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Kaylee Williams: Hi, everyone. Welcome back. It’s the “Iowa Tech” podcast and your host, Kaylee Williams. Um, I am here in the Jethro’s BBQ Studio with Sam Andrus, the CEO of GTI Consulting. Hi, Sam. Hi, Kaylee.

Sam Andrus: Hi, Kaylee Really

Kaylee Williams: Really glad to have you here.

Sam Andrus: glad to have you here. Thank you. It’s been a long time coming

Kaylee Williams: And you know, this is sort of like your media day because as I understand it, you were interviewed this morning for… Was it a news station that wanted to do a s- a piece on you?

Sam Andrus: it a news station that wanted to do a piece on you? No, so it was actually the University of Iowa, uh, the Tippie College of Business. Um, I’m an alumni. I have, uh, two degrees from there. Um, so they’re actually featuring my tailgating truck called HawkForce One. Uh, they’re, they’re, they’re featuring it, uh, in, in their alumni magazine, so pretty, pretty cool deal. So we– I, I got to go out to Kinnick today, uh, and have, uh, have my, my picture taken, have HawkForce’s picture taken, which is way more handsome than me. Um, but, uh, yeah, so it was, it was a pretty cool day, so second thing today.

Kaylee Williams: And I see you’ve got your Hawkeye gear on. I do.

Sam Andrus: do.

Kaylee Williams: Iowa veteran, so you are a veteran?

Sam Andrus: I am, yep. So I did six years active duty in the Air

Kaylee Williams: Okay. And I wanna come back to that, and I wanna talk about how it’s informed your entrepreneurial journey. Um, but I will say when I pulled into the lot just now, I saw your van, your truck, your Hawk Force One, and it’s awesome. Thank you. I wanna tailgate on

Sam Andrus: Thank you. So much energy on it. Thank you, 100%. So it’s like a camp-

Kaylee Williams: like a cab of a truck with like a flatbed truck bed- Yeah … behind it. Do you– So when you’re actually tailgating, what goes on the flatbed?

Sam Andrus: Sure. So we have a– It’s, it’s an interesting idea. So, so we, uh, we have a full 36-inch, uh, black stone that goes in the back. Uh, there’s a 55-inch TV, uh, that is mounted on the vertical. Um, we have fully, uh, full Wi-Fi capability with Starlink on there. Uh, as well as, uh, there’s some heaters that go on the side. There’s als- all integrated coolers on there. Um, there’s a full, full, uh, uh, audio system on the interior, uh, as well as some diff- different performance things in the, in the engine and stuff as well. So

Kaylee Williams: That sounds so cool. Uh, please invite me to a

Sam Andrus: 100, 100%. Of course. This– All, all of them this year. All of them

Kaylee Williams: That looks and sounds so fun. Do you even go into Kinnick to watch the games if you’ve got it right there?

Sam Andrus: So funny enough, uh, my, my partner Gary, who we s- started, uh, GTI together, so he’s a huge sports guy, uh, and he always says, he goes, “Sam is…” When we were describing, you know, our different sports, uh, loves, he goes, “Sam is the kind of guy who goes, ‘Go sports.’” Uh, because I don’t like sports. I don’t really care about them, but I love tailgating. So I think this year I will just probably just sit at Hawk Forest and I’ll let everybody else, all the clients and everybody take the tickets and go in and enjoy, so

Kaylee Williams: That’s honestly way more my speed. I love, I love tailgating, I love camaraderie, I love the little pants that they put the football players in, but I am not into the game. I don’t really care. It’s, it’s all about atmosphere, right? Yeah. It’s all about atmosphere. So, yeah.

Sam Andrus: But I’m not into the game. It’s fair. That’s exactly, that’s exactly… It’s, it’s all about atmosphere, right? It’s all about the atmosphere. So, uh, yeah, so I’m a big Iowa guy. Um, I, I l- I love the University of Iowa. They took me in. I’m actually from Minnesota, so, uh, the university took me in and, uh, kind of made me, uh, made me one of their own, so

Kaylee Williams: So let’s talk about GTI

Sam Andrus: Because

Kaylee Williams: the University of Iowa is actually a part of the story of the formation of GTI. Tell us what is GTI Consulting and talk a little bit more about how it got started.

