I have the best relationships with my clients. They are really great, and Fenton is no exception. I started my business relationship with Fenton in June of 2018. I run ad management for his company: Fenton Miller, LLC.
Now, full disclosure here: Fenton is my wife’s grandfather. But he isn’t just that, at least not to me. Fenton is someone I look up to a lot, both in business, and in life. I would consider Fenton successful in my book, so I thought it would be a good idea to have a conversation with him so everyone could see why I look up to him and get an inside look at why he has been successful and maybe apply that to your business
To learn more about his business and also mine, I asked Fenton if he would be interested in doing an interview for my audience. He agreed. We talk about his new business, and how he decided to work with me.
You can watch the entire video HERE.
Shawn: “So, for our audience, tell us a bit about yourself and your company.”
Fenton: “I worked for somebody else for most of my life until early 2002 when I retired from Mary Kay Incorporated and started an IT business and that’s been going all this time. Then in 2018 I started another business as an inventor. As of today we have 2/5 Fence post extractors that are proven and ready to go. A company can streamline their business make it easier and safer for their workers and save money as well.”
We also talked about how long he had been in business for himself and some of the struggles he has had along the way!
Fenton: “I did most of my homework, but we did 2 things at once that made it harder. We lived in DFW but we moved to south Texas to where at the time a lot of our family was. So we came back to an area I hadn’t been to in probably 20+ years. But I had an IT background, so I got all the business things together: QuickBooks and website, that kind of things. Only thing I didn’t have going when we hit the ground running in January 2002 is I just assumed I was going to do it! So We didn’t have a lot of cash. We could have made it but, I didn’t have a lot. And fortunately using in those days calling and mailing, which doesn’t work very well anymore, That’s how I got started and got customers who are still with me today actually.”
Shawn: “So did you have any struggles and did you fail at all?”
Fenton: “Rejection of calling. If anyone has done that, to get out there and get to customers, in other words it’s a big rejection process. Mailing helps a little bit because you get something out there and if they even read it, and then your going to call them and most people wont even do that because of the rejection. And so its like probably not even 80/20 its 90/10 where 90% don’t even want to hear from you. Lucky if you find 10% that will take you forward.”
We also shared a few laughs. My dogs interrupted us, and Fenton’s customers have some humor as well.
Shawn: “Tell us a funny story about something that happened with you and a customer/client.”
Fenton: “Yeah I was working with a customer since the very beginning and I mentioned earlier I was going mail outs. This customer was a large construction company and they weren’t very technical at all. The wife and daughter ran the office and the wife needed to do something with an excel spreadsheet and I’m not, I was not then and am not now an Excel Guru, but I knew my way around. Her husband happened to see my mail out and he said I bet this guy can help you out! And so she called me and we did whatever she needed to get done and they’ve been my customer for over 15 years. They are little, but little ones are good.”
Then I asked Fenton to say a few words on why he decided to work with me in the first place. I know some potential clients I’ve spoken to can be hesitant.
Fenton: “Basically I’ve been starting my new business and building a website and usual stuff. The only thing I had going was I hired some SEO guys from Bangladesh. SEO is a long process and it was going nowhere, and I was watching Shawn with his marketing and I thought maybe we should give this a try. And so Before that I had made some videos and its unbelievable what these tools can do. We had only proven the tools for wood post. We had one that we did fast motion (video) that was like 16 seconds. Literally you can take a fence post with concrete out of the ground in about 5 minutes. And so Shawn put that up and I think because of what he’s doing putting it out there in front of the right people and with that video because its so unbelievable and Kalee helping us too, we have gotten a lot of activity and so I’m really pumped. We are pausing that because we need to get more tools out there.”
Shawn: “The video is something that, I’ve had several people in my networking circle that have reached out to me and have said “what is that thing because I see you sharing it, what is it?” So I think the video is a really good creative with Facebook ads it makes people stop and makes people want to watch it which is why your results have been so good.”
Fenton: “But If you hadn’t put it where you put it. I put this video on YouTube and I got thousands of hits, but no clicks. I had it on amazon, eBay etc. and didn’t get anything on those things. I even did google AdWords, but it wasn’t the volume and nothing matched what Facebook was able to do and that’s because its Facebook and your attentiveness on putting it in the right direction.”
He also spoke about what I could do for other businesses that aren’t a unique niche like his.
Fenton: “Well, in other words it’s not that expensive when you compare to anything else. And My stuff is tougher because of what it is. If I was a realtor or had a store front, or something like that. I think you could drive so much business to them it would be unbelievable and I’m not just saying that because it’s you and me.“
Here is what Fenton had to say about his company, what they offer, and how you can get in touch with him if you’d like to purchase one of his amazing products.
Fenton: “Basically what I did is I setup a website where you can purchase the devices I have out there. Along the way we figured out that there may be some sticker shock because of the smaller companies that are out there. So we also have the ability to rent, doesn’t matter where you are, it makes sense for us to rent those out. It’s semi-automatic that you rent them out. It doesn’t make sense to get them to rent companies yet because nobody knows of them yet. I’m hoping we get the word out doing what we are doing. I think between renting and purchasing, its really a no brainer because if they do some volume with these devices it’s a long term payback meaning it will pay off quickly and just keep giving back.“
One lead we talked to, he was talking about he did 70 fence posts and your extractor is going to pay for itself in one job at that rate, and one job for that thing is super heavy duty and will last forever. So Everyone please go to http://www.fentonmiller.com and also check out FentonMiller, LLC on Facebook.
For everyone who is reading to this and I hope you got some value and insight into what it is like to be a small business owner and if it is right for you. And Fenton I want to thank you for being my client and also for agreeing to do this interview.
Until next time, Thanks for reading!
