The Caerusnet Podcast Interview

02 Aug The Caerusnet Podcast Interview

Steve Zyskowski

Hey, and welcome to The Caerusnet Podcast. Today I’ve got with me, Jeff TenBroeck from J10 Marketing. Jeff has been a phenomenal Caerusnet member since he first joined. I really appreciate his positive attitude, his willingness to help folks. And he’s been a member of the Brighton Wednesday 10:00 o’clock team really, since he joined Caerusnet. So welcome to the podcast, Jeff. It’s good to have you on.

Jeff TenBroeck

Thanks, Steve. I appreciate it and super excited to be recording with you today.

Steve Zyskowski

Amen! Amen. I’ve been looking forward to this too. Let’s say, before we jump into the meat and potatoes of this, I always think it’s fun to kind of retrace a little bit history. Kind of take just a little look back so we can see where we’ve been and know where we are now. And the question I’ve got for you is because I like to retrace this. Who was it that first told you about Caerusnet? How did that go down?

Jeff TenBroeck

That’s a great question and completely random as well. I don’t even think she is a Caerusnet member, to be honest with you. But, so this would have been in 2019. I was part of PTN– Power Through Networking. They’ve got a group in, you know, two groups in the area and I met someone named Tress Hoetzel. And we had a trust builder, and through our conversation, she’s like, “You know, I know someone named Steve Zyskowski. He runs this group called Caerusnet. I think you might be a really good fit.” And here we are today.

Steve Zyskowski

Thank you, Tress. It’s been a while since I’ve heard your name, but always brings a smile to my face when I do. And yeah, it’s kind of funny. She never was a Caerusnet member. And, you know, I think you always recognize that, you know, for me, I treat everybody equally and care about people, whether they’re a client of mine, not a client of mine, really is kind of irrelevant. The good fits become clients, and if it’s not a good fit, they don’t become clients. But that doesn’t mean we still can’t refer each other and be friends. And you know, that was trust. She just wasn’t herself. She just didn’t see herself kind of in that. She doesn’t like to be in a box. I’ll just put it that way.

Jeff TenBroeck

No, no. Yeah, free-flowing. Easygoing person.

Steve Zyskowski

But you know what? It’s nice that we always remember kind of who put some goodness into our lives, and that’s one of the other reasons I always like to bring that up too. Because you know, Caerusnet really it’s only gonna be every once in a while somebody finds me online. But powerful relationships come from a personal testimonial come from somebody else who says, “Hey! let me connect you with this person” and you know, then it’s more real. And so I’ve been really blessed to have you again in Caerusnet for the years you’ve been with us. Let’s talk about you and your business a little bit. Maybe you want to give us just the quick outline of J10 marketing. What’s your area of focus and who you’re helping today?

Jeff TenBroeck

Yeah, of course. So, I specialize in digital marketing services. You know everything from web development to search engine optimization over to the social media side of things, whether it’s social media management or running paid advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, among other platforms. You know, that’s really my bread and butter. And have recently expanded a little bit to offer more content creation services such as photography, videography, along with Google Ads. That’s actually a new area that we’re moving into as well. So, growing being able to help our clients in a bunch of different spaces has been a real blessing. And on that note, you know the types of clients that we’ve been helping out a lot lately are contractors and concert venues. So, it’s been a lot of fun. And that side has been a real pleasure because it kind of allows me to tap into my radio roots. Always good time working on those projects.

Steve Zyskowski

Talk about that for a second a little bit too. What about those radio roots?

Jeff TenBroeck

When I was—wow– this goes all the way back to middle school. I remember laying in my bedroom, listening to my stereo to 89X, a Canadian alternative station out of Windsor. And when I, you know, was going through high school about to get into college, I really wanted to get in the radio industry, so I decided to hit them up for an internship, and ended up working there for about 5 years before moving on to a different cluster here in Metro-Detroit. But it was a lot of fun, I’ll say that probably was the most fun I’ve ever had at a job. A lot of concerts, a lot of meet and greets, meeting cool people. So definitely look back fondly at those days.

Steve Zyskowski

Yeah, and 89X that’s really kind of funny you bring that up. I used to– I went to Western Michigan University– and dating myself here. I was there from ‘88 to ‘92 so, and when I got back to the Detroit side, you could get a really strong signal for 89X and that’s where I learned about Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins. I go back to Kalamazoo and be this cool guy that’s bringing all this new music with them that nobody had ever heard of before.

Jeff TenBroeck

In fact, not to get too off-topic, but it sounds like the gentleman like… I’m sorry I can’t remember his name, but the gentleman who actually started 89X is coming back with a new podcast project. Will be featuring a lot of those songs we all grew up loving back in the day. So, I’m excited to check that out.

