An AV and integration-focused podcast broadcast weekly

This week's episode of Automation Unplugged our guest today is Chris Doughty, General Manager of HiFi Buys in Atlanta.

About this episode:

Since joining the company in 2011, Chris has helped grow the team to 12 employees and $3.5M in annual revenue. He’s worn just about every hat along the way — from sprucing up websites to guiding clients through systems that range from $1K starters to $500K showstoppers.

In this episode, Chris and I discussed:

• The evolution of HiFi Buys from a neighborhood shop to a destination for music lovers across the Southeast
• Why cultivating entry-level customers is just as important as serving high-end audiophiles
• How YouTube, events, and a passion for education are expanding the store’s reach and building community

SEE ALSO: #325: They Clicked. Now What? The Integrator's Guide to Campaign Follow-Up

Transcript

Ron:

Hello. Hello there. Ron Callis with another episode of Automation Unplugged. I hope you're having a great day. Maybe you're listening to us on Wednesday, right? As the show dropped, or maybe you're, , watching us or, or listening to us, , on another day or another time. Regardless. I appreciate that you're here. I appreciate that you're tuning in. , we have a great guest for you today. We're gonna talk all things. Hi Fi. I've got a great operator out of the Atlanta market and, , they've been doing business for decades, and, , I'm excited for the conversation today. , as always, today's show is brought to you by my day job over at one Firefly. And, , let's go ahead and get started. , so today's guest is Chris Doughty. He's the gm, the general manager at HiFi buys in Atlanta. So let's go ahead and bring in Chris. Let's see how he's doing. Chris. Hi Ron.

Chris:

Sure. I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

Ron:

Oh, man, my pleasure. Where, where are you coming to us from?

Chris:

, in Buckhead. So we're basically right in the middle of Atlanta, so

Ron:

in the middle of Atlanta. Okay. Yeah. And are you on, on the showroom floor or are you in the I'm, yeah, I'm in my

Chris:

office. At the show or at the, , at the store. So, um, this is a bit of a dangerous thing 'cause I'm. Constantly interrupted when I'm here usually. But there's a sign on the door, so hopefully everybody reads it.

Ron:

You got the sign? Do you have like the red light that's flashing recording? Yeah, we got the on air

Chris:

light. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Ron:

Awesome. All right. Well for folks that are not familiar with Hi-Fi buys, , maybe just help us understand a little bit. I did introduce just before I brought you on that you guys are a Hi-Fi shop. Yeah. Um, maybe just give us an idea of what, what do you guys offer? What, what type of clients do you serve? Sure. And maybe geographically, what, what generally is the marketplace that you're serving.

Chris:

Absolutely. So we are, , definitely, , the way I describe it to most people is that we are kind of an old school Hi-Fi shop. Um, so we've got about, , I think the, at last count, about 24 to 25 different stereos, um, on our floor with. Within that, somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 different pairs of speakers for people to listen to and just about every one of those systems has a turntable on it, which is one of our, our biggest sort of specialties, if you will. Um, and so that is by far our passion is, big speakers, turntables, component systems, that kind of stuff. Um, and we. Um, I think the range of systems that we sell, we started about a thousand dollars for a complete system, and we have a system in our store that is north of a half a million dollars. Um, and we try to hit everywhere in between. Um, and it's, , it's a lot of fun. It's, it's like working at a toy store basically. Um, and so no complaints on that side of things. Our customers, I'd say are just. We tell everybody that we serve anybody that loves music. Um, it's regardless of budget, age, experience. Um, we are here to educate people, um, and help them make the right decisions for their wants and needs for their system, right? Whether that's, um, a dedicated vinyl listening room, you know, in their home all the way to. Distributed audio and, , some smart home stuff as well. Um, but like I said, but by far our passion is the, the music rooms there. So

Ron:

do you find that most of your customers are right there in the Atlanta Buckhead marketplace, or do you, do you people come across straight state lines to come see you guys? Yeah,

Chris:

it, , the vast majority are here in the Atlanta area. For anybody that doesn't know Atlanta, it, it, you can be two hours from Atlanta and still. Say that you're in Atlanta. Um, so it's especially during rush

Ron:

hour, right?

Chris:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That you could be, yeah, five miles could be two hours here sometimes. Yeah. But, um, it is, , we get, most of our customers are here local. Um, but at least lately, um, we have been expanding that with some of our reach thanks to, um, a couple of programs we do with used equipment, um, where we've been able to expand our reach with some sort of. I'll call it light e-commerce. Um, it's nothing native to our site, but, and then also our YouTube channels. So we've expanded our reach, definitely outside of our local market. Um, and then we also have, , clients that come from all, , kind of ne neighboring states, , because several of the lines that we carry, we're the only dealer for a. Quite a distance. , a couple of the lines, the closest dealers are in New York, um, or places like that. So for some of the products, it's, you know, people will drive from North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama to come to see us. And then we'll also, um, take care of people's homes, you know, several hours away, um, where they're underserved markets from a Hi-Fi. Sort of experience place. Yeah.

Ron:

Makes sense. All right. So give me the extremes. Yeah. Someone comes in and they're gonna drop a thousand bucks.

Chris:

Yeah.

Ron:

And they're super excited. Yeah. And they love music. What are they, what, what are they going home with?