Sam Andrus: So GTI Consulting is a kind of niche consulting firm, uh, that we do primarily management consulting. So it’s a lot of fractional COO, CFO, uh, CMO type stuff where we go into smaller businesses kind of 50 t- 50 million and under, uh, and we just help run the back end of operations. So what we say is, uh, let’s take a plumber for example. A, a plumber gets in a business to plumb a house, fix a sink, fix a toilet. Um, they didn’t get into business to build a financial forecast or build a marketing plan or build an operational efficiency, and thus they’re not very good at it, right? Just like you don’t want me plumbing your house. So why are we expecting these businesses to go in and be experts at something that they’re not trained in? So, um, what we found was there was a need in the market for, um, blue-collar businesses specifically to kind of get related, uh, and, and get, um, connected with potentially some white-collar advice, right? So whether it’s bankers, lawyers, um, consultants, things like that. Uh, we started this basically with the idea that we’re a couple of blue-collar guys who just were fortunate enough to, to get executive MBAs from Iowa and understand business very well, and we can go through and, and help these businesses, uh, to operate better and more efficiently. So that’s kind of the ov- overall goal. We do have an advertising and marketing, uh, division as well. Um, and then we’re kind of potentially branching off into a, a, a more of a private equity space later on, so

Kaylee Williams: Now you come from an entrepreneurial family. I do. Can you talk a little bit about growing up in Minnesota and maybe what you saw and what you learned from your parents?

Sam Andrus: Sure. Uh, yep. So I’m, so I’m from northern Minnesota originally, so about an hour and a half north of, of Duluth. Uh, so way, way, way up there. Basically Canadian. Yeah, b- exactly. Basically Canadian. Yeah, e- exactly. Basically Canadian. So, um, so southern Canadian one might say. And, um, so I grew up in a, in a construction household. My dad had a, a painting and drywall company, as well as a log home, uh, restoration company. Uh, that ended up kind of growing into him doing drywall and painting for a variety of American and Holiday Inn hotels kind of all around, uh, the, the north of the US. And it was going very well until it wasn’t, right? And so in 2006, ‘7, and ‘8, uh, some interesting investments were, were made, some allocations were made, uh, that essentially, um, it essentially destroyed the company. And so I was– I, I say this now, I’m, I’m very fortunate that I was able to see what it’s like to have everything and then what it’s like to have nothing, right? And, and so kind of both ways, which totally changed the trajectory of my life because growing up, even at 10 years old, the idea was, was I was gonna be the one to take over that company. Mm-hmm. And so when I be- when I turned 18, um, I was not what, what, what one might call a good student. Um, and I didn’t have many great life skills, and so that pushed me into the military, which completely changed the trajectory of my life. Um, so but at the end of the day, I, I knew what it was like, especially from growing up in Minnesota, growing up in an entrepreneurial household, you know, what it’s like to have to get up and grind at 5:00 a.m., you know, just to exist, right? I mean, at, at the end of the day, like it comes down to you, right? And as an owner, um, it’s hard. I mean, you have to make tough decisions every single day, and it’s just… And it might not– You might make 10 tough decisions before 10:00 a.m., and that’s just a Tuesday, right? And so, so it, it positioned me at a very young age to really try and think about business, try and think about where I need to be, um, you know, and, and, and how I take care of myself, but also my people at my company and my assets and everything like that.

Kaylee Williams: What I think is interesting about your journey is that you are both an entrepreneur, having started your own consulting firm, and you now have employees that count on you, right? But you’re actually serving small business owners, so you understand what their day-to-day is like, um, very intimately because it’s kinda your day-to-day. Yeah. Can you tell us a little more about how your time in the military has informed how you run your business, what it takes to run a business?

Sam Andrus: for sure. Um, so I’ve, uh, you know, I– So again, I was in The Air Force. for six years. Yep, yep. No, you’re f- you said, y- y- …you said military. No, you’re fine. You’re fine. I didn’t say Army. No, you didn’t say Army, …so I won’t, uh, I won’t, uh… Yeah, so I was, I was, I was, I was really Air Force. Um, I was, I was not, uh… And I was, I was a fuels guy to start with. Um, I actually ended up kind of subbing out as a mechanic my last couple years. And so, um, there’s kind of two parts to this. So when you’re, when you’re dealing with fuel logistics, right? You’re always kind of planning, right? So you’re always trying to make sure you don’t run out of fuel, right? That’s typically what you don’t wanna do on a military base, right? It kind of drives everything. Um, so you’re doing a lot of forecasting and trying to understand things. Um, but then as a mechanic, r- when I, when I transferred to that, that’s when I really, I think, started to kind of break out of my shell, right? And understand, um, kind of a lot about what I was good at and what I wasn’t. And s-specifically, it’s how to analyze a problem, right? And so, like, take a, take a semi that is broken down, right? We shouldn’t just try and throw a fix at it, right? We should actually kind of diagnose, you know, what is wrong, right? Try and figure out the solution, peel back that layer a little bit, and actually process something first before we just try and go, come in with a fix. And I think a lot of businesses today, um, at least in our experience, they have these ideas, and they have the, the, the solution in their head, and it’s not particularly, uh, the right fix for that time, right? So they forget the diagnostic step. And so we’ve tried to take a lot of that diagnostic procedure from mechanics, from the military, uh, into our day-to-day consulting. And, and my– So I was, I was an enlisted guy. I ended up being an NCO. Um, my partner, Gary, uh, he was an aircraft maintenance officer, so very similar mentality, but he’s more on that strategic level while I was in the tactical. And so we, we try to blend really well together when we’re, we’re creating strategies to have an actual focus point of what’s the diagnostics, what is the data telling us, and how do we make those decisions going forward? And then is, is this supporting a greater plan, or is it just getting through an emergency today?

