How To Scale Digital Marketing In Home Services With Peter Ruchti

In this episode, I’m joined by Peter Ruchti, the founder of Adept Plus, who has turned a solo digital marketing venture into a thriving agency specializing in home services. Peter reveals the challenges he faced in moving from freelancer to leader, from the hurdles of delegation to establishing trust within his growing team. We dive into the balance between using cutting-edge technology like AI and maintaining the personal touch that’s essential in client relationships. Peter sheds light on his approach to freedom, discussing how financial security and time flexibility allowed him to focus on growth and explore new industry trends. As we discuss the future of digital marketing, particularly for contractors and home service providers, Peter provides actionable insights on scaling effectively and staying adaptable. Whether you're leading a team, looking to scale, or trying to integrate the latest digital tools without losing the human connection, this episode will guide you through the nuances of growing a digital marketing agency in today’s fast-evolving landscape.


Connect with Peter Ruchti:
  
If you’re ready to elevate your approach to digital marketing and want to explore the latest in AI-driven strategies, connect with Peter Ruchti at Adept Plus. Reach out to him via email for insights and ideas that can help you navigate today’s fast-evolving digital landscape. 

Books Mentioned:

• The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier

Join the New Catalytic Leadership Community

Check out our new online membership site, with new resources by Dr. William Attaway and his team added weekly: https://checkout.catalyticleadership.net/

Chapters

• 0:01 Beginnings in Digital Marketing
• 4:22 Transitioning Leadership
• 6:55 Building Trust within the Team
• 10:49 Defining Freedom in Business
• 14:58 Future of Digital Marketing
• 18:17 The Power of Human Connection
• 20:06 Intentional Leadership Growth

Transcript

Dr. William Attaway: 0:00

It is an honor today to have Peter Ruckthe on the podcast. Peter's the visionary founder of Adept Plus, a leading firm in web marketing for home service providers, including radon and pool contractors. With a deep understanding of digital marketing and a commitment to innovation, peter has positioned Adept Plus as a crucial ally for contractors who are seeking to enhance their online presence. Peter has shared his expertise as a speaker at the AARST conference, emphasizing his deep knowledge and thought leadership in the industry. Under his stewardship, adept Plus has flourished, offering tailored marketing solutions that address the specific needs of the home services sector. His leadership and dedication to client success have established Adept Plus as a trusted partner for businesses navigating the digital landscape, continually pushing the envelope in service innovation and client satisfaction. Peter, I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for being on the show.

Peter Ruchti: 1:06

Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here. I'm looking forward to our conversation today.

Dr. William Attaway: 1:11

I have too.

Intro/Outro: 1:14

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.

Dr. William Attaway: 1:30

Here's where I want to start. I'd love for you to share a bit of your story with our listeners, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader. How did you get started? A leader, how did you get?

Peter Ruchti: 1:43

started An interesting question I I had always, you know, growing up I loved um, maybe, inventing products or, uh, maybe not physical products, but in the, in the web space, uh, whether it was um in in middle school, I loved like doing coding with my friends and we would make all sorts of random things with no, with no direction, um, but in my early, I think the beginning of the journey started in high school where my uncle came to me and said hey, peter, I'm looking for a website. I know you know how to build them. Uh, could you build one for me? And I was like well, sure, I'll try. He's like how much do you charge? And I think I said $225. And about 100 hours of work later I had, I had built a website that I was super proud of. And, long story short, he was like this is great, I've got two more for you. And then I had another two and and and. So that that that's actually what kickstarted uh kind of in high school like my freelancing career.

Peter Ruchti: 2:51

Um, and eventually, um, several years later, cause I was still in school, but in in in college, um, things were starting to to gear up uh quite a bit more.

Peter Ruchti: 3:01

We had a lot more um clients coming in. We were winning more and bigger proposals Uh, I should say that's relative bigger than $225, but, um, um, but that got me to the point to where I was able to afford, uh, my first hire, which was so exciting because then we realized, hey, rather than having to do the, let's say, um the sales work and then the design work and the strategy and all the pieces, I was able to bring in somebody to help with the development. And so I hired somebody part-time, um, eventually, uh, bringing it up to full-time. But that's where my journey really started as a leader, because, um, I started to realize, hey, this isn't, it's, it's no longer just me, um, doing kind of everything and, um, staying up all night coding websites. Now, this is um, hey, now we're starting to form into a team, and one employee grew to two and two kept growing and growing, and so's a long story short, that that's. That's really where the beginnings of Adept Plus were. Wow.

