The Level 10 Contractor Daily Podcast

Every Saturday, we showcase a topic important to you by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 Contractor's ENTIRE podcast run. This week, we showcase clips that will help you create engaging and diggable content, both for your website in the form of blogs and case studies as well as for social media using videos and testimonials. Google loves a website that grows so if you want to win the SEO war, you are going to have to put in the time and effort to add pages of relevant content. This may seem like a headache until you realize you have all the material you need running your successful business as is to satisfy Google's algorithm and shopping prospects.

Friday's podcast is Quick Tips for using videos on your website… it's a short, quick episode… Rich is going to cover the IMPROPER use of video, How to create a spectacle,  how to make videos (hint: it's your phone), Giving your SEO a boost… and using whiteboard explainer videos. This one will get you thinking!

Rich offers 4 reasons why you might consider changing your company name.

Discover what true company culture looks like when Rich attends Service Champions' legendary all-company meeting. Watch as a 40-year-old HVAC technician shares his Corvette dream while employees earn cash prizes, $3,000 mission trip checks, and genuine connection. No boring policies or fake pep rallies—just authentic leadership that turns employees into family. Learn how Level 10 contractors build cultures people actually love working in.

Rich takes a really boring story that a company wrote in their newspaper advertorial, and tells it in a different way that highlights a BETTER STORY!

Rich is going to talk to you about the Sunk Cost Fallacy… the logical fallacy that compels you to continue to pour resources into something–even if it's not working–simply because of all the effort you've ALREADY put into it. There are 5 areas that you need to evaluate… and here's Rich to share them with you.

It's the Sunday Podcast, and that means Rich steps off the marketing path and veers into the side roads of spirituality and self improvement. Today is firmly under the header of Spirituality, and Rich is going to explain what grace is, and why it is the key to finding our way back to God. This discussion takes several twists and turns, so pay close attention!

Every Saturday, we showcase a topic important to you by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 Contractor's ENTIRE podcast run. This week, we showcase customer service. How are you treating your money-makers? Are you doing everything you can to ensure customers have the best experience working with you… hiring the best people, staying in touch throughout a project, and following up to make certain they are satisfied? If you aren't taking care to deliver top notch customer service, you can kiss repeat and referral business goodbye, not to mention the glowing reviews that move the needle for prospects considering you for future remodels, windows, or roofs.

Okay so you know Rich talks about SEO a lot–and for good reason! It's a great way for your company to get anywhere from dozens to HUNDREDS of leads a month from people who are currently actively searching for what you sell. So recently Rich heard that Ted talks are 18 minutes long… and the idea of a Ted Talk, of course, is to get your most powerful message out there in as powerful a way as possible… but in a compact amount of time–18 minutes. Turns out, he only needs 16, but with this intro, it's 18. Here you go with the condensed and awesome version of how SEO really works.

So you might be asking yourself… this Level 10 podcast is pretty good, but does all this stuff Rich talks about actually work? Well I'm glad you asked! On Thursday's podcast, Rich interviews Level 10 Contractor client Shawn Clemens, owner of Clemens Home Solutions in Muncie, Indiana. Holy cow–you're gonna want to pay attention to this one! They first had Level 10 build their new website, which went live about a year ago. Since then, they've had Level 10 handling their SEO, radio, and paid facebook advertising… and we've also helped them with direct mail, and their brand ambassador program. How's that going? In a word: Spectacularly! Here's a preview of what you're going to hear: Issued leads from their website are up 15,400% January to August of this year versus last year, with their old website. Radio is working, Brand Ambassador is working, and Facebook is generating consistent high quality leads for cheap.

Radio is dead in 2026—not dying, DEAD. After spending millions on radio ads over 25 years, I'm exposing the 82% weekly reach scam and revealing a real client case study: $93K spent, 39% marketing cost, and why I pulled the plug completely. Learn where smart contractors are moving their ad dollars instead (OTT, CTV, digital) and stop lighting your budget on fire.

