IAM1096- President Fuels the Vision and Direction of a Communications Company

Darin Gull, General Manager and President of TRACI.net, Inc. in Deerfield Beach, Florida. He has kept TRACI.net at the forefront of the communications industry, as one of South Florida’s leaders in Hosted PBX, Unified Communications, SIP, Cloud, and Data solutions. Darin actively fuels the vision and direction of the company while managing partners, vendors, and key client relationships. He has several industry certifications and a B.S. in Marketing and Small Business Management from Florida Atlantic University.

• CEO Hack: Going through news every morning
• CEO Nugget: (i) Be open to other people's ideas, listen and keep learning (ii) Appreciate life and make time for yourself and your family
• CEO Defined: Leading by example and not being afraid to do anything in your organisation

Website: http://traci.net/

Facebook: http://facebook.com/tracinet
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tracinet

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Transcription

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00:11 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:39 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Darin Gull of Tracy.net. Darin, it's great to have you on the show.

00:48 – Darin Gull

It's great to be on the show, Gresh. Thank you so much for having me.

00:51 – Gresham Harkless

Super excited to have you on. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Darin so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Darin is the general manager and president of Tracy.net, and that's Tracy.net Incorporated in Deerfield Beach, Florida. He has kept Tracy .net at the forefront of the communications industry as well as one of South Florida's leaders in hosted PBX, unified communication, SIP, cloud, and data solutions. Darin actively fuels the vision and direction of the company while managing partners, vendors, and key relationships. He has several industry cert certifications a BS in marketing and small business management from Florida and Atlantic University. Darren, great to have you on the show. You're getting me all choked up with your bio. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:40 – Darin Gull

Absolutely. It's great to be here.

01:41 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely. Great to have you on. And so to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

01:49 – Darin Gull

Okay. Well, while I was in college, I was working as an intern at IBM. And that taught me I did not wanna be a part of the big corporate life, just because at the time, I was working in competitive analysis of industrial sector PCs. I could purchase a million dollars worth of equipment with my signature, but I had to fill out a requisition to get a pen and a pad of paper. So then, it's like, okay. This isn't for me. So I, at the same time, was racing bicycles semi-professionally and came out of college. And, the first thing I did entrepreneurial-wise is I ran a bike shop.

That was a lot of fun and pursuing a passion then, but I was also smart enough to know that the industry was fading quickly as bikes became available through retail chains. So I was looking for something to do. And, my brother-in-law at the time introduced me to Tracy.net, which was a company that was doing a virtualized version of an answering service. And so they were using a mainframe computer to do it, and it seemed like a very interesting product. But the company needed help internally in putting together the structure and organization, Salesforce, etcetera.

So I wound up buying into it because I like the concept. At that time, the service we were offering was what some people might remember from AT, and T was called memory call. So it was a way you could retrieve messages remotely. You could have your number That was just a messaging service. So that was a service we provided. Had tons of doctors, real estate people, etcetera, using our services and small businesses as well for after hours so they could retrieve messages when they weren't at their place of business.

That was the start of Tracy.net. From there, we looked at other options. Well, people wanna get notified when a message is left. So we signed paging contracts with the carriers. We were one of the first independents to sneak out of the mainframe paging companies and buy wholesale and do retail. That led to, us doing repairs of pages. So we had one of the largest pager repair companies, and we did repairs for PageNet, American Paging, and all the big paging companies in South Florida. So we would do a one-day turnaround on pagers for them, and we'd pick them up that night and deliver them the next morning. So it was a very lucrative business. From there, we became a dial-up Internet service provider.

So back in those days, we were one of the first, small businesses to be doing sixty-four k ISBN where you could bond it together and get a hundred and twenty-eight k. So it was more along the lines of the fast Internet of the day. From that, we got into web hosting and colocation services with computers. And during that time we got into the bread and butter of what we do today, which is virtualizing phone systems. So we created our product based on Asterisk. And we were virtualizing phone systems before the bandwidth was there to support it.