Dr. William Attaway: 4:10

You know, every story is a little bit different and I imagine one of the things that you have had to learn to do as you have grown and added more and more team members is figuring out where you fit in, figuring out where you need to be involved and where you need to be more hands-on and where you need to learn to step back as the agency grows. How do you balance that?

Peter Ruchti: 4:38

Balancing that, or saying that implies that I am balancing it well, that I that implies that I am balancing it well, um, and I think, I think that's a that that's a challenge that every leader has, because you know, in some ways, um, you, as the founder or the CEO are, are responsible for a huge amount of uh things and it things can ultimately roll back up to you, um, but at the same time, same time, you know, leadership is also about taking people and putting them in their best work environment so they can succeed and do what they do best, and they certainly cannot do that in an environment that's micromanaged but they still need support in. So I think that it's definitely something of a constant reminder, of trying to remind myself on a daily basis when should I be involved in, when should I allow them to, to maybe either fail or succeed in that and learn from that and try to I try to show up as more of a coach to that rather than a doer to that to that rather than a doer to that.

Dr. William Attaway: 5:45

What does that look like with clients? You know, so often when somebody starts a business the clients are kind of one to your personal involvement. You know you're the founder and you being involved is a big deal to them. And then you start to hire people to help you with fulfillment. They don't see as much of you. How do you navigate that?

Peter Ruchti: 6:08

You know, it took a lot of getting used to because, like, yeah, like you said, I knew every single person on a first name basis and they knew who I was, and now we're at the size of where there's a lot of clients that I don't know, that I've never met, and, granted, it's been a gradual progression which has helped significantly. It wasn't just all of a sudden. There's a cold change, but I think that in order to navigate that, there's had to be a lot of processes that I've had to put in place for me to feel at peace with that. At peace with that, granted, I mean, it starts with trusting your people, because if you can't trust that, if you can't trust your people with these clients, that's that'll never, ever work, because you'll have mistrust there or that mistrust is correct and your clients aren't being treated the way that you expect them to be.

Peter Ruchti: 7:05

Yes, I think that there's a lot of KPIs, too, that we can put into place, that we're, that we've either have been implementing or are continuing to, especially related to feedback and results, because we know that, at the end of the day, our clients come to us, for those two things is one is good results, that their phones are ringing with new jobs. And two, that they had a great experience with us. That's professional, that's um, friendly. But they that they had a great experience with us that's professional, that's friendly. But they realize that they have a partner on their side to help them navigate this as if it's their own business. And so we've tried to really structure our programs and our procedures to make sure that we're rolling back to that data, to make sure that they are being delivered on those two things and, like I said, if those two things are, are the KPIs are going well, the the chances of errors are very minimal.

Dr. William Attaway: 7:55

It's so true. The systems and processes that you develop matter a tremendous deal. I love how you started. There, though, is around trust. You know trust is is an incredibly valuable commodity on a team, and when you're the owner, if you start to lose trust in your team members, that's when you start. Well, I'll just jump in here, I'll just put my hands in, I'll just get involved, and that can be the death knell for the effectiveness of a team. How do you resist that urge sometimes? How do you increase the trust level with your team and decrease that temptation to?

Peter Ruchti: 8:35

just jump in? That's a really interesting question Because and it's not just that my trust with them, but they probably, you know people will recognize if I'm not trusting them, they're going to see that and they'll probably reciprocate that back to me, um, as um, and so I know that if I were to just jump in and override something that they're doing, um, I can't expect them not to trust me or it's going to, it's going to put them in a place of uncertainty and, uh, it's not a predictable behavior. Um, so some of it, so some of it is is that's been a just a. You learn the hard way, right, you? You go into a situation you realize, hey, something's broken and after a while you know you start to recognize, hey, if you're the one to always fix that, or if you're the one to always recognize the issues, it's exhausting and and um, and your team is there to help you do that. No-transcript, not just for not overriding them, but, um, realizing that this is about trust and teamwork.

