Joseph Cloute is the owner of Bumble Bee Blinds of Madison, Wisconsin, bringing over 20 years of customer service and hospitality experience to the window covering industry. Known for his people-first approach, Joseph is passionate about delivering a seamless, worry-free experience from consultation to installation. With a background inspired by his father’s craftsmanship and a deep love for design, he’s committed to quality, integrity, and helping people love where they live.

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Will Hanke (00:00)
Welcome to another episode of marketing panes the podcast where we talk with real window treatment and awning service providers or business owners about their successes and struggles related to marketing their business. I’m your host, Will Hanke. And today we’re talking with someone that brings a fresh perspective and a whole lot of range from biotech labs to culinary kitchens, to building a business from scratch.

His career is anything but typical. He’s now the owner, operator of Bumble Bee Blinds in Madison, Wisconsin. We’ll talk about what made him choose to be in the window treatment niche, why he bet on a franchise, and how he’s approaching growth in a saturated market with a brand new name and a ton of drive.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to start from zero and build fast, this one’s for you. My guest today is Joseph Cloute He’s the owner of Bumble Bee Blinds. He brings a strong background in project management, operations, and customer success to the window covering industry. With a proven track record in driving efficiency, fostering client relationships, and leading teams to exceed expectations,

Joseph combines operational excellence with a passion for delivering outstanding results for his customers. Joseph, thank you for being on today.

Joseph Cloute (01:21)
Will thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here today.

Will Hanke (01:25)
Yeah, no problem. So as I mentioned in the intro, you started kind of in the biotech world. Let’s start with that story. How has somebody who’s a microbiology grad and a chef, from what I understand, end up in window treatments?

Joseph Cloute (01:42)
That’s the question I continue to answer in every networking group, et cetera. One of my answers is always, well, the guidance counselor in high school didn’t quite have window treatments franchises, like one of the options that you pick, right? So here we are.

Will Hanke (01:46)
You

Joseph Cloute (02:02)
at the age of 44 starting a business. I’ve had 26 jobs throughout my lifetime. Yeah, and so…

you know, kind of what led to this was just not quite being fulfilled in each of those circumstances. And so this was, you know, not only a venture that I took to try to integrate myself and be more a part of the community, but I’m also looking for that fulfillment. And part of that is through serving others and serving others through providing them window treatments and window covering solutions.

Will Hanke (02:37)
I like

that I had a similar path. No matter how many jobs you take, you feel like there’s just something out there. I ended up reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss and that’s really what kind of spurred me into action to, okay, how can I actually quit my job and start this thing for real? ⁓ Yeah, good stuff.

Joseph Cloute (02:47)
Tim Ferriss, absolutely.

You’re after

my heart when you start talking about, you know, reading books, continuing to discover yourself, finding, you know, your skill set and what personality traits, you know, you can utilize to the best to serve others, right?

Will Hanke (03:12)
Yeah, for

sure. I’ll have to ask you at the end about your favorite books or the ones you’re reading lately. So we’ll do that. ⁓ So tell me what attracted you to Bumble Bee specifically. There’s a lot of different franchise options out there. ⁓ How did you land there versus all the other ones?

Joseph Cloute (03:29)
Yeah, ⁓ was an interesting journey that started with the Entrepreneur Source. So they reached out to me and I actually utilized them and we looked at a number of franchises and part of that journey is some personality tests, some like…

get to know you with your coach and stuff like that. And I won’t lie to you, the first three that he put on my discovery center, one of the first ones was Bumble Bee Blinds and I just looked at him and I was like, I thought we got to know each other. ⁓ You put blinds on here? Like, what are we doing? And he’s like, trust the process, be curious.

ask questions and be open to new opportunities. And honestly, the more I learned about each franchise and their model and, you know, what the franchisor, you know, is doing with you and the partnership that they were creating, this just made more and more sense. And, you know, on the day that I signed the franchise agreement, Dwayne called me and he was just like, so do you trust me now?

You

Will Hanke (04:46)
great. I love that. ⁓ You mentioned this was your fourth career out of 26 jobs. What lessons from those past lives are helping you now?

Joseph Cloute (04:51)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. I would say the…

Finding control in the chaos of being a chef and working in kitchens It has been a big one because things get a little chaotic and you know I will never forget being at training with Bumble Bee and they were like, you know, all right Are you ready for this like journey? And you know, they’re trying to prep people who have like, you know lived in corporate life and lived in this you know, little bubble that they create in corporate and I was like Yeah, so like I was a chef

for seven years and they’re like you’re gonna be fine. We don’t think you’re gonna be gonna struggle here at all. So you know that was a big part of it and with working in customer service whether it was in project management or whether it was in the culinary you know that level of hospitality right culinary school they were like if you are you gonna choose to be a cook or you’re gonna choose to be a culinary?

Like, you gonna be a master of your craft or are just gonna come here and put in the time and collect a paycheck? And that is my approach to my business now. It is, I wanna be master of my craft. I wanna be the go-to person who knows not only the systems, but the products and the operations and any of the, you know, accounting and business portion and how to network, how to grow, all of the things just full circle.

I want to be a master of it all and you know part of that is that background that came from through kitchens and through project management as well.

Will Hanke (06:38)
while you’ve had a pretty wild ride, if your next move wasn’t blinds, what would it have been?

Joseph Cloute (06:45)
Great question. I think about that often. ⁓ I would say it would be my 27th job, which would have probably led to my 28th job, which would have led to my 29th job. So I was happy to find this.

Will Hanke (06:53)
Great.

Yeah, makes sense. So I know that you just recently started with the Bumble bee franchise. How far are you into that?

Joseph Cloute (07:08)
Yeah, we just celebrated 100 days.

Will Hanke (07:11)
100 days, okay. So how’s it going so far? Any surprises, anything that you didn’t expect?

Joseph Cloute (07:19)
⁓ I think Bumble bee Blinds set us up ⁓ with at least expectations. Has there been surprises? Well, well. ⁓ I don’t know if you’ve lived in America since January, but there’s been a couple of surprises that have occurred. ⁓ So those were unexpected. ⁓ I signed paperwork on January 6th.

Will Hanke (07:32)
you

tell me more.

Joseph Cloute (07:43)
I don’t know that any of us could have predicted some of the economic and tariff volatility that we’ve had. ⁓ I would say unprecedented, but you’ve been in the business longer than me, so maybe you can chime in on that one.

Will Hanke (07:57)
There’s always ups and downs in the world of pricing. hahaha More ups than downs.

Joseph Cloute (07:59)
That’s a good blanket statement. like that. ⁓

But yeah, I would say outside of that, ⁓ the biggest surprises would be, you know, firing ⁓ my design consultant on day one and taking over that role, ⁓ learning a bit about myself and the fact that I can execute.

as a salesman at a high level. ⁓ That was unexpected to me. ⁓ Even my family when I’m like, yeah, so I do all the sales and they’re like, okay, and how’s that going? And I’m like, actually, it’s awesome. I like, I really enjoy it. It’s one of my favorite parts of the business is being out there with the clients, ⁓ helping them find solutions, solving their problems and that kind of stuff. ⁓ But overall, it’s been going better than expected. ⁓

I am hitting the corporate franchise KPIs that they set out. So meeting their expectations, I would say, as a franchise owner. ⁓ Not meeting my own because I don’t know if I ever will because that’s just the personality type that I am.

My girlfriend often asks me when I’m gonna celebrate my wins and I’m like, well, when I get some and she’s like, you just hit all of your numbers for the month, that’s a big win and I’m like, wow, those are their numbers, they’re not mine.

Will Hanke (09:36)
Right, it’s good to ⁓ have a goal in place and then obviously try to exceed that goal. So, very good. On the franchise side of things, any challenges or things that you didn’t expect there?

Joseph Cloute (09:40)
Absolutely.

Yeah.

I wouldn’t say challenges. I would say they’ve created more and more opportunities. They continue to bring on vendors, ⁓ which, you know, A, was part of the reason why I chose Bumble bee Blinds, as there is other window treatment franchises. ⁓ But they continue to kind of exceed those expectations of pushing themselves to do more.

to help the franchisees more to find and solve issues that are currently happening, right? Whether that’s bringing on new vendors, either from the marketing side, from insurance side, from even the window treatment vendors themselves, right?

