Innovative Real Estate Sign Technology That Sells Homes Faster

Jeffery Donnelly (00:00)
The thing that’s challenging is I’ve had realtors say, well, know, that sign’s not going to sell the house. And I’m like, yeah, but you’re not in the real estate business just to sell that house. You’re brand, you’re marketing you. You are the brand. This is your, basically, this is when the user, when the seller goes to turn off the light at night of their porch and they see your sign shining in the front yard. Or when they come home from work and it’s dark out and they see your light, they’re like, wow.

I looked at all the other realtors in the neighborhood and no one else has a lighted sign but my agent’s working overtime and ⁓ I think when you go to a cocktail party or you go to the Christmas party or whatever and they’re like, hey you know we’re thinking of moving, do you know any good agents? And that’s when they step in and go, you should see my agent, they actually have a lighted sign.

Michelle Kesil (02:15)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil Today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Jeffery Donnelly, who’s been making serious moves in the sign space of real estate, creating a new advertising methodology. So excited to have you here, Jeffery.

I think our listeners are going to take something away from how you’re approaching innovating a new way for their business to really get showcased. So let’s dive in.

Jeffery Donnelly (02:53)
Well thanks for having me, I appreciate it. What a wonderful opportunity to just get some more brand recognition and get out there and see what we can do to kind of like anything else, come up with any sort of new creative way to market and differentiate yourself to kind of give yourselves the edge over the competition. That’s kind of my background marketing and branding and everything’s so competitive, especially in residential real estate. So just that one little tiny edge, anything that will separate yourself from the competition is kind of why we exist.

Michelle Kesil (03:19)
Yeah. So for people who may not be familiar with you and your world, can you give the short version of what your main focus is these days?

Jeffery Donnelly (03:29)
⁓ I don’t know if I can give you the short version, but I’ll try. I’ll give you the medium one. No, so just always been an entrepreneur. when I started in the industry in 1995, a long time ago, I was on my way home and I was having a hard time getting realtors to send me business. And so I was at the corner of an intersection. It was completely dark. I was a little bit bummed out and I had just finished a book called Gorilla Marketing.

Michelle Kesil (03:32)
Okay, give a medium version.

Jeffery Donnelly (03:53)
And I was thinking to myself, can I do to add value to a realtor so that they would then in turn say, hey, you know what? Here’s someone that’s hungry trying to differentiate themselves. And I looked at a real estate sign and it was dark. And I was like, what’s the point of a sign if you can’t even see it? And so in 1995, I thought, wow, this is…

This is interesting. And so I looked around and no one has doing it. And I went back to my shop teacher in middle school and said, I need to build a lighted sign for real estate. And so we invented it in 95. And back then you had to plug it in kind of like a Christmas tree, you know, like the run the cord across the yard and it was on a timer. So it would turn off at night. Really, really cool. And my goal, I just finished going to Tony Robbins. I was young, naive. And I’m like, you know that I’m going to set a goal and I’m going to have 50 agents by the end of the year.

And fair enough, within about a month, I was in the cover of the Rocky Mountain News and I had 45 agents sending me loans by the end of the year. And so I thought, wow, this is pretty cool from the idea of I would walk into the real estate agent and say, hey,

I found a way to help promote you during the evening. I’ll give you a sign and in return, you don’t have to give me any business, but I’ll give you a sign and then in return if you want to send me a loan and give me a shot, I promise you I’ll do a good job and if not you can keep the sign. And so fast forward 25 years later.

I went and was looking at them and I realized there’s still no sign out there that does anything like this. And I had a successful career with four other companies and it was one of those things where I saw this and I thought, why isn’t anyone doing this? Especially with solar technology and digital manufacturing and the way you can print signs now. And so did a little bit of research and then we went and we put our new solar sign together filed for the patent. Right now it’s patent pending and we launched a year ago and we’re

We’re making traction, which is great. And we’ve we’ve expanded beyond real estate to we do construction signs, we do restaurant signs, anywhere there’s a sign that you can light up without any wires or plugs. That’s our main purpose. And so now it’s completely portable. We’re working with the U.S. Department of Defense for FEMA for disaster relief. And it’s one of those things where we’re at that spot, kind like we discussed a little bit was with with.

With sellers, they’re starting to notice that their agent has a lighted sign, but what they’re also noticing is all the agents that are listing homes that don’t have a lighted sign. And so it has been a little bit of a challenge because we want all the agents that are using us to say, go grab a, but they’re not excited to tell anyone about our signs because.

they want to be the only one in the neighborhood that has a lighted sign. So it’s been kind of, it’s been really, really cool. And there’s other agents that are like, you know what, there’s enough houses out there. I’m not worried about it. So yeah, that’s kind of how we got from A to B and where we’re at now.

Michelle Kesil (07:22)
Amazing. And where are you like operating from? Are these signs nationwide? How does that work?