Rich uses a fishing analogy to explain why most roofing websites fail to generate leads at this year's GAF Conference in Chicago. He reveals that the average contractor website scores just 27 out of 100, despite using "professional" agencies. The episode covers the fundamentals of driving traffic through Google search and converting visitors into leads, explaining that most people have never replaced a roof and turn to Google when they need one. Rich shares actionable strategies for making your website a competitive advantage in a crowded market.

Oversized visuals stop people in their tracks. In this episode, Rich explains the "Big Bill" strategy and five proven ways contractors can use giant dollar bills to break patterns, start conversations, and make their marketing impossible to ignore. 

It's the Sunday Podcast, and that means Rich tackles topics of either a self-development or spiritual nature, and as you might guess from the podcast title, today it's self-development. One of Rich's favorite quotes comes from Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, who said, referring to the early days of the business when its future was anything but certain: Confidence: More than equity or liquidity, that's what a man needs. Rich is going to discuss how to develop that elusive trait… and as you know, he's got plenty of great stories to back it up. This is a recording from an old webinar he did in 2010… you're going to enjoy it!

Every Saturday, we showcase a topic important to you by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 Contractor's ENTIRE podcast run. This week, we showcase the advantages of becoming a consumer advocate in your marketing. Consumers want to make the best buying decision possible. By becoming the font out of which that knowledge comes, you can make sure they understand exactly why your business is the absolute right choice. We take on our competition head to head… and compel prospects and other spectators onto our side. Topics covered today will include studying your competitors, leveraging their advertising dollars to your advantage, creating a 3rd party "consumer reports" type website, and more.

I don't know if you know it or not, but Level 10 Contractor will perform an audit on your website and score it on a scale of 1 to 100 for both Findability--which has to do with how well people can find your site when searching keywords on Google… and also Conversionability… which is how well your site is doing at converting lookers into leads. On Friday's podcast, Rich reviews a website audit with the marketing person at a Roofing company in Chicago… and, well, Rich found a site that actually scores less than ZERO. To be precise, the site scores a negative one. That's right, a negative one… out of 100 possible points. How does a website score less than zero? Well, let's find out.

Bright pink suits, big bills, giant golf clubs, and facebook ads targeted at people who like moustaches? Yep, that's exactly what Rich is going to talk about on the Throwback Thursday episode. It's from a keynote he gave recently at the Service Nation Alliance on the topic of guerrilla marketing. What Rich is talking about is using your brains and your ingenuity to generate interest and leads instead of just your checkbook. This is one of the most fun and interesting keynotes Rich gives--and has loads of great ideas that you might want to implement, regardless of how big your company is.

Most contractors aren't bad at business—they're bad at marketing. In this episode, Rich explains why your marketing underperforms, why "traffic cops" aren't marketers, and how expert marketing is the difference between surviving and dominating your market. 

Tuesday's podcast is a piece of a strategy session that Rich had with the owner of an almost 5 million dollar door & window company… who, despite that impressive sales amount, was still behind the curve on a lot of its marketing. On the part of the strategy call that happened BEFORE what you're about to hear, Rich went through a website audit, and pointed out that the website was severely outdated, and how and why their SEO was not working. Finally, Rich lowers the boom in the "super nice but you still get the point loud and clear" kind of way that Rich seems to have perfected--and tells him, quite literally, "It's time to up your game so you can get this thing to the next level." And you know what, sometimes that's the case; what got you to $2 million or $5 million… or 20 or 50 million for that matter… is NOT what is going to get you to the next level.

Rich has kind of been on a website and SEO tear lately… talking about how to make your site more Google-friendly, so you can generate more organic traffic and leads. Monday's podcast is an important part of that same discussion; it's all about diggability… which is strategically making additional content visible and unavoidable to people who are on your website. In other words, making sure that they don't just engage with the content they're currently reading, but also making sure that they "dig around" in your website for even MORE engaging content–hence the term diggability. As usual on Monday's Rich has FIVE WAYS for you to do this.

