[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's up you guys? Michael Strayed again here with the Proper form podcast. Excited for this next episode with Joseph from CollingCounty.com he lives here in McKinney, Texas and has brought to life this amazing platform to help advertise and spotlight some of the amazing small businesses and events that are within the Collin county area. He's actually been here for only about four or five years, but the impact and the heart he has just through his background of editing and video and writing. It's really cool to just hear or someone else come into this space in Collin county, start a small business that is leveraging and helping other small businesses and events come to life in the Collin county area. Check out this awesome episode and hear more. How you could be a consumer to the amazing spaces here in the Collin county area, but also as a business owner, how you could partner with collin county.com to even advertise your business foreign.
What's up you guys? Michael straight with the Proper form podcast. Excited for the new year of 2025 and just what it's going to bring for all of us. Really excited for just growth, expansion, evolution and really pumped to dive into this episode with my buddy Joseph from Collin county dot com. How you doing, man?
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Good, man. Great to be here.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, you're actually the first to be a part and witness the brand new kind of updated studio.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: I like it.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: What do you think?
[00:01:38] Speaker B: It's awesome. Love the vibe, love the feel. Sets the tone for the whole thing.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And we kind of hope that helps set the tone for our conversations that we have in here for the people that get to leverage and use this and just kind of create space and content for themselves, their businesses and of course for our podcast. But man, I want to kind of get right to it. It's kind of unique. We actually met through another business colleague that's in the networking group that I'm in McKinney Downtown Networking Group. And then you graciously invited me onto Yalls podcast.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: Yes, sir.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: And so I would love to kind of just get to. I loved. I think you use the term and I've used the term. My clients have used the term. The big hairy, audacious goal that you guys might have
[email protected] just from what I know. And then we'd love for you to dive more into that. What do you guys do? How do you do it? What's kind of the big goal that you guys have and what's the value that you bring to your role and how you help evolve Yalls Reach.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Wow, that's great. So@collin county.com Our goal is to promote the best businesses, people, events and just stories of Collin County, Texas.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: And a lot of that revolves around business leaders and community leaders specifically, whether that is someone who owns a local service based business or someone who is leading a nonprofit or this last week we interviewed the county sheriff who is doing incredible work. Equian therapy for veterans who have come back from war. I mean, just all kinds of things that a lot of people don't know about until you get those people in studio. Just like this.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: And you get to know people and there's so many. There are so many cool things going on in Collin county, even more than most people know.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good. Yeah. Someone recently said, I mean like there's, there's so many different perspectives and people and thoughts and opinions. But it's like when you really sit down with someone.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: And have a conversation and let some walls down, you can actually find so much more common ground and like mindedness where just kind of doubts opinions on the other person across the room just really start to kind of melt away.
And you guys are really helping bring a lot of those stories to the spotlight and to the light, whether those are businesses, business leaders.
How did you come on to CollinsCounty.com and what was your story? I know you shared a tad bit when I was on the podcast, but could you share kind of why you're here, why you feel called to be a part of that and kind of your story personally?
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Absolutely. So I moved to Collin county almost four years ago. This coming April would be four years. And I'm one of the many transplants from out of state.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Welcome.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's been wonderful. Really fell in love with Collin county. I knew two sets of friends that lived in McKinney, Texas specifically, which is the house seat of Collin county. And they had been telling me about Collin county for a few years. And so when the pandemic hit, decided to make the move, ended up here in the McKinney area and just started to notice right away, Wow, I love this area. I love just the neighborhoods. I love business. I love the people, love the culture. And so it was last year, actually early last year, that I began to think about, man, I would love to create some sort of local media publication. I had always wanted to do that in the past, but now that I landed in Collin county, there's just something about this area that just said, man, we should do something that highlights the business owners, the community leaders, the people, the neighborhoods, the businesses. Just everything that's going on here kind of at that next level. So I begin to go online and kind of look for URLs, and I'm one of those people that probably has a problem. I have too many URLs that I purchased over the years.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: How many you have?
