In episode 52 of Everything is Up, Tammera Hollerich interviews Billy Wilkinson, CEO of The Threshold Companies. Billy shares his journey of becoming the CEO and the strategic decisions that led him to take on the role. From being one of the original owners to scaling the company with just nine employees, Billy's story is a testament to his ability to drive success through strategic leadership.
Tune in to learn about Billy's experience and the growth of The Threshold Companies.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:03:37] Marketing in Real Estate Industry.
[00:06:11] Embracing Failures for Growth.
[00:09:19] Exponential Growth and AI.
[00:15:19] Niche Market and Balloon Business.
[00:18:55] The Challenge of Measuring ROI.
[00:22:40] Privacy Concerns with Technology.
[00:24:39] Personalized Advertisements
[00:29:33] Overcoming Adversity and Resilience.
In this episode, Tammera Hollerich and Billy Wilkinson underscore the significance of specializing in a niche market for achieving business success. It allows companies to deepen their understanding of their client base, offer tailored solutions, and attract strategic buyers like private equity firms who value expertise and growth potential within a specific industry.
In addition, Billy highlights that paid advertising on social media platforms provides quantitative results, allowing businesses to understand the impact of their campaigns. By investing in paid ads, companies can track metrics such as click-through rates and conversions, which are crucial for evaluating the success of their marketing strategies.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Tammera Hollerich
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TammeraHollerich
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammerahollerich/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thollerich/
Billy Wilkinson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billywilkinson/
WEBSITES
Everything Is Up: https://everything-is-up.simplecast.com/
Tammera Hollerich: https://tammerahollerich.com/
Threshold: https://www.thresholdagency.com/
Welcome to everything is up a podcast about the real life stories of people who have created extraordinary levels of success These are conversations with people who are constantly striving to take things to the next level And now here's your host
Welcome to Everything is Up with Tamara. Joining me today is Billy Wilkinson, who is the CEO of The Threshold Companies. There's more than one company in that family, correct?
Yes, there are. We have Threshold Canada and PromoShack as well.
So that's really fascinating, and thank you so much for joining me today. I know we're going to have a lot to talk about, so very exciting. When did you actually take over as CEO? Did you actually found the company? Give us a little bit of the background.
Sure. Well, I was one of the 50% owners going back to October of 2013 when it was founded. I happened to be running a different company at the time here in Austin. And so by 2015, I had helped at a very strategic level with the company. But as things would have it, it was doubling on an annual basis. And so there were several things that happened that given my skill set and background and the ability to scale companies, it made more sense for me to jump in and help out a company where I own 50%. rather than a company where I didn't. Although the previous place I was, I loved it, I loved the people I was with, had some great opportunities there. So I jumped in and funny enough, it was one of my favorite titles because they came in and we were only nine employees at the time. So I went from 600 employees in my previous company to eight or nine employees at the time, but I didn't even take the CEO, I was chief of everything else. was my title. It was like, okay, well, how do you accomplish the guy that's really, I mean, head accountant and head everything at that point. And so, and that's, I jumped in and that was at the end of 2015.
Well, that's very exciting. And you have grown this company into an international company.
Yes, that's true. Yeah, we do business all over North America. So we have an office in Canada, we acquired a Canadian agency in 2017 in Kitchener Waterloo. So we have, you know, the second largest part of our business is in Canada. And then we actually have some business, not a lot of business in Mexico right now, but we do have some.
That's impressive. You also are a recipient of the 40 under 40 group, correct?
Yes, mine was actually the 40 over. Yes, yes, I did. Yeah, I was one of the winners.
That is and that's impressive enough. OK, so tell us what where threshold specializes, because I think that that will help the audience.
