Building Your Business with CCPIA^® #14: Special Guest Ian Schroff, InterNACHI^® Graphic Designer

[00:00] Rob Claus: well, thank you. And welcome to another episode of building your business with the certified Commercial Property Inspectors Association. I am so tickled today to have Ian Schroff with me. He is part of Inonachi’s marketing design team. And just an an excellent graphic artist and and welcome, Ian, thanks for taking some time today.

[00:24] Ian Schroff: Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me. I’m excited.

[00:27] Rob Claus: Well, let’s let’s hold off on your excitement further into this and realize that we’re hoping this is not the biggest debacle of your day. our our goal, you know. There’s so many stop gaps in this industry. and and for forever in a day it’s it’s make a business card. Hang a shingle. You is one. and and it stops. and there’s so many resources and so many other things that you can do with your business to blow it up, to, to expand it, to get your name out there. And in a previous episode, if you ever watched it, we we talked about Logos. And I think this is our perfect transition into talking about marketing collateral. And so that’s why you’re here. Ian.

[01:18] Ian Schroff: Awesome. Yeah, I love it. I think I saw you talking with Levi before. So it I think that went well.

[01:24] Rob Claus: Yeah, you lost a bet. was forced to spend some time with me. when when when when I think about this type of collateral, I know. Let’s let’s give a little bit of your background, you know, and don’t they’ll be. Don’t be ashamed of it. I I know that you’ve been with Interchi for a while. What’s your role at Internachi?

[01:46] Ian Schroff: So I I do all the premarking services here. So I I’m a member marketer. I do graphic design. My background is in graphic design, went to school for it. Got this job here, been working here for about half a decade and have been yeah creating print marketing for our members for for 5 years now.

[02:04] Rob Claus: So so you got a unique background in the fact that your mentality is inspections. It’s not like, you know. You go to some random, graphic artist and say, Check me out, and then you spend 7 meetings defining what you do. And then they still mess it up.

[02:26] Ian Schroff: Yeah, that’s the hard part. I mean, once you’re going with freelance work and I mean, it’s great to like find somebody there’s a ton of very talented people out there. But yeah, we have years of experience with working with inspections in particular. So it’s really helpful. I feel like our services are fantastic for that, because we have loads of people here we have 4 or 5 designers that all work on in this industry in particular, so.

[02:53] Rob Claus: Yeah, the the there’s not a lost in translation episode of of of your of of the Talent Pool. That’s for darn sure. So when we know in commercials, is a lot more diverse than residential. What I mean by that is is residential. You’re dealing with basically 3 types of properties. a standalone house. a condominium. or you own a little bit, or maybe a townhouse. they’re really not that much different. But when we’re thinking about commercial, I mean, I could have a warehouse, an office space, a a suite, a multifamily. and and so designing your marketing collateral has to be equally as diverse. What you agree.

[03:44] Ian Schroff: I would. Yeah, I mean, it’s about knowing your your target audience and knowing who you’re trying to market to. So if you have a particular, you know. If you’re working with one particular genre of the commercial world or you know you’re diverse. But you’re trying to sell one thing, then you should target that one thing, of course.

[04:04] Rob Claus: I, and I think that’s important. I I I’ve talked to a lot of members. and I’ll I’ll I’ll talk to Member A, and he’ll go or or she’ll go. I never want to do anything other than multifamily. It is so close to being a home inspector without being a home inspector, and I can. I could do bigger properties, fabulous or yeah. And so why not build all your collateral pointing that way vice versa, you know, being all over the board. So so yeah, I think it’s a great thing. So what I wanted to do is open the floor up to you so that you can kinda go through some best practices and what you think graphically sells or has the potential to sell the most. And so I’m gonna leave it up to you to kinda walk through a little bit for us.

[04:54] Ian Schroff: Yeah, definitely, yeah.

[04:55] Rob Claus: Show and tell.

[04:56] Ian Schroff: I got you. I got you see. Let me know if you can see this.

[05:01] Rob Claus: Perfectly.

[05:02] Ian Schroff: Okay, perfect.