Steve Zyskowski

All right, sweet. So, let’s jump into, you know, your I think you’ve already kind of just pointed out a little bit about your ideal clients. Let’s talk about, you know what it is like ultimately that you want to help a client achieve and what you’re most passionate about in the space that you’re in. Because there are a lot of folks that do what you do. And yet each enterprise kind of has a little bit of a different focus in an area where they really feel they can bring value. So, let’s talk about that.

Jeff TenBroeck

Yeah, of course. So, you know, the objective we’re looking to achieve really varies from client to client. And you know what type of services they’re looking for, but at the end of the day, my main objective is to help my clients grow their business and you know, generate more revenue. So I really like to focus on the lead generation side of things. But like I said, each of my clients have their own unique needs. I’m you know, for example, if I’m working with a brand-new business, they might be more concerned with establishing a digital presence, not so much really growing it. I mean, it’s gotta start somewhere, right? So building a new website and optimizing it for specific keywords related to their business is going to take a higher importance than you know publishing to their social media accounts. So when it comes to my ideal clients though, it really does vary from service to service. So going back to web development, it could really be anyone. Whether you’re a brand-new business that’s looking to create a website or an established one that maybe needs to add functionality. We can help there and the same goes for search engine optimization or SEO. No, it falls within the same category. Now when you switch over to the social media side of things, I’m a little bit more I guess selective for a better term the clients I like to work with there. And that specifically, like I mentioned earlier would be contractors. So whether it’s, you know, heating and cooling plumbers, painters love working with all of them. I think they have their spaces. There’s a lot of room to educate their clients on the services that they offer and the importance of maintaining different aspects of one’s home. And I feel like it’s relatively recession-proof. You know, folks are always going to need certain services around their home. You know you don’t want to be caught in the middle of summer with a broken AC unit. I also really enjoy working with like, say, concert venues. I do a lot of work with Anheuser-Busch and their distributors here in Metro-Detroit. Promoting the events that they’re sponsoring. For them, I like to run Facebook Ad campaigns. Well actually, we’ll typically tie that into a text-to-win campaign as well to give away some free tickets, maybe a limo ride, dinner, and obviously tickets to a show. So, I’m always looking for folks in those spaces to help them with their digital needs.

Steve Zyskowski

Yeah, sounds like really fun and interesting work with a large variety of things that you get to see. Be a part of. And I just think that’s really, really cool to have that kind of diversity. Let’s talk about your business and talk about networking and that whole thing because you know there’s a lot of different ways that people can get business if somebody might decide that they want to send out, you know, 100,000 postcards and hope that 1000 people might be interested, and of those thousand people, maybe 50 of them are actually eligible. And of those fifty people, 10, and prospected and five by or two. So you know some people just play what I call the numbers game and just, you know continually do a numbers game and it’s not as necessarily like relationship driven because it’s all about the numbers. And then your space, you know, your goal is to help people get known in the digital realm, right? So to help them have a good website that’s going to produce leads and share their why to have social media that’s engaging and interactive and all that stuff. So you know, I always find it’s really cool. I’ve got in Caerusnet I have people that do you know, websites and digital marketing on every single team that I have. And I think and each one of them obviously they’ve also decided that while that’s one space that they put themselves out there in. They also recognize the importance of kind of being connected in a community and having people that can get to know you. So where did you decide in your formation of your business that networking and productive referral relationships might be something that would be helpful to you? When did that come around?

Jeff TenBroeck

Oh wow. So, it would have been 2019 I want to say. I had recently moved to Howell from the Ferndale, Royal Oak area. To be honest with you, I didn’t know anyone Livingston County– I was going into unchartered territory as far as I was concerned. And like I said, I moved to Howell into an apartment and there was one bedroom. Not super big, and after a couple weeks of working from home, just being isolated from everyone. And I’m a very social person. I mean that, I was in radio and you know what can I say. So, something had to change, so I started exploring my options. I went on Meet Up. Went to some different networking groups, checked out the Brighton Chamber and like I said, that’s when I met Tress. And you know, after speaking with you, Steve, I wasn’t quite sure to be honest with you how it would play out because I had never done anything like that before. But after visiting the group and meeting everyone and seeing how important Caerusnet was to all the folks in the group and how it allowed them to grow their business and really develop relationships with folks in the community. You know, I knew I was at where I needed to be. You know. As you always say, you’d like to do business with folks we know like and trust and Caerusnet, really giving me the opportunity to build those relationships, and build upon that for my business.

Steve Zyskowski

OK, awesome. Let’s talk about Caerusnet then. Let’s talk about maybe some experiences that you’ve had in Caerusnet that you might want to highlight. Maybe a good relationship that’s come from it, something that when you look at it you go “man, I’m glad that happened. That felt really good.” Do you, do you have a story like that you can share?

