What does it look like when customers are the ones driving your growth, not the other way around? That's exactly the story Adam Pattisall, CEO of IncrediTek and ITekFED, brings to this episode of CEO's Heart for Service.
Adam built IncrediTek from literally one person working out of the bed of a pickup truck to a company of 80+ people without investors, a board, or outside backing. His secret? Stay nimble, only take on what you can afford to lose, and let the customer set the direction. From keeping a Coast Guard station online during Hurricane Sandy to having clients ask him to grow so they wouldn't lose him, Adam's story is a masterclass in customer-first, integrity-driven growth in the telecommunications and IT infrastructure space.
1:03 – Growing Up Dreams
2:31 – Early Hustle Mindset
3:35 – Sarah's First Job
4:05 – What IncrediTek Does
5:35 – Why Start IncrediTek
6:11 – Heart for Service
7:29 – Hurricane Sandy Story
8:20 – Scaling with Values
9:10 – Bootstrapped Growth Rules
11:40 – Customers Drove Expansion
13:50 – Passing Culture to Team
14:30 – Hiring Problem Solvers
16:20 – Customer First Choice
18:00 – Truth Telling Sales
19:15 – Brand Story Strategy
21:30 – Experience Over Marketing
24:10 – Staying Ahead of Tech
25:45 – Owning the Narrative
29:00 – Handling Spilled Milk
31:00 – Tech Change Surprise
33:15 – Future Led by Clients
36:00 – Vision Through Action
39:00 – Behind the Brand
40:00 – Rapid Fire Questions
46:50 – Success and Gratitude
49:15 – Where to Find Them
There's a tension every leader of a B2B service has to navigate: How do you scale without compromising the quality of your services - or the values that drive them? The CEO's Heart for Service is where accomplished B2B leaders share hard-won insights on walking that tightrope.
The CEO’s Heart for Service is a production of Brand3. If you’re a B2B service provider who delivers exceptional service but struggles to get your marketing to connect with the right people, find us at brand3.net. And sign up for our Brand3 Newsletter that only sends marketing insights worthy of your inbox - genuinely helpful stuff for the road ahead.
The CEO’s Heart for Service is also supported by Forge Podcast Company, a turnkey production solution for using podcasts to reach a wider audience, win new clients, and grow. Find them at forgepodcast.co.
Matt Wolfe: Okay. Today we're talking to Adam Pattisall, the CEO of IncrediTek, who just happens to be someone special to you, Sarah.
Sarah Pattisall: I know, it is such a coincidence that he decided- like, he came on this podcast out of nowhere through no influence of my own, and small world.
Matt Wolfe: Same last name. What? No relation.
Sarah Pattisall: I know,
Matt Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. We get to talk to Sarah's dad today. Sarah, what a special thing. What did you take away, both as a uh, daughter and a professional from this conversation that people can look forward to?
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah. You know, there were some things that I expected to hear that I've heard over time, and then a few things that really surprised me. And namely, the thing about this conversation that you're about to hear that I think it really, at its heart, is about customer experience and client experience. It's different than other people that we've spoken with because, in this instance, this is a story about a company that wasn't really set out to grow the way that they have. And what really guided their whole growth journey and how they grew and scaled with heart was really the customer and listening to what the customer wanted from them and wanted them to be and wanted them to have the capabilities to do
Matt Wolfe: Yeah. This is the first time we've heard a story, and it might be the only time we hear a story, where it went like this: people asked us to grow. As they did- the customers, the clients asked them to grow despite themselves because they were doing such a great job at the client experience.
Really interesting. So let's just jump over there. Let's get into it. We're gonna go talk to Adam, and we'll see y'all on the other side.
Sarah Pattisall: Yes, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did
Matt Wolfe: It's a very special episode, right, today of our podcast. It is ourfirst-everr father-daughter podcast with Adam Pattisall of IncrediTek. Welcome to the show.
Adam Pattisall: Thank you very much, Matt
Matt Wolfe: And I think you know, Sarah
Sarah Pattisall: Hello everyone
Matt Wolfe: And just for everyone else, and most people, if you've heard before, you've heard Sarah, but Sarah is our brilliant brand strategist and one of my amazing co-hosts here at Brand Three. We're gonna hop in. You know, we, we work with B2B service providers here at Brand Three, and everyone that we meet and work with, like, like you, Adam, is providing services that are high-stakes, high-ticket things. You know, let me take care of your network, your technology, your finances, your marketing strategy. You know? So they're highly relational things built on carefully crafted relationships, built on trust, built on interactions. So we try to be as human as possible on this podcast. And so before we talk about your business and, and the growth story that we're gonna look at, we like to just kick off with a little human question of some kind. And today, Sarah knows what it is, and I actually want Sarah to ask it, 'cause I think it'll be fun
Sarah Pattisall: Yes.
Matt Wolfe: Ask you this.
Sarah Pattisall: Oh, this is fun. All right.
Sarah Pattisall: Father, Dad, who did you wanna be when you grew up? What did you wanna be when you grew up?
Adam Pattisall: Geez, great question. I'm not sure I still have an answer to that question, and I sure, for sure hadn't grown up yet.
Sarah Pattisall: Yes, and I take after you because I feel the same
Adam Pattisall: I would say it bounced around my whole life. I mean, I, I for sure looked up to my father. And then, you know, at point, different points in your life, you look up to different people, and then as you get to know them more and more, you start to realize that maybe they're not everything you wanted to be.
Maybe there are some things about them that you'd, you'd do differently if you were in their position. So, you know, I've always told you, Sarah, you can learn something from everybody. So I don't know. I would say probably my dad to start with, would, would be the first one, and then it probably migrated to after that. At this point in life, I don't know that I'm looking to be anybody or looking to be like anybody. Maybe I just wanna be a role model to everybody that's closest to me. So
Sarah Pattisall: Oh, that's a good answer. So would you say that, you know, how your life turned out and how you envisioned it when you were young, how far off were you or how close were you
Adam Pattisall: Ooh.
Sarah Pattisall: To where you are now?
