Russ: This is the BusinessMakers show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com. It's guest time on this show and I'm very pleased to have with me Regay Hildreth, founder and CEO of RMH Marketing and Media. Regay, welcome to the BusinessMakers show.

Regay: Thank you for having me, Russ.

Russ: You bet. Well, let's start by you telling us about RMH Marketing and Media.

Regay: Well, we are a marketing and media company. We're based here out of Houston, Texas. I started RMH about six, right over six years ago. I left Clear Channel. Was in sales and management there and started RMH out of my house. I had a home office and like to say that Diva, my little Lhasa Apso was my assistant back then.

Russ: Okay.

Regay: From that point really grew the company over the past six years. Was out of the house for three years and then decided it was time to get some office space.

Russ: All right. It's a big step, too, right?

Regay: It was a very big step.

Russ: Right.

Regay: So, got some office space and really we started with doing lots of radio since I was from the radio world. And branched into TV and then you have somebody that says do you do websites? And we say absolutely and you figure it out.

Russ: Right, right.

Regay: And then that's how we honestly, we kept growing. Then we saw that digital media and the social media craze of course, and as the popularity gained in that over the past what, three years and just branched into that. And took those clients we were working with and just kept adding to and to their services. We work with so many small to medium sized companies that we end up really being their focal point for their marketing and they rely on us for that entire plan from A to Z whether it's web, radio, TV, branding or design, so.

Russ: Cool, cool.

Regay: So it really is A to Z.

Russ: Well, you mentioned Clear Channel. You were selling radio advertising, right?

Regay: Yeah, you got it.

Russ: I think it's kind of unusual and unique for an interactive marketing company in 2011 to have come from that traditional background.

Regay: Right.

Russ: I mean it seems like most everybody else comes from the other direction.

Regay: They do and I was looking at that recently and I was saying you know, I started an agency and I've never even worked at one.

Russ: Right, right.

Regay: So that's I guess a backwards way to do things, but coming from the radio side of it, I think what that gave me is a hundred percent commission. You know it's a sales structure and I worked a hundred percent commission. So you're already a fiery kind of person and it's live or die, right?

Russ: Okay.

Regay: Either make it work or you don't, so naturally it gives you that, I guess those characteristics. There's that personality for the entrepreneurial side of things at least.

Russ: Oh absolutely, absolutely. Cool. Well, so what do you think today differentiates your company from the competitive world? There's a lot of interactive marketing companies these days, yeah?

Regay: Yeah, there are. Well, because I'd say we're not necessarily just interactive. I'd say we're traditional and interactive. So a lot of people will say well you can't possibly be good at it all, right? I don't agree. Ninety-five percent of the companies we work with are business owners so we have to do it all.

And we want to because maybe it's the people pleaser in me, which is it kind of trickles throughout my company, but just to make sure that if they ask for that, they did radio and they asked for that TV and then that web and then we - it's our job. At my company we have this - I call it my RMH academy that we do every other Friday and it's to educate ourselves on the digital stuff when it all became and it blew up and you had to have a website. And then you had to have social media and paper click.

Russ: Okay.

Regay: So differentiating ourselves I think would be because we do have such a - some people already say this, but a true personal touch. And we hand in hand, we walk through the entire process with our clients.

Russ: Okay, now when you expanded into this new digital world, I assume that you did that by recruiting some key people to join you that had that expertise beforehand?

Regay: Well, more than anything it was some of the kids that had just gotten out of college. So they, a lot of them, there are social media classes now and degrees. And sending them to seminars, webinars, classes and just really making sure their training is up to par so that it's kind of a philosophy within. And if you'll get our client list, you know, anyone that works with us and we always say if you think of an idea for this, you know, everyone is always trying to bring fresh ideas to each of those people.

But it sounds so cliché, but actively doing that and saying everybody, if your idea is to go and spray paint on the side of a building Company ABC is great, bring it. We'll see if it's not a bad idea. We're not going to shoot it down, but is there a possible way that we get that building owner to agree to do it? You know if that would obviously achieve the -

Russ: Sure. No, I get it.

Regay: -- kind of an out there example.

Russ: Well, and I spent some time on your site, too and looked at the client list and it's pretty impressive, both in quantity and caliber.

Regay: Yeah. We're, it's healthcare to construction, a lot of - we have a lot of home improvement type companies. You probably saw that along with the Astros.

Russ: Right, right.

Regay: We did some stuff with Academy and that's probably because of my background in radio sales. I was a very strong - I worked for 740 AM, you know just KTRH for the first few years before I got into management. And the focus there was really Tom Tinen had a show on the weekends.

Russ: Right.