[00:05:40] Speaker B: Man, I don't know. I literally have two accounts, probably close to a hundred. Okay.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: I am in that weird realm with you. My wife thinks I'm crazy and I'm actually about to buy like two or three more. But I. I have. I'm creeping up at almost 40 different.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: Domains.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: I've joked with some other entrepreneurs that we should start like an accountability group, like, like domains Anonymous or something like that, you know? The problem is though, is I end up encouraging people. Like, if you tell me your idea, I'll tell you to buy it. That's the problem.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: You're like, come on. Yeah.
That's why my wife is cautious to more friends like you for me to make rather than some random person. Because we just feed each other.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: Exactly. Dude, it's 20 bucks. You can cancel it next year if it doesn't work out for you. So anyway, back to the story of that. I ended up coming to my surprise. Okay. So I googled. I thought, well, I'm do Collin county something. Collin county businesses, Collin county this. And just on a whim, I just typed in CollinsCounty.com thinking there's no way in the world this isn't already thing. Yeah, Right. Given how popular and how robust this area is.
And lo and behold, it was available and it had not been turned into anything. Somebody was sitting on it. It was very expensive, I'll just say that. But it was absolutely worth it. And so I bought the URL, we started creating a website, we launched a podcast, we launched an email newsletter that goes out to many thousands of people across the county every weekend, and then are building out a couple other things like social media and events on top of that. So it's been a wild ride of almost a year of utilizing that brand to promote other people, which is really my heart. That's what I love to do, is to take media and marketing and promote what other people are doing.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, you're using your brand to be the vehicle to help promote and bring to light other brands.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: And that's only been within a year.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: That's crazy. Could you kind of share just maybe some of your. Your. If you want to Say, dark moments where you just feel like you're going down a black hole. And then just some of it, like the roller coaster, probably what the last year has been to. I mean, all those things that you start. You just said you created and have started the website, the podcast. Now you guys are getting into that social media piece.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: I think that also helps add validation.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: To you guys and the value that you're bringing to these business owners. I mean, honestly, like myself. Yeah, yeah. So could you just share, like, just some. Some wisdom and encouragement on just taking that next step?
[00:08:12] Speaker B: So it started with a lot of excitement. Obviously, when you come across. We just talked about URLs. When you come across a great URL, especially one with real domain authority. Yeah, it's very exciting. So it started out with a lot of excitement. One of my close friends, I remember sitting with him at a local coffee shop in McKinney, and I remember turning the laptop around and I had already built sort of a mock website. And just the look on his face was just like, what in the world? How did you get a of this? And then that turned into more content creation. We launched the email newsletter shortly after that. So anybody that goes to collin county.com you can opt into our, you know, our weekly newsletter. And, you know, it started off with a lot of excitement. We started getting some. I cold called some advertiser, potential advertisers. They said yes immediately. People were very interested in being a part of it. So if you're asking, you know about that journey.
[00:09:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: What does that journey look like? A little bit of the ups and downs, if there are any downs, I would say it's in dealing with discouragement at times when it comes to maintaining consistency and content creation. Because when you're first starting out, any endeavor, podcast, email newsletter, website, social media, whatever, you're starting at zero, essentially. Right. So you've got to start building listenership, viewership users, and you really have to have a passion for the content that you're creating. It has to matter to you and your team. And one guy that joined me early on, his name is Nick, he's a part of my team now. I mean, he told me from the beginning, he said, man, even if I never get paid from this, I want to be a part of this because I love writing, I love writing articles, I love interviewing people. And I was like, yes, that's the kind of person I need on my team, someone that realizes that at the end of the day, we're adding a lot of value to our community. And so, yes, it is a business and it does cash flow. Even if it didn't, we'd still be doing it. And that's the sign that it's your real passion, right?
