In today's episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Sergei Kaminskiy, a self-made entrepreneur and real estate investor who embodies the American dream. After immigrating to the US from Siberia and starting his journey in poverty, Sergei founded a small handyman business that has since blossomed into Kaminskiy Design and Remodeling, a nationally recognized agency. Not only has he built a commercial real estate empire and made numerous angel investments, but he also amassed over 4 million followers on Instagram, leveraging his influence to drive business success.
With over 4 million engaged Instagram followers, Sergei has successfully navigated the evolution of marketing, from door-to-door flyers to television commercials and now social media, to grow and scale businesses. Tune in to discover all the real-world marketing and business insights that have worked for him.
In today’s episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, we’ll cover:
Why patience, effort, and consistency are essential for long-term entrepreneurial success.
How competing on price alone can weaken your business and reduce profitability.
The importance of minimizing overhead costs while maintaining product or service quality to scale effectively.
Common myths about business and entrepreneurship—and how to overcome them.
And so much more!
You can listen to the full interview on your desktop or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Or, click to watch the full video interview here!
Visit www.kaminskiy.com to see how the Kaminskiy Group is transforming home remodeling, handyman services (Careandrepair.com) , and construction. If Sergei’s story inspires you and you’d like to learn from him, you can follow him on Instagram at @sergei.kaminskiy.
To be a guest on our next podcast, contact us today!
Do you have a brand that you’d like to launch or grow? Do you want help from a partner that has successfully launched hundreds of brands that now total over $2 billion in revenues? Set up a free consultation with us today!
Prefer reading instead of listening? Read the full transcript here!
Jon LaClare [00:00:00]:
Today's guest has launched and grown several multimillion-dollar businesses over the past 20 years. He has also built an Instagram following of over 4 million people and that has made every new business that much easier to grow. This interview is a non stop barrage of valuable insights that you can incorporate into your business right away. You'll want to pause and take notes at several times just to keep up with them.
Jon LaClare [00:00:45]:
Welcome back to the show. I'm excited to have Sergey Kaminsky with us today. He's a self made entrepreneur, real estate investor, business influencer with millions of followers, and a founder whose journey literally epitomizes the American dream. After immigrating to the US from Siberia in 1993 and living in poverty growing up, he founded a small Handyman business in 2005 that grew into Kaminsky Design and Remodeling, a nationally renowned home design and remodeling agency consistently ranked as the best of the best by Modern Luxury magazine and a ton of other media. Over the past two decades, Sergey expanded his portfolio to include Care and Repair, a scalable handyman franchise organization, a thriving commercial real estate empire, and numerous angel investments. His story has certainly caught a lot of eyes with over 4 million followers on Instagram alone. Sergey, welcome to the show. So excited to have you on today.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:01:39]:
Hey, thanks Jon. Glad to be here, man.
Jon LaClare [00:01:41]:
Absolutely. So let's dive into your story a little bit. You know, we, I mentioned a lot of the businesses that you've had over the years. We're going to dive into your franchise care and Repair in a little bit more detail. But before that, what, what was the first business you got off the ground? Can you tell us a little bit more in terms of details?
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:01:59]:
Sure. I was just 19 years old and my wife and I just had about $70 in the bank account at the time and struggling to make ends meet. And I remember I was working as a framer for a framing contractor and I came home and I said, listen, I know one thing. I know that I can hustle. I know that I can do a business at least in a small scale. Let's go print some flyers. And we went to our club room at the time, which was within our apartment complex. We didn't have a Computer job.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:02:27]:
We didn't have a printer at home. We didn't have anything right. So it was just a testament to you don't need a whole lot to get started in business. Literally went into the club room that had a printer and a computer, opened up Microsoft Word and designed a flyer that said, hey, offering handyman services, and listed out the services. We went to Target, bought some string, wrapped up the flyers real nice, put them on a little bow. And I remember it was raining outside and my wife was driving, literally kind of like on the street. And I'm running door to door and I'm hanging these flyers and I'm passing them out. I did about 20 to 25 flyers.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:03:04]:
That's all that we did. And I remember thinking, man, gosh, I hope somebody calls us. It was kind of like my first effort at doing door to door flyers. And the next day, sure enough, we get a call and I complete my framing job where I was making $17 an hour. And after that I go and I do this handyman job. And within a couple hours I make a few hundred dollars. Right. And this is, this is 20 years ago.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:03:31]:
And so for me, I said, man, I want to do more of this. I want to do more of this and I can do a lot more of this. And so that more we did, we started getting up like 3, 4 in the morning, and we would literally just flood neighborhoods with these flyers. And that's how we started our business. It was, it was a handyman business that we started in 2005.