So we had a product ready to go, and we had to wait for the bandwidth to catch up. And once we started seeing tones at the time, a tone was about fifteen hundred dollars a month. They dropped to five hundred dollars a month. We partnered with a company where we were selling tones for four hundred and fifty dollars a month and then throwing our voice on top of it. And that was lightning-speed Internet at the time virtualizing their PBX and giving them all the features and functionalities. Now today, we laugh at those bandwidth speeds, and it's allowed us to have a much larger marketplace and go after larger accounts. And, so it's that aspect that opened the door for us to do what we call cloud PBX solutions. And, it was a great business to be in. It's still a great business to be in.

And coming out of a pandemic, it's been fantastic for our customers. I mean, it's the people who were on our services that didn't miss a beat when we had the work-from-home lockdowns because your services work, as we say, from anywhere and everywhere. So it allows you to be able to use your phone system no matter where you are. And it's just from there, we maintain and we're always looking at what the next big thing is, and it's gone from it's not telephones anymore. A lot of people still think of it as just a telephone on the desk, but you may not even have a phone on your desk. It might be an app on your computer or an app on your cell phone. Above and beyond that, you get into messaging.

Texting is now a huge portion of what we do. So we text enable our DIDs so customers can send and receive text from their phone numbers, for their businesses. And we're always looking to what industry has specific needs and how can we tap that. So during the pandemic, trying to order takeout food from small restaurants was a challenge. They may not all have websites that you can do it from and, you know, so these, you know, small mom and pops, as we call them, great food, but you didn't have a way to get it because you'd call them and get a busy signal. And so what we did is we came up with a restaurant product.

So Tracy.net, we got together and found an equipment manufacturer that could deliver something super easy to use that people could be familiar with. Line one, line two, line three, line four. Put it on hold on line one, and pick it up on line one. And in the VoIP world, that's not the norm. You know? It's normally extension numbers. You call parking. You're doing all sorts of high-end functionality and features that some people just don't want to learn. And so this product was designed after that small business, and we also wanted to do something that helped them out. We knew they were struggling. We knew they were hurting.

So we got it together from manufacturers, got the pricing down on the hardware, and then divided our defined service provisioning around giving them the four lines to answer live, but also giving them ten calls to queue in the cloud. So their callers weren't getting busy signals. They'd be hearing the message, whatever prerecorded message while on hold, saying, here's our daily specials. We are open. We have curbside pickup. Here's how it works. Saying whatever they wanted to do, offering an option for hours, and directions, and then, ringing through and tagging prepended things.

Press one for takeout, press two for reservations, press three to talk to the general manager, four for catering, whatever options they want to do. And that complete system had a price tag of eighty-five dollars a month. No setup fee, nothing upfront, and, we called it our restaurant relief package. And, it has taken off, and it's been growing steadily since. So, our philosophy has always been no two businesses are the same. And when people get into starting a business, they're doing it because they're pursuing a passion, something they're passionate about. Same as myself. I was passionate about getting into cutting-edge technology. That's what got us into this business.

And what you find out is things that you have to deal with in day to day that distract you from that passion are just that. They're distractions. So what we wanna do is we want to take the distraction of communications needs, whether it be your bandwidth for your Internet connection, whether it be your phone system. Let that go to Tracy.net. Let us help you eliminate that pain point. So we view ourselves as the Advil Hotel, the communication services. We take that headache away. And if you factor out the savings we give you, it's cheaper than buying Advil. So that's a little bit about us. That's our story. I don't know if I fully answered your question, but hopefully so.

09:03 – Gresham Harkless

Appreciate that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:15 – Darin Gull

I start my day every day by going through the news. I mean, I read multiple newspapers, multiple, trade publications, multiple things, and I'm always looking for what's out there. I also get out to trade ships. I mean, it's very important to get out and see what's out there in the world and talk to people. I mean, I'm someone yeah. It's I'm guessing you're probably this way. When you come up to someone and you're standing, waiting in a line, or whatever, you start a conversation.

09:42 – Gresham Harkless

I was gonna ask you for what I call a CEO nugget, which is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I often say it might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you would ask your younger business self, is it that piece that you just said is just trying to understand and know what your lane is and lean in on that and continue to get better and partner with or delegate or whatever the rest of it that isn't essentially what you, hang your hat on.

10:06 – Darin Gull

Yeah. I think if I could go back to my younger self, I mean, I think I was a little too cocky at a very young age. So the comment you made varies. Stay in your lane and also just be open to the fact that the world is a wealth of knowledge. Absorb it, and be willing to learn and be open to other people's ideas as opposed to thinking, well, I know how to do that. You know? So at least Darin as a younger self would have been more open in listening to other people and also just enjoying every day. I mean I'm very driven in my business, but I'm more driven by my family.