Yeah, that's great. So Threshold is a full service agency, a marketing agency. So we do everything from creative work to website design and development. We do digital marketing, we do promotional products. And inside those categories are a lot of things. There are emails, there are brochure design, there are, you know, different types of digital campaigns, whether you're operating with Google or Meta or any of those. The bulk of our work, we really cut our teeth in the real estate industry. Largely apartments, student housing, multifamily conventional, senior housing, active adult, and now build to rent. Then we launched a second vertical in Q4 of 2022 focused on financial institutions. That's really community banks and credit unions that we're working with throughout the US to help them with their marketing efforts.
You know, that brings up a really good point for a lot of, you know, our audience that's listening, because we have a lot of CEOs that listen, going into a specific vertical, rather than trying to actually be the end-all be-all for everything and everyone that you come in contact with, how important is it for a company to specialize in this day and age where the noise is so heavy, right? You talk to the right audience, but make sure that you're in the right vertical, right?
No, that's extremely important. And you have to look at it tomorrow. You don't look at it a couple ways because, you know, for us, it's really smart to be a niche player. So to focus on a niche does a couple of things. One, it makes you we like it because it strengthens our ability to understand our client base. because that's been the bu done. We know floor plans pages, we know amenities, the floor, you know, all extremely important. So, excuse me, there's a couple ways you can look at that, which is, you know, number one, it helps you really specialize and be extremely good inside that vertical. But the second part is, if you're trying to be for every CEO, you're trying to build value in some way. And so if you've got a strategic buyer, a private equity firm, or somebody else, they typically, they typically lean in on like these niche players. And, and those are just a couple of reasons to focus on it.
Yeah. So I read where when you, you had a business when you were really young. So you jumped out there as an entrepreneur really, really early on. And one of the questions I ask is, you know, what are some of the valuable lessons that you've kind of learned along the way? And I loved your answer because your answer was, it's not so much the lessons, but the failures that gave you really a lot of that experience. I mean, failing forward, falling forward, whatever we want to call it, right? So how can you elaborate a little bit for us on why that is so important? Because I think that fear of failure is what keeps so many people from reaching their actual potential. And yet it's the one thing that becomes the most valuable.
Right. No, it's absolutely true. And in this instance, what happened to me is I went out and I started what was called an annuity marketing company. And so I had someone that really believed in me and they signed a deal and said, we will provide you a certain amount of money each year to try and go and build this. And essentially what I do, what my job was to go and work with insurance agents to get them to sell these types of annuities. It was the first business I'd started out on my own. So, setting up, you know, doing the technical work of setting up an LLC, getting QuickBooks, all of that, that was second nature, wasn't a problem at all. I come from a financial services background, so that was pretty easy. But as it went along, what happened is I just didn't know where to focus and I didn't get enough traction in it. I think I was listening to the CEO that had sponsored me in this effort, had given me a certain direction. Well, just because he said so didn't mean that was the right direction. And so I didn't do enough from a rev gen standpoint. And eventually, when they said, listen, we can't we can't support you anymore, we haven't had enough traction, then is when I really got going, I started off in a different direction, where I started going direct to consumer, rather than trying to work with independent agents. But That all boils back to, you know, I had to let an employee go. I had to really change my direction. I had to shut down. And the thing that got me, and this is what I talked about with that biggest lesson, because you're right, it's the successes are wonderful and they're celebrated, but your best lessons come from your failures. And that failure teaches you what not to do the next time. And so in every role I've been in since, I am laser focused on revenue generation. How do we continue to grow revenue, sales and marketing, and get more? Because this is a common phrase I use with my team, is if we're not growing, we're slowing. And it's critical to keep growing.
Well, and in this particular day and age with exponential growth just in business as a general, you know, I had heard Darren Hardy once say, you know, if you go back and you look at business 10 or 15 years ago, we had linear growth. And businesses were growing at a linear pace, meaning one step for one year, with exponential growth. And it's because of the technology and because now, and I can't even imagine what kind of exponential growth we're going to have now with AI. I mean, thinking about what that, I mean, we were talking about exponential growth. One step, next year it's two steps, the next year it's four steps in that same year. You're right. If you can't keep pace with your competition, then you're literally not going to be here in five years.