Kaylee Williams: Brilliant. How long has GTI been in business?

Sam Andrus: Yeah, so we just hit our two-year, uh, May 24th. So, so a couple, couple weeks ago. Thank you. Appreci- appreciate it. So two years without going bankrupt, so that’s been pretty good,

Kaylee Williams: pretty good. And you know the statistics say 95% fail in the first two years, so- Exactly … rarefied

Sam Andrus: exactly. So I, I think it’d be a, it’d be a pretty negative situation if the consultant helping businesses were to fail on the first, first two. But, um, no, I, we, we’ve, we’ve, we have a, a f- wonderful, uh, wonderful client base. We have great owners that we work with every day. Um, i-it’s, it has, uh, it’s, it’s honest, like we have grown it for sure, but, um, it’s grown on, um, on the backs of our owners as well who, who recommend us. I mean, 90% of, of, of our clients that we intake, uh, are from recommendations. And so it’s been just a tremendous, tremendous effort, um, not only just from us, but, but the people who have believed in us, who have trusted us over the years. And we’ve gone through some tremendously hard times with our owners, um, and gotten them through it. And it’s, and it’s honestly incredibly, um, uh, I’m incredibly proud of what that has actually become

Kaylee Williams: What has surprised you the most maybe in the last, well, I guess the last two years really? ‘Cause I– usually I’ll say in your first year, but I mean, in the last two years, what surprised you the most about who your customer actually is? What have you learned about your customers, and what resonates with them?

Sam Andrus: Yeah. I think, uh, what I’ve, I’ve really learned is, uh, it, it’s been surprising is, is some of the, some of the companies that we work with, you, you wouldn’t think, you wouldn’t think they would have the problems that they do, right? And so that, you know, from the outside in kind of a topical 30,000 foot view, they look like just these fantastic companies who are well-positioned, who are, you know, put together well, and, and they are, but they have so many little structural foundational, um, cracks that it’s added up into an, a massive issue, right? And so it’s not just one problem that’s, you know, um, that, that’s, I guess, holding them back. It’s 10 or 15, but you have to attack one, right? And so I would say 85% to 95% of the clients that we take in, the first thing they tell us is, “Oh, we have a marketing problem.” And we say, “Okay, well, that could be potentially. Like, let’s, let’s evaluate your company,” and we do an evaluation on every company, and let’s evaluate it and really figure it out. Like, is it, is it a marketing problem? Is it a pricing problem? Is it an operational efficiency problem? Like, let’s look at that first before we just say, “Hey, let’s, let’s toss money at marketing.” And, and I kind of jokingly very seriously say it, like I’m kind of the anti-marketer marketer, right? I don’t, I don’t typically believe in, in, in, in many marketing firms. I don’t. Uh, we started our marketing firm, um, our marketing division kind of in, uh, in, in, um, corres- in correlation with some negative experiences that our, that our clients were having with marketers where they had extremely exorbitant fees. And we just said, “Well, we’re just gonna flip it. So instead of charging $6,000 for a fee and putting $1,000 to Google, let’s put $6,000 to your Google or your meta spend, and let’s charge a $1,000 fee,” right? And so, um, the, the other areas that, that we’ve been incredibly surprised about has been, um, how wary individuals are of consultants. Yeah.