Will Hanke (10:38)
Yeah, sounds like they really set you up for success.

Joseph Cloute (10:40)
Absolutely, yeah.

Will Hanke (10:42)
That’s great. And you mentioned KPIs, so they give you some sort of KPIs, metrics that they would assume you would want to hit, ⁓ they’ve this before.

Joseph Cloute (10:51)
Absolutely. One

of the things that you go out there for your discovery day and that KPI Dashboard spoke to me so much because I am fairly competitive by nature. So if you give me, here’s your carrot, like go get it. I’m gonna get after it and I’m gonna hustle and I’m gonna do everything in my power to…

to hit those marks and then if you’re putting me up against the other franchisees, now we’re talking.

Will Hanke (11:23)
Yeah, yeah, that makes it a lot more fun. ⁓ Especially when they have, typically the franchises have a year end get together and the top earners are up there on the stage and everybody in the audience is thinking they wish they were up there.

Joseph Cloute (11:26)
yeah.

Or strategizing how you’re going to be up there next year for sure.

Will Hanke (11:43)
Right,

for sure, yeah. So Madison is a pretty competitive market. How are you carving out your own space there?

Joseph Cloute (11:52)
Yeah, I was gonna ask you a question right back about that Will. Talk to me what you consider a competitive market.

Will Hanke (11:56)
Okay.

⁓ I think the first thing would be lots of other window treatment companies. And in my world, lots of window treatment companies that are actually doing digital marketing or marketing online. Yeah.

Joseph Cloute (12:13)
Gotcha. Yeah.

I mean, I did my competitive market analysis, ⁓ you know, prior to even signing on with Bumble bee and I saw nothing but opportunities in the market. I think it was something that helped guide me to be like, yeah, this is a yes. I can see an opportunity here where I can bring

my skill set and exceed expectations here. But yeah, I think some of the big ones is, you know, just getting out in the community is has been a space that I’ve carved out. ⁓ You know, whether it’s a chamber event, whether it’s a networking event, I don’t see my competitors at any of the events. I don’t see them in networking groups. I don’t see them participating in the chamber. And as we kind of touched on earlier,

Will Hanke (12:53)
Yeah.

Joseph Cloute (13:07)
That was one of the reasons why I got into this. I wanted to be a part of and help the community and get to the point where I’m sponsoring things and, you know, just helping more and more people. And part of that was being able to go to these groups and provide, you know, a level of service to them and help mentor people in other spaces. And, you know, this is really allowing me to do that. And, and I just, you know, that’s my niche, I would say that I’ve carved out is I’m

out there there in the community, networking, and doing that kind of stuff.

Will Hanke (13:44)
Yeah, yeah. Since we’re going to have some book references here, if you’ve ever read Blue Ocean Strategy, that sounds very similar to what you’re talking about. Even though there is a decent amount of physical competition in the area, if they’re not doing the right things, that’s an opportunity, no matter how many there are.

Joseph Cloute (14:04)
Yeah, absolutely.

Will Hanke (14:06)
Yeah, very good. ⁓ Since we’re talking about marketing, any marketing or sales moves that have helped you stand out early on?

Joseph Cloute (14:14)
Yeah, I would say you talk about the brand setting us up for success. ⁓ One of the things is you get a vehicle, your vehicle’s wrapped, and if you haven’t seen a Bumble bee Blind wrapped vehicle driving around your community, let’s just say they stand out. ⁓ My minivan that is wrapped in ⁓ bright yellow with Bumble bee decals,

Will Hanke (14:26)
Okay.

Joseph Cloute (14:44)
His name is ⁓ Ricky Babee and he’s got his own Insta handle so you can follow him around. ⁓ But, you know, that kind of stuff. You know, we’re out there intentionally parking the vehicle in prime spots. ⁓ You know, we chose to do the Fourth of July parade, which we made a family affair. So grandma was driving the vehicle.

My son dressed up as the Bumble bee Transformer. ⁓ You know, playing off of the bee stuff. We have a Bumble bee costume as well. And my girlfriend walked along too and we handed out a of honeys. I mean, it was such a great day and now, you know, my son who’s six is just like, when do we get to do the next parade? I was like, well, kind of 4th July is about that time. So next year. So, you know, just things like that where we’ve

Will Hanke (15:14)
Thanks.

Ha ⁓

Right?

Wow.

Joseph Cloute (15:40)
Taken marketing, we’ve made it fun. We’ve made it something that, you know, the family gets to participate in. And I think that speaks to the level of wanting to be a part of the community.

Will Hanke (15:51)
Yeah, yeah, the brand makes it easy to have a lot of fun too.

Joseph Cloute (15:55)
Absolutely, absolutely. And we’ll get into those Bumble bee puns, I think, a little bit later.

Will Hanke (16:01)
Perfect, that’s great. So let’s dive in a little bit on the franchise side. I’d like to educate some listeners that maybe don’t know the differences or the pros and cons. For anybody who maybe is unfamiliar with Bumble bee Blinds in particular, what sets that brand apart?

Joseph Cloute (16:18)
Yeah, Bumble bee Blinds is one of nine home service franchises that is run by horsepower brands. So when you talk about things that are at that scale, you know, that increases not only their buying power, it increases, you know, vendors coming to them to want to work with them. And then they can spread that across all of their home services, Bumble bee Blinds being one of them.

So that’s been really great. I think they are at the front end of kind of utilizing technology. You know, they have ⁓ an AI ride along tool that they use so that way I can work on, you know, how I’m communicating with my clients and just get better at that type of stuff. They have an AI system to just help us with.

general everyday questions, whether it be product specific stuff, whether it be, you know, where do I find this document type of stuff. So leaning into those kinds of things, you know, from coming from the corporate side and working as a project manager in the pharmaceutical space, you know, we were on the front end of that and I see that with them as well. And it’s just helped gain so many efficiencies that, you know, I wouldn’t be able to.

put together have if I chose the independent route.

Will Hanke (17:44)
Oh, for sure. Thing that comes to my mind is SOPs, just having those already in place, even if they were built for, I don’t know if they have maybe a plumbing niche, right? But the end product is mostly the same, right? When it comes to SOPs, they change a little bit here and there, but having that horsepower, for lack of better term, is fantastic.

Joseph Cloute (18:10)
Absolutely. You know, the online learning that we did prior to opening as I continue to expand my team, they have learning paths for every role that you’re going to have and do trainings and all of those things, which absolutely speaks to me of having those systems and structures in place.

Will Hanke (18:32)
so you mentioned the online learning that you took early on. Is that what led you to let your designer go?

Joseph Cloute (18:42)
I would say it was more the hands-on stuff. you know, early on, I didn’t really know the personality type that would be successful in that role. And now that I’m doing it, I think my next hire is going to be a much better fit. ⁓ you can imagine not living in the window space, not being a salesperson myself. ⁓

and hiring someone who you think is a good fit because of their background and history. And then you’re like, ⁓ like this is not quite right and not going to be a good fit. you know, and part of it was the team and, you know, leaning on the franchise themselves. Like they’re trying to look out for you and your best interests and having, you know, that those voices as well to help guide you in.

in a spot where you’re learning just as quickly as everyone else ⁓ has been a big help and it was probably one of the best decisions I made for the business.

Will Hanke (19:47)
That’s great. When I started my business 28 years ago now, ⁓ I used to always roll my eyes at the personality tests and those kinds of things. But at some point somebody did one for me and I was like reading it. I’m like, my God, this is…

This is like all the things, this is how you should talk to me, all these different things. And it really opened my eyes to the hiring side, that it’s not just experience, but it’s also, is this person going to be a good fit for our culture?

Joseph Cloute (20:17)
Yeah, exactly. And trust me, ⁓ it will be part of the new onboarding process because it just makes you a better leader of other people because you’re able to speak to them in a way that they can hear you, right?

Will Hanke (20:33)
Right, yeah, very good. So since you’re part of a larger network, how does that kind of ⁓ hive vibe play out day to day?