Jon LaClare [00:03:49]:
That's awesome. Now that was, you know, on day two, it sounds like you had your first sale. What was the first big success though? Like, when did you know you turned a corner that you could, you know, really leave your day job behind and start working on your own business?
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:04:01]:
Yeah. So I started spreading the word. I started telling my friends, family, I said, hey, I'm doing this handyman business. And I had a friend who was actually a window installer for Home Depot, and he went and did a job for a customer. And this customer needed work done within the home, like other work that he couldn't do. So he gave my business card to this one very nice lady, and she gave me my first decent sized project where I was like, man, I can take a few weeks off from my framing job at the very minimum, and then go do this job. So I remember I showed up and I called my superintendent and this was a fairly large sized company, the framing company. They had 300 employees or so, but the superintendent really liked Me, Jim, super nice guy.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:04:43]:
But I called him up and said, jim, can we meet? And I remember walking into his office with my Microsoft Word design flyer and telling Jim and saying, hey, Jim, look, I mean, I'm going off on this journey. I want to do this handyman business. And he looked at me, he goes, sergey, I'll tell you one thing, he goes, work will come, but good help is hard to find. And back then, I was 19 years old, I was hungry, and I was like, just give me the work, man. I will find the help. But the longer I'm in business, the more his words, you know, ring true, that, you know, work will come, good help is hard to find. And that was really when I turned the corner, because after that, you know, I called him later and I said, hey, Jim, I don't think I'm coming back because I'm going to do this full time now. And so it was because of that one opportunity where I said, you know what? I can start doing this on my own.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:05:27]:
And we just kept going, man. It was just a daily, daily, constant grind. It's not like, you know, it's one of those things people think it's like this one move that all of a sudden, boom, you suc. You succeeded. It doesn't happen that way because that one job was just a stepping stone to get to the next level where I was able to say, hey, I'm not coming back. And now I had to make another move and start putting out more flyers and doing a lot more grinding and a lot more hustling to get me to the next level and next level and the next level.
Jon LaClare [00:05:55]:
You know, you talk about, like you said, it's not like you do one thing and it all of a sudden changes everything in your business, but I do just to kind of grab a couple of nuggets from what you talked about. You do get learnings and systems, I think, early on. Right. So the flyers piece, I'm sure your flyers and your, you know, door to door mailings and marketing are different today. Of course, other things you do as well than they were from Microsoft Word in those very early days. But it's the system that you proved out. Okay, if I just contact people, I can send a certain number of flyers and I'm going to get a certain percentage of callbacks from that. And from that, a certain number of clients.
Jon LaClare [00:06:28]:
Slash revenue.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:06:29]:
Yeah, I mean, we went, we were passing out flyers ourselves probably for maybe six months or so, maybe a year. And then I would, I would get my, like, nephews Involved and, like, you know, kids involved start doing, like, more and more. But I got to a point, I had two full vans of guys, like, you know, 20 guys. And I would literally, I would circle areas on a map and I would say, flood this neighborhood. Flood this neighborhood. And we would just, you know, thousands and thousands of flyers per weekend, just distributing them. So, again, realizing that's what worked back then, we don't do flyers anymore. Obviously, marketing has changed.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:07:04]:
Our approach has changed. There's so much, you know, differences between how you would do advertising 20 years ago to how you're doing advertising today. But absolutely. Like, we saw that, you know, when something was working, we would go all in, right? And we would start, you know, doing that exact thing that's working. And so. Absolutely. But we do involve. Of course.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:07:22]:
Of course we will.