Kaylee Williams: Oh, man. Oh, man

Sam Andrus: it’s, it has been the hardest thing that, that we’ve had to try and get through, and, and I think we do a very good job at it. Um, you know, we’re always out, you know, in, you know, with our owners. We’ll drive across the country if we have to, to go sit down, have a beer with somebody. Um, just say, “Look, we’re real people.” Like, I showed up today. I mean, I got blue jeans on. I got my, my boots on, right? And it’s like- Yeah. we’re real people. Like, it’s not like I’m not gonna show up in an Armani suit and try to be better than you. No, I just wanna help your company. So

Kaylee Williams: Ah, I love that. It’s, um, you’re relating to your customers on like a real human level, which I have to believe has translated into a pretty strong retention rate for GTI

Sam Andrus: Yep. Yeah. It’s, uh, it’s, it’s 85, 90%. This

Kaylee Williams: Which for a consulting company is incredible. You know, for a software business, that’s all right, but for a consulting company, that’s pretty darn

Sam Andrus: Yeah. It’s, it’s honestly been, it’s w- we’re so proud of those numbers to be, to, to be honest with you, and, and, and where it’s, where that has come from too, um, you know, we, we run a six-month retainer, but then after that it’s month to month, and we just say, “Look, like our goal is, you know, our goal is to work ourselves out of a job.” And, and we do, but then these other problems arise, right? And they come up and they, you know, and, and- They trust you … and they trust us. And, and I bet I get two to three calls a month at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning from an owner who i- is almost frantic, right? “Hey, I might not make, make payroll this week,” or, “I might not, you know, be able to, you know, buy, you know, buy materials for this job,” or this or this, this happened. It’s like, okay, well let me, let me get up, right? I’ll make a cup of coffee. I’ll call you back in a couple minutes,

Kaylee Williams: That’s right

Sam Andrus: But I’m incredibly proud that I am that call or my team is that call at 2:00 in the morning. No, it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world, but at the end of the day, like if I’m getting that, like that’s a trust factor that’s, you know, not only just saying, “Hey, you know, we’re gonna solve your problem,” but we’re gonna solve it and I trust you to be there every single time. Yeah. So

Kaylee Williams: What are some marketing tactics or channels that have been particularly effective that you can share with our listeners?

Sam Andrus: Yeah. Um, so, so a lot of our clients, they’ve, they’ve either never advertised, uh, or they’ve, uh, the advertising they have done has been, um, kind of sporadic without a strategy. So, so we, we’ve, um, we, we do a lot on Meta, so we do a lot of kind of structured advertisements through Meta. Um, so video-based stuff, uh, a lot of actual, you know, four or five hooks, run an ad set, um, and then, you know, kind of grow it with an idea of growing a single area, right? So let… If we take a service-based business, like t-take a painting company, for example. You know, everybody’s out there saying, “Hey, we’ll paint your house.” Well, that’s fine, right? But why don’t we say, “Hey, we’re gonna paint a deck,” right? Or, you know, “We’re gonna stain your deck,” right? So that ad set can get more precise, and we can actually start to save money and be more targeted and, and take a, a precise approach versus that shotgun marketing technique and that shotgun advertising. So, uh, so we do a lot on Meta. Um, I, I will say as, as well, we, we do a lot, um… Our, our Google spends are typically much, much lower than, than regular marketing firms, and we do that because we’re not just out there trying to drive clicks and impressions. That’s, that’s something that’s very important to us, and so, uh, our Google team, um, I, I, I talk them up all the time, but they’re very, um, they’re very aware of negative keywords, almost more so than positive keywords. And reason being is we don’t wanna try and drive clicks for the word “the,” right? Or, or, you know, or, or, you know, even for example, if, if, if you have, um, you know, the name of a company, GTI Consulting, right? If somebody’s specifically searching for GTI Consulting and that’s in a keyword set, that’s gonna ping on a, right, on a, on a search. So why should I pay for that, right? And so, again, I’m kind

Kaylee Williams: Oh my God, I’m so dumb. I’ve never thought about that.

Sam Andrus: It’s, it’s interesting. And, and when you look at it like that and you look at some of those results, it’s like, “Oh, I did pay $20 for that. Why?”

Kaylee Williams: they were already typing

Sam Andrus: They were already typing it in, They’re already typing it in. E-e-exactly, right. And, and so, yeah. So it’s,

Kaylee Williams: People listening are probably like, “Duh.” Yeah.