Adam Pattisall: Wow. I always knew I was gonna start my own business, but the first thing I was doing was cutting lawns, and I realized real fast that wasn't what I was gonna do the rest of my life. So, I mean, I'm tickled pink with where I am in life right now. And I stay pretty busy, as you know. I have lots of goals, and I'm going seven days a week all the time. So, and my life's not over by a long shot,
Sarah Pattisall: Yes. Yes, yes
Matt Wolfe: That alone is fascinating.
Matt Wolfe: So you knew as a kid you wanted to start a business?
Adam Pattisall: Oh, yeah
Matt Wolfe: I wish I'd had that focus. I remember a guy in my high school who did his own lawn mowing business, and I remember watching him during the summers and thinking, "Man, that guy, that guy's losing his whole summer." And then, and then like three years later when he got his driver's license, he bought a Mustang. I was like, "Oh, wait. Maybe he had something figured out there."
Adam Pattisall: Maybe
Sarah Pattisall: What was your motivation when you were young? Like, when you were young, and you decided, "I'm gonna start my own business one day," what was your motivation at the time?
Adam Pattisall: Oh, we, we didn't have a pot to piss in when I was growing up, so I knew I wasn't gonna be poor. What we did have was love. We had each other, and you know, as you, as you get further into life, you realize that's way more important than having, having things you can put your hands on. But I shared a bedroom in a single-wide trailer with my brother and my sister. So, and there were times I had to go pick up my dad's check early, like literally had to walk down to the neighbor's house and ask one of the deacons in the church for my father's check early. And I just remember thinking, "I'm not gonna-- not living this life."
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah
Adam Pattisall: In between cutting lawns, I'd be picking daffodils in the woods and then stand on the street corner and sell them to all the guys coming home to their wives.
Matt Wolfe: Yeah, so you came by that drive honest. That's really powerful. Wow, this is already fun. Okay.
Matt Wolfe: So, Sarah, I'd like you to dig into the next question too, actually, to ask a little bit about the business. I just, I love to have you ask this, right? 'Cause the whole thing usually is like, our kids don't know what we do.
So they're like Uh, he does something, something, something tech." So, Sarah, you probably do know more, but I'd love you to, to just ask a little bit about IncrediTek.
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah. Well, you know, I'll say that the more I learn about that entire world, the more I realize I don't know. So it is always interesting to hear and get to ask questions. And you know, actually my, um, my very first job was at IncrediTek when I was, what? About 12 years old, and I think my, my title was um, accounts receivable at the time.
So I've got the insider knowledge.
Matt Wolfe: Wait, wait, wait. Were you accounts receivable at 12 years old?
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah. It sounds really flashy. If I remember correctly, it entailed going over different invoices coming in and marking them off in the system.
Matt Wolfe: Get out of here. I was a paper boy. You were way ahead. Wow. So, but Adam, you were passing that on, right? Like helping her learn early
Sarah Pattisall: I have to acknowledge the nepotism at play. Like, not many 12-year-olds can get a gig that good, so I was very fortunate.e
Adam Pattisall: Yeah, it's interesting. On a side note, I did a paper route as well, but I don't know the last time I saw a newspaper. The summer that Sarah worked for about. Um, the, the summer that Increditek, she changed the way we do business also We developed a, a program internally that manages everything we do, all of our services from the time we get a, an opportunity to quote a job all the way until six, seven months after that job is closed out and all the quality reports are in, the photos are loaded, the money's collected. And one of the biggest things Sarah did was change the way we receive our accounts and minimize the amount of effort. We were, we were having to do a lot of extra clicks because this, this system was web-based- gosh, 22, 21, 22 years ago was a web-based system. It was light years ahead of anything that was out there.
Sarah's like, "Why are we having to click all these different times? We should be able to click one button and select them all." So we still do that in the system now. It's interesting to have somebody young in there and look at it and say, "This is crazy. You're working too hard."
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah, and that is what I try to do now too, so
Matt Wolfe: Yeah, she does that for us now, but that, oh my gosh, that pulls so many threads together. This... Okay. Sorry, Sarah, go ahead. This is fun
Sarah Pattisall: You're good. That, that was some good background.
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah, so if you could just talk about Increditek a bit and ITekFED and who you serve, and at a high level what you do, that would be awesome
Adam Pattisall: Okay. So Increditek and ITekFED, I'll talk about them the same. The biggest difference in Increditek is it's more commercially focused, so we work with the RBOCs, if you will, the Regional Bell Operating Companies, old school, so mostly Verizon. ITekFED is more focused on federal, state, and enterprise customers. For the most part, we do the same thing in both spaces, and what we do is more traditionally called IT now. It used to be called telecommunications. So we focus on building that mysterious cloud that everybody has all their stuff going through all day long, all night long.
So we really focus on the backbone, the bigger pieces of equipment that handle optical signals coming and going, switching of that infrastructure inside there, and all the different layers that go into making that network work. And we, we'll take out the older gear that's obsolete and put the new gear in and replace it with that. Sometimes we're shutting down new sites, sometimes we're bringing up new sites and we're doing that stuff, you know, pretty much wherever it's, wherever it's required. We've got guys right now in, in Okinawa, Japan, so
Matt Wolfe: Yeah, how far is your reach? Are you, you're national, international, just wherever?
Adam Pattisall: Well, if you believe the Earth is round, which I'm not one of those people, by the way, we have people
Sarah Pattisall: Oh my gosh, we are not gonna do that on this podcast.
Adam Pattisall: We have people, we have people on the other side of the, the round globe, if you will. So I would say that reaches about as far as you can get if you believe it's round.
Matt Wolfe: That's a whole nother podcast.
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah. And we would need apples. We would need apples.
Adam Pattisall: We might need apples. Yeah. Yeah, we go, we go wherever. It's ve- it's very specialized. I would say that in high school I was in auto mechanics, and I was very fortunate. I got to work on the crazy stuff. Mind you, this was in the late '80s, and I was doing things like four-wheel disc brakes, turbos, things like that.