[05:04] Rob Claus: Kitty, it’s Kitty cats right.

[05:06] Ian Schroff: It’s Kitty cats. Exactly. Yeah. I just wanted to to show that, and then we’ll get into it.

[05:11] Rob Claus: Okay.

[05:12] Ian Schroff: Yeah. So obviously, I work for internachi. So most of the stuff that we do in our marketing department, it is like 99% residential inspections. But we do still get a lot of members coming through with Ccpa and really, commercial inspections are starting to grow and grow and grow in our in our department. So we are creating more and more stuff. We can do that. So this is a cool opportunity to reach out and be like, yeah, yeah, to anybody who’s listening like, we can provide you commercial print marketing design services. and so I’m basically going to explain what we do and basic design principles, and then see how that can work for you.

[05:57] Rob Claus: Yeah, cause at the end of the day our goal is is to build business. And this is this is the a cornerstone.

[06:04] Ian Schroff: Yeah.

[06:04] Rob Claus: Getting in getting your name out.

[06:06] Ian Schroff: Yeah, absolutely. And I’ll I’ll go through at the end, too, and kind of talk about how to go through the Internaisi’s design process, and and a little more about what we do. But to start, I think a good place to be would be the golden rules of of print, marketing materials, marketing in general, but these, I would say, are the top 5 things to keep in mind always when you’re doing any sort of print marketing material, and they it’s not just one or the other. They all overlap and so this, these are fantastic. One, just like we stated earlier is understanding your audience. Being able to target your audience is huge. Knowing who you’re trying to sell to is gonna make the biggest difference of whether or not you’re advertising is gonna work or not. Because. you know, if you’re trying to sell Vegan ice cream to a bunch of people who don’t, or vice versa dairy ice cream for a bunch of people who are vegan. It’s not gonna work. And so you wanna make sure that you know your audience that you’re that your example before of the multi unit family housing like. If that’s what you’re trying to hit, then sell that again and again. Another one is keeping it simple. This is one that can I? I get a lot a lot of people want to just kind of overload. They want to say everything within their marketing right off the bat. Get it all out there. Fill out every little detail about what they do, because a lot of the people offer a lot and they have a lot of credentials. They’ve got an extensive background they got a lot of services that they’re offering. And so they wanna pack it all in and get you all the information possible. But something that’s a little difficult about that is that it can be overwhelming, and a lot of people don’t want to read that much. And so if you’re just packing your marketing full of just endless paragraphs, full things, or, it can. Yeah, it could just get a little overwhelming as the audience member, even though your intentions are peer keeping it simple is is the way to go. Another one is hierarchy. This one kind of comes into the design principles. But one thing to think about when you’re going into creating a piece of print. Marketing material is what you want to do it for. You want to create a hierarchy to where. Okay, I’m trying to sell multi unit housing. I’m trying to sell Radon testing. I’m trying to sell this in particular. And if you have 1, 2 or 3 things in mind. That you are making sure that you want to highlight. Then it’s huge in creating the design principles around these calls to action better. Hey, my name is this, and this is what I offer. And here’s how you contact me. And so if you can hit those points. basically, your marketing is just meant to get somebody in contact with you. Then you’re selling yourself at that point. And so you’re trying to create that bridge as easy as possible. And you know, you just like a good bridge. You wanna know how I get on. All the signage is bright. Here’s where I should be, and it’s a clear road from here to there. You always wanted to to be nice and well addressed colors and visuals kind of. Go back to that hierarchy. This is a great way to. If you’re selling a particular thing like one genre of the commercial world, then use imagery that reflects that if you’re trying to sell for a bunch of mold testing or drone services, or a particular style of a building, then use your imagery to reinforce that point, so that at a glance people can see exactly what you’re offering. makes it really simple. And then, the last point kind of ties it all together, that repetition and consistency constantly pushing the same brand identity, the same colors throughout your marketing, the same kind of imagery throughout your marketing, or the same general feel throughout all your marketing is really gonna tie everything together. Makes it your marketing memorable. And it? yeah, keeps it consistent, and consistency is memorability that it works every time. Just like how we learn a language. You want to know the same word again and again. Your visual. The visual patterns do the same thing. So just like seeing the little apple logo on everything. It’s like it may be on a bunch of different products, but you feel the same way. And so beyond that, I’ll just show a couple of of examples.

