Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.117 | Feat. Kate Williams & Zach Premo!

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

Kate Williams Discusses Rescue Love: A New Approach to Animal Sheltering and Grooming In this episode of Good News York, the host welcomes Kate Williams, a remarkable individual who has transitioned from a grooming career to founding a unique shelter called Rescue Love. The discussion covers Kate’s journey into dog grooming, her background in volunteering at the CNY SPCA, and the establishment of her grooming shop, Girl’s Best Friend. Kate elaborates on the overpopulation issues in animal shelters, the training and enrichment programs they provide, and the importance of ethical breeding and rescue. Additionally, she highlights a new initiative with Jordan’s Way aiming to raise significant funds for various shelters. The episode also features Zach from Ads on the Go, who talks about his innovative mobile digital billboard business and its potential to revolutionize local advertising. 00:00 Welcome to Good News York 00:34 Meet Kate Williams: A Passion for Grooming and Rescue 01:02 The Journey into Dog Grooming 01:19 Founding Rescue Love 10:03 Challenges in Animal Rescue 12:50 Innovative Shelter Practices 16:01 Jordan's Way Fundraiser 19:39 How You Can Help Rescue Love 22:02 Introduction and Sponsor Announcement 22:22 Welcome Back with Zach from Ads on the Go 23:45 What is Ads on the Go? 24:47 Unique Advertising Methods 26:33 Zach's Entrepreneurial Journey 30:23 Building and Maintaining Digital Screens 34:40 Holiday Season and Parade Advertising 37:21 Affordable Marketing Opportunities 40:47 Traffic Routes and Regulations 44:11 Conclusion and Future Plans

Instagram teen accounts come with automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see. Learn more about teen accounts at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises L'ouique Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts

to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hello and welcome to Good News. York, I'm flying solo today. Matt is out finding phase drugs memorabilia. He's combing all of New York State. So I'm here alone. I have a very special guest today,

special being the key word. Give it up for you. Kate Williams. And when I say give it up, it's just me clapping because it's only me here, and I apologize. Kate, I'm so glad you came in. Matt's wife actually recommended that we have you on, and I'm glad she did because you were doing some amazing stuff. First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. Okay.

And we'd love to hear about that. So I had a daughter, young, I had a daughter at 21 who just graduated college, so very excited for her. and then, you know, just kind of bounced around job-wise, nothing, didn't really have a passion. And then I just kind of fell into, I saw a job offer for a bathing, grooming shop needed a bather in about 2014, and I tried it out. And from there, fell in love with grooming. I apprenticed under one of the owners, and that started my grooming career. and then I started volunteering at the CNYSPCCA as a groomer just to work on my skills and stuff like that

and fell in love with rescue and decided to take a year off grooming and focus on rescue which ended up being three years and I met some really wonderful people through there and we all saw the problems in rescue there's many overpopulation And so we just had this wonderful idea about how if we could do it on a smaller scale and do it right and have total control over, you know, training and enrichment and getting these dogs prepared for their home. So within a year, actually, we just opened our shop.

It's on 9-22 Liverpool Road. So the rescue love. Rescue love is the rescue. And my grooming shop is called Girls Best Friend. So I groomed there full time Wednesday through Sunday in the front. And then in the back, we have been, we just got accepted to have five kennels built so we can have five animals living there, dogs. And right now we have in Foster, my foster puppy just got adopted at a music bingo two nights ago. What a place to get.

Yeah, it just happened. It was out of the blue. We weren't expecting it. And we just had a mama had nine puppies. so we're supporting her trying to figure that out. And then one of my very good friends, Sarah, is a trainer. And so she has a husky that another shelter was going to put down for very mild behavior issues. It caught stress.

You get very stressed in the shelter. So she took her in and she's an amazing dog. She's a husky. So she's working with her. So right now we're foster base as we're getting our kennels built. but when they're built, we'll have five dogs living there permanently. That's amazing. Yeah.

You know, I know many people who are obviously animal lovers, and they have many dogs, cats, and some of my friends strictly prefer to go the rescue route because there's such a reward in, I mean, we love animals no matter where they come from, but there's such a reward in just in rescuing a dog and giving it a better life. And they definitely appreciate that. Yeah. And I love, I mean, I love, the whole reason I love dogs is all the different kinds.

So I'm not against breeding, but ethical breeding. Sure. You know, a dog breed gets popular, and then all of a sudden, everyone starts breeding them and, like, destroys the breed, and then they have health problems and mental problem. So you want to either, you know, go to rescue route or really go do your research and find an ethical breeder if you're looking for a specific breed of dog. I say rescue is the way to go. I agree, I think.

We have, we have, it's not all pit bulls, you know, I mean, we've got all different, all different breeds of dogs. We get doodles, we get German shepherds, we get poodle mixes. Yeah, I feel like doodle. I feel like every time a friend of mine gets a dog now, it's a something doodle. Yeah. It's like, it's a chicken doodle. It's a Rottweiler doodle. I'm like, where are these dundle?