Jeff TenBroeck

I’m going to toot your horn. I mean, Steve, you’ve been instrumental with my growth as a business person. You know, I didn’t go to school for business. It’s something I kind of just, you know, push my way into. And you’ve definitely been able to take me under your wing and kind of guide me through, you know what it’s like to run a business and how to navigate specific challenges that might come my way. Another relationship that’s been really beneficial to me is James Whelan of JC Whelan. He’s you know, we’ve actually partnered up and work and are working on. You know, quite a few projects together between, you know, both of our clients and that’s been a great relationship as well because he’s been in digital marketing since I was probably in middle school, so a very long time. And just like me, he self-taught, he taught himself all the ins and outs of digital marketing over the years and he’s been a fantastic resource. I learned something every time we speak. Those two relationships alone have been game-changing for me. But they’re taking that little step, taking the step beyond that, obviously, other relationships I’ve made with folks in the group, but some of the most fun experiences that I’ve had have been, like the golf outing or the member breakfast, getting together with the whole Caerusnet family as a whole and getting to meet folks in different groups and communities that might not have met in the past, it’s all invaluable, all invaluable.

Steve Zyskowski

Yeah, I love that. And you also you also mentioned another thing in there too regarding your relationship with James Whelan. And you know, it’s a really interesting world, you know, sometimes who we might think of as our competitor could actually become a great relationship. And I believe it was Trisha Turner on our team that, you know, told James about Caerusnet and then James came and visited. You know, there’s a few people that are in similar spaces, and I don’t want to ever cheapen the relationships or make people feel like they’re not valued. So I always if there’s somebody that’s coming into a team that. Might affect you, or somebody else on the team. I want your input first before. Yeah, let’s put them on the team. And I think you had to get to know him. And then you discovered that that could be actually a good fit and you, you gave it a try. So I think that your openness is one of the reasons that, that whole thing came to be because a lot of people would have been like, ”No, I do that. That person can’t be on the team” and then all of a sudden, you know, there there’s still status quo. We actually got to increase your business.

Jeff TenBroeck

Right. And I was definitely on the fence. I was definitely on the fence. I’ll be transparent about that. But you know what? I thought to myself, no, what’s the worst that could happen? You know, if he does try to, you know if. If something does go. Right. You know, I’ll get through it and I roll the dice. And here we are. So, yeah, I’m so. I feel very fortunate that, you know, I was able to open myself up to that opportunity and you know, see where it went.

Steve Zyskowski

Well, hey, we’re getting close to the end here too. And you know now that you’ve been in Caerusnet for you know, what was about four years now? I think it’s maybe five?

Jeff TenBroeck

I want to say it’s June 20th because I know it’s right around my sister’s birthday– 2019 is when I joined so…

Steve Zyskowski

Yeah, it’s about four years then right now. Happy anniversary. Yeah, and the time flies so much too. And the other thing that I like about Caerusnet too is that it’s something that keeps us also in a good business flow in a business rhythm. When we show up for something consistently and see other people showing up for something consistently at a certain level. Right. That’s good company to be around. Because there’s a lot of people that they always are just trying new things and they never stick around long enough to really see any results from things that they have put some energy into. And as soon as they don’t get a result, they are off to something else. So one of the things about Caerusnet that I like is that you know, people actually get to surround each other with people that are different lengths of time and business, different industries, but also that for the most part there are people that they show up. And sometimes I think I can’t remember who said it, but they say something like a 90% of success in life is simply continually showing up.

Jeff TenBroeck

Yeah, accurate.

Steve Zyskowski

So yeah, so now that you’ve got this four years of experience, you know, you understand a little bit of the ebb and flow that comes in the referral space. We never know exactly. You know, when we’re going to get a referral from somebody else. Sometimes we get these little droughts, sometimes it comes in spurts. Sometimes we get something really fantastic. And now that you have that experience with the ebb and flow of the referral space, you actually started on my team when we were in person meetings and now we do it all on zoom, which saves you a lot of gas money from driving into town.

Jeff TenBroeck

Oh yeah.

Steve Zyskowski

But so you’ve seen it now in different formats as well too. Let’s say we have a new member join, we might have a new member joining actually at our meeting next week as a referral from Angela Putkela on our team. And so let’s say you have a trust builder with Megan. If she becomes a new member. And she says, “Jeff, you’ve been on the team for four years. I’m just getting started. What’s, what’s a piece of advice that you might have for me to try to ensure my success?” What would you tell me would be like one of the most important things I can do?