Joseph Cloute (20:44)
Yeah, we have a great owners chat. ⁓ We do call it the hive. You know, each weekend in my Bee & I group, the buzz in the hive this week is, you know, and it’s something new every week. ⁓ But it’s been awesome. ⁓ I think that was one of the things that also attracted me to Bumble bee was the support you get from the other owners. They all want to see you succeed because when…

one franchise succeeds, everybody succeeds and it’s all good for the brand. ⁓ So whether it’s sharing resources, whether it’s sharing, you know, print collateral or something like that, or just answering a question of like, which vendor do I pick for XYZ and who’s using this marketing team and you know, how are you seeing? So having that resource and somebody who’s in that all the time has been great.

And then equally, I have people who I’ve built what I feel like is going to be lifelong friendships, both on the personal side. And, you know, we talk family, we talk kids, we talk business. You know, I’m sending pictures of the food I just cooked, you know, those types of things that just keep you engaged. And, you know, and then when you do go through those, you know, as you said, there’s ups and downs. When you do go through those downs, you know, they’re there to.

lift you back up and support you because they’ve all been there before.

Will Hanke (22:14)
That’s great. I love that. How much freedom do you have to market and operate locally?

Joseph Cloute (22:20)
Yeah, quite a bit. Like I said, it’s been awesome that they have vetted a bunch of vendors that are available to us. But equally, you know, we’re allowed to utilize them or not utilize them. ⁓ It’s great that they screen them. That creates a huge efficiency on my side. If I was just typing into the Google machine, you know, who should I use for digital marketing?

⁓ and trying to sift through the thousands of companies doing that type of stuff, right, would be really difficult. So the fact that they have great relationships and they’ve vetted these out ⁓ really is a benefit of the franchise itself. But also there’s plenty of room. I’m part of my neighborhood associations newsletter and email blast, right? Something that I wanted to do to give back to the neighborhood association, you know.

I pay them a fee to be advertised, but I was like, this is literally my neighborhood. I want to help all of my neighbors achieve whatever goals they have for their house. So best way to do that is be a part of the newsletter that helps sponsor all of the things that we do, the Turkey Trot, the Go Meet Santa Claus, the Egg Hunt, right? So, you know, it just allowed that and it’s great that Horsepower equally allows us to do those kinds of things.

Will Hanke (23:48)
That’s great. Are there any systems or tech tools from corporate that you’ve really leaned on?

Joseph Cloute (23:54)
Yeah, well, one of our brand differentiators with Bumble bee is the fact that we have, we utilize a large number of vendors. So I have like six vendors that I work with on a pretty regular basis. And I don’t know if you know this, but each one of those vendors likes to utilize their own platform and system for ordering, for tracking, for everything.

Will Hanke (24:18)
course.

Joseph Cloute (24:19)
So leaning into the Solitech software that Bumble bee Blinds has available to us, where it’s one platform that works with all the different vendors. So I only had to learn one system versus six systems. And then, you know, the amount of orders and remakes goes way down when you’re used to using the same software over and over again. So that’s been a huge tool. I think we touched on the

the AI ride along, ⁓ being able to hear yourself, find little tweaks, ⁓ the AI tool where it’s like, listen to this minute and a half of your three hour appointment. This is something we could clean up, right? Those types of things. You don’t have to listen to the whole thing. ⁓ Huge, huge benefits. I mean, we’re all trying to get better every day, right? So to have that kind of a resource at your disposal has been great.

Will Hanke (25:04)
wow, great.

Yeah. What advice would you give to somebody who’s comparing the franchise model versus just kind of starting from scratch?

Joseph Cloute (25:24)
Yeah, I think one of the biggest things and I had the benefit of the entrepreneur source doing it, but you got to learn more about yourself. And you talked about taking a personality test, great way to do it, right? But I mentioned, you know, figuring out the skills that I had that I wanted to, you know, utilize in this venture, right? So I think finding that right fit is important. And then

Thinking about it as, you know, the franchise is not your boss. They’re a partner in this. So if you think about it as a partnership and if you were going into a marriage or something like that, is this somebody who, you know, you wanna partner with for the next 10 years? You know, are they gonna hold up their end of the bargain and be a good partner and, you know, want the best for you or not? And then equally, you know,

thinking about how long your runway is. Because the ramp up, I mean, I wouldn’t be in the place I am 100 days in if it were not for the franchise. I can say that 100%. ⁓ So if you have enough runway and you think the independent route is the way you want to go, awesome. But I mean, the ramp up is intense even for having the franchise and the large amount of resources that I think we already touched on.

Will Hanke (26:55)
Yeah, yeah, so let’s talk a little bit about the first 100 days. ⁓ What’s the biggest mind shift that you’ve had since you started?

Joseph Cloute (27:04)
Yeah, and you kind of talked about a couple of things through your book reading and knowledge and stuff like that. But I have a really good gratitude practice, you know, waking up every day, thinking about the things that I’m grateful for, writing those down, think about where I want to go this next week, this next month, and those types of things has been really key.

And then I always say, even though, you know, it’s chaos everywhere and I’m learning as I go and those types of things, I never tell the universe I’m busy. I have the capacity to take on anything that you want to bring into my space. And with that, you know, I always see more and more appointments and leads come through and opportunities continue to come my way because I’m calling them in by, you know, if I woke up every day and said,

I’m so busy. I’m exhausted. All of those things. I’m saying stop, stop, stop. Like don’t give me more leads. Don’t give me more opportunities. Don’t give me more people to help. And so I’m always focused on that. Like I have the capacity to help so many people. So just keep sending them my way. And then I would say the other thing was I didn’t realize this until I was actually in it, but I’m in the solutions business and it just happens to be window treatments, right?

I’m here to solve problems and help you. I’m not here to sell you anything. And that came through, I wouldn’t have known that had I not had the opportunity to be out there doing the consultations.

Will Hanke (28:39)
What is the saying? ⁓ They don’t need a drill, they just need a hole. Sell what they actually need, not the tool to get it there. That’s great. I’ve got an accountability partner I meet with every Monday and we do something called Win the Week. And basically it’s what is the thing that if on Friday you got done this week, you would consider this week as a one week.

Joseph Cloute (28:47)
Exactly, exactly.

Will Hanke (29:06)
⁓ And I think those mind shifts mindset kind of shifts are really important for business owners

Joseph Cloute (29:12)
Yeah, absolutely. Accountability partners are great. And that’s one other thing with that whole gratitude thing, you know, and you got to be grateful for that person too, right?

Will Hanke (29:15)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Any unexpected skills that turned out to be crucial?

Joseph Cloute (29:28)
man, yes. ⁓ So one of the 26 jobs was actually a professor of microbiology. And so I did that for a couple of semesters to cover maternity leave. I didn’t realize that being an educator and the skills that I learned teaching other people was going to be such a huge part of this. ⁓ So as I go into, you know, consultations, I’m there to educate.

Will Hanke (29:29)
you

Okay, yeah.

Joseph Cloute (29:57)
And if you want to utilize some of the things that I have and they solve these problems, that’s great. I mean, that’s what I’m here for. That’s why we’re here. But, you know, it’s providing that transparency and educating the client on why we’re choosing this, why we’re not choosing something else. And equally, most people don’t know most of the products that are out there. Like things have come so far in the last…

five to 10 years, whether it’s motorization or some of these other type of coverings that we have the opportunity to sell that, you know, seeing their eyes open up of like, I’ve never even seen this before. This is awesome. I’m going to be the talk of all of my friends. So those types of things have been really great. And then I would say the other one is active listening. ⁓ I think it’s, you know,

Will Hanke (30:42)
you

Joseph Cloute (30:53)
a great tool. It’s something that I continue to come back on over and over again. You know, you’re not only listening to what they’re saying, you’re listening to how they feel about different things, right? And trying to work with them through all of those things to find that right solution.

Will Hanke (31:13)
Yeah, yeah, very, very important. ⁓ Biggest win, personal or professional?