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: That is really good. It's. It can be hard not maybe being the business owner or working for a business to have that type of passion, but there's so much full circle in that kind of surrender and appreciation of the purpose.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: That really brings back around so much more fruit and joy and, like, gratitude.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: For the work that you did, the impact that you've made.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: And I think sometimes that's really hard for people to see or to buy into.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: But that could also go back down to what you just said, is that maybe it's just not their passion.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Yes. Yes.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: And, yeah, that's a huge, huge heart that I have. And just like, helping try to navigate people and come alongside of them, whether that's part of my team and figure out what success looks like for them, because their success of what that looks like and is defined for them is going to probably be very different than mine.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. If I could add one more thought, too, in the vein of what we're talking about here. If you go back to the root word media, okay. What the word actually comes from is it's a Latin word that means median or middle. Okay. So media is that vehicle that stands in between you and I. Right. Where I'm trying to communicate a message. And so we create media, something that's in the middle of you and I, or we're here right now, we're creating media that's going to be used in between us and the listening audience. Right. And I personally feel that right now we're living in a time where it's really important for us to create media. It's time for our voices to be heard. It's time for people that.
I don't know. How old are you, Michael? Right.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: 32.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: 32, yeah. I'm a few years older than you. I just turned 40 last month. And there's a shift that happens in your 30s and 40s, too, where you have enough life experience to, you know, have some wisdom, but you're still young enough to have the energy. Right. To start creating. And I feel like, you know, you and I were kind of right in that sweet spot of where it's time to start taking that wisdom and experience that you have and sharing it with the world. And media is such a powerful way to do that. And so I think of it, I mean, I'm not trying to be melodramatic when I say this, but it feels a little bit like a holy assignment. It really does. Like, when I'm sitting there with the sheriff and he's telling me stories about how he created this Equian therapy. It's horse therapy for veterans. And he shares a story of a guy who comes back from battle and is literally. Doesn't even speak because he's so traumatized with ptsd, and yet he spends two weeks with this horse and something completely shifts in him. And there's a moment where he begins crying and weeping and embracing this horse, and then he begins speaking and he begins relating to. And you're just, like, listening. And it's like the power of media allows us to tell a story like that that most people aren't even aware is happening in your area. Right. And so I don't know if there's any, you know, what is the benefit to me, I don't know what's the benefit to ColinCounty.com I don't know. But what I do know in my soul is that story needed to be told, and it's important.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: That's so cool. Yeah. And there's so much noise out there and so many of us in different ways, and just maybe the age where we are and so many different factors and chapters and seasons of life don't know how to express and get that story or that message or that trauma out. And so that could maybe be counseling or that could be some other form of alleviation.
But, man, I never really knew the definition of media. That's so cool. I mean, that gives me more. Almost gives me appreciation for a lot of the really good media and storytelling I see. But then also helps give me some more light on just the path of, like, okay, what. What are we. What am I going to put out there? And the media and the value that it's bringing and. And all of that stuff.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: If you go back in time to when the Gutenberg Press was invented, it absolutely was a turning point in history where all of a sudden books were being able to be distributed, newspapers. The Bible was now to be able to be widely spread. And it was an absolute game changer for the world when that media was able to be created.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: And distributed. And we are now living in that time where we have video, audio, the written word. And I feel. I feel a responsibility to do my part in that.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Really cool. So how big is your team now? How many kind of team members do you have what are some of their strengths and specialties?
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Yeah, so I currently have three team members. We have an office here in adriatica village inside McKinney, which you've been to.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: We also have some other remote workers as well that help with some things.
But yeah, I've got a guy on my team who's really kind of our operational guy. And so we. In fact, we just got back from coffee this morning and thinking about some big things for the future. Operationally. As our team grows and our organization grows, he's going to be even more instrumental in helping us streamline those systems. And so really grateful to have him. He's also a content creator, so he writes most of our feature articles. And then we have someone on our team who is sort of the marketing mastermind behind the scenes. She has a team, she has her own team because she has a full 12 person marketing agency under her wing. And so we consider her a team member and she comes in for a lot of the marketing strategies. So when we work with advertisers, our goal is not just to say, hey, give us X amount of dollars and we'll put you on our website. Our goal is to be a media force behind them to help tell the story of their business, whether that's showing up and creating a video or getting them on the podcast, having them sponsor a podcast highlighting them in the email newsletter. A great example of this is Hotel Denison, which is this beautiful boutique hotel that opened up just off 121.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Is it open now?
