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Hosted by Steve Phipps of Wayfind Marketing, The Growth-Minded Marketing Podcast simplifies marketing for B2B CEOs ready to grow with confidence. Each episode offers real-world strategies, step-by-step coaching, and inspiring CEO interviews—all designed to help you align your marketing with your business goals, stop wasting time and money, and scale without the stress. If you’re a growth-minded leader tired of vague advice and underperforming tactics, this is your next step.
Steve: Have you ever realized or
thought that your company's name might
actually be holding your business back?
AnnieLaurie: That's exactly what
happened to today's guest, Tyler Whitney.
He's the CEO of Midsouth Safety
Services, and when he took over this
business, he knew the brand needed to
reflect the real value they deliver.
Steve: And Tyler didn't
start this business.
He bought it, and that's part of what
makes his story really compelling
is he stepped into something that
had a history and a good reputation,
and then he reimagined the future.
Welcome back to the Growth-Minded
Marketing Podcast, the show for
growth-minded CEOs and their
marketing teams who want to scale
their companies, build a thriving
team, and grow in leadership.
I'm your host, Steve Phipps, and I am
joined by my co-host Annie Laurie Walters.
AnnieLaurie: We are talking with Tyler
Whitney, CEO of Mid-South Safety Services.
Tyler shares how he bought and
scaled a decades old business,
rebranded it for clarity and
leads with humility and purpose.
This episode is full of takeaways
about ownership, alignment, and
finding the tailwinds in your business.
Steve: Let's get into it.
All right, so this week on the
Growth-Minded Marketing Podcast,
I have with me as my guest, Tyler
Whitney, who is the CEO and the
owner of Midsouth Safety Services.
Tyler, I'm excited to
have you on the show.
So welcome.
Tyler: Yeah, thanks, Steve.
Glad to be here.
Steve: So Tyler, now you and I have
known each other for several years.
We were in Vistage together,
and of course we've worked
together, at Mids South Safety.
We've worked with you guys in
the past on your website and
marketing strategy and whatnot.
So excited to dig into, your
story and some of the lessons
that you've learned along the way.
Tyler: likewise, Steve, a lot
of those lessons that I think you
taught me along the way, and, so
it'll be fun to regurgitate some
of that and, throw it back at you.
Steve: And that's one of the reasons
I wanted to have you on the podcast
is because I love CEOs who have a
compelling story, and not just in terms
of their business, but just how they.
Live life.
Yeah.
And you and I share a common faith mm-hmm.
In Christ.
And, just, you live with integrity
and I see that, across the board.
And so, man, I would love for you to
share, how did you get started with
Mid-South Safety Services Tell a little
bit about what you do, what the company
does and how you got started there.
Tyler: Yeah, yeah.
Great question.
Midsouth Safety was originally
Midsouth emergency lighting.
I feel like I've owned and
run two different companies.
But it's all the same.
Just we rebranded it, about
two and a half years ago.
Yeah, Midsouth Safety Services,
in the, obviously in the Midsouth
area, Memphis, Tennessee area.
We are a fire and life safety company,
so we work with, commercial properties.
We're all business to business.
Work with commercial properties,
servicing fire and life safety systems.
So think, inspecting, exit signs,
emergency lights, fire extinguishers,
kitchen suppression systems.
There's several other.
Faucets to, fire protection.
But those are the three
that we play in right now.
Steve: When did you get started?
Because like you said,
originally it was Mid-South.
Yeah.
Emergency lighting.
Yeah.
Tyler: Yeah, that's right.
So bought the company
with a partner of mine.
In, may Of 2020.
He and I owned it together for five
years and I actually just bought
him out about two months ago.
And, that was part of our original plan
that we would do this for five years
and then I would fully take over a
hundred percent ownership from there.
I have run the day to
day, since May of 2020.
But now just have the
full ownership of it.
The desire to, to jump into
this really started back in
2014 I was working for a guy.
It was a small business in logistics
and, he he was an older gentleman,
but really took me under his wing and
pulled the curtain back on the company
and just allowed me to see everything.
