Starter Girlz Podcast

How Genuine Appreciation Supercharged His Local Marketing Strategy - Jeff Weaver, Founder of Go Gorilla Marketing

• Jennifer Loehding • Season 7 • Episode 111

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In this episode of the Starter Girlz Podcast, we sit down with Jeff Weaver, founder of Go Gorilla Marketing, to explore how authentic appreciation can transform local marketing, strengthen customer loyalty, and drive sustainable business growth. Through a real, unscripted conversation, Jeff shares lessons from his entrepreneurial journey and how relationship-first marketing consistently outperforms flashy tactics.

This episode goes beyond traditional marketing strategies and dives into human-centred marketing, the kind that builds trust, encourages repeat business, and creates long-term brand loyalty within your community.

💡 What This Episode Is About
This episode explores how genuine appreciation impacts local marketing, customer loyalty, and sustainable business growth. Jeff shares practical strategies and insights from his entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing human-centered marketing over transactional tactics.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode
✔️ How genuine appreciation influences customer retention and loyalty
✔️ Why local businesses thrive when they focus on relationships, not just reach
✔️ Simple ways to apply appreciation marketing without big budgets
✔️ The difference between transactional marketing and relationship marketing
✔️ How community engagement fuels local business success
✔️ Real-world insights from Jeff’s journey in marketing and entrepreneurship

Whether you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, marketer, or local brand, this conversation offers practical insights you can apply immediately while reminding you that the most effective marketing still starts with people.

💡 Why You Should Watch
This episode is packed with practical strategies and insights that can help you:

  • Improve customer retention through genuine appreciation
  • Build stronger relationships with your community
  • Apply actionable, low-cost marketing strategies
  • Understand how relationship-first marketing drives sustainable growth

💬 Connect With Jeff Weaver
📸 Follow Jeff on Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffweavergorilla/

💬 Connect with Starter Girlz Podcast
🌐 Website: https://startergirlz.com

🙌 Partner: Walt Mills Productions

❤️ If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to:
👍 Like the episode
📩 Share it with someone building a local business
💬 Comment on your biggest takeaway
🔔 Subscribe to the Starter Girlz Podcast for more inspiring conversations

Your support helps us bring more real, actionable marketing lessons to small business owners and entrepreneurs everywhere.

🎙️ Want to be a guest on Starter Girlz Podcast?
Send Jennifer Loehding a message on PodMatch here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/17044863446695017c1879d7b

Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to the Starter Girlz Podcast, your ultimate source of inspiration and empowerment. We're here to help women succeed in every area of their lives: career, money, relationships, and health and well-being. While celebrating the remarkable journeys of individuals from all walks of life who've achieved amazing things. Whether you're looking to supercharge your career, build financial independence, nurture meaningful relationships, or enhance your overall well-being, the Starter Girlz Podcast is here to guide you. Join us as we explore the journeys of those who dare to dream big and achieve greatness. I'm your host, Jennifer Loehding, and welcome to this episode. Welcome to another episode of the Starter Girls Podcast. I am your host, Jennifer Loehding, and wherever you are tuning in, we are so glad to have you. And I am so excited. We are back here again today at the meeting place in the Farmers Branch Addison area. And I've got my friend today, Jeff Weaver. This is going to be so much fun. This is totally, I'm going to be honest and unplanned. We talked about doing a podcast episode, but we just in the last few minutes decided we are going to pull together a podcast episode. So I have a feeling this is going to be a lot of fun. The last time Jeff and I got to sit down and talk, we were there for like two hours. We promise we are not doing that today. Um but this is this is gonna be a lot of fun. But before I I get him on here and we start getting into this, I do want to do a quick shout out to our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Walt Mills Productions. Need to add excitement to your YouTube videos or some expert hands for editing? Look no further. Walt Mills is the solution you've been searching for. Walt is not only your go-to guy for spicing up content, he's the force behind a thriving film production company with numerous titles in the pipeline. Always on the lookout for raw talent. Walt is eager to collaborate on film and internet productions. With a background deeply rooted in entertainment and promotion, Walt Mills leverages years of skills to give you the spotlight you deserve. Want to learn more about Walt and his work? Head on over to Walt Mills Productions.net and let your content shine. All right. And with that, I do want to make a mention to head on over to startergirlz.com. I say this every single week. And why do I say that? Three reasons. One, if you have missed an episode, it is a great place to get caught up. And then, of course, if you want to be in the know, it's a great place to sign up for our community newsletter and keep up with what we've got going on. And if you are an aspiring creator, entrepreneur, or maybe you're in the thick of it. I don't know. And you want to find out what your number one success block is that may be hindering your success. Well, guess what? I've got your back. There is a two-minute quiz over there that you can take that will actually help you identify what it is that could be holding you back right now. So head on over to startergirlz.com. And as I always say, do your thing. All right. This could be fun.

Jeff Weaver:

All right, we're ready.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, Jeff Weaver, he is the founder of Go Gorilla Marketing, and he's got kind of a fun story. I'm gonna chat with him a little bit about that today, and we're gonna learn. I've I've gotten to learn about your story, but our audience doesn't know who you are yet.