[00:16:11] Speaker B: It is open, yes. It's awesome. You should definitely stop by.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: Yeah, over there by Bob's Steakhouse off Alma and 121the district.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Yeah, 104 rooms only. And I got a custom tour. I showed up, I did a video with the general manager, wonderful lady. And we created that to highlight this local business to make sure that people could visualize it and see it in action. Right. And so that's the capability we have as a team is we're not just writing articles or putting you on a website. We're a full fledged media team that comes around our constituents and helps them.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. And can you share a little bit on. I think we chatted a little bit before you and I did the podcast set at your studio, your space and office of just kind of the big goal you. You shared a little bit before and on now on just the steps with getting the website, the newsletter, you guys have some pretty big goals on, like a number for newsletter people, businesses to work with. Is there A cap?
[00:17:12] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, one of the great things. I'll start there. There's 1.2 million people currently in Collin County. It's supposed to double by 2050.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: No.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Okay, that's 2.4 million.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Can you give us a geographical visual of.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: What Col county is?
[00:17:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So Collin county includes most of Frisco, all of McKinney, Plano, Fairview, Allen, and then as you go north, it goes into Prosper, Salina, Melissa, Anna, which, by the way, those four cities are four of the top ten fastest growing cities in the United States right now. And so all. Most of that growth is all going north. So when you talk of how do you go from 1.2 to 2.4? Well, there's a ton of land mass north. And what McKinney looks like today is what Melissa is going to look like, prospering is going to look like. And some of it's, you know, looking really nice. I mean, they're building out these master plan communities, and there's still areas of.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: McKinney that are being built out more north.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: Yes. It's estimated that 50% of the land in McKinney isn't even developed yet. So. Yeah. So the McKin is going to be huge.
And so you asked me about our audacious goal.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: You know, I'll give you two that are practical, and I'll give you one that is more personal.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: The two practical are we want to promote the best that's going on in Collin County. Okay. The businesses and people mostly, and events.
From a user standpoint, though, the average person that goes to that website, I want it to become the number one source of all the best things that are going on. Almost like a search engine where people who live here visit it often, and people that are looking to move here see it as a resource, a snapshot of really what Collin county is all about. But there's a bigger vision beyond that, and I'll just summarize it like this. I have this very vivid vision that personally, I do believe is from God.
One of my skills is that I'm an event producer. I did a lot of that before I moved to Texas, and events of all sizes. Did a lot of work with charity and nonprofits, a lot of fundraising events. I know that CollinsCounty.com is going to host our own events at some point, and they're going to be based on what's going on in the community, celebrating what's going on in the community. I think we're going to have Some awards we're going to give out at some point, but also there's going to be a moment in time, and I've literally had this vision multiple times where we're going to be at an event, there's going to be a lot of people there, and we're going to press a proverbial button, so to speak, and we're going to raise a million dollars for charity in one day.
You asked me for auditions. Okay. And again, I don't know if that's literal or if that's figure. I don't know. But I know that what we're building now is a vehicle, it's a voice.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: Okay. And it's going to be something that I believe people are going to trust, they're going to turn to, and we're going to use it for good.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, that's great. I mean, I think you got to have those. Those huge goals, and I have a lot of those similarly as well, as well.
And, man, as you continue to expand, you guys are obviously an Adriatica now. Do you guys see yourself continue to stay there? Do you maybe see some, like, addition additional little pockets of offices throughout Collin county with it growing to possibly 2.4 million? Sure.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: Over what's kind of the year range?
[00:20:32] Speaker B: I want to say it's 2050 that they projected, so 25 years. Yeah.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: All right.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, to answer your question, currently we really love our offices. There's a little bit of room to expand in that building. So we're kind of taking over one wing of that building in Adriatica. Those. Those buildings are a little more boutique feeling, so they're not huge. So we do get to that point where we need to expand. Sadly, we might have to leave that building, which we really don't want to, you know, so we're going to maximize that building. We've got a nice conference room, couple other offices. We're going to maximize that as much as we can and then kind of go from there.