[10:41] Rob Claus: All, all that makes so much sense. I mean, I go back a long time ago. I remember the very first guy that ever tried to build a website for me. And he was just like, you don’t put your entire life history on your website. You gotta make them call you.

[10:57] Ian Schroff: Yeah.

[10:57] Rob Claus: That’s the whole call that you said it best call to action, and so the brochure should be, or your collateral should be, enough to to interest them. to call you, because you’re going to be able to give them far more verbally than they’d ever want to read.

[11:13] Ian Schroff: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You just want to keep.

[11:15] Rob Claus: Right.

[11:15] Ian Schroff: Categories. And then you yourself, you’re gonna be able to explain it. You’re you’re gonna give them your personality. You’re gonna make you’re gonna make the sale. After that. This is just to get that contact.

[11:27] Rob Claus: And if you, if you’re any good, you’re gonna tailor. That sale specifically to to the inflection that your client had on the phone.

[11:34] Ian Schroff: Yeah, exactly. Cause everybody’s different, too, you know. Not, just like every house, every building’s different, like every person’s different. And so yeah, you just want. You are at the end of the day, the the pivot point. That’s gonna make it all happen you’re the glue to all of it. But the marketing is something that can just get somebody’s foot in the door, and once they’re put in the door, then you got them. Then that’s your knowledge, your skills, your background, your experience that comes into play.

[12:04] Rob Claus: Awesome.

[12:05] Ian Schroff: Alright. Let’s get into some of this just to show you a couple of examples. And then I kept the golden rules along the bottom, so that.

[12:15] Rob Claus: Yeah.

[12:15] Ian Schroff: Suddenly see how it’s being reinforced in here. This is one that we did for this company called Champion Property Inspection. We actually didn’t use.

[12:25] Rob Claus: And shout out.

[12:26] Ian Schroff: Yeah, do you know that.

[12:29] Rob Claus: In case he’s in case you’re watching.

[12:31] Ian Schroff: Even.

[12:32] Rob Claus: They’re they’re a veteran own company in in is that is that 8? 1, 2, no, yeah.

[12:37] Ian Schroff: Yeah, this is Indiana. Yeah.

[12:39] Rob Claus: And 8, 1, 2. So shout out to 8, 1, 2.

[12:41] Ian Schroff: Shout out!

[12:42] Rob Claus: And.

[12:42] Ian Schroff: Believe his name is Stephen Ranger, Stephen Ranger. And yeah, Austin Denning.

[12:47] Rob Claus: Right!

[12:47] Ian Schroff: They’re running this. So yeah, basically, this is we didn’t actually create their logo. They came to us already with a logo created, which is a great like if you already have something set up awesome. But this just goes to show how we can turn your logo and your idea and extend it throughout your marketing. So even these little points like within his logo. They have these little pieces of it looks like, you know, nuts and bolts coming through. So we reinforce that throughout all the marketing in the background.

[13:21] Rob Claus: Nice.