Jeffery Donnelly (07:29)
So we’re out of Denver, Colorado, and our signs are made and manufactured here in Denver.

The plastic comes from Houston. All of our printing is done here locally in Colorado. And we have kind of two phases. We’re at the retail side and then we’re also available for sign companies as well. So if they wanted to buy a standard frame with the plastic so they can print whatever they want, we also have this wholesale channel available as well. And it’s kind of interesting because our design, I wish I could show you, but our design is, are you familiar with Shutterfly? Like, you know, when you hang on your walls.

a picture on your wall in the house. It’s kind of similar. The panels, which you can see right here, the panels will pop out of the sign and then you can replace them. So if you’re an agent and you want to go from one agency to another, you can switch them out. Or if you’re, like I said, a restaurant, you want to put in today’s daily specials or whatever. It’s a pretty simple design, but everything is manufactured here in the United States except for the solar light. And that’s the one piece that we have to get.

we have to import just because you can’t, the cost, you just can’t find them in the United States.

Michelle Kesil (08:29)
Yeah, that’s so cool. So yeah, what has been like the key to keeping this business running smoothly.

Jeffery Donnelly (08:36)
not much really. think, you know, from, from a lot of other things that I’ve come up with and throughout my career is the ideas, you know, if you can find like one really good thing, like say, for example, you make the best cookie, if you can get the best cookie and then you figure out a way to scale it, then you can obviously, that’s kind of the idea. And so, I know it sounds crazy, but it’s just a little box. You’d think, okay, it’s a box with the light in it. Heck, I could go design that right now.

took us about a year and about 13 months and nine versions to make it absolutely perfect so that it’s solid, it’s waterproof, it’s, you know, blizzard proof, whatever. And so the biggest challenge was those first 12 to 13 months during R &D to get it absolutely perfect for the patent. And then once we got it, the next challenge is basically getting noticed, getting out there and it kind of, ⁓

Since I was in the mortgage industry for a long time, it’s kind of interesting. I’ve seen the evolution of when the fax machine came out, which is crazy because there’s so many people that are like my children. It’s like a fax machine. What in the world is that? So from a fax machine to when my dad was in real estate, I’m like, dad, no one faxes anymore. Just send a PDF. What’s a PDF? I’m like, you don’t know what a PDF is. Dad, use a PDF. Everyone’s using a PDF. And then it went from, well, I don’t need a

I don’t need a cell phone to do all that. I have a Blackberry. Why in the world do I need an iPhone? I’ve got a Blackberry. No one’s going to use an iPhone. And so I just love the evolution of products and how they evolve. And when you look at what Zillow’s doing and you look at just the ability to go and apply online and go find a home and then turn around, it’s still that relationship that it boils down to, even though you might find a house online.

you turn around and you’re driving the neighborhood. I think, I think the biggest challenge has just been getting out there. I know that when, when the first signs back, they used to be metal frames that you put in the ground and then the yard arm sign came out and people would say, no one’s going to use the yard arm. So those are too expensive. And so I’ve seen a lot of things that people say won’t working really, really well. And so I think it’s just that, that tenacity and that persistence, if you really believe in something. And I think the

The thing that’s challenging is I’ve had realtors say, well, know, that sign’s not going to sell the house. And I’m like, yeah, but you’re not in the real estate business just to sell that house. You’re brand, you’re marketing you. You are the brand. This is your, basically, this is when the user, when the seller goes to turn off the light at night of their porch and they see your sign shining in the front yard. Or when they come home from work and it’s dark out and they see your light, they’re like, wow.

I looked at all the other realtors in the neighborhood and no one else has a lighted sign but my agent’s working overtime and ⁓ I think when you go to a cocktail party or you go to the Christmas party or whatever and they’re like, hey you know we’re thinking of moving, do you know any good agents? And that’s when they step in and go, you should see my agent, they actually have a lighted sign.

Like what? So I think we’re getting there but the biggest challenge is just getting out there getting noticed and I think to think we’re kind of doing the Star Trek podcast thing back in 1995 no one would have thought.

They’d be like, well, that’s from the future. And yet, your generation, like my son, he was like he says to me, he’s like, I was born with the internet, so it’s not technology to me. If it was, yeah, so it’s kind of cool that we’re just sitting here. What part of the country are you in?

Michelle Kesil (12:21)
Yeah.

California.

Jeffery Donnelly (12:26)
Okay, so yeah, You couldn’t have done this, how many, what, even what, 10 years ago? You could have, but it was a little more, no one knew about it, right?

Michelle Kesil (12:27)
Yeah. ⁓

Right?

Yeah, yeah, I was like that middle era where this was like when I was growing up. All the technology boom.

Jeffery Donnelly (12:41)
Right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Kesil (12:43)
Nice.

So how are you guys like when it comes to growing your business and building relationships and networking? What has like made the biggest difference from you?

