From the Yellow Chair
From the Yellow Chair
Giving your brand the Royal Treatment
Ever watch a hometown brand go from “just another contractor” to a neighbor everyone knows by name? That’s the journey we explore with Royal Air Systems, a second-generation HVAC company that faced a rebrand in the midst of loss and still found a way to earn real community trust. The shift didn’t come from bigger ad budgets. It came from empathy, patience, and a bold choice to stand out with a nine-foot lion who turned events into brand touchpoints.
We dig into the heart of the rebrand: how to honor a founder’s legacy without freezing growth, how to modernize visuals while keeping the promise to “care for your castle,” and why timing matters when emotions are high. From there, we move into strategy: showing up at small-town events, creating your own invitations when none exist, and using community involvement as visibility without the hard sell. You’ll hear the surprising first outing of “Reggie” the lion, how a front-page mention validated the bet, and why parents, kids, and even grandparents lined up for photos that turned into organic social reach.
We also get practical about what didn’t work and what to do next. Ticket giveaways fizzled, but the buzz still spread. The solution? Choose prizes with flexibility, track qualitative signals like recognition and repeated hellos, and accept that not every win shows up in dashboards. We talk brand assets—mascots, phrases like “royal treatment,” buttons on backpacks—and how these sticky symbols collapse the trust gap so people search for you by name rather than category.
If you’re weighing a rebrand, mascot, or community strategy, this conversation offers a clear, human playbook: respect your past, show up often, and make space for joy. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a nudge to stand out, and leave a review with your biggest branding question—we might feature it next.
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From the Yellow Chair is powered by Lemon Seed, a marketing strategy and branding company for the trades. Lemon Seed specializes in rebrands, creating unique, comprehensive, organized marketing plans, social media, and graphic design. Learn more at www.LemonSeedMarketing.com
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We'll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
What's up, Illuminators? Welcome to another episode of Funday of Fair Listen. We are just about four years ago. We are talking about Facebook. About what we have to do for you. You are one of my most favorite people. Welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much for having us.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it's it's you guys. I've got I've actually gotten the pleasure of being coming to your office with your crazy brother, your great mom. And so I want everybody to know a little bit about you, your family business. Tell everybody kind of who Royal Air is.
SPEAKER_01:Royal Air is a medium-sized male, I guess, keeping an air conditioning company. We're in the residential marketplace, 20 minutes outside of Boston, towards the north. We are in a what they used to call a bedroom community or a suburb of Boston. And we are 95% residential retrofit. So we go into existing homes, and our our promise is to care for your castle. We'll take care of your home and treat your home like it's part of our family.
SPEAKER_00:Y'all care for your castle. It's my favorite. Um, it is my favorite.
SPEAKER_01:We are now in the second generation running the company. It was started by my parents 46 years ago, and uh it is now my brother, myself, and a third partner.
SPEAKER_00:Wonderful. And honestly, I think you kind of what role would you say that you feel you sit in? Because you know it's in me, you're the boss over there.
SPEAKER_01:Um we we split pretty evenly, but we are we've always called ourselves a three-legged stool. That was what my dad always said was that I handled the office and the marketing and the numbers. Um and my brother is the service and sales. He didn't talk to anyone. He can. He sure can. And and Rob is our third partner, and he is our installation manager, and he understands how to make anything work anywhere. So I love it. By the three of us, we kind of handle all the ends of things.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I love it. And you guys are amazing at what you guys do. And one of my favorite things about you, Kate, is that you uh really have embraced your relationship with Limit Seed when it comes to you take a lot of our advice, not all of it. We have pushed and pulled and you have tried. And listen, honestly, though, I hope that it has really been uh we've been privileged to play a part in the growth that Royal Air has had.
SPEAKER_01:A huge blessing, a huge blessing. And you push us out of our comfort zone every time we need it.
SPEAKER_00:Good. Well, my team, your team, uh, your lemon seed team, just they are royal. If I ever act like I'm doing something different with royal air, that team will come at me. So I want to I do want to say something that remind that that sat with me the most. Um, you guys, we wanted to do something different with your brand, just refresh it up. And you had just lost your dad at that time. And uh you guys, it was an emotional journey.