Jon LaClare [00:07:24]:
So over the years, as I mentioned the very beginning of this interview, you've launched a lot of successful businesses. What do you. What would you do differently today? And we're going to talk in a minute about a new business. You're. You're scaling up right now. But what do you do differently today other than mailers, right? Other than, you know, marketing techniques and having funding in place, et cetera? Because you got, you know, you've been doing this a while, but what, what learnings do you have from launching so many businesses that have helped you to be more successful with every subsequent business that you now launch?
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:07:52]:
Man, there's so, so much to learn. It's a. Well, again, going back to having just consistency and having the grit and the grind, right? So when you believe, when you're doing something that you truly believe in, there will be doubters along the way all the time. So there will be people that are going to tell you, ah, you know, I don't know if this is going to work, and I'm not sure if this is the right path and this and that. I remember, again, going back to that same time we went to a Thanksgiving dinner, because it was around kind of that time when I was starting and I was showing my flyer at the time to one of my sisters. I have two older sisters. And today my sisters, you know, my sister looks back at that moment and she goes, man, Sergey, I really didn't want to discourage you, but, like, you know, I didn't think you were gonna make it. Like, I thought it was all gonna just, you know, be a waste, right? I remember telling my dad at the time, like, hey, I'm, you know, I'm quitting my job.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:08:39]:
I'm starting my Business. And I remember to this day he says, I thought you're going to be moving back in with me. Like, you know, so it's like you have a vision. You as a person have a vision, right? And then you believe in your path and how you're going to get there, but only you can execute on that vision. And you're going to have naysayers. You're going to have people that are doubting no matter what you're doing. It applied back then, and it still applies to this day today. There are certain things that I see that other people are not going to see.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:09:07]:
Right. But it's really believing in what you're doing and consistency of showing up every day and doing it over and over and over again. You always think that it's gonna take less time than it does. So we typically, you know, we're very optimistic about everything that we do. And it usually takes longer, much longer than what you think it's gonna take. And it's gonna be a lot harder than what you think it's gonna be as well. You know, initially, going into something, any business venture, you look at it, you're like, oh, this is too easy. Why didn't anybody else do this? Like, I can go in and just crush it until you start doing it.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:09:41]:
And once you start doing it, you're like, this is not so easy. This is a lot more challenging than I thought. And at first, you know, like, I remember starting my business ventures and thinking like, man, I hope nobody knocks this off. I hope somebody doesn't start copying us and doing what we're doing. And I hope we're the first to do. But by the time I get deep into it and I overcome all of these different challenges and obstacles along the way, I think my godly, like, if someone wants to go through that, by all means knock us off and. And good luck, right? Because you start seeing how much. How much harder it is than what you initially think it would be.
Jon LaClare [00:10:17]:
It's kind of funny, you think about when you have a new idea. You know, a lot of people come up to you or. And say, I thought of that years ago, I could have done that, or whatever. Or you see an invention, something on the store shelf, like, man, 10 years ago I had that same idea. That could have been me. And that's true, right? The idea is part of it, but the execution, the grit, the hard work and everything that goes behind to really turn it into a successful business. There's more to it obviously, than. Than certainly just the idea itself, which let's change gears a little bit and talk about your newest venture.