I wasn't, I wasn't doing a lot of brakes and oil changes. And I would say that we st- we still are in that same mode, and what IncrediTek and ITekFED do is really work on those newer bleeding-edge technologies, not the ones that are sorta old school, if you will. So we're not
we're
You know, we're not pumping up tires and, and changing oil. We're doing the stuff that's deep inside the inner workings of the, of the systems that control this whole backbone of the network. we go, we go wherever the, wherever the hot stuff is. And we're not, we're not big. We're not, uh, IncrediTek's 80-some people, and ITekFED makes up about six people.
So, and we l- we like it to be smaller like that. We're a lot more nimble. So we sorta pick and choose the stuff we do, and we're the, we're, we're the guys they call when uh, stuff needs to get done and get done right the first time.
Matt Wolfe: Yeah. Well, it's all a matter of perspective, too, right? Like, yeah, you're not the giant telecom company, but I still think any company that gets to 80 employees and, and that size, that's not easy. And of course, we're gonna talk about that. It's an incredible accomplishment. So where- this is kind of a basic question, but are you building...
So are you building private clouds for companies mainly, or connecting them to the big players, or is it a little bit of both?
Adam Pattisall: Yeah. So, you know, for sure, I, I think to some level everything's private inside of a customer's network. It's, it's when you reach outside of that, that gets into some of the security stuff. Some, some customers don't wanna touch the internet, the, the dirty internet, and and some customers don't have a choice. Those that don't have a choice have their inside infrastructure, and then they have their infrastructure that does reach out to the rest of the world. So, so we do both. We don't, we don't get too involved in, I would say we don't get too involved in where the Uber's driving to. We just help provide the vehicle and make sure that it runs well.
So point A to point B to us isn't super important in most cases; we just provide the infrastructure so that they can get anywhere they need to with that network and any of the information that's gonna ride it.
Matt Wolfe: Oh, that's a great metaphor. That's really helpful. Okay.
Matt Wolfe: Here's, here's my next question. Why did we need IncrediTek in the world? Like, what was the sense of purpose, you know, and origin behind it? You're like, "I, I need to... We're gonna do this, and we're gonna do it this way."
Adam Pattisall: More so because I needed not to work for somebody else. That's probably why.
Matt Wolfe: It comes up a
Adam Pattisall: Yeah. I, I mean, my opportunity to hop from, from a big company, I was-- I ended up with Lucent Technologies, my- not by choice, but by purchase, it was real obvious pretty quickly that the larger companies that were doing services work for the, you know, for the companies that needed that, the Verizons, AT&Ts they weren't filling the void.
I think that's how a lot of companies start, right? They, they see something that's not being done the way they wanna do it, and they go out and do it better. In our case, we were happy to sort of take the risk. So, you know, if you needed a cable run, we didn't spend a lot of time talking about paperwork and talking about getting paid.
We got the work done, and then we went back the next day and worked on the payment process. A lot of companies, larger companies, aren't allowed to do that. They've gotta get the paperwork.
Matt Wolfe: Yeah
Adam Pattisall: They've gotta have paperwork in hand. They've gotta have a process to get paid. And in a lot of cases, you've missed the opportunity by the time you finish talking about all the checkboxes you have to get through just to start the program. And I, I knew that the bigger companies weren't gonna be able to turn things up live in their network if they didn't pay for it because they had their own internal processes that held them back. So
Sarah Pattisall: So it sounds like that speaks to that nimble, agile quality you referenced earlier
Adam Pattisall: For sure.
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah.
Adam Pattisall: We didn't, we didn't need to be called to put a fire out. We just saw the smoke and went and put it out, you know?
Matt Wolfe: That, that is, well, you know, we talked before the call, I do know the telecom space, and that is remarkable. That's not only an advantage for you, but for them to be able to have anyone like that. Otherwise, the contracts in my experience are just labyrinths. Just these incredibly dense arrangements to work through, and often part of the problem more than a help.
Matt Wolfe: So we call this The CEO's Heart for Service. What does it mean to you and your team to deliver exceptional service? How do you sort of measure like, "Yep, we did that. We, we got that done well. We took good care of people"?
Adam Pattisall: Yeah, I mean, so you have to follow all the rules. You have to follow all the guidelines for doing it, and I think that goes without saying. I think everybody has to do that; otherwise, you can't stay in business, right? So, you know, pay attention to the rules, the laws, whatever the criteria are for the job.
If you don't do that, you don't get to stay in business. And I think the thing that sets us apart is anticipating what the customer's needs are gonna be before they have the crisis moment and being able to respond. I would have to get up and show you this, but it's literally sitting right next to me. Years ago, probably 15, 16 years ago, I started giving away these globes, the one with a golf tee in it and a golf ball inside of a water globe, and you have to get the ball on top of the tee. Oh, there it is. So I started giving these away 15, 16 years ago. Oh, I was about to put that on there. And I would tell customers at a, at a very high level, "I want you to keep this on your desk, and when you're sitting there with the daily crisis or the weekly crisis or the quarterly crisis, and you don't know what to do, look into the crystal ball and see if there's any explanations."
And that golf ball's got our logo on it. So it's like, "Hey, you, you have a crisis. Look in the crystal ball." So m- my job was always to anticipate what the needs were gonna be and be able to respond with that and close the situation out so it was no longer an emergency. And then once it's handed over to us, let the customer go spend time with whatever they wanna do, whether that's with their family or back to work or to the next crisis, to know they've handed that off and that it's not gonna be an issue next, you know, tomorrow.
Sarah Pattisall: Now, can you think of any specific stories or examples that you're willing to share of that
Adam Pattisall: Sure, Hurricane Sandy up in New Jersey. When Hurricane Sandy hit, it took out, I mean, hur- the hurricane took a lot of stuff out, but it put a Coast Guard station underwater. And I don't have to tell you how importantthe Coast Guard is when there's a crisis regarding water on the East Coast of the United States. And we ended up with one of our team members, Rick Zimmerman, who went out there and stayed on the island. He had to go by boat because the bridge was gone. He had to go by boat and stay there and work- make sure that the generator stayed alive to keep the cell tower and all the communications going so they could respond to everything. And, you know, funny thing is, I think Rick, I, I don't think, I know Rick spent more time keeping the generator running than he did with any of the telecom stuff, and we don't do generator stuff as a, as a tradition. We don't- we do have a power division, but it's mostly new stuff. We're not there to, know, we're not there to keep the engines running, so to speak.