Joseph Cloute (31:20)
Yeah, I think one of them and this is, you you talked about what your next job was going to be. I almost said coaching and coaching, not like sports coaching, but coaching other people, you know, in whatever thing they’re in, right? Place they’re in in their life, any of those things. So one of the opportunities that I’ve had is to be a mentor for some of the other franchisees and

that is like my wheelhouse. Like let’s talk all the stuff. Let’s talk the business part of stuff. Let’s talk about, like you said, your mindset. ⁓ Who are you reading? What podcasts are you listening to? You know, how are you bringing in information to help you grow as a person and then your business will grow equally, right? So the mentorship for sure. And then one of the other things that’s been a big win is kind of that

seeing the transformation of people’s homes and then hearing some of the feedback, ⁓ you know, the success stories of like, my gosh, my kid’s sleeping for 10 hours straight and they were used to be up like at the crack of dawn or not be able to fall asleep during the summer or those types of things because you’ve found a solution that’s helped them, right? And studies continue to come out about kids in sleep and, you know, adults in their sleep and the things that you need.

to have a successful sleep. I think window treatments plays a huge role in that. So I think that’s been a huge win as well.

Will Hanke (32:54)
That’s awesome. So let’s switch it up a little bit. I got a couple of quick hits for you and we’ll jump into some of that hive humor that you mentioned earlier. What’s your go-to pitch when a homeowner is skeptical about going maybe with somebody that’s only 100 days in?

Joseph Cloute (33:04)
Yeah, let’s do it.

Yeah, my favorite one is, well, I’m not retiring anytime soon, because I just got into this, right? I’m going be here for a while. So whether we want to move forward right now, whether it makes sense next year, I’m still going to be here. Call me up. I’ll be ready to help you whenever you are.

Will Hanke (33:18)
You

Yeah, I like that. I also know that you like puns, which I’m a huge fan of, especially one liners. One liners are my favorite. But what is your favorite dad joke that you’ve used with a customer?

Joseph Cloute (33:51)
Well, we kind of talked about, you know, ⁓ this is the thing I’ve been buzzing about all week, ⁓ you know, is always a good one. And then I always like to leave people with, you know, Bumble bee Blinds of Madison, we’re your window covering specialists and we have prices that won’t sting. Just kind of slip that one in there.

Will Hanke (34:10)
Nice.

I like that. ⁓ What’s your go-to strategy if you know a competitor is also quoting the same job?

Joseph Cloute (34:20)
Yeah, I think it goes back to the educational piece that I was kind of talking about where, you know, I always try to let them know that you got to be comparing apples to apples, right? And equally, you know, we talked about solving your specific problems, and I think this is going to do that. And the value that that’s going to bring is probably more important than the price point oftentimes. So if you’re just shopping price, like I try to convert to

value and quality over just shopping who’s going to come to the lowest price. ⁓ And then I always leave them with, you know, I would love the opportunity to walk through your other estimate and discuss it with you and compare it to mine ⁓ and tell you why we chose specific things versus what they chose. you know, if I never talk poorly about my competitors equally, they’re out there just like me with the family at home.

doing their best every day. So I would rather do it in a way that is continuing to educate the client versus choose me because they’re terrible people, right?

Will Hanke (35:31)
Right. Good, good. What is one thing that every business owner should automate right away?

Joseph Cloute (35:41)
They’re window coverings. Will, come on, let’s go. Motorization is the future. Tell Alexa to turn it up, turn it down, show you the sunrise, all the things, automate your window coverings.

Will Hanke (35:43)
you

Bye.

I like that. That’s pretty smart. Then you know what you’re talking about, right? Real-world example.

Joseph Cloute (36:01)
Hey, it’s made me

a better salesperson to install, to learn the tack, to do the motorization trainings and to have it in my own home.

Will Hanke (36:12)
Perfect, perfect. ⁓ If you had to pitch Bumble bee Blinds in one pun-filled sentence, what would it be?

Joseph Cloute (36:19)
Dress up your hive with Bumble Bee Blinds. We have the prices that won’t sting you.

Will Hanke (36:25)
Love it. That’s awesome. That’s great. Thank you. ⁓ So before we wrap up, I want to talk about books. You mentioned that you’re an avid reader of, guess, what we could call self-help type books. ⁓ What books, what other books have influenced you, your approach to business, your personal growth, and then of course, how have you applied those to your new venture?

Joseph Cloute (36:28)
Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Simon Sinek, Across the Board, his podcast, Him as a Human, all of his books, fantastic. Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara ⁓ Obviously spoke to me a little bit with my chef background as he was the one who helped bring Eleven Madison Park to the number one restaurant in the world. But him speaking about hospitality versus service.

and hospitality being how you make people feel versus service just checking the box that you completed the job as kind of required is a huge thing that I think about every single day. Like what can I do to help people feel better, whether it’s in my presence or about their decisions that they’re making. And then I’m working through good to great right now, because as we talked about.

I’m doing good. How do we do great? When do we scale? How do we scale? When’s that next step? Those types of things.

Will Hanke (37:46)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that’s a staple for sure.

Joseph Cloute (37:54)
Absolutely. And then Bumble bee Blinds, hands out, traction, ahm using an EOS system early on and that’s been super helpful as well I would say.

Will Hanke (38:00)
⁓ great.

Yes.

Yeah. Huge fan of EOS. I sent traction to all of my clients. It is fantastic. So great mention. Right now I’m reading one called The Road Less Stupid, which has been phenomenal. It’s all about thinking through.

Joseph Cloute (38:15)
Yeah, how about you? What are you reading?

Will Hanke (38:26)
things that you need to solve ⁓ and making those decisions, educated decisions, taking the time to just stop and think ⁓ has been fantastic. ⁓ traction, I think, is great, as you mentioned.

There’s a book called Outgrow, which is basically EOS for sales. It really shows you how to apply a system to sales, to outreach, to upselling, all that kind of stuff. Fantastic book. Definitely recommend that.

Joseph Cloute (38:59)
Very cool.

Will Hanke (39:00)
Very good. Well, thank you again, ⁓ Joseph. Any last bit of encouragement for those that are starting out and considering the franchising route?

Joseph Cloute (39:10)
Yeah, absolutely. I have listened to so many things about entrepreneurs and they all talk about the grind. And you got to figure out what that grind is and then find fulfillment in the grind. What part of that like really speaks to you. And we mentioned mine is I get so fulfilled actually going out on the consultations and helping people that

when I was entering into this journey, I asked all my friends who are entrepreneurs and I was like, do you have to, does it have to be your purpose, right? know, my friend who owns the gym, like you’re super passionate about fitness. Like I’m not necessarily at the time, wasn’t super passionate about window treatments. I was like, so how am I gonna, it’s not really my purpose. Like, am I gonna be fulfilled by this? And they’re like,

you gotta find the parts that fulfill you. And for me, that’s the working with the client, the finding the right solution to them, the troubleshooting their problems and those types of things, like gets me out of bed every single morning excited to be here. And so just know that you gotta find that. And there’s the parts that aren’t as fun, know, running a sales tax report and paying those types of things, like not my favorite part of the job, but absolutely.

you know, something that gets me to that next appointment, right?

Will Hanke (40:42)
Yeah, you mentioned Simon Sinek, Find Your Why, I think. Fantastic video. Yeah, yeah, great. How can people follow your journey and your van’s journey if they have questions?

Joseph Cloute (40:45)
Very, very similar, absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. bumblebeeblinds.com/madison-wi You can find Bumble bee Blinds Madison on all of your meta, your Insta, my Google profile. We’re out there all the time. Gonna be out there this weekend. We have a kids triathlon that we’re gonna be at. So find Ricky there.

Find us hashtag, follow Ricky’s journey as well. But yeah, looking forward to talking to you in a year and talking about how we’re gonna continue to scale and where we’re gonna scale to.

Will Hanke (41:35)
Yeah, that’d be a lot of fun to hear that journey as well. Awesome. Well, Joseph, thank you again for being on today. This has been some fantastic insight. I really do appreciate it.

Joseph Cloute (41:38)
Absolutely.

Absolutely, it was my pleasure Will and love talking to you and what you’re doing as well.

Will Hanke (41:51)
Awesome. Well, that’s a wrap for today’s episode of Marketing Pains. A big thanks to Joseph Cloute for sharing his journey from building a career across diverse industries to launching Bumble bee Blinds of Madison, Wisconsin.

and giving us an inside look at how he’s carving out space in a competitive market with a brand new name and a whole lot of determination. If you’ve been thinking about what it takes to start from scratch, grow fast, or bring fresh ideas into a saturated industry, I hope today’s conversation left you with inspiration and some practical takeaways that you can put to work.