Is the doodle? like the hot. The hot store? Which is driving groomers crazy because, yeah. Well, the poodle is an amazing dog. So everybody's just mixing everything with the poodle. It seems to be. That's just the phase people are in these days.

So let's go back because you were talking about how you kind of stumbled upon dog grooming. And I personally feel like that isn't a talent and an art. The same way you would cut hair. Yeah. How do you know you have that skill? Do you have a background? Do most groomers have a background in hair cutting? I mean, I'm really blind to this. So I just took the job as a bather.

Before my, I trained under two ladies who had been grooming for 30 years. One of them showed dogs. They really were very hardworking people. And before I could even pick up the scissors, you have to learn how to properly bathe and brush out a dog. It's a lot of work. It's not for everybody. Really, it's not playing with puppies all day. You have to have a passion for it.

I think some people are more naturally inclined to do it. I wasn't. I mean, I spent two years every day going home crying, feeling like I just wasn't getting it, but I wanted it so bad. So I'd go back every day, and then a little bit would click here, a little bit would click here. And then that's how I picked it up, so it's been about 10 years now. And I just love it.

I love that I do free grooming for the shelters. So some of these cruelty cases that come in are in excruciating pain. And in one hour, they are like bopping around like the happiest. I mean, instant gratification. You can do so much and so little. You know, training is a long process, grooming. It's like, bam. And that solves such a huge problem right away.

So I love that part. So when I think of grooming, because, again, I'm out from that world, I immediately think of scissors, shampoo. Who, is it more than just cutting the hair? What is involved in the process of grooming? Yeah, so, first of all, you want to get your dog started at an early age so they're comfortable with all of the blow dryer and just the whole process, nail trimming and stuff like that.

So you want to get your dog in as soon as possible. You want to find somebody that you trust because it can be frustrating. And you see these videos online of people mistreating their dog. Right. You know, so. But, yeah, usually. you know, like a short-haired dog would come in, and they, they, even short-haired dogs need baths.

They can have, they can be shedding, they could have itchy skin. We do medicated baths. Their ears need to be clean. Their nails need to be cut. So it's what, it's a case-by-case basis. Yeah. They come in, you don't predetermine, like, you know, we're going to give it this cut. They come in and you go, oh, we should do this, this.

Yeah. Okay. And if we can give them what they want, you know, and like a doodle, say, you see these big fuzzy doodles, Well, they need to come every three to four weeks and you need to keep them dry and brush them every day. So that's a lot of work. So most people don't choose that route. So if a dog comes to me in a matted state,

I usually will say, okay, I'm not going to punish the dog. We're going to shave the dog down today. And if you get on a schedule with me every four to six weeks, then we can do whatever you want, you know. But there's a lot of upkeep with certain breeds. So you should really look into that when you're getting a dog because a doodle is inexpensive. there's different levels of maintenance for grooming

and one of the most expensive would be any sort of poodle mix because they really need to be groomed at the very least every eight weeks. Yeah. And so I've been dying to ask this question. I have to admit, since yesterday when I knew I was going to be interviewing you, I was like, I've got to ask this question. So you go into a hairdresser, right? And you either know you say, hey, I would like this, right?

And obviously dogs, they can't speak to you. The owners can. Well, they can with the body language. Oh, we'll talk about that too. Is this, so is it like with tattooing where it's like I don't give a dog the same cut I gave another dog? I want to do it original each time. Or do you have certain styles? How do you choose how you're going to do the cut?

Because I've seen some fancy stuff. You see some of those poodles with the big puffy. And those are the high maintenance. Yeah, yeah. But you're typical, those are like show dogs, like your pet owned. Usually, you know, I ask with the owner months. You know, you want to give them as close to what they want. And then there's basic, like, breed cuts.

Like a Westy has a cut or, I can't think of a different breed right now, but every breed has a cut. And then there's, like, the teddy bear cut that everybody likes. But, yeah, I... There's no dog coming in and being like, give me the Rachel cut, right? It's like you're just doing... I find that fascinating that there are cuts for certain breeds, and that makes sense.

And I am picturing, you know, the dog show style. Yeah. Do you also cut for those kind of events as well? No, I'm not a show dog groomer. Oh, that's a whole separate thing. Yeah, that would be a whole different thing, but maybe down the road. Maybe down the road. Now, you talked about the grooming aspect and now you're involved with rescue love, a brand new shelter. And I know you talked about some of the problems, right? There's a lot of problems. I'd like you, if you could, just go into that. What are some of the problems that? That maybe we don't, you know, for us, the regular person, we know that there's dogs that are either mistreated. They don't have homes. They go to the shelter. They're taking care of. They find a new home. But you're on the front line seeing. What are the biggest issues that shelters are facing? Another one thing to say about the rescue love is most of the proceeds right now from my grooming go right into the rescue. So you're not only supporting, you're not only getting your dog groom, you're supporting our rescue at the same time. It's amazing.

