Ask The Pool Guy

FAQs

• What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?

  As pool industry professionals, we are always learning, always expanding our skills. Whether your company installs a huge volume of manufactured pools or creates a handful of unique custom poolscapes, you learn something new with each job. With the never-ending flow of new products and techniques, the learning curve is more like a spiral, a continually expanding cycle of learning that takes everyone in the industry up a notch with each turn. Yet as professionals, we are often expected to be the “go-to” guys for our customers and others in the business. In that role, we must exude that confidence to be credible. It can be a tricky balance — staying open to new ideas and new information, while at the same time being confident in our own skills so we can speak with authority. As our “Ask the Pool Guy” brand has become more popular, my team and I often find ourselves in the position of being mentors to others in the industry. And I will tell you, it’s a humbling experience to know that the words I say have meaning to someone else. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was a rookie in this industry, soaking in all the knowledge I could and often learning the hard way. Somewhere along the line I turned that corner and became a trusted source. Yet I’m always looking for ways to improve on my skills. The same is true for my personal life: Everyone I meet has something in them that I can learn from and grow on. I have opinions — really strong opinions — and these are most often based on personal experience. Physically seeing something and witnessing the results makes it real for me, makes it “true” if you will. And that’s what I tried to project to others. I want you to trust in what I say not just because I said it, but because it’s based on some amount of hard evidence or proof. You see, truth is a sliding scale: An event can happen, and four different witnesses can report four entirely different experiences. We all see the world through our own set of filters, and this impacts the way our brains interpret things. What’s helped me continue to grow and establish my authority is to recognize the mentors I’ve had in my life. Some of these mentors are well-known in the industry. Many of our well known industry leaders in design and construction of pools and water features have inspired me — and probably many of us — by building amazing careers around their own unique style of projects. There are the people I consider “industry mentors,” and I am so grateful for what I’ve learned from them. Almost more importantly are the mentors that changed me just by doing great things in their own industries. I could recognize traits and apply them to my industry and my craft. Other people have influenced my life on a more personal level, helping to form the person that I am, and influencing the underlying approach to my work. These kinds of mentors show up if you stay aware and open to learning. I truly believe that we can learn something from everyone we meet if we only allow ourselves to be open. Continuing to grow in your craft requires a dedication to learning and evolving, and there are so many people you will meet along the way who can help. You never know who your next mentor is going to be and how they are going to change your life. All you have to do is slow down and listen.

• What types of customers have you worked with?

  Swimming Pool Services, openings, closings, vinyl liner replacements, renovations, concrete work, new swimming pool installation, pumps, heaters, filters, basically anything that you need to enjoy your swimming pool season we can provide.

• Describe a recent project you are fond of. How long did it take?

  So many of us start out in this business building pools for the mass market; basic designs for basic budgets, nothing really special or unique, but there’s plenty of customers to buy what we are building. If volume is your thing, then this might be a business model that makes good sense. For us, this wasn’t the kind of business we wanted. Rather than quantity, we were hungry for creativity. We didn’t care so much about how many pools we built; we just wanted each of them to be truly unique. And we wanted to do it locally, staying in southeast Michigan while we grew. Crazy? Maybe, but it’s not the first time I’ve been accused of that (and probably not the last). Granted, Michigan is not the first place you think of as a hot spot for the pool industry. Between the tough climate (we have just a few good months of pool weather every year) and the economy (Michigan is always among the first to feel the pinch, and the last to recover) we’ve got our share of challenges. And we did it anyway. In thinking back on how we did it, how we built a high-end artistic hybrid pool company by tapping our local market, I realized there were three major turning points for us along the way. Famous for What? I spent a lot of time researching and paying attention to builders that were known for original, creative projects instead of building standard, basic-budget pools. I studied the types of projects they built, the materials they were using, and the ways they were putting their projects together. I became really good at identifying each local builder by their individual style. From this knowledge I envisioned the kinds of pools I would build when I had the budgets they were working with. In other words, I started to define what I’d be known for – completely custom artistic hybrid pools. I realized, as I studied the companies that I admired that were doing this, that they were dealing with an entirely different type of clientele. They certainly weren’t the kind of client I was used to having, with set budgets and set expectations as to what a “pool” means. So I asked myself, “How can I find a client who is willing to hire me to do this different thing I want to try?” As I talked to more and more prospects, I found a very receptive audience when I suggest a new idea or an unusual design. The key was in having a clear idea of the kinds of pools I wanted to build, and asking my clients to let me do it. Once I could articulate my vision, they began to say yes. How Much are You Worth? I’ve shared this story before, about my customer who was so pleased with the final results that he told me flat out I could have charged 50% more for the project and he would have happily cut me a check. This blew me away, as I began to realize that not only were my skills and craft advancing with each project, my value was going up accordingly. People were not just buying my pool building skills; they were not buying the concrete and the boulders and the rock and the tile. They were buying my art and my creativity, the part of my business that feeds my soul and keeps me slogging through the concrete day after day. Sure, there were some new things we tried that we didn’t make a ton of money on. But we never gave our work away, like some folks in the industry recommend. Once you realize what you are worth, you can charge accordingly without hesitation. This is a critical step in finding clients with those dream budgets. They don’t expect you to work for cheap; they expect to pay for the skills you bring to the project. We started out building $25K pools, then made the leap to $30-40K pools. At the time, that seemed like a huge, scary leap to make. But we did it, and we pushed on. The leap to $50K was a turning point for us, so much so that the next big jump, to $75K, didn’t feel like such a big jump after all. From there, we thought if we can build a $75K pool, why not $100K or $150K, and so on. It’s just a number on a piece of paper, after all. Tell the Right Story What we quickly realized is our ideal customer is not looking for a pool, they are hoping to create a lifestyle experience in their backyard. To provide that, we have to know why they are spending that kind of money, and understand what they expect to get out it. They weren’t doing it to impress their neighbors, or improve their property value. They were doing it to create an experience that suited their family, something specifically and uniquely their own. Once we knew this, we could market to this audience using messaging that would resonate. We knew we were only going to get a very small percentage of the local pool buying market—and we were totally okay with that. We now had a voice and story to share that would resonate with the right clients, the ones who were looking for what we had to offer. Social media and online marketing was the perfect vehicle for our marketing, as we were able to tap into an audience that was really receptive to what we had to say. Ultimately, it was this process—defining what we wanted to do; understanding the value of what we offer; and telling the right story to the right people—that got us out of that basic “starter pool” mentality and helped us create a thriving niche business that we love.