As always, if you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing or sharing it with someone in the industry that you think might find it useful. You can find more episodes and resources over at Window Treatment Marketing Pros on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, all the usual places. Until our next episode here at Marketing Panes thank you for listening.

Will Hanke (00:00)
Welcome to another episode of marketing panes the podcast where we talk with real window treatment and awning service providers or business owners about their successes and struggles related to marketing their business. I’m your host, Will Hanke. And today we’re talking with someone that brings a fresh perspective and a whole lot of range from biotech labs to culinary kitchens, to building a business from scratch.

His career is anything but typical. He’s now the owner, operator of Bumble Bee Blinds in Madison, Wisconsin. We’ll talk about what made him choose to be in the window treatment niche, why he bet on a franchise, and how he’s approaching growth in a saturated market with a brand new name and a ton of drive.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to start from zero and build fast, this one’s for you. My guest today is Joseph Cloute He’s the owner of Bumble Bee Blinds. He brings a strong background in project management, operations, and customer success to the window covering industry. With a proven track record in driving efficiency, fostering client relationships, and leading teams to exceed expectations,

Joseph combines operational excellence with a passion for delivering outstanding results for his customers. Joseph, thank you for being on today.

Joseph Cloute (01:21)
Will thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here today.

Will Hanke (01:25)
Yeah, no problem. So as I mentioned in the intro, you started kind of in the biotech world. Let’s start with that story. How has somebody who’s a microbiology grad and a chef, from what I understand, end up in window treatments?

Joseph Cloute (01:42)
That’s the question I continue to answer in every networking group, et cetera. One of my answers is always, well, the guidance counselor in high school didn’t quite have window treatments franchises, like one of the options that you pick, right? So here we are.

Will Hanke (01:46)
You

Joseph Cloute (02:02)
at the age of 44 starting a business. I’ve had 26 jobs throughout my lifetime. Yeah, and so…

you know, kind of what led to this was just not quite being fulfilled in each of those circumstances. And so this was, you know, not only a venture that I took to try to integrate myself and be more a part of the community, but I’m also looking for that fulfillment. And part of that is through serving others and serving others through providing them window treatments and window covering solutions.

Will Hanke (02:37)
I like

that I had a similar path. No matter how many jobs you take, you feel like there’s just something out there. I ended up reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss and that’s really what kind of spurred me into action to, okay, how can I actually quit my job and start this thing for real? ⁓ Yeah, good stuff.

Joseph Cloute (02:47)
Tim Ferriss, absolutely.

You’re after

my heart when you start talking about, you know, reading books, continuing to discover yourself, finding, you know, your skill set and what personality traits, you know, you can utilize to the best to serve others, right?

Will Hanke (03:12)
Yeah, for

sure. I’ll have to ask you at the end about your favorite books or the ones you’re reading lately. So we’ll do that. ⁓ So tell me what attracted you to Bumble Bee specifically. There’s a lot of different franchise options out there. ⁓ How did you land there versus all the other ones?

Joseph Cloute (03:29)
Yeah, ⁓ was an interesting journey that started with the Entrepreneur Source. So they reached out to me and I actually utilized them and we looked at a number of franchises and part of that journey is some personality tests, some like…

get to know you with your coach and stuff like that. And I won’t lie to you, the first three that he put on my discovery center, one of the first ones was Bumble Bee Blinds and I just looked at him and I was like, I thought we got to know each other. ⁓ You put blinds on here? Like, what are we doing? And he’s like, trust the process, be curious.

ask questions and be open to new opportunities. And honestly, the more I learned about each franchise and their model and, you know, what the franchisor, you know, is doing with you and the partnership that they were creating, this just made more and more sense. And, you know, on the day that I signed the franchise agreement, Dwayne called me and he was just like, so do you trust me now?

You

Will Hanke (04:46)
great. I love that. ⁓ You mentioned this was your fourth career out of 26 jobs. What lessons from those past lives are helping you now?

Joseph Cloute (04:51)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. I would say the…

Finding control in the chaos of being a chef and working in kitchens It has been a big one because things get a little chaotic and you know I will never forget being at training with Bumble Bee and they were like, you know, all right Are you ready for this like journey? And you know, they’re trying to prep people who have like, you know lived in corporate life and lived in this you know, little bubble that they create in corporate and I was like Yeah, so like I was a chef

for seven years and they’re like you’re gonna be fine. We don’t think you’re gonna be gonna struggle here at all. So you know that was a big part of it and with working in customer service whether it was in project management or whether it was in the culinary you know that level of hospitality right culinary school they were like if you are you gonna choose to be a cook or you’re gonna choose to be a culinary?

Like, you gonna be a master of your craft or are just gonna come here and put in the time and collect a paycheck? And that is my approach to my business now. It is, I wanna be master of my craft. I wanna be the go-to person who knows not only the systems, but the products and the operations and any of the, you know, accounting and business portion and how to network, how to grow, all of the things just full circle.

I want to be a master of it all and you know part of that is that background that came from through kitchens and through project management as well.

Will Hanke (06:38)
while you’ve had a pretty wild ride, if your next move wasn’t blinds, what would it have been?

Joseph Cloute (06:45)
Great question. I think about that often. ⁓ I would say it would be my 27th job, which would have probably led to my 28th job, which would have led to my 29th job. So I was happy to find this.

Will Hanke (06:53)
Great.

Yeah, makes sense. So I know that you just recently started with the Bumble bee franchise. How far are you into that?

Joseph Cloute (07:08)
Yeah, we just celebrated 100 days.

Will Hanke (07:11)
100 days, okay. So how’s it going so far? Any surprises, anything that you didn’t expect?

Joseph Cloute (07:19)
⁓ I think Bumble bee Blinds set us up ⁓ with at least expectations. Has there been surprises? Well, well. ⁓ I don’t know if you’ve lived in America since January, but there’s been a couple of surprises that have occurred. ⁓ So those were unexpected. ⁓ I signed paperwork on January 6th.

Will Hanke (07:32)
you

tell me more.

Joseph Cloute (07:43)
I don’t know that any of us could have predicted some of the economic and tariff volatility that we’ve had. ⁓ I would say unprecedented, but you’ve been in the business longer than me, so maybe you can chime in on that one.

Will Hanke (07:57)
There’s always ups and downs in the world of pricing. hahaha More ups than downs.

Joseph Cloute (07:59)
That’s a good blanket statement. like that. ⁓

But yeah, I would say outside of that, ⁓ the biggest surprises would be, you know, firing ⁓ my design consultant on day one and taking over that role, ⁓ learning a bit about myself and the fact that I can execute.

as a salesman at a high level. ⁓ That was unexpected to me. ⁓ Even my family when I’m like, yeah, so I do all the sales and they’re like, okay, and how’s that going? And I’m like, actually, it’s awesome. I like, I really enjoy it. It’s one of my favorite parts of the business is being out there with the clients, ⁓ helping them find solutions, solving their problems and that kind of stuff. ⁓ But overall, it’s been going better than expected. ⁓

I am hitting the corporate franchise KPIs that they set out. So meeting their expectations, I would say, as a franchise owner. ⁓ Not meeting my own because I don’t know if I ever will because that’s just the personality type that I am.

My girlfriend often asks me when I’m gonna celebrate my wins and I’m like, well, when I get some and she’s like, you just hit all of your numbers for the month, that’s a big win and I’m like, wow, those are their numbers, they’re not mine.

Will Hanke (09:36)
Right, it’s good to ⁓ have a goal in place and then obviously try to exceed that goal. So, very good. On the franchise side of things, any challenges or things that you didn’t expect there?

Joseph Cloute (09:40)
Absolutely.

Yeah.

I wouldn’t say challenges. I would say they’ve created more and more opportunities. They continue to bring on vendors, ⁓ which, you know, A, was part of the reason why I chose Bumble bee Blinds, as there is other window treatment franchises. ⁓ But they continue to kind of exceed those expectations of pushing themselves to do more.

to help the franchisees more to find and solve issues that are currently happening, right? Whether that’s bringing on new vendors, either from the marketing side, from insurance side, from even the window treatment vendors themselves, right?

Will Hanke (10:38)
Yeah, sounds like they really set you up for success.

Joseph Cloute (10:40)
Absolutely, yeah.