But we ended up winning a huge award from Verizon for that because we were able to keep the Coast Guard station online when it was underwater, and it's just super funny that that's not even what we do. But Rick's the one guy that ended up on site, and he's our, he's our big NASCAR buff. So loves tinkering with cars, and he's like, "Hey, it's-- I do this on my weekends for fun."
So, so that's just one example.
Sarah Pattisall: Great
Matt Wolfe: That's a great example though. Yeah, Sandy, I mean, if you re- I was actually there. I lived in Queens in New York during Sandy, and my wife's family is on LBI that got hit really hard,
Adam Pattisall: Yeah
Matt Wolfe: In New Jersey, Long Beach Island. If you weren't there, it's hard to understand the scope of what that was and just how many systems were knocked out. That's incredible. It even knocked out... So my background is in theater; I was a storyteller in the world of theater before I went into brand and marketing. And I was in a Broadway show at that time that was partially closed by Sandy 'cause all the bus and tunnel traffic got shut down and everything went crazy.
Okay.
Matt Wolfe: So this podcast, we're called The CEO's Heart for Service and w- you know, the main thread that we like to explore is for people like you, as your story demonstrates, who really care about the people who they serve and care about their clients and doing well for them. As you grow, one of the biggest questions becomes: how do we keep doing that?
How do we maintain the quality of service? How do we stay true to who we are, our core values, what makes us unique and powerful in this industry and to our clients? So that's a theme we wanna explore next. Sarah, I'll let you dig in there a little bit.
Sarah Pattisall: Right. I know, being your daughter, that you have a really, what I think is an interesting growth story. So I'm wondering if you could tell us a bit about that from the lens of where there were maybe tensions or challenges you encountered in managing that growth alongside the level of service that you wanted to deliver, and how you overcame that.
Adam Pattisall: Sure. It's a lot easier question. I don't, I don't need to elaborate a whole lot on it.
Adam Pattisall: When, when I started the company, I started the com- I mean, Sarah was... You were young, like six years old when I first started the company, and Sarah's got two younger brothers. So we had, we had a house full of kids, and it was just me working. So I had to be on point with what I was gonna do. The company size originally was only gonna be 11 people, and when I started, it was just me working out of the bed of my pickup truck. So I had a spool of cable in the back of my truck, and I went wherever that cable was needed. And I'd engineer the job.
I'd go back out in the parking lot, print everything out, take it in, get it signed, and come back during the safe window, whether it was 10:00 PM or midnight, run the cable and test everything out. The next day I would invoice it and go do another one. So we never, never planned to have more than 11 people so that we could stay nimble. But what, what kept us the size we are and, and still today the, the size we are, is I just don't get involved in anything I can't afford to lose. If somebody asked us to do a $50 million project, I'm out. So I would, I would hand that to, you know, one of a close, you know, one of my close friends that's in a size company to handle that. We don't have anybody financially backing us. We don't have investors. We don't have a board. So when bigger opportunities come up that are outside of what we could manage from a financial standpoint, we just don't get involved.
So that's what's, that's what's managed to keep us the size we are, and I still tell that story today, and it's never gonna change. It's easy- it's an easy one for me. My-- When, when I decided to start my company, I went to Verizon and sat down with one of the VPs, who I still keep in touch with and still play golf with. Told him I wanted to start my own company, and uh, he said, "Be in my office on Wednesday with your business plan." And here I am, who barely made it out of high school, showing up with a PowerPoint presentation and saying, "This is what I'm gonna do in year one, year two, and year five." And he looked at me and said, "I think these numbers are a little too aggressive, and you might have a hard time getting there." And we blew all those numbers away, with his help, by the way, and his whole team's help.
Matt Wolfe: Oh, wow
Adam Pattisall: Yeah. But he said, you know, he said to me, "Unless you're independently wealthy, dealing with a company like Verizon, you, you won't survive this unless you either are independently wealthy or you have somebody backing you." And I said, "Chuck, I don't feel that way." I said, "I'm gonna do it the old-fashioned way." I said, "I have an ax. I know how to use it. I'm gonna go in the woods and chop a tree down. I'm gonna make a two-by-four. I'm gonna sell it at the local store. I'm gonna buy another ax, hire another person, and we're gonna go cut down two trees, and we'll make two two-by-fours, and that's how we're gonna grow this."
And that's exactly what we did, and it's, and still is, that today. We don't owe anybody anything, and we don't have anybody financially backing us, and I like it that way. We're extremely, extremely dangerous in this market because we don't have to report to the street. I don't have to report to the bank. I don't have to report to a board. All I have to do is worry about getting good sleep that night.t
Sarah Pattisall: So you strategically put the company in a position where the only people you have to answer to and be accountable to are yourselves?
Adam Pattisall: That's right, and their, and the families. The family members of the people that work here. That's right.
Matt Wolfe: That's fantastic.
Matt Wolfe: You know, we, we often ask this question around the idea of challenges, but I actually kind of want to flip it for a second and I'm, 'cause I'm curious, what were... So in this mode that you've described of growth and this commitment you made from the very beginning, what were some of the points along the journey that really fostered, like, the next phase of growth?
Like, what were the things that unlocked the next steps to get you from that 11 to 80 people?
Adam Pattisall: That was all the customer. The customer wanted us to be the size we are. Still, our customers want us the size we are. Some of our clients don't want us to be so dedicated to them. And I just said, "We're always gonna be a, you know, a one-basket farm. That's all. We, we get all of our eggs, we put them in one basket, and we make sure we don't set that basket down somewhere or drop it, right?
