Yankie Markowitz discusses business and marketing

what was the inspiration behind 99% of ads don't have a face on it but you built such a familiarity around your own brand and everybody knows you and they know SBA Loans and and they know you as a personal as a Personnel you know like with what you do what was the inspiration behind saying I'm going to put my face on the ad put it in the Ami M and every magazine that you can find you're going to see Y yanii marwitz and team and your faces in the corner so it was a combination of a few things um one I realized when I called up somebody and they had no idea who I was I was either I'm sorry am I taking too long no I'm just check I'm just checking when I started to know not to keep you for for longer than about an hour problem so when it first started when I would call up somebody let's call it a cold call or even if somebody said why don't you call up this and this person I know they're looking for financing maybe you could help them and they don't know who they're talking to when I would meet somebody in person and they meet me and in general whenever you meet somebody it's always different than when you're on the phone right it's a more personable feeling you get to see the person's Expressions there's a reason some people speak with their hands some people speak with their eyes yeah so there was two fold so one I'm one more one more aspect I'm in the service business right I'm not selling a product I'm not selling you a cup I'm selling you me and what can I do for you so who is this person hence you got to see who I am maybe you like it maybe you don't like it right now you can see it's not a hired model that oh the model no it's a regular person and you get to see who that person is maybe make a connection you could make a physical connection or a mental connection with the with the image and two when I speak to that on the phone even though we never met many people always say I feel like I know you like everybody says Friday night I spend with you right right right right thank you it's true it's true how many people tell me I'm not going to I don't know how what's this rated what's the but always with me in the bathroom right right your mind when put the toilet seat down but I get that all the time and it becomes personable and you could see that a lot of people start to do that as well since then there's a lot more pictures inside the advertisements which if I was inspiration I'm more than happy to right so it was those things again a to make it personal when I call up somebody they they if they've seen my advertisement whether it's in yish magazine or it's online or it's on Instagram they could see who the person is and to understand that there's a connection between us yeah I find that to be uh I I find that to be incredible and uh and I also think that people people also I think that you also have a so people see that it's you and they say like okay this guy looks like a trust guy I also saw that you just updated the picture didn't just like a few months ago whatever recently very recently yes a lot of people complain about the ads n n that it's like some people say go back to the old picture stick the new picture but that our ads are done very uh not professional and it's true that's not I I make them myself right I just saw the rashash one the the H and pomegranate I love it because I know your game I know that this is your idea it's me it's simple and you know what somebody again I don't know who watches this what language we could use but if someone comes over to me and I said this many times and he says oh you're the guy from the Army right I know you or you're the guy from the yeah why do you have such shitty ads I said that's a good question let me ask you a question had you know to come over to me and ask me why why ad so not nice right point taken yeah I was just going to say it's not like you're representing like royalty or a Loy you're representing a good service and for that the ad does the job yeah so it's very smart that that's a place where you you I guess cut down on the money or you're not I don't I don't even think it's about cutting on the money going direct once I have the template let's put this I didn't cut down on the money because nobody remembers before I did this I spent a lot of money on an ad agency and I took MIM and the professionals and we put up Billboards I don't know if anybody out there remembers any of that but it didn't had advertising and it didn't yield maybe it yielded a phone call or two are you saying it did not it did not resonate but so because it's raw and natural do would you say that it I think it do even works better I think it does now the whole Army is going to be filled with the CRA ads and post it's people are going to propos this but there's there's a thing of a recognition I forgot I just want to say something somebody cut me off I'm not going to say who um the there's there is the idea of it of I could spend a billion dollars on creating call it a brand at the end of the day it's a name yeah that's be a loan group that's great but nobody will know who I'm dealing with now when I walk down the street you could see me and say oh and either will remind you to call me or you could speak to me right there and then so then I become a walking advertisement right and every once in a while you see I put some other inside some of the pictures right not that everybody wants to be the the face over there and they understand that but I think it's important like this you know when you're in the grocery store so you think it's a no I paid for someone to be able to recognize me that hopefully will come to Allah and it's happened many times you were with me in many places where people sen psychologist came over to us remember that yeah whether it was in whether it was in in in Vegas in Vegas or different shows or here in crownit when we walk together well Crown is not