Welcome to Shaping Success with Wes Tankersley as Wes talks to his boss Frank Arroues about his story of success.
Frank grew up in Southern California where his father was a Baptist preacher. As a result, the family moved around Southern California. He grew up in Joshua Tree California until he was 7 years old. He had an active childhood playing outside and being obsessed with baseball. His very first job was a paper route when he was very young. Then in high school he trimmed trees for a church called Campus Crusade for Christ.
Frank’s path to success started after high school when he worked at Bonds Grocery Company for 7 years. When he became Assistant Manager, he realized this was not his path. His boss told him that if the employees aren’t afraid of you and they like you, you are not doing your job. It was a mindset Frank did not have. He wanted his employees to know that he appreciated them. He knows he isn’t perfect, and he can learn from his employees.
After Bonds Grocery Company, Frank continued his journey to success by working at Frito Lay in sales. He spoke to the store managers telling them why they need to stock Frito Lay products. Through his hard work, Frank was promoted to District Manager. This was his first experience managing people. He achieved success by learning how to motivate and not to motivate by trial and error. The toughest thing for him was transitioning from friend to employer. He shares his secret to success in managing people by acknowledging that everyone is different. What works managing and speaking to one person may not work with another.
After a couple of years, Frank was again promoted this time to Regional manager. He would call on companies like Costco and Walmart sometimes traveling. In order to build relationships, he would take his clients places such as sporting events.
Frank also dealt with local and regional companies that was hesitant to buy from him because they wanted to promote the local products. An affirmation for success for Frank was convincing these small local stores that he wanted success for them as well as his company. He had to prove that he would take care of them as the customer. After all, the goal is to have a lifetime customer and not one time customer.
As a preacher, Frank’s father sometimes would preach in Boise, Idaho taking the family with him back and forth. Because of this experience, Frank and his family moved to Boise in 2000. He had different jobs as he couldn’t find outside sales jobs. He worked in an office in a cubicle selling copiers and printers. He said that wasn’t a bad thing because in his previous success, he got prideful. This office job humbled him.
In 2006, Frank had a friend that had a drapery and blind business and gave him a job. He worked with him doing sales and installation. After a year, the business closed down.
At this point in 2007, this set him up for success by starting his own blind business called Blind Appeal. This was doable because it wasn’t expensive to start. In the first year the business did well, as the economy was doing well. In 2008, the economy declined, and there was more competition with other blind companies. Through hard work and goal setting, Frank’s business grew.
Today, Blind Appeal is a family business of 16 employees. About half the employees there are family including his wife and 2 sons.
What makes Blind Appeal a cut above other blind companies? Frank says it’s a family business in which the employees get along and are efficient. The people are customer friendly. The workers are very skilled and considered better than average. Also, the employers care about the employees and customers. The customers see this and want to buy from this type of company.
At first, the business would advertise through flyers that they would give people just moving in to a home. Through Social media marketing, Wes and Frank are working together to get the business out there to even more people. Wes will post about Blind Appeal on Instagram where he has 1200 followers. There is potential for many more customers. Frank would pay for the advertisement.
Frank and Wes are working together to grow the business by posting on all forms of social media such as Facebook and Linkd In as well as Instagram.
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