere else.

 

And you know, and it kind of grew that way and realized, well, I really am not controlling my destiny. As far as an agency, all that much, I’m kind of letting it. I’m reacting to the phone calls that are coming in, and I’ve been fortunate that they’ve come in. But it probably could be done a little bit smarter if I actually was attentive and paid attention to what I was doing on that front.

 

And as you said, Stephen at the beginning, gosh, running your own business, there’s so many moving parts and, you know, which had to wear when and at what time are you wearing too many hats at the same time, you know, and just look silly? Well, I think we all, as business owners, fall into that trap every now and then.

 

So, the other part of this was this idea of clarity. And, if you could clearly define what you want to accomplish, and I think you have better chances of doing a good job of accomplishing those things, I love this. Okay? This is a really, really solid foundation because if you’ve been in business for a while, Onward Nation, you’ve probably experienced the joy, the great satisfaction, how wonderful it is when you have some name recognition or you get referrals and how great that feels when a client loves you enough and the work that they, that your team has done for them. 

 

They say, hey, you should go visit our friends over at GWP because it is a great job for us and they can probably take care of you. And that’s awesome when that happens. You’ve worked hard to make it happen, but you’re also not using your words. Eric, I think if I’m tracking with you here is that even though that’s lovely, that doesn’t also put you in the driver’s seat.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: Growing the Business

 

Right. So how can you get even more intentional about growing the business the way that you want to grow the business? And is that what really started this? Okay. How do we do that with more intentionality and more clarity? You know, to me, running an ad agency is pretty. I try to make it simple. If I perform a job for you and you want me to do it again, my guess is we did a pretty good job for you, regardless of whatever the analytics say and all that.

 

If you are, if I consider you a client who’s really engaged, involved, awake, and has a clear idea of what your objectives are and understands how to measure those objectives, and we do work for you and you’re happy, you know, and you ask us to do more work. Well, our price must be in a decent place.

 

And the way we work must be pretty okay. So fundamentally those things have to be in check. The flip side of that is, as we do more and more of that, I need to make sure as the business owner that we’re delivering, you know, that level of that work, that outcome happens, that’s a good thing, right?

 

And that helps us grow. But as we grow, we need to put more people into a process and more things. Yeah, there’s more moving parts as you get bigger and bigger. And so I think, Stephen, the reason why the pivot, the shift or the it’s about answering the phone and making sure that you’re there and in control is what you’re saying.

 

But I think it’s also a different level of control, making sure that we’re going to continue to deliver at a level that I consider to be way above average. And our goal is to be the best, right? Every day we fight. How do we deliver the best for our clients? But to do that, I think it was getting more and more difficult as we were spread, being spread out by clients.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: A Forward-Thinking Decision

 

Okay, so then that takes us back into the early on examples, right to be best. The excellence that you learned at some of those other companies, that’s great. That’s like this through line of excellence through this conversation so far. So you make this decision to go niche down, take us inside that decision. Right. You know I’m going to make an assumption here.

 

And I guess you can either affirm or contradict. I mean, did you have to wrestle with any if you want to call them fears, questions, concerns like some of the trade offs, like what were some of the things that you and your team had to openly discuss? Like should it be this market, should it be that market?

 

Like, how did you come to grips with all of that? Yeah, no. And it’s you know, when we start thinking about niching down and really looking at a target, it gets a little scary because there are a lot of other folks we’re working with, and we still are quite frankly. And I’m not abandoning them. And I love working with some of those folks.

 

But the decision I look at, it is a forward thinking decision. So and with clarity, quite frankly, it’s making a decision to really understand and one specific area as good as humanly possible and really put that time and energy in so if I were to look at opportunity cost, right, because that’s kind of isn’t that the vein of what you’re asking?

 

And that’s what for sure seems like as a business owner, I wish I paid more attention in college to, you know, economics 100 or whatever, where I do remember the guy talking about opportunity costs and thinking like, this is really important, I think. And I sat on a pad. But gosh, to realize, you know, all the years later how relevant opportunity cost is in everything we do.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: Letting Go of Other Opportunities

 

So the opportunity cost of not being a generalist and being a specialist is that Stephen kind of the focal point or the question? Yeah. In and because or maybe just tack something on to that is, as you were saying, this popped in my head. Oftentimes this is what I hear from business owners. Well, Stephen, that’s interesting focusing on building materials manufacturers.