not a still or every time I posted yeah I know but I'm saying every time I posted you on social media by the way or on link them these videos would go viral by the way tens of thousands of views so people obviously no people people do recognize you and sometimes they don't they're not even sure that they have to think for a second like wow how am I so because because you didn't go the social media route for me it's all about social media so by the time somebody sees me in person they're like I've seen you on the internet for you it's like no I've seen you on the papers we've discussed that no I've seen back in the day when I had a little bit more time some once in a while I'll take out a video and I'll shoot a small clip or more with you and that's why I do appreciate whenever we we do those clips yeah it's I don't have the time to sit and do it and maybe we'll do we'll make some more time together we'll make some more Clips but podcast we're going to do nice videos of M oh but the I have to do more more clips and believe it or not on little little what I do on social media yields results MH really yeah so it does and in the glacial world right no but essenti with the paper ads you're tapping into big Community that's not so active on their phones or doesn't have At All by the way don't forget it's still in this community probably you still have 20 30% I would say don't use phones and whatever people always say the WhatsApp statuses and I'm I'm not very big into that exactly not everybody has time it's simple I mean so but maybe I should try it what social media more WhatsApp statuses I don't know oh like putting your ad on or putting on there I don't know how how how 30 seconds a day I don't think it works the M of of the printed ads is it sits there you're sitting there and suus you have a few hours to kill or they're going to the bathroom whatever they're doing right pull it out WhatsApp does have have this benefit if you put up your ad or you put a video of you talking about what you do there people can click a link and either sign up to your status so they're now seeing every day you're posting so you bu building up a digital uh platform that's yours and second of all they can click to get connected with you just like people call you Alo they can also send you a WhatsApp literally like hi I'd like to hear more about I was never looking to be the a personality if you will no you don't have to be personality can they can just be following your business then you got to be on top of that and I and I like to of whatsapps you like to take phone calls D whenever I stand in front of mirror always know before with who you are standing so you look in the mirror you know in front of today you're going to post a video you don't do it you got to know who you are and doesn't mean you can't change right we we just came through a a nice uh month of preparation of CH start CH so we could all change right we could all do things maybe maybe all right see what happens um okay absolutely um I'm very curious how often does it happen that somebody calls you for a loan and they right away go into the question of by way I wanted to tell you here's my idea my idea is so and so what's your opinion would this idea even work how many people already called you with this idea how many people already took a loan to do such a business idea how often do you become a business coach giving business advice I'll say every day okay every day sometimes three times a day yeah okay every and how do you approach it what do you tell these people do you give them the time in general I'm a very curious person so I don't mind to hear it especially if it's something not uh so farfetched or somebody's telling me I'm starting to plan a business where I could be a gardener on Mars once Elon Musk fig figures out how to get there yeah that's not for me right um let's see today but different different ideas and I can tell you that there are some businesses out there that bar I was I was able to fund them meaning that we got them the financing for it and they wouldn't ever become they would never be able to take it into fruition if if we didn't get them the financing right so if you don't listen through the end sometimes they Babble on about this idea and you think it's a startup I don't deal with startups but anytime someone calls me for a startup I listen and I try to direct them to a place that may could maybe be able to help them MH but you guy's talking me about his business he just started and I'm like I I don't have a chance to say that I can't help you because I don't do startups and he says so in the third year like whoa I thought you just started yeah yeah we're doing it for two years and now we're in our third year oh so you could have said right away right not for me you know hang up the phone it's not and then you have people call call andash is busy sometimes you have to leave a message we try to get back to everybody within 24 hours um and you know they a message they looking for $50,000 not that it's a number to to laugh at we start at $250,000 so I still call them back right I want to give them the time I don't want them to think that they are are not worthy explain to them where they where's your best option to go for that amount because you don't really need me for $50,000 they you rather go to the bank or what yes go to first of all I'm I'm taking you to a bank when somebody comes to me it's a big misconception people think that SBA lends you money SBA doesn't lend you a dollar a bank lends you well that's for a different podcast by the way but the SBA doesn't lend you any money a bank has to lend you money so I'm bringing you to a bank as well but for most people and you can get it out there now if you're looking for up to$ 250 even $500,000 the bank that you bank with nine out of 10 times is your best option to get to 200 to $500,000 they're holding your records they're seeing the