So that's a little different than like a regular grooming shop. Sure. They were all tied together. The trainers are working together with the shelter with me. So overpopulation, I think that people have this idea that I can't spend enough time with my dog. But even if you worked 12 hours a day and you can give your dog a solid hour outside, that is better than I don't think people or I don't think people realize what life is like. in a shelter, especially an overcrowded shelter, minimal, like the staff pay is extremely low. People are either there, they come and go, or they're there for the right reasons, but it's a lot of work.

It's sad. It's, they're underpaid, understaffed, and it just, some dogs, you know, the shelter that I, I worked at, you know, and I'm not saying they were the only shelter, but some dogs would sit, you know, for a week in their kennel and knock it out and get a walk. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises L'Ik Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart

and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. This is a message from sponsor Intuit TurboTax. You've sent so many emails to your tax pro and nothing. It feels like you're chasing updates. But now your taxes are done for you by a TurboTax expert

so you actually know what's happening. You can match with an expert and just hand off all your tax stuff to them right in the app. So instead of guessing, you can feel confident your TurboTax experts on it. Now this is Taxes. Intuit TurboTax. Visit turbotax.com to learn more. Only available with TurboTax experts. Real-time updates only in iOS mobile app.

So in our shelter, we're open to all different methods of training, and we want what's best for the dog. And we want to go home at the end of the day knowing that that dog got everything possibly could have needed that day. We're right near the parkway. You know, if you're at a shelter with 110 dogs that are staring at you, begging you to take them out, you know, even if you give 110% you leave there crying or feeling like you barely made a dent.

And there are such dedicated people, you know, there really are, but there just aren't enough. And... Would you say... You know, the people, it's not so much the staff. It's sometimes people running the places and aren't running them correctly. They've been, you know, so. Yeah.

Would you say a lack of funding is a big problem? Yeah. Well, that's where we come in because we want to help you get that funding. Definitely. So I know, again, for most of us, we know that the shelters take care of these dogs,

but what I'm hearing and what I love is that it's not just a kennel, and food and water and you're grooming them. And now I hear about training. So can you talk a little bit about the process of, so a dog comes to the shelter? What do they get? What is like the everyday operation of a shelter?

So like at our new shelter? Yeah, sure. Of course, rescue. So a dog will come in and every morning, they're going to get their breakfast. They're going to get walked at least three times a day. You're going to have more than one on more. one person to one dog, probably more like two people to one dog.

They're going to get enrichment. They're going to get training. So when they go into the home, when you adopt a dog from a shelter, you don't know like what you're getting. They're not crate trains. Right. You know, some of them have been so comfortable living in the shelter once they get into a house, their whole personality changes.

And you have all these sorts of problems. So we have so many wonderful people to help. And we're going to make sure that that dog goes home. And we know everything about the dog. The dog is properly trained. He's crate trained. Any behavior issues we've worked out, we're really going to get some really amazing stellar dogs.

We're going to put the work in, you know, to make sure that. I absolutely love that. You know, I love that it's outside the box because I don't know. Correct me if I'm wrong. Do you feel like that's kind of a new innovative process? Because I feel like growing up, we always got dogs from shelters. And it was just a free-for-all. We would see this dog we loved.

We'd take it home, but it would go to the bathroom in the house or it would tear up the carpet. And we had to train it. Is training being implemented into the shelter process? Is that something new, or is that just a shelter-by-shelter type? That is something I think a lot of shelters like to do if they had the staff or the resources. That's where we come in. Like, we definitely, we're going to keep ourselves, you know, where we're not going to be, we're not going to overwhelm ourselves. So we're going to be able to potty train the dog, to create train the dog and do everything.

And I know that people are doing their best. But yeah, you don't know when you bring a dog home like what's going to be. And I think that's just such a wonderful aspect of rescue love is that training aspect. And we also get to do home visits. So we're going to come into the home, even for fosters. We want to have a team of fosters that we can reuse. So we want them to come to the shelter. We want to do an orientation with our fosters.

We want to visit the home. We want them to raise the house. dog the way we want them. So they pick up good habits. So when they go into the home, you have like a ready made wonderful dog that, yes, you still have to carry on what we're showing you, but they're already all prepped and everything. And for an adoptable dog, yeah, definitely home checks.

That's great. Applications. It's almost the same process you would for a human being. Yeah. No, I just, I love, because we always talk about how our animals are just like our family. They're just like humans. And you guys really live by that, even in the process of finding them. a new home. I want to talk about Jordan's Way. This is awesome. So you guys are heading to Texas

in a few days to join Jordan's Way. I'd love to hear all about that. So rescue love was one of only two rescues chosen from New York State to attend the first ever national fundraiser, the Jordan's Way Bull, hosted by Jordan's Way in Wichita Falls, Kansas. The goal of this event is to raise over $10 million, which will be shared among 85 shelters across the country. Tune in live Saturday. November 15th from 6 to 9 p.m. Central Time on our Rescue Love Facebook page to cheer us on and be part of this historic event. So that's wonderful. How did you find Jordan's Way or how did Jordan's Way find you? They came, they've just been coming up to Central New York for years. They do Humane and they do all the local shelters. And they come in and they do like he does, I guess he's raised over like $14 million.