So we have customers that want us to get bigger and expand out, even to the point where we would be doing the same work we're doing for their biggest competitors. They would actually prefer for us to have other clients because their fear is tomorrow we may not be here, right? I mean, for,
Matt Wolfe: Okay
Adam Pattisall: For the better part of, you know, 15, 16 years, we literally had one customer for the whole time. Until we started getting in the federal space, 99% of our revenue came from one customer; they weren't excited about that. But yet they weren't gonna stop using us. They... They feared that we wouldn't be there tomorrow, and they wanted us to go find other clients so that we could diversify, which we've done now with the federal space a lot, a, a good bit. We just got super lucky and were able to do the same thing. So again, it's the same tools, it's the same knowledge, it's the same boxes that we put in. It's the same networks. It's just for federal and commercial.
Sarah Pattisall: Now, outside of diversifying in the federal space, how did you alleviate some of those fears when those would, they would arise?
Adam Pattisall: Oh, with the customers? It didn't bother me. I was too busy doing-- too busy fixing stuff. We were too busy out there handling.
Sarah Pattisall: Too busy serving them.
Adam Pattisall: Yeah, we're too busy doing all the stuff they wanted us to do, so their fears just fell on deaf ears. I was like, "I'm not, I'm not worried about that." I said, "I'll be here tomorrow as long as you guys want us to be here.
If at any point you decide you don't want us working for you, just say so. I'm happy to call it quits. We're here to make you guys happy." You guys grew us. They, they're the ones that grew us. They're the ones that gave me a contract by myself and trusted me to do this, then they turned right around and said, "Oh, by the way, we could use you over here.
You could help us with this. We've got this other project coming up." So, the points where they wanted us to grow way outside of our bounds in a short period of time, we just had the right-- had to have the right runway. We needed to know what their objective was, what their goals were, and what their end dates were, and we had to be able to grow in time to make those end dates happen.
Matt Wolfe: Where have your challenges been? So you s- it's you, and then it's 11, and then at some point it's 80. But it all started with you and all the values, you know, that you've laid out already about how you cared about the clients, how you jump in to help them. How have you transferred that to the rest of the team as you've gotten to 80?
'Cause that's not easy.
Adam Pattisall: You know, that's a great question.
Adam Pattisall: I actually had a chill when you asked that question 'cause I was with my first employee the majority of this week, and we, we had a big show in Baltimore and had a lot of customers. And I got to meet a very, very large customer that we just signed up to do work with; they have, they have big, big plans for us.
And I sat and listened to Matthew, who's my first employee, who Sarah knows well. I wasn't sitting; I was standing. I don't do well sitting. We're standing in this big convention, and we're talking to the personwho'ss second in charge to get a massive project done in the next 90 days, by the way. It should have started June 1st. And uh, Matthew was asking blew me away. They're the same questions that I would have asked 23 years ago or 30 years ago to a customer, and the customer was just amazed at the vision that Matthew brought. So you, you know, you asked how, h- how we translated how we started to all the employees, and I think it's just a type of employee.
It's a type of person that wants to satisfy people and wants to fix problems. So you don't have to be the best at understanding technology. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to fix a rocket. You just have to have the passion to wanna solve a problem. If you have a passion to sol- wanna solve the problem, you either figure out how to solve it yourself or you use the resources you have around you, whether it's another person or another toolbox. And I think that's where we've been very fortunate is the people that work for IncrediTek come with that mentality.
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah, so you've created this culture that cultivates that response to it, encourages it, and seeks it in the people that you're hiring
Adam Pattisall: For sure.
Adam Pattisall: I would say that almost everyone in the company knows and appreciates that our customers don't have to use us. They use us because they wanna use us. They have a choice. Mm-hmm. And our goal is to be that first choice. Our goal is to be the one that's like, "Hey, we wanna be the first ones that pop into your head when you have a project that you can't afford to have fall flat on its face. We wanna be there." And we have to be able to be prepared for that. At the same time, we have to know when to say we can't do it. We can't take that obligation on. We've been blessed. I mean, we have been blessed. I mean, we've, we've been through all the crazy stuff like all the other companies that are still here today, right?
All the COVID stuff and, you know, growing, surviving the first year, surviving the first five years, all that craziness, and it's been, it's been fun. But really the, the... You know, all the glory and all the pats on the back go to the employees that are here and the folks that are nipping things in the bud and, and just knocking them down.
Adam Pattisall: Again, you know, Matthew having a conversation with a, a new client that has been told what we do but has never experienced that, and then we're in a five-minute conversation, and they're, you know, they're blown away because of the questions he's asking about a project that we've not even touched yet. It's, it's almost like, you know, Matthew can see into the future and say, " All the things you're bringing up are valid points, and I can see why you would do it. Your biggest issue is not what you think." Right? Matthew literally says to him, "Your biggest concern with this is gonna be access to these sites. It's not gonna be putting the gear in.
It's not gonna be provisioning it. It's not gonna be cleaning the fibers. It's not whether it works or doesn't work. Our biggest issue is physically gonna be getting into 300 sites in the next 90 days." And it's not 'cause you can't walk through the door. It's because you can't; you literally can't get access to some of these sites because of the level of security there.
Matt Wolfe: Yeah. So you guys are truth tellers too.
Adam Pattisall: Well, when
Sarah Pattisall: Mm-hmm.
Matt Wolfe: Tell it like it is.
Adam Pattisall: You don't tell the truth, somebody's gonna find out real fast. You can't. I couldn't get away with that growing up. I don't think I'm gonna get away with it now
Matt Wolfe: Well, I wanna explore your, your growth story from a few different angles too. So we, we really believe that the key to scalability for B2B services is found in brand strategy. And the real- the reason that brand strategy is really just about telling the right story to the right people. And a lot of people who got into marketing just were never given that strategy. They were never... No one sat down with them to really just step back and say, "Hey, who are we as a business?" 'Cause we're a big character in this story. Who is our actual ideal client for us to serve? 'Cause they're the other main character in the story.
In fact, they're the hero. They're the protagonist of the story. And how do we tell... And this is about a relationship. This isn't a transaction in, in, in services. This is about a, again, a trusted relationship, and how do we tell a story that does that and invites them in? Just hasn't happened, so we see a lot of people in the service space who gave up on marketing.