Sam Andrus: Yeah. I mean, it, it’s remarkable. And, and like I said, I have a, I have a great, you know, great Google team, and, and half the time I don’t understand what they’re doing, but they, they do great stuff and it works, and so I trust them, so. Um, but that’s, you know, tho-those are kind of the two main avenues, right? And then the other thing I push people into is the traditional as well. Like, you know, I, I think a lot of times now in, in, you know, especially in 2026, right, it’s, we’re always talking about digital and social and things of that nature. Well, you still need to get out in the community, right? Like, you still need to go participate in, in conferences. You still need to go and take people to lunch. If you’re in the construction business, go find project managers. You know, go find architects, go find engineers. Reach out to them on LinkedIn. They… No one’s gonna turn down a free lunch and the ability to go talk about themselves for three hours. It’s Iowa.

Kaylee Williams: This is Iowa. Yeah. It’s who you

Sam Andrus: Iowa. Exactly. Exactly.

Kaylee Williams: Ah, so you met your co-founder Gary at Iowa, the University of Iowa. Can you talk about how the university played a role, if at all, and I’m including like faculty members, in the creation of GTI Consultancy and, and I don’t know, like did you, did you use your classes to help you structure the company that you then spun out from the… And you got your MBA and over here, uh, an LLC.

Sam Andrus: Yeah. Yeah. No, e-e-exactly. And so, so kind of back up a little bit. So I, I actually have an entrepreneurial degree from University of Iowa as well. And so, um, uh, I, I have kind of a core in that which, uh, you’re getting a degree in entrepreneurship. At the time I was like, “This doesn’t make any sense.” And, and it, it gave me a great foundation, right? So when I ended up getting, uh, accepted to the executive MBA program and, and meeting my, my cohort, the, the real advantage to, to an executive MBA in, in, um, uh, it’s a little bit different than a traditional, right? Is you have people who have experience already. Like we’re not teaching them to be managers, we’re teaching them to be executives. We’re teaching them to be CFOs, CEOs, et cetera, et cetera. And, and so, uh, the, the cool thing about that was, yes, the curriculum was there, but also the experience was there and the life experiences. And so it wasn’t just, you know, here learn about this financial structure. It’s here learn about this financial structure and talk to this guy who’s a banker in your class, in, you know, a class of 30 people who has built financial planning and analysis documents for a $10 billion bank. It’s like, “Whoa, well that’s, that’s amazing,” right? And so, uh, for me being incredibly young in that, in that cohort, um, I was just a sponge and I was able to, to, to soak it up, uh, from, from the start. I very much so had, uh, imposter syndrome, so I, I, I did not think I was, uh, I should have been in the room and, and ended up, uh, getting proven I should be. But, um, when, when Gary and I, when we first started talking very early on, uh, in our cohort, uh, we realized that we, we got along really well and, and we understood each other and where we were trying to go. And, um, we didn’t– We knew we wanted to do some form of company, we just didn’t know quite what that looked like. And, uh, so it was actually in Joe’s, Joe’s Place Rooftop Bar, uh, at, uh, at- Yeah, it’s a wonderful bar. E-exactly right. Exactly. And, and, uh, so it was, it was about, it was about 2:00 in the morning. Uh, and we were, we were, yeah, we were, we were, we were writing down, uh, ideas on a napkin after having a couple of adult beverages. And, uh, and we… And that was within the first two months of us knowing each other, and we just kinda had this idea and, um, kind of fast-forward, I, I, I worked at Amazon, uh, as a site executive for a while and, um, it just, it wasn’t, wasn’t for me and I called Gary and said, “Hey, I, I, I can’t do this anymore.” And he said, “What about that plan that we talked about?” And I said, “I’ll do it. I don’t even care.” And he ended up, to his credit, he stayed up, um, till about, till about 3:00, 4:00 in the morning that, that day and, and called me and said, “Hey, I, I, I want you to take a look at this business plan.” He, he had wrote together a real business plan from a napkin scribbling. And, uh, and it was, I mean, it was, it was the kind of preliminary, you know, what GTI was. We didn’t really know at the time. We didn’t know it was gonna be marketing or we didn’t know it was gonna be CFO-ing or anything like that. And, um, and so, so Gary was kind of the brainchild of what this should look like and I just said, “Well, it’s, what could go wrong?” And-

Kaylee Williams: should have brought Gary in

Sam Andrus: we’ll, we’ll-

Kaylee Williams: so cool Well, he is.

Sam Andrus: Gary’s so cool. Well, he is. He’s

Kaylee Williams: He’s awesome. What are we doing?

Sam Andrus: and he’s, I, I say, I say this to everybody. I’m like, I’m like, “I am the guy, like I will go out I’m like, I’m like a, like a golden retriever of consultants and, um, it’s fitting I have two golden retrievers. But I’ll, you know, I wanna meet everyone and see everybody and do everything, and Gary’s the one who goes, “You know, Sam, that, that might not be the right idea. That right might…” Right? So he keeps me leveled pretty well. So we’ll, we’ll get him in here next time though.