I had been in business, I'd had an
undergraduate in business and had gotten
my MBA and it was either the first
time in my career, which is still.
Only four or five years old at
that point, of a business career.
But really began to apply
what all that I've learned.
And he showed me the practical side of the
business and also just watched his life.
He was a man of great character
and integrity and really grew to
admire him and look up to him.
And, decided that he was the kind
of guy I wanted to be like, and in a
position that he had of owning a company.
And I saw the impact that.
An employer could have on its employees.
And, so I began to
develop a vision for that.
Now that was 2014 and it took me about
six years to actually execute that.
Which in some ways felt like an eternity.
In other ways it felt like
I blinked and it went by.
But I recognized that I would
need a little bit more experience
and so I ended up moving on and
going out and getting some more
management experience, prior to that.
Because I know that you don't just decide
to be an owner, You actually gotta do it.
You actually gotta know how to Yeah.
Cast a vision and create that and,
recruit a team to join you in that.
So yeah, from the beginning of the
vision to the time we actually began to
implement it, it was about six years.
Kept my eyes, open for the next
six years on the opportunity
to buy a small business.
You can, get into business
ownership one of three ways.
You can start a business, you can inherit
a business, or you can buy a business.
And, starting it is okay
for a lot of people.
I didn't have any great ideas.
And as much as I am probably
labeled an entrepreneur, I
don't always feel that way.
I don't feel like I have the visionary
aspects of many entrepreneurs where
they can take an idea from scratch and
go out and just start a company and
recruit people to join it and go into the
marketplace and be successful that way.
I felt like it was, I was much more
likely to have success buying something
that had been around for a while
and taking it over and improving it.
And, I guess the third way is
you inherit a business, but
there weren't any businesses in
my family for that to happen.
Yeah, probably worked out for the
best that way and I got to go and
kind of cherry pick something.
So I just began to look and met with
some owners and man, just in passing,
I heard about this business called
Midsouth Emergency Lighting down in Olive
branch, and that the owner was, had been
very successful getting ready to retire
and, convinced him to take a meeting
with me, and for some reason he did.
It might be the biggest
mistake of his life.
It was probably one of the
biggest strengths I ever got.
I actually talked to him, I still
talk to him occasionally, and, I
think it was a good decision for him
too, where he at least says that,
but, it ended up being a win-win.
So, yeah, from fall of 2019, we started
negotiating it and convinced them
that I was the right guy to buy it.
And, the first thing he
asked in our meeting was, are
you capable of buying this?
Meaning, where are you gonna
get the money for this?
Because I was, early thirties
and hadn't been married that long
and didn't have any kids yet.
And I assured him I could figure
it out and he believed me.
And you did.
And we did.
We got it done.
You know, it was funny is we got
a deal kind of struck in January
of 2020 and then we went under due
diligence and began that process well.
You know, within two months the world
had shut down and, so we we ended up
postponing it about another two months.
We probably could have closed that spring
and we ended up pushing it to that summer.
Yeah.
But we never lost sight that we felt
like this is what God wanted us to do
and that this was the right business.
And the waters might be a little bit
choppy, in the short run, but we knew
over the long run, it would do well.
And a few years later, here we are,
Steve: Couple of things there.
One, I appreciate the fact that you
pointed out that in 2014 you had a mentor.
Yeah.
And that you've continued to have people.
Who you have met with and you're
very focused on developing your
leadership skills, and it's important
for CEOs to, to recognize owners, to
recognize what are your strengths.
Mm-hmm.
And as you said, you recognize,
to put this in perhaps in eeo s
terms, of the types of leaders,
you're more of an integrator.
It's not that you.
Lack vision.
Yeah.
But you, your strength is gonna be more
in how do we, like you said, taking
something and improving it as opposed to
starting something from the ground up and
Tyler: Yeah.
Steve: Casting that, I mean, I've heard
you cast vision, so you can certainly cast
vision, but I think, it's important as
you mentioned, recognizing what, what's
gonna be the best use of how you're wired.
Tyler: Yeah, that's exactly right.