They're sort of really getting by on referrals and word of mouth, and have missed out on the scalability power of being able to reach a wider audience, open a wider funnel to the right people. And what we teach them is, you know, once you've done all that work to create that story, it's very powerful.
And it not only fixes marketing, but it addresses sales and client experience, the entire client journey, because it's about a relationship. So we like to look at the stories from those three areas: marketing, sales, and client experience. So I'm curious, first of all, how has your story changed? You know, the story that you tell of your relationship to your clients over all these years. How has it evolved and changed over time?
Adam Pattisall: I'm not sure that it has. You mentioned sales, you mentioned marketing, right? And then the client experience. I'm not gonna say that I didn't pay attention to marketing and I didn't pay attention to sales, but that was not high on the list, and
Matt Wolfe: Hmm
Adam Pattisall: It still isn't. I mean, our client experience is everything. We're in a very unique space. I'm no-, I'm not, you know, in Increditek and ITekFED; we're not retail stores. We're not competing with every other pizza shop in the town to get your, you know, delivery business or who's got the best-tasting pizza or the best-priced pizza. Ours truly is a customer experience.
We don't chase marketing. You know, over the years, you know, the web wasn't a big deal back in the day. Now you look... You know, if you're gonna go somewhere or you're looking to buy something, you're looking for reviews online, and now, nowadays you're wondering if those reviews are even legit or not, right? We never did that, and we still don't do that. We sort of chase the technology. So as long as we are in front of the technology, those requests come to us because we're the ones that are on the bleeding edge of it, right? We don't, we don't go after stick-building homes on every street corner where it's a, you know, it's a competitive price thing.
We're, you know, more looking for the mansions, so to speak. Like, there's not gonna be as many of those going in, but they have to be done a certain way. You don't get a second bite at the apple because you gotta go through and do a punch list five times on a mansion, right? You- there's no punch list on a mansion.
You either do it right or you don't get called back. So we sort of follow the technology and stay in front of the, the, the hot stuff.
Sarah Pattisall: See, I think what you just described there, that story of following the technology and everything else you've said, that, that, that kinda does feel like your brand story. And you know, what you were saying before about Matthew, I think right there is a prime example of that story showing up in your sales process, right?
Of the people who are gonna think ahead and be that strategic partner. And then I know as far as marketing goes, a lot of what has really gotten you where you are has been word of mouth, right?
Adam Pattisall: For sure.
Sarah Pattisall: And those relationships that you've made over time.
Adam Pattisall: Oh, absolutely, it's the relationships, for sure.
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah, so now,w like, when we think about brand story, right? That sort of image that you painted earlier when you first started of just having the cables and the truck and going job to job, and the people that you were serving then and how you were helping them in that moment, how has that evolved?
Adam Pattisall: It's still the same.
Sarah Pattisall: The same people just a different way?
Adam Pattisall: Sure, it's the same.
Adam Pattisall: I mean, for the, for the small emergency jobs, sort of the, the, the fill-in stuff, you know, right now we're in a, in a unique time. Not, not unique from since we started the company or when- since I've been in the industry- but right now the, the secret sauce, the more sophisticated technology is very difficult to get because everyone's trying to get it.
Everyone's building out their networks right now at this moment in time, like 2026, right? So, you know, a lot of this is staying in front of what's gonna happen 18 to 24 months away because you can't get the gear faster than that right now.
Sarah Pattisall: And then becoming known for that as well, right? So that people know, "Hey, those are gonna be the ones that I can go to
Adam Pattisall: That's right.
Sarah Pattisall: Because they're already ahead of it." And, mm-hmm.
Matt Wolfe: Yeah
Adam Pattisall: So we, we, you know, we're, we're building stuff that was sold a year or two years ago because the, the products are trickling out a lot slower than they used to be. There's a, there's a lot of challenge-- there's a lot of challenges right now in the world for getting electronics, as you all know.
Matt Wolfe: Yeah.
Matt Wolfe: I think part of what we find is that, so in a situation like yours, in a really relationship-driven industry, right, where everyone knows everyone, that these kinds of things we're talking about,t there's always something that makes a business unique, and it's in the values, it's in the approach to how you do the work.
It's in everything. Like Sarah just said, those great stories are indicative of this:s, this is how they're gonna care for you, the client, in a way that really stands apart from the rest. And what we find is when you, when you get a ha- when you get a handle on the brand story, and it takes structure, and there's a little strategy behind it, what happens is you've named that story,y and you've really owned it instead of people just having, everyone having their own version of it out there, right? Someone's got their own kind of version, and yeah, you gotta talk to Ad, and you've gotta talk to Increditek. But suddenly it becomes consistent and repeatable, and then you have the ability to put it... As you said, the online thing has changed, and there are a lot of industries where they used to be able to really not worry about the website, but now people are going to the website, the reviews, even the socials, whatever, to validate what kind of company is this?
Who am I dealing with? Are they telling the same story? That's a lot of what, in what I described earlier: the reason the story is so important is that the real act of what I just described through marketing, sales, client experience is about telling the same story all the way across the way. 'Cause when we don't, that's when people go boing in their bra- in their brains and they lose trust, and they walk away. The cool thing is, like, marketing starts to invite people into a story. Sales gets to tell the same story and build on those promises. And the client experience, I always say, is the coolest part because that's where the story has to become real.
You gotta live up to those promises.
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah, and it sounds like, too, oo in just how you've built the company being really intentional about the people who are brought on and this culture that you've developed, you have unintentionally cultivated that story across sales, marketing, and customer experience.
Adam Pattisall: For sure
Matt Wolfe: Of an outlier in the people we talk to in a wonderful way i- in that a lot of times we have to convince people to think about the client experience. Like, we have to sort of get them to be like, "Hey guys, let's do some customer journey mapping. Hey, let's figure out how to sort of plus what you're doing or put some structure around it, you know, that's gonna make sure everyone's well cared for." And you just, you started there.
Adam Pattisall: Yeah.
Matt Wolfe: And it's incredible
Adam Pattisall: I think that's, that's probably the most important part, right? Anticipating what the customer's needs are and really trying to help them with that. It's again, it's, it's our responsibility to make sure that the customer's networks are secure, built the correct way so that they can go out and sell their service, right?