Dr. William Attaway: 10:08

Um, yeah, that's good. You know. So many people in the entrepreneurial community start a business, you know, for one of three reasons. They want time freedom, they want location freedom, they want financial freedom. It's usually one or more of those, sometimes it's all three, you know, and as you have grown and as you have scaled and added more team members, this has provided more time freedom for you. You're not doing all the fulfillment. You're not doing everything yourself for every client. Like you said, you can't. It's scaled to a point now where that's not possible. What does freedom look like from where you're sitting today compared to, maybe, where you were three, four, five years ago?

Peter Ruchti: 10:50

I'm glad you contrast that, because that's exactly it. It changes over time. A long time ago, like when I was starting off, what freedom meant was you could pay your bills, which, and you know you can maybe have you can save a little bit, a little bit of money, and and, and that's what freedom looked like. Um, for me. Right now, I think, freedom looks like um, really I'm, I'm, I've been really feeling really blessed and fortunate and, where I'm at especially time wise, because I can spend time on the things that I want to do, um, and so I spend a lot of my time these days working in products to make our um, just our programs better, implementing AI and things like that, and so I, um, I like to move around a lot and, and so, um, but I also no longer have to work, uh, well, 80 hours a week or even 40 hours a week, like before.

Peter Ruchti: 11:46

Um, it's, it's interesting, um, especially on the financial side, because now my bills are paid and a lot more, and so the the freedom in that is for me is being able to use those funds to reinvest or to go faster on certain things, because now we can afford to bring in really talented and really smart people, um, uh, to make things better, rather than me feeling like I'm the only way to implement that, and I like that. And last, like you had mentioned, is location. It's great we're all remote now we got rid of our office and so we truly can work remotely anywhere we want, but I think that it's for, uh, for me especially. For a long time it was on the financial side, um, having that freedom, but, um, to me, time is is, is it feels like every year, you feel more and more important to me.

Dr. William Attaway: 12:43

That's good. What does goal setting look like for you today?

Peter Ruchti: 12:50

What does goal setting look like for you today? Today, I'm thinking probably somewhere between the neighborhood. I do still think quarter to quarter ahead, but I'm largely trying to think more big picture, just because our current quarters are usually pretty well baked before at the start of it. So I'm thinking both hey, what are the? Where can we be at three to five years in terms of rapid growth?

Peter Ruchti: 13:18

So maybe some of that is number of clients, revenue, team size, but also team structure gets fascinating the bigger that we get, although at the same time, it's interesting because this year I've actually spent quite a bit of time also only thinking a couple months ahead when it comes to things like AI implementation or changes to processes and things like that, because that world is changing so fast and just as soon as you, you implement it, open, ai comes out with their next version, and so, um, and that's a lot of fun, I do enjoy that and so, um, I'm trying to think of things as maybe production and capacity and product is is let's, let's focus on these next few months for implementing these fast things, but still trying to set that vision ahead of somewhere between three years out.

Dr. William Attaway: 14:13

You know there was a time in the not so distant future where people talked in terms of you know your 10, your 15, your 20 year goals and I love how you just described how you're thinking. You know with quarters, you know up to three. I think the pace of change has dramatically increased and I think you know you mentioned AI. I mean the industry trends are so interesting to me, with your perspective and being in this field now for as long as you have been, what are you seeing as far as industry trends right now? What do you see as what's coming? What are you playing around with and seeing hey, let's see if this has any merit to it going forward.

Peter Ruchti: 14:58

And that alone could be a two-hour conversation. I know right To try to summarize, I'll maybe give you some big picture examples and big picture could be in the next couple of years and then some tactical day-to-day. We're already seeing that using OpenAI for, let's say, a Google replacement, I think a lot of people are already recognizing it's far better Rather than having to search for something. Figure out, did I search the right thing? Go through a bunch of pages. All those pages have ads. Right now you can get that answer even faster and detailed to exactly that information you're looking for, and it's written just for you. And so that starts to think of. Well then, how are consumers, with the context that we're serving a lot of home service providers or contractors? So then, if homeowners hire those people, how are homeowners going to be using this instead of what we know today of the normal Google search? And how do we start to future-proof and get ahead of that? That's good. That certainly is one really big thing, and I think it's going to take a long time for behavior to change relatively. But I suppose, compared to other big innovations in the past, this is going to look fast. Compared to that big innovations in the past. This is this is going to look quickly, look fast compared to that Um.