He travels around the country and he does stuff like, you know, raise this much money and we'll hose you down in a kennel, a staff member in a kennel or we'll lock someone in a kennel for an hour or we'll shave your head or will. Right. Don't tank. Pie in the face or something. Love that. He's pretty successful. Yeah. So we're excited because it's expensive to start a shelter. So you would say Jordan's way is kind of an overarching organization.

that kind of provides funds for shelters for those smaller shelters that's wonderful and I'm sad that I haven't heard of that yet because that is fantastic yeah a couple more questions before I let you go I gotta know this so growing up we were we always we're in PC culture now so I would imagine this bleeds into the the dog world is mutt a bad term do we not use the term mutt these days because that's when we used to say freely we'd say oh what breed is your dog and we'd say oh we don't know he's a mutt. No. But now I feel like that was kind of mean. That's okay to say? I would say, yeah, you mixed breed. Mixed breed. I think a mutt's a great dog.

Okay. They're the healthiest. They're the healthiest, you know, honestly. I don't think we ever had, we had dogs growing up, three, four dogs my whole life. I don't think we ever had a one that was a specific breed. I think we always had mutton. And they were the best. Yeah, they're a mixture of all different things and they seem to be the healthiest. All my, I don't think I've ever had a purebred dog, no. Yeah. Um, this is the real question here. How do you, how do you emotionally, and I'm being serious because I get attached very easily, especially to dogs that are in need, right? Especially rescue animals. Do you find that you do have to kind of mentally teach yourself? Like, I can't, I can only let them in so far emotionally.

How do you manage them? Because it's tough to see them go, I'm sure. It is. When I worked at the SPCA, which is a much higher volume, I put my feelings aside. I just wanted to be a safe place, a safe space for that dog where they felt calm and trusted and they know they could trust me. Seeing them go into a home is never sad for me, and it always makes me happy. That's a happy thing. Yeah, it is a happy thing. And I have my own dogs. I love any dog I come across, and I love them with all my heart.

But, yeah, the goal is to find him a new home. Because if you don't, you know, if you keep that dog, then you're not going to be able to help the next dog, you know. That's a really healthy way to look at it. Yeah. So, no, I am there to, I am there for the dog, my feelings aside. Kate Williams, rescue love. This is the important part of the interview.

Yes. Tell us how we and the viewers and listeners can help rescue love, get the resources they need to keep doing the amazing things that you do. Okay, yeah. I should ask Jenna this before you. That's okay. Yeah, I think you just go on to rescue love. Facebook page.

Facebook page. Okay. And you said rescue love slash New York or rescue love slash New York. Rescue love, capital R capital D. I'm sorry. I was wrong. There's no slash. It was the way it was.

It's rescue love with a capital R and a capital L. N.Y.org. There it is. Rescue love, n.y. And I'm sure there's a donate button on there. And what is it that you guys are looking for primary? So we're looking for funding for our signage, for our kennels, and then physical things like blankets and towels, crates, toys and stuff like that. But really we're looking for funding just like to build the kennels at vet care.

Okay, bat care is huge. Right now we're looking for a vet that is willing to work with us. at a discounted rate. Absolutely. Because we're going to need a vet. The vet is key. Yes. So that's our biggest thing.

Especially coming from some of the situations that these dogs come from. Yes. And I would think that, you know, obviously funding goes without saying, but I would think vet care. Vet care would be the number one. So if you are listening, if you are watching,

please go to rescue love n.org whether you want to be part of the staff, donate funds, and any veterinarians out there that can help rescue love with this amazing mission, please, please do. Kay Williams, thank you for rescue love. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for all you do for these animals. Anything else you want to say before we go?

No, thanks for having me on. All right. We're super excited. We love you. The wonderful group of people, the best people I've ever met, and we're super excited. Rescuelove, n.y.org also Remember November 15th, 6 to 9 central time on the Rescue Love Facebook. That is the Jordan's Way event.

So, Kate Williams, thank you for your times. We will be right back. Matt's going to be in here with our buddy Zach from Ads on the Go, which is our sponsor for Good News York. Get Ads on the Go.com. Zach coming in to get, we're going to get an update on his life and everything that's going on. That's next right here on Good News York. Hey, folks.

Welcome back to the show. I'm Matt Major. Back from whatever adventure Mike invented from me in the previous segment. We're having a good time because I am joined by our sponsor.