[13:22] Ian Schroff: Keeps it as the the color and visual and the repetition and consistency game. You can see that all the colors are matched throughout it they feel cohesive. The brand identity is easily getting communicated through and then understanding your audience. They’re marketing this for commercial inspections. They’re pushing radon, testing, terminal testing and seer scoping there, too. Their standard inspections. They they’re keeping it simple, directing it directly to them. Knowing with commercial buildings on the front. Their veteran own that, you know, pushes a certain audience. And then blasting that that they have a whole bunch of Google reviews. Ccpa certified their master inspectors. This is all huge points. That go in that tie in that. Show their credentials. And reinforce that they’re the ones that you should contact. Everything’s simple. Everything’s clean. Had a glance in terms of the hierarchy. One rule of thumb that we always used to do a little trick when we were in when I was in school. Was that you would PIN your marketing on the wall, and then you turn around, and then you look back. And you can also do this. Just eyes close. You look back at it, and then the first thing that your eyes hit when you see that marketing. So where does your eye go to? If if it’s immediately like something that’s irrelevant, then you should think about that. It’s it’s what scream in the loudest. So with this one like this middle example, when I open my eyes I immediately go to the champion property inspection right here in the middle. That’s bringing me right to their logo. Then this little piece right down is almost like a directing angle that pulls me to this line that brings me down. Okay, champion property inspection. Here’s a commercial building. They’ve been doing this since 2015. And here’s how you contact them so immediately. I’m getting a lot of good information just off the front. I know their name. I know what they do. I know that they’ve been doing this for a decade. They’re veteran owned like, there’s there’s some you’re getting the points that you want across.

[15:34] Rob Claus: Yeah, yeah.

[15:36] Ian Schroff: And so these design principles kind of stick through. I’ve got a couple more examples. these are also commercial specific stuff, but it’s just keeping it simple. These ones have great examples of using personal images as well, which rein, or it kind of gives your marketing personality without you even having to be there. Al here on the left. This is a rat card that we created for him. He’s got the Ccpa. And the C Cpi. So he’s mixing in, showing that he’s doing commercial. But he also has a residential background as well. Real simple. Getting straight to the point. Explaining what he does in this in a small little paragraph. Here’s where he’s serving. Here’s his contact. Info even created a custom. QR code that brings. This is a smart QR code, too. So when you scan it it’ll actually bring up information on his contact card so you can bring. It’ll download his contact card onto your phone. That’s another huge thing. It’s like a basically a business card at that point or a digital business card? Which we don’t. We can create free QR codes that link to like a URL. But if you want to do something like that. It’s like a few bucks online and totally worth it. I think that that’s like a a new, brilliant way. To get your contact information across, because at the end of the day we’re trying to eliminate any barriers to entry. So the getting somebody from picking up your stuff to contacting you. You just want them to be on the phone with you, and then you make the sale. At that point.

[17:15] Rob Claus: As a as an artist. Or we’ll even, you know, marketing designer expert using imagery like yourself. How does that? How? How do you feel about that in a multi inspector firm? Do you think putting the principals photo up there is is is is beneficial. Or do you think it’s it’s neutral.

[17:38] Ian Schroff: Well, can go 2 ways with that. If you’re gonna do something like a business card 100 use your name or use your photo. I think that that’s a great way to do it unless you’re using one. That’s just a general business card that you’re using for your business where you’re not putting any contact information.

[17:54] Rob Claus: And interest.

[17:54] Ian Schroff: Company. Then I wouldn’t put any personal photo on that unless you have a group photo. People do that as well. Do you have actual space like flyers. Some people on our our residential book custom books, home maintenance books. They’ll actually have a team photo, so they’ll have the whole group there. And they’re, you know. Everybody’s dressed in their their company’s branded shirts and everything, and they’re all looking nice, and they’re out there with their arms around each other, and they take. Like that, you know, 1215 people. I think that’s awesome. I think that works really well. It ties in that. This is like a family, you know, like our families taking care of yours. We have all these people, with all these unique backgrounds, with all this experience, all you know alchemizing together to help you. And so I think that that works really well. You can push something like I mean, there’s give and take if if the sometimes with multi inspector firms, the original owner is still kind of like leading the charge, and everybody’s kind of younger and getting picked up, so that that same the owner is like, you know, father and his kids his sons, or something or daughters, or wife, or whatever are getting into the business. So they’re kind of pushing themselves first. And there’s kind of varying degrees of that. Sometimes it can be like, well, you’re overshadowing the rest of the group. So you can kind of lean more towards just using house imagery. But if you’re a solo firm? Then using personal images like Mark here on the right side.

[19:36] Rob Claus: Yeah.

[19:37] Ian Schroff: Wire. I think it’s a huge benefit, because now, even when you’re picking up the phone to call him you, he looks friendly. You can see the space you already have a personality. Being communicated before you’re even in contact with somebody. And so it it can be super helpful.