Regay: It was the only home improvement show in town at the time. And he had it for 17 years, so it worked so well. You could find a home improvement client and it worked so well and everybody was happy. And so then it was, it encouraged us to get really creative once Tom left.

And I had built up some of these relationships with the home improvement world. And I really found myself at that time meeting with those clients that have that - it was a silver bullet. You know this was eight years ago and then having to find things that, outside of that that worked.

Russ: Okay. Talking with Regay Hildreth, founder and CEO of RMH Marketing and Media. We'll be back with more with her after this. You're listening to the BusinessMakers show heard here and seen online at the BusinessMakers.com.

[Commercial]

Russ: This is the BusinessMakers show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com and continuing on with Regay Hildreth, founder and CEO of RMH Marketing and Media. Now, Regay you were talking about being probably a fairly aggressive sales rep selling radio advertising and making this sort of big jump into your own business. Did that come easy for you? Did you always feel like that's what you were going to do? I mean that's a big step. Tell us about that.

Regay: I think I did probably into the - I started as an assistant for I think six, seven months and then got into sales. And when I would sit and I would speak with my clients, I really felt like I wanted, obviously wanted the best for them and what was in their best interest. So when I started to say maybe what I'm selling, KTRH, isn't the best fit for you at this time or looking at it from a cost per lead, cost per sell ROI basis and saying this doesn't necessarily make sense for you, I started thinking. I'm really, I was more of a consultant for them and I liked being more on the partner side. I mean a partner with them and part of their company and growing with them versus -

Russ: Interesting.

Regay: -- coming from a sales angle.

Russ: Right. So you think that that sort of inspired you to say -

Regay: It did, and so I want to do this.

Russ: Well, I want to have other products for them.

Regay: Yeah. I want to have other products or you know if it's digging ditches that's going to make them more money, I want to be able to suggest that and give them my recommendations, no matter what that recommendation is.

Russ: Okay. Did the transition go easily? I mean you mentioned you officed out of your home for quite some time.

Regay: Right, it did. Yes.

Russ: I mean so when you first started, what were you doing? Selling them maybe radio time on multiple stations and looking into other things or how did you decide what to do?

Regay: You know it was, there were a few clients I had some pretty deep-rooted relationships with and had worked with for six years. Let them know I'm going out on my own. I'd love to keep working with you. You know the ad agency they traditionally get a little brokerage fee for doing it.

Russ: Right, right.

Regay: So it made it pretty easy. I just made it - at first it was very easy.

Russ: Okay.

Regay: I gotta be honest. I mean it was scary to make that jump from a very nice management salary, so but I had enough to cover the bills. I knew I could pay my mortgage and I knew I could - I had about three months of savings there, right?

Russ: Okay, okay.

Regay: And I was single and owned a home. So I did that and made the jump. It was fairly easy I would say for the first few years when you're just taking - it's the same as the sales person, right? And then I think the decision, it gets more difficult when you have to start letting go of some of that money because you realize I want this thing to be bigger, you know?

Russ: Right, like leasing office space and hiring people, right, right.

Regay: Yeah, it's like leasing out. Yeah, doing all of those things.

Russ: Right, right.

Regay: And so it's like piece by piece you let go of those things. I mean that's the biggest deal on deciding whenever you want to have a business.

Russ: Right.

Regay: I think something I didn't really think about when I was like oh, I'm just going to go make my 15 percent brokerage fee and work out of the house. This is a great deal.

Russ: Right, right.

Regay: But I think maybe I was younger and didn't think it out as much as I could have. So I mean if anything I'd recommend to somebody else, you know, to really think about five years, ten years, fifteen years versus just knowing that you want to help your clients out more. And like you know doing it for those heartstring reasons.

Russ: Right. Did you ever like reach a point where you were going, ooh, I've bitten off more than I can chew?

Regay: Daily.

Russ: [Laughing]. Okay, I understand that.

Regay: No. You know as much as you feel secure in the people you're investing in and that office space, I think any business owner out there would agree. There's a bit of a just jump off, hold your breath and hope it works out factor to it.

Russ: Okay.

Regay: Even though you see the numbers and you know and you're forecasting going this is supposed to all work out.

Russ: Right.

Regay: You know but I think there's the sacrificial part of it that sometimes when you're leaving I think you have to define what type of business owner you want to be.

Russ: Sure.

Regay: You know, versus I just said I'm just going to be this broker out of my house not realizing what I really did want.

Russ: Okay.

Regay: Versus getting space, hiring staff, all the overhead. I never could have imagined what kind of overhead.