Zach, the man from Ads on the go, get Ads on the go.com. He's with us in the studio. We took a break from promoting everything in central New York in his amazing truck. And he's going to come in talk to us a little bit. And I'm just glad to have you, man. It's nice that, you know,

you are so busy that, that it's, we have a hard time even getting in here, but I appreciate that. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. And first and foremost, I appreciate all your support, man. You've been with us now for a number of months, one of our biggest advocates and fans. And I appreciate it. I know you're also a listener to the show, which I appreciate as much, if not more. And I love to see it. And we're talking about it. And we're not going to go into too much detail here on the air, but a little behind the scenes, we're going to be working with Zach to promote some of the new things that we're doing, and you're going to see even more of us.

It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises Luik Bally, to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been setting there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirworld's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey, it's Cubby. Have you ever had an energy drink that makes you feel like your head is going to explode? Well, liquid death now makes a better for you energy drink.

Liquid death sparkling energy feels like a coffee, not an electric chair. It has zero sugar and just five calories. No sucralose or aspartame or artificial colors and dye. Plus, it has essential vitamins. You can find it in four delicious flavors that have a clean taste. Scary strawberry, strawberry, kind of a hint of lemon, tropical terror, which is like a pinocalada. Orange har, tasty orange with a hint of orange cream and murder mystery. A blend of cherry cola and spices. You see, I love a good energy drink to keep me moving, and I'm glad now I have liquid death sparkling energy to keep me awake.

I can't wait to keep drinking all these delicious flavors. unextream 100 milligrams of caffeine, same as a cup of coffee. You can buy Liquid Death Sparkling Energy at a fine retailer near you like 7-Eleven or learn more at LiquidDeath.com. On his trucks and maybe at some events, so I'm pretty excited about that. But before we talk about our stuff, let's step back for a minute. For the folks who are just joining the program, Zach, tell us what is ads on the go? So we use our big three-screen digital mobile billboard truck to cut through the distracted world of advertising right now.

You know, the average consumer is exposed to 10,000 ads a day. And as we continue to get more distracted and ad blind, we need these really bold and unique ways to reach the consumer and especially affordable ways along with that. So we use our truck in multiple different ways, whether it's subscription advertising, to consistent high traffic areas, or whether it's awesome local events like Christmas parades, like, you know, advertising at the state fair, the nationals. We just try to create as many affordable and unskippable advertising opportunities to local businesses all around the area. That's the thing.

When you're stuck in traffic and that truck is in front of you, you can't look away. It's, I love how you say that, the unskippable ad. Absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, we're such a, we're in such a young industry and we're such a young company. We don't have all these huge statistics to say, hey, you know, you're going to get this many impressions. You're going to get this. You're going to get that. But at the end of the day, we can guarantee you're going to be seen. One of the most memorable ways possible. Again, 10,000 ads a day as you see all those billboards, as you see all the ads on Facebook, you're going to probably remember most the one that would drive by you on a big old TV. with wheels. Yeah. I love how you describe that, a big old TV with wheels. Absolutely. Because that is what it is. That's the thing that the nerd in me has always found so interesting about your business is you literally just have TVs. You've got screens on a truck that you can put anything on. It's not just a billboard, right? You can play movies. You can play a video game on this thing. Anything that can be plugged into an HDMI. So we've done, you know, Super Smash Bros.

We've done Mario Kart, obviously. That's easily my favorite on there. I took it to my 10-year-old little brother's birthday party, and out of all the games, he suggested Mortal Kombat. So that was a fun one to have on there. That sounds awesome. You know, we've live streamed Bill's games, March Madness. I mean, there's a lot of, I mean, really,

it's absolutely limitless to what we can do with it. And there's three speakers on each side of the truck, too. So you can utilize those in any way possible. We've done some live concerts before, too, during COVID. That was a nice little pivot that we did during that season. That's so incredible. I love the idea. Since we first met, I've always had this idea of, let's drive the truck into the middle of a field and have a movie, right?

Literally under the stars, but no electricity, no anything. It's just such a cool thing to me. Zach, we've talked about this before, but tell folks again a little bit about how you got into this. And I think what's really impressive, if folks haven't already. figured it out. This guy, like, I think he just turned old enough to drink, what, a month ago or something? Like, he's an incredible young entrepreneur. Tell us how you got here. Yeah, so when I was I think it just turned 19, I was in Jefferson Community College up in Watertown. And I had kind of really just gone on a whim. And I was in my second semester here. And what had happened was

we had these business intro classes where local entrepreneurs were come in and speak. And these two guys came in and spoke and they represented running boards marketing. It was the co-founders of it. And they were a digital mobile billboard company. The first one I ever seen in my entire life. You know, especially two years ago, it was even less prominent of a thing as it is today. And, you know, three years ago at this point. And I was just absolutely enamored by the idea.