[19:55] Rob Claus: Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, it’s just when I see when I see Alan Mark here, I I I would I would anticipate them to be single inspector firms, and that gives us their breath of experience. And it but you’re right. It gives you that. Certainly that warm fuzzy, that Mark and Al are. Gonna take care of me.

[20:14] Ian Schroff: Yeah.

[20:15] Rob Claus: But they’re they’re they have. They have a look.

[20:18] Ian Schroff: Yeah, for sure. They’re they’re pushing past. It’s like, if you were. Gonna see a bunch of like, I don’t know. We in the residential game. We do have a lot of people that are trying to get in contact or push their push their marketing in real estate offices. So a lot of people come in and just drop off a ton of stuff and and then real estate agents will, you know, sometimes hand out like their top. 3 top 4 recommended inspectors. And so if you’re getting a stack of like, let’s say they have 4 inspectors, and they all. Each of them all gave you a rat card, or all gave you a flyer. But all of them are just their basic info but mark here has his has his photo on there immediately. There’s like there’s a psychological game that’s being played right there to where you can see the person, and you feel a friendliness. And it does have to be a nice photo to some people. Just take little selfies and stuff and send them over. And they’re like low bit form, and I’m like, Hey, you should probably not use that like.

[21:20] Rob Claus: Yeah.

[21:21] Ian Schroff: Actually gonna create the wrong effect. So but getting like a high quality image taken of yourself like that can make a huge difference for that personal touch, and and go a long way with your marketing.

[21:31] Rob Claus: Well, they can’t go to Sears anymore, to the portrait studio. So they’re gonna have to find.

[21:34] Ian Schroff: Yeah.

[21:35] Rob Claus: Sells.

[21:35] Ian Schroff: Yeah, which is unfortunate. It’s unfortunate, cause they’re so easy, you know.

[21:39] Rob Claus: Yeah.

[21:40] Ian Schroff: But there’s still a bunch of like photographers that you can find online in your area, and a bunch of people that you can search for on Facebook or Craigslist, or anything like that, to have their stuff or just Google it and still get somebody and also their phone cameras are super nice now, especially with the newest phones. I don’t always like the images that come out of phones, but some people have sent me some good images just with their phone. If you get the right lighting and you get outside and you look professional, that can still work, or, you know, just hit up somebody that has a decent camera, and then they can take a photo of you, and then I’ll edit it a little bit.

[22:19] Rob Claus: Good.

[22:20] Ian Schroff: Yeah, it helps a lot. Just little little bit goes a long way. Another great thing here, too, is that Mark actually has a a good amount of solid reviews as well. And so that’s something that also reinforces. If you’re gonna be using your own image something like testimonials, I mean testimonials work on marketing all over the place. Whether you’re a multi inspector firm or solo project like this. It’s great to have on print marketing, or, you know, on Prem marketing that has the space for it. Some per market, like a business card, is a little too small to try to throw a whole testimonial on there. Then then you’re getting away from the keep it simple homage. But yes.

[23:03] Rob Claus: So I I look at these 2 cards here and and Al’s certainly looks like a standard size rack card. But Marks looks like it’s oversized with.

[23:12] Ian Schroff: Yeah. Marx is actually a flyer. So it’s kind of turned in. It looks a little cram, but his is actually the size of a piece of paper.

[23:19] Rob Claus: 8 and a half by 11.

[23:21] Ian Schroff: Exactly. Well, well, Al’s is exactly have that size since.

[23:25] Rob Claus: Yeah.

[23:25] Ian Schroff: Standard size rack card fits in a number 4 envelope.

[23:28] Rob Claus: I I I ran a company one time, and everything they did was disproportional to everybody else. So, in other words.

[23:38] Ian Schroff: Nice.

[23:39] Rob Claus: Our brochures were square.

[23:41] Ian Schroff: Yeah.

