Off-the-Grid Biz Podcast

Episode 006. What type of business are you really in? The Product business? The Service business? Both? Are you in the sales and marketing business? Are you sure? Dave Zook is the CEO of Horizon Structures, knows what business he's in. He doesn't let himself get distracted with details that don't add up to more structures being sold. Whether it be dog kennels, horse barns, chicken coops or even log cabins, Dave has become a master in the sales and marketing of modular buildings. Using all his resources online and offline, he's putting together an empire that knows no boundary. There are a lot of great lessons here for ANY self reliance-based business operator. Listen to this! To find out more about Horizon Structure's fine products: https://www.horizonstructures.com Find out how you can transform your successful company into your Dream Business: http://brianjpombo.com/dreambiz/   Full Transcript Brian: What type of business are you really in? Are you in the product business? Are you in the service business? Are you in both? Are you actually in sales and marketing, and you don't know it? Today's talk is with Dave Zook of Horizon Structures. And I think you're going to find this one really interesting because a lot of the points he brings up can be applied to just about any business. Listen to this. Podcast Intro: If you're someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family. If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing. You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman. We are here to celebrate you whether you're looking to improve your maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel. From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure life off the grid. Brian: Dave Zook is the CEO of Horizon Structures, building custom modular barns, sheds, garages, kennels and coops for nearly any scenario. Founded in 2010, Dave went from being a one man owner operator to a team of seven sales people delivering products to all 48 states and even internationally with multiple manufacturing facilities across the US. Horizon Structures now has global reach. Dave, his wife and four children live happily and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Dave, welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about what you do. Dave: Hey, thanks for having me on your show, Brian. You know, I got a few things going on. Like you said, I grew up in a very entrepreneurial business friendly family and my very first venture into the business world I was preteen. My dad had a business where we were manufacturing modular building. So I kind of grew up in that world, and I got to the point where I was in my late teens, early 20s, the internet was still very young at that point and some of our dealers for our modular buildings, were starting to get on the internet as back in the days when you could, if you had a modular building business, you could put your thing up on the internet. And you were on the first page of Google. I mean,

Episode 005. How much do you know about your business and industry? How often do spread your knowledge and experiences through free media? Every business has it's friends, it’s competitors and it's sworn enemies. It is amazing how many executives have a difficulty naming names and standing-up for their brand. Ann Molloy, the sales & marketing director at Neptune’s Harvest, exemplifies this attitude that everyone needs when discussing their products in public. Listen to our conversation about the highs and lows in the organic fish fertilizer business. And to find out more about Neptune's Harvest fine products, please click on the link below! https://www.neptunesharvest.com/ Transform your company into an absolute Dream Business! http://brianjpombo.com/dreambiz/   Full Transcript Brian: Who are your customers? Who are your competitors in your industry? Who are your enemies? Today we're talking with Ann Molloy. She's the sales and marketing director at Neptune's Harvest, which is a fertilizer company out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Stay tuned, we're about to talk to her and afterwards I'm going to give you some thoughts on our conversation. Podcast Intro: If you're someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family. If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing. You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman. We are here to celebrate you whether you're looking to improve your Maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel. From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap. This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure life off the grid. Brian: Ann Molloy was born and raised in Glocester, Massachusetts. After several years of traveling around the country and world. She settled back there and has been helping run her family business for almost 25 years, Ann has verseeing the marketing and sales for the Neptune's Harvest division of Ocean Crest Seafoods. Which came about to fully utilize 100% of the fish by turning the curie, everything that's left over after you filet the fish into an organic fertilizer. She has a wide knowledge of organic fertilizers and the fishing industry. She also loves to paint, right and see live music. Ann welcome to The Off The Grid Biz Podcast. Ann: Thank you for having me. Brian: Great to have you here. What is it that you do for Neptunes Harvest? Ann: I'm in charge of sales and marketing. Basically do the ads for the company and I oversee...