Jon LaClare [00:10:46]:
So Kaminsky Care and Repair. I love that, you know, over the years you've created several multimillion dollar really successful businesses and now you're getting into a business where you're franchising, which really gives you the opportunity to help others to do the same. Right. Take your expertise, take a lot of the grit, sweat and learnings that you've had over the years and help them to get off the ground and avoid a lot of the mistakes that might, they might do on their own if they were trying to hand out flyers. Right, as it were, and starting off a brand new business. So first of all, can you talk to us about the Kaminsky Care and Repair business? Just describe what it is.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:11:20]:
100%. John, I'm glad you mentioned the portion of helping someone else start their own business because that's truly at the heart of, of Kaminsky Care and Repair. I'm a serial entrepreneur, love business man. I can talk to you about business from sunrise to sunset. And I only get more energized the longer we talk. And it's like it's one of those things. I get a joy and a huge kick out of watching someone else who has never been in business before. I call them a wantrepreneur.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:11:52]:
They're not someone that has tried to go out of business. They want to be in business. They talk about going into business. They've talked about it maybe for decades, but they're scared or they don't know enough to take that like initial leap to get into it because they see how many businesses actually start and fail within the first 10 years and the statistics scare them. Right. So being able to be in a position where we have the systems, the processes, the proven strategies, the marketing, the everything where we could take someone who's in that position and we can give them the infrastructure where they currently struggle with. Right. Specifically, if we're talking about Kaminsky Care and Repair, what we're doing is we're empowering the blue collar entrepreneur someone or blue collar wantrepreneur.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:12:31]:
Someone who wants to be in business. They're working for someone. Maybe they're actually doing a handyman business on a small scale by themselves. But the challenge they're having, John, is that they're overpaying for leads. They're paying between 100 to $200 to lead generation services such as Angie's List, Thumbtack, Yelp. And the problem with those services is that they'll send that same customer to four or five different vendors a lot of times. And so what will happen is it'll create an ultra competitive environment for that blue collar entrepreneur. They're overpaying for a lead that they're less likely to get because now they have to lower their fees to win that business.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:13:11]:
So as a national average, they're only charging 40 to $75 per hour for their time, which is not enough to run a sustainable business. In addition to that, they don't have administrative support, they don't have estimation support. They don't like the paperwork and the business part of the business. They like doing what they're doing. They like working with their hands. They can maybe manage successfully one or two technicians, but they don't like dealing with all the nonsense of the administrative. Here is where Kaminsky Care and Repair steps in. Number one, we were able to get leads at an average of $50 per lead for home improvement leads.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:13:48]:
So we're decreasing the cac, right? Customer acquisition cost. It's all about customer acquisition cost. You want to bring that down as low as you can in any business, not just home improvement. So we bring that down significantly. They're paying a fraction of the cost for the leads in addition to that because they align with the Kominsky brand and they have our systems and processes and strategies, our scripts, everything. Now we're teaching them how to charge an average of $133 per man hour. Think about that. So now they've decreased their CAC.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:14:24]:
We're increasing their hourly rate from 40 to $75 to 1:33, almost doubling their hourly rate per hour. In addition to that, we have administrative support. So if they're on a job, they're doing a job, they're talking to a customer. The phone rings, we call it speed to lead. If they don't get to that customer within two to five minutes, that customer is going elsewhere. They're calling another service provider. They're not going to wait around. So what we're doing is we're answering the phone right away.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:14:50]:
We're picking up the phone. If we miss it, we call them right back. In addition to that, we'll ping them and say, hey, we got a customer on the line. Would you like to take the call and sell the job? If they're super busy, they're going to say, no, estimate it for me. So we have corporate estimators that are on commission only basis that are going to sit there, estimate the job on their behalf, sell it and put it on their calendar. So what that's doing, I mean it's taking all of the things or all of the things that we were able to identify where that typical blue collar entrepreneur is always struggling with. They're going through that rat race of trying to stay above water, keep their head above water, and we're substituting all of these different things and helping them with all of those processes again, decreasing the cost per lead, increasing how much they make per hour and doing the speed to lead very, very well. That's where we come in and that's how we make them succeed.
Jon LaClare [00:15:41]:
Yeah, I love that. It's, you know, it costs more to get the customer. You make more per job, per customer, et cetera, your profits really soar and it now becomes a business, more than just a job on a day to day basis. So what's the strategy? Maybe for those that might be listening and running their own businesses currently, how have you been able, you know, maybe high level at least to reduce the customer's acquisition cost? Any strategies or advice that you have that have really worked well for you?