transactions because they have an algorithm I can't even tell you exactly why they do it but they have your deposits just it's more than them getting the the transaction of your of your loan they want your banking relationship you're doing a million dollars $2 million in transactions they want it and there's a value to them when you go to it to keep you there so for that they they'll appease you and give you 50,000 200,000 and I'll tell you probably seven out of 10 times when I tell someone I said go depending which bank they're banking with and if I give them another two options and I'll say 40% of people call me back to tell me if they're M oh wow yeah and I asked them to because I'm curious myself I want to also keep the numbers two um they thank me it's like yeah so can I pay you for your time no I'm in the business of doing loans when you're going to go for the million dollars yeah or the $3 million or the $10 million you come back to me know that I'm being honest right absolutely I love that um how important is money for a business because many people will say no many people say like I I didn't open the business because because of money but I feel like no matter whichever industry you are there's a certain point where you can start even without money sometimes it's even just making the research or developing the connections the relationships um the friend you lost me for a second what do you mean that I didn't start the business for money you're talking about how important it is for an average person to start a business how important is money yeah for most people it's very important for my business was never important for your business it's not right right I'm a service business and even though we have a big team but it's according to how many people I'm serving that's how many people let's take you as an example yeah there are two types of use or three types of use one you used to work in construction yeah right you're a contractor so you work in construction you save up some money and then you're able to go and pursue your career or your passion or what potentially you should be doing for the rest of your life yeah but if you're coming out of Yesa and you don't have money unless you have your parents who could support you on this endeavor you have to money is very important to that person depending business even for your business it took how long did it take you to make your first money meaning your first sale um sale came pretty quick uh within the first month or two I made five six sales and that that money paid for my car and my food whatever but if you didn't have money saved from your construction would you be able to do that so I'm going to be honest with you the I had maybe $2,000 not I didn't have a lot of money saved that's very very that that's money for a yeah but that wasn't a loan for my business that's I'm trying to say no 100% that I you wouldn't need a loan to start this business what what you're trying to do and a lot of times many people don't if you want to start an Amazon business if you have $500 you go buy some products you open up an account and you start selling until you but that's not going to make you real money in your business if you get a client for $3,000 or 5,000 whatever the the number is right away it's all to your pocket of course there's hours of work that goes into it okay but there's also times that you're chasing somebody who you're not going to get or takes you longer to get and if you think about the cost of that sale is the cost of time right and time you money if you were you were lucky you're that right away you got four or five sales in two months MH but I don't know how your sales work if day one they give you all the money you first have to do the work what do they do yeah money first yeah oh so then even better so you were lucky someone says to you if someone told you in the beginning if you came to me in the beginning I would tell you first let me see the pr you're starting out right I'm not coming to you that you want me to this one of the first deals I ever did um there's lots of ups and downs and at the end of the day he told me that his partner did not think it would happen and also I didn't think the loan will happen why did you do he said because I believed in you and it was like $10,000 it was probably eight months worth of work there was if you calculated the dollars was maybe $50 an hour maybe yeah and he says but I believed in you but it took me eight months to make that money and it was not money right right if that was the only thing I was working on I wouldn't do it but I would say one it's one of the first big deals that I worked on and he it's funny how that turns into a snowball because once you do one person and you're lucky that you had four or five right away but once you do one person it goes to the next I always tell all my employees every loan you close is a potential three to five loans oh wow every person you speak to is potentially another three people right because there's always going to be five people that are going to know about that and hopefully if those if you're dealing with somebody who's in business the other five people are in business and everybody needs money in business right right now you to start you didn't need marem maybe now you do maybe in meaning if I want to upscale is that where meaning if you want to upscale if let's say you wanted to buy a studio now have a professional studio upgrade your camera system upgrade your lighting system right uh upgrade your wardrobe maybe get you a sweatshirt that has sleeves right I don't know maybe it cost more yeah so you want to you want to upgrade you need money for that right now it could you save the money and you don't need it but people like to leverage right right you want to maybe also invest in something at the same time I feel that the money is is going to make it is going to 10x my business if you want to buy a studio