And I think in a small business,
like we are, and like most
businesses are, the number one
thing they lack is good execution.
Mm-hmm.
there's enough ideas.
There's somebody in that
business that has a good idea.
Execution is typically what gets
lacked at the corporate level.
When you start getting into Fortune
500, 1000, you know let's just call
'em multi-billion dollar companies
visionaries become much more important.
And I'm not saying they're not important
at our level, but if you ended up sinking,
it's probably not from the visionary
perspective, it's probably 'cause the
integrator didn't integrate very well.
Steve: Yeah, yeah.
Well and a lot of times, we
visionaries have to play that
integrator role or That's right.
Quickly find people who can
handle more of that operational.
Type of responsibility
because that's right.
You've gotta have those processes,
especially as you scale.
You gotta the founders we've
gotta get outta the way.
And that's certainly a challenge for
folks that have started a company.
I mean, I can identify with that and yeah.
You know, going through different
transitions to, to get outta the way.
So I wanna dig into something that you
mentioned, of course, we got to be a
part , of working with y'all on this,
but just thinking in terms of, as you're
couple years into the business, and so
now you've got your arms around it and
you changed the name of the company.
Yeah.
And, and how long have the company
been around when you bought it?
With Midsouth Emergency Lighting
is the name and the brand.
Tyler: Yeah, it was, when we
bought it, it had been around for
44 years, so it was founded in
1976 and we bought it in year 44.
And in about six months,
we'll hit year 50.
Lord willing.
So when it was founded, all they
did, were service emergency lights,
so exit signs, exit combos, kind of
emergency wall packs, things like that.
About 10 years prior to us taking
over, they'd begun to get into
servicing portable extinguishers, and
we recognized early on, Hey, there's
a great opportunity for growth.
They kind of viewed it almost like
as a throw in or just kind of a.
Hey, we do this too, but it's
not really what we focus on.
And it was actually another Vistage
member down in Louisiana that I just
cold called one time and I went down and
visited his facility and he opened my
eyes up to no portable extinguishers is
a great place to live and, you can build
a pretty nice sized business on that.
Healthy profit margin,
sustainable, recurring.
And so as we looked to, to grow that side,
we were starting to tell our clients,
Hey, just so you know, we offer this too.
We'd love to bid it,
we'd love to quote it.
And they're like, man, we had
no idea you guys did this.
We've been doing it for years.
And servicing these clients year
after year and other things.
And so.
One of the common things that we, that
kept coming back was, your name says
emergency lighting in it, and that's
just all that we thought you did.
And so we realized pretty quickly we
need to drop this part of our name,
because it's very limiting and it's
not all that we offer, nor is it all
that we wanna offer in the future.
And we felt like after 44 years
that the Midsouth name had enough
recognition where it was worth keeping.
So we said, we'll keep the midsouth.
Let's drop the emergency light
and then what do you pick up?
And it was in doing a deep dive with
you, Steve and your team at WAY Find, and
we ended up leaning on safety services.
And part of that was in identifying
of what could our dominant
or competitive advantage be?
And one of those is just being
a premier safety services.
We don't do a whole lot
with new construction.
I think just where we play in the
market, we don't have a great advantage
there, but we do on the service side.
And, as we saw we were going into
the future, it was, we're not
just in fire and life safety.
We're in safety.
We keep building safe and we keep
people safe and we don't know all the
things that we're gonna get into in
the future, but it'll be in that niche.
Steve: Couple things I want to
point out and highlight there.
One is.
You were recognizing that
this was costing you business.
It was because to your point, name
says emergency lighting, and so it's
immediately that's gonna pigeonhole Yep.
The perception that people have.
So the name matters.
Yep.
And in, in that you were also, you
were looking towards the future
of what you could potentially
offer, not just what your current.
List of services included.
Correct.
So I think it's also, it's
important to note, especially as
you think about growing a business.
Mm-hmm.
Sometimes it is having
to rename it, rebrand it.
Sometimes it's just being cognizant
of what are the opportunities in the
marketplace where you potentially could
have an advantage over competitors.
Yep.