Right. That's exactly right. We're facing the same thing. AI is going to take a part of the business of what we do. I mean, it's going to happen in marketing, and it already is. And so it's how you can implement those tools to be smarter and grow at a certain pace. And AI is going to do a lot of things. I mean, I think you hit on it. And it's also going to reduce expenses. I mean, this type of technology implementation is going to reduce payroll expense. Oh, it's intriguing. We don't even know, I think, all of the ways it's going to impact us in the end.
I agree with that because that was going to be my next question is, is there even any foresight into what it actually may act like look like a year from now? I mean, interestingly enough, I mean. I'm an entrepreneur, the crazy serial one, you know, that starts these crazy businesses. Right. Right. You know, I get bored and I'm like, oh, I'll start another one. And, you know, and they get to that place where you they start to plateau and then you go, oh, that can't happen. Right. So but we implemented using AI just to write marketing copy because it was doing better than our marketing team was doing.
It's true. And in some instances now, that's going to depend because AI is going to do a great job there, but you also have to have some individuals that can do that. And depending on the level of copy, it doesn't, it's not, it's not all knowing yet. It doesn't always get tone right. Yeah. It doesn't get it right yet, but in some instances, depending on who is doing your copy or your marketing, it could be better.
Yeah, that's it. You know, when you hire and not not knocking what you guys do, because I don't know that I could have done it without market and marketing team and marketing firm that actually helps to guide. But I think sometimes with, you know, and I'm a hands-on business owner. So that kind of makes a difference too. I'm not disconnected. I have a certain voice that I talk in or that we project out. And when you are disconnected from that marketing team, if they are just not laser focused, again, in our niche market, they don't understand that and that's where some I think of the marketing firms and that was what intrigued me about Threshold is you guys have been touted as being the leaders in creativity um in this space and I think that speaks volumes to the fact that you have this niche market and you know what you're talking about because when I get somebody who wants to talk about balloons I mean come on balloons at a professional level is a very small niche market but we're operating in a million dollar space and people look at us and they're like you can make that much money with balloons and i'm like you cannot imagine right what we're doing right i have no idea how to have a conversation because they can't fathom what we're doing so i think that that we're in a niche market And we don't have anybody that can talk our language. So that's where AI has kind of been helpful, because it gives me, you know, when I said, write me a blog post on how balloons are more impactful than flowers. Right. Well, then I go in and tweak it. But it's massive compared to somebody who doesn't even understand what I'm saying. And I think that's where this exponential growth, if you're ready to embrace it, but I'll tell you the first time somebody brought up was like, yeah, I mean, I was scared to death to even mess with it. So, I mean, I think it's very intriguing. That's why I asked right off the bat. How important is it to have that niche? I mean, and even for the business owner, right? To go, who is our customer? For the first 10 years I had a business, when somebody said, what's your customer persona? I was like, I don't know. How many companies, small business owners are trying to be the end all, be all to anybody who calls?
And that's how you start until somebody says you can't do that.
what's your customer persona?
That's exactly right. It's your 80-20 rule. 20% are going to produce 80% of your revenue. And that's always true. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, you're right. That's interesting. Okay, so I read too that you were the 5A state champion in tennis in high school, and that you're an avid tennis player now. So what got you into tennis?
Uh, gosh, you know, my sister played, my sister played when I was younger. And you know, I don't know, I picked up a racket at 11 or 12 and really got into it. And you know, it was You know, all the kids in the neighborhood would play, we would play football, we would play baseball, we would play a lot of different sports. And golf was really, you know, golf for me, my dad played golf. So I really enjoyed that. And it boiled down to, you know, I was taking some tennis lessons, I could go play some golf, we could really couldn't afford either. They were really, they're really expensive sports, especially golf. Yeah. And we could not afford doing either of them. But it ended up being I had to make a decision and I ended up going with tennis. And I'm glad I did. It's been a lifelong sport. I really enjoy playing. It also is a very fit sport. I mean, you just going out for an hour and a half, you burn so many calories. Yeah. You know, so I and now with pickleball and some tennis players are like, Oh, But pickleball is a lot of fun. I don't play much pickleball, but when I do, I enjoy it too. But tennis is definitely my primary sport.