[00:21:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And do you guys kind of have a process that you could shed some light on? If I am a business owner, I'm someone here in the Collin county area that says, man, I. I think I'm one of the best in my niches, and I've got that passion is there. I don't say, like, an application process, but connecting with you.
How do you kind of vet some of that respectfully and safely?
And that might be a possible, I want to say, road bump in the future of, like, filtering Through.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: You know the best.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: Sure. Great question. This is something that we are working through right now.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: You know, the simplest answer is, you know, you can contact us through the website. You know, there's an advertise button there, and people do, you know, usually on a weekly or monthly basis. You know, we get. We get leads coming in with people that are interested pretty regularly now. And. And now we're in that season of navigating. How do we discern who's. Who's the right fit?
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: What metrics do we use?
It's a combination of personal interaction. Okay. We want to get to know you like you, trust you kind of a thing. And then we do go online, we look at what are other people saying about you? Right. What. What does your Google review say? Your Yelp reviews, you know, et cetera?
Just this morning with my colleague Nick, he suggested that we ask for references, ask for a couple references of other, you know, business owners or even past clients and customers. The other thing that we're looking at adding is some AI tools, because there are AI tools now that can kind of scan the Internet and can determine with a pretty good degree of accuracy which reviews are fake and which are real. Because there's a lot of people that have reviews that are not real. Now, whether they initiated that or somebody got mad and did a fake review, or, you know, there's shady things like competitors trying to ruin each other's businesses, you know, all that junk. So there are AI tools coming out now that can help navigate some of that kind of stuff. So it's a combination of in person getting to know you, vetting you in person, talking to your clients and customers, and then deciphering what the online landscape is saying about you. Yeah.
[00:23:28] Speaker A: Wow, that's pretty wild with the AI. It's growing a ton.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: It is, yeah.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: Yep. And of course, are you guys tapping into that at all within some of the writing as well, or just continuing to keep that in house, keeping it personal?
[00:23:42] Speaker B: That's a great question. So right now, everything that we have is written by humans. Everything. And if we ever do include any sort of AI copywriting, one of the things there is that I'm a copywriter and I've got two copywriters on my team. And so we have an advantage that we are actually good writers for the most part, and we enjoy writing.
Whether that's sustainable on a large scale as this thing really grows is debatable.
There are also other factors at play. Like for a long time, Google was penalizing AI written content and so we don't want to get into any of that, especially being essentially a local search engine. We want to have the maximum amount of SEO. And so that's something I'm really cautious about, as I don't. And, but here's what it comes down to. At the end of the day, we are in that interesting in between time where AI is really taking off.
You know, if we were to 10 years from now, look back at this podcast, we might chuckle a little bit at this conversation because things will be so different. Right. And so I don't want to make blanket statements like we will never use AI writing because there are certain processes now where you can run it through a few filters and it can sound very human, indistinguishable to the consumer. But the question that I have right now in 2024 is, you know, how do we keep that integrity? And that's the, that's the big thing that I'm going for is if we ever do introduce AI copywriting, I want it to be done with integrity, where minimally it's been, it's been reviewed by humans and we've, we've said, yes, this sounds just like if my colleague Nick wrote it. Right. And, and that's just what I want to make sure is that we are putting out something for the consumer that is, is really high quality.
[00:25:32] Speaker A: Yeah. It still passes through the filters of your, you know, you're the business personality, your team's personality.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Your character, your reach, the impact you're trying to make the, the value and services you offer sense. Totally. And I mean, there's. With any type of new thing or even new models of vehicles, there's always pushback because we're so used to what we already have.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: People don't like change, but we do want evolution and growth and change.
[00:25:55] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: And it's getting comfortable with it. How do we evolve it and work with it to help us, you know, fine tune and simplify our processes.
[00:26:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: But also not lose who we are through that process.