We have to, we have to build the network for their, for our customers in mind. Sometimes the customers get wrapped around the axle with their own processes as well. So they need to not worry about what we're doing.
Matt Wolfe: Yeah. I, I picked up on that earlier too, right? When you're talking about what does it mean to deliver great service, it's for them to hear and be able to believe we got this,
Adam Pattisall: That's right?
Matt Wolfe: Like, go about your business. We got it.
Adam Pattisall: Oh, yeah. Yeah. B- go, move on, move on to, you know, ticket number two. We got the first one. We'll take care of it. If there's anything that pops up, we got it. We know the protocol. We'll handle it.
Adam Pattisall: Nott... I mean, it sounds like a perfect world. It's not, right? There's, you know, there's, there's spilt milk, but when you spill the milk, it's how that customer experience is cleaning that milk up, right?
It's not about what you did wrong; it's about how you handle it after that. So when that happens, we have to manage through that as well.
Matt Wolfe: Yeah. Well, and I would say it's also about what they experienced before the milk got spilled too, right? Like, when they've felt that care and concern that you're clearly delivering, when a little milk gets spilled,d it's not so big a deal.
Adam Pattisall: That's right. That's right
Matt Wolfe: That's my... We were talking earlier, my little guy's favorite phrase right now, he's almost three, when something goes wrong he looks at us and goes, "It happens."
He's got a little gesture, goes with it.
Adam Pattisall: I love that. Love that.
Matt Wolfe: But it's because he feels safe otherwise, right? He knows it's not a big deal,
Adam Pattisall: Sure
Matt Wolfe: That he somehow learned, and I'm literally thinking of spills, like in the kitchen or something falls or something breaks, and he's, like, reassuring us, "Hey, we're okay, guys."
Adam Pattisall: That's great.
Matt Wolfe: What has surprised you about the journey so far of growing this company?
Adam Pattisall: Probably how fast the technology's changed. I've always, I've always said we don't care about the technology. We'll put anything in, and we'll fig- we'll figure anything out. But the speeds that we're transmitting data now compared to when I was, you know, back in the Army the speeds that we were transmitting back then are just unbelievable.
It just floors me how quickly that technology has changed in such a short period of time.
That's probably the biggest. I wouldn't say that's a challenge. I, I think that's probably more a blessing for us because, you know, like Apple, the, you know, faster they come out with a new phone, the more people want it- people have to swap out and get the new one, so.
Sarah Pattisall: It creates opportunity
Adam Pattisall: Yeah, it creates opportunity for those that are ready for it and prepared for it. So, if the technology keeps growing by leaps and bounds, it gets more and more complicated, and sometimes it's so complicated, companies don't want to t- they don't wanna fool with it. And that's not the space we live in.
There's, there's not an option, right? We, we have to continue to do what we do.
Sarah Pattisall: I think that's a good segue into a question that I wanted to ask, which is what is next for IncrediTek and ITekFED? You know, where do you wanna take the company in the next three to five years or further?
Adam Pattisall: That's a great question. And I would tell you, I've had that question so many times in my career. I don't know that I've, I've been real good at being a visionary of where we're gonna go because the customers have always set our direction, right? So I'll-- I'm gonna bail on the question and say that if our biggest clients don't want us here in three to five years, we won't be here. If our biggest clients want us the same size we are, we're gonna be the same size. And if they want us a different size, we're gonna be a different size, whether that's bigger or smaller. So I'm cheating on the question because I'm not that- I'm not that goal-setting person with growth. And remember, I don't, I don't have to report to a board, so I don't have to sweat tough questions. I don't have to report to the street because we don't have a stock price, and I'm not worried about growing, quote-unquote, the stock value and splits, right? All I have to worry about is what the customer's experience is for us.
Sarah Pattisall: I actually think that that is a very insightful answer because, Matt, and I-, I'm curious what you think about this- Matt, I find, or at least I think I've found that a lot of service-based businesses can fall into the trap of setting those lofty goals and expectations without considering the customer, right?
And if they had considered the customer, th- they may have realized that some of those goals were unrealistic or perhaps damaging to chase because of how it could affect the customer.
Matt Wolfe: Yeah, that's, yeah, that's, yeah. Sarah, I totally agree.
Matt Wolfe: And I'm, I'm sitting here thinking about how there's, there's more than one way to communicate a vision. In fact, it has to be communicated in more than one way. And so most of the work around that tends to be focused on words, right? The words that go up on the whiteboard and that go up on the website and whatever.
This is the idea, and these are the words, and this is where we wanna go. But the other side of it is action. It has to be lived. The belief doesn't come true, the reality doesn't come true without the action. And so I feel like what you've done is you've leaned into the action, and you've led by action and led, and the vision is there in the values and the service, and it's just a different way to think about it.
But I would argue just as potent, and like you said, Sarah, customer-centric. I think that's a really powerful insight. I, I really do think we're getting a, a different view of how to grow and scale a business than, than we've had in any of the other conversations. I think it's really cool.
Sarah Pattisall: Absolutely
Matt Wolfe: I also don't think you know, you've brought up your ind- I would call it your independence, you know, your declaration of independence as a business. Don't think a lot of small businesses necessarily recognize what
an advantage their independence can be 'cause they're probably trying to be like other things and like other people, and you pushed against that current. That's, it's really cool.
Sarah Pattisall: That's really true, Matt. Especially in the technology space, I find that a lot of smaller businesses are trying to paint themselves like the enterprises and sound like them, right? Because they think this is gonna make me sound more legitimate. But when you really own what's unique, and especially if you can own what's unique because you're a small business and leverage that, it's really gonna make you stand out more.
Matt Wolfe: Boy, this is great.