Jeff Weaver:

We'll bring him up to speed.

Jennifer Loehding:

Exactly. We're gonna get them caught up. So, Jeff, welcome to the show. So excited to have you here today.

Jeff Weaver:

Great to be here. It's kind of like a cold call. It just happened.

Jennifer Loehding:

I know, it just did. Except this isn't very cold, but yes. Yes, yes. It's so funny how you know I I've done so many of these now that I feel like there's never really a surprise. You know what I mean? I just like we're gonna just we'll make it work. Whatever happens, happens. We're gonna we're gonna make it go. So let's start this off, Jeff. I want to talk a little bit about your background, background story, like what brought you to this place of Go Gorilla Marketing. So take us back. What brought you here and um how this all came about for you?

Jeff Weaver:

Okay, I'll take you back maybe about 20 years. I'm not gonna tell you how old I am. It goes further back. But um, I owned a franchise of a barter exchange, and what that means is that businesses would become a member and then transact using our virtual currency, if you will, before virtual currency became a thing. And uh that way they didn't have to use cash. And I owned that franchise uh for 11 years, and uh it was it was time for me to do something different, so I sold that and I started a company called uh Quick Results Marketing. And in that, um, that kind of started because a buddy of mine called me from San Jose, California. He was also a barter franchisee, and he owned a restaurant for like 25 years. It is the most popular restaurant in San Jose. And he said, Jeff, I'm sitting in a restaurant. He calls me at lunchtime, his time, and says, Jeff, I'm sitting in a restaurant. It has about 30 to 40 tables, and I'm one of the tables all by myself, and there's two business people over there talking. That's it. We're we're the whole business right now. He said, These guys are just dying. We got to do something. Yeah, and I said, Well, why are you calling me? And he said, Well, you're the marketing guy. I said, Okay, fair enough, you know, but he's the sales guy. So uh, but anyhow, we um he I said, what do you want to do? And he said, Well, I think we need to do email marketing for them. I said, Okay, let's look into that. So give me a couple of days, and I did the research and found out that uh Get Response and Constant Contact had done um research of all of their businesses that use their emailing services and found out that only 10 to 13 percent of restaurant-related emails get opened. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, so if you got a thousand people in there, you're really only advertising to 130, not a thousand. Yeah, and I just kept digging and I landed on text messaging because 97% get read. Um, and they uh it's the way that people want to communicate today. Yes, they can get email on their phone, but everybody's worn out on email, as we all know. So this was something that because they opt in, they want to receive those, and so that uh that worked out really well. And so uh recently I sold that and uh started another company that I call uh Go Guerrilla Marketing. And what we're doing there is a couple of things. I'm still gonna do some text messaging because that's you know across the country, yeah. But um, I have seven retention uh formulas for small businesses, not only restaurants, but you know, massage therapists and flower shops and auto repair shops, and they're all mobile-based, but they're not apps because people have become app fatigued. They got two or three hundred on their phone, you know. Yeah. So ours, when somebody shoots a picture of the QR code at the uh at the business, it just loads right into their wallet: Apple wallet, Samsung wallet, whatever they're using, Google wallet. And that way there's probably only 10 or 12 things in their wallet. Gotcha. And so it makes it fun for them to uh you know interact with the business that way. And then I'm also doing uh something that's uh more of uh getting new customers. We're putting in large screen TVs and businesses, and we will advertise that business in 10, 15, 20, and more different businesses within a few mile radius. So, you know, if it's a dry cleaner, nobody's gonna drive more than a mile to get to the dry cleaner. But if it's a restaurant, they'll drive three miles, and if it's a kid's activity or something, they might drive seven miles so we can advertise in all those places. Yeah and they have on their TV and their location, they're running the ads for the other businesses, and they can run their own specials. So that's that's the story of the three businesses and what put me where I am today.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's so awesome. Well, and I think the thing, it's funny, you know, I always talk about um these nonlinear paths, you know. I think so many people, I could probably say majority of the people that have been on this show have sort of had this nonlinear path, you know. But I think the interesting thing is that you'll find that there's little pieces that actually link them all together, right? They link the different segues. But I do want to say something about the apps because it's so funny. I just spent this week, I was trying to organize all the freaking apps on my phone. And so then, you know, I'm setting up these little boxes and I'm putting moving them in there and getting them in, and then I'm like, I forget where I put them. I'm clearly have too many apps on my phone. So you are absolutely right when we're all like sick of apps, because I'm like, if I have to download, I think I downloaded another app today, another business app. And so, yes, I'm with you on that. But I do think, yeah, if you think about like the text marketing, you know, emails, yes, we get a lot of them. And I do read the the ones that I want to be reading that come through, the important things that come in, but we do get a lot, and it's crazy because they'll get lost in there sometimes, right? You'll be like, Oh, I missed that email. But text is sort of like you see those and you're like, What's that text? And you pull it open because they're short, they're sweet, you don't have all that long you know stuff in there, and so um I do agree with you that's yeah, the short thing is really important.