Episode 004. How do you insure you're meeting your customers wants and needs? Do you have a mission or cause that your customer can relate with and buy into? Brad James discusses how he is leading Beepods (https://www.beepods.com/) to not only revolutionize the beekeeping industry, but to change the world by finding a real-world solution to the well-publicized epidemic called colony collapse disorder   Full Transcript Welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast, a place for conversations about out of the box businesses in the self-reliance space. I'm Brian Pombo. Today we're talking with Brad James. I wanted to point out right off the bat that we were experiencing some technical difficulties during this recording. I thought the information was so good. It was worth putting out, even though it was slightly flawed. So hang in there, listen to this. I think you're really going to enjoy it. Podcast Intro: If you're someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family. If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing. You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman. We are here to celebrate you whether you're looking to improve your Maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel. From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap. This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure life off the grid. Brian: Brad James is a rogue beekeeper and the CEO of Beepods, challenging the norms of keeping honey bees by leveraging science data and grit, to ask why over the traditional, this has worked for me. At Beepods they create complete beekeeping systems that provide hardware, training, outreach and data tools to schools, businesses, nonprofits and backyard beekeepers all over the world. Teaching and practicing a reflection based sustainable philosophy. Beepods goal is to see a world where pollinators thrive with aggressive innovation, intelligent observation and unapologetic audacity, Brad and the Beepods team pursue solutions to make this vision a reality and our lifetime. Brad James, welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast. Brad: Thanks for having me, Brian. Brian: Yeah, really happy to have you here. We'll just start out at the very beginning. Why don't you let everybody know what it is that you do. Brad: So at Beepods we provide a complete system and education tools to all of our customers and clients all over the US and all over the world. Our big goal is trying to find solutions for the pollinator collapse that we're witnessing, especially over the last 10 to 15 years. And trying to figure out why that's happening. So for us, our big step forward with all of our customers is how do we get them involved in beekeeping and aware of it and then give them the right tools so they can feel like they're part of the solution and feel successful in raising honeybees.

Episode 003. Do your customers think you're just another website, or do they feel like they are part of a community? Mark Robinson discusses how he developed Walkin' Pets (http://walkinpets.com) from a tragic lesson he experienced years ago. He describes the highs and lows of building a community that became his most successful business to date. * Walkin' Wheels® Dog Wheelchair - https://www.handicappedpets.com/adjustable-dog-wheelchairs/ * Walkin' Blind Dog Halo - https://www.handicappedpets.com/walkin-blind-dog-halo/ * Chris P. Bacon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tP7Xrrxfxc/ * TO THE PETS! Music Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rB8tVjj_aQ Transform your business into an absolute Dream Business! http://brianjpombo.com/dreambiz/ Full Transcript Podcast Intro: If you're someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family. If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing. You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman. We are here to celebrate you whether you're looking to improve your Maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel. From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap. This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure life off the grid. Brian: All right, so on the show today, we've got Mark C. Robbin. He's the founder and president of walk-in pets by handicappedpets.com. A company that makes products for aging, injured, and disabled pets around the world. His signature product, the walking wheels, adjustable dog wheelchair has helped over 50,000 dogs live happy, healthy lives. Mark has had several businesses in the past in fields including security systems, magazine, publishing, computers, renewable energy, and more. This one though is by far the most successful. You've also hosted your own show called a happy healthy pets, which you can find on his website, handicap pets.com so here's Mark Robinson. Hi Mark. Mark: Hi Brian. Thank you for that great intro. Great to be on the show. Brian: Yeah, I'm really happy to have you here. It's a very interesting site if anyone's listening i...