So what were some of , the potential,
roadblocks that you encountered
or maybe some of the, fears or the
concerns about changing a name that
had been around for 40 plus years?
Tyler: Yeah, the first thing was we'd
had clients that have been with us for
decades and had relied on us to service
their emergency lights, and if we drop
the name, are they gonna think that we're
less focused on that service or on them?
And so we wanted to alleviate
those concerns and right away and
say, no there's no less focus.
We're just also bringing
this other thing in.
Another thing is just what if we
were underestimating the amount
of brand recognition that we had?
The thing about Midsouth Emergency
lighting as a name is that it's limiting,
but it also establishes what you do.
It's pretty obvious.
We were in the emergency lighting
business servicing the midsouth.
The name was the tagline, if you will.
We didn't want it to be
that, but it was that.
And so in rebranding it to Midsouth
Safety Services, we then had to put
forth a lot more marketing effort into
reeducating our clients on who we are.
What we can offer and where we're
headed And we needed a name that
was broad enough to do that.
And so that, that's where we landed.
A lot of company names, they
don't tell you what you do.
The name itself doesn't.
We, we begin to associate services
and products with people, but
that's only because they pushed
their braining enough that where
we can associate it back to them.
Steve: So walk me through the process.
As you said, it was a process
of reeducating mm-hmm.
Your clients.
And so obviously there's
an opportunity in this.
I mean, there's a unique opportunity
when you do something like this.
So what were some of the steps
that you took to educate, reeducate
your clients and what sort of
response did you get from that?
Tyler: Yeah, well I'll
start with the response.
The response was incredibly
favorable, because it wasn't just
a renaming, but it was a refreshing
of a logo and color schemes and we
really did a deep dive into that.
I have a lot of respect for companies
that have to go through that because it's
a lot of work and it's kind of agonizing
work 'cause you're limiting it to this,
these one, two, maybe three colors.
In a name, in a logo.
Like once you establish it,
that kind of needs to be it.
And so it's gotta be something that
you can settle in with for a long time.
So the response was favorable.
How we actually executed it tactically
is sending out an email blast.
All of our clients.
It says, this is who we're now known as.
And that, that was really favorable
and we got a lot of responses back.
That said, that makes a lot of sense.
I'm glad you're doing that.
Rebranding company vehicles
putting it in email signatures.
One of the things that we really wanted
to do was remind everybody that we can
service your portable fire extinguishers.
And so we literally added a little
fire extinguisher icon into all of our
email signatures, into our invoices,
everything that we did, because we wanted
people to subconsciously think, when
you think portable fire extinguishers.
Midsouth safety services, and we were
gonna try to hit people as often as
they could, not just to push it on 'em,
but realizing that these people are
buying those services from someone else.
And you could then consolidate
vendors by going with us.
And the desire for us to work
towards being a one-stop shop
is what drove all of this.
In the midst of the rebrand, one of the
things that we did is really try to define
what are our competitive advantages?
What are we really good at?
Where are we better
than our competitors at?
And we identified a few things, but
one of the things that we identified,
not just what are we really good at,
but what could we be one day good at?
And it it almost the visionary takes
over to go back to the EOS term and you
begin to think, okay, we're not there
yet, but if we can get to this point.
It would be a really good competitive
advantage to have, and that was to be a
one-stop shop, never to sacrifice quality.
We had, certain clients or
potential clients tell us, Tyler,
I know you can do it better.
I know you can maybe even do
it cheaper, but there's just
already an incumbent in here and.
I just don't really want to deal
with getting rid of 'em right now.
And there's not enough there to
really throw them out because
they're doing sprinkler and fire
alarm and some other things for me.
So we're just gonna keep
'em in there for now.
And when someone tells you we don't
care if you can do it better or
cheaper, we're still not going with you.
You've really gotta begin to say,
okay, then what we're offering
isn't always going to be enough.
Sometimes you have to overcome one
additional hurdle, and we thought more
services we could offer would do that.
And, it's taken a long time, but we're,
we've been able to build out a kitchen
suppression division and hopefully, in the
next year or so, be fire alarms as well.