Jeffery Donnelly (12:54)
Well, Instagram’s been interesting because we started out and because I’m older and I’m not really the Facebook generation, we hired an incredible social media director and she’s awesome. just in the last 60 days, in the last 30 days, we had 112,000 views. And before that, we were doing about maybe 4,000 a month. And so she’s really taking it off. And it’s kind of interesting to me because

the whole, I, a lot of the agents I see, there’s so much competition for, on Instagram, for people to use a specific agent to sell their home. And so I’m like, this is really interesting that, that I don’t, I guess social media has been really probably the biggest challenge, just because I’m kind of old school. I like to see things and I like to meet the people. I like to look someone in the eye. I like to talk to them. And so,

It’s my ability to embrace change as well. So I think that’s with anything, no matter whether it’s a new iPhone or whether it’s a PDF or a fax machine or a printer or whatever. I think it’s just this is the way it’s always been done. And so I think that that’s kind of where we’re at right now with the agents that they’re like, well, I already have a sign. I don’t need another sign. I’m like, OK, well, you can’t see yours at night. And they’re like, yeah, that’s OK. We’re good. I’m like, OK, that’s fine. so it’s hard because you

You know, when you create something, you want everyone in the world to use it. But it just takes time. Patience. Yeah.

Michelle Kesil (14:18)
Yeah. So what is like that next real goal for you?

Jeffery Donnelly (14:22)
Our next goal is we’re now breaking out of Colorado and we’re starting to expand and we have the ability, I mean we can produce science here in Denver and ship them anywhere in the world. And so ⁓ our next goal is basically to ⁓ grow through, the next year is focused on the United States and Canada.

Michelle Kesil (14:39)
Amazing and is there anything that you’re focused on solving or scaling next?

Jeffery Donnelly (14:45)
⁓

well, it’s kind of hard because it’s, ⁓

The restaurants, the sidewalk signs, that’s an opportunity. The festivals, they’re an opportunity. The disaster relief, especially hurricane season coming up and all the stuff that’s gonna happen in the next couple of months, there’s that opportunity. But our main focus right now is the residential and commercial real estate. We think that’s kind of the lowest hanging fruit. That’s what we’re good at. But…

we have to get to the spot where it’s kind of always the chicken and the egg when you’re an innovator or an entrepreneur. People are always like, hey, what is it that you Do you need any money? Well, the good news is we don’t need any money. We’re not looking for investors. But back in some other things, it’s usually when you don’t need money that everyone wants to give you money or invest.

It’s when you need money, people are like, well, you got to prove it first, go and prove it. And then once you prove it and the income starts coming in, you don’t need the money anymore. And people are like, well, now I want to get on board. You’re like, I asked you a year ago, you know, when we did need money and we were able to bootstrap our way through it. And so that’s kind of where we’re at. I think it’s I think from seeing businesses start and where they get to the one thing kind of like this may be a really interesting analogy, maybe not, but it’s like a seed. It’s like you you can water it.

But you can’t harvest it until the fall. You just have to water it, take care of it, and then the harvest comes. And then eventually, you’re able to reap the reward. you want it to happen overnight, and nothing ever happens overnight.

Michelle Kesil (16:54)
Yeah, absolutely. But what an exciting place to be at with your business. So much room for growth and potential.

Jeffery Donnelly (17:01)
Yeah.

Michelle Kesil (17:02)
Amazing. So yeah, where can people like get your signs if they desire to?

Jeffery Donnelly (17:08)
So you can go on the internet, you can go to www.nitelitesolarsigns.com you can go online, all the information is available there. We do lot of custom orders and so we encourage people to reach out to us directly because we haven’t printed any signs where people just send them in.

We always return calls, get back with our customers, and we like to make sure they have a proof of exactly what their sign’s gonna look like. But yeah, no, if you go and visit our website, we’re growing. You’ll see a bunch of different samples out there of all sorts of different brands. We just went over the 100 mark for the 100th realtor, different sign. So I think we’re getting there. But yeah, we’d love to go nationwide ⁓ and especially through Canada as well.

Michelle Kesil (17:58)
Amazing. So before we wrap up here, if someone just wanted to learn more from you, collaborate with you, or reach out and connect besides the sign website, where can people reach you?

Jeffery Donnelly (18:11)
Then go to email. They can also go to on our website. We have our toll free number Which is let’s see here. Let me get it for you real quick. It’s a to do to do I had it right here in front of me and I apologize

I’d have lost you.

Did lose you? You still there? Okay,

It’s 888-788-5584 or they can email us at [email protected] or probably easiest is just go to the website. All the information there, phone number, best way to contact us.

Michelle Kesil (18:41)
Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story and perspective. So exciting that you’re innovating something new in this space. So thank you for being here.

Jeffery Donnelly (18:51)
you’re welcome.

Michelle Kesil (18:52)
and for those of you that are tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Jeffery, who are out here building real businesses. And we’ll see you all in the next episode.