Do you ever have a question about how to run your landscaping business that you wish someone could answer for you? While there's a ton of great content on Google & YouTube, and a ton of Groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, it can sometimes take a ton of time to search through it all to find the good stuff.
Today I'm excited to interview Ken Osberg from Echo about their online community for the green industry, EchoMeansBusiness.com.
Now, it may initially seem like their online community would just be a big advertisement for Echo… but I've looked into it, and it isn't. It's a robust online community with super helpful content, and in today's interview, Ken will tell us about:
- Their 30-person User Advisory Group that facilitates conversations in their thriving online community
- How ecomeansbusiness.com gained over 20,000 active users
- And, how you can get started with their website and mobile app right away to connect with like-minded green industry colleagues who will help you grow your business.
Ken Osberg
Director of Marketing | ECHO Incorporated
Jack Jostes:
Alright, everyone. Welcome today. Show. I've got a really exciting guest who I just learned is from Illinois, not too far from where I grew up. Uh, his name is Ken Osberg and he's the director of marketing from Echo. And he's going to chat with us today about some resources that Echo has paraded through their website. Echo Means Business.com, which is kind of like a social network for landscapers. It has all kinds of online communities. It has pro benefits, all kinds of cool stuff. So, um, Ken, thanks for coming on the show today. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? And um, how long have you worked in the tool industry?
Ken Osberg:
Well, Jack first, thanks for having me great to be on your show. Uh, so I, uh, I'm at Echo and then the Echo for about five years and that's, uh, it's been, uh, five great wonderful years in the green industry, uh, prior to Echo, uh, I have roughly 20 years, uh, in the, uh, uh, hand tool space, uh, dealing with professionals. And so, uh, yeah, and it's, it's been a great, great ride. Uh I'm in Illinois, as you mentioned, I'm in, uh, Lincoln Hills, Illinois, specifically, uh, which is a way far Western suburb of Chicago. Uh, and the Echo office is in lake Zurich, Illinois, which is a Northwestern suburb of Illinois.
Jack Jostes:
What, what kind of fish do they have in that lake?
Ken Osberg:
Well, it's more of a pond than a lake. It's a great area actually. You know, we're, we're close to, you know, great shopping, you know, we're, we're near Algonquin, Illinois, we're close to Huntley, Illinois. So, um, you know, lake in the Hills is this, this little, a hub, uh, community just kind of slammed right in the middle of all the action. And so it's a great spot to raise kids, great schools and, uh, yeah, just a great place to be.
Jack Jostes:
That's awesome. Yeah. I, you know, I grew up in the Chicago suburbs too. I grew up in Arlington Heights and, um, and then right where I went to high school was, um, Mount prospect, which is at 669 feet above sea level. Is that it's a Mount there there's really no Mount there. It's just kind of the top of the hill. So then the name, the names out, uh, in the Chicago suburbs can be a little misleading, but, um, well, great, great to have you on the show and, tell me a little bit about what is Echo Means Business?
Echo Means Business
Ken Osberg:
Right. Well, so Echo Means Business is a community approach, uh, by pros for the pros. I mean, it's really that simple, um, a little bit of history behind it first. Um, so, uh, we started Echo Means Business almost about five years ago. Uh, and the idea was, you know, there was, uh, a need for pros, a want for pros to really be with one another, but there was no good platform yet. Uh, and, and so we recognize that and, and really we started down the path of just, you know, starting to build a community and, and really what, what the goal of, you know, providing a safe space, if you will, a platform for pros to come together and interact and help one another, be better pros, be better business people be better landscapers. Uh, and then, um, mentor each other, you know, bring the next generation up and, and really it's all about giving back. And, um, in a nutshell, that's Echo Means Business and there's so many resources and so many people associated with the program that are really there to help one another. And that's, that's what it's about in a nutshell.
Jack Jostes:
Yeah. And, and, um, I, you know, I was talking with Melanie from your team and the, the, um, the site now has over 21,000 members. That's right. Which is, I mean, that's an incredible accomplishment. How have you been spreading the word? Are people just telling each other about it? Are you advertising it or how are people finding out about it?
The Echo Means Business User Advisory Group
Ken Osberg:
Yes. And yes, Jack. Yeah, for sure. So, um, so part of the equity and business program there, there's a small subset of pros called the UAG, which is Echo's user advisory group. Uh, they are, we'll say the, we'll say the instigators, I guess if you, if you will. So they create content, they create the sub discussion starters on the platform and kind of put things out there. And like what, what do you guys do for, um, insurance? Uh, how do you quote, mulch jobs? And so they'll start conversations and, and, and get that in and get that rolling within the community, whether that's on the forum or the app and all the different, the different platforms. Um, so there's 31 user advisory group members, uh, that kind of helped facilitate that discussion. And so they, so when this program first started, we started recruiting to build that base of 30.