Steve: what's jumping out to me is.
As we think about growth strategies.
Mm-hmm.
And I mean, that's our mission here at
Wayfind is we want to help companies
grow so they can do more good.
Tyler: Mm-hmm.
Steve: And I, I'm hearing.
As you said, you've gotta
know your market, you've
gotta know your competitors.
You've gotta understand where
you differentiate in a way that's
meaningful to your customers.
So what is the value that you
bring that is different than,
or better than your competitors?
Let's just eliminate the whole thing here.
Price is not always the best, competitive
advantage if anybody's trying to make
that their competitive advantage.
That's, that can be a
really slippery slope.
So for folks who are listening and maybe
they're in a competitive marketplace
what sort of guidance would you offer
to them based on your experience of
not only assessing the marketplace as
it is now, but also in terms of where
you think it potentially could be?
A year, two years, three
years down the road.
Because you're taking not only
the short term, but you're
also looking at the long term.
Tyler: Yeah, yeah.
You know, I recently
looked up, the flight.
I love aviation and just.
Studying it and I looked up a flight route
and it was from New York to London and it
was like a six hour flight, six six and a
half hour flight from New York to London.
And then on the way back
from London to New York, it's
seven, seven and a half hours.
And I immediately knew what it
was, but most people wouldn't.
The Differe is one has a
headwind and one has a tail wind.
So from New York to London, you have a
tailwind from London back to New York.
You're flying the headwinds.
It's the same distance, it's the
same route, it's the same plane,
just one you've got a lot of
power behind you and the other one
you're fighting, against the wind.
So I think as you're looking out into
the future, and one of the things that
we're doing is saying we're the tailwinds
gonna be, one of the reasons why we wanted
to get into kitchen suppression is that
and just we're clear on what that is.
In a commercial kitchen, there's
a suppression system that's, over
the grease fryer or the oven or
the stove, something like that.
Fire breaks out suppression, and
leaches and consumes the fire, in a
way that a fire extinguisher may not.
So one, what I would say for a grip
strategies, look for the tailwind.
You want the wind blowing behind you.
You don't wanna be
fighting against something.
And what I see is a lot of entrepreneurs
or business owners, they're saying, I
have this idea and I want to make it work.
And they're trying to fit
that square peg into a round
hole and it just doesn't work.
So look for the tailwinds.
We were having clients or people
calling in asking us to service
their kitchen suppression system.
Mm-hmm.
Well, it's within fire protection,
but it wasn't on our website.
And so we were looking around
saying, why are they calling us?
They're calling us because there's a lot
of demand out there, and there's either
other people that aren't able to service
it or they're not servicing it well,
and oftentimes it wasn't that they were.
Unhappy with who they were using.
It was they were calling 'em and they
couldn't get 'em to come out because
that other company was so slammed.
To us that looked like a tailwind.
The headwind has been actually
finding the people that know how
to do it, because the people that
know how it's really, it's a craft.
And typically when someone's really good
at that, they're being well taken care of
by the company that they're working at.
And there's not a lot of 'em out there.
So look for tailwinds.
And then I would say secondly is
you gotta have a people strategy.
We realized that, if we could find
the right person to help us get into
this, that we could then train other
really good people how to do it.
And it's like you.
You need the seed before you
can get the tree and the fruit.
And so we had to go out and find the
seed, who could, we could bring into
the company and then begin to train
other people and build up this division.
So number one, growth strategy
would be look for a tailwind.
Number two is develop a people
strategy for how you're gonna
recruit, retain, and build.
as much as we wanna say, you know,
AI is gonna take over, AI is gonna
absolutely transform things, but
AI is not gonna take your job.
It'll be someone that knows how
to use ai, who will take your job.
And it's still gonna be about the people.
And, so part of our people strategy
was really define our core values.
Be able to go out and
assess who's gonna fit that.
So we use some, predictive assessment
software just to help us get
to know people because anybody
can fool you on an interview.
We wanna know what
they're really motivated.
And two years from now when the new
hire the shine is worn off from being
in the new role, then who are they?