right now SBA offers the best financing for owner occupied property meaning for a business that wants to buy a proper purch a property I get you 100% financing I get you 90% financing so well is it worth by the way to buy myself a office instead of renting it everybody is different that longer conversation how much time do we have right right as many times as someone calls me in and say it doesn't make sense for you to buy right unless you really want it for the investment and if you look around you live in Lakewood or sorry th River yeah sorry that's like thees Kash of Lakewood right uh you live in town river fine if you look even in I'm sure in leid but if you look in if you come to crownheights where I'm from if you come go to Williamsburg go to B Park and you find that where do they have oh they have real estate here in real estate there and why they have that real estate because they had a business they were slepping schas in the ' 80s and in the 70s and they needed a warehouse wow and they bought the warehouse oh wow and why because they're tired of moving around they're wor the Lor is going to raise the rent they bought their warehouse and that's worth a100 million so somebody has the I'm doing this for long term that where I buy it typically in an industrial area value goes up in many places better than others like New York New Jersey and Connecticut and Pennsylvania and California Los right in Los Angeles Florida Texas these places are growing and growing and growing and people need warehousing and soon Amazon's going to buy everybody so maybe yeah exactly um so how often does it happen because you're like a shark so how often does it happen that somebody pitches you the idea and you actually invest your own money into their idea instead of giving them a loan it happens sometimes wow that's interesting it happens sometimes sometimes people aren't financeable mhm sometimes people have a good idea or a business that they they want to buy would you give them a loan from your own money without becoming a partner I've done loans in the intern mhm meaning the short answer is yes yeah uhuh that's not uh maybe we edit that out that's that's not something that I'm looking to do there are times where I've lent someone money mhm um it doesn't happen often um there are times where I've invested in business it has to be that a someone's looking for a partner or a loone right if it doesn't work out for a loan and it's something i' be interested in either they've asked me or I've asked them is said you interested in a partner yeah yeah okay I'm also interested in being a partner if you if you want but at first let's try to get financing if it's possible you think we can be with a Jewish Shark Tank you want you want me to be your partner I'm thinking now maybe no maybe we can do a Jewish Shark Tank they've tried a few times in different in different um I was never on the Shark Tank actually I had one of my partners were on a shark tank idea oh yeah yeah and we actually took upon one of the projects it never came through but they tried a couple of times um but either it's embarrassment that people don't want to people aren't are shy or or maybe fearful of what people going to think about their idea if they go in front of an audience especially un our own you're you're mingling amongst amongst your own crowd it's not somewhere you know on television that no one knows can't touch you um but I think there's isn't there something in Amy it used to be bis tank I don't think it's still on but my friends on there yeah used to be a few business ideas and stuff yeah so I don't know I didn't I think it would be nice if they would continue something like that especially there are many look people invest in businesses all the time right happens I see because I I look at people's States and I see this and what is this what is that investment investment tried some came to me with the idea it's not working out it is working out and there some that are very very very much company I saw withhold for over100 million doll oh wow yeah and I uh funded them twice really throughout the process and yeah I'm very curious I asked him we helped him that he didn't have to s part of his company instead of being a partner yeah it's impressive no see I'm I they hear the podcast I love inspiring people and that's what I'm saying that's I'm trying to say that in many scenarios you don't need money to start a business you can just start and get like do like I did to get your first sale and use that money to grow I say that's you there was money that you needed whether it's putting gas in the car to get to that meeting who paid for your cell phone right who paid for your your tolls who paid for the lunch that you took before the meeting and who paid for the the the celebration dinner afterwards yeah that cost money right right right and the second part of inspiring people is that yes they can come up with an idea and just share it with the world and potentially do their more than making money I think it's about people opening their own thing and and and being inspirational it's it's when I started as loan group I needed a lot of money mhm I to me relatively a lot of money talking about over $100,000 mhm the infrastructure that had to be put into place and The Hires day one you need a back a back office right if you don't have the money it could be a great idea right it is a good idea uh but you need to have that those funds to start that now I'm not the guy to come to to start a business I'm telling you right now yeah it's not that's not where what I do right but people just one one form or another you need it could be $50 right that's not money to many people it's a lot of money and to many people they don't have that extra $50 right you don't yeah so it's all relative yeah absolutely I agree um very nice what did you by the way the spill proof works I I took a drink btom steak without opening it