 

But if I do that, then I have to give up all this other stuff over here. So if I say yes here, I’m saying no to all of this other opportunity, which they don’t even know what that opportunity is. They have no idea. It just feels like there’s something really big over here. And if they say yes to what’s right in front of them, right.

 

So that’s exactly it. That’s the opportunity cost in my mind. That’s the opportunity missed right. By not. And when I look at it, it’s kind of like going to the supermarket tonight. I’m going to go to the market and I’m going to get what I want for dinner. I could have gone to the market a few days ago and bought anything I potentially might have wanted, and packed a refrigerator with that.

 

Now it might have a week or two or months worth of food, but would it be exactly the right food at the right time? And would it be as fresh and it probably not. So that’s the opportunity. It’s great that you have it there, but is it going to be the best that it could be? So I think when we start trying to think of what level we want to play on and in my mind, for us to perform at a certain level as an agency, we’re giving up things like being able to do things with a ton of people because of bandwidth, time.

 

And quite frankly, I recognize that as the leader GWP, my goal is to set the tone and make certain that, that all the people that I hire and how I hire and what what their pedigree is and how they’re looking at things, what we pay them all those, all those are relevant to the decision I make. Right.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: Being The Best at What You Do

 

So going back. Yes. It was a scary, absolutely terrifying thought to say, I want to focus on one pinpoint area, but it it was quite liberating once doing so because then it opened up all the things I have to really think about in all the learning that I could get in and what would the very best agency in this space look like and how would it be performing.

 

And it caused me to relook at my staff and say, this copywriter is wonderful. How does he work in this area? This designer is incredible. But how does she work with certain things? Because we know renders we know there, you know, bam. We know that in different categories there’s a different demand. And then how are looking at our strategists and what’s required for them to really move forward in this agency, if we’re really going to plant that flag and say that it’s the building, materials world and how they service, contractors and architects and designers and facility managers, you know, if that’s their target, we need to get insight on them. 

 

And so the tighter I got, the more it opened up, learning and knowledge and thinking and ways to really educate and become best, which is kind of exciting. It is exciting. So let’s go back through a few of those lessons there because you just gave us several really big ones.

 

One, first, making the decision where does the experience align and so forth. Where do we have a depth of expertise? And for you guys, it was in the building materials manufacturing service provider space because of the work that you’ve done before. So there’s obviously some clustering there. But then you went on to say in here, I’m just going to loop that back this through line, back to being best.

 

You said what would be the best or what would excuse me? What would the best agency in space look like? And I find that like really compelling and self-reflection because it’s okay, I have this desire for us to be the best sort of clean slate. It obviously I have an existing team and we have an existing service mix and all of that, but if I could just set that aside and all my personal feelings aside for a second and think what does best look like and then build that, and then it sounds like once you understood what best look like, then it was okay.

 

Do I have a team? Is there a match or do I need to make adjustments? Am I here again? Am I tracking you 100%? Stephen. Yep. Wow. That’s bold. Well, and it actually keeps going. So part of the conversation then becomes our technology, our infrastructure. You know, as you pointed out, where we wear a lot of hats, everything from our accounting principles to our phone systems.

 

We moved from well, we went over to VoIP, gosh, a couple years ago, but now we went to zoom as a platform. Why did we do that? We did that because we’re planning on and we understand that our client base could be anywhere in the world, clearly anywhere in the country. And I feel it’s super important to have face to face meetings.

 

That’s why I like looking into someone’s eyes, even when it’s just coming up with or discussing strategy. So having a native platform of zoom, specifically for where I want to take us, I thought it was important or smart. I mean, up, down and sideways taking, kind of cleaning that deck and really looking at what we want to implement from, a staff, a service what, what services we’re offering, how we’re billing it, how we’re measuring and monitoring.