[00:26:10] Speaker B: And that's going to be a challenge for us. Moving into the future as, as humans, as content creators is how do we keep our soul.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: And, and that's going to be a daily thing we're going to have to address in the content that we create, in the content that we consume. And I think if it comes down to a core issue, that's the core issue. We want our publication to have a soul that is recognizable and that people know that we're real people that care about businesses. Community leaders, events. We care about this community 100%.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: Yeah. I recently saw a post on social media of a dad just talking about how we've, we just change and with our processed foods and we, we try to create interaction with our social media and just how we have. Humans have just changed all of just, just the real, the real basics and the connection that we need with people in person. The food of just going back to you know, the normal of like one sourced proteins and things that aren't processed and have 5,000 different ingredients in it. And he was just sharing that in a way too, of just getting back to the basics. And that's another reason why I still believe and have a hope of the in person training and in person in the sense of health and wellness with the field that I'm in. And then even just doing this podcast and going back to the, the comment you just made of, of what's podcasting going to look like. I, I, one of my non negotiables I've shared with Michael and I've shared it on the podcast before is to do in person podcasting. I have had people ask about doing Zoom because they're not here or man, I could connect sooner.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: If we did it via Zoom. And I'm just like, man, that's not the heartbeat and the plan I have and I want to do exactly because I want to see eye to eye and I want to have conversations before and after and build.
[00:27:56] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: Human connection.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: And that's where I believe and continue to have hope. And I think there's of course obviously a biblical factor there. Like we're meant to be around people and have community and build authentic relationships and sitting down with someone and having a conversation, I just, I gain a lot of energy and joy out of it. So yes. You know.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Yes. And that's a real thing. And even before we recorded today, you took me down the strip of your office complex here and were telling me all about the other business owners and even introduced me to someone in one of the businesses and, and you know, you don't get that on Zoom.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: Yeah, you just don't. You can't for sure. And even with doing one to one or like networking events via Zoom, I've done those as well. And it's just not. You can have the camera up just enough where you can kind of look at your phone while you're down or you see their eyes down, you're like, I know you're not listening right now. So yeah. That human interaction is just, it's going to continue to be a need no matter how much we try to unauthenticate, if that's a word.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: Sure, sure.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: It via media or online.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: I'll give you a quick example. The first video interview I did for collincountery.com was a local roofing company. And, you know, we had our typical conversation, asked him about his business, great business, been in the community a long time. But then towards the end, he started talking about the fact that he does a once a year gala for a bunch of nonprofits that he supports through his business and all this kind of stuff. And by the end of the conversation, by now the cameras were off and we're just chatting. And I said, hey man, I have some experience in event production. Let me come and support your event. And that turned into him.
I asked him a very pointed question, which is again, cameras were off at this point. We said, hey, what's a need or a challenge that you're experiencing in your business that you could use some help with? He had a specific answer. I knew a person that could help him with that problem. I connected him with that person, turned into a consulting engagement that helped him and his business. And again, that stuff doesn't happen often over zoom. It was that human interaction where even beyond the interview, we were able to turn the cameras off and develop a relationship.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: Yes. So much value there, for sure. I got a question for you guys. As y'all continue to grow, ColinCounty.com is, let's say you have a big player, a business that does have good reviews, does have, you know, those things, maybe has even some, you know, grounded roots in the community, grew up here, went to schools, maybe in the Collin county area, but the business is massive. You have another guy who's a smaller player, maybe similar story that's trying to thrive and expand in a very populated niche. How do you vet which one to go to?
[00:30:36] Speaker B: Good question.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: A guy that might be able just to have money to throw at more advertising and sure, sure, build his massive ocean where someone else is like, I'm coming. Trying to rise the tide.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, first and foremost, our entire team has a real heart for small business. Okay. We've all been small business owners, We've been small business marketers. We've just spent a lot of time in that world. And so we naturally gravitate towards those what would be classified as small business, which could still be up to, you know, a few million a year in revenue, you know, but still. So we do tend to gravitate towards those we Try to create promotional packages that are accessible minimally. We want people to get listed on the website so that they're searchable in our database and we can promote them on a regular basis. And then for those more premium clients that can afford it, then we do try to offer some of those media packages that are larger and even exclusivity.
