Episode 147: Living Legendary with Industry Pioneers Al Curtis (Ask the Pool Guy) & Sandi Maki (Ask the Pool Girl)
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Episode Summary
Al Curtis and Sandi Maki are the creators of Ask the Pool Guy and Girl, a brand that began at the dawn of social media out of a sheer passion for the art and craft of building a pool.
Al, a lifelong member of the industry, is the face of the brand. He had his start at a summer job with a local pool company and never looked back. Sandi began working with Al in 2004 and used her cutting-edge marketing prowess to complement Al’s wealth of old-school industry expertise.
In the late 2000s, Al and Sandi began to host training sessions on how important it is for C-suite executives and company owners to embrace social media. Somewhere down the line, Al realized that he and Sandi had never actually applied these principles to their own business—at least not as well as they could be.
With nothing to lose, Sandi took a camera, pointed it at Al, and he began to talk all things pools. And he did it every day—whether or not he wanted to, whether or not he was out in the field, whether or not he looked “camera-ready”.
Listen in as Al and Sandi share their non-negotiable approach to securing great customers, how they turned the company into a family business, and how they have been able to create a beloved brand over the years by simply being their authentic selves and living legendary.
Topics Discussed
02:17 - How the Al got into the pool industry
13:01 - How the Sandi got into the pool industry
16:23 - Al’s burnout and how he and Sandi became partners
18:42 - How they embraced and started teaching social media
21:15 - The history of Ask the Pool Guy
26:54 - The backstory behind Al and Sandi’s fun office HQ and company culture
32:00 - Al and Sandi’s approach to life and business
38:42 - The vision of Ask the Pool Guy coming to life
39:54 - How Al’s backflip landed a six-figure project
46:01 - How Al is actually an introvert
50:28 - Getting the family involved in the business and “the construction girls”
1:01:40 - The evolution of Ask the Pool Guy and Ask the Pool Girl
1:12:21 - The danger of vanity metrics and why unfiltered authenticity is the way to go
1:23:58 - How to contact Al and Sandi
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Key Quotes From Episode
Marketing is really about communication. ~Sandi
My goal, when we started proposing Ask the Pool Guy, was—other than just this YouTube channel that helped people learn about pools—how we could help other people in our industry—manufacturers and homeowners get answers. ~Al
If you can love every moment of your day and love what you're doing every day, you can’t help but love what you’re doing during the day. ~Al
The more than you hold onto your authentic self online and the more than you don’t try to play into what you think other people need you to be, the better it comes across because people can really relate to that. Don’t do it for the popularity. Do it for the purity of doing it. ~Sandi