SPEAKER_01:Um patient with us. Three personalities plus my mom, so really four personalities to approve every step of your process. And you all just let us let us go through it, which was such a blessing, and change our minds. Like come to be like, that's a great idea, and then go, you know, we all felt on that. No, that's not a good idea. Originally, the big plan was to put my dad the the whole thing with the legacy of service, which we all live by here. Yes. Um, and then and you had a great plan and a great design, and we were all gung-ho for it, and then we felt so horrible. But I think your your potential customers need to know we felt so horrible calling you the next day and going, Hi, you know how we just all agreed to that. We just want to completely change our minds on that. And you all went, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00:So you know, well, you know, when you're first of all, that I tell every potential client and existing client, it's your business, right? So it's you have to wake up and run it and operate it every single day. Limitsey just gets the privilege of being a part of it. So while we were while we will push when we need to push, we also have to have an understanding that there is a lot of emotion behind rebranding a company.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um what regardless, even if there wasn't this traumatic loss involved, it's still emotional, right? Like your business is your baby. Your business is your baby, and so everything that you're doing, hold on one second. Let me pause for one second. So one of the things I think is, you know, when there's emotional charge to things, you have to be patient with clients so that they can still have this authentic brand. So one of the things that I loved about you guys is y'all were once y'all worked through that and you came back to Emily and her team and said, Okay, I think I need to do something different, it ended much better at the end of the day. I think y'all were able to buy into it, you were able to run with it, and it was so much better. It was perfect.
SPEAKER_01:Once we kind of got through all of the the hard part, and for us it was emotionally charged. We signed up and agreed to to do a rebrand and then lost my dad like four months later. So it was not expected that we would be doing that without his approval. So then we all kind of stopped and went, Well, how much can we change this? Because you know, it makes it different. So, um, and and Emily was terrific when we called and went, you know, we need to back up. And she backed up and and instead of replacing what we had done for branding in the past, which we have not done well, but instead of replacing it with something totally different, she found a way to update it and make it everything it should have been the first time. And it just made a perfect yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Perfect. Well, listen, one of the things that I love to talk about is like, you know, when you're looking at brands and you're like, man, what takes you from just being one of these, a company that provides the service and you know does does the sales to being a true like brand and neighbor? And I'm a fan of two big components, one of those being community involvement, and the other one of those being um mascots. So mascots, I can go either way with either a core product, like a core color, a core icon, or you know, like I said, a mascot. And so you jumped in with both of those things. Yes, we did.
SPEAKER_01:We did. And no, that was at your recommendation, which was golden. And I thought you were all crazy. Really thought you were crazy. So you told me that I needed a mascot. I thought you were crazy. You told me I needed to start doing anything and everything around town, anything I could do in my in my favorite town. And um, so I started doing it, and I remember struggling to get things to go do. And we still we still work on that. That's still a it's still work to find enough stuff to go do. And I called you and said, forget this. I know what your team's telling me to do. I can't do it. I don't know what you want me to do, but how do I get an invitation? And you went, Oh, pull out your checkbook. And oh my heavens did that thing to me. And you were right, but but it's I thought it was going to be such a big expensive thing. It's not like a hundred dollars, okay. Go down to the little league field now. And it just has made it so easy when you stop thinking about waiting for the invitation and you go create your invitation.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I love that. So, you know, that's right. You know, I don't, I don't, I build my own table because if not, nobody's really wanting to invite me to their table all the time. So I like, I'm gonna just create my own table. Well, you know, on the on the community support side, one of the things is like you were doing all the other things right. You had a good website, you were investing in marketing. It was like, how do we keep pushing? Um, and your town is not super large. No, so there's not this like hustle and bustle. So, you know, when we I remember when we were looking at it, we were like, there's literally nowhere for you to go. So we were like, okay, okay, you gotta start, you gotta start creating some stuff. And so, but what I was most proud of is that little bit of you that was like, you know what, let me, I'm gonna try this. I don't even know if I believe it, but I'm gonna try it. And uh, you know, you started out, and if I remember correctly, there was something around Halloween.
SPEAKER_01:Um we couldn't get we couldn't get in, couldn't get in. It was a trunk or treat. And everyone was convinced down in Texas you you you allow businesses. Up here they didn't. So I couldn't get in, couldn't get in, couldn't get in anywhere. So I finally I called you up and you said, well, then what's the next holiday that you can do something? And it was Christmas. And you said, then we're gonna we're gonna knock Christmas out of the park. And I thought, no one's even gonna know who this we have a lion. Yeah, who's gonna know who this lion is? No one's gonna come up to us, and I thought that was crazy. So I have a nine-foot-tall lion, because no one up here is short, and he's got a crown, he's got a cape, and he's got a scepter, and this is the first time anyone's seen him, and I'm gonna pull him out of the tree lighting. Why is anyone gonna come over? And I thought, this is they're just insane. But I thought I'm gonna do it, and then I'm gonna call Crystal up and say, You're wrong.