 

What success internally and externally could look like, a CRM system that we’re testing that we think could work really well for some of our target audience, some of our clients. So we’re actually dipping our feet into two different strategies and tactics that we believe are future thinking that maybe they’re not currently involved with, but maybe they should be with some of the things we do.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: Forward Thinking

 

So all the pieces of the puzzle. Yeah, I think it’s just fantastic. I love a word or two, I guess. Future thinking, because, well, aside from it being inspiring, my guess is that as Onward Nation business owners are tracking with you and listening throughout this, that now we have another through line, not only did we have best, but now with forward thinking, we also have the context of don’t rest on your laurels.

 

You might be best temporarily or today, but how do you continue to reinvent the business with building materials manufacturers and service providers front and center? How do we be forward thinking? So we’re always thinking about our audience and being a value to them and never getting complacent. Absolutely. And you know, I’ve been fortunate enough to have some really great clients who have helped who, you know, who share with me the category captain position that they take as, as a style of building, material manufacturer.

 

Right. Being a category captain, what does that mean? And we discuss that when we work with them. And it’s really just kind of transferring that thinking to my own business. And, you know, it’s your audience that could do their own business, which is if you’re a category captain or, you know, that means that you’re doing things, you’re doing all the things you have to do.

 

Right. That is quite frankly, if you’re not doing certain things, you’re not in business anymore in whatever category you’re in. But then the question is, what? What else? Like if I were a category captain or if I was a leader in what I did? In my case, it’s an advertising agency with a specialty, in that building materials space, what would I need to continue to do?

 

Where would I go with things? For instance, this podcast and my reason to, as you mentioned early in the show, to take on a podcast that checks a really big box for me of what a category captain in this space would do. Okay. You know, it’s taking a look at, and that’s just one of many pieces of a puzzle of what do I need to do now and what do I need to create a habit of doing that will ensure that I’m always growing my knowledge base, not only for me, but that is really what I’m offering our clients, right?

 

The ability to clearly hear where their challenges and who their target is, what their goal and objective is, and develop a strategy with solutions and points along the way to measure that. The success that they’re looking for is at least met, if not exceeded. That’s what I’m supposed to do. So if I start thinking about that now, when they call me, well, I’m already behind the eight ball.

 

If I’m in front of it, then this is new. And for me, this is the context that I’m providing in the strategy that I’m offering them. That is again, it gets back to the category Captain Best. That’s what you need to do. This is going to be a good opportunity, I think, for you to shed some light on the strategy behind your podcast, because it’s really smart.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: Expanding Your Knowledge Base Through the Podcast

 

Let me just kind of teed up this way. So Onward Nation, this ties right. This hooks right into category captain because so when when Eric just said, you know, the role in always growing his knowledge, his role is to always learn and constantly, expand the knowledge or his knowledge base so that when a client picks up the phone and, and calls or hops on zoom or whatever and says, hey, I’m dealing with this strategic thing, have you dealt with that?

 

Do you have any research on that? Whatever. Then Eric can say, sure. In fact, I just interviewed this person, this person, this person, this person, and he is interviewing the buyers or the specifiers of his clients products. I think I’ve got the strategy right. So, Eric, take us behind the podcast and how that’s really helping you expand your knowledge base.

 

So the podcast really gives us a platform here at GWP to ask the questions that our clients really want the answers to. And, you know, in the past, we were able to surmise and get insight and, and reach out to these target audiences and really get some baseline understanding of, of where they saw the future, what their objective was.

 

But it was always in the context of the scenario that was specific to the client at the time. So what this podcast really gives us an opportunity to do is get that really well. We ingratiate ourselves with our clients. So let’s face it, that’s one thing because we’re asking these super smart people. And part of the criteria for our podcast is identifying people who we really think have have real impressive experiences, have demonstrated that they really are best in class, whether it be an architect or a designer involved in, work that is just outstanding, you know, so by identifying really those thought leaders in those people who are really shaking and moving the world as we know it. 