[23:41] Rob Claus: They were trifled, but they were square. and so I think I think they were 6 inch, you know. So I I I don’t, you know, so I know we wasted a lot of paper, and I think they didn’t have to have special cuts.

[23:53] Ian Schroff: Yeah.

[23:53] Rob Claus: So all the everything we did cause cause we didn’t want it to set. We didn’t want it to sit there and be identical to anybody else in either shape, design, or feel, or however we wanted to create that visceral feeling. So how do you feel about that?

[24:08] Ian Schroff: I love it. I love it. I mean, there’s some things that can go a little overboard. You know, people that are using like.

[24:15] Rob Claus: Die cuts.

[24:16] Ian Schroff: Words that are like freaking, you know the size of a chunk of 2 by 4, but even that could sometimes, you know, work itself out. I think that there’s something about to be said. about that idea alone, like your marketing. The whole purpose of your marketing is to stand out and connect with somebody to be memorable. And so you’re immediately using that principle and enacting it even in the shape and size of the print marketing itself where you’re like, we’re trying to stand out and be memorable and be the one that you choose. And so immediately like, if you had a stack of brochures. You’re immediately standing out, you know.

[24:57] Rob Claus: Yeah, yeah.

[24:57] Ian Schroff: First things, first.

[24:58] Rob Claus: I can’t stack.

[25:00] Ian Schroff: Yeah, yeah.

[25:02] Rob Claus: It. I don’t fit, you know.

[25:04] Ian Schroff: Yeah.

[25:04] Rob Claus: Immediately. I’m either going to be the one you’re throwing away, and you’re gonna remember my name all the way to the garbage, or.

[25:11] Ian Schroff: Yeah.

[25:11] Rob Claus: Or I’m the one that that goes on the bottom. You know that that sticks out on all the on, on all 4 sides.

[25:17] Ian Schroff: Yes, exactly.

[25:18] Rob Claus: Blazing.

[25:19] Ian Schroff: Yeah, exactly. You’re showing you’re showing, hey? I’m not like the rest of I’m not like everybody else, I’m thinking, outside the box, even with my marketing, which.

[25:28] Rob Claus: Explore.

[25:28] Ian Schroff: Is something that, as a consumer like not even knowing your services, the I might have your brochure from that company, and a few other brochures. and they might have more experience, they might have better pricing. I have no idea, but I already know that this person over here, this company is trying to stand out to me. And they’re thinking about me already. So psychologically, I’m thinking, oh, man, they’re thinking about how I feel about their product. They must care. They’re putting in that extra effort. It’s just like a bad piece of print marketing where the logo is, you know, over crowded or it just looks off, or you know, things aren’t quite right. Or maybe there’s a typo in something it’s like immediately. Once you see, little things that are off. It’s like, Oh, man, they don’t even have the attention detail here to like. Think about that. They must. It must go into the rest of their, you know services, even if it’s not true, even if they’re they’re incredible. It’s like these little things go. They go a long way, and something like that, I think can go a long way. That’s I. I love that idea. Okay, just another. I think I got like 2 more sheets of.

[26:45] Rob Claus: Yeah, take your time.

[26:46] Ian Schroff: This is just a a quick example to the consistency that gets portrayed across. These is awesome. Even these little shapes of the sand, dusky here in the background that curve that gets played out in both the ban or the retractable banner and the brochures across. These little symbols that we took right out of the back of the logo itself, and then reinforce those shapes in the background of their their business cards as well. And the banner here. Blasting that Ccpia right there. This is. It’s just solid marketing it immediately. This is something where colors for the sand. Dusky colors actually have a psychological effect. On people. And so choosing specific color patterns. Has a has an emotional effect. And so this is a fantastic example of that blue and gold. That is a classic color example on the right side with Alpha here. This. They’re a company that we actually didn’t create the logo for. So I want to throw another example of that. If you already have your logo, this is something that we can still push after the fact. But these were really the main examples, is just for reinforcing consistency of across your brand marketing and that repetition and that consistency coming around and paying off for you. There’s a lot of information that’s being thrown across on on all this marketing. But it feels cohesive. They’re reinforcing their brand. They’re putting personal images, and it just looks good. And then this last one here is just about keeping it simple. These ones with both of these, they’re not overcrowding information. They’re not putting a bunch of stuff in your face. Their colors are straightforward, basically 2 main colors that they’re using, both being black. And then with the J. Docs, you got blue and gray with upon request. You’re just going with gold and white and so it’s basic basic color tones straight to the point. Big color blocks that lead you right where you want it on both of them. You got the blue that’s pushing you right into the contact information. On the other side. You got the goal leading you right to the color contact information which is a call to an action in itself, pushing you to say, Here’s us, here’s how you reach us, which at the end of the day is what you want out of your marketing. and so beyond that. this is. There’s a couple of helpful links to look for in terms of us. For getting in contact with us. For offering or seeing what we offer one of them is our portfolio at marking Natchez Org. I’m gonna pop this over and see if you can see this. Can you see this.