okay okay so I want to talk about things that can relate to a lot of people um I know that you travel I mean maybe half of the year you're not you're not at home right some years yes some years no it all depends on the year and the season this year for example we missed a few shows during yam ah interesting okay right because it changes so I'm curious I know why you travel because you promote you go to these big shows and you set up a booth um l LBA yes yeah yeah for I'm sorry SBA and but my question to you is what do you enjoy to travel do you um I still enjoy the travel I still enjoy the sometimes it's sometimes no like I could tell you right now right so when don't you enjoy it let's start there so I'll give you an example um I was going to do this twice in about six weeks which which I changed so I had a show to go to I going to go Sunday Monday night take a red eye oh my God cuz I have I had a on Tuesday okay and i' have to fly to the H not not here in New York was in Montreal and now have the same scenario except the is on Wednesday and the show's Sunday Monday Tuesday M so I'm doing uh Sunday Monday Tuesday red eye wow and then flying to Montreal yeah to those people that don't know what a red eye is oh those people don't know what red eye is a red eye is when you take a flight at night typically between 9 and 12 9:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. and you fly the whole night but it's not a whole night because it's typically a 4 to four and a half hour flight so until they close the lights on the plane it's an hour into it so you basically have about two and a half hours maybe of Darkness if you want to sleep and you arrive at 5:00 to 7:00 in the morning depending on what flight you take so it's not a sleep it's uh it's just a tease it's a teas it's like okay you could sit in this chair for a little bit close your eyes and then we'll keep bothering you and they'll have to wake you up if you want to drink I don't know if you want to drink or not uh so it's it's it's not a fun fight I try to avoid them as much as possible I'm boring you no okay it's just so so late yeah it's what is it it's 1:30 in the morning yeah and uh so I'm take a r I'm going to fly there then I'll come back for shabas and then I'm flying again the next Sunday MH so while I still enjoy and there's still to me it's already what's the word uh it's a muscle memory you know you're doing this you're doing this you say that you have your your to go package you know you have a toiletries and set up um you get to the show you know people always say oh I go to Las Vegas I go to Chicago oh these are fun places it's not you were with me you saw what it was like yeah it's fully business it's in the morning you're at the show at 9 or 10:00 but you have to remember you're waking up at 6 o'clock in the morning because you're three hours behind if you're in Vegas if you're in Chicago you're two hours behind you're no one hour behind in Utah it's two hours behind and you have to deal with things you have to try to get as much as possible done from the early morning till the show starts because you want to be able to be at the show that's why you're there why do I go to these places not about promoting myself is I want to meet business owners I I I have a specific clientele I'm not selling cata cheese right anybody could use a thing of cream cheese J&J has everybody you have one family you have five to 10 people in the family have one person everybody could could use that cream cheese okay if we're on a diet you have light cream cheese I need the business owner right I go to places where I have the biggest chance of meet Meeting those business owners and and these shows are effective side question some yes some no if they if they're not effective we don't go again right right one year we did over 60 shows uh that's a lot if you calculate that yeah it's like one every week or even I didn't go to all of them personally divide and team but but you guys have meetings to discuss or you see the data no every person that calls we see the data you meet the people you know one of the most successful shows that I ever had I don't go to anymore that show at the show I signed up five or six people signed up physically never happens because none of those deals closed wow M so you were able to see that the C it's it's the industry is a good industry people need money and they're making a lot of money but they're not showing money they're not showing money um what the most successful show that you've been to it's a mixture one year it could be the B show one year could be the kosher Fest one year could be wow uh ASD CES it could be uh an attorney show it could be the SAT show every year it's different but as long as it as long as a few lead you have to make your K and God puts inside it's up to God right okay back to travel because this can be fun um what you like to travel so it's an interesting question the the idea of travel sounds to me fun but it does get like under my skin it does you know scare me a little bit it gives me a little bit of anxiety like going somewhere I don't know where I'm going to be who I'm going to meet so I speaking to my friend I like to be home home is my is Comfort my comfort zone my safe Zone and and that's not so good I understand no no it's very good want to be home everybody wants to be home but the the travel if you're going to travel for leisure then ad it's always you know yeah it's fun um the way I I just speaking to a friend of mine he's and he asked me if I'm going for suus to I said no I like to go for PES suus I love to being in Crown Heights Crown Heights is fantastic the energy I'll the energy is lit lit it's lit uh Crown Heights has an energy in Tish that you don't find anywhere right anywhere and I've been in I've been to South Africa I've been to Australia and on sukus we have tala in laich I don't know if if they do that in uh Tom's River what's Thea