'cause you need people who can stay with
you for years to build a valuable company.
Steve: These are, these are
really good insights here, Tyler.
And I love the analogy of the
flight and looking for the tailwinds
because I think it is easy.
Even as you're talking, I'm thinking
through some things that my team
and I have been talking about and
as AI, as you've already mentioned,
mean that's tremendously impacting
and shifting the marketing space.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And so as we're looking at where.
What are the opportunities that we see?
That's part of the evaluation.
And even some things I was just
talking to my wife about just a few
minutes ago I think sometimes we get
in our minds that there's a certain
way, or this is how I have to deliver
this service, or this is what it has
to entail, but there's a headwind.
Whether that's stiff competition,
whether that's just a long
runway before that can happen.
So I think there's a
lot of wisdom in that.
That's.
Don't get so locked into how
you think it has to be delivered
or what it has to be mm-hmm.
That you miss out on something
else, you miss out on.
That's right.
Maybe if you shift your gaze just a
little bit, you can see that there's
an opportunity that's right in front
of you that you've not been paying
attention to because you've been
so fixated on this other thing.
Knowing you and your orientation
towards building out processes and
being intentional is, especially as
a CEO, I mean, how, how many people
do you have on your team now, Tyler?
Tyler: Uh, there are 12 of us.
Steve: 12.
Okay.
You know, you get to a certain point
and you as the CEO can't do it.
Mm-hmm.
And there's a certain le there's
certain types of expertise that,
like you said, I mean, there's almost
a, it's sort of a craftsmanship.
Tyler: Mm-hmm.
Steve: Or an artisanship to that service,
and you can't just plug anybody into it.
Tyler: That's right.
Steve: And so it's also having the
patience to find the right person and
then a willingness to invest in them.
But I think too it's also.
You gotta let go of that responsibility.
You've gotta entrust that to somebody
else, but do the due diligence,
do the assessments, et cetera.
So, yep.
Tyler: Yeah.
Steve: Yeah,
Tyler: and that's a great point.
I've heard somebody say small
businesses don't stay small on purpose.
Very few business owners are like,
I'm just turning away business
'cause I don't want to get to it.
Typically, they want to grow the business.
They don't want to grow themself to
the point where they're willing to
get out of the way and go out and
hire a players to do things that.
Not just to do things that they can
take off their plate to do things
that they might even be better at.
We're hiring that a player and bringing
'em on your team might bring new,
a new capacity or a new dimension
to your team and they may wind up
overshadowing you as the entrepreneur
man and having a low enough ego, right,
to spot that and to go out and get 'em.
'cause they're out there.
A lot of times we can't attract because
that quote unquote, a player doesn't think
he can mesh with you, as the entrepreneur.
So,
Steve: man, you're stepping on toes here.
No, this is good.
Tyler.
This is fantastic.
So Tyler, if there's one piece of
advice that you could give to that CEO,
that entrepreneur, that business owner
they're wanting to grow their business
or wanting to grow their company.
Yeah.
What, what's one piece of advice that
you would give them in that direction?
Tyler: Yeah, I mean, it's nuanced.
I'm hesitant to get blanket advice
that would properly apply to everybody,
but I would say this, I think it's
know the value that you provide.
A lot of times we're, there's,
you have a great team, you have
hardworking people with well intentions.
You just don't have the
right product market fit.
So be able to actually describe
like the value that you can
provide to an ideal client.
And know how big the market is.
Sometimes you're not growing 'cause
you just butted up against maybe
you've saturated the market with
what you do, or you've saturated it
with the value that you can provide.
And oftentimes it's not until we can
clearly understand the value that we
provide, that we can also understand
the value that we don't provide.
And we're trying to grow in an
area where we don't have a dominant
advantage in, and we're hitting up
against that ceiling, if you will.
But I think in being able to
clearly articulate the value that
you provide, it's it forces you to
get brutally honest with yourself.
And yeah, it does, can open up
new ideas for new possibilities.
Steve: Fantastic.
I love that.
And the only thing I would add to
that, just man this is another podcast
episode that we could dig into Yeah.