Jeff Weaver:

I do have customers that know that you can text a picture. Yeah, so maybe a restaurant wants to text a picture of a dinner, and I'm like, No, you really don't want to do that. And he says, Oh no, pictures, pictures really sell. And I said, Yeah, what we used to say is pictures are worth a thousand words.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Jeff Weaver:

And nobody wants a thousand words on their text message.

Jennifer Loehding:

So yeah, you don't want to be sending long text. I hate when I have to send a long text to anybody. I'm like, if you're gonna do that, put some spaces in it.

Jeff Weaver:

160 characters, that's where we're at. 160.

Jennifer Loehding:

It's so crazy though. I think that's kind of where we're at, like in a lot of things, because even today, like I'm in there doing like my social media, which by the way, I you probably have heard me say this a hundred times. I hate social media as much as we do with this podcast that I have to, we have to be in the social media space, but I absolutely hate doing it. And it's like today I'm going through and trying to create posts and trying to create, you know, different kinds of uh I don't know what you want to say, different kinds of just creative art, right? And I'm sitting here thinking our attention span, you know, like you're creating, I'm I'm putting that together and like nobody's even gonna look at that because nobody can look at it that long. They're not gonna read it and they're not gonna look at it for long, right? It has to be, you got so many seconds to move things, whether it be in text, video, or whatever you're doing.

Jeff Weaver:

Everything seems to be moving faster every day. I know. And it's hard, it's hard to keep up with what we need to do, even with all the technology that's available. Sometimes we're overwhelmed trying to learn the technology so that we can get stuff done. Yeah, yeah. That that's frustrating. As an entrepreneur, that's really frustrating because you know, I'm uh, you know, I'm a one-man show with a part-time assistant, so most of it's falling on me. Yeah. And uh, you know, I'm using all the technology I can uh I can muster.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, yeah. Well, and you do, and it's crazy too, and I don't know if you feel this way, but for me, like I'm not, I'm a depth person. So all that fast stuff drives me absolutely crazy because I'm I need I like the depth. Like I like to get to know people, I like to read things, I like to investigate, and so everything, this punchiness. I'm like majority of people are probably not gonna be that way, but I am that way. And so, you know, and here I'm trying in this world to be like, okay, Jennifer, pull the depth back. Not everybody wants all that context, you know, like let's just make it short and punchy.

Jeff Weaver:

Not everybody wants to slow down. That's the kind of the thing. So my one slow time a day is when I walk from the car to the office. I walk very slow. Yeah, otherwise it's rushing everywhere.

Jennifer Loehding:

No, I get it. Well, and I get it. And that point, yes, I do do that. Walk fast, all that stuff I do. Talk fast, you know. But uh, yeah, I get it, absolutely. So good stuff. So you talked about a little bit about what guerrilla marketing, you know, that I really like the TV thing. I think that's a really good thing. And for anybody here locally, obviously, we're featuring, you know, a local local entrepreneur here, but anybody local here could hit could do that. And I think it's an incredible opportunity for a business owner, especially like we were talking about Mexican food out there and how Friday night I go get my you know, my fajitas or my fajita salad, no carbs, I want to do the meat, the meat and the the meat and the all the other fixings. Um, but you know, it's a little a local place here in town. And if you think about it, I'm sitting here thinking, what if somebody had a monitor in that place? There's a lot of people there on Friday night, and that monitor was up there, right? And they were looking at that.

Jeff Weaver:

Yeah, here's one thing I discovered just quite by accident as I was putting this uh this part of my marketing together. I went to the corner that our neighborhood is at. Okay. And we do business with about seven or eight businesses on that corner. Okay. And so I went in, I thought I'll just take pictures of the buildings and grasp about four or five uh signs at a time. There were 52 businesses on that corner. Wow. And we're only doing business with seven or eight. And I'll tell you, of the other 40 businesses, half of them I never even knew existed. Yeah, I don't even know what some of them do because their sign isn't you know good enough. But yeah, it was it was really shocking how much is out there, and that's when I really started thinking, these poor businesses, there's no way for for what I call the little guys to do hyperloco marketing. Yeah, it costs a fortune. I talked with one lady, she was a restaurant owner, she did a $3,000 postcard campaign and got no results. Yeah. And you know, we were talking about the TV stuff, and she's like, Well, can we put a QR code on there so I can have a coupon? I said, Yeah, you can measure it and you're gonna find great results. Yeah. Because it they're a captive audience. Right, right. When they're standing at their trash can with the postcards, they're not captive at all.

Jennifer Loehding:

Right, right.

Jeff Weaver:

So yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, and marketing is one of the things, one of those things that I think you need to be diligent about. You know, like when I first moved here, you know, I was in, I was in Mary Kay at that time and I was doing, remember the welcome wagon? Oh, yeah. They did the welcoming neighbor. Okay. So I had done that in Houston. I was a one of the, I guess maybe you call them subscribers. I had paid to do the year contract. Not cheap by any means, but one of the beautiful things that I loved about that when I started that was that we would get the phone list. And so I was able to actually, you know, those books, they were delivering those welcoming packages to the neighbors, but I was actually able to follow up with those neighbors to and make sure that when they got it and then offer my services. And the funny thing was, you know, I was in Mary Kay for 22 years. I had some of those original clients when I first moved here from that original early welcoming neighbor with me all the way till the end when I left 22 years later. Yeah.