Peter Ruchti: 16:32

Um, on a day to day basis where we've worked, we pretty well look at every single thing we do and figure out can we streamline this with with AI?

Peter Ruchti: 16:36

Um, there's two lenses that we look through with. That One is can we take a process and make that faster, or is there something that we couldn't do before that we can now do and serve as part of our program with AI? And it's important, I think, to look through those two lenses separately, because a lot of people will start to think about how can I implement? They just get overwhelmed so quickly because the or you go down a rabbit trail, and I think it's important to stay disciplined on. Hey, are we trying to make, are we trying to accelerate the cycle time of a process or are we trying to do something new? And that really can apply to every single thing we do, just about the. I mean SEO, to Google Ads, to content, not so much on the account management side which is good, because that's all about people and relationships and teamwork but largely anywhere in production is where we're implementing those two principles.

Dr. William Attaway: 17:40

Hmm, I love that you made that distinction, too, between things that can be automated and things that should not be, because nurturing relationships, I think, is something that AI cannot really do. Like you and I do that. That's a very important piece. I think of client retention and as we think strategically around that as business owners, you know the human touch, the human connection is really important there. What does that look like in your world?

Peter Ruchti: 18:12

Well, is that questions more of how do we look at AI implementing that, or how do we, how are we implementing human relationships into that, or both?

Dr. William Attaway: 18:24

I'm thinking more of the human relationships. Ai is definitely the hot topic and we're all learning different ways to utilize that, but it's really easy to get caught in the shiny object and think that this is going to be the solution that's going to solve every problem. I think there are some things that the human connection cannot be replaced by a machine for and I'm guessing in your business, as you lead your team, that's something that you talk about as well.

Peter Ruchti: 18:55

Absolutely A common theme is that I find myself reminding myself and our account managers of is that um? Is that with your relationship with your clients? Part of the reason that they're, that they're using us is to is to help them navigate through um different decisions, and sometimes that's AI related, and sometimes that's a webpage or something tactical related, and sometimes it's it's more business level and strategy related, and that can never be replaced, because sometimes there is the advice or wisdom side to it, but sometimes there's the understanding of that other person and knowing what they think is best and what you think is best and trying to coach them through that. And that's something that we need to ourselves to, or our clients need to get to that conclusion that AI cannot just tell you the answer, and that's that's the solution.

Dr. William Attaway: 19:56

That's good, that's so good. You know you are a leader today, at a different level than you were five years ago, and I think your team would probably agree with that. You know, in five years from now, your team, your clients, your business are going to need you to lead at a higher level still. How do you, peter, stay on top of your game? How do you level up with the new leadership skills that your team and your clients and your business are going to need you to have in the years to come?

Peter Ruchti: 22:05

I find myself realizing that this is not just an accidental growth as a leader. It has to be so incredibly intentional growth as a leader. It has to be so incredibly intentional. And then that is one through time spent and whether that's. I've got several different mentors that I work with on that and that has been incredibly helpful, especially because they can know when to coach you and when to say hey, here's how you could maybe handle that better. Or sometimes they know when to ask good questions and help you think through this.

Peter Ruchti: 22:41

Reading is also or I say reading, but I'm more of an audio book kind of guy and I really enjoy that. So you'll often find me going on a walk around the neighborhood listening to an audio book for at least 20 or 30 minutes a day, and that's um helped me dramatically because you can hear different, either different ways that people lead or different tactical implement uh, tactical ways or situations, um and and so between those two things. That's that's how I try to um become a better leader and identify where areas either I could improve or or where your strengths at and areas we need to hone into.

Dr. William Attaway: 23:26

Hmm, that's so good. I think that intentionality is absolutely critical. I think it's it's not one of those things where you're just going to wake up one day and say, oh wow, I'm the leader that my team needs. I don't know how that happened, but here I am. It doesn't work like that. We have to intentionally choose to grow. We have to choose to change, because growth only happens on the other side of change, and I love that you've built those rhythms and those habits into your life, from seeking counsel from others, from mentors, to building in intentional times of growth. I love the walk around the neighborhood. I think that's brilliant.