On knowing the value that you bring.
Yeah, of course.
We've walked through this process and so
you, I've, you and I've had this, a lot of
conversations around this, but I think it
gets down to, I, you're not clear on it.
Your customers aren't
gonna be clear about it.
Yeah.
And.
Don't assume that if you think
you're clear about it, that your
customers are clear about it.
So it's not just about
the value that you bring.
Yeah.
But do your customers
understand that value?
And can you communicate that in
a way that helps them understand
how you help solve their problems
and how you do it differently
or better than your competitors?
And again, that's a
whole different episode.
But Tyler, thank you so much for.
Joining us on the podcast,
man, I love hearing more of
your story, and again, yeah.
I always have some takeaways
from our conversations.
Yeah.
And, man, so good.
Thanks for being on here.
Tyler: Yeah, man.
Likewise, Steve.
It was a pleasure and I've loved
working with you for the years
that, that we have and it's fun.
Even now we're work still
working on projects together,
trying to better our business.
And that's one of the things I love
about working with you and your team
is that everybody's always trying
to get better and it never ends.
And that's the fun part
of being an entrepreneur.
There's always something to work on, man.
Isn't that the truth?
All thanks everybody.
Thanks Tyler.
Alright, see you Steve.
Thanks.
AnnieLaurie: Steve, there's so much in
Tyler's story that I think will resonate
with a lot of people listening today.
Steve: Yes, especially the idea of
flying with the tailwind instead of
forcing your way into the headwind.
, That's a simple but powerful way to think
about strategy and, and quite honestly,
that's something that I've been thinking
about ever since my interview with Tyler.
AnnieLaurie: Really?
Tell me more.
Steve: It is simple, but it's helping me
think about even for way find marketing,
what are some of the opportunities that
may not have been what I initially thought
we needed to focus on, but that could be
the right opportunity at the right time.
Sometimes it's just shifting the focus a
little bit and seeing some opportunities
that are a really good fit for the time.
And you know, for instance, right
now we're doing more and more with AI
and marketing and so I think there's
some unique opportunities that even a
few months ago might not have been on
my radar, but that I think could be
really good opportunities for way find.
AnnieLaurie: It reminds me of a quote
I wrote down from a book I was reading
not long ago, and it said, don't
run against the win, run with it.
So basically the same mentality.
Um, you can definitely do more faster
when you do that, but another thing
that really struck me with the interview
is the way he reshaped the company.
Not just the name, but how he
communicated the value and the vision.
That's a real leadership move.
So I wanted to ask a few follow
up questions for you, Steve.
Just what stood out to you most from
Tyler's story about buying a business
instead of just starting one from scratch?
Steve: it's a good picture of
how not every CEO or business
owner is wired the same.
There's not just one way
to become a business owner.
In some cases it is starting
something from the ground up.
I mean, that's what I did with
way find marketing, but it
doesn't mean it's the only way.
And in, Tyler's case, he recognized
what his skillset was and he had the,
the opportunity and the resources to
be able to pursue that as an option.
And clearly we see that has
worked out really well for Tyler.
AnnieLaurie: Tyler talked about
tailwinds where your marketing is already
nudging you in a certain direction.
What are some signs a CEO could look
for to identify their own tailwinds?
Steve: I think the first thing is more
of an introspective, perspective.
That is before they can even
see the tailwinds or those
opportunities, that are before them.
They've gotta ask whether or not
they're looking outside of whatever.
If their current vision is, or
whatever their current priorities , are
they open to other opportunities?
Are they stepping back?
Are they asking people to challenge them?
And especially with ai shifting
a lot of things right now is an
opportunity in a lot of spaces and
industries to reassess and reevaluate
where are the opportunities.
AnnieLaurie: What are some ways
a business leader can know when
it is time to change the brand?
Steve: We've seen this play out with
clients in a couple of different ways.
We've seen in the case of Tyler,
the recognition that the name, in
their case, Mid-South Emergency
Lighting, was very limiting.
So in some cases it's
not difficult to see.