Kaylee Williams: that’s a good dynamic to have too. The dreamer, and then you’ve got your more operational-minded- Exactly … realist right by their

Sam Andrus: Feel it. Exactly. Exactly. Don’t be

Kaylee Williams: golden retriever and the leash,

Sam Andrus: Exactly, 100%. Really. No, it’s true. There’s a lot of truth to that, so- But, here-

Kaylee Williams: Gary is great, and I think it would be fun to have you back with Gary to talk about, maybe even in a few months to talk about like, okay, what’s changed? Okay, so I wanna talk to you, and we’re getting close on time, but I do wanna touch on this topic of AI. I

Sam Andrus: Mm-hmm.

Kaylee Williams: have to believe it’s affecting the work you do. How is it affecting your customers? And are you generally encouraging them to adopt AI, or are you kind of, you know, with caution helping them understand how to implement these tools? Kind of what’s your take on it, Sam?

Sam Andrus: Uh, and we’re very pro-AI, right? So, so Claude, ChatGPT, I mean, I spend an astronomical amount of money each month on, uh, on, on those services and, and different credits and stuff. And, um, I mean, to even, even to this point, I mean, Claude builds our landing pages for all of our Google Ads. I mean, it’s, it’s tremendous what it can do. And so, um, I, I think that any consultant who isn’t telling their clients to, to, to, to walk into it, um, is not worth their salt, to be honest. Um, you know, I, I– There’s an argument that for sure that, you know, AI could, could get, you know, could take my job, and, and it will, right? I mean, there’s, there’s certainly an argument for it, but we still need to, to, to steer people to use it. Um, the, the caution that, that I give especially construction owners is, is it’s an 80%, right? So it can do 80% of the legwork, but the 20% is the human factor, right? So we, we have to still, uh, kind of police that document or police that system or that strategy. Um, you know, and, and if we’re not using it in that strategic kind of way where we’re actually having the human factor, it’s, it’s not gonna be effective. And so, um, I, I tell, I tell most of my clients, you know, “If you have a question that, that you’re trying to really pose that you, you know, might not think it should come to us, or you might not think it should go to your attorney or whatever, go, go at least start somewhere, right? Do a little bit of your own research and then present it to us.” Because you’re gonna end up saving money as, as you do it. And, and I think that’s where a lot of that AI stuff comes in, especially for owners who, you know, might not have all the time in the world. They can go out, get a quick little answer, at least use it as a, as a basis for their research, and then present it to us or to your attorney or your accountant or whoever.

Kaylee Williams: Mm-hmm. Fantastic. Um, so we are hosting an event together in July, July 24th?

Sam Andrus: 23rd. Yeah, I think we, I think we settled on it.

Kaylee Williams: 23rd. Oh, geez. I think we

Sam Andrus: on it.

Kaylee Williams: 23rd. We settled on it. Gotta get the date right on the podcast. Yeah. Um, so July 23rd. So maybe tell our listeners a little bit about this event. What can they expect, um, time, location- Yep details.

Sam Andrus: Yep. So, uh, we’re, we’re gonna be hosting a Lunch and Learn, uh, that’s gonna be kinda going over, uh, just different marketing strategies, right? And so, uh, I believe the title is, is “Is Your Marketing BS?” Right? So I, I use, I use the acronym, uh, so which, which is good. Um, it, it’s gonna be 1:00 at, uh, Glen Oaks Country Club, uh, here in West Des Moines. Um, yeah, so we’re, we’re really excited. We’re gonna bring in some businesses. I’m gonna bring in some current clients. There’s also a couple of, uh, some different financial entities of, you know, friends of mine that are gonna come in as well and kinda offer their opinion. And real- really the goal is, is just to get a bunch of owners in the room, um, have, you know, have lunch, have a cocktail, really talk about business, and just kinda see if we can support each other in any way. And, um, you know, and if I can, if I can, you know, facilitate that, perfect. Um, but that’s the real, that’s the real goal for this is, is get people in the room, talk about what’s going right, what’s going wrong, right? And, and really learn from each other as well,

Kaylee Williams: Yeah. And, uh, Glen Oaks, I was there for, uh, maybe it was the first time when I met

Sam Andrus: Yeah, it was. I think it was the first time Oh my gosh, that up is

Kaylee Williams: my gosh, Glen Oaks, so nice. Beautiful. And it’s, the food is fantastic, and I mean, I– We’re excited to do this event with GTI because when I first met you, you said to me, “Most marketing is bullshit.” And I can say that on this podcast-

Sam Andrus: Okay. Got it.