And from there, I basically. borrowed a suit. I went to multiple networking events and I just kind of pestered these guys until they had a job opportunity available. And as soon as they did, I got hired. I had never done sales before. I was just working at a diner serving. I mean, I did an internship that went good. And from day one, we just, I had a fire lit under me to sell as much as I possibly could. I sold 72 ads in one month, which was more than all the franchises did. It started as a concept. They're actually in the Entrepreneur Magazine, franchise 500. So I was even more just completely enamored by the whole concept of it. And they grew the franchising side a little too

fast. And that kind of crumbled the company. There wasn't enough capital behind it to really sustain such a big hit. They had to buy that 10 of them almost right away. You know, COVID entrepreneurs, people who got a lot of money and were like, oh, I want to be an entrepreneur, but they didn't actually have the truck out there. We have one of the most incredible cold call methods. And it needs to be used by anybody who has that truck, you know, to make a mock-up ad, to get in front of that business for that to be your first impression of the salesperson or the owner, whoever is trying to sell you, it just makes for the most incredible, you know, unique sales approach. You have such a unique way to demonstrate the product at the first sales meeting,

like you said. I mean, that's, you know, we've seen it. The first time you were with us, you pull up and there's our logo on the truck and everybody. Come on, I literally yelled, I remember, to the office. Come on, everybody, come out and see this. You can't deny, especially as a business. There's nothing that makes a business owner more excited than seeing their logo in bright lights, right? What a hell of, what a great sales technique. It's truly worth all the time that goes into making all those cold call graphics.

Because, you know, it's one of those things where you can just feel really good about what you do on a daily basis. Yeah. Right. You know, sometimes, I mean, I get it too. You know, being pestered or being cold called by a salesperson isn't always the most, you know, exciting thing. You can have multiple outlooks on it, but at the end of the day, one time or another, it's going to frustrate you or it's going to upset you. Right. There's very few times where people are upset that I'm giving them free advertising just to talk to them for a minute. Yeah. I love just the idea of being able to spread that joy and to make, put smiles on people's

face in that way. It just, it's the absolute best, you know, and I really just, I go at it like I'm just trying to make their day. And it always tends to work out. That's awesome, man. I just love your approach to everything. It's really, it's really cool. One thing that I've always been very impressed with is, you personally have the skills to build these things, right? You're not even just, I'm a great entrepreneur. You talk about how you, you're enamored with the business and you, you figure out how to sell it, which is awesome. You also figured out how to literally do in the most, you know, granular level, how to literally build these giant screens. How long did it take you to figure out that stuff? Well, the lucky thing is I come from the beautiful generation that has

the internet and we can ask the internet every day. So between three years of just taking stuff apart and and really just, you know, reverse engineering how it works in research in the internet. I mean, within, I mean, it took a little while to really click because there's a lot of electrical components that go with it too, and I'm absolutely no electrician. But I know that when I get shocked, I got to do something different. So, you know, but it probably took about a year until I really understood it. And then, you know, two years to really, really be able to retrofit a screen to anything at this point.

Gotcha. You know, I just, I believe that technology is going to be a major part of our business. I think that there's very few people who understand how to build these screens in this area. And of the people who do understand, because they have such a big market share, they're able to charge a huge profit margin. So I'm able to do very similar, the same thing for a lot better of a value. Is that something that you also offer as a service? Can you go build a video screen for somebody or a truck for somebody if they wanted? We absolutely can.

It's nothing that I've been really outlaying trying to market. Right now I've been repairing some because that takes a lot less time than to actually be able to build some. I need to build a little bit more of a team behind me before I can start putting my focus over there. But if you go to anywhere in Asia, they have these screens on every building. We're 35 years behind the technology of those countries because that's all the manufacturing is in China. They don't have any American manufacturers for these panels and for these products. So I really am very excited to hopefully be at the forefront of that technology because

every few years it gets better and it gets better. Sure. You know, the most recent years, they were able to build the flexible panels. That's why they built the Vegas sphere. Yeah. What they built it from was those flexible P3, I believe, panels. And I just, I think it's going to keep going. It's going to keep going.

We're going to eventually, we've already started seeing these transparent film LED screens. So you could put them on like the outside of a hospital. And they're not seeing the advertising inside. They're just seeing outside. But outside, you can put whatever you want on that screen. That's incredible. So it's still a little bit behind where I think when it gets to that point, it's going to absolutely explode. But it's, you know, technology's just got a way of reinventing itself every few years.

Yeah. That's incredible. What's neat to me is, you know, you mentioned panels. And for people that don't know, they might see these things and look like that's a giant, you know, that's a 12-foot TV, right? In reality, it's not. It's a combination of tiles. And, like, you can see on our screen where we've got. six basically regular big screen TVs here but you use much smaller pieces right yeah they're

about a 192 millimeters so about six or seven point five inches and yeah I mean the the screens are made up of a whole bunch of them I think on the truck who are we at where about 220 of them just on the truck alone on all of its three screens so you know and what that does is it also makes the maintenance and it makes everything about it so much easier because if something goes wrong, it's likely going wrong with one square and not the whole screen or a big section of the screen. Yeah. So we try to, you know, pick the smaller panels. There's, there's a few that are a little bit bigger. I see.