Jeff TenBroeck

I think you already mentioned it. It’s really staying patient and sticking with it. You know, like I said, when I joined Caerusnet, I was new to the community. No one knew who I was. They had no reason to trust me. But you know, I stuck with it. Really made sure to schedule trust builders and to develop those relationships with the folks on our team and before I knew it, you know referrals were coming in and getting sales and you know is paying. Paying for Caerusnet 10 times over. So it made sense and you just have to stick with trust the process and stick with it. You know, it could be bumpy at first and especially if you’re new to referral groups, you know it can be really uncomfortable putting yourself out there. I know I certainly was very uncomfortable during my first member minute. I kind of bumbled through it, had no idea what to say. But you know, you get better at that stuff with practice, right? So once again, being repetitive, being present that would be my biggest advice for a new member in the group.

Steve Zyskowski

Yeah, that that’s very good advice. And I think one of the things that people recognize about Caerusnet now or when they’re visiting A-Team, for example. There’s a feeling that they’re the people actually are listening to each other. I mean, I know I do and I know everybody else does because people will comment on what the other person says, even if they’re off video, putting in a landscaping job or cleaning a house. They’re listening closely to what’s going on in the meeting and they want to see you successful. You know, the people that are on these teams, they generally have. Big hearts, they’re relatable to each other because if you’ve been in business, you know, it’s like skydiving without a parachute. Right. And it’s good to have other people that you know have your back and yet there’s to me one of the things that I’ve discovered is the importance of being able to create referrals purposefully that to me, you know, giving people referrals gives them lots of reasons to keep me top of mind. You know, client, they just got done working with. That might help them do their grocery shopping or whatever else. Remember, you where their business comes from. So I have different check off points, especially during trust builders or when I needing a new business for the first time. Jim Campbell taught me the importance of asking for business: You know what’s one of your biggest challenges in business right now? You know they’re coming to see me for new relationships and being a part of something, but that might not be their biggest challenge, right? Their biggest change might be getting known in social media space or other things. So I always ask a business what’s your biggest challenge or what other you’re seeing me today about joining a networking group. But what other things are on that business To Do List that might have been there for a little while that you still need to resolve, right? Could be succession planning? It could be you’re getting a good payroll company and who knows? But to me, I think that if we can find certain checkpoints in our interactions with our clients, whether they’re existing clients that we’re just catching up with their meeting with them and say, hey, just out of curiosity, I just want you to know, I want to be super helpful. I know a lot of other businesses and I want to see you successful. What other things are going on in your business you could use help with outside of the marketing wheel, right? And when we do those things because we’ve asked, people usually open up to us and if we can be somebody that provides that answer or gives them that person, that can make it happen. What a huge difference. You know.

Jeff TenBroeck

You want to be “Mo to them.”

Steve Zyskowski

Yes, thank you! Mo! We want to be MO to you. You might expect. That’s great. I love you, Jeff. You picked up on that right away. Listen, are you going to be at the Member Breakfast this year? Are you going to be able to?

Jeff TenBroeck

Oh, 100 percent, 100% I wouldn’t miss it. I had a great time last year and the year before. And, I don’t plan on missing a single one.

Steve Zyskowski

Well, I will look forward to seeing you. I appreciate all you’re doing in Caerusnet. In terms of people wanting to connect with you. You know, if somebody is interested in learning more about, you know, if you could be somebody that could help them in their business, what does that look like in terms of somebody that might want to connect with you? Or have a meeting with you.

Jeff TenBroeck

Well, kind of going back to my ideal client, you know, depending on the service or their specific needs it it varies there. But I would recommend that if anyone wants to have a conversation and explore their digital marketing options. Just give me a call. Or shoot me an e-mail and I’ll reach out to you to get connected. I know that you’d be more than happy to send them my way. Or even on social, I would recommend going the Facebook route if they would like to connect with me there, but that’s what I’d recommend.

Steve Zyskowski

Yeah, I appreciate. I appreciate that answer. Your information is going to be in the drop downs on YouTube and Spotify so there will be links right to your website. I also wanted to add that Caerusnet is kind of putting together the wording isn’t this, but like a board of advisors you know a trusted panel, Friends. I’ll put it that way and I appreciate that you have been helping my wife Ava kind of refining our social media presence and because it’s, you know, as you know, when you’re business owner, you can only do so. I’m glad to have a Chief Volunteer officer now at Caerusnet that can take some things off my my desk. And you’ve been really very helpful and generous and clear with strategies for us. So I know that the information that you give people really is a gem. So thank you so much Jeff TenBroeck, for all you do in Caerusnet. Jeff’s a great person I have a trust builder that will come to the Member Breakfast! Say hello and J10 Marketing, great having you on the show, Jeff.

Jeff TenBroeck

Thank you, Steve. I appreciate it. It’s been a real pleasure.