Yeah, so I mean, I went to check on the Balloon Girls one day, and they were at one of the country clubs. And they go, meet us at the tennis courts. Well, the tennis courts, half the tennis courts are not tennis anymore. Half of them are pickleball now. What is that noise? And I was just like, it's so much louder than tennis. It is. That's crazy. You know, in Fort Worth now, we've got this restaurant that Tim Love used to own, that when he sold it, he turned the courtside kitchen. It is now like this little restaurant with pickleball. Like courts out it like at the restaurant.
I'm like everywhere.
What's everywhere? What a concept and an idea, you know, especially in a very sedentary society. I think it's been really good to kind of see, Hey, this is transpiring. How do you think that taking tennis, right? And being so committed to tennis really actually helped you, um, in business?
Um, wanting to win. I mean, being successful in sports when you translate it, and I've done this a lot over my career and Samara, I didn't, I wasn't one of the guys that walked out of, uh, college and said, I'm going to be, I thought I wanted to be an attorney. I literally went pre-law and when it got to the end, when I was graduating, I had someone at the university tell me, it's like, do you really want to be a lawyer? You know, you know what makes up their days. And I just thought my sister had gone that direction. She went to Baylor Law School, which I just admire so much. We had attorneys and I thought that was the big thing. And at the end, I really changed. And so my path, my career path, You know, I started in one place and it really did this until I understood it took me into my 30s to understand who I was, where I was going and why I should do what I want to do. Now, I've always correlated that back in my professional career back to my sports career. There were times is like, OK, when I would outwork people like when when other students on we would have a match on Saturday, Friday nights, all this kid, all of the students would be out at the football game. I was hitting with the assistant coach at 9 o'clock at night prepping for the next day. And, you know, my desire to win carries through in everything I do. It's that competitive nature. And listen, that isn't always beneficial. But in my case and what I do, winning is critical. And I'm not saying winning at the detriment of others. I'm just saying you have to be in it to win it when you're running a company.
Yeah, you have to always be at the top of your game, I think, especially in with what you do, because in that marketing, and right now as competitive as your field is, I think it's critical. You know, I kind of thought you might say it was the discipline, but that's interesting. I mean, the discipline comes along with it as part of it. When you have that very high level competitive spirit, I think the discipline to not let yourself down. But in this marketing field that you guys are in, the ROI is always being measured. Always, always, always. And it's sometimes, you know, it's difficult. I was telling my team the other day, you know, this whole Facebook thing. Okay. So I'm, you can tell by the look on my face, I am such a Facebook fan. I mean, one, I think it wastes so much time. Like there's just so many things about it. And yet I can't peel my dad off of Facebook. So I'm just like, you know, and you look at those baby boomers where there's a ton of money, especially if you're in a B2C type of deal. And I think about the balloon company and yet I still cannot measure I have no roi on facebook it drives me up a wall so how do you get around that as you know do you just talk it up to the cost of doing business or is there actually a way to measure it.
We use paid ads. Yeah, so the key is on all of those platforms, it's the paid instance of the marketing. And so with Meta, with any of their platforms, whether it's Facebook or Instagram, for our clients, we'll spend a certain amount of money on that platform, and they can tell us exactly how many people click through and convert it to become a customer. And for us, it's really important because, you know, on the own side of the platform, which is kind of what you're, you know, kind of a little bit about what most people that are posting, right, if they're posting or sharing or doing those things, those aren't going to turn into any type of typically a sale. It's the advertising, the paid advertising pieces of the deal, and they're quantitative. There are quantitative results behind that, and that's why. Listen, there's a big shift. We are seeing a shift. If there were boomers that we're trying to attract, we would still use Facebook. For the new students, Facebook is not a target. Facebook is not where we're going to be marketing. Now, the parents of those students for apartments, we would probably use Facebook to an extent as well. But those platforms are constantly evolving.