Jeff Weaver:

So isn't that a great feeling?

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah. So the marketing worked, but what I was saying that was it, I don't know that it would have necessarily been as effective had I not been doing that actual follow-up process, right? Because then you're getting, you're getting back to doing just putting things out cold again, right? Like mail outs or whatever. But I was very proactive about doing that. So I think my point to that is that yes, you have to be very diligent about whatever marketing resource, you know, whatever you use for your marketing, because you need to have your expectations, right? If you're gonna do mailings, like you're saying, and there's no real way to follow up and you're just putting mailings, you're kind of, you know, be be aware of that and and know your odds, your numbers and stuff.

Jeff Weaver:

And that's something that, you know, as as a marketer that people really need to think about. I'm a little bit like you. I like to take the broad picture and dig as deep as I can. And yeah, if we have systems that we can follow up on, and even better if they're free. Yeah. Like one example that I teach small business owners to do is stop paying cash for everything you buy. Start doing some trade. And they're like, what do you mean?

Jennifer Loehding:

Talk about that. Let's talk about that. Because I think that is a, you know what? Because you and I, I get that. And I and the only reason I would know that is because I did it in Mary Kay the entire time I was working in Mary Kay, we did stuff like this. And I still think like that now. But a lot of business owners, I will have this conversation. Not that I'm necessarily I'm trying to do that, but I will suggest that, and it's like a foreign thing. Like they like like they just don't even get it, you know. And I'm like, big picture, big picture.

Jeff Weaver:

So the simplest way to put it, of course, you know, mine was what was called a modern barter exchange. It's a it's a little deeper, a little broader, but I just take it down to the local level. Let's say you're a restaurant and you got a window cleaner that charges you a hundred bucks to come clean the windows once a month. You go to him and say, as you know, things are challenging out there for us, restaurants, and I'm sure it's challenging for you too, but I just can't do the $100 anymore. But what I will do for you is I'll pay you $50 cash and I'll give you two $25 gift cards. You can use them yourself or get creative and use them as a thank you to another business or maybe a new customer. But the beauty of it is that they're getting $50 back in business because if the that $50 cash you gave them, there's no guarantee where they're gonna spend it. Right. But you know where $50 of it's coming back. Right. I mean, it is guaranteed sales, and people when they hear that, they go, Wow, I never thought of it that way. Yeah, yeah, it's guaranteed sales, and there's nothing wrong with that. And you know, maybe they only do part of it in trade, or maybe they only do it for a certain period of time. You just gotta look at it as whatever win I get, however big it is, it's better than what's going on right now. Right. Yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah. Well, and I think it gets back to thinking big picture. You've got to, you know, because we we talk about like ROIs in business, and people think ROIs mean the immediate return on investment, but sometimes the return is not there, it's down the road. You're building the relationship. And I did that stuff all the time. I mean, it was I was always giving out, you know, gift cards and and swap bartering with you know clients and other other businesses to because I in in that world we did a lot of like collaboration. I mean, not to say we don't do that here, but we just we have we did a lot of that type of stuff. And so for me, it was no that wouldn't even be anything out of my out of my realm of thought, you know.

Jeff Weaver:

And this is kind of the advice I mean, because people say, why do you talk about it being low cost and no cost? If you're not getting paid, why are you doing this? I've been a small businessman my whole life, yeah, and I know the pain that it causes.

Jennifer Loehding:

Sure.

Jeff Weaver:

And there's no marketing out there for people, so I'm gonna help them with the low-cost stuff that gets high returns that they can actually afford and actually measure. Then I'm gonna give them all kinds of no-cost advice. Why? Because I'm a champion for small businesses, and you know, the different ways, there's like four or five different ways I teach people to leverage their gift cards that all that business comes back to them. Right. And most of them are like, oh my gosh, I never thought of that. You know, another way is uh just your employees. My in my opinion, every employee of a company should be doing something to generate sales for the company, not just their job. Yeah, and so what you can do is you can go to your employees and say, I'm gonna give you two $25 gift cards. You need to give them to two people, friends, relatives, other whatever, that have never come to our store or our restaurant. And that money's coming straight back to you a hundred percent, no discount. How can you lose? You didn't have the discount. Yeah, so I just give those ideas away because you know I don't want to be a consultant, you know, and charge charge these big whopping, you know, monthly fees. I just want to do I I'm gonna stay in my lane. Yeah, and my lane is the text marketing, the TV stuff, and the retention stuff. Everything else is my gracious value to give. And I I really enjoy it. Nothing, nothing makes me more excited than for somebody to call me and say, you know that thing you told me to do? I did it, and it was unbelievable. Yeah. And then they'll call and say, Hey, I did that thing you said and uh it didn't work. And I said, Okay, well let's review exactly what you did. And then we'd find that one little tweak that they didn't they kind of took out of context and we fixed that and it starts working. Yeah. Gorilla strategies work and they cost very little, if anything, at all.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, that's good. And I think, yeah, and as a small business owner, you know, they're always looking for ways to do their business effectively and not put a lot of money out there. Right. As you were talking about this, I was thinking about the Texas Legends, the basketball. So George Shower, he's no longer with the Texas Legends. He passed away. Great man. I enjoyed, I got to know him while I was in the Texas Legends. But he was so awesome. They used to call him, I think he had everything from generous George to Crazy George. He had all these names. But he was really good. He would get tickets. He would get tickets to the Texas Legends and he would give them out. And he would always call me and be like, Jennifer, do you have families that anybody you know in your circle, like networking or whatever that you want that have families that would love to come because they knew that they were bringing people into the game and they were creating that environment and they would come back. And so, I mean, they had a larger purpose. You know, Malcolm always says he wants that, you know, to be a place where you can get in and actually afford to go to a game and have family fun entertainment. But my point to that is George was always giving those tickets out and he worked, he worked for the Legends, he was giving those tickets out and bringing people in. And so I agree with you. And I think it's even deeper than that when you get the the your team to do that with you because it's not even just about that, right? You're getting them invested in the company, like they're a part of that, they're part of that project. This is your culture problem. Exactly. Exactly. Now you've got them invested in the company, and now it's a bigger thing. And it's what we're kind of doing, even with this this new pet sitting thing I'm creating. Like, I've got it set up with these girls why like they're part of this process. Like they can help bring people in. I'm going to reward them for that. But also, it's like, hey, they look at it like, hey, we're a part of this. We're building. You know, it's not just Jennifer's going out and looking for clients, they're part of this process. And so it's cute. They'll send me a little text and they'll be like, hey, I talked to somebody and they're like, they're gonna call. And I'm like, yay, it's cool.

Jeff Weaver:

Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, I'm big about gift giving. I mean, I've told some of my clients, give me gift cards. I well, I ask them for them, and they're like, You're not gonna charge me to do this marketing for me. I said, No, because I'm out talking with people all the time. It doesn't, it doesn't hurt me to say, have you ever eaten that, or where do you have your nails done? Have you ever tried this place? You know, here's a gift card. You know, it it's it's no sweat off my back. Why would I pay for it? You know?

Jennifer Loehding:

Well, and you know, to that point, you know, we used to say all the time, I would tell my consultants this back in the day. I'm like, we sell every day without even thinking about it. So, like, right? We are always selling people. What's for dinner? Yeah, exactly. Like, I just sold the Los Jalapenos and carrots in out there. Everybody go to Los Jalapenos on Friday night, right?

Jeff Weaver:

Yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

Fun little dive to eat at. Food's cheap and you can get in and out quick, right? They have good chips and salsa too, even though I don't eat tons of chips. They have good chips and salsa. So, but yes, um, I'm with you on that. I think I think, yeah, we're all with selling, and I think that whatever we can do to keep our costs minimal as small business owners, I am all for it. Love the TV idea. And it's reasonable. I mean, like next door, you know, you know, next door that we all know about an app. I mean, for what you're charging for that, that's about what they charge for a month. And it's not, I don't even know that it's quite it does, I don't think it gets as in front of as many people for that price, is what I'm saying. It's a very limit, very limited. Um, I think here you think about a restaurant, how many people go into that hundreds in a restaurant place?

Jeff Weaver:

Or or even like a dental office, yeah. There's you know, 60 people or more that come in a day. Yeah, and there's everybody waits for five minutes. Oh, yes. In five minutes, they'll see the video twice. Yeah, we'll be looking at it. Right. And then you multiply that times the number of days they're open a year, which isn't as many as other businesses do.

Jennifer Loehding:

But it's still, I mean, they get a lot of people, they still get quite a few in there. I could see it being good. So I'd love to know, like, you know, like as an entrepreneur, I want to kind of back this up now on the entrepreneur side, talk a little bit about your journey. So coming from the franchise, you've been kind of an entrepreneur for a really long time. So you've you feel like I more so than I am, but I feel like I that's kind of what I tell people too. I feel like I've been an entrepreneur forever that I don't even know what it would be like if I'd go the other way and actually plug into a place of you know of work. I'd love to know like what you feel like you've learned over this journey about yourself and this entrepreneurial journey.

Jeff Weaver:

Really good question because um I've only had two um jobs, if you will. And uh one of them lasted four months. I I just don't make a good employee.

Jennifer Loehding:

There's your lesson, right?

Jeff Weaver:

What I like to, I'm an improver, and I like to find if there's a problem, I want to solve it. That's how every one of my businesses got started was what problem can I solve? Yeah, and then can I create the solution or can I find the solution to sell? Yeah, and um, I think that's that's been the real uh fun part of it. I started two businesses while I was in college. Those were my first two entrepreneurial things. Okay I started delivering papers at eight years old. I was paid on the 1099, so I guess I was self-employed.

Jennifer Loehding:

You were self-employed, yeah.