Will Hanke (10:42)
That’s great. And you mentioned KPIs, so they give you some sort of KPIs, metrics that they would assume you would want to hit, ⁓ they’ve this before.

Joseph Cloute (10:51)
Absolutely. One

of the things that you go out there for your discovery day and that KPI Dashboard spoke to me so much because I am fairly competitive by nature. So if you give me, here’s your carrot, like go get it. I’m gonna get after it and I’m gonna hustle and I’m gonna do everything in my power to…

to hit those marks and then if you’re putting me up against the other franchisees, now we’re talking.

Will Hanke (11:23)
Yeah, yeah, that makes it a lot more fun. ⁓ Especially when they have, typically the franchises have a year end get together and the top earners are up there on the stage and everybody in the audience is thinking they wish they were up there.

Joseph Cloute (11:26)
yeah.

Or strategizing how you’re going to be up there next year for sure.

Will Hanke (11:43)
Right,

for sure, yeah. So Madison is a pretty competitive market. How are you carving out your own space there?

Joseph Cloute (11:52)
Yeah, I was gonna ask you a question right back about that Will. Talk to me what you consider a competitive market.

Will Hanke (11:56)
Okay.

⁓ I think the first thing would be lots of other window treatment companies. And in my world, lots of window treatment companies that are actually doing digital marketing or marketing online. Yeah.

Joseph Cloute (12:13)
Gotcha. Yeah.

I mean, I did my competitive market analysis, ⁓ you know, prior to even signing on with Bumble bee and I saw nothing but opportunities in the market. I think it was something that helped guide me to be like, yeah, this is a yes. I can see an opportunity here where I can bring

my skill set and exceed expectations here. But yeah, I think some of the big ones is, you know, just getting out in the community is has been a space that I’ve carved out. ⁓ You know, whether it’s a chamber event, whether it’s a networking event, I don’t see my competitors at any of the events. I don’t see them in networking groups. I don’t see them participating in the chamber. And as we kind of touched on earlier,

Will Hanke (12:53)
Yeah.

Joseph Cloute (13:07)
That was one of the reasons why I got into this. I wanted to be a part of and help the community and get to the point where I’m sponsoring things and, you know, just helping more and more people. And part of that was being able to go to these groups and provide, you know, a level of service to them and help mentor people in other spaces. And, you know, this is really allowing me to do that. And, and I just, you know, that’s my niche, I would say that I’ve carved out is I’m

out there there in the community, networking, and doing that kind of stuff.

Will Hanke (13:44)
Yeah, yeah. Since we’re going to have some book references here, if you’ve ever read Blue Ocean Strategy, that sounds very similar to what you’re talking about. Even though there is a decent amount of physical competition in the area, if they’re not doing the right things, that’s an opportunity, no matter how many there are.

Joseph Cloute (14:04)
Yeah, absolutely.

Will Hanke (14:06)
Yeah, very good. ⁓ Since we’re talking about marketing, any marketing or sales moves that have helped you stand out early on?

Joseph Cloute (14:14)
Yeah, I would say you talk about the brand setting us up for success. ⁓ One of the things is you get a vehicle, your vehicle’s wrapped, and if you haven’t seen a Bumble bee Blind wrapped vehicle driving around your community, let’s just say they stand out. ⁓ My minivan that is wrapped in ⁓ bright yellow with Bumble bee decals,

Will Hanke (14:26)
Okay.

Joseph Cloute (14:44)
His name is ⁓ Ricky Babee and he’s got his own Insta handle so you can follow him around. ⁓ But, you know, that kind of stuff. You know, we’re out there intentionally parking the vehicle in prime spots. ⁓ You know, we chose to do the Fourth of July parade, which we made a family affair. So grandma was driving the vehicle.

My son dressed up as the Bumble bee Transformer. ⁓ You know, playing off of the bee stuff. We have a Bumble bee costume as well. And my girlfriend walked along too and we handed out a of honeys. I mean, it was such a great day and now, you know, my son who’s six is just like, when do we get to do the next parade? I was like, well, kind of 4th July is about that time. So next year. So, you know, just things like that where we’ve

Will Hanke (15:14)
Thanks.

Ha ⁓

Right?

Wow.

Joseph Cloute (15:40)
Taken marketing, we’ve made it fun. We’ve made it something that, you know, the family gets to participate in. And I think that speaks to the level of wanting to be a part of the community.

Will Hanke (15:51)
Yeah, yeah, the brand makes it easy to have a lot of fun too.

Joseph Cloute (15:55)
Absolutely, absolutely. And we’ll get into those Bumble bee puns, I think, a little bit later.

Will Hanke (16:01)
Perfect, that’s great. So let’s dive in a little bit on the franchise side. I’d like to educate some listeners that maybe don’t know the differences or the pros and cons. For anybody who maybe is unfamiliar with Bumble bee Blinds in particular, what sets that brand apart?

Joseph Cloute (16:18)
Yeah, Bumble bee Blinds is one of nine home service franchises that is run by horsepower brands. So when you talk about things that are at that scale, you know, that increases not only their buying power, it increases, you know, vendors coming to them to want to work with them. And then they can spread that across all of their home services, Bumble bee Blinds being one of them.

So that’s been really great. I think they are at the front end of kind of utilizing technology. You know, they have ⁓ an AI ride along tool that they use so that way I can work on, you know, how I’m communicating with my clients and just get better at that type of stuff. They have an AI system to just help us with.

general everyday questions, whether it be product specific stuff, whether it be, you know, where do I find this document type of stuff. So leaning into those kinds of things, you know, from coming from the corporate side and working as a project manager in the pharmaceutical space, you know, we were on the front end of that and I see that with them as well. And it’s just helped gain so many efficiencies that, you know, I wouldn’t be able to.

put together have if I chose the independent route.

Will Hanke (17:44)
Oh, for sure. Thing that comes to my mind is SOPs, just having those already in place, even if they were built for, I don’t know if they have maybe a plumbing niche, right? But the end product is mostly the same, right? When it comes to SOPs, they change a little bit here and there, but having that horsepower, for lack of better term, is fantastic.

Joseph Cloute (18:10)
Absolutely. You know, the online learning that we did prior to opening as I continue to expand my team, they have learning paths for every role that you’re going to have and do trainings and all of those things, which absolutely speaks to me of having those systems and structures in place.

Will Hanke (18:32)
so you mentioned the online learning that you took early on. Is that what led you to let your designer go?

Joseph Cloute (18:42)
I would say it was more the hands-on stuff. you know, early on, I didn’t really know the personality type that would be successful in that role. And now that I’m doing it, I think my next hire is going to be a much better fit. ⁓ you can imagine not living in the window space, not being a salesperson myself. ⁓

and hiring someone who you think is a good fit because of their background and history. And then you’re like, ⁓ like this is not quite right and not going to be a good fit. you know, and part of it was the team and, you know, leaning on the franchise themselves. Like they’re trying to look out for you and your best interests and having, you know, that those voices as well to help guide you in.

in a spot where you’re learning just as quickly as everyone else ⁓ has been a big help and it was probably one of the best decisions I made for the business.

Will Hanke (19:47)
That’s great. When I started my business 28 years ago now, ⁓ I used to always roll my eyes at the personality tests and those kinds of things. But at some point somebody did one for me and I was like reading it. I’m like, my God, this is…

This is like all the things, this is how you should talk to me, all these different things. And it really opened my eyes to the hiring side, that it’s not just experience, but it’s also, is this person going to be a good fit for our culture?

Joseph Cloute (20:17)
Yeah, exactly. And trust me, ⁓ it will be part of the new onboarding process because it just makes you a better leader of other people because you’re able to speak to them in a way that they can hear you, right?

Will Hanke (20:33)
Right, yeah, very good. So since you’re part of a larger network, how does that kind of ⁓ hive vibe play out day to day?

Joseph Cloute (20:44)
Yeah, we have a great owners chat. ⁓ We do call it the hive. You know, each weekend in my Bee & I group, the buzz in the hive this week is, you know, and it’s something new every week. ⁓ But it’s been awesome. ⁓ I think that was one of the things that also attracted me to Bumble bee was the support you get from the other owners. They all want to see you succeed because when…

one franchise succeeds, everybody succeeds and it’s all good for the brand. ⁓ So whether it’s sharing resources, whether it’s sharing, you know, print collateral or something like that, or just answering a question of like, which vendor do I pick for XYZ and who’s using this marketing team and you know, how are you seeing? So having that resource and somebody who’s in that all the time has been great.