That's that's what's so challenging I think for any business owner is. The shift and it's a constant shift and there's always a new platform and there's always something else and because it's interesting to watch how we as humans. interact. I mean it's like you have this younger generation that doesn't want anything to do with the older generation and you've got the older generation that doesn't want to have to deal with the younger. I mean it's so complex. I think that's the word that I would shift out to everybody and I don't think any CEO that I have talked with or I've had lunch with or like this is a conversation that we are having over lunch because it is so complicated. It's impossible to keep up with.
Yeah, all of it is. It's just constantly changing too. I was answering some questions for a publication earlier and they were asking about the various platforms. It's not just about the platforms you're using, but it's the dialogue that's in it. It's the content that's in it. And that matters just as much because you've got the younger generations which value authenticity. They value privacy. And some things from the millennials to the boomers, you know, hey, we give Google everything. And now you're seeing a shift in some of the younger generations now to where they're much more in tune with what's going on. They don't want to share their private information. They don't want people tracking them. And, you know, I think that's also an evolution of technology, is that the more we know about it, the more we can do something about controlling it.
Well, it's interesting. We were sitting here talking in the office. Now, there's an Alexa somewhere in this office, right? Or somebody had their phone out or something, and we were talking. everyone who listens to the show knows that I am the crazy chicken lady because I have these chickens. Okay, so we were talking about the chickens and yeah now you get to be the first to know and everybody on the show I decided I was going to incubate this year so now I have like 60 eggs in an incubator. So I'm wow yeah 55 chickens and then 60 in the incubator. But I'm cooking them, actually, for one of the girls who just moved out to Weatherford and has a chicken coop but no chickens. So I said, I'll cook you some. This will give me my fix, and you can get the babies. So I've got all these eggs. And we were talking about it. And then all of a sudden, in her thread on Facebook, she starts getting chicken noticed. Like she said, like they're listening. I mean, and of course you can't prove it per se. And yet here it is, it's all happening around us. And I said, there is no privacy. I think Orson Welles is 1984 took us until 2024. But you begin to think There has to be something to that. You scroll one thing or you click on one thing and there's a word for it. It's called, how is it back? I want to say back channeling, but I know that's not the right word.
But you know what I'm saying? I do. I do. I don't know which word. Yeah, because there's so many of them. But you know, it is. they are. I mean that it is happening and I've seen it happen myself and several of us have talked about it. We know it's there. Now can you go in and change your privacy settings? Yes. But you know what you can say too is you can argue and say listen at least I'm getting relevant information. Because the argument is that I'd rather be getting, because if I'm getting telephone poles as advertisers, well, I don't need telephone poles nor am I interested in anything like that. But maybe it's a watch, maybe it's a different type of tennis shoe, maybe it's something of that nature. But I can tell you too that I've been surprised. Something has popped into my feed. I had a surprise coming to me on a trip. I was being taken on a weekend trip. Man, no clue. All of a sudden, the city of New Orleans pops up with a hotel in New Orleans. And sure enough, that was the surprise city I was going to because it had been mentioned in a dialogue around me when I wasn't there. Somehow, it got piped in. So it's a catch-22. It all depends on how the information is being used. But when it's used correctly, it's nice to get advertisements that actually apply to
That would be the argument I think that has validity, and I hadn't heard anybody put it that way yet, but I do think that brings a very valid point. I would rather be looking at something that I have an interest in than absolutely, like if I don't have kids, I don't need anything about kids, but someone who has children, right? 14 going on 15. No, no, h now. How is that working
Amazing. It's absolutely amazing. Every day I grow, we grow together. Being a father has been an incredible opportunity for me because it's helped me grow as a person. When you've got someone that you're responsible for on a day-in and day-out basis, it's incredible. How do you help him learn the world? Um, how do you celebrate the really incredible things? I mean, you know, are there, you know, do we both get frustrated with each other over certain things? Absolutely. Do we have the most incredible routines? You know, every Friday morning I take him to breakfast. I may not get to see him some during the week, but Friday morning it has been my, and I've done this 98 that list literally made it 98% of the times where Friday I take him to breakfast. I drop him off at school and we have a pack that even he's going to go to high school next year when he starts driving. We're going to go to breakfast together and then he'll drive himself to high school. It's just this fun thing that we do together. So you know it's the most amazing thing too is allowing him. The only thing I've asked of him is I want him to be a. valuable contributing member to society. I don't have any wishes. He doesn't need to be a pilot. I'm not telling him to be a plumber. I'm not telling him to be an architect. I want him to go and do the thing that he feels will make him happy, successful. And, you know, I told him, I said, all you need to do is earn the quality of living you want to have. that's up to you. And as long as you're a good contributing member of society, you're good to people, we'll be great. But we have a lot of fun together. We have, you know, movie nights and, you know, we get to play golf together. And I mean, it's just, every day is just a great day.