Kaylee Williams: Okay, got it … because this, this podcast is not affiliated with my government job. But, um, I, I think I, like, threw my head back and laughed at the ceiling ’cause I, having been a startup operator and, you know, bootstrapping a software company for, like, a decade, I mean, my gosh, the number of marketing firms that we just threw money at, that threw money at the problem, and, and ultimately we didn’t really have a marketing problem, to your point, but it took us years to figure that out. And so I– it kinda left a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m, I’m sure you get that, and you’ve mentioned that you’re having to work a little bit against some of that negative sentiment when you first meet the customers who you end up working with. But I’m excited for this event ’cause I… And I love that you leaned into that on your, on your, like, the workshop material. He gets, and I’ve seen the deck, he gets right into, like, the nitty-gritty of, okay, most marketing is BS. Here’s why. Yep. Here’s what you should actually be thinking about. And you’ll have customers there, like you said, who can talk about their own experience and what they’ve learned. But it, this should be a really fun time.

Sam Andrus: Yeah. I’m, I’m excited. I, I really am. And, and I think the, the, the cool thing for, for, for us, and, you know, we’ve obviously talked, you know, uh, uh, you know, length of what we’re trying to do together and our, and ideas. And, um, the cool thing for me was when I asked my, you know, when I asked some clients who we’re doing a lot of marketing with to say, “Hey, you, would y’all be willing to come in here?” They’re like, “Without even a doubt.” They’re like, “Without even a question. We want, we want people to know what is right and wrong about marketing and what they should look for.” Because they’ve had the same experience too, where, you know, they’ve spent a exorbitant amounts of money on management fees or on, you know, Google ads or Meta ads or, you know, and, and they haven’t even focused on organic posting. And it’s like, well, all of it has to go together, right? And, and we confuse marketing and advertising and sales. We just kind of loop it under the marketing, you know, title, and it, it’s not quite right. And so, you know, we– Marketing is a mix. It’s, it’s a component of a business, and it shouldn’t be the only component that we focus on, though. And so i-i-it, we– But, but it’s the one that we toss money at just willy-nilly and say, “Well, you know, we have to do it for six months, and we might get an ROI.” It’s like, well, yeah, but we should probably be tracking it a little bit

Kaylee Williams: Well, and that’s why I like your approach at GTI because you guys– Of course you’ll help with the marketing side of things and increasing revenue and sales, which is every business, that’s their lifeblood. But you’re also, you take a holistic approach where you’re helping them with their financials, you’re helping them with their forecasting and their runway projections, and even inventory tracking and things like that. Like, there’s all these different parts of the business that are required for the business to flow and to function, and I feel like you guys do the warm embrace with the business owners, so you’re kinda touching all parts of it, which is really good.

Sam Andrus: Yeah. Warm embrace is a great, uh, great way to put it. And so we, we wanna, we wanna look at a company as, as an organism, right? We don’t wanna just do one thing. So, um, you know, that’s not what we do. If, if that’s what, uh, people are looking for, we typically turn them away. But, um, you know, we, we, we believe in small business, we believe in owners, um, and we’ve become, uh, pretty damn good at it, to be honest with you, so

Kaylee Williams: I was on a marketing panel yesterday, and I was a moderator, not an expert, not a thought leader in this space, but I heard something that I really liked. Um, it was Kari Wittmer from, uh, Amma.ai, and she said, “Don’t confuse attention for traction.” And I was like, “Oh, that’s so good.” So what, what advice would you give from maybe not just the marketing side, but from holistically, like f- as a consultant, what you’ve seen? Is there anything you can share with our listeners that, um, you think is good advice

Sam Andrus: Yeah, Yeah, I mean, stepping away from the marketing piece, I mean, it’s, it’s pretty simple. Like, understand your P&L, right? Understand your pr- yeah, understand your profit and loss, right? And, and, you know, if, if you’re a business that’s over $2 to $3 million in revenue and you have a one-page profit and loss, like, you should probably expand that a little bit. Like, you know, don’t just throw everything in the miscellaneous category and think that it’s gonna solve itself, right? Because if you have a percentage that is based on your revenue that is in miscellaneous and it’s actually trackable in that, you have an issue. So understand where your money’s going, right? Understand your OPEX, understand your revenues, and try to associate it, you know, as a percentage. Make it nice and easy, right? Don’t just try to throw money, um, you know, at your company and say, “Well, at the end of the year we got, you know, you know, 1% net profit.” Well, if we would’ve made adjustments at month six, you know, we would’ve had 5% net, right? And so, but, you know, you had to go out and you had to buy a new pickup truck or you had to do this and you, you made these decisions that looked good because you had cash in your account, but it might not have translated, you know, to your balance sheet or to your P&L. So, so, so really work towards understanding your, your numbers, um, because that’s what’s gonna make your company work in positive or negative, and that goes with your balance sheet as well. Understand what your assets are, understand your liabilities, and understand where they all came from, right, more, more specifically.