 

It gives us an opportunity to ask them about the future of this industry and that they’re making these decisions that my clients are creating products for. So, yeah, that pipeline into them. And to get their understanding that’s so interesting. And that’s the reason why we started thinking podcasts would make sense so that I’d get up to speed and I’d really have a vital weight pipeline to the future.

 

But what I also what I didn’t realize was going to happen, and it’s already I’m already noticing it is there’s these thematics that these things that I’m noticing, almost like when you’re in a focus group, for anybody in the audience who’s been in focus groups, you know, it’s it’s interesting people, a lot of people are kind of, the controlled and they understand their talking points and they, they play very well by the line that they’re supposed to be walking.

 

There are pleasers who want to give you information that please you. There are people who are disruptors who want to give you an answer that’s disruptive. what I found through the podcast, when I do them, I do them with some video. Also, as I ask questions, I notice baseline differences, excitement, things like that that just blow my mind because it’s what I love about focus groups.

 

I get to deal with these people who are really top of their game and it’s ironic that you start seeing some things that are troubling them or that are opportunities for my clients that quite frankly, I never would have thought about. But it’s out of their need and it’s about what they’re really looking for.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: Orchestrating The Future of The World

 

So as I’ve been going through this podcast, it’s not only the understanding that I get and the forward thinking, the future thinking, because I’m really being fed some by the best into terms of what they’re looking at in terms of the future of the building space. but I’m also able to pick up patterns of need that they have.

 

And need that if these clients simply just kind of do a little focusing, they’re going to get answers to questions they might not have asked themselves. And this is super exciting because the other part of the podcast is I really do love this industry. My grandfather was in the big painting company, my first job was a mason when I was in high school.

 

Wow. Yeah. My chemistry teacher said, son, it doesn’t look like you’re going to college, so you should learn a trade. And he had a masonry company, and I met him after school, and I worked for him for three years. Wow. Yeah. So there’s this kinship I have to the building materials space, the building space as a whole.

 

And the fact that as this time has gone on, I mean, between technology and creativity and the need for social responsibility, all those things that are happening in the world right now, it really creates an exciting time for a building material manufacture. And if done right, they’re really, you know, they’re orchestrating the future of the world we’re living in, at least in my mind.

 

So I’m just pumped up on so many levels that this podcast is giving us a platform to reach out and get this insight and how we’re using it. I’m just again, super stoked that it’s coming the way it is. Okay. There again, several really big lessons. One, this lesson about why you decided to niche down in this space for very good strategic reasons because of where the agency had experience.

 

So GWP had experience in building materials manufacturers and service providers. Great. Now let’s take that depth of expertise even deeper by being super focused, clarity, all of those things. But what you just shared two was this really cool story about back being in high school and working as a mason for three years, and then through that process, really gaining this great appreciation, honor, respect for the trades, and you’re still carrying that through to this day.

 

So you’re able to speak that language because you worked in it so hard and in. That’s a great lesson for Onward Nation business owners. So yes, can we niche down in areas that our company has more or, existing kinds of clustering and so forth? Yes. But isn’t it also even greater when there’s that through line back that really has this deep personal connection, like the trades do for you?

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: Sharing Last Thoughts About Eric

 

That’s a cool lesson. So thanks. Thanks for that, Eric. And the other thing that’s really exciting is like every single one of your episodes, the way you just describe that every single one of your episodes is a really unique research opportunity for you. Right? 100%. Yeah. Yeah. It’s I mean, I yeah, I’m really amped up because as it’s going, I can honestly say that not only am I learning a little bit in each one of these incredible people are coming on.

 

But my audience, if they’re paying attention, they’re really getting some insight into the mind of how decisions are made and how they could be more successful by kind of hearing it right out of the horse’s mouth. So it’s exciting for me. Yeah, absolutely. So before I ask you for any final advice or anything you want to share, anything we might have missed on Onward Nation?

 

Let me just share this last thought, that as Eric was sharing all of this about being the authority in this space, obviously there are incredible research opportunities, as he’s described to you. There’s going to be business development opportunities for GWP because of their expanded reputation of being seen as the authority in building materials manufacturers and service providers.