And then equally, I have people who I’ve built what I feel like is going to be lifelong friendships, both on the personal side. And, you know, we talk family, we talk kids, we talk business. You know, I’m sending pictures of the food I just cooked, you know, those types of things that just keep you engaged. And, you know, and then when you do go through those, you know, as you said, there’s ups and downs. When you do go through those downs, you know, they’re there to.

lift you back up and support you because they’ve all been there before.

Will Hanke (22:14)
That’s great. I love that. How much freedom do you have to market and operate locally?

Joseph Cloute (22:20)
Yeah, quite a bit. Like I said, it’s been awesome that they have vetted a bunch of vendors that are available to us. But equally, you know, we’re allowed to utilize them or not utilize them. ⁓ It’s great that they screen them. That creates a huge efficiency on my side. If I was just typing into the Google machine, you know, who should I use for digital marketing?

⁓ and trying to sift through the thousands of companies doing that type of stuff, right, would be really difficult. So the fact that they have great relationships and they’ve vetted these out ⁓ really is a benefit of the franchise itself. But also there’s plenty of room. I’m part of my neighborhood associations newsletter and email blast, right? Something that I wanted to do to give back to the neighborhood association, you know.

I pay them a fee to be advertised, but I was like, this is literally my neighborhood. I want to help all of my neighbors achieve whatever goals they have for their house. So best way to do that is be a part of the newsletter that helps sponsor all of the things that we do, the Turkey Trot, the Go Meet Santa Claus, the Egg Hunt, right? So, you know, it just allowed that and it’s great that Horsepower equally allows us to do those kinds of things.

Will Hanke (23:48)
That’s great. Are there any systems or tech tools from corporate that you’ve really leaned on?

Joseph Cloute (23:54)
Yeah, well, one of our brand differentiators with Bumble bee is the fact that we have, we utilize a large number of vendors. So I have like six vendors that I work with on a pretty regular basis. And I don’t know if you know this, but each one of those vendors likes to utilize their own platform and system for ordering, for tracking, for everything.

Will Hanke (24:18)
course.

Joseph Cloute (24:19)
So leaning into the Solitech software that Bumble bee Blinds has available to us, where it’s one platform that works with all the different vendors. So I only had to learn one system versus six systems. And then, you know, the amount of orders and remakes goes way down when you’re used to using the same software over and over again. So that’s been a huge tool. I think we touched on the

the AI ride along, ⁓ being able to hear yourself, find little tweaks, ⁓ the AI tool where it’s like, listen to this minute and a half of your three hour appointment. This is something we could clean up, right? Those types of things. You don’t have to listen to the whole thing. ⁓ Huge, huge benefits. I mean, we’re all trying to get better every day, right? So to have that kind of a resource at your disposal has been great.

Will Hanke (25:04)
wow, great.

Yeah. What advice would you give to somebody who’s comparing the franchise model versus just kind of starting from scratch?

Joseph Cloute (25:24)
Yeah, I think one of the biggest things and I had the benefit of the entrepreneur source doing it, but you got to learn more about yourself. And you talked about taking a personality test, great way to do it, right? But I mentioned, you know, figuring out the skills that I had that I wanted to, you know, utilize in this venture, right? So I think finding that right fit is important. And then

Thinking about it as, you know, the franchise is not your boss. They’re a partner in this. So if you think about it as a partnership and if you were going into a marriage or something like that, is this somebody who, you know, you wanna partner with for the next 10 years? You know, are they gonna hold up their end of the bargain and be a good partner and, you know, want the best for you or not? And then equally, you know,

thinking about how long your runway is. Because the ramp up, I mean, I wouldn’t be in the place I am 100 days in if it were not for the franchise. I can say that 100%. ⁓ So if you have enough runway and you think the independent route is the way you want to go, awesome. But I mean, the ramp up is intense even for having the franchise and the large amount of resources that I think we already touched on.

Will Hanke (26:55)
Yeah, yeah, so let’s talk a little bit about the first 100 days. ⁓ What’s the biggest mind shift that you’ve had since you started?

Joseph Cloute (27:04)
Yeah, and you kind of talked about a couple of things through your book reading and knowledge and stuff like that. But I have a really good gratitude practice, you know, waking up every day, thinking about the things that I’m grateful for, writing those down, think about where I want to go this next week, this next month, and those types of things has been really key.

And then I always say, even though, you know, it’s chaos everywhere and I’m learning as I go and those types of things, I never tell the universe I’m busy. I have the capacity to take on anything that you want to bring into my space. And with that, you know, I always see more and more appointments and leads come through and opportunities continue to come my way because I’m calling them in by, you know, if I woke up every day and said,

I’m so busy. I’m exhausted. All of those things. I’m saying stop, stop, stop. Like don’t give me more leads. Don’t give me more opportunities. Don’t give me more people to help. And so I’m always focused on that. Like I have the capacity to help so many people. So just keep sending them my way. And then I would say the other thing was I didn’t realize this until I was actually in it, but I’m in the solutions business and it just happens to be window treatments, right?

I’m here to solve problems and help you. I’m not here to sell you anything. And that came through, I wouldn’t have known that had I not had the opportunity to be out there doing the consultations.

Will Hanke (28:39)
What is the saying? ⁓ They don’t need a drill, they just need a hole. Sell what they actually need, not the tool to get it there. That’s great. I’ve got an accountability partner I meet with every Monday and we do something called Win the Week. And basically it’s what is the thing that if on Friday you got done this week, you would consider this week as a one week.

Joseph Cloute (28:47)
Exactly, exactly.

Will Hanke (29:06)
⁓ And I think those mind shifts mindset kind of shifts are really important for business owners

Joseph Cloute (29:12)
Yeah, absolutely. Accountability partners are great. And that’s one other thing with that whole gratitude thing, you know, and you got to be grateful for that person too, right?

Will Hanke (29:15)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Any unexpected skills that turned out to be crucial?

Joseph Cloute (29:28)
man, yes. ⁓ So one of the 26 jobs was actually a professor of microbiology. And so I did that for a couple of semesters to cover maternity leave. I didn’t realize that being an educator and the skills that I learned teaching other people was going to be such a huge part of this. ⁓ So as I go into, you know, consultations, I’m there to educate.

Will Hanke (29:29)
you

Okay, yeah.

Joseph Cloute (29:57)
And if you want to utilize some of the things that I have and they solve these problems, that’s great. I mean, that’s what I’m here for. That’s why we’re here. But, you know, it’s providing that transparency and educating the client on why we’re choosing this, why we’re not choosing something else. And equally, most people don’t know most of the products that are out there. Like things have come so far in the last…

five to 10 years, whether it’s motorization or some of these other type of coverings that we have the opportunity to sell that, you know, seeing their eyes open up of like, I’ve never even seen this before. This is awesome. I’m going to be the talk of all of my friends. So those types of things have been really great. And then I would say the other one is active listening. ⁓ I think it’s, you know,

Will Hanke (30:42)
you

Joseph Cloute (30:53)
a great tool. It’s something that I continue to come back on over and over again. You know, you’re not only listening to what they’re saying, you’re listening to how they feel about different things, right? And trying to work with them through all of those things to find that right solution.

Will Hanke (31:13)
Yeah, yeah, very, very important. ⁓ Biggest win, personal or professional?

Joseph Cloute (31:20)
Yeah, I think one of them and this is, you you talked about what your next job was going to be. I almost said coaching and coaching, not like sports coaching, but coaching other people, you know, in whatever thing they’re in, right? Place they’re in in their life, any of those things. So one of the opportunities that I’ve had is to be a mentor for some of the other franchisees and

that is like my wheelhouse. Like let’s talk all the stuff. Let’s talk the business part of stuff. Let’s talk about, like you said, your mindset. ⁓ Who are you reading? What podcasts are you listening to? You know, how are you bringing in information to help you grow as a person and then your business will grow equally, right? So the mentorship for sure. And then one of the other things that’s been a big win is kind of that

seeing the transformation of people’s homes and then hearing some of the feedback, ⁓ you know, the success stories of like, my gosh, my kid’s sleeping for 10 hours straight and they were used to be up like at the crack of dawn or not be able to fall asleep during the summer or those types of things because you’ve found a solution that’s helped them, right? And studies continue to come out about kids in sleep and, you know, adults in their sleep and the things that you need.

to have a successful sleep. I think window treatments plays a huge role in that. So I think that’s been a huge win as well.