Ken Osberg:
And then from there came the, you know, that the advertising, if you will, but, but the word of mouth type of advertising, right? So they would typically have their own followers. They've started building their social channels and their social network. And so as they talk about Echo Means Business in their channels, you know, more eyes, more ears, hear about it, more people coming to the website experience in it, understanding the value, understanding the, um, uh, not just the value of that, really the, um, the fellowship that they get within the program, uh, that, you know, working with one another sharing ideas with one another. And so that really spread like wildfire and, and went from zero to your point to 21, you know, 21,000 in less than 5 years.
Jack Jostes:
Really, yeah, that's really remarkable. I'm in a number of landscaping groups on LinkedIn and on Facebook, but none of them have anywhere near 21,000 numbers. What is it about the social network on this site that would make people write? It's kind of a tall order to get people to create a profile on yet another social network? What do you think people are? What value are they getting there that they're not getting somewhere else?
Ken Osberg:
Well, first it's, it's truly organic. Uh, and number two, it's brand neutral. So this is not an Echo advertising platform. So we encourage all brands to be discussed on the platform. And, and really it has to be that way. Jacket has to, otherwise you're going to lose all credibility and people will recognize that, see this, or take this as an ad and then go somewhere else. And that, that is not the intention. Our intention is to really provide that platform for everybody to engage, talk about all the brands. And so that's a critical part of this and, and, um, it's, it's, third-party run. So we have an agency that supports us to manage the platform, manage, um, the user advisory plus the overall platform of Ackerman's business, uh, as a community. Uh, so this is not Echo trying to, uh, sell more products if you will.
Ken Osberg:
This is really Echo trying to be a proponent of the green space and, and give back if you will, and make sure that there's a forum for people to be better business owners. So back to your original question, you know, how is it different? Why are people wanting to show up? Why are people still there? Why, why are we growing? It's because they're getting things they did, they don't see or get in other forums. And it's that unbiased, you know, um, truly organic brand neutral feedback. Uh, and there's, I mean, you name the content it's out there, there's product reviews. Uh, I had mentioned, you know, people are discussing, you know, just how to be better business people. What, you know, what insurance, how to quote a job. What do you like about stand lawnmowers? I mean, it just runs the gamut in terms of the type of content.
Ken Osberg:
And this has been the historical platform because we'll get into a little bit of what's new, I hope and talk about where Echo Means Businesses going. Um, so historically for the past five years, this has been the platform it's been a hundred percent free, a hundred percent open to everybody you just register, and then you can participate, follow along as little, or as much as you'd like. And again, it's all about a pro helping another pro, uh, and so that the value that they get, the tips that big yet. And again, the fellowship that they get, I think is really the value that they, uh, that they find. And they keep coming back for.
How Echo My Business Creates An Online Community For Landscaping Professionals
Jack Jostes:
It. Yeah. And that fellowship and community is, is one of my favorite things, the green industry in particular. And I think, you know, especially in the last year with COVID and shutdowns and things, a lot of trade shows didn't happen and, you know, a lot more of that networking happened online. And I think that, you know, um, one thing I'm excited about is you guys are, Echo is celebrating their 50th anniversary. Is that this year, or is it next year?
Ken Osberg:
2022. So next year, right. So we're going, that's amazing. We're going to kick it off at the gie show this year at, uh, in Louisville in 2021. Uh, and then celebrate all year long, man. I tell you, so we're going to start in October and we're going to carry it all the way till November of 2022.
Jack Jostes:
That's amazing. So you guys are going to have a kickoff, this, this fall live I'm, I'm certainly excited to go to the gie expo and see that, and, and this will just be a great way that people can connect and keep in touch with all the great people that you meet at a show like that, and keep in touch online after things like that. So, so, um, you know, the website, the acro means business.com is really well done. It's really cool. You, you can create a profile, you can get little points for interacting w um, Ken share your screen. And, um, for people who are watching or listening, we're going to take a look at EchoMeansBusiness.com and can just kind of walk us through how to get started and maybe what are some of the features that, you know, aren't as obvious that people should definitely know about.
Ken Osberg:
Yep. Good. Um, so this was, this is, this is a website platform Jack. So this, this is what people will see when they, when they come into the website, EchoMeansBusiness.com. And I had mentioned we were, we're moving on with so many new elements. And so what we see here is all the new elements. So I mentioned previously, the last five years have been about pro tips, right? And if I drop in here, um, you can start to get a sense of some of the things that are going on. So there's, there's podcasts, um, all with various, uh, topics, um, you know, work less, bit more green, you know, finding and working with mentors. I mean, you name it that there's a ton of topics in here, but, uh, so that piece has been, um, available for quite a while as, as the pro forums.