 

All of that lovely, of course. And there are going to be opportunities for Eric, you know, to be interviewed in, let’s say it’s Forbes, maybe, an agent, maybe, a literary agent is going to hear his podcast and say, you know what? I think we could write a niche book on that. I think a publisher would be interested in that.

 

And there’s a book deal. Then, you know, maybe when the book comes out, there are going to be opportunities for him to be or maybe even other members of his team to be keynote speakers at conferences that serve this niche. So maybe that leads into courses, there’s a litany of other things that hang off of this authority that he’s building, which is fantastic.

 

It doesn’t happen overnight. Nothing does but amazing, amazing, amazing Eric. And it takes courage and guts to make a bold decision. And you clearly did. So before we go, before we close out and say goodbye, any final advice you want to share? Anything you think we might have missed? And then Eric, please do tell Onward Nation business owners the best way to connect with you.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: Final Advice from Eric

 

I think the only advice that I could give is to check in a year from now, and let’s see how successful these decisions I made were. I am, I honestly, it’s funny, I was out with a guy, playing golf with the guy yesterday who owns a big financial company, and I was we were talking about niching down exactly what we’re talking about and what I said to him because he said, I’m kind of scared to do this because I quite frankly, we’re incredibly successful, and I have my business built in a certain way.

 

And he said, I’m a little bit concerned that by changing it around, I’m already like, I’m seeing the success and hitting the check marks I wanted to in life. And by making this decision to do this, it puts things up for grabs a little bit. 

 

And I said to him, I think you just need to stop and think about these ideas you have of doing. Are they exciting? And are they so exciting that they’re just going to work? Because regardless of this, if your probability mapping it or looking at analytics, regardless of all that, do you know that, by golly, this is going to work because you’re into it. You’re amped up on your site, you can’t wait to get to work or to the office or wherever you go to get it done.

 

If that’s the way you feel, then does it really matter? You know? Does it really matter what the analytics say? Because you’re going to make it work. Right? And you know, he kind of laughed. And that’s how we left it. And that that’s my last I guess those are my words. Back to the audience, I think all the things we’re talking about are really exciting if they’re exciting to you.

 

Right. If you’re not in the place where you’re ready to do this, I don’t think anybody should go and turn their world upside down to the level that at least that I think you probably need to be super successful at it. but if you are ready, then, you know, buy a parachute and have a lot of fun because it’s going to be a hell of a ride.

 

Because if somebody is not in or all in, as you clearly are, then they doubt, then I don’t really want to do this. It’s going to be like a self-fulfilling prophecy, a failure. Yeah. And there’s so many there’s going to be a bunch of people, probably within your organization who challenge your question, because if you have smart people, that’s where, quite frankly, you’re probably paying them to do challenge questions, look at pros and cons, all that.

 

And those are, you know, voices in your head. So if you’re not 100% committed and ready to lead your team to a place, then, gosh, you could get in a lot of trouble, right? So I guess my words at the end of this are simply with passion and commitment and intelligence and, you know, you could do anything, but you have to have all those things lined up and ready before you start it in my mind. Amen.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.

 

Own Your Niche: How to Connect with Eric

 

What’s the best way for onward to reach out to you online. you can reach me at. You can email me at [email protected]. That’s the best way to hit me. Okay, perfect. Okay. Onward Nation, no matter how many notes you took and I took a ton, or how often you go back and re-listen to Eric’s words of wisdom, which I sure hope that you do.

 

The key is you have to take these lessons around strategy and niching and making bold decisions and thought leadership and being the authority in a space, you have to take these lessons and be committed and then take the action to apply. He so generously shared with you the roadmap. Now it’s up to you to actually take that roadmap and apply it and accelerate your results.

 

And Eric, we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day. And I am grateful, my friend, that you said yes to my invitation to join me on the show so that you could be our mentor in our guide to help us move our businesses onward to the next level. Thank you so much, my friend. Thank you very much, Stephen.

 

My pleasure. This episode is complete, so head over to OnwardNation.com for show notes and more food to fuel your ambition. Continue to find your recipe for success here at Onward Nation.

 

How to own your niche by checking out this insights section from GWP Inc.