Russ: Okay. Well, take us back even before you were in radio advertising. I mean did you always grow up wanting to be an entrepreneur maybe? Or did you grow up - when you were younger did you do entrepreneurial things or have an entrepreneurial family?

Regay: Yeah, I'm from a family of entrepreneurs.

Russ: Okay.

Regay: So my father is in the turf industry.

Russ: Okay. Wow.

Regay: Okay, that's turf grass.

Russ: Right.

Regay: A lot of people think that's the fake stuff, but that's the real stuff.

Russ: Right, right.

Regay: And then my mother recently, she started this. It's called Korankwa Village and it's a lodge down in Matagorda, Texas.

Russ: Wow. Okay.

Regay: A lodge and a store that designed and built, so growing up yes. My mother took care of me and my two younger sisters, but always seeing my dad just go for it and full force ahead. Took his father's smaller grass farm and took it and did Minute Maid and Reliant and -

Russ: Wow.

Regay: -- and done some pretty big stuff and lots of golf courses.

Russ: He's done that kind of turf, like football field and baseball field turf?

Regay: Yeah, like eight out of the ten golf courses in Houston, so.

Russ: Wow.

Regay: So needless to say we saw him every evening of course, but he had the farmer's tan.

Russ: Right, right.

Regay: You know he had that. And so I think it was just kind of - you know my entire family I feel like is always trying to fight and just want to make a difference. You know it sounds so cliché, but you know do something. It's in your blood. It's in your DNA.

Russ: No, it sounds - I mean, did you notice it was kind of like different from your friends' families and stuff?

Regay: Absolutely, because I think growing up my way to do that was to be number one in my class with my grades or my tennis, whatever it was. Tennis? Well, I wasn't really number one, but.

Russ: [Laughing]. Okay, but you wanted to be.

Regay: [Laughing]. But I wanted to be, you know. So I think that's - it's always been that. I think it's, you're born with it, you know? I do. I think it's just an internal, just a full force ahead.

Russ: Okay. Now I also in doing research on your website discovered that you did I think an intern with a former, with a company that was run by a former guest on the show, Gay Gaddus of T3.

Regay: Love Gay, yeah.

Russ: And was this like right out of school or something or?

Regay: Well, I was actually, I was a business major at UT and so it was one of my internships.

Russ: Okay, while you were - okay.

Regay: I won at Texas Monthly and then also with Gay at T3.

Russ: Wow, okay.

Regay: Needless to say I was low man on the totem pole there, you know doing intern stuff.

Russ: Well, you're an intern. Yeah, right.

Regay: That's what you're supposed to do, and then years - this is probably in - well, I had the company, RMH. So right before I decided to go from about two people to our current eight, I was like who can I talk to about this? And I thought about Gay of course and always figured with our names Gay and then there's Regay.

Russ: Right, right.

Regay: There's just something that's meant to be here. So called her and she's just amazing, amazing woman. Met with her and asked her every question from how do you do it with - she had, you know, in her early thirties little ones as well.

Russ: Oh, right, right.

Regay: You know and did it and just done amazing things with that company, so.

Russ: Oh, yeah.

Regay: And how she, you know, she was one of the first people out there looking at the digital world and doing some of the first websites. And so -

Russ: So she was real helpful, yeah.

Regay: -- how to be on that break. It's so helpful and so that gave me that inspiration and okay. You know what? You can do it. And you can do it with little ones and it's just focusing your time. I have notes, pages and pages of notes on Gay's advice, so.

Russ: Neat. Real cool. Real cool. Okay, so before I let you go and you've already touched on this quite a bit, but let's imagine that there's like a young business person that's an employee somewhere with perhaps a secure job, but they're listening to your story. And they're thinking that is so cool. I want to dive out there and do my own thing. What kind of general advice might you give him or her?

Regay: I would say a few things. First, it would just be define the type of business that you want.

Russ: Okay.

Regay: Is it a one-man shop where freedom is your goal? You know, what's your goal in that? Or is it a hundred people. And actually draw out those organizational charts, what it looks like today. I mean I have mine, what I want it to look like in 20 years. And that will at least give you a sense of where you want to go and like what's your next step?

Secondly, you know innately and it's got to be in your DNA to just have a little bit of that risky and look at your past. See if you'll be successful and see if you've set your sights on something did it work out?

Russ: Okay.

Regay: No matter what it was, you know, sports or school. And just work really hard and get through the really hard times and just know you're going to come out on the other side of it.

Russ: All right. Regay I really appreciate you sharing your story with us.

Regay: Thank you so much for having me. This was great, Russ.

Russ: You bet. That's Regay Hildreth, the founder and CEO of RMH Marketing and Media. And you're listening to the BusinessMakers show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com.