One company I'm thinking through a couple
years ago, their company had been the
merger of several others, and so the name
was more of a pragmatic naming convention
for the industry that they're in and
they wanted to step back and evaluate.
Does this company name still fit us for
who we are now and where we're headed?
And so with them, it ended up not being
so much a rename or rebrand, but they did
clarify some things about their naming
and how they wanted to present themselves.
And internally it gave them.
A more updated sense of what
they were about, what the name
represented of their, company.
as far as knowing when it's time
to change the brand, it can be
very practical, pragmatic thing.
Sometimes it's more of the
internal, is there a better option?
There's another, past client that
we've worked with that's a part of a
group of companies and what they've
wrestled with is the naming convention
of their business that do they need to
be unified with a single company name?
Does it need to be, each brand
has its own name, but then
it's, you know, a a BC company.
And so there there's different
reasons that can cause that.
And as far as, mindset, I think
that the big thing there is.
One, approaching it from the
CEO's perspective of the adage
be curious, not judgmental.
Approach it with curiosity.
Just because you're considering changing
the name doesn't mean you're going
to, and if you do, then it becomes
really important to communicate
clearly what's happening and why, and,
and there's opportunity within that.
Is there gonna be confusion at some point?
Yes.
Because it, there's a lot of logistics
behind it but that can be handled and
managed , when it's done thoughtfully.
AnnieLaurie: Tyler emphasized knowing
the real value your company delivers.
How can CEOs evaluate whether
their current value proposition
is truly meaningful, not just
to them, but to their customers?
Steve: Ask their customers.
Sometimes
AnnieLaurie: the best
answer is the easiest one.
Steve: Yeah.
It's interview your customers.
Ask them why they value what you do or
what do they value about what you do.
That's, that's a simple thing.
Talk to your customers.
Do a survey if you need to.
And I would even say listen to your
salespeople when they're communicating,
when they're, helping prospects
understand what you do and why it matters.
What are the words that they're using?
Does it align with what you perceive
to be the value proposition?
And ultimately, is it moving the needle?
Is it helping drive new customers?
Does it resonate with them?
AnnieLaurie: He also talked
about people strategy.
What's one way CEOs can get out
of their own way and create the
conditions to attract top talent,
even if they're not a big company yet?
Steve: Yeah, I think back to, uh, a
John Maxwell book I read years ago, and
one of the things that he talked about
was surrounding yourself with experts,
surround yourself with smart people.
Don't be afraid to hire somebody
that's better at something than you.
And so I think when it comes to
building a team, there's an honesty
and a humility of recognizing what are
you as the CEO best equipped to do?
What are you best at?
And then who can you hire?
Who can you bring onto your
team to be the best at the other
things that need to be done?
I think part of that's
just the acknowledgement.
You can't do everything.
You're not the expert in everything.
You've gotta trust other people.
And I think that's especially important
for founders who are growing companies.
I've wrestled with that sometimes
the biggest challenge is, is
me getting outta my own way.
AnnieLaurie: You know,
as I'm listening to this, I see
how all of this connects back to
our guide marketing framework.
Tyler May not have named it that way, but
you can see it throughout his approach.
Steve: Oh, absolutely.
Our guide framework was designed
specifically to help CEOs step
back, evaluate marketing, and lead
with the same clarity that they
bring to the rest of the business.
Our framework helps identify what's
working and what's getting in the way.
AnnieLaurie: We created the
B2B marketing assessment.
It's a simple, practical tool that
gives you a clear picture of what's
working, what's not, and where
to focus next, and you can find
this assessment on our website.
Steve: Taking the assessment only takes
about five or 10 minutes, and it covers
the five key areas of your marketing
strategy and messaging, online presence,
content, sales, and measurement.
AnnieLaurie: we're so
glad you joined us today.
We hope Tyler's story gave you some fresh
perspective and a few practical takeaways
that you can bring back to your team.
Steve: Please share this episode with
another CEO or someone on your team.
Chances are they are facing
similar questions, and this might
just be the insight they need.
AnnieLaurie: We'll see you next time
on the Growth-Minded Marketing Podcast.