It's Sunday, and as you know, that's when Rich turns his attention to spiritual and personal growth topics, and today he's going to stick to personal growth. He recently ran across a list of advice from a gentleman named Kevn Kelly, who was one of founders of Wired magazine, and who was called "the Most Interesting Man in the World" by podcaster Tim Ferriss. Take a listen, I'm sure you'll find a few things in here--or a few dozen--that will be worth your while.

Every Saturday, we showcase a topic important to you by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 Contractor's ENTIRE podcast run. This week, we discuss the importance of blogs on your website. Blogs are a great way to engage your prospects and build the  case why you are the superior choice. They are also masterful tools for winning the SEO war.

Friday's podcast focuses on media buying… and Rich is going to make some pretty strong points about his favorite metric… C P M! That's right, cost per thousand. This is just one more example of why it's so important, and why it's imperative that you be fluent in media speak, or you will get killed in negotiations. First, Rich will give an overview and an explanation… then he's going to play a recording of a call between him and some media reps… this is good stuff!

Thursday's TBT podcast is a strategy call between Rich and the marketing person at a garage door and garage flooring company who is looking for a little help with their website. We are going to pick up the conversation right AFTER Rich goes through a demonstration of some really good Service Area pages on a Level 10 Client website… then he gets into a conversation about what it really takes to beat Google's Algorithm, among other things. Other topics covered include: Why other SEO companies can't seem to figure this out, how SEO is like a war… and how to strategically create troops to put into your SEO battles. This is really good stuff, and represents Level 10's latest thinking on web building and SEO.

Rich Harshaw explains why most remodeling companies are terrible at marketing: owners excel in sales or production but almost never in true marketing strategy. Without a real expert, companies rely on generic messaging, weak websites, and ineffective ads. Rich urges contractors to focus on strengths and hire specialists to win market share.

Tuesday's podcast is a book review--Rich doesn't do a whole lot of these, so you can be sure that if he's recommending--and reviewing--a book, it's probably a good one! This one is called "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath… and as the name would suggest, deals with the concept of making ideas stick in peoples' brains. This is the book where the concept of "The Curse of Knowledge" first came from… and it goes through a formula the authors call "Success" which is an acronym for Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. S  U C C E S… I guess there is only one S in their success formula… nevertheless, this is pretty good stuff.

Most print ads fail because they look identical. Rich Harshaw explains how to stand out using five strategies: vary ad sizes, get personal, go bold with design and headlines, offer helpful information guides, and tell compelling identity-based stories. These tactics trigger attention, boost leads, and dramatically improve ad performance.

Today's podcast falls more into the personal development category… and it's all about the small stuff. Or not doing the small stuff. Or trying to figure out why you're so averse to doing the small stuff. From health to wealth to relationships and spirituality… Rich's message will help you identify and DO the little things.

Every Saturday, we showcase a topic important to you by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 Contractor's ENTIRE podcast run. This week, we focus on the hub of your marketing… your website. A strong web presence is crucial to success in this day and age, and we aren't just talking about having a pretty website. Pretty is the default today. Your website has to do real work to get the proverbial date with prospects. If your website is not making a compelling argument why you are the absolute best buying decision possible, you'll lose business to the company putting in the work.

Rich takes all the data supplied to him by TV stations in Boston, and walks one of Level 10's Advertising managers through the numbers as a training exercise. So basically, you're going to get real-world training on media buying directly from Rich… right here today, on this podcast. You're going to hear Rich interpret the data through his favorite lens--CPM, or cost per thousand. During the course of the call, he points many things out to his pupil… but also calls on him to make his own conclusions… then once they've crunched the numbers, he formulates a negotiation strategy. This is hardcore stuff--but man, it's really good.

It's Thursday, so you know what that means--throwback Thursday, where we dig into the vault and pull out some marketing gold from yesteryear. And for today's podcast, that gold has to do with the topic of Identity, and the year is 2014. This is a webinar that Rich did in conjunction with longtime Level 10 Supporter, Marketsharp. This is a great overview of the Identity concept, with lots of good examples.