[29:39] Rob Claus: Perfectly.

[29:40] Ian Schroff: Okay, perfect. This website here has a bunch of more, a lot more examples of all the different kinds of marketing that we offer? We do folders, yard signs, flyers, door, hangers, business cards, rack cards, postcards, and they’re all custom designed and so. and all everything that we create, whether you have your logo, or you need a logo created by us. We create it all custom for you. So if you have any particular message. Any sort of audience that you’re trying to hit? A if you wanna have a post card that you know has a promotion with a with like a freaking scratch off on there, or something we can do that for you. We can create basically anything that you want. You just give us the messaging. We have an editor in chief. That allows us to or that will review all your information. Make it sound a heck of a lot better. If need be. And then we create great custom marketing for you. It looks awesome. We are in the inspection industry. So we do a lot of great marketing. And all of this stuff is free for our marketing members. It’s a part of the free for international members. It’s a part of your internachi membership. It’s included all the design services. So with all the stuff you just pay for the printing and shipping. All you do is create an order. On here. That order form is Inspector Outletcom, which is this little site right here, right on the front. You got your custom marketing. and here’s all of those offerings that we have. I’ll keep in touch. That’s nice. You can also do that and then you can click any of these you can get pricing for all the stuff. All you do is create an order for that. And then we start emailing you asking you what information that you’d like on here? Do you want to create you a logo? We send you questionnaires, and we get your whole idea down. You can send us little drawings. If you have them. You can send us you know, blurbs and paragraphs from your website. Any of that kind of stuff, and we’ll push that on your marketing. And if you have any other questions about that, you can always reach out to marketing@internation.org and and get in contact with us with that. But yeah, that’s so. You’re not inside. But.

[31:58] Rob Claus: You. You would have mentioned, Dean, that colors are. Are there any buzz colors? You should stay away from.

[32:07] Ian Schroff: I mean, there are definitely I wouldn’t say that there’s a particular color that you should say no to, but there are definitely varying saturations of colors. And tones of colors that shout the wrong message. A lot of times like I mean, Ccpia is a great example like red. Is a color that’s like proud but can be aggressive. So you can. You have to find that like that powerful tone within red that makes it feel cohesive and feel regal without going too far to like. You’re scaring me off and so I would say, there’s definitely color palettes I wouldn’t stick to. I wouldn’t throw colors that don’t belong together.

[33:00] Rob Claus: Can.

[33:00] Ian Schroff: That would be bad, but

[33:02] Rob Claus: So they they painted my house last week, and the the first section they painted was a was a certain color of mustard.

[33:11] Ian Schroff: Oh no!

[33:12] Rob Claus: Own that only reminded you of a a. A small child’s diaper, and neighbors were stopping by going. Is that really the color? And now I have a white house

[33:26] Ian Schroff: Yeah, yeah, there you go.

[33:27] Rob Claus: Because this is.

[33:28] Ian Schroff: Not to say that yellow colors are wrong. It’s just that, just for.

[33:32] Rob Claus: Happen to be a hue, you know. There.

[33:34] Ian Schroff: Yeah.