For instance, we have a land broker who does a great job locally here in Collin county, and we give him exclusivity because he can afford it. And we don't talk about any other land brokers. Right. But just this guy. And so, you know, we're finding that balance. We haven't come up to a situation yet where let's say we have an owner of a large painting company versus a startup painting company, and we have to make a decision. We haven't had that come up yet, thankfully. And so we're trying to make room for everybody where we have a searchable database. You can go in there and still find, you know, Joe's painting, and then you can find, you know, the, the top dog who's been doing it for. For 20 years. And so we're trying to create space for everybody.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:20] Speaker B: If that makes sense.
[00:32:21] Speaker A: Yep, that makes total sense. That's great. I love that, man. And tell me a little bit more about your family. How are you juggling all this? And sure. Bill and Collin county and just some. You're not just. That's not just who you are. What are you outside of?
[00:32:37] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I. I spent many years in occupational ministry at churches, so I have a background in music. I played music for many years.
I've been a professional drummer. I've been a worship leader for churches.
Yeah. And. And this is my main focus now, you know, is this, is this business.
I also have three beautiful kids.
They keep me busy outside of work, you know, so if I'm not working, you know, hanging out with the family and, you know, I, I will say I'm blessed that my, my passion and my work are definitely integrated. You know, I'm definitely on that side of the coin that says rather than looking at it as a work life balance, it's more of a work life integration.
[00:33:25] Speaker A: Right.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: We might have talked about this when you came on my podcast. And so, so for me, I love to have sort of a cadence in rhythm in life where you're sort of weaving in and out of work and play or work and personal work and whatever. It's not so much a, you know, I work 9 to 5 and then I play 5 to 10 you know, it's more like, no, I'm kind of working a little bit of play, Working a little bit of play. See my kids working play, working play. You know, even in my personal relationships, they. They tend to revolve around projects. Whether it's, hey, we're going to run a fundraising event for this nonprofit, or we're going to start a conference, or we're going to go take care of this advertiser, make a video. They sort of all kind of interweave.
And so my day starts in the morning and ends when I go to sleep. And I don't feel like there's a differentiation of, I started working at this point, and then I stopped and started playing. I feel like it's just all over together.
[00:34:20] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good. I like that. I think if my wife heard that, she would look at me and be like, you should.
[00:34:29] Speaker B: You should try.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: I do do that. But I think what I. What I'm trying to say is that I find myself, and it's only me putting the stress on me finding my. The stress. And, oh, I gotta go run and pick up my son from school. Okay, Take off the work hat for a sec. And then.
[00:34:43] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: But then also, I can be in family and then get too worky, you know, and get distracted. So, of course, a balance. But I do agree, like, there's just that. That. That desire and that heart and the passion and the purpose of what I'm doing that I. I love building the connections. And in our networking group, we always talk about the me toos, like, finding those me toos. Oh, you're from McKinney. Me too.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: Oh, you went here for school. Me too. You have siblings. Me too. Like, building and seeing those walls come down and build relationships is. And adding value and connection to those. And so that ties in with what you're saying on just that weave.
[00:35:18] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: And even what we're doing here now.
[00:35:21] Speaker B: Like, is this work or is this hobby or is this passion?
[00:35:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:24] Speaker B: It doesn't really matter. It's all the same. You know, we're here and. And we're living out our purpose.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah, that's. I mean, that's the. Even just doing this podcast. I. I do it because I want to be able to have these authentic connections and relationships and conversations with people, walk around the building and then be like, oh, hey, I know this guy. I want to connect him with you. And that's just. That's real. That's authentic. And it's. It is work, but it also is. It is Play like it's so fun, and it just gives me so much energy and joy. Do what I do. But, man, I love that you got to come on here. I love that I got to know more about you, your heartbeat, what you guys are doing
[email protected] but I guess twofold here as we finish and wrap up. Could you share as a business owner? You already did a little bit. But the process of, like, man, I like this story. I like what they're trying to do, the impact they're making. I want to be a part of that. And then secondly, I'm a consumer. I've been in McKinney, Collin County, Plano, Allen, all of those you named. And I want to find some of the best spots.