Rich tells a sad tale about the time he was super excited to be featured in a major national business magazine… only to be horrified when he saw what they actually wrote about him. What was supposed to be kind of a big deal turned out to be a big embarrassment. He's going to take that story and extract a few lessons from it and teach you how to deal with media opportunities… and give you some really good ideas for cultivating the kind of image and identity you want for your company in a purposeful and intentional way.

You're going to be a fly on the wall as Rich has a conversation with Level 10 Contractor Senior Copywriter, Dave Moffitt. Dave is helping one of his clients create copy for a website, and the client LIKES what Dave has written, but wants to find a headline that better captures their overall identity. Rich, of course, takes a deep dive--wanting to know not just WHAT they do… but WHY and HOW they do it. This exercise turns into a sort of karate or taekwondo lesson as Rich comes up with a bunch of short but powerful headlines that land on the reader's figurative jaw like short, sharp, forceful punches.

Rich Harshaw reveals the five biggest ways contractors lose profit: DIY media buying, undercharging, under-spending on PPC, weak front-end financing, and failing to communicate clear identity. Fixing these issues boosts lead flow, sales, and margins. Rich explains why each mistake costs you and how to correct it for maximum growth.

This podcast is another venture into spiritual things… Today, Rich jumps into the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount and discusses one of the Beatitudes, "Blessed Are The Peacemakers."

Every Saturday, we showcase a topic important to you by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 Contractor's ENTIRE podcast run. This week, we focus on your employees and their morale. You cannot operate your businesses alone; employees are the cogs that make the machine run without you. But they are more than just cogs. They should be reflections on you and the culture of your company. If that culture is negative and degrading… well, you shouldn't expect the highest performance. So how do you keep morale high and your employees humming along?

This podcast, as the title would suggest, is all about business partnerships… and more specifically, how to avoid having them go bad… and making sure you have contingency plans in place in case they do. Rich has been in two formal partnerships in his career--both of them turned out badly. Really badly. And he learned a lot of hard lessons that you're going to benefit from today. Along the way, he also witnessed other companies with bad partnership situations--some were handled well, others, horrifically bad. In fact, he's going to tell you the story of 4 siblings who owned a business together… that ripped the family apart… because they didn't have a good handle on the very rules that they ended up helping Rich learn.

Thanks for joining us for our Throwback Thursday, which ironically, comes from an old Tuesday Morning Ad Clinic webinar that Rich did in 2014. This is an interesting case: An electrician sends Rich a postcard that is intended to scare people into getting their electrical system checked out, because, you know, their house might burn down if they don't. Rich explains that people hate to pay for preventative maintenance, because, well… the fact that their house hasn't burned down yet is a pretty good indicator that the wiring must be just fine, thank you! Then he goes on to explain a better way to make the case that they need to get things checked out. Like Rich always says, "Great copy is the result of having a great idea"… and that's what today's podcast is all about.

In this episode, Rich explains why contractors must stop treating marketing like an expense and start thinking of it as an investment. He breaks down the difference between short-term "hunting" tactics (like PPC and lead aggregators) and long-term "farming" strategies (like SEO, branding, and reviews), showing how consistent marketing investments compound over time to create stability, equity, and lasting lead flow.

Rich is going to talk about how most websites have an OVER-reliance on what he calls "engagement tools"--you know, things like offers for free estimates, join our newsletter list, get a quote, maps, and so forth. What's that you say? You NEED those things on your website? Maybe so. Probably so. But like everything else in life--how you approach them and how you present them makes all the difference in the world.

It's Monday, which means it's time for the next installment of our "5 Ways to Monday" series. Rich talks to companies whose primary lead generation activities are lead aggregators… with ideas and strategies to start to shift into branding. It's not that lead aggregators are bad–it's that for the long term continued growth of your company, you're going to want to generate your own leads, and preferably from prospects who are actively seeking you out because they WANT to do business with you.