Chris:

Um, well, for a thousand dollars for us, it's probably looking at a, um, , you know, a turntable about a $500 turntable. We love overspending on sources 'cause garbage in equals garbage out, regardless of how nice your speakers are. If your source isn't great. They're not gonna do what they can do. Um, and then really love, , you know, a, a simple kind of old school, fully analog Yamaha receiver. Um, for, for example, something that's maybe 50 watts a channel and a, and a nice but small pair of bookshelf speakers, um, a couple of cables to get it all connected and you're off and running. So, um, you know, that comes in right around a thousand dollars. Um, and we. Sort of, when I say that talking, typically looking at one source or another, right? We, most systems we sell are these days are capable of doing a turntable and streaming from the internet, sort of mixing and matching the old and the new. But, um, yeah, with one or the other, right around a thousand dollars for a, a nice small starter Hi-Fi system. Um, you know, but I even hate using the term starter Hi-Fi system because for some people a thousand dollars system may be their end game. System, and we're certainly happy to help people find that regardless of where they land.

Ron:

I love that. Now, let's go to the other end of the spectrum.

Chris:

Yeah.

Ron:

Someone's going all in. They're getting, , the, the, they're gonna drop a half million bucks with you and Yeah. We're, , what are they going home with?

Chris:

Yeah, that, that, that's where we're talking. Um, you know, , separates from, , everything from, you know, a, a massive turntable from Germany. , I guess our reference system right now consists of a turntable from Brinkman, which is a German manufacturer with a Japanese optical phono cartridge. And then Swiss made, , preamp, amplifier and streamer, and actually the speakers are made here in the us , by a company called Rockport Technologies, um, with cabling and stands and sort of isolation products. And really the, the full kit is, um, it, it is a really. Just in terms of scale, the, the amount of components and the size of the system, while it's the exact same sort of signal path as the first system I described, the number of boxes and the, , the extremes that these companies go to, , is, is pretty astounding. It's, I always use car analogies because they seem to resonate with people more than Hi-Fi stuff does. Sure. Um, and it's working here is like working at a, at a car dealership where you're selling. Camry's all the way to Bugatti's. Right. And so that half a million dollar system is certainly, um, the Bugatti, right? It's the, they they do the same thing, but you know which one you're driving.

Ron:

What, what is your, I I'll say in the next five years? Yeah. What is your Chris Doty's aspirational system? That you wanna put in your house

Chris:

for at home. Okay. So that's actually, , it always a funny conversation here. 'cause I get asked a lot, um, that, and I actually don't have anything at home. Um, I spend a lot of time here, so I like to listen here. Um, my, I. My personal sort of passions and hobbies are way more on the side of music and video games and gaming and things like that. So things like, um, great TVs and surround sound and things like that. Stuff that we don't really focus on here at the store are, , really what I love. It's a lot of the same. Expertise to put together direct because you can come to the

Ron:

store and get the best in the world all day long. Seven days a week. Yeah. So you're saying right,

Chris:

I'm,

Ron:

I'm not at, not, you don't inspired for that Hi-Fi gear in your house. 'cause you already have it all day.

Chris:

That's right. I don't, I don't go home and listen to music. Um, almost ever. Um, because I've doing that all day, every day at a level that I'm just never going to really approach from a home system standpoint. But I, I really do love it and it's, , it's something that I. It's amazing to watch people have emotional reactions to music that they didn't think was possible without being at a concert live. You know, it's, , it is, it, it really is very rewarding to see people, um, have those emotional moments in our store and re and you can almost watch in their face their, their own personal priorities change in terms of how they're going to spend their money over the next several years.

Ron:

All right, so I don't wanna get you in trouble with this question. That's right. So everyone that's listening or watching, I don't want you to, . Disagree per se, publicly with Chris or get too emotional about this. But Chris, what would be, and I'm even gonna try to soften the way I ask the question. Sure. What would be 10 great pieces of demo music? Ooh. Um, when you are demoing your, your gear. Sure. At any, I mean, you, you could maybe say, well, at this price point I demoed this. I don't know if that Yeah, no.

Chris:

So I, yeah, I'll, I'll describe that. I, I. , since it's been a while since I was kind of consistently doing demos on the sales floor, I don't have a ton of tracks right off the top of my head. I have some things that I listen to a lot. Okay. Um, and so I do, I listen to a lot of Radiohead. Um, I love Radiohead and it's not something that I would necessarily recommend. I recommend demoing to somebody unless they're familiar with Radiohead, only because there's a lot going on. So it can be difficult to focus on one sort of aspect. And so I always recommend that people demo or demo or evaluate speakers with music that they're familiar with, right? It's, there's certainly instances where having a better Hi-Fi system will make people focus more on production quality and the recording quality than on the actual music itself. At the end of the day, all of this stuff is made so that you can enjoy music. And so if you don't enjoy the actual music, don't listen to it, is always what I have said. Um, that being said, it, we always try to focus on a couple of different, um, types of music. So we will always play, actually these days a lot of electronic music gets played, , to show off the base response capabilities of a system because there's a lot of. Very, very low bass that is nearly impossible to reproduce with an actual instrument that you're getting out of, you know, pop music and electronic music these days. So I'm always amazed at that. There's always the standbys of Steely Dan. Um, and things like Nora Jones or Diana Crawl, um, the Eagles, you know, sort of the, the things that come to mind when you sort of think of a stereotypical Hi-Fi shop are they're. Classics for a reason. Um, Steve Ray Vaughn's Tin Pan Alley, um, is something that I think has been played every day of the 14 years that I've worked here. Um, and, , then I, I honestly, I always recommend that people find some sort of classical piece, um, something with a full orchestra. That will really show off a system's ability to resolve individual components and sort of the scale of an orchestra that really you don't get from really anything else. You know, that's, that's super post produced and things like that. So, um, I personally love, , movie, like I said, movies and games. So, , I tend to lean into movie soundtracks, things from Han Zimmer, um, or even video game. . Soundtracks because they're all very, there's a lot of

Ron:

production value that goes into video games, soundtracks, I mean, it's video games are billion dollar businesses.

Chris:

Yeah. Bigger than movies and tv, I think combined, yes. Um, at this point. And so, um, that certainly was not the case. I would never have when I was growing up, admitted that I played video games. But I'm happy to be in a point, , now in the world where. Everyone plays video games.

Ron:

Everyone plays video games.

Chris:

Yeah. So, um, those are, you know, those are the things that I gravitate towards because they remind me of something an exp a previous experience, right? So I have an emotional connection to that music. And if a stereo can bring me back to the moment that I experienced that, either playing the game or watching the movie, I know that it's doing something right.

Ron:

, out of curiosity. How do you land in a dialogue with a customer or prospect? Let's say it's someone you have not sold anything to. They're in your store, they're listening, they're enjoying themselves. How do you land at, , through dialogue or what are the right types of questions you, your sales team ask to understand what is the right, , category of gear? That's probably a best fit for a client.

Chris:

That's a great question. 'cause that is, I, I think the immediate challenge, other than like breaking down the immediate barriers of like, I'm about to be upsold everything, right. That people sort of expect from a Hi-Fi shop is the used carbon car salesman experience. Yeah. No one

Ron:

likes to be sold, but they love to buy. Right. So how do you present solution? Yeah. So we, yes,

Chris:

I, the, the way that I go about it is first. By trying to establish the that person's level of knowledge of the product because we get such a wide spread of people. Whether that's somebody who just bought an album by their favorite artist and got it home and realized that they have no way to listen to it and Right. Jumping right into. Sort of product models and, and jargon can really turn people off. Whereas, you know, there are, we have a ton of customers that have been interested in, in, you know, in the Hi-Fi for longer than I've been alive. And so if I sort of come at them with, you know. Oh, do you own a turntable? Right. It's it, the opposite effect happens where they're like, oh, this guy doesn't know anything. So for me, I always do typically ask, I start with, what do you have already? Right? And that gives me an idea of the level of commitment to the hobby that somebody's already got. Right? So they can rattle off if somebody starts just rattling off products that they've got. A I that gives me an idea of what level they're already at as well as okay, they, they are obviously educated in the industry and know the products, right? So we can jump right into a certain level and start talking differences between products and things like that. If somebody bring is very clearly very new to it, it becomes less of a, let's talk about what product brings you in here today and tell me what you're trying to like, tell me what. This looks like in an ideal scenario for you, right? Whether that's, I want a system where, you know, my kids are buying vinyl and I wanna put my system back together so that my kids will spend time with me, kind of thing. Right? That's a very different experience to somebody who walks in and is like, I just bought a house and it's wired for surround sound, and I wanna have parties and be able to play music during those parties very easily. Right? Is those conversations really start with, you know, just kind of asking people to. Tell me without products, what they want that experience to look like at the end of the day. Um, but I always tend to start with what somebody has because that is the quickest way that somebody will sort of reveal themselves, either as, you know, a, a veteran audio file or somebody that's very new to the hobby. Yeah.

Ron:

I, I am curious, just another maybe abstract demographic type question. Do you find people that are, . , into purchasing or investing regular regularly in Hi-Fi gear. Do you find that they are also into other. Luxury, good type hobbies? Like do they collect cars? Do they collect nice watches? Do they, I mean, do they, are there other

Chris:

You hit, you hit two of the big ones right on the head for sure. Okay. Um, yeah, it's, , yeah, cars and watches are definitely, um. For, for better or worse, this, this definitely is sort of seen as a a as a guy's kind of hobby. Our customer base is overwhelmingly male despite, you know, we, we do our best to try to, to bring in welcome any female, any, anybody really that wants to learn about music, um, or at least music reproduction in the home. Um, but yeah, it's, , it definitely, there's a big overlap between watches and cars specifically. Um, we, we, I, there actually, there's a, a conversation I had with a client of ours who had, he purchased a very nice system. It was kind of a, um, a milestone sort of marker for a huge part of his, you know, a, a big accomplishment professionally for him. He'd always wanted a Hi-Fi system, and he actually described, um, to us his decision making process between buying a stereo or buying like an incredible sports car, right? And he said, I've, I've owned the Ferrari, you know, and. There's something special about a Hi-Fi system because every piece of music that you listen to on it is like you're in a different car. And so that newness of the Hi-Fi system never wears off because the music is really what it's about. Whereas he said when he owned the Ferrari after several months, it just became his car. Right? Right. It was no longer new and special, and so it was this sort of it. Lost that sort of initial shine. And he said with the Hi-Fi system at the same cost, he gets significant amount more enjoyment out of it over the long term. Um, and that was a really interesting perspective for me because I've never been in a position to buy either of those things.

Ron:

Not yet anyway. Right? Right.

Chris:

Not yet anyway. But, um, it, it really opened my eyes to kind of that, that difference between, um, you know, like co collecting things versus putting together a system that's able to show you. New things in pieces of music or pieces of content that you really love, right? Um, and that's that, that's the difference between those two, but there's certainly a lot of overlap.

Ron:

So we're recording this interview here in the second half of 2025. What's the state of HiFi in America?

Chris:

Um, you know, it's, it's one of those things that honestly I have like a bit of existential dread about, um, from time to time because it does in a way feel like I've kind of hitched my horse to a dying industry in some ways. Um, but. I do think that there's still a lot of space for companies to do this the right way. I think that Hi-Fi as an industry has deservedly earned a really negative reputation, um, of being like a used car salesman. That experience, right, or being really, um. Negative towards new customers, right? And not welcoming younger people or people that, , don't have the high half a million dollar budget, right? And things like that. And those, to me, are just really obvious ways of killing a hobby. Um, you know, if, if you're ignoring the act of creating new customers, um, you. You set a, an end date of your business, basically, in my mind. And so I'm very protective of that a thousand dollars system. Um, and the $500 turntable, you know, and it's, those, those price points are important to me as much as the $150,000 speakers that we have. Um, because it, it really is that important for me, the longevity of my career here to. Really to plant seeds and to grow new audio files, basically. Right. And I don't see enough of that. I see online a lot of negativity, a lot of distrust, um, towards retailers, towards manufacturers. Um. It's, you know, the, the industry has overwhelmingly moved towards an e-commerce model where there's nowhere to go actually learn about the products. You're kind of on your own learning on Reddit and places like this where nobody is vetted. Um, nobody has to tell you what their experience is or anything. They can say whatever they want, um, and then, you know, purchase a product from an online retailer and return it if it's not the right product for you. That, to me, is such a miserable buying experience. Um, that it doesn't shock me that people would pick other things. Right. I think in the heyday of Hi-Fi in the seventies, there were not a lot of other things like clamoring for people's attention. Right. There's, you know, it was music, it was, you know, gather around the Hi-Fi system when you wanted to entertain or to have a party and things like that. It was a status symbol, and these days it's for a lot of people it's become, well. That seems complicated. I'll just listen on my headphones, you know, or to my, whatever it may be, my soundbar, you know, when I wanna have music on. And it's more of a background thing for having three screens on and, you know, all of the, all of these distractions, right? Other, and granted, I, I love the other distractions too. Um, but you know, it's. Hi-Fi used to kind of have it in the bag because they were the, the only game really. And now we've kind of, you know, for me it's all about trying to find the people that really want our help rather than trying to convince people that they need our help because the people that don't want our help, realistically don't need it. You know, it's, if somebody's fine with. That buying experience that I just described, more power to 'em. That's totally fine. I'm not here to tell you that that's the wrong way to do it. We're never gonna be the place. Oh, I say never. I should never say never, but we're never gonna be the place that has it for the, the least amount, right? The cheapest price. Although you'll pay the same here as everywhere else or the has it the quickest. Right. Our, our value proposition is really that you're gonna get the right thing. Either initially or ultimately, because I'm way more interested in people telling their friends to come see us than I am in just putting a box in their trunk and never seeing them again, which is what it feels like The industry went to

Ron:

you guys. , I, my, I want to go a couple of different places with where, where, where we're at right now. But I'll, I'll start with e-commerce. You guys went through a period where you tried out e-commerce?

Chris:

Yeah. And

Ron:

I think you had mentioned to me before we started recording it was during the COVID period.

Chris:

Yeah. And actually how, how

Ron:

did that go?

Chris:

Yeah. So I, I'll tell you my, I actually was hired here initially to load an e-commerce platform, um, for the store, having no idea what Hi-Fi was, right. But, um, even at that time, we weren't. Really thinking of selling things online. It was more to present an online catalog of the products that we sold so that people online who were searching for specific products may end up finding us. Right? Sure. That was always the intention for it. And then when the pandemic hit and we had to close, we were, thankfully, we were considered, . I can't remember the term, but we were necessary. It was a term where

Ron:

necessary. Because you Yeah, we were

Chris:

like, we were necessary because we sell home networks. Yes. Um, it, you know, Hi-Fi certainly wouldn't have been considered necessary, but home networks were so we got to stay open. Um, right. And, but nobody was coming in, so there was definitely a mass panic. Um, you know, we. We had to update our, our phone system so that it wasn't just tied to the store and we could answer remotely. Um, we had to really grow very quickly, and part of that was to try to introduce e-commerce onto our website. Um, there were a lot of challenges with that. As anybody that's done, e-commerce will know you. Like I said, you have to have it in stock. You have to have it up to date. It takes a team, probably the size of our entire company to do e-commerce well, um, because you, you can't be wrong. Um, and you have to have the stuff. So it takes a lot of people and a lot of money. And we learned that very quickly. Um, and I think 80% of the sales that we made at that time through eCommerce either got returned or had problems and we certainly ended up losing money. In this e-commerce sort of journey that we went on, and it really sort of was a reminder to us that that's not who we are. Um, you know, we are a place where somebody can come and experience the products that we sell, um, and learn about them so that they can feel educated. And I've just never found really anybody that I find does that well online. Um, there. Not as well as in person, if that makes sense. You know, it, it does. It's much, it's much easier to have a conversation if you're having a conversation rather than just talking to some stranger online.

Ron:

Alright. So you had mentioned your, , one of your personal goals Yeah. Was to help expand the, the love and appreciation of Hi-Fi.

Chris:

Yeah.

Ron:

And, , I know that you guys, . Well into the, the headphone business. Yeah. And so I'm, I'm curious, is that one of the hooks for the, the Hi-Fi type customer? Or is that a different customer than a Hi-Fi customer, but it's also just good business?

Chris:

Um, that's a great way to put it. Um, and I, I'll say that because for a long time in the Hi-Fi industry headphones were viewed as accessories, right? Um, it was an add-on sale. It wasn't its own sort of. Category. Right? It wasn't its own thing to focus on. It was just, oh yeah, you need something that, that will play music personally here, here's what we sell. Right? Zero passion for it in most cases. Um, there is a massive um, . It's a massive business, the headphone business. Now that being said, what we focus on in terms of Hi-Fi headphones is a very small section of that business, right? What are the price

Ron:

points of what you would call? Yeah, sure. Hi-Fi

Chris:

headphones. So we sell things from, I think we started about $190. Um, and we go up to now, I think in the store we have a pair that is $6,000. Um, and. Then none of those are wireless. Um, we do have a, a small selection of wireless headphones as well. Most people, I think when they hear headphones think wireless, we're talking like having a a, a, like a component system, like a Hi-Fi system. But it's small, sits on your desk and you plug headphones into it, right? And it's, it is really incredible the amount of detail, um, and the resolution that you can get out of headphones. Compared to a Hi-Fi system, because the room that the Hi-Fi system is in is such a big part of the sound quality that you get from it. Mm-hmm. And with headphones, you've taken the room out of the equation. And so it's this pure experience. It's this more personal experience. We find that they're not the same customer, right? Is that we have some Hi-Fi customers who want a pair of headphones for moments where they can't really turn up their system. Right. And it's sort of a backup plan for them. Right. But we have, the vast majority of people that come to us for headphones are. Thirsty for a place where they can go experience these things that they spend all day reading about online and on at forums and things like that, and just consuming as much information as they can. We find that those customers honestly come in oftentimes more educated than we are on the products. Wow. And it's a slightly different job for us where we are more of just. A, a place where people can come experience those things and make decisions between different products for themselves. Um, but the, the clientele skews overwhelmingly younger for headphones. I would say vast majority of our headphone customers are. Under the age of 40. Um, whereas our Hi-Fi customers are the exact opposite, overwhelmingly, um, a above the age of 40 or 45. Um, and there's a lot of factors that go into that, right? Is a lot of our younger people are not buying homes and things along those lines, right? So in an apartment or in your parents' house, a a nice pair of headphones is a lot more feasible than a Hi-Fi system in most cases. Um, and so, and it's also, . It's a lot easier to own four different pairs of headphones than it is to own four different pairs of speakers, right? So, um, we find that it's a different customer, but it's a really important part of our business to bring in new customers and to start that sort of audio file journey for people at a younger age.

Ron:

I'm gonna share, , for our listeners, I'm gonna share, , the HiFi buys website, , here on the screen. , so lemme see if I can get technology to behave. There we go. There you go. And so, I, I just went to your website and in the menu Yeah. The hamburger menu there. I said what we do and, , under what we do, there was headphones and, , it looks like you, you, , carry audio ease. Sennheiser Focal Cord, IFI. Grotto, how do I say this? Estelle. And Kern. And Kern.

Chris:

Yep. Yep. More brands. And we actually, this is a good reminder. I need to update that slide there 'cause , there's more brands, there's, there's more stuff, yeah. Nowadays, but yeah.

Ron:

That's great. And so that's a good view

Chris:

of the headphone bar. Yeah.

Ron:

Yeah. So what, what's happening here? Can, can people that come into your store, how do they listen to different sources?

Chris:

Sure. Yeah. So we've got, , you can kind of see there's a, a small white box kind of in the, towards the bottom left corner right there. That's a, that's a blue sound node. So we've got four different sort of stations all with streamers. Um, and then we've got those streamers plugged into a pretty wide selection of, , different Dax that have headphone. Right. Most of these products are gonna be a combination DAC headphone amplifier. Um, and then there's, I think it these days, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 different pairs of headphones. Um, wow. And, , so, you know, basically we have people that will come in. I think the record right now is about seven hours and we're only open for eight hours in a day, so it's gonna be a tough record to beat. But we had somebody come and sit for close to seven hours and spend time listening very intently to every pair of headphones that we have and taking detailed notes. Um, thankfully ended up buying something. Um, but that's, say thankfully that's not required, but thankfully, um, it ended up that way. Um, and, , yeah, basically the headphones, as you can see there, they're just statically displayed, not plugged in. Um, basically people just grab the headphones, um, you know, off of those stands, plug 'em into whichever deck or amp they're kind of set up with, which we sort of will help people make a decision based on sort of their, you know. How they're gonna be connecting to it, what's the price points, those kinds of things. Um, and then we just leave people alone. 'cause it's really hard to talk to people that are listening to headphones.

Ron:

I see. So you're the, the consumer is really cross matrixing the headphones with the deck.

Chris:

Yeah, very much so. So it's, , we have the, yeah, basically we give them an iPad can stream anything really that you want. Um, and that'll go through a number of different dak amps. So if somebody wants to come in and compare amps, they can grab, they can bring in their own headphones or use one of ours and compare several different Daks right on the fly, playing the same music in the same time. Or if they wanna use one deck and compare several different headphones. It's a really great way for somebody to come in and really get a personal understanding of the different experience that different headphone manufacturers kind of bring to the table, because they all have their own sort of different things that they're trying to accomplish with their products and different signatures in terms of their sound. So, um, that's our job is to help people understand those differences so that they can make a, an educated decision that's right for them. Right. So the different types of products, the different what you get for this amount of money. Right. What you're gaining in that. And then let people listen and decide if it's worth it for themselves.

Ron:

I, I get it. I love it. Alright, so I wanna pivot now to the way that you guys are marketing and specifically your YouTube channel.

Chris:

Yeah.

Ron:

You guys have a fantastic YouTube channel. Thank you very much. I'm gonna, I'm gonna put it on the screen. And maybe talk to us, , how do you think about YouTube? What's the role of YouTube and then yeah, ultimately what are you putting up on the channel? And I'll, I'll share the screen while you're talking.

Chris:

Sure, sure. So, um, our YouTube channel really has become, um, our primary way of reaching new customers. Um, we realized, um, our, our YouTube channel is, is far older than sort of the current. Iteration of it would suggest. But, um, so we've gone through several different iterations, but since January of last year, um, we have a a person part-time on staff who's been doing the videography and editing and making of the YouTube videos. That's him Will Hirsch. Um, he is phenomenal. He is the reason that our channel looks and it. Is good. Um, he does a phenomenal job and, um, YouTube is where our customers go to learn about products is really what I came to find out is that there are, there are other locations. Sure. But, um, I, I think on a, the scale of YouTube is really hard to match with any other platform or, or any other forum or any other place on the internet for this kind of stuff. And so we realized. At that time that we had to have a presence there, and that, that's where the vast majority of our effort should be in terms of trying to attract new customers. So the content, um, on our YouTube channel is intentionally silly and lighthearted. Um, again, we are sort of constantly fighting this. Stereotype of stereo stores. Um, you know, and it's, , really we want it to be fun, right? It's that the ultimate goal for all of this stuff is to educate people, um, about products and different technologies and things like that, that we're seeing and what we're liking. Um, I am very against doing reviews on our YouTube channel, um, which is bizarre because that is by far the type of content that gets the best. From a metric standpoint, um, but I find that we are not a trustworthy source for reviews, right? We are biased. We, um, have a, a great sort of stable of partners and manufacturers that we work with, and it's not. Appropriate for me to say anything negative. I might think about their products, um, with regards to that partnership. And it's, and if I can't be honest and share my honest opinion online in every case, right? If I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it, then we shouldn't be doing reviews, is how I look at it. Um, and honestly, when I watch reviews, if somebody makes money selling that product, I don't trust them. And so that's why we decided not to do reviews. So we, our content is a lot more of. Who do we think this product is, is a good fit for right, is if, if you happen to identify as this or, um, if this is your situation, we think that this is a really great solution and product for you and that you should consider it and come to the store and listen to it, right? So a lot of our content is based around inspiring people to do the hardest thing these days, which is to either pick up a phone and talk to a human. Um. Which I, if you call our store, the first thing the phone says is press zero if you want to get away from this recording and talk to a real human, um, and or to come into the store. Right? We realize that the effort that it takes to get in your car drive to Buckhead, especially here in Atlanta, is monumental. And so we, we. We don't take that for granted. Um, and our YouTube channel is all about trying to showcase the products that are here, um, and also showcase the people that are here, right? Is it's, um, the staff here, I think about 70% maybe of the staff is actually former customers who really had a great experience here and became repeat customers and then employees. Um, and so they're, you know, they're passionate about sharing. Their passion with people. Um, and so that comes across through our YouTube channel far better than it does through any other social media that we've found

Ron:

for, for those who are not actively on YouTube, which I'm gonna challenge is most of our industry are not. You're not doing it. And if they are doing it, they're not doing it well. Sorry, don't throw tomatoes. Just calling it, calling it as I see it.

Chris:

We didn't, we didn't do it well either for a long time. So,

Ron:

but you are doing it well now. Like everything looks beautifully shot, beautifully lit. Looks like you've got the right audio gear, the right camera gear, the right lighting. Um, may maybe, what are some of the basics? Like what if you were instructing a friend, you were at, , the Cam jam. Cam jam, and you were giving somebody Yeah. A, a recommendation on how to, you know, feature their store or feature the, the gear they have on the floor in their store. What, , what are some of those, you know, maybe the fundamentals or the basics.

Chris:

Yeah. Um, hon honestly, I'm probably the wrong person to ask, though. I've learned a lot over the last year and a half. Um, , will is it find

Ron:

a young kid that knows how to do this? Yeah. Yeah. Basically find, yeah, exactly.

Chris:

Find a, pay attention to your customers. Um, and find a young kid that knows what he's doing and hire him. Um, it, that was our shortcut. Um, and it's paid off tremendously. Um, I cannot recommend that approach anymore because his experience is really what comes through on these videos and what you're talking about his experience in, um, being able to f to craft the shot that he sees in his head and have it come across on camera is an incredible talent. Now that being said. I don't think that you necessarily have to do all of this at that level of production to get, now this, yeah, this is gonna be an older style video. You can tell the lighting is not nearly as good. Um, and, and, but that being said, you know, I think the important part is to be yourself on camera. It's, it's tough. I'm on camera now. I am more comfortable than I've ever been about it, but I'm still nervous every time we do it because it. It's hard to do. Um, it's hard to do. Except for this podcast. Except for this podcast. Right. This is very easy.

Ron:

I'm so easy to talk to. That's right.

Chris:

Um, but it's, you know. I, I'd say in terms of basics, honestly, go on YouTube, look up some, some basics in terms of lighting strategies for lighting, , static products and things like that. There are plenty of great tutorials these days for those types of things. Um, make, there's a lot of incredible products from a filming standpoint. We use a dj, I, I think Osmo Pocket three. It is incredible. Um, that's actually what I'm filming this on right now. If. Anybody that's not aware of this product, like it looks like a toy. Um, and it produces incredible stuff very easily without needing any sort of like, you know, class on how to use it, right? You don't need a fancy DL DSLR camera with all these manual settings and things that it's pretty amazing. For a long time we shot on our iPhones and you can get great results with that as well. I think the biggest differentiator in our videos these days is the lighting. In terms of the immediate sort of, okay, this is well done, and that is something that I think most people could learn If they sat down for, you know, an hour or two a week and watched some YouTube videos on how to do it between, honestly, look at Twitch streamers. Um, the, you know, these kinds of things, podcasts, there's so much information online about how to improve your Twitch stream, right? It doesn't have to be a Twitch stream. It can be to make a YouTube video. It's the same processes and they really will. That's the way to learn. Where do my key lights go? Where do my fill lights go? You know, and those kinds of things. I'm thankful that Will was here today so he could set all this stuff up and I didn't have to. Yeah. Um, but that being said, it, it is something that most people can do with a couple of lights and a small DGI camera and you can really, really elevate the level of production on your videos.

Ron:

Yeah. My, I, I've told this story once or twice on the podcast, but I back. In COVID, I wanna say it was like 21. 2021. I finally decided to up my game. Yeah. , here at one Firefly. , and just for me, you know, producing the podcast.

Chris:

Yeah.

Ron:

And I, my son was playing Fortnite and he was watching these Twitch streamers. Yeah. And they looked so damn good. Yeah. And I'm like, I look so terrible. Yeah. And everyone I meet with, I love you all. So terrible on video, right? I was like, how did these kids look so fantastic? And sometimes not even kids. I mean, these people could be in their twenties or thirties playing video games for money. And my son was seriously, yeah, I mean making real money. And I was watching them, and then I did just what you just said. I went to YouTube. I said how to look like a Twitch streamer.

Chris:

Yeah.

Ron:

And there was just, there was school 1 0 1 on camera setting. It's an outrageous

Chris:

amount of stuff that is online in terms of learning that kind of stuff. Right. It's all, all sorts of things. Right. , in terms of how to make videos. Um, yeah. And if you, I, I don't know if you've ever looked at Twitch, um, but like. You'd understand why people go through the amount of effort they do to get that production quality because you have a split second to stand out among hundreds of thousands of people that are streaming the exact same game. Yeah. In most cases. And that immediate, oh, this is professional, this person knows what they're doing, um, is what wins those eyeballs. Yes. And that's what we've seen on YouTube as well.

Ron:

Yeah, and what I noticed, and just for folks that are worried, this might take a lot of energy. I agree with everything you just said, Chris, by the way, but moving to good lighting, and again, that does not have to mean a lot of money. That could literally mean a few hundred dollars.

Chris:

Yeah.

Ron:

And the right lights placed in the right place. You set a key light, a fill light, a rim light, a background light, accent lights. Just knowing that architecture, and I didn't know that architecture, but I watched those videos and I was just like, oh, that doesn't even seem that hard. Right. And I didn't even, I hadn't even swapped out my camera yet. And I just updated my lighting and like for the next week, everybody would say, what camera did you get?

Chris:

Yeah, yeah. It's what, you know,

Ron:

tell me what camera to buy. And I'm like, the camera's the same camera. It's, it's just adding lighting.

Chris:

Yeah. It's, , it, it, I mean, the bar to stand out is not very high. Right. You do not have to be a professional at this to, to do a good job, you know, and to stand out, um, with the quality. But you're right. Isn't that once you sort of dip your toe in and do the lighting right. It, it just will show everyone the importance of it and then all the other stuff, the, the better camera and kind of falling further down the rabbit hole tends to follow with that. Yeah.

Ron:

Yeah. No, I, I agree. Now let's look at the business side of YouTube. Sure. You, you had made the overture that, , it's been a way for you to find clients. Tell, tell us about that.

Chris:

Yeah. So, um, we find that because we don't do e-commerce, right, and, um, so our, our goal obviously is to reach customers and, and the best customers that we can reach are the customers that are either doing research or the ones that are already basically are farther down the funnel and are, you know, trying to make a purchase decision. Right. And I, we find that. Between those two things. Those are the two things we try to hit on our videos, right, is let's talk education, right? Let's talk, um, you know, why do you need a phono, preamp with a turntable kind of thing, right? So that's something that like for the size of our website and the amount of stuff that we do, if I was to write, say a blog post about that, which you guys do a great job of those things for us. Um, but it's, we. Never going to have the reach. I said, never again. But I don't really mean that I'm being hyperbolic. It's

Ron:

hard to compete against the reach of YouTube.

Chris:

Of

Ron:

YouTube. Yeah. And the searchability. Yeah. It's, I think it's

Chris:

the second, I think it's still the second most popular website on the internet. Yeah. And

Ron:

second, , most popular search engine on the internet for sure. Yeah, I

Chris:

know. It's, I think Sitewise, it's been in the top three. Forever. Yes. Um, and so it's just you're, you know, and there's, like we said in this industry specifically, there's so few people doing it that you, that a small company like us can make a lot more noise on YouTube than we can on a general search engine. Trying to stand out against other companies, much larger companies that are writing those similar blog posts. Um, and so that education side of things is a huge part for us because. It immediately builds trust from a client, right? If we are not trying to sell them something on a video, right? If we're not, it's not sponsored, it doesn't have links to our e-commerce store 'cause we don't have one, right? All we're doing is sharing information, right? And, um, that reach, whether or not somebody actually reaches out to us or not for us is at that point, is irrelevant, right? We wanna establish ourselves as, as somebody that knows what they're talking about so that when people see us, they. There's a bit of trust that's built. Right. And then the other side of that is actually featuring the products that we sell so that again, you know, say for example, a turntable for just to pick something off the the shelf, there's not that many videos about them, right? But if somebody is interested in turntable, a lot of times they're gonna go search for reviews. Thankfully, Google really likes to send people to YouTube. Um, so a lot of times our YouTube videos will show up in search results on Google as well as on. YouTube itself, right? Hmm. And so, um, between those two things, we really find that that's the, the vast majority of how we find new customers these days, either referrals. Referrals are still number one for us and always have been. Um, but outside of referrals, um, YouTube is by far our, our best source of new customers these days.

Ron:

I love it. Talk to me about how your, your business utilizes in-store events. To drive customer education and awareness.

Chris:

Yeah. Events are a huge thing for us. Um, and the, the, the reason I think that it is, is it, you know, um, how do I put this? Um, once somebody's aware of us, you know, we, we find that they come into our store and then it's, for me, it's about reminding them that there's new things to come see. Right? It is like, imagine going to a movie theater, but there's. They never change the movies, right? You're gonna stop going after a certain point, right? It's, , so for me, the events are a reason to remind people that we're here. Um, they're a reason to reach out to a customer, um, and. They're, it's a unique time sensitive reason for someone to come to the store, and so those are really important parts of it, right? Is if I'm just saying, Hey, we've got a new product in, it's gonna be here for until it's discontinued. There's no time pressure for somebody to come to the store for that, right? It's right. Sort of goes in the back of their mind, and if they need something down the road, they might. Remember it and come see us. Right. The events are a unique opportunity for customers to get FaceTime with the manufacturers and to ask questions that directly to the, the person that knows the product the best, right? As good as we are, we've gotta keep track of. 60 different vendors and thousands of different SKUs and products, we're never gonna have the depth of knowledge that a manufacturer has of their own products. Yeah. And a lot of times it's just, it's fun to meet those people that design the products that bring you joy. Right. So, um, it's a, it's a really important aspect for us to a, be a, um. A customer appreciation style sort of thing, right? Where we have food and drinks and it's, you know, community building, right? We have groups of people who started off as customers and are now friends outside of the store and get together to listen to their systems and things like that. So it's a really awesome opportunity for us to sort of grow the. Hobby right in our little market here. Um, and then it's like I said, the most important part for me is about the giving somebody a compelling, time sensitive reason to come to the store. Um, and oftentimes we see sales jump when we have events, but it's rarely limited to, and specifically for the product that the event was about.

Ron:

Oh, that's interesting.

Chris:

It's, it really what we see is people come to the store, have a great experience, and then just start thinking about their own system and sort of what that next upgrade might be. Right? Or maybe I do wanna add an a secondary system in my office kind of thing, or whatever it may be. Right? And so, you know, the turntable event might sell a streamer to somebody, right? Or an amp upgrade, or a speaker upgrade because they haven't been in our store. Maybe over a year in some cases. How do you

Ron:

promote attendance at your events?

Chris:

Promote attendance in terms of, what do you mean? How do you get people to show up? Get people here?

Ron:

Yeah. How do you email them? Do you call them email?

Chris:

Email? . , email newsletters, um, and social media are by far the, the number one ways in store mentions. And advertising here in the store is important part of that because we constantly have people that are, you know, sort of looking at a specific product. And especially towards the back half of this year, we have, we just had an event, um. At the end of August and we have three more vendor events before the end of the year. Um, and so it's a lot. It's know. We try not to do, we try to stay around six a year. Um, for whatever reason this year, they just all ended up in the fall. Um, okay. And so, , it, you know, they kind of got clumped together, but it is, it's a, it's an exciting point of the year for us to be. 'cause we've got a lot to look forward to, um, in terms of different things. And for most of these events, the vendors are sending us products that aren't normally available to demo on our. On our floor here in the showroom. Um, whether that be just because of space limitations or price points or things like that. So we're gonna get the opportunity to hear and to show off products that you wouldn't normally get to hear, which is again, coming down to that. You know, giving somebody a compelling reason to be in the store. And that's, that's really what I focus on for the events because I've turned down events with vendors. Yeah. It's doing an event just to do an event we have found doesn't work. It's, there's gotta be a hook. There's gotta be a reason to come. Right. If it's, if I'm telling customers like, come check out the stuff that you would always be able to hear at our store anytime you come by, it's not super compelling.

Ron:

Right.

Chris:

Um, you know, and so, um, I'm always trying to find and work with the manufacturers to develop that. That special hook to, to get customers in the store? Um, we tend to average somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 50, , clients in the store at a time, um, for these events, which makes them difficult selling events. Um, 'cause we don't get that one-on-one time. What we see is that in the weeks following the events, we, we see an uptick in phone calls and visits from those people that came to the event.

Ron:

I love it. Do you, I just one closing question on that topic. Do you normally post events, send out some sort of thank you or acknowledgement of them having attended the event? We should

Chris:

absolutely do better with that. Um, it, they are so hectic that we tend not to do a great job of collecting information at the time of the events. Um, in terms of like. You know, , identify, do you know which of your

Ron:

customers were there? Or is that something again, in, in most

Chris:

cases, yeah. There, there's definitely, we have a group of, you know, there's a group of regulars that we can count on to be at every event, and then there's, you know, the, the, the new customers that show up. And then I always tend to really key in on the, the people that I don't recognize and make sure that they feel welcome. Because we do have a lot of regulars, a bizarre amount of regulars for the store that we are, but it's, you know, those people are comfortable being here. They, they feel like part of the family, so it's like they, they, they can just come over and hang out anytime. Um, and I wanna make sure that everybody feels that way. And so I tend to personally focus my time during those events on making sure that anybody that I don't recognize feels really welcomed and has a great time.

Ron:

Not to

Chris:

ignore our regulars,

Ron:

but Yeah. Of you. Love, you gotta you gotta love 'em all. Chris, it has been awesome having you on Automation Unplugged and, , you're a wealth of knowledge and, , I, I learned so much. So I just want, I want to thank you for, for joining me here for the show. Thanks for having me. No, it was, you were, you were wonderful. , for folks that wanna get in touch with you directly, can we put, , some handles out there in terms of how people can get in contact with you?

Chris:

Of course. Yeah. Um, email is just very simple. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Um, my, the store phone number, um, you can reach me pretty much anytime at, , at the store. Um, and really, I, I'm actually the one that responds to pretty much any messages and comments on our social media and YouTube channels. So, um, Instagram, Facebook, and especially YouTube. Um, those, those channels, , go straight to me. Um, and so that is, , a big part of what I do these days.

Ron:

And that store phone is (770) 931-0606,

Chris:

and press zero to get to a real person right after it picks up. Yep.

Ron:

Do you wanna bypass the, the machine, get to humans and, , YouTube. It's youtube.com/hifi buys. That's H-I-F-I-B-U-I-S. HiFi buys. Yep.

Chris:

And, , website is HiFi buys, H-I-F-I-B-U-Y-S again, dot com again, and, , Instagram and Facebook both on as HiFi buys as well.

Ron:

Awesome. Chris, thanks for joining me here on Automation Unplugged. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.

 

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Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.

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Resources and links from the interview:

• • HiFi Buys LinkedIn Profile Page

• • HiFi Buys Webpage

• • Chris Doughty LinkedIn Profile Page

 

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