Jeff Weaver:

And I had to sell because you know they had contests and I wanted what to win the contest, and so I'm out there knocking on doors. That's cold calling for sales newspapers. They don't do that anymore. No, so for for the younger people out there, that's how it used to be.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, right. That's so great. That's great. Well, I will, you know what? When I was a kid, we did we mowed yards. And it's so funny because I was thinking about this the other day that how um when we were when I was little, we would make like we were always like hustling. We were trying to do lemonade stands, we were mowing yards, we were making crafts, and we were gonna be like, how are we gonna sell these crafts? We're gonna set up a table outside on the on the pool on the at the edge of the our driveways were in the front of the house. We go set up out there and sell our crafts. I mean, we were like always entrepreneurialing, whatever that word is, as children try to make businesses and stuff. And so it cracks me up because I laugh. It's like I'm still doing the same thing.

Jeff Weaver:

Yeah, it's um and and it's not for everybody. I I get that. And you know, the corporate world isn't for everybody either. I agree. I've proven that to myself. Yeah, but the idea of helping businesses, I've not really had, I've only had one one of the businesses I started in college was B2C. Everything else, I've been B2B. I'm just more comfortable in that space and mentality because I want to help business owners make more money and have more fun and a lot less stress.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Jeff Weaver:

So that's my goal.

Jennifer Loehding:

Well, and I mean, to talk to your point, like, yeah, you if you have a problem and you figure out how to solve it, and who need who has who is also experiencing that problem, you got a business, pretty much, right? I mean, and then it just comes to marketing. So yeah, I know it's good. And I and I think a lot, maybe not all, but I think a lot of entrepreneurs would probably agree, you know, because I hear that a lot, that I'm not a good employee. And I I kind of laugh about this because I I've had a couple jobs. I um I feel like I've been doing entrepreneurial stuff pretty much out of the outside of college, like out of that. But there was I did a few things, I worked in insurance for a while, and it's so funny because now I'm so like set in my ways. Like if somebody told me that I had to like be somewhere at a certain time, you know, to plug in and then I had to sit at a desk, I don't know what I would do because I've just been kind of doing my own thing for so long. I'm kind of spoiled, you know, and I don't lie about it.

Jeff Weaver:

I mean, I've my longest term in employment was six years, and I'll be honest, every week, almost every day, I was worried about being fired. Oh, I don't have to worry about that because I'm the boss and I'm a very understanding boss.

Jennifer Loehding:

Right, right. It's very different when you're the boss versus being, you know, being told what to do.

Jeff Weaver:

Yeah, my boss might be a little too easy on me sometimes.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, yeah, mine sometimes, and then sometimes not. It's like get in, get in, get yourself the gear. You got stuff to do today. Yes. Good stuff, good stuff. What um, well, and I don't even know. I was gonna say, like, what challenges, I mean, you you recognize that you can't work for somebody, but what are some things you feel like you've had to learn in the process? Because you've been in this for this game for a while, so other than marketing, you've obviously I've learned lots of marketing hacks.

Jeff Weaver:

I mean, I think the the thing is this entrepreneurs in general are very curious people. Yeah, they they don't pass judgment really fast on whether or not something will work, they're very curious about how could that work. Right. You know, somebody tells them, well, that'll never work. Okay, I want to figure out if they're right or not. Right, right. And so uh that's kind of grown with me all along is this curiosity to learn the different things. And I I learned I've learned some crazy stuff that's you know come to help me. I've learned some stuff about you know how to manage money better.

Jennifer Loehding:

Right.

Jeff Weaver:

You know, I'm really good at understanding the difference between cash flow and profit.

Jennifer Loehding:

Right. Those are two different things. Yes.

Jeff Weaver:

You could have no profit, but you've got to manage your cash flow.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yes, right, right.

Jeff Weaver:

So you yeah, so yeah. So I've I've uh been in that. Um I do uh a lot of uh reading in my early years. I did a lot of reading, um, especially on sales, because as an entrepreneur, there is no business until a sale's made. And since you started the business and you're the only employee, I guess that falls on you too. Yep. And so, you know, I tell people all the time, you know, you don't need the next tech hack. Right. You need to learn how to sell, yeah, you know, yeah, and be comfortable with that. And I've not always been comfortable with it. Yeah. So it just uh, but you know, uh, you stick with it and you realize, nope, well, of course, here in Texas, you could get shot for making a cold call, but I haven't had that experience yet. So and nobody's gonna hurt you. Yeah, no, you know, they might ask you to leave, but they're not gonna swear at you, you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

So you learn a lot, I think, in the process. There's so many things you said I was laughing about because I'm like, I remember like, and I was actually working for a company at this time. I was working for an insurance company back. This was back while I was in college. I remember I used to have to make these cold calls at night. So I would go, it was nationwide insurance at the time for an agent in Houston. And so I'd work like during the day, do customer service. In the evening, I'd have to come back and make phone calls. And oh, I hated cold calls. I got really good at them, though. But I hated them. And I remember this one time I called, and this guy picked up the phone, and he just was messing with me on the phone. Like, just kept messing with me. Like, I'm like, I'm just done. I and at that time, like now I would just be like, click. Yeah, I just make, I'm not even gonna do this. I'm not gonna entertain. Goodbye. But I don't even know. I think I was just like, um, okay, yeah. Well, did you did you need me to help you with that? I mean, I was in my 20s, I was in my early 20s, you know. So you learn a lot. You were, and I think all these things you're talking about, you know, like you earn, you know, you are the show in the in in your business and you are wearing all the hats, that means you are the CEO, the accountant, the salesman, and all the pieces, and you gotta work them all. And if you don't, you ain't having anything going on. No money, no sales, nothing.