Peter Ruchti: 24:08

That that's helped me, especially after a day, to to reset. You know that you get to the other day and and you have a lot of thoughts or and sometimes it's about a particular email or a text or or something like that, and that brings me back to the 10,000 foot view. But you know, I I. Another thought on that, too, is sometimes it starts at the beginning of the day as well and making sure that your mindset is ready for for for the day ahead and and that's uh, that's also something before. What I would do is I'd get up, I dive right into email, I'd start getting to these things, and now every morning I say you know, I'm, I'm, my mind isn't ready for that yet.

Peter Ruchti: 24:46

I need to, um, I need to step back, I need to do some reading and thinking and prayer time, and by doing that, that not only helps me prepare for the day and set the tone, but it also gives me something throughout the day to come back to, and whether you've had a really great day and maybe accomplished a lot of cool things and you still need that reminder to say, hey, keep in mind, this is the goal, we're going to be humble and we're going to step through this, or if you're having a really challenging day and being able to go back and say this is where we started, this is the pace we're going at and we're going to continue to do our best through whatever challenges we're working through today. That's great.

Dr. William Attaway: 25:34

Of all the books that you've been listening to as you walk around the neighborhood, is there one that stands out that you're like, hey, this book has really made a difference in how I'm thinking about something?

Peter Ruchti: 25:40

One of my more recent ones that I've read is the Coaching Habits, and that one's been great because it essentially forces you almost to do that by just asking the five different questions. To do that by just asking the five different questions and, like we were talking about earlier, it's going to be so easy to just jump in and solve a problem or in a meeting to say I know exactly what to do to solve this. It forces you to step back and coach them through that and that book has, I think, helped me and probably through that, helped my team dramatically this year. I love that.

Dr. William Attaway: 26:22

So where do you go from here? Where do you want to go next? What's ahead for you?

Peter Ruchti: 26:28

Well at work. I think we've got a lot of exciting big projects that we've been working on between we're getting ready to roll out our app for our clients, which we've had a lot of work put into. We have some new, really great relationships in the radon space. That is going to really help us bring things to the next level, and I'm excited about that. At the same time, too, the radon space, which is where I think we're always going to be and where our roots are now. But that industry is also only so big, and so we're getting ready for our next big move in other industries, and that's going to require both a lot of work. But I think we can take a lot of the things that we've learned and between that and what we will learn, apply those two things together and move into more industries to be able to grow rapidly. So I think our team is really on board for that and excited about that, and that's especially probably what our big theme for next year is going to look like.

Dr. William Attaway: 27:39

Peter, this has been such a fabulous conversation. I've so enjoyed the times that we have talked so far and I love sharing your insights and your experience with other people. I think there's so many of our listeners who are going to benefit from this and are going to want to stay connected to you and continue to learn more about you and from you and about what you're doing. What is the best way for folks to connect with you?

Peter Ruchti: 28:05

Well, if you'd like to, you're you're welcome to uh to, I guess, to email me anytime. My my email is uh P, as in Peter, then my last name Rukhti R-U-C-H-T-I at adeptpluscom. Um, feel free to to drop me an email, um, especially if you ever need uh ideas around AI or you've got AI to share with me. I always find that fascinating.

Dr. William Attaway: 28:29

Outstanding. We'll have those links in the show note as well. Thank you so much for being on the show. I'm so grateful for your expertise and the time and expertise and the insights that you've shared today. Thank you for your generosity.

Peter Ruchti: 28:44

Of course no. Thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure to talk with you and I hope we were able to help some listeners today.

Dr. William Attaway: 28:51

Thanks for joining me for this episode today. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, if you don't have a copy of my newest book, Catalytic Leadership, I'd love to put a copy in your hands. If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom, you can get a copy for free. Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out.

Dr. William Attaway: 29:27

My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible. This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space, in business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, leaders choose to be catalytic.

Intro/Outro: 30:11

Thanks for listening to Catalytic Leadership with Dr William Attaway. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. Want more? Go to catalyticleadershipnet.