Matt Wolfe: I know we need to wrap up, but the last thing that we do here, because we've been talking all along, right? Services and especially in your industry, it's about relationship trust. It is about being human. Whatever we're gonna do in marketing has to create human experiences so that the potential client can meet someone like you and see their authentic passion and care and concern for their wellbeing and for what they do. So we try to end with a little thing that unveils the human behind the brand. It's called the Behind the Brand Questionnaire. And it's quick, pretty painless. Normally we tag team these questions, but actually I'm gonna get out of the way, and Sarah, I think you should ask all of these questions
Sarah Pattisall: Okay. I love it. Okay, and is, for this first question too, oo I wanna preface this by saying for our listeners that you're a bit of a singer. You have a little bit of a performance background, right?
Adam Pattisall: Little bit.
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah.
Adam Pattisall: Yeah
Sarah Pattisall: So what is your go-to karaoke song?
Adam Pattisall: Oh boy. Desperado
Sarah Pattisall: Really?
Adam Pattisall: Yeah, Desperado
Matt Wolfe: That's a good one
Sarah Pattisall: Okay, so now you have to perform it. I'm just kidding, you don't. All right, next question. What is the last thing that made you laugh out loud?
Adam Pattisall: Man, as you know, Sarah, I laugh a lot. I spend a lot of time laughing, so probably telling the story, uh, that my best friend pulled a prank on me, so to speak, at Starbucks a few years ago, but I can't tell that on a podcast, so... And I to- just told that story yesterday, so JCC. But I won't, I won't get into the story, or you'll have to erase this whole podcast.
Sarah Pattisall: That's probably for the best, but I know what you're talking about, and trust us, it is funny. What is your favorite way to get away from it all?
Adam Pattisall: I would say that the downtime I have with my wife, Jody, that's probably the getaway. But I don't,
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah
Adam Pattisall: But I don't have a lot of downtime. People ask me all the time, you know, "What do you do?" Like, "Well, oh, okay, you, so you have this business. What do you do?" Or, you know, whatever.
And I, and I just respond with, "As little as possible," and it ain't working out very well, so.
Sarah Pattisall: Well, on the flip side, there are a lot of other things that you do as well. You recently just showed off your, your construction work on an interior project in the house, so many skills.
Adam Pattisall: I did. That gets me away too. I like that. Um, actually, I, I took a break from building an outdoor shower door to do this podcast, so I'll be back out,
Matt Wolfe: Oh
Adam Pattisall: I'll be back out in the sun in no time.
Sarah Pattisall: What smell reminds you of a specific place or time?
Adam Pattisall: Mint
Sarah Pattisall: Mint? What's the reminder?
Adam Pattisall: Gigi's House and Tea.
Sarah Pattisall: I thought I knew the answer.
Adam Pattisall: Yeah
Sarah Pattisall: What is one day in your life that you would like to relive?
Adam Pattisall: You're trying to tear me up
Sarah Pattisall: Go for it. Get vulnerable. We love vulnerability here
Adam Pattisall: Holding you for the first time
Sarah Pattisall: Aw. Now you're gonna make me tear up.
Adam Pattisall: Touché
Sarah Pattisall: And our listeners are tearing up, I know they are.
Matt Wolfe: I know, it's got me too.
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah.
Matt Wolfe: I kinda knew he was gonna
Adam Pattisall: Yeah.
Matt Wolfe: Like that, yeah.
Adam Pattisall: There's a lot.
Sarah Pattisall: Okay
Adam Pattisall: I've had,
I've had a blessed life, and I've done a lot of, a lot of fun, crazy, exciting stuff, so the list of reliving stuff is a mile long. But I don't, I don't spend a whole bunch of time looking over my shoulder. I've learned not to do that. I, I'm looking at, I'm looking at the next day and uh, next week, so
Sarah Pattisall: Yeah. Well, I'm excited to share this podcast episode with my siblings as confirmation that I am the favorite, by the way. All right. What three words would your loved ones use to describe you?
Adam Pattisall: No idea. Fast. Emotional
Sarah Pattisall: So I was gonna say vulnerable,
Adam Pattisall: Probably
Sarah Pattisall: Right? There's an authentic vulnerability, which is a big strength.
Adam Pattisall: I'll take that.
Sarah Pattisall: What would it mean for you to have truly succeeded in life, not with your company, but you personally?
Adam Pattisall: I already have. And if you'd have asked me that 20 years ago, I'd have said the same thing. Like, I always wanted the white picket fence, got that. I always wanted the family, got that. I wanted, I wanted to be in love, got that. Like, I am out there all the time. You know? I say it to everybody, "Wide open till you see God, then hit the brakes." And that's me. I'm still stealing bases in baseball. I'm still out there enjoying every day and appreciating every breath. I told, yeah, I told you guys before, I don't, I don't really... I'm not like, a goal-setting type of person. I just wanna go do something or wanna have something, and I just go make it happen.
So
Sarah Pattisall: Yes, but you do have your task lists. I know you like those.
Adam Pattisall: Oh my goodness.-- My, my list is no joke. Sarah's, Sarah's not joking. I have a list for every, every thing. I have a list, and I can promise you at the end of every day, my lists are bigger than they are when I wake up. Every single day they get bigger, and there are probably five days in my life where the list is smaller when I went to bed that night. So
Matt Wolfe: Well, thank you for bringing the CEO's Heart for Service right back to the heart. We came here to talk about business, and now you've reminded me just of the value of gratitude here at the end of all of this as you go through that, and I appreciate it. This has been wonderful. What a joy to meet you and to hear your story, Adam.
Matt Wolfe: I wanna make sure people know how to find IncrediTek. It's just increditek.com. I-N-C-R-E-D-I, Incredi, and Tek, T-E-K. IncrediTek with a K
Sarah Pattisall: Incredible technology
Matt Wolfe: .com.
Adam Pattisall: That's right
Matt Wolfe: Yeah. And that's it. Thank you so much. And for my part, folks if you, if you're a B2B service trying to figure out how to scale beyond referrals and word of mouth, trying to figure out how to make your marketing work, if you've been struggling with that, we'd be happy to talk to you at brandthree.net. This is Matt Wolfe, and this has been Sarah Pattisall in our very special father-daughter episode of CEO's Heart for Service. We'll see you next time.e
Adam Pattisall: See you
Sarah Pattisall: Bye everyone.
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