[33:35] Rob Claus: Wi within the roy g biv, there’s a lot of different colors that could be established. And so I just curious if, if like, if if there was like a Yeah, I I’ve worked for companies that were orange and they they were orange, for a certain reason is they sat and they had a a, A group together. And yeah, they did a focus group, and Orange W. Orange gave a feeling of warmth and happiness and sunshine and roses and all that other fun stuff, and they wanted to be around them. And, like you said, this vibrant red gives a us a, a, a feeling of power, and that that’s what matches our gargoyle that sits on top of the building. It’s we’re here as the as this industry to protect the industry and our members, just like a gargoyle, protects a building. So I get it.

[34:23] Ian Schroff: Said. yeah.

[34:26] Rob Claus: Great, and and and I don’t want to confuse anybody watching this or listening to this. However, you’re you’re taking this this. This information in all of the stuff that Ian’s talking about is free for creation, for internachie members. It is a member benefit for indochie members as far as Ccpia members. We’re not part of interchi. We are a sister organization. That’s how I lean on so many great friends like Ian to help us. But if you have a dual membership in the 2 associations. you can certainly use that membership tie from Internachi to get these services for you.

[35:12] Ian Schroff: And beyond that there’s still all the design principles you can still use outside of using.

[35:17] Rob Claus: Not just.

[35:18] Ian Schroff: As your marketing principle. I mean those 5 are whether or not you’re using us, or or creating it yourself, or going to another freelance service, I would definitely say, these golden rules you should. You should put in your marketing.

[35:35] Rob Claus: That that is key, and then and and thank you. And do you have any other advice you want to give anybody, or or have you? Are you tapped out.

[35:44] Ian Schroff: I would say. When you’re thinking about your marketing. it’s it’s exciting. It can be a little overwhelming, too. You can feel like you gotta get it right the first time. But you know, try stuff. Sit down before and sit down for you gonna create something, collect other people’s marketing. Look at other people’s stuff, make a mood board if you want to, or just, you know, collect other people’s brochures and see what you like, and what you don’t like, and what you want to say. The more time that you put in on that front end thinking about how like how you want to portray yourself. What message that you want to get across. or who you want to, who you want to show that you are to your potential client. What kind of values you wanna show that little work in the beginning is gonna go a long way with your designs beforehand. So yeah, try stuff out. Think outside the box. Go forward. If it doesn’t work, then, just, you know. try to try some new there’s so many great cool ideas and fun stuff that people do with their print marketing. So yeah, try to think outside the box, make yourself, stand out, do something in a cool, new shape, or whatever. And yeah, go for it.

[37:04] Rob Claus: No, I I I know these. These. I I I shouldn’t say the word. Podcast. So I know these sessions can last forever. But are are you and your are you and your team gonna be at the pro convention in October 1011, 12. This year?

[37:20] Ian Schroff: Yeah, we are.

[37:21] Rob Claus: And are you? Are you? Are you and your team presenting at all? Are you just going to be manning a booth.

[37:26] Ian Schroff: Yes, we are Ck and I, which is one of our other logo designers. We’re gonna do a presentation. I think Lydia might be there, too, and she runs social media as well. So I think we’re gonna do a joint presentation on one of those days.

[37:39] Rob Claus: So all of those resources for those that are are participating with Ian and I are are gonna be at the pro convention in October tenth, eleventh, twelfth of 2024. And so, yeah, I bet you, if you come with your ideas and you find one of these guys, either Ck. Or Ian or anybody else at the marketing booth. I bet you they’ll be tickled to answer your questions.

[38:02] Ian Schroff: 100%. We’re always there, always happy. Bring some of your marketing around. Ask us what our opinion is, and we’ll give it to you. We’re honest.

[38:10] Rob Claus: That’s terrific. Thank you, Ian, for taking time today, and and I, if I don’t see, I’ll see you in October.

[38:17] Ian Schroff: Yeah. Sounds good, man. I’ll see you in October.

[38:19] Rob Claus: Thanks.

[38:20] Ian Schroff: See you up.

[38:25] Rob Claus: That that was great.