And my wife has kept me very grounded in that in the sense of making time for your family. Every day, I would be home for dinner with my wife and children, but I was back up in my home office after dinner doing other other things. So, yeah, I mean, it carries on. But appreciate life and give yourself time every day for yourself. So for me, it's a walk or a run to just get out and make time for myself and clear my head. And some of your best ideas happen when you just clear your mind off the distractions and just get out and do something.

11:15 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And so I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So, Darren, what does being a CEO mean to you?

11:26 – Darin Gull

CEO means leading by example, not being afraid to do any task in your organization, and not asking any employee to do something you wouldn't do yourself.

11:37 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And I appreciate that, and I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all those awesome things you and your team are working on.

11:54 – Darin Gull

Okay. I think I've shared a good portion of our story. I mean, again, Tracy today is not what Tracy tomorrow is gonna be. So, we are continuing to look at, Where is communications headed and how can we be a part of it. Whether it be through our services or strategic partnerships And I guess, to get ahold of us, I mean, why who would be a potential Tracy customer, which would be a good question, is anybody who's struggling with their communications needs whether it be their phones, whether it be their Internet, whether it be the interconnection between multiple locations. Those types of things are what we do. And big buzzwords in the industry right now are cloud computing, cloud voice, unified communications, and SD WAN. If those terms confuse you, that's where we step in.

So it's a type of thing that a lot of people don't know there's a problem with how things are working until they, you know, sit down and look at it. And we are also firm believers in, we don't come in to sell. We come in to consult ask questions and solve problems. If there's not a problem, there's not an opportunity. So that's what we're doing. The problem could be pricing. The problem could be lacking features. The problem could be misconfigured dial plans.

So those are problems that we like to address. Tracy.net, we work with small businesses, we've got opportunities that are over five thousand seats, and we've got opportunities that are one seat. So as we say, there's nobody too big, nobody too small. And we just wanna help people. I mean, that's the best thing. So, the easiest way to reach us is through our website, which is Tracy.net, and that's the link to the services we provide. Look for us at trade shows. We're out there, and we're talking to people. And, I'm also happy to mentor people and be mentored by people. So, I mean, again, I don't claim to know everything.

So I'm happy to talk with people and share my story and share the aches and pains We've gone through and a lot of our success has come out of the fact that we've learned from our mistakes and you know, that's an important thing. We have a very low turnover of staff because we treat people right and rewarding people isn't always just financial either. We have flexible work schedules, so we allow people time off to do stuff. And, again, that comes into that family piece and making time for yourself. And that's very important to me, and that's a very important part of my life. So that needs to be a very important part of my employees' lives as well.

So that's the goal that we strive for is to be a good workplace, be open and listening to ideas, and be open to criticism. Criticism is a great tool. It's like people can take it either as someone's attacking me or they can say someone is educating. And the other thing I believe is perception is reality. So if someone perceives something differently than you think the situation is, that's still their reality, and we need you to work through that. So treat everybody right. The cost opportunities come and go. As I say, it's a big pool of customers out there, and we just wanna have our portion of the pool.

And we just wanna treat those people right and get referrals. And you don't get referrals from people you don't treat right. But, again, on our website, Tracy.net, you can also search for me on LinkedIn. My name is spelled a little differently than typical. It's Darin last name, Gull like the seagulls, so like the birds. But, I'm on LinkedIn. I'm not super active on social media, but we're working with a PR firm to help me again to continue to try and learn and grow a little bit. And just so, Transmedia Group out of Obraton, Florida has been excellent for us. They've helped us out a lot and, teach us things that we don't do well. You outsource to people who can help you. So always be open.

15:55 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Darren, truly appreciate that. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well too to make it even easier so that everybody can connect with you, and find out about all the awesome things that you and your team are working on. But appreciate you being the definition of being open, and we hear that in your story.

And then, of course, all the knowledge and information you have been open to and provide opportunities for people to get the opportunity to learn from you as well. So thank you so much for being an incredible resource to us and to the community and especially to communications at large. And I appreciate your time, of course, today, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

16:26 – Outro