Kaylee Williams: Gosh, you know who would love you? And I don’t know if you know him, but there’s a man named Mike Colwell who used to be really involved in the startup ecosystem here in Des Moines. He moved to Colorado, so he’s out retired, happy, riding his bike around, around Boulder, Colorado. But, um, I, I remember when I was first starting out, he was a mentor for me, and he said, “Kaleigh, you need to understand your P&L. You clearly do not understand your P&L.” And I didn’t even know what a P&L was. Like, the first time I typed it out, I, I think I wrote like P-E-E-A-N-E-L-L. Like, I didn’t know what it was.

Sam Andrus: vulnerable.

Kaylee Williams: statement, very vulnerable. Um, but anyway, he– I remember he would say to me, he was like, “You need to know your, your numbers like the back of your hand. What are your sales this month? What was your annual revenue last month? What was your net profit last month, last year?” And that I didn’t have those numbers, and he was like, “You’re not in it. You gotta be in it.” So, um, a lot of, a lot of very smart people I think would, would agree with that sentiment. And look, you don’t need an MBA to understand your P&L, and I think that that’s one of the great things about the work that you do, is you make it accessible for people, you know, to, to get in there and really get their hands dirty and figure it out.

Sam Andrus: Yeah. Well, I appreciate it. And that’s– The other, the other tie into that back to AI, right, is use AI for it too. Ask it, ask it questions, right? I mean, you know, like if you have a business, if you have a, a business account on ChatGPT, it’s a closed off, it’s a closed loop system, right? So upload your P&L to it, right? I mean, you use, use these tools and these systems to help analyze and process what is working and what isn’t, right? It’s gonna give you all the information in the world, and I promise you that every single consultant you would ever hire is doing the same thing.

Kaylee Williams: Oh, wonderful.

Sam Andrus: Wonderful. So I just worked myself out of a job, so. No, you didn’t. No, you didn’t. There’s, uh, social trust here. Perfect. Perfect. Consultant who encourages

Kaylee Williams: out of a job. No, you didn’t. No, you didn’t. There’s a social trust here

Sam Andrus: podcast.

Kaylee Williams: with a consultant who encourages their customers to use the very same tools. I think it’s great. Um, well, thank you for being on the podcast with me today. I look forward to bringing you back with Gary.

Sam Andrus: Yeah, for

Kaylee Williams: we could have a really good conversation. Um, if anyone wants to learn more about GTI Consulting or maybe sit down with you and have a beer with you and talk about their business, how can they reach you?

Sam Andrus: Yep. So, uh, the easiest way, uh, is, is through our website, so gticonsultingllc.com. Uh, I actually do have a scheduling link on there. Uh, there’s, there’s two versions of the link that you can go to. So one is virtual beers. Uh, it, it is actually a scheduling link. I’m, I’m huge on, I’m huge on, uh, meeting people over a beer, uh, or a cup of coffee if you don’t partake. But, uh, and then if you are in the Des Moines area, uh, feel free to schedule an in-person meeting as well. I, I have, I have a lunch and a dinner almost every day with, uh, either a client or a prospective client, or even just somebody who wants to be a friend and talk business. So, um, yeah. So if you wanna meet up, I would love to. Uh, dinner and, and cocktails are on me, so

Kaylee Williams: And otherwise, we’ll see you on July 23rd at West Glen. Or West– At

Sam Andrus: At Glen Oaks. Glen Oaks, Glen Oaks. Oh. You had me, you have, you had me confused there. Yeah, Glen Oaks Country Club. You are, that’s good. That’s good. I sh- At what-

Kaylee Williams: that’s good. That’s good. And we’ll put, we’ll put the, um, the event invite and the flyer, uh, when we publish the, the podcast here, and you guys can find it in the show link. So, um, it’s free to attend. Come on out and, uh, let’s talk shop.

Sam Andrus: Yep. Thanks for having me

Kaylee Williams: Thanks, Sam. Join us next week for another episode of the “Iowa Tech” podcast.