The Level 10 Contractor Daily Podcast

Bright pink suits, big bills, giant golf clubs, and facebook ads targeted at people who like moustaches? Yep, that's exactly what Rich is going to talk about on the Throwback Thursday episode. It's from a keynote he gave recently at the Service Nation Alliance on the topic of guerrilla marketing. What Rich is talking about is using your brains and your ingenuity to generate interest and leads inst...

Most contractors aren't bad at business—they're bad at marketing. In this episode, Rich explains why your marketing underperforms, why "traffic cops" aren't marketers, and how expert marketing is the difference between surviving and dominating your market. 

Tuesday's podcast is a piece of a strategy session that Rich had with the owner of an almost 5 million dollar door & window company… who, despite that impressive sales amount, was still behind the curve on a lot of its marketing. On the part of the strategy call that happened BEFORE what you're about to hear, Rich went through a website audit, and pointed out that the website was severely outdated...

Rich has kind of been on a website and SEO tear lately… talking about how to make your site more Google-friendly, so you can generate more organic traffic and leads. Monday's podcast is an important part of that same discussion; it's all about diggability… which is strategically making additional content visible and unavoidable to people who are on your website. In other words, making sure that th...

It's Sunday, and as you know, that's when Rich turns his attention to spiritual and personal growth topics, and today he's going to stick to personal growth. He recently ran across a list of advice from a gentleman named Kevn Kelly, who was one of founders of Wired magazine, and who was called "the Most Interesting Man in the World" by podcaster Tim Ferriss. Take a listen, I'm sure you'll find a f...

Every Saturday, we showcase a topic important to you by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 Contractor's ENTIRE podcast run. This week, we discuss the importance of blogs on your website. Blogs are a great way to engage your prospects and build the  case why you are the superior choice. They are also masterful tools for winning the SEO war.

Friday's podcast focuses on media buying… and Rich is going to make some pretty strong points about his favorite metric… C P M! That's right, cost per thousand. This is just one more example of why it's so important, and why it's imperative that you be fluent in media speak, or you will get killed in negotiations. First, Rich will give an overview and an explanation… then he's going to play a reco...

Thursday's TBT podcast is a strategy call between Rich and the marketing person at a garage door and garage flooring company who is looking for a little help with their website. We are going to pick up the conversation right AFTER Rich goes through a demonstration of some really good Service Area pages on a Level 10 Client website… then he gets into a conversation about what it really takes to bea...

Rich Harshaw explains why most remodeling companies are terrible at marketing: owners excel in sales or production but almost never in true marketing strategy. Without a real expert, companies rely on generic messaging, weak websites, and ineffective ads. Rich urges contractors to focus on strengths and hire specialists to win market share.

Tuesday's podcast is a book review--Rich doesn't do a whole lot of these, so you can be sure that if he's recommending--and reviewing--a book, it's probably a good one! This one is called "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath… and as the name would suggest, deals with the concept of making ideas stick in peoples' brains. This is the book where the concept of "The Curse of Knowledge" first came fro...

Most print ads fail because they look identical. Rich Harshaw explains how to stand out using five strategies: vary ad sizes, get personal, go bold with design and headlines, offer helpful information guides, and tell compelling identity-based stories. These tactics trigger attention, boost leads, and dramatically improve ad performance.

Today's podcast falls more into the personal development category… and it's all about the small stuff. Or not doing the small stuff. Or trying to figure out why you're so averse to doing the small stuff. From health to wealth to relationships and spirituality… Rich's message will help you identify and DO the little things.

Every Saturday, we showcase a topic important to you by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 Contractor's ENTIRE podcast run. This week, we focus on the hub of your marketing… your website. A strong web presence is crucial to success in this day and age, and we aren't just talking about having a pretty website. Pretty is the default today. Your website has to do real work to...

Rich takes all the data supplied to him by TV stations in Boston, and walks one of Level 10's Advertising managers through the numbers as a training exercise. So basically, you're going to get real-world training on media buying directly from Rich… right here today, on this podcast. You're going to hear Rich interpret the data through his favorite lens--CPM, or cost per thousand. During the course...

It's Thursday, so you know what that means--throwback Thursday, where we dig into the vault and pull out some marketing gold from yesteryear. And for today's podcast, that gold has to do with the topic of Identity, and the year is 2014. This is a webinar that Rich did in conjunction with longtime Level 10 Supporter, Marketsharp. This is a great overview of the Identity concept, with lots of good e...

Rich tells a sad tale about the time he was super excited to be featured in a major national business magazine… only to be horrified when he saw what they actually wrote about him. What was supposed to be kind of a big deal turned out to be a big embarrassment. He's going to take that story and extract a few lessons from it and teach you how to deal with media opportunities… and give you some real...

You're going to be a fly on the wall as Rich has a conversation with Level 10 Contractor Senior Copywriter, Dave Moffitt. Dave is helping one of his clients create copy for a website, and the client LIKES what Dave has written, but wants to find a headline that better captures their overall identity. Rich, of course, takes a deep dive--wanting to know not just WHAT they do… but WHY and HOW they do...

Rich Harshaw reveals the five biggest ways contractors lose profit: DIY media buying, undercharging, under-spending on PPC, weak front-end financing, and failing to communicate clear identity. Fixing these issues boosts lead flow, sales, and margins. Rich explains why each mistake costs you and how to correct it for maximum growth.

This podcast is another venture into spiritual things… Today, Rich jumps into the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount and discusses one of the Beatitudes, "Blessed Are The Peacemakers."

Every Saturday, we showcase a topic important to you by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 Contractor's ENTIRE podcast run. This week, we focus on your employees and their morale. You cannot operate your businesses alone; employees are the cogs that make the machine run without you. But they are more than just cogs. They should be reflections on you and the culture of your...

This podcast, as the title would suggest, is all about business partnerships… and more specifically, how to avoid having them go bad… and making sure you have contingency plans in place in case they do. Rich has been in two formal partnerships in his career--both of them turned out badly. Really badly. And he learned a lot of hard lessons that you're going to benefit from today. Along the way, he...

Thanks for joining us for our Throwback Thursday, which ironically, comes from an old Tuesday Morning Ad Clinic webinar that Rich did in 2014. This is an interesting case: An electrician sends Rich a postcard that is intended to scare people into getting their electrical system checked out, because, you know, their house might burn down if they don't. Rich explains that people hate to pay for prev...

In this episode, Rich explains why contractors must stop treating marketing like an expense and start thinking of it as an investment. He breaks down the difference between short-term "hunting" tactics (like PPC and lead aggregators) and long-term "farming" strategies (like SEO, branding, and reviews), showing how consistent marketing investments compound over time to create stability, equity, and...

Rich is going to talk about how most websites have an OVER-reliance on what he calls "engagement tools"--you know, things like offers for free estimates, join our newsletter list, get a quote, maps, and so forth. What's that you say? You NEED those things on your website? Maybe so. Probably so. But like everything else in life--how you approach them and how you present them makes all the differenc...

It's Monday, which means it's time for the next installment of our "5 Ways to Monday" series. Rich talks to companies whose primary lead generation activities are lead aggregators… with ideas and strategies to start to shift into branding. It's not that lead aggregators are bad–it's that for the long term continued growth of your company, you're going to want to generate your own leads, and prefer...