You know, that is a fabulous experience because I do know that you lost your dad when you were about his age.
I did. Yeah, my dad died when I was 13. It was tough. It was very tough for me. We did not have a good financial situation. My mom worked at a car wash. She worked six days a week. She had no health benefits. The house we lived in was worth $10,000. I remember looking at a bank account and her bank account, and I vividly remember $185 was about the high mark in her checking account. It ended up being the best. My dad, he had had cancer and then several things happened. He would have suffered more, so in the scheme of things, it was a blessing. Uh, but you know, it was certainly a very challenging thing for our family. And I had four older sisters. I do have four older sisters. They had all moved out. So it was, um, it was just a really interesting time. And again, it's one of those things where You know, I don't sit there and regret it. I don't sit there and go, woe is me. It may be who I am. That experience, helping take care of my mother, being, you know, having to work early. I just start working and driving literally when I turned 15. And so, you know, it just is what it is.
Well, I think that that's character building, especially in men. Because, you know, in this particular day and age, I think when that happens, this younger generation, they don't have the problem-solving skills that I think they need. And because they're missing some of those problem-solving skills, like you had it. Whether it was instilled from your dad or whether you picked it up from your mom, those problem-solving skills were there and you took the reins and ran with it. But it didn't stop there because look at where you are now. That's, you know, it's pretty amazing. Well, and I think I wanted to ask about your son because I knew that you had lost your dad and just having this time knowing how valuable this time this particular point in his life because you had a completely opposite experience I think is I can see just after spending a little bit of time with you and doing a little bit of research I can see in your eyes how important that is to you to have all of that time with him. And it's amazing. And you know he's going to grow up and you're going to be so—I mean, you're already proud, but he's going to strive to make you even prouder of him because that's his—it's going to be who he is because he's had your influence.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
I looked at the time and I was like, oh my gosh, this was quick, fast, easy. And you have been such a pleasure to have on the show and sharing your expertise and sharing with us a little bit of insight and sharing your personal life. It's really important. I think that people get to know who we really are and not just what we read about. So I appreciate so much you spending some time here with us on Everything is Up.
Thank you so much. It was my pleasure. And yeah, thank you so much. I really enjoyed this.
Well, great. So tell us the easiest way for our listeners to get in touch with you. If they want to reach out, how do they get in touch with you?
Sure. You can check out our website, which is www.thresholdagency.com. That is a great way to check us out. And then my email, email is always a great way to get ahold of me, which is billyw at thresholdagency.com. Those are the two easiest ways.
Perfect. Billy, thank you so much. I know you can also reach out to him on LinkedIn. So if you need him on email or through the website, we appreciate it. Thank you again, Billy and everybody make sure you like share. This is everything is up.
Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of everything is up. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show, wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And remember,