Jeff Weaver:

Yeah. And another thing is check your ego at the door.

Jennifer Loehding:

Oh, yeah.

Jeff Weaver:

What you need is you need advice from people that you trust, even if you hardly know them, try to develop a rapport with them. I don't say a relationship because that could mean something different, just rapport. Um, because I have when I started uh Go Gorilla Marketing, I went to six or eight of my trusted advisors and asked them. And I was on the right track with most of it. Yeah, but they pointed out a couple things that I didn't see.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Jeff Weaver:

And so now I fixed them. So it, you know, all in one day.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, no, I think that's good. And we kind of talked about that last night when we were having our the book launch here for Vicky about, you know, trusting information. I'm like, if you hear, you know, the same thing coming up from multiple, like different people saying kind of the same thing, that curiosity needs to be like lean into, okay, maybe I need to look at this and see what's going on, right? But then on the other hand, like I was, you know, Vicki and I were talking about if you've got the one person that's telling you this, but everybody else is not telling you that, uh, maybe it's time to just kind of, you know, not listen to that advice. Yeah.

Jeff Weaver:

It's okay to fire people every now and then.

Jennifer Loehding:

Exactly, exactly. You learn a lot being a good idea.

Jeff Weaver:

Or at least fire that one piece of advice.

Jennifer Loehding:

I've learned that, you know, I will ask for advice, but I kind of take it in and I say if a lot, again, if a lot of people are kind of saying the same thing, maybe I can do something to it. Yeah, I'm I should I might look at it. And if I'm only hearing it from, you know, one or two, and everybody else is like, eh, then I'm like, eh, we'll just hold that thought. Maybe come back to it later. We may have some time to process. Yeah, it's good stuff. So, Jeff, a couple fun questions. So, um, mentors, do you have any like particular, it could be a book, it could be a personal mentor. You said trusted advisors, like people, you know, trusted friends. Um, I if you asked me this question, I would have it like so many. I have so I have so many answers, but I want to know from you any particular mentor, a book, anything that you feel like is was kind of a stick out in your mind and your guidance.

Jeff Weaver:

Um I was a a big listener to Jim Rohn. Um, Jim was uh he was one of the founders of business psychology, if you will, and just a brilliant man to listen to. Um for sales, I don't care what anybody says, Zig Ziggler and Brian Tracy were the two best salespeople in the country. Um I learned all of my um, well not all of it, but most of my doing business by referral, I learned from a guy by the name of Brian Bafini, who is a coach in the real estate space. Okay, and uh so uh he was coaching me, his company. And uh I learned a lot about that. Um, and you know, I've taken that into I've now got because of my length of time in business, I have over a hundred tips for networking that you know people aren't really doing. You know, your 30-second commercial doesn't mean anything. If you you don't even have to have one for networking to work.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, so I I've developed I hate those 30-second commercials.

Jeff Weaver:

Well, especially if you go every week and you're the same one every time. It's like, why are we doing this? We all know each other.

Jennifer Loehding:

Exactly. And it's so to me, it's so hard to really. I mean, I know it's that shock factor you're trying to get them to like want to sit down with you, but I think sometimes leaving a little mystery too makes people be like, what's that about? You know, yeah, like don't say a lot, don't maybe don't say as much, you know.

Jeff Weaver:

Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm always um amazed to go to a networking group and have no one follow up with me. Not even the leader of the group. And I it's like, okay, well, there's somebody that doesn't know what networking is, it's about building your group of rapport and people you can work to trust and that will trust you. Yeah, that's what it's it's about building your own personal network, you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

And it's well, and that's an interesting topic. You know, because just like this last week I went out networking and I came back with like several business cards. I followed up with every one of them, and I haven't been able to pin any of them down to connect. They're all like I've they've all been like, Yeah, we should get coffee sometime. And I'm like, I'm not asking you for a date. I mean, there's nothing there. I just want to learn about your business and you know, maybe invite you to our RBA sometime or whatever, you know, and learn a little, you know. But yeah, people are funny, they are, they don't know.

Jeff Weaver:

So I try I try to laugh it off.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, well, you do. I think in the entrepreneur space, you do. You have to learn to have a sense of humor, curiosity. Maybe that's the two things sense of curiosity and humor. Yeah, you know, to grow. So very good. Okay, so we talked through really cool stuff. I want to say, like any one thing in the marketing space you want to tell a business owner right now, other than to call you, to call Jeff to so he can help you. But any one thing they could do right now to maybe uh get them on the right track for marketing or something they could do that's really inexpensive. Bardo cards we talked about.

Jeff Weaver:

I mean, I I I think I think a lot of owners are completely out of touch with their customers. So they need to reach back out to their customers. And I I tell people like um, I buy, you know, a half dozen cookies and they ship them the next day, and you'd be surprised. I get a return phone call every time when I'm thanking them for being a customer of mine, or thank them. You know, you probably didn't know this, but we've been working together for 17 years, and then they call me out, yeah, I didn't know that. That is what you're trying to do. Without that, you don't get referrals, you don't get regulars, and you don't get raving fans.