SPEAKER_00:I told you and I did it, and you were wrong.
SPEAKER_01:Was I wrong? No, we walked out the door with this lion, and I was flooded. We had about 25 kids turn, drop everything, and run over to meet the line. I didn't even know who the lion was, but wanted pictures with him. Could not believe the buzz he generated.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and what we had to do, we what we had to do there is we had to start introducing him and letting him have a place for people to start making the connection. Because you're right, no one had a clue.
SPEAKER_01:No, not and what was funny was the next week in the small town paper comes out once a week. On the front page, it was talking about the tree lighting, and it said, and of course, Royal Air's Lion was there, and we're reading it, going, Of course. This was the first time he came out the door. But of course, he was there, he's there, and that's kind of how it started, and it's just rolled ever since. And everyone gets nervous when I say, I'd like to bring my mascot, and they all do. When I offer to bring him or I say I want to bring him, everyone kind of goes, Well, we don't usually have a mascot here, or no one else is gonna have a mascot. It it speaks for itself, and then they ask if he'll come back.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and you know, again, this is you have to look at the mascot. So I can't remember what he cost you five or six thousand dollars, I think, at the end of the day. Right around there. And then he had he has uh some accessories, so he had a few things going on. I upgrade it, yeah. Yes, you upgrade it, yes. But I think you know what the the biggest thing that I'll say is, you know, Reggie is not a part of your logo, no, um, but he is he is an accompaniment to royal air and your story and the community involvement. And I knew, so again, this is true. You got you know, north of Boston, right? And then you've got South, or you got East Texas over here. And so I learned, I told her, I said, listen, in East Texas, we're always having a party, a parade, a festival, something. Um, but you had to definitely work a little bit harder. But now that you did it and you trusted the process, now like you said, you're you're getting your own invitations. And we're still, I still, I still look at your strategy document where I see, you know, oh, they're doing these new events, and now you're coming around on second and third year of being able to do things. And that is such branding gold. I mean, it is so fun. People can't touch it, right? And they can't, they can't compete with that unless they're willing to invest like you do with both time and energy. And so, do y'all have a like main nonprofit that you guys focus with?
SPEAKER_01:We we actually have like three. Okay. So we did a couple of different things with you folks, and it was your ideas as well to do giveaways. Those have not been gold up here, but um, we we kept trying them. So we worked with different groups. All of the groups just recently we had nothing going on for January, so we wanted to do something. So um, Amanda, who who's on my team from London Seeds, suggested that we donate um to a charity called Community Giving Tree, where they collect housewares for people that are just starting out, getting out of shelters and into homes. And so I called and said, Would it be possible? And they said absolutely, and I said, Would be okay if I brought my mascot and took some photos of him coming in with it. They thought I was crazy, but I can do whatever I want. If I'm willing to drop off stuff, they're happy to take it. So we brought him, not only did they film it, and they've had over 350 hits on their website about the mascot because they filmed it on their um TikTok and on their Instagram and on their Facebook. But we put our post up and that's traveled, and they copied our post and posted it on theirs. I mean, I miss and it just keeps going back and forth. So everyone's tagging everyone and it's doing exactly what what you all said it would originally. And it's it's just a matter of having a little faith in the process, which is very hard to do.
SPEAKER_00:And you know, like limit now, so you came on back in the early days of Limit C, but now we call that our our brand accelerator, right? So this is how we accelerate the brand. So, you know, we can keep throwing money at PPC and GLSA and to our website companies, but you know, honestly, you have a great stack of vendors. You have companies that are doing great things and they're performing. You're not on service Titan, so you're you're you're not on that. So it's not like you are running the same things as everyone else. You have your we have our own set of things, like your own stack of what you are using to do leads, and you do well at it. This just a company is of companies, yeah. Yeah, yeah, sure. This just adds to those traditional marketing tactics, but it's not easy. You do have to kind of ask, right? And I remember telling you one time, I was like, the worst thing they can say is no. Yes, your office is on kind of main, like a main road, faces the main road. And I remember like, just let him stand outside. I mean, y'all done some really cool things with him. And so, you know, I think there is this, I call it this thing called, you know, the the trust gap, right? So there's a gap in where people really think they know you and trust you, and when you're just again another, another heating and air conditioning company that they can choose from. And so what we've done by using Reggie and by you investing in that process and thinking through that of and honestly being risky, because to you it was risky. Um it's built, it's closed that trust gap. So now everybody's like, oh, you know, they're the ones with a lion. I'm like, I will take it, baby, every day because I want you to not go and search for anyone else on Google. I want you to search me, you know. I want you to look for me. And so, you know, community involvement is basically visibility without selling. It's just again, I've said this, I've said this today a couple of times shaking hands, kissing babies, and petting dogs. You know, you can't walk out there and be like, I'm gonna sell three systems because Reggie's out here giving candy. That's not what it's about.