Ken Osberg:
So here is a way for people, again, to share and interact. Um, and there's various topics I'm going to just drill into one against some folks are a flavor for what's here. Um, so you can see there's a lot of activity, recent activity, you know, 17 hours ago to 21 hours ago up to a couple of weeks ago. Um, people are talking about pruning. You know, people are talking about pollen. You know, how about hardscaping? You know, this site is an awesome resource. If, if you're looking to get into a new service as a pro, and you're looking, find out how the other guy does it and you need hints on how to do that, you know, hardscaping is a perfect example. Right? So, and I think, you know, as COVID hit, you know, and it really changed the dynamic of, of our pros, our customers, uh, and their services.
Ken Osberg:
They, they, you know, they had customers, all they used to do was mow and blow for customers. Right. And then they, they don't have somebody say, Hey, well, can you, can you do this for me? Yeah, I can do that. I can do some hardscaping no problem, never done hardscaping. They'll go home. They'll get on to Google. How do I do hardscaping? Right. Because they hadn't done it before, but they want to expand their services. And this is exactly the type of resource, which is perfect for those types of people. Oh, great. Talking about hardscaping. Let me, let me follow that a little bit. Um, I mentioned that, you know, product reviews, tremor versus whatever. So there's all kinds of product comparisons, product reviews, um, blowers are huge, you know, blower wars and all those kinds of things. And that's some of our number one, um, visited content on the site on channel.
Ken Osberg:
And, uh, so anyway, so these were, um, in our, uh, great resources today now just like literally a week ago, we've launched Echo Means Business 2.0. And what that means is we have launched a lot more resources for, for the pro, uh, and just to give you a flavor for some of those, um, part of it is not that one that's coming, I'm going to get to that, uh, pro networking. Uh, you mentioned, uh, Jack, you know, people, people love to interact right. And, and socialize and, and, and, and be together when they can't be together. And so this is one way we're enabling that. So every two weeks, uh, there is a, uh, online, uh, YouTube live event where pros come together. There's a topic that gets thrown out there. And then there's usually three or four moderators who drive the conversation and then there's chats going on and people are on, and they're chatting about, um, you know, how they can be better.
Benefits Of Using The Paid Subscription Version Of Echo My Business
Ken Osberg:
And they hear the hands from the moderators and then they get to interact. So it's kind of a twofer in this case, they get to network, they get to share, and then they get to mentor one another. So that's fantastic. That's, that's a new piece of our, uh, our program going forward. And like I say, they're roughly every two weeks on a Thursday, um, then in terms of benefits, uh, there's also some, I'll say behind the wall. So, so there's a lot of free benefits, but then there's also new part of this 2.0, uh, you can subscribe, uh, with a paid subscription, uh, for the first year it's if you see a UHG member and I'll get to UHG in a second, um, if you see UHG member, they have discount codes, you can get a, get a discount on, on this. Uh, everyday price is one 49, and that unlocks a lot of additional benefits.
Ken Osberg:
And so one of them is called pro rewards, which I'll get into here. So CRO rewards is basically a hub for discounts on products, services, not only within the green space, but also my style. So you can see here, Fence Armor has a deal. So once you subscribe now, unlock the ability to come into here. And now you can take advantage of all these deals, and maybe, you know, you're interested in getting into the fence armor program. I'm getting those products for your customers. You can get this one, save up to 25% off your next order, offense armor, right. Um, I mentioned lifestyle, their sales club discounts. There's all kinds of partners, parts, the replacement parts.com is a partner. The value that you see here is going to way outweigh that, that membership fee. For sure, because there, I mean, you can see here RV
Jack Jostes:
Buy, Ooh, look, RV buying program that looks kind of cool.
Ken Osberg:
Absolutely. Uh, there's, power sports, TurboTax, um, nationwide pet insurance security, uh, water parks, hotels, car rental, boat buy, I mean, you name it. Um, so some things very, very much in the green industry, some things very much in the lifestyle side of things. And so, and this is, um, this is never one and done. We continue to update, add new partners, add new offers. So, uh, so something really cool here, uh, to unlock behind that, that one 49 there's, um, just to kind of keep rolling through here there's pro missions, what this is, is, you know, the, uh, topics that get thrown out. And again, it's a way for people to engage. Um, we're talking about gie, right, Jack. So here's one for the expo.