Jennifer Loehding:

Oh, yeah, I do. If I got cookies in the mail, let me tell you, there was actually a dentist here in Carrollton. She's no longer, she's no longer with that practice. She moved out to Frisco. But um, first of all, I'm gonna preface this by saying I don't like the dentist. I do have a dentist now in Carrollton that I do like. Finally, after 50-something years, I found a dentist I'm okay with, but I just hate them because we had all that crappy 80s children's dental stuff, you know. They don't have all kids that have luxury dental care now. We did not, you know, like they go to pull teeth, they'd just be like, numb it, yank the tooth out. You know, very, very different thing. Anyways, there was a there is a dentist here. I know there was a dentist here that um she I remember like the first week I went in there because I was diagnosed with TN, and that's like a dentist's worse nightmare. And so I went in there and I told her about it, had the appointment, and like, I don't know, about a week later, I get like these flowers show up at my door. And I'm thinking, from the dentist. I'm like, this is good. And you know, every time I'd go in there, even though the hygienist would drive me crazy because they would talk while your mouth is open. I've never understood why they talk to you while your mouth is open. I went back to that.

Jeff Weaver:

Or they ask questions.

Jennifer Loehding:

Well, that's the point. She would be asking me and I'll be like, uh, I can't tell you.

Jeff Weaver:

And then she understands you. That's what you're creating.

Jennifer Loehding:

Exactly. But I went back to the dentist because I liked that dentist. I'd built I felt like she went, made that extra special touch, and I stayed with her until she left that practice.

Jeff Weaver:

And yeah, people don't understand that doing business and getting repeat business is all about authentic appreciation. Saying thank you for paying you, that's just courtesy. That's not appreciation. So you've got uh, and and I've got some creative ways to do it, you gotta get their contact information. If you can get a home address, that's great. Sometimes you can just look it up. A lot of people have a big footprint online, uh, get a phone number, get an email, and then you gotta work to do that. And you could even send an email that said, Hey, I've got something to ask you. Could you give me a call? That way you're not they're calling you. Yeah, they want to know what it is, and what you want to do is appreciate them. I mean, who would not like that? Absolutely, and who would become less loyal because you did that? Nobody, they become more loyal, yeah. So, yeah, I that's my big tip is figure out a way to get in a better um rapport and relationship with your clientele.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, good stuff, Jeff. Okay, and I'm gonna say something about the getting off track because I do it all the time. But we land the plane every single time. That's what I tell people. I'm like, I never know where it's gonna go.

Jeff Weaver:

You never know when it's finding a runaway somewhere.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, you never know when you have a conversation with me. We're gonna go over there, there, that we will fly all over the place, but we will land the plane. I love it. I had it so true story. When I first started. Of the show, I used to go into the studio. My good friend Chris Clo. He's been kind of in the the media for a long time. He's got some family kind of in the in the entertainment business. But he used to joke all the time because he he would say, You're definitely going to land the plane. Because I will bring it in every time. But we will fly everywhere before we land.

Jeff Weaver:

The flight is enjoyable though.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, we make sure we have fun.

Jeff Weaver:

It's like you're serving wine.

Jennifer Loehding:

Exactly. Exactly. So, Jeff, this has been great. It's been awesome. So, if our audience, somebody listening to this, wants to connect with you, maybe they want to learn a little bit more about you know Go Gorilla Marketing. Maybe they want to enlist you for your services. I don't know. Whatever.

Jeff Weaver:

Well, we're we're in the process of uh redoing the website, so I won't send you there. But you can find me on LinkedIn, Jeff Weaver, and um you'll find some more information about there. I in my contact and I got everything. I'm I get a kick out of salespeople that don't put their phone number on LinkedIn. I'm like, you know, but uh yeah, everything's there for you. You can send an email. The email still works for the old website, so uh I'm definitely uh be able to be contacted in that way. That's way too much.

Jennifer Loehding:

We'll be looking forward again seeing the website. I know that's kind of a process. I just had to rebuild all mine, and I know it's it takes a little time to get it.

Jeff Weaver:

Well, my last ones were kind of business oriented, and this one's gonna have a big gorilla on it. So it's fun.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, it'll be fun. I know I would look at that. It's all good. All right. Well, Jeff, this has been awesome. I want to thank you for jumping on here last minute. We just kind of you know crafted this up, and thank you for your patience and willingness, and um, I guess your nuggets of wisdom on the whole marketing thing.

Jeff Weaver:

Well, you're a sweetheart. Thank you for having me.

Jennifer Loehding:

Absolutely. Of course, our audience, we appreciate you. Hope you found this episode both informative and inspiring. And if you did, you know what to do. All the things like, subscribe, comment, share, so we can keep uh putting out this fabulous content to you. And as I always say, in order to live the extraordinary, you must start. Every start begins with a decision. You guys take care, be safe, be kind to one another, and we will see you next time.

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Jennifer Loehding

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