Thanks for joining us for the Sunday podcast, where Rich turns his attention to either personal development or spiritual topics… and as you can see from the title, today is spiritual. And he's going to talk about God… and try to untangle the mess that the Bible seems to have put Christians in as they attempt to reconcile the notion of God as a loving heavenly parent versus the petulant tyrant that appears in the Old Testament. You know, the one who kills all of the world except Noah and his ark after just 10 pages. And even mild mannered Jesus lets the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth fly when talking about the end of times. What are we to make of all this? As usual, Rich has opinions.

Every other Saturday, we showcase a topic important to you by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 Contractor's ENTIRE podcast run. This week, let's focus on what Rich calls your Inside Reality, especially as it relates to your Outside Perception. He will define these terms in greater detail in the clips, but to put it simply here: your inside reality is how great your company actually is–all the things you do differently and why you are superior to the competitors in your industry–while the outside perception is how prospects and customers perceive your company from the outside, regardless of reality. If your marketing is full of platitudes, chances are people have no idea why they should choose you over the next guy. To them, you are all exactly the same. We are going to help you correct this massive problem.

This podcast is a discussion about Identity that RIch had with Gary Cohen from Certified Contractors NEtwork, CCN, for that organization's podcast, called the Contractor's Toolbox. This is a great discussion because Gary digs in deep and Rich shares some thoughts and examples of Identity that you've probably never heard before, even if you're a long-time listener. Next week, Gary returns the favor, and will appear as a guest with Rich on THIS podcast, where they will be talking about Managing Your Business by the Numbers.

If you're a fan of expert level copywriting, then today's podcast is for you. This is Throwback Thursday, of course, and this is one of Rich's Tuesday Morning Ad Calls from 2014. A Roofing company submits some stuff they had written up that was to be used in communicating with members of a homeowner's association they were targeting… and Rich gets to work doing his thing… taking words that sound pretty good, actually… and making them sound GREAT. I like the part where he talks about taking little "jabs" at your readers, in a nice way, of course. This is truly the work of a master craftsman you are about to experience.

A tiny Wisconsin window company grew from $500K to $5M by attacking private-equity competitors with bold identity-based radio ads highlighting honesty, pricing, and local ownership. Rich then used the same strategy for Bay State Bath—female-led, local, and anti-Wall-Street messaging—paired with OTT/TV spots featuring "Baby Richie." Results: record sales and a major PE competitor collapsing. Local identity beats corporate sameness.

Today's show is going to challenge you to audit your schedule, evaluate how you spend your time, and encourage you to double-down on your strengths so you can accomplish the things in your business and in your life that are truly important.

Rich talks about how to REDUCE STICKER SHOCK when your prospective customers get that big fat expensive price from your sales person. Or at least that·s how they feel about it! UNLESS· you follow Rich·s advice today and get into some bigtime PRICE CONDITIONING.

It's another Sunday podcast, and as you know, this is where Rich turns to subjects more in the realm of spirituality and self improvement. Today he's going to challenge you to examine your priorities… and see if you're spending your time on things that are truly important. This one's not very long, but the message packs a punch.

Every other Saturday, we showcase a topic important to you by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 Contractor's ENTIRE podcast run. This week, we talk about what to do after a rejection. You hook a prospect and even pitch them inside their home but despite your salesperson's best effort, the homeowner turns you down. What do you do next? Do you give up? Is that sale gone forever now… another contractor's gain? Hopefully after today's round of clips, you'll understand why and how to follow up and keep fighting. A no today can turn into a yes with the right follow-up.

It's time for another episode of Random Friday… if you've listened to the podcast for a really long time, then you know that it used to be Random Saturday, but alas, times have changed. Random means that Rich spends a few minutes on little nuggets of interesting stuff that aren't really suitable for an entire podcast, but when you bundle them all up, you've got something pretty good. On the list for today: Playing dirty with your competitors, overproduced radio ads, standing out in print, giving yourself a break when you mess up… and the wit and wisdom of Brian Elias.