Will Hanke (32:54)
That’s awesome. So let’s switch it up a little bit. I got a couple of quick hits for you and we’ll jump into some of that hive humor that you mentioned earlier. What’s your go-to pitch when a homeowner is skeptical about going maybe with somebody that’s only 100 days in?

Joseph Cloute (33:04)
Yeah, let’s do it.

Yeah, my favorite one is, well, I’m not retiring anytime soon, because I just got into this, right? I’m going be here for a while. So whether we want to move forward right now, whether it makes sense next year, I’m still going to be here. Call me up. I’ll be ready to help you whenever you are.

Will Hanke (33:18)
You

Yeah, I like that. I also know that you like puns, which I’m a huge fan of, especially one liners. One liners are my favorite. But what is your favorite dad joke that you’ve used with a customer?

Joseph Cloute (33:51)
Well, we kind of talked about, you know, ⁓ this is the thing I’ve been buzzing about all week, ⁓ you know, is always a good one. And then I always like to leave people with, you know, Bumble bee Blinds of Madison, we’re your window covering specialists and we have prices that won’t sting. Just kind of slip that one in there.

Will Hanke (34:10)
Nice.

I like that. ⁓ What’s your go-to strategy if you know a competitor is also quoting the same job?

Joseph Cloute (34:20)
Yeah, I think it goes back to the educational piece that I was kind of talking about where, you know, I always try to let them know that you got to be comparing apples to apples, right? And equally, you know, we talked about solving your specific problems, and I think this is going to do that. And the value that that’s going to bring is probably more important than the price point oftentimes. So if you’re just shopping price, like I try to convert to

value and quality over just shopping who’s going to come to the lowest price. ⁓ And then I always leave them with, you know, I would love the opportunity to walk through your other estimate and discuss it with you and compare it to mine ⁓ and tell you why we chose specific things versus what they chose. you know, if I never talk poorly about my competitors equally, they’re out there just like me with the family at home.

doing their best every day. So I would rather do it in a way that is continuing to educate the client versus choose me because they’re terrible people, right?

Will Hanke (35:31)
Right. Good, good. What is one thing that every business owner should automate right away?

Joseph Cloute (35:41)
They’re window coverings. Will, come on, let’s go. Motorization is the future. Tell Alexa to turn it up, turn it down, show you the sunrise, all the things, automate your window coverings.

Will Hanke (35:43)
you

Bye.

I like that. That’s pretty smart. Then you know what you’re talking about, right? Real-world example.

Joseph Cloute (36:01)
Hey, it’s made me

a better salesperson to install, to learn the tack, to do the motorization trainings and to have it in my own home.

Will Hanke (36:12)
Perfect, perfect. ⁓ If you had to pitch Bumble bee Blinds in one pun-filled sentence, what would it be?

Joseph Cloute (36:19)
Dress up your hive with Bumble Bee Blinds. We have the prices that won’t sting you.

Will Hanke (36:25)
Love it. That’s awesome. That’s great. Thank you. ⁓ So before we wrap up, I want to talk about books. You mentioned that you’re an avid reader of, guess, what we could call self-help type books. ⁓ What books, what other books have influenced you, your approach to business, your personal growth, and then of course, how have you applied those to your new venture?

Joseph Cloute (36:28)
Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Simon Sinek, Across the Board, his podcast, Him as a Human, all of his books, fantastic. Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara ⁓ Obviously spoke to me a little bit with my chef background as he was the one who helped bring Eleven Madison Park to the number one restaurant in the world. But him speaking about hospitality versus service.

and hospitality being how you make people feel versus service just checking the box that you completed the job as kind of required is a huge thing that I think about every single day. Like what can I do to help people feel better, whether it’s in my presence or about their decisions that they’re making. And then I’m working through good to great right now, because as we talked about.

I’m doing good. How do we do great? When do we scale? How do we scale? When’s that next step? Those types of things.

Will Hanke (37:46)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that’s a staple for sure.

Joseph Cloute (37:54)
Absolutely. And then Bumble bee Blinds, hands out, traction, ahm using an EOS system early on and that’s been super helpful as well I would say.

Will Hanke (38:00)
⁓ great.

Yes.

Yeah. Huge fan of EOS. I sent traction to all of my clients. It is fantastic. So great mention. Right now I’m reading one called The Road Less Stupid, which has been phenomenal. It’s all about thinking through.

Joseph Cloute (38:15)
Yeah, how about you? What are you reading?

Will Hanke (38:26)
things that you need to solve ⁓ and making those decisions, educated decisions, taking the time to just stop and think ⁓ has been fantastic. ⁓ traction, I think, is great, as you mentioned.

There’s a book called Outgrow, which is basically EOS for sales. It really shows you how to apply a system to sales, to outreach, to upselling, all that kind of stuff. Fantastic book. Definitely recommend that.

Joseph Cloute (38:59)
Very cool.

Will Hanke (39:00)
Very good. Well, thank you again, ⁓ Joseph. Any last bit of encouragement for those that are starting out and considering the franchising route?

Joseph Cloute (39:10)
Yeah, absolutely. I have listened to so many things about entrepreneurs and they all talk about the grind. And you got to figure out what that grind is and then find fulfillment in the grind. What part of that like really speaks to you. And we mentioned mine is I get so fulfilled actually going out on the consultations and helping people that

when I was entering into this journey, I asked all my friends who are entrepreneurs and I was like, do you have to, does it have to be your purpose, right? know, my friend who owns the gym, like you’re super passionate about fitness. Like I’m not necessarily at the time, wasn’t super passionate about window treatments. I was like, so how am I gonna, it’s not really my purpose. Like, am I gonna be fulfilled by this? And they’re like,

you gotta find the parts that fulfill you. And for me, that’s the working with the client, the finding the right solution to them, the troubleshooting their problems and those types of things, like gets me out of bed every single morning excited to be here. And so just know that you gotta find that. And there’s the parts that aren’t as fun, know, running a sales tax report and paying those types of things, like not my favorite part of the job, but absolutely.

you know, something that gets me to that next appointment, right?

Will Hanke (40:42)
Yeah, you mentioned Simon Sinek, Find Your Why, I think. Fantastic video. Yeah, yeah, great. How can people follow your journey and your van’s journey if they have questions?

Joseph Cloute (40:45)
Very, very similar, absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. bumblebeeblinds.com/madison-wi You can find Bumble bee Blinds Madison on all of your meta, your Insta, my Google profile. We’re out there all the time. Gonna be out there this weekend. We have a kids triathlon that we’re gonna be at. So find Ricky there.

Find us hashtag, follow Ricky’s journey as well. But yeah, looking forward to talking to you in a year and talking about how we’re gonna continue to scale and where we’re gonna scale to.

Will Hanke (41:35)
Yeah, that’d be a lot of fun to hear that journey as well. Awesome. Well, Joseph, thank you again for being on today. This has been some fantastic insight. I really do appreciate it.

Joseph Cloute (41:38)
Absolutely.

Absolutely, it was my pleasure Will and love talking to you and what you’re doing as well.

Will Hanke (41:51)
Awesome. Well, that’s a wrap for today’s episode of Marketing Pains. A big thanks to Joseph Cloute for sharing his journey from building a career across diverse industries to launching Bumble bee Blinds of Madison, Wisconsin.

and giving us an inside look at how he’s carving out space in a competitive market with a brand new name and a whole lot of determination. If you’ve been thinking about what it takes to start from scratch, grow fast, or bring fresh ideas into a saturated industry, I hope today’s conversation left you with inspiration and some practical takeaways that you can put to work.

As always, if you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing or sharing it with someone in the industry that you think might find it useful. You can find more episodes and resources over at Window Treatment Marketing Pros on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, all the usual places. Until our next episode here at Marketing Panes thank you for listening.