But the smaller panels, there's kind of less that can go wrong. The power's divided a lot more. So it's distributed a lot more. So it's just a lot easier to maintain. That's incredible. That's incredible, man. So many cool things that you have going on. Let's talk about coming up. We're coming to the holiday season, right? Yes. And that means parades and all kinds of good things.

And that's also one of your kind of main staples, right? Yeah, we will be at just about every local parade you can find from here to, you know, to Clayton and Alex Bay area up north. Wow. That's a big part of our business. You know, anytime, any parade, really, it's, we're guaranteed to be the most. noticeable float. Sure. And again, with the digital screens, it allows us to represent either one business or allows us to represent multiple businesses, give them a really affordable opportunity to put

a holiday's message, to, you know, run a sale or whatever it is. And they don't got to go out in the cold and sit there with a wagon and a truck with a banner on it, right? We can be there float for them. We got the three speakers. We play, we play music. You know, a lot of the time, our can Candy throwers are dressed as Buddy the elf. We have a whole team of candy throwers. Nice. So I'm looking to do a little revamping to our candy thrower costumes this year. So that's always a very fun side of it.

We try to make it the most unique experience possible. Our spirit really comes out during those events. And it's just incredibly fun to be a part of it. I love that whole idea that you can be the float for businesses. Because, you know, I'm business owner myself. sure we love to participate in those things and they're fun but I feel like the days of people having the time and the space and the resources to build and then if you build a nice one you got to keep it somewhere right year after year these giant floats that we used to see in parades the idea that you could have something this awesome and attractive you know in being these parades and get that local representation I think it's awesome and like you said it's the most attention grabbing thing oh yeah yeah yeah It's, especially when you get really, you know, we try to push people towards more creative graphic design because there's just some really fun ways that our truck can be utilized, whether it's the messaging or whether it's the images and just make it incredible. I love to do the, you know, the animated ads with this type of thing, whether it's the, you know, reindeer flying around the logo.

I mean, there's just really fun stuff that we can do with it. Well, it's the thing. The other difference between a traditional sort of static build. board, right? Is that just a solid picture? Like you said, you could put a little element that makes it extra eye-catching. Especially at night. I mean, that thing lit up at night. It is, I mean, you can't look away from that. Zach, a couple more things, and we'll let you get back to it. But you mentioned a couple times now that what you offer some real affordable ways. Can you talk about that? Because quite frankly, I think what you have is incredible in terms of

you're offering an affordability to businesses. And I'd love to just mention that a little bit. Yeah, so I've always been really focused on creating these affordable marketing opportunities for small businesses because I really believe, and I know personally, how difficult it can be, especially throughout the whole season, to really find that budget for marketing. But it's such an absolutely crucial and essential things or thing. You know, we see businesses fall all the time because of improper marketing or lack of marketing, you know, you don't, people can't know what you don't tell them, right? So I've, that's always been a big passion of mine is just creating these opportunities. That's what started with our subscription route, where I said, we're going to drive

this area, you know, Monday through Friday this time to this time, and we're going to start as low as $300 for a whole month of advertising. And obviously, we have packages to amplify that, to show up a lot more. But with these events, too, it gives us. a really nice opportunity to build the share of the cost with a few local businesses as opposed to getting one big one. So with the prades, most of them, we have spots that start at $199. I can't think of many other ways to spend $199 to get in front of that many people. Right. It is absolutely just about the best value you can get.

Yeah. I love that. Because, again, it's guaranteed impressions. A lot of people spend money on marketing, not even knowing if you're not even knowing if you're People are going to see it. It might get ignored. It might be buried. But at the end of the day, $199 to get thousands of people to see your business in that positive light, you just really can't compare when it comes to other values. Well, I think it's a big deal to have a billboard, right? Even for everyday consumers, if they see whether it's driving on the road, it's seen on your truck, something like that. It's in New York City and it's, you know, one of the video screens that are on the buildings. things like that, that is a huge deal for everybody because that just has this impression that,

A, it's super expensive and that business has reached that level, right? They're at that capacity to where they can be in the sky or on the side of something. So the fact that you can provide that value to folks for, you know, not thousands of dollars, which I don't think a lot of people really understand how expensive traditional billboards are. It is insane. And not to, I don't. I mean, I believe every marketing strategy should have multiple methods, right? You can't just do one thing and be like, oh, that's going to work. So, but when you're talking about billboards and how many of them there are, you know, they become blended into the landscape.