SPEAKER_01:There is there is no return on investment you can measure, but you hear about it.
unknown:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And that was the big thing that we had to kind of have a paradigm shift for us was that I'm not looking for numbers out of this, I'm looking for what people are saying. I have to listen to what I'm hearing. So we did a um concert in the commons at the park over the summer. And then three weeks later we did the library mini golf event for the kids' summer reading program. And I had Reggie at both things. And when they came into the library, they were like, Hey, we just saw you two weeks ago, and high five and them in the whole bit, and and people hearing, Oh, I heard about you down at the park. We couldn't make it that night. We wished we had this. Is the Reggie? I'm like, This is the Reggie, and they came over and they he gives away free buttons wherever he goes. He's the only one that has the buttons, and we see the buttons. My sister-in-law is a bus driver in town, so she'll text me every time there's one on a backpack. She'll go, another button today. So you can see it. But you have to look for the quiet, the quiet notices that it's working. And what is that?
SPEAKER_00:You said it best. You said, you know, y'all had to have a paradigm ship, paradigm shipped over there. I wish more contractors really understood that not everything is directly measurable, right? So at the end of the day, what Royal Air needs to do is look at your entire marketing strategy. And did you guys grow? Did you hit your numbers? And then backing into if not, why, where do we need to pivot? And I want to tap back a little bit to you said like giveaways didn't work that you know. Amanda calls me, she's like, K bought Red Sock tickets and gave them away, and someone won them and did not pick them up. So that I'm gonna use this is Crystal Cuss words. That sucks, but I also want to say it isn't about the actual ticket giveaway as much as it is about the buzz of the contest itself, which is a hard that's hard to grasp, you know?
SPEAKER_01:It is, and we've done two or three different contests where we want to give something away and it just doesn't seem to work. So we're trying it again because we like the fact that it gets moved around. So I want people to see me on Facebook that might not see me otherwise. So they do. It does work that way. And if you look at it as just the investment on that, that works. But this time we're doing a giveaway, and it's it's something that if if no one comes to pick it up, I'm just gonna use it. So it's gonna be the tickets we didn't know they weren't coming, so it was the day of they were supposed to come two hours before the game, they never showed up.
SPEAKER_00:And so at that point, though, that's so irritating.
SPEAKER_01:It was so hard because I didn't have the capacity to get them to anyone else to use them, so they just kind of went to waste. So now we're trying to only give things away that someone else could use, it's not a time limit.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely, absolutely. Well, listen, a lot of this is a really strong reminder that you know we had to get out of the vault. Um, and we had to be okay, like setting expectations, like you said, you know, we were hoping that people would be excited to come pick up their red saw tickets and we were gonna take pictures and celebrate, and they did it. So you're like, okay, let's go back and review what didn't work was the only failure, if we will, that they didn't come pick them up. Okay, let's pivot here. That's all a part of it, right? That's what I think that's what the biggest gain from it can be is that, but you know, a mascot, it can appear gimmicky, but it's not, it's strategic. It's strategic.
SPEAKER_01:I've not had anyone say it was a gimmick or react to him that way. We get a lot of they'd like to have their picture taken with him, they want him around. And I get a lot of amazes me, you get two year olds that you would expect to run up and hug your mascot, but you wouldn't expect 85 year olds to come over and want a group photo, and that's what you Yeah. It's just all ages. And it brings everyone over to you. And yes, I'm not going to sell an HVHC system to a two-year-old, but I am going to hold the camera for her mama and I'm going to take the picture of the whole family with the two year old in my mascot. And and he's got a big sash on that says Royal Air Systems. And I'm just hoping we all remember that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we're going to we're going to uh well and now he's become synonymous with with your brand, right? And it's it's organic, it's authentic, and it's naturally user-generated content for you guys. And so, you know, you also do you guys still send a gift with an install?
SPEAKER_01:We send, um, I'm sure a lot of folks do, we use that to your success. Yes, which is and we're still using just the traditional logo, although that has been a conversation this year about whether we should have Reggie on there somehow because we want to keep tying him to us over and over again.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. And you know, there's lots of things that you can do. And here's the good news. If you brought up with something that just popped into my head, you know, a really good news is that you can um basically every year you can add on and layer on new things with Reggie. So let's say we want to get him, you know, made a different layer, t-shirts made. Having Reggie and having even the term term the royal treatment, all of those things give you so much more to work with in your marketing.