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:16:07]:
Well, a couple things, right. I have a whole marketing team in house marketing team and we call it the global marketing machine. And I have web developers full time, I have content creators full time. I have guys who are sitting there on a local level optimizing the Google my business profile, optimizing all of the Yelp listings and the local directories. We're going and we're opening accounts for LinkedIn and we're reaching out directly on a local level to real estate, property management offices, all of these different things. I mean we're blitzing it. So when we get a new location, we put our team to work for that location. There's no way we call them Chuck in the Truck or Joe the Handyman could ever compete with my marketing team.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:16:48]:
There is no way that someone could be out in the field trying to do work, trying to run a business and do marketing the way we do marketing. I have a whole team dedicated to it, you understand. So it's truly a huge amount of support and back when for someone when they go into the franchise system because now they have the Kaminsky brand, we're doing marketing on a local level, we're reaching the customer very efficiently and we, we target a specific customer too. John. Like we're not, we're never, we've never been the low cost leader, right? I've never tried to be the low cost leader. We provide value. We provide value. We're not inexpensive.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:17:24]:
I mean we are premium handyman service. We stand behind quality integrity, we do background checks. Our guys are marked, you know, in a, in a, in a uniform. We have their vehicles marked. So we provide a premium service for the customer. But there's a lot of customers out there that are more than happy to pay the rates that we're charging. Because what they want is, they want to be able to know that, okay, the person I'm letting into my home, which is my most sacred place, this guy is going to be vetted, he's going to be experienced. They have to have at least 10 years experience.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:17:54]:
They have to be at least four to five star rated. And they know that where they lay their head down on a pillow to sleep, you know, and they're inviting somebody into that place that they're vetted and they're good. Right. And so they'd rather pay a little bit more per hour, have the peace of mind knowing that we're inviting a decent individual into their home, number one. And we're going to stand behind the work and the product if something doesn't go right. Sometimes it doesn't, but we're always going to go out and fix it. And that's what our customers want to hear.
Jon LaClare [00:18:23]:
I love it's such an interesting business model. You know, it's very different from most franchises that I'm aware of. We've had clients that have been in the franchise business on both sides. Right. And a lot of times you build this great model and you've got good systems, but the marketing, hey, you're on your own. You know, we'll maybe give you some advice, but I love that you're really in essence doing that for them as they join your system, because you've created not just a system to run the business, but a system to bring in customers. That's usually the missing piece. So it's a fantastic way.
Jon LaClare [00:18:50]:
And on your benefit or your side, you have now grown your business where you've got locations everywhere with really high caliber people. If they're willing to start their own business. Right. You know, they're going to be great handyman. Right. As opposed to just getting employees like your first boss mentioned to you. Right. It's the hard part is getting a team in place.
Jon LaClare [00:19:09]:
So doing this franchise model is a great way to grow the business with, you know, getting the best caliber people on. These are not just employees, but people where their heart's going to be in it.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:19:18]:
Yeah. And speaking of that too, I mean, we have HR support, so actually our HR department, we're going to spend time with our Franchisees, we're going to help them hire their first two technicians. A lot of our hiring, all of our hiring is done via Zoom. So what? Basically our trained HR people are going to be on the phone via Zoom, on a meeting similar to this, with the candidates, with the franchisee asking the questions and teaching the franchisee how to hire on their own. Because we do want to empower them. We want to empower them to be able to hire and fire on their own. They need to know the laws and regulations in their local states. They also need to know how to sell the jobs on a local level to customers.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:19:56]:
That's a very important part of it. So we teach them how to do that. But we have support for all those things. One more thing I want to talk about, which is pretty revolutionary. When we first got into this, we thought, okay, well, we're going to get into this and we're going to do a conventional model where we're going to have a brick and mortar office, we're going to have a full time receptionist, we're going to have to buy vans and trucks, and we're going to have to put our decals and all of that on that, right? As we started going through this business, we started thinking, how do we decrease the overhead to the absolute minimum? And I've been in business a long time. I've been in the home improvement business a long time. I've always bought trucks and vans and I've spent a lot of money doing it. And you just think about the cost.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:20:36]:
You're buying, say, a cargo van. You're spending 50 to 60 thousand dollars on a cargo van. You're putting shelving into it, right? Another three to $5,000. You're putting decals on it. That's another few thousand dollars. Then you have to buy insurance for it. Then you have to carry the monthly payment on that thing. Then, you know, someone runs it into a pole or whatever the case is.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:20:55]:
I mean, I've had everything happen with my vans, right? We don't have to do that. What we did is we said, hey, if you look at a good craftsman, most of really good craftsmen, their pride and joy is their work vehicle and their tools. They love it. They'll usually have a nice van or truck, neatly organized. They'll have all of their nice tools there. They're very proud of it. So we're like, why don't we allow them to use what they already have? We're going to compensate them very generously. We have a very good compensation package.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:21:26]:
We pay More than most home improvement businesses out there, we provide a very strong employment package to our technicians, but we're allowing them to use their vehicle and we pay them a few hundred dollars for putting our magnets on their car and that's offsetting their gas or, you know, their insurance or with their monthly payment, whatever the case is. But now we don't deal with the headache of owning all of these fleets of vehicles which are so costly. And we don't have to rent out or lease out a five year lease on a huge brick and mortar office. We're allowing our franchisees to a either run it out of their home or we have another provision where we can actually get into another space for just a few hundred dollars a month. And that works as well. So what have we done? We've decreased the overhead. And overhead kills companies. You know that because you talk to businesses all the time.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:22:20]:
If your overhead is high, it's very difficult to run a successful business. Your overhead always has to be as low as you could possibly get it. And you have to have, you know, your gross margins and your profits as high as you can get them. That's, that's what's left for the business owner, right? So we've decreased the monthly overhead to the bare minimum. Now we have a healthy budget for marketing because we understand that that's a very powerful thing. You cannot run a successful business and grow a business without marketing. So I'm a big believer in marketing. So we have a healthy budget for the marketing component.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:22:51]:
But nonsense overhead. We try to keep it to the minimum.
Jon LaClare [00:22:55]:
Love it. So I know our, our audience will want to hear too about something you've done tremendously well, which is building a following. So on Instagram alone, as I mentioned in the intro, you've got over 4 million followers. And these are people that engage. If you look at your post, they're liking, they're sharing. It's not just bots out, these are real followers of you. And that can make such a difference in launching, growing your business, communicating with your audit, your current and potential customers, etc. How did you do it though? What's, what's some good advice? You've obviously got a great personality, right? You've got great content you've put up there.
Jon LaClare [00:23:29]:
But what has been sort of your secret or maybe strategy to really grow this solid base of followers on social media?
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:23:36]:
Oh, I don't think there's a secret for me. It comes naturally. So when you, you know, some people look at my Instagram, they're like Man, Sergey, that takes so much effort for you to, you know, put out the videos that you're putting out. And they're, they're so dialed in and everything else, dude. John, for me, I get a joy. I do that on my downtime. Like that stuff I enjoy because I do it on my downtime. That's like, for me, relaxing, right? Because I'm out, I'm grinding, I'm doing everything in the businesses.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:24:03]:
For me, doing the Instagram is on my downtime. But in addition to that, I truly attribute a lot of that to my team. I have a whole team that has helping me with that, right? I mean, my team is sending dms. We're making sure that we're getting good engagement, putting out great content. I have a whole video guy, I have the whole video editing team. There is a lot that goes into it, but I love it so much. It's truly. I mean, that's something that I enjoy so much.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:24:25]:
And you're, and you're right, it. To me, before it was like television. My first television ad that I did was about 15 years ago. I was about, I mean, I think I was like, what, 23, 24 years old, very young. But I got into the TV space very, very early. I remember learning about it. I brought in someone from our local state news Station here, Channel 6, and very nice lady came in, young lady, and she just kind of opened up all of these different kind of their like, quote unquote trade secrets to me. And she told me what the competitive rates were and everything else.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:24:59]:
So I went and I recorded my first TV commercial back then, this was 15 years ago. And I remember having kind of like, you know, the butterflies in my stomach, a little bit nervous. And I'm thinking, like, man, people are going to know. People are going to know now. I'm going to be out there, right? But man, I remember when that thing launched and I loved it. I loved it because it gave us instant credibility, right? And then we could kind of put out our personality and everything else with, with the television ad today, Facebook, Instagram, social media in general is the new tv. That's what people are holding. It's no secret, right? It's not like I'm saying something revolutional.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:25:36]:
Everybody knows it. So for us, that's where we have to be because that's where the eyeballs are, right? So we want to make sure we're in front of the right people, engaging with the right audience and doing it through the social channels.