Episode 002. Have you taken full advantage of "content marketing" to both educate your crowd and prepare them to buy?Greg Key discusses how Hoss Tools (http://hosstools.com) uses a combination of superior customer service and content marketing to bring people to gardening tool website. * Hoss Wheel Hoes - https://hosstools.com/product-category/wheel-hoes/ * Premium Garden Seeds - https://hosstools.com/premium-garden-seeds/ * Hoss Tools YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZnfO4fIz4ThYKHwB7t4NWw Amazon-Proof Your Website! http://brianjpombo.com/amazon/ Full Transcript Intro: Welcome to The Off The Grid Biz Podcast, a place for conversations about out of the box businesses with heavy e-commerce elements. I'm Brian Pombo. When thinking about your business or project, what do you think about when I say phrases like customer service, ideal customer profile and content marketing? I know these are kind of dry and they're overused so often cliches in the industry, but today's conversation is going to uncover how to bring these concepts into actual real life for your business and how you can profit from them. Here's our very first conversation for this podcast and if you stay until the very end, I'm going to go over some of my takeaways from it. Listen to this…. If you're someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family, if you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing, you may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman. We are here to celebrate you whether you're looking to improve your Maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel. From selling chicken eggs online to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap. This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure life off the grid. Brian: Greg Key is the owner of Hoss Tools. Born and raised in South Georgia. Greg has been involved with agriculture and horticulture for over 30 years. He's witnessed how food was grown years ago on a small family farm all the way to the huge corporations that dominate agriculture today. Being a big believer in clean, healthy food, Greg started Hoss Tools to help people grow their own food with quality tools and supplies. He enjoys growing food sustainably on a 10 acre homestead with his wife of 34 years. Two dogs, eight chickens,

  Episode 001. Why "Off-the-Grid Biz?" What's it all mean? In this mini-episode, host Brian J. Pombo introduces himself explains the story behind this new and strange podcast show.   Transcript   Brian: Alright, welcome to the very first Off The Grid Biz Podcast, a place for conversations about out of the box businesses with heavy ecommerce elements. I'm Brian Pombo. So why Off The Grid Biz? What's it all mean? Well, it all goes back to growing up working on the family cattle ranch in the San Joaquin Valley of California. There was always a mystery and romance surrounding the concepts of living off the land. My grandma used to talk about our pioneer ancestors. Well, part of me always look to escape the country life for adventure and fortune in the real cruel, unknown world. Allah Luke Skywalker, the other half of me looked hunker down and live off the land. As a young adult and 1999 I had the chance to attend a survival and emergency preparedness show that was dedicated to those concerned about the Millennium bug of 2000. Which if you don't know about go and look it up, I was amazed at the variety of wares and information for sale, everything from nuclear bunkers to, to gardening instructions to outright extremists, political tomes. There was tons on alternative energy and food storage. While I wasn't scared about the Millennium bug I, I was a little smitten with all of it, to tell you the truth. But as January 1st came and went, it became one of those last memories that I would someday look back upon. Fast forward somewhere around 17 years and I've actually built up a nice little consulting firm where I work as a business strategist, helping successful but overworked business owners transform their companies into perfect dream asset scenarios. I've worked in a lot of different capacities for a number of larger groups, Microsoft, Shell, Craftsman, Ink Magazine as well as a number of radio networks and smaller podcasters. In discussing people I can help with my friend and business associate, Sean E. Douglas we brainstormed those industries that we could be passionate about. And the one we tend to to come back on again and again, was those all connected with self reliance. So where does one go from there? I just began emailing and calling up owners and executives of companies that I found interesting, and those ones that I really thought had a unique self reliance flair to them. Spoke to so many different types of people. Spoke to people selling beekeeping supplies, goat milk, soap, people selling livestock, homesteading supplies, gardening needs, like fertilizer and heirloom seeds. These were the type of people we were talking to people who had started companies from scratch, anything that had to do with do it yourself. Really, as these conversations continued. I met some of the most interesting people with some of the most intriguing stories. So Sean and I kind of sat back and ponder, what if I could take these stories and condense them, maybe edit them down, add a little emphasis were needed, and then spread them out there as podcasts? After all, we've done it a million times for our clients, why not do it for ourselves? So here it is the Off The Grid Biz Podcast. With Sean running duty as a producer and lead researcher and myself as host, we're given the chance to tell some of the stories while at the same time letting a select few listeners know how I can help fix their nasty headaches, introduce them to a friction free zero point lifestyle through my personal strategy sessions and products. So here we are, we've got a lot of great conversations coming up that we've already recorded. We're just getting them edited and sending them out to you. Along with this first episode,