[00:36:26] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:36:26] Speaker A: What does that look like?
[00:36:28] Speaker B: Well, okay, so starting with your first question, what was your first question?
[00:36:33] Speaker A: Being the business you shared a little bit about, like, wanting to connect. You can go online and kind of apply and.
[00:36:38] Speaker B: Well, and then you asked, how do you find your stories? I think might have been where you were going with that.
So part of our process is we have the advantage of living and working in this community. And so I mentioned Hotel Denison. The reason I went after that story is because I kept driving by and I kept seeing this cool boutique hotel, and I'm like, man, I personally love hotels. I love the design of them.
Kind of a guilty pleasure. I will go to a nice hotel when I'm not staying there and just hang out in the lobby or go to the lounge or work and use the wi fi, order some food or drink or something just to participate. But I have a love for hotels, and so that was a great story. So I just, you know, cold emailed the. The developer and got a response, you know, pretty quickly. The first advertiser we got, I happened to see his ad pop up on my Facebook feed and I said, huh, that's interesting. This. This guy would be perfect for our publication. Clicked through, emailed him. Within seven minutes, he emailed me back and said, I'm interested. Right. That never happens. That never happens. And so within two weeks, he was a. He was a paying advertiser. And we've had a great relationship. Yeah. Other ways are just driving around, seeing different restaurants. There's Facebook, local Facebook groups that highlight great food. I think Collin county foodies is a great Facebook page. And so I'll go on there. Like, for instance, there's a great restaurant right now that opened recently called Seeger and Sons. And everybody keeps talking about it. Right. And I mean, Literally just everybody. Every week there's a post about Seeger and Sons. And I'm like, okay, this is a story. This has to be a story. Everybody loves this place. And so it just happens from being in the community. I go to a lot of networking groups, meet people there, find out about people's stories, and then they happen through connection. You know, I know that you're going to introduce me to some people. Right. You were an introduction from another business owner. And so I would say, you know, all of the above. Great. And then, yeah, as far as finding great restaurants, businesses, you know, we host feature articles on our website. We have a searchable database. We have. The email newsletter is a big deal. A lot of people love that we do food reviews in every episode or every publication. We try to include a podcast episode, a food review, a feature article, sometimes a piece of history, even about the history of Collin County.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:38:55] Speaker B: And so the easiest way to connect with us is to just go to CollinsCounty.com and sign up for the email newsletter.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:39:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:02] Speaker A: Are you hiring food people that you need to go taste?
[00:39:06] Speaker B: Hey, sure.
[00:39:07] Speaker A: You'd have a lot of people in mind for that.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: Well, for us though, it's a tax write off. So, you know, we'll just go grab lunch sometime. I'll say, hey, you want to go to Seeger and Sons, dude?
[00:39:14] Speaker A: Yes. That's. That's a great. It's a double whammy.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: We should do it.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: It's a double whammy because you're getting taste and.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: Exactly. It's a win, win.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: Everybody wins.
[00:39:23] Speaker A: So cool. I love that. Well, man, thank you so much for coming on. I know you just shared where to just find you collin county.com and yeah, I mean, as you guys continue to launch out your social media platforms, have those officially gone live?
[00:39:36] Speaker B: Yeah, they are live. We intentionally created those later in the game. So, you know, our primary is our website, podcast, email newsletter. And then you'll see the social start to grow over time.
[00:39:45] Speaker A: Okay, awesome. You guys can find them there and yeah, reach out. I mean, obviously Joseph is a very inviting guy. Would love to have a conversation. I've enjoyed the conversations we've had and yeah, go use them as a valuable resource for your own personal business and. Or just to be a consumer of the awesome businesses that are here in Collin County. Thanks for being here, man.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Yes, sir.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: Awesome.