They're also all the way up there. And there's something that aren't even lit up at night, which absolutely amazes me. I'm like, in a place that gets dark at 4 p.m. It's like, you think it's spring for the LED lights on there. You know, it's wild the way. But we're eye-level to you, right? Right in front of absolutely unmissable, unscapable. Are there, and I know we talked about this before,

but I just love folks to hear about it. Are there particular routes, particular roads where people in our area anyway might see you most often? Yeah, and definitely Route 11 and 31 in Cicero. It continues to be one of the busiest intersections of the greater Cherokee's area right now. Lots of people are absolutely disgusted. by it because there's traffic anyway you go around it.

I mean, it is, you go on 81 South, there's traffic, you go down 11, there's traffic half the time. You're on 31 to just finish that roundabout. But not only because of the traffic patterns as avi, but it's also a really popular intersection and a really good access point to multiple places in Syracuse. The rush hour commute mainly is what we stick to because it's just an incredible amount of cars. lot of standstill traffic. So we try to hit those consistent routes because they consistently have the volume to get there. You get the most eyes. Yeah. The worst part of traffic that everyone in Syracuse complains about is your sweet spot, right? Yes. I love that. I love that. Are there

are there any rules? I was thinking about this the other day. Are there any rules in terms of where you can or can't run your signs? And like one thing I was thinking of, like if you go to an event, Utica, can you run things all the way down the throughway and things like that? Yeah. So I have yet to find through research or through, you know, through somebody of authority telling me. Yeah. Anything that limits us except for the fact that, you know, past 10 p.m., it's, we shouldn't have the truck going. I see.

In certain villages or certain towns, the, having video and audio while the truck is driving, actively is more frowned upon-ish. Yeah. You know, it's not something we necessarily want to do. That's something we'd like to park and have it be, you know, a more effective campaign that way. But I have ran into very little, and knock on wood here, I've ran into very little occasions where somebody's like, you can't do that, can't do that. Sure. Because it's such a new industry, especially in this area.

Right. You know, in those big, big cities like Las Vegas, New York City that I've had them for a few years, they have, they have a lot. they have all these laws and regulations, but we don't have much in our specific area. But again, I just try to always just provide these incredible opportunities and hope it all pans out. Yeah, no, I hear you. And, you know, the reality is it seems unique to us, but the more and more you think of it, it is no different than anything else. It's no different than the, you know, the store on the side of the road that has the fake red police light

flashing everywhere all night long and, you know. I mean, really, if you look at, because of how high the truck sets up, if you're really looking at what everybody's doing while they're driving anyway, they're on their phones. Everybody's on their phones. It's absolutely insane to see, you know, just how many people are truly just sitting there on their phones in traffic. And then we drive by them and keep their eyes right on the road, you know.

So it's definitely not any more distracting than that. There you go. There you go. I feel like the DOT should contract with you just to place them. Yeah. Don't worry, guys, it'll be over soon. Or some kind of like calming messages, you know, that's where they're missing. They got to get the, yeah, they got to put the humor in there. Right, right. That's awesome, man. Zach, from Ads on the go, get ads on the go.com is the website. Zach, is that the best place if folks want to advertise their business? They want to have an event something like that. Is the website the best place to go? Is there other spots? The website's a great place to go. You can also give me a call. text 315-816-0-6-33 any time of the day if I don't answer you right away I'll answer you the second I get a minute to do so that's awesome man that's awesome uh Zach as always man we love

having you here thank you again as I mentioned earlier for for all your support of the show and for folks that are listening look forward to off the air we're planning some things where we're going to do even more things with Zach and his trucks and screens and nerdy gadgets. Man, after my own heart here. Buddy, anything else we should tell folks before we dip for the day? No, I think that's just about it. I appreciate you guys very much.

I appreciate all the kind words and I appreciate the support right back to you. I think, you know, we live in an incredible world and in an incredible area here where we can all, you know, use each other to, in a very beneficial way to grow our businesses. And I just think if everybody does that, then we just have an incredible world here. I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more, man. Zach from ads on the go,

always a great guest. Welcome anytime. Mike, I got to throw a quick shout out to Mike for running the board while I'm here and not making too many jokes about me. What else we got? Hey, we got sweatshirts. I'm looking at myself in the mirror.

Everybody loves it. this phase drug shirt. I made this for myself years ago, just because I wanted a vintage phase drug shirt. And I'll tell you what, I finally understand what attractive people live like. Yeah. Because I can wear this shirt and walk through the mall in every third person. Hey, nice shirt. Hey, what? Damn. Cool, man. They're finally available now. So on our TikTok shop, as well as our merch store, you can now get these awesome phase drug,

hoodies, t-shirts, and hats. So if you want to rep Central New York's favorite local brand that we all miss very much, that's what we got. You got a little bit of nostalgia. I'm a big nostalgia fan, man. And with that, it's been Good News, York. We will join you tomorrow for another fun-filled episode.

I know we got some cool guests and good news. So with that, peace out. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman, and Univorl Boutique River Cruises L'Ig-Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts, to hear about river cruising.

and Unarold's 50th anniversary summer specials. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign.

Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com.