Jack Jostes:
Yeah. And I just wanted to point out that not all of these things are our eco tools, right. So it's not all, um, you know, you would think that because it's Echo Means Business, that it's going to be all Echo stuff, but, you know, there's, there's clearly people talking about pruners and different things that are, you know, it's not all just Echo steps. So, you know, I really like this. And one of the things that I like about it, so you mentioned, you know, people saying, Hey, do you hardscaping and people going and Googling it, one of, one of the challenges with that, yes, you can find anything online. But what I like about this is it's all curated here. And then there are votes from other industry professionals. So people are liking and voting for top content. So it rises to the top when they're commenting. And that's so helpful to get feedback on ideas and interact with, with, with people rather than just anyone on YouTube.
Ken Osberg:
Absolutely. There's a bit of a gamification aspect to this. You get points for doing different, different things on the site. Um, I have 35 points. It's not,
Jack Jostes:
You've got, you've got to, you got to work on that. Your current rank is 82. Look, Craig Williford has 2,400 points. He got 22,409. Who is that guy? So click on Craig for a second here. What is, who is Craig? Can we see, can we, so can we connect with Craig and message him?
Ken Osberg:
Yeah, we can, in a different place in our membership, we could get to Craig if we wanted to define him that way, uh, Craig is one of our UHG members. I mentioned, you know, the user visor giving space to meters, right? And so he, he's one of the UHG members and he's in his first year, uh, this year in the UHG program. And so we're, we're, uh, excited to see him. And obviously he's, he's contributing a huge amount and he was just on five hours.
Jack Jostes:
And, and so are the UHG members, are those like landscape professionals around the country? Are there, they're not all Echo employees or who are these well,
Ken Osberg:
You're exactly right. So there, um, first and foremost they're completely volunteer. Uh, they have to apply to be in the program. We get roughly anywhere from five to 7,000 applications a year to be in the new ag program. And we bring in roughly 30, uh, and we maintain a level of about 30 members every year. Uh, and so what, what they do, number one is I mentioned, they, they, you know, they are mentors of the community, right. Of the green space community. So they're here to help their fellow pros, create content, create ideas, starters, conversation starters, and help one another. Um, that we also, um, uh, you know, they, they're, uh, super helpful when, when Echo comes out with a new product and it's in pre-development, they might have a chance to give us some, uh, some feedback on it before it's launched and find some, some ways that we can improve those products.
How To Get Started With Echo Means Business
Jack Jostes:
Great. Well, thanks so much for the tour of this. Um, and, uh, for, for those listening, if we want to try this out, how do we get started with that, Ken?
Ken Osberg:
Yep. So just go to EchoMeansBusiness.com. Uh, if it's your first time, we just like sights everybody's on, right. You look for the login that is locked for, uh, for the register here. Uh, I'm already in, so it's going to recognize me, just look for that, that register here. Um, like I said, that there's a lot of value, uh, in a, in a free membership and you just, you set yourself up and then you have full access to the website. And then what you're going to want to do is once you're logged in there, go in, download the app because we have an app version, which has a lot of these type of similar functions and forums and activities going on just obviously, uh, in your fingertips, uh, with your, with your phone. So be sure to check that out as well. And that's of course, Apple and Android, uh, locations.
Jack Jostes:
It's awesome that you guys not only have a really great website, clearly it's easy to use on desktop, but there's a mobile app. So, um, for those of you who are listening, you know, definitely check it out at EchoMeansBusiness.com.
Jack Jostes:
Now, do you have anything fun planned that you know about at the gie expo? Because I'm guessing a lot of people listening are going to be going.
Ken Osberg:
Yeah. W w uh, we have a lot of things planned, not everything is fully booked out yet, but I can tell you for sure. The Echo Means Business social lounge is going to be there just as it was two years ago. And that's a great partnership between Echo Means Business and the team at gie plus expo. Um, great partnership there. And again, it's about giving back, making sure pros have a space to, uh, to interact. They never had that before. And so, you know, with EMB, we came to the show and said, Hey, they're all interacting online. Let's get, let's give them a place to interact in person. And so that really blew up and was a huge, huge win for the show and for the attendees, uh, two years ago. So equities missing social lounge, we'll be back again. We're excited about that in terms of Echo, uh, yeah, this is, this is our Superbowl man. I tell you, we try to pull out all the stops and we had an absolutely awesome show two years ago, and we are looking to basically take that and keep forward, uh, and do it, uh, all over again. Lightning in a bottle is our goal there and make sure that we have the very best food, the most engaging booth, for the professional customers that come to Louisville.
Jack Jostes:
Ken, well, thank you for coming on the show and sharing this EchoMeansBusiness.com looks legit. I love that you have all these different benefits and that you've created this online community for the green industry. So, um, folks listening, check it out. EchoMeansBusiness.com and Ken I'll look forward to seeing you at the GIE EXPO this year.
Ken Osberg:
Can't wait to see you Jack. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.