SPEAKER_01:Your levers that you give us every month. You give us these levers that we can pull whenever we need to. And it's so helpful.
SPEAKER_00:It's personality, it's approachable, it gives you just things to hold on to. And I just really think, you know, when your brand feels very human and organic and authentic, it marketing stops feeling like people are being sold to, stops feeling like marketing. Um, and so you don't always have to have a mask on, but you still need something. You need something that is sticky for people to put with your name and hold on to. And you need to be visible in your community. I don't care. You be known as the candy man, be known as whatever, but you know, would someone recognize your brand at an event? So when you first started, people have no idea who Reggie is. But now when Reggie shows up, everybody's gonna know who Reggie is because people are looking for him, right? And what don't your customers think, don't we think that your customers are now describing you as friendly and oh my gosh, you know, they're the ones with the lion?
SPEAKER_01:So much more approachable. We have become so much more approachable, and that's what we wanted all along.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. Well, and y'all are very kind people anyway. Y'all have very sweet spirits. Now, your brother is a handful.
SPEAKER_01:He is always has been.
SPEAKER_00:But but you know, you, I just I mean, I wish I could just clone me some Kates because you know, a lot of contractors, I think that Kate, they just get in their head because they're running the business every day, right? Y'all are looking at PL statements and open estimates and equipment seeking, you know, problems getting equipment and technicians. So the weight of being an owner can be really heavy as well. And so the last thing you might want to deal with is trying to figure out how to get out in the community, but I think you really had that paradigm shift where you were like, you know, I know I am going to trust this process. I'm gonna steer myself that direction. And you did it. So I have one question for you.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:If you were, if if you were talking to a, you know, a contractor at all, no matter really what size they are, and they were like, I'm really on the fence. Should I get a mascot? I've been wanting to add one, should I update my logo? What would be like a few things you thought you would want them to think through before they said yes or no?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, I think they should, but they need to be prepared to trust the process and to put their thoughts on what it should be, kind of on the back burner and find a group. I I would recommend lemon seeds because y'all help me tremendously. But find a group that's willing to tell you the best way to go about things and just trust in it, even if the first time if it falls flat, even if the first two or three times you're still trying to find your feet, because it takes a few times of doing it to find your feet. But once you do, it it pays back huge. The payback is humongous. And the idea of especially if you're tired and you're sick of all the numbers and you're sick of all the trying to make it all work and balancing all the problems, get outside for a half an hour at a local town day or a local fair. There's nothing better than to see little people run up to bringing their parents along, up to your mascot and embracing, literally embracing a piece of your stuff better than that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and absolutely, you know, and so I think my advice does get to be very similar to yours. Like it's about building a timeline that is doable for you. So fast enough, but not too fast, right? So, how can we move swiftly but intentionally with deciding what is going to be our new authentic self? What does it look like? How can I get things wrapped? How can I get uniforms? But there is a method to the madness. It does feel like controlled chaos, but at the same time, it is getting done and it's moving and it's exciting and it reinvigorates. So, those of you that are older companies, you've been around, you know, 15 years, 30 years, 50 years, adding a mascot or refreshing your logo can really reinvigorate your community to look at you differently and look at you in a different way. So, Kate, if your story has really just resonated with someone that's listening, how would you like for them to get in touch with you? Like, or how can they reach out to you?
SPEAKER_01:Email is always best. It's Kate K-A-T-E at RoyalAirSystems.com. Perfect and any questions anyone has.
SPEAKER_00:Perfect. And um, I just think that I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart, you trusted Limited at the very beginning of Emily and I getting started. And you've been through us through a few changes, and then we went back to some stuff, and you have really written this out. And so we just adore you and we love you, and we will see you at our conference. And so we are so excited.
SPEAKER_01:We are equally as grateful to you folks. You've done a phenomenal job.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Well, guys, thank you for listening to another episode inside of our Brandopalooza about branding and community involvement and how if you can be a little risky and trust the process, you too could get the royal treatment for your brand. And so, Kate, thank you so much. I love you and we adore you guys. Thank you so much for being a part of the Lemonseek family. And for those of you that are listening, if you love this episode, tab somebody on our social media, share it with someone that might need a little kick on rebranding their company. Limitsee would love to be that partner that you choose. And guys, we hope you have a great rest of your day and get ready to listen to more stories in our brand of Falusa. Have a great day.