Jon LaClare [00:25:48]:
That's great advice. And I think it's you know, for our audience. I think not everyone's going to have the passion or the natural ability to do great in videos. For some, it might be audio approach, might be photos, it might be writing, but it's about finding what you love. Because in order to really do it, you know, we've coached people, hey, you got to do more social media in your business. You got to connect with your audience, but you got to find the way that you're going to like. Otherwise you'll do it for a couple of months really well and then quit. But if you love it, you'll keep at it.
Jon LaClare [00:26:16]:
And in frankly, the early days of almost any content marketing strategy, it's not going to work. Right. It takes time to build up an audience, to figure out what your voice voices and to di. Really dial it in. So to get through the slog in the early days, just find the technique or the strategy or the marketing channel that you fit with that you love, the one that you open up your phone. So I imagine for you, you know, you're on Instagram probably personally, right. Consuming media on there as well. So when it's the channels that you're on, because then you'll learn what new trends are, et cetera, as opposed to forcing yourself into a marketing approach that maybe doesn't fit for you.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:26:50]:
If I can give someone advice, I would say don't try to figure out exactly what you're going to do from day one. Because a lot of people overthink it and they think, man, I have to have that perfect strategy. And whatever I start with doing this is what I'm going to have to do for the rest of my life. That is absolutely not the case. The hardest thing is to go into the gym, is putting on your shoes. So for me, I say, look, go out there, start doing at least something, start putting out some kind of content. And like you said to your point, John, you'll eventually find your way. You'll find kind of your voice, you'll find who you want to be and how you want to be perceived and, you know, all of those different things.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:27:26]:
It'll eventually come out. It might take a little bit of time, but you got to start doing something. If you're not doing anything, you're not making any progress. So start with something. Go do a little bit, keep going, stay consistent. Like you said, stay consistent because nothing happens overnight. You're going to post for 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, and you're going to be like, oh, nothing's working. It takes years it takes years consistently doing something for you to start seeing success.
Jon LaClare [00:27:50]:
Absolutely. For us, that's the podcast. I love doing this. I started doing it on the side now five years ago, we're 200 episodes in. It's a passion of mine. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. So this is, you know, you got to find what you're.
Jon LaClare [00:28:00]:
And that's not going to work for everybody. Like you said, you got to find what you like to do that fits your approach. And, you know, for us, luckily it's, it's grown, but it took time like anything else. Well, Sergey, this has been a lot of fun. Is there anything I didn't ask that you think could be helpful for our audience?
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:28:13]:
No, man, I think you got it. I want to inspire, man. Whether it's with the Kaminsky Can Repair or any other business. If you're a wantrepreneur, I call them entrepreneurs and you're on the sideline and you're thinking about jumping into business, I say go and do it. Life is too short. Go and do it. Take a risk and who knows, maybe it'll be successful and maybe you could be another success story. And to me, I'm living the American dream and nothing makes me happier than seeing other people living the American dream as well, you know.
Sergei Kaminskiy [00:28:42]:
So I want to inspire as many people out there as possible. You don't have to be wealthy to start. You don't have to have a lot of money to get going. I was that 19 year old kid in a one bedroom apartment with no money in the bank account, not even the computer and a printer. And I was able to start a business. So if I can do it, you can do it as well.
Jon LaClare [00:29:00]:
Totally agree and thank you very much for our audience. I do encourage you to go learn more about everything that Sergey has done over the years. You can connect with him in a couple of ways. One is at Kaminsky, it's K-A-M-I-N S K-I-Y.com it's in the show notes. If you're driving, don't worry about it. Check it out later. Or@harvestgrowthpodcast.com as well. Also check out his Instagram feed to see all the amazing work he's done there and how he's built up this follower base of over 4 million people.
Jon LaClare [00:29:31]:
You can find him on Instagram at Sergey Kaminsky. And I challenge you really to go check it out and just learn from him. But also, did you know you can meet with a member of my team absolutely free for a 30 minute strategy consultation. We've launched and grown hundreds of products since 2007 and learned some of our strategies while growing OxiClean back in the Billy Mays days. We're here to help, so please go to harvestgrowth.com and set up a call if you'd like to discuss further.
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