Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Camilla Ringkob, owner of StoryBuilt Growth Strategy and Marketing, located in Moville, IA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

StoryBuilt Growth Strategy and Marketing serves busy construction industry business owners and leaders. Helping them identify and leverage the next best opportunity to grow their business, getting them that next burst of profitable momentum.

Tell us about yourself

I grew up in the construction world. Brasier Asphalt was formed by my dad, Clarence Brasier, and my mom, Sandy Brasier, in 1981. I worked for the business, starting with an office support position part-time in 1994. I spent some of each summer traveling with my dad to project sites and on sales calls throughout the years. In 1997, I began a part-time sales role alongside my dad while attending college and studying marketing at Colorado State University and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

After graduating from college, I continued to work in sales and marketing for Brasier Asphalt until taking a marketing position with KOCH Industries in their Pavement Solutions and Performance Roads divisions in 2002. I followed that with a role in new product business development for Vance Brothers. I returned to Brasier Asphalt and remained there until 2008 when I took an active owner role in an agricultural commodity trading business with my husband, John Ringkob. I began working directly with business owners and leaders in 2018 and have since grown StoryBuilt Growth Strategy and Marketing to help owners and leaders in the construction industry identify the best strategy to grow their businesses and execute to get results.

The most influential part of working in my family business was the face time I got on the road. I was about 8 when I started to ride with my dad, Clarence Brasier, to sales calls and projects. I learned the value of PEOPLE. These road trips taught me no matter what we did, we were in the business of serving people, our individual customers, everyone who makes up the agencies they serve, the public using the roads, our employees, their families, and even the communities we work in.

This has given me an incredible point of view throughout my life and been a perspective that gave me an advantage in all aspects of life. Even though I lost my dad back in 2000, whenever things have not felt right or good, this has been a gift he gave me, and I can use it to re-align. It has always put me back on track and been a guidepost to how to live and work.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

It is hard to top standing on a brand-new blacktop surface and know you had something to do with building that piece of road, but it still comes in second to the people. I just LOVE construction business owners. I have been in different industries, and I have never felt more part of something than when I walk back into a room of essential industry business leaders. It can be hard to pinpoint, but I have witnessed contractors help other contractors get started in their own market, families elevate themselves from the ground up, and build legacy businesses. People in the construction world are attracted here, and then, more importantly, they stay here (or come back in my case) because people are helping people succeed here. Essential industry people can compete one day and collaborate the next. It is a beautiful place to make an IMPACT.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

For an industry that has always been innovative in products and solutions in the field, we have some pretty deep ruts we like to stay in when it comes to running our businesses, managing people, looking at profitability, building cultures, people productivity, processes and systems, people development and being progressive strategically. I have seen some good indicators that this is changing, but I also still hear people say, “because we always have,” “that’s how it’s done,” and “we’re not X, Y, or Z type of industry.”

If we want better results, we must look for better solutions and new opportunities to grow, try new things and break the old mold. I position myself as a tool to get out of this rut. It takes a lot of discipline and a constant openness to learn and test new things. This can be difficult to maintain in me and get other people on board with.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Always be learning.
  2. Start with sales-you have to be able to be your own best salesperson to get started.
  3. Find problems and then solve them for people. It's that simple.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Think less about what everyone else is doing and instead look at your unique experience and skills. If you can focus on how these serve to solve a problem - especially in a small niche - you can get traction fast.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.storybuilt.marketing/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cjringkob
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeani-ringkob/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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