Tracy and Anthony Latronica with Ant’s Construction Services

Intro: Coming to you live from the Business RadioX studio in Woodstock, Georgia. This is fearless formula with Sharon Cline.

Welcome to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX, where we talk about the ups and downs of the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I’m your host, Sharon Cline, and today in the studio we have the owners of Ant’s Construction Services. They bring your construction visions to reality. Each project is tailored to the wants, needs and dreams of each client. And if you can dream it, they can do it. Please welcome Anthony and Tracy Latronica.

Tracy Latronica: Hello, Sharon. Good to see you again.

Sharon Cline: You too. Did I have that intro when we were here last time?

Tracy Latronica: I don’t think he did because I think I don’t think the website was up yet.

Sharon Cline: Yeah. So how nice. I just want to say welcome back. It’s been a full year. Unbelievably, unbelievably so. Cool thing about this show today is that we get to talk about what it was like for you to be here a year ago when your business ant’s construction was brand spanking new, which was fun for me to ask questions to you too. Like, how do you feel about this big endeavor you’re about to go on. That was awesome. But now we have a year under our belt and I say us, you know, like I’m a collective. We.

Tracy Latronica: You are. You’re a part of us.

Sharon Cline: Oh, thank you. And so, yeah, really, I’m excited to have you on to see what your journey has been like. And I know it’s had lots of ups and downs, like what the show is.

Tracy Latronica: The crazy thing is, is last year we weren’t even called Ant’s construction Services. So that’s an indication as to how much.

Sharon Cline: It was Ant’s inspection.

It was ant’s inspections. So our entire business has changed, pivoted in the year since we were here last. So lots, lots of surprise.

Sharon Cline: Such a surprise. Yeah. So in the beginning the notion was that the business would be you would be working with different builders as well. Right? And then personal inspections for homes and buildings. And so let’s talk about how that changed.

Tracy Latronica: So at the beginning, we were focusing on home inspections and mobile crane inspections. And those two things are things that we still do. But very quickly, right off the bat, Anthony was had people reaching out to him for construction projects because he has a 30 year history on your.

Sharon Cline: Websites over like 30 over 35 years worth of of.

Tracy Latronica: Of knowledge.

Sharon Cline: Experience. Yeah. And that’s very valuable.

Tracy Latronica: And so as soon as he was out on his own, people were, Hey, man, you know, can you come help me with this drywall project or Hey, can you build me a deck? And three, four months in we had done like one inspection, one home inspection. Wow. And we were just so busy with the construction.

Anthony Latronica: You can’t do the inspection and the work as well. Right? And there’s more, more lucrative to do the work. So.

Tracy Latronica: So if you do an inspection, a pre-purchase home inspection, you can’t then do the work. It’s a conflict of interest because you’d be saying there’s a bunch of stuff wrong, so you would get the work.

Sharon Cline: Or you would say it’s all fine when you did the work, right?

Tracy Latronica: Fair enough. I didn’t even think about it like that. But yeah, it’s a complex, great. It’s a conflict of dining here for sure. You know, the inspector isn’t the one who does the work. And so, yes, the, the the inspections are less lucrative individually. And so, yeah, we had to change the branding because people aren’t going to hire ants inspections to build a deck. But people will hire ants, construction services to do an inspection because an inspection is a is a a service, a service.

Sharon Cline: Under the construction umbrella. Right. Interesting.

Anthony Latronica: Yeah. If you’re going to make that work, you have to have a lot of inspections coming in. And it wasn’t happening, especially with the with the real estate the way it was. I mean, it’s turning around now, but it was at the time nobody was.

Sharon Cline: That’s true. Right? Because it was a year ago. Still. Pandemic ish.

Tracy Latronica: Yeah. Ish. Right adjacent.

Sharon Cline: A pandemic. Adjacent. Adjacent. One of my favorite words.

Anthony Latronica: There were still effects from it, let’s put it that way. Right.

Sharon Cline: Right. And so. You’re finding. Okay, well, we need to be making this money. Like, I’m just thinking logically as if it were me. Okay, I need to be making this money. If someone hired me to do voiceover stuff, but I’m only getting books. Well, I’m going to do books. That’s it. You need to be making the money.

Tracy Latronica: Yeah, but you don’t. But you wouldn’t turn down the voice. The. The commercial. Easy. Right. Right. So you have to be very flexible, which I think was a transition psychologically for both of us. We’ve been so consistent in our industries prior and had been working in the same industries for decades to come into your own business to where you have to bend and kind of flow with the changes was something that you had to have kind of a little bit of internal dialog about. Like, Don’t be stubborn. It doesn’t matter if this isn’t what you thought next week was going to look like, This is what next week looks like now, and just adjust and adapt.

Sharon Cline: How difficult that is when it already takes so much bravery and certitude in your own skills to even start a.

Tracy Latronica: Business Fearlessness, one.

Sharon Cline: Might say, Oh, well, fearlessness. Yeah, I would say that’s true. Okay, so I had a guest on the show last year that has a like a bakery that she had opened right before the pandemic ended. It’s called Bananas and Beehives. And Laurie was just wonderful to talk to because she was asked to wholesale and she’s like, I’m not a wholesaler. I have a a building come visit me. But she was constantly asked enough of that that she started to wholesale and she didn’t want to do the pivot. It was a fight. But then that actually has become more important with her business and has grown her business exponentially since she agreed or surrendered, I suppose is a good way to look at it. And I always thought, how interesting is that? Because her initial thought was just to have like a little downtown Canton Bakery and people would walk by and get coffee and some croissants. And now she’s in all kinds of different places all around the city.

Tracy Latronica: And had she maintained that stubbornness, she may not be as successful as she is now, just one day too long of holding on to those ideas and you’re going to lose that opportunity.

Sharon Cline: That’s exactly what I’m thinking, is like what happened with you is the you’re fighting to do what you know, you signed up to do, but now the requests are different and your need is different.

Tracy Latronica: So so supply and demand kind of thing.

Sharon Cline: So you started doing more of the construction part of it and then what happened next? I know there’s not like an exact linear. Sort of progression, but I imagine you were like, All right, well then how are we going to change and adapt?

Tracy Latronica: The initial thing was just the legalities of changing the name. It’s it’s that’s a process in itself, and it’s not super difficult to do with the government. You file a form and you pay 50 bucks and they change the name, but then you realize, oh, my email address and my website and my shirts and my.

Anthony Latronica: Hats, you might have a few.

Tracy Latronica: Hair business cards and business.

Sharon Cline: Cards.

Tracy Latronica: Right? And so everything, every everything, it’s.

Anthony Latronica: Like changing your, your phone number, you know, when you get or you lose your credit card and you have to reapply for a new one and everything’s attached to that credit card. And then you’re just like, oh my gosh.

Tracy Latronica: When you get married, right? When Anthony and I got married, I didn’t want to change my last name. I was so stubborn about it. And then a year later, I gave in and changed my last name just because of the obvious connection I had with him and him and our children. And I didn’t realize what a pain in the butt that would be, right? Like, there’s a reason why you hold on. Even if you’re divorced, you hold on to your married name because it’s a pain in the butt. Yeah. To change your name on everything, your bank documents. And so it was just like that, just from a logistical standpoint. And then you.

Sharon Cline: Changed your logo.

Tracy Latronica: Right? Logo had to change. The ant has has changed. It was just a little drawing in front of a house that our son had designed before, but we’ve upgraded that. And these.

Sharon Cline: Guys look construction hat on.

Tracy Latronica: There. He’s got his hard hat on, his hard hat, and he looks very cute and approachable.

Sharon Cline: Just like you.

Tracy Latronica: Guys. Just to counter the.

Anthony Latronica: Yeah, that’s.

Tracy Latronica: Me. So when Anthony walks up to a, you know, an older woman’s single woman’s home, she’s not as intimidated to see this creature walking.

Sharon Cline: Up and how that’s strategic. That was smart.

Tracy Latronica: He’s got a cute ant on on his shirt. He can’t be too scary.

Sharon Cline: No, not at all. And then and so we also talk about the fact that that sort of took over more of of what your business was like. But were you prepared for what that was going to do for your own skill set? In other words, you were prepared for one part and now it became something else. So did you find that you had to amplify different parts of yourself or realize this isn’t how this works for me, I can’t do this kind of thing.

Tracy Latronica: You know what’s crazy is I always thought that Anthony had every tool in the world, right? Every tool that anybody could ever need. And, you know, we’ve known each other for a while. If somebody needs something fixed, they call Ant, and he’s got the the supplies, the tools to do it and the amount of tools we’ve had to buy.

Sharon Cline: Oh, no, really.

Tracy Latronica: Over the past year that because every job is different, you know, if you’re if you’re a decking expert, you have every tool that you could possibly need for a deck. But we do decks and floors and walls and ceilings and, you know, exteriors, interiors, all of it. So you have to have all of those things on hand and you have to be skilled at all of those things.

Anthony Latronica: You usually don’t realize what you need until you’re on the job, until you’re there and you’re like, Oh, we didn’t we didn’t bid for this, but here we go. We’re going to need this.

Tracy Latronica: Yeah. And that’s part of the that’s part of the development I think of the first year is putting all of your money back into the business in marketing and in your in your tools and your supplies. And hopefully that slows down when it comes to your expenses and you get to the point where you have to buy fewer supplies. But if you were to open your attendee that you were just talking about for the bakery, yeah, she, I’m sure, had to buy everything in order to get started. And at some point you finally have everything you need. And yes, things break and you have to replace them. But we’ve gotten to that point where we’ve got a full shop and a full trailer. And so I think.

Sharon Cline: For right this.

Anthony Latronica: Moment, that’s what you.

Sharon Cline: Think. There’s no.

Anthony Latronica: More tools right.

Sharon Cline: Now on the wood. Knock on that table.

Anthony Latronica: I like tools.

Sharon Cline: All right.

Tracy Latronica: We’ll be at Home Depot on the way home. Probably.

Sharon Cline: You also do epoxy, which is really cool in a totally different kind of skill set, I imagine.

Tracy Latronica: Yeah. And we had never done that before. And we were so lucky to have a client that trusted us. And we were very we’re very transparent people and we communicated with them that this was our first attempt at doing this, but we were confident that we would be able to follow the instructions given by the supplier, and we gave them a very, very reasonable rate.

Anthony Latronica: You got to mention the supplier, the epoxy masters.

Tracy Latronica: That’s right. Epoxy master is the supplier. They started out as a DIY supplier for people that wanted to do their own epoxy at home. And they’ve they’re they’re pivoting once speaking of pivoting into being a supplier for installers and we’re the the first and only supplier in the southeastern United States for epoxy master. So we’re getting to grow with them as well, which has been.

Sharon Cline: Exciting. How did you find them? Like, what were the steps that you were able to build this relationship? Because that’s valuable.

Tracy Latronica: You know, it’s it’s the this, the Internet. Yeah. You know, you go on a search, how do you install an epoxy epoxy? Where do I get epoxy supplies? And eventually we stumbled upon epoxy master and they just. They’re their family owned and operated as well. And so they showed an interest when when they saw the size of the job, it was a 2000 square foot warehouse that we were doing. And so when they saw the size of the job, both owners separately reached out to us directly and they were like, how can we help you achieve these goals and what do you need?

Anthony Latronica: They started out also as a DIY.

Tracy Latronica: Right?

Anthony Latronica: That’s what I and so they already knew how to explain to people how to do it, and we needed that as well so that it kind of fit in. Now they’re transferring over to this new company that’s that’s a supplier now too, as well. So.

Tracy Latronica: Right. And it was way harder than we thought. I mean, way harder than we thought. The actual installation of the epoxy isn’t hard, but getting the the surface ready for the epoxy was something that we weren’t prepared. Now we know.

Anthony Latronica: Speaking of learning, though, we’ve learned that there’s some better equipment out there. Yeah. Speaking of getting more tools that we might need to get a hold of.

Tracy Latronica: You know, it’s like, I don’t know, using a teaspoon to get a bunch of soup from a pot into a bowl when there’s a ladle down the road that nobody’s told you about. Right now we know there’s a ladle. But that first time we were using a teaspoon. Yeah, you know.

Anthony Latronica: So do 2000ft².

Tracy Latronica: With a teaspoon. Yeah, it was a lot. It looks great, though.

Sharon Cline: It’s beautiful. I’ve seen.

Tracy Latronica: I’ve seen it.

Sharon Cline: Yeah. And you’ve done countertops, which are beautiful as well. In house in Woodstock here, actually.

Tracy Latronica: Yep, yep. Beautiful countertops. They look like marble or quartz or granite, whatever you want. The epoxy is so interesting because you can make it look like anything you want it to be. You could print a sticker and put it on this table here, a UV vinyl sticker, and then cover it in epoxy. And it would look like a candy coat on a on a car. Amazing.

Anthony Latronica: We did cornhole boards like that with our logo on them. And.

Sharon Cline: And you made those.

Anthony Latronica: Yeah. Yeah. And we’re about to do some for the fire department as well.

Tracy Latronica: That’s right. For 911, we’re honoring a local fire station and building a cornhole set that’s coated in epoxy with their insignia on the board. So we’ll be doing that on on September 11th.

Sharon Cline: Let’s talk a little bit about that, how you are collaborating with lots of different companies and lots of different events and sponsors. That marketing piece is a 24 hour day, seven day a week constantly on your mind. It is opportunities to do and you can never rest because we have the social media. And what is that like for you, given that you obviously you initially started as an inspections and now it’s construction, but that opens you up as well, not just inspecting houses but being part of a whole other all the other aspects of building something.

Tracy Latronica: It is way more complicated and fulfilling at the same time.

Sharon Cline: That’s nice to know. You’ve got the fulfillment part.

Tracy Latronica: I think with the marketing, the hardest thing to get past is you feel like you’re not making money. So if you’re if you go to an event and you’re not building a deck or putting down vinyl floors or whatever it is, you feel like, I’m not making money, I’m wasting my time today. But you’re not you’re not wasting your time. It’s so important those relationships, the relationships to show up and support those people that support you. You know, you can’t expect other people to refer you and vouch for you if you’re not going to show up for them for their stuff.

Sharon Cline: So do you feel like you’re Anthony, Would you say your time is constantly divided between supporting other people who have that reciprocal relationship with you, who would support you? Because think about all the different events that happen at night, right? Like you were talking about Governors Gun Club recently, and then you’ve got a bike night that you all are sponsoring and was once a month. I think.

Tracy Latronica: It’s the second Tuesday of.

Sharon Cline: Every month, Tuesday of every month at the Taco Mac in Hiram. That’s right. And so do you find that that’s true that your you have to constantly negotiate your time this way.

Anthony Latronica: Oh yeah. Because it’s it’s more important than social media when it comes to getting yourself out there because you’re going to get a lot of work locally because you’re going to be at these events. These people are going to see you, you’re going to network, you’re going to meet people. And I’ve got we’ve got more work from that than we have from the, you know, whatever $1,000 we spent on our websites or whatever. And I mean, we’re just getting that perfected as well. So we might see some more from that as well. But at this moment, just putting yourself out there and being it everything and charitable organizations, charitable events, I mean, like the.

Sharon Cline: 911 event that you’re.

Tracy Latronica: Involved in and the Bike Night supports the Lawn and Turner Foundation, which is for kids and their families, kids with cancer and their families. And it helps them out in a variety of ways. I think for Anthony, it’s especially hard because he’s he’s got tools in his hands all day for the most part. There’s there’s definitely times that we have a crew on site doing the work. But because we’re so new in the business, he’s he’s hands on all day. So to be working all day and then have to come home, shower, change and then go be social at a networking event that’s.

Sharon Cline: Been.

Anthony Latronica: Harder lately because it’s really. Really hot, right? It’s everyone’s I can muster up the energy and I’m like, Here we go. We’re going to go do this. Here lately I’ve been going, Oh.

Tracy Latronica: It’s so.

Sharon Cline: Hot. Yeah, so many things are outside.

Tracy Latronica: Well, we had to, you know, we had to. It’s. There’s a point where it becomes dangerous in the heat. You have to watch out for your crew. You know, when there’s a heat advisory and you have. You have guys on a roof. What do you do? We just like it’s raining. There reaches a point where and we’ll say this to the client, imagine that it’s raining outside and the weather is prohibiting the progress today. And we’ll come back on Monday when, you know, the temperature drops a little bit because the production doesn’t even there’s only so much you can do in 106 degree heat index.

Anthony Latronica: It slows you down quite a bit. You know, there’s things you can do. I put up a tent for us to, you know, our cut station and we got fans that blow on us. And, you know, we got those cooling shirts that we put out, and there’s a lot of things you can do. But at the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do.

Tracy Latronica: That’s right. And safety is so important for us. So it gets.

Sharon Cline: I imagine it has to be. Mhm.

Anthony Latronica: Yeah. We just had a person come to a Saturday, ask for help or we’re supposed to help them tomorrow. And I was like, this is going to be the hottest day of the year tomorrow. You know that, right? And she’s like, Yeah, but I need to do this now. Can we wait till Thursday? And no, she said, No, you can’t do that. And so we, we split it up. We’re going to do half a day. You know, compromise, right? We can do half a day for her on the hottest day and then shut down right before it gets to the hottest point of that day. And then we’re going to do the rest on Thursday.

Tracy Latronica: So 5:00 alarm, you know, to get to get started.

Sharon Cline: But if you don’t, another company will.

Tracy Latronica: Right. That’s it, you know. Amen. And that’s that’s been what we’ve always said. That’s where we are filling in, is that there’s a lot of contractors that don’t want these smaller jobs. And one of the slogans on the website as we’re having it rebuilt for the third time is projects big or small. We do it all. And that’s super important. You know, even if it’s a single day project, we’ll do it. And a lot of the contractors, they want the big fish and they ignore the little fish so that your average person who needs, I don’t know, their closet door fixed and their, you know, kitchen sink repaired. The kind of handyman stuff is, I think, hard for clients to find reasonable, skilled professionals. And so we use that as an opportunity to kind of fill in the gaps in between the bigger projects.

Sharon Cline: I’m the same way with voiceover, too, because I will do a job that pays a hundred bucks. I don’t care. You know, I’m just happy to have the work. And but I understand that if I’m not going to offer myself at that point some another person who’s hungry will. So it’s like the the fight, you know? But like you said, we were talking right before the show that when you do commit to a job that isn’t paying you as much, you’re working as much as you would if you were paying being paid more, but then you don’t have as much money to show for it. But then you still have the work. What a.

Tracy Latronica: Struggle. I don’t think anybody has that figured out perfectly. I don’t think it’s possible to to know exactly how to know your worth in a financial way, because if you’re bidding a voiceover job and I don’t know anything about voiceovers, but for $500 and you really think you should get 750, but you want the job, so you bid five for all you know, the next person bid a thousand, and you totally could have gotten that 750 And then you’re kicking yourself because maybe I could have gotten that. 750 But but you agree?

Sharon Cline: It’s like it’s like a peace that I have where I have agreed to do this book that’s taking me three hours to do for 50 bucks. Fine, fine, fine. I signed the contract. It’s exposure. There is a benefit in there for me and that it’s I can say I’ve done another book, but for sure, that’s not like the theme I want to have for my life. And I certainly would know that if that author were to come to me again, it would be harder for me to say, Well, now I’m so much more expensive, you know? Exactly. Because then you’re, you know, I want I want to build a relationship and a brand for myself this way with these different people. So I imagine that must be the challenge too.

Tracy Latronica: We went and helped a neighbor not too long ago hang a light on their outdoor patio and we charged them a very small amount of money. They’re a neighbor. We were off, quote unquote, that day. We you know, we went and helped them out. And they now have reached out to us three more times, which is great. But it’s kind of hard to be like, hey, this time we’ve got to charge you the the normal rate. You know, That was a one time. Yeah, that was.

Sharon Cline: One time.

Tracy Latronica: Discount. Yeah, I get it. And so we’re grateful that they keep calling us and they’re very they’re very agreeable to those terms. But it’s a little bit awkward when you’ve given somebody a deal and they don’t realize that you’ve given them a deal. Yeah. And you can’t give a deal all the time.

Sharon Cline: Well, in that negotiating friend relationships, it’s so different from professional relationships too, I imagine. Would you agree?

Anthony Latronica: Anthony Yep, yep.

Tracy Latronica: Yeah. Negotiating friendships. Friend. Friend.

Sharon Cline: Relationships while you’re working, you know, and providing a service.

Tracy Latronica: When you’re helping friends who were lucky to have friends that reach out. And it’s very easy to say, Oh, we’ll do this for you for $200 a. A cheaper than what we would do it for somebody else. And then the next thing you know, you know, they want.

Sharon Cline: You to build their whole deck in the backyard and.

Anthony Latronica: You’re locked into that.

Sharon Cline: Amount.

Tracy Latronica: You’re locked into that amount, you know, and and I’ve always thought about, you know, if you have a friend that is a hairstylist and you go and get your hair cut, do do you expect that person to give you a discount? And if you do, this was something I was thinking about talking about today is, is there’s three things to focus on as a as a consumer. There’s quality, there’s timeline and there’s price. And you can hope for two out of the three, but you can never expect three. So if you want something done quickly and inexpensively, you’re going to suffer with equality. If you want something that’s done high end, but and you want it done quickly, it’s going to cost you, you know, two out of those three. But I think a lot of times people expect everything and it’s a competitive market. And like you said, there’s somebody out there that will do it. But the quality undoubtedly is the amount of times we get called to fix other people who came in and just did a total crap job. And then we ask, well, what did you what did they charge you? And they tell you 1500 bucks. Well, this is a $4,000 job. No wonder.

Anthony Latronica: You know, there’s just saying it says good work isn’t cheap and cheap work isn’t good.

Sharon Cline: So that’s. Well, if you’re just joining us, we’re speaking with Anthony and Tracy Latronica of Ants Construction Services. And I have a question for you, Anthony. All right. What has surprised you the most over this past year?

Speaker4: Hmm.

Anthony Latronica: That’s a good question. I would say. As far as. As far as marketing goes, how difficult that’s been to figure out, to navigate that.

Sharon Cline: To know what’s the return on investment kind of marketing.

Anthony Latronica: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Tracy deals with most of that, but I mean, I hear it when I get home and.

Sharon Cline: So, you know, so.

Anthony Latronica: I’m yeah, and I, but I also have to help her problem solve it because I’m the one that, you know, has to benefit from that marketing to go out there and do the work. And when we’re slow and whatnot. I’ve been very surprised at how hard that part of the of the business is. I mean, other than that, I’m aware of everything I was getting into as far as construction goes because I’ve done construction all my life. So. Right.

Tracy Latronica: He’s he’s known how to do the actual work as, as somebody under another person’s guidance as far as the business aspect goes. And I know how to run a business, but that business is a restaurant. So we’ve both taken our skills from before and pivoted them into business ownership. And it’s just very different when it’s your your money, your time, your effort, your heart, your blood, sweat and tears, as opposed to working for somebody else. It just it does change everything. You know.

Sharon Cline: What’s interesting to me is thinking that how you said that the most work that you’ve gotten has been through the the relationships and the networking that you’ve done as opposed to something on the Internet or social media. But what that costs you is so much more because it’s your time and energy and effort. That’s a huge price to pay as opposed to putting an ad, I don’t know, on Google or something. Right.

Tracy Latronica: And so it just takes a few minutes to put a social media post. But what’s crazy about social media and don’t get me wrong, there’s benefit to that and we’ve gotten jobs from that. But you’ll see somebody post, Hey, is there anybody that can help me screen in my back porch and within 30 minutes there will be 55 responses. Wow. And so how do you stand out in that way? And so that’s something that I’ve learned. And for me, it’s a direct approach. I tend to privately message that person. A lot of times it’s women that are looking for the work done on the home. So I’ll mention that it’s a female owned business and family owned and operated and throw that discount offer and, you know, things, things of that nature and respond directly. But it’s crazy how many people it’s almost like they have and maybe they do a bot set up to where as soon as somebody posts something with a with a keyword that they have an immediate response that says, give us a call. I mean, within 15 minutes, sometimes you’ll see 30 responses on, on, on, on a social media post. And it’s just crazy. How can it be how can you be just sitting there staring at it all day, waiting, waiting to respond? So maybe they do. Maybe they have somebody and that’s what you want to.

Sharon Cline: Be part of that.

Tracy Latronica: You.

Anthony Latronica: Know, we need that.

Tracy Latronica: Oh, yes. No, I mean, it’s not really I would much rather benefit me personally. I would much rather get the work other ways. I’ll still respond. It takes just a second to respond, but I would much rather get the work from a neighbor who sees us working on another person’s home, which just happened last week. Hey, we see that you’re building a fence for my neighbor. The fence looks great. We saw your sign at the end of the driveway. Do you think you can come bit? Our fence to that to me is successful marketing somebody, seeing your work, recognizing it and wanting to choose you as opposed to you just being the first person in line on a post.

Anthony Latronica: Yeah, in the local work does help a lot. Huge. At the end of the day, I mean, if you have to travel an hour each way to get to your job, which we’ve had to do a few, that way it becomes very taxing because you think about it, you’re going to lose 2 or 3 hours every day of your actual day because you’re driving back and forth, you’re getting set up, you’re breaking the equipment down, gas, gas money. And so, yeah, it’s and you can’t really upcharge all that.

Sharon Cline: You can’t say, well, because you live two hours from me, I’m going to charge.

Anthony Latronica: They’re going to find someone that does it 30 minutes away.

Sharon Cline: So the struggle is real.

Tracy Latronica: So it becomes an 11 hour day physically, mentally and with your with your crew. But you’re technically billing for an eight hour day. But yeah, you can’t say to somebody in Dunwoody that, you know, we’re going to bill you for my drive time from Hiram. So when you can when you can find that local job that is so huge. And so that’s.

Anthony Latronica: Why the networking comes in, because if you’re if you’re doing the the social media, you could get somebody from Cherokee County, you could get you could be all over the place. And when you’re when somebody finds you locally at one of your events, you’re going to be in your neighborhood, most likely. So that’s another payoff. And I mean.

Tracy Latronica: We’re in Cherokee County right now, am I correct? Yes. So this isn’t so bad. It’s when you have to go across the city of Atlanta. That’s crazy. So we keep getting jobs and we’ll do them. We’ll take them. But in eastern Atlanta and we’re west of Atlanta. And, you know, we’d much rather stay on the north and western side if we could.

Anthony Latronica: But but I’ll still take it. We’ll still take it. Say no. That’s one thing I learned saying no to nothing. Right. You just you still got to know your worth. But just make sure you include that somehow and what you’re going to be doing. So, you know, you know, I.

Sharon Cline: Think about how important relationships are, even just for me. I was telling you before the show, going to networking meetings, I’ve gotten work through that. And it’s interesting as well that you mentioned that women are often the ones that are like, Oh, no, we have a problem. I would like to contact someone because I just did a voice over for a local plumbing company here in Woodstock, and they wanted a woman because the woman is usually the one calling saying, I have a problem. And I had no idea there was that gender disparity there.

Tracy Latronica: Me neither. And I knew that we were going to highlight being a woman owned business for. I mean, there’s there’s just obvious reasons. There’s grants, there’s benefits of being a woman owned business from a logistical standpoint. But when it comes to the actual trust that you get from the client, it fits a female that’s calling in. They love to hear a female responding, you know, and and I think that men hesitate to call in repairs or or make the decisions when it comes to what kind of what color the floors are going to be. So they’re like, talk to my wife. And, you know, women, we’re always supporting each other. That’s something about women in general. I love that. So, yeah.

Anthony Latronica: Well, a lot of times when a woman calls into a company that that’s run by men or owned by men, they get mansplained a little bit, especially in the construction business, right? So it’s nice to sometimes for a female to hear somebody else.

Sharon Cline: Do you ever mansplain to to people sort of thing?

Anthony Latronica: I never that’s not my thing.

Tracy Latronica: No, he’s never been like that. I was going.

Sharon Cline: To say, I don’t picture you like that. But but interestingly, when I did have a plumbing issue, I did get kind of the let me explain to you how the world works. And but the truth is, I actually didn’t know. So I needed someone to tell me. But I never thought about the fact that someone can come in and having that gender as a factor at all in the way you relate. I don’t know why it just never entered my mind.

Tracy Latronica: It’s a trust thing. I think that if you think about when you go to a mechanic as a woman and you just are already assuming that they’re going to tell you that you need blinker fluid, right? Or something completely.

Sharon Cline: Silly. Your flux capacitor flux capacitors. Oh my gosh, no.

Tracy Latronica: And so with with home repairs, renovations, it’s the same way you have some usually big tough guy walking up talking in lingo that you don’t understand, saying words that you don’t understand by design. And that’s not to discredit women for having knowledge when it comes to their surroundings. I don’t mean that at all, but it just it just is that way. And so it is nice to have, you know, Anthony presents a very trustworthy aura about him in general. And then for me to be the front line and have that conversation with the client for the most part works and I feel like I’m educated in the industry enough to know what it is a male customer or a more informed customer that I can still hold my own with the conversation. But sometimes it backfires. You know, sometimes a man I feel like maybe we’ll look at it differently when a woman’s answering the phone with a construction company. But if that’s the case, that’s not the client we want anyway.

Sharon Cline: Especially just this industry speaking about this industry in general, because, you know, I look at Anthony, he’s like 100ft tall. This big beard, you know, big badass looking man, you know, And then that’s who your company, you know, who’s doing the physical labor. But then you’ve got you who’s like this petite person and you’re just like, Hi, Hi. Yeah.

Tracy Latronica: Even though emotionally it’s the opposite.

Anthony Latronica: I was going to say, when the guys get on the phone with her and try and pull one over on her, it doesn’t go so well for them. She she’s like, Oh, really? Let me tell you something.

Sharon Cline: Good for you.

Tracy Latronica: We’ve been lucky not to experience too much of that, but it does happen.

Anthony Latronica: Some of the marketing guys that were on the Internet stuff was was trying out with you. Well, yeah, I would listen to it and I’d just be sitting there like, I’m so proud right now. There’s no way she’s telling this guy.

Tracy Latronica: Yeah, I mean, we’ve been navigating, you know, what is the best way? I mean, is Yelp even relevant with construction? Because as a restaurant person, of course it is. But would somebody go? I’d be curious to have people comment on your TikTok or on your social media after this show and let us know when you are wanting to have something done on your house. Where do you go to find that contractor? Do you go to just straight to Google? Do you go to Facebook and look for referrals or do you use a service like Angie’s leads or Yelp? And I would love to learn from your listeners in that way if people can comment as to how to direct us because Yelp is very aggressively.

Anthony Latronica: Yeah, and they’re not. Many people go to Yelp. I think I’m going to a restaurant when I look at Yelp. Right.

Tracy Latronica: Or a hairstylist or a makeup artist or a you know, I don’t know.

Sharon Cline: What about Google reviews? I know how important Google reviews are to.

Anthony Latronica: That’s where I’m at. I think Google.

Tracy Latronica: Is just so saturated. I mean, I can I can argue every side. You’re right. But Google is so saturated. So even if you pay for a Google ad, they’re still going to be people, for lack of a better term, above you on the page that are paying more. We’re not going to be able to compete with Dr. Horton, is it? Dr.. I always get that wrong. You know, homebuilders, homebuilders that have, you know, $10,000 a month marketing budget, we’re not going to be able to compete with that. So that’s my focus right now, is is navigating that and figuring that out. Where do we spend our our.

Sharon Cline: I have a company that I think could help you with that. I actually had them on the show. Really? That’d be great. Big social marketing. They’re here in Woodstock. Okay. And she was very helpful to me in helping me understand, even as a voice over artist, where would my advertising dollars give me the most bang for my buck? She is certified in Google searching. She’s Google certified. I don’t know exactly what that means, but it sounded amazing and I trusted it. So anyway, I would like to shout that out to you and to big social marketing that there are people I do know that specialize in all of the metrics and analytics that give you. So for example, are they using a tablet? Are they using a phone? Are they using a laptop When they need a tow truck? They’re using their phone most likely because they’re on the side of the road. So it it can there are ways, I suppose, that I if I’m I believe I’m speaking correctly about it, that they can choose which device is actually the one that you want to be marketing to.

Tracy Latronica: And I’ve also speaking of things that I have no idea what I’m talking about. So when I’m talking to people, they can they can say words that I don’t I don’t know anything about SEO or Google, you know, anything like that. So I have to trust what people are telling me, which is a dangerous thing. It is because they’re trying to make a sale. They are. But what I’ve learned is that they can even they can even look at when and the person that you were just referencing, I’m sure, would be able to help me with this. When they are on your website, where does their mouse hover? How long do they hover over this area? And if you’re on a desktop, you tend to your mouse is going where your eyes are going and and and maybe that’s an area of your site that you need to make more prominent. We would love that connection. Excellent. You’ll have to set us up with her when we’re done for sure.

Sharon Cline: Would be wonderful. Yeah. All right. So another question. What do you wish you what do you know now that you wish you knew a year ago when you got started? What’s like a valuable tidbit that you were like, Dang it, I wish someone had told.

Tracy Latronica: Me and I apologize in advance to anyone who does this for a living. But in my personal experience, to not. Trust a friend. Buddy. Freelance individual website designer. And to go with the tried and true, you know, GoDaddy, somebody who’s got it all laid out. We’re on our third website build and the first two and once again, I’m so sorry if those people or anybody else is listening, I believe that their intentions were good. They’re people that we had relationships outside of this aspect of work. But the amount of time and money and just lack of completion that came with that has cost us a lot of money and a lot of lost time on on the website. So when it comes to something so important as your website or your trailer or your truck, right, those are the times that you go with the big guy and the times that you can use your friends or for maybe a little bit more nuanced things. And and you know, I feel kind of guilty for saying it. But no, it’s the truth.

Sharon Cline: I remember our.

Tracy Latronica: Website is still not done a year later because of that.

Sharon Cline: Got you.

Tracy Latronica: So, okay.

Sharon Cline: So spend your money where you are finding the most important aspects of the way that you’re getting your name out there is worth the investment.

Anthony Latronica: Once again, you get what you pay for.

Tracy Latronica: Yeah, yeah. And I think that when it comes to friendships, sometimes it’s so hard to navigate in business because they do want to give you the quote unquote homey hookup, but then all of a sudden you’re not a priority because they’re making money, too. So they prioritize the the the higher paying. And you can’t really fault them for that except, you know.

Sharon Cline: Can can you can you expect the same level of interest and care and deadline and boundaries within that friendship relationship as a professional person to. I don’t know and.

Tracy Latronica: You can from us I can promise you that. And so that’s we expected this. We expect the same in return. So if if a friend were to hire us to do a job and we were to discount it because of our relationship, if anything, that person is even more important because it’s somebody I care about and love and who’s trusting us, you know, directly. But it doesn’t always come back that way. You know, there’s people who who claim that they can do things that they can’t and so don’t always trust. That.

Sharon Cline: What would you say, Anthony? Would you say that that’s the same for you? Something that you wish you knew?

Anthony Latronica: Yeah. I mean, that’s one of the biggest struggles so far is I mean, I knew what I was getting into as far as the construction industry and and the inspections and all that. I just. I share I share some of her grief when it comes to that, because, I mean, and I.

Tracy Latronica: Think that people are trying to help you, too. And I think that people will send you in a direction because they genuinely think that it’s the right direction to go, but they don’t really know. So then you’re having to kind of figure it out the hard way. I don’t really know how to how to better explain it.

Sharon Cline: So I got you because some of the things that I’m doing professionally involve some of my friends as well. And and there is a part of me that is very business and it’s not about the emotion really behind it and what our friendship means. It’s more, okay, this is what works for me. This is what makes the most business sense. I need to go this way, but I don’t want to lose the friendship when someone’s feelings get hurt. So that’s I’m trying to navigate that. How do you.

Tracy Latronica: How do you critique a friend who’s doing something for you at a steeply discounted rate? How do you, without guilt, say, Man, this looks like crap. Okay. When if it was a business, if it was if it was Apple, you would be on the phone with customer service saying if you don’t fix this by Friday, switching over to a Samsung with no hesitation because it would be an anonymous person on the other end of the phone. But when it’s somebody you’ve known for a decade, you’re like, Hey, you think that maybe you know the deadline that’s two weeks past, You think maybe we could we could work on that. And you become all of a sudden more concerned about the friendship or the emotional relationship than your own well-being. And so when it’s something that’s super important, I would not go I would go with trusted, tried and true, been around for 50 years company and then let your friends help you out. There’s plenty of room for us to help each other in referrals and marketing and showing up for events and you know you being at bike night is is that in itself is you helping us? Right? So let’s let our friends help us in those ways, not in the make or break life or death, lack of a better term, you know, decision making.

Sharon Cline: It’s interesting because you didn’t know that initially.

Tracy Latronica: You thought the exact opposite.

Sharon Cline: So this is.

Tracy Latronica: Great. If you remember last year, I was like, the thing I’m looking the most forward to is, is working with my friends who are also small business owners and having us help each other in this way. And it ended up kind of biting me in the butt a few times. So now we have relationships with other small business owners that are strictly professional. We’re friendly. We we, we will message each other occasionally. But it started as a business relationship, and that’s where the foundation is. And then a friendship can develop out of it. I think that the opposite sometimes gets a little bit complicated.

Sharon Cline: I think as well, money is interesting too, because imagine your you you blow up, especially as a result of this show. Okay. You guys blow up so big and popular, now you’re hiring a bunch of people, the people that you were friends with. You know what I mean? Want to now? Yeah. Come along to that. And. And I’m experiencing a little of that myself, which is terrifying because I’m. I’m not a ruthless person. I care. But there is a division. So that’s fascinating that you experienced it as well.

Tracy Latronica: I mean, have you ever referred a friend for a job at your place of work? And then they show up and they are awful and that and that, that like. Yeah. So it kind of is a little bit similar to that where you vouch for someone in your own sense and then they show up and you’re like, I don’t even recognize that. So I mean, luckily we figured it out and everything’s fine and, and the website isn’t our primary driver of marketing anyway, but I might.

Sharon Cline: Be able to help you out there a little bit. I know some people who know people.

Tracy Latronica: I would love to know.

Sharon Cline: My people can talk to your people. That sounds terrible. I can’t believe I just said that. Sorry, Anthony, Go ahead.

Anthony Latronica: That’s also a learning experience on way to drive your own business as well, Right? So when you’re doing work for your friends, you make sure that you don’t cross that line. You make sure that you ask them over and over, Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Especially maybe even more than if you had a regular customer, because maybe they’re scared to express that. And so we have done some work for friends in the past and and hopefully in the future as well. And I treat them, if not better than, you know, a regular customer, at least equal to. So yeah.

Tracy Latronica: I mean, a random customer is going to let you know if they’re not if something’s wrong and it could be something small that you just overlooked, You know, you forgot to put cork on a on a nail hole on a baseboard. I mean, it could be something small, you hope. But if I was if we were doing your basement and you saw that hole, I don’t think that you would call me and say, hey, you missed a hole. I think you would just let it bug me, bug you? I’d fix it myself. And and I don’t. That’s not what we want, right? We want you to be able to.

Anthony Latronica: Say you push them to say, Hey, are you sure?

Tracy Latronica: Are you sure?

Anthony Latronica: Before I go. Before I come check this out. So, yeah, it’s a learning experience.

Tracy Latronica: All of a sudden, Sharon will be calling. What kind of caulk did you use? Why are you asking that, Sharon?

Sharon Cline: No reason. Is there a brand? She just sent me a picture.

Anthony Latronica: No, I love everything. It’s great.

Sharon Cline: Yeah. Just curious. Question for you, Anthony. What do you think your fearless formula is? Do you have a fearless formula?

Anthony Latronica: I’ve only solved part of the equation. My formula is incomplete. I mean, like, we’ve pretty much said everything that we’ve learned so far, and we’re still. We’re still struggling somewhat. So it’s not a complete formula. But the marketing is big. The interaction with with with clients is big. Putting yourself out there, putting the branding the little aren’t even just just having that out there and putting that front forward on my truck, on my trailer. If you go to Home Depot and you see and I do, I go in the mornings, I see five different companies representing at Home Depot, but they just have, you know, Bob’s construction. They don’t have any logo. I have a logo. You’re going to remember that more than you’re going to remember Bob’s construction. Bob’s construction. Right. So there’s you know, there’s things like that that are that I’m learning as we go help complete the formula. But I don’t have the formula yet.

Tracy Latronica: The firm is the fearless formula being like, how do you overcome your insecurities and the doubts that you have being an aspect of it as well, right? Like how.

Sharon Cline: Do you. I would agree with both.

Tracy Latronica: And we still have that. I mean, I would like to say that that we’re successful. I mean, we’re busy. We’re still here. You know, the bills are paid. We we’re doing we’re doing well, considering, you know, the things that have changed over the past year. But how do you stay fearless? You don’t I think you embrace the fear and you and you trust your gut and you and you you just have to, I don’t know, take a leap of faith every day and just, you know.

Sharon Cline: Trust yourself.

Anthony Latronica: Yeah, I think I think you lose if you lose that fear. You didn’t. Did you lose? You’re complacent. Yeah. You become complacent and you lose some of that drive, that behind that fear. I mean, you think about it, fear makes you do a lot of things that you wouldn’t normally do, right? So, I mean.

Tracy Latronica: As a mother, right? You’re you’re afraid of making sure your kids are safe and taking care of that. That fear is on purpose. So you tend to your children. So the business is like our kids are grown. So the business is like a baby that we had late in life and we’re like, not like we. We’re not exactly sure if we’re feeding it the right formula to to use a pun. But, you know, we’re going to keep an eye on it and make sure that everything’s okay. And so the fear, I think, is, is is like you just said, that’s a good point. Driving without it. Maybe you’re doing something wrong. You’re not pushing yourself enough if you’re not afraid.

Anthony Latronica: Once you find the answer to something, you need to be thinking about the next thing to find the answer to or you’re going to not. You’re not going to grow. You’re going to. You’re going to just stay complacent. And I don’t want to be working on my hands and knees the rest of my life. I would like to eventually run and operate a company. So to me, that’s a fear in itself is like, okay, I’ve got to get this going. And so I guess there is no formula to get rid of the fear. Just it’s having the fear might be part of the answer.

Sharon Cline: I like that. What you’re talking about is something I’m trying to tell myself a lot these days. It’s like a message I keep getting over and over is that I don’t know what the future holds, but I do believe that I have the ability to figure it out, figure out what I need to.

Anthony Latronica: Do that’s important.

Sharon Cline: And so that’s something that I feel like you’re saying, you know, I’m we’re going to face it every day and just deal with what comes and, you know, that you will have resources or people or someone something to help you figure out what to do.

Tracy Latronica: And, you know, we, of course, have each other. And and having a business with your spouse is has its own challenges. But at the same time, it’s really nice to have somebody that is going through it with you that has the same fears and the same concerns and the same excitement and the same pride, you know? And every day is just everything’s different every day. And so you think that you have a plan of what next week is going to be like and now it’s going to rain on Monday. So which is which we’re so excited for. We’re going to dance in the rain because it’s going to cool the entire southeastern United States off. And so we’re really stoked about. But shoot, now what do we do? Because we’ve got a schedule. And so we were talking about this today, these conversations. It’s just all the time. Okay. So do you push everybody back? Do you domino your entire schedule for the next month or do you tell that poor person who landed on rain days, we’re going to have to work you in a net, right? So how how do you navigate the weather? I mean, if you would have asked me that a year ago, what are you going to do about the weather? I would look.

Sharon Cline: Like you’re crazy. We’re going to be doing an inspection inside this kitchen. Looks great.

Tracy Latronica: Right?

Sharon Cline: Pouring out.

Tracy Latronica: It’s pouring out. Who cares? You know it matters.

Sharon Cline: This is my final question for you. What would you tell someone who’s getting started in the same industry that you are in right now?

Tracy Latronica: Um, I think that my biggest advice and you can think about yours, I guess, because since I keep jumping in but is to communicate clearly, if I could get into the brains of our suppliers, our clients, our subs, meaning our subcontractors. Just talk. Just talk to each other. So if something’s not going exactly the way that you thought, let the client know. I mean, if, hey, this has taken longer than we expected or, you know, this issue has arisen or from a vendor perspective, there’s a delay in shipment, you know, just communicate and everything’s going to be all right if everybody just informed each other. So if you’re thinking it and it affects somebody that you’re working with, communicate, it would be would be my advice is just to be open and communication, not be afraid to let people know your concerns.

Sharon Cline: What’s the what’s really happening and not try to cover. Don’t cover it.

Tracy Latronica: Know it, and your reputation will thank you for it. Well, thank you for it. It builds.

Sharon Cline: Credibility.

Tracy Latronica: People on our reviews will. They have mentioned that before is the clear and concise. Hey, we thought that, you know, this mold wasn’t going to spread beyond this wall. Come to find out when we get into the next room, we we see a presence of it as opposed to, oh, shoot, we didn’t bid it like this. Let’s just put some dry. No. Yeah. Let the customer make the decision.

Anthony Latronica: One of those ways of communication. We got an app that we use called Company Cam. It’s really great because I’m able to take pictures that aren’t saved in my phone. They’re saved to a cloud. And it’s really great for customers, especially that maybe it’s not their full time home. And so you can send them photos of what of the progress as it’s coming along. And that’s one of the biggest I think most people are grateful for on our part is that we continually show them updated photos and using that company cam, you can create their own little folder and send it to them straight off the cloud.

Tracy Latronica: So if somebody re insulating your basement and you’re at work and when you leave, you had your old drywall and then when you come home, you have new drywall, you don’t know what’s going what happened in between. And so we are really big on photographing every step that’s behind the scenes to show you, Hey, this is what we saw when we tore the wall down. This is what this is what the new insulation looks like and this is what the new drywall looks like because the customers otherwise, how would they know? You know, there’s you can feel taken advantage of. And I think it happens pretty frequently that people are taking advantage of because a lot of the things are happening that you can’t see. So you’re just trusting. Like I keep saying a mechanic, you’re just trusting that the mechanic fix the problem and didn’t put a used part in.

Anthony Latronica: It’s also important for documentation purposes as well. I mean, when you you say, I did this behind your wall and you say, oh no you didn’t. You say, Oh yeah, I did. Here’s your photo. There was there was a customer that we had that we retrimmed out one of her posts for her porch and it was a complicated trim job. And when we got to it, we took photos of it before we got there and we took photos afterwards and it looked exactly the same as when we arrived, except for without the rotten stuff in it and repainted and everything. And she was like, Oh no, it’s missing some here. And well, that was the way it was when we got here. Here’s evidence, please. Right.

Sharon Cline: You must have been so happy to have that photo. Imagine having to open that wall or something to prove that what you did. You know what I’m saying?

Tracy Latronica: Right. Right. So, yes, that’s that’s a great point, is to protect yourself. And if something does come back to you or on you, somebody tries to blame you for a future problem, you have that documentation. This is here is proof that it looked like this, even even a picture of the surroundings, because there could be a hole in the wall that they blame you for. And you say, actually, here’s the photos, the walkthrough video that we took on our first assessment and that hole was already there. Oh, my goodness.

Anthony Latronica: That’s where the company came. Comes in handy because you’ve got a thousand pictures for each job. And it’s it allows you to break it down and store files for each individual job that’s not on your phone.

Tracy Latronica: It’s not bogging down your phone. It’s in the cloud so you can share it.

Sharon Cline: What you’re doing is you’re talking about credibility and reputation. Right? Right. Those are the main things to protect yourself if you’re in new in this business. Yeah. Is to protect yourself with with your your work and prove that you did what you said you were going to do. And then also communicate. Yeah.

Tracy Latronica: Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Well, how can people get in touch with you?

Tracy Latronica: Tracy? Tracy at aunt’s construction services.com. Aunts. Not aunt like your uncle and aunt aunt like the aunts. Construction services.com. That is my email. That’s your website as well. The website is aunt’s construction services.com. The new one should be live on September 5th. There is one that’s functioning right now, but it’s not our our final social media Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. I almost said Twitter and I don’t have a Twitter. And then the second Tuesday of every month, we are at Taco Maxx, Hyrum, hosting a bike night slash networking event. It’s not just for bikers. It’s for small business owners in the area or elsewhere as well. And it raises money, as I mentioned, for Lana Turner Foundation. And we have giveaways and prizes.

Anthony Latronica: And I’ve been I’ve been perfecting my Twitter.

Tracy Latronica: Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Your Twitter, Your X tick.

Anthony Latronica: Tick tock. It’s tick tock, tick tock. So I’ve been doing videos in the field like, okay, this is what we do on a hot day or our little tips and tricks to do some of the construction. I only have a few videos out there, but I plan to step up my game.

Sharon Cline: I am too. I will make a deal. I need to do more of that as well. I just did a quick video before we got started, but I was like quickly like almost threw my phone across the room. Okay, I did it. I did a video. I got to figure it’s so frustrating.

Anthony Latronica: It’s intimidating.

Tracy Latronica: And then there’s people that are just perfect at it and they’re on it every day.

Sharon Cline: Right? Right. I’ll get there. Yeah. I can only be perfect at so many things.

Tracy Latronica: Our generation is. This is all this is. We’ve learned this. The younger generation grew up with this as as a part of their life. Yeah.

Anthony Latronica: We weren’t used to being. Look at me, look at me. Look at me every five minutes in the day. So. So, yeah, I’m out on a job trying to think of something that I can film and say, Look at me. And that’s actually useful.

Tracy Latronica: Interesting.

Sharon Cline: Well, it sounds like to me you’ve got your own fearless formula here. You’re doing the networking, which even matters more than doing a little TikTok. But who knows? Maybe we’ll all grow together. Yeah, this.

Tracy Latronica: Way. I mean, it’s like, how to quantify it, right? And that’s important, too. Like, where did you find us? Did you find us on TikTok? Which hasn’t happened quite yet. But once it does, all of a sudden you’re going to be doing more TikTok, right?

Anthony Latronica: You’ll find out. You’ll get you’ll wrap your brain around a lot better. Once you get some work, you’ll.

Tracy Latronica: Have a selfie stick. The next thing you know, just ready to go.

Sharon Cline: Following me everywhere. I’m not obnoxious.

Anthony Latronica: A little backpack with a camera drone.

Tracy Latronica: As I’m working, we’ll have our drone just hovering above you, filming you all the time.

Sharon Cline: Well, Tracy and Anthony Latronica of Ants Construction Services, thank you so much for coming on the show and being willing to share what it’s been like for you this past year. I mean, it takes a lot of of strength to be so vulnerable. And I really appreciate your being candid with me and and willing to share your knowledge that you wish you had known for someone else who I’m hoping will benefit from it as well.

Tracy Latronica: Thank you for having us. And yeah, we’re open book.

Sharon Cline: Excellent. We’ll have you, what should we say a year from now?

Tracy Latronica: Let’s set the date.

Sharon Cline: Okay. We’ll see you in a year.

Tracy Latronica: We should have a million TikTok followers.

Sharon Cline: I was going to say. And construction conglomerate or something. I don’t know. Let’s hope for.

Tracy Latronica: That. August ants construction. You know August.

Sharon Cline: That’s true.

Tracy Latronica: That’s what it is. A bunch of A’s.

Sharon Cline: That’s right. Well, also, thank you all for listening to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX. And again, this is Sharon Cline reminding you, with knowledge